Plotting a Heist

So, we've been given two options.

1. Hit Kinzh'Lizakh, the rich and powerful guy who contracted us in the first place.

-or-

2. Hit Lorkhihf, the local up-and-comer with the estate outside the city.

So before we make any decisions about this what exactly do we know about the two burun? Their reputation, how they conduct business, are they popular with their peers?: That kind of stuff.

If the answer is we don't know, would someone with some Gather Information skills make a few checks, because that's not me. If anyone asks, tell them you are looking for work and trying to get the lay of the land, as it were.

Here's where I think we're at.

Skills
Kolson is an expert Diplomat, so having him there will improve Deception rolls by Zeiss. Zeiss we need for Traps and Lies and Disguise. We need a boost for that, and the rest of us, but he's our front man. Kolson is the only one who is not a Stealthy, so we need Float stuff for him. The rest of us are good acrobats and athletes, so we are able to perform aerobic "feats" in lieu of Float spells.

Goodies
According to heists 101, we need caltrops and smokebombs, stuff we can use to slow people down and become unseen when we're caught.

Disguises
Kolson, you should Weave servant clothes of the house we will enter to give the infiltrators a bonus in Disguise. Going to need to actually know what the servants wear, better yet what their superiors wear. Something for the GA check.

Non-Stealth
We will also need a method the infiltrators can use to Float when necessary, that will be important for Kolson. Zeiss' Trap skill will help us a great deal here. There's got to be some way to pass through the detection thingies, but that's where I'm stumped. Ideas?

Weapons
I could probably get away with being one of the "primitives" from Vesayen for wanting to keep my axe, but hopefully I won't have to use it. Zeiss, your equipment is shortswords and daggers, so I think you and K should sit down and work on concealing them well underneath your disguise, since the two of you are basically the Stealth specialists of the group, absent Z. that's it or weapons I think, but I'll probably have to leave my bow behind.

To get inside, we need a good excuse. Zeiss, lie. My unarmed skill should come in handy inside when we need to just knock the crap out of some one or two dudes who aren't buying some new lie he uses, because the "it's my first day" excuse is going to get us rushed towards the kitchen or the spit-shining room, or even a pay-your-respects visit to the head honcho himself(gasp!).

Now when we get inside, we can't just start stuffing our purses with whatever golden goblets or cranberry syrup we lay eyes on, there's got to be some relatively small or several moderately sized things we can take to make the trip a success. Then, we just have Zeiss tell everyone we meet on the way out that we're on our way to some other destination(tell the cook we're on our way to spit-shine shoes, tell the spit-shiners we're on our way to sort inventory, etc).

Dependent on one or two variables, yes, but this is as close as we can get to hitting them hard and fast.

And here I thought my teammates would be clueless.

I'll assume we are hitting Kinzh'Lizakh for now. But I guess my post will still be valid if we decide to hit the other guy.

To Kolson's questions, we could ask Glurghk, our contact. If he doesn't have the answer, I could simply roll Knowledge Politics and/or Gather Information. I remember Arch saying that people in Sho don't like answering questions that come out of nowhere. I'll simply use Diplomacy in this case. I added the list of my skills in my signature below this post. I also speak Serpent, just in case.

Since most of the traps are woven, I suppose it would be useful having Kolson there since his weaving skill is as high as it can get at our level. We should figure out how these traps work too and what must be done to deactivate them.

Before we try to disguise our way into the manor, we have to know : which races are the servants? And how many are there? I doubt we can pass ourselves as servants.

I also remember Arch telling us that we could meet Kinzh'Lizakh in his manor to discuss the heist against his rival. We could use this opportunity as scouting.

Someone could also stay outside the manor to provide distraction in case we activate the alarms.

Also, Arch? Because of Zeiss' backstory, I guess he has some experience with heists. Nothing as dangerous as this of course, but maybe I already have some hindsight on how we should approach this? I am asking just in case we get something useful from his experience as a thief.

Javan is going to defer to whatever plan Kolson gets going since he's this party's leader now, as Snarg is out on his internet adventures.

The player is sadly again down for the count thanks to his allergic rhinitis, and can't think straight.

I'm with Kolson's primary line of thinking here. Strategy before tactics.

I'd rather favor the party that'll have the better effect on the territory. If we're picking where to tip the scales on a power play here, i'd like to know who's the better to hedge our bets on.

My GI is 2, but my Dip is 12 (not so great ever since i lost my hat). I can go with Kolson's plan, say i'm looking for work and whatnot, because i'm a round-ear from some island far away, and am ignorant of how things work around here, which i am. Then me and Rory can hit up some tavern and buy some patrons a few drinks and see if the booze will loosen their tongues.

We can worry about the what, when and where of whom we're robbing after we decide who that is, i think.

OOC:

I think everyone's weighed in so... what (exactly) would you like to G.I. about?

Well, mostly on what's each party's standing with the people. Are they known to be honest, greedy, are there any unsavory rumors about them (or savory ones for that matter, if that's even possible). Does Kinzh'Lizakh take care of his people, does Lorkhihf?

In short i want to know about their character, at least as well as the people can perceive them. Pretty much what Kolson said in the OP.

I don't know if anyone wants to join me on this, or if they have their own stuff they want to pursue, though.

I want to do the same kind of GI check. I suppose we'll let Arch roll for us like he usually did. I wanna also do a GI check about these assassins. Last time we played, Arch told me that Zeiss knew about a secret organization in Sho. And that was pretty much it. If that organization is the one who sent the assassins, I might as well check up on it. Maybe they're even linked to Kinzh'Lizakh. I have a theory as to what their name is, but I'll keep that under wraps for now.

I also want to know about the servants, what races they are and the comings and goings of the people from the manor. Any shipments that come in on a regular schedule?

So :

-GI check on Higaide's questions.
-Check on the assassins.
-Check on the servants.
-Check on the comings and goings of the manor.

And I agree about Kolson being the leader of the party.

I've been a citizen of the Sho Empire before, don't know if I still am. Has my reputation reached Kinshoy, and if so, how am I regarded by people who recognize me? Do I have anybody here whom I could pull favors or info from, etc?

Side note, I am interested in how my surprise, no-notice self-eviction went over with my landlord in Hebian-To(this was at the end of our first adventure, when we were all coming up with this reason or that for sticking together).

Rory: While in the particular district of Hebian-To there are still tales told idly about the strange mutant Elf who abandoned his responsibilities but it hasn't really spread past there.

From what you can gather Kinzh'Lizakh is well regarded by the local citizenry, to the point where you fail to hear anything negative about him in your questioning. (Knowledge: Politics success) It is worth noting that due to the way Sho politics works, this may only mean he is very good at being perceived to be a good, helpful Burun rather than actually being one.

Lorkhihf is rather young for a Burun (only about 35 years old) and still has yet to earn her last name, as mentioned earlier.  Most of the people in town find her to be rather driven and ambitious, and she is well regarded, but there isn't much else circling the taverns about her.

You hear nothing in your wanderings about any assassin groups having a place here, and when name dropping the Bloodied Flock you are met with befuddled stares.

Kinzh'Lizakh is a rather dutiful Burun, doing things as they have always been done, so his house is managed solely by Sclavi and Moarsmen; the Moarsmen work, the Sclavi are his guard.  Reportedly the Sclavi who defend his manor somewhat regularly turn away would-be thieves, but make a point to never execute proper punishment on them as a kindness, furthering Kinzh'Lizakh's reputation.

There is a fairly continuous stream of people going in and out of the manor, day and night, primarily Moarsman handling cargo.  (Awareness success) You watch a few of these trips yourself and determine that he has a large portion of his own business ship goods here, even though the manor clearly doesn't have the mundane physical storage space to carry that kind of cargo.  About once a day at dawn pretty regularly a smaller cargo ship arrives out back to deliver foodstuffs, drink, linens, and the like for those living within the manor and at the same time dirty cloth, trash, and whatnot is taken back out to said ship.  The ship in question is a small schooner, manned by about 12 Moarsman and 1 Sclavi.  You do not hear any word about where it sails to to keep the manor supplied.

*grinning*

I don't think the assassins who attacked us in Holtburg were from the Bloodied Flock. I had another name in mind. I also did not plan to throw that name around to see what reactions that would cause. Too dangerous.

And thank you for the checks.

Since our Knowledge checks were inconclusive as who it would be better to steal from, based on a political approach, I'll just assume we're going for Kinzh'Lizakh. If the party decide to go for the other guy, please, ignore this plan. I'm just writing for the sake of brainstorming. So here's how I see it: we must try to sneak in and if that fails, we can use Kolson's Exit materia (assuming Kinzh'Lizakh doesn't have runes that prevents us from doing so, in that case we just get away from the manor first). As Arch said, there are three known entrances :

-The front;
-The service entrance;
-And the docks.

We could also add the windows to that list I guess, but they are are bound to have traps on them and I think it would be harder to deactivate them. But since I can basically fly for a few dozens of seconds, I could try without being at a disadvantage. The front is exposed, which doesn't allow a stealthy approach. The service entrance is for servants and nobody in our group is a Moarsmen or a Sclavi. Which leaves with the docks. Maybe we could sneak into the merchandise being brought to the manor? We would have to make sure the crew don't discover us.

Here's also the outline of a plan: we hire some thieves to go after Kinzh'Lizakh as a distraction. We might even learn a thing or two about the traps by observing them. After they're arrested, the guards should be more relaxed and the local militia on their way back to their barracks. Then, we hit the manor. And if the thieves somehow succeed in getting the reliquary key, we just take it from them.

I'm just thinking out loud here.

Well, hiring thieves probably doesn't come cheap, and you're leaving a trail for the authorities to follow if they're caught and interrogated. Also, correct me if i'm wrong, but i do believe the Exit Materia will only work if you're in actual danger. An enemy's stronghold might qualify, but if you're not risking actual bodily harm, i have my doubts. And like you said, the place may well be protected against that sort of thing.

Arch, can we still try to contact Glurghk of Squallidsallow for the information we were trying to gather in town? Given how much he knew before, he may have more indepth knowledge than the local tavern patrons on the two lords' character and history.

Thief Hirelings
If they did manage to get the key, the thieves would try to lift the valuable, handheld goods while they were in there, and then what would there be for us to take, assuming you hired enough people for one or a few to get out at the expense of numbers? No more than three, btw.

If one of the thieves somehow did get out with the key, they'd need people already in on it to make the job proper a success. Still, we're banking on the risk that they would return to us.
First, we need to be able to afford the incentive for the thieves to return with a payoff for both parties. For a food magnate with a such a good reputation with the people, we're talking maybe 2000-3000. Next, the thieves need to be Moarsmen. They can blend in, and they're a trustworthy sort--usually, but more likely to return if not caught to try again with help from their contractors.
If we successfully hire thieves and end up having to take the escapees with us, we need to make sure our troupe meets or falls within the limit of persons the Exit Materia can transport when we get caught.
Finally, if they do return, we are going to have to take one with us, no more and no less. Our number is already at 4, which is already pretty large for thieves on a mission. In order to convince them to hand over the map, they are going to need some incentive in the form of reliquary treasure. Who knows, maybe if he gets out of it he'll get a cushy job in the Exchange, for a finder's fee of course. Which gets immediately swallowed up by our debt

Boarding the Schooner
I'm sure there would be enough crates or barrels to hold us, we'd just have to dump the cargo over and get in. At dawn, we can hide under the docks by clinging to the wooden rafters(or something) and jump on when it gets within safe jumping distance. We would have to scale up the side and just go for the cargo storage when no one's looking. The night shift should be getting their beauty sleep, leaving about 6-7 crew awake to haul off the goods.

The food is the best option since servants and guards can just buy what they need to eat off shift, and guaranteed there's already food out or being taken from the larder, so it's going straight to storage. Can't be the linens, those are most certainly coming out right away and set out for convenience, and there's always a chance the odd shifty-eyed servant or guard would try to grab a bottle of alcohol for themselves.

Inside, we need to listen for movement to be sure nobody is around or popping off the lids right away. We might find a floor plan inside, but we need to move without being seen. If we send thieves, we should encourage them to find a floor plan and leave just with that.

Gather Info(Zeiss?)
Before we start looking for shady types to throw money at, we need a GA check in the seedy parts of the city to know what past thieves know about the place, and how much anyone's ever taken to try and steal from the magnate to gauge the price of our "business venture". Up to you Zeiss. You blend in better in the darker shades of the social stratum.

All right, leader time. <Puts on his new black top hat with "Leader Guy" across the front in large, garish purple letters. We'll call it the Top Hat of Leadership. Normally I'd put Kolson in there somewhere but the Top Hat of Leadership is bigger than just one person baby!>

We are hitting Lorkhihf. I know we don't have the whole picture but I don't think we have too much time to spend on this so I chose to hedge our bets on the tried and true horse, in this case Kinzh'Lizakh.

Before we hit the tactical phase I have a few questions for Arch:

What exactly does pulling off a heist "in accordance with standard Sho politics and procedures" entail?

When a third party acts as agents for another, what is considered too far for local tastes, both physical and "saving face" wise?

Example Physical: Who can die, if anyone? Is lack of death preferred?
Example Saving Face: What is okay to take and how must it be treated while in our possession? Is it okay to humiliate the owner in front of their own employees as the result of a con?

Zeiss has volunteered to roll Knowledge Politics to make these questions legit. His KP is +13.

Glurghk of Squallidsallow is still available for some information, yes.  It will cost at this point though, as he's not a spy who works for free.

Sho politics is a long an convoluted thing but boils down to the idea of appearing to be as good as possible.  I mean good in the alignment sense, so ideally what Kinzh'Lizakh wants here is to procure a family heirloom, a medium-sized jewel-adorned mirror specifically, that is in Lorkhihf's possession and present it to him.  This has to happen without being caught or being traced back to him (ideally), and then he would wait a few days or weeks for news to get out that Lorkhihf had lost something of such value, causing her to lose face significantly.  He would then present it back to her, having found it in his own investigations in order to assist her in this horrid loss, out of the kindness of his heart.  He would also give it back freely, as the only thing he would seek is the knowledge that he aided her in such a manner; hence his own prestige would go up in Sho politics.

As far as hiring out in this specific area, going too far usually involves anything that would entail too much risk (for example, while a dangerous mission where one might die would probably be completely out of bounds, even something with a significant risk of being caught would be bad).  As far as trying to humiliate or abuse, both would be highly variable but in general as long as you (the party) are the ones who take the blame for being such horrible people they would be okay with letting you do so, as they'd never be willing to do so themselves.

Zeiss's roll is high enough to also be aware that you have about a 99% chance that, if anything goes wrong, anyone you hire will not hesitate one second to rat you out (since doing so would soothe their own public image while blasting yours).

May i interject, Kolson, that maybe we should at least try the Glurghk venue before we commit?

If he wants too high a price for that info, we can always say bye and go with the original plan. I think it's worth pursuing, considering the consequences our actions may have.

I want that mirror, ooh I want it bad.

What mirror Rory?

As for the plan goes, I already agreed with Kolson. But we can ask how much that info would cost anyway.

So Arch. Zeiss is going to ask how much while doing the appropriate rolls (is it worth the price he's asking? can I lower it? etc.).

The medium-sized jewel-adorned mirror, Zeiss. The family heirloom. Think about it. Ooh, the birds we could kill with that one stone.

Thank you Arch, your insights into the politics of Sho were most helpful.

@K All right K, if you believe that is worth while I'll have Kolson help you with it. Come up with some questions you want to ask and how you will pay him for his time. Diplomacy +19

Please be careful in your investigation. Other than the party, I don't trust anyone in Sho and you shouldn't either. So please be as discreet as you can.

@Everyone Now I've been giving it some thought and I do have a plan that has worked in other games in the past. It's pretty dangerous and will need to be adapted to this setting and circumstances but I've found that it can work when you are pressed for time. Let me know what you guys think. This plan assumes we are hitting Lorkhihf.

The Plan

It involves inserting an inside man into the mansion and ultimately sowing chaos in their ranks to cover for our theft. The inside man will have to exude a certain competent shadiness, quick thinking, and have a real talent for lying. This probably goes without saying but the only one who can pull this off is Zeiss.

Zeiss walks/runs up to the gate and says he has information of an imminent attack by a fictional third party and needs to see Lorkhihf immediately. If security has any brains at all they'll say no but that's when we start convincing them with a few well placed arrows and magical attacks at the gate. It should look like we are trying to kill Zeiss before he can get inside.

At this point, we'll need to convince them they are under attack on multiple fronts so that they can't concentrate their power and kill us all before we fade back and give Zeiss some time to insinuate his way into Lorkhihf's confidence. Hopefully he'll be able to convince Lorkhihf that he is their best chance for defeating this threat and can in turn parlay this assistance into a job at the compound. At the very least, I'm hoping he can get us some recon on the inside of the mansion and locate the mirror.

Challenges

We'll need some way to stay in communication with Zeiss. Hell some way to hear them talking in the mansion would be helpful. We'll also need to be able to cause some chaos while staying out of the line of danger ourselves. I do have a few ideas for Weaving/stealing this stuff but I'll have to run them by Arch for feasibility first.

We are also going to have to conduct some recon while a separate team throws together our arsenal for the job.

We are also going to need a means of getting away quickly and should not stick around town for long afterwords.

We'll also need to setup a false hq for our make believe attackers. Something we can point unwanted attention to in case the law gets involved or if Lorkhihf wants a little payback.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In closing I fully acknowledge that this plan has holes, not the least of which is the Sho cultural expectations themselves, but I'm hoping you guys like it enough to help me refine it into something that can work. And just to be clear, when I say causing chaos I'm shooting for low to no casualties, so don't worry about going full evil K. I'm well aware of the dubious position we are in and I want to minimize the damage we do while minimizing the danger to us.

I'm also open to well thought out plans that we can implement quickly so make your proposals by Wednesday.

I propose not buying whatever is lacking in our arsenal, simply because this would make whoever bought them more visible on a posterior investigation, which would lead back to the party.

Javan has an iron longbow in his possession as a fighter class, not to mention the fairy's element sight + low-level sight, and access to 2 uses of lightning ball together with Javan's 18 INT would make him good for keeping track of the movement outside during night, as well as being one of the ranged 'attackers'. That and Knowledge Elements 20 if we ever need it.

Lightning Ball:

Well, payment's the tricky part, as i'm still recovering from my stay as a slave in Vaseyan that cut my finances to pieces, but i'm willing to sell my gear for this.

Assuming we clear that hurdle, i take it Glurghk knows what we're up to, since he's given us enough tactical information to plan our heist, so i assume we can lay at least that card on the table. So my question would be something like this:

"We've been trying to get a feel for how Kinzh'Lizakh and Lorkhihf conduct themselves, in order to figure out which one can most benefit the land. All we get from the people, though, is the usual nice and clean public opinion of a ruler that does a good job keeping his image spotless when it comes to Kinzh'Lizakh; and some general vague idea of a driven, ambitions, and generally well-regarded up-and-coming magnate when it comes to Lorkhihf. Neither of which are very good indicators of character.

We were hoping you could help us get a better picture."

ooc:

Here's what I've come up with.


Raising the Flag
We can make the "headquarters" some abandoned set of buildings in the seedier part of town. Once we have everything Weaved that we need Weaved, we should carve some made-up kant into some inconspicuous parts of buildings, played off like harmless street urchin vandalism but meant to look like some sort of kant to the discerning eye. Then, Weave(alternatively using chalk with no textiles) banner signs on or near the buildings. Again, inconspicuous, not large, but definitely noticeable by anyone who's keeping an eye out for territory markings. We want to be ambiguous about this to avoid making it seem like these fake thugs popped up overnight, but something that would give law enforcement or mercenaries after us some clue to lure them in. Additionally, we need to rip off a piece of a banner for Zeiss to hand over as a way to identify the signs indicating where we want to misdirect the guards/mercenaries.

The Gate Potshots
Kolson and Javan on spells and arrows.

Direction #2: The Back Door
There should be maybe one or two other entrances where me and K can just throw rocks and shoot arrows. Sigh. I was looking forward to some fist action with mah gauntlets.

Direction #3(Docks?)
After a predetermined interval of time, Kolson and K will move to a new location to fire spells and projectiles while Javan moves to a different vantage point to shoot. I will continue my arrow fire on the same side I punched people at while moving between vantage points.

Direction #4?
Once we notice spells popping off at the third attack point, Javan and I can move to a fourth spot and attack. If there is no conceivable spot to attack(maybe somewhere higher up, huh?), we'll just keep shooting from where we are, but sort of move within seeing distance of each other while moving between vantage points.

Equipment
Eventually we should be able to just stop when we've accomplished what we need to or before we're routed. We should give the place a once-over to determine if we really need smokebombs and where, because as it stands we're short on inventory.

We are all going to need projectile weapons to shoot, and we are all proficient with one or another, be they bows, crossbows, slings etc. Javan has a longbow. I have a longbow. Does anybody have a sling, by chance? If not, shouldn't be too hard to Weave, right? 1CXP for a simple weapon.

I would like for us to do this with unknown status, luckily Weaving some cloaks to match the banners we threw up around the buildings would serve two purposes at once, at least the color scheme since we'd ideally be attacking from a distance. Alternatively, we could just mark the cloaks we have or Weave what we have to be a certain color. I'll make tie-on masks of what remains of my tattered peasant shirt(don't worry, I'll wash it)for me and K, and also the rest of us in case the enemy gets close enough to commit our faces to memory. Cloaks should be tightened to stay on our heads and keep them covered.

Communication Device
I think you can Weave two similar to the ones we were given by the Order for their decoy mission. One can be easily hidden on Zeiss with a Stealth roll beforehand, in case they decide to search him, while K can hold the other one. Then Ziess can make a Deftness check to activate it once inside. Then, when we back off, we can have someone start writing a transcript of everything important that we hear, and it should be K because his Awareness is the highest and it's good.

Recon
I wonder if I could buy some scrap metal for the communication devices so that Kolson uses less CXP because he doesn't have to Weave something out of nothing(these things can just be made of metal, right?). They shouldn't be able to trace the hunks of metal to us if they don't see us using the magical comm link. Otherwise, if being present on the recon will help, I have 8 Stealth. I'LL BE SUPER QUIET!

Withdrawal
We can use the smokebombs, and/or Exit Materia if it fits the interpretation of its use, to get away easily. Then we'll go to a rendezvous point on the outskirts of town, further up the peninsula if we're consulting the map of Dereth. On our way there, K and Kolson will be together, but Javan and I may be separate. The two of us could rendezvous at a nearby tavern just to meet up while on the lam and just immediately bolt off in the same direction when we know we've both seen the other.

We can use my aspect to communicate with you guys.

Arch, up until which distance can I maintain a mental link with Advoc?

Whoops, forgot about him. Hey you're right. We just might be able to Weave a little more than a sling.

Advoc gets to write stuff down then.