More Notes from Nihiloor's Personal Items
Relayed by Dhann on 25th of Eleint, in the afternoon.
Nihiloor's Journal:
"A thick book in Deep Speech that appears to be some sort of diary or journal."
Nihiloor's Lair: Does not mention where he came from. But we know for whatever reason he and the Elder Brain were fleeing wherever that was. The story is that his ordered life ended very abruptly and switched over to one of constant travel.
Nini's lair is an old wizard's lair and Nini had a teleportation crystal that was the secret to gaining entrance. After settling down in Waterdeep, he decides this is where he will install his set of crystals.
Is there a distinction between the green crystals in Maran's lab and the purple ones in the teleportation chamber? The green crystals are described as the delivery mechanism for the poison. He does not describe what is on the other end, although he mentions having Xanathar's goons install the other end of that and the goons were unaware.
Mentions of Maran: Thissiel was the main contact with Bran and that's how Nihiloor connected with the oldest Blackwood. He says that Bran was "a fool of a boy" for talking payment after the delivery of Maran "a gentleman's agreement."
He talks about keeping Maran awake through chemical or magical means while he was working on the poison. "Boosting him up". There doesn't seem to be any other magical effects on Maran. It was purely just Nihiloor's high charisma that allowed him to sway Maran to do his bidding.
The Timetable: The timetable for poisoning the city was within days of the Maybersitters stopping his plans. He talked about the fact that everything was installed and Maran coming along sped up his ability to move the plan forward. The plan was to infect most of Waterdeep with something that addled their brains so they would be easier to control. We know there are still some green crystals somewhere in Waterdeep still accessible and connected to the poison in his Lair.
Nihiloor's Lab Notes:
“Little scraps of paper, little notes, drawings, diagrams, tables..”
They are clearly notes about the unfortunate experiments and research being done on the people we found in that lab and the prison. The man that bled out in the chair was described as simple and not knowing much and it was clear Nihiloor was trying to figure out what in his brain caused that condition. The man did not speak, he wasn't verbal and that's why he was selected. Nihiloor dug around there but was unable to do so.
No obvious mention of Maran as part of the experiments.
There is mention of the female prisoner and that "the surgery went well, awaiting the results." No description of what the surgery was. The man and the woman were a couple and the target was the Man, the woman was kept as a convenience. We believe the man and woman were Mican and Erran (Half-elf).
The other experiments were mainly poking around in the brain to understand what makes things tick. Figure out how to best apply the poison and who it was best applied to. The poison was not the main focus of the research but looked at as an additional element that they could use in the research.
There are notes about the brains that go in the library in the basement. The brains in the library seem to be people of higher intelligence or skill, like musical talent or ability to communicate. Some immediately went to feed the Elder Brain, others were stored for research and/or food for later. Over a period of however long Nihiloor was in Waterdeep, he'd been collecting the brains.
Nihiloor's Ledgers:
"Ledger of suspiciously mundane transactions (e.g. 250 chairs sold to red man 30,000gp, 15 candlesticks acquired from Star (22,500gp) and so on"
The Ledgers have code names for both the products being sold and bought and code names for all the purchasers as well. Bookkeeping is almost all selling and acquiring of magical items and trading in less than legal things. It seems he was actually buying and selling from the Zhents to the Xanathar Guild, back and forth. It seems like he was basically working both sides and skimming what he needed off of the top in order to fund what he was doing. This wealth he had amassed over several years working as an in-between of the two. Mindflayers are not known for keeping up with treasures, so all of the fund Nihiloor was gathering was clearly in the service of restoring his Elder Brain to its greater glory.
Nihiloor's Map Notebook:
"Notebook was written in Deep Speech with notes and illustrations. Symbols for Zhentarim guild, maps of several hideouts and their floorplans including the fishery, etc."
This notebook contains sketches of maps of Waterdeep, with notes as to specific stores or points that were important to Xanathar’s Guild. There are also quite a number of spots marked with the Zhenterim symbol. He was clearly keeping track of both sides. There’s no mention of his purpose for doing so.
Ely has copied these blueprints & maps of the city with the specifically marked locations.
"The copy of Nihiloor's map is superb. You feel very confident that you have transcribed all the important pieces and locations. At least three of the marked locations either you or someone on your team has already visited and confirmed to be Zhentarim or Xanathar locations as notated on the map so it appears to be pretty accurate. The other things you notice are: the eight Walking Statues of Waterdeep are marked on Nihiloor's map (and now, also on yours), Castle Waterdeep is marked, a substantial, round structure just northwest of Coin Alley in the south-westernmost corner of Waterdeep is also marked."