Actually, please disregard that last quote as something I thought of saying but didn’t, as it was answered in the post right above mine. :smack:
Indeed. The Doge is offering you the job for two reasons: he needs the plausible deniability provided by independent contractors, as it were, and his best regulars are already out on other leads.
The Doge is impatient and will not take any more questions after tomorrow, possibly as early as noon, US Western time.
Joseph turns back to the Doge and smiles ingratiatingly.
“My Lord, we would be happy to do this thing for you, and for Genoa.”
Once the party reaches the stables, Joseph will take advantage of the prep time needed before riding out to empty the bag and quickly split the gold into equal stacks, which he divests to the party members.
How much gold are we talking about here?
I don’t know, but you can be sure I’ll be splitting it up evenly! One for Joseph, one for Giacomo. One for Joseph, one for Harald. One for Joseph, one for Zachary… 
The party hurries down to the stables with the captain of the Genoese guard, where he signals several stable boys to prepare horses for the party. He leans in close to Joseph and whispers “Be careful with this one. Both Marioni and his wife are underhanded and quite dangerous. Don’t leave anything to chance, and don’t underestimate him.”
Everyone mounts their horses and begins to move out of town quickly. The guards at the city gates allow Joseph and his party to leave without the usual search for goods subject to tariff. The hot August sunlight is already beginning to take its toll on the horses. Do you have any particular plans for how to track down Marioni?
The Doge gave you a total of 3500 gold; that’s 500 each.
Are we all back at full HP at this point ?
Harald, a bit unstead and hesitant on this tall horse, almost falls off a couple of times along the way to the northern gates. Each time he offers the group an apologetic smile… and a deluge of invectives at this “unnatural contraption of a devilbeast”.
Once safely outside of earshot of Genoa’s crowd, guards and snoops, he tells the group : "It’s not the first time I’ve had to track down a deserter, although I never did take to the so-called thrill of the chase, but back then I had the benefit of knowing the terrain like the back of my hand… Still, we’re after a couple of toffs, which means horses - that catches peasants’ attention. And they’re in a hurry, which means they’ll either run down their devilbeasts or have to switch them for fresh ones along the way. So that’s two way we can find a fresh lead on them.
A third way would be to assume they’re going to avoid the main roads, which’ll slow them down a bit while we make way straight to Milan hell for leather and prepare a nice little ambush for them. Or possibly on a bridge they’ll be forced to cross ? Aah, I don’t know this place, it’s all sunny vineyards to me. Some of you may, any such likely spots, d’you reckon ?"
A Knowledge (Geography) check would probably be helpful in assessing Harald’s suggestions. I’ll also make a Knowledge (Nobility) check for whatever I might know about Marioni family and its relationship with the Doge, but also with Milan.
Joseph nods a few times at Harald, frowning thoughtfully.
“These two are devious sorts. Tricky. My gut tells me that they’ll have some way of either avoiding attention or diverting it down a false trail.”
I will do a local knowledge check to see if I can make an educated guess about where people like Umberto and maria might run to if they were fleeing the city.
On another note, may I suggest that we each chip in a small portion of our newfound wealth to Zachary for the purpose of keeping us stocked with potions and whatnot? He seems like an ideal choice for our party’s quartermaster.
Yes.
You know that there’s a couple of different bridges they could take, and the fastest way would be the old Roman highway. There are back roads, but you don’t know this area very well.
You know quite a bit about the Marioni family-- the patriarch of the family used to be the Doge, but the Valentes ousted him some years ago after he botched a silk deal. Umberto is a distaff cousin of the former Doge. Unsurprisingly, there’s bad blood between the two families. You don’t know of any particular connection between Milan and the Marionis, but Milan is a historic enemy of Genoa.
The crossing over the river Po is the critical element; there are lots of towns to hide out in on the way, but only a bare few places to cross. You know that the old Roman bridge at Piacenza on the old Roman road is the fastest route, but the more modern wooden bridge over the river is a much more direct route. That assumes, of course, that they’re planning to cross over a bridge and not use a boat (or magic) to cross.
How far from each other are these two bridges ?
Some tens of miles, depending on the route you take. Better guess correctly, or else turn up some better information.
From how far away can I control my falcon? Can she activate the vision thang herself if I give her a predetermined order to do so if she spies 2 people answering their description?
Getting the Brute on a horse is going to be a side-quest in and of itself. His first reaction to someone handing him the reins of a horse is going to be to grin and hand them back. This could go on for about a minute, I imagine. (“No, this is your horse!” <hands Aji the reins> <Aji grins and hands them back> “No, you’re supposed to keep these!” <hands Aji the reins> <Aji grins and hands them back> “Goddammit!”)
Once that dumbshow is over, he’ll probably insist on trying to walk the distance. With his barbarian speed, he can almost keep up with the party. Almost. About a mile outside of town, he’ll finally capitulate and get on the horse, and spend the rest of the trip with both hands white-knuckling the pommel, while someone else ties the leads to the back of their saddle.
You can do both things from as far as you want.
Alrighty then-off she goes north, right now. ac, you can do the math however you want, figure her cruising speed is c. 40 MPH…
She is not to close with them when she does sight them.
“Taye is no tracker, though, given a bit of time I can determine if the mage has left any surprises for us. I am willing to forward coin to our friend Hawkins, though perhaps we should hobble him so we are not abandoned in the night should he come across a pair of pretty eyes!”
If we pick up their trail I can use [COLOR=Blue]Detect Magic to determine which and if any spells are being used to misdirect us.[/COLOR] If we can sit still for 3 rounds
Due north, regardless of roads? Direct to Milan, regardless of roads? Along the old Roman highway or maybe the more direct dirt track?
Well, he said they had a head start of what, exactly, timewise? I’m guessing the dirt track…