No more oppression, a panic room, a conga and an assassin or two.

After spending days working on the delicate task of successfully transcribing the newly found spell scrolls into her spell book, Liliana triumphantly looked up from her work to find no one around her.
 
She went in search of Shadow, and gets confused when someone agrees to take her to the Emperor... she is ushered into his august presence and introduced to the emperor, who was none other than Shadow, the former emperor having been shot in the head by Shadow, (to appease Umber Lee) which immediately promoted him to the position of emperor, a position he now had to hold until his own death, as part of his pact with Umber Lee.
 
Liliana stared at him in confusion. She looked down at her book the same way someone might look at their empty stash after a week long bender...
 
"How long was I reading for?!?" She asked incredulously.
 
“It’s a whooooole thing…”
 
Shadow can’t cry, but he looked like he wanted to.
 
Liliana cocked her head in confusion, then laid a hand on his metal hand. She shrugged.
 
"People in power have powerful enemies, but they also have," she smiled like a cat preparing to hunt, "powerful allies. I'm sure we can fix whatever this is together and if not..."
 
Fire danced in her hand and her eyes sparkle.
 
Liliana spoke with Kasimir and Shadow and learned that they now had access to teleportation circles that could take them to many locations on the surface. She also learned that Kasimir had stolen a senator's wife (Shelley) along the way, who had decided not to go home to her husband and was happily following along with Kasimir. A form of Barbarian groupie. DUring fights, she'd stand at the side and fan herself was Kasimir's muscular form did what Kasimir does best, their morc like muscular form looking epic with their strange halo horn combination.
 
Shadow has also inherited thirty eight wives and fifteen husbands.
 
With a whole world at their disposal in terms of travel they discussed where to go next, whether to try and continue their original quest, when they had investigating rumours of the hag in the Tolmech empire and they found her, Aglathol and she had asked the adventurers to find out what had happened to the people of the Tolmech empire promising them a king's ransom in return. They discussed going back to visit Lady Emma and tell her what they had found and then set off on the job for Aglathol, meanwhile somewhere they had left a ship behind when they descended to the underwater world. They had sent a message to the ship to let them know where they were, but had no way of reaching said ship....
 
Shadow was also wondering if he could argue his way out of his role as emperor by arguing that he wasn't really alive.... He found a civil servant and they began to argue their case but were told that the sacred rites of Umber Lee stated that a sapient creature, a thinking creature qualified for the position.
 
Shadow expressed his frustration that he couldn't do anything as emperor and a civil servant named Geoffrey pointed out that he could just sign whatever he wanted into law. He started with a law that simply stated 'No More Oppression'.
 
"Geofreey you're no longer oppressed. No more executions. No more murders. No more jumped up prison sentences."
"No more defenestration?" G asked sadly.
"Why would we stop that happening? We'll make it willing of course, but it will be an Olympic sport for the willing participants."
 
The lights suddenyl turned amber.
 
"Your highness, take cover, find somewhere to hide. we are under attack, those lights signal an attacker in the palace."
 
Lilinaa immediately tapped Shadow on the shoulder and cast Greater Invisibility on him.
 
"Quickly, you must take the Emperor into the cellar!"
 
Kasimir eyed Geoffrey who seemed sincere and with much grumbling they followed Shadow's voice into the cellar. It was a simple store room with shelves full of food items, including flour. Liliana scooped up a small bag of flour in case she needed to make an impromptu bomb. Meanwhile Emin had discovered a honey jar and was tasting its contents while humming to himmself. Kasimir found a stash of protein bars and began to fill his pockets, his own honey Shelley was back in her bower, so he took comfort in the chances that she was probably safe, but if she encountered danger, he knew she had two sickle shaped daggers.
 
Also in the room was an empty animal carrier box for a very large sized animal, it bore scratch marks on it.
 
There was a door on one side of the room, so out of mischief, Shadow opened the door open so it creaked. It revealed a black and white tiled floor. Emin left a honey trap by the steps in a home alone style, in case they were followed while Shadow investigated the hallway.
 
Because he was invisible, Kasimir had to place his hands on Shadow's shoulders to avoid bumping into him and the party began a strange conga into the room, which seemed to be an art gallery. Emin noticed sticky fingers on the paintings. Shadow found a wine cellar that had spirits too. Everyone followed him in helped themselves to the booze. Lilinaa found a correctly stored 20 year thornleaf, a red and a one hundred year old bottle of scotch in a crystal bottle with a wax seal intact, and an average bottle of brandy.
 
Meanwhile Kasimir had found lots of weapons and was sifting through them, looking at what might be useful to him.
 
Emin felt as if he was being watched. He checked the paintings but there were no eyes cut in them, he glanced around further, and felt the sensation of being watched the more he moved to the north of the room. Suddenly he got struck by an attack and yelped, a shady creature at his elbow. Another shadowed assassin appeared by Kasimir and he too felt the pierce of a blade before the assassin seemed to fade out of existence.
 
Kasimir turned to the only assassin he could see, the one beside Emin and he launched himself at it. Liliana cast mage armour on herself, as Emin engaged in combat with another. Using the invisibility to his advantage, Shadow made a vicious attack on the only visible assassin leaving it smoking. A momentum later something struck Liliana, wounding her heavily. Kasimir felled the assassin they had been attacking and moved to stand by Liliana's side who was swearing profusely. As Emin healed himself, Liliana began to cast wither and bloom, ready to release it when the assassin reappeared again. It appeared to attack Shadow and she released her spell but the effect was too far from her to allow her to benefit and so as she drained it of necrotic energy, she gifted the bloom to Kasimir, who healed to almost his full strength.
 
"You wouldnt' attack someone in glasses?" Asked Kasimir who responded with a brutal attack.
 
As blades continued to flash, Liliana cried,
 
"Ok, I am really pissed off now." and cast fireball, singeing the creature, very badly.
 
Shadow rushed to Liliana to try and heal her, "You can drop invisibility if you need to." He said, but she gritted her teeth.
 
Emin loosed an eldritch blast, forcing the assassin back against the wall until it exploded in smoke.
 
Kasimir ran over and placed a huge hand on Liliana to squeeze a drop of healing into her.
 
Glancing around as a strange heady scent of cardamom and cinnamon filled the air from the smoking assassin.
 
A conversation began and Shadow confessed that while he had been trying to get deposed he chose to destroy several of the emperor's underwater ships, forgetting that there was people on them. Liliana tilted her head at him and reminded him that several of the emperor's wives were on the ships. They'd been sent to the deepest part of the abyssal trench and this decision likely had not been popular. This led to an argument as Liliana was furious that Shadow was being so reckless in the hope he would get killed, as none of them had any way of bringing him back., especially as due to his nature Liliana knew they would need a true resurrection spell in order to bring him back if he died.
 
Angry with each other they sat to take a breather and rest for a short while.