Fireball

"Fires may burn bright but do not always warm the soul."

That damn monk. I think the worst thing about the prophecies he seems to provide is their inability to help anyone stop them. He just seems to know about the ill that will happen, but without the detail necessary to do anything about it. I don't know if that is a curse he feels or if he blithely pours out his sayings, oblivious to the heartache they may portent.

The Night Raiders saw this monk, Hlam, in the market while collecting a bounty on the criminal Harko. In addition to his pithy statement about fire he also let lose with another: "The trust is chained and veiled but the tears are real."

Perhaps another tragedy waiting to happen that no one can fix. Perhaps related to the dinner the Raiders had with the Cassalanters. A few of them drew connections between the monk's ramblings and the situation with that family. Not that any can determine what is real with nobles. Perhaps Founder's day will reveal more.

However, all of that will have to wait. Trollskull alley erupted in flames today.

The Raiders gleaned a great deal, in spite of or in concert with a pair of investigators from the watch. They learned a construct of some kind detonated a fireball in a crowd of innocents, perhaps trying to target some Zentarim or a gnome they chased. The singular surviving Zentarim seems to have holed up in Gralhund Manor, the construct has vanished, and the gnome died at the scene, along with friends and innocents.

If Rene is to be believed, the gnome, Dahlakar, was a spy of the former Open Lord Neverember and may have been trusted by him still. Which is odd, especially considering the fact that he appeared to be coming towards Trollskull Manor when he died.

The Raiders seem on the trail of resolving the mystery, but I fear it may connect to some larger game afoot in Waterdeep, only serving to draw them further into the dangers of the city of splendors.

This construct though...I had heard of such things coming from Lantanese wizards, but I have not seen any in use until this most recent return to Waterdeep. I wonder what mystic power drives them; do they have souls? And if not...