"Well, what do you want to know?"
Lugen frees all of us, but tells us that he's from different houses. But we all meet the very next morning and figure out that it's a lie. I still need to find this Mallichatti guy. No doubt another dead end though. Nobody else knew anything, so why would he? Now there's some bit about an explosion at house Jeggare. If I had to guess I'd say it was Lugen. So what do we actually know....
Adrien pulls out some parchment, and a writing tool, writing out a web of intrigue. Lugen is at the center, with his alter ego's surrounding him. In the center, he marks that Lugen is a confirmed Hellknight. Each of these ego's is attached to one of the others with no memory. Adrien leaves room for Mallichatti so he can hear his side of the story. Adrien knows that at least two others serve the Hellknights, and so probably had the closest access to Lugen. I was closer to Jeggare though, so how did I get mixed in this? Off to the side, Adrien makes a note of the explosion, with no connections. I know I'll have to deal with whoever caused this, but I don't dare connect my name to this event yet. So now all we're missing is Lugen's motivation. That will come with time I'm sure, but we have to make sure that it's not too much time. Whatever he's planning, he can't see it through.
Adrien sets down his pen, and hides the web. He'll get his gear with him again, and head out to see what else he can find out about the explosion.
"But anyway, can you tell me anything helpful now?"
Two rolls. First to try and listen in on the conversation at the door without getting their attention.
Perception
Second roll is to determine a few things about the building that was blown up.
1. What was the original purpose of the building based on its design?
2. How powerful would the explosion need to be to cause that kind of damage from the inside (looking for relatives here like what would that type of explosion be able to do to the hosue beside it if it went off in there)?
Knowledge Engineering
Stepping forward just a bit MAlichatti calmly addresses the Hellknight. "Not that I want to get in the way of your duties but this guy doesn't know anything. He wasn't even there that night and even than he was likely ordered not to even talk about it am I right? You can just nod." Malichatti says turning from the hellknight to the guard.
Going to the river bank Mallichatti takes care to look around the riverbank to see what is there to be seen.
"Oy!" I call to him, waving and indicating the other chairs at my table.
"Oh right! Lugen is 'officially' an assassin for the Hellknights. He's apparently something of a rival of mine in the biz. So there's possibly some motivation there. I don't know if the rest of us have some sort of connection to him, but if so, that could be how we were selected. And it does slightly narrow down who he's really working for, cause I'd put money that it's not the Hellknights. Too obvious, and not their style anyway. They're pretty strict. He seems much more flexible than they would really allow," I lean back again, rolling my neck around. I felt good for some reason. I guess it's cause we were making progress. Getting things done. Catching up. It's good.
"My suggestion for our next steps is twofold. First thing is try and get back into where we were kept, see what all is actually going on there. Can do that tomorrow morning. Probably send the elf fellow, Adrian? He seems a stealthy sort. While he's doing that, I'll research contracts and devils as much as possible. There's bound to be an expert somewhere around here. It seems to be the theme of this country," I chuckle sardonically, "And since you seem to love messing with people's minds so much, you could nab some security firm guy. Try and learn where a contract would normally be kept and the kinds of defenses it would have. I think locating them will be the hard part. Evasion is the best defense after all. I hate to say it, but for the time being we'll have to go along with Lugen's little scheme. Reclaiming my memory is too important to me," I sigh and rub my eyes, a little frustrated. I think that was everything though.
Then it suddenly hits me. I've already started thinking of this as my team. That's an... unnerving thought. I don't even like this guy. I'd go so far as to say I actively dislike him. But I'm still trusting him with all this. In all probability, it's entirely likely that I could take care of all of this on my own. I certainly wouldn't make that my first choice, way too many unknowns for that, but then again, they're one of those unknowns. It seems my instincts tend towards teamwork. Did I used to be part of a unit maybe? Jamie didn't mention any partners, but neither did I, so he had no real reason to. Crap. I need to watch myself. The only thing binding us is merely situational circumstance. The more I realize how trapped I am, the more impressed slash irritated I become with Lugen. He's good. We don't have much of a choice but to work together, but we'll all be so suspicious that we won't work together well. Easy targets. And even knowing all that, I still am reserved. Damn damn damn. I realize I'm jigging my leg in frustration, and pull myself together.
"But anyway, you learned anything useful?"
As for this ball I believe we should not go as ourselves, something tells me that this ball is a trap. We should go as minor nobility or distingushed merchants so that we don't attract attention. Once we have infiltrated the ball we should then proceed to lure Lugen outside, as I am willing to bet that if we can put him in the right spot he will be easy to capture. As for this devil I have a lead to finding it, this is assuming we can find a member of the Order of the Gate.