Session 59 - The Return of Gribald!
11th November 2022
In-game timeline: Start of session: 1489DR Hammer 8. End of session: 1490DR Hammer 17
Our Heroes are able to spend a day in Baldur's Gate. Karoshi is off doing his own thing. Derrick asks around town about Lispeth and Redback and gets a hint that they caught a caravan to Waterdeep sometime about 2-3 weeks ago, but found out no more info. Jaxii, without hesitation, gets a temporary job for the day in the local brothel, as "an exotic" and has a financially profitable time there, but doesn't find out much info, though her dragonborn client, Finxal, believes he got great value for money from Jaxii in her dominatrix persona. Jaxii herself doesn't seem to mind not getting any useful information, and worryingly seems to very much enjoy the experience. Iwee consolidates some friendships in Baldur's Gate - not enough to gain a confidant in the city, but enough to have a couple of people she can communicate with to find out some general information should they need that in future.
The party then spend a week on board ship travelling back to Neverwinter. Derrick still hates boats. Iwee improves her sailing expertise. Cap'n Grayson tells them a little more about the captured hag in Neverwinter, including where she is being held, and that he has a contact on the guard there, and also warns them that people of dragonborn descent in Neverwinter have been politely, but forcefully, asked questions about their backgrounds recently, by the new "Embers Watch" who seem to be slowly usurping the town Guard as law enforcement, though at present they are more of an organised "community support group".
Upon arrival back in the city, the group experience this "interrogation" when a group of the new Embers Watch approach them while in a bar and politely ask Jaxii about her reason for being in Neverwinter, and her background and origin. The party start to feel a bit uncomfortable with this, and Derrick comes to Jaxii's aid, somehow persuading the Watch members to leave them alone. Iwee quickly discovers that he did this by showing them a badge that looked remarkably like the ones worn by the Watch. Some interrogation of Derrick ensued and it turned out he got the badge from his old adversary, Lucien, in the Lost Mine near to Phandelver. What this could mean is still a mystery.
They visit Jaxii's mother, Tamara, who is still working as a healer at the temple of Moradin. She is overjoyed at seeing her daughter again and, after the initial greetings and catch up, she confirmed that she had been questioned by the Embers Watch too, about her background. The reasons behind the questioning is unclear to her. Tamara is excited that some members of her old clan are planning to visit when passing through Neverwinter in a couple of weeks' time.
Our Heroes then head to The Crooked Staff to meet Devon, from the Little Fingers. He unsurprisingly seems to already be aware that they are back in Neverwinter, and is happy for the whole group to attend the meeting, as he has a proposal for all of them. When they meet with him, he explains that he needs them to infiltrate the Neverember Manor to try to find information that could implicate Dagult in some dodgy deeds and/or obtain some form of cypher key that will help them translate the documents that they found in the lockbox retrieved from The Emperor of the Waves. The group are keen to help, especially as it may help to bring down Neverember (despite the fact that Neverember seems to be doing good work within Neverwinter, albeit with some xenophobic overtones). Devon offers them some aid on the job in the form of a newly recruited lock-picker. The Little Fingers need to use unknown members for this job, as they recently caught a spy in their midst and they don't yet know whose identities within the organisation have been compromised. Initially, the party are keen to accept any help given, but Derrick is annoyed to find that the recruit offered is none other than the gnome, Gribald!
Once the rest of the group manage to stop Derrick from simply stabbing Gribald there and then, they retire to decide whether to accept Gribald's help and whether, and how, to go about the heist…