WAR TABLE: Upstairs, Mostly Downstairs

[cozen]

ASSIGNMENT: Upstairs, Mostly Downstairs

WHAT: A small team will visit the home of Merchant Prince Giannozzo Gonzaga, who is already a supporter of the Inquisition, and befriend his servants, who are internally divided between a rival old guard (hired when he was famous for his wild and elaborate parties) and new guard (hired at the recommendation of his favored clergy members after he became more serious about his faith).

WHY: Two reasons. First, gossip point toward a member of Gonzaga's staff being a ringleader among a nascent movement among the lower classes to agitate for Antiva to stop dealing with Tevinter. (This is partly due to past and current Riftwatch propaganda efforts, so yay us.) Finding and befriending them will give Riftwatch a way to support and coordinate with the group.

Second, Gonzaga's son might marry Queen Anora and also might be evil, and the people who, like, actually fed and raised and cleaned up after him are a good place to begin figuring out what his deal is.

WHO: Up to four people. Preference to Diplomacy for two slots, the other two are wild cards.

HOW: OOC, you'll be able to RP whatever piece of the visit you want! Achieving an optimal outcome will require a thread of at least 10 tags (total, not each).

IC, depending on the skills and preferences of those involved, the team might:

(1) Visit openly as a delegation from Riftwatch with a surface excuse about meeting with their pal Prince Gonzaga, and try to befriend his servants in their spare time.

(2) Assume false identities and get themselves hired into the staff and befriend his servants while working with them.

(3) Have one or two people visit as official Riftwatch envoys and one or two others pose as their servants/assistants, to try both.

(4) Something else entirely.

While there, they'll need to navigate a feud between some of the servants to avoid getting on the bad side of anyone whose cooperation they need.

WHEN: Sign up by the end of the day on 3/25, get info by 3/28, submit a report by 4/30.

Comments

questions

[cozen]

sign up

[cozen]

<b>Character:</b> <b>Division:</b> <b>I'm interested in having them:</b> (Change - to X for all that apply.) [ - ] Be an official envoy. [ - ] Be a servant. [ - ] Something else: (please elaborate).

[icasm]

Character: Loki
Division: Diplomacy
I'm interested in having them:

[ x ] Be an official envoy.
[ - ] Be a servant.
[ - ] Something else: (please elaborate).

[cozen]

The Team: Loki, Mado, Wysteria, and Mobius.

Loki will be visiting Prince Giannozzo as an envoy from Riftwatch, nominally to schmooze and to discuss his willingness to amp up his involvement in the war, which is currently purely financial. There's no need for him to actually succeed at this; it's just a cover. Mado, Wysteria, and Mobius will be attending as his servants and/or assistants (whose pretend titles and responsibilities can be divvied up however you like, or left vague).

The Task: The team is really here to scope out the situation with Prince Giannozzo's son Marco, who's a contender for Queen Anora's next Prince-Consort, and to find a contact among the lower-class Antivans who have been throwing Tevinter goods into the sea, etc., in an attempt to prompt the Merchant Princes and royal family to get more involved in the war.

Unfortunately, befriending the staff won't be as simple as being friendly. There's a deep division within the staff itself: the older servants, hired when Prince Giannozzo was a young man famous for his legendary parties, are footloose and long for the old days of debauchery, while the younger crowd, hired based on the recommendations of Giannozzo's favorite clergy after he began to take his faith more seriously, are straightlaced and somber. On either side of the divide, various members of the staff are involved in pranks, tattling, setting one another up for failure, etc.

Early sniffing around will indicate that the people they need to befriend are divided between these two camps, so they can't throw all of their weight into pleasing just one of them. Specifically:

• Simona Arcimboldo is among the older crowd, and she's known him since he was a child but is gossipy enough to give up information about him without becoming suspicious, as long as she likes the people she's gossiping to.

• Vieri Fontana, among the younger crowd, will be named by some of his peers (in disapproving tones) as being involved with the hooligans who are agitating for Antiva to be more involved with the war efforts, but he'll deny any knowledge of this until he's adequately convinced someone shares his serious, religious, no-shenanigans-save-those-that-are-truly-necessary-for-the-greater-good outlook.

(You're also free to make up other servant NPCs as you see fit.)

To impress both the Party Servants and the Church Servants, the team will either need to divide and conquer—perhaps by feigning a similar rivalry of their own and putting frogs into each other's beds or whatever to sell it—or walk a very fine line between the two.

The Outcome: Exactly how successful the team is will depend on whether or not you meet the minimum tag requirements! You can do this by having one thread that reaches 14 comments total, or two threads that each reach 7 comments total. Specifically what part of the plot these threads focus on is up to you—they can be attempts to impress the servants, meeting in a pantry to whisper about a plan, everyone hating having to obey Loki's orders in front of other people, or whatever else you come up with. Using a crystal post or something is also fine. Come back with links by April 30, 2022, and Hope & I will let you know what they found out about Marco and whether Vieri ultimately opened up to them so you can include it in the report, which will be due some reasonable number of days afterwards.

[icasm]

Here is a link to the ongoing thread of 14 comments now: here. The general plan discussed OOCly is that they'll split the group and pull pranks on each other to ingratiate themselves to members of both factions amongst the staff there.

[lumelume]

Character: Mado
Division: Scouting
I'm interested in having them: (Change - to X for all that apply.)

[ - ] Be an official envoy.
[ x ] Be a servant.
[ x ] Something else: dog and/or bird

[cozen]

The Team: Loki, Mado, Wysteria, and Mobius.

Loki will be visiting Prince Giannozzo as an envoy from Riftwatch, nominally to schmooze and to discuss his willingness to amp up his involvement in the war, which is currently purely financial. There's no need for him to actually succeed at this; it's just a cover. Mado, Wysteria, and Mobius will be attending as his servants and/or assistants (whose pretend titles and responsibilities can be divvied up however you like, or left vague).

The Task: The team is really here to scope out the situation with Prince Giannozzo's son Marco, who's a contender for Queen Anora's next Prince-Consort, and to find a contact among the lower-class Antivans who have been throwing Tevinter goods into the sea, etc., in an attempt to prompt the Merchant Princes and royal family to get more involved in the war.

Unfortunately, befriending the staff won't be as simple as being friendly. There's a deep division within the staff itself: the older servants, hired when Prince Giannozzo was a young man famous for his legendary parties, are footloose and long for the old days of debauchery, while the younger crowd, hired based on the recommendations of Giannozzo's favorite clergy after he began to take his faith more seriously, are straightlaced and somber. On either side of the divide, various members of the staff are involved in pranks, tattling, setting one another up for failure, etc.

Early sniffing around will indicate that the people they need to befriend are divided between these two camps, so they can't throw all of their weight into pleasing just one of them. Specifically:

• Simona Arcimboldo is among the older crowd, and she's known him since he was a child but is gossipy enough to give up information about him without becoming suspicious, as long as she likes the people she's gossiping to.

• Vieri Fontana, among the younger crowd, will be named by some of his peers (in disapproving tones) as being involved with the hooligans who are agitating for Antiva to be more involved with the war efforts, but he'll deny any knowledge of this until he's adequately convinced someone shares his serious, religious, no-shenanigans-save-those-that-are-truly-necessary-for-the-greater-good outlook.

(You're also free to make up other servant NPCs as you see fit.)

To impress both the Party Servants and the Church Servants, the team will either need to divide and conquer—perhaps by feigning a similar rivalry of their own and putting frogs into each other's beds or whatever to sell it—or walk a very fine line between the two.

The Outcome: Exactly how successful the team is will depend on whether or not you meet the minimum tag requirements! You can do this by having one thread that reaches 14 comments total, or two threads that each reach 7 comments total. Specifically what part of the plot these threads focus on is up to you—they can be attempts to impress the servants, meeting in a pantry to whisper about a plan, everyone hating having to obey Loki's orders in front of other people, or whatever else you come up with. Using a crystal post or something is also fine. Come back with links by April 30, 2022, and Hope & I will let you know what they found out about Marco and whether Vieri ultimately opened up to them so you can include it in the report, which will be due some reasonable number of days afterwards.

[heirring]

Character: Wysteria
Division: Research
I'm interested in having them: (Change - to X for all that apply.)

[ x ] Be an official envoy.
[ x ] Be a servant.
[ - ] Something else: (please elaborate).

[cozen]

The Team: Loki, Mado, Wysteria, and Mobius.

Loki will be visiting Prince Giannozzo as an envoy from Riftwatch, nominally to schmooze and to discuss his willingness to amp up his involvement in the war, which is currently purely financial. There's no need for him to actually succeed at this; it's just a cover. Mado, Wysteria, and Mobius will be attending as his servants and/or assistants (whose pretend titles and responsibilities can be divvied up however you like, or left vague).

The Task: The team is really here to scope out the situation with Prince Giannozzo's son Marco, who's a contender for Queen Anora's next Prince-Consort, and to find a contact among the lower-class Antivans who have been throwing Tevinter goods into the sea, etc., in an attempt to prompt the Merchant Princes and royal family to get more involved in the war.

Unfortunately, befriending the staff won't be as simple as being friendly. There's a deep division within the staff itself: the older servants, hired when Prince Giannozzo was a young man famous for his legendary parties, are footloose and long for the old days of debauchery, while the younger crowd, hired based on the recommendations of Giannozzo's favorite clergy after he began to take his faith more seriously, are straightlaced and somber. On either side of the divide, various members of the staff are involved in pranks, tattling, setting one another up for failure, etc.

Early sniffing around will indicate that the people they need to befriend are divided between these two camps, so they can't throw all of their weight into pleasing just one of them. Specifically:

• Simona Arcimboldo is among the older crowd, and she's known him since he was a child but is gossipy enough to give up information about him without becoming suspicious, as long as she likes the people she's gossiping to.

• Vieri Fontana, among the younger crowd, will be named by some of his peers (in disapproving tones) as being involved with the hooligans who are agitating for Antiva to be more involved with the war efforts, but he'll deny any knowledge of this until he's adequately convinced someone shares his serious, religious, no-shenanigans-save-those-that-are-truly-necessary-for-the-greater-good outlook.

(You're also free to make up other servant NPCs as you see fit.)

To impress both the Party Servants and the Church Servants, the team will either need to divide and conquer—perhaps by feigning a similar rivalry of their own and putting frogs into each other's beds or whatever to sell it—or walk a very fine line between the two.

The Outcome: Exactly how successful the team is will depend on whether or not you meet the minimum tag requirements! You can do this by having one thread that reaches 14 comments total, or two threads that each reach 7 comments total. Specifically what part of the plot these threads focus on is up to you—they can be attempts to impress the servants, meeting in a pantry to whisper about a plan, everyone hating having to obey Loki's orders in front of other people, or whatever else you come up with. Using a crystal post or something is also fine. Come back with links by April 30, 2022, and Hope & I will let you know what they found out about Marco and whether Vieri ultimately opened up to them so you can include it in the report, which will be due some reasonable number of days afterwards.

[heirring]

Going through my fantasy admin homework and realized we still owe y'all a report on this and it looks like we might need more info before we can file it.

No hurry - I know everyone is busy. I just want to make sure your machinations don't fall through the cracks.

[cozen]

SORRYYYYY.

Your success means two things:

• Vieri did open up to them and is open to cooperating with Riftwatch in the future. (We incorporated this into the Antiva mod plot even though I hadn't actually told you this yet.) He'll consider your characters in particular to be his main contacts within Riftwatch and address any tips or requests for assistance to them, unless/until he gets to know anyone else, so if you ever want to run plots in Antiva, feel free to use him as an "in."
  
  
• They were able to eliminate Marco as a possible Venatori ally. Some of his behavior seems suspicious; he vanishes a lot, has some unexplained personal income, and they could discover some cryptic shorthand notes and a burned message with some lingering visible words that sound vaguely threatening in his room. But Simona would eventually be willing to divulge that he's been disguising himself and running a betting book based on statistical methods of his own invention, with such success that a local crime syndicate is getting irritated. This might be useful diplomatic information, in the long run, but there will be no evidence he's involved with the Venatori.
  ​​
  Since I was several months late getting you this information, you can be several more months late putting up a report! Take your time. But when you do it, remember whoever posts it can choose how to apply it to the Riftwatch Rewards options on the Activity Rewards page.
  
  Thanks/sorry again!

[heirring]

All good! I don't think anyone's been in a mad rush, but ty for the extra time! I'll make sure everyone else in the group gets the memo.

[favoriteanalyst]

Character: Mobius
Division: Research
I'm interested in having them: (Change - to X for all that apply.)

[ X ] Be an official envoy.
[ X ] Be a servant.
[ - ] Something else: (please elaborate).

[cozen]

The Team: Loki, Mado, Wysteria, and Mobius.

Loki will be visiting Prince Giannozzo as an envoy from Riftwatch, nominally to schmooze and to discuss his willingness to amp up his involvement in the war, which is currently purely financial. There's no need for him to actually succeed at this; it's just a cover. Mado, Wysteria, and Mobius will be attending as his servants and/or assistants (whose pretend titles and responsibilities can be divvied up however you like, or left vague).

The Task: The team is really here to scope out the situation with Prince Giannozzo's son Marco, who's a contender for Queen Anora's next Prince-Consort, and to find a contact among the lower-class Antivans who have been throwing Tevinter goods into the sea, etc., in an attempt to prompt the Merchant Princes and royal family to get more involved in the war.

Unfortunately, befriending the staff won't be as simple as being friendly. There's a deep division within the staff itself: the older servants, hired when Prince Giannozzo was a young man famous for his legendary parties, are footloose and long for the old days of debauchery, while the younger crowd, hired based on the recommendations of Giannozzo's favorite clergy after he began to take his faith more seriously, are straightlaced and somber. On either side of the divide, various members of the staff are involved in pranks, tattling, setting one another up for failure, etc.

Early sniffing around will indicate that the people they need to befriend are divided between these two camps, so they can't throw all of their weight into pleasing just one of them. Specifically:

• Simona Arcimboldo is among the older crowd, and she's known him since he was a child but is gossipy enough to give up information about him without becoming suspicious, as long as she likes the people she's gossiping to.

• Vieri Fontana, among the younger crowd, will be named by some of his peers (in disapproving tones) as being involved with the hooligans who are agitating for Antiva to be more involved with the war efforts, but he'll deny any knowledge of this until he's adequately convinced someone shares his serious, religious, no-shenanigans-save-those-that-are-truly-necessary-for-the-greater-good outlook.

(You're also free to make up other servant NPCs as you see fit.)

To impress both the Party Servants and the Church Servants, the team will either need to divide and conquer—perhaps by feigning a similar rivalry of their own and putting frogs into each other's beds or whatever to sell it—or walk a very fine line between the two.

The Outcome: Exactly how successful the team is will depend on whether or not you meet the minimum tag requirements! You can do this by having one thread that reaches 14 comments total, or two threads that each reach 7 comments total. Specifically what part of the plot these threads focus on is up to you—they can be attempts to impress the servants, meeting in a pantry to whisper about a plan, everyone hating having to obey Loki's orders in front of other people, or whatever else you come up with. Using a crystal post or something is also fine. Come back with links by April 30, 2022, and Hope & I will let you know what they found out about Marco and whether Vieri ultimately opened up to them so you can include it in the report, which will be due some reasonable number of days afterwards.