The Kidnapping
The mission that Nihiloor proposes to the group is kidnapping.
He wishes the group kidnapp and bring back Alive, High Priest Thurin, from the Temple Of Knowledge. It would seem that High Priest Thurin either has knowledge or access to something which Nihiloor, the illithid wishes to have.
High Priest Thurin has, as of late, been paranoid of his safety. Perhaps someone he has attempted to have killed but failed. He now goes everywhere in the city with armed bodyguards. Once in his house he will be almost impossible to retrieve. So it must be done while between the Temple of Knowledge and his home.
Nihiloor approaches one of the chained creatures on the wall and places a wriggling worm, which he retrieves from a container filled with such worms. He places it on the head of the creature and immediately the worms finds its way into the head of the creature. The creature shudders and convulses for a few brief moments and then falls limp. Nihiloor seems to do something and he and the creature seem to synchronize their movements. Nihiloor clearly is in control of the creature.
While Nihiloor is busy doing that, Traveler subtly approaches the dead body on the metal slab in the middle of the room, and stealthily takes his dagger and tries to destroy as much of the brain as possible. He doesn’t want Nihiloor to know it was he that killed his hive-brother.
When Nihiloor turns back to the group he tells them to follow this kruthik as it tunnels through the solid rock towards its prey. After a long trek through the rock below Waterdeep they finally come up in the middle of the street in a nice section of the city. Before them arriving is a rich carriage surrounded by bodyguards. They seem stronger and better trained than the standard City Watch.
After a bloody fight Traveler makes his way into the house, along with High Priest Thurin, as he feigns unconsciousness. But Azmiran, who was sent to make sure the new members have completed their objective, sees the group failing to retrieve High Priest Thurin. She approaches the house, magically disguised as a bodyguard and begins to take her prisoner out of the house.
Traveler tells Thurin that he is in danger and that he is wanted by an illithid within the Xanathar’s Thieves Guild.
Meanwhile, from the top of the house, Koltira rains down damage on the Azmiran, as she leaves the house. Seeing this Thurin retreats back into the house. Not sure of who to trust he begs Traveler for his life. He recognizes Traveler as the one who had left a signet ring with him days ago.
He tells Traveler that he has information that Traveler might want. The signet ring comes from an ancient civilization, thousands of years long gone. Netheril.
The Netherese ring of Travelers bears the symbol of an ancient Netheril city, Dalekeva.
Dalekeva, as stories go simply disappeared. No longer mentioned in history or even stories. More might be learned from a book he had lent to a gnome tinkerer, Antikythera Ulam. She often makes useful inventions and he had hoped she could use the knowledge in the book to create something unique for him. She lives in the “Burrows”
Traveler decides escaping the house is now a priority and charges upstairs. Running past Thurin’s wife, who screams for the guards, Traveler summons his Echo outside and across the street to the top of the city wall. Quickly trading places with Echo, Traveler continues his escape and eventually finds his way to his usual tavern, The Yawning Portal.
After a good nights rest, Traveler approaches Durin behind the bar and asks the whereabouts of “The Burrows” and learns that it is a small gnome community in the South Ward. Traveler also asks if Durin knows of a reliable sell-sword who can aid him.
Durin gestures to a patron who has fallen asleep at one of the tables last night leaving his blood drying on his nice table. A waitress wakes the bloody elf, who peels his face from the table, his eyes puffy and bruised.
It is Koltira. He looks up finding Traveler and simply says with a bloody smile, “I killed her!”