The team stepped forward into the foreboding temple to search for the voices they had heard earlier. Before them stood a grand statue, of thirty feet in height, depicting a visage of Asmodeus holding a bowl that bore an eternal flame within. Clearly a place for sacrifices to the archfiend of indulgence. It was here, that Enigma realized his duty, and with the Mace of Disruption in hand, as instructed by Caladorn Cassalanter's spirit, he gave the statue a good whack, targeting the bowl specifically. Upon doing so, a crack emanated from the bowl and upward into the statue, before the entire thing shattered into a million pieces. The effigy of evil incarnate had been leveled in one swift blow. Nearby, though, Jalester had picked up on an odd sight - part of the wall seemed off, suggesting a secret door. Indeed, pushing it open revealed there was a hidden room, full of cult regalia, wines, mirrors, and some other ceremonial items. Why it was hidden away here is unknown, but something else was lurking in the shadows. Much to the team's annoyance, Yalah and Orond Gralhund came stumbling out of the darkness and were confronted by the party. A brief argument ensued before the team essentially threatened Yalah into compliance, with Yuan making sure Orond got the message plain as day. While Yalah tried to retort by saying the team will hang before sunrise if they laid a hand on her, they reminded her that she was not really in any position to comply as they had the situational advantage of being able to manipulate the scene as they wished. Seeing that her hand had been played out and in failure, Yalah was coerced into cooperation and admitted that the Cassalanters were leading a devil worshipping cult. This in itself was not illegal, but was illegal was their eventual plan to make some kind of sacrifice to save their children, involving the capture of the Neverember gold vault and the deaths of many people. Yalah wasn't sure about the specifics, but she knew that the turning point would be during the Day of Wonders parade, where the Cassalanters allegedly had some kind of plan in place to 'save their children'. She was also forced into providing a list of nobles that she knew were part of the cult - mostly minor houses looking for power grabs of their own, but the list was rather long at a few dozen names. It was hypothesized by the party that this meant there was some kind of clause in the contract they signed with Asmodeus that would allow them to spare their children from some grisly fate, and to do so required the assembly of this cult, which was likely the plan of Asmodeus all along in the first place. Yalah also tried to bargain for her freedom once again, with explaining there was a hidden way out of the temple, but the team wasn't willing to bargain and forced the information out of her if she wanted to live. She explained that there was a secret tunnel behind the tapestry near where the statue was that lead out into the Mud Flats, a region outside of the city near the ocean. When Yalah and Orond were squeezed dry of any information they had about the dealings with the devil, Sigurd threatened them at gunpoint to clambor into the bag of holding to be transported away, dumping the body of the Nanny in the closet they were currently in, before leaving. Sure enough, the tapestry did reveal there was a tunnel behind it, a natural cave that followed along a stream to the northwest. It appeared Yalah's information was good this time around. As they were making their way out though, they stopped at the sound of slow clapping, and a familiar voice - none other than Jarlaxle Baenre, the leader of the Bregan D'aerthe himself! Ray's hunch was right all along! The conversation was short lived, though. After commending the party for their efforts in completely leveling the Cassalanters' operation, Jarlaxle explained that he was going to try, one last time, to cut a deal with the party, but before that, he posed a question - "why did you steal my unicorn?" The question would not be answered as Ray immediately dropped a Fog Cloud and instructed the team to book it to the exit. Eagerly, but perhaps not entirely willing, the rest made their exit with him through the cave system. Jarlaxle called out that they would regret this decision, and he was going to "hit them where it hurt the most", as his laugh echoed through out the tunnel. Was this the right call? It was too late now. About a half hour or so later, the team found their way outside, indeed in the Mud Flats - an area they had been before, when they were dealing with the mysterious Gai. At that moment, Yuan received a Sending spell message from Maku, Solo's daughter, asking what had happened - apparently the City Watch was crawling all over the estate in response to the fleeing nobles. After explaining, Solo then contacted them directly via the same means and asked where they could meet up. Sigurd noted that the closest safe place would be the House of Inspired Hands, and that's where the team would meet the Han family, and Valetta for that matter, after she allowed them in - apparently the place was being protected by the City Guard, likely on orders from Laeral Silverhand after Valetta's involvement with the heist on Jarlaxle's ship. Solo explained that the mass exodus of nobles from the villa caused the City Watch to respond. Before that, though, he had witnessed Victoro banishing Osvaldo in his chain devil form and raising his staff before directing the guests to the ballroom, as Ammalia followed them to try and assert control of the situation. Normally, a Banishment spell would keep an outsider like a fiend back in their home turf (in this case, a layer of Hell somewhere), but in this case, Osvaldo actually was human at one point, and so through a technicality, he re-appeared back on the Material Plane in the garden. Victoro seized the moment to Polymorph the poor soul into a frog and managed to capture him before heading into the villa when the panic began and didn't see him since, as shortly after the City Watch stormed the place looking for answers. When it was revealed that the devil worshipping cult was the work of the Cassalanters, it was met with much sadness and regret from the Han family. Bureidi expressed his thanks for exposing the Cassalanters' crime and trying to save his childhood friend, but the fate of Osvaldo was up in the air. It was unclear what had happened to the other children, Elzerina and Terenzio, during the panic, as well - hopefully they were okay. When it was shown the party had custody of Yalah and Orond Gralhund, Solo's wife, Maria, gladly took control of that situation, and explained that she is a priestess of Tyr the Even Handed. She informed Enigma that she was aware of his affiliations and ensured him that these two would meet Tyr's justice, before taking custody of them and scolding them for abusing their noble power and shaming them for their actions, among other things, like a mother yelling at a disobedient child. Orond was rightly terrified, while Yalah was not at all amused, but it seemed like the Gralhunds would not be able to buy their way out from under the righteous judgement of Old Grimjaw. The Cassalanters definitely had a lot to answer for... The team also explained their situation about Jarlaxle, and while Solo had heard about him, told the team that he's dealt with that kind of cryptic threat before - what could hurt them the most, as a collective, likely meant something important to all of them, and suggested that it might be their tavern he could target. The team decided to head back home straight away ... making sure to take a roundabout way around the Cassalanter Villa, which was swarming with Watchmen from all directions. Back at home, the team was joined briefly by Valetta, who had stayed behind to prepare something. She had heard about Jarlaxle's threat, and informed the team that he is not the only one with access to advanced Lantanese technology, revealing she had a modular, portable gatling turret disguised as a briefcase!! She loaned the item to the team, hoping they would not need it, but if push came to shove, they should leverage its power for all it was worth. They decided to place it in the tower of the tavern with Enigma standing guard. She left to continue protecting the House of Inspired Hands, fearing reprisal for the team's actions up to this point, and wished them luck. Meanwhile, Jalester informed the party that Laeral was dealing with the Cassalanters personally, and boy it was not looking good for them. He figured the Cassalanters would try to talk their way out of it, but when it was revealed that the fiend was actually Osvaldo Cassalanter, it would put them in a serious bind. Not only that, but if one were so willing to interpret it that way, selling someone's soul to the devil is equivalent to murdering them, as when someone dies, their soul leaves their body to an outer plane or afterlife, and the penalty for the murder of a noble, lord or official was the death sentence. Jalester wasn't sure if it would come to that, but it seemed that the Cassalanters' days were numbered. He said he would stay with the team at the tavern for the time being to help defend it in case something did indeed happen. Which, it did. Late at night, after most of the workers (save for Mulaag, Lif and Xalvador, who slept on the premises), had gone home and closing time had passed, gunshots had rang out across the street in all directions! Bullets and crossbow bolts went flying and smashed up the windows of the building along with intruders storming their way into the front door by force and crashing the place. As Enigma did his best on the turret, even deflecting bullets and mowing down Bregan D'aerthe operatives with the machine gun, the others stormed the first floor and found Mulaag had been knocked out by the assaulting drow, who were having a grand old time wrecking the place. This lead to a direct confrontation as the team now had to deal with this elite warrior and his goons shanking them with blades and bolts tipped with deadly poisons, which Jalester caught the bad end of as he was knocked out by some drow poison. Fortunately, Io was there to get him back on his feet and back into the fight. They bought enough time for Enigma to drive away the forces on the nearby rooftops before he decided to swoop in using his Flight of Karnage, heading through the front door and assaulting the drow party head on. In an epic display of martial prowess, he managed to clobber the drow elite warrior into submission, flattened most of the other warriors with his psychic breath attack, and then punished the last man standing with a swift boot to the head, effectively cleaning up all enemies in a single amazing stroke of draconic fury. Jalester was thankful for the last-minute save, as he was almost about to be felled by the attackers. Mulaag was awakened by Ray, and he had explained that Lif was defeated by the invaders trying to hold them off with him. Xalvador had been sleeping in his room at the time and had been hiding under his bed with a crossbow, apparently. Sigurd explained that Lif wasn't permanently destroyed, as ghosts and specters sometimes had a way of being very clingy to their resting place, but it might be a while before Lif is able to reform in the tavern. The damage to the tavern was signifcant, but not unfixable, at least. The windows had been smashed and furniture had been broken, but thankfully the only losses were material in nature and nobody perished (permanently, in Lif's case at least) in the attack. Thanks to all the noise, the stomps of City Watch patrols made themselves apparent, and the team prepared for the interrogation fest that was sure to follow, although Enigma and Sigurd made sure to hide the turret and conceal it before the Watch showed up in force. What would be the ultimate fate of the Cassalanters? What ended up becoming of the Annual Garden Party? And how would the team respond to Jarlaxle's very obvious threat? Find out next time... on Waterdeep: Dragon Heist!!