The Yawning Portal:
Volo offers money, 125 gp Dragons per character, with 12 gp Dragons per character up front and explains where the Skewered Dragon can be found, “Very close to the Shop Owned by Xoblob, you know the one, the Old Xoblob Shop.
PCs are suspicious that he doesn’t have all the money but Alley thinks he is a good allay to have.
Alley is a real fan of Volo.
My friend’s name is Floon Blagmaar. He’s got more beauty than brains, but he’s a great drinking companion. Last night he accompanied me to the Skewered Dragon, a dark, bawdy tavern in the Dock Ward. I called it an early night, but Floon remained – drinking and merrymaking.
His wife tracked me down here in the Yawning Portal half an hour ago and told me that Floon never came home last night. This was doubly surprising, as I had not before been aware that he was married.
Floon is a handsome man in his early thirties with wavy red-blond hair. He is not difficult to pick out of a crowd, though, for he insists on always wearing a gaudy, 6-inch bas relief of a unicorn’s head on a chain of blue pearls around his neck.
Zarek knows it to be a Holy Symbol, the necklace is a Holy Symbol of Lurue.
Alley and Zarek go looking for Floon in the Skewered Dragon, on Fillet Lane, in the Dock Ward.
Blood in the Streets: – The Old Xoblob Shop:
As Alley and Zarek travel through the Dock Ward, they come upon the aftermath of a bloody clash between the six dead men and the three Zhentarim held by the City Guard, City Watch and a Druid Working for The Watchful Order of Magists and Protectors.
As they turned a corner, they find themselves on a street that has been cordoned off by the City Watch. Lying on the cobblestones are a half-dozen corpses, seemingly the victims of some terrible skirmish. Watch officers have disarmed and arrested three blood-drenched humans and are in the midst of questioning witnesses. One of the officers sees you. “Get on,” she says. “Nothing to see here.”
Skewered Dragon:
They find the Skewered Dragon quite easily and enter to find that most of the crowed are locals and then a splash of well-off gamblers and excitement seekers.
The three men playing cards are called Argos, the fisherman doing most of the talking, Heros, the grumpy old fisherman, Stavros, the young fisherman that is happy to accept a free drink and any gossip that he has and finally Georgios, the one that does talk much.
Zarek plays find the lady and loose twice before he works out that the cards are marked. Zarek deals and manages to win over the Fishermen, with a little help from the aniseed drink they consumed like fish drink water.
The Skewered Dragon faces an alley that runs between Net Street and Fillet Lane in the Dock Ward, not far from the Old Xoblob Shop.
The Skewered Dragon looks like a ruin. Both of its front-facing windows are smashed, and a ship’s anchor is lodged in the roof. Through the windows, you can see a group of haggard patrons drinking from huge tankards.
Several of the Fishermen remember seeing Volo and Floon drinking together last night. After Volo left, Floon stuck around long enough to meet with another friend: who they now know to be Renaer Neverember, the son of Waterdeep’s former Open Lord, Dagult Neverember.
Heros: “Chip off the old block, that one!” he sneers while downing his Aniseed Ouzo.
Georgios: “Just another spoiled, rich noble who likes to rub our noses in it!” says another.
Stavros: “The two drank and played a few rounds of Three-Dragon Ante with us before leaving at around midnight. Five men followed them out, but I think no one in the tavern knows what happened after that.”
Zarek notices that the bouncer at the door sniffs at that remark and pretends that he is not listening.
Stavros: “The men who left shortly after Floon and Renaer haven’t returned to the tavern since.”
Alley and Zarek finish their food and drinks and head out to find more clue and question more citizens about Floon and his companion.
Alley: “I think the bounces know something, slip him a Dragon or leave one where he can see you do so and it will pay back in kind Zarek.”
Zarek slips a Gold Dragon into the bouncer’s empty tankard, making sure he and only he sees his do so, and nobs he heads to the bulky ginger haired bouncer.
Bouncer: “Why thank you youngling, that is very you, my name is Ginger Bob, how can I be of service to you today?”
Zarek asks Ginger bob about Floon Blagmaar, his companion and the men that followed them out last night.
Ginger Bob: “Those Thugs you mentioned I saw them follow your friends out, they’re known to frequent a warehouse on Candle Lane.”
Zarek: “Thank you again for your help my good man.”
Ginger Bob: “Thank you for the coin my friend and look for the snake symbol above the gate” he says as he retunes inside the Skewered Dragon.
Floon has not been at the Skewered Dragon since the night of his disappearance, and the other dive’s dockworker and fishermen patrons are loath to talk to strangers.
Our heroes head off north along Zastrow Street and towards Candle Lane and eventually meet two food stall tradesmen and they ask them if they had seen the five leather clad men along with Floon Blagmaar and his companion.
The Dock Ward is unsafe. Tall, densely packed tenements leave most of the neighbourhood in shadow at ground level. Most of the streetlamps have had their glass smashed and their candles stolen, and the smells of salt air and excrement linger as you pass by rows of run-down buildings.
On the corner of Zastrow Street and Fillet Lane is a shop with a peculiar window showing:
One nearby shop stands out from the others. It has a deep purple facade, and in its window hangs a stuffed beholder. Above the door hangs a sign whose elaborate letters spell out “Old Xoblob Shop.”
Old Xoblob Shop:
A cloud of lavender-scented purple smoke trails out of the shop’s door as you peer inside. Every wall is painted purple, and every dusty knickknack on the shelves is dyed a deep violet. The hairless old gnome sitting cross-legged on the counter wears plum-coloured robes. His cheeks are decorated with nine purple face-painted eyes.
The Gnome lowers a pipe and exhales a cloud of lavender smoke before raising a hand. “Hail and well met! Come browse the shelves of the most curious curiosity shop in the world!”
The shop is named after the stuffed beholder in the window-a fixture that came with the shop and gave it its name.
The shopkeeper is a wizened Deep Gnome who, a few years ago, he survived the Undermountain and returned with a small fortune. Driven by a compulsion to carve out his own domain, the gnome settled in Waterdeep, bought the Old Xoblob Shop from its former owner, and tried renaming it after himself, yet everyone kept calling it the Old Xoblob Shop. He thus restored the old name and changed his name to Xoblob. “No relation to the eye tyrant hanging in the window!” he likes to says.
Alley browses the shop and finds two Trinkets that catch her eye:
1. A piece of Purple Crystal that faintly glows in the presence of a magical item.
2. A Silver Purple Frame containing a portrait of a family, Half-Elf farther and human mother and 2 kids.
Zarek continues to question Xoblob and the Deep Gnome doesn’t know Floon by name, but he recognizes his description. He is reluctant to share information, but some kind words about his shop loosens his tongue. He says that Floon and a well-dressed fellow of similar appearance and bearing, the man you now know to be Renaer Neverember, though the Deep Gnome doesn’t know his name and didn’t recognize him, were jumped outside the shop by rough-looking men in Black Leather Armour. Xoblob thinks there were five attackers, but none of them looked familiar. One of them had a black tattoo of a Winged Snake on his neck.
Zarek also looks around the shop as Alley pays for her Trinkets and the Tiefling finds:
1. Dark Purple half used Candle.
2. A Lilac wooden Clockwork Bird.
The heroes thank Xoblob and leave the shop and head northwards along Zastrow Street.
Zastrow Street:
The heroes reach their destination and the buildings on either side of Candle Lane are so tall and so tightly packed together that light touches the street only at highsun.
Gloom envelops a narrow alley as dark as a dungeon-and as odorous as one, too. Nearly all the streetlamps have been smashed. The only light that pierces the darkness is a faint flickering from down the lane, like a distant candle.
The flickering comes from the one streetlamp still intact on Candle Lane, kept alight by a continual flame spell. A warehouse is directly across the street from the lamp, which illuminates a black winged snake (the symbol of the Zhentarim) painted above the gate and only spotted if looked for.
The Zhentarim Warehouse on Candle Lane is a ramshackle two-story warehouse. The warehouse stands at the back of an outer yard behind a high fence.
The Tiefling, having spotted the snake symbol above the gate, moves around the warehouse with Alley checking for guards and any other surprises. They find now and both hide on the opposite side of the warehouse, close to the gates.
Alley: “What now Zarek?”
Zarek: “We need to find a safe way in I guess.”
The pair take a moment to smile and realise that they were Adventuring once again.Alley: “Lady Luck smile upon us this night.”