It is decided. At 2:30, your little team of thieves will strike. Until then, you have even more time to kill. It’s a little chillier this evening, so hovering around in the Jamboree field for the next 4 hours or so is not a pleasant idea. Instead, you suggest either meeting up later, or going somewhere else. Stardust perhaps. You still want to go back there and figure out what happened last night after all, and now you have plenty of time to do so. You can also go over the finer details of your heist plan there too.

Ameronis agrees, and Silas is soon convinced, though he tells you he’ll meet you there shortly; first, he needs to collect a few items he’ll be needing later. When you mention that you have a VIP pass, he tells you to wait for him in a particular area upstairs; apparently, he’s been inside Stardust before. With that settled, you and Ameronis make your way back to the dance hall.

Along the way, you ask Ameronis if she was at the hall at all last night; you vaguely remember her saying she might meet you there.

“Oh, no… I never actually made it there in the end… I got a bit… wrapped up.”

Oh? And what sort of antics was she involved in last night?

“Well, I ran into Kuron and Rod and their friends again; you know what they’re like…”

Oh yes; lots of drinking and betting, and some boisterous behaviour. Did she go to The Rusty Bell? Or back to The Pit?

“Both,” she says. “And a few other dark, dank corners. Those guys are quite eager to show me around their other usual haunts and it’s been entertaining enough.”

You consider a handful of the grittier, less friendly places you briefly visited before reaching Derna, and wonder what the variants here are like, and just how dark and dank they can get. Presently, you’d prefer the exact opposite afforded by Stardust.

Your VIP card allows you to skip the main line and enter the considerably shorter VIP line, which is currently empty. Showing your card to the bouncer and declaring Ameronis to be your guest, you casually ask the bouncer if he or his companion were working the door last night, and if either of them saw you enter yesterday. Unfortunately, these two work the weekends; neither of them was on shift last night. Oh well, it was worth a shot. Surely there are other workers here now who were also here last night. You just have to track them down.

As you enter Stardust and travel along the darkened, elegant hallway, periodically lit softly by beautiful sconces, a thought occurs to you. Without you there to gain permission for him as another one of your guests, Silas won’t be able to access the upper VIP area. Telling the bouncer “My friend is up there” absolutely won’t cut it. Either he plans to sneak in somehow, which you highly doubt is possible, or he has his own VIP card, in which case, how did he get that? You wonder what the regular criteria are for getting one. Can they be bought? Or perhaps, as Ameronis might say, he “acquired” one…? Maybe you’ll ask him when he gets here, assuming he manages to get in at all.

Ameronis wants to settle down right away, so you escort her into the VIP area, where she is given a temporary pass by the bouncer, allowing her to come and go as she pleases, and she heads upstairs to find somewhere to sit. Meanwhile you remain downstairs and glance around for a moment, before heading over to the bar.

Around you, the other patrons are, as usual, having a grand time. It’s still relatively early, but is already busy. On stage at the moment is a quartet of musicians playing a very lively reel. Dressed in a slightly more rustic, traditional attire, the group of men enthusiastically sway and tap in time as they play, which in turn has the dance floor full of revellers. You’ve only been listening for a few moments, but it’s hard not to bob your head in time as well.

At the bar, you grab a seat, then scan the bartenders to find one who looks like they have a moment to spare to answer a few questions. Before you can get the attention of one, someone taps you on the shoulder. You glance back in time to see a man grinning at you as he moves away. He gives you a friendly nod and taps his pinky finger and thumb together twice.

Wha-..?

You just about manage to smile and return the nod (instead of crumpling your face in confusion), right before he disappears into the crowd on the dancefloor.

… Who was that? And what was that gesture supposed to mean? Do you-

“Can I get you something?” A friendly voice from behind the bar catches your attention this time. You turn to see a smiling barmaid, waiting for you to order.

Oh, uh… You’ll just… stick with a fruit mocktail for now.

She nods and begins preparing your drink.

You turn your thoughts back to that man, who is now long gone. He had bronze skin and brown hair. You’ve never seen him before. Either he mistook you for someone else, or… he knows you, but you don’t remember him… Hmm… Maybe you shouldn’t have let him go. He might be able to answer your questions. Can you recall his face? Maybe you could go find him and-

The barmaid interrupts your thoughts again by offering you your drink. You take it, slide over a few coins as payment, and ask her if she was working the bar last night and if she saw you.

Yes! She was here, and she saw you at the bar with your friends but wasn’t the one to serve you. She asks why you want to know.

Oh, it’s nothing. You just… lost track of something yesterday, so you’re trying to retrace your steps. She looks concerned, and asks if you want to check the lost and found.

No, no, it’s fine, you just need to… find your ‘friends’; they’ll be able to help you. You ask if she knows who served you all yesterday, and if they’re working today. You want to ask them if they’ve seen your friends this evening.

She looks down the bar and points out a man working on the other end. Markus.

——————

Now sitting at the other end of the bar, you casually sip your drink as you wait for the barman Markus to be free. So you definitely made it into Stardust last night; that’s good to know. But, what else? Eventually, Markus turns to you, chuckling when he sees you.

“Lost your other shoe?”, he asks.

Huh?

You give him a slight, sheepish smile. No. You have both your shoes now; don’t worry. But, you did lose your ‘friends’ and you’re wondering if he’s seen them in the hall tonight?

“How did you manage to lose them? Like a storm’s breath, they were!” He thinks for a moment. “I haven’t seen them tonight. You lot planning to start early this time?” He looks at your drink. “Or are you biding your time?”.

You glance at the clock behind the bar; just after 9:30. Apparently, you were here later than this yesterday…

You casually wave it off. No, you were just wondering if any of them happened to be about yet. But, you had more than enough excitement last night (presumably), so you’re planning to take it easy tonight.

You casually ask him what he thought of your antics, and if he remembers any of the drinks you and your friends had; you’re terrible with names like that, you see, so you’d like a little refresher of the drink names, in case you want to order another.

He tuts, chuckling. “Well I thought it was funny, but the watchmen? Not so much; even mild roughhousing will get them on edge. Better you than me though; you must be pretty sore?”

You remember the bruise on your side. You were fighting in here?! No, it couldn’t have been that bad; you only have one bruise, albeit a fairly big one, which only hurts if you directly press it, and, the bouncers would’ve kicked you out if you were involved in anything serious. Wait, you didn’t get kicked out, did you..?

You mention you have some light bruising but it’s nothing too bad.

“Wow; you sure can take a punch! No wonder your friends got so excited. I can’t imagine the others got off as lightly as you though. Seriously, you guys sure have some interesting ways of having ‘fun’. But, who am I to judge? Instead, how about another drink to toast your victory?”. He motions to the drink menu. You remind him that he hasn’t told you what drinks you had yesterday.

Taking a moment to recall, he mentions some of the drinks that your ‘friends’ had. They only had a few kinds, but they had a lot of them. They had a lot of them; they seemed to be playing a drinking game at one point. But, come to think of it, Markus doesn’t remember you ordering anything with them; you had a drink from the outset when he first saw you, but he doesn’t know what drink that was; it looked like one of the VIP drinks though, so you must’ve got it from upstairs. Aside from that, you reluctantly accepted a celebratory drink from “the burly guy with the beard”. You only sipped it a little and didn’t finish it in the end. That drink was an Ironclad Ale AI InputName suggested by ChatGPT. ~ Ameronis.

“Do you want to try another one now?”, he asks.

No!

Umm, no, you’ll stick with this, thank you. You calmly raise your mocktail; you don’t want things to get too crazy before your pals arrive.

“Alright!”, he says. “If you want anything else, just let me know!”

You thank him for his time and let him go serve other patrons.

You sip your drink. You did come to Stardust, lost and retrieved your shoe, apparently, and possibly encountered the man from earlier; he had bronze skin and brown hair, but that’s all you can really recall right now. At some point much later than 9:30, you and a bunch of unknown men became very friendly and started causing a ruckus downstairs, which could explain the bruise. However, you weren’t actually drinking with them, or, not in any real capacity, as far as you can tell…

Normally, you’ll have a drink or two but prefer to keep things light or stick to mocktails. Getting drunk around strangers and in an unfamiliar place is too dangerous. You have had the odd occasion where you… were a little bit too liberal with your drink… But that was before! Before you began your adventure.

Markus said you had a drink from upstairs. So, before you made your ‘friends’, you were up there.

OK, well; time to head upstairs and see what else you can figure out.