Session 64: Cat-napping

With me now disguised and the manor patched up, Industria keeps playing into the plot that I was kidnapped. She tries to get the ports locked down for her investigation, but the guards refuse to do as they don’t have any jurisdiction over that. We want to start our line of questioning with the Chatons, basically test the waters to see how they feel about the Kociaks and what they know about all the strange happenings lately. One of the Kociak guards wants to come along as he finds Industria to be much too snappy for his taste of diplomacy, but once she realizes that he’s not a spy, she lets him in on our plan. He’s extremely wary of us all, especially once he realizes that we’re traveling around with undead.   But Industria manages to calm his ass down and he reluctantly steps back from our “investigation” to give us free reign. Off to the Chatons we go and when they tell us that we have to leave our weapons outside, Jordeira throws a fit. He refuses to step inside and gets stuck in nightmarish conversation with a young guard who has the audacity to imply that he secretly has feelings for me. The rest of us are led into a parlor room where we finally meet the lady of the house, Belenidia Chaton, who is surprised that she’s a prime suspect in my disappearance. As Industria goes through the interview with Elathera keeping an eye on all the invisible mercenaries that are around, I manage to sneak off and slip on Lochoria’s mask.     The guard who was trying to keep an eye on me now has no idea where I’ve gone. There’s one problem here though. With this mask, I’m undetectable and incorporeal which means if I do encounter the dirt I need to collect, I can’t interact with it unless I take the mask off. A risky move considering all the magic and defenses throughout this manor, but I manage with a ridiculous plan. Upon finding their records room, I take the mask off and lie in wait to see if my presence triggers anything. The guards immediately know something’s off and open the door only to find…a pomeranian? They both breathe a sigh of relief that it’s nothing more than a dog, but I’m promptly carried out of the room. My puppy pleas to be let back in convince no one and I have to think my plan over again.     I manage to cast a hallucinatory spell in the room, making it sound as if somebody’s inside and they burst through the doors again. Nothing. I go to slip in behind them, but in my excitement, I bark and alert them to my presence. I dart down the hall, frantically barking and spinning in circles; convincing one guard to go fetch me some treats. Once she’s gone, I use the spell to send a ghostly apparition through the halls to distract the other guard and in I go. I’m able to collect all their tax and finance records, proceeding to destroy the room after in dog form so the Chatons don’t implicate my friends for the theft. I escape the building in time for Industria’s interrogation to end and off we go. We go through the records, learning that the Kociaks owe the Chatons a lot of money, but have been paying them back on a steady basis.     Apparently they needed the money to buy some land in a power move against the Gattos and we also learn that the Chatons are violent loan sharks. They tried to cover it up during the talks earlier as stating that the people sometimes get restless and unruly over money, but it’s clear from the records that they have no qualms collecting their payments by any means. We decide to visit the Pisicas next, figuring that a family full of holy folk will be decent at least. The head of their family, Elysium “Ellis” Pisica, knows of Industria and is more than happy to chat with her. She’s honest with her answers, saying that she believes the Gattos were instrumental in my disappearance as there was a lot of tension between them and the Kociaks.     I sneak off with the mask yet again, finding a secret hall behind a bookcase in their library. There’s a worship room down here as well as a treasury, but I make my way for the most private of the rooms. There’s an unassuming looking chest on a bookshelf, so naturally, there’s gotta be good shit in there. Upon breaking in, a little dart goes off into the wall, but I think nothing of it as I collect the journal and pine cone inside. Poof! Off I go…only for that dart to give away my presence and I have to flee the premises even more quickly. Industria and Elathera save face, immediately offering to help Ellis who’s panicking over missing heirlooms. They stage an attempt to trace a teleport I totally did and catch up with me, Elathera managing to crack the code that’s scrawled all over the journal.     It’s a plot to conquer the archipelago and have it run entirely by priests, which sounds awfully familiar to my rakshasa ancestor’s plot. Upon looking through the memories of his she has, Elathera confirms that this journal was written by him; so the Pisicas are hardly a threat to us. They teleport back onto the property, returning the heirlooms to a very thankful Ellis. Our last stop is the Gattos manor and we’re all worried they might be immediately hostile with us. While assuring us that we can at least have a semi-cordial talk with them, Industria comes up with a genius plan that took us way too long to concoct. While the party interrogates the head of the house, I’ll sneak and lock myself within their dungeons. The others will ask for a tour of the home, assisted by Kociak guards, and the Gattos should have no problems doing so as they think they have nothing to hide.     With me in their dungeons and so many witnesses, we can frame them for my kidnapping and attempted assassination. With that, we can turn the other families (and hopefully the public) against them and oust them from power immediately.