The town of Longacre sits just outside the fringes of the Whisperwood. A few lights shine in the streets and windows, and the occasional snippet of conversation or laughter issues from open doors, but here on the outskirts of town, the night is quiet and dark. Sparse clouds scud across the sky, momentarily obscuring the dim light from the moon overhead. Across a scrubby field, barely distinguishable under the starry sky, a darkened, fortlike compound hunches in the distance.
Cimri points toward the dim structure.
“That’s it—Louslik Tannery. Here’s the job: We break in, sack Ol’ Louslik’s office, take whatever’s shiny, and get out before the sheriff shows up. If we get separated, meet back at the Ash House by dawn.”
Dull moonlight glints across her dagger as she flicks it in emphasis.
“If you get pinched, remember: you’re mute. Keep your mouth shut, and I’ll handle things. I got assurances that we won’t take any blame if things go south, but get chatty and I’ll let you rot.”
A beat passes and her usual crooked smirk appears.
“If you don’t screw things up, we’ll all be drinking on Razelago’s coin come dawn. Let’s do this.”
Nails click against the studs of Torgeilas armor as he looks upon this mostly crew.
"Not exactly what I expected when you told me you had a 'crack team'. Torgueila chuckles as he scans the group around him.
"...yes... that... yes."
Becky gives a quiet nod, thinking to herself.
"What... do we do... if we find someone in there..?"
Kali pats a pocket on her belt, cooing down at it. Umbi-dear, now promise to keep quiet."
She looks over her shoulder at the other demonkin and smiles. "Oh, I'm very qualified. Promise."
Eliselda gives a dainty sniff as she glances around at her new "associates." She's dressed down for the occasion (no need to be tripping over fine skirts in the middle of a heist!), but from the way she holds herself, it's still hard to mistake her for anything but a sophisticated highborn girl.
"Oh, I'm sure we won't have any trouble. I think this will be a fine amusement, don't you all agree?"
A halfling quietly follows behind Eliselda, making sure not to make eye contact with anybody. Beside him trots a young ram, kitted out with saddle, bit, and, bridle, but still too small for even the halfling to ride.
Torgueila stares at the young women, so cheerful she is! It irritated him. He smiles to Eliselda.
"Why yes infinite amounts of fun! By the way you seem to be the type who cares about appearances, you should put your face in the fumes produced from the tanning process, it's GREAT for the skin." It doesn't take a lot to tell Torgueila is being a malicious ads. His eyes then roll on the other Tiefling. No opinion yet.....seems to nice, off. Then his eyes fall got he short women, Becky.
"I was unaware we were bringing children....any reason on this one cimri? She seems vastly...unsuited to this work..." Torgueila wasn't exactly underestimating what she COULD do....simply trying to draw out what that could be. After all, while the rest of the crew wasn't impressive, they looked the part. This child however. Something has to be up.
"...I'm... Nineteen... Not a child..." Her voice is quiet and frequently halts at various points, as she looks up at Torgueila. "But I'm... a specialist..." She looks from Cimri to the others and back.
"I squeeze places... dress up... lie... hide... tumble... scare people..."
She nods to herself. "Every team... needs someone like that..."
Her weasel crawls out of her bag and up to her shoulder.
"Yes... I'm fine... Don't worry... please..."
Eliselda flashes a beguiling smile right back at the tiefling, either unfazed or somehow unaware of his intent.
"Well, how sweet of you to make a suggestion! Don't you worry about me, though~ I already have a rigorous skin care routine; it would be far too risky to go changing it up so suddenly."
She then rounds abruptly on Becky, giving a cheerful hum as she steps up next to the other girl. "Nineteen! What a coincidence, darling, we're the same age! This is a good omen, I'm sure of it." Unless stopped, either by girl or weasel, she attempts to loop her arm through Becky's playfully. "We just have to slip in, avoid the night crew, get what we're after and get out. I think even a couple of 'children' can handle that much, hm?"
Kali laughed behind her hand, a token gesture that did nothing to hide the gross giggle-snort.
"Yeah, this will be easy!" She said, going to Becky's other side and patting her with a long,black nailed hand.
Cimri smirks and shakes her head.
"Alright, if we're all done petting each other's hair, what say you we actually do what we came here to do?"
She rolls her shoulders and begins cautiously loping toward the tannery.
Torgueila sighed and followed, hands in his coat pocket as he walked. He kept his head down, barely glancing up to see where he was going. Frankly he hated stealth opps....in fact he knew why he was there. He was there for clean up, in case things got REALLY hairy....like that jockstrap incident. Hopefully this time he won't have to melt any bodies.
"We... should be..." Eliselda's presence is overpowering, Kali's somehow makes it worse, and Becky shrinks back before holding her stomach.
"...Cimri..? Nerves... Can't... I'm going... Bathroom... I'll catch up when I can..." She assumes that Cimri knows what she really means by this, as she backs up and swiftly runs around a corner to uh.
Stuff.
Once she's out of sight, it's time for the obvious awesomeness to take place, but since she's doing it out of sight I'm not writing a description yet.
She clicks her tongue lightly as she watches Becky scurry off. "Tsk...poor dear. Stage fright."
She joins the others in moving forward, dropping her voice as she gives a sideways glance at Cimri. "I do hope she's able to compose herself quickly. You realize we'll only have so much time before someone from the late shift comes through."
Kali complained wordlessly, following the others as she quietly rummaged through her spell component pouch to remember what she even had prepared.
She grins at Eliselda. "But surprising them is the best part."
Cimri slides up next to the control panel for the gate mechanism and curses under her breath.
"Locked...anyone good at busting into things? Quietly?"
She looks to each of you.
"Oh I can open it....queitly, however, isn't likely.....hmm" Torgueila glances around. Scanning the nearby vicinity for a possible key. Sometimes people just go for the more convenient method if hiding the key near the lock.....thise people generally are also uneducated and broke, as far as Torgueila was concerned.
Meanwhile, about 30 feet back, a vigilante hides in the shadows and waits for the rest of her team to break open the door so that she can sneak in after them.
Waiting for the right moment to reveal oneself is just as important to the Creedo of Maximum Awesomeness as actually being awesome when you do, after all.
Eliselda, despite being just as useless as everyone else in this situation, looks completely put out. "My, my. Who would have ever thought that the door might be locked?"
Sigh. She takes a step back and cranes her head around the area, looking for any other possible routes in. They'll need one, unless someone else has a trick up their sleeve.
Kali wrinkles her nose. "Is it magic?" She asked with the tone of someone who already knew her answer.
She sighs and unties a bag, reaching for her familiar. "Do you think you can help us, Umbi'?" She asked the toad before setting it down.
Cimri closes her eyes and breathes deeply through her nose.
"Are you kidding me? We're going on a heist and we have nobody who can break and enter? Fat lot of good you all are. Might as well just go home."
Cimri starts to walk off before she stops and turns around with a s*%@-eating grin on her face.
"I'm just f#&!in' with you guys, this is no trouble at all."
She pulls out a carefully wrapped pouch of thieves' tools and it takes her barely a second to pop open the door of the mechanism and a moment more to fiddle with the switch to prevent the door from swinging open too loudly.
A log palisade surrounds the tannery. In places, gaps between the gray, dry-rotted trunks are wide enough to pass a hand through. To the west, a muddy trail slips beneath a plank gate similar to a barn door. These barriers do absolutely nothing to block the heavy stench of chemicals and dung drifting from within.
Cart furrows and disturbing stains mar the muddy yard. Around the perimeter, murky water pools in rows of sunken tubs. Unspeakable muck encrusts each vat and half submerged skins float within. From these scabby concoctions drifts a sinus-assaulting reek—a dizzying miasma of rotten eggs, lime, and far worse.
Worse, the sound of the door opening has caught the attention of Louislik's guard dog.
Kali pouts. "No one told me there'd be a dog... Shame." She murmurs, securing Umbra back into her pouch before staring at the dog, raising a hand silently to point.
The halfling shifts uncomfortably, looking toward Eliselda to see what is to be done.
Eliselda jerks back slightly, mentally cursing their luck. "Well, don't just stand there!" she hisses at the halfling as she moves to draw her whip. "Do something, before it alerts all the guards!"
The halfling, at his mistress's command, unwraps the sling from his wrist with surprising speed. Stepping to Eliselda's side, he looses a bullet at the dog.
Unfortunately the shot goes wide, ringing off the side of one of the vats. The dog begins barking furiously, warning you away.
Meanwhile, Cimri slips into the tannery and behind cover and Gavin trots into the center of the place.
Torgueila sighs and draws one of his knives from his side. He glares at the dog and flings the knife at it.
Kali walks up to stand behind Gavin and does the thing she planned to do earlier, waving a spooky hand and glaring at the dog.
"Tch!" Barely one step in the front door and already in trouble. And basically all of her abilities would be wasted on a dog...instead she moves past the halfling and runs around the tubs of foul liquid, readying her whip.
The halfling approaches steadily, loading another bullet into his sling and letting it fly at the dog.
The halfling's bullet finds its mark this time, hitting the dog square in the shoulder. She yelps, but stands her ground.
As the bullet is impacting the dog, a much smaller terrier comes bursting forth from the counting room, yapping its fool head off. I beelines for the closest enemy, which happens to be Gavin Steadyhooves. The terrier bites at Gavin's legs.
Gavin dances to the side, neatly avoiding the dog's jaws.
The larger dog, angry at having been hit with a bullet, barks fiercely and rushes the halfling.
Reaching the halfling, the dog lashes out with her teeth.
The halfling brings his shield up as the dog approaches, denying her any good angle of attack.
You hear a soft gasp as a man steps out of the counting house, crossbow in hand. This must be Jabral Louislik, and he looks none too pleased to see you causing havoc in his tannery. He locks eyes with Eliselda across the courtyard and brings his crossbow to bear.
The bolt finds its mark in Eliselda's abdomen and a grim smile creeps across Louislik's face.
Cimri, seeing this happen, vaults up on top of the storage platform and runs across it, tossing her dagger at Louislik as she drops from the platform to the ground.
The dagger buries itself in Louislik's arm, causing the man to curse in pain.
Meanwhile, Gavin hops to the side and headbutts the terrier that bit at him.
He connects with the terrier's skull and bleats threateningly.
Since everyone is inside, Mary will go ahead and do the smart thing of double moving her way over from the forest to the tannery palisade and climb up the thing.
She's pretty sure that with all of the attention on the dog and the dog and the crossbowman and the others the odds of someone thinking to look up are rather low.
Torgueila sighs as he sees the bolt hit it's Mark. He shakes his head. Looking at the distance he groans a bit, just too far..... He will walk 15 ft forward and throw the dagger at the dog.
OUCH OUCH OUCH. Well, this has just gone to all hell already! Screw this. Since stealth is now completely out the window (and also she's got a crossbow bolt in her gut and doesn't exactly feel like jumping into the fray) Eliselda does the one thing she's actually trained to do: sing.
As she suddenly belts out a wordless aria, everyone feels weirdly more competent.
After completely failing to hit the dog, Kali ducks away to hide near Torgueila and focuses her gaze on the other canine nearby.