WHERE'S THE STONE?
Grinda admits that she has done business with the
Xanathar Guild in the past. Her orders were to pro-
tect the stone until Noska arrived to claim it, but she
changed her mind and decided to keep the stone for her-
seU. She now realizes that decision was a mistake.
Grinda tells the characters that she gave the stone to
her rat familiar and told the creature to stash it in her
family's mausoleum in the City of the Dead. The mage
gives the characters directions to the site and a key to
the mausoleum. (They won't need the key, since the
mausoleum is open when they arrive.)SPY IN THE SKY
As the characters leave Mistshore, a gazer (see appen-
d ix B) begins to follow them, staying at least 60 feet
away. Xanathar uses it to spy on the characters. Charac-
ters who have a passive Perception score of 15 or higher
can spot the gazer shortly after the party enters the City
of the Dead. The gazer defends itself if attacked.NEXT ENCOUNTER
Armed with directions to the Garloth mausoleum, the
characters can head for the City of the Dead. The spring
chain continues with encounter 4, "Mausoleum."MIST SHORE: AUTUM N
At the end of their pursuit, the characters corner Fel'rekt
Lafeen and Krebbyg Masq'il'yr in Mistshore. The two
drow gunslingers (see appendix B) lurk behind the
Kraken's Folly (area Dl) and wait to be rescued. When
the characters confront them, Fel'rekt and Krebbyg stall
for time until their escape vehicle arrives. If either drow
falls, the other tosses the stone into the harbor to keep it
from falling into enemy hands. A character can recover
the sunken stone by using a detect magic spell to help
pinpoint its location.BTGBELCHY
A mechanical dragon turtle, dubbed Big Belchy, sank
in Deepwater Harbor almost a century ago. Lantanese
gnomes working for JarlaxJe have managed to repair
the construct. Two rounds after the characters corner
Fel'rekt and Krebbyg, Big Belchy surfaces next to the
dock on initiative count 5, close enough that the drow
can leap onto its barnacle-encrusted back on their
next turns.
In the round after it surfaces, the mechanism breathes
a cloud of steam onto the docks in a 30-foot cube, then
begins to move away at a swimming speed of 20 feet.
Any creature in the cloud of steam must make a DC 14
Dexterity saving throw, taking 22 (4d10) fire damage on
a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful
one. Big Belchy can breathe steam only once. On each
of its turns thereafter, it swims a total of 40 feet toward
j arlaxle's flagship, the Eyecatciler, which is anchored in
the middle of the harbor 1 mile away.
Big Belchy has AC 18. 75 hit points, and immunity
to poison and psychic damage. If it is reduced to 0 hit
points, it sinks once more to the bottom of Deepwater
Harbor. If the drow are still on its back when it goes
down, they swim the rest of the way to the Eyecatciler
but gain two levels of exhaustion from the cold water
and exertion.
If the drow are defeated while on Big Belchy's back,
the Stone of Go/orr tumbles off the mechanical dragon
turtle's shell and drops into Deepwater Harbor. If the
water is deep enough, the characters might need to bor-
row Grinda Garloth's apparatus of Kwalish to recover it.NEXT ENCOUNTER
lf a character becomes attuned to the Stone of Golorr, it
reveals the location of the Vault of Dragons, beneath an
old stone windmill in the Sea Ward, and the three keys
needed to enter it. When the characters are ready to visit
the location, proceed with encounter 10, "Converted
Windmill."MISTSHORE : WINTER
The characters head to Mistshore in search of the man
they believe has the Stone ofGolorr. En route to that
destination, the man had his hire-coach make a brief
stop in the Castle Ward to drop off his lady friend. She
now bas the stone- a fact that characters can discover
by questioning the man, a bard named Agorn Fuoco.
Agorn made such a good impression on Manshoon
that he was elevated quickly through the ranks of the
organization, but his life is full of disappointment oth-
erwise. He has not achieved the fame he c raved nor
earned the wealth he felt he was entitled to. He has
adopted the Zhentarim credo that power comes to those
who deserve it and has come to see the Black Network
as a new family of sorts. Agorn has come to Mistshore to
visit a member of his actual family-his mother, who is
gravely ill and Jives in abject poverty.A WAITING COACH
Waiting at the edge of the neighborhood is the hire-
coach that bore Agoro Fuoco through the blizzard to
Mistshore. Two draft horses stamp their hooves impa-
tiently in the snow. The driver, Rowan Evenwood (LG
female Chondathan human commoner), was paid extra
to wait for Agorn to return. He left in a hurry, and she
doesn't know how long she is expected to wait, but her
patience has limits.A COLD RECEPTION
A blizzard is tearing through Mistshore, turning its
rotten tenements into dark, looming shapes behind
veils of blowing snow. The water around the docks is
frozen solid, and impoverished commoners clad in tat-
tered garments gather around sputtering campfires for
warmth. These folk are suspicious of anyone they don't
recognize and far from welcoming, even toward those
who show them charity. These people would tear the
clothes from the characters' backs given half a chance.ICE ESCAPADES
Playing on the ice underneath the docks are three street
urchins wearing frayed cloaks and gloves. They dart
in and out of view, hurling snowballs at each other and
laughing as the blizzard batters the structures above
them (see "The Three Urchins," page 63).CHAPTER 4 I DRAGON S"EASON