Play along. I will explain later. --Barry ❤️

Strife quickly crumpled the note and stuffed it her pocket. She then leapt into his arms, wrapped her legs around his waist, and bestowed a huge wet affectionate kiss upon his lips.

"Darling! Sweetheart! We thought you had abandoned us! We waited for what seemed like an eternity, and when you didn't return, everyone thought maybe you had run into the bandits, and that we had to leave you to avoid the same fate. Can you ever forgive your foolish and frightened buttercup?"

Before Barry can utter a syllable, Strife bestows another deep intense kiss, and leaves off only when he has run out of oxygen. She gazes up at him sweetly, petitioning for absolution, flavoring her adoration with occasional blinks of innocence.

(Doing this from my phone so bear with me)

Trini: You’re not able to discern a pattern of the guards and their patrol, but you do remember the symbol on the flag as the Cult of the Crushing Wave. Water cultists!

Strife: The guard slowly starts to lose interest in your long winded deception story and was about to fall asleep on his javelin until he was startled by a very loud noise down below. “Great Hells, is that..is someone snoring down there..? Wot?! Shoalar! What are you doing here? Alright! Everyone inside! The Boss is gonna wanna speak to you’s all.” Eventually, your deceptions are enough to be extended an invitation inside. Time to meet The Boss!

Strife earns the achievement: “Wow, she knows how to KISS!” 

Mercy startled awake and just barely managed to stay in her hammock. Blushing as she realized what had happened, she listened as they were brought inside...to the Boss?! Oh, what in the Nine Hells had the Jingle Troupe gotten her into this time. Her cover blown, she rolled out of the hammock when the cart stopped and crawled from below. Standing, she dusted herself off. “Apologies, m’lady.” She addressed Strife with averted eyes. “Must’a bin tarred from de watch last nigh’.”

Daewen has managed to squish herself into a back dark corner of the carriage, cowering in fear at the possibility of the teams plan going south. She was leagues out of her comfort zone here- with no ability to sweet talk the guards into letting them in, and uncomfortable with sneaking around in daylight (fore she is much more comfortable slinking around in the dark.....the deeper and darker underground, the better).

Surprised that the ruse worked, and the carriage was allowed entry into the keep, she quickly prepared herself for the what was to come.  Casting Disguise Self on herself, she changes herself to look like the teenage daughter of Strife, with miniature bells on her horns to top off the look.

Carrhae is still confused about what's going on, but seeing as how Daewen and Mercy have been able to roll with the punches, she falls in step as well. "Shoalar! It's good to see you alive sir. We all feared that you had died back there. I've been making sure that your family remained safe, just like you ordered. Your poor wife was inconsolable when you were gone, but you can clearly see that she's very much relieved that you're back and unharmed."

Zephyr sure as all Hell's was not expecting Strife to latch onto him and give him a big sloppy kiss on the lips, nor did he expect her to kiss him a second time, leaving him in quite the daze and loss for words. He thanked the Traveler he had armor on covering the important parts though. Shifting into men was such a hassle sometimes, not to mention this took a completely different turn than he anticipated then again he didn't exactly have a plan aside from putting on the genasi mask and pretending to know them. Despite there being a slight blush dusted across his cheeks, he kept the ruse up as much as he possibly could by acting very nonchalant about it. Happens all the time! Now, at least they were getting in and the girls were playing along. 

"Thank you, my dear." He gently set down his 'wife' and took her hand as they walked inside the keep. Have to keep it up. He as they made way to the boss he turned to Carrhae and Mercy. "And thank you for keeping a close eye on them. Both of you. Now, be on your best behavior, this is my boss, okay?"

THE MEETING WITH GRIMJAW

Seven cultists slowly emerge from the main door of the Keep and beckon for you to come inside. They escort you along the blue path to what appears to be a management office.

One thing you notice, there are cultists everywhere. At least thirty. The management office is the great hall of the keep. It is two stories high, with stone stairs on both sides of the room leading up to a stone balcony at the west end of the chamber. Heavy double doors lead east to the castle yard, while two interior doors open to the west. Arrow slits look out to the north and the south.

At the west end of the room, below the balcony, a large wooden chair sits behind a wide table littered with papers and discarded plates. A second table, this one long and furnished with benches, runs down the middle of the hall. The walls are painted in green and blue, decorated with tattered banners showing nautical designs.

An enormously fat human man with almost pig like features sits at the end of a table, looking over paperwork. Three officer type guards are in the corners of the room, watching you all. "Grimjaw. Shoalar returns. With guests.." Grimjaw looks you all over, then dismisses the escorts away. When they are gone, he talks. Or grunts. "Ah! Shoalar. I trust you were able to obtain the tomes? And who are these...women? Euch. Devil girls? Who knew you had such..tastes." he says with a bit of curiosity and disgust. "At any rate, we're going to need your services more to transport more cultists from Womford to here. Why are you here?"

Daewen (aka Junior Strife) grabs onto the open hand of Momma Strife, and cowers behind her like an intimidated child would. She lets her jaw open slack, and turns her head around the room as if in awe of the surroundings (Perception: 9). 

Would Carrhae be able to get away with casting Bless right now or no?

It's doubtful because it has verbal, somatic, and material components and you doing something may cause suspicion - but if you want to take a risk and cast it, go ahead =P

Big words, coming from a pig. The thought was Mercy's only real reaction to the insult he levied nearly the entire party. Scratching at her jaw, she yawned, overplaying her drowsiness to almost humorous effect as she wandered over to the Southern arrow slit to apparently take in some fresh air. "Ain't all of us here fer looks, sir. Nossir." She smirked and threw Carrhae a wink. "Blondie here's a soldier reject tryin' to play bard with the lady."

A sidelong, sleepy-eyed glance at Grimjaw, and Mercy gave a slow smile. "En me? I ain' nothin' much, I ken it." She stretched, letting her cloak slide off her shoulders. Her weapons were visible enough in their holsters, but they weren't what she was trying to show off. Not right now. What she hid under that cloak was just how well her armor hugged her curves. Another wink, this time to the porcine man. "But I bin told I do, in a pinch."

Charisma (Because it's just about EVERY CHA skill rolled into one moment): 6

After a few awkward moments, Grimjaw says, "Yikes. What in the Nine Hells are you doing..and saying..? Shoalar, what's this all about?"

Rolling her eyes, Mercy pulls out a rag and unstraps Dark Magic from its holster as she pulls a small bottle of oil from her hip-pouch. She starts to polish the weapon, staring out the window, glad the ugly bastard hadn't been interested in what she'd pretended to offer. Honestly, she'd wanted to be able to draw a weapon without looking threatening, and it had worked. Gods know shit's gonna hit the fan sooner than later. That Shoalar is definitely not the one I spoke to in Womford...wait...are we one short?

Insight: 19

(Keep losing my edits...)

She ran her eyes back over their group. Judging from the fact the Ganesi-dupe had spoken, he obviously wasn't Daewen. Which would make her the kid. So...Zephyr knew how to use that Disguise Self spell? And he didn't use it before to help us...or maybe...Red Larch? None of us remember seeing him there most the day...

“Hired help.” He says curtly in regards to Mercy and Carrhae, irritated at what was said earlier about his friends. “This is my wife, St.. Stella, and my kid, Dawn.   Were just passin’ through really, looking for a place to stay the night, if you’d be willing to do me the favor.”

Persuasion: 22

"Huh." Grimjaw says. "I didn't think you had a family. Alrighty, then. If they're any trouble, i'll have you killed. We've got a busy day tomorrow. Get this filth out of my hall."

Grimjaw snaps his fingers and you are all escorted to the barracks in the middle of the keep. Nine double bunks fill this barracks, each with a pair of footlockers tucked underneath. Doors exit to the north, west, and east.

Currently in the room, there are about 10 cultist loitering about, and they eye you with interest and curiosity. They seem to spend the day gambling, dozing in their bunks, tending to their gear, practicing in the yard just outside, or starting pointless quarrels with each other. There are more cultists outside keeping watch.

Deception: 16

Daewen play acts the awkward teenager as she cowers behind Momma Strife when they enter the barracks and notice that everyone appears to be eyeing them....hoping that the normal humanoid reaction would be annoyance and therefore desired to ignore her as much as possible. 

Unsure of what to make from this whole appearance of Shoalar, Trini goes along with the rest of them, providing her bright, friendly smile and a jingle. The devil girl comment goes mostly over her head as an insult, but she also notices Barry's continued absence as they've made their way inside and like Mercy begins to put together that Schoalar may be their friend in disguise and is quite impressed. It's certainly a show they're putting on here.

"Hi everyone." Trini greets the cultists in the barracks. "Please don't mind us, we're not here to cause any trouble. " She's decided that in their current act, she's the distant cousin of Stella, Trista, trying to reconnect with her family after a falling out several years ago where no one quite remembers whose fault it is, but surely the other side started it! She'll gladly share her woes of trying to find common ground with her cousin and her family after so very long if anyone asks. (She's not expecting anyone to ask)
Persuasion: 14

After that she'll kind of meander about, humming a cheery tune just keeping an eye out for anything that might catch her attention, or any more suspicious than usual behavior from the cultists. Eventually she'll sort of slowly wander her way about toward the door on the left and try to surreptitiously see if it's unlocked if and when they've stopped paying most attention to her. 
Perception: 17
Insight: 23
Sleight of Hand: 10

As the others are escorted out, Mercy stuffs her oiling supplies into her pouch and stoops to pick up her cloak. Folding it over the crossbow in her hand, she hustles after the others. In the barracks, she pulls "Shoalar" and Strife aside. Speaking in Infernal, she sighs. "Zephyr, you should have mentioned you were able to disguise yourself. Any rate, we're in. And outnumbered at least five to one. And being watched." She glanced meaningfully at Strife. "If I'm to be of any use, I need these eyes off me. If I manage to escape sight, don't look for me. I'll be near enough to help when our welcome wears off."

Would Daewen know just what the heck water cultists do?  Would she know how to blend in?  And more importantly, share that info with ‘mom’ and ‘dad’?   History: 15