faderift | PLAYER PLOT: The Least of His Children

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PLAYER PLOT: The Least of His Children

WHO: Nathaniel Howe, Felix Alexius, Anders, James Norrington, Kaisa Daesun, Fenris, Araceli, Inessa.
WHAT: A quest to rescue a slave.
WHEN: August 26
WHERE: Tevinter
NOTES: Will update. Plotting post is here.

The Mastermind: Nathaniel Howe
The Game: Green Goods
The Grifter: Felix Alexius
The Mark: Magister Leo Valerius is an ailing old man, but his mind is sharp. His main concern of late has been to leave his sons a good inheritance, though he isn't exactly straight-up greedy.
The Prize: Alavda Endris is a slave to Valerius. The bad news is that she almost never leaves his side. The good news is that that makes her easy to find.

The Plan: One team is sent in, with Felix dressed as a minor lordling and his entourage trying to climb the social ladder by schmoozing an old magister. Felix claims to be staying as a guest of a nearby lord (technically true) and only visiting for the day. Valerius must believe this boy is an upstart with no political value and too much money.

Another team performs a heist and gains the money Valerius keeps at this estate by pretending to be contractors hired to work on the floorboards in the room with the vault door (an appointment Valerius set up months ago and our team hijacked). Planting bees in the floorboards will clear the room of guards. Felix pretends to fall in love with Alavda and asks to borrow her from Valerius. If Valerius hesitates, Felix offers him more and more money until he consents. He has loaned Alavda to other lords before, and Felix's show of being petulant and stupid should help wear away any suspicion that this is a set-up. In that way, it's a basic hustle. Once Valerius consents, Felix then sends an attendant outside to fetch that amount from the money stolen from Valerius' vault. The entourage departs, claiming to be returning to the local lord's house. They leave with Alavda and return to Skyhold.

MAJOR OBSTACLES:

Alavda is wearing an enchanted collar which allows Valerius to locate her. If it is cut away or in most any other way removed, it sends a massive and lethal shock through her system. The team will need to find a way to remove the collar without killing Alavda.

If/when the collar is removed, Valerius will send people to find her.

Valerius has about twenty guards on his property.

The vault door operates on reacting to a specific keystone which cannot be found, but aside from the magical lock, the mechanism is still a mechanism. A good thief can crack it.

IMPORTANT NOTE: It is vital that the members of this team keep their involvement and mission details secret before and after the mission. It must not get out that Inquisition members and affiliates were involved in hustling a magister.

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Anders isn't the only one who brought an animal with him. And that he did is very interesting to Puppy, who keeps trying to sniff out and meet the cat that he knows is there. He doesn't bark, but gives a wuff, enough to alert Kaisa, who wanders over to lightly tap his head, enough to remind the dog to behave himself.

"If the cat bites your nose, I'm not helping." She tells him primly, and turns to Anders. "I'll keep an eye on him, but feel free to grab me if he's a butthead. The worst he'd do to the cat is try to give her a bath, but the cat may not appreciate that. Man, can you believe we're going to Tevinter? I made fun of the others for going to Orlais, and look at my dumb ass now." Despite her flippant banter, there's a tension that started as soon as they left, and only gets worse the closer they get to their destination. "Walking right up to schmooze with a magister. A magister."

There are a lot of mabari along for the trip. Anders doesn't really mind them too much, though he has to put up token protests here and there. Purrelden, however, does not approve. She spends a lot of time watching mabari warily.

Anders would pay more attention to her, but Kaisa saying so much makes him wonder what's really going on.

"Are you all right? Are you saying you'd prefer Orlais?"

"Orlais can burn for all I care, but at least it isn't--Tevinter." She twists her lips, and it's only out of a genuine feeling of friendship that she doesn't make some snide remark about magisters and blood magic and whatnot. Instead, she rubs the back of her neck, making a face. "There's no slavery, at least. Don't have to trek through Orlais to find a bunch of elves they snatched up. I guess the Dalish might tell ya otherwise, though, if they got the chance." It's only after she says that, that she glances around to make sure that there weren't any Dalish that somehow had snuck up them from...wherever Dalish came from.

Little fairy flowers, maybe.

"Anyway. I guess we're doing more actual good here than whatever that political bullshit they're getting up to in Orlais. I can't figure any of that shit out, and I don't want to."

"Maybe that's why Clarel took over the Anderfels. So she could have her own kingdom with no politics, no slavery, no Circles, no slaughters." A deliberate beat. "No, hang on, that's why I'd take over the Anderfels. Sorry, I got confused."

He gives Kaisa a grin. "We'll do good here. And it won't be mired in messy, complicated, political muck."

"I'll totally support you if you try taking over the Anderfels. You even have the name for it." Kaisa gave him a slightly distracted grin in return, and doesn't say anything for a few beats. Then, casually as she can--she even gives a rock a little kick, watching it tumble off, because this is casual--

"Did you know your father?"

Anders swallows, and the grin leaves. "That depends, I suppose, on what you mean by know."

Can you really say you know someone who rushes to get rid of you before the neighbors find out it was you who set the barn ablaze? Or are they just people who happen to be related to you?

"He was present for the first twelve years of my life. For as long as it didn't occur to him that he might have a mage as a child, he was there."

Well, shit. Now Kaisa kinda feels like an ass trying to talk about her dad, when Anders...definitely had the short end of the stick. At least her dad liked her. "That sucks, man. Sounds like you're better off without him anyway." Is all she can think to say.

Then, after a few moments of respectful silence, she barrels on.

"Mine was an elf. Did you know that? He was an elf, in Denerim's alienage."

Maybe he is. He's not sure. He'd wanted a family for so long, but anyone deserves better than what he got.

"I didn't know." A beat, as he looks at her. "I don't think any less of someone for being elfblooded, or elf, or anything, if that's something you're worried about. You're Kaisa." Another beat, and then he catches on. "Did he... Did he get sold too?"

"Thanks. I learned a long time ago to stop caring what people thought about that, but--It's still nice t' know that you're not weird about it." She's used to the comments, but it never gets easier when it's friends that look at you different. Like they never even knew you, and now that they do, they don't like it.

Still, Kaisa hadn't expected Anders to get too worked up about it, and she's glad she was right. The next part is a lot harder to handle, and she shifts, crossing her arms, and uncrossing them.

"I was told that he'd died when the darkspawn sacked the city. The alienage elves--they're not allowed weapons. But, I mean..." She ran a hand through her hair, eyes on the ground. "There was so much chaos going on during that time. I wasn't even told until I wrote a letter afterwards, trying to figure out if he was alright. Maybe--I mean, it makes sense, doesn't it? That an elf could slip through the cracks like that?"

"I'm a mage. I know exactly what it's like to be judged for something beyond your control. And race doesn't even..." He waves a hand. Elves or elfblooded people were no more or less likely to be possessed than humans or qunari, unlike mages.

"And... I don't know, Kaisa. It's possible, but... did they see a body? Did they see him fall? Because I think they'd mention if he'd gone missing before then, but I don't want you to stop hoping if you want to see him."

"I know it's a long shot." Kaisa admits, rubbing her shoulder as she glances aside, a frown working across her face. "I didn't hear anything about a body, or a pyre, but I'm pretty sure they had massive pyres after the siege. Can't have a separate one for every single person." She's not positive about that, she wasn't there. But the logic holds, and gives her an excuse to hold out hope.

"But. I keep thinking." She glanced at Anders, her lips thinning into a line. "I'm sorry about your dad, Anders. You deserved better. But I mean, my dad wasn't perfect, but--I've always thought to myself. When my mom moved to Amaranthine, I had the option to stay with my dad. I didn't take it, I didn't want to be a human in an alienage, I wanted to be normal, I was tired of being the half-elf. If I hadn't been selfish, if I'd been there for him, I could've fought, I could've saved him."

She sighs, shaking her head. "It's pretty selfish of me. Wanting to not have to deal with that guilt anymore."

"You were a child," he says quietly. What he deserved and didn't is a mess that will never be sorted out. This also might be one. Finding one elf in Tevinter takes a great deal of effort and resources, and Anders would know because he's seen Nate bending his head to the task. They'd even known Kallian's mother had survived. With this? Where would they even start?

"You could have fought like a child, and you could have died as a child. I'm personally glad you didn't stay, because your odds..." They were awful. So many had died then. "We can ask careful questions, after we're back, see if we can locate your father, but the chances are so slim."

"I was 15 when I decided to leave," She says quietly, staring at her hands. It seemed older, back then. But that's the age that her sister is now, and now it feels so young. What a rotten age, old enough to think you can make decisions that effect your life, but too young to really grasp what they could mean. "And I was 19 when the Blight hit. I was employed as an Amaranthine guard. I was old enough."

Her odds still weren't great. She knew that. Plenty of people who were just as trained as she was had died, plenty of good soldiers, plenty of good guards. But wasn't that a worthy way to die? Defending the helpless? It was what she did now, she just...hadn't quite died, yet.

"I was hoping this woman would know. I was kinda hoping that she'd be able to say...Oh yeah, I know Levi, he was with us but got separated at...Wherever." She waved her hand vaguely. "I just want to ask her. Maybe then I'll have, ah. Something. Something solid."

Dates aside, he's still pretty certain she would have died. Most did, from what he'd heard. But he can understand where she's coming from.

"From what I hear she's been isolated since being sold, but she may know. It can't hurt to ask her." It's not like they have to hide who they are from Kalli's mom; she's coming back to the Inquisition with them. "And if she knows, we'll have to see if we can figure out another trip."

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PLAYER PLOT: The Least of His Children

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...I mixed this notif up with the other thread, I'm sorry.

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