Approximately 2pm, Eleasias 27, 1368 DR, The Year of the Banner<br/>Waterdeep City Watch Headquarters, Castle Ward, Waterdeep<br/><br/>As the adventurers enter the stone brick-walled meeting room, one by one, in response to their summons to this location, Captain Rulathon, Commander of the City Watch observes them with a keen eye. Despite his hair having turned gray years earlier, he seems to have plenty of fight left in his wiry muscles, and the wrinkles on his face do not hide the fierce gleam in his blue eyes.<br/><br/>A long, wooden table runs nearly the entire length of the room. Along either side is a row of chairs, and while one side of the table is empty, the other is full of members of the City Watch. While many of the Watchmen present are muscular and battle-hardened, a few of them are clearly mages, members of the group known as the Watch-Wizards.<br/><br/>The walls are lined with maps of Waterdeep at various levels of detail for each ward, many of them bearing pins in certain places around the city, denoting something relevant to the City Watch but perhaps not to anyone else. Among these maps are also maps of the Sword Coast and the city sewer system, also at varying levels of detail.<br/><br/>When the time for the meeting arrives and Captain Rulathon is certain that all of the adventurers had answered their summons, he takes his seat in the middle of the table on the Watchmen’s side (rather than at either end), and begins to speak.<br/><br/><strong>”I have called this meeting and summoned you all here because the city is facing an unknown enemy. Over the past month, more than two dozen rowhouses and tenement buildings have burned with no known cause, and no witnesses to any apparent arsonist. While we are still gathering evidence from the latest fires, we don’t have much to go on. Any string of arsons would be enough of a problem, but the nature of the buildings that burned--housing for the working class and the poor--has put a few hundred people on the streets, primarily in the Docks Ward, the South Ward, and the Trades Ward, the southern third of the city.”</strong><br/><br/>Rulathon gestures toward a map on the wall that has the wards of Waterdeep labeled clearly.<br/><br/><strong>”Thyriellentha, fill them in on what your mages have been able to gather so far about the missing persons cases,”</strong>Rulathon tells the middle-aged, brunette woman in a wizard’s robe sitting to his left.<br/><br/><strong>”These areas already had a problem with overcrowding, homelessness, and poverty, and these fires have made the problem worse. And yet, I wish that were the worst of our problems. Since this began a month ago, each day we have received more reports from the homeless that others have gone missing. From what we can piece together, something appears to be taking the homeless at a rate of about twenty per night. For now, it seems to be limited to the homeless, drunks, and vagrants; to those outside at night, specifically, but if something isn’t done about this soon, we will have widespread panic in the city, especially since the arsons don’t seem to show any sign of stopping,”</strong>the woman Rulathon referred to as Thyriellentha said, eyeing the adventurers before her.<br/><br/>Rulathon takes a moment to size up the adventurers sitting on the opposite side of the table before turning to the man on his right, a balding, pudgy man dressed in the garb of one of Open Lord Piergeiron’s personal advisors, expensive blue and yellow robes bearing the coat-of-arms of Waterdeep on the left breast, over the heart.<br/><br/><strong>”And how many more apartment buildings and rowhouses are still standing in those three wards?”</strong>Rulathon asks the man.<br/><br/><strong>”Eight more, Captain,”</strong>the advisor replies solemnly.<br/><br/>Rulathon nods grimly.<strong>”Then I suspect that the arsons will continue for less than a tenday, if the past month’s experience is any indication. That will make catching the arsonist, at least, much more difficult unless we catch him in the act soon.”</strong>Rulathon turns to one of his senior Watchmen.<strong>”I want dependable Watchmen in the buildings surrounding each of these eight rowhouses, watching them throughout the night. If Tymora smiles on us, they may see who is lighting these fires, and if she favors us even more, they may be able to put it out quickly, should one of these rowhouses catch fire. Tell them to blow their horns if they suspect trouble and double patrols in the neighborhoods around the eight rowhouses and apartment buildings.”</strong>The senior Watchman nods, salutes Rulathon stiffly, and when Rulathon tells the burly man<strong>”Dismissed,”</strong>he leaves the room.<br/><br/><strong>”You were summoned here at the behest of the Open Lord because of your talents and your reputations. We need you, the <em>city</em> needs you to uncover what is behind this outbreak of fires and what is taking the homeless, and to put a stop to both. There is a reward, of course. The city is prepared to pay five thousand gold to each of you for success on this mission, with five hundred of that up front for expenses. I am sure that you have questions, and I and my staff of Senior Watchmen would be happy to answer them.”</strong><br/><br/>With that, Rulathon leans back in his wooden chair and folds his arms, awaiting their questions.<br/>