Session 75

* Rufius, the sinister overseer of the bank's security. A former Citadel operative, now working for the Innominate.
* 'Lady Thessaly', head of an organized crime syndicate, agent of The Innominate *(mentioned only).*
* Lady Jayne Pryor, a former hostage turned assassin turned ally (?)

## And Now...

Following a sumptuous, early morning feast, the group, alongside their new ally, Lady Jayne Pryor, prepare to take another run at the bank in the hopes of gaining information and evidence about the Barallons, The Pryors, notorious crimelord Lady Thessaly and their relationship to the mysterious underground cabal known as The Innominate...

### A Bug In The Bird's Nest.

Bug heads out to speak to her contacts in The Bird's Nest, a slum and rookery in Lampkin, about the mysterious Lady Thessaly. While there, they pick up a wide range of information. The Lady herself is based out of a building upstairs from a high-end restaurant called 'Vini's'. Her main criminal operation is smuggling, especially smuggling relics and creatures/creature parts from the Ru Steppes, but she has a desire to turn her wealth and status into *actual* nobility. To this end, she's invested in many legitimate businesses scattered throughout the city and the greater Barony beyond, including restaurants, animal sales and training, and the sale of antique and magical items. She has also made substantial donations over the years to projects and charities promoted by or run by the Pryor family.

### Casing The Bank.

The group arrives at the bank as a party, with Hugh, in his guise as Lady Eveline, the heir to a sizable transportation company, Jayne as Jon, her surly wastrel brother, Rast as the faithful bodyguard to the twins and Leo as their elderly uncle. While Hugh/Evie flatters Vitald to distraction, Leo uses his guise as an excuse to wander about, poking his nose here and there. Rast converses with the bank's employees, while Jayne/Jon uses their infiltration skills to scan for visible signs of security and possible access points.

By the end of the group's meeting with Vitald, they would appear to have been very successful in their information gathering... but perhaps they may have been too successful. As Vitald is escorting them out, their negotiations completed for the day, he is intercepted by Rufius. Rufius introduces himself to 'Evie' and suggests that an important potential customers such as her would prefer to continue negotiations in a more convivial environment, perhaps over dinner with the bank's manager.

The group is presented with invitations and small, but finely-crafted pieces of identifying jewelry. They are told that admittance without the jewelry items will be impossible. They are then given directions to Daelroch Repose, a manor house outside of town where the meeting and dinner will be held.

### Discussions and Last-Minute Preparations.

Everyone re-convenes at the farmhouse and discusses what has been learned. Nobody is under an illusions that this dinner invitation is anything but a trap but, desperate for answers and frustrated by a lack of progress, they are willing to walk into it if it means they'll be able to learn more.

Leo suggests that this may not be a trap the group is capable of walking out of. He has no issue with a suicide mission, but resents the idea that the group might all die without the League of Daqan hearing about the evidence that they've gathered so far. With this in mind, he suggests a desperate plan.

### A Desperate Plan, Parte the Firste: An Ounce of Preparation.

The group works together to compile all the information they've gathered in their multiple attempts to case the bank in a dossier.

Once this is done, the group recruits a team of burglars and infiltrators. This will include Bentil, Bretta, her father and Sanguine as a core, but hopefully this can be added to. Bug may have noticed a promising candidate or two during their rabble-rousing missions, Bretta and her Dad appear t have some sort of network beyond themselves, and presumably, Bentil's been busy while he's been in town. There's even the option of attempting to make contact with Toben, a shady 'talent scout' who operates out of The Forge.

Once the Bank Crew has been gathered, they can look over the dossiers, getting the benefit of our pre-planning. While that's happening, Bug prepares some potentially useful potions for the crew and Leo and Rast pay a visit to Slevrin. Slevrin is a spy and agitator working with Cuthbert to cause trouble and/or expose corruption within the Barony *(See Session 67)*. At first, the plan is to ally with Slevrin, but, thanks to Rast's ability to discern lies from truth, he proves untrustworthy, and contact is made with Cuthbert.

The same offer we had planned to give Slevrin is given to him. Is he satisfied with just taking down the figurehead, or is he interested in the *real* source? If so, then here's our deal: By tomorrow, we'll both probably be dead. However, we have vital information, and allies with *more* vital information that *needs* to get safely out. Can he be trusted to do that?

If a deal is reached, Leo writes a short letter to be opened once the job is done, and a much larger second letter outlining everything we've discovered in our investigation so far (in duplicate). With that final preparation done, we move onto...

### A Desperate Plan, Parte the Seconde: The Excellence of Execution.

With preparations concluded satisfactorily, two forces move into position.

The Distraction Crew move to the front of the bank and begin making noise to distract the security and city watch. Meanwhile, the Bank Crew moves into position at the rear of the bank. With security hopefully distracted, the Bank Crew are able to enter and proceed to the room where customer's files and important papers are being held - this has been noted as part of the initial casing.

Rufius is almost certainly going to be a massive issue for the Bank Crew, but hopefully, between Bug's potions, the crew's various skills, the information in the dossier - including info on Rufius - the crew will be sufficiently equipped to deal with him.

After dealing with or evading Rufius and any other obstacles, the crew (following information in the dossier) looks into paperwork on (in order) the Barallon Family, the Amaretta Family, Lady Thessaly, Rufius, the suspicious death of Baroness Pryor's husband, and makes off with anything potentially useful.

At this point, the Bank Crew should be looking to get out. It may be useful to start a fire at this point. This will serve to keep the city guard busy and will make it impossible to know what paperwork has been stolen, and what has been destroyed, delaying the Innominae's response to the theft. The Bank Crew exit the bank, blend in with the demonstrators who are fading out because "Holy shit, the bank's on fire!" and are escorted to a safe location by Cuthbert and his people.

The Bank Crew are escorted by Cuthbert out of Pelgate and to a safe place. Once there, Bretta's dad opens the first letter from Leo explaining their next move. Copies are made of all info from the bank raid, with Cuthbert's people keeping the originals. The second letter is also opened, with one copy being given to Cuthbert. He is free to ascertain that both letters contain exactly the same information. Both letters, as well as containing all the official evidence of the investigation, contain a copy of the recipe for Grandma Gertie's Curry Bites for Mrs.Courage.

Once the Crew is safely secured in place, contact is made with a League Representative and the remaining copy of the second letter as well as the copies of any documentation from the Bank is handed over. The league can then arrange for the transference of the Bank Crew to another safe house.

Unfortunately, our heroes won't know if or how well this plan has succeeded because by the time it's beginning, they're marching to their almost certain deaths.

### A Brief Interlude, Re: Jewelry.

While everyone else is engaged with The Desperate Plan, Hugh and Jayne take a look at the odd tokens of invitation we've been given. Each one takes the form of a different item of jewelry (a brooch, a pendant, a cuff-link, a tie-pin, etc...), is made of a silvery metal and is shaped like a scarab beetle. They are definitely magical in nature and seem to provide protection against spells designed to confuse and misdirect the wearer.

Jayne thinks she may be able to discover more on their nature, but asks to be allowed to seek the information on her own. In the interests in building trust, her condition is agreed to. She says that, even if she's unable to return before the group leaves for dinner, she'll meet us on the road before we get there.

### The Venue.

Before leaving, the group does some last minute research on the dinner venue. Daelroch Repose is the former estate of the Daelroch Family, which heavily intermarried with the Pryors. The estate itself is built on a precipitous hill overlooking a deep lake. Long ago, the fort was built atop an old minehead and was later used for smuggling. As a result, the fortress itself, and the hill it stands upon are both honeycombed with disused mine-shafts, hidden tunnels and caverns and secret passages. At least some of those tunnels lead to secret caves on the lake from which boats can be covertly launched.

The fortress is defended by a magical field surrounding it which causes uninvited intruders to become lost and disoriented should they try and approach. In addition, Rast was able to ascertain that all of the servants, some 36-40 in number, are fully trained as guards, no matter what their overt duties or station would seem to be.

### Into the Dragon's Den.

Leaving the fate of their endeavours (and a not inconsequential payment) in the hands of their erstwhile allies, Bretta and Cuthbert, the group departs the Country House for what may well be their final meal.

As promised, Jayne meets up with the party before they can reach the fortress. She had paid a covert visit to her mother and recruited a small number of loyal soldiers as back-up. Upon showing her mother one of the items of jewelry, Baroness Pryor was instantly able to identify it as the work of Emricht, her son who had long ago been abducted by the Innominate, just as Jayne had previously.

With that ominous pronouncement still hanging in the air, the party rounds a hill to see the Repose in the distance, dark and sombre against the evening sky...

### Continued in Session 76...

*10xp*

*(350xp Total)*