Torley responds. <Got it.>

O'Connor raised an eyebrow, *Is that french? Really hope that's an affirmative. One day Torley's hate-hate relationship with technology is gonna bite us in the hoop.*

Lil Homie will accept the items and the instructions reverently, and with a nod scampers off to the brothel ahead of the rest of you.

O'Conner figures that he could hunker down under a blanket or something else at the same intersection, the sightlines are still good and he can take to the roof if he needs to by sitting close to a ladder or stairwell.

Sammy steps one step behind Torley, while concentrating on keeping her own spell up (Torley's is in the sustaining focus). The magic here feels tainted somehow, a bit like in the worst parts of East LA. Well, she would have simply have to deal with it if needed, although she hoped it wouldn't.

The farmer's land had seen better days. Long ago. Now he scrabbled a living out of the depleted soil. Years of labour had bent his back and calloused his hands, but his will to survive was unbroken. Somewhere deep inside he knew his troubles were not his fault, and not really his wife's fault, but she had taken the brunt of his venting frustration for years. Silently and dutifully, as a wife should. He stepped up to the swinging doors of the bar, his bowed and bruised wife one step behind. Time now for a hard drink or two to ease the unending struggle.

He pushed his way in.

Torley bends his motions and demeanor to portray the struggling farmer: bent body but head held high. A survivor. Just ... but a survivor. He scans the bar, clearly appearing to look for a place for him and his woman to sit, but Torley also seeks a first impression of the patrons.

No one takes much a look at the man, most are interested in their own troubles or their own pleasures.

The metahuman quotient in the room is high, more than half are orcs and there is a rather scrawny specimen of the troll metatype acting as bouncer. There are women sitting in chairs lining the wall near a stairwell, the patrons don't seem very picky, they just grab the one closest to the stairs. As the girls come down they just take an open seat. Some don't even seem aware they are missing turns, the drugged gaze of their face showing they are not really present.

There is a cheap trid showing a soccer match that is garnering the most attention. Some are armed, but most look they can barely afford a drink, let alone a weapon.k

The bartender is a very healthy looking ork, who is pouring liquids from jars and pots. Apparently, no liquor distributors make it this far into the slums.

The farmer (Torley) indicates an open table to his wife (Sammy) and then walks over to the bar. He studies the various vessels of drink, trying to assess which is least likely to kill the two of them.



He picks what seems to be the least damaging and buys 2 ... glasses? Beakers? Cups?

Sammy follows Torley and sits down, making sure she sits with her back to a wall if possible. She too looks very rough and prematurely aged from the long hours and days toiling in the soil trying to eke out a meager harvest, before having gone to the big city. As soon as she sits, she opens up her sight to the astral, looking around to see if she could identify their mark like that. An adept who managed to steal an artifact had to be quite high in magic and therefore would stand out. And she would also try to see the general treat level around in the way of magically active, spirits and the like.

Starlet doesn't find anyone awakened in the bar, which was a little surprising until she thought about it a second. The apprentice at the palace had said they could find no trace of him and that was a stronger suppression field than this. If he uses magic to hide, he must be very good at it. Good enough to beat a common assensing scan, at least.

Torley holds up two fingers and gets two cups of a murky, unidentifiable liquid. "She for sale?" The bartender asks in Igbo, nodding to Starlet.

Torley shakes his head. "No."

He heads back to the table and sits beside Sammy to get as good a view of the room as possible. The farmer absentmindedly passes a drink to his wife. He looks at her and says quietly,"Any luck on the astral?"

He takes a drink from his cup.

"Nobody," Sammy whispers back, "but our target is good at hiding. But at least no extra awakened trouble makers."
She then takes a sip of her drink, not trusting it enough to gulp it down. She knows quite a lot about wine, but not about whatever pig swill this is.

The drinks are fine, some kind of fermented fruit juice is cutting the harshness of a distilled liquor. Nothing to write home about, but it will get you drunk is a pleasant way.

The soccer game has reached a final break and several men go out a back door, apparently to relieve themselves while others collect more drinks, all the while chattering loudly about different aspects of the match.

"Let's keep a watch then, to see if someone stands out... status or wealth, maybe. Clothes, the way they walk, the way others approach them, that sort of thing."

Torley takes another small sip of the drink. Look like you belong, but don't get drunk.

O'Conner

Nothing has really happened since you settled in, you got a couple of nervous calls from Lil Homie, who doesn't really seem interested in talking to anyone but you, 'alerting' you to different things he is observing on the outside of the bar. He has just let you know about the group that came out the backdoor to pee.

Then you see a group men coming through the market. They are well armed, and asking questions at every booth. Two of them break off from their squad and start down your street. You can see that the uniforms have a similarity to the guards you saw at the palace, but not as ceremonial.

O'Connor texted the group chat, <Our competition just hit the market. Royal guard's asking around the booths. Got two headed my way.>

Torley reacted to the message from O'Connor. He asks Sammy, "Drek's about to hit the fan when the royal guards come in here. Waddaya say we preempt them by asking for Silence at the bar and offering him some advance warning, from prospetive buyers?"

"Could work," Sammy said, "at the very least he owes us one and would probably agree to a second meeting. And we should be able to identify the dude."

Torley takes a deep breath. "Alright."

He stands and walks to the bar. Torley focuses his Voice Control to project a deep and resonant voice right into the ear of the bartender. "Look at me. I am the farmer you just served. I need to talk to the one called Silence. NOW." The last word is louder. "Danger comes now. I can help."

The bartender is quite surprised at the change of tone "What are you talking about? What danger? Who is this Silence?" He is lying, obviously, Torley's Kinesics pick that up easily, the thing the face almost missed was the subtle hand movement that is picked up by an ork by the back door. That ork casually rises looking like he is going to take a pee, adjusting himself and whatnot. Only problem with that is that guy just came in from the game intermission pee session.

As Torley goes to the bar, Sammy keeps an eye out for potential trouble. She wouldn't be able to do her routine to stave off drain, but she could still cast some spells without people knowing. And as she hadn't seen any magically active people, those few who were probably couldn't see in the astral, making it easier for her.

Torley smiles at the bartender. "Thank you for your help."

He turns and heads toward the fellow by the back door, giving a slight nod and tilt of the head to Sammy as he starts out. Smiling again, hands out to the sides as non-threateningly as possible. Again projecting his voice when in range, he tells the ork, "No problem here. My friends and I want to help the person called Silence out of some trouble coming down the road. They want to hurt Silence. We want to .." Damn! What is the word for negotiate? " make a deal."

Torley doesn't reach the second sentence in his speech before the ork is bolting out the door.

Torley chokes on the last of his charming speech as the ... target? ... bolts. He darts into pursuit, hoping Sammy can keep up, and keep O'Connor informed, as he has no time to text anyone.

Torley bolts across the bar, but the target is quickly out of sight. O'Conner gets a call from Lil Homie just as the soldiers are reaching his position.

"Someone just came out of the bar and leapt up on the roof, THE SECOND STORY ROOF."

Con really hoped that he'd hidden well enough under the blanket that the royal guards would just pass him by. Then he got Lil' Homie's message, *Aw, frag.* If this Silence was that mobile, then he didn't have time to spare. He leapt up from his hiding spot and rushed for a nearby ladder.

The soldiers don't take any special note of Con hustling away, he is not the only person clearing the street as they approach.

Torley exits the back of the building, expecting to see the target running away somewhere. But, no. Nowhere to be seen. Where the hell did he go?

"Aw crap," Sammy grumbles as she jumps up and follows Torley outside.

O'Connor scrambled up to the rooftops, <"I'm on the rooftops. Who's got eyes on the target?">

Lil Homie will reply >>I lost him when he jumped.

Torley starts at the news. <Wait. What? Jumped where?> He looks around, and finally, up.

Oh.

O'Connor scanned the area for his prey. He reported, <" Searching now. Starlet did you get a visual or astral read? Can you get a spirit up to track him?">

Perception: 7d6t5 3

Could just be a bad angle, but Con can't see anyone on the roof at this distance.

O'Connor loudly swore, <"Frag! I got nothing. I'm moving up. Homie, get eyes on the docks in case he heads down that route. Torley, royal guard still near my starting position. Your call, what's better, delaying them or cooperating? Starlet, you got any way to track the target?">

O'Connor rushed across the rooftops to get a better angle.

As Sammy comes out the door, Torley fills her in as much as he can. I lost him. I have no idea where he went unless it's ... up. He looks up at the roof and sees nothing of note.

The King's men are headed this way. I don't know what's better, stay in disguise or drop out of it. You might be more successful in what you do without putting us back in local form. I could try to distract the guards while you two carry on the hunt. Whaddaya think?

Sammy stepped into an alley or another secluded spot where no-one could see her perform magic. There she dropped her disguise and started summoning a spirit of air. When one appeared, she showed it her mental image of the guy and his masked aura and asked the spirit to search and follow and at dusk to come and tell her where he was. She also told the direction they had last seen the target move in. If the spirit would lose the target for some reason, it was to come back immediately and tell her where it had seen the target last.
"I set a spirit on him," she said to Torley when she came back out, "I hope that works, but as his aura was masked, it might not. We can just move that way and hope the spirit has more success than we do."

"Alright, Sammy, I'll follow your lead. If the guards find us, I'll do my Torley best with them."

"Anybody knows where he ran to," Sammy asked, "we go that same way. We might get lucky, right?"

The spirit goes to the top of the building, pauses a few seconds and then shifts to pause at the next building. The spirit says through its link to Starlet I have him. he is on the building to the south, he just leapt over there from the roof of this building

O'Conner can make another perception check to see if he followed the movement

"Spirit has him," Sammy said to the others, "let's go."
She tries to go in the direction the spirit indicated, as quickly as was possible, but making sure the others followed.

Torley follows Sammy, trying to keep an eye out for double backs and ambushes.

As the other two move to follow the spirit, O'Conner can track their movement and close the distance, he continues to look for the target, but doesn't spot him.

O'Conner is on the third of those five buildings with the chimneys. Torley and Starlet are in the open on the southeast corner, the spirit is above them watching the target, that is still on the dockside slope of the building he leapt to.

O'Connor continued to follow after Sammy, <"I still don't see him. Starlet, can the spirit flush him out?">

<"The spirit just follows and reports,"> Sammy replied as she followed its directions, <"I say we follow its directions and when he stops, we know where he is, right? Then we can plan how to get him from there.">

Lil Homie pipes up in the chat "He is Igbo, he go to Area Boys, you will NEED army to get him then."

Torley adds to the chatter: <That's what I figured. What if the spirit were to delay him somehow? Slow him. Entangle him. Whatever that thing can do.>

Torley resists the urge to encourage O'Connor to take the lead into the Area Boys compound.