#126 - Envoy

[Lazarus Carter]

ENVOY

Name: Envoy
Aliases: Emissary, Surveyor

Sphere: Tarpit Enclaves
Tier: Elite

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Abilities: The Envoy is the singular elite covert operations Tarpit troop of Legion's armies. Whilst the Metamorphs, Vertexes, and even the trained Penumbra, Architects, and Ebondragons are all based on out-and-out warfare, for a Demon of shadow, the Envoy is the first of the Tarpit Demons to possess a true specialty in espionage and stealth. And the only. Why is this? Simply because it's so fucking good at what it does.

The Envoy is a perfect intelligence-gathering and reconnaissance unit for starters. Typically only dispatched alone, it can move unnoticed by activating a camouflage system not dissimilar from the chameleons of Earth, blending into its background whilst it's stationary OR moving slowly. Moving fast will cause light to refract and bend in an odd way and almost give the patch of light the Envoy is occupying a particular "sparkle". And whilst it's significantly more light on its feet than most of the hulking beasts that encompass the fauna of Inferis, it still emits some sound when moving fast - slowly, however, it's almost completely silent.

The Envoy is intelligent and sentient. It appears human, and stands at dead on six feet tall. It wears extravagant though body-bound armour that dissolves into numerous bladed bio-organic tendrils, tapered to a fearsome point. All of these stem in origin from the Envoy's spinal cord analogue - and can be controlled as if they were additional limbs with perfect muscular precision and strength. Coupled with the natural camouflage, this obviously makes the Envoy a formidable opponent when it comes to assassination - being able to creep up behind an adversary unseen and slitting their throat ends the battle before it's even begun, and it part of the reason that Legion's personal army has such repute for being ruthless and lethal as it does.

The final ability of the Envoy is its most notorious, however - between the bladed muscular tendrils it can use to fight and the camouflage, its signature calling card is the ability to dissolve into a fine black mist at will. This process takes around five seconds - after which only a gentle, sooty particulate will remain in the air. The Envoy, in this "shadow" form, as it's called, can move intelligently and is not controlled by the air currents, and is additionally, obviously very difficult to determine - even if one can see a particular dark patch, it can move at such a speed that it convinces the adversary that it was nothing more than a visual phenomena in their periphery. Of course - it cannot attack in this form, but with a sort of telepathic echolocation can still record information, and move at the formidable speeds of up to 500mph. This is part of the reason that Legion can gather information for his endless, labyrinthine libraries with such aplomb.

Materialisation takes a further five minutes. Whilst the Envoys are few and far between, it can easily be seen why they are so feared and notorious, and almost taboo to speak of for many believe their existence to be nothing more than the urban legend of the Tarpits; but those lucky enough to bare witness to the corporeal manifestation of an Envoy don't forget it. Ever. That dark skin. Those sentient tentacles spanning from its back. It's a harrowing sight. And one that every being, human, Demon, or otherwise, will take with them to their respective graves.

It does, however, possess a set of unique weaknesses. If you're experienced enough to know how to look upon an Envoy in shadow form, shining a bright, concentrated light upon it for a few moments will stun each individual particulate and send them into a sort of "berserk" state, dispersing them rapidly - the Envoy will then be unable to reform for another one to three hours, essentially putting it out of immediate action. Additionally, whilst the bladed tendrils are very much suitable for assassination and torture, in extensive one-on-one or any form of group combat, the Envoy is nearly useless - its battle use is designed for stealth kills and singular targets only, and it's advised that it's not sent into a troop of unaware enemies.

Finally, whilst the shadow form gives out no signal of heat or soul energy, the camouflage masks the first but not the second; perceptive Demons will be able to sense the presence of the Envoy in its invisible form - humans will not unless they have equipment or Augmentations to pinpoint hostile thermal signatures (typically Templars). This does beg the question of why the Envoy doesn't simply always use its shadow form for stealth, but due to the five to ten seconds it takes to rematerialise, which is a window of opportunity during which the Envoy can do absolutely nothing, it is recommended that the shadow form is only used to collect intelligence and cover ground swiftly.

Miscellaneous Notes: - Perfect assassination troop, stands to reason.
- Used as "surveyors".
- Believed that there are less than thirty Envoys in existence. This is refutable.
- Typically at least two or three thousand years old.
- Supposedly crafted from the souls of legendary spies and espionage agents.