The group finished interrogating their captive from last week, finding out that he believed Raymón is using secret tunnels beneath the Crow’s Nest to move contraband.
They used sending to request an emergency meeting with Pella, then returned to Effi and Arko’s to meet with Saleen. Saleen provided them with her map of the Black Box, and also let them know that a local Lamplighter named Lomis had ideas for how to trick the remote watchman at the Black Box. Lomis informed them about a plan to use one of Ammon the Clever’s globes to obscure their activities, but they’d had to abandon the plan because the globe they wanted to use had been acquired by Yolan Dagarswan.
They met with Pella, who let them know her misgivings about the entire failed heist and capture: while the suspects claimed to be working for the Moru Kel government, the inclusion of Birdseed at the last minute had undercut the mission. Pella was attempting to sort that out: if the government didn’t want the Suma Oro stolen, they could simply not have the mission happen at all. And if they did want it stolen, there was no reason to put Birdseed on the team.
The party headed over to the Dagarswan party. Finding out that the Marghoz wasn’t attending — but had given his invitation to the NOOBs instead — seating charts were hastily rearranged, with the party finding themselves next to the familiar faces of Shatzee and Warden Carletta, along with new faces Andun the Physik and Sir Pedrig of the Abbey of Whiro. Pedrig talked to them about coördinating with the other local candleholders (in Maringa and the mahksi village of Panga), and Aiden agreed to communicate with them. Andun revealed that she’d delivered Aiden back in the day. Ingacius danced with Esma Dagarswan and impressed all the bystanders with his surprisingly agile dance moves.
Brigg confronted Yolan, who eventually recognized him and took him into a side study to talk in private. Yolan was remorseful about his presence at the combat ring long ago. When asked how he got to know the gladiatorial circle, he said he’d inquired around looking for fights to watch and found someone named Roget or Robert or something who was a musician at a bar called the Bounteous Vine in Wurdonne. Roland (or whatever) had directed him to a manor/vineyard some distance outside of the capital, and seemed to be in regular contact with the fighting group and their ruler. He revealed that Raymón had plied his trade with regular silk back in those days, and he’d cut ties recently when he heard accusations of a more unsavory substitute being used. The conversation took place in two chairs next to a large glass globe filled with the twilight sky over Moru Kel.
Brigg had some plans to blackmail Yolan, but tabled those as Ignacius followed Velma (Shatzee’s employer) and some noble back into the study, where the two planned an apparent tryst. Ignacius (disguised as a 4' tall version of Darvis) followed them in, grabbed the globe, and cast dimension door, apparating a couple of blocks away and immediately making his way home to Effi’s. The man noted something illusory about his visage before he vanished, and rushed to tell Yolan. This prompted an immediate soft lockdown, with the guests outside called inside and guards preventing anyone from leaving while they investigated.
The group talked to Yolan: with Carletta vouching for the fact that they’d saved her life and that of the Marghoz’s sons, Yolan was on the verge of hiring them to investigate the theft. Brigg tipped him off that something was fishy, but the threat of Brigg revealing his unsavory past led him simply to say that if the globe was returned within 24 hours then no investigation would be launched.
The group beat the retreat and rushed across town to the Black Box. Armen cast fly on 2 of them, and Ignacius and Brigg headed over to the second warehouse to position the globe. Their approach was less stealthy than desired, but with a few illusions Brigg managed to position the globe on a stool outside the window, obscuring internal vision of the Box.
The group then flew up to the roof, where one of two guards was rushing to ring an alarm bell. A quickly thrown pouch of sleep powder incapacitated him, while Brigg grappled the other guard and put him to sleep via a chokehold. Tobias rendered the bell inoperable by removing the clapper from it.
Everything seemed to be going according to plan, when they heard a noise from behind them: the globe, precariously perched on the stool, had rolled off, bounced down 2 stories to the road running downhill to the Black Box, and was rolling Indiana Jones-style toward the vault’s secure outer wall . . . .
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