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Phinellippa steps back and lets loose a bolt of force that knocks a chunk out of the chair attacking her, while Damiar begins an impromptu song about murderous chairs. Iovo pokes at a chair with her rapier, hitting a weak point and doing more damage than expected, but is quickly outshone by Ironshanks and his starmetal axe, which leaves a massive gouge in the furniture.
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Rees aims truly and hits the chair with two arrows...both of which bounce harmlessly away. The chair ignores these as so many gnats, continuing its pursuit of Iovo!
Once again, the elf is forced into the seat and squeezed, this time leaving her unconscious!
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Nico claws and bites at the chair, but finds this furniture harder to damage than the stuff at home!
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Garif connects with a hurled ball of flame, scorching the chair, though the hard wood doesn't light easily. The heat does weaken the nails holding it together, though, and when one of Nico's claws just catches the nail head, the weakened fastener gives way and the whole thing falls apart!
The remaining chair tries again to grab Phinellippa, lunging at the diminutive wizard but once again missing.
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Nico slinks closer to the blue-painted chair, then pounces with teeth and claws!
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"I don't know what you have against elves and my sister, but this stops now!"
"Pretty sure that one already stopped. This one's got a beef with the quiet gnome lass... Make space, lumber jack comin' through!" Ironshanks thinks about climbing up on the table and getting a bit more leverage but decides against the likely embarrassing outcome.
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Where Rees's arrows clattered off harmlessly, Damiar's, perhaps fueled by concern for her sister, sticks in one arm of the chair, splitting the board. Garif takes advantage of the splintering, charring and buring the chair as Nico leaves deep gouges across one leg. This combined mayhem leaves the chair defenseless as Ironshanks charges in and splits the offending furniture with a mighty blow!
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Ironshanks pauses for a few moments, listening for the sounds of an alarm.
"I got a healin' stick here if Garif can put it to use on her. Or whoever, maybe Damiar too?" He hands it over then lifts up the downed Elf and lays her on the table.
"I'mma gonna keep watch over by the door, just in case someone does show up." He grabs the handle of his axe and turns around, just in case they need to any any sort of medical exam.
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"I will watch with you," volunteers Rees, glancing down at the burly dwarf and slightly raising one eyebrow, as if to opine, I don't know about you, but I'm very uncomfortable right now. How was the illusion of the chairs sustained? How was Iovo convinced that they were hurting her? A few minutes to clear my head would be welcome.
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Iovo groans as she wakes. “Glad to see those things turned into kindling.” she says gesturing towards the destroyed chairs.
She smiles and nods in response to her sister’s question then tests that her message spell is still active, whispering to her sister over it “So how long was I unconscious for?”
Looking to where Ironshanks is stationed, she tells him “Guess I was wrong about needing the axe too.”
As her sister takes care of most of her injuries, Iovo looks towards Phinellippa and asks “Have you figured out their filing system yet?”
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Iovo's spell continues functioning. Looking around, you see exquisite (and quite valuable-looking) jade amulets among what remains of the animated chairs. Looking at the pieces, you suspect they were built into the backs of chairs. While they are not magical, the remaining chairs at the table lack these amulets, and you suspect they may have been built in so that staff could easily distinguish the guard-furniture at a glance.
Mounted on the wall by the front door you see a map, with each cabinet labeled by subject .
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Looking at the map, Iovo then goes to the cabinet marked Internal Security Evidence and starts searching.
Shaking her head, she mutters "I suppose they consider bad indexing a security measure." Looking towards the door, she says "The more of us searching the files, the faster this will go. Do we really need anyone stationed at the door?"
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"Hey now, we were just givin' you a bit of privacy in yer moment of need." He huffs then heads over to check out a corner bookcase before the amulets catch his eye "No sense lettin' them go to waste right?" He snatches them up and pry's a bit of broken oak off.
"Let's see... Foreign Ministry Personnel... she could qualify as that right?" He starts thumbing through the lower shelves.
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"What a singularly uninteresting library," Garif mutters as he studies the titles of the various sections. "Not a bit of natural history...though I guess there's something labeled 'Histories.' Not my strong suit, but more interesting than personnel files, whatever those are."
He gestures to Nico to wait by the door, and joins his comrades in searching the library.
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Rees studies the shelves for a long minute. Finally, he shakes his head, casts a slightly apologetic look at Garif, as if to say, Sorry... I know if I took 'internal security sites' we'd be a nice symmetrical layout—assuming you count Nico—but I just can't help myself. I really don't have the slightest idea what a 'recipet' is, and... I think I am feeling curiosity., and heads to the column labeled 'internal security recipets'.
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The party fans out and searches a variety of cabinets.
The evidence against Zarta consists of of a series of letters written in a halting hand that resembles the paracountess’s, along with her personal travel log. Upon closer examination, however, the letters’ writing differs significantly from the note found in Zarta’s study. The forged letters are addressed to a prominent House Thrune enemy, and in them “Zarta” discusses selling privileged Chelish information supposedly meant to foment political insurrection. Zarta’s personal travel logs, written in her natural hand, are also included. While the first entry—a trip to Absalom’s Ivy District—does indeed match with the letters’ indication of Zarta’s supposed treasonous activities, the second entry proves the paracountess was away from Absalom during a time the letters claim she met with her conspirators in the Petal District.
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Looking at the seal and then Zara’s decoded note, Iovo says “Interesting! The number on the seal matches the number for Tancred Desimire.”
“We probably have time to go through the garden on the way back, cutting across rather than needing to sneak. We should have enough resources to pull off a reasonable disguise.”
“Do you think we have time to peek into the chamber just off Zarta’s bedroom?”
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“Right, we leave the evidence here just copying the information we need and leave.”
Looking at the grate, Iovo asks “Damiar or Phinellippa, do either of you currently have an Unseen Servant active? If not, think I will be bringing one up.”
Once everyone else is up in the secret tunnels, Iovo goes in backwards so that she can put the grate back. She has the Unseen Servant lift and hold it in place as she refastens it.
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Garif listens as Iovo lays out the plan, then nudges Ironshanks and comments, "We may grumble about their ways a bit, but gotta admit, these elf sisters can be clever when there's a need, eh?" Turning to Damiar, he says, "If you turn me and Nico invisible, I think we can just manage to go unnoticed as we leave here. Let's do it."
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The party makes its way back through the vents (securing the cover in place via magic and nimble fingers), and emerges back into Zarta's study. After closing the secret door again to conceal the room's existence, you peek into the unexplored room connected to the bedchamber.
This room seems to be in pristine condition, with little evidence of renovations. The chamber is full of a variety of equipment suggestive of a dungeon or torture chamber. The walls appear to be thickly padded and sustain hooks holding a number of whips, bludgeons, and other instruments of pain. Spaced between large mirrors are several extremely obscene paintings, one of which a blasphemous piece depicting Sarenrae in a very compromising position with two succubi.
Once Zarta's playroom has been explored, the party makes last minute preparations to depart.
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After crawling out of the tunnels, Iovo checks her servant garb. She then casts her Disguise Self spell so as to better blend in with the other servants. Her red hair turns brunette, her ears lose their points, and her skin becomes slightly more pale. She looks human and will easily blend in with some of the other servants.
The glamour also covers her equipment that a servant shouldn’t be carrying.
Checking herself in one of the playroom mirrors, she comments “It will do. I really think I look better as myself, but the intent here is to not attract attention.”
Looking at the painting of Sarenrae, Iovo giggles.
As she passes though the garden area, she is careful that anyone touching her does so on the uniform rather than her other equipment.
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Ironshanks nods in agreement with Garif, knowing full well he's never been hired as the clever problem solver. Unless of course you can solve it with the razor's edge of an axe blade or the solid impact of a shield face. "Don't count them chickens yet, we'll celebrate later."
With that he adjusts the hat to resemble the Dwarven Tunnelers his favorite profession mining team before trying to blend in and sneak across the garden.
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Ironshanks, Damiar, and Iovo disguise themselves, making their way quickly but unobtrusively across the garden. Ironshanks is the first to arrive at the far side, just managing to keep hold of his beer as he nearly trips over an invisible Nico. After waiting a few moments for the sneaky Phinellippa to make her way through the bushes, the whole party makes it inside before the invisibility spells wear off . A bit of careful timing later and you find yourselves back in the waiting room where you started.
After about 15 minutes of waiting, the door on the South wall opens and a man dressed in fine Chelaxian style walks in, flanked by two guards who remain by the door. "Ah, apologies for the delay, I have important matters of state to attend to this evening. I'm told that you have information you wish to deliver to me directly?"
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Once back in the waiting room, Iovo quickly dismisses her spell and stuffs the servant’s garb in her haversack.
She waits for everyone to be back in the room before locking the door so no one would be suspicious. She then spends a few minutes making some last minute notes about what was found before putting them away and sitting to wait for the Ambassador.
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When the Ambassador enters, she looks up and quickly stands. She gives a small bow of respect, and allows her sister to lead the conversation. She has the package of information about Sargava ready to hand over to the ambassador at the appropriate time.
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Ironshanks dismisses his disguise as they get back into the room. He does let the hiding elixir linger though until it runs out naturally. Its been a while since he's been able to avoid waking himself up from snoring.
"Howdy." Is about the only greeting he can come up with as the Ambassador comes in. Mostly he keeps his eyes on the man's guards, just to be sure they aren't preparing for an assault.
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"Thank you for seeing us, your Excellency." Damiar, having just changed back from her normal garb, hands the ambassador the packet of information on Sagarva. "This is intelligence that we were instructed was sensitive. We were told to only pass it to you, but I see that you have an event tonight. Now that we have passed our information, we'll be on our way."
Damiar bows, and once the Ambassador responds, heads out.
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"Hm. I appreciate your sense of care, though I trust my guards. Anyway, thank you for the delivery. Now, if you'll excuse me I must be returning to my diplomatic duties. Don't let me detain you." With that, the ambassador turns and departs through the door from which he entered.
You are quickly escorted from the building, and can return to the Grand Lodge without incident. When you report back to Ambrus Valsin, he is quite pleased to hear about your success, and he thanks you for your hard work. A few days later, you each receive a small parcel from him, containing a small token stamped with the insignia of House Thrune and a note saying I haven't heard any uproar from the Chelaxians since your visit. It seems your actions went completely undetected. Well done! -A
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During the briefing, Iovo smiles widely when Ironshanks presents Valsin with the picture. "You made quite an impression on her!" she teases before admitting that Zarta left a secret message with the picture.
"I noticed the stamp on the official detainment document had the same number as the decoded cypher for Tancred Desmire. I assume that means he filed the evidence and that bit of paperwork?"