tectonomancer

Mercantile Lore to get a crate aboard Mercantile Lore

Preparations, Day 1 Valivia reaches out to her connections in the Six Colleges to investigate the artifact, hoping to ascertain its nature, or at least, the preboreal experts Hold Sorulien brought it to and their particular specialties. Her Deception DC to evade drawing Hold Sorulien's attention is 27 (or 29 if I can use Stealth instead of Deception). Research the Artifact with Society

Liv did her best to keep her face on a neutral, bordering-on-smug expression, but she was relieved by Tégla's approval of her plan. Tégla had talents Liv lacked, but she also lacked some of the talents Liv had entered this world with. Lying, mainly. She wasn't great at it. They didn't call her the Brick after some canny knack for blending into crowds or feigning conformity. Valivia suspected the other woman found it tedious. She fell into step with Tégla as they left the room and spoke softly. "Did you see the passenger list? There's an Arish hel Ilphalssem in the Port Suite. Will this pose a problem?"

"Reconnaissance on the St. Kelszei's Mercy itself would be of tremendous value, as well as anything we might learn of the passengers and crew. I'm... unconvinced the two of you should stick together, however, given we're meant to be a group of disparate persons and Song-in-Strings has volunteered for distraction duty. The two of you knowing each other and each creating your own commotions will be more immediately connected than the two of you as separate passengers happening to have entirely unrelated problems or performances." Liv brushes a speck of dust from her shoulder before continuing. "I'm also of the opinion that, as I am most suited to posing as a person of means, likely the daughter of a smaller merchant family, and that as Tégla's best cover option is to pose as my bodyguard," she glances at the other disgraced spiker a moment, hoping to gauge Tégla's reaction, "that our mission is best served by the two of us, B and I, rooming privately and with each other." She clears her throat, hoping it is evident and not worth questioning why Song and Zef knowing each other is bad for the mission but Tégla and herself knowing each other is fine and, actually, good. "The daughter of even a small merchant family would not be traveling abroad without escort, and a cover as my bodyguard is a reasonable way for me to speak on B's behalf, and it explains why she must be so extremely well armed while we travel."

Valivia looked up from the passenger list and locks eyes with Gulichd. One of them was going into the Starboard Suite to steal the artifact, and the other would be left hiding it after. Miss Thezzeli could case the suite too, maybe, and getting her into the suite would probably come easier. Gulichd drew eyes in a way Miss Thezzeli didn't. She started running scenarios through her head; what would happen if Sorulien lackeys questioned Gulichd or searched him for the artifact? What were his tells, and would they see them? No. He had to be the one in the suite, and she would palm the thing after. "Multiple distractions, multiple escapes. If we miss a rendezvous with a fishing boat so be it, we paid a fisherman for naught but insurance. Better to have the option than wish for an out we forewent."

"Dr. Javin Eszedurik-Korcz..." Liv reads, "an incredible coincidence for the doctor to be aboard this cloudcutter at the same time as a Preboreal artifact, if coincidence is what this is. Dr. Eszedurik-Korcz was a professor of Preboreal history at St. Belzsein's College." She narrows her gaze on the doctor's name and speaks more softly, as if questioning the paper itself, "are you working with Hold Sorulien, or is there a second scheme aboard the St. Kelszei's Mercy?"

Oh, I feel like I should note that Liv loves Ilphalssem, actually. She probably had a whole pile of Ilphalssem and Mitrolz school chums. One of the things I particularly like about Liv being from Bressephen is that, like how Tégla was a misfit in Ilphalssem and didn't embody the hold's ideals, Valivia was a Bressephen misfit. Had she been Ilphalssem or Mitrolz, her proclivities and talents probably would have had them making excuses to cover up her crimes, instead of making her their fall gal of choice. UPDATE: Valivia hel Bressephen was engaged to Tégla's older sister, a scholar she attended college with, before she was disowned. The marriage was called off on account of all the crimes and whatnot.

Liv snaps out of her imaginings at the production of a passenger list. She rises to her knees first, leans back into a squat, then stands up fully; she is careful to maintain her modesty as she gets onto her feet. The gunslinger slides smoothly over to the twins and crouches just behind Song, looking over his shoulder to read the passenger list. She scans the page for names she knows, and for the names of those who would know her. "If we ascertain which experts of the Preboreal Hold Sorulien brought the artifact to specifically, we will clear several swift steps in the path of coming to know the artifact's nature," she offers, almost offhandedly, as if confirming something the group already knew because it comforted her to have it on the record.

Mercantile Lore

Valivia followed her guildmates into Ilsejzan's study. Within the safety and privacy of Breakneck Hall, the disgraced spiker removed her mask for once and hid her eyes behind a pair of red-tinted spectacles instead. Her pistol, usually concealed beneath a tailored wool coat, was for the moment out for anyone to see or gawk upon, holstered beneath her right arm in a leather harness. She held her skirts with one hand, lifting their hem above the puddled ground that besieged her within the hall just as it had without. Still far too polite not to sit when bade, Valivia knelt gingerly on a pillow, then sat with her legs twisted just off to one side, keeping the bottoms of her boots from dirtying the pillow or her skirts. She listened attentively, perking predictably at the mention of Hold Sorulien; then again at Preboreal; at the mention of the Relic Lands; at experts of the Preboreal; Pearl Market; brokers; the surety of a transfer... a halo creeped in around the corners of her vision and she narrowed her eyes, pushing out the chatter to focus instead on a million more important calculations, drawing up whatever recollections she could about the Soruliens, about who might broker a deal with a buyer in Ven Kalisz for a Preboreal artifact, or who might be buying them. She was too quiet. Her eyes drifted, behind her glasses, to the indistinct middle distance. Her lips parted in a small smile. She understood. (ooc: should I roll any of my lores to see what kind of establishing background information Liv might have about this?)

Name(s): Valivia hel Bressephen, Valivia the illuminate, Lightless Liv Valivia is sometimes called 'the illuminate' both as a reference to luminousness, her illustrious history with the spikeholds, and her interest in the godsblood first found in the sun when the world was still lit, but also as a play on ill-luminate, light or knowledge cast from some fell or foreboding source (i.e. a bearer of bad news). This moniker was eventually corrupted into the similar-sounding antonym of 'Lightless Liv', inconsistently used both as a genuine epithet for an expert sneak and as an ironic nickname for a horn exceptionally light on her feet. Character ABCs Ancestry: Horn Background: Fallen from Grace (uncommon) Culture: Ourian Class: Gunslinger (uncommon) Heritage: Tower-Born Ancestry Feat: Ichor-touched Ancestry Feat: Skillful Tail Biography: Liv was born into Hold Bressephen with expectations of what she would do to serve the hold and the republic. She received a desirable university education attending Mitrolz College and excelled with the nuances of etiquette and trade law, in addition to taking a great interest in ichor and other preboreal matters. She was never able to live up to Bressephen's reputation for honesty or gentility, however. When a major trade scandal was discovered, Valivia hel Bressephen was found to be the sole conspirator, responsible for defrauding the rest of the hold, and was excommunicated from Hold Bressephen. Liv's willingness to do crimes turned out to be something of a plus for the Broken Guild, who quickly siezed this sudden and rare opportunity to recruit an abruptly-homeless and friendless university-educated disgraced ex-trade clerk with nowhere else to go. It is by the grace of the guild that Liv landed rather well on her feet. Wanted For: Big time tax fraud and embezzlement, misappropriating Hold Bressephen's funds, etc. Specialty: Mastery in Acrobatics, Deception, Stealth, Mercantile Lore, and Ichor Lore. In the office, she's a negotiator, paperwork-handler, and loophole-locater for the guild's import/export dealings. On a heist, she's sneaky, she's nimble, and she's got a gun. {}{}{} {}{}{} {}{}{} {}{}{} {}{}{} {}{}{} {}{}{} {}{}{} {}{}{} {}{}{} {}{}{} {}{}{} {}{}{} Personality: Prim, precise, severe. Two steps ahead mapping out networks of possible betrayals (both to betray everyone around her, and how everyone around her might be in the middle of betraying her); navigating all these hypothetical betrayals takes up rather a lot of her attention at any given time. Valivia is, consequently, slightly absentminded and often unwilling to engage with reality as it truly exists. Cordial, courteous, and amicable in conversation, but rarely sincere. Liv keeps others at something of a distance, preferring to engage with the world from the safety of a facade as opposed to being seen and known. Your Darkest Secret: Liv has no desire to admit to the hallucinations she now experiences. They would all think she's infirm, see her as something other than the competent, skilled, knowledgeable professional she prides herself on being. No one would understand the truth: that she has the situation under control, that the visions of prophecy she has now been blessed with are good, actually. That she sees the world more clearly now than ever. The tax crimes aren't a secret, everybody knows about that, big deal. Your Greatest Crime: Defrauding Hold Bressephen WAS a big deal, actually. Did she do it? Sure, yeah. Was she the sole conspirator? Absolutely not. Valivia hel Bressephen was deemed highly expendable, largely unliked, and entirely unthreatening: her co-conspirators had caught onto her ichor-drinking and were ready to bring that fact forward as testimony on her faculties if she spoke a word against them. Your Saving Grace: Uncomplicatedly loves learning :) Despite a proclivity for secret-keeping, Liv is enthusiastic about learning from others and sharing what she knows in kind. Secrets pertain to individuals and are never knowledge about the world itself. Pathbuilder Link: