((That was success on the charm, not success on the save?))

 If the guy's not seeming hostile, Korrik will hold dart if it gets hostile, and let Ben do his thing.

The guy seems docile!

Korrik holds his dart. 

Combat is over!

Ess says:

"Did it work? Did it work?"

Seeing the charm take effect, Ash relaxes a little. And gives the man a little more space (although stays within 5ft). It’s interesting seeing the effect on someone else. Ash let’s Ben do his thing first now too... ((taking no actions until Ben’s had a chance to talk to this man)).

Although behind this guy she will just point and nod, meaningfully, back through the secret door and make big eyes and a ‘shhh’ gesture with one finger...

Ben steps fully out, a wide smile on his face, and a not too loud voice,

"You know I was just joking about the clothes. Of course it worked, had you going didn't we!"

He goes to shake the man's hand then stops on seeing they're wet and just tips his head.

"Got you on dishes again?"

He shakes his head knowingly.

"Anyhow! Let me introduce my friends Fuzz, Shorts and Skinny. Bet you can guess who is who."

He waves Kay, Ash and Ess forward to greet their new friend and hopefully, if he is polite, get his name.

"Everything going okay? How many we still got here, seven?" He counts the beds.

"Oh, and what is the deal with," he gestures back to the room with the dead guy. "Bad form to leave him out, going to attract attention."

"I'm Fuzz.", Korrik says, amused.

Ash stifles a genuine laugh at Korrik, and then passes it off as some kind of a derisive snort and an elaborate eye-roll, before approaching the man politely (and qui-et-ly) with, “Don’t mind him!... He’s Shorts, I’m ‘Fuzz’..“, she says with a ‘seriously?!’, look towards Ben, “...and he’s Skinny”. She holds her hand out to the man (claws away... dagger in her other hand, behind her back) and pauses for a name from him too....

Ben gives her an incredulous look then chuckling,

"I'm thin, but that's Skinny," as he nods back to Ess.

"He knows me Fuzz, don't make me look bad!"

(hahahaha! This should be good....)

Ben, the man stops doing the dishes and reaches for a dishcloth to dry his hands. "Fork ya man. Bullshite if ya ask me, but I guess we all gotta do it right? Got delayed a bit from last night and all."

"Ha ha ha, yep yep and yep it's nice to meet you all. I'm Willard. Haven't seen a lot of Tabaxi's in the gang lately, although damn nice to have you around given last night. Jesus, folk round here are getting braver and braver I tell ya. I shoulda took more shots at the dumb fork but what's-his-name got all pissed and called me in."

Ess says "Yep. I'm skinny. Pleased to meet ya! Crazy shite last night eh?!" Ess is enjoying this probably a little too much. He's excited to see the spell working again. Before with Ash, he was afraid. Now he knows how strong it is and how long it lasts and how skilled Ben is with it, and so he plays along with you guys.

Willard: "Hmmmm... well man we didn't loose anyone last night, right? So yeah, there's Jim, Sally, Jesse, Tim, Nancy... umm.... shit you know what I can't remember the others names. Still the same lot of us. Oh and the 'hobbies'. Ugly forks those two are."

"Oh that dead guy, man, didn't you hear? We're leaving him there to scare people away. Were you not at that meeting?"

He starts to dry his hands more and finishes the clean-up. 

*Map is updated. I cut the wine cellar off which allows me to save the entire map (the size of the map is meta, and actually it may or may not be that big.). And it's a bit clearer, too!

Korrik:

((I'm reading Jesus as the Spanish pronunciation. He must be another member of the cult.))

"Willard! Pleasure to meet you. Ben said we'd get a chance to meet some real quality folks. Ones that are real good at the.. you know...", Korrik gives him a conspiratory wink.

"Been out recruiting Willard, missed a lot of meetings and, apparently, killings. The smell in there is enough to scare people off. You find out who he was or, more importantly, if anyone would come looking for him?"

Once that is covered he will ask,

"We got any armor for Fuzz laying about? Where's the rest at now you think? I'd like to surprise them but guess everyone is edgy after yesterday."

"Cozy little place, I like it. Could see this as a snug little base of operations..." Korrik wanders south and casually peers to the east, spotting the doors and wondering what might be behind them, but not doing anything to interfere with Ben working his wiles.

Ash will quietly reply, “Why thank you Willard! It’s very nice to be appreciated! We Tabaxi do have a few tricks up our sleeves!.... But yes, I had to ditch my armour when it got snagged up, during a getaway! Anything leather would be great! ‘Studded’ if you have it!”.

”Are all these beds taken? Or can we dump our stuff somewhere here?...”.

From where she stands, Ash has a good look all around her, trying to spot any armour or weapons just lying around in this room ((especially light armour or bows/crossbows))...

Perception (darkvision): 8 

Ash will also overlay her speech with the additional hidden message in thieves’ cant, saying, “ - Do - the - best - of - you - still - learn - The - Cant? - “. Just to get a feel for the nature of the gang. This would go completely unnoticed if he doesn’t know it.

((The man is definitely using a name in vain... totally DM oversight! We'll replace Jesus with 'said god'. 'Said god', folk round here are getting braver and braver I tell ya.'))

Korrik, the man seems confused by your statement. "Oh, what do you mean real good at what?" he frowns for a moment thinking, and then looses his thought and answers Ben "Yeah, ok that makes sense. Gang's been doing a lot of recruiting lately. The dead guy? Hell no, I don't know who he is, don't care either. Don't think anyone does. Kind of makes the whole 'haunted house' deal more real if people see him anyway. Boss said to leave him there."  He makes blatantly obvious air quotation marks with his fingers when he says 'haunted house'.

he continues...

"Armor? We don't have any extras, the recruits are just pouring in. 'said god' man, you should've told me you were bringing more recruits. I would've said something to the boss."

"Yup, all of 'em are back in the caverns. We were waiting for those dumb forks to come back last night, but they never did. Some of the guys got some sleep, some of 'em went back to the cavern to post up for a while. They tend to do that when visitors get brave in the house. I got stuck on dish duty. Fork that."

To Kay "Indeed. Why do you think the boss chose it as a base?"

*Posts crossed Ash - working on it*

"That's why they're the boss, I'd figure! Caverns you say, those this way?", Korrik says jovially, crooking a thumb at the two doors to the east.

Ash, you are able to get a really good sense of this room while the others are talking to Willard. 

Ten crude beds stand along the south wall, each with a wooden locker at its foot. A long wooden trestle table ringed by rickety stools dominates the center of the room. Metal cutlery, cups, and dirty plates sit atop the table. A cookstove is installed near the table, and evidence of recently cooked meals sits in pots atop it. A large ham hangs from a loop of twine near the stove.

A sturdy set of stairs leads to a trapdoor in the ceiling above. There are two wooden doors in the east side of the room. Korrik has also seen these as he glances around. The door to the north appears normal, but the one to the east has a wooden bar across it, held in brackets on the frame and the door itself. The word “DANGER” is scrawled on that door in the Common tongue using chalk.

Ash, you also notice a quite obvious secret door by the bookshelves in the SW corner of the room. Seems to be very frequently used as you spotted it at a glance.

Ash, the man would respond in the thieves cant heck - ya - don't - we - all? Smugglers - need - it - just - as - much - as - the - light - fingered - , yes? Boss - makes - us - all - learn - it.

To Korrik "Nope. Caverns over there." points to secret door.

"North door is the boss's office. East door, well the sign speaks for itself yeah?"