[closed] player plot: the making of a villain

[ebeje]

WHO: Max, Kitty, Nikos, Loki, Hanzo
WHAT: Breaking and entering
WHEN: Now
WHERE: Minrathous
NOTES: Slavery cw, blood magic likely. Top-levels to be added as we go.

Comments

ooc notes wrap-up: the ex-lover of my ex-lover's lover is my friend??

[ebeje]

MAIN TAKEAWAYS

• Woodes Rogers' wife Severina is real, real mad about her husband's recent affair and subsequent pursuit of an annulment
  
• She's consequently using her family's greater social and financial capital to convince Rogers' debtors (from all the loans he took out to finance conquering Nascere) to call in his debts in as soon as their finances are legally separated, while he's still broke
  
• The ledger they recovered theoretically documents who his debtors are, but deciphering them and figuring out which were far enough from Minrathous to still be potential allies (or who else might benefit from undercutting him) may take some time, and also Max probs had to burn this when she was caught, so what makes it back to Kirkwall will be limited to what she managed to memorize
  
• They also discovered a hidden cache of letters written in code, which are a year or two old but definitely Venatori, and could prove to be a valuable source of information if any of it is legible after Nikos's dunk in the ocean.

CLOSET DISCOVERIES

• Rogers' wife definitely just shoved all his things in there after the affair came to light
  
• Including their marriage bed, a wedding portrait she knifed a bit, and all his pre-planning notes for taking over Nascere
  
• The notes for Nascere include mention of his plan to offer the pirates (who surrendered to him) full pardons, what a nice guy
  
• In his dumped-out desk drawers was a circular pendant with some magical residue
  
• The fact that his wife just dumped it in there suggests she didn't know what it was for and therefore may not have been involved in his Venatori dealings (although who knows where her loyalties will lie now that Corypheus is Right There)

LIBRARY DISCOVERIES

• Rogers' books give the overall impression of a learned man with an interest in the practical application of social theory, someone with a lot of pride in Tevinter and a perhaps remarkable amount of optimism for its future, once.
  
• Their shared library includes a fair amount of adventure stories and Tevene poetry, showing less dust and the occasional comment in the margins in Severina's hand
  
• Among the least recently touched books (so, Woodes', rather than his wife's) are some exploratory works on social change, none quite so radical as to offend polite company, but enough to suggest Rogers' Tevene pride didn't stem from an entirely uncritical view of the empire, but from a belief in its potential
  
• Severina is using extra copies of his autobiography as kindling out of spite, and had written some snippy commentary in the margins of the copy she actually read. Particular attention is paid to the bullshit chapter about the death of Rogers's brother and subsequent pirate battle, though she questions more than clarifies its accuracy. There's a sense that Rogers changed after that event, or perhaps she simply saw a new side of him that she didn't want to be married to.

STUDY DISCOVERIES

• Apart from the ledger discussed above, the desk contains a number of letters to (and a few from) the lady of the house, documenting her efforts to royally fuck over her husband's finances upon their separation
  
• The warning symbol Nikos found carved in the side of the desk draws attention to a more neatly carved rivulet in the desktop, which, were one to drip a liquid into it, would cause the liquid to pool at a circular point in the shape of the pendant from the closet.
  
• Applying the pendant and energizing it (with blood or regular magic) opens a secret compartment in the desk, containing the Venatori correspondence discussed above.
  
• Apart from the letters, there is a very old book of maratime magic written in Tevene, unfortunately too fragile to steal, but which includes a creased-from-use chapter on the best ways to increase the speed and maneuverability of a ship through the application of blood magic to the hull. Directly. There are illustrations, you're welcome.