Crow Hunting | Intro OTA

[imbroccata]

WHO: Lino Nieri & YOU
WHAT: Recruitment of a Crow, ensuing insult and injury
WHEN: covering a span pre- and post-holiday
WHERE: Various
NOTES: Possibly some description of animal skinning, otherwise it’s mostly just introductions and bandit killing

I. Hunt a Killer

Whether by assignment or volunteering, you’ve taken on the task of tracking down a possible recruit. A Crow, more specifically. A task not many would find success in, if said Crow did not want to be found, but somebody who knows someone who heard from someone else says that a man with an Antivan accent has been seen in the Hinterlands, taking on small contracts and jobs from locals to deal with Venatori, slavers, fade-touched bears, and find missing persons.

Riftwatch intel, being as it is, suggests the possibility of this man being one Lino Nieri. Allegedly, a Crow in exile. Self-imposed, as the Crow way is to punish failure or transgression with death.

It is armed with this information that you happen upon his camp.

II. Kirkwall

[ Crowds. Lino hates crowds. The only good they serve is to hide what’s truly going on beneath a tide of chaos.

Case in point, Lino snatches up what appears to be just one of a group of children, running among the people and laughing, playing. He hoists the urchin by the collar and holds out his hand, receiving with reluctant grumbles the coin purse that had just been pinched from whichever unaware sod traipses beside him. ]

Watch yourself. [ Said simultaneously to the urchin and his companion before he releases the former and returns the coinage to the latter. ]

III. The Gallows

In the first days following his recruitment, Lino spends most of his time familiarizing himself with the layout of the Gallows. The armory, the courtyard and its defenses and weaknesses, the uses of the individual towers, he scrutinizes all with the look of a man planning fortifications. Attacks will come from there, the best vantage is here, exits in a pinch are here, here, and here...

When he is found in the library, however, that hypervigilance is seemingly refocused on memorizing the books and scrolls and where they belong. It’s a different kind of vigilance, one driven by a personal interest in knowledge for its own sake, perhaps.

IV. Wildcard

((take a sip, babes))

Comments

[exsecutus]

[But someone who gambles with shitty gamblers would inevitably have gambled with Kostos, who would have lost, and owed them a bloody great sum of money, so if they'd gotten their hands on a purse that was, apparently, his, they'd not have given it back in a hurry--

But. That was sudden. Nikos' expression shifts again, this time toward irritation. Good one, stranger.]

Let's find out. Do you happen to have a tasteless drink on you?

[imbroccata]

No. [ But that response kind of answers the question. ]

[exsecutus]

[Definitely an answer, and Nikos makes this expansive gesture to indicate as much.]

I exhausted my two guesses on how you night have met my brother. What was the real cause?

[imbroccata]

[ A wry twist to his mouth. ]

An ill-conceived attempt at recruitment. I had to put him in his place.

[exsecutus]

[Hm.

Well, dammit, now he's interested.]

Meaning?

[imbroccata]

[ Meaning your brother was an impudent fool and I broke his nose for it. ]

He didn't seem to think he needed to be forthcoming about Riftwatch's motivations. [ Not strictly true, since Lino knows what Riftwatch is about. He knows there's a war on, and in war there's always a need for assassins to try and gain the upper hand.

He also knows that if you're fighting a war, you draft soldiers, and pay assassins. ]

Or what was in it for me.

[exsecutus]

He didn't mention the stipend?

[Nikos clicks his tongue against his teeth, with a disappointed air.]

Probably because he thought he'd owe you a debt eventually. Didn't want you thinking he had anything to his name that could be squeezed out of him.

[Although.]

Think Riftwatch would be notorious by now. Even in small part. We're without Heralds of Andraste, or any heralds at all, but we might conscript a Harold at any moment. If that helps things. Otherwise rely on inspiration to recruit for our cause.

[imbroccata]

[ That was a terrible joke, and Lino's expression reflects the amount of appreciation he has for it: None. ]

Notorious enough, but I like hearing what people offer up as reasoning. Gives insight into how the cogs view the machine.

[exsecutus]

Hope you called him a cog.

[listen pal, it's your fault for even slightly endearing yourself by advance hating Kostos, idk what to tell you]

Idealism isn't a popular virtue. Fight is. People who stayed with Riftwatch when it split from the Inquisition did it because they thought their chances of accomplishing their work were better. What the work is can be difficult to say. Considering the whole outfit can't decide if it wants to act for true good, or as good as we can manage safely and diplomatically.

[And like, fuck that. Nikos turns his head (politely) and spits on the ground, to underscore that subtext.]

didn't. almost called him a cuck tho

[imbroccata]

[ As long as Riftwatch pays and isn't outbid, Lino doesn't really care whether they agree on their mission statement. ]

What would you have it be? [ He clearly isn't a fan of safely and diplomatically. ]

LOOK an insult's an insult that's still good

[exsecutus]

I would have it work for true good. For everyone, all people, by whatever means necessary and at whatever cost. There is trouble that goes beyond Corypheus and the threat posed by him and whenever anyone starts in about focusing on that threat and that threat alone--

[Ugh.]

Fucking short-sighted.

[imbroccata]

[ He frowns and glances sidelong at Nikos. A brief judgmental look that also kind of conveys Oh, I get it.]

So. You would rather Riftwatch's power be divided among multiple problems. [ It is a question, even if it doesn't sound like it. ] And those issues afforded the same importance as the darkspawn.

blows the dust off this sorry it was lost feel free to drop

[exsecutus]

I would rather we not act as if all the world's problems will be sewn up once the present threats have been dealt with. There are those among the members of Riftwatch who would deny any fault in current systems of government. Kissing the royal pricks to get favors and never worrying what warts they'll grow for their trouble.

Disagree?

[You arsedick, is the subtext.]

[imbroccata]

No.

[ No, he doesn't disagree. He doesn't agree either. ]

The world's problems will still be around after Corypheus is gone.

Or they'll be solved by way of mass extinction.

[exsecutus]

[His mouth twists into a scowl.]

I'd rather the second. If the choice is only between the two. If it's the first, the world will continue to ignore its problems. The only way to force confrontation of the issues is just that: confrontation. If we're sinking back into complacency, I'd rather be dead.

[imbroccata]

[ This man would either make an excellent assassin, or die within a day. It's hard to tell. ]

A "cut off the nose to spite the face" kinda guy, huh.

[exsecutus]

[Dryly:] A face can survive without a nose.

Why are you here?

[imbroccata]

I was just asking myself that same question.

[ In other words: bye, bitch. Lino somehow manages to disappear in the crowd milling about the street, leaving Nikos and his returned coin purse to their own devices. ]