From Out of a Dream [Quest]

[BadassOverlord]

Welp, I've been reading this whole thread with great enjoyment during the last week and I've finally caught up! So lets try some stilts. They might not work, but the mental image of our hero in high stilts is too funny to pass up.

[wonderandawe]

Walk on our hands.

[Jairain]

Stilts or hands, I am of an even mind

[L'het'esh]

Stilts. It might be simpler to kill one of the other brothers, but the goal is not simplicity, it is the welfare of the Sunblessed.

[KFinigan]

I like the idea of stilts, but that seems a bit elaborate. Hands-walking it is.

[L'het'esh]

That won't look even odder to passer-by?

[semicasual]

You think over your options and settle on trying to make yourself some raised footwear. Walking on your hands would be a problem if you had to actually use your hands for anything else, which you undoubtedly will, and none of your other options appeal to you. So you sit yourself down and rummage through your satchel for anything of use.

Scraps of cloth, twine, rope, and pitons are the main materials for your new elevated shoes. The pitons form a frame on which you rest your feet. More pitons hold the frame away from the floor. Wadded cloth pads the "sole" of the frame as well as the tips of the pitons touching the ground to reduce noise, prevent scuffing, and make the shoes more comfortable. Rope and twine hold it all together, though it takes you some time to get the knots right. You test one shoe by balancing on top of it for a time. When it does not ignite, you lash it in place and start on a second shoe. Finally, all is ready. You carefully climb to your feet and take a few steps. The piton-frame wobbles a little, but it is nothing you cannot compensate for. The shoes' balance is acceptable once you adjust your walking pattern.

Finding your way to Jucandie's office is only a matter of time, once you realize that the wall-hangings have sign-markers stitched into them - markers you can read with your talking mask. You wander the halls for a time, clunking along in your new shoes and periodically stopping to check a hanging. Finally, you find one that is marked "Death" and "Betrayal."

You examine the nearby wall. The sliding door is easy enough to find, but how to open it? You move to push on the door, then pause. Carefully, you step closer and rest one ear against the stone.

Ever so faintly, you hear the rustling of paper and murmurs from the inside. Jucandie might be in there. Now what?

• Knock and present yourself. The easiest way in is to be let in. Of course, then you'll have the full attention of whoever is inside.
• Feint. Knock on the door, or do something else to draw Jucandie's attention, and then hide. Use your talents to enter the room without notice when the door opens.
• Force your way in. Change strategies from a careful, quiet theft to a smash-and-grab.
• Something else?

[wonderandawe]

Feint and hide.

*shhhh*

[KFinigan]

Create a distraction. Enter when Jucandie (or whomever is inside) comes out to investigate. I'm confident in being unseen.

[L'het'esh]

Something else
Murmurs? Let's use out Blessing to hear more. The other things can be done later.

[Jairain]

Feint and hide.

[BadassOverlord]

Something else
Murmurs? Let's use out Blessing to hear more. The other things can be done later.

Seconding this.

[semicasual]

You stay by the door and listen a little longer.

"{...and he no longer holds the shard?}" says one voice, deep and slow.

A second voice answers, precisely enunciating. "{Yes, master. He hath claimed it is no longer in his possession, and I have seen this to be true. It can only have been stolen, or perhaps lost in the fire.}"

"{I shall not believe a shard could be destroyed by mundane flame. Therefore, it hath been stolen.}" The third voice is a cruel, high-pitched whine.

"{As you say, master. What is thy command?}" asks the first voice.

"{Say nothing. Do nothing. Our part in this story hath passed, and we shall not rejoin it.}" answers the second voice.

The third voice chimes in. "{Come at once if you should hear news of the theft, but else thou shalt journey on as if in blissful ignorance of all that has transpired.}"

You hear footsteps. As quietly as you can, you bolt away from the door. One of the hangings provides enough concealment for you to stay hidden from a casual observer. From your hiding place, you see the door slide open and a figure in a black robe step out of it. A hood hanging over their head conceals their face completely. Long sleeves and a long trail from the robe also conceals most of the form. The robed figure shuffles down the hall opposite you.

You silently slip out of the hanging and go for the door. Hiding in plain sight requires you to be absolutely quiet, to anticipate where people will look and when, and to always be where their gaze is not.You come up against the wall by the door and pause. The robed figure shuffles away, oblivious. You hear the sweeping of a brush inside. You risk a a peek around the edge of the door and see only the most important details - a small room with four walls, wall-to-wall shelves covered in scrolls, a low table in the middle, and one person seated on the floor behind the table. They are the only person in the room. Their head is turned down, not looking at the door. You step in, duck and shuffle under a lamp to avoid casting any shadow on the room's occupant, and edge up against the wall on the side of the room. The occupant does not react. You let out a silent breath and take in the scene.

This room is superficially identical to Jacnudei's office. The occupant - presumably Jucandie - is the only differing feature. If no one told you that Jucandie and Jacnudei were brothers, you would never have recognized them as such. Jucandie is of a similar height to his sibling, but that is the only common characteristic they share. The elder brother's form is almost completely covered by a shroud draping down from his shoulders. The right half of the shroud is pure white silk, and left half is black-dyed sackcloth. Based on his posture, Jacudnei has an average build and hunched back. A knife is sticking out of the middle of his spine, and a bright red stain around it equally discolors both sides of his shroud. An oddly shaped helmet covers his head. The fore and rear of the helmet have a facial mask - the mask in the front is white and smiling, while the mask in the back is black and contorted with rage. A broken gold crown rests half-on, half-off of Jucandie's two-faced head.

You start edging towards the back wall. A minute twitch of Jucandie's head stops you.

Then Jucandie starts humming. Low tones from a song you do not recognize rumble out of the front-facing part of his mask. A moment later, a higher pitched hum comes from the rear-facing mask. The two faces hum similar tunes at different pitches, intertwining melodies that harmonize and clash discordantly by turns. Jucandie labors over his scroll, brushing over it in time to this strange music. Characters in gods' tongue flow from the brush.

You grimace. If this god really does have two faces, that would mean he literally has eyes in the back of his head. That will make hiding in here for any length of time much harder. Worse, if every document in this office is in gods' tongue you would not be able to read them in any case. You would need to use the mask, which necessarily would make noise.

• Find a better hiding spot and wait. It sounds crazy, but you think you have an idea for getting under the table. There you can rest and wait for him to leave.
• Confront Jucandie. You are alone. You definitely have the advantage of surprise. And you want to know what he was talking about more than you want to rob him.
• Get Jucandie to leave the the room. (OPEN PLAYER CHALLENGE! How would you solve this conundrum? Fake a knock on the door? Start another fire?)
• Something else?

[wonderandawe]

Put on the mask and confront Jucandie. Ask about this "shard" and distract him with conversation why you search for the scroll*.

*If this is possible.

[BadassOverlord]

We do know who is in possessin this shard, maybe we can use that in some way?