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At the mention of the incident at his residence in Absalom, Salhar takes a moment to shift his bulky frame towards Luisila.
"Ah, so you were one of the members of that team!"
He takes a big gulp from his wine glass.
"That team was full of junior Pathfinders." He makes a show of looking her over. "I see you have now 'filled-in' to the position! Hahahaha!"
He bites into an apple, spraying a mist of juice into the air, and waits to chew before continuing. Even the motion of chewing cannot hide his frown as the subject turns to Amenopheus.
"Amenopheus was the victim of ridiculous slander and politics! It is good to know that he still has some friends within your Society."
He takes another chunk out of the apple and chews it while Luisila continues.
"Ah! I had not heard of this Tahonikepsu. She sounds like a powerful ally. You have piqued my interest, but I shall need to know more!"
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While the Senator is busy chatting-up the other attendees of the party, his wife notices you looking in her direction and begins chatting with you. She's just making small talk, mostly well-intentioned but mildly patronizing questions about being a kitsune, but you have difficulty concentrating enough on the Senator to draw any useful conclusions.
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Lord Rothos: INFLUENCED
Lady Dyriana: INFLUENCED
Scion Lord Kerkis: INFLUENCED
Lady Darchana: INFLUENCED
Grand Ambassador Dremdhet Salhar: One Success
As the meal concludes, several guests stand to stretch or use the privy in anticipation of more socializing. Major Colson Maldris takes this opportunity to signal you and silently motion to the great hall, inviting you to join him. Having done so, he stands up and inconspicuously saunters out of earshot of the other guests.
The soft susurrus of servants clearing dessert dishes and esteemed guests shuffling about to hobnob with their peers echoes from the nearby dining room as Major Colson Maldris furtively glances about before speaking in a stage whisper.
“Have you noticed,” he inquires, “that several of the serving staff seem to be behaving strangely? I have watched a handful of them, and I can tell you with some authority that a few appear to be under the effects of enchantment magic. They have not expressed any hostility, but this strikes me as the precursor of something far more dangerous.
“In a moment, Damien Blakros will introduce the esteemed Genedair, a veteran of the Mendevian Crusades and a guest of honor at tonight’s festivities. I trust that his speech will be suitably engaging to give you an opportunity to slip away and check the rest of the manor. If there is anything amiss, deal with any immediate concerns and then report back to me.”
He spares a moment to glance back at the dining room before adding, “Under no circumstances are you to upset the guests. I will keep Lady Morilla apprised of the situation, and together we will decide what to do in the event of trouble. The feast must go on without any disruption, and I will stay with the guest to ensure that happens.” As he says this, Damien Blakros begins introducing Genedair in the other room.
With a last look, Major Maldris salutes and says, “You have perhaps half an hour,” then slips back through the door to rejoin the party.
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“Have you noticed that several of the serving staff … appear to be under the effects of enchantment magic?”
“Well, duh. Of course they are!” Luisila waves the turkey drumstick in her hand dismissively.
“Conan spoke with most of them earlier.”
Once the very model of a modern Major departs, Luisila says to the others. “I vote we stay together.”
“I don’t really mind where we search, but maybe we should revisit the places we checked beforehand? Garden, stables, kennels and wine cellar maybe?”
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Conan looks bemusedly at the Major. "All due RESPECT, sir, but if--"
With some effort, he lowers his voice and speaks more quietly. "--if the servants are being CHARMED, wouldn't it be IMPERATIVE that we remain PRESENT in case one of them makes an attack on a GUEST, sir? Presumably they are being CHARMED to a specific GOAL. It would be very UNFORTUNATE if we were searching the ground while the servants acted on this NEFARIOUS PLOT!"
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Conan snaps to attention and salutes. "Aye, aye, sir!"
He turns to the others. "Alright! I bet the evil enchanters are on the ROOF. That's where I would lurk and CAST WILL-DESTROYING SPELLS from. Ooooh, maybe it's a vampire!"
As he sidles for the door, he adds, "Though it might be easier to ensorcel people from the kitchen. That's where most of the servants are coming and going from.... Let's check there FIRST."
Also then they could grab garlic.
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Kalendir mumbles to himself. Everyone here is strange. How could you possibly tell if all of the guests are enchanted.
All this talk of the kitchen is just making Kalendir hungry again. We all ate the same food from the kitchen. Why would it not effect us?
Standing from his chair Kalendir grabs his bow. I am going to the garden. I need a bit of a reprieve from all of..... this. He says waving his gloved hand at all of the nobles.
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“Let’s stick together, Brother Wei.”
Luisila weighs the various options before speaking plainly but respectfully, as is her wont. “Major Colson called out a specific concern with the kitchen/cooking staff which I think is worth following up first in the kitchen.”
“After that?” She *shrugs* “Maybe it’s time for a breath of fresh air. What do you say, Kalendir? Can you wait for just a bit longer to head outdoors? I don’t think we should split the group – but I totes accept that that’s up to the individual.”
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"That word does not translate well to Tien or Tengu?"
“That’s not terribly surprising considering the controversy surrounding the origins of the word.”
Luisila raises her index finger as she explains. “Most linguists agree it is a colloquial abbreviation of the word ‘totally’ with its roots in Andoran Valleys, where it is in common usage amongst young females.”
“However, older pragmatists believe it is a derivation of the Old Molthunic word ‘tot’ which means ‘dead.’ Presumably because that is what they would like to see happen to people who continually use it.”
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The kitchen has mostly quieted down at this point, as the staff has shifted from the dinner service to cleaning. The great chef himself is out on a smoke break right now.
As you search the kitchen, you do not find anything of interest...until you look in the pantry. Everyone except Kalendir (who is still a bit shaken from having to deal with the nobility earlier) notices that there is a small velvet pouch that was not there before. Inside is three vials, one of which is empty.
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The tengu steps forward and looks at the vials, and sniffs a bit, even as his plumage flares up briefly and he grumbles, his stance becoming a bit more combative before remembering where he is at.
"Oil of Taggit. Used to render folks unconscious... or keep unruly slaves in line."
And then he lets off an apparent expletive tirade in a chirpy language. Very upbeat for the amount of profanity.
Obviously, it must have a great deal of meaning and emotional context.
After that outburst, though, he does calm down. "It's obvious someone is planning on knocking out a person from this. Who would be the best target? One of the hosts?"
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The garden still appears calm and picturesque, perhaps even more so now that the sky has darkened and the lights spread about create a beautiful play of light and color and shadow. As you search the area, you hear the dogs inside the nearby kennel rustling about.
Only the thoughtful, focused Wei Ji is able to find anything of note. As he searches the gazebo, his keen eyes notice a box perched up on a ledge on the interior of the roof. All of those who searched the garden before are certain this box was not there before.
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The tengu will point out the box to those who may be more capable of getting to said box, while keeping an eye out.
Far too easy, far too quick. This is as much as set-up for someone going after us as hidden secret plans
"Quiven, do you think you could take a look at that, see if it's a trap or another clue?"
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"Though that reminds me of a joke. How did the alchemist turn soup into gold?"
Chowder heck am I supposed to know?
Not sure I can be broth-ered thinking about it. But it’s Conan, so I’d better ask …
*Gormlessly* “Well, I don’t know, Conan. How did the alchemist turn soup into gold?”
… even as his plumage flares up briefly and he grumbles, his stance becoming a bit more combative before remembering where he is at.
“What’s fluffed your feathers, Wei Ji? Did someone let Grand Ambassador Salhar’s serval in here? Or did they put Oil of Taggit in your birdseed?”
Luisila takes a sniff of one of the vials and is soon eating crow.
“If the poison had gone in the VIP’s meals, we’d be affected too wouldn’t we? Maybe someone put it in the security guards’ food or the dogs’ bowls?”
In the garden, Luisila waits in worried silence for the burglars to do their thing, offering assistance if it is requested of her.
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Conan is delighted when someone bites, so to speak. With a big grin, he says, "Why, he added TWENTY-FOUR CARROTS!"
***
The revelation of POISON makes Conan look BRIEFLY GRIM. He peers back into the main room briefly to make sure nobody's fallen asleep yet, then traipses along with the others, out to the garden.
"Eh? A box?" Conan cranes his head back, peering up at the box. "Let's see if it's ENSORCELLED!"
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In the kitchen Kalendir looks around. Lifting up scrapes of food he tosses them to the side. Catching his interest from the vial Kalendir approaches Wei Ji and is just about to commend him on the find as the Tengu's feathers ruffle and flare out in all directions causing Kalendir to leap back in alarm.
What's wrong? Is this what you call molting?
As Wei Ji explains the poison Conan finishes his 'joke' causing Kalendir to sigh and plant the palm of his hand deep into his face. leaning into Wei Ji he asks. How much of that oil of taggit did you say was left? Just curious of course.
*******************************************************************
Into the garden Kalendir lefts loose a sigh of relief. Just long enough for Wei Ji to find more suspicious items. Drawing his bow Kalendir sets an arrow in place and keeps an eye out while Quiven takes a look at the box.
You all spoke with the guests a bit more than I did. Did any seem malicious or to have ill intent to you?
"Never again. Never." The response seems to have stiffened Wei's resolve, and the somewhat 'subtle' tones of the Eagle Knight uniform get *tweaked* to a much more vibrant and majestic tone. "We'll talk after."
"One of the three vials was used."
"Lady Vaelia appears to be an old woman who hates pretty much everyone, but doesn't seem capable of doing much on her own."
"Dremdhet Salhar is upset at some internal politics going on, and was disappointed in certain current events until we assured him that he and his have not been forgotten."
"Lord Rothos I did not speak to, check with Conan?"
"Scion Lord Kerkis is quiet, reserved, very mathematical and considering. Might be capable of playing 'both sides', but my gut feeling is his pride in his history would make such a thing problematic."
"The Senator arrived late, which makes him and his traveling companion suspect, and he's the glad-handing sort of politician that's been giving Andoran a bad reputation."
"Lady Darchana you'd have to ask Takkit and Conan about."
Wei will continue to keep an eye out, and keep to the shadows a bit.
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Luisila *GROANS* inside as Coco delivers the punch line, but outwardly she laughs and applauds politely. “Fallon? *Pfft* Don't make me laugh! NOBODY comes close to the peerless Conan O’Brien.”
The priestess casts detect magic and examines the boxed gloves. “Notice the red stitching on the fingers? These are vampiric gloves and would be perfect in *ahem* your hands, Conan.”
Luisila looks up sharply, hoping she hasn’t upstaged the ginga ninja.
“Should we go back inside now? Check some other rooms?”
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Conan beams as Luisila, at least, appreciates his humor. Unlike Augustyn the PHILISTINE.
At Wei Ji's run-down of the guests, Conan strokes his chin a bit. "Lady Darchana respects intelligence and formally-presented points. She cares nothing for JUSTICE or ETHICS, only facts, evidence, and quantifiable matrices of linear pair theorem. Augustyn is ROTTEN TO HIS VERY CORE, and has no SENSE OF HUMOR--" a muscle jumps in Conan's jaw again, "--while Rothos is an HONORABLE soldier who was easily won over by a faithful evocation of the demonic THREAT."
As for the gloves... when Luisila identifies them, the big man beams broadly. "I TOLD YOU THERE WERE VAMPIRES."
Still, a few seconds later, Conan's face knits in bemusement. "...does this not seem strange?" he asks the others. "POISON makes some sense, if it were being used to dose the food, or a target. But why would someone go to the trouble to leave a.... a WEAPON, of sorts, in these gloves, all the way out here in a garden shed? Furthermore, they must have done so since the party began. I can't imagine wanting to DISRUPT the feast, but needing to RUN OUT TO THE GARDEN TO FETCH YOUR EMBROIDERED GLOVES OF DESTRUCTION."
Conan shrugs, staring down at the gloves, then offering them to anyone else who wants them. "I do not fight using NECROMANCY. It's not HEROIC. Someone else may use these."
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“Oh! I forgot the wolfhounds. I agree, while we’re here we should check on them.”
Luisila ponders the remotely located gloves. “Maybe there’s a mole on the ‘inside’ as well as an ‘external’ group.” She *shrugs* “I realize that’s pretty thin – a bit like carrot soup.”
She asks the tengu slayer a question while she thinks. “Do you eat soup, Wei Ji? Do you have to restrict your diet much because you don’t have teeth?”
Eventually she adds, “Is anyone else suspicious of Tespren, the gnome chief of security? I think his no-nonsense robes mark him as an unarmed fighter. Those gloves would have helped his offensive capability, wouldn’t they?”
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The tengu shakes his head at the antics of the party, then hangs said head.
"I ate the soup just fine at dinner tonight, even with the extra challenge of a priestess of the Savored Sting in my lap. Just requires different technique."
The tengu pauses then nods towards the kennels.
"I'm suspicious of everyone right now. No offense."