The rising sun has not yet caused Eregnor to reach the scorching heats that have dominated it of late. The base of operations for the Royal Army of Amber is already buzzing with activity. The former Congress Building of Eregnor, which was formerly the meeting house of the city when it was controlled by Begma, is located in a well defended and controlled portion of the capital.
The curtains are drawn in the small room on the second floor where the meeting is to take place. No guard stand watch outside the door, though the building always a unit on patrol immediately outside. The room is lit by a large brass lantern, rather than sunlight for some reason, and there is a smell of dog hair in the room.
Brennus enters the room, sniffs, smiles slightly and looks around him. Spotting a chair he makes his way over, glancing around the while, taking in his surroundings.
He is dressed in black and red. The colours of his regiment, black cloak, black trousers with red trim, and a black tunic with a design embroidered on the right breast. Colours he had chosen. If asked he will explain that black is for his father Corwin, red is for himself, but no more information will be forthcoming. His clothes are of good quality but show signs of wear and tear; his only real ornament the clasp of his cloak, fashioned of some black substance in the form of a domino mask but in black and red.
Unclipping his cavalry sabre he takes the seat, planting his booted feet wide he almost sprawls into the chair with head thrown back upon the chairs headrest, he looks toward the ceiling, his hands clasp the ends of the arm rests. He positions his sabre point down, leaning it upright between his legs, easily reached.
Brennus closes his eyes.
Mordred enters the room, dressed very similarly to the way in which he was at Corraline, in simple and nondescript garb, though in this locale it is more linen and cotten than wool and leather.
Seeing Brennus, he stops, clears his throat slightly to announce himself, and says...
"Greetings, Prince."
Brennus opens his eyes.
As he sits up he takes his sabre in his left hand, grasping it by the scabbard just below the hilt.
Brennus doesn't seem surprised to see Mordred, he smiles and then nods before standing and responding.
"My greetings to you Magus... Are we early, or is everyone else late do you think?"
"It is just us, to the best of my knowledge."
He steps a bit further into the room, but remains standing, looking about the room idly as he asks...
"How many do you think you can bring to this effort in the way of people?"
Brennus raises an eyebrow at Mordred's comment about only expecting there to be the two of them present and listens to Mordred's question before speaking.
"Interesting, I think I may have been misinformed or perhaps I misunderstood. I was expecting an intelligence officer to be here to brief me, us. That wouldn't be you by any chance would it?"
Brennus reclips the sabre to his weapons belt and glances at Mordred as he does so.
"As to your question, I have a regiment of cavalry at my command, they are available as per Benedict's orders."
"I am possessed of what Intelligence we do have. Though spotty, it is the best we can get for now. As to your cavalry, i do not think that their mounts will be of much use in this operation. How good are they at this sort of thing - that being going into an enemy stronghold in disguise, acting as members of that force and fitting in while getting as close to the center as possible, and then striking through anything and anyone in their way to get the leaders before they can be warned and escape?"
Brennus grins.
"Given those criteria, not very, but my men are good soldiers, veterans to a man and loyal. Given the type of operation you mention I can call upon as many or as few men as you wish from my own or other units... Perhaps a mixed group might suit, infiltrators to gain access and a group of heavier assault troops as back up in case things get hairy."
Brennus pauses for a second, thinking.
"How secure is the planning of this operation, you'll obviously be aware of the rumours of spies in our forces? Who else will be privy to the details?"
"I'll leave the choice of who to pick and how many of which kind up to you. You'll know your people far better than myself. We'll hash out a plan between us and then you can decide based upon what we have."
Mordred grins a bit, then continues...
"As to who knows about this, there is you, myself, and Benedict, that I know of... well and of course the Queen. Other than that, unless you have spoken to others or heard from them regarding this, there is nobody."
His expression gets more serious...
"One thing - this happens tomorrow night, so we must be quick and we must make sure we get it right the first time. No second chances on this, and it is a big one."
He waits for Brennus response and any questions he might have, before beginning the briefing.
Brennus nods and smiles, looking around he spots two chairs.
"Shall we sit, might as well go for what comfort we can, especially if there are a lot of details to be sorted out. I do have some questions, mainly relating to simple matters such as the enemy's location, their numbers and so on, but I'll save those until afterward if you have no objection since you may well answer some or all of them during the briefing."
Mordred nods, goes and sits across from Brennus, and begins...
"I have some old blueprints of the building, where the resistance leaders are meeting. There are probably some changes that I do not know about however, which have been made since then. I am pretty confident that I have managed to figure out the room where they should be centered in – though of course I could be wrong. I’ have found only a few of their bolt-holes - they are amazingly good at hiding their secret routes. I am sure there are escape hatches that I do not know about. I cannot say where they might be on this floor-plan, though I do have a few educated guesses about where they may have dug tunnels – where they might lead to is another question entirely. The resistance is operating with an amazing strategic ability it seems. Especially as it concerns escaping and sneak attacks.
"The building is probably not fully occupied, as much of it appears to be abandoned. Also, there have not been enough people entering it to fill it fully or to properly guard the entire structure. This gives us the possibility of infiltration – something I’ll get to in a moment – and keeping some of our forces in those less inhabited sections. The room I suspect the meeting to be in is quite large, as it was formerly an archive, and I can almost guarantee they will have a tunnel in the far corner of the room for escape purposes. There is a long corridor, with guards stationed outside the room and along the corridor. This corridor is the real hindrance tour plan, as it is long enough so that the guards can give a shout and let the people in the room get away in plenty of time.
"It is imperative that we find a way to eliminate all three of these leaders, and we’d love to have their bodies to display later to the rebels as proof of their deaths, so no tales of their miraculous escape and survival sprout up to boost resistance morale. My resources have lost the resistance leaders before, once they were out in the city proper. They have numerous underground passages and will often travel from building to building. Further, the area where the base is located is not firmly under our control, and any units moving through there is very likely to come under attack. If they escape the base, it is a good bet we will not catch them anytime soon."
He looks up, then asks...
"Any questions so far?"
Brennus shakes his head.
"Not just now, as I said I'll leave questions for the end. Please continue."
Nodding, Mordred continues...
“Now, as to the possibility of disguise and infiltration… The rebels seem very good at identifying spies, which is one of our many obstacles in this. I can cast a short term effect that will give a very small number of people the aura of 'You know me, but don't know my name, - I belong here'. This will not work to get them past a very tightly guarded check-point, where only a tiny subset is allowed in, but would get those people into the base probably. I would of course need a bit of physical material from each of those involved in the spell… a snip of hair, nail paring, drop or two of blood, etc. Though this is not what powers the spell – that comes from me – it is necessary for the target of the spell to be ‘identified magically’ to the spell workings, else they will not be affected.
“I am considering a more complicated spell in addition to this, for an even smaller group – possibly the two of us alone… This would project a different sort of an aura, one that said, ‘I am not really here, not important, look somewhere else’. This might give us the edge we need to get along that corridor and into that Chamber, particularly if there is some sort of a minor distraction in the outer chambers at the time…
“All of those who go in will be bestowed as well with a ‘see/think clearly’ spell, ahead of time, as – just before we enter, I’ll cast my final spell, the one that slowly and increasingly distracts and confuses those within. It should be barely noticeable at first, taking as much as two hours to achieve its full effects, but by the time we get deeper in it will be stronger and should aid in our attempt to infiltrate the central chamber through that long and guarded hallway."
Again Mordred pauses...
"Observations or reccommendations?"
Brennus frowns slightly.
"Well, you've answered one of my questions already, whether you'd be coming along. I'm going to back track on myself by asking a couple of questions before you finish."
Brennus pauses here collecting his thoughts.
"Firstly, you say you can cast your spell of... 'recognition' for want of a better description, on a small group, how small a group, or rather what is the upper limit? Secondly, given my original suggestion of a backup assault force and the rebels' ability to spot intruders, how feasible is it that such a force could get into the general area unobserved, let's assume fifty men for the sake of argument? I'm thinking we may have to go in without back up."
"I can cast the spell upon 50 soldiers, but it would be quite noticeable for a troop of fifty to be traveling through this area. 20 is a much easier to handle number. I think we could have some of your troops posted further outside the area, with one of my people as a liaison, to pull them in once we have begun. If they were mounted, and had sufficient force, it would be feasible, but extremely costly in life.
"The base of the Resistance is in the basement of a large office building, formerly the Ministry of Agriculture. It is placed in the midst of a hotly contested area of the city. Any large force moving towards it would suffer serious casualties or worse, as the resistance apparently has access to explosives. The numbers we will have to deal with inside of the base is expected to be relatively light however, perhaps 20-30 fighters.
"What do you think?"
"I think I'd best hear everything before I make any comments or suggestions. Please continue through to the end."
"Very well.
“Scenario one, is that we all gain access, and mingle with those in the outer chambers, dicing, eating and drinking and so on, and then, after an hour or so, a few of us attempt to gain access to the inner chamber. The guards of course will turn away those who are only covered by the ‘I belong here’ spell, but you and I, covered by the more effective one, should be able to slip by. Once we have done so, our troops outside should cause some sort of a commotion – nothing major, perhaps a squabble over cheating at dice, but sufficient to further distract the hallway’s guardians. Hopefully this will enable us to get as close as possible to the chamber itself.
“At some point, the spell covering you and I will no longer be able to hold up, or those within might realize they are being affected by my slow-effect spell and try to escape. After this, it becomes an all-out rush, with you and I breaking into the meeting, and our troops following us along the hallway, hopefully drawing those guards off our backs. From then on it is self-evident what we are to do.
“However, should this not work, and we deem it to be necessary for us to gain an additional advantage, I can do a bit more once within to hedge our bets…
“I will only have time to cast one spell, one of darkness that is as tightly focused on the hallway and central chamber as possible. This would be our cue to rush in, as our ‘see/think clearly’ spells will protect us from this as well. It will take about an hour, and would be very difficult to pull off, as I need to be somewhere unobserved by the enemy for that entire time. There are abandoned rooms, and we could possibly act as if we were all exhausted and merely seeking an unoccupied room to sleep in or something like that…
“Even so, we’ll need some distractions – perhaps two teams – the sleepers and the gamers? One crew goes with me to find a place where I can cast me spell, hopefully keeping it under wraps, while the other goes with you to mingle with the general guards and start up a dice game or hand out food and drink they have ‘liberated’ from the oppressors or some such. Meanwhile, my slow-acting spell should be working on them.
“Suppose, a few moments before I have completed the casting of the spell, one of those with me lets you know of this, and you get as close to the guards as you can. When the darkness falls, you and yours rush in, making straight for the central chamber. I and those still with me will follow as soon as we can, causing as much mayhem in the outer rooms as possible as we go through, though I will make joining you at the point my first priority. Since, by this time those within should not only be confused, but blinded, I think we can achieve this goal, even if we have to follow them down their escape holes a ways.
“Regardless of which of these scenarios we use, one thing remains unchanged. Our entire goal must be to get into that central chamber and eliminate the leaders before they can escape. The Queen has said she wants them dead or alive, but has made very little of the distinction."
Brennus listens in silence intent on Mordred's words. As Mordred finishes Brennus nods and purses his lips.
"Very well, I will summarise my perception of the information you have given me in a moment if I may, just to be sure I haven't missed anything. Before that however, a question. How do we get out? We will have what, ten, twenty men? We'll have killed the rebel leaders, hopefully, but the entire rebel force will be on our backs. Even with a coordinated attack from outside to distract them I can't see how we'll get our men out alive. Have you an escape route planned for instance?"
"I have a few thoughts, yes - but would more than welcome whatever ideas you might have..."
Brennus smiles and nods, sitting back he looks at Mordred, appraisingly.
“I’ve heard some great things about your doings over the last few decades master Mordred, and it is apparent that your skills are held in high regard by the crown... It has been how long since Corraline? Fifty, sixty years Amber time? Well, I just wanted to let you know that I have no axe to grind in this operation, a failure in this mission is not something I’m interested in, I'm sure you'll be of similar mind in that regard, it certainly isn’t the time or place to let personal feelings get in the way, especially feelings from half a century ago.”
Brennus pauses here, watching Mordred’s reaction.
“With that said, perhaps I should summarize what I believe I’ve heard? Briefly then. Our mission is to penetrate territory held by the rebels and kill or capture the leaders of the revolt, who are to attend a meeting there tomorrow. The said territory is defended with the aid of Guild weaponry including explosives which has been used to devastating effect on Amber’s forces already. Once within the rebel zone we will then enter a defunct government building, for which we have out of date plans, have no definite information on where the meeting of the leaders is to take place, or on where any guards may be stationed, other than a possible final guard in a corridor outside the room where the meeting may be held. Again we have no information on where any lookout positions might be, any signallers, or of the location or size of possible rebel forces that could be called in support once our assault begins. We have no confirmed figure for the number of defenders that will be in the building itself, although you postulate a defence force of twenty to thirty rebels. We on the other hand can effectively take in a maximum of twenty men, although we will have the advantage of disguise provided by your own arcane means, which will, or should, allow us to enter without coming under attack. Am I correct so far, if I’m off beam in any way please let me know?”
In response to Brennus' first statements, Mordred simply nods, his expression grave, saying...
"Agreed."
To his reprise of the situation, Mordred says only...
"In essence, you are correct, though a month of undercover and intelligence work has made me relatively confident that we can upgrade most of those 'no idea's' to the status of 'a pretty good idea'. As I said before, I do have a few ideas as to backup and escape, but I would be interested in hearing what your take on the matter is..."
Brennus nods in turn to Mordred and responds.
"I had no intention of disparaging your intelligence efforts, I am merely stating things as I see them at present. My take on things is generally along purely military lines."
Brennus pauses here glancing at Mordred and flashes a smile.
"I am playing devil's advocate you understand, if you'd feel better about it exchange 'we' for 'I'. As in '...I have no real information...' and so on. But, as I was saying taking a purely military approach, I would generally eliminate enemy lines of communication as a first objective, secondly, remove any guards on the periphery covertly, each man killed is one less to worry about after all, and then launch an assault on the primary objective. That's in a typical situation, in this one we have access to your magical abilities which will provide an excellent means of entry and of confustication. My real concerned is that I don't know enough about the building's layout and troop positions etcetera."
"Understood. Unless they have some Guild device capable of providing such, there is no means of communication into or out of the building other than a runner. To the best of my knowledge, there are no peripheral guards - none outside of the building itself. There are - again to my best estimation - as many as 30 likely to be inside. a few outside the meeting chamber, more in the hallway leading to the chamber, and the rest in the more common area ccloser to the entrance to the building."
As he mentions these, Mordred points out each location upon the blueprints.
"We cannot eliminate any of this general group within the building, without alerting the others, unless - once inside - we are able to lure a few of them off and deal with them. Still, we must be wary of setting off any alarm. As soon as an alarm is raised, the leaders will be gone. Our foremost goal must be to get as close to them as possible, by any means necessary, before they know of it.
"Regarding knowledge of the interior and the troops, I know they have not had any large-scale machinery in there, so modification will be minor - other than escape tunnels which are underground. Exact placement of troops - well this is why I wish to get us inside sureptitiously, so we can do some sort of reconnaissance in person and alter our plans accordingly."
Mordred paused for a moment, and then continued in a sober tone...
"You speak of getting our men out alive. I am not sure we can guarantee this. The mission we are discussing is the Queen and Benedict's final attempt, after trying everything else. We are going to have to go in, semi-blind, to what may be a disadvantageous position, and do what must be done. If we have 20 plus ourselves, and they have 30 plus their leaders, I believe it can be done - albeit with heavy losses on both sides - these are fanatics. I am confident I can take care of at least three of them, I will assume any of the men you pick are at least as good as 1 and a half of the enemy, and - though i have never seen you wield your blade - I doubt you'd have gotten as far as you have without having some reasonable ability with it.
"Now - regarding back-up... I can cast my ‘mistaken identity’ spell upon another score of soldiers, who can begin to filter towards the site once the time draws closer to our moment of attack. Any more than this, and any sooner than just before we make our move, and I am afraid we’ll alert the locals. They’d have to come in twos and threes… They can be signaled when we do attack, and then rush from their places outside the building and in the near vicinity to back us up.
“We can have a division of your cavalry stationed further outside the boundaries, perhaps very obviously making a patrol, as if it were intended to be a show of force to intimidate the local resistance fighters. This may draw some at least of the enemy outwards from the center, to observe, or guard against a foray, or even just to throw things and make taunts. If it looks like we need the help, they can be signaled to make a stab inwards towards the central meeting, drawing still more of the enemy onto them. This would need to be a feint, or they’d be slaughtered, of course, but still it must look as if it is real, so they’ll have to fight as hard as they can and push as hard as they can, taking some casualties before calling it off and beating a retreat. Even the retreat should be slow and orderly, so they continue to keep the attention and energy of as many of the foe as possible.”
Mordred looked to Brennus.
"Any other ideas?"
Brennus seems almost distracted, he speaks obviously deep in thought.
"Skill with the blade is not the question here Mordred, may I call you Mordred? Skill in command is."
After some moments Brennus shakes his head, he appears confused or perhaps surprised.
"The rebels have no perimeter guard, no look outs to speak of outside of the building, and no communication system to call for reinforcements? I'd have expected more of them, this smacks of incompetence!... Very well, I have men from the Cobra squadron in mind for this mission. As you'll know they're all excellent fighting men, and trained in commando style warfare and such. If they can mingle with the defenders whilst we move on the leaders they may be able to take out a good number by virtue of surprise before the rebels can fight back. I also think the secondary backup group of twenty is a good idea, they could perhaps be stationed outside as a safety net so to speak, should any rebel defenders make a run for it, that should prevent word getting out. I'll have to think on the diversionary patrol, it will need to be quite large to draw the rebel's full attention."
Mordred simply nodded, and shrugged when Brennus asked if he could call him by name, indicating that it did not matter to him one way or another.
"I agree with you, regarding the apparent lack of organizational sense on their part. The best I have been able to gather is that they seem to be hoping small and secretive would help them avoid notice. I do not think we can have the second force 'stationed' outside in any organized sense... they need to be scattered about in twos and threes in seemingly random configurations or the spell will be useless to disguise the fact that something is happening. I'll find a way to signal them.
"As for the diversionary force, I'll leave that up to you."
Mordred thought for a moment, then said...
"I would not say they had no perimeter guard - and if something i said gave that impression I apologize. Rather, lets say they have no perimiter guard as we would consider it - nobody 'stationed' outside the building or on the streetcorners with weapons, no obvious lookouts. Remember they are trying to be secretive. However, the entire area is seeded with those who are sympathetic to their cause, and have weapons. No doubt buildings all around the area have at least one person looking out a window on alert at all times. The idea is to slip in, under cover of the spells, so that they are not alerted."
Brennus grins and shakes his head slightly.
"Additional information is forthcoming! Good, strangely I am relieved that they are not so lackadaisical in their approach as it first appeared, and by the way I had meant our second force to be 'stationed' in a rough ring about the building to pick off any escapers, snipers if you will.”
Brennus pauses for moment then goes on, his expression now totally serious.
“Very well, in general terms then our plan is to enter with a force of twenty men under cover of your first spell, a second force will follow and will provide a screen designed to prevent any attempts at going for aid. Once inside our men mingle with the rebels until such time as they, and we two, are ready to launch our attack on the leaders. The two of us will then attempt to enter the meeting under cover of your second spell, and either kill or capture the rebel leaders themselves, probably the former, meanwhile our boys will lay into the rebels within the common area and attempt to take them out as quickly as possible. Does that scan so far?”
"Yes. It seems about all we can do, until we get inside and learn more of the situation. As I said, I can ensure that both your diversionary force and our own backup perimeter guard can be 'notified' when it is the proper time to act."
Brennus nods and smiles slightly.
"Very good. That brings me to some additional points. You've said the mission is scheduled for tomorrow night. What time do we expect the rebel leaders to arrive? Obviously we'll need to be in situ prior to this time, probably at least thirty minutes to an hour beforehand, as such is there a definite time for their arrival or could we be forced to 'mingle' for several hours waiting for them to turn up? Lastly, how will we know when the leaders have indeed arrived? I'm assuming that they won't announce their presence."
Brennus smiles with the last statement to show it is not meant to be inflammatory in any way.
"This is the heart of the matter. We do not, can not know if they are all there, when they arrive, or anything else about their movements. All we have is the information gathered by those Benedict has set to do so in preparation for this effort. I am of a mind to wait as long as possible before what we believe to be the appointed time, before entering into the building, but would welcome your thoughts upon this."
Mordred's manner is very, very business-like. He has been getting increasingly so as the conversation goes on, so that by now he is almost in 'formal military' mode - or as close as he is likely to ever get to it.
Brennus nods, unsmiling this time.
"Not an easy task. Do we have an approximate time for the meeting? A rough estimate is better than nothing, are we talking 10 PM-midnight, 2 AM-4 AM or whatever. I don't think we can expect our soldiers, even soldiers so highly trained as the Cobras to sit amongst enemies for hours on end, they aren't trained in espionage after all... One other thought, once we are in the building, and have identified the meeting room, is there any arcane means by which you or one of your colleagues can keep the meeting room under surveillance in any way? Since we don't know how or when the rebel leaders will arrive I can't really see any mundane method of verifying that they have."
the best of my knowledge, it is expected to go down about 10:00 pm. We could wait until say - 11:00 to make our move, but not much longer after that I'd say - lest they wrap things up quickly. Unfortunately, I do not have any means of surveying the room in question, without first getting in there myself, and then spending a good bit of time setting something up. We are simply going to have to trust what we do have on this one I am afraid."
Brennus nods, flashes a brief smile and answers.
"Fair enough, worth asking though. I'd suggest we try and get into position by 9 to 9:30, that should allow plenty of time for recon and any preparation you need for your magical operations... Now, about getting the rebel leaders out."
Brennus pauses here and grins.
"It doesn't matter if they are alive or dead they will be a burden, walking or stiff. To that end, I have a suggestion as to means of removing them from the combat zone. I can use a Trump, contact a family member possibly Benedict and thereby create a means of exit which as far as I'm aware cannot be intercepted. I'm unsure about this since I've never tried it, but the Trumps might also provide a means of exit for the men with us. What do you think?"
"This all sounds fine. As to your exit strategy, should we have need to get out and no other option, that would be most welcome. From what I know of Trumps it should be quite effective."
In response Brennus inclines his head in recognition of Mordred’s words and continues.
“Just so you know, I have no intention of leaving anyone behind if I can help it. I'm especially loath to waste men as valuable as the Cobras... Out of interest, if you were to sum things up in a sentence or two, how would you define the role of the assault force?”
"Absolutely, we should get out as many as possible, as even the most sorely wounded I may be able to offer magical assistance and healing. Their role? Get in, do the job, get out. Least mess, least fuss. If nobody in the area even knows what has happened within the building, I am all the more pleased. The only reason for the emphasis on possible back-up forces and so on is that I tend to plan for the worst. Their plan of attack? Go in, be ready for anything, and adapt. It is the only plan that ever works, for it allows the possibility of anything happening."
He looks to Brennus, for any comment upon his reasoning...
Brennus nods his smile has returned.
"Good, then we understand one another. I realise that this is a case of playing things by ear to some extent, but I wouldn't like to go in with no expectation of anyone but you and myself coming out alive. Obviously the more I know the better, guess work, even very well informed guess work makes me nervous."
Brennus stands making ready to leave perhaps, he looks a tad weary. Then he pauses.
"One thing, do we have any information on Guild technology other than explosives the rebels might have access to? I wouldn't like us to fall foul of an ambush, or a building loaded with booby traps or suchlike!"
"This worries me greatly as well. I have nothing to say that can ameliorate the matter though. I have only heard what you have - that they may very well have some sort of guild Devices."
Mordred stands as well, effectively signaling his readiness to close the meeting so long as Brennus is also so inclined.
Brennus shakes his head slightly.
"A pity, but then you've done well to find out about the meeting at all. Unless there is anything else to say at this point I am happy to be off to begin preparations."
FINAL PLAN
First, the Cavalry/Decoy force is given their orders; prepared for what they might need to do. If at all possible, they should make a few minor forays along the border of the debatable territory in the intervening time, beginning immediately, in order to get those within used to their presence on patrol, that it not seem so strange on the morrow.
Then, the spells of ‘I Belong Here/You Know Me’, aka “RECOGNITION SPELLS” are cast upon two successive groups of about 20; all members of the Elite Cobra Force.
Then the spells of ‘You Don’t See Me/Look Elsewhere’, aka “IGNORANCE SPELLS” are cast upon both Brennus and Mordred.
Then the spells of ‘Clear Vision/Clear Thinking’, aka “SEEING SPELLS” are cast upon both Cobra forces, as well as Brennus and Mordred.
Then the Spell of ‘Gradually Encroaching Confusion/Retardation of Logical Faculties, aka “SLOW-TIMED MENTAL INHIBITON SPELL” is cast from as near as possible to the site.
The first set of Cobra forces is sent into the area, posted loosely as a perimeter force, approximately one hour before the meeting is to take place.
The second force of Cobra forces, along with Brennus and Mordred, goes in, continuing to enter the building itself, by approximately one half hour before the meeting is to take place.
At this point, if it is deemed necessary, and it is possible, an out-of-the-way spot is found within the building for Mordred to cast his ‘Darkness’ Spell upon the Building’s interior. This will take about an hour, and will be the signal to attack.
If it is not deemed necessary, Brennus and Mordred will between them try to set up a series of diversions, including but not limited to the following:
- Cavalry entering the debated territory
- Cobra forces within the building starting fights, ostensibly over gambling, etc.
- Cobra forces outside starting small staged fights amongst themselves
By means of one or more of these, it is hoped that Brennus and or Mordred can get not only into the guarded hallway, but also as far down along it as possible, perhaps even into the meeting chamber itself, without being noticed or challenged.
At whatever point they are noticed, all pretense is dropped and all forces involved make it their top priority to get into the meting chamber and achieve the objective of killing and or capturing the three leaders of the rebellion n question.
Ideally, the objective within being achieved, the perimeter force will converge on the building and join the interior force, and all that can be gotten out via Brennus’ Trump will be. In addition, as soon as possible, if the diversionary cavalry force is not yet withdrawn, they will be at once ordered to retreat in as safe and organized a fashion as possible. It may very well be that the attack upon the Meeting will draw rebel forces inwards, as they realize they have been deceived by a decoy, and they drop what they are doing to try and salvage their leaders.