11.13.22 - Thief at the Grand Hotel

I had to convince my brothers to stay and run the empire while I dealt with this issue since I was the one who made the deal in the first place. They grumbled and groaned until I reminded them that someday they would have to run the empire anyways (and that they were still healing) but that seemed less important to them than going on another adventure. Begrudgingly, they promised to stay and be responsible while I was gone. Preparations were being made for us while we said our goodbyes and Marko, along with a rather shiny looking Peytrice, wandered off into town. Later in the morning I noticed Dense had a new bird friend who he told me was named Flint and that their new bird friend would be accompanying them everywhere.

Sheriff Bubbles came to me later on in the day with Marko and Peytrice in tow and they explained that Miss Tabitha Tabby had given him a glove for him to keep a hold of while he was away on his adventure, but that it had been stolen while they were having a box made for it. Marko told me that he knew where the person who had stolen the glove had gone, but that Sheriff Bubbles had already gone looking for the thief in the wrong place. I told Marko that we could go look as soon as Sheriff Bubbles returned so that he could help us if we needed it. However, when he returned he had another tabaxi in tow. He told us he could not help us because the hideout Marko had found out about was in the sewers and there was no “sewer division” of the city guard. (Note to self: form a sewer division of the guards. Maybe some rat people would agree?)

Marko led the way back past a shop called Schrödinger's Boxes, where he said the theft had taken place. He then led us to a sewer entrance and expertly navigated through until we reached a room. However, when we tried to open the door leading out of the room, water began to flood the space. Dense had to break down the door in order for us to escape after Pey parted the water around us so that we wouldn’t drown. The door led to a hallway where there was clearly a trap in the floor that we each maneuvered around with ease to get to the door at the end of the hallway. We opened the door to find a fairly comfortable area with several crates full of disguises of most of the shops in town. I took all of the costumes with us while the others looked for a different way out than the way we had come in because Marko said that our thief had just left the room. Dense found a secret door that led up some stairs, past a fire trap that we set off, into a dead ended room. Pey walked right into the dead end and the entire room flipped upside down dumping him into the sky. Marko turned into a rat to follow him. Dense braced the room for me while I climbed my way out of the room towards where I had heard the cawing of a bird and the breaking of a window above us.

I recognized that we were in the Persian Palace Hotel, one of the finer hotels in Purrgatory. There was audible running in the hallway, so I took off after it where I saw Pey and Marko running towards the lifts chasing after a rather portly tabaxi man, so I ran to the stairs in an effort to beat them to the bottom floor. When I got there, Pey was sitting on him in the lift and Dense was standing at the front door of the hotel. We tied him up and took him to Sheriff Bubbles who was shocked to see that we had caught the Persian Prowler after so many months of him eluding the guards. I tasked Sheriff Bubbles with distributing the disguises to their original owners or giving them to those in need in the city. After we claimed the reward, it was time for bed, as we had a big day ahead of us.

In the morning, we donned our warm wintery clothing and set off towards the winter lodge. It was predicted that the journey there should take us about two days. Along the way, Dense explained that Flint, his bird, had come to him from the Raven Queen, as she had started talking to him in his dreams. He said that in those dreams they agreed they had similar goals and could help each other. Dense said that he had promised to help her make sure dead people were staying dead and not unnaturally extending their lives in exchange for her help in finding Veronica. As we neared the end of our first day of travel we settled in for the evening to take a nice rest in a familiar location. However, in the middle of the night we were ambushed by a frosty spider-like creature that gave a large shrieking noise before attempting to eat each of us. (Left off mid-combat.)