This is a thread for discussion of ideas and dissemination of information regarding Herschell's mission. Plotters:
Dreck
Eizen
'Her'
Jougo
Akane
Reiteration of information:
1. The targets name is Randall Niven, and he owns the item shop "The Olde Haberdashery", which was given to him by his father, who was bequeathed it by his father, who won it in a poker game.
2. This Olde Haberdashery is in an excellent location adjacent to the waterfront, with a glorious sign that renders it visible to every ship that comes to Elexia, making it extremely valuable territory for a shopowner. Like Randall. Herschell personally certainly doesn't care for it.
3. Randall was victimized by a shoplift last month, and has become bitter afterwards. He doesn't have any type of insurance to cover losses from damage or theft.
4. Randall truly loves Whales.
5. Randall has a soft spot in his heart for Gin.
6. Randall is having trouble paying the bills, But he won't have to default because of his secret financial weapon, as he calls it, hidden somewhere in that building.
7. His wife, Carla, sometimes voices regret that she didn't marry a sailor.
8. Their young son, 7, name of Benton, is interested in earth magics and plays with stones which he organizes into the most dreadful things to step on. And then leaves them on the floor to be stepped upon.
9. The Niven family lives in the top floor of the Haberdashery, a modest home for the amount of money they must make.
10. There is at least one secret exit from the building, in case of emergency.
11. Randall does have a Will, which would leave the Haberdashery in the possession of his Wife. Should they both die, his son. Should they all three die, his cousin. Should they all 4 die, the city of Elexia will take it as taxes and it will be sealed in red tape for decades.
12. There is a pool of LP for you all at the end of the job, 450, but damage to the building or its contents (other than the contents that get stolen) will subtract LP from the total. Other buildings are fair game.
13. Randall deals in Rare items. Difficult to afford rare items.
I am thinking up what buildings are adjacent, I will post them here so you can have some location scout intel.
Epic World! Because seriously! It's the awesome!
And don't forget to do your shopping at The Newe Haberdashery, the finest vendor of magic items and oddball services ... Ever!
**Yes that or PMs! Because everyone knows that in TV shows and Movies, if you get the whole plan explained before the guys do it then it is definitely going to fail!**
Epic World! Because seriously! It's the awesome!
And don't forget to do your shopping at The Newe Haberdashery, the finest vendor of magic items and oddball services ... Ever!
The first question is, how clean do we want to work here? It's probably easiest to get the place with the owner gone so we can deal with the wife. However, we know far less about the wife.
Dreck for one has a strong preference of keeping bloodshed to a minimum. Just doesn't make business sense.
Eizen has a strong preference that we end up with no one even knowing a crime occurred. Which is difficult when our goal is "take everything and ruin this man" but perhaps not impossible.
No bounties on our heads, no infamy, no one out for vengeance.
That would be the optimal win-win situation. To craft some situation where they want to just up sticks and leave like over night. After all, they have considerable debt it seems. They might want a clean break.
Well, the owner loves whales and the wife wishes she'd married a sailor. Perhaps finding out a way to make the OWNER a sailor would do it?
Okay. The outline of a scam has been formed.
We pull the rare and beautiful DOUBLE SCAM, wherein we make the mark believe we are actually pulling a scam for HIM. In short, we'll let him get out of his debts and escape this life of getting robbed and hassled so he can sail the oceans and see the whales with his sailor-obsessed wife. How? By faking his own death. That way, his "orphaned" son can be taken in by the Fraternity of Mages and learn Earth Magics and leave rocks everywhere.
Do we agree this is a good scam outline? If so, we should start planning the details.
Well I think it is plausable that She would have some form of apparel that would be from some tax collector.. What costumes she was allowed was never nailed out so I suppose we could start here..
And also, why not make it to where he has to take the boy as well.. get the boy to want to go.. He likes making traps and things, could be useful on a ship what with all the pirates that exist.
Well we do need someone from the family left "alive", as it were, or else the shop goes to the unknown cousin. Plus becoming an Earth Mage seems to be what he wants, which would by necessity require him to go away to the Mage's Academy anyhow.
Alternately, if the boy wants to stay with his parents on the boat, we could somehow try to make it so Herschell is the cousin mentioned in the will. That would probably be super difficult though?
What if we pull a con that introduces the long lost "cousin" Herschell, create a series of events in which Herschell saves the man's life from "life threatening" attacks, gets so indebted to Herschell for saving his life that he gives everything he has to him and goes to become the sailor his wife always wanted to avoid the debt collectors and his son goes tot he mage academy to be the mage he wanted? Would that be a functionable plan?
It could be, yeah. Especially if the guy's will just says it would go to his Cousin and not, specifically, Cousin Leo or whatever. The document could always be altered in that case.
That'd work, yeah. Let's get some other insight on this; does anyone else have some neat conceptions for how we can fit stuff from the Mark Profile into the scam? Or, if they don't think this plan is worthwhile, a totally new plan?
If we are going have the son be the "survivor", we need a reason for the kid to give us the keys to the place.
If we are going to have the cousin be the "survivor", we need to figure out where the will is or otherwise learn its wording. This could be done as a part of faking the man's death.
If one of our subgroups is pretending to be debt collectors, we should learn more about who he owes this debt to. We may or may not need to know what his secret weapon is (although knowing that would certainty help). If we can't break his confidence in it, we might need to steal the secret weapon.
-----
We might even want to break into three groups, with group/person #3 befriending the wife and becoming an "impartial" third opinion.
Well, the kid as the survivor would give up the spot so he could attend the Mage's Academy. Can't run a store in Elexia and go to Hogwarts at the same time, sad to say.
I don't know if a group going with the wife alone is entirely necessary? We basically need to sell both her and the owner on the sailor idea, together.
Epic World! Because seriously! It's the awesome!
And don't forget to do your shopping at The Newe Haberdashery, the finest vendor of magic items and oddball services ... Ever!
Dreck
Eizen
'Her'
Jougo
Akane
Reiteration of information:
1. The targets name is Randall Niven, and he owns the item shop "The Olde Haberdashery", which was given to him by his father, who was bequeathed it by his father, who won it in a poker game.
2. This Olde Haberdashery is in an excellent location adjacent to the waterfront, with a glorious sign that renders it visible to every ship that comes to Elexia, making it extremely valuable territory for a shopowner. Like Randall. Herschell personally certainly doesn't care for it.
3. Randall was victimized by a shoplift last month, and has become bitter afterwards. He doesn't have any type of insurance to cover losses from damage or theft.
4. Randall truly loves Whales.
5. Randall has a soft spot in his heart for Gin.
6. Randall is having trouble paying the bills, But he won't have to default because of his secret financial weapon, as he calls it, hidden somewhere in that building.
7. His wife, Carla, sometimes voices regret that she didn't marry a sailor.
8. Their young son, 7, name of Benton, is interested in earth magics and plays with stones which he organizes into the most dreadful things to step on. And then leaves them on the floor to be stepped upon.
9. The Niven family lives in the top floor of the Haberdashery, a modest home for the amount of money they must make.
10. There is at least one secret exit from the building, in case of emergency.
11. Randall does have a Will, which would leave the Haberdashery in the possession of his Wife. Should they both die, his son. Should they all three die, his cousin. Should they all 4 die, the city of Elexia will take it as taxes and it will be sealed in red tape for decades.
12. There is a pool of LP for you all at the end of the job, 450, but damage to the building or its contents (other than the contents that get stolen) will subtract LP from the total. Other buildings are fair game.
13. Randall deals in Rare items. Difficult to afford rare items.
I am thinking up what buildings are adjacent, I will post them here so you can have some location scout intel.
Colt Wyrmbane
Olivar'Romov
Detective Taskmage
Darby, Esteemed Adventurer
Mike, the Situation
Herschell Ratliff, Merchant of Finery
Yaagh, the Pummeler
And don't forget to do your shopping at The Newe Haberdashery, the finest vendor of magic items and oddball services ... Ever!
Acelin's Characters (since her sig won't work).
Acelin's Characters (since her sig won't work).
Colt Wyrmbane
Olivar'Romov
Detective Taskmage
Darby, Esteemed Adventurer
Mike, the Situation
Herschell Ratliff, Merchant of Finery
Yaagh, the Pummeler
And don't forget to do your shopping at The Newe Haberdashery, the finest vendor of magic items and oddball services ... Ever!
Dreck for one has a strong preference of keeping bloodshed to a minimum. Just doesn't make business sense.
No bounties on our heads, no infamy, no one out for vengeance.
Nervada - 98% fat free, high in fiber.
Eizen - Collected
Yack - Walking
Miko Wydberg
Tanya
Nervada - 98% fat free, high in fiber.
Eizen - Collected
Yack - Walking
Miko Wydberg
Tanya
Acelin's Characters (since her sig won't work).
Well, the owner loves whales and the wife wishes she'd married a sailor. Perhaps finding out a way to make the OWNER a sailor would do it?
Okay. The outline of a scam has been formed.
We pull the rare and beautiful DOUBLE SCAM, wherein we make the mark believe we are actually pulling a scam for HIM. In short, we'll let him get out of his debts and escape this life of getting robbed and hassled so he can sail the oceans and see the whales with his sailor-obsessed wife. How? By faking his own death. That way, his "orphaned" son can be taken in by the Fraternity of Mages and learn Earth Magics and leave rocks everywhere.
Do we agree this is a good scam outline? If so, we should start planning the details.
It might help if we also apply some pressure, play on his fears. This would be a major life changing decision for him and he might not be so bold.
Maybe split into two groups - one group plays the helpful lot while the other pretends to be debt collectors.
Nervada - 98% fat free, high in fiber.
Eizen - Collected
Yack - Walking
Miko Wydberg
Tanya
And also, why not make it to where he has to take the boy as well.. get the boy to want to go.. He likes making traps and things, could be useful on a ship what with all the pirates that exist.
Her
Blarg Olcoot
Alternately, if the boy wants to stay with his parents on the boat, we could somehow try to make it so Herschell is the cousin mentioned in the will. That would probably be super difficult though?
Acelin's Characters (since her sig won't work).
Acelin's Characters (since her sig won't work).
If we are going to have the cousin be the "survivor", we need to figure out where the will is or otherwise learn its wording. This could be done as a part of faking the man's death.
If one of our subgroups is pretending to be debt collectors, we should learn more about who he owes this debt to. We may or may not need to know what his secret weapon is (although knowing that would certainty help). If we can't break his confidence in it, we might need to steal the secret weapon.
-----
We might even want to break into three groups, with group/person #3 befriending the wife and becoming an "impartial" third opinion.
Nervada - 98% fat free, high in fiber.
Eizen - Collected
Yack - Walking
Miko Wydberg
Tanya
I don't know if a group going with the wife alone is entirely necessary? We basically need to sell both her and the owner on the sailor idea, together.
Colt Wyrmbane
Olivar'Romov
Detective Taskmage
Darby, Esteemed Adventurer
Mike, the Situation
Herschell Ratliff, Merchant of Finery
Yaagh, the Pummeler
And don't forget to do your shopping at The Newe Haberdashery, the finest vendor of magic items and oddball services ... Ever!