CaraVela continues with Telepathy to communicate her complex thought efficiently in minimum time, only occasionally moving her lips soundlessly, sending to everyone except Liltar.
<Johnathan, Bruce, there is at least one idea for each of us to consider before we leave Singorn: How we might want to present ourselves to the society on the island.
Perhaps the two of you need not care, or have no prior reputation to consider, but I for one don’t wish to be known as CaraVela there. It has the potential to cause problems for me there, since I would be bringing some reputation with me, and even might cause problems here, afterward, if rumors of exile – and a return from exile – become known somehow. Any secret can come out eventually, in the fullness of time.
Others here who have a public reputation may have a similar problem. Lord Kensington, how would you wish to be known on the island? Do you want to arrive as a Lord? As yourself? If so, then you’ll need a very convincing explanation of why Lord Kensington has been exiled, which will not cause your reputation problems if rumors come back. Remember that Lord Singorn may not be able to defend your reputation after you return without confirming the existence of the island, depending on the nature of the rumors – or at the least a hidden place of exile – so it may not be possible to squelch rumors without revealing too much.
You too, Centurion; your reputation could easily precede you to the island if you appear as you are. And you, Agente Merrion, may not wish your identity and especially your profession to be known on the island if it hampers your effectiveness in carrying out your profession.
You, Magus, have you a reputation to preserve, or a family to consider? Would rumors cause you a problem? Or will your true identity cause you a problem on the island, making criminal activity in your past, that is worthy of exile, not a believable story if such as story would be to our advantage there? Have you ideals that resist tarnishing by a story, so that choosing a believable reason for you to be in exile will require even more careful consideration than it may for others?
I know that others here may not need to care about this issue; it may not mean anything to you, Bruce or Johnathan… or it may, upon reflection. I suggest you take a moment for that reflection – for each of us to take a moment – and at least think about how you would want to be known on the island – and for what crime so fierce to be worthy of exile – before we leave Lord Singorn’s presence, so that any false background story can be coordinated with him and with each other.
Lord Singorn may need to help us effectively represent our false stories.
Some of what we need from him might be possible to accomplish by communicating with him through the medallions after we leave, but some may require objects, or magic, that we need to get now so that we can bring them with us.
For myself, I am open to suggestion from the rest of you about what stories we might concoct and coordinate, and I have a few suggestions myself – I’ve had more experience than I would like to have had, in finding ways to blend into a society that may be hostile and dangerous.
I observe that a sudden influx of many unrelated exiles – a group as large as ours – could seem highly unusual, and seeming unusual in that way may not be the best of strategies.
Therefore perhaps several of us could be exiled for engaging in a conspiracy of some sort, accounting for why those individuals were all exiled at the same time.
Another consideration: The people on the island who are more likely to know what Lord Singorn wishes us to find out may be more highly placed in the society there, rather than lowly placed. For some of us to have access to such individuals may require arriving with a higher status – lords, for example – perhaps an advantage to you, Lord Kensington! Or rich merchants, or masters of certain skills, or some other reason for a high status that has legitimate value to that society. Sheer fighting proficiency may provide some status, but not necessarily so – as you well know from our own society.
However, we may not wish to restrict ourselves only to hobnobbing with the high, there. Some lower status contacts may also be useful. So we may wish to coordinate our stories in that way, to have some with access to higher society, and some with access to lower society, and some with access to the guilds and trades, and so forth, to aid the completeness of our investigation.
Particular professions may also be useful: political and economic advisors, advisors in militia and security, highly skilled craftsmen in crafts that are valued, all of these are flexible stories that provide status and access where others might not be able to go.
For myself, for example, I might come with the story of being a high lady’s or lord’s maid who learned something she should not, and was exiled as a mercy in preference to death, with the memory blocked by Lord Singorn himself. Thus I could be perceived as not a criminal, but trustworthy, and at the same time be given access to observe the highly placed in society from the inside, with potentially even greater freedom of movement than a lord might have due to the difference in responsibilities. Maids carrying laundry or market baskets can be nigh invisible in society, sometimes even invisible to the one they serve. Perhaps I might be the personal maid of one of you… Lord Kensington, perhaps if you choose such a story… and then carry your status with me wherever I go. Or I might seek employment to penetrate a situation.
Agente Merrion, you may be able to give us some direction in these plots.
I do not suggest all details must be worked out before we leave; we have plenty of time to discuss the details as we travel. However, if there are any stories that require help from Lord Singorn to be made seemingly true, then we must consider them before we go.
For the story I suggested for myself, for example, I would willingly give up some trivial memory for Lord Singorn to block it from my mind, so that in truth I carried a God-Warded memory. Such would lend credence to my story, if I were magically tested by an adept on the island.
In that case, I would need Lord Singorn to take care of the matter before we leave. I also intend to use more than one layer of disguise, not overly complicated but still thorough. For example, rather than using magic alone to change my hair color, a signature of my present appearance as CaraVela, I will dye it dark by non-magical means. Disguise by only one means has a single point of failure; I would prefer some redundancy of disguise, to guard against failure.
You may need some mundane or magical help for disguise in keeping with your story, particular resources you must acquire to take with you – or Lord Singorn may have resources to help us – if we can identify what might be flexible enough to be useful to bring from here, as we work out details as we travel.
Please think on these issues for yourselves!
And while you do… my Lord Singorn, I also have two side questions of some importance about the medallions, before we leave your presence.
First, does each only function for the individual to whom you have given it? If so, the medallions could provide a positive identification for each of us to each other, even if we are in disguise, invisible, or otherwise concealed, and likewise provide a positive identification of others to whom you have given medallions, proving to us they too are your agents. This could be quite useful, especially if a medallion is taken from us by guile or force – we would not want our communications to be pierced by outsiders through stolen medallions, or enable them to falsely identify themselves as your agents.
A companion question: You spoke of the medallions communicating our delegated authority to your priests. Is that merely by their physical presence as symbols, or do the priests sense your touch upon the medallions, or… can any such medallion communicate with any other you may have given other representatives… or can the medallions in this set only communicate within the set? If all of your medallion bearers can communicate in this way, their usefulness for authentication is enhanced, as well as the enhanced passing of information secretly. Or as an intermediate capability, at the least, can one medallion bearer sense the medallion of another medallion bearer, even if they may not be able to communicate with each other directly through their medallions if they are not from the same set?
Finally, if they are not so designed, could you make them so, at least for the ones we bear for you? The capability for positive identification, and for sensing and correctly identifying hidden or disguised allies at some range, could be a powerful asset to us.
And I suppose I do have one more question, more for the Centurion, Agente, Bruce, the Magus, the others of you with more experience as warriors than I: Are there items or magic of war, or of defense in war, that we should acquire on our own, or that we must request of Lord Singorn, to take with us to prepare us best for battle on his behalf, if battle is what we must do, in the end?>
Once again, CaraVela’s pure high-speed thought and images finish her communication so it is done quickly; not much time passes despite the amount of content.