Week Four

Starcarn, Marktel 21st, Year of the Shield

At the top of Mount Waterdeep, Erik, Kelly, and Juliet approached the iron door of an abandoned stable entrance. A mouth appeared on the door and spoke, warning them that this door and the stabling it protected was the property of the City of Waterdeep, and that it should be left alone. Despite the warnings, Erik grabbed the door a second time and was rewarded with a minor electric shock. Still not convinced, Kelly grabbed the door a third time...and disappeared into thin air.

After a few minutes of pondering, Erik and Juliet also grabbed the door...and found themselves, along with Kelly, locked away in separate cells of a dungeon. Kelly managed to wiggle through the bars of her cell, but could find no way past the locked door at the end of the hallway. Juliet then managed to get herself caught while trying to similarly slip through the bars, just in time to see Blackstaff walk through the corridor door (without even opening it).

Blackstaff recognized the three, from their previous meeting during the Stone Hearth scavenger hunt...they explained to him the reason for their imprisonment and he escorted them out of their cells, out of the dungeon, and back to the streets of the city. He also suggested that they all have breakfast together, so they began walking to the Hearth.

During all this, Tynian had been finishing his own breakfast and wondering where the others were. Shreesha was there, but she was oddly silent and brooding; she wouldn't even show her face to him when he greeted her. So he took the oddly marked stone he had found (one of the ones which had come from the sky) and headed back to his University room. On the way he came across Blackstaff and the others, and joined them all back to the Stone Hearth.

Once there Blackstaff and Olaf spoke in private briefly, then everyone sat down for a hearty breakfast. They spoke mostly of last night's calamity, of what could possibly have caused all that destruction. Blackstaff was vague in his answers, admitting only that he wasn't entirely sure himself. He was, however, sure that it had been a tragedy...137 citizens were known to be dead, with hundreds more missing and thousands wounded. Blackstaff took the scale which Erik had found, as well as the stone which Tynian had found, promising to return them once his research was finished. With that, he returned to his tower to get to work.

Later that same evening Lord Piergeiron once again visited the Hearth; or, more precisely, he visited Erik, Juliet, Tynian, and Kelly (Shreesha was nowhere to be found). The group played a few games of chess but Piergeiron could not stay as long as he would have liked; he left early, but allowed his magical chess set to remain behind so that others could still play. Long after everyone else had turned in, Erik and Juliet were still up, playing chess together.

Aircarn, Marktel 22nd, Year of the Shield

The next morning, while Erik and Juliet still continued to play chess, Kelly and Tynian went to the Tower of Luck. As they returned to the Stone Hearth, they were accosted by a small group of well dressed but quick-to-anger men. After a few exchanges of insults, weapons were drawn and Tynian found himself in a duel. One of the men slowly made his way towards Kelly; one hung back, and the third, the loudest and most obnoxious, was the one dueling with Tynian.

Once Kelly realized that the man was going to assault her, she screamed. He hesitated, as did the others, and then Kelly ran away. She didn't stop until she had reached the city wall, five minutes later. Tynian returned his attention to his opponent and easily disarmed the man, who seemed more skilled with his tongue than his blade. The man's two compatriots also departed, since it was clear he had lost this fight. But the man had other ideas. Now that the duel was over and Tynian's guard was down the man viciously slashed him across the abdomen before disappearing into the city streets. Tynian was badly wounded, but struggled to stay conscious long enough to make it to a nearby midwife. His wounds were dressed, and he returned to the University to recuperate.

Mooncarn, Aproth 10th, Year of the Shield

Two weeks after what came to be known simply as "The Storm" occurred, another catastrophe befell Waterdeep. Blackstaff tower, and most of the block surrounding it, were suddenly consumed by flame. Blackstaff tower was completely replaced by a five foot deep crater, a crater filled with nothing but powder. And Blackstaff himself was nowhere to be found. He was presumed dead.