Session #6: Smoke and Mirrors

General Summary

The party returns back to the manor, finding that Jorn has grown resentful in his time at the manor. He argues with Hope a bit as the group discusses what to do about the situation with the Xanathar and lady Zolthos, and it takes a while.
Meanwhile, Alex experiences strange strands of thought. They view themselves, almost as if they were watching from a third person view, hauling strange black stones with a green aura into a wagon and delivering them to what they believe to be some kind of workshops. However, Alex seems to forget their place as they do so and has no idea of where those workshops are, and as if by magic, Alex returns from their disassociative state at the gates of Waterdeep as if no time had passed since they were incarcerated and returns to Trollskull Manor.
The group eventually travels to the Xanathar hideout where they find a giant mechanical beholder has broken down. They go through the hideout, killing plentiful amounts of Duergar until they reach a throne room. A duergar resides on the throne, being attended to by kobolds. He grows to a massive size after a short discussion with the party, and him and his kobold bodyguard fight the party while the rest tend to run around and cower while getting slaughtered. They are quickly dispatched and the party finds the stone of Golorr.
They are unable to figure out the secret of the stone, so they find Renard in his manor-home and ask him about it, and he identifies it as fake, so Luthrin shuts the door on him, and the party returns to the Xanathar hideout.
There, the party tries to reacticvate the Beholder construct which starts to shoot off fireworks. Suddenly, fiery blasts of light shoot from out of nowhere and attacks the group consisting of Hope, Luthrin, Kiwi, and Kuro. Following that, a giant ball of fire engulfs them and the construct causing a large explosion that hurts the party.
As the party falls into disarray, not knowing where they are being attacked from, a half orc in charcoal black clothing appears, and causes Luthrin to attack Hope. Hope attacks the assailant, but he manages to block the attack by conjuring a shield of fire before escaping in a cloud of smoke.
The rest of the party ends up fighting amongst itself until all that stands is Kuro. He waits with his unconscious party members, waiting for any enemies when he hears the sound of approaching boots. When the figure turns the corner, Kuro attacks a half-orc figure wearing blue clothing that contains astral symbols and wearing a long pointy blue hat. Kuro cuts off the hand of the figure, and he falls to the ground, blood spurting from his hand in such massive amounts that he nearly died instantly.
Kuro took the hat off, revealing a beaten and bloodied Renard with a sealed letter attached to his chest. Kuro opened the letter to read: "Be careful who you mess with. Everyone gets their comeuppance in the end." Kuro stuffed the letter in Luthrin's coin pouch and waited for the party to wake up after placing the hat back on Renard, making him seem like the same half-orc figure.
The group woke up and Kuro walked off without saying much. After investigating the body, they found it to actually be Renard. Luthrin looked in his pouch to find the same letter, but he realized a small note that Kuro had missed. Written in Crimson red, the note read: "Ps. if you can't trust your own senses, how can you trust others?"

Rewards Granted

Stone of Deception- Left with Renard

Missions/Quests Completed

Cleared the Xanathar hideout

Character(s) interacted with

Istrid Horn, the loan shark
Renard, the illusionary enemy

Report Date

26 Apr 2019

Primary Location

Waterdeep