" For you....yes...."

" I'm going to need a mask..."

Matilda and Titaani push through the curtain and into what appears to be a dressing room. Resting against the walls of this circular chamber are three dressing tables, each one with a mirror atop it. The mirrors are bordered by tiny balls of bright golden light. An ornate, high-backed chair on clawed feet sits before each table. Slumped in one of the chairs is a bugbear dressed as a green dragon from the neck down. On the floor nearby are the fake dragon head and tail that complete the costume. This bugbear looks all the more unusual because he casts no shadow. He slouches in his chair and gazes into a mirror. 

Meanwhile, Invisible Ben struggles for a bit, but manages to free the giant mousetrap, which is clearly nonfunctional and falling apart. The goblin is delighted.

"Worry not!" continues Stagefright to Pud. "I’ll feed you your lines from the wings if you need it. Your second line is 'That is a goatish look you have upon your face.'  You must make this good! Endelyn will throw you out or lock you up if you're not sufficiently entertaining! Now go find a proper costume."

"A mask? Don't worry, I've got an idea," Titaani whispers to Matilda, after catching sight of the dragon head. Sneakily, she casts mage hand, and attempts to steal the fake dragon head without the bugbear noticing. 

Sleight of hand: 19

DC6 contesting Bugbear perception check: 19

The bugbear turns, dejectedly, watching the dragon head float across the room. "You like that? I'm playing the green dragon in a tragedy, 'A Village No More'. But I'm giving up trying to remember my lines. It’s clear that my dreadful performances are not endearing me to anyone." He slumps further in his seat. "Which play are you two in?"

"I can't remember," Titaani admits, plopping the mask down into Matilda's arms. "But my sister here could swap parts with you, if you like."

Pud snaps out of his stupor. “Uh…okay…Stagefright. Interesting name, I have a bit of…stage fright myself.”

He scrambles off, feverishly muttering his lines. He rummages through all the props trying cobble together a serviceable servant costume. He attempts to find something to drapeover his torso to conceal his artificer’s apron. He slings his shield on his back to make a sort of hunch. And he tries to cover obscure his face with a wig or facial hair of some sort.

While working on his costume he continues speaking with Stagefright. “So, Stagefright? How did you….uh…come along that name? It’s an interesting name for someone in your line of business.”

"A bit late for that, I'm afraid," replies the bugbear to Titaani. "My performance ended an hour ago."

~~

Meanwhile, Pud begins to concoct a mean-spirited servant costume. (Make a Performance check to see how you managed your costume, and/or roll a Slight-of-Hand check to see how well you concealed yourself and your possessions.)

Stagefright, preparing to exit the Prop Storage room, pauses to take Pud's question. "The stage is my world. Without it, I wither. And 'Stagefright' is, I suppose, a stage name I've taken, but life is a performance, wouldn't you say? But for now, finish getting dressed. I'll be back shortly. Your play begins in 17 minutes!”

Performance check: 17 (18-1)

sleight of hand check: 17 (15+2)

Pud is super nervous. He hates crowds and he is by no means a performer. But he loves dressing up, so he focuses on that task at hand and does his best to look the part. 

(Rolls in game log)

Pud does a pretty good job of both dressing up as a mean-spirited servant and hiding/disguising his weapons and gear.

~~

Stagefright departs. Passing Horatio and Elkhorn at the elevator, he pauses to add "You all with the visiting group, too? You..." (he points to Horatio) "can be the honorable knight risen from the dead. And you" (he points to Elkhorn) "can be the cowardly noble."  He ignores Amidor, Pollenella, and Squirt. Gleam remains silent and invisible. He whispers to Horatio, "Your first line is, 'I have a wicked thought, if you will hear it.' I'll feed you the rest of the lines from the wings."

~~

"You like that dragon head?" asks the bugbear of Matilda. "You can use it if you like. I'm done with it. Gimme a minute and I'll get out of the rest of it. There's the tail." He points to the floor. "Endelyn promised to make me more talented and likable in exchange for my shadow and three years' work, but I wish I'd never left the carnival. Time flows here funny. I don't even know how long I've been here," he laments to Titaani. He begins to wriggle out of his dragon costume.

Ben:

Remembering the discussion downstairs, Ben looks for the prop throne and under the cushion for the key.  He also looks for several audience costumes to take with him in case they need to smuggle some rescued people away.

Perception if Needed:  23

Quietly, he goes over to Gleam and whispers, “As we are invisible, let us explore a bit and see if your sister might be hidden in that secret room in the northern turret like the goblin said.  Then we can come back and blend in with the crowd or make our own costumes if there is time.”

Pud, in full costume, sits up against one of the walls and waves his hands and mutters. One might think he is still practicing lines, but he is actually casing the ritual detect magic. Once the ritual is complete he scans the room to see if anything stands out to him.

Matilda gets dressed as the dragon trying to mimic the movements and attitude of the one she had chased away from the Key-Witch house.

Performance- 22

Matilda dons the green dragon suit and tries to do a poor impression of Cradlefall. ("Rahhr!")

Pud examines the Prop Storage for magical signatures. He detects nothing arcane here (other than the wrought-iron wall sconces which cause the red glass orbs set into them to shed light.) But he does get a hint of something very odd, unidentifiable magic, somewhere above the stone ceiling on the north side of this room. 

Ben scours the room for thrones and cushions and keys. He feels certain that nothing of that description is here. Nor is there anything exactly matching the little dark grey cloaks the audience all seems to be wearing but he finds a number of other pieces of grey and black fabric which could approximate such a thing.

Gleam, invisible, agrees with Ben's plan. "We should check the prison, too. That's where she was last held," she whispers.

Ben:

Ben whispers to Gleam saying, “Lead the way—unless you want to try and sneak onto the stage and look for the key under a throne cushion first.  It isn’t still in the prop room, so it may be in use.  I would go, but my armor is a bit noisy..  if we get lucky, the key might open a prison door or something else useful.”

Ben has gathered the clothing he can find for a makeshift audience costume, taking it with him.

Pud keys in on the magical signature. He saunters over to the spot while he continues his muttering, this time he is reciting his lines. He stops just short of the area and glances up with his eyes, looking at the spot on the ceiling.

DM: Does it appear that the source of the magical signature is on the other side of the stone ceiling? Or is it in this same room?

"There's another prop storage on the other side. We can go through the Library," whispers Gleam. She points to the curtain on the north side of the room, and then carefully approaches and opens it. Within, Ben can see a magnificent hall, lined with stone bookshelves housing a library of leather-bound tomes. Three elderly, bespectacled goblins climb ladders to fetch books for three slender, cloaked figures who are reading while seated in overstuffed armchairs.

Pud squints up at the featureless ceiling. He senses that the magic must emanate from something on the floor above.

You can hear banging to the south, as the goblin worker slowly tries to drag the massive broken mousetrap up the stairs and toward the elevator.

Meanwhile, in the dressing room, the grumbly bugbear continues to mope to Titaani and Matilda. "She'll probably demote me to stagehand..."

Matilda looked at the Bugbear, " Why don't you just leave? This place kinda sucks."

"Matilda's right. And you shouldn't be so hard on yourself!" Titaani says to the bugbear, patting him on the back. "You just need the right attitude. The right spark. And I think I know what that is. Your shadow! You need it back. You should help us defeat this hag and then the stage could be all yours!"

Persuasion: 10

Matilda stared at Titaani with big eyes, she was fairly sure the bugbear should just run for his life......the Hag was never going to give his shadow back.....and the rest of them were likely to die trying.