What had been a frustrating week of missteps and false leads in investigating the Museum break-in has turned in our favor tonight....
At the suggestion of Ellanzo, we attempted to track down Nip Skit's brother Hip Skip. The goblin had simply disappeared and no one seemed to know where...or wouldn't reveal his location even if they did. Granted, our information gathering skills leave something to be desired and on several occasions I had to excuse myself from questioning for fear that I would start cracking the skulls of some of the dimwitted thugs we were interviewing. Unfortunately, intimidation only goes so far and I probably require a little more subtlety in my technique....
Oddly, things finally came together when we passed Rose's (Leif's mother) shop which had been recently vandalized. I finally met Jax's mother, Matron Lilith Frost when we found her arguing with Rose inside the shop. We managed to catch: "He's bad news for our boys." and "You know what happened." before the ladies fell abruptly silent when we entered.
Were they talking about Barrue? Hip Skip? .. or someone else?
The Matron Frost is a fine and well-respected lady in the city. By her assured stance and bearing she both expects and commands respect. Rose on the other hand seems somewhat brain addled... she gets continuously sidetracked and will start addressing invisible "spirits" when you are trying to talk to her. The hatchling hasn't strayed too far from the wyrm in this case. Both the Matron Frost and Rose seemed to be very concerned about their boys. Hopefully they will eventually cut the apron strings and let their boys become men.
We promised to find out who the vandals were and in return, Rose promised to ask one of her ghost friends about Hip Skip. I will truly be embarrassed if an unstable woman's imaginary friend can turn up more details on Hip Skip than our week long investigation.
Our search for the vandals was much easier than our search of Hip Skip... they left a convenient trail of broken shop windows and overturned vendor carts in their wake. We followed the trail down to an old warehouse in the merchant district and walked in thinking that we'd be rounding up a gang of young toughs. Much to our surprise in the middle of the warehouse next a pile of obviously stolen contraband, we found Billy Barrue and his gang!
Most likely due to our previous run-in, Billy ordered his gang to use lethal force against us as he charged us wielding a maul imbued with powerful magic. Using the magic, Billy grew to the size of an ogre and used the weapon to great effect. After our frustrating week of dead-ends, it appeared that our party welcomed the fight and after recovering from the surprise of Billy's new-found height, we laid Billy and his gang low... lethal force being dealt against lethal force. Unfortunately, Billy's side-kick Hank was able to escape down a secret trapdoor into the sewers. Before we could give chase, Ellanzo, a regiment of Waterdeep Wizard Corps and a large contingent of the local press showed up... accompanied by Walton Barrue, the recently deceased Billy Barrue's father.
Accusations started to fly, but luckily Ellanzo was able to piece together what happened and talk everyone down. Normally I would honor a father who had just lost his son, but the lies, hate and deceit that spewed forth from Walton Barrue were more than I could stomach. He was showing no remorse for his son and was instead attempting to use his death for political gain! I confronted Walton in front of Ellanzo, the press corp, and anyone else that would listen and told him in no uncertain terms what I thought of him. Ellanzo paled and Walton, obviously taken aback, simply retrieved his son's body and left. In retrospect, probably not the best move as I've certainly made a powerful enemy, but I couldn't stand there while this corrupt and deceitful individual tried to gain political favor at the expense of Ellanzo with lies, lies and more lies!!
Afterward, a visibly shaken Ellanzo impressed upon us to find Hit Skip soon so that we could get some positive press. We hurried back to Rose's shop while Ellanzo investigated the warehouse and escape hatch to the sewer. When we reached the shop the shame of losing my temper with Walton Barrue was amplified... Rose's "spirit" friends had given her what turned out to be accurate information on the whereabouts of Hit Skip.
Using this "otherworldly" information, we tracked Hit Skip down to his hideout in the Dock Ward that night. It was an unfamiliar section of town, especially at night, but we coaxed a young street urchin to guide us to the correct alley.
Turns out that this "young street urchin" was actually a cleverly disguised henchman of Hit Skip's that had led us into a trap! Garbage and debris had been piled up giving the thugs a decided advantage and avenue of escape, but with superior tactics and an amazing cut-off of the escape route by Brolgar, we were able to successfully subdue Hit Skip and his friends. The "street urchin" didn't make it unfortunately.
Among Hit Skip's possessions we found some paper work and bills of lading describing a slave trading ring based out of Skullport. Perhaps Nip Skit was better connected than we expected, explaining his unlikely museum heist. Ellanzo was pleased and charged us with researching Skullport and investigating some of the Waterdeep contacts mentioned in the paper work.
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