Act 3: The Ball - Preparations of War

Steve answers quietly, "I won't know until I know what we are dealing with."

Most of the food here consists of sourdough bread, dry fruits and meat, and even some chocolate. There are also so many barrels of water here, many of them had to be placed in the hallway. But beer or cider? Steve can't find any. For a moment, it appears like this expedition might be a wash, until he notices a few barrels in the corner that are different from the others. When he takes a closer look at it, he reads a name on them: Purpura.

It's an Emeraldian type of wine.

Mihai and Fluffle arrive just when Steve has made his discovery.

Steve can't hide his disappointment at the wine being the only viable target, but pivoting is part of pranking after all. He looks to see if any of them are already open.

Only one is open at the moment.

The black mage silently indicates the barrels to his compatriots, signalling to quietly open the others while he poisons the open one. He then pops back to the real to do just that.

Konrad shifts out of the Shroud to do as Steve indicated, opening barrels.

When the four adventurers shift back into the real world, the silence that previously permeated the place is suddenly replaced by the background sound of dozens of people sleeping in the building, the creaking of the floorboards, and the patter of the rain on the roof and windows. Because Steve's ring stopped functioning the instant they shifted, the only source of light in this room now comes from a lantern placed on a nearby table. Fluffle is quick to summon his ball of light again to help his friends.

While it's easy for Steve to poison his barrel, the other two are still sealed and would time and effort to open. Most likely, it would also cause a lot of noise.

Konrad sighs. "Feels like a bust." He traces the scar on his face. "Shall we try another cell on the way back?"

Without anything left to do to the wine without making any further noise, the group enter the Shroud and leave the cell, and make their way to the cell north of them, from the map.

The journey to the next hideout takes close to half an hour, and again, it's completely silent. This seems to affect Fluffle, who has started to cast worried glances behind him. When questioned about it, he just shakes his head and reassures his companions that he doesn't think they're being followed.

What they find when they arrive at their destination is an old warehouse, one that's close to the main thoroughfare in the Northern Ward. It appears this whole block once served as a storage area, but has since fallen into disuse. The windows on the building are high and hard to reach, and although there's no lock on the front entrance or the bay door, it is unlikely that they'll be unlocked.

Fluffle waits to see what his companions will do.

Konrad tries the door with his sense for magic, and then a simple turn of the handle.

Spellcraft 24
Anything magically nefarious about this door?

The knob refuses to turn.

Konrad detects no magic from the door. The only thing he finds unusual here is how calm the ambient magic is here.

Steve tries to think of the reasons for why the ambient magic might be so calm in this area.

Knowledge (Arcana) 19

Although he's still rusty, Mihai successfully unlocks the door and Fluffle gives him a thumbs up for a job well done.

Meanwhile, Steve wonders why magic behaves so differently here, and he thinks back to the lessons he received on magical theory back at the Citadel. He theorizes that the Shroud is to magic what a cistern is to water: a completely enclosed space where outsides forces can't disturb the liquid within.

The group enter with Mihai taking the lead and Steve in back, and take a look at what they find inside.

Fluffle follows behind them and calls forth another ball of white light.

What they discover inside the warehouse are rows upon rows of shadowy figures lain down on the floor, with racks of weapons and armors lined up against the walls, just like at the last hideout they were out. This building is so large however that Fluffle's light can't reach the end of it.

"Let's split up again. Same groups."

Steve and Konrad take the opposite wall, looking for doors or supplies, whichever we find first.

The party members continue deeper into the warehouse, passing by dozens of shadow people who are sleeping close to each other, clutching their bedrolls close. Until finally, they arrive at the end of the room and find an open area where makeshift counters have been placed and the provisions stored. Unlike at the last hideout however, they're in full view of the soldiers here.

Steve checks to see if what kind of alcohol they have and how it is placed in relation to the sleeping soldiers.