"It was the crack of noon on a fine spring day when made my way down to the town square. The sun was blazing its usual path through the streets of sand and stone, the ground so torched that my footprints smoked. It was earlier than I'd like; I do all of my best detecting after the sun has crested a little more west, but when Zeinav City needs you, that's a call you answer, rain or shine. And in Zeinav City, it always shines."

The many requests from terrified citizens for help investigating the damages to their businesses, their homes, and their sacred places had hit an alarming volume. One that even she couldn't ignore. It had been a substantial ego boost, these many requests and pleas for help. A request and an investigative interest that she took very seriously indeed.

Also, Izzy was saying all of this to herself, out loud.

"That's what I am; a private eye, and a damn good one. I'm the one they go to when no one else will do. The cream of the crop and the price tag to prove it-- now that people are getting wise to that, I'm suddenly in high demand. Hoo-ray for me."

It was pretty great, though.

"I take a drag off my gasper as I make my way to the scene of the crime." Izzy takes a drag of her cigar, "Received a tip from a friend of a friend that there was a recent hit from this group-- Scorched Ones, they think, they assume, because they've got nothing better to do. Me? I don't make any assumptions until I have allll the evidence before me. Poor sod got his tavern all splashed with blood-- good quantity too. If I'm lucky, I'll get there before those flatfooted palooka's in the guard come around and bungle up all the evidence."

She rounds the corner, "I arrive to a sight-- a right mess of the place. The tavern's windows are shattered, broken glass everywhere. Blood, starting to dry and flake like the sand we surround ourselves with, is coating the walls and the main door. When they said paint the town red, I don't think this is what they had in mind."

Izzy snickers at her own joke and then pulls a hand over her face. Serious.

"I start to take a look around, looking for clues. The glass appears to be on the ground on the outside... did someone go in and then back out again? The blood is still tacky and thick. Whoever was here beat feet real quick. The tracks start pulling around the alley over here. Now, if I can wrangle a witness or two, I'll be sittin' pretty."

Credit to June for the thread name <3

Zarius wasn't expecting to hear what sounded like someone narrating out loud from around the corner. He also wasn't expecting that voice to be familiar, though given this was a crime scene, he shouldn't be too surprised to see the professional private investigator Issala Arodre herself as he rounds the corner. 

After their first meeting, he did do some digging into who exactly she was and who she worked with. A precaution should they ever find themselves on opposing sides of the law. That was less of a concern than potentially being competitors it seems. 

From his research, her origins were nothing but a mystery, with the only paper trail from her youth being some shabby orphanage records belonging to her and her sister when they were 11 and 14 respectively. From there, the young lady had become a menace in the underground, wheeling and dealing with a number of shady operations and criminal families in the same line of work as himself. 

More recently she was accused of stealing treasure from the Sultan of Zeinav himself, though oddly enough those charges were dropped. Perhaps this was due to her connections within the underground society of scoundrels who call Zeinav home. Pulling strings for their favored was easy enough for them given enough time and resources to work with.

Another odd rumor was that she had killed a kenku at the behest of one of her contacts, but it seems that was a lie seeing as the young kenku thief who Zarius had met when they broke into his own business was confirmed to still be very much alive. 

Lastly, this woman had some sort of connection to the Wizard of the Wastes. Morrigan freaking Moonweaver. That glittery snake oil salesman that Kvasir the herbalist was ears over tail for. He still for the life of him could not figure out what the foxman saw in the purple tiefling with an ego big enough to fill the Oasis itself. 

Overall, Izzala Arodre's reputation was fairly well versed, with plenty of people willing to speak highly of her skills and more lamenting them. A divisive individual to be certain. 

It's...not clear what she's doing exactly, but maybe this is part of her investigation process. 

"Good day, Miss Arodre," he greets her, before gesturing to the vandalism. "I suppose you have been asked to look into this mess."

He was asked to be here as well, though at the request of someone else rather than the local authorities. While he didn't have a bad reputation with the Sultan, actually having played cards with him at a charity event with Cyran a few weeks back, the man clearly still did not trust the Ash Land dignitary very much.

No, instead he was asked to look into this case in secret for someone else who was very interested in getting more dirt on the radical cultist organization only known as the Scorched Ones. And if he could make sure the guards had proof, real or otherwise, implicating the Scorched Ones in these incidents, then that was all for the better.

The problem would be if they weren't responsible and Issala insisted on finding the truth. Though was she even really here for the truth to begin with?

Izzy glances over at the voice, a smile spreading across her lips as she sees a familiar face. And instead of a proper greeting, immediately launches into narrating. Again. "A familiar cadence reaches my ears, the slow, smouldering drawl of one Zarius, prince of the underworld. Such as it was. A dame of a singular sort, with obsidian glass skin and gemstone eyes that could make any lesser PI falter. Covered in fine cloth and brocade, draped in the countenance of his high station; two things he wore well, like a cloak. Or a mask. I'm not sure what he's doing here; this sort of thing seems a little beneath his notice, but, it's always good to see a familiar face. I'm not about to look a gift prince in the mouth. Not unless he buys me dinner first.

'And a good day to you, Zarius,' I say, smoothly. 'That I have. The common folk are worried about the sudden rash of incidents that seem to be tied to these Scorched Ones, especially the ones with places that have already been hit. I was just following this here trail; looks like a bit more of a smash and grab, though the vandals could have come from inside.'

I give him a once over. Zarius was a clever sort, a sharp intellect hiding behind a pretty face. So why was he here? And what did he know? 'So, what brings you around? I suppose you're here out of general curiosity? Or maybe you were asked to have a look-see as well?' I take a drag from my cigar." She does, the corners of her lips curved in an impish glee for what she seems to be doing.

Zarius stares at the tall woman for her entire spiel. It wasn’t often that he was at a loss for words, but this woman was just so ridiculous that all he can do is just smile and listen until she is done.

“Ah, ehm,” he clears his throat. “Well, if you want a look inside I can help you with that. The backdoor is locked from the inside as is the front which may explain the glass,” he gestures down to the shattered pieces at her feet.

He’s not going to call out her strange behavior. To each their own. So long as she was useful, he could tolerate her non-stop prattling in his ear. Gods know she likely wouldn’t just walk away if she was on this job and there was pay involved.

“Same as you, though more a favor than a job. I am family friends with Madam Mohurk whom I am sure you have heard of. She owns every tavern in town so this clearly is something that concerns her.”^[1]

A good lie was laced with truths to help mislead. While he was in good standing with the lovely Madam Mohurk and having one of her taverns vandalized like this surely does concern her, she had no direct part in him being there. He would, however, leverage the opportunity to further strengthen his relationship with one of the most powerful businesswomen in Zeinav City in any way he could. Really, this was a golden goose situation for him. Now all he had to do was ensure that this private investigator didn’t fuck things up.

He waves for her to follow him as he steps back around the corner and up to the back door. The Fellblood slips a thin piece of metal out of his sleeve, concealed so that no one would even know it was there with a cursory glance.

Considering Issala’s standard clientele, he wasn’t too worried about breaking and entering right in front of her. After all, it was still her word against his if she tried to pin any of this on him for one reason or another and he wouldn’t hesitate to throw his weight around if he had to.

He slips the lockpick into the iron keyhole of the door and takes a few seconds before there is a satisfying clunk from inside.^[2] With a twist of his wrist the lockpick disappears from his hand before he pulls the door open and gestures for Issala to go through with a toothy smile.^[3]

“After you, detective.”

---

[1] Smooth Talking
[2] Lockpicking
[3] Quick Palm

"The Prince appears flustered by my presence," Izzy grins, knowing full well of course that Zarius was only at a loss for words because of her antics, "Can't say I blame him; I'm a tall drink of water, and everyone knows. The tallest in the city, by far and away." there were probably a handful that were taller, but for Izzy's narrative, they conveniently did not exist, That tends to draw the eye allll the way up." She titters to herself as she glances to the glass. "As usual, Zarius has some interesting insights into the situation; I hadn't even been here long enough to properly try the doors, but it looked like the prince was very well informed.

"I thought for a moment he might be hiding a wire-- information-- on this here situation... but then he mentions Madam Mohurk. Ahhh good ol' Mama Mohurk. Not one denizen of Zeinav hasn't nursed from the ale drunk bosom of her many taverns; she was everywhere, and that was how she liked it. It figured she would be in on this one too. She had quite a monopoly. If Zarius' family were friends of hers, that was about as glowing an accolade as you could get around these parts.

'Sure seems that way,' I agree, because I do. If the Madam is worried, then it's no wonder the good folk of Zeinav called on me, Izzy, Private Investigator Extraordinaire, to look into their woes. I won't say no to a little help either, especially when that help is as informed as the prince here.

"I follow him on to the door, to see if he can deliver as he promised. And surprise, surprise; the fellblood prince has a few tricks up his sleeve~. Literally and figuratively." Izzy's grin matches his as she nods in quiet acknowledgment. Game respects game. "With a flick of his wrist and a clunk of rotating tumblers, the door opens for him with a keenness, as eager to please as a door can be. What else can you do when royalty comes a-knockin'?"

'Mighty kind of you,' I say, tipping my hat to him," Izzy is decidedly not wearing a hat, "as I stride into the tavern itself.

"The place is a disaster zone, I quickly note. The're broken tables, glass and bottles strewn all over; someone wanted this place tossed, and they did a damn good job of it. It's almost admirable... and out of place.

"I look back at my companion, brows arched slightly in curiosity. 'This seems a little outside of the usual Modus Operandi that's been reported so far; the vandalism we've seen before usually sticks to the outside of the buildings. Why did this one come from inside?' and why such great lengths to throw the place into disarray, I add to myself in my internal monologue as I sweep the room, ember-eyes aglow. Then, they narrow, as they swivel back to Zarius. I got a hunch, suddenly.

'Unless... they were trying to cover something up?' my voice is low, gravelly, for all the best dramatic effect. It seems right. They wanted to hide something so they totaled the joint. But what?"

Gods, she’s going to be doing this the whole time, isn’t she? Whatever.

Wait, what did she just say? ‘Nursed from the ale drunk bosom’? What a phrase. Probably best he pretends he didn’t hear that part.

Issala's narration was actually growing on him a bit. It was amusing to hear her inner thoughts out loud. It was usually pretty hard to get someone to say what was on their mind but he didn't even have to pry with her just spouting it all on her own. 

“You do know you are not wearing a hat, right?” he asks with a chuckle. Okay, her narration may be a little embellished. 

Zarius lets Issala do…whatever she was doing. Honestly, he wasn’t going to question it. She wouldn’t likely stop if he asked. He starts by searching behind the bar for any evidence of a lock box being raided. Nothing. Though it would be silly to leave the tavern’s earnings just behind the bar. They needed to find the owner’s office.

He steps around to the back rooms. It’s just as much a mess in the kitchen and storage as it is in the front. They really were scouring the whole place…if they were just looking for valuables that seemed like wasted effort. Then the tip of his foot catches on the pried up edge of a floorboard.

Squatting down and pulling the floorboard up, there’s a whole crawl space under the floor.

“Miss Arodre, you may want to take a look at this.”

Normally he would just continue to investigate himself, but he didn’t want Issala to suspect that he had any ulterior motives in regards to this situation. He would have to be careful with framing the Scorched Ones for this situation, even if they were actually guilty. He didn’t need the private investigator asking him questions he didn’t want to answer.

"I didn't know what he was talking about. The stetson on my head was a fine make, a silk interior that definitely belonged to me and not some poor sod who wound up in a ditch." she natters to herself, definitely still not wearing a hat. She crouches down to right one of the fallen chairs, touching a long scrape in the floor where something was pulled across. "Kneeling down, I touch the long scrape on the floor beneath one of the broken, discarded chairs; looked like somethin heavy, like it was being lifted to throw. Probably what went through that window, and killed this poor chair. A casualty in a senseless crime. Poor thing had a mother, probably a fine poplar or pine who missed her grown child, sure as sure. Someone would have to break the news; I was glad it wouldn't have to be me."

She rises, removing the invisible hat from her head to cover her heart, as if in lament for the chair. "No good souls go unscathed in Zeinav. We all bear our scars. This place is just a recent one. I turn from the scene and go back to finding evidence; the dead don't speak. Oooh, yeah that was gritty, nice.."

"Ahem... I move out of the main area and start down the hall, looking towards the other rooms, only to see more of the same. A massacre of furniture. Won't someone think of the upholstry-- Ah!" she turns towards the sound as Zarius summons her to look at something. "Now I knew Zarius was no Jingle-brained Jasper, and sure enough what he has for me to look at is something meaty, and I don't mean the kind with a fat-cap and a good sear. 'You're right; I definitely do. Good work, Cinder Prince,' I tell him with a grin, and I take a knee down to the floor to have a better look. The floor was already pulled up, a whole crawl space beneath. Now normally, this would prove to be a problem, if a bit uncomfortable... but I've got another hunch."

"I slip down into the hole and-- yep, its a squeeze." Izzy wheezes. "A bit... close quarters.. but... a-ha! Just like I thought. I twist around and poke my head up to grin up at my compatriot, beckoning him down with me. 'There's a bigger space down here. It's like a tunnel. There's room for one more~. I think we oughta see where it goes, don't you~?' I say, a mild humour laced into my voice. I can be so hilarious. I don't want to distract the poor Prince too much with my rapier wit."

Zarius shakes his head. There was no point in pointing out the holes in her narration. If she wanted to go on about her imaginary hat or the the furniture that was tossed about the room without a care, that was her decision. She goes on for a good while about the chairs as if she had come across some bodies. He can't help but wonder if she does this when she comes across actual dead bodies...in which case that's a little messed up. 

"Do I even want to know who Jasper is?" He asks. Wouldn't hurt to try and get some information out of her if she was so willing to talk. Maybe in her narration she would let something important slip through. Though it would be really hard to tell what was important and what was just nonsense. 

He watches her investigate the crawl space before mentioning she has a hunch. He's about to ask what it is when she starts getting low. 

"Ah, do you want help?" He reaches to help Izzy get down into the crawl space but she was already squirming her way under the floorboards before he can get her attention. "Nevermind, you are already down there."

There was no stopping this determined fellblood. She was on a mission and he'd best just stay out of her way for the time being. 

As she pokes her head back out with that terrifying clown-like smile, Zarius seriously considers replacing the floorboards and walking away from this whole situation. No. No. Someone would DEFINITELY find her. He can't bring himself to subject some poor fool to such a cruel fate. 

"I appreciate the concern, your wit is certainly the sharpest in all of Zeinav City," he agrees.

Issala seemed like the type who would actually fall for some flattery thrown her way, even if it lacked sincerity. They didn't really know each other well enough for Zarius to feel comfortable poking back too much. She did work for the highest bidder after all, so there was a good chance they would not always be on the same side. Hell, even now they might not have the same goal. At least he's pretty sure he could take her in a fight. Maybe.

"Right behind you." He sighs and waves for her to go on ahead as he steps down into the hole to follow.

Slipping down into the crawl space, he doesn't have as hard of a time compared to Issala, but they do have to army crawl on their bellies since there's no real headspace for the first few feet. Issala is right though, and the space does open up a fair amount deeper in. Not enough to keep the tall woman's horns from scrapping against the stonework, but enough to not have to slog across the dusty stone. 

He squeezes past and gets more upright once there is some clearance and peers into the darkened tunnel, his amber eyes gleaming in the dark.^[1]

"It seems to go for quite a ways. Do you want to lead, or shall I?"

---

[1] Dark Vision

There's no response for who Jasper is, of course, because Izzy does not have one, so she simply edits the question out from her brain-- the praise however, the definitely, completely and totally sincere compliment, that makes her preen. "Good ol Princey-boy. Always knows just what to say to put the charm on; it was like he could read my mind. If he thought he was butterin' me up, it was workin'." Her grin only widens as Zarius shoos her on, her head retreating deeper into the hole as she wriggles her way to the tunnel proper. The narrating begins again in earnest, this time of course in hushed tones-- for dramatic effect. Not because stealth required a relative silence or anything sensible like that.

"The tunnel is stone, well made, but pragmatically narrow. It would have to be a one at a time kind of deal. It was a good thing I wasn't claustrophobic; I'd be spending most of the trek downward a little hunched over, and that, I could handle." True to form, Izzy's spine does make a little pop and crack as she lets Zarius pass by, fitting herself into the space with more ease than should be possible for someone of her stature. She grins at Zarius, as he asks if she wants to lead or if he ought to. "--he asked me, his tone coquettish and sly, as if he was made of secrets and cinders. 'You lead,' I say, keeping my voice low. 'You'll have a better view of what's up ahead if I'm not blocking your view. Onward!'"

As they go on, Izzy continues to narrate, mostly little inarticulate thoughts about the walls, the cracks in them, what might have come up through here on the odd occasion, how old this place appeared... but mostly, in soft tones behind Zarius, Izzy had struck up a tune to accompany their dangerous detective adventure. Some sort of horn instrument, perhaps.

"Do do do ba da-dee da, do do dee-badada, deeee dadadaDA do, do, ba da-dee da dooo be do da ba-deeda do--" and on and on, until light and sounds started to be noticeable at the end of the tunnel.

How many variations of prince is this woman going to come up with? Her commitment to the this whole bit was pretty impressive, though he really does have to question her sanity, or lack there of.

At the very least she had an impressive vocabulary. It seems like she has an endless amount of words at her disposa- oh...nevermind, now she's just making horn noises. If this tunnel ends up opening up into a thieves' den of some description their arrival will surely be well announced at this rate. 

Eventually they do come to a locked wooden door. Pressing his ear up against the door, he listens for any voices or movement on the other side. While normally not a hard thing for him to do, Issala's theme music makes it a bit more challenging than normal.

After a few seconds he decides it's not worth the headache and instead turns his attention to the lock. Zarius once again flips out his lockpicking tools and gets to work. It's not as simple as the last one and there's a sharp chnk! noise as his tool breaks. 

"Shit," he mutters under his breath and fumbles around for a spare...which he doesn't currently have. Of course.

He looks back at Issala crammed and contorted in the tight corridor. Was she just double jointed in her entire body? That's terrifying. This woman just gets stranger with every passing moment and while he could ask for an explanation he wasn't sure he actually wanted the answers. 

"Do you want to give it a try?" He asks, gesturing to the door. He hasn't yet thought through the logistics of the tall woman squeezing past him in order to get to the door. 

"Da naaaa." Izzy ends her song on that dramatic, whispered note as they come to a door. By and large, she tended to do things primarily for her own entertainment, and this was no different.

"We come up onto a door. Odd thing to find in a tunnel, but that was precisely the point of why we were down here; the odd things happening above our very heads. Now, as we stare at the threshold of truth, I watch as Zarius pulls out his trusty lock--" She pauses as there is a metallic ping as the tool snaps. Izzy has to press her lips together in a thin line so as not to burst into giggles. The timing was just too good.

"--less than trusty lockpick." She manages to wheeze softly. "When he turns to me, to see if I want to have a crack at it, I put on my best, most coy little smile," to her credit, it is coy, but it is also filled with a smooth glee that bordered on smugness, barely contained. "and I say 'I would be happy to give it the ol' collegiate try, My Liege'."

"Now, I sidle up to the door," not apart of Izzy's narrative, she calmly reaches to Zarius, holding him by the upper arms as if picking him up with a pair of tongs. She lifts him a little off the ground, swivels at her hips, and sets him again on the ground behind her and out of the way. THEN, she sidles up to the door. "I take out one of the pins in my hair," she does-- only, Zarius would be able to see that this is in fact a lock-pick, stashed in her hair, along with the gods knew how many other objects, "And quickly jimmy the door open with a soft and satisfying click."[1] That, was true. With a twist of her wrist, the latch to the door hung open easily.

"'Please, hold your applause,' I say, holding a finger to my lips, to make sure Zarius is nice and quiet while I eaaase the door open." She does so, nudging the door gently with her knuckles so she could get a good look inside with just the small crack that had been provided to them, her voice remains soft, at least smart enough to be whispering her narration while also being very much not silent. "The door opens to a room bathed in relative darkness, a distant lantern light flickering somewhere around a corner. It looks as though it is part cavern, with quartz stalactites glittering from the ceiling. There's distant sounds of movement and conevrsation, but not near the immediate room ahead of me and the His Royal Emberness. I look back at my companion, smiling again with interest. We're close now; 'After you, Fair Prince~.'."

---

[1] Lockpicking

Zarius gives Issala an unimpressed look as she does a piss poor job of containing her snickering at him breaking his lockpick. Lockpicking was delicate work. Breaking a pick here or there was to be expected. She really didn't need to be so smug about it. 

He starts to shift to the side to let her slip by, but clearly Issala had different plans. She reaches towards him which he's caught off guard by and he presses himself back against the wall. He's about to defend himself when she pins his arms to his side and lifts him up. He ducks to keep his horns from scraping against the stone ceiling as she twists and places him down behind her and out of the way of the door. 

His expression is a mixture of confusion and incredulity at the blatant and unapologetic disregard for his personal boundaries. If they weren't crammed in a tiny tunnel, he would have half a mind to punt her across Zeinav City for such disrespect. 

As tempted as he is to chew her out, her narration goes on and she does actually manage to get the lock open. Something he failed at. He decides to let things slide. For now. But he would not forget being manhandled anytime soon. 

Thankfully, he has an excuse not to compliment her work as she tells him to hold any applause. He listens closely to her description of the room before she offers him the opportunity to lead the way again. A simple nod is all she gets in response before he turns invisible and slips past her silently.^[1,2]

The chamber is just as she had described it, being much deeper than the small tunnel they had entered through and being partially natural in its formation. Perhaps an old underground river once flowed through here beneath Zeinav City above them. It was not that surprising given the geography of the land and multiple underground cities had been found across Zeinav in the recent months. This chamber at least looked fairly sturdy with no threat of collapse unlike the last one he had ventured into with Cyran. 

Doing a quick pass of the room yeilds little useful information. A few barrels are stacked in a corner under a tarp and stink of lantern oil. A few loops of rope hang from hooks on the walls and a couple pick axes and shovels are leaned against the wall in the corner. 

Carefully, the fellblood peers around the corner into the next chamber where the soft glow of light is emanating from. The light is bouncing off another corner, making it so he can't quite see its source or anything beyond it. A few indistinguishable voices echo off the stone walls, but are hushed and low making it impossible to discern what is being said. 

Zarius glances back at Issala before continuing towards the light while his illusion keeps his form masked. Unfortunately it does little to completely erase his physical presence and he feels a stone under his foot shift as he places his weight down on it. A quiet click comes from the wall and something sharp pierces through the sleeve of his shirt. Zarius quickly removes the dart and backs away quickly from the hall as the sound of a little bell alerts those beyond the light to their intrusion. 

Shit. He messed up. They need to act quickly or else- his vision blurs and he stumbles, going down on one knee. His concentration on his invisibility drops as his equilibrium is thrown off. His mind fills with fog and dizziness. 

There's a loud thud of shifting stone just above Issala's head as if the ceiling was going to move and close off the passage she was currently in. She would only have a split second to react.

---

[1]Invisibility
[2] Silent Step

Ooooh, now Zarius was giving her the silent treatment. Or he was just being properly stealthy and professional. Yes, that was it; in what possible way could her giggles, lifting him like a cat occupying a seat that not meant for them, and over all demeanor offend him in any way? The mind should boggle at the very thought. "Zarius moves in silence, ever the professional," despite their situation, Izzy continues to narrate, albeit in very soft tones still. "he is out of view, of course, invisible and lethal as a dagger in the dark, but I know he's around here, somewhere. Just gotta follow him and keep quiet," a phrase Izzy does not appear to be adhering to any time soon.

"There's a number of barrels and crates here; enough to hide behind, but also a strange amount. As if they're amassing something, or moving it. Using a cave like this is a stroke of genius, although... makes me wonder what they're bothering with at all." This time, Izzy does pause to study their surroundings a little, curious. None of this was quite fitting. Why the vandalism and the destruction while this was happening behind the scenes? "Was the vandalism a cover for this so they could move unrestricted through an investigated area? Or did they light up one of their own spots to throw people off the general scent. Hmm."

This place seemed pretty well stocked, located and guarded to just be some annoying cult. She had no reason to think it was anyone or anything else at the moment, but there was definitely more to it here. "I'm starting to think whoever it is were hunting is a little higher up the food chain. And it would make sense why the palooka guards haven't found anything y--"

Izzy cuts herself off as she hears a click and sees a quick blur of something slicing through the air before it becomes invisible, where it has struck her companion. An alarm sounds a little ways around the corner, a faint tinkling noise she can hear, and knows the others can too.

"...Ah, shit." Whether this is a break in character or a line of real dialogue, it is hard to say. With the ceiling about to collapse, there's only one other direction and that's forward.

"really quickly I lunge out of the path and into Zarius, tUUUH ow tackling him and rolling out of the way of the crumbling ceiling and behind cover before the people can come in." she hisses all of this in one breath, kicking with her legs to scoot them both into hiding among the stacks of crates. This time she's holding Zarius tucked against her, to make sure he didn't strike his head when she rolled, and to get him out of visual contact. A few moments later, three people surge in, weapons drawn. Two look normally dressed, layers of cloth designed for the desert, but one, very clearly, is dressed in ceremonial robes, a blazing sun emblazoned across their chest.

"Find them." the robed one snaps.

"They said harshly," Izzy adds, unnecessarily. Still talking. For some reason. "The other two fan out, one going right and the other left. It won't be long before they stumble on my and the poisoned prince's location, so I have to think fast." From where they are pressed against the darkness of the crates, Izzy listens for someones approach. To draw them close-- but not behind, to where she and a poisoned Zarius are (no idea what to do about that at the moment; she would have to get them out of here, fast) Izzy dips a hand into her pocket and flicks a caltrop[1] out, creating a quiet ping away from her and Zarius.

Hurried footsteps start to stalk past, toward the sound. Between a gap in the crates, she slowly extends a hand out and brushes the pursuer's boot. "In order to get us free, I use the best skills at my disposal." an impish smile curves up the corners of her mouth. "A little chaos."[2]

The man who's leg she had brushed whirls around suddenly, anger filling his features. Izzy and Zarius can hear him suddenly howl with rage, and start lashing out at his surroundings, kicking over the crates and barrels as his companions become distracted by his outburst. In that moment of distraction, she turns to Zarius, "With that out of the way for a moment, I look over the dame himself, trying to see how bad the situation is. 'Heeey bud, can you hear me?', I say, a note of concern in my smooth undaunted voice." Despite that, Izzy does sound very daunted indeed, worry bleeding through in her whisper soft tones; she was not equipped to handle a poisoning-- if this got worse, she'd have to drag him to Morrigan or Fish to see if they could help. Provided they were around of course.

---

[1] Caltrops - Ranger Prestige
[2] Infuriate

Zarius has little say in being tackled and tossed into the corner behind the crates. It's a good thing he doesn't wear any armor otherwise that would have been a very loud attempt at hiding. The tumbling makes the dizziness from the poison a lot worse, and he clenches his jaw to keep from making any noise that would give them away. 

Issala manages to get the thugs to focus on something else to buy them some time to get a plan together. Too bad the charcoal fellblood can hardly think straight, so coming up with a plan is a bit beyond him at this time. 

"I am fine. We...we need to move." He fumbles with a few vials in his belt pouch and slips them into Issala's hands.^[1,2,3] He isn't sure which one is which due to his blurry vision, but Issala is an investigator, she should be able to figure out what they are in theory. "Use these. Head towards the tunnel. I can fill the room with smoke to slow them down."

Meanwhile, the crazed thug lashes out at their companions, one of which takes their sheathed sword and slams the hilt into the side of his head, knocking him out. 

"The fuck came over him?"

"A spell," the robed individual responds. "Keep your guard up. Whoever is in here, you are better off surrendering now. You will not escape here unscathed otherwise."

They close their eyes and focus while the other starts to carefully check behind the crates and barrels. The robed individual mutters something under their breath. A pulse moves through the room, giving them awareness of everything in the room.^[4] 

"There." They point towards the crates.

The sound of the thug's footsteps close in on Issala and Zarius while they draw their sword from the scabbard. 

"Come outta there with your hands up and maybe I won't slice you to ribbons."

Zarius does his best to get back on his feet so Issala can move easier, though it's pretty clear he's not going to be able to run completely on his own yet. 

---

[1] Potion of Shadows
[2] Bottle of Sootlings
[3] Oozeling
[4] Seismic Mapping - Master Earth Domain

"I take the vials from the Prince as he bequeaths them to me, looking them over as fast as I can because they're almost heeerrree," she hiss whispers. The vials would be good enough to work with, but she looks at Zarius; "I know he doesn't mean the tunnel we just came from thats all collapsed in on itself, so I take it to mean we go forward. I give him a big ol' grin he can't quite see because his eyes are all crossed, and quaff the potion.[1] aaah. Then, I pull something out of my pack[2], pulling it on my head. Show time."

She dumps out the sootlings into her palm, and then gives to them the rest of her caltrops[3, 4]. Counting in her head, (and whispering her narration under her breath, as always) she waits for the last thug to get closer before she suddenly pulls around the corner, the horrifying, burning skull visage of the hood right in his face. "Boo."

Before he can swing at her, she tosses the handful of sootlings into his face. "He screeches, falling back, the little soot babies stabbing him over and over with their new weapons into his face and neck--"

As the robed figure lifts their hand, fire and magic beginning to flicker in their palm, Izzy flicks her hand, banishing it, and the spell fizzles. "Nah."[5] Drawing her rapier, she starts backing toward the tunnel, the smoldering skull head grinning wickedly at the robed woman, ready to back up into the cloud of smoke Zarius had promised. She still had the oozeling vial at her disposal, but good to hang onto that for a moment, maybe.

---

[1] Potion of Shadows
[2] Hood of horrors

[3] Caltrops - Ranger Prestige

[4] Sootlings

[5] Counterspell