With a couple pats of his...bird neck(?) Nasar reassures the sour Bean ”If I was going to treat you like a pet or a mount, I wouldn’t concern myself with asking if you wanted to join or propose the idea of getting you battle armour to wear for missions. You’ll just be Bean, another cog in the machine that is this team.”
Can’t just let him freely get away with getting Gen flustered and dissing Deract. Plus if he’s part of the team he’ll have to get used to the kind of people we truly are.
A bit of a wicked smile barely hides behind his mask as he finishes his line of thought with a half-shrug half-feather ruffle. ”That is unless you want me to refer to you as something else besides your given name. Maybe something like “son”, or “sport” or “my little Beanie baby”
Bean fluffs his plumage as a bird would to seem more intimidating, Yes I suppose Bean would be fitting, though now that I have the slightest idea on what a bean is I can't fathom why that was what came to mind for naming me in the likeness of a miniscule legume. He looks in dismay as he explains his regret in his name. His head cocks to the side, I say Genesis dear, you seem to have a spell of some sort still on you. You seem to have some sort of after image trailing you is it necessary out of combat?
Genesis perks up at the question about her Diamond Doppleganger, Hmm? Oh no silly that's just my shadow, though I don't know much about them yet I do know he always follows my actions a split second after me. She waves her hand and everyone can see the aftertrail of the shadow.
Bean seems confused, And I'm only able to see this now... This isn't what you all refer to when you say Club and Heretic and such do you? Those are names of individuals?
Nasar summons club to chill out in front of the group as an example. "This is my shadow Club. He is an ooze that aids me in battle from time to time. You can see our shadows now that you are truly part of the team. I'm sure yours will appear eventually too." He turns his attention to Gen and her afterimage. "Hmmm now that we might have a moment of reprieve, I did want to see if we can try and learn more about your shadow. The more natural control you have over it the more viable it becomes in general"
Deract snaps a finger, Yea you know what’d help her the G+&~@*N TOME OF SHADOWS YOU TOOK FROM ME!!
Genesis smiles and nods, Funnily enough that’s what I wanted to inquire about too. I’m sure I have more mental will power to exert with my knowledge and knack for magic. I wanted to take a stab at maybe picking up some free power.
Bean still seems lost, I get one too... ok
Nasar sighs "Yea it's confusing at first. For some reason, these "shadows" have selected me and anyone in my team as...i guess vessels to attach to. So anyone that I add to the team gets a shadow. I have Club, Marissa has her anger issues that we call Heretic, Lily has her Babau, Deract is basically his own shadow, and we are still working on Gen's. We also have this book called the Tome of Shadows that has a lot of information on these shadows but reading it comes the risk of losing some sanity. I've-" Stopping mid sentence, Nasar can be seen clearly going back in the conversation as if he just realized something that had previously went over his head. "Wait Gen are you saying you want to use the tome?"
Genesis laughs a little as she rubs the back of her head, Yea I think I’d have a better time then you guys with the book. Just one time shouldn’t hurt right?
Deract points a finger and cracks a joke, Dontcha mean one TOME wouldn’t hurt? A large smile spans across his face.
Bean blinks twice, This is usually the part where you-
Lily already stands behind Deract’s smug ass with a wood chair raised, Yup! She breaks the chair over the back of Deract as he falls to the ground in pain.
Genesis looks at Deract on the floor before continuing, Maybe if I get a baseline understanding of my Shadow it can help me learn more?
Nasar shakes his head as he digs through his pack. ”Jeez Lily that was a perfectly good chair...” Once he gets the tome out he holds it over to Gen, a bit more serious now. ”While I do trust that your mental fortitude is better than mine, please be careful. Ive used the tome twice and the fact that I’m still all here is probably more do to luck than anything else. So again, please be careful. But if you do go a little crazy, at least try and make it entertaining like Deract did when he lost a bit of his mind.” With that lighthearted note, Nasar awaits for Gen to take the tome before deciding how to spend the day while she is out of commission for the couple hours she spends reading it.
Genesis apprehensively reaches and takes the tome, So I just...
Deract smiles as he's happy to see the book once more, Yup just get comfy and pop it open.
Genesis walks over to a nonbroken chair and sits down and pops the book open, Bye guysssss. Her eyes fade to black pearls as she goes comatose.
Lily picks up the pieces of the broken chair, I'll figure out a way to fix it.
Nasar heads out to find assassin work cause that sounds really exciting and relaxing. He adjusts his scarf and cowl before heading off to find someone looking to hire someone to kill.
Nasar makes his way downstairs through the sewer system and into the assassins headquarters, he takes a seat and waits around with his face hidden.
A few hidden faces pass by until he is approached by a merchant looking fellow. The slightly overweight man sits at Nasar's table and puts his head down and speaks low, You seem like one of the folks around here looking to be employed? You don't seem like a familiar figure so I'll take it your an outside connect. Seem up for a small job?
Nasar looks down while he picks at his fingernails, seemingly paying the man no attentions. "Depends...what king of job we talkin 'ere"
The man picks up his belt before speaking, There's a sort of trade stop going on outside of Magnimar's gates. Some traders have been targeted for their goods knowing they can be legally be taken away. The general of all this is Sgt. Lutheran IV. He hangs around the gates on the night watch when most traders come in specifically to oversee the forfeiter of goods. He needs to be taken out to stop disrupting the flow of goods into the city. Payment will include compensation for the job and if nobody knows where the assassin came from or where he went I can provide you with a voucher for one of my associates for small trinket or useful item. He waits on Nasar to evaluate the job.
"So he hangs around on the outside of the gates? What does this Sargant look like so I know who I'm looking for? How much is the payment and how much are we talking about when it comes to this voucher. I don't like vague rewards when it comes to taking a life."
He ponders the question, The sergent likes to wear a gold adorned helmet unlike the soldiers of Magnimar who wear issued bronze or steel. His favored weapon to carry around is a flaming sword he repossesed off a traveling merchant. The merchant pulls out a bag of ready to pay coins, 750 gold hard and in hand after the job is complete. A voucher of 300 gold pieces worth of tools and such for one of my merchants in my networks shop. The sound reasonable?
Interesting."
While the payment could be better, that helmet and sword sound pretty valuable. Maybe I can get that payment improved AND keep the gear after the fact.
Nasar sighs a bit at the details of the payment. "I have plenty of tools for my line of work already in my possession. How about you take that voucher off the table and make it a nice even 1000 gold. You can wrangle up the remaining 250 gold while I carry out the job."
The merchant fellow raises his hands in malcontent, Forgive me, I'm not the contact that consigned the hit. Only the middle man who gives the info and such, I was given the money and the voucher and though you have many tools for the trade I'm sure I can find someone in this cistern that will take the money I have in hand. He waits to see what Nasar says though he looks ready to get up to find another suitable figure for the job.
Nasar leans back in his chair and stares of into the distance. ”Hm. I can work with the current terms then. Doesn’t hurt to have extra tools anyways. I’ll take the job.”
The merchant nods, Wonderful, my thanks. I’ll meet you here once word has came the General has been taken out. And he gets up to shake Nasar’s hand before taking his leave.
Nasar shakes his hand and heads off back to the house. He takes a bit if a scenic route and uses his hat of disguise to make himself look like an unsuspecting civilian walking. Once he gets to the house he turns back to normal and goes to check on Lily’s progress with the chair.
I’ll see if Lily wants to tag along. Just in case things go a bit sour I can usually rely on her powers to aid in escaping.
Lily agrees to join as Nasar walks in on her glueing the chair back together in the living room. I’ll see if I can’t snag a few pieces of stolen contraband maybe hehe!
Night falls on Magnimar as Nasar and Lily stand in a small tower outpost they’ve snuck into peering out on the side of Magnimars wall. In front of them some 100 feet below is a small encampment of soldiers and tents. A main road stretching to the darkness that is the horizon is ahead of them but small torch lights patrolling the area make it a bit more seeable. Lily and Nasar start this infiltration crouching high above as she whispers, So a gold helmet and a flaming sword is what we’re looking for. Any course of action for how we’re gonna do this?
Nasar overlooks the camp trying to find the guard they are looking for. ”Well my target is only that Sergeant in particular, it would be the most convenient if we were able to get him to either a secluded area or to leave the camp entirely where we could pick him off.”
Lily grimaces at the thought of waiting, What like... get him while he’s going home or something? We don’t even know what time he gets off. Or where he is now for that matter. She muddles over the options, We could spot him and wait for him to enter a tent or something?
A cart approaches the gate entrance slowly with two horse in the front. Lily points to the cart to look and see what happens or to see Nasar’s response.
”Let’s see if we can see what tent he walks into and we can try and catch him in there by himself. Then we wont have to wait much longer.”
They wait for a second as a cart comes up to the gate. A soldier can be heard, Halt traveler! Before you enter the city we must inspect your goods for any contraband entering the city walls.
The merchant gets off his horse and obliges, Yes yes I’ve heard the recent inspections. Go ahead.
The soldier quickly get out the goods and such and pry open boxes by torchlight to inspect the product. One of them pulls out a bag of herbs the look red in color. Artificial Blood Root? And you intend to do what with this?
The merchant looks a bit perturbed, But but- the blood root usually causes no problems coming through customs I don’t understand wh-
The soldier holds the bag close, We are going to have to get someone to inspect this to see if it can be allowed inside. He looks to another soldier, Go get the General. The soldier nods as he hurries a few tents away and brings another figure out.
A figure walks out with a torch in hand and helmet in the other, as they walk out the tent he dons it as it sparkles with various alloys and gens attached to it. Lily squints as she stares at the new figure, Thats gotta be our guy look at that helmet.
He walks over to the gate entrance with the merchant and the General holds the bag as he proves the merchant, Who do you trade for, the only people I see come through here with this stuff is Sczarni but you don’t resemble anyone from those families?
Lily looks at Nasar, We could strike now? He’s right below us or should we hold off and see what he does?
Nasar looks at Lily, then looks down, then looks back at Lily while taking out the bob of holding. ”We could like...jump down and try and hold this open on the descent so it lands on him so we catch him in the bag. Then run off with our target and let the whatever animals this bag likes to collect go at him until we escape.”
Lily looks so wildly at that idea, You do realize we’re like a hundred feet up right? I hope you like broken legs Nasar!
The merchant continues, Well no I’m not any part of those Varisians. I’m simply bringing in cargo for Winchesters store. The blood root is just mine.
The General continues, Well I’m going to have to confiscate this as it’s not to be brought within the walls of the city.
Nasar gauges the height of the drop and thinks about it for a moment. ”I wonder if I could use club to reduce the impact of the fall. Like a cushion! If I concentrate his entirety to my feet I’m sure I can easily reduce the impact. Throw in a tumble when we land too and I doubt I’ll break anything from this height.”
Club manifests itself and nods that it’s ready to try whatever Nasar plans to do.
Lily looks worriedly, So your going to jump... and try not to break your legs. I’ve never seen you get arrested before so this will be a first. I’ll be up here.
Nasar looks at her confused. ”What your staying up here ms. I can fly? We both do this the odds of landing the bag increases.” Nasar makes sure that the guy hasn’t moved before they/he makes the jump. ”I didn’t bring you along just to be a bystander you know.” As he looks over again he thinks more about using club. ”Hmm maybe i can use club’s slingshot to catch me, id have to make sure not to launch myself back up the tower...”
Lily seems afraid to hop but obliges, Ok so we’re both holding the bag as we fall on him?
”Thats the spirit! C’mon we’ll get him, get out and have a great little story to tell. Now let’s get this chump.” Nasar readies the bag for Lily to grab hold of so they can jump off and hopefully trap him. Instead of trying out a new unattempted trick with club, Nasar’s going to just use the already proven slingshot to catch him when they fall.
The guard finishes with the merchant as the doors open and the cart heads in. The General turns around and Lily and Nasar hop off the tower to the floor. Both grabbing the bag they hurtle downward.
In a quick swift flurry of maneuvers Nasar and Lily hop off the tower. Nasar at 30 feet summons ooze to begin his elastic pull and as he reaches his maximum stretch Nasar and Lily reach the ground. Luckily Nasar and Lily swoop the bag over the General unsuspectingly and pull him into the bag.
At the exact moment Nasar is laying a few inches from the ground with Ooze at max vertical charge and Lily holding onto Nasar to follow wherever he goes. The soldiers see them and is aghast at what they just witnessed.
Nasar dismisses Club before launching himself back into the air so the can begin their fleeing. ”OH MAN! That was awesome! Let’s get out of here before they have time to collect themselves!” Nasar is ready to start booking it out as he puts his bag of holding away.
Club pulls Nasar far enough upward to launch him forward to start running. Lily books it too as she looks around and laughs, Holy shot Na- Dude it worked! The soldier run after Nasar and Lily as they yell out.
Stop!
Halt you heathens!
Someone has taken the General hostage!
They run a circle around a few tents and as the cart is still heading in the door sits open. Lily looks at Nasar as they run, Back into Magnimar!? Two guards stand at the gate ready to try and stop them.
Nasar takes out a smokescreen stick and gives Lily a sly smile. ”Why don’t you see if one of those gentlemen would like to assist us in getting home? What do you think?” He readies to throw the smokestick at the guards feet to cover their escape after Lily goes through with the plan.
Lily stops running as they get closer, Sure but I gotta stop real fast! She takes a full round to cast her dominate person spell.
One of the soldiers eyes turn purple as Lily exerts her control. The guard looks to the side of him and tries to knock the other one over but fails, What is wrong with you? We’re supposed to guard the entrance from them?
Lily runs to try and catch up though she is a bit behind now.
The dominated guard tries to knock over the other one but fails again as Nasar gets about 20 feet away for him to do whatever.
Nasar runs by, attempting to dodge the potential attack of opportunity that may come from the guard.
After attempting to escape from any potential slash while passing by Nasar throws the smokestick between himself and the guards.
Even though Lily is on the wrong side of this smoke, she can either fly, teleport, or even do that ethereal thing and just coast through it. Once we get far enough away we can disguise ourselves and make a clean escape.
And in fact Lily does teleport by Nasar’s side as he sidesteps between the guards and drops the smokestick. People can be heard tripping over and others jumping over as they escape the cloud and chase relentlessly after the two. The two run past the cart merchant as he enters the city and the horses rise in fear of someone dashing past them.
The two enter the city as some of the guards still chase behind. Lily looks at Nasar as they dash through the streets at midnight, Good idea but it only stopped up a few of them. It’s gonna be hard to shake em off!
Nasar talks in a hurried but quiet-ish tone so the guards cant overhear him. ”Let’s try and lose them in some alleys, once we have some distance we can disguise ourselves to try and throw them off our trail.”
Nasar grabs onto Lily’s hand/wrist to make sure they dont get separated and makes a mad dash through the most complicated path he can think of, making use of the experience and knowledge of the paths less traveled.
Nasar and Lily dip and dodge over various obstacles as they nimbly avoid being caught. From jumping over large dumps of garbage to hopping fences and through yards they find themselves finnaly evading the soldiers as they dip into one final alley. Silence falls on them as they finnaly stop running. Both of them are fatigued beyond measure as Lily breathes so deeply, Oh I think I’m gonna f$&king hurl. I’ve never ran that much.
Nasar barely manages a chuckle since is pretty winded too. He puts his hands on his head to try and catch his breath better while talking. ”That’d be some funny irony...the date where we go to the bar we’re fine, but when we don’t drink is when one of us throws up. It’s been a long long time since I’ve ran to such a degree either. Always makes me feel so alive. Good thing is if we’re this tired from all that running, I’m sure those guards are way, way more tired. We can wait them out for a bit while we gather ourselves, but just to be safe.” Nasar uses his hat of disguise to make himself seem like what a hippie would like like if they were also an elf. ”Yea that’s different enough from my normal form, just in case we manage to run in to any guards after this.”
Lily wheezes as her eye twitches from a stomach cramp, Yea wicked second date huh. From drugging out to thugging out, oh I need some damn water when we get home. She changes into Gloriana the Guild Merchant, That works right. I’m bad at making up disguises off the top of my head so I tend to just copy people.
”Hm, I figured you’d pick either Gen or Marissa before her. But unless we manage to run into the real Gloriana, we should be fine. Let’s head home and grab a drink. Then we’ll deal with the body. Sound good?” Nasar holds his arm out for her to hold onto so they can walk back together, as an added bonus Nasar is baiting her to lean up against him since she’s so exhausted.
Gloriana Lily tiredly wraps an arm around Nasar’s as they leave the alley way to walk home. Guards run past them as they look frivolously for the two. Lily chuckles, Easy as pie.
As a crew of guards run past them Nasar’a bob of holding makes a small thud as it begins to shake.
Lily looks worriedly at the bag and the guards turn to see what the sound is as well. The bag bursts open as large black haired ape tumbles out. The ape holds the General in hand as the General lay in his grip deceased.
The guards point at the two as Nasar’s hat of disguise is immediately disbelieved and Lily changes back into her succubus form, Spoke too soon...
With the sudden appearance of the Gorilla(?), Nasar tries to fool the guards into thinking it’s on their side...it did appear from his bag with their boss after all. ”Have fun with our pet! He’ll do to you worse than what happened to your general!!”
Lily’s array of spells and her ability to fly makes it a lot easier for her to escape, I need to focus on getting myself out of here
Nasar then makes use of the commotion to dip into another close by alley way or at least something to give him concealment in an attempt to lose the guards while they deal with the gorilla holding their boss.
”I guess it isn’t so bad for you all, you’ll be seeing your boss again very soon!”
Nasar starts to book it towards the nearest alleyway but is saddened by the fact the nearest hiding place is like 45 feet away. Due to his exhaustion he only manages a solid 15 feet before he starts huffing and puffing again.
The soldiers all start moving forward while they plan, Two of you get the boss the other two get them! One branches off after Lily the other takes after Nasar, as Nasar makes his escape he notices this soldier isn’t winded like he is. Must’ve been a new batch of guards looking for them!
Nasar brings club out again and charges 15 feet into it aiming the slingshot towards that hiding place. After getting launched back the 45 feet Nasar draws out one of the potions of invisibility that was obtained from the pathfinders and gets ready to drink it next round. He then speaks in draconic to Lily in an attempt to hide his plan from the guards. "You wouldn't happen to have any more tricks would you? Maybe charm this guy or bring out your Babau? At least he can help balance the number's game."
Lily pops into Nasar’s head telepathically, All out of Dominations, and to stop and try to charm this guy would end badly should he catch up!
Nasar manages to sling himself to cover but in the time takes to travel 45 feet the guard travels 60 feet and is hot on Nasar’s tail! The guard is a mere 15 feet behind Nasar, Lily struggles to catch up as Nasar shoots ahead and one of the guards tackles her to the floor. She struggles to get free as he wraps his arms around her flailing body, You better lemme go or your gonna regret it!
Nasar continues in draconic before he downs the potion to disappear "Well it's a little late to worry about being caught now! Summon your shadow to help free you and either fly away or teleport or do that ethereal thing! If anything happens we get separated use your connection to Marissa to get her ass up and we'll hunt for you!" After downing the potion he moves 15 feet diagonally towards and also to side of the guard so he can't just continue forward and attack where Nasar was.
If I can close in on Lily and she is still being held down, maybe I can use club to grease her up and make it easier for her to escape. I'm not just going to let them take her away!
Lily yells out, Yea yea I’m working on it if your still even around! And as she’s struggling Babau appears standing and whips out his dagger and sends out a flurry of stabs at the soldier. To the naked eye shreds of armor fly off as Babau tears into the poor soldier. The other soldier looking around for Nasar runs deeper in the alleyway away from the fight in pursuit of his unseen target.
Lily manages to shove the guard off and starts to stand up.