UN: ??? - Video - Forward dated to Nov 15 for plot reasons

[funnylittleclown]

[ The Doctor twirled the funny looking little pendant over in his hand. He had used it before to speak to others but this was the first occasion he had decided to make a posting of his own. Given what he had learned though it felt nessacary. ]

Impressive place... the Palace of the Doxe. I do like the floors but I don't think I should like to work here if I were very much younger than I am. I've noticed they have this peculiar hiring habit. Everyone in Bonaccorso’s employ, well... nearly everyone, is quite young. You've noticed that? Perhaps you have also noticed the vacant look in their eyes?

[ And what could cause that! He seemed to know though hesitate to say over an unknown communications device. ]

Little wonder they can't seem to get any of their work done.

Which brings me around to an interesting problem you see... I need something shifted. It's a fairly large item and you are all such innovative people I'm sure you might have discovered the means to slip things in and out of the Palace without disturbing anyone? I shouldn't like to bother the staff or the nobles with this, not with so much else going on. I might also need a safe place to store the item, just for a little while, until we can get it to where it belongs.

[ Was that vague enough to confuse any unfriendlies but open enough to hint that he had met a 15 year old boy who needed smuggling out of the Palace? No?  ]

I think I will take a tour of the gardens later today if anyone would like to meet in person.



[ OOC NOTES - This post in made in response to the November Plot Roles

I am ICly looking for some help to smuggle a young boy out of Bonaccorso’s employ for the November plot. If interested just reply and have your character offer help. Otherwise the Doctor can tell your characters what he will learn from poking around amounst Bonaccorso’s servants on the 15th.
If you want to plot something OOCly PM this account or hit my plurk - coco_rose

And forgive the vagueness but I couldn't find anything that said how secure or not the communications were and since they are spy gaming things it seemed better to talk in person. If you want more directness just put Gardens in the reply header. ]

Comments

UN: Senth; Video

[sergeant_slick]

[Smuggling something sensitive out of the palace? Say no more.] If your friend in the guard isn't an option anymore, I suppose I could help. [You know the one. Short little guy, knows a lot about languages.]

[funnylittleclown]

He retired unfortunately.

[ They would have to steal a new uniform if they were to try that trick again! ]

And with the curfew and increased patrols I think it might be rather more difficult this time.

[ Just so you know you might be risking capture and jail time. ]

[sergeant_slick]

Shame. Seemed like a decent sort. [Poorly-fitting uniform, though.]

That's familiar enough. We'll just have to make sure we're not caught outside after curfew. Besides--I've been out hunting those critters that the invaders left behind. I've got a few bits of them lying around to prove it. Good, honest work to protect the city. Hells, that's the sort of thing we warn the guards away from if we see them--we can't let them go wandering into infested territory, they're not equipped for that.

[Is he willing to use a creepy bit of exoskeleton as a prop to misdirect the guards? Hell yes he is.]

[funnylittleclown]

That's helpful! Why if the guards saw a few of those creatures outside they wouldn't go out at all would they... not if they didn't have the right sort of equipment for it.

[ It sounds the perfect distraction! ]

I suppose for your hunting missions you carry a lot of equipment with you too? Maybe in a large duffel bag or case?

[sergeant_slick]

If they hear one of them shrieking, definitely. Not easy to mistake for anything else. [Which also meant he probably couldn't manage that, even with the weird tricks Fox had been teaching him. But the horrible death-rattle clicking, he could probably still do.]

Sure, sure. I can get you a spare. [From somewhere. And someone. To be determined.]

un: absterge

[downswing]

You think the young thralled?

[funnylittleclown]

They are encouraged to be by the older members of the staff.

[ He perhaps shouldn't write this so boldly but... ]

Some manner of opiate. Given in enough quantity that they can barely function.

[downswing]

...numbed. To what end? They serve no surgery or pleasure house.

[funnylittleclown]

To keep them from worrying, from seeing too much... I can't be sure. They've told me they are encouraged to take the powders to calm their nerves when serving such an important person.

[downswing]

Servants train in composure.

Their enforced discretion through lethargy only serves masters or assassins.

un: daozhang | audio

[binghua]

[...Oh, now this is interesting. And disconcerting.]

Bonaccorso's wing?

[The maid he's met just recently works there.]

What else did you see there?

[funnylittleclown]

Not much else I'm afraid. The staff were all very nervous and unwilling to say very much unless threatened.

[ Which he didn't like to do really but sometimes you had to play the heavy. ]

I do wonder why they feel the need to keep them drugged...

[binghua]

Drugged?

[That's a little much for the staff, isn't it? Shouldn't those workers be there by choice, either to support themselves or their families, or because they like the work? Ah, but even just thinking those thoughts makes Xingchen reconsider. Sometimes people don't have much of a choice, not when it comes to survival. And if they're all young, as the doctor says, then that definitely looks suspicious, unless Bonaccorso just...has an eccentric taste for staff aesthetics. Xingchen can't rule it out, even if it does sound absurd.

But drugs. He still has no proof of anything, but he thinks about this. Why would the staff be drugged?]

I do not wish to make false accusations. We do not have enough information. Yet, I cannot help but fear they are being drugged so as to hide something. If the workers are under such an influence, then surely they are less likely to speak. Perhaps they cannot speak. The ages, though. I cannot make sense of that.

[funnylittleclown]

I agree but it is suspicious.

[ And they were thinking along the same lines. There was no reason to drug staff to make it easier to serve an important person, that was clearly a lie, so what was the real reason... to keep them quiet? Compliant? Addicted to the drug? It sounded sinister. ]

Bonaccorso has been ill lately, hasn't he? Perhaps that has something to do with it. Have you heard of anything else unusual that has happened around him?

[binghua]

I haven't. I have no reason to be in that area, though I doubt I would be welcome even if I did.

[Xingchen hasn't...exactly endeared himself to Macaluso or Vannozza during his stay, and he can't imagine he'd have much better luck with Bonaccorso.]

I was approached by a maid asking for help to transfer from working in Bonaccorso's wing, however. She didn't have time to explain why, but it's obviously bad enough if people want to get out.

un: ut malum pluvia | text

[somebadnews]

[ ...He might have noticed, but he doesn't pay it much attention until someone calls it out. Child labor isn't really uncommon here, but drugging them adds a new layer. ]

How large?

[funnylittleclown]

It's about chest high but might be able to fit into something smaller.

[ If they encourage the boy to curl up into a small ball for stealthy transport. ]

A large truck or duffle might work. We simply need to find something subtle to carry it away in.

[somebadnews]

[ Chest high on Five probably isn't the same as it is on him, but it doesn't really matter if he doesn't have to pick up whatever it is and just teleports it out. — He's apparently curious enough to be considering it. He hasn't been giving Bonaccorso enough attention. ]

Are you in the garden now?

[funnylittleclown]

Just past the hydrangeas!

[ That would be a yes. ]

>> action

[somebadnews]

[ Five doesn't write anything in response to indicate that he's on his way. He also doesn't give much credence to hiding his powers, because he just appears by the hydrangeas in a ripple of blue light.

He looks around briefly until he settles on the man and steps closer. ]

What is it, really?

un: a civil serpent | audio.

[inferus]

The servants in Bonaccorso's employ are not treated well. Two may have been killed only last month though there was never concrete evidence of who was killed. The rest were made to forget what happened in that wing while he was dying. Now you say they are being drugged as well?

[funnylittleclown]

Made to forget? Opiates could do that in great enough quantity...

[ Thinking aloud. ]

We don't know who was killed or how young they might have been?

[inferus]

It was a magic spell that made them forget at least in this particular case. I'm not certain why they would be drugged as well. The opiate itself could possibly be spelled.

( But Wrath could only tell that they were made to forget, because it was magic. He was unaware of the drugging. )

To my understanding, there were two servants missing including a maid who spoke to one of our group. She was afraid for her life. When I visited the Doxe shortly after he had been healed, I could sense at least three deaths had occurred within his room and some dark ritual had been performed not long ago.

[funnylittleclown]

The opiate itself could be enough to make them forget. It can make one easily suggestable. Some one is going to an awfully lot of trouble to keep them quiet.

[ And once he heard that story, well! That's plenty of reason right there! ]

They might have been drugged to keep them from seeing any of that, or from spreading rumors, or even because they did see something. A dark ritual though, hm. I wonder what that could have been...

[inferus]

I believe it was to bring the Doxe back to life.

( There were three deaths that wrath felt inside of that room though he could not pull apart further details. )

Such dark rituals to defy death itself often have a large cost. The death of two servants would qualify.