Day 17 (S10)

Time for a heist!

We spent the first few minutes deciding on what stuff the party would do over the 3 days that we had to scout the Floppy Hat Inn.

We establish a pattern of behavior. Kin moves barrels back and forth with Aurelius. Rina comes and goes visiting them here and there.

We look for a pattern of behavior for them. We decide to go in the morning while the fighter gets donuts.

The day comes when they decide to steal the body.

Rina, Alice, and Aruleus begin in the penthouse, Kin stayed in the lobby area at the ground floor.

“First we should look into their room somehow to see what we’re working with” said Alice.

“I can scry on the room they’re in” said Rina, “that way we can see where the everything is.”

With Scry, Rina saw that the owl was perched just above the doorway about 5ft into the room, and staring around the room - scanning back and forth. The chest was on top of one of the beds covered by a sheet.

“Ok, we need someone to go down there and distract it somehow” said Alice.

“If you polymorph Aurelius into something that distracts an owl, I can Dimension Door us down there behind the owl to get it first so that the wizard doesn’t see us through its eyes.” said Rina.

“Owls eat moths, how about a moth?” Aurelius suggested.

Alice Polymorphed Aruleus to a moth to distract the owl. Since polymorph reduces the intelligence of the person to that of the creature they’re turned into, Aurelius was barely able to remember or understand what to do. However, he did ram himself into the window a few times, and got the Owl’s attention for a moment.

Alice hopped inside of a replacement chest and waited for Rina to dimension door herself and Alice in the chest together.

The moment Rina noticed through the scry that the owl was distracted, she used Dimension Door to get her and Alice into the room, just behind the bird in the doorway. Alice quickly dispells the bird, and it poofed away.

Flashback to the Fighter and Barbarian complaining that they aren’t allowed to even look at the chest. Now we know they wont know the difference.

“Now what?” asked Alice.

“I can dimension door one more time,” Rina replied, “but if I’m going to get this chest out of here, I can’t also take you.”

“Don’t worry about it, I got this.” Alice replied.

Alice and Rina take off the sheet to find a chest that’s green with gold edges.

“This looks nothing like the one we brought” said Rina.

“I heard the fighter and barbarian talking in the bar the other night,” replied Alice, “Apparently the wizard won’t even let them look at it. So they won’t even know the difference.”

Rina Dimension doors out with the Chest containing the body, leaving Alice and the replacement chest still in the room.

Aruleus gets back to the penthouse and helps Rina open the chest, it has lots of traps.

“I got this” Aurelius said - his Ranger background helped him get through all the traps without incident.

The two of them see the body wrapped up in a sheet in the chest, it is small - about the size of Alice.

“Let’s hide this chest among the other boxes and barrels,” suggested Aurelius, “Kin and I have been moving them up and down for days - there’s enough in here that they wouldn’t probably look through all of them.”

They put the chest far back in the corner, underneath and behind other barrels and boxes after removing the body from it.

Alice moves quickly to put the replacement chest where the original chest was, and covered it with the same sheet. In the process of all this, though, she realizes that there was a magic Alarm that she and Rina had tripped when they removed the first chest. “Oh well,” Alice whispered to herself, “they will figure it out eventually, why not immediately?”

Alice then hears footsteps coming up the stairs, the person clearly wearing a set of armor and mumbling to himself - she realizes that the fighter is about to enter this room again.

Alice quickly wildshapes into an ant so as to not be seen. The fighter walks in and sees nothing amiss.

The fighter looks at the chest with annoyance, “We’re supposed to be equals and he won’t even let us see the chest? Screw this.” He pulled back the sheet, “Humph, just a normal chest. Not even anything cool.” He then casts a sending spell to the wizard, “Hey boss, it’s Igor. I just pulled that sheet off that boring-looking chest, I’ll reset the Alarm.”

Alice is then able to escape under the door and turn back into her halfling self on the other side, and she rushes to the penthouse to meet with Rina and Aurelius again.

The wizard had been alerted that something was wrong when the owl familiar came back to him, so he was on his way to the inn even then.

Kin sees him coming and begins walking up the stairs with a barrel that he pretends is very heavy. This slows the wizard down a bit, but he gets to his own room as fast as possible.

Kin enters the penthouse and sees the body in the middle of the floor, “Guys, the wizard is right behind me, we have to hide this thing - now!”

The wizard got back to his room and pulled back the sheet, “You idiot!” he yelled at the fighter, “This isn’t the right chest! This one’s a fake!”

“Well how was I supposed to know?” the Igor clapped back, “You expected me to guard something but didn’t even let me see what I was guarding!”

The wizard immediately ran up the stairs to the penthouse to confront the Sprite’s Lights.

“I have an idea,” said Rina as she looked at Alice, “but you’re not going to like it.”

“I don’t care, what do we do?!” Alice asked in a panic.

“Put the body in the bath, and we will get in the bath with it” Rina said, as she started to derobe.

Aurelius was staring, mouth agape, til Kin elbowed him in the side, “Get yourself together and help me with these barrels!”

Rina and Alice strip and get into the tub with the body, just as the wizard barged his way into their room.

“Who the hell are you, get out!” yelled Rina.

“We’re trying to take a bath here! Don’t look!” yelled Alice

“Oh, oh my gods I’m so sorry” the wizard said as he covered his eyes. “Something of mine is missing and I thought you had it and -”

Aurelius cut him off, “Get out and give the ladies some privacy!” he yelled.

“And get out of my way,” said Kin as he was holding a barrel, “I have more deliveries to make, and you’re right in the doorway.”

“So sorry, I’ll leave” said the wizard. He walked out of the penthouse and headed toward the roof to be a lookout.

Kin and Aurelius both grabbed a barrel and started down the stairs.

Alice and Rina pulled the, now soaking wet, dead body out of the bath and put it into one of the barrels in the room. They then got dressed and grabbed the original chest.

Alice stepped out of the penthouse and checked the hallways, then the two of them quickly carried the origins chest to the 3rd floor - the floor below the Mercenaries’ room - and threw it out a window on the river side.

A boat was waiting there for the chest to land on, the captain had been paid the day before to sit and wait there until a chest fell onto his boat. With the signal to leave, the boat captain started off down the river.

The wizard sees the chest fall out the window and ordered the fighter and barbarian to go after the boat.

The fighter tried to jump onto the boat but missed and fell in the water. He began to sink since his armor was so heavy.

“No, brother!” yelled the barbarian.

Kin and Aruleus ran outside. “Don’t worry!” Kin yelled, “I’ll get him out!” Using control water, Kin was able to get the fighter to shore.

“You saved my brother!” yelled the barbarian, “How ever can I repay you?!”

“Just remember our company!” said Aurelius as he gave both of them leather pouches with fake logos on them.

Alice and Rina hear the commotion and run up to the penthouse again.

They saw that the wizard had the fly spell, and was coming back down to look into the windows. The girls get undressed again just in time for the Flying wizard to check on them.

“Gods what is wrong with you?” Alice yelled, trying to cover herself.

“Peeping Tom!” yelled Rina as loud as she could.

“No, oh my gods, again I’m so sorry” he said as he flew right into the side of the building while trying to cover his eyes. He turns around to see the boat that the chest was on was now lost in a wide river of other boats. “No, oh no. How will I find it now?” he whined as he flew in the direction of the many boats to look at each one. Needless to say, the boat captain was also instructed to cover the chest with a sheet or tarp once he was out of the city gates.

The heist was successful. The party now had the body of the bodak in a barrel, and the mercenaries were trying to find ways to get down the river faster than a boat.

“Now,” started Kin after they all reconvened in the penthouse, “we should continue our schedule as normal for the next couple days. Then we light the fire in the east tower to alert Francis.”

The final three days went by without incident, and the mercenaries were not seen again.

On the night of the 5th day after Francis’ request, the party went to the east tower and Rina lit the torch with her Prestidigitation. They then all went back to the penthouse - except Rina, who stayed in the Tunnel Inn once again.

“Just because you’ve seen me naked, doesn’t mean I trust you” she said to Aurelius before splitting off from the group.

Rina day 14 total, day 5 since reset.

The next morning, four soldiers in the royal garb showed up to the penthouse. Rina had just arrived with coffees enough for all 8 of them. Two guards carried the barrel, and the party followed them into the center castle.

Upon arriving in the waiting area, Drake and Ida were there with Francis.

“Good, good!” Francis started, “You have done well. Let us go somewhere more private.”

Francis then guides them all to a small room with a stone table in the middle. “Guards, please put the contents of the barrel onto the table, then step out.”

They did so, placing the wrapped, small body on the table - still a little wet from being in the bath.

“This is a week-old dead body?” Francis asked, “There’s almost no smell.”

“The bodak that we saw before seemed to have an odd coating on its skin, that might be preventing decay” said Aurelius.

“Well, unwrap it, then” requested Francis.

Rina began to unwrap it. The top of its small body had a beak-like protrusion at the mouth, just like the previous bodak. It’s skill was also a brown-black and covered in small holes.

Ida gasped, “It’s… it’s CheepCheep!”

Rina stopped, “What do you mean it’s CheepCheep? This is the bird person you met last week?!”

“Yes, I’m sure of it,” Ida said, “He was not brown, though. He had blue feathers… it looks like he’s been plucked!” she exclaimed as she started to cry.

Rina then realized that the bodak she killed in Riverbend was another bird person - another Therianthrope. She dropped what was left of the wrappings in shock, “I… I didn’t know…” she said out loud to herself as she started to softly cry as well. She now knew that she had sent another soul to the hellish place that she saw in her Blending vision.

“So then the other bodak was probably another member of the Fearsome 5” Kin said, “which means there’s 3 more out there.”

Alice hopped on a chair and patted Rina on the shoulder to console her, “We can still save the other three,” she said.

Rina wiped her tears and pulled out the book Niktalia Eternal. “This is what CheepCheep got from the library, and it has your name on it” she pointed to Drake. “What can you tell us about this, and why was this so important to them?”

Drake grabbed the book from Rina, “This was… over 600 years ago. I only helped write it, and don’t remember much about it anymore.”

“Is there nothing else you can tell us that may help?” Asked Rina.

“All I can say is that the same phenomenon happened once before about 100 years ago on the top of Mt. Ivatum. Aside from that, I am not sure I can be of much more help here.”

Drake handed back the book, “The one who would know the most is Therius,” He said, “Now come with me, King Sullivan will want to speak with you all.” He begins to walk away, Rina and the others follow.