The party spends their reward, and decides to help an ally.
Having recovered the hoard, the party divides the reward and begins to spend some of their hard earned cash. They are treated to a visit from the Open Lord Laeral Silverhand. Tygorr buys into the ownership group of Trollskull Manor, only to watch the tavern lose money in its first few weeks of operation. The party pays for operation expenses and guild fees, and learns that the daily morning explosions from down the street come from a coffee shop and bakery. They have a machine that produces a concentrated form of coffee. The party members go shopping with their new found wealth. Shining Brow receives an invitation to attend the Luiren Ball, which is a commemoration held on the 10th of Tarsak, two days from now.
The party decides to attend, although the heavily armed Shazuu will remain outside. The group eats, drinks and meets some old friends while they mingle. They have a brief discussion with Lord Neverember, and run into Mirt. Mirt offers them a job, if they are willing. He is looking to recover a statue of a unicorn from “The Blue Alley”. This alley was constructed by a wizard 200 years ago. The party, having spent much of their reward, and facing losses at the Manor, agree.
n the 11th, hungover from the party the night before, the group heads to The Blue Alley. They sign the guestbook at the entrance and enter. As they do, the light around them dims, and they can see the road stones are blue. Murals on the walls depict adventurers dying horrible deaths to fiendish traps. The alley comes to a “T” intersection, where a silver arrow points east, and a gold arrow points west. Shining Brow’s familiar, now a raven, flies down the west, seeing doors.They follow west and find a door of ivory, covered with predatory animals hunting their prey. Inside are several chests. As they investigate, the ceiling colapses. The entire room is a mimic. Tygorr finally destroys the creature. There is a chest in the room that contains a bronze handbell with no clapper, something wrapped in velvet, and about 25 gold.
They move on to a staircase with a door at the top. Inside is what appears to be a large extradimensional space containing a farm in a pastoral setting. Mantis leads the investigation, checking one of the silos. Inside are two bull skulls hanging on the walls. Shining Brow senses that they are magic. As they attempt to take the skull down, a minotaur appears and attacks. During the brief combat, they notice it has a key around its neck. Mantis drops the skull to join the fight, but when he does, the minotaur fades away. The group decides the key is important. So they pick up the skull again, and when the minotaur appears, Shining Brow uses his skills as an arcane trickster to steal the key. As soon as he does, Mantis drops the skull, and the minotaur fades again. Unfortunately, so does the key. The group falls back to standard procedure, recalling the minotaur and slaughtering it. This time, the key remains. It is covered with pictures of prey.
The party stops, takes stock of their situation, and decides to rest a moment to recover from the fight…