GG volunteers for first watch. Hops volunteers for last watch, first bacon. The night passes uneventfully other than Hops being violently abducted sometime between watch and bacon, GG is able to reconstruct the ordeal from observing three displaced bits of gravel.
Because Deneir never closes a door without opening a window, the party meets graceful and noble newcomer Nicodemus. Nicodemus has prearranged a table of bougie pastries in anticipation of meeting his old friend, Professor Steele. Nicodemus doesn’t give away the plot when he gracefully greets his new friend, “Professor Steele”. The party clicks through the seven stages of party newcomer grief [suspicion of Hops in disguise, suspicion of Hops’s evil abductor tricking party, suspicion of secret benefactor possibly Lady Silverhairhand, suspicion of Fey trickery, suspicion of meta-corrected character fatigue, suspicion of heavy-handed railroading correction to story plot, and zone of truth] before reluctantly accepting the help of Nicodemus to rescue and / or recover Hops.
Professor Steele receives no response sending to Hops. Some consideration is given to requesting help from Lady Silverhand, but Ash wisely points out that seeming so needy this early in the relationship could compromise Quastarte’s cachet. Ash proposes starting with the secret house where he trailed the darklings the previous evening. GG hands around syringes of vigor and Ash leads the party to the darkling dark alley, somewhat less dark in the midday sun.
Several darklings are concealed in the shadows of the building well enough that only Ash can pick them out at first. Barika and Sqyylarr cross by to seal off the other end of the alley. A silence falls over the alley, and not just the dramatic kind. Ash plants a couple of arrows to make the darklings flanking the door hop around in pain a little. The others can see them now. The twin twangs of the bow are audible from the street, but not the sound of a darkling crushed by Sqyylarr’s maul, nor the sound of the other darkling’s skull smashed by a one-pound rock GG launches from a conveniently placed barrel of aerodynamic, one-pound rocks.
A large creature, cloaked like the darklings, stomps silently around a corner. Enraged Barika takes a chop at it joined by Ash’s arrows, Sqyylarr’s maul, and shifted Briar’s axe. Professor Steele locates the edge of the silence zone so he can ray some frost back into the battle, but the flashing light and twanging bowstring are attracting attention from the street. GG reduces Tiny down to medium size, Nicodemus lights Tiny with a guiding bolt, Barika and Ash end Tiny. Sqyylarr takes care of the remaining darkling. Nicodemus deflects the curious attention of a passing potatomonger by explaining away the commotion as a new form of entertainment called LARPing. A silver piece for a dozen potatoes seals the ruse.
Ash taps the secret door knock gleaned from his previous lurking. The door opens a crack in response. Barika, here to kick cheese and chew bubblegum, opens it the rest of the way. Professor Steele crams through the crowded doorway and demands his dwarf back, dodging the answering darkling dagger stab. Barika chops out the darkling and his friend at the bottom of the entry steps.
The party explores the chamber, very well appointed with fancy art, rugs, and collectibles. Ander finds a gambling ledger. He helps himself to some ink and paper. Barika finds a map of the surface with what may indicate access points to the underworld. Briar opens a lower level door south revealing sleeping quarters. Ander opens a chest of 800 thread count cloaks and linens. Nicodemus watches in horrid fascination as ordinarily deft Ash makes a complete shambles of searching the desk.
The party moves to a pair of doors across an ornate meeting room. Briar throws open both doors nearly simultaneously revealing passages that converge at a third door. Sqyylarr, upon opening the third door, gets yelled at for disturbing someone important. Briar descends the stairs beyond and enters the alchemical lab of the pig-like, pustuled boss, but wishes he hadn’t as nausea ruins his attempt at intimidating the qwyllion. Briar and Nicodemus’s spiritually weaponized floating scroll corner the qwyllion in a statue alcove. The qwyllion misty steps away into the center of the room, noted by GG and Professor Steele since teleportation is strictly suppressed in Silverymoon. Barika, Ash, and Sqyylarr go to work. GG, anticipating a long boss fight, throws down his unfolding force ballista. GG is a little disappointed when the boss is killed a moment later by the floating scroll because it will take the rest of the day to get the ballista folded back into a coin.
Concluding investigations yield:
The qwyllion is a Fey corruption, working here as a mercenary, double threat alchemist and blackmail writer.
The richly decorated hideout has no secret doors, no physical network to the criminal underground.
Nicodemus locates an order to bring the dwarf to the signatory, “E”, as in Eravastika.
A ledger contains, among many others, the names of Tenrath and Verina.
The alchemical projects are a deception themselves, designed for a short benefit but a lingering dependency.
An anti-scry amulet looted from the qwyllion, similar if not identical to that looted from Dom, may also defeat the town-wide anti-fire, anti-teleport, anti-conjuration field.
The prominent statue at the end of the chamber is the unseelie deity Cegilun, goddess of night hags.