Journal of Rollo Lavius 2

Entry #377 - The Shambles

(G377 24/11/2018 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM)) WA50/2

DAY 413 (21st Tarsakh)(April) cont ...

Dear Nia,

Well we didn't make it into the main city today. Taking our time to come up with a plan seems like a good idea to me. We are spending the night in our little hide-away nook again tonight so I will just write this down before turning in.

First we checked out all the exits from the Foreign Quarter besides the way we came in. The south gate was guarded and carts full of barrels and bags seemed to rumble in and out of it. The east gate had strong stone doors. The north gate was kept open and guarded by a gang of squabbling troglodytes.

We spent the rest of the days nosing around in the FQ. I think the best advice we got was from a grumpy old dwarf merchant who told us that he had been into the main city many times and that - 'ye just bribe yer way in lads. Give a few gold to the first trog, then second trog, then the third. Keep dishing out the gold until you are there!'

Well anyway, I'm blowing out the candle now, night night my love, Roz.

DAY 414 (22nd Tarsakh)(April)

Dear Nia,

Today we attempted to get through the north gate. We didn't succeed. It started well enough, but got increasingly out of control. So, with Fenrir invisible, myself in the shape of a monitor lizard and Veddic shaped as a troglodyte using my Hat of Disguise we approached the guards.

Veddic started with a ten gold bribe, which was good, but when asked what tribe he was from he made a fatal mistake.

'I'm from the Gubblywub tribe in Waterdeep', he ad-libed.

Veddic hadn't been paying attention though as there is nothing the troglodytes of Pool hate more than troglodytes that are not from Pool!

'Seize him!!!!' cried their leader.

We then started fighting the guards, then random people from the FQ started fighting too, on either side or non. Random dwarves, old ladies, tough fighters and all manner of ragged guttersnipes.

Then a massive fireball, cast from a roof somewhere back in the FQ hit the gates, killing or stunning the guards, and blasting it to splinters. Half the population of the FQ then seemed to charge through them, for reasons I could not fathom.

We walked in, healing ourselves as we went, with gangs of desperate and half starved looking denizens of the Underdark streaming past us. When we got to the other end we saw it was filled with people. The FQ desperados being fended off by the gate guards.

The guards were out numbered and fell back. The desperados gave a cheer and advanced, but then a leaver was pulled somewhere and a huge rock rolled down in front of the gate, crushing several of them and effectively ending the invasion. Two poor creatures were trapped between the rock and the gate and were easily dispatched by the guards.

Fenrir sighed then ordered me to block off part of the passage with Stone Shape. So here we are now spending the night - quiet literally between a rock and a hard place!

Wish me luck my love, Rol.

DAY 415 (23rd Tarsakh)(April)

Dear Nia,

I am writing this from the central district of Pool, if you can beleive that, well fed and rested. It took a lot of bloodshed to get here though.

At six in the morning we got up and I used my Stone Shape spell to dig a wee tunnel around the big rock and into the next district. As I learned later this place is known as 'The Shambles' and is a sort of slum area, full of half-starved troglodytes. There is a central tunnel, a large airy hall dug out and decorated long ago by dark elves. Off it it are a thousand smaller tunnels, dug by the trogs. It is very easy to get lost in the small side tunnels that go up and down and in and out in a completly random fashion.

Well anyway, Veddic sent a zombie he had recently created ahead first (I'm not kean on all this undead business at all!) and it was killed by the guards. It did give us time to pick ourselves up as we got out the tunnel I'd made though.

From here we battled our way through the main hall, troglodytes throwing spears at us from the galleries and upper windows all the while. It was a bit much though so we ducked into the side tunnels. Here the trogs of the Shambles left us alone and after a couple of hours I managed to navigate our way east to the next gate.

Veddic tried to disguise himself as a local troglodyte, but wheter it worked or not I don't know as they were very happy indeed to see us leave and become another district's problem!

The inter-district tunnel led us to a chasm about twenty feet wide with a fortified wall on the other side that had a drawbridge in the up position on the other side. There were arrow slits in the wall, but otherwise it covered the entire eastern side of the chasm.

Fenrir tried to parley with whoever was within, but was met with a cry of 'Begone!' and a hail of spears and crossbow bolts. Oh, some how I had missed it, but Fenrir must have purchased some sort of device that has the 'Comprehend Languages' spell on it as he can now understand what everyone is saying to him, although he had to use Veddic and his 'Tongues' spell to make a reply.

Despite all that, it only got worse from here.