It was Ahghairon's Day, and it was time for Laeral Silverhand, Open Lord of Waterdeep, to make her appearance at the Song and Spirit. However, tagging along with her was an unexpected guest - Phames Goodhill, legendary hero of Barovia, and Yuan's friend from his time before Waterdeep! Phames quickly greeted the team and explained that he heard through his friend Victor Vallakovich that the Song and Spirit recently was subject to a fireball blast. Booking a fast trip via teleport from his wizard friend, he happened across Laeral Silverhand on the way and asked if she was heading to the Song and Spirit for the Ahghairon's Day. When she confirmed it was so, he asked her if he could tag along and she readily agreed. Phames also explained that Laeral was instrumental in helping Barovia become part of the Lord's Alliance a couple of years ago, and he had a lot of contact with her during that time, so they "go way back" according to him. After Laeral was done greeting the rest of the tavern, she approached the party and gave her greeting, attempting to give Enigma a bit of calm and told him to be at ease. It's not clear if it worked, though. She thanked them for all they have done for the city in their short time here, and for continuing to aid the prosperity and happiness of Waterdeep by running this tavern. Her time at the tavern would be short, so after seeing how everybody was doing, she asked them what their thoughts were of current events. The general response was "it's complicated", which she agreed. She asked the group to continue their work and aiding the city. Before leaving, she left them with one important advice: soon, they'll be faced with an important decision. When the time comes, she hopes they will do the right thing. When pressed for clarity by Sigurd, she simply said "you'll know it when it happens." And then, calling for Phames, departed. Phames waved to the team and said he'd catch up with Yuan at a later time but must attend to his 'duty' as Laeral's knight escort (although he confirmed that she could easily wipe the floor with anyone - perhaps Authority Equals Asskicking here in Waterdeep). Apparently, Laeral was challenged by Solomil Silverfingers, the braggadocious dwarf the party had met a few times since the start of their adventure, to a drinking contest. She took it in stride and accepted, and ordered a round of Blackout Stout, one of the heaviest brews around. Solomil, despite his drinking expertise, was no match for the Open Lord and was swiftly defeated. Laeral wasn't even fazed - apparently, her eminence was immune to the effects of alcohol! A few days later, Marcellus had roused spirits in the tavern by doing an inspiring performance, holding a lyrical battle contest and getting the tavern fired up!... maybe a bit too literally, as it seems he got a bit too excited and accidentally set some of the furniture on fire. Fortunately, it was a minor fire, but it would cost a few gold pieces to replace some of the lost furniture. The team caught back up after their period of downtime while Sigurd was researching the cipher and decoding it. First, Ray came back with a very nice and shiny Cloak of Protection, augmenting his defenses. It was also very fashionable. It was obtained through Nevercott's contacts and may have cost quite a bit to obtain, but will serve him well in the long run. He also visited Remallia Haventree and Mirt with his friend Renaer in a secret Harper meeting under the pretense of watching another rendition of the opera of The Curse of Strahd , starring the lovely Ireena Kolyana, and received a new quest. It looks like Vajra Safahr was requesting help since the last job went so well. One of her best men, Meloon Wardragon - the wielder of Azuredge, a weapon made back from Ahghairon's Day - was acting a bit oddly lately, and wanted Ray and his team to investigate to see what was troubling Meloon. Yuan went to an underground fighting arena to raise some extra funds, having apparently spent some coin buying potions at Skeemo's potion shop in the Trades Ward. He was fairly successful, raking in 100 gp after winning most of his matches at the Hall of Heroes, the temple of Tempus near the Field of Triumph. He also got a quest from his acting supervisor, Tashlyn Yafeera, in the Zhentarim, who stated she had a lead on Esloon Bezant at the Dock Ward and that's where he can start looking. Esloon is apparently being courted by the other Zhentarim faction, which is bad news for everybody, so she wants Yuan to, at the very least, scuttle the deal, if not defeat Esloon altogether, which is a tall order. Apparently, though, Yuan has been going around and meeting with the other Doom Raider Zhentarim and receiving some assistance and supplies, so it remains to be seen how this will play out... Enigma apparently visited Hlam, the master of the Order of the Even Handed, up on Mount Waterdeep. There, he met an associate of Hlam's named Dr. Rudolph van Richten, a famous vampire hunter who was present for Phames' victory over Strahd in Barovia. Enigma and Jalester engaged in a meditative practice along with the good doctor, lead by Hlam, who imparted some words of wisdom to Enigma, albeit somewhat cryptic. It was then he occurred that the advice he had gotten from Laeral matched with that of Hlam, so there must definitely be something big in the near future... on top of this, he received a request from Jalester that there's an active bounty of five hundred dragons for the safe return of Dasher Snobeedle, a member of the richest halfling family in town. The Snobeedles run the largest orchard around Waterdeep and ensuring their continued support of the city is in everybody's best interest, but because the City Watch has been spread thin with the crackdown on the Black Network and also containing the gang war, attending these kinds of cases hasn't been easy, so Jalester has tasked Enigma with handling it when he has the time. Lastly, Xalvador, the staff supervisor of the Song and Spirit, delivered his mid-tenday report. "Jorn", the new employee... sucks. They suck a lot. Apparently, they have been messing up and bumbling things up rather spectacularly and is getting testy and demanding with his coworkers. Xalvador is none too pleased about the state of things and is tempted to fire them, but he is unable to make the decision. Yuan, knowing the truth, advised it's best to keep Jorn for a little while longer without exactly explaining why, and Xalvador had no choice but to accept and try to handle Jorn's poor work. Sigurd presented his findings as well - he had deciphered the Nimblewrong coded message, and it read as follows: CASSALANTER MAUSOLEUM. Surprised, he mentioned that this is likely a location in the City of the Dead, the city's parkland cemetery. The team made immediate plans to head there at once and investigate the scene. Little did they know what awaited their arrival... Arriving at the generally quiet park, they checked around the place for prominent mausoleums and were able to locate the Cassalanter one further in the back. Sigurd cautioned that people aren't generally allowed to wander into the mausoleums uninvited and they are locked. With Enigma preparing some Pass Without Trace to allow the party to move about more unhindered, he prepared to try and pop the lock on the doors... only to find it had already been tampered with... Managing to find a moment to head inside unseen, the team slipped into the mausoleum. Unsurprisingly, it was a bit dusty and dark. Much more surprisingly, however, they found signs of a scuffle having taken place fairly recently, which was further highlighted by finding a dead body and a pile of bones on the ground. While that itself wasn't unusual, what was unusual is that the blood was still fairly fresh and this person had only been dead for maybe a day at the most. The bones looked like they may have been reanimated as well, indicated by the shortsword lying next to one of the skeletal hands on the ground (which Ray immediately foisted upon Enigma for some reason). What was even more unusual was the dead person, bearing a strange mask and robes. Sigurd inspected further and found that the colors and symbols on the robes indicated they were a member of the Cult of Asmodeus, an archdevil of indulgence. What the heck was one of these guys doing here? Investigating the area further, they would find more bodies and more disposed animated skeletons lying about, as it looks like some kind of battle took place here. However, they would soon make a grim discovery as in another room, they found no skeletons, but a still-living person inside, searching what appeared to be a body. The body of Lorelei, their tavern worker!!! They weren't given much time to think about this, though, as the figure stood up, revealing themselves to be another cultist, who immediately turned on the party. Yuan and Sigurd wasted no time in rushing the cult fanatic and annihilating him with two fast strikes of their powerful weapons, with Sigurd sending the cult fanatic head over heels across the room with a maul to the face, but this ended up forcing out a much nastier surprise in the form of an intellect devourer jumping out of his head, which tried to set itself upon Yuan but the burly wolf was fortunately able to resist its attempt. The team quickly squashed it into the ground, with Sigurd pancaking it with his maul. They were left to wonder what in the blazes really went on in here. When Ray inspected the corpse of Lorelei, he found that her head felt a little light - as if maybe something that was inside no longer was... It appears Lorelei had been the subject of an intellect devourer as well, but had died of external injuries. Sigurd explained that in this case, the intellect devourer would have been forced to leave the host and attack another, which is probably how the cult fanatic had become the new host. That meant that Lorelei may have had this parasite for a while........ Enigma, searching the body of the dead cultist, found a key in his hand. It didn't look like a large one, but more like a house or apartment key. He noticed it bore a set of initials on it: S.O.o.A.L.F, and a much smaller signature that read E.U.. Sigurd, being a local, deduced that the first set is the initials of the Splendid Order of Armorers, Locksmiths, and Finesmiths, a guild in Waterdeep, and the second set would be the initials of the crafter. The team decided that it would be best to ask another member of that order, and the fine folks at the Steam and Steel - particularly Avi, who was an armorsmith - would definitely know best. Sigurd had brought along his Bag of Holding this time, and at the team's request, stuffed Lorelei's corpse into the bag. The duty of informing next of kin was going to be a somber one indeed... Exploring on, the team found a rather interesting feature of the mausoleum - a very large pile of skulls. Sigurd wondered what exactly was going on in the house of Cassalanter - was their tomb being misused by a cult? Yuan decided to go skulldigging and managed to find a skull with some golden teeth still attached, taking these for himself. Well, at least they might be worth something... As they tried to locate the stone elsewhere in the crypt, the team heard footsteps approaching. One set of very large ones and smaller sets of others searching the place. When Yuan went to investigate, he unfortunately stepped on a skull with a loud POP!, alerting the intruders. It was none other than Raisha - who had been recently outed as a Xanathar enforcer! She demanded the stone from the team, who didn't have it. When they didn't cough it up, she stated if they wouldn't give it to her, she'd just take it from them instead, and a battle began to rage! Sigurd, sensing the danger they were in, leapt into action, giving the exposed Yuan a spell of Heroism to help him defend against the attackers, and sending Io out in front of him to defend his friend. Unfortunately for the steel defender, it would soon be sent flying into the room as it was clobbered by strikes from the Xanathar thugs and Raisha's horns, clattering into pieces. Poor Io... but thanks to its efforts, Yuan was unharmed from the initial assault, and was given time to enter his barbarian rage and fight back properly. It was a fierce battle, with the team holding the chokepoint against Raisha's onslaught and Yuan standing bravely between her and his team, soaking up a lot of hits, including a greataxe swing that likely would have destroyed anybody else standing downwind of it. Sigurd tried to use his pistol on Raisha, but just couldn't get the shots to line up, and Enigma got caught out by an unlucky strike when he tried to assist, while Ray was keeping Yuan on his feet with shots of curing magic. The team was able to eventually wear Raisha down, who decided it was time to retreat. Ray, taking a chance, rushed after her, and threw a Sleep spell her way just in time, sending her weakened state crashing to the floor. Unfortunately, this exposed him to the other thugs, who decided to gang up on him and send him into the ground under a bevy of mace strikes while his team looked on. Sigurd managed to catch up and heal him back to his feet, though, as the thugs turned on Enigma next and sent him to the ground, who Ray then subsequently healed, and the team brawled right there in the mausoleum with the thugs. A third party joined the scene, though, in the form of a grizzled-looking knight, who demanded an explanation as he approached with his greatsword and joined the fray, with Enigma stating they were in the middle of an investigation when he was attacked by these brigands. The knight seemed convinced for now and joined the fight against the Xanathar's guild thugs, but quickly sought answers after the conflict was over, stating himself to be Sir Ambrose Everdawn, a knight of Kelemvor, the god of the dead. The team quickly explained their situation to him, and thanks to Enigma's status as a member of the Lords' Alliance and Ray's silver tongue, were able to convince him that they weren't intending mischief. Still displeased, Sir Everdawn turned and noticed that Raisha was stirring from her slumber, and quickly whacked her with the flat of his blade to send her back to the ground in a more permanent state. He then turned and stated that while he will spare the team any trouble as they are on official Lords' Alliance business, he demanded the team vacate the premises immediately while he investigates and forced them out of the mausoleum, closing the doors behind them. With the team licking their wounds, they now had a new lead and many more questions. What really went on in Cassalanter Mausoleum? How did Lorelei run afoul of an intellect devourer? And what's with the presence of the devil-worshipping Cult of Asmodeus? Find out next time... on Waterdeep: Dragon Heist!