Decima was everything that a city could be: most of all busy, noisy and showful. Here one could see, hear, buy, sell and even smoke anything. The Imperial Palace belonging to the Orator family stood in the center of this biggest city known to people. At the edges of the city there were more peaceful and thus even rather shady areas. Even then one had to stay away from the city entrances and slummish areas to avoid the endless business (or in the case of slums, thievery).

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Party Nº4P4 L01 – Gathering and briefingP4 L02 – Inn actionP4 L03 – Fights and dealsP4 L04 – Sewer and cellarP4 L05 – Night at the noble (!)P4 L06 – Down the drainP4 L07 – Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll

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The morning was rainy and Geeileq was nowhere to be seen, heard or smelt – however, the door was still locked and barricaded and the window sealed, as the bartender loudly complained when he attempted to access the room. Toxir had a mild hangover, nothing she couldn't handle but a hangover nevertheless. Boar's Blood was the drink to be drunk. The inn was pretty much empty in the morning, but never totally empty. Toward the night more people came in.
The hauken stayed gone until about 18:30, after which he just walked down from upstairs and (as soon as he'd cleared things up with the bar owner) stood around the inn, drinking a mug of something and waiting around for the others to appear, having decided that it was better to guide them to the place.

Nal'unah entered the inn, having been touring around the city for a while to kill the time before they got to work, finally. She sat down on a chair near to where Geeileq was standing. "A boring day, huh? When should we be going?" she asked the hauken.

Geeileq turned to look at the terran, seeming pretty thoughtful. He wondered how the detainment of the performer group would go, but wasn't at all worried about it – though they better not have any nasty surprises in for him and the others. Geeileq didn't reply to what he judged to be Nal'unah's interrogation about his personal life, but he did reply to her second question: "I recall the time is about half to seven." He spoke fairly quietly. "The party starts at eight, so we have a lot of time."

Tapping on one of the tables impatiently, he spotted the Hauken and Terran. Faustus had been in the tavern all day, wasting time. Since he had spent his previous time wandering around the city, he didn’t feel like touring Decima. With little else to do, he got out of his seat and headed over. “Not to ruin yer’ fun, but shouldn’t we be doing somethin’ a little more productive?” the hunter lowered his voice as he joined them. “Like scoutin' out buildings or figurin' out how some of you people are goin’ to erm…fit in at this party?” He doubted many of them could pass for inconspicuous.

"What do you mean?" Unah answered Faustus last question with another question. "Are you saying I can't look like a lady?" she said in a very serious and almost offended tone, but laughed loudly two seconds later. "Well, perhaps you're right. Gods, I haven't worn a pretty dress in a hundred years. Literally", she said with her gaze lost, trying to remember. "Anyway, where's the rest of the people? We can't do much if they don't arrive soon", the warrior said.

Sithra had went to her room when Geeileq came down, figuring they'd leave soon. She was slightly pissed off at the day they wasted while they could hang at least tried to go to this building they were to 'clean up'. Instead, she just walked around the streets for the day, wishing the time would go by faster and despising the people who sought to stack themselves into tight buildings with little comfort of living.
In her room, she put on her armor again, and when she was done, she went down. "I'm here, and I'm quite ready to go." She grumbled, clearly indicating she wasn't pleased with the waiting.

Geeileq turned to stare at Faustus, having no idea what to reply, since it wasn't Geeileq's fault if he hadn't been doing any productive things. "If you want to talk like that, we should go upstairs", he said. Turning to Nal'unah, he said: "If you want to buy a fancy dress, feel free." He looked at Sithra when she came down and nodded at her. "Have you seen the dah'kin woman or the tiny lynx. I'm sure that little thing would go easily unnoticed, hah hah", he mumbled and checked the sole of his shoe for irony. "Is something unclear? Do we need to talk about it?"

"Haven't seen her or that huge gun anywhere. Don't know where the dah'kin woman is either. Couldn't imagine she's still having a hangover, unless they both killed themselves drinking that stuff." Sithra replied.

"I don't want any fancy dresses" Nal'unah said turning her face to look at Geeileq. She didn't had any clue of where Toxir or Tabaxi could be either. Understanding they had no much option but to wait for them to get to the inn, Unah decided to be prepared to leave. "I'll better go get the rest of my stuff", she said standing up and walking upstairs to room number seven.

With Sithra’s moody entrance, Faustus didn’t really want to image what a hungover Toxir would be like. When equipment was mentioned, he checked the three knives he had hidden on is person, recalling he had left the other five up in his room with his shield, bedroll, serrated arrows and healing potion. He then started positioning his bow, trying to conceal it along with its arrows under his cloak. “What’s the policy on weapons in this place, anyway.” The hunter asked, doubtful that someone could wander in with half an armoury strapped to their back, with that he thought about Nal’unah and Tabaxi. 

Toxir had actually woken early and gone outside in the morning to enjoy the few moments of city silence while she could. Before she knew it, the streets would be lined with people bustling about. The last thing she wanted to do was spend her time cooped up in a small room and then wake to hundreds of people. Despite her small hangover, Toxir was perfectly content to sit and enjoy the silence. Thus, she left before any of the other party members were awake. Once people started to emerge from their homes, Toxir got up from her resting point and started to wander around the city. She kept to herself, but wanted to get a feel for the city, to better know where she was stationed.
Once bored with that, Toxir headed back to the inn and found the party there. Sighing, she walked past them and into her room. Putting on the rest of her clothes and armor as quickly as possible, Toxir rejoined the group in the common area. "When are we leaving?"

About this point, Tabaxi finally wandered down from her room, already wearing her armor and carrying her weapons, but yawning and blurry-eyed. She stretched lazily as she approached Geeileq and said, "So what's the battle plan for today?" For some reason, she seemed to see the Hauken as the leader of this strange mision.

Unah putted on her armor, strapped her voulge to her back and kept her axes on each side of her hips. When she was done with her equipment, she went back downstairs after Tabaxi had left the room. She wondered if the little lynx had been sleeping all day. "So, we're all finally here, good", she said joining the group. She crossed her arms over her chest and waited to hear the answers to the questions the girls had asked.

Though satisfied that all the others were here, Geeileq eyed the surroundings a bit as he was getting a bit frustrated at the others for speaking so freely around people who should not know anything about what they were doing. At least the bartender didn't seem to care. To Tabaxi he said: "We're going to level this big city of demons by dawn and teleport its remains into the great ocean." Finishing his drink and standing up straight, he continued: "Do we need to talk more about this? Is something unclear?" He also eyed the equipment on the others, wondering how much they would get away with.

As much as he hated to admit, Faustus wanted to keep the talk down himself, even though he was previously contributing to it. “Whenever yer’ ready, boss.” He too saw Gee as a leader figure, but still didn’t have much respect for the Hauken. Not bothering with more useless questions, Faustus stood out of his seat, and waited for the others.

Tabaxi scratched her ears and blinked a few times at Geeileq. "I thought we were going to a party and questioning people? And how are we gonna teleport a whole city of demons? I've never seen a city get teleported before. How are we gonna level it? Do we have a really big cannon? That'd be so cool! Can I shoot the cannon?"

Sithra used the time the lynx was filling up by wrapping her scythe head in a piece of cloth. She had seen Geeileq's look towards their weapons, and took the hint. With the head and a bit of the shaft wrapped in cloth, it wasn't immediatly apparent she was carrying a scythe around, and if anybody'd inspect closer, she could say she was making a delivery. Her carrying armor was just a way of promoting the smithy. Bit of a lame excuse, but it'd have to do, she thought. Although her weapon now looked a bit like a sail, it was better than looking like a psychopath on the loose. She watched as Tabaxi finished her demon city stuff and when she'd finished, she indicated she was ready. "Alright, I'm ready now. Let's go fight the demons?"

Unah didn't listen much of what Tabaxi was saying, but instead watched Sithra hiding her weapon. "Should we all hide our stuff?" she asked innocently. Maybe her voulge would pick up the attention. Though herself without any weapons was notorious enough.

"Let's just say walking around armed and angry-looking wouldn't help." Sithra spoke, adjusting the scythe-kite (Sithra decided that was what it looked like most) on her back. She would probably seem a bit awkward with such a large cloth behind her head, and she hoped there wouldn't be much wind, but it was better to look like she was in a parade than to carry the cumbersome thing around the entire time.

“Y’catch on quick…” Faustus grumbled to himself while he listened in on what the Terran and the panther were discussing. “I didn’t realize this was a costume ball.” With that offhand remark directed at Sithra’s scythe-kite, Faustus took a quick glance around the room wondering if all the talk about demons, cannons and angry-looking people had gotten anybody’s attention.

Geeileq eyed the others in slight disbelief but not really seriously, and shared Faustus's concern about the people in the inn getting suspicious. Fortunately the people weren't really paying attention after Gee and Tabaxi's jokes. "Okay, I'm just going to go outside an' stand around. This inn is getting on my nerves." With that, Geeileq walked outside and found a quiet spot under a tree next to the inn. There they wouldn't be listened to.

Tabaxi blinked for a few moments, then said, "OH! So we're not really fighting demons, we just don't want everyone else to know our business! I see now!" She looked around, eyeing everyone who's not on the team, then began to trot out the door after Geeileq. But then she stopped, turned around and quickly trotted upstairs, back to her room. Once there, she hid some of the things she didn't feel she needed for this mission, the bedroll, her smithing kit, and about four of her bullets. She then yanked a sheet off her bed, shrouding herself gun and all in the sheet as she tottered back downstairs, trying to look more like a hunchbacked old woman than a catfolk hiding a rather large cannon on her back. After that, then she went outside to join Geeileq.
 
"What a mess..." Sithra mumbled, before walking after Tabaxi and Geeileq. "Bloody cities..."

Geeileq mumbled loudly when he saw Tabaxi, after hearing what she said. "You know that the first thing I'm going to do if we get caught is sacrifice you without a second thought, take all your stuff and sell it to the highest bidder? Eola help you. Do you really think that bedsheet is going to hide you unless you stay perfectly still and do nothing?" Geeileq tried to imagine the little thing sitting quietly and couldn't. "You look like you couldn't lift a coin with all that stuff on you." The situation seemed highly comical and yet he seemed like he wouldn't let one person ruin the mission for them, even though there was probably a bigger chance that the party people wouldn't care about a tiny lynx in a lot of armor and a bedsheet.

Faustus reluctantly followed the Hauken, and felt just as confined in the city as Sithra. By trade, he had preferred isolation at first, before understanding that there were things in the city that also needed to be hunted. “Bah, send ‘er in first, that way she can draw suspicion away from the more…indirect fighters.” The hunter thought it best to have some sort of lure for the performers if he was to catch them off guard.

Geeileq eyed Faustus a little. "I hope you're not thinking that we're going to attack them while there are other people there. We need to wait so long that everyone else has left, maybe pretend that we're leaving as well or get into a long conversation with them. Of course that's all your problem since I'm going to sit in the sewer", he said smugly.

“Where you belong, huh?” Faustus muttered purposely loud enough for Gee to hear him. “Yeah well, when people are leaving I’ll move into a position where I can sniper them from.” He explained to the others, thinking that it was best to have atleast a rough plan of action.

Having already assumed that they were going to have to remain as incognito as possible, Toxir was not surprised to see Sithra and Tabaxi do what they could to disguise their weapons. Arching her brow at the lynx's choice of disguise, Toxir shook her head and remained silent. Having experienced her fair share of people for the day, Toxir was content to keep her mouth shut and observe those around her, as she knew that opening her mouth would only end in a fight. It was nigh impossible to find a member of the party that didn't grate on her nerves, and it was becoming increasingly difficult not to throw her hands up and walk away. She'd never hurted for money this badly before; Toxir was sure that nothing was worth this kind of aggravation. Knowing that there was nothing to do to make her flail look less obvious, she settled for putting her cloak on over it. Walking away from the group, Toxir reached into her pocket and removed a cigarette and a match. Striking it on the doorframe on her way outside, Toxir lit the cigarette and leaned against the building, smoke pluming from her nostrils. She wanted to get this task underway; she was sick of waiting.

Tabaxi yanked the bedsheet from around her shoulders and balled her fists on her hips, pouting at Geeileq. "Have you got any better ideas, then? There's no way I'm leaving Old Toby behind. Would you have me prance about in a ballgown with the thing hidden under my skirts? Sorry, but I doubt my thighs are strong enough for that." She then laughed loudly, the mental image comical even to her.

"Exactly", replied Geeileq to Faustus, really seeming like he didn't even understand that it might have been meant as an insult. Turning to Tabaxi, he said: "Leave the axe, then. I have no idea how you can move in that armor either." He glanced at Toxir and continued to the others: "I checked out the sewer I'll be in. I can see some of the room from there but not all, so it'd be best if someone would let me know when you're making your move. The sewer hole is in the wall at the back of the room."

"When everybody leaves, I'll try to block the exit when they're gone. Cutting off our marks from their escape route." Sithra said, adding herself to the rough battle plan. "If anybody asks, I'll say I'm the bouncer. A very-well prepared bouncer, I guess."

Again having to restrain himself from beating the Hauken over the head, Faustus shook his head as his insult was ignored. “Hopefully I’ll be too busy pickin’ off our marks from a safe spot, so I won’t have much time to signal you.” He told them, nodding his head to Sithra’s part of the plan to show he agreed. 

"As I'm assuming that it'll be dark in the sewers, I'll signal you." Toxir offered, for the first time speaking up to the group. "I'll be able to see you easier than anyone else." She justified, her Dah'kin blood proving useful. "If she's going to feign the bouncer then I can strike up a conversation with as few of them afterwards to keep the performers around long enough." Toxir suggested, taking another long drag on her cigarette and blowing the smoke away from the rest of the party. "Do you want an audible or visual signal? Either way, I'll be discreet." Toxir asked Gee, glancing to him before she returned her attention to the streets, blowing more smoke in the air and ashing her cigarette on the ground.

Nal'unah followed the group silently out into the street after saving her voulge into a safe place in the inn. Since it was the biggest thing she was carring, she thought it was obvious she had to leave it if they didn't want to call too much attention. It was a difficult decision though. She swore to herself she would rescue it as soon as they were done with the performers at this party they were heading to. She kept her two smaller axes, anyway. Not paying much attention to the conversation around her, she asked to anyone who could know, "how far is it?"

Geeileq gave a glance at Sithra. "What if a bouncer asks you that? I'm sure it's not good to draw any attention", he said. He didn't reply to Faustus as his statement didn't seem to require an answer either way. When Toxir spoke, he looked at her confusedly. "You didn't take a ticket, so you can't go in." He wondered how she'd forgotten that and assumed she couldn't go like that into the party, seeing as she was carrying nearly all of her stuff. Oh well, maybe she was drunk again. "I hope you others have your tickets." When Nal'unah finally came out and asked her question, Geeileq let out a chuckle. "We'll walk this street that way, then turn right at the weird crossroad and then left at the corner of a market, and the place will be along that road. It's painted green and surrounded by weird trees."

Maybe Toxir had gotten far too drunk the night before if something so obvious had escaped her memory. However, as she spent next to no time at all in cities, it had slipped her mind that she would need a ticket. Shrugging, Toxir flicked her butt into the road and lit another one, appearing wholly indifferent to having been corrected. The Hauken wasn't worth retorting to and Toxir had far too much self-pride to waste her breath. Flicking the first sign of ash from her cigarette, she listened to Gee explain the route to Nal'unah though she appeared to gaze into the streets. Yawning, Toxir stretched her arms over her head and shoved off of the inn wall. Lowering her arms, Toxir started casually strolling down the street, following the directions Gee had provided. There was nothing more suspicious than everyone showing up at the same time.

Watching the exchange between Gee and Toxir, Faustus couldn’t help but laugh. Mostly at the insanity of it, if the group survived the mission they would also have to survive each other. “I think you upset her.” He told the hauken in an exaggerated tone of concern before trying to get people unstuck on the issue of equipment. “Can’t you seduce the bouncers, or just buy a cloak, or something?” Faustus’s suggestions were more of a sign of impatience rather than willingness to help; eventually he gave up, turning back to Gee to ask, “What’s the time, and when’s this party starting?”

"If people'd been around we could have discussed this earlier." Sithra sighed. "I'll make up some excuse. Otherwise, I might seduce him, or knock him out, whichever I prefer at that moment. If we'd figured this out earlier, I'd have applied for an official bouncer job at the theatre so it wouldn't have been as suspicious."
Sithra had gotten rather aggitated at the group's behavior and the job. Even though she had a ticket, she'd have to discreetly wait in front of the artist's entrance all evening because of her armor, and she didn't really feel like that. Above that, if she was making a delivery, it'd be suspicious if she hung around one spot all evening. "I'm going ahead to search the artist's entrance. I'll keep an eye on that during the show and after it."
Sithra left the group and walked towards the theatre.

"The party stars at 20", said Geeileq. "I've said that a million times, so did the noble, how can you not remember that?" he continued, quite snappy. "The last time I checked the time it was 18:30. But do you seriously think it will matter if people arrive late?" Turning to Sithra again, he said: "If people would STICK around, we COULD discuss it! We have over an hour of time before the start and it doesn't matter whether we go there late or not!" Geeileq nearly shreaked and was about to lose his temper. He couldn't take these people much longer anymore. He just shook his head at Sithra's plans, but figured that at the worst she'd get arrested and the others would have an easier time beating down the performers.

Smirking as she heard Gee's voice carry down the street to her keen ears, Toxir finished her cigarette and flicked it over her shoulder, not caring where it landed. If that damn Hauken didn't stop complaining and acting a fool, then Toxir was liable to just leave the group. The amount of money she was sacrificing would be worth it to never have to hear his shrill voice again. Slowly meandering through the streets, Toxir found her way to the theatre, but stayed away from it to avoid seeming peculiar. Instead, she turned a corner and walked to a bench outside some building, sitting so that the theatre was in view. Diving in her pockets, Toxir pulled out her tobacco and papers and began to roll herself several cigarettes, making sure to keep an eye on the theatre.

“Well I don’t know squeaky? It could be your constant blabbering about equipment!” Faustus did not like to be snapped at, and lost his temper quite quickly. What was worse was the fact that he couldn’t actually remember Gee telling him anything about the time; he just assumed the hauken had a few screws loose. “Whatever, I was more worried about hanging around too early.” He said, starting to calm himself down, not wanting to draw too much attention to himself. “Besides, what else is there to discuss?” Faustus asked, wondering why he didn’t just head to the theatre right now, it was no worse than having his eardrums assaulted by the hauken again.

Tabaxi sighed, then spoke, "If somebody could lend me a dagger, I could do what Toxir suggested she'd do. Go in and mingle. And you guys already know that I can talk someone's ear off!" She giggled, trying to lighten the mood. "I'd have to leave all of my equipment in my room and maybe borrow a dress from Sithra, strap a dagger to my thigh and hope for the best. But I'd be willing to do it for the mission."

With a shake of the head, Faustus thought he’d humour the lynx’s attempt at peacemaking. “Your diplomacy needs some work, but I could spare you a knife.” He told Tabaxi as he flicked a kogatana out from his sleeve and held it out for the lynx-woman. “As for your equipment, you could jus’ leave it with Toxir. So you can collect it from the sewer before the fight begins.” The ravillan wasn’t sure about his ‘plan’ but was equally unsure about the performer’s skill.

Smiling warmly at Faustus, Tabaxi took the kogatana from him. "Thanks, Faustus. And that's a great idea, but I'm not sure Toxir would be able to carry Old Toby on top of her own equipment." She looked over at Geeileq, "Gee, would you be able to carry my cannon and some bullets into the sewer for me? I probably won't bother with armor or my axe. It's dangerous, but I can just fire from a safe distance if I need to."

Geeileq's wings twitched and he attempted to whap Faustus in the face with one of his steering wings. He agreed with the human about not really having anything to discuss, at least with him, seeing as he didn't exactly seem like a hitman like the rest of them. Of course he didn't say anything about that. He then proceeded to flap his wings, rose in the air and lifted a whole lot of dust off the ground, as well as the bedsheet Tabaxi had taken. He just flew over the group, caught the bedsheet and landed on the other side of the group. Geeileq then looked slightly tiredly at Tabaxi as she spoke to him. "Yeah. I don't know if not wearing armor is that dangerous, you don't see me wearing any, hm?" He handed the bedsheet back to her. "I think without the cannon you can make do with this, too. But if you don't want to, take it back to your room or the inn owner will go nuts on you", he said, totally seriously and monotonously.

Unah kept waiting for the group to be ready. She wondered if all this was really necessary. Cities were full of weird people. No matter what they did they were a group of weird people, so why just not accept it the way the rest of the weird city people did. "So... were going to the theatre, nice. I wonder what they'll be performing today" she said in a rather bored voice.

Jerking his head back as an effort to avoid Gee’s wing, Faustus took the hauken’s attempted ‘slap’ quite seriously. Considering the overgrown vulture had already hit him once, the Ravillan thought it a little strange to make things even worse with him. Especially before a fight, since ‘accidents’ tend to happen in battle. “Are we going, or are you too busy putting a show on of your own?” Faustus grunted, starting to wonder if after Gee’s high-pitched squeal and air display, whether the hauken was going to start juggling his equipment. As for the actual performance, “It’ll probably be something magical, the nobleman said they ‘ad some power, and weren’t all what they seemed.” And for the moment, the hunter couldn’t be bothered to sort out the cryptic briefing any more. With that thought, Faustus slowly started to head off in the direction Toxir and Sithra had gone in, towards the theatre.

Faustus barely dodged Geeileq's little wing-slap.

Geeileq looked at Faustus frustratedly and seeming like he didn't really understand what the human was saying. He shrugged it off and waited for Tabaxi's reply.

Unah sighed and followed Faustus to the theatre. "See you later", she said to Gee and Tabaxi before leving.

Tabaxi smiled and waved good-bye to Unah as she went, then looked back at Geeileq. "I'm gonna trust you on this one, and just leave it all behind." She said with a wink, "But first, I'm gonna go find a shop, and buy something nice to wear. Preferrably something that I can easily conceal this kogatana in."

Geeileq took the cannon and ammunition and wondered how the little thing could carry it around in the first place – the whole thing prevented him from flying now and he sure wasn't happy about that. Geeileq sighed and settled the weapon with the rest of his stuff. "Go wild. Just check that you have money before you start dreaming of shiny things. I recall seeing that kind of clothes shop down that street." He pointed down the street they'd walked yesterday. With that, Geeileq turned and started walking, but he went to a different direction than the others.

"Be careful with Old Toby! He's my baby!" Tabaxi called after Gee, as she watched him fly off with her most prized possession. She patted her poor, empty little money pouch and.... "Oh no! I forgot... I don't have any money left. It's why I took this job..." She sighed to herself, then quickly retreated to her room at the inn, replaced the bedsheet, lashed the kogatana to her thigh, stashed her armor and then scurried down the street to follow everyone else to the event. She would just have to hope that being dressed in plain clothes wouldn't attract too much attention to herself.

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Toxir found her way to what she thought to be the place where the performers would perform. Sithra arrived not too long after that. The place was yet another decent building with apparently two floors and decorated, obviously meant as a performing place. It seemed a fairly trendy place that attracted the youth. It was surrounded by trees and bushes, but the lawn it had was well kept. There were a few small groups of people having fun on the yard and two young guard-looking people talking to each other in front of the front door. From the front there weren't other doors visible, just windows, and to get to the back, one would have to go to the yard and circle the building. However, seeing as there were few people scattered around the place, it probably wouldn't look too weird to walk around.

Sithra walked up lawn, and decided the guards might know the way around best. She walked up to them, and eyed them head to toe first. "You guys look good in that armor. Hey, could you perhaps help me? I'm searching for the artist entrance? I gotta make a delivery you see."
She pointed to the big wrapped up scythe on her back (although she was sure she wrapped it up well enough to hide it's shape).

The two guards, a young man and woman, noticed Sithra approaching and first didn't pay her too much attention, but her manner of approach seemed a bit too serious for them, so they straightened themselves up. They didn't expect the compliment and chuckled slightly nervously. However, they listened and looked slightly puzzled at her statements. One of them said then: "Excuse me..." She then turned away to look at a group of four fancily dressed people who were sitting around a table, chatting and going through some papers. "Hey, excuse me, my lord Seville... are you waiting for something?" she said, pointing at Sithra. The four people glanced up and turned back except for the ravillan man who was being addressed. He looked slightly puzzled as well. "No..."

"One of the artists then?" Sithra said, shrugging and holding up her hands to gesture she didn't know much either. "I was told to deliver it here. I got... erm... oh damn... I don't have the contract on me, sorry." She pouted. This wasn't going anywhere. Curse this job! She decided right there this probably wasn't working, and that she would by Nim'ael forsake all subtility and step around in bloody armor.

The ravillan scratched his head and asked the the three other people whether they'd ordered anything, and they all were pretty clueless. Of course that implied the four of them were the artists. Finally the guard said: "Maybe you got the place wrong? There's a somewhat similar place a few blocks over there", she said, pointing to her left, "it has a similar design but it's different color and doesn't have a big yard around it."

Sithra noted this as a way of getting out without losing too much face, and nodded. She took a good look at the artists and nodded at them, and said goodbye to the guard. "I'll check that out, thanks!"
She turned around and walked towards the place the guard pointed at, dissapearing around a corner soon enough and heading back for the group. She did remember the looks of the artists, in case that would be necessary.

Arriving on the scene, Faustus slicked his hair back with his hands, wanting to achieve a cleaner, more respectable look. Hoping not to attract too much attention he started to walk confidently, while at the same time trying not to look too arrogant. Not spotting any other members of the team he started to wander the yard, eyeing the bushes to conceal his interest in the guards as well as the guests. With a lazy walk he tried to move around the back to scout out any other entrances or escape routes.

Some people glanced at Faustus as he walked by, but since there were other people doing that and so on, they didn't really pay attention to him. The back of the building wasn't too different, there was one door and a porch, as well as a structure to shield some tools and other items, among them gardening tools, dirt and a wagon. There was a guard dozing in front of the tool pile.

Wondering whether the back entrance needed to be covered in case the prey evaded him and the others, Faustus eventually directed his attention to the pile of items. Raising an eyebrow, he saw a slight opportunity. Watching the guard carefully, and the wagon too, he started to move as quietly as possible towards the tools. Trying not to look too conspicuous, Faustus tried to get a better look to see if there were anything of use. (Move Silently)(Search)

Faustus had no trouble at all moving quietly enough; the guard slept on happily, though if he tripped, the guard would probably wake up. Looking over the pile of tools, which wasn't that big, he saw mostly stuff like hoes, shovels, buckets and the like, some in better condition than others. He thought he could bar the door using the long handles of a few tools, but it would be obviously visible to the guard and anyone else who happened to walk by. The few people that could barely see Faustus in the backyard really didn't mind him.

Not seeing much point in heading inside yet, Faustus started to walk off, not taking much effort in moving quietly. Wondering where the others were. Knowing Sithra had set off before him, he figured she’d be wandering the yard somewhere, and if he couldn’t find any of the group then he’d just hang about the grounds until the show began. Taking a glance around, he looked for some place to sit and wait for the others.

Unah arrived to the theatre and looked at the building for a moment. She watched the entrance and wondered if it was too early to just walk inside. She wasn't very clear about what the plan was, but she guessed they would wait until the show ended and then approach the performers, maybe as some kind of fans at the beginning, and then start talking about the matter that had brought them there. Suddenly she wished the noble had told them his name. What would they tell the performers? Some noble sent us to kidnap all of you? She shook her head and then saw Faustus standing on the grounds. "Hello there" she said. "Found anything interesting?"

Not noticing Nal’unah at first, Faustus was startled to hear someone address him. Refusing to let it show too much, he just nodded his head in greetings. “I’ve found a back entrance, though we probably shouldn’t talk to much about that here.” He lowered his voice, since he didn’t entirely trust his surroundings. “We’ll have to worry about makin’ sure that’s covered later.” Faustus replied, doubting the performers would come quietly. 

Tabaxi finally scurried up to Unah and Faustus, his borrowed kogatana hidden under her plain breeches and tunic. "Hey guys! So what kind of show do you think it'll be? I hope it's not a fancy event and everyone's dressed up in nice clothes like I'd thought it would be, I'll feel like a big sore thumb in my plain clothes. I'd wanted to buy a dress but I forgot I was out of money, can you imagine that?! Anyway, I hope I get a chance to talk to the performers after the show, I'm so excited! I'll ask them all kinds of questions about how they do whatever it is they do and where they come from and all that stuff." She said with a wink, intending to recap her devious little plan with the others through innuendo, so no-one overhears and spoils their fun.

Meanwhile, Sithra had turned around, and was now walking through the streets, looking for the backside of the theatre. Perhaps there was an back entrance after all, and she still needed a place to stash her weapon until it would be of use.

Nodding in greeting, Faustus grinned at Tabaxi’s use of code words, he didn’t think she had it in her, after the whole demon-city confusion earlier. “If yer want to meet ‘em you should try the back entrance. In case some get away from you before you get a chance.” He returned the wink and prayed the lynx would catch on. His razor sharp grin faulted a little as he looked for Sithra, “Don’t s’pose you saw the other furball, what’s-her-face?” Faustus asked, before he answered Tabaxi’s first question. “It looks fairly casual…” he left that hanging as he looked about at the people in the yard, for the panther but also to see if he could spot anyone who looked like performers or out of the ordinary. (spot) (search)    

Sithra walked around the block to the street where she thought the backyard was visible – the street was parallel to the street from where the performing building was accessible, and if one walked through the performing building's yard from the front to the back, one should end up on that street. Therefore it was probable that it worked the other way around, too. However, only the trees that were at the back of the yard of the performing building were visible from the other street, effectively hiding the building. Furthermore, to get to the backyard from here, Sithra would have to trespass on another building's yard and she didn't know whether it was okay. There were also a few people around so Sithra might be seen if she walked through the yard.

Faustus didn't really see anything extraordinary with a quick glance around. He couldn't see Sithra either.

Unah greeted Tabaxi as she arrived. She hadn't thought about the clothes... and she hoped they would be alright the way they were dressed. "I'm sure we'll have time to chat with the artists later" she said, crossing her arms over her chest. "Shouldn't we just go inside? I don't see much use to be standing out here" she asked the group, forgetting Sithra wasn't there yet.

Judging by the amount of people who seemed to just be waiting around in the yard, it seemed like no one was supposed to go in yet.

Sithra looked around, and judged too many people were in the streets at the moment. So she decided to wait for the street to go calm, and then take a sprint to the back of the theatre. She was pretty sure the guards would grab her if she'd trespass in the garden.

“Dun’ look like it.” Faustus sighed as a response to the Terran’s question, he also shared the feeling that it was futile to stand around the yard all day. Finishing his scan of the yard, he soon abandoned his search for the absent panther and focused his attention back on present company. “Since we’re stuck out here for the moment, might as well make some use of it.” Faustus shrugged, starting to wander the grounds looking for someone interesting to talk to.

Faustus walked around and saw mostly young humans in big or small groups. The two big groups were rather noisy and didn't look like they needed more participants. There were two other people walking around alone, apparently doing the same as Faustus. The smaller groups of people looked most approachable. They looked mostly the same, except that some of them seemed to have a bit better clothing and thus be a bit richer. There was a group of three Caerhamians who had pretty striking outfits. Faustus also heard a group of four Ravillans talking about the performance in general, mostly along the lines of how they thought it would be.

Taking the hint that the larger parties didn’t need more voices contributing to the noise, Faustus decided to bother the other two. Without checking to see if Unah or Tabaxi were following, he started to head in the direction of the smaller gatherings. Since there was still some tension between his people and the Caerhamians, and the fact they looked richer, the Ravillan moved over to his own people in hope to learn more about the situation. “Excuse me, I couldn’t help but hear talk about the performance.” Pausing a little as he addressed them, Faustus figured he might as well be polite, “I havn’t seen these artists before, what do you think they’ll be doin?” He asked, trying to play on his own curiosity and the other group’s excitement to start up some kind of conversation.

When they saw Faustus approaching, all four in the group turned toward him and one of the two women in the little group immediately said: "Hi!" They all looked to be in their twenties or late teens at the least. One of the two men continued, answering Faustus's question: "Oh, I was jus' about to explain what they did when I was seein' them a year back. They've probably changed things, for one, I haven't seen that Rysallean before", he said, pointing vaguely at the group nearest to the building. There were two Caerhamians, a Rysallean, a Ravillan and apparently a really pale Lochmorian kid in the group. Now that Faustus was pointed toward them, three of them looked to have fairly strange outfits compared to the other people, so they might be the artists – of course the way the Ravillan fellow in the group of four spoke implied that they were the performers. "Anyway, I was sayin'... back then they had a one-hour-long acrobatics show in this large circus tent. It was damn awesome, lemme tell ya. The Caerhamians danced and played at the same time and the Eolan actually flew around doing some really bizarre stuff... They can't do that here though." The guy went on explaining the Eolan dancer's moves in rather minute detail, he had obviously been pretty enthralled by the show back then.

Nodding his head in greetings to both the man and woman who addressed him, Faustus took another look at who he thought to be the performers. “So they’re the performers eh?” he said to himself, while he measured up the group of alleged dancers and acrobats. He knew by what the man had said that the Eolan would probably have some sort of magic, while the others would probably rely on pure dexterity. But other than that they were still a mystery, the new Rysallean member especially. Trying to get more details out of the man, who seemed to enjoy talking about the performance, Faustus prompted another question. “What do the Lochmorian and Ravillan man do, are they also acrobats?” With a grin, he continued without waiting for an answer, this time addressing the women and the other man. “Well, this looks to be an interestin’ day after all. Though tell me, why can’t they do any of that stuff here, and what d’you think they will do instead?” He asked, getting a little tired of the talkative Ravillan, looking for opinions from the rest of the group.

"Who?" said the man who'd been talking about the Eolan for a while now. The woman who had spoken before elbowed him and said: "Relus, I think he means the kid." The man, Relus, looked slightly surprised. "Is he a Lochmorian? Hm... oh well, whoever could tell for sure from this distance", he mumbled. The woman went on: "I don't think he's actually part of the group... but who knows? Maybe he'll play the triangle." All four of them laughed at that and then Relus continued to explain who the Ravillan man in the froup was: "Oh, the Ravillan... I don't really know, he doesn't really do anythin'... I suppose he's an organizer or somethin'. At Faustus's comment about it getting to be an interesting day, the woman continued: "Yeah, it just got more interesting! Oh, I think this place is too small to do large-scale acrobatics... I don't know what else they'll do, I suppose they'll sing an' play more or something." She paused for a moment before looking at Faustus in a vaguely flirtatious manner. "Say, what's your name? I'm Anniine", she said, offering her hand to be shaked.

“You don’t get Caerhamian’s that pale. Faustus shrugged at the remark about the Lochmorian. He didn’t find the joke that funny, but at least made the effort to look interested. Using the joke and Relus’s constant chattering as a distraction, he took another quick glance around the yard, trying his luck at spotting Sithra again, or even people dressed similar to the three performers. Before he had time to contemplate the matter further he noticed the woman, Anniine offering her hand. Raising an eyebrow at her introduction, he took her hand, bowing his head a little at the same time. “More interesting eh?” he responded just as vague and flirtatious, before answering her question. “I’d be Faustus.” (Spot)

Tabaxi had indeed followed Faustus and listened tentatively to the conversations that he engaged in. Once the group of Ravillians pointed out the performers, she stared at them in intense interest. Without a word to Faustus or the other people, she slinked off toward the performers, hoping to get a closer look.

Sithra noticed the street was still crowded, and didn't really change, so she went on down the street, heading back for the theatre at the next crossroad. Once there, she kept to the side, trying not to attract too much attention, at least not from the people she spoke with earlier. She started looking around to see if any of her fellow mercenaries had decided to show up.

Faustus still couldn't see Sithra anywhere. He did, however, see a panther who was dressed similarly to the other performers. The panther was leaning on a tree doing nothing. Anniine smiled widely and said: "Well, nice to meet you, Faustus!" All four of them looked somewhat weirdly at Tabaxi but didn't mind her enough to ask what she was doing. Relus continued explaining about the Eolan he'd seen last year.

Tabaxi got closer to the performers and saw that the Ravillan was wearing a neat and fairly formal suit, one that could be seen on a politician who's not "on duty". The kid wore a grey robe and seemed a little out of place, though it was otherwise fairly unnoticeable. The rysallean and two Caerhamians had fairly elaborate fancy costumes – nothing too weird, but at least now one could think they were the performers just by their clothes. The wind was blowing from the wrong direction though, so that Tabaxi couldn't smell them out as of now.

Sithra could see Nal'unah standing on the street in front of the performing building's yard, but Faustus and Tabaxi weren't there; they were probably already in the yard.

Sithra noticed Nal'unah standing in front of the building, she decided she might as well go to her. Otherwise, she'd never find out what the party was up to. She decided that while she might go her own way in the forests she came from, it doesn't help in the city. If the nobleman was to give them all an equally frustrating job after they'd finished this test, she'd stick with these people, no matter how annoying they could be, until there was a solid plan. While deciding that, she ended up next to Nal'unah. She decided to act as if they were friends, meeting up for the show. "Hey, there you are! How're you? Seen any of the others yet?"

Unah watched Faustus and Tabaxi approach the people around, but didn't follow. She waited there for something to happen. Until now, the mission had turned to be quite boring. She was actually yawning when Sithra approached her. "Hi..." she answered a little confused by the panther's friendly approach. "I'm okay... just a bit bored... the others are around here, talking to people" she said pointing with her head to the group Faustus was talking to. "I don't know exactly what they want to get from all the chatting, though. Where were you, anyway?" she asked.

As the lynx wandered off in the direction of the performers, fear of being exposed tugged at the attention of Faustus, but on a second thought, Tabaxi seemed harmless enough. He took a casual interest in the panther but didn’t ask or confront it since panther’s are renowned for their secrecy, and their ability to spot other people’s. “The pleasure’s mine.” He replied to Anniine, letting his grin falter before he continued. “But the doors’ll open soon and I’m meeting someone.” He prayed the doors would open so he could escape Relus’s relentless babbling.

Not being able to smell the performers from her current position bothered Tabaxi. Sticking her little finger in her mouth and discerning the direction of the wind, she attempts to put herself downwind of the troupe. Using her small form to her advantage, she daintily picked her way through the crowd until she found just the right place, where the performers hopefully didn't notice...

"Ah well, you know, hanging around town a bit." Sithra said at first, but then, softer: "And trying to find a place to place this bloody scythe. I should've ditched it with that high-pitched Hauken!"

More people started gathering in the yard. Tabaxi got pretty close to the performers, who didn't seem to even notice her. She easily smelled the Caerhamian woman, Caerhamian man, Rysallean woman and Ravillan man. The kid, however, was harder. She smelled mostly like a Ravillan, but Tabaxi detected a faint Dah'kin scent among the odors. It was possible it could come from an object or even some other people in the crowd too, so she couldn't be sure about the kid.
Soon after, two older guards came and relieved the three others from their duties. The performers went into the house and not many minutes after the doors were opened and one of the guards and the Ravillan man who was with the performers instructed people into the performing hall after taking their tickets.

Unah looked at the pack Sithra was carring. "Ah, that's a problem..." she answered, taking a hand to her head, as if that would help her to get an idea. As the doors opened she felt relieved, the waiting was over. "Maybe if we're lucky they'll let you go in with that..." she said, knowing that was a very risky option.

Sithra looked at the opened doors but hesitated about going in. Then she decided to take the chance and walked into the theatre.

The new guard looked quite suspiciously at Sithra as she came and then stopped her in front of everyone who was still behind her. It was obvious he wanted it to be short and simple since there were still people to be let in. "Excuse me, my lady, but what is that?" the guard asked, pointing at Sithra's concealed scythe.

Tabaxi pondered the strange scents she scented, then hopped in line to enter the show. She wound up directly behind Sithra, and her eye twitched slightly as the guardsman stopped her. Jumping in front of her, she said to the guard, loudly: "THIS, good sir is my most recent INVENTION! It's a HEARING DEVICE. You see, I'm a LITTLE DEAF in BOTH EARS. THE LARGE SHAPE helps funnel sound TOWARD ME, and my GOOD FRIEND HERE agreed to carry it FOR ME. IT WORKS MARVELOUSLY." (whee bluff!) 

Sithra was surprised at the sudden interference of the little cat, but decided to play along by looking very ashamed of her friend. "I'm really, really sorry! But she can't hear the play otherwise. I'm really sorry. We'll stick to the side of the hall, so it won't bother other people, honestly!"

Needless to say, the guard looked quite confused at the little loud lynx, but he happily bought the story without further questions, though it was of course still obvious that he just wanted to get on with it. "Oh, I see! That's great, I must say. Have a nice time." He took both Sithra's and Tabaxi's tickets while at it and let them enter the hall.

Moving away from the group of Ravillans, but still not finding the others in the group, Faustus headed towards the door, giving his ticket to the guard. 

Unah watched impressed as Sithra managed to get inside helped by little Tabaxi. She followed after the group, giving the guard her ticket.

---

Geeileq eventually made his way to the proximity of the building. He didn't see anyone of the group but then he was only looking for Toxir. It didn't take too long for him to find her sitting and smoking close to the performing building. Geeileq just walked up to her and said: "Will you come with me."

Glancing up as Gee approached her, Toxir listened and nodded shortly after. Standing, Toxir dusted her bum off and walked next to Gee, making sure to blow her smoke away from him as much as she could manage. "So the rest are already there, I presume?" She asked casusally, making sure to keep her words as unassuming as possible while still getting her point across.

"I should hope so", answered Geeileq to Toxir's question and walked on, hauling along Tabaxi's cannon. After a moment, he spoke again, out of the blue: "How can that little kitty lift an' use this thing?" Soon after, he turned down an ally and searched around for an entrance to the sewer system, finding it a few moments later. He then offered the cannon to Toxir, saying: "Hold this, please."

Toxir nodded. Walking beside Gee, she looked sideways and noticed him struggling with Tabaxi's cannon. Smirking at his question, Toxir shrugged and lit up another cigarette. "Beats the @#$% outta me. Maybe she's a strong little @#$%." She offered with another shrug. When they stopped, Toxir accepted the cannon and held it with ease, but could understand how the Hauken questioned the lynx's ability to haul the thing around. Blowing her smoke away from Gee, Toxir took another long drag.

After Toxir had taken the cannon, Geeileq opened the sewer hole, moved the lid aside and went in, though he obviously had a little trouble with his wings. "Can you pull the lid over when you come in", said Geeileq as he retreated a bit in the tunnel to let Toxir come in.

Watching with what seemed to be no interest as the Hauken in front of her struggled slightly to fit his wings in the small sewer, Toxir flicked the butt of her cigarette over her shoulder. Hoisting the cannon on her shoulder, Toxir easily pulled the lid shut behind her. It only took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dark, and Toxir instantly reached for another cigarette. "No pun intended, but it smells like shit down here." She commented, a little dry humor poking through.

"No shit", replied Geeileq, totally intending the pun. He waited for a slightly longer time still, after all, he didn't really see in the dark. However, he knew his way (mostly) and could see enough to keep from stumbling. So, after a while, he set off, crouching and moving slowly forward in the narrow tunnel. "When we get there, I'd appreciate if you didn't smoke. I don't care if you stay further, though."

Toxir laughed, half at his pun and at his request. "I'd rather smell tobacco than shit." She replied, lighting the end and inhaling deeply. Carrying the cannon on her shoulder, Toxir followed calmly.

"Hmh", mumbled Geeileq as he made a turn. "I heard that stuff fucks up yer lungs. I don't know about you, but I'll live for a long time so I'd like to be healthy for most of that time." After a while, he also added: "An' well, the spot where we should be in doesn't smell, it has a seal." Having said that, Geeileq soon started inspecting the wall, and Toxir saw a hatch just a moment before he found it. Geeileq opened it and turned to Toxir again. "Okay, this tube is directly connected to the room where the performers are. You know, you also shouldn't smoke because we'll probably be noticed if you do. I'd be worried if there was a sewer smoking in a place full of people." With that, he went in quietly, again having trouble with his wings. He seemed rather tense, despite the fact that he seemed a bit freer in the way of his speaking.

Looking around at the place in which they were supposed to stay, Toxir nodded. It was almost refreshing to be underground again, sewer or not. "Yeah, it does, but it's one hell of a stress reliever." Toxir said, stubbing her cigarette out on the wall to avoid igniting the shit they walked around in. Observing the tube, Toxir wondered how exactly Gee was going to get his wings in there with her as well. "Then I'll just leave the sealed area for my cigarettes. Quietly." She added, assuring Gee that she had no plans of sabatoging them by clanking around. Hoisting the cannon tightly to her body, Toxir entered the tube as quietly as she could manage, making sure not to hit the cannon on the sides.

"I've heard there are other ways to relieve stress", said Geeileq, starting to sound like he'd never say anything literally straight, even if he was blunt and to the point. He was whispering now, since they were in the tube connected to the performing hall. "If ya need to come and go, do so as little as possible, please. Every time we open that hatch", he pointed to the hatch that they'd just gone through and closed, "the stench comes in and the people in there might get suspicious."

"I'll keep it to a minimum." Toxir assured. Gee certainly had a point, the smell of shit in the performance hall would raise a lot of questions. "One more before the show and then I'll be fine." She stated under her breath, though quite sure that Gee had heard her. It was, honestly, more that she liked to smoke so much that had her always reaching for her tobacco, not the actual yearn for it.

Geeileq listened to what Toxir had to say and seemed a bit confused as to what she was going to do. "There are already people in the hall. They'll notice it if ya'll go now, but they might not mind. I'd say the show'll start soon." He then noticed someone moving near the sewer hole's mouth to the hall and froze still, but noticed soon enough that it was Faustus and moved again, not caring if he saw them. He couldn't help reaching out and poking Faustus's leg lightly, however. He'd have a boring time sitting in the sewer tub and before the show and music started, he'd have nothing to do.

Toxir shrugged and tried to make herself as comfortable in the tiny sewer hole while trying to avoid making any noise. Listening to what was happening in the hall, Toxir folded her arms across her chest and closed her eyes, making herself comfortable.

---

The first thing inside the building was a fairly formal receiving hall with stairs to the second floor and four big doors. The people were guided through one of the doors into a stairway that led down, and at the end of the stairway was an entrance to the actual performing hall. The hall was at least partially under the ground, with only the performers' stage being actually "in" the building. The ceiling wasn't very high, only about two meters at the back of the hall and four in the front, with the stage area being about five meters high. It was covered by a curtain at the moment, though. The floor was slightly tilted so as to allow the people in the back a bit better visibility. There were a few organizers, some young Ravillans in matching clothes, who were setting up the last things and seemed to be selling drinks and offering water. Other than that, the hall was decorated, had some fancy lighting in the ceiling and there were stools in the edges of the hall – the middle part was free of chairs, probably so that the people could jump and dance around.

Sithra walked into the Hall, fairly amazed at the fact she got in. Standing at the side of the hall, and dragging Tabaxi along, she whispered to the lynx: "Thanks alot, I owe you one. Nice play, too."
She snickered, and took a seat at the side, seating Tabaxi next to her and aiming her 'invention' at the stage.

Unah walked in and looked for a seat next to Sithra and Tabaxi. "So... let's enjoy the play, I guess", she whispered to the girls, still not clear of what the concrete plan was. She sat down and turned to look at the stage, hoping the show wouldn't be boring.

Meanwhile, Faustus made his own way into the hall, trying to avoid the others in his group to make it harder for them to spot incase the performers were expecting assassins, but mostly because he were used to working on his own. Before deciding upon a place to sit, he inspected the room for shadows he could retreat into or elements of the hall he could use to his advantage. (spot)

Looking around, Faustus saw a couple of tables at the back that could easily be used as partial hiding spots if knocked over. At the very back of the hall there were some opened crates and barrels, probably for bringing the decorations and other stuff in. One could fairly easily hide there, and a few people were using them as seats at the moment, even if there were still chairs free and the barrels weren't exactly in the best place if one wanted to see the show. Overall, the most shady places were at the back of the hall. Faustus also saw what he thought to be the sewer entrace (where Toxir and Geeileq should be), almost completely covered by a crate.

Even though Faustus quite liked the idea of Toxir and Gee stuck in the sewer because some crate was blocking their entrance. Regrettably, he also wanted the mission to go as smoothly as possible. Sticking to the back of the hall, Faustus tried to nudge the crate to the side, a little further forwards than the sewer, hoping it would just look like he was manoeuvring into a better view of the show. Half sitting, half leaning on the crate, it seemed that he would be doing the signalling, if he felt like it that is. He glanced over to the others, wondering if they knew where the sewer entrance was located. Shaking the worry from his head, he realized that sitting through the show and remaining awake would probably be the hard part of the job, he folded his arms and waited for it to begin.

The show started to get on the way as more people came in and some people appeared on the stage. A Rysallean and, at a closer look, a panther were playing some light, somewhat quiet filler music while the rest of the things were being set up.

Unah watched the show with mild interest, until she noticed Faustus wasn't sitting by them. She wondered what the ravillan was planning. "Do any of you see Faustus?" she whispered to the girls sitting besides her.

Sithra shrugged, she didn't care, she knew he'd be around. Fauntus wants to be paid, like all of them, and not working means not getting paid. So he'd be around. Instead, she watched the show, perhaps it'd show them something of their opponents' style.

Tabaxi peered around the room from her seat, until she spotted Faustus leaning over by the crate. "Over there. Guess he didn't want to sit with a bunch of girls." She gestured weakly at Faustus, then turned her attention back to the musicians on stage. Then she said, "Pretty music!" Obviously getting distracted by the show.

Being a bit of a freak among his own people, Faustus was mostly bored by the music. Stifling a yawn, he noticed Tabaxi and simply gave her a nod to show he was there and ready, though much to his distaste he assumed they would strike after the performance. Deciding he might as well take the chance to study how the performers were going to protect themselves, or why they are marked for death, Faustus leaned forward and rested his chin in his hands and watched lazily at what ever happened next.

As the people started getting settled, eventually the filler music ended and there was a moment of silence before a Ravillan – the one who was supposed to be the manager – held a sort of welcome speech. The show intro started as he introduced the performers as they came on stage and when that was done, they started the real show.
There were two Caerhamians, Aluaja and Craehun, who were dressed in very elaborate, detailed and colorful costumes. They both seemed to be dancers and very good ones at that. Aluaja seemed to know red magic (since she played with fire as she danced), but other than that it was a little unclear what they knew. There was a Rysallean, Lohien, in a green foresty-looking costume and she was playing some sort of string instrument. She seemed quite skilled with her hands, but then, who Rysallean wouldn't. The fourth performer was a panther, Kata, who seemed quite sneaky in the way she appeared, disappeared and reappeared in different parts of the stage, playing some sort of flute or another wind instrument. There wasn't anything special about how she did it, though, and it was quite clear that she just hid behind the curtains and props and walked around from place to place, though obviously that wasn't seen by the audience. The fifth performer was the Eolan singer and dancer, Kirr'hena, who had been praised so much by the guy that had talked to Faustus. Kirr'hena had a strange, windy costume and obviously knew a lot about yellow magic, that was clear. In addition to singing, Kirr'hena also had a small wind instrument but wasn't playing it at the moment. When the introduction part ended, the panther Kata sat down and started playing a simple drum set with her feet while still playing the flute, and the show went fully on.

With the start of the performance, Faustus started to look more interested in what was going on. Though only for strategic reasons, staring hard as he tried to work out which would be the most dangerous to the group, making notes of the panther, the fire wielder and of course the Eolan. Deciding that his first arrow had Kirr'hena’s name on it, Faustus glanced over at his own group not giving much thought on how they would fare, just hoping they could serve as a distraction for him to remain hidden. Fidgeting from watching the show so intently, Faustus started to wish he had one of those sticks Toxir liked to smoke, or something a little stronger to pass the time. Tapping his fingers in sync with the music, he carried on observing the show feeling a little uncomfortable in the calm before the storm, since he knew this would erupt into battle and bloodshed afterwards.

The show went on and Faustus was asked at least a few times by Anniine to come dance (after she'd found him). Nothing very definitive was found out about the performers – the manager did very little, Kirr'hena was obviously an experienced Wind bearer, Aluaja a less experienced Flame bearer and Lohien even less experienced Wind bearer. Craehun and Kata knew no magic, but it seemed from their movements while they danced or moved about that they had been trained somewhat in the ways of a fighter, though obviously not a bulky one.
Nevertheless, around 23, the show started to end and after the final performance had been finished, people started dripping out of the performing hall. People left and the performers rested about and didn't seem to think anything was odd just yet, for they were pretty tired. Most of them were behind the curtains and props, but Kirr'hena was sitting triumphantly on the stage. The Ravillan manager seemed to be getting friendly with a wine barrel, though it looked odd since he wasn't exactly drinking.

Geeileq noticed when it started getting quiet and proceeded to first prod Toxir lightly and then reach out from the sewer access to noticeably poke Faustus in the leg, hoping that he hadn't left and somebody taken his place next to the crate.

After shaking off Anniine, Faustus figured he was safe to move into position when he felt somebody prod his leg. At first he feared the woman had somehow found him again, but realized it was coming from the sewer. Not really that sure on what the Hauken wanted as a signal, he started to mumble while he put his head in his hands, hoping that it would appear to the performers that he had just had a little too much wine. “The show’s finished, the fighting’s about to start, when the cats and the Terran get around to it. So you do your thing whenever you like, eh.” Hoping that the Hauken had heard the hushed words, he decided to tap twice on the opening with his foot as he got up, thinking they’d take that as a sign to get ready. Walking off a little groggily to keep up the charade, he positioned himself into the shadows before crouching slowly behind one of the other barrels at the back of the room. If the Hauken and Dah’kin hadn’t heard or got the signal then they were on their own now, Faustus mused as he reached around his back and under his cloak for his bow and arrow while still trying to remain hidden.

Having continually kept a lazy eye on the going ons of the perfomance hall, Toxir was not too surprised when Gee prodded her. Sliding an eyelid open, she gestured her head towards the hall, nonverbally asking whether it was time yet.

Having been sitting with the audience, Tabaxi "oooh!'ed" and "Ahhh!ed" along with them until the end of the show, and when everyone got up to leave she followed in suit, not wanting to seem out of place. But the barrells at the back of the room afforded a sneaky place to hide until the crowd cleared. And thus it came to be that Tabaxi was there when Faustus nearly stepped on her. She surpressed a squeak when he appeared in her hiding spot, staring at him wide-eyed.

Nearly bumping into someone, Faustus tensed up, his grip tightening on his bow as he wondered if he had been caught. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness he spotted Tabaxi couched at the side of him. Briefly sharing her look of shock, he started to let out a string of silent curses ending in a soundless ‘what-the-fuck’ wondering why the lynx was there in the first place. Giving himself sometime to think, he assumed she was there to collect her cannon from the sewer but wanted confirmation this wasn’t some random Tabaxi adventure. “You better be here to get your damn weapon or Nesha help us.” He hissed, eventually nodding towards the direction of the sewer entrance. He also took the opportunity to give an anxious glance to see if anyone had noticed them.

Unah kept sitting in the same place she had been sitting during the whole show. Apparently, she was asleep. Luckily she wasn't snoring.

Geeileq barely heard Faustus, but whether or not he made sense of the words, he decided that it was time to move out. At least he couldn't see any people from the narrow view that the crate and sewer access grantd him. "Let's go", he said to Toxir and started taking off the net that covered the hole. Taking the thing off and afterwards Geeileq moving the crate aside so that he could exit the hole made quite a lot of noise, enough to be heard at the stage. Geeileq looked around, and seeing no one else except the performers and the rest of the party, moved along to Sithra and Nal'unah, not even trying to hide. Having reached the two, he tapped both of them on the shoulder. "Awake now?" he asked, seeing that Unah at least seemed to be sleeping.

Neither the manager nor the Eolan seemed to care about the noise Geeileq made when coming out, but fairly soon they did notice the Hauken, and that surely caught their attention since there hadn't been a Hauken in the party and the wings were definitely noticeable. Now that the performers were looking at Geeileq, Tabaxi, Faustus and Toxir in the back could probably move without being seen at all.

Toxir watched as Gee made his way out of the hole. 'Damn wings are gonna give us away.' She thought to herself as she leaned the cannon near the entrance. If Tabaxi wanted it, she'd know where Toxir had been, but climbing out of the sewer hole would be conspicuous enough without lugging a cannon out of it with her. Slipping out of the sewer as quietly as she could manage, Toxir draped the net over the opening enough to look covered and walked casually over to where Gee, Unah, and Sithra were gathered.

Giving Faustus a thumbs-up in response, Tabaxi whispered back, "I never saw the sewer. Where--" And then Geeileq answered the question for her, appearing in the middle of the room and earning the stares of their targets. "Ohbluddyhell." She muttered, literally skittering across the floor on all fours toward where she saw Gee emerge, and now Toxir, hoping that the benches gave enough cover for her small body to make it to her cannon without being seen.

Tabaxi made it to her cannon easily and got it. Now there was only the issue that Geeileq still had the bullets and gunpowder.

"Wha-??" Unah woke up as Geeileq tapped on her shoulder. "Geez, I was dreaming of this handsome lion that..." she left the sentence unfinished as she recognized the theatre they were in and remembered what had brought her there. "Uh, right, now what? Should we ask them for autographs?" she asked while standing up from her seat.

Shaking his head in disbelief, Faustus almost couldn’t help but respect the tiny catfolk’s bravery. As Tabaxi moved towards the sewer entrance, he tried to make use of Gee’s distraction for his own purposes, to get in range with his targets. Now spotting the others getting ready (or waking up) he quietly made his way to the side of the hall, keeping low as he slowly moved forwards. Ducking behind seats and barrels while sticking to the shadows he stalked until he found a sufficient distance where he had enough cover to remain unseen. Bow in hand, he took out two arrows, placing one between his teeth and notching the other, Faustus decided to wait and see what the Hauken planned to do next.

"I'm awake. Don't touch me." Sithra said, and she pushed away Geeileq's hand. She stood up, keeping her wrapped-up scythe down just to be sure. Then she added, trying to sound ethusiastically as to not give them away immediatly, in case they could be overheard. "How about we go up there and congratulate them on their wonderful play? They sure deserved it."

Geeileq gave Sithra a glance, saying: "Touchy." He looked at the performers and then back at Sithra and replied her question. "Sure, though if that's for the pretending, maybe you shouldn't bother. There isn't anyone else here as far as I can see. That's the only exit, right?" he asked, pointing at the only visible exit that was close to the back of the hall. "Will one of you go state our business or do I have to?"

The manager, Seville, glared at Geeileq and looked rather puzzled, even concerned at what he said. Kirr'hena, still sitting, looked about as confused and shrugged. Seville left the wine barrel alone and walked a bit closer to the group of four. "Uh, excuse me? Do you ...want something?" The two Caerhamians apppeared from behind the sets and looked around.

"Yeah, actually, we do." Sithra says. "There was a problem with the show, so we'd like to talk to all of you. Could you call your troupe together, please?"

Seville raised an eyebrow but glanced at the two Caerhamians, who went and fetched Kata and Lohien from resting. They stood behind the manager, not flocking close to each other but just so that they'd hear what the other group had to say. "What problem?"

"Abusing the money and reputation of your dear sponsor - and our employer. We're here to gather your possessions." Sithra replied. "Give it up, or get punched down. The really, really painful way." (Intimidate)

Unah stood by Sithra and waited to see what the troupe would do. Crossing her arms over her chest she observed the performers movements.

Cocking a brow at Sithra's approach, Toxir smirked and reached into her pocket for a cigarette and a match, not much caring whether this was a smoking hall or not. They were about to ruin a lot of property by fighting anyway. A little ash was the least of their issues. Standing comfortably, Toxir gently placed her hand on the handle of her flail as she flicked the ash from her cigarette onto the floor.

Wondering what all the talking was about, Faustus didn’t think it was too hard to go there and chop a bunch of pansy dancers to pieces. Hearing Sithra’s diplomacy technique he was taken aback to say the least, as it was a bit abrupt even for him. He all but prayed for trouble now, as he drew an arrow and aimed it at the Eolan. Faustus seemed to remember something about bringing them in alive, but he couldn’t be arsed with that crap at the moment. Putting a little more pressure on the bowstring, he decided to watch how the manager responded, if just for a laugh.

Having been reunited with her beloved cannon, Tabaxi made ready to join the frey- only to find that she had no shots. Cursing silently to herself for forgetting that the Hauken was carrying her ammo, she hefted her cannon onto her shoulder anyway and popped up from her hiding spot, pointing it at the bad guys. She could only hope to add to the intimidation, and hope that they wouldn't notice that it's not loaded.

Seville stood pretty wide-eyed and with a scaredly concerned expression on his face. Toxir's smoking bothered him and while he had no idea what Tabaxi was doing, pointing a big tube at them and doing nothing, it all seemed quite scary. "Uhm... I don't have any idea what you're talking about", he mumbled, but he looked pretty ripe to give up anything. Lohien started backing behind the stage again, while the Eolan got up and started speaking. "What in the name of Eola is this? Are you threatening us? Why?" The voice sounded strange now that Kirr'hena wasn't singing. (Bluff)

Geeileq facepalmed and didn't seem to be paying much attention.

Watching the display, not knowing whether to cringe or laugh, Faustus chose to do neither. Instead he continued watching, wondering why they were bothering to ask for the equipment when they were sent here to kill them. Marvelling at Gee leadership skills, or lack of them and the complete shambles both sides seemed to be in, the Ravillan took things into his own hand. Making his own mind up whether the Eolan was being honest, he decided that he would attack if she had lied regardless of what the other’s wanted. (Detect Lies).

"I think you have a perfectly fine idea of what we're talking about. Cough it up, or cough it out. The first referring to your stuff, the second to your kidneys." Sithra replied to Seville. When the Eolan spoke, she looked at him, and said: "We're only threatening you as long as your don't give your possessions to us. I don't care wether you know why or not."
She was too busy speaking with Sevilla and the Eolan, she didn't notice Lohien backing out.

"And we need to take you back", added Geeileq so that the performers wouldn't think it was just some robbery.

Faustus listened to Kirr'hena and was fairly certain that the Eolan did know what was going on and was just pretending to not know. Of course, these people were trained performers, so it might be in vain. Seville, then again, was obviously lying; he knew what was going on. Everyone else noticed Lohien moving into hiding, but no one could see her after that. Seville was scared and didn't really know what to do, so he glanced at his group. Kata stepped forward and spoke now: "Why exactly does he want us?" (Bluff)

Deciding the conversation had become irrelevant since they themselves did not know what was going on, Faustus assumed they didn’t have much of a response. Noticing the rysallean disappearing and knowing sneaky bastards, being one himself, he guessed a fight would soon ensue. So in true Faustus style, he would be the one to pull the first punch. With an arrow already pointed at his target, he simply released it at the Eolan, he was not about to give the performers any more time to prepare themselves or escape.(Stealth attack)

Combat started!

---

Initial positions for round 1: http://elftown.eu/stuff/P4_001_01.gif
Round 2: http://elftown.eu/stuff/P4_001_02.gif
Round 3: http://elftown.eu/stuff/P4_001_03.gif
Round 4:

Faustus   B1  28/28
Kirr'hena E4   1/20
Geeileq   B11 31/31
Tabaxi    B5  10/36
Kata      C7   1/14
Toxir     F3  22/31
Lohien    ?   16/16
Aluaja    D7   2/14
Craehun   C7   1/14
Sithra    D8  38/47
Nal'unah  A6  27/36
Seville   B7  10/10

Kirr'hena didn't see the arrow coming and it hit the Eolan squarely in the chest, dealing 29 damage. The Eolan dropped to the stage floor, unconscious and only barely breathing.

Geeileq's turn:
Geeileq, while not really too fascinated with Faustus, knew how to appreciate a good shot and smiled. He pulled up his cho ko nu and bolts, loaded the weapon and fired at Kata.

The bolt hit Kata in her stomach, dealing 8 damage.

Tabaxi's turn:
Sighing in exasperation, Tabaxi could only move toward Geeileq in hopes of retrieving her shots. She began picking her way between the seats, carrying her cannon and removing the kogatana borrowed from Faustus from its hiding place beneath her tunic.

Tabaxi had no problem making it right behind Geeileq.

Kata's turn:
Kata winced at the sudden bolt in her stomach and readied her scimitars. She realized she wouldn't make it it time to attack anyone, so she stayed put.

Toxir's turn:
Mumbling a string of curses under her breath, Toxir realized that she wasn't in range of anyone to use her flail or axe. Still, she unfastened it flail from her body and gripped it comfortably, letting the chain swing lightly. Seeing Seville, she moved forward (C9) to Seville.

Lohien, Aluaja and Craehun's turns:
Lohien appeared in E3 and fired an arrow at Sithra.
Aluaja, then again, assessed the situation and decided that it would be a very good idea to set fire on all five of the group in front of them, so she said: "Duck!" to Seville and cast Flamethrower on the group in front of her while Seville dived very ungracefully to B7. Seville sounded terribly frightened and shouted: "Lohien! Heal Kirr'hena, please!"
Craehun brandished his epee and ran to E12.

Seeing the arrow coming, Sithra turned towards it, so it'd deflect off her armor. However, she was greatly alarmed when she heard someone yell "DUCK!". Experience had thought her it was usually a good idea for both friend and foe to heed the yells. So she continued to turn, hoping to deflect the arrow with her armor, but getting out of the way of whatever it was that was coming their way.

The arrow stopped at Sithra's armor without any trouble, though it seemed to have come from a very strange angle.
Aluaja's skilled use of red magic burned everyone targeted except for Geeileq who managed to flap his wings enough to rise just high enough into the air to dodge. The fire dealt 9 damage to each victim.

Sithra's turn:
Sithra raised her scythe, which looked quite demonic with all the burning cloth around it, and charged towards Aluaja to show him what real damage was.

Aluaja tried to dodge, but fumbled because she was shocked enough at seeing the enemies take the Flamethrower spell so lightly. Sithra managed to deal 12 damage across Aluaja's back and wondered how she managed to miss the straps that held the dancer's costume up, all the while the dancer screamed in pain.

Nal'unah's turn:
Unah didn't feel as thrilled as she thought she would now that the fighting had started. She felt like there was something wrong. They were too weak, she thought. The only enemy standing close to her was Seville, the manager, at whom Unah aimed one of her Franciscas. "You better give up now and come with us!", she yelled.

"No, don't attack, please!" yelled Seville after he'd jumped due to the threat and acknowledged Unah's words. "I give up! Just don't kill me!" The others looked pretty scared, but not too cooperative.

Faustus's turn:
Watching the chaos, Faustus calmly removed the arrow from his teeth and loaded his bow. He was past subtlety and stealth, and hearing Seville’s words about a healer, he knew he couldn’t afford them to undo his work. He also heard the Ravillan, begging for mercy too; he was surprised to say the least that it was Nal’unah who had let him live. Hunters weren’t supposed to negotiate with their prey, but keeping at least one alive allowed them to get answers. With that in mind, Faustus took a sidelong look at the cowering Seville before speaking. “Tell them to stand down!” he barked, unimpressed and unconvinced by the man’s eagerness to give up. “Tell them to stand down, or I’ll make them. Then I’ll come for you!” To emphasize his point, he released an arrow at Lohien, even if it pushed the boundaries of his range, some damage was better than none.

The arrow Faustus shot went right through the air at Lohien, but didn't stop at her body, instead going right through it and making no damage at all.

The performers started looking quite desperate now, and Seville shouted: "Stop fighting!" Aluaja was pretty ready to give up and Craehun looked very indecisive, but Kata shouted: "No!"

Geeileq's turn:
Geeileq grinned at the easy targets and after firing the two bolts at Kata, he turned his crossbow at Craehun and started shooting again.

The second bolt dealt 7 damage and dropped Kata to the ground so Gee's third bolt missed. The first bolt at Craehun hit him right in the stomach, dealing 13 damage. At that point Craehun groaned, gave up and dropped his weapon to the ground. "I surrender!" Hearing that, also Aluaja gave up: "Me too! Please don't kill us!"

Tabaxi's turn:
Raising an eyebrow at the quick surrender, Tabaxi attempted to retrieve her ammo whilst casually patting at her scorched fur, wincing slighty. "Gee, gimme my bullets and gunpowder!"

"Hang on", replied Geeileq. "I'd really advise against shooting that thing here though. Besides, they're already surrendering."

Tabaxi pouted cutely at Geeileq, slinging the cannon across her back and weilding the kogatana instead, as the Hauken advised. "If they try anything funny and I can't shoot them, I'll be mad at you later."

"If ya shoot an' this building collapses on us, I'll make sure you can never fire it again", replied Geeileq with a grin.

Toxir's turn:
Toxir half smirked half sneered at the quick work the others had made of the group of dancers. Lohien, however, had not yet surrendered, the only one left. Gripping her flail tightly, Toxir charged forward to D3, swinging her flail over her head to bring it crashing into Lohien's side.

Toxir swung her flail with terrible force and Lohien barely dodged – however, Toxir almost lost her balance when the flail kept on going through Lohien, as if the Rysallean was just a hallucination!

Lohien's turn:
Lohien, the one that Toxir had just "missed", raised her bow and shot another arrow at Sithra.

Sithra once more used her armor in an attempt to deflect the projectile away. She didn't get it. Why could nothing hit her opponent?

Sithra thought her armor blocked the arrow easily, but also the arrow seemed to be rather incorporeal and really wouldn't have done any damage even if it had actually hit her.

Nal'unah's turn:
Unah looked with suspicion at the disappearing Lohien. She run after Toxir towards the Rysallean and attacked with her axe. "C'mon, give up!" she said.

Nal'unah seemingly cleaved the Rysallean clean in half, but again the blade just went through the "body", as if there was nothing but air there. Lohien also didn't seem to make any kind of sound at all.

Seville just lay on the floor and tried his best not to look offending in any way.

"What's with the Rysallean? Can't you even knock her down?" asked Geeileq from Toxir and Unah.

Faustus's turn:

Confused at first by his and the other failed attempts at damaging the rysallean performer, he started to understand. As realization hit, Faustus hastily reloaded another arrow, but knew he would not have time to fire it. With the behaviour of ‘Lohien’, the incorporeal arrow fired at Sithra and the lack of sound that surrounded her action, he assumed this was some sort of magic trick, an illusion maybe. Following his theory, he figured that the real Lohien must be close by, probably in the same place as before. Faustus shot a look of resentment to Gee’s question, which seemed to mock his original effort, not to mention his own and the others incapability. Unconcerned about whatever the rest of the group were doing, he scanned the room, paying careful notice to the curtains in particular, since Lohien must be watching the battle from somewhere. (Spot)

Faustus didn't see Lohien, but he did see spots where Lohien might have gone, specifically a suspicious looking curtain fold and of course overall behind the curtains.

Geeileq's turn:
Geeileq also figured that the Rysallean was probably just some false image, but there wasn't too much he could do about that. He glanced at Craehun and thought that if he left to look for Lohien now, Tabaxi would too and leave the Caerhamian clear to escape. Thus, Gee pointed Craehun with his cho ko nu and said: "Go to yer two buddies there or I'll shoot you."

Tabaxi's turn:
Tabaxi pointed the little kogatana she was carrying at their captives, following Geeileq's lead and motioning with the blade for Craehun to move in the direction that the Hauken indicated. "Do what he says, or he'll shoot you, and THEN I get to cut you up!" With her tail swishing back and forth, she tried her best to look maniacal and intimidating. 

Toxir's turn:
There was no other explanation for Lohien's seeming incorporeal figure other than to blame it on magic. However, Toxir was caught off guard by Geeileq yelling at the forgotten Craehun. Turning a sharp eye to where Gee had pointed, Toxir saw that he and Tabaxi had it under control. She mental snickered a little at the lynx's giant cannon aimed at the dancer as she turned back to look around for where the caster might be. Stepping forward to F3, Toxir narrowed her eyes and searched for any subtle movements.

"And throw your weapons on the ground", added Geeileq just before Craehun moved.

Toxir couldn't really see anything too specific, since the curtains were still covering the visibility to the back.

Nal'unah thought she heard some slow footsteps from her left behind the curtains.

Craehun moved swiftly to Seville and Aluaja and the two Caerhamians threw their epees on the floor in C9.

Sithra stood still, pointing at the performers with her scythe.

Nal'unah's turn:
Understanding that the Lohien she was seeing was some sort of ilusion, Unah decided to go behind the curtains and look for the missing performer there. (Spot)

Unfortunately, Nal'unah didn't see anything behind the curtains either, but there were still a lot of hiding places to be checked.

Faustus's turn:

Disappointed his search had come up with nothing, Faustus fell back on his instinct for the time being. Having a feeling about that particular fold of curtain, he cautiously approached it. He started to notice that the others had abandoned their futile attacks on the false Lohien, but not wanting to give away his position if the rysallean couldn’t see him, he kept quiet and let them use their own initiative to decide whether they should search individually or together. Up on reaching the curtain, he carefully opened it with the tip of the arrow, so that he was ready to attack if he came face to face with the hidden Lohien.

Faustus pushed the curtain aside a bit, but saw that the fold had been caused by an ill-placed cloth bundle tied to a support plank. However, he now saw the numerous crates and boxes behind the stage, Lohien could be in any one of them.

Geeileq's turn:
Geeileq continued pointing at the three conscious people while speaking to his groupmates: "I'll guard them, I recommend you check behind those curtains or something."

Tabaxi's turn:
"Right, I'm on it!" Tabaxi chirped, and then dashed away, heading toward the stage. She slowed her pace as she approached the left curtain, trying to sneak quietly toward B5.

Tabaxi pulled the curtain a bit but failed to see anything other than boxes, barrels and chairs.

Toxir's turn:
Stepping forward, Toxir made to pull the curtain aside, checking to see what was behind them and where all Lohien could potentially be hiding.

Toxir opened the curtain from E to G, but there were only a few chairs and a barrel behind it.

Nal'unah and Tabaxi heard clearly some sounds of climbing from B4, somewhat above them. Toxir also heard noise from Nal'unah's general direction.

Sithra's turn:
Having enough of this, Sithra yelled to nowhere in particular: "Alright, ye worthless piece of coward trash, come out whereever you are, or we'll start cutting up your buddies anyway. Nal, guard the door, make sure that shit doesn't leave. Little cat, you keep an eye out for anything that leaves as well in any other way." With that she hinted at the sewer entrance, which she hoped the entertainer knew nothing about. She figured most people around this party wouldn't like her bossing around, which is why she didn't yell at Toxir, as the halfbreed would probably rebel for the sake of rebelling anyway, but she hoped the others would be willing to cooperate. Right now, they were acting like some headless chickens.

Nal'unah's turn:
Nal'unah looked up at the ceiling in B4's direction as she heard some noise coming from there (spot). As she heard Sithra yelling instructions to everyone, she moved to A6, but didn't leave the area yet.

Nal'unah looked up and saw the structures that held the stage together. They were pretty cool, there was a lot of space and climbing spots. Unfortunately she failed to see anyone – it was fairly dark in there.

Faustus's turn:
Hearing Sithra try to bring some order to the group, Faustus reluctantly agreed. But having little faith in the panther's skill for bluffing, and doubting she was reckless enough to kill the captured performers, he quietly stepped into the shadowy refuge among the curtains to continue his search. Creeping along to B1, he knew it would take too long to investigate all of the crates, so instead he tried to listen for any kind of movement coming from that area (listen).

Faustus also heard obvious sounds of climbing from B4.

Geeileq's turn:
Since he had to guard the performers, Geeileq couldn't really do much else. He did peek into the crate next to him just in case. (spot)

Geeileq found nothing of use in the crate.

Tabaxi's turn:
"Uh, ookay." Tabaxi weakly replied, Sithra's instructions seeming vague to her. The sound of climbing from above was so obvious, and yet no one seemed to be giving chase. Clamping the kogatana in her teeth like some fuzzy little pirate, Tabaxi started climbing up into the catwalk of the stage, heading towards B4 in pursuit of the sound.

When Tabaxi had climbed a few steps, she was stabbed in the back with a knife that dealt 16 damage. The stab was so sudden and painful that the little lynx dropped to the ground and hurt her back while at it, causing a fair ruckus. Better yet was the fact that no one had noticed where the knife had come from – in fact only Faustus managed to actually see the knife as Tabaxi fell and the others thought Tabaxi just didn't know how to climb.

Toxir's turn:
Turning her head sharply as she heard Tabaxi fall, Toxir rolled onyx eyes heavenward. Weren't cats known for their alleged grace? Apparently not this one. Sick of playing around with the real Lohien, Toxir narrowed her eyes and was through looking around for the girl. Looking down to where Kirr'hena was lying, almost dead. Stepping over to her, Toxir placed her boot on the performer's head, pushing down just slightly. "Come out or I will pop this bitch's head like a f---ing grape." She threatened loudly.

At this point the captured performers, who were pretty frightened and had no clue how to be in a situation like this, started panicking. Seville screamed and Aluaja and Craehun started protesting, though they were obviously terribly scared. "No! Please! Don't kill him!" said Aluaja, while Craehun went: "Stop! We'll do anything you want if you stop!" Obviously these pleas were directed only at Toxir and they hadn't even figured that they could just tell Lohien to come out...
A faint sound of wood hitting wood came from above the stage, but it was somewhat hard to distinguish because of the three people whining.

Battle ended! Everyone in the party gained 650 EXP.

---

"Then tell your shitty friend to show himself! Stop whining, or we'll make you." Sithra growled, getting pissed off because the last combatant still hadn't been found. Seeing Tabaxi falling down, she decided that a cat who couldn't climb probably couldn't guard an entrance either, so she decided to forget about the disobeyed order. "Tabaxi, stop fooling around, search the damned stage already."

Hearing several noises coming from above the stage, and actually seeing the quick flash of metal strike Tabaxi, Faustus started to work out the position of the hidden performer. Moving next to the fallen lynx, he checked to see if the short warrior wasn’t hurt too badly, since she could help as a decoy or to lure another attack out of the rysallean. With all the threats directed at the performers the hunter doubted this prey could be led out with bluffs and the sort, he had always had a rather cold stereotype fixed to most rysalleans, due to their reserved nature. As he had spotted Lohien’s knife attack on Tabaxi, Faustus tried to look deeper into that dark section of the stage, hoping to catch another glimmer off the blade or perhaps some movement. (Night vision, Spot)

The situation was getting on Unah's nerves now that Lohien didn't want to appear. Maybe Toxir's threatening would be of some use, but the planetarii considered the move a bit extreme. "She's on the roof", she said, although she was quite sure everybody knew that already. Nevertheless, more eyes looking up could be more useful. She moved to where Geeileq was standing, guarding the prisioners. "I'll watch them. You've got wings. Try to get her", she said, having being unsuccesful herself to find the rysallean.

Faustus didn't see anything more when he looked up, everything seemed to be still. But he couldn't be entirely sure because his senses still weren't perfect.
The performers seemed fairly helpless at Sithra's words, really not wanting to doom their friend as well. They were about to start shouting when Nal'unah spoke and seemed slightly relieved that Lohien had probably made it.

Geeileq couldn't help but smirk at Tabaxi, feeling malicious because the unfortunalities had happened to someone else than him. However, he registered Unah's words and since he agreed with them, he left his spot immediately, running to the exit and up the stairway.

With another failed attempt at spotting Lohien, Faustus had to agree with Unah, she was probably on the roof. Hearing Gee rush out to check, he unloaded his bow and hung both it and the quiver over his back. Instead he took out one of his kogatanas from under his jacket and gripped hold of wherever Tabaxi had just fallen off of. Determined to beat the hauken and frustrated by his previously unsuccessful attempts, he started to stealthily climb up the same way he assumed the rysallean had.

Faustus easily climbed to the catwalk and the structures bove it. There still wasn't too much light, but he could barely hear running steps from behind the wood wall (C1–K1), apparently there was some hallway behind it.

Hearing the steps he quietly started to move quietly in that direction, searching the wooden wall to some how find a way through it. It had dawned on Faustus that the running steps could be either Lohien or even Gee, so he tried his best to find any other indication of where the rysallean could have escaped to. 

With her boot still pressed against the fallen performer's head, Toxir looked to the band of pleading performers. Narrowing her dark eyes, she spat, "Either tell your friend to come out or shut the f--k up and watch him die." Whatever it took to get the job done. It wasn't necessarily in her plans to kill Kirr'hena, but Toxir certainly didn't have any qualms about ending the man's life. He was almost dead as it was; Faustus had certainly shot well. Pushing further down with her powerful boot on the Eolan's head, Toxir just waited, keeping her ears open and juggling her sight between the dark spaces above her and the three performers cowering before them.

Faustus was pretty much stumbling in the dark but managed to not fall while moving about. He didn't see any passages in the wall, but it was pretty obvious there would be some hatch there – he just needed to know where it was. He was sure Lohien wasn't there anymore, though.
The performers looked helplessly at Toxir. "But... she just said Lohien already got out of the hall..." said Aluaja weakly. Craehun added: "Please don't kill him!"

Since he hadn’t seen anything that resembled an entrance, Faustus ran his hands along the wall in an attempt to feel for openings. He considered trying to blink through, but doubted it would be a good idea to risk getting stuck in the wall. Ignoring the noise from below, he hoped his eyes had properly adjusted to the darkness as he tried to spot any further signs of a panel or hatch. (Search, Spot)

Rolling her eyes, Toxir ordered the pleading performers to "shut the f--k up" before she'd even heard their entire request. "I don't give a s--t where she was. I want to see the bitch's f--king face. Tell her to surrender and show herself or this poor bastard's blood is on her hands." Toxir finished, stepping down a little harder, just a hair away from drawing blood from his temple. Also, to add more fright to her demand, she withdrew her flail and let it hover mere inches above Kirr-hena's throat. She kept her ears figuratively pricked, listening for Lohien perhaps sneaking up on her or a thrown projectile.

"Ugh... That's gonna sting in the morning." Tabaxi muttered as she finally got to her feet, stubbornly following Faustus up the catwalk. She tended to favor her sliced shoulder as she climbed the rungs of the ladder, and this time kept her eyes peeled for any further sneak attacks on her way up.


The performers nearly cried – if they didn't like dah'kin before, that feeling was definitely only strengthened now. Nevertheless, having no option, they started calling out for Lohien and effectively blanketed out any other faint sounds there might have been in the area. Even Faustus couldn't hear the footsteps anymore, but then again they would've passed on anyway. Faustus kept looking around, but the place remained so dark and weird that he couldn't find anything. Even a closer look at a particular place where he thought a hatch might be didn't produce any results. A hatch might still be found if he only had time to look for it.
Tabaxi made it easily up to where Faustus was, there were no flying knives in the air this time.

At about the same time as Tabaxi arrived, Faustus was swearing freely at the wall. The short lynx could probably even glimpse him kicking it out of aggravation. Knowing it would do no good, especially to his foot, the hunter refused to give up and took another look at the wall further down (search). While he was looking, he noticed Tabaxi had followed him, clearly not that hurt from the knife. Putting his knife away, he realized he was short on time; Faustus threw up his hands then turned to the lynx. “Blow a hole through it!” The ravillan shouted, pointing frantically at the place where he had heard the footsteps (but standing well back, to the side). He realized that this was probably not the best of plans, but desperate times called for very desperate measures.

Faustus was excited because it seemed like he had found the blasted hatch at least. However, he was soon greatly disappointed because he had been interested in a loose plank that came off to his hand when he pulled on it.

Unah was starting to get tired of waiting there. She looked at Sithra and Toxir. They weren't the company she prefered to be with, but they were there with her inside the hall. "Maybe we should take the ones we've got and leave Faustus, Tabaxi and Geeileq looking for the missing one", she suggested, standing by the performers and keeping an eye on them so they wouldn't try nothing funny.

With an outburst of frustration, Faustus discarded the plank, well threw it behind him off the stage. He wouldn’t mind if it hit one of those damn performers, or even Toxir, since the noise they were making were really starting to piss him off. Running his hand over the wall again, this time further down, he tried one last time to locate the hatch before abandoning his attempt to catch up with the rysallean altogether (Search).

Sithra shook her head, as she listened to Faustus' cursing and hearing the planck hit the floor. "No, we'll keep them here until we're ready to ship them all off. However, I'm suspecting Faustus isn't having much luck finding that bitch. We'll stay here and guard these, you go outside and make sure nobody exits the building from the back."

Faustus still had no luck, he found another useless plank that vaguely resembled a hatch but wasn't one.
The performers were still calling out for Lohien, but Aluaja had to turn back to Toxir because it was so obvious that Lohien wasn't there anymore. She said: "Please, can we stop? I'm sure you can understand that she isn't here anymore... please, don't kill Kirr'hena."

Toxir smirked at Alujah's request. "I understand perfectly." She replied calmly, looking down to Kirr'hena. After she'd spoken, Toxir fastened her mace back to her belt and bent over. Seizing Faustus' arrow, she removed it from the Eolan's side. Standing, she nudged him so that he rolled over, closer to the other performers. "You might want to tend to him or that wound will bleed him out." She advised. Killing Kirr'hena while he was down was cowardly. Giving him back to his group would at least ensure that it preoccupied the performers so that they wouldn't try to escape. "She's either long gone by now or standing very still knowing we can't find the fucker." Toxir said in response to Unah's suggestion.

"Geeileq's got my gunpowder." Tabaxi replied meekly to Faustus, fearing another outburst. To her, the large Ravillan was rather intimidating when he was upset. Rather than stand there and pout at him, though, Tabaxi helped him in his seemingly futile search for a hatch to the ceiling. (Search)

Faustus muttered something about a good for nothing hauken, as he ripped another plank off the wall, imagining it was Gee’s head. Taking some time to calm down, or at least suppress his anger, he deserted his attempt at finding this hatch. He realized it would be pointless to keep looking since Lohien was probably half way to Rysallis by now. “Were gonna’ have to track ‘er down later, she’ll be long gone by now and I doubt that feathered fool’s done anythin’ to find ‘er.” Faustus submitted a temporary defeat, since going after the rogue performer would risk the ones already caught. Instead he started to head back down to the group, only stopping to see if the lynx’s eyes could detect something his could not.

For some inexplicable reason, Tabaxi managed by chance to look for the hatch exactly were it was. She found the opening mechanish in no time.
The performers looked carefully over the warriors as they moved over to Kirr'hena. Once there, they took care of the Eolan and had him drink a healing potion, which certainly didn't come too early. Kirr'hena woke up, however, and was about to attack, but the others started explaining the situation to him.

Tabaxi bounced around happily before Faustus, "I found it! I found it!" She chirped, before throwing open the hatch. She started to dash through it, then stopped, turning to pout at Faustus again. "You go first. If she's out there, she might try to throw another knife at me."

Unah heard what Sithra said and wondered why the panther wanted her out. She didn't like Toxir nor Sithra, so she didn't argue and agreed the best choice was to go ouside and watch the exits. "Watch them" she pointed at the performers with her head and walked outside through the door. While keeping guard by the door, she looked for any movements around. (Spot)

“You found it? But I’ve been searching for…” Faustus cut off in disbelief that the lynx had found it on her first try. With his pride severely dented, he took out a knife and moved towards the now opened hatch. Narrowing his eyes at both Tabaxi and the fact that Lohien could still be lurking around somewhere, he quickly made it through the hatch onto the other side. He realized it might just be wishful thinking that the rysallean had not already fled the building. “If you don’t get a move on, I’m goin’ to throw a knife at you.” He replied gruffly, certain he was not going act as a human shield for the lynx.

Nal'unah didn't really see any movement in the inclined hallway.
From the hatch in the hall's wall, Faustus came into a corridor, with a kicked-in door on the left and more corridor on the right. There was a single closed door opposite the side the performing hall was on. It was dark in the corridor, but unlike in the stage's catwalk, there was some light here so Faustus had no trouble moving around, though it'd be hard to see much detail. at the end of the corridor (on the right) there was another closed door and the corridor turned left. It could be seen that the kicked-in door led to the receiving hall through which they had entered.

Faustus turned back to Tabaxi, who was still on the other side of the hatch. “You cats can smell things right…can’t you get on ‘er trail?” He asked, not hopeful since he knew the trackers in their clans were the tiger people. Without waiting for much of an answer, he swiftly made his way down the corridor to the door at the end (to the right) and opened it, confident that the lynx had enough sense to search the other corridor.

The door that Faustus tried to open was unfortunately locked.

Logic seemed to imply to Tabaxi that if one was trying to flee, one would kick doors open. Theatre employees did not tend to kick doors open, unless they were 1. rather disgruntled or 2. no longer theater employees. And so, Tabaxi popped out into the hall and through the kicked-open door. Holding her borrowed kogatana in front of her as defensively as possible, she kept her eyes and ears peeled, almost hoping that she didn't find Lohien. (Having sharp objects hurled at you from various angles will do that to you.)

Tabaxi went into the receiving hall, but it was empty. there were stairs up, the kicked in door and four unbroken doors, one of which led down to the performing hall.

Geeileq walked from the left corridor, but stopped for a second when he saw Faustus. He was leading Lohien by her wrists while pointing at her ribcage with a strange epee. "Well, ya came to meet me up here? Or are we leaving?" Geeileq had a bit of a smirk on his face, undoubtedly because he had just caught the rysallean.

Tabaxi turned around and came back into the hall upon hearing Geeileq's voice behind her. "Oh, good. You caught her." She said wearily, "How bout now we go round em up and do whatever it was we're supposed to do with them." She turned around again, entered the recieving hall and opened the door that lead down into the performing hall, where the others were waiting.

Faustus frowned as Tabaxi headed through the kicked-in door, from which Gee must have originally come through. As if summoned by thought, the hauken appeared soon after, Lohien in tow. “Took yer sweet time, we thought you’d be laying somewhere with an arrow stickin’ out of yer by now.” Faustus shrugged, sounding hopeful but was disappointed when he realized Gee was unharmed. “Ah well, there’s always next time. So what now, we take them straight to the boss, or question them? ‘Cause I’m sort of in the mood for a bit of torture.” He asked as he started to follow Tabaxi through the kicked-in doors.

"I took time? You people could've followed me way faster than ya did, I'm thinking", said Geeileq. "Unless ya didn't notice, I didn't get wounded at all, unlike some." He then shrugged and led the somewhat frightened Lohien down the stairs.

Once back in the performing hall, Lohien seemed to be about to speak, but Kirr'hena made it before her. "Hey! Could we negotiate about a deal here? We have no desire to work shadowed by that noble anymore. We want to get out of here and leave. And we can offer you something in exchange for for letting us go."

“Like what?” Faustus asked, sceptical they had anything of value to offer. He didn’t know about the others but he held no allegiance towards the noble, and was partially in it for the profit. “I dunno know ‘bout the rest of you but I want answers before anythin’ else, like why some nobleman wants to eliminate you in the first place?” He grunted, taking a step forwards towards the gathered performers to appear more imposing.

"I recall you wanted at least our possessions? Well, I'm sure he doesn't know of all the stuff we have... so you could easily take one or two things just for yourselves. I don't know what he's paying you but I bet some of our stuff is more valuable." Kirr'hena seemed to hesitate a bit as he thought of anything else that the warriors might want and the reason why the noble would come after them. "I have some information... about, uh... I hear there's some little dah'kin community outside the city with some powerful mages and they've been harassed by some uncivilized savages or whatever. Well, according to the information, they're offering quite a bit of money or good stuff for anyone who rids them of the problem they have. I do have a document proving this." Kirr'hena had no clue if the group was interested in that, but since the thing sounded profitable, he figured it wouldn't be totally wasted on them. He then continued about the relation to the noble: "We haven't really done anything else than give some of our profit for a group that's being organized to find and stop some pack of mage hunters or whatever they are because keep killing mages around here. Might be the same as those who pester the dah'kins, I don't know. That's really the only thing that I can think of that would make him suspicious, I guess... but I don't understand why he wants it to stop, it's not like we've been taking HIS profits." (bluff)

Narrowing his eyes at the pauses in the eolan’s speech, Faustus considered what he said, particularly about the items. “This noble doesn’t care if yer’ dead or alive, so we could kill you, take yer’ possessions AND bring yer’ in for an extra bit of profit. Is that what yer saying hmm?” He smiled a sort of disgusting grin, as he tried to work out the truth from lies (Detect Lies). Having a knife at hand, the hunter started to flick it up and down in his hand, advancing on Lohien this time. “Your amusin’ game of hide n’ seek had me pissed for a while, and I could just be looking to let out that frustration, but if he’s not speaking the truth then I’m gonna start cutting.” Faustus moved the kogatana, jabbing at air to underline his threat. (Intimidate) 

Sithra showed a mean grin as well, as she kneeled down on one knee before Kirr'hena. Grabbing his chin with her armored hand, she made him look at her. "He's not bluffing, you know. We honestly don't care what happens to the lot of you, as long as we get paid. Now where's this note about that Dah'kin job offer?"
She had been interested as soon as the words 'Dah'kin' and 'trouble' fell. Having been conscripted into their army would do that to you. But the Dah'kin would be employers she could wield some power over, being a doomsday knight and a priestess. The pay might be better than what this noble, whom she didn't like anyway, might pay them.

Unah went back into the room when Geeileq, Tabaxi and Faustus returned with the finally captured Lohien. For a moment she had doubted they would be able to find her. While she listened to what Kirr'hena was saying, she pondered on what should they do. She was interested in getting the noble's reward, they had done the job already. She wasn't going to work for free... "A group that hunts mages? Is that all you know about it?", she asked Kirr'hena after Sithra had done her question. It seemed this noble wasn't fond of mages. He hadn't hired any for this mission anyway...

Rolling her eyes heavenward at Sithra, Toxir reached into her pocket and groped for a cigarette but found nothing. Growling, she fished out a rolling paper and fished into a small pouch on her belt for a large pinch of tobacco. The tobacco smelled strongly, thick and dank, and Toxir sprinkled it evenly into the paper. Packing the tobacco, she began to expertly roll, licking the paper to make it stick. Finishing with the cigarette with incredible speed, she stuck it between her lips and grabbed a match from her pocket. Striking it against her boot, she lit the cigarette and blew a heavy plume of thick white smoke into the air. Putting the match out with her fingertips, she threw it over her shoulder and stood comfortably, observing Lohien carefully. 'Smart move, using magic.' she silently admonished, more smoke furling from her mouth. Listening to Kirr'hena's deal, she smirked and shook her head minutely. It'd be just as easy to bring corpses back to the nobleman as it would be to bring back live bodies. Hearing about the Dah'kin group, Toxir's interest was perked, but she showed no signs of intrigue or even that she was listening at all. They could just confiscate the document after they turned the entertainers over to the nobleman.

Geeileq, still holding Lohien, went fairly expressionless again and didn't say that the noble had preferred the performers to be alive. He mentally shrugged, because the man hadn't explicitly said whether or not that affected their pay – probably not, but who knew. Geeileq was pretty partial to letting the performers go if they promised to shut up. He didn't really trust them, of course, but he knew that in the noble's hands, they'd end up imprisoned or something and he didn't exactly wish that for people that hadn't really done him any harm.

It was obvious to Faustus that Kirr'hena lied about them not having taken the money off the noble's profits – if the money given away was to be of any use, they'd have to give a lot of it. It would be easy for the performers to say that they had never gained that money in the first place and then give the noble a portion of the remaining amount instead of a portion of the whole amount.

Kirr'hena was about to try and slap away Sithra's hand, but realized that it really wouldn't do good to piss these people off any more, since they seemed so skittish. He still objected to having his chin grabbed and seemed fairly frightened. Kirr'hena started replying to Faustus: "No, I mean... uh... No, get away from her!" He started shouting when Faustus went toward Lohien, seeming like he was about to shout some more, but Aluaja and Craehun restrained the Eolan. Lohien, then again, kept her cool but tried to back away, even if that resulted in her being closer to Geeileq. She spoke confidently: "Put that knife away, please. You will not find the document or our profits from this performance without cooperation. If you want them, all we ask is that you promise to let us go." Kirr'hena continued: "We'll of course promise not to tell the guards about this and to leave the city and the whole area..." The Eolan figured that the warriors would obviously need some sort of proof of that, but he didn't know what, short of them escorting the performers out of the city. Since he was fairly desperate and intimidated, he said: "As proof that we will do as I said, I can give you directions that show where the group that's being organized to help against the mage hunters will meet next and where their base of operations is." At this point, Aluaja tried to make Kirr'hena shut up and Lohien didn't look too cooperative with what the Eolan said, but Kirr'hena continued: "They... they're our friends. That way you'd know that we wouldn't tell about you... because otherwise..." Kirr'hena just then seemed to realize what exactly he had said and certainly went pale at the thought of him dooming his friends to death.

As Lohien came closer to Geeileq, he thought it would be a jolly good idea to pickpocket her. He took his weird epee behind his back and seemingly did nothing to it, but nothing happened when he brought his hand back without the epee. Geeileq then proceeded to examine Lohien's pockets, and Lohien seemed quite disturbed. However, Geeileq didn't find anything useful except for a comb which he glared at and then put into his own pocket. "I like what the little birdie is sayin'. They go free an' we'll have extra information, sounds good to me."

Sithra pushed Kirr'hena's face away rather roughly, and agreed with Geeileq. "I didn't like that noble much, and this city stinks. I don't like this city guard breathing down my neck. I say we go and kick some mage ass. But don't think you'll get away easy on this, scum." Sithra eyed the performers. "We still want your items. A reasonable fee, I'd say, for letting you live. After all, we mercs need to get rewarded for our effort. Or things might get nasty after all."

Not having planned on remaining with this group longer than this isolated incident, Toxir merely cocked a brow and ashed her cigarette on the floor. Getting out of the city would be nice, but she could do that simply by returning home to resume her normal life. Taking a long drag, Toxir sighed out the smoke. If they chose to let the prisoners go free then she had no choice but to join them on their pursuit of the Dah'kin group in hunt for the money she was essentially being robbed of. Her lip curled in the slightest of snarls as she finished her cigarette and flicked it towards Kirr'hena. 'This is precisely why I operate alone.' she thought to herself, shifting her posture. Making a few more cigarettes, she lit another and put the rest in her pocket. "And what about those of us that had no intention of remaining here longer." She asked plainly, not looking to anyone in particular as a cloud of smoke puffed around her head.

Geeileq took back his epee from behind his back, wherever it had been, and turned at Toxir. "Those who don't want to stay here can go home any time as far as I care. I don't see why we shouldn't complete our missions an' then find out about the other stuff with the part of the group that didn't want to go home."

Kirr'hena startled when Toxir threw the cigarette at him. However, he didn't accept that kind of treatment, even from people who had an upper hand. With a flick of his hand, the Eolan created a tiny gust of wind that blew the cigarette away. He looked very annoyed.

Faustus smirked as Lohien kept her cool, he had respect for that. But looked surprised that Gee and Sithra had accepted the offer so quickly, he grumbled a bit about “bird-brained fools” and “Dah’kin-lovin’ cats” before constructing anything coherent. “I’ve never ‘eard your kind getting’ along with Dah’kins.” He pointed out, sceptic of whatever information the performers were feeding them. Faustus gave Lohien some room, moving towards Kirr'hena and Aluja, just in case he had to stop Toxir from beating their heads in. “Listen, don’t do anything stupid an’ you may make it out of ‘ere alive. But like the furball said, we need something to profit on. Think of it as funding to help your friends.” Not really wanting to harm the performers anymore, he sheathed his kogatana, hoping it would be a sign of goodwill. 

Tabaxi approached Faustus and handed his kogatana back to him. "Thanks for the loan, big guy." She muttered, before walking up to Geeileq and asking for her gunpowder and bullets. She seemed tired more than anything, and perhaps a little distant. She didn't seem to care either way whether or not she went to rescue Dah'kins or not- just as long as she could collect on her reward and get some rest.

Toxir smirked at Kirr'hena's gust of wind and adjusted her stance to better see Gee. Arching a brow at the way he weilded his epee, Toxir chuckled snidely before continuing. He clearly didn't get it, but then again, she hadn't expected him to. "Yes, but that still leaves me without payment for my time. Without this lot," she gestured to the performers. "I don't get paid." The smartest thing to do, honestly, would be to kill the irritating entertainers, take their goods and return the corpses to the nobleman. Payment with interest. Even if they returned one live performer to the nobleman, just for the sake of effeciency, it'd be a hell of a lot less hassle than dealing with them alive. From there, the rest of them could do as they pleased, she didn't give a shit. The deal meant nothing to her, she simply wanted her pay.

Geeileq seemed a bit busy petting Lohien's hair, but he was paying attention to the conversation. "What's this talk about not gettin' paid? I was imagining that we'd take some of their stuff, take the rest to the noble, say we killed them an' then we just take our pay. Who'd not be okay with that?" He asked in a confused manner, glaring at Toxir.

"When did I say I liked Dah'kins?" said Kirr'hena with a bit of resentment. "Or are you confusing our friends and the Dah'kin group?" The eolan figured that he should try to explain the stuff a bit simpler. "I'll give you the location of our friends as a guarantee that we'll not tattle about you. The Dah'kin are on their own somewhere, they just sent a note for help and we happened to get it into our hands. I'll give that to you as payment for letting us go... as it seems like a good way to get money and it sounds like you're after money. And people of your level would succeed in helping them if you want to." 

Looking tiredly at Kirr'hena and the rest of the performers, Tabaxi finally threw in her two cents. "I don't think I'd be okay with that. Live and let live, says I. Worst comes to worst, the nobleman won't bite at our bluff and refuses to pay us. Then we just move on and do the mercenary bit for that Dah'kin group. I'd rather have things that way, than having these people's blood on my hands." She raised an eyebrow at the way Geeileq was petting Lohien, "Uh.. well I'm a poor judge of characters, but they seem more innocent and honest than that nobleman."

Unah couldn't but agree with Tabaxi. She doubted the nobleman would believe they had killed the performers if they only showed him some of their belongings, and although she wanted to get some money out of this business, she didn't want these people dead. Even thoug it had costed them quite some time to catch them. "You're right!" she said to Tabaxi. "Let's hurry now, I don't like this place", she added and crossed her arms over her chest.

Geeileq was pretty satisfied that the others seemed to be agreeing with him. However, he realized there was the problem of deceiving the nobleman. He let Lohien go and thought for a moment. "Does anyone have any idea how we'll make the noble believe us? I doubt he'd be that easy to deceive. He's probably used to all that snobby cozening trash-talk of politics people."

Lohien seemed shaken and glanced at Geeileq and Faustus as she walked over to Kata, who was still lying on the floor and bleeding a little. Seville moved inconspicuously from the stage to Kata and tried to Heal her.
Kata healed 2 HP and woke up, after which Lohien and Seville explained the situation to her.

“Well it‘s your plan.” Faustus shook his head with annoyance, wondering why the hauken had presented the idea if he had no idea how to carry it out. Getting a little agitated at being confined in the hall for so much time, he wanted to take the conversation to a place more secure, nodding to show that he agreed with Nal’unah’s idea to leave. He gave a glance over to the revived panther before speaking. “Yeah, there must be a better place to talk than this hell hole…” Faustus grunted, doubting the inn would be safe since the noble controlled it. “Don’t s’pose you’ve got any suggestions, you do know this nobleman better than us?” He shot that question mostly at the eolan and Lohien, curious as to any thoughts they had about deceiving their employer or finding some place safer to continue the discussion.

Sithra's mouth fell open slightly, before she closed it in a soft growl. "You're saying we're not getting paid? What kind of crap is that?" Taking a deep breath, she continued. "Fine, whatever, suit yourself. As long as we get out of this stinking city."
She remained silent for a few moments, looking quite angry, but for once not in the direction of the entertainers. Then she spoke again. "What if the lot of you spend all the noble's money on thieving stuff? Invisibilty rings, all that cowardly stuff. We'll tell the nobleman you've become part-time burglars, using magic to remain unseen, and you using the same magic to escape from us. Then we'll tell him we're no bloodhounds, and he can continue his little investigation with some other mercs, 'cause we're not gonna run around town to find some petty thieves."
Sithra wasn't quite sure of the plan herself, and didn't sound convinced it could work, but at least it was an idea.

Unah looked stranged at Sithra. "I thought we were thinking of a way to deceive the nobleman so he does pay us and we don't have to kill this bunch" she said while indicating the group of performers. She didn't come up with any smart ideas for that, though. Maybe some bloody clothes could serve as proof...

Not able to figure out why they didn't kill all of the performers save for one to give the information needed, Toxir listened to the ideas thrown around and snarled at the miscommunication that seemed to run rampant. "This man deals with liars for a living," she began, lighting yet another cigarette. "so anything we'd come up with would likely be elementary to him and easily seen through." They could just kill one of the performers and give the nobleman that carcass as proof. Seemed a fair compromise. "If all we do is take him clothes he's going to assume that there's a band of naked entertainers running about the city. There's got to be more proof than that."

"I'm mostly worried about proof", said Geeileq as a reply to Faustus's concerns. He looked at Sithra and shook his head, but didn't say anything. After Toxir had spoken, he said: "I'm sure it'd be fine if we had some plausible evidence an' no way to check if what we said is really untrue. But how should we accomplish that?"

Kirr'hena shook his head at Faustus. "Seville did know him... many years ago..." Seville looked a bit startled, but confirmed: "Yes, yes, I did indeed. I haven't talked to him in years, though, so I doubt I could be of any real use, I'm afraid." Kirr'hena went on: "But at least you know about that politics stuff, right? Can these people deceive him?" Seville was quiet for a moment and didn't have time to speak, when everyone's attention was drawn to the stage, where it could be seen that one of the curtains in the back had just caught fire and was well on its way to light up completely. Toxir figured that the cigarette she had thrown at Kirr'hena probably wasn't as well put out as she thought... After two seconds of hesitation, Aluaja moved toward the fire and tried to command it to put it out, but the attempt seemed like it would fail. "Red magic or blue magic! Anyone!" shouted Kirr'hena. The other performers looked at Lohien who shook her head.

Unah's face lightened up as she thought that fire was going to be the solution. "Let's get out of here and let the place burn - we'll tell the noble they died in the fire" she said, heading to the exit, but waiting for the others to exit first. She didn't want to lose the performers in the escape.

Geeileq's face twisted into an eerily innocent expression of curious joy as he heard Nal'unah's idea. He obviously liked it and seemed quite energetic, as he was twitching to leave. However, another thing hit him, and he spoke out: "Wait! Let's go to the sewer, we can move to a more unnoticeable place from there. An' no one can see us exiting the performing hall." He then turned to the performers. "Ya better grab all your stuff now", he said to them.

Aluaja spent another moment trying to put out the fire, but managed to only make it worse and had to roll on the ground to put out the fire that had caught onto her own clothes. The curtains were flaring up and soon the stage looked quite impressive with the flaming curtains. Seville and Craehun ran to the left side of the stage, tore down the curtains before they lighted up and picked up a few bags. Seville also opened a barrel and talked into it: "The place is burning! We have to get out." He moved aside and a cloaked kid clad all in black came out of the barrel. The kid picked up something from the floor and followed Seville and Craehun. Kirr'hena moved off the stage and went to the center of the hall. "Sewer?"

“Yeah, the damn sewer!” Faustus pointed to the sewers entrance where Gee had come from, feeling it was no time to explain how they knew about that. Shaking his head as the flame wielder tried to put out the fire, he grabbed hold of Aluja’s arm and yanked her back from it, not wanting to give her the chance to set all of them alight. Not really caring about how offended she might be by this, he dragged her pretty ungracefully to where Kirr’hena stood before continuing quickly towards the sewers entrance. Faustus took one last look to see if all the performers were ready, instead of following Aluja’s lead and trying to get themselves killed. Spotting Seville with some kid, he ignored it for the moment and concentrated on getting the hatch to the sewer open.  

Taking a few moments to enjoy the flames consuming the curtains, Sithra soon realised it wouldn't be so fun anymore in awhile, and calmly made her way towards Faustus and the hatch. Once there, she tried helping him get the hatch open.

There was no trouble getting the net off the hole, especially since Toxir probably hadn't bothered to reattach it properly anyway. The hatch at the end of the short tube that would lead to the main sewer network was closed, though, but probably not locked (if it even had a lock) since Toxir and Geeileq had come through there, after all.

Aluaja was quite disoriented as Faustus pulled her around and seemed rather scared. Kirr'hena took her hand and glared a few daggers at Faustus after he'd turned his back. Seville caught some fire in his clothes when a curtain came down, and Craehun's hair lighted up but he managed to put it out before it did any damage. The group then moved closer toward the sewer entrance.

"Bah... I'll go first." Sithra said, having removed the hatch. She put her scythe through the hatch, and soon followed herself.

“Take yer’ time…” Faustus grumbled, not really knowing whether he was talking about the panther climbing down into the sewers or the slow progress of the performers, or both. Although he felt like kicking Sithra down the hatch, he could relate to her desire for self-preservation. Following quickly behind the panther-woman, Faustus decided there was nothing left to do up in the hall and so he started to climb down into the sewers, waiting at the bottom in case anyone needed to drop anything down.

Arching a brow at the curtains, Toxir simply shook her head and made her way calmly to the sewers. She'd been smoking for a long time and this was the first time she'd ever set anything aflame. However, it was likely going to benefit them, so she shrugged it off and stood at the entrance of the hatch. Securing her items on her, she warned those below that she was coming, and dropped down.

Tabaxi had stopped to stare at the flaming curtains as well. "How convenient..." She muttered to herself in disbelief, then struck a determined pose. "Aha! A dynamic plot device to drive our intrepid heroine forward! Hahaha! Brilliant!" Grinning maniacally, she skittered down into the sewers, following the others.

While the others were going into the sewer, Geeileq looked around and thought that it would be a nice idea to fire up a few more places. So he told Aluaja to ignite some more things.

Aluaja was a bit confused first, but did as Geeileq told and spent her last MP to torch a barrel, after which she just set up a few small fires here and there. The other performers followed Tabaxi into the sewer and protested the stench. After Aluaja was done, she also went to the tube.

Geeileq would have gotten out last, but he knew he couldn't turn and set up the net with his wings in the way, so he was content with telling Nal'unah what to do: "Would ya set up the net an' close the hatch once ya come through?" With that, he crawled into the tube and joined the others in the main sewer network.

Unah moved towards the sewer entrance and waited for the people to get into the pipe. She hoped the trip to the outside was a short one... Once everyone had left, she entered the sewers, placed the net on its place and closed the hatch as Geeiliq had indicated. Then, she followed the group into the tunnels.

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[Veltzeh] (GM) – Geeileq Machaiktev
[Roma] – Toxir Necis Brutus
[Sturmi] – Nal'unah Obaraan
[Blood Raven] – Sithra Desneshi
[Slade] – Caius "Faustus" Ezio
[Magus Ferox] – Tabaxi Waughroon

The previous versions of this party can be seen at Party Nº4 970 and Party Nº4 693.
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