Saguzar

[Saguzar]

Player Name: James

Character Name: Saguzar
Current Persona: Catalina Lucia El Viso Moriles, personal attendant to Marcella Guiate
Age: 42
Race: Human/Fae
Height: 5'3"
Weight: 41kg/90lbs


===Physical Description===

Saguzar is a petite woman with dark auburn hair for whom the adjective 'elfin' is both descriptive and literal. She hides her pointed ears whether she ties her hair back or lets it down in tangles of medusa-like curls. Her hazel eyes occasionally hint close to copper.

In her work, Saguzar often adopts the clothing and demeanour of a young boy: something which her angular face, youthful features, and under-developed chest render an easy task.

When garbed as a woman, she typically hides knee-length breeches beneath the long Corezan dresses for comfort and ease of a swift escape if needed. When garbed as a man, the clothing is tailored for the task she is working on: from servant's attire to a noble youth's fineries.


===Possessions===

=Financial Security=

In the 28 years that Saguzar has worked for the Society, she has amassed a comfortable amount of wealth.
She has portions of this wealth spread through a range of accounts with shipping investment houses and brokerages, as well as within the Society's private trust fund.

Thus, although Saguzar does not carry much in the way of hard Bishani on her, she is rarely far from a Society branch or city where she can withdraw funds for a specific task.

=Safehouses=

In the 28 years that Saguzar has worked for the Society, she has invested much of her earnings in small properties dotted around Corezan cities and, where made possible by Society forays into new territories, large cities in other Eyropan provinces.
The predominance of such safehouses are in large inland cities and port cities, where the abundance of population make it easier for a person to hide themselves and their purchases from casual inspection.
Her safehouses tend to contain an expensive, concealed safe, where she stores her casual belongings between tasks.

=Lockpicks=

Saguzar has an enviable collection of lockpicks, care of the Society's metalworkers. She has a selection of the most versatile on her person most of the time.

=Clothing and costumes=

Part of Saguzar's work often requires that she adopt a fresh persona for each new role. Sometimes she has to revisit a persona.
Thus, she stores away various costumes and disguises in safehouses appropriate to the persona's area of influence

=Parrying daggers=

Saguzar isn't a fighter. But she isn't stupid. If on a dangerous assignment, she will wear a pair of springloaded parrying daggers.
The slide of a switch causes the parrying blades to flick into place.
They will, in a pinch, help to keep her alive if assaulted with a small weapon or single-handed sword.

===Powers or Strengths===

=Fae Glamours=

Saguzar's Fae heritage has blessed her with the gift of Fae illusions. These illusions affect sight, sound, and smell.
However, her illusions are limited to herself and the immediate area within a metre of her. Additionally, the more complex the glamour, the more draining it is to maintain. A small glamour, affecting only a small part of her own body's appearance, is as easy as breathing: skin tone, eye and hair colouration are examples of this. Something affecting her full appearance and clothing for more than an hour could be comparable to keeping up a light jog. Affecting things within a metre of her for more than half an hour is something akin to running a marathon.

=Cosmetic/Disguise skills=

Given how draining maintaining a magical disguise can be, not to mention that certain savvy targets purchase wards to alert them of such chicanery, Saguzar has spent many years on improving her ability to disguise herself through tricks of mannerism and cosmetics. Had she had inclinations towards the arts, the theatre would have received a great actress onto its stages.

=Sleight of Hand=

Though not exactly skilled at pickpocketing, she can palm objects and conceal their movement and placement with the skill of your average street mountebank.

=Lock and Key=

Under the guidance of the Society, Saguzar has become quite adept at the picking of locks. She has access to the right kind of people to quietly make duplicate keys, and understands how to use an existing key to create a mould for such people.

=Enchantment Unravelling & Weaving=

This is, strictly speaking, part of her fae heritage. However, its form has been warped by her human heritage.
Like many Fae, Saguzar can comprehend the ebb and flow of astral energy. Saguzar senses it as a shifting tapestry of lights, scents, and emotions.

Her greatest talent, and the source of her desirability within the Society of Negotiable Loyalties, is her ability to manipulate the individual threads of energy to unravel enchantments. Doing so typically requires uninterrupted focus for all but the most simple of enchantments. More complex enchantments take longer to unravel than simple enchantments. The area covered by an enchantment can also factor into the time required. Thus far in Saguzar's career the most difficult task, featuring a multi-layered web of enchantments on a lockbox, took a full hour of effort.

To a lesser extent, she can weave her own enchantments, but she does so at great cost. Her talents can extend as far as minor transmutative effects, using magic to temporarily alter the physical properties of something. (Make it lighter, heavier, rigid, viscous, etc). However, this ability causes a conflict between the Fae and Human aspects of her heritage, and results in heavy stomach cramps, fever, and assorted physical unpleasantnesses. Typically, one hour's maintenance of such an enchantment will give her a day of horrific discomfort, and is rarely worth the repercussions.

=Long-term Sensory Memory=

Another gift of her Fae Heritage. Her mind is incredibly talented at recalling scenes, colours, and faces in photographic detail. Her memory for scents is equally precise, and has helped her in many assignments in not confusing the identities of the countless people with whom she interacts. Her memory for written things is also photographic, but only short term. She can memorise a few pages of writing, but if she does not copy it out within a day of memorising it, the memory rapidly decays.

=Member: Society of Negotiated Loyalties=

A valued Caballero of the Society of Negotiated Loyalties, Saguzar can call upon their resources in a pinch, to obtain information or a safehouse if she is in an area where she has no resources of her own. The Society is well-connected within Corezo, but has not made much headway in other Eyropan Provinces due to the resistance of existing criminal syndicates. Saguzar takes a certain amount of pride and comfort from knowing she is of value to the Society, though is not so naive to think that such would last if she became less effective at her tasks.

=Society Training=

When the Society requires Saguzar to create a new persona for a task, they train her on the basic foundation of knowledge she requires to maintain plausibility in the role for brief periods. Her sharp mind is adept at taking on these details, but the sheer quantity of information required to maintain all her identities makes it difficult to remember it all. As a result, Saguzar has developed a mnemonic technique, compartmenting memories linked to focal stimuli, wherein the act of remembering specific complex information is linked to the assuming of a specific persona.


===Weaknesses===

=Combat=

When the fists starts flying, Saguzar is generally nowhere to be found. She would rather have a week's worth of horrendous cramps from overusing magical glamours to escape than have to draw her daggers and risk wearing a blade through her innards.

Saguzar is inexperienced, small, light, and has no place in a fight. She will choose discretion over valor every time.

=Fragile=

Her Fae heritage has resulted in a small and slender physique. Your average bruiser could break her ribs with a solid hook to the ribs.
She bruises easily, and doesn't recover from physical injury all that swiftly.

=Can never have children=

What it says on the tin: a quirk of her mixed heritage has resulted in Saguzar being barren.

=A Lifelong Masquerade=

Saguzar, whether she likes it or not, is now too far down the Society rabbit hole to escape now. She has so many personas and victims in her dossier that she could not live a simple and normal life. Many of her personas have numerous arrest warrants and bounties issued on the basis of her criminal activities. Although still young enough to enjoy the lifestyle, deep down there is a burgeoning sense of horror at the thought of doing so for the rest of her potentially short life.

=Has Never Killed=

For Saguzar this is the one line she doesn't want to cross. The salve to what serves as her conscience. She may steal and spy and wreak economic havoc - but she hasn't killed. For most, this would be a strength and a sign of good character.

For a member of the Society, however, it is something of a weakness. Through skill, fortune, and persuasion, Saguzar has managed to continue this trend. But she lives in a dangerous world, performing dangerous tasks, and Saguzar could not predict how she'd react to having blood on her hands. She doesn't even want to consider the possibility.


===History===

====Childhood and Adolescence====

---From the Society Dossier on Saguzar---

* With regards to her origins

It is obvious that Saguzar is not the Caballero's birthname, but it is the only name she uses when not on assignment.

She has refused to speak of her past, but Society investigations are thorough, and the following has been determined as factual:

Saguzar was born the child of human mother, Oreneta, belonging to a small clan of travelling charlatans and entertainers called the Gitano.

Oretana, we discovered, was a victim of rape who died giving birth to Saguzar. The father was unknown, though Saguzar's physiognomy strongly suggests elven heritage. It is on record that militia found no elves in the area at the time they investigated the assault on Oreneta.

We know that Saguzar stayed with the Gitano until she was 15, at which point the Gitano claimed she ran away.


* With regards to her career prior to membership

What traces we have found of Saguzar, based on our knowledge of her abilities and methods, has been scarce. However, the following can be assumed as highly likely, based on the analysis of facts available to us:

Saguzar roamed all across Corezo, much as the Gitano culture were wont to do, thieving to support herself. Accounting for those she has stolen from, in order to gauge the likelihood of negative repercussions to the Society, has proven difficult. Her talent for disguise and glamours allowed her to reinvent herself in every town she passed through.

We have a much better understanding of her exploits in Qadis, immediately prior to her invitation to the Society at age 22. There is no need to dwell, I think, on the incident where she managed to steal the Shadow Marqués Guillen's personal jewellery - save perhaps a note of commendation to the Marqués on turning the embarrassing circumstances into an opportunity for the Society.


====Caballero of the Society of Negotiable Loyalties====

Saguzar was, for a time, personally apprenticed to the Shadow Marqués Guillen. At first she was set the task of unravelling the wards on small personal effects, such as purloined messenger packets and valuable personal effects, while Guillen tutored her on the finer arts of disguise and physical characterisation. Lessons on walking softly were also included, though Saguzar's skill in that area remained average at best without the use of a glamour.

Over time Saguzar proved talented at the creation of personas and deceits, and these skills were put to play by the Society to numerous ends. Theft, confidence tricks, spying, economic sabotage, reconnaissance for assassinations, planting evidence to help spark a feud; all these things can be found in the list of Saguzar's achievements.

She has, over the years, developed a handful of 'floating' identities in most major cities, some being hunted by the law, others secure in their positions. These identities, not linked to a specific task, range from artists and traders, performers and hedge witches to thieves and grifters.


====Hired by the Guiate====

In the past two years, due to the expanding influence of House Morua, the Society of Negotiated Loyalties has accepted a number of contracts from House Belleza and Quijas, including providing services to the Guiate. Saguzar, having successfully infiltrated Morveres to obtain certain information from Morveres regarding Morua's preferred brokers and supporters in Qadis, has been hired on to assist the Guiate heir Marcella.

The contract has been drawn up between Ramiro Sebastian Guiate De Morua and the Society and a new persona created for the task: Catalina Lucia el Viso Moriles, personal attendant, chaperone, and guide to Qadis.

Elements of her contract include
+ Loyalty to the Guiate household for the duration of the contract, save where it conflicts with Society interests
+ Performing all the tasks required of her as a personal attendant/chaperone
+ Supplying those skills unique to her for the advancement of the Guiate agenda
+ Where there is no danger to her own person, ensure the safety of Marcella Guiate De Morua
+ Medical fees incurred by Saguzar during the course of the contract to be paid by the Guiate. (An addenda clarifies that the healer must be the best available at the time.)
+ A disclaimer permitting Saguzar to avoid any combat or requirement to kill.

Unusually, the contract bears no specific end date, but has some specific termination clauses:
+ Attempts to force or manipulate the Caballero into a suicidal course of action
+ failure to pay the Society fees for two consecutive instalments
+ failure to pay for the Caballero's medical fees using the best available healers
+ disclosure of Catalina Lucia el Viso Moriles' true identity
+ any actions taken which expose or endanger the Society's interests.

Ramiro ensured the following clauses were added in:
+ the Caballero is to cede seniority in any decision to Marcella, save where an order would significantly endanger either party
+ the Caballero is to keep the secrets of the Guiate as if she were a Guiate
+ the Caballero is not to leave Marcella's side for more than a day unless Marcella specifically orders it for a specific task.
+ the Caballero is, under no circumstances, to disclose the details of any other tasks they might have performed on behalf of the Guiate in the past.

[Saguzar]

Saguzar closed her eyes and sniffed the air. The sweet, acrid tang of magic remained strong, and the thief smiled. Only the wealthy could afford wards, and wards only ever guarded things of value. It was, for Saguzar, as tantalising a smell as she could ever imagine.

It would be a fine challenge. She opened her eyes once, then twice, and the lines of sorcery running through the small estate's mansion shone in her vision. They were a delicate tapestry, and the embroidery reeked of alarms. And ah, yes, the largest framework had the scent of tasting the aether. Tricky, tricky, that would catch out the arrogant and the amateur every time. And the guards came around with astonishing frequency and alertness.

From her perch in a large cedar, a guard dog calmly dozing beneath her, Saguzar mused over the puzzle. The magical array suffered from the usual shortfalls of the local enchanters: the belief that a person could not get close enough to the heart of the tapestry to unweave the whole knot of defensive magic without using magic to trigger the alarms. She began to tingle with excitement, and started her own tapestry. Delicate strands of energy covered her with the scent of the slumbering guard dog, and wove in the shadows from the cedar tree.

The guards passed by again, and Saguzar dropped down lightly. She strolled over closer to the building, taking cover between some topiary shrubs trimmed in the shape of chess pieces. She wove a new design, winding her strands around the magics which would detect the physical presence of those not marked as household members. Truly, the owners of this estate had spared no expense, and Saguzar's mouth grew wet with the thought of what she might find.

With the delicate care of a surgeon applying sutures, she interfaced her own weavings into the fabric of the ward. Having successfully infiltrated her own magical energy within the cage of the wards, she worked her way back out to the wards which most concerned her, subtly altering the scent of the strands to add her own physical essence into those considered part of the household. The guards passed by again, their eyes finding other things to look at rather than Saguzar's shadow-glamoured form. A recollection of something canine might filter in, a memory of one of the dogs resting between the topiary.

Saguzar stepped up to a door, dropping her glamour to avoid triggering the alarms, and retrieved her picks from a pocket. Her excitement grew when she saw that even the servant's entrance bore an expensive lock. It was the work of a solid minute before the pin tumblers were aligned and the lock clicked open, and the small woman slipped into the house like a child who sneaked into the desserts pantry. Inside the house, there were areas where the scent of the tapestry shifted significantly, patches where the enchanter had deemed it unfeasible to have the physical alarm in too close a proximity to the magical alarms. After all, inside the house, it wouldn't matter which alarm was present, right? An unauthorised physical presence or use of magic. One tends to beget the other if one is inside the house.

Which was, of course, a conceit which delighted the thief. A small cleaner's storage room served Saguzar's purposes nicely, and it was the work of moments to disable the tapestry which sensed magic use. Saguzar draped herself in a glamour once more, weaving in the scent of cleaner, cleaning equipment, and the house shadows. The trick to a glamour was to belong, to smell and feel like the place you are walking through, so that the senses were not triggered by the strange. The instinct of the guard is to watch for the unknown, that which does not belong, and their senses pay little attention to the familiar. Especially with a little encouragement.

Saguzar followed her nose up the stairs, and smiled at the small boy who wandered out of one of the bedrooms "Go back to bed, my sweet, I have cleaning to do." She wove the essence of the boy's existing tiredness into a shawl around the youth, and he nodded before stumbling back to bed.

Finally, she found her target. A small office, the scent of wards an overpowering bouquet of varieties. Her sense of anticipation growing, Saguzar carefully unravelled the strands of the ward, then picked the lock to enter the room. It was, compared to the tapestry of wards protecting it, exceptionally dull. A desk, a bookshelf, a reading chair and sidetable. A small cabinet. All very tasteful, of course. Velvet hangings, rich cherrywood furnishings. A proper rich man's office. And, she thought, about to become a little bit less wealthy.

A search of the quickly unlocked cabinet proved to be what she was looking for. Apart from folders and folders of paper, for which she had no interest, there was an ivory jewellery box. And one look inside was enough to elicit an almost sexual response. Jewellery of that value would sell well, once she moved on to a different city. She carefully unlocked the room's window and unhooked one of the velvet hangings. She had just placed the small jewellery box in her satchel when a sudden voice chilled her blood.

How she didn't hear him would forever grate on on Saguzar's nerves. There was no magic concealing his movements, just a level of silent movement beyond anything Saguzar was capable of. "I would recommend returning that box to its place. It would be in your best interests." Saguzar's response was instinctual. Kicking the sidetable in the direction of the voice, she launched herself out of the window, weaving strands of magic through the velvet hanging as she did. It was enough to slow her fall, cushion the impact, and Saguzar was off like a greyhound. She heard orders shouted from the window she'd left, but her head start was sufficient to find a quiet spot to hastily weave some new glamours before making a more leisurely escape.

A week later, after holing up in a safehouse to weather the side-effects of her exertions, she had paid for passage aboard a ship to Keltaris, and was relaxing in her small cabin when she was startled by a knock. A moment later a familiar voice enquired through the door "If you don't mind, senora, I would like my belongings back. And I might even have a job for you."

[Saguzar]

It was a pleasant evening. Warm, a touch of breeze, a man at the card table who couldn't bluff, a woman whose cues were too obvious, and another man with a vested interest in helping Ramiro win. All in all, a more relaxed game of La Mano Conquista could not have been arranged.

As with everything pertaining to his clandestine dealings with Belleza, Ramiro Sebastian Guiate de Morua had taken no chances: a casual visit to one of his principal brokers' estates; A 'broker's clerk' come to visit with details of a new trade prospect, ensuring they were witnessed at prominent taverns along the same route, bragging how they'd spotted an opportunity with a Hasele fishing consortium; The suggestion of some friendly games of La Mano Conquista to cap off a pleasant evening meal; the invitation of a gossipy lady of the nobility.

The first games fostered the appearance of casual entertainment and ruffled no feathers. But Ramiro and the 'broker's clerk' Saraccino ensured that they engaged in a more lively form of rivalry across the table which allowed them the excuse to continue on, Mano a Mano, well into the evening. Word would spread that Ramiro had again spent a boring evening talking trade over cards. That the trade talks were entirely based in fact always helped matters. Even if the Society agent had been furnished with the information by Guiate agents so as to maintain the role plausibly. Thus did Ramiro conduct his meetings with the representatives for the Society of Negotiated Loyalties in plain sight.

The language of negotiation had been agreed upon previously, and practised by both participants. For some aspects, it was a simple enough cipher for both of them: a tap of the ring finger, in tandem with a card played, to suggest an offer starting with the card's value. The little finger would tap further to indicate the further value in hundreds. In the case of thousands, the thumb would tap the knuckle of the index finger. Acceptance of terms involved scratching the chin twice with the little finger, once with the thumb. Advisement of a counter-offer was a triple-tap of right index finger against the left thumb. The true complexity came with the aspects not relating to numerical discussion. It was a code which let them discuss mundane matters whilst slowly and methodically negotiating clandestine services over several games of Briscola. And now, that negotiation had commenced.

Ramiro dealt out three cards apiece and revealed the trump suit "Ah, Saraccino, our conquista is Bishani. How appropriate! So, these fishmongers in Hasele, tell me about them while I take every trick" Saraccino responded with a laugh "As one conquistador to another, I tell you this truly: you will regret such a bold claim when I subjugate the entire deck. As for the consortium, they have a lot of workers, and a lot of fishing vessels, but they lack larger ships or an effective distribution network." The patriarch of the Guiate family ran a hand over his neatly trimmed beard as he examined his cards. He knew that Saraccino would be waiting for the appropriate card to appear in his hand before the haggling commenced. "The cost of shipping and preserving fish doesn't often leave a wide profit margin, Saraccino. Especially when there is so much coastline, and so much fishing nearer to most trade ports. Surely they would be better off dealing locally and accepting a natural limit to the size of their operations. I see no immediate benefit to us." Ramiro laid down the two of staves. A non-card really, but it would ensure that his opponent won the first hand, and put Ramiro in the comfortable position of responding to Saraccino's next play. The Society agent commented "Normally that would be so, but the offer isn't just about having someone transport their cargo around the coastline." Saraccino tapped his ring finger, and took the two of staves with the seven of staves, tapping his little finger once. With the initial offer now made, the agent played a four of cups.

Ramiro considered that as he considered the cards. It was a very low offer as a lump sum, meaning it wasn't one, but that could get quite expensive over a lengthy contractual period. Especially given there was no telling how long Marcella would remain in Qadis. "That is curious. What could they possibly need from us to make them consider any approach you made to them? Naturally, I assume you have not over-stepped the bounds of your authority with any promises to them." Ramiro went on the attack, taking the four of cups with that suit's caballero, then took some easy points with the bishani Emperor. Finally, the cards granted him what he needed for a counter offer, and Ramiro tapped his left index finger thrice with his thumb while Saraccino replied "They have, according to quiet word, found a new way of preserving cod for lengthy periods of time, through an alliance with a small cabal of magic users. Now, I know that the trade in salted cod remains strong, with important stakeholders in Norroenirlund having a firm grip on the market, but the consortium wants to make a strong entrance into the cod market on an empire-wide level. They have had some local resistance to their methods, and know that Corezan shipping interests are often far more open to magic solutions to mundane problems, as it were." While Saraccino spoke, Ramiro played the two of bishani, tapping his ring finger with a slight smile. Saraccino tapped thumb against index finger as he sacrificed the six of espadas. It was going to be one of those kinds of exchanges, Ramiro thought, as the deck yielded him additional fortune in the form of the Tres of Bishani. The province card. A good omen, hopefully.

Ramiro pondered his next move as he spoke "A foothold in the cod market you say? Now that could be worth an investment. Any Corezan merchant would happily help loosen those northerners' deathgrip on the better part of that industry. Still..." Ramiro drummed his fingers on the table once, then repeated the gesture on the back of his hand, indicating that his next words related also to the underlying negotiations "...if this was going to be a lengthy arrangement, that could prove costly in some regards." Drumming the back of his hand once more to signify the end of the double-talk, Ramiro played the bishani province card, once again earning easy points as Saraccino sacrificed a six of espadas. "Which of our services did you intimate might be of value to the consortium, Saraccino? And look, I am well ahead in points! Don't lose focus just because we are talking business." Saraccino laughed as he repeated Ramiro's gestures "Well, a variable contract with acceptable termination clauses could save you from difficulties if the market collapses" Saraccino signified the end of the double-talk as he continued "however I think that there is an opportunity to use our distribution networks to compete with the salted cod market by introducing the option of the fresh variety for the tables of nobility. And the further south one goes, the harder it is to get fresh cod in bulk for large gatherings. I think there is a very real opportunity here, and carefully planted the idea that bypassing one of the three main ducal houses could lead to a wider market distribution if a noble house with the right mercantile pedigree were to make its services available." Ramiro restrained laughter as he heard his own agents' words parroted back to him in such perfect earnestness. The Society's representatives were consummate actors.

Cards and conversation flowed back and forth, and it was well into their sixth game before the finer nuances of the arrangement between the Guiate and the Society were agreed upon. Now, the Society would find and assign someone appropriate to the task of guiding Marcella through the maze of Qadis and its numerous pitfalls. A contract would be presented at an opportune moment, negotiated or agreed upon, and Ramiro would introduce Marcella to her new assistant for her assignment to Qadis.

[Metarie]

Approved.

Well thought out with strong weaknesses to overcome strong strengths.