CLOSED | Minrathous Rescue Operation

[faderifting]

WHO: Team 1 (Coupe, Benedict, Colin, Malcolm, Nikos, Six, Yseult), Team 2 (Anders, Arohaerd, Marcoulf, Myr) and Captives (Adalia, Gareth, Inessa, Kain, Max)
WHAT: Rescuing the captives
WHEN: Nowish
WHERE: Minrathous, Tevinter
NOTES: Probably violence? It is what it says on the tin idk

Below is an OOC overview of the entire plan as a whole, including both the parts that Team 1 planned in their discussion, and an explanation of a couple unexpected obstacles the teams will encounter along the way. We're providing this rundown to help make sure everyone's on the same page OOC about what the plan is, who's been assigned to do what, what order things are happening in, and the big picture of how it goes, while hopefully still leaving plenty of room for people to decide in RP the details of how specific tasks are accomplished. We have again provided a question comment at the top for any OOC questions related to this post.



Preliminary orders from Coupe:

• Team 1 is led by Coupe, Team 2 is led by Anders
  
• To minimize the risk of crystals falling into enemy hands, only a few will be brought. On Team 1, Wren will have one, along with Nikos and Malcolm. They can be passed between characters IC if needed. Team 2 will have a single crystal. Everyone will have strict orders to destroy the crystals if there seems to be a chance it might be captured.
  
• All members of Team 1 would be issued a vial with a very small amount of the Archon's blood, to be used to enter and exit the secret passages. Because the amount is very limited, they each must be careful to limit their comings and goings, and may have to share vials if someone runs out.
  
• Malcolm, Nikos, and Yseult would have received orders from Coupe to kill the Inquisition captives if they cannot be extracted. The others would not be informed of this.
  
• In general, the teams will have been reminded that the one and only goal of this mission is to get the captives out. They're not here to carve a path of wholesale slaughter but they're also not here to worry about the lives of those who get in the way of that mission. Do what needs to be done, no more and no less.

Members of both Team 1 and Team 2 will be smuggled into Tevinter by sea, and dropped off on the peninsula north of Minrathous. They'll have to sneakily hike to the catacomb entrance in the High Reaches and then travel underground into the city. This will require clearing an intentionally blocked passage between the natural caves and the city catacombs, and being very careful once beneath the city to identify and avoid magical alarm spells.

Once beneath the palace, the teams will split up. Team 2 will continue on to the point beneath the tower they intend to collapse, and will remain underground making preparations to blow the underground supports beneath the tower as soon as word comes. Their job will involve waiting a while and hiding from the occasional patrol, the last of which will arrive at an unfortunate moment and need to be taken captive or killed. They'll also be spied upon by a couple young catacomb-dwelling urchins, who seem too shifty to be trusted to keep their mouths shut even if paid. They'll likewise need to be captured or killed.

Team 1 will sneak up into the palace, emerging in a rarely-used back storeroom. Some will be disguised as servants, others as party goers, but they will discover on arrival (via overhearing a convenient conversation between passing kitchen staff) that the new Archon has issued an eccentric last-minute decree: all guests at his event will wear his two favorite colors: orange and green. This will require the team to get their hands on new disguises ASAP, most likely by bribing servants to steal their masters' clothing for them or to give up their own, or by choosing soft targets among those in attendance who can be quickly lured away from the group and robbed of their clothes.

Once the team is properly (if unflatteringly) outfitted, they'll join the party. Malcolm and Yseult will identify and target the two Head Guards, with Malcolm handling the one with the lyrium tattooed hand (who proves to be a mage), and Yseult acquiring the enchanted key. Colin, Benedict, and Wren will mingle among those in attendance in their roles either as servers or guests and gather information while keeping an eye out for unexpected threats. Six and Nikos will test whether the archon's blood can open the secret passage doors. It can, and Nikos will head into the passages to pursue his secret assassination mission.

Once the key and the dude with the hand have been obtained, Malcolm, Yseult, Six, and Colin will head down into the dungeons, handle the guards there, and open the door to the Special Prisoners section. Because of earlier delays in the catacombs, the passage out of the dungeon will by now be starting to fill with seawater. They'll find the Inquisition prisoners (Inessa and Max held separately from the rest) along with a handful of other prisoners. They'll get their own people free and decide whether to free the others or not. Benedict and Wren will either join them or remain at the party as lookouts.

Nikos, in his exploration, will have discovered two things: first, that the secret passages are not unused as Radonis had expected, which he'll discover when he encounters someone exiting the new Archon's bedroom into the passages. Second, the archon's bedroom is roomy and now empty and likely to remain that way since the Archon is off giving a speech, so it provides a good spot for the team to regroup and prepare for the escape.

The dungeon team and the rescued captives will be forced to swim through the last two chambers on their way out of the dungeon, with the final chamber entirely filled by the time they get to it, and extremely dark. Anyone who can't swim well will have to be ferried through by those who can. The nearest exit from the submerged room is the gate into the secret passages, which will need to be unlocked with both the Archon's blood and a normal key or lockpick before anyone can get out.

Once they've all made their soggy way into the passages, everyone will meet in the Archon's apartment, where they'll have to regroup and figure out how to either look less soaking wet or explain why they are + disguise the prisoners. Everyone will then head back into the secret passages and exit at various points throughout the palace in twos and threes to avoid drawing attention by traveling as a big group. At this point, Team 2 will be ordered via crystal to trigger the explosion.

When the ground shakes and the tower suddenly begins to collapse, the party crowd will, as predicted, freak the hell out and run for the exits, forcing their way past the confused guard. The team will blend in with the fleeing guests and slip out, hijack a noble's big fancy gondola, and make their escape.

Team 2 will have to book it through the catacombs as that section collapses, and make their way to a cliffside exit along the coast identified by the Archon, where the gondola will pick them up. They'll then all sail this boat further across open water and carrying a much heavier load than it's really built for to the smuggler's cove where they were dropped off, where they'll scuttle the gondola, get picked up, and sail back to Kirkwall. Mission accomplished, good job team, etc.

Comments

[swordproof]

"I do not think it is my posture that will give me away," Six replies, voice low and a touch harsh. She knows how out of place she seems, she knows that she looks near enough ridiculous, dressed up and acting as though she belongs here. Her discomfort is plastered all over her face and every time she sees an elf acting as a slave she thinks of her sister and something twists in her stomach.

She might not have any love for elves, but no one deserves to be treated like this.

Sighing, she turns back to look at Benedict, obviously uncomfortable but doing her best.

"How should I stand?"

[altusimperius]

Maybe she knows, but she has to try! It can't be that hard if even Hanzo can manage it.
"Like this," Benedict replies, coming to stand beside her, straightening his back and pressing lightly against Six's to indicate where she should shift. "Hold your head up. If you're worried about being caught out, just look over people instead of at them. They love that." In the way that they hate it and talk shit, but it'll be enough to get them through the evening.

[swordproof]

When fingers brush against her back she tenses immediately, her eyes flickering for a moment before she purses her lips. It's not something she can control, particularly, but she takes a deep breath and tries to force the tension to go away from her, to relax and settle down into a proper posture. She thinks, quietly to herself, that Adalia would be able to manage this; Adalia is capable of doing so many things that Six knows she herself cannot.

"That will not be a problem," which is, of course, a reference to her height. There aren't that many people here that she wouldn't be able to look over, considering. Reaching down, she tugs idly at her clothes, trying to make them fit more comfortably, if not in the style they're supposed to be in. "... Thank you. I have not done this before."

[altusimperius]

"Relax," Benedict sighs, with a twitch of a smirk, "you're not my type." He steps around her then, reaching to carefully touch her chin with one finger and tip it upwards. "There," he muses, taking a few steps back. "Just try to hold that, and imagine you're more important than everyone in the room. That they're dying for you to notice them. But you won't." His smirk grows. "...at least, everyone but me." It's hard to tell if he's joking or not.

[swordproof]

There's a moment where all Six can do is stare at him, baffled. She doesn't quite grasp what he means until she does, and then there's a moment where her cheeks go a little bit pink. It makes her look younger than her usual stern gaze does, shaving the years off and reminding her that, at heart, she is just a girl - a woman, really, and the awkwardness of something like this isn't something she can pretend to ignore.

"I was not concerned," she admits, forcing her eyes to look elsewhere as he touches her chin. No one had shown any interest in her since Adrian, so it's not as if she was expecting it or asking for it either. It's even stranger considering she's not looking down at him when she finally manages to get herself together to turn her eyes back. "Who would want me to notice them? I am not important here. What would I have?"

[altusimperius]

She's precious. It's like playing with a tall and sort of frightening doll.
"Did you ever play pretend, as a child?" Bene asks, helplessly amused by Six's weirdness, "like you were someone or something else, for a game?"

[swordproof]

"... Yes."

She can remember it. There were many times, before she was old enough to grab at her sword and run for the guards for training, where she had hidden under her bed, hoping not to be found, and closed her eyes and imagined what it might be if she had been with her mother, instead of her father. Sometimes she imagined being a blacksmith's daughter, or even a farmer's girl. Anything would have been better, she thinks, than what she had been.

"I do not think that those pretend games would work here." No farmer or blacksmith would be allowed in a formal Tevinter gathering, after all.

[altusimperius]

Benedict can see how her face changes, but the shift isn't meaningful to him; the girl seems overall nervous and shy, so perhaps he struck a cord, but can't imagine what it would be. At least she answered in the affirmative.

"That's not the point," he insists, "you're just pretending to be someone from Tevinter. Play-acting. Maybe you're from a family farther away in the Imperium, not Minrathous, since nobody would know you, and you're obviously not from the Magisterium." He taps his chin, pacing away to look out the nearest window, thinking. "What's something you know a lot about?"

[swordproof]

At least he does not press her on it - Six is thankful for that. Memories of home, of her childhood, are a heavy enough burden without having to speak them aloud. No one has heard it from her lips and no one ever will... Not unless her sister somehow discovers it. How could she, though, when they are worlds away from home?

"I -" She frowns, pursing her lips, arms crossing over her chest awkwardly. "I know a great deal about weaponry, though I favour the greatsword. I know about animals. I had magic, once, but it has been taken from me." Her head tilts as she watches him, curious about... Everything, but not being sure what to ask. "I do not think much of that fits with Tevinter."

[altusimperius]

He shakes his head at her. "Of course it does." Turning from the window, Benedict smiles, clearly satisfied by his own cleverness. "If anyone asks where you're from and what you do, you're from Vyrantium, the daughter a family of wealthy arms merchants that specializes in broadswords."
Holding out his hands in a 'tadaa' gesture, Bene grins. "I assume you can talk about swords long enough to excuse yourself for a glass of wine and get back to work."

[swordproof]

There had been a part of her that had thought, somehow, that Tevinter was all mages and magic and her sword would have little place. She hadn’t been prepared for there to be a place for her, even one that is false, and already she feels a sense of comfort from it. It was much like pretending to be a Chantry sister. She had a story, now, and it was easier to feel comforted with something to fall back on.

“I am from Vyrantium. My family has excelled in their trade of broadswords - I have my own, of course, that was commissioned for my hand.” She tries to sound as though she means it and she thinks she sounds a little more confident now, even if her face isn’t really changing. “I know enough to be passable. My training was good but not formal.”

[altusimperius]

At this, Benedict positively lights up.
"Good, that's it!" he beams, "see? Not so hard, is it?" Coming back from the window, he curves his arm and holds it out to Six, inviting her to return to the ballroom with him. "You'll be fine."

[swordproof]

Not so hard, he says, and Six almost laughs. It’s likely a good thing that she is naturally intimidating otherwise none of this would work.

Moving forward, she hesitates at his side, glancing st his arm. She knows that he is from this place - what would it mean, to come out on his arm? She might be ignorant to some things, but she recognises that this might have an impact on how she’s viewed. Perhaps it will not matter.

“Thank you, for your guidance and your confidence.”

[altusimperius]

Whatever the case of walking out together, Bene doesn't seem bothered by it. He's well-known to this crowd, and it's hardly uncommon for him to see with a different girl on his arm at every party, even every hour. He's got an image to maintain, after all.

"Don't mention it," he says with a charming grin, waving his hand in dismissal. If it helps them stave off getting killed a little longer, it'll have been worth it.