The decided they needed to pay Nevercott a visit to investigate the bizarre circumstances and potential links to the Sea Maidens' Faire and the Bregan D'aerthe, the renegade male drow faction lead by none other than Jarlaxle Baenre, a wildly famous adventurer and swashbuckling drow iconoclast. The team came up with a plan that they would investigate the place under the banner of the Lord's Alliance, and also that Trollskull Alley had banded together to watch out for each other in these troubled times. They enlisted the help of Tally Fellbranch, owner of the Bent Nail carpentry shop, to back them up on this endeavor, and Sigurd gave Enigma the charismatic boost he might need to present his position with an Enhance Ability spell, while Sigurd himself used a potion of Mind Reading to try and get a read on Nevercott's mentality. However, they would find their investigation stymied as Nevercott, ever her charming self, welcomed the group in and took them at face value, allowing them to look around her shop without restriction. Sigurd was bothered by this because it seemed Nevercott genuinely didn't have anything to hide, and was acting a bit peculiar - almost as if maybe they didn't actually know anything... What could it all mean? Searching the shop proved fruitless. Nobody could find anything out of place with Nevercott, the shop, the employees, or anything else. It wasn't until Sigurd and Enigma went upstairs and into the second floor apartment of Nevercott that they hit on something. And oh, it was a big something indeed. A small metal disc, emblazoned with a purple J, was found at the bottom of a personal footlocker containing mostly clothes and other worthless personal effects. It played an audio recording of a sort from a fancily spoken gentleman, whose message threatened the user that if they tried to take the device out of this room, it would be a bad time... but it basically explained that they've been had. The 'real' Nevercott wasn't even here, and the one in the shop knows nothing about anything useful. They thanked the party for being fair to their men who surrendered and gave them a rundown of things that had happened, including Yuan's victory over the Red Wizards and hinting that they've been hired for a job previously by this mystery individual. They offered a truce and an offer to work together, and to get started, they can head to the Sea Maiden's Faire at any time and speak the passphrase "J will see us now". They left things off with a warning that they would not tolerate any sneaking around or trespassing, before the message device self-destructed, leaving nothing but a pile of ash and a wispy purple "J" wafting into the air before disappearing. Enigma and Sigurd were not very pleased by this development. They immediately went back downstairs and told the team to call off the search - but not before Enigma gave 'Nevercott' a pleasant smile and thanks for her time, which unnerved her completely, before leaving. Heading back to the tavern, they discussed what to do, and realized that in the message, the messenger had known they had sent Vincent Trench the detective to the shop to investigate things. But they said that Trench also had some kind of secret of his own, and that there's more to him than meets the eye... or the tiger's eye. What could that mean? They decided that while Trench may not be an enemy, he might be selling his services to anyone who pays him (which is completely within his right) and opted that going forward they should not avail his services, even if he has been useful to them in the past, like with finding information for Yuan about the Red Wizard gang. Ray was tempted to take the offer - dealing with the Xanathar, Manshoon, the Cult of Asmodeus, and the Bregan D'aerthe was a lot to deal with, and having an ally - especially one who made such a tempting offer - might be helpful. Sigurd was unsure, as he has no idea what Jarlaxle's real goal is (aside from politics and getting one over on Dagult Neverember, somehow), and said that maybe the team should opt to watch the Sea Maiden's Faire and stake it out for a day, to see what they might be up to. As long as they weren't doing anything on the ships themselves, they should be okay, he surmised. What really is Jarlaxle's real goal? Will the team meet with him, and take his offer? Find out next time... on Waterdeep: Dragon Heist!