An Unfriendly Reception
17 Kythorn 1492
You enter the Guts and Garters and try a few things with mixed results. Pessius does her sexy best with Tiefling innkeeper Quietude, but the innkeeper seems dismissive of charm and persuasion. Only when Zanalor claims to have business with Nar’l does she raise her interest, but still considers the party as another band of glory-seekers (albeit well-equipped ones) who happened to have a name. Froderick and Nuitt wander off to an odd table game in a side room while Pessius and Zanalor continue to push for information. When you threaten to burn the place down, Quietude sharply slams the tankard she is cleaning on the table and the whole tavern - some 30 thieves, kobolds, duergar, a hulking minotaur, and others - all go deathly quiet. Quietude makes it plain that your boast and threats sound quite feeble in HER tavern. “You are behind a very thin line. Try hard not to cross it with me.” Nuitt and Froderick both ken that she is not one that can be intimidated. She suggest the party find their way out of Skullport, recommending a powerful mage named Tasselgryn offers use of her teleportation circle back up to Waterdeep for a fee. She runs a shop called The Poisoned Quill. Oh look! Free lore!
Despite the ineffective intimidation, it nonetheless seems that the tavern and Skullport is populated nigh-exclusively by the worst sorts. Appealing to greed and self-interest through power and fear are difficult but often the only way. Eventually, Quietude agrees to send message to Nar’l and the party takes a couple rooms for the evening.
Nuitt wins at tentacle pool, pushing legless rodents or odd fleshy balls around a table winning a decent sum of gold from duergar but relinquishing the tentacle rod at the end. Zanalor and Pessius go upstairs, get paranoid, and destroy their dinner with ball bearings before the door, sending the mousy servant into a funk. “You know this will come out of my hide,” as she shuts the door again. Nuitt and Froderick downstairs take the tavern stew and Nuitt tries amazingly unsuccessfully to lie to Quietude. She seems to take a liking to this immensely but does not push too hard. The mousy servant returns and gets an earful.
On the way upstairs, Nuitt sees that the tavern stew is ultimately ground and stewed rodent balls. It does not sit will. While the party rests within Pessius’ tiny hut, you imagine you’ve avoided certain murder or theft. Pessius does her detect thoughts again on the minotaur downstairs who is talking to Quietude and is shown an image of a dwarf in gleaming golden plate with minotaurs inscribed all over. She gets the name “Ahmaergo” and quickly tries to insinuate herself with the minotaur. Le Vache confirms Ahmaergo is a nuissance but steps back from an offer to be rid of the him, someone (it turns out) so highly placed in the Xanathar guild. Le Vache makes clear that he is of the guild and will not be part of any harm to it, but hearing the team wants also to join is convinced and tells them of the secret entrance to the Lair in the cellar. He tells Pessius to look for Noska Urgay with directions.
PESSIUS DREAM SPOILER? When Pessius finally returns for her sleep, she has an oddly realistic dream, all of her senses firing. The smell of blood and earth, wind in her hair. The only thing she sees, as if she has tunnel vision, is a large stone that seems to be bleeding beneath her vision. She can’t look away until she wakes up.