Under the nocturnal masquerade, Nazr smirked; it seemed the howling winds of fate were at his side, as the Aahari had a personal motivation for the Reef Grotto himself, and accepted his proposition quite readily; he did not even need to haggle for his services. The red-eyed man on the other hand turned out to be more difficult, but he did expect something as petty as greed from the lowly mercenary. That was fine; it did not matter whether emotion or coin drove their blades into the flesh of his adversaries, as long as they would do so swiftly and surely. [color=blue]"If it is a reward you ssseek, then I can provide one..."[/color]

He put a sleeved hand into a pocket on the insides of his robes, about to take out a pouch of gold; he was willing to lure the dashing young Snowkin into serving him with the luster of the shiny metal. But then he stopped, his eyes blinking with curiosity. He sensed an arcane presence contact him from a fair distance. She addressed him with a title only practitioners of the Dark Arts, like him, or those capable of sensing the Dark would know. This piqued his interest, and he detected her thoughts in an alley, within earshot of him and the two brutes.

Unlike him, who was a follower of the Pure Dark, the female sorcerer had a different kind of aura to her; it was Dark, but it was despoiled and ruined, with a foul scent to it, as if she has already crossed to being one with the dead; most likely an acolyte of Necromancy. Nazr loathed their kind above all else, for undead were abominations with rotten or missing brains, unsuitable and redundant as existing creatures. It was a dangerous move on her part to use her powers to grab his attention, so she now had it. Was it a challenge? A threat? 

Nazr pondered on the reason, until he heard a commotion on the docks, followed by an announcement. Nazr smirked enough for one of his tentacles to shiver and twitch from the sheer joy he sensed, though he managed to keep it behind his obscuring hood. It was as if the stars have aligned for him to succeed in his recruitment of valuable allies. Then, he decided to go forth with an idea his brilliant noggin concocted. As much as he hated necromancers, he was wiling to give this one the benefit of the doubt.

Nazr nodded to the Snowkin's words, and then addressed the captain. [color=blue]"The three of us will accept your quest, and eliminate the beassst. Also,"[/color] he said after a cough, [color=blue]"we may have a fourth participant joining the mission."[/color] Before the two swordsmen managed to recover from their surprise and ask him questions, he walked away, beckoning them to follow him with an wave of his outstretched sleeve without even looking behind him; it did not matter to him whether they would obey or not, since this was a matter only he could resolve. Like a creeping tendril that writhed around the dreamer's head, the illithid rounded the corner to the alley, and stood at the mouth of it, casting a shadow over the rotten being resembling a young girl. [color=blue]"Greetings, Corrupt One,"[/color] he said, mirroring her own message. [color=blue]"Indeed, your true form has not eluded me. Why have you sought the attention of one such as I? Do you wish to sate your thirst for knowledge of the Deep? Have you found our shared affinity curiousss? Or...perhaps you also seek what lies hidden in the depths of Reef Grotto?"[/color]