Fight Club

Journal Notes:

This tower is so cool! It has so many books! And kitties! I gotta learn how to copy the books properly, with bindings and such. Spy Master will know where to go.

Orange is gonna go fight a bunch of people and monsters, but none of us are allowed to go. Red let me help him do monster research, though. I’m worried for Orange if he has to fight all these monsters… Red said there’s going to be a Hellhound, and a Harpy, and a Grick. He had me research those for him. He was also looking up a Spined Devil, a Grell, a Sea Hag, and a Displacer Beast. I even heard Catbard telling him about Gargoyles! I don’t understand why he’s fighting all this stuff by himself. Seems a good way to die.

Red says he doesn’t have to fight all of them, just some of them, and there’s gonna be other people there, too. We’re still not allowed to go, because We’re not the Right people. He promises Orange won’t die.

Orange came home late last night, I was sleeping with the kitties. He says he’s the Champion of Skullport! He won! Against everybody! First he fought in a big group and took down the monsters one by one and some people who annoyed him. Then he made friends with a half orc pirate, and then beat him up. Then he fought a Githza-something Monk, and he won! He says he liked that guy. Then he fought another another half orc, only this one had a big pointy stick, but Orange showed him and won everything!

I’m learning how to copy books now. All proper with covers and everything. Haven’t gotten to fight or thieve in a while. Maybe Spy Master will have a job soon. Or maybe Red will need me. I wonder whatever happened to that stone, or those drow. Did the Dragon in the Harbor leave for the winter? Probably, it’s getting really cold now.

Candlekeep

Spymaster!!!!

We went to Candlekeep!!! He kept his promise and we went to the LIBRARY!!! They wouldn’t let us go in to see all the books, but then we did and it was so cool! And people go missing inside their own houses and we can read any book we ask for and they made copies of books for us, too!!! Spymaster it was so cool!!! And now we have a mage’s own house for ourselves, to take with us wherever we want, until we find her. She’s not really there, she’s left the plane, I guess. Red wants to use it for robbing places, but I just want to go inside and read all the books! And play with all the kitties! I need to learn how to make proper books and then I can just copy all her books. She has so many books and we can read them all!!! It’s like we brought Candlekeep home with us!!! Or at least part of it!

Right… proper report. Sorry.

We met the Gate Warden Callum Strongbranch, and he said our books were good enough – I gave him a book on stray cats of Waterdeep from Abena over at the Homeward Bookshop. She writes down all the cats she helps. So many cats, so I made a copy of it to take with me. They’ve never seen anything like that before.

He sent us to the House of Rest. Even their Inn is magical. It’s way bigger inside than the building is. A really friendly librarian, Sprig Summerfoot came then and asked us all what we wanted to read so he could gather all the books for us. Everybody but Red had come, but not everybody had an idea what they wanted. Some of us just wanted to see the Library, but Sprig said we weren’t allowed. So, we picked a bunch of random topics to read about and ate, drank, and went to the spa while we waited.

They wouldn’t let me take my… calligraphy kit into the reading rooms, have to pay for copies of the books, they said, not allowed to make my own. I read about Kenku myths and took notes on that weird Luskan tech for Mary Mouse. He really wants to make some of that stuff himself. But really, we came here to figure out why there are worms in Nevi’s bag of holding.

Sprig says that the book Mary Mouse needs was borrowed by a guy named Matrius, and written by a lady named Fistandia. Both of them have disappeared. Fistandia a while ago, but Matrius just a couple days gone. He says maybe we can help find him, and then we can look at the book. We agree, so after we get done reading, we go to bed to rest before going inside.

A new guy, Parmack meets us the next morning, and he lets us go inside the Library. We can’t look around too much, but it is Amazing!!! So many books, and it’s so big and pretty and… Oh. Sorry. Matrius had gone to Fistandia’s lab to try and find her, so Parmack took us there. She had lots of books and scrolls and all sorts of things in her room. Including the book Mary Mouse wanted – The Joy of Extra-Dimensional Space. It has some other guy on the cover though, Nevi says it’s Mordenkainen, or something like that. I start looking at the books, but Nevi gets real focused on Matrius’ notes and then looks up and says Scepter and a door appeared in the middle of the room.

I wrote a quick note to Parmack and slipped it under the door to him before we all went through the magic door. We found Matrius right inside, and he seems really happy to see us. He couldn’t figure out how to get back out. He has a little statue he wants to check out and invites us to look around for Fistandia. He runs out the door and we heard him scream as the door slammed shut behind him.

The tower we’re in is really cool, but some of the boys want to go outside and play in weird purple mist. That seems like a bad idea, and it is, but Nevi gets really stuck on it for a while. Then we start looking around and we find so many books and kitties! They’re really nice kitties. Well, most of them are, anyway, and… oh… Some of the books aren’t so nice either and attack us. But they figure out that she hid the keyword to get out on the spines of seven books, and this place was a gift from her goddess Mystra. There are two odd little men in the kitchen and Nevi said they should be able to talk, but they can, and they were really nice. They said the faerie dragons in the garden aren’t very nice, so we avoided them. But we found lots of cool books and tools and even a room full of monsters in jars. Orange decided to keep the biggest one to display at the Cabaret, but Nevi said we shouldn’t take too much since a goddess made this place. They still took some alchemy stuff, though.

We also had to fight a chair, and a toad demon, and a bookcase, and some hands. That was really strange, but the Big Guy said they might have animated because of all the magic. Some swords attacked us, too. It’s a strange place, this magic tower, but not too dangerous. There was a really cool room with all the stars in the sky, plus five extra stars that opened an extra door to chained books. They attacked us, too. Orange wanted to break the whole bookcase, but I wouldn’t let him. They looked like important books.

But we found the word to get out, Liberty, and went back outside. Matrius got killed while we were gone. Apparently that statue was a little demon. Silly mage, the imp was pretty squishy. Mary Mouse, Nevi, and Orange got held back as we all left the magic house. By Mystra? She told them we could borrow the house until we find Fistandia and that she’s on a different plane. The librarians were happy we figured things out, even if Matrius got dead, and offered us each any two books we wanted, too. I’m going to copy books from the magic tower, too. She has lots of good books.

Anyway, I’m home again if you need anything.

~QS

A Dragon and a Necromancer

Spymaster!

Did you know there’s a dragon in the bay?! He’s Bronze and his name is Zelapharn and I gave him some of the flat shinies because he said he was hungry. He has a stomach just for shiny things! He said that sailors drop things in the water and he collects them if Umberlee doesn’t get them first. Did you know she’s the Queen of the Sea? He’s going to go hibernate soon, but he was really fun.

The City of the Dead is not fun. It’s creepy and scary and the dead things walk around sometimes. There was a big necromancer guy in the House of the Homeless trying to raise a bunch of mommies and their unborn children. Candlekeep called them zombies, and said it would have been really bad. We smashed him, but Ambrose said it was okay because he was really bad.

There was also a big scary vampire up in the Deep Winter vault. He left though. Let us leave, too, because Red convinced him we were too much trouble to bother with. Red’s real smart.

~QS

Uninvited Guests

Dear Spymaster,

Did you know that Lady Gralhund wants to be a Lord of Waterdeep and wear a mask? And that there have been Nimblewrights around her place for months? Seems strange to me. Where’d they all come from?

Istrid stayed for a month. Some of my friend said she was rude, but she just seemed scared to me. She says it’s safe now and gave me lots of shiny metal. She can come stay any time.

The Big Guy’s people are worried about a black snake running around and stealing from the rich folk. Catbard and I go with him to talk to a reporter named Rudderbust. He told us all about a lady a hundred years ago robbing and killing people. Cassalanter he says, back then, and now an evil twin of the current lady. He also says they worship demons. Orange went to look at records and found the old snake stole from everyone, even the Cassalanters. She has no sister, just young kids. They had economic troubles, but 15 years ago, things go better. I went to watch the house, just to see if anyone leaves in the middle of the night, but just dinner guests leave.

Mert asked Page to go help a friend, Yssa Solsa. She has trapped a monster in her shop and needs help. Candlekeep, Big Guy, and I go with her. Turns out to be a Gazer like we’ve been dealing with in the sewers. We blocked off her sewer entrance and Page is gonna go yell at people for her. She gave us some cool books for our library.

Also, apparently bags of holding can have worms. Have you ever heard of that? They’re building a society in our bag. Weird!

~QS

Thieves, Assassins, and Sewers

Journal Notes – gather details to send to Spymaster.

Barnabas Blastwind and Sayeth Cromley invite Orange and Marymouse to go on the raid of Gralhund. Red says the rest of us should guard the sewer. Quiet and damp and boring down there. Until Candlekeep hears something and we chase after a man. I fell down. Page apologized – her magic put me to sleep. Candlekeep woke me up, but the sneaky guy got away.

Ystel Flackson – Luskan, broad and square man, short dark hair and a big sword.

Reports go out. Info comes in.

The Gralhunds say he and other Zhents were holding them hostage for months. The nimblewright took her necklace – family heirloom.

Spymaster – Very dangerous. Be careful. Don’t engage. Report.

Gotta convince the others to leave him be. Luskans – the beheader is Luskan, too. There’s a carnival ship in the harbor with Luskan tech and Nimblewrights – Captain Zardas Zord.

The carnival is quite fun. Lots of flyers to copy. Leaving soon, Page should come before they go. Lots of acts here for the Cabaret.

Guard hunting Zhents, Spymaster says stay low for now. New contact soon, keep training, keep watching.