Player Plot: Blue Gold

[keenly]

WHO: Colin, Cyril, Julius, Anders, and Barnabas.
WHAT: Colin's lyrium-dealing has drawn the ire of the Carta. His friends race to save him.
WHEN: Justinian 2
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: TWs for crime, hostage crud, everything to do with the Carta. Subtitle: "Sigh Hard."

You--

Your peddler friend came to the wrong city.

The game is over. The Carta is defending its territory. If you want your boy back, bring 500 sovereigns and his remaining lyrium to Lowtown as reparations for business lost by the Carta in the months he has been in Kirkwall. Not the stash in his store--we got that. Wherever the rest is, bring it to the cul-de-sac off the Blooming Rose in Hightown by dawn. Leave it in the barrel marked with a red X and go. If you linger afterward, you will be shot.

--"Len"

Comments

[samahl]

"I want to make sure Colin is okay. We can help him figure out a way to recover any losses, and it might be the best way to get him back in one piece, if that's at all possible."

He considers Julius and Anders, in case they have any say in the manner. "Is there any clue as to where the stash might be? It could be of use to us if we could figure it out."

[justice_is_blond]

"My priority is getting him back. I don't have a right to determine the shape of his life, what happens to his livelihood, but..." Anders exhales, reaching up to push some of his hair back from his face.

"Get him back alive, intact. If that requires him to not deal in lyrium again, so be it. Anything beyond alive and unharmed would be a welcome bonus, but it's only a bonus." It's not his life. It's not his call. But someone is going to have to make it, and if Colin is angry later he'll accept that anger. "As far as a stash, I've no idea, and I don't know that we have time to find it. They searched his store, he'd not have it at the Clinic, and I don't think he'd be foolish enough to have lyrium in his rooms in the Gallows. We'll have to offer him telling them where it is as part of the bargaining."

Better that Colin be out of the business, but he knows it helps Colin feel safe so he can't exactly begrudge the other mage this.

[fineriftercrafts]

Barnabas looks from face to face, his expression carefully impassive as he listens. "Alright. You want him back alive and unharmed, anything else is a bonus. Few more questions. How much money are you willing to spend? If you roll up with a wagon full of gold, the Carta's gonna hand him over right quick, no problem. If we don't have money...well that's hard mode."

Barnabas picks up the note again and reads it. "Second question. Does this stash of lyrium even exist? You best hope it does, cause if it dosn't? The carta will not believe you and will show you how serious they're taking this. If they get even the suggestion that you're not playing straight with them, they will quietly leave, and start mailing you pieces. For a very long time, and they won't start with vital pieces."

Barnabas puts down the note and looks over the gathered group. "I am worried that you think this will end well. All is forgiven, everything back to normal. The best case scenario that I can see? A huge amount of money gets paid, and you get him back and he dosn't owe the Carta anything. Thank the Paragons he didn't try to publish anything. If we were dealing with the Coterie, I'd say no way to helping you."

[overharrowed]

Julius shakes his head, but says, "Is there something other than cash that might get us anywhere? Favors or contacts? We're not representing the Inquisition, and speaking for myself... I didn't own anything prior to about three years ago, let alone Carta-appeasing amounts of coin."

He's never even seen a wagon full of gold. He deeply does not want to owe the Carta a favor, but on the other hand, he doesn't even know who he would ask for that much ready cash.

"I can't speak to the lyrium. I didn't know he was even dealing in it before today." So... it could exist, but if they're just hunting for it, the odds of finding it before dawn are slim at best.

[samahl]

"I could get coin, but it would take time and we don't have that," Cyril admits. He feels like this is probably going to end poorly but he doesn't want to give up on Colin just yet.

He likes the idea of trying some other form of payment, but he also isn't exactly sure what that would mean. It's not like they can use the Inquisition to leverage anything without approval, and approval takes time as well.