Forgery and deceit

1) editing the letter

Shabana will rewrite Snicker-snake's letter. I have examined the letter and as far as I can tell there is nothing physical hidden in the message. Any authentication about the note is probably hidden in code words. My guess is the code words are in the first paragraph so I kept them identical. Even if the note is not perfectly correct, I suspect that they will be interested enough in it to hang around the mine and meet the courier. The 5 days stipulated in the note probably won't give them enough time to check the validity of the note out anywhere.

2) placing the letter

Shabana, Thor, and Tr can go down the mine to talk to TBlade again. Shabana and Thor can give him a mesg for Garl while Tr uses the thieves hand to slip the note back onto him.

3) return to temple

5 days should give us ample time to go to the temple and get back here. At the temple, Hurricane can hopefully help us rig up some doctored items. Items will include:

1. potions (of gasous form)

   These will be given to the operatives as an escape item. In reality they will contain some ingested poison. When they quaff to get away, they should keel over.
   
   

2. poison unguent (elf slaying poison, saves at -4)

   This is the special item for the mission. They will be told that it is special poison that works only on elves (or at least better on elves). They will be led to believe that this poison is their ace in the hole against our party. In reality this is harmless black gooey ointment. Hopefully they will use this poison preferentially over their other tricks.

The courier of course will be Tremere, specially disguised to be an operative type person. He will be carrying fewer items and will be dressed inconspicuously in grey, on horseback. He will meet them at the mine at the correct time to deliver the items (as mentioned above) and new information. The new info will be that the targets were tricked into visiting the mine and will be arriving shortly. Unfortunately the targets made better speed than planned and will be arriving within the hour. To compensate for the lack of prep time, the courier has brought the special poison which will enable them to pull off the assault on little notice. The courier will also bring them their bonus for the mission. He will give them special metal tokens which can be redeemed at Elbleem's in C-Ra. With any luck, Hurricane can make up tracking devices that we can fob off as tokens. That way, if any of them escape we have a chance of catching up with them later. Tremere has enough escape items so that if they don't believe him, he stands an excellent chance of getting out. One variation of the plan has the courier just leave and ride off; another has the courier stay and wait until after the attack to pick up spellbooks gleaned during the attack. This will mainly depend on how clever Tremere feels; if he feels he can fool them for an extended period of time, then it would be good to have him stay there.

5) the party

The party will arrive shortly after the courier and go down the mine shaft. It would be best not to have too much obvious prep (mirror images etc). If they post an outside scout and see us precasting that will scare them off. Hopefully we can halt before we can get close and put up protective spells, fly's, det invis, etc (things that won't be noticed). That way our party won't be obviously prepared. More noticeable spells (mirror images) can be Hezlik'ed

Hopefully the combat will go in our favor. With advance notice we can take spells to protect from the attack forms mentioned (free action to counter slow, prot fire, remove para, things like that). Also if they use the poison provided, the assault should go well. Our thieves could pretend to fail their saves and maybe get backstabs on people who come next to their bodies. Also our party could pretend to be eating "pills" to stave off poison effects. That way they would not figure out that they have been betrayed. It would be good if Tremere does not have to interfere to help us. That way they will quaff their poisoned potions with confidence and carry the token (tracking devices) around.

-Gita