Vostaria stands, frowning. "Very well," she says. "But I still insist on returning in the morning before our departure. I feel it was quite rude to be kept waiting in this manner."

Jebben looks towards Vostaria. His body language shows agreement and shared annoyance with her words. His eyes, which sparkle with slight admiration, are saying to her, "Spot on! Nice touch!"

"Well, I can only apologise, but you are here late and the Ministers don't usually see people after 8pm. I'll make sure to tell the Minister you were here and to expect you in the morning."

The Guard winks and nods his head. He briefly glances toward Minister Trask, before carrying on toward the Infirmary. You can hear the clanking of footsteps disappearing into the distance.

Jebben smiles and nods, and as soon as the guards turn their attention away, he slightly quickens his walking pace down the hallway, towards the exit. His companions beside him can hear the bard muttering the eff-word, over and over, to himself, under his breath--though the friendly smile remains on his face the whole time.

Ellayne stays in silence until their footsteps disappear into the distance. A sigh of relieving escapes quietly as her hand rests on her chest to calm herself down. ”I would love to applause for the act that both of you did, but I guess we need to get out of here right now.” Then she looks down on a scroll she got from a drawer. She won't know what this is until they finds out what it is.

Vostaria exhales when they are safely outside again, her muscles finally relaxing. "Well done, Jebben," she says, then looks both ways down the street to orient herself. "This way, if I'm not mistaken."

(Wow, that worked. I'm impressed!)

"Agreed," Jebben says in a low voice to Ellayne, his gaze remaining fixed forward. "We must perambulate our way back to The Hot Chip, to Slickfoot and Dorstaer, and render whatever assistance we're able, but we need to keep a wary eye out, for if those two tectonic twats -- sorry, Rustless, I never mean you, you know -- did get guards on their side, there's a better-than-fair chance they're looking for us as well."

Ellayne follows Vostaria and Jebben, walking down in a hallway. As they reach to the exit, she couldn't quite relax and yet she relaxed that the plan of Vostaria has worked out quite well.

(This is amazing and I love it XD)

Jebben smirks and glances sideways, towards Vostaria. "Me? Ms. Vostaria, I mussed it all up from the start. It was you who set the stage, and without a good stage, all of the actors upon it are lost!" He chuckles, "The indignant, we'll-be-back act was a nice, ad-lib touch, by the way, for it put them on the defensive and helped assuage any suspicions they might have had. And, dare I say this: I do believe that guard fancies you!"

Vostaria curls her lip in obvious disgust as she walks briskly down the street in the direction of the Hot Chip. "Please do not make such jokes, Jebben. I would as soon bed a troll as a human or elf. To my kind, they are treated all the same, I'm afraid. But thank you for your compliment. I did not expect it to work so well."

The streets are empty, and the torchlights from windows above light the cobblestone pavement. As you turn a corner toward the Hot Chip, the rain starts. It glistens against the cobblestone, creating a slick stone look which shines.

Ahead, you see Dorstaer, Barnum, the Barman and his daughter, Annie, jogging up the path toward you. The little girl is in Dorstaers arms, and Barnum is carrying your equipment. They seem out of breath, and trying to stay upright without slipping on the now slick stone path.

Jebben nearly trips on the cobbles in surprise when he recognizes the three figures jogging up the road in the dim torchlight. “What a savory sight for eight sore eyes—if I might be so bold as to speak for all four of us—for we were making intentioned haste in the direction of The Hot Chip to see how you fared, but it seems The Hot Chip has come en force to us, instead! And you have my gear, Slickfoot; I owe you greatly! Was there further trouble from those two brutish bricks-for-brains, or did you all instead simply worry that the four of us got lost on our way to the Hall, and ventured out to find and retrieve us?”

A look of concern clouds the bard’s face. “There is--and I'm sure this will come as no surprise to you two--more trouble in New Waterdeep tonight, and, like it or not, we might be implicated in it by proxy, for you see Ms. Trask has been assassinated, and we had the misfortune of being the persons of initial discovery, and as of now we are likely to have been the last people, not counting the guards, seen in her proximity before anyone else gets word of the tragedy." 

Quote from MindDetective >>

(Wow, that worked. I'm impressed!)

 (Yay for low perception checks from guards!)

Dorstaer groans at Jebben's news.  "As if this day wasn't bad enough!" he says.  "We snuck out of the Hot Chip through a hidden exit just as the two warforged were returning with what sounded like about half the cities guard force.  We decided discretion was the better part of valor, figured they probably wouldn't be overly inclined to gentleness and compassion." 

He shakes his head.  "We were hoping to meet up with you guys and get assistance from Minister Trask; apparently she was the one who helped Annie here escape her mother in the first place to return to her father."  He turns back to the barman.  "Any idea where we could go now?  We probably don't want these 4 to be anywhere nearby when the minister is found dead."

"By the way," he says to the girl in his arms and her father.  "I don't think we've ever all been properly introduced.  My name's Dorstaer."

Quote from AlphaLyrae >>

 Jebben's a nice, honest guy. This world is messing with his innocent head. This whole day is really shaping out decisions I'll make at level 3 for his subclass choices LOL.

 (Won't probably affect my subclass, but this may well shape out decisions for my eldritch invocations.  Had originally planned on going more combat focused with them, but Mask of Many Faces is looking REAL nice right about now)

Wander stays silent when the guards enter the room, holding in his urge to elbow the gnome when he proceeds to use the nickname once more. Like others he moves at a quick. It believable pace as he makes his way out of the right hall and towards the bar once more. "We are very lucky that those guards were so relaxed. I can see a million ways that could have gone very bad for us...."

Vostaria considers this turn of events. "Trask helped Annie and so have we. We are unlikely to be her murderers as well as working with her to protect Annie. But it does point towards who may have murdered Trask. Annie's mother has a strong motive, and on the night that she sent her constructs to forcefully take her daughter back."

As the group continues to walk briskly she muses further. "But Annie's mother must be powerful with the city watch on her side. She will be able to cover up Trask's murder if she wishes. The most expedient way to end this feud would be to eliminate the mother," she concludes.

Looking at the distaste on the faces of her companions, she takes the hint. "Of course, the repercussions of such action would be problematic."

All the while he was listening, the gnome had retrieved his backpack and bagpipes, and prepared them for travel. He looks up through the veil of raindrops spilling off the front of his jungle hat. "There is the possibility of the other two establishments listed on the paper Ms. Trask kindly gave to Wonder, though I'm curious what the scope of the search for you two is over the now-possibly-abducted child, and I equally wonder if there is going to be a subsequent search for the six of us as a whole concerning the minister's death (the last guard we spoke to recognized us as a group, you see, and asked as to the whereabouts of you two.)"

He looks to the barman. "Perhaps you have a safer alternative for us to stay, with your local knowledge of the area, for you see we are, quite literally, fresh off the boat as they say--or at least fresh out of the Rift!"

Ellayne frowns ever so deeply as she witnesses three figures jogging towards them, one of them holding the child of the bartender. The situation has become direr than she expected, still, she looks towards the child in worrying. Asking Annie if she was okay and checking her, her mismatched eyes gaze back at her companions. The two warforged did keep their promises to come back with the guards; Minister Trask has been assassinated by the unknown but everything seems to connect to the child, Annie.

She looks at her companions after she listens to the conclusion from Vostaria. ”I have gathered some information. There was a scroll that Minister Trask holding so dearly and keeping it in a secret compartment. Also, nearby Minister Trask, I found a button. It inscribed ’Tabatha’s Terrific Tailor.’” She speaks quietly as if she was aware of the surrounding. 

”Maybe we could find a clue from these two. For now, we have to find a place to stay. Bartender, sir, do you know any place that we could stay secretly from the baroness’s power?”