Journal Entry 004 - Three Daggers Alley/Greel Warehouse

Nightal 19: After visiting the grave of Berk before noon, Thokk decided to go to the Orcish Social Club (which was co-founded by the Ididis family) at the northern part of South Ward. Being rather early for the club, he only found Poolhis there, the 82-year old curator of the place. Thokk did not forget to bring with him the unusual northern tobacco the Poolhis loves - the Raven feathered one with the wild taste of northern roughness. They sat at the balcony despite the cold (there was only a small wood stove providing heat) and made small talk about the past before breaching the subject of Berk Bronzehead. Poolhis informed Thokk of Berk's importance for the orcish Waterdhavian community, him being the first orc to be ennobled - he helped change the way the city views the race. Poolhis confirmed that Berk's helmet is an artifact of great symbolic and magical value; however he knew not of its theft. Thokk left for the Dripping Dagger inn.

Meanwhile Zook, after the visit to Gustav, passed by Confiscating Quality, met there with a very satisfied Zorik (on the first day at his new job) and asked Inaria if she knows of any glassworkers. She told him of a master craftsman (not cheap) situated near the River Gate - her name is Ovila Kurlab (dwarf, female, missing left leg). Then he also left for the Dripping Dagger.

At the crowded inn they ordered food to go (Thokk's custom-cooked from Babis, the controversial and huge weekend chef, half ogre half gnoll) and went to Zook's apartment. There they prepared for this night's excursion at three daggers alley by going carefully through Ostin's papers. They discovered a note informing of a particular way of safe entry to the alley: "Beneath Selune's window look for the wizard's finger. With it tread without fear in the alley, but always leave it behind when done." After Zook disguised himself as a bum, they left for the alley.

Approaching from the northeast, the duo studied the surrounding blocks, deciphering ways of urgent escape. During this investigation Zook stumbled upon a crescent-shaped window in Dust alley; underneath a flagstone he found a finger bone which he proceeded to take. They then entered the infamous alley from via Dust alley. Zook tried the uncanny lock of the warehouse but conceded his inferiority in opening it. Then he climbed up the roof and found an accessible skylight. Thokk quickly was with him on the roof, and helped the gnome to lower himself on the warehouse's ground floor interior.

The whole floor had an air of abandonment, being full of heaps of processed and raw wood. Zook entered the only separate room, an office, discovering a drawer with four buttons, as well as stairs leading down to the basement and a framed map of the city. Thinking he saw a shadow amid the darker places of the warehouse, Thokk descended swiftly to investigate. He found nothing besides a fleeting cat (which fled to the basement after he stepped on its tail) and a wooden heart amidst the wood. Before managing to say much, the friends were attacked by a demonic entity that forced them to barricade themselves in the office. Then they discovered the button sequence and opened a secret door to a room which contained the stolen Bronzhead helm, as well as 3 wigs. Then they descended the stairs, preferring the odds of the unknown from those of the demonic being outside the room.

The basement was empty apart from a locked door. Behind it they found a room chockful of discarded stuff. By following faint footsteps they discovered a secret door which led to an eerie dining hall - a long table with a silver candelabra on it and 6 chairs around, on one of which was the corpse of a rat. In an adjacent room they discovered a gruesome spectacle: a wooden mannequin was part of a ritual; on its breast were nailed two pig lungs, on its forehead the name Nora was painted red, and beneath the lungs a black candle burnt with black flame. Thokk put out the candle, examined the lungs (and somehow their physiology enabled him to place their subspecies, a rare black-as-night pig that is raised and sold by a butcher's shop in _____), and then impaled each of them on a hook of his grappling hook. Zook found a crate of black candles. In another room they found a chest with a mirror bottom containing a part of the map decipherement message, as well as 3 silver candles. Back at the dining hall Zook's eye was caught by a platinum coin beneath the table. Trying to take it, he, as well as Thokk found themselves being shrinked to the size of a rat…