[b]Anathagos Vain[/b]

He stood at the tower window, smoking a thin dark cigarra as he watched the last light of day bleed from the horizon. Below him lay the Delorano mansion and gardens, busier than usual on a damp and unpleasant evening, and teeming with guardsmen- for whatever they were worth.

Anathagos Vain knew of five house guards in the pay of rival families, and was sure there were plenty of others on the take. He hadn't moved against them yet- it doesn't do to show your opponents how much you know of their operations after suffering a loss- and besides, he was making sure the information they were taking back to their masters was the information he wanted them to take- a good deal of it false. 

Exhaling a cloud of bluish, spicy-smelling smoke, Vain opened his mind momentarily, allowing the Mark some freedom, and let the buzzing waves of confusion and anxiety that filled the Delorano household wash over him, mingling with his own suspicion and unease. 

He felt [i]it[/i] there still, just as he had for the last several weeks. An alien presence. Someone Marked by the Umbra, nearby, prowling.

Vain's pale eyes wandered the twilit city, flitting from shadow to shadow. 

He saw it. 

A flash of two great wings, black against the bruised-purple of the sky, swooping from a spire in the palace district down onto the mansion below Vain's window, where the family of the dead were gathering.

"Ulsid, Gabor," said Vain, and two Umbrakin in assassin's leathers seemed to materialize from the shadows of the room behind him, "I must go down to pay my respects, but the manor has an unwanted visitor. Search the roof. I will want to question whomever you find."

[hider=Rolls]
Ulsid and Gabor, assassins, go to intercept the Crow. 

Roll 8 (D20+6 acumen): partial success.

[url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/rolls/1830]Roll Details[/url]

[/hider]