Meeting the party, part 1:
The poorly named Prince Gwahir Lightwing was sent by his people, the Avarial, to do their politicking in the Elven High Courts of Evermeet. After weeks of useless hobnobbing with all the right people, the Prince decides he's not liking this all that much. At the local inn, he contemplates this over a hippogriff leg.
Rene has returned to the elven city of Evermeet following the death of her husband. Looking for some work, she wanders into an inn. They've already got one minstrel hard at work, but here might be an opening later. She sits and enjoys the performance.
Some of the Morningstar thugs invite Holly to breakfast with them, after forcibly dragging Yazooth along. Feeling sorry for the guy, Holly sits up at the counter with him. Trying to avoid the food the thugs are throwing at him, Yazooth idly plots the firey demise of the House Morningstar on a napkin, while Holly can't help but stare at the little hunchback munching on a Hippogriff leg. Yazooth eventually goes over to talk to the stranger.
Meanwhile a whole pack of high ranking Priests of Ellistrae are having some kind of important meeting at one of the other tables. The thugs get up to beat on some kid from another house, as a man in black enters the inn. He offers the priests a number of large rubies as a donation, and as he does so most of the people milling about catch the tattoo on his forearm: a snake with thorns. He leaves and no one notices much more, because the gems explode.
The minstrel on stage bolts for the stage exit as soon as some of the dust settles, because the front is blocked off by the pile of rubble and raging flames. Rene decides this is a good idea and follows. Holly and Yazooth dust themselves off, take a look around, and follow the bards, closely followed by the Prince. The traditional "let's get the party together" sceen ensues.
The Prince wants out of Evermeet, now. the explosion will provide ample distraction, and he's not really being watched, or accomplishing anything anyway. Holly convinces Yazooth that this is his chance to escape the bastards in House Morningstar without them ever knowing he's escaped, and she's pretty eager to leave herself. Rene, however, has things she needs to take care of in the city still. It all gets a bit more complicated when we happen to overhear an investigator telling another about the note they found, implying that House Morningstar was the next target. Yazooth kicks himself for writing on that damned napkin. Meanwhile, Rene and Holly plot how they're ever going to get into House Morningstar to get Holly's and Yazooth's belongings and get back out with them with the gaurd posted. Eventually Rene busts out the disguise kit and we get sneaky.
The house is heavily gaurded, and there's a man at the gate with a list. Holly tells Rene to use her name, and she uses one of her male cousin's names. Between the wigs, bindings, and low cut dress, they figure it'll work. The dress works too well, and the gaurds want to...delay "Holly." Almost fortunately, Lucifer Morningstar, the head of the house, comes out and yells at the gaurds to get back to work, and we go on our merry way. I tell "Holly" how to get to my room, and what to grab, meanwhile I head down to Yazooth's room and grab the stuff he told me was important. "Holly" gets out scot free, and I narrowly escape an awkward exchange with one of the Thugs. As we leave out the back, we're both handed Pins or Amulets (they work either way) with the House Morningstar crest. The gaurd says they're for protection. We later figure out that when someone wearing the amulet is hurt, the magic in it is activated, and it either calls the Morningstar brute squad to the scene or possibly moves the injured party to the house.
We meet back up at the outskirts of town and start on our merry way. Rene decides she really needs to stay a little longer, so we bid her farewell and head down towards Evergreen.
