"On the one hand I'm inclined to leave it until after the Mouth is closed because it's fewer balls in the air at once and a really good proof of intentions, on the other hand -- yeah, we might want their help."

"It's only a good proof of intentions if they believe you that we did it. Probably easier to convince them if they actually see it happen?"

"I am.... concerned how Montgomery is going to react if I promise not to tell any of her competitors what she told me on pain of being extremely painfully murdered and then Savitree's team shows up."

"Which I guess means it's mainly a good idea if we can keep them from knowing about each other. I'm not sure if this is less active secret-keeping or more."

"Going back to the warehouse, are you just thinking of information-gathering or do you have a next step for that in mind?"

"I had a very tentative not-quite plan which was that Montgomery would tell everyone to clear out while she did something experimental, we would come in through the catacombs -- Montgomery's house is blocked to them but the warehouse isn't for some reason, Martin said? -- and we'd cast the spell while everyone was out."

"This will probably not survive first contact with reality because when have our plans ever, but, you know."

"It's definitely better than nothing! And if that's your thought I can definitely see why we wouldn't want to bring in Savitree's team for any of it."

"What if they notice that the warehouse is mysteriously empty, and decide that this is their moment to close the Mouth themselves?"

"Then we have a comedy of errors which is definitely super not my fault and didn't involve me telling anyone what Montgomery told me and so is less likely to get me slowly turned to dust, which is my objection to the plan where we bring the Emporium in on it."

"I think Montgomery Donovan doing something experimental is one of the worse times to rush in if you think you're working against each other but it'd depend on what they know from the outside I suppose."

"I am... honestly more concerned about Lukas. I'm not sure how specifically Lukas might fuck this up but it feels very much like he could."

"The other thing, which is making me lean towards telling the Emporium earlier rather than later which side we're on, is that last time we broke into a building with a Mouth in it we had to immediately flee the state."

"Yeah it seems pretty unlikely we'll have much opportunity for chatting when the whole cult notices the Mouth is closed."

"...If any other parts of the cult work out that a major member with lots of power is working at cross-purposes with them they will probably be a lot more concerned with fixing that than they were with a few outsiders finding one big secret and getting away."

"Sorry, I'm not sure if you're referring to Montgomery or Savitree there?"

"More immediately Montgomery, since this plan relies on her clearing out a warehouse so that we can come in and close the Mouth there."

"It just seems like 'Montgomery made everyone leave so she could do something and then when they came back the Mouth was gone' by itself could a really bad set of information for people to have."

"Yeah, I... don't have a good solution for that."

"We should probably come up with some kind of plan for getting Montgomery out before the cult finds her. With Lela, ideally, or who knows what will happen to her."

"Ugh. Is there any way to get the Emporium to cooperate with us without Montgomery turning you to dust. There's just so many things to keep track of..."

"Maybe if we ask Donovan to ask them to provide cover for us, since they do have a bit of a relationship... We are leaning very heavily on trusting that Donovan is just going to go along with all of this. I believe that you have good reasons to assume that but we haven't actually confirmed it."

"Maybe we should hash something out, run it by her and see if she'll work with it and where she thinks the major kinks are."

"...yeah that is. Probably a better idea than trying to do all the planning upfront."

"She knows the major players better too, she might have a better idea of what security we need and who we need to watch out for."

"Okay. So. Prototype plan: she tells the guards to leave, we cast the spell, we leave through the tunnels, if she wants to vanish from Malta before the political shitshow hits then's the time, we expect she knows more about what kind of security we'll need and who or what to watch out for and we tell her so?"

"Are we still aiming for dead of night, is it's better for her to schedule it up front so it seems routine or to spring it on them so they can't plan for it, are we relying on ourselves for security, does she trust her guards for that, can we instead for lookout get the Emporium on board and her on board with the Emporium which is a whole subset of things, we need to find a good exit from the catacombs where we can stick the plane but that's less of a question and more of a mapping exercise..."

"If we're bolting after we want everyone and everything that isn't involved in the ritual on the plane beforehand."

"And... what do we do if the ritual fails?"

"You said you found a suicide note, right?"

"Yeah."

"Does anyone else know about the... rift... lady... moon... thing? Especially anyone who knows Montgomery and might find it weird if she's doing things at the same time?"

"We have no idea who does or doesn't know about the rift lady moon thing.

And -- so last night Montgomery specifically said that the ritual shouldn't fail, but if it did we have the rituals of self-denial as a backup. I don't know she meant herself but given the existence of a suicide note I am making an educated guess."