Skulking around the Warehouse.

Lafayette lay flat on his stomach hiding in an upper loft on the outside of the warehouse. It had taken some careful climbing, and considerable balance to achieve this but he was in a position that he could now see most of the front side. Seeing the guards come and go, and see if anyone new arrived that looked more important than a guard. Though anyone ‘important’ had yet to be seen.

Given the cover of darkness and a reasonably accurate count of the number of guards Lafayette would usually pick them off one at a time. Knocking them out and stashing them somewhere away from anyone’s eyes line, but every guard wore matching uniforms and headgear with a face covering he couldn’t tell them apart easily. Making his count change each time he attempted it so even if it was dark it’d be suicide to try a sneak and breach.

“If only Kalena was here. She’s a way better spotter than me,” he thought, missing her terribly. He took a moment to check his barebone gear in his rucksack. “Two smoke bomb, two flash bombs, one knock-out bomb, 6 2-foot long sections of rope, folding sword, blink rune and ‘magic blanket’,” he said in his head as he counted off the items.

“Awful lot of guards to keep one woman on lock down,” he mumbled to himself and he slipped the folding sword from the bag knowing it wouldn’t be long before he would have to either make a move or go home. And he was not leaving here without Gerda. “Well geared too,” he noted quietly. “Not normal hired help,” he thought in another whisper, before spying someone in fancy church robes approached the door, and the head guard let them enter. Shortly after that the same figure left out the same door in a different set of robes.

“Strange…” he mumbled, slinking back into the loft and pulling out the ‘magic blanket’, an item given to Kalena and him years ago by Avara that made the wearer invisible, or at the very least made a person not notice them. He smiled at the memory of Avara trying to explain the silly thing to him.

“This new world you will find yourself will doubtlessly be dangerous,” Avara Xaulder, the Avatar of the Goddess Fernoia said. “As other people will want to try to claim the power that the Timber Crag Kingdom had as their own and reapply the shackles to those that were freed. If you want to stay free, you will need skills, knowledge, resources, relationships, and no small amount of luck to maintain the edge over those that will try to oppress you. I can give you tools that will help you learn what you will need to know, hide from those that wish you harm, and escape if you are discovered.”

“Tools?” Kalena said, trading an intrigued look with Lafayette.

The fae elf woman murmured an incantation and a small portal appeared beside her. She reached her arm into the portal and held it there for a few moments before she pulled her arm out… or most of it. Her hand and part of her arm had disappeared.

Kalena and Lafayette both frowned in puzzlement at the same time.

Avara then reached across her body with her remaining hand and seemed to grasp the air, part of her thumb vanishing in the process. She then raised her arms over her head, quickly causing her entire body to disappear. Her disembodied (and slightly muffled) voice explained, “This is an Invisibility Blanket. It refracts light around itself, concealing anything behind or under it from view.” Avara became mostly visible again as she pulled the invisible piece of cloth off and held it out toward Lafayette and Kalena. “This is also made from materials that will mask your scent and magical aura, however, you can still be heard and you still occupy space. Its light-refracting abilities tend to be less thorough in extremely well illuminated areas, such as in the middle of the street at high noon, so we usually don’t advise relying on this to conceal you in areas exposed to significant sunlight.”

A sound came from Lafayette’s throat, the kind of sound someone makes when trying not to laugh in church. “You are joking, right? That is by far the silliest thing I have ever heard, and I’ve heard an insane baker explain she gets her cupcakes from a unicorn.”

“I suppose this could be the silliest thing ever if stealth was not a concern of yours or you were otherwise not creative enough to see the potential utility of being able to deny those that wish to harm you several means of being able to detect you,” Avara shot back.

“A towel that hides you from sight? So tell me, how will I find it if I set it down?” Lafayette inquired, smirking.

“I expect you would have to be mindful not to lose it,” Kalena said, not so dismissive. She rose from her chair and took the sheet of cloth from Avara’s offered hands, assessing its properties and practical value. She draped it around her so that her body beneath her neck seemed to vanish, then experimentally lifted it in front of her face. She discovered she could see out through the fabric but from the other side she appeared completely invisible. “Are there any specific washing instructions?” she asked, drawing yet another stifled chuckle from Lafayette.

“You need merely to sponge the blanket with cold water and hang it to dry.” A laugh finally escaped Lafayette and Avara gave him a glowering look before continuing. “Just don’t let the blanket sit in hot water for an extended period of time. Outside of that, it can be cleaned as you would any other cloth. As for not losing the Invisibility Blanket, which is indeed quite easy to do, my operatives have reported a number of strategies they have used to help them remember where they placed it at any given time, from placing a painted rock on top of it to carving markings in the ground that point to it.” Sticking her hand back into the portal, Avara continued, “I will give you a bag that you can store the blanket and other items in until you figure out an organizational strategy that works best for you.”

“Is this woman for real?” Lafayette asked Kalena, and then looked to Avara. “Are you for real?”

“I do not know what you see in this man… other than the obvious,” Avara said, glancing at Kalena before turning to address Lafayette directly, straining for patience. “I assure you, I am real, and this blanket will serve you well on the day you take it seriously enough to make use of its mighty powers.”

That day had come, Lafayette thought, half regretting his rude behavior, but he had needed to laugh and he had found her ridiculous. Throwing ‘the magic blanket’ on and seemingly vanishing from existence, everything was in shades of gray as he looked through the fabric, making his job much harder. See Avara, this isn't all that good. He dropped down from the loft onto a set of rafters dotted with guano. Crouching and keeping his balance, he silently worked his way around the inside of the building making mental notes of the inside, spying a room on a far end that looked to once be the office of a manager or something like it. Next he saw a set of stairs leading down near the back center of the large interior space. Two guards posted up at each location. “Two choices,” he groaned. “I’m gonna need backup.”

Lafayette continued his sweep of the interior, crossing a beam that intersected with a wall the didn’t meet the ceiling he came across a storage room. Filled to bursting with racks of clothes. Mostly uniforms. From guard to chaplin, to baker to banker. “What...the…” he mouthed silently. What was really going on here? Before moving on, behind the store room for clothing he saw another smaller room. One with a bed, and a sleeping redhead. One he’d seen before. “How many people has this group captured…?” he gritted his teeth.

(Joint Post with Nim)