Campaign Timeline

The Yawning Portal

A fight breaks out in The Yawning Portal between a Half-Orc called Yagra Strongfist and a shifty looking human with an eyeball tattoo on his head Krentz and his goons. The fighting quickly stops after a Troll covered in Stirges climbs out of the hole in the middle of the tavern. Together with the tavernkeep Durnan a group of random people stands up to the monsters and manages to drive them back into the hole they came from. Not after getting smacked around a bit and getting bitten by the sturges though. This group of people was made up of 4 individuals, coming from very different places, who had never seen eachother before. A Dragonborn Sorcerer called Punko, a Shifter Barbarian by the name of Cracuta, a Changeling Rogue called Skálmöld who is currently disguised as a Human bountyhunter named Gerbalt, and a Gnome Artificer named Quertex.

A wealthy looking bystander comes up to this group, impressed by their bravery and ask them to sit down. He introduces himself as Volothamp Geddarm, famous writer and explorer. He explains to the party that he hasn't seen his drinking buddy Floon Blagmaar for a while and that he's getting worried that something bad may have happened to him. He offers the party a large reward would they be able to track down Floon. After some more drinks and hearing more of the story the party accepts Volo's quest and heads of to the tavern where they last met up, The Skewered Dragon.

Bloody Streets of Waterdeep

On their way towards The Skewered Dragon they come across a bloody sight in the street. Some sort of battle seems to have happened here with multiple casualties. The guards seem to be taking care of the situation by having captured what look like three bandits. The party notices that both the the living and dead bandits have tattoos. Some of them a winged snake, others eyeballs. They pick up some information that this was a fight between two gangs and that this isn't the first time something like this has happened recently. The get told by the guards to move and and so they do.

Old Xoblob Shop

A bit further on they find a very peculiar looking shop. In between the dull grey building they find a shop with a deep purple facade. Out of its window hangs a stuffed beholder. Above the door hangs a sign whose elaborate letters spell out "Old Xoblob Shop".

Not being able to hold their curiosity they enter the shop as a cloud of lavender-scented purple smoke trails out of the shop's door as the open it. Every wall inside of this shop is painted purple, and every dusty knicknack on the shelves is dyed a deep violet. The hairless old gnome sitting cross-legged on the counter wears plum colored robes. His head is decorated with nine purple face-painted eyes. He welcomes to party to the shop and introduces himself as Xoblob. After some very interesting interactions, he convinces the party to browse his wares and even buy some items. Cracuta purchases a Mask of the Undead, Punko buys a Purple Diary, and Quertex purchases a Purple Flask. They then head on towards their goal of finding Floon.

The Skewered Dragon

They reach their destination of The Skewered Dragon. The tavern looks like a ruin. Both of its front-facing windows are smashed, and a ship's anchor is lodged in the roof. Through the windows, they can see a group of haggard patrons drinking from huge tankards. At first none of them wanted to interact with the party but after some persuasion from Skálmöld they get told that the remember seeing Volo and Floon drinking here together a couple of nights ago. After Volo left, Floon stuck around long enough to meet with another friend: Renaer Neverember, the son of Waterdeep's previous Open Lord. When Floon and Renaer left they were followed by 5 other men and they haven't seen them since. They do tell the party that these men are known to frequent a warehouse on Candle Lane, and are told to look for a symbol of a flying snake on the door.

The Hideout

The party quickly finds the mentioned warehouse and manage to find themselves inside through the back entrance. Once inside they get ambushed by a group of Kenku who barrage them with arrows. After making quick work of most of the enemies the remaining ones lay down their weapon and surrender without delay.

After some interrogation one of the remaining Kenku starts repeating "Xanathar sends its regards" in a deep orcish accent. They also tell them "Tie up the pretty boy in the back room!" and "Follow the yellow signs in the sewers." Kenku communicate by mimicking things they have heard in the past and the party quickly works out where to go next. Before they do though they check the back room the Kenkus mentioned where they find Renaer Neverember who was hiding after having slipped free from his rope bonds. In another room they also find a Paper Bird.

Renaer tells the party that this group of bandits was ordered to capture him but took Floon by mistake. Renaer then also tells the party about how he believes the reason why the Black Network is after him is that they think his father embezzled a large amount of gold, and that he hid the gold somewhere in the city. They believe they can find the gold by using an artifact called The Stone of Golorr, and thought that Renaer would know more about all this. Which he says he doesn't.

After some time inside the warehouse the party hears a group of guards approaching. Quertex and Cracuta attempt to flee the scene but are too late in doing so. The guards quickly order everyone present to lay down their weapons, and after having explained the situation the guards start arresting the remaining two Kenkus. One of the guards then introduces himself to the party as Hyustus Staget, captain of the city watch. Understanding the situation Captain Staget tells the party that the guards currently don't have the resources to help them find Floon right now. But he does tell them they can take their hired guard with them. They both agree with this and the Tiefling Paladin called Nithgrea joins the party.

Tracking Floon

The Party has learned that Floon Blagmaar has been kidnapped by the Xanathar's Guild who mistook him for Renaer Neverember, and that he was taken to a hideout in the sewers. Together with their new companion Nithgrea the look for the closest way into the sewers and quickly find a circular metal cover inset in the pavement in a nearby back alley. They lift the cover, revealing a ladder down into the sewers.

Sewers of Waterdeep

A putrid stream flows along this sewer tunnel, which leads in two directions. In one direction, the party can see a tiny symbol drawn on the wall in yellow chalk: a palm-sized circle with ten equidistant spokes radiating out from its circumference. They figure this is the yellow symbol the Kenku mentioned before and start following them. 

While walking through the sewers Cracuta notices a creature waddling out of the sewer water, onto the opposing sidewalk. The party identify the creature as a turtle but quickly notice something is very wrong. Whirling tentacles can be seen sticking out of the shell where the turtle's head should be. As the party tries to strike the creature, its shell splits open as a strange, brain like creature climbs out of it and escapes into the dark sewers. The party decided it best not to follow it.

After an hour of following signs through the tunnels, the party come to a three-way intersection where a ladder leads up into a stone shaft capped by a circular metal cover. One of the familiar chalk symbols is marked on a wall nearby, and floating near the symbol is a spherical, grapefruit-sized creature with a bulging central eye and four stumpy eyestalks, a Gazer. It bares its teeth at them and starts firing beams at the party from his eyestalks. The party make quick work of the being and make their way up the ladder.

Xanathar Guild Hideout

The main sewer tunnel expands into a circular hub with a pair of arrow slits carved into its outer walls, directly across from each other. Two passages continue on to the north and south. A stone door is set into the back wall of a stone ledge to the west. The Party heads inside and find a room with two sleeping goblins in them. They decide to take them out without waking them and succeed in doing so. After killing the two sleeping goblins they have the ingenious idea of bringing along one of the goblin corpses to be able to scare any future enemies with it.

Dragging a goblin corpse in a bag behind them, the party are making their way further through the hideout as they start hearing two voices seemingly in distress together with the noise of wood clashing into stone. The follow the noise and come across a room where a Duergar man and Krentz , the human who they saw picking a fight with a Half-Orc woman at The Yawning Portal just hours ago. They are both using pieces of furniture to barricade the door to the next room. Krentz is trying to explain to the Duergar this probably won't work and that they should plug the gap at the bottom of the door with blankets. Combat breaks out as they notice the party entering the room. The duergar starts to grow up till 4 times his original size, as he towers above the party he starts bashing into them while Krentz tries to stab the party in the back. The both of them ultimately fail though as the party beats them to the ground, killing them.

After they are done taking care of the two enemies, the party decides not to test their luck by clearing the way they tried so hard to block and head further into the hideout using the other door in the room. After going up and down some sets of stairs they encounter a harrowing sight. Threadbare curtains hang on the east wall of a long hall, in the middle of which a muscular Half-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 inhuman mouth. It cradles and gently caresses what looks like a disembodied brain with feet. The tentacled creature is Nihiloor and as he notices they have unwanted observers he instructs his Half-Orc subject Grum'shar to take care of them. He lowers the Intellect Devourer to the ground, picks up a stone orb carved to resemble an eyeball, and glides across the room, leaving through the double door in the west wall.

The party shoot into action, trying to save Floon who seems to be in a near death state on the floor. Spells start flinging through the room as Grum'shar attempts to strike Nithgrea with his fiery fist. In the mean time Nihiloor's brain puppy has also joined the battle and has succeeded in knocking Cracuta to the floor. Before the intellect devourer could makes its way through Cracuta's skull the party manages to stop it and kill it. Shortly thereafter Grum'shar, outnumbered five to one, stands no chance against the might of the party and also falls to the floor. Dropping his magic tome for Punko to pick it up.

Once the fighting is over Nithgrea starts to heal Floon, as they start to explain what happened and how Volo had asked them to find him. Floon manages to get himself up from the floor and starts thanking the party for saving his life. He thinks that if they were even 5 minutes later, he would not be alive right now. 

Before heading back to The Yawning Portal, the party decides to further investigate the hideout, in search for the Mind Flayer who left earlier and any other possible enemies that could still be here. They enter the big double door in the west wall and In the middle of this otherwise empty room is a stone pillar carved with a small symbol: a perfect circle with ten equidistant spokes radiating outward from its circumference. In the middle of this circle is a smaller circular indentation that bears a passing resemblance to a lidless eye. The party has no idea what this could be but after going through the rest of the hideout and finding no trace of Nihiloor nor an exit, Punko theorizes this stone pillar might be some sort of teleportation device.

Thinking they have cleared all threats in this Xanathar's Guild hideout, they spot a secret passage in the large room where they just fought Grum'shar. The follow the passage to find what looks like a cellar filled barrals, brewing supplies and lots of worthless clutter. They follow a ladder upstairs and find themselves inside a quaint halfling residence. The owner of the house start screaming out in fear when they see this diverse, and quite scary looking group emerge from their cellar. The party manages to calm them down somewhat after explaining what had happened and that they should probably try to block up their cellar in the near future.

Content with their work, the party arrives back at the yawning portal where both Volo and Renaer are very happy to see they have brought back Floon in one piece. Volo gives them a rather sheepish look as he explains their reward:

" I confess that I have but few coins to spare. But never let it be said that Volo reneges on a promise. Allow me to present something much more valuable ." He holds out a scroll tube. ''The deed to a remarkable property here in Waterdeep! We'll need a magistrate to witness the transfer of ownership. I'll arrange a meeting with one after you've inspected the estate and deemed it satisfactory. I'll also arrange some of the carpenters guilds to come along and refurbish the place."

Angry because of the lack of gold they were initially promised, the party accepts the deed to Trollskull Manor as they find themselves a new home.

After dividing the bedrooms in their newly acquired home, the party has a first night of well deserved rest.

When they wake up they are once again greeted by Volothamp Geddarm. He explains to them that he has made de necessary arrangements with all the local guilds to make sure that the tavern will be patched up and made ready for business with all the required paperwork done and ready.
He thanks them once more and lets them know that he'll be leaving to visit Baldur's Gate later today. He'll try to come and visit them again in a few weeks time.

Joining Factions

While the party continues to have their breakfast and sharing some stories to get to know each other better they are greeted by many a strange people, creature, and things.

Cracuta is greeted by a white elk that comes knocking on the door. When he opens up the door, he can hear the following coming out of it's mouth in a melodious male voice:

“Interested in joining the Emerald Enclave? Come meet us at Phaulkonmere in the Southern Ward.”

Later that day they would go visit the Emerald Enclave. When the characters arrive at Phaulkonmere for the first time, Unknown introduces them to the lady of the estate: a noblewoman-turned-demigod and Chosen of Mielikki named Unknown. Jeryth, the only member of her family who currently resides at Phaulkonmere, manifests as a disembodied female voice that can be heard by anyone in the villa gardens. She offers membership in the enclave after they finish a mission for them.

“Outlying farms are being terrorized by a scarecrow come to life. It has slaughtered livestock, chased horses, and spooked farmers. No people have been killed as yet, so the City Guard is dragging its heels. Something must be done!”

Punko, while opening up a window, is greeted by an old grey flying cat, a Tressym called Slobberchops. The cat relays the following message:

“I am Vajra SafahrSafahr, the Blackstaff. Come to Blackstaff Tower in the Castle Ward at once. Bring your friends.”

Later that day to go and visit Blackstaff Tower. They are met by some members of Force Grey and are brought to the Blackstaff's chambers by Albion Dusklight.
Vajra offers the characters membership in the Gray Hands, a private security force under her command. She doles out missions designed to tax the characters’ resources and test their loyalty to Waterdeep. People who complete these missions won’t gain enough renown to join Force Grey yet, but they will gain something valuable: the Blackstaff’s patronage. She offers them the following mission:

“Seek out Hlam, a monk who lives in a cave on the side of Mount Waterdeep. Ask him what he’s heard about threats to the city, but try not to annoy him or overstay your welcome.”

Quertex manages to catch a flying Paper Bird that managed to get its way inside. Written on the paper bird was the following:

“Renaer Neverember tells us you are a good bet. He bought you tickets to the opera tonight at the Lightsinger Theater in the Sea Ward. If you are interested, meet Mirt at intermission. Private Box C. Formal attire is required for admittance.”

Later that day they go shopping for some fancy clothing. Quertex end up buying a fancy purple suit from the Old Xoblob Shop.

Lightsinger Theater is a high-end establishment located in the Castle Ward. When the party meets Mirt in his private box during the opera’s intermission, he describes the Harpers and offers membership to them. The party accept and receive a silver pin of a harp within a crescent moon, along with their first mission. Mirt also tells them that if they ever need to speak with him directly, they are welcome to visit his manor in the Sea Ward.
Their mission is the following:

“One of the drays working in the city is pulled by a talking mare named Maxeene. Locate her, find out if she’s learned the identity of any Zhent operatives, and if so, determine their whereabouts.”

Nithgrea hears someone knocking on the door. When she opens up a human knight named Unknown is standing before her. She tells her:

I've heard you've just been kicked out from Lathander's paladin order? We could always use some more power at the Order of the Gauntlet. You're all invited to come discuss work at our temple.

Later that day they go and visit the local temple of Tyr to meet Savra. They are giving the following mission, depending on if and how they complete it, they will be granted membership to the Order of the Gauntlet:

“We hear that the Zhents are paying gangs in the Field Ward to attack suspected Xanathar Guild members. Fights are breaking out in the ward daily. Stop a fight before it happens. We need to send a message to these thugs that further altercations won’t be tolerated.”

Skálmöld sneakily detached some parchment tied to a flying snake that found its way into her pocket. The message reads:

“Want to be part of something big? Speak to Davil Starsong at The Yawning Portal.”

Later that day, the party visits the Yawning Portal and are greeted by a familiar face. Yagra Strongfist, the half-orc that was being assaulted in this very bar just yesterday.
Yagra takes them upstairs to meet Davil, who after some quick-witted tests offers the party membership to their faction of The Black Network who are trying to cut back on most of the illegal actions and fighting taking place in the main faction. He also knows of Skálmöld's alter ego and her actions as one of the fake leaders of the Black network. They are given the following mission:

“Someone is killing elf and half-elf sailors in the Dock Ward — three dead so far, each one decapitated by a blade in the dead of night. Look into it, will you? Methinks the City Watch could use a little help.”

The party head outside the walls of Waterdeep to visit the Stoutfellow farm and help them with their troubles on behalf of the Emerald Enclave.

When they arrive at a crossroads with a simple wooden signpost. They decide to go towards Amendsfarm, the incorrect way, having all forgotten where they were supposed to be going in the first place.

When they arrive at Amendsfarm, a farm that is being used as a jail, Cracuta spots a person who looks a lot like him, another Shifter. He manages to make contact through the jail fence and has a quick and strange interaction with the Shifter. They end up doing some Hyena pack howling when they are forced away from each other by the guards.

The party then decides to visit the Stoutfellow farm where they are greeted by its owners and told that some strange creatures have been wreaking having on their orchard during the night as of late. They are also told of another, more successful orchard not too far from here. He's been told they are having the same issues.

When investigating the orchard they detect some strange magic coming from a few scarecrows. They find a dismembered finger inside of the scarecrows and believe this might be causing them to turn alive at night and destroy their surroundings.

Later they also visit the Snobeedle Orchard to investigate further. Here they are met by owners who for some reason seem envious of the Stoutfellow farm and seem to not want to give them any time of day. They also find that the Snobeedle Orchard seems to be running quite well and doesn't seem to have any noticeable damage done to it's crops.
Inside of the drinking hall Quertex sees the owner go upstairs to their office and has the genius idea of using his Deck of Illusions to create a distraction for them to go interrogate the owner.

Quertex pulls a card and an Illusory Troll appears in the drinking hall, scaring all customers and guards alike.
The party quickly goes up to the owners office and threatens her to tell the truth. She tells them she was jealous of the success of the newly formed Stoutfellow farm and that she created these "items" in order to disrupt their business.

The party end up taking her to the guards at Amendsfarm and explain to them and the Soutfellow farm what happened.
When they arrive back at the Emerald Enclave they are congratulated on a job well done and are welcomed into the guild.

The party spend their day investigating the mission they got from The Black Network to investigate the murders on elves and half-elves taking place there recently.

At night the end up at a small fisherman's tavern where they meet a man they call Jerry The Fisherman, but they never once asked his real name.
Well past midnight, they leave the tavern together where Jerry where they are assaulted by a masked Drow who orders them to leave Jerry behind and act like nothing ever happened.

A fight starts and the party manages to scare the masked Drow away somewhat. But he returns and manages to shoot Jerry, who was lying on the ground next to the tavern blackout drunk, straight between his eyes killing him instantly. In a rage, the party do end taking down the murderer and they hand him off to the guards.

Sad about their inability to save their new drunken friend, they are greeted by fellow fisherman and invited to come to his burial at sea the next day.

They pass the Yawning Portal and luckily walk into Davil Starsong who was just on his way out and explain to him what happened.
Davil congratulates them on a job well done capturing the killer and welcome them into his faction of The Black Network.

The party head over towards the dock ward first thing in the morning to join the burial at sea of Jerry The Fisherman.

When they arrive they are greeted by lots of candles and floating lights and every fisherman and sailor singing a for the death of one of their own.

After Jerry has been set off, the party is greeted by a man who claims to be Jerry's captain. He gives the party a message in a bottle. Apparently this was one of Jerry's treasured possessions. Inside the bottle is a treasure map that he'd been trying to solve for the past few weeks but was unable to.

On the map they find three clues on a map of Waterdeep.

The first clue leads them back home towards Trollskull Alley where the maps leads them to a squat, three-story house. They knock on the door and are greeted by a young boy named Pavel. They convince him to let them inside, apparently he's been told to not let anyone in by a group of older men who hang around this place.
Once inside they find some smugglers downstairs playing cards who immediately run off in a panic when they see the party entering.
While inspecting the basement they find the glyph depicted on the treasure map and find a hidden wall cache containing a Wand of Secrets. Wrapped around the paper is a scrap of paper upon which is written: "Whisper something that you've never told anyone".
They also found a string of letters written in grease-paint on the pivoted wall of the secret cache:

"CNSRRBONIRUWMUTASSHROHED"

The second clue leads them to a restaurant on the first floor of the interior of The Hawk Man.
Once inside they take a seat to grab a meal. During their time here the notice some trouble in the kitchen and decide to investigate. While hearing about the issues the owners are currently having, some party members start investigating the kitchen and find another glyph depicted on the treasure map.
In a hidden cache in the kitchen floor they find two Silver Daggers. A note wrapped around one of them reads: "For the shopkeep". They also find another piece of paper that says:

"FOUR AT A TIME. READ TOP TO BOTTOM."

Their third clue leads them to Three Daggers Alley, this infamously cursed alley in the dock ward is known for sometimes having magical daggers assault people passing through. The party had no clue about this and were assaulted the moment they entered the alley. The find another glyph on top of a sewer grate and head down there as fast as they can. Down in the sewers they find what looks to be a gang hideout. They are lucky enough to have arrived when nobody was there. Inside the hideout they find a chest with the glyph drawn at the bottom. The open a secret compartment and find the following message:

"ARRANGE IN SIX ROWS"

The party makes their way out of the sewers and attempt to solve the clues they've found to far as they have run out of other place to go.
After some time they figure out how to solve the clues.

"Crimson Brush Southern Ward", the solution leads them towards this shop in the Southern Ward (Waterdeep).

Once there, the find themselves in a small art store. The look around the store for a bit and discover a glyph on the portrait behind the shop counter.
The inquire the shopkeeper about this portrait which somehow angers him as he starts to transform into a werewolf and attack the party.
The party kill the werewolf, steal the painting, and make there way outside as fast as they can.

The investigate the painting and notice is depicts a specific statue or tomb in the City of the Dead. They head out in search of this tomb and find it without too much trouble.
Here they are met by the groundskeeper Adhamh who kindly asks them to leave this place alone, as recently many people have been going missing here.
The party manages to persuade Adhamh into telling them a secret entrance into the tomb in return for investigating why some of the sheep here have gone turning up dead.

The party make their way through the secret entrance into the Gost family tomb. The find themselves in a small dimly lit hallway where they skilfully spot a trap running down the middle of the hallway. They avoid falling down the trap hole and continue into a large Heroes' Tomb where there are attacked by Skeletal Warhorses. 
The party ends up taking some damage, but manage to destroy their foes without too much of an issue.

Having taken a short rest after their battle with the skeletal warhorses. The party continues on in their search for treasure in the Gost family crypt.

They find themselves in a long eerie hallway that ends at another set of metal doors. These doors are made of iron-plated wood. Each features a relief carving of a wolf rampant. Two stone statues depicting nobly dressed humans, a woman in stately robes and a man in armor holding a sword an shield, stand in niches a few meters before the door. After investigating these statues the party finds that it seems to be possible to insert a cylindrical object into the hand of the female statue. 

Before they manage to investigate further, a glowing blue female ghost phases through the door at the end of the hallway. She seems to be asking for help. The party turn their attention to the ghost and try to calm her down. She introduces herself as an adventurer called Perdita. She entered this crypt a few days ago together with her sister while following a treasure map, just like the party. She remembers seeing some rats, and everything went dark for her after that. She later woke up as a ghost and started roaming these halls in search for her sister. The party agrees to help her and ask where she died, as that might be a clue. But Perdita says she can't remember. She does tell the party that she is able to open a secret door behind the statue of the nobly dressed man behind them. She insists that she's not going through the door herself though because she fears the things that are behind it, rats.

The party decide to check out the room behind the iron plated door first. The find themselves in another winding hallway and they quickly spot something odd about the floor. There seem to be grooves in the floor, making it look like there is some sort of other platform laid inside the floor tiles surrounding it. The party decide this might be a trap and start making their way across the tiny sidewalks. Quertex manages to make it to the other side without issue due to his size, and so does Punko as he is large enough to be able to hold himself in place by touching the ceiling. Skálmöld and Cracuta make their way across, back to back, providing support to eachother by pushing against the walls, counting in a beat as to go in sync. 

At the other side they find themselves in another coffin-shaped chamber, this one wider to accommodate the two stone sarcophagi laid out on a raised dais to the south. A large column at the end of the room displays a portrait of a smirking noble lord. Two ornate sword hang below the portrait. In between the two coffins there also stands a statue resembling a suit of armor. Cracuta quickly decides to take a look at the coffins and starts pushing the lid to check if he would be able to open it. He starts pushing harder and harder as a loud booming voice fills the room.

"There shall be a reckoning for those who deign steal from this noble household!" 

They see the noble in the portrait start to laugh as it detaches itself from the column, seemingly alive it starts to float in mid air together with the two blades that were hanging below it. The party hear the crackling of stone as they also see the statue come to life, unsheathing its blade and pointing it at the party. Combat breaks out and Cracuta starts feeling something sharp poking his forehead. The rest of the party can see a crown of thorns form around Cracuta's head, as his pupils turn white he turns his blade towards his friends. They quickly deem the portrait as the culprit behind this spell and start throwing all their attacks at the smirking lord. Skálmöld manages to get the final blow on the guardian portrait, cutting it apart. Cracuta, being freed from the crown, attempts to bite and swipe at the statue multiple times. But to no avail. In the middle of combat Quertex fumbles as he tries to shoot at his enemies, missing his shot and dropping his bolts all over the floor, down the stairs. Punko comes to his aid and hands him a few bolts as they destroy the animated statue and one of the flying swords with their fire magic. The last flying swords gets shattered into pieces as Skálmöld and Cracuta swipe at it with their weapons.

Having dispatched the guardians of the tomb, the party starts looking around the room for treasure. The open up the two coffins but find them to be completely empty. Not even one single bone can be found within. What they do find is a ceremonial baton, hanging on the column where the portrait used to be. Before heading back to the statues in the hallway, Cracuta puts on his Mask of the Undead and notices a faint but large in scale aura coming from below the ground, in the hallway they just passed. Quertex tries to pick up a large piece of stone form the defeated statue but fails as he tumbles down the stairs. Punko sees this happening and comes to his aid once again, picking up the stone as the party heads back to the hallway. They drop the stone on the strange partition of floor and it crumbles down, falling into a pit below. The party can hear shambling and groans, and when they look down into the pit they can see a dozen of mindless zombies standing at the bottom. The party manages to make their way back over the pit, albeit a bit more fearful than the first time they crossed.

Arriving back at the statue of the noble woman, they insert the ceremonial baton into her hand. The statue starts to turn clockwise, revealing a hidden passage behind it. Following another small passage, the party enter a small room with multiple sarcophagi lined up inside of it. They attempt to open one of them as Quertex suddenly finds himself enveloped by some sort of mist. A sharp sting hits him in the shoulder as he starts feeling someting being sucked out of him. The party panics and run back into the main hall, taking out the baton from the statues hand as the passage closes itself again. Not knowing what just happened and also not keen to find out, they ask Perdita to open the secret passage behind the opposite statue. Perdita sticks her hands through the door, making sure her head doesn't also peek through, as she opens the door. Asking once again to look for her lost sister.

The party finds themselves in a dark hallway with broken down coffins inside of two alcoves in the north. The stench of death and decay greets them around the bend. Dozens of reats are feasting on corpses that litter the ground. Not sure if they should go further the party starts to argue. During the discussion a figure jumps out from behind the corner and slashes Skálmöld in the back with a blade. The figure resembles a female humanoid, but with the face of a rat, gray fur, and claws. The figure yells at the party to stay away and leave her alone. Thinking this might be Perdita's lost sister they try to convince her that they are here to help. But as they are doing this Cracuta suddenly feels a sharp sting in his arm as he is now fully covered in mist. Panic ensues once again as they try to hurry past the mist. Punko, thinking this might be a being called a vampiric mist, tries to put it to sleep with a spell and succeeds. The mist slowly floats down to the floor as it starts to disperse a little. Most of the party make it to the other end of the hallway by jumping over the sleeping mist, but Cracuta drops to the ground as he attempts to take a run up, falling face first into the mist, waking it back up. The wererat, confused by what is happening, decides to join the group of strangers for now as she uses Cracuta as a stepping stone to also jump over the mist. Cracuta gets bitten once again and feels some of his life force drain from his body. Regular weapons didn't seem to have any effect, but the party did manage to seemingly destroy the mist with magic. Before heading back they go to take a look at the room where the rats once were. Together with many torn up, half eaten bodies they find a body resembling Perdita next to the corpse of something that looks alot like the rat woman they just met.

The wererat woman has found herself in the corridor where Perdita was waiting by name. The party notices her trying to cover her face and turning away from the ghost. Perdita approaches the rat woman asking her if she is Suri, her sister. The wererat yells at Perdita to not come any closer, that she has no idea what she's talking about. But Perdita does not listen. She phases straight through the wererat's body and turns around, looking straight at the rat-like appearance of her sister. Knowing that Perdita has a mortal fear of rats, Suri once again runs away from her. But Perdita just stays there, sitting on the floor with a bright smile on her face.

"I'm glad you're safe."

She says, as the ghostly form of Perdita slowly starts to vanish. Suri just breaks out in tears after witnessing this, shedding tears for the sister who still loved her even looking as she does currently. As the tears roll down her cheecks, the party see her transforming back into a young human lady.

After giving Suri some time, the party ask her about what just happened and tell her to take a look at herself. Looking at her hands she can once again see her normal fingers instead of sharpened claws. Still with tears in her eyes, she starts thanking the party for all they've done for her and her sister. She starts explaining how the two of them come to be in the possession of a treasure map. After following the clues they found themselves inside of this crypt, they managed to sneak past some scary skeletons and found this secret passage. But once inside they were met by a Wererat who ambushed them. Perdita, who she knew had been deeply scared of vermin since they were kids, dropped to the ground unconsciousat the first sight of this wererat, hitting her head against one of the broken coffins, killing her instantly. Suri managed to defeat the wererat, but not after being bit by it and turning into one as well a few hours later. Suri had noticed the ghostly appearance of her sister floating around the crypt looking for her, but was she was too afraid to let Perdita see her looking like the things she fears most, and decided to just hide from her.

Suri asks the party what she should do now. They tell her she could stay at their new mansion and tell her she could go there right now as they explore the rest of the crypt. Suri graciously accepts this offer but also decides to stay with the party for now, telling them she can hold her own in a fight.

Moving back to the room where they first encountered the mist, the party find a hidden button in the wall that when pressed opens up a new passage. Hearing the sounds of two men talking to eachother and the clanging of plates the sneak up to the entrance at the end of the corridor to take a peak at what is happening.

They see a large room with what looks like two men having dinner and two sleeping wolves in it. The far wall of this room bears metal double doors. The party heads back to plan their approach and seeing how they are in the majority the decide it best to try and intimidate the two men into giving up their treasure. This fails horribly as the two men start to demand and explanation. Not wanting to give in to their demands, Skálmöld shoots one of them in the shoulder, after which the two men start to slowly shift into werewolves. 

Before a real fight manages to break out, what looks like blood starts flowing out from underneath the double doors. They swing open as the two werewolves make way for the figure emerging out from the bloody doors. A large dark skinned man with glowing red eyes, dressed in noble apparel stands in front of them. He grabs one of the werewolves by the throat and raises him off the ground without any effort and ask him: "Did I not tell you what to do should this situation arise again?". He throws the werewolf to the ground, disappears, and then reappears behind Punko in the blink of an eye. He grabs Punko by the throat and pushes him up against the wall. He takes out the treasure map that was sticking out from his bag, unfurls it, and takes a good look at it. After a loud sigh he mentions that this is the tenth group this month that have dared entered his domain. The man burns the treasure map with a snap of his fingers, releases Punko, and teleports next to Cracuta, towering over him. The man takes a good look at the shifter and even gives him a sniff, calling Cracuta "an interesting one". The imposing man walks back into the small pool of blood that is now starting to form on the floor and gives the party an offer. Either they help him find the people responsible for making these fake treasure maps, or they die. The party decides this is definitely the kind of person they should bargain with and ask what else would be in it for them would they decide to help. The man laughs and applauds their lack of concern about their own lives and introduces himself as Artor Morlin, one of the Masked Lords of Waterdeep. And explains to the party how much value having him on their side brings. The party agree to help Artor, and he gives them the parting gift of telling them that all these treasure maps have had the stench of salt water all over them.

Glad to have made it out of this situation alive, the party head back to the surface. Once there they once again meet the groundskeeper Adhamh who is quite amazed that they actually managed to find their way out again in one piece. He asks them if they would be able to help him with his sheep problem now. But the party tells him they will come back at a later day to take a look. Convinced this is a lie, Adhamh walks away dejected.

On their way back home, the party notices a dead sheep lying in some bushes. The go to investigate and Cracuta notices that what killed this sheep are humanoid bite marks. Not canine, what the groundskeeper believed to be the culprit. Nearby they do find canine foottracks though and as they follow them them find themselves an overgrowth close to the outside walls. Below a tree, surrounded by pushed they find a large dog with a half torn collar and a rabbit in its mouth, looking over two pups. The party then decide to head back to the groundskeeper to ask him about this dog but before they get too far they start hearing the desperate crying and barking of the dog they just found. Running over to them the find two Ghouls attacking them. The party makes quick work of the undead threat and decide to take the dogs home after treating their wounds.

(TODO: party takes part in the festivities, goes to watch the parade and fight in the arena. They win the team battle event and get to fight the champion (skalmold's father) and lose)

TODO

(dinner zardoz, talk with shifter in jail)

(TODO: party go up mount waterdeep to meet Hlam and take his challenge)

(TODO: party wakes up from the sound of an explosion happening outside, try to figure out who did it, end up looking through the sewers, ultimately make their way to House of Inspired Hands and meet a nimblewright who made others of his kind, they receive a tool to track down nimblewright, find one on The Sea Maidens Faire ships but are told they cant leave the ships, ultimately find another one in Gralhund Villa)

The party breaks into Gralhund Villa to find the Nimblewright who caused a fireball outside their home, Session 11: Fireball.
They manage to hide from some shadow beings walking around the garden, and find that most of the staff and guards are dead inside.

Some The Black Network members under the control of Urstul Floxin were working for the family but ultimately got mad and started a fight after they were betrayed by the Gralhunds.

The party find a hidden ledger filled with info on the Gralhund family, Gralhund Family Ledger. The ledger hints at the Gralhund family somehow having ties to Devils.

The party end up saving the Gralhund family from the black network members, killing Urstul Floxin. But during all the commotion, the nimblewright they were looking for had already fled the mansion together with The Stone of Golorr on orders of lady Gralhund.

The guards arrive to clean up the mess, the party explains what happened and are let go.

The party wakes up and are met by Zardoz Zord whom they had promised to take him to Artor Morlin, Zardoz is joined by his helper who is quite the perfectionist.

While taking Zardoz Zord to meet Artor they sneakily try too look for the missing Nimblewright, once they get a signal from the device they received from Nim they somehow manage to persuade Zardoz to go shopping for a bit as they need to take care of some business.
Zardoz goes shopping in nearby clothes store, but orders his helper to keep an eye on the party in stealth, the party do not notice this.

The party find a scared nimblewright hiding in an alley.
They find a piece of paper in it's pocket, the paper shows a drop-off point for a package he had to deliver, it's in the city of the dead, the place they were heading for anyway.
They go to city of dead and first go to Artor's lair. After a very strange first meeting between the two. Zardoz zord is invited inside Artor Morlin's inner sanctum. Zardoz tells the party they don't need to wait for him and that he will come visit them at a later day to further discuss their deal.

The party head over to the dropoff location they got from the nimblewright and find Vaelle and some dead cultists in a tomb.

After rescuing the dying Vaelle, The Trollskull Crushers head over to the refurbished windmill where Vaelle was told to deliver the stone to next.

When they arrive, the windmill seemed to be inhabited by homeless people, hoping to find the cultists who betrayed Vaelle they started breaking into the building.
Once inside they are instantly met by the homeless people squatting in the downstairs area of this building. One older looking man notices Skálmöld opening a door and quickly runs off into one of the back rooms, trying to board up the door. 

After some conversation between the homeless men and The Trollskull Crushers and being told that some "strange people" also use to upstairs part of the windmill to told "weird stuff", Nithgrea ultimately manages to persuade on of them to show them where the cultists were hiding.

The party made its way upstairs and decided it would be a good idea to open all three doors leading to separate rooms at the same time.
 Punko and Vaelle opened their door and flight of pidgeons who were nesting their instantly flew outside through the gaping hole in the roof, causing quite some noise.
Cracuta and Quertex opened their door and due to the building being in a state of disrepair, they fell through the floor, causing even more of a commotion.
Nithgrea and Skálmöld found behind their door someone else closing another door at the end of the room in front of them, they also found a pentagram inside their room, with some possible demonic runes inscribed in it.

Nithgrea and Skalmold start to break down the door while Punko & Vaelle join them. While Cracuta and Quertex are still downstairs, attempting to crawl out of the rubble of the broken floor they just sunk through. a fight breaks out between the rest of the party upstairs and two cultists they found after tearing the door between them to shreds.

After managing to break through the locked door, the party notices two cultists inside, handing over a small package to three Spined Devils hovering outside a window.
Punko fired of magic missiles, trying to interrupt the transaction, but when the magic missiles fly out of Punko's staff, a large explosion happens.
Punko feared on of his spell had malfunctioned while in fact it was caused by Quertex who had cast a thunderwave while still downstairs. The thunderwave caused the building to start breaking apart. Parts of the outer wall being are blown to pieces, a whole brick wall almost falling on top of the neighbours house. The floor that had already crumbled minutes before now breaking down even further, also causing the wall and floor of the connecting room where the cultists and the rest of the party are currently in to come crashing down.

Most of the people upstairs manage to avoid the danger, except for the two cultist who were now buried beneath the rubble together with Quertex.

Meanwhile, the spined devils took away the stone, flying low above the rooftops to avoid detection.
Nithgrea decided to follow the devils by flying after them, Skalmold decided to do the same by throwing their blink dagger up to the rooves, teleporting after it. Cracuta jumped from the window to the roof were Skalmold was standing, all while Punko went to rescue Quertex. Once he was fine they both followed on foot through the streets.

While leaving the now ruined windmill. The party notice Vaelle standing over the two cultists covered in rubble, as she plunges a dagger into both of their skulls.

During the chase, Nithgrea managed to put one to sleep, but the other spined devils were to quick to catch up to. The spined devils dive towards a carriage in the streets at some point. The party manages to catch up just in time as the devils hand over the package to what looks like and older Thiefling.

Another fight breaks out in the streets and on the rooftops. Cracuta manages to fish one of the spined devils out of the air by throwing a javelin with a rope attached to it. Nithgrea uses her holy smite to beat down on some other devils. Some imps who were hiding invisible on the roof of the carriage also join the fight, casting spells and generally being obtrusive.
The party tries their best to stop the carriage from leaving.

After a long fight, the party managed to defeat all the devils and imps, together with the horses drawing the carriage. The only one standing was the older thiefling holding the package. He tried to run of and disappear into the crowd that had now gathered around them in the streets but was caught by Cracuta using his wild barbarian magic to teleport to him. The thiefling dropped the package and ran off into the crowd.

After quite some effort and danger, The Trollskull Crushers finally got their hands on The Stone of Golorr. But just as they do they are arrested by a squad City Guard (Waterdeep) for multiple reasons such as: "Damaging property", "Vandalism", "Disturbing the peace", and more.

The party is escorted to the nearest jailhouse, and while inside they start magically attuning to The Stone of Golorr.
The stone is apparently capable of communicating to the person currently holding it, telling each of them some very personal information, seemingly reading their minds and emotions. Ultimately they also learn from the stone about the whereabouts of Dagult Neverember's treasure vault and what is needed the open the vault doors. They are also told that the vault is guarded by an Adult Gold Dragon named Aurinax.

The three keys needed to open the vault doors are:

• A Bronze Dragon Scale  
• Sunlight
• A Beholder eyestalk

After learning all of this new information, they hear some commotion outside of their cell as they see their jail guard dropping dead to the ground while Hyustus Staget appears before them.

After being jailed for causing an uproar in town. The party was greeted in their jail cell by someone who looked like Hyustus Staget.
This person casts a spell to charm Cracuta into giving him The Stone of Golorr. The rest of the party quickly intervene as they remembered Hyustus should be out of town and manage to restrain this person by using Skálmöld's mage hand. A short fight breaks out.
Nithgrea ask who this person is, but runes start to burn on their throath before they can give an answer. After this the person seems to fall dead to the ground. As it is falling it's shape starts to twist and turn, transforming back into it's original form, a Doppelganger.

The guards quickly arrive and try to understand the situation. The believe the party in that they were attack, but still but them in separate cells for now.
After about an hour they get summoned to defend themselves in court.

The party gets charged with many crimes, although some of them get dropped when they start to believe that demons and a doppelganger were involved.
They are told to serve 10 days in jail or provide a 750g fine. Quertex manages to rile up the public to stand behind them to lower the charges even more, the public also manages to put together 350g to pay for their crimes. But the party chooses to serve their time in jail.

The party gets sent to Amendsfarm to serve out their sentence. Some are tasked with mining rocks, others with planting and tending to the crops.
The meet up again with the Shifter prisoner, but don't learn anything new or interesting from him. They do however learn that when a prisoner ends up doing something bad, they sometimes get taken away by guards and return with a few less fingers.
Skálmöld attempts to get taken away by the guards in order to possibly learn something new about the weird things going on. But the only thing she learned is that she now has to live with one less finger on her hand.

After 10 days the party is released from jail. When retrieving their items on the way out they notice that The Stone of Golorr is still inside one of their pockets. But not in the one they left it. Quertex also tries to lick the stone and almost dies from either suffocation or dehydration.

When they arrive back home they are greeted by a grand feast taking place all around Trollskull Alley.

The party recover after the greatest "welcome back" party they had every received. Some of the party members woke up just fine, others had a bit of a harder time doing this.
After cleaning up a bit they decide to head to the Dock Ward (Waterdeep) in search of the Young Bronze Dragon they had met before during Session 09: Dinner Aboard the Eyecatcher in the hope they can receive one of it's scales which is one the keys they need to open the great vault.

The party hires a small rowboat and takes it out to sea. They quickly find the bronze dragon, sadly drifting along in the waters. It introduces itself as Zelifarn and explains to the party that it's home has been "stolen" by a "weird frog man". The party agrees to help him in return for some of his scales.
They follow the young dragon towards a small outcropping of land in the sea. They careen their rowboat onto land and dive in the water towards the underwater cave that is the dragon's home. Some party members manage to dive down just fine, while once again, others had a bit of a harder time doing this.

Once they entered the underwater cave the passed through some narrow paths to ultimately find a very spacious room, filled with random bits of metal and treasures, and in the middle of it a very embellished Marid. The Marid refuses to hand back the dragon's home and treasure and retaliates by using the small puddles of water in the room to create strong bursts of water that manage to lift up some of the large rocks laying around the room, created floating platforms.
Every now and then the Marid would cast a large spell that caused water to crash down on the party from above, washing them back down from the platforms they would climb onto.
Thanks to the dragon being able to fly up the top platform, Skálmöld being able to use her Blink Dagger to get up there, and Nithgrea using her wing to fly to the top as well. The party manage to start of the fight quite well, and they ultimately manage to defeat the water genie.

Zelifarn the bronze dragon if very thankful for their help and allows the party to take with them any bronze scales they can find lying around in the cave.

The party left Zelifarn after receiving some of his scales and made their way towards the location where they were told the vault entrance should be.
On their way there they found multiple marks of The Black Viper.

After a knock on the tower's front door they are invited inside by a guard after some persuasion. Then after some waiting they are greeted by Eszvele Rosznar while she keenly ejects some noise guild representatives off her property.

The party and Eszvele engage in conversation trying to hide their secrets from eachother, but Eszvele quickly drops the charade and encourages the party to do the same.
The party is still suspicious but they manage to strike a deal, Eszvele would recieve 1/3rd of the treasure in return for her help and showing the party where the vault entrance is (and to not tell anyone else).
She leads the party down to the entrance of the vault and shows them they need 3 keys after which Eszvele proposes to join the party to find the rest of the keys. They agree to let her join, still quite suspicious of her.

The party makes their way towards Xoblob's shop in search of a beholder eyestalk. On their way there they encounter a young nobleman dying on the street, seemingly being killed by a monstrous beetle bursting from his chest as a servant watches over him. They found out from the panicked servant sitting next to him that the dead boy's name is Aaron Littlehorn. Apparently he found this scarab on the floor of the auction hall just a few minutes ago.
A wealthy looking gnome rushes outside due to the loud screaming. This gnome, Nabulee El Jasafir, owner of Nabulee's Bazaar of the Extraordinary in front of which the young nobleman just died tries to convice the nobleman's servant to not tell Lord Littlehorn anything about the scarab. He then invites the party inside of his establishment where he drops his disguise to show his true identity, Xoblob.

Xoblob tells the party about what happened and explains that he uses this alter-ego and auction house to sell "worthless junk" to people with a lot of money so he can keep buying the actual important purple items he needs.
He also tells them that apparently the scarab is an item from his vault, and he is the only person in the world who can access this vault. He even goes out of his way to show everyone the entrance to his vault and how no one but him can enter. There is also a strong anti-magic barrier in place around the vault entrance. 
Xoblob also explains that he's been home the whole day except for the auction that just happened about an hour ago. He also claims to not have seen or spoken anyone before the start of the auction. The party does not get the feeling that he's lying.

The party also interrogates his two servants one who tells them that Mr. Nabulee had a visitor earlier today and the other who mentions having seen Mr. Nabulee running through the street earlier this morning wearing strange bloody clothing. Xoblob firmly denies that any of this happened. The party gets the feeling that both sides are speaking the truth.

The person Nabulee apparently met earlier this morning was his old friend Ectobius Rex. Together with Xoblob they make their way to Ectobius' house. Once they arrive they are invite in by Ectobius and guided to the atrium. The party start questioning Ectobius about what he was doing earlier today. They quickly notice that something is strange about him, but can't put their finger on exactly what it is. Cracuta flat out asks Ectobius if he's magical after using his Magic Awareness by which Ectobius responds by standing up and throwing a chair at Cracuta. A fight starts. Xoblob ends up killing "Ectobius" with a hunger of hadar spell, his body being ripped apart and mangled. 
Upon inspection of the body, Quertex concludes that this body more resembles a construct than a humanoid or an undead. It's most likely a Flesh Golem.

Upon trying to leave the room to investigate further, the party is ambushed by Specters floating down from the chimney.