Session Play (12): Laying the Groundwork

Character Summaries

Zealot

Day 1

After arriving in Nexus and getting set up at Mesa's Cinnabar residence, Zealot was tasked with carrying out reconnaissance on Aleena Fortright's airship, the Cicada, which was docked at her elaborate residence. On his first pass, carried out the first night of their stay, Zealot made use of his recently acquired and overwhelmingly powerful teleportation device. Using the shadows themselves as portals, Zealot perched himself on one of the Cicada's many ornate fins and then employed the Eight-Legged Harvest Promenade style to crawl along the ship's hull and peer in its windows. He discovered that the ship was loaded with high-grade weaponry, summoned demons including Neomah and Blood-Apes, and a number of flesh-crafted mortals. In particular, Zealot noted that one man's appearance was altered by Neomah to appear as a long, brown-haired man of somewhat athletic build. Zealot later witnessed the Neomah ordering the man to read passages from a variety of book's in the ship's sizable library. Zealot reported back to the group and they crafted the next step of their game plan. He also observed a woman, whose description did not match Aleena Fortwright, sitting in the ship's elaborate uppermost chambers along with a large, black panther and a book with handwriting matching the handwriting found in the book stolen by the Grass-Spiders during Mission 5 (The Broken-Winged Crane).

Day 2

Zealot and the One-Eyed Queen of Silk and Lace teamed up to determine if Aleena Fortwright was, in fact, the same woman that Zealot saw on the Cicada. To do this, the One-Eyed Queen went to the Council offices in the Nexus district, while Zealot returned to the airship. Queen reported to Zealot that Aleena was, in fact, at the Council offices. At the same time, Zealot,who repeated his approach from the previous night to sneak onto the ship, heard the woman moving around in her upper chambers; this suggested to the group that Aleena and this woman were, in fact, not the same person. This led to speculation on the Circe's behalf that perhaps Aleena is a mortal under the sway of the woman on the Cicada, who the group judged likely to be a Celestial Exalt. The Cicada began to depart from Aleena's residence with Zealot on board. Deciding to literally see where the wind took him, Zealot stayed on board, but decided to get a better hiding spot. He attempted to jump to the ship's massive, spinning rear sails. Although he missed, the Eight-Legged Harvest Promenade again came in handy, as Zealot was able to shoot a line of Essence webbing to catch the axle he intended to jump to. From there, he easily attained his perch and stayed hidden in the ship's sails for the rest of the journey. Zealot rode along as the Cicada picked up Aleena and gray-haired, armored man at the Council offices. From there, they departed out over the Yellow River, traveling an hour upstream before a rendezvous with two Haslanti airships. Zealot ventured from his hiding spot to eavesdrop on their conversation and witnessed a transfer of arms and equipment to the Haslanti ships. The gray-haired man left with the ship. Following the deal, the ship returned to the Council offices, where the ship stayed docked until Aleena had finished her work there for the day. After that, Aleena returned to her residence using her airship, and then entered her residence for the night. Zealot stayed on the docked airship for several hours and did not note any activity by the woman who was allegedly controlling Aleena. Finally, he returned to Mesa's residence in Cinnabar that night.

Ash

Day 1

Ash and Mesa devised a plan to handle Garis Ling, which consisted of Ash winging a hastily crafted cover story as an importer/exporter who needed the protection of the Hooded Executioners and wanted to arrange the deal through Garis. At the same time, Mesa would set up a public performance which would be the precursor of a riot. Other than his scheming, Ash didn't have any work to do the first night. Ash spent most of the mission's first night drinking the time away with Mesa and Opal.

Day 2

Ash and the One-Eyed Queen, who was working with Zealot, departed for the Nexus district for some reconnaissance. Although Ash somewhat brazenly approached Garis's aides and requested a meeting with the Councilor, his ineffable social skills and flawless demeanor carried him through once again, and Garis's aide arranged a meeting six days later at Garis's Sentinel Hill office. Ash instructed the aide to deliver any relevant messages to an "associate" who would be staying at hotel in Sentinel Hill near the Immaculate Shrine where Mesa intended to stage his concert. Ash booked a hotel room in Sentinel Hill under the associates name before calling it a day.

Fay

Day 1

With Ash and Mesa handling Garis and Zealot scouting out Aleena's residence, Fay was tasked with initial recon relevant to Oron Hazaki. As Oron was the most withdrawn of the three Councilors, Fay turned to Cleland Pike ((ST Note: I decided it would be easier to give this guy a name, although we didn't name him during the session)), a casino owner whom Fay had scammed and robbed in the past. Pike was so impressed with the job Fay did that he later befriended her and continues to serve as a valuable source of information about Nexus's movers and shakers. Pike is privy to such information because he is the owner of an upscale casino frequented by Guild directors and Councilors. Pike confirmed much of the hearsay about Oron's recent dealings and also agreed to set Fay up with one of Oron's bookies the next evening. After her meeting with Pike, Fay gambled for a few hours before heading back to Cinnabar.

Day 2

Fay relaxed during the morning, but when evening came, she set out for Cleland Pike's casino once again. There, Pike saw to it that Oron's bookie and Fay ended up at the same card table. Once both of them were seated the bookie's identity was apparent, Fay introduced herself as an investor hoping to gain inside information about the Council's activities. The bookie, who introduced himself as a man named Tom Onion, was tight-lipped at first, but a few deliberate and lucrative folds on Fay's behalf loosened Tom's attitude. Tom revealed that Oron and Aleena are involved in more than just an affair - Aleena is selling surplus Seventh-Legion weaponry to Haslanti mercenaries, and she's using shipping lanes owned by Oron Hazaki to do so, thereby putting money in Hazaki's pocket as well. As the night and the drinking wore on, card-playing devolved into flirtatious banter and Fay decided to be receptive to Tom's advance. After bedding him, Tom revealed that Aleena's aides have been refusing to let Oron and his staff get involved with any of the deals. He also noted that the Haslanti mercenaries appeared to also be receving other surplus Seventh Legion military goods, including tents and flags. After Tom fell asleep, Fay searched his house. The only thing of interest was a stack of papers which appeared to be Tom's attempt at deciphering what exactly Aleena was selling to the mercenaries, when, and for how much. Fay copied it and left. After leaving Tom's apartment, she paid a middle-of-the-night visit to Oron's fifth-floor penthouse in Nexus. Although she easily picked the elaborate lock on his back door, Oron's guard dogs picked up her scent, and immediately began barking at her entrance. Fay immediately ran to a hiding spot, noting the appearance of a lit candle in one of the penthouse bedrooms. A man with long brown hair and an athletic build emerged onto Oron's back patio and quickly spotted Fay, alerting the building's guards of her presence. The guards gave chase, although Fay easily outran them and slipped into the night crowds of the Nexus district before making her way home.

Pre-Session Play

This is all OOC and won't stay here permanently. I had some fires to put out when I got back, but I'm ready to get the ball rolling again. My understanding is that the loose plan is the following:

1) Ash and Mesa take out Garis Ling at Mesa's concert in Sentinel Hill; they'll do this by provoking the Hooded Executioners while Garis is nearby. 2) Zealot is gathering evidence to have Aleena condemned as a traitor for conspiring to attack Nexus. 3) Fay is investigating Oron and unraveling his relationship with Aleena, but do we have a specific plan for dealing with Oron? If not, I will start the in-character interaction with them sitting around the breakfast table on Day 3 and discussing this. If somebody could fill me in to the best of their memory, that'd be awesome. I have all the background info on my end still, but somehow I seem to have missed recording whether or not we had formulated a plan to deal with Oron.

Dan 23:33, 22 January 2013 (EST)

I thought I got another name from this Tom character. Maybe for someone in Aleena's office that is handling the shipments or something. Does that sound familiar to either of you guys?

--Macabreengel 22:55, 23 January 2013 (EST)

You did. The other name was for an assistant of Aleena's arranging all of these deals. This assistant refuses to let Oron or any of Oron's aides know what's being shipped.

Dan 11:07, 24 January 2013 (EST)

Some notes and or thoughts. --FyreFly 22:36, 24 January 2013 (EST)

• Did we get EXP for the session or are we waiting until the mission concludes?
• I don't have anything for a plan on Oron. (We should probably figure something out though...) My notes aren't the greatest so we may have had more than I remember.
• A few minor things for Ash:
  • Ash is going to tell Moon to fly some scouting/patrols north of Nexus to keep an eye out for any ships, Haslanti or Seventh Legion related. The Geronimo makes pretty frequent trade routes in The Scavenger Lands so this shouldn't draw much, if any attention. Strict orders to not engage anyone. (I'd like to keep an eye out for this staged attack by the Seventh Legion, if that is what this plot is leading to.)
  • Ash will have Koza playing the role of his fake identity's associate and staying in the hotel suite he rented for the next two weeks in Sentinel Hill. He would also like to hire a handful of mercenaries very discreetly and disguise them as his personal guard, rather than local mercenaries. This shouldn't be tough considering the very small number and no over bearing need for them to have much skill, other than not letting anyone know they are local mercenaries. He would still do this under his false identity just in case it did somehow get traced that they were hired in Nexus. (I've decided this identity needs a name. Known as Petaphen Chagel of Chanta henceforth.)
  • At some point I may have Petaphen Chagel send a letter to Gharis inviting him to attend the show in a private box and also have their meeting there. (I'm imagining this performance to be held at a Globe Theater sort of venue, but that might not be accurate.) This accomplishes several things, but most notably makes Gharis closer to the impending riot. I'd rather him not be in his office in the Tower if at all possible. With what he know of him would he have any inclination to attend such an event?
  • I also think in the overall plan of things we probably intend to have at least another Grass Spider present to perform the actual assassination in the riot. Opal probably makes the most sense here, though Zealot is another possibility. He has been quite busy though. I'm sure Mesa and Ash could kill him, but Mesa will be fairly busy with the overall performance and Ash is a capable fighter but not always the most discreet. (I don't see an Essence Cannon being very helpful here.) And Opal hasn't done shit anyway.
• Other than these relatively minor things to take care of before the Gharis assassination Ash would make himself available to help out either Fay or Zealot.

Day 3

Everyone

Mesa sat at the ornate wooden table he'd wedged awkwardly into his kitchen. Although the table was a beautiful piece made for him by a grateful craftsman, it was simply too large for the space he'd put it in, and it left little room to navigate the kitchen's counters, cabinets, and cookwear. Mesa was at the head of the table and had leaned his chair back against the cabinet that was immediately behind the table. With one foot against the edge of the table, he strummed his sanxian lightly, imagining what he'd play at the concert they were staging. Fay was the next Grass-Spider to enter the kitchen. Without looking to Mesa, she greeted him.

"You're up early," she said as she rooted around the cabinets for some coffee.

"I wouldn't say I had a restful night. I gave up on the idea of sleeping."

"Fighting with Opal again?"

Mesa shrugged and continued strumming while he thought out loud, "I... guess you could say that. Not exactly. Let's call it a weird discussion."

Fay replied flatly, "Was it a weird discussion about she hasn't done shit since we got here but sit in her room and mope? Because that's a weird discussion I'm about to have with her if you didn't."

Mesa smirked and put down the polished bamboo instrument on the table.

"Coffee's to the left. And yes, I talked to her. She's going to be on crowd control duty when we take out Garis."

Ash entered the kitchen as Mesa finished speaking. Seeing that coffee was being made, he gave Fay an approving nod and sat down across from Mesa. Ash said, "Good. We could use some help there. I know she's not allowed to make the kill, but if this thing turns from a riot into an Essence-fueled royal rumble I'm worried we're going to have a lot more than the Hooded Executioners on our hands."

Mesa nodded, sliding a his cup across the table to Ash. Ash grabbed a nearby mug, grabbed Mesa's, and set both on the counter near where Fay was boiling water for the coffee. Although slightly annoyed by their silent demands, she decided it wasn't worth the trouble of giving them flak about it - Nobody in the order was better at dishing out meaningless banter than those two, and Fay didn't care to pick a fight.

Mesa nodded in agreement and continued, "So you've got your people in place, right?"

Ash nodded, and Mesa continued, "Solid. I've got some of my folks scouting the venue and making preparations. We basically run the place from the front door to the roof seats, so there's anything we need stashed or strategically placed, that's doable. More or less, though, it sounds like we've got a plan for Garis in place. So that leaves Oron and Aleena."

As if on cue, Zealot entered in the kitchen and took a seat at the table. He quickly passed an empty mug to Fay as well, eliciting an audible sigh. Zealot looked around for a moment with a puzzled look on his face before exclaiming the motivation for his befuddlement.

"Wait, how the hell am I the last one awake? I mean, I guess the last one except Opal. Or should I say mope-al?"

Zealot grinned, elaborating, "Huh? Huh? Pretty good, right?"

Mesa, Ash, and Fay winced simultaneously. Mesa delivered their collective review and said, "Maybe stick to training obsessively and getting mad at phony clerics."

Zealot gave a half-disappointed smirk and shrugged before Mesa added another jab under his breath, spoken rapidly.

"And using your magic teleportation shadow belt thing to avoid doing any real work."

Zealot cocked his ear, "What?"

Mesa replied immediately, "What?"

---

After the group had gotten settled with coffee and worked out the usual exchange of jabs and banter, they got down to business.

Mesa led the discussion, "So it seems like we've got Garis worked out. How are things on the Oron and Aleena fronts?"

Zealot replied, "I've got a mounting body of evidence that we might be able to use to implicate Aleena as a traitor. They'd likely kill her for it and make our job easy as pie, but I'm worried about Oron."

Fay nodded and said, "Right. I know originally we planned to try to implicate them both, but it looks like Aleena is intentionally keeping Oron in the dark on this, so the evidence might not be there unless we're willing fabricate it, and that might be a lot of work."

Zealot continued, "At the same time, Oron seems to have a lot of clout on the council. I'm worried he can call in favors to protect Aleena if we try to create any sort of case against her. I think we've gotta take out Oron first."

Ash and Mesa listened patiently and the One-Eyed Queen spoke up.

"Seems reasonable. Fay, you've been on point with Oron - any thoughts?"

((Sorry for hijacking some of your characters for a bit, I wanted to get the dialog flowing. I'm imagining Dan K. is up to post next, but others are free to interject as well.))

---

Ash had been reasonably quiet, for him at least, for much of the morning. He was crammed against one wall around Mesa's oversized table sipping his coffee, Ash had already made the comment that he was compensating for something, if there was a time to get Ash subdued it was early in the morning. He mostly seemed to stare into his cup of coffee without care for the conversation had by the other Members, finally he picked his spot and injected himself into the conversation rather unprovoked.

"I'm never one to be negative friends, but it would seem to me that we have a mounting body of evidence that Aleena is committing treason; which is, I must insist, somewhat different than the body of evidence necessary to implicate her in the incompetent, corrupt justice system of Nexus."

That Ash did not continue immediately was enough for the members of the Circle at least to realize he hadn't formulated anything better. After a brief affirmative nod and smirk from Mesa, mostly at the corrupt Nexus justice system which Mesa was quite familiar with, and an unamused look from Zealot, Ash continued though already a bit off topic.

"A point of interest, is it possible, or even likely that the brown haired man described by Fay in Oron's residence could be the same man as the one similarly described by Zealot aboard Aleena's airship? If yes it opens up a number of questions, especially considering the method of disguise utilized aboard Aleena's ship. If we could confirm it may provide a point of caution, or an opportunity with regards to Oran."

Ash took a sip of coffee, though there was clearly no liquid left in the mug which he then set down on the table with obvious disappointment and deliberately slid away from himself towards the center of the table wordlessly. Once he was satisfied with the distance between himself and the empty mug he looked back to Fay who had been about to respond to Queen's question before he interrupted her.

--FyreFly 17:11, 19 February 2013 (EST)

---

Fay took another sip of coffee to delay further. The truth was that all she had on Oron was that it DIDNT seem he was involved with the treason. "So far, it looks like the guy is clean," she sighed. "We could go the traditional route, but we are doing that with Garis. I guess maybe we could try to get him caught in the cross-fire somewhere," she continued. "It seems that he is under the protection of Aleena's lackeys. Maybe we could trick one of them into killing him for us?" she finished as she took another sip of coffee and waited for a response.

--Macabreengel 22:11, 19 February 2013 (EST)

---

Ash, clearly fully engaged in the planning session now, spoke up first in response to Fay. "I agree, so far this dude is cleaner than the floor of a Blue Haven whorehouse..." The incredibly odd expression left a dead silence for a moment as even Ash seemed confused by it.

Mesa responded timidly, as if afraid to acknowledge the statement "Where?"

Ash decided to distance himself from the comment and move on instead of answering Mesa, "So I've got a bit of a plan. Probably no one will like it, so it should work out." Ash paused briefly and licked his lips slightly before getting the ball rolling. "We're at a bit of a standstill with this guy, so I think we need to get eyes and ears on as soon as possible. There's always an opening to exploit, we just have to find it."

Ash attempted to scoot his chair out so he could stand in the kitchen, but instead his chair hit the wall that was immediately behind him and he bumped his head on the wall. "What the fuck Mesa!?"

Ash straightened out and slithered off the chair to the floor as if melting, under the table he began to crawl past the companions who were sitting on the opposite side. Queen and Fay. Queen backed away from the table, a bit flustered but with the space to the open end of the kitchen allowed Ash room to escape. Fay was less flustered by Ash's irregularities and instead lobbed a kick at his ribs as he crawled out from under the table and tried to stand. Ash grunted and fell back to his knees for a moment before gathering himself and standing triumphantly on the other side of the table in a bit of clear space in the cramped kitchen.

"As I was saying. Lets bring him to us. Between Queen, Mesa, and myself we ought to be able to find a convincing event that Oron will be socially obligated to attend. Until recently he was always a pretty social guy and his position demands that he keep well connected, I'm betting we can find an event he is already planning to attend in the next couple of days. If not, I'm positive we can get him invited to an event that is already planned that he wouldn't be able to turn down. We can handle that." Ash motioned to himself, Mesa and Queen without asking if they actually were available to help.

"At the same time we'll get ourselves invited to this same event. Fay you'll be the primary at the party and the rest of us will provide backup, Mesa and myself can probably be in the room with you. Meanwhile, Opal can infiltrate Oron's penthouse while he is out of it. Hopefully security will be a bit more lax and she'll be able to find us a point of entry and snoop around a bit to get some intel."

Ash pulled a bottle of wine from the wine rack in the kitchen and helped himself to a wineglass from a cabinet, pouring himself a full glass of a dark red wine. He set the bottle back on the counter, corked it, and then took a small sniff of the wine before taking a moderate sized drink of it.

"Damn Mesa, what did you put out all of your bad wine when you found out we were coming?" Ash leaned against the counter and gave an accusing look at Mesa.

"Yes." Mesa answered simply and starred right back.

Ash sighed and took another sip from the glass, Zealot chimed in to the conversation, "Normally your not even up this early and you are drinking already?"

Ash waved at Zealot dismissively, "It helps me think in the morning. I assume you'll be busy teleporting around spying on Aleena?" Ash looked as if suddenly struck by a good idea, "Oh, shit! That dude Fay saw at Oron's, that matched Zealots description of the dude on the airship is probably Oron's God-Blooded bodyguard! Damn! I told you it would help me think! Ya think Aleena made a fucking doppelganger!?"

Ash was just about yelling at this point, it could practically be argued that he was just trying to wake Opal up with the noise. The rest of the group exchanged glances at Ash's probably over-elaborate plan and energized delivery before responding.

--FyreFly 20:30, 20 February 2013 (EST)

---

Mesa thought for a moment, and nodded in agreement with Ash.

"Gotta be a body double. If I remember this right, Zealot saw the guy the same night Fay got chased out of Oron's apartment, and at about the same time. Not sure what that means, but Aleena's crafting clones of Oron's bodyguards."

After taking a final slurp of his coffee, Mesa slid his mug toward Ash. Ash raised his eyebrows, tipped the wine bottle partway toward the mug in offering. Mesa nodded.

"I sure as hell ain't askin' for more coffee. I'd have slid that mug at Fay if I was."

Fay scoffed, but didn't take the bait, somewhat to Mesa's disappointment. After Ash slid Mesa a coffee mug full of wine, Mesa continued.

"Anyway, about Oron, I have a contact in the Nexus Symphony Orchestra - they often play at high-brow political galas and the like. I can check with her - that might be a starting point for us to find an event Oron might be attending. It also gets us an easy in."

Ash nodded and replied as he shrugged, "Works for me."

"What do you guys think? Also, you guys hungry? I was thinking Fay could make us some breakfast."

Fay, unable to resist retorting, finally fired back.

"Oh, that's funny, because I was thinking Mesa could make us some breakfast. That's pretty much what Wood Aspects are good for, right? Cooking and playing music? I guess healing, too, but you can't do that. I'll have my eggs scrambled, with pollen. Thanks."

Fay leaned back in her chair, smirking, as the other members of the circle laughed. Even Mesa couldn't resist a smirk, and acquiesced.

"Fine, fine. I'll scramble up some pollen and eggs. Everyone's favorite!"

As Mesa stood, he banged both of his knees into the underside of the table, making an uproarious crash and eliciting a few swear words under Mesa's breath. Looking to everyone's satisfied grins, he conceded another defeat.

"Okay, so it's a pretty big table."

As Mesa spoke, Opal, who'd been woken up by Ash's raucous exclamations, entered the kitchen, stretching her arms behind her head. As she walked over to the counter to grab a coffee mug, she said casually, "He's just compensating."

Without looking up from the wine glass he was staring into, Ash remarked immediately and quietly, "Called it."

Dan 19:15, 21 February 2013 (EST)