Trade Conference Security - Beforehand
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* 1027/02/19 *
There's two weeks for Tess' guys to prepare beforehand. The basic plan will
be for Tess and his guys with Gather Info, Sense Motive, etc ... to hang out
in Baratpur and check for rumors, and just put an ear to the ground: has
anyone got anything big/dangerous planned for the time of the conference?
Tess and Ved will also check through some of the employees (e.g. cooks) for
the trade conference quietly.
Before the conference, we hear on the grapevine that some other people are
asking questions too. New people to town. They appear to be asking questions
about the people who will work at the conference, then they start asking
questions about your people. For example, "Hey, some other guy was in here
yesterday asking about that. You a mate of his?"
Tess and Ved will try and intercept one of those new guys in town who have
been asking question. They lurk at a likely spot, bribe the barkeep to give
you a sign, and get given the sign when someone is taling with the barkeep.
Ved reports his thoughts are along the lines of "So who are these guys?
Whispering sash? DDC? Local assassins? Doesn't seem like local security. I'd
better report upstairs." The guy appears to be dressed like a commoner, is a
local, and doesn't appear to be wearing a disguise
DDC - the Darokin Diplomatic Corps
Whispering Sash - Hulean assassins
Tess and Aldara follow the guy out of the tavern. He heads to a house with
multiple exits. He goes in the back way. Aldara flies overhead to see if the
guy exits the house. There are other people inside. Aldara notes no one
enters and leaves in the next few minutes. Tess and Aldara will stakeout the
house. Tess will go back and talk to Ved, tell him to keep an eye out and not
attract attention. Aldara is left watching the house. Tess will then return
to the house. If it seems feasible, Tess will sneak up to the house and take
a look inside from where he can be hidden (e.g. if he can see into windows
from a neighboring rooftop) that would be fine. This house is in a good part
of town.
Over time, Tess notes several people arriving and leaving. They seem to come
for a while, then leave again. They are all male. This guy leaves again too,
but Tess watches this place rather than him. Aldara follows him - he heads
off to question more people, subtlely.
Tess gets a peek inside. Tess sees a group of people eating a drinking,
laughing at something before being shushed. They don't appear to be wearing
disguises. They also don't appear to be commoners, by their attitude. There
are about 5 people in the place all told, and another 5 come and go. They
are speaking Sindhi with a definite southern accent. They are armed with
short swords and the like.
Tess will wait for Aldara to get back. Tess and Aldara will watch until it
starts to get light. Tess will leave Aldara to roost nearby during the day.
Tess will go and chat with Grey's folks and see if they know of any southern
organizations that might be interested (criminal, assassins, spies for
another mumlyket, that sort of thing). Not that they know of. They don't
really have the interest in that kind of thing that Tess has though.
Tess will also talk to his security guys - they'll get some set cover
stories for why they're in town and asking around - basically, two or three
merchant groups looking for info on the upcoming conference.
Tess and Aldara alternate staking out the house, along with Darielle.
Darielle can hang out on a roof, maybe even hang out of their roof sometimes.
After a few days, as it gets closer to the time, Tess gets to meet with the
people responsible for security of the visiting rajahs. Tess recognises one
of them, the head of the rajah's security from Shajarkand, as being one of
the house peoeple. He appears to have masterwork equipment. Shajarkand is a
southern mumlyket bordering the Atruaghan clans. Shajarkand and Baratkand
don't share a border, and have little to do with each other.
Some of the other people in the house start making appearances elsewhere as
guards from that place, in uniform. When they do so, they don't return to
the house as commoners. Shortly afterwards, the house is closed up and the
last of them leave. They go by roundabout routes to where the guards from
Shajarkand are staying, where they turn into guards. The other guards,
including some you didn't see at the house, seem to recognise these guys,
although they appear to be perhaps a different unit. The entourage of guards
for Shajarkand is slightly larger than normal vs. other entourages.
The conference is attracting attention from a few different sources,
neighbouring countries, that kind of thing. Once they've left that house,
Tess will check their garbage and also the house, but finds nothing useful.
The guy from Shajarkand seems pretty keen on having tight security. He wants
to know all kinds of things, but seems content not to actually know what
they are, just that Tess has thought about it. For example, "What
arrangements are in place to check the serving staff?" When Tess
intentionally "misses" something, the Shajarkand guy suggests an improvment,
and even whips out some notes he has already drafted on the subject.
Tess: "Ah most useful ..." Tess will be happy to chit-chat ... trying to get
to know the guy, get a feel for him. His suggestion is pretty tight, as
tight as you would make it - much more paranoid than most people would have.
So this guy is good _and_ paranoid. He chit-chats happily. Probably a very
frustrating conversation, as both of you try and find out what you can about
each other while not revealing anything important about yourselves. It quite
possibly becomes a little farcical. Tess will be friendly though, realising
what is going on - friendly in a, we seem to be similar professionals kind
of way.
Near the end of the conversation, they guy looks at Tess and bluntly says
"You have people lurking in the local taverns looking for those who are
showing undue interest, do you not?"
Tess will reply, "Of course, Rajah Kvana wants to make sure this trade
conference runs as smoothly as possible. We do what we can to ensure this.
Yes." Not quite directly saying yes, but saying yes more or less.
He studies Tess for a moment longer, then nods. "I too have people doing
this. I believe our people have encountered each other. Would you object to
sharing information? We both wish to keep our masters secure in this
meeting, so they can choose how they wish to screw each other." He smiles.
Tess smiles. "Certainly." Tess will limit things - doesn't want to give away
security details, but any gaps this guy has noticed, or anything else this
guy has heard of would be very useful.
He replies: "Good." He is mostly intrested in other organisations that might
want to do the people here harm. It would be a good time, and it would
behead Sind, as most of the rulers of Sind are expected here. His people are
looking for other people that want to know things like which room is being
used for meetings, that kind of thing.
Tess asks if this guy has heard of the Sightless Ones? Tess
would be interested in some info on them, or any other organizations that
might pose trouble or be on the lookout.
Yes he has. That is another name for a organisation which hires itself out as
assassins in Sind. So far he hasn't seen any sign of them here, which isn't
too surprising, as any hit on a rajah would provoke a large backlash.
So far they haven't seen anything or anyone other than your own group. Aside
from the random kooks and such that your own group has encountered. This
guy has had trouble from Whispering Sash or other Hulean agents previously,
but not lately. He thinks that the preparations so far won't find anyone who
will slip in at the time, but might smoke out someone who arrived early.
Tess will also inform Grey that Shajarkand seems to have professional
security/spies in town. Seems not dangerous at the moment.
Trade Conference Security - During
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At night, the plan is to put the Graakhalians on watch with Sindhi agents.
The Graakhalians will be cloaked and preferably in guard tower/overlooking
locations, so it shouldn't be that obvious. There are 12 Graakhalians who
are good for that purpose (4 Elves, 8 Gnolls - 1 other Graakhalian Elf is a
trader). Tess will put them on pair assignments with 13 Sindhi (8 Sindhi
warriors, and 5 with assorted other "night time" skills. Basically, I'm
assuming Tess handles a fair bit of the night time security, as Tess has
agents that can see in the dark. In the day time, Tess' guys will be mostly
under the cover of traders.
Night time security:
Roving: Tess, Aldara, Pratima
The roving night time security (Pratima, Aldara, Tess) will be checking on
watches and other areas inbetween watches, etc., anywhere that we need
basically where a stationary watch isn't going to be useful.
Stationary (spot scores shown numerically; first listed is Elf or Gnoll):
5 Thironia + Madhu + Shankara
Amiowen + Kalyan + 4 Dipak
7 Glandra + Sanjeev + 4 Rashmi
Fywen + Baldev + 6 Arundhati
Madia + Laxmi + 6 Lata
Vimbor + Pushpa + 7 Jayanti
Delylith + Uma + 6 Masood
Mylinda + 10 Pitambar + Sita
Elvaradith + 8 Abhay + 4 Sunita
Day time security (as traders):
Tess (using Danesh Bidwani cover)
Ratnam, Meena, Mohini, Suniti, Deepali, Dipali, Fahmida, Padmavati, Seetha,
Fareed, Kishan, Seeta, Lalita, Jaya, Durga, Rajneesh.
Externally gathering info: Rupinder, Sri, Madhuri, Darielle.
With the Ring of Sustenance, Tess will wander around as a trader during the
day and work security at night. Tess may switch covers during the day to not
blend in as a trader and work more directly on security. Tess will cast
Detect Poison on food preparations now and then.
Tess' people don't have to deal with the normal security, just intercepting
people who bypass the normal security, of which there is only one. They
claim to be a lost trader ("isn't the bathroom this way?") but your people
have to release him after they check that his credentials are correct (they
are). He resists Ved doing a mind scan, and by his momentary expression, he
realises he was scanned. He grimaced for a moment, then casually looked
around, but he doesn't raise a fuss. Tess will apologize for the intrusion,
"The bathroom is this way sir. We must be professional with our security, I
hope you understand. Have a good night." He doesn't appear equipped out of
the ordinary, and doesn't otherwise react suspiciosly. He returns to his
seat afterwards, listening to the droning speeches.
Over the course of the conference, Tess realises some of the younger serving
staff (10-13) who do simple tasks Tess have seen before. Those children from
the assassins place - the ones Turia took back with her. They appear to be
doing a credible job of listening to conversations.
The conference ends, with no incidents.
Tess will catch up with that guy from Shajarkand at some stage. Wondering if
he is interested in sharing some info in the future for security -
particularly if there's any Hulean spies, etc. He cautiously agrees. Tess
will arrange to sharing info via messengers.
Another thing in the wind down: Tess wants to keep an eye out that all the
guys from Shajarkand also leave. Tess doesn't spot any of them staying. Tess
doesn't see anything else from that guy who moved out of place for the
toilet.
Tess will praise his folks - that was their first major operation. After the
conference is wound down and dignitaries have left, they can have several
days off. Tess will be fairly happy that that went off ok. Tess will deliver
a report to Grey.
The conference was for a week, the first week of the third month right. So
1027/03/14 or so by the time everything is wound down.
The name for the guy who did security for Shajarkand was Tushar. The
security for rajahs from other mumlykets was not as tight.
* 1027/03/15 *
Glenn: Events like this are what cause rulers to question the value in
paying for all this extra security.
Dave: Ah, but you pay extra for security to ensure nothing happens - and
then you wonder what good they are when nothing does happen!
Glenn: Exactly! I'll tell you as a DM yes there were several people who
decided the risk of getting stabbed was too high for the potential gain.
Discussion of setting up trade routes
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Glenn: Looked through stuff in Quintessential Rogue. Likely to do
organization stuff on a 3 monthly basis.
Dave: Main aim for 1027 is to set up spies in place (not so many of those),
and get trade routes going (most of the traders have good gather info or
sense motive so they can keep an ear out as they go through towns).
Glenn: To set up trade routes, all you really need for investment are
traveling objects (carts, horses) and sufficient cash to cover contingencies
and for the first few journeys.
Dave: Would like to be able to hit near break even for costs at some stage
(maybe several years) to reduce financial burden on Grey and enable more
money to be spent in a more useful way on security (e.g. trying to hunt down
Hulean agents, rather than just a listener network). Cost of say ~1,000gp
per route? Tess can then set up another 3 routes initially, more when he has
more cash.
Glenn: That should be fine
Dave: As a Darokin citizen, Darokin merchant guild membership is
1,000gp/year, so that won't be worthwhile really until Tess is making at
least 1,000gp profit per year (i.e. say around 10,000gp invested) assuming
10% to 20% profit once things are stable.
Planning investigating of Jaibul and the Desert Nomads
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Sindhi is spoken in Jaibul, so Tess will send Ratnam and Ved to investigate
Jaibul. The desert nomads apparently speak Sindhi, plus some other language,
according to traders. Tess will investigate the desert nomads himself.