Little One’s eyes glaze over momentarily and he himself is at pains to maintain his concentration with Erudisia’s soft breath in his ear. 

But Marliza kicks his shin under the table and, though he barely feels her heel through his leathery skin, he inhales, pulls himself together, and picks up his cards.

With Meredith’s bardic inspiration and Erudisia’s guidance casting, he plays confidently, sometimes surprising the table with calculated risks that pay off. After the first hand, he begins to win.

You suddenly notice Marliza gesturing toward a waiter who has dropped off libations for the invitational players. The waiter has remained, standing against the wall, looking over your shoulders, his green key card disc hanging around his neck, when the jackalwere’s eyes flash, and you feel him slump forward onto your backs, asleep, unnoticed amid the concentrated focus on the game.

Meredith stepped slightly back blocking the view of the waiter from the crowd.

( Help Action)

Bell sticks close to Little One and company as they enter the area for the tourney.  She was never one to learn 'games of chance' growing up.  Only stone toss to an old stone wall...  to see who could get closest without touching.    Cards, dice, and spinning wheels are just too much to focus on with the lights and colors.  

She grabs a drink from a passing server and sips it as the game and tension builds.

Erudisia sees Meredith’s movement and steps back to take a drink from her, the waiter hidden as he leans against Little One’s back, asleep. 

As a natural pause in the hands comes, she steps back with a breathy “I’m the lucky one, to see you play Little One. Every hand seems a lesson, and we should all be paying to receive your Guidance.”

She drains the rest of her glass and totters, faking a stumble, as she reaches for the Tiefling’s key card, and secrets it to Marliza.

Sleight of hand: 18 (with guidance) (16 with advantage)

So done, Erudisia steps back to Little One’s side with a smile and resumes her work with her minor desire magic and watches him winning. 

Erudisia succeeds in filching the key card disc and Marliza, expressionless, takes it and slips into her clutch. Then, to cover the motion, she removes a lipstick and says to the others, “Ladies room?”

What happens to the unconscious waiter?

Meredith smiles at Marliza then moves to join her summoning a delicate shadowy hand in position to ' goose' the still precariously leaning waiter when she is 25' away then cancel the spell.

Sleight of Hand- 6

You three, with Marliza, are casually exiting the tournament room in search of the women’s lounge when, tickled where the sun doesn’t shine by Meredith’s invocation, the waiter’s eyes pop open and he gives a yelp. Springing up, his arms flail behind him in search of the intrusive appendage, but to all appearances, ineffectually fanning thin air for that is all he finds. The card players’, their concentration smashed, glance daggers at him, with shouts of “Shut it!?,” and “What the flock??!!”

One of the card players at Little One’s table takes advantage of the moment… everyone please roll Perception…

Bell - Perception:  Nat1 + 1 = 2.... maybe she should have NOT sipped so many passing drinks!

Meredith Perception- 5

Erudisia —15

Meredith and Erudisia both notice when the player called Dougg, a gray-black aarakocra with long eyelashes under long, bushy eyebrow feathers, secrets a card from his cuff, then replaces one from his hand to the same hidden spot. His beak curls in a smile. Little One’s on to him. He sends a wink your way, then you hear his booming voice.

“You’re cheating!”

You have reached the main chamber. The crowd has thinned a bit, it’s getting late. Diehard gamblers hardly notice of course. The security entrance to the casino offices and vault is across the stream…

Bell hears a commotion back toward Little One.   Overacting terribly, she will go 'full drunk' weaving and wobbling, arms pinwheeling as she falls into the stream.    She will splash and scream for all she is worth. (( because water is cold and she is in material that just ... well... she did intend to be distracting. 

Deception: 3

Performance: 10

The sound of yelling and a crash from the tournament room. This draws the attention of the security guards on the floor in the main cavern. Several rush past you toward the tournament, and Bell perhaps tries to fake being shoved into the water by one of them. Her timing is terrible and he has already left the room by the time she forces herself to take the plunge. But once Bell ‘falls’ into the stream, no further performance is necessary. The water is freezing, and she gasps for air and feels her muscles tensing all over her body. She is quickly pulled toward the waterfall, toward its vertiginous plummet off the cliff face into the blackness over the Sea of Swords. A number of people chortle, one drunk woman points, spilling her drink, guffawing and screeching, and a friend of hers joins in the mirth at Bell’s expense. Meanwhile, several human males, jaws dropping, fall over each other to be the first to offer her a hand out of the water. One of them, in his haste, tips over the edge and himself plunges in, splashing and gasping for air.

Meredith and Erudisia notice a security guard stop in front of the mirror over the security door to the vault area. He quickly gestures for help before turning to push through the crowd and run to Bell’s aid. The crowd is in some turmoil, although in the southern part of the casino, some patrons continue to play the slots, oblivious to all.

Erudisia grabs Meredith’s wrist and pulls her to the nearest staff door, while Bell is rescued and take to the holding cells, they must get into place to rescue her and also rob this place blind. 

(Who has the thief’s bag of holding?) 

( Erudisia has the Bag of Holding from memory.)

Meredith moved with Erudisia with a slight whistful squeak of protest as she looks over her shoulder towards Bell, approaching the door and mirror she chills the surface of the mirror slightly to cause a thin layer of condensation to form slightly obscuring details reflected in it as Meredith opens the door with the pass.

Prestidigitation.

Possibly needed rolls-

Arcana- 16

Sleight of Hand- 12

Deception- 7

(Amazing idea)

(Meredith is granted Heroic Inspiration for her prestidigitory panache!)

Little is now known about the shifty duergar contractors who completed the security fittings in the Afterlife Casino, or why they delayed until winter to complete their work. But a few days after the events that unfold tonight, the chief of security will have a sudden understanding. That at some point, the duergar discovered that with a stream running through the casino cave, it became quite a humid place, especially when warmed by occupants, with the unfortunate corollary problem that a mere Prestidigitation cantrip could defeat the expensive equipment they had lauded and sold at no small effort to the casino’s architect and owner-to-be. With unctuous smiles, the duergar quickly completed their work, squirreled off with their payment, closed shop, and disappeared from Baldur’s Gate entirely. Some say that they moved north beyond the Spine of the World, others, that they are sunning themselves on the beaches of Calimshan…

At Meredith’s whim, the security mirror over the secure door to the vault and offices fogs from top to bottom, just as a pair of guards, buckling on weapons belts, rush out of the door toward the scuffle…

Meredith gave Erudisia an encouraging nudge, whispering " You got this." as they stepped quickly to move through the door before it closed again.

1d6 Bardic Inspiration to Erudisia.

Getting through the door-

Meredith Stealth- 10

Acrobatics- 3

(Lol! You made me drop my dice!)