Continuing from where we left off…
Rolling a 2 on the Chaos Die indicates that a scene pops up before Shady’s chat with the Patrician. EVENT FOCUS ROLL: 66, PC negative. What the hell, Event Focus Table? Why do you have it in for Shady? This is also a double, which means that something wild and random might happen. EVENT MEANING ROLL: 67/51, “Open of Jealousy.” So… something bad happens to Shady, presumably related to someone being jealous of her. Well, Shady’s got no shortage of rivals, enemies, or past victims; but the only even vaguely likely candidates that have been mentioned so far are Ainsworth, Maraldo, the other Sea Lancers, or these mysterious gunrunners. Rolling on Shady’s tags comes up with 6, “Crescent Moon,” her signature weapon. Rolling on Everkeep’s tags and Persons of Interest comes up with “pirates” and the Wharfmaster Fean Wavecrest.
Not gonna lie, ain’t feelin’ this one. The only idea that even suggests itself is that Ainsworth figures out that Wavecrest is where Shady learned about the shipment and causes trouble somehow, but it doesn’t seem worth pursuing. Ainsworth is too busy getting ready to leave on the evening tide. So I’m going to invoke the “I Dunno” rule here and just punt on this interruption.
Instead, let’s play out the mini-adventure of Shady sneaking into the Lady Patrician’s chambers, which I’m basically going to treat like a 4E-style skill challenge. It should be fairly difficult—the L.P. is the chief executive of this city and no doubt has guards, magical wards, and who-knows-what-else to thwart robberies and assassinations—but Shady also has some unique advantages, in the form of her natural climb speed, and being one of the Sea Lancers and therefore having an easy go-to reason why she might be in the Keep if confronted by guards. She also grew up in Everkeep and is very familiar with things like patrol schedules, where the Keep’s blind spots might be, and so on.
So I’m going to start with FATE QUESTION: Does Shady know of a secret entrance (e.g., through the dungeons or something)? Very Unlikely, Chaos 4: 69, NO. So she’s going to have to either bluff her way past the guards at the gate, or scale a wall. Shady’s Deception skill is not great unless she’s using her Distraction background ability, so straight up sneaking is a better bet. She doesn’t have to roll for climbing (thank you, claws!), but she does have to beat the guards’ passive Perception check to avoid being seen. The guards have advantage for having multiple guards with planned patrols to maximize coverage, making the DC 17, but Shady rolls a freakin’ 24 and slips by like the shadow of a ghost.
Shady knows the general layout of the Keep, but not precisely which room is the Lady Patrician’s, so she’s going to have to poke around some without drawing attention to herself. (SHADY Investigation DC 15: 16. Very slick.) The living quarters are on the upper floors of the keep, with stairs at either end of the corridor. Shady deduces that the Lady Patrician’s room is probably going to be the largest, accessed by a small sub-corridor off the main corridor.
Unfortunately, here’s where it gets tricky: this is a Dungeons and Dragons world, and the floor with the living quarters is protected by a permanent guards and wards spell! This fills the stairs with webbing, fills the hallways with fog, and magically locks and hides every door for anyone who doesn’t have the password! Shady stands there staring at the webs for a minute and tries to figure out what to do.
Her options are: find or figure out the password, or scale the wall outside and try to slip in through a window. Shady decides to attempt the first before resorting to the second, on the grounds that being able to bypass the guards and wards in the future as well could come in handy. So who would know the password? Anyone who lives on that floor, obviously, as well as the L.P.’s bodyguards, and any servants who may need to go there.
Bingo. Guards are trained to question people. Servants are trained to obey people. Servants are the way to go. Shady heads for the Keep’s kitchen, sneaking when there are guards, and just walking around like she owns the place any other time. (FATE QUESTION: Are there any servants awake in the kitchen? YES.)
Shade-Of-the-Candle strode into the kitchen; a scullery maid was there, rolling out strips of dough and placing them into a pan. “Oh! Captain, er, Of-the-Candle, ma’am,” said the maid. “Are you lost?”
“No,” said Shady. “I’m here to meet with the Lady Patrician. Unfortunately, we’ve run dry upstairs, so I’ve come to fetch a bottle of wine.”
“Come to fetch it, ma’am?” said the maid. “Why didn’t Her Ladyship just ring?”
(SHADY Deception DC 12: 20) “I volunteered,” Shady said. “You know what these after-hours conferences can be like, we’ll probably be there until dawn and still not come to an agreement. I wanted to stretch my legs.”
“Oh, well certainly, ma’am, let me just fetch you some of m’lady’s favorite port.”
“Thanks.”
The maid stepped away to the cellar, returning a few moments later with a small, dark bottle. “Here you are, ma’am. Do you need clean glasses as well?”
“No, that’s fine,” said Shady. “Oh! Hang on, I’ve forgotten the password for the wards upstairs. What is it, again? Some elvish word, isn’t it? I can never remember.” (SHADY Deception DC 15: 21! Dang, girl.)
“Draconic, ma’am,” said the maid. “Ashqualaka. I’m told it means ‘serene water.’ Ain’t it beautiful?”
“That’s some gods-damned poetry right there, you bet,” said Shady, giving the maid a lopsided grin. Bottle of port in hand, she said good-night and headed back for the stairs.
Now able to bypass the guards and wards spell, Shady bounds on up the stairs, rolling a natural 1 on her Stealth check (oops!) and being spotted by a guard, but quickly smoothing it over by telling a truthful lie: “I’m here to see the Lady Patrician.” She gets a 21 on her Deception check (dang again, girl!) and the guard, who has no reason to doubt her (especially since she clearly has the password to get past the wards), is kind enough to point out the right door. Shady rounds it all off by successfully rolling on her Thieves’ Tools proficiency to pick the conventional lock that’s also on the Lady Patrician’s door, and finally we can move on to the next scene.
CHARACTER LIST:
Shady
Lady Patrician
Dragonwatch Keep
Captain Dryden Ainsworth
Wharfmaster Fean Wavecrest
Sea Lancers: Kia (Captain of the Recluse)
Sea Lancers: Sterling (Captain of the Silver Corsair)
Sea Lancers: Adric (Captain of the Blue Fin)
Telekain
Gunrunners
Cardinal Maraldo
Scullery maid
Patrician’s guards
CHAOS: 3, Shady CRUSHED IT in that scene
THREADS LIST:
Steal the alchemist’s fire
The privateers’ rivalry
The L.P.’s intrigues
Ainsworth’s botched security vs. Shady’s spying
Gunrunners
[…] Next Scene: A chat with the Lady Patrician […]
[…] “The Chat Scene, Modified.” When last we saw Shady she had picked the lock on the Lady Patrician’s door. Rolling a 1 on the Chaos die (again???) […]