Drexon nods to Cob, “I think you might be right, moving away from the ruckus sounds sensible”.

He then gets up and tries to skirt around the edge of those people involved in the fight as quickly as possible, which is made all the more difficult in his exhausted state.

He will try and meet up with the others by the door to the secret room.

You easily walk around the crowd that is noticeably thinning but still violent. A couple of the guards are down for the count. The same can be said with the city guards that came in. 

The area around the secret room and the staircase is heavily obscured when you reach it. The smoke is thick enough that you can barely see 5 feet in front of you. You will have to feel around to find the entrance. However, as you get closer, you can hear shouting from within the smoke in the direction of the room. 

Eremoz, when you get your bearing, the room is heavily obscured. You can barely see Julian, Geralt, and the mayor before you. You can hear the sound of grumbling from Hotis who sat on the other side of Julian and the panicked shout of Fenton and his guard. You also hear Qorun's guard calling for her name followed by the sound of running steps. 

Cob does his best to remember where the trigger was for the door and starts feeling around on the wall for it.

Perception? 13  

Flapping your wings to part the smoke a little, you find the wall and feel around for a few moments before finding a slight notch on the wall, barely visible if you are not touching it. You press it and the wall shimmers slightly before more smoke blasts your face. You push your hand through the shimmering wall and it passes through. 

"You found the way to open the secret door? I can't see anything through this smoke", Drexon says telepathically to Cob, reaching out to try and feel where his companion might be. If he can see the bits of smoke swirling where Cob's wings are beating that would help.

If he can make it through the secret door with Cob, he will do so.

Yes, it takes a bit of time, but you can pass through into the private game room. Just like the outside, the room is filled with smoke. The first person who enter stumbles back a bit when two people rushes past you outside, yelling for help with the smoke, followed by another two people. You can also hear Eremoz, Julian, and Hotis discussing about going downstairs to disable the smoke. They are probably 10, maybe 15 feet away from your position near the entrance.

Cob calls out to Drexon and Dvark "Follow my voice, the door's open."

He flies into the doorway, peering ahead to see if he can spot the way to where Eremoz is.

It's rather hard, but you can hear Eremoz behind a wall as if in another room beyond. With a bit of testing and knocking on the wall, you find yet another shimmering wall that you can pass through into a hallway with a staircase leading down and a locked door beside the stairs. You can hear voices, one of them Eremoz's, downstairs.

Cob, you think this is the access point to that room you saw beyond the grate. 

Cob makes sure the others are able to follow his voice through the next doorway and to the staircase.

"This one looks like a regular locked door,' Cob says. "Short of blasting away at the door, I'm not much good with locks."

He reaches out and knocks on the door.

"Hey Eremoz," Cob calls. "You need some help in there?"

"I am afraid that even at my best, I could not help pick a lock", Drexon says telepathically as he follows closely behind Cob.

As he moves, if he can lay a hand on Cob's back, he will help his friend focus.

“We’re okay. I have Julian and Hotis with me.” Eremoz turns to the two. ”Julian, can we let my friends in? Hotis, can you get rid of the smoke yet?”

Cob looks back to Drexon.

"I don't have anything to pick it with anyway," Cob says.

He then calls back through the door.

"That smoke is filling the entire place," Cob calls. "We've got to get everyone out."

Julian doesn't answer, but Hotis begins moving away from Eremoz as he feels his way to the centre of a room to the right of the staircase. As he works on disabling whatever is causing this smoke, Eremoz, you feel something parts the smoke near you. It's like a feather-touch sensation that someone is there for one moment then not. 

Upstairs, Cob, right at the lip of the staircase, either by chance or a mistake, you catch a glimpse of a tiny silver glint akin to a pendant moving closer and rushing past you. 

Cob reaches out a hand to grab at the pendant.

(Dex? 23  )

Drexon waits, hoping Eremoz manages to get the door open from his side. He feels totally useless in his weakened state.

"What caused the smoke?", he calls through the door to Eremoz.

Just to set the scene, Eremoz is downstairs on the basement level. The rest of the group is at the topmost lip of the staircase leading down, still on the main floor level. Cob has detected something moving past the group from downstairs. 

Cob, you sweep your hand toward the glinting pendant and feel a slight resistance before you hear the sound of a feminine grunt and the snap of a cord. The owner of the pendant tuts and continues moving past you, disappearing into the smoke. You look in your hand and see a silver necklace with a dark silver wolf head pendant.

"It's a smoke bomb," Hotis says after a few moments. "Very well made if it can emit this much smoke."

"Can you disable it?" Julian asks. 

"Well, I have to find it first."

"You," Julian taps Eremoz's shoulder, "help him. Call your friends down so they can help. Might as well make them work."

Behind the group upstairs, Harren shouts into the room before going back out. "Boss, we have a problem on the floor! Some of Mr Garaton's students are causing problems with the patrons and the city guards are not helping either when they learnt the mayor may be a part of an assassination attempt what with the smokes. We have a code blue. Massey is down. We need Mr Garaton's help to calm them all down."

Eremoz, for the first time since you met Julian, you see him angry. It is not a common red-hot anger or smouldering rage, but a malicious fury that simmers and hides beneath a well-crafted persona. You can tell that he is seconds away from shouting and cursing.

"Hotis! Deal with the smoke and get your students away from my place!"

{{ Little bit of a time hop for Karm }}
On the bazar he would have had a look for some Ink to transcribe spells and bought 20gp worth if he finds some
Investigation: 24

“Drex! Cob! Down here.” Eremoz turn to Julian. “Will the mayor be alright with Geralt?”

"He'll be fine," Julian says with gritted teeth. You can clearly see that he is trying to suppress an outburst. "How much longer, Hotis?"

"The device is easily disabled," Hotis says. "Finding it is the problem. I will need some help from more than one person to scour the floor."

"Did you see or hear the others over there?"

"Nothing. It seems that this is also concussive in nature. This is planned."

Drexon, Cob, Dvark, and Karm, you step downstairs carefully to see much of the same scene as upstairs. You can barely see five feet in front of you. You almost hit Eremoz's back but manage to swerve to the side at the last second. 

"Go help him find the device," Julian says to you. "Might as well make you work." 

Cob smiles at Julian.

"If we're working, we're getting paid," Cob says.

Cob looks to the center of where the smoke appears to be coming from. Rather than use his fiddle to summon the magical energy he's been given, he reaches deeper into himself and a past he doesn't know or understand and draws forth something innate to his kind. Cob says "aura wyl"

Cob casts Faerie Fire using his natural faerie magic to outline any objects in the area with a bright blue outline. His hope is that the source of the smoke is an actual object that will be lit up as well.