Immeral replies "You think we are just going to walk into a sketchy Zhentarim warehouse with someone we don't know waiting for us?" 

The man, if he is a man, says "That's where the answers are." and he walks off.  He calls back "I wouldn't wait, he doesn't stay in one place too long."

K'ronk says "The Eye, or the Xanathar or whatever you call them had a bunch of kenku working for them, then they killed a bunch of the warehouse people, the Zhents. The kenku was in the with mind flayer too, and there was a half-orc in the sewers, so The Eye aren't just kenku."

Nowhere asks "Didn't we get in a fight with The Eye once already?"

Dain says "You've been in a fight with just about everybody."  "True" Nowhere replies. 

The League agrees to follow the mysterious person since they walk south towards the dock ward. They spend the better part of half an hour walking that way in the cold, and as they arrive at the warehouse, the man turns a corner and disappears. Immeral casts mage armor. 

Before long, The League is back at a familiar warehouse in the dock ward, repopulated with workers watch with wary stares as they enter.  Black winged serpent tattoos can be spotted here and there.

The workers clear the office area, and signal to The League to wait.  A few moments later a man in wild attire and a mask appears.

"Greetings, Owlbear League, I have heard much of you. You may call me Manshoon." he begins.  "I have information for you, and a deal." he adds.

"I like deals." says Atlas, flippantly.

"I will share with you who killed your friend Floon Blaagmar and how it was done. In return you must disrupt the organization that did it."

"Agreed." says Atlas, almost too quickly.  "Who was it?"

"The Xanather Guild. The Eye." Manshoon asks before her companions can interrupt, locking them into a deal they don't yet understand. The lesser of two evils.

In the shadow of Mount Waterdeep stands the Blackstaff tower, and The League knocks with a large doorknocker. The gardens outside are lush, even in winter and the grass green, at least for fifty feet around the tower. 

A pleasant apprentice wizard opens the door and says "I am Kelben, how may I assist you?"

"We are here to see the Blackstaff at her request." says Nowhere, looking around within the ornate structure where several magic-users can be seen moving to-and fro, busy even at this late hour.

"May I ask what this is regarding?" asks Kelben.

"It is a private matter." says Nowhere.

Kelben replies "Please wait in the receiving room", and he points to a nearby room with a table and chairs.

The League agrees.

As they wait, they watch apprentices and wizards passing by and going about their business, carrying books, carrying other pieces of equipment. They hear a little pops and maybe a minor explosion from above somewhere and a shriek or two. Just wizards doing their thing. They are moving about with food and it smells good.  A pair of guards stand by the exit doors nearby, but they appear pretty casual.

From above, into the room comes the Blackstaff, right through the ceiling above and the guards take a more attentive stance.

Always to the point, the Blackstaff asks "What have you learned?"

Immeral speaks and says "with mind flayers being a problem right now, may we use a wand of detect abberation on you?"

"May I see it?" Savja asks, and when Immeral holds it out, but does not give it to them, clearly casts a spell on it.  "You may." she adds.

Immeral activates the wand and the wand glows and it turns towards one of the guards by the doors. The guard's head starts glowing red, and he starts looking around, not understanding the nature of what is going on.

Immeral looks at Savja and she immediately points her staff at the guard and encircles him in a shimmering sphere of energy. 

The man starts banging on the barrier, yelling something and it does start rolling.  He can be seen, but not heard at all. "I had no suspicions of Meloon. This is troubling." The other guard looks alarmed and the busyness in the tower comes to a halt.

"Alafras." she calls, and a novice comes to her.  "Yes Blackstaff?"

The League decides to take a pass at the Cassalantar villa on Delzorin street. The winter day is clear and mild, and the streets of Waterdeep are filled with their normally bustling populace.

They stand a moment on the corner nearby and take in the estate, which has a high wall around the gardens and with more windows seems a bit more open than the Gralhund villa. Guards can be seen moving about, so they are security conscious, which is none too suspicious for the owner of a bank.

The League engages the nimblewright detector, but nothing happens. There appears to be no nimblewright in the area. They continue 

The League heads back down Delzorin street, past Trollskull Alley towards Gralhund villa, using the nimblewright detector the entire way. It makes little whirs and clicks every so often, but detects nothing along the way. They pass the Gralhunds with nothing detected. There is a City Watch presence still at the villa, and the estate is cordoned off with a bright yellow rope.

The League continues on, following Saerdoun street towards the magnificent view of Cliffwatch overlooking the farms around Waterdeep. They are guided only by the direction Immeral said the nimblewright ran towards when it got away from him.

As they get near the end of the protective wall surrounding Waterdeep, and the view opens up, the nimblewright detector starts whirring and making a beeping sound, pointing away from the cliff and deeper into the city.

CAPTURE p2 1:02:29

Down near Endcliff Lane, a dirty little alley leads The League to pile of garbage near some of the rattier houses of the North Ward.

K'ronk detects magic, but finds nothing.

Atlas and Nowhere start digging into the trash and the pile explodes. The green-clad nimblewright slashes out with its sword, attacking The League.

Nowhere tries to grapple the creature, hanging onto it and preventing it from escaping.

Seraphina casts command on the nimblewright, unsure if it will work on the construct, and she commands "halt!" but the spell does not affect it and it still struggles to fight.

K'ronk tries a sleep spell on the creature which seems to have some effect, but it shakes off the spell and continues to fight.

Atlas tries a flurry of blows enhanced by her magical gauntlets, but it blocks the attack. Atlas presses harder, punching and kicking and this time she starts battering the creature. She tries to knock it prone, but Nowhere's grasp on the creature actually helps it avoid the fall.

Immeral grabs at the dagger the nimblewright is wielding in one hand, wrenching it away from the construct, but it still has its rapier, and it stabs at Nowhere, slashing her badly across the slide.

The creature swings wildly again, but fails to hit the second time.

Nowhere hangs onto the creature as Seraphina tries to command the nimblewright again, but it fails to work.

K'ronk tries again, trying the powerful sleep spell and this time it works. The construct cannot shake off the spell, and it drops unconscious. K'ronk says "We have a minute!" and the The League ties the nimblewright up with Atlas's magical rope of climbing to ensure it cannot break the bonds.

The words "What are you doing?" comes from behind them and three members of the City Watch are standing there.

"We're tying up this nimblewright that attacked us." Nowhere says "We're bringing it to the Blackstaff."

The watchpersons look at each other and question "nimblewright, what's a nimblewright?"

The League waits until later that night to enter the City of the Dead. The gates are closed at all the entrances, with towers on either side of the entrances, and guards manning the towers, looking over the both the city of mankind and the city of the departed. The wall is some twelve feet high with iron spikes across the top.

There are driftglobes floating throughout the space, lighting the cemetery beautifully and against the fall of snow making the place almost festive.

With few places to hide, and guards patrolling the grounds, The League decides to take a direct approach and knocks on the door of one of the towers.

A member of the City Guard opens a speaking window in the door and says "Who goes there."

Nowhere introduces herself and says "I'm on a mission for the Blackstaff and my companions and I need entrance to the City of the Dead."

"The Blackstaff, really" he says questioningly. 

"We are an independent team she's asked to conduct an investigation."

"Like adventurers?" he asks.

She ignores the implied slight. "We need some information about the City of the Dead and figure you smart guards are the best to ask about it."

The guard still hasn't opened the door, but he hasn't slammed it yet either.

"Why are there so many guards in the City of the Dead?" Nowhere asks.

"To protect citizens from undead incursions." he replies.

"Has that happened?" she asks

"Oh many times. Then there's the rogue necromancer trying out some spell, grave robbing, corpse stealing, tomb raiding, crypt vandalizing, etc. That is why the City closes at sundown."

"Can you let us in and escort us to a specific tomb we need to investigate?" Nowhere asks.

"Absolutely not." says the guard "I'm a member of the City Guard, not a tour guide. Come back tomorrow."

"Tomorrow will work. Thank you!" Nowhere says as she turns and the guard shuts the door.  "K'ronk and Immeral, you're up."

Taking a last look at the map, K'ronk dons his ring of invisibility while Immeral raises his hood on the robe of stars and both disappear.

What is a surprise is they are not alone. There is a group of fighters, men and women, dressed in black to hide in the shadows of the floating driftglobes. They approach the Cassalanter tomb.

They walk up to the doors of the tomb and close the unlocked door behind them.

K'ronk panics and starts screaming "Help! Break In! The Cassalantar tomb." He stays invisible, and watches as a knight arrives. 

Capture P2 1:39:40 

The knight starts looking around, unsure of where the yelling was coming from.

K'ronk, still invisible, hears very muted fighting from within the tomb, a fight of some sort is taking place, but it may be only he can hear it.

K'ronk bangs on the door of the tomb, and the knight starts looking around the building cautiously.

Immeral continues to watch the doorway from the ethereal plane, assuming that K'ronk had not found a way in.

The black-clad figures race to the southeastern corner of the graveyard, staying to the shadows and avoiding the driftglobes. They get to a hexegonal tomb and use the tight space between the tomb and the outer wall of the City of the Dead to climb to the top of the wall. They guards inside the nearby tower are nowhere to be seen, but Immeral doesn't take the time to investigate, he passes through the wall to follow the dark figures.

Back with K'ronk, the knight finds the tomb open, and rather than investigating himself, races towards the nearest towers, flailing his arms from time to time to get someone's attention.

K'ronk slips into the tomb, still invisible.

K'ronk quickly sees that the tomb is empty, but there are stairs leading to a lower level, and his darkvision helps him see there is blood on the stairs.

He goes down, knowing he only may have seconds before the guards arrive. On the lower level of the museum are many sarcophogi-filled nitches that break the walls. There are no undead here, but there are three bodies, freshly killed, bled out on the floor of the tomb. One female still lives, coughing up a bit of blood, terror is in her eyes and she tries to reach her sword but cannot.

K'ronk slides the sword away, removes his ring of invisibility and goes to her aid.

"No more, please, no more!" she pleads.

"It's OK, I'm not here to hurt you." and K'ronk tries to render first aid.

"They already killed my husband." the woman cries.

"What happened?" K'ronk asks.

"I was attacked by the Zhentarim." she says "I saw their winged snake tattoos.

"What were you doing here?" K'ronk asks.

Immeral continues to follow the assailants through the ethereal plane version of the Trade Wards and into the southern ward of Waterdeep where the homes and buildings quickly become more run down and decrepit.

The zhents keep to the shadows and alleys but eventually make their way to an old run-down windmill and they enter the building. At that point, Immeral removes his hood, and returns to the street where he left, surrounded by his companions.

"What kept you?" says K'ronk.  "It's cold!"

"I followed the Zhentarim to an abandoned windmill in the southern ward. They went inside, but I came back to inform you all." Immeral replies.

A nearby resident pokes their head out from a building and shouts "Stop peeing in my alleyway or I'll call The Watch!"

"We're leaving" says Nowhere, and they start walking.

CAPTURE P2 1:53:20

The League starts walking south and they update each other with what they witnessed. Members of the City Watch pass by as The League makes there way, but they have no cause to stop them. They quickly arrive at Fishgut Alley and Wharf Street, nearly at the docks where the windmill stands.

This crumbling, two-story stone building looks as if the windmill existed before the city rose up around it. There are few light sources showing in the windows. There is a shorter attached building extending from one side.

A red and white sign which looks to be a butcher's cleaver hangs above the door of the shorter building.

"Maybe you should check things out first." says K'ronk.

"More waiting?" says Dain, bothered. "I hate waiting."

Immeral peeks through another door and finds a similarly run-down area (W11) where large sections of the roof have caved in leaving holes through which birds and precipitation can enter. The floors are littered with broken shingles, bird droppings, wrecked furnishings, and other detritus, and scores of pigeons roost in the moldy rafters. It looks like part of the floor has collapsed. Immeral moves on.

Now he moves to the south, and passes through the door leading to a different room (W14). This room is different.  The door to this room has been fitted with a shiny new lock. This apartment is in good repair and there is a wood-framed, king-sized bed with clean mattresses standing against one wall. Next to the bed, there is a door in the west wall. The window here is sound, not broken like the other rooms and the ceiling is whole. Across from the window, against the wall, stands a wooden armoire. Inside the room, sitting at a small table, eating a meal by lantern light, is a male dragonborn.

He does not seem to bear any of the tattoos of the Zhents, but unusually he has a butcher's cleaver on the table. Immeral peeks throught he western door and finds a large privet (W15) which was once likely grand, but has some holes in the roof now and has also been decorated by pigeons. He is glad not to be able to smell from the ethereal plane.

Not finding anything of interest, Immeral heads back downstairs.

Immeral starts moving through the unchecked rooms on the first floor. He enters a the northeastern room (W7) with several persons inside, but they look like squatters in the nearly abandoned windmill. They have piles of belongings and makeshift bedding. They do not look like the well-equipped Zhents that Immeral had seen earlier. He continues through other similar rooms (W5, W4, and W3) on the first floor and finds several bands of squatters engaged in various states of rest, smoking, drinking or drug use.

He continues west, through the door into the next room (W2) and finds it to be the back room of the butcher shop (W1). What's interesting to Immeral, aside from the lack of sanitation, is that there are several dead bodies here, and one of them seems to be partially ground up for meat. Immeral fights his revulsion and confirms the bodies do not have any visible tattoos and they appear to have been murdered, with multiple stab wounds.

There is only a pass-through window between the butchery and the butcher shop. On the shelf of the window is a list of "recent deliveries" and the last one, marked has having left in the last hour, was to Cuttle's Meat Pies.

The League gets to Cuttle's Meat Pies and finds that there is a horse drawn cart sitting in front of the business unattended. The horses sit in the cold night air, hopefully not left for long.

In the doorway next to the meat pie dealer, a woman hands something to a man and they both go into the building. It is small, something the size of a fist, but it is not clear what it is, or even if they are involved in their quest.

K'ronk says "Could that have been the stone?"

Immeral states "I can look." and dons his robe of stars, gliding the the ethereal realm closer to the neighbor building, when the man and woman quickly exit the same building. Immeral is close enough to hear the woman say "Kill the livery driver and dump him back at the butcher, but hold off on Ott. We need to find out what he's worth." Immeral sees on the wedge of her thumb, the winged serpent tattoo of the black network as she dons her gloves. The woman is clearly in charge, and she starts walking down the alley.

Immeral pops back to the corner where The League stands, and says "That woman just gave orders to kill the livery driver."

The man steps back into the building and Immeral returns to the ethereal plane and hustles back to the unmarked building.

Nowhere says "We could create a distraction by spooking the horses."  The League debates this as Immeral passes into the building. 

There is a man stoking a fireplace and a woman seated at a table nearby counting a pouch of gold dragons. They both look a bit rougher and tougher than your average commoner. There are two men tied to chairs and gagged. One looks to be a shield dwarf who wears a strange leather cap with near a dozen tentacle-like appendages which appear to be little fake beholder eyestalks.

The other man is human, and looks to be the driver, wearing the appropriate gear. Immeral returns again and says "There are two men tied up inside and a man and a woman counting money. We should go in."

Dain charges across the street, emitting nothing but a low growl and he throws up his shield and bashes through the flimsy door. The League quickly follows behind. The woman pulls out a dagger and the man shouts "who the hell are you?"

Nowhere answers "We're the fuck up your plans team. What are you doing?"

K'ronk adds "Just a few people tied up before a murder?" as Dain picks up the door and sort of puts it back in place to prevent prying eyes.

"You better mind your own business, you don't know who you're messing with. The black network makes its enemies suffer." The woman starts to stand and pulls out her sword.

Nowhere pulls out her sword and Dain pulls out his great axe. The others brandish their weapons as well.

"Where's the stone?" Nowhere asks.

"It's gone, you're not going to get it" answers the woman, backing away, seeing they are outnumbered.  "The zhents have it."

Nowhere answers "Manshoon sent us. We can't trust anyone, we've been compromised. Who has it now?"

The couple looks at each other, confused and the man says "Vivette just left with it."  

"Shut up!" the woman exclaims.  "Who's your contact?" she asks.

"Manshoon." Nowhere replies.

"Nobody works directly with Manshoon." the woman scoffs.

"We're not nobody, or we wouldn't be here." Nowhere answers.

"Well, Vivette is bringing it to Manshoon, so you're too late. Amateurs." she adds.

Vivette has a long lead, but between her footprints in the snow, Nowhere's tracking skills, and a bit of help from a find object spell on her cloak, The League catches up in the streets of Waterdeep near the dock ward. The League is within sight of her, as she gets jumped by a team of cloaked drow streaming from an alleyway.

They start running up to the fight and Nowhere says "Who the hell are these drow!? and K'ronk says, "I'm tired of this chase for the stone already.  Let's kill these guys and end it!"  

Nowhere and Dain yell "Yeah!"

The dozen drow drag Vivette into an alleyway. The two main guys start are pointing strange devices at her with triggers and tubes and one orders her to "hand over the stone." as The League reaches the alley.

The drow turns as The League arrives and one with the black steel device says "This isn't your business, move on." 

The other places the device at Vivette's head and says "The stone, now." and she hands over the green loaf-sized rock.  

Immeral whispers "That's the Stone of Golorr."

Nowhere says "If we grab the guy with the Stone and cast Leomund's Tiny Hut we can make sure we have it."

The two main drow start walking away towards a dock and the other twelve drow block the street.

Vivette starts backing away from the drow and into the shadows at The League and the drow square off.

K'ronk says "Can we kill them, or will we be criminals?"

Nowhere replies "They just jumped a woman, I think we're good."

Immeral says "We can go around." and they start backing out of the alley.

Nowhere adds "With a little spike growth for separation. Now!"