Mission: Hostile Takeover

[theScrappy]

"His daughter has been turned into a vampire," Natan recaps, pinching the bridge of his nose, "by his former friend and business partner, who he has long presumed to be dead, but who has in actuality been siphoning political power from him by founding and funding a competing Free Company." He pauses, collecting his thought with a pair of fingers pressed against his pale lips. "I understand that you've been here a lot longer than I have, Oparal, but exactly what have you seen him go through that was worse than this?"

[elan]

Oparal deconstructs what Natan is saying: "The way you say it, some might think that he does not already know that his daughter has been turned into a vampire. For the sake of clarity, I will explicitly say that this is false, he has known for a long time now, so there would be no need for me to inform him again about that part, but he took it really badly when he first found out. This is what I was referring to.", she pauses to emphasize the difference,

"In contrast, the second part of it, which would be the only new information to him and thus the only part I would have to relay, is much less personal, it is about professional and personal betrayal from a former colleague whom Maynard presumed had been dead. So, having your daughter turned into a vampire or betrayal from a business partner, what would upset a person more, I wonder. Fortunately, we do not have to speculate, if it turns out that he would stay calm, we will tell him. In the unlikely event that he would not... well, I have been planning to enrich our banquet hall with a breath of our history anyway. It is so important not to forget our roots and the great men and women that came before us, is it not?", she looks at Elsa, then gives a nod to Lavinia.

Tiger (GM Extraordinaire)
It has been established that the man that turned Eris was the same guy that turned Clara.Clara gives a clear description of the event and the man here:

Clara answers but she does it while looking at Tarsus, as if he had asked the questions."A man did this to me. Inflicted this horror upon me. He didn't speak but he was very deliberate. His hair was raven black and long, human, a countenance that would be handsome if not for the affable cruelty dripping from it. He had a large deep scar over the right side of his face and one of his eyes was discolored because of it.

[theScrappy]

Natan's jaw hangs as he listens to Oparal's deconstruction of language and thought, marveling in her ability to rearrange the component parts into something more self-serving. "So," he says at last, ignoring her provocative suggestion, "you want to… float as a hypothetical that which we already know. And then trust that Maynard won't jump to any particular conclusion about the nature of your hypothetical or its timing?" He looks at the others for reassurance. "Do, uh—" He clears his throat. "Do you have a lot of experience talking to people?"

[elan]

"A lot.", she says while adjusting her headband.

Lavinia starts casting divination, expending components from her robe, and after ten minutes asks: "If we told Maynard Calhoun, a member of the White Stars free company, that Vance Garand, his former associate, has betrayed him professionally and possibly personally, would the formerly mentioned Maynard do something that would help expose to the formerly mentioned Vance our plans to have him eliminated?"

(80% chance for correct divination and she knows if it fails, unless specific magic yielding false information is at work)

[Tiger]

fail chance 1in5 fail on 1 - (1d5) [2]
"No."

[elan]

Lavinia repeats the answer aloud.

[elan]

"And there you have it, now that we know, we should tell Maynard. Unless there are other concerns?", Oparal looks around.

[Theprettiestorc]

"I have a concern about what we plan to do, really. If I am getting this correct, technically, all holdings belonging to a person belong to their Free Company. So would it not be a simple issue of publicly challenging Vance Garand for leadership of the combined Free Company Holdings?" Ida has her brow quirked, musing. "This makes a large statement in front of his men, who might wish him gone as well, and in the end, we would still need the aid of Red Flag lieutenants or otherwise to manage their side of the people."

[elan]

"Unfortunately, Vance holds majority of votes in the White Stars company so he can simply use the rules in place to control financial assets of both companies as he sees fit if he chooses to.", Oparal explains.

[elan]

Then continues addressing Ida: "I have heard tales of drow silent assaults, making dozens, even hundreds of people disappear without raising alarm or even a sound in a matter of hours. Are you familiar with details of such tactics of your people?"