Here we were, in the middle of the courtyard of the Cloud Giant’s castle, surrounded by cultists and ogres and trying to lead the Officer of the cultists Philarion Valven away from his plan to bring us to Rezmir. Thoredim tried to convince him that Rezmir is the infiltrator, the true Rezmir has died in Castle Naerytar. Luckily we have her Black Dragon Mask to back up our story. The cultist was not convinced but the seed of doubt was enough that he heard us out. We talked him into going to a private chamber to talk, accompanied by only two other cultists. There, Thoredim charged him and successfully pushed him off the edge of the balcony - only to discover that those sons of bitches could fly with their uniforms! A brief fight ensued, but the cultists never really stood a chance. We used this chance to upgrade our disguises to some higher-ranking cultist uniforms, which now have the ability to fly 30ft (as a BA).
As we heard more cultists approaching in the hallway we decided, for whatever reason, to voice-act and orgy in the chambers. Successfully luring in the remaining cultists and the air was clear once more. A hint was also dropped that Posmet and Shan have some experience in escaping from somewhere together… mysterious!
We were now faced a problem: What to do with the cultists that we had collected in this room, unconscious but alive? The majority of the group was against killing them, but leaving them there would risk them sounding an alarm down the line. This would endanger our plan to capture the command room and stealthily steer the castle to Waterdeep. Eventually, Posmet cast Hunger of Hadar, to add the cultists to the growing collection in his Orb - trapped, but alive.
Exploring more of the interior of the first floor, Kaiya found to our surprise, Abras Jos, the Red Wizard in the northeasternmost chamber. In another chamber we discovered Rezmir, together with two Guard Drakes. Trying to circumvent a fight, Posmet cast another Hunger of Hadar into that chamber, while we held the door shut. After a minute had passed and the spell had ceased, Posmet discovered the two guard drakes on his sphere, together with a surprise: A rug of smothering! The other surprise: Rezmir is not on the sphere. It looks as if we will not be able to avoid this confrontation after all…