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With Blue obviously not interested in helping Arnash at this point, the Patient Lurker turns his attention back to the other conflict. Without bothering to find shelter this time, he closes the distance the best he can before taking aim at Arnash from behind, giving up the protection Cloud Mind might have offered to instead help deal some damage to whatever it is.
After trying to give his warning to the group about the situation, the Patient Lurker sees the figure identifying itself as Arnash immediately grow suspicious and attack. Frowning, the Cyrptic assesses the situation to figure out the most fruitful course of action. Either it could hear me or it quickly read the reactions of the others and decided that subterfuge wouldn't work. Either way, it's mentally agile and a threat. On the other hand, it's engaged with the others and clearly not humanoid, so my best course of action while there's some chance that it can't detect me is to make sure that it's not going to get any help while my companions take it down. Focusing his attention on Blue who he believes to be unaware of his presence, the Patient Lurker points his figure and fires another black energy ray at the back of the enemy agent before ducking back and trying to find cover once more.
With the newcomer now approaching the party, the Patient Lurker decides that now is the time for (sneaky) action. Moving so that he is in range of both, but not where they are looking, he concentrates on both Blue and the other, now human appearing, stranger. The Patient Lurker emits a faint purple pattern of glyphs and lights and attempts to remove any awareness of his presence or actions from their minds.
*** If the Patient Lurker believes he has succeeded *** The patient lurker calls out to the party from the shadows, "This is the Lurker here. The one approaching you now cannot see or hear me, but he seems to be Blue's superior. Blue is also lurking back here and also unaware of me, by the way. If you can engage them in dialogue without drawing obvious attention to me I'll do my best to disarm them without them noticing. Oh, and if anyone wants to get the hired help out of the area, now would be a good time to do that."
Letting the others handle the casks for now, the Patient Lurker does his best to make sure the immediate threats have been fully neutralized. Keeping hidden, he moves to investigate the ditch that Blue has disappeared into. Once he reaches it, he peers over the edge, searching for a body or evidence of where one might have gotten to.
The patient lurker, following alongside the others in the shadows does indeed do his best to finish off Yellow after he takes a hit. The apparent halfling steps out of the shadows for a moment to point a finger at his target and a black ray shoots out, striking the agent in the shoulder, almost unnoticed in the dark of the night.
After regaining the saftey of the shadows, the small figure looks around to see if anyone seems to have spotted him or is an obvious new threat.
Sounds good. I'll roll with that.
So before I post, should I decide whether it was the Patient Lurker's attack which took down Yellow, or do you have a particular outcome in mind there?
Seeing that Moira has the situation with Captain Kell under control, the Patient Lurker instead follows the agents and their minions, keeping pace in the shadows and watching for anything unusual.
The Patient Lurker observes the interactions with interest, noting the hidden weapons and how Blue and Yellow seem slightly on edge at Moira's entrance. Seeing no need to intervene at this point, he follows the caskets should they be moved, silent as possible and aware that the targets are on high alert at this point. He also keeps a careful watch to try to determine where any other hidden forces, allies or other might be located, hoping not to be taken by surprise should the unexpected happen.
So if anyone needed a reason to join us at the warehouse, it seems that approaching Markus Kell as an associate of Zarzuket just before he arrives could work. If anyone was looking for a less sneaky way of joining us.
The Zarauket listens to Markus's story with interest, and offers his sympathy, along with a vague offer to see if he can help find someone to keep an eye on him. "If you needed me to take a look at a weakness in your ship I'd be more than happy to help, but skulking around warehouses to watch for people who could get you killed isn't exactly my line of work, sorry. I might know a few blokes down by the docks who could keep a watchful eye and step in if you need it though. I'll see what I can do." Back, before they head out on the surveillance mission the Patient Lurker passes the information on to the others. "If we end up revealing ourselves to Markus Kell we can let him know that Zarzuket asked us to keep an eye on him as a favor, maybe implying that some payment was offered should we do so. Should he survive this Mr. Kell might be someone we could use for more information in the future, so he might be worth intervening for. It's hard to tell with this limited information, but I hate to let a potential asset slip away from us."
That Tuesday evening ...
"I agree. Following to gain information is the best plan. If we split up and follow from different positions then we're more likely to successfully tail them even if one of us is spotted. " Taking the form of an unnamed halfling the Patient Lurker seeks out a good spot to watch the warehouse and anyone who enters of exits.
When the bravos enter the warehouse, the unremarkable halfling takes the opportunity to try to slip in unnoticed after them and find a spot in a corner to remain hidden.
Once there he watches the oblivious bravos until the much more disciplined figures arrive. When they do the halfling watches with fascination as the hood is lifted, trying to determine what he can of the face revealed beneath.
When the lights go out, the Patient Lurker isn't bothered overly as his dark vision still allows him to see most of the details of the group in front of him. The arrival of Markus Kell is something of interest though, and the Patient Lurker stares curiously at the floating floating shape hovers behind him. Now that's certainly a technology or magic that isn't common around these parts. Resisting the urge to use Detect Psionics on the spot (as the resulting light show would surely reveal his location,) the Patient Lurker does what he does best, patiently lurking for a bit longer to see where the exchange might go.
Previously ... Teddy Blackfoot makes himself at home with the guild of chimney sweeps. He makes sure to trade information he gathers at reasonable prices, and makes sure that those in the know are aware that he'll trade for a wide variety of information. He always passes on true information to the other chimney sweeps, and never publicly calls out false information, though he notes it and over time classifies the various sources by reliability. On the job the halfling is cheerful and meticulous. He makes sure that the jobs are done well and that his clientele have no reason to spread anything other than good reviews about him. Before starting any job he'll use Empathy (spending 2 PP to have it last 6 hours,) to keep tabs on surface emotions of those he works for. If there are strong or strange emotions that don't have an obvious source he might investigate if given the chance, but mostly keeps track of it for later. Off the job, Teddy makes sure to be seen in the evening in the company of other halfling sweeps, exchanging information and generally having a good time at local taverns. He maintains the appearance of a young bachelor enjoying the fruits that his labor would allow him. This takes most of the Patient Lurker's days, and roughly 3 evenings a week. Other evenings look entirely different. Upon hearing of the strange owner of a mystery ship in the harbor, the Patient Lurker spends a few night prowling the area around the docks, hitting the taverns, finding the gambling halls and the like as a freelance gnome shipwright, Zarzuket, willing to get into the spaces of a ship and make repairs that would be inconvenient for the humans in the crew to get to.
Once he has his second cover suitable established, Zarzuket will occasionally seek out the owner of the mystery vessel, spending an evening in the same bar, using Empathy to monitor his emotional state, and try to figure out what he might be up to without engaging him directly.
Zarzuket never acts immediately with any information he might gain, and leaves each evening at a time independent of the owner's own actions. This surveillance goes on until the situation changes and the agents learn that some sort of cargo is about to be transferred.
While showing his basic competence at climbing through the inside of chimney to prospective employers "Teddy" just barely manages not to slip and fall into an empty fireplace below him. With a sheepish grin he turns to the contractor, "So what do you think, can I start today? Those chimneys won't clean themselves and I'm ready to work."
"I'll see if I can't make a go of it as a chimney sweep. Low prestige workers often go unseen in places where the powerful do their business. It should give me the cover to be in the right places to overhear useful things." Saying this the Patient lurker concentrates and his form shimmers a bit as it changes to look more or less like a somewhat sooty, non-descript halfling.
Glancing down at his form and satisfied with the disguise for now, the "halfling" gives the rest of the group a cheerful nod. "You can call me Teddy Blackfoot. I'm off to find a contractor that needs to hire a sweep. I'll be in touch!" Ted then heads out to establish himself as a chimney sweep in the city, using a combination of bravado and a display of his dexterity to secure a job.
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