Sorry for the length
People find the dead Tsar and think it's an assassin, but then someone asks how they got in or out. No exit is found, so magic is suspected. They examine the body and, sure enough, it looks like someone ripped his heart to shreds without touching his skin. Death magic? Shadow magic? Undeath magic? Who knows; most Kislev nobles and guards would have no idea. But it sure sounds like something a some gribbly would do.
If she just cuts his throat like you suggest then why would it look like someone messed up his heart with out touching his skin. If we stab him with a Shadow Knife we summon then that will leave a super clean stab wound in to his heart from the outside his body.
This, pretty much. The correct plan here is not to directly do spooky magic shit to the Tsar; because that's too obvious for it to really be the Lahmians. The correct plan is an exceptional, flawlessly perfect mundane assassination... which could not actually have been done by a mundane assassin, thus implicating the Lahmians.
Why would a well done mundane assassination make people think it was a Lahmian that did it while trying to cover it up instead of a good mundane assassin. We want to make it look like Vampires did it but tried to be careful about it which means some magic should be used.
I feel like the Matrix is a bit much. We literally wrote a paper on the subject. If we use it to make a Tsar die from a shadow knife - something we also use - we are leaving a lot more clues to the involvement of a Grey Wizard - maybe even us specifically - than we would to Lahmian involvement. In fact, a show like that would be sooner ascribed to Dark Elves than Lahmians. Even the dramatics resemble us and Dark Elves more than Lahmians, who prize secrecy and subtlety.
Ulgu is used by both Vampires and Dark Elf's to name a few, so Shadow Knifes would not give any more away then any of our other spells would.
we should use a normal knife, not a magical one.
again, it should look like a normal murder until its investigated, thats the best way to do it.
And if we used a regular knife what would be the indication someone used magic to assassinate the Tzar be in your mind?
Why a shadow knife? Use a mundane blade.
Because literally any one can use a mundane blade and we are trying to implicate Vampires.
Mindhole is a bad idea, since all of those guards will suddenly have no memories regarding Mathilde Weber, which rather points a spotlight at us if it's noticed - and it might be, since we're kinda famous.
We aren't known on sight in Kislev and we are not going to be dressed in a way that looks like our Shadow Rider Image in Stirland so I don't think that's something we have to worry about.
[X] Plan: Spontaneous Heart Attack
- Sneak into the Tzar's room, use mockery of death on him then implant him with a Matrix loaded with Shadow Dagger loaded. Set the matrix to go off the next day at a time the Tzar is likely to be in a public place.
It's stated outright that Morr has basically no following in Kislev.
Ulric, Taal's and Kislevite versions of a few of the other Southern Gods are popular during the time period the quest is set in but you are right Morr has not had many followers in Kislev since the time of the nation's creation.
There's a Temple of Morr in Kislev City.
That is true but he has no real fallowing with people native to Kislev outside the city.
I think all of the locked-room options are ideal, even if we have to lock the room ourselves. It makes sense as to why the Lahmian would miss it if they entered and exited via magic, and is also a clear enough pointer to magic that a motivated investigation from Boris will pick up on it. It's exactly what he asked for.
We don't know anything about the configuration of the locks in the Tzar's rooms or what his habits are so their is no reason for locks being open or closed to stand out as a indication that magic was used one way or the other.
What's the claimed Lahmian course of action leading to the spontaneous heart attack? At least the one which doesn't obviously trace back to Us, the Person who Perfected This as our Trademark Spell We Named After US.
Conversely, what reason does a Lahmian in direct contact with the Tzar trying to make it look like an accident have to use a shadow knife?
We should probably cut the clothes afterwards with an actual knife-thrust whose momentum, etc. don't match up.
The number of groups that can and do use Ulgu is so large that using a Ugu based spell to kill the Tzar is not going to point at the Grey Wizards let alone us as in any way that would make us primary suspects.
The blame on the lahmians is a frankly unimportant second to the Tsarevich not being suspected-which he will be, if the reasons the Lahmians use the means they do is called into question obviously. The answer being 'in order to keep him from struggling' answers it well enough for the stylish nighttime visit. The answer why someone who successfully killed the Tsar by earlier attack with knives kept him alive for the day, and waited until he died in public?
We have been asked to make the murder quite but clearly done with the assistance of magic. The reason Boris wants the Magic angle in the killing is so he can use that to implicate the Vampires and go after some nobles suspected of being in league with the Lahamian bloodline. Making people think it was Vampires is not going to Point them at Boris as he will be guiding the whole manhunt.
Was tad too worried when backreading first. Felt like people were going too much in direction of Lamia, instead of "keep it quiet" which was the first stated goal, leaving it as basically an Ace attorney murder.
Keep it simple. Quiet murder first. If the vampires aren't implicated from this, that is sad but that was just a bonus goal. Our focus should be on accomplishing the first goal.
Getting in to do the murder is not the issue considering the lack of Magical protection the Tzar has. Boris was clear to Mathhilde the powerful magic user that he would like their to be evidence that the murder was done in such away that Magic of a kind it is known Vampire's use was involved. We are very much capable of doing the assassination in a way that fulfills Boris's wants.
While I don't want to quibble, doing the job exactly as asked (quietly, leave no evidence) and then calling that a failure rubs me the wrong way.
I hate the idea that anything less than absolutely perfect is a failure.
That's ignoring the sentence right after in which he asks us to kill his father in a way that could only be done with magic and we are perfectly capable of fulfilling that request.
