Talk:Mission 5: Ransom for the Impious

From The Whereabouts

How difficult would it be to disguise the Geronimo as a Haslanti vessel, or at least a commercial vessel that frequents the area? Kirkland 22:58, 8 June 2010 (EDT)

My guess would be not impossible but not easy to disguise it as a Haslanti vessel. That would depend pretty heavily on Dan's feelings on how unique each Hastlani vessel is. The Geronimo isn't significantly larger or made of magic metal and it does have a balloon (that at least appears to function similar to a Hastlanti vessel), but it might still be very tough to pull off. Some additional information that we have on their ships would be solid. Wonder of a Lost Age stats both types of their ships, but doesn't describe how different or unique they are in appearance. Also is The Cicada a variety of one of these ships? Is it some sort of flagship or first-age vessel? Obviously if its carrying our target we can expect it to be armed to the teeth and guarded by other ships as well, but I was curious if there was anything about the particular ship that we'd know ahead of time? We might be able to convince them that it is a foreign Air Ship, but these are incredibly rare and might arouse suspicion all by itself(The Hastlanti League, Lookshy, and The Realm are the only people known to have Air Ships). It should also be noted that the book talks about how the fleet is stretched woefully thin, its very possible that we could slip into Hastlanti territory unnoticed with some good piloting, but chances are that our movement could be semi restricted.

The Grandmothers could be an interesting source of information, but they could also be a dangerous one. They run the most wide-spread intelligence network in the north and it baffles both The Realm and Lookshy. The old ladies certainly know what they're doing, though if we were half honest with them we might be able to trick them. The Grass Spiders do strictly forbid harming people not involved in a hit, as a result they may have no problem letting us operate within their territory. Until they realize of course that for this mission that rule is being waved to at least some extent. I think they should be a secondary source of info only if we need it.

The Gala for visiting traders seems like our best approach at getting some solid info and maybe even having an outside shot at getting what we need. Having two teams for the night of the gala might work. One team to enter the gala socially and find out as much as they can, possibly having one or more members slip out of the public setting to explore while others remain in the public eye.

  • My thought would be to have Ash, Fay, and Zealot go to the gala publicly and go as Guild Traders. Zealot would probably be disguised as an aid or assistant of some type to keep attention away from him as well as keep him from being put in an overly public spotlight. Hopefully this would allow Ash and Fay to find out what info they can on a public level while Zealot is mostly left alone and could slip away and try to infiltrate what he can from the inside. This should probably be done with extreme caution as he will be alone for the most part.
  • Meanwhile, Opal and Mesa could attempt some sort of infiltration from the outside. Certainly the treasury has more than one entrance, or another one could be made that would lead them down to the vault where it might be stored. Furthermore, I would guess that the catacombs under the treasury run to several other places throughout the city. It may be possible to enter from someplace receiving slightly less attention, like a city hall or something, and then move through the catacombs to the treasury vault.
  • It would be ideal if this group could somehow meet with Zealot as he infiltrated from within. Not sure how possible either infiltration attempt will be though. Most likely we'll have to pull out that night and plan to go after the Thousand-Winged Crane another night/time based off what info we collect.

Actually blowing up the treasury and doing a smash and grab might be the most direct route, but I'm thinking that may draw more attention than we want. I know it would be within our mission parameters with the any means necessary clause for this mission. But still, it will likely draw the very angry attention of the entire Hastlanti League, The Infernal Exalt writing it, as well as any Sidereal's operating in the area. Might make the escape more than a little tough, though The Geronimo is likely the faster than the ships in the Hastlani Fleet. I would say this should be left a distant back-up plan at best.

What do you guys think? --FyreFly 17:59, 9 June 2010 (EDT)

To serve as a contribution from the characters I control, they would agree with this plan. Having Mesa infiltrate with Opal allows the secondary infiltration team to make a social bridge that will allow them to rendezvous with Zealot. Fay, Zealot, and Ash will enter the party as guests, and simultaneously, Opal and Mesa will ninja their way in to the staff section of the treasury. We set it up this way so we have a social person and a decent fighter in each crew. Once in the staff section, Opal will stay in the shadows and start poking around, looking for an entrance to the vault. In the meantime, Mesa will knock out or kill a staff member out of view and take on their appearance, then he'll tell gala's staff manager he's a last minute replacement for the guy he took out.

From there, Mesa will start working his way to the ball room the gala is held in. He'll plan to meet up with Zealot, who will know Mesa's location thanks to the Sworn Brother's Oath. He'll let Zealot into the back covertly, so he's got the chance to sneak around and possibly we meet up with Opal. Someone might suggest that we have Zealot and Opal just sneak in the back together, but I maintain that setting it up with Mesa + Opal is better in and out of character, since they're both NPCs, but also because either team may run into physical or social resistance on their way in. Fay and Ash will continue to milk the ballroom for information about the text. They should target treasury staff members, particularly high ranking ones who will be aware of the vault's contents - it would be key to know when guard shifts change and how often things are taken into/out of the vault. Once Mesa lets Zealot into the staff section, he'll mingle between the two crews and help where needed. Zealot will head to the vault area and verify the Broken-Winged Crane is inside - be creative. In the meantime, Opal will be searching the catacombs for alternative entrances - Tony is correct in suggesting there are probably tunnels elsewhere in the city (The Grandmothers would certainly know of these as well). If Zealot feels he can get the book on the spot, go for it, but I think Tony is also correct in proposing that we'll probably have to do the actual heist another night, likely with a more concentrated party. Our plan on the night of the gala will be to slip out separately and rendezvous in our hotel.

Actually slipping into Haslanti territory from the southern direction shouldn't be too much of a problem - the only place the fleet is concentrated at all is the tradeways between Icehome and Crystal, which run roughly north of Icehome. Regarding our approach into the city, the first-class Haslanti vessels are pretty unique, but the two-hundred some second-class ships are rather generic. How we want to handle this issue depends on our approach. I do think we would do well to have the Geronimo in the city so that we can make a quick escape if we have to. We can do this one of two ways - we can try to disguise as a second-class Haslanti air boat or we can attempt to say we're foreign traders. Air ships are extremely rare in this case, so that means we'd probably have to say we're from Lookshy or the Realm to avoid drawing immense suspicion, and even in this case, we'll probably be referred to as "The folks with the air ship". Our alternative is trying to make it look inconspicuous, like a Haslanti vessel - this is probably easier socially, since we won't have to explain its presence, but perhaps riskier - if any naval officers take stock of the ships in port, this might turn into a big deal; airships are a rare commodity, so if one disappears or appears out of nowhere, it gets noticed. I think Opal and Mesa favor being honest about the ship not being Haslanti and trying to say it belongs to us and that we're exotic traders.

The Cicada is the flagship of the commerce fleet - it is a custom-built First-Age vessel with unmistakable decorations on its front section. We know that it was sold to the Haslanti by mysterious traders who claimed to be from "The south. Way down south." Those of us in the know highly suspect that this ship has a less-than-savory history and suspect it may still be involved in foul play, especially considering rumors that it is transporting the Broken-Winged Crane. It is not known to be particularly well-armed itself (i.e. its standard airboat machine guns are hidden), but it is guarded by two second-class vessels (the Ice Phoenix and the Snow Dragon) which have been specially armed for ship-to-ship combat - visible armament on these vessels includes a lightning ballast and medium implosion mounted blow mounted where the cargo deck would normally be. The Ice Phoenix and Snow Dragon are true air boats, and the Geronimo could easily outrun them if need be. The Cicada has a balloon, but Ash knows enough about airships to recognize that it probably doesn't need it, and likely has an overdrive mode itself. That said, Ash completely respects the captain's choice to fly with the balloon intact. The Grass-Spiders' Haslanti contacts reported that even naval officers seemed to know very little about these three vessels - although they are technically in command of them, the loading and piloting of the ship is handled privately by a company of merchants who uses the vessels to ferry goods between Icehome and Crystal. Further investigation into the merchant company's background was met with tight lips and "strong caution" to not pry any deeper. Our agents were advised by Anton not to press their luck.

Dan 17:21, 11 June 2010 (EDT)

My quick thoughts are that the plan looks like a good place to start. Leaves plenty of flexibility. (Does probably make this a 2 session run unless we can get it at the gala though. No biggy there.) Also thought that the best route would be for us to disguise The Geronimo as an Ice Boat. Moon has enough craft to pull it off, and what can be pre-made could have been made by Oak. (Who would love the opportunity to create a unique disguise for an airship. Who else does that?) We could then be a trading crew that doesn't draw too much attention. Ash is a native northerner so we should have no problem convincing them of that.

Also worth noting is that Ash's normally semi empty cargo bay. (Keeping about 5 of 25 tons stocked normally) He has filled it quite a bit more expecting this mission to require more abnormal or hard to obtain ingredients. Probably 15 tons of the cargo bay is filled for the mission with a much wider array of items. If there is anything specific you'd like to add, feel free to do so. --FyreFly 18:40, 11 June 2010 (EDT)

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