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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Boney said:
"Very well. I'll see you again after your coronation."
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I'm a big fan of this line, by the way. The casual confidence of it- and that feeling caries over through the rest of the update.

Mathilde can absolutely assassinate the head of state of a polity that's a peer to her own- because of his own hubris and disdain of the only people who could reasonably keep her out, yes, but she can.

The challenge is in making the assassination match the exact specifications Boris gave.

Its a good demonstration of why, exactly, the Grey College self-polices so hard. And why the Eshin are so terrifying.

Ulgu is scary, and those who dedicate their lives to mastering it moreso.
 
cheesyme said:
Yeah, I'm gonna be honest, we don't need to get too fancy or overcomplicated, so Keep It Simple, Stupid.

[] A Quiet Death
-[] Use Mockery of Death so there is no sign of struggle, then stab him in the heart with a Shadow Knife. Leave the room by Substance of Shadows or Smoke and Mirrors, leaving behind an unnaturally quiet death.
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Why a shadow knife? Use a mundane blade.
 
Luftwaffles27 said:
... What if we just kidnap the Tzar?
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The whole point of this exercise is to allow Boris to take over as the new Tzar of Kislev with as little fuss as possible. That can't be done if the Tzar isn't clearly and visibly dead.

If the Tzar is killed, Boris can arrange a suitably grand funeral, suitably mourn in public like the appropriately filial son that he is, vow vengeance for the old Tzar on the internal enemies that he (Boris) wants to purge, and then get coronated as the new Tzar.

If the Tzar is kidnapped, Boris will be forced to arrange a suitably grand funeral, suitably mourn in public like the appropriately filial son that he is, vow vengeance for the old Tzar on the internal enemies that he wants to purge, and then get coronated as the new Tzar launch an investigation into the kidnap and a rescue mission for the old Tzar.
 
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Redshirt Army said:
Yeah, I don't think actively locking the doors to make it a locked room murder makes sense - there is no motive for a Lahmian assassin to do such a thing and draw attention to the murder being impossible.
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If anything the Assassin would unlock the doors after slipping in to make the assassination seem mundane.
cheesyme said:
Yeah, I'm gonna be honest, we don't need to get too fancy or overcomplicated, so Keep It Simple, Stupid.

[] A Quiet Death
-[] Use Mockery of Death so there is no sign of struggle, then stab him in the heart with a Shadow Knife. Leave the room by Substance of Shadows or Smoke and Mirrors, leaving behind an unnaturally quiet death.
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Issue here is that would be too subtle and doesn't have enough evidence that can point to it being a magical killing. There are plenty of mundane ways to make a death unnaturally quiet.
 
Redshirt Army said:
Why a shadow knife? Use a mundane blade.
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Point, I can add further KISS to the plan that way.

[] A Quiet Death
-[] Use Mockery of Death so there is no sign of struggle, then stab him in the heart with a knife. Leave the room by Substance of Shadows or Smoke and Mirrors, leaving behind an unnaturally quiet death.

Sinsystems said:
Issue here is that would be too subtle and doesn't have enough evidence that can point to it being a magical killing. There are plenty of mundane ways to make a death unnaturally quiet.
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I mean sure, but ultimately that is very much our stretch objective, and even just making the killing weirdly successfully/quiet points that way. Primary goal is to just make the guy drop dead, secondary is to make it quiet and seem like someone assassinated him rather than a combat death, tertiary is to make it look weird/magical which sheer skill can manage.
 
[] Draculina's night time visit v2
- Kill the target with mundane methods, but create evidence that that the room was infiltrated by someone who could fly. I.e. significant scratches on window ledges, small breaks in windows which could then be have been used to pull them open. When exfiltrating, use Ulgu spells to leave a number of witnesses under the impression that a beautiful but unknown woman had been seen in the palace the night of the Tsar's death.


this is the first proposal I've seen that has a simple but effective plan to invoke the Lahmians enough that Boris won't need to push too hard & accomplishes his goals.

My only suggestion to @Humbaba is to lose the memories of a beautiful woman and replace it with a mundane bat flying away into the night. That's the kind of detail an investigator would gather from a guard and lead towards the conclusion that the Lahmians did it. I think the false memories is a little too on the nose. (and actually contradictory now that I think of it. Why would a Lahmian need to be in the palace if the they infil- and exfiltrated through the window?)
 
Sinsystems said:
I think it runs into the issue of why the room is locked in the first place. Plus the mystery does fall apart if someone else might have a key, like one of the Tzar's guard and the like.

Plus if the Tzar isn't in the habit of locking the room then why would the assassin lock it after slipping in and not unlock it while slipping out? There are a lot of questions that I don't think this addresses.

Also again if the doors can be locked from the outside then the entire mystery falls apart.
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Allow me to offer ways around that. Leaving the key in the lock should make it much clearer that the door was locked from within. As for why, the killer might have been trying to make the death look like natural causes. This is obviously more viable if we use a method more subtle than a dagger in the heart.
 
Jyn Ryvia said:
that doesn't matter, the point of it being locked/barred from the inside isn't that people cant get in, its how the killer got out.
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Issue is that it raises questions that hurt the frame job. Because if the Tsar doesn't usually lock and bar his room then why did the assassin? It is trying very hard to set up the mystery that just raises unneeded questions.

Plus it can be solved via mundane means, for example if the door has an external lock then the assassin could lock it from the outside.
 
Hunter531 said:
Allow me to offer ways around that. Leaving the key in the lock should make it much clearer that the door was locked from within. As for why, the killer might have been trying to make the death look like natural causes. This is obviously more viable if we use a method more subtle than a dagger in the heart.
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Issue there is that we risk making it too clean. For Boris to be able to use it as evidence for his purge there needs to be enough evidence that upon closer examination he can point to it and use it to cast blame.

A locked room mystery is certainly mysterious and strange but it doesn't inherently point to magic (especially if we don't make it obvious that it was a murder) and relies on the death being strange to imply the magic. But it doesn't have anything conclusive enough that can be discovered upon further examination.

It is why I proposed the spontaneous heart attack plan, it is meant to look like a sudden natural death (which is the reason the Lamiah's went that route) but upon further examination can be show to be a murder via magical means. Means which the Vampires would certainly have, along with motivation to make it look like a natural death as that would mean the successor doesn't have much grounds to go on a purging spree.
 
Keep It Simple, Silly

Mockery of death ---> shadow knives
Or mockery of death ---> mundane knife

The failure mode of Plotter-worthy elaborate plans is much worse than the failure mode of nobody noticing it must have been magic.
 
Sinsystems said:
Issue is that it raises questions that hurt the frame job. Because if the Tsar doesn't usually lock and bar his room then why did the assassin? It is trying very hard to set up the mystery that just raises unneeded questions.

Plus it can be solved via mundane means, for example if the door has an external lock then the assassin could lock it from the outside.
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then that's 'on the field' adjustments. I'm not planning out when mathy has to take a breath.

ya, if its not possible to lock the room, it's not possible.

but if we can, it creates a bit of mystery, and its a mistake someone who doesn't know the Tsar, but can escape a lock room could make.

the whole point is that its too perfect, not prefect enough. inconsistencies work with the plan not against it.
 
I'd say we should avoid sticking around longer than absolutely necessary to leave additional evidence - such as being seen walking away in disguise - as while mathilde is very good, she isn't perfect. Every additional step in the plan is a potential point of failure, so stick to a plan that gets us away from the city ASAP once things go loud. So we book it immediately after stabbing him/making the shadow knife go off/whatever, so we don't make a mistake and get caught. As mathilde herself said:

Boney said:
Only try to ghost it when it's one objective, in and out
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Let's not add additional objectives for ourselves if we don't have to.
 
Jyn Ryvia said:
then that's 'on the field' adjustments. I'm not planning out when mathy has to take a breath.

ya, if its not possible to lock the room, it's not possible.

but if we can, it creates a bit of mystery, and its a mistake someone who doesn't know the Tsar, but can escape a lock room could make.

the whole point is that its too perfect, not prefect enough. inconsistencies work with the plan not against it.
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Fair I might be fretting over details, it's just that I don't feel that there is enough to truly make it look like a "only magic could do this" situation. I get the idea of a locked room mystery that only teleporting assassin could solve but I feel that someone could think up a mundane method of achieving it without magic depending on what the room looks like.
 
Sinsystems said:
Fair I might be fretting over details, it's just that I don't feel that there is enough to truly make it look like a "only magic could do this" situation. I get the idea of a locked room mystery that only teleporting assassin could solve but I feel that someone could think up a mundane method of achieving it without magic depending on what the room looks like.
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well its a good thing we have Boris to 'jump' to the magic conclusion once the 'impossible' murder is in front of him.
 
Hydroplatypus said:
I'd say we should avoid sticking around longer than absolutely necessary to leave additional evidence - such as being seen walking away in disguise - as while mathilde is very good, she isn't perfect. Every additional step in the plan is a potential point of failure, so stick to a plan that gets us away from the city ASAP once things go loud. So we book it immediately after stabbing him/making the shadow knife go off/whatever, so we don't make a mistake and get caught. As mathilde herself said:
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If the shadow knife matrix is planted then we don't even need to be in the city when it goes off. We just have to set the timer and leave.

By the time it happens we'd be long gone and well away from any investigations. The riskiest time will obviously be implanting the matrix but I trust Mathilde is skilled enough to do that without getting caught.
 
Humbaba said:
Kill the target with mundane methods, but create evidence that that the room was infiltrated by someone who could fly. I.e. significant scratches on window ledges, small breaks in windows which could then be have been used to pull them open. When exfiltrating, use Ulgu spells to leave a number of witnesses under the impression that a beautiful but unknown woman had been seen in the palace the night of the Tsar's death.
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I think we can make this better, why would a meticulous Lahmian not see the scratch on the window ? Because she exited by another direction without looking back !
Make it look like as if the Lahmian accidentally broke an item through supernatural strenght and stole it to make it a red herring to avoid incriminating herself but a small unnaturally damaged part fell down beneath furnitures. For example the hip of a goblet that is noticeably bent.
Or have Mathilde make some noise just before she exit the room by breaking a vase for example: The Lahmian kill the tsar, try to camouflage her involvement but accidentally alert the guard and has to exfiltrate before completly modifying the scene.
 
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Sinsystems said:
If the shadow knife matrix is planted then we don't even need to be in the city when it goes off. We just have to set the timer and leave.

By the time it happens we'd be long gone and well away from any investigations. The riskiest time will obviously be implanting the matrix but I trust Mathilde is skilled enough to do that without getting caught.
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I think their problem is the hour or so that it takes to set up the matrix. not the time after.
 
Jyn Ryvia said:
I think their problem is the hour or so that it takes to set up the matrix. not the time after.
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He specifically said making the matrix go off so I assume he meant triggering it.

But to be fair it is late and I need to get some sleep. Will argue for the Spontaneous Heart Attack plan when I wake up.

@NexusEye do me a favor and post my plan as well please, don't want it to be left out of the initial rush.
 
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