The Velvet Cabaret is a place of leisure for the wealthy and ostentatious of Vasselheim. It is located in the Dusk Meadow district.
Description[]
From the outside, it looks garish. On the inside, the atmosphere is extremely relaxed and tailored to the exclusive clientele. The interior is low-lit, with the primary source of light being Faerie Fire lamps that emit a soft purple hue. There are a multitude of low-set tables surrounded by luxurious cushions. Food and entertainment are plentiful in this palace of leisure.[1]
The staff includes servers that wear silk robes and collars around their necks, and guards that stick to the edges so as not to interrupt the atmosphere.
History[]
The Velvet Cabaret was established in Vasselheim's Duskmeadow district a couple of years before Vox Machina arrived in the city. Its owner was the rakshasa Hotis, who used it as a front for expanding his influence. He wore the disguise of an amicable dwarf named Hosin, who posed as a shift manager at the inn while using a human named Vince Seanor as a figurehead to avert suspicion.
After the murder of a high-profile merchant, one Lord Tyrell, by a reportedly lycanthrope-type creature, the Slayer's Take received a contract requesting body parts of a rakshasa. The guild assigned this contract to a group consisting of Vax'ildan, Tiberius Stormwind, and Keyleth of Vox Machina, along with Kashaw Vesh and established guild member Thorbir Falbek. Between Kashaw's Locate Creature spell and a bribery-induced interrogation of a couple of Bastions, the group came to the Velvet Cabaret.
Disguised in elegant attire, Vax and Keyleth posed as Scanlan and Coralin of the Shorthalts, heads of a cobbling empire, with Thorbir posing as a bodyguard, Kashaw as their valet, and Tiberius (disguised as a gnome via Alter Self) as their financial advisor. Tiberius, speaking Draconian to a Dragonborn bouncer, gained them entry, and Hosin led them to the back room where Vince waited. Vax lied smoothly, speaking of how the cobbling empire was a front for dealing in poisons and seeking connections for buying. Vince saw through the deception, however, and the group soon abandoned subtlety for intimidation, Keyleth letting out a burst of wind that alerted the other guards. Caught between the threat of death from his employer and the more immediate threat of death from the group, Vince admitted that he was not the true owner.
The door closed at that moment, revealing that Hosin had been eavesdropping on them. Keyleth and Tiberius pursued him as a rat and gadfly while Vax knocked out Vince. Tiberius's Silence spell prevented the disguised dwarf from escaping easily, but Keyleth and Tiberius's other spells were ineffective, revealing that he was the rakshasa. Tiberius ran back to inform the remainder of the group, allowing Hosin enough time to step outside the Silence and disappear. The guards came into the hallway, but Tiberius dismissed the Silence and used Alter Self to pose as Hosin, persuading the guards that everything was under control.
Left alone, the group noticed one of the doors at the end of the hallway closing, and realized that the rakshasa had merely turned invisible and hadn't yet escaped. The group entered a bedroom, where Thorbir and Vax found a pit beneath the bed with a tall ladder leading down. They followed this passage down to a booby-trapped tunnel leading to a cistern beneath the Aramanthine Oubliette, Vasselheim's prison, which soon led them to the rakshasa's hiding place: a hidden shrine to Dispater within an abandoned wing of the prison.
After slaying Hotis, the party returned the way they came, covered in blood and ichor as they walked back out through the Velvet Cabaret, intimidating the guards into leaving them be. As they left, Keyleth tossed part of Hotis's pelt at them, informing them that it was what remained of their boss, and Vax appropriated a couple of glasses of ale, silently giving one to Thorbir as they walked out.
Notable People[]
- Hosin/Hotis: A rakshasa disguised as the dwarven manager.
- Vince Seanor: The apparent owner and proprietor.
- Siren: One of the bouncers, whom Vox Machina had seen earlier in the Braving Grounds District.
References[]
- ↑ See "Trial of the Take: Part 3" (1x20) at 1:50:58.
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