House Gralhund (pronounced: /ˈgrɔːlhʌnd/ GRAWL-hund) was a noble house of Waterdeep since the Year of the Broken Blade, 1260 DR. Their primary business interests included contracting hireswords and manufacturing weapons.
Organization
The Gralhund family were of Tethyrian descent but included a few tieflings who claimed they were also of the blood of Gargauth. The tieflings were usually sent to a Gralhund estate in Yartar.
Activities
In the Year of Three Ships Sailing, 1492 DR, the heads of the Gralhund family decided to ally with the Zhentarim in the search for the lost gold of Dagult Neverember under the promise of getting a fair share of the treasure. The Zhents, led by Urstul Floxin, used Gralhund Villa as their headquarters while seeking out the Stone of Golorr.
However, not fully trusting Urstul, Yalah also sent one of her personal servants, a nimblewright with a necklace of fireballs, to search for the gnome Dalakhar. The successive blast and the death of Dalakhar ruined the alliance between the Zhents and the Gralhunds.
When Urstul finally took possession of the Stone, he demanded explanations from Yalah about the nimblewright and her profiting from his injuries, and took the Stone. This triggered a fight between Gralhund guards and Zhentarim agents that cost many lives and was remembered as the Session 12: Gralhund Villa Bloodbath.
Tactics
Yalah Gralhund planned to use the intelligence resources of the Black Network in order to unveil some of the Masked Lords of Waterdeep and blackmail or bribe her way into membership.
Base of Operations
The Gralhund family kept a villa in Waterdeep's North Ward between Saerdoun Street and Horn Street off of Pony Way. The villa grounds were enclosed by a 12‑foot-high (3.7‑meter) stone wall with a main gate onto Horn Street. The entire compound was roughly wedge-shaped and was approximately 23,000 square feet (2,100 square meters) in total area. The main building was two stories tall and was approximately 13,000 square feet (1,200 square meters) total. A 1,580‑square-foot (147‑square-meter), single-story guard barracks adjoined the manor house, and there was a separate, single-story, 2,240‑square-foot (208‑square-meter) stable that had an entrance onto Saerdoun Street.