Reade joins the party late after stowing his Gray Force armor and slips over the wall into the yard. The party quietly tracks the path around the guard house and to the kitchen door which they find surprisingly unlocked. The kitchen is well lit, organized, and free of corpses, unlike the pantry to the south where two bludgeoned corpses of household servants are found. Janky preps for an expedited escape by unbarring the outside door from the pantry to the south street. The party heads north to the laundry room adjoining the kitchen and finds another recently bludgeoned servant at the foot of a staircase up. Reade borrows her ring of keys. Next to the maid’s corpse is a door to the west beyond which the party hears low talking and footsteps.
Saving confrontation for later, the party sneaks upstairs to what should be servants’ quarters. Two of the rooms are empty, but the third is barricaded by a crowd of whimpering, praying, surviving servants. Janky persuasively smooths out their initial distrust of the adventurers, coincidentally dressed in black leather a lot like the murderous Zhents currently assaulting the household.
Per the servants, the Zhents have been slaying the servants, the guards, and quite possibly Lord and Lady Gralhund, if not the resident children, to liberate their half-burned and half-limping Zhent cohort [a.k.a. Urstul Floxin] who was uncoincidentally captured immediately following the unfortunate fireballing at Lif’t a few days back. As for the detected nimblewright, it so happens the lady of the villa recently acquired one. It is kept in her room. Despite the option of escaping out the pantry, the helpful surviving servants elect to stay holed up where they are.
A shuddering vibration permeates the house.
Hoping to circle around and surprise what must be a formidable Zhent brute squad, the party returns to the pantry and passes west into a great room with a great table and two great Zhent thugs who rapidly succumb to the party’s pent-up violence. Dread of Code Legal justice threatens to incapacitate Luth as a perfectly legal home incursion turns to justified homicide. The sounds of ongoing fighting upstairs beckons.
- Gralhund is almost certainly not working for the Zhents. Unknown is why Zhent Urstul Floxin would seek shelter at his villa after stealing the Stone of Golor.
- Lady Gralhund has recently acquired a nimblewright, significantly well-timed with the escape of Nim’s construct, significantly well-timed to the suspected fireballer of Dalakhar the SoG bearer. If true, that would suggest that the Gralhunds’ nimblewright was the instrument for the theft of the SoG by demonstrated nemesis Urstul Floxin.