Author: Blameless

Quest Log.xlsx

The party returns to Phaulkonmere to turn in the scarecrow quest. After Smoll helps Malanor Fellbranch pull a stump, the party explains the “scarecrows constructed by hags” situation to Jeryth and chills out in the Emerald Enclave’s garden for a spell.

Next on the list is Vincent Trench’s request of Janky to figure out who has the giant wererats of the Shard Shunners watching him, but Vincent is not home. Smoll notices a giant wererat on lookout from the rooftop across the street. The party nonchalantly returns to TSM where Togy sets up an observation post on the high widow’s watch. The lookout is asleep on duty.

Reade and Janky slip across the street, scale the building, and catch the lookout by surprise. Under Janky’s spell, giant wererat lookout Petey reveals what he knows: Petey, like two other lookouts in the alley behind the Tiger’s Eye, is tasked with watching Vincent. It’s good work, but rat droppings roll downhill. Everyone has a boss, and his is Roscoe.

The party hastens back to the halfling hostel on the street of spices to find Roscoe the boss. Attempts at leveraging their previous charm-driven friendship degrade in a round of misplaced intimidation and persuasion until Janky reprises his bardic charms. Janky and Reade undermine Roscoe’s confidence to the point that Roscoe not only reveals that his boss is Xanathar (aka X-man aka Big Eye aka Big Guy), but he also becomes convinced of Xanathar’s displeasure with the Shard Shunners’ performance. Roscoe panics and his henchmen begin packing out boxes for a backup lair away from Xanathar.

The party returns to Tiger’s Eye to find Vincent at the office and catches him up on the giant wererat situation. Janky particularly emphasizes the fact that Xanathar, who apparently identifies as a beholder, suspects Vincent is someone worth fearing. Insightful Togy reckons the same thing. Vincent proposes a highly favorable venture capitalization: 1000 gp for a 20% stake in the tavern with a 2000 gp buyout option.

The party hits Bookworm’s Treasure to gather some information. Togy cannot afford to purchase the Emerald Enclave manifesto, Bring Back the Balance (Of Nature), but Rishaw allows him to borrow it under his direct supervision. Emerald Enclave appears to be a conservation society advocating for plants and animals. Janky peruses some history of Black Staff Tower which traces its lineage back to Lord Grey (with an ‘e’) who parlayed a personal interest in wizardry into a book, So You Wanna Be a Wizard, and ultimately into the mercenary academy as it is known today. Reade chats with Rishaw about the posh Lightsinger Theater although Rishaw prefers books. Luth thumbs through some periodicals regarding Lord Neverember’s difficulties.

Smoll, Janky, Luth, and Togy break off to visit Phaulkonmere to check out the Emerald Enclave. They meet groundskeeper and manor steward Malanor who escorts them inside for an audience with the spirit of Jeryth Phaulkon, presently incarnating a portrait of her previous mortal form. Togy, Janky, and Smoll are inaugurated into Emerald Enclave to help protect nature and property rights of farmers. Malanor bestows some charms of restoration upon them [6 charges to cast greater restoration at 4 charges or lesser restoration at 2 charges, no recharge] as well as season passes to the manor gardens for rest and relaxation. If they need something to rest from, some outlying farms are being attacked by three scarecrows and the initiates need to handle the situation to prevent any more lost livestock or frightened farmers.

Reade hangs back at Troll Skull Manor to scrub the kitchen. He calmly notes when his cleaning bucket mysteriously gets kicked away and over. The same unseen malicious force hammers on pipes and scribes Last Call on a dirty window. Reade makes a follow-up visit to Rishaw. Rishaw finds records dating back to an 8^th millennial Founder’s Day festival of the location before it was known as Troll Skull Manor. There was a fine tavern at the same location owned by a half elf, Lif. Lif, concludes Reade, must be the restless spirit even though it answers not to that name.

The party reunites at TSM to dress for the opera. Individual adaptations of “formal attire” are scrutinized and passed by the ushers / doormen / guards at the Lightsinger Theater, although Togy’s blackened moccasins require Janky’s soothing persuasion to pass muster. At intermission, the party files out of general admission, awkwardly alternating between butt- and crotch-to-face egress and heads to private box C. Luth knocks thrice and meets Mirt, local Harper representative. The entire party enlists with the Harpers, whether for the crescent moon harp brooch with no arcane power or for the no limits defense of all that is convenient to the Harper ethos. It just so happens that a mission is immediately available to rendezvous with Maxine, a conversant mare, in the know about something Zhentarim.

Reade, noting the end of intermission, slips away from the opera to recon Hlam’s cave. He is exhausted nearly to death with the attempt to climb the mountain and returns to sleep it off in the TSM kitchen.

The following day, while waiting for Reade to recover, the party locates and interrogates Maxine. She recollects a sun elf, Davil, and his bodyguard, Yagra, caught a ride from her and discussed the hiring of spies within the Xanathar. Luth writes a brief report and slips that into Mirt’s mailbox where it is federally protected from snooping.

While waiting on Reade’s exhaustion timers, the party kills time cleaning the STM tavern. Broxley, of the Fellowship of Innkeepers, Local 303, drops by to ensure that STM is not recklessly operating a tavern without FoI membership being in order. Broxley confirms rumors of the manor haunting, demonstrated when Reade’s drinking glass is ethereally slapped from his grasp at the mention of Lif. Broxley lets slip that their acquisition of STM was rivalled by Frewn’s Brews proprietor Emmek Frewn.

Janky slips away to catch up with private eye Vincent Trench at Tiger’s Eye who mentions being followed by giant rats. Possibly Janky’s arcanely acquired buddy Roscoe could shed light on that situation.

The party acquires mountain gear, for the second attempt to find Hlam, and camping gear, for staking out farms in pursuit of marauding scarecrows. The next morning, with Reade nominally recovered, the party climbs the nearby mountain range and easily locates paranoid Hlam. Janky manages to extract a warning from Hlam regarding threats on the city: Evil’s twin hides its face for now but expect that to change before winter’s end! When Janky later conveys the message to Vajra, she is just as puzzled as anyone but still declares the mission a success.

The party decides to close out the day on the farms of Undercliff, scene of the most recent scarecrow attacks. Hours into the stakeout, a screaming horse interrupts cookware cleaning. The party dashes through a farm in pursuit of a scarecrow who has just mangled a horse. As Smoll pursues it around the farmhouse, two more scarecrows intercept Reade and paralyze him. Once defeated, an examination of the scarecrows reveals they are animated constructs infused with the spirit of a slain, evil creature.

Janky, examining down the unbarricaded hallway south from the duergar and brawler room, makes out a half orc with a clenched fist of fire standing threateningly atop a redhead. No redhead should be so treated, and the party rushes to the rescue. But half-orc Grum’shar is only half of the problem when the party encounters a mind flayer attempting to enthrall Smoll on his way out of the room and into an escape portal he activates by placing a stone eye into the pedestal set into a 10 spoke eye carving on the floor. The third half of the problem is the mind flayer’s pet brain-dog devourer who stuns Reade into profound ignorance. Putting down the brain-dog does nothing to enlighten Reade. After slaying Grum’shar next, the party meets liberated Floon who confirms their current understanding of a kidnapping botched by mistaken identity.

Exploration of the area reveals a privy occupied by grey ooze; Grun’shar’s fanny pack containing an orcish spellbook; a chest of two healing potions, 16 gp, 82 sp, 250 cp; the stone eye which deactivates the portal when Luth takes it off the pedestal; and a secret door in the back of one cell which takes the party through a brief, yet filthy, earthen tunnel into a basement storeroom being guarded by giant rat Roscoe of the Shard Shunners. The party leaves by way of the hostel above and out into the street of spices.

Floon is returned to a grateful yet suddenly impoverished Volo who compensates the party with a quitclaim deed to Troll Skull Manor. The manor is a money pit but has a lot of potential as a tavern in the tavern desert that is Troll Skull Alley. Before their dreams as tavern proprietors can be realized, the party will prevail upon a growing Rolodex of local characters to attract work on the merit of their reputation as problem solvers.

When Reade and friends are summoned to Black Staff Tower by sending spell, it seems as though leader Vajra Safahar of the private army Gray Hands aka Force Gray might eventually offer some paying security work IF the applicants can pass a test of locating Hlam, a cave hermit of Mountwater Deep, to inquire as to any threats on the city.

• Roscoe, the giant rat who guards a storeroom under a halfling hostel on Spice Street, is a contact for the Shard Shunners, although they might only accept other giant rats as permanent members.
• Fala Lefaliir is proprietor of Corellon’s Crown, an apothecary / herbalist source.
• Vincent Trench is proprietor of Tiger’s Eye, a private investigator whom Janky has befriended.
• Tally is proprietor of Bent Nail, a source for wooden furniture, bows, shields, staves, and like that.
• A pair of genasi are proprietors of Steam and Steel, metalworks.
• Dragonborn Rishaw is proprietor of Bookworm’s Treasure, a bookstore. Rishaw may also be available for translations.
• By Raynar’s reference, someone named Mirt has arranged opera tickets for this evening at Lightsinger Theater in the Sea Ward which might prelude a business meeting in private box C during intermission. Or, in the worst case, could just be opera.
• A white cat has discretely invited Togy to join the Emerald Enclave at Phaulkonmere in the Southern Ward.

On the walk back from the Zhent warehouse to the Yawning Portal, the party passes a couple of regular folk, Festus and his friend Commoner Joe. CJ might know something about a certain someone abducted from a certain warehouse and taken to a certain sewer entrance marked by a certain symbolic spoked circle, if Janky can show a gold dragon and four of his friends. Janky abides.

CJ leads the party through Xanathar territory to an alley with a sewer cover chalked with the Xanathar trademark. CJ is paid. Although time may be of the essence to rescue Floon, the party is in no condition to foray into a Xanathar stronghold.

Janky returned to the Yawning Portal with Reade, Luth, Smoll, and Togy.  As tired as he should be, Janky is filled with an unusual energy, and the desire to perform on stage.  After a quick word with Dunran for permission, Janky mounts the stage and begins tuning his lute.  After all strings ring clear and true, he launches into his newest song, a catchy tune about a nameless flamboyant redhead, always stumbling in and out of trouble.

The song is really catching fire.  The crowd is warming to it, clapping in time, and Janky is infused with warmth all through his body.  Just then, out in the crowd, one of the more inebriated patrons causes a scene, throwing their drink to the ground and standing to loom menacingly over another person, shaking their fists.  Janky, annoyed that this tool is harshing his vibe (as Smoll might say), changes his tune to a more discordant one, and yells out “Hey troll snot, sit back down and be quiet, or I’ll come squash you like the bug you are!”.  Right at that moment, a little bit of the warmth he was feeling slips away, and the drunk would-be brawler stumbles, looking a little dazed.  After a few moments, he sits back down, a bewildered look on his face.  Janky, who had half expected to be in the middle of a fight right about then, gets back to his rousing redhead rondo.  However, he can’t seem to shake the fact that, for better or worse, something new and exciting was awakening inside him…

Refreshed from a night at the Yawning Portal, complements of Durnan, the party returns to the sewer entrance ready to track down abducted Floon. Along the way, Luth confesses he is a warlock, allegiant to a mysterious, possibly sinister, benefactor. At least it is an improvement over being a lawyer.

The sewer cover looks different in the morning light: more conspicuous. Transactional Janky offers a street urchin a silver piece to create a diversion for any potential witnesses, and the party drops into the sewer. Smoll picks up a pattern of chalk marks that direct the party along the various forks and intersections presumably toward someone holding a stick of chalk and, hopefully, Floon.

After an hour battling only the formidable smell, the party arrives at a small, dim chamber beneath, so Togy reckons, the Spouting Fish tavern. Luth’s voice echoes back from the darkness. Despite Luth flashing his Xanathar tattoo disguise, a floating guard grapefruit [gazer] shoots some ineffective light beams before being plastered at range. Luth kicks the dead aberration into the stream of sewage.

The chalk marks bring the party to another chamber where arrow slits cover their approach. Luth emphatically presents his tattoo and proceeds through an adjacent stone door chalked with the Xanathar logo. The party wends behind a sleeping goblin guard who defends himself with his shortbow much too late. Smoll hides the goblin’s body in a room of rusty weapons and debris.

Deeper into the lair, the party interrupts Krentz, the brawler nearly killed by Yagra night before last, and a duergar as they attempt to barricade a doorway off a little sleeping area. Despite the duergar’s ability to become invisible and large, the pair are quickly defeated.

A whimpering man and a flaming hand are down an unbarricaded passage.

• The Xanathar are poorly organized.

Business with purple-themed Flintcheek concludes with Reade’s negotiated purchase of a vest of 100 pockets that only comes in 101 shades of purple.

The adventurers arrive at the Skewered Dragon. Inquiries put to proprietor Ellie and her patrons indicate that Floon is a regular, last seen a couple of nights ago, first with Volo and then with Reynar after Volo departed. Once Reynar and Floon concluded their games of Three Dragon Ante they left together but were followed closely by five other patrons known to frequent a certain warehouse on Candle Lane, easily identified by a certain snake emblem on the door.

The party makes for the warehouse right away and easily locates it down the cramped, dark Candle Lane were only one streetlamp has been left intact, the one illuminating a winged black snake emblem on the warehouse door. Janky smoothly pops open the employee entrance revealing the bloody remains of a melee strewn across the lower level of the warehouse.

Four concealed kenku nearly bring an early end to the endeavor, but the party narrowly prevails in the end and prevents the escape of all surviving witnesses. An examination of all combatants reveals that five are tattooed in the fashion of the Zhent black winged snake, a sixth sports a circle with ten spokes on his right palm, and the affiliation of the remaining six uncool previous combatants and four additional kenku cannot be determined. Crates around the warehouse contain sundry unremarkable weapons and armor and liquid assets of 24 gp 35 sp

Reade, stricken unconscious in the fight, recovers, but barely. The party prepares to secure the remainder of the warehouse when Reade hears breathing under the stairs. Janky coaxes the mouth breather out. It seems like an easy Floon payday when a red head emerges, but the bedraggled prisoner turns out to be none other than dreamy Reynar, considerably less dreamy after a couple of days as a Zhent prisoner.

Plans to help Reynar safely back to his grateful wallet are interrupted by a phalanx of city watch led by the reputable yet streetwise Captain Stagat. Hysterical lawyer Luth contemplates the kenku blood still dripping from the party’s weapons and armor, pockets stuffed with ill-gotten gold pieces, caught at the epicenter of the various articles and sections of the Code Legal metaphorically strewn around the bloody warehouse floor. Grateful Reynar vouches for the party to the savvy Captain Stagat. Stagat takes protective custody of Reynar, and the party returns to the Yawning Portal.

• Reynar and Floon appear to be good friends who were abducted by the Zhents while leaving the Skewered Dragon and brought to the Zhent warehouse. The Xanathar then raided the Zhent warehouse and kidnapped Floon, possibly mistaking him for Reynar. The Zhent kenku were sent to clean the scene up when the party interrupted.
• The black, winged snake indicates Zhentarim, whether on a door or on a person.
• The ubiquitous desire to kidnap Reynar may be to locate the Stone of Golor, an artifact supposedly useful in locating the gold dragons allegedly embezzled and stashed by Reynar’s ignoble father Degalt. Reynar claims no knowledge or association with the artifact, the gold, or Degalt.
• Per Captain Stagat, the Xanathar may hold Floon in the city sewers where the city watch does not involve themselves jurisdictionally. Opportunities to enter the Xanathar areas might be identified by the ten spokes circle symbol found on the right palm of one of the combatants.

Yawning Portal regulars Reade Hadrah, Jankorean “Janky” Talereos, Luth Winddriver, Klayrlagoon “Smoll” Franzellakella, and Ktogyo “Togy” Lacewind gather with their local friends for another evening of revelry. A fight breaks out between Smoll’s friend Yagra Stonefist and several tattooed cohorts of a nemesis faction. Yagra, a member of the Zhentarim guild, beats a representative of the rival Xanathar guild, Krentz, nearly to death. Mindful of the severe Waterdeep laws, Smoll and the others quickly intervene to pull the combatants apart.

No sooner does one crisis end than the next begins. A troll, aggressively pursued by several stirges, heaves himself up a hoist and out of the giant, central well hole that is the primary feature of the Yawning Portal tavern, Durnan proprietor. Durnan, a tavern keeper of many seasons, engages the troll with his greatsword and directs the party, the only patrons not sensible enough to flee, to engage the stirges. The party competently eliminates the stirges and even makes some contribution to the troll’s destruction and terminal ignition.

Grateful Durnan fronts their hospitality for the evening. Lawyer Luth snaps his suit clean of stirges muck, but there is almost no talk of litigation regarding whether Durnan knew, or should have known, the tavern produces life endangering trolls.

A gregarious Volothamp, in need of some competent adventurers such as these, introduces himself. A friend of his, Floon Blagmaar, went missing directly after Volo departed their meeting at the Skewered Dragon, a dive in the Zhent-controlled docks, two nights ago. Floon, a flamboyant ginger more handsome than smart, supports himself as an escort and by knowing compromising information about a noble. Floon’s value to Volo, possibly as relates to Volo’s next great work of reference on spirits and specters, measures in the hundreds of gold dragons. A 10-gold purse each right out of Volo’s pocket retains the party to locate Floon with the promise of ten times that upon completion.

The party performs some casual interviews with friendly bar patrons and heals up. They head out to the Skewered Dragon to investigate Floon’s disappearance but encounter a crime scene blocking an intersection on the way. Six slaughtered people cover the road. Three blood drenched humans have been detained by city watch. The city watch is not particularly disposed to answer a bunch of questions from a passing adventuring party, and the party must backtrack to find a way around which takes them to a curio shop featuring a taxidermized beholder in the window.

Old Zablov’s Shop, Schnikneg Flintcheek proprietor, is decidedly purple-themed. The trinkets, the beholder, the halfling pipeleaf: all purple. Schniknet himself is a purple-decked gnome with nine eye tattoos adorning his face and head in the same fashion as the Xanathar thugs in the Yawning Portal.

Gleaned from interviews:

• Degalt Neverember was a lord of Waterdeep who allegedly embezzled a fortune of gold dragons, was discovered, and run out of town. The fortune remains, supposedly hidden under the town.
• Degalt’s son Reynar Neverember is nothing like Degalt, is generally dreamy and likeable, excellent in a fight, would give all the orphans shirts off his back. Regard for Reynar, at least in the Yawning Portal, is suspiciously favorable considering Reynar has a seemingly inexhaustible and mysterious source of wealth and continues to reside at his father’s four-story mansion down by the seaward. Reynar’s appearance is notably like Floon’s and, so far, only Durnam substantiates that Volo’s friend Floon exists and is not one-and-the-same as Reynar. A botched kidnapping of Floon from mistaken identity is a possibility.
• Zhentarim, aka the Zhents, aka the Black Network, is a shadow organization that deals in weapons and mercenary work. They seem to regard themselves as honorable if criminal unlike the Xanathar who are criminal and thuggish. Yagra can make introductions to Davil Starsong for potential applicants.
• Xanathar is a murder-for-entry gang or possibly a cult. Known adherents seem to identify themselves with facial tattoos of eyes. Competition for the gold may be escalating recent violence.

Punishment for a crime can include one or more of the following, based on the nature of the crime, who or what the crime is committed against, and the criminal record of the convicted:

• Death
• Exile (for a number of years or summers)
• Flogging (a set number of strokes)
• Hard labor (for a period of days, months, or years depending on the seriousness of the crime)
• Imprisonment in the dungeons of Castle Waterdeep (for a period of days or months depending on the seriousness of the crime)
• Fine (payable to the city; inability to pay the fine leads to imprisonment and/or hard labor)
• Damages (payable to the injured party or victim’s kin; inability to pay damages leads to imprisonment and/or hard labor)
• Edict (forbidding the convicted from doing something; violation of an edict can result in imprisonment, hard labor, and/or a fine)

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I. Crimes against Lords, Officials, and Nobles

Assaulting or impersonating a Lord: death

Assaulting or impersonating an official or noble: flogging, imprisonment up to a tenday, and fine up to 500 gp

Blackmailing an official: flogging and exile up to 10 years

Bribery or attempted bribery of an official: exile up to 20 years and fine up to double the bribe amount

Murder of a Lord, official, or noble: death

Using magic to influence a Lord without consent: imprisonment up to a year, and fine or damages up to 1,000 gp

Using magic to influence an official without consent: fine or damages up to 1,000 gp and edict

II. Crimes against the City

Arson: death or hard labor up to 1 year, with fines and/or damages covering the cost of repairs plus 2,000 gp

Brandishing weapons without due cause: imprisonment up to a tenday and/or fine up to 10 gp

Espionage: death or permanent exile

Fencing stolen goods: fine equal to the value of the stolen goods and edict

Forgery of an official document: flogging and exile for 10 summers

Hampering justice: fine up to 200 gp and hard labor up to a tenday

Littering: fine up to 2 gp and edict

Poisoning a city well: death

Theft: flogging followed by imprisonment up to a tenday, hard labor up to 1 year, or fine equal to the value of the stolen goods

Treason: death

Vandalism: imprisonment up to a tenday plus fine and/or damages covering the cost of repairs plus up to 100 gp

Using magic to influence an official without consent: fine or damages up to 1,000 gp and edict

III. Crimes against the Gods

Assaulting a priest or lay worshiper: imprisonment up to a tenday and damages up to 500 gp

Disorderly conduct within a temple: fine up to 5 gp and edict).

Public blasphemy against a god or church: edict

Theft of temple goods or offerings: imprisonment up to a tenday and damages up to double the cost of the stolen items

Tomb-robbing: imprisonment up to a tenday and damages covering the cost of repairs plus 500 gp

IV. Crimes against Citizens

Assaulting a citizen: imprisonment up to a tenday, flogging, and damages up to 1,000 gp

Blackmailing or intimidating a citizen: fine or damages up to 500 gp and edict

Burglary: imprisonment up to 3 months and damages equal to the value of the stolen goods plus 500 gp

Damaging property or livestock: damages covering the cost of repairs or replacement plus up to 500 gp

Disturbing the peace: fine up to 25 gp and edict

Murdering a citizen without justification: death or hard labor up to 10 years, and damages up to 1,000 gp paid to the victim’s kin

Murdering a citizen with justification: exile up to 5 years or hard labor up to 3 years or damages up to 1,000 gp paid to the victim’s kin

Robbery: hard labor up to 1 month and damages equal to the value of the stolen goods plus 500 gp

Slavery: flogging and hard labor up to 10 years

Using magic to influence a citizen without consent: fine or damages up to 1,000 gp and edict

• Klayrlagoon “Smoll” Franzellakella – Goliath Fighter

Klayrlagoon “Smoll” Franzellakella, a professional athlete, was the Team Captain of the Nomads, a Goat Ball team. But her real passion is Stubborn-Root. After becoming the reigning Stubborn-Root Champion of the Icespire Peak Goliath Open Invitational, she left her family in the Sword Mountains in search of a new challenge. She needs a way of outdoing her previous accomplishments, earning the right to survive.

• Ktogyo “Togy” Lacewind – Wood Elf Cleric

The Lacewind family farm grows halfling pipeleaf. What little they don’t themselves consume is sold at a profit great enough to keep Ktogyo “Togy” Lacewind with the clergy in service of Angharradh. The duck does not live on bread alone. Namaste.

Togy’s order has determined it is time, past time even, for him to complete some fieldwork. That’s just fine with Togy, uncouth even for a wood elf and far more comfortable imbibing and wagering at the Yawning Portal than studying theological texts. The wisest owl learns more from eating rooks than reading books. Namaste.

• Luth Winddriver – Human Warlock

Luth Winddriver used to be a respectable lawyer of Waterdeep, before he went missing, that is. After disappearing without a trace for three months, he returns with a head of white hair and a colder presence. He went back to practicing law, but rumors began swirling. Eventually, the people learned of an extra-planar pact, but with who? With Luth remaining silent on the issue, the rumors got worse. Asmodeus? Orcus? A horror beyond the stars? With no one willing to take him on as a lawyer, Luth fell from his former glory, losing everything. Now, he rents a room and spends his time at the Yawning Portal, looking for potential clients and hanging out with his new tavern buddies.

• Reade Hadrah – Human Monk

Reade Hadrah is a novice mendicant from the Abbey of Verdant Hope, dedicated to the works of Chauntea, and located among the farming communities north of Daggerford.

He joined the order after the entire village where he lived, including his master’s villa, grotto and vineyard, was destroyed with fire by the dragon Karrnsyrrl three years ago. His period of indenture not being fully served, his debts were about to be sold to the highest bidder. Since the entire region had no more crops to tend, malt or barley to brew, or grapes to ferment, this meant being transported away from the place he considers home. Instead, he ran away and dedicated himself to the local religious order. This really only worked because the monks of the order recognized the value of someone with brewing experience and convinced (bullied) Reade’s master to commute the rest of his debt.

The next few years were difficult, as the life of a deliberately impoverished farming battle monk did not always gel with Reade’s expectations. He spent much of his time annoying the Abbott with suggestions that they abandon the mendicant/farm-hand life and begin selling beer and meade to both support a more comfortable lifestyle, and to raise funds to rebuild the local crops. This has earned Reade many hours of enforced silent meditation, and additional crop hand duty. Eventually (only after he had taught a handful of other monks the indispensable craft of beer and wine making) the Abbott gave him the task of a lifetime.

Reade has been sent to Waterdeep to request financial backing from the merchant houses there for a comprehensive rebuilding of the crops decimated in Karrnsyrrl’s attack. He has been told to focus everything he has into succeeding in this ‘essential endeavor’, and not to return to the Abbey without the resources to replant the countryside north of daggerford.

Desperate to both prove himself to the other Hadrah (believers/monks), and to see his home returned to its previous abundance, he threw himself into the task. But, after getting laughed out of five different waterdhavian merchant houses, his resolve is waning. 

These days Reade spends his mornings on the street begging for the coin to drown his sorrows at the Yawning Portal in the afternoon, then passing out under a table late each night. The bartender has taken uncharacteristic pity on him and not thrown him out yet. In fact, he has even allowed him to wash up using the spent dishwater at the end of each late-night shift. But, despite Reade’s charm, that probably won’t last forever.

Surely there is another way to raise the funds he needs so he can return to Daggerford and earn the acceptance of his order. He just needs to think outside the box a bit…

• Jankorean “Janky” Talereos – Half-Elf Rogue Bard

Jankorean “Janky” Talereos, a half-elf, has spent his life in Waterdeep, and has been on the periphery of the “family business” his entire life.  After fleeing the forests from some long-forgotten horror, Janky’s ancestors migrated to the city, and have since spent many years developing a more-than-moderately successful criminal empire.

Years ago, Janky was serving as a lookout during a “family outing”, and he was cornered by some of the city watch.  He was unable to convince them of his fabricated tale, that of a lute-playing busker who is just out late trying to make a buck, and as a result, his Uncle Jornich was captured, badly beaten, and imprisoned for a number of years.

Since then, Janky looks at life (and his family’s business) a little differently.  He’s left the family empire and gone off on his own.  He still loves to track down the perfect mark, but his definition of perfect has changed.  He’s gotten a lot better at the “art of the lie”.  And he’s practiced the lute.  A lot.

Janky spends a lot of time in the Yawning Portal, enjoying the atmosphere, playing cards, occasionally performing with his lute, and paying close attention to the clientele.