"What other method would I use that involves mice eating than going in as a cat. Nobles love their cats since it keeps the mice from the noble ladies and food supplies." Kalliste says softly. She is amused by the flambeau's reaction and will have to take advantage of it in the future. Mice as a delicacy could be a good topic for manipulating the pirate captain. "If we are not here, you can seek our ship which is currently being repairs in the docks." She names the ship and captain.
Caput exchanges contact information on his ship and inn, then sets out to go organize his men for the effort.
I will contact you if I discover anything. When your ship is repaired, and if you are amenable, I would like to sail with you to meet the rest of your Soldales, and see if a longer term alliance would be of mutual benefit
ooc (I will update my character sheet with information about my companion/turb today or tomorrow. We will try to make contact with palace servants away from the palace and at least get more information than we have now about the situation in the palace. )
Edit: Kristos the ship master has been added to my character sheet. Social skills that might apply in the +8-+10 range, plus has Social Contacts virtue that might or might not apply. The grogs won't be that good, the two "social" ones will probably be in the +4-5 range and won't have as broad a mix of skills. Each of the three "social" people travels with two others that are more combat oriented. All are trained to fight in groups.
Edit. The grogs are up. Their social handicap might make this a little more difficult if they don't restrain their tendencies to brag/act sinister. Three teams are out exploring taverns, grog-only teams in the "rougher" places and Kristos handling the nicer establishments. Teams are:
Kristos+archer (age 25) + archer (age 20) (social skills in the +8-10 range)
Social+brawl+single weapon (all age 25) - social skills in the +5 range)
Social+brawl+single weapon (all age 20) social skills in the +4-5 range)
The ship's anchor watch is the remaining 4 (2 single wpn, 2 archer), 2 on shift, 2 resting for later shifts.
Caput is free to back up our cat-inclined magus if she wishes to attempt something tonight. If not, he'll probably go get some sleep on his ship, as most of his crew isn't going to be good for much come dawn.
It takes time in dominion but eventually Kalliste is in the form of a black cat with a white paw and small white spot on her tail and she heads off to the palace to talk to the other cats and listen in on things. A few mice might be good as well. This would let her sneak into the palace and perhaps hear of dissension or support and other talk about the nobles.
Caput makes a few interesting discoveries.
- Most of the castles important staff lives within the walls. It seems as if most of their needs are taken care of inside the walls. And they usually have a few guards when they walk out side the castle.
- All staff has inherited their positions. Some staff of minor importance and those with no connection to the castle are employees without a hereditary position.
- The staff is well paid (this assumption where made by one of the grogs watching a drinking contest between a few guards)
More can be found but it takes time to find out interesting information and your grogs need a focus on what to look for if they intend to speed up the search.
Kalliste can move with ease into the stables and humans seem to welcome her. But soon she runs into a competitor of the mice. He is large, has black fur and his ears bear scars of many fights. He issues a challenge, turn sideways and arch his back hissing.
Kalliste sidles up to him purring and licks him. He is a male and she is female and the two might do very well together. She isn't in heat but still they might make a good team. "Shall we play together?"
I can follow up the next evening once we see how Kalliste's recon goes. Clearly this approach will work best if aimed at guards, rather than the actual servants, since they seem to have more freedom (and are possibly hired outside of the palace families at least some of the time)
The black can loosen up but still walks towards Kalliste with the wicked look of a hunting lion on his face but less aggressive. Once near Kalliste he jumps at her and she is no match aginst this male when it comes to brawl and strength. As he squeeze her between his front legs and hold her to the ground he starts licking her head, as if Kalliste where a kitten. Then he let her go having marked his superior strength and that this is his turf. You are free to move around, at least for now…
--
There are many guards to survey and mostly low rank and young guards are visiting the strange and shady places for Bacchus fermented juices. One of your men can report back (apparent after receiving some heavy wine marinating) that he made contact with a few of the younger guards, they are new recruits and proud of it.
Kalliste purrs at the contact and rubs up against him affectionately before prowling. She will bring the first mouse she catches to him as offering and then head up into the castle listening carefully. She is a nice clean cat with good fur and as such the sort that young girls and sentimental women might like. She is watchful for kicks or scowls and since she can thinking as a person, she can much better understand what is said and anticipate reactions. If she is lucky, she might even make it up to near the Duke, himself.
Outside of the castle Kalliste finds a girl who looks bored and when she see a cat you can see here reaching out to lure Kalliste towards her. Come here cat she says with her sweetest voice. She sits down and reach towards Kalliste. The girl looks healthy and has a quite a nice dress.
Probably Kalliste will return with more information before this evening, so my plans may change.
If I don't hear from her, when my men wake up I will instruct them to focus on the new recruits this evening. Act impressed by their stories and interested in their working conditions, like maybe they'd like to switch to join them from their current job. If newly hired, what are they expected to be doing soon? What do they think of their sergeants, or the Nobles that command them.
We'll otherwise just have a quiet day, most of the folks sleeping or resting, Kristos arranging the ship's business. I'll rotate the teams so the anchor watch is different tonight, but teams are otherwise similar (swap the single weapon and archers, leave everyone else the same).
(ooc, not expecting a GM response until the cat-exploration has had time to be explored. Just so as you're ready when enough time passes)
Kalliste does make for an odd cat, she has the gift but her aura of ennobled presence makes her a much more acceptable. She heads for the girl curiously and then stops a short distance away to watch her. She turns her head aloof like a cat. She might come part way but she is a cat, people come to her, not her coming to them. She also watches the girl carefully just so she is prepared if the girl has hostile intent. She doesn't want to take a chance of getting hurt and no person can run as fast as a cat. She is tempted to cast her aura of childlike innocence but it can wait since she doesn't want to reveal she is a talking cat yet. A soft rumbling purr comes from her mouth.
OOC: Female cats probably hate her (but she is otherwise a very beautiful cat, envied beauty), gifted but aura of ennobled precense to offset gift and She isn't that weak as a cat (about average size and strength as a cat, a matronly cat though, not kitten). Also inoffensive to animals so she looks really really good to other cats.
Per 1, folk ken 2, roll 8 = 11 to try to judge her body language and intent.
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The girl looks as if she wishes to carry and pet the cute cat. She also offers a bowl of cream. She walks slowly towards you and holding her ands out as if to either grab hold of you or scratch you.
OOC: My inspiration on how every cat behaves come from the pack here at home, there are five of them. A the large male where much more physically fit, had participated in a few more brawls and had no lethal intentions so I just ruled that he won the brawl.
Kalliste dodges the grab for the moment and instead goes for the bowl of cream giving off a rumbling purr. She starts to lap it up and will yowl if any attempt to remove her from it takes place. She keeps ears perked though to hear what the girl says since children might talk to pets or potential pets. She will accept petting as long is there are no grabs or attempts to take her from the cream otherwise she will squirm free.
Follow me and I will get you something to eat. (To speed things up I assume that you follow). The girl takes you to the kitchen areas where all sorts of treats are given to both her and her feline companion. Later in a secluded section she talks to you and in the conversation she mentions a few things. She is lonely, her mother is dead and her father is the castles steward so she doesn’t get to see him often. This has taken some time so it is beginning to become evening. She is about to return home when three boys arrive. Each of them with a mean look and they look at the girl and then turn their eyes towards her furry newfound friend. The girl freezes.
Kalliste sense trouble and her ears go back and tail starts to lash quickly. The cat's hair gets on end. She tries to decide what the best means for resolving this. She is ready to easily outrun the boys or even try to shift to lion to scare them. A spell is most likely to be effective. She tries to see if she can get a glance in the eyes of the one of the boys that seems like the leader of the three even as she waits to hear what the girl has to say.
OOC: How strong is the aura here (as in how oppressive does the dominion feel or is it more an aura that feels friendly.
It is an average city dominion aura here of 3. The girl is scared and is beginning to cry. Don’t hurt my cat… And the reply from the leader boy is swift. Thanks for the tip cry baby. We don’t like you or your stupid cat. He and the other boys are looking around for stones. There seems to be an ample supply so they start picking up some.
As soon as the first tear starts to fall, Kalliste choses the course of wisdom. She bolts for cover with the speed of a cat so that by the time they have reached down for the first one, she is out of sight and hidden. Killing the boys would have been easy. Creating a wall of stone to block them off would have been easy but she didn't want to use magic. She could have shifted to lion form and scared the boys but that too would have caused too many questions. Retreat is the wiser course. She could even easily make their hands quiver that they drop the rocks but there are three of them and discretion is wiser move right now. She has high intelligence with the cat agility, leaping and speed knows to get out of there before she is killed by malicious boys.
OOC qik 4, athletics 3 roll of 3 = 10 + 4 if jumping is involved to get to safety.
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Then dex 3, stealth 4, roll 3 = 10 to hide and wait for girl to call it is safe to come back or come out.
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If needed and I find a good place to hide and no one is in sight, I will spont a block of stone to block my hiding place
Creo Terram for stone: 3 (that gets me up to 1 cubic pace, I doubt I need more than a cubic foot or so) + 1 touch + 1 concentration = level 5.
Sta 2, Creo 17 = 19-9 for aura = 10 /2 = 5 so anything but botch. Roll is 7
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Kalliste gets away with ease but the boys then starts throwing stones at the girl chasing her away to her home. Will you try to find her or return to your soldaes and report?
Kalliste slowly creeps out of hiding and first goes to look for the girl. If she is wounded even lightly, a spell of healing will be needed and then to see what she can and hear what she can of councils in the castle since that is why she came here. Hopefully the other castle cats can also tell her more about those boys.
She will have to speak to the girl's father about the girl as well so that he can protect her. Not all fathers are loving but perhaps this one is.
Once you leave your hiding place you find that the girl had made her way indoors. The cats of the castle are on their guard and observing you as a strange stranger.