Quote from DirtyDogP >>

He will also inquire about the Fellowship of Innkeepers to find out what needs to happen for one of the Road's Enders to become a member. (I can't find that that ever happened.)

(In the "Dragon Heist" book, it mentions that part of the up-front costs was 250 gp for guild licenses and contracts. The cost of membership in the Fellowship of Innkeepers was included in that.

Apologies if I rushed too fast past the downtime details.
In post 2618, the "paid in advance" fees was mentioned, but then it was paid off in order to hire the party to do one of the adventures.
In post 5193, I mentioned the scroll saying the restaurant could open. In hindsight, it would include the paperwork for FellOfInn membership.

There is also a 10 gp per ten-day "for all other guild expenses" and another 50 gp for hirelings like Fanny and the waiters, but with the restaurant usually breaking even or making a profit, I didn't fuss with that.)

Jorin is happy to help Drusk build his water ball.  He takes careful notes and has Drusk inspect the various items during the progression of the task.

At first Jorin is a little reluctant to have Drusk use magic to aid in crafting the dinnerware, but he considers that these items will be used mostly by the group during what could probably be described as "family dinner," he changes his mind and welcomes the input of talent from another road ender.  He then eager seeks similar aid/input from the others of the group in order to make a set of dinnerware that is truly reflective of the adventurers.

Drusk isn't trying to enchant the dinnerware directly.
More like using the divine spells to make Jorin's work a little easier.
A blessing so that when Jorin reaches into the ore bin, he somehow always pulls out the higher purity fragments. Or Guidance for when Jorin is trying to decide which of two designs is more aesthetically pleasing. Or Creating Water to reduce the number of trips to the local well.

Assuming that Pascal is helping out by keeping the fires going (by cantrips and his fire elemental servant), Drusk would be making sure Pascal doesn't get carried away with his flame magic and accidentally melt the entire furnace.

Feldspar seems as though she's about to leave, on the hour, for quite a while. She seems to be expecting someone to come to her, dusting off their palms, with a "welp, time to go" and a door opened to leave. But it doesn't seem to come. So she stays. Eating anything Pascal cooks up. And anything else. Observing. Helping... a little bit? She does take care of herself and clean things up. She finds a forgotten room that seems unused and sets up shop there. Toying with the pendant she always has around her neck. Still wiping cobwebs from her forehead. Talking more often, in low tones, to people who don't really seem to be there. Or one person? It's unclear and she elides any questions about it.

She starts doodling in a corner where no one can really see, behind a pillar in the hallway. A pattern that starts out simple, in charcoal and simple paint, but which starts to take on beautiful complexity as she gets going. It takes a few hours, but Lif notices and makes a racket and ruins her design and actually flings her paint onto a wall that's much more visible. 

She takes umbrage. She goes out into the city and comes back with a large sack of jars and brushes (tell me how much to take in gold). She parks herself in front of the crime scene and covers up the spatters and turns it into something else, an actually really lovely flowery, detailed coastline landscape. Showing both above and below the waterline, lots of fish and sea creatures, but also intricate rock formations. "HMPH!" she says to the poltergeist, whom she cannot see but knows is watching.

Then they start trying to upstage each other, rather than outright sabotage. She feels more at home.

(Here we go, thank you all for your patience.)

The Road's End has been busy while the crew was gone, kept up by Lif and Fanny, custom drawn in by Pascal's growing renown. But the return of the heroes breathes some much needed life into the old place. Drusk's penchant for cheeriness, Jorin's hearty laughing, Hildi's mellow nature (now that he is back with his books and his projects), and even Spar's flair for painting (who knew!) liven the place up. Soon, Fanny is having to deny people entrance on some nights, and on the week ends, you have to hire another server, a lovely lad named Linus who is saving to buy a lute and pay the entry to the local College of Troubadours. During the week, Linus works with his his uncle Tally at the Bent Nail, a furniture maker whose shop is also on Trollskull Alley (where the Road's End is located).

With all the customers, sometimes the crew finds themselves retiring to the floors above, enjoying the second floor common room, the den, or the library (well, it's really Hildi's library now) on the third floor. (See the Road's End diagram on the Campaign Page)

A couple of weeks pass. It is coming on the month of Ches, 1492, the third month of the calendar, and Spring is beginning to show itself with warmer days and rains blowing in off the ocean. The crew goes about their business, settling back into regular life, knowing in their hearts that it won't last. Adventure finds adventurers, after all.

~~-.*.-~~

The third week after your return from the far east, Drusk is visiting his friend Tom, the tavern keeper at Graklyn's Tankard, the tavern built into the lap of one of the Walking Statues, the one called the Great Drunkard. The statues appeared from the Ethereal Plane more than a hundred years ago, during the Spellplague, rampaged across the city, then fell dormant. The Great Drunkard stopped its rampage as it approached the Market, then fell backward and sat upon a building. When it settled, its arms fell limp at its sides and its head tilted forward onto its chest, giving the impression that it had fallen asleep. The statue’s huge stone battleaxe still stands nearby, its haft angled upright and its blade half buried in the cobbles. The rubble of the crushed building was long ago rebuilt into a broad stone stair (with railings and a ramp that drunkards are often rolled down) that ascends from the cobbles to the statue’s lap. That lap now holds Gralkyn’s Tankard.

On this day, when Drusk visits, he and Tom are getting into a discussion about how best to brew a particular beer when there is a shudder that shakes the whole building. It lasts just a short while, enough to rattle the customers and bring down some dishes, but no permanent damage is done. Drusk follows Tom and the patrons outside, where there is an awed hubbub as they look up to discover the Great Drunkard has shifted his head to one side. Other than that, he remains asleep.

Over the next week, the Road's End's customers can't stop talking about the Walking Statues. The Great Drunkard is not the only one that has shifted. The Lady Dreaming rolled in her slumber two days ago, causing the streets around her to need to be shifted. Arguments have arisen about whether to rename them, or just shift the street names, too. The God Catcher, everyone is relieved to know, has not shown any hint of movement, but perhaps most disturbing, the Sahuagin Humbled has raised its head a few feet, out of its defeated obeisance to the city.

All of this has caused a great deal of consternation among the citizens of Waterdeep, with protests rising as the Open Lord and the Blackstaff remain silent.

(Feel free to react to all of this.)

It took about a week for Drusk to get the distillery plumping right. During that time, the hissing and pipes groaning would be enough to think that Lif was haunting the basement in a bad mood. But after consulting his brewing mentors, some parts casting by Jorin, and a few boot kicks at various places, the Road's End now has a small supply of in-house beers and aperitifs.

In the present, Drusk was very worried when the Great Drunkard shook the building, as he thought the earthquake hit all of Waterdeep. (With the distillery finally working right, don't want to shake it more than need be.) But with the news that it was "only" some of the big statues animating on their own, he gives a sigh of relief and is glad it wasn't something serious.
He does relay what he observed on the streets when returning to the Manor, in case any of the party are still confused about the crowd noise outside.

Drusk makes sure the Magic Infinity Ball(™️) trinket is handy in his room, if the party decides to consult celestials for knowledge (since the Blackstaff has been silent).
The holy water mixed with powdered purple incense has been sealed up inside the vessel, without any air bubbles, and the exterior has been painted a shiny black.
A large ∞ symbol is painted in white on the opposite side of the quartz cap.

(For clarification, it is now about a week since the Great Drunkard shifted with Drusk in his lap. Over that week, other statues have also shifted. It is an ongoing, if slow moving, event or series of events.)

(So what did the item that Jorin helped Drusk with do?  The one with the quartz...sorry if i missed the post where it was explained xD)

Jorin definitely spent a great deal of time helping Drusk perfect the recipe for the beer, mostly by drinking it and offering tasting notes that ranged from "I would drink only three of these" to "Even a bottomless flagon would not sate my desire to drink this."

When he hears of the statues moving, he takes a day to go visit each one where he patiently waits a couple hours for any other sign a movement, coming home that evening a little disappointed.

"Hainard's hairy toes!" Hildigrim exclaims as he opens the door to re-enter the Road's End. This is on the day that will later be referred to as "the day the Drunkard stirred". "It moved! The Drunkard moved!" He marches up to the nearest table — this one occupied by a human woman and an elf of indeterminate sex. "I was patronizing the Curious Past to inquire as to whether they carry or have access to any volumes on mind flayer involvement in guilds or government. The proprietor there is quite lovely. He is ever helpful. Years ago, I was looking for information on giant deepwater squid. Forte and I had wagered whether we'd ever catch one." Sensing the customers' confusion and discomfort, Fanny appears, takes the tiny halfling by the shoulders, and carefully steers him away from the table and toward a corner of the room. "I was positive if we utilized the right bait, we'd be able to lure one of the beasts within reach," he continues, only absently aware that he was being manhandled. "It only took just over a tenday —"

"Hildi," Fanny says, interrupting him. She turns him around and bends over to smile at him in amusement. "What are you going on about?"

After pausing to blink up at the genasi, Hildi takes a deep breath. "The Drunkard — the statue near the Market ... it moved!"

It is Fanny's turn to pause. Her face slowly drops into a look of confusion. "Moved? The statue moved?"

Hildi nods emphatically. "We only barely felt the tremor in the Curious Past. I thought perhaps something upstairs had fallen over, or maybe a tyrannosaurus was loose in the street. I know they're typically only in Chult, but ..."

Fanny closes her eyes and shakes her head. "Hildigrim," she pleads, "how can a statue move? Do you mean it fell over?"

"No," Hildi responds, Fanny's confusion not darkening his excitement in the least. "Only the head moved." Finally intuiting Fanny's unspoken reluctance to understand what he is saying, he reaches up and touches her shoulder, lowering his voice in amazement. "It's like it is waking up."

Thus begins Hildi's search for any and all information he can get his hands on concerning the statues, if they've ever moved, and what might be the cause of their movement now.

Shall I roll? Why not? Let's roll a few times just for the fun of it. As my ability to roll dice on my character sheet has disappeared, here are some d20s (investigation is +11, history and arcana are +7, religion is +3): 16 11 20 18 19

Quote from Guiltysparc >>

(So what did the item that Jorin helped Drusk with do?  The one with the quartz...sorry if i missed the post where it was explained xD)

(OOC: I don't have an exact image, but this is close enough.
I wanted Drusk to use a prop for the Commune spell, instead of just waving a vial of holy water and some incense.)

Hildi retires to his library upstairs in a flurry of muttering and excited exclamations. He looks through all the books he has, and finds some cursory knowledge, what most learned people would know. Six statues joined the original statue, a giant bald man, during the Spellplague (1385 DR), appearing from the Ethereal Plane, and rampaging across the city. Three were brought to heel, and then the other three just stopped. The Blackstaff at the time, Tsarra Chaadren, could not make them do anything more, nor command them back to the Ethereal. Thirteen years ago the Griffon appeared (1479 DR), landing and roosting on Ahghairon’s Tower, before flying up to the Mount Waterdeep and settling there, frozen as if on guard. Until now, none have moved since then.

Not satisfied, Hildi begins to think about where he might go to find more information. Candlekeep, obviously (that's always the answer) but it is too far. In Waterdeep, the Tower Library won't hold what he wants, nor will New Olamn's. Melfew's library might be too specialized into magical information. And, of course, Mother's Little Reading Room has very specialized books not about this. Hildi blushes a little thinking about the books there, but pushes it out of his mind. The Font of Knowledge, tended by the priests of Oghma, is probably too general, being what passes for a public library in Waterdeep.

What he needs is Waterdeep Castle's library, of course, as it will have histories of Waterdeep, but he knows from experience that it is impossible (at least for him) to get access to it. You have to befriend one of the Lords to get a pass. And then there's the Library of Deneir, which nobody will ever admit exists, and is protected by spells and portals and fearsome beasts, if the rumors are to be believed.

Which leaves Serpentil's Books and Folios. Hildi sighs. Serpentil charges a reading fee to even set foot in his shop, but he does have a reputation for the most rare documents.

Since Jorin was asking about the item he made for Drusk, the cleric will volunteer the use of Commune if it will help narrow Hildigrim's research.

"Deities and their celestial servants are not omniscient, but they probably know more about what is happening than most of us in Waterdeep.
If you can think of 3 yes/no questions (that can all be asked in under a minute) that Lliira can answer, I'm willing to try the spell for the first time."

Drusk includes Jorin and Feldspar in the conversation, as they might have useful suggestions.
"For example, one of the questions might be:
if we go to the house of Neverember and asked for a pass to the Waterdeep Castle library, will we receive it?
If Renaer is out of town, or won't see us, or can't give us a pass, then we will get a "no" and save some time and effort.
Or we could ask if Serpentil has the information we seek about the statues waking up.
Or directly ask, are the statues waking up? Is this dangerous? Would a Wand of Smiles work on one of these statues?
I can think of lots of questions, but I'm having trouble prioritizing them."

Drusk starts up the spell, since there doesn't seem to be any better suggestions.

Normally the Commune is fairly quick (a minute for the casting, then a minute for the questions), but during the restaurant break between lunch and dinner, he goes to the library/study on the 3rd floor of the Manor (map on the campaign page), and spends 61 minutes to cast the spell ritually. (Others are welcome to show up at the end of the hour, to see the answers.)

After the prolonged pleading for the wisdom and guidance of Lliira, Drusk asks these questions:

1. Are the massive statues animating in Waterdeep a sign of a problem that we should be taking action to deal with?
2. Are the answers to Hildigrim's research on the statues in the Waterdeep Castle library?
3. Will visiting the house of Neverember lead to us getting a pass to the Waterdeep Castle library?

After waiting for the surge of magic to dissipate, he then reaches for the Magic Infinity Ball(™️) and turns it over so the quartz crystal window is up.
He waits for the 3 pyramids inside to float to the top of the holy water / purple incense liquid inside.

The 3 bronze pyramids are distinctive so they can be matched with the order of the questions.
The wording is slightly different for each pyramid, but they are variations of the first one.
The four faces of that pyramid have these writings:

• Signs point to Yes
• My sources say No
• Better not tell you now. (The celestial working for Lliira doesn't have a clear answer.)
• (A blank face. For the special cases where a one-word answer could be contrary to the deity's interests, a short phrase will appear on this face.)

Feldspar is in and out. She spends a lot of time in her little aesthetic and painting design war with Lif, but she also heads outside more often after they all feel the rumble. She comes back with sketches of The Drunkard, Lady Dreaming, and the God Catcher especially. Usually one of each per day (if we get that far in the timeline, that is).

She's not very conversational with the group -- not unpleasant, but more like waiting for the other shoe to drop. She can't think of any better questions than Drusk offered.

(She and Drusk work together, however, on adding spells to her ring. Revivify, if he wishes to, and has a diamond to burn. But certainly healing word.

Quote from rkmobius >>

(She and Drusk work together, however, on adding spells to her ring. Revivify, if he wishes to, and has a diamond to burn. But certainly healing word.

(Healing Word it is. As many or upcasted as Feldspar wants.)

Drusk gathers the whole group (yep, all of you, because plot point) in the library, and communes with Lliira. He asks his questions, shakes the communing ball, and watches the window eagerly.

• The pyramid for the first question (should we do something about the statues) rises to the surface immediately, Signs Point to Yes. Drusk interprets that as an emphatic yes.
• The pyramid for the second question (are Hildi’s answers in the Waterdeep Castle Library) rises more languidly, but also settles on Signs Point to Yes.
• The third pyramid (will visiting Neverember house get us a pass into that library) surfaces blank, and Drusk gets excited as words begin to appear on its surface, Knock knock. (Lliira likes jokes.)

There is a knocking on the library door.

Before Drusk opens the door, he says seriously, "if you see any symbols of a white rabbit, start attacking."
(You don't know why he said that, and he doesn't appear to be joking.)

When everyone is prepared, Drusk will whip the door wide open.
(Does not open the door a crack to see who is on the other side.)

A somewhat startled Fanny stands on the other side of the door. “Oh! Um, there’s someone here to see you. All. You all. She says she knows you?”

The genasi shifts aside and a young woman steps forward. You don’t know her, but there is something familiar about her to Drusk, Jorin, and Hildi… you can’t quite place it. She is a tiefling, is dressed in impractical scarves and a functional red dress to match her skin tone, kickass boots, and a dagger at her side. Her dark hair is piled on top of her head around her glossy black horns, and her face looks wary. Most interestingly, however, are the small trinkets and fine chains and twinkling objects that float around her, circling her lazily. There must be a dozen of them but it is hard to keep track. They weave and bob as they circle her, avoiding Fanny as she brushes too close.

Then a cat familiar saunters around her dress to sit in front and stare at the party. The tortoiseshell cat is also curiously familiar to the original three…

Hildi, Drusk, and Jorin look at the cat, puzzled, trying to remember why they know this cat. (Int checks in game log: H:16 D:11 J:14)

(Imma pause here so the players can guess if they want to… Hildi is the only one who puts it together, per dice rolls vs DC 15)

Jorin sets his face to a hard look and unlimbers his weapons after Drusk's warning.  He puts himself to the side of the doorway and steps one foot back into a solid stance, weapons raised.