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  1. Journals

Session 03

Session
2020-12-05

Session Three

Following The Trail

Still outside the Skewered Dragon, the party began to debate how best to proceed.

After a discussion, during which Beatrice shared what he knew of Unknown and Valentino explained Berca's serpentine warning serpentine warning, the party resolved to return to the The Yawning Portal. Yagra Stonefist—a contact of Val's who had assisted in the fight during which they'd met—might have more information on the Zhent. As a fallback, they also decided to speak to a contact of Elegy's in the Field Ward with known ties to the Zhentarim.

Before they could do so, Elegy stepped on a gaudy, 6-inch bas relief of a unicorn lying in the gutter outside a purple building. Next to the pendant were a couple of blue pearl-like beads and an investigation yielded a similar bead a half dozen feet away. The party tracked the trail of beads through back streets of the Dock Wards, up to a ramshackle warehouse on Candle Lane.

A closer inspection of the warehouse revealed a crude winged snake carved into the post of the front door, and a black flying snake dead in the lower yard, pierced by an arrow.


Candle Lane

The party entered through the front door into a series of offices. They were filed mostly with junk but Nedria did manage to find a few blank sheets of magical paper in one.

As they proceeded down to the warehouse proper, a quartet of kenku who had heard them enter the warehouse ambushed them, announcing their presence by way of a volley of arrows. During the course of the fight, two kenku were killed, one fled, and the final kenku  surrendered.

Upon being questioned, Chess the kenku repeated a series of phrases:

  • In a deep rough voice, "Xanathar sends its regards.” and “Failure will not be tolerated.”
  • In a thin, nasally voice, “Grab the pretty boy in the back room.” and “Follow the yellow signs in the sewers.”
  • Finally, in a scratchy voice, "No time to loot the place. Leave the birds for cover."

She also revealed that they were not alone in the warehouse; tied up in a small storage closet was none other than Renaer Neverember.

Upon his release, Renaer explained his predicament. The Zhentarim believe his father embezzled half a million gold from the city of Waterdeep and stashed it away. Unfortunately, they also believed  he knew something about it.

He and Fleur had been ambushed after a night of drinking and brought to the warehouse for questioning. Though they were satisfied that he knew nothing, the Zhent ultimately took a locket very precious to him before shoving him in the closet and bringing out Fleur for questioning.

It was during Fleur's interrogation that the Xanathar's forces attacked, killing the Zhent kidnappers. They mistook Fleur for Renaer and absconded with him, leaving behind the kenku to deal with anyone else who showed up.

A more thorough search of the warehouse confirmed Renaer's story. Piled haphazardly in one corner were five corpses with flying snake tattoos and another seven corpses, some of which were decorated with various eye iconography.

It also yielded far less macabre finds; in addition to the bodies, Nedria discovered:

  • 15 silver trade bars (each worth 50 gold)
  • 4 paintings of Luskan, Neverwinter, Silverymoon and Baldur's Gate, each of which she estimated to be worth 75 gold.

From that point, Renaer insisted on accompanying the party in  recovering his friend and suggested they regroup at his home in the Sea Ward before setting out. They were joined by Chess, who offered to guide them through the sewers in exchange for protection.