Show and Tell Down the Well

After the bathhouse fracas, and you’ve dressed and met Dijkstra to glean information regarding Whoreson from him. Now ask about Dandelion. After some Grade-A sarcasm, he reckons Dandelion is dead. Answer him as you wish regarding a possible beef between them, and Dijkstra offers a surprising annoyance at the standard of Dandelion’s recent poetry. After this additional sarcasm, Dijkstra says he has other problems to worry about. Problems you might be able to help him with. Ask him what he needs (or mention payment, leading to a short conversation about you helping the Emhyr), and he walks you to the pillared bathhouse chamber, and inserts a key into one of the columns. Water drains from the central well.

A secret ladder and passage down into the sewers beneath the bathhouse is revealed. Climb down the ladder, keeping your sword sheathed (or Dijkstra orders you to put it away), and follow him along the dank brick corridors… to a rock troll named Bart, who is banging its head against a sewer wall. Ask about Dijkstra’s troll (he won it in a card game), then concentrate on the hole in the wall leading to the fast-moving effluent tunnel. Beyond it is Dijkstra’s vault, which was filled with countless valuables, until someone made off with most of it. Agree to help and ask about:

• Witnesses (none other than Bart and the thieves, and the bathhouse didn’t report any incidents on the day of the robbery).
• The approximate value (Dijkstra doesn’t immediately tell you, but after you insist, he rattles off a list of valuables that could pay for a small invasion force).
• The hole in the wall; Bart attempts to explain (“boom” referring to explosion that blew open the hole in the wall, and “bad mushrooms” referring to pops mold with its toxic spores that grow in the sewers. They knocked the troll out and would kill most others).
• Now ask about who he used to track the thieves down. He mentions a lummox named Fonce—they both took an antidote to the mushroom poison, and explored the tunnels until Fonce vomited up the antidote and lost his protection, dying in the process. As he was dragging the body out, Dijkstra saw something monstrous in the poison mists, but can’t elaborate further (though he can insult you some more). Now start your sewer exploration, taking the remaining antidotes from Dijkstra before you go.