A Beachead in Skullport

16 Kythorn 1492

Following a short rest, you ferry the two soldiers across the dark harbor of Skullport and disembark in an apparently deserted fish market. However, you’re quickly attacked by Duergar and a Duergar champion. One of the soldiers falls in that battle, leaving Froderick to carry one of the supply barrels towards your refuge.

The streets of Skullport are dark alleys and thoroughfares carved from cavern rock or timbers collected from the ships that used to be able to navigate to the subterranean harbor. The town is stacked upon itself, with three tiers of open streets build one atop another with planks and rigging supporting the alleys and paths above. Sound of battle echo off the cavern walls that seem impossibly far and obscured by gloom, making it difficult to pinpoint locations. The roads and alleys are cluttered with signs of recent skirmishes, the smell of decay and blood taints the air, and you make your way carefully between shuttered stores and houses.

You sneak through alleys, pass a few retailers, but are unable to avoid the attention of an organized band of orcs. After quick exchanges of spells and counterspells, silence and darkness surround the party. Froderick is quickly boxed in, unable to escape to dispel the magic and so the party fought desperately, at times unable to tell friend from foe. The party prevails though losing the last Waterdavian soldier, and sneaks closer to the Flagon and Dragon using Gwydion’s map.

Pessius sticks with Froderick, now tasked with moving two barrels, and they fall behind while Zanalor creeps forward to investigate sounds of trouble. It is at this time that the isolated Nuitt is quietly assaulted, losing a battle of wills and becoming possessed by a demonic vestige; a skullport local had made an unholy pact to revenge his slain family which ended both his life and corrupted his spirit with demonic powers. [edit: the party quickly clarified normal “Ghost” possession mechanics at the same time Dagda remembered that Froderick’s Icon prevents possession. We played it out well and this narrative reflects the way it happened so the ghost is not just a ghost]. As battle began, the demon within Nuitt compels him to attack Zanalor and Froderick. While the party fights a bullette and tries to discern friend from foe among your combatants, Froderick hears the call of St. Cuthbert to channel the diety’s energies through the relic, amplifying its ability and ultimately expelling the vengeful spirit from Nuitt, but not before we get to see what the Helm of Brilliance can do. In a moment of providence, in the same seconds where Nuitt is freed, the bullette fails against the Helm’s powers a second time and is shunted to… somewhere.

The party follows the boy Taran and a thief named Katebek Insale into the Flagon and Dragon. You meet Cai’lel Cadarn, who ushere the two with the supplies to the second floor where a handful of locals are wasting away from their wounds.

Cai’lel, the half-drow innkeeper, is also dismayed to hear that Gwydion was not able to send more help and had not been called to assist in Skullport. The party doesn’t seem to know the answers to several of her queries, and she in turn answers the party’s queries with some hesitation. She regards Gwydion's map and provides additional lore about the town including:

• Lower skullport is gripped in a turf war between duergar and their master in the western city, the Xanathar Guild from the northeast, and some rapid influx of abberations and drow from the mountain below farther east.
• They destroyed a bridge to Skull Island weeks ago. It was known as a garrison for Xanather under something named Sundeth, but of late had sent unspeakable terrors into the city.
• A shop called the Dead Man’s Corner in the abandoned fish market is run by an old crone named Olive Stillwater. It’s said that she sells zombies to dungeoneers for a modest fee. “They’re great for setting off traps!”
• A cartography shop called The Sword and Sextant, run by a pair of halflings.

She asks if you will further your help by stopping the scourge in the lower city. This generates much debate. Who to go after? What of Lareal’s request? Is your work done or what are you called to do. Cai’lel, distrought that the party doesn’t seem inclined to take arms against any of Skullport’s assailants, suggests an incursion into Xanathar’s Lair itself, rasing quick reservations in Pessius and Zanalor. She beseches Froderick and Nuitt, sensing some openess or charity there. She claims doing nothing is itself an evil, and the source of at least one incursion is well known. Better to stem the flow where it is known, she claims, and directs you towards the Guts and Garters to gain entry and perhaps bring news or return her contact, Nar’l Xibrindas. Priestly healing is welcome, but Cai’lel had hoped for more than treating the symptom.

Pessius casts detect thoughts during the exchange, and sees a picture clear in Cai’le’s mind of a meeting with other drow, including an intense knave with a large, extravagant brimmed hat who seems to be directing her. Pessius choses to leverage this insight with Cai’lel, but is only told, very cooly, that she is not in league with the drow, with her friends follows Eilistraee, and tells Pessius to stay out of her head. The party is offered shelter for the night to recover.

17 Kythorn 1492

In the morning, with a half-formed plan, the party sets out. You almost get separated when two of you hear cries for help from the northwest. After a fight with odd, doglike aberrations who seemed able to mimic human cries, three of your tried to shepherd an eager T-rex through the narrow confines of Skullport. After demolishing a few houses and killing or nearly killing some inhabitants, the T-rex reluctantly reverts to Pessius. You are hailed from the darkness to the east, and Zanalor and Nuitt move to flank using the rooftops. Nuitt falls into the refuse crates behind “The Feathered Rat” and is covered in animal decay and excrement.

The party encounters Istrid Horn and an invisible companion she names as Ziraj who makes his presence known when Zanalor makes his trademark talking tough speech; though on a rooftop, the largest arrow he has ever seen impales his shoulder from hundreds of meters away in the south darkness. Pessius again uses her detect thoughts and has a vision of a noble sun elf addressing his team, and gleans the name Davil. Soon enough, Pessius and Zanalor are both aware that these two may be members of the Black Network. Davil Starsong is known as a Zhentarim agent, but runs his own team of assassins and spies and has contempt for the foundering Zhentarim as a whole. Istrid warns the party of blindly following the direction of a “two-faced vapid waste of a drow.” She tells you Cai’lel is not to be trusted and the party unwittingly reveals most of their errand to her. After she leaves to the dark alleys to the south, you soon learn they have gutted a patron of the Guts and Garters and smeared the symbol of Xanathar in blood.