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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 2775494" data-attributes="member: 1210">HousebreakingThat evening there is a great party at the citadel.  Drink and be merry, for tomorrow- or at least, in a few days- we may die.  Battle is coming; love your friends and make peace with your enemies, for you may not get another chance.   Music trills in the area, making our heroes ache for the missing Cara.  The delicious smells filling the air make our heroes’ mouths water, and as they head over to the baron’s table to report Goer plucks small bits of meat, a roll and some grapes with which to stuff his mouth.  By the time they reach the table, he is chewing happily.“How goes your investigation?” scowls Sir Galadon.  “It proceeds apace,” Otis replies obliquely.Sir Galadon frowns at them.  Behind him and to the side, Sir Harth turns to look directly at Dahlia and rubs his temple.  The party briefly explains that they are convinced that they have almost tracked down the traitor, but they can detect no reaction from either of their two suspects.  As soon as she can, Dahlia takes the others aside.  “Harth gave me the sign,” she says excitedly.  “Sir Galadon’s house should be empty!”“We should check out both of their homes,” murmurs Colder, casting a glance towards the baron’s table, at which both Sir Galadon and Sir Harth are seated.  The others agree, and after a token appearance our heroes quickly depart as surreptitiously as they can manage.  Colder broods over the possibility that his master might be a traitor.  It can’t be him, can it? he thinks. The party quickly moves across the town, following dark streets beneath a starry sky.  Fortunately for them, Colder knows where both of the houses in question are.  Soon the band of heroes reaches Sir Harth’s residence: walled and well-guarded, which they only manage to penetrate via Otis’ amazing spells, which render him temporarily invisible to normal sight.  But in his brief jaunt in the mansion, Otis sees no evidence of treason.  Realizing that his spell lasts only a few minutes, he renews it while within the place, then- once he is truly out of time- Otis flees the scene.  The mansion’s guards hail the other party members (who are out on the street).  The guards are suspicious and unfriendly, but they don’t try anything shady.  They simply don’t like the looks of our heroes and want them to remove themselves from the area.  Once Otis rejoins them, the party agrees and moves away, weathering a hail of suspicion.“I found nothing,” Otis reports.The party moves on to Sir Galadon’s house, which is an entirely different sort of thing.  There are no guards.  The place is surrounded by a simple fence.  It is much smaller and simpler.  No lights are on; it appears to be empty.“Can you go invisible again?” whispers Dahlia.Otis replies, “No.”“Then I’ll scout ahead,” she tells him, and before his eyes she transforms into an owl!  In seconds she is flying up and out into the night.  She returns a little later and leads the party to the house’s entrance.  Nobody is in sight; it is dark.  The door is locked, but Dahlia springs it with a warp wood.  As the party enters, Colder squirms uncomfortably.  “I’ll keep a lookout for Sir Galadon’s coach,” he says, and stays on the front porch.Quickly our heroes look through the ground floor of the house, and they find a narrow stairway down into a basement.  Our heroes descend down the stairs.At the bottom of the stairs is a large basement.  All of the stuff in one section of it has been shoved aside to make room for an altar of bone.  Fairly fresh blood has dripped from it recently.“Knight traitor?” asks Me.“Maybe,” replies Kyle.  “Maybe.”***Meanwhile, on the porch, Colder catches sight of the lights on Sir Galadon’s coach.  “They’re coming!” he calls urgently into the house.From below, a sudden exclamation of noise is obvious.  The rest of the party comes boiling up from below.  “Kitchen window,” Otis urges.“I’ll provide a distraction,” Colder says.“Get out of there!  What are you doing!” exclaims Kyle, as he pulls himself out the kitchen window.“It is my duty,” Colder answers firmly.“We don’t want to be caught here,” Dahlia reminds him.  “We’re suspects too.”“Go!” he says from the porch, turning away.Dahlia uses another warp wood to return the door to its former shape, then pulls herself out the window as well.  She and the rest of the party hurry away as Colder stands on the porch, waiting for Galadon’s coach to pull up.  When it does, the door opens and Sir Galadon steps out.  “Colder?  Is that you?”“Aye, my lord.”“What are you doing here?  What’s going on?”  Sir Galadon looks suspicious. “Well, there was an intruder here.  I was attempting to guard your property, my lord.”“Why were you here in the first place?  How did you know there was an intruder?”“The door was warped.”Sir Galadon stares pointedly at the door.“Oh!  They must have... un-warped it,” Colder explains.“Search the house,” Sir Galadon directs his men.  “You stay here with me,” he tells Colder.  I want to keep my eye on you.  A few minutes later, one of his men hurries back from the house and reports in low tones to him.Sir Galadon turns, white as a ghost, to face Colder.  “Colder, what have you done?” he cries.  Then his eyes narrow.  “I think I see now.  You are the traitor we seek.”  In a loud, commanding voice, he declares, “You are under arrest.”Next Time: What the hell just happened there?  What do our heroes do next?  Who is the traitor?  And more!</blockquote>

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