Ward wakes to find the Apparition in his face. The Apparition is annoyed that Ward is walking into a very obvious trap by joining Luna's father. While not worried about Luna's father, he is worried about the potential for the Shady Motherfuckers being there, as Ward is no stronger than he was the last time. He encourages Ward to have someone else go in his place, which Ward refuses to do.

In the morning, Dorean finds Hobbes and Vinter asleep on the deck of the ship. She approaches with the intent of apologizing for the events of the previous day, Hobbes waking as she gets close. He expresses that he is glad that she is largely unharmed after the encounter the day before. He also says that he wishes she had given them a heads up about the situation. He understands why she didn't tell him her darkest secrets, but the information about the situation they were walking into would have been appreciated. She apologizes, which Hobbes accepts. He tells her that he and Vinter would be looking for work in town.

Concerned for the safety of her friends, Dorean gives Ward the journal given to her by Cecily with a note requesting that he distribute the information among the party. Ward's first stop is Luna. he asks if she would be willing to do another plan if he could come up with one regarding her father and the supposed Shard Research League. She says she would be, as she does not wish to put the others in unnecessary harm. The rest of the party is also caught up on the contents of the papers. The party gathers that morning, give Ward some money to purchase a teleport scroll, and head off for the warehouse to see if there are any clues there to where the group might be hiding.

The warehouse is guarded by guards. Vera sneaks up to a window in the warehouse and sees that there are six guards inside cleaning the mess of potion. Some are also searching the crates remaining, removing items and taking inventory. The bodies have been placed in bags. They are covering up the mess rather than investigating. Vera climbs down and sneaks into one of the bags and eventually manages to find and extract one of the signet rings. In her attempt to escape, she is noticed and attempts to hide and find a way out. One of the guards notices the commotion and opens the door. As Vera attempts to escape out the door, she is caught in a jar. The guards mention that they should send the blood-covered mouse to the lab for tests. Vera turns into a dire wolf and escapes, meeting up with the party a reasonable distance away from the warehouse.

The party moves on toward Professor Abernathy's shack. He is clearly lacking in funds as the building is in disrepair, but it is a home. Abernathy is an aging bugbear with half-moon spectacles. He is pleased to have someone finally take his job. He explains that the trip is four days on foot, and that he would appreciate the couple of days to prepare. He recognizes Eck's name to be one of the clan of kobold on an island to the east. He has been to the temple on the island, though he was not able to get into the inner sanctum. He recommends checking with Farm Corginth to the north of the city to hire some beasts of burden for the trip. The outside of the temple did not seem dangerous, but he was uncertain of the inside. Their arrangement decided, he goes to pack and the party departs for their next task.

The party splits up to do some shopping. Ward purchases a scroll of Teleport and one of Nystul's Magic Aura. Vera encounters Gramble, appearing to her as a green tiefling. He offers her a crappy art supply kit, then instead offers her a much more fancy painting set belonging to a traveling elven artist. He also shows her a skunk hat which can emit a stinky smell on an enemy and a label maker which comes with a total of four colors. She ultimately purchases the fancy paints and the label maker. Pleased with her honesty in her dealings with him, he offers her a jar of unimbued lunar silver for one coin. She offers him a silver coin, as it feels appropriate, which she kisses before handing to him; he places this coin in separate pouch. Luna manages to find a poisoner's kit. Eck finds a climber's kit and sends a response letter to Snowcap.

They meet up with Captain Gershoff, taking note that his uniform is quite a bit different than that of the 'guards' at the warehouse. He allows them into the cistern to deal with the creature. The creature is a variation of an otyugh, an abberation from the underdark. They typically remain there, but when there is a dry season, they sometimes make their way in a surface-ward direction, and end up in the sewers. It is not uncommon for the guard to hire adventurers to remove them when this happens. As they explore the sewers, they find a skyforged collapsed in a tunnel. In their examinations, they find that the skyforged had been stabbed through by a greatsword and, irritated by Luna's presence, attacks her while declaring that they should just cut off their ears. Already damaged, it is an easy kill. Ward is able to remove the arcane core, the red crackling dying to nothing as it becomes inert. Vera expresses frustration over this situation, wanting to try to turn the body over to the captain. The party explores a badly concealed maintenance room, finding nothing of interest. They spy a group of zombies nearby, all missing their ears, which the party is able to re-kill with ease.

The party locates the cistern itself and, though there is not anything to take note of at first, the large otyugh emerges from the center of the water.

Introduced

• Abernathy Quirval
• Captain Gershoff

Returning

• The Apparition
• Hobbes
• Vinter
• Gramble

Mentioned

• Talthis Vim
• Cecily Cardew

• Scroll of Teleport (by Ward, 120gp from each party member)
• Scroll of Nystul's Magic Aura (by Ward, 95gp)
• Label Maker (by Vera, 4gp, 4sp, 7cp)
• Paints (by Vera, 29gp, 41sp, 30cp)
• Jar of Unimbued Lunar Silver (by Vera, 1sp given a kiss)
• Poisoner's kit (by Luna)
• Climber's kit (by Eck, 21 gp)
• Lunch at Life is Pain (2sp per person)
• Arcane Core (by Ward, from elf-murdering skyforged)