Rolled 10, 3, 19, 5, 16 = 53 (5d20)
>>5240781>>5240469>>5240459>>5240250You want to do everything possible to guarantee a success, obviously. If you could, you’d mesmerize and ectoplasmically puppeteer a whole battalion of guards, summon a demon, call Reptilian reinforcements, and poison the meal of these high-status humans for good measure!...
But you can’t. You have already spent hours traveling to Goblintown and back. Time is of the essence, if you’re to deal with the Archmage before he arrives and blows the proverbial whistle on your entire operation, spoiling possibly CENTURIES of infiltration. Frankly, you’re not even certain that you’ll be able to round up a sufficiently well-armed and well-trained gaggle of goons in time. Where does one find, even in the seediest parts of a metropolis this size, a small army of men-at-arms, capable of detaining and slaying an official on short notice? Hells, it’s broad daylight!
‘Then why not do, like, one of the other things?’ Irinnile asks.
‘We have not been here long enough for the Serpent priests to seed the city with new assets, and all EXISTING assets have just been ordered into hiding by Alabcete and ourselves,’ you say. ‘If the Archmage reaches the dinner in his current state of high-alert, who is to say he will not check his drink and dinner for poison by some magical means before consuming it?’
‘Right, right,’ Irinnile mutters. ‘An’ he knows all about how you use demons for dirty wor, so he’ll be ready for th’ likes a’ me or any of those asshoels from th’ Akashic Record.’
You both go silent.
>Don’t use thugs though - mesmerise a squad of guardsmen‘What about th’ guards?’ Irinnile asks. ‘We already got two of ‘em all perma-thralled, right?’
And by the Dark Gods, Irinnile is RIGHT!
‘You don’t gotta’ act so surprised,’ she mumbles, sound almost hurt.
Tomas and Levier, the city guards, are still enthralled to you, by dint of some especially-good mesmerism. You can’t reach out to them across any sort of ectoplasmic link, but you know their beats, and you know the location of the Guardhouse—you were an exotic dancer there, on one occasion, after all! Why search all over town, assembling a posse of pawns piecemeal and finding them armour and arms, when you can waylay one of your existing assets, and through him acquire some of the city’s own professional thugs to do your bidding?