Episode 194 - Incognito Among Excellents

## Synopsis

A disguised Mira and Integrity snuck into the secret meeting of the Henrietta Hendrick's Society for Excellents, Serinepth and Winsler wandered freely as they were now official members of the society. An older tiefling called out to Integrity, calling her *"Zelocles"* and asking what happened in the entryway. Integrity pretended to take part in the celebrations, and told them it was only a golem and not anything to worry about. Mira bowed her head in acknowledgement. The tiefling remarked that they missed the old golem designs, but conceded and asked Integrity as Zelocles if she had given any more thought to to his proposal. Integrity vaguely said that she had given it thought and agreed with it, to which the tiefling told her they would send a letter with the details to her dorm. Integrity pretended she was sick and couldn't remember the proposal, so she asked the tiefling to repeat it. They told her it was a job offer to work under them at the Burnt Halls of Nessetar, causing Integrity to backtrack and say she needed more time to think over the proposal. Mira intervened, saying she needed a tune-up, allowing them to leave the conversation.

Ainsley walked over to Serinepth and Winsler, congratulating them, and suggested that now they were in the society they didn't need to keep their grades up anymore. Serinepth found Delnys, thanking her again for the invite. Winsler quickly looked around for other people to meet so he could stop talking to Ainsley. He saw Christina talking with Tyrion and another student, as well as two professors — a drow with white hair in a ponytail, wearing a shirt with all the buttons undone, and a very tall aarakocra — having a rather animated discussion with each other. Winsler went over to the professors, finding them debating which of the primordials they studied had the greatest impact on the world. The drow, Professor Kalder, argued that the earth and fire primordials of the Underdark were more important, while the aarakocra, Professor Hall, argued that the earth and air primordials of Ironbeak had more of an influence.

Winsler tried to convince Professor Hall that having opposing opinions was a good thing for academia. The aarakocra said that while they didn't like it, Winsler had made some good points.

Mira, still disguised as a golem, walked over to Serinepth and *Messaged* her.

*"Hey, it's me Mira, Integrity is over there. What's going on, how are you?"*

Serinepth froze before turning to face the golem. She waved, and Mira nodded her head.

In the meantime, Integrity went over to Winsler, and asked if he knew anything about the Finicky of the Phantom of the Gerbits. Professor Hall made a hasty exit from the strange conversation, leaving a very confused Winsler alone with Integrity. She convinced him to follow her over to Serinepth and Mira, and the students all moved to a more secluded area of the room.

Serinepth stared at Mira and Integrity. *"Why? Just why?"*

Mira said, *"Well we couldn't exactly come as ourselves."*

Integrity told the group about the note she had found in Bailey's bag, and they agreed that it was strange he would know about the meeting seeing as he wasn't invited. She looked around at the balcony above them, but couldn't see anyone hiding on it. Winsler went over to Professor Doss to ask if they were allowed up there. She said she didn't see why not, but she didn't have the key for it. Winsler went back to the group, and they decided not to try and break onto the balcony. Instead, Serinepth suggested that the other students at the meeting might know more about Bailey, and Mira admitted she wanted to try and sway them into voting for her in the election.

The party split up, with Mira and Winsler going to a group of three students, Serinepth going to Ainsley and Christina, and Integrity going to the professor talking with Delnys.

Mira and Winsler approached the group of students: a girl with tan skin, and short brown hair; a very pale human; and an energetic halfling, who was waving their arms wildly, yet somehow not spilling their drink or hitting anyone. The halfling, Kalwen Greenleaf, welcomed Winsler to the society, the pale guy tried to awkwardly shake his hand, and the girl looked at him and got a headache. She introduced herself as Veronica.

Winsler asked the group if they had noticed anyone sneaking around the school, saying that when Ainsley had told him about the meeting, he thought someone was listening in, and they had dropped a note with *"-ailey Blue"* written on it. Both the pale guy and Veronica couldn't think of anything, but Calwyn said that last year he had noticed Bailey skulking around lots of the classrooms, claiming it was event planning business before scurrying away. From this, Winsler asked who they were thinking of voting for in the upcoming event planning election. Calwyn admitted that he didn't even know there was an election happening, and that he would probably just vote for Bailey again. Veronica asked who else was running. When Winsler said that Cyndra would be, she immediately said she would vote for Cyndra as she was her roommate. She then turned to the pale guy, and said he had better vote for Cyndra as well.

Meanwhile, Integrity walked up to Delnys and the copper dragonborn professor. Professor Crystal-Tooth greeted her, said that they hadn't talked in ages, and started talking about the changes to the necromancy department. Since the ressurection of Artis, Professor Greybeard and Professor Allaro had been fired, and she had been promoted to department head. Integrity asked if that was a bad thing, and the professor told her it was in fact better for her as she was able to use much more of the department's funding for her own projects. Integrity changed the subject, and asked who she was thinking of voting for in the upcoming elections. Professor Crystal-Tooth said she was quite happy with the current committee, so would probably vote to keep Bailey in power. Integrity told her about everything that had gone wrong during Autumn's End, and convinced the professor to re-evaluate her decision.

As Integrity went to leave she said, *"Well it was wonderful, wonderful to talk to you."*

Delnys stared at her and said, *"Yes Zelocles, it was really nice talking with you as well. I never knew you cared so much about event planning."*

*"Uh, yeah... It's just, you know... I want to do my part as a non-student, as a graduate of this amazing school. It has given so much, and I just want to give back. Don't you want to give back, Delnys Raethran?"*

Delnys' voice grew cold. *"Yeah, I care a lot about giving back to our school. Do you mind if I walk with you for a bit? I just want your advice for the graduate stuff."*

*"Oh, I have a lot of that."*

*"Yes I'm sure."*—Delnys grabbed Integrity's arm and pulled her away from Professor Crystal-Tooth—*"Why are you here trying to sell people on voting for you in the elections?"*

*"What do you speak of?"*

*"Please don't lie to me. I saw through in like, seven seconds. You haven't taken a necromancy class in years, I was in your Intro to Necromancy class, so just coming over and chatting with Professor Crystal-Tooth for no reason, asking weird questions, trying to put Bailey Blue under the rug— Listen, I know what you're doing, my question is"*—Delnys paused—*"Why did you come here? I told you this was a private thing, I already told you this was a 'Don't tell anybody' thing, do you remember when we were in Indumati's place, I said— Why did you come here?"*

Integrity spoke in her normal voice. *"Do you think I'm Mira?"*

Delnys' face dropped. *"Ah yes I did, I am so sorry, please excuse me."*

Delnys quickly walked out of the Chapel.

Serinepth found Ainsley trying and absolutely failing to flirt with Christina. Serinepth said hi to her, and complimented her fighting in the duels. She glared at Serinepth, and said that obviously she wasn't good enough because she had still lost. Serinepth tried to convince her that they had just gotten lucky and done very well, until eventually Christina apologised, saying that Ainsley had been talking to for for a while and she was quite irritated. Ainsley sheepishly left to join other groups of students. When he left Christina asked Serinepth why she really came over. Serinepth asked why Bailey hadn't been invited to the society, and Christina said it was because he didn't have the academic ability, or the social connections of Delnys and Ainsley. Serinepth said that she thought he might have been following her, and that she had seen him in a lot of strange places the year before. Christina guaranteed that he wasn't part of the society.

Serinepth agreed he shouldn't have been chosen, telling her about everything that had gone wrong with the Autumn's End festival, and about how the event planning committee were having elections for a new president. Christina asked if she intended to influence her voting decisions, saying that she would prefer if Serinepth just said so outright. Serinepth admitted that she didn't want Bailey to be president, and that Mira was also running with good ideas.

Christina raised her glass and said, *"Consider my mind influenced."*

After some more mingling, the group reconvened outside the room. Winsler and Serinepth took of their robes and thanked everyone for the evening. Mira and Integrity paused by the door, behind which they had shoved the real Zelocles. They told Winsler and Serinepth what they had done, and opened the door to find he had disappeared. Left on the stairs were pieces of untied rope, and well as spots of blood leading down the stairs. Integrity snuck down the stairs into a basement, following the blood trail until it ended behind a bookshelf. The other students quickly followed her down.

As they arrived in the basement, Winsler and Integrity felt light-headed and nauseous, before they fell unconscious on the ground.

As they lost feeling in their bodies, Winsler and Integrity felt as though a pin was stuck in their brain, and a cool voice in their head said, *"Hello, and welcome to the Network."*