tony stark. (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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faderiftooc2021-09-06 12:53 pm
propulsion) wrote in faderiftooc2021-09-06 12:53 pm
Entry tags:
war table scouting/research misson: operation WARSHIP.
Operation WARSHIP is a joint effort by the Research and Scouting divisions to identify scholars who are assisting the Venatori in their pursuit of the Seven Gates, so that Riftwatch can watch them, figure out what they're doing, and ultimately get ahead of them.
Stage One of this mission involves building out the list of scholars whose work might be relevant.
We'll be doing this by searching information about personnel from sources like Circles, the dwarven Ambassadoria, or university archives—particularly those in the Tevinter Imperium. These will be infiltration missions conducted by small teams with maximum secrecy to make sure that the enemy doesn't become aware that Riftwatch is doing this. Because these missions require both spy skills to get into these places and nerd skills to find the right information without tearing the place apart, we'll be pairing up members of Scouting with members of Research. (Members of other Divisions with relevant skills are welcome to sign up, but we will be prioritizing Research and Scouting. Characters who have not actually joined Riftwatch and are not members of any division will not be permitted on these missions.)
OOCly, our plan is to tailor these assignments somewhat to fit the skill-sets and interests of those of you who sign up. We'll provide each team with a location and its unique risks and challenges; it will then be up to you two to tell us how you want to approach it and we'll let you know the likely outcomes (and, depending on how things shake out, possibly offer a little GMing/NPCing). You can then go forth and RP whatever parts of it are fun for you.
Sign-ups will close end of day Thursday, 9/9. We'll be getting the initial write-ups out by the weekend, with the goal that you can be ready to start RPing by mid-month. Reports will be due no later than the end of October (but the earlier the better!).
These assignments are designed to lead into a Stage Two, which will have separate sign-ups but build on the work your characters do here. The overall aim is for Riftwatch to eventually get a grip on a major part of the mod plot by acquiring new sources of information about the Gates and what the Venatori are up to so that they can start working directly to stop them. Because this is key to on-going plot and meant to be built on, we're going to be pretty strict with report deadlines and keeping things moving, and will do what we can on our side as well to support you!
Sign ups can be found in the comments below. And you'll have to ask Tony personally what WARSHIP stands for.
QUESTIONS
SIGN UPS
no subject
Character: Emet-Selch
Division: Research
Spy skills:
[ ] Breaking and entering
[✓] Forgery and/or disguises
[✓] Interviews and interrogation
[✓] Social engineering (deception, cover identities, cultivating connections, etc.)
[✓] Surveillance (places, people, etc.)
[ ] Parkour
[✓] editing bc I forgot: he can see enchantments & active magic! So if anything they find is magically protected, magical itself, etc etc he will be useful there too.
Nerd skills:
[ ] Alchemy
[ ] Ancient (Thedosian) languages
[✓] Archival research
[~] Fade and/or rift studies
[~] History
[✓] Magical artifacts and/or devices
[✓] Magical theory
[ ] Something we missed?
~: areas of study since arriving, but still new enough not to have extensive knowledge. Magical theory also includes a lot of theory with forms of magic Not From Here so could ultimately end up less useful.
no subject
Due to limited slots, Emet-Selch won't be joining us this time, but rest assured there'll be plenty of opportunities in the future.
no subject
Character: Allumin
Division: Research
Spy skills:
[-] Breaking and entering (Gaseous Form and/or Darkness may be useful for these)
[x] Forgery and/or disguises
[ ] Interviews and interrogation
[ ] Social engineering (deception, cover identities, cultivating connections, etc.)
[x] Surveillance (places, people, etc.)
[ ] Parkour
[ ] Something we missed?
Nerd skills:
[ ] Alchemy
[ ] Ancient (Thedosian) languages
[x] Archival research
[-x] Fade and/or rift studies (depending on how much data/research there is to catch up on, would say his familiarity would be more middling than high)
[-] History (he's been spending a lot of time studying Thedosian history but I'd say there's still plenty of stuff he hasn't learned yet. Has been focusing more on ancient history than recent stuff though, if that helps to narrow his scope.)
[-] Magical artifacts and/or devices (familiar as a concept/practice from home but still learning traits and workings of Thedosian stuff)
[x] Magical theory
[ ] Something we missed?
no subject
Grigorios Hanniwald, a renowned Nevarran researcher and collector of all things Ancient Age, has died, and his heirs are auctioning off much of his library and collection to cover the apparently massive debts he accrued over the years in acquiring it. Riftwatch has identified a number of potentially interesting books and artifacts but doesn't have the funds to persuade the owners to part with them pre-auction.
This sale is likely to attract a decent crowd from around Thedas but not an especially glittering one, with its contents being of interest primarily to academics and fellow collectors. The auction is being held at the Spannagel auction house in Cumberland, formerly the most prestigious auction house in Nevarra but now only the fourth or fifth most prestigious. Fortunately for Riftwatch, this means its security has lapsed, although how much is unknown.
Ellie and Allumin are assigned to attend the auction with two objectives. The first objective is finding a way to get a closer look at the most interesting lots, ideally with enough time to pore over them for useful information before they're sold. The second is finding out who else is trying to buy these things so that Riftwatch can determine whether they're enemy agents.
How they approach their first objective is up to you. They could break in somehow, or try to finesse their way in by posing as potential customers, or representatives of customers, who wish to look at the lot in more detail. Please respond to this comment after conferring among yourselves about how Ellie and Allumin will approach this task.
We will respond with further information, and then outline the set up and outcomes of the second objective of observing the auction.
Lastly, it's important to Riftwatch that nothing they do be traceable back to the organization and that they avoid tipping off any potential enemy agents to their interest, since the Venatori don't presently know that Riftwatch knows about the Gates (as far as we know). (Stealing the items of interest is therefore discouraged, since Riftwatch already tried to buy them and failed and so would be an obvious suspect.)
no subject
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Character: dick
Division: research
Spy skills:
[X] Breaking and entering
[X] Forgery and/or disguises
[X] Interviews and interrogation
[X] Social engineering (deception, cover identities, cultivating connections, etc.)
[X] Surveillance (places, people, etc.)
[lol] Parkour
[ ] Something we missed?
Nerd skills:
[ ] Alchemy
[ ] Ancient (Thedosian) languages
[X] Archival research
[X] Fade and/or rift studies
[ ] History
[ ] Magical artifacts and/or devices
[ ] Magical theory
[why is he in this dept again] Something we missed?
no subject
The Orentius University of Minrathous is hosting a triennial conference, the Society for Premier Thinkers in Natural Philosophies and the Arcane Sciences, that invites a wide range of Tevene and international academics. It had been thought that it would be cancelled due to the wars and invasions and coups and so on, but the representatives of Orentius, it being a point of pride in having won the claim to host the conference, insisted that it should go ahead anyway, and so there's been a bit of a desperate scrabble to secure attendees, panelists, and lecturers.
Riftwatch has managed to procure two invitations through some diplomatic leveraging, and Richard and Bastien will be using these invitations to go undercover and attend the conference. You may confer and invent your undercover identities, and some tips include that it is not necessary to be able to speak Tevene to fit in, as Common is the wider dialect, but it wouldn't hurt to brush up on some basics. That said, the Society is also open to anyone from anywhere, mage or no, but there will be pros and cons to how obscure and foreign you make yourselves.
The objective will be to use the conference as cover to gain access to a couple of locations and people of interest.
One location is the secure archives of Orentius, which will require you to spend some time to see what you can find on the subject of the Gates, if there is anything to be found. You can leverage this via your identities or through simply breaking and entering.
A person of interest, which they will discover for themselves in review of the program for the Society, is a professor of Orentius, Nastasia Sellic, a Laetan mage who will be speaking at the conference on the subject of revisiting pre-Chantry Blight narratives in the context of recent developments in rift research. The lecture itself will be quite dry and boring, but some later surveillance and eavesdropping during a mingling event will hint to Richard and Bastien at her frustration that the convening Society council had heavily censored her presentation.
Making direct contact at this stage is not advisable but also no one is here to stop you. They will also be supplied with a sending crystal that can be planted in a location and set to receive audio in a constant live stream to a second crystal, requiring extensive listening in and surveillance.
Please respond to this comment after conferring among yourselves about how Richard and Bastien will approach these two tasks, as well as with details around their undercover identities, or with further questions you may have to inform your decisions. We will respond with further information (or answers), at which point we can decide what parts of this you wish to RP.
no subject
Character: Cosima
Division: Research
Spy skills:
[ ] Breaking and entering
[ ] Forgery and/or disguises
[ ] Interviews and interrogation
[ ] Social engineering (deception, cover identities, cultivating connections, etc.)
[ ] Surveillance (places, people, etc.)
[ ] Parkour
[ ] Something we missed?
Nerd skills:
[ ] Alchemy
[ ] Ancient (Thedosian) languages
[X] Archival research
[X] Fade and/or rift studies
[ ] History
[ ] Magical artifacts and/or devices
[ ] Magical theory
[X] Something we missed? - If anything red/lyrium related comes up, solid theoretical grounding in that too.
no subject
The archives in the Imperium's military headquarters in Minrathous are all but impregnable, but Riftwatch has identified an outpost at the junction of the Imperial Highway just north of the Silent Plains where mail, pay, and supply distribution for the forces to the south are believed to be coordinated. Aleksei and Cosima will need to sneak inside and look through their paperwork to try to identify any individuals or locations that might be related to Gates research (though not a priority, if they happen on any other useful intel in the process—valuable supply shipments or pay wagon routes, for example—they're encouraged to record that as well).
The outpost is located in Photios, a medium-sized town that grew up around the crossroads trading post and caravan stop connecting Perivantium and Nevarra with western Tevinter. As a trading town, strangers passing through won't be unusual, but the permanent community is relatively small and very connected to the military base, so they'll still need to be careful not to raise any suspicions.
The fort itself isn't very large, mostly stockade and a collection of offices, storehouses, barracks and stables. It was a sleepy backwater posting until the invasions to the south made it suddenly relevant and prompted some hasty and somewhat haphazard-looking expansions to its facilities to accommodate the increase in traffic. Because it's well inside Tevinter territory and in a fairly isolated location on the edge of the desert, security is focused on protecting coin and supplies against theft and less concerned with keeping its paperwork locked up. But there are still plenty of difficulties: walls and gates are all manned by armed soldiers, the desert on two sides makes approaching unseen difficult, offices are small making wandering the halls unnoticed difficult, and any location where goods or coin are stored will be locked and more closely guarded.
How they approach getting access to the records is up to them/you: they could try to sneak in, or try to finesse their way in somehow. Either way, it's important to Riftwatch that nothing they do be traceable back to the organization and that they avoid tipping off the enemy to their presence and their interests, since the Venatori don't currently know that Riftwatch knows about the Gates (as far as we know), and any intel they might gain about routes or shipments will be worthless if Tevinter knows they've learned it and can change things.
This means they'll probably need to rifle through and read things on the premises to try to spot info of interest rather than just steal the whole cabinet for later perusal. And on either side of this mission is a journey through the Silent Plains by some means or another, so they'll want to keep that in mind when planning an exit.
Please respond to this comment after conferring among yourselves about how Aleksei and Cosima will approach this task, or with further questions you may have to inform your decisions. We will respond with further information, at which point we can decide what parts of this you wish to RP.
no subject
Character: Waverly
Division: Research
Spy skills:
[x] Breaking and entering
[ ] Forgery and/or disguises - i mean she’s done it, technically, but in terms of skill
[ ] Interviews and interrogation
[ ] Social engineering (deception, cover identities, cultivating connections, etc.)
[x] Surveillance (places, people, etc.)
[] Parkour
[ ] Something we missed?
Nerd skills:
[ ] Alchemy
[ ] Ancient (Thedosian) languages
[x] Archival research
[x] Fade and/or rift studies (not here but she did a bunch of dream world studying in her last game so maybe it can count?)
[x] History (I mean, she loves it and she’ll research it real good, but she isn’t knowledgeable on Thedas yet u no)
[x] Magical artifacts and/or devices
[x] Magical theory
[ ] Something we missed?
no subject
Due to limited slots, Waverly won't be joining us this time, but rest assured there'll be plenty of opportunities in the future.
no subject
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Character: Ellie
Division: Scouting
Spy skills:
[✓] Breaking and entering
[ ] Forgery and/or disguises
[✓] Interviews and interrogation (better with support)
[ ] Social engineering (deception, cover identities, cultivating connections, etc.)
[✓] Surveillance (places, people, etc.)
[✓] Parkour
[✓] Drawing -- useful for cartography, illustrating faces (wanted poster style) locations and potential threats (bestiary additions).
Nerd skills:
[ ] Alchemy
[ ] Ancient (Thedosian) languages
[ ] Archival research
[ ] Fade and/or rift studies
[ ] History
[ ] Magical artifacts and/or devices
[✓] Magical theory
[✓] Rudimentary bomb construction, if given access to gunpowder or something like it.
no subject
Grigorios Hanniwald, a renowned Nevarran researcher and collector of all things Ancient Age, has died, and his heirs are auctioning off much of his library and collection to cover the apparently massive debts he accrued over the years in acquiring it. Riftwatch has identified a number of potentially interesting books and artifacts but doesn't have the funds to persuade the owners to part with them pre-auction.
This sale is likely to attract a decent crowd from around Thedas but not an especially glittering one, with its contents being of interest primarily to academics and fellow collectors. The auction is being held at the Spannagel auction house in Cumberland, formerly the most prestigious auction house in Nevarra but now only the fourth or fifth most prestigious. Fortunately for Riftwatch, this means its security has lapsed, although how much is unknown.
Ellie and Allumin are assigned to attend the auction with two objectives. The first objective is finding a way to get a closer look at the most interesting lots, ideally with enough time to pore over them for useful information before they're sold. The second is finding out who else is trying to buy these things so that Riftwatch can determine whether they're enemy agents.
How they approach their first objective is up to you. They could break in somehow, or try to finesse their way in by posing as potential customers, or representatives of customers, who wish to look at the lot in more detail. Please respond to this comment after conferring among yourselves about how Ellie and Allumin will approach this task.
We will respond with further information, and then outline the set up and outcomes of the second objective of observing the auction.
Lastly, it's important to Riftwatch that nothing they do be traceable back to the organization and that they avoid tipping off any potential enemy agents to their interest, since the Venatori don't presently know that Riftwatch knows about the Gates (as far as we know). (Stealing the items of interest is therefore discouraged, since Riftwatch already tried to buy them and failed and so would be an obvious suspect.)
no subject
Ellie and Allumin will confer and talk about what they can both bring to the table, and after some discussion, they'll decide on the following approach:
Ellie will use the climbing gear she got from Tony to try to parkour/scale the walls of the auction house (or where the items are being held) and break in during the night (if possible) through an upper window. She'll use her invisibility to get past choke points, or if she sees a guard showing a little too much interest. At some point her gloves will fail, and she'll have to deal with that, and try not to get caught while she's trying to bang the damn things back on.
Once she's up, she'll either search for a door to unlock for Allumin, or if that proves too difficult, she'll throw down a rope and use the ascenders to help him up, too. Ellie can make someone else invisible if they're touching her while she's using that power, so they are basically just going to need to be really quick and really quiet.
If they can find the place the items are being kept, Allumin will take a quick look over things first while Ellie keeps a lookout on the doors. He'll make note of things and what seems most relevant, and point out things that it would help for Ellie to sketch. Then he'll keep lookout while Ellie does that, and they'll switch. The more time they have, the more details of the items and books they'll be able to get.
Allumin plans to use a spell to travel as mist at some point, which will conceal him and let him escape easily undetected, but he won't be able to interact with physical objects or speak at all. If possible, they'll save it for if they're near to being discovered and have to hit the road.
no subject
Their initial scouting the place in preparation for breaking in will show that the Spannagel has failed to fully keep up with the times in terms of its security measures and cuts corners to save money. They'll discover that it's hardly a fortress and many of the security measures are more focused on looking secure than actually being it—for instance, most guards will be in areas visible to patrons (at night this means perimeters, roof, and doors), rather than back of house.
Between them and the tools and magics they have available, and the security lapses of the auction house, they will be able to make their way to a locked storeroom. Among the various items up for auction, Ellie and Allumin can spot a book that should raise the most red flags: a Glory Age copy of an earlier scholarly work on what the author claims are the ten largest blood rituals ever undertaken in the Imperium and hypotheses regarding their potential use in the fight against the Blight. The text is hard to read (and even harder to follow) so it's difficult to tell at a glance whether there's anything actually useful in it, but mention of the Blight, Tevinter and blood rituals seems like a good bet as to the kind of interest it will attract.
Of course, that information can only be gleaned by attending the auction the next day and mark down all who bid upon the item itself. Of course, it won't be as easy as it should be.
Depending on which elements of this you feel like RPing, we can provide as much or as little hands-on support as you need. My thought is that both the break in and the auction could have some light directional GMing to help steer your characters around and towards obstacles, or you are welcome to run the break in yourselves, and I can kick off the auction. I am good with either option, or whatever else you might prefer.
Let me know what you think, and we'll figure out the IC timing of it so no one gets plot-locked.
no subject
I checked with Oscar and we'd both love to do the break in with the GM'ing, (they've got toys and spells to use) and we're interested in playing the auction, too- Allumin's gonna see if he can disguise himself but it'll depend on the environment/if it's locked-doors etc. They'll look for a lot number on that book and try to make sure they get in on the auction schedule/note who bids on it.
no subject
Just to make sure we don't stumble over your toes or anything and assume stuff, will the GM'ing look like NPC tags into the log itself, or should we confer with you OOC?
no subject
They will be like NPC tags, yes, but I expect you won't need me every time. For now to avoid confusion, let's just do normal tag order, but I want to try something that may help with efficiency as we get moving so will touch base about it.
For now, onwards. I'll dip in after Allumin. (Also, as a note, I will be delayed until American Saturday due to life things, then back to a normal rhythm.)
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Character: Sabine
Division: Scouting
Spy skills:
[x] Breaking and entering
[ ] Forgery and/or disguises
[ ] Interviews and interrogation
[ ] Social engineering (deception, cover identities, cultivating connections, etc.)
[x] Surveillance (places, people, etc.)
[x] Parkour
[x] Artificer rogue spec
Nerd skills:
[ ] Alchemy
[ ] Ancient (Thedosian) languages
[ ] Archival research
[ ] Fade and/or rift studies
[ ] History
[ ] Magical artifacts and/or devices
[ ] Magical theory
[ ] Something we missed?
no subject
Due to limited slots, Sabine won't be joining us this time, because she's bad.
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Character: Bastien
Division: Diplomacy
Spy skills:
[ X ] Breaking and entering
[ X- ]
Forgery and/ordisguises (but he can only do 2 accents)[ ] Interviews and interrogation
[ X+ ] Social engineering (deception, cover identities, cultivating connections, etc.)
[ X ] Surveillance (places, people, etc.)
[ X-- ] Parkour (he does his best)
[ X ] Hypnosis (this is a joke)
Nerd skills:
[ ] Alchemy
[ ] Ancient (Thedosian) languages
[ ] Archival research
[ ] Fade and/or rift studies
[ X- ] History (cool story history only)
[ ] Magical artifacts and/or devices
[ ] Magical theory
no subject
The Orentius University of Minrathous is hosting a triennial conference, the Society for Premier Thinkers in Natural Philosophies and the Arcane Sciences, that invites a wide range of Tevene and international academics. It had been thought that it would be cancelled due to the wars and invasions and coups and so on, but the representatives of Orentius, it being a point of pride in having won the claim to host the conference, insisted that it should go ahead anyway, and so there's been a bit of a desperate scrabble to secure attendees, panelists, and lecturers.
Riftwatch has managed to procure two invitations through some diplomatic leveraging, and Richard and Bastien will be using these invitations to go undercover and attend the conference. You may confer and invent your undercover identities, and some tips include that it is not necessary to be able to speak Tevene to fit in, as Common is the wider dialect, but it wouldn't hurt to brush up on some basics. That said, the Society is also open to anyone from anywhere, mage or no, but there will be pros and cons to how obscure and foreign you make yourselves.
The objective will be to use the conference as cover to gain access to a couple of locations and people of interest.
One location is the secure archives of Orentius, which will require you to spend some time to see what you can find on the subject of the Gates, if there is anything to be found. You can leverage this via your identities or through simply breaking and entering.
A person of interest, which they will discover for themselves in review of the program for the Society, is a professor of Orentius, Nastasia Sellic, a Laetan mage who will be speaking at the conference on the subject of revisiting pre-Chantry Blight narratives in the context of recent developments in rift research. The lecture itself will be quite dry and boring, but some later surveillance and eavesdropping during a mingling event will hint to Richard and Bastien at her frustration that the convening Society council had heavily censored her presentation.
Making direct contact at this stage is not advisable but also no one is here to stop you. They will also be supplied with a sending crystal that can be planted in a location and set to receive audio in a constant live stream to a second crystal, requiring extensive listening in and surveillance.
Please respond to this comment after conferring among yourselves about how Richard and Bastien will approach these two tasks, as well as with details around their undercover identities, or with further questions you may have to inform your decisions. We will respond with further information (or answers), at which point we can decide what parts of this you wish to RP.
no subject
Their initial approach to the secure archives will be to attempt to get in using their identities.
Their initial approach to Nastasia Sellic will be to try checking wherever she is staying/living to see whether she has any written notes or records of what was censored, as well as using the sending crystal bug to listen in and see if she mentions anything further about her ideas and/or what she's into, personally, in case Richard has to seduce her (with Bastien's help).
no subject
A bored librarian will be happy to be given a chance to gossip about how a number of books, including some very old volumes from the most secure sections, have been removed from the library over the last year in compliance with a government order. He won't recall precisely what justification was given, only that it was a lot of bureaucratic nonsense that he found suspicious and thinks is probably some well-connected scholar trying to get a leg up on rivals somehow, which is a thing that's happened before, like in 9:42 when Livian Harestim tried to have his uncle destroy every copy of Orrenti's Florinarum because it disproved his thesis on— etc. He'll also mention offhand that they keep getting annoying letters from some bureaucrat because there are a few volumes included in the demand that they weren't able to find. He'll give them the related cards, and they can make note of the names of the scholars who last checked them out—one of whom is Nastasia Sellic, the other a Haroldus Locrusin.
Nastasia is not one for socialisation and in fact by all accounts (including their own after observing her presentation) is extremely socially awkward, and tends to stay in and write and read and research and avoid talking to people directly. But she possesses a dog whose breed resembles an Afghan hound, named Riabald, who is her pride and joy. She walks him twice a day and occasionally attends kennel club-type gatherings, so this could be a great meetcute as necessary. As for potential seduction (if you were serious about that, we're unsure) she is, as we said, quite awkward, but a dog lover who is also some sort of renegade scholar-monk will turn out to be a romance novel forbidden passion set-up she could get into. If you'd like to do some Cyrano-style shenanigans with this, we can also offer a brand new beta version set of discreet earbud crystals for them to test drive.
Nastasia lives in an apartment in the middle of Minrathous with only the most basic security (locks on doors, nosy neighbors, etc.), so getting in to poke around and/or plant bugs won't be tough for them. Her full lecture notes can be easily found there. It will be hard to immediately piece together what exactly she's on to, if anything, because they're both esoteric and very scattered. But they can at least also find a marked-up copy she received from the committee detailing precisely which portions she was to cut from her presentation. These too are hard to follow, but it will be clear that a significant portion deals with recent research findings related to the study of rifters and some other magical experimentation, including a reference in a footnote to work by "Volaris" conducted at a place called "Ascalon." There are also some sections cut that are incomprehensible without a strong working knowledge of Ancient Tevene, but which appear to relate to the volume she's kept from the Orentius library, "Dumat's Children, or An Accounting of the Reigns of the Archons of the First Blight and Their Deeds," which they can find "hidden" behind a stack of other books on her shelves. It's very old and not in great shape, with some fun illumination-style illustrations.
While getting crystal bugs into her office on campus or home won't be too hard, it will be kind of a temporal needle in the haystack to get a useful conversation out of it, so they may want to try to prompt her in some way, either through interactions with her, or getting her nervous somehow, or whatever. Or, if you'd like to focus on other stuff, you can also just say they dug deeper into her schedule and find a convenient upcoming meeting with another name of note to listen in to.
Re: SIGN UPS
Character: derrica
Division: forces
Spy skills:
[ x ] Breaking and entering
[ ] Forgery and/or disguises
[ x ] Interviews and interrogation
[ ] Social engineering (deception, cover identities, cultivating connections, etc.)
[ x ] Surveillance (places, people, etc.)
[ ] Parkour
[ ] Something we missed?
Nerd skills:
[ ] Alchemy
[ ] Ancient (Thedosian) languages
[ ] Archival research
[ ] Fade and/or rift studies
[ x ] History (mostly cool mage history)
[ ] Magical artifacts and/or devices
[ ] Magical theory
[ ] Something we missed?
Re: SIGN UPS
Due to limited slots, Derrica won't be joining us this time, but rest assured there'll be plenty of opportunities in the future.
no subject
Character: aleksei
Division: scouting
Spy skills:
[ x ] Breaking and entering
[ x ] Forgery and/or disguises
[ x ] Interviews and interrogation
[ ] Social engineering (deception, cover identities, cultivating connections, etc.)
[ x ] Surveillance (places, people, etc.)
[ xxxxx ] Parkour
[ ] Something we missed?
Nerd skills:
[ ] Alchemy
[ ] Ancient (Thedosian) languages
[ ] Archival research
[ ] Fade and/or rift studies
[ ] History
[ ] Magical artifacts and/or devices
[ ] Magical theory
[ x ] wow where is avvar history on this list
no subject
The archives in the Imperium's military headquarters in Minrathous are all but impregnable, but Riftwatch has identified an outpost at the junction of the Imperial Highway just north of the Silent Plains where mail, pay, and supply distribution for the forces to the south are believed to be coordinated. Aleksei and Cosima will need to sneak inside and look through their paperwork to try to identify any individuals or locations that might be related to Gates research (though not a priority, if they happen on any other useful intel in the process—valuable supply shipments or pay wagon routes, for example—they're encouraged to record that as well).
The outpost is located in Photios, a medium-sized town that grew up around the crossroads trading post and caravan stop connecting Perivantium and Nevarra with western Tevinter. As a trading town, strangers passing through won't be unusual, but the permanent community is relatively small and very connected to the military base, so they'll still need to be careful not to raise any suspicions.
The fort itself isn't very large, mostly stockade and a collection of offices, storehouses, barracks and stables. It was a sleepy backwater posting until the invasions to the south made it suddenly relevant and prompted some hasty and somewhat haphazard-looking expansions to its facilities to accommodate the increase in traffic. Because it's well inside Tevinter territory and in a fairly isolated location on the edge of the desert, security is focused on protecting coin and supplies against theft and less concerned with keeping its paperwork locked up. But there are still plenty of difficulties: walls and gates are all manned by armed soldiers, the desert on two sides makes approaching unseen difficult, offices are small making wandering the halls unnoticed difficult, and any location where goods or coin are stored will be locked and more closely guarded.
How they approach getting access to the records is up to them/you: they could try to sneak in, or try to finesse their way in somehow. Either way, it's important to Riftwatch that nothing they do be traceable back to the organization and that they avoid tipping off the enemy to their presence and their interests, since the Venatori don't currently know that Riftwatch knows about the Gates (as far as we know), and any intel they might gain about routes or shipments will be worthless if Tevinter knows they've learned it and can change things.
This means they'll probably need to rifle through and read things on the premises to try to spot info of interest rather than just steal the whole cabinet for later perusal. And on either side of this mission is a journey through the Silent Plains by some means or another, so they'll want to keep that in mind when planning an exit.
Please respond to this comment after conferring among yourselves about how Aleksei and Cosima will approach this task, or with further questions you may have to inform your decisions. We will respond with further information, at which point we can decide what parts of this you wish to RP.
no subject