faderift | closed | a casual stroll y'know

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closed | a casual stroll y'know

WHO: Yngvi and Ellana
WHAT: Then a couple of guys who were up to no good started making trouble in my neighbourhood
WHEN: mid-August
WHERE: Lowtown/Darktown/Docks; they're going for a stealth stroll
NOTES: Please see the above link for context, Yngvi and Ellana have previously discussed Yngvi's observations. Will update for any uncomfortable subject matter.

When the word comes, the word comes and Yngvi goes looking for Ellana. Not like it's hard to go find a Dalish elf even in Kirkwall where a few of them where a clan had pitched up for a long stretch and a few lived in the alienage anyway but he knows the face he's looking for. His sending crystal has to be removed from the drawer he left it in first after not trusting himself with it in the Gallows and he's assuming he'll find Ellana there. And his notes. Because he's still got all of those.

Why wouldn't he have notes.

Not like he doesn't mind walking to go find her wherever she happens to be but whenever he does happen to find her, he picks up as if they're still talking about the last thing they talked about, which is the first thing he really remembers actually ever talking to her about. "Oi, 'member how you said you wanted to know what I found out from my casual look 'round? How d'you fancy seein' it instead?"

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"That's the thing: I know all about people being offended I exist in their line of sight, but they don't usually turn tail and take off like that. They either say something or ignore me, but they don't go out of their way to get away from me." She turns and gives Yngvi a questioning look. "So do you think he doesn't want an elf asking him questions?"

"When there are elves going missing?" It could be a coincidence but Yngvi might be adept at playing the fool as and when he needs to and any other day, any other time he'd say yes, it's because you're an elf and this is the world we live in terrible as it is but no. Not today. "He doesn't want an elf asking him questions. Especially not an elf that looks like you."

Meaning an elf that looks Dalish. Vallaslin. Never again shall we submit. Someone with lurid stories he might believe who isn't used to living the way a city elf is accustomed to even if it'd still end the same way.

"That's our man."

Ellana gives a nod, adding, "We need to tail him. I have some tricks up my sleeve to go unnoticed, so do you want to split up and observe him? Or maybe you have an idea?" Of the two of them, Yngvi knows this place and she doesn't. There could be secrets around every corner, and he would know them.

This isn't the best sort of place to look as if he's looking around deliberately so Yngvi rubs at his nose, letting it cover his mouth to onlookers. "Disputed turf up ahead, mind what got you in on this before?" He can't come right out and say it but they're still squabbling over bits of turf here and there so splitting up isn't the best plan. "Carta sees us together and you'll get a free pass, still the big ticket in town. Do whatever tricks you've got on you, I know how to handle it if anything gets dicey at the rear yeah?"

Yngvi isn't an artificer for nothing after all, and not every trap is an elaborate production. A few caltrops spilled out of a pocket that's just sprung a hole? Deters a good few.

"Okay. I'm just warning you, you'll see me disappear at some point, but I'll still be here -- just cloaked in magic." In case he thinks she isn't heeding his warning anymore. Without any more delay, Ellana starts off after the man, moving close to the walls of buildings and tunnels without pressing up against them and making it obvious what she's doing. The man up ahead is tall enough that she catches sight of the back of his head and keeps him in her sight.

Her muscles are tense, like a cat waiting to spring on its prey, and she keeps aware of her surroundings so that as she passes by a darkened tunnel to her right, she casually steps in, casts True Stealth on herself, and steps back out, completely invisible. It won't last forever, so she speeds up, tailing the man much more easily and even moving beside him to check his face. He still looks agitated, and even casts a quick glance over his shoulder. Oh yes. She's definitely unsettled him. Time to move back towards Yngvi before they get too far apart.

About to ask if seeing her disappear defeats the purpose or if he's just misunderstanding the whole exercise she's already off. Half a mutter under his breath about standing around like a lemon but he follows, hoping he looks about as casual as a dwarf can look when the person they were with just ran off. Well he can lie if anyone asks. Dalish, thought she saw an heirloom of her people in all this, you know what they're like. Go get out your grandmother's spoons again, might work same as it did with those new surfaces. Why you lookin' at me like that, we all laughed! Something like that. Something to really sell it well.

All of it's different to how it goes with someone he's known for years, fought alongside for years; Melisende or Liadan he'd know by their breathing, their soft footfalls but he's good as blind until Ellana decides to end the spell but he's more able to deal with something physical than she is so that's what he prepares for. And when the man's gaze falls on him?

He rolls. Perfectly silent. (Didn't spend all that time down here so recently for the good of his health, some things you have to brush up on again where you come from.) Springs back up onto his feet and somehow that just makes their mark look even more disturbed but he's not wanting to look at either of them now.

By the time Ellana reappears, the man has sped up and is definitely walking somewhere with purpose. Before, when he'd been casually strolling through the streets, he'd been in his element. This was his territory, and any frail little elves could be put on his list, tailed, and nabbed. But then he saw the wild one with the squiggles on her face. And a savage like her is unpredictable; might have moves she learned in the forest and a lot of fight in those skinny bones. Then the whole scheme would fall apart. Oh, no one in Darktown would care if they saw him trying to forcibly abduct an elf, but if she got away... if she told other elves and they knew what to avoid...

So now he heads straight back to base. When he looked back and saw the dirty little dwarf, the elf was gone. Probably sick of the stench of the undercity and needed to get out to hug a tree or something. He thinks he's safe, so why wouldn't he head back and give his report? Nothing exciting out there, guys. Just a squiggly faced one who left.

Back beside Yngvi, Ellana watches the man get up close to the door and do a complicated series of knocks. The door opens and he slips inside before the door closes behind him.

"Now what?"

Had he the time to get hold of them without people disappearing, he could get Jim. Or Brunswick. Both of them and that'd be risking questions getting asked of him by people he doesn't want to answer to when it's something like this but it'd be handy to have them or even Hulda's scarred face with her faded brand. This though--

Flapping a hand at Ellana, Yngvi hurries over after a count of three careful heartbeats then presses his body to the door and listens. Listens carefully to footsteps falling away as he digs through a pocket to come up with as many caltrops as he can keep in his hand without risk of dropping them. Might work. Might not. But the steps all moved away and so did the voices and Yngvi didn't spend so many years trying hard to keep his dinners to himself to not know how to quickly memorise a signal knock on the fly.

"Just-- be ready yeah? Might get tasty," he warns her as he leans back from his listening spot. No telling how many are in there or what they're up to and she's a mage she's probably got shit she can get on with to help out. With the empty hand he knocks flawlessly. Not too confidently but casual, someone doing it regular. Waits. Waits more. And waits some more. Nothing. "F'fuck'sake," one quick oath under his breath, "what sort of operation is this meant to be? The Poison Tits do better work and they're tits." He tries again.

Waits. Waits again.

Stuffs all but one caltrops back in his pocket to get the brass knuckles on to go have a feel about for the mechanism, there's always something on this end because there has to be, it's how they were made and-- "Get in." Not that that's actually an instruction, he's just happy he found it and slightly alarmed because fuck him he's got the door open or unlatched an inch and now what.

Ellana is sure he's got a plan because look at how confidently he moves to the door, takes out his caltrops, knocks on the door like a pro...

...and nothing happens. Well, that's anti-climatic. She doesn't make a comment, however, choosing to wait to see what he does next. But it rapidly becomes apparent that he's making this shit up as he goes along and her eyes widen as the door opens. Well, they have to do something now. They're in the thick of it. So she moves in close and waves her hand, casting Silence Field over them.

"This lasts half a minute. We're in a magic field, like a big soap bubble. Anything beyond can't hear any sound we make. Come on." And with that, she opens the door. There's a dark entrance way before them, and thankfully no one there waiting. Ellana contemplates producing a mage light, but decides against it. She can see well enough and what's the point in being completely silent if you flash a light? She looks to Yngvi.

"Let's sneak around. Either he's in here, or there's a back door."

Knowing Darktown as he does means knowing all the things that might be lurking on the other side of the door for the unwary, the unwanted. Yngvi remembers the Qunari invasion after all. Never experienced choking on noxious things himself but everyone heard the stories and there were always rumours about where the barrels went, that they didn't get all of them. Lots of trapped doors, trapped plates, pull a lever and then anyone you don't want there meets with pain and unhappy ends.

He can't disarm what he can't see.

A spell being cast on him makes him frown in the dark (Amalia might've been happy with the fire and vicious with the healing but she tended to ask unless you were too out of it to reply if she did things to you or really close to you) but he nods. Dwarves see in the dark same as elves without the glowing eyes after all and he keeps his eyes out for traps.

"This is a warehouse, get lots of places like this built into where they used to mine," he says as loud as he dares even with the spell, nodding to where they find themselves, "we've got a few. Usually pretty stacked. Why's this one empty? Why d'you knock to get into a place with nothing much left in it?"

"I don't know," she answers, peeping around corners as she goes. "They can't be using it as a warehouse. Those places never run out of goods. This doesn't feel right."

It's so eerie in here; dark and abandoned, with no sign of the man or whomever let him in. As they move further in, Ellana notes daylight coming in from under a door and she points towards it.

"Maybe they left?"

"Cleared out fast enough." He feels for traps against the walls, then digging into his pocket drops a couple of nails ahead to see if there's any pressure plates to trigger.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing and that-- That's not right.

"Warehouses," he starts and turns mostly to face her, moving his hands to help explain, "get laid out specific ways so anyone who's meant to be in and out knows the layout and the traps. Anyone else loses a foot. If they're lucky. We can follow 'em, double back here if that doesn't pan out and have another pass at it since we know how to get in?"

Yngvi's fine with either but since she's got spells and it's elves going missing, he figures giving her more of a say is only right.

Ellana raises her brow in surprise because she had no idea warehouses were like that. No wonder he's been moving so cautiously. But wait. That means this warehouse is both empty and without traps. Why has it been cleared out?

"I say we follow them. There may be clues here, but if it's really been stripped completely, then we've wasted time looking when we might get answers from following that man instead. Let's go and come back here after we get some answers."

Only crooked shit. Only ever crooked shit if you come to an empty Darktown warehouse unless you're the one springing the ambush or doing the waiting for other folk to show up for the dead drop.

"Plenty of backstreets and shortcuts this way, 'sides I know the mechanism now and that nothing'll happen if I open it." That allows him to be confident about that bit at the very least which gives Yngvi the push he needs to get moving in the direction of the door which isn't locked. Because why would it be? Mechanism on one side in case anyone followed but once they're out then it'll maybe lock the other way-- well he can test it o the way back.

Keeping an eye out as he peers into the darkening street, he murmurs softly to Ellana, "How soon before you can cast again? Might need it."

"Very soon," she replies, feeling her mana returning to her. It's nearly enough to do the spell again. "Can you see our man anywhere out there?" She is, of course, only calling him "our man" since it's faster than any description of this person who beat it back to the warehouse after seeing her.

"On your signal, I can cast what you need."

Used to having to spot bodies taller than him in a crowd from little more to go on than the backs of their legs depending on the view, it doesn't take Yngvi long to nod, a careful elbow nudging Ellana's side. Kirkwall's a mess of stairways and alleys, tunnels and dead-ends but this particular set of stairs he's going down is steep enough that it leads only one way and that's--

"The hell's he going to the dock for?" Yngvi mutters aloud, more irritated than anything because life right now is boat rides if you're living in the Gallows or needing to go there, smalltalk with the ferryman, and now they're going to the docks? And they were in Lowtown. Looks weird. He pulls a face but does what he can to get lost in the crowd which works pretty well since he's a dwarf and most of the crowd is bigger than he is. At least this is the quickest way to the docks, doesn't go unnoticed by him either.

Ellana follows along, trying her best to both not lose Yngvi and not look like she's tailing some guy. It's not the easiest look to pull off, but she does her best. She just needs to look like she belongs here and has better shit to do than care what the people around her think. That's what everyone else does.

"Maybe something to do with why the warehouse is empty? They brought whatever was in there down to the docks earlier and now they're sending it out?"

"Yeah but--" Someone walks into Yngvi so at least he's as invisible as ever, good to know, "why was he that shifty about seeing you."

If it's just Ellana looking Dalish he'll owe her three sovereigns but he glanced back with a sceptical little scowl that says no, no it's not just being Dalish that got him all spooked. Hardened cons got superstitions but wanting to flee from someone they could punch without anyone saying a word? That sits wrong with him.

"Might catch a glimpse of we'll double back." Ah, smell that salt air? Almost there now. Ellana might want to cast now while the shadows favour them before they turn and duck through a narrow passage into the light.

"I really don't know," she admits, and not knowing the answer to that irks her. She just knows that this guy is shifty, elves are going missing, and she's an elf, and maybe there's a connection there somehow?

Recognizing that they're close, she moves her hand subtly to cast Silence Field and then says, "Okay, we're good for about half a minute now."

The Kirkwall docks are always busy since it's a port and it not being busy is a bad thing, usually when the Qunari were doing something or maybe after the Chantry blew up. Yngvi wasn't around for that one.

With the spell in place it means that Yngvi can be bolder about really getting a good look for their--

"Hey there scumbag, it's me, your dwarf," he says because he can when he spots their good friend Shifty McFuck weaving his way towards a mid-sized ship with several dwarves guarding it. "Ah fuck."

It looks like Yngvi is enjoying this bit of magic, since it gives him the opportunity to say what he really wants. She spots the man not long after Yngvi, and her eyes follow him to the ship.

"Um, not to assume all dwarves know each other, but it sounds like you know those guys? Or at least know what we're in for?"

Look. Look this is a whole new world of possibilities for him because getting to be all silent and hidden opens up a new world of possibilities for him? The amount of things he'd say just to get them out of his head even if other people weren't hearing him? Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

"It's Kirkwall, I probably do know every dwarf from here," he replies and he'd grin if this were any other sort of situation but he can't bring himself to as he nods at the dwarves in question. Sighing, he chews his lip before he continues, glancing between Ellana and the ship. "See them? Locals. Nasty brutes and we - being you and me - aren't going to be able to get too close. We might get the name of the ship but get too close and it'll be more harm than good, they're not good people."

If he's really into this silence field thing, she should start charging him for it to make a little bit of coin on the side.

"All right, we go about this the stealthy way. I can go invisible again. I should have enough time to run out close enough to see the name and at least get to cover to make my way back when I appear again. If the name's visible, I mean." There's no telling if the sea waves have stripped the paint off by now. "But beyond that, I won't have enough time to eavesdrop on them and get out unseen. What do you think?"

"Go for it. Don't risk listening in on them, they'll not talk shop out here and trying anything ends up with us knocked out or dead and this isn't, y'know, all sanctioned or anything." Who knows where you are right now Ellana, who you're with, what you're doing, when you should be back? Who'd think that it's not some secret assignment you had to fib about because you're a mage who knows weird stealth spells mages generally don't know? (He's paranoid, he doesn't like this, why are there people he knows here?)

So he counts whenever Ellana goes, keeps an eye out for anyone who might react and tries to just look like a dwarf who has a reason to hang out by the docks all casual like, just sorting through the contents of his pockets. If anyone bothers to come ask what he thinks he's up to mate then he's waiting for a lass, smell of the salt air overwhelmed her, you know how it is with some of them. Land ships and sailing ships, two different things and they'll both laugh, he'll feel bad but when does he not these days?
FOLLOW UP: who does the ship belong to, who does the captain work for, who owns that building, if they pursue the docks do they go back to the building and investigate it?

Off Ellana goes, casting when she's ducked behind a load of crates higher than her head. She jogs towards the ship until she's close enough, but still far enough away from the dwarves guarding it. The letters on the old wood are faint yet legible, and once she reads it off she heads back, having just enough time to duck back behind those same crates as before so it looks like she hasn't moved.

Returning to Yngvi as someone laughs and walks away from him, eyeing her up with surprise (What's she see in this scrappy bit of nothing? Oh well, everyone has a fetish.), she nods towards the direction they came.

"All done," she says in a normal tone, since the silence field has dissipated by now. Then under her breath, she murmurs, "Golden Arrow." Now they have a name. Time to do some research.

Rummaging through his pockets lends Yngvi something of the air of bored (right, fine, let's say harried) dwarf waits around, passing little gears, nails, and pins through his fingers to count the length of time she's been gone since tapping is too obvious here.

"There you are, don't have all day!" He says loudly for the benefit of selling this little pantomime when she returns, "There's plenty left on the tour, don't you want to sit where the great storied arse of the Champion sat?" Moving, moving, away from these shady people getting on the ship until they're not going to be something worth watching, he finally feels like he can talk. Chantry folk peddling about for coin are more note-worthy here. "A name's good, better than good. Back to the warehouse, see if there's more lurking there that's about the ship then I think we go somewhere we can actually talk."

Which means back to Darktown then back to the Gallows but at least they've got something to be working on for a while and that sits damned well with Yngvi who can crack the most sincere and genuine smile he's managed all day.

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closed | a casual stroll y'know

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