It was time to undo a traitor. Yuan and the team got together with Davil, who explained two ways the team could infiltrate Skeemo Weirdbottle's shop: 1. They could have Davil call Skeemo away for some Zhentarim business. This would only buy them a short amount of time (Davil estimated exactly an hour, as Skeemo kept a strict time table of his activities), but it was the best way to access the shop without Skeemo being around and collect the evidence, perhaps setting a trap as well. Davil had only just recently resumed control of the Zhentarim, so he had a perfectly natural reason for wanting to call Skeemo away. 2. Infiltrate the building at night. It was the best way to avoid drawing attention, but the team might have to contend with the wizard if they mis-stepped while he was at the shop, and it would likely turn messy. The team opted for the first option, and had Davil call him away at a pre-determined time. Waiting at Irimar's Walk near his shop, the team saw him departing the building at the appointed time, locking the store up behind him as he hailed down a carriage. With this, the team snuck into the alley to begin their work. Sigurd pointed out, though, that the front door was trapped - he detected a source of abjuration with his Wand of Magic Detection, which he had found during Zelifarn's treasure hunt. The team elected to access the building through the second floor, with Yuan boosting Enigma up there while he protected the team with his Pass Without Trace ability, essentially making them undetectable in the shadows of the alley from onlookers... as long as they didn't do anything too obnoxious. He thought ahead, though, and used his Wand of Secrets, acquired from the Blackstaff Vajra Safahr for helping deal with Meloon Wardragon's intellect devourer problem, to try and detect any other traps. Incidentally, it pointed to a nearby trap on the same level as he, but away from the room he was looking into, meaning it had detected a trap elsewhere in the vicinity. The room in front of him looked like a living room of sorts, set with an alchemy table, a bookcase, a dining table, and other furniture. Enigma was able to pick open the door with a bit of inspiration from Ray and slip inside, tying a rope to the furniture nearby and allowing the rest of the team access. It was here the team began their search! In this room... Ray found a large pile of alchemical supplies, worth maybe about 50 gp total. He did find some choice ingredients he recognized from Fala's shop that he would turn over later to them, and while the ingredients could fetch some coin altogether, hauling the entire 200 lb package was impactical. However, it did indicate something to Yuan, that Skeemo (who had told Davil he was struggling with supplies) was lying about his issues with suppliers. The scoundrel! Yuan found a very nice looking golden tea set, worth about 50 gp. Not really what he was hoping to find, as he was looking for evidence of Skeemo's betrayal, but it was a nice find regardless. Enigma checked out the nearby door, waiting to see if he had heard anything, and began investigating the adjacent hallway. He would find he heard someone doing laundry in the room across the hall - Yuan would later warn the team that Worthless, who was Skeemo's imp familiar, likely was still in the building. However, Sigurd managed to find the grand prize right out of the gate. Not only did he uncover two scrolls, one for the Fly spell (perhaps for a quick getaway) and another for an Arcane Lock (maybe to lock whatever place he holed up in to hide), he found a book titled "An Inexhaustive Guide to the Infinite Layers of the Abyss". However, on the first page, an incredibly damning inscription was found: "For my esteemed colleague, in the hopes of a fruitful relationship - Manshoon, Founder and Rightful Leader of the Black Network" Yuan was rightly upset by this find... and it would only be the beginning of the long, dark rabbit hole that was the treachery of Skeemo Weirdbottle. The nearby alchemy table had nothing of interest, so the team moved into the hallway. Enigma checked again for traps, and once again detected a trap right next to him. The door leading into a side room was warded in some way, it seems. Getting an idea, though, Ray figured it must be magically trapped - Skeemo being the wizard he was - and he tuned in his bardic magic in a new way, attempting to unravel the power on the door. It was a contested effort, but his will broke through, as he felt the magic behind the door unraveling at his hand. The ward had been removed... whatever it was. With Enigma picking open the door, again thanks to an aid from Ray, the way was clear, and they found themselves into Skeemo's bedroom. Here, they would find a few things... Yuan and Ray checked the bed, and the two of them found a huge haul of loot. Eight silver trade bars and four gold trade bars, five pounds each, totaling a hefty 1,400 gold! Not only was Skeemo lying about his supplies, he was raking in money hand over fist! Enigma only found a few coins in random pockets and a gnome-sized noble's garb, which he decided was not worth taking. Sigurd, though, tasked with finding the most incriminating evidence with his Investigation skills, would find many contracts and records. However, there were two that stood out above all others. The first was a hastily written note. "Stuff's about to get hectic. Go to the Watch. Point them toward Davil. Get the heat off us. Double your usual fee. U.F. " U.F... Urstul Floxin, the dastardly Zhentiwrong spy, was in communication with Skeemo! Not only that, but Skeemo was the one who blew Davil in and got him arrested in the first place!! This must have been written the day of the Fireball incident, Sigurd mused. Yuan was definitely not happy. He would be even more unhappy when Sigurd revealed the second finding, some kind of complicated alchemy recipe for a Potion of Monstrous Strength... whatever that was. But Yuan's blood was one of the ingredients! And it had a label that said "Sent for Approval". Had this recipe been sent to Manshoon? No doubt... Surely if one looked through these records, they could find even more damning evidence, but Sigurd was satisfied with this and collected the reports for now. With this room clear, the team mulled over what to do. Sigurd revealed he had a Snare spell prepared, in case they wanted to set a trap for Skeemo, and they did, but that would wait until the first floor of the shop could be checked out. The first floor of the shop was where the supplies, stock and a small laboratory were kept, as well as Skeemo's ledger. Yuan checked out the laboratory and realized Skeemo had been working on something here, a poison called essence of ether, which could knock foes out if they inhaled the gas. It was nearly finished, and Yuan tried to ply his natural knowledge to the task... only for it to blow up in his face. While he resisted the poison itself, it was clear that the shattered vial left a trail of tampering. Whoops... Ray poked around the shop shelves and couldn't find anything of use for evidence, but swiped a potion that he liked the look of for the heck of it. He would later find this was a Potion of Animal Friendship! Maybe not the most useful of items, but a nice find regardless. Enigma would sadly only find water filtration equipment and some random alchemy ingredients - not much to go on there. Sigurd opted to look through the ledger and found all sorts of things. For one, Skeemo had been grossly lying about his income to Davil - sales were actually up this quarter, not down. More importantly, among the records were many sales of 'headache remedies' to one U.F., and worse still was their price. A comparison showed that headache remedies were only 2 silver pieces while these sales were in totals of fifty dragons - or more! Skeemo was selling his best supplies to the enemy, and covering it up in his ledger. Could this get any worse? (Spoilers: it does) The team had enough, and realized they were short on time, so they opted to set a trap, with them opting to use Yuan's accidental mishap to the team's advantage. Skeemo would naturally go to check it out, so Sigurd employed his Snare spell to be right at a point where Skeemo would have to pass through to get to it. As Skeemo's shop was cramped enough as it was, this was an easy task. They managed to sneak past the creaky floorboards of the hallway, avoiding alerting Worthless in the other room, and lied in wait. Sure enough, Skeemo would return, and immediately exclaim his disdain at the messed up lab. Likely about to pin the blame on Worthless, he moved toward it in anger, only to get caught up in Sigurd's trap and receive the worst and last beating of his life. Enigma wasted no time crushing him and beating him like a pinata to soften him up, when Yuan stepped in shortly thereafter, and stated that Yuan had his family all taken away from him, and knew what that was like to lose all of that. Skeemo had a 'family' of sorts, a team he could rely on, and had betrayed the Zhentarim creed. For that crime, he must pay the price - with his life. Yuan gave the gnome no quarter as he was strung up like a sack of meat. He only managed to find his bearings enough to defend against Sigurd with a Shield spell, but even that would not save him from Io and Ray striking at him and Enigma finishing the job with one final fatal strike across the cranium. Skeemo Weirdbottle could only offer threats of retribution and reprisal from his dark masters, but was soon struck down anyway. The bottle had been broken, at last, and Skeemo Weirdbottle was dead. The team's ambush had succeeded. Over their heads, they heard a devilish exclamation of joy as it seemed Worthless had been freed from service, and with a poof, he was gone. As Sigurd shoved Skeemo into his Bag of Holding and Ray cleaned up any mess with Prestidigitation, they moved on. Now having the place to themselves, they checked out what was in that room, and indeed, it was simply a washroom. Out of morbid curiosity, Sigurd checked the dirty clothes and found a receipt of reimbursement from the City Watch for a measly two silver pieces for travel expenses, dated the day of the fireball incident, Midsummer. Truly, Skeemo's petty arrogance knew no bounds. As Sigurd piled in Skeemo's alchemical ingredients from his lab into the bag, unceremoniously dumping it on the dead diminutive alchemist's head, the team basked in their victory for a moment and realized how far down Skeemo's treachery went before absconding from the place. Yuan thought briefly of torching the place, but he knew Davil had a keen mind and might find some other use of it. It would be a shame to lose all of this work! In any case, the team met up with Davil and relayed the news. Expecting this, Davil had his own bag of holding prepared and had Skeemo dumped in it. He also relieved him of his spellbook, since they were hard to find and expensive and surely someone would fetch a good price for it, as Davil wanted some recompense for Skeemo's actions, but he allowed the team to keep the rest of the loot they found as he was personally strapped for cash at the moment. He reminisced briefly about his adventuring days, saying that Skeemo had seemingly changed somewhat after their adventures. He was always very shrewd and calculating, and he thinks Manshoon must have gotten his hooks in him somehow, gaining his servitude in exchange for some promise of power. As Manshoon was one of the greatest wizards of his time, this likely appealed very much to the arrogant Skeemo. Such a shame, really. But the job had been done. As for the shop, he was pleased they had left it in tact - Davil had a way of spinning his words and skilled with forgery, as Yuan learned. He might find... some way to transfer ownership of the shop somehow that would benefit the Doom Raiders. He also took the other evidence, as it would be needed to tell the other Doom Raiders about Skeemo's betrayal and back it up with proof. With this, Davil congratulated the team, and specifically thanked Yuan for his hard work. With Skeemo out of the picture, this opened the way for a position in Davil's closest associates and he would need someone like Yuan who was willing to get his hands dirty at no matter the cost. This job promoted him to the title of Viper in the Zhentarim, a prestigious rank for devoted Zhentarim agents. With that, Davil left the team to enjoy their victory and go about their day. Skeemo could no longer sell out his former friends and allies to the enemy, but the work against Manshoon and the Zhentiwrong was far from over. What lie in store next for the team? Might Manshoon retaliate for this victory by the party? Find out next time... on Waterdeep: Dragon Heist!