18. I’m going down the drain, again

I’m going down the drain, again

Summary

Finding themselves in another possibly sticky situation, what with a wounded and semi-conscious cobbler, Ian Forskful, and an unconscious drow would-be assassin, the party decided to retreat to the relatively ‘safe’ sewer tunnels to follow up on what had just happened to them. Hamidal kept his familiar friend on the street level to observe the Watch presence in the area. Ian handed over a few extra copies of the maps that he’d stashed away, wanting nothing to do with them now that his life was in danger from them.

With the drow still unconscious, they decided to finish interrogating Ian, who was now less reluctant to give up details of his recent doings. He told them that he had no idea of who was hunting him, but he felt it was for the treasure maps he was selling. Another of the maps was on the person of the drow, found while removing his weapons. He told them of a new operation working in the Docks recently - drow smugglers. He felt that there might be some connection there with his near death, but didn’t have much in the way of details. The only help he could provide was to check with a paper merchant - a shop called Serpentil and Sons. He had previously brought one of the maps there to have it examined in order to determine it’s relative worth and believability.

After allowing Ian to return to his shop, they woke the drow assassin and questioned him about his doings. He was circumspect, and interacted at length with Vendril in Undercommon. They learned that he was working for a female drow in a small smuggling ring. He refused to give up her details, but told Veldrin that she had previously worked with the Bregan D’aerthe but had a falling out with them and was looking to earn her way back in.

Veldrin briefly described the Bregan D’aerthe to the rest of the party - a mercenary company of drow with a powerful and charismatic leader. They were not someone to be trifled with, but their possible presence in the City of Splendors was noteworthy in itself. The drow disavowed any knowledge of their actual presence in the city, only having been involved in this smaller coterie.

The party now had the drow to deal with. No one seemed keen on ‘dispatching’ him, despite his attempted assassination. Veldrin understood that he was only doing his job, and neither Grick nor Aradaine were keen to kill an unarmed and bound captive. Veldrin leaned towards letting him go, but Grick was determined to bring him to justice. Returning to Ian’s stall, Grick tried convincing him that he’d need to act as a witness, being the main victim of the crime. Ian was not interested in talking to the Watch, so Hamidal disguised himself as Ian and told Grick he’d be glad to talk to the Watch. Unaware of the switch, Grick, Aradaine and “Ian” made their way to the local watch station with the would-be assassin in tow.

Footsteps and Veldrin wanted nothing to do with the watch, or this whole proceeding and so headed to the local tavern for some refreshment. They didn’t have to go far before finding ‘The Ship’s Prow’, a tavern and inn built from a literal ship’s brow that jutted out into the intersection. They had a few drinks and talked things over, getting to know one another a little better while waiting for the rest of the party to finish up with turning over the drow.

At the Watch station, the Captain there was at first a little wary of the story Grick told in a rambling fashion - drow assassins, working for a Lord, treasure maps. It was all a bit much to take in, and so he set to work trying to unravel exactly what they were on about. After showing some proof that they were who they said they were, and hearing “Ian” give his side of the tale, the Captain was amenable to their evidence. Seeing that Ian was the injured party and that he was anxious to get back to his shop to settle his affairs, the Captain let him go. “Ian” turned the next alley and reemerged as Hamidal, who waited outside the station for his fellows to finish their testimony.

After obtaining all of their names and information (and Grick ready to volunteer information for the rest of the party, which the Captain seemed to already be aware of) the Captain took custody of the drow and let Grick and Aradaine go, whereupon they met up with Hamidal. The three now reunited, they went peering into local taverns until they came upon Footsteps and Veldrin imbibing ale at the counter of the Ship’s Prow.

Without much further to go on, the party decided to check in with the bookmaker Ian had mentioned to see if he could offer any further information. Serpentil and Sons was a small but well stocked shop holding a variety of writing supplies. Hamidal entered first and made a purchase of a new, blank spell book. His transaction completed, they moved into asking about the treasure maps. Dwitt, the owner, said he didn’t recognize the map itself, but after a very thorough and careful inspection he noted that while the ink was a common squid ink, the paper itself was rare, coming from the Sussur tree, which only grows in the Underdark.

When asked if he sold any such paper, Dwitt said that they did stock it, but that it was rare that they sold any. It was a specialty paper that didn’t see much popularity. Thinking back he remembered selling a sheaf of the paper to a young human woman with bright red hair about four tendays prior. The description of the woman he gave made Footsteps immediately think of the bartender at the Ship’s Prow who matched such a description.

Red hair is uncommon but not entirely rare, so it wasn’t much to go on, but without any further clues the party decided to stake out the tavern and its barkeep. Nothing happened all through the day as they nursed their ale cups and tasted the various victuals the inn had to offer. After closing they set to watching as the various staff cleaned up and closed the tavern for the evening. The barkeep was the last person in the tavern, but she never ended up leaving. Instead, a few shadowy figures came down the lane and let themselves into the tavern and disappeared into the back.

Hamidal asked Gozrien to scout the bar and see what he could find. Once inside, the tavern was quiet and dark. He went into the kitchen and further on into the storage room, finding a door into the back alley behind the tavern - and what appeared to be a trap door hidden under a basket. Telling the party of this discovery, they entered the alley to make their way inside the back of the tavern.

Footsteps cautiously moved into the storage room, peeking into the kitchen to see no one was there. He carefully moved the basket aside to view the hatch hiding beneath it, missing that it was trapped. A catch under the basket clicked and gas began to pour into the room. It made Footsteps rather queasy, but they were able to open the hatch and move into the room below it.

The room appeared to be a fairly nondescript basement storage area - a few dusty crates, boxes and barrels, an empty writing desk, and a few unlit torches were its only furnishings. But Footsteps noticed a trail in the dust that led to the blank north wall. He easily found a hidden door in the wall that led into a sewer tunnel. To the west, the tunnel led to a pool covered by an iron grate. Examining the passage to the south, Footsteps heard snoring coming from an alcove above the pool. He quietly moved forward down the tunnel and heard voices talking from somewhere around the bend where the tunnel split.

With the rest of the party following behind discretely, Grick moved forward towards Footsteps making quite a bit of noise in his full plate. A voice from above told him to stop. Everyone else stuck to the walls, freezing in the shadows and trying not to be seen by whomever they had just awoken. The guard was still hidden in the shadows of the alcove, but could be seen holding something in his hand pointing it towards Grick…