Max Merloch, an unsavoury human hustler from Sharn, has assembled a ragtag team of adventurers in hopes of helping his friend and local noble Nora ir’Roole by locating her husband Drevan. As Max is not favoured in Sharn, he’s unable to get involved in the investigation given the Watch’s involvement and the group is able to negotiate 75 galifers as payment.

Small talk appears not to be this group’s proficiency, as introductions on the path from Middle Menthis to Middle Dura lead to Dench roughing Don up, and Mogo chewing on street spiders. After a few failed attempts at getting past a Guard of the Sharn Watch, the group investigates a struggle at the Half Pint Tavern, discovering:

  • Broken mask with red dragonmark symbol;
  • Torn glamerweave clothing (understood later) with a distinct smell;
  • Blood trailing to the back alley;
  • Clear signs of struggle; and a
  • Full purse and identification papers of Drevan ir’Roole (which Mogo has pocketed quietly).

In the alley behind the tavern, Dench makes acquaintance with a beggar named Bort, who provides the party with more pertinent information:

  • “Five of them came out, a couple of them wearing those fancy theatre masks with red markings on them like dragonmarks. One of them was hurt pretty bad, bleeding over there, another was out cold, being carried by two others.”
  • “The bleeding one wanted to go straight up to Clifftop to find a healer, so they split up. As they split up, one muttered ‘fear reveals truth’, like it was a greeting. The one with the fancy cloak also said something about the ‘Shaper of Nightmares’.

After inviting Bort into the tavern, and delivering a masterclass on inn management, Bort offered the party an obsidian symbol of the Cult of the Dragon Below, which was dropped by the kidnappers, a cult that often worships Val Gultesh, the Shaper of Nightmares, the Overlord of Fear bound somewhere in Zilargo.

Finally, the group made their way up to Clifftop in Upper Dura, leaving the inn with Bort. With the Adventurer’s Guild nearby, it didn’t take long to end up in a scuffle with two half-orc thugs, aptly named Burns and Patch, over their new association with Max. Merloch. In the aftermath, a young halfling woman named Jayree is called to the scene of the fight. She bandaged the injured, and revealed that:

  • she treated a troupe wearing dark cloaks and porcelain masks with red markings overheard the “performers” talking about going back to the Silvermist Theatre in Callestan; and
  • that the glamerweave the party found could only have been stitched by Thurik Davandi at Davandi Fine Tailoring in Den’iyas, a gnome neighborhood on the Upper Menthis.

Highlights

  • “Bort, you didn’t buy that beer.”
  • “Let us marvel at what us innkeepers call the inn-dustry”
  • “This is the guy I use to collect on debts. He sends a letter. It all works out.”
  • “I have nothing else to tell. That’s it.”
  • “Look out Steve.”
  • “Who is he good with, for Accounts Receivable reasons?”