These smugglers are more capable than most. They've successfully resisted and escaped arrest by conventional police on multiple occasions. Now the Shadows are sending you to end the problem. Intel says the leader of the smugglers is a wily fellow with magical power. How will you take this ring of criminals down?
You make your way to Lopul, a modest city on the famed Silken Way. As you enter the city, your nostrils fill with the scent of cook smoke and camels, a welcome change of pace after traveling through the desert. The small brick huts and tents clustered around the Pool of Sihbon are occasionally interrupt by larger buildings: the storehouses of merchants, the grand tents of chieftains, the tower of the mages guild, and dominating all, the palace of the Sheik. Modest compared to those you've seen in larger cities, the palace manages to impress as the grandest building in Lopul. Your can't keep your gaze from straying to the warehouse on the northern edge of town. Your dossier indicates this as the location of the smugglers.
As the red sun sets over the desert, many travelers search for lodging while some set out, braving the darkness of night to escape the heat of the day.
Amari leads the group into the small city, stowing away the old compass in his backpack.
What a helpful tool to have.
Never thought something like that existed.
What wonders the world have to show.
The black skin of the silent fellow is shiny from the sweat of the burning heat and covered by sand in several places.
After taking the last water from the waterskin, the Al'Fahd monk looks around.
With a questioning expression, he points in a couple of other travelers, probably merchants, who are entering town behind them.
He raises his hands, points at the merchant group and then the Shadows, then crosses the fingers of both hands, intertwining them.
Amari follows this with two parallel pointing gestures deeper into town and ends by bringing both hands together and laying his head against them.
He pauses for a few moments before following up with a complex series of gestures only an expert might follow.
"We could blend in with them and find a place to rest."
Next: "Hopefully deceiving any lookouts into thinking we are nothing but hired muscle for the other travelers. We should take a room with a window we can open thus leaving and coming unseen."
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Ashivla al-Feraz blinks up at the heavy sun. Strange, she thinks. She had trained every day for the last year with the Shadows. Everything had been a test, even resting. And now? And now she had been set loose with the team she’d trained with. The silent monk from the Al’Fahd monastery, Amari, that’d taught her the sign language that’d proven so valuable in stealth training. She remembered her father’s charming, mischievous smile, no doubt thinking of ways to use sign language in their con games from then on. Then there was the storyteller, Basheer. When they rested by the campfires after the long days of training, his stories kept her mind sharp, her morale up, instead of feeling sorry for herself, and her father. Lo’Laan Jin and his companion Serenity stood next to Ashivla. She’d seen their combat prowess firsthand and did not envy the instructor’s bruises when it came to combat training hours. And finally there was Drakar. She didn’t know much about him, being a recent addition to the team, but seemed to hold his own even solo against the lower grade instructors. She’d seen more than a few friends fade, unable to complete the Shadows’ nearly impossible training regimen over the past year.
She flexes her sword hand, adjusts her well-oiled studded leather armor. They had hired on to help guard a merchant caravan headed to Lopul, and once the camels pass through the city entrance, bound for the market, Ashivla gives a slight nod toward Amari at his suggestion.
”Good work everyone. I don’t know about you all,” Ashivla says in Kelesh, stretching her lithe muscles over her head, fingers latticed together, ”But I think it’s time we find lodging for the night.”
She asks around for a moderately-priced tavern or inn and haggles a bit with the tavern keeper for a room before shrugging and paying the asking price for three rooms, preferably all together, and somewhat secluded with ample exits. She searches the room thoroughly and instructs Amari through sign language to do the same to all the rooms to avoid spying, looking for false-walls, ceilings, or ways to spy on them.
Ashivla finds a modest inn on the edge of town and haggles with the inn keeper but the stout little man sticks tenaciously to his price. He smiles, pleased with himself, when she agrees to the asking price of 5 sp per person per night. The room has an open window and the door opens to a hallway where the stairs lead down to the tavern. Her thorough inspection yields no sign of tampering or anything unusual about the room.
Amari nods and starts to inspect their new base of operations with a thoroughness only a monk can achieve.
He takes hours before ending the through search, pulling all strings: gentle knocking on floor, ceiling and walls, turning around all bed and checking the locks for manipulation.
Later on in the public rest room, he will keep an eye (actually both) open, in case anyone is spying on them.
Amari's thorough inspection also yields nothing suspicious in the room. While in the common area of the tavern, Amari notices several people in the common area:
A huge, scaly humanoid with an earthbreaker on his back.
A gruff human drinking with a short humanoid, probably a halfling.
An older human in the corner eyeing anyone who moves near him very suspiciously and keeping his hand on his purse.
A giggling young woman and a chortling middle-aged man at a corner table.
There should be several melee combatants and two halfling archers according to the dossier...
Amari will indicate the huge scaly, the gruff human and his halfling drinking companion with careful conceiled nods.
Two quick hand gesture follow, meaning <possible targets>.
"Well then, time we divvy up the coin. Let's talk shop for a minute boys and then we can cavort as much as our hearts' desire."
Ashivla goes upstairs, bidding the others to follow her. She chooses the room away from any of the others, and especially away from any room not occupied by their team, so to avoid eavesdroppers.
She says to Lo'Laan, "You have some of the best eyes, Lo'Laan, and Serenity with her nose. Can you keep watch with Serenity outside the door for anyone sneaking down the hallway? If you see anyone, knock. Basheer and I can let them know we are careful with our earnings. I will brief you afterward."
She winks at the half-orc. "We need a lookout, and you're one of the best we've got."
All right," she says when the last member closes the door behind them, keeping her voice low. "Let's go over what we know. They've used collapsed tunnels twice to escape which suggests some proficiency in engineering and possibly traps. Another time was a magical means of escape, likely from their leader. So we need to be on top of him as soon as he presents himself as a target. Seven humans and two halflings otherwise. The halfling downstairs might be their lookout. I wouldn't talk to him or anybody in the tavern other than idle gossip.
"We really need to know the layout of that warehouse, where the entrances and possible exit points are, and also how it's set up inside, any chokepoints and such. Basheer, see if you can talk to some of the merchants around here to see who owns it or if they sold it, who used to own it. Get a map if you can. Maybe play it up as if you were looking for a site to start up a new cabaret. Let me know if I need to provide you some backup. I think Amari and I will sneak out tonight and case the warehouse. Any suggestions?"
Lo'Laan grunts in acknowledgement having grown immune to Ashivla's charms over their time training together, or so he tells himself. He drops his pack off in the room and guides Serenity to the door. "I'll be right outside." He states aloud for the sake of formality.
After exiting the room he slumps down against the adjacent wall with a sigh and begins to message his sore muscles and tired feet after the long journey. His companion mirrors his relaxed state and slouches against the Hunter with a yawn.
"Tonight? For our cover, tonight should be a night of merry-making and celebration. I should not wander through town without a falling out, and such a falling out would make returning hard to justify." He looks about the room. "Morning will provide a chance to learn more of town. The afternoon heat the opportunity to select the evening's work. And the evening the cover to work as we will."
Amari nods at Basheers words, in acceptance.
Three gestures translate to an old Al'Fahd saying:
<Hurry might slow you down.>
While the others head downstairs for idle merry-making, Amari stays in their rooms, doing some overdue physical exercises.
After he has gone through all thirty-seven exercises his teachers have trained him, he will sit down near the open window and takes up watch over the town from the elevated position of their room, noting as people go from here to there and back, how many houses are lit (and how long) plus areas that appear to get frequent more often than others.
Anything that might help them later on to move through the town effortlessly and without causing any ruckus.
"Tonight? For our cover, tonight should be a night of merry-making and celebration. I should not wander through town without a falling out, and such a falling out would make returning hard to justify." He looks about the room. "Morning will provide a chance to learn more of town. The afternoon heat the opportunity to select the evening's work. And the evening the cover to work as we will."
Ashivla shrugs. "That's fine. But first thing in the morning; we need that layout. Lo'Laan and Drakar could join you, but do not get so far into your cups that you let anything slip. Make a good show of it, but don't attract too much attention. Basheer, you know what to do the following morning. Amari, let's you and I take a look around the warehouse tonight, see if we can't spot any recent construction they might've had to do for a tunnel or somesuch."
She puts her hands on her hips and waits for anymore comments. Once the meeting is adjourned she will wait for nightfall and slip out of the window to meet up with Amari. She tugs on her timeline then to aid her, the timeline robbed of her father. Just a little, but she feels the energy cascade down through her body, flashes of sensory detail flooding her system.
The feel of reaping grain. Old, wrinkled hands. The smell of the sea. Contentment?
Just as he finished with the exercises, he notices Ashivla climbing out of the window of the females-room.
Strapping on quiver and bow, he opens up the window of his room and follows the nimble female into the night.
Lopul is a small collection of tents and brick huts for the most part and they are not too densely packed. The "street", which is mostly just hard-packed mud and sand between buildings, is about 20 feet across in most places.
Amari and Ashivla melt into the night, moving north toward the warehouse. They move silently from shadow to shadow, avoiding detection as they near the smugglers' base. They see a stone building with one entrance on the west side. Between some crates and sacks stacked around an entrance, a broad-shouldered human with a greataxe on his back stands with his back to the wall. Moving around the building, they see no evidence of a tunnel in the immediate area.
Amari will observe the guard for a few seconds (unless he seems very observant and moves around a lot) to note how careful and alert he is.
<We should note how long their shifts are. But maybe later?>
He seems to be keeping watch but does not seem more or less perceptive than the average citizen, as far as you can tell. The warehouse has two floors. There are no windows on the first floor but there are on the second and the roof, as is the custom in this climate, likely has a door down into the rest of the building.
And there are no guards on the roof, as far as we can tell, right?
<I have my grappling arrow with me. We could climb the roof and check if we can take look insight into their base that way.>
<Yes, let's go. But be careful, they may have lookouts planted in other buildings. If the sentry comes to investigate, I will stall.>
She pulls on her timeline again, another moment lost. Dreams of falling. Tea. Sunshine across your face.
She moves around the back side of the building, away from the windows of the other buildings and the warehouse's. She waits for Amari to fire the grappling arrow, watching around the corner to see if the sentry comes.
Nodding, Amri will go to the east side (furthest away from the guard) and fires his grappling arrow to the roof, as soon as he has taken another look around and confirmed no one was looking.
Amari's arrow penetrates a stone at the top of the roof, creating a small crunching noise.
As far as Ashivla can tell, the guard does not notice her or the arrow.
A quick look to his companion, ensuring that the guard didn't made any signs of noticing them later, Ami tests the rope carefully.
If it is solid enough to climb, he will take the lead.
Amari is quickly up the roof, quickly scanning the area for any signs of a guard on this or a neighbor rooftop, bow drawn and an arrow on the string.
If no enemy is in sight, he will wave for Ashivla, then pull up the rope after her.
Ashivla and Amari make their way up onto the roof quietly and bring the rope up with them. As normal, a wooden door blocks the staircase down into the warehouse. It is locked, which strikes you as slightly (but obviously justifiably) paranoid given the door's position on the roof.
Ashivla makes her way to the door and carefully draws out the bundle of cloth containing her thieves' tools. She memorizes the lock's configuration so she can put it back together again as she unrolls the cloth, draws out implements, and begins to work the mechanism this way and that, careful to not make any noise. When it opens, she places the lock's components on the cloth and raises the door up just enough for Amari to get a look inside.
The lock does, indeed, open. Amari peeks inside and can make out a ladder leading down into a room by the sliver of moonlight that makes it through the door. Other than that, he can't make out anything in the darkness. No sounds comes from the room beneath you.
Lo'Laan looks to Basheer. "Do we keep with the merry-making plan with just the two of us? We could visit several taverns tonight, to see what information can be scrounged up while maintaining our cover." He suggests.
Ashivla waits for Amari to look in then signs, <Seems like a good entry point. If I had an escape tunnel, wouldn't be much need for a second story escape route. Let's head back for now and let the others know what we've found.>
If Amari agrees, she closes the door softly and takes the parts of the lock and rebuilds it to how it was before, and then proceeds to climb down off of the roof using the arrow and rope.
Amri nods but holds her back, pointing at the still anchored grappling arrow and starts to quickly 'talk' to her.
<Remember that lection in rock climbing with old'Muhad?
He showed us a knot that opens up once tension is released.
We could use one and climb down, taking the hook with us.>
He ends with a sign that usually is used for the Shadows but literally means "Leave no trace".
He expertly crafts a knot that looks quite similar but somehow it will not open as it should.
He must have made a small error!
He will show the knot to Ashivla.
Does she know where he failed?
Ashivla signs, <I'll hold the rope. Go down. I will jump down afterwards.>
She waits until Amari is down then bundles the rope into her pack and jumps off of the roof, the cool desert moon watching on with indifference.
She hits the ground and rolls well to avoid any serious damage, then pops up.
<Ready to go back?>
<There is always one other way hidden from your mind.
I think we should find a well hidden vintage point and try to discern their watch cycle and shift times?>
I don't know about you all,, Drakar growls as he jumps up off the bed that he was napping on, but I'm here to do a job.
As he walks out of the room, he looks over his broad shoulder, and mentions, and right now, that job involves going out, getting rowdy, and having some fun. So who's with me?
He taps himself on the chest [color=#996633](Guidance)[/color] as he heads downstairs to the tavern, and beings ordering a few rounds for the people next to him, letting them know that he's from out of town, and here on business, as an importer of rare and interesting goods, and that if anybody could put in a good word for him with the tariff officers, he'd definitely let them know how much he appreciates it.
Drakar's gruff and and unconvincing show draws odd stares from those in the tavern. They aren't sure what he's about but he seems odd.
The halfling, human, and huge scaly fellow all direct their attention to Drakar then look away, one by one, deeming him some boaster of no interest. The merchant in the corner eyes Drakar extremely warily, concerned he'll try to take his purse.
Lo'Laan attempts to play off Drakar's attempts to fool the tavern partrons as merely a boaster and not someone overly suspicious. Going as far as buying drink for any they outright offend in their combined attempts.
During his rounds his whispers to the merchant in the corner as he sets a drink down. "A word of advice. Stand tall and confident my friend, if you act like you're prey then some may get the idea to treat you like just that."
The hunter returns to Drakar and sighs. "You're not making the best of first impressions old friend. I think we should leave the marketing to our compatriots in the future." He says with a lighthearted grin.
Most of the occupants of the tavern stop paying attention to Lo'Laan and Drakar after a few moments. The merchant eyes Lo'Laan warily, slowly nodding his head. He moves is purse to the other side of his waist and tries to keep his hands confidently on the table.
While looking around the tavern, Lo'Laan also notices that the human and halfling conversing in low tones.
Lo'Laan sighs and takes a seat with the others hoping that he had somehow managed to keep things settled for now as he'd rather not risk fumbling his first official mission for something like that. He orders drinks for the three of them and asks. "Shall we drink ourselves stupid tonight?"
<Yes, that's fine with me. That rooftop or where we were behind the barrels should be a good vantage point.
Ashivla watches the building closely for any signs of a guard change, what the new guard's equipment is, etc. She takes her time.
Lo'Laan's keen senses can pick up a few scattered words through the murmuring of folk in the tavern.
...Too much of our take... scrolls... paranoid... the digging for then?... can't blame 'im... three times... shut up...
Ashivla and Amari crouch on a neighboring rooftop (which you can reach by taking 10), keeping an eye on the guard from their vantage point in the darkness. After an hour or two, a man emerges from the warehouse and the first guard enters. The new guard is dressed in non-descript, tan robes.
The new guard seems to be wearing some sort of metal armor under his robes and you notice a slight bulge on the loose robes of his back that would only be made by a two-handed weapon of some sort.
<Another bruiser-type. Hides his armor and weapon underneath the robe.
I have seen enough, shall we head back?>
Amari and Ashivla will return late that night.
If anyone is still up , Amari will use the widely-known sign for <Everything is fine> by connecting thumb and index finger to a circle, spreading off the other fingers.
Then he quickly heads to bed.
Ashivla signs, Yes, ready to go back. We've learned a great deal here.
Amari and Ashivla sneak back into the same window they lighted out of several hours before. If anyone is still up, she'll go downstairs to the tavern to look for the rest of the team.
If not, she'll take precautions in her room, trying a length of rope from the door handle to the window shutter, pulling it tight so that no one can open either without making a racket and waking her.
Either way, she has dreams of the desert moon again. And in the dream logic, she knows she's someone else, another timeline, another life, wandering aimlessly through the days without purpose. Without her father.
The next morning, right at dawn, Lo'Laan wakes the others to inform them of what he's overhead the night before. "I believe we've got a couple of our targets staying here and I think we could convince them to cooperate with us." He says once everyone is awake.
Amari and Ashivla make their way back to the tavern and slip in unnoticed. Aside from a few bouts of loud carousing from downstairs, the night passes without incident. The bustling noises of activity begin before dawn in Lopul, many seeking to avoid the worst of the heat of the day. Breakfast may be purchased in the tavern downstairs for a silver per person.
Before the group heads downstairs, Lo'Laan brings up a topic for discussion.
The next morning, right at dawn, Lo'Laan wakes the others to inform them of what he's overhead the night before. "I believe we've got a couple of our targets staying here and I think we could convince them to cooperate with us." He says once everyone is awake.
"That," says Ashivla, winking at Lo'Laan again, "Is good information. Good job Lo'Laan. And hello Drakar! I missed you before we went out but I hear you made quite an impression on the tavern-goers. Keep your eyes peeled, if I know anything, it's that combat is likely today."
She thinks on the targets in the tavern for a long moment, then says, "I say we go talk to them over breakfast, see what their grievance is, and then see if they'll help us. This needs to be done carefully though. I'd rather not start a fight in the tavern and ruin our good vantage point and potentially dispel our element of surprise too. Basheer, would you like to lead the conversation?"
She then waits for any objections from the team before going downstairs and looking for the ones Lo'Laan described. If she sees them, she goes up to them and says, "Hello there."
Ashivla walks downstairs into the tavern area where bread and yogurt is being served. She sees no sign of the large human or the halfling. A woman she does not recognize is behind the bar, cutting bread.
Hmm, Ashivla thinks. They must be the day shift guards then.
She walks up to the bar and folds her arms and leans on them, looking over at the woman cutting bread. "Hey there. Do you work here?"
Drakar also totters down the stairs, and orders a snack and a hair of the mutt to help ease his headache. "What's the plan?" he mumbles to the others as he eats the bread whole, then chases it down with yogurt and the drink in quick succession. "I'd be all in favor of making a convincing speech. I know that it didn't work last night, but I think that was because I was using the wrong accent. Nobody is going to believe me as Katapeshi, but I think I could pass for Qadiran if I just make my voice a little more nasally." He tilts his head up and makes his best efforts he as says this last sentence, but can see that nobody can hear a difference. "Or we can break some doors. That usually works too."
Before breakfast, Amari will go out for an early training run around the city, which just happens to bring him around the warehouse and into the hills north of it too.
He will keep is eyes open for signs of tunneling or caves that may indicate one of their enemies escape tunnel.
If he detects something ... unusual, he will note it for later but keeps carefully focused on his running and will not investigate it further.
He will come back to the tavern (still heavily sweating) as most of the group just having finished their breakfast and will report anything unusual to Ashivla with a few quick signs.
Lo'Laan purchases a meal for himself and sits down in a corner and waits for the others to join him.
"I'd prefer to keep a low profile while we're here. Perhaps find a quite place to question them maybe even use the two as bait for their allies, if we plant the right kind of information." Lo'Laan suggests.
After a few bites of his meal he adds. "They mentioned a scroll so I'm guessing that's how they teleported before. The likelihood we'd be sent to deal with someone who can do that on their own is low. So when or if it comes to that we need to get anything like a scroll-case off of him before he has a chance to use it again."
You spot some bushes on the side of a hill that don't seem to fit in particularly well with the surrounding bushes. It is a large clump of bushes that are all dried out and dead whereas the rest of the scattered foliage is green and hanging onto life on the edge of the desert.
The woman replies to Ashivla Yes mistress. I tend the inn in the day while my husband tends it at night. May I serve you in some way?