The group heads into the art museum to rub elbows with nobility in hopes of getting invitations to Grimlock’s Yule gala. They are able to secure two of them after beating a satyr in an arm wrestle and lying that they’ll bring an invite to the famous painter Gincent Van Vogh. They check out the statue gallery, and learn that the agonized looking statues are real people that have been petrified and donated by Grimlock. In addition, Grimlock has a few of his own roughly carved statue representing Nero, Calliope, and a dragonborn woman. Moving out of that gallery, they’re able to swipe some rare armor after pinning the blame on a dragonborn noble.
Leaving the gallery, Riley quickly uses Stabby and Xaveria to deter the incessant flirts of a drow noble that she reveals is Cassian Grimlock. She apologizes for coming onto both of them, but states her other way of handling the drow would have gotten her uninivted to the gala. The group realizes that Penelope is alone while Azazel is running around town, but Riley offers to go back and check on him. Before she goes, she points out the city planner’s office since they said they needed a map. They head in, and find that this is the house belonging to the Eladrin they traveled with’s uncle.
Melpomene asks if Stabby came to take her up on her offer for having dinner together, but Klernt sticks with Stabby as his third wheel. While they distract Mel, the others run upstairs and locate a map. Klernt is very distracting as Mel tries to flirt, so Mel calls her sister Thalia to make it a double date. Both Klernt and Thalia seem or pretend to be oblivious of what Mel was doing, and instead Thalia raves about how good the soup is. This effectively ruins the “date,” but as the others come back downstairs, Xaveria recognizes Thalia as one of Calliope’s sisters – the muse of comedy.
There is an awkward confrontation as Xaveria tries to lie about Cal’s presence in the city, but its clear that Mel and Thalia don’t believe her for a second. They try to convince the group that Cal’s a danger to everyone around her as well as herself, and with Stabby’s confirmation of being impaled, are very purplexed about why the group strives to keep Cal away from them. They warn the group that they’ll figure out the location of their sister soon enough, and lets them carry on their day.
Next, they investigate the lead on the Book of Vile Darkness for Stabby. Riley catches up, letting them know that Penelope is driving her nuts, and he demands that she bows to him as a king since she’s only a “princess.” She detests that. At the hell-themed bar, they learn that someone had broken in, but didn’t seemingly steal anything. The bartender only every saw a shadow. He assumes that they are The Emperor’s Sharran business partners, and tells them where they can find his home. When they head that direction, they finally meet Riley’s wife, who seems put off that Riley had been calling her her “wife.” She also seems uncomfortable that Riley showed up at the Emperor’s House, so she reminds her that she was supposed to be running errands. Hesitantly, Riley agrees to go take care of them, leaving the group to investigate the house.
They head inside and fight off some enchanted furniture before finding proof of sick experiments being conducted by The Emperor, who is actually a banished tiefling named “Ward the Starfarer.” Ward had been making a number of suspicious deals with dangerous entities such as the archfey, Samara, the devil, Orcus, and the disgraced Ilvalunan scientist, Ivander.