Inside Out Job - RPLOG
Participants
Date
24/1/478
Log
It is time. Fenris, in his guise as Ash Dustcloak, is about to break into the home and workplace of one of his closer friends. Longtail Manor rises before him, early in the evening, right as the guards are getting ready for the next change of shifts...
The lights of the lanterns flicker, and the shadows of the beings shift and move as the lights behind them are repositioned.
Fenris takes a deep breath and puts on his persona as Ash, checking his gear and especially his borrowed security uniform. If he was lucky, this would go well and Matthews would never even notice it was missing. Finding everything in place, he hurries across the square, hat jammed firmly on his head. He puffs to a stop in front of the guards, putting on a show of being much more winded than he is. "Sorry I'm late!" he huffs, foreign accent gone for this little show, "First day! Mister Matthews isn't mad is he?" The lynx looks around and looks surprised to be at the main gate. "Damn! Am I supposed to come in the employee gate?" he asks, "I am so late!"
One of the guards raises a brow, before gesturing at the clipboard. "Name?" the she-wolf rumbles, squinting at the clipboard in the meantime. Her companion, a male, clever-clanned owl, meanwhile moves closer with a lantern, making sure to light his features properly. "Now then. Name?"
"Andrew," he puffs, "Andrew Broadpaw. Should be on the list. I'm supposed to be shadowing today!" He certainly hopes it is on the list. Poor Andrew is snoozing peacefully in a nice little inn just down the street. Hopefully he won't get in too much trouble when all of this gets figured out. Fenris would have to talk with Matthews about it. Ash looks quite a bit like the younger cat without his mustache, no need to tip his hand when little cosmetic details will work just fine.
A smile adorns the wolfess's lips, before she gestures in. "His Lordship is out at the moment. Steven'll guide you around," she continus, gesturing for the owl. "Be sure to send Tom to the front," she continues after a moment of contemplation.
"Oh, Creators! Thank you!" Ash says, "I thought I woukd lose my place for sure!" The lynx straightens up and hold out a hand. "Pleasure to meet you, Mister Steven!" He follows amiably after the owl. Hurdle one, passed.
Another smile on the owl's beak, as he watches Fenris with a rather penetrating stare. "Right. Follow me," he rumbles with a smile and a click of his beak. "I don't particularly know what parts of the building you're supposed to be guarding, so I'll just show you the cafetaria and other public parts for now. I expect you to stay close-by. The moment you leave my sights, you're well on your way to losing the job," the owl continues with squinted eyes.
"Oh! Yes sir!" Ash says, the perfect local yokle, "This my first time in a big, fancy manor!" The lynx, of course keeps his eyes peeled for any clues and more importantly any of the secret passages that had been on his map. The bits of the manor off the beaten path were probably more likely to have what he is looking for, after all.
"We have permission to shoot tresspassers. Preferably not lethally, of course," the owl continues as he gestures for the manor-doors, behind which a rather large group of beings is industriously moving around. People in various colours of garb. Blue-marked leather for craftspeople, white ropes for people in the research-department. Finally, gray cloth over leather outfits for the security-crew.
"Regardless... Welcome to the manor proper."
Ash gawks, as is only to be expected from a newbie. "Wow!" he says, "Lot of folks around for the evening!" He watches carefully for anything that might be a hint. Family crests, paintings, odd ornaments, but most especially a chance to ditch his guide discreetly.
A smile, and another click of the beach. "Anyways. The dining room is to the northeast. When the Lady is using it for business, it'll be closed off. Most of the time, you can use employee-credit to get lunch, dinner, or a late-night snack. Deducted from your pay, but it means you won't have to worry about bringing your own. To the northwest is the library. When we're off-shift, access is free. No slacking on shift, of course," the owl continues.
"To the north is the courtyard, where breaks are generally held. Finally, the Lady, her family, and the few employees that live in the manor have their quarters upstairs," he notes, gesturing towards Fenris. "Any questions right now?"
Ash looks a little worried and uncomfortable. "Is it true that the Highlady is a little," he hesitates a moment, "You know, off?" The lynx does look interested in the library. "Could I see the library?" he asks, "Never seen more than three books at once before!"
"Of course," the owl continues, gesturing towards the library to the northwest, and clicking his beak momentarily. "These books are for general use. If you need to take one home, mark it on the side. Books should be returned at most a week after picking them up."
"THOSE books are for the Lady's own perusal. Anyone wishing to read them should ask her permission up-front. As for the Lady's... Manners. You will get used to them. If you're assigned to guard her, be sure to stay out of her way."
Ash smiles inwardly. Fenris disguised as one of Flora's harried guards. That was a funny thought. The lynx pauses for a second. "Weren't you supposed to send someone to the front gate?" he asks, "I can just wait for you here in the library if you need to go back." This would be a perfect chance to slip away! He fingers the sleep bomb in his pocket, though. Just in case.
"Of course. You. Watch him," the owl calls out towards the nearest guard, a ferret-being, graceful clan. "I will be right back. Tom should be just about finished with his food. Left Arya waiting long enough out there on her own."
Ash smiles and nods as Steve leaves him with the library guard adn starts to wander around, oggling the books. Not likely to be much of interest in the general section, he would need to get out of here. The lynx slips into the stacks and works fast. As soon as he is out of direct line of sight, his features start to crawl and shift. He gets a bit shorter, the extra mass translating into a soft roundness of the features as his grey feline face changes into a golden canine one. The new pomeranian adjusts his uniform a bit until it rests comfortably on his stocky frame, then grabs a stack of books before walking out into view again. "Just don't forget you gotta check em out kid," he grumbles back to where he was supposedly standing. He then walks purposefully to a desk and deposits his stack of books before striding purposefully toward the door. "Evening," he growls as he passes the guard and moves into the hall. Now, where to?
The ferret looks a little lost soon after Fenris's little trick, leaving him helplessly scouting for the lynx he only just lost. Soon enough, he's no longer the only guard on the lookout for him, and the guards begin fanning out to find anyone out of place...
And as for where Fenris is to go... Well, he's the one who read the maps, wasn't he?
Fenris walks with purpose, looking as busy as possible. He does occasionally stop and give a description of poor Andrew Broadpaw to loitering guards and tells them to be on the lookout before hurrying on. The stocky pomeranian has decided that the best places to look will be the study where old Reginald would have worked. What better place to hide a secret or two?
Soon enough, Fenris finds himself between Reginald's office and his room, having been used for years before by successive heads of the house. And right now, the doors are firmly closed... And locked.
Looking up and down the hall, to be sure he is alone, Fenris produces a few small lock picking tools and sets to work, first on the study door. Who wants to be bothered with business in their bedroom after all? He could still try there too, later.
Soon enough, the door-lock admits Fenris, who finds himself into a mostly-emptied office. The fireplace has been cleared of firewood, though there's still a clear soot-smear in the cavity. Opposite is an old-looking wooden desk, though the chair is clearly missing.
Fenris gently closes the door behind him and starts a systematic search of the room. He gives special attention to the fireplace and its mantel, running his hands carefully along each surface. Fireplaces are notorious for being hidden passages or concealing hidden compartments after all. Next will be the heavy desk. Interesting to find that this piece if furniture has not been removed.
While Fenris is inspecting the room, the guards downstairs continue their search, and Fenris finds nothing within the fireplace. Likwise, the desk admits no particular prizes.
Which leaves the the mantelpiece. A little distance above the wooden frame, there is just the slightest bump in the masonry, when going from one brick to the next...
Fenris grins as he detects the little switch. Hopefully he has a bit of time, since this is a disused wing if the manor. The tricky liger turned Pomeranian gives the bump a firm press and waits alertly to see what happens.
Nothing. Nothing happens at all. Either the mechanism broke, or there's no mechanism to begin with... Nothing particularly seems to change, other than the fact that the brick is now pushed further back than the others in the fireplace.
Fenris frowns at the indented brick. By all literary precedent, that should have worked! He examines the space that the moved brick has made. Maybe there is a clue there. Otherwise, it is probably time to check the bedroom.
The brick has moved about a centimeter, before getting stuck on something. It doesn't appear to want to go any deeper into the wall, in either case...
Fenris grimaces in frustration. Figure that the mechanism would be broken, and there just wasn't time to fight with it. Who knew how much time he had? Or maybe, it wasn't a mechanism. Fenris takes a moment to fiddle with his soul gem, then beckons the brick from its place with a touch of earth math.
The brick dislodges after a moment, shooting back and slowing down just in time to land safely on the wooden frame.
Behind it is slim, unmarked metal cannister, with two small orbs attached to the ends.
Of course, the sounds continue downstairs, and soon enough, the sounds of feet moving along the hallway continue...
Fenris plucks the little container from its place, planning to examine it more carefully when he has time. He slips the brick carefully back into its place and slips over to listen at the door, swapping out his soul gems once more and quietly turning the lock, just in case someone tries the door.
So far, so good. No-one appears to be in front of the door at this time, at least, not as far as Fenris can hear. Of course, beings are still wandering the hallways, trying to find anything or anyone that may be out of place... And of course, at most, he's only done half of the job, yet...
Now it gets tricky. Shame that this little stop had taken so long! Fenris unlocks the door and peeks outside, hoping the coast is clear. If he has a moment, he hurries across the hall to the bedroom, producing his tools as he goes.
The hallway is mostly empty, most of the guards having opted to scout the other wing for the time being. Suure, there's one or two others, but soon enough, Fenris finds himself within the sleeping-quarters of the Lords and Ladies past...
Fenris gently closes and locks the door behind him, looking around the long abandoned room. "If I were going to hide something. . ." he mutters quietly, then focuses on the huge, heavy bed. "Only the family is going to be there," he murmurs and walks over to look at it. He thinks for a moment, then crawls onto it, laying down in the middle and looking over the room from this Lordly vantage point. The bed, the ceiling, the walls. This would be the focal point of the room, right?
The room is sparsely furnished, other than the bed. There's a small wooden desk besides another fireplace, and an unstable-looking rocking-chair... The floorboards have a color-difference where the old carpet used to be, undoubtedly removed during the manor-renovations...
Fenris is a little disappointed that his first try was not the right choice, but that hardly stopped him in the other room. The temporary pomeranian crawls from the bed and explores the discolored spot on the floor first, feeling around on hands and knees for loose boards. The fireplace will be next, especially the space where he found the container in the other room.
The fireplace and discolored edge of the floorboards do not display any particular hints to the location of any hidden caches. No bricks stick out, nor do the boards along the edge of the previous carpet seem any more willing to move...
And then, when Fenris steps on one of the floorboards, it tilts more than a little bit... Only to fall back in its spot with a loud *thud* as his foot moves again.
Well, there's a likely spot! Fenris kneels down and works the loose floorboard gently from its place and goes to work on the boards on either side, looking for anything else of interest.
Nothing. Nothing below either floorboard. Even worse, the ones next to them don't even permit motion! Seems he has the wrong floorboards, so far... Even so, it would be a nice hiding-place, wouldn't it?
Fenris sighs, then goes back to the drawingboard. He looks on the underside of the boards, just in case someone was particularly sneaky and feels around the revealed space before returning to his search elsewhere in the room.
Nothing directly underneath these floorboards, at the very least. As much as Fenris'd want there to be, he's still either looking in the wrong place, or there's nothing in this room of the mansion to begin with.
Fenris gently replaces the floorboards then goes to examine the desk. Interesting what was left in these old rooms. He opens and closes drawers, pulling them out completely and examining the underside of the desk and the floor beneath it. Next stop will be under the bed, then it will be a crapshoot after that. Unfortunate that the mansion was so big!
The desk is completely emptied-out, its contents undoubtedly removed when the Spyguard seized all assets from the House. Regardless, it does seem they missed a spot, as one of the floorboards under the desk gives a little, enough to bring the lockbox underneath into view.
"There you are, you beautiful thing," Fenris says quietly, getting down on hands and knees to remove the sneaky floorboard. He looks over the lockbox carefully, just in case, before lifting it from its hiding place.
The lockbox appears to be safe, and unscathed by anything that's happened within the house up until now. Even so, a new problem presents itsself, as footsteps sound in the hallway, each of the doors being knocked three times, before the very faint sound of a lock being twisted open soon after...
Fenris carefully stows the lock box with his other acquisition. Time to go. "Let's see," he whispers under his breath, "There was some kind of bolt hole here." The temporary pomeranian steps to the far wall, feeling around for a way to open the secret passage that had been on his blueprints. He tries not to feel too rushed, but time is obviously running out.
It takes a bit of fumbling around, but after some effort, the wall does give, allowing Fenris access to a rather thin stairwell leading deep down into the tunnels under the building... At the same time, though, the lock is turned, and the pomerian'll have to be fast...
Fenris slips into the revealed stairwell and slides the panel shut. At the same time, he throws his concentration into producing a quick illusion. He imagines the uninteresting wall as he saw it before making his exit, doing his best to conceal the panel's movement.
Fenris appears to live another day, or at least until sundown. The wall is soon back into place, and Fenris is left in utter darkness... With two age-old objects, just waiting to admit their secrets...
Fenris waits a few moments in the darkness for the sweep to move on. After he feels that he has waited long enough, he flexes some kitsune muscle and produces a faint blue werelight. More than enought to see here in the dark bolt hole. Examining his prizes, he looks to the small container first, carefully twisting it open.
The elongated, tubular container appears to hold an old bit of parchment, rolled up tightly, and too dry to safely unwrap at the moment without breaking the parchment.
The lockbox is locked with a particularly peculiar lock, which doesn't appear to be breakable with normal lockpicks.
Fenris sighs, he would like to have found out what was in these before handing them over to Katrina. Whatever information he was giving, he would much rather have known it first. The husky pomeranian returns the scroll to its safe container before stowing the two items and moving carefully down the dark stairs. This thing should lead out into the gardens somewhere. As he walks he slowly shifts back to the form of Ash Dustcloak. No need for any of Katrina's watchers to know how he managed all of this.
And with that, Fenris, under his guise of Ash Dustcloak, makes his way out of the manor and back into the streets, practically unopposed.
