Sweet Dreams are Made of Cheese

25 Kythorn, 1502 DR

The Cheesemongers' Association of Waterdeep planned to put on a Cheese Competition for the city. Given their short-staffing, they outsourced to the Glassfang Syndicate for help. Aber, Forvist, Mila, Snap, and Sylk (myself) responded with the obvious question of... why. But we were all invited to sample the cheeses as judges, assuming we could take care of a couple inspections first. Our contact, Martancriff, offered 50gp per job completed, as well as rest in the C.A.'s headquarters for the evening. The suspects were two competitors with shady dealings around them. We were to observe the areas, the cleanliness of production, and the cheese was to be made responsibly. The five of us set out.

First, we arrived to the Dock Ward. A dilapidated hut owned by Dannon only seemed to house a couple guard dogs, which were quickly befriended. After questioning the nervous man, we discovered a blindfolded catoblepas in a side room. Native to swamps and once to the Underdark, its milk technically could be used to make a delicacy of Cormyr called Death Cheese. The creature tried to escape. We caught it in time and soothed it. As thanks, Dannon agreed to leave town with his three pets so they would not be arrested, nor would the catoblepas' natural toxic influence harm the food and water supply of the area.

Second, we investigated a tavern called the Bowels of the Earth within the Trades Ward. After dissuading a pickpocket, our group met first with the bartender, Ada, then her employer, Calkin. The latter was a sly halfling man who assured us his "cheeeeeeese" was the best. But the ingredients seemed similar to the illegal Lurien Spring Cheese, needing a license to sell. Ada seemed unnerved and scared, and it appeared she was being coerced by Calkin to sell the addictive cheese in her tavern, not his. Though we threatened Calkin, he called his men to assist in a tavern brawl, ending in him being knocked unconscious and two of his thugs killed. When the guard arrived, Ada vouched for us so we would not all face prison time or a relevant sentence. She thanked us and gave us free drinks.

The night was uneventful in the C.A.'s headquarters. When the Cheese Competition arrived, we faced a hearty group of cheesemongers ready to impress members of our Syndicate. As delectable and delicious as they were, the cheese submitted by an autognome was strange and upsetting. It burst and became a brie-holder and attacked, claiming it wanted to make true cheese! It was a close fight, but ended with the ab-brie-ation frozen and shattered.

Martancriff thanked us profusely for all of our help. We were paid quite well, then returned home.

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Loot (may be edited as our lovely DM releases the logs!)

• 440gp (88gp each)
• Mind Crystal (Subtle)
• Potion of Healing
• Spellwrought Tattoo, Feather Fall
• Syndicate Token
• Renown with the Cheesemongers' Association of Waterdeep

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The above information is, truly, written as I remember it. I cannot believe my life has come to this, but it has. -Sylkran "Sylk" Teke'zynge

MISSION REPORT: employed order enforcers by cheesemongers' association for the cheese competition. Duration: entirety of the competition

Brief: received once arrived in Waterdeep by the halfling Martancriff. Mission Directive: ensure competition fairness and inspect 2 targets flagged suspect.

• Suspect 1: dwarf under the designation Dannon. Flag report: unknown illness plaguing civilians in the docks within proximity of suspect's base of operation.

Base condition: disrepair, dirty, animals left wild. Initial observation: unfit conditions for sanitary work. Entities within: 2 guard dogs - not hostile, failed bond attempt | Dannon - owner, hesitant, anxious, suspect status reinforced | Fluffy - creature: infant catoblepas, blindfolded, scared, source of ingredient for cheese product.
Activity: initiated directive to calm Fluffy. attempt successful on 3rd 'petting' action. Post directive: Fluffy is the cause of illness. owner agreed to withdraw using peace methods. Observation: Fluffy innocent, peaceful, a-a-a-adorable.

• Suspect 2: halfling under the designation Calkin. Flag report: criminal activity on the rise within proximity of suspect's base of operation. possibility of illegal operations.

Base condition: business active tavern, several customers, staff at bar, average levels of maintenance. Initial observation: conditions within the competition's requirements. Entities within: 3 humanoids outside the tavern - halfing* failed - InSoLeNt - steal attempt - CrEaTuRe - , warning - ShOuLd - offered - RiP - for - hEr - the - HaNd - crime | 2 humanoids inside the tavern - behaviour within norms | Ada - bartender, minimal anxiety, discomfort, behaviour not within expected norms | Calkin - self stated tavern owner, positive demeanor, avoidant of inspection, insufficent information to clear suspect status.***

Activity: initiated directive to inspect the cheese production area. - Observation: cheese fabricated within the establishment with no license. cheese status flagged illegal - query of license status towards owner and bartender uncovered illegitimate tavern ownership status by suspect 2 - Observation: suspect has tavern and owner hostage - suspect failed attempt to bribe the squad. failed attempt for suspect's peaceful surrender. initiated enforcement of force - Observation: 4 humanoids within the establishment under suspect 2's employ - combat concluded after 2 suspect fatalities and main suspect turned unconscious. Post directive: suspects handed to authorites. Ada cleared squad suspect status for the caused fatalities.

Secondary directive: participate in the cheese competition after first directive report given. 3 squad members initiated the directive of cheese judges. 5 cheese samples presented for the competition. Observation: autognome creator of the 5th cheese terminated in self combustion. 5th cheese status of sentient brie holder. Update secondary directive: eliminate hostile cheese. Secondary directive status: susscess. 0 civilian and squad fatalities.

Post mission: received compensation from employer. collected samples from hostile cheese.

(The text on this note is written very small, though is still very legible and well-written.)

25th of Kythorn, 1502 DR

Myself, Forest, Slick, Mia, and Abuh.

This job took place in my home, Waterdeep. The Cheesehunger's Association of Waterdeep, a new guild within the city, hosted a cheese competition to promote their new standalone standing. However, with the competition happening in a day, they required a last minute inspection of the competitors, to make sure they were up to taste. As the most familiar with the area, I closely held the warrant, city legal code, and competition rules. Specifically, two of them raised much suspicion.

The first of two was Dannon, within the Dock Ward. Though the ward is known for being in poor shape, many nearby citizens had coincidentally fallen more ill than usual. Myself and Mia's familiar Smiley had scoured the surroundings of his house, finding only two guard dogs within, or so we thought. After politely knocking to no response, we all entered, with the dogs barely responding beyond asking to play fetch. Soon after, we met with the man, who did not quite wish us to inspect his process. Pushing ourselves in, we found Fluffy, a blindfolded... catopeblas? which Dannon milked to create a Cormyr cheese nicknamed Death Cheese. Unfortunately, such a creature is known to cause many around to fall ill, and is illegal to possess here. Forest and Abuh helped calm it down after its attempt to escape, and we let the man leave with his three creatures as to not be arrested. Following this, we took a short break at a nearby tavern.

The second of two was Calkan, within the Trades Ward, an area prone to many criminals. As it turned out, he had forced the original tavern owner, Ada, to lend him a space to create his cheese. Unfortunately, said cheese was more illegal than owning a catopeblas. It was a variation of an already illegal cheese, originally made to be addictive to halflings, instead modified to be addictive to all. Once Slick inquired for a license, which Ada could not fetch fault of not having one, we understood that he was squatting and insisted on arrest. His answer was to call backup and try to take care of all of us. Our answer was to take them all down, with Slick telepathically pulling his head towards a table corner to knock him out. I called city guards, though forgot some of us prefer to employ lethal force, and so Ada bailed us out of a potential prison tour.

With both dodgy competitors out of the way, we returned the next day in time for the cheese competition. As we were offered, Myself, Slick and Mia chose to be judges alongside the two others. Forest declined, and Abuh cannot eat. All cheeses were excellent, though with no competition and no bias, the dragonborn and kobold duo had by far the best. However, the construct chef had the one with the most kick. Inside of the construct was actually a Brieholder, a cheesy variant of a regular Beholder (as previously seen in space). Every civilian ran right away as we deal with it. Though it was tough and pinned three of us down, I managed to score the final blow on it, sending a blast of frozen air right in its face (kudos to Basar for teaching me the way of the breath weapon). We were graciously paid for our efforts, and left by teleportation.

Nobody will believe me,

Snap

Our group was sent to Waterdeep to help Cheesemongers Association to investigate two competitors suspected of possible cheating in upcoming cheese competition. My familiar, Sphinx of Wonder named Smiley, wound never forgive me if I wouldn't take him to the competition, so I volunteered to the job.

First competitor was reported for people getting sick around his house. After Snap scouted around the house, we entered and let Forvist pacify the dogs, we found the owner trying to get us away from a single room, but we ignored his pleas. Inside that room we found he is keeping a calf of a catoplebas, which are highly poisonous and capable of necrotic sight. I caught it and held it while other pacified it, withstanding the wretched smell as well as ocassional biting and even attack from creature's owner. We did explain to him posession of such creature, whose milk he was using for his cheese, was illegal within Waterdeep and he decided to move back to Cormyr than risk dealing with the city guard. We offered Syndicate's help in releasing catoplebas to the wild, if the creature ever grows too troublesome to take care of.

Second was a Hafling runnign bussiness behind an inn. We were immediatelly met with someone trying to rob one of us, but we caught them and used the situation to intimidate few other people giving us weird looks. Inside we quickly uncovered that the hafling running the cheese operation has coerced tavern owner to sell his highly addictive type of cheese, which he was hoping to use to eventually get city's elites hooked on. We befeated his thugs and performed "citizen arrest" on him, and tavern owner helped save us from being arrested for murder of said thugs by city guard.

We reported our finding and next day got to participate in cheese-tastign competition, Smiley got to be one of the judges. Unfortunatelly, we were ambushed by a strange creature, calling itself "Bree-Holder" that tried to take over the association. It was a hard fight but we took it down eventually.

Also what is it with Waterdeevians reacting to a fight breaking out by jumping out of the window?! The door is right. There!