Inar nods.
"From what you say, the upstairs seems your best bet, though anywhere they haven't been letting you go might be worth a look. Up to you. You've been on the inside longer than me.
"Timing's awful if you need two more days, though. Tomorrow night they're running another recruitment. Would thin things out for you if you could make your run, then. I could even try something to bog 'em up, though I'm not much of a fast-talker, so who knows what I could manage."
"I may be able to help," Anna offers.
"On a few counts. Firstly, 'fast-talking,' as you say, is a specialty of mine. Most of the cultists have seen little enough of me behind our masks, so if we can manage a moderately useful disguise for me, and replace me inside, I should be able to aid you in occupying the cultist's in debate."
She turns to Audra, pulling a white robe and metal mask from her backpack.
"The robes are fairly shapeless, so I think between our similar heights and hair colors, you can probably pass for me if you let the others do the talking." She looks to the rest of the group.
"Thon may be a problem. I don't know that I trust him enough to bring him in on what's going on, but unless you do, you'll definitely need to keep yourselves between Audra and him. He's the only one I think likely to spot a dupe."
"And as to the cantrip, Quioan ... " Anna blushes a bit.
"I peeked a bit when Thon was asleep, and that potion he drank? It actually improves the sleep of folks near him, as well. You should only need a few hours to gain the clarity to prepare spells, provided he's still in his magicked slumber."
Inar's face splits in a wide grin.
"Crazy, convoluted plan after my own heart, that is. What do the rest of you say?"
[sblock=ooc]I am, obviously, retconning Anna's Detect. I'd planned to surprise you with it, but it seemed to me that withholding the information at this point with the write-out of the only person with a spell you're counting on prepared would lead to a lot of extra planning that would seem all the more frustrating after everyone got back and discovered they were well-rested in 2 hours.
Just so no one thinks I'm also retconning the potion: I established this when
Elenka used Detect Magic. Of course, GE and I concurred that the RAW was odd and Elenka should really have had Know: Arcana to identify it. Quioan never tried, so he never knew. That'll learn ya.
[/sblock]
[sblock=time XP and leveling]Anna & Yoshiki: 1034 XP, 1175 gp
Quioan & Elenka: 705 XP, 799 gp. Elenka levels to 4.
Audra: 30 XP, 34 gp
If anyone has any 'bumping' to do (I think Qik's the only one with DMC, but I could be wrong), you can do that now if you want to. It's not a requirement, but there won't be any further leveling opportunities once we reach morning. Yes, you're actually heading into the home stretch for this interminable nonsense.
[/sblock]
