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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jasper" data-source="post: 8648873" data-attributes="member: 277">gaisma version of session 10After the fiasco at the water plant, we determined that taking a break from the initiation process with the Cobalt Soul would be a good idea. We were becoming known to the other factions fast and the enemy groups were starting to see us as targets that needed to be taken out.The group was enjoying a morning meal when I overheard a conversation that there was to be a heist at the local casino in a few days. Seeming like a good distraction in this horrible city, we headed to the casino to offer our services.Bumping and shoving our way through the noisy crowds of the casino, we decided that we wanted to scope out potential entry points and try to listen in at the various tables for further clues. The first floor tables housed lizard racing. The handlers roughly placed 3 racing lizards in their starting bays and the betting began. Not wanting to look out of place and needing a reason to be standing there, I put my money on number 2. Afraid to be seen as cheating, I chose not to encourage the little guy to move faster. Turns out I didn’t need to, he won the race anyways. After a few rounds of resets and winning on number 2 a couple of times, I decided to go big and put all my winnings on my favorite guy. This time I noticed something a little different as the race started, door number 1 opened just a little faster allowing him to get a head start. That glitch allowed him to win and I lost my winnings. The handlers must have seen me looking too closely at the doors because they suddenly scooped up the 3 racing lizards from each of the tables and tossed them together in a large box, and then they redistributed all the lizards to different tables. Watching the table closely now, I didn’t notice anything with the doors again, so I chalked it up to a mistake.Those poor lizards ran for the full hour that we were watching. Having lost enough money, I decided to become an observer at a few tables. It did not take that long to notice a pattern, the lizards would be taking turns winning most of the time, but when someone at the table went in big, suddenly one of the doors was opening a little slower than the others and the big spender was taking a loss. As soon as that would happen, the handlers would shuffle the lizards and the process would start again. The casino was cheating. Not wanting to jeopardize the heist job, I kept the observation to myself, but I determined I would do something about it when we returned.Having been completely engrossed with the watching of the tables, I turned to look for the rest of my group. Tarism and Poppy were nearby, but it took us awhile to find Sir Oliver and Toz who looked a little rough while talking to the Halfling owner about the details of the job. We were to stop the heist but to do it discretely so as to not alarm the patrons of the casino as to what was going on. I looked at our group and knew this was going to be fun. We were not exactly known to be a discrete group back home, but we were still strangers in these parts, maybe it would go differently this time.After a good rest back at the hotel, we returned to the casino. Sir Oliver had noted earlier that the windows were not a potential entry threat as they were just an illusion on the wall. He headed upstairs to protect the main target, the vault. Poppy and Toz headed to the second floor to see if there were any suspicious people roaming the crowds. Tarsim and I were to watch the first floor. I figured that the best way to blend in was to be part of the races as the lizards would travel from table to table and maybe I could hear the planners of the heist talking.Suddenly there was some confusion at the table I was nearby as a 4th lizard was found in the finishing area. I found myself being aggressively picked up and looked over, before being tossed into the box with several dozen other lizards. It was crowded in there with so many other lizards. Able to talk freely with them now, I asked how long they had to keep running each day. Apparently no one had ever asked them a question like that because I was met with silence from everyone. From somewhere in the box one lizard finally chimed in, “We run until the crowds go home. If we stop running, we disappear and never get seen again.”I was back out on a racing table, I could hear from the excited voices that lizard 2 had been doing very well at that table and everyone was putting their money on him to keep winning. As the gates opened, I realized that I was number 2 and that my door had opened just a little be faster than the rest. So I took two steps out onto the race and flopped down. I wasn’t going to participate in the cheating.“We have a dud on table 7,” called out the handler at my table.I quickly found myself back in another box, but this one smelled differently and I traveled much further then the distance to the next table. The one carrying this box cared very little about my well being as I was being shaken all over in there. The ride ended with me being shoved into a shoot and landing into a pit of lizards. They looked exhausted and some were even hurt, but I was going to get them out of here. The cage was too small for my full sized body as I came out of lizard form and it busted the box wide open. I apologized to the group as I squished a few with my big feet as I stood up. Thinking quickly now, as there were 3 people standing there gawking at me, I pushed open the kitchen door and told the 45 lizards to flee. Screams from the crowds as the lizards scrambled everywhere drowned out my call for the lizards on the tables to run for their lives, so only half of them heard the call out.The 3 people in the backroom took steps toward me, so I touched the necklace and went invisible pushing my way into the crowds. Seeing the freed lizards being trampled on by the stampeding crowds, I call them to me. Together as one massive pile of lizards swirling around me, I shoved open the office doors and stepped in. The Halfling cowered in fear until a box appeared around myself and my new friends so I ordered them to push out and break free once again, and then I realized that they met no resistance and the box was just an illusion. I saw Tarism approach the office with man in bright red robes. The Vermillion Dream was behind the heist?Another guard burst through the door and was stunned for a moment at the sight of the swirling lizards. Finding his voice, the guard said “Uh, boss, we have a situation. The guards you hired have managed to empty the entire casino of patrons.”The Halfling’s eyes darted between the swarm of lizards and the guard and went to move toward the door. I made no attempt to attack him, so he ran out. I walked my swarm of lizards to the main door and told them to run free. I walked toward a back stair well before becoming visible again and I approached the group as though nothing had happened.After a 3 hour debriefing, the owner finally admitted that he had hired us to annoy the Vermillion Dream who had also been promised gold if they stopped the thieves. The casino had made it through the night without a theft, so we succeeded in the mission and the owner begrudgingly paid us our money. After getting him to agree to stop racing animals, we were shown the front door and told never to come back.As we walked away, I felt a bit of movement in my pocket. I reached in and pulled a racing lizard from inside, “Now what are you doing in there?”The voice that had spoken up in the box answered, “You saved us from that place. I shall remain faithful to you forever for that.”And that’s how Laghairt became my faithful companion.</blockquote>

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