"No, she didn't say anything else before she left...oh, wait. I think she muttered something about losing her shawl when she walked off? She seemed really sad. I guess women get really attached to their clothes."
Krom sends a Message to Ixrul, surreptitiously lifting his mug to conceal his mouth.
"Sorrinash was drugged. A 'blue lady' enchanted one of the servants, mentioned losing a shawl. Permission to subdue the werewolf before he kills someone?"
Ixrul lowers his voice.
"Sorrinash, I think you've been drugged. There's foul play at work here. I have an alchemist who can help you."
"Krom, can your eidolon track by scent?"
"No, but I can use Evolution Surge to give her that ability for a little while."
Ixrul gives Krom a curt nod.
"What? Keep that f!!+in' potion popper away from me. I don' need nothin' except this sweet piece right here." he says with a laugh as he (quite literally) paws at Audessa.
Ixrul reaches back and dimensional steps himself and Audessa out of the room and into a back area of the kitchen.
"Wait here."
He returns below, but out of Sorrinash's immediate reach.
"Sorrinash, shake it off. I thought you were a real man, a captain of your own fate - are you just going to allow yourself to be controlled like some chump?"
"Because if not..." Ixrul lazily spreads his hands, gesturing to his crew. "We're all friends here, Sorrinash. I want to keep it that way."
"Krom, I am expecting you to take care of this if it proceeds poorly."
Gremory puts her gun away and approaches Sorrinash. Stopping about fifteen feet away from him.
"And of course, dear Sorrinash, there are different, much better 'goods' we can share with you if you simply grant us this one request."
Krom approaches alongside Gremory, also unarmed.
"You're a proud warrior, Sorrinash. I could see it in your eyes the moment we met. You have the strength - the will - to overcome this drug affecting you. It'd be a damn shame to see your pride tarrnished over a little...misunderstanding."
While Krom is talking, Gurram tenses up, ready to pounce.
Ace nervously looks around, sets his sword down, and draws closer to the werewolf.
"We all want to have a good time, right? "
Sorrinash looks displeased, and a little angry at all of you, but stands down.
"Not worth the trouble for a low class whore anyway..." he can be heard muttering as he walks back to the beverage table, shrinking back into his humanoid form as he does so.
The rest of the party look uncomfortable as well, which at first you attribute to the incredibly awkward standoff that just transpired. As the seconds drag on and the festivities (mostly) grind to a halt, you realize that everyone is green around the gills for an entirely different reason, as guests look increasingly nauseous, some even vomiting all over the floor.
"Stomp out one fire..."
"Everyone remain calm! Someone find Sandra and bring her here! We need to get these people chairs cots, anything for them to rest on!" Gremory starts shouting orders to try to get the situation under control.
Daliya breathed out. Beating a guest to death would likely be a bad idea. But some things required it.
Noting the green people, she frowned and looked at the nearest items of food and drink, casting Detect Poison on them to see if that was where the problem lay.
Daliya's readings are somewhat odd. Neither the food nor the drink is poisoned, but nevertheless all the guests detect as being poisoned, and the source is clearly something in their stomachs.
"Check the utensils as well, Daliya."
It's not the utensils.
Arron takes a small sample of the vomit and hurries off to his lab with it.
Krom sends Gurram out to find Sandra and carry her here as quickly as possible.
"Everyone, we are under some form of attack or sabotage by a hostile third party. Another one of my guests - one of the fair folk - has had something vital to their wellbeing stolen. Now, you have all been affected by some sort of poison delivered to your stomachs without touching our food, drink, or utensils."
"Aaron will come with further instructions shortly. For now, please remain seated or take a seat if you have not. I assure you I will see to the death of whoever is responsible - and if anyone has any ideas that could speed up my investigation, I would be happy to hear them."
Ixrul examines the crowds, mentally categorizing them via physical toughness and seeing if it correlates with how or if they are affected by the poison.
He pays particular attention to Harrigan and anyone aligned with him.
Isitoq, locate the nereid.
He reaches out to Lillian through his bond.
"I have a situation here, and would appreciate your help. It's not urgent enough for me to force it, but I'm expecting that you'll have the chance to feed and that I'll have the chance to extract a few soul gems. Interested?"
Daliya considered. If it wasn't the food and it wasn't the drink, either someone was using something to poison people directly or something else was being poisoned. Tobacco?
Either way, she checked one out to see what the symptons were more exacly, and examine for any marks or jabs.
Gremory retrieves Sandra if no-one else does, and observes the crowds behavior while they're examined.
Harrigan actually looks just as surprised as anyone...though you detect anger in his expression more than the pain and confusion of others.
Sandra is distressed, and hurries along with Gremory and Krom.
"Oh no. I don't know if I have that many Neutralize Poisons and Restorations. I hope I can get by with some tonics for most of them..."
The symptoms seem relatively minor, in that they're nonlethal. Most are in a state of general queasiness, and only a few are vomiting (you suspect they may have partaken more than others).
Sure thing, baby. What do you need?
Blending with a crowd, reading people - someone sabotaging an event of mine. I'll step into a side room for a moment and call you here.
Ixrul slips into a back room briefly and calls Lillian.
"No magic anyone can detect without checking with me first. See if you can figure out who our saboteur is - if you do and think you can do so safely, try to incapacitate him. We have a nereid with her shawl taken - see if you can find it and get the shawl back. If you do, bring it to me as quickly as you can."
"Which is the higher priority? Shawl or saboteur?"
Ixrul hesitates. "Shawl leads us to saboteur. I expect they - shawl-thief and saboteur - are one and the same, but the shawl is a surefire indicator. Shawl."
"Are you sure that's the reason? Or are you just that concerned with your little wet side piece? Don't worry, I'm not the jealous type." Lillian says with a smirk.
Ixrul spares Lillian the briefest eye roll.
"Get out there. I'll be back in shortly."
Ixrul checks through the eyes of his Isitoq, waits a few seconds, and returns to the crowd to find Krom.
"Can Gurram track a scent? If we find our Nereid's shawl, we'll find our perpetrator."
"She can if I cast Evolution Surge. That lasts for about eleven minutes, and I can cast it four more times today."
Krom thinks for a moment. "In fact, with a Greater Evolution Surge, I could improve her tracking prowess too. I can only cast it twice, but the situation seems dire enough to be using my best spells."
Daliya shook her head. "It's a mild emetic - a substance to cause vomiting. I'll be damned if I can work out where it came from though. It might be in anything, and mild enough not to register as a poison, or they might have slipped it into something I haven't checked." The druid shrugged. "This was designed to harm our reputation, not the guests."
"Adding to that interestingly enough, it would seem our uninvited guest is as in the dark as any of our other patrons. Well, more upset than most. Perhaps because this saboteur is already more effective than he." Gremory sounds like she has a more clinical interest in the proceedings than feeling offended by the slight.
Lillian asks Ixrul to describe the island and heads off, shifting to the Ethereal and beginning to teleport around the island. Within a minute, she has an answer for you.
"The nereid's at some pond near a bunch of weird looking palm trees. She looks like she's about to cry!" Lillian reports, a girlish cackle coming across the line at the same time.
"You want me to slap her around a bit? Or do you want me to wait for you? You seem like the kind of guy who likes to watch..."
Don't hurt her. Does she have a shawl with her? Does she look physically unwell?
Try to read her mind, figure out who she talked to that made her have Sorrinash drugged.
Lillian trasmits you an image from Sefina's mind, of a strange halfling taking her shawl as she was getting dressed for the party. She set it aside for a mere moment, and that much was enough. She also mentions that Sefina is worried about this man's plans...he's apparently planning to burn the ships in your harbor.
Find him. When you do, don't engage but do try to read his mind. I'll teleport myself and a kill team to him.
"I want buckets and a fire crew to the harbor, now - I suspect they won't be needed, though. Our sabotuer is a black-haired halfling, wearing a gold medallion and with a scar on his lip. Armored."
"Krom, Gremory, Ace, Daliya - with me, prepare for teleportation."
Speaking loud enough to be heard by the guests, Ixrul says, "Apologies, the saboteur appears to be a third party actor that has something against pirates in general, or at least those present here. Perhaps the navy of a hostile nation is planning an attack, so be ready for anything."
Gremory hands her spare scroll of lesser restoration to Sandra before leaving on the off chance it helps.
"Sure wish I had my lance with me. Call me unprepared, but I didn't think I'd need it for the party."
"Fingers and fists have always worked for me," Daliya said with a small smile. "Feet sometimes, too."
Ace brandishes his blade while he laughs with confidence "I guess its finally for my time to shine!"
"It certainly pays to be prepared." Gremory says inspecting her gun in her dress.
"My fancy garb doesn't lend itself well to carrying a lance."
"I do have this, though." He produces a gauntlet and puts it on his hand. Just in case I needed to challenge someone to a duel!"
As Sandra attends to the guests, you teleport to the harbor and find...everything peaceful, oddly enough. Just the faint lapping of the waves against the shore.
A few moments pass, when Ixrul gets another transmission from Lillian.
"Your side piece is up to something again. She just stood up and started setting up some kind of device nearby. It has a fuse..."