The party head out into the deeper parts of the South Ward. The houses and businesses are ramshackle but the group only receive stares and no trouble as they encroach into unfamiliar neighborhoods.

Junk street is hard to find, though. It takes a couple of coppers and some kindly neighbors to point them towards Fiola's place. She shares a room in a boarding house in the shadow of the wall. A pair of men sit on the stoop quietly smoking pipes and glaring at everyone that walks too close. They stare at the party, puffing aggressively on their pipes as they approach and ask about Fiola. Neither responds, letting them knock on the door instead.

Eventually a middle-aged woman in threadbare clothing comes down the stairs. When she sees them, her eyes well up with tears and she bites on her knuckle to hold back a sob.

"Helsin?" she says, her voice cracking.

Titus’s stoic demeanor cracks a bit ad his face softens at the sight of the poor woman. He was a custom to more adversarial interrogations,  but he now realized that they would need to give her what would surely be devastating news.

”Yes ma’am. I’m sorry but Helsin is dead. We were looking to speak to him at his shop, but when we arrived we found it had been ransacked and Helsin himself was inside.I understand you were close to him, and I offer my condolences for your loss. We were hoping you could help us determine what happened to him. We’re afraid he got mixed up with a bad lot.”

He pauses to let her absorb the news before he continues with his questions.

Saralyssa, not wishing to add to the woman's stress, lets the smoother-speaking ones of the group take charge of this delicate discussion. She keeps an eye on the men whow ere sitting there when they arrived, as well as on the area around.  Her owl perches on the roof overhead, also keeping its eyes on the alert.

saralyssa perception: 22

owl perception: 16

Morph stands besides Titus and waits, letting the woman to respond in her own time.

Seeing her vacant stare, Titus gently continues. "I know this might be hard, but can you think of any bad or dangerous business partners that Helsin had? There's a group who we've been after and we just got word that Helsin was doing business with them, and when we go to see talk to him about all this, and we find him dead. Maybe it all had nothing to do with the guys we're after, but something tells me that its no accident. So ma'am, I'm just asking if you can help us think of any business partners your man had that might have hurt him. Think you can do that for me?"

Persuasion 25

The men just stare and puff on their pipes, making no motion against the interlopers as they convers with Fiola. She sobs once and draws in a large, shaky breath.

"Helsin was always doin' favors for people," she says. "A lot of them aren't so nice."

Tears stream down her face as she chews on her lip to hold back more sobbing. "Most of it was easy stuff, y'know?" she says with a shaky breath. "He wasn't a bright man. But he could hand out notices for the tavern by the gate. And his bait shop did okay, even if it didn't pay all the bills all the time. But nobody'd trust him with anything important.

"But then this older man, dark skin, he said...this man had a job for him. And he didn't need money for a while. I told him he didn't have to worry about any of that but he was too proud. And anyways, he said it was too late. He had already been paid. And he said...he said..."

She breaks into some sobs that make it hard for her to speak. Laniel frowns but says, "Dark skinned. That could be Krennic. It sounds like she never met him, though."

Fiola finds her composure eventually. "He said that if...if anything should every happen to him I would be taken care of."

Morph steps away from the woman to talk privately with the others.

"Looks like that's all we are going to get from this line of inquiry for now."

"If Helsin arranged for some people to take care of this woman when he died, I expect someone may be along to contact her, once word of his passing spreads."

"Perhaps we should report back to Lady Blackstaff and she can organise to have someone watch the woman to see what comes of it."

"Seems like the next step." Saralyssa agrees with the idea of reporting back to the tower.

Titus nods gently as he listens to the woman speak. 

"Thank you telling us that ma'am. You should be with family during a time like this, if you have any people you should go be with them. Is there someone you have like that? Here, I know its not much but this should help."

He takes 25gp and places it in her hands. He takes a few steps away and says quietly to the group.

"Being 'taken care of' doesn't always mean good things for the one on the receiving end of it... I hope that those thugs like Krennic and his Black Blades wouldn't sink so low as to hurt a helpless widow, but she could be in danger if they thought she knew too much. Perhaps we should offer lodging if she doesn't have any family she can go to?"

Fiola takes the money wide-eyed. "No, this is too much," she says.

She has no other family in Waterdeep, though, so Titus convinces her to take it.

Back at Blackstaff tower, the leader of Force Grey listens quietly to their telling of the day's events. "Do you think it was  the Black Blades' doing?" she says. "And do you believe the half-orc? That they are back in Undermountain?"

"We cannot be sure Lady Blackstaff."

"We couldn't find evidence to be sure of who killed Helsin."

"If Krennic hired Helsin, the only motive I can think of for killing him, is to keep their business secret."

"But it could just as easily have been a third party who killed Helsin, maybe because of whatever business he had gotten into, or because of past or present financial troubles."

Morph looks at Lanial for agreement about Bronx,

"I think he was telling the truth, I think Krennic is continuing deeper."

"I would suggest someone keep an eye on the bait-shop owner's widow."  Saralyssa speaks up after the report has been completed.  "She is suppose to be 'taken care of' and that might mean put out of commission, or being aided by those who had hired her husband."  She shrugs.  "No way to tell without keeping an eye on her for a bit."

"You won't have time to keep an eye on her, I'm afraid," says Safahr. "I'm sending you back into Undermountain. Your task is to just get as deep into the maze as you can in the next two days. We have a new supply of the Transportation Paint for you. It should be enough to continue painting a line through levels 2 and three.

"Try to find evidence of Martus Krennic or the Black Blades. If you encounter either of them, observe them but do not engage. We must assess their capabilities first."

Lady Blackstaff stands to leave. "Make your preparations," she says. "I know most of you just arrived back in town. I'm sorry to send you back out. If the Black Blades are in Undermountain right now, we must seize on this opportunity while we have it."

"Will do." Saralyssa says with a nod of respect to her mentor. She would turn to the others as soon as the blackstaff is gone.  "Guess we're going into the tunnels then..."

Morph nods to Lady Blackstaff, turning and walking out with the others.

"Have you been into Undermountain before, Saralyssa?"

"No, this will be my first experience of that."  Saralyssa answers with a shake of her head. She pushes her red braid back over her shoulder as she looks to the group.  "Is there anything, in particular, I should know when putting together my pack?"

"It's dangerous down there," Rethan says, "but so far we haven't run into anything we couldn't handle."

Morph nods agreement with Rethan,

"Yeah, it can go from mundane walking down long dark hallways, to fighting for your life, in the time it takes to open a door."

"As far as your pack goes, if you can think of a possible use for something, its worth taking, if you can carry it."

"You can't just head over to the nearby shop to get some rope, if you run into a situation where you need it."

"That pretty much goes for any delving, not just for Undermountain, but Undermountain is deep and the problem gets worse the deeper you go."

Morph tries to inquires with one of Lady Blackstaff's assistants, about where to collect the paint, before the group leaves the tower.

"Makes sense."  Saralyssa says with a thoughtful nod of her head.  She would put together her pack and be ready to go when the others were.

The group find themselves once again at The Yawning Portal with their full gear. As before, the patrons have crowded around to watch them descend, bets exchanging hands. The descent into the dark is slow and a little nauseous but before long, they arrive at the bottom.

One by one, the party touch the paint and say the activation word. Each appears at the stairs descending to the next level.

DM shield:

Goblins patrol the second level but generally leave the adventurers alone after they pass peacefully through the goblin market. Deciding to map out the dungeon first, the party spends about an hour winding their way through the twisty maze. After this, it takes about 4 hours of painting to stretch a long, uninterrupted line from the end of the previous line of paint to the stairs down to the third level. The goblins take note of the painted stripe but do not interrupt or ask questions, preferring to keep their distance.

The group finds no evidence of the Black Blades or Martus Krennic on this level. The only encounter of interest is a ghost briefly passing in front of them muttering in a low, unintelligible whisper.

Eventually, the line is completed and successfully tested. The activation word sends Laniel to the beginning of the maze and back again without issue. Then, they descend to the third level...

(Working on the map. This is an intricate one. Go ahead and RP while I get it together.)