Chapter 3 - Fresh Air

[counterkid]

Woody will drink the potion and start to head for the building. "Wait near by for me. If I'm not back in one hour you must find another way in to come and look for me."

[Chris1234]

Woody is admitted into a fifteen foor square antechamber whose plaster is painted aquamarine. The area is lit by two flickering smokeless torches. A pair of tough looking dwarves dressed incongruously in pastel blue and green fasten the door behind Woody. Paying no heed to Woody's red costume one of the pair examines the invitation and then bows. "This way, sir." In sounds as thought the word, 'sir' nearly chokes the hairy doorman. The fellow leads Woody to the leftmost of two doors, and says loudly into a grill, "Admit one, bird!"

Stepping through Woody notes that there are vertical grooves set in the walls just behind the door; probably a small portcullis! The room is draped in many hanging columns and arches of pastel silks. Arrayed around the room is a more bizarre sight: eight kenku wearing silk sleeveless shirts, stockings, tutus, and pillbox hats. They stand in pairs. Each pair are outfitted in pastel clours, either blue, green, orange or gray. A kenku dressed in blue steps forwards and leads Woody through branching corridors, a resting areas stewn with cushions, doors small and large, and several stairwells. Groups of revellers can occasionally be glanced in mirrors as music spills through several archways.. The whole effect is bewildering. Throughout the journey the kenku says nothing.

Eventually the pair arrive in a small ballroom area decorated as a large garden with many silken 'trees'. The walls, where not obscured by silks, are covered in mirrors. The ceiling cannot be seen behind another mass of hanging silks. Dozen upon dozen cushions, ranging from foot sized to taller than a halfling, are strewn around the edes of the room and heaped in a pile in its centre. Perhaps thirty guests are present, each outfitted and masked as some type of bird. A similar number of young ladies and men sparsely dressed as peacocks offer siver trays of either exotic drinks with staws or interesting-looking 'nibbles'. The pastel lights vary in colour and intensity in apparently cycling through in random sequence and pace. The blue tutu-clad kenku makes a stiff curtsey and getures for Woody to join the throng. She then departs.

Shortly after mixing with the revellers Woosy's eyes adjust* to the multi coloured but mostly dim lightling. He sees a tall human waiter, very lean and very male, edging through the crowd towards him. The peacock presents his silverray to Woody. It holds a single tallglass of something bubbly. The edge of the glass is decorated with a wafer shaped like a small bird. When the light cycles briefly to white, Woody sees that the wafer has been coloured yellow. The waiter catches Woody's eyes and gestures towards a silk 'tree' onte left hand wall. Stood next to the 'tree' is someone dressed as a rather plump canary that's beckoning to them. The waiter makes a small gesture indicating that it's just Woody that is being summoned.

***
If Woody chooses to follow, the yellow-clad beckoner will disappear behind the 'tree'. Looking behind the tree reveals mirror-covered door. It is ajar..

What next?

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Woody Perception* skill check please. (Not critical; just to possibly notice stuff)

***
If Jim or Sue seek shadowed hiding places there is the Old Xoblob Shop's doorway on one side of the Purplae Palace and Aurora's Realms Catalogue Shop entrance on far side of the festhall. The opposite side of the street has several nearby doorways but these are illuminated by a pair of steeet lamps. Otherwsie there's always the rooftops some four stories above!

[Nocturno]

"We should probably choose the closest shaded spot. Just in-case. With Woody, you never know."

[Chris1234]

Sue and Jim take shelter in the shadowed doorway of the Old Xoblob Shop. Sue knows that the curio shop is famous in Waterdeep for its trophies of battle, adventuring bands, and exotic, faraway places. It's a tall, ugly old stone and timber building. Darkvision shows many items through the dusty window, all stacked and overflowing, but the view is dominated by a large, spherical creature with a lot of eyestalks. It floats motionless in the darkness.

Old Xoblob Shop.png (109.43 KiB) Viewed 6680 times

What next?

[counterkid]

Perception: [1d20+2] = 10+2 = 12

[Nocturno]

Sue will get a start, and jump back a bit when he sees the Beholder hanging there.

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I also jumped a bit when I saw it lol

[Chris1234]

The clientele that Woody notices are all well to do. Many have visible ornamentation, broaches and so forth, all exquisitely made. The sale of any one of them would allow Woody to live comfortably for a year or more! Probably many of these valuables are enchanted too. One of the waiters, more bulky than most, carries a silver tray with only a few empy glasses. His eyes flick constantly around the crowd as he ignores a comment about a refill. This individual moves with the balance of a cage fighter rather the elegance of a dancer.

Peering through the part open doorway reveals a room panelled in pastel red leather. Curtains of yellow, pink and pale red silks hang hither and thither making it difficult to ascertain the room's size. An iron table is placed a few feet inside the doorway with a leather-padded iron chair between Woody and the table. A pair of crystal decanters and tall-glasses sit on a silver tray in the center of the table. "Please, enter, close the door and be seated. Avail yourself of refreshments while you make your report." The voice, dry and cultured, comes from behind a translucent curtain of yellow silk. Only movement makes the stout yellow canary visible. A pale red courting bench pushed against the near wall hints at the room's usual purpose being for discreet daliances.

What next?

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Retcon: Minor detail overlooked - any visible weapon longer than nine inches would be confiscated on entry. Fine any such to have been left at the safe house or with Jim and Sue.

[counterkid]

Woody will sit down and have some refreshments. "You summoned me boss."

[Chris1234]

There's a pause while Woody settles himself, then the well-to-do canary continues, "True. I did, as before. So, tell me what happened."

[Squirrellord]

Jim will occupy himself for a while studying the interior of Xoblob's Shop through the dusty window trusting the pragmatic Sue to keep an eye on the comings and goings across the street.

[counterkid]

"I made the drop. They sent a kid with a nose ring to collect. There were others in the sewers. The pickup spot will be on Selune's first quarter at the same spot in the sewers."

[Chris1234]

There some movement on the other side of the curtain. The canary is stood up and moves away a little further away from Woody. "Fine. But what's wrong with your voice?"

[Chris1234]

The large, spherical creature in the the Old Xoblob Shop doesn't move.

Patiently peering into the darkness behind the grimy window Jim sees shelves strewn with books, tomes, stones proudly lined up, blades, helmets, statuettes of forgotten origin and at least as much again that's even less unidentifiable. He spots heaps of coiled rope probably hundreds of feet long, some treasure maps dispalyed on the walls and a lizard man tribal boundary marking pole*. The counter has several drink glasses stood upon it and further back a sloped ceiling shows the way to the floor above.

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*GM rolled for JIm: nat 20 on History skill check

[Squirrellord]

Curiosity momentarily satiated, Jim turns his attention back to building across the street his companion had entered.

[counterkid]

"I made the drop. They sent a kid with a nose ring to collect. There were others in the sewers. The pickup spot will be on Selune's first quarter at the same spot in the sewers."

I thought the potion Woody drank also changed his voice. Was that not the case.