CALIMPORT GAME

Garrett stands is the shade as it is to his liking. He has always preferred darkness. It is cool and comforting to him. He spots Buruzg leaning on the wall looking a little impatient. He has yet to see Ahsa but he knows she makes her own time. Garrett leaves the shadows and moves up to Buruzg. Garrett movements have a feline like grace to them. "Well met. Buruzg I assume? I am Garrett Jaxx and I have seen you around. I was wondering how long it would be before we actually met. I see you work for the big man too. The others should be along shortly."

Ane is a bit fussy about keeping clean, even so, her simple Dishdasha and Keffiyeh are more 'sand-colored' than 'white', but she does her best. Beneath the robe her bare feet float a foot above the dirt, and the robe swirls gently around her, the breeze keeping her cool. The extra height and male clothing could let her pass for a man, especially with her face covered, as it is. She is plain and easily overlooked compared to her often-companion, Asha, she is not sure how she feels about that.

She does not know the rest of this crew, she ponders the meaning of them being brought together like this: Is Big Zhad having more 'staff-issues' than just the capture of Ginseng? She does not know much about the crime boss' business, but surely he has better people for this sort of job?

Ane straighten her robe as she approaches the meeting-point, but hesitates before making herself known.

Despite the old tattered clothes and dusty layer of soot, Asha's approach draws a few eyes, as it often does. It's not just her looks, she also has a relaxed and authentic charisma about her, when her temper is under control. Asha is aware of the effect that she has on some people, and uses it to her advantage under the right circumstance, but she doesn't try to flaunt it. In fact, part of why she doesn't clean off the dirt is to blunt the effect. It's not always an advantage to catch everyone's attention. Besides, even when she cleans herself up, the soot inevitably returns after a few hours ... something related to her powers. At least, that's the excuse she gives Ane, she thinks with a smile. Asha glances towards the tall figure next to her. Ane was helping her understand her powers ... and struggling to accept the mess. Asha was grateful for Ane's help, even if her temper said otherwise sometimes.

Her gold and brown eyes settle on the two men by the stairway. Recognizing them as members of their new crew, she adjusts her path to join them, but doesn't expect her friend's hesistation and bumps into her instead, leaving a dusty print on Ane's Dishdasha.

Tsking, she whispers shortly, "Ane, what are you doing!? You recognize Garrett, and that must be the new guy. Let's go!"

Stepping past Anemone, Asha walks up to the two men. She gives Garrett a smiling nod and quietly introduces herself to Buruzg.

Small and unassuming, and clothed in somewhat tired and simple garb, her face partially covered by her headscarf, Jasra passes through the crowd like a leaf on a breeze. Her blue blue eyes, her only striking feature, catch sight of a few familiar faces and she gravitates towards them. None of them known overly well - she was a new after all. Not to the city or its seedier sides, but to the crew. For a moment she wondered why, Big Zhad would have entrusted her to be a part of this job if it was so important... perhaps he felt her novelty might be of some benefit, or her small stature. But the questions quickly left her mind as her attention was captured by the assembling group. Buruzg was hard to miss, and Asha was certainly memorable in her own way. Garrett she had seen before, once. But Ane was unfamiliar to her, at least by name.

She approaches the group confidently but respectfully and offers a small bow, touching her fingers to her forehead, lips and heart in greeting. "Ravvok sends his greetings, may the gods find you well," she says in a small but clear voice.

"I was 'observing'." Ane replies to Asha's back before gliding up to join and greet the rest.

Moments later their party is complete. "Greetings to you as well. 'Jasra', I presume." Ane has done what research she could on the new group, but does not voice her concerns at this time.

"Have any of you done a prison break before?" She asks quietly.

Garrett looks at the rest of the crew and nods. Seems like a pretty good selection. He has seen everyone even if they don't know it. "I haven't done a prison break before. Maybe we just case the place and use our exotic looking crew members for a distraction."

Asha greets Jasra and then listens as plans are discussed.

She raises an eyebrow at Garrett's comment, "Who are you calling exotic?" After a pause, she admits with sly smile, "But I may be able to draw some attention if needed."

Smiling more earnestly at Buruzg's joke, she also responds to Anemone's question, echoing that she has never been involved in a jail break.

As they begin to ascend the stairs, she suggests to the others, "It could be useful to acquire some guard uniforms. Some of us could poses as guards, with the more guilty looking crew members," Asha shoots a teasing look toward Garrett, "acting as newly captured prisoners. That might get us in at least."

Garrett hearing the suggestion and noticing the look from Asha replies" M'lady whatever do you mean? I am as pure as the driven snow."Cracking a smile. Not that he has ever seen snow in this climate.

Ane's demeanour has lightened dramatically as she 'steps' onto the sabban wall, she is not pleased about the waste of coin, but does look around with obvious pleasure at the open space, she has no desire to be incarcerated —even as a pretense.

"That could work." She says to Asha. "And could help us find Ginseng. Though that still leaves the issue of getting out. Isn't that the hard part?"

"Do you know these guys?" Ane surreptitiously asks her companions when she spots the red-robes watching them.

Ane is very keen to learn more magic... but she is pretty convinced these guys are not the way she wants to go about doing that... though if someone offered an introduction... she is not sure what she would do then.

"What the hell is this? Should we scram?"

"Uh, yeah. Get away if you can." Ane says quietly to Garret and her other companions, but it seems it might be too late for that.

Ane is more than a little scared, both that they saw right though her 'disguise' but mainly that they cared enough to be talking to her. She sags a little bit and her clothes fall still and flat.

She knows quite a few languages, but Thayan is not one of them —wouldn't it have been cool, though, if she could answer them in their own language— so she devolves to Trade: "Visiting a friend." She 'answers' (technically true), as politely as one can in Trade. "Can we ... is there some way I can help you." A genuine offer to help seems the best way to deal with this if possible.

Ane is not the best talker, she tends to overthink things, but does not want to draw attention to the rest of her group if she can avoid it.

Asha has a bad feeling about these red robed figures and senses a similar tension from the rest of the group, particularly Ane since she knows her the best. She gets the impression that they are referring to the crew when they say "assortment of knick knacks," which makes her feel even more uncomfortable.

Ane's hurried comment confirms her feelings, but she doesn't want to abandon her friend. Instead she thinks of a distraction so they can all flee.

She starts by making eye contact with the figures with a polite smile, acknowledging them. As Ane answers their question, Asha looks distractedly towards the vendors, appearing to browse. Suddenly she let's her eyes and mouth widen, as though in surprise and then with a scream, points to an imagined threat behind the red robes.

POOF!

Smoke explodes from Asha in all directions, it's billowing clouds blotting out everyone's view nearby.

She tries to grab Ane's and Garrett's hands, the two closest to her so not to get separated and yells, "Run!"

"Aaa!" Ane exclaims in genuine surprise as she is grabbed on the one hand by Asha and the other hand by Buruzg, and dragged backwards towards the stairs. Neither of them would have had a hard time dragging her, even if her feet were planted on the ground, but, as she is not in contact with anything she offers no resistance at all to their progress.

Jasra stares for a moment in bewilderment and a little shock, then scoots after the rest of the group, careful to use a circuitous path and interpose whatever elements she can find between her back and the Red Robes. "This is not good," she says in a loud whisper to her comrades. "Do you think its just coincidence that we ran into them and they took an interest in us?" Almost as an afterthought she adds, casting a quick glance behind her, "I'm not a big believer in coincidence..."

Garrett will look over his shoulder and see Asha go down. He will stop on a dime spin and run back and try to help Asha. Can't leave a crew member behind. "Hold on Asha I am coming back!"

Asha screams for real this time as the lightning surges through her body. After collapsing at the edge of the slowly dispersing cloud of smoke, she lifts her head in confusion, fear and pain in her eyes, the soot on her face had formed into a pattern of streaked bolts. Hearing Garrett's voice, her eyes show a sliver of hope. Despite her muscles still being rigid and convulsing, she reaches an arm up towards him.

Ane sometimes tends to be... well, she would like to call it: 'considered', but others might call it 'slow to react'. She is still contemplating what is —or was— going on with the Red Robes conversation when the reality of the situation settles in and she sees Asha on the ground.

"Are you hurt?" She asks her friend, fluttering around now that her hand has been let go of, and not doing a whole lot to help. She looks to Garrett thankfully as he comes to their aid.

Ane is taking in the scene, all the details of where the Red Robes are, the incoming patrol officer, and the curious crowd. These facts will come in useful later, when we can formulate a plan. She tells herself.

Asha can only nod her head in reply. Tremors move through her body as she tries to get up and and she can't seem to support her full weight, at least for now.

Garrett will run back to Asha and help her up and get her moving while supporting her."I got you."

Asha thanks Garrett as he helps her to her feet and provides a shoulder to hang on. Her whole body is sore from the electric shock, but her senses begin to return as she sees the others watching the approaching patrol. When Buruzg curses at the Thayans, she notices they still seem preoccupied by the smoke so says, "I appreciate the sentiment Buruzg, those Thayans deserve far worse than the Padishah's wrath, but let's get out of here. We don't want to be explaining ourselves to the magister, it could take hours. And we'll need to hurry too. We'll need to backtrack and take a longer route to Osiir now."

"Quite right." Ane nods in agreement when Asha says 'let's get out of here'.

"Quickly, through here." She motions the group down a small alley, filled with refuse and mostly blocked by broken barrels that would make it hard to traverse for people larger than themselves.

As the last of them enter, Ane stops, focuses a bit and moves her hands in a raising, painting motion, and an image of a stone wall forms at the mouth of the alley. If you concentrate on it you can still see the people in the road outside, but at first glance it looks like a dead-end. Presumably, from the other side, it looks like there is no alley at all and people will pass it by.

"That won't help us from above." Ane says. "But hopefully the patrol will stick to the street-level... or not look in this exact direction?"

Asha, still using Garrett as a crutch, follows Anemone's direction down the alley and is relieved that Ane has a trick to help their escape since speed was not Asha's strength at the moment.

Looking at the others in the alley Garrett will ask"Anyone know what was up with those chili peppers?"

"I didn't get the chance to ask them what they wanted." Ane replies to Garret. "They definitely seemed to have an interest in us, though. Were they waiting for us? Does that mean they knew where we would be meeting?"

"Far too interested for my coin," Jasra adds from her perch behind one of the barrels. "They seemed to hone right in on us, and not in a friendly way." She checks the barrel and makes sure its solid and stable, then hops up on it and takes a seat. "I think we may have to take a more 'scenic' route to our destination, but that's not going to help us with time.... I wonder how Buruzg is faring with the Magister?"

"So it wasn't my imagination." Ane says as they make their way to Inki's. She is both worried and a little excited that wizards of that caliber were paying attention to her —and they were talking to me, she thinks. "I have heard bad stories about them, though. I don't think we want to get involved... though it would have been interesting to hear what they wanted?"

---

At Inki's she is feeling a little jittery after the adrenaline and the flight, and the now-sudden-waiting. Without thought for whether it is a good idea in the middle of a job, she orders a pipe (hooka?/shisha?), offering to share with her companions, both new and old.

As Garrett helps Asha into Inki's and helps her sit he looks around the room looking for possible chili peppers. He will refrain from partaking of anything in here he prefers to keep a clear mind. he looks to the others"Be easy in here. We might have to think quick on our feet."

Asha eases into a seat from Garrett's arms, "Thanks for the help! I think things are starting to loosen up now, but hellfire," she curses, "I'm still sore!"

She takes in a deep breath and exhales slowly, it almost looks like smoke comes out her mouth. Hearing Ane's offer she gladly agrees to share, "Just what I need to take the edge off."

Then she apologizes for acting so quickly with the chilli peppers, she uses Garrett's moniker with a grin. "I'm curious what they wanted too, but I was worried if we waited to find out we would have been in their snare. I hope Buruzg isn't having any troubles dealing with them and the Magister."

Jasra plops into a seat and folds her legs under her so that she's almost as tall as some of her companions. Then a thought comes to mind that leaves her troubled, and she blurts out, eyes wider than normal, "If he wasn't detained, would he know where to look for us?" She looks from one of her companions to another, hoping there might have been a backup plan she wasn't aware of.

Like Garrett, Jas doesn't partake, but keeps her eyes on their surroundings, just in case....

"This is where he said we should meet." Ane reassures Jasra.

"I don't know him well, but he is not a magic user, so they are unlikely to detain him, right? It clearly wasn't him that did the... the smoke and then the lightning... Gosh, I hope no one else was hurt by that spell, it was pretty irresponsible of those Thayans to cast that blind like that."