Infiltrating the House of Planes

After a day of equipping, choosing our undercover outfits and deciding our personas, we headed for Raven's Roost on our way to the House of Planes. After descending into the catacombs under the Raptor's Rest in Eastgate we were soon set upon by some sort of large green ooze type creature. It engulfed a few of us several times, paralyzing and burning us with acid. We were able to defeat it fairly quickly. We healed up a bit and then headed further in. We soon found some Ghouls at a make shift barricade of crates. They turned to attack and were quickly dispatched. After the fight we found 2 Ratfolk behind the crates. They traded us some lemons before heading out. They told us they had been running from some sort of bat creatures. They had been below trading with some Caligni when the bat creatures attacked. We then healed a bit more and continued on, with the Ratfolk continuing out of the place. At the bottom of a long flight of stairs we found a large room. We were immediately assailed by a small humanoid. It turned out to be one of the Caligni. After it stabbed Jensen he called for it to stop, offering to let it go past them. After considering, it decided to accept. Another one came out and joined the 1st. We traded with them before sending them on. We gained some Grolna, an illegal substance. We decided not to go after the bat creatures nearby. However, they decided they were coming after us. They screeched and paralyzed Callum, along with his companion, Felix. Once he shook off the paralysis he was able to tell us these were Vargouilles. After the fight we noticed a glow coming from a the water about 40 feet below. We were somewhat taken aback by some sort of slug-like creature climbing up the wall below toward us. It hit a few of us pretty hard, before dropping Felix. We managed to draw it away from the edge before surrounding and dropping it. Jensen volunteered to be lowered by a rope to see what the glow below was. It turned out to be a Continual Flame torch. There was also a set of magical bracers below. Once he was pulled up we took some time to identify magic items and heal up some. Once this was done we found a door with the sound of a raucous party on the far side. Jensen was able to pick the lock and we proceeded inside. We came in through a hidden door into a storage area of a tavern.
 
Soon after entering we made our way out to the main tavern. There we found several themed rooms arrayed around the common room. They represented various planes. In the center was a woman obviously dressed as Pharasma seated upon a throne with a sarcophagus beside her. She invited us to attempt her game, though she did not phrase it as a game. Callum volunteered to try. He was seated in the coffin and then dirt was poured on top of him before sealing him inside. He managed to hold his breath but the feeling of being buried alive caused him to claw his way clear. "Pharasma" suggested maybe he would do better in "Elysium". Elisan then stepped up and tried, with much more success. He impressed a Halfling Woman with his actions. She spoke to us and offered to fence any illicit items we might come across. We asked about the man we were looking for, Jeremin Hoff. She said he might be found in "Hell". We decided to look around a bit to see what else we could find out. Callum decided to "Elysium" where he was convinced to put his head into the mouth of a Griffin. Once he successfully did so, without being bitten, a Dwarf in the room praised him and suggested he could get anything he wanted. Callum explained that he was looking for some missing people. He provided some descriptions. The Dwarf did not know anything about the disappearances or the people but he felt that the missing people had probably been taken by monsters. He felt with the district being re-taken that monsters had probably been coming from below and taking people. He then spoke about how he had procured various monsters for various people, including for Hoff. We headed for the next room along to the West. This room turned out to be "Heaven". In this room Jensen spoke with a man named Reginald Vancaskerkin. We all recognized him as the owner of a local gossip magazine, well known to be trash throughout Absalom. He managed to pump more info from Jensen, who gave his name as John Branscombe, than Jensen managed to get out of him. Jensen told him quite a few details of the missing people we were looking for, without giving up all the information.
 
We took our leave to the next room. This room was "Nirvana". Callum approached a woman in this room, before realizing she was a member of a local female assassin's guild. She told him that she had lost a mark at the Dreaming Palace. He entered, but never came out. She said that the concierge at the Dreaming Palace also had gang connections. She felt that the disappearances were the work of the "Mantis". When Callum did not recognize this term she shut down, but did not immediately turn hostile. The next room we encountered was full of copper wires and tiny glass bulbs that blink and glow. On the wall, in block letters, a riddle was written - “You need to transport an inevitable, a protean, and a mortal to Pharasma’s Spire, but your magic plane-shifting ring will let you take only one passenger at a time. If at any point you leave the inevitable and protean together unchaperoned, they’ll kill each other, but if you leave the protean and the mortal together, the protean will corrupt them. How do you get all three to the Spire safely?” Callum and Kasper, despite himself, quickly solved the riddle! A Dwarf in the room applauded and invited them to come sit with him. She introduced herself as Wilfred Stoneburrough. We recognized her by name as the owner of a prominent real estate development firm & a member of the Argent Syndicate, a white collar crime cartel. Callum spoke with her and explained we were looking for some missing people. She said she could help with the purchase of real estate or "convincing" someone to sell. She then asked about the people we were trying to find. Callum told her they were workers from the Dragonfly Pagoda. She felt that this was probably some predator amongst the rabble causing the others to disappear. She also spoke about the Dreaming Palace and how it had many extraneous chambers.
 
In the next room we encountered a set of twin Qadiran men. They said the game in this room was to take a hit off their "Methuselah's Hookah". They were impressed with Jensen's ability to shrug off the effects. He asked about the Dreaming Palace, but he could not remember the name of the owner, after the strong bong hit he took! Callum went in and picked up the conversation, using the name of the owner of the Dreaming Palace, Pratchett. They said they had sold lots of different types of drugs to him for his business.