It looks like the team had no choice - they were about to run headlong into a confrontation with Urstul Floxin, the notorious Zhentarim assassin. As Yuan and Enigma prepared to engage, Ray dropped his Fog Cloud to make it easier for his team to attack and threw down a Faerie Fire to try and light up the assassin. Unfortunately, he only managed to catch his flying snakes and the unfortunate remaining Gralhund guard, who was promptly shanked by Urstul during his desperate bid to escape. Urstul also managed to avoid a strike from Yuan on the way out, and made his way to the door, but not before he was confronted by Sigurd! Sigurd made use of his metallic dragon heritage and used his weakening breath on Urstul, but the assassin managed to power through it, followed by narrowly dodging a strike from Io. Flying snakes tried to nibble at the party, and one of them caught Enigma in the neck and delivered a nearly-lethal dose of poison to him while another also caught Yuan off guard, though Sigurd was able to avoid the strike thanks to Io deflecting it away. Enigma tried his own hand with his own breath, powered by the Flight of Karnage to engage with the Zhentarim foe, but Urstul was just too quick and managed to avoid the blast entirely, though he did manage to catch Urstul with one of his Flurry strikes. Meanwhile, Yuan was able to dispatch two flying snakes easily through the power of his pecs and his greataxe, allowing the team to more freely engage Urstul, as Ray healed the exhausted Enigma to keep him in the fight. It was at this point that Sigurd managed to turn the fight around with a solid hit from his maul, followed up by a devastating face-rending from Io, scarring the other side of Urstul's face. This spun the assassin around enough to put him face to face with Yuan, and realizing that defeat was imminent, he offered this final threat: "You're Davil's lap dog, aren't you? Even if you kill me, you're not leaving this city alive!" Yuan responded to that threat by clobbering Urstul over the head, sending him crashing to the ground. He was intending to capture him for Davil - payback for all the trouble Urstul has caused his boss and the organization as a whole. With Enigma finishing off the last flying snake, the fight was over, and the team was free to check things out. As Ray and Sigurd investigated Urstul, Enigma scoured the area for more clues while Yuan kept an eye out for trouble, realizing he heard footsteps in the floor above, meaning Yalah and Hrabbaz were still milling about. Still no sign of Lord Gralhund, though... Ray was able to find that Urstul had very few possessions on him, aside from the shortsword and his studded leather armor, suggesting that his somehow lost some of his tools. Sigurd further figured out that some of the injuries Urstul had suggested that his hands were bound at one point, meaning that he was actually held captive! What a peculiar predicament. The team decided that if they were going to get any answers, they were going to have to investigate the villa, as the Stone of Golorr might still be here. Ray turned on the Nimblewright Detector, but only received silence in response - meaning the Nimblewrong was no longer on the premises. Had it escaped during the chaos? Deciding to split the work, Ray and Yuan decided to investigate upstairs (with Io tagging along for protection), while Enigma and Sigurd opted to search the first floor and courtyard. Enigma and Sigurd were able to find another murdered servant, this time a maid, lying on a staircase in a laundry room, with Sigurd finding a set of keys on her belt, thinking this might be useful for unlocking the doors in the house. They went upstairs, and checked the area out, finding the place to be some kind of servant's quarters. However, they were surprised to find the larger room there was packed with terrified servants - cooks, maids and valets. Fortunately, Enigma was able to calm them by showing his allegiance with the Lord's Alliance, and assured them that the Watch was on the way, but that they should remain here where it is safe as the danger was not passed yet. Indeed, it was hard to say what else remained on the villa grounds from here... Meanwhile, Ray and Yuan investigated the second floor - taking care to avoid the room where Yalah and Hrabbaz were holing up in. Yuan was able to make out the sound of someone crying in a room nearby, and Ray wanted to go investigate this, thinking they might be in trouble. Checking out the nearby room, they were greeted with a fancy bathroom, which included a claw-footed tub, but the next room was blocked - it didn't seem to be locked, but the door wouldn't budge and showed signs of someone putting a boot to it recently. Without really thinking, Yuan did the same and smashed the door open, sending a dresser, table and chair flying across the room. On the other side was Lord Orond Gralhund, wearing a breastplate armor and wielding a rapier. While he pointed the rapier defiantly at the intruders for a moment, he quickly lost his nerve, threw his weapon into the air and flailed his arms as he ran into the corner, pleading for mercy hysterically. Ray noticed that there was some kind of magical rune circle on the floor in the room. Now where had he heard about such a thing before...? When Ray tried to calmly get him to explain himself, Orond was not very cooperative - in fact, he seemed terrified of the situation. Ray realized that it might not be so easy to lay the smooth talking on him this time around, but Yuan was able to assert dominance and get Orond to fess up about everything that had been going on. With the huge wolfman looming over him, Orond quickly spilled the beans on everything that had transpired lately.. First, he confessed about the Stone of Golorr, that it had been taken by the nimblewrong and what the stone's purpose was - it was some kind of ancient creature, transformed into an artifact, and it knows the location of a hidden vault in Waterdeep containing half a million dragons. Of course, this was information the team already knew, but Orond continued... He mentioned that House Gralhund had been bankrolling Black Network operations in Waterdeep, which included a plot to kidnap Renaer Neverember and the plot to steal the Stone of Golorr from his father's gnome spy, Dalakhar. However, he said that Yalah, his wife, was frustrated with the Zhentarim and their inability to secure the stone. She gave a necklace of fireballs to her mechanical servant, and sent it out to help retrieve the stone. But it appears the servant was careless and caught the Zhentarim in the fireball by mistake. Asked why things went down in the villa the way they did, Orond confessed that Yalah decided she didn't like Urstul anymore, and held him captive in the parlor downstairs. taking the stone from him and handing it off to her Nimblewrong servant. However, Urstul was able to rally despite his injuries and killed his captors, and managed to get the other Zhentarim in the household to join the fight, which is what instigated the conflict in the first place. Urstul had managed to corner Orond in this room (which Ray questioned the intelligence of, only for Orond to snark back that he wasn't given a lot of options, given he was about to be attacked by a lunatic wielding a pig-sticker), but Orond blocked the door and Urstul was trying to break in. Orond thinks Urstul may have been trying to use Orond to force Yalah to give up the stone - a likely situation since taking on Yalah head on with her bodyguard Hrabbaz would have been a tall order for the injured assassin. When asked how she came into contact with the Nimblewrong, Orond wasn't entirely sure but thinks she picked it up on a trip in town about two tendays ago and had been using it as a servant before giving it a promotion as a spy. So it appears that the Nimblewrong wasn't in Nim's care very long after it was created and was picked up by Yalah at some point, pressed into her service instead... Satisfied with this information, Ray assured Orond that he would come to no harm, but that the two would have a mutual understanding and never saw each other, which Orond readily agreed to after Yuan gave him one final snarl before leaving the room. Elsewhere, Enigma and Sigurd had managed to get back outside, but ran afoul of the Shadows that were creeping around the place. No longer benefitting from Enigma's Pass Without Trace, they had to flee into the coachhouse to avoid being spotted. Fortunately, it seems the horses were undisturbed by the fighting in the main building, and were sleeping in the coachhouse. One horse in particular stood out to the duo, a jet-black horse with shiny horseshoes. Sigurd scanned the area with his Detect Magic spell, and found the horseshoes were magical, but found nothing else in the room. Meanwhile, Enigma was carefully able to snoop into the saddlebags worn by the sleeping beast, and found that inside the two saddlebags, were eight five-pound gold trade bars!! While Enigma questioned the intelligence of keeping such valuables here, Sigurd posited that Yalah was probably intending to use the horse for some purpose but then the fighting in the villa happened. The both of them agreed that sticking it to Yalah was a priority and swiped the trade bars, confident they wouldn't be caught in the act... The only other thing they found was a room full of hay and yard tools. Enigma opted not to search the rest of the coachhouse, having had his fill of fun for the day, so he and Sigurd headed back out, only to find that the shadows were waiting for them... It was at this time that Yuan, Ray and Io had also made their way back to the kitchen, only to find the shadows waiting outside the coach house. Sensing something was up, Ray attempted a distraction using his Minor Illusion, but the plan failed when, while Ray was luring them with a T-posing Yuan into the room, one of the shadows happened to look the other way and spotted the team instead, causing a fight to break out. Fortunately, Yuan's pec beams kicked back in again as he took the fight to the enemy - only to realize that his physical weapons were not quite as useful, and opted to slam the door on the shadow's face. Unfortunately, this wouldn't hold back the foe for long, as it tried to slide under the door using its amorphous form, but Ray was quick on the draw and used a Dissonant Whispers to cause it to withdraw back under the door and waste its effort. Meanwhile, Sigurd tried to catch the shadows in a Faerie Fire of his own, knowing that Shadows were best kept in the light, but his plan was mostly foiled having only caught one of the shadows in the attack. Enigma prepared to engage, using his Breath of Karnage to catch two of them, but realized he was being quickly outmatched when the two other shadows attacked him, draining him of his strength and vitality. Fortunately, Ray and Yuan were able to save the day and strike down two of the shadows while Enigma and Sigurd managed to finish off the third. Deciding they had had enough of this place, and having gotten the information they needed - while realizing the Stone of Golorr was not within their grasp now - they decided to get the heck out of here and escape while they still had the chance. It was unlikely the violence that happened at the Villa would be unnoticed for long, and the Watch response would be swift and precise. Climbing back over the wall and aided by Ray's silence spell to prevent any noise, the team managed to get off the villa grounds... but Enigma and Yuan noticed the shine of a spectacled spy lurking in the nearby alley, who then quickly turned and dashed off. Deciding they were in no condition to chase the individual, the team opted to retreat back to the Song and Spirit in relative safety and figure out what to do now while they recovered. When Sigurd and Enigma revealed they had lifted the trade bars, Ray was taken aback a bit, and realized that getting rid of them might be difficult, but Enigma pointed out that with the right connections, it would be easy - and Yuan realized he had the perfect friend, a Master of Wealth and Coin, to do the deed... However, it occurred to the team later that they felt like they had forgotten something, as Urstul Floxin lay unconscious on the floor of the Gralhund Villa and the servants eagerly awaited their saviors... What will Urstul's fate be? Will the servants spill the beans on who they really saw that night? What will Orond do and say, after what has transpired, especially given Yalah's temperament?! Where has the Nimblewrong gone with the Stone of Golorr? And how will everyone respond to the Gralhund Villa Bloodbath? Find out next time... on Waterdeep: Dragon Heist!!