Gets us in

We start by making everything invisible (Superior Invisibility, Spell Compendium), and warded against Divination effects (Mind Blank, Greater Magic Aura, Misdirection, and Nondetection… just to see how confused we can make anyone who tries). The trip back is fast: Wish Transport gets us there basically instantly. Not wanting to embroil the town guard, we appear directly over the palace, and simply fly down, and land at the palace gates… where we all disgorge our designated proxies. For Alice, Brian, and I, those are Conjuration Companions. For Charles, that's his Mega Mount - all four dressed up as the forms we started in, including a normal Greater Invisibility spell for my proxy… but better equipped (Summon Equipment V, Summon Materia III, from Final Fantasy d20… because it all vanishes if it gets more than 100 feet from me, and that's a desirable trait if things go sideways).

So our minions, buffed to the nines, each able to cast five distinct spells of each spell level first through directly (one from a Bloodline feat, four more from Arcane Disciple matching the actual associated heroes’ choices), and looking like us… knock on the palace door.

Alice's stand-in gives her starting line, “Hello! As requested, we've been out exercising in the countryside, growing our power, and have returned to report.” Yes, part of the plan is to pretend we don't know about the whole ‘treason’ charge: I'm the only one for whom it's actually reasonable anyway.

And magic really helps here. Specifically, Attuned Mysticism on Vermin Affinity from Spheres of Power: No Humanoid can attack me or any ally of mine within 30 feet unless compelled by magic, and they all start with a neutral disposition towards us. It goes well with Divine Countenance and Beyond Morality from Mythic to boost that one further step up to Friendly. What is really fun is the complete lack of a save on the effects involved. The guards come out in formation, all armored, archers at the wall… but they're smiling, and nobody's drawing a bead on us. The squad leader (or whatever his title actually is) in the red and gold helmet speaks up, “Ah… the King declared you traitors….”

‘That is something we will need to take up with the king,’ Telepathy doesn't give away my location, so it is no big deal when I speak for myself that way, ‘we will go have an audience with him now, if that isn't too much trouble.’

“I, ummm…” the man frowns, finding himself unable to draw a weapon, “...why can't I follow orders?”

“We're the Cardinal Heroes,” Brian's proxy bluffs as planned, “you instinctively know we're here to protect you, and don't want to hurt us.” Glibness, when given to someone who already has a good Bluff modifier from other means, can pretty much rewrite reality as far as most people are concerned: The bonus is high enough that it counters the “lie is impossible” modifier, essentially making such things “believable”... and this one isn't exactly THAT hard of a sell to begin with, plus the minion can hear my mental voice, and so my Motivate Charisma aura adds my Charisma modifier to her bluff check as an additional bonus. If I did this directly I could probably convince the man that the king is actually his mother. When skill checks get high enough, absurd things happen… but we don't want to push that too hard, because there is a clause about some lies being not believed no matter what the dice say.

“Ah,” the leader of the forces nods, “Of course. Umm… this way, then.” He leads us through the castle… and after spending a week mostly outside (or in a Sanctum borrowed from the Archmage Mythic path: It works out to seventy two twenty-foot cubes of luxury space, and I only need to accommodate a handful of people vs. the hundreds of the palace), the palace feels small and cramped… especially at doors, but I suppose the palace needs to worry about defending from invasions, while the Sanctum has a nice security clause: “Only those you designated can enter.”

Anyway, we walk through the Palace, through the hallways, through the waiting room, we're announced as the Cardinal Heroes, and go into the throne room….