5. Our Castle and Our Keep

Our house in the middle of our street, was our castle and our keep.

Encounters

Summary

Taking down the barricades the duergar and thug had put up, Kael found that the room behind the door was an old sewer shaft leading into the deeper dark. The reason for the barricade was that a gray ooze had slithered its way up and out of said shaft.

After defeating the ooze, the party explored further, finding what appeared to be a hatch into the basement of a surface building, as well as a secret door leading to a hallway further into the lair. Down that hallway they found a large, well-lighted room that held their quarry - Floon, as well as a few other surprises.

Floon was currently in the middle of being interrogated by a half-orc wearing wizard’s robes under the watchful eye of an Illithid, perched upon a pedastal silently stroking his pet… brain with legs. The party was rather wary of joining combat with such a formidable foe, but charged forward anyway in order to save Floon.

Luckily, the mind flayer gave them little notice and immediately bolted for a side room, leaving its intellect devourer pet behind to harry the party along with the half-orc. By the time they were able to take down those two, the mind flayer had already disappeared into a portal in the other room. It stayed open for a moment, but they decided not to take the risk of entering it and stayed to search the premises further and tend to Floon.

They found their way back out of the sewers and returned to the Yawning Portal once again, where they delivered Floon to his friend Volo. Volo was overjoyed to see his friend again, and relatively unharmed. He sheepishly told the party that he had promised them a large reward and fully intended to pay it, but he had yet to receive the cash advance he was expecting (any day now!) on his next book.

In lieu of a cash payment, he offered the party real estate - he had come into ownership of a building in the North Ward. It was a bit run down, and some say it was haunted, but with a little effort it could be turned into a home for the party as well as a lucrative business. In good repair, it was more than worth the prize he had promised to them - although not as liquid as gold dragons. The party agreed to his deal and worked with him to transfer ownership to them as a group.

The tavern was dusty. The decor a bit out of date. The roof was leaky. But overall the building was in fairly good repair - nothing that a little gold and manual labor couldn’t fix. Upon inspection, it turned out that the tavern was indeed haunted - some kind of ghost still lived there, haunting the space behind the bar. With a little trial and error they came to realize the ghost would gladly serve them drinks from the (now dry) taps and move coins into the box behind the counter. They decided to use this as a theme for the tavern itself and began working on repairs while they moved into the rooms in the manor above.

While setting up his room, putting books onto his shelves and setting up his desk just right, Hamidal heard a tapping on his window. Upon opening it, a small paper bird flew in and landed next to him. Upon picking it up, he found that it was a piece of paper that contained a written note, as well as a set of opera tickets. The note said that they were invited to join Mirt, a well known merchant and political figure in Waterdeep, to join him in his box at the opera to discuss some matters.