Rivals of Waterdeep Episode 5

Rivals of Waterdeep - Episode 5: “Getting to Know You”

By Dylan Ramsey

You can find this episode on Youtube, and as a podcast. It’s mislabeled on the Wizards of the Coast Youtube as “Episode 4″, just like the session from the Stream of Many Eyes is mislabeled as “Episode 1″. You can watch this episode on Youtube, or listen to it as a podcast.

Aram Vartian - Dungeon Master

(Surena Marie) Ashbourne - Half-Elf Ranger
(Carlos Luna) Nocnoc - Half-Orc Fighter
(Cicero Holmes) Perrin - Halfling Bard
(Tanya DePass) Selise - Human Paladin of Tyr
(Shareef Jackson) Shaka - Tiefling Warlock
(Brandon Stennis) Rinn - High Elf Sorcerer

Since Brandon couldn’t make it this week, Rinn goes off on a date with the elf gambler he met at the Lucky Duck. Otherwise, we pick up right where we left off, with the party leaving Blackstaff Tower.
Perrin has heard about ‘Golorr’ before, so this new clue ‘The Stone of Golorr has three eyes’, gives them more information about this stone, which was evidently used to store the memories of Lord Neverember, who hid the gold the party are looking for. Mayor Melody says that she has a contact in the Xanathar’s Guild who has some information that he’s willing to trade. Melody’s also identified the half-orc that attacked the party as Ziraj the Hunter, who’s something of a legendary mercenary in the area, supposedly never seen outside of his brutal attacks. Nocnoc calls him “Garage”. Selise checks the Burn Book for him, but Ziraj is not in there. Shaka is nervous, because the situation reminds him of being young, and hunted by tiefling-hating humans.

The Blackstaff wizard, Fora, who probed Shaka’s mind before, approaches them before they depart. She says she wants to assist the party to try and apologize for how they’ve been treated. She gives them magic torches that will burn for 8 hours, even underwater. The command word is ‘Light’ in Elven. She clarifies that command words don’t need to be spoken with the mouth, “as the torch has no ears”, so much as it needs to be turned like a key in a lock. So it will work underwater just as well. She also gives them a bird figurine that they can use to send her a message if need be.

As they’re headed back into town, Perrin spots the urchin boy they met, Kelm, scamming folks with a shell game. Ashbourne reveals that she used to run games like that when she was younger, while Chips (her fox) robbed people, putting on a little bandit mask and everything to throw suspicion onto nearby raccoons instead. Perrin wants to give the game a shot. Kelm rolls a 25 for his sleight of hand check; Perrin gets a NAT 20 on his perception! He’s seen this shit before, and turns Kelm’s hand over to reveal that the ball isn’t under ANY of the cups. He tells the kid to work on his game and maybe, one day, he’ll be a great bard just like him. Kelm says that if he’s so great, he should try-out for a chance to win “The Grand Tour”, a year-long series of shows fully-paid for by the nobility.

Everyone jokes about how they barely remember this kid despite talking to him “earlier today” (episode 4 was played at the Stream of Many Eyes a few weeks before even episode 1). They give Kelm some food and silver and tell him to take care of himself. He tells the party they should be more quiet so they don’t get hurt themselves, because if they keep doing things the way they have been, then everyone’s going to know their business.

The party splits up the following morning. Perrin heads to the auditions, with Ashbourne as his manager. Shaka and Nocnoc decide to hunt down Ziraj. Selise and Mayor Melody go to the meeting with the Xanathar’s agent. The group comes up with a song for every time they split the party from now on.

Perrin and Ash meet a puppeteer named Nicholas Fernsberry at the auditions. Ash persuades Nicholas to take a dive and talk up Perrin so that the halfling can win. While Perrin gets the fame, they’ll give Nicholas the prize money so that he can pay off the dowry for the woman he wants to marry.

Meanwhile, Selise heads to the meeting place with Melody. Naral Xibrindas is one of the Xanathar’s advisors, and knows Melody because a group of drow pay to rent all the hunting lodges around Nightstone once per year. Something shady was probably going on, but the mayor never asked any questions. While Naral and Melody talk, Selise sits nearby and strikes up a conversation with some city watchmen on break. She notices too late as another elf approaches, and lobs a fireball at her companions!

Nocnoc and Shaka head back to the alley where they were attacked by Ziraj to look for clues. They don’t find any. They decide to go to the Grand Tour auditions--Nocnoc says he can do sock puppet stuff, while Shaka knows a lot of math jokes. He’s kind of a mathmagician.

Ashbourne lowers down on a rope to introduce Perrin with a burst of silvery powder, and she sells it 110%. Perrin glides out with his drum, and starts some Cuban-style conga rhythm. He gets a 24 on his performance! The crowd starts chanting “P.U., P.U., P.U.!” Perrin moonwalks across the powder-covered floor, and the powder ignites in explosions of pink and green and blue that drives the crowd absolutely WILD!!!

Selise shouts as the fireball spirals towards Melody and Naral. Melody leaps into a fountain, but Naral isn’t able to move in time and is vaporized in the explosion. There is smoke everywhere and Selise loses sight of the drow who threw the fireball. Melody shows Selise that Naral had a bag, but whatever was inside it was taken. Naral said that he thought the Xanathar was onto him, as was another group that he was acting as a double-agent for--the Bregan D’aerthe (Jarlaxle Baenre’s mercenary group!!!). Selise tells Melody to be safe and find the rest of the party while she tracks down the drow. She follows their trail to a darkened building and is ambushed by the dark elves.
Nocnoc and Shaka arrive just in time to see the end of Perrin’s performance. They are amazed. They are welcomed to the theater by a puppet named Richard Stickleson. Shaka is freaked out because he sees no strings on it, while Nocnoc is blown away. Then Nicholas Fernsberry pops out from under the table where the puppet is. They ask Nicholas about Ziraj, and the puppeteer says he could try and put them in contact with the bounty hunter for 5gp. Perrin signs autographs while Ashbourne’s fox, Chips, collects tips. Melody bursts in and tells the party that Selise needs their help.

Selise tries to shield bash her drow attacker, but he dodges and points a pistol into her face. Selise has two attacks because she’s level 5 now though, and swings her sword around with a NAT 20, slicing the drow’s hand right off. His gun falls to the floor as he screams, running for a back staircase. He hurls something out a window and yells, “JUST TAKE IT!”

Selise gets the thing the drow through out the window--it’s the three-eyed Stone of Golorr!! As she touches it, she finds herself deep underwater. A huge monstrosity with tentacles and three glowing eyes looms before her. As suddenly as she has this vision, she is back in the street with the stone, wrapping it up in her cape just as the rest of the party arrive.