*Season 1, Module 5* -- “Intrusions” (seconds later), part II of III

[Featuring: Kaliban, Cyric, Mercutio, Elron, Antinoa, & Napftor]

            Creatures of all Oriental varieties pour through the magic portal and arrange themselves into groups.  The human in the seaweed mask claps his hands to close the portal before he and the king locathah speak with the party.  He addresses each character by name (even Napftor and Morus when they are escorted soon after into the courtyard).  His name is Trinaso and he congratulates the party for uncovering the Silk Gloves.  He was in Waterdeep when the thieves were uncovered and “I knew I had to hurry my preparations.”

            His armada of sea creatures is here in defense of Waterdeep.  His explanation:

“In my homeland, a few years ago, grew a faction of people that were dissatisfied with the old ways of honor and duty to the Emperor.  They wanted to serve themselves only and, to that end, they formed a militant faction known as the Krie’lat.   To enhance their power and status in the whole of the Realms, the Krie’lat decided to destroy the most powerful and wealthy city in the Heartlands—Waterdeep, the so-called City of Splendors.  When word reached more conservative groups concerning the Krie’lat’s plot, they formed a coalition to counter the movements of the upstart children.  To this end, I have come to negotiate a peace with the locathah so that my forces and I can patrol the Sword Coast to prevent a sea attack on the city.”

            To demonstrate his good intentions, Trinaso transports the party back to Waterdeep to warn the authorities of impending doom.  After the locathah king thanks the party for rescuing his son, Trinaso’s magic whisks them back to the Brokengulf villa’s front door.  Antinoa greets the party and lets them in on what’s been happening in the city: the Watch has been very active and general violence at taverns throughout the city has increased dramatically.

            Telnorin excuses himself and says something about it being a good time to take a vacation in a swamp far away.  Morus, unaware of the property owner change to his belongings, invites the party into “his” villa and maybe a few coins reward for saving him.  Despite the party insisting that the place is legally theirs, Morus swears that it will be his again and storms off.

            The party decides to take its news of the Oriental threat to Open Lord Piergeiron.  En route to his palace, they are bullied by a group of Oriental toughs.  They are, regrettably, slain.  Piergeiron sympathizes with the adventurers but says that the ambassador cannot be taken for questioning without risking a political incident, but encourages the party to make their own discreet investigations.

            Out on the town, the party sees many small statuettes being bought and sold.  The objects show a portly mostly naked man.  It has a broad grin, bald head, and made of shiny brown wood.  Its hands are pressed together beneath the chin as if in prayer.  As Antinoa studies one passing by, he senses a presence in his mind.  The intrusion feels around his psionic shield and then leaves.  Many inns, taverns, and noble families throughout the city are buying the statuettes.  An armed man soon stumbles from his home and attacks one of the party’s non-humans.  When the man is dispatched, one of the statuettes is found just inside the doorway.

            The party buys a statuette to study it further, but they are unable to remove the top (which should be easily accomplished).  More racial-hatred attacks are reported throughout the city and the party, save for Antinoa, is not immune.  They question a statuette seller about where the things come from.  The man knows only that they come by runner from outside Waterdeep.  When more are needed, sellers have been instructed to contact “the lynx” at the house on the corner of the Way of the Dragon and Telshambra’s Street after dark.  Meanwhile, the city is rapidly deteriorating as race conflicts sprout all over the city and the races separate themselves into different city districts.

            The place is little more than a shack.  When knocked on, a door panel slides open and a voice inside mutters, “How many, where, and how soon?”  After a bit of useless parlaying, the party attempts to force their way in and strangle the information from the contact.  The person is slain and the party turns to following another seller’s runner the next day.  The runner delivers his shipment of statuettes and leaves Waterdeep by the South Gate, traveling the road for some 30 minutes by foot before entering a small building near the coast.  A sign above the door reads “Family Trading Company” and is totally empty on the inside.  Much like the contact building, this is little more than a shack.

            The runner is not inside and the party soon discovers a trap door in the corner.  A ladder runs into darkness below where voices quickly cease their talking.  A form dashes past the ladder and the party moves to follow.  At the bottom, an ambush takes them from behind.  From ahead, a wu-jen blasts away with a wand of lightning.  Antinoa changes his body into that of an umber hulk and tries to kill the wu-jen.  But he catches a lightning bolt in the chest and dies horribly.  Cyric is also mortally wounded and assumed dead.  The other party members manage to take out the ambushers and follow the underground corridor.

            One dart trap later, they emerge in a large chamber filled with deposits of white rock.  Workers construct statuettes on low tables while others fashion the white stone into perfect spheres that are placed into the statuette heads.  Another dark corridor exits on the room’s far side.  Lush carpets cover every inch of the chamber floor.  A voice behind the group says, “So glad you could come.”

            A ninja flashes her blades and pushes the party into the room.  The melee goes badly for the group until a voice from the room’s far side yells, “Enough!”  Only then do the PC’s notice small ledges above where Orientals stand ready with drawn bows.  Three men in red-gold robes part and kneel before a man in white and gold finery strides into the chamber.  An impressive-looking katana hangs at his side.  The party recognizes him as Ambassador Tirij-kol.

            The Oriental leader brags about how he allowed the PC’s to find his lair so he could capture the only psionicist in the city.  Without one, they cannot combat the psionically-induced hatred produced by the statuettes.  He concludes, “And now that you are here, no one remains in Waterdeep that can stop the imminent race war that will tear the city apart.”…

DM’s Note: A lot of fun was had in watching the human PC’s go after the non-humans and vice versa.  This module paved the way for my new power group, the Krie’lat.  By this point, I had no idea how the PC’s might escape or stop the statuettes from destroying Waterdeep.  But, I had much time to consider it as Ryan and Drew were heading off to college.  This left me until Christmas break (it was now mid-August) to come up with something.  In the meantime, the players that remained would not be idle.  I decided to go ahead with the statuette chaos and placed a new group of PC’s on the other side of the equation, as will be seen in the next 4 modules.

Module Rating:  ***