"Good evening gentlemen! Up for a bit of plotting? Bringing chaos and destruction in carefully planned portions so as to subtly destabilize a kingdom? Strategic murders and the like? Don't look at me like that. I'm often called Worthy. I deal in explosions and immolations."<br/><br/>That was Worthy's introduction and Pete whirled up from his chair with a completely terrified look on his face, his mouth hanging open looking as aghast as he could, his hand flew to his rapier and in the next second he put his other hand to his mouth and shouted something beginning with G, before he cut himself off and his entire, horrified being folded into the calm, smiling person known as Pete Girly.<br/><br/>"I do so love theatrics, Worthy, and I just pretended to be a man not involved in murder, schemes and destruction; A man who was just enjoying some potatoes, salted ham and mushroom sauce in an ordinary, albeit slightly-high-class, tavern. My character knew nothing of what we are all here for, and reacted appropriately to some fool entering by the window and blurting out the entire conspiracy to complete strangers." Pete's smile faded slightly, to only be a slight curve on his lips and his orange brows furrowed just a bit to give him a look of mild annoyance sans anger. "Do not endanger our task again, no matter how humorous it is all going to be."<br/><br/>And then he turned to Ashton and there was a slight quiver on his lip and he said in a much wounded tone: "You told me you loved me!"<br/>Not much of a deceiver, that one, Pete thought. The slightest bit of an insult - less than that, a jest at his expense - and he flew into a defensive rage, even going to far as to reveal personal information about himself. If Pete ever needed to hold true power over him, he would just find this wife of his. He would have to remind him not to wear the ring at all, really.<br/><br/>Pete went back to his potatoes and his ham and gave anyone else who was hired a chance to show up equal to the time it took him to finish his dinner before he went on to give his thoughts on the task ahead.<br/>And no one did show up, but Pete was eating rapidly and not at all with proper manners.<br/><br/>"So, here are my immediate thoughts. The tools currently at our disposal are a demolitions expert, which is a tremendously useful asset, and two swordsmen, which are far less useful, even if one of them is carrying a pistol. If you wish to have it be your surprise weapon, I suggest not reaching into your coat before you reach for your sword."<br/><span style="font-style: italic">And I heard you fire it before you entered this room,</span>but Pete did not say that, since deducing secrets with as little information as possible sounded the most impressive. He decided to make up an alternate explanation to make it clear he was distinguishing between a pistol and the far more common throwing knife, or any other object you could have in your coat.<br/>"And you have minute traces of gunpowder on your fingertips, so please do not touch the food until you wash up."<br/><br/>"I weigh our advantages and disadvantages, and apparently I am the only one, so I suppose I will have some use working as more than a swordsman. In order to give our Ashton as a purpose, I think suspect he will have to do all the direct killing, if we need something like that. We cannot use the gun, of course, since they are not found in Agathor. A bullet wound would hint at outside interests and we desire the conflict to be strictly internal."<br/>Pete steadfastly refused to call anyone "sir" or by surnames. Ashton would have to get used being on first name basis with Pete, and if he objected he would promptly get the nickname "Crummy".<br/>"Ashton, you asked me how one does go about bringing a kingdom down. The most reliable method is with an army, and now that we do not have one, it is a wonderful challenge, agreed? We have a man of many burns; I say we make use of him. Our strength is that no one knows we are here, and no one will suspect us. There is supposed to be many who could take action against each other, so whatever we do, they will assume we do it on behalf of another pretender. If we can find, well, whoever has property here in this city, then we can blow it up," Pete nodded to Worthy with a polite smile, "and we will not even have to pin the blame on anyone else. They'll surely do this themselves. No one suspects an anarchist faction that only formed just now, when there are who-knows-how-many established factions who would have reason to do it."<br/><br/>"As for disadvantages, you two count as being short-sighted. One of you could have given away our advantage of secrecy if he had simply crawled through the wrong window and told random guests of murder and explosions. Another of you has no experience in scheming, I surmise, and reacted far stronger than was warranted for a minor offense. You are either a very good actor, or, far more likely, an idiot who cannot stay calm. I agree that this is all going to be<span style="font-style: italic">fun</span>mission, and we should try to enjoy ourselves, and I am not one to abandon outrageous, impractical schemes if they are more fun that pragmatically boring ones. Nonetheless, I will have to insist none of us react on whims."<br/>Pete said this without anger or hardness in his voice. He stated his negativity towards his fellow conspirators with the same casualty as if he was discussing the flavor of the mushroom sauce.<br/>"We all share the disadvantage of recognizability. Ashton is the most inconspicuous of us, but even he would be easily described by onlookers. Stealth should not be our primary avenue of attack, obviously. For now, let us focus on who and what to blow up with Worthy's expertise. Tell us of how large a target is possible, and how much time you need to prepare. I already have my thoughts on three houses owned by a minor supporter to a major supporter of a pretender. While we should discuss all plans as equals, I think this would work as a good opening attack. But worthy is the expert - it is his area, after all - and will have to tell me how feasible it is to destroy three buildings at once. And we will need a map of the city, and another plate of ham. Go wash your hands, Ashton."