TGAT: Session 8

Richard Dickens being arrested for hampering justice

## **Chapter 3: Fireball (Cont...)**

### Scene 1: Trollskull Alley

Continuing from last week Richard Dickens was escorted from Trollskull Manor in the custody of the City Watch on the orders of Barnibus Blastwind.

Almost immediately after being taken away, Fala Lefaliir the owner of Corellon's Crown entered Trollskull Manor carrying armfuls of Belladonna and insisted that everyone bitten by a wererat in last nights attack must consume a sprig of belladonna *(also called wolfsbane)*. She warned however that belladonna is toxic and they may experience a degree of weakness that only rest could alleviate. All party members except for Matt and Levi passed their saves, Levi took 5 points of strength damage, and Matt was dropped to 0 strength falling helpless.

If a healer administers the herb, use the character’s save bonus or the healer’s Heal modifier, whichever is higher. The character gets only one chance, no matter how much belladonna is consumed. The belladonna must be reasonably fresh (picked within the last week).
However, fresh or not, belladonna is toxic. The character must succeed on a **DC 13 Fortitude** save or take 1d6 points of Strength damage. One minute later, the character must succeed on a **second DC 13 save** or take an additional 2d6 points of Strength damage.
A *remove disease* or *heal* spell cast by a cleric of 12th level or higher also cures the affliction, provided the character receives the spell within three days of the lycanthrope’s attack.
The only other way to remove the affliction is to cast *remove curse* or *break enchantment* on the character during one of the three days of the full moon. After receiving the spell, the character must succeed on a **DC 20 Will save** to break the curse (the caster knows if the spell works).
If the save fails, the process must be repeated. Characters undergoing this cure are often kept bound or confined in cages until the cure takes effect.
Only afflicted lycanthropes can be cured of lycanthropy.

   As Matt was taken to bed, outside the tavern, Emily a half-elven ranger was walking through Trollskull Alley and observed the appearance of the clerics and clergy who had come to collect and intern the remaining dead within the temples of their patron deities for the relevant religious rituals and death ceremonies. As she got closer she overheard them arguing with the city watch as to whom would collect the deep gnome as the emissary for the Lords of the Golden Hills refused to take a Svirfneblin to the temple of Garl Glittergold and there is no temple to Callarduran Smoothhands in Dawic, at least not above the ground. The city watch instead took possession of the body.

Emily entered Trollskull Manor and was offered a room in the now vacant master bedroom. When Levi received a letter from the Harpers asking the group to investigate the fireball and contained within was a small vial labelled "speak with dead".

The party made arrangements to meet with Captain Staget at the Dock Ward's city watch headquarters who had been tasked with dealing with the body.

### Scene 2: Halls of Justice (Castle Ward)

Inside the Halls of Justice a great temple of Tyr built from stone, iron, and wood, which was beautiful to look upon. Three of the Masked Lords of Dawic sat upon large ornate chairs on a magistrates panel in front of an empty dock. Marched up from the courthouse jail was Richard Dickens accompanied by four of the city watch.

When asked what plea Richard Dickens was making on his charges, he replied "Not Guilty" too all except the charge of "Hampering justice".

Barnibus was first brought to the witness stand and asked why he suspected Richard Dickens, he replied that he was dousing the area with a detect magic rod and was drawn towards Trollskull Manor. Upon entry he found a magic construct, and strangely his rod was also drawn toward Richard Dickens who had previously denied having any magical items in his possession. The magical item that they found was a necklace of fireballs and because of this they believed he performed the *"actus reus"* a few minutes beforehand outside of his own tavern. What he could not deduce however was the *"mens rea"*, as he could not fathoms Richard Dickens's motivation for such an attack.

Richard Dickens was next in the witness box and asked what was his intention. Why did he attack and kill eleven defenceless citizens, children included? Richard Dickens simply replied that he had no idea it was a magical item, he had been handed it by a small boy just after being questioned. It was only after he brought it into the tavern and had the item identified by Levi that he knew what it was and was instructed to hand it into the watch. Richard Dickens was asked why he didn't hand it in by saying he wasn't sure if members of the watch were doppelgangers and impostors so elected to retain the item until he could give it to someone he trusted.

The prosecution paused. You thought members of the watch were doppelgangers? Are you attempting to mount an insanity defence? Richard Dickens responded "no". There were no further questions.

Finally Levi was brought to the stand and asked how he knew what the item was and informed the prosecution he was an enlightened student of Cometwight University so was well versed in magic item identification and use. He again reiterated that he had insisted that Richard Dickens release the item into the care of Barnibus Blastwind but that Richard Dickens is often prone to stupidity and rarely makes intelligent decisions.

The prosecution asked him to recount a time where this happened. Levi began telling the story about how when they were investigating the disappearance of Floon Blagmaar and were deep inside a Xanathar Guild hideout Richard Dickens donned a bed cloth and burst into a room containing two Xanathar goons attempting to scare them by impersonating a spectral entity. Laughter erupted from the public gallery above the court room.

After some deliberation behind closed doors the Masked Lords of Dawic found Richard Dickens guilty of the charge of "Hampering justice" and concluded that there was insufficient evidence to convict on the other charges.

Richard Dickens must pay a fine of 200 gp and must complete a tenday of hard labour assisting the Dung-Sweepers Guild in cleaning the city sewers.

### Scene 3: City Watch Outpost (Dock Ward)

The party met Captain Staget who is happy to see their are keeping out of trouble. Levi says that they need to speak with the gnome, confused Staget leads them to his corpse in the morgue below the station stating "well you're gonna have a hard time", and also said if you manage to help me figure out who this guy is I may be able to "gift" you his dagger and pointed to a deep red blade on the table.

Even though Levi successfully remembered his Cometwight University training and knew how to administer the potion by giving it to the corpse and not himself. However, nothing appeared to happen. After ten minutes and almost giving up with the potion the corpse began to splutter and gargle intermittently and the party began questioning the corpse.

Captain Staget says he knows the name Urstul Floxin who is a known Zhent instigator, a "big fish" rumoured to be responsible for much of the recent strife. Staget believes he is headquartered in the villa of the Gralhund family.

### Scene 4: House of Inspired Hands (Sea Ward)

> "*The House of Inspired Hands looks like a cross between a temple and a workshop. The symbol of Gond, a toothed cog with four spokes, is displayed prominently. You see the silhouette of a humanoid shape perching on the rooftop. It extends an arm, releasing a tiny metal sparrow into the sky. The bird does a few loops in the air, then veers right toward you."*
>
>

The bird misses the party crashing into the ground, it's destroyed on impact.

Inside the temple the party walk through the Hall of Exemplary Inventions and find a priest called Valetta. The characters mention the figure they saw on the roof of the temple, which Valetta identifies it as Nim, a nimblewright that was gifted to the temple by a Cometwight scholar. They describe the incident involving the mechanical bird, Valetta sighs and leads them up a spiral staircase to an attic which Nim uses as a lair, only to find the attic's door fitted with a new lock. Valetta doesn't recognize the lock or have a key to open it.

Matt uses thieves tools to manipulate the locking mechanism much to the wonder of Valetta who is admiring his skill as the locks complex moving parts are exploited.

Meeting Nim, the party find that she is unable to speak. The characters ask why she threw a fireball in Trollskull Alley to which she shrugs and looks bemused. "It was you on the rooftops in Trollskull Alley?", Nim shakes her head and Valetta explains that she is unable to leave the temple grounds due to ancient magical effects on the building. The party ask if she created the bird, Nim nods her head. "Did you create another nimblewright?", Nim nods her head and gestures to the outside. In light of this revelation, Valetta angrily orders acolytes to remove Nim's tools and unfinished inventions from the attic, while she forces Nim to look on.

Valetta hands the characters a 1-foot-long copper contraption with an umbrella-like metallic protrusion at one end. She explains that it is a nimblewright detector. To activate the nimblewright detector, a character must hold down its trigger. When the activated device comes within 500 feet of a nimblewright other than Nim, the umbrella begins to spin, whir, and click. The spinning, whirring, and clicking accelerates as the distance to the target lessens, reaching maximum velocity and volume when a nimblewright other than Nim is within 30 feet of the device.

Valetta says that the House of Inspired Hands will pay them **500 gp** to destroy the wayward nimblewright. If they return with proof of its destruction, Valetta sees that they receive the promised reward and also offers them an invention

### Scene 5: Gralhund Villa

Richard Dickens, Gorog Un-Fallas and Lia Saevia decide to explore Gralhund Villa chasing the lead that Urstul Floxin has likely returned there. They begin conducting reconnaissance of the building. Lia Saevia springs over the wall, Gorog Un-Fallas inspects the rear of the property and finds the Coach House door to be locked. Richard Dickens attempts three times to scale the wall and is eventually able to get over with the assistance of Lia Saevia using a rope. Unfortunately during the third attempt he is spotted by a member of the public...