Griffon: 11/17/18

Perfect Storm by Mark Kung
Fiego | Karash | Rivaan | Sly |Tully

It was a perfectly ordinary night in Waterdeep and our heroes were going about their daily lives. The shadowy young noble, Tully Montaigne, and his father, Theobald Montaigne, were visiting with the head of another noble family, Lord Espertine. The Lady Espertine was old friends with Tully’s mother and the Lords were chatting about the latest trouble with the unrest amongst the rabble. Tully had to find a polite way to disagree with the old noble about the place of the common folk.   Outside, the wily rogue, Sly, was tutoring the noble bard, Fiego, in the ways of thievery. As a test, Fiego was to steal a toy sword that had been taken from him by a childhood bully, Goward Espertine. After traversing the grounds of the Espertine Manor and avoiding the guards, the pair scaled the walls of the estate and slipped into a hidden store room, but not before being spotted by Tully, inside the parlor. Tully made excuses to leave the room and go investigate why one of his crime fighting companions was scaling the wall of the Espertine Manor.   Meanwhile, Rivaan, the dragonborn Watchman and Karash, the half orc bounty hunter, were hot on the heels of wanted criminal, dubbed The Midnight Glider, a dark cloaked figure suspected of stealing holy symbols from temples around the city. Witnesses credited The Midnight Glider with the ability to fly and indeed he did take to the air to avoid pursuit, but it was with the aid of some sort of grappling line and not before Karash was able to mark him for the hunt. As they followed his trail, it led them to the gates of the Espertine Manor. Inside, Tully happened to witness yet another dark cloaked figure scaling the walls. Exasperated, he changed into his crime fighting costume.   After plundering the hidden storeroom of Lady Espertine’s jewelry, Sly and Fiego continued around the outside of the building, peering in the windows to see if they could find Goward’s room. When they finally found it, the man himself was present, dressed in a dark cloak and mask, speaking to someone in a crystal ball. Fiego spotted his old practice sword, but was more intrigued by the plotting Goward seemed to be committing with an unknown accomplice.   Searching for Sly, Nighthawk peered through the keyhole of Goward’s room, joining Fiego and Sly in eavesdropping on his scheming. Both of them were shocked to hear that the young Espertine had dealings with the Cult of the Dragon and was planning on double crossing them, to boot. After concluding his conversation, Goward Espertine hid his crystal ball in a secret room and headed toward the door. Nighthawk had but a moment to react and magically disguised himself as Lady Espertine.   That was when, after gaining entrance for official Watch business in pursuing a criminal, Rivaan and Karash rounded the corner to behold ‘Lady Espertine’ telling her son to go off and allow the Watch to continue their investigation, which he did. At the same time, Fiego managed to unlock the door and our heroes were together for the first and last time for the night. With only a moment to spare before someone else came along, Nighthawk dropped the disguise and divulged all he had learned in a rapid fire manner, Goward’s involvement with the Cult of the Dragon and even the secret hiding place of the crystal ball and, presumably, more evidence. Their time ran out when Jerard, the butler, rounded the corner and, seeing the masked vigilante Nighthawk, raised the alarm and engaged. That left Fiego and Sly to find the evidence and Rivaan and Karash to navigate the developing crisis in the hallway in the most peaceable way they could.   Rivaan first tried to convince the butler that they could handle Nighthawk and that he should go look for the other intruder, but the butler was undeterred and attacked the masked crime fighter. Making a hard decision, the loyal Watchman resolved to apprehend and take Nighthawk in, for his own safety. Nighthawk, not being privileged to his thought process, was confused and incensed. He summoned darkness to shroud the hallway behind Jerard, preparing to make an escape.   Inside the room, Fiego relocked the door and snapped off his thieves tools in them to prevent it from opening. After finding and opening the secret chamber, Sly swept an armful of gold and holy relics into her bag before Fiego could even follow her, but once he entered he glanced over to see a chest and didn’t detect any traps, so Sly moved to apply her lockpicks, whereupon the chest proceeded to bite her. Fiego and Sly had just encountered their first mimic. With a startled reaction, Fiego drew his rapier and unleashed a trumpeting blast of energy against the shapechanged creature   Out in the hallway, Rivaan and Karash had almost convinced the butler to leave them and search for the other intruder when a mysterious blast drew his attention back to Goward’s room. Thinking to prevent Fiego and Sly from being caught, Nighthawk played the villain and implied that he had planted explosives around the estate and that Jerard would never be able to find them. Rivaan was able to grab Nighthawk and slap a pair of manacles on him. Distracted by the bomb threat, Jerard left momentarily, and when he returned, Nighthawk had cast yet another disguise upon himself and now looked like … Tully Montaigne. Jerard was confused, but Rivaan in his honesty and duty told him it was a trick and reached under the illusion to pull off Nighthawk’s mask. Jerard was shocked.   Inside the secret chamber, Fiego battled the mimic and Sly, noticing another chest, approached to pick it open and was blasted near unconsciousness by a bolt of lightning. The dragon faced chest then threatened her, telepathically, whereupon she decided to leave. Fiego managed to slay the creature, but the sound of battle drew Jerard’s attention yet again and he tried to open the door to Goward’s chamber. Finding the lock jammed, he allowed Karash to attempt to break the door open. Luckily for our heroes, Karash was not able to damage the door very well. Rivaan, the heavily armored and muscled soldier was able to make much better progress. The moment’s reprieve was all the thief and bard needed to make their escape out the open window, however, and the butler found the room empty. He quickly began covering up any evidence of a hidden chamber.   Apprehended, manacled, and under the guise of Tully Montaigne, Nighthawk was hauled to the City Watch station, with Jerard following along to make sure he was punished for his intrusion on the Espertine Manor. Broghan, Captain of the Watch, threw Nighthawk into a cell and called for a Watch Mage to dispel the illusion. Rivaan tried to explain the situation in his report as best he could without necessarily giving away the fact that he knew who Nighthawk really was underneath the illusion. Captain Broghan, nodded and promised that all would be revealed when the Watch Mage came. Outside, Fiego fretted, half made plans flitting through his mind of disguising himself as Nighthawk and causing a distraction, but he could see no way to then extricate his friend from the gaol. The arrival of the Watch Mage seemed to spell doom for Nighthawk, whose secret identity would be revealed, ruining his reputation and possibly landing him in prison.   The mage went about his business in a thoroughly professional manner, making sure to set up a warding circle to prevent Nighthawk from magically escaping or attacking, before dramatically dispelling the illusion covering him to reveal … a two bit criminal known for his rat like face. Theobald, Tully’s father, harrumphed and left. Fiego and Rivaan were shocked. When Rivaan asked Captain Broghan what happened, the captain circumspectly informed the dragonborn that Theobald Montaigne was an old friend and that Tully was a good kid, as long as he stopped whatever nonsense he was about.   What started out a night like any other ended very tensely.