Dustown
Winter 1, after stealing the aasimar relic
Ethan and Sav
Ethan
Ethan would realize the Inquisition is unlikely to shrug the loss of the relic off without a search.
“Can they use magic to find it? Is that a thing…?” he would ask.
Sav
“To do such a thing ent in my kenning, but tha does nae mean that it ent a thing,” she’d say cautiously. “Obviously a place that does nae have many people bustlin about would be best, and mayhaps a place behind stone or steel walls - when I go sightin’ for magic I cannae see it when it’s behind a good thick stone piece or behind a good piece o metal or lead.”
Ethan
Ethan brainstorms a little. “Well, does the observatory have any rooms like that? Or… no, maybe not. I guess if I stole something like that and wanted to know what it did that might be the first place I went…”
Sav
“Mayhap in a place or in such a way as makes it look unimportant?” she suggests. “I reckon there’re two ways o hidin’ something - in plain sight, amidst a bunch o rubbish that looks like it’s nae worth the effort t’search through it, or stuck in a fastness behind many locks and walls. For the former, a warehouse wi’ the cured hams an barrels o salt or a storage attic rife with all o granda’s rubbish from his youth?
“Or,” she adds in a sudden flash of mischief, “we could hide it pure under their nose. Those boarded up passages in the sewers ‘neath the Headquarters - they nae patrol there and those have no been prised up in years.”
Ethan
“That’s clever. I was considering it too. I’m just worried about… the things we can’t control.”
“For instance, the first suggestion: it’s good thinking, but people are always a variable - the butcher who sells his business or the misery who up and dies on you. Then different people are there, moving things around, poking at places that were nice and safe.”
“I’d rather some place that no one would think to look or… maybe somewhere they can’t look.”
“Right beneath their noses seems the best so far, but let’s think it out and see if it’s the best we got…”
Sav
She frowns a little, thinking. “The place where the weans make their home - it’s liable to remain well hid there, an’ I’m like to return there many a time regardless, but I dinnae know as that I’d feel right puttin that with them an’ counting on them to hold their tongues seems pure foolish. Perhaps the place where the pig-Sufferin’ made its lair? ‘Tis close enough I can divert there easy on visitin’ the weans, but few are likely to go their of their own accord after the years of the beastie lairin’ there.
“And it’s likelier that I can make more noise there, should the experimentin’ come to that.”
Ethan
“What about outside the city? The path we take through the sewers dumps us out west (?) of the gates near the mountains. Could you take Danica and maybe spend a couple days looking at it there inside your little magic bubble? Then, when you’re done, maybe bury it somewhere nearby? I can’t think of any reason why anyone would be around that area and even if anyone was, I can’t think of why they’d go digging…
“That seems safe, but… maybe that’s not practical…
“Oh! I think I got it… we can store it beneath the ashes of the Roasted Swan! Think about it - there’s sure to be some sewers beneath it like the rest of the city, right? And they won’t go looking there because they probably searched the place over hard when they were first looking to round us up!
“There’s nothing there above it, and there’s not likely to be. So it’s an area that’s considered ‘searched’ by the Swans and useless by any would-be investors!”
Sav
She snorts in amusement at the first option. “Aye, can do that well enough, but the idea that it might take only a few days to unlock its secrets seems high optimistic. Certainly possible - I could find out that it’s well broken and nothin tae be done about it - but nae a given. Outside of the city does expand the area they’d have to search to find it though, for certain. The mines in general might not be a bad thought - I’d simply have to squirrel away for a time wi’ enough food an’ supplies to keep researchin’, as goin’ back an’ forth would be impractical.”
Toward the second, she nods slowly. “‘Tis a possibility. The maps of the well-trodden spots on the roads and the sewers dinnae always match up neatlike, though - ‘twould take a wee bit of investigation to see if the sewers beneath it are equally as abandoned and left for ashes. Unless there’s a cellar to the Swan?”
Ethan
“One last suggestion (for tonight) - what about the old mausoleum? No one travels there, it’s definitely encased in thick stone…
“If there’s any way to somehow connect one part of the gravesite to the sewers beneath, then you’d have a shielded area to store the item and multiple ways to escape if you ever needed to.”
Sav
She nods at that, then grimaces faintly. “Hiding the piece in a tomb would certain sure keep any but the most dedicated from pokin’ around, but I’m no lookin’ forward tae disturbin the former occupant tae hide the relic. But ‘tis no worse than hidin’ it amidst the bodies in the Sufferin’s lair.”
Ethan
“Ok. Well… we only have so much time. I trust you to sneak around and not attract attention. But you’re just one person and we need you in three places: investigating/slowly clearing the pipe beneath the Swan headquarters; investigating/clearing the burnt out ruins beneath the Roasted Swan; and doing the same for the area in the mausoleum.
“Is there anyone else we can trust to handle at least one of those?
“I suppose I can sneak over and examine the mausoleum. No one should see me coming or going and I can hunt around for anything that looks like a crack or fault that might lead down more.
“Or we could go all-in on the Roasted Swan, and I can try to help you clear enough of the wreckage to maybe see if there’s a way that it connects to the sewers…
“If we do that, we’d have to be extremely careful. People will likely notice any sounds coming from that area, since there shouldn’t be any sounds coming from around there…”
He rubs his chin. None of the options seem ideal…
Sav
“Astarael? Or Bax, if he’s still in the city. I assume if he’s a halfway decent hunter he can walk silent wi’in the city as well. I’d prefer tae handle the pipe beneath the headquarters meself.”
She pauses, and adds, “Ye ken, of course, that I could most likely carry it around wi’ me.” She pats her ever-present bag. “The downside bein’ that if I were bagged so’d be the relic.”
OOC Wrapup
Patrick
Crap. We never really made a decision. Which idea do you like the best?
• Exploring/excavating under the Roasted Swan
• “ “ in the Mausoleum
• In the sewers where the Suffering was
• Outside the city
• somewhere elsePriscilla
Sav would probably feel safest outside the city for initial experimentation, but once she discovers what it is she’d want to move it into the city - either the mausoleum or the Swan’s cellarPatrick
Cool. Ethan would definitely recommend taking Danica with you when you first leave the city. Meanwhile, he could investigate the mausoleum to see if it could do what you need it to do.
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