Flashback Part 2: The night continues

[Karsynwa]

1st of Fall, 490 AV Continued (Night)

Karsynwa wasn’t exactly comfortable with Arrel’s choice of location, but he kept his mouth shut. Mostly because he couldn’t take his eyes off the woman in the window. Nearly nude, she reclined on a cushioned lounge casually nursing a glass of wine while she looked out towards the sky. She had short black hair, tan skin, brown eyes, and was clad in black linen undergarments that only barely covered her. At a nudge from Arrel, Karsynwa picked his jaw up off the ground and moved to continue up the path that lead away from the brothel.

“I forgot to tell you that when you stand their gawking like that you make it harder to get any observable Intel. Any that is worth a petch at least. Though I don’t blame you, first one eh?” Arrel chided.

Karsynwa frowned, more than a little embarrassed.

“Don’t take it too hard, that is also something you’ll have to work on as you patrol pass here in the future. Just try harderto keep your discipline next time.”

Karsynwa nodded, and followed him up the gentle incline till they followed the path doubled back above the tavern. Arrel stopped when they were above it. “We won’t be able to hear anything, but it gives us a good enough view of who is coming or going.”

Following his mentor’s lead, Karsynwa knelt before laying down and pulling himself along towards the edge of the path. Peering over the side, he peered down at the narrow street below. It felt a little awkward laying across the path like this, but looking up he didn’t see anyone coming.

“Don’t worry about that. While not ideal, this is the safest way to look over a ledge” Arrel muttered under his breath while he studied the street below. “You see that man down there?”

“The Akalak with the thick bronze armbands?” Karsynwa asked, spotting the Akalak leaning against the wall of the brothel. He noticed that the man was wearing full leather armor, and had a long blade sheathed on his hip. “Guard?”

Arrel nodded. “See the way he is leaning against the wall, bending his legs slightly. Think he has been standing there a while so that means either he’s going to take a seat somewhere or start walking around. You know why that is?” Arrel asked, glancing over.

Karsynwa drew his brows together as thought about it for a moment. “Because standing in the same place sucks after a while?” He said, though he immediately regretted his blithe tone. Arrel didn’t seem to want to reprimand him for it though, at least not yet. Instead the man seemed to be chewing over his words before he turned towards Karsynwa.

“Partially correct. You aren’t a very effective guard if you don’t move around a little, and standing that long in one place will stiffen your legs up. Which is bad if you do get into an altercation. Now depending on what he does, we can see what his orders are.”

WC: 501

[Karsynwa]

“How?” Karsynwa asked, peering closer at the man with renewed interest.

“If he sits down, that could possibly mean there are no other guards inside and they need him in a fixed position. That one specifically because of the view it affords him of the road. It could also mean it is close to a shift change for him with him getting antsy. However if he starts moving around maybe down the street a ways, it most certainly means there is at least one other guard inside. Also he probably has a significant amount of time left in his shift otherwise he would just stay put. You’ll get used to picking up on these habits when you watch people.”

“But that is only a guess. We can’t possibly know if there are others inside without going in ourselves.” Karsynwa argued.

Arrel favored him with a slight smile, patting him on the shoulder. “That’s what this first part is all about. Getting detailed observations, and making educated guesses off of your analysis. Later we will get into ways you can test these guesses, however you should know that most of the time you won’t have nearly the amount of detail you want before embarking on a mission. Intelligence gathering is hard work, and there are no guarantees that you will extract useful information, even after you have watched a place for a while. You’ll have to use other strategies to pad out this eventuality, which we will also get into later on after you’ve learned the basics of analyzing your observations.”

Karsynwa rolled onto his back. “That is a lot to think about. I see what you meant by experience now. A lot of this stuff I’m just missing because I haven’t been watching for it. I guess it pays to pay attention to what is going on in the city at all times.”

Arrel sat up beside him. “Yes it does, but you’ll get that with more experience patrolling the city. Once you’ve gotten used to who frequents where, you will be able to interpret the information better.”

Karsynwa leaned up, and took Arrel’s offered hand to help him stand. Then he dusted off his trousers. “So where to next?”

“Getting a taste for it eh? But what’s the rush, we aren’t done with this place yet. What kind of men do you think frequent a place like this?” Arrel asked.

“I don’t know, a rich one I guess. What are they selling anyways? Ladies underwear?” Karsynwa asked, feeling a shadow of the embarrassment he’d felt earlier.

Arrel laughed at that, and slapped on the side of the arm. “Oh to be young again. They’re selling sex. Its a brothel if that wasn’t immediately apparent to you by the wares they are displaying in their window down there. Though I suppose you are a bit naive.” His mentor teased, drawing out a scowl from Karsynwa.

“I stand by my answer then.” He groused after a tick to collect himself.

WC: 499

[Karsynwa]

“All kinds actually. In case you have noticed, there are not a lot of women in the city, and the number of those women whom are Nakivaks is smaller still. Not everyone can get a contract, or meet for love. Most actually. So a place like this attracts a diverse range of clientele. From the rich to the poor, they all come here for a stay. That makes it an excellent source of information, provided you know the way about getting it.”

“Watching who comes and goes?” Karsynwa asked expectantly.

“Partially effective. The real Intel comes when you follow that information up with the ladies inside. With the right incentive, they can tell you just about anything you want to know.” Arrel said before he started walking up the path. Karsynwa hurried to join him.

“Bribe them you mean?” Karsynwa asked.

“That is one way. However there are a lot of strategies you can use. Charm and wit can carry you far, as can being frightening on occasion. It is all about knowing your target well enough to properly incentives them.”

“So I’ve got to have information on them before I go to them for information on another person?” Karsynwa said.

“Of course, you’ll want to have information on everybody. Even me and your parents. How else are you going to make educated decisions. There are a lot of ways of going about gleaning this information that doesn’t often have to happen directly, but we will get to that later. Right now I just want you to get a good basic foundation till we move on to the more complex bits.” Arrel replied, studying him for a moment in the dim torchlight of the path. “Did you notice how that guard took a seat when we left?”

Karsynwa looked over his shoulder, then shook his head.

“He spotted us almost immediately, which is another thing you’ll need to be wary of when embarking on certain tasks. How to blind in, and otherwise obscure yourself while you are observing your target. You’ll find that people behave quite different when they know you are watching them.”

Karsynwa stifled the urge to say obviously, and instead thought it through. “That cause you don’t always know if they’ve caught on to you?”

“Right, and they could be feeding you false information. You’ll learn how to watch for that later. You don’t need to worry about that yet. I want you focused on getting any information you can so you have a large resource to practice analyzing. That is the best way for you to get past the initial hurdles.” Arrel said, and Karsynwa smiled to himself at finally getting something right. Even if it had be walked out for him by Arrel in the first place, it felt good to make the right judgment here. They stopped, and took a seat along the edge of the path. Looking out they had good view of the city stretching out above, below, and across from them.

WC: 500

[Karsynwa]

“What do you think are the most popular places in the city?” Arrel asked.

“Those near the entrances.” Karsynwa said, recalling their earlier conversation about the sailors. Figured it would be the same for those entering off of the road as well. Riverfall could be an effort to traverse for the unacquainted so it figured that strangers wouldn’t want to venture far from their point of egress.

“Very good. You’re right in so far as outsiders are concerned, but you are going to have to get to know the city layout a little better if you are going to understand where the women, Akalak’s, and other permanent residents of Riverfall like to hang out. It also shifts with the time of day, so what may be true for the morning won’t necessarily be the same for the evening.” Karsynwa nodded to this as Arrel continued. “What do you notice about this street we are on?”

“That it is not particularly busy at this hour.” Karsynwa said after giving the street a good look up and down its length. No one had passed them for quite sometime though he had seen people along the other paths that wound across the cliff face.

“Why do you think that is?” Arrel asked.

“Because it is late?” Karsynwa shrugged, to which Arrel rolled his eyes.

“Expand on that” His mentor pressed.

“The shops on this side are all closed so there isn’t much traffic down this particular slope.” He scratched his chin while he tried to think up anything else till Arrel finally broke the silence.

“An you can hazard a guess that there are probably alternative paths down the cliff face that are more direct routes to the locations still open at this hour. So from that we can guess that there are very few if any residences along this path. Do you see how that might be useful?”

Karsynwa nodded, but he hesitated to answer until he had a chance to think it through. Popular paths meant more people which meant more information, something Arrel had been very clear about being important even if Karsynwa didn’t know what all of this information amounted to yet. Well that wasn’t entirely true. He did notice that they amounted him learning more about casual strangers he passed, information that could prove to be rather useful in the right context. Karsynwa wasn’t sure the context he would have to identify a sailor or a Nakivak in, but he had to admit that there could be something to all of this training. More importantly, he respected Arrel’s opinion on these matters. The man had yet to steer him wrong with his training so far.

“If you know where people’s residences lie, and the businesses they might frequent, you can plot out the path they will take as they will likely take a direct route to their destination.”

Arrel snapped his fingers. “Correct, and if you know that you can set other things into motion that might allow you to extract further information down the road.” His mentor stood up from the bench then, glancing around before turning slight towards Karsynwa. “Now, lets get you home. Its getting late, and we’ve got a busy day tomorrow.”

WC: 538

[Karsynwa]

Karsynwa felt a little disappointed to hear they were going home now, though he had to admit he was feeling drained. Still, he perked up a little at the thought of what they might get into tomorrow. He still felt overwhelmed by it all as they started walking again, but there was another feeling there. The excitement of embarking upon something knew, and all of the possibilities with this new journey. They seemed limitless to him now as his mind cast himself as cleverly catching criminals with these strategies although he knew this to be an oversimplification of what he would actually be doing. It was just easier to process it that way for now.

Down the path a Akalak passed them, looking rather eager Karsynwa thought. He noticed the man was wearing a dark blue cotton shirt, and trousers. More than that he thought he heard the man jingling as he passed them. Not much more than that could be made out in the flickering orange light of the torches that lined the path so Karsynwa looked back to Arrel.

“Reckon he’s going to that brothel.” Karsynwa said when the man was out of earshot, which drew a slight grin out of Arrel.

“How do you figure?” Arrel asked, his tone betraying nothing. Karsynwa longed for the day when he could keep his own mannerisms so flat and impassive. It made him self conscious when he caught himself acting out certain gestures and behaviors.

“I heard coins, and its not far down this path we are on.” Karsynwa said rather proud of himself for the deduction. Arrel rolled his eyes at the tone, but didn’t address his pride directly.

“Could it be that what you thought were coins was actual chain mail? Or bronze scales sewn across armor? Maybe he’s got guard duty down at the Kulkukan.” Arrel said, letting that last part sit for a while before he continued. “Your probably right of course, he certainly sounded like he had a purse full of coins, an their was flour on his fingers so he probably just got done working at the bakery that lies above us. However you must be careful what you assume and always look very closely at what you are observing. You might miss something that will be a key detail down the road.”

Karsynwa conceded the point, and took the suggestion to heart. He hadn’t even noticed the bit about the flour which really wouldn’t have changed his answer. That wasn’t the point however. Perhaps he should also look for bulges underneath the clothing just in case someone was wearing armor under their tunic. Stuff like that so he could be careful to avoid assuming incorrectly in the future. Arrel had definitely left him with a lot to think about tonight, and the man seemed to conclude this as well for the rest of their journey went quietly from there. When he finally came home, Karsynwa went straight to sleep, eager to get an early start on tomorrow.

WC: 504

[Reed]

Grades Awarded!

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Karsynwa

Skills

• Intelligence: 5
• Observation: 5
• Persuasion: 1
• Socialization: 5

Lores

• Observation: Drawing attention makes it harder to observe
• Lore - Lay prone to look over a ledge
• Location - Velvet Curtain
• Intelligence: Identifying the guard outside of the Velvet Curtain
• Intelligence: Why the brothel exists
• Intelligence: Why escorts make potentially good informants
• Persuasion: Why you need to know the person to know the right incentive
• Intelligence: People react differently when they know they are being watched
• Lore - Why a little paranoia is healthy as a spy
• Intelligence: Why knowing the layout of a city is important
• Intelligence: How a person’s route can give you more information about them
• Observation: Noticing flour on a man’s hands
• Observation: What a full coin purse sounds like

Awards & Retribution


Notes