Journal of Rollo Lavius 3

Entry #511 - The Habibi Club

(G511 18/02/2023 via Roll20 - JF(GM), HF, OL, WF, SH, AL, FF, DL) K2

[This is the second part of the story I heard from my brother Corum about an unlikely band of adventurers known as the 'The Habibi Club'. We last saw them all fighting amongst themselves in the Singing Sword Tavern in Waterdeep.]

DAY 1 continued ...

Buttskii, the gnomish bard, decided now was a good time to have a nap so he started getting his bedroll out.

Meanwhile, there was a proper battle going on just a few yards from him as Tate, the halfling rogue, managed to badly stab Kayne, the human sorcerer.

Kayne countered with an Acid Splash spell that burned at Tate's exposed skin. Goobus, the other bard slapped Kayne, perhaps trying to knock some sense into him. It was like a festhall slapstick show at their table.

Over at the bar, Gilbert the monk found that the potion he had just drunk was making him feel very light. He tried a jump and banged his head on the ceiling. He wasn't the only one jumping about, far from it. Walter the druid tried to jump onto a table, aiming to try and get everyone's attention but he slipped on some beer and fell flat on his face.

As any of this was not chaos enough there was another person in the Tavern that decided to get involved. It was a young lady known only as Wendy the Wizard and she decided to stop who she thought was the main troublemaker - namely Tate the Rogue. She did this with a Ray of Frost spell.

Walter managed to make it up onto a table and shouted;
'Stop this! This is nonsense!'
Wendy applauded him, but otherwise he was ignored.

Tate, having had enough of being target practise for sorcerers and wizards headed to the bar and decided that he would join Gilbert in the potion testing.
He selected a dangerous looking black one and drank it all down.
Tate suddenly found his intelligence greatly reduced! Dizzy and confused he lay down on the bar top.

Gilbert and Walter decided to leave, and as they exited the Singing Sword they were spotted by a squad of town guards coming towards them.

Walter tried to push Gilbert towards the guards, which was rather unsporting, but he failed anyway. Gilbert, still very bouncy, attempted to jump onto a nearby roof. He nearly made it too, but landed chest-first onto the gutter and then just hung there.

'Please help!' said Walter, trying to bluff the guards. 'I am the bartender and they have all gone crazy in there!'

'Yeah, yeah,' said the head guard, who was none other than my brother Corum, who was a Civilar in the Dock Ward watch but who lived on the Market Square so often attended to problems there too. 'Let's all go inside and sort it out.'

Gilbert quietly dropped to the ground and followed them all in.

Corum got it all sorted out and talked to Ewiz about what was going on. When he heard they were meant to be going to Kryptgarden he decided to not arrest them all and in fact he helped them. Kayne was healed and the Singing Sword was paid for the property damage and their stolen potions. Corum paid this out of his own pocket.

'Just make sure to get this circus out of town as quickly as possible,' he warned Ewiz. 'Or I'll have to knock some sense into them.'

Ewiz thanked the watchman and did his best to bring his team together in friendship.

That evening there was a 'Hot Wing' eating competition. Walter, Tate and Wendy entered it. They all did well, but in the end Walter won - and got 10 gold pieces and a trophy.

DAY 2

In the morning a coach was provided for the members of the The Habibi Club which now also included Wendy the Wizard.

They were tightly packed on the coach, but it was only them and some of them were quite small.

They arrived that evening at The Huntsman Inn, the halfway point on the road to the Kryptgarden Forest if you are making good time.

As they ate their dinner together, they noticed that over in the corner was a sinister looking half-orc who seemed to be watching everything that they did.

Walter and Tate boldly went to talk to him. It turned out he was interested in getting a lift from them.
'You going to Kryptgarden?' he asked gruffly.
When they answered yes, they then agreed that he could come with them.
His name was Harag Tusker.

Meanwhile, the light-fingered rogue Tate was going around the Inn's common room looking for pockets to pinch.

As he dipped into the purse of a rich looking merchant though, he was spotted by the eagle-eyed barman. Tate made a run for it, and five minutes later he was back, sneaking around the room.

The barman spotted him again and this time he had a crossbow in his hands.
'Hands up!' he snarled at Tate.

Tate did not comply and the barman shot at him. The bolt missed and thudded into the far wall.

Tate ran again, and for a third time he returned, trying to remain unseen.
He wasn't having much luck though and he ran right into the burly barman who whacked him in the head with the butt of the crossbow.
Lights out, Tate hit the floor.

Walter, ever the reasonable druid, tried to intervene, but all the barman would say is, 'you are both barred! Get out!'

Walter was most upset by this unfair treatment and started to get animated.
One of the other patrons in the common room stood up and whacked him over the head with a club and the poor fellow was stretched out on the floor alongside Tate.

Goobus dragged Tate out by the ankles an slung the little rascal into the
back of the coach. He then returned and did the same with Walter.

The common room of the Huntsman was a lot quieter and well behaved after that!