Winter 28, 6840 CA
Dress to Impress
Having been paid thirty gold pieces by Havmos, the group decide to get a jump on preparations and head into the city to pick up some new fancy clothes. They make their way to First Cut, a fancy uptown shop for clientele that are a cut above these wandering adventurers. The proprietor Gimble is able to find them all suitable clothes tailored to fit, although Yuri opts to save some of the money and just take something off the rack.
Uniforms are collected for Ursa's catering service, as well as a good location for a smart haircut and bath. They have some trouble finding a place that will take someone like Wally until they find an outdoors grooming shop meant for pets and livestock. A few buckets of water and shampoo and a stiff bristle brush does the job of leaving Wally smelling refreshingly like not from the sewer. While they're at it, the two mutts are brought in to get cleaned at a nice group rate! The whole experience of this tiny naked gnome man being bathed is horrifying and Zed tips the service as way of an apology.
Embrace the Theater!
Valia and Zed are insistent that they show off Yuriel in his fancy new outfit to Mama Ava. Yuriel is justifiably horrified at this prospect, but seems to have accepted that he no longer has any control over his life and relents. The group head over to the Wanderlust and horrified to see Ava isn't running the bar. Instead, they find her over with Onzo and his troupe rehearsing lines. They arrive in time to hear Ava giving an unforgettable performance as Yuumira the Tiefling, a character from Mordo's Mysterious Mythologies.
Onzo ropes Ursa and Wally into playing a few roles and he is delighted by how much emotion Ursa brings to the part and the creepiness Wally naturally exudes for the character of Rax. They're the perfect fit! Valia is roped in as well, but Zed and Yuriel are reluctant to get involved even despite Ava's insistence they give it a try. Mark Yuriel as maybe on a small bit role. Zed will need a little more convincing.
Ursa asks Ava about getting some food and help for the dinner, to which Ava is only to pleased to help. She's even more pleased to learn that Yuri has become an apprentice chef apparently! She's eager to help out when she finds out that Ursa is catering to a party with the mayor in attendance and offers her services and picking up any ingredients that Ursa will need. In the meantime, Ursa will be heading back to the Mince the Mark Bakery to work with her dad on baking up a variety of treats.
Winter 31, 6840 CA
The Gala
Havmos and Valia enter from the main entrance. Valia chose a nice slimming black dress for the event, though Havmos chose to not fancy himself as much as he could have. Most of the attendees had already arrived and they entered into a crowded ball room with multitudes of conversations and many already out dancing while serenaded by a band of musicians. Havmos points out some of the more prominent people in the party and as they make the rounds, he introduces Valia to Sionia Caeldark, daughter of Aelwynn Caeldark.
During the conversation, Valia spies Commander Dasan Briggs in the crowd. Following behind him is a tall redheaded man that she immediately recognizes as one of her siblings. The two men head into a private room away from the rest of the attendees. She drags Havmos over to speak with the Mayor and Ilyana as an opportunity to get closer to her brother. She doesn't hear any conversation on the other side, so she attempts to communicate telepathically with Dasan, but it's made clear she's not invited. Shucks.
Kitchen Spies
Ursa arrives with the rest of the group, Ava and her kitchen staff, and Horatio to the servant's entrance at the estate. Ursa is quick to organize everyone to start making meals! Spinach puffs, fern fiddleheads, mushroom soup, trout pie, ribs and potatoes, blueberry lemon tarts, and all manner of drinks courtesy of the Wanderlust. The group is suitably impressed with the spread and get to work. Yuri proves himself quite the adept vegetable cutter. Upon noticing how into the food prep is, Horatio reminds the group that they're supposed to be doing stealth work.
Ursa and Wally are reluctant to leave the kitchen, but Horatio's stealth magic and the lack of heavy armor gives them them the confidence that they'll be able to get in without too much fuss. They slip past the gardener and up to the servant's rooms. Wally uses this time to ritually cast Detect Magic. A pair of guards are on the balcony watching the party, so the group are able to slip around them without notice. After checking some of the other rooms, Wally determines there's some Abjuration magic coming off the door knobs. A trap, perhaps?
No one has any other ideas, so Wally transforms himself into a millipede and crawls underneath the door. The room seems safe, so he reverts to his normal form and carefully unlocks the door. Nothing seems amiss and the magic disipates. Horatio suspects it was an Arcane Lock. Inside the room are some smutty romance novels, a private window room, the normal trappings of any bedroom, and three armored statues that will in no way be relevant later. No secrets here, though. Wally detects more magic ahead and it seems to be another Arcane Lock. Zed hasn't replaced her lockpicks yet, so Horatio picks the lock for them.
Wally detects yet even more magic, now in a cube in the hallway ahead. They don't know how to avoid tripping whatever it is, so Ursa uses her echo to teleport out of range of it. This takes her into a large walk in closet filled with dresses, shoes, and other private items. A mirror catches her interest and she goes to investigate it, unknowingly setting off an Alarm spell that was outside of Wally's range. Immediately, the three armored statues spring to life and notice the intruders in the room. They move in to attack. A bloody battle ensues which sees the party struggle to survive as Wally, Yuri, and Zed both drop at multiple points during the combat. They manage to succeed when Ursa heroically charges out of the bathroom and kills the last of the three armored constructs.
Blood and bedraggled, the group make their way back into the closet and Ursa determines an illusion spell is concealing a secret room. They find a hidden study inside and go to work. Yuri and Horatio find some notes that are in some kind of code. Horatio starts to decode it and makes out a date from ten years ago: Summer 24, 6829. Yuri and Wally start looking through the journal for that date, but that entire week seems to be skipped over. Wally however sees writing transposed over what Yuri is able to see. Wally is able to read some of it and determines it has something to do with an Eye and that Bilmin Pebbledust, the dwarves, and the Brass Whispers were all involved.
They take the ciphered notes with them but leave the journal behind. Horatio places his Pass without a Trace spell up again and the group try to make their way back. One by one they make it into the servant's quarters unnoticed... until the guards turn and notice Ursa and Wally. Jinkies!
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