Z cursed under her breath, before deciding for one more try. This time, a loud voice that seemed to originate from the center of the crowd shouted "boo you suck!"

If this illusionist couldn't get a seedy bar to devolve into violence, then she would have to give up her title of "The Least Focused and Most Troublesome Student in Blackstaff".

Pettilaen looks towards the elven rangers with extreme curiosity. Something tells me this will not bode well, in the end. He continues playing, casually glancing around the room. He tries to focus his casual perusing on the elven rangers, trying to gauge their purpose, and relieved to see they are enjoying the music and not after him for whatever reason.

Hearing the loud curse originating from the crowd, Pettilaen chuckles to himself, nervously. "Let's keep the mean words to ourselves, now! We're just here to have a good time!" He increases the noise of the background music he has playing with his minor illusion.

Bullden just shakes his head and says to Zina, "Good thought but lets get the rest of team.  I'm not like'n that goldy just took off and left the kid."  Bullden calmly makes his way to Portia with Zina in tow and says, "We better make a move to the room soon.  I think'n the kid was a drop and the new baby sitters might be round real soon.

Ishkar mildly shakes his head while playing as he hears the buzz of slight discord, but brushes it off as no true violence brews up. Contemplating the new guests, he moves closer to the rangers and gives them a glance as he finishes a song. "You three remind me of a special song I once learned from my mentor." He begins a jolly tune that plays a little satire, but overall prompts the life of a ranger as a noble pursuit and continues to dance as he goes.

After observing for some minutes, Portia is convinced that no one is apparently following her. Her actions from that point will have happened simultaneously with other events on the main floor. (Thus her scene is still in suspended animation until it catches up.)

The shouted insult draws attention and causes a variety of reactions from the patrons. Partly because they've been partying like fools and imbibing without respect to quantity, and partly because the tavern is mostly full of oafs with more muscle than intellect, several small pushing matches break out. The shout caused one guy to jump, dumping ale on the head of the dwarf standing underneath his flagon. Another patron jerked around and lost his balance, overturning a wobbly table and spilling a pitcher of precious Blackwater Beer to the floor. All things considered, a confused ruckus with the potential to turn into an all-out brawl is definitely under way.

When a couple farm lads leave their table near the door to join in the pushing, the elves calmly take a seat. Those who can see through / over the crowd (probably only the performers) note that each of the elves makes a point of placing a dagger from their boots on the tabletop.

Portia sighs when Bullden finally comes down the stairs and she can see Zina behind him at the top. Without saying anything she heads to the end of the hall and listens at the door. It was time to figure this out and it was better the entertainment continued through it. Even better it sounded like things were getting rowdy up there. It was loud enough she wondered if she would be able to hear anything through the door despite being down the hall from the stairs.

The cellar is more acoustically sheltered than you might have suspected. The noise isn't so bad at the very end of the hall where the door to the room in question awaits. You hear the dogs growling without needing to actively listen at all.

It's difficult to assist with a door listening, that's more of a personal task, but I'm fine with 2 people listening separately, keeping in mind that each person that listens at the door creates noise and movement of their own, so there's risk involved.

ROLL: Standard Perception check for anyone listening at the door. If anyone is attempting to listening without being detected themselves (aside from the fact, the dogs are clearly already aware there's someone out there), a Stealth check as well.

Bullden rolls 17 perception to pick up anything else besides the one dog by the door.

"Good thought but lets get the rest of team.  I'm not like'n that goldy just took off and left the kid,"  Bullden whispered to her, before grabbing her arm. In a test of strength, the bookish gnome would certainly lose every time. 

"Just wait one more minute!" she replied lowly, a touch of childish impetuosity in her voice. This had to work! Sure enough, it did, and bits of the bar began to push and shout and fight. She glanced up at him with a victorious smile before allowing herself to be dragged down into the cellar. Turns out she didn't have to give up her title after all.

"Wait for me!" she whispered angrily to Bullden, who beat her down the stairs. "I have little legs."

She turned to look at the door, watching as Portia listened at the door. She would just stand back and wait for them to tell her they needed a fireball or a charm person or something.

Dramatic narrative:

Portia crashes through the door!

Portia leans against the door to hear inside the room. Rusty hinges give way, sending her and the door sprawling amongst the dogs, who begin to bark furiously.

META: Portia rolled a natural 1 on her Wisdom - Perception check, then followed with a composite 4 Dexterity save.

Bullden and Zina watch helplessly as the door, as if in slow motion, breaks away from its frame. The door and Portia both fall prone into the first 5' square of the 15'x15' room. The dogs scamper out of the way, leaping on top of one another and a handful of crates, to avoid her. They bark and snarl at the three of you, but do not yet take aggressive action.

We'll pause there for now and resume tomorrow.

Pettilaen's eyes go wide as he watches the chaos ensue. "Looks like I won't be getting any tips tonight..." He'd never been in a tavern brawl before, but judging by his size and strength, he didn't want to be found in the middle of it. He glances over to the genasi, noting his actions and seeing if this unplanned chapter in their plan was successful in keeping him busy. He hoped the rough-nature of the genasi would spark and drag him into the brawl. He increases the decibels on the main floor with louder background music, hoping to drown out any potential noises from downstairs.

Making his way around the crowd, he notes Ishkar playing a jolly tune for the three elves. I hope they don't complicate our plans. Still uncertain of their purpose, but glad to see Ishkar keeping them both pacified and distracted, he tries to sneak through the area and make his way downstairs nonchalantly, but with his hand on his rapier in case someone wants to pick a fight with him.

OOC: It's looking like I might need to roll a Perception to see if I hear the dogs barking (at disadvantage due to the loud noises), an Insight to gauge how distracted the genasi is and what he's doing, and a Stealth (possibly at advantage due to the chaos and loud noise from the brawl and background music) to make it through the tavern and downstairs without drawing any attention.

Portia's eyes go wide as she falls with the door. She gets a view of dog legs and bellies as they leap out of the way. Some may wonder about her state of mind at this point because she starts laughing. Who needs a key for this door?

She notices the dogs are poised in a defensive stance barking at her. She has no fear of dogs despite knowing how fierce they can fight. She really isn't at a good angle for this situation, but is not making any sudden moves just yet. She makes an attempt to at least assess what is in the room with her while the dogs are in defense mode, not that any of this had gone well so far!

((OOC: added flavor text from Portia's point of view. And yes, I had two nasty rolls on the dice. HA HA))

ROLL: Perception from the "stage" (table) for Ishkar.

ROLL: Perception from the top of the stairs for Pettilaen.

ROLL: Perception with Advantage from one of the two PC's downstairs that is not lying prone with a half-dozen 150# guard dogs barking at her.

The genasi stepped out of the bar when the music started. He seemed nervous about something.

The obvious elements of the room are the dogs, the smell of mold and filth, several shipping crates of various sizes, and a simple bed and basin - the bed being under a handful of said shipping crates.

(whoops, wrong thread)

OOC: Perception Check 7

Ishkar just keeps on playing, now shifting into a furious and fast tap dance in tune with much of the fighting as he watches onward with nervousness. He is mainly keeping an eye on the three rangers and Pettilaen. I wonder what is going on with the others right now, this is sure to be loud enough to cover almost anything short of an explosion.

Zina's hand came to her forehead in a textbook face palm as Portia, and the door, fell into the room. As the dogs began yelping at the group, she made a quick scan of the room. ((OOC: Perception=8))

Without a moment of hesitation, she waved her left hand and the image of a delectable steak appeared in the center of the room, hovering just out of reach of the dogs. Hopefully that would help keep the dogs busy; the gnome was not planning on being puppy chow today.

Bullden concerned for Portia's safety (being on the floor just makes her a giant chew toy) steps up to the door way.  With my left I use my sheild as cover (hopefully looking none threatening) and grabs Portia foot with his right hand and drags her back to through the door.  At the same time I say, "kid where here to help if yer wanting saving".

((Rolled 14 Str check to pull Portia back through the door))

Bullden takes a defensive stance in the doorway hoping to protect Portia and Zina.

Ishkar continues playing, none-the-wiser for the events downstairs.

Pettilaen definitely hears a crash and the dogs erupt in barking. (See dramatic narrative for extra special bonus content!) He proceeds down the stairs and to the end of the hall as...

Portia is lying on the floor, dazed and laughing.

Zina, scanning the room, sees little beyond the obvious. She creates the illusion of a steak, which confuses the dogs and distracts them slightly, but (especially given it lacks odor and they behave as is extremely well trained) it does little to distract them from their task.

Bullden wastes no time in pulling Portia free from the room and into the hall.

The dogs snarl and bark, hovering toward the rear of the room. Their body language suggests their primary objective is to guard the contents of the room.

Bullden attempts a perception thinking the kid is either under the bed or in one crates.  ((rolls 11 for perception))

Again Bullden says in a nice calm voice, "kid we aint with golden pirate guy.  We're here to save ya.  Give us some kind of sign that yer hear us and we will try to get you free."

((persuasion:  9))