Tag: Zhentarim

Honor Among Thieves

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, QuillLeave a comment

A quick job to prove my worth, getting settled and staying out of the way. Less notes now, no big reports to file. I guess Xanathar doesn’t like to read.

Big job. Get back at them for pushing me away. Spy Master had to know this would happen. Had to know what Red and I get up to. Hope he doesn’t anticipate too much. Don’t want a fight. Just some trinkets. It’ll be okay. Red has a plan. Even takes me scouting with him this time. Shows me how. Keeps me close.

There’s a blocked sewer entrance. Red says that’s the way. We can unblock it. Easy to do with a scroll. Still think he needs a dispelling wand. But in we go. It’s quiet. Just people upstairs, he says. Doors and traps no match for Red. So many boxes here, but we find the safe with a ledger, a key, and some gold. Red pockets the shinies, and we look over the book.

Five special boxes, and lots of trade goods.

First box had a gas trap, but Red fixed it. Lots of shinies inside, gold, silver, gems. Oohh! Sparkly diamond for Quill.

Second box had a sword trap. Red has two new swords now. I had lots of pretty cloth inside. Red says Nevi might use some.

Third box has no trap, which makes Red suspicious, so he poured acid on one corner of the wood, to see inside, and we moved on while it worked.

Fourth box had a magic trap, but Red fixed it. It was filled with books!!! Red said not all, so I picked the ten best small ones.

The third box had a corner missing now, and there was metal inside, like a metal box. We opened the crate, but the metal box had no way to open it. The key from the safe didn’t work, either. Red was worried the Dustmen would come back down below, so we moved on.

Fifth box, had a dark magic trap, and Red told me to back off while he opened it. A wall got scorched, but he was fine. There was a dark armor set in there, a Dreadlord’s Armor! Oh dear, oh dear. I wonder whose it is. Red puts it in his bag.

We grab enough trade goods to finish filling the bag, and then we snuck back out the way we came. No one even noticed!

A few days later, Red told me that someone came for the armor, and he got some money and alcohol contract for it. He says they know where I am now, so it’s no use me hiding here. Offers to let me come stay at his place below. He’s got a cute basilisk pet down there! I guess that makes up for the lost kitties. For now.

Assassination?

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, QuillLeave a comment

Spy Master,

That was a lot harder than I thought. We accidentally kill people so much, but trying to do it on purpose is so much harder. I had Sim and Kris help me find him, they did a really good job, but couldn’t figure out where he goes other than work. Then it was my turn. First day, I got distracted by a kitten, so I went to get potions, instead. The second try, he seemed to notice someone was following him after he went shopping and ran off. The third time, he just closed his shop and didn’t come outside.

Clearly my plan was terrible, so I went to ask for help. Maybe Orange would come back with me and we could go inside. I told Orange there was a bad guy who helped Manshoon, but he said I needed proof so he could report to The Hand. I said I didn’t have any, so he said to talk to Red. I really didn’t want to talk to Red, but Orange would tell him if I didn’t.

I told Red there was a threat to our flock, one of Manshoon’s supporters was still lurking around. He wanted to run him out of town, but I said he was too dangerous, we had to kill him. Red and I were going to pretend it was a robbery, but it didn’t work. He went upstairs as they were closing, and didn’t come back down. Red tried to find him, but he was gone. He didn’t open his store again after that. I think Red robbed it all the next day.

We went to talk the owner of a shop he visits. He told Red about a meeting the man goes to. So, we go there, and I watch the doors outside, so he doesn’t see me before we get him alone. But after awhile, Red came out and said he was taken care of. I didn’t want to go in and be seen, and I trust Red. Well, he keeps his word, at least.

I’m sorry it took so long. He was very paranoid and the shadows weren’t as sticky as they usually are for me. That’s why I need those boots like Red’s got. Then I wouldn’t have needed help. Sorry.

~QS

Guards, Apprentices, and a Cook

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, QuillLeave a comment

Back in the main tower, there’s no way up, so another locked door it is. This one leads into a bedroom where we steal some more books, paper, ink, and gold. There’s an up staircase here, but also a down. Red seems certain that we have to go down first. We all trudge downstairs, but he sneaks ahead while we wait. When he comes back, he says there’s folk in the room beyond this one, and to leave the cook alone.

We give him time to sneak away again and then go charging through the kitchen and into a dining room full of guards. Some of them hit pretty hard, but so do we. I even get to stun one of them. After, we have a nice meal in the kitchen with our new cook. Red says he’s going to come work for us, but the cook doesn’t look so sure. I found a shiny ring on the best fighter, and Red wants to trade me for a gross piece of skin with one of the fake tattoos on it. Ewwww!! No! I do give it to the Blackstaff. She says it can get us through the teleport circle.

Then we head back upstairs and up again. Red comes running back down, but when I go up, it’s just a bunch of sticks, so we break them all, and I get a cracked black marble orb. It’s really shiny. The next room is kind of creepy with tables and a cage with a gargoyle in it. She wants to crush evil, so we let her out to help us. Says her name is Lady Gondafrey, and Duhlark was the one who trapped her. Manshoon just left her there. She says that the next rooms are servant quarters, a summoning room where the apprentices summon creatures from the hells, and a construct workshop, and then the very last one was Duhlark’s private study.

There are a few thugs in the servant’s quarters, and one runs away while we take care of the other two. The fast one got into the summoning room and shut the door behind him. We all posted up in the stairwell, while Red unlocked the door. They were ready though, and we were greeted by a fireball when he opened it. It’s a big of a blur after that, running and fighting a demon and spells flying. Then it got really cold, and dark. Until Orange woke me up.

Matricide, Ambush, and Mistakes

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, QuillLeave a comment

Spy Master,

I don’t know if I’m ever going to send you any of these letters. Even with the blizzard, Red seems possessed with the need for this stone. I’m going to have to edit it down into a single report, I think, and I am worried the outcome is not what we would want.

Down toward the dock this time, and Red bribes some folk to get us pointed further towards the water. I made friends with some kids at the dock by having a snowball fight. They’re really nice kids, but they shouldn’t have been out that late. It’s too dangerous to throw things at passersby. But they were smart kids, told us where the man went. Mr. Fuoco they called him. Went to his Mom’s house, they said. Used to play music for them.

Red’s tired of sneaking around, so he just unlocks the front door for us to all head in. Orange decided to check out the roof, though, and he fell through. We all rush upstairs to find a terrified old lady. Her son, Mr. Fuoco, has hidden in her armoire after trying to kill her. What a horrible thing to do!

We drag him to the other room while Catbard tries to calm the lady down. Red strips the man of all his possessions, and his clothes and starts threatening him further for information. He says the lady he was with was the one who got the package, that she has a shop in the Castle Ward called the Yellow Spire. We don’t want to leave him with his mother, who he just tried to kill, so he agrees to go back out in the blizzard with us. I don’t like him, and Page thinks there’s someone outside waiting.

She’s right. Just a few steps out the door and we’re ambushed by false Zhentarim. Their tattoos are all strange, but I don’t tell anybody. They all get dead, including Mr. Fuoco because he tried to run, and then he tried to kill one of the children. But Nevi and the Big Guy save the kid while I take care of Mr. Fuoco. Everyone is tired after that, so we take a break at the Angry Cockswain before heading north.

Then we’re on the move again, charging north to the Castle Ward and The Yellow Spire. Red disarms a trap and unlocks the front door for us, but then, he and Page climb up some scaffolding to see who is at the top. We’re supposed to go in and meet in the middle. We give them a moment to climb, and then head in. Unfortunately, Nevi sets off an explosion almost immediately, and we end up fighting, and killing most of the ladies in the tower. Except one, and there’s a man chained upstairs, too. And Red finds a piece of the STONE in a chest there!!!

Oh Spy Master, I really don’t think you’re going to like my report if we ever make it home.

~QS

Tracking the Stone

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, QuillLeave a comment

Spy Master,

The Butcher’s Guild gave up Justin’s address quickly when we asked with the authority of the Grey Hand. When we got there, he was inside and quickly gave up that the Zhentarim pays him to deliver bodies to Thrackus. He said he took the package to Cuddles Meat Pies, but he didn’t know what it was.

Over at the Meat Pie shop, we got attacked by well-dressed Bugbears. The one we left alive recognized Red and started apologizing immediately. Xanathar’s folk had sent them to rescue Otto, but he didn’t know about the stone. Red said we’d take care of it, but then the survivor started to laugh at Orange, and Orange killed him. So much killing, I don’t like it.

Red and Mary head into the building the Bugbears had been heading for while we all wait outside. After a couple gunshots, and Otto running out of the building, Red took off over the roofs of town, and Mary came down to say the stone was on the move. We tried to follow, but only Orange can leap like Red. I got really scared then, what if Red got the stone? What then?!

But the lady with the stone got away, and into a theatre. I stayed outside while Page went in to investigate. I hoped to catch her running away again. Maybe get the stone myself and disappear into the blizzard. It was a really long time before anything happened. She did come running out though, and I did get to chase her, but Page was keeping up pretty well. I had to make sure Red didn’t catch her. We rounded a corner and I changed to look like her, hoping to see where she went and follow her after I took everyone else off track, but she disappeared again. Page hurt me accidentally, but I got away, and no one knows what I did.

We all went back to the theatre, and Page got another lead. The stone was passed to another person who hangs out at the Docks of Mistshore. I really just want to go home, it’s so cold. But on we chase. Red really wants that stone.

~QS