The whole spiel from Neverember leaves Mairi unable to keep from letting the poker face slip further, and start chewing on a thumb nail to keep quiet; let alone stop idle hands from going for a book.

Mairi put a hand on her chest, and leaned away; feigning being taken aback by Briga's very mentioning of any notion of further involvement. But then, her expression melts with a mirthful giggle as she adds, "I wouldn't say I'm that crazy about nearly dying... again. But, I am not such a stranger to it that, if two of the most powerful women in Waterdeep asks for my assistance, that I will balk at the request. Though, I would hope that at the end of this all, that we'd receive some compensation for a job well done." She idly, but then briskly adds, "But Ms. Briga is right. In further arming, even if only a temporary basis, would be appreciated most assuredly."

She then looked to Briga. "Also, based on previous reports, I believe it was our nimblewright responsible for the explosion and discarding of the necklace, as they would be the only ones prepared fo it in that fracas."

Still trying to piece things together, Tyrus asks, "But did anyone be actually seeing the nimblewright in the street after the explosion? It would be needing to come down to be picking up the stone from the gnome and we be getting out there pretty quickly. And, why would it be wanting to throw away that necklace in the first place? Having it land in that barrel of water doesn't be sounding like an accident to me now."

Then, with a sudden thought, he turns to the Blackstaff and asks, "I be presuming ye have used your magic to be looking for the lost stone and not be finding it. Might that be because someone has used magic to disguise it as something else? Perhaps one of the stones on that necklace I be identifying? I be not the most knowledgeable arcane caster by any means, so I could have been led astray."

Then he turns to Briga and asks, "What did be happening to that necklace?"

"Uh," Briga begins, dragging out the syllable to a very long "Uhhh" sound, as she thinks.  "I don't have it.  Mari, Sara - do either of you?  I sure hope Griff didn't.  We can't find him anymore.  Crud, that would be just our luck.  Of course, if he did get snatched while we were tangling with the construct, if he was carrying the gadget everyone's after and didn't know it, that would make sense."  

Mairi immediately put up her hands, though nearly spilled the contents of her drink in the process. "The one I spoke to after caught a glimpse of it. In fact, I believe I told you all about this. It isn't such a stretch then to believe it called itself trying to get rid of the evidence. Besides, even if someone did find it, its not as if one could necessarily trace it back to a construct. Most spells involving such magic usually requires the item to be something... personal. Which, I don't believe that counts for the construct." She explained, when there was an opening to speak.

Then, looking to Briga next. "Speaking of said necklace. 'That' was handed over to  Sargeant Saeth Cromley. One of the men that paid us a personal visit. Seeing as it was evidence, the.. group decided it best to hand it over."

"Yes, the necklace was handed over to the watch."  Saralyssa confirms.  "If this object is as powerful as it sounds, I doubt if it wuld have been easily disguised as something like the necklace, and would have shown up when you used detect magic anyway."  She frowns.  "There must have been someone else closer to the one who had the stone when the fireball went off, and who could have taken it before others got to the scene...  We'd have to ask either the watch or more of the ones who were around at that time to find out though." 

Briga sighs heavily.  "Maybe the necklace isn't the thing to fixate on, anyway.  The Blackstaff and the leader of Force Gray are here.  Maybe the two of them have a better lead for us?  They probably didn't just come here to listen to us wrack our brains and run around in circles in our heads.  As far as solid leads, the Nimbleright is still one, but even if we can use the detector to find it again, I don't know if we can take it in our current state."

After a pause, Briga thinks she has a brilliant idea, and then talks herself out of it.  "Wait, Renear, you said that you only remember where the horde is while you have the stone, right?  That's totally bat guano crazy, but what if we did have the stone, and we don't remember it now?  What if the Zhents did at one time, and the Xanathar, too?  It would explain a lot of the finger pointing and confusion - everyone literally could have had the stone, and also everyone literally could have forgotten! The thing keeps changing hands, and changing memories!  Was Uncle Neverember's real goal not to hide the horde, but to destroy the city?  I used to think the stone and the horde were made up, just an excuse by some new player to get the Zhents and Xanather at each other's throats, weaken the locals and then move in on their turf.  What if this was a way to get the whole city up in arms against each other?  His final revenge against Waterdeep for shaming him or something?"  

Briga spins the tale, her mind full of conspiracy and intrigue, then adds, "Of course, if we did have it we would have known what it was all about then, and I guess we would have written it down or something, and thrown the stone in a safe."

For about three full minutes Briga is absent - she "excuses herself" to use the latrine, seeking out a mirror in her room to examine herself for any tattoos she might have gotten noting the location of a horde of embezzled wealth.  "C'mon past Briga.  It's what I would have done, so it's what you would have done.  Show me the tattoo with the horde location."  

OOC: Let me know if her far fetched theory pays off, either way she returns shortly to the others - probably having confirmed she indeed has no strange tattoos with horde locations.  

Tyrus will wait until Briga returns from checking her body for tattoos and then tells everyone he is going to do the same. However, what he is really going to do is go and check that the wererats didn't find and steal either the personal hidden cache of coin he has hidden in his room or the takings from the opening day that he also hid (here) immediately after the fireball. He will bring the takings back with him.

[OOC: DM, Tyrus assumed that when the wererats were in the tavern by themselves that they would be ransacking the place looking for valuables as any self-respecting thief would do, but is that the case? Does it look like the stole valuables? Or does it look like they were looking for something specific? I was going to roll an Investigation check, but it seems like the dice-rolling function is missing from the editor at this time.]

Assuming she did not have any Memento style tattoos of horde locations -

"Vajra,   Laeral, Raenar, I don't think we've had possession of the stone before, even if it does do the 'forget me now' thing Raenar described," Briga says.  "I definitely would have gotten a dumb tattoo so I didn't forget, and past-Briga didn't do that.  So that's helpful, I guess. So, we know someone was trying to get the stone to us and got intercepted by the construct.  Like you said, we're in this, our group, like it or not.  Maybe Sara and Mairi too, although this is kind of their make or break or being all in or backing off.  Mairi asked about a reward, which is fair, honestly, since anyone involved risks their lives.  Sara almost died earlier today.  Then there's the matter of how to deal with this when we, uh, can't, it seems.  We don't have enough magic weapons to deal with things like the Nimblewright, or even angry Wererats.  We're not Force Gray here, we're properly owners equipped and kitted out like normal starting adventurers basically.  We'd need a lot more gear upfront to have any real hope of success, and a promise of pay on the back end."

Briga holds out a hand, realizing it may sound like she's over stepping.  "I care about this city, it's my home. People's lives are at stake because of the money, because evil people are willing to kill for it and they don't care who gets hurt or caught in the middle.  That's my ethical concern.  I'd sooner see the money disappear and be forgotten, but that won't happen.  I want the killing to stop, and I'd prefer that a huge chunk of coin not fall into the possession of some a******* who will just use it for more evil.  I'm all in for helping, but I do think if we're going to, we have to have a fighting chance, which means we'll need gear, magic weapons and the like, otherwise we're just adding ourselves to the body count this horde has already caused.  Also, especially for those who just got thrust into this out of luck, call it good or bad, they especially need to know what they stand to gain at the end, so they can decide if it's worth risking their lives over."  

"Well, firstly let me tell you - the vault is real, there seems to be half a million gold dragons missing from the vaults - and has been for a long time.  We thought nothing of it until we heard about the Stone of Golorr," Laeral says.  "I know only the stories of the stone - there are multiple stories.  One claims it is an artefact, another claims its sentient, and yet another says its an aboleth that was cursed and made into a stone," she tells you. "Which one is correct, Mystra has not been able to tell me about, and my sisters haven't even heard of it," Laeral says. 

"Well, it is rumoured that Neverember embezzled the city for half a million gold dragons" the Blackstaff comments "being the leader of the Order of Magists and Protectors, I can confirm those rumours - after all, I've been searching myself for the vault for years," she adds. 

"I wouldn't put it past my father to do something like that," Renear Neverember adds.

"That settles it, right now, our focus should be to find the Stone of Golorr, and recover the cities gold," the Blackstaff says.

"Let's not be hasty, we don't even know where to begin," Laeral responds.  "Did the construct leave anything behind?" she asks.

Mairi faintly pouts, noting the leader duo had neatly side-stepped her request. But knowing better than to push her look, she sat up straighter in her seat, silently resolving to bring it up again. But later. Much later. "Apart from the earlier speculated necklace of apparent destructive capabilities? Well, I believe these two perhaps might better answer that?" Mairi looks over to Briga and Sara. "While I am still befuddled over this whole tattoo business of yours earlier, did you happen to pick anything up following the fight. Perhaps a gear or piece of metal you managed to chip off it? If not, we could check out the location, and hope the city cleaning crew, uhm-..." She snaps her fingers a few times. "I always manage to forget their name, but if we act quickly enough, and if you did it any harm, perhaps we might find something there. If not, its back to using the 'thing' again to try and track it down."

OOC: Did Briga remember to go back and retrieve the paper the fell out of the construct’s hat after Sara stabilized? I had noted she ‘made a mental note’ to get it, but I did not note her going back for it.

If possible she will produce that right now, otherwise she will note that she saw something drop but she left it in the alley. 

Quote from phillberrie >>

Tyrus will wait until Briga returns from checking her body for tattoos and then tells everyone he is going to do the same. However, what he is really going to do is go and check that the wererats didn't find and steal either the personal hidden cache of coin he has hidden in his room or the takings from the opening day that he also hid (here) immediately after the fireball. He will bring the takings back with him.

[OOC: DM, Tyrus assumed that when the wererats were in the tavern by themselves that they would be ransacking the place looking for valuables as any self-respecting thief would do, but is that the case? Does it look like the stole valuables? Or does it look like they were looking for something specific? I was going to roll an Investigation check, but it seems like the dice-rolling function is missing from the editor at this time.]

[OOC: DM, Any feedback on Tyrus' Investigation check concerning his hidden wealth and whether the wererats might have been looking for something else other than loot? The die rolling facility is working now, so here's an Investigation check: 18 ]

Everything seems to be accounted for, it definitely more looked like a corporate attack than a robbery.

Assured that his personal wealth is still secure, Tyrus returns with the takings from the opening day and places them back in the till. He then starts searching the less obvious places in the main customer area (fireplace, dark corners, etc.) looking for anything that shouldn't be there.

"The thought I be having," he says as he starts to do this, "is that the stone we be after actually made it into the building and the person who be bringing it was killed after they left... Or, maybe one of us be finding it when we investigated the explosion. Hid it somewhere in here for safekeeping and then be forgetting about it because of its magick."

For what its worth, here's another investigation check for this area: 10

Briga will either be producing the paper recovered from the construct or letting her allies know it was left in the alleyway, depending on whether she retrieved it or not. 

OOC: DM, let me know if Briga has the paper.  If so, she produces it for the others to examine, together.  

OOC: As it's being asked about, for the sake of brevity - we'll say she picked it up.

IC: On the parchment is drawn a map.  Looking at it, Laeral can instantly identify it as the City of the Dead, the city's graveyard and park. The name "Cassalanter" is written by an X on the map on top of one of the mausoleums. 

Briga shares this map with the others, including the PCs and the visiting dignitaries.  "This map fell out of the nimblewright's hat during the fight, I think.  I managed to grab it, in all the chaos I nearly forgot about it, getting Sara some medical attention was my first priority.  Check it out,  looks like a map, this could be a clue?  I don't know if we have any other leads right now." 

Mairi perks up, having spent at least a good minute there seeming to be in deep thought over Tyrus' last words. "So, we do have lead. That's good... I think." She chuckles. "If we can have at least spare a few more minutes to get ourselves sorted after that last entanglement, I see not why we cannot check it out immediately after... Not that we have much better to go off at the moment." 

(OOC - @Simmyish: Have all of our sitting around talking been long enough to be considered a short rest? If not, I'd suggest we'd do so before running off. If so, hit dice rolls in the spoiler below)