Swamped

Well, the standard way is to start a fight. But that might not work too well in this place. The basic concept should aid you though: you need to get other people to do the distracting for you. And you have something on your person that might be enough to get that started.

There's an old standby for drawing attention in a tavern: get a fight going. If you're in the right kind of place, you don't even have to do anything other than wait for one to break out.

This is definitely not that sort of place. Everyone's too quiet, and you suspect the drinks aren't even alcoholic. The people here aren't acting like any drunks you've ever seen. It might still be possible to start a fight, but it would be very hard to do without anyone realizing you were responsible.

But the idea's the same, isn't it? Get some kind of commotion going. It's got to sustain itself, though, and it's got to be hard to ignore.

Maybe... something noisy? Since these people seem to make such a big deal about staying quiet, that could confuse them. Get them wondering who's to blame.

Well. You do have something that makes noise. A whistle, and a loud one at that. It's for getting the attention of troublemaking knights. You always keep it with you.

But it's hard to make sustained noise with a whistle. And you wouldn't want to be the one blowing it, since the whole idea is to keep attention off of you. Maybe it's not that helpful after all.

You're going to need to think a bit more on the specifics of this plan.

Maybe the instructions about not being seen are in reference to persons other than the Silent Ones. Are you sure they're the only ones in here, and that there aren't any guards, guides, or shifty-looking folks hiding among them?

If it's really only Silent Ones, then just go for it and slip around to put half the money under the counter.

>Are there any kids around? (even though you're in a tavern) Even in a city as secular as this one appears to be, kids probably still behave like, well, kids. If one of them got their hands on a whistle, they would probably blow it. This is kind of a convoluted way of going about it though, so maybe, maybe not.

You wonder if you need to avoid the eyes of the Silent Ones, since, after all, they're not going to talk. And you've dealt with enough slavers to know they usually don't even think about the "merchandise" watching them, so whoever wrote the note might not have thought them worth mentioning.

But you've also used that common oversight against more than a few slavers. Get enough info from the slaves to help you shut them down, boosting your reputation and earning the favor of their rivals in the Guild. Given that, you're wary of relying on it, even with slaves who aren't allowed to talk.

If anything, that fact makes you all the warier. Slaves who talk might let slip some clue of how they feel about this Master; these Silent Ones aren't saying anything, so you can't really tell if they're only obeying him out of fear, or if they actually believe in this "blessed task" nonsense.

As you're thinking about what to make of it, another group comes in. This consists of about five adults and somewhere on the order of thirty young children. What kind of place are you even in?

They all head up to the bar, and the adults make gestures to the bartender. Is this just where the slaves eat? It's surprisingly undersupervised if that's the case, nobody looks like a guard. Not even the ones leading the children around.

Hmm. You wonder if this place has drained all the curiosity out of its children. Because if not, you might just have a way to create a distraction.

All you need to do is "accidentally" drop your whistle near them, and see if anyone picks it up. You do so as they start sitting down, and slip away to watch what happens.

Before long, you hear the shrill sound of your own whistle. You've largely dulled yourself to it by this point, but the Silent Ones have had no such training. They're either covering their ears or staring at the child who blew it.

You quickly glance around to make sure nobody's looking your way, then shove the money under the counter as instructed. Then you sit in a corner and watch.

Someone runs out, and you're a little worried. Maybe they don't know how to deal with this and they're looking for a guard or a priest to sort the mess out. In short, someone who might think to blame you for bringing the thing in the first place.

The kid with the whistle seems to be just holding perfectly still, whistle still in their mouth. You're not sure you can get another distraction that way.

You also notice the bartender grabbing the money, though you try not to let them notice you. You're really curious about what's going on here.

A few minutes later, the bartender comes back out with... What is that?

It appears to be some kind of, fluffy toy?

Whatever it is, it smells delicious!

It looks like a stuffed toy. A bear, of course, what else would it be.

The crowd's still fixated on the kid with your whistle, so you move a little closer. You're not sure you can get all the way to it without drawing attention, but you can get a better look at it, at least.

That's odd. You think you can smell it from here. And it smells like... stew? Has the bartender just been keeping it in the kitchen?

Your train of thought is interrupted as someone walks in through the door. As best as you can tell, it's a priest, accompanied by two guards and the Silent One who ran off earlier.

And they're walking right over to the kid... and drawing the attention of pretty much everyone else in here. The Silent Ones seem very worried about what's going to happen next. Well, that gives you another distraction, at least.

Thing is, those guards are glancing around everywhere. You're not sure if they've noticed the bear, but whether they have or not, you'd prefer to get out without them seeing you.

So what are you going to do?

>Firstly, dont forget the second part of the instructions, you need to leave the rest of the money before you go. Secondly, most buildings have more than one entrance, this one shouldnt be different. Is there a door leading outside to a toilet, or something? There should definitely be another door out the back of the kitchen, at the very least. Even if you'd rather not be seen, being seen by cooks and chefs would probably be preferable to getting seen by guards.

As for making the transaction unseen, you may be able to stand in front of the counter, concealing the bear from the room at large, and use sleight of hand behind your back to swap the bear with the money.

You slip in front of the bear when you're pretty sure both guards are watching other people in the room. Then, behind your back, you grab it and carefully dump the rest of the money out. You'd just drop the pouch, but you figure it's a good place to hide the bear.

It's not exactly the safest place to keep the money, but you soon spot the bartender heading your way. You opt to just stay still, and not look too closely at what he's doing.

Suddenly, one of the guards points right at you. You opt to play dumb, and point at yourself, looking confused. But the guard shakes his head, comes a bit closer, and gestures at you to step aside.

He must want to see what the bartender's doing behind you. That could be a problem. That said... his expression looks less like he's actively suspicious, and more like he's just being thorough.

You're still not sure just what's going on, but from the tone of the note, it's probably best if the guards have as little idea what's going on as possible. Even less than you, ideally.

So how should you handle this?

>Move, and trust the bartender to have finished by the time you do.

You have no idea how fast this bartender is working. But you also know that it's probably best for you to cooperate.

You can stall a little by being deliberately slow in your movements. You might annoy the guard, but he shouldn't get actively suspicious. You're not even sure what's going to happen if he sees the money.

With exaggerated care, you put your feet flat on the floor and slowly get up. Then, just for good measure, you quickly stretch your arms.

Then you step forward a bit.

By now the bartender has to know you're moving out of the way, so if they've got anything to hide they'll be focused on hiding it. So, just as the guard seems to be glaring at you, you take a step to the side.

And you see the bartender making a show of wiping the counter. With a large cloth conveniently covering the spot where you left the money. The guard looks at them for a while, then seems to move on.

Meanwhile, the priest seems to have made up his mind on something. He makes a sweeping gesture and all eyes turn to him - even the guards don't seem to want to miss this.

"The Master decrees that this child has violated the Law of Silence," the priest says, in a solemn voice. "They are no longer fit to perform sacred tasks, and are to be exiled. None are to associate with the exile from now on."

The priest makes another gesture, and then walks out. The guards drag the child away, along with the whistle.

And, suddenly, everyone goes back to what they were doing. Even the children. Wordlessly eating and drinking, as though nothing had happened.

Now what?

Head in the general direction of the building with the war room with the teleport circles. Can't think of any other way you're supposed to leave this place, and maybe your mysterious contact will get in touch with you while you're on the way.

As soon as is convenient, slip into a quiet alley to examine the bear.

Well. The note mentioned leaving, and so far you've only seen one way to leave this place - the empty chamber near the war room. It's not far from here.

But before you head over there, you want to take a look at this bear. What's so important about it?

So you slip into an empty alley. You're actually surprised how easy it is to find these; maybe that's just how it is when a city's full of slaves. They're too afraid of punishment to go outside of the lines. Small wonder, if they'll exile a child just for being curious.

You pull the bear out of the pouch and take a closer look. You're immediately struck by the smell, it's even stronger than it was in the bar. Good thing the pouch seems thick enough to keep it contained.

But you can't see anything special about it at all. It just seems to be a stuffed toy bear with a potent, if strangely tantalizing, odor. What use is it to anyone? And why was it worth so much money? Is money even useful in a city like this?

Regardless, you were expecting the bear to have some kind of hidden compartment or something. You take another look in case you missed something, but there's nothing loose...

Huh! You grabbed it already. That was faster than I expected.

The words seem to flow into your mind. You're very confused.

Let me hit the basic points: yes, I'm the one who left you that note. Yes, it was for you. You can't ask me questions directly through this thing, so don't waste time trying. Just in case you're not bright enough to work it out, I mean the bear.

Wonderful. Your mystery contact is insulting you - of course you'd realized it was the bear - and you can't say anything back.

I'm not going to go into the details, because I'm still not sure you won't blab. So for now I'll just say that I need a few things before I can get out of here. But one of those things is in a place I can't go without drawing unwanted attention. That's where you come in.

Wonderful. What do they want you to do now?

There's a particular statue...

Unless you're extremely unobservant, you would have noticed the statue of the Master when you picked up my note. Well, there's a smaller one inside the temple and I'm going to need it. But it would draw too much attention if I went myself, so I'm going to need you to go there for me.

Well, that's inconvenient. You were a lot closer to the temple when you picked up the note. And then you'll have to come back here to slip into the war room.

And all you got out of doing things in this roundabout way is a bear that gives you orders.

Well. Whatever's going on here, you've gone along with it this long. Might as well see where it goes. You make your way back to the temple.

As you get close, though, you notice that it's a lot more crowded than it was before. Looks like Silent Ones are gathering. Is there some sort of ceremony going on?

Pushing through the crowd, you spot several priests gathered in front of the statue. Hmm. If there's that many out here, there might not be so many in the temple itself. So this might be a good chance to sneak in.

On the other hand, there's a lot of potential witnesses here. Even more than there were at the "tavern", by the looks of things. You might have better luck waiting for the priests to finish up whatever they're doing.

What should you do?

>Enter the temple now and scope out the location, but don't take the statue until the priests finish up outside.

Wonder whether the activity is related to the urgent delivery you brought. Maybe it'd be wise to listen in and try to get a better grasp of what's going on here.

Sneak in!

It occurs to you that whatever's going on might relate to the package you brought here, since apparently it's important to their plans. You might get some idea of what's going on.

But this is also your best chance to get a look inside the temple without drawing attention. At the very least, you could see if you can find the statue you're supposed to steal.

You look over the crowd. Most of them are fixated on the spectacle in front of the statue. You decide to take the risk; if you're caught, you can always pass it off as just being curious.

You climb the steps of the temple, staying towards the edge so you'll be less visible. You can't help but hear some of the speech, though, but there's some weird words that aren't translating.

"The day of karaba is nearly upon us! The Master shall soon claim the acara, destroy the faradi, and liberate this sinful world! But the faradi will fight back fiercely, and so we must pray! Pray for the Master's victory!"

Sounds like the Master's fighting someone? Well, you already knew that much, you suppose. He seems to be after both the Bogknights and the Marshguards. It seems a bit odd that they'd have one word covering both groups, but maybe it's just a fancy word for "enemies" or something. You've got no idea what he could be "claiming", though.

For now, you stick to the plan and slip into the temple. You don't see anybody inside - probably because they don't usually have anyone to guard it from. Unfortunately, you also don't see the statue you're looking for.

What you do see is a lot of bookshelves, each of them overflowing with books. This temple has to be the largest library you've ever seen - not that you can make out any of the titles.

So how are you going to find the statue?

Just search, its got to be there somewhere

You can't think of anything outside of the obvious - just go down the rows of books and see if you spot anything. That's inconvenient, but you suppose you might come up with a better plan along the way.

At first you wonder if the statue might be in its own room, so you begin by walking around the outer perimeter, glancing down each corridor you pass.

You don't see any doors, save the ones you entered through, and looking down the corridors doesn't reveal anything beyond shelves and shelves of books as far as the eye can see. Nothing's narrowed down your options at all.

This is very strange. Is the statue just sitting on one of these shelves, too far in for you to see from the outer edges of the room? Or have they outright hidden it somewhere?

You start walking down the nearest corridor, scanning the shelves and the glancing at the countless unreadable book titles. You really wish you could think of a better option. This might not even get you anywhere.

Wait, hang on... the first few shelves you passed had titles in what looked like the language of the street signs. But now these look like very different symbols. Are these books in another language? What could that mean?

Does it even matter? You can't see this being any help in finding the statue.

Maybe if you touch the bear again, its owner would give you further instructions? Just make sure to do it somewhere not in the open though.

Maybe there's a section of books in a language that you can read; the subject matter collected could give you more insight into the nature of this religious system.