Value is in the Eyes of the Beholder (Waterdeep: Dragon Heist Playthrough, Session 2)

Lawlessness Beneath Waterdavian Streets

In the early morning of Uktar the 1st, Captain Hyustus Saget is woken up abruptly from his light doze at his desk by sergeant Brightfellow bringing in five ruffians suspected of murder. Murder suspects would usually be treated with a few whips and days in solitary, to loosen their tongues, but the sergeant informs Captain Saget that these particular fellows had managed to save one of the nobles of Waterdeep at the same time as taking out (murdering) a cell of Xanathar's Guild. If there is one thing that the Captain hates more than being woken up this early, it is someone else doing the job that the Watch is supposed to do while blatantly disrespecting authority in doing so.

So Captain Saget gets up from the wooden chair whose back has been assuming more and more a reclining position after the years and various captains stretching its capacities, fastens his sword's belt and with a military cadence walks into the waiting room to hear the account of Ranear Neverember.

A carefully timed two hours later, he enters the cell of one of the nobleman's opportune "rescuers". In front of him is a dwarf who looks like he's had a rather unfortunate meeting with a few sharp implements recently. His white donut-shaped hair is matted dry with blood, one eye is purple, while the other is bloodshot due to what looks like exhaustion, his clothes spotting patches of missing cloth where arrows have been recently removed and the wounds hastily covered with medicinal plants.

"I see my men have been taking care of you, Mr..." Captain Saget addresses the dwarf.

"Silvo Santos, Captain. Can't say I haven't seen worst treatment." The dwarf rakishly replies.

"Lord Neverember tells me you rescued him. My men say you have been corroborating that story so far. That is the only reason I am letting you and your companions go, sir. Just keep the blood off my streets, understood?"

"Certainly, Captain. As you might have heard, we stumbled upon Mr. Neverember quite by chance. We were actually looking for a Mr. Floon Blagmaar, having been hired by his friend to find his whereabouts. You wouldn't per chance like to share information, would you?"

"I don't share case details with citizens, Mr. Santos, especially not open cases. Consider yourselves lucky we don't keep you here longer. I have no simpathy for vigilantes in my city, even ones that end up assisting with the release of a Lordling. The City Watch oversees the streets of Waterdeep and we do our job damn well and according to the law. A bunch of -adventurers- traipsing in all over our hard work with no respect for due dilligence horrifies me, sir, horrifies me."

"I entirely understand, Captain, how much good work the City Watch does, especially under your skillful command. We certainly have no intention of getting in your way. We would be more than happy to be of any use to you now and in the future."

"As I said, Mr Santos, I appreciate your candor, but we follow a code here. You don't, therefore your help is entirely unnecessary."

"Aside any connection to a case though, if you were inclined to supposition, where would you think the Xanathar's Guild could have taken our poor friend?" Silvo asks, making sure to adjust his body position to look as unthreatening and supplicant as possible, which as a dwarf, does not come to him naturally, but he has had to learn over the course of his apprenticeship.

"I am quite sure I would not be able to tell you whether Xanathar's Guild are likely or not to have taken your friend in the sewers."

"Understandably, Captain. And do the brave gentlemen of the City Watch also patrol the sewers?"

"The City Watch dedicates themselves to patrolling the streets, sir. There is no nook, cranny, stone or mud-ridden alley that my watchmen don't know like the palm of their hands, and I tell you that is no mean feat. We have our hands full with the streets and protecting our citizens. What happens in the sewers is no quandary of ours. As I said, keep the blood off the streets."

"I am so happy to have been able to speak so frankly about this with you, Captain." Silvo trails off.

"Right. Off you go then, and remember not every captain in the watch is as nice and reasonable as me. Keep your nose clean, Mr. Santos."

Silvo bows and then freely walks out of the room. Behind him, Captain Saget rubs his whitening beard and mutters: "A rascal if I've ever seen one, but a potentially useful one."

He then makes his way to the next couple of cells where the other ones are. It is not until the time that roosters sing that he manages to make his way back to his desk, to deal with the paperwork the events of the night have created. He sighs and gets to work.

Outside, a freshly washed Ranaer Neverember greets the last member of the party to come out of the building.

"Thank you again to you all for rescuing me. Although I understand you were looking for Floon and you found me by chance... Oh, before I forget, I'm supposed to let you know Bran and Boddynoch have gotten called in for some urgent matters, something involving a thief for one and work for the other, if I got that correctly. They were terribly sorry to have to go."

While Ranear explains this to Myta, a young girl with blonde hair decorated with colorful ribbons, blue eyes and blushing cheeks, practically runs into Ranaer. Her outfit is well-worn but aesthetically patched with golden thread and decorated with ribbons and she carries an old lute strapped to her back.

"Ranear, I have been looking everywhere for you! Volo told me Floon was missing too and then I heard you had been rescued. What's happened?"

Floon then, after quickly introducing Gwen to all the others, shortly explains the events of the night.

"Gwen, it would be a great service to me if you could help them find Floon. I feel responsible for I am fairly certain he was an innocent victim and they were really after me. I was lucky that the Xanathar's Guild attacked the Zhentarim, not giving them enough time to question me, but I fear the worst for my friend. I have been looking into that little matter we discussed and all that I have found out is that your friend has not left the Villa. It seems like almost no servants have recently. A favor for a favor, perhaps?"

Gwen readily agrees to help track Floon down as a favour to Ranear.

The maze-like sewage system of Waterdeep plays an important role in maintaining the city's level of civilization and culture, for there is no cleaner and healthier city this side on the Sword Coast. The sewers are also extensive and poorly mapped, except perhaps by the Dungsweepers Guild, but they keep that information close to their chests.

Therefore, it is easy to understand why it takes the pary a bit of searching to find an entrance, not being familiar to the area.

In autumn, the gratings of the sewers' less-used entrances are often disguised by rotting dead leaves and while they search for the entrance, this gives Ranear enough time to acquire a couple of healing potion and re-join them. He apologizes again for not accompanying them on what is sure to be a perilous journey and reminds them they are always welcome at his house.

Once the grating is removed, the terrible stench emanating from the filthy waters is almost enough to make them dizzy and discourage their advancement, but making good use of the pipe of tobacco Silvo had caught the day before, the group braves the odours and descends into darkness.

After an hour of trudging through the waters in pitch-black, in order to avoid being seen from a distance, following what they recognize to be markings of Xanathar's Guild emblem, the party emerges into a three-way intersection where a stone shaft is capped by a circular metal cover. One of the familiar symbols of a circle with ten equidistant spokes radiating from its circumference is etched on a wall nearby and in front of it floats what can only be described as a citrus-fruit with one central eye and four appendix eye-stalks emerging from its head. Fortunately, Gwen uses Fairyfire to make it easily visible while the creature concentrates its rays on the fighter, allowing the rest of the party to take it down in a few seconds. The noise made however seems to alerts guards within the tunnels for when they attempt to sneak towards a door lodged into the opposite wall, goblins attack from behind the protection of arrow-slits. They are swiftly dealt with through magical means and the party opens a door carved into the sewer's walls, which leads to a system of chambers clearly used by Xanathar's Guild.

While they find straw mattresses, rusty weapons and dirty rags, clear signs that a dozen or so members of the Xanathar guild call this place their home, the party does not meet anyone until they reach a closed wooden door behind which they hear voices.

"That bitch has it coming, mark my words." Says one of the voices while the other grunts in agreement.

Myta, Silvo and Gwen hide in corners of the room, out of sight from the door opening, while Ruz changes his appearance to look like one of the Xanathar guards that had been killed in the warehouse on Candle Lane. He then confidently strides into the room. He is greeted by a man he recognizes: Krentz, who had been beaten by the half-orc woman in the Yawning Portal the other day.

"What the fuck man, didn't you get shanked by the Zhentarim?!" Krentz asks in disbelief. Next to him Ruz sees a dark-skinned white haired dwarf that remains silent.

"I managed to escape just before the watch got there, wasn't pleasant I can tell you that. They freed Ranear."

"What did you say? Ranear?" Krentz combs a hand through his dirt-matted hair. "Then who in Selune's name is the guy the boss is questioning in the high-room?"

"How would I know? All I heard is the watch calling the guy Ranear. They were also talking about the Zhentarim forming some sort of alliance with the Council. Who knos, they might have been talking out of their ass, but trouble might be brewing, dude, I should talk to the boss."

"Fuck the Zhentarim and their alliances. Let's go tell the boss, he'll want to hear this."

The three of them head deeper into the hide-out, but then a noise is heard behind them and while Ruz attempts to convince the two thugs it was probably just something falling in the other room, they decide to investigate and the dwarf heads back towards the entry.

The dark-skinned dwarf is ambushed and killed almost instantly by Myta and Silvo, while Ruz plunges his dagger into Krentz body and then takes him prisoner, dragging him into the room where his companion's body now lies. Krentz is then tied up and interrogated by Ruz, who claims he switched sides to the winning one: the Zhentarim. Ruz deftly persuades Krentz to share what he knows about this Grum'shar, the orc in charge of this cell of the Zhentarim.

"Why not join us?" Ruz proposes. "The Xanathar's Guild are done for anyway. Might as well switch to the winning side."

"And these lovely people" Krentz starts and spits a blob of saliva and blood, "they Zhentarim too?"

"Something like that. Takes all sorts." Silvo pipes-in. "Certainly pays better. How much are they paying you?"

"Paying me? It's not like this is a daily nine to nine sort of job..."

"So not a thousand dragons then? And you're risking your life for that?"

Krentz eyes turn the size of full-moons at the sum.

"Thousand dragons? I'd join old Bonesy himself if I got my hands on that much. I'm in!" He then re-analyzes and adds."But you wouldn't mind, seeing as I'm in no fighting condition and all, if I stayed back on your meeting with the boss - I mean the enemy, he corrects himself- would you?."

"Sure, man, but we can't have you here able to yell. I'm sure you understand." Ruz says and then plunges his knife into Krentz neck. Gwen gasps, Silvo shakes his head at the unneeded violence and Krentz collapses in a pile of flesh and rags drenched in blood.

It takes magical assistance from Silvo to stop the bleeding, if only barely.

"We might want to bring him with us later." Silvo motivates and Ruz nods, while his face dissolves into now Krentz's features.

"How many times can you do that?" Gwen asks and new-Krentz just shrugs before he bends down to take old-Krentz clothes off to complete the disguise. His voice and mannerisms also seem to change and it is quite disconcerting to see two bodies looking exactly alike in the same room, knowing how that came to be.

"I'll go in as him, get a good look at the place, try to draw the orc here so that we can ambush him." Ruz outlines a plan before leaving the room.

Ruz walks down a corridor to emerge into a long hall, in the middle of which a muscular orc in dingy robes stands with his foot on the chest of a male human with wavy red-blond hair. Fire burns around the orc's clenched fist, and his victim cries and squirms helplessly beneath him.

Seated on a raised platform to the south is a nightmarish figure wearing black robes. It has large white eyes and rubbery purple skin, with four tentacles encircling its in-human mouth. It cradles and gently caresses what looks like a disembodied brain with feet.

Krentz walks into the room.

"Boss, we have trouble over here. You should come."

While his mannerism, tone of voice and appearance are the same as Krentz, it seems as if the creature on the platform can somehow sense his deception, as for a moment it scrutinizes him. Ruz himself knows what the creature is, a mindflayer, and they are particularly adept at reading thoughts, so he carefully keeps himself into the shadows, not advancing further.

The creature seems to pass off its mistrust as it orders Grum'shar:

"Go take care of this problem. This one is not Floon. Dispose of him and leave no witnesses." It says before setting the brain with feet down.

Ruz has a split second to decide whether to follow-through with the plan and let Floon get killed, or blow his cover and at least attempt to save the man. He choose to release an Eldritch Blast right in the orc's face, while alerting his party members and retreating down the corridor.

The mindflayer retreats to the alcove of a door leading to a different chamber to the left, thus being covered from Ruz view as the angle of the room and the corridor allows him only to see Grum'shar and the brain pattering its way to Floon.

The other three adventurers fly into the room attempting to save Floon and while the wizard orc does not pose much of a challenge, the mind-flayer releases a harrowing piercing noise inside their craniums and Silvo and Gwen fall down unconscious, unable to deal with the mental anguish. This gives the walking brain time to slither its way inside Floon's head and Myta flies into a rage at the unfairness of the situation.

Even though the mind-flayer is retreating into the room on the left, the elven maiden runs after him, catches him as he is placing an orb of some sort inside an indentation into a pillar, conjuring a dark portal in front of her. She lays into him with her sword and club and the mind-flayer's tentacles almost caress her cheek and neck while its voice rattles in her mind. "You get to live today. I will find you tomorrow." And then the mindflayer steps through the portal and disappears from sight.

Ruz uses a potion to get the cleric back on his feet as he instructs Myta to kick Floon in the head. While she doesn't understand why she's supposed to abuse an unconscious victim, she heeds Ruz request and is surprised to see the brain apparently forcefully thrown out of Floon immediately after her quick kick. It only takes one swing with her sword to smash the creature into marmelade.

Silvo then cures the wounds of Gwen and Floon, and while Gwen recovers albeit groggily to realize the battle is over, Floon is muttering incoherently to himself.

There is little time to scour the Xanathar's hideout as, at any minute, more reinforcements could arrive, but that does not stop Silvo in his feverish dash to collect pouches, armor and any other bits and baubles which could prove valuable. Laden mostly with cheap weapons, he hurries after the party and hours later, the four of them and their quarry make their way through the streets of Waterdeep to the Yawning Portal. Fortunately to the citizens of Waterdeep, Gwen does away with the filth and smell on everyone's clothes and they do not cause more than the usual surprise at carrying a babbling man down the busy streets of the metropolis.

Volo is at the Yawning Portal, awaiting their return and he rushes to embrace his friend Floon, who continues to make no sense.

"What has happened?" He cries. "How did you find him?"

The party quickly explain the circumstances of Floon's rescue, to a minimal degree, as Myta cuts in and demands the money they were promised.

At the demand, Floon however blushes and meekishly claims that he does not have the gold at the moment. What he does have are the deeds to a splendid Waterdavian villa in an excellent neighborhood, worth hundreds of times more than the hundreds of golds promised.

"I confess that I have few coins to spare. I am sorry for the trouble. But I'll arrange a meeting with the magister straight away to change the deeds to your name. And also, my book, Volo's Guide to Waterdeep, for each of you, on the house!"

"How did you come to acquire this property, Volo? And in what shape is the house?" Ruz suspiciously asks.

Volo's mustache twitches and he fesses up to the fact that the villa might be in need of some remodeling in the near future.

"I was researching undead phenomena recently, toying with ideas for a new book, and I acquired the deeds to the place. People say it is haunted but I have never seen a ghost in the place. And to you, after having faced a mindflayer, what is a ghost, no?"

While almost everyone agrees to take up his offer as it is unlikely they will get paid in dragons, the elf feels that no matter the value of the house, a deal is a deal and not only did they have to face abominations to rescue Floon, but they were definitely not supposed to only get promises and ghosts to top the cake when they would complete the mission.

She grabs Volo by his flamboyant collar, gives him a few shakes and almost slaps him, demanding he fulfill his part of the bargain, while the other three stop her, promising that they would pay her the gold in Volo's stead, while they themselves take the house - if she would only let the poor wizard go. Ruz also mentions how a grateful Ranear would certainly be able to pay a hundred gold to her.

Seeing as she cannot shake Volo into actually producing the coins he had promised, Myta grudgingly gives up. Nevertheless, she does not understand what value a house could possibly have compared to the dishonor they were dealt in being deceived.

While patting her back and trying to explain humans fondness of owning property, as well as mercantilism, buying cheap and selling at a higher price after upgrading and the necessity to not place so high standards on someone's word, the party make their way to Ranaer's house, to rejoin Bran and Boddynoch the next day and take a look at their new Waterdavian headquarters.

(to be continued)