# D&D Waterdeep Dragon Heist (Chapter 2)

- [Adventure status](https://hackmd.io/@tanc/HkkIFPYUi)
- [Chapter 1](https://hackmd.io/@tanc/Hka--Bg8s)
- [Chapter 3](https://hackmd.io/@tanc/S1-equPVJx)

# Session 22 18/10/2023 (still Nightal 11th)

Laggo prepares for his performance as we approach the end of the day while the others try to think of creative ways to perform metagaming by asking philosophically tricky questions to the Stone of Golorr that might reveal the location of the Queen's gift. We therefore ask the stone the following:
""Show us the easiest way to get the present of a queen""
Unfortunately the stone cannot answer the question and goes silent, leaving us with a palmo di naso.

We therefore proceed with Laggo's performance,we see Floon, Vincent, the Harpist chick Cnat was hitting on,Remalia, and the 3 kids we met in Mistshore.

Remalia tells us that Laeral Silverhand, the open lady of Waterdeep, is an elf and she's lived for hundreds of years (Jalester works for her and is also among her closest servants), she was known as the Witch Queen of the North. She's no longer entitled to be called Queen, but she's still considered a Queen among her species.

Brodor notices a few insistent looks on the members of the Gombagnia, but they might just simply be curious. He then proceeds in the direction of the Yawning Portal to meet Jalester. In Trollskull Manor, the show finally begins, among a very diverse crowd not at all composed of just black dudes like the AI Generated pic might suggest.

Laggo's performance is totally insane and many boobies are flashed towards us. A lady pretending to be the the queen of Laggoland takes her panties off and throws them on the main stage.

Brodor cannot find Jalester at the Yawning Portal and decides to walk back to Trollskull, but as he steps outside he realises he's been followed. He tries to lose his tail but then sees 3 dudes approaching him.After a brief fight, he kills his assailants and proceeds back to the tavern. He tells us that he might have another contact to talk with the Queen instead of Jalester.

Cnat finally manages to convince Ramalia to perform sexual acts, keeping both socks on but taking one off before reaching climax. We are told that Reiner Neverember will leave the day after so our time to use him to unlock the entrance to the dungeon is scant.

### Nightal 12th

We decide to split, learning nothing from Brodor's misadventures last night. Brodor himself and Saveriovok head towards Blackstaff Tower to speak with Vajra. The others head to collect Reiner before he leaves town.

Vajra in the form of a firepit appears in front of our eyes. We decide to reveal that a family of nobles in Waterdeep is determined to awaken the demon Asmodeus before the end of the year. She takes this seriously enough to tell us that she'll intercede on our behalf, but she'll need evidence before acting. However, we won't be able to meet Lady Silverhand for another couple days. She also suggests that we join Force Grey should ourmeeting with the Open Lady end positively.

The rest of the crew has now reached Myrt's house, where Reiner is almost done packing. He reveals that his father tried to hide his money to avoid retaliation on his failed attempt to invade Laskan. He tells us that money belongs to Waterdeep, if found.

We reach the City of the Dead and head to the Brandat's Mausoleum with Reiner. The Trent opposes no resistance and we're able to enter the building. We barricade the door and explore the crypt, finding a couple inactive traps on the floor and a lower level that leads to a dead end. ONly it's an illusion, the wall at the end of the room can be stepped through , something Saveriovok testss scientifically by throwing a coffin through it. A shiny circlet appaers among the rotten bones, which we pick up. By using a system of mirrors, the panties and the stalker's eyeball we manage to finally open the secret metal door.

## Session 23 07/11/2023 (still Nightal 12th)

After entering the room, we see many glyphs of protection from fire. Behind the central column, that holds a bridge, there is a construct.


Cnat si fuma un paglino fuori dal portone di ferro prima di combattere

We manage to defeat the guardian, and then we realise our bruteforce approach could have been avoided by looking up, there is a medallion in the wall.
Jorg uses mage hand to pick it up, it is probably useless.


# Nightal 13th
We spend a lot of time in the vault, using complex solutions to simple problems.
Brodor discover an ancient statue of a Dwarven god, bearing a magical axe. He resists the urge to desecrate it by stealing, but luckily Saveriovok doesn't give a flying fuck and steal it.
At this point Brodor has to look the other way for the sake of the loot.

(reminder to give XPs for the Shield Guardian)

We manage to find a way forward and we enter a room with paintings that generate a weird fascination on a couple of our heroes. Saveriovok is particularly affected by this and the other guys need to carry him around to make him move forward. A new area of crumbling bridges presents itsels and our dream team resorts to the usual rope trick where they clumsily jump across gaps trying to avoid falling into the void. Saveriovok also snatches a battleaxe from the statue of a dwarven god, being instantly punished by Karma and getting badly burnt.

## Session 24 13/12/2023

Mentre il gruppo cerca di ispezionare le restanti porte, Brodor maledice Saveriovok per il suo furto dissacrante e un distratto Cnat nota uno strano liquido che secerne dal muro dietro di se.

Il mago lancia allora un sasso verso la parete e scopre che sasso batte forbice, forbice batte carta e carta batte l'ax.

Dopo un firebolt di controllo si scopre che una orrenda creatura liquamosa si annidiava tra le venature della parete, si tira iniziativa.
Il combattimento è dispendioso, tutti gli incantesimi di fuoco e perfino le torce del party vengono usate per bruciare i blob che fuoriescono dal muro, ma alla fine ce la si fa, anche se Brodor ora ha l'armatura della Deagostini.

Neverember figlio torna a trovarci e cade preda degli affreschi troppo belli, viene prontamente legato a una colonna e dimenticato lì.

Dopo uno short rest defaticante il party decide di sfondare la porta a sud con la spalla del monaco, al centro della stanza è presente un'incudine mentre sulle pareti altri affreschi del gran maestro Leonano DaVinci rappresentano Moradin il dio della forgia (da non confondere con Morradin, venerato in provincia di Rieti) intento a martellare sull'incudine, con la scritta "fai ricadere il martello e risuonare l'incudine" poi, su un'altra parete "che si innalzino i cuori e si vincano battaglie".


Scopriamo che il martello nell'affresco in realta' e' vero e lo facciamo cadere sull'incudine. Guadagnamo 15HP temporanei, un vantaggio da usare a cazzo (che il nano usa per ricordarsi la nota che segue) e siamo invulnerabili a 'frightened' fino a un riposo lungo.

**Nota:** Ci ricordiamo che la prima porta si era aperta con l'arrivo del nano, e concludiamo che possiamo aprire anche quella centrale nello stesso modo.

Nella stanza centrale troviamo delle armature vecchie e delle iscrizioni su Dumatoin, dio dei segreti (A secret never before told will part Dumatoin’s lips).

Laggo rivela il segreto di una strana relazione sessuale col suo ex capitano.

Sembra funzionare... si apre una botola con scale che vanno in giu' alla fine della stanza. Laggo salva la sessione again.. poi ci perdiamo nei prompt di pileri.

## Session 25 18/12/2023

We decide to descend the staircase, trying to erase the vivid images of Laggo the Captain Wanker from our heads.


It's dark as fuck downstairs, so we proceed with caution. A tall room stands ahead of us, with odd sunbeams shining on the floor.
The room is huuuge, and at the very end it's easy to recognise a pile of gold, with a dwarf standing next to it. He looks old as f* too, holding a fancy-looking quarterstaff with 2 swirling snakes carved into it.


How Cnat imagines the Dragon Dwarf

We ask the stone of Golorr to tell us more about this person and we are told he is the guardian to Neverember's gold, personally appointed by the old master of Waterdeep.

He holds the Dragonstaff of Ahghairon

, a legendary artefact that has the power of keeping dragons away from the area surrounding the holder. He sees us and we start a conversation, pushing Neverember's son ahead to make sure we have leverage.

Laggo rambles on and tries to seduce the dwarf with his smooth talking. We are told that he has been guarding Neverember's riches for the last 10-15 years and is very happy to keep doing so as long as his food (large gems) doesn't run out. We convene that fighting the dragon is foolish so we try to use our vast intelligence to outsmart him and get the gold through Reinar's lineage.


We decide to get teleported to Vajra's tower and as proof of us having met the dragon we are supposed to tell her "Tamik Gryfalcon" which is her father's name, this will make her realise we absolutely know the dragon. We leave a paper bird to the dragon so that he can let us know immediately if he's in danger by either the Cassalanter or the Xanathars.

The dragon performs an arcane ritual

that suddenly makes us appear in front of Blackstaff Tower. We realise an entire day has passed since we entered the dungeon.

# Nightal 14

We enter the tower and get an audition with Vajra straight away.

She greets us and asks if we have news (on what? fuck knows what she expects). We tell her about the dragon and she's thrown off completely, claiming that she needs to speak with the open lord about it. We ask for 2 Gryffinriders to be sent back to the entrance of the crypt while we use the Chamber of Spirit and Time

to recharge batteries within the space of 1h. As we step out of the room, the paper bird comes back which says "They have arrived, I'm under attack". We rush outside of the Tower, meeting the Griffyn riders


Lord Neverember

As we arrive at the crypt we find the Trent has been cut down but a dozen criminals have also died in the process. The other two trees have caught fire with magic. The entrance has been forced and corpses from both the City Watch and criminals lie all over the floor, but after a while the signs of the battle stop. It looks like the survivors of the battle, probably the bad guys, are trying to trick us as we proceed downstairs.


We proceed through the Vault, finding more signs of battle and a bunch of fuckers that we detonate with a fireball, easy peasy but how many of these mofos are down here?

We approach the entrance to the inner Vault where the dragon lies waiting...and out of nowhere a fucking mage start casting a damn fireball on us...

We fight tooth and nail through the Zentharim goons, risking our lives several times while performing very basic tasks like approaching the enemies. Whilst everyone is busy finding their dicks in their own pants, Saveriovok single-handedly kills a contingent of thugs before one of them could open a portal. Once the bloodbath is over, we enter the lowest level where the dragon appears to be minding his own business instead of being scrambling to defend the treasure. The fucker sent out the alarm when there was no immediate danger.

We decide to wait for the reinforcements and Laerel Silverhand storms in with the rest of the City Watch. We immediately start haggling with her to squeeze as much money as we can out of the guarded treasure, lobbing implausible requests to be made noblemen and seize real estate with baseless claims on the Cassalanter family. She of course snubs all our demands, and instead offers us 50kGC (10% of the 500k total) hidden in the crypt, a chance to be elected in the council of nobles if we bring in enough votes from camorristi, the opportunity to bring the Cassalanters to justice plus a magic object each from her armory.

We are however given the chance to exterminate Manchoon's Zentharims to secure a place in the Nobles' council and take out another enemy of this city.

## Session 26 15/01/2024

We decide to complete the portal with destination the Kolat Towers, and head there with our group, Varja and part of the soldiers they put to our disposal to fight the baddies.


On crossing the portal we find some monks, other scagnozzes and Urstul ready for combat.

 |

Ursul tried to walk away from us (pussyol').

We manage to eliminate all but Urstul, and questioned him with the help of Vajra.


Unfortunately, in front of the law we’re unable to perform our customary 'enhanced interrogation' tecniques.

He pledges to confess key information in exchange for a pact of immunity from death sentence (or life in prison).

We nick his magic light crossbow!

Info we get from Ursul about the towers:

- We are in the courtyard
- The towers can only be exited with magic unless the force fields outside is disabled with the rune in the North tower (6th floor) no idea how to use it
- The South tower has no door, while the North one does (from the courtyard).
- The South tower can only be accessed through the library on the North tower that has a passage to the second floor, then through a passage to the South tower
- On the 4th level of the North tower there are 3 mages constantly singing to entrap a demon which would beat the living shite out of everyone for no apparent reason
- On the 1st floor of the North Tower there gargoyles that look like regular status but ain't
- In some points of the towers there are invisible invisible stairs
- Some doors can only be opened with knock
- Somewhere in the South tower there's a portal to the dimension where Manshoon hides
- It appears the portal theat leads to Manshoon’s plane can only be activated with special rings, of which he has one (it’s one for each person that wishes to pass and inside the tower there should only be 2 more). One belonged to Agorn Fire (which we killed in the past - oopsy)
- Some whisper Manshoon has found a way to clone themselves, making his killing never guaranteed - no way to know whether he ever fully dies to his last copy
- It appears we destroyed the most (if not all) Zhentarim foot soldiers in the complex

We get a little walkthrough from Ursul about Manshoon believing that by getting full control over Waterdeep they'll do better for it and blah blah blah.. ideologic bullshit flows out of his face hole with very few bullshit breaks.

Confronted with the effort and challenge that may be involved in this whole dungeon, we consider appropriate digging ourselves the fuck out out under the force fields and just fleeting for the minute, to go count money, shake hands and become lords or whatever.

Urstul is taken to prison in Castle Waterdeep,

we have an appointment at Palace Waterdeep the day coming for an appointment with

### Lady Silverhand


(then the castle in a second time to interrogate our prisoner and whatnot).

Vajra suggests we go check the tavern to make sure everything is fine.

**Loot:** We identify the light crossbow as a light crossbow +1

# Nightal 15-16

we buy a copy of today's newspaper, the Cassalanther children disappeared Terenzio e Elzerina. There seems to be no mention of our company of heroes.

 

We walk to the Palace of Waterdeep and get recognised INSTANTLY so joke's on you "free press".

> (Representing the free press - owner of The Waterdeep Sun)

We are brought to the council of the 6 Masked Lords on top of Lady Silverhand. She starts recapping the swagger we're entitled to, a.k.a. 50k gold dragons, 1 magic object each and the chance to candidate one among us as a Masked Lord. The financial system already proves rotten, forcing us to deposit the cash in a current account with sub-par interest rates which won't beat inflation.

Laggo, slimy as fuck, offers to become a Masked Lord on behalf of our party, which will now have to side with Renzi at the next elections.



### Masked lords


We head to Castle Waterdeep to interrogate the prisoners, in particular Urstul. We meet Barnibus Blastwind again, who tells us one of the prisoners was found hanging from the ceiling.
We speak to Urstul, who tries to bring us on the Zentharim side and work for Manchoon. We decline for now, as we cannot trust this guy and don't want to compromise our relationship with the Force Grey. We get more info on the Grahlund family but it's nothing groundbreaking.


Our plan is to go to the Grahlund's, pretending Urstul is ready to sell them to the police unless they betray the Cassalanthers beforehand and take their possessions. Lady Grahlund appears interested in taking the other noble family out of the picture and increase their influence over Waterdeep. She claims more noble families will be more than willing to sell the Cassies and get rid of them for good.

### Our political plot in a nutshell:

We tell Gralhund the story that we need to make Ursul 'go quiet' for personal reasons (we said he holds something about us) although it cannot happen while he’s the main witness in the whole investigation about the attacks on the vault, the demon and all the rest.

We suggest her that if she outed the Casalanters while they are at their weakest, about their cult and all that, they could advance their initerests both by 'freeing up some space' at the upper floors, and also by allowing us to murk Ursul while the misdirection happens.

We are still unsure. In reality, we likely actually plan to take Ursul our own prisoner and arrange a meeting with Manshoon to see wag1, and in a second place (in case we do ineed become lords) to overtake ourselves the Casalanterns.

Eiether way, she seems to see no reason not to out the Casalanters and play them.

She said she’ll prepare a statement and see who else is willing to go with them, and when we get their paper bird we’ll arrange the meeting with Lady Silverhand.

We plan to take the glory for solving the case, Ursul’s life (or cooperation), the Casalanter’s titles and property and bloody revenge for Laggo on The Gralhunds.

### The contract with the bank

We get a lawer to review our contract to get our reward from Waterdeep.

In order to receive our reward of 50k, we have to pay a 5k deposit fee, a 2k annual fee and we cannot withdraw more than 5k monthly.

On top of that, the lawer takes a 0.1% of the amound to help us out (500g).

Meaning, we instantly lose 5.5K GC just for taking the fucking money.

# Nightal 17

A Grahlund's emissary shows up at our door, telling us they will give us access to the Cassalanthers' mansion to gather evidence of their dark rites. This will happen at the Symris festival, during the ball.
We decide to accept the invitation to the festival, giving out fake names such as Savin Uccio, Tanc Ereed, Regnad Evad, Lello Capriati and John Stavolta.

We choose a bunch of magical items as reward for our good deeds (see adventure status).

# Nightal 18-19

Managing the tavern
Organizing an event at Trollskull Manor

# Nightal 20 Simril celebration and ball at Cassalanter's

 


We approach the event through a long entrance full of trees and bustling party goers.

Once we meet the doorman, we introduce ourselves with our fake names invites and get in without much of an issue.

The outisde gate leads us within another cue into the inner entrance. We get in the villa.

The first room is a huge hall 25ft height (7m). The villa itself is three floors, the size of a palace. The main room is centered by a long scarlett carpet and chandeliers hanginf from the top. Live musin plays from the upstairs room. Lots of people are working to make the guests fed and the event a success. This room has an opened door on the north side that gives onto a large staircase, and an upper floor also guarded but high in traffic. Every once in a while you can see a guard about anywhere you look.

We get a drink and are informed we can basically go wherever we want as long as doors are open.

While talking to a party goer, Laggo notices a painting of the Casalantern family and notices Osvaldo, the third child amongst the other 2 children that passed away in mysterious cirumstances.

Laggo attempts some persuasion to know more about the 2 now missing children. The guy looks like a real fan of the family but no knowthing and thinkgs the whole thing is a fabrication of the mainstream media.

We decide to move upstairs to the ball room. It's a proper party. We notice a wooden mannequin that looks a lot like that construct we spotted in the past (the nimblewright) but a little more elaborate and dressed as a dancer. The floor is marble adorned with gold and silver mosaics. People are having some solid craic. Some aknowldge us but mostly people are busy doing their 'ting. Two guards watch the scene in perfect silence.


Cnat tries to find out more about the nimblewright, attracts the attention of some of the guests, so decides to break into conversation with a nobleman. Asks about drugs, or other forms of entertainment, while aside, and gets tipped on the fact that there may be some rituals happening elsewhere that they were not invited to. Cnat shows interested and gets pointed to a guest wearing a pig mask at a table, that should know more. As Cnat looks for him he disappears. Laggo joins upstairs and gets filled in the whole situation.

We decide to move to the upper floor (3rd). We immediately get blocked by guards and get told those are the private rooms of the Cassalanthers.

Cnat decides to use his brains and puts together his unique skills to become invisibile as well as flying the perimeter of the villa, discovering some mysterious rooms at the upper floors. Laggo tries his best to cover up for Cnat but the guards seem to be getting suspicious of his in-and-out the kitchen. Saveriovok catches a glimpse of the pig-headed noble, walking all the way down to the cellar and vanishing through what might very likely be a hidden entrance to another underground area.

In the meantime Cnat ventures all the way up the attic, finding some seriously dodgy stuff and perceiving what sounds like a demonic growl from behind a huge door. Would this constitute enough proof of the Cassalanthers' dark arts? He peeks through the keyhole to see a monstrous figure chained to the floor, growling and screaming unintelligibly. The David Copperfield of Waterdeep decides then to perform his last magic trick and disappears from the premises, making his way down to the window outside the kitchen. Brodor lets him in and he shares his valuable insights, then with the snap of his fingers produces a gold coin from behind Brodor's ear, what a powerful wizard!

Once we gather again, we leverage on the mage's invisibility to generate some confusion and sneak into the cellar without being seen.

We start wandering in what seems to be a normal basemenet of some ultra rich fucker's mansion: a wine cellar, big reserve of nice food and shit, expensive furniture and tapestry stocked away in case something upstairs goes out of fashion.

Jorg spots a divine symbol belonging to the God of Nobles, all scratched away. It is inscribed on a wall. We look more carefully and bingo! It's a secret door that hides a spiral staircase that descend even deeper into the underground!

It's getting very late now, probably the first hours of the morning.
Do we push forward (and downward) or do we try to fuck off and get back to the tavern (where we have to organize the party we announced for tomorrow!?)

# Nightal 21 Trollskull Tavern Party

We decide to go through the secrete entrance and we descend to the lower levels. Straight away we find dodgy creatures such as armors possessed by gas elementals and bearded devils, which we encountered in the past.


We fight through some baddies at the upper floor, uncovering what appears to be a cult of Asmodeus. After sowing destruction, we proceed to chase some cultists that ran away from the scene. We spot a ruby that is incastonated in a rock and a small passageway through an underground river.


Cnat and Jorg fall prey of the sunk cost fallacy and keep pushing through the tunnel in search of Hamas as they want to condemn them. Saveriovok, Laggo and Brodor remain behind without news of the duo for more than an hour.