3. And the man in the back said everyone attack...

And the man in the back said everyone attack and it turned into a ballroom blitz

Encounters

Level: 1

Summary

Our heroes were cooling their heels in the Yawning Portal awaiting their next call to action when a fight broke out between some thugs and a female half-orc a few tables over. They decided to step in when the thugs moved in on her, drawing their swords. When things were starting to get desperate for the thugs, they were saved by the… screams of the drunk down the well. It seems some giant botflies had found a nice warm place to implant their larvae - inside the skin of a troll. Due to the troll’s regeneration, this wasn’t working out so well for either party and the troll was driven mad with swatting at the pests, and attempted escape by climbing up the side of the well. It was at this point that Durnan got involved - trolls don’t bode well for a bar.

Seeing the changing of the tides, and the distraction of the troll, the thugs fled the bar. With Durnan’s swift sword in play, the troll went down pretty quickly, but Aradaine was struck by the last fly before it was taken down. Luckily, his doctor friend was able to extract the larva it implanted without much fuss. As thanks for helping to kick out some thugs as well as fighting off the troll and its attendant flies, Durnan excused the party’s tab for the evening.

Now well into their cups, the party was approached by a gentleman named Volo, an author of some renown in the city. He’d gone out drinking two nights prior with a friend of his, Floon Blagmaar, but he had not heard from him since. He gave each of the heroes 10 gp with a promise of 100 gp each on their return with Floon. The party agreed to start the search the next morning after they’d slept off their drink.

On their way to the Skewered Dragon, the bar in the Docks Ward where Floon was last seen, the party came upon a crime scene being watched over by a few members of the City Watch. Bodies littered the narrow side street and a few human covered in blood sat upon the curb awaiting a Watch wagon. With some deft persuasion skills the party was able to convince the Watch guards to have a look around - warning them that the Rot Pox might still be present. With a little further convincing they were allowed to quickly/cursorily interrogate the remaining thugs.

It was determined that the thugs were working for the Black Network and had had mortal combat with a rival gang of Xanathars. Under threat of violence and a ‘blessing’ of Beshaba on of the thugs relented to questioning and one gave up the location of one of their gang’s warehouses up on Candle Lane that seems a promising lead in the search for Floon. Grick noticed a rather peculiar little shop, the Old Xoblob Shop - with a purple frontage and a stuffed beholder in its window. Through purple smoke, past purple shelves, they found the proprietor, Old Xoblob, a deep gnome with a white beard puffing a pipe. He was glad to trade his purple goods with the party and arranged for the purchase of the Pipes of the Sewers in two days time. Grick also purchased some of the items on his dungeoneering list, all purple of course.

And so the party headed out towards Candle Lane, in search of a warehouse marked with a flying snake…

Image by Scott Murphy