Sitting at the fountain in the center of town, Baelon pulled out a note slipped to him by a familiar goblin, Griggs. The note said to meet him that night. From here the party headed to the Belly Up Inn to relax until the eventing to meet with Griggs and to brainstorm their plan about these rings and this masked organization’s involvment in the strange goings on in Boulder. While in the Inn, Pinnacle Madress, the eccentric wine maker rival of Baelon, had apparently taken over the inn for Grey Gor. Pinnacle told the party they were not welcomed at the inn. Baelon told him they simply came for the wine barrels, but Madress had already placed the barrels outside. From there the party left with the barrels back to the winery to rest and think. Muk and Argento decided that they would go to Lord Mendas to warn him about the ring information they had discovered.
At the castle Muk and Argento were stopped at the bridge to the keep and told they could not meet with lord Mendas as the royals were having dinner and a show for the festival, the carnival was in the midst of a performance not to be disrupted. Though Muk and Argento did their best to convince the guards or trick them to let them in they were unmoved and the two left and headed to the Winery. While back at the Winery, the party settled in, and prepped for their meeting that evening with Grigs. Loom of course, was drunk and frustrated that Muk was not with the group, accusing him of infidelity. Adarra met Spades and Marvin and went in to make dinner for the group and get Marvin some biscuits. With the children playing outside, Raul sat on the porch and drank with Loom. In the basement of the winery Bertold and Spades watched as Baelon prepared to write an arcane scroll. Spades stopped Baelon because the scroll he was trying to make was a something he already knew. Baelon, decided that he would wait for another day to prep said scroll.
After some time, Argento broke through the doors to the winery with Muk. Muk went to play with his kids, telling them he was on a secret mission for the Lion Lord of Boulder, and they must keep it a secret from their mother. Argento filled the group in about the festivities at the royals, triggering Baelon…He remembered at once that though they stopped the last plot to assassinate the royals they had not discovered the true culprits behind the terrorism…He was sure that this was a back up plan by the masked mystery. He took off and said they must go NOW to prevent the assassination of the Lords. The Party sprinted to town and through the streets where guards saw them assuming they were up to no good yelled for them to stop. Argento yelled behind them to follow them and help, while Muk sneakily dropped nails on the ground to slow them down. As they continued to run through the town and festival they caught the attention of more guards as they were getting to the castle. Royal guards raised their shields and took a defensive stance blocking the path to the keep. Yelling for them to stop, they party did not listen. They issued a final warning and everyone finally came to a halt accept Argento. An archer on the perapat fired an arrow hitting Argento in the shoulder. Once he was hit, he stopped. In the commotion Bertold had completely disappeared. The rest of the party lowered and dropped their weapons and stepped away from them moving toward the royal guards. The party did not believe the threats the party believed in and told the group they were allowed in once the dinner and show was over.
The party stepped onto the side street, where they all noticed Bertold was gone. In this moment they did remember he had illusionary magic and must have used it to sneak into the keep. Muk inscribed some thieves can’t on the bridge pillar informing Bertold to go to the fountain. Meanwhile, Bertold, invisible snake into the castle where he saw the Yolandan Circus performing before the royals in the main atrium. After carefully sneaking around Bertold found 9 rings on some royals hands that looked familiar and similar…knew they magical. He then got Lord Mendas; attention and took som time to find a quill and parchment to write the Lord a note, informing him about the rings and warning him of anything suspicious at the Circus. Mendas took leave from the table and went into the rest room, to meet with Bertold in person. Bertold updated him, and Mendas agreed to write up a formal contract for the quest to find those responsible for the rings and have the contract delivered to wise hollow winery. Mendas then gave Bertold a small crystal coin, which he could show the guards in a n emergency to get into the castle should they feel a familiar fear.
After Bertold felt that Mendas was safe he headed back outside, noticed the thieves can’t and headed toward the fountain to meet his companions. At the fountain, Baelon and Spades talked about curses and what Spades can bring to the group in more detail. Argento and Muk stayed on lookout while Raul decided to sip on his flask and have a few drinks. After about an hour, Bertold rejoined the group and updated them on everything he encountered at the keep. The party decided to wait at the Drunken Dragon to eat since they were no longer welcome at the Belly Up Inn. At the Drunken Dragon, the party ate some Big Meat Stew and had a few drinks to prepare for the eventing. After their meals Muk, Spades, and Raul went to Ales and Shit to have a few more drinks while Bertold, Baelon, and Argento went to meet with Griggs to get some information.
While at the inn, Ales and Shit the fellas enjoyed a few drinks and had a relatively uneventful evening getting to know one another a bit more. Raul drank himself into a stupor and passed out. Muk and Spades did their best to gather him into a wagon and bring him back to the winery later in the evening. Meanwhile, Baelon went to stand in the first place he met Griggs and have Bertold and Argento nearby should something go poorly. Griggs showed himself…he informed Baelon about the ring merchant and that the masked people were doing a lot under the cover of night, doing drops, and meetups. He even received a note at a drop point that talked about a location to “re go over the deal”. Griggs made good note that these people are not to be messed with, they seem very dangerous. Baelon paid 121 gold for all the information that Griggs gave him, and to use all of his time and skills to dedicate to this cause, steal drops, gather information, etc. He gave him extra gold to get himself some leather armor as well. Griggs ended by saying the name of this masked group…the Shades.
Just then the backsides of the ally hooded masked people made themselves visible…threatening the party, they attacked the group but the 4 of them were able to fend them off with the Shades fleeing into the streets of boulder. After the fight Griggs said he would go hide for the night and the party headed back to the Winery, on the way back Baelon appeared incredibly winded and tired almost aged after using the amount of magic he did. Going back to the winery they all went to sleep to recover and plan the next day. Only after a few hours…they all woke to the smell of smoke….and flames billowing over the windows of the winery, as they all realized the building was set ablaze…