Volo's Bargain

Greengrass 1493 DR

When Ránath and I arrived back at The Yawning Portal I immediately spotted Threestrings getting ready to play so I went to talk with him. Ránath sat in front of the fire and I could see Mingnist, Lypher, Elora, and Ketalysen at a table across the room with Floon and Renaer. Things looked to be under control which is certainly a change for the tavern as of late.

Ketalysen began rounding us all up for supper. I could see Ránath and Mingnist standing at the door to the private room staring awkwardly at the patrons inside who finished up in short order and left a bit nervously. Our group all filed in for supper and during that time I asked Threestrings if we could play a song together. We kicked off the evening with a rendition of Smoke Over Waterdeep which got everybody clapping along. Soon into the song I spotted Danica nearby and waved her over to join us with her singing. It was loads of fun.

After the song I introduced her to Threestrings and they began having a rather awkward conversation. I tried to smooth things over as best I could and suggested they should find something to play together. That got them talking about a common topic and I excused myself to join the others for supper.

As luck would have it the stew for the evening was fish! We all got drinks (milk for me) and waited for the food to arrive before which Volo joined our table. He thanked us enthusiastically for rescuing Floon and gave him and Renaer big hugs. Ketalysen invited Volo to join us for supper.

We gave Volo a quick summary of our adventure locating Floon, and Renaer summarised the reason for their capture by the Black Network, that is that they are looking for information about the whereabouts of the money that his father, Lord Neverember, embezzled from Waterdeep. At this point Lypher began looking expectantly at Volo who sheepishly admitted that he was short of the monetary reward he promised. Not only that, but he did not have a copy of is book for me that he also promised. Instead he offered to transfer the ownership of a property in Waterdeep called Trollskull Manor.

There was definite reluctance from everybody else about owning property in Waterdeep. I, however, was quite interested in potential habitation within the city. This building was located in the North Ward which was a rather nice part of town. I admitted that I was soon to be in need of a place to stay, so this was a very attractive proposition for me. Renaer told us that he was the current owner of the property and would transfer it to our group as recompence for their rescue. Many questions were asked about the property and it was decided that we would all gather mid-morning the next day to view the structure to make a more informed decision on our plans to proceed.

Lypher in particular was quite distrustful of our employer and seemed unwilling to let him and his compatriots leave his sight to which Volo suggested drinking through the night with us. Out of nowhere Ketalysen asked about the location of Ardeep Forest. At any rate, it appeared we were going to be staying at The Yawning Portal for the night.