Tales of Indell Keep

Although the party's actual time within the keep between excursions has been brief, you have all found that its residents have a tendency to gossip.

True to his reputation, Shine seems to have created an extensive system of disguises and personas, that seem to have kept his identity a secret to most of the inhabitants of the keep. Though the were never necessarily 'friendly,' being reunited with Krylsteln, as well as enjoying the affable Glaskanon with whom he shares a sense of humor, he has opened up to you. With what seems almost a sense of relief, he tells you all about the extensive guises and misdirections he has established to almost monopolize trade within the keep.



Most often, he goes by the name of Chang and takes on the disguise of the small boy. Meanwhile, his servant Hwang dresses as a stereotypical ninja spends most of the time sneaking around and surprising people--all to create the effect of the legendary ninja Shine.

Madame Wong is in fact a whore whom Shine has taken to and employed as the manager of his first front, the noodle house. Madame Wong is the contact for all prostitution in the keep.

There are two taverns in Indell Keep:
The first is the Spiked Club, frequented by mainly the human and half-orc converts to Gruun-worship. Hwang manages the shop in the guise of Thok, a smallish half-orc who is always dressed in a 3 piece suit and monocle and acts the perfect gentleman. This of course is Shine's own personal joke: The typically brutish types who frequent the Spiked Club take him for a pansy, but soon find themselves flat on their back as Shine's protege displays his martial artistry.

The second is 'The Wastes Waist,' run by a Rakshasa called Hakeem. The bar has nightly belly-dances, hookahs, and an opium den in the sub-level. Hakeem is amiable and gregarious, but also boldly and unapologetically devious, which oddly seems to have endeared him to the various types coming through the wastes. Because most of those coming through Hakeem's shop get duped in one way or the other, patrons often refer to him as 'Professor,'-- a reference to their 'getting schooled.'
Hakeem also manages the sale and trade of magic items and weapons.

You also hear rumors about the catacombs beneath Indell keep. It seems that when the waste lords first came to occupy Indell keep, they sealed up all but one entrance into the catacombs and used it as a dungeon. In those early days, even as now, folk of all different kinds came and went through Indell Keep. One such adventurer established himself as the self-appointed 'guard captain' of Indell: Rekard of Waterdeep.
Rekard took it upon himself to set up a military force to guard the keep, which, being busy established their new home base, the Waste Lords allowed. Rekard became a major player in the citadel with his own following, and, as far as the Waste Lords were concerned, kept peace--at least as much as was minimally necessarily to keep the place together.
But then residents of the keep began to be found murdered--flayed alive with internal organs removed. The Waste Lords initially did not make much of the killings, assuming it to be just part of being in the Wastes. However, after establishing the village of Bamma as a center for Gruun worship and the producer of Indell's food supplies, the same murders began happening amongst the villagers' children.
Around the same time, Shine arrived in the Keep and immediately recognized Rekard from Waterdeep: A notorious serial killer assumed responsible for the deaths and cannibalistic consumption of dozens of aristocrat's children.
When Stromm's own bastard daughter was found with her face cut away, Snaggzy beat Rekard to a bloody mess and threw him into the catacombs, wanting him to die a slow and agonizing death. Rekard died, but rumors say he didn't take to being dead.
Other rumors say that those who cross the Waste Lords are thrown into the catacombs, their fate left to Rekard the Morhg.