Session 60 - Family Secrets

 

18th November 2022

In-game timeline: Start of session: 1489DR Hammer 17. End of session: 1490DR Hammer 19

Our Heroes have been asked to infiltrate Neverember Manor to discover some information that could aid the Little Fingers in either bringing Neverember down, or giving them some level of control over his actions and plans for Neverwinter. They have been offered the help of a "master lockpicker", as they are a little inexperienced in this particular skill, and it could prove useful in such an endeavour. However, the thief they have been offered is someone known to, and very much disliked by, Derrick. A gnome named Gribald.

The party discuss their options, and also receive some information from the Little Fingers - both in the form of a map of the interior of the Manor, and the guard movements around the manor, as well as some notes on Neverember's movements and appointments over the next few days - some of which may give them opportunities for infiltrating the Manor, depending upon what plan they come up with.

They decide to make use of Neverember's absence from the house over the period of 3 hours in the evening in a couple of days' time. They agree to make use of Gribald's help, though are completely mistrustful of his motives and insist on questioning the gnome beforehand under the influence of a Zone of Truth spell. The gnome seems quite genuine and honest - even quite likeable to those who have not met him before, but it still takes all of Derrick's resolve not to kill the little thief.

The plan is hatched.

Derrick spends a day checking out the guard movements around the Manor grounds, confirming and enhancing the information given by the Little Fingers. Derrick looks quite at home in the nearby coffee shop in the Nobles' Quarter, whilst the others will have been a little out of place there.

Jaxii surprisingly decides not to spend the day working in the local brothel for a change and takes her mum out for a day trip seeing the sights of Neverwinter. Iwee and Karoshi keep their eyes and ears open to get a few more titbits of information about the goings on at the Manor, including guard rotations etc.

As evening falls, they put their plan into effect.

Derrick watches Neverember leave the manor and, along with Jaxii and Karoshi, slips into the grounds and finds a good hiding place amongst the outer bushes and trees to keep an eye on the Manor and be ready to step in to help Iwee and Gribald if needed. Owl Pacino is sent on a scouting mission to check out where the guards are.

Iwee and Gribald meanwhile meet up a little distance from the Manor and make their own way to the entrance gate. When there, Iwee casts Invisibility on both of them and instructs Gribald to always be on the other end of a short bit of rope, so they can ensure they remain close to each other. They then make their way into the grounds and up to the small garden beneath the small balcony outside Neverember's quarters. A quick pinch of Pixie Dust on them both will enable them to fly up to the balcony without any problems. A perfect plan.

Or so they thought. Unfortunately, as Iwee is soon to discover, Pixie Dust doesn't work like that. She sprinkles some onto Gribald who, instead of rising up and flying to the window, just complains of feeling a little dizzy for a short time, but his feet remain firmly on the ground. Bugger.

Change of plan, then.

Still invisible, they creep to the front of the house, avoiding the patrolling guards. They have no option but to open the front door and creep in, hoping that anyone inside will not see them. The guard in the hallway is very suspicious of the door suddenly opening, and starts to look around. When Gribald makes a clattering noise in the hall, the guard calls two others who come down from upstairs to help look for intruders. They even consider that there may be invisible people inside and start to poke around with their swords and spears. Despite being invisible, Iwee and Gribald struggle to avoid detection - the rope between them making their stealthy movements difficult.

They manage to get up the stairs, but guards have heard them and are closing in. Just as things are looking bleak for their plan, the other three hiding in the grounds get concerned that the plan is not proceeding well, as they have not seen the balcony door opening yet. Derrick sends Pacino in to try to create a disturbance to help as much as he can - something which proves opportune for Iwee and Gribald, as Pacino knocks over a vase to cause some commotion, and leading the guards to believe that the owl was the cause of all the sounds they have heard so far! Their attention is turned away from the invisible gnomes, allowing them to get upstairs and into Neverember's quarters safely. Unfortunately for Pacino, one of the guards lands a spear through the owl's body, ending his current time on this plane and confusing the guards as to why the owl suddenly disappeared. But it was enough to reassure them that there were no other intruders in the house. Phew!

Iwee and Gribald were safely in Neverember's room and had some time to themselves. Gribald managed to detect and disarm a trap on the door to the dressing room and they found Neverember's clothes and dressing table. A suspicious looking lockbox on the table required Gribald's thievery skills, but this time they let hm down, and a small needle fired into his hand, poison spreading through his body. As his health started to quickly fail, Iwee gave him some healing to save his life, but the poison continued to affect him. The bard had to remove the tiny needle from his hand before the effects were halted, just in time to keep him alive. After a moment's pause, Gribald tried again and this time managed to disarm the trap and open the lockbox, revealing a button.

After some deliberation, Iwee pressed the button and was transported, still invisible, to another room.

This room contained lots of treasures - gold, silver, ornaments, scrolls etc. All of which Iwee managed to refrain from taking in the interest of hoping that their infiltration would remain undetected. Instead, she copied some interesting documents from the table - a cypher key, along with some detailed notes on Neverember's plans for corruption and xenophobia within Neverwinter. These should be enough for the Little Fingers to undermine the new Lord Protector! She also found some worrying evidence about a past relationship that Neverember had with a half-elf named Cassandra. Iwee copied down this information too.

As she looked around for other useful stuff, the little gnome was worried when the mirror in the room faded to black and a humanoid form started to emerge from the darkness within the mirror. Not wanting to either be discovered (despite still being invisible) or to see what the form in the mirror may take, Iwee quickly turned the mirror around. As she panicked about what to do, a slow, very deep voice emerged from the mirror, asking for a progress report, especially relating to an "Arm" that was being looked for. Not wanting to be found out, Iwee quickly pressed the red button she had seen on a pedestal in the room, returning her to the dressing room.

She found Gribald hiding under the bed - apparently a loud bell had sounded after she disappeared, so Gribald had hid, though no one seemed to come to investigate.

As the time got closer to when Neverember was due to return, the two gnomes quickly did their best to reset the room, and traps, back to how they were, and then escaped down the balcony and out of the grounds, meeting up with the other three.

Back in the Crooked Staff, they handed over everything they had found about Neverember's plans to Devon, who seemed very pleased and was convinced they would prove useful. He handed over an unexpected reward to the group for their efforts and Gribald bid them all farewell.

Iwee then addressed the topic of Neverember's relationship with a half-elf named Cassandra. She suspected that it may have something to do with Derrick's past, and when she read out the letter she had found, this was confirmed. Cassandra was Derrick's mother and, rather than Carvell being Derrick's father as he had always believed, his true father was, in fact, Neverember himself! Shocked and upset at this revelation, Derrick left to spend some time with his own thoughts, whilst the rest of the group considered what this may mean….