21. Remember to Forget

I will remember to remember to forget you forgot me

Treasure

Summary

After knocking out the woman he was chasing in a theater, Veldrin made a quick escape and ducked into an alleyway to enter the sewers. He followed them back towards Trollskull Alley, where he tied up his captive and headed home to await the others with Grick, who was there tending bar. Searching the woman, Veldrin found some gold and a strange oblong stone with three unblinking eyes in one side of it. Although inert, it seemed to emanate a strange magical presence and Veldrin had the uncanny feeling that the eyes were somehow looking at him.

Grick was now feeling much better after his dip in the muck during his previous outing, but was still taking some downtime to recover. Grick noticed that it was a rather slow day for the tavern, with only a couple of the local regulars soaking in their cups. A courier delivered a small box to Grick, after determining he was one of the owners of the tavern. Grick put the box away for later, to examine once his fellows had returned from whatever adventure they were currently on. A short time later, a couple of young, off-duty Watch guards came in to drink and started to chatted with him. It seems they’d heard rumors about a demon ‘haunting’ the alley. They were intrigued by the idea and hoped Grick had some knowledge of it. Grick was raring to take on a demon where one might be found, but was surprised to hear one was near his own home. The guards asked him about his fellow owner and compatriot - the wizard Hamidal. Wary of magic users, they suggested maybe he was a demon himself, or had used some of his dark magic to summon one. Grick wasn’t totally convinced by this, but they did cause him to think it over as a possibility. At least until Veldrin showed up and shamed them for placing such blame at his feet simply for being a magic user. Chastised by him, they sheepishly finished their drinks and took off, leaving Grick and Veldrin to converse and catch up on recent events.

The rest of the party were still in the alley where they had just defeated a group of bugbears. Hamidal brought up the fact that bugbears were a rather rare sight in the city and was confused how they’d gotten in in the first place. They didn’t appear to have any disguises or kit that would make it easy for them to be there. The other party members agreed that it was indeed strange, but they all decided it was better to make themselves scarce, leaving the bodies in the alley, than to wait for the Watch to arrive and have to explain the situation.

Speaking of the Watch, they seemed to be occupied a few blocks over, in the direction Veldrin was last seen running, if the Watch whistles were any indication. They decided to head in that direction to see what was happening. Making his way into the loose crowd that had formed outside the theater, Hamidal used his ability to read lips to see that what appeared to be the theater manager was gesticulating and animatedly explaining to the Watch captain that a black man had come into his theater and beaten a white woman, only to throw her over his shoulder and escaped. The party assumed this was Veldrin and that his most likely (if not smartest, with a captive in tow) destination would be the Manor.

On their way home, the party heard a broadsheet crier saying something about Trollskull Alley. Intrigued by the mention, they purchased the paper and looked to see what it had to say. It gave a lurid account of a demon that was said to be killing people in and around Trollskull Alley. It burnt a crowd of people, killing a group of innocent civilians with its firey breath, and murdering at least a dozen people in the basement of a building along the alley. No one knew why it was killing people in the alley, or who its next victim might be, and the Watch was (predictably) mum on the topic, but the rag promised to update the public on the dangerous creature should it show itself again.

The party finally reunited back at the tavern, Veldrin asked Footsteps to assist him with something. On their way down to the sewer, Footsteps used his newfound hat of disguise to become Hamisteps - the creature that looks like Hamidal, but sounds like Footsteps. They attempted to get their captive to give up the details of the stone and what she was doing with it, but she was reticent - even after Hamisteps threatened to eat her feet. She insisted that they let her go to complete her mission of delivering the stone, and that if they kept it everyone involved was guaranteed to die. When probing her about the stone they had found on her, Hamidal found that her thoughts were clouded on the subject - she tried hard to remember something about it but kept coming up to a blank wall in her own mind. Hamidal was able to determine that some kind of memory manipulation had gone on - this wasn’t something natural or normal that she was experiencing. He felt that some kind of high level magic was involved in erasing the thoughts from her memory.

Not feeling like they’d had a sufficient answer to their questions, they decided to bring the real Hamidal in to use his mind tricks on her. That proved more effective, with her eventually caving to the combination of mind reading and intimidation. She was named Vevette Blackwater. She is a courier for the Zhentarim - though she didn’t say which faction. She was tasked with delivering the stone to the Yellowspire Tower in the Castle Ward. The tower was known to Hamidal because of its distinct color, but he wasn’t sure of the current occupants as it was being remodeled within after a recent vacancy. Vevette still insisted that they would be foolish to try and mess with the people she was involved with, and that their only safe recourse was to let her have the stone and to let her complete her delivery of it. Anything else, she again insisted, would lead to everyone involved being killed.

Given much to think about, the trio went back to the tavern to talk over the situation with Aradain and Grick. Veldrin showed the stone he had found to them, and Hamidal decided to go off into the corner to identify it while the others discussed the situation. Hamidal wasn’t able to determine much from the read of the item. It was definitely a powerful magical item - a bearer who had attuned to it would be immune to charm or fear effects and it allowed them to cast the legend lore spell on a limited basis. He felt there was more buried in the item, but he couldn’t quite identify what. He told the party of his findings, placing the stone on the table, and they began to discuss what the fate of the stone should be and who would be best to handle it. After handling it himself, Grick got a feeling that there was something magical and alive with the stone, and he felt he’d best be able to resist any mental effects it tried to place on him. Hamidal was not so sure, feeling he was better accustomed to using magic items.

While they began to debate, City Watch guards came into the tavern with Hyustus Staget at their lead. Veldrin snuck out the back door at the sight of them, and Hamidal pocketed the stone. They party had last seen Hyustus at the Zhentarim warehouse where they had met Footsteps for the first time. Hyustus, rather apologetically, told the party that their presences was required at the local Watch station. The party was a bit taken aback by being summoned such, but Hyustus impressed upon them that a certain ‘faceless lord’ had told him to retrieve the party and that he was authorized to use force, if necessary, but as they were not under arrest he did not want to resort to that option. The party eventually relented and followed him and his guards back to the station, with Veldrin stealthily following, where they were led into a meeting room that contained a few chairs, a table, and not much else… other than a Masked Lord in full regalia.

The Masked Lord questioned the party about their recent exploits. It turned out that he knew quite a bit about their recent activities, including those they thought were without notice by any interlopers. He asked them at length about their search for treasure and what they’d discovered in tracking it down. They showed him the letter signed ‘Jarlaxle’, which the Lord inspected and then pocketed. They gave an account of their investigation and told the Lord of their encounter with drow from the Bregan D’aerthe, whom they believed were ultimately behind the false maps. After letting them know that they were watched, and to what extent, and learning more about what they knew of the situation with the treasure, the Lord let them go without any further trouble.

Shaken by this assault on their privacy Hamidal went back home to search for any signs of magical scrying, clearing the place room by room. Also worried about the possible corrupting influence of the magical stone they’d found, he safely hid it away until they’d had a chance to discuss it further. Pulling the party into a room he’d previously inspected, he told them he had safely stowed it until they had come to an agreement about what to do with it. Some of the party felt this went too far, and that it might be a sign that Hamidal had already been unduly influenced by the stone, hiding it somewhere he knew but no one else did. Hamidal made the case that he was simply attempting to keep it safe and unable to influence anyone’s decision while they decided the matter, but things grew heated as they debated what to do about the situation. They briefly discussed various options of what should be done with the stone, with suggestions of one of them holding onto it to see what powers it held, or perhaps delivering it to Vevette’s intended recipient to see what was at the end of that dark trail. There was some concensus that the party was perhaps not meant to have the stone at all and that it should be turned over to some authority, such as the Watch. But Hamidal pointed out that he thought that course of action would lead to the stone falling into the hands of the Masked Lord they’d just met, who was obviously watching over them, with unknown consequences - he didn’t trust the motives of this unknown person, regardless of their position of power. And so they sat, mulling over their choices and questioning each other’s motives, awaiting Veldrin’s return to take a vote on what they should do.

When Grick discovered that they had a prisoner held in the sewers below, he was stricken with guilt over her plight, bound and gagged in the disgusting sewer, so he had the party deliver her to the cellar below the bar instead, where he plied her with lotions for her skin that he left for her in a little basket. She waits there to discover her fate.

Yay! Team Awesome!