Gralhund Villa
Flying was not a new sensation to Aleina, but she had never flown before while both invisible and less than one inch tall. That wasn't actually accurate as she wasn't invisible, or less than an inch tall, or even flying at the moment, but she perceived herself that way - or at least she tried to.
"What are you seeing now?" Sky asked, tone curious.
The aasimar sighed, kept her eyes closed and her focus distant from where her body sat upstairs in the Trollskull. If she didn't know better, she would think her tabaxi friend wanted to break her concentration by asking the same thing over and over again, which would in turn break her hold on the arcane eye spell.
"I'm still in the garden courtyard, looking for a way inside," she said. "This isn't as easy as it looks, you know."
"Well since it looks like you are just sitting there doing nothing," came Jhelnae's voice. "It has to be harder than it looks, doesn't it?"
Aleina pursed her lips and furrowed her brow, keeping her attention on the arcane eye instead of thinking up a retort. She'd cast the magic from the ring of spell storing Laeral Silverhand had given her, the Open Lord anticipating they might need a way to spy from a distance during their mission to find Neverember's embezzled hoard. Which meant the aasimar wouldn't be able to recast the spell again if she lost her concentration on it.
"I'm in the garden," she repeated, deciding if she gave a running narrative they wouldn't interject with questions. "Looking for a way inside the villa. It's strange, not only are the doors and windows closed, but even the curtains are drawn. I can't see inside."
After their griffon flight, Kuhl had shown them the villa within a few blocks from the Trollskull which had caused the nimblewright detector's umbrella top to spin during the flyover. The villa's proximity to the Fireball event was suspicious, given the presence of a nimblewright, and the device definitely spun when they were near it. Confronted by a high wall and a locked gate, the question then became what to do next? Just peeking through the bars of the gate for a moment had earned them suspicious looks from passersby and the truth was they didn't know for sure if the detector even worked. So, the companions decided to go home and use the arcane eye spell to scout - Aleina guiding the invisible eye out of the tavern, down the few intervening blocks on Saerdoun Street, and up and over the villa wall into the courtyard.
A tall willow-oak shaded the lawn and patio area against the afternoon sun and, if the spell allowed for sound and smell, the aasimar was certain she'd hear the rustle of leaves and the smell of herbs and blossoms from the garden and flower beds bordering the walls.
"There is a man," she said, still describing what she saw. "I can see him through the open door to the carriage house putting fresh hay in the horse stalls. A pair of mastiffs are laying nearby watching him work,"
"Mastiffs?" Kuhl's voice questioned. "So, sneaking inside tonight is probably out."
"Dogs," Sky scoffed. "I can get by those. The curtains are drawn? That is suspicious. Aleina, if no windows are open, go down one of the chimneys."
The aasimar didn't know if the arcane eye was fire resistant, but then again no smoke rose from the chimneys anyway. She guided the eye upward, then noticed something through the branches of the willow-oak.
"Hold on a moment," she said. "The door on the upper balcony is ajar."
"Go in that way," Jhelnae said. "But I suppose that is kind of obvious advice, isn't it?"
Aleina smiled, it was rather obvious. Moving the arcane eye was not really like flying with her wings, more like levitating. She willed a direction and it went, weaving through branches, up and over the ornate wrought iron railing of the balcony, and through the cracked open glass door.
"I'm in a bedroom, the master bedroom I think," she said.
Her arcane gaze swept past the neatly made and pillow-accented canopied bed, the claw foot tub, the mahogany dresser with a mirror over it, and to the two figures in the room.
"There are two people in here," she said. "The lady of the house? Her bodyguard? They're acting very strangely."
"By all that dances, are you about to witness a bedroom tryst?" Jhelnae asked. "I knew I should have chosen this spell for my ring when Laeral described it."
The aasimar doubted the half-drow would feel the same if she saw the two in the room as they hardly resembled the idealized characters of a romantic chapbook. The lady of the house was a stern-faced, middle-aged woman with gray-streaked, swept-back hair and her bodyguard was a big brute in leather armor with obvious signs of orc heritage. And even if the pair in the room had been like two lovers from a chapbook there was a difference between visualizing a fictional scene you read about and actually witnessing a liaison as a hidden voyeur - the latter just being gross.
"Acting strange in what way?" Kuhl questioned.
"He has his sword out and is guarding the door," Aleina said. "She is strapping on a breastplate over her dress."
"Some sort of trouble?" Kuhl asked. "Are they talking? What are they saying?"
They were talking, shouting even, but the spell did not provide sound. The aasimar moved the arcane eye to a position to better read lips, but gave up quickly.
"I can't figure out what is going on," she complained. "And with the door closed I can't get to the rest of the house to learn more."
"The chimneys, Aleina," Sky instructed. "Go out and go down one of the chimneys."
It was worth trying. The aasimar directed the arcane eye out the balcony door, up to the rooftop, flew over the slate tiles, and down the central stone chimney. For a time there was only darkness and with no feel of passing air, Aleina wasn't even sure the arcane eye still descended. Then the hint of light came just before the opening of the fireplace. What she saw broke her concentration and she lost her hold on the arcane eye entirely.
"Fighting!" she said, eyes opening to the familiar upstairs common area shared by the companions at the Trollskull. "In the great room! Thugs in black leather with maces versus the house guards!"
"Call the Watch?" Kuhl asked, standing.
"By the time we get to a Watch post and convince them to follow us," the aasimar said. "It will be too late."
"We're three blocks away," the half-elf reasoned, hand going to Dawnbringer.
Jhelnae forestalled his rush down the stairs by raising the hand with the ring of spell storing Laeral had given her. Her eyes narrowed in concentration.
"Now we are the Watch," she said. "Outfits to go with our badges from the Open Lord."
She had used the seeming spell stored in her ring. Now the companions all appeared to be attired in the green-and-goldenrod doublets worn by Watch officers. The half-drow also lightened her skin to the pale blue of a moon-elf and a glance at the mirror over the cellarette showed Aleina's aasimar features had been normalized, skin tan and eyes and hair chestnut brown. Sky and Kuhl were unchanged other than the appearance of their clothes.
"Let's go," the half-elf said with a nod of approval.
He led them down the stairs and through the tap room of the Trollskull. Patrons crinkled brows in confusion as did Xia serving the tables.
"Jhelnae?" Fargas questioned, probably wondering about her altered appearance. "Aleina? What is going on?"
Surash, behind the bar with Fargas, just stared.
"We'll explain later," Kuhl said, hurrying across the room.
A helpful, invisible, ghostly hand swung the door to the outside open before the half-elf reached it.
"Thanks Lif," Sky said, tail lashing as she swept outside after Kuhl.
The half-elf broke into a run the moment his boots hit the cobbles and the tabaxi behind him followed suit. It pleased Aleina to discover she and Jhelnae kept pace without too much difficulty despite Sky's natural athleticism and the rigorous morning regimen of running, calisthenics, and sword work Dawnbringer inflicted on Kuhl daily. The regular training with Hlam the monk atop Mount Waterdeep had yielded results for the aasimar and half-drow in the form of hardened muscles and improved wind.
"Make way!" Kuhl bellowed as they ran.
And with just a glance at the green-and-golden-rod doublets they appeared to be wearing, identifying them as members of the Watch, Waterdhavians did just that - pedestrians stepping aside and coaches and carts slowing and steering slightly to clear a path through the afternoon traffic of Saerdoun Street. In this manner the companions quickly covered the three blocks between the Trollskull and to the villa Aleina had last seen through an arcane eye spell.
"Let me handle the gate," she said as they approached.
When the Open Lord had hired the half-drow and aasimar to hunt down the mind flayer of the Xanathar Guild, she'd loaned them each a pair of magic rings. But after they succeeded in their goal Lady Silverhand didn't require the return of these rings, instead calling them gifts and even casting new spells into the rings of spell storing for this current mission. So, Aleina possessed the perfect solution to getting through a locked gate quickly. She lifted her hand wearing the ring of the ram and made a fist, expending all its stored magical energy in one burst. A huge spectral ram sprang forth, crashing into the gate and, with the screech of twisting metal, the lock broke and the gate swung open.
Together the four of them sprinted past the ruined gate and into the courtyard, Kuhl igniting Dawnbringer and Jhelnae summoning her abyssal blade. Because of the arcane eye spell, the aasimar felt the sensation of having been here before even though it was really her first time actually being here. The courtyard was fragrant with the smell of flowers and herbs from the garden beds, as she guessed it would, and the leaves of the willow-oak overhead rustled in the breeze. What she didn't hear was the sound of the fighting she knew went on inside the villa. The stone walls looked thick and the windows were closed and curtained, but could they really contain the sound of clashing steel? Especially with the upstairs balcony door ajar?
Any hint of a sound from the villa was then drowned out by the growling barks of the pair of mastiffs that burst out of the carriage house and raced towards them.
"Hey!" the middle-aged man who had been working with the horses shouted as he also came running out of the carriage house, brandishing a pitchfork.
Whether he was calling the mastiffs back or yelling at the intruders in the courtyard, despite their green-and goldenrod-doublets, Aleina would never know. A spiraling mist coalesced around the disguised Jhelnae's sword then flowed forward, enveloping the dogs and man. They dropped to the ground, mastiffs skidding across the lawn due to their speed.
"You warned us about them," Jhelnae said in response to the looks thrown at her with a shrug. "So, I had a sleep spell ready."
"Poor doggies," Sky said, but also gave a dismissive wave. "But better a nap than having to hurt them."
"Definitely, true," Kuhl said, crossing the courtyard to the villa's double-door main entrance.
Aleina called her pale warding armor into being as they walked and, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jhelnae do the same.
The half-elf tried the handle, gave a grunt of frustration, and glanced at the aasimar who shook her head in response. She'd exhausted the magic of her ring of the ram on the gate. Kuhl stepped back and planted a hard kick against one of the doors near its handle and wood splintered, but it took another blow to make it fully give way.
Aleina had caught a brief glance of the room beyond earlier when she'd dropped the arcane eye down the chimney. She saw again the long dining table carved from red larchwood, the associated chairs, the wood-paneled walls, the tapestries, and the wooden cabinets containing fine dishes, silverware and candlesticks. Now, from her new vantage point from the door, she saw the vaulted ceiling was of dark mahogany and a pair of iron chandeliers hung over the table. A framed family portrait was mounted above the black marble mantle of the fireplace, the lady of the house in the painting looking far less severe than the one the aasimar had seen previously in the bedroom upstairs, lacking any gray streaks in her dark hair and appearing the very doting embodiment of motherly love and wifely duty with her gentle smile as she posed with her two young sons, teenage daughter, and husband.
But when Aleina had seen the room before, through the arcane eye, a fight had raged. It was over now and corpses lay strewn on the throw rugs and exposed polished stone of the floor. Most of the dead wore the gold and crimson livery of what the aasimar assumed to be the house guard, but a couple of black leather clad bodies were also present.
"Kaevja!" a young, panicked voice yelled from off to their right. "Urstul! The Watch is here!"
"Idiot!" a different gruff and older voice, chided. "They can't hear us! And I'm not fighting anyone with swords like those! Quick! Up the stairs!"
Urstul, the aasimar thought she recognized that name. Wasn't he the one the dead Zhentarim from the Fireball incident described as their leader in the speak with the dead spells? He would be the burnt man who fled the scene after retrieving something from the corpse of the deep gnome.
She turned and saw two rough looking, mace wielding men in black leather armor retreating up a broad stairway.
"You there!" Kuhl barked in a fair imitation of the commanding voice of a Watch officer. "Hold!"
The men ignored him.
"Stop!" Aleina yelled, lifting her moonstone orb and sending rays of searing light above the two fleeing men to scorch the stairway carpet runner ahead of them.
But that only made them run faster and they disappeared as they rounded the corner to the landing above.
Blazing sword of radiance at the ready, Kuhl gave chase, throwing knife wielding Sky at his side. But they slowed and stopped part way up the steps when sound suddenly popped into existence upstairs - the clash of weapons, the grunts of exertion, the whimpers of the wounded, and a repetitive heavy thud, like someone trying to break through a door.
"What is it?" a feminine voice questioned from upstairs, voice impatient.
"The Watch!" the gruff voiced man said. "They're right behind us!"
"So soon?" the woman said. "How many?"
"At least a dozen," the younger, panicked voice yelled. "With magic swords and spellcasters."
His counting was far off since the companions only numbered four.
"Some sort of elite response team?" the woman wondered aloud. "Fine. We're leaving. This will delay them."
"The Gralhunds have the Stone!" another voice protested. "They took it from me!"
Aleina barely heard the last statement. She focused on the arcing throw of an ember that struck near the top of the stairs, recognizing it even before it blossomed into a fiery conflagration.
"Fireball!" she screamed, retreating backward.
Her warding armor flared protectively as a wave of heat, funneled by the confines of the stairway, blasted her backwards off the steps. She landed hard on her back, the explosion knocking her all the way back to the entry foyer. She lay for a moment in pain and shock, then images of the charred bodies in front of the Trollskull flashed in her mind as she breathed in smoke tinged air and she rolled over and crawled onto her hands and knees to see to her friends.
Jhelnae, still appearing as a moon-elf, who had been next to her during the blast, was still next to her and also rolling over. But like Aleina, her warding armor had likely taken the brunt of the explosion. Kuhl and Sky had been both closer and unprotected.
Relief flooded the aasimar as she saw the half-elf and tabaxi on the floor nearby, dazed and with hair and fur singed, but remarkably neither seemed seriously injured. Being below the blast origin and already retreating when it went off must have afforded some protection from the explosion. Their clothing looked unscathed by fire, but that must be because of the seeming spell still giving the illusion of Watch uniforms. Who knew what their real clothes looked like underneath.
"Aleina, the drapes," Jhelnae said, pointing.
The fireball spell had blackened the exposed stone of the steps and the carpet running up the middle smoldered, but flames grew and climbed up the drapes drawn over the high window above the top of the stairs. If they reached the mahogany adorning the ceiling, the fire would spread.
The aasimar searched the floor. Her moonstone orb had fallen out of her hand when she fell, but the leg of a small table near the foyer had stopped it from rolling too far. She scrambled to it and scooped it up.
Drawing on her magic she sent a pair of twin rays of frost into the curtains, dampening the fire, then repeated the process twice more to extinguish the flames entirely. This done, she dropped back from upright on her knees to a kneel and heaved a sigh, only to give a start as a voice came down from above.
"Ho, down there," a male voice called out. "Friend or foe?"
Kuhl glanced at the other companions as he retrieved Dawnbringer from the floor nearby and climbed to his feet.
"Friend," he answered. "The Watch."
Their disguises still held, the seeming spell not requiring any concentration once in place.
"Very burnt friends," Sky said, gingerly standing with none of her customary grace.
The half-elf put a hand on her shoulder and healing magic must have flowed, because she sighed her shoulders slumped in relief at his touch.
A dark bearded guardsman wearing the house crimson and gold uniform, bloodied and chain shirt visible under the tears, peeked down from the landing at the top of the stairs and studied them for a moment, naked steel in his hand.
"It is the Watch!" he yelled back to someone unseen upstairs. "All clear! All clear!"
His voice cracked slightly and blinked back sudden tears as he lowered his weapon. Aleina understood his emotional reaction. The bodies of his fellow guardsmen littered the great room and more casualties were likely upstairs. To survive such a desperate battle, a battle fought in an eerie, isolating magical silence - it couldn't be anything other than traumatic.
"What happened here?" Kuhl asked. "Why did these men attack? Who are they?"
A woman's voice answered from upstairs before the guardsman could formulate a reply.
"Zhentarim," the voice said. "The Black Network. An organization of ruffians, thieves, and thugs - the dregs of society. And they attacked this house for the same reason all such scum do - to try and steal what others earned through hard effort."
Accompanied by three more liveried guardsmen as well as her orc featured bodyguard, the lady of the house descended the stairs, wearing the polished steel breastplate the aasimar had seen her donning in the bedroom and armed with a rapier.
"They tried to kidnap our children for ransom," the woman said. "But my brave Lord Gralhund led our house guard in the fight against the would-be kidnappers, praise Siamorphe. He comforts our children even now, poor dears."
Pursed lip and raised eyebrowed expressions passed between the guardsmen surrounding her, but her half-orc bodyguard remained stone faced as he stared down at the companions from the fire blackened stairway.
"I thank the Watch for their assistance," the woman, Lady Gralhund obviously, continued. "Though a more timely arrival would have saved the lives of more of our staff."
Aleina bristled at the condescension in the woman's tone and posture.
"The trouble inside your house might have been noticed sooner," she said. "If all the curtains weren't drawn."
Lady Gralhund's eyes narrowed.
"We have been closing up the villa in preparation for a stay at our holdings in Amphail," she said evenly. "The timing of the attack took advantage of that."
"Own any nimblewrights?" Sky asked, head cocked to one side and tail lashing.
In the excitement of witnessing the fight, the sprint here, and nearly getting blown up by a fireball on the stairs, the aasimar had forgotten the reason she scried the place with an arcane eye in the first place. The tabaxi's question cracked the noblewoman's stern equanimity. Her eyes widened, her cheeks flushed, she stiffened in surprise, and took entirely too long in answering the simple question.
"What is a nimblewright?" she finally said. "I have no idea what you are even asking."
If her reaction wasn't hint enough she lied, the reaction of her guardsmen left no doubt as they once again shared uncomfortable looks.
"It's a construct," Jhelnae said flatly. "Some would describe it like a puppet shaped like a man. A puppet without strings."
The disguised half-drow had chosen to describe a nimblewright with the exact same wording used by the eyewitness who had seen the rooftop thrower of the fireball in front of the Trollskull, which was a featured quote in the cover story describing the incident in the Wazoo. Lady Gralhund knew when she was being mocked.
"I do not appreciate your tone, elf," she said.
"Well, I don't appreciate yours," Jhelnae said, chin lifting. "Or being lied to."
"You dare accuse me of lying?" the noblewoman said. "Within the walls of my villa?"
Her half-orc bodyguard tensed and rested his hand on the hilt of his sword and Kuhl stepped forward, his hands, however, raised in a conciliatory gesture. Whatever planned to say or do was lost by the arrival of the real Watch as the grizzled Captain Staget stepped through the kicked in entry door, more than a dozen constables crowding through the door behind him and spreading out.
"Helm's Watching Eye!" Staget said, staring at all the bodies on the floor of the great room. "What in the name of the gods happened here?"
When no one immediately answered he looked to the companions, giving a double take between the illusory green-and-goldenrod uniforms of Kuhl and Sky and their faces, then studying Aleina and Jhelnae more closely and nodding to himself.
"Sergeant," he said. "Take statements from the Lady and her household and send a runner for morgue wagons," he said. "I'll debrief these four in the courtyard."
After salutes we're exchanged he led the companions outside. Here a pair of constables questioned the awakened man from the carriage house and two more stood at the ruined gate, trying in vain to disperse the crowd of curious onlookers the gathering on the street. The captain led them to a corner of courtyard out of earshot of others. It struck Aleina as strange that mere paces from the scene of a massacre pervaded by the stink of blood there could be a pleasantly shaded area of smelling of flowers.
"Did you have anything to do with the killing in there?" Staget asked. "And why are you dressed like that?"
"We didn't kill anyone!" Jhelnae said, loud enough for the captain to give a nervous glance towards the constables in the yard and gesture to her to lower her voice. "Our arrival stopped the kiling."
"You didn't kill anyone," Staget repeated. "If that's true, that good, that's good. But why are you dressed like that? Like members of the Watch?"
"We sort of are," Kuhl said, taking out his badge.
He gave a brief summary of the Open Lord commissioning then, leaving out several key details, but the captain did not seem to mind. He gave a sigh of relief.
"She deputized you?" he said to himself. "Thank the gods. You four saved me from the Xanathar and I will never forget that."
"We helped each other," the half-elf said.
The captain dismissed the statement with a wave of his hand.
"But if you had killed soneone in the Gralhund household," he said. "Or been caught impersonating the Watch, my hands would be tied. I could do nothing for you. You understand that, right?"
"Well you don't have to worry about that," Aleina put in. "Because we didn't kill anyone, not even those attacking the house, and we were deputized by Lady Silverhand."
"And there is clearly more to how you ended up here and why our Open Lord deputized you," Staget said. "But those stories will have to wait until after I've dealt with a massacre in a prominent noble household in a ward I was just promoted sideways to. A couple of days ago and this isn't even my problem."
"You were promoted, Staget." Sky said brightly. "Congratulations!"
"It's Besheba's own luck I tell you," the captain mumbled, ignoring the tabaxi.
He sighed and shook his head, and led them to the broken gate.
"These four have orders to follow other leads," Staget instructed the two constables on guard there.
"I should tell you," Jhelnae said, sounding guilty. "I might have insulted Lady Gralhund. Might have called her a liar as well and she might be angry about that."
"Might?" the captain said with a raised eyebrow.
"She lied and I have a bad temper," the disguised half-drow explained.
Staget's gaze flicked down to Jhelnae's illusioned green-and-goldenrod doublet and his eyes hardened.
"Of course she lied," he scoffed. "She's a noble, isn't she? No offense."
The last part was a quick aside directed at Aleina.
"But let's get one thing straight," he continued. "I don't care if Lady Silverhand's divine mother herself deputized you. You wear the green and goldenrod, you represent the Watch, the way one conducts oneself is a reflection on all of us. That right lads?"
"Ser, yes ser! the two young constables responded.
"So I'm going to tell you what is drilled in every raw recruit," the captain said. While you are wearing that uniform, you keep that temper bridled and act like a professional. Especially with nobles, you hear me?"
"I hear you, captain," Jhelnae said with a chagrined expression.
"Good," he said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a massacre to deal with while also assuaging the ego of a noble lady who has her high nose bent out of shape."
The companions proceeded out the gate.
"By all that dances, she was lying!" Jhelnae said, kicking a crumpled up flyer that apparently offended her with its existence in her path. "We all agree on that, right?"
"She was definitely lying," Aleina said in support. "A nimblewright was there."
"So, why should I be lectured just because I called her out on that?" the half-drow said, throwing up her hands. "I hope Staget and his constables find it and catch her in that lie."
"They won't," Kuhl said.
"They won't?" Jhelnae questioned.
"You took my cue!" Sky said. "I was hoping you would!"
"You stepped in front of me, partially blocking me from view," the half-elf said. "And your tail pointed at the nimblewright detector while Jhelnae had them distracted. Less of a cue than a direct order."
"You used the detector while I was arguing with Lady Gralhund?" the half-drow said.
Kuhl nodded.
"It didn't spin," he said. "Meaning the Gralhunds sent it away. But they don't know we have the means to find it."
He brandished Nim's device.
"Good job focusing their attention on you," he said with a wink. "You planned that, right?"
Jhelnae snorted a laugh.
"Of course, all part of the plan."
Well...I'm posting this pretty raw (especially the last bit). So hopefully i works okay.
In preparation for this I printed out the maps to Gralhund Villa and took notes as to the encounters and what is seen in each room. I envisioned that it would be a bit of a dungeon crawl as the characters made their way through each room. Then I went to write it and it almost immediately went off that planned track.
I made some changes. Added a wizard with a silence spell (I gave her teleportation circle and silence in her spell slots and she is canon to the module other than that). I just couldn't accept that this whole fight is happening and no one hears it other than the party or sees it. It would be one thing if it had just started when the party goes to the villa, but once you break in, it is clear it has been in progress for awhile. Yet their gardener and the mastiffs hear nothing? They're just waiting around to attack the party if they break through the gate? I might be wrong on this, but dogs have pretty good hearing, so I think they would know if there was a sword fight was going on pretty close to them.
Also there is a teleportation circle that Manshoon has access to within the villa. So his apprentice wizard could easily teleport a strike force in there to try and get the stone. Other than that, I think I stayed fairly true to the module.