One “Crime” Begets Another¶

2022-Dec-30

• Having been mistaken for Thunderbird Pirates, the members of the party are placed under arrest
• Kleb quickly flies over to the Oremaster to get Alabaster’s attention so he can vouch for the trio
• The magistrate suffers from a case of acute stupidity and cannot be reasoned with. He repeats his order for the guards to seize them, and each adventurer becomes magically paralyzed
• They are all frog-marched across the ship, but when Rowan breaks out of the paralysis, he starts swinging
• After a brief tussle, the group tries once again to reason with the deputy of this group, but he refuses to listen to anyone who fought with his soldiers
• Rowan pulls out his bargain-bin Modify Memory scroll to try and salvage the situation, but can’t handle the higher-level magic and misfires it. Everyone loses the last 10 minutes of their memory, except for Rowan, the magistrate, Alabaster, and the one guard holding the captain who was out of range
• The magistrate is infuriated and confused but most of the guards are now docile and amicable. The boat carrying backup approaches the ship
  • As the new set of hostile guards boards and encircles the group, Rowan tries to flee to the Oremaster but can’t get away in time. The adventurers (along with Alabaster) are firmly paralyzed once again while the ships are brought into the docks of Waterdeep proper
• All 4 are thrown into a single large cell in the dockside jail, with all of their gear confiscated
• Alabaster brings Rulkorf and Kleb up to speed with what they missed from their amnesia
• The group quickly manage to piss off a guard, who uses a staff to strike Rowan with lightning. Kleb tries to discuss Lozenge Azure ideology with the guard and another prisoner, with little success
• Chungledown Bim, their blind neighbor across the hall, says he’s been in here for a couple days, so there is no promise of a quick trial
  • Hearing them discuss plans to escape, Chungledown offers his assistance, on the condition that he goes with them. He proposes searching for evidence that the petty junior deputy under-harbormaster accepted bribes
• Rowan cooks up a clever escape plan: after antagonizing the guard once again, the paladin stays at the back of the cell and casts Command: Approach, but the guard resists the magic. Acting defeated, Rowan finally walks forward, and with one hand on the iron cell bars he satisfies all of the components necessary to cast Hold Person on the guard
• Rulkorf slips between the bars as a mouse, steals the paralyzed guard’s keys, and soon afterwards the guard is locked in the cell while the party, Alabaster, and Chungledown are released
• The trio recover their equipment in addition to guard uniforms for Rulkorf and Rowan. They march Kleb out of the jail, acting as his wardens, and deceive a pair of city watch into telling them:
  1. The Thunderbird is docked right where it was left
  1. The magistrate, named Wickwire, has an office in the City Guard building on the way to the Thunderbird
  1. The rest of the Oremaster’s crew met up with officials of the Merchant Arcane (Mezzos and Tesia’s employer) and were not apprehended. Wickwire’s secretary solved the “misunderstanding” by fabricating a cover story (but that required that the party take the fall for it)
  1. Shift change is in about two hours
• The two undercover party members bring Kleb to the precinct office to be “interrogated” by Wickwire personally. They bring him into an unmarked room without incident.
• The interrogation room is adjacent to Wickwire’s office and is lit by a single lantern overhead. After extinguishing the light, the one-way mirror acts as a simple window, which allows Rulkorf to phase into the office
  • A quick investigation reveals little of note out in the open, but the dwarf does notice that one of the desk drawers has been locked. He manages to break into it without alerting Wickwire’s secretary outside, and retrieves a hand crossbow, a little black book, and a small pouch of gems
  • The book is Alder Wickwire’s personal journal, which holds very poorly encoded information about prior illicit dealings, aka perfect blackmail material
  • Rulkorf takes all three and teleports back through the window into the interrogation room. After resetting the lantern as to leave no trace of their presence, the party makes their exit from the room and head out of the building
  • They bump into Wickwire in the lobby but he pays them no mind, and the trio make their exit successfully