Corco's Villa (IC)

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by ericthered

"That's why you really left Verdaze, isn't it? you needed to search over here rather than over there."

I think I'll change my strategy slightly. I'll say "Oh, I heard something about some place called Calthyone", and act surprised if he puts it together.

[95] 21-10-25 22:18:40 BST
Memetics!
3d6 <= 15
6 + 1 + 2 = 9 ... success

Originally Posted by ericthered

Good Questions: Rubrum will be staying at a commandeered empty home nearby the front head quarters. The town HQ is in was cleared out by multiple waves of fighting before HQ was set up there. The General thinks 6 days should be sufficient to complete his survey. The caves are about 100 miles away, and The most prominent entrance is in the middle of no-man's land.

I guess my options work out to "Go AWOL" or "persuade Rubrum that I'd be better suited going off to a hole in the ground rather than being his guard." What could I roll to find alternate entrances?

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by TGLS

I think I'll change my strategy slightly. I'll say "Oh, I heard something about some place called Calthyone", and act surprised if he puts it together.

Calthyone is really only known to serious cavers and locals. He hasn't heard of it.

I guess my options work out to "Go AWOL" or "persuade Rubrum that I'd be better suited going off to a hole in the ground rather than being his guard." What could I roll to find alternate entrances?

Alternate entrances? I'd take research at -5, or I'd take finding a local expert and talking to them. That's finding an informant from social engineering: IQ is standard, administration will also work for this one. -5 (restricted info) + 3 (100,000 people) gives you a base -2 modifier.


getting leave is all dependent on time, I'd say.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Calthyone is really only known to serious cavers and locals. He hasn't heard of it.

Ah well. At least this way the caves might appear more coincidental.

Originally Posted by ericthered

Alternate entrances? I'd take research at -5, or I'd take finding a local expert and talking to them. That's finding an informant from social engineering: IQ is standard, administration will also work for this one. -5 (restricted info) + 3 (100,000 people) gives you a base -2 modifier.


getting leave is all dependent on time, I'd say.

Well it seems like a trench warfare situation to me. Jogging into the middle of no man's land would be a hellish run and probably perceived to be pretty suicidal. Or maybe no man's land here is much bigger than in ww1.

Well time to go searching for someone who knows about an alternate cave entrance.

[96] 21-10-26 18:42:35 BST
IQ - 2
3d6 <= 14
3 + 3 + 5 = 11 ... success

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by TGLS

Or maybe no man's land here is much bigger than in ww1.

WW1 had no man's land's of various sizes. This one is typically larger than WW1 no man's land's... but you'd still attract a lot of attention trying to cross it.

Well time to go searching for someone who knows about an alternate cave entrance.

Halcyone locates one of the keepers of the caves in the rebel army. He's being used as a local expert... you may be able to steer Rubrum into talking with his unit during the tour.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Halcyone locates one of the keepers of the caves in the rebel army. He's being used as a local expert... you may be able to steer Rubrum into talking with his unit during the tour.

I'll try steering Rubrum towards heading to that particular unit with some carefully placed verbiage, backed up with some Intelligence bafflegab.

[97] 21-10-27 20:20:50 BST
Intelligence Analysis (As Complementary Roll)
3d6 <= 14
6 + 5 + 2 = 13 ... success
[98] 21-10-27 20:21:54 BST
Memetics! (at +1 from complementary roll)
3d6 <= 16
6 + 4 + 1 = 11 ... success

Well hopefully that does it.

[ericthered]

Halcyone arranges for Rubrum to meet with the unit during his tour, asking about the terrain in the area, and other sorts of analysis. He grabbed onto Halcyone's suggestion that it'd be good to talk with the experts on the ground.



This group is pretty well vetted, but no one will blink if Halcyone double checks. Or she could talk with the man during the visit.

[the_matrix_walker]

Vassarious immerses themselves into the character and once she gets himalone, recants a tale to the governor of mystery and intrigue to draw him in, telling him that she does not want to have her involvement known, but feels something must be done, and believes the governor to be the only one who can be trusted.

Vassarious weaves the story together into a connected narrative to paint the governor a picture.

They tell him of an ambassador from beyond their empire who has visited the temple in pursuit of a prophecy warning of a betrayal to the Emperor and who found the high priest's behavior very suspicious and filled with veiled hostility.

They recant the story of the deposed faction of the priesthood that believed the Emperor's true intentions were being twisted to suit.

Vassarious then tells him of visions that have been reported to come to warn of the subversion of the Emperor's will by corrupted magic.

"Is there anyone outside of the priesthood who understands the magics well enough to verify they have not been modified?"
"Is there a way to look into this discretely?"

Vassarious attempts to drop the story, hook the mark, and get out as quickly as they can and avoid additional entanglements.

((Skill roll failed! - Going to use a Destiny point to change that into a success, AND a Wildcard Point to pad the margin if it will make a difference.))

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by ericthered

This group is pretty well vetted, but no one will blink if Halcyone double checks. Or she could talk with the man during the visit.

I'll revett the group. I'll try to work a question about the Caverns into the interview.

"I understand you were keeper of the Caverns of Calythone before the war. What was that like?"
[If he doesn't mention anything about entrances] "Hm. Would it be possible to cut past any of the trenches by going through the caves? Or are all the entrances in no man's land?"

[100] 21-10-29 05:24:05 BST - thompsonstubbs@gmail.com

Memetics! (To revett)

3d6 <= 15
1 + 2 + 6 = 9 ... success
[101] 21-10-29 05:24:18 BST
Memetics! (To question)
3d6 <= 15
3 + 4 + 1 = 8 ... success

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by the_matrix_walker

Vassarious immerses themselves into the character and once she gets him alone, recants a tale to the governor of mystery and intrigue to draw him in, telling him that she does not want to have her involvement known, but feels something must be done, and believes the governor to be the only one who can be trusted.
....
"Is there anyone outside of the priesthood who understands the magics well enough to verify they have not been modified?"
"Is there a way to look into this discretely?"

Vassarious attempts to drop the story, hook the mark, and get out as quickly as they can and avoid additional entanglements.

Ingelni: "I would not expect the priests to know how to modify maximus's tomb to achieve any effect: he is that much better at architecture than anyone else. He would have left a record of the proper structure, with backups. That would also be in the hands of the priests... but there may be backups."


Ingelni: "The best way to verify your story would be to place a spy in the priesthood, or locate a priest who is willing to talk. At least the part about the Emperor being trapped. For the ambassador beyond the empire... can you give any signs of such a person? how would they prove themselves? If they came to me, how would I identify them?"

((Skill roll failed! - Going to use a Destiny point to change that into a success, AND a Wildcard Point to pad the margin if it will make a difference.))

I accept both.

Originally Posted by TGLS

I'll revett the group. I'll try to work a question about the Caverns into the interview.

"I understand you were keeper of the Caverns of Calythone before the war. What was that like?"
[If he doesn't mention anything about entrances] "Hm. Would it be possible to cut past any of the trenches by going through the caves? Or are all the entrances in no man's land?"

The expert, named Yorinor, talks about the size of the caves, and about how the government hid a lot of different things in the caves. "There were areas even I didn't know about. I can point to where they are, but I can't tell you what's inside them."


"There are entrances on either side of no-man's land. They had me identify them and they'll all guarded and rigged to be demolished in an emergency. We think they did the same thing on the other side: at least a few attempts to cross have met with opposition. Combat down there tends to be bloody and not get very far, so most raids using it have stopped."

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by ericthered

"We think they did the same thing on the other side: at least a few attempts to cross have met with opposition. Combat down there tends to be bloody and not get very far, so most raids using it have stopped."

"I see... Did the raids getting stopped near the entrances or somewhere in the middle of the cave complex? Is it likely the artillery would have trashed some of the passages?"

Hm... I suppose this gives the option of not having to cross no man's land to enter the cave complex... I suppose now it would be a matter of persuading Rubrum to give me leave to go investigate these caves.