Bearing Lead and Oil
Sixteenth Day of the Tenth Month 293 AC
"Water on your head, fool!" Agha, head of the Ash Bloods and the only sorcerer among them by fate and fortune, cursed long and hard, allowing his power to dance ominously between his fingers even though the rest of the gang, huddled around the dented copper stew pot, knew he would not use it to so much as singe the tip of Sariq's beard. Ash Bloods didn't burn their own, even if they had been damn fools. "I send you to the souk to get
lead... not gold, not silver, not even copper, but simple lead and you use one of our last scrolls charming the merchant to sell it!"
"At least I bought it quick enough to get the job done" the younger man shrugged. "You heard the deal the stone-eye gave us, everything we can carry or half again it's worth if he claims it."
The sorcerer sighed, the fire going out in his hands, though his dark eyes still burned with a flame of anger all of their own. "Half again by whose measure, I wonder. His? You will not find two merchants in this city who agree on a price even if they had shared a womb. How high do you think he will count the worth of whatever treasure he hopes to get out of the Fakir?"
"He was spending coin like he was afraid it might break in his hands," Tzi called, her voice at once young as the face that looked up from the greased and brightly painted strands of hair and rasping as though with the ravages of age, the last stubborn remnant of a death curse that had almost had her choking to death on her own blood. "He's not going to deal crooked over much that's in that shop. Of course, he might kill us all to keep a secret, but surely not for gold."
"You think one stone-eye can take us?" Ironfist demanded, smashing the hook he'd gotten his name from into an inoffensive stone, which soon shattered from the attention.
"One stone-eye we don't know shit about," Agha took back the attention of his gang. "He could be anyone or anything."
"Maybe it's the Brass Bastard himself come to see if we are keeping his law," Sariq interjected with a hint of his usual brash smile. "We've got the lead and the oil barrels to sneak into the shop once they've been lined with it. Why aren't we moving already?"
"Because our...
benefactor offered to help in person, along with other allies of his, but they cannot be here for another forty hours," their leader explained, knowing the room would erupt into speculation and suspicion the moment he said it.
"Are you so fucking eager to be right about him bein' a danger that you'd hand him a knife and show our throat?" Ironfist growled again, the azer's fiery beard looking somehow even more bristly and unkempt.
"We are going to need all the help we can get, and if he's planning treachery... well, we can deal with that too, can't we?"
A chorus of grim agreements echoed through the crumbling basement. Come what may, the Ash Bloods would be ready.
OOC: Really short because the battle's coming up and I can't roll that at his hour. Hopefully this gives some idea of your new allies character and motivations.
.