PLAYER PLOT: The Least of His Children

[pinprick]

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.

Comments

[justice_is_blond]

"But what if I tell you you get bonus points for it?" He's trying not to grin at her laughter, but there's something endlessly rewarding about making someone else laugh.

"When feel like you've got a handle on that, we'll go for the backstroke - far faster, but definitely more taxing. And then two front-down strokes. Just the basics on everything; I don't expect you to master them. Knowing them, however, is important." They'll mean that when she gets into the water, she can get back out. They'll open up a whole other side of the world to her.

[circleprodigy]

"I always was a sucker for extra credit." Teacher's pet, your name is Inessa.

After righting herself, she takes a moment to be sure that sinking isn't and won't be a problem before responding. "Moment of distraction aside, I think I'm managing this. Tell me if I need adjustment, however. If we can continue, I'm ready."

[justice_is_blond]

"If I was a little younger, and not single, and not without some sort of teacher code..." He lets the teasing linger for a moment. Granted, he'd broken the whole teacher code before, it had just been backward. He'd seduced Karl.

Then, once the moment's over, he's nodding. "You seem like you have that. So." Now it's his turn to lay back, and he cups his hands like he'd shown her before. "You'll be going from flat when the hand goes into the water, to cupped as soon as it's in, and you'll be kicking. It's going to make a lot of splashing, so I'll stick to just the arm movements at first."

He demonstrates, swimming a rough circle around her with the backstroke, generally just using his feet to steer rather than for speed.

[circleprodigy]

When Anders lays back, Inessa turns her head enough to watch him. She can learn from lecturing alone if she must, but it helps to see the positions and movements for herself. "Just arm movements is fine, then. One thing at a time...."

Now that she's taken the first step, the next doesn't seem so intimidating. So she's eager to try upon viewing the demonstration, waiting until he's out of the way before attempting to circle around him in turn. Her movements aren't as graceful, and she doesn't quite get the hang of steering as he does, not yet.

[justice_is_blond]

He watches her try it, nodding despite how she can't really see him until she's paused.

"Good. Good, you're getting it. It's going to take more practice to get it down, and improve your strength, but you've got the core of it. Would you like to leave it there for the day, or do you want to learn the mabari paddle and the breast stroke as well?"

[circleprodigy]

"My strength is never something I've had to develop, so that will take time." Inessa almost wants to say 'what strength' but even as small and slight as she is, she'll give it a chance. And there's a soft laugh as she answers. "The mabari paddle? That sounds too good to pass up." One more won't tire her out too much, but past that she'll call it a day.

[justice_is_blond]

Mages often didn't have opportunity or reason to really train their strength. Swinging a staff around took some effort, but for most it had been a scholarly thing alone for quite some time. He's not surprised she doesn't have a lot of strength just yet.

"I had a feeling, considering your choice of animal companion. And the good news is that the mabari paddle is very easy, provided the water isn't too worked up. It's on the front, with your arms going like this."

The motion he makes as he stands is very much how a mabari swims, paddling the water.

"Feet kick too. So you wind up..." He sinks down and starts paddling. It looks ridiculous and he knows it. After a few moments, he stands back up. "It's slow. It's not very efficient. But it's very easy."

[circleprodigy]

Ridiculous though it appears, Anders has a point about it being easy to learn. With that in mind, Inessa tries it based on that. If he has to look ridiculous, it won't be alone. She can always abandon its use when more skilled with other forms of swimming. As before, she's better at the hand movements than remembering to use her feet effectively, though she manages.

"...I can see the drawbacks, but at least the water is calm. And if I freeze up and forget all else, this would be easy enough to recall. I'll hope to at least remember how to float first, however."

[justice_is_blond]

It's definitely ridiculous-looking, but it's as easy as it gets. He gives her a smile and a nod when she talks again.

"It's something you can use when you're low on energy, and it's hard to forget even if you've been tossed around by the current some. Both of those are fairly important. And we can work with this more as we've time, if you'd like. I enjoy the water."