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<blockquote data-quote="Hairy Minotaur" data-source="post: 3277169" data-attributes="member: 11574"><p><strong>Bluff on, bluff off</strong></p><p></p><p>They entered the tunnel and found evidence of a recent goblin presence; discarded rodent bones, feces, soot marks along the tunnel’s ceiling, but no bodies. Cautiously advancing up the tunnel, they spot numerous barefoot goblin tracks, and even a discarded spear shaft. However, three miles into the tunnel with light beginning to glow from ahead and the faint sound of organized chaos, Menthos and Helle realized that they’d arrived near the end of the tunnel and were close to the party. </p><p></p><p>Grrrgggrr</p><p></p><p>An alien sound echoed through the quiet passageway.</p><p></p><p>“What was that? Light!” Helle spoke and the dim glow on his holy symbol flared up washing the tunnel with a reddish light for thirty feet up and down the tunnel.</p><p></p><p>Nothing new was revealed in the light.</p><p></p><p>Grrrggrgr</p><p></p><p>The sound was right on top of them</p><p></p><p>“It must be on some weird demi-plane, my holy light isn’t revealing the creature to me.” Helle spoke low to Menthos</p><p></p><p>“Maybe that’s because the creature is in Doopa’s stomach.” Menthos replied sarcastically</p><p></p><p>“Doopa sorry, Menthos not say it would take all day!” Doopa pleaded</p><p></p><p>“That’s annoying; we got to get him something to eat.” Helle replied</p><p></p><p>“Don’t you priestly types have spells for that?” Menthos responded</p><p></p><p>“Other priests do, my spells don’t do that.” Helle replied truthfully</p><p></p><p>Helle’s meaning is lost on Menthos as the teifling prepares to enact his plan.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile topside, Kessen, Haimish, and Turgar enter the party. Xanthos in disguise as an upper end middle-aged well-to-do elf arrives via an opulent carriage. He exits and hands the first ogre he encounters his invitation.</p><p></p><p>“Greetings my large fellow, I’m am Lord Delhaunt of House Silverleaf.” Xanthos announces</p><p></p><p>“So?” the ogre responds</p><p></p><p>“Shouldn’t you announce me to the Lord of the party, as is customary in these civilized parts?” Xanthos states</p><p></p><p>“Oh, Hey Morty!” The ogre shouts</p><p></p><p>“What!” A hunchbacked troll shouts back</p><p></p><p>“Lord Delhump is here to meet the Lord of the party.” The ogre replies</p><p></p><p>“Excuse me that’s not my na.” Xanthos attempts to correct the ogre</p><p></p><p>“So?!” The troll shouts back </p><p></p><p>“Pass it on!” The ogre replies</p><p></p><p>“There, you’ve been annunciated get downstairs before I throw you downstairs.” The ogre instructs </p><p></p><p>“Such rudeness from such a simple creature, I shall have you reported to the slave master at once.” Xanthos huffs</p><p></p><p>“Yeah, you do that fairy. Be sure you tell them where to find me.” The ogre answers as he shoves Xanthos forward</p><p></p><p>Xanthos reaches the bottom of the steps and the smell of cooking and wine permeate his senses. He quickly notes the rest of the topside party ahead of him pushing their way into the hallway beyond the cloak room (former room where the three goblins were cooking rabbit). The walls were covered in tapestries, most of which looked like they could bankroll an entire war. </p><p></p><p>Xanthos picked out a waist endowed opulent looking human male who appeared to be alone and made his approach to him.</p><p></p><p>“Hello good sir, I was wondering if you knew whether Lord De Lite had arrived yet?” Xanthos asked</p><p></p><p>“Who? Don’t know him. Who are you?” The man asked</p><p></p><p>“I sir am Lord Delhaunt of House Silverleaf, returned to visit my teachers at the School of Ancient knowledge.” Xanthos responds</p><p></p><p>“You a merchant?” The man asks</p><p></p><p>“No, as I explained, I am from the …” Xanthos noted the man lost interest and wondered away immediately after the word “no”</p><p></p><p>The rest of the topside party moved from room to room looking for Lord De Lite, Haimish stopped in each room to listen to the minstrels play in each room. In the farthest room from the entrance (a room not entered by the party when they were here last) Haimish watched as a slave girl danced to a whirling beat inside a circle of merchants. Her hair whipped about her as she twirled and bounced around the circle, she’d stop every so often and tease the man she stopped in front of. Haimish recalled seeing the trick before in his adopted homeland. He wondered how much merchant money the “slave” girl would be walking out of the dance with tonight.</p><p></p><p>“Ooh a professional dancer?” Kessen asked</p><p></p><p>“Oh she’s professional alright, but not really a dancer, think sticky fingers.” Haimish answered</p><p></p><p>Xanthos decided to try a different tactic and attempted to move near different conversations, subtly changing his skin tone to blend in with his surroundings, he would try to listen first before speaking.</p><p></p><p>As Xanthos moved out of the cloak room and into the hallway, he felt someone brush against him from behind. He turned to look back and as he did he heard the words “The pieces are in place sister, strike when the well is hot, listen for the call of the moon.” Xanthos spin his head around but there was no one near enough to him to be considered good suspects for the speaker, perplexed, he continued onward.</p><p></p><p>Below, Menthos led his party near the edge of light. Smells of roast pig and pheasant wafted into the hallway, along with the smell of citrus and aging vegetable matter as Menthos spied a large pile of refuse near the end of the tunnel. Doopa’s stomach told Menthos that quick action would be needed before the barbarian raged his way into the kitchen and ruined any surprise element. </p><p></p><p>“What’s the plan?” Helle inquired</p><p></p><p>“I don’t have one, I thought we’d be chasing goblins all the way here and then we could bluff our way in with a chasing the uninvited goblins out story, I didn’t think I’d need a plan B.” Menthos answered</p><p></p><p>The disappointed look on Helle’s face was quickly turning to frustration. Menthos wondered how long he could keep both the trigger happy priests and the starving ogre at bay. Feeling the temperature rise behind him, Menthos decided to act now instead of after a barrage of fireballs.</p><p></p><p>“Come on Doopa, the rest of you stay here.” Menthos advised</p><p></p><p>“What? Where are you going?” Helle pressed</p><p></p><p>“I’ll be back for you.” Menthos stated and left the Kadors in the tunnel</p><p></p><p>Bursting into the bustling kitchen came a wild-eyed ogre and a thin teifling; they stood out like a demon in Olympus as the kitchen staff were all garbed in white shirts, white pants, and white aprons, with white poofy hats on their heads. Dirtied from their miles of walking through a dirt tunnel and then through the heap of garbage piled at the tunnel entrance the two definitely did not look like they belonged.</p><p></p><p>“Excuse me, no one but staff is allowed down here! Guards!” A cook shouts</p><p></p><p>“What? Don’t you know who this is?” Menthos asks incredulously</p><p></p><p>“No, I do not and you’re not supposed to be down here! Guards!” The cook shouts again</p><p></p><p>“This is the ……. Overlord’s taste tester, come to inspect the food before he arrives at the party.” Menthos wings it</p><p></p><p>“You lie, I happen to know the Overlord’s personal food tester is a halfing.” The cook contends</p><p></p><p>“Oh sure, in the palace, but he’s too valuable to let out of the palace. Kidnappings and assassinations notwithstanding, that’s why he employs expendables for when he travels outside the palace.” Menthos answers</p><p></p><p>The cook opened mouth to reply, but caught himself as he realized the teifling’s words were logical before carefully selecting his next statement. “Why wasn’t I informed of this?”</p><p></p><p>“So you wouldn’t put the poison in the food after we arrived, or maybe charm him, or interrogate him, or bribe him, all before we got here. Duh!” Menthos answered</p><p></p><p>“Hmm, yes I see your point on that, but I simply can’t have an ogre running around my kitchen eating food. It’s not sanitary.” The cook replies</p><p></p><p>“He’ll sit on the floor next to the open pit, in fact if you drop food on the way upstairs, throw it at him and he’ll still test it. The only thing better than an ogre food tester is a troll one and we both know how much that would cost.” Menthos says while winking knowingly at the cook</p><p></p><p>“I don’t know about this, let me see your credentials.” The cook asked</p><p></p><p>“First yours, how do we even know you’re a cook. Have you been taught the fine art of hygiene? Do you know the optimal temperature to keep a rack of pork ribs at, when cooked over an open fire of oak and cherry wood? How about the number of times you should wash your hands after handling the liver of a Dusk Giant?” Menthos retorted</p><p></p><p>Stalemated the cook and Menthos stare each other down.</p><p></p><p>“Sir.” A lithe human female called out to the cook, “the guests report this has a bad taste to it.” </p><p></p><p>The cook turns and eyes the woman, before getting an idea. “Here have the supposed food tester try this, if he can tell me what’s wrong with it. I’ll believe your story.”</p><p></p><p>“Fine.” Menthos answered and took the glass of dark colored liquid from the cook’s hand. Menthos swirled the liquid around the inside of the glass, then sniffed the contents. “He can’t drink that.”</p><p></p><p>“Why? Because you’re imposters!” The cook shouts</p><p></p><p>“No, because goblins urinated in your wine supply.” Menthos answered</p><p></p><p>The disbelieving cook grabbed the glass from Menthos’ hand and took a swig of the liquid, then retched and spat it out. Gasps erupted from the gathered kitchen help.</p><p></p><p>“Crack open the reverses of wine and get Ohlsen to go into town for more, this stuff’s no good.” The cook hacked </p><p></p><p>Menthos opened his arms before Doopa, who grabbed the roasting pig off of the spit with one hand and then cracked open it’s abdomen along the sternum and pulled the ribcage apart, “Ribs” was the only intelligible word that Doopa got out before he tore into the meat.</p><p></p><p>“That’s amazing, how’d he do that?” Fyhre asked</p><p></p><p>“It was Atlantean wine, it’s very delicate. Vigorous swirling or shaking of a bottle cause the whole bottle to go bad and taste like urine.” Helle replied</p><p></p><p>“He’s brilliant.” Fyhre’s admiration was beginning to melt through her steel façade</p><p></p><p>“That’s why Kador thinks he has potential.” Helle replied</p><p></p><p>“Do you think he’ll learn the words?” Fyhre inquires</p><p></p><p>“One task at a time.” Helle answers her</p><p></p><p>Menthos bows to the hidden priests and then makes his way around the pit heading for the stairs up to the first floor.</p><p></p><p>“Where are you going? You can’t just leave him down here unattended.” The cook protests</p><p></p><p>“What? He’s fine, I assure you he’s not going anywhere for a long time.” Menthos smiles and turns back around amid continued protests from the cook</p><p></p><p>As he reaches the far side of the pit, Menthos catches a glint of steel in the darkened stairway. Followed quickly by the twitching body of a male waiter as he is dragged bleeding from the throat by an elven female dressed in all black studded leather.</p><p></p><p><em>Great</em>, thought Menthos, <em>we’re not the only ones here with a mission it seems. Although she did look good in that leather and studded is how I like ‘em.</em></p><p></p><p>Unseen by Menthos is the obese form of a Thellios priest as he too sinks away from the staircase and follows the assassin down a short hallway to the left of the stairs and through a barred door.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hairy Minotaur, post: 3277169, member: 11574"] [b]Bluff on, bluff off[/b] They entered the tunnel and found evidence of a recent goblin presence; discarded rodent bones, feces, soot marks along the tunnel’s ceiling, but no bodies. Cautiously advancing up the tunnel, they spot numerous barefoot goblin tracks, and even a discarded spear shaft. However, three miles into the tunnel with light beginning to glow from ahead and the faint sound of organized chaos, Menthos and Helle realized that they’d arrived near the end of the tunnel and were close to the party. Grrrgggrr An alien sound echoed through the quiet passageway. “What was that? Light!” Helle spoke and the dim glow on his holy symbol flared up washing the tunnel with a reddish light for thirty feet up and down the tunnel. Nothing new was revealed in the light. Grrrggrgr The sound was right on top of them “It must be on some weird demi-plane, my holy light isn’t revealing the creature to me.” Helle spoke low to Menthos “Maybe that’s because the creature is in Doopa’s stomach.” Menthos replied sarcastically “Doopa sorry, Menthos not say it would take all day!” Doopa pleaded “That’s annoying; we got to get him something to eat.” Helle replied “Don’t you priestly types have spells for that?” Menthos responded “Other priests do, my spells don’t do that.” Helle replied truthfully Helle’s meaning is lost on Menthos as the teifling prepares to enact his plan. Meanwhile topside, Kessen, Haimish, and Turgar enter the party. Xanthos in disguise as an upper end middle-aged well-to-do elf arrives via an opulent carriage. He exits and hands the first ogre he encounters his invitation. “Greetings my large fellow, I’m am Lord Delhaunt of House Silverleaf.” Xanthos announces “So?” the ogre responds “Shouldn’t you announce me to the Lord of the party, as is customary in these civilized parts?” Xanthos states “Oh, Hey Morty!” The ogre shouts “What!” A hunchbacked troll shouts back “Lord Delhump is here to meet the Lord of the party.” The ogre replies “Excuse me that’s not my na.” Xanthos attempts to correct the ogre “So?!” The troll shouts back “Pass it on!” The ogre replies “There, you’ve been annunciated get downstairs before I throw you downstairs.” The ogre instructs “Such rudeness from such a simple creature, I shall have you reported to the slave master at once.” Xanthos huffs “Yeah, you do that fairy. Be sure you tell them where to find me.” The ogre answers as he shoves Xanthos forward Xanthos reaches the bottom of the steps and the smell of cooking and wine permeate his senses. He quickly notes the rest of the topside party ahead of him pushing their way into the hallway beyond the cloak room (former room where the three goblins were cooking rabbit). The walls were covered in tapestries, most of which looked like they could bankroll an entire war. Xanthos picked out a waist endowed opulent looking human male who appeared to be alone and made his approach to him. “Hello good sir, I was wondering if you knew whether Lord De Lite had arrived yet?” Xanthos asked “Who? Don’t know him. Who are you?” The man asked “I sir am Lord Delhaunt of House Silverleaf, returned to visit my teachers at the School of Ancient knowledge.” Xanthos responds “You a merchant?” The man asks “No, as I explained, I am from the …” Xanthos noted the man lost interest and wondered away immediately after the word “no” The rest of the topside party moved from room to room looking for Lord De Lite, Haimish stopped in each room to listen to the minstrels play in each room. In the farthest room from the entrance (a room not entered by the party when they were here last) Haimish watched as a slave girl danced to a whirling beat inside a circle of merchants. Her hair whipped about her as she twirled and bounced around the circle, she’d stop every so often and tease the man she stopped in front of. Haimish recalled seeing the trick before in his adopted homeland. He wondered how much merchant money the “slave” girl would be walking out of the dance with tonight. “Ooh a professional dancer?” Kessen asked “Oh she’s professional alright, but not really a dancer, think sticky fingers.” Haimish answered Xanthos decided to try a different tactic and attempted to move near different conversations, subtly changing his skin tone to blend in with his surroundings, he would try to listen first before speaking. As Xanthos moved out of the cloak room and into the hallway, he felt someone brush against him from behind. He turned to look back and as he did he heard the words “The pieces are in place sister, strike when the well is hot, listen for the call of the moon.” Xanthos spin his head around but there was no one near enough to him to be considered good suspects for the speaker, perplexed, he continued onward. Below, Menthos led his party near the edge of light. Smells of roast pig and pheasant wafted into the hallway, along with the smell of citrus and aging vegetable matter as Menthos spied a large pile of refuse near the end of the tunnel. Doopa’s stomach told Menthos that quick action would be needed before the barbarian raged his way into the kitchen and ruined any surprise element. “What’s the plan?” Helle inquired “I don’t have one, I thought we’d be chasing goblins all the way here and then we could bluff our way in with a chasing the uninvited goblins out story, I didn’t think I’d need a plan B.” Menthos answered The disappointed look on Helle’s face was quickly turning to frustration. Menthos wondered how long he could keep both the trigger happy priests and the starving ogre at bay. Feeling the temperature rise behind him, Menthos decided to act now instead of after a barrage of fireballs. “Come on Doopa, the rest of you stay here.” Menthos advised “What? Where are you going?” Helle pressed “I’ll be back for you.” Menthos stated and left the Kadors in the tunnel Bursting into the bustling kitchen came a wild-eyed ogre and a thin teifling; they stood out like a demon in Olympus as the kitchen staff were all garbed in white shirts, white pants, and white aprons, with white poofy hats on their heads. Dirtied from their miles of walking through a dirt tunnel and then through the heap of garbage piled at the tunnel entrance the two definitely did not look like they belonged. “Excuse me, no one but staff is allowed down here! Guards!” A cook shouts “What? Don’t you know who this is?” Menthos asks incredulously “No, I do not and you’re not supposed to be down here! Guards!” The cook shouts again “This is the ……. Overlord’s taste tester, come to inspect the food before he arrives at the party.” Menthos wings it “You lie, I happen to know the Overlord’s personal food tester is a halfing.” The cook contends “Oh sure, in the palace, but he’s too valuable to let out of the palace. Kidnappings and assassinations notwithstanding, that’s why he employs expendables for when he travels outside the palace.” Menthos answers The cook opened mouth to reply, but caught himself as he realized the teifling’s words were logical before carefully selecting his next statement. “Why wasn’t I informed of this?” “So you wouldn’t put the poison in the food after we arrived, or maybe charm him, or interrogate him, or bribe him, all before we got here. Duh!” Menthos answered “Hmm, yes I see your point on that, but I simply can’t have an ogre running around my kitchen eating food. It’s not sanitary.” The cook replies “He’ll sit on the floor next to the open pit, in fact if you drop food on the way upstairs, throw it at him and he’ll still test it. The only thing better than an ogre food tester is a troll one and we both know how much that would cost.” Menthos says while winking knowingly at the cook “I don’t know about this, let me see your credentials.” The cook asked “First yours, how do we even know you’re a cook. Have you been taught the fine art of hygiene? Do you know the optimal temperature to keep a rack of pork ribs at, when cooked over an open fire of oak and cherry wood? How about the number of times you should wash your hands after handling the liver of a Dusk Giant?” Menthos retorted Stalemated the cook and Menthos stare each other down. “Sir.” A lithe human female called out to the cook, “the guests report this has a bad taste to it.” The cook turns and eyes the woman, before getting an idea. “Here have the supposed food tester try this, if he can tell me what’s wrong with it. I’ll believe your story.” “Fine.” Menthos answered and took the glass of dark colored liquid from the cook’s hand. Menthos swirled the liquid around the inside of the glass, then sniffed the contents. “He can’t drink that.” “Why? Because you’re imposters!” The cook shouts “No, because goblins urinated in your wine supply.” Menthos answered The disbelieving cook grabbed the glass from Menthos’ hand and took a swig of the liquid, then retched and spat it out. Gasps erupted from the gathered kitchen help. “Crack open the reverses of wine and get Ohlsen to go into town for more, this stuff’s no good.” The cook hacked Menthos opened his arms before Doopa, who grabbed the roasting pig off of the spit with one hand and then cracked open it’s abdomen along the sternum and pulled the ribcage apart, “Ribs” was the only intelligible word that Doopa got out before he tore into the meat. “That’s amazing, how’d he do that?” Fyhre asked “It was Atlantean wine, it’s very delicate. Vigorous swirling or shaking of a bottle cause the whole bottle to go bad and taste like urine.” Helle replied “He’s brilliant.” Fyhre’s admiration was beginning to melt through her steel façade “That’s why Kador thinks he has potential.” Helle replied “Do you think he’ll learn the words?” Fyhre inquires “One task at a time.” Helle answers her Menthos bows to the hidden priests and then makes his way around the pit heading for the stairs up to the first floor. “Where are you going? You can’t just leave him down here unattended.” The cook protests “What? He’s fine, I assure you he’s not going anywhere for a long time.” Menthos smiles and turns back around amid continued protests from the cook As he reaches the far side of the pit, Menthos catches a glint of steel in the darkened stairway. Followed quickly by the twitching body of a male waiter as he is dragged bleeding from the throat by an elven female dressed in all black studded leather. [I]Great[/I], thought Menthos, [I]we’re not the only ones here with a mission it seems. Although she did look good in that leather and studded is how I like ‘em.[/I] Unseen by Menthos is the obese form of a Thellios priest as he too sinks away from the staircase and follows the assassin down a short hallway to the left of the stairs and through a barred door. [/QUOTE]
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