closed.

[exequy]

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.

Comments

I. VINTNER'S ROOM

[exequy]

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. ]

[arlathvhen]

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.

[ragweed]

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."

[exequy]

“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.”

[arlathvhen]

“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.