TGAT: Session 12

Rooftop chase of Vevette Blackwater

## **Chapter 4: Dragon Season**

### Scene 8: Alleyway

The characters' search for the Stone of Golorr leads them to a snow-covered alley in the Trades Ward that contains a windowless Zhentarim safe house (area L1) and a meat shop called Cuttle's Meat Pies (area L2).

The characters approach from the west of the alley. Hoof prints and wheel ruts in the snow testify that Justyn Rassk's delivery cart passed through the alley recently after a brief stop outside the meat shop. Levi inspects the tracks and succeeds on telling that the deliverer visited both the shop and the alley residence.

Before the characters can investigate further, they are assaulted by members of the Xanathar Guild. At the end of a dead-end side alley south of areas L1 and L2 is an iron grate that covers an opening to the sewers under the North Ward.

Five bugbears quietly climbed up through the grate and concealed themselves in the side alley. They pour out and attack the characters, hoping to gain surprise in the blizzard.

The bugbears were sent by Xanathar to retrieve a prisoner being held in the Zhent safe house, but they're too bloodthirsty to pass up the chance to murder a band of adventurers standing in their way. The wind and snow render the City Watch oblivious to the danger.

### Scene 9: Cuttle's Meat Pies

Characters speak to the proprietor of the meat shop, a portly middle-aged woman named Sora Cuttle (female human commoner), learn that she received an unexpected delivery from Justyn Rassk of the Guild of Butchers. Given that fresh meat is in short supply in winter, Sora could hardly turn it down.

Levi sees fit to tell her that the meat came from chopped-up humanoids, Sora falls ill. She had no knowledge of Thrakkus's nasty handiwork and promises to bring the matter to the attention of the Guild of Butchers and the local magister. Until then, she won't use any of Thrakkus's meat to make her famous meat pies.

Sora also mentions that she is suspicious of her two neighbours in area L1. They come and go at strange hours, sometimes returning from a night's sojourn with blood on their leather armor. One is a pale, gaunt woman in her twenties with dark, stringy hair. The other is a much older, dark skinned man with a bald head, a half-missing ear, and a short white beard.

### Scene 10: Zhentarim Safe House

This windowless house is occupied by two Zhents the same individuals that Sora describes. Their names are Avareen Windrivver (LE female human spy) and Zorbog Jyarkoth (NE male human thug).

When the characters first entered the alley, Avareen is in the front doorway of the house, handing the Stone of Golorr to a high-ranking Zhent named Vevette Blackwater (CE female human swashbuckler). Zorbog is stoking a fire in the fireplace while quietly observing the transaction.

Gorog Un-Fallas slams Avareen into the wall and restrains her as the rest of the party storm the building. Gagged and tied to a chair in the back room of the house is a known member of the Xanathar Guild, a shield dwarf who wears a leather skullcap stitched with fake beholder eyestalks. The dwarf, Ott Steeltoes, was captured while buying fish food in a Dock Ward market. Bushy attacks Zorbog who is about to torture Ott using a red hot poker, Zorbog quickly uses this improvised weapon to defend himself from the warforged monks unarmed strikes but within a couple of rounds Bushy is able to defeat him and splatters his head into the floor.

Bushy sets Ott free to continue shopping for a replacement gold fish and as he walks away Gorog Un-Fallas knocks out Avareen and leaves her inside the Zhentarim safe house. Vevette mockingly laughs from a nearby roof, before darting away through the blizzard across the rooftops.

### Scene 11: Rooftops

Levi and Cubone scramble up to the rooftop.

This encounter uses the chase rules in chapter 8 of the Dungeon Master's Guide. It also uses the Rooftop Chase Complications table, which applies only to creatures moving across rooftops on foot. Flying creatures needn't roll on the table.

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A Zhent named Vevette Blackwater (CE female human swashbuckler) has snatched the Stone of Golorr and is fleeing as fast as she can across icy rooftops during a blizzard.

Vevette was a vicious pirate before she joined the Zhentarim and rose to become one of Wongas's favored lieutenants. She cackles madly in the face of danger and loves a good chase. She knows the streets, alleys, and rooftops of Dawic well.

After 5 rounds of chasing, Vevette drops to the ground and ducks into the Brizzenbright Theatre. Dave D'angle appears from around a corner just as Vevette disappears into the Theatre, draws his bow to make an attack but reconsiders after seeing the large crowd outside.

### Scene 12: Brizzenbright Theatre

As this encounter opens, the characters follow a fleeing Zhent swashbuckler into a theatre in the Trades Ward called the Brizzenbright. Named after Malkolm Brizzenbright, its dead owner, the establishment has struggled in recent years. It stays open in the winter for its own survival, but the theatre is wickedly cold this time of year.

Malkolm Brizzenbright, a ghost, greets all visitors in the lobby (area P1). Dressed in a suit, his hair unkempt, he floats in plain sight most of the time, waving his hands about in gestures of greeting and salutation. Locals are accustomed to his spectral form and his stock introduction:

> *"Let not this harried visage diminish you, gentle sirs and beautiful ladies, for I am but your friendly host. What fine art have we wrought for you this day? Buy your tickets and behold! You shan't be disappointed!"*
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After a harrowing rooftop chase, Vevette Blackwater has bought a ticket and slipped into the theatre during a performance of *Blood Wedding:*

> *Blood Wedding is a play about love, jealousy, and death. In the story, a young woman is brought to a castle by a count, only to fall in love with his younger brother, a man of faith. Her betrayal eats away at the jealous count. He murders his brother on his wedding day and pursues the bride, who hurls herself off the castle battlements in despair. The count is cursed by the gods and transformed into a creature of darkness, damned to live in his castle and feed on blood.*
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The shivering audience includes thirty commoners. Also present is a Zhentarim spy named Agorn Fuoco (NE male bard) and his companion, Amath Sercent (LE female priest of Bane). Agorn is swept up in the drama and fighting back tears while Amath pats his arm gently. Vevette takes a seat behind them and surreptitiously passes the Stone of Golorr to Agorn.

The characters successfully spot Vevette in the darkened theatre and she springs from her chair and flees out the nearest door, planning to lead the characters on another merry chase. However the characters spotted the exchange and sit behind Agorn and Amath.

Remallia Haventree intervenes and asks the characters to follow her **quietly** back to her balcony on the mezzanine floor. In the balcony she explains that she is a member of the Harpers and suspects Agorn of being a high-ranking Zhent. She has been watching him for a while now, hoping to identify other Zhentarim leaders in Dawic. Although Remallia appears to be alone, the two violinists (LG male human spies with Performance +5) are Harpers under her command. Agorn and Amath are unaware that they're under surveillance.