The posse spends a while planning their heist. Some of the plan elements discussed:
The end plan involves trying to get in via the office door, but cutting through the ceiling is the backup plan, possibly accompanied by a thunderclap from Dr. Vorpwhistle's weather control to cover the noise. Cady consults the spirits to learn her future and they give a thumbs-up to the cutting through the ceiling plan. Dr. Vorpwhistle tries to have a storm ready so he can call thunder, but only manages to force the weather to become quite rainy.
Everyone is costumed, except Vorpwhistle who wears only a domino mask. Tobey comes as a pirate, justifying her machete. Robert wears full warpaint and comes as an Eagle Shaman. Joseph comes as John Wesley Powell (one arm!), and Cady tries to dress up as the monster madam the posse met in Shan Fan, but luckily for Robert only manages to hit "a Chinese woman" and thus does not scare him to death.
They arrive a bit early because Dr. Vorpwhistle has to be there for the final adjustments to Caroline's gown. Everyone breathes a little easier when the gown activates without a hitch. Dr. Vorpwhistle had been getting more and more worried about the possible failure modes of the complex device.
"Do be careful with the corset pump!" - one of Vorpwhistle's instructions to Caroline
They follow Caroline downstairs some time after the party has started. Her dress is a big hit, though every time she reconfigures it Dr. Vorpwhistle and some of the others hold their breath. Or whatever it is the undead do when they have no breath.
Cady quickly determines that the office is occupied by a female guard using penetrating gaze. Robert spots five more guards dressed as party-goers and circulating. The plan gets derailed a bit while they think about these things. Cady and Thaddeus are introduced to Mina Devlin (dressed as a Confederate general) as the creators of Caroline's dress, but she doesn't have time to chat with them.
Meanwhile, Elder Tanner is being seriously flirted with by a woman dressed as "Eve" complete with a gown made of flesh-colored silk and leaves. Vorpwhistle gives a brief lecture on the dress to further impress those Caroline wishes to impress - of course, its features have to be shown off a little, which leads to further tension on his part. He also emphasizes how brave Caroline is being to wear the thing, which brings a piercing glance from Mina. After his lecture, he is summoned into the office (where he doesn't see the lurking guard) to talk with Mina... she is polite, but wants his assurances that nothing terrible will happen to her daughter. In the end, she decides a failure might be a valuable lesson, but Vorpwhistle is scared enough to spend the rest of the evening close to Caroline, even going so far as to brief her dance partners about where they really can't put their hands.
Finally, the posse develops a new plan, and Cady rescues Joseph from Eve in order to drag him into the parlor and have a tearful confrontation with him, driving everyone else out of the parlor. The parlor, it should be noted, shares a wall with the office - the very wall that the safe is against. Cady quickly locates it with her spell, and then Tobey comes in and crouches behind a pushed-out sofa to cut through the wall and then the back of the safe. Cady and Joseph sit on the sofa and pretend to smooch.
This goes well until Tobey is about half done making a hole in the safe. At that point two guards come in to look around. Luckily, Robert is on lookout in the foyer and delays them long enough for Cady and Joseph to push the sofa back against the wall. Tobey ends up underneath the sofa, fighting an attack of claustrophobia. The guards do come in "looking for a game of whist" and case the room, but there is nothing to see and they leave again rather than stay near the two drunken love-birds.
The sofa is pushed back again and Tobey goes back to work, getting almost done when Eve is dispatched from the main hall by one of the guards. She attacks Cady for taking Joseph away, and things start with words but descend to physical violence. Several men from the party arrive with Robert and take Eve back to her carriage, leaving the two ersatz lovers alone (with Tobey) again. Tobey quickly completes her work, and Elder Tanner reaches in and takes the dueling pistol, leaving everything else. They push the sofa back, and Tobey waits in the parlor while Cady and Joseph leave the party. Once they've escaped, Cady gives Joseph a big kiss for real, which is enthusiastically returned.
Tobey leaves a little while later, and Robert and Vorpwhistle have to stay until Caroline retires, which happens quite late, though thankfully the dress never has so much as a hiccup. They also retreat, and once regrouped the party rides slowly south along the river road in the dark.
The original Stress Analysis article