Game: We're Still not Quite Dead Yet

OOC: If we are in two differant times, with Sid in the time period in between when Sid met with me about joing my crew and before I met Lema, that probably means that at this time Bruce is at the Tavern waiting to meet with Yebena. Which Sid wouldn't know about, but that is where I am instead of at the docks, if my chronology is correct.

Seeing that there is no immediate reaction at the meeting room, Canzonzia leaves the Fortune’s Wheel momentarily to set up arrangements.

Keeping out of sight when doing so, she changes shape and teleports around the immediate vicinity to find a local gang that looks like she can comfortably control it. She enforces her will on the gang leader and orders him to mobilize all his assets.

[Suggestion, telepathic communication from out of sight]

~“An easy sod has just hit the jackpot big, help me out collecting on it and every man will get his equal share. Bring your men near the front of the Fortune’s Wheel and await my mental signal.”~

Next, Canzonzia contacts any allies at her disposal that can stop or trace teleportation. Their objective is to be ready to stop or trace the records in case the record holder tries to flee, using as much discretion as possible.

[Osyluths seem ideal; they can use dimensional anchor and invisibility at will.]

Returning to the Wheel in tiefling noblewoman form, Canzonzia lingers at a bar near the exit, keeping her cover while waiting for the meeting to be broken up. With the emergence of Zreakos and his two minions, she addresses the door greeter and inquires about “any sighting of her auntie’s men” – thus keeping in position to get close to the Maladominians when they leave.

OOC

Main plan: Have local gang stall Zraekos’ group. While Zreakos is busy wiping them out, Canzonzia steals the contract case in the chaos. Possibly fake a crossfire immolation scene to make it seem as if the contract has been destroyed.

Backup plan (because devils need backup plans): If Main Plan fails, impersonate an operative from Maladomini to arrive shortly after and “find out what went wrong”. Get as much information as possible, likely try to talk them into handing over the relevant papers.

Emergency plan (because one backup plan is not enough for a classy devil): If any of the above fails, the allied baatezus should help provide distraction/diversion(s) to the best of their ability, allowing Canzonzia to get close, grab the records, and teleport off.

Siddharta blinks unbelievably that they dare to try again, the infidels...

"...." he calls out his associate's name and waits a minute, meanwhile when he waits for any reply, he uses it to send a sending to Bruce, "I need your help NOW..meet me here (adress)..please"

ooc: Cant remember the contac's name that i had made...

In Sid time:

Bruce whips his head up from what he is doing.

"On it." he replies.

He better not have done something stupid.

If we get the chance to sonic boom someone, I don't care.

Bruce gets a running start, jumps into the air, and activates his boots, flying as fast as he can to Sid's location.

In Lema time:

Bruce takes off his hat and hands it to Lema with a bow. 

"A hat of illusion, I assure you it will disguise you with ease." Bruce stands up. "And..." he hesitates for a moment, "I won't ask much of you while you are with me, but I will ask you to speak your mind. As long as you are under my protection, you have no need to fear anything, especially not me. This will remain true in spite of anything you could say. So please, do not feel the need to restrain yourself."

OOC: This post is now reaching dangerously high numbers of Bruce Maxson. I love it.

Though her incineration was only a potential part of the original plan, Canzonzia collects her wits and plays off Zreakos’ fireball to keep the flames burning vigorously.

In what appears to be a horrible death scene, she tumbles over the papers while screaming her dying breath out. She crumbles into a pile with the fires flaring up around her, obscuring the location and the “remains” of her and the papers.

[Produce flame if possible while faking an immolation death scene as Canzonzia teleports away.]

In an entirely different region of the City of Doors the no-longer-burning damsel arises from the ground in an abandoned alley, holding minutes and contract case triumphantly in her hands. She does not spare a moment for celebrations, however, stuffing the paperwork quickly into her (stylishly designed) handy haversack, changing form to a common traveler and teleporting to a new location.

Canzonzia makes a few jumps and changes of guise, sating her paranoid needs for precaution on the off-chance that she should somehow have been followed or tracked. When content that no retaliatory strike will appear out of nowhere, she investigates the papers closely to see what she has obtained.

Lema time:

 >>"I would like to wait. My story is not one easily told. Please don't take offence."

"Fair enough." Bruce responds.

Bruce looks around and takes stock of the crowd, looking for anything that might be a threat to Lema.

"So, what are we doing here? Some one you know here?" Bruce asks after making sure the area is secure.

ooc: ehm? what about me? btw: my ring has:

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Greater Ability: -continues detect scrying effect, 15th lvl.

Siddharta's fingers itch and he shifts from foot to foot in an attempt to keep moving whilst on the spot..

He slowly scans around hilself, and mentally says to his ring: "Do you see any scrying now? listen if u hear anything move behind the door please..."

A snarl emanates from Canzonzia and her fist clenches hard around the neck of the imp. Her usual civilized composure gives way to anger as she sucks away the tiny devil’s lifeforce, reducing it to a withered drained husk.

Without a moment’s hesitation she teleports to one of Sigil’s circumferential borders and flings the corpse over the side, into the unknown void from which none returns.

Nice try, ambassador, but none shall keep me from my prize.

Canzon makes a jump to one of the many wasteyards in the Hive and finds a nearby refuse pile. She stuffs the extradimensional pocket where she keeps the papers full of rags and similar harmless junk, blocking up the pocket to leave no room for a repeat incident.

With yet another change of form, her next stop is a public fountain where the pleasure devil washes her hands and fixes her hair in a bizarre display of priorities, allowing herself a moment of personal hygiene despite the urgency of her assignment. Finally, Canzonzia resumes her search for a lead-covered case, more paranoid than ever and keeping aware of any further movement in her haversack.

OOC

Vampiric touch to kill the imp. The minutes and contract case stay in their pocket to not reveal Canzon’s location, but they are now accompanied with junk to block up space so as to prevent plane shifting.

Sid casts a new See invisibility and Deeper Darkvision, and then proceeds to move silently into the house.. and carefully see whats happened to the house, if it has been ransacked etc., the moment he determins battle is about to ensue, he will cast Divine Power..

OOC: The tavern is a small, well furnished establishment that is only really suited to serve twelve or so people at a time. The food it serves is better than most places in the hive, but will cost you a few more silver as a result. It also wont serve you food that will make you sick, so thats a plus. It will, however, probably be lower quality than a celestial is accustomed to.

“Certainly, my mistress.” Canzonzia waits for Tylara to dismiss the falxugon and any other underlings who might be present, then provides her report when they are alone.

“I arrived at the Fortune’s Wheel to conduct reconnaissance and learned that our intelligence on Zreakos was… inaccurate.”

“The meeting was not one exclusively for his staff, nor was it scheduled for the following day. It was a meeting with Shemeska the Marauder and already in progress upon my discovery. I assessed the situation and concluded that it was paramount to the interests of Dis that I break up any lucrative arrangement or even potential alliance that Maladomini may intend to form with one of the most influential people in Sigil.”

“Thus, I arranged for implications that Zreakos is affiliated with Estavan the Ogre Magi, known to be a bitter rival to Shemeska. A frameup that will not hold up, but was sufficient for Shemeska not to proceed with the meeting.”

“Upon their departure, I acquired from them these minutes and this contract which would indicate the true intent of the meeting. My identity was not compromised, though unfortunately the Maladominians were left aware that the incident was due to a highly organized operation.”

The brachina falls silent, waiting to see if her superior has any immediate reaction to the report. Given the option, Canzonzia comments further with suggestions on how to proceed.

“Mistress, considering the discrepancy in information I was made aware of, I believe there is the possibility of a leak within our operations. Perhaps a few internal inquiries are in order?”

“As well, I cannot help but notice the similarity of this yugoloth deal with that forged by our lord and master. Considering that arcanaloths have arranged weapon requisitions in both instances, I would request investigation of Yebena ap Ezeya and beware relations to the Tower Arcane in Gehenna.”

"It's okay, its been a long time" Bruce takes her hand and kisses it through his bandages. "Bruce Maxson, at your service." He lets go of her hand and stands back up. "You'd probably remember me best for throwing out that chaosect that was trying to paint everything blue." The deadness that he spoke with before is gone, theres no mistaking which Bruce is talking now.

You recognize the elf?

Oh hey, its the custodian! Whats his name again?

Haven't a clue.

“As you command, mistress.”

Canzonzia withdraws from Tylara’s office, pondering for a fleeting moment if the paeliryon’s retractable claws are manicured throughout the 10 feet they can extend to - and if so, how long it would take. If any records are available for her next assignment, she brings them along to study in detail later (information on the shipment, details of the truce agreement, etc).

Out in public she stretches her black-feathered wings and takes flight to survey the Iron City, soaring high above the streets to take in a scenic overview. Unless anything remarkable catches her notice, she teleports home to her villa and enjoys a relaxed evening with exquisite wine, entertainment, and underlings pampering to her needs. She takes particular time out to personally torture a choice prisoner from her own little dungeon, and then has a full night’s rest before travelling back to Sigil in the morning.

Bruce gives the Bleaker that is staring at him a friendly wave.

"So, Adria, how have the years treated you? You have obviously not lost any of your beauty with age."

Bruce leans in closer to Lema. "Is everything all right?"

Canzonzia curses aloud (though not in a manner that does not befit her social status) and cuts short her stay in Dis. She leaves orders for her minions to tighten security and send note of anything out of the ordinary, then begins her travel to Sigil while maintaining a low profile.

When the pleasure devil arrives back at her estate at Fine Print no. 12 she calls on Trift and her staff to deliver a full report of the incident, the results of any follow-up investigation, and any suspicious activity near the premises recently before it happened. Then she proceeds to inspect the bodies and scene herself.

Siddharta meows/ jawns a big jawn and then shakes his head lazily, raising an eyebrow and "#@Q##^%&(*))((_)(*^$$@!#@$^%%*" (curses) at the floor and anything near..grabs for the door but then thinks the better of it.. he gets ready for a spell casting of his own, and thinks about a reduced disintegrate but holds it off to find out for sure if the spell has not just gone off and dissipated on its own..

OOC: the spell went off, and has no effect other then to annoy me, is the spell gone now? or is it still there?, if so.. (should have received a spot roll to see if i noticed the clean floor imo, but o well)

Will save? dont u mean fort besides, will save is +21, fort +20..and ref +13 (but never mind that one, lol.)

Both options are explored by Canzonzia. She draws on whatever trustworthy connections she can to have the spellbook and scrolls thoroughly examined, taking care to have them carefully searched for and disarmed of wards before their contents are studied.

In the meantime she arranges for the souls of the thieves to be questioned, to find out who they were working for, what their objectives were, and so on.

OOC

We’ve never discussed this, but I assume Canzon’s home is significantly warded (scry-proofing, teleportation-proofing, etc)? If not, this seems a pretty good time for her to have such precautions set up.

Based on the spellbook analysis, Canzonzia instructs her staff to be on the lookout for Abyssal or otherwise tanar’ri-related intrusion. They are to keep cold iron weapons at hand, magic against the forces of Chaos in mind, and so on. The evidence may be far from conclusive, but as an ever-paranoid devil Canzon’s lifestyle is closely related to the ways of her lord Dispater.

The brachina has the bodies preferentially taken to a fellow servant of Dis in Hell’s Gate that can cast the necessary spell, but at least a coalition ally (Stygia and Cania). If Yijral is still in Sigil, perhaps that’s a likely option? He’s a sage devil from the Canian Ministry of Magic that Canzon extended courtesy to when they were tabled together at Osael’s party.