(Session 4) The party awakens after their first night in Trollskull Manor to a fireball exploding just outside their new home. In the street just outside the manor are nearly a dozen bodies and a wagon and horses on fire along with several onlookers.
After questioning the witnesses they discover that a gnome named Dalakhar had been the target and that he was pursued by three Zhentarium agents. A metal construct slew the gnome and the Zhentarium agents with a bead from a necklace of fireballs and then removed something from the gnome and ran from the scene, followed by the only surviving agent of the Zhentarium.
Shortly after being questioned by the City Watch concerning the incident the party was visited by Renear who revealed the name of the gnome as Dalakhar and that he was an agent working for Renear’s father, the previous Lord of Waterdeep Dagult Neverember. Dagult embezzled a fortune in gold from the City of Waterdeep during his reign as the Open Lord of the city before he was discovered and then exiled. Before he could be questioned by his fellow Lords he placed all his knowledge concerning the whereabouts of the gold into an artifact known as the Stone of Golorr, a sentient device capable of storing and removing memories. With his knowledge of the treasure placed in the stone, Dagult then erased the information from his own mind as to not reveal the location of the gold when he was questioned by the Lords. The Stone of Golorr was then given to his trusted agent, the gnome Dalakhar.
With the Xanathar and the Zhentarium close upon his heels, Dalakhar knew he had to get out of Waterdeep. Not knowing who to trust with a whole city looking for him Dalakhar approached Renear Neverember. While Renear and his father were long estranged from each other Dalakhar knew of no one else to turn to. Renear, having few friends he felt he could trust with his life, sent Dalakhar to Trollskull Manor to meet with the party that had recently rescued him. Renear had planned on meeting Dalakhar at Trollskull Manor but was delayed when he sought out another friend, Meloon Wardragon, a group of elite adventurers who work under the orders of The Blackstaff who deal with threats to the city that are too unconventional for the City Watch.
It was Renear’s plan to convince Dalakhar to turn the gold over to the City and back into the hands of the people of Waterdeep, but Dalakhar was ambushed and killed before he could even arrive at the Trollskull Manor.
Renear also revealed that the warehouse that was used by the Zhentarium where he was held after being kidnapped also belonged to House Gralhund, a noble family in Waterdeep with a Villa in North Ward.
The party decided to take Renear with them to track down further leads and began at the House of Inspired Wonders, a temple dedicated to Grond, and home to an array of clockwork wonders, including a nimblewright named Nim. There they discovered that Nim had created another of his kind and that it was Nim’s creation that was responsible for killing Dalakhar and stealing the Stone of Golorr. Nim gave the party a device that would help them track the renegade nimblewright. Using the device they tracked it to the Gralhund Villa.
(Session 5) Amarill took the face of Hurv, the Villa’s groundskeeper, and climbed up an exterior balcony and entered the villa through the master bedroom where he saw the villa guards engaged in a battle with some Zhentarium thugs, among whom was Urstul who survived the fireball and headed to the Gralhund Villa with some back up to confront Yalah Gralhund.
During the conversation between Urstul and Yalah it was revealed that Yalah had been working with the Zhentarium but betrayed them to take the stone for herself which she then had her nimblewright deliver to her new allies.
As the fighting drew to an end the nimblewright returned from its errand clutching some kind of map. Yalah chastised the creature and ordered it to leave and get rid of it. She then turned to Amarill who was still disguised to look like her servant Hurv and ordered him to see to it that the creature was disposed of to eliminate any loose ends. Amarill then left to follow the nimblewright and then asked it to come with him back to Trollskull Manor which the nimblewright readily obeyed.
As the group met back up at Trollskull Manor Ellywick quickly adopted the nimbewright and named it Kim and altered its appearance to better disguise it. They had examined the map and found that it was a rough sketch showing the location of a mausoleum belonging to the Cassalanters within the City of the Dead within Waterdeep.
They entered the mausoleum to discover some kind of ritual taking place with some strange looking elf like cultists. They managed to slay the elves but not before they summoned some kind of fiendish creature dressed in red and white robes carrying a birch stick, a large sack, and sprouting horns from its head. After slaying the creature they recovered the Stone of Golorr that had been left laying on the stone alter, perhaps as an offering to the fiendish creature they just dispatched to whatever plane it came from.
After returning to Trollskull Manor With the Stone of Golorr in hand they became aware through the telepathic link to the artifact that the location of Lord Dagult Neverember’s hidden treasure was in the Vault of Dragons hidden underneath a decrepit old windmill in the Southern Ward of Waterdeep, but that it required three keys to open: a bronze dragonscale, the Hammer of Moradin, and a pint of vintage dwarven ale.
The Vault was also guarded by a Gold Dragon that Lord Neverember made some kind of deal with to guard his treasure until he could return to claim it.