The plan is in motion. Valetta pays a visit to the tavern on Eleasis 15, and reminds the characters what the deal is... They will be disguising as a group of mechanics serving from the Temple of Gond, under Valetta's guidance. Valetta already has a working relationship with the Sea Maiden's Faire, and since they just arrived back in port, it's a perfect time to do a check up. Most of the group doesn't know anything about technology, but Valetta is sure that they'll be able to manage. Sigurd does pose the question that Valetta is putting a lot at risk with this operation - if the Sea Maiden's Faire finds out about her treachery, it will put the church at risk. Valetta reassures Sigurd by stating that if the Vault of Dragons is on the line, she's willing to risk that for the sake of the city, which Ray finds very noble. In the meantime, she assigns the team their own Gond acolyte outfits, sets of tools, and identification. Ray becomes Osha the dragonborn, Enigma becomes Erikur the tabaxi, Yuan becomes Dulaan the bugbear, and Sigurd becomes Samson the human (thanks to a Disguise Self spell). She advises the team that they must play the role of mechanics sufficiently, which means not bringing anything out of place. If they absolutely must bring something, Sigurd offers his Bag of Holding, but it appears the team is confident in their abilities to operate without all of their equipment, so they proceed on their way. Halfway to the Dock Ward, though, something appears to be amiss... they notice that someone seems to be following them, and rather poorly trying to be nonchalant about it. They find it's none other than Solomil Silverfingers, the braggadocious dwarf who had helped the party way back when at the Skewered Dragon when they were looking for Floon Blagmaar. When they confront him, he tries to play it off, but Yuan immediately calls him on his bullshit and lifts him up to shake the information out of him. Ray discerns that Solomil has been hanging around the tavern a lot lately and must have seen them leave, which means he likely will be able to compromise their disguises. Eventually, they manage to put the squeeze on him and he informs them that he is a paid informant for the Bregan D'aerthe - which would explain his knowledge of underdark board games like Sava. In fact, he's apparently been at this for a few months, and has been paid by Jarlaxle to spy on the party. Sigurd declares that Solomil knows too much and can't be let off the hook easily, as he will likely rat them out to their enemies if he's let go. Solomil tries to secure his freedom - and silence - with a bribe, but the team isn't having it. The team decides to play an obscure angle, that as they are technically working under the Lord's Alliance (as Laeral has tasked them with helping her uncover the Vault), Solomil's interference could be construed as espionage. At the very least, he's harassing the party, and Valetta calls over a City Watchman while Enigma provides his credentials to secure Solomil a one-way trip to a holding cell at the closest Watch post, dragged kicking and screaming like a baby. Undaunted, the party continues onward. Valetta informs the team that she knows the captains of the three ships well, and the one they'll be dealing with the most is Fergus Crabwater, a man who loves his drink. He's the captain of the Hellraiser, where they keep all the parade floats and props. The other two ships are the Heartbreaker and the Eyecatcher. The Heartbreaker carries the carnies and animals used in the shows. It's run by Klarr Besham, a humorless taskmaster. Valetta isn't fond of him, but they likely won't be visiting that ship. He has a tarantula that sits on his shoulder no matter where he goes. Lastly, the Eyecatcher is controlled by Tarwind Arryhook, a man who loves games of chance and can't resist a good wager. Valetta doesn't know what is held on the Eyecatcher as she's not been in the hold of that ship - she only goes to visit the fleet captain, Zardoz Zord, in the dining hall for business. In any case, the team makes it aboard without too much fuss. One of the first mates stops them and asks for their business but recognizes Valetta, and retrieves Captain Fergus for her. While waiting, the team makes a few observations... Enigma notices the ships all have the same elven maiden figurehead, though unpainted, she is beautiful, with flowing hair and hands outstretched. However, he happens to get a look at the figurehead from the Heartbreaker, though, and notices something peculiar - the figurehead has a tiny inscription of a spider on her forehead. Ray wonders if maybe that is because of the captain there, who always has a tarantula on his shoulder. Ray notices that the sailors try to communicate in sign language when they think nobody is looking. While he can't interpret what they're saying to each other, they're definitely saying something ... Yuan notices a lot of the same things from the last time he was here - the sailors speak in Elvish accents while they are all human. Of course, he knows now the real reason for this is because they are likely all drow spies for the Bregan D'aerthe... When the captain arrives, Valetta introduces the team as her assistants from the Temple of Gond and their various talents - Dulaan's strong arms, Erikur's precise hand for fine tuning, and Osha's talent for aesthetic appeal, while Samson is her lieutenant and helps her run the team. Fergus is pleased to meet them, but informs Valetta that the Faire needs her help with something before she can inspect the current floats. Fergus informs her that there is a collection of broken down props and floats on the Eyecatcher that need some proper maintenance from the Gondar, and he was hoping Valetta would take a look to see if anything could be salvaged. Valetta of course agrees - as the representative of the House of Inspired Hands, she is obligated to assist. Fergus assembles a dinghy for her and her team and sends them toward the Eyecatcher. Tarwind, the captain, receives them and welcomes them aboard, and informs them that they're needed in the hold, taking the stairs. He shows them the various broken down contraptions and floats and informs them to do what they can to try and get them back into working order. He's not expecting a miracle, but anything that could be fixed would be appreciated. He reveals that Captain 'Zardoz Zord' is not available, as he is off in an important meeting with someone from the city, but mentions that Zardoz would be delighted to meet Valetta again over dinner sometime in the future, which for some reason 'Samson' is very much against the idea of... Valetta excuses herself and the team gets to work. Firstly, they're able to fix an inflatable flumph balloon easily, with Valetta using a Mending cantrip to fix a tear. Easy enough, but the rest won't be quite so simple. Sigurd investigates an unfinished float with a gold dragon on it, but manages to notice a fatal flaw - there is a lever connected to a gas pipe that makes the dragon breathe fire, but with the current wiring, the thing would instead blow up in his face and likely cause a fire. He manages to fix it up properly and re-do the wiring. He does not test the thing, fortunately... (or unfortunately) Ray notices there are a collection of colorfully painted giant spiders in the back. They appear to be float decorations. However, Valetta points out that they appear to be... breathing. Constructs do not breathe. Those are real spiders! Ray feels a shiver, and Valetta advises extreme caution. If the team tries to do anything out of the ordinary, the spiders will likely attack. Enigma, for his part, decides to try and look for secrets in the area. While he doesn't detect one in the immediate vicinity, his Wand of Secrets does locate a hidden door or trap in the hold below where they are. It is surmised this might be where the submarine vessel connected to the Eyecatcher is located. However the team decides to hold off on venturing further into the ship - they came here to do a job and need to avoid compromising the mission. Might be worth looking into later, though... Yuan manages to find a tiny little songbird and puts a couple of screws back into place. When he turns it on to see if it works, it plays a nice little tune. Valetta is pleased, though she wonders what it is doing here as it doesn't appear to be a parade prop. Maybe someone threw it down here from Lantan? They manage to fix up a few other contraptions... mostly. Ray and Yuan don't find much luck. Ray almost has a great idea, and thinks to take a broken down horse construct and try and make it into a unicorn. It almost works... until his slipshod grasp of technology comes to the fore and the thing comes to pieces. Enigma wins the grand prize, though, by fixing up a minotaur construct that walks and swings an axe, breathing steam out of its nose, using his fine hand at thieves' tools to manage to rewire and screw some things back into place. Satisfied, the team loads the fixed props back onto the cargo elevator and sends it up for evaluation. Tarwind is pleased - he knew not everything was salvageable, but the parades will definitely have some extra stuff to work with and he's thankful for Valetta's help, before sending the team back to the Hellraiser for their original task. Now that's done, Fergus escorts them to the hold of the Hellraiser to have them do their inspection and leaves them to it, leaving his trust in Valetta to handle things. Of course, the team came here for another reason entirely and get to work. Unfortunately, the only way to discretely dispose of the unicorn off the ship is to use the privies located in the head of the ship, where people go to do their... business. Sigurd figures that he can make a larger hole that they can drop the thing through, and Ray decides to provide him some... sound cover, by using Minor Illusion to replicate someone having a REALLY bad time in the bathroom. Meanwhile, Valetta, Yuan and Enigma try to figure out how to get the unicorn off the float. As Valetta described it previously, it's a float with an elven ranger swinging two scimitars atop a unicorn that farts confetti when a lever is pulled. She inspects the work and realizes the design has changed - the unicorn was welded onto the float rather than being screwed on, likely to make it more secure and prevent tampering. Yuan decides a direct approach is best and attempts to rip the thing off by hand, but it goes poorly as he loses his grip and brings the whole thing crashing down, making a TON of noise... This attracts the attention of one of the mates, who questions what's going on. However, as Valetta is trying to explain it was an accident, the mate notices that something is off, and Yuan's tail has come out of its disguise, revealing him for who he really is. Before the mate can shout a warning, Enigma quickly shuts him down with a Silence spell through his Way of Shadow, and the team manages to jump him before he is able to get a warning off. Thanks to Enigma stunning the mate, they are able to buy enough time to finish him before he can run off to warn others on the ship (though no help thanks to Valetta for her terrible rolling...) Ray leaves Sigurd to continue carving a hole in the privy for the unicorn and help deal with the mate, and the team manages to stop him in time before he can escape. They must now work quickly before they are figured out as more sailors will likely investigate the disturbance... Will the team be able to escape with the unicorn while avoiding further conflict? Find out next time... on Waterdeep: Dragon Heist!