Ch. 1 Yawning Portal

by Gratefuldoom

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Adventure Begins

The Yawning Portal

Its early evening in the vast city of Waterdeep. The sun is just setting over the mountains as you approach a 4 story stone building. An ornate wooden sign lit by flickering lamps hangs overhead "The Yawning Portal."

Upon entering you immediately notice the 40' chasm the main room surrounds that gives this tavern its namesake. You peer down the seemingly endless drop and your eyes are greeted only by darkness. After the initial shock of a tavern built around a giant hole you make your way to the nearest empty table.

The warm glow of candle light fills the room casting long shadows on the worn stone walls. Cheers of laughter and comraddery come from every direction. A bard who you know by the name "Threestrings" strums a light melody three tables over. You see 4 halflings in black uniforms darting here and there trying to keep up with the demands of their rowdy customers.

Durnan, the proprietor of the tavern, approaches your table with an excited grin. Durnan is a middle aged human male with slightly graying hair. "Ah my fellow adventurers. Glad to see you here."

Allow for conversation.

Suddenly, a shout from across the chasm eclipses all the noise of the busy tavern, "Ya pig! You like killin' me mates?" as a 7 foot half-orc woman is hit by a wild punch from a human male with a shaved head covered in eye shaped tattoos. Four other rough looking male humans stand behind the first ready to jump into the fray. The half orc cracks her knuckles, roars, and leaps at the tattooed figure-but before you can even see blood drawn a crowd of spectators surrounds the fight--what do you do?

Fight

(page 22) If the characters choose to join the fray, have everyone roll initiative. But the fight is almost over by the time they push through the rowdy spectators. Krentz has only 3 hit points remaining and is trying to escape from underneath Yagra, but the four other Xanathar Guild members are poised to tackle her. Pulling Yagra away from Krentz requires a successful Strength check contested by Yagra's Strength check. Yagra thanks the characters if they help her, but is disappointed that they interfered in the fight. Remember how the characters deal with Krentz in this scene. If he survives, the characters might meet him again in one of the Xanathar Guild's sewer hideouts (see area QS, page 28).

Spectate

"Krentz and his lackies from the Xanathar Guild causing trouble again..." says Durnan. "Yagra can hold her own."

If the characters don't interfere in the brawl, Yagra knocks Krentz out cold but is then beaten unconscious by his companions.

Durnan, the proprietor of the Yawning Portal, points toward the door. "Out!" he snarls, and the Xanathar Guild members flee carrying Krentz's un-conscious form.

Demon and Friend

(page 23) After the excitement of the fight settles down...

Trouble arises from out of the gaping well in the middle of the Yawning Portal's taproom:

Shouts of alarm suddenly ring out as a ghastly creature climbs up out of the shaft in the middle of the tap· room-a monster with scaley green skin covered in barbs, an evil grin filled with sharp needle like teeth, a long, carrot-shaped nose, and blood· shot eyes. As it bares its yellow teeth and howls, you can see that 3 smaller creatures with pale skin, sparcely covered bristly hair, and pulsating veins follow quickly behind. Everyone in the tavern reacts in fear except for the barkeep, "Demons!... Help me will ya?" Durnan says looking at your party.

The barbed devil has crawled up from the first level of Undermountain to feed on tasty humanoid flesh, bringing 2 dretch with it. Once in the taproom, the barbed devil rises to its full height of 6 feet and rolls initiative. The dretches also roll initiative.

Most tavern patrons and staffers flee or take cover at the sight of the barbed devil. The dretches attack the nearest characters as Durnan (see appendix B) draws his great- sword, springs over the bar, and confronts the monster himself. As he attacks, he calls on the characters to focus on slaying the dretches. Yagra casually walks to the bar and picks up a random tankard of ale and begins drinking as she sits down.

The Barbed Devil has 44 HP.

To any characters who help defeat the barbed devil, Durnan says matter-of-factly, "You fought well, my friends. You've got a place to stay here if you need it - as a thank you."

Yagira Stonefist

Medium, Neutral

  • Armor Class 11 (leather armor)
  • Hit Points 32
  • Speed 30 feet
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
15 (+2) 11 (+0) 14 (+2) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 11 (+0)
  • Skills Intimidation +2
  • Senses Darkvision 60'
  • Languages Common and Orcish
  • Challenge 1\2 (100 XP)

Pack Tactics. The thug has advantage on an attack roll if atleast one of the thug's allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally is not incapacitated.

Actions

Multiattack. The Thug makes 2 melee attacks.

Mace. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, Reach 5 feet, one target. Hit: 5(1d10) piercing damage

Thugs are ruthless enforcers skilled at intimidation and violence. They work for money and have few scruples.

Bandit

Medium Human, Chaotic Neutral

  • Armor Class 12
  • Hit Points 11
  • Speed 30 feet
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
11 (+0) 12 (+1) 12 (+1) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 10 (+0)
  • Senses passive Perception 10
  • Languages Common
  • Challenge 1/8 (25 XP)

Actions

Scimitar. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4(1d6+1) slashing damage.

Light Crossbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, range 80ft/320 ft., one target. Hit: 5(1d8+1) piercing damage.

Durnan

Medium Male Human, Neutral

  • Armor Class 16 (elven chain)
  • Hit Points 144
  • Speed 30 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
18 (+4) 15 (+2) 18 (+4) 13 (+1) 12 (+1) 10 (+0)
  • Saving Throws Str +8, Con +8
  • Skills Athletics +8, Perception +5
  • Senses passive Perception 15
  • Languages Common, Dwarvish
  • Challenge 9 (5000 XP)

Special Equipment. Durnan wields a sword of sharpness (great· sword) called Grimvault. He wears boots ofstriding ondspring· ing,elven chain, and a ring of spell turning.

Indomitable (Recharges after a Long Rest). Durnan can reroll a saving throw that he fails. He must use the new roll.

Spell Turning. While wearing his ring of spell turning, Durnan has advantage on saving throws against any spell that targets only him (not in an area of effect). If Durnan rolls a 20 for the save and the spell is 7th level or lower, the spell has no effect on him and instead targets the caster, using the slot level, spell save DC, attack bonus, and spell casting ability of the caster.

Actions

Multiattack. Durnan makes four melee weapon attacks.

Crimvault. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit,reach 5ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage. If the target is an object, the hit instead deals 16 slashing damage. If the target is a creature and Durnan rolls a 20 on the d20 for the attack roll, the target takes an extra 14 slashing damage, and Durnan rolls another d20. On a roll of 20, he lops off one of the target's limbs, or some other part of its body if it is limbless.

Double Crossbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit,range 60/240 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2dl0 + 2) piercing damage.

Barbed Devil

Medium fiend (devil), lawful evil

  • Armor Class 15 (natural armor)
  • Hit Points 44/110
  • Speed 30 feet
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
16 (+3) 17 (+3) 18 (+4) 12 (+1) 14 (+2) 14 (+2)
  • Saving Throws Str +6, Con +7, Wis +5, Cha +5
  • Skills Perception +8, Deception +5, Insight +5
  • Senses Darkvision 120 feet, passive Perception 18
  • Languages Infernal, telepathy 120 ft.
  • Challenge 5 (1800 XP)

Barbed Hide. At the start of each of its turns, the barbed devil deas 5(1d10) piercing damage to any creature grappling it.

Devil's Sight. Magical darkness doesn't impede the devil's darkvision.

Actions

Multiattack. The barbed devil makes two attacks: one with its tail and one with its claws. Alternatively, it can use Hurl Flame once.

Tail. Melee weapon attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 feet, one target. Hit: 6(1d6+3) piercing damage

Claw. Melee weapon attack. +6 to hit, reach 5 feet, one target. Hit: 10(2d6+3) slashing damage.

Hurl Flame. Ranged Spell Attack: +5 to hit, range 150 ft., one target. Hit: 10(3d6) fire damage. If the target is a flammable object that isn't being worn or carried, it also catches fire.

Dretch

Tiny beast, unaligned

  • Armor Class 14 (natural armor)
  • Hit Points 10
  • Speed 30 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
4 (-3) 16 (+3) 11 (+0) 2 (-4) 8 (-1) 6 (-2)
  • Senses Darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 9
  • Languages abyssal, telepathy 120 ft.
  • Challenge 1/8 (25 XP)

Actions

Claw Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5(2d4) slashing damage

Meeting Volo

(page 23) After the fight settles down...

A human male, wearing a floppy red hat, a long black scarf, and a floor length red robe with gold embroidery that catches the candle light as he moves, pushes through the crowd eyes fixed on you. The figure who approached you strokes his mustache, adjusts his floppy hat, and tightens his scarf. "Volothamp Geddarm, chronicler, wizard, and celebrity, at your service. I trust you've noted the violence in our fair city these past tendays. I haven't seen so much blood since my last visit to Baldur's Gate! But now I fear I have misplaced a friend amid this odious malevolence."

"My friend's name is Floon Blagmaar. He's got more beauty than brains, and I worry he took a bad way home a couple nights ago and was kidnapped or worse. If you agree to track him down with all due haste, I can offer you ten dragons apiece now, and I can give you each ten times that when you find Floon. May I prevail upon you in my hour of need?"

You see, while admist a bout of writer's block, Floon and I visited a tavern by the name The Skewered Dragon. After the passing of a few hours of merriment, I took my leave and Floon stayed behind to try to win the money he lost playing 18 mules... I'm afraid to say that he was never seen again.

Blood in the Streets

The Skewered Dragon tavern is located in the Dock Ward and owned by the Zhentarim Guild. On the party's way to the Skewered Draon:

As you turn onto Soothsayer's Way the road has been blocked off by the City Watch. You see lying on the cobblestone ground half a dozen bodies clearly the victim of some terrible skirmish. (Zhentarim Guild members) Nearly a dozen guards wearing green and gold doublets, a tall steel helm and weilding truncheons, have three blood drenched humans and are currently questioning them about what happened. (Mentions of the Xanathar Gang starting a fight and that they were just defending themselves.) One of the guards quickly notices you and approaches you saying, "You are going to have to find another way around I'm afraid. This area is quarantined under the City Watch for investigation."
As you are turning to leave the closed street, you suddenly hear a loud shout: "Get him!" You see three of the City Watch guards frantically scrambling to catch one of the bandits who has sprung to his feet and is swiftly making his way out of the cordoned off street - and right past you!

The Dock Ward

The Dock Ward is unsafe. You can set the mood by reading the following to the players:

Tall densely packed tenements leave most of the neighborhood in shadow at ground level. Most of the street lamps have had their glass smashed and their candles stolen, and the smells of salt air and excrement linger as you pass by rows of run-down buildings. On the corner of Zastrow Street and Fillet Lane is a shop with a peculiar window display: One nearby shop stands out from the others. It has a deep purple facade, and in its window hangs a stuffed beholder. Above the door hangs a sign whose elaborate letters spell out "Old Xoblob Shop."

If the characters check out the shop. continue with Old Xoblob Shop. If they don't. they find the tavern without further incident; see The Skewered Dragon below. (page 24)

The Skewered Dragon

The Skewered Dragon looks like a ruin. Both of its front-facing windows are smashed, and a ship's anchor is lodged in the roof. Through the windows, you can see a group of haggard patrons drinking from huge tankards.

NPC's

  • Solomil Silverfingers. dwarf male adorned with flashy rings covering nearly all of his fingers hitting on the human waitress.
  • Talisolvanar "Tally" Fellbranch. half-elf male wearing modest commoners clothing drinking alone at the bar.
  • Sailors. several sailors at a back table drinking and playing some game with dice.

Tally

Tally reveals that he did in fact see Volo and Floon in the tavern that night, but another man (Renaer) arrived shortly after Volo's departure. He left before anything else happened. Tally also divulges that the man was none other than the last Open Lord's son Renaer Neverember. According to rumor Lord Neverember hid half a million dragons somewhere in the city.

Solomin

Solomin reveals that Renaer and Floon were followed by 5 rough looking members of the Zhentarim Faction and that they have a hideout nearby... look for the warehouse with a flying snake.

Sailors

The sailors just drunkenly hit on members of the party and know nothing of the night Floon disappeared.

Zhentarim Hideout

You find a large run down warehouse that stands back in an outer yard surrounded by a large wrought iron gate that is swung open. All of the lamps in this area are oddly still intact unlike the rest of the Dock Ward. The warehouse is mostly composed of stone. (You can tell it hasn't been functional for many years, but it's obvious people have been here recently by several sets of footprints leading to and from the main front door.) Investigation Check 15.

The party may also notice a large loading door on the right side of the building or a large window to the left. Both are options for getting inside.

DC 12 dexterity check for thieves tools for lockpicking or DC 10 strength (athletics) for breaking the door down.

6 kenku are inside and are alerted if the party makes too much noise. They scramble to hide but are noticed by any party member with a passive perception of 16 or higher. These kenku are all that are left of the Xanathar gang that took Floon.

Z1. Main Room

Tables and chairs have been carelessly tossed across the floor. The corpses of a dozen men lie along the walls, their rapiers and daggers lying nearby. On the north side of the area, stairs rise to an open level above.

If the Kenku are not hidden...

Four short, avian creatures with long beaks and black feathers look over in surprise from where they stand in the middle of the warehouse. Each wears a hooded cloak and wields a shortsword.

The corpses belong to five human Zhentarim sellswords (the same ones who kidnapped Floon and Renaer) and seven human Xanathar Guild thugs, all of them clad in leatherarmor. Each Zhent has a black tattoo of a winged snake on his neck or forearm, and one of the Xanathar Guild members has a black tattoo on the palm of his right hand that looks like a circle with ten spokes radiatng out from its circumference (the symbol of Xanathar). The kenku fight until two of them are incapacitated or killed, whereupon the survivors try to flee. A successful DC 10 Charisma (Intimidation) check forces captured kenku to divulge what they know.

What The Kenku Know

When kenku speak, they mimic sounds and voices they have heard before. Under interrogation, they repeat the following phrases:

  • In a deep voice with an orcish accent: "Xanathar sends its regards..."
  • In a thin, nasally voice: "Tie up the pretty boy in the back room!" and "Follow the yellow signs in the sew- ers." (This remark refers to tunnels in the sewers that are marked with Xanathar's symbol where they lead to the Xanathar Guild hideout.)
  • In a scratchy voice: "No time to loot the place, just get him to the boss."

Z2. Storage Closet

A unarmed man covered in grime and dirt cowers in the corner of the closet and shouts, "Please don't hurt me!"

Renear Neverember sits in the closet and will not attack the party. He only has 5 hp left. He will assist the party by connecting them with high ranking nobility in Waterdeep if they are kind to him.

If the party helps him....

Renear says, "The Zhentarim thinks that my father embezzled a large amount of gold while he was Open Lord, and that he hid the dragons somewhere in the city. They think they can find it by using an artifact called the Stone of Golorr, which was in the hands of the Xanathar Guild until recently. Apparently, someone stole it. The Zhents thought I knew something about all of this, but I don't. My father and I haven't spoken in years."

Z3. Secret Room

This room is hidden behind a secret door that can be found with a successful DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check. When the secret door is opened, the characters can hear the faint sound of a bell ringing in the offices above them (area ZS).

Treasure

The Zhents have stashed two wooden crates here. The first, stolen from the docks, contains four wood-framed paintings wrapped in leather. The paintings depict the cities of Luskan, Neverwinter, Silverymoon, and Baldur's Gate and are worth 75 gp each.

The second crate,stolen from a caravan on the High Road, contains fifteen 10-pound silver trade bars, all black from corrosion but still worth 50 gp each.

Z4. Balcony

The open second level is stacked with crates where it overlooks the main warehouse. Characters who search through the crates find all sorts of junk, including moth- eaten bolts of cloth, bottles of spoiled olive oil, and hun- dreds of pairs of wooden-soled sandals that were all the rage last summer but are now out of fashion. None of this junk is valuable.

Z5. Offices

The upper floor contains a suite of offices that get little use by the Zhents. The rooms have desks, chairs, and bare shelves covered with dust and draped in cobwebs. Harmless rats skitter about.

Treasure

A character who searches the offices finds an unused paper bird (see appendix A).

The Watch Arrives

  • Renaer: The Zhents were questioning me about something called "Neverember's Engima" and where were the eye. I know that there's a rumor that my father embezzeled some 500,000 dragons and hid it somehwere in the city shortly before he was ousted, but I swear I know nothing... My father and my relationship wasn't the most ideal.
  • They took the necklace my father gave me and then left me here tied up.
Suddenly you hear the sounds of armor clad footsteps approach the front door. The door bursts open and a dozen City Watchmen single file line into the warehouse weapons drawn (all wearing chainmail armor covered by a burgundy and orange (the Dock Ward's colors) tunic, they sport a iron helm that is tall and rounded at the top, and they wield a small buckler and heavy looking baton however they do have sheathed swords for if things get dire). Upon seeing the carnage, the captain (He doesn't wear the helm or tunic but instead wears very intricate plate armor) standing at the front says, "I am Captain Hyustus Staget, what is going on here?"
  • Staget (voice Scottish, like most City Watch) is pretty aggressive and is planning on arresting the players until Renaer arrives.
  • Immediately upon seeing Renaer, Staget's demeanor changes and is compliant to any of Renaer's wishes.

If the characters ask for the Watch's help in locating Floon. Staget makes it clear that he won't send a force into the sewers in search of someone who might well be a Zhent or Xanathar Guild spy. If they appear intent on involving themselves further in the conflict between the Zhentarim and the Xanathar Guild. Staget imparts some free advice before letting them go:

  • "Best not to meddle in criminal matters. Leave this dirty business to the City Watch."
  • "Not all City Watch officers are as nice as me."
  • "Keep the blood off the streets, okay?" And gives the party a sly wink. (This is a common saying among City Watch officials, who care more about what happens in the city above than what happens in the sewers below.)

Kenku

  • As the City Watch arrests and takes the kenku away they turn to the party and say "Xanathar beholds all." Then one of the guards smacks the kenku causing it to squawk.

Finding the Sewers

  • Its not hard to find an access to the sewers. A DC 10 survival/investigation check finds an access in a nearby alleyway.
  • A DC 18 reduces the next survival checks to just 2 in a row because they are able to find the closest access point.
  • If they fail the check then they must fight the gazers before reaching the Xanathar Guild Hideout.
As you turn the corner to a dark alley, you see a human figure laying on the ground that appears to be unconscious.

or

As you turn the corner to a dark alley you see a figure pacing around angrily.

This is Mark's character.

Navigating the Sewers

The sewers have no natural light. Characters without darkvision need light sources to see.

A putrid stream flows along this sewer tunnel, which leads in two directions. The stone walls are covered in green-ish slime. In one direction, you see a tiny symbol drawn on the wall in yellow chalk: a palm-sized circle with ten equidistant spokes radiating out from its circumference.
  • 3 DC 12 Survival checks must be made in a row in order to reach the hideout in a timely manner.
  • If they fail once then the gazer encounter occurs.
  • If they fail twice they encounter 3 goblins.
  • If they fail three times then Floon will be dead once the party arrives.

Before arriving at the Xanathar Guild hideout, the characters have an encounter in the sewers:

After an hour of following signs through the tunnels, you come to a three-way intersection where a ladder leads up into a stone shaft capped by a circular metal cover. Floating near the ladder is a spherical, grapefruit-sized creature with a bulging central eye and four stumpy eyestalks. It bares its teeth at you.

Xanathar's Guild Hideout

Q1. Central Hub

The characters approach this area from the east. Slogging through 1-foot-deep water and sewage.

The main sewer tunnel expands into a circular hub (this area somehow seems even grimier and more disgusting than the rest of the sewers) with a pair of arrow slits carved into its outer walls, directly across from each other. Two passages continue on to the north and south. A stone door, with the familiar 10-stoked symbol on its face, is set into the back wall of a stone ledge to the west.

If the characters talk loudly or otherwise make a lot of noise here, the goblin sentries in areas Q2a and Q2b awaken and shoot arrows at them through the arrow slits. The slits provide the goblins with three-quarters cover.

Q2. Watch Posts

As you enter this stone hideout, you notice all over the walls are eyes drawn in chalk, some faded others definitely recently marked. The floors are covered in the filth from the sewers and torn tapestries hang on the walls. Torches hang on the wall but all of them have been extinguished.

3 goblins are stationed here, 2 in area Q2a and 1 in Q2b. The goblins rely on dark vision to see and are supposed to be watching area Q1 but both have dozed off. Characters who succeed on a DC 9 Dexterity (Stealth) check can sneak past the sleeping goblins without waking them.

  • Hanging on the walls are ripped out pages of Goblin Playboy pin-ups.
  • The goblins, if not awoken, are sleeping against the wall with a crossbow laying across their laps.

Q3. Messy Area

Rusty weapons on racks and threadbare clothing clutter the floor of this area, which serves as a coat room and armory. A large poster hangs on the far wall says, "Keep Calm and Remember, Xanathar Sees All."

It contains nothing of value.

Q4. Empty Seating Area

Small wooden stools are scattered around the room with empty tankards sitting here and there. Several straw stuffed mattresses on the other side of the room lay on the floor.

This room contains six tattered, straw-stuffed mattresses and nothing of value. If the occupant or occupants of area Q5 have not been dealt with already, the characters hear the sounds of activity in that room through the thin wooden door that separates these two chambers.

  • A DC 15 Investigation finds a vibrator under one of the mattresses.

Q5. Sleeping Area

This room is much like the last with wooden stools, itchy-looking mattresses on the floor, and empty tankards. Immediately you notice across the room there is a duergar and the same man you defended Yagra against that day at the Yawning Portal. Neither has noticed you enter the room. "You are goin' about this all wrong. Ya 'ave ta stuff something under da door or else it'll get in!" Krentz says frantically. "Shut up and help me hold the door closed!" the duergar responds.

This room contains a hostile member of the Xanathar Guild a duergar named Zemk. If Krentz (CE human bandit) escaped from the Yawning Portal after the tavern brawl that kicked off the adventure, he's present. When the characters arrive, Zemk is using pieces of furniture to barricade the door to area Q6.

If Krentz is here, he's trying to explain that Zemk's approach won't work, and is telling him to plug the gap at the bottom of the door with blankets. Neither of them notices intruders right away unless the interlopers make a lot of noise.

Once combat starts, Zemk fights to the death. How Krentz reacts to the adventurers depends on how they treated him earlier. If they helped him, he gives them a chance to leave in peace, but he fights alongside Zemk if they refuse to withdraw. If the duergar is killed, Krentz flees if he can or surrenders if he must. Neither Zemk nor Krentz carries any treasure. Both report to Grum'shar (see area Q7).

Q6. Lavatory

This room has a hole in the floor that opens into a cesspit. A gray ooze has emerged from the pit and killed two goblins that were sent into the room to dispose of it. The goblins' bones float amid the ooze's gooey form, and their pitted weapons lie on the floor nearby. None of the gear is salvageable.

Q7. Final Boss

Threadbare curtains hang on the east wall of a long hall, in the middle of which a muscular half-orc in dingy robes stands with his foot on the chest of a male human with wavy red-blond hair. 2 burly bandits stand nearby adorned in black leather emroidered with yellow. Fire burns around the orc's clenched fist, and his victim cries and squirms helplessly beneath him. Seated on a raised platform to the south is a nightmarish figure wearing black robes. It has large white eyes and rubbery purple skin, with four tentacles encircling its in-human mouth. It cradles and gently caresses what looks like a disembodied brain with feet.

The tentacled creature is Nihiloor (see appendix B), a mind flayer that is caressing an intellect devourer. Upon seeing the adventurers, Nihiloor rises from the stone chair, sets its pet down, and glides across the room, intending to leave through the double door in the west wall. The mind flayer expects Grum'shar and the intellect devourer to cover its escape.

Nihiloor carries a 3-inch-diameter stone orb carved to resemble an eyeball, similar to what one might see al the end of a beholder's eyestalk. This stone eye is the key to activating the magic portal in area Q11. The mind flayer uses it to return to Xanathar's lair (described in chapter 5)

Grum'shar: Oh, it seems we have some visitors. Please do come in and close the door behind you.

You have arrived just in time to see your friend die.

Nihilor, you deal with these intruders.

Nihilor: What? Fuck that. I don't answer to you... You know what? YOU deal with these adventurers. I've got better shit to do. Peace bitches.

Nihilor stands up from the stone chair, places the small creature on the ground, and proceeds out the door on your right.

With a DC 15 perception check the party notices that Nihilor has a roughly 3 inch diameter eye-shaped stone that gives off a definite magical aura.

Q 8. Getaway Passage

This room looks rather empty, but a thorough search accompanied by a successful DC 10 Wisdom (Perception) check reveals a rough-hewn tunnel hidden beneath a loose flagstone. the low tunnel leads north to area Q9.

Q 9. Private Cellar

An innocent halfling family, the Peabodys (Irma and Don), brews beet in this cellar, which lies beneath their home on Fishgut Alley in the Dock Ward. Their cellar contains brewing supplies and lots of worthless clutter. These characters are frightened and promise to have the tunnel properly sealed immediately as long as the adventurers leave them in peace.

The halflings haven't noticed the secret tunnel that leads to the Xanathar Guild Hideout; its concealed beneath a large flagstone that requires a Strength score of 10 or higher to be lifted.

Q 10. Sleeping Quarters

Straw pallets lie on the floor, and rusty manacles are bolted to the walls.

Q11. Back Door

In the middle of this otherwise empty room is a stone pillar carved with a small symbol: a perfect circle with ten equidistant spokes radiating outward from its circumference. In the middle of this circle is a smaller circular indentation that bears a passing resemblance to a lidless eye.

If the stone eye in Nihiloor's possession is pressed into the circular indentation, an opaque black doorway magically opens in the south wall. The opening is 8 feet tall and 4 feet wide. Any creature that passes through it appears in area X22 of Xanathar's lair (see chapter 5). The door is a one-way portal, and it closes again 1 minute after the stone eye is removed from the pillar.

Not-so-Secret Door

The secret door is plainly visible to anyone who approaches it from the east.

Q 12. Hostel Cellar

A narrow passage leads to the cellar of a halfling-owned hostel on Spices Street in the Dock Ward. Medium characters must squeeze co reach this area from the tunnel. The hostel is used as a base by the Shard Shunners, a gang of hafling wererats. They are aware of the Xanathar Guild hideot, but and the two gangs are tenuous allies.

Roscoe Underbough, a Shard Shunner in hybrid form, guards the cellar. He hides in the northwest storeroom, ready to jump out and scare away anyone who heads for the stairs. Not eager to commit murder, Roscoe allows retreating characters to retreat back to the sewers. He is a wererat. with these changes:

  • Roscoe is Small and has 27 (6d6 + 6) hit points.
  • He has these racial traits:
  • He can move through the space of a Medium or larger creature.
  • He has ad-vantage on saving throws against being frightened.
  • He speaks Common and Halfling, and he knows thieves' cant.

Develpoment

If the characters defeat Roscoe or slip past him, they can make their way up into the hostel, which caters to a mostly halfling clientele. With none of the other Shard Shunners currently present, the characters are greeted warmly by staff and patrons, who point them in the direction of the nearest bathhouse.

Completing Volo's Quest

The party returns to the Yawning Portal to see that Volo has been waiting for them during their adventure. He is rather elated to find that Floon is still alive and he runs up and gives Floon a big hug.

"I confess that I have but few coins to spare. But never let it be said that Volo reneges on a promise. Allow me to present something much more valuable." He holds out a scroll tube. "The deed to a remarkable property here in Waterdeep! We'll need a magistrate to witness the transfer of ownership. I'll arrange a meeting with one after you've inspected the estate and deemed it satisfactory."

Volo also offers a copy of Volo's Waterdeep Enchiridon for inquiring minds.

Fine Friends

Renaer: Thank you again for saving us. I do not know how I can ever repay you, but if there is anything that I can do please do not hesitate to ask.

Volo: The same goes for me.

Volo, Floon. and Renaer all express their gratitude through camaraderie. If the characters need to call upon their new friends for an occasional favor, any of them are happy to oblige. Floon has little to offer the characters, but friendship with Volo and Renaer has its perks.

Although Renaer is estranged from his rich and powerful father, he still has friends in high places. including Harpers who can come to the characters' rescue if they need it. If the characters are looking for an audience with influential persons in Waterdeep, Renaer can set up meetings with Mirt, Remallia Haventree (see appendix B for both), or just about any other Waterdavian noble, if he thinks the characters will comport themselves well.

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