📰 A Friend in Need

In this narrow tunnel, throwing a javelin was always going to take finesse and skill.

Vinnie's javelin jams itself into something large and brown on the ceiling - like a large cocktail stick in Toril's least appetising hors d'oeuvre.

The floating eye giggles as it projects some telekinetic force ray that lifts Jodelle up and throws her down the tunnel.

Even as Jodelle flies over Vinnie's head, he gets the uncanny feeling that he's next in the creature's sights (and the plural is appropriate). Vinnie dodges, but it's not a force-push, but a blast of freezing cold that shoots from an eyestalk.

As Vinnie and Patience get closer, they get a good look at this thing. It's about the size of a large watermelon and looks about as tough as one.

Ha! The freezing ray misses our favourite mad halfling as the heroes close in.

Caring nothing for his own safety, Vinnie charges ahead and pokes the orb. It releases a long farting sound like a balloon deflating before flopping around dead at the end of Vinnie's lance.

Ahead is a long, long tunnel.

The fleshy deflated orb is pretty stinky, but that's no surprise given its home. Peering inside the wound, Flynnhorn sees it has a teeny-tiny brain.

As far as Flynnhorn's autopsy can determine - this monster seemed to be constructed from eyes and teeth, and the cause of death was Vinnie.

Renaer picks himself up from the crappy puddle and attempts to smooth himself down, but ends up smearing more than smoothing.

Ahead, a ladder leads up to a stone shaft capped by a circular metal cover, but one of the familiar Xanathar chalk symbols is marked on a tunnel wall farther along. The tunnel ahead seems to be made of smooth stone and carries more water than filth.

Will our intrepid reporters take the ladder and leave these horrid tunnels, or continue to follow the story behind the Xanathar symbols?

What will tomorrow's paper look like?

Creeping along, silent as sulking stones, our heroes follow the sewer tunnel. It expands into a circular hub with a pair of arrow slits carved into its outer walls, directly across from each other.

From behind the arrow slits comes the sound of high-pitched snoring. A quick peek shows a pair of pale goblins snoozing with crossbows on their laps. These goblins have the same attention to their lookout duties as Volo has towards proofreading.

The sewer continues far under Waterdeep to the north and south. A stone door is set into the back wall of a stone ledge to the west.