Tonight has given me reason to reconsider my membership in this group.  It was
supposed to be such a simple mission...  But to start from the evening's beginning, we
were downstairs in the bar room of our tavern.  Despite the fact that this is also the
site of my temporary residence, I can't quite recall the name.  No, that's not quite
right; I don't care enough to recall the name.

	Regardless, all of us were gathered around a table with Shyloff and Xavier.  The
gnome discretely forced one man in the room to punch another, an act that quickly drew
the rest of the tavern into a brawl and left us with little chance of being overheard.  
I made a mental note to learn that spell at my earliest opportunity.  We then received
the lowdown.

	Tomorrow night, it seems a great many drow will be having a large party at their
embassy.  Along with all the city's high-profile drow, there will be a great many
members of the drow nobility in attendance.  Apparentally, there is one man in
particular who will deliver a speech and rally the drow to purposes unknown.  Though
there's no doubt about the level of security, our group, working with Xavier, is to
infiltrate the embassy and assassinate this mysterious leader.

	After a bit of discussion, it was decided that our two half-elven vixens would
disguise themselves as the princesses.  Of course, there were a number of complications
with this idea: neither lady spoke a word of drow, neither lady could convincingly pass
as a drow princess, and both would face a very awkward moment if either of the real
princesses showed up.  Fortunately, Shyloff was willing to handle one part of the
problem and Xavier pointed out a gnome who'd be willing to handle another.

	Apparentally, he was seated one chair to my right.  The little bugger was
partially obscured by the table and only hid himself further when all the attention was
suddenly upon him.  Our generous benefactor informed us that Blue was the best of the
best when it came to making magical items.  The little man then slipped further out of
sight.  At that point, Atari made an attempt to coax Blue out of his shell by offering a
greeting and several compliments.  In spite of his name, he turned red and mumbled a
thanks.

	She then decided to take the attention off of Blue by scooping up Tim Dimple and
twirling him about.  Such a display is fairly common with those two; I still find it
amusing, but it's something our group doesn't laugh at as much.  However, the spectacle
achieved a new level of hilarity against the backdrop of the bar room brawl I'd all but
tuned out.  Most of us couldn't help but chuckle.

	It seemed to do the trick; the tinkerer tugged on Atari's sleeve and, while
mumbling a bashful explanation, handed her a pair of earrings.  From what I could hear,
they would allow her to understand the drow tongue.  Blue then held out two collars that
would offer their wearers the ability to speak the language.  As I'd convinced myself by
that point that I would also be impresonating a guest, I gave the snivelling little man
a honeyed commendation and a humble request for an apparatus suited to a man.  After a
bit more of his gibbering, he produced a small crown, but insisted that I return it
later.  Graciously, I agreed.

                                   ------------------

	Our little group plus Shyloff then set off for the drow princesses' hotel, the
Gilded something or other.  Our reasons were threefold: the girls needed to study their
targets to properly emulate them, Shyloff needed a good look to create proper disguises,
and we needed to prevent either member of royalty from showing up at the embassy.

	I devised a way to get everyone in, but I now wish I'd handled a bit more of the
planning...  Nevertheless, I would act the part of enraged former customer Robert
Swankington, distracting the concierge with my numerous complaints accusations about the
hotel's mismanagement during my previous stay and about how poorly it reflects on the
city to the visiting drow princesses.  As one of Robert's complaints would concern the
doors' tendency to fly open suddenly, my teammates would be able to slip through in
their Cloaks of Non-Detection without raising any fuss at all.

	My part of the plan went well.  Other than the concierge's obsession with
warlocks -- including the 'No Warlocks' sign above his head and the 'Don't Get Me
Started About Warlocks' sign that he [i]actually created in the middle of our
conversation[/i] -- and eventually witches, there was little that caught me off-guard;
from comments on the "repugnant" decor to angry questions about how one incredibly
eccentric man was to service the entire hotel at once, I kept him busy.  I was a tad
surprised to learn that our group had been misinformed: there were not two princesses,
but a princess and prince.

	While I was gleaning this bit of information and carrying on with my irrational
tirade, things were proceeding upstairs.  From what they've told me, they found the
princess's room easily enough.  Barada unlocked it without any trouble and all but Atari
slipped inside, while the oblivious drow looked over her dresses.  Atari then removed
her cloak and stepped into the doorway, pretending to be a maid and feigning concern. 
Irritably, the princess explained that nothing was wrong, advised the "helpful" girl to
take a hike, and slammed the door.  After that, I'm not entirely sure what happened. 
The door opened a few times more, at least one of the room's invisible occupants went in
and out, the apparentally very bitchy drow princess threw a knife at the door, Gohr got
the bright idea to throw a vase -- I recall hearing the crashing from downstairs and I
believe I successfully blamed it on his mother, a foundation problem, and whatever the
night's dinner had been -- and then got the brighter idea to knock her out.  I wasn't
able to keep the concierge from investigating the loud thump we heard, but I did follow
him upstairs, babbling my nonsense all the way.

	Meanwhile, my comrades were attempting to hide the body when the girl's brother
knocked on the door, asking if everything was alright.  Try as she might, Atari wasn't
able to keep him from entering, so, after a bit, he broke down the door.  His eyes spied
Atari with her hood down for a moment, and then played over his sister's very unhidden
body on the floor.  Putting two and two together, he drew his daggers and began swiping
around the room.  Eventually, Gohr managed to subdue him.  This was nice and
symmetrical, given that he had gotten them into their mess in the first place.

	Around that time, the concierge and I neared the room.  Naturally, we were both
quite surprised when an ogre stepped into the hall.  After a moment's pause, we ran
together in the opposite direction long enough for me to degrade him for the staff's
cowardice.  We then parted ways, he to inform his manager about the horrific warlock and
ogre-related incidents and I to learn from my fellows just what in the nine hells had
gone wrong.

	With the concierge gone, the illusory ogre vanished and Shyloff removed his
hood, followed in turn by everybody else.  We then discussed what to do next.  Two of us
wrapped the bodies in our cloaks before Gohr carried them out.  I performed a minor
Prestidigitation cleaning on the blood-stained carpet, and then we left the posh hotel.

	Back at the tavern, Xavier was... less than ecstatic about our performance. 
Shyloff went to prepare disguises for Atari and myself by borrowing our rings.  We were
then reminded of something rather important we had forgotten: invitations were required
to enter the embassy.  Chuckling nervously about our goof, Barada, Atari and I headed
back to the hotel.  Tim Dimple stayed behind to babysit Gohr with some alcoholic
beverages; we were taking no chances this time.

	We slipped through the open door, past the city guards milling about the lobby
and the upper floor's hall.  True to form, the concierge continued to rant about the
threat inherent in the warlocks, witches, and ogres that plagued the hotel.  We found
the royals' rooms occupied by a few soldiers.  The three of us managed to disperse them,
Atari by throwing someting in the halls, Barada by tapping some of them on the shoulder,
and I by using Message to communicate to one guard in a spooky voice about how the
concierge was always ranting about warlocks to hide the fact that he was among their
ranks.  After they exitted immediately following these provocations, I made a mental
note that the city guard clearly did not take their job very seriously.  In fact, the
soldier I had influenced eventually shouted at the concierge, "Get out of my head!" and
fled the scene.  Then, after what seemed to him a pause of suitable length, the
concierge quit his job.

	Left to our own devices, we looked all over the rooms for the invitations. 
Predictably, the girls also went for anything that wasn't nailed down.  I'm confident
Barada swiped something from the Prince's room...  Whatever it was, as his future
impersonator, it's rightfully mine.  Regardless, with the invitations in hand, we
returned to the tavern.

	I suppose, in the end, we [i]did[/i] succeed, but I would rather have not heard
Shyloff inform us that he would be keeping "the incident" off his record.  I can only
hope this isn't an indicator of what tomorrow will bring.