Aletha, Regnor, Jym, and Mina took a short rest in the beggars' flea-market area. While they were recovering a new figure arrived on the scene. A disgruntled dwarven blacksmith by the name of Vismund was on the rampage. Word on the street was that the Beggar-King had been bragging about getting a "steal of a deal" from this particular craftsman. Vismund had toiled over several suits of armor and weapons on a commission for the Beggar-King and then came home one evening after having one too many ales to find his shop ransacked and his goods stolen. He'd spent the better part of a week trying and failing to gather information on where the Beggar-King could have stashed the stolen items, when finally he got lucky. While having his usual evening ale at the "Horny Hippogriff" and eavesdropping on the locals he overheard a group of odd individuals discussing their own plan for assaulting the beggars' lair. This was the best lead he'd had yet, but experience had taught him patience and discretion so he decided to follow the group in secret rather than reveal himself right away.
His patience was rewarded as the pair of tieflings, the dragonborn, and eladrin led him to the Beggar-King's rotting demesne. He watched from a safe distance as they dealt with the gate and the guards before cautiously following them farther in. As he approached he caught sight of one of Mina watching from the crack of a doorway. Once Mina realized she'd been spotted she verbally accosted the dwarf in the alley. Vismund explained his situation to the party and after some initial skepticism they agreed to work together as long as it furthered the goals of all.
Some time was spent searching through the beggars' flea-market for anything of value. Vismund discovered a pair of worn leather boots who's heels appeared to be loose. Closer inspection revealed that the beggars had missed hidden compartments built into the hollowed heels, containing a set of masterwork thief's tools and an antique platinum coin which would fetch a decent price from the right collector. The artificer gave the tools to Mina in the hopes that later they would come in handy, but kept the coin for himself. Jym brushed the dust off of an old battered lantern and it proved to be of high quality with silver filigree, inside was the partially mummified corpse of a pixie that had become trapped. Mina spent the most time searching through the clutter and was rewarded by finding an gold tooth on an intact fleshless orc skull and an enormous white wolf hide. She removed the gold tooth from the skull and used the wolf fur as an effective cloak.
Regnor wasn't interested in the random trinkets in the front room, but Mina's description of the glint of gold in the trash heap did intrigue him. He stepped behind the rotting curtain to investigate. The smell of decay and filth was almost overpowering. After only a few moments of digging through the top of the trash heap, a pair of large and fat grub-like creatures crawled out towards Regnor, gnashing their razor-sharp rings of teeth at him. He gave a cry of surprise before mightily cleaving through the pair of repulsive carrion beast larvae. Regnor's shout brought the rest of the party to investigate. Before they arrived a muscled and sharp spined tentacle shot out of the pile of garbage and wrapped itself around Regnor and dragged him bodily into the trash and towards the tooth filled maw of an old otyugh. More grubs surfaced and surrounded the fighter, trying to burrow into any exposed flesh.
The other party members rushed into the smelly room to find Regnor thrashing in the grasp of an abomination and set upon by six ravenous grubs. Vismund bolstered Regnor's armor with a wave of his rune inscribed hammer. Mina and Jym focused on killing the biting grubs, while Aletha cursed the otyugh and scortched it with witchfire in an attempt to keep it from devouring the dragonborn. Regnor, using his bloodied fury, slashed viciously around him, damaging the otyugh and killing more grubs. The otyugh was not able to bite the prey squirming in its grasp, but it was slowly squeezing the life out of him. Vismund blew an enchanted healing admixture onto Regnor and Jym gave him an inspiring burst of energy, bringing him back from the brink of death. Once the grubs were all destroyed the party focused its attacks on the mother-beast which died quickly under their combined force. Regnor survived the ambush, but came away feeling ill and feverish from the filthy wounds he received.
Holding their noses, the party searched through the heap of garbage for that promise of gold. Mina was able to locate the source of the glint and pulled out a finely wrought golden pendant with a large ruby set into it and bearing a family crest of some sort. Aletha recognized it as belonging to the wealthy Tianass family. Vismund recognized the craftsman's mark on the back of Tovias Hammerkien, a gnome jeweler of some note. Regnor informed the party that Lady Tianass had asked him to recover this particular heirloom in return for a reward and possible further employment, so he took it.
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