As we made our way upstairs, we were met by the sight of several Zhentarim thugs fighting several household guard, with the lady of the house and her bodyguard watching, waiting for the worst and threatening the impending arrival of the city watch. We intervened, wiping out the thugs, though their leader – the man that had stolen from the dead gnome and fled – managed to get away. However, when we began asking the lady about the construct, she got very defensive. We checked the locating device and it was indicating that the construct was moving away, so we left before the watch showed up.
We followed the thug leader’s trail, but lost it when it went down into the sewers. Calling it at that, we all went home, except Mercenary, who returned to the manor to speak to the watch. Between that, a visit to the Goblin’s Mug the next day, and a subsequent visit to the temple of Gond, they learned about most of what we were up to.
Over the next few days, I was totally focused on a single P.I. case, since I kept rolling terribly (and drinking heavily because of my failings – in game, that is), while the others mostly tended to the Mug. Parvus and Mercenary did manage to track down the construct and destroy it (not without trouble – that thing had a high AC) and when they took it to the temple of Gond, they discovered a clue leading to a wizard in the docks. Mercenary also knowingly led a potential lead into a trap set by the city watch, so there’s also that that totally won’t turn around to bite us on the ass.
We made our way to the docks, and upon reaching the wizards house, found and fought a horde of goons (including a dwarf with a crossbow arm and an abyssal fish man). We beat them, with none of us dropping, mostly due to clutch rolls when they counted. I also learned the potential of an inquisitive rogue, when I entered a building alone with three goons and left three rounds later, covered in their blood and only 4 hit points the worse.
The fight ended with the crossbow dwarf jumping into the water to escape being captured alive, only to be attacked by a shark. Mercenary and Parvus tried to save him with a rope, only to accidentally rip his other arm off instead. Seriously.
Once the fighting was done, we met the wizard, who explained that the construct had brought her the stone (the artefact stolen from the gnome) to give to the Xanathar’s Guild. She decided not to give it to them, and sent it with her familiar to her family crypt at the city cemetery to keep it safe, but she told us where it was because she realised how much trouble it was and wanted us to take it off her hands.
We thanked her and headed off, taking a short rest before starting on our way to the cemetery. That’s where we finished.
And that was that, really. It was a solid session, but mostly it felt like the next step in the direction of whatever the story is building towards. We levelled up, too, which is nice. Although, most of my deaths have come during the first session of a new level, so… we’ll have to wait and see what horrors await us at the cemetery, I guess.