It's the night of Trolltide in Waterdeep, as children are out in the streets wearing troll masks, banging on doors and asking shopkeepers and home owners for treats to 'keep the trolls away'. However, for our group, there was a much different kind of excitement going on. Having just returned from their prior incident of the Xanathar shakedown, the team tried to settle into the Yawning Portal once more, and watched as a band of would-be heroes descended into the well to the cheers of patrons. However, it isn't long before another altercation breaks out, as Yagra, a half-orc mercenary and Yuan's friend, takes a shot from a bald human with eye tattoos on his head, backed up by four other humans. Yuan and Enigma managed to step in before the crowd closes in on the spectacle and join the fray, while Ray hangs back from a safe distance. As Yagra is pounced upon by the five men, Ray attempts to try and distract the thugs with an illusory sound of Durnan's voice telling them to back off, but they ignore it, discerning it for the illusion that it is. Yagra takes a few punches but manages to deck the leader pretty hard, enough to leave him open to Enigma's kick from behind to drop him to the floor, as Yuan manages to puff up and give a mighty roar, frightening the rest of the thugs into backing off for real this time. "We'll remember this!" they say as they drag the unconscious leader's form out of the tavern, and Durnan arrives back at the bar, sighing and shaking his head. Suddenly, another scene breaks out as shouts of alarm rise to point out the troll currently climbing its way out of the well! Threestrings finds himself in an unfortunate position, as Durnan shouts "Troll!" and the crowd immediately flees out of the building. Several stirges are seen latched onto the thing, but fly back down into the well as three more swirling around the troll lash out at the adventurers! Yuan and Enigma manage to avoid being struck, but Ray gets stung from one of the stirges, as Threestrings manages to avoid the brunt of the troll's offense and flees out of the tavern for his life. Enigma manages to dispatch two of the stirges while Yuan cleaves the other in twain... as well as the table, before jumping in to deal with the troll. Ray gets an assist from Obaya, a priestess of Waukeen visiting from Chult, and a warning to be careful as he rejoins the combat against the troll, but ultimately it's Durnan who with his greatsword Grimvault confronts the troll head on and demolishes it with amazing sword play. Yuan manages to smash another chair while fighting the troll, unfortunately, which seems to annoy Durnan but he makes no comment about it. Once the troll is defeated, he instructs Bonnie to douse the thing in lamp oil, as he sets a flint and steel alight to set the troll on fire, and kicks it down the well, before turning to the others, "You fought well... more or less." and returns to the bar without much else to say. After the whole debacle is finally dealt with, and the excitement dies down as people start returning to the tavern, a short, portly man peers from behind the bar counter, and introduces himself to the party. He says his name is Volothamp Geddarm, a 'celebrity' of sorts, and he has taken a shine to the adventuring spirit of the party, and offers them a job. Two nights ago, he and his friend Floon Blagmaar - a sort of handsome but dim fellow dressed in princely garb - were hanging out at the Skewered Dragon in the Dock Ward, drinking and gambling. Volo left him behind at the tavern that night but hasn't seen him since and he is a bit worried Floon might have gotten mixed up with some bad elements. He offers the party ten gold a piece now just for taking the quest and a hundred more a piece if they bring Floon back in one piece. The party is a little suspicious of Volo, who appears to be honest but may be stretching the truth slightly about how much he can pay. However, they ask around the tavern and others say that while he is sort of a swaggering braggart, he ultimately means well and cares for his friends, and can trust him to make good on his word as best he can. Yagra mentions to Yuan that the Dock Ward isn't safe at night, and it's probably not wise to head there now, but if he wants to make a difference and help fight against the Xanathar menace, he should talk to her employer, Davil Starsong, whom she works as a bodyguard for, to see what he can do to help. Yuan considers the offer before returning to the party and the group rests up to begin the search first thing in the morning. On the way out there, they find the scene of a murderous brawl that left six dead, that took place at Trollcrook Alley in the Dock Ward - the City Watch aren't terribly interested in entertaining outsiders about the situation and tell the party to move along, though the group can discern it looks like another result of the gang violence between the Xanathar Guild and the Zhentarim. Before long, though, one of the men being arrested tries to make a break for it, taking advantage of the momentary distraction by the party to try and escape. However, Yuan gets the jump on him and clothesline him as Enigma tackles him to the floor, and the City Watch are able to re-apprehend the man and drag him back. The party is approached by a City Watch captain named Hyustus Staget, who thanks them but warns them to keep those weapons holstered and avoid making a name for themselves amongst the Zhentarim scum. Let the Watch deal with this, and move along. He doesn't seem too pleased about the entire ordeal and returns to dealing with the crime scene, much to Yuan's chagrin. The party continues on and arrives near Fillet Street and spot a very peculiar shop called Old Xoblob's Shop, which is very... purple. All manner of things purple. It is very close to the Skewered Dragon, though, and curious about the shop the party decides to check it out. They are met by a very bizarre hairless gnome who introduces himself as Xoblob, "no relation to the eye tyrant" as he points at the beholder toy hanging in the window. The shop is filled with all manners of really strange and bizarre objects. Yuan becomes enamored with some kind of purplish, prismatic scale, and purchases it for a few gold while Ray finds a multicolored disc that he takes a shine to and purchases that as well. More importantly, though, Ray manages to discern some information about what happened the night of Floon's disappearance. Xoblob doesn't know him by name, but he says he saw someone matching Floon's description getting jumped by five men in black leather garb, one of them bearing a not-purple snake tattoo. The party concludes these must be Zhentarim agents. Continuing the search, they head to the Skewered Dragon and are met with vaguely hostile indifference. The party only gets some tidbits of information - that Volo and Floon came in some nights ago, Volo left, and then another lad named Renaer Neverember, who happens to be the son of the previous Open Lord, Dagult Neverember, came in and spoke with Floon a while before leaving. The party doesn't get much to go on though, but a dwarf named Solomil Silverfingers - so named for the glittering rings on his stubby fingers - says that he knows what happened and you can't believe anything anyone says in here, but to spice things up, he wants to either fight or gamble, the wager being his information versus their coin. Enigma takes the challenge to gamble with him, and Solomil breaks out a Sava box. Sava, he explains, is a drow (dark elf) version of chess, where the objective is to use your pieces to destroy the enemy's 'noble house'. Unfortunately, Enigma loses the first game, and his ten gold. Solomil however takes a shine to the drackal and says he wants a rematch, but this one is just for fun, and if Enigma is in, whether he wins or loses, he'll give the information for being a good sport. Enigma agrees, and manages to win the second time around, which Solomil approves (but doesn't give the money back). However, he does provide much more useful information - that five men in black leather were seen following Floon and Renaer out of the tavern shortly after the pair left! He assumes they were heading toward Candle Lane, as those men like to hang out at the warehouse there. "Look for the building with the snake on the door," he says. Looks like the party has a solid lead! With that, the party bids farewell to the drunk dwarf and head off up the street. By the time they pass by Trollcrook again, this time from the other side, the scene looks like it has been cleaned up but is still being cordoned off and outsiders are being shoo'd away - doesn't look like they'll get any information from the Watch this day... The party makes their way to Candle Lane, and must now decide how to approach the situation as they get closer to the warehouse. What will they find inside? What exactly became of Floon and Renaer? Are they even still alive? Is Volo really that trustworthy? Purple? Find out the answers to these pressing questions and more, next time... on Waterdeep: Dragon Heist!