Dark Rumblings

[Ebiris]

"Okay, so I'm going to go to the Desert Fiefdoms and surrounding countries and see what Sharran badness I can ferret out. First of all I'm going to need a cover identity," Marie reaches up to tap a delicate finger on her chin. "Elven scholar from Pallanth come to learn the ways of these places? Merchant plying exotic wares from the Baronies? Performing bard from Kesse? Since this is long term I can't just throw on any old name and face, I'll need to spend some time establishing the cover identity."

"A bard could be good," Alicia suggests, "Doesn't have to be from Kesse, but it gives you opportunities to perform in all sorts of places and hear rumours. Depending on how you play it you might even appear like a potential recruit to Dragodan and have him seek you out."

[Anastasia]

"Your newly found vocal talents will be useful," Antenora opines.

"Just make it far away enough that no one can easily gainsay any stories you have." Syala adds.

"If you must, but better simply not to lie and be mysterious instead," Antenora counters, "Let people draw their own conclusions about you."

[Ebiris]

"I'll want to seem good but not too good," Marie says, starting to pace around. "Being mysterious works though, I mean people can draw their own conclusions that I'm escaping from a troubled past or if I'm a small town girl trying to make herself more interesting by deflecting any questions about her past."

"It sounds like a good plan," Alicia nods. "You can visit major and middling towns in the region, do some performances and subtly feel out for signs of Sharran presence before moving on to the next."

"Do you want me to start now?" Marie asks, receiving a nod for her trouble.

"Yes, start in Wetwind Harbour - we already have a presence there but don't cross those streams. Let people think you're fresh off a boat or whatever and move on Westwards through the Fiefdoms and beyond," Alicia confirms.

---

Okay, so here's the basic plan for Marie's intelligence gathering.

Her cover identity is a human performer called Honey Belle, a ravishing blonde femme fatale sort. She takes 10 for 68 on her disguise checks using her Change Shape ability to maintain this guise for the duration.

She'll maintain her nondetection spell constantly, requiring a DC 46 caster level check for any divinations to reveal anything about her. She won't keep any of her magic items with her, just mundane clothes and supplies (and cash!). Her protective aura and tongues special abilities will be suppressed but she'll maintain other buffs like epic mage armour.

On arriving in a town or city she'll employ the following routine.

Step 1: Gather information about the best rich people taverns and hangouts. She uses the epic 'rouse suspicion' ability to be pretty obvious about this, giving her a +20 bonus to her check. She takes 10 for 78.
Step 1a: Gather information about Sharran activity concurrently with the previous action. She uses the epic 'avoid suspicion' ability to fly completely under the radar while doing this, taking a -20 penalty to her check. She takes 10 for 38.
Step 2: Spend several evenings performing at places highlighted to her in step 1. She sings and dances while intentionally limiting her abilities - she could hit DC 58 by taking 10 but she'll aim to hit DC 25 for a memorable performance.
Step 2a: Gather information about Sharran activity while performing at these places. Again she'll take a -20 penalty to her check to avoid rousing suspicion, but she'll also get Alicia to buff her with heroism for 5 hours ahead of each evening, letting her hit DC 40.
Step 3: Explore town during mornings after performances looking for any evidence of Sharran activity - symbols, omens, superstitions. She'll take 10 for 56 on perception and 10 for 56 on knowledge: religion as far as spotting physical signs, and 10 for 56 on sense motive for spotting suspicious people.
Step 4: Move to next town either by using Seira's teleport network (preferred if available), or joining up with a caravan. If none are available she'll gather information to find reliable adventurers/bodyguards and take 10 for 58 and hire said guards with a portion of her proceeds from performing to escort her to the next town.

This is a fairly long term project and most of it will just follow that script up to and until she actually finds evidence of Sharrans (or some other complication interferes with things).

[Anastasia]

Sounds good altogether. Just one thing.

"Honey Belle?" Antenora says, giving Marie a long look.

[Ebiris]

"It's a stage name!" Marie says, rolling her eyes. "Obviously my real name's something dull like Betty and so I've overcompensated to make myself sound fun and glamorous. Anyone that hears me call myself that will think they've got me all figured out in a second - more fool them!" she grins after, proud of her cleverness.

[Anastasia]

"Honey Belle." Antenora says, arms crossed and voice flat.

[Ebiris]

"Believe me, if I thought I could get away with Cantenora I would!" Marie huffs, turning her back on Antenora with a toss of her hair and crossing her arms.

[Anastasia]

Antenora huffs right back and turns her back to Marie as well, giving Alicia a look. "Honey Belle!" She says, as if that says it all.

[Ebiris]

"It has a certain... cachet," Alicia says diplomatically.

[Anastasia]

The look Antenora gives Alicia is drier than the desert sands and thoroughly unamused. "Honey Belle," Antenora repeats, slowly.

[Ebiris]

Marie whirls around to face Antenora again, pointing a finger at her. "It's a name people can't stop talking about!"

[Anastasia]

Antenora's expression is cool, unperturbed by Marie's pointing. "Not all cases of being talked about are good. It's just...Honey Belle!" she points right back at you. "It's so...so...chaotically chosen! You just chose a name without thinking it through!"

[Ebiris]

"Hey, hey!" Marie struts up towards Antenora until they're almost nose to nose. "Ask me why I'm called Honey Belle?" she challenges.

[Anastasia]

"Fine," Antenora declares, as Syala smiles a little bit and stays well out of this tiff. "Why are you called Honey Belle?"

[Ebiris]

"Because my voice is clear as a bell and smooth as honey!" Marie replies with a step backwards, hands on her hips and sounding extremely proud of herself.