nagpurpolice Chapter 1683 The Politics of the Situation
Chapter 1683 The Politics of the Situation
--- Kat ---
"I feel as though my words were quite clear," stated Meg causing 'Clyde' to start shivering again.
So Kat cut in with, "I think they were just uttering an exclamation of surprise but even if they weren't... I want to know what this means. Like... what do you mean by 'the nobles are involved' and also 'what does that mean for us' as well? Hunter seems to know, and I can at least make a few guesses... but not really? Like I don't see you caring about the nobles much,"
"Well it has quite a few effects but we can start with what I mean exactly when I say the nobles are involved. It's quite simple really. A noble, or more likely a coalition of a few nobles are paying Pebbles in high quality goods for his bandits at the very least, with perhaps other things on the list as well. I don't know how much exactly they're paying him...
"It could be anything from regular arms and armour all the way up to real money and perhaps even men... which brings us into the next issue. Pebbles might have some sort of trap card. I thought this enchantments were good for a bandit, but thinking on it again... they might be TOO good for a bandit.
"I'm guessing they've got a master enchanter that either built the traps themselves or they taught Pebbles for quite a while. Sure this is decently impressive but with the new context this trap is likely just one they gave to Not without much care. I suspect they'll have better closer in... and perhaps even some precious life saving items.
"Which introduces issues more issues finding the crystal and defeating the bandits. Still, we can get to those later. The other immediate concern is that the leadership of the town probably know this. Not... Not might be even less important then I thought because he clearly didn't realise the wider implications,"
Not made aggrieved noises from the floor. Everyone, even Clyde ignored him as Meg continued. "Now. For you goody-two-shoes the reason that's an issue is that if we take out the bandits the nobles will spin it as us attacking 'innocent civilians' so now we have to be a bit more careful with the planning... and unless this is the last drake piece we need we can't afford to waste time with a political shitstorm,"
"I thought you said it was," pointed out Kat.
"I said I was CONFIDENT it was the last one. I'm more than 90% sure it's the last one... but the problems come if it's not and I'm not sure I'm willing to risk that so... major kid gloves for everyone I think. It's still going to cause a massive headache for the town now regardless of what happens... but hopefully something can be worked out," said Meg with a sigh.
Pacing swiftly Meg continued after a few turns. "Now, the issues with the enchanter. I'm most worried about one of two things. Both annoying in different ways. Luckily the 'least bad' is the one I can see us dealing with... but depends on what the enchanter specialised in and how much the nobles are banking on this.
"I imagine, for social reasons if nothing else, most will cry and scream about how they're totally innocent and that their evil bandit husband, son, father, wife, daughter whatever forced them to move out of the town and that they were just so scared at the time," explained Meg.
"They would really stab their relations in the back like that? Um... Ma'am?" asked Strdl with a touch of hesitation when adding the Ma'am at the end.
Meg shrugged, "Eh... if the 'relation' is already up for serious charges it wouldn't be hard. Or you could start saying it after the judgement is rendered... or you could try and swing it that someone else, probably Pebbles or Creep was leaning on that family member? It really depends. Not all families are particularly close... and I imagine quite a few will be angry at the bandit member for 'getting them into this mess'. It's all fun and games when they're making more money for the family with it... but when the consequences come knocking rarely are they willing to just own up,"
Kat let the silence linger for a bit before asking, "So what's the plan now?"
Meg turned slowly to Kat while still pacing, "The plan is that we rely on a combination of my compass and Lil Sis' excellent smell to navigate to the hideout as best we can. Lament at the fact that stealth probably won't be an option because I'd bet most of the entrances are sealed, and all of the ones we can access. Then we bust in, knock them all out of we can, and try not to trigger whatever last resort safeties Pebbles has, hoping that they can't be manually triggered,"
"How likely is it they can be?" asked Kat.
"Depends on how much he's trusted I guess? Perhaps how skilled the enchanter is? For some, adding in that manual component makes the enchantment weaker and more finicky so a lot don't bother if they have it set to trigger automatically when something happens," explained Meg.
"Wait... it's worse to have a manual trigger?" asked Kat.
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"No it's worse to have BOTH Kat. The automatic ones are much harder to design and keeping them in proper working order can be extremely tricky especially if you need the enchantment to last,"
Kat nodded slowly... "So the plan is just to break in and hope for the best really?"
Meg sighed, "While it's a touch more complex and likely involved Lil Sis sneaking around to get us more info while we fight... yes the plan is mostly just to break in and hope for the best," Kat just sighed. *I really thought we'd have something better but aw well I guess...*