Finally, the time has come. The team was making preparations for their venture to the Brandath Family Crypt to find the hidden vault - the whole entire reason the City of Splendors has been up in arms for the past year or so. Fortunately, as the groups pursuing the Vault - Xanathar's Thieves' Guild, Manshoon's Zhentarim, the Bregan D'aerthe, and the Cult of Asmodeus - had been wiped out and scattered, nothing was left to oppose them, and even without taking the vault into consideration, Waterdeep has been made a safer place for all for the years to come. Their victory celebration had a bit of a damper put in it though when they received a mysterious letter bearing an odd seal - the mark of House Baenre from the Underdark. Uh oh... It turns out someone found out what the team had done to Jarlaxle, and while the letter was phrased as a 'friendly request', it was more of a threat - although at least they were polite about it. Signed by none other than Gromph Baenre, apparently Jarlaxle's brother and a drow of quite some power, it allowed the team to use the items it had taken from the drow iconoclast to complete their mission, but to return them promptly after to ensure there will not be retribution from Menzoberranzan or the Bregan D'aerthe. However, as an act of good will, Gromph will allow the team to keep ONE of Jarlaxle's lesser items as long as everything else is returned. This deal was apparently made with complicity from Laeral Silverhand, the letter stating that she knows she cannot protect the team forever. Looks like they won't be able to enjoy Jarlaxle's spoils for too long, but at least it will be useful in handling this last assignment! Soon enough, the other members of the team's factions would show up to report - Yagra Stonefist, Jalester Silvermane, Marcellus Smokespeaker, and Valetta all appeared at the tavern, informing the team that their faction leaders had assigned them to aid the team in whatever way they can to wrap this up discretely. The aid was welcome, and they even brought along extra boons to ensure their aid will be maximized. It helped a lot, as this meant there were more people to spread Jarlaxle's loot across and share the spoils. They would need every edge they can get to put the finishing touch on this job... especially after Enigma blurted out hoping to meet the dragon inside, which caught the uninformed side party off guard! Oh boy... Jalester informed the team that the City Guard would not interfere with the affair - he had already taken the time to inform Sir Ambrose Everdawn, the patrolman of the dead, that they had business and was given the all-clear. Marcellus also informed the team that Renaer is on his way with the wagon containing the unicorn, however he has not been informed of where they are going - apparently, Mirt provided a funeral hearse wagon to carry the unicorn with, since he knew the team was heading to the City of the Dead and a funeral cart would not look too out of place. When he arrives - with Maxeene pulling the cart, much to Ray's delight - Renaer explained that Mirt told him he should hear it from the team. They decided it would be better to show than tell, though, and began making their way to the City of the Dead... Renaer became increasingly uncomfortable when he realized they were at his mother's family tomb, and demanded an explanation. However, he realized quickly before long, that this was where Dagult Neverember, his father, had hidden away the money he had been embezzling during his reign as Open Lord. Renaer became saddened, realizing that even when he is so far away, his father manages to find a way to spite him still. He knew what needed to be done, and explained that the treant guardian, Bitterspur, would not allow anyone not of Brandath blood to pass. Approaching the trees, one of them surprisingly came to life slowly, threatening the team with expulsion. However, Renaer approached and told the treant what was going on, The treant recognized Renaer and apologized, and allowed the team to proceed forth. Renaer showed them to his mother's tomb, which was in a mausoleum that seemed to be decaying with age, yet his mother's burial place seemed much more recent than the surrounding work. He explained that this was originally where Lord Anri, his ancestor, was buried, however Dagult's ego wanted to exult his wife in death (against her wishes), and had her buried here while moving Lord Anri into one of the smaller tombs. Searching about the place, the team made a few findings - a portrait of Lord Anri was on the ceiling, along with the text “The beauty of our age, in death, is watched over by the spirits of her ancestors.” in Common, Draconic, Primordial, and Dwarvish. Anri was dressed in noble, maroon colored finery, including an alexandrite pin and holding a dwarven compass. When asked about this, Renaer mentioned that he heard some rumors that his ancestors were involved in some kind of fraternal order known as the Brotherhood of the Maroon Pin. He has no idea what they were about as they disappeared after some scandal several hundred years ago, long before his time. Sigurd also confirmed this from his own independent research, and concluded that because of the age of the work, Lord Anri was probably not a member of the order and the imagery was added retroactively. Yuan and Yagra searched the tomb for anything interesting, Yuan even using his Magic Awareness ability, but was unable to uncover anything. This might be a blessing in disguise, as it meant that there weren't any surprised awaiting them of the magical variety. Ray and Marcellus went outside to question the treant, learning that Dagult had used his influence as Open Lord to get his way despite the treant's protests. Even this powerful being was unable to oppose Lord Neverember's wishes, but he is unsure exactly what Dagult was doing in the tomb as he managed to move in secrecy while conducting his plans, and the treant is unable to enter most of the mausoleums anyway due to its size. Bitterspur lamented that even his eyes could have missed some things over the years, as Dagult's power at the time was beyond reproach. He did point them toward Lord Anri's new burial chamber, which was significantly more lackluster than Alethea's... However, Enigma and Jalester made a startling find, uncovering a hidden passage in a false part of the southern wall in the crypt, after Enigma managed to deduce a clue from the portrait, where Lord Anri's compass was pointing south, leading him to guess there might be a secret there and using his Wand of Secrets to confirm it. As Sigurd alerted the rest of the team about the finding, they piled into the passage, with Sigurd using an Alarm spell to ward the entrance in case anybody came in behind him. He'd know about it if they tried. They found themselves in what appeared to be an even more ancient crypt than the previous chambers. Likely, this was where the earliest Brandath ancestors were buried. However, they made some discoveries as heading down the stairs, they found scorch marks left behind by a Glyph of Warding. Someone had set off a trap here, it seems, somewhat recently. Sigurd surmised it might have been the work of Losser Mirklaav, the halfling necromancer who had been caught graverobbing. Continuing on, they found another glyph that had been scratched away - disarmed, in other words. Thus, the intruder had to been someone of the arcane, which seemed to fit Losser's description once again. Continuing forth, though, they found a dead end, as it looked like the complex had caved in, and no further passage could be found. Yuan and Yagra scanned the area, but could not find any clues. It seemed it was just a dead end. Ray, however, took a different approach, feeling along the walls of the cave. As luck would have it, he stumbled through an illusory wall on the north end, revealing an ancient stone archway with a not-so-ancient steel vault door set into it! The archway had some strange symbols - some of them they had seen before, such as the dwarvish compass, while others were unfamiliar. The symbols had been carved between the dwarvish runes that were set in. The symbols included a mountain with a purple alexandrite gemstone in the middle of it (a variation of Dumathoin’s holy symbol). The voussoir have various symbols carved in them in alternation with dwarven runes: A dwarven compass, a serpent’s forked tongue, a scarabaeus, a brain with two tentacles (Ilsensine’s holy symbol), and a broken arrow (Laduguer’s holy symbol). Valetta was able to confirm the religious symbolism, but was unsure of the rest. Maybe they were added after the fact...? Sigurd realized something, and looking through Volo's Enchiridion (of all things), he realized that the vault must be an ancient site of the Melairkyn dwarves, who had settled in Waterdeep long before it was ever called Waterdeep. After some kind of bargain was broken with the Illefarni elves who settled on the surface, the Melairkyn continued to tunnel into the earth, and were never heard from again. This site must be left over from that ancient age, thousands of years ago... As the team studied the door, which looked like it had been forced into place and damaged some of the stonework, Yuan got bored, and opted to just rip the thing out from the wall with his bare hands!! Tossing the door aside and stepping inside, he was rewarded with a still-active Glyph of Warding that exploded around him, although he was able to avoid most of the blast. The team chided him on his carelessness, but at least he had disarmed the trap... sort of. Heading further down, the tunnel sloped downward and construction began to take on a much more dwarvish architecture, with strange inscriptions written along the walls, some painted and some carved. Jalester, being proficient in the Dwarvish language, was able to translate some of the inane, banal 'secrets' written here, Valetta adding that if any of these were true, she would certainly not want to admit them to anyone. Some two hundred feet later, they reached the end of a long tunnel, standing in front of adamantine doors with dwarvish runes reading “All that lies within belongs to the Silent Keeper.” (a term for Dumathoin, the dwarven god of secrets), and on the floor in front of them was the blazing symbol of the sun with inscriptions in common reading "Know Ye The Hidden Truth". Was this it? The Vault...? The team puzzled what to do next. There weren't any clear instructions. Sigurd looked to Enigma, though, and told him that there is in fact someone - or something, rather - that knows the secrets of the vault better than anyone... Begrudgingly, Enigma called upon the power of the Stone of Golorr, tapping into its knowledge. For the first time, the Stone's 'eyes' locked with his, and fed to him the cryptic knowledge needed to open the vault. “Four keys ye seek. In sun's grace, he who holds the fool's gold to the light atop their noble armored steed, with righteousness in hand and bearing the conqueror's visage, shall be granted passage.” What a bizarre ceremony... The team concluded that this is where the keys finally came into play. Renaer, with Yuan's help, fetched the metal unicorn from the funeral cart, and the team figured out what to do next from there. They concluded that someone would need to mount the unicorn on the sun symbol, holding the Mace of Disruption in one hand and the 'fool's gold' - Sylgar the goldfish - in the other, while wearing Manshoon's tyrant mask. Ray elected to be the one to do it, and with Marcellus encouraging him to be as dramatic as possible, struck a dramatic pose with the keys in position. The sun symbol lit up briefly, and the vault doors would slowly slide open, revealing beyond the ancient vault left behind by Clan Melairkyn. The Vault of Dragons... This is where it would all end. Heading inside, the team was greeted with a massive, open foyer, that had twelve doors going around its edges. On the closest pillar was an inscription, some kind of riddle. Jalester translated it as follows: Doors abound, doors all around. Beyond is danger or treasure found, Approach to answer, open to speak, Our greatest love hides what you seek. On the massive doors themselves was etched a single dwarven rune representing some thing or concept. One of these things was a dwarf's greatest love. The team began to debate on what it meant... without any actual dwarves present, it would be difficult to discern. Perhaps they would have to look for clues from an unlikely source - perhaps something written by a dwarf? What was the answer to the riddle? What lurk beyond the many doors of the vault? And who might be snooping about in the shadows? Find out next time... on Waterdeep: Dragon Heist!