Act 3: The Ball - Preparations of War

Steve exits the bathroom having washed his face and regained his composure. He waves at the guys and says, "Good morning."

"Hey." - Mihai greets, and goes back to watching through the peephole.

Konrad smiles at Steve, happy to see him. He walks over to a chair. "Good morning to you."

"Well good, we can ask her how much she counted when they join us. Anyway, I've had some time to process the Scan of the shrieker last night. In addition to what I said, it has and intense urge to kill, expand, and destroy. And it's not without some intelligence. They got wise to us. This one was actually waiting quietly for us inside the hotel. I don't think we even made a sound that time."

Fluffle flies towards Steve and lands on his left shoulder while listening attentively to Konrad.

Meanwhile, Mihai continues to look into the peephole. The footsteps are getting closer.

Steve can't help but agree with Mihai but he wants to get more info from Konrad, "Did you sense any other emotions? Caution, fear, anything like that?"

Just as Steve finishes talking, Mihai sees a well-dressed young man who's in his mid-twenties stop in front of the door and then raise his fist towards it.

Knock knock.

"No, only what I told you the other night. Actually, there were some thoughts that came through, between some alien things I found impossible to parse. It called us an annoyance. Tricksters. Fleshmeat. Kiss. It seems to have a taste for flesh. And hunger, perhaps the most intense feeling I could sense. I have to point out, this is most unusual, I've never sensed a person's emotional state before, unless it was linked to a magical affliction, such as a Curse spell."

Steve nods at Mihai to open the door, while his mind turns inward to ponder this info and what might be done about this latest problem.

"Hello, sir," the man answers. "I'm one of Jan Nowicki's aides, here to relay information that you requested regarding a specific individual here in Luxus?"

"Thank you, sir."

The aide enters the room and nods respectfully at the party members there.

"Good morning," he says.

"Good morning!" Fluffle replies.

The fairy smiles at him and the young man smiles back.

The aide clears his throat and says, "Van Willis is currently staying here, in room 248. It's, uh, right around the corner on your right when you leave this room."

Wait, what? "That's...convenient. Any idea how long he's been staying there?"

"He's been here five days now, sir, meeting nobles and merchants from all around Emerald. He will also be present at the ball with an invitation from Jovian and Aemilia Avenarius; they're a prominent merchant family in Cupia, a city to the east."

Konrad:

The young man bows at the party members and says, "May Fortune smile upon you," before he turns around and leave.

Fluffle then looks at this friends and asks, "We arrived in Myr on the 4th, right? How did he manage to be at two places at once? Can all Avatars do that?"

Steve rubs his chin in thought before saying, "That would be a useful trick. Think we could learn how to do that? It would be nice not to have to worry about getting jumped every time we cross over."

"Hmm, I wouldn't say no. We don't know the range of abilities Avatars possess, or what we might be able to learn from them. We should meet up with Van before we leave. He did offer his aid to us before, in case we ever needed him."