The party met back up after their grand adventure and went over what they had been doing with their off time... Yuan had made some fancy Arrows of Anchoring, made of ironwood chain thanks to a recipe from Ziraj the Hunter, in exchange for a minor undisclosed favor later. Oh boy. Enigma was able to secure himself a Periapt of Wound Closure, which will improve his survivability, along with an Oil of Slipperiness which can help a creature become almost impossible to pin down. Sigurd was able to find some information about Emmek Frewn - his family had migrated from Neverwinter after a volcanic eruption destroyed their holdings nearly 50 years ago, worked for the League of Skinners and Tanners, before his sisters bought out his shop and then he sank all of his wealth into the new pub... and also that he's been seen speaking to a mysterious man in a large pumpkin-esque outfit and a ruby-tipped cane along with an elderly tiefling in a butler's outfit, who seemingly magically fixed all of his financial woes in one fell swoop and has Frewn bragging about his financial genius to everybody. Sigurd thought he had covered himself well enough with disguises and bribes, but whether by coincidence or in direct response, there's now been a smear campaign being levied against the Song and Spirit, and while it's unclear who exactly started this, it's very likely Emmek is up to his old tricks again, and now it's hurting business. Uh oh... On top of this, Ray went carousing with the upper class and rubbed shoulders with the city's wealthy elite, and met some interesting people, including a bard visiting from a foreign nation who has a three headed hydra... dragon... thing as a partner, making up the Hydragon Quartet, an acapella music group. Unfortunately, something bizarre happened and because the Musician's Guild isn't fully aware of Ray's Harper affiliations, he was selected as the representative for the Musician's Guild to perform at none other than Cassalanter Villa during the garden parties. Not only that, but pretty much everybody in Waterdeep knows about this because of Ray's previous work for Waterdeep and the Cassalanter's prominence as a noble family. Well, crap. Things just got more interesting, at least. Jalester came to the tavern with some good news at least, that he was able to get some information from the captured Bregan D'aerthe associates thanks to (the real) Hyustus Staget and Magister Hester Barch, the judge who had a way of wringing information out of criminals. The short version is that Solomil rolled over on his associates and was being paid to spy on the party while the first mate was much more tight lipped but revealed there was something hidden in the ships that even he didn't know about. Something dangerous, perhaps... Also, there was no missing report filed about the unicorn prop. It's likely Jarlaxle was trying to avoid drawing attention to himself, as the last thing he wants is the City Watch getting too interested in his holdings, and he doesn't seem to know that someone else was behind the theft, aside from Valetta - who is being protected by the city on the promise of Laeral Silverhand stating that if Jarlaxle even thinks about acting against the House of Inspired Hands, "he'll regret it" - but Jalester suspects that it isn't going to take long for Jarlaxle to figure out that the team might have had something to do with it, due to Valetta's close association with Sigurd. While Jarlaxle generally refrains from killing, he is wildly unpredictable... With that aside, Jalester asked about the party and the team came up with a sound plan - Ray, being the talent, had an entourage of 'bodyguards' protecting him, since he was something of a celebrity now. It wasn't an uncommon practice in the nobility to have hired guards walking with you in the street, although most people only carried daggers for personal defense. It was a common saying that if someone was walking around with heavy arms or armor, they were either looking for trouble or expecting it... Any items the party didn't want to hold onto were held by Sigurd's bag of holding. While the party couldn't do anything immediately about Emmek Frewn's shenanigans, Ray did reach out to a contact he had made previously - he had gotten in touch with Shien Chen, writer of the Targe broadsheet, which largely focused on the political scene. He provided Shien with all of the information he had on Emmek Frewn (though left out the Cassalanter name - he only mentioned that a wealthy noble had been helping him under the table). The writer was more than happy to help after the party had saved his life and mind from being warped by the Bane worshippers during the hunt for the Stone of Golorr, but it would take a few days for the story to be written and approved for publishing. Unfortunately, that meant that the Song and Spirit might have to eat a few days of bad press before they could turn the situation around, but if it worked, it would leave Emmek with quite a bit of egg on his face and likely start a rumormongering amongst the nobility. Who knows what kind of chaos could ensue from the story!? The party will likely find out later... Also, Marcellus approached Ray with an updated schedule for the party - apparently, there was a last minute swap and a fellow named Erystian Demarne, a famous Luskan actor, was handling filler material as the previous performers had fallen ill and apparently he was in the area. Ray immediately became suspicious that this Demarne fellow might actually be Jarlaxle or some other Bregan D'aerthe element given his origins, but Marcellus had said that the name was actually known in music circles - Erystian was said to be an incredible performer. Ray still had his doubts, but nothing could be done. Marcellus, for his part, was unable to help directly as he had been scheduled to perform at another noble house, so any Harper support for Ray was likely going to be minimal... Ray's set was scheduled to play in the afternoon, following a set from the Hydragon Quartet and before the evening set, a performance called "Judgement of the Creator" lead by none other than Ireena Kolyana and support from the band Wings of Barovia, though that set was only due to play at the winner's party. In any case, the Cassalanters certainly weren't lacking in musical talent at their party. The day after, the party was upon them, and off they went to Cassalanter Villa, which they realized actually wasn't terrible far away from their tavern. In fact, it was almost on the same road. They saw the red and white three storied villa towering over even the other opulent estates of the Sea Ward, and seeing throngs of guests lining up to get inside at the gates, being processed as groups by the guards in an orderly fashion. When the team's turn came up, Ray presented his musician credentials to the head butler - the same elderly tiefling that they had seen before - who greeted them and showed them the cloakroom to hang up any outer garments before being lead through a mudroom - a place to clean one's boots - and then into the party proper, which was lively and bustling as ever. The gardens the Cassalanters had were blooming and rich with life, and one patch even had an amazing suite of... pumpkins, which looked almost a little too real... Victoro certainly had odd tastes, but it wasn't as if they could voice their opinions as the Lord and Lady (Ammalia) of the house were watching from the second floor balcony, though not at the team directly. They immediately encountered a peculiar scene - two small children, a boy and girl, were seen playing and crawling around this large creature, a three headed wyvern thing, while being watched by a fancifully dressed bard and a woman who appeared to be a housemaid. When Ray and his party approached, the maid let the children know that playtime was over and the bard had to speak with someone, and lead away the children despite their protests. The bard introduced himself as Victor Parlante, a foreign dignitary and bard, and also the mediator for the visiting family known collectively as the Han-Themis Estate, and the hydra wyvern was his partner, Lil' Chewchew, or simply Chewy. Ray had already been well acquainted with Victor from a party he attended at House Ulbrinter and the two caught up a bit, as Victor lead them over to talk about business. When asked about the situation with Erystian Demarne, Victor wasn't sure of the details - only that some other performers had gotten sick and Demarne happily stepped in to fill in the gap as a last minute replacement - but he had heard that the man, who wore a wide brimmed feathered hat and had amazing golden hair, was quite the performer from his native Luskan, though because of Victor's status as a foreigner, wasn't familiar with him personally. He explained he and the Han family hailed from a land named Cordan, and his Lord Solo was the leader of a settlement called Sanctuary, a place he had carved out from an oppressive kingdom to be a place to live for folks who were different from others - Victor mentioned the party would fit right into Sanctuary as demihumans were generally looked down upon by the monarchy in the lands he came from. It was a place anybody could come and live and contribute regardless of their race, background, or any other identifiers. He briefly introduced his lord Solo, who talked with the team a bit and refamiliarized himself with Ray. Solo was the leader of Sanctuary and something of a quirky wizard and also introduced his son, Bureidi, who was to be his heir, although the boy certainly didn't seem to fit the role of a noble with his greaser accent and funny way of talking. Solo himself was a bit of an oddball, preferring a long black tactician's overcoat as opposed to more noble regalia, but apparently had some close ties with the Open Lord, Laeral Silverhand, who had personally made an exception for the family to bring along their family pet and guardian Chewy, as long as he stayed with the family at all times. Victor allowed the team to make use of the guest house, which the Cassalanters had allowed the Han family to make use of due to their status as foreign dignitaries and guests of the Open Lord. The guest house was otherwise off-limits except to the Han family and those they allowed entry, being guarded by guards wearing the House Cassalanter livery, but it was quite a stately and welcoming place, even featuring a billiards table and kitchen among other amenities. On their way over, the team noticed a few odd things - namely, there were ravens in the trees that seemed to be watching the party's every movement. Trained animal spies of the Cassalanters, perhaps? It was hard to say, but it was definitely uncanny. Once inside and sure they weren't being watched, Ray talked a bit more candidly with Victor about things. He revealed that the two children were Terenzio and Elzerina Cassalanter, the twin younger children of the family. Ray asked Victor about Osvaldo Cassalanter, and Victor says he wasn't sure what had happened to him, but had his suspicions - the boy was an up and coming duelist, fancying swordplay, even stating he got along with Solo's other child Maku quite well as the two enjoyed the art, and Bureidi often wrote letters to Osvaldo as they were about the same age at the time, but about three years ago the letters suddenly just stopped. Victor had asked the Cassalanters what had happened and the general story was that Osvaldo was sent off to schooling somewhere and was out traveling, which seemed credible enough... unfortunately, Victor nor anyone else in the family was really in a position to dig into it as their status as foreigners meant they had to be on their best behavior, but Victor certainly let it be known that he thought the whole thing was strange and he'd really like to know what happened to Osvaldo. While he couldn't really say much more or offer the team any direct aid, he said that as they were now friends of the Han family, they could make use of the guest house first floor, though warned to stay out of the upper floors as that was the family's private quarters. He stated he needed to go prepare for his set with Chewy soon and left the team to their own devices, bidding them farewell. Now it was the time to go planning - the team might split up to look around the area while Victor performed his set and try and gather some clues. What would they find? Find out next time, on Waterdeep: Dragon Heist!!