He comes in, taking a seat. "Could I trouble you for a drink?" Lif brings one over and Renaer looks surprised at the floating drink, but doesn't question it. "I came to apologise. I have reason to suspect that the attack outside your tavern is linked back to you rescuing me. Don't get me wrong, you were not the targets, but had you not rescued me, then Dalakhar would not have been coming to see you."

Xaul raises an eyebrow ‘Dalakhar?’ That’s a name he doesn’t remember hearing. He pulls up a stool next to Renaer’s and says ‘We’ve been investigating the incident outselves for a short while now. Recently we’ve been given the offer to commune with some of the victim’s spirits, but we’re still working on which questions to ask, and until that’s settled, we’re at a bit of a dead end. Please, we’d be incredibly grateful if you could tell us as much as you know about the incident and this Dalakhar character; I’m all ears.’ He notions to Barnacle to go fetch the other party members, which the gazer then whizzes off to do.

Skye comes downstairs quickly after Barnacle interrupts her time practicing a steely glower in the mirror. When she spots Renaer, she pulls up a stool noisily dragging it across the flagstones to spin and sit backwards against the table, as he speaks. 

“Where’s Volo?” She asks, “Going to be his turn to be rescued today?”

"Please don't tell me we have to go down in the sewers again." Damros groused before taking a long sip of ale,   "Any good news for once?"

"When the Lords of Waterdeep ousted my father, I thought his long, dark shadow was finally gone for good. The truth is, I want nothing to do with him. But his spies hound me. One of them, a gnome named Dalakhar, had been watching me for months. Then, about two tendays ago, the spy was suddenly nowhere to be seen. My father didn’t trust many people, but he trusted that gnome.

I spoke to a few of Dalakhar’s friends. Apparently, he was on a special mission to retrieve theStone of Golorr and was afraid that the Zhentarim and the Xanathar Guild were close to catching him. When he heard about my kidnapping, he wanted more information about the adventurers who had rescued me. I think Dalakhar was planning to pay you to deliver the Stone of Golorr to my father in Neverwinter."

Xaul nods along and says ‘It’s starting to make a bit more sense now…the gnome was trying to make his way to the tavern to give us the Stone, likely being pursued by the Zhent we saw dead near the blast, and was then hit by the fireball from the puppet-man on the roof before having the Stone stolen off of him by the figure Fala saw. I’m guessing that man must have been part of the Xanathar’s crew, unless the Zhents are cruel enough to burn their own men alive.’ He then shrugs and says ‘Although, now I say it aloud, they might not be above it if the purpose of the pursuing Zhents could have been to get the gnome into range of their associates, ready to drop the fireball and nab the stone, so we can’t rule anything out though. Let’s put the Xanathar Guild as our primary suspects for now though, and maybe plan giving them a visit…Ranaer, this stone doesn’t happen to have any magical qualities to it, does it? Would be good to gauge if whether or not they wanted it for value alone or an arcane purpose’

"It is an artifact that supposedly can reveal the location of a lot of dragons that my father is said to have embezzled while in office. I have no further knowledge on it's workings. I'll speak to Fala, see what she knows and see if my fellow Harpers can find out anything that might help track him down."

Kylaski is listening quietly. But the thrashing of her tail shows that she's interested in this story.

"A rock that finds money?  I'm in."   Damros signals for a refill.  "Any chance we can do this without the entire Zhent contingent in the city and the Xani Guild coming down on us?"

"I can't promise you will be the only ones looking for it. But I would like to also remind you that as it is money embezzled from the city, it does technically belong to the city. As such, factions who do prioritise the city, such as the harpers, will be more than willing to assist you to return the money where it rightfully belongs. With a fair share to you of course for your help." 

(This is where the seasons plays into it. Each season has a main villain that is your main rival for it, and once you reach the next chapter, it plays out differently depending on who the villain is)

Skye lets out a whistle. "Embezzling from dragons, now that takes some stones (no pun intended)." She glowers. "It always comes back to Xanathar. He almost blew up our pub. Say he has the stone, do you know how we'd find him and get it back?"

(dragons are what gold pieces are called in waterdeep. Dragons there refers to the currency not the creature. It was supposedly stolen from the city into his own pockets.)

(Whoops. I remember but misunderstood. Skye who did not make this mistake only says the Xanathar party, not the dragon part)

Kylaski asks, "Wouldn't whoever took it have already found the money by now?"

"As long as we aren't doing this for free,"  Damros drains his mug.  "Having other factions coming at us is becoming 'normal', it seems."

"Knowing my father as well as I do, I'm pretty confident that even with the stone, the money will be hard to find. He keeps his legal wealth secure. I'm sure his illegal wealth will be even more secure. Well I'll leave you to it, and will check in with the Harpers about this man who fled the scene. See if we can get a lead on where it ended."

“Come to us with more and we’ll follow it up,” says Skye. “Meanwhile, can be we be doing much to help find it from our end? More independent-like?”

Damros grouses, "If I wanted to work in the dark, I would go back to the Lady."