Mini-Grand 5802 [Round 1: The Heat Death Lounge]

Another proclaimation was being made in the land of Aranina. Today alone Queen Wyntara had forbidden chewing gum, public displays of affection, clicking your fingers, the name Simon, that thing where you can't find your keys, Mondays and the colour blue. In a small tavern called The Wand and Dagger conspirators met up to discuss plans for her removal. From the outside the tavern appeared fairly unremarkable; looking through the window would afford you a view of a group of miserable fire elves drinking those cocktails with little umbrellas in them (the only alcohol Wyntara was yet to outlaw) in silence.

This was of course just an illusion, projected by the master illithid illusionist Ka'then'ge. The Wand and Dagger Tavern was just a front for the illegal activities of the Freedom Brigade (Working Title); a group of unlikely allies who had united with one goal; to bring down the rule of the Cruel Queen Wyntara. Inside the tavern was filled with stacks of banned items, which ranged from chairs to weapons to Goldheim's stash of smelting tobacco. They weren't exactly sure what to do if someone actually tried to enter the establishment, the illusion being a simple illusory veil draped across the windows of the inn. However they didn't expect customers any time soon, not after the stories they'd leaked to the Aranina Gazette about this place.

The group were gathered around a map of the castle that Lightfingers the goblin rogue had lifted from the pocket of a snoozing guard that very afternoon. As ever Blogo, the quarter-orc priest and Goldheim the dwarven barbarian were arguing, this time over the best way to infiltrate the castle.

A tendril of sentience reached out and wrapped itself around the minds of the Freedom Brigade (Working Title). Suddenly discussion about the castle and the overthrow of Queen Wyntara seemed irrelevant. Now they had new and unusual targets to scheme against, ones they could barely even understand. They grabbed their equipment and left the tavern, and indeed the city, heading deep into the woods to where hidden amongst the trees there was a door.

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Merucira was coming back from the ladies bathroom, obnoxiously tucked away at the end of some twisted corridors, when her attention was drawn to an ornate wardrobe standing in the middle of the corridor. Her attention was partially drawn to it because it was out of place and hadn’t been there before, but mainly because it was blocking off the entire corridor. Merucira’s chartreuse skin crackled with curious electricity, she wasn’t exactly sure what it was that made her want to open the door and climb inside the wardrobe.

She would have said, if asked, that she felt almost as if something wanted her to climb inside, except clearly that would have been a silly thing to think. Either way she pushed her way deeper and deeper into the wardrobe and left her world, never to return.