Orphans & Organizations: session 12

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Mirt was the one at the door, with a big bundle under his arm and Vivi invited him in. We "introduced" him to Lif and briefly discussed our plans to open the bar. He brought the skull of a troll as a gift - the one we fought at the Yawning Portal! The skull reminds of how Gwen was instrumental to saving all our lives that night and we miss her...

Meanwhile, Zephyr charmed Mirt into accepting our offer of 10% ongoing profits in exchange for 500 gold. He asked if we're keeping the name Trollskull Manor - after a brief discussion, we agreed that Trollskull Tavern would be a stronger brand.

Mirt got to the point of the visit and asked what we found out from the job. We told him pretty much everything we found out while keeping my membership in the Zhentarim under wraps as much as we can. He paid us for the investment and the job - a total of 750 gold, which we put toward the opening of the tavern.

After handling the coin, Mirt offered Vivi a full partnership "in his organization". He also offered Zephyr and I unofficial affiliation on the condition of our discretion and that we don't endager Vivi or the city. Vivi tried to get Mirt to confirm which organization it is (the Harpists' Guild?), and he refuses to confirm it.

As Mirt was leaving, Vivi asked him if he knew anything about the murder of people of elven heritage in the Dock Ward. He replied "I don't want to brag on the wealth of information I have", heavily emphasising those two words. I'd heard of a similar and subtle org in the city. Bragon? Bragan? Bregan? It's hard to tell, but they're players in the underbelly of Waterdeep.

We decided to get Lif a nameplate that says Spiritual Advisor for the bar, as a title for Lif.

Hunting a hunter

We decided to go to the Muleskull Tavern and I went in first, alone, trying to draw out the elf killer. The entire place smelled like excrement and I found out that it's mostly a Dungsweeper's Guild tavern. Among the various patrons, there was a cloaked figure who seemed to be watching me without drinking.

Vivi ans Zephyr entered a few minutes later and got a booth by themselves. They noticed that the bartender, Richard, was weirdly clean considering the rest of the place. After getting a second drink, he asked me to pull my cloak up and get out to be safe.

Errol, the (former) dungsweeper, was the cloaked person watching me. I got him a round and argued about how we ruined the good thing he had going when the Carrion Crawler attacked. He said because of that, he lost the ring that hid his elven ears. During my whole time in the bar, I was doing my best to obviously be present and an elf. Vivi and Zephyr stayed a bit longer so it seemed like I was alone when I left.

A bit after I left the tavern, something cracked into the building next to my head! I turned to see a cloaked and hooded figure where the attack came from with another rushing me with blade drawn from a different direction. I flooded the mind of my hooded attacker with the futility of existence from a cosmic perspective, incapacitating them and tried avoid being murdered by the other attacker in the meantime until my allies showed up. Luckily, they quickly did and killed my remaining attacker, leaving the one cackling on the ground.

I put a knife to their throat, let the spell drop and asked them why they were killing elves. A spell to read thoughts gave me a sense of overwhelming greed but no real answers, and the person wasn't willing to tell us much.

My patience started running out and the cloaked figure pulled their hood back to reveal themselves as a drow - Istal, a member of the Shadow Thieves.