Walt watched Harrow slip away and sneak into the Spicy Bro's tent and after a few brief moments, spots him poke his head out from the tent, motioning his friends to follow. 

Walt, wasting no time walks over to the tent and immediately begins sniffing around the mysterious "bird" cages.

Perception check: 21

(ooc: come on dice gods don't let me down!)

Rycroft mounts whatever convenient crate he might find near the Spicy Brothers stall, produces his purloined cooking knife, and launches into a soliloquy about a dagger from a tragedy about an ambitious king, hoping to draw attention from his compatriots sneaking in behind.

When Walt trots into the tent, Harrow crouches and mutters, "I'm beginning to suspect you might be right about the tea moths, my friend, though it seems Madam Kulp isn't the only one who might have access to them."

When Rycroft begins telling his story, Harrow grins broadly, telling himself to get Rycroft a smoothie too when he goes back to order from Kasem.

Tuuli taps her foot as Walt-dog slips into the tent, but positions herself to be able to intercept anyone who looks like they might be entering the tent.

Harrow slips out of the tent for a moment, still unnoticed, while Rycroft creates a distraction (any further stealth checks at advantage while he is doing so.)

Walt-Mastiff smells the bird cages. His olfactory system lights up. This is definitely the smell he picked up on the stray persimmon - he's smelling whatever lives or was living in this cage.

Kasem continues to serve his customers short-handed, oblivious to the party's shenanigans.

Walt is going to leave his wild shape and search the files to search for any mention of the purchase or acquisition of 'persimmons'. He's looking for any names of dealers or people involved as well as locations. Walt will stash any important evidence he finds in his cloak. He'll also search the cage for any droppings, feathers, claw marks or clues as to what sort of creatures were held in the cages.

Investigation: 3

Nature: 7 (nature roll for investigation of cages)

(ooc: In my above post I meant for Walt to search for documents regarding 'peppers', not persimmons. I didn't want to edit the post for fear of the dreaded manipulated post label)

After he finishes searching the tent, Walt will stealthily leave the tent to rejoin his friends. He will share with his friends all he perceived in his mastiff form including the otherworldly scent that he picked up on the persimmon, the faint trace of the same scent on Kasem's hand and the definite discovery of the same scent in the cages found hidden in the boxes labeled 'peppers'.

Stealth: 7

Stealth: 22

(ooc: here's my second roll for stealth. I forgot to roll with advantage.)

Whatever lives in these cages, still lives in these cages – they have been freshly occupied. Something small ("tiny" by the rules), winged, but having a fine, blue-grey hair which sheds a little. The orderliness of the cage suggests an intelligence as well.

The names of the pepper wholesale vendors elude Walt, as most of the cramped-handed records were kept in the Maynah language.

Walt gather’s up the squad and shares what he’s learned so far as well as some revised theories he’s come up with. 

“Gather in, friends. I think we’re onto something here. At the very least Kasem is involved with the shenanigans at the Xungoon stall. Earlier I suspected tea moths might be involved, but now I’m not so sure. I inspected the cages hidden in boxes labels “peppers” and they housed some sort of intelligent, winged beast with small blue fur. I think this beast is involved with dropping the persimmons on the Xungoon stall, and I don’t think it’s a tea moth!”

Walt is getting all flustered as he concocts his new theory. He wipes the sweat off his brow before proceeding.

”I know the tut-krogh caterpillars to be rather docile, slow and…not the brightest torch in the castle. Are you following me? They aren’t known to be especially intelligent. And Madam Kusa said that the tut-krogh get nervous when they’re by the Xungoon stall. She thought this to be a negative reflection on those families, but perhaps the caterpillars are afraid of those winged beasts!”

Walt pauses to catch his breath and then looks towards Harrow and says ,” Harrow, earlier you mentioned an alarm spell that you can use. Perhaps, you can cast this spell on the door of one of those cages. When that alarm bell rings, we’ll know that the cage door has been opened and maybe we can swoop in and catch Kasem in the act!”

“Anyone else have any ideas?”

Harrow nods, retrieving his spellbook and a palm-sized clear quartz crystal from his bag. "I can do that, but it will take some time for me to cast the spell; the ritual takes over ten minutes. If we're able to make sure no one else gets into the tent during that time, then I see no problems. It's a shame that I'm unable to use identification magics to find out what creature that hair came from, but then, I've never been good at divination. Speaking of which..." He closes his eyes again and runs a hand slowly over his forehead and eyes, lightly massaging his temples in the process. When he opens his eyes again, the opalescence is gone. "That's better."

When he finds his notes on the alarm ward, he nods again, this time to himself. "If the time it takes to conduct the ritual is acceptable, then I'll begin immediately."

“Time should be on our side if we move quickly.” Walt looks back and surveys the crowd at the spicy bros stall. “Kasem appears to be quite busy serving up chips and smoothies at the moment. If we need to, I suppose we can come up with some sort of diversion. Perhaps Rycroft can perform a soliloquy or some sort of song and dance routine.”

(ooc: If anyone plans to make a a diversion of any sort, Walt will cast guidance on them. Roll 1d4 and add it to any ability check.)

Harrow will need to roll one more Stealth check, with advantage (assuming that Rycroft is still preaching or somebody else is maintaining a distraction.)

Harrow walks over to the cages and kneels beside them, laying his spellbook open to his notes. Holding the crystal in his left hand, he begins to sing softly while running his right hand across the bars of the cages. The crystal swirls with greens and blues that trail from his fingers as he works, defining the cages and a few feet of space around them as the warded space.

Stealth: 20

Tuuli is not one to steal a performer’s thunder, but if Rycroft is done and a distraction is needed, she’ll pull out cards and start doing some street magic. 

Performance: 16
Sleight of hand: 19 

Tuuli puts on a pretty impressive show, performing feats of convincing faux arcana.

Harrow slips back into the tent, and for ten suspenseful minutes, performs his slow ritual. (A mental alarm triggered by anything touching or entering the cages or their immediate area, I presume? Anything else we should know?)

Fortunately, Kasem is pretty busy. In fact, he seems rather pleased that Tuuli's shenanigans seem to be drawing in a little business. (Meanwhile, Rycroft's dagger soliloquy... Performance: 14)

It's done. Harrow successfully finishes his ritual spell and slips back out again.

The party reunites.

"You know, I think Lamai would like your story," Kasem pipes up, looking up from another pepper transaction to interrupt Rycroft. "She loves tragic stories about kings and such. There's a nice spot next to the Tyenmo stand where I bet they'd love to hear your soliloquy."

(Those are exactly the parameters I'd like to set for the alarm! It'll take a full 11 minutes, and I'll not specify anyone in particular that doesn't set it off.)

Walt, senses that Kasem is getting a little annoyed by his friends and attempts to turn the screws a bit. He looks towards the night sky and smiles as he see's the constellation of the wild mother. He whispers a silent incantation and casts guidance on himself.

"Good show, Rycroft and Tuuli! Good show indeed!" Walt hoots and hollers. 

"Kasem! The only thing spicer than your food, is your keen business sense. You have yet another splendid idea! My friends and I will take our show to the Tyenmo stall"

Walt dances his trademark jig and shouts to the crowd.

"Come all...follow the market games reah and their victorious companions as we continue our celebratory tour of the night market!. To the Tyenmo stall!"

Persuasion check with guidance: 18

Walt will begin walking towards the Tyenmo stall, hopefully with a procession of locals in tow.

"Harrow, do let us know if the bell rings!" Walt winks at Harrow as he walks past.

Harrow's bell rings almost immediately after he leaves the tent.

The locals, while amused by Walt's antics, aren't particularly interested in following him anywhere. But they smile and nod in good humor as they continue their shopping.