25. For the rowers keep on rowing

There’s no knowing where we’re rowing or which way the river’s flowing

Encounters

Summary

Faced with a patrol of guards bearing down on them from the other side of the docks, and the dilemma of having to protect a bunch of Xanathar thugs while they smuggle goods into the sewers, Hamidal donned his doctor’s mask and tried to run the ‘rat plague’ ploy, sending Merle into the fray as a diseased sailor. The Watch guards were not so easily swayed by his story, however, and insisted that the thugs stop what they were doing and submit to a search. Grick tried to convince the guards that they were actually in the right. It didn’t appear as if they were persuaded by him, but his flailing about at least kept them distracted for a moment as the thugs slowly crept along behind the party towards the sewers.

Veldrin approached the guard captain to get his ear and began telling him their story - they were working undercover for a Masked Lord and it would be in the best interests of the Watch if they were to turn a blind eye to what they were witnessing. At first the Captain was hesitant to believe what Veldrin said was true, but Veldrin made a convincing case. Grick stood by his side to give support and swear on his oath as a paladin that what Veldrin said was the whole truth. The unlikely pairing of the two made the guard second guess himself - he swore he’d remember Veldrin’s face, and that if he were pulling some kind of trick he’d make him pay for it, but otherwise didn’t try to stop the rest of the thugs transporting goods.

Shava gave a whistle to the party once everyone else had gone down, and they followed her into the sewers. Along the way she told the party that the tiefling leading the group was Robier, a lieutenant within the Xanathar Guild, someone she was trying to impress. She told the party they were all undercover now and needed play it cool and not give anything away. As they went deeper into the sewers, thugs with crates started taking side branches away from where the party was headed. They continued this way until only Robier and three of the thugs remained.

They came to an intersection and Robier thanked Shava for her assistance, and introduced himself to the party. He told Shava he was sorry, but he’d selected another gang to help with his mission. He said it was too important a mission to leave to an untested gang, and the one he’d selected, the Gargoyle Gang, was a group he knew the exploits of and trusted to get the job done. Shava was very upset, but didn’t push the point too far. As Robier left down one of the side tunnels, Hamidal noticed a Xanathar symbol etched into the tunnel wall and realized that it led towards the hideout they’d previously raided when they found Floon.

Following Shava back in the direction of the docks, she told the party there wasn’t much time, that she’d hoped Robier would pick them but that she’d otherwise planned for such a contingency. She didn’t want to give too many details, but told the party they had to come with her onto a ship that would get them where they needed to go. The party was hungry for more details, but followed along anyway, with a promise from Shava that she’d tell them more of what was going on once they were under way.

Shava led the party to a small ship on the docks crewed by some surly looking dwarves. Shava paid them for the passage and they quickly got underway. She told the party that she couldn’t yet give out all of the details of the mission, but that the next part of it lay in stopping the Gargoyle Gang from being able to join it so that Robier would take them in their stead. The Gargoyle Gang was currently hanging around Skullport, and so that was where they were headed, by way of the south sea caves off the western coast of Mount Waterdeep.

Most of the party had heard some rumors of Skullport over the years - a lawless city hidden deep beneath the City of Splendors. A vast cavern full of pirates, mercenaries, and other ne’r-do-wells. But the rumors also said the place had collapsed when the Spellplague came - anything that once might have been there was now long gone. Except, of course, for Veldrin, who knew that the place existed because he’d been there. He was excited to return to the city - his home away from home. Shava told the party there was more than one way to get there, but they would take time they didn’t have, or draw too much attention. Their only choice now, she said, was to go right in the front door.

Hamidal had not found his sea legs. While he had thought he’d seen the worst of it out in the open water, it only got worse once he saw that the ‘front door’ was a small rocky crack in the side of the mountain choked with ship wrecks and debris. The crew successfully navigated it, though, without dashing anyone to the rocks. Inside was a large cavern, full of more shipwrecks, craggy rocks, and the loud sound of crashing waves. That cavern led to a series of others, leading deeper under the mountain until the sound of the waves was far behind and the water grew calmer.

It was then that Grick noticed a woman in the water floating alongside the boat. She asked for his help, so Grick searched for a rope to throw to her. Hamidal did her one better and floated her up out of the water using a spell. It was then that they realized this was no ordinary woman, but a sea hag. She cackled menacingly as one of the seamen raised the alarm to alert the rest of the crew. As they battled her, humanoid sea creatures covered in seaweed and smelling of the rotting deep crawled over the gunwale to engage the party and crew. Hamidal didn’t have time to react to the sea hag casting a spell and she struck down him, Gozrien, and Merle with a lightning bolt that burned its way across the deck. Hamidal was barely holding on, but the substance that had once given Merle’s body life had now taken it away again.

Aradaine stepped to the side of the ship and unleashed a cone of fire which burned the hag to a crisp, but that was hardly the end of their worries. One of the crewman had fallen unconscious earlier in the battle, only to be pulled over the side by another hag. She sunk her claws deep into his chest and pulled him into the dark depths. Another hag tried to do the same for a crewman near the aft of the ship, and although she mortally wounded him, he was able to limp away from the gunwale to join the protection of his captain.

The sea creatures did not go quietly. Once they were all taken down, everyone held their breath for a moment, listening to the quiet lap of water against the hull and the distant hum of waves crashing on rocks far behind them. The tension eventually fled as they realized the hags had retreated with what bodies they had claimed and would not be returning. The ship sailed on. Eventually they reached another large cavern, it’s wall lost in the murky gloom. As they travelled across it they could see a regular shape form across the dark water - a wall stood some ten feet above the surface of the water holding the water back from the rest of the cavern. Built upon the wall was a humongous crane, like those seen on the docks of Waterdeep to lift cargo from the belly of a ship, but magnified many times in size. However, it looked like it had seen better days. Wet rot and missing planks and columns rendered it obviously nonoperational.

The captain of the ship drew up some ways from the wall and told them this was as far as he’d go. The passengers were not too thrilled with this idea, and Shava took exception, saying she’d paid for transport to Skullport. The captain explained that with the hoist not working, it was impossible for his ship to go any further, that they’d have to take passage with another ship - to which he pointed to the water where a large rowboat approached.

Before climbing aboard the rowboat, Hamidal made an offer of 200gp to the captain for the body of one of the slain crewman for use in one of his ‘experiments’. Grick too exception to this idea and counter-offered 250gp for him to instead bury the man. The captain was only too happy to accept this offer, essentially doubling his fee, and thus more than making up for the loss of his crewman. Having a change of heart on the matter, Hamidal offered him another 10gp to dispose of Merle’s body in the same way, to which the captain agreed.

Safely aboard the rowboat and headed towards the wall, the dwarf who stood at the prow told the party they’d have to pay 50gp each for the passage. Shava reluctantly gave up the gold to them after seeing the looks from the party. The bow sidled up to the wall, where ropes and ladders were thrown down for everyone to climb up. The rowers attached ropes to the boat and dwarves upon the wall used hand winches to pull the boat to the top. While the party waited, they lugged the boat to the other side of the wall and hooked it up to another set of winches. That side looked over a 100ft drop to another lake of water far below. Everyone loaded up onto the boat and was slowly lowered down to the deeper part of the cavern.

As they rowed out of the cavern and into a smaller underground river the current began to pick up. Before being completely whisked away, the boat all of a sudden became surrounded by a bubble of seawater and they suddenly shrunk down in size to become a fraction of their original length. Shrunken and wrapped in a bubble of air and water, the ship sped down through the cavern at a dizzying speed, kept from dashing themselves against the rocks or being succumbed by the rapids only by their small size and the protective barrier around the small boat.

After a half an hour of this crazy trip, the boat shot out into a enormous cavern, returning to its original size, and the bubble surrounding them bursting. They hung there in the air for a moment before they began slowly descending. Below them they could see the twinkling lights of the city layered upon one another. A city rose from the darkness, built into the sides and backs of the cavern, into and around huge stalactites and stalagmites. As they landed in a pool of water at the base of the waterfall they had shot out from, they saw the walls of a fortress rise before them on an island outside the city, bristling with guards and ballistae.

Once on the water, the rowers moved the small boat north towards the docks of the city…