There is a young man in a simple white smock minding the cart. There are no obvious markings about who is doing the catering.
Akrynn defers to the group.
As the silence drags on and no one else volunteers, Nik sighs.
"Right, well I guess now is a good time to practice..."
Nik walks over to the young man minding the cart.
"Excuse me, mind if I ask whose food is in the cart?"
Effulgent light brightens the streets nearby with magical flame of various colors. It appears that the Athar have garnished the light boys of Sigil. The delivery boy looks at Nik nervously and squeeks, "Uh.. it's from the Wayfarer.. the Ubiquitous Wayfarer."
"Oh, I meant whose it for."
Nik scratches his cheek and remembers the heavily armored skeleton that's still following him around.
Nik indicates the undead abomination with thumb pointed over shoulder.
"Sorry about the skeleton, and please don't mind him; he won't pick any fights."
If he accidentally tries to again, I'll stop him... yet again...
"And by the way, what's your name? You can call me Tim."
Nik attempts to make small talk with the cart minder.
Eventually, Nik gets back around to his original question.
"...but anyway, is the catering for the guards over there?"
Having finished giving the food to the guards at the barracks, who give Nik a peery eye, the youth awkwardly says, "It's Will. I'm sorry Tim but Riaen's expecting me back soon. It was a full house when I left and I don't have time to wigwag." He hurries off unless stopped.
As Will turns to take the cart around, he bumps into Rinika who has silently appeared behind him. "Riaen, eh?"
She flips a silver coin out from between her fingers. "Are you gonna be bringing breakfast, too?"
She flips another silver out to join the first one. "How many are you serving?"
She flips a third silver out. "What do you know about Hulester? He my prove to be...no, nevermind. What do you know?"
Jek nudges Akrynn. "So... What do you think they're talking about over there? Guy's gotta be feeling peery with people looking into his delivery. Wait, are those coins? Is she doing some kind of coin trick? Huh. Jek lifts and stretches each leg in turn then rocks his head back and forth a bit. So anyway, I've been meaning to ask you, is there some story behind all of this ink?" He takes a closer look at Akrynn's tattoos to see if he can read anything.
Maybe it's Rinika's sudden appearance, maybe it's because she isn't flanked by a deader who won't stay in the dead-book, or maybe it's the jink she tosses in his direction but Will relaxes a little and answers, "Uh no Amie's on breakfast duty. There's like 30 of the Lost around, I lost count. New faces all the time too." He leans in and whispers, "I heard Hulester was an Anarchist, can you believe it? I'm surprised Riaen hasn't had her Hardhead friends arrest him."
Keeping a weathered eye out for trouble, the druid says to Jek.
My people use them as a focus for our spell casting. I am young yet.
The Patryn grins.
Nik listens to Rinika work her magic with a look of relief on his face.
Bribery, why didn't I think of that? Is it 'cause shamblers don't take coin...?
Nik has trouble focusing on the conversation as it continues.
Vaascht keeps back, letting the charismatic members of their team do the talky work while he kept watch.
Hearing that the tattoos are related to spells, Jek tries even harder to make sense of them.
"Amazing... like a human scroll... Which plane are your people from?"
Still watching out for trouble, the druid responds.
My People were imprisoned in a place called the Labyrinth by a race called the Sartans centuries ago. Each generation attempts to get closer to the exit. I got lucky and found a gateway here. Most die there.
"Whaat, an Anarchist? Maybe she's sweet on him."
Rinika stacks up the three silver and drops another on top. "This Amie, she always bring breakfast? Isn't it dangerous to be sending folk out on food runs alone with this much food?
Nik resists the urge to chime in and possibly remind Will of Nik's overly thin 'friend'.
Will cocks his head in confusion, "I guess we are in the Lower Ward but there's so many Lost bloods and Hardheads looking around that church that no knight-of-the-post would dare bob anyone." He takes the coins, "Thanks for the tip! I really should be going." He pushes the cart off back toward the Wayfarer unless someone physically restrains him.
"That's horrifying. An entire people in the Mazes for generations... These Sartans sound bad. What do they look like? Have you seen any in Sigil?"
Jek stops studying Akrynn's tattoos and looks around. With Akrynn and Vaascht focused on the rest of the party, he decides someone needs to watch for anyone approaching them from other directions.
They look like me; save for no tattoos. Their magic relies on sound and sight. Also, as they mature, their hair turns from white to brown; as ours is the opposite.
Noticing that the conversation is ending with the food cart fella, Akrynn says.
So what's the plan?
Rinika waits for the boy to be gone, then responds. "We could try to attach ourselves to the morning delivery, either as guards or as the cart tenders. Or...we sneak."
Nik (and Skellington) follow Rinika back to the others, accompanied by the faint click of toe bones on pavement.
"I think we time our sneaking to match the food cart delivery. Perhaps the sneakiest person could signal the rest of us so that we stand a chance?"
Rinika nods, "Be happy to."
Vaascht nods, "Seems like it could work."
Akrynn smiles at Rinika.
Four eyes are better than two, dear cat.
The group stakes out the Wayfarer and 5 and a half hours after anti-peak a cheerful ork woman with coarse braided hair pushes the same food cart filled to the brim with breakfast pastries.
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Rinika looks Akrynn over and says, "And four feet are louder than two." but she shrugs and motions him along while she summons up her shadow shroud.
Sneaking over towards the hole...
Akrynn traces two Runes in the air. They flare; and matching tattoos on his arms glow blue.
The druid follows Rinika.
After getting the signal from Rinika and Akrynn, Nik looks for the continual flame farthest from the back entrance that he can see from the alley but is still close to the path of the patrolling guards.
Nik casts Pyrotechnics (3 rounds of 20' radius smoke-cloud, DC 14), and the magical fire is quickly shrouded in a cloud of smoke as Nik tries to sneak in as well.
before this post
Supernatural Abilities
. 7/7 Power Over Undead (30' burst; DC 15 will)
. (1 at a time) Corpse Companion
Spell-like Abilities
. 7/7 Bolster (Undead) (+1 profane on attacks and saves; 1 temp hp/HD; +2 turn resistance; 1 round duration)
. 0/1 Pyrotechnics (DC 14)
Spells Prepared:
. 2nd (2+1/day) Command Undead (DC 16) (S), Flaming Sphere (DC 16), Glitterdust (DC 16)
. 1st (3+1/day) Repair Undead (S), Grease (DC 15), Infernal Healing, Warp Sense
. cantrips (at will) Acid Splash, Detect Magic, Prestidigitation, Spark
Skellington stands by Jek silently and motionlessly, having already received orders to protect and follow him.
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Jek strolls out to a place in the road where he thinks most of the guards can see him, lifts his arms, and yawns.
Due to his size, he was rather used to exercising on Sigil's roads, and he knew which exercises made bipeds stare. While he normally used them to get attention, perhaps they could make a good distraction as well?
After shaking his head a bit to wake up, he does a few quick stretches and leans forward to put his palms on the road. He bends all of his legs to lower himself and then forcefully jumps up with just his hind legs. Now with his hind section suspended in the air, he begins doing push-ups alternating between his arms and forelegs.
Vaascht slinks along with Nik.
Jek starts showing off his physical prowess and as he predicted the front guards’ jaws drop. Rinika, Arkynn, Nik, and Vaascht duck behind the smithy between Nickle St and Arbor Rd as the patrol walks away from them. A torch one of the guards was carrying gutters out and plumes of thick acrid smoke floods the street. Arkynn and Rinika use the cover to dash into the church through the hole in the back completely unseen, or so they hope.
From within the Athar barracks a woman's voice says sternly, "I smell smoke, do a perimeter sweep." A blond woman in light gray robes steps out the building pushing past the delivery ork. She spies Jek and her guards gawking and says, "Unbelievable."
Inside the old stone church, you can see that all former furnishings or decorations have been stripped away. Likewise, the building lacks interior walls and most of the ceiling. Here and there along the remaining outer wall, you can make out what appear to be large stones of a different mineral and a far greater age than those in the rest of the church. The limited light filtering in reveals strange patterns on these stones - all of which are set into the ground and rise to a height of at least 6 feet - but the markings appear to be natural.
Seeing he wasn't going to be able to sneak into the church at this point, Vaascht simply leans up against the smithy, casually as you please, and watches Jek.
Skelly could do that; my Wizards and Druids often have their pets do drops...lol.
The ork with the food card quickly drags it away as a squad of Athar cutters exit the building splitting into two groups one heading between their barracks and the old church the other heading down Graystone St. The two guards that were standing in front of the church approach Jek with their hands on their weapons, "Sir we're going to need you to sit there. Our boss is going to have some questions for you in a minute."
Vaascht continues to watch, waiting for Jeks reaction.
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Jek quickly swivels around into a typical cushed position. He then begins rocking forward and backward trying to get his torso higher and higher until he finally rocks all the way onto his rear end.
"Taa daa! Sitting! Any other requests?"
The spellslinger staggers out of the cloud coughing and wheezing. She manages to cast a spell which sends a shrill whistle through the air.
Skellington stands about ten feet from Jek and in stark contrast to him, silent, still, and stoic.
Nik looks back and forth between Vaascht and Jek, deciding that he should also bide his time.
Vaascht just keeps watching, not wanting to initiate combat if their scouts can find something useful while the guards are all distracted.