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WHO: Beleth Ashara, Kit Gandir, Kostos Averesch, and Nikos Averesch.
WHAT: Mopping up a spill
WHEN: Firstfall 10
WHERE: Antiva City
NOTES: Violence cw! OOC post! Private plurk! And if anyone wants to do their own errands/exploring in Antiva City before or after the main event, feel free to make your own threads here or in separate logs.

Several days ago, a wealthy merchant in Antiva and rumored lover of one of King Fulgeno's sons, Brianda de Trueva, was killed in her home. An Inquisition banner was left pointedly stabbed into the wall above her body. At the same time, an Inquisition agent embedded in Antiva City stopped responding to communication attempts.

The agent, known as Vintner, is an elven woman and trained assassin originally from Orlais, though she's known to be skilled at masking her accent. She's also a sharp shot with a bow, capable of throwing knives with reasonable accuracy, and well-versed in poisons. She'd previously been tasked with monitoring a number of targets and gathering evidence to confirm theories of their involvement in red lyrium trade or slave trafficking. No such confirmation has been made, but the dead merchant was the one the Inquisition was closest to being able to outright accuse of committing a crime. Others on the list include two Merchant Princes and other prominent figures with close ties to the Princes or to the royal family.

Antiva maintains a tangle of of alliances and treaties sufficient to oblige most of Thedas to declare war against anyone who threatens it, and it could be disastrous for the Inquisition to be viewed as an aggressor. Accordingly, a team is being sent to intercept the agent—with deadly force if necessary—before she can do any further damage.

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Before the Inquisition lost contact with her, Vintner was staying in a room at a tavern called El Cuerno de Cabra. Getting in without alerting the staff—who, like any spy worth her salt, Vintner is paying extra to keep her room undisturbed—will take a lookout and some lock-picking. Once that is out of the way, the chest under her bed needs to be unlocked or broken into as well.

Inside the chest, there's a treasure trove of information. Vintner's notes on the targets she's been observing are kept in a personal code that may take some time to decipher back in Kirkwall, unless someone is a genius. There's also a map on which she hasn't been so careless as to mark targets but has taken notes on city guard rotations and which bridges or roads leading out of the city are watched and by whom.

Most importantly, under the chest's fairly convincing trick bottom, there's a stash of correspondence from the Inquisition. The most recent are written orders, encoded in a newly-retired cipher familiar to anyone who handles Inquisition messages and marked with an official seal. Needless to say, they did not actually come from the Inquisition. The orders are to eliminate two of the individuals she's been watching, the already-deceased Brianda de Trueva and Guiomar del Lunar, the head of Antiva City's bank and one of Antiva's Merchant Princes.

The bread leftover on Vintner's table from lunch is only a little stale.

[ ooc | This is for discussing strategy and what to do. If you're not interested in participating, there's no need to. Your character(s) can also be keeping watch elsewhere. ]

Beleth has taken the chair at Vintner's table, one of the written orders in her hand. She's not going to bother with the personal notes, they haven't the time for it. "This is a retired cipher--and this is why we retire ciphers..." She frowns for a moment, then glances up at the others in the room. "I hope that after Vintner is stopped, we'll be able to track down who sent this. Or we'll just have to do this all over again."

She pokes the letter, right where it states the next target: Guiomar del Lunar. "I'm sure it's rather obvious, but if the hornet's nest isn't already stirred up, it will be, if a Merchant Prince gets killed. So." She drums her fingers on the table, in thought. "We'll have to sneak in to his estate, locate Vintner, and deal with her, while she's also sneaking in, all without alerting anyone."

It all sounds like it'd be rather exciting if it weren't for the whole...possibly sending the Inquisition into war against all of Thedas if they fail.

He doesn't touch the bread, but the map has attracted Kit's attention. He leans against the table next to Beleth and points out the notes on the guard rotations. "If it was good enough for her," he starts with an idle shrug of one shoulder. "Give me some time, I could confirm those rotations myself. Maybe let you know if anything has changed."

“Do we have time?” Kostos asks, because he’s a downer that way. He’s standing near the door, back to the wood, with half his attention on the wisp he left on the other side. It’s very interested in the grain of the wood, at the moment, but if someone comes near it will be more interested in that. Probably. You can never be entirely sure about wisps. “If she isn’t coming back here, she may be on her way there.”

“I’d rather confirm the guard rotations ourselves, but I have no idea how much time we have.” Which is a complicated way of saying you both have good points. Which one is more vital to their success? She drums her fingers in the table, in thought. “There won’t be any point in avoiding guards if she gets to the target before we can stop her. I think the best plan will be to use her notes, and if there are any guards where they shouldn’t be...we’ll probably be able to take care of a few stragglers, before anyone notices.”

She glances at the other two, to see what they think.

Guiomar del Lunar lives in the hilly the outskirts of the city with his wife and the two of his four children who haven't yet established their own livelihoods, in a manor perched on top of one of those hills, near a river, and surrounded in most directions by open farmland. It's a busy area: this far north the fields are tended to even in these colder months, a few merchant stalls selling vegetables and crafts have popped up around a nearby intersection, and the land is in viewing distance of a road frequented by travelers in and out of the city moving by foot, horseback, and wagon. The home itself has only low walls, but it's guarded by members of Guiomar's personal army, who also patrol the land pairs.

While there's still daylight—which will last for another hour and a half, at best—the nearest vantage point for observing the estate without being visible in turn is an adjacent rocky, untillable hill on the other side of the river that's overgrown with tall grass and shrubby trees. Staying beneath the vegetation will require some crawling, but over the crest, facing the manor, there's a dip in the ground deep enough to allow kneeling.

The spot has seen recent and repeated use. The grass is worn down, and there's a bit of broken glass in the dirt, plus an apple core that's now several days old and being carted away by ants, bit by bit.

[ ooc | As we go on, characters are welcome to split into two groups or go lone wolf; as long as everyone's discreet, they can keep in touch via crystal, and I'll be shooting people information via IM or pplurk regarding what different characters in different places might find. ]

As soon as he’s crouching and peering over the brush, Kostos puts himself to work counting visible guards, marking which have bows and which have swords, which are stationary and which are patrolling—information necessary to know whether any vanish from sight and what sort of problem it might present if they do.

In the meantime, ants crawl up his arm. Predictably, Kostos isn’t an outdoorsy person. But he also isn’t an outwardly panicky person. He looks down at them, he frowns, and rather than flinching his forearm sparks and five suddenly-dead bugs drop into the dirt.

“Sorry,” he says, in a perfunctory sort of way that would be rude if he were apologizing for hurting someone instead of for his general mage-y existence, while tossing the rotten apple core quietly aside. He shifts further away from the ants, too, and says, “Eighteen, six archers.”

Beleth blinks at Kostos' little display of turning himself into a living bug zapper, but says nothing on it. That's actual pretty handy.

She's on her knees nearby--shifting to make sure that nearby isn't nearby to the ants, nor apple--looking over the bushes herself, head tilted as she looks over the estate thoughtfully. "Well, I'd like to get in without alerting anyone. Especially Vintner. Though, it would be rather nice if I could just shout loudly enough for her to cut this out." She doesn't bother looking to see if Kostos appreciated her hilarious humor, because she knows he didn't.

"There's a wagon over there." She ducks her head back down, gesturing in the direction. "It looks like general goods, manned by two elves and a human. We might be able to commandeer it, and personally make sure that it gets delivered."

At the little light show, Kit pulls a slight face but otherwise doesn't remark on it. Still, the hairs on his arms are standing up on end now, and it's hard for him to tell if it's because of his own involuntary heebie-jeebies around magic, or static electricity.

"Grate in the hillside there," he notes quietly and points towards it. "Looks like it drains out into the river. Could be a way in?" He glances questioningly to Beleth, wanting to get her read on things.

The sudden sharp rustle of parting brush will be next to get their attention. Or it ought to be, if the party knows what is good for them, given the clues that suggested the popular nature of their spot's vantage point. Someone else has watched from here, and someone else has now come back.

Someone else that, at first glance, looks identical to Kostos.

The Kostos lookalike has his knife drawn when he steps out of the brush. Steps, not leaps or any sort of other dramatic entrance. This perhaps hints at a sensible and reasonable nature, or at least suggests that he's been watching long enough to mark them as something a little less than threats. Still doesn't lower his knife just yet, as he looks among their company.

When he gets at last to Kostos, he sighs, heavily.

"You have got to be joking." Accented. Exasperated. Still holding his knife. "What is this?"

At the sound of someone approaching, Beleth hurriedly turns, pulling out her bow in the same motion. They’ve no others expected, which means anyone else is undoubtedly trouble—

Oooor not? There’s an open look of baffled confusion on her face, as she stares at the new Kostos, then turns to the old one, and turns back to the new one—

“Creators,” She whispers in amazement. “There is an entire country of you, after all.”

Kit doesn't hear the rustle of the brush--possibly because it's his left ear that's turned to it, rather than his right--but he does glimpse Beleth whipping around with her weapon drawn and quickly follows suit. Whatever his preparation for impromptu battle, however, he's quick to drop it with an incredulous look at the newcomer.

"You, uh, expecting company?" he asks Kostos over his shoulder, but doesn't take his eye of the new guy. They might be kin, but it doesn't necessarily follow that he's an ally.

"He expects nothing."

When no one attacks him or seems inclined to use drawn weapons or notched bows against him, the new Kostos sheathes his dagger at last. He wears two on his belt, which--for the observant--is notched at a larger size than any belt Kostos would wear. This Kostos has lived a softer life.

But he is all business as he strides closer to their company, craning his neck to see just beyond, the point of observation that they are all, apparently, here to observe.

"Nor anyone here. Unless you start making a great deal of noise and ruining things more than you already have. You are all Inquisition, aren't you." He looks at Kostos, expectantly. Inquisition. He's had a letter on that topic. He isn't impressed. "Why are you here, if not to ruin everything."

Edited (there we go now i'm not asleep) 2017-11-28 13:09 (UTC)

Through all of this, and for a few seconds after it, Kostos is silent. It isn’t—not after the very first moment, at least—a stunned silence, not slack-jawed or uncomprehending. His jaw is set, and he shifts attention from speaker to speaker with plenty of comprehension, looking more annoyed than bewildered. He is able to accept the fact that his brother is here very quickly, and equally able to accept the witty commentary as deserved.

But keeping up and being able to form words are two very different things, especially for him.

There are more ants on his hand. He can feel them, but he doesn’t look down.

“We’re not—“ here to ruin anything, but perhaps they are; Inquisition, but obviously they are. He shuts his mouth, then tries again after a pause. “This is my brother,” he says, to Beleth and Kit, though he’s still watching his twin. “Nikos. Who I expected to be staying out of trouble.”

Beyond them all, the wagon and its accompanying human and elves keep advancing on the villa, though not in any apparent hurry.

"This is my brother, Nikos. Who I expected to be staying out of trouble."

"Hi," Kit says helpfully, still not entirely clear on what sort of inter-familial dilemma has decided to rear its head in the middle of their mission, but certain that it isn't going to get sorted out before Vintner carries out her objective.

"The wagon or the grate, then?" he asks Beleth, and then looks from Nikos to Kostos guardedly. "And is he helping us or what?"

There's a long moment of silence as Beleth closes her eyes, pinches the bridge of her nose, and takes a long, deep breath. "What if I had one mission go exactly as I planned?" It's more muttered than anything, though with everyone in close range, it probably wasn't too hard to pick it up. When she open her eyes, she shoots Kostos an irate look, like this is personally his fault.

The irate look is then turned to New Kostos--or Nikos, whatever--and finally, at the wagon ambling on its way. Only Kit is spared, as he is clearly innocent.

"Two groups. One takes the wagon, one takes the grate. We'll be harder to detect, and if one group gets in a bind, the other can help." Then, she turns to Nikos, arms crossed, tapping the arrow that had been pointed at him on her arm. "We're here to ruin someone's day, and if you tell us why you're here, we'll tell you if its yours--but let's walk and talk, we should take out the wagon before splitting up." With that, she steps over to the brush, and glances at the others, to gauge their opinions on the decision.

Trouble, a relative term, makes Nikos roll his eyes. The uncanny resemblance to Kostos continues. But then they are moving briskly along toward action, helping, and Nikos' face quickly rearranges into something more-- well, annoyed.

"You're not serious." He looks from Beleth to the wagon--and, then, when Beleth starts to move, steps to counter her path. "If that's your grand plan, then you really are here to ruin my day, and the day of a great many other people who have been waiting on their moment. We had word there was an assassin from the Inquisition sent to meddle with these affairs. I didn't realize it was many assassins. I'll assume that, with the richness of the Inquisition's resources, you know you are treading all over a situation that has already been planned for. And you just don't give a shit."

Beleth takes a step back when Nikos moves in front of her, looking incredibly affronted by this behavior. And it doesn't improve as he continues, her brows furrowing. She glances up at him, then at Kostos, then at the estate they had been planning on breaking into.

Well, this was awkward. Beleth doesn't like to tell people that the Inquisition's information is lacking in any scenario, and this scenario seems even worse than most. But there's nothing for it, she needs him to understand what's going on from their end--and she needs to understand his side, in turn.

She casts an anxious eye at the ever moving cart, than turns to Nikos, arms on her hips. "While I appreciate that you think so highly of our information, I'm afraid you have us at a disadvantage. We aren't the assassin--assassins?--and aren't trying to help her. We're here because..." She bites her lip for a moment, trying to decide just how much is safe to tell. Her default is 'as little as possible', but she needs to make sure Nikos understands.

"...We're dealing with an assassin whose orders were compromised. We're trying to stop her before she kills the wrong man, and gets half of Thedas going after us." She spreads her hands out, head cocked. "I don't want Guiomar del Lunar to be killed. If you're trying to stop her, than we have the same goal." Pause. "But we don't want her dead if it can be helped. She doesn't know she has the wrong man."

Midway through this exchange, Kostos finally stops staring at Nikos and instead looks out at the field. The wagon, the grate, two teams. Ahead of the wagon there's a low hill with an abandoned plow and some debris that might block the villa guards' view of the wagon long enough for a minor incident to befall it. If he'd brought a staff, he might have been able to manage a minor incident from here, but he didn't.

There's only so much time.

He stands up, or at least moves into a less-crouched kneel, and brushes the remaining ants off his forearm with his hand. If they'd been interrupted by anyone else, he wouldn't hesitate, and he doesn't think the other two would, either. It's only courtesy to him, and that means it's his job to convey that—short of not killing Nikos, please—that courtesy isn't necessary.

"You are coming with us" he says, "or you are staying here unconscious."

It's not Kit's call to choose who the Inquisition shares its intelligence with, but he does do a brief double-take when Beleth shares their plans with Nikos. (To describe his feelings on the matter as 'unsure' would be putting it mildly--but then again, it's not his burden to carry.)

He seems to have the same thoughts as Kostos, however, judging by how he places a hand on the hilt of one of his axes. He's got no intention of taking Nikos out at the kneecaps, but the haft of the weapons can (and have) deftly knocked people unconscious before.

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closed.

I. VINTNER'S ROOM

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II. GUIOMAR'S ESTATE

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