Session 10: Gralhund Manor

General Summary

Recap: We were deciding how to finish our tavern, we were going investigate the blood trail leading into the Gralhung villa. We were also following up at the Bent Nail.   Action: Detalosi exits our tavern, and literally runs into Feng’s brother. Feng and the brother begin a conversation, wherein the brother offers thanks for his salvation. He also says he was approached by Zord to be a courier between that notable and Lady Gralhung, and that he had been performing this duty for a few weeks. His attitude is quite contrite for previous behavior, and he wants to do better.   Feng says that the group has also had an interaction with Zord, and that the conversation wasn’t on the level. The brother explains why he was in the brig: during his courier duties, he noted that Zord and Lady G are in a “close” relationship. After one particular note to Zord, the brother was punished. As to the nature of any communiqué, the brother is ignorant.   The more perceptive of our group hears a quiet rustling behind the tavern. A detachment sees two small figures rooting through our used materials, none of the materials are important to the party. Detalosi attempts, poorly, to sneak up on the pair, who immediately detect him. One is ready to run, but the other stops with confused recognition. The two appear to be children, who are looking for food.   During conversation, the younger says her name is Newt, and the older is quite wary; both are hungry. We bring them inside, and feed them a meal. I play some music, and Lily sits with them with a protective air. Lily gets some small talk out of the pair, who are quite intent on their meal. Incidentally, the little girl is not afraid of Detalosi, not one bit.   Back to the brother. Feng asks what the brother was doing with our dead Drow, but he doesn’t know much. The Drow could have been just a local, or he could have been a right-hand of Zord’s. Feng asks about the Gralhunds.   The brother says that the Gralhunds are an odd couple. The Lady may have an automaton, but Zord has one for each of his ships. He indicates that Zord wants to get the region of Luscan into the Lords’ Alliance; Feng is skeptical of success. Feng follows up about the romantic angle b/t Zord and the Lady; the brother has only innuendo to support his theory. The brother was, clearly, a low-level operative.   I have an insight, and we start sweeping the brother for magical bugs. We also sweep the kids. We offer the kids a home here, and they are concerned that we not tell the Temple. The girl says that their Mom and Dad “made them run away”. They were underground. Some “Bad men” took them with their family while they were in the city streets. Their parents are still captive; the location is some maintenance tunnels in the Castle Ward. The older boy is named Flynn, and the girl says that Detalosi is like the other “furry man”. She recognizes Detalosi’s brother’s hammer. Reminder: Detalosi’s brother is probably dead; Detalosi won’t talk about it much.   Flynn says that the other “furry man” helped them escape with a warning/get help. It sounds like the captive location is the underground gladiator arena, and that the leader of this circus is looking for the Stone (remember the Stone? Kinda important.)   The kids can attest to Gnosh’s brother being held captive along with Detalosi’s brother in this underground fighting pit. Zanathar (?), the leader of the fighting pit people, doesn’t have the stone.   Lorin asks whether other people are doing courier work for Zord; he says that he thinks not. Feng uncovers some history of the Gralhunds: There are rumors of some demonic dabblings, like pacts, and also some rumors of Tiefling mixed into their bloodline. We ask “how bad was the last message?” Zord was quite angry, and the Lady was quite cool and direct. We kick around a plan wherein we fake a message to Lady Gralhung to gain admittance to the grounds.   Bob starts learning how to impersonate the brother, and I prepare to forge a new message. We state our endgame for the Manor: find the stone, investigate the automaton. Lorin points out that Zord won’t miss out on Trolltide, and so he’s not leaving anytime soon.   We decide to move on the Manor. Feng will pass the message. The manor is surrounded by a 12-foot stone wall with an iron gate, which is currently unmanned.   The message: a cryptic and obscure haiku about a lunar eclipse.   “Godforsaken nox A new, shiny wave uses watching the jaguar”   I knock the gate, and we enter a garden path leading to the estate. We hear a mechanical metal-on-metal sound emanating from the Manor. COMBAT FIGURES AND MAPS OUT!   Upon entering, we see eight dead guards, two dead Zen, and two live Zen. We are in the Great Hall, which is dedorated like halls usually are. We rapidly kill the two Zen thugs, and Feng dashes upstairs. Feng sees four guards fighting three thugs, and a noble lady guarded by a giant orc fighter behind them.   I start running up the stairs, Detalosi blesses everyone but me (makes sense, I’m not even mad). Combat ensues.   Once we kill all of the thugs, we find Lord Gralhung in a back room, hiding. The Lady and her bodyguard seem to have slithered down a rope and into the courtyard, below. We find them at the stables, preparing to leave. They return, and the whole group is together.   Feng questions the Lord before the Lady returns, and pressures him to cooperate. He says, “It wasn’t me! Things just got out of hand!” The Gralhund family has been bankrolling The Black Network. He cops to knowing of the plan to kidnap Renar, but it wasn’t his idea. He says that they got ahold of the Stone, but the Lady had better options if she held onto it and negotiated with Zenathar herself. He claims that the Lady has the Stone. He claims ignorance about the underground fighting ring. They felt that kidnapping Renar might get them the Stone, since the Stone is his father’s property, and he stole some money, anyway. Zord is a touchy subject with the Lord, and that the Lady and Zord are in disagreement about the stone: she is trying to use it to negotiate with Zenathar to open up a spot in the Masked Lords.   Eventually, some boys, Zartan (13) and Greth (10) appear; these are the Gralhund boys. The daughter seems to be visiting family in a faraway place. The big orc is the Lady’s personal guard. There is an unused teleportation circle in the room he was hiding in; he claims that the circle is used to visit distant relatives, but it hasn’t been used in quite some time.   Once the Lady arrives, we start applying some pressure tactics, but she stonewalls us hard. Detalosi, bored and poorly socialized, spontaneously kills the Lady, and we are arrested. We learn the ins and outs of Waterdeep’s criminal justice system.   We manage to get Lord Gralhund to appear at our hearing. Detalosi gets permission to cast Zone of Truth on the Lord, to ensure that his testimony is legitimate. He is a bit resistive, but cooperates anyways. HE squeals all of his knowledge, including some goodies we didn’t know, like stuff he did in the Fourth Grade. He admits that Lady Gralhund controlled the nimblewright that fireball’d us in the street. HE admits that she conspired with Zenathar and the Masked Nobles. He admits that she got the Stone, and that she went out on her own to swing some deals with it.   Laurel Silverhand, the current Open Lord (magistrate-like thing) is quite fair about the whole thing. She asks about our involvement in the larger story, besides helping the Gralhunds’ with their attack.   We pitch our case, and they show leniency, on one condition: We continue to hunt down this criminal network, and that the Stone is revealed to the city authorities once we recover it. The money from the Hoard will go to the city, and 5000GP goes to us upon its recovery.   Bob, who managed to not get arrested, swipes the key that Lady Gralhund wore around her neck. He then opens a chest that Lorin found that contains: a locked tome, folded clothes, and a false bottom! Inside the false bottom: two holy symbols, and two red & gold robes.