Smoll and Janky cheese it east followed closely by one determined drow. Janky disguises himself as a dwarf so convincingly that even Smoll cannot find him. Unable to outpace the drow pursuer, she turns to fight. Janky uses all his persuasive suggestion to convince the drow to give up the fight, but Smoll has no quit in her until Janky theatrically “stabs” her to “death” deftly between her arm and torso. Their drow calls it a day and catches a ride out on his buddy’s starlancer.
Meanwhile, Reade and Stone of Golor carrying Togy take an evasively winding path north, barely eluding their own drow pursuer. Togy escapes a dead-end alley and meets up with Reade who has located a covered hiding place until the patrolling starlancer gives up on them.
Reade and Togy hire a covered cart and pick up ambulating Smoll and Janky just outside Lif’t, now fully involved in flame. Bystanding neighbor and ruined Lif’t investor Vincent Trench subtly indicates for the party to join him at his Tiger Eye agency a couple doors down. They pull the cart up to the unobserved back door and powwow with Vincent inside.
The party minus Luth catches Vincent up on their pursuit of, and narrow acquisition of, the Stone of Golor. He identifies the drow squad as Bregan D’aerthe, a powerful mercantile association. Vincent sees the stone as a reasonable means of recouping his burned investment and welcomes the party to his abode under two conditions:
1) No one goes into his bedroom without a positive answer to knocking, and
2) No one interrupts his client meetings without an urgent reason and a positive answer to knocking.
The party reforms with fiduciary wizard Vincent Tranch and by popular vote adopts the memorial handle Windriver Company.
The party grabs a long rest while disguised Vincent learns that Lif’t was firebombed with alchemist fire, undoubtedly perpetrated by Bregan D’aerthe. If rival bar Frewn’s Brews catches some blame then that is no skin off anyone’s peeling nose. The status of disembodied spirit Lif remains unknown for now.
Togy announces at breakfast that he has attuned the Stone of Golor, acquiring a resistance to cold and augmented movement [+10’]. The party agrees to let Togy expend a charge to find out about this dragon hoard everyone is so interested in. They learn:
- The vault is located underneath a converted windmill in the sea ward.
- The vault is unlocked by three keys.
- Key one is a common silvered warhammer acquired by any means.
- Key two is a painting of a dwarf miner with intrinsic value.
- Key three is a gift from a queen.