I maintain that the players made a perfectly good risk assessment in who & how many they sent to Team Theater vs Team Birdwatchers or Team Spy. Because all they really knew was that:
SOMETHING big and magical would almost certainly happen.
It was prooobably meant to be a good thing? Because we trust Thjazi’s intentions, if not his methods?
It would almost certainly involve the souls of long-dead orcs.
If it went wrong somehow, either by Sundered interference or because Thjazi’s plan wasn’t actually ready/safe or because our team just didn’t have the knowhow/ability/unknown other tools to pull it off, 5,000-10,000 innocent play-goers (Brennan’s numbers varied) were in the immediate blast radius.
(The players and PCs haven’t put this together yet, but the last time something like this went wrong, à blast of pure necromantic power nearly destroyed the heart of Faerie.)
That was IT. That was ALL they could be sure of.
So they staffed it with a variety of troubleshooters for Magical Potential Disasters:
Hal had to be there.
Thaisha pretty much had to be there too, because caring for the souls of dead orcs is a key part of her life’s calling; and as an expert in natural/druidic magic.
Vaelus because she and Thaisha are now partners in deathly spiritual things, and as the closest thing they have to an expert in divine magic, and because as discussed she’s sure as hell not taking the Stone of Nightsong to the homes of the Tachonises or Halovars.
Murray as the expert in arcane magic.
Azune is, admittedly, mostly just there to publicly be a Revolutionary Guard (for the Einfasens & Halovars) and more discreetly lead the ~350 magpies. Murray or maybe Thaisha could’ve done the latter, and the former wasn’t strictly necessary, but… Similar to the risk of taking the Stone anywhere else, Azune is now in such a careful position between the Einfasens and the Halovars that him joining Team Spy—likely appearing to both Einfasens and Halovars at once, after the Einfasens said not to come—would be threading a tricky needle. And him joining Team Birdwatchers…could be useful if they didn’t get caught. But if they DID get caught…if just Occtis, Julien, Thimble, Teor & Cyd get caught, that’s 1 neat story told to the Tachonises. If Azune is there too, it’s everyone else PLUS a loose thread to the whole Schemers tapestry.
The ~350 magpies are there to fight if the Sundered Houses try to physically disrupt Thjazi’s scheme, or maybe fight undead if the ritual goes wrong (or right?), or to help with crowd control and/or evacuation (of 5-10k people!) if necessary.
Kattigan WAS extraneous. He should’ve joined the Birdwatchers, if he didn’t want to get kidnapped like a chump.
The more people they sent with Team Spy, the riskier it would be, even moreso than the Birdwatchers’ stealth mission.
Agree 100%. Theater full of innocents during a ritual of unclear purpose/function/completeness warranted plenty of attention. Team Spy (as yet) hasn't needed anyone to do anything but observe. Team Bird Watch was planning a sneaky stealth mission, which generally does not benefit from large numbers, especially if the extra people aren't super well-suited to that type of work.
In hindsight, adding Bolaire and Kattigan to Team Bird Watch might have been a helpful, but Team Bird Watch was very clearly planning to sneak in and try to avoid fighting so they weren't going for numbers. Azune wasn't exactly needed at the theater, but 1) your apparently squeaky-clean law-enforcement guy who's convinced multiple politically powerful enemies that he's on their side should not risk being caught breaking into someone's house and 2) if the Candescent Creed hadn't been repelled by the fairies, Azune probably had the best odds of shuffling them back out the door insisting he'd take care of it.
Also, the teams weren't imbalanced numbers-wise compared to the Soldiers, Seekers, Schemers split. Team Theater felt oversized because things were going well and they have large numbers of NPC allies, but 1) the NPCs they planned for (Hannan and 350 unnamed Magpies) would make no sense to take to either the Sundered House meeting or the break-in and 2) they only planned for a slightly large party of 6 PCs. Similarly, Team Spy was slightly light with 3 PCs. (Kattigan's kidnapping rebalanced to 5 PCs and 4 PCs in these parties, i.e., exactly normal size of party split for this campaign.) Team Bird Watch has four PCs and an NPC ally (plus a familiar and later, Dame Gaya)--not a skimpy party at all compared to the rest of the campaign. When the GM basically tells them they're going to split into three groups by informing them that the play, the meeting, and their best chance to break in to find Mara are going to happen at the exact same time, why would they expect their standard 5-4-4 party sizes to be unsuitable?
