In my current playthrough I saved Rugan from the gnolls and agreed to sell the chest and split the profit with him. I later went to the Zhent camp. They let me in, but then almost immediately attacked me. I realized after the fight that Rugan was tied to a chair and tortured. I assume he gave up the plan and that's why they attacked. Pretty cool.
After fighting everyone in the main area by the entrance, I got into a second battle with the other Zhent in the cavern along with the wolves. All good.
After all the hostiles were killed, I tried to talk to the Artist, but I was not able to talk to him. The dialog balloon would not come up, clicking on him did no good. The program seemed like it would have let me attacked him (highlighting him if I selected a weapon), but I didn't.
I later went back to the hideout
to use the elevator to the underdark
and I could talk with the Artist! He went through the same dialog you get if you talk to him when all the Zhent are alive and he asks you to buy his freedom. I then got the quest for 'Free the Artist' in my log. However, there was no option to tell him he was free, and he won't notice all the Zhent are dead and the door is open. Poor guy is still standing there waiting for me to buy his freedom from a dead man.
