C2 E7: Twin Parades

This episode starts the morning of Ches 21st.

* Current Secrets
* Player Characters

## Last Time

Last time, the PCs wrapped up their grand opening with several crashes and a new bill from Tally the carpenter. As they recovered from the banger opening party, they went about completing some tasks for their allies. Ladro and Tom convinced a young bronze dragon to leave after helping it find treasure. Tovarish helped deliver potions for a shopkeeper to a mysterious client that he couldn't quite place. And finally, the gang went to Fearless Frank's for a quick rumble.

## Offscreen Events

*Did anything happen offscreen before this episode? Will anything happen offscreen during this episode?*

## Harper's Mission: The Twin Parades

Mirt asked the PCs to steal a silk handkerchief from Maester Roderick Bartlethorpe and deliver it to a girl in a crate at the corner of Net Street and Dock Street.

> CHES 21 – SELUNE SASHELAS: A celebration of Selûne, goddess of the moon and navigation, and Deep Sashelas of the Seldarine, elven god of the sea.
>
>
> * It is supposedly based on a mangled legend dating back to the time when the elven city of Aelinthaldaar stood where Waterdeep does today and telling of a time when the elves of the sea said farewell to their brethren upon the land and moved into the deep ocean.
> * The elves largely declare this to be a bunch of hogwash, but nevertheless the “historical event” is commemorated by the Twin Parades:
> 	+ A huge line of ships (varying greatly in size) proceeds from the harbor, loops up the coast, and returns.
> 	+ Simultaneously, a land-based parade proceeds from the Docks and through the streets of Waterdeep.
>

**Parade Events**

* **The March of the City Watch**: Marching eight abreast and fifteen ranks deep in their green-and-gold uniforms, the parade is led by an impressive phalanx of the City Watch.
* **Sea Maidens Faire**: Marshalled by the swashbuckling Captain Zardoz Zord, who leads from the back of a rainbow-feathered diatryma, the Sea Maidens Faire:
	+ Leads with a procession of exotic animals — a caged owlbear, a unicorn stamping its feet proudly, a woman with three legs leading leucrotta doing tricks.
	+ Jugglers and stilt-walkers. The latter lean out far over the crowd, handing out advertising bills for a carnival on the “Pier of Wonders” in the Dock Ward.
	+ They roll up a cannon, which shoots a dwarf forwards to be caught by two of the stiltwalkers holding a net.
* **A Pageant Wagon**: Performing *The Pirate Lovers*. This popular musical tells of a human woman who is, improbably, the daughter of a dwarf-king and, even more improbably, falls in love with a dark elf. Various ballads are sung from the “deck” of the ship which the pageant wagon opens to reveal.
* **The Mechanical Beholder**: It hovers over the crowd and glares about menacingly.
* **A Joint Presentation of Temple Gond and the House of Wonders**: Members of the Academy at the House of Wonders have summoned huge ribbons of water and are moving them down the street. Within the ribbons of water swim giant, clockwork fish of bronze.
	+ The fish appear to be controlled by a mechanical man made of both burnished copper and wood; its clockwork mechanisms visible constantly whirring and pistoning under its rune-etched skin-plating as it “commands” the fish to perform tricks – flipping from one stream to another.
	+ Eventually the mechanical man leaps up, perches atop the snout of one of the fish, and is launched high into the air, where he does a double-flip before splashing back down through one of the water ribbons.
* **Prancing Pegasi**: An aerial dance troop composed of avariels (winged elves) and pegasus riders.

## Conversation Topics

* Zhentarim agent Urstul Floxin has made a name recently for his cruel and unrelenting tactics
* PCs recent missions
	+ convincing the dragon to leave
	+ talking to the sage on top of the hill
	+ killing the scarecrows
	+ stopping the elf and half-elf murders in the Dock Ward, and starting a fire
* Neverember's enigma possibilities
	+ large war machine under the city
	+ cache of ancient weapons and devices
	+ big ol pile of money
	+ a strange device that eventually drove him mad
	+ a colony of mind flayers that infected and controlled him
	+ one of Dagult's agents has been spotted about the city recently
* strange effects from one of the Brass Mechanisms
	+ Emerald Enclave mission 3: corpses reanimating in the cemetery due to the Phoenix Mechanism
	+ Farmers in the far fields have gone missing, but new trees have appeared overnight where they were last seen
* The Fey Day festivity results
	+ who snubbed whom
	+ a new tavern in the North Ward opened with a roaring party
	+ Return of the Black Viper has been confirmed
		- scandalous letters are being discovered during the Fleetswake parties
		- some letters are clearly stolen and being distributed, and others are written by a consistent hand that plucks secrets out of thin air
* The floats in the Twin Parades are rumored to be more magnificent than last year
	+ People are especially excited about the Sea Maidens Faire and the House of Wonders

## Emerald Enclave Mission 3: Necromancer

* Necromancer in the graveyard is using the Phoenix Mechanism to raise the dead
	+ Large flash of light and several skeletons raise around the necromancer

## Todo / Happenings

* Roderick's handkerchief heist
	+ Description
		- Hanky is bright blue with yellow dots
		- Roderick has a bushy mustache and several strands of hair combed over his head in defiance of age
	+ How it happened:
		- Tovarish changed to a cat, and nuzzles
		- Tom is going to use his familiar in the form of an owl to grab the hanky
		- Bartlethorpe is NOT amused and kicks the cat. The owl grabs the handkerchief
		- Tovarish pops out of cat form, and runs away as a warhorse
		- Tom re-unites with his owl elsewhere, and Bartlethorpe curses pet owners of the city
* PCs watch the parade go by and then deliver the handkerchief to the girl in the crate
* PCs go back to the tavern: Vincent Trench & Osco Salibuck drinking
	+ Ladro buys ammo for the drow gunslinger's +1 pistol
	+ Tom and Tovarish still owe a large outstanding debt (1000gp) to the Zhentarim. They also still have a diamond worth 800gp ish
		- Diamond appraised for 850gp
		- Debt paid off at the local Zhent safehouse
* PCs go to fight the necromancer in the City of the Dead
	+ necromancer uses a brass clockwork statue of a phoenix to animate skeletons around them
	+ Kill the skeleton, the necromancer yells "You should never meddle in Society affairs!" and then escapes through a dimension door