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"I should look the part you say?" Almost before she had finished speaking and with no gesture to give any indication that she had even used a spell, Lio suddenly stood before them in a copy of the formal robes of her order which she carried in her bag. The cloth was the brilliant green of new oak leaves and it was embroidered all over with intricate patters of oak leaves and acorns. Her hair was now in an elaborate and complicated style that demanded attention. Lio would have been practically unrecognizable if it hadn't been for the fact that she still had her scars.

It had been so very long since she'd worn these robes, even as an illusion they made her feel different. The fact that she was a master mage had sat uneasily with her before, but now it seemed to settle around her like a mantle.

She raised her hand and called her staff to her and even it seemed changed. What had been a simple length of wood was now covered in runes and carvings of leaves and acorns.

"Is this better?" she asked Linota.

Azumi surrounded herself in a cloud of smoke and turned into a human woman in her 20's, her clothes adjusted to her current form.

"There", She said, "I don't want to draw too much attention too early"

"Kuzu, make your ears human at least...", Ren rolled his eyes and Azumi changed her fox ears into something more humanlike.

The blonde sorceress chuckled.

"Who would you suggest I be?" Assallya asked, "I have a rather large selection of personas."

Assallya considered. She had the attire of a noble woman, a gypsy, a thief, a scullery maid, a priestess of Sine, and a dozen other disguises inside her wagon.

"Maybe try noble some radigans other contacts dress all formal-like so he'll be more inclined to be tricked" cairo suggest to assallya. "Im not too sure how radigan would react to the other ideas" he adds in an unsure tone.

"What other ideas?" Assallya asked, quite confused, "I only asked what he might interested in or drawn to.

"You know I have a number of disguises. I can dress as noble woman, a gypsy, a thief, a scullery maid, a priestess of Sune or even a scrappy young street urchin like yourself."

"That's a good idea, Azumi," Lio said to the now human looking figure. "We'll go back into town in two groups. Linota and Cairo can return to Radigan with a nice, heavy coin pouch that they 'stole' from us. The rest of us will travel together, posing as a powerful mage and her retinue."

She turned to Assallya, "I think we may make use of a couple of your disguises. As an urchin you can go with those two and get an idea of how things are laid out as far as getting to the treasure and maybe even be able to get some things out. You can also take a look at Radigan's magical abilities so that we have an idea of what we're up against. As a servant, you can come back to us and give us the information and anything you've been able to steal."

"Are there any empty buildings on the edge of town?" she asked Linota. "Taking an abandoned building and fixing it up would be a nice demonstration of power and would give us somewhere to lure Radigan to that others won't get hurt if things go wrong."

"You said you're good with explosives?" Lio then asked Ren. "We can put charges in the building as a backup plan as well."

Arlanni ran through the marketplace, green eyes darting about, skirts swishing about her ankles as her bare feet slapped the cobblestone.

Where were those two ruffians? If they didn't return soon Radigan was going to shank them both!

The redheaded former pickpocket was getting desperate. She looked after the urchins for Radigan so he didn't have to so there was every likelihood he would punish her as well. He probably wouldn't kill her as well, or so she hoped, since then he'd have to find someone else to run the street trash.

As it was she was already late for her shift at the brothel and the matron was going to be quite upset with her. Maybe if she said Radigan had a task for her she'd shut her wrinkly old trap of a mouth but she could only use that excuse so often.

No, she had to find this fool children and fast.

“What’s wrong with a carriage ambush?” Linota asked, mostly to herself among the chaos of everyone's ideas. “Everyone argues with the ambush plan. It worked on you two. Technically..”

She had devolved to mutterings by the end and they would only cease when she saw Liothryth, standing before them now looking elegant and like a proper mage.
“That should.. work,” Linota told her, trying to hide her surprise at such a transformation. She could see every curve and angle now, and she found herself studying them timidly.

Then Azumi changed her form as well, it being a much more dramatic change seeing as she used to be a kitsune. Linota watched as she shifted and then morphed her ears to suit a human body. She wondered how it must feel, though jealousy never came to mind.

She looked at Assallya next, as if waiting for her to change her form, though she started to suggest outfits instead.
“A noble would do,” Linota said, stopping Assallya at the word ‘noble’, as Cairo had suggested.
Lin nodded at the plan to return to Radigan with a pouch of coin and added,
“Good idea. He’s probably growing suspicious of our absence right about now.” She looked up to the sky, seeing the sun was on its descent. “But he’ll be less likely to suspect something if we show up with a good amount of gold.”

“There's one on the west end,” Linota told Liothryth, about the abandoned buildings. “It’s near his home and he knows of it, but you can tell him it’s being used for this event. Whatever it is.”

Linota wasn’t sure of all the details herself, but she was sure this group was smart enough to figure out just what to say. At least, she hoped they were.
“I know he has plenty of artifacts, but I don't know what all of them can do,” Lin explained to them one last time. “He really only needs the power of influence his amulet gives him, so I haven't seen what he can really do. His amulet is a pendant he always wears around his neck. It makes people listen to him and do his bidding, though the more he uses it, the less strength the influence holds. Just keep your wards up and try to take the amulet as quickly as you can."

She stifled a shudder at the thought of Radigan's influence, closing her eyes for a moment to rid herself of the memories. She feared that they would see Cairo and herself as, well, not themselves.
“Okay, where’s the gold?” Linota asked Lio, holding her hands out.

As soon as she got her clutches on a sack of coins, she and Cairo would be off, racing into town with newfound fortitude. They would run into Arlanni soon enough, where Linota would give her a toothy grin and secretly show her the gold pouch under her loose cape.

“Swiped it off some travelers’ cart,” Lin told her snidely, her face still red and puffy. “Fools didn’t even know what hit them.”
Yeah. That would seal the deal. She tried to hide any nerves her stomach might be feeling behind that smile, wondering if the others could handle pretending to be social elites.

"Arlannii you wouldn't believe how easy it was" cairo says enthusiastic. "they left that wagon behind like it just wasn't holding a bunch of gold on it!" He says with a convincing fake laugh.

Arlanni was so very relieved but tried not to show it, tried and failed.

Instead she grabbed Linota and Cairo by the ears and began to pull them along.

"You're lucky you got that gold," she said, more for herself than for them, "Radigan would have been so damn pissed. Remember what he did to poor Rat-catcher?"

Linota was in the middle of adding her laugh to Cairo’s when they were both grabbed by the ear and she made repetitive, pained noises before she shouted Arlanni’s name. Then the girl reminded them of Rat-catcher and Linota forgot to fight the pull momentarily. How could that last image of their friend ever be erased?

She grabbed Arlanni’s wrist hard, a sudden anger roiling inside her. She knew it had been the influence, that they weren’t to blame, but how could they bear to do that to their own friend?
“That won’t happen again,” she snapped at Arlanni, surprising even herself. She was usually better at keeping her emotions down, but something about the topic of being forced to massacre one of your close companions really riled her up.

If she received a curious or questioning look from the girl, Linota would forcibly calm herself and clear her throat. “Because we got the gold,” she recovered, more sadly than she tried to.
They continued to Radigan’s abode, where it stunk of fourteen children and all of the things that came with them.

(( i’ll post for Radigan next go i’m about to see a play and it’ll leave time for Lio, Assallya, Ren, and Azumi posts for their big party setup xD ))

Seeing everyone make a plan together reminded Ren of something. He reminisced of the times he was in his squad, the times when Finn, Lucine, Karl, and Azuki. It was just like the old days, just like...

But he knew there was no time for that, he had people to save and a tyrant to get rid of. He holstered the bladed Blunderbuss and summoned another gun, this time it was a pistol. He checked if he had any more rounds for the pistol and holstered it as well. He stood there waiting for Liothryth's signal.

"Well?", He said looking around, "Are we all set then? I'm itching to use an Azido spell". Azumi gave him a serious look at the mention of the spell called, "Azido".

"You aren't allowed to cast artillery spells, at least not yet. Not until I say so, got it, Rawx?", She said, arms crossed.

"Yeah, alright, Kuzu"

Azumi, who forgot to hide her tails as well, did so and summoned a pistol that looked exactly like Ren's and hid it as well. She nodded at Ren who wanted to nod back, but seemed too preoccupied at the fact he couldn't use what could be a dangerous spell.

"By your orders, captains! You lead, we follow!", She said this to Liothryth and Ren, smiling.

The blonde sorceress who was walking back towards her vardo wagon was a bit surprised by the pair pulling weapons out of thin air. More interestingly, they looked like crossbows without the arms. She'd never quite seen the like. They irked her. Somehow they felt "wrong".

"Well," Assallya said to the others, "I have to catch up to the others and get into costume if I'm supposed to investigate Radigan."

Clamoring up the brass rail on the side of the floral decorated wagon she turned the entire vardo around and clucked, getting the old horse to canter back towards civilation. Thankfully they hadn't gone far.

Lio asked Azumi and Ren to give her a few minutes to change into her actual formal robes and do her hair instead of using the illusion spell. After she did so, they returned to the town. On the way through they spoke to a few people, asking about any empty buildings and drawing attention to themselves. They also stopped at the temple of Alamar to pick up even more money. When the found the building that Linota had told them about, Lio took a few minutes to look it over. It wasn't in too bad a shape, but it did need some work. She then proceeded to make a production out of using magic to fix it up. There were definitely a lot more bangs and flashes of light than were strictly necessary and after a little while a small crowd had gathered to see what was going on. Eventually, Lio stood back and took a look at her work. The building was now solid and freshly painted, though the colors were a bit more garish than she would normally choose.

With a nod she turned to Ren and Azumi. "Go into the town and fetch things for our dinner, and see what its available as far as furniture and bedding and such." She handed them a large bag of coins, making sure it made an audible clink as they took it. "I will be here doing what I can about the inside."

While Liothryth was fixing up the building, Ren had hidden quite a lot of explosives in the building, making sure that it was well hidden and nobody was able to find them. He looked at the crowd of people through a window on the second floor after finishing the second set of bombs. He hated crowds, even when he lead a normal life as a musician. He brushed it off as Lio had called the attention of him and Azumi. They were both given big bags of coin to spend on dinner and furniture and willingly did so.

After tediously helping the town's most expensive tavern with carrying the dinner and furniture and thanks to Azumi's silver tongue, lowering the prices of the amenities, they arrived with the food and furniture and promptly carried them into their respective areas of the building. They then went outside to make a speech.

"Uh", he paused, uncertain as to what he would like to say,"Rich guys, wanna come in?"

Azumi giggled at Ren's attempt at making things interesting, much to his dismay. She told him to rest and leave it to a professional like her.

"Come, one and all to our delightful club of power! Only the wealthy and strong may enter, and no one else! We have the best food that we have gathered from the best chefs, and if you'd like, I shall make you delights of eastern make that shall make you clamor for more! We have amenities from the best taverns around the world! All you want and desire is welcome in this second humble abode!", despite disliking what she has said, she forced it on herself with a forced smile, that wasn't noticed by any of the crowd.

Linota and Cairo would arrive to Radigan’s house, led by Arlanni, just in time to hear him shout about ‘those two dirty, rotten, ungrateful sewer rats!’ Linota gave Cairo a sideways glance, took a breath, then opened the door.

“Sir Radigan,” Linota started tentatively, but he was having none of it.
“Stupid girl!” He spat at her.
She could actually feel the drops wet her face, but she refrained from wiping them away. Her hands shook with the effort, for she hated the thought of germs. This was especially true of Radigan’s germs. His saliva felt like thick grease on her skin and her brain screamed at her that her entire body had become slick with it now. She stood, expressionless, and waited for him to rant and rave. Which he did, for about two minutes.

Linota eventually held out the gold pouch, the heft of it making the cloth stretch and sag. Radigan’s eyes widened in surprise for just a moment, before he greedily swiped it from her. He opened it, checked inside, and ran his hands through the coins, making them jingle. After he seemed satisfied with their successful thievery, he looked them over with a more thoughtful eye.

“You’ve done well,” he told them, though his mind was already made up. Let them think they were off scot-free, get them to let down their guards. He was about to see how smart they really were. “Go get some food and reward yourselves. You’ve earned it.”
Linota tried to hide her suspicion, but Radigan being so weirdly cordial made it a difficult feat. “Thank you, Sir,” she told him, then another brief glance at Cairo.

The older man turned away from them, releasing the hold his eyes had on them. Linota grabbed Cairo’s arm and just about dragged him to the cluttered kitchen, where meals were half cooked and half eaten.
“That was strange,” Linota told Cairo while she made noise with pots and crumpled bags. She was only pretending to prepare a meal, since the butterflies in her stomach left no room to be hungry. “Something’s going on with him.”


If she remembered the plan correctly–or if she remembered the correct plan correctly–Assallya would join them soon, posing as Radigan’s newest crew member. Linota only hoped that whatever Radigan had planned didn’t ruin that one. She still held onto the confidence that they outnumbered the b*st*rd, but his amulet proved to be a great counter argument. She wished everything could just hurry up so she didn’t have to feel her nerves anymore. She splashed some water in her red face from the basin and let it drip freely from her chin and nose as she leaned over it in thought.

Breathing a sigh of relief Arlanni stepped away from the wall she was leaning against and made to follow Radigan.

The girl's nose crinkled, pronouncing her freckles. The man was acting oddly, his demeanor swinging too rapidly. It worried her so she slipped across the floor in pursuit.

"Radigan," she called after him, not daring to raise her voice lest it be deemed disrespectful, "Shall I go back to the brothel?"

Her job at the brothel pleased him. In a sense it was like he was getting free samples, stealing from the brothel, when he used Arlanni. In addition, her job proved useful.
Men enjoyed talking and whores liked to gossip amongst one another. She regularly brought back juicy pieces of information she overheard.

"Hey lin radigan was different just then something has to going wrong he's acting different. Do ya think he's on to us?" Cairo quietly asks Linota in a calm tone not letting his nervousness show "what are we gonna do if he figures us out, i mean he seemed more paranoid than usual something doesn't feel right with him" feeling off about the whole situation Cairo starts to think of a plan in case things go south.