Rivals of Waterdeep Episode 9

By Dylan Ramsey

You can watch this episode on Youtube.

Carlos Luna - Dungeon Master

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

The party are headed to the Zhentarim safehouse. They can run the seawall, use a passage between the cliffs, or a tunnel under the city that is marked with the Xanathar’s emblem. Rinn asks Ziraj what he knows about the tunnel, and the half-orc admits that he and Levant never used them, since the Xanathar’s goons use the sewers to travel beneath Waterdeep--that’s why Ziraj haunted the rooftops. Duo the kobold says that he always used the tunnels, and they were pretty great in his opinion.

When Selise points out that she doesn’t have her armor, Ziraj notes that if they use the passage between the cliffs, they might have time to stop by the Jade Rose and grab the party’s stuff before the Watch confiscates it. They decide to go that way. Ashbourne drops some items and creates tracks around the entrance to the tunnel to make it look like they went down that way.

They navigate the passage between the cliffs. It looks like a place that locals who can’t afford or wouldn’t be allowed in the amphitheater would come so they could still hear any performances. Shaka peers through a crack to see guards setting up around the area to try and head the party off. Perrin starts talking through the mindworms with Ash, Nocnoc, and Shaka, planning to take a closer look. Rinn gets jealous and really wants a worm of his own. Selise tells him he’s made enough bad decisions for today.

Perrin sneaks into some bushes around the crack, and overhears two guards talking. One of them is complaining about the orders they have, because he knows about the passage between the cliffs and thinks they should be checking there, but the command is busy sending their men north. Perrin casts ‘Suggestion’ on the suspicious guard and convinces him that the passage wasn’t the escape route they used and to keep quiet about it. The guards form up and march away.

The party slip out of the crack and try their best to blend into a crowd of people exiting the amphitheater. Shaka goes up to a tiefling teacher named Robby Jellymint who is very excited because he snuck into the show and had the time of his life despite the insanity. They decide to get a drink together. Robby sounds exactly like Carlos’s tiefling sorcerer, Gilf, from the Dungeon Rats. GOOD. STUFF.

Ashbourne pays some beggars and gets them to start performing a song and dance very loudly, drawing some attention away from the party as they sneak through. Since Perrin is famous now, he rolls with disadvantage, but he makes it after using ‘Vicious Mockery’ to distract the guard he used ‘Suggestion’ on earlier, completely destroying his self-esteem. Rinn and Selise have Lavant’s blood on them, and are able to slip through by pretending to be performers. Really BAD performers, but performers all the same.

At the bar, Robby is coming over with beers to the table where Shaka is at when the rest of the party arrive outside. Ashbourne bursts in and shouts, “DAD! The chickens are loose!” at Shaka, who excuses himself to rejoin the rest of the party. Robby sadly drinks alone.

While headed through an alley, an intellect devourer leaps from the shadows and latches onto Shaka’s leg. He screams in pain as it assaults his body and mind, he uses ‘Hellish Rebuke’ and sets both it and his own leg on fire! His companions are able to yank the creature off. Perrin stabs it with his rapier, and Ash runs in to slice it in half. Shaka asks to be healed, and Perrin, Ash, and Nocnoc realize that the warlock’s mindworm was slain by the intellect devourer’s attack. Selise heals him.

Freaked out by that business, the party reach the Jade Rose. Duo scouts ahead, and tells them that there are guards inside. Mayor Melonie (I’ve been calling her ‘Melody’ all this time, and I feel like a dork--I thought for sure that was her name, I swear!) says through the mindworms that she moved their stuff out around back, but warns them to get out of here as soon as possible.

Ziraj says that the Zhentarim safehouse is about an hour south from here as they depart. That's where we end it.

Here's a clip of Shaka getting out of the bar with Ash's help:
https://clips.twitch.tv/DeliciousSpeedyMonkeyMcaT