Long story short, this tiefling lady called Verity Kai had a gambling partner called Quentin Togglepocket[1] who stole all the money they supposedly earned working together[2]. Quentin disappeared, then came back big to open his very own casino near Waterdeep, even hosting a 3 dragon ante tournament. Verity wants her money back. She also wants to ruins Quentin by stealing the golden statue which is the grand prize of the tournament. Sounds like the type of noble quest our party was made for!
We had lots of pre-heist activities here.
On arrival at Waterdeep, we got to meet the local Golden Vault HQ, with a buttload of special vendors and trainers and downtime activities and stuff. While the adventurers mostly chose side missions to work on their personal gold and reputation, '50 copper' hit the gambling den to earn 190 gp for the team.
Once everyone had sorted out their inventory, shopping list and the such, we started gathering information on the casino.
I rapped in a tavern, lacing the lyrics with Thieves' Cant. I did find a thief to talk to, but I did not get anything very useful out of him. Same with the gambling addict we found in a seedier tavern, even though Aris cooled his free beer. I even looked for somebody employed in the casino, but all I got was a slap in the face.
Sparks had a better idea, and we visited the security company that installed magic mirrors in the casino. I impersonated a noble, and Sparks asked about the technicalities.
Still, we did not learn anything we didn't suppose from the beginning, and what we surmised from the map Verity had given us. So, time for a dry run.
The Underworld Casino itself was very fancy, 9-hells-themed, and employed only tiefling, in keeping with said theme.
Our first stop was at the rat racing table, where Teek tried to influence the outcome by talking to the rats. Freshly rich, the adventurers bet and lost a lot of money on Turbotail. I myself did not get involved, except for lifting some chips off the players.
Sparks inspected the slot machines, resulting in minor earnings.
I mingled with guests at the bar and lounge, but found nothing useful. Even though I flirted with everything I got with some elves.[3]
At the tournament hall, we inspected the golden statue in its glass cabinet. Magically trapped and guarded.
At the spa, we observed the employees going to and fro with towels and uniforms. Aris surprised such an employee with a message about loosing his key card, at which point he promptly checked his pockets. Then I bumped into him and lifted the key card, and also entered the laundry room to pick up some uniforms. Good thing for the bag of holding!
The restaurant had nothing interesting. The circus, however, presented a way to access the employee-only section of the casino, assuming that the entrance for the performers and animals was less supervised than the one for employees.
Finally, we laid eyes on the security room itself thanks to Thaldohr. He made a scene, flipped a table, and got beaten up by security, then got dragged into the brig. He only got out in the morning, but he could give an accurate description of the insides.
Next up: heist time!
[1] Sounds like a very honest and hard working fellow. Totally the sort you'd keep your money around.
[2] In totally honest ways, I'm sure.
[3] At least I got some laughs at the table, which is just as good.
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