After the day's... less than satisfying excursion out, both Delia and Xarius drift back to their inn and makeshift base of operations to gather their impromptu "forces" to go... assassinate someone who needed assassination. There's a quiet, quick dinner- many of those involved expecting more substantial food later. After that's cleared off, Aron invites everyone up to his room- which is cramped- but insists that it needs to be in private, Just In Case. Once everyone crams their way in, he unrolls a sheet of parchment and sticks it on the wall.<br/><br/>"I took the liberty of a little more... reconnaissance. Our mark is named Fabian Brimwood, and, as I've said, he runs a security business for many of the slavers and slave-using businesses on the waterfront. Since many people share Garth's feelings- even here- that's a significant business, and our Mister Brimwood's gotten very comfortably rich doing it. Enough to have bought up a modest walled manor house in one of the relatively posh sections of town. It's actually got a main road going right past the front gate, which isn't ideal, but does give us good cause to be nearby before we strike. There are alleys on both sides of it. It's unlikely anyone outside the manor will respond to an attack- the city guard tends to not go where they might have to fight, as many guards do." The drow smiles quickly- his white hair's already bound in a tight ponytail behind him. "I spread some coin around to hear somethings, and I as casually and unobtrusively as I could looked around. I made this sketch of the manor, here:"<br/><br/>( The sketch:m<a class="postlink" href="https://i.imgur.com/ee1PvHk.png">https://i.imgur.com/ee1PvHk.png</a>m)<br/><br/>"The wall is mostly around a courtyard, out front, with a good stout main gate. Call it eight feet tall, and topped with spikes. The wall's integrated into the first floor of the manor proper, which has two floors- I suspect the walls of the first floor are thick, since there aren't any windows. The manor house has windows on the second floor, but I saw bars in all of them, and were I in charge of security, that would be a focus of traps and alarm spells. Nothing that can't BE handled, but- a bit of a risk. Out front, there are two outbuildings. The first shabbier one is for slaves, and Mr. Dashwood has about a dozen. They're kept under lock and key, since that building, I notice, is locked from the *outside*. The other one is where the guards and the non-slave servants stay. It's bigger, and I'd estimate that there's probably four to six guards on duty at night. Servants, probably not a risk since they're not paid to fight, but call it another half-dozen or so. There is a side entrance into the servants' quarters from one of the alleyways, but it's also locked tight at night. There is a kennel, but I've heard the master of the house doesn't much care for dire wolves-" He grins. "And there's only two left. Stupid things, but good to know it's not common guard dogs, yes?"<br/><br/>He clears his throat. "Our target is a bachelor, but he's got a few favorite slave-girls that form a harem of sorts, I hear. His tastes definitely run to the exotic, and he's known to have a half-dozen half-breed bastard children mostly in the first floor. He is paranoid- understandably- and sleeps with weapons and nastiness near to hand. So!" The drow claps his hands, grinning. "Isn't this fun? Haven't gotten to do this in a while. My own personal preference would be to scale the side of the house, work one of the smaller windows open, slip in, kill the target, and slip out without anyone seeing me, but there are risks to that-"<br/><br/>"Burn the servants quarters. And the guards quarters. Not the slaves," Mona pipes up, lounging in a corner. "Let me toss a few fire spells over the wall into the paid employees' houses, and while they're trying to deal with that, then we brute force our way in somewhere else. Try to blast down a wall, or something similar."<br/><br/>"A bit showy," Aron says. "Plus, they'd all be well aware that they were under attack, and who knows what contingencies they might have? ..speaking of, Garth, you and Chira are going to be having a late dinner date a block up the street. You have reservations- I bribed the staff so that the two of you could have a wonderful moonlit table outside with a view of the manor, so that you'll know quickly if anything goes wrong. Now, I know that means you won't have your full armor, but... well, you'll be right there in case anything goes wrong, and we won't have an armored warhorse conspicuously a block away before any excitement."<br/><br/>Garth, leaning into the parchment, nibbles his lip. "Interesting. It's a fragile security setup, meant to deter single assassins like you, Aron, and not enough to deter a full military-like assault, which we don't have the people for. But it's useful to see what he's thinking. He's definitely more worried about assassins than attacks. My thought is actually break into the slave quarters. Shouldn't be too hard to get up and over a spiked wall safely unless there are some very odd traps there-"<br/><br/>"-which is likely," Aron chimes in with an amused smile. "But probably keyed towards preventing escapes."<br/><br/>Garth nods. "So if we quietly break in there, we could- while staying stealthy- free the slaves, get them to tell us more about the layout of the house, and then once they're away we could either attack normally or let Mona start flinging fire around without as many worries."<br/><br/>The drow frowns. "Except for the children on the lower floor?"<br/><br/>Garth winces. "Right. Them. Well, I still like going into the slaves' quarters first, despite that."<br/><br/>"Or, we could just trust in my ability to get us through a second floor window," Aron says, "And proceed from up there..."<br/><br/>((There seems to be a little argument about how to tactically go after your prey to be, and a few Complicating Factors! How would you like to plan to go forward?))