Session 3, Exploring Troll Skull Alley

The session starts with the group heading to the Castle Ward to sign the transfer of ownership of Trollskull Manor. The Castle Ward is quite different from the Dock Ward where they have spent most of their time so far. The Dock Ward always reeks of a mixture of fish, piss, old vomit and the faintest hint of cheap perfume and it looks like no one knows the meaning of cleaning. The Castle Ward embodies order, law, culture and high status. The buildings are beautifully designed, made from finest marble and stone. The street is clean, well lit and well guarded. The nobles in the party should feel comfortable but the lowborn are probably a bit intimidated.

The paperwork regarding the transfer of property is quite straightforward and happens in a jiffy. Volo takes the party to their new property: Trollskull Manor in the North Ward. The North Ward is a middle-class ward, where skilled workers, guild members, merchants and lesser nobles live.

Exploring the Manor

The manor is situated in an alley called Trollskull Alley, named after the first building there: the manor itself. It is surrounded by nice shops and homes. The manor itself is sadly in a state of disrepair. It hasn’t seen maintenance in years, graffiti is all over the place, almost all the windows have been broken and is generally in need of replacements and repairs. Unfortunately, that probably isn’t even the biggest issue. When the party enters the manor, they are harassed by its current resident: a ghost!

The ghost is not especially dangerous but more of a nuisance, it throws mugs, ties shoelaces together and closes doors in people’s faces. It mostly targeted players that were saying mean things about the building. Some perceptive players sometimes caught a glance of the ghost, it looked like a middle-aged half-elf bartender, with a large white apron and a big moustache. Weirdly enough, the ghost also acts nice sometimes whenever someone says something nice about the building.

A friendly neighbour dropped by to see what was going on, the local carpenter who likes to be called Tally. He introduced himself and told the party a bit about the backstory of the manor. He explains that the previous owner was a man called Lif who turned the ground floor of the manor into a tavern. Lif’s dream was to own and operate a tavern but was accidentally crushed by a loose ceiling support beam.

The party quickly concludes that this ghost must be Lif. They head into the tavern and start saying nice things about and their plans to possibly renovate the ground floor back into a tavern. Hearing this, the ghost stops harassing and become quite docile.

Meet the neighbours

Another neighbour, although less friendly, stops by to investigate. This man is Emmek Frewn, who owns a bar on the other side of the alley called Frewn’s Brews. He scowls at Volo and starts criticising the building and the party. Emmek is obviously a bit of a dick.

Tally then proceeds to give the party a tour of the alley. He first introduces them to Avi and Embric, who own a smithy together. Avi is a male water genasi with a calm disposition whereas Embric is a male fire genasi with quite the temper. When the party enters the smithy Embric is having a tantrum about poor quality steel. Avi calms Embric down with a hug, which causes some steam to rise from their embrace. They introduce themselves and their particular skills, Embric is an expert weaponsmith and Avi is an expert armor and locksmith.

They move on to the next shop, Corellon’s Crown, owned by a wood elf called Fala. Fala is a herbalist and sells medicine and plants. Additionally there is an assortment of magical potions for sale.

Tally shows them a private detective business called the Tiger’s Eye. Tally explains that the owner likes to sleep during the day and opens later in the day. They’ll have to come back later to meet the owner: Vincent Trench.

The last shop is a bookstore owned by a gold dragonborn named Rishaal the Page-Turner. Rishaal is a mage and sells spell scrolls and books but only to member of the order of Magists and Protectors.

Renovation

After the quick tour a halfling and a dwarf come by the manor. The halfling introduces himself as Broxley Fairkettle and is the father of a nonuplet (like triplets but nine instead of three). He has his kids strapped to his body on a belt. Broxley works for the Fellowship of Innkeepers, and explains his purpose while changing the diapers of his kids. He explains that all business in Waterdeep should be run through the guilds, else the party will encounter trouble getting craftsmen to fix the tavern. He is here to help to get the tavern running an orderly and timely fashion. Broxley and his dwarf companion ask if they can take a look at the tavern got get an indication of the repair costs. After a quick inspection, they return and explain that repairing the manor will cost 1500 dragons. If they receive payment they will be able to fix the manor in a tenday.

The party explains that they don’t have that kind of money. Broxley proposes they could try to lend the money from someone. Cithras the fire genasi knight of the party knows of the Cassalanter noble family who earn their money like a bank. The party heads over and meet with the leader of the family: Victoro Cassalanter.

Victoro seems like a rational and calculating person. The party pitches their tavern and Victoro offers them a loan with 10% interest. He does require the money to be returned within 30 days, but gives no reason why. Victoro makes a remark on the fact that the party look like a bunch of adventurers, and offers them another deal.

He tells the party about an alley in the Sea Ward called “Blue Alley”. This alley has been transformed into a dangerous dungeon by a crazy wizard a long time ago. Every now and then the crazy wizard tries to lure people into his dungeons with treasure. It is known that the current treasure in the dungeon are unicorn hairs. These are very valuable for their healing properties. Victoro tells the party that he will make 500 dragons of the loan a gift and the interest will drop to 5% if they bring him a unicorn hair. The party agrees to this deal and head over to Blue Alley instantly.