I would respectfully offer that I got the opposite point of view on what the party was tasked with. The watch was dealing with the arsonist by putting more men on the remaining buildings. The party was asked with finding out who was snatching the newly homeless.<br/><br/>True, a fire in a city like Waterdeep could be serious, but it's containable. A riot because the citizenry suddenly realizes that hundreds have disappeared over a short period of time is a much more serious concern. I would point out that finding bodies in numbers of a dozen to 25 a night may not be out of the ordinary; it could be assumed that there's a new group of criminals trying to put their mark on the city's poorer parts of town (and where bulk goods are stored). discovering that bodies are disappearing is a different and usually more fear generating event. Eventually, it'll become noticed by the thousands of homeless in general that they are a source of large numbers of disappearances and this could spark off things that could burn Waterdeep to the ground. 600 to 800 people is realitively small compared to the city's population, but when has factual numbers ever been involved in rumors? 600 easily becomes 6,000 in the telling.<br/><br/>The watch is being visable with the arson, the obvious threat. We're dealing with the elss obvious and hoping that we can stop it before it becomes a terror element.<br/><br/>Yes, we may see people traveling along the sewers (althought it's as easy to hide a noble in a carriage as it is to wonder the sewers), but then, where are these people? most of an hour moving from the better areas and into the effectd ones and not a sole. Not even flies, it seems. The party would, likely, be considered a normal, cautious escort for some noble or merchant before a group of thieves because of all of the light... maybe even a group of plumbers for all of that. It still seeems odd to me that absolutely nothing has been seen except for half a dozen dead rats in one place.<br/><br/>From Wren's point of view, the thing moving away isn't nessessarily THE badguys, but is something to investigate. The familiar stated that it couldnt' identify what it was and it's moving away at speed. Fair enough... it's not reason to stop moving forward and it's in the same direction. Wren is a sailor with strong rogue background, so some paranoia is part of life. If she's being too cautious because she isn't use to strolling along the sewer, I don't see that as being out of character any more than anyone else being a little jumpy after getting some confirmation that something is going on there. Why be quiet if you're expected to be making noise?<br/><br/>At any rate, what I saw as the parties job is to find the source of the disappearances, and in that, the source of the arsons. The people are a bigger issue because it will, eventually, blow up and there aren't enough troops in town to deal with it... If the city hasn't burned down yet, a single building on fire a night isn't going to burn it down now.