#Trollskull Alley

[alswrites]

The Waterdeep Parks and Recreation Department is bringing the summer fun with several activties and events. This booklet has nine activites for DMs to use in their Waterdeep campaigns. 

Each Activity has a reward for players to earn for characters. 

For every Activity, there's an Encounter where players can earn more cool rewards. 

Players can join in on cool activies like the Phaulkonmere Paranormal Camp or the Deepwater Harbor Swimming Classes. 

Connect with Waterdeep residents at events like the Ahghorian Art Show and the Heroes' Garden Tea Party.

There's also the return of both the Summer Concert Series in Trollskull Alley where residents can see famous bands like The Counterspell Boys and Kitten Crusaders. 

Several local authors will unveil their latest book at the Summer Author Series. 

Earn cool Magic Items like the Bookbag of Holding and the Decanter of Endless Tea.

[niccdevv]

Some MORE Waterdeep: Dragon Heist NPCs! (SPOILERS!)

Investigators Saeth Cromley & Barnibus Blastwind, Volothamp Geddarm, Embric & Avi from Steam & Steel in Trollskull Alley, and Aurinax.

[venusmage]

Hi! :]

Just asking if you have any lore about the Waterdeep sketches you posted a while back, because they're lovely!

Also I love your art! Good job!

hi! thank you!! I'm not entirely sure which sketches you mean, I'm assuming either all of them or the recent "photographs"?

If it's about Drac's position - he's basically an office worker, called a Guild-Stop attendant. It's a mixture of a place to get directions, order research materials from libraries, and do pretty much every kind of paperwork someone would need to get done especially registering or working with one of the 60+ guilds in Waterdeep. Important mail is delivered there, too. There's one in every ward and that group of like 7 weirdos (+ occasional fill-ins) are the backbone of the city i swear. Last time they saw him he was doing building inspection for an inn opening up in trollskull alley, etc.

a player described it best saying he's also basically the party's 'fixer'. If they need to be contacted for a job or paid for that job it's through him a good amount of the time if the party is working for the city. I'm probably going to put out a little lore writeup soon for guildstops so anyone can use them because for ME it was a good way to give the players info while still being in-universe. If they're stumped half the time it's a good idea to find a guild stop and ask some questions.

Waterdeep is the only city on the sword coast with moving photography! But also has way more regular photography than any other city, too. It was made after a bunch of convoluted stuff regarding chronourgy and artificing and now it's a staple of life there and a major tourist draw. Also an excuse to draw photos of the party and their families and friends bc I'm sentimental and think it's fun. I've also dropped plot reveals using it like twice

IN the pictures -- the Bard's mom and dad with their adventuring party, including the sorceress that's basically the wizard's adoptive mom, too. And a baby picture of said bard because they were all snooping trying to see if the cleric npc was her dad (yep) and why her mom's such a mystery (still dunno)

the other is a photo of the artificer and his ex boyfriend a few years before they broke up :( he recently found out that some outside forces are what caused the split and its a complicated Mess. I've drawn the rogue's dads and grandma before, too, and his brother.

[chaoticbard]

Trollskull Alley, the location in which the Jolly Goose (and it's fabulous and famous haunting host Lif) are situated in the North Ward of Waterdeep. Upper middle class people live around the Jolly Goose, which means that Alaara is playing for some pretty wealthy individuals in her tavern home. Of course, even taverns with wealthier clientele are still filled with interest and varying degrees of petty criminal activity. After all, even the rich can be rowdy, bawdy, and generally indecent.

She's seen far too many of the elite (or perhaps, more aptly, people with think they're of the elite) stop in and act like money can literally solve any problem. Any problem. Some days, poor Lif works overtime haunting bad patrons out of the place.

[dragon-heisters]

Session 31, 1 Apr 2023: "This is some Tracy Emin type shit."

Suggested talking points: the price of the pathfinder rule book (ridiculous), hooray for the DM's sister - she found a copy at a local bookshop for an actually decent price! We’re all super excited for Pathfinder, which lets pretty much anyone have a familiar or animal companion, which can even be a severed head or severed hand. You don't want an angel though.

No Hazel or Pfenig tonight, so we must soldier on without them. We’ve found the vault, so we chuff off home for a long rest as we got battered by a Displacer beast last time. Nuri levels up both Hazel and Pfenig, and we’re off…

The party wake up at Trollskull Alley and descend the stairs; Nuri notices that Thessalie is absent. He asks around, but no-one seems to have seen her today. Lif says she has been acting strangely, talking to herself. Vervain is in the taproom, however, and has been chatting with Pfenig. He’s been filling them in on what they’ve missed.

Well, we didn't need Thessalie anyway. Or the Stone of Golorr, not any more. (That's definitely not going to come back to bite us.) We go back to the mill and go down the stairs; there is a large set of double doors with dwarfish runes carved into them. Nuri can read them given time, if no-one else speaks it…? No? Okay. He casts Comprehend Languages as a ritual. “The three keys, bring them forth!”

Ah fuck, we forgot the dwarf. Oh, no we didn’t, hurray!

We get the shaved dwarf to hold the beholder eyestalk and the dragon scale, and ask him to wait for us like he’s some sort of taxi. He agrees. Vervain shares their Eyes of Night ability, giving everyone 300 feet of darkvision.

The doors open to a huge chamber; twelve sets of double doors line the walls. Hazel gives the room a cursory glance for traps. “Looks fine to me.”

60 feet above us are bridges that span the columns in the centre of the room; they all look to be in pretty shitty condition. Engraved on the double doors are images of dwarves in heavy armour.

No traps on the floor. Nuri casts Detect Magic as a ritual and does a circuit of the room, approaching each set of doors in turn to see if there is any magic around or behind the doors. Aside from us and the items we carry, there is no sign of magic in the room.

He picks a set of doors at random. We go up to them and Hazel checks them for traps. 10. “Oooh! Average.”

No sign of traps on the doors. No keyhole, either. Hmm. Pfenig gives them a push; nothing happens. Vervain leans over him and pushes them open.

There is a staircase leading up, and next to it is a fresco of dwarves battling goblins. It is... oddly alluring... As we approach, everyone but Hazel makes WIS saves; ah fuck.

We all roll pretty good for once. Pfenig thinks the artwork is crass; Vervain has seen better. DM: "This is some Tracy Emin type shit." Nothing bad happens, yay!

As luck would have it, every other door in the room is false; we happened to hit on the right ones first time. Ha! (Nuri: "Told you the others only slowed us down.")

Joe copies and pastes us up the stairs, and we push our tank (Pfenig) up ahead. The hall we find ourselves in has high ceilings and more pillars. There are 3 archways on the left, and Vervain spots an area of damage to a mural about halfway down the wall. The mural is of dwarves doing... something. They go and have a closer look; the dwarves are in heavy armour and look as if they’re off to battle.

Nuri and his genasi eyes take a look. It looks to be a different artist than the fresco downstairs. He makes an Investigation check; worse than Vervain's. The crack in the mural looks deep and dark. He presses his nose up against it and gets hit in the face with a pseudopod - Initiative time!

Hazel retreats into shadow and shoots the thing, remembering from last time we fought black puddings that they’re hard to hide from. 20 damage!

DM, annoyed: “You sir, are a cad and a bounder.”

Pfenig next. The DM asks if he is going to heal the poor little pudding. He casts Shilfkgjldfhgklhjh instead, but is too far away to do much on this turn. He moves up and gets ready for the next round.

Nuri has a faceful of black pudding. “Not this again.” He Creates Bonfire underneath it, doing 11 damage and forcing a DC15 DEX save. It rolls a 6, which comes out the other side as a 3. Good to know…

Vervain Sacred Flames it. They could do Spiritual Weapon but they don’t want to use the spell slot if they don’t need to. "We’ve got Hazel, we’ll be fine."

The pudding hits Nuri, rolling a 20 and dissolving his armour; joke’s on the DM because this happened last time and he never replaced his armour, so all it does it make his jacket look slightly cooler.

The pudding slops off toward Hazel, and Nuri gets an attack of opportunity - it hits for 6 slashing and 2 fire damage. The pudding splits into two puddings, and Vervain swears a lot.

(Pfenig arrives in person, he’s escaped from his party and come to join us!)

Hazel shoots and hits for 22 damage and gets the how de do dis one one of them. "It bursts and splashes on the floor and it’s gross." Hazel smiles unnervingly.

It’s Pfenig’s turn - he does Symbiotic Enti- no wait, he wants to save that. He runs up and hits it with his Shilsdkldfhjlhh, “Giving it a jolly good pasting. Have that, ya bastard.” It’s looking… grubby, like it’s losing its integrity.

Nuri’s turn and he casts Bonfire under it again. How de do dis! “It kind of… boils, and there’s a smell of burned farts.”

Nuri is looking a little worse for wear; Vervain does him a Cure Wounds at level 1; 8 HP back.

Vervain spots a door at the far end of the corridor; they get Hazel to check it for traps. She finds none. Vervain manages to push the door open. Behind it is treasure!

We did it, we won Dungeons and Dragons. Nuri starts calculating how much we can carry. The DM asks us if we’d like to go in and investigate the gold. Uh oh; looks like we haven’t won quite yet.

There are five urns; inside them we find the following:

Urn 1: 5 tourmaline worth 100 gp each & 200cp Urn 2: Ring of Warmth, 10 gold rings worth 25gp each, and 650 gp in coins Urn 3: 250gp Urn 4: 33 blue quartz worth 10gp each Urn 5: a 9 inch tall statue of a dwarf worth 250gp and weighing 10lbs.

Probably not even Lord Neverember knew about this room; we don’t think this is part of the hoard. We can just pocket this. We can fit some in our loot satchels, and Nuri’s lamp; we do that.

We have a look at the bridges; these are suspended over the room below and are in, quote, “Shit condition”. We send Pfenig across first and wait to see what happens to him. We think about sending him over with a rope but we only have 50 feet of it; we could tie two together but it’ll be long enough then that if he does fall he’ll still hit the ground. We decide to just tie the one rope around him, and Vervain holds the other end. He'll be on his own after the first 50 feet or so. Vervain casts Guidance on him and he edges his way across.

DM: “Stop right there and make a Dexterity check!” He rolls a 6, and even Guidance isn’t going to help that.

Pfenig as he plummets 60 feet to the ground: “And that’s how Pfenig dies.”

Vervain makes a STR save, a 15, and manages to save him. Phew! He takes a little bit of damage as he reaches the end of the rope, but not as much as if he'd hit the ground. Vervain drops him the last five feet and he comes back around and up the stairs.

We all heard a thunderous crash from the northern end of the room as this happened; sounds like one of the other bridges collapsed. Pfenig has a look on his way back up; it did.

How to cross the gaps? Vervain has a decent jump distance, and Pfenig can change into something that can jump. Vervain goes first and flings one end of their rope back for Hazel; the other two make it under their own steam.

We approach the adamantine door on the other end of the bridge. We get Hazel to check for traps; 23! Eyyyyyyy. She finds no traps. Vervain pushes it but nothing happens.

Pfenig makes an Arcana check to see if it’s magical; a 9. He thinks it probably is. Nuri or Pfenig can cast Detect Magic; Pfenig does, and sees a faint aura around the door. It’s transmutation magic. (If only we had a transmutation wizard.) We all look at each other, stumped.

Nuri: "I could set it on fire…?"

Vervain makes an Insight check; they think that if one of us was a dwarf the doors would open automatically. Oh - duh. They trudge back down the stairs to go and get the dwarf.

He’s drunk. The door opens for him anyway. Great! We are going to have to babysit this guy now though.

The chamber beyond is 20 feet high with frescoes of more dwarves and an anvil on a plinth in the centre of the room. Nuri investigates the fresco. “Shall I do my Wisdom Save now?” He's fine, nothing happens.

Pfenig spots some dwarven runes on the anvil. We push the dwarf forward.

“It says let the hammer fall and the anvil ring,” he slurs.

Who’s got a hammer?

Pfenig looks at the fresco. It’s of a blacksmith, and handily there is a removable hammer. Behind it are more runes.

“Oi, Thunderbuns!”

The dwarf shuffles over. “Let hearts be lifted and battles won.”

Pfenig lifts the hammer with his very small Strength score and brings it down “in a big wobbly arc” on the anvil.

CLANG!

DM: "Can you all hear it? You didn’t cover your ears or anything?"

Oh no…

We all get ten temp HP!

We call it there, so we can think about how we are going to get back over the bridge without using too many of our daily skills. Next session will probably be the last one, so let's make it good!

[pinersun]

Dm mage drops

#DM MAGE DROPS HOW TO#

The advice about handling downtime, and the structure to fill the gap left by the module as written, are both worthwhile. My primary interest was in this Trollskull Alley resource, and it provides substance on the areas the descriptions tells you it is going to cover. While the maps are well executed, I didn't even care when I made the purchase. I took this as an indicator of the quality of writing within the product. ( It was like finding a unicorn.washing your car.)Ģ) The well written copy describing exactly what resources were contained within the product. I bought the entire bundle, without having purchased any other products from the authors before for two specific reasons.ġ) The previews allowed me to see clean formatting and page design. See more Alley side quests (ie - Paper Problems) add a lot of personality. They loved gambling with Solomil in chapter 1, and your Trollskull.

#DM MAGE DROPS HOW TO#

I'm inclined to think that you don't add a bonus, since the next section you've described how to earn bonuses to the roll by working in the tavern.ītw, your other suggestions have gone over extremely well with the group. When I roll the d100 to determine my result, do I add a bonus to the roll due to promotion (like stated in the published campaign)? Does this mean that money spent on promotion does NOT also get added as a bonus to the d100 roll?įor example, say I spend 10gp on promotion, and have now earned a x2 multiplier to the result listed in the "Running a Business" table. You've proposed that money (gp) spent on promotion turns into a multiplier for potential profits. I have a question on your proposed running a business rule changes listed in the "A Risky Promotion" section of your Chapter 2: Trollskull Alley guide. A Trollskull Manor Map - a map showing an unfurnished Trollskull Manor, in case your players want to do their own interior decoration.Making a Plan - Lastly, everything is brought together and you'll be given general advice on how to plan and organize chapter 2, so that it's manageable to run and entertaining for your players.Downtime Options - Discussion of the downtime options presented in the Xanathar's Guide to Everything, as well as ideas on how they can be altered and flavored to fit with Waterdeep and the campaign.Joining Factions - Reviews of each of the player-available factions to help you choose the right factions for your party.Open for Business? - Ideas on how to make the tavern renovation more affordable - and some options for securing a loan - as well as variant rules for running and profiting off the tavern in Trollskull Manor.Meeting the Neighbors - Advice on how to handle Lif the Poltergeist, as well as two small sidequests that'll help you introduce and flesh out the other residents of Trollskull Alley.You'll find advice and embellishments on nearly everything that's described in the chapter, which will hopefully help you DM the chapter. The goal of this document is to help you find the answer to those questions and provide the tools to create a fun and manageable sandbox for your players. What should you use from the chapter? How do you use it? When? For who? But, as is often the case, freedom can become overwhelming. It's where you and the players get to set your own pace, create unique stories and forge a lasting relationship with Waterdeep and its residents. Trollskull Alley - a Waterdeep: Dragon Heist DM's ResourceĬhapter 2: Trollskull Alley is the sandbox of the Waterdeep: Dragon Heist campaign.

[oldthe-nothing-maker]

*Waterdeep’s equivalent of Animal Crossing’s “The Roost” OST gently plays in the background*

[natonebutfun]

Trollskull Alley/Manor - Sims 4 build

This is what happens if the DM (me) has access to the Sims 4 when the party obtains a tavern/manor from a quest. I’ve made some changes to the original maps that come with the source book for this campaign, mostly because my party decided on some during session as well as 5-7-ish people living/staying at the manor and thus needing more rooms.

(I also added the buildings around it, those however are NOT furnished)

Outside

Ground Floor

Here you can see that the party made the turret section a private area for the clients of the tavern

Basement

The hatch and ladder have been replaced with a normal set of stairs because ladders in Sims universe don’t seem to exist.

First Floor

On this floor another room was added in the turret and the bottom hallway was removed in favor of more logical placements of the rooms.

Second floor

In the book there’s a ladder leading to the topmost turret, of course this wasn’t possible in the Sims so we like to pretend “It’s there”

The top right two bathrooms show as a single one in the book, however an en-suite ALSO being shared with the rest of the house seemed illogical. Changes where thus made, again. And of course the stairs are slightly different due to spiral stairs not existing in the Sims either.

Attic

The storage room was split into two rooms here too, to make another bedroom and a storage that isn’t absurd in size. Screenshots here were also tricky due to the roof draped over it.

[artwheat]

The bar on Trollskull Alley offers several forms of entertainment, including watching these two be gay

[is-sni-ovg]

for my waterdeep dragon heist game i drew my own art for the trollskull alley npcs since they don’t have any official art in the book. one of the player characters is vincent trench’s protege and they told me not to make him too attractive, because the other players would flirt with him

considering when they met him one of the first things another player asked was whether he was single i don’t think i did a very good job

[cei-guin]

Waterdeep Dragon Heist(ish): Session 4

The party is now the proud owner of Trollskull Manor, a worn-down and decrepit tavern that hasn't seen use in a decade and is haunted by a poltergeist. The poltergeist seems to want the party gone, but they'd only tried to communicate with it to no avail. It would take almost 2 weeks for the tavern to be completely renovated, and during that time they have the opportunity to explore the alley and meet their neighbors!

So far they've met Embric and Avi of Steam and Steel, Rishaal of Book Wyrm's Treasure, and Fala of Corellon's Crown. Thanks to them, they've discovered that the ghost haunting their building is a poltergeist, and might be the ghost of the previous owner, a half-elf named Lif. With the knowledge that running the tavern again may bring the spirit peace, they have a plan for their new home base.

Renaer also invites them all to a night of the opera, giving them the chance to dress up and meet other important friends of his, such as Vajra Safahr the Blackstaff. The opera started strong but ended on a weaker note, but was an enjoyable night nonetheless.

[alswrites]

In celebration of my birthday, I just dropped Book Wyrm's Birthday Gift, a free Waterdeep encounter on DMs Guild. Help make the perfect gift for Trollskull Alley's resident bookworm, Rishaal the Page-Turner.

[lawful-evil-novelist]

Highlights of the Dragon Heist Homebrew that has officially turned into “Dragon Heist if you want to run it at a higher level and also use all the villains in a fun way I was planning to do for a fanfic”

Varis is running around with a dhampir and two halflings causing utter mayhem and there is an actual note in his section about how he thieves and you (the DM) have the option to let him thieve from the players or any important NPC so instead of getting the necklace of fireballs from a normal kid you have to go track down this scrawny drow child and retrieve the dangerous magic item he knows how to use.

Artemis, Kimmuriel, and Zaknafein are humoring Jarlaxle, this does not mean they like his idea.

Players have the chance to watch as a small black and silver fox trots her way through Trollskull Alley to purchase herbs and books, she has a little harness where she carries the money and goods.

There are archdevils, they are not here to cause many problems but the PI in Trollskull Alley will not investigate them even if you ask nicely.  He will still take your money.

I got to write the words “Xzar the Harbinger” on the draft doc.

[dmsden]

Diversity & Dragons - Adding diversity to your game

Hullo, Gentle Readers. This week’s Question from a Denizen is one fairly near to my heart. An Anonymous reader asks, “Not sure how you feel about the subject of diversity. But I want to include a way of making sure my players know when in my head I’m doing it that doesn’t sound like I’m forcing them to sit and appreciate the black bartender or the Gay king and Queen (yeah I still called him queen) I want my players, even the ones who might think I’m being overly politically sensitive for doing it, to be forever forced to admit that I did it and it was good.”

So, how do I feel? Well, I’m openly gay. My games have had players of all manner of gender, color, nationality, religion, and sexual orientation. I love me some diversity, and, while D&D has and continues to have some difficulties in this direction, I feel like they are slowly taking steps in the right direction. It’s been refreshing to see images like the one above in their books, as well as to have NPCs in their adventures that’re depicted as people of color and/or LBGTQIA.

For years, I struggled with this. Making NPCs ethnically and racial diverse made me nervous...not because I didn’t want to do it, but because I didn’t want to insult someone at my table. Also, when I started playing, I was super-closeted. It was a big deal to me the first time in my private notes that I noted a character was gay. And it wasn’t until a few years after I came out that characters in my campaigns were open about their sexuality. I remember a campaign I ran, before 3rd edition was released, where I knew a couple of the players were gay or bi, and how amazing it was to have their male characters flirt or start romances with some of my male NPCs.

Eventually, I realized the easiest and best way to do it was just to do it without making a big deal out of it. I’d make notes about things like that, then just have it happen naturally. I’d refer to an NPC as being played by a specific actor, in order to help the players imagine what I had in mind. For example, I might say, “The Captain of the Guard is a handsome black-skinned man in his mid-40s with short-buzzed hair and a neatly kept goatee and mustache...imagine him being played by Idris Elba,” and everyone would get the right image in their minds.

With characters who are gay, I would simply introduce them and role-play them, only bringing up their sexuality organically. When I ran Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, I was very pleased with the diversity of characters in Trollskull Alley, the area that became the PC’s hangout. My players loved Fala, the non-binary elven herbalist, and Embric and Avi, the gay married genasi couple who ran the smithy down the street. I think that, other than the three street kids, those NPCs might’ve been the ones they got the strongest attachments to. I didn’t force the elements of their diversity on the group, any more than I introduce myself to people as, “Hi, I’m Andy, and I’m gay.” Embric simply introduced Avi as his husband, and the PCs reacted no differently than they would to any other couple. In Fala’s case, they simply gently corrected the PCs about their pronouns, and everyone got the idea very quickly. I think if you introduce situations like this and give the PCs the info, they’ll similarly take the hint and know what level of diversity your campaign world possesses.

Now, I think that, if you don’t know your players well, this might be a good point to bring up during a Session Zero. I’m not suggesting that you do this so that some of your players might object to this. I’m suggesting that, if some of your players do, this is a good time to let them know what you intend. In the end, it may be that you’ll realize you don’t want to game with some of these folks. Maybe that sounds harsh, but, if someone told me they were uncomfortable with the idea that some of my NPCs were going to be gay, it would make me concerned about how they actually feel about me, my husband, etc.

I hope that helps, Anonymous. I think Diversity in your game is great, and I can’t recommend it enough. I just don’t think you have to shine a spotlight on it. Let just be a facet of who your NPCs are, just like it is for people in real life. If you do, it’ll feel more real, and your players will, indeed, say you did it and did it well.

[angela-maps]

Trollskull Alley #battlemap #encountermap #fantasymap #worldbuilding #dnd #dndmaps #pathfinder #fantasyrpg #roll20 #fantasygrounds #angelamaps #inkarnate #foundryvtt #dndhomebrew #criticalrole #dungeonsanddragons #dungeonmaster #patreon #dungeonsanddragonsart #dmsguild #critters #cr #dndillustration #critrole #tabletoprpg #dndstories #ttrpg #waterdeep #trollskull https://www.instagram.com/p/CXQpzzzMyUw/?utm_medium=tumblr

[dragon-heisters]

Session 29, 11 March 2023: A can of mixed drow and gnomes

Suggested talking points - variations on the Swedish word for soup, roast tiger penis, the social skills of doctors (or lack thereof), Gary Glitter was basically doing Monster Drag, maybe Snoopy had a ladder at the back of his doghouse but Charles Schultz couldn't draw them, Hazel has to go and do some sheep midwifery but she’ll be back in a bit.

So last session we got our sticky little hands on the Stone of Golorr at last, and Thessalie attuned to it. Drunk with power, she is salivating over her 6th level spell - but she doesn’t yet know about the bad stuff the Stone will inflict, so let's find out! 37 - She has the sniffles; while attuned to the Stone, she is physically ill and has Disadvantage on any Strength or Constitution checks and saves. Ah, shit.

The Stone of Golorr has three charges, which she can use to cast Legend Lore, a 5th level Divination spell. Usually it needs components, but she doesn’t need them when casting it with the Stone. It can’t lie to her, but the information it gives might be cryptic or vague. She wants to ask where the hoard of dragons is, but she knows she must word her question carefully. (She can also sense that something is rifling through her memories... She will consider it an exchange for now, and pretend it doesn't unnerve her.)

In the morning, Pfenig gets a message in his head from the Emerald Enclave. They need his services - doppelgängers threaten Waterdeep at the Yawning Portal!

Nuri gets one from the Grey Hands as well - Meloon Wardragon has been acting strangely, also at the Yawning Portal. He and Thessalie are to observe for ten days, then report.

(Nuri wants to know if he can have gone to a library while Thessalie was attuning to the Stone. He wants to take the scandalous book we found in the Gralhunds' mansion and leave it on a lectern in the library with a sign saying ‘Book of the Month’. The DM is greatly amused and awards Inspiration.)

Thessalie, after ten minutes with her head on the table while the others discuss their faction jobs, lifts her head and asks her question aloud: "What is the current location of the hoard of gold coins to which the Stone of Golorr is said to be the key, to within five hundred feet?" The Stone has a think about how to respond. (The DM flips through the book.)

Nuri, while we wait: “Is it like a magic 8 ball, will it tell us to ask again later?”

The Stone tells Thessalie that the vault is hidden beneath a converted windmill in the Southern Ward. However, it says, the Stone of Golorr is not the key to opening it. Thessalie remembers a Waterdhavian noble called Kalain, a half elf who was having an affair with Lord Neverember. He gifted her with an estate in the Estate Ward, but when they fell out he took it back and destroyed her socially. She went mad as a result. She bought this windmill and currently lives there.

Thessalie passes all of this on to the others and holds nothing back, much to their surprise.

We go and see the bronze dragon to tell him what we saw under the Eyecatcher. He swims up, very excitedly. "Well?"

Pfenig: “It’s only a bloody submarine, innit? It’s like a boat but it sinks on purpose!”

So it’s a can of mixed drow and gnomes, stuck to the bottom of the ship, the dragon asks?

Nuri: “Yeah, it’s so they can chuff about in it, but it’s got little windows so they can see out. Like an underwater boat.”

So they can come and go without being seen. Is it full of treasure?

“No, mostly drow and gnomes.”

Do we, the party, trust the gnomes and the drow, the dragon asks?

“They don’t seem to have a negative agenda.”

Well a deal is a deal, and he promised us a chest. Do we have capacity in the Apparatus to carry it up? It’s got grabby hands, so yeah. The dragon swims into the shipwreck and comes back with a chest. He doesn’t know what’s in it, he says, but here you go.

Does it look magic? We drag it noisily back to Trollskull Alley. It’s an old chest with a rusted lock. Thessalie casts Knock, and the lock opens. Nuri wants to check it for barnacles. "No, the other thing. Traps!"

Hazel is good at that, so she does the check. 7. None, not a single trap, hooray! She gives it an open. We are all standing around Hazel peering over her shoulder; we make Perception checks (instead of Dexterity saves, much to our surprise). The main compartment contains 300 sp and a golden amulet shaped like an octopus worth 250gp. And no poisoned spikes, or explosions, or anything.

Pfenig and Hazel spot a secret compartment in the lid; they find a scroll tube. Inside is a scroll, miraculously dry. Pfenig does an Arcana check to see what it is (at Advantage because it’s a Divine spell). 19 - it’s a scroll of Revivify. Ooooh! He tucks it away.

We put the money in the tavern fund. (Hazel is back; the sheep managed to do it all on its own so all she had to do was put it in the post-natal ward.)

We chuff off to the Yawning Portal to observe this fella for ten days and look for doppelgängers. Apparently the rumour is that a doppelgänger is hiding out among the staff. (We chat as we walk down there. Hazel: "Honestly the portal gimmick is so last year; they don’t even have a ghost barman, never mind a mechanical beholder or a nimblewright bard.")

Pfenig wants to do some research on spotting doppelgängers. “If it looks just like you but it isn’t, it’s a doppelgänger,” Hazel helpfully tells him. Nuri hands him Volo’s Guide to Monsters, and Pfenig makes an Investigation check. an 18, with Guidance.

He knows that they are Monstrosities, able to shapeshift. They aren’t inherently evil though many think they are because their abilities tend to lend themselves to nefarious purposes. They are somewhat hedonistic and enjoy the finer things in life. If they are not abandoned by their humanoid families upon finding out that they are doppelgängers, the doppelgänger abandons them.

Nuri wants to set up a secret password so we can tell each other from doppelgängers of ourselves, and settle on a call and response - ‘shit’, to which the other person must reply ‘carrots’.

Nuri wants to scope out for the guy he’s supposed to be watching. It turns out that Meloon was Nuri’s contact here when we first started adventuring together - how useful! He buys a couple of drinks and goes over. "How's tricks?" He makes an Insight check - 4. “I believe everything he tells me.”

Meloon says tricks are not good; he’s having a miserable time of it. He’s been hanging out here and offering his help to adventurers on their way down the portal. The dungeon has got more dangerous in the last three months he says, and he’s growing concerned. People go in there looking for treasures, and all they find is a quick death. He thinks Durnan should close the thing up. Nuri makes another Insight check - a 1. The story seems above board.

“That sounds balls.”

Nuri offers to go in and safety the place up, but is told the thing would eat him alive.

Pfenig and Thessalie go to the bar and begin to watch the staff - covertly, like. Do they all seem like… regular? Pfenig makes an Insight check - 22.

First of all he gets the feeling that we’re being watched. He looks around and sees a pipe-smoking pseudo-dragon playing cards at one of the tables. He seems to be looking at Pfenig from down his nose, as if Pfenig is dirtying up the place. The tiny dragon is red, unlike Thessalie’s gold one.

Thessalie makes an Insight check - the man near the dragon is a member of the Watchful Order. She knows him, and the dragon. This is Ufeus and his companion Fricassee. She strikes up a conversation and gets him to deal her into their game.

The portal is much as it’s always been, Ufeus says - fewer come up than go down, but those that do come back with some valuable books. It reminds him of his youth.

Hazel is served by Durnan himself; he congratulates her on taking over Trollskull. They chat about Lif, and she asks how the Portal is going. Nice little earner, she is told. He says more people are coming back up than usual. She makes an Insight check to see if she thinks he’s a doppelgänger. Is she thinking about them at the moment, the DM asks? Hazel makes an Insight check of 5, and then she is asked to make a Perception check - 21.

She can't make out anything from Durnan, but she notices that Bonnie is staring at her nervously. She looks away when Hazel looks at her, and then calmly walks out the back. Hazel wants to follow her. She Mission Impossible Theme’s her way over the bar.

Bonnie spots her as she comes through to the back, and asks her to shut the door. She asks what Hazel is up to.

“Uhhh, nothing, you just seemed a bit nervous so I wanted to check that you were okay.”

Bonnie accuses her of thinking Durnan was a doppelgänger. How the hell would Bonnie know that??

She and four of her doppelgänger friends arrived in Waterdeep about four years ago, Bonnie admits, looking to make an honest living. She’s been keeping her friends in line, they’re not up to anything bad. they’re just looking to make a life for themselves. She can have them meet Hazel; they’ve nothing to hide.

Hazel wants to believe this. We like Bonnie. “I think that people have caught wind that you’re here. Doppelgängers don’t have a great reputation.”

It’ll take some organising but Bonnie can get them all here this afternoon, in the meeting room - she points it out.

Does Durnan know, Hazel asks? No, he doesn’t. Hazel promises not to say anything until we’ve met the others. She leaves, closing the door, and then listens at it. The DM lets her make a late Insight check - 5. “Oh. Well. Never mind then.”

Bonnie emerges into the taproom and tells Durnan she has a couple of errands to run, and leaves. Hazel tells Pfenig what’s happened.

Well, that was easy. A bit too easy? Well either they’ll turn up, or they’ll disappear.

Do Nuri and Thessalie have a plan to watch Meloon? We can pick that up next week, and skip to the meeting with the doppelgängers if we like. We do. Nuri rolls one last Insight check - Meloon is now very pissed off with him, and wants him to fuck all the way off and then fuck off a little bit more. This doesn’t seem like the Meloon he knows. He considers getting him a puppy to cheer him up, but thinks he might throw it down the portal hole.

Thessalie talks to Fricassee, a noted gossip, to see if he can tell her anything about Meloon.

These clericky do-gooders, he says, usually tripping over themselves to be helpful to adventurers, but this one's been mostly moping of late. Fricassee has seen him talking to himself. He’s got a sword that he seems to be talking to as well. Thessalie knows this sword - Azure’s Edge. It’s a legendary magical item, and is sentient. It was forged by the arch wizard Ageron. It’s made with blue dragon skin, hence the name. Good to know.

We move to the meeting room and make Perception checks. (Thessalie uses Message to tell Nuri what she found out from Fricassee.)

There is a noblewoman here; Nuri heard her exchange words with Durnan as she arrived in the Portal - his were warm, hers were less so. Nuri hears him muttering to himself outside the meeting room - maybe even eavesdropping.

Bonnie introduces her friends. Three Strings is also here, insisted on it in fact. The blond man next to him is a human bard named Cecil Weiss and a tielfing named Willifort Crowelle. The noblewoman is Naneatha Lharilstar, and the halfling is called Vaniel Shortwick.

Vaniel says, Bonnie says you’re onto us. What you gonna do about it?

Pfenig says it depends on them. Are they going to be evil? Vaniel is innocent of harming anyone, he says. Just making a life for himself tending bar at a hole in the wall for halflings. We all roll average to poor on Insight, and mostly believe him.

The bard says he is innocent too. He came here to make a name for himself. Musician, actor and playwright. Hazel rolls 15 on her Insight - this son of a bitch is full of shit! Where is he working, she asks. Between jobs. What was his last gig? He looks at her. "Fine, okay, I’ve been taking on the appearance of rivals and doing shit gigs to decrease their popularity."

Is he evil or just a dick though? He’s being selfish, but she doesn’t get any hint of a big master plan. He’s playing dirty and feathering his nest, but he’s just a chancer, there doesn't seem to be anything more sinister to it than that.

Crowelle says he’s just a servant; all of us but Hazel smell a rat on this one. Pfenig thinks he seems evil.

His concern is replacement, Pfenig says. What's happened to the people whose appearances they've taken on? At this, Durnan strides in and points at Naneatha - he is livid. He yells at her to leave, get out of his pub. He doesn’t know what she’s done to Naneatha, but she’s not her! Bonnie tries to placate him, but it isn’t washing. He’ll trust Bonnie, but he wants 'Naneatha' out.

The Emerald Enclave want them all out of the city, but it’s up to us to decide what to do. Naneatha says, so what if she killed a noble? The city is crawling with them! Surely it’s better off with fewer of them?

Nuri casts Bonfire under her; she yelps and jumps back. (She makes her save.)

Don’t make me murder you too, she threatens, but Nuri remains unimpressed.

“Oh, try it.” He's pissed off because of his encounter with Meloon, and is spoiling for a fight.

Bonnie is apologising profusely for her friends’ behaviour. Three Strings looks like he’d rather be anywhere else.

Nuri wants to kill Naneatha, and ask all the others but Bonnie to leave. He casts Scorching Ray on Naneatha. Bonnie is having a fit - not here! This is Durnan’s pub! The other doppelgängers are scowling at him. They don’t attack though, but are trying to get everyone to calm down.

Bonnie loves her job, she just wants to be left alone. The problem Pfenig is still having, is what happened to the original Bonnie?

She is a farmer’s wife, Bonnie says, and is probably alive and well. She lives in the village on the road to Waterdeep. She was so nice to her, to doppelgänger Bonnie, that her appearance was easy to take on, but she left her alive, she swears. Nuri asks all the doppelgängers to show their real forms.

Why should we, say the evil ones? Naneatha laughs.

Nuri: “Leave now, and never come back!”

Nuri tries for an Intimidation check, but gets a laugh. “You are in no position to make demands, little man.”

(The Stone tells Thessalie that Nuri thinks a lot of himself. Why doesn’t she knock him off his pedestal? Go on, he’s got his back to you and everything. No, she tells it, she doesn’t want to. Can it tell that she’s sweating, she wants to know.)

Why is Three Strings here, Thessalie asks? He’s in a relationship with Bonnie, he says, and will vouch for her. He knows she’s a doppelgänger and quite likes that she can look like someone else. (“Nice,” says Pfenig nodding.)

Pfenig makes an attempt to throw the bad ones out of the Yawning Portal. He rolls a 9 Persuasion but with Guidance brings it to 13. Naneatha laughs, but Bonnie adds her voice to Pfenig's. This was their chance to make lives for themselves but they haven’t played by the rules. They should go. He rolls again but it’s the same roll. Nuri threatens more fire - an 18 Intimidation. Naneatha doesn’t want her gown ruined, she sniffs. Fine, she’ll leave.

The other two evil ones also agree to leave. Hmm. We make Insight checks but it’s too late and they spring out of the window flipping the bird. Nuri: "... I don't think they're going to leave at all." Bonnie says she will keep track of the others and let us know if they cause trouble.

Nuri wants to invite the bard to play at our pub - we all agree enthusiastically and he accepts immediately. He’s heard about the nimblewright and wants to play with the piano-playing Clarence! Bonnie says she will give us free drinks - as much as she can without pissing off Durnan.

On our way out Durnan pulls us aside. Naneatha, the real one, was special to him; he wants us to murder the doppelgänger if she doesn’t leave Waterdeep. He would consider it a personal favour.

What’s our ten day plan for watching Meloon, the DM asks? We decide on a rotation, taking turns, so we can all have downtime at the same time. We also ask Bonnie to keep an eye on him as well. She tells us that she can read thoughts; she will be happy to keep an eye.

We end there for this week. We're off next week as it's our DM's birthday weekend! Back again the week after to get to the bottom of melancholy Meloon and his talking sword...