[center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center][table][row][/row][row][cell] [h2][color=6ecff6][i][b]Hugh Caphazath[/b][/i][/color][/h2][i][b][color=6ecff6]Half-Elf, Monk (Way of Shadow), Level 3[/color][/b][/i] [color=6ecff6][i][b]HP:[/b][/i][/color] 24/24 [color=6ecff6][i][b]Armor Class:[/b][/i][/color] 17 [color=6ecff6][i][b]Conditions:[/b][/i][/color] N/A [color=6ecff6][i][b]Location:[/b][/i][/color] The Infamous Pear [color=6ecff6][i][b]Action:[/b][/i][/color] N/A [color=6ecff6][i][b]Bonus Action:[/b][/i][/color] N/A [color=6ecff6][i][b]Reaction:[/b][/i][/color] N/A [/cell][cell] [right][img]https://i.imgur.com/4a0uP44.png[/img][/right] [/cell][/row][/table][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center] It was about as bad as he’d been imagining, Hugh lamented, as he received the rapid-fire questions with his poker face firmly in place. He could feel his blood pressure rising, as the Pest proceeded to make him the center of attention by way of herself. As unfortunately focused on her as he had been, he couldn’t have missed the way her expression briefly narrowed shrewdly at the sight of him. The question remaining was: did she have some awareness of his preferences already and insist on harassing him on purpose… or through ignorance? He was inclined to think a bit of both somehow. Well, he knew how to deal with her kind through unfortunate amounts of experience. These people were like rabid dogs; they would chip away at your defenses until they found a single crack that appeared to annoy you and, consequently, amused them… and then they’d bite down and refuse to let go. In the end, it was all down to dispelling their interest and not feeding their amusement. Unfortunately, that meant he couldn’t rise to her bait and would have to answer her questions… by white-lying through his teeth. It would be a calculated risk. He was confident in his skills, and to any member of the party who saw through it, it would make it obvious without even having to say anything how willing he was to part with personal info at this juncture. In that case, assuming his reading of the rest of them was correct, they would respect his wishes… Not so with this “Kosara”. If she saw through him, her interest would only intensify, but at least she would be the one who seemed in the wrong in the eyes of the rest of their compatriots. So, while one result was clearly better than the other, both were still wins in his book. Naturally, the best lies were the ones that weren’t and were, in fact, merely… misdirections. Aloud, Hugh snorted. [color=6ecff6]“Baldness is far more conspicuous.”[/color] He did not elaborate, nor rise to her bait regarding his surname. And because he was feeling a tad petty, he chose not to confirm or deny the Pest’s so-called “revelation” of his being a “Monk” -in large part because, actually, she hadn’t even asked that question directly, merely asserted the conclusion, and he would absolutely rule-lawyer her exact wording. On a technical level, she would be correct, assuming she ignorantly referred to all Ki cultivators as monks, but in practice, he was nothing of the sort, not as far as he was concerned anyway. And as a final bit of truthful misdirection. [color=6ecff6]“And I did not learn what I know in any [i]temple[/i].”[/color] He wisely resisted the urge to scoff dismissively, considering the presence of… was it really [i]two[/i] holy women? Now that he had a chance to observe this group closer, something that had been bothering him in regards to the lightly armored holy woman, Mona, seemed to click into place… besides the Sprite, but that certainly contributed. Many years back, when he had been in a position to consider taking up a faith in search of Clerical magic, he had searched far and wide for one that had lax standards to get him what he wanted. Alas, a true Cleric, as he would have had to become, would need a certain level of devotion that he was incapable of. His training in self-cultivation had long since instilled in him a disdain for the idea of relying upon outside power, instead of his own hard work, to say nothing of the fact that he simply lacked the capacity as a person to ever truly be loyal to any god. He fully acknowledged his limits, the limits of what his Way of Shadows could achieve. That’s just how it was, which meant that he would have to find a separate, fully dedicated and powerful cleric to do what he would never be able to. Though he could hardly remember every god’s name, the implications of Unicorn-focused symbology on Mona’s amulet jogged his memory. He had researched and considered just about every god and pantheon under the sun at one time or another, and there was most certainly no “Unicorn God” that he could recall. Certainly, unicorns were technically holy creatures, but they’d never quite featured prominently as the favored animal of any particular deity. And for that matter… Lips pursed, Hugh made certain not to glance the Sprite’s way. To the best of his knowledge, gods did not employ or govern Fey, no matter how benign. That in mind, what he had originally taken to be a holy woman might just be some manner of charlatan, but only time would tell. Personally, it mattered not to him, so long as she could still command holy magic, he couldn’t care less where she got the power from. And he could put his unease over the Fey to the side for the sake of the mission. If the occasional searching glances the other holy woman was shooting Mona were any indication, he suspected she wouldn’t quite agree with his more lackadaisical stance. Speaking of which... Cutting through any further dialogue, the blonde woman with high-born features had stood and promptly brought herself to central attention. With a sharp tone and hawk-like eyes, she clearly attempted to present herself as an authority figure among them. It was a probing bid for leadership of the newly-formed party if he’d ever seen one… and a surprisingly subtle one at that. Personally, he approved of the initiative, but was he willing to answer to her authority at the drop of a hat? Perhaps not. Then again, showing her solidarity now could be in his favor later, and he did have to thank her for changing the subject... The cleric, Marita, as she introduced herself, had shot him something of a gimlet eye upon his arrival earlier, which was fairly understandable. He’d been well aware that pulling his little stunt would have possible repercussions and promptly concluded them to be worth it at the time. At present, he’d yet to see any undue consequences manifest, but he’d do his best to head them off. In light of the cleric’s far more reasonable and business-related questions, now was the time to do some early damage control. He mulled over his response, as the cleric finished her declaration and then sat back down… which made things much easier. So long as she wasn’t standing, he could safely follow in her footsteps to show solidarity… without necessarily implying subservience when he returned to sitting. With a light grunt, Hugh shot a small nod Marita’s way and stood, rolling his jaw, as he considered his wording. On the one hand, as much as he would like to conceal his capabilities for the time being… doing so may burn bridges unnecessarily in the future and compromise the possibility of the contract’s completion. Unacceptable. Better that his new companions knew what to expect and adjust for. Chuckling aloud, he spoke, loud enough to be heard clearly at the large table but hopefully quietly enough to evade the ears of eavesdroppers, even in the overall quiet tavern, [color=6ecff6]“As you mostly seem like… ‘straight-forward’ types, I can reassure you that I cover the other end of the spectrum.”[/color] He folded his arms behind his back. [color=6ecff6]“As… [i]Kosara[/i] pointed out not entirely incorrectly, I am a Ki cultivator, but my speciality lies within techniques best used to come and go unseen, rather than approaching threats directly…”[/color] Here, he honestly couldn’t help sending a significant look towards the pale tiefling. [color=6ecff6]“If you require specifics to be satisfied…”[/color] he hummed thoughtfully. [color=6ecff6]“I can silence sounds, project conventionally impenetrable darkness, and grant both myself and… allies the ability to leave no trace of their passage, to become, if you’ll excuse my phrasing, ‘[i]one with the shadows[/i]’. However...”[/color] He raised a finger with a firm expression. [color=6ecff6]“I draw my power from within instead of from what spellcasters call ‘the Weave’. As such, I have limited capacity to “cast”, as it were, except in short bursts. Extended and reckless fighting does not favor me.”[/color] Drawing back, he shrugged and smiled amiably, [color=6ecff6]“That aside, I prefer the bow and ranged combat, but I can certainly manage myself in melee well enough.”[/color] He passed his gaze over the table’s occupants, meeting gazes with each of them in passing. [color=6ecff6]“On a technical level, I specialize in infiltration and espionage. I’m an experienced bounty hunter of over a decade. As such, I also bring my expertise with navigating urban information networks… both legal or otherwise. As a matter of fact…"[/color] Here he grinned wryly. [color=6ecff6]“I arrived several days ago and did some preemptive investigation. I will grant you,”[/color] he rolled his jaw, [color=6ecff6]“I didn’t find much in this sleepy little backwater… but I also didn’t find [i]nothing[/i]. I will [i]also[/i] admit that, as hard as it is for a newcomer like me to scare up significant info in so short a time, I’ve no guarantees that what I found is even relevant to the issue at hand, merely that it [i]sounds[/i] like trouble. Time providing, I’d like to present my findings and recieve any the rest of you may have to offer.”[/color] Chuckling lightly, Hugh smiled blandly. [color=6ecff6]“Long story short? I’m about the last one you’ll need to worry about being ‘dead weight’.”[/color] He shot a final, briefly raised brow Marita’s way, as he took his seat once more and laced his fingers.