Sneakery, Stymied¶

2023-Mar-19

• The newly-revealed shelves appear to host tomes of a more occult nature (necromancy, communing with gods) as well as finances (marketing, shipping)
  • Rulkorf mentions the information he learned from Match regarding the weakening of the barrier between the realms of living and dead. Lady Cirilla visibly pales and excuses herself shortly after
• Rowan overhears some of the guests he was drinking with earlier talking about “not missing the ritual this time.” He discusses this revelation with the other members of the party and goes to inspect the bookshelf for himself
  • There are a number of books about the goddess Waukeen, who is true neutrally aligned, and how to best parley with her
  • The treatises on the necromantic arts appear to be primarily focused with the capture of life essence – Kleb starts to worry that he’s going to being killed in the bedroom later
  • Rowan hands out his platinum rings to enable his Warding Bond, and casts it on Rulkorf
• The trio head to the banquet hall for dinner, and arrive last, except for the hosts
  • Tactus sits at the head table, flanked by his wife and a brawny noble on the other side
  • At the hosts’ signal, the shutters on the windows snap closed to protect against the gusts outside. This brings a proverb to Rulkorf’s mind: Things unseen move swiftly along strong winds
  • Rulkorf creates the smell of skunk surreptitiously, which is politely contained by Cirilla. When food first comes, he feigns illness and rushes back out the door, heading upstairs
  • Rowan receives a subtle signal from the waiter that he may be affiliated with the Harper. At the serving of the next course, the man more directly (but quietly) reveals that he is Fallon in disguise/enchantment. Kleb tries to slip his telepathy ring onto Fallon’s finger, but the bard rejects it and uses his Message instead
    • Kleb catches him up on the whole death cult possibility, and Fallon says he tried to trail the thieves but lost track of them
• Rulkorf ducks into the room next to the treasury and carefully investigates the shared wall between it and this bedroom. It seems to be a perfectly ordinary wall, without magical charms or protections, but also without any means of providing portal access into the treasury demiplane
  • He heads back into the hallway to inspect the vault lock. In addition to the concentric rings of ciphertext, the center circle of the lock holds (from outside in) two numeral “1”s, a 3 and 2, a 3 and 5, and an owlbear head
• Coordinating over the rings, Rowan walks around the room to schmooze so that Rulkorf stays within the spell radius. More snooping around yields little
  • Kleb tries to stall by discussing workout routines with one of Lord Avorio’s buff henchmen, and discovers that they are both Lozenge Gules acolytes. Tactus’ follower seems besides himself when he learns that Krub Hengerson is in fact the author of his ideological pamphlets
  • Fallon reports that a lot of food is going up to the third floor, even though it’s supposed to be empty right now. He thinks that this is the work of the missing thieves, and the party needs to pick up the pace
• Rulkorf smashes the crystal above the vault door, causing the lord and lady to visibly wince. The dwarf turns into a spider and hides out on the ceiling
  • No less than 15 guards rush into the hallway, but notably come down from the third floor rather than up from below. They call for additional backup and it becomes clear that they were already on high alert and are looking for more intruders
• Time to run
  • The spider throws himself out the window since the hallway has become completely impassable