IC: Taking Necessary Steps

[4th number]

The Black Pig is not the undercity's most popular inn, nor anywhere near the best. In fact, the ale is downright lousy, the barmaids are all kobolds, and the rooms are cramped and windowless. There's only one reason why anyone bothers to descent the crumbling stone stairs and pick their way through the garbage pit that lies between the inn and the nearest habitable avenue-- the elves have no clue that it exists, and they've got no way of finding out. The Black Pig is in a zone of dead magic, thanks to some long-ago spell or a trick of the bluestone that makes up its walls.

Over the last week, messages were passed from one trusted source to another, encoded and decoded, traded between magicians' familiars. Each of you received one, a note from someone that you trust who had no idea who originated it, merely that they had gotten it from someone that they trusted. The notes read, "B noon gods red P"-- that is, "Meet at the Black Pig on Godsday noon at the red table."

The red table is in a back room of the inn with two entrances, one from the main barroom and one from a back hallway that leads to the bedrooms. One can enter unobserved, and no single person can see which people have entered.

The inn is uncrowded around midday this Godsday. The bartender, a hulking goblinoid, polishes a dirty glass with a dirty washrag. Two humans talk in low voices at one of the booths in a corner. A half-troll, an orc, and a tiefling walk into the bar. They sit down and order gin.

[RecoveringGamer]

The familiar odor of trash and spilled alcohol welcomes Aelithia to The Black Pig, for this strange meeting. Normally she liked working these things out on her own terms, and the fact that it was at The Black Pig was a little unsettling. It was a safe place from the magic of the Realm, but at the same time it renders her own magical skills useless. Aelithea had worked out many arrangements from the hidden pub in the past, but they were all orchestrated by her, so the risk of ambush was minimal in those situations.

She stands just outside the room, second-guessing what to do. Do I sit, and risk being caught out in the open? Do I take a seat at the bar and risk foiling the chance to learn something of the resistance movement that I don't already know? I hate not knowing... The table was currently empty, not a good sign.

Gathering her resolve, Aelithea strides into the back room, taking the chair closer to the front-room door, that would still allow her vision of the same doorway. One hand rests on the hilt of her sheathed rapier. She was not remarkable with the weapon by any means, and she could not hold out in a fight for long with a skilled duelist or other warrior. However, she could stick a common person or green soldier in a pinch. Besides, it is more for show.

[Jojomo]

Keeping the edge of his cloak wrapped around the lower half of his face as much to ward off the stink that surrounds the Black Pig as to hide his features, Janos hurries through the front door. Once inside, he takes a quick glance around.

Always the same, he thinks, Same crowd of drunks, same unpleasant staff... and always the same god-awful stench! He walks briskly to the back room, coming up short as he sees the woman sitting at the table.

He almost launches himself at the seated figure when he sees the pointed ears, the fine facial features, almost. Spotting the more rounded features of a half-breed, he forces himself to relax. Straightening himself from the half-crouch he had dropped into without thinking, he nods to the figure and slowly speaks.

"Half-elf, right?"

He walks to around the table and seats himself opposite from the woman. Seeing her hand on the hilt of her rapier, he raises his eyebrows, "You can probably leave that pig-sticker be. I'm fairly sure we'll hear any trouble that starts out there," he nods to the door to the main room. "That's how it usually goes."

[RecoveringGamer]

Aelithea grunts in response to the newcomer and his observations. Normally she'd at least act relatively pleasant to a stranger, but this person was another operative or other recruit; not likely a target. What is troubling is that this new arrival appears to be in the same situation that she is in.. There's more than one of us? What exactly is going on here...

[Lexin]

Lanakhad received the invitation. It was quite surprising for him that someone expected to meet him on his own terms, he thought about ignoring the invitation... but in his line of work there were few people who had Lanakhad's trust... and they earned it, so he came.

In the entrance he was welcomed by the familiar stench and the dull feeling of loneliness induced by the anti-magic barrier. He hated the place...
'But if Jelal thought it was safe enough to pass the invitation... it is safe to assume that he knew what he was doing...' he thought as he casually walked towards the back room.

After entering he noticed two others, already waiting there. 'A human and a Half-elf. A merry-looking bunch.' he thinks, somewhat unimpressed.

"Shall I presume that you were the ones who sent the invitation?" he asks as he sits, doubt can be heard in his voice.

Spoiler

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He is tall and looks human, he wears a long coat in light shade of grey and doesn't look like much of a warrior.
After sitting down he lights a small cigar and smokes with a calm expression.

[Kubular]

Munno

"I think someone greater than we four has sent them," came a voice from the door.

Quietly, the hooded monk shifted to the center of the room and lifted the hood from his head, "...my friends." in a somewhat singsong elven tone that has been blunted by speaking the common tongue for far too long.

[Mephit]

Lyanna

A hooded figure enters the bar, and after a quick glance around the establishment lowers its hood, revealing a young human woman underneath. She's wearing a simple tunic, breechers, and a long green cloak. She carries a sword at her hip and a wooden shield on her back. Assuredly, she walks over to the counter.

At more or less the exact moment Munno enters from the back, Lyanna enters with a glass of gin - considered by many to be the least repugnant drink at the Black Pig. She gives a short nod of recognition to Munno and walks over to a free chair, putting the glass in front of her. As she methodically loosens her sword and shield and places them against the table, she speak. "Unless anyone speaks up now, we can assume Munno" - she nods over to the elf -is right." The blonde sits down and looks at the others with a slight smile.
Hello. We could exchange pleasantries while we wait, but I'm not sure that's the best idea if there are more to come.

[4th number]

With her head bowed, a serving kobold enters the room bearing a domed silver tray (it was silver-colored when it was made, anyway) with steam and a delicious smell rising from it.

"A special dish. By gift of. Your host," she says woodenly, as though reciting something memorized. The kobold places it on the table and skitters out.

[Mephit]

Lyanna

Lyanna looks around the table once more, an eyebrow cocked. "Allow me." She stands up and removes the lid with a flourish.

[4th number]

The steam and aroma vanish as the lid is removed, and no food is revealed. Instead, there a tiny winged human-like figure, dragonfly-winged and dressed in green leaves. His wings flicker and buzz, and he rises a few feet above the small stack of papers on which he'd been standing.

"Welcome, colleagues. I come here at great risk to myself and my employer (who must regrettably remain anonymous for reasons that will soon become obvious) to bring you documents of urgency and great relevance to your patriotic efforts. You are undeniably among the greatest assets to the Realm-opposed factions in this region, and I bring to you an opportunity to further your interests dramatically."

He pauses to breathe.

"The documents on this tray represent the itinerary of Realm Admiral M'lassanathan. He is on an inspection tour of the Realm holdings on the continent, and he is due in Aral tomorrow evening. He will be visiting several locations of strategic import, locations that I do not believe that any Realm-opposed factions have been privy to. Before now."

[RecoveringGamer]

Aelithea glances at the documents, letting them stay on the tray for now. As the messenger pauses, the half-elf takes a glance at the other patrons in line of sight, watching for anyone especially interested in the spectacle.

[Kubular]

Munno

Swiftly, the elf snatches up the papers from beneath the little fey and scans them quickly, murmuring under his breath, "How is it that we never came across these locations before?" is what he wanted to scream. Though he wanted to scream he disciplined himself and with a forced smile he said, What incredible luck! I wonder, how didst your employer chance upon this? Yes, yes, of course, you can't say, I know." He said as he turned away and paced a half-circle around the room, muttering "incredible luck" as if to convince himself it was so. Taking a seat at the same round table as Lanakhad, he addressed the whole party, "Come, let us talk strategy."

[4th number]

The fairy turns to Munno "My employer did not chance upon these documents. Indeed they took a great deal of effort for one such as he to obtain. But you of all people should know that not all elves love the Realm.

The first page on the small stack is only half-filled, and it bears the elven date for tomorrow at the top in bold, flowing script. There is also a symbol that Munno and Aelithea recognize-- a Glyph of Warding targeted at non-elves. The Realm uses them to restrict movement in the city, and many those who look upon them tend to die immediately.

The tiny man flits over, hovering behind Munno's left ear. "This copy is quite magically inert even when it's not in here. No need to worry."

[4th number]

A brief summary of the contents of the documents:

• Tomorrow, the Realm Admiral arrives and eats dinner at the home of the Governor. They tour briefly around the city, then spend the night at the Governor's manor.
  
• The next day, the Realm Admiral completes an inspection tour of the offices of the Scrying Group, a division of Realm wizards who occupy themselves with tracking and supervising the city. This is spread across several locations, all listed with addresses but without further information.
  
• Three days from now, he meets with the heads of the Church. All of the locations listed are primarily places of worship, though one is a bank.
  
• On his final day before heading south to the front, M'lassanathan has a meeting listed at the former Museum of Antiquities that lasts all morning. No further information is listed.

[RecoveringGamer]

After close scrutiny, Aelithea questions this messenger. "And what of your employer? Does he relay instructions with these documents, or does he merely wish to share information?"

[Lexin]

Lanakhad nods to everyone who entered and doesn't act surprised when the 'dish' turns out to be a messenger.

"This information could prove to be useful...
What we do with it is another matter. We could take care of the admiral... or invite him for a little talk. Second would be more difficult, but could give us better results.
Another case is the opportunity... I don't think we have more than one chance to meet him, and again, we could choose easier way, trying to find him on the way, between the places he is sure to visit, making a welcome party for him in one of the more public locations... or choose a more difficult way, and try to kill two birds with one stone..."
*pause*
"Like getting the admiral during the meeting with the Scrying Group, making them both our targets. Huge risk, huge rewards..."

[Jojomo]

Janos' eyebrows lift in surprise as the winged figure appears, Surely a letter would have served perfectly well, he thinks to himself, perhaps our benefactor is keen to impress us...

He remains silent until he has time to read through the documents. Once done he leans back in his chair, feet up on the table while he muses aloud. "The thought of huge risks doesn't particularly appeal to be honest. Should any of us be killed, or worse captured, it would be a serious blow to the Militia. I wonder if we might not be best served by waiting until the Admiral leaves and then striking at the scriers once he has left. After all, security will almost certainly be tighter during his inspection. Even if we did manage to capture or kill him I imagine the Realm would turn the city upside down to find him or his killers, which would be thoroughly unpleasant for the regular citizenry."

He sighs, "That said however, we could potentially gain some very valuable information by infiltrating the meetings he is attending, which would probably cause less of a ruckus."

Spoiler

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Knowledge (Local) check to see if Janos recognises or knows anything about the addresses of the Scrying Group: [roll0]

Similar check for further information about the bank: [roll1]

One more for information on the Museum of Antiquities: [roll2]

For the second two I'm particularly interested in any security arrangements Janos might know of.

Dice roller doesn't like me for some reason, see OOC thread for rolls.

[4th number]

The winged man peers and Aelithea, swooping down to stand facing her on the table. "I am here to deliver these items as safely as possible but that is not my only purpose. You are given these because you are to be trusted (or so my employer has heard) and I am here to give them to you because my employer wants you to know that he can be trusted. For surely one of you can guess at what it means for a fei to do errands for one in the Realm?"

He lifts off into the air again. "I will leave now as I have no wish to know more of your plans than I must. Could one of you open that rear door a crack?"

[Lexin]

Lanakhad opens the door slightly, closes it after the creature leaves and waits for others to share their thoughts.

[PersonMan]

Walking the last few feet to the door as it's opened is a person wearing a cloak that almost looks fished out of the nearby garbage pile. It's incredibly dusty and quite worn, the edges frayed or cut in many places. The clothing beneath seems to be cobbled together from a hundred dusty battlefields: sand clings to much of the assorted metal, leather and thick fabric that has been somehow put together in a way that it doesn't fall apart. Something about it seems odd, though.

The thick, sand-leaking boots the person wears are fairly quiet for their size, and seem to be held together by a few carefully-made repairs rather than any original craftsmanship. Above them, faded grey fabric is wrapped around legs hidden all but entirely by the cloak. They do seem fairly thin, though. Occasionally to be seen are a pair of hilts, one on each side of the figure, at the waist.

The whole 'tall, dark and mysterious' image is broken a bit by the person's height: standing at about 5' 9", they aren't especially big. They're taller than only Munno and Lyanna out of the group and Lanakhad is a good head above the tip of their patched-up hood.

Entering the room, the figure lowers the hood after shutting the door, revealing a face surprisingly soft for their attire. Curly sandy blond hair extends down to the edge of the cloak's collar, at the person's shoulders, adorned only by a small eye amulet. It takes a few moments to pick out the person's gender - a lack of pointed ears cuts out the 'androgynous elf' option - as female. Her eyes, the only thing that could probably be called 'pretty' rather than 'plain' or 'cute' about her, are clear and scan the room quickly.

"I see I'm late," she says. "I am Rodrikk, I received a letter telling me to come here," is all she adds. Around then, shortly after she stops moving, the air around her seems to dry up a bit.

OOC:

Spoiler

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Anyone particularly observative and/or knowledgeable about religion can tell that the charm is an Eye of Horus.

[Lexin]

Lanakhad rolls his eyes and says, slightly irritated "Welcome, welcome. The more the merrier, I suppose..."
He grabs the documents and passes them to the newcomer.
"Here. Catch up."
He waits few minutes and says turning to others.
"So... In the end, what do we want to do? Eavesdropping sounds good and safe, but we could at least prepare something more, even if we won't use it in the end.
We have 30 hours till his arrival, but the third day is most suitable for an ambush as the most important meetings would already be done... and he moves around the most this day.
That would give us 78 hours total to prepare and in the meantime we would need to organize the eavesdropping part as well.
Any ideas or suggestions?"

[Jojomo]

Still balancing his chair on two legs, Janos sighs and remains silent for a moment before answering, "I suppose making preparations for a more elaborate plan wouldn't compromise a passive approach. Personally I think I'll try to discover where the Admiral will be staying during the rest of his visit. It might be worth some of us taking a look at the locations of the scrying group and the temples, I don't really know much about their security."

He runs a hand through his hair and grimaces, "The Museum of Antiquities is another matter. Given the importance of the building I've spent some time studying it already. I've got a reasonable idea of its layout and a few potential ways to get in, but the thing's a fortress. Getting in and out undetected will be no small feat."

He lowers the chair's front legs back to the ground, "On a slightly different topic, does it bother anyone else that we know nothing about our mysterious benefactor? I wonder if we're being set up to do someone's dirty work for them..." He lets the sentence trail off while the others contemplate.

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OOC: I'm assuming a bit on that last paragraph, if I'm off-base I'll edit it out.

Bit of a long shot, but Knowledge (Local) check to see if Janos knows anyone who is known for using fei as messengers that might wish the Admiral harm: (1d20+9)[13]

[PersonMan]

Roddrick takes the papers in one fairly calloused hand, reading over them slowly, running one finger along the lines of text as she goes. Once she's finished, she sets them down on the table, her lips pressed together into something like a pout as she considers what's written on them.

"I think an ambush would be good," she says, looking over at the others. Something about her gives the impression of unhappiness, but she also seems quite confident about what she's saying.

[Lexin]

"Ambush should be good. But we need to discuss some things. For starters: where, when and do we kill or kidnap?
Other than that, how any of us can contribute?"

[Jojomo]

Janos drums his fingers on the table as he thinks, "If we're going to ambush the Admiral I'd much prefer we know a little more about his security arrangements first. I'll see if I can dig up anything on that too. As to the when, I'd suggest we wait until after the Admiral has attended all of his scheduled meetings so we can glean what information we can regardless of the success of the ambush."

He sighs loudly as he racks his brains, "Regarding the place, I'm trying to think of obvious places we could strike. It might be worth striking after the Admiral has left the city so there will be less chance of interference from other Realm forces."

Spoiler

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Knowledge (Local) check to think of likely places for an ambush (narrow streets, normally unsafe areas and the like near the places the on the itinerary or places just outside city limits that would do): (1d20+9)[14]

He raises a finger as another point comes to mind, "Also, if we attempt to kidnap him, we will require a secure location at which to keep him."

Looking across at Lanakhad, he offers a small smirk, "What do you want, my resume?" He gives a quick snort of laughter before continuing, "Most of the work I do is infiltration. Most often mundane security but I've dealt with some magical measures too. I can handle myself in a fight well enough if it comes to it, but I'd much prefer that we avoid confrontation so far as possible. Other than that I'm pretty good at hunting down both people and information. If you need to know something or find someone, let me know."

[PersonMan]

Roddrik looks over at Lanakhad for a moment before speaking. "I destroy," she says simply, adding only "people," a moment later as clarification.

[Lexin]

Roddrik looks over at Lanakhad for a moment before speaking. "I destroy," she says simply, adding only "people," a moment later as clarification.

"That's sweet. But not very specific. Can any of you help in any way with spying part or the ambush/kidnapping one?
I have some contacts which could support us with information, know some people who sell... things which are difficult to come by otherwise and some who would be happy to work as distraction for the greater good and all such things...
Personally I am capable of... entertaining some people in a fight, but would prefer setting traps and working covertly over... let's call it fighting fair is not really my first choice...

You?"

[PersonMan]

Roddrik looks at Lanakhad silently for a moment, her expression neutral.

"I do not know very many people who have information. I can be stealthy if necessary. I kill enemies by cutting them in half,"" she says.