Johannes wrote: > Making a small private party for Ingrun via Helga should be easy for him. > He'll have plenty of contacts to couresans, con artists and the like, that > he uses for his other dealings and what they have to do here, is not very > different from other missions they get. Pour that wine on her, don#t let > anyone drink it, might be unusual but he will usually avoid to tell his > minions the whys. They can afterwards leave Rome to spend some time on a > latifundium of a relative. > > They likely know too much, but with them removed they don't figure that > out immediatly and they are no immediate threat while far away. If they > are disposed of later, no one will connect their deaths to the flamen.
Hello Johannes, how did that mastermind become a successful mastermind with such a wasteful attitude towards pawns? Much easier to give the pawns a story they will believe -- there is a party so A can seduce and compromize B, and Helga was invited so that Ingrun would come because C (a friend of B) would like to meet a real gladiatrix. Maybe C tries to hit on Ingrun, and spills the wine mixture when he doesn't seem to understand a polite "no". If the pawns recognize Helga and Ingrun at all. Get people who move in different circles (the arts crowd, maybe). > An other option would be that the party food or drinks contain a slow > acting poison. Ingrun, Helga and propably other pcs that tag along would > be poisoned too. If they die from a mysterious illness it would be good > for the mastermind, because there will be less incentive to proove that > they are not guilty. There is poison master NPC, who can save them, so as > GM i have not problem with that either. However if a party goer smells > rat, they can guess, why they have been poisoned and what to tell as > revange, so it seems leaving them for later is the better option. I would think that actual TL2 poisons aren't up to the job. If it was in the food, there is no way to know who eats how much. Magic might help, but do you want the mastermind to be a mage? > The actual assassin would be a former scout of the roman legions, who had > taken part in a "kill some barbarian VIPs, while dressed up as other tribe > barbarians" mission and in general had shown a lack of scruples. The > mastermind had in the past helped him out of a tight spot, because > sometimes you need someone with such talents. In line with the scout > template in Warriors i'd build him with callous and Low Empathy. So a male killer to impersonate a female? > A bum however has seen the dumping of the costume and rescued it from the > tiber. He now wears a soiled Ingrun costume and declares himself to be > avatar of Apollo, asking for a few sersterces, so he can by himself a > lyre. He will be brought into contact with the pcs and they will with > considerable effort be able to buy the clothes from him. There will be > some trademakr of the taylor and eventually they will get the address of > the taylor. The bum recovered the costume and decided to wear it. When the search for Ingrun started, another beggar ratted on him in hope of a reward, but the bum claimed that he won it in a game of dice a month ago. Since he was (a) not female and (b) obviously unable to climb any roof, so he was released again, with his clothes. The investigators looked for Ingrun, not a possible Ingrun impersonator, after all. > The taylor upon seeing them come, and especially once he sees the bloody > clothes, Why is this set of clothes bloody? > will figure that "this pervert" had done something to upset the > pcs and they had killed the pervert in revange and are not out to get him. > He will seek the protection of the local gang, that he always pays for > protection after all but eventually thoose misunderstandings can be > resolved and he can be bribed to do the right thing and give up the > neccessary informations to the right people. The PCs go to the tailor, show him the clothes, and ask "did you make this, and who was the customer?" Why would that make the tailor think that the PCs murdered the customer? If you want to complicate things, the tailor knows the mastermind, right? So he has a very good reason to lie about everything. If he can be convinced to talk, he will demand enough money to disappear and start a new existence where nobody knows him -- a problem if the PCs want him to testify. Regards, Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
