Victorious advance

[Ebiris]

Oh no, did he teleport away without her hearing? Alicia's gonna be so mad!

Making an invisible frowny face, she follows the elf long enough to read his surface thoughts.

Detect thoughts, DC 27.

[Anastasia]

> roll 1d20+12
<Penuche> Kotono invokes Penuche's magic: < 32 > [d20=20]

No good, his thoughts are a closed book to you.

[Ebiris]

Oh she really let everyone down on this!

Maybe Dragodan's still down there and just wanted privacy for some creepy Shar stuff? At least she's actually seen his face and heard his voice so that's some kind of progress, but oh she just knows Alicia's going to be disappointed if he snuck away from under her nose.

Hoping for the best, she elects to go back and hold position outside the desecrated area. She knows there's going to be an attack on this place tomorrow night so she can observe and make sure that goes smoothly even if Dragodan doesn't show up again.

[Anastasia]

Thus hours pass - and roughly around dawn, the elf returns. He carries a tray of food, going on downstairs without comment.

[Ebiris]

Marie has nothing to say to him either!

Unfortunately sensual blessing has long since worn off, so her hearing isn't as good...

[18:35] <@Ebiris> roll 1d20+48 perception
[18:35] <Penuche> Ebiris invokes Penuche's magic: < 65 > [d20=17]

[Anastasia]

Yet you can still hear, distantly, "Breakfast, shadow."

Dragodan grunts before saying, "Good. Leave me."

Moments later the elf returns up the stairs and leaves.

[Ebiris]

Marie has another shot at reading the elf's mind, following him long enough to get it done in case she gets lucky on bypassing his defences.

Detect thoughts again, DC 27 will.

[Anastasia]

> roll 1d20+12
<Penuche> Kotono invokes Penuche's magic: < 20 > [d20=8]

The elf is thinking of two things as he passes - of getting breakfast and then using the bathroom. Turns out he has to go. Who knew? Then his thoughts move to thoughts of a reward, of peace at last.

[Ebiris]

Dragodan isn't leaving that much of an impression on his thoughts but then he has been here all night.

Oh well, back to her vigil outside the desecrated area! Good thing her nondetection spell has an unreasonably long duration on it.

[Anastasia]

How much longer does it have, roughly?

[Ebiris]

It lasts 66 hours per casting, assuming she casts it every two days then she has anything from 18 to 42 hours left.

[Anastasia]

Hours pass. Hours without incident before Dragodan emerges, coming up the stairs and out, heading upstairs.

[Ebiris]

Praying to Alicia to let her know the chase is back on, Marie follows him. She won't attack unless Alicia tells her to or Dragodan looks about to teleport away, but she sticks close until then so she can gather more useful information even if he gets away or has some sort of thing that makes his head melt into black goo if he's captured and interrogated.

Why is that a thing that happens often enough that she has to prepare for that specific eventuality?

[Anastasia]

As Marie ponders the odd quirks of her chosen life, she follows Dragodan.

Dragodan heads upstairs, to a private room where he goes to the window. It's a cloudy and cold day, snow flurries falling. He's silent for a time, looking out the window and lost in his own thoughts.

"What's to find here?" He murmurs after some silence, said more under his breath than anything else. "Lady of Loss, I will never understand why they resist you."

[Ebiris]

Stunning lack of imagination there.

Would actually be really dramatic to reveal herself and say something pithy before knocking him out, but it wouldn't be wise so Marie just continues to hover around and observe him like some kind of guardian angel.