May had been chatting up the king and queen for about 5 minutes, as Zilo's plan dictated, and just as they hoped, May had taken them north, and earned their trust enough to have the two royals leave their guards behind with the rest in the ballroom.
Zilo waits a few minutes to make sure May gets the job done, then gives Maldrek the signal to apply the poison to the drinks using Invisibility and for Leo to assume his female form using Alter Self.
"Alright Leo, head to the center of the ball room, I want to make sure everyone sees us."
"On it"
Once Maldrek has distributed the poison Zilo suddenly stops his violin symphony and returns the instrument to his hand. The bard speaks, "Lords and ladies, May I have your attention please! May I ask that you top off your refreshments please. I have a special announcement to make."
Some of the nobles look to each other in confusion, but comply and get a bit more drink, this time with poison in place.
"Now then, I know that I am but a simple performer from a distant land, but I want you to know that upon arriving in your fine nation I fell in love, with a woman."
Zilo leaps off the stage and begins walking toward Leo, he then takes Leo's womanly hands in his and says, "From the day I looked in your Blllllrown eyes, I was smitten, and now I'd like to ask you something, here in front of the rulers of your land."
Zilo kneels down and retrieves the engagement ring from the Dwarven City.
"Will you marry me?"
"YOU DO WHAT!?"
Back in the other world full of people at a table with sheets that hold the characters of this story, the man called Jones tries to understand what is going on, but not at the man with Zilo's sheet. He is addressing the spiky haired man with tattoos who holds Maldrek's sheet.
"I said, I want to throw my entire Necklace of Fireballs into the center of the ballroom."
"WHAT!" Shouts the man in the hat with Zilo's sheet and a new man who is rather skinny holding a sheet with Leo across the top.
"We are so close, we just need to propose then they drink the poison and they die!" Shouts the man in the hat. The man with the Tattoos shrugs and only responds with,
"This will be a better story to tell afterward"
Maldrek flashes out of his Invisibility and hurls a necklace of glowing read beads toward Zilo and Leo. The necklace sparks and shoots out laying the entire ballroom in a sheet of explosions and flames. The sight is awe inspiring, and hits almost every person in the ballroom with the center being ground zero.
Cruxis and Alaroc are just barely out of the blast radius, with Cruxis' eyebrow getting singed off from the blast. All that is left in the center of the ballroom is what is left of the nobles, Zilo on one knee, holding a shining ring, still in one piece somehow, and Leo, back in his original form who falls over out of sheer pain after a moment.
In that same moment the guards lucky enough to be away from the center of the blast look around, shell shocked, giving Maldrek enough time to scurry toward the entrance and throw Cruxis and Alaroc their swords and shield.
The guards begin to move into place toward Maldrek, but after a quick casting of Invisibility again, he is nowhere to be seen, leaving just Cruxis and Alaroc to sweep the floor with them.
Zilo takes a tad bit longer to put the situation together, and once he snaps out of it, he sees Leo on the ground, hurt, but breathing. He places his hand on the downed Magus and casts Cure Moderate Wounds fixing enough of the damage to get him awake.
As two guards notice that Leo is no longer a woman they begin to advance on them as well, Leo proves his worth as a Magus and deftly dodges their swings before igniting his Rhoka in Lightning and stunning one of the guards into a stupor, leaving him convulsing on the ground.
Zilo rolls to the fallen guard and snatches and arrow from his quiver. Suddenly Harmony forms into a bow and he lets the arrow loose into the other guard's guard's throat. The rest of the guards are defeated in a similar fashion by the 4 warriors, followed by Maldrek returning to visibility.
"That was fun." Responds Alaroc with his sword in hand, and a swig from his flask. The group takes some time to change into their armor and such while Leo watches the front. As Cruxis finishes strapping on his armor Leo shouts back, "The entire city looks like it's mobilizing, I think they heard the explosion."
Maldrek points into the palace and says, "We need to get May and get out, move it!"
The 5 men rush through the halls toward the way Maldrek is going.
"She messaged me that she led them toward the master bedroom, up this way." The group comes to the top where May must be and bust the door open. Inside they see May holding a bloody knife, putting on her upper clothes and the dead king and queen both naked and bleeding out on the bed.
Alaroc is the first to speak, "May... did you? Why are...?"
May cuts him off moving to Maldrek to retrieve her gear and saying, "Not what matters right now, we gotta move. Let me get my stuff on."
Zilo wanders over to the King's discarded clothes and retrieves the King's cape, he looks it over a bit and says, "wow, this cape is fantastic, such nice craftsmanship."
Zilo looks left and right before stowing it in his bag and saying, "Without any heirs left I'm sure he wont mind If I-HOLD ON A SECOND!" Zilo storms over to May, who is finishing putting her cloak and scarf over her leather armor.
"You killed them with a knife!"
"Maldrek had my Scythe, had to improvise."
"What about the boots!? It was a King's Order!"
May and the rest of the group give Zilo a look of confusion before Zilo reaches into May's bag and takes back his boots, then runs over to the bodies and smacks them a bit with the boots, making them slightly bloody.
"I hope King Deneval won't mind." Says Zilo in a sad manner. Maldrek walks over and pats Zilo on the Shoulder, saying, "I'm sure it'll be fine Zilo, but right now we need to move." Maldrek gathers the group and chats with them.
"Alright, so the front door is likely full with guards. Our best chance now is to find a back way out. This king may have a safety tunnel from his room to that backdoor, so get looking."
Leo suddenly goes stiff and bites his lip. Alaroc looks to him and speaks.
"Why so tense, Friend?"
Leo looks to the group and shakes as he recalls, "I've had a few friends get caught before with a big enough rap sheet to get sentenced to the Royal Dungeon."
Everyone's eyebrows perk up at the mentioning of that place.
"A few loose lips in the royal guard say that under the castle... No under the whole city is a huge catacomb, but none of them have ever seen the place. There are only rumors on what people think it even looks like."
Leo looks up, his eyes stern, "If I had to guess why, it's cause anyone sent there doesn't get out alive."
The group looks at each other nervous before May chimes in, "We can either go there by choice, or go there once they learn we killed their king, I vote we go now, while we still have some weapons to go with."
Maldrek takes a second to think over her words and nods before the group looks to Leo who shakes his head.
"Never thought My only chance at freedom would be going into a dungeon, fine, but I'll need one of those." As he points to the two dead monarchs. Zilo looks back at them, then at Leo and says, "You aren't gonna do what May was doing are you?" Suddenly Zilo is bashed across his face. Leo looks over to Maldrek and says,
"Tell me Maldrek, do you know the spell Blood Transcription?"
Maldrek's eyes go wide as he moves to the dead king and offers the scythe wound to Leo, who casts the spell, grabbing the king's body.
"Interesting, I'm liking our new friend more and more." Remarks the Tiefling. Leo leans down and begins sucking on the open wound wide a disgusted look on his face. Everyone else grimaces, but Maldrek looks on, hopefully.
Leo sits up and wipes his mouth clean as his eyeballs seem to have scrolling text sliding across it, before he blinks again and smiles.
"I got it, let's go"
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