LOG: Scoring an Own Goal(em) [closed]

[stone_blind]

WHO: Astrid, Clarisse, Hermione, Katia, and Vaclav
WHAT: Carefully extracting a piece of Minrathous' defenses, WITH EXPLOSIONS.
WHEN: Toward the end of the mod plot timespan
WHERE: Minrathous
NOTES: OOC post for reference.

Standing at the gates of Minrathous are two fearsome stone golems. These beings, gifts from dwarven craftsmen generations back, are guardians of the city; their intimidating presence has done much to dissuade would-be invaders from ever attempting to break through the city’s walls. One Juggernaut, truly, would be enough to crush a good-sized army, while two make defeat all but certain.

But the thing about a golem is that it’s only loyal to one person: whoever’s holding its control rod. And a control rod’s just a thing. It can be stolen.

So that’s what they’re here to do.

This plan was not hatched by Riftwatchers themselves. Rather, it’s come from two descendants of those very same dwarves who once gave Minrathous its terrifying protection. The first, Vaclav, is a well-dressed and well-bearded Ambassadoria member who elbowed his way into contact with Astrid and Riftwatch in turn to lay out a proposal like he was proposing a trade of eggs for tomatoes. And the second, Vaclav’s near-opposite, is Katia, a wary young woman in nondescript clothing, who keeps her hand on her knife and speaks with few words. The two of them seem not to know each other well — but nor do they seem all that keen on sharing details of their relationship with Riftwatch’s representatives.

This is a two-pronged operation. Vaclav, Hermione, and Astrid will be carrying out the theft and replacing the golems’ control rods with decoys. But opening the vault where the control rods are held will set off a building-wide alarm, and it’s imperative that no one ever knows the control rods were touched. And so this is where the second team comes in — Clarisse and Katia will be leading an attack on the treasury chamber on the other end of the building. This attack will be very public, so that the alarm sounds and draws all attention, giving the first team a chance to do their business undetected.

Comments

ACTION TEAM

[stone_blind]

The team of thieves goes into the building first. The distraction team has to wait for their signal. This is unfortunate, because it's clear that nearly no one on said team is good at waiting: Katia is perched on a bench, tearing a sweet bun into progressively smaller pieces, while Georg (a human man in his early twenties) keeps smoothing down his wispy mustache and Cato (an elf with a general air of droopiness) stares at the door they'll be going through shortly.

"You're not going to make it any thicker like that," Katia finally snaps at Georg, after the hundredth time he runs his fingertips over his facial hair. "Honestly, you're probably yanking half of it out."

Then Katia looks to Clarisse with a grimace, apparently of apology. Unclear, though, if she's apologizing for her sharpness or for her companions.

SNEAK TEAM

[footholds]

Eirene Caerularia has only been in her position for a few months. Judging by the rapidity with which the government has gone through her predecessors in previous years, she might only be in it for a few more. But Vaclav knew her years before she had anything to do with Minrathous' security. They are—if you want to be crass about it—friends. Maybe that makes this cruel, or sad, or something.

But Vaclav's shown no hesitation. No glimmer of regret. Eirene now sits at the desk in front of the door to the chamber where the control rods, among other things, are kept. That leaves only her and her two guardsmen between them and their target. When the ruckus starts, they'll leave; Vaclav has predicted this quite confidently because it's happened before.

He introduces Hermione and Astrid as Helena and Antonia—

it's fine, Eirene doesn't know an Avvar-sounding name from an aardvark

—a Free Marcher landowner sitting on top of a good, untapped vein of lyrium and her bodyguard, respectively. Why would Orzammar need to direct Tevinter toward sources of lyrium aside from their own well-oiled operations? Don't worry about it. (But it starts with r and ends with ed lyrium.)

After he and Eirene have spent some time chatting as if the two women aren't even there, Eirene turns to Hermione/Helena to ask, "What is it, farmland? Pasture? Do you have people living on it?"