The Long Shadow (Inactive)

Game Master Kiradia

Slipping into the back door, Fog looks over his shoulder with a grin. "Everyone knows they always keep it in the study or the lady's room. Shall we split up and look for those?"

Fog moves toward the stairs, motioning over his shoulder for at least one of the others to follow. "Up and up, nothing's ever on the first floor with rich chums."

Fog is going to stay quiet, he's going to carefully prowl up the stairs. Before he moves up, however, he's going to slip a pair of leather goggles over his head, fitting matte black lenses over his eyes. He grins, loving how the house's rooms turn from darkness to shades of very visible white and gray. He'll also slip a velvety black cloak over his shoulders. Prowl: 3d6 ⇒ (4, 1, 4) = 9.

+1 Load; Darksight Goggles, +1 Load; Fine Shadow Cloak. He has..1 load remaining and 2 for thieving gear.

Ouch! Not doing well with the rolls. Any chance he can swing a Devil's Bargain?

"I'll hold you to that, Fog." He says with a small smirk, making his way through the door and inside the man's nice home. His eyes adjust to the darkness for a moment, looking between the guest room and the kitchen there. Instinctively, he thinks about how much fine cutlery and porcelain plates could be in there but his mind snaps back to the job at hand. They were here for the necklace, they weren't just common burglars. They were professionals, he'd have to keep that in mind.

Nodding towards the staircase, he'd look back at the others and wave them to follow after him and Fog. The man was right, they were never on the first floor unless the security was opulent and garish. Basements and second-floors were better choices and the basements were dead-ends. At least upstairs, you could jump out a window in the worst case scenario.

"C'mon you two, follow me." Guts would murmur to Ophelia and Saint, leading them through the darkness and upstairs behind Fog.

I'm willing to take a group action as well here and be lead, perhaps Dusky can give us a Setup maneuver as a distraction so we can have a safer position or greater effect?

Prowl: 1d6 ⇒ 6
Hot damn, things are going well here so far.

At the mention of "dog", Dusky looks back blankly for a moment, then raises his eyebrows and gives an impressed nod to mask his eyes widening in horror.

"A quiet dog, you say? Here, in Doskvol? Impressive. She doesn't bark, or, try to hide--!" he says, half-shouting hide loud enough to hear it echo in the nearby hallway, and coughs, "Ahem! Excuse me. My word, strong tea! She doesn't bark or try to hide from spirits?"

Saint nods. "A lady's jewelry box, I would think. And no one locks their jewelry box." He follows Guts, trying to put his feet in exactly he same spots as the more experienced sneaker.

"HIDE" echoes across the hallway and up the stairs.

Wide eyes look over at Saint and Fog harshly cuts a hand across his throat. He points upstairs frantically and puts a hand to Guts' back, pushing him to move faster.

Dark braids bounce on his shoulders as he flows up the stairs and looks around. Not looking for the actual jewelry this time, he looks for the nearest window and flows toward it.

Will the man see Guts' ratcake? We need to be ready if he does...he may raise an alarm or think nothing of it.

While rushing up the stairs, a ridiculous thought enters Fog's head, spurred by Saint's comments but moments before.

We thieves have a lot of Absolute Truths..we should make a list and hang it in the lair.

Ok... I'm gonna roll Saint and Ophelia for going up the stairs quietly. You guys will do it without much issue thanks to Dusky's setup action improving your effect and already rolling a six. Doing things quietly as a group is the expected way to do things in this rule system so might as well continue with that.

Ophelia's Prowl (Take lowest): 2d6 ⇒ (5, 5) = 10
Saint's Prowl (Take lowest): 2d6 ⇒ (2, 2) = 4

Alright, that's 1 more stress to guts marked now... rubs hands evilly time for the next part.

The infiltration group makes their way up the stairs to the second floor bannister, ducking behind a solid bit of handrail as Mahu steps into the back of the hallway only a moment later, responding back to Dusky with a raised voice, "Not usually no..."

As Ophelia makes her way up the stairs she gets a cold shiver down her spine and a tingling of hairs at the back of her neck, alerting her to the presence of something supernatural.

Looking out into the backyard after opening the door, Mahu gives a slightly frown as he sees his dog naw'ing away at the ratcake and gives a short whistle to bring his dog to him. "Bad Beatrice... spit that out immediately... you have no idea where its been." as Mahu points to the floor and Beatrice reluctantly lets go of the food and drops it to the floor, looking up at Mahu with a soft whine hoping she did good. Mahu nods and picks up the ratcake while exchanging it with a treat from his pocket, turning around and tossing the ratcake into a nearby waste-bin.

Coming back into the living room, Mahu sighs and says, "Please excuse me, now... to the matter at hand, I wanted to speak with you about the regulations of bringing in unusual pets..."

Upstairs

As Fog starts to make his way towards a window at the end of the hall, he feels the same rush of cold air that he felt at the bottom of the stairs except much stronger, his cloak billowing back and snapping in the unnatural breeze as cold mist starts to escape the group's lips with each breath.

Ophelia, your Ghost Senses are tingling, you can make a gather information check here using Attune (with your +1d from Ghost Mind) to try and figure out what this is before it fully manifests.

Shivering in the cold, Fog grabs his cloak and wraps it around him, looking around. Seeing no open window, his eyes go wide and he looks over his shoulder at Ophelia.

Saint nods. "A lady's jewelry box, I would think. And no one locks their jewelry box." He follows Guts, trying to put his feet in exactly he same spots as the more experienced sneaker.

"Of course not." Ophelia whispers with a smile. "A lady wears her best jewelry. I-" Her train of thought breaks off, and her eyes lock with Fog's. She nods, saying quietly, "There's someone else here." She reaches out with her mind, trying to feel what moves in the building around them.

Gather Information: 3d6 ⇒ (3, 4, 2) = 9

Guts feels the cold wrap around them, not natural source of it at all, and he can feel the hair begin to rise along the back of his neck. Cursing silently to himself and muttering a few words in Severosi, prayers he had been taught to ward off the dead, he slipped a spiritbane charm around his neck.

Marking the bane off on my load. It has not load weight so it is basically a freebie.

"Dammit, I hate spooks." Saint shakes his head and makes a superstitious warding symbol his cousin had taught him. A man of science, he knew spirits were real but also that his methods couldn't touch them. "Let's search the room and get out of here."

Dusky breathes a small sigh of relief when he sees Mahu return, seemingly without incident.

"Please excuse me, now... to the matter at hand, I wanted to speak with you about the regulations of bringing in unusual pets..."

Dusky raises his eyebrows. "Unusual pets, hm. You'll have to excuse me, I'm not an expert on all of the regulations, it's not my department you see, but I do have some knowledge on the subject. The legality of the whole thing largely depends on the creature being transported. So when you say 'unusual, do you mean 'unusual' like a Dagger Island macaw, or ...'unusual' like a Severosi shadow fiend?"

Mahu continues his conversation, delving into the minutia of Customs law and regulation. His unusual animal is a Tycherosi Kushar Insect, a rare breed of beetle rumored to have curative properties.

Upstairs

Ophelia's mind is flooded for a moment with the cold wind that dominates the upper floor of Mahu's house. Her head snaps back as the electroplasmic energy rushes past her and coalesces in front of the crew. The spirit forms into a little girl wearing a crinoline petticoat and her hair done up in ribbons. Hanging around her neck is a gold necklace with a small triangular diamond hanging from it. The spirit girl gives a small giggle as she claps her hands, making far less sound than a living human would, "Are you here to play? Daddy brings such interesting people here sometimes!" The little girl flickers a moment as Guts pulls out the spiritbane charm, and the little girl gives a small frown towards the charm.

Does the diamond roughly match what we were expecting the jewelry to look like?

"Ophelia..I think that's what we came for."

Putting on his best attempt at a charming smile, the thief opens his arms wide. "Why, my young dear! There you are. Your father had such wonderful things to say about you. Your father, Mahu, he's such a charm. So peculiar with his interests"

He tries to distract the girl, drawing her attention to him so that Ophelia can do something. Whatever it is that those witchy folks do.

"But play? Why, we could do that. Your father is fond of riddles, is he not? We are relatively new acquaintances but when he told me he had a darling daughter, I just had to meet her. He says only the best things about you, you see. My own daughter, a bit older than you, is always looking for new play mates. Perhaps I could bring her with me next time? Would you like that?"

Any possibility of a Devil's bargain?
Sway: 1d6 ⇒ 5 Fog is rolling to Setup Ophelia and give her a +1d for her action.

Ophelia looks at the girl and feels her heart wrench in her chest. "I'd much rather it wasn't." She mutters to Fog as much as to herself. Studying the necklace for a second, Ophelia frowns, hoping that there's a different way.

Forcing a smile, she crouches down to the girl's level. "That's a lovely necklace." She reaches under her collar and shows the girl her own necklace, an old and clearly quite valuable necklace, encrusted with diamonds and emeralds. (something akin to this) "Daddy's are wonderful, aren't they? My own gave me this when I was not much older than you are now. I think yours is far more beautiful, though. Was it a present from your daddy?"

At the same level as the girl, Ophelia takes another look at her necklace. As it looked now, the necklace was the only thing keeping the girl together. She understood what it was to lose someone, and wondered if she was capable of inflicting the pain of loss a second time on this poor family. She takes a deep breath. "My name is Ophelia."

The diamond exactly matches what you were expecting the jewelry to look like.

The little ghost girl gives a delighted giggle as she looks up at Fog. Enjoying the praise Fog gives her and her eyes light up inside her pale hollow face as she nods her head rapidly, "I love to play and I love riddles! You can bring her over tomorrow!"

The ghost's head turns over to Ophelia once she starts talking and kneeling down to eye level. Giving more nods she answers, "Yesh! Daddy gave me this necklace yesterday! After I um..." and her ephemeral body flickers again as she frowns, turning a bit darker in hue, "After I had my accident. Said it was for being such a brave girl!"

"My name's Esta, I was about to go and get a snack but that can wait since I got new friends to make! What are we gonna play first?"

Ophelia, now that you've gotten close to the object, your Attune roll gives you a more detailed understanding of what the diamond is doing. The energy inside the diamond is substituting for a Ghosts normal Need to feed on life essence. The energy from the diamond is being slowly fed into her in a safe manner, but you could do a few things with the connection. You could feed all the life essence into Esta at once and allow her to be sustained for possibly years if you do it right so she wouldn't need the necklace. You could substitute the life essence inside the diamond with some of your own or someone else's in the crew and siphon the Leviathan life essence into another object because the life essence is obviously the real prize for this job. You or someone else could convince her to give up the diamond through some subterfuge though you know what will likely happen if you do that. Finally, if you all want to be heartless bastards, you can forcefully take the diamond necklace and run.

So... what do you do? :)

"You are indeed a brave girl." Ophelia says with a sad smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you Esta. Run and get your snack while we set up the game, it's no good to play on an empty... stomach." Her speech falters but she recovers, much as she can.

Provided the girl takes leave, Ophelia turns to the others. Her voice is quiet, but firm. "I am not taking it from her." She says simply. "The necklace we are intended to retrieve is projecting Life Essence into her. It's the only thing keeping her here." She frowns, "Because the Life Essence is Leviathan, we could replace it with... different Life Essence and still retrieve what we came for, but I can't say how long that would last..."

Fog gasps as Ophelia tells the girl to get a snack. "What if she tells someone we're up here?!"

He curses as the ghost moves away, scowling at Ophelia. "Screw that, I'm not losing any of my life to something dead. She had her chance, she's dead now. We should take the necklace and get the hell out of this creepshow of a house. Feel free to give up your own essence if you want, just make sure we get that necklace!"

"'Had her chance?'" Ophelia repeats, incredulously. She glares at Fog, her voice icy. "She's a child. Perhaps you'd like to donate your Essence - if she lived long enough then surely you have as well."

Saint frowns and shakes his head. He'd moved as far away from the little ghost girl as he could while still staying in the room. "I'm not giving it any of me, either. Wouldn't she be better off... at rest, anyway?"

There would be a quiet clearing of his throat, Guts standing there with the spiritbane charm hanging upon his neck. With Hadrathi symbols etched upon it, it seemed to glimmer lightly in the moonlight that poured in softly from the windows nearby.

"Leviathan blood is one of the most potent forms of life energy out there. To substitute it would be...unwise. It'd take more of our own energy to sustain her as long as that would." His voice was low and careful, eyes skirting the others in the dark. There was an almost imperceptible shift in his body, a tension that wasn't there as he spoke.

"We all know what the church says about the restless spirits; they go mad overtime. This little girl won't be a little girl forever, she'll change." Guts would say, looking towards Ophelia and giving a nod. "This is a real s%&& situation Ophelia. If you can find a way that doesn't cost us to keep her around; fine. We're going to take that necklace though, so do whatever you're going to do quick. Fair?"

His words were calm and careful but it was obvious in the way he stood that he was ready for anyone to make a dumb move. Amateurs, arguing in the middle of the house they broke into.

After the short time that the group has to deliberate, Esta comes floating back up through the floor, a smile on her face as she sees the group still there and comes closer. Esta looks up at Ophelia and says, "Where's the game? Is it ready yet?"

Time for action, what does Ophelia/the group do?

Without a response from Ophelia, Fog growls and looks to Saint. "You're right, I'm not really sure what we can do here. Want to distract the girl and I'll snatch it from her? We can jet out after that..a bit brutal but I don't know much about ghosts."

We might want to poke Yorick or bot Ophelia making an attune action. I'd suspect she'd sacrifice her own life force for the girl, maybe.

Guts was about to speak up again as the manifestation of the girl seems to begin reappearing. Quickly, he looks over the area and tries to imagine where the best ways to get the hell out of here would be when things all went belly up.

I'm going to be aiming for a Survey action. Not sure the positioning or the effect, just an idea of where to go to get out of here as quickly as we can without confronting the father.

Survey: 1d6 ⇒ 3

Nothing seemed to jump out to him and he frowned, thinking to himself that the alleyway windows would be the best. Going out the front would be foolish and going out the back would bring them face to face with the dog.

As Fog spoke up, Guts would nod at the idea. They needed to get the necklace and they needed to get out of here. That was all there was to it. He moved off to the side, trying to keep a pleasant smile upon his face as he nodded.

"Yea, we'll play a game. Maybe...Hide & Seek? You ever play that one before?" He said rather quietly, trying to be as disarming as possible.

Ok, tried to give a bit more time to Ophelia but lets move this along, I'll send a PM and figure out whats up.

Esta shakes her head and scrunches her face, "Hide & Seek is boring! I always win!"

Ophelia steps forward with a slight frown on her face that Esta misses. Giving a nod towards the group before she starts to pull some materials out of the pack she carried with her on this job. A glass jar the size of a medium drinking glass with a metal cover on it, the glass scuffed with long wear and more than a few scratches on the inside. A mask of relatively fine make with intricate swirling markings along its face that she puts on as Esta exclaims, "I love charades!"

Ophelia gives a short smile and starts her work quickly...

Since Ophelia is doing this alone,, I'm setting this at a Desperate action but with Great effect. The Fine spirit mask is letting her see the connection better, and the Spirit bottle will help contain the leviathan essence. I've marked the XP for this and am going to take a small liberty and push for +1d. I think Yorick would have done this based on previous posts so I don't feel too bad about spending resources like this but I don't want to make a habit of it. So, here we go!

Attune(Push): 3d6 ⇒ (4, 5, 3) = 12
There's that.

Ophelia's mind strains against the make-shift ritual she has been working for the last several moments. Esta sits listlessly as her life essence is manipulated by the electroplasmic energies that Ophelia wields. The power involved starts to manifest in the real world and not just in the ghost field such that the rest of the crew can see the tendrils of energy that are siphoning to and from the diamond. Ophelia's back arches as the ritual comes to an end with a bright flash of light and the leviathan life essence snaps into the spirit bottle. Ophelia slumps forward weakly and pulls the spirit mask off, her face is pale and drained, her eyes glassy with lack of focus and her hands hold the spirit bottle with the Leviathan essence white-knuckled.

I'm gonna hit Ophelia with severe harm Drained Life Essence. You can resist this down to level 2 harm with a Resolve roll if you like.

Ophelia whispers after a moment, "I've got it... we can go... she will wake up in a little bit."

Guts noticed while he was searching for a way out that there is a window at the end of the banister walkway but it would take some setup to make the drop safe and it would be facing out to the street, in plain view of anyone outside at the moment.

Saint hustles over to help Ophelia. "Here. Lean on me." The young man looks at Guts and Fog. "Let's get out of here."

Fog watches quietly as Ophelia works. He pats Guts on the back and glances to the window. "Front of the house will make this a bit difficult. Do you think the street should still be clear?"

----Flashback

I'd like to have a flashback where Fog asks Celes to set up a distraction away from Mahu's house in both directions. A pair of crashed carriages on one and possibly a fake street cleaning project on the other. I figure this would be an extensive flashback so maybe 3 stress?

I'll allow that flashback for 3 stress but it will strain your friendship with Celes. She's a physicker, not a mastermind of sabotage, so I'm also gonna start an 8-segment clock for this. Gonna call it I'm Out and if Fog continues to ask Celes for things outside of her specialty it'll blow up eventually. This clock will fade in time if left alone.

Outside Mahu's house and down the street a set of bad accidents have pulled the attention of the Bluecoat patrols away. Leaving a relatively easy escape from Mahu's house once one of you as setup the climbing gear needed to get out of the second floor without complication. Ophelia has a bit of trouble getting down given her drained state but once her feet touch the ground the crew makes their way out into the darkness of the hour of thread. After a short time Dusky is also able to make his escape and slips out of Charterhall, making his way to the abandoned watch tower in Six Towers. Once the group has reconvened Ophelia produces the jar of leviathan essence and whispers, "Lets get paid."

PAYOFF

Later that night, the crew waits near the delivery spot. The hour of ash approaches as the group of scoundrels sit at a table in the Golden Plum restaurant. Chef Roselle has just served the group of scoundrels a round of drinks when a young man sits himself at the table. Before any of you can react or say anything he flashes a bumblebee pin attached to his coat at the shoulder by pulling up a short flap of cloth. In hushed tones he says, "Yo' lot got da goods?" His voice drawls slightly with an accent as he looks at the crew inquisitively. Guts presses his foot forward and slides a bag over to the young man's leg and the young man reciprocates the gesture by pushing his own bag over to Fog.

"Please ta do business. Consida yous impression made. See yous lot around.

As was said in the note, you guys are getting paid 15 coin. This is honestly an extreme amount of money so don't expect this kind of payout most of the time. Your vault can hold 4 coin and each of you can also keep 4 coin max so if you split it 5 ways each of you get 3 coin. This is up to you guys as a crew however to decide how the money is split. You guys also gain 2 Rep.

HEAT
You guys achieved a low exposure level for Heat. However, you did score against a well-connected target though you didn't know it though nothing else applies so 1 Heat total for this score.

ENTANGLEMENTS

Lowest: 2d6 ⇒ (4, 6) = 10

A few days later...

Esta makes a sudden appearance at Ophelia's private residence, bouncing through the halls and poking at everything. Her presence is mischievous and she insistently asks questions about what Ophelia is doing, even following her around on the streets invisibly. The next time Ophelia plans to head down to Six Towers Esta will probably follow if she doesn't do something. Esta does have a "curfew" of sorts since she has to be home to daddy every night but she seems to have latched onto Ophelia for some reason.

Ok... you guys can now do Downtime activites. Everyone gets two downtime activities for free and may spend coin or rep to do more if you wish. I'll have a longer right up for downtime in the Discussion thread later.

Oh I like that! Would it be possible to use a downtime action to reduce that clock if it gets too high?

---Flashback----
Inside Celes' apartment, Cassim fidgets nervously as he looks about. "It's..a bit much to ask, I know. But I don't know who else to trust with it. The only other people I've worked with are Dusky and Guts, and both of them are on the actual heist with us."

Celes has a leather cup of wine in one hand and a scowl on her face. "It's been three weeks."

"..Uhm...what?"

"Three weeks since we last talked and this is what you came to talk about?"

Silence sits like an awkward goat between them, neither speaking for what seems like an eternity. Cassim watches dust filter through a beam of light from a nearby lantern. I guess I should have come by earlier..but she didn't ask me to and she threw a pot at me last time I came by. Why's this have to be so difficult?

"Fine. Ugh. I'll do it, but you owe me. Big-time, you know? And don't get yourself hurt. I don't want to hear you scrabbling at my door for some stupid stitches again."

Cassim nods and grins, already thinking of the money. But wait..does that mean I shouldn't come back after?

As Cassim walks away with a spring in his step, Celes stands at the door with a frown on her lips. "Where am I going to find a carriage anyway? Much less two.."
----------------------------
The Payout

Cassim picks up the bag and grins at its weight. He looks to the others, smirking like a child with a bag of candy. "To the Tower!"

Spilling silver and gold across the table, Fog whistles. "Well..let's split it all evenly then, right? We can store a bit in that spot you made under the flagstones, yeah Dusky?"

Through the escape, the pay, and the trip to the Tower, Fog doesn't meet Ophelia's eyes at all. He doesn't ask about her haggard state, if she needs help up the stairs to the high tower, or say much. He still pushes a pile of coins toward her, but still doesn't say a word.

Like a grumpy kitten, Celes had told Guts and Sawtooth once, Every time someone tells him no he acts like a spoiled kid...and he grew up in the streets! It's insane!"

I think its only fair to split everything evenly, obviously!

--------------
Downtime

Doing anything with Celes is a ton of stress and between the dog, the ghost, and Ophelia, Fog needs time away. Only Saint knows where he goes as the two see each other briefly when Fog shows up at Fischer's workplace.

"Tell me you have a good one. I need something risky, something gruesome." Oran, used to working with Fog's weird addiction grumbles and writes something down, passing it to him. Fog hurries past, flashing a sheepish look at Saint.

The body swings from a lamplight. Long, elegant curls rest on his shoulders. A velvet, twin-tailed coat sways in a slight breeze. A few Bluecoats are already working on the scene but neither notice Cassim resting on a rooftop, charcoal in hand.

Vice: 1d6 ⇒ 6 So lucky!! 6 stress relieved.
Still debating second action.

--- Downtime ---

For the first days after the job, Ophelia barely leaves her residence, feeling profoundly guilty about maybe having taken Esta's life force away. It's only after the girl's spirit shows up that Ophelia begins to feel slightly better. It occurs to her that the girl is the first person to be in her home since Riven died, and even she isn't really there.

Still, she's glad for the company. While Esta seems to have quite a bit of energy, Ophelia worries over her, insisting the girl not over-exert herself. As she's playing with Esta one afternoon, she remembers vividly the amulet, and how it kept Esta around. It occurs to her that the girl could vanish at any time. It occurs to her that the same could be true of Riven. Despite the time she's spent trying to learn about the arcane, she still feels like she has barely scratched the surface.

She does her best to explain this to Esta one day. "Someone close to me had an... accident. Like you had an accident." She frowns for a moment, realising she is unsure of what actually happened to Esta, before leaving it alone. "I am trying to learn how I can keep you both safe. Some days I will need to go out alone to do that, and some days I may ask you strange questions, is that okay?"

Provided the girl understands Ophelia spends some time trying to learn more about the device used in Esta's necklace, how it was able to siphon Leviathan essence into her, how such a thing might be made, and what its limitations might be. Spending time with Aranna on her barge, she sips tea and explains the situation. "I've never seen anything like it. She was being fueled by it, kept here by it... Of course, now that I've removed it, I'll have to give her some of my essence from time to time." She frowns. "Unless I can get my hands on some more leviathan essence." Shaking her head, she adds, "Unlikely. Have you heard of a device like that before?"

Actions are: Long-Term Project, Train. Sort of going together in this case. Learning more about spirits and maybe how I can keep them here / make them more "whole"

Long Term Project : 1d6 ⇒ 3 That's 1 dot.

In the high tower, Fog moves along strung up tight ropes, swinging from one to the other and clambering up the high, precarious walls of their new lair. It was as good a place as any to hone their skills.

Downtime 2: Training: Prowess

Downtime

With such a fine cane sword, Dusky's always wanted to learn how to use the blasted thing, so he's going to start a long term project-- finding a professional duellist who's the perfect combination of skilled and cheap; so the things he learns will be actually useful, but without paying the rates that those foppish dandies from the Dagger Isles charge for their instruction.

Next, he'll train insight, however one goes about doing so. Perhaps he's observing and taking mental notes, trying to learn as much as he can from working as part of a crew.

He'll stash the 3 coin.

A few weeks later...

A toy crier, a young boy with a voice that carries, standing in the middle of Charhollow on top of a soap box with his gloved hands cupped around his mouth, "Hear ye Hear ye! Read your daily paper here gentlemen! Crow's Foot erupts in violence! A Gray Cloaks interview that will intrigue you to no end! Only 2 slugs gentlemen and ladies!"

The sky hangs heavy over Duskwall with clouds ripe with rain waiting for the right moment to drop their payloads of darkened water. A Bluecoat walks past spinning his billy club lazily as he keeps an eye on the street. No one really notices in the hustle of the streets as a small group makes its way into a small dusty library in the middle of Six Towers. Standing at the back of the room behind a desk, a small old woman with a cane looks up through her spectacles at the group who enter and holds up her arm, pointing her cane at the back door and giving a nod before going back to work.

In the back of the room waits an older man, gray at his temples and a cloak of gray on his shoulders. If he has any disapproval for the company he is meeting he hides it well, as the former Bluecoat comes forward and shakes the hand of the leader of the group, "Welcome... welcome... I'd offer refreshments but the library doesn't allow food or drink. Please sit and lets begins our discussion. I am eager to see what we can accomplish erm... what do you lot call yourselves anyway?"