Maresgate Villa, the Thann Family’s historic compound, was located on Sashtar Street in the North Ward. A plain white-and-grey mottled stone wall surround the property, which contained three main structures. Hoofbeat House was a three-story-plus-cellars grand manorhouse, quite an old edifice as far as Waterdeep’s nobility was concerned. Its ground floor was given over entirely to entertaining and household use spaces, including a theatre and ballroom. Its second and third floors held apartments for the household, with the cellars set aside for storage and servant’s quarters. Raven’s Roost was among the smallest of the structures making up the Thann villa, but was heavily reinforced as its was built for the House’s magic-using members. It boasted an impressive library and workshop rooms on the first floor and separated modest quarters on the second floor that were warded for privacy. The third floor had storage spaces, laboratories, and protected spellcasting chambers. Siegfried’s adoptive brother Felix spent much of his spare time here practicing his muscle wizardry. The building that Siegfried had in mind, however, was Cassandra’s Respite , built by Lady Cassandra Thann to alleviate some of the crowding in the main house. The Respite was well named, as it consisted of extremely well-divided and -appointed suites for the household and Lady Thann’s visitors, as well as a modest kitchen and dining area. Siegfried spent much of his youth in Lady Cassandra’s drawing room at his grandmother’s knee. Siegfried procured a finely-crafted musical instrument from the Temple of Beauty’s gift shop as a gift for his grandmother and Bob nodded his approval Siegfried disguised himself as distant adoptive relative Danilo Thann as he would have appeared in his prime adventuring days, and set out with Bob on a jaunty stroll across the Sea Ward towards Sashtar Street. Arriving at the villa, Siegfried eschewed the main entrance and ducked around onto a side street, where the villa’s walls had become particularly overgrown with vines. He felt around with his walking stick until he found the specific brick he was looking for, and with a flourish uncovered a secret entrance which he ducked into, Bob in tow. The pair found themselves in what looked like an overgrown alleyway, a sort of impromptu garden that had sprung up between the outer walls of Cassandra’s Respite and the inner wall of the villa. A disused well, its stones encrusted with moss, stood sentry to the north, as did a number of spindly trees hither and yon, and to the south, amid the overgrowth was an upturned wheelbarrow and a garden path that led to a wooden patio with lawn furniture arrayed upon it, beyond which Siegfried knew lay a side entrance into the Respite. The side yard smelled of fermented crab apples mixed with upturned soil, and a faint hint of varnish from the wooden deck. It takes a great deal of attention to make a place look so disused, Siegfried thought. Bob winced as he saw a pile of mouldering gourds in the wheelbarrow’s undercarriage. “The second step is the one that creaks,” Siegfried whispered to Bob they approached the patio. A disembodied voice, belonging to a woman, spoke. “Hold, please.” Siegfried knew this would be a member of Lady Cassandra’s security detail. He dropped his magical disguise. There was a rustling sound from behind Bob, and he turned to see a pair of heavily armed and armoured knights emerge from the overgrowth as though they stepped through a dimension door. “Hello there,” Bob said. The sliding door at the patio opened to reveal a severe-looking woman in her late 30s with short blonde hair, dressed in similar plate armour but with a long red cape of rank flowing behind her as she stepped out onto the deck. Siegfried knew her as Sythria of the Order of the Silver Chalice. “Aunt Sythie!” Siegfried called out. Sythria’s lip curled in something that was not quite a smirk, not quite a sneer. “Trying the old Danilo trick again, are we Siegfried?” “That’s Prince Siegfried now,” Siegfried replied with a smarmy smirk of his own. “Well, if you are indeed Prince Siegfried Alagondar, then you should really have called ahead and been announced at the gate, rather than skulk about the bushes as you did when you were a boy,” Sythria replied. “If you are no longer a Thann, that is.” “Awww,” Siegfried said, pulling the soldier in for a hug. There was a clang as armour met armour. “Protocol and decorum, Master Siegfried, er, Prince Siegfried!” Sythria protested gently. “Allow me to introduce one of my closest friends, the High Priest of Sune in Waterdeep, Robert Trevelyan,” Siegfried said. “Greetings,” Bob said. “Oh, so a Prince and a High Priest walk into a garden,” Sythria said with amusement. “This has the beginning of a joke, I believe.” Siegfried knew that Lady Cassandra Thann had a personal security detail selected from the ranks of the Knights of the Silver Chalice, a Tethyr-based martial order that worshipped Siamorphe, the demi-goddess of nobility and high society. The Order was ostensibly dedicated to locating lost members of the nobility and restoring to power those who would govern with the interests of the people at heart. They had been involved intimately in Tethyr’s Reclamation War, which involved restoring a deposed royal to the throne, a conflict in which the Thann Family had played a crucial role, and while Lady Cassandra’s branch of the Thann Family had stayed in Waterdeep while other relatives had built new lives for themselves in Tethyr, the Order of the Silver Chalice dutifully protected the Waterdhavian branch from both Tethry’s enemies and the enemies of the larger Thann family, specifically those targeting Lady Cassandra. It was well known within the family that Lady Cassandra had not traveled beyond Waterdeep’s walls in nearly 120 years due to the nature of the threats to her and her kin. Siegfried recalled that on occasion a rather imposing knight with a mage in tow would show up on his adoptive father’s doorstep, check all the locks and the house’s magical wards, pronounce the premises safe, and depart. “Speaking of, aren’t the Knights of the Silver Chalice all about locating lost members of the royalty?” Siegfried asked. “We appear to have found you, didn’t we?” Sythria replied. “Took you long enough!” Siegfried grinned. “Well, look at it this way, Prince Siegfried,” Sythria said with a smile. “You seem to have survived into adulthood unscathed, so don’t count the Knights id the Silver Chalice out just yet.” She turned to Bob. “Now then, we were in the midst of being introduced.” Her expression faltered for a moment as though a pang of sadness had cut through her hardened exterior. “We haven’t summoned a priest to the Respite, at least not yet. You’re a little early.” She bounced back. “So, you’re the High Priest of Sune, by the looks of it?” “I am one of them, yes,” Bob replied. “Ah, well I am Sythria of the Order of the Silver Chalice. I am charged with guarding the Thann Villa, its occupants and guests from the enemies of House Thann, Waterdeep’s nobility, and the allies of Tethyr’s royal family, to the best of my ability. I bid you enter.” She stepped aside from the sliding door and ushered the pair inside. Siegfried and Bob entered through the side door, finding themselves in a tiled corridor. Siegfried knew that his grandmother lived upstairs, and, conveniently, there was an open atrium featuring a grand staircase just ahead of them. There was a fountain on the main floor burbling away, and a crystal chandelier hung down from the ceiling high above, like a forest of glinting daggers. A beautiful, but reservedly dressed woman was walking down the staircase towards the party, glasses perched upon her pert nose, her dark hair pulled back in a schoolmarm’s bun. Except for the rapier sheathed at her hip, she looked every bit the prim and proper private secretary. Siegfried did not recognize this woman, though her dress was consistent with the house staff. The woman regarded Siegfried with inquisitive eyes, the gears behind her eyes whirling as she evaluated the handsome half-orc. “Ah! Visitors,” the woman said. “Welcome to Cassandra’s Respite.” “Five seconds,” Siegfried said quickly. “Who am I here to see?” Her expression brightened. “You must be Prince Siegfried Alagondar, late of House Thann, here to see the Lady Cassandra Thann.” Siegfried turned to Sythria. “I like her. She can stay.” Sythria chuckled. “Of course, I know you by reputation and by the portraits in Lady Cassandra’s quarters,” the secretary said. “And of course, we all read the Waterdeep Wazoo in this house. My name is Annilese Godfrey, new to the household staff, here to tend to your needs and the needs of the clergyman you have brought with you.” “I would like to see my grandmother,” Siegfried said, annoyance at having been made beginning to grow within him. He preferred to sneak into the house unannounced whenever possible. “Right this way,” Annilese turned on her high heels and led them up the stairs. Siegfried and Bob mounted the staircase, their eyes level with Secretary Godfrey’s shapely backside. Siegfried averted his eyes and took note of a portrait, one among many, hanging on the stairwell’s walls. It was of an older man, long in face and thin in stature, and though it had been painted by an artist striving to provide a flattering portrait, it betrayed the subject’s obvious alcoholic tendencies – bloodshot eyes, sunken and sour features, and unkempt hair. The portrait’s frame was decorated with a twisted black mourning ribbon, strung there under Lady Cassandra’s order. Siegfried recognized the subject as Shaymius Sky, the family’s late, unlamented man-at-arms and fencing instructor who had taught generations of Thanns the way of the blade. He had been an old, broken blind drunk when Siegfried was first learning which end of a stiletto to hold. Siegfried recalled the hint of scandal that surrounded the man, and reflected that were it not for Lady Cassandra’s patronage, Sky would have come to a much earlier end. Annilese turned as she led the men down an upstairs corridor and whispered to Siegfried, “The Lady is not at her full strength of late, Prince Alagondar.” Siegfried knew that Lady Cassandra was very private when it came to her age, health and heritage. They walked past Annilese’s office, and the secretary knocked quietly on the door at the end of the hall. Siegfried heard his grandmother’s voice softly say, “Come!” Annilese deferentially opened the door and bid the two enter. Lady Cassandra Thann was standing near a bookshelf, a weighty tome in her hands. A tall, matronly-looking woman, the Lady Cassandra’s dark hair was shot through with grey strands, and she wore carefully-applied makeup that was tasteful without being overdone. She wore an embroidered shawl over a fur-trimmed dress. The shawl was pinned above her left breast with the symbol of the Harpers. She looked up at Siegfried and smiled. To Siegfried, Cassandra hadn’t aged a day since he was a toddling child learning the finer points of needlework and knifeplay at the Lady’s knee – even now, a decade and a half later, she still looked every inch the indomitable, intellectual, long-lived matriarch of House Thann. It was only now, as he looked upon her with searching eyes, that he could see the weight of the centuries beginning to settle on her proud, shawl-covered shoulders. Even as she regarded Siegfried, there was the barest hint of hesitation before her eyes sparkled with recognition. “Oh, young Sieggy come to call,” she said in a soft voice. “Hasn’t your father shown you the intricacies of shaving yet?” Siegfried found himself raising a hand to his cheek checking for stubble, even though he was a religious user of his family’s line of personal grooming products. Lady Cassandra was either referencing an old inside joke, or was harkening back to before her grandson had hit puberty. Siegfried decided to play along. “One of these days,” he said “Yes, one of these days Millio will have to teach you, because clearly he’s still not taught you to groom yourself,” Lady Cassandra said with a chuckle. “I’m not going to grow a moustache,” Siegfried said. “Moustaches will not be in style in the 16 th century.” At this, Lady Cassandra grew wistful. “Ah, would that I could see the 16 th century,” she said in a paper-thin voice. “Perhaps if I have enough energy to wait the years out and prove you wrong.” “You’ll outlive us all, you old hag,” Siegfried said, taking a seat in one of the two overstuffed chairs that sat before Lady Cassandra’s writing desk. “Bobby! Come in here and meet my grandma!” Bob Trevelyan entered the study and nodded approvingly at Cassandra’s extensive library. “Hello, Grandma!” Bob called out. “Ah!” Lady Cassandra said. She pointed at a newspaper folded just so on her corner table near her fireplace-adjacent chair. “I do read the paper, you know. I thought the Church of Sune made a bold choice and I am honoured to welcome you as a visitor so soon after your ascension to the ecclesiastical heights.” “I couldn’t give up the opportunity to meet the grandmother that Siegfried talks so much about,” Bob replied. “You flatter me,” Lady Cassandra said. “We shall have to have Varien, the other High Priest, come to call,” Siegfried said. “But he can’t sneak for shit.” “I do love that you have kept the tradition alive,” Cassandra said. “Every time I putter about the kitchen I spy the dumbwaiter and think back to when you used to crouch inside, so pleased with yourself that you’d found such a good place to hide and gotten one over on your grandmother. That you continue is a testament to your perseverance and your growing skills.” “One of these days I will actually beat you at cards,” Siegfried replied. Lady Cassandra chuckled. “I would like to see you try,” she said. She walked over to her chair near the fireplace, hesitated for only the slightest moment, and then eased herself into the chair, placing the tome just-so on the desk in front of her. On the walls of Lady Cassandra’s study were arrayed many portraits of Thann Family members. Siegfried recalled that these were magicked and used for family conferences like the one that he’d participated in at Wolfram & Hart’s offices, but for now, all the familiar faces were inert, indicating that their likeness wasn’t “home” at the moment. Examples of Lady Cassandra’s needlepoint work were also around. There was an ornate crystal bowl on Lady Cassandra’s desk filled with peppermint chocolate candies. Siegfried knew that Lady Cassandra usually picked out the coffee-flavoured ones, which he abhorred. “It hasn’t quite been a tenday since your day in the Lord’s Court,” Lady Cassandra said, pushing the candy bowl towards the two guests. “So I’m not at all put out that it’s taken you this long to come and visit.” Annilese Godfrey discreetly closed the door behind them and returned to her office to catch up on Lady Cassandra’s correspondence. “I was wondering when you would pop in,” Lady Cassandra said. “I was just having tea with Halark Tarncrown who tells me he had a front-row seat at your day in the Lord’s Court.” Siegfried smirked. “Only your grandson could walk into a murder trial a suspect and walk out a prince.” Lady Cassandra chuckled. “Indeed, I was never so proud. You have taken your first large step in claiming that which is your birthright, and that was no small thing, because to lay yourself bare before the Lord’s Court was to place your past heritage and future heritage out of reach. Although the family that raised you will always be there for you.” “There are reasons that I’ve had to take steps back,” Siegfried said. “From my home.” Lady Cassandra gazed out the window thoughtfully. “Believe me, I know exactly what you mean. I know what it is to be a target and put my family at risk.” Siegfried leaned forward. “You have to tell me. What was the expression on Aunt Lureena’s face after the revelations at the Lord’s Court?” Lady Cassandra chuckled again. “You know, I contrived to invite her to tea just in time to get the evening edition of the Waterdeep Wazoo, which I placed next to her place setting in the dining room, and perhaps Annilese had put a little too much lemon in her tea, judging by her expression. That would describe her disposition as we discussed matters that day.” “Did she discuss her bloodroot business as well?” Siegfried asked. Lady Cassandra paused a moment and pursed her lips. “Ah, so you want to delve into that shadowy subject, do you?” Siegfried took a moment to describe what he’d uncovered with the Markosian situation, the loss of one of the Thann’s merchant ships, and the successful capture of St. Asmod’s Hope , the largest addition to the family fleet in some time. “Yes, I’d heard that you’d had an adventure at sea,” Lady Cassandra said. “That was where I learned of our family’s involvement in a smuggling operation, and it coincided with the Blackstaff giving us a mission to go down to Skullport and find the mind flayer that is putting brain-eating creatures into the skulls of Waterdeep’s wealthy.”