Crag Noir (IC)

[MikelaC1]

Approaching the Durtha residence, Natalya can see its a one story residence, a bit spread out, but not as grand as her former home. That makes sense of course, the Durtha's are currently third tier nobility in the city. As can be expected with a house planning some sort of action, there are more guards than usual, but given the chaotic nature of the drow, their patrols are disorganized. Its good in one way, there are more openings for approaches, but bad in that you cant time them out to know how long you have. The dark interior of the house makes for looking very difficult and there arent a whole lot of windows anyway, seeing as drow are not much given to staring out at their landscapes.
Natalya also notices a large collection of barrels, what they may contain is hard to ascertain, but they might be flammable. As they continue to watch, a small door in an out of the way spot opens, and a figure (gender indeterminate at this distance) comes out, waiting beside the door. A small flame appears for a just a moment in the hand, and then a curl of white smoke as the person places something in their mouth.

[Ridai]

Single-storey building is good, that will save valuable spells. The few doors and windows make it crucial to memorize them. The barrels are earmarked for the time being, Natalya noting where those barrels are relative to the house (especially the small door that just opened) and how much it is observed by the guards.

The door may just be their entry point, and thus from there, a route through the house emerges, ideally taking them from one end to the other. Moving around the residence, but staying out of darkvision distance, Natalya tries to get a better look at the one taking a smoke break, especially trying to see if this person is dressed like a servant, or like a noble or someone unusual.

Natalya keeps all these brief. The open door is a good entrance, so right now, she is quickly trying to determine what is and is not feasible. If the barrels are in an opportune position, a fire can be started there, leading to a distraction for a few minutes. If the person who stepped out looks like someone fairly minor, they could be seduced for information. The former buys more time, the latter would make the silent raid much more focused.

[MikelaC1]

The barrels seem to be right beside the wall of the house. The person taking a smoke is dressed like a servant, and is male.

[Ridai]

Natalya shares her plan to lay a fire at those barrels before they go in to cause a distraction, but before that, seeing how a prime opportunity is presenting itself, she looks to her lover with a cutting smile. "How are you feeling about having that rube spill a few secrets?" She nods towards the servant by the door. "Now, I do not feel like threatening him or knocking him out, that would only raise suspicion. Rather, I want him to eat out of my hand, and forget he ever saw us afterwards." Evindress knows Natalya means her hypnosis, and her eyes wander to where the gem necklace is snugly hidden beneath the catsuit. "I could use your help to make him more eager, and faster so. You working the body, me working the mind." Sharing her impromptu plan right after, Natalya loses little time to put it into motion.

Being at the edge of normal drow vision as she is, Natalya casts a disguise self to both alter her face (and hide her ebon eyes) and to give her the look of what may be a scantily clad courtesan or the particularly promiscious (and presumed dumb, thus harmless) young minor noble type that lowborn drow men like to fantasize about, making sure her curves are impossible to miss (also retrieving her necklace from beneath her catsuit). Casting a message directed at the servant, she whispers "I've been having my eyes on you, honey. Working sooo hard for your masters. No need to smoke over there all alone... when you could be over here..." Once the servant starts looking around, Natalya steps into his vision, striking a pose making both her curves and intentions unmistakable, even at this range. "getting a closer look at me? Don't keep me waiting, honey." Her whispered voice is dripping with promise, and he sees this woman beckoning him over to her before she steps out of sight again, adding a little secrecy to it all, with the direction she disappears into being the location of a lone alley (where Natalya awaits, with Evindress in hiding, both of them monitoring the servant outside of his vision range).

Should he answer the message, Natalya keeps luring him with honeyed words, preying upon the desire of drow men for women beyond their station, where in his mind at best he'd wrap a stupid drow noble around his little finger, and at worst, he'd get some relief out of this that he can later brag about.

[MikelaC1]

The servant has little resistance to Natalya's implied promises, and eagerly comes forward, following her into the alley

[MikelaC1]

Even though Natalya and Evindress have never worked together in the past, its like they have been a team for years, and the hapless servant has no chance to resist her hypnotic powers...his eyes slowly glaze over and close.

[Ridai]

"You are doing so well, honey," Natalya whispers to the servant. "You feel so good when you obey a woman, nothing brings you pleasure like doing anything a woman tells you and pleasing her with your faithful service. And even above them, you love doing anything I say. Because pleasing me makes you feel so very, very good. You could not even think of ever harming a woman, let alone exploit or force yourself on one, no matter how helpless she may seem, the mere thought making you feel so empty and full of pain."

Evindress can tell that, in a way, this Natalya's re-education, but also what she sees as mercy. Drow society can be a violent one, especially its men, given how repressed they are. This way, she curbs those dark urges instilled by Lolth's cruel society, and gives him a path to happiness. With the groundwork established, Natalya continues. "You will tell me everything you know about any magical and valuable items and magics in the Kal'Durtha residence, as well as where any studies, bedrooms, war rooms, archives and the like of the house's matron and her closest confidants are. You will tell me how to get to them. You will also tell me about any security measures you are aware of."

Once she has the answers, she continues "Soon, I will count to five. When I reach five, you will wake up, and feel better than you ever have. You will forget about about me and my partner and anything you told us or heard from us, but your subconscious will still remember every command and follow it faithfully. You will wake up, and in your great mood, you will have a quick smoke by the barrels next to the residence wall, out of sight of any guards, carelessly throwing the fire and smoldering leftovers to them where they would slowly catch fire. Then, you will return to the residence and continue your tasks as you have before, leaving the backdoor open for a little while, slipping your mind because of how good you feel. You will do all this, and it will make you feel so good, so fulfilled."

With that, Natalya begins the slow count to five, repeating the commands in between, while walking away from the servant standing entranced with closed eyes in the alley. By the time she reaches five, he is alone in the alley, Natalya and Evindress having taken a good vantage point to observe the servant, Natalya ending her self-disguise. Once what will soon become a fire has been started, Natalya readies herself and her lover for the operation. "You will not be able to see me, my love, but I will be able to see you. I will wreathe us in silence, but I will drop it should we need to go loud. I want you to squeeze my forearm to have me drop it or run out of the zone of silence if you judge we will have to go loud. Should I wish for you to stay put, I will pat your shoulder twice. Know I will always be with you, and guide you. Should we nonetheless be separated for more than a minute, I wish you to make your way out of the residence, grabbing or destroying anything opportune without slowing down, and go back to our original vantage point. I, too, will return there and wait for you, should we be separated. However, you are a marvelous guardian, Evindress. Trust your own judgment to keep us safe, as I believe in you. Let us move quickly, but with sureness."

Giving Evindress a kiss, Natalya begins the magical preparations. On herself, see invisibility and expeditious retreat, to see Evindress and be able to move quickly if necessary. Then, invisibility on the both of them, and finally, silence (in a little coin, so she can throw the source of silence if needed). Evindress feels Natalya holding her hand, taking point, giving her a reassuring squeeze. They move, quickly, but not hastily, heading in through the door left open. The silence very brief moment of silence as they pass may simply confuse the lesser drow, thinking it a brief trick of the mind, but things are less certain with guards or some of the more well-versed in infiltration members of nobility. That is alright. They only have five minutes of invisibility, they will need to make the most out of it. They would run a higher risk if they tried to sneak slowly through the mansion normally, especially on alert as they are at the moment. The fire outside should by them a bit of time as well, as they head straight to the most valuable locations, grabbing all evidence and conveniently sized magic items they can, and smashing the rest, quickly moving on to the next location, ever on their trajectory that will lead them back outside through another exit.

Spoiler: OOC

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Natalya and Evindress will double-move every round, not run, as they need their maneuverability. With invisibility and silence lasting five minutes, the cast times, and the little run-up to the mansion and needing to exit, if everything goes more or less well, they will have about four minutes of invisibility time to get things done in the mansion. So they beeline straight to what locations have been highlighted to them and really just grab what they can and smash the rest.

I imagine this as a sort of five minute high-tempo tracking shot from a movie starting and ending outside of the mansion (should everything go well), both of them moving quickly, efficiently, not stopping for long.

All the above, IC and OOC, is the plan. How well it will work out, depends on what will happen next, I guess.

[MikelaC1]

Completely under the effect of Natalya's hypnosis, the man eagerly complies with her requests. Apart from the usual mention of bedrooms, treasure storehouses and magical items, there are two items that stand out in Natalya's mind.

The first is what the man describes as the Matron Mother's personal study, a room where she meets with the most powerful guests to the house or guests who are not going to be known to the general population. Of course as a mere servant he has no idea of who has been there, but the Mother has had more visitors than usual in the past week.

The second is a glowing staff in the main war planning room of the house. He has no idea of what it is, but he knows that the house is quite proud of its presence. By his description, Natalya knows that her house never possessed such an item, but her former overlord house, Kerith'Kahn did and the one time she saw it, the priestesses made sure she didnt get too close to it, or even ask questions about it.

Once the man finishes spilling the beans about the inside of the house, including patrol routes (haphazard as they are), the two women move off, with Natalya doing her slow count. When she reaches 5, the man comes to alertness, shaking his head for a moment, and probably trying to figure out how he got to this place from his private smoking spot. At that point however, the subconscious instructions kick in, and he heads right over to the barrels, lighting up another smoke. The remains are tossed into some rags beside the barrel, with just the faintest curl of smoke and he heads back inside, presumably leaving the door ajar.

[Ridai]

From the descriptions of the locations, the guard patrol paths, and the descriptions of how to get to those points of interests, Natalya draws on her considerable intellect to create a rough mental map of the place, as well as an optimal path through the building, moving to the closer of the two locations (the matron mother's personal study, and the artifact in the war room) first, then the other, then out. It might be more beneficial to steal the staff, rather than destroy it, if it is indeed such a powerful artifact. However, they must not immediately take it back to the coven. Measures must be taken to avoid tracking the staff to the coven. The path Natalya creates makes some adjustments to avoid guard patrol routes, but most likely not all can be fully avoided, though they will need to play this by ear anyway. Same with what to do if the target rooms are occupied. This will have to be a quick and dirty smash and grab, in and out before the house can find and mobilize against them, literally shoving stacks of paper and ledgers into bags and stealing the staff.

Once the door is ajar and the spells are in place, Natalya and Evindress move quickly, following the route as best they can, making adjustments as they go, but absolutely not slowing down. Time is against them and they have to hope the fire will draw significant attention away, to not have the residence burn down.

Spoiler: OOC

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Please refer to my previous post about preparations and proceedings. Yeah, Natalya's approach is basically brute forcing things, but I don't see her succeeding with regular stealth, between her lacking move silently modifier, lacking the spells to properly compensate for that, and the entire house being on alert and actively preparing for war. I have no idea how good or bad third tier noble house guards are, but Natalya is just 5th level, too, and slow sneaking sounds like it would force so many spot and listen checks that probability is just completely against her at that point, since she only needs to fail a single one to get discovered and have things go sideways. With guard patterns specifically being called semi-unpredictable, that also throws careful planning to minimize contact out of the window, and I kind of doubt drow, a race that doesn't sleep and also only has to meditate for four hours while still aware, has a sort of "bed time" as humans know it where most people are "asleep". Bonus points if drow still get tired at the same rate as humans, thus leading to the times where they "sleep" moving in four hour chunks from day to day.

[MikelaC1]

The first door leads to a kitchen and pantry, there is some activity but not much and sneaking through the place is not difficult. Once into the main complex, the pair begin their stealthy path towards the matron's personal study. Moments after they start moving, they hear shouts of fire and alarm and the sound of running feet heading towards dealing with the issue, freeing the passages of any random guards. They arrive at the Matron's study, the door is locked.

Spoiler: Evindress

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I'm going to ask you for some control on the actions of Evindress to avoid a DMPC situation, I will do some of her stuff, particularly social, but here, you need to give directions.

[Ridai]

The distraction seems to be working what it should. Arriving at the door of the study, Evindress feels Natalya's invisible hand, that has been leading her with absolute sureness through the mansion, guide her own to the lock. Evindress needs no further encouragement, feeling what her lover wants, beginning to pick the lock. Laymen may think that picking a lock without sound would be very difficult, but in actuality, everything she needs to know comes from feeling the levers inside the lock. As she works, she feels Natalya's hand warm on her shoulder, the thumb caressing her neck in a steady rhythm, calming her, helping her focus. Evindress knows her lover is close, relying upon her, believing in her, and watching for danger.

Spoiler: OOC

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Sure thing. Just let me know whenever you would like me to co-pilot Evindress, or if I should do so in general.

[MikelaC1]

Evindress is skilled with locks and the set she was loaned by the sect makes the work even easier, in almost no time flat, the lock pops open. Opening the door carefully, Natalya sees a neatly appointed meeting room, with a large desk and a magnificent chair sitting behind it...the chairs on the other side of the desk are much more plain, all part of making the visitor feel like a supplicant. The desk is covered in papers, mostly stacked to a certain extent, but what really attracts her attention is a large safe behind the desk and chair, this one has a padlock on it.

[Ridai]

Evindress feels a reassuring squeeze on her shoulder as the lock opens. Both women move inside like clockwork, closing the door behind them. The spot is the go-to target in this room, no point in searching for more hidden locations. They move to the safe, and as they examine it, Evindress feels the signal to stay put. Or rather, as the bardess can tell from context, to wait a moment. The door was unlikely to have very high security, but the safe will most likely have a more intense lock, maybe even a trap. If Evindress is trained in trapfinding, she examines the padlock, while Natalya does the same.

Search (1d20+15)[24]

Should no trap be found, Evindress feels Natalya's touch, telling her to go ahead, along with guiding her hand to the padlock. Natalya once again calms and focuses her lover with her touch, so that Evindress can completely focus on her work, the noblewoman once again keeping watch, but the noblewoman also keeps track of their time table. They made good time here and into the study, but they must not be held up by the safe for too long. Should Evindress not be able to open the padlock within three tries, Natalya slides her silenced coin against the wall right next to the door (the side that opens, not the side with the hinges). Due to the wall and door, none of the silence can get outside due to the source of the spell not having line of effect to the outside, preventing anyone happening to pass closely by the door from noticing a quiet area. Without further ado, now out of the silence, Natalya casts knock as quietly as possible on the padlock and safe (if they do not count as the same thing for the purposes of the spell, then the padlock) to get it open.

Should a trap be found by Natalya, she slides the silence coin to the wall next to the door and whispers "Trap", describing it, letting Evindress get to work on the trap, then on the padlock as above.

[MikelaC1]

Natalya and Evindress do not find a trap on the lock, and while it is a little tougher than the lock on the door, it still cannot resist the clever fingers and tools of Evindress. The lock springs open and she is able to open the door, revealing a red colored file folder, marked SECRET

[Ridai]

Natalya flips the folder open, does a very quick check if the first page is not just an obvious fake, then bags it. Evindress closes the safe at the same time, putting the padlock back in place. Then they leave the study immediately (closing the door behind them, which while it will not hide the unlocked door, will at least avoid immediate suspicion from being left open), heading on to the war room (Natalya still having her silence coin on her, both still invisible).

Spoiler: OOC

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Still double-moving to move around.

[MikelaC1]

Using the drow sign language, Evindress asks if Natalya wants to take any of the other papers on the Matron's desk...seeing as the disappearance of the staff is going immediately raise the suspicion of a break in. If she agrees, Evindress does a quick grab of some stuff.

[Ridai]

Evindress feels an affirmative squeeze, encouraging her to go ahead. A few papers farthest away from Evindress also disappear into the invisible bag held by Natalya, before leading the way outside and to the staff (as described above).

[MikelaC1]

Exiting back into the corridor, Natalya and Evindress make their way to the conference room. As they move about, they hear the sound of running feet and calls for water, they even pass a few guards in the process. Perhaps if the house wasnt burning down, the guards might be alerted by the momentary lapse of noise, but they have bigger issues to deal with. Arriving at the war room, they find the door ajar, and moving in, they see the huge glowing staff, clearly adorned with the symbol of Lolth. Unfortunately, the room is not empty, there is a female drow inside and from the description Natalya was given, this is the Kal'Durtha daughter that the coven has their eye on, but this is not really the time they wanted to run into her.

[Ridai]

The situation is... unfortunate. Moving all the way to the staff with the silence effect would most likely eventually include the daughter in the effect. Natalya also does not want to harm her in any way. Should the house get destroyed at some point, it would not do to have injuries be held against the coven, should that ever come out. But Natalya also does not want the invisibility to be broken, as that would be a gross waste of resources and would make escaping more difficult. The staff looks... concerning. Still, Natalya is not one to be stooped for long. This will likely be the moment where their operation will be discovered, but ideally, by that point, they are already escaping and it will take a few moments for the guards to react. Natalya silent-casts protection from evil on herself and Evindress, as an extra precaution against the staff (even though Natalya has no intentions of touching it directly), but also any errant enchantments, her metamagic aptitude allowing her to position herself and her lover in the meantime.

She had the thought of ghost sounding guards talking about the daughter in quite insulting terms, thinking no one could hear them, but that would probably lead to the daughter yelling down the corridor, and that is almost the same as yelling about an intruder. So, yeah. This is it.

Moving Evindress as far into the room as she can (handing her the silence coin, trusting that she will toss it if she really thinks she must cast a spell) while still covering the door (so no sound gets out), but not yet engulfing the daughter, there are a few options. If the silence radius is too small and engulfing the daughter would lead to not covering the door anymore, Evindress stays put. If it is big enough to cover the daughter and the door, Natalya trusts that Evindress knows how to weaponize the spell area to prevent the daughter from casting if it looks like she would do this when detecting an intruder, which should ruin at least one spell, thus buying precious seconds. Natalya moves to the very edge of the spell area, clear path to the staff, large (invisible, as it was on her person when she turned invisible) sack in hand. And then she guns it for the staff, using her highly enhanced speed (due to the earlier expeditious retreat) to cross the distance very quickly and yank the sack over the staff. It is a magical item, magical items are unusually hard and durable, it will not be damaged by something like this. At the same time, Natalya will not need to directly touch the item as it goes into the invisible sack.

The moment of surprise at the footsteps and the staff turning invisible (any yelling or other noise eaten at the door by the silence), Natalya casts obscuring mist, engulfing the general area (and likely the daughter) and running straight back, grabbing Evindress, and running for their nearest exit, to escape into the city.

Spoiler: OOC

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None of the above should cancel the invisibility of either woman. Honestly, this feels like the best I could come up with without harming the daughter, drawing guards before even getting the staff, risking the daughter leaving with the staff (such as faking the fire having spread close, so she might grab the staff and run out with it to save it), or taking way too much time (or too much experimentation). Natalya knows too little about the daughter to manipulate her towards the desired result, and she lacks the spells for something more sophisticated (creating an illusory duplicate of the room around the daughter is problematic with a glowing item constantly casting shifting light, while also needing to concentrate on it). Any spell requiring a save also felt way too risky, between the inherent drow save bonus and spell resistance. So element of surprise, grabbing it, and leaving the daughter as disoriented (and unable to scream for guards, and hopefully preventing a spell or two) as possible before hightailing it out there seemed like the way to go. Not the best, but, well.

Also, Natalya is stealing the staff because while the other matron mother told them to just smash something, Kalrissa also told them to first show stuff to her. Natalya will also be intending to not directly go back to the coven with the staff, but rather send Evindress back there to relay what they got (and deliver the paper evidence), asking what to do with the staff (whether to try and break it, dump it, or bring it back), since it is a Lolth item.

[MikelaC1]

As Natalya suspected, the running footsteps and the sudden disappearance of the staff do alert the daughter that something is very wrong, and she does try to cast, but the silence spell foils her attempt. At that point, Natalya puts forth her obscuring mist, throwing the situation into total confusion. They high tail it out of the room, moments later hearing the daughter screaming for the guards and thieves being around, but seeing as all of them are fighting the fire, there is no one to respond. As the pair make their way, they pass at least two women who are likely priestesses heading towards the screaming from the war room, but neither of them are able to detect the two invisible drow headed out at a frantic pace.
As agreed, the moment they are out of the house, Evindress turns right, headed back to the coven with the file notes, while Natalya turns left to disappear into the town until she receives telepathic instruction from Kalrissa.

[Ridai]

While she waits for word from Kalrissa, Natalya uses the rest of her invisibility time to put some serious expeditious retreat-fueled sprinting distance between herself and the residence (giving Evindress the silence coin, for her to discard as she pleases), even throwing in a brief bit of swift fly to skip over a set of houses and thus on a path that could not be taken by someone escaping on foot. Shortly before she becomes visible again, she uses a disguise self to assume the look of a passerby (the sack turning into a much smaller looking backpack that could impossibly fit the staff), a face easy to lose in a crowd, walking at a brisk pace telling of having places to be, but lacking the treacherous urgency. Everyday people doing their everyday things go about it routinely, after all, even among the chaotic and often cut-throat drow (who carry themselves with a baseline of readiness instead, but one projecting strength, not worry or fear; that or they try to avoid detection as much as possible). Her pace takes her through uneventful (by Crag Noir standards) parts of the city, occasionally and without steady rhythm interspersing little things that reasonably allow her to glance around a little, opportunities she uses to covertly check for anyone following or observing her. There is some distance between her and where the coven is located, but always makes sure she has a path there and that she does not get away from it.

Perhaps she is being overly cautious, but if the staff is indeed something that is tracked or would bring Lolth's followers to the coven's doorstep, that is one mistake too many already. Kalrissa might know enough about the item from the description given by Evindress, and if not, things can be arranged to determine whether this vaunted treasure is worth keeping.

[MikelaC1]

As Natalya skips through the city, eventually her invisibility spell ends, and she wanders normally. More familiar with the noble areas of the city, she accidently wanders into a slightly less reputable area of the city (less reputable being a relative term among drow) and as she walks, a drow male comes out of the shadows.
What do we have here, something scrumptious?
He is clearly not a noble, and weirdly, he has a pet on a chain. A pet ogre, it seems. Right now the ogre is on all fours.

[Ridai]

The disguised Natalya gives a mirthless chuckle, maintaining her course undeterred, projecting an unapproachable aura from how she carries herself with every exacting step.

"Hardly. Though men tell me they find the experience of my heel on their faces positively delicious," she answers, straight no selling the attempt at cowing her as if the character she is inhabiting is saying "oh please", far too used to such attempts. And from what she is saying, she appears to be used to the seedier (by drow standards) sides of town.

Spoiler: Action

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Intimidation (1d20+21)[30]

Note that Natalya is not going for making the guy cower in fear or anything like that, more aiming to have him back off and look for easier prey (with perhaps a blow to his self-esteem for how little she regards this little entrance). In a way, it's like a professional courtesy to let him know he is trying something with the wrong type of woman and should save both of them the trouble.

[MikelaC1]

It looks like the drow might have backed off, but then he remembers his little pet and gives the chain a shake, causing the ogre to stand up, towering over both drow
Or perhaps Otto has to soften you up and take those heels off...

[Ridai]

The man gets a quite dim stare from Natalya, along the lines of "really?".

"Go be Otto's good little breeding toy, boy. I do not have time for your antics." With that, she weaves a spell, aiming to engulf "Otto" in shadows (but hey, perhaps this drow male also happens to be exceptionally weak of will, to the point where his inherent double resistance to spells fails him), followed by simply flying up onto the roofs of the nearby houses.

Spoiler: Actions

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Net of Shadows on the ogre and the drow male.
CL check vs drow SR (1d20+5)[14]
Will DC 17 or they are wrapped in shadows, only allowing them to see 5 feet in front of them (and everything in those 5 feet still having concealment) for (1d6)[3] rounds

Natalya casts swift fly and flies up to the nearby roofs.

I feel very fortunate that my meager plan worked out so well during the raid of the Durtha residence, so I probably spent all my luck, but it would still be funny to see the ogre flail about due to the roiling shadows suddenly around it and accidentally smacking the drow male or throwing him around because one ogre arm catches on the chain.

[MikelaC1]

The net of shadows descends around the drow and the ogre and Natalya hears the sounds of flailing about, even perhaps the sound of a big meaty fist slamming into a head. By the time the shadows are gone, Natalya is long gone along the rooftops.
After several more minutes of wandering, paying a bit more attention to where she is going, Natalya hears a voice in her head. You can come in with that staff, its not a trackable item and I know exactly what it is.

[Ridai]

As unwelcome as that sort of attention tends to be, it was resolved relatively swiftly, and in a somewhat amusing manner. Still, behavior like what the male showed will need to be gently curbed once Crag Noir is no longer in Lolth's hands. That this even happened in the first place is, however, also a reminder to Natalya that she is still hardly more than a novice who let a moment of thoughtlessness creep in. There is little doubt about her still having a long, long way to go. As well as the raid went, it was against a third tier noble house, and her abilities are still lacking even for such a task, missing many tools that would have made the task trivial to one of her elder sisters (or her mother in her operator days). While they were all living in a hostile environment, perpetually focused on the house's survival in one way or another, and no doubt at least one of her elder sisters must have had some sort of ambitions beyond that... she still quietly wishes their souls to have gone elsewhere. Anywhere but the eternal suffering that is Lolth's Demonweb Pits.

The mental message arrives. It turns out her precaution was not necessary, but Natalya does not regret such a thing. She would rather be guilty of ultimately harmless superfluous measures than thoughtlessly endangering the coven through lack of foresight and knowledge. Much like how she operated with her now deceased family. If she can answer, Natalya responds with ~Understood, Priestess. I will arrive shortly.~ Evindress made it back as planned. This is good. Evindress already sounded more than capable from her own rather unadorned accounts, but Natalya got to see her in action today. Intelligent, quick-thinking... and an astoundingly good partner, often feeling like they were acting as one. Evindress' devotion came quickly, while Natalya was not able to feel like her from the word go, but she was interested in the bardic sorceress. But with what happened today, Evindress rose considerably in Natalya's favor, not merely being a great lover, but also a great partner in general. Call it a side effect of her heavily results-driven upbringing, but Evindress turning out to be as capable and formidable as she is just made her genuinely a lot more attractive and intriguing to Natalya than before. Perhaps that explains Natalya's previous lapse in navigation.

Without further ado, Natalya makes her way back to the coven. She adds one or two slight detours to obscure her path, and discards the disguise at some point, until she arrives, heading straight to Kalrissa (though any sister she passes receives the respectful, elegant greeting she has become known for in their circles). As soon as she enters, Natalya humbly presents the staff to Kalrissa. She does not report yet, waiting until she is asked to (if she is asked).

[MikelaC1]

You have both done quite well. I have looked through the notes, the ones you took from the safe detail a plan, hatched by Derith'Kahn. In fact, Kal'Durtha is secretly allied with Dereth'Kahn but was trying to become a vassel to Kerith'Kahn, to provide inside information and when the time was ripe, betray them in an attack. Dereth promised that they would be elevated to become the new 6th house. Handing this information over to the matron mother will ensure that Kerith doesnt choose them and will support the Turpins attacking them.
The staff you found, while quite powerful, is not unique. It allows a priestess to channel more of Lolth's malice and power into her spells. Every top noble house has one, its unusual to see a second tier one to have one, and very unusual for a third tier. The acquisition of such an item is what raised Durthan ambitions. They have probably become pretty reliant on it, and when the Turpins attack, possibly aided by the Dereths, it will be game over. We wont be telling her about it, she doesnt even know it was there, but she is so full of herself, she thinks she will win anyway. As a relic of Lolth, we cant use it, and I dont want to see it getting loose into the city. One less power source for Lolth, we will destroy it.
Looking at some of the other papers, if they are to believed, it seems that Dereth is playing some sort of long term game with the houses, your house was wiped out to create an opening to slide the Durthas in, they may be up to the same game elsewhere, probably in an attempt to expand their powers before challenging the D'Espana house. Thats just an educated guess. If Dereth does challenge D'Espana, we sit that one out. The top two houses fighting each other can only benefit our cause. If Dereth tries something with some of the other vassels, that, we will have to deal with, we cant have Dereth holding two or three first tier houses as vassals to themselves and then going for the top dogs.

[Ridai]

Natalya bows in response to her performance assessment. Her house having been destroyed as part of some wider coup for the top of the Crag Noir food chain... in a way makes the destruction of her house more palatable, as Shal'Dahn likely had support and advantages far beyond what could normally expected on an assault on a second-tier house. But it does also drive home that the Kil'Ratha simply were not good enough as spies and agents, not having seen this coming. Well, it is in the past now. Natalya still carries the name, but she will redefine what it means to her, in service of Nocticula. And if her house had not been destroyed... she likely would not have been recruited. It is just a shame that her sisters and mother were lost. Some of them may have come to embrace the Demon Queen as well.

"I am glad to be of service, Priestess. We will watch the situation unfold, in that case, though there is the chance that Dereth'Kahn will start looking for who keeps foiling their plans. We should be ready to run interference for their investigations, or have scapegoats ready. We also met our potential recruit while retrieving the staff. While she detected someone's presence, she did not see us, and we made sure to not harm her in the slightest. She also seemed to be quick-thinking, attempting to cast only a few moments after being alerted to an intruder's presence, which I feel speaks well for her, regardless of us counteracting her attempt. If I may, I would humbly like to make two requests. On future assignments, I would like to be paired with Evindress as much as possible. Our private involvement is well-known, but more importantly, she is the best partner I ever had, even moreso than my sisters who I trained to work together with for years. Her presence, skill, intuitive understanding, and situational awareness allowed this operation to go as smoothly as it did, and yield the results it did. I would also request being taught about Lolth-related items, insignia, and artifacts, in order to identify any potentially valuable items on future assignments that may be less obvious than the staff, whether to have them destroyed or used for our purposes."

Spoiler: OOC

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The request about Lolth items doesn't have to happen in-character, but more with the goal of when Natalya stumbles on something Lolth-related, she will know what it is, or at least have a basic understanding of it (and whether she should be careful about it possibly being tracked/bringing it back).

I also would like to mention that Evindress chiming in about the papers on the desk was much appreciated, both because it turned out to be mission-relevant (the desk having slipped my mind), but also because it gave Evindress some more presence and agency. I will need to do the heavy lifting for the plans and operations, since this is a solo game, but it helps a lot to have the character my own character spends the most time with being active and communicating and thinking for herself. Even little things like Evindress asking questions or chiming in with something (ideally with direct speech) or adding her own little touches helps make the character feel a lot more alive and endearing (and thus easier to get invested in and give a damn about).

[MikelaC1]

If that is Evindress wish as well she nods her head in affirmative then we can certainly make that happen.
Now in terms of some sort of compensation, you were not able to get any valuables for yourselves and that staff is useless for anyone who isnt a priestess of Lolth. The money coming from Matron Turpin is already earmarked for our tribute to the main temple....but in compense, how about those boots and catsuit becoming yours permanently and she picks up two bottles, handing one to each of you and a dose of our own particular brand of sleeping poison, you will find it much more effective than the crude general product.