Re: District General: Office District
Bartimaeus screwed up his face in thought, working out the implications of the response.
~~Deterrence? No... no... that doesn’t get us there at all.~~
~~Consider the two potential cases: assassination by conspiracy and assassination by individual motive.~~
~~Deterrence requires the costs of offense be felt by the offending party, and assassins are themselves expendable: they will only ever find Ixvill Hangvor’s corpse. If Tegan, or all of us, are elements of widespread coordination between Saltspire and Q’kwarm, then the relevant object of deterrence are not here, but in Saltspire and Q’kwarm. A public spectacle of the expendable assassins offers no significant deterrent effect in the event of a conspiracy. This spectacle cannot be instrumental in employing domestic policy to service a foreign policy of continued independence.~~
~~But individual motive? Then who is the spectacle intended to deter? Others upset with the governance of the council? Hmmm. If so, making their attempt public may be counter-productive. Assuming the assassins were motivated to remove a vicious scourge represented by the Council, evidence of public cruelty aids the spread of the belief the Council is vicious, further motivating uncoordinated attack.~~
~~Furthermore, for the deterrent effect to attain, there must be no possibility of survival. Which makes the retention of weapons a sideshow justifying incrementally crueler methods of termination.~~
~~In either of those cases, public spectacle is useless at best, or counter-productive at worst.~~
~~Discard, for the purposes of analysis, assassination coming from outside of city or from within common population. Remaining potential source of assassination: from within Council. Plausible: most revolutions originate from power struggles within the ruling caste, and oligarchs possess sufficient influence to maintain and direct secretive operations within the city.~~
~~Two possibilities: the source of the assassination from within Council is known, or is merely suspected. If known, and assassins are willing participants, public execution is a slap on the wrist to offending Council member, possibly including subtle messages knowable only to that member. But publicity of execution is not required. Those who need to know would know. Private disappearance more likely, more effective, and of lower cost see references above.~~
~~If known, and assassins are unwilling or duped, public execution serves little purpose. If unknown and willing, rigorous torture reveals source. We have not been tortured, not yet, therefore they believe we are unwilling assassins. If unknown and unwilling… threat of execution provides leverage to force assassins to ferret information about suspected Council members at no cost to the Council's own trusted networks.~~
~~Our survival depends on them not knowing who of the Council ordered this assassination.~~
Satisfied with his line of reasoning, he said:
“Your attempts to Speak With Dead once you find the corpse of Hangvor will be blocked by some means. Not that they shouldn’t be attempted, of course. At that point we would prefer that you didn’t torture us before asking us to ferret out your traitor from within the Council. We will accept your offer. Or rather, your master's order when he makes it: I should be surprised if Councillors came themselves to fetch offenders, however imposing their bodyguards.”
OOC:
01:18, Today: Bartimaeus rolled 14 using 1d20+2. Persuasion BIG MONEY NO WHAMMIES .
No whammies, but alas, median money, just off a threshold.
01:50, Today: Bartimaeus rolled 19 using 1d20+2. With Advantage .
Woopwoop
This message was last edited by the player at 06:51, Sun 06 Dec 2020.