[sblock=Aiken]Holy awesome rolling there, batman.
***
Aiken sneaks down, and makes his way to the door. He can hear someone moving around upstairs, their footsteps sounding heavily on the floorboards.
Searching the door, he is pretty much sure that there are no traps - if there are, there's no chance he'd ever be able to find them. Aiken feels as if he's completely ready, noticing everything around him in perfect clarity.
When he gets to the door, he can hear Hukk whimper. "They've been asking me questions, Aiken... About Tomas. I... told them about you. I had to."
Aiken fumbles with the door - no surprise, it's locked. Naturally, he begins to start picking it. Hukk whimpers again.
"The man in the hat - he was nice. Waved a hand in front of my face and gave me some nice bread. But the rest of them were.... bad people. The lady seemed nice, but I know she wasn't. She thought I was sleeping, but I wasn't. She told them to kill me."
The lock is a lock within a lock. Three different tumblers. Aiken doesn't realize this when he starts, and fumbles the first lock. He has to start again, but now that he knows, he feels it should be easier this time around. Sure enough, he gets past the first tumbler in less than five seconds.
And he hears footsteps getting louder, upstairs. A muffled command - "There's a watch outside! A full watch!"
"Most of them are at the docks - Tomas is on a ship. They want to get him. We need to help him..." Hukk begins.
"Hide the kid!" Someone says from upstairs.
"Let's get out of here!" Says another.
And Aiken can hear footsteps coming down the stairs.
OOC: Aiken is almost done picking the lock. He can finish his action to open the door (making a final open lock check), or he can do something else of his own devising.
[/sblock]
***
TO EVERYONE ELSE: When the watch begins to arrive, you all congregate in the side alleyway with Pendrake, who is still woozy and nauseous from the poison. If you crane your head, you can see Aiken inside the hideout, picking a lock. But you can't hear anything he's saying.
What you do notice, however, is the fact that the streets are already beginning to swarm with watch members. Easily over a dozen of them, and well-armed. Strangely, even though they see you (and a few of the braver locals are pointing at you, or at least in your direction), they seem to be getting ready for an attack on the building proper.
Except for
The Guardsman. Solange recognizes him as the same man that questioned her about Tomas, seemingly years ago, but really only a matter of days. Confusion plays out on his face for a moment, before he grabs three watchmen and makes his way towards you. He makes a few quick commands to the other watch members, who are already fanning out to surround the house. He still carries his staff, though he looks a bit older than you remember him. He definately has a forehead creased by a heavy frown.
When he gets near, he says "You know, I never did expect to see you again. I had the feeling you were giving me the slip. And now, we get the call that there's been a skirmish on the street, and you're involved."
"Mind telling me why you're hunting blacklilies?"
More watchmen are arriving by the minute - it looks like it might be getting violent here very soon.
OOC: You know, as a complete sidenote, but I sort of wish I was running Savage Worlds right now, so we could seriously run a huge fight between cops and robbers. That would have been AWESOME.
