5. Breaking and Entering
General Summary
"Will do. Traveling via Pegasus. Please find my partymate, Saeldor - Firbolg Paladin of Equity. We need allies and shelter. Stay in contact with us."
Thus ending the Sent conversation with Jadeira, Marwa and Asmira reviewed their options.
They needed to get Asmira some disguise, quickly. There was the wizard, but wizards are fickle - dangerous at the best of times. There's a reason they live in remote areas and it's not because they're easy neighbours.
Here in the outskirts, there were also a few summer cabins and other aristocratic homes that might bear a gentle burgling. And Marwa had spent enough time in high society to have a sizeable list of people who, being fully honest, would kind of deserve it.
She reviewed the skyscape and realized she was, in fact, nearby the home of a music critic. One who never seemed to tire of criticizing her mother's writing. "every music is for someone," he once wrote, "I just don't know who in the Realms this music is for, and I'm not sure I want to." Marwa and her dads had a sneaking suspicion these reviews got to Lydia more than she let on, and it was only on Lydia's insistance that Marwa had not already egged his home a thousand times already.
But now they needed disguises, and preferably some cash, and they happened to be in his neighbourhood. Call it fate.
First, Mirage needed to make sure that if it went south, she wouldn't be recognized. This couldn't get back to her mother. She asked Nimbus to cover her hair, and the reluctant cloudform only agreed when Marwa specified he could choose the style, forming immediately into a Beehive.
A quick and stealthy scout under cloudcover revealed no one apparently home save for a golden dragonborn in plain clothes - some kind of housekeeper, most likely. Marwa alighted on one of the suspension bridges connecting the main tree-house to its wings, and deftly disabled the noise alarm on the door.
Stepping through, she found a disconcerting dining room. Several mannequins in opulent costumes were arranged about a table that, while set for a feast, had no victuals upon it. She lifted a couple of bad wigs and a costume for Asmira, then sent Nimbus to investigate the wine cabinet.
He found a dumbwaiter, and following it down led Marwa to the cellar, where a mouse waved and introduced himself as Pip.
Taking a moment to adjust to the presence of a talking mouse, Marwa immediately began working Pip for information. She discovered the house was unmanned save for the housekeeper, and that the master had a pet bird who was an absolute terror when let loose. She also deduced that her ability to have this conversation was probably resultant of a localized Animal Speech spell - this guy probably wanted to chat with his bird.
Negotiating the permission to take some carb-heavy cheese in exchange for retrieving the master's candy stash from the bedroom, Marwa exited via the staff service slide/tunnel, and emerged in the underbrush at ground level. As she exited, Nimbus noted that Pip had looked very nervous all the sudden as they left.
Not liking the sound of that, Marwa used her air magic to listen for disruptions. She heard the sound of flapping, and of frantic footsteps, coming from the main house.