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[mastahcheese]

"Just four? To protect a royal tax gondala?"
Billy gave a quizzical expression. Clearly the Crown relied more on the guards being a deterant rather than actually being required to protect with their lives.
"I could take them out in my sleep..."
He recalled the snark of the old man,
"...But I suppose I should leave the daggers at home. Subduing them shouldn't be too hard. I could knock them out, tie them up, and have someone sedate them so they don't wake up and call for an alarm until we've divided the plunder."
As he says that last part, he removes a pair of knives from his boots and lays them on the table.
"Assuming we can get on the gondala, that is. Oh, and I'm Billy."

[Stirk]

"They're watchmen, they work fer the depository not the Crown. The depository is privately owned, its collecting and deliverin' taxes as a charged service." Smokey then cuts and lights his cigar. "We can off them if we need to. Probably best to avoid it if we can, and anyone Captain rank or higher is an Agent of the Crown. Don't need the heat if we can avoid it. Four is standard anyhow, they might have more if they think its important enough."

[mastahcheese]

"I see, then. Better make sure we don't draw any attention to ourselves beforehand, then, so as not to give them a reason to make it more heavily guarded."

He considers putting down his other knives, but slides them back into place.

[Cain12]

Vera watches Billy toy with his knives with passing interest before turning her gaze to the smoker.
"I was kinda expecting more as well, could whip something up to put them out. Besides the guards, what sort of security you think the gondola would have?"

[heydude6]

"Well I'm pretty sure the gondola itself is going to be armoured, I don't think they would be dumb enough to use an ordinary one. Which means that if we want to get at the drivers or the cargo inside, then we'll probably need to find a way to break through it.

Alternatively we can somehow find a way to transport the gondola itself (with the drivers still inside) to the warehouse and we could crack it open once it gets there. It's a gondola so regardless of wether it's armoured or not, it's gonna have oars. If we break them (which may be a bit tough if the oars are metal), then the drivers won't be able to steer it anymore allowing us to take it anywhere we want."

[mastahcheese]

"I'm sure that breaking the oars while the drivers are still on board is a great way to draw attention to ourselves."
Billy starts idly twirling a knife between his fingers as he speaks.
"And then how would we steer it? Hook it up to another boat and tug it? That's not suspicious in the least."

[My Name is Immaterial]

Anne tilts her head a little, as a thought bubbles up.
"The more you lock up a room, the harder it is to get out of. What if we sink it, and nab the guards as they try and escape? We cut a few holes in it half way through, or one big one, and the gondola starts to sink. Guards inside panic, and try and escape. We keep someone on the top to throw some manacles on them once they get out, and stuff in a waiting boat. The Gondola goes down, under the waterline, and we come along with another boat, and drag it off."

[heydude6]

"And then how would we steer it? Hook it up to another boat and tug it? That's not suspicious in the least."

It honestly isn't if it's someone licensed that's doing it. When you dock your gondola on a noble's private doc, who's job do you think is it to remove it? And if you you're an idiot and manage to have a boat accident and crash your boat in the canal, who cleans up the wreckage to prevent a traffic jam? It's those guys that do it, that's who. Most civilians don't know about the taxes that are being delivered by armoured gondola so if they see a random massive boat that's being towed, they'll probably assume that it's just the tow crew doing their job."

Anne tilts her head a little, as a thought bubbles up.
"The more you lock up a room, the harder it is to get out of. What if we sink it, and nab the guards as they try and escape? We cut a few holes in it half way through, or one big one, and the gondola starts to sink. Guards inside panic, and try and escape. We keep someone on the top to throw some manacles on them once they get out, and stuff in a waiting boat. The Gondola goes down, under the waterline, and we come along with another boat, and drag it off."

"My only concerns with that plan involve a fear of the gondola sinking to the bottom of the canal before we manage to attach it to our boat, and the fact that we'll be committing this heist in broad daylight where several civilians can see us. If we punch holes in the gondola, we're gonna have to do it in a way that doesn't raise too much alarm.

"Which gives me an idea. What if we stage some sort of accident, something that would perhaps cause the gondola to flip over rather than sink. The guards will likely still evacuate since they probably wouldn't want to stay inside an upside down boat and we could take them out then. With the guards out of the way, we could then have a fake clean up crew come in, hook up the gondola wreck to their boat, and then tow it to the warehouse.

[Stirk]

"The gondola is treated to be as tough as iron, and its twenty feet long and ten wide. It'd take something serious to poke holes in it, and an act of god to flip it over when its full of treasure."

[heydude6]

"Do you think collapsing a bridge on top of it would be enough?"

[Stirk]

"Do you think collapsing a bridge on top of it would be enough?"

"Hafta be a big bridge. Big enough the noise and broken stuff would turn some heads."

[heydude6]

"Then we probably shouldn't do that then. Hmmm...."

As the group struggled to make a plan, Francis decided to sit down and think. So the Gondola is heavily armoured and it's carrying precious cargo. Unless we do something incredibly loud and notorious, we likely aren't going to crack it open ourselves. Like Anne mentioned, the best way to open up the gondola is to draw out the guards, likely by making them want to escape the boat. She suggested we sink it by puncturing a few holes, but that hull is tough. What if we make them want to escape for other reasons?

Suddenly Francis grins.

Well the boat is made of iron, so it's bound to be pretty hot in there. What if we turn up the heat just a little bit. Set it on fire perhaps, turn it into an oven. That will get them running. But there's a problem with that, metal doesn't burn. Want to know what does though? Oil. We cover the boat in any kind of oil and just set it ablaze. That comes with its own problems though. Most of the oil would just slide off of the boat meaning that whatever was left wouldn't burn for very long. There's a crazy solution to that though, we fill the inside of the boat with oil. As for how you're going to get oil inside an impenetrable gondola.... hmmm

Aha! Of course, how did I not think of this sooner?! The drivers aren't going to be rowing this gondola blind, they're going to have to have some way of seeing where they're going. It could be either glass windows, which is unlikely since you can just smash those with a hammer, or small slits at the front that allow you to see through, kind of like in the visor of a knights helmet. We could pour in oil through the armour slits and then sneak a match through to light it up. Guards will flee for their lives, we take them out, and once the fire dies down, we steal the gondola.

Having finished with his thought process, Francis shares his plan with the group.

"Sorry for the wait everyone, but I think I've discovered a vulnerability in the gondola. The drivers inside must have some way to see the canal ahead of them, and I bet that it's going to be armour slits. As for how we can exploit this vulnerability, it's pretty simple. We take some sort of volatile substance, and then shove it inside through the slit. My personal recommendation would be lamp oil. If you pour in a gallon of lamp oil and then sneak in a lit match, the inside of the boat will be set ablaze and the guards will flee for their lives. That's when we strike. We subdue the guards while they're fleeing and once the fire dies down, we take the gondola for ourselves."

After looking at the facial expressions of the rest of the crew, Francis adds:

"If burning the gondola makes you feel uncomfortable, then don't worry. I'm fairly certain that simply telling the guards that their boat is filled with flammable lamp oil and then threatening to light a match will make them come out."

And then also adds:

"What do you think? Is there anything I may have overlooked?"

[Neonivek]

Look at the time, look at the time.

Your preparation time is running short as you discuss your predicament. Paper after paper of etched plans fall to the floor as you strain yourselves to come up with a plan of action for the day's proceedings.

In the means of coming up with a plan you do notice how much silver the hotel has just laying around. A subtle peek at the ledger suggests that only half the cutlery is even registered. A closer inspection reveals that this hotel was being used as a way to store the Silver to collect at a later time, but whoever was meant to pick it back up never did. This unexpected Windfall will work well in the future: Group Influence +1


You quickly return to the conundrum of the armored gondola, the word gondola said so many times that is has become both perverse and banal at the same time.

One Day Left

[mastahcheese]

Billy sighed.
"Exactly how are you going to get a gallon of lamp oil through a slit that they are looking through without them noticing?
You'd have better luck jumping in front of the view hole, pointing the end of a crossbow at them," he says, pulling out his hand-crossbow to demonstrate, "And declaring 'this is a stickup'. They're not that stupid, surely. Now, if we were to make a bomb small enough to fit, and throw that in there, it'd give them less time to react, but there's no way you're pumping a gallon of oil in there without them noticing that and trying to arrest you.

And we're running out of time, too."

[My Name is Immaterial]

Anne turns to Smokey, intent on asking the haze a question.
"Say, the entrance to the Gondola doesn't happen to be opened with a key, does it? If it's not barred from inside, a key should do wonders."
Edit: Then the maid turns to Vera.
"Or, perhaps our artist friend could put the guards to sleep with her concoctions... perhaps permanently?"