The party enters the Lazy Bugbear, a dilapidated building that is barely standing. Inside the tavern room is busy this afternoon with patrons of drow, deep gnome, human and orc. Royce can see over the crowd toward the bar where he notices a bugbear pouring drinks, a human female barmaid taking orders and a dwarf patron at the bar with a mohawk, tattoos and piercings. When the dwarf sees the Drow’s Bane enter the establishment, he steps away from the bar, moves to the staircase and heads up to the second floor.
The party makes their way through the crowd to the bar where they greet the barmaid ‘Holly’. They make small talk with her and with Ben the Bugbear, the owner of the establishment. Royce relays to the party about the dwarf he saw moving upstairs. One of the party members happens to suggest the dwarf went upstairs with a lady friend when all of sudden they hear Holly’s voice, “What! He did what! That bastard! I need to speak with him now.” The party looks back to see Holly’s hand rubbing her stomach; she angrily moves from behind the bar towards the staircase and ascends. The Drow’s Bane, a little surprised of what’s taking place, follow Holly up the stairs.
The Drow’s Bane ascend to the second floor as they see Holly down the hallway, looking out the window. “There here is!” she climbs outside the window, makes her way to the catwalk on the roof and begins chasing the dwarf. The party moves quickly to the window, jumps out one-by-one, and climbs up the rope ladder. Naismith can see the dwarf 100 feet away running along the catwalk while Holly behind, shouting at him to come back and talk.
Naismith and Nong are first to catch up to the dwarf where Nong successfully stuns him. Holly and Mordrock catch up to the group shortly after. “Oh my god, what have you done to my Johnny!!” as tears roll down her eyes as Holly takes the stunned dwarf into her arms.
Naismith, Nong and Mordrock look at each other in shock. “Did we just stun the wrong dwarf?” Mordrock says.
Nong turns to Holly, “do you know a dwarf named Ahmaergo?”
Between tears, Holly looks up with a frown, “This is Ahmaergo…Johnny Ahmaergo you asshole!”
A sigh of relief washes over their faces.
Johnny Ahmaergo shakes off the stun in Holly’s arms. “What’s going on Holly?” says Johnny as he looks up at the 3 strangers who he remembers trying to avoid at the bar. “We need to get you to safety now, it’s not safe here.” Johnny grabs Holly and escorts her to the nearby roof window of another tavern where the catwalk ends. He helps her through the window when all of a sudden, she vanishes into thin air. “Aaaghh, Holly!” he turns around to see Mordrock’s arms raised as if completing a spell. “What the hell did you do with her!!!” Johnny screams at Mordrock. “I banished her until we have a chance to speak with you Ahmaergo.”
Johnny looses his shit, draws his two handed sword and swings at Mordrock in a mad rage. Mordrock cannot dodge fast enough and takes the multiple hits from Johnny’s great sword but manages to stay focused on keeping Holly banished to a demiplane. Johnny is not strong enough to take on Naismith, Nong and Mordrock together and eventually collapses on the catwalk; Nong then kicks Johnny’s body off the catwalk where it falls 40 feet and crashes onto the ground…broken.
Royce ascends onto the catwalk from the Lazy Bugbear taking in the encounter 100 feet away. What he doesn’t notice are the two assassins hiding in the shadows next to him. Royce doesn’t see them coming and endures the multiple surprise attacks from both assassins, however those attacks are not enough to take him down. Royce manages to kill one assassin but the other escapes, jumping off of the catwalk to the ground below. Naismith now on the ground next to the broken body, sees the encounter with Royce and the fleeing assassin, and starts running after the assassin in hopes to catch him. Nong pays no attention to the assassins and searches the broken body; he finds a key and a tattoo on the dead dwarf’s neck, similar to the one Naismith has on his neck.
Naismith in pursuit manages to wound the fleeing assassin but not enough to slow him down. The assassin is too fast and Naismith eventually lets him go. He watches as the assassin fleas in the direction of the Thieves Guild guards on patrol at the bridge between the Port and Trade districts. “This won’t be good for us,” Naismith thinks to himself.
Back at the broken body, Naismith says to Royce, Nong and Mordrock, “We need to move now. That assassin was obviously Thieves Guild. They all watch each other, especially someone like Ahmaergo.” The party escapes into the Ethereal plane just as Mordrock releases Holly back into Skullport.