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King Richard III

2026-03-28T20:02:01Z

Boojum: Redirected page to Richard III

#REDIRECT [[Richard III]]

Purple or Bust

2026-03-28T19:18:44Z

Boojum: /* The Trouble With The Purple Guy */

==Party Aftermath==
Vidan, Stella, and Gale set up a meeting with [[Richard IV]]. Stella and Managaratha go to visit Lord Di Angelo. Diomarche hangs out with Elena until lunchtime.

Richard is aware that we helped him at the party, though he credits himself for a lot of his success, perhaps slightly more credit than we think he is due. Vidan emphasizes that we're primarily interested in international relations not turning into division before the Breaker's assault. Richard is willing to listen to our suggestions, but not rule out ever attacking anyone. Also, Vidan notes, we are trying to head off ill-advised rescue missions from Middlesea, because of the whole Avatar of the Breaker thing. (Note that the other most likely candidate for sending rescue missions is Darstan).

As we are leaving, we bump into Anne coming in with Carol. Coldly civil hellos are exchanged. Carol walks Anne to the stairs and then leaves. Gale sends a wind message to the Rangers to summon them, worrying about stabbing, but things seem calm. Vidan notes that Anne had a miracle cast on her earlier today, and Nesh spots red magic - several physical buffs, and some hanging Life spells, with an open connection which will go off when encountering the right person, between 5 and 10 successes worth. Nesh runs up to warn Richard (Anne went to her room), and he says he will take steps to be protected from an unknown medium red spell. (Perhaps Anne is trying to get pregnant?)

''"Carol is the dark mistress of things that look perfectly reasonable". ''

Stella visits Lord Di Angelo - he has a lot of chronic issues. A lot of political history, not so much current goals. He'd be a good information source. What does he know about [[Carol]]? She is from Red, though her father was from around here and moved north. She moved into being an advisor to the Centurion fairly quickly, about six or seven years ago. He would have been in favor of Leopold; Richard is exciting but Julia is likely strong enough to not get dragged into Red messes too much. He thinks Viktor's an ass; he doesn't know what Pyotr was doing but seems to be pivoting into doing it with Lilya instead. (Could Carol be Red royalty? Probably not. She could be nobility; there are a lot of nobles.)

In the morning, Richard is selected as consort.

Bran comes in after breakfast to talk to Diomarche - Anne has left, Bran is going to go talk to the Lord Captain about Richard's new position. Diomarche notes that we have learned that Carol is from Red.

Giaconni comes by - how long is Gale around? She says we are likely heading to Purple shortly for at least a little while. Did Giaconni ever figure out who Vivian was going to stab? He says that Vivian is very interested in Leopold, but he isn't clear whether that means she was going to stab Leopold (if I can't have you no one can), or Julia (you can't have him). Tybalt is still thinking about "the stuff he was talking to your friend about" - so he's likely to go to Middlesea soon. Oh, good point - we should check in with him before we go. We agree to meet Tybalt in Rinyan to take him to Middlesea, lest he hare off there on his own.

Vidan goes to talk to Valentino (the priest of the Nameless) about visiting Purple and speaking to a ghost. [[The dead guy|Tier Lo]] is likely already in the Halls. He was in the Ministry of Redaction, so some preliminary paperwork is probably good to do.

==To Purple==

* A note appears on Managaratha - report to Subminister Kav for frag inspection.
* A note appears on Vidan - your report to Subminister Kav is overdue.

(Subminister Kav is in the Ministry of Magic.)

We go, though this is probably one of those bureaucracy traps. [[Investigation,_Assassination#Ministry_of_Magic|Last time we were here]] we were told by the Ministry of Lions to take Vidan to see [[Ritasi]] or [[Mother Jess]]. We took him to Ritasi and did a ritual but we never sent a report because Vidan is the only one who sends reports and he didn't remember any of it because he had purple-guy-swapped.

Subminister Kav puts Vidan in a time-stop spell and is quite cross at the rest of us that we have forgotten to write the report we promised. We explain we forgot that Vidan wasn't doing it - he handles all our reports. We are given 48 hours.

There is a Minister of Intermediation that deals (some) with churches, especially Balance v Bureaucracy. Vidan goes to visit there to handle the forms for talking to Tier Lo, though realizes he shouldn't traipse in with Broken miracles on him. He talks to them about the forms for the Nameless priest interrogation, eliding over other aspects like "some things have been promised to the Ministry of War to not make public". The form will need to be signed off on by the Chief Inspector or someone of equal rank, and you will need to talk to the Ministry of Redactions because he's one of theirs.

Off to Inspector Vok next. We have a priest - we are told that the number of questions we ask might be limited, so he should provide a prioritized list of questions for the investigation. Also here's this permit that needs to be signed. Vok says he will see what he can do - he succeeds!

==The Trouble With The Purple Guy==

Next is arranging for all the religions / ecumenical. Vidan is dealing with that while Gale calls a meeting of everyone else to discuss what to do about the report we are supposed to submit about Vidan, and the fact that it's all a big secret.

To recap:

* The [[Tan Kato|Minister of War]] wants us to investigate the death of Tier Lo as a national security secret because Tier Lo knows the key to the timestop. (Inspector Vok doesn't know that part, but if he solves his investigation he can probably roll up the half-orc spy network).
* Vidan / Nivad / Divan is handling unifying / fixing all the churches. That was set up by the Ministry of Lions with Mother Jess and Ritasi. All frag is purple; most of his is also divine.
* These are different plots and we cannot really use the Minister of War to shut down the Subminister of Frag.

OK, we need to get Vidan with an NDA to help with this. Managaratha calls Vidan to tell him to meet at the inn we stayed at last time. Managaratha puts up some scry protections, and then we carefully dance around the details ("If I wanted to throw a surprise birthday party and needed to fill out forms...") while asking Vidan for help, and fending off his suggestion that we just hire a different bureaucrat. We have a 48 hour deadline.

In essence, the explanation is: Vidan doesn't remember the conversation with Subminister Kav because he was in a timestop. There are also other secrets he doesn't know and we shouldn't tell him. As far as Purple goes, the Keep This A Secret directive comes from the Minister of Lions, who is trapped in Middlesea. The Minister of Lions outranks Subminister Kav, but is unavailable, as he is trapped in Middlesea. The Ministry of Redactions would probably also approve of keeping the secret, but the Minister of Redactions died in Middlesea (and is responsible for the purple timestop, as part of the other unrelated plot). So we don't want to file the report with Kav, but all our authority for not doing so is in a timestop. (Could we insist that we have 48 hours of the Minister of Lions's timeline? That's a kind of funny solution...)

There's a knock at the door. Nesh steps out to deal with the interruption. This is [[Subminister Tran]] from the Ministry of Repercussions, and he wants to know how long the conversation he shouldn't overhear will last? Nesh says not more than an hour - he looks annoyed by that, as he has other places to be, but he goes down to the common room.

Come to think of it, maybe Repercussions can help us here. There will be bad repercussions if we send Kav the report he wants. Nesh goes down to get him, noting that he's sitting at a table with [[Rakta]], that priest of Tem who always follows us around.

"The odds are 96% that you have heard something from the Minister of Repercussions beyond what you knew the last time we spoke." -Tran

Vidan says yes, he definitely has more information. Also, Kav, the Subminister of Frag in the Ministry of Magic is demanding a report from my compatriots that we think would be bad if he got. Can Repercussions help with this? Tran starts working on a paper with a lot of purple math, and concludes that there is a 73% chance that such a report will stall him for several weeks, but that time will get shorter the more time we spend in Purple. There is a 17% chance that such a report will incentivize him to get an answer now, and a 6% chance that he will escalate to the Minister of Magic. (The Minister of Magic is one of the less predictable ministers). Just to be clear, ''is'' it a bad idea for him to know? Tran notes that there is a great deal of divine influence in this issue, which makes probabilities less certain. His best estimate is that the Subminister of Frag knowing specifically only increases the probability of bad things by about 10%. But every person who knows increases the probability, and those increases stack in a way that is unusual. It is not just the sum of that many individuals knowing, and he doesn't understand what that means. "Multiple people know" triggers bad things. He agrees to send a repercussion-report to Subminister Kav.

Vidan briefs Tran about his [[Visions of Middlesea| newer visions]]

There's a fourth-ranked traitor.
The sword will soon be found. There are multiple candidates, all of them bad, but there are some worse than others. If we don't find Bad and Terrible before the timestop goes down and Catastrophic gets out, the Bad and Terrible candidates will be dead in a day.

(Hey, Scout could probably quest for the Bad and/or Terrible candidates.)

Gale goes to visit the Ministry of Lilacs to restock on perfume, and also brings exotic fruits and flowers she picked up from Orange. Their newest perfume is Mood perfume, which shifts depending on the wearer's mood. One variant tries to decrease the intensity; the other tries to bring others into the Mood. She buys some of both, intending to hand off the Decrease variant to someone in case of going berserk.

The next morning, Vidan gets the list of questions from Inspector Vok to ask the shade of Tier Lo (since we don't want Vok to hear us ask about the timestop, as per the Minister of War) and we go to pick up Valentino.

Valentino says he will be channeling the spirit, rather than manifesting it separately. Vidan asks Valentino to not remember the questions; he can do that though it will cost a small part of the miracle. Can we fill Tier Lo in first to explain why we need to know? As a minister of Redactions he will resist answering. Valentino says that it will depend on how deep in the Halls he has gone - if he still is a nearly full personality then yes; but if he is mostly gone and it is just his knowledge that is channeled, then not so much (but then maybe it doesn't matter as much either). It is possible to pre-load that as part of the miracle. Alternately, maybe he didn't go to the Halls at all (such as if the assassin ran off with his spirit) or he is waiting in the Paths or he went to the Dream. In that case, Valentino will not be able to get answers, but will probably know what happened to Tier Lo's spirit instead.

==Everyone Wants These Answers==
We go back to the scene of Tier Lo's death for the ritual, where Valentino uses some of his possessions to make a connection.

Inspector Vok and Rakta are in a nearby room just in case. Valentino's eyes go black and his body language changes, and we all make speed rolls.

Figuring that that means there's someone else in the room with us, Diomarche tramples everything that isn't in the ritual circle or is us, which includes someone who says "Ow". Managaratha casts an illusionary red arrow pointing down at the intruder.

The intruder asks "What's the password for the timestop", and Managaratha casts a lot of noise around the spirit as he says "I can't tell you." Nesh and Gale tag the assassin before he vanishes, and then Vok and Rakta burst in.

Q: "What's going on in here?" 
A: "There was a half-orc assassin that tried to interfere"

Vidan gives them an irritated "Be Quiet" gesture ("Didn't you see that movie?") and shuts the door again.

Stella puts the assassin in time-out, wherever he is. Gale tries to wild-Blue get the assassin to come back and fight once he recovers, but he's not in the Zheldat area.

Next, Managaratha notices a purple sense-tunnel point that appears (with a different sigil than the teleport). Nesh grabs the anti-half-orc perfume and sprays around the room, especially there, and Managaratha puts up a suppress-purple field, shutting it down.

Lore is a Battlefield notes that the spirit was being literal when he said he couldn't tell the password.

Vidan tells the spirit: "You were assassinated to keep the key to the timestop out of the hands of the ministries that need it. I am authorized by the Ministry of War to do so. <What do I need to know about the key? (Not sure what the actual question was) >

A: "Part of the password is in TrueSpeak which is not true unless you are dropping the field."

Q: "I speak TrueSpeak - what do I need to know to generate the password?" 
A: (answering in TrueSpeak) "The password is rabbit horse chartreuse vinegar [Now is the time this spell comes down] in TrueSpeak."

Stella notices that her time-out has been dismissed by someone else big.

Vidan asks a question that generates clue points for Vok, since we have the information we needed. A teleport bounces off Managaratha's success, and we try to burn through the questions as fast as possible.

Q: "What is your favorite color?" 
A: "Purple."

A few rounds pass, and then there's another speed roll. Gale secret-detects bogeys in the nearby room with Vok and Rakta, and some shouting starts.

Managaratha puts up his "mwoh mwoh mwoh" Yellow scryguard. Nesh dashes out to the next room - there are four assassins, plus Vok and Rakta. Two assassins are asleep, one is trying to stab Rakta, and the fourth is standing over a downed Vok. Nesh and Gale double-team that last one, and he goes down.

Vidan, in TrueSpeak: "In Common, what is a good fake password to deceive those who are listening?" 
A: "Tam and Tem we pray the that this miracle of thine be removed" 
Vidan: "I've got it!"

Stella heals Inspector Vok - he's poisoned but that's a medium term issue, and she keeps him from dying from the pile of damage that he took in the backstab.

Does Vidan want to witness something? Yes, but he has no DI. Nesh converts on the spot to Hero of Navere and loans him some.

The voice of the Emperor comes out of the clairvoy point. 
Q: "Why can't you tell us the password?" 
A: "Because part of it is in TrueSpeak"

Valentino's eyes clear as the spirit is gone. Vidan's witnessing notes the Emperor is a half-orc descendant of the Orcslayer; the master of the Half-Orc we ran into in Elfheim; and he runs the Emperor's Spy Network.

(Managaratha vanishes due to player constraints; the other half-orcs can leave again now that the suppress is down.)

Diomarche tries to call on the power of Rush and stab through the tunnel - Vidan / Nesh witness that it fails because the place the Emperor is in is sanctified against all miracles (not just the good gods, the Breaker too). There is a priest there, but that's almost certainly what popped Stella's time out on the initial assassin. Vidan and Nesh are only getting information here because they are outside of it.

The Emperor spent a while setting up the anti-divine location because he is scared of Slayer, and: ”The timestop was set up by the Emperor to trap the Slayer.”

Vidan also realizes that the Emperor does not keep tabs on his assassins that closely, but someone knew what we were doing and what we were trying. So somewhere in the bureaucracy that dealt with getting permission to interrogate Tier Lo was a half-orc.

All in all, our questions gave Inspector Vok another 29 points of clues - he is now up to 84 of 100 for cracking open the spy network.

==Loot==

* 12 eps
* 8 skill points

Purple or Bust

2026-03-28T19:16:49Z

Boojum: /* The Trouble With The Purple Guy */

==Party Aftermath==
Vidan, Stella, and Gale set up a meeting with [[Richard IV]]. Stella and Managaratha go to visit Lord Di Angelo. Diomarche hangs out with Elena until lunchtime.

Richard is aware that we helped him at the party, though he credits himself for a lot of his success, perhaps slightly more credit than we think he is due. Vidan emphasizes that we're primarily interested in international relations not turning into division before the Breaker's assault. Richard is willing to listen to our suggestions, but not rule out ever attacking anyone. Also, Vidan notes, we are trying to head off ill-advised rescue missions from Middlesea, because of the whole Avatar of the Breaker thing. (Note that the other most likely candidate for sending rescue missions is Darstan).

As we are leaving, we bump into Anne coming in with Carol. Coldly civil hellos are exchanged. Carol walks Anne to the stairs and then leaves. Gale sends a wind message to the Rangers to summon them, worrying about stabbing, but things seem calm. Vidan notes that Anne had a miracle cast on her earlier today, and Nesh spots red magic - several physical buffs, and some hanging Life spells, with an open connection which will go off when encountering the right person, between 5 and 10 successes worth. Nesh runs up to warn Richard (Anne went to her room), and he says he will take steps to be protected from an unknown medium red spell. (Perhaps Anne is trying to get pregnant?)

''"Carol is the dark mistress of things that look perfectly reasonable". ''

Stella visits Lord Di Angelo - he has a lot of chronic issues. A lot of political history, not so much current goals. He'd be a good information source. What does he know about [[Carol]]? She is from Red, though her father was from around here and moved north. She moved into being an advisor to the Centurion fairly quickly, about six or seven years ago. He would have been in favor of Leopold; Richard is exciting but Julia is likely strong enough to not get dragged into Red messes too much. He thinks Viktor's an ass; he doesn't know what Pyotr was doing but seems to be pivoting into doing it with Lilya instead. (Could Carol be Red royalty? Probably not. She could be nobility; there are a lot of nobles.)

In the morning, Richard is selected as consort.

Bran comes in after breakfast to talk to Diomarche - Anne has left, Bran is going to go talk to the Lord Captain about Richard's new position. Diomarche notes that we have learned that Carol is from Red.

Giaconni comes by - how long is Gale around? She says we are likely heading to Purple shortly for at least a little while. Did Giaconni ever figure out who Vivian was going to stab? He says that Vivian is very interested in Leopold, but he isn't clear whether that means she was going to stab Leopold (if I can't have you no one can), or Julia (you can't have him). Tybalt is still thinking about "the stuff he was talking to your friend about" - so he's likely to go to Middlesea soon. Oh, good point - we should check in with him before we go. We agree to meet Tybalt in Rinyan to take him to Middlesea, lest he hare off there on his own.

Vidan goes to talk to Valentino (the priest of the Nameless) about visiting Purple and speaking to a ghost. [[The dead guy|Tier Lo]] is likely already in the Halls. He was in the Ministry of Redaction, so some preliminary paperwork is probably good to do.

==To Purple==

* A note appears on Managaratha - report to Subminister Kav for frag inspection.
* A note appears on Vidan - your report to Subminister Kav is overdue.

(Subminister Kav is in the Ministry of Magic.)

We go, though this is probably one of those bureaucracy traps. [[Investigation,_Assassination#Ministry_of_Magic|Last time we were here]] we were told by the Ministry of Lions to take Vidan to see [[Ritasi]] or [[Mother Jess]]. We took him to Ritasi and did a ritual but we never sent a report because Vidan is the only one who sends reports and he didn't remember any of it because he had purple-guy-swapped.

Subminister Kav puts Vidan in a time-stop spell and is quite cross at the rest of us that we have forgotten to write the report we promised. We explain we forgot that Vidan wasn't doing it - he handles all our reports. We are given 48 hours.

There is a Minister of Intermediation that deals (some) with churches, especially Balance v Bureaucracy. Vidan goes to visit there to handle the forms for talking to Tier Lo, though realizes he shouldn't traipse in with Broken miracles on him. He talks to them about the forms for the Nameless priest interrogation, eliding over other aspects like "some things have been promised to the Ministry of War to not make public". The form will need to be signed off on by the Chief Inspector or someone of equal rank, and you will need to talk to the Ministry of Redactions because he's one of theirs.

Off to Inspector Vok next. We have a priest - we are told that the number of questions we ask might be limited, so he should provide a prioritized list of questions for the investigation. Also here's this permit that needs to be signed. Vok says he will see what he can do - he succeeds!

==The Trouble With The Purple Guy==

Next is arranging for all the religions / ecumenical. Vidan is dealing with that while Gale calls a meeting of everyone else to discuss what to do about the report we are supposed to submit about Vidan, and the fact that it's all a big secret.

To recap:

* The [[Tan Kato|Minister of War]] wants us to investigate the death of Tier Lo as a national security secret because Tier Lo knows the key to the timestop. (Inspector Vok doesn't know that part, but if he solves his investigation he can probably roll up the half-orc spy network).
* Vidan / Nivad / Divan is handling unifying / fixing all the churches. That was set up by the Ministry of Lions with Mother Jess and Ritasi. Most of his frag is divine, but there's purple too.
* These are different plots and we cannot really use the Minister of War to shut down the Subminister of Frag.

OK, we need to get Vidan with an NDA to help with this. Managaratha calls Vidan to tell him to meet at the inn we stayed at last time. Managaratha puts up some scry protections, and then we carefully dance around the details ("If I wanted to throw a surprise birthday party and needed to fill out forms...") while asking Vidan for help, and fending off his suggestion that we just hire a different bureaucrat. We have a 48 hour deadline.

In essence, the explanation is: Vidan doesn't remember the conversation with Subminister Kav because he was in a timestop. There are also other secrets he doesn't know and we shouldn't tell him. As far as Purple goes, the Keep This A Secret directive comes from the Minister of Lions, who is trapped in Middlesea. The Minister of Lions outranks Subminister Kav, but is unavailable, as he is trapped in Middlesea. The Ministry of Redactions would probably also approve of keeping the secret, but the Minister of Redactions died in Middlesea (and is responsible for the purple timestop, as part of the other unrelated plot). So we don't want to file the report with Kav, but all our authority for not doing so is in a timestop. (Could we insist that we have 48 hours of the Minister of Lions's timeline? That's a kind of funny solution...)

There's a knock at the door. Nesh steps out to deal with the interruption. This is [[Subminister Tran]] from the Ministry of Repercussions, and he wants to know how long the conversation he shouldn't overhear will last? Nesh says not more than an hour - he looks annoyed by that, as he has other places to be, but he goes down to the common room.

Come to think of it, maybe Repercussions can help us here. There will be bad repercussions if we send Kav the report he wants. Nesh goes down to get him, noting that he's sitting at a table with [[Rakta]], that priest of Tem who always follows us around.

"The odds are 96% that you have heard something from the Minister of Repercussions beyond what you knew the last time we spoke." -Tran

Vidan says yes, he definitely has more information. Also, Kav, the Subminister of Frag in the Ministry of Magic is demanding a report from my compatriots that we think would be bad if he got. Can Repercussions help with this? Tran starts working on a paper with a lot of purple math, and concludes that there is a 73% chance that such a report will stall him for several weeks, but that time will get shorter the more time we spend in Purple. There is a 17% chance that such a report will incentivize him to get an answer now, and a 6% chance that he will escalate to the Minister of Magic. (The Minister of Magic is one of the less predictable ministers). Just to be clear, ''is'' it a bad idea for him to know? Tran notes that there is a great deal of divine influence in this issue, which makes probabilities less certain. His best estimate is that the Subminister of Frag knowing specifically only increases the probability of bad things by about 10%. But every person who knows increases the probability, and those increases stack in a way that is unusual. It is not just the sum of that many individuals knowing, and he doesn't understand what that means. "Multiple people know" triggers bad things. He agrees to send a repercussion-report to Subminister Kav.

Vidan briefs Tran about his [[Visions of Middlesea| newer visions]]

There's a fourth-ranked traitor.
The sword will soon be found. There are multiple candidates, all of them bad, but there are some worse than others. If we don't find Bad and Terrible before the timestop goes down and Catastrophic gets out, the Bad and Terrible candidates will be dead in a day.

(Hey, Scout could probably quest for the Bad and/or Terrible candidates.)

Gale goes to visit the Ministry of Lilacs to restock on perfume, and also brings exotic fruits and flowers she picked up from Orange. Their newest perfume is Mood perfume, which shifts depending on the wearer's mood. One variant tries to decrease the intensity; the other tries to bring others into the Mood. She buys some of both, intending to hand off the Decrease variant to someone in case of going berserk.

The next morning, Vidan gets the list of questions from Inspector Vok to ask the shade of Tier Lo (since we don't want Vok to hear us ask about the timestop, as per the Minister of War) and we go to pick up Valentino.

Valentino says he will be channeling the spirit, rather than manifesting it separately. Vidan asks Valentino to not remember the questions; he can do that though it will cost a small part of the miracle. Can we fill Tier Lo in first to explain why we need to know? As a minister of Redactions he will resist answering. Valentino says that it will depend on how deep in the Halls he has gone - if he still is a nearly full personality then yes; but if he is mostly gone and it is just his knowledge that is channeled, then not so much (but then maybe it doesn't matter as much either). It is possible to pre-load that as part of the miracle. Alternately, maybe he didn't go to the Halls at all (such as if the assassin ran off with his spirit) or he is waiting in the Paths or he went to the Dream. In that case, Valentino will not be able to get answers, but will probably know what happened to Tier Lo's spirit instead.

==Everyone Wants These Answers==
We go back to the scene of Tier Lo's death for the ritual, where Valentino uses some of his possessions to make a connection.

Inspector Vok and Rakta are in a nearby room just in case. Valentino's eyes go black and his body language changes, and we all make speed rolls.

Figuring that that means there's someone else in the room with us, Diomarche tramples everything that isn't in the ritual circle or is us, which includes someone who says "Ow". Managaratha casts an illusionary red arrow pointing down at the intruder.

The intruder asks "What's the password for the timestop", and Managaratha casts a lot of noise around the spirit as he says "I can't tell you." Nesh and Gale tag the assassin before he vanishes, and then Vok and Rakta burst in.

Q: "What's going on in here?" 
A: "There was a half-orc assassin that tried to interfere"

Vidan gives them an irritated "Be Quiet" gesture ("Didn't you see that movie?") and shuts the door again.

Stella puts the assassin in time-out, wherever he is. Gale tries to wild-Blue get the assassin to come back and fight once he recovers, but he's not in the Zheldat area.

Next, Managaratha notices a purple sense-tunnel point that appears (with a different sigil than the teleport). Nesh grabs the anti-half-orc perfume and sprays around the room, especially there, and Managaratha puts up a suppress-purple field, shutting it down.

Lore is a Battlefield notes that the spirit was being literal when he said he couldn't tell the password.

Vidan tells the spirit: "You were assassinated to keep the key to the timestop out of the hands of the ministries that need it. I am authorized by the Ministry of War to do so. <What do I need to know about the key? (Not sure what the actual question was) >

A: "Part of the password is in TrueSpeak which is not true unless you are dropping the field."

Q: "I speak TrueSpeak - what do I need to know to generate the password?" 
A: (answering in TrueSpeak) "The password is rabbit horse chartreuse vinegar [Now is the time this spell comes down] in TrueSpeak."

Stella notices that her time-out has been dismissed by someone else big.

Vidan asks a question that generates clue points for Vok, since we have the information we needed. A teleport bounces off Managaratha's success, and we try to burn through the questions as fast as possible.

Q: "What is your favorite color?" 
A: "Purple."

A few rounds pass, and then there's another speed roll. Gale secret-detects bogeys in the nearby room with Vok and Rakta, and some shouting starts.

Managaratha puts up his "mwoh mwoh mwoh" Yellow scryguard. Nesh dashes out to the next room - there are four assassins, plus Vok and Rakta. Two assassins are asleep, one is trying to stab Rakta, and the fourth is standing over a downed Vok. Nesh and Gale double-team that last one, and he goes down.

Vidan, in TrueSpeak: "In Common, what is a good fake password to deceive those who are listening?" 
A: "Tam and Tem we pray the that this miracle of thine be removed" 
Vidan: "I've got it!"

Stella heals Inspector Vok - he's poisoned but that's a medium term issue, and she keeps him from dying from the pile of damage that he took in the backstab.

Does Vidan want to witness something? Yes, but he has no DI. Nesh converts on the spot to Hero of Navere and loans him some.

The voice of the Emperor comes out of the clairvoy point. 
Q: "Why can't you tell us the password?" 
A: "Because part of it is in TrueSpeak"

Valentino's eyes clear as the spirit is gone. Vidan's witnessing notes the Emperor is a half-orc descendant of the Orcslayer; the master of the Half-Orc we ran into in Elfheim; and he runs the Emperor's Spy Network.

(Managaratha vanishes due to player constraints; the other half-orcs can leave again now that the suppress is down.)

Diomarche tries to call on the power of Rush and stab through the tunnel - Vidan / Nesh witness that it fails because the place the Emperor is in is sanctified against all miracles (not just the good gods, the Breaker too). There is a priest there, but that's almost certainly what popped Stella's time out on the initial assassin. Vidan and Nesh are only getting information here because they are outside of it.

The Emperor spent a while setting up the anti-divine location because he is scared of Slayer, and: ”The timestop was set up by the Emperor to trap the Slayer.”

Vidan also realizes that the Emperor does not keep tabs on his assassins that closely, but someone knew what we were doing and what we were trying. So somewhere in the bureaucracy that dealt with getting permission to interrogate Tier Lo was a half-orc.

All in all, our questions gave Inspector Vok another 29 points of clues - he is now up to 84 of 100 for cracking open the spy network.

==Loot==

* 12 eps
* 8 skill points

Hearts of Magic

2026-03-24T03:13:34Z

Boojum:

The Hearts of Magic are the places that are the sources of power for the Zones. They can be found via [[Gale]]'s map, and usually have other defenses. During the [[Tales of Comets Past|Breakerversary]], Weythran led the Middlesea Free Rangers to make sure that Gale's Map is created (while the Heroes of the Comet (C-3) were creating Middlesea.)

The '''Heart of Yellow''' is [[Climbing_the_Bird_Gradient#Heart_of_Yellow|located in the mountains of Jabar]], near the head of the Fifth River. It is reached via a fancy door on the side of a cliff, opened by saying "Open Sesame" in Jabaran; it is left by a Gootmu (an Exit door back to Reality). It is guarded by Other Dunyazade, who did not let the party in to the Heart, but gave them three questions as a consolation.

The '''[[Heart of Blue]]''' is Melinda's Tomb.

The '''Heart of Purple''' has to be reached by teleport.

The '''Heart of Green''' is where the three Kingdoms meet.

The '''Heart of Orange''' is centrally located in Orange, [[Heart of Orange|where the desert and hills meet]]. It lies beneath an ever-being-created boulder, and past a flaming Forge.

The '''Heart of Red''' is located west of the Great Valley between King Richard's lands and [[Darstan]], approximately halfway to the coast. We have not yet visited it.

Hearts of Magic

2026-03-24T03:13:18Z

Boojum:

The Hearts of Magic are the places that are the sources of power for the Zones. They can be found via [[Gale]]'s map, and usually have other defenses. During the [[Tales of Comets Past|Breakerversary]], Weythran led the Middlesea Free Rangers to make sure that Gale's Map is created (while the Heroes of the Comet (C-3) were creating Middlesea.)

The '''Heart of Yellow''' is [[Climbing_the_Bird_Gradient#Heart_of_Yellow|located in the mountains of Jabar]], near the head of the Fifth River. It is reached via a fancy door on the side of a cliff, opened by saying "Open Sesame" in Jabaran; it is left by a Gootmu (an Exit door back to Reality). It is guarded by Other Dunyazade, who did not let the party in to the Heart, but gave them three questions as a consolation.

The '''[[Heart of Blue]]''' is Melinda's Tomb.

The '''Heart of Purple''' has to be reached by teleport.

The '''Heart of Green''' is where the three Kingdoms meet.

The '''Heart of Orange''' is centrally located in Orange, [[Heart of Orange|where the desert and hills meet]]. It lies beneath an ever-being-created boulder, and past a flaming Forge.

During a social gathering at the Lord's House, [[Mario]] attempted to extract information about the Heart of Orange from [[Stella]], but she successfully kept him from learning anything about it.

The '''Heart of Red''' is located west of the Great Valley between King Richard's lands and [[Darstan]], approximately halfway to the coast. We have not yet visited it.

Middlesea

2026-03-24T03:01:32Z

Boojum:

'''Middlesea''' is the Pirate Queen's keep on an island in the middle of the Pirate Isles of the [[Inland Sea]]. In addition to the keep (in the timestop bubble) the island features a fishing village and a keep compound on top of a cliff.

Middlesea was created during the [[History#The_Dispersal_Of_Magics_(C-3)|Dispersal of Magic Comet]] by three of the Heroes of that Comet.

== The Middlesea Conclave ==
The Pirate Queen hosted a major diplomatic gathering known as the Middlesea Conclave. Delegations attended from across the known world, including representatives from Red, Green, Orange, Blue, Yellow, and Purple. The Conclave was attacked and disrupted by multiple coordinated and uncoordinated forces. The keep was placed in a timestop, trapping all attendees.

* See [[Muddle at Middlesea]] for a timeline of the incident.

* See [[Visions of Middlesea]] for PC visions of the incident.

== The Spirit of Middlesea ==
The Spirit of Middlesea was captured by [[Silenalania]] and taken to [[Spiritbreaker Fortress]] in the Broken Lands, where at least four goblin green mages held it captive using a timestop to prevent it from Breaking into a demon. Many other kidnapped spirits were also being held there. During the [[Middlesea Free Rangers]]' founding ritual, [[Scout]] connected his spirit companion to the Spirit of Middlesea, effectively marrying them. [[Stella]] and others worked to break Middlesea's bonds during the ritual. Middlesea also revealed that its connections to Jabar were difficult to maintain and shrinking.

== Strategic Importance ==
Middlesea's situation has broad strategic implications:

* The orc invasion of Purple has been less coordinated since the Middlesea incident, which has slowed their advance
* The orc invasion is expected to worsen when Middlesea is opened
* There is a key to Middlesea that multiple factions are seeking
* The [[Middlesea Free Rangers]] were formed in part to address the ongoing crisis
* Several ministries of the Purple Empire have been disrupted due to their ministers being trapped inside

Middlesea

2026-03-24T03:01:14Z

Boojum:

'''Middlesea''' is the Pirate Queen's keep on an island in the middle of the Pirate Isles of the [[Inland Sea]]. In addition to the keep (in the timestop bubble) the island features a fishing village and a keep compound on top of a cliff.

Middlesea was created during the [[Dispersal of Magic Comet|History#The_Dispersal_Of_Magics_(C-3)]] by three of the Heroes of that Comet.

== The Middlesea Conclave ==
The Pirate Queen hosted a major diplomatic gathering known as the Middlesea Conclave. Delegations attended from across the known world, including representatives from Red, Green, Orange, Blue, Yellow, and Purple. The Conclave was attacked and disrupted by multiple coordinated and uncoordinated forces. The keep was placed in a timestop, trapping all attendees.

* See [[Muddle at Middlesea]] for a timeline of the incident.

* See [[Visions of Middlesea]] for PC visions of the incident.

== The Spirit of Middlesea ==
The Spirit of Middlesea was captured by [[Silenalania]] and taken to [[Spiritbreaker Fortress]] in the Broken Lands, where at least four goblin green mages held it captive using a timestop to prevent it from Breaking into a demon. Many other kidnapped spirits were also being held there. During the [[Middlesea Free Rangers]]' founding ritual, [[Scout]] connected his spirit companion to the Spirit of Middlesea, effectively marrying them. [[Stella]] and others worked to break Middlesea's bonds during the ritual. Middlesea also revealed that its connections to Jabar were difficult to maintain and shrinking.

== Strategic Importance ==
Middlesea's situation has broad strategic implications:

* The orc invasion of Purple has been less coordinated since the Middlesea incident, which has slowed their advance
* The orc invasion is expected to worsen when Middlesea is opened
* There is a key to Middlesea that multiple factions are seeking
* The [[Middlesea Free Rangers]] were formed in part to address the ongoing crisis
* Several ministries of the Purple Empire have been disrupted due to their ministers being trapped inside

Purple or Bust

2026-03-24T02:15:14Z

Boojum: /* The Trouble With The Purple Guy */

==Party Aftermath==
Vidan, Stella, and Gale set up a meeting with [[Richard IV]]. Stella and Managaratha go to visit Lord Di Angelo. Diomarche hangs out with Elena until lunchtime.

Richard is aware that we helped him at the party, though he credits himself for a lot of his success, perhaps slightly more credit than we think he is due. Vidan emphasizes that we're primarily interested in international relations not turning into division before the Breaker's assault. Richard is willing to listen to our suggestions, but not rule out ever attacking anyone. Also, Vidan notes, we are trying to head off ill-advised rescue missions from Middlesea, because of the whole Avatar of the Breaker thing. (Note that the other most likely candidate for sending rescue missions is Darstan).

As we are leaving, we bump into Anne coming in with Carol. Coldly civil hellos are exchanged. Carol walks Anne to the stairs and then leaves. Gale sends a wind message to the Rangers to summon them, worrying about stabbing, but things seem calm. Vidan notes that Anne had a miracle cast on her earlier today, and Nesh spots red magic - several physical buffs, and some hanging Life spells, with an open connection which will go off when encountering the right person, between 5 and 10 successes worth. Nesh runs up to warn Richard (Anne went to her room), and he says he will take steps to be protected from an unknown medium red spell. (Perhaps Anne is trying to get pregnant?)

''"Carol is the dark mistress of things that look perfectly reasonable". ''

Stella visits Lord Di Angelo - he has a lot of chronic issues. A lot of political history, not so much current goals. He'd be a good information source. What does he know about [[Carol]]? She is from Red, though her father was from around here and moved north. She moved into being an advisor to the Centurion fairly quickly, about six or seven years ago. He would have been in favor of Leopold; Richard is exciting but Julia is likely strong enough to not get dragged into Red messes too much. He thinks Viktor's an ass; he doesn't know what Pyotr was doing but seems to be pivoting into doing it with Lilya instead. (Could Carol be Red royalty? Probably not. She could be nobility; there are a lot of nobles.)

In the morning, Richard is selected as consort.

Bran comes in after breakfast to talk to Diomarche - Anne has left, Bran is going to go talk to the Lord Captain about Richard's new position. Diomarche notes that we have learned that Carol is from Red.

Giaconni comes by - how long is Gale around? She says we are likely heading to Purple shortly for at least a little while. Did Giaconni ever figure out who Vivian was going to stab? He says that Vivian is very interested in Leopold, but he isn't clear whether that means she was going to stab Leopold (if I can't have you no one can), or Julia (you can't have him). Tybalt is still thinking about "the stuff he was talking to your friend about" - so he's likely to go to Middlesea soon. Oh, good point - we should check in with him before we go. We agree to meet Tybalt in Rinyan to take him to Middlesea, lest he hare off there on his own.

Vidan goes to talk to Valentino (the priest of the Nameless) about visiting Purple and speaking to a ghost. [[The dead guy|Tier Lo]] is likely already in the Halls. He was in the Ministry of Redaction, so some preliminary paperwork is probably good to do.

==To Purple==

* A note appears on Managaratha - report to Subminister Kav for frag inspection.
* A note appears on Vidan - your report to Subminister Kav is overdue.

(Subminister Kav is in the Ministry of Magic.)

We go, though this is probably one of those bureaucracy traps. [[Investigation,_Assassination#Ministry_of_Magic|Last time we were here]] we were told by the Ministry of Lions to take Vidan to see [[Ritasi]] or [[Mother Jess]]. We took him to Ritasi and did a ritual but we never sent a report because Vidan is the only one who sends reports and he didn't remember any of it because he had purple-guy-swapped.

Subminister Kav puts Vidan in a time-stop spell and is quite cross at the rest of us that we have forgotten to write the report we promised. We explain we forgot that Vidan wasn't doing it - he handles all our reports. We are given 48 hours.

There is a Minister of Intermediation that deals (some) with churches, especially Balance v Bureaucracy. Vidan goes to visit there to handle the forms for talking to Tier Lo, though realizes he shouldn't traipse in with Broken miracles on him. He talks to them about the forms for the Nameless priest interrogation, eliding over other aspects like "some things have been promised to the Ministry of War to not make public". The form will need to be signed off on by the Chief Inspector or someone of equal rank, and you will need to talk to the Ministry of Redactions because he's one of theirs.

Off to Inspector Vok next. We have a priest - we are told that the number of questions we ask might be limited, so he should provide a prioritized list of questions for the investigation. Also here's this permit that needs to be signed. Vok says he will see what he can do - he succeeds!

==The Trouble With The Purple Guy==

Next is arranging for all the religions / ecumenical. Vidan is dealing with that while Gale calls a meeting of everyone else to discuss what to do about the report we are supposed to submit about Vidan, and the fact that it's all a big secret.

To recap:

* The [[Tan Kato|Minister of War]] wants us to investigate the death of Tier Lo as a national security secret because Tier Lo knows the key to the timestop. (Inspector Vok doesn't know that part, but if he solves his investigation he can probably roll up the half-orc spy network).
* Vidan / Nivad / Divan is handling unifying / fixing all the churches. That was set up by the Ministry of Lions with Mother Jess and Ritasi. Most of his frag is divine, but there's purple too.
* These are different plots and we cannot really use the Minister of War to shut down the Subminister of Frag.

OK, we need to get Vidan with an NDA to help with this. Managaratha calls Vidan to tell him to meet at the inn we stayed at last time. Managaratha puts up some scry protections, and then we carefully dance around the details ("If I wanted to throw a surprise birthday party and needed to fill out forms...") while asking Vidan for help, and fending off his suggestion that we just hire a different bureaucrat. We have a 48 hour deadline.

In essence, the explanation is: Vidan doesn't remember the conversation with Subminister Kav because he was in a timestop. There are also other secrets he doesn't know and we shouldn't tell him. As far as Purple goes, the Keep This A Secret directive comes from the Minister of Lions, who is trapped in Middlesea. The Minister of Lions outranks Subminister Kav, but is unavailable, as he is trapped in Middlesea. The Ministry of Redactions would probably also approve of keeping the secret, but the Minister of Redactions is ''also'' trapped in Middlesea (and is responsible for the purple timestop, as part of the other unrelated plot). So we don't want to file the report with Kav, but all our authority for not doing so is in a timestop. (Could we insist that we have 48 hours of the Minister of Lions's timeline? That's a kind of funny solution...)

There's a knock at the door. Nesh steps out to deal with the interruption. This is [[Subminister Tran]] from the Ministry of Repercussions, and he wants to know how long the conversation he shouldn't overhear will last? Nesh says not more than an hour - he looks annoyed by that, as he has other places to be, but he goes down to the common room.

Come to think of it, maybe Repercussions can help us here. There will be bad repercussions if we send Kav the report he wants. Nesh goes down to get him, noting that he's sitting at a table with [[Rakta]], that priest of Tem who always follows us around.

"The odds are 96% that you have heard something from the Minister of Repercussions beyond what you knew the last time we spoke." -Tran

Vidan says yes, he definitely has more information. Also, Kav, the Subminister of Frag in the Ministry of Magic is demanding a report from my compatriots that we think would be bad if he got. Can Repercussions help with this? Tran starts working on a paper with a lot of purple math, and concludes that there is a 73% chance that such a report will stall him for several weeks, but that time will get shorter the more time we spend in Purple. There is a 17% chance that such a report will incentivize him to get an answer now, and a 6% chance that he will escalate to the Minister of Magic. (The Minister of Magic is one of the less predictable ministers). Just to be clear, ''is'' it a bad idea for him to know? Tran notes that there is a great deal of divine influence in this issue, which makes probabilities less certain. His best estimate is that the Subminister of Frag knowing specifically only increases the probability of bad things by about 10%. But every person who knows increases the probability, and those increases stack in a way that is unusual. It is not just the sum of that many individuals knowing, and he doesn't understand what that means. "Multiple people know" triggers bad things. He agrees to send a repercussion-report to Subminister Kav.

Vidan briefs Tran about his [[Visions of Middlesea| newer visions]]

There's a fourth-ranked traitor.
The sword will soon be found. There are multiple candidates, all of them bad, but there are some worse than others. If we don't find Bad and Terrible before the timestop goes down and Catastrophic gets out, the Bad and Terrible candidates will be dead in a day.

(Hey, Scout could probably quest for the Bad and/or Terrible candidates.)

Gale goes to visit the Ministry of Lilacs to restock on perfume, and also brings exotic fruits and flowers she picked up from Orange. Their newest perfume is Mood perfume, which shifts depending on the wearer's mood. One variant tries to decrease the intensity; the other tries to bring others into the Mood. She buys some of both, intending to hand off the Decrease variant to someone in case of going berserk.

The next morning, Vidan gets the list of questions from Inspector Vok to ask the shade of Tier Lo (since we don't want Vok to hear us ask about the timestop, as per the Minister of War) and we go to pick up Valentino.

Valentino says he will be channeling the spirit, rather than manifesting it separately. Vidan asks Valentino to not remember the questions; he can do that though it will cost a small part of the miracle. Can we fill Tier Lo in first to explain why we need to know? As a minister of Redactions he will resist answering. Valentino says that it will depend on how deep in the Halls he has gone - if he still is a nearly full personality then yes; but if he is mostly gone and it is just his knowledge that is channeled, then not so much (but then maybe it doesn't matter as much either). It is possible to pre-load that as part of the miracle. Alternately, maybe he didn't go to the Halls at all (such as if the assassin ran off with his spirit) or he is waiting in the Paths or he went to the Dream. In that case, Valentino will not be able to get answers, but will probably know what happened to Tier Lo's spirit instead.

==Everyone Wants These Answers==
We go back to the scene of Tier Lo's death for the ritual, where Valentino uses some of his possessions to make a connection.

Inspector Vok and Rakta are in a nearby room just in case. Valentino's eyes go black and his body language changes, and we all make speed rolls.

Figuring that that means there's someone else in the room with us, Diomarche tramples everything that isn't in the ritual circle or is us, which includes someone who says "Ow". Managaratha casts an illusionary red arrow pointing down at the intruder.

The intruder asks "What's the password for the timestop", and Managaratha casts a lot of noise around the spirit as he says "I can't tell you." Nesh and Gale tag the assassin before he vanishes, and then Vok and Rakta burst in.

Q: "What's going on in here?" 
A: "There was a half-orc assassin that tried to interfere"

Vidan gives them an irritated "Be Quiet" gesture ("Didn't you see that movie?") and shuts the door again.

Stella puts the assassin in time-out, wherever he is. Gale tries to wild-Blue get the assassin to come back and fight once he recovers, but he's not in the Zheldat area.

Next, Managaratha notices a purple sense-tunnel point that appears (with a different sigil than the teleport). Nesh grabs the anti-half-orc perfume and sprays around the room, especially there, and Managaratha puts up a suppress-purple field, shutting it down.

Lore is a Battlefield notes that the spirit was being literal when he said he couldn't tell the password.

Vidan tells the spirit: "You were assassinated to keep the key to the timestop out of the hands of the ministries that need it. I am authorized by the Ministry of War to do so. <What do I need to know about the key? (Not sure what the actual question was) >

A: "Part of the password is in TrueSpeak which is not true unless you are dropping the field."

Q: "I speak TrueSpeak - what do I need to know to generate the password?" 
A: (answering in TrueSpeak) "The password is rabbit horse chartreuse vinegar [Now is the time this spell comes down] in TrueSpeak."

Stella notices that her time-out has been dismissed by someone else big.

Vidan asks a question that generates clue points for Vok, since we have the information we needed. A teleport bounces off Managaratha's success, and we try to burn through the questions as fast as possible.

Q: "What is your favorite color?" 
A: "Purple."

A few rounds pass, and then there's another speed roll. Gale secret-detects bogeys in the nearby room with Vok and Rakta, and some shouting starts.

Managaratha puts up his "mwoh mwoh mwoh" Yellow scryguard. Nesh dashes out to the next room - there are four assassins, plus Vok and Rakta. Two assassins are asleep, one is trying to stab Rakta, and the fourth is standing over a downed Vok. Nesh and Gale double-team that last one, and he goes down.

Vidan, in TrueSpeak: "In Common, what is a good fake password to deceive those who are listening?" 
A: "Tam and Tem we pray the that this miracle of thine be removed" 
Vidan: "I've got it!"

Stella heals Inspector Vok - he's poisoned but that's a medium term issue, and she keeps him from dying from the pile of damage that he took in the backstab.

Does Vidan want to witness something? Yes, but he has no DI. Nesh converts on the spot to Hero of Navere and loans him some.

The voice of the Emperor comes out of the clairvoy point. 
Q: "Why can't you tell us the password?" 
A: "Because part of it is in TrueSpeak"

Valentino's eyes clear as the spirit is gone. Vidan's witnessing notes the Emperor is a half-orc descendant of the Orcslayer; the master of the Half-Orc we ran into in Elfheim; and he runs the Emperor's Spy Network.

(Managaratha vanishes due to player constraints; the other half-orcs can leave again now that the suppress is down.)

Diomarche tries to call on the power of Rush and stab through the tunnel - Vidan / Nesh witness that it fails because the place the Emperor is in is sanctified against all miracles (not just the good gods, the Breaker too). There is a priest there, but that's almost certainly what popped Stella's time out on the initial assassin. Vidan and Nesh are only getting information here because they are outside of it.

The Emperor spent a while setting up the anti-divine location because he is scared of Slayer, and: ”The timestop was set up by the Emperor to trap the Slayer.”

Vidan also realizes that the Emperor does not keep tabs on his assassins that closely, but someone knew what we were doing and what we were trying. So somewhere in the bureaucracy that dealt with getting permission to interrogate Tier Lo was a half-orc.

All in all, our questions gave Inspector Vok another 29 points of clues - he is now up to 84 of 100 for cracking open the spy network.

==Loot==

* 12 eps
* 8 skill points

Purple or Bust

2026-03-24T02:14:42Z

Boojum: /* To Purple */

==Party Aftermath==
Vidan, Stella, and Gale set up a meeting with [[Richard IV]]. Stella and Managaratha go to visit Lord Di Angelo. Diomarche hangs out with Elena until lunchtime.

Richard is aware that we helped him at the party, though he credits himself for a lot of his success, perhaps slightly more credit than we think he is due. Vidan emphasizes that we're primarily interested in international relations not turning into division before the Breaker's assault. Richard is willing to listen to our suggestions, but not rule out ever attacking anyone. Also, Vidan notes, we are trying to head off ill-advised rescue missions from Middlesea, because of the whole Avatar of the Breaker thing. (Note that the other most likely candidate for sending rescue missions is Darstan).

As we are leaving, we bump into Anne coming in with Carol. Coldly civil hellos are exchanged. Carol walks Anne to the stairs and then leaves. Gale sends a wind message to the Rangers to summon them, worrying about stabbing, but things seem calm. Vidan notes that Anne had a miracle cast on her earlier today, and Nesh spots red magic - several physical buffs, and some hanging Life spells, with an open connection which will go off when encountering the right person, between 5 and 10 successes worth. Nesh runs up to warn Richard (Anne went to her room), and he says he will take steps to be protected from an unknown medium red spell. (Perhaps Anne is trying to get pregnant?)

''"Carol is the dark mistress of things that look perfectly reasonable". ''

Stella visits Lord Di Angelo - he has a lot of chronic issues. A lot of political history, not so much current goals. He'd be a good information source. What does he know about [[Carol]]? She is from Red, though her father was from around here and moved north. She moved into being an advisor to the Centurion fairly quickly, about six or seven years ago. He would have been in favor of Leopold; Richard is exciting but Julia is likely strong enough to not get dragged into Red messes too much. He thinks Viktor's an ass; he doesn't know what Pyotr was doing but seems to be pivoting into doing it with Lilya instead. (Could Carol be Red royalty? Probably not. She could be nobility; there are a lot of nobles.)

In the morning, Richard is selected as consort.

Bran comes in after breakfast to talk to Diomarche - Anne has left, Bran is going to go talk to the Lord Captain about Richard's new position. Diomarche notes that we have learned that Carol is from Red.

Giaconni comes by - how long is Gale around? She says we are likely heading to Purple shortly for at least a little while. Did Giaconni ever figure out who Vivian was going to stab? He says that Vivian is very interested in Leopold, but he isn't clear whether that means she was going to stab Leopold (if I can't have you no one can), or Julia (you can't have him). Tybalt is still thinking about "the stuff he was talking to your friend about" - so he's likely to go to Middlesea soon. Oh, good point - we should check in with him before we go. We agree to meet Tybalt in Rinyan to take him to Middlesea, lest he hare off there on his own.

Vidan goes to talk to Valentino (the priest of the Nameless) about visiting Purple and speaking to a ghost. [[The dead guy|Tier Lo]] is likely already in the Halls. He was in the Ministry of Redaction, so some preliminary paperwork is probably good to do.

==To Purple==

* A note appears on Managaratha - report to Subminister Kav for frag inspection.
* A note appears on Vidan - your report to Subminister Kav is overdue.

(Subminister Kav is in the Ministry of Magic.)

We go, though this is probably one of those bureaucracy traps. [[Investigation,_Assassination#Ministry_of_Magic|Last time we were here]] we were told by the Ministry of Lions to take Vidan to see [[Ritasi]] or [[Mother Jess]]. We took him to Ritasi and did a ritual but we never sent a report because Vidan is the only one who sends reports and he didn't remember any of it because he had purple-guy-swapped.

Subminister Kav puts Vidan in a time-stop spell and is quite cross at the rest of us that we have forgotten to write the report we promised. We explain we forgot that Vidan wasn't doing it - he handles all our reports. We are given 48 hours.

There is a Minister of Intermediation that deals (some) with churches, especially Balance v Bureaucracy. Vidan goes to visit there to handle the forms for talking to Tier Lo, though realizes he shouldn't traipse in with Broken miracles on him. He talks to them about the forms for the Nameless priest interrogation, eliding over other aspects like "some things have been promised to the Ministry of War to not make public". The form will need to be signed off on by the Chief Inspector or someone of equal rank, and you will need to talk to the Ministry of Redactions because he's one of theirs.

Off to Inspector Vok next. We have a priest - we are told that the number of questions we ask might be limited, so he should provide a prioritized list of questions for the investigation. Also here's this permit that needs to be signed. Vok says he will see what he can do - he succeeds!

==The Trouble With The Purple Guy==

Next is arranging for all the religions / ecumenical. Vidan is dealing with that while Gale calls a meeting of everyone else to discuss what to do about the report we are supposed to submit about Vidan, and the fact that it's all a big secret.

To recap:

* The [[Minister of War|Tan Kato]] wants us to investigate the death of Tier Lo as a national security secret because Tier Lo knows the key to the timestop. (Inspector Vok doesn't know that part, but if he solves his investigation he can probably roll up the half-orc spy network).
* Vidan / Nivad / Divan is handling unifying / fixing all the churches. That was set up by the Ministry of Lions with Mother Jess and Ritasi. Most of his frag is divine, but there's purple too.
* These are different plots and we cannot really use the Minister of War to shut down the Subminister of Frag.

OK, we need to get Vidan with an NDA to help with this. Managaratha calls Vidan to tell him to meet at the inn we stayed at last time. Managaratha puts up some scry protections, and then we carefully dance around the details ("If I wanted to throw a surprise birthday party and needed to fill out forms...") while asking Vidan for help, and fending off his suggestion that we just hire a different bureaucrat. We have a 48 hour deadline.

In essence, the explanation is: Vidan doesn't remember the conversation with Subminister Kav because he was in a timestop. There are also other secrets he doesn't know and we shouldn't tell him. As far as Purple goes, the Keep This A Secret directive comes from the Minister of Lions, who is trapped in Middlesea. The Minister of Lions outranks Subminister Kav, but is unavailable, as he is trapped in Middlesea. The Ministry of Redactions would probably also approve of keeping the secret, but the Minister of Redactions is ''also'' trapped in Middlesea (and is responsible for the purple timestop, as part of the other unrelated plot). So we don't want to file the report with Kav, but all our authority for not doing so is in a timestop. (Could we insist that we have 48 hours of the Minister of Lions's timeline? That's a kind of funny solution...)

There's a knock at the door. Nesh steps out to deal with the interruption. This is [[Subminister Tran]] from the Ministry of Repercussions, and he wants to know how long the conversation he shouldn't overhear will last? Nesh says not more than an hour - he looks annoyed by that, as he has other places to be, but he goes down to the common room.

Come to think of it, maybe Repercussions can help us here. There will be bad repercussions if we send Kav the report he wants. Nesh goes down to get him, noting that he's sitting at a table with [[Rakta]], that priest of Tem who always follows us around.

"The odds are 96% that you have heard something from the Minister of Repercussions beyond what you knew the last time we spoke." -Tran

Vidan says yes, he definitely has more information. Also, Kav, the Subminister of Frag in the Ministry of Magic is demanding a report from my compatriots that we think would be bad if he got. Can Repercussions help with this? Tran starts working on a paper with a lot of purple math, and concludes that there is a 73% chance that such a report will stall him for several weeks, but that time will get shorter the more time we spend in Purple. There is a 17% chance that such a report will incentivize him to get an answer now, and a 6% chance that he will escalate to the Minister of Magic. (The Minister of Magic is one of the less predictable ministers). Just to be clear, ''is'' it a bad idea for him to know? Tran notes that there is a great deal of divine influence in this issue, which makes probabilities less certain. His best estimate is that the Subminister of Frag knowing specifically only increases the probability of bad things by about 10%. But every person who knows increases the probability, and those increases stack in a way that is unusual. It is not just the sum of that many individuals knowing, and he doesn't understand what that means. "Multiple people know" triggers bad things. He agrees to send a repercussion-report to Subminister Kav.

Vidan briefs Tran about his [[Visions of Middlesea| newer visions]]

There's a fourth-ranked traitor.
The sword will soon be found. There are multiple candidates, all of them bad, but there are some worse than others. If we don't find Bad and Terrible before the timestop goes down and Catastrophic gets out, the Bad and Terrible candidates will be dead in a day.

(Hey, Scout could probably quest for the Bad and/or Terrible candidates.)

Gale goes to visit the Ministry of Lilacs to restock on perfume, and also brings exotic fruits and flowers she picked up from Orange. Their newest perfume is Mood perfume, which shifts depending on the wearer's mood. One variant tries to decrease the intensity; the other tries to bring others into the Mood. She buys some of both, intending to hand off the Decrease variant to someone in case of going berserk.

The next morning, Vidan gets the list of questions from Inspector Vok to ask the shade of Tier Lo (since we don't want Vok to hear us ask about the timestop, as per the Minister of War) and we go to pick up Valentino.

Valentino says he will be channeling the spirit, rather than manifesting it separately. Vidan asks Valentino to not remember the questions; he can do that though it will cost a small part of the miracle. Can we fill Tier Lo in first to explain why we need to know? As a minister of Redactions he will resist answering. Valentino says that it will depend on how deep in the Halls he has gone - if he still is a nearly full personality then yes; but if he is mostly gone and it is just his knowledge that is channeled, then not so much (but then maybe it doesn't matter as much either). It is possible to pre-load that as part of the miracle. Alternately, maybe he didn't go to the Halls at all (such as if the assassin ran off with his spirit) or he is waiting in the Paths or he went to the Dream. In that case, Valentino will not be able to get answers, but will probably know what happened to Tier Lo's spirit instead.
==Everyone Wants These Answers==
We go back to the scene of Tier Lo's death for the ritual, where Valentino uses some of his possessions to make a connection.

Inspector Vok and Rakta are in a nearby room just in case. Valentino's eyes go black and his body language changes, and we all make speed rolls.

Figuring that that means there's someone else in the room with us, Diomarche tramples everything that isn't in the ritual circle or is us, which includes someone who says "Ow". Managaratha casts an illusionary red arrow pointing down at the intruder.

The intruder asks "What's the password for the timestop", and Managaratha casts a lot of noise around the spirit as he says "I can't tell you." Nesh and Gale tag the assassin before he vanishes, and then Vok and Rakta burst in.

Q: "What's going on in here?" 
A: "There was a half-orc assassin that tried to interfere"

Vidan gives them an irritated "Be Quiet" gesture ("Didn't you see that movie?") and shuts the door again.

Stella puts the assassin in time-out, wherever he is. Gale tries to wild-Blue get the assassin to come back and fight once he recovers, but he's not in the Zheldat area.

Next, Managaratha notices a purple sense-tunnel point that appears (with a different sigil than the teleport). Nesh grabs the anti-half-orc perfume and sprays around the room, especially there, and Managaratha puts up a suppress-purple field, shutting it down.

Lore is a Battlefield notes that the spirit was being literal when he said he couldn't tell the password.

Vidan tells the spirit: "You were assassinated to keep the key to the timestop out of the hands of the ministries that need it. I am authorized by the Ministry of War to do so. <What do I need to know about the key? (Not sure what the actual question was) >

A: "Part of the password is in TrueSpeak which is not true unless you are dropping the field."

Q: "I speak TrueSpeak - what do I need to know to generate the password?" 
A: (answering in TrueSpeak) "The password is rabbit horse chartreuse vinegar [Now is the time this spell comes down] in TrueSpeak."

Stella notices that her time-out has been dismissed by someone else big.

Vidan asks a question that generates clue points for Vok, since we have the information we needed. A teleport bounces off Managaratha's success, and we try to burn through the questions as fast as possible.

Q: "What is your favorite color?" 
A: "Purple."

A few rounds pass, and then there's another speed roll. Gale secret-detects bogeys in the nearby room with Vok and Rakta, and some shouting starts.

Managaratha puts up his "mwoh mwoh mwoh" Yellow scryguard. Nesh dashes out to the next room - there are four assassins, plus Vok and Rakta. Two assassins are asleep, one is trying to stab Rakta, and the fourth is standing over a downed Vok. Nesh and Gale double-team that last one, and he goes down.

Vidan, in TrueSpeak: "In Common, what is a good fake password to deceive those who are listening?" 
A: "Tam and Tem we pray the that this miracle of thine be removed" 
Vidan: "I've got it!"

Stella heals Inspector Vok - he's poisoned but that's a medium term issue, and she keeps him from dying from the pile of damage that he took in the backstab.

Does Vidan want to witness something? Yes, but he has no DI. Nesh converts on the spot to Hero of Navere and loans him some.

The voice of the Emperor comes out of the clairvoy point. 
Q: "Why can't you tell us the password?" 
A: "Because part of it is in TrueSpeak"

Valentino's eyes clear as the spirit is gone. Vidan's witnessing notes the Emperor is a half-orc descendant of the Orcslayer; the master of the Half-Orc we ran into in Elfheim; and he runs the Emperor's Spy Network.

(Managaratha vanishes due to player constraints; the other half-orcs can leave again now that the suppress is down.)

Diomarche tries to call on the power of Rush and stab through the tunnel - Vidan / Nesh witness that it fails because the place the Emperor is in is sanctified against all miracles (not just the good gods, the Breaker too). There is a priest there, but that's almost certainly what popped Stella's time out on the initial assassin. Vidan and Nesh are only getting information here because they are outside of it.

The Emperor spent a while setting up the anti-divine location because he is scared of Slayer, and: ”The timestop was set up by the Emperor to trap the Slayer.”

Vidan also realizes that the Emperor does not keep tabs on his assassins that closely, but someone knew what we were doing and what we were trying. So somewhere in the bureaucracy that dealt with getting permission to interrogate Tier Lo was a half-orc.

All in all, our questions gave Inspector Vok another 29 points of clues - he is now up to 84 of 100 for cracking open the spy network.

==Loot==

* 12 eps
* 8 skill points

Purple or Bust

2026-03-24T02:14:08Z

Boojum: /* Party Aftermath= */

==Party Aftermath==
Vidan, Stella, and Gale set up a meeting with [[Richard IV]]. Stella and Managaratha go to visit Lord Di Angelo. Diomarche hangs out with Elena until lunchtime.

Richard is aware that we helped him at the party, though he credits himself for a lot of his success, perhaps slightly more credit than we think he is due. Vidan emphasizes that we're primarily interested in international relations not turning into division before the Breaker's assault. Richard is willing to listen to our suggestions, but not rule out ever attacking anyone. Also, Vidan notes, we are trying to head off ill-advised rescue missions from Middlesea, because of the whole Avatar of the Breaker thing. (Note that the other most likely candidate for sending rescue missions is Darstan).

As we are leaving, we bump into Anne coming in with Carol. Coldly civil hellos are exchanged. Carol walks Anne to the stairs and then leaves. Gale sends a wind message to the Rangers to summon them, worrying about stabbing, but things seem calm. Vidan notes that Anne had a miracle cast on her earlier today, and Nesh spots red magic - several physical buffs, and some hanging Life spells, with an open connection which will go off when encountering the right person, between 5 and 10 successes worth. Nesh runs up to warn Richard (Anne went to her room), and he says he will take steps to be protected from an unknown medium red spell. (Perhaps Anne is trying to get pregnant?)

''"Carol is the dark mistress of things that look perfectly reasonable". ''

Stella visits Lord Di Angelo - he has a lot of chronic issues. A lot of political history, not so much current goals. He'd be a good information source. What does he know about [[Carol]]? She is from Red, though her father was from around here and moved north. She moved into being an advisor to the Centurion fairly quickly, about six or seven years ago. He would have been in favor of Leopold; Richard is exciting but Julia is likely strong enough to not get dragged into Red messes too much. He thinks Viktor's an ass; he doesn't know what Pyotr was doing but seems to be pivoting into doing it with Lilya instead. (Could Carol be Red royalty? Probably not. She could be nobility; there are a lot of nobles.)

In the morning, Richard is selected as consort.

Bran comes in after breakfast to talk to Diomarche - Anne has left, Bran is going to go talk to the Lord Captain about Richard's new position. Diomarche notes that we have learned that Carol is from Red.

Giaconni comes by - how long is Gale around? She says we are likely heading to Purple shortly for at least a little while. Did Giaconni ever figure out who Vivian was going to stab? He says that Vivian is very interested in Leopold, but he isn't clear whether that means she was going to stab Leopold (if I can't have you no one can), or Julia (you can't have him). Tybalt is still thinking about "the stuff he was talking to your friend about" - so he's likely to go to Middlesea soon. Oh, good point - we should check in with him before we go. We agree to meet Tybalt in Rinyan to take him to Middlesea, lest he hare off there on his own.

Vidan goes to talk to Valentino (the priest of the Nameless) about visiting Purple and speaking to a ghost. [[The dead guy|Tier Lo]] is likely already in the Halls. He was in the Ministry of Redaction, so some preliminary paperwork is probably good to do.

==To Purple==

* A note appears on Managaratha - report to Subminister Kav for frag inspection.
* A note appears on Vidan - your report to Subminister Kav is overdue.

(Subminister Kav is in the Ministry of Magic.)

We go, though this is probably one of those bureaucracy traps. [[ Last time we were here|Investigation,_Assassination#Ministry_of_Magic]] we were told by the Ministry of Lions to take Vidan to see [[Ritasi]] or [[Mother Jess]]. We took him to Ritasi and did a ritual but we never sent a report because Vidan is the only one who sends reports and he didn't remember any of it because he had purple-guy-swapped.

Subminister Kav puts Vidan in a time-stop spell and is quite cross at the rest of us that we have forgotten to write the report we promised. We explain we forgot that Vidan wasn't doing it - he handles all our reports. We are given 48 hours.

There is a Minister of Intermediation that deals (some) with churches, especially Balance v Bureaucracy. Vidan goes to visit there to handle the forms for talking to Tier Lo, though realizes he shouldn't traipse in with Broken miracles on him. He talks to them about the forms for the Nameless priest interrogation, eliding over other aspects like "some things have been promised to the Ministry of War to not make public". The form will need to be signed off on by the Chief Inspector or someone of equal rank, and you will need to talk to the Ministry of Redactions because he's one of theirs.

Off to Inspector Vok next. We have a priest - we are told that the number of questions we ask might be limited, so he should provide a prioritized list of questions for the investigation. Also here's this permit that needs to be signed. Vok says he will see what he can do - he succeeds!

==The Trouble With The Purple Guy==

Next is arranging for all the religions / ecumenical. Vidan is dealing with that while Gale calls a meeting of everyone else to discuss what to do about the report we are supposed to submit about Vidan, and the fact that it's all a big secret.

To recap:

* The [[Minister of War|Tan Kato]] wants us to investigate the death of Tier Lo as a national security secret because Tier Lo knows the key to the timestop. (Inspector Vok doesn't know that part, but if he solves his investigation he can probably roll up the half-orc spy network).
* Vidan / Nivad / Divan is handling unifying / fixing all the churches. That was set up by the Ministry of Lions with Mother Jess and Ritasi. Most of his frag is divine, but there's purple too.
* These are different plots and we cannot really use the Minister of War to shut down the Subminister of Frag.

OK, we need to get Vidan with an NDA to help with this. Managaratha calls Vidan to tell him to meet at the inn we stayed at last time. Managaratha puts up some scry protections, and then we carefully dance around the details ("If I wanted to throw a surprise birthday party and needed to fill out forms...") while asking Vidan for help, and fending off his suggestion that we just hire a different bureaucrat. We have a 48 hour deadline.

In essence, the explanation is: Vidan doesn't remember the conversation with Subminister Kav because he was in a timestop. There are also other secrets he doesn't know and we shouldn't tell him. As far as Purple goes, the Keep This A Secret directive comes from the Minister of Lions, who is trapped in Middlesea. The Minister of Lions outranks Subminister Kav, but is unavailable, as he is trapped in Middlesea. The Ministry of Redactions would probably also approve of keeping the secret, but the Minister of Redactions is ''also'' trapped in Middlesea (and is responsible for the purple timestop, as part of the other unrelated plot). So we don't want to file the report with Kav, but all our authority for not doing so is in a timestop. (Could we insist that we have 48 hours of the Minister of Lions's timeline? That's a kind of funny solution...)

There's a knock at the door. Nesh steps out to deal with the interruption. This is [[Subminister Tran]] from the Ministry of Repercussions, and he wants to know how long the conversation he shouldn't overhear will last? Nesh says not more than an hour - he looks annoyed by that, as he has other places to be, but he goes down to the common room.

Come to think of it, maybe Repercussions can help us here. There will be bad repercussions if we send Kav the report he wants. Nesh goes down to get him, noting that he's sitting at a table with [[Rakta]], that priest of Tem who always follows us around.

"The odds are 96% that you have heard something from the Minister of Repercussions beyond what you knew the last time we spoke." -Tran

Vidan says yes, he definitely has more information. Also, Kav, the Subminister of Frag in the Ministry of Magic is demanding a report from my compatriots that we think would be bad if he got. Can Repercussions help with this? Tran starts working on a paper with a lot of purple math, and concludes that there is a 73% chance that such a report will stall him for several weeks, but that time will get shorter the more time we spend in Purple. There is a 17% chance that such a report will incentivize him to get an answer now, and a 6% chance that he will escalate to the Minister of Magic. (The Minister of Magic is one of the less predictable ministers). Just to be clear, ''is'' it a bad idea for him to know? Tran notes that there is a great deal of divine influence in this issue, which makes probabilities less certain. His best estimate is that the Subminister of Frag knowing specifically only increases the probability of bad things by about 10%. But every person who knows increases the probability, and those increases stack in a way that is unusual. It is not just the sum of that many individuals knowing, and he doesn't understand what that means. "Multiple people know" triggers bad things. He agrees to send a repercussion-report to Subminister Kav.

Vidan briefs Tran about his [[Visions of Middlesea| newer visions]]

There's a fourth-ranked traitor.
The sword will soon be found. There are multiple candidates, all of them bad, but there are some worse than others. If we don't find Bad and Terrible before the timestop goes down and Catastrophic gets out, the Bad and Terrible candidates will be dead in a day.

(Hey, Scout could probably quest for the Bad and/or Terrible candidates.)

Gale goes to visit the Ministry of Lilacs to restock on perfume, and also brings exotic fruits and flowers she picked up from Orange. Their newest perfume is Mood perfume, which shifts depending on the wearer's mood. One variant tries to decrease the intensity; the other tries to bring others into the Mood. She buys some of both, intending to hand off the Decrease variant to someone in case of going berserk.

The next morning, Vidan gets the list of questions from Inspector Vok to ask the shade of Tier Lo (since we don't want Vok to hear us ask about the timestop, as per the Minister of War) and we go to pick up Valentino.

Valentino says he will be channeling the spirit, rather than manifesting it separately. Vidan asks Valentino to not remember the questions; he can do that though it will cost a small part of the miracle. Can we fill Tier Lo in first to explain why we need to know? As a minister of Redactions he will resist answering. Valentino says that it will depend on how deep in the Halls he has gone - if he still is a nearly full personality then yes; but if he is mostly gone and it is just his knowledge that is channeled, then not so much (but then maybe it doesn't matter as much either). It is possible to pre-load that as part of the miracle. Alternately, maybe he didn't go to the Halls at all (such as if the assassin ran off with his spirit) or he is waiting in the Paths or he went to the Dream. In that case, Valentino will not be able to get answers, but will probably know what happened to Tier Lo's spirit instead.
==Everyone Wants These Answers==
We go back to the scene of Tier Lo's death for the ritual, where Valentino uses some of his possessions to make a connection.

Inspector Vok and Rakta are in a nearby room just in case. Valentino's eyes go black and his body language changes, and we all make speed rolls.

Figuring that that means there's someone else in the room with us, Diomarche tramples everything that isn't in the ritual circle or is us, which includes someone who says "Ow". Managaratha casts an illusionary red arrow pointing down at the intruder.

The intruder asks "What's the password for the timestop", and Managaratha casts a lot of noise around the spirit as he says "I can't tell you." Nesh and Gale tag the assassin before he vanishes, and then Vok and Rakta burst in.

Q: "What's going on in here?" 
A: "There was a half-orc assassin that tried to interfere"

Vidan gives them an irritated "Be Quiet" gesture ("Didn't you see that movie?") and shuts the door again.

Stella puts the assassin in time-out, wherever he is. Gale tries to wild-Blue get the assassin to come back and fight once he recovers, but he's not in the Zheldat area.

Next, Managaratha notices a purple sense-tunnel point that appears (with a different sigil than the teleport). Nesh grabs the anti-half-orc perfume and sprays around the room, especially there, and Managaratha puts up a suppress-purple field, shutting it down.

Lore is a Battlefield notes that the spirit was being literal when he said he couldn't tell the password.

Vidan tells the spirit: "You were assassinated to keep the key to the timestop out of the hands of the ministries that need it. I am authorized by the Ministry of War to do so. <What do I need to know about the key? (Not sure what the actual question was) >

A: "Part of the password is in TrueSpeak which is not true unless you are dropping the field."

Q: "I speak TrueSpeak - what do I need to know to generate the password?" 
A: (answering in TrueSpeak) "The password is rabbit horse chartreuse vinegar [Now is the time this spell comes down] in TrueSpeak."

Stella notices that her time-out has been dismissed by someone else big.

Vidan asks a question that generates clue points for Vok, since we have the information we needed. A teleport bounces off Managaratha's success, and we try to burn through the questions as fast as possible.

Q: "What is your favorite color?" 
A: "Purple."

A few rounds pass, and then there's another speed roll. Gale secret-detects bogeys in the nearby room with Vok and Rakta, and some shouting starts.

Managaratha puts up his "mwoh mwoh mwoh" Yellow scryguard. Nesh dashes out to the next room - there are four assassins, plus Vok and Rakta. Two assassins are asleep, one is trying to stab Rakta, and the fourth is standing over a downed Vok. Nesh and Gale double-team that last one, and he goes down.

Vidan, in TrueSpeak: "In Common, what is a good fake password to deceive those who are listening?" 
A: "Tam and Tem we pray the that this miracle of thine be removed" 
Vidan: "I've got it!"

Stella heals Inspector Vok - he's poisoned but that's a medium term issue, and she keeps him from dying from the pile of damage that he took in the backstab.

Does Vidan want to witness something? Yes, but he has no DI. Nesh converts on the spot to Hero of Navere and loans him some.

The voice of the Emperor comes out of the clairvoy point. 
Q: "Why can't you tell us the password?" 
A: "Because part of it is in TrueSpeak"

Valentino's eyes clear as the spirit is gone. Vidan's witnessing notes the Emperor is a half-orc descendant of the Orcslayer; the master of the Half-Orc we ran into in Elfheim; and he runs the Emperor's Spy Network.

(Managaratha vanishes due to player constraints; the other half-orcs can leave again now that the suppress is down.)

Diomarche tries to call on the power of Rush and stab through the tunnel - Vidan / Nesh witness that it fails because the place the Emperor is in is sanctified against all miracles (not just the good gods, the Breaker too). There is a priest there, but that's almost certainly what popped Stella's time out on the initial assassin. Vidan and Nesh are only getting information here because they are outside of it.

The Emperor spent a while setting up the anti-divine location because he is scared of Slayer, and: ”The timestop was set up by the Emperor to trap the Slayer.”

Vidan also realizes that the Emperor does not keep tabs on his assassins that closely, but someone knew what we were doing and what we were trying. So somewhere in the bureaucracy that dealt with getting permission to interrogate Tier Lo was a half-orc.

All in all, our questions gave Inspector Vok another 29 points of clues - he is now up to 84 of 100 for cracking open the spy network.

==Loot==

* 12 eps
* 8 skill points

Purple or Bust

2026-03-24T02:13:45Z

Boojum: Created page with "=Party Aftermath== Vidan, Stella, and Gale set up a meeting with Richard IV. Stella and Managaratha go to visit Lord Di Angelo. Diomarche hangs out with Elena until lunchtime. Richard is aware that we helped him at the party, though he credits himself for a lot of his success, perhaps slightly more credit than we think he is due. Vidan emphasizes that we're primarily interested in international relations not turning into division before the Breaker's assault...."

=Party Aftermath==
Vidan, Stella, and Gale set up a meeting with [[Richard IV]]. Stella and Managaratha go to visit Lord Di Angelo. Diomarche hangs out with Elena until lunchtime.

Richard is aware that we helped him at the party, though he credits himself for a lot of his success, perhaps slightly more credit than we think he is due. Vidan emphasizes that we're primarily interested in international relations not turning into division before the Breaker's assault. Richard is willing to listen to our suggestions, but not rule out ever attacking anyone. Also, Vidan notes, we are trying to head off ill-advised rescue missions from Middlesea, because of the whole Avatar of the Breaker thing. (Note that the other most likely candidate for sending rescue missions is Darstan).

As we are leaving, we bump into Anne coming in with Carol. Coldly civil hellos are exchanged. Carol walks Anne to the stairs and then leaves. Gale sends a wind message to the Rangers to summon them, worrying about stabbing, but things seem calm. Vidan notes that Anne had a miracle cast on her earlier today, and Nesh spots red magic - several physical buffs, and some hanging Life spells, with an open connection which will go off when encountering the right person, between 5 and 10 successes worth. Nesh runs up to warn Richard (Anne went to her room), and he says he will take steps to be protected from an unknown medium red spell. (Perhaps Anne is trying to get pregnant?)

"Carol is the dark mistress of things that look perfectly reasonable".

Stella visits Lord Di Angelo - he has a lot of chronic issues. A lot of political history, not so much current goals. He'd be a good information source. What does he know about [[Carol]]? She is from Red, though her father was from around here and moved north. She moved into being an advisor to the Centurion fairly quickly, about six or seven years ago. He would have been in favor of Leopold; Richard is exciting but Julia is likely strong enough to not get dragged into Red messes too much. He thinks Viktor's an ass; he doesn't know what Pyotr was doing but seems to be pivoting into doing it with Lilya instead. (Could Carol be Red royalty? Probably not. She could be nobility; there are a lot of nobles.)

In the morning, Richard is selected as consort.

Bran comes in after breakfast to talk to Diomarche - Anne has left, Bran is going to go talk to the Lord Captain about Richard's new position. Diomarche notes that we have learned that Carol is from Red.

Giaconni comes by - how long is Gale around? She says we are likely heading to Purple shortly for at least a little while. Did Giaconni ever figure out who Vivian was going to stab? He says that Vivian is very interested in Leopold, but he isn't clear whether that means she was going to stab Leopold (if I can't have you no one can), or Julia (you can't have him). Tybalt is still thinking about "the stuff he was talking to your friend about" - so he's likely to go to Middlesea soon. Oh, good point - we should check in with him before we go. We agree to meet Tybalt in Rinyan to take him to Middlesea, lest he hare off there on his own.

Vidan goes to talk to Valentino (the priest of the Nameless) about visiting Purple and speaking to a ghost. [[The dead guy|Tier Lo]] is likely already in the Halls. He was in the Ministry of Redaction, so some preliminary paperwork is probably good to do.

==To Purple==

* A note appears on Managaratha - report to Subminister Kav for frag inspection.
* A note appears on Vidan - your report to Subminister Kav is overdue.

(Subminister Kav is in the Ministry of Magic.)

We go, though this is probably one of those bureaucracy traps. [[ Last time we were here|Investigation,_Assassination#Ministry_of_Magic]] we were told by the Ministry of Lions to take Vidan to see [[Ritasi]] or [[Mother Jess]]. We took him to Ritasi and did a ritual but we never sent a report because Vidan is the only one who sends reports and he didn't remember any of it because he had purple-guy-swapped.

Subminister Kav puts Vidan in a time-stop spell and is quite cross at the rest of us that we have forgotten to write the report we promised. We explain we forgot that Vidan wasn't doing it - he handles all our reports. We are given 48 hours.

There is a Minister of Intermediation that deals (some) with churches, especially Balance v Bureaucracy. Vidan goes to visit there to handle the forms for talking to Tier Lo, though realizes he shouldn't traipse in with Broken miracles on him. He talks to them about the forms for the Nameless priest interrogation, eliding over other aspects like "some things have been promised to the Ministry of War to not make public". The form will need to be signed off on by the Chief Inspector or someone of equal rank, and you will need to talk to the Ministry of Redactions because he's one of theirs.

Off to Inspector Vok next. We have a priest - we are told that the number of questions we ask might be limited, so he should provide a prioritized list of questions for the investigation. Also here's this permit that needs to be signed. Vok says he will see what he can do - he succeeds!

==The Trouble With The Purple Guy==

Next is arranging for all the religions / ecumenical. Vidan is dealing with that while Gale calls a meeting of everyone else to discuss what to do about the report we are supposed to submit about Vidan, and the fact that it's all a big secret.

To recap:

* The [[Minister of War|Tan Kato]] wants us to investigate the death of Tier Lo as a national security secret because Tier Lo knows the key to the timestop. (Inspector Vok doesn't know that part, but if he solves his investigation he can probably roll up the half-orc spy network).
* Vidan / Nivad / Divan is handling unifying / fixing all the churches. That was set up by the Ministry of Lions with Mother Jess and Ritasi. Most of his frag is divine, but there's purple too.
* These are different plots and we cannot really use the Minister of War to shut down the Subminister of Frag.

OK, we need to get Vidan with an NDA to help with this. Managaratha calls Vidan to tell him to meet at the inn we stayed at last time. Managaratha puts up some scry protections, and then we carefully dance around the details ("If I wanted to throw a surprise birthday party and needed to fill out forms...") while asking Vidan for help, and fending off his suggestion that we just hire a different bureaucrat. We have a 48 hour deadline.

In essence, the explanation is: Vidan doesn't remember the conversation with Subminister Kav because he was in a timestop. There are also other secrets he doesn't know and we shouldn't tell him. As far as Purple goes, the Keep This A Secret directive comes from the Minister of Lions, who is trapped in Middlesea. The Minister of Lions outranks Subminister Kav, but is unavailable, as he is trapped in Middlesea. The Ministry of Redactions would probably also approve of keeping the secret, but the Minister of Redactions is ''also'' trapped in Middlesea (and is responsible for the purple timestop, as part of the other unrelated plot). So we don't want to file the report with Kav, but all our authority for not doing so is in a timestop. (Could we insist that we have 48 hours of the Minister of Lions's timeline? That's a kind of funny solution...)

There's a knock at the door. Nesh steps out to deal with the interruption. This is [[Subminister Tran]] from the Ministry of Repercussions, and he wants to know how long the conversation he shouldn't overhear will last? Nesh says not more than an hour - he looks annoyed by that, as he has other places to be, but he goes down to the common room.

Come to think of it, maybe Repercussions can help us here. There will be bad repercussions if we send Kav the report he wants. Nesh goes down to get him, noting that he's sitting at a table with [[Rakta]], that priest of Tem who always follows us around.

"The odds are 96% that you have heard something from the Minister of Repercussions beyond what you knew the last time we spoke." -Tran

Vidan says yes, he definitely has more information. Also, Kav, the Subminister of Frag in the Ministry of Magic is demanding a report from my compatriots that we think would be bad if he got. Can Repercussions help with this? Tran starts working on a paper with a lot of purple math, and concludes that there is a 73% chance that such a report will stall him for several weeks, but that time will get shorter the more time we spend in Purple. There is a 17% chance that such a report will incentivize him to get an answer now, and a 6% chance that he will escalate to the Minister of Magic. (The Minister of Magic is one of the less predictable ministers). Just to be clear, ''is'' it a bad idea for him to know? Tran notes that there is a great deal of divine influence in this issue, which makes probabilities less certain. His best estimate is that the Subminister of Frag knowing specifically only increases the probability of bad things by about 10%. But every person who knows increases the probability, and those increases stack in a way that is unusual. It is not just the sum of that many individuals knowing, and he doesn't understand what that means. "Multiple people know" triggers bad things. He agrees to send a repercussion-report to Subminister Kav.

Vidan briefs Tran about his [[Visions of Middlesea| newer visions]]

There's a fourth-ranked traitor.
The sword will soon be found. There are multiple candidates, all of them bad, but there are some worse than others. If we don't find Bad and Terrible before the timestop goes down and Catastrophic gets out, the Bad and Terrible candidates will be dead in a day.

(Hey, Scout could probably quest for the Bad and/or Terrible candidates.)

Gale goes to visit the Ministry of Lilacs to restock on perfume, and also brings exotic fruits and flowers she picked up from Orange. Their newest perfume is Mood perfume, which shifts depending on the wearer's mood. One variant tries to decrease the intensity; the other tries to bring others into the Mood. She buys some of both, intending to hand off the Decrease variant to someone in case of going berserk.

The next morning, Vidan gets the list of questions from Inspector Vok to ask the shade of Tier Lo (since we don't want Vok to hear us ask about the timestop, as per the Minister of War) and we go to pick up Valentino.

Valentino says he will be channeling the spirit, rather than manifesting it separately. Vidan asks Valentino to not remember the questions; he can do that though it will cost a small part of the miracle. Can we fill Tier Lo in first to explain why we need to know? As a minister of Redactions he will resist answering. Valentino says that it will depend on how deep in the Halls he has gone - if he still is a nearly full personality then yes; but if he is mostly gone and it is just his knowledge that is channeled, then not so much (but then maybe it doesn't matter as much either). It is possible to pre-load that as part of the miracle. Alternately, maybe he didn't go to the Halls at all (such as if the assassin ran off with his spirit) or he is waiting in the Paths or he went to the Dream. In that case, Valentino will not be able to get answers, but will probably know what happened to Tier Lo's spirit instead.
==Everyone Wants These Answers==
We go back to the scene of Tier Lo's death for the ritual, where Valentino uses some of his possessions to make a connection.

Inspector Vok and Rakta are in a nearby room just in case. Valentino's eyes go black and his body language changes, and we all make speed rolls.

Figuring that that means there's someone else in the room with us, Diomarche tramples everything that isn't in the ritual circle or is us, which includes someone who says "Ow". Managaratha casts an illusionary red arrow pointing down at the intruder.

The intruder asks "What's the password for the timestop", and Managaratha casts a lot of noise around the spirit as he says "I can't tell you." Nesh and Gale tag the assassin before he vanishes, and then Vok and Rakta burst in.

Q: "What's going on in here?" 
A: "There was a half-orc assassin that tried to interfere"

Vidan gives them an irritated "Be Quiet" gesture ("Didn't you see that movie?") and shuts the door again.

Stella puts the assassin in time-out, wherever he is. Gale tries to wild-Blue get the assassin to come back and fight once he recovers, but he's not in the Zheldat area.

Next, Managaratha notices a purple sense-tunnel point that appears (with a different sigil than the teleport). Nesh grabs the anti-half-orc perfume and sprays around the room, especially there, and Managaratha puts up a suppress-purple field, shutting it down.

Lore is a Battlefield notes that the spirit was being literal when he said he couldn't tell the password.

Vidan tells the spirit: "You were assassinated to keep the key to the timestop out of the hands of the ministries that need it. I am authorized by the Ministry of War to do so. <What do I need to know about the key? (Not sure what the actual question was) >

A: "Part of the password is in TrueSpeak which is not true unless you are dropping the field."

Q: "I speak TrueSpeak - what do I need to know to generate the password?" 
A: (answering in TrueSpeak) "The password is rabbit horse chartreuse vinegar [Now is the time this spell comes down] in TrueSpeak."

Stella notices that her time-out has been dismissed by someone else big.

Vidan asks a question that generates clue points for Vok, since we have the information we needed. A teleport bounces off Managaratha's success, and we try to burn through the questions as fast as possible.

Q: "What is your favorite color?" 
A: "Purple."

A few rounds pass, and then there's another speed roll. Gale secret-detects bogeys in the nearby room with Vok and Rakta, and some shouting starts.

Managaratha puts up his "mwoh mwoh mwoh" Yellow scryguard. Nesh dashes out to the next room - there are four assassins, plus Vok and Rakta. Two assassins are asleep, one is trying to stab Rakta, and the fourth is standing over a downed Vok. Nesh and Gale double-team that last one, and he goes down.

Vidan, in TrueSpeak: "In Common, what is a good fake password to deceive those who are listening?" 
A: "Tam and Tem we pray the that this miracle of thine be removed" 
Vidan: "I've got it!"

Stella heals Inspector Vok - he's poisoned but that's a medium term issue, and she keeps him from dying from the pile of damage that he took in the backstab.

Does Vidan want to witness something? Yes, but he has no DI. Nesh converts on the spot to Hero of Navere and loans him some.

The voice of the Emperor comes out of the clairvoy point. 
Q: "Why can't you tell us the password?" 
A: "Because part of it is in TrueSpeak"

Valentino's eyes clear as the spirit is gone. Vidan's witnessing notes the Emperor is a half-orc descendant of the Orcslayer; the master of the Half-Orc we ran into in Elfheim; and he runs the Emperor's Spy Network.

(Managaratha vanishes due to player constraints; the other half-orcs can leave again now that the suppress is down.)

Diomarche tries to call on the power of Rush and stab through the tunnel - Vidan / Nesh witness that it fails because the place the Emperor is in is sanctified against all miracles (not just the good gods, the Breaker too). There is a priest there, but that's almost certainly what popped Stella's time out on the initial assassin. Vidan and Nesh are only getting information here because they are outside of it.

The Emperor spent a while setting up the anti-divine location because he is scared of Slayer, and: ”The timestop was set up by the Emperor to trap the Slayer.”

Vidan also realizes that the Emperor does not keep tabs on his assassins that closely, but someone knew what we were doing and what we were trying. So somewhere in the bureaucracy that dealt with getting permission to interrogate Tier Lo was a half-orc.

All in all, our questions gave Inspector Vok another 29 points of clues - he is now up to 84 of 100 for cracking open the spy network.

==Loot==

* 12 eps
* 8 skill points

Main Page

2026-03-24T02:12:40Z

Boojum: /* Chapter 4: [title of chapter] */

COMET: Once More Unto The Breach 

== About The World ==
[[World Map|World Map and Overview]]

[[Jabar Map]]

[[:Category:Countries|Countries]] of the World

[[History]]

[[Muddle in Middlesea]]

[[Plot Threads]]

== Previous Comet ==
[https://stuff.mit.edu/~boojum/CometWeb/ Website from the Previous Comet]

==Various Mechanics==
[[Colors of Magic | Magic]]

[[Endurance]]

[[Character Creation Message]]

[[Skill List and Costs]]

[[Combat]]

[[Middlesea Free Rangers]]

[[:Category: Rulings]]

==Logs==
===Chapter 1: Forging the Rangers===
# [[First Run]] ([[Rainbow]]), 2023-01-07
# [[Second Run]] ([[Rainbow]]), 2023-02-18
# [[To The Heart]] ([[Orange]]), 2023-03-04
# [[Adventures are Everywhere]] ([[Orange]]), 2023-03-18
# [[Promises Promises]] ([[Purple]]), 2023-04-01
# [[A Lilac Kind Of Purple]] ([[Purple]]), 2023-05-13
# [[To Catch A Thief]] ([[Red]]), 2023-05-27
# [[Bear and Frog]] ([[Red]]), 2023-06-17
# [[Keep in the Broken Lands]] ([[Red]]), 2023-07-08
# [[Under the Sea]] ([[Red]]), 2023-07-22
# [[The Once and Future Queens]] ([[Red]]), 2023-08-05
# [[Coronation and Investigation]] ([[Red]]), 2023-08-19
# Chapter End: [[Forging the Free Rangers]] (A space outside of space, and [[Red]]), 2023-09-02

===Chapter 2: Across the Sea===
# [[On The Sea 1]] (Combats, Calms, and Cataurs) (Between [[Red]] and [[Blue]]), 2023-10-14
# [[On The Sea 2]] (Sea Giant, Sea Witch, and Melmane ho!) (Ending in [[Blue]]), 2023-10-28
# [[Three Mages]] (in [[Blue]]), 2023-11-11
# [[A ritual and no Pearls]] (in [[Blue]]), 2023-12-09
# [[On His Majesty’s Secret Surface]] (in the Merfolk kingdoms), 2024-01-20
# [[Terrain Type Shark]] (in the Merfolk kingdoms), 2024-02-03
# [[Pearly Whites]] (in the Merfolk kingdoms), 2024-02-17
# [[Water Alliance]] (in the Merfolk Kingdoms and Melmane), 2024-03-02
# [[Heart of Blue]] (in [[Blue]]), 2024-03-30
# [[Hunting Slith Spies]] (in [[Blue]]), 2024-04-13
# [[Recapturing the Cataurs]] (in [[Blue]]), 2024-05-11
# Chapter End: [[Welcome to Jabar]] (on the way to and in [[Yellow]]), 2024-06-08

===Chapter 3: In the Land of Yellow===
# [[Caravan]] (in Yellow), 2024-08-17
# [[Caravan Part 2]] (in Yellow), 2024-08-31
# [[A Tree Grows in Jabar]] (in Yellow), 2024-10-12
# [[A Crack in the Wall]] (in Yellow), 2024-11-09
# [[Feeling Our Way Around]] (in Yellow), 2024-11-23
# [[Life of the Party]] (in Yellow), 2024-12-07
# [[A Maharani Calls]] (in Yellow), 2024-12-21
# [[Nor Any Drop to Drink]] (in Yellow), 2025-01-18
# [[Talking to Trees]] (in Yellow), 2025-02-15
# [[Climbing the Bird Gradient]] (in Yellow), 2025-03-01
# Chapter End: [[In the Court of His Majesty of the Forest]] (in Green), 2025-03-29

===Chapter 4: [title of chapter]===
# [[Mushroom Mushroom]] (in Green), 2025-04-12
# [[A River Runs Through It]] (in Green and the Broken Lands), 2025-05-24
# [[In Their Majesty's Creepy Castle]] (in Green), 2025-06-21
# [[On The Assassin's Trail]] (in Purple), 2025-07-05
# [[Investigation, Assassination]], (in Purple), 2025-07-19
# [[Rinyan Redux]], (in Orange), 2025-08-09
# [[The Endurance of Memory]], (in Orange and ritual space), 2025-08-23
# [[Tales of Comets Past]] (aka Breakerversary!), (in Orange and ShuMash), 2025-10-11
# [[Welcome to Vani]] (in [[Vani]] in Orange), 2025-10-25
# [[Another Stabby Dagger]] (in Vani in Orange), 2025-11-22
# [[House Party]] (in Vani in Orange), 2025-12-06
# [[Heart of Orange]] (in Vani in Orange), 2025-01-17
# [[Day of the Maiden Part One]] (in Vani in Orange), 2025-02-14
# [[Day of the Maiden Part Two]] (in Vani in Orange), 2025-02-28
# [[Purple or Bust]] (in Vani, then in Zheldat in Purple), 2025-03-14

===Total EPs===
As of 2026-03-15 (4.15), including initial 30 EPs / 100 SPs.
* 426 EPs
* 573 SPs

Plus one additional Creation point on stats from Run 4.8.

==Things We Might Know==
* [[:Category:NPCs]]
* [[Party Loot]]
* [[Visions of Middlesea]]

== MediaWiki ==
MediaWiki has been installed.

Consult the [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Help:Contents User's Guide] for information on using the wiki software.

* [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Configuration_settings Configuration settings list]
* [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Manual:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ]
* [https://lists.wikimedia.org/postorius/lists/mediawiki-announce.lists.wikimedia.org/ MediaWiki release mailing list]
* [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Localisation#Translation_resources Localise MediaWiki for your language]
* [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Combating_spam Learn how to combat spam on your wiki]

On His Majesty’s Secret Surface

2026-03-24T02:10:00Z

Boojum: /* Other Kingdoms */

==Splashing Around==

[[Vidan]] is still faded out. We decide we will go look for other Merfolk kings.
There is some discussion about cataurs and centaurs, and [[Diomarche]] tells the tale of how the cataurs in the boat could be considered his cousin, because back in the Comets of yore, the cataurs came over the mountains into Jabar and they un-Broke. Were Repaired? The terminology is perhaps confusing.

[[Managaratha]] thinks there might be a few more castles to the west, so we head off that way.
We sail for a day or so, and then [Dragon 8] Managaratha sends up a clairvoy point to see what he can see, but he’s not very successful. He drives around the clairvoy point and finds a more populated area, so we decide it’s a good place to go see if we can find a castle nearby.

Gayle gives us some Free Action and Breathe Water, and we swim down and find a house with some merfolk. One comes out and points a trident at us, asking us what we want.

We say we’re hoping to go to the court, to help fight the slith. Unless they want to fight the slith? No, we should go talk to the king.

The fast way is "swim that way", but we’ll probably run into the mephits (which Managaratha explains are water elementals).
The slow way is go that way until you find the giant clam, and then switch to north for three leagues, and then come back this way.

How many mephits? A lot, they’re a problem.

We swim to the giant clam, while Managaratha steers clairvoy around until he finds the water is boiling. So maybe they’re steam mephits. There also seem to be lava mephits.

[[Gale]] recalls that mephits are Broken elementals, they tend to be pairs of elements.

The clam is about the size of room, although flatter. Managaratha determines it has a quite large pearl, so we try to think about how to get the loot. Lacking a better plan, [[Scout]] casts a Speak to Animals spell, and chats with the clam, but it doesn’t seem to want much, and he’s not very persuasive. [[Nesh]] thinks it’s rude to attack the clam now that we’ve talked to it, so we wander off, with Gale grumbling about failing at being a pirate.

We travel a while to the castle, passing more habitations on the way. The castle is quite large, and Managaratha casts Rangers Talk Polite Mer. Nesh talks to the guards about wanting to see the King to fight the slith, but once they’re told it’s Managaratha, they say oh sure come on in.

There are lots of fish swimming around; we get to the Throne Room. There is a Mer with a crown on the throne. There seems to be a line of fish waiting to talk to the King. Huh. There is no obvious organization.

Scout looks around— everything here is Magical, but not spells, and not even Blue. It’s more coordinated than miscellaneous elf magic. It’s like the Queen under the Mountain with her Dwarves around her, and it would probably look like Magic for the room to be Hers.

The King talks to the fish, sometimes in schools, but not in Mer– except for one. That fish wants to know how long it will be before the seaweed won’t be destroyed by the mephits. “Soon”, says the King.

King Tabe greets Managaratha, welcoming him. Managaratha says we’re here to fight the slith. Oh good, the slith are a problem. His forces are tied up elsewhere. We offer to scout the mephits, which the King thinks would be helpful.

King Fahl is asleep. “Oh yes, he’s tied up.” “Well, I don’t know about tied up, but he’s asleep.”
He’s the one the witch got.

King Lani is busy with his shark breeding, Queen Mag they talk to occasionally, but the King doesn’t have a daughter, and she mostly seems to be looking for a marriage alliance.

Is there something we can help with? Scouting the mephits would help. If there’s a way in that doesn’t require going through air, that would be useful.

We get a map; the mephits are mostly south of the castle, with a big X for “don’t go here”. The map also has the Giant Clam, a coral bed to the NE, there are arrows to Queen Mag’s lands, Lani’s lands NW, and King Fahl’s land to the east.

In the castle, there's a guy who is planning to go and wrestle an octopus tomorrow.
He doesn’t need help, but if we wanted to watch and tell people how awesome he is, that would be good.

Managaratha thinks about Elemental Planes and Elementals.

We take Gayle’s boat back to the other boat. Managartha clairvoys down, it looks like there’s a place that is not water, mostly steam. No merfolk, no fish, no plants. The ground under that area is mostly lava rather than earth. There don’t seem to be obvious mephits. There do seem to be some kind of caves? if that’s what they’re called in the lava.

More clairvoy, looks like in the steam there’s a largeish cavern with air in it. Managaratha contemplates how this happens, it’s probably some kind of magic, to keep the ocean out? If it was just natural the King could probably deal with it if it’s in his realm.

[[Stella]] asks the Goddess what needs fixing here. There’s some defenses, but 13 successes 9 DI is enough to get past the 5 successes defense.

The underwater Broken lands (where the [[Slith]] live) are not as Broken as the Broken Lands. Underwater doesn’t have so coherent a Broken area. The cavern is an attempt to make a Broken underwater Kingdom; that should be stopped. There is something at the center of it that is making that happen. The thing at the center is probably not sentient, but is something that a Broken priest or a powerful goblin made. It needs to be sanctified away, preferably; physical destruction would make it easier to sanctify. It would take most of Stella’s DI for a day to sanctify it, it’s a powerful miracle. It might explode if we physically blow it up, though. The mephits are more like guardians.

Poking around via clairvoy during the night, Managaratha and Nesh find a glowing ruby in the center of a cavern with a squad of lava mephits standing around it. There doesn’t seem to be smoke, so there may not be air there.

[Dragon 9]

Gayle thinks a bubble of clean air is probably good for breathing, but we might want cold air, to prevent heat issues.

Thinking of spells that could help:
A generic Resist Environmental Heat is probably easier than Resist Fire Damage, unless it’s a Vast amount of heat. That’s probably difficulty 8.
Walking on Lava would probably help.

Nesh puts everything together into a plan.
* 6 successes Resist Environmental Heat.
* 3 successes 1 awryage Walk on Lava.
* Weapons are iced for 5 hits.
* Sotto Voce.
* 4 hours of Flying through Air.

We teleport! But it doesn’t get us all the way there. Huh. That’s weird. Managaratha thinks that maybe the Broken Landedness is in a different coordinate system. Thinking more, it seems like there are more hexes in each hex? Hmm. Managaratha thinks more.
Scout thinks there is definitely Magic fighting the DI, in a realm-fighting-realm way that [[Middlesea]] thinks is familiar. Managaratha clairvoys more, and thinks his clairvoy points are also bigger than usual. Huh. Well, we go down below the steam and into the hole.

We enter a big cavern filled with lava and mephits, with a gem in the center, with four mephits around the ruby in the center.

Gayle casts Battle Diagnostics, which starts the combat. Diomarche picks up Nesh and charges into the center of the room. Nesh chops a mephit, which takes 5 hits, and he ignores the “melt the weapon” schtick.

Managaratha teleports Stella to Diomarche, and she Sanctifies the gem. It works! The gem dissipates and the lava starts to vanish again. We flee again (courtesy Managaratha) and clairvoy as the steam bubble collapses.

We return to the castle, where there is a party in the throne room. A cute merman dances with Gayle. Even the fish are dancing! There is some concern about eating what’s offered– are fish friends or food? Apparently fish on the table are food. Okay then.

What other mer kings might be interested in coordination against the slith? Don't ask Fahl, because he's asleep. Mag is plausibly interestable. Lani would need convincing that it was not going to get all his sharks killed.

Scout asks after the Sea Witch; he’ll trade spells to do things like give you legs, or the voice of an angel, for weird prices. Sounds kind of like a sluagh to Scout.

Other things we learn:
* Clams don’t really want anything
* Managaratha helped move the Mer from the ancient homelands to the West of the main continent, two comets ago, to help fight the slith.
* The Tridents are good fighting weapons, but they also mostly seem to be part of the Armory, rather than items? Creation says they stop existing if you went too far away from the castle.
* The merfolk use the tridents as thrown weapons. They also use nets, and electric eels.

==Other Kingdoms==

[Dragon 10]

We decide to go talk to King Lani. There are definitely more sharks here, if not lots of merfolk. As we get close, however, Managaratha finds a note in his pocket, saying “Maybe do this one last.” Huh. Well, we decide to go talk to Queen Mag, and look for perfect pearls on the way.

We do some pearl harvesting. We collect about 5 pearls that are large and round. One of them might qualify as perfect. Throwing some Essence or some Red at it would help, but it’s plausible.

We get to Queen Mag’s court, and Managaratha goes in to talk to her, casting Sotto Voce. She has heard of him, and he is hoping to get the Kingdoms to work together to fight the slith.

The Queen frowns. “That is a… subject which is unlikely to receive a warm reception at this time.” And one of the guys’ swimming around faces lights up a bit. Managaratha says that the war with the Slith is coming, albeit perhaps not to this particular kingdom. She appreciates the information, but does not have immediate interest in his proposal.

Managaratha is dismissed, so goes to take a nap. The mer who looked interested finds him. “Are you from [[Berana]]?” “Oh. Um... I have been through Berana, yes. Have they been in touch?” “Yes! Perhaps you can convince Mother to let Prince Quentin out of the dungeon - that would help with allying with Berana. And I would appreciate Prince Quentin being freed.”

He clarifies - Tia doesn’t want to be married either. Venin is Mag’s son. Quentin was prince of the old king of Berana! Oh. Right, him! Tia is the daughter of King Lani.

Okay, that’s probably why we want to deal with Lani last.

===Loot===
* +5 Pearls, one Plausibly Perfect
* +8 EPs
* +8 SPs

[[Category:Run Logs]]

Pearly Whites

2026-03-24T01:58:43Z

Boojum: /* In the Kingdom of the Sharks */

==In the Kingdom of the Sharks==
[[Managaratha]] fades out; [[Stella]] and [[Scout]] fade in. We’re still underwater. Fortunately the water breathing is still up.

The water starts getting colder, probably because we were here as companions of Managaratha. [[Nesh]]’s sword turns into the [[Buccaneer]]’s Blade, and he has some reputation, which stops the water from getting colder.

We discuss our current plan, or lack thereof. What can we do for the [[King Lani|King of the Sharks]]? Well, we seem to have lost our Red mage.

Stella tires of our dithering, and brings down the Hammer of 13 successes and 10 DI.
Sharks are not actually anything that needs Fixing, they’re just inconvenient for us at present. Ideas for sending the Sharks elsewhere are decent, but we’re unlikely to have the EPs to pull off at present, so we’d need help. The small problem that could be fixed, potentially, is the dissension between Lani and Tia. There’s not an easy solution, as long as he remains King Shark and she remains Princess Crab; while there are things that might fix that, we don’t have a lot of angles on that. That could be ameliorated if Torsin was discredited, and the Goddess thinks that Torsin’s influence from Goblins is the highest on the list. Also there's the Kraken, but it's probably too big for us.

(Torsin is Lani's nephew, and in line to the throne after Tia).

Also, our Polite Merfolk is about to expire.

We go and talk to Tia - she's heard of goblins, and Torsin is visiting a lot, but he doesn't live here, and she doesn't know who he talks to when he's not here. Also she is surprised the Buccaneer doesn't have a petition. Well, perhaps the Buccaneer can petition to hunt goblins.

Does she know about the Kraken? It's not in the kingdom, but kraken territory is over there.

[[Vidan]] will learn mer overnight if Tia will teach him. That work.
Vidan learns 6 levels of Mer overnight.

[Dragon 13]

We go to petition the King in the morning, accompanied by sharks.. Nesh apologies for his interpreter, and that we are here on a mission from the Gods, and ask for permission to hunt Goblins in and around his lands.

Nesh and Vidan are quite charismatic, but they’re limited by Int/Mer, so they only get 7 successes. The King is happy to grant us 3 days to pursue the alleged intrusion into his lands, and he expects a report. We are escorted out of the throne room by sharks.

Outside the palace, the sharks don’t seem to attack us.

==Goblin Hunting==
We go to Torsin’s house. It’s an actual house with doors; we think that’s probably it.
(The Kingdom is generically magic

Vidan asks his aid in getting the kingdom's aid against our joint enemy, the slith.
He’s willing to talk about that, and we go in. He acknowledges that [[Slith]] are bad, but seems most interested when Vidan calls him the likely Heir.

They discuss the kingdoms and their Heirs. Mab’s heir is Venin, but he’s married. Fahl could marry.

Scout thinks there’s some Green magic in the back room. [[Gale]] can't hear anything, but does a bit of swim-foolery while Scout sneaks out. There's some seaweed next to his bed that has a green sigil on it - it matches one of the sigils on the plant spewing the amnesia-mist in Middlesea. It's some sort of communication spell. One wild spell later - the other end is off near where Middlesea (the spirit) is, in that [[Spiritbreaker Fortress]].

Unclaimed perfect pearls are unclaimed, that's okay. He has suggestions where we might look.

Gale (and Vidan, when she remembers she doesn't speak Mer) eavesdrop. It's some other language that Vidan doesn't know, so he casts a Witnessing miracle and memorizes it perfectly. It's a woman speaking Goblin. It's a siren, Vidan thinks.

People are offering to potentially help him become king if he helps them go after the Slith. The goblin says well, maybe that's a reasonable plan given the failure of the other one to marry Tia off, but tell me more about them. He describes us reasonably well. Hmm. Well, working with them would be interesting, certainly. I'm not sure I recommend it - the last major political plan they were involved in, involved the death of King Olison. Try not to make them any promises. Probably the best thing they could do for you is go kill the Kraken, so see if you can get them to do that. We wonder if that's actually "go get them eaten by the Kraken".

Kraken are known to be in the Broken Seas - Vidan is sure there are broken Kraken and not confident there are unBroken ones. Hard to be sure.

Stella decides to indulge in her pyromania and do some experimentation with lighting fires underwater. Creating a campfire (Creation) makes the campfire appear, but it goes out immediately. Lighting a forge with a fireball spell (Forge) that does both damage and sets things on fire (difficulty 10 for a 7 hex 2x damage per successes plus Burning).

==Talking to the King Again==
Nesh makes a plan for talking to the King, and we see him that afternoon.

Nesh and Vidan team up again to tell the King about Thorsin. The persuasion is not as big as before, but Vidan’s Witnessing is enough to convince him to send us to destroy it with a squad of Sharks.

He sends a squad of sharks to help us destroy the plant. Thorsin doesn’t think he should resist when there’s a squad of sharks. The sharks eat it. No siren sharks are produced in the process.

The party goes up to the surface for reasons I forget.

In the distance there's a boat. It flies the flag of the [[Maharani]]. It has Lisetera on it. She did not get His Highness out - there's too much divine stuff going on, so she's going to get a priest. While we were mucking around in there, she could have some conversations. That was while we were talking to Mage Alexa. We warn her about the Avatar of the Breaker - the orc in the middle, fighting the paladin of Rush.

She calls [[Suvatra]], the person we have the seagull feather from. Vidan introduces himself and says we have a feather - she does a double take. Vidan is suddenly wearing Navere's holy robes (it's a Navere thing), and that clearly convinces her of something.

She agrees that alliance is good, having people go there would be better but if we break the feather she can call, once. She does not speak directly for Her Majesty but can make a call when someone who can is available to discuss things.

Suvatra says she will let Her Majesty know that there will be Ambassadors coming, and will make arrangements. She asks for our names, and we tell her plus that we are known as the [[Middlesea Free Rangers]] (™).

Vidan notes that she takes note of Vidan’s name, particularly. She terminates the call.

==Pearl Hunting==
We ask [[Lisetera]] for help hunting Perfect Pearls. She thinks that underwater is inconvenient, but when Gale offers to deal with that, she says okay. The nearest one is two miles that way, in a chest. The boat sails off. [[Diomarche]] explains there are cataurs. His boyfriend, Lisetera wonders? Gale is totally shipping them now.

Lisetera sends a mer-Lisetera with us to go pearl-hunting. We swim for a while and find a shipwreck. We proceed, and combat begins!

The ship has been sunk for many years, it seems to have stuff growing on it.

Ghosts!

The ghosts appear, attempting to possess the people who walk onto the ship. They need to be hit with magic or enchanted weapons, and they do attacks with no resistance (except for Nesh). Diomarche charges through a bunch of them, and with the power of Rush, they are banished. One of the ghosts tries to possess Gale, but is punted by Stella. The ghosts seem to be 9 hit mooks, so the fighters manage to get rid of a bunch of them. Diomarche heads belowdecks to look for treasure, which causes him to be attacked by another ghost. He breaks through the door, which causes environmental splinters. Nesh and Scout head belowdecks to help, but Nesh sends them away because he can handle the ghosts. Diomarche and Scout go to check out the Captain’s room; Diomarche gets stuck in the debris, but Scout gets in. Scout gets rid of one ghost and loots for three rounds. As this is going on, we notice there is Blood in the Water, so now we’re on the clock before the Sharks arrive.

We clear up the last of the ghosts and loot the treasure chest belowdecks, and escape!

At the very end, Nesh considers the Buccaneer– he remembers that he was one of [[The Lady]]’s seconds in the last Comet.
==Loot==
* +7 EPs
* +9 SPs

===Belowdecks:===
1 Loot worth of random stuff + 1 Perfect Pearl

===Capt. Chamber:===
* 1 Loot of Gold
* 2 necklaces from the Time of the Lord and the Lady. 4 successes of Appraisal says they’re worth more for historical value than for their pure gold/gems value. Might be worth something to one of the Mages that was looking for something (Nimra).
* Scrolls in Melmani - orders to the ship directing the captain to carry the treasure to somewhere in Orange. Army logistics orders, so this was some kind of military vessel of some kind. The loot is to fund the Lady’s army on the mainland. There is a map to a hidden stash of stuff in Orange somewhere.

[[Category:Run Logs]]

Pearly Whites

2026-03-24T01:57:06Z

Boojum: /* Talking to the King Again */

==In the Kingdom of the Sharks==
[[Managaratha]] fades out; [[Stella]] and [[Scout]] fade in. We’re still underwater. Fortunately the water breathing is still up.

The water starts getting colder, probably because we were here as companions of Managaratha. [[Nesh]]’s sword turns into the [[Buccaneer]]’s Blade, and he has some reputation, which stops the water from getting colder.

We discuss our current plan, or lack thereof. What can we do for the King of the Sharks? Well, we seem to have lost our Red mage.

Stella tires of our dithering, and brings down the Hammer of 13 successes and 10 DI.
Sharks are not actually anything that needs Fixing, they’re just inconvenient for us at present. Ideas for sending the Sharks elsewhere are decent, but we’re unlikely to have the EPs to pull off at present, so we’d need help. The small problem that could be fixed, potentially, is the dissension between Lani and Tia. There’s not an easy solution, as long as he remains King Shark and she remains Princess Crab; while there are things that might fix that, we don’t have a lot of angles on that. That could be ameliorated if Torsin was discredited, and the Goddess thinks that Torsin’s influence from Goblins is the highest on the list. Also there's the Kraken, but it's probably too big for us.

(Torsin is Lani's nephew, and in line to the throne after Tia).

Also, our Polite Merfolk is about to expire.

We go and talk to Tia - she's heard of goblins, and Torsin is visiting a lot, but he doesn't live here, and she doesn't know who he talks to when he's not here. Also she is surprised the Buccaneer doesn't have a petition. Well, perhaps the Buccaneer can petition to hunt goblins.

Does she know about the Kraken? It's not in the kingdom, but kraken territory is over there.

[[Vidan]] will learn mer overnight if Tia will teach him. That work.
Vidan learns 6 levels of Mer overnight.

[Dragon 13]

We go to petition the King in the morning, accompanied by sharks.. Nesh apologies for his interpreter, and that we are here on a mission from the Gods, and ask for permission to hunt Goblins in and around his lands.

Nesh and Vidan are quite charismatic, but they’re limited by Int/Mer, so they only get 7 successes. The King is happy to grant us 3 days to pursue the alleged intrusion into his lands, and he expects a report. We are escorted out of the throne room by sharks.

Outside the palace, the sharks don’t seem to attack us.

==Goblin Hunting==
We go to Torsin’s house. It’s an actual house with doors; we think that’s probably it.
(The Kingdom is generically magic

Vidan asks his aid in getting the kingdom's aid against our joint enemy, the slith.
He’s willing to talk about that, and we go in. He acknowledges that [[Slith]] are bad, but seems most interested when Vidan calls him the likely Heir.

They discuss the kingdoms and their Heirs. Mab’s heir is Venin, but he’s married. Fahl could marry.

Scout thinks there’s some Green magic in the back room. [[Gale]] can't hear anything, but does a bit of swim-foolery while Scout sneaks out. There's some seaweed next to his bed that has a green sigil on it - it matches one of the sigils on the plant spewing the amnesia-mist in Middlesea. It's some sort of communication spell. One wild spell later - the other end is off near where Middlesea (the spirit) is, in that [[Spiritbreaker Fortress]].

Unclaimed perfect pearls are unclaimed, that's okay. He has suggestions where we might look.

Gale (and Vidan, when she remembers she doesn't speak Mer) eavesdrop. It's some other language that Vidan doesn't know, so he casts a Witnessing miracle and memorizes it perfectly. It's a woman speaking Goblin. It's a siren, Vidan thinks.

People are offering to potentially help him become king if he helps them go after the Slith. The goblin says well, maybe that's a reasonable plan given the failure of the other one to marry Tia off, but tell me more about them. He describes us reasonably well. Hmm. Well, working with them would be interesting, certainly. I'm not sure I recommend it - the last major political plan they were involved in, involved the death of King Olison. Try not to make them any promises. Probably the best thing they could do for you is go kill the Kraken, so see if you can get them to do that. We wonder if that's actually "go get them eaten by the Kraken".

Kraken are known to be in the Broken Seas - Vidan is sure there are broken Kraken and not confident there are unBroken ones. Hard to be sure.

Stella decides to indulge in her pyromania and do some experimentation with lighting fires underwater. Creating a campfire (Creation) makes the campfire appear, but it goes out immediately. Lighting a forge with a fireball spell (Forge) that does both damage and sets things on fire (difficulty 10 for a 7 hex 2x damage per successes plus Burning).

==Talking to the King Again==
Nesh makes a plan for talking to the King, and we see him that afternoon.

Nesh and Vidan team up again to tell the King about Thorsin. The persuasion is not as big as before, but Vidan’s Witnessing is enough to convince him to send us to destroy it with a squad of Sharks.

He sends a squad of sharks to help us destroy the plant. Thorsin doesn’t think he should resist when there’s a squad of sharks. The sharks eat it. No siren sharks are produced in the process.

The party goes up to the surface for reasons I forget.

In the distance there's a boat. It flies the flag of the [[Maharani]]. It has Lisetera on it. She did not get His Highness out - there's too much divine stuff going on, so she's going to get a priest. While we were mucking around in there, she could have some conversations. That was while we were talking to Mage Alexa. We warn her about the Avatar of the Breaker - the orc in the middle, fighting the paladin of Rush.

She calls [[Suvatra]], the person we have the seagull feather from. Vidan introduces himself and says we have a feather - she does a double take. Vidan is suddenly wearing Navere's holy robes (it's a Navere thing), and that clearly convinces her of something.

She agrees that alliance is good, having people go there would be better but if we break the feather she can call, once. She does not speak directly for Her Majesty but can make a call when someone who can is available to discuss things.

Suvatra says she will let Her Majesty know that there will be Ambassadors coming, and will make arrangements. She asks for our names, and we tell her plus that we are known as the [[Middlesea Free Rangers]] (™).

Vidan notes that she takes note of Vidan’s name, particularly. She terminates the call.

==Pearl Hunting==
We ask [[Lisetera]] for help hunting Perfect Pearls. She thinks that underwater is inconvenient, but when Gale offers to deal with that, she says okay. The nearest one is two miles that way, in a chest. The boat sails off. [[Diomarche]] explains there are cataurs. His boyfriend, Lisetera wonders? Gale is totally shipping them now.

Lisetera sends a mer-Lisetera with us to go pearl-hunting. We swim for a while and find a shipwreck. We proceed, and combat begins!

The ship has been sunk for many years, it seems to have stuff growing on it.

Ghosts!

The ghosts appear, attempting to possess the people who walk onto the ship. They need to be hit with magic or enchanted weapons, and they do attacks with no resistance (except for Nesh). Diomarche charges through a bunch of them, and with the power of Rush, they are banished. One of the ghosts tries to possess Gale, but is punted by Stella. The ghosts seem to be 9 hit mooks, so the fighters manage to get rid of a bunch of them. Diomarche heads belowdecks to look for treasure, which causes him to be attacked by another ghost. He breaks through the door, which causes environmental splinters. Nesh and Scout head belowdecks to help, but Nesh sends them away because he can handle the ghosts. Diomarche and Scout go to check out the Captain’s room; Diomarche gets stuck in the debris, but Scout gets in. Scout gets rid of one ghost and loots for three rounds. As this is going on, we notice there is Blood in the Water, so now we’re on the clock before the Sharks arrive.

We clear up the last of the ghosts and loot the treasure chest belowdecks, and escape!

At the very end, Nesh considers the Buccaneer– he remembers that he was one of [[The Lady]]’s seconds in the last Comet.
==Loot==
* +7 EPs
* +9 SPs

===Belowdecks:===
1 Loot worth of random stuff + 1 Perfect Pearl

===Capt. Chamber:===
* 1 Loot of Gold
* 2 necklaces from the Time of the Lord and the Lady. 4 successes of Appraisal says they’re worth more for historical value than for their pure gold/gems value. Might be worth something to one of the Mages that was looking for something (Nimra).
* Scrolls in Melmani - orders to the ship directing the captain to carry the treasure to somewhere in Orange. Army logistics orders, so this was some kind of military vessel of some kind. The loot is to fund the Lady’s army on the mainland. There is a map to a hidden stash of stuff in Orange somewhere.

[[Category:Run Logs]]

Suspicious Orange Weapons

2026-03-24T01:29:16Z

Boojum: /* Orange Magic Swords of Breaking */

== Orange Magic Swords of Breaking ==

A recurring concern involves swords imbued with Orange magic. Investigation indicates that they behave like Goblin-crafted weapons from the Broken Lands, and will Break a person if wielded for long enough.

Examples include:

* [[Captain Jones]] at the Plains of Gedden had one - he nearly arrested Gale for sparring with Lisatera, due to a pre-game run-in.
* A wedding gift sword made in Orange, given to Princess Volga at her betrothal from a man from Orange. Princess Volga dismissed the party's concerns about her sword, agreeing only to look into it.
* Swords referenced in connection with the sale to Queen Iona, noted by Stella in relation to a name given by [[Mario]]

The magic in these swords is similar to that found in Orange daggers and in goblin Orange magic creations. The wedding gift sword differed from the "Stabby Dagger of Stabbing" in that it lacked active magic. Stella eventually purified one of the strange non-Broken swords with 9 successes, dispelling it entirely. This was passed along to [[Bran]] via a spell set up by [[Diomarche]].

== Particularly Nefarious Daggers ==

===Fatal Dagger===

A magical weapon crafted through Orange magic using specialized Forge techniques that combine creation and destruction principles. The dagger was created by [[Mario]] in his workshop within the [[Centurion Julia|Centurion's]] household.

====Creation and Properties====
The dagger uses all three Orange disciplines in its creation. Its ingredients include:
* Wyvern blood
* Cyanide, arsenic, and hemlock
* Other locally sourced materials

The crafting process links creation and Forge magic together to achieve lethality far exceeding standard bonus multipliers. The dagger is designed to destroy, with each use consuming the weapon itself—it can only be used a few times before destroying itself completely. After [[Vidan]] sanctified the stolen dagger, it became a x15 one-use weapon but lost its Fatal and Broken properties, disappointing [[Mario]].

====Theft and Recovery====
A dagger was stolen from Mario's workshop. The theft appeared to be an inside job, with no signs of forced entry or rifling through the lab. Vivian, a staff member jealous of others in the household, stole the dagger at the suspected instigation of [[Carol]], who is likely Bent. The dagger was discovered hidden in a secret compartment in a waiting room of the Lord's House, planted there by Vivian for later retrieval.

[[Managaratha]]'s postcognition revealed a woman placing the dagger in the compartment within the last 48 hours. [[Julia]] identified this as Vivian. The [[Centurion]] concluded Vivian had stolen the dagger intending to use it over the following days, though it remains unclear whether Carol actively influenced her decisions or merely took advantage of her existing jealousy. The dagger was recovered before it could be used.

===Dagger of Destruction===
A separate Dagger of Destruction identified as made by Lisador was shown to Mario, who confirmed it was not his work. This dagger also demonstrates dangerous Orange craftsmanship and has compelled wielders toward violence. Gale has it now - is she more inclined towards violence? Hard to tell.

== Selling Swords Plot ==
A note warns [[Managaratha]] to watch the sale of swords, suggesting it is part of a larger, ongoing scheme.

Suspicious Orange Weapons

2026-03-24T01:26:31Z

Boojum: /* Orange Magic Swords of Breaking */

== Orange Magic Swords of Breaking ==

A recurring concern involves swords imbued with Orange magic. Investigation indicates that they behave like Goblin-crafted weapons from the Broken Lands, and will Break a person if wielded for long enough.

Examples include:

* Captain Jones at the Plains of Gedden had one
* A wedding gift sword made in Orange, given to Princess Volga at her betrothal from a man from Orange. Princess Volga dismissed the party's concerns about her sword, agreeing only to look into it.
* Swords referenced in connection with the sale to Queen Iona, noted by Stella in relation to a name given by [[Mario]]
* A sword wielded by a guard who wanted to arrest Gale.

The magic in these swords is similar to that found in Orange daggers and in goblin Orange magic creations. The wedding gift sword differed from the "Stabby Dagger of Stabbing" in that it lacked active magic. Stella eventually purified one of the strange non-Broken swords with 9 successes, dispelling it entirely. This was passed along to [[Bran]] via a spell set up by [[Diomarche]].

== Particularly Nefarious Daggers ==

===Fatal Dagger===

A magical weapon crafted through Orange magic using specialized Forge techniques that combine creation and destruction principles. The dagger was created by [[Mario]] in his workshop within the [[Centurion Julia|Centurion's]] household.

====Creation and Properties====
The dagger uses all three Orange disciplines in its creation. Its ingredients include:
* Wyvern blood
* Cyanide, arsenic, and hemlock
* Other locally sourced materials

The crafting process links creation and Forge magic together to achieve lethality far exceeding standard bonus multipliers. The dagger is designed to destroy, with each use consuming the weapon itself—it can only be used a few times before destroying itself completely. After [[Vidan]] sanctified the stolen dagger, it became a x15 one-use weapon but lost its Fatal and Broken properties, disappointing [[Mario]].

====Theft and Recovery====
A dagger was stolen from Mario's workshop. The theft appeared to be an inside job, with no signs of forced entry or rifling through the lab. Vivian, a staff member jealous of others in the household, stole the dagger at the suspected instigation of [[Carol]], who is likely Bent. The dagger was discovered hidden in a secret compartment in a waiting room of the Lord's House, planted there by Vivian for later retrieval.

[[Managaratha]]'s postcognition revealed a woman placing the dagger in the compartment within the last 48 hours. [[Julia]] identified this as Vivian. The [[Centurion]] concluded Vivian had stolen the dagger intending to use it over the following days, though it remains unclear whether Carol actively influenced her decisions or merely took advantage of her existing jealousy. The dagger was recovered before it could be used.

===Dagger of Destruction===
A separate Dagger of Destruction identified as made by Lisador was shown to Mario, who confirmed it was not his work. This dagger also demonstrates dangerous Orange craftsmanship and has compelled wielders toward violence. Gale has it now - is she more inclined towards violence? Hard to tell.

== Selling Swords Plot ==
A note warns [[Managaratha]] to watch the sale of swords, suggesting it is part of a larger, ongoing scheme.

Suspicious Orange Weapons

2026-03-24T01:25:02Z

Boojum: Created page with "== Orange Magic Swords of Breaking == A recurring concern involves swords imbued with Orange magic. Investigation indicates that they behave like Goblin-crafted weapons from the Broken Lands, and will Break a person if wielded for long enough. Examples include: * A sword seen at the Plains of Gedden * A wedding gift sword made in Orange, given to Princess Volga at her betrothal from a man from Orange. Princess Volga dismissed the party's concerns about her sword, ag..."

== Orange Magic Swords of Breaking ==

A recurring concern involves swords imbued with Orange magic. Investigation indicates that they behave like Goblin-crafted weapons from the Broken Lands, and will Break a person if wielded for long enough.

Examples include:

* A sword seen at the Plains of Gedden
* A wedding gift sword made in Orange, given to Princess Volga at her betrothal from a man from Orange. Princess Volga dismissed the party's concerns about her sword, agreeing only to look into it.
* Swords referenced in connection with the sale to Queen Iona, noted by Stella in relation to a name given by [[Mario]]
* A sword wielded by a guard who wanted to arrest Gale.

The magic in these swords is similar to that found in Orange daggers and in goblin Orange magic creations. The wedding gift sword differed from the "Stabby Dagger of Stabbing" in that it lacked active magic. Stella eventually purified one of the strange non-Broken swords with 9 successes, dispelling it entirely. This was passed along to [[Bran]] via a spell set up by [[Diomarche]].

== Particularly Nefarious Daggers ==

===Fatal Dagger===

A magical weapon crafted through Orange magic using specialized Forge techniques that combine creation and destruction principles. The dagger was created by [[Mario]] in his workshop within the [[Centurion Julia|Centurion's]] household.

====Creation and Properties====
The dagger uses all three Orange disciplines in its creation. Its ingredients include:
* Wyvern blood
* Cyanide, arsenic, and hemlock
* Other locally sourced materials

The crafting process links creation and Forge magic together to achieve lethality far exceeding standard bonus multipliers. The dagger is designed to destroy, with each use consuming the weapon itself—it can only be used a few times before destroying itself completely. After [[Vidan]] sanctified the stolen dagger, it became a x15 one-use weapon but lost its Fatal and Broken properties, disappointing [[Mario]].

====Theft and Recovery====
A dagger was stolen from Mario's workshop. The theft appeared to be an inside job, with no signs of forced entry or rifling through the lab. Vivian, a staff member jealous of others in the household, stole the dagger at the suspected instigation of [[Carol]], who is likely Bent. The dagger was discovered hidden in a secret compartment in a waiting room of the Lord's House, planted there by Vivian for later retrieval.

[[Managaratha]]'s postcognition revealed a woman placing the dagger in the compartment within the last 48 hours. [[Julia]] identified this as Vivian. The [[Centurion]] concluded Vivian had stolen the dagger intending to use it over the following days, though it remains unclear whether Carol actively influenced her decisions or merely took advantage of her existing jealousy. The dagger was recovered before it could be used.

===Dagger of Destruction===
A separate Dagger of Destruction identified as made by Lisador was shown to Mario, who confirmed it was not his work. This dagger also demonstrates dangerous Orange craftsmanship and has compelled wielders toward violence. Gale has it now - is she more inclined towards violence? Hard to tell.

== Selling Swords Plot ==
A note warns [[Managaratha]] to watch the sale of swords, suggesting it is part of a larger, ongoing scheme.

Under the Sea

2026-03-24T00:41:58Z

Boojum: /* To Catch a Slith */

==Escape==

[Still Phoenix 15] 
[[Managaratha]] vanishes; [[Gale]] and [[Diomarche]] fade in.
"Get us out! We have to start the attack"
Gale wilds up an area-of-effect flight spell to help get us out of the tunnel.

There is some vague attempt at explaining what happened, which is about as muddled as one would expect. The army forces are in the midst of an army combat. We are brought back to camp, where the Red mages take a look at us, and help out a bit, but we’re not dying, so we’re not so important. But we can walk around at least.

There are wounded from the fight, but the fight seems to be going well.

Diomarche decides he needs to go be part of the fight, so he gallops off. Fortunately, in army combat one does not need to make Survival: Broken Lands rolls. He arrives in time to join the combat, but doesn’t have a great sense of the strategy, so he joins up with some paladins.

There are five Red units and 3 Orc units, and the Red units are bigger, and the terrain modifiers have been neutralized, so it’s going fairly decisively in the direction of Red. After several hours, the orcs are defeated and the Keep is taken.

Diomarche makes a Karma check! He overhears Arik asking when did Ionia get so many Berserkers, but it’s more of an idle question than a real concern.

After the battle, Arik and Bryan tell us Good Work. We consult with [[Lisetera]] about various things. Diomarche is asking about using Unreality to do Strange things, like, say, break through a wall without actually damaging the wall. Cartoon physics is fairly basic thing to deal with. Things like “what could this have been?” is harder.

[Phoenix 16]

The next day, [[Stella]] drops 8 DI and heals our terrible broken bones. [[Vidan]] sets up a ritual to sanctify the Broken shrine, and with the Rush and Nameless priests he crushes it.

Lisetera talks about her plans to free the Prince, and wonders if we’re going to join her, or if there’s another plan. We’re closer to Green than Blue. And we have a Flying Boat now.

Talking to the merfolk may be quicker, though. Gale gets Lisetera to generate an unreal version of her, and *that* Gale knows merfolk in the eastern ocean. (Lisetera points out they might not know her).

The plan: swing by the Plains of Gedden before going to find the merfolk. Well, Vidan asks Navere first. After a terrible roll, Navere thinks that neither Green nor merfolk are the place she would send us, but merfolk is closer to right? Well, that doesn’t help very much, but at least convinces us that merfolk is probably not a terrible thing. Off we go! We stay in the boat, to better evade the terribleness of the Broken Lands, and we escape.

Gale pokes at ChatGalePT, swapping stories. ChatGalePT doesn’t have a party, but has been to Jabar.

Next morning [Phoenix 17]

We camp for the night in [[Victoria]]. [[Nesh]] makes a fortune check for the party, but nothing happens.
After another day of travel, Lisetera is getting bored. We make another camp again.
Evening of day three [Phoenix 18] we get to the [[Plains of Geddon]].
We do not get attacked.

Diomarche turns in his report, and asks for continued Detached Duty. Diomarche dodges!
He looks for [[Bran]], and they exchange blood, because that’s what icky Red mages do (thinks [[Scout]]). This will let them communicate for a few weeks (which is weirdly short, due to a terrible roll)-- if Diomarche pricks his finger in the same place, Bran will hear the next minute of speech. He’s normally based in Red, but he’ll see if he can help.

Gale and Scout spar so that Lisetera could get some data.
Captain Jones comes by and says “What are you doing here?”, glaring at Gale.
It turns out it’s the person she got drunk so that he wouldn’t win the tournament. (Pre-game Gale Adventure!)

Vidan seems to think we should be heading more south, although it’s not entirely clear why. We camp for the night in the Great Valley. Nothing happens. After four days, [Phoenix 22] we reach the coast, almost entirely without incident.

==No Kings In Beren==

The castle in the coastal city is flying at half mast, and people are heading into the main square.
Apparently the king of [[Berana]] has recently died, and people are waiting to get in to go to the funeral tomorrow. It’s not entirely clear why the King died, but he was about 80, so it’s not strange that he might have died. Vidan notes that the King had absolutely _no_ clear heir, etc. It’s like the King had deliberately done everything wrong.

Lisetera gets us rooms at a nicer place than we would have.

Vidan and (everyone?) go to the square where the Church of the Five is, where the funeral will be. The castle is over on the hill, this is a bit away. Vidan knocks on one of the doors, the keeper recognizes he’s in priest robes. That changes his tack from “the line is over there” to “Can I help you?” Vidan offers his services as a traveling priest.

Lady Violet is the head of the Church, she allows Vidan in (after a moment) to have tea and discuss. She looks tired, if maybe not grieving? (She’s probably got more DI than Vidan, but not 20 or anything like that.) She’s not dealing with the funeral, she’s planning the Coronation. He heard it was “not entirely obvious” who was to be crowned; she says that’s generous. “Tangled mess” is perhaps more accurate.

There are a number of people with sufficiently good claims that Our Lady has not seen fit to give her a “this is The Heir” ruling. She is hoping to keep the Church relatively neutral while the heirs sort it out themselves. His Majesty was the first King of Berana, and the Church’s priority is to make sure that the Kingdom survives, rather than there be one particular Ruler. Though if Vidan had other guidance…? He admits his guidance was somewhat oblique. Well, her plan is to let the Heirs try to sort it out, without letting it devolve into an outright war which tears the Kingdom apart– which is in the realm of possibility.

Oh, by the way, it was definitely an assassination. The actual assassin has not been identified. “Oh.” Is this something she would like help with? Yes, she would be interested in having it resolved, if that was something he could do? His group has some skills there.

Is there someone at the palace to speak to? The steward is Franklin. There are few people who don’t have opinions on the fight, but he maintains the veneer of impartiality, at least. If Vidan comes back in the morning, she will provide a letter of introduction. He offers to support her in the actual Coronation; she suspects it may be a while though she will push for as soon as possible.

Vidan retreats to the inn, and relays what he has learned.

"Cast dreams if you have them."
Stella will think about what the Goddess thinks needs fixing. Lisetera will give Gale a dream about the adventures we need to have.

Stella (8 successes with 8 DI) has a Big Black Hole in her answer, which is alarming.
That’s kind of like if you tried to hit Nesh with a miracle… Oh, [[Slith]] assassin. That seems plausible. Around the edges, there’s lots of finger pointing at the Castle, none of which is right. Fixing the breaks in the Kingdom before it falls apart is better than not. Even if it’s not really her problem to deal with.

Nesh and Scout go scout the Church. There are some palace / king’s guard about. The church has two side entrances that are reasonably small and lockable. Nobody seems to be waiting at them presently. No back entrance. There is a spot in the back that has footsteps leading up to and away from it as if it was a door, but there’s no door there. The footsteps are recent, in the last day or two. There’s a miracle on the whole church that’s big, so it’s hard to say if there’s something else there.

Diomarche goes to the Church of Rush to check in. Nobody is officially saying assassination, but also, nobody has said Slith. What evidence? A teammate is a priest of the Mother. Not that they said Slith, but they had a hole in the vision.

Vidan and Gale go down to the harbor, and then in the harbor, to look for clues. Something large and snakelike came up here. Also at a tavern afterwards - Gale meets a cute guy named Machus, from Blue, who turns out to know some merfolk. Bonus! They were near Melmane - there was a disagreement about which sea lanes were available for travel, which had to be negotiated. (They don't, in general, speak Common, they speak Mer. Touchy about priorities, and often regard the surface folk as intruders. A blue apprentice cast a spell that contacted them.)

Gale asks for a dream from Lisetera, about “The adventure we’re supposed to have here”. She dreams. A dream about having a fight with a slith: nya nya whatever. If you were trying really hard, you could have the adventure of fighting the Broken priest - that would be more fun.

[Phoenix 23:]

Gale relays the dream, and asks Lisetera about what might be going on with the judgy tone of the dream. Well, it’s an Unreal dream, and you asked about Reality. It didn’t bounce off the slith, but it wasn’t a 10 success spell. But you saw the slith. Maybe it’s not guarded against Unreality? If it’s guarded to deal with Red in particular?

Nesh offers himself to Lisetera as tribute a test subject for how Unreality works on slith/saurians. She tries a few things, which don’t work, and then creates an Unreal version that is kind of s

Vidan goes to get the letter of introduction, and talks to the priest of the Nameless, who is quite busy. The King was stabbed in the middle of the night with a single blow that was quite powerful; the dagger was probably poisoned but it’s unclear the poison actually mattered. The fact that it was a single blow means it’s clearly an assassin, someone with schticks in extra damage/multipliers/etc. The dagger was not recovered. There must have been some kind of investigation on the body. “Why does the populace not know, given how obvious it is that it was an assassination?” “It was felt that announcing an assassination without an assassin in hand would have exacerbated the tensions.”

We ponder next moves. We decide to go check out the slith… encampment? before the funeral. Maybe we’ll come back with a slith prisoner in chains! Or maybe we’ll just be wet. Stella stashes dry clothes for everyone near to the harbor. Liseterra sends an unreal copy with us.
==To Catch a Slith==
We go underwater, with Free Action and Breathe Underwater. Vidan tracks the slith tracks down under the harbor to a cave. We’re not really very good at stealth, sadly, but it turns out the slith is asleep. We gang up on it, with Gale coordinating. The slith takes a bunch of damage and loses a bunch of speed. He tries to flee, but with coordination gets pretty badly chopped. Stella tries to stabilize him.

Witnessing miracle from Vidan: The dagger at his belt is probably a clue. There's a vellum in the corner of the cave. Scout thinks there are traps. Turns out yes, the dagger is poisoned, as Scout sticks himself with it. Stella fixes him as he gasps out his last words. He thinks of more of them, with asides.

Nesh finds some pearls (loot, not clues or traps). Probably about half a loot.

Out of the harbor, Nesh scavenges a wheelbarrow and a sailcloth. We head to the temple, but are stopped by guards. Vidan talks his way past the guards and goes to Lady Violet, telling her all. She sends an orderly with Vidan, and says she will deal with things.

She shows up in fifteen minutes with ten people, and does the big reveal. There is some arguing.

Lisetera is convinced to do a translation spell on the vellum. “Your job is to remove the King, and then wait until they pick a successor, and kill that successor, and then kill the next successor, and then we’re probably done.”

The funeral happens. We stay outside the Church, and hear the priest send him to the Nameless.
===Loot===
* Pearls (½ Loot)
* +5 EPs
* +7 EPs

[[Category:Run Logs]]

Mappe

2026-03-15T16:37:45Z

Boojum: Redirected page to World Map

#REDIRECT [[World Map]]

Fyodor

2026-03-15T16:30:36Z

Boojum: Redirected page to Mikhailovich

#REDIRECT [[Mikhailovich]]

Promises Promises

2026-03-15T15:16:56Z

Boojum: /* Ministry of War */

==Ministry of War==
[All Gazelle 30]
[[Vidan]] and [[Stella]] vanish, and [[Nesh]] reappears. He still has tons of effects, but happily while the reverse gravity is still in effect, so is [[Gale]]'s fly spell.

The bureaucrat thinks this whole vanishing thing is very annoying.

Zheldat is due south of the tower, in line with the rivers hitting the coasts. It's the capital of the Empire of the Orcslayer (Purple)

We go to the ministry of War. It is set up for centaur, and there are centaur walking through the halls. Fewer other races. (Other buildings have not been set up for centaurs, but this one has.)

[[Managaratha]] remembers– Zheldat was founded when the centaurs came back into the world; this building is not that old.

“I was hoping to speak with Vidan, but apparently I am speaking with you all.” 
“I have read Vidan’s report. It appears that you all are the only ones that can get into this… whatever this [[Oasis]] miracle is. I will have to treat you as… we will not say ‘agents’, but we will have to work together to determine how to undo the time effect. There are some things I will need to share with you, but I will require a promise of secrecy first. (An Oath. It will make it difficult to share the secrets but not impossible, so it won't be accidental, and he will know.) For Vidan and Stella, he'll have to bind them when they return, and by tomorrow will have something to provide for them.

The minister wonders if the kid is one of us?
He says enough of this floating [[Saurian]] nonsense, and Nesh comes to the ground for now. He emphasizes the importance of this secret-keeping, as if Nesh is a child.

He puts together the purple Oath and we all agree.

He thinks the timestop effect is the result of the death of Foran Zakar, Minister of Redaction. He was a priest of the Twins as well as a mage, and was one of the leaders of their delegation; he had an effect of that sort prepared on his death. The key to open the time stop was in the knowledge of Tier Lo (subminister of the second rank), who was assassinated in Zhaldat the night that [[Middlesea]] happened. The fact that they want the effect to stay up and we want the effect to stay up, he finds interesting. But he can't force it open anyway. Who knew the internal affairs of the Ministry of Redactions, he is not sure. The other fifth-level Bureaucrats were probably aware. Other ministers of redaction probably.

The Ministry of Redaction is not under the other fifth-level Bureaucrats; it keeps Secrets.

It’s not clear to the Minister whether the weaponization was intended to be on a smaller degree or not. The general purpose of the effect is to catch the assassin or whoever so that the Ministry of Redaction can put together a team and extract them. Someone is of the opinion that the bubble should not be opened.

Gale wonders if the key can be recovered magically?
It’s unlikely; possibly Yellow could do it. He does not speak of the possibility of what Yellow can do.

A Nameless priest could maybe do it?
That’s a plausible route to follow, if we have a Priest of the Nameless who could talk to a dead priest of the Twins. Probably easier if we tried for Tier Lo.

It’s possible the key could be deduced; Zakar is the sort that uses suspenders and a waistband. The Ministry has not been able to perform a complete search, as they are not acknowledging Zakar’s death.

[[Inspector Vok]] has been assigned to investigate Tier Lo’s death. He likely is already running into issues with the Ministry of Redaction. His reports thus far have not been very enlightening. His post-cog has indicated that it was a single ninja that killed Tier Lo. (Ninja are known to be a thing, but not culturally associated with anywhere specific.)

There is not a new Minister of Redaction; the Ministry is pursuing the matter in some degree, but it has lost both its Minister and the Subminister that would have stepped in. There are discussions going on internally.

Managaratha “That sounds exciting.”
“Exciting. Indeed.”

One assumes a post in a Ministry by proving one’s self, so there are Rules about how the next Minister is chosen.

Ministry of Lions deals with unusual threats and is also in the Middlesea miracle. There is a subminister of war there.

He is [[Tan Kato]], the Minister of War.

Does he have any advice for us? His focus is on the orcs invading - he does not expect us to join that fight.

We are outside the scope of Ministry politics, which should give us some flexibility.
We are welcome to investigate the assassination.

He assigns us Volda (the bureaucrat we’ve been running into, as it turns out) to point us around and help us with contact.

Fifth Level is the highest rank of Bureaucrats.

Volda gives us the list of the delegates from Purple.
We get a briefing on the orc invasion.
Strong push to get them a foothold in the north of the Empire; they’ve been less coordinated since then, and the Minister and Head Stallion have been holding them at bay.
They didn’t take any obvious strategic locations, but it was definitely an invasion, rather than a raid.

Ministry of Repercussions is responsible for keeping the probabilities of outcomes updated.
Ministry of Fortune is small– probably not more than 5-10 bureaucrats total. The current Minister is the first Minister of Fortune in a few decades. Its role is primarily to take advantage of unusual opportunities.

There are 88 ministries currently active; it changes moderately regularly..
323 Inactive ministries currently. The most recently reactivated ministry is the Ministry of Lilacs, which regulates perfumes and herbal remedies and some Green mages. (Why? Gale is going to have to investigate. That sounds like an adventure). Volda later confirms that they reactivated *on* the Middlesea Day.

==Ministry of Fortune==

Ministry of Fortune
Volda takes out a book, which generates a map.
A small building. This is not designed for centaurs.

[[Seilin]] (she/her) greets us enthusiastically. Welcome to the Ministry of Fortune!
She is a bureaucrat assigned to the Ministry, but not a subminister.
She takes the [[Tarn Evidence Packet]] and goes to read it while we have tea.
(Volda is unimpressed with the tea.)

Managaratha tries to pump her for information, such as he can.
The Minister of Fortune didn’t report since arriving at Middlesea.

The Ministry has pushed forward to see what can be done with the troubles in the country.
Displaced people in the north, for example.

She gives us Tourist suggestions. The Empty Throne can be viewed two days per week; there is a theater that has a new work showing.

She will prepare a report for Opportunities When Taking Down The Bubble.

==Ministry of Lions==

To the Ministry of Lions next.
It's larger than the Ministry of Fortune, located in an upmarket area of town, close to the Temple district; we see people in Twinsish regalia.

They have a large antechamber, big enough for centaur.
“What do you need?” He sees Nesh floating. “Oh.”
He sends a messenger to get Tan Ri.
Gale asks about forms for being a Registered Pirate!
“Registered Pirate, or Privateer, or Unregistered Naval Officer?" The first, but it would be the Ministry of Naval Trade, which is missing its minister also.

Lots of people are interested in talking to us, apparently.
We are about to go back in, but [[Scout]] notes that there’s a big Twins miracle back there.
We advise them that we have a Broken miracle on us, so please don’t get us.
Ah. Let’s go talk in the park.

We go to the park; the bureaucrats spend some time getting Nesh back on the ground, until dusk. They ask us lots of questions about what’s in the packet, expanding and collapsing details. They run Purple diagnostics.

The thing that’s not in the packet, that they think is true. We’re under a Broken miracle; a Blue spell; a Navere miracle; a Rushian miracle; a Twins miracle. There are a lot of miracles on us people, and they’re not interacting perfectly. If it was Magic (and some if it is Magic) it would probably have sorted itself out. There would be an effect on us at this point. It’s mostly miracles, and they continue to fight with each other more, so it’s more fluid effect, that they would not count on staying the same. For instance, we’re missing two people now rather than one. Some other sorts of miracles may have trouble affecting us.

Gale wonders if the miracles are being directed by the Gods, in the “do what you think is best” way– is that happening in real time?
The ministry people disagree with each other, and start to geek out about theology.

The Twins miracle is not actually big enough for the Twins to have a hand in specifically what it was doing when it was creating. But the ongoing fight, some of them think the Twins are paying attention to. It’s a Balance miracle. The Rush and Navere miracles are both quite large, and could have had some “The God is stepping in to make it work this way”, they think. The Oasis is huge, but they’re less familiar with spirits and demons.-- would the Oasis way over there have had to send a specific miracle. They don’t identify anything Goddessy on us at present.

Nesh pays attention to what they’re saying in the background– the ministry people are speaking another language with each other sometimes, and then seem to be translating back. They don’t seem to be concealing anything particularly. We are definitely getting looks from people in the park.

Nesh notices there is a guy watching us from outside the park, and relays that to us.

After an hour they start to move from diagnostic to thinking about Treatments.
Managaratha attempts to distract them with more theoretical questions!

We’re supposed to all be trapped in the broken miracle, but the Rushian miracle was supposed to break us out, but the Blue spell says we’re all in the same place. They expect that if we got too far apart we’d fall back into the Not Here miracle.

Gale says she wants a full report on specific treatments! Producing reports is one of their weaknesses… though there are clearly some experimentalists in the group who would be willing to just Try It Right Now.

Why Lions? There’s an extent to which it’s tied to cataurs, they think. The history geek says the Ministry of Lions is one of the oldest ministries, founded during the first comet during the founding of the Empire. The issues at that point, they could have been Ministry of Fish, if we wanted to deal with the merfolk. No one had a good evocative word for dealing with Orcs. And there were a fair number of cataurs in the area at the time. They’ve mostly retreated to the Oasis by this point. At that time, as best the historian puts it together, there were not many cataurs anywhere, since they were just reappearing. But there was a group causing trouble out of the Broken Lands, that seems to have been mostly dealt with.

There are no cataurs within four miles, as we discover when Managaratha asks “how would we find a cataur?” and someone says “I could just cast summon cataur with purple.” and does so.

Managaratha asks about other things that have happened– they seem to be quiet about the status of the Minister of Lions, which makes us think they do have some information.

The sigil of the Purple stasis is the Hide-my-sigil Sigil, it’s about 150 years old.

The guy who’s watching us has some kind of “In The Shadows” Tem-ish effect.

Nesh springs the trap!
The guy is a follower of the Guiding Star (who is the head Priest of Tem)

What are our dreams? What do we dream of doing? ('All of it!' -Gale)
He'll keep following us.

We interrogate Rakta, the priest who’s following us. He’s mostly here because the Guiding Star knows we’re in town and wants to keep an eye on us. We ask if there were other strange happenings in the capital that they know about on the day of Middlesea; Yes, says Rakta. Can he tell us more? We’d want to ask the Guiding Star. Can we do that? He’ll let the Guiding Star know we want to talk to him. He recommends we do not go in the Temple, where the Guiding Star is likely to be.

==Ministry (sort of) of Foreign Affairs==

There is an invitation to dinner with the Minister of Foreign Affairs. We go! Not to the Ministry, to the Minister's house. (Dunang) He has met Managaratha in the past, when he was younger.

He treats us to a lovely dinner, and is a lovely host, and he casually gets lots of details about our backstories without us really noticing. Hmm.

Having chatted a while, Nesh notices that he seems to be disappointed that we actually are as clueless as we look.

Scout lets slip that [[Futeau]] is the traitor - Dunang is surprised to hear that, and Scout asks him to get that to Her Majesty just in case. (Futeau, it turns out, is one of the Queen’s advisors.) He seems to indicate that he can see to that.

The Minister offers us his seats at the theater.
We’re in the diplomatic box; it has room for centaurs and the theater is clearly set up for at least some centaur population.

The play is a reasonably interesting opera-y thing. Not much plot, but the singers are quite talented. The convention is that the audience is at a social event, and people walk in and out. Nesh invites the priest of Tam into the box with us.

About ¾ of the way through, there’s a knock on the door. Nesh answers; there’s a glowing guy that asks if he can come in. Sai Ko Ti, high priest of Tam, the Summer’s Warmth. He asks for an evidence packet, since he has not been provided with a copy yet as he is not in the Ministry. He is curious about what we remember about what happened to people in the Delegation, but it mostly seems to be a social call, rather than an Interrogation.

Scout notes that if we were actively Broken, the Warmth effect would be actively painful, rather than just getting warm.

"Does he do that a lot?"
"*Constantly*."

Gale develops a crush on a singer and sends them a lilac.

==No Evidence for Orcs==

Some people wake when the screaming starts; Nesh wakes up the rest.

Orcs have surrounded the inn. There are about 10 mooks; Scout notices one of them is a priest, but she is using some kind of mojo to look like a mook.

The mooks charge upstairs, looting the rooms for the Tarn Evidence Packets, while half the party cuts them apart and the other half goes after the priest.

The priest spends her DI to bring 4 of the mooks back from the dead, resulting in more chopping. Managaratha notes that the priest invokes Grumuush when doing the miracle to bring back the dead guys.

The orcs (even the dead ones) disappear again at the bottom of 3rd action; luckily, the one orc who had found an evidence packet dropped it when Nesh killed them.

The local forces appear at the top of 4th action, and are confused that there are no orcs. The witnesses and post-cogs tell them that yes, there were orcs. They are dismayed that the priest does not show up in post-cog.

Loot:
+5 EPs
+5 SPs

[[Category:Run Logs]]

Rainbow

2026-03-14T20:20:52Z

Boojum:

The Rainbow Isles of the Inland Sea. The "capital" is the keep of [[Middlesea]], which is run by [[Cara]] Benefice, the "Pirate Queen".

This is where the [[Muddle in Middlesea|Conclave]] was located.

= Runs Here =
* [[First Run]]
* [[Second Run]]

[[Category:Countries]]

Rinyan Redux

2026-03-14T19:08:18Z

Boojum: /* Cult of Al’an */

=To Orange!=

As [[Diomarche]] and [[Gale]] fade out, we are but five! But the Fivist doesn’ know what we’re doing. So we tell him we’re going to <s>Red</s> Orange, to find out about what’s wrong with [[Vidan]], and to maybe do something about the new Broken miracle on us.

[[Managaratha]] does math, makes us fly up into the air, and then teleports us over to somewhere over Orange. He does some Navigation to figure out more clearly where we are– [[Stella]] can confirm we’re in the Orange Zone. Mangaratha asks Stella for a good place to have lunch, and she describes a restaurant, so we teleport there. Or… at least somewhere in [[Rinyan]]. Oops.

Stella takes us to the Temple, so that we can make a plan. [[Meraldi]] and [[Diana]] are the two other Priests there; Meraldi is there when we arrive. She asks if we’re back back, or just dropping in. Stella asks what’s going on.

Cassandra’s probably a little ahead of Tivoli. if they got in a fight, but they’re mostly not actually fighting. There’s been a couple of incidents with Orange magic going off, but she doesn’t have a lot of info– the Guild is trying to keep it relatively quiet. (She thinks they found some cursed daggers that were found shortly after we found the one that Gale is carrying. There was an issue with some horseshoes? She doesn’t know a lot about that. And there was a third incident in Rinyan, that was cleaned up darn fast. There were incidents in other cities as well. The Guild seems to be on it.)

The Saurians are up to something, it’s pretty clear, but everyone else is looking at it and not finding out much about it. They’re particularly displeased about the people stuck in Middlesea– that seems to be the focus of whatever they’re upset about. “[[Victor]], is who they’re upset about?” asks Stella. Yes, yes that’s it. The other churches are mostly quiet. The Guild is pushing for some help with the pirates (on the Inland side)

[As an aside, [[Scout]] ponders how Country Turns work with Zones. He’s confident that it’s not simply one draw per Zone– His Majesty gets a draw that’s separate from Her Majesty or Their Majesty. The Empire might get one draw, but they’re probably a bigger Country. Countries in Red might each get their own draw, but not all the time? Blue is madness, who can say, really.]

Vidan asks if there is a Church of Navere nearby– there is a church of the Five, and [[Rafael]] is a priest of Navere. ([[Mother Jess]], the head of the Church of Navere, is in King [[Richard III|Richard]]’s Lands in [[Red]].) Rafael is probably a bit bigger than Vidan, and definitely more involved in the Church hierarchy. There is also a Church of Rush.

We update Meraldi on the Breaker’s Plan to Corrupt the Orange Zone, or as much as we know about it. Well that moves looking into Orange Magic strangeness up the list.

=Church of the Five=
Stella sends a message to [[Ritasi]] that the [[Middlesea Free Rangers]] would like to set up a meeting. Then Meraldi takes us to the Church of the Five, and Vidan spends a DI to authorize us to carry these Broken Miracles around. The Church is bigger than the shrine of the Goddess; it’s clearly actively supported by The Church, in a way that Stella’s shrine is really just the three of them. Meraldi asks [[Pablo]] (a priest of Orellian) if Rafael is around; he goes to get him. In a while Rafael shows up and greets us, and is interested in Vidan. Vidan says he’s getting the lay of the land in Orange, and also looking for a reliable Priest of Jord, and of the Nameless. Have we had issues with unreliable priests before? Well, maybe a bit, in Red. Are there other Imperial Priests of the Five? Not really, no. What drew Vidan to Navere? He starts to think about it and decides that it is treading close to his Vow not to look into his past.

Vidan explains that we’re looking for a Priest of the Nameless who can talk to the Dead, to find out an important Secret. How long dead? Three months– that’s possibly doable, though he doesn’t know anyone off-hand. As for Jord, we’re trying to steal someone out of Middlesea on behalf of the [[Maharani]]. Ah, well. To deal with royalty, you probably want someone who follows the Merchant face of Jord; to actually steal someone, you want a Priest of the Thief face or Jord. Finding someone to do both might be tricky. [[Carlo]] is certainly someone we could talk to about the latter…

Vidan, having done the public work, asks if he can speak in private for a few minutes, and feels out Father Rafael about internal Church politics, and the Priests of Rush.
The Paladins are less of a separate presence, though they do maintain an outpost, in case military issues arrive. He has concerns that the Church is unbalanced at present, but it’s not something he’s currently attempting to address. (Part of that is he doesn’t feel like he’s high enough in the hierarchy.) Vidan thinks Rafael has 7-10 DI, and is more focused on Governance than, say, Law or Justice. He feels part of his job is interfacing between the Guild and the Rinyan nobility (there is a Lord Rinyan, whose power is not as strong as he thinks might be appropriate. He seems to think that’s more of an imbalance between Navere and Jord rather than an imbalance between Navere and Rush. But that’s less the Church of Jord driving that imbalance.

Vidan gives him some info about how the Empire works, which Raphael finds interesting from a theoretical perspective. He seems to be more ecumenical than many, but then Orange is more ecumenical than most Zones.

Managaratha chats with Pablo, as the resident Priest of Orellian. Given that we have heard of Broken plots to mess with Orange and Yellow magic, we’re wondering if there is a way of consulting with Orellian for guidance. Pablo is fairly sure there are dangers to Magic this Comet, though he hadn’t know about Orange and Yellow in particular. It would be hard to find a priest of Orellian big enough to tell you about the Breaker’s Plans this Comet, so you might need a different approach.

Magic by its nature is chaotic and hard to control. That’s why spells have to be particular, it’s why awryage and burnout happens, etc. It’s not surprising that its nature is to change over time. And it’s not always the Breaker’s doing, e.g., the creation of Zones was done at the behest of the Church, or at least with the understanding of the Church. Change to Magic and attacks to Magic are certainly possible.

If this was a Comet focused on attacks on Magic, he would have expected to see more signs than he has by now. So maybe focusing on the local threats would be more useful. What is it Managaratha thinks is happening in Yellow? It seems that there’s a faction of the priest of the Goddess that is trying to take over Feelings Magic. Hmm. Pablo thinks the description sounds like that’s just Priests trying to gain power for their Goddess, and not necessarily Broken. But don’t let that stop Managaratha from defending Magic everywhere.

More discussion ensues. We tell him where we got the info about Orange– he’s curious about the “single Orange mage”. If it’s someone that big to mess with the whole Zone, they’re Terrifying. Maybe they have support from people who are hard to see? Priests, or Saurians (the latter would be more likely to be the Destruction of the Zone). Pablo can come up with a list of people who are powerful enough to maybe potentially be a threat on that scale. Managaratha thinks the stabby daggers is related to that. He can look into that.

“Do you know what was up with the horseshoes?” Scout asks.

“The horseshoes made the horses go extra fast, but destroyed the roads behind them.”

Should we go talk to Carlo? Well, he is a Crime Lord. A Crime Lord?!? We thought Stella was being overly dramatic. “Oh, no, he’s definitely a Crime Lord,” says Meraldi.

Scout asks Meraldi’s opinion about who to talk to about the Broken Miracle. Ritasi is the strongest Priest of the Goddess in Rinyan, but she doesn’t know his schticks. [[Leonardo]] is less likely to be able to do the ritual thing, but would likely be able to find someone to help. But Ritasi might be the actual right person.

When we get back to the Shrine, there’s a note saying that Ritasi will see us in the morning. So we ponder what we’re doing with the remains of the day.

=An Evening Out=
[[Nesh]] goes to the Saurian quarter, and asks around about where to learn about Saurian history. Has he been to the Library? There’s a library? Of Rinyan? No, the Saurian Library. Oh. No. He goes to check it out. “Can I help you?” Nesh explains that he was raised in the Rainbow Isles and

“Well you have to remember n hat Saurian culture was very much designed by the Elders when the race was reborn, and while it has evolved some since then, I would expect most clusters of Saurians are the result of two or three Elders moving to a place and starting a community.”

“Is there anywhere I can read about that culture?”

“Well there’s a great deal written about the Elders, you can read.”

“There’s more information about the Homelands– they’re there, but contact with them has been severely limited for… two Comets? And there is occasionally messages that go back and forth, but there hasn’t been regular contact for a long time. There is, in my opinion, information that’s somewhat more reliable than the information about the Elders. In part because the Elders valued their privacy in a way that the Homelands was just far away. Where do you want to start?”

Nesh says the Homelands. Okay, she brings him back to the stacks. What does he know already? Does he know the names of the Homelands? No. But he has 4 levels of KS:Saurians. Okay, that gives her a sense… let’s start with… “Karenina”

At the time the Homelands were opened and the rebirth occurred, none of the Elders seemed particularly religious. There were a bunch of humans in the Homelands as well, but the Saurians ruled by proxy. There were only about 100 Saurians at that time. They had a single religion of Birth, Life, and Death– faces of the Mother, Twins, and Nameless, specifically. Miracles mostly only happened within the relevant churches (on holy ground).

By the time the Rainbow River was scattered, the Homelands had a more standard version of the religions, although it was not a strong force there, as the power of Magic and DI was weaker there in general, even among humans. The Homelands were ruled openly by saurians at that time, although it’s not clear whether they became more populous than humans by that time.

Karenina was writing shortly after the Merfolk-moving comet. But the historical account of the Homelands is helpful.

Scout looks at the Treasure Map from the ghost ship– it’s near [[Kor]], so we don’t think we can get there

Stella decides not to go talk to Carlo, but does BRING IT and find out what needs fixing in Orange. 19 successes with 12 DI.

<ul>
<li> There is nothing serious in Rinyan that needs Fixing right now.
<li> Broadening to Orange as a whole, there’s definitely the Thing She Can’t See, even with 19 successes.

<li> The Orange Mages who are working to expand Orange and are likely to Break it need fixing, but that’s a long-term project, and you’ve already put some resources onto that. It will need more tending.

<li> Getting Nivad (Goddess-flavored Purple Guy) more direction is a good thing to work on. It will definitely be a step towards Fixing Things that the Goddess Wants Fixed.

<li> [[Vani]] has a Broken Plot that is proceeding, that it would be good to thwart. It’s not huge, but it’s the biggest Broken plot in the country that is imminent. (Orange Mages are larger, less imminent, and not everyone in it is Broken or Bent. There is some devil-on-the-shoulder going on, it would be good to find them and deal with them.)
</ul>

The Goddess notes that [[Uncle Carlo]] and the Treasure Map are on Stella’s todo list, but they’re not on the Fix-It list.

=Cult of Al’an=
No one attacks us overnight!

We go to see Ritasi at the Cult of Al’an’s Compound in the morning. Leonardo is there to greet us. Are we going to trigger any defenses? Leonardo says that’s been taken care of. Although

Ritasi waits for us in a sitting room. He is over 70, plausibly over 80. He rises, and shakes Stella’s hand, and Vidan’s hand, and Managaratha’s hand (“Have we met?” “Oh yes, but it was years ago.”), and asks for introductions.

“Nivad, come out.” He drops some DI, and Vidan turns into Nivad. Whoa. “Do you have an update on your task?”
Mike realizes that his Suckage is “Tasked, Doomed, and Fated to bring the Churches back together” was all amiss interpreted– he needs to be fixing ALL the Churches? Oh dear.

“I’m supposed to be uniting the Churches?”

“Let’s back up. When the Priests claim that the Priests of Lore cannot access the rest of the Goddess, that is false, and that they might be trying to do that is a means of Breaking the World. If they were more like the Cult of Al’an that would be good, but isn’t strictly necessary.”

Nivad realizes that he has been doing some recon in Yellow, so he relates what he’s found out about Love pursuing Feelings magic.

He doesn’t have suggestions for how to convince the Ladies that they should be cooperating rather than fighting. If the Maharani caught the Lady of Life trying to have her assassinated in a way that she could prove, she might be able to help, but it would also be irritating to have the Church smacked.

“Yes, it was irritating to have to deal with the factions. And they all wanted to recruit me.”

“They would do that. One reason to send a priest of the Cult of Al’an to look into it is that they would be less likely to try to recruit him.”

We update him on the Addenda to the [[Tarn Evidence Packet]]. He is intrigued that the Breaker’s Plan for Red involves

“All three Churches were damaged last Comet. The Three faces of the Lady are separated in Jabar; the Twins are separated from Balance and each other; the Church of Rush was separated from the rest of the Five. It sounds like the Breaker is only trying to exacerbate one of the three, but the others do need mending.”

“The details of that plan were kept between the Minister of Lions and myself and Mother Jess, to be revealed to you once things were far enough along that your immediate intervention was going to be relevant. It seems like, with the disaster in Middlesea, your time has come. I do not see exactly what it is that you will do to fix this, but you are the one who is most likely of anyone to fix the Churches this Comet. So if you have need of me or the Cult of Al’an in doing that, feel free to speak with me.”

“Are others, for instance Leonardo, informed on this?”

“Leonardo does not know the details. It was the Minister of Lions that approached the other two of us with the plan, and something having to do with Purple magic and The Yet, and the more people who know about it the more likely there will be Problems. It’s not clear if that makes it more likely to Fail. But the fact that you are most likely to help means you could be most likely to hurt the issue as well. But Purple is not my sphere.”

“As it turns out, it’s almost impossible to frag me with information.” says Managaratha.

“That would make sense, yes.”

“So if there’s information that you need to tell me you can probably do that privately.”

“We can talk afterwards.”

“The Destiny was there, we added things to help it out. I would presume that just waiting for events to unfold will not suffice.”

We talk a bit about the Ministries and the bureaucratic mess that is Purple Guy.

Would talking to Mother Jess be helpful to activate Purple Guy? Well, it’s probably worth talking to her, but if we’re not heading that way.

==Broken Miracles==
Scout mentions we’re also looking for someone to help out with the new Broken Miracle. Who looked at it? The Warmth of Summer. Oh. But he chose not to deal with it because it might interact poorly with the other Twins effects on us, not because he wasn’t big enough. Oh, well that’s better. All right, he will take a look.

“There are definitely things I am not seeing, and there is a lot there. The miracle in this case is one that is increasing your forgetfulness. It is tied to a Green effect. It does not seem particularly tied to anything else that I would worry about touching, but everything is entangled. Whether or not it is directly a part or not, there are connections between everything. In this case it appears that the strongest connection between that miracle and– well. That miracle is most strongly connected to the Green effect. The Green effect is also connected to the miracle of Navere, which is interwoven with a miracle of Rush, which is connected to the [[Oasis]] miracle. (Not all positive connections, they could be directly opposed to each other.)”

“The Blue effect and the Purple Twins effect are more closely tied to each other than to the rest of the mess, but they are connected to the Oasis miracle.”

“You cannot easily touch one without touching the others. But there is limited Goddess impact in everything. There is a small amount of Goddess effect on the Blue effect, but it’s not clear, and it’s not on us per se. That might mean there are other significant Red and Orange effects, since there are already Blue, Green, Purple, and Yellow…”

The effects are different sizes. The Oasis effect is the largest. The combined Rush/Navere effect is about the size of the Oasis.

He can’t see if the Broken miracle is just reinforcing the Green effect on us or on everyone. He can try to put something together to deal with that– if we come back tomorrow he will look again and have a better idea. He might be able to pull us out of Middlesea without getting rid of the Miracle, if that’s something we want? We’re not sure– we think it may be useful to have us connected to Middlesea for the time being.

We end the discussion for today; we’ll come back in the morning. Leonardo shows us out. He is clearly restraining himself from trying to get information out of us, and is grumpy about people having secret meetings with Ritasi without him being present.

=Aftermath=
Nesh wants to bring Vidan to the library; we also consider going to the X on the Treasure Map.

We decide to go look at the Treasure. After much debate about how to get there, Managaratha

There is a hill with a well-hidden door, with a giant Purple spell on it.

That is a discipline spell on it that only lets you in if you’re on the Right Side. If you don’t get through the spell, it sets off an alarm.

Oh. We bet the [[Buccaneer]], one of the Lady’s Companions, is on the Right Side. Scout wilds a spell to see what Side he is on– he’s clearly His Majesty’s, and an essence spell on him doesn’t tell him which side His Majesty is on

<ul>
<li> A bunch of rotted stuff
<li> 3 Loot of Gold and Gems
<li> 3 Blue items with Army-level schticks on them
<ul>
<li> 1: Lets an army unit fly
<li> 2: Gives an army unit defense against Orange magic
<li> 3: Gives an army unit more Martial skill
</ul>
</ul>

Purple Guy looks around with Detective; he thinks some of the stuff that rotted used to be uniforms. But he does find out that the alarm goes to The Master Trader. Oh hey, Scout asked the Master Trader to send a message to His Majesty when we were in Kor. He also had a name, so it’s not just the same guy as before, probably? Nesh has a name.

Stella decides to fix everything in the cache. 16 successes with 12 DI. Suits of uniforms, and medical supplies! The food that was here doesn’t get fixed. There are some maps, showing battle lines, etc. Things have changed somewhat. Kor is where it belongs. A couple of the towns shown with medium-sized militias in them are no longer there. There’s at least one medium-sized town that has arisen since them.

The medicines didn’t really get restored, so it’s less medical supplies than Stella would like, but the splints and bandages are all good.

We decide to take a few.

=Loot=
<ul>
<li> + 9 EPs
<li> + 9 SPs
<li> Three blue artifacts, three loot, some medical supplies and uniforms (left in the cache)
</ul>

[[Category:Run Logs]]

Rinyan Redux

2026-03-14T19:08:04Z

Boojum: /* Cult of Al’an */

=To Orange!=

As [[Diomarche]] and [[Gale]] fade out, we are but five! But the Fivist doesn’ know what we’re doing. So we tell him we’re going to <s>Red</s> Orange, to find out about what’s wrong with [[Vidan]], and to maybe do something about the new Broken miracle on us.

[[Managaratha]] does math, makes us fly up into the air, and then teleports us over to somewhere over Orange. He does some Navigation to figure out more clearly where we are– [[Stella]] can confirm we’re in the Orange Zone. Mangaratha asks Stella for a good place to have lunch, and she describes a restaurant, so we teleport there. Or… at least somewhere in [[Rinyan]]. Oops.

Stella takes us to the Temple, so that we can make a plan. [[Meraldi]] and [[Diana]] are the two other Priests there; Meraldi is there when we arrive. She asks if we’re back back, or just dropping in. Stella asks what’s going on.

Cassandra’s probably a little ahead of Tivoli. if they got in a fight, but they’re mostly not actually fighting. There’s been a couple of incidents with Orange magic going off, but she doesn’t have a lot of info– the Guild is trying to keep it relatively quiet. (She thinks they found some cursed daggers that were found shortly after we found the one that Gale is carrying. There was an issue with some horseshoes? She doesn’t know a lot about that. And there was a third incident in Rinyan, that was cleaned up darn fast. There were incidents in other cities as well. The Guild seems to be on it.)

The Saurians are up to something, it’s pretty clear, but everyone else is looking at it and not finding out much about it. They’re particularly displeased about the people stuck in Middlesea– that seems to be the focus of whatever they’re upset about. “[[Victor]], is who they’re upset about?” asks Stella. Yes, yes that’s it. The other churches are mostly quiet. The Guild is pushing for some help with the pirates (on the Inland side)

[As an aside, [[Scout]] ponders how Country Turns work with Zones. He’s confident that it’s not simply one draw per Zone– His Majesty gets a draw that’s separate from Her Majesty or Their Majesty. The Empire might get one draw, but they’re probably a bigger Country. Countries in Red might each get their own draw, but not all the time? Blue is madness, who can say, really.]

Vidan asks if there is a Church of Navere nearby– there is a church of the Five, and [[Rafael]] is a priest of Navere. ([[Mother Jess]], the head of the Church of Navere, is in King [[Richard III|Richard]]’s Lands in [[Red]].) Rafael is probably a bit bigger than Vidan, and definitely more involved in the Church hierarchy. There is also a Church of Rush.

We update Meraldi on the Breaker’s Plan to Corrupt the Orange Zone, or as much as we know about it. Well that moves looking into Orange Magic strangeness up the list.

=Church of the Five=
Stella sends a message to [[Ritasi]] that the [[Middlesea Free Rangers]] would like to set up a meeting. Then Meraldi takes us to the Church of the Five, and Vidan spends a DI to authorize us to carry these Broken Miracles around. The Church is bigger than the shrine of the Goddess; it’s clearly actively supported by The Church, in a way that Stella’s shrine is really just the three of them. Meraldi asks [[Pablo]] (a priest of Orellian) if Rafael is around; he goes to get him. In a while Rafael shows up and greets us, and is interested in Vidan. Vidan says he’s getting the lay of the land in Orange, and also looking for a reliable Priest of Jord, and of the Nameless. Have we had issues with unreliable priests before? Well, maybe a bit, in Red. Are there other Imperial Priests of the Five? Not really, no. What drew Vidan to Navere? He starts to think about it and decides that it is treading close to his Vow not to look into his past.

Vidan explains that we’re looking for a Priest of the Nameless who can talk to the Dead, to find out an important Secret. How long dead? Three months– that’s possibly doable, though he doesn’t know anyone off-hand. As for Jord, we’re trying to steal someone out of Middlesea on behalf of the [[Maharani]]. Ah, well. To deal with royalty, you probably want someone who follows the Merchant face of Jord; to actually steal someone, you want a Priest of the Thief face or Jord. Finding someone to do both might be tricky. [[Carlo]] is certainly someone we could talk to about the latter…

Vidan, having done the public work, asks if he can speak in private for a few minutes, and feels out Father Rafael about internal Church politics, and the Priests of Rush.
The Paladins are less of a separate presence, though they do maintain an outpost, in case military issues arrive. He has concerns that the Church is unbalanced at present, but it’s not something he’s currently attempting to address. (Part of that is he doesn’t feel like he’s high enough in the hierarchy.) Vidan thinks Rafael has 7-10 DI, and is more focused on Governance than, say, Law or Justice. He feels part of his job is interfacing between the Guild and the Rinyan nobility (there is a Lord Rinyan, whose power is not as strong as he thinks might be appropriate. He seems to think that’s more of an imbalance between Navere and Jord rather than an imbalance between Navere and Rush. But that’s less the Church of Jord driving that imbalance.

Vidan gives him some info about how the Empire works, which Raphael finds interesting from a theoretical perspective. He seems to be more ecumenical than many, but then Orange is more ecumenical than most Zones.

Managaratha chats with Pablo, as the resident Priest of Orellian. Given that we have heard of Broken plots to mess with Orange and Yellow magic, we’re wondering if there is a way of consulting with Orellian for guidance. Pablo is fairly sure there are dangers to Magic this Comet, though he hadn’t know about Orange and Yellow in particular. It would be hard to find a priest of Orellian big enough to tell you about the Breaker’s Plans this Comet, so you might need a different approach.

Magic by its nature is chaotic and hard to control. That’s why spells have to be particular, it’s why awryage and burnout happens, etc. It’s not surprising that its nature is to change over time. And it’s not always the Breaker’s doing, e.g., the creation of Zones was done at the behest of the Church, or at least with the understanding of the Church. Change to Magic and attacks to Magic are certainly possible.

If this was a Comet focused on attacks on Magic, he would have expected to see more signs than he has by now. So maybe focusing on the local threats would be more useful. What is it Managaratha thinks is happening in Yellow? It seems that there’s a faction of the priest of the Goddess that is trying to take over Feelings Magic. Hmm. Pablo thinks the description sounds like that’s just Priests trying to gain power for their Goddess, and not necessarily Broken. But don’t let that stop Managaratha from defending Magic everywhere.

More discussion ensues. We tell him where we got the info about Orange– he’s curious about the “single Orange mage”. If it’s someone that big to mess with the whole Zone, they’re Terrifying. Maybe they have support from people who are hard to see? Priests, or Saurians (the latter would be more likely to be the Destruction of the Zone). Pablo can come up with a list of people who are powerful enough to maybe potentially be a threat on that scale. Managaratha thinks the stabby daggers is related to that. He can look into that.

“Do you know what was up with the horseshoes?” Scout asks.

“The horseshoes made the horses go extra fast, but destroyed the roads behind them.”

Should we go talk to Carlo? Well, he is a Crime Lord. A Crime Lord?!? We thought Stella was being overly dramatic. “Oh, no, he’s definitely a Crime Lord,” says Meraldi.

Scout asks Meraldi’s opinion about who to talk to about the Broken Miracle. Ritasi is the strongest Priest of the Goddess in Rinyan, but she doesn’t know his schticks. [[Leonardo]] is less likely to be able to do the ritual thing, but would likely be able to find someone to help. But Ritasi might be the actual right person.

When we get back to the Shrine, there’s a note saying that Ritasi will see us in the morning. So we ponder what we’re doing with the remains of the day.

=An Evening Out=
[[Nesh]] goes to the Saurian quarter, and asks around about where to learn about Saurian history. Has he been to the Library? There’s a library? Of Rinyan? No, the Saurian Library. Oh. No. He goes to check it out. “Can I help you?” Nesh explains that he was raised in the Rainbow Isles and

“Well you have to remember n hat Saurian culture was very much designed by the Elders when the race was reborn, and while it has evolved some since then, I would expect most clusters of Saurians are the result of two or three Elders moving to a place and starting a community.”

“Is there anywhere I can read about that culture?”

“Well there’s a great deal written about the Elders, you can read.”

“There’s more information about the Homelands– they’re there, but contact with them has been severely limited for… two Comets? And there is occasionally messages that go back and forth, but there hasn’t been regular contact for a long time. There is, in my opinion, information that’s somewhat more reliable than the information about the Elders. In part because the Elders valued their privacy in a way that the Homelands was just far away. Where do you want to start?”

Nesh says the Homelands. Okay, she brings him back to the stacks. What does he know already? Does he know the names of the Homelands? No. But he has 4 levels of KS:Saurians. Okay, that gives her a sense… let’s start with… “Karenina”

At the time the Homelands were opened and the rebirth occurred, none of the Elders seemed particularly religious. There were a bunch of humans in the Homelands as well, but the Saurians ruled by proxy. There were only about 100 Saurians at that time. They had a single religion of Birth, Life, and Death– faces of the Mother, Twins, and Nameless, specifically. Miracles mostly only happened within the relevant churches (on holy ground).

By the time the Rainbow River was scattered, the Homelands had a more standard version of the religions, although it was not a strong force there, as the power of Magic and DI was weaker there in general, even among humans. The Homelands were ruled openly by saurians at that time, although it’s not clear whether they became more populous than humans by that time.

Karenina was writing shortly after the Merfolk-moving comet. But the historical account of the Homelands is helpful.

Scout looks at the Treasure Map from the ghost ship– it’s near [[Kor]], so we don’t think we can get there

Stella decides not to go talk to Carlo, but does BRING IT and find out what needs fixing in Orange. 19 successes with 12 DI.

<ul>
<li> There is nothing serious in Rinyan that needs Fixing right now.
<li> Broadening to Orange as a whole, there’s definitely the Thing She Can’t See, even with 19 successes.

<li> The Orange Mages who are working to expand Orange and are likely to Break it need fixing, but that’s a long-term project, and you’ve already put some resources onto that. It will need more tending.

<li> Getting Nivad (Goddess-flavored Purple Guy) more direction is a good thing to work on. It will definitely be a step towards Fixing Things that the Goddess Wants Fixed.

<li> [[Vani]] has a Broken Plot that is proceeding, that it would be good to thwart. It’s not huge, but it’s the biggest Broken plot in the country that is imminent. (Orange Mages are larger, less imminent, and not everyone in it is Broken or Bent. There is some devil-on-the-shoulder going on, it would be good to find them and deal with them.)
</ul>

The Goddess notes that [[Uncle Carlo]] and the Treasure Map are on Stella’s todo list, but they’re not on the Fix-It list.

=Cult of Al’an=
No one attacks us overnight!

We go to see Ritasi at the Cult of Al’an’s Compound in the morning. Leonardo is there to greet us. Are we going to trigger any defenses? Leonardo says that’s been taken care of. Although

Ritasi waits for us in a sitting room. He is over 70, plausibly over 80. He rises, and shakes Stella’s hand, and Vidan’s hand, and Managaratha’s hand (“Have we met?” “Oh yes, but it was years ago.”), and asks for introductions. Managaratha says we have two main

“Nivad, come out.” He drops some DI, and Vidan turns into Nivad. Whoa. “Do you have an update on your task?”
Mike realizes that his Suckage is “Tasked, Doomed, and Fated to bring the Churches back together” was all amiss interpreted– he needs to be fixing ALL the Churches? Oh dear.

“I’m supposed to be uniting the Churches?”

“Let’s back up. When the Priests claim that the Priests of Lore cannot access the rest of the Goddess, that is false, and that they might be trying to do that is a means of Breaking the World. If they were more like the Cult of Al’an that would be good, but isn’t strictly necessary.”

Nivad realizes that he has been doing some recon in Yellow, so he relates what he’s found out about Love pursuing Feelings magic.

He doesn’t have suggestions for how to convince the Ladies that they should be cooperating rather than fighting. If the Maharani caught the Lady of Life trying to have her assassinated in a way that she could prove, she might be able to help, but it would also be irritating to have the Church smacked.

“Yes, it was irritating to have to deal with the factions. And they all wanted to recruit me.”

“They would do that. One reason to send a priest of the Cult of Al’an to look into it is that they would be less likely to try to recruit him.”

We update him on the Addenda to the [[Tarn Evidence Packet]]. He is intrigued that the Breaker’s Plan for Red involves

“All three Churches were damaged last Comet. The Three faces of the Lady are separated in Jabar; the Twins are separated from Balance and each other; the Church of Rush was separated from the rest of the Five. It sounds like the Breaker is only trying to exacerbate one of the three, but the others do need mending.”

“The details of that plan were kept between the Minister of Lions and myself and Mother Jess, to be revealed to you once things were far enough along that your immediate intervention was going to be relevant. It seems like, with the disaster in Middlesea, your time has come. I do not see exactly what it is that you will do to fix this, but you are the one who is most likely of anyone to fix the Churches this Comet. So if you have need of me or the Cult of Al’an in doing that, feel free to speak with me.”

“Are others, for instance Leonardo, informed on this?”

“Leonardo does not know the details. It was the Minister of Lions that approached the other two of us with the plan, and something having to do with Purple magic and The Yet, and the more people who know about it the more likely there will be Problems. It’s not clear if that makes it more likely to Fail. But the fact that you are most likely to help means you could be most likely to hurt the issue as well. But Purple is not my sphere.”

“As it turns out, it’s almost impossible to frag me with information.” says Managaratha.

“That would make sense, yes.”

“So if there’s information that you need to tell me you can probably do that privately.”

“We can talk afterwards.”

“The Destiny was there, we added things to help it out. I would presume that just waiting for events to unfold will not suffice.”

We talk a bit about the Ministries and the bureaucratic mess that is Purple Guy.

Would talking to Mother Jess be helpful to activate Purple Guy? Well, it’s probably worth talking to her, but if we’re not heading that way.

==Broken Miracles==
Scout mentions we’re also looking for someone to help out with the new Broken Miracle. Who looked at it? The Warmth of Summer. Oh. But he chose not to deal with it because it might interact poorly with the other Twins effects on us, not because he wasn’t big enough. Oh, well that’s better. All right, he will take a look.

“There are definitely things I am not seeing, and there is a lot there. The miracle in this case is one that is increasing your forgetfulness. It is tied to a Green effect. It does not seem particularly tied to anything else that I would worry about touching, but everything is entangled. Whether or not it is directly a part or not, there are connections between everything. In this case it appears that the strongest connection between that miracle and– well. That miracle is most strongly connected to the Green effect. The Green effect is also connected to the miracle of Navere, which is interwoven with a miracle of Rush, which is connected to the [[Oasis]] miracle. (Not all positive connections, they could be directly opposed to each other.)”

“The Blue effect and the Purple Twins effect are more closely tied to each other than to the rest of the mess, but they are connected to the Oasis miracle.”

“You cannot easily touch one without touching the others. But there is limited Goddess impact in everything. There is a small amount of Goddess effect on the Blue effect, but it’s not clear, and it’s not on us per se. That might mean there are other significant Red and Orange effects, since there are already Blue, Green, Purple, and Yellow…”

The effects are different sizes. The Oasis effect is the largest. The combined Rush/Navere effect is about the size of the Oasis.

He can’t see if the Broken miracle is just reinforcing the Green effect on us or on everyone. He can try to put something together to deal with that– if we come back tomorrow he will look again and have a better idea. He might be able to pull us out of Middlesea without getting rid of the Miracle, if that’s something we want? We’re not sure– we think it may be useful to have us connected to Middlesea for the time being.

We end the discussion for today; we’ll come back in the morning. Leonardo shows us out. He is clearly restraining himself from trying to get information out of us, and is grumpy about people having secret meetings with Ritasi without him being present.

=Aftermath=
Nesh wants to bring Vidan to the library; we also consider going to the X on the Treasure Map.

We decide to go look at the Treasure. After much debate about how to get there, Managaratha

There is a hill with a well-hidden door, with a giant Purple spell on it.

That is a discipline spell on it that only lets you in if you’re on the Right Side. If you don’t get through the spell, it sets off an alarm.

Oh. We bet the [[Buccaneer]], one of the Lady’s Companions, is on the Right Side. Scout wilds a spell to see what Side he is on– he’s clearly His Majesty’s, and an essence spell on him doesn’t tell him which side His Majesty is on

<ul>
<li> A bunch of rotted stuff
<li> 3 Loot of Gold and Gems
<li> 3 Blue items with Army-level schticks on them
<ul>
<li> 1: Lets an army unit fly
<li> 2: Gives an army unit defense against Orange magic
<li> 3: Gives an army unit more Martial skill
</ul>
</ul>

Purple Guy looks around with Detective; he thinks some of the stuff that rotted used to be uniforms. But he does find out that the alarm goes to The Master Trader. Oh hey, Scout asked the Master Trader to send a message to His Majesty when we were in Kor. He also had a name, so it’s not just the same guy as before, probably? Nesh has a name.

Stella decides to fix everything in the cache. 16 successes with 12 DI. Suits of uniforms, and medical supplies! The food that was here doesn’t get fixed. There are some maps, showing battle lines, etc. Things have changed somewhat. Kor is where it belongs. A couple of the towns shown with medium-sized militias in them are no longer there. There’s at least one medium-sized town that has arisen since them.

The medicines didn’t really get restored, so it’s less medical supplies than Stella would like, but the splints and bandages are all good.

We decide to take a few.

=Loot=
<ul>
<li> + 9 EPs
<li> + 9 SPs
<li> Three blue artifacts, three loot, some medical supplies and uniforms (left in the cache)
</ul>

[[Category:Run Logs]]

Heart of Orange

2026-03-14T18:23:34Z

Boojum: /* At the Heart */

= Preparations =

Purple Guy fades out; [[Scout]] fades in.

It’s the morning after the Party. Scout is disappointed that he missed exploring the Secret Mine Under the Lord’s House. Maybe less disappointed in having missed the party.

Lord of Fire and Earth is [[Carlo Picanti]]

The party tells Scout we’re going to look for the Lord of Fire and Earth. Okay. Do we have a plan? Well, they hoped Scout would find him.

[[Nesh]] gives Carlo some reflect-incoming-magic, and he tries to find Carlo, but bounces off of Carlo's way-much-higher resistance. "Not even close." OK, we can try again tomorrow with the narrative pathfinding way as opposed to the physical location way.

The X on the map is in the desert north of the mountains. [[Managaratha]] realizes that using Orellian Coordinate Math to find the X is hard, however– because if the pool was part of the Rainbow River, it’s supposed to be at the Spire. Oh. Hmm. So he has to re-do the math for 10s. With a good roll, he thinks he’s figured it out. So we have co-ordinates now.

But first, we want to go to Red briefly (“Wait, what?!?” says Scout), to get the coordinates for the heart of Red. We find out that the Heart of Red is west of the Great Valley, between King Richard’s lands and [[Darstan]], about halfway to the coast.

We teleport again! We’re in a sandy desert. Blue spells are +2 difficulty here. Nesh puts up his AoE defense, and stands near [[Gale]] in case Orange is as vengeful as Blue was. We start heading towards where we think the Heart is, and make Fortune rolls with Orange magic. [[Stella]] rocks it, and a jeweled horse appears in her pocket.

= At the Heart =

The path turns from sand to stone, and we’re in to Orange level 3. When we get to the place of the X, we’re just standing on stone. Huh. Scout thinks it’s very Orange here, and suggests the Heart is probably down. Stella looks around with Orange. She’s pretty sure there’s a big Creation effect on the rock we’re standing on. It’s not currently active or anything. [[Diomarche]] thinks it’s solid down a good ways.

Stella creates a fire, which works, though she has to make sure it’s not Too Big. She then analyzes the rock, and thinks it’s about 1000 hit points of Wall between us and the Heart, and the Creation effect will cause it to start repairing it. This is a Vault-level Wall, but it’s hit points, rather than successes, so we can potentially manage it. Diomarche could potentially invoke Rush to help break through. Hmm. Let’s do some more experiments.

Stella makes pickaxes (and one pickaxe/shovel hybrid due to awryage), and 67 points of damage It chips away at the rock. At the end of round 2, it tried to heal, but gets thwarted by Nesh’s AoE. We do some damage to it over a number of rounds, when Gale brings out the Dagger of Destruction. That seems to help counteract the healing, at least.

Managaratha tries a weird Orange-Blue spell to turn Diomarche’s pickax frozen, which causes two of his Magic dice to turn Orange and can’t be used for Blue.

On round 18, we break through! Berserking pirates and magic pickaxes for the win! Out comes the Forbidden Desert mechanic.

We’re in an area that looks like a forge. We need to find things. There is a lot of fire and around.

Scout makes it easier for him to see Magic, and then moves into a square, where he finds a vial of Orange water! Stella searches, and finds out there’s something in the middle column, and we’re looking for four things. Nesh finds a vial of Orange water!

All of a sudden there are a lot of storms and we take serious damage, and Nesh, Managaratha, and Gale fall down. Scout makes his death check and stays up. He manages to get to the crystal and wilds a nature spell to prevent us from getting hit by the environment. This lets Stella cast an actual resist-fire spell, which helps. Everyone unconscious passes; diomarche explores and finds out the location of a Magic Compass. Scout grabs the power crystal and Diomarche grabs the compass. Managaratha grabs an in-mechanic magic item (move people between tiles).

But the next shuffle through the deck is full of storms and sun, so we fleet - the crystal and the compass and the mechanic item all remain in the mechanic, but we have two vials of orange river water. So at least a minor win?

We ponder next steps. We’re tired enough [read: it’s 4:30pm] that

The Goddess thinks [[Viktor]] is apparently the worst choice (although not a terrible choice; he won’t blow up the world, or anything); [[Richard IV]] could be a good choice, or a problematic choice– he will require shepherding; [[Leopold]] is fine, he will keep things stable; and there’s nothing on [[Pyotr]] with only 11 successes.

Managartha brews some healing potions (2 each of potions that heal 12 hit points, decays after 6 days).

= Loot =
* +12 EPs
* +8 SPs
* +2 vials of Orange water

[[Category:Run Logs]]

Carol

2026-03-14T16:11:08Z

Boojum:

[[Carol]] is a priest of the Goddess and the most prominent religious figure in [[Vani]], serving as an embedded priest in [[Centurion Julia]]'s household and taking the lead role in the city's contentious consort succession process. During the party circuit, she advocated for stability and the retention of [[Leopold]] as consort, though her careful, evasive responses about assassinations and stolen objects aroused suspicion among investigators. Carol was subsequently identified as likely Bent (corrupted by the Broken) through divination, and is believed to have manipulated the jealous Vivian into stealing an Orange dagger, presumably for stabbing ''someone'' though we are not sure who; however, the dagger was recovered and sanctified before it could be used, and insufficient evidence exists to move against her politically.

At the Maiden Day party, Carol actively worked to distract party members from their objectives, bringing [[Giaconni]] to distract [[Gale]] and introducing [[Stella]] to the ailing Lord DiAngelo to take her attention. When [[Scout]] attempted to determine whether Carol was Bent through divination, the attempt was blocked by some form of Crone shtick preventing detection magic. Carol also consulted with Lucy at the temple regarding party preparations, with Lucy handling most of the day-to-day work. Despite the party and investigation occurring around her, Carol has neither fled nor acted overtly, suggesting she continues her subtle machinations in the city while remaining under careful observation by [[Julia]] and her allies.

Category:NPCs

Dwalla

2026-03-14T15:57:33Z

Boojum: /* Rani Dwalla */

==Rani Dwalla==

Rani Dwalla is the head of House Sukrat and a niece of the Lady of Life.

She was nominated as a candidate for the Blessing of the Goddess at a ceremony held at Dr. Lucky's mansion. The Lady of Life's servants had arranged for her to receive the blessing as part of a plan to strengthen her position relative to the [[Maharani]]. However, multiple groups interfered with the ceremony—two thieves and a poisoner—attempting to destroy or poison the Divine chalice used to administer the blessing. Due to these interventions, Dwalla did not receive the blessing.

During the ceremony, she had a good conversation with [[Kisadrawa]] about the slith attacks and military operations.

(summarized with Claude)

[[Category:NPCs]]

Climbing the Bird Gradient

2026-03-14T15:57:07Z

Boojum:

==Phoenix Feather Hunt==

We head north to around where [[Scout]] said we should go, at the base of the mountains.
The sage said [[Dubrecht]] should "climb the tree of feathers" and would eventually find the Phoenix.

There isn't an obvious path up the mountain; we land and look around. [[Stella]] finds some greyish brown feathers. [[Managaratha]] identifies them as harpy feathers. Stella makes us earplugs.

A harpy grabs [[Gale]], and is promptly taken down by [[Diomarche]].
Stella stabilizes her and we tie her up to interrogate.

Diomarche and Gale and Dubrecht hear three more harpies incoming and singing. Gale thinks we should untie the harpy. Dubrecht disarms Gale of the harpy, leaving her with a lily.

Diomarche draws his sword and shouts: "We're not here for any of you, we're just on a quest."

Two hover near Diomarche, not attacking, and he whomps them with hoof and sword. One goes down, and the other flies away with her. Gale complains about this whole "stop or I'll shoot" thing, but Diomarche notes that the traditional followup is to shoot.

Managaratha checks the blood splatter of one of the harpies - not Broken.

Managaratha naps as Dubrecht follows the trail of the harpies.

As we get near the harpy nest, we search again and find a big white feather. That's a pegasus feather. (They're not intelligent, it's somewhat unusual for them to live in the mountains.)

We fly briefly to look for mesas / valleys. (Nothing looks mesa-plausible in this sort of mountain.) Stella thinks that way looks better for valleys than the rest. We unfold the boat and head that way. We get to a valley. Diomarche does some tracking, and finds hoofprints.

Scout arrives, to save everyone! Or at least help find things.x

We follow the tracks for a ways, until we get to a place where there is blood and more pegasus feathers. Managaratha gives Scout blood sense, and he tries to follow the scent - off that way. We go that way.

The trail heads up and out of the valley and up a mountain. We get to a mostly-devoured Pegasus, with roc feathers around it.

We collect all the roc feathers here, and take a bunch of the pegasus feathers as well.

Scout thinks there aren't enough trees to support a nest. Maybe a roost. More looking around turns it up, napping.

We don't see any Phoenix feathers, Scout sneaks up to it. (He thinks he is not on its usual yummy list, but it would attack if annoyed).

We wait for dark. Scout spots some little burny things under the Roc, and a REALLY BIG DEMON just on the other side of the mountains a few miles that way. Lucky our Saurian got food poisoning and didn't show up to the run.

Managaratha thinks that teleporting the feathers would have Consequences.

Will the roc mookify us? Maybe. But the roc will go much faster than us.

Scout finds (with DI) a safe cave to hide in. Managaratha memorizes the location of the cave.

We come up with an elaborate plan involving hiding in caves and teleporting people.
“If something stupid happens, I can make it even more stupid,” says Managaratha.

We enact the plan! Dubrecht starts an avalanche. The roc heads into the air. Scout gets two phoenix feathers. Managaratha extracts Scout, who is promptly on fire. He doesn't go down, and with Stella's help does stop drop and roll. Healing is also non-magical, and the feathers does not go out.

==Heart of Yellow==

We sail south towards the X. There are more Yellow surgey things which are kind of annoying but not damaging. There is a fancy door on the side of a cliff. "Open Sesame" in Jabaran works to open it.

We enter the maze of Gootmu! It’s a strange world. We have one action, we can use it to Move forward in the Maze the number of successes. We lay out new tiles as we encounter them. Gale thinks the Heart is about 8 tiles in. Tiles without anyone on them / in line of sight of them vanish. If we’re on a tile that becomes disconnected, it is BAD, in the becomes-disconnected-from-reality way. Fortunately, we’re on the same Battlemap, and the disconnected tile gets pulled back into connection. Diomarche discovers he can break down walls, for one DI (though it increases

Eventually, we find a Gootmu, which is an Exit. We are somewhat scared. Eventually Managaratha looks at one of these Doors, and discovers that they are doors back to Reality. Where exactly in Reality, it’s not clear.

Eventually, Managaratha goes in. He comes back in and says the water is fine tea is good and we can come in. After more checking to see if he’s been zotted, everyone eventually goes through a door, where there is an older Jabaran women, a table, and tea. She asks why she should let us through to the Heart of Yellow. Um. To put back the Rainbow river?

We should figure out why the Rainbow River was taken apart before deciding to put it back together. Managaratha thinks about it-- it was broken up to help fight the Slith, by giving Magic to all the countries. She does not think that is a good enough reason to go through. But she will give us three questions, as a consolation prize.

Managaratha asks, “Why is Feelings Magic changing?” We all agree that is a question. The Lady of Love wishes Feelings magic to be in the Goddess’ domain, rather than Orellian's. The Guardian (no name given) thinks she may not be successful, although if she gets to the Heart she might have better success, and she could make other progress. Orellian is further away this Comet than he has been, as he has been… busy recently.

Why is the [[Oasis]] after [[Nesh]]? The Oasis has eaten most of the desert, it wants to continue growing. There are a few options: Into Jabar, which would be difficult for a number of reasons at present; or into the Homelands, I suppose you’d call them, that is currently protected by Nikolai’s anti-magic anti-DI fields. The Oasis wants to take that down and needs Nikolai’s heir to do that.

What does she want us to know / want to tell us? Managaratha gets 2 out of 2 Karma successes.

The Breaker’s main plots are:
<ul>
<li> Take over the Empire
<li> Corrupt the Spirits in the Forest
<li> Destroy (or corrupt) the Orange Zone
<li> Promote the disagreements between Rush and the rest of the Five
<li> Assassinate enough of the Blue Mages that Melmane falls to Chaos (more than it already has)
<li> Send enough slith into Jabar to conquer it.
</ul>

And now it is time to be going. Where do we want to go? We dither about abandoning Jabar. Other Dunyazade (because we assume that’s who it is) says we’re probably not getting much more done here.

We decide on His Majesty’s Court, in Green. We tell Dubrecht to call us.

==Loot==
<ul>
<li> A bunch of Pegasus feathers
<li> A number of Roc feathers
<li> 1 Phoenix Feather
<li> +10 EPs
<li> +10 SPs
</ul>

[[Category:Run Logs]]

Life of the Party

2026-03-14T15:56:54Z

Boojum: /* Action 1 */

==Preparations==

Purple Guy vanishes; [[Gale]] and [[Diomarche]] re-appear. We try to catch them up on some of what’s going on, and this party that’s probably happening tonight. [[Scout]] mentions he could find out where [[Managaratha]] is from, now that he has that Essence spell. Or maybe not, it’s unclear what will happen if cast on someone from before there were Zones. Gale is baffled, baffled! that you could ever ask the question “I wonder what happens if I cast this spell this way?” and not have already done it. Scout says huh, and does so. Turns out that Managaratha is from Kern. Which is not how most people register. [[Nesh]] says he wants to know where he’s from, so he drops his defenses. Turns out he’s from Red, and Scout probably could have gotten more information if he had more successes. Hmm. He’ll have to try that again some time.

We think about what kind of preparations we need to do.

How does this party work, Asphabel?

The party is to denote who is the Goddess’ Daughter for the next year. That does not have a definitive effect, but it does draw the attention of the Goddess to that person, and is considered a Blessing.

There are usually five candidates– last year’s Daughter, and a new one from each of the [[Varna]]. There hasn’t been a Goddess’ Child (male winner) in 50 years. The Servant Varna representative never wins, effectively. If a candidate wins a second year, they invariably will also win a third.

Rani [[Dwalla]] will be the Noble; Harana Mufari is the current Daughter, and is also a Noble. The Blessing is administered with a sip from a Divine chalice, which is one of the artifacts of the Mother’s Church. There’s definitely not a public vote. It’s a consensus-y thing. It could be Feelings Magic-mediated, it could be divinely mediated. It’s possible for it to not resolve immediately. It is not improper for them to be giving out the Blessing, it happens every year, but she does think that giving the blessing to the Rani is one of Life’s Servant’s plans to arrange for a new [[Maharani]].

There will be other non-voting guests; not all priests of Life in the city will be there. [[Stella]] may or may not actually get a vote, that is a fascinating question Asphabel does not know the answer to. Being someone’s Guest does not mean you’re their best friend or anything. Everyone in attendance will either be one of Life’s servants, or an actual servant in the mansion, or a guest of one of the priestesses.

Gale thinks we should have a plan. Harana Mufari is a famous fighter from the South part of Yellow. Asphabel doesn’t think she’s either good or bad for the Maharani, particularly.

==To the Party!==
Rani Dwalla (noble, head of house sukrat)
Harana Mufari (current Daughter of the Goddess, also noble)
? (servant)
Ladinas(merchant)
Aluska (priest Varna, although a poet rather than a Priest)

Oh hey, the party is at Dr. Lucky’s mansion. It’s architecturally quite open, more so than most of us are used to.

Everyone has two Shield runes, which protect us from various things (lightning, say), but you only need one. Diomarche has Vendetta and Gust runes, as well.

Scout puts up a small miracle of seeing magic and miracles better for the next several hours.

Red are voting priests; green is guests; orange are the five candidates. Green 10 is Princess Miranel.

We arrive in the Piazza. Princess Mirabel introduces us to Marina (Red 15), the “Mistress of the Manse”. It’s not clear how formal of a title that is, but she appears to be in charge.

==Round 1==
===Action 1===
Top of 12, Combat Time Party Time starts!

Nesh speaks to the Mistress of the Manse, trying to get the lay of the land. There are some divine protections it would be best not to disrupt; mostly in the Trophy Room. There are some illusions for entertainment purposes; she apologizes that he will not be able to see those.

Scout goes to the Green House! It’s not really set up for Green Mages. It’s got a reasonable selection of Pretty, some Medicinal, and a few poisons. Mostly native plants. Scout talks to the Plants— there were some plants harvested today, including some Poison plants. Scout gets a description.

Diomarchs goes to the Hedge Maze. Green 14 is a Blue Mage from Blue; Green 13 is a local. Diomarche introduces himself to the Blue Mage! His name is Stephen, he lives in Blue, his sister is one of the High Priests of the Temple, so he gets invites. His sister moved from Blue 20-25 years ago, when she decided she was going to be a Priest of the Goddess. Nadari, she’s Red 14. He thinks the Admiralty has been doing well recently. He enjoys the party but doesn’t know how the voting works; he was glad that last year they picked a Fighter, rather than one of those artists, but. He doesn’t have a Tower, they’re kind of gauche, but he does have a structure. He focuses on Weather, mostly Air rather than Water, he likes flying. He isn’t focused on lightning, but humors Diomarche by offering to talk to her.

Managaratha goes to the Dining Room, and chats up Red 3: Corona, a centaur. How does this whole thing work, how are the candidates chosen? They meditate on it, some times it’s someone who has done a great service for the Goddess, sometimes it’s what the Goddess seems to want. Sometimes it’s decided very last minute, sometimes it’s clear at the beginning. Which is it this year? That would be telling. Corona’s herd is from south of the river, there have been some slith, but fewer than in the areas north. Managaratha chats with her about the

Gale goes to the Parlor and gathers some information, and runs into [[Dubrecht]]!
Gale checks the scoreboard– Rani Dwalla is miles ahead on her scoreboard; [[Thistle]] and her opposition are mostly tied (in that neither of them have really started); there’s one conflict that’s not being resolved?; and the poisoner has scored a point. And there’s probably other

Stella looks around for doctors. There’s a sign that has been taken down for the party, “If you’re in need of Mara’s midwife services, please speak with the servant in the Foyer.” Stella goes to the Drawing Room to talk to Mara. Mara is fairly certain that Rani Dwalla is going to win. Aluska is not bad. Vadinas is the Merchant candidate. Gebra ‘al Nasan is the Servant candidate. The Lady of Life has made it clear she wants Rani Dwalla to win, so no one is likely to go too hard against her. She’s a fine upstanding noble, a history of service to the Kingdom, so she’s a fine candidate.

===Second Action===

Dubrecht chats with Gale about Phoenix-Feather-hunting.

Green 6 chats up Nesh.

Jasmine (Red 10) chats up Stella– is she interested in becoming one of Life’s Servants. They compare notes about how the Church works in Orange vs. Yellow.

Nesh goes to the Trophy Room and recognizes Mirandal and tries to chat up the group talking to the candidate there. (Red 12, Green 12, Orange 4). Ladinas recently gave quite a bit of money to build a temple to the Goddess here in the capital. In a result, she was nominated by Lisabel (Red 12). They’re chatting about what they can do to help Ladinas win. Anyone not currently aligned will probably vote for Rani Dwalla, but individuals could be persuaded if given a reason. Lisabel is unhappy that the fix is mostly in; that’s not usually the way it works. Dwalla is a fine candidate, but would normally be beatable. The Lady doesn’t usually do that. The fact that she’s the niece, well, family is important, but. Lisabel thinks Ladinas is clearly the best candidate, and is the only one of the three who aren’t Dwalla who has a major Priest as a sponsor. There are clearly Priests who get more say. Red 1-5 have a vote; 6-10 have two vote; 11-15 have three votes.

Scout conveys info about the poisoner, but no one has seen them yet. The poison-collector was a woman. He looks around for her but doesn’t find her; he does notice Thistle’s spell.

Diomarche chats up Green 13, who is a Servant midwife. He’s pretty sure she looks like Scout’s description of the poison-collector. Aha.

Gale chats up Red 2 and 9, trying to convince them to support Alushka, on a “there shouldn’t be a fix, so I’m going to Meddle a bit”. 9 is in fact Aluska’s sponsor, so she’s already in favor; 2 is convincible, in part because she doesn’t really think her vote matters if the fix is in. Dwalla’s scoreboard hasn’t changed much, but there is now an Anti-Poisoner group that has a point on the scoreboard. Go us!

Stella thinks about Reds 10 and 13. Neither of them are all in on Team Dwalla, but are planning to vote for her. 13 is more willing to change that vote, probably, if someone was really a better candidate. 10 would be willing to change her vote if there was something in it for her. Jasmine thinks Ladinas is obviously the next candidate, given how much money she donated. Mara thinks Gebra is better, but she’s a Servant, and they never win. Mara clearly doesn’t care much about the politics, in a way that feels familiar to Stella.

Jasmine chats with Stella. Lots of NPCs are interested in Nesh as a Saurian. Green 6 and 7 are looking at each Nesh with interest, but also each other now. There is a new scoreboard. Hmm.

===Third Action===
Rani Dwalla has a good conversation with [[Kisadrawa]] about the slith attacks and how the army combats are going, etc.

Scout checks out the people who are standing about; they probably noticed him checking them out. He talks to Thistle, who says “Why are you here, and why are you spooking him?!” Thistle thinks Green 2 is holding for some reason, probably planning to steal something in the back rooms, along with a partner (probably Green 3, once Scout mentions it). She’s not sure what they’re waiting for, but they’re definitely waiting for something.

Stella thinks Jasmine is definitely Playing The Game; introducing her to the Maharani would be worth something, for instance.

Diomarche tells Princess Mirabel about the poisoner in the Hedge Maze, and puts his 4th action at her disposal.

Managaratha tells a story to Reds 12 and 14 about putting aside provincial concerns to Fight The Breaker!

NPCs: Princess moves Diomarche to the Hedge Maze to chat up the poisoner. Stephen talks to Gale. That’s fascinating, what are you doing? They Blue at each other for a while. (Gale also suggests he team up with the Admiralty if they can give him anything he finds useful).

===Fourth Action===
Nesh tells Managaratha to convey that we should concentrate our fire on supporting the Merchant candidate.

The Princess politely interrogates the poisoner suspect. SHe doesn’t crush her as much as expected. WHile 13 is not admitting anything, is sufficiently flustered and unclear in her answers that she is fairly clearly guilty. She doesn’t appear to be trying to kill someone here, but is gathering poison to do _something_ with. The Princess asks Diomarche to not eave

Nesh persuades Red 1 and Red 14 to support Ladinas, to help bolster the

==Round 2!==
===Action 1===
Nesh tries to warn Mara; she says alert Nadari. Managaratha alerts Nadari, who thumps one of the thieves.
Gale checks the scoreboard– Dwalla is still ahead. THe poisoner is 2, but anti-poisoners are at 3.

Thistle is frustrated, she can't get past the guards.

Gebra was nominated for helping with the drought relief in the Centaur territory.

Scout convinces the stairway guard to come help deal with the poisoner.

Miranel and a group of guard

Start of round 3

Current score -
Ladinas 19
Aluska 3
Dwalla 8

Thistle 0
Opponents -2

Mystery scoreboard: (Dubrecht thinks it must be a love plot)

Nesh scoreboard: less done than the others

Poisoner has lost.

But we are still on pins and needles. What is it?
Nesh gets 11 successes and does not succeed.
Gale tries Lore is a Battlefield and makes it to 12. That guy in the gallery is frowning at the cup.
Gale points "what is he doing?" and Nadari punches him.
Cast of Characters
Red 1: Alacar
Red 2: Bethamel
Red 3: Corona (a Centaur)
Red 4:
Red 5: Alana, Gebra’s sponsor in the contest, and Thistle’s sponsor for the party.
Red 6:
Red 7: Gisawara
Red 8: Helena (halfling), brought Dubrecht
Red 9: Isabelle, Aluska’s sponsor. Dragging a young girl, Raquel along with her.
Red 10: Jasmine
Red 11: Kalinda (Dwalla’s sponsor)
Red 12: Lisabelle, sponsoring the Merchant.
Red 13: Mara the Midwife (also lives here)
Red 14: Nadari, sister of Stephen. She lives in the Manse with Olina and Mara.
Red 15: Olina, Mistress of the Manse. The voice of the Lady of Life here.

Green 1:
Green 2: Has been stationary in the hallway for a while. Then went upstairs.
Green 3: Has been stationary in the hallway for a while. Then went upstairs.
Green 4:
Green 5: Thistle! Eyeing the people who are trying to steal something, but they’re stalling.
Green 6: <Saurian scoreboard 1> [Lacrisa, presumably a cataur, we later learn.]
Green 7: Tisana, investigator something. Knows Verja, who was investigating Nesh. <Saurian scoreboard 2>
Green 8: Dubrech, the Phoenix feather guy
Green 9: Raquel the young girl
Green 10: Princess Mirabel (Party princess)
Green 11: Lord Tangri, supporter of the Maharani. INterested in
Green 12: Mirandal Leman, the jeweler that Stella has been working with for the presentation to the Maharani. Sponsored by Lisabelle.
Green 13 (fast): Mirial. A servant Varna midwife. Also the poisoner. Interrogated by Mirabel, didn’t quite admit, but flustered enough that she’s probably guilty.
Green 14: [[Mage Stephen]], from Blue. Weather (air) mage.
Green 15: Rani Maras (some high ranking noble)

Orange 1: Harana Mufari (Current Daughter)
Orange 2: Rani Dwalla (Noble)
Orange 3: Aluska Fachuna. A poet in the Priest Varna, nominated by Isabelle. (Priest)
Orange 4: Ladinas (Merchant)
Orange 5: Gebra ‘al Nasan (Servant)

Gale spots the missing thug, and they get thumped.

==Epilogue==
With the thumping of Thug #2, the party resolves out of combat/party time and into just conversational time.

==Loot==
+ 10 EPs
+ 8 SPs

[[Category:Run Logs]]

Welcome to Jabar

2026-03-14T15:53:56Z

Boojum: /* Stella’s Quest */

==Entirely Without Incident==

We head off towards Jabar!

With the protection of Lissa Tera, we have a smooth (and fairly boring, according to [[Gale]] and [[Scout]]) two weeks across the ocean, until we are a few

We get a briefing on Yellow from Lissa Tera.
There are four [[Varna]]. Nobility Priest Merchant, Farmer (everyone else). Ranked in vaguely that order; there’s some overlap at the edges. All Priests (well all the Priests of the Goddess…) are in the Priest caste, plus mages, scholars, philosophers… things like that. Kids can move between Varna; it’s hard for adults in the three major Varna to move, although Farmer’s can be promoted.

There are 5 Major Rivers. The Queen’s, the Great River, The New River, sometimes called the Fifth River (the Lady made it). The Masahanalta, and the Merani. Major ports where the rivers meet the sea. Three High priests (Love’s Servant, etc.) have three cities near the mountains. [[Diomarche]]’s Herd is in the northeast. There are not many major passes– just one far to the South, though it’s possible to get across elsewhere.

Lots of Illusions, lots of people will pretend to know more than they do. Don’t be rude. People speak Jabaran! She offers to teach some Jabaran.

We’ll want to get to the [[Maharani]]’s city eventually, but she hears it’s under attack by slith, so better to go by land than by boat.

[[Managaratha]] wakes up, and [[Vidan]] and [[Stella]] hear something thump the bottom of the boat.
Lissa Tera thinks probably slith, since she can’t see anything under the boat.

Gale gives everyone water breathing and underwater action.

The slith come over the side.

Vidan and Stella put a lot of them in timeout, but a named slith decloaks and starts waking them up.
It’s a tough fight, since they all have dodge pools, but we end up killing about half the mook slith. The named slith takes several sets of death checks but escapes over the side, and we can’t defeat his stealth rolls. (Lissa Terra says there is an invasion going up the Queen's River and they are fighting in the northern waters, so it was a little surprising this far south but not super surprising.)

==In Jabar==

The cataurs go out into the night. Er, day. Diomarche does the Leaving Ritual of their herds with Rashar and the other two.

Scout nudges Gale to look at the Magic Map. The X in Yellow is just north of the source of the Fifth River.

We sail north, and reach Habani by the end of the day. We get rooms at an inn and Lissa Terra goes to check in.

Vidan needs to put the three Markers from the Empire in Queen’s City, Love’s Citadel, Life’s Palace, Lore’s Towers.

Scout notes that our party battlemap has shrunk to not larger than the boat, probably because we spent so long in an Unreality bubble on the boat. No wandering a neighborhood away now.

The area is kind of savannah-like. Scout does some ecology analysis, and thinks there are some irrigation canals from the river, but the general area is dry. There aren’t any forests or jungles in the area. There is farming of olives and grapes and vines and that sort of thing.

Scout notices that there are more elves here than in most of the other Zones except for Green.

Stella gets a nudge from the Goddess; there is a List of Things to fix:
* The list coming in tomorrow is in about the proper order, least to most.
* Yours is not necessarily something that needs fixing, it is something that you should know about, and should think about whether it needs fixing. There are arguments both ways.
* You suppose Scout’s should be fixed.
* Gale’s is less something that needs fixing, but an Opportunity.
* Managaratha’s is definitely a problem; it’s really in some ways the biggest, except maybe for Vidan’s. But what fixing them means is not necessarily clear. They’re definitely divine resistance to looking into either of those (or yours for that matter). It’s not Defended, per se, but you’re getting less than you should.
* [[Nesh]] is probably getting something, but who knows.
* Diomarche’s should be fixed, but is probably the least major of them. But he should do it.
* The stuff Vidan remembered should be dealt with, but it doesn’t have to be today.

==The Next Morning: Diomarche's Quest==

We are shown to a table set for eight. Hmm, that’s suspicious. The eighth setting is appropriate for a centaur (as is Diomarche’s). Diomarche recognizes her as Ekarna, from his Herd. She is not high status; her job is a… crafter, more or less. This is far away from her usual area, so that’s unusual.

Diomarche goes to talk to her as she is inquiring about getting a room. She seems happy to see him. He tells her a bit about Middlesea, and that he and his companions are spreading the word; she assumes that we must be paladins, which Scout thinks is hilarious. Diomarche introduces her to Stella as a Priest of the Goddess, at which she becomes more polite.

She’s in town to sell some of her leatherwork, because the crops haven’t been doing well. (His mom is still back at the herd, so Diomarche should go see her). The Maharani hasn't been helping because of the drought.

Stella thinks she’s putting a better face on things than is warranted.

==Gale’s Quest==

A gentleman comes in. He spots Gale, and comes to the table. He’s moderately nicely dressed (at least compared to Ekarna…) He looks at Ekarna and says “If I might…” She lets him take her place.

“Would it be Captain Gale?”

“Yes.”

“Yes. I am [[Dubrecht]]; I am looking for assistance in flying through the mountains (not past the mountains, around the mountains) and I hope you would be able to help me on your quest.”

“I think that is doable.”

“Oh good.”

“When are you going?”

“I need some time, but in the next month?”

“What is your quest?”

“I’m looking for the Phoenix’s Nest, so that I can get a few feathers.”

Vidan asks whether finding the Nest is the quest, or if the Feathers are the quest.

Scout asks what he needs them for. “For my quest!” For whom? “For me!” Scout looks at him. Definitely a half-Pooka. Aha. That explains it. Scout becomes much more interested in helping him.

Who did Dubrecht consult with about his Quest? The Mage in the Golden Tower. She’s well-respected for that sort of thing, she’s certainly expensive enough. It’s hard to scry for the Phoenix.

We make arrangements to meet with him in a week.

==Scout’s Quest==
A high elf lady comes in, and glares at him, and he smiles and bows and leaves.

“Scout, yes?”

“Yes.”

“I understand you are a shaman of some skill?”

“Yes.”

“[[Messalani]]. I am one of the more important merchants in town. None of the Rulers in Green are responding to my requests for help. The Tree network is having troubles; it will need some Shamanism, as well as Green magic, which I can provide. With the tree network down (not down, that’s strong) it would have taken some time. ”

“I’m not aware of the Tree Network and what it does, so I’ll need to see it.”

“It’s a transportation network run by elves, that we take advantage of. It’s been here since before the last Comet (which is when I got here), so it’s quite well established. It has mostly functioned well, which it is not working well at present.”

“Is it just in Yellow?”

“There are three to the Melmane ports, there’s a different network from Melmane to the other continent.”

Managaratha is pretty sure it was established two Comets ago.

“Is it Alchemy, Nature, Essence…?”

“All three, but at root it is Nature. But it has a Divine component, but I’m not familiar with that and it’s difficult to find anyone to deal with it. Priests here are more likely to try to destroy it; that’s happened to trees on occasion.”

Messalina is Merchant Varna, she trades, both inside and overseas to keep the economy of the country running. The Great River is where the merchant Varna is most respected, so she tends to travel there. The Tree Network is throughout the lands, but less so in the Priests’ cities.

As she is finishing describing that…

==Nesh’s Quest==
A man comes in. Messalina looks up and there’s a level of assessment. Possibly he’s low level Priest Varna. Nesh is about to escort Nesh out

“I am Virga.”

He pulls out a Nesh-finding compass, and puts it on the table. It’s spinning, but then he says something and it points at Nesh.

“Can you explain why a group of cataurs, coming through our territory, had a magic item that points at you?”

“Not particularly. I think the [[Oasis]] wants me?”

“The OASIS wants you?”

“I mean, I don’t know why…”

Scout says “sorry, who are you?”

“I am Virga, I am an officer of the law.”

With whom?

“For the city.”

“I don’t suppose we could see the Ruler of the city? We have important missives from the West.”

We give him a [[Tarn Evidence Packet]]; he casts a Yellow spell to translate it and reads it quickly. There are teams of cataurs searching for Nesh, they attacked Middlesea, are they connected?

Well, not that we know of. Nesh says they might be hunting the [[Buccaneer]]? Hmm. He thinks that’s unlikely. The Inspector asks if he’ll drop his defenses to allow some investigative spells. Nesh agrees.

He casts a Yellow spell; Managaratha thinks it’s a Detect Broken of some kind.

As he’s casting a second Yellow spell, someone taps his shoulder…
==Stella’s Quest==
He gets up and bows to the woman who is sitting down, and says he will speak with Nesh later. She appears to be a priest of the Goddess, wearing a Holy symbol. She sits down and says “Good morning, my name is Hama Aliki, I am Lore’s Servant, and I was hoping I could speak with Stella about certain matters.”

“I understand you have connections with Red and Orange merchant Guilds.”

“Some. I am not a member of any Guild. I serve the Goddess, but I know many in the Guilds.”

She considers that a minute or two, and says “The Lady of Lore is… interested… in developing the Merchant Varna. And hopes to speak with someone who can provide information about how the Priest Varna can assist them in being better organized. Our understanding is that the Guild is quite well organized. It sounds like you perhaps have less understanding of it…?”

“I have knowledge, but I am not a member, of the Guild.”

Ah, then she is happy to discuss further if she has the requisite knowledge.

“I understand priests in your land do not pursue one of the Three Faces specifically.”

“Not generally.”

“That is something you should consider if you are going to be here long; the Lady of Lore would be happy to speak with you about that.”

She is the most aware of any of the people who have come in yet that she is in a mechanic, and that she had intended to speak to YOU, and perhaps had more to say, and is not convinced she wants to say more to the group because of the mechanic.

Talking generally, it seems the Merchant Varna is not organized the way the Guild is organized. The country is organized, but the Merchants are not. The Nobles are in charge; the Church is next, and could potentially… they can hold their own against the Nobles most of the time. Although the fact that they’re divided into three makes it harder. The three Ladies are bigger than any of the Nobles besides the Maharani. It’s almost feudalish in terms of descending down levels of nobles out. The priests are less organized. Love, Lore, Life; under the three Ladies are other priests. They’re not technically hierarchical, but it’s implied. Non-actual-priests of the Priest Varna are less important than most of the priests (according to her). Merchants are flat at the bottom. Then there are the regular people.

==Managaratha’s Quest==
She looks up as someone else comes into the room and heads in her direction, and she says “I believe my time is up”.

“Oh have we met?”

“No.” And

“But I have.”

“Of course you are. Did I not tell you that Purple is dangerous, Did I not tell you that Yellow was safer? Purple might be more accurate, but even so!”

“Vicarana Vesta. Do you remember having met me before?”

“No. It’s a big one. I think I’m about half burned out.”

“Then maybe you are less useful than I had hoped.”

“Nonetheless, I have been monitoring the use of Magics, as you had suggested, and you are correct that Something is Off with Feelings magic. It is not major; I would not have noticed had I not been looking out for it. Spells are not yet going awry more often, but it is enough to notice if you are watching. Which I have been, since you asked me to.

I have found the thing that you asked me to look for, and what should I do about it?”

“Well, we have received a prophecy that we should deal with this, so it’s good that you have come to us.”

“How is your Yellow theory?”

“At the moment I’m pretty good at Yellow.”

“You mean Illusion, you can’t do Feelings, right?”

“Yes.”

“How to put this in Illusion terms, or non-magic terms. Hmm. The best analogy I have at present. Think that you are living in a house, and you know the house, but suddenly at night there are new noises. That is about all I have at present. There are tremors through Feelings magic, which make the Feelings different. Different is not right. Flavor the Feelings perhaps.”

“Is this worldwide, or just in Jabar?”

I have not looked elsewhere; that is an interesting question. I could attempt to investigate that if you think that is a matter that would be useful to know to resolve the problem.

“I’m not sure it’s urgent, but it could tell the difference between a local ritual, or the Breaker trying to change the nature of Magic.”

“It’s everywhere in jabar I have been. It’s not something I would expect anyone to notice without looking. I have mentioned it to a few other Mages that, well, in one case she said she had noticed it but thought it was because she was sick. The others claimed it was not changing.”

I could get to Melmane,
==Vidan’s Quest==
As he is finishing that up, [[Suvatra]] shows up.

“Vikarna, I was not expecting to see you here.”

“My apologies, Lady, I will make way for you of course.”

She sits.

“Vidan, yes. I am pleased you have arrived.” She looks at the line of people, and puts us in a Cone of Silence.

“So. I believe the first pass will be coming to a head shortly.”

“First pass?”

“At attempting to remove the Maharani. The war is going poorly. I believe that is at least in part due to the lack of support that Her Majesty is getting from other sources. She’s getting the brunt. I believe there will be a move within the next month, possibly the next few weeks, to remove her. I expect that will be violent rather than political, and I expect the Church will be heavily involved. There was a time I thought you had better connections in the Church than I did; I’m not convinced of that now, but you are the one I find most plausible to assist me in this matter. Possibly simply because you are not local and therefore are more trustable. Possibly because you are not invested in any particular Maharani.”

“Is there any evidence of the Broken in the Conspiracy?”

“Not that I know of; there could be instigators or associates who are Bent, but I believe it is more an internal fight. I am not willing at this time to point at any one person as definitely in the conspiracy. They are sufficiently well guarded against scrying and other investigations that I do not have proof with which to charge any one of significant political import. The easiest way to get proof would be to find an assassin who survived their attempt, but I do not intend to endanger the Maharani in order to catch such an assassin. We will try to discover what we can if that happens, but I would prefer no attempt will be made.”

“From your message, it sounds like the first attempt will come from Lore?”

“I don’t believe Lore wants to remove the Maharani; Lore wants to weaken the Maharani because Lore wants to weaken the Nobility. And I believe Lore has begun those moves.”

Vidan frowns.

“But the directed attack on the Maharani does not come from Lore.”

“Where then is most likely?”

“I believe it is Life, but do not repeat that; I will disavow any such accusation. She is certainly working with others in the Nobility if she is organizing this; she was Noble of birth, and her family is close in line should the Maharani’s family fall. So given the combination of power involved and possible beneficiaries, she is my most plausible candidate. But whether she is assisting others or the motivator, that I don’t have a good feel for.”

Vidan thinks about whether there’s an obvious heir. (The prince in Middlesea is a nephew.) She has two heirs, a daughter. Passage of rulership is more flexible. KS: Succession Law tells him that the Maharani could name an heir. If an heir has not been named, then the Council of Nobles will discuss what the Maharani’s choice would likely have been. With political shenanigans likely.

==And then...==
A gentleman comes in, and bows to Suvatra.

“I am Captain Loric Assan. I am a member of the Maharani’s personal guard. I understand you are the [[Middlesea Free Rangers]]?”

“We are.”

“The Maharani commands your presence in the capital at once. I will accompany you there. Welcome to Jabar.”

===Loot:===
* +1 Racial Schtick
* +20 SPs

Day of the Maiden Part Two

2026-03-14T15:50:21Z

Boojum: Created page with "It is the evening after the previous run. We have lost Vidan and gained Managaratha. The first thing is Gale's meeting with Candace. Other folks come to be nearby in case there is trouble. Candace is dressed like a fancy lady, not a pirate captain. I'm curious what your play is and who talked you into it. The plan is to make a connection with the primary guy in town who is causing problems for the pirates at present. Gale explains about the potential Ben..."

It is the evening after the previous run. We have lost Vidan and gained Managaratha.

The first thing is Gale's meeting with Candace. Other folks come to be nearby in case there is trouble. Candace is dressed like a fancy lady, not a pirate captain.

I'm curious what your play is and who talked you into it. The plan is to make a connection with the primary guy in town who is causing problems for the pirates at present. Gale explains about the potential Bent plot bringing in partners. She and Nesh are up for helping with her plan but not the Bent plan, and are still gathering information on exactly how to draw that line.

That's it for the very long day - there will be two new meetings in the morning.

In the morning, there is some indication a miracle is "involved" but no miracle is currently on them.

Lilya wants to know if Nesh knows anything about what Victor (the Orange journeyman) is is up to. He doesn't really, other than "stuck in Middlesea).

Stella goes to see about helping the temple prepare for the party. Carol is in and out; Lucy is mostly running things.

Gale goes shopping, and in lieu of finding anything interesting, buys a chest of preserving food to put on the boat. Diomarche wanders around looking for centaur girls - he meets a caravan guard named Elena.

Nesh finds a note in his pocket - it's a dossier on Lilya. She is a merchant from a small town a little outside Kor by the name of Orence. She is the great-niece of Rasputin, and one of his five or six most active agents. (The briefing doesn't say this, but Nesh knows of Rasputin as an old and well-respected saurian - probably the most influential - from Orange. He's not directly active, but is still kicking around at well over 20 years past what most saurians live to..

Managaratha confirms that the sigil from the basement is the same as the sigil from the guy who blew up the wall (that is, Fyodor and Mikhailovich are the same person)
At the Party
We have little plan. But we seem to settle on “Help Richard get points; make Richard think we’re cool (probably by making sure he knows we’re gaining him points); thwart Anne; keep an eye on Carol.” Help fix Candace and Lilya?

Lucy drops the blessing of the Goddess. Scout thinks this helped instantiate the mechanic. This probably makes it harder to do some things and

* Actions happen in rounds
* PCs can go in any order.
* NPCs will go at the end of the round.

==Round 1==
Gale looks at the Scoreboard. Vidan is no longer on it, but it otherwise looks as it was:

:Leopold: 5
:Vivian: 2
:Pyotr: [redacted]
:Lilya: [redacted]
:Richard: 4
:Anne: 2
:Viktor: 3
:Candace: 1

Gale is confident that’s the only Scoreboard, though there are other Mechanics.

Stella asks Lucy what the mechanic is. ("Back at my temple, we had someone else with the party skills...")

==Mechanic:==
* There are a variety of topics of conversation that can be had.
* The candidates have topics they care about; you can talk to one to figure out what topic they care about for the round. Other people can go and make rolls to try to give them points.
* Consort candidates can only talk to the Centurion (Julia) every other round.
* PCs trying to horn in on a convo can drag one other NPC in.

Diomarche makes his entrance - he is dressed in full Yellow Rustic Maiden Party Clothes, with the deep-V ruffly shirt and a big smile.

Gale talks to Richard - his current topic is martial combat. She demonstrates how to swordfight on a bouncing ship deck, and gets a point. She ups him by one. Nesh brings Julia over, who also likes martial combat. The entire ballroom converges on this conversation, though Nesh blocks Anne.

Scout talks to Rangor Goldsmith, he’s Her Majesty’s representative to Orange (or Vani?) He’s a merchant and an Orange mage. He’s more social than many, more than Scout would have expected.

Carol brings Giaconni over to distract Gale, who is in fact distractible.

==Round 2==
Scout spots the residue of a Goddess miracle on Rangor Goldsmith. He is in fact here to distract Scout from doing the plot. Yup, this tracks - Elena is distracting Diomarche, Giaconni is distracting Gale...

Stella talks to Viktor, who is interested in Merchant Guild Gossip. Well, then!

Way too many people are interested in merchant guild gossip. Pyotr gets a point on Julia.

Nesh brings Julia to talk to Richard– Julia wants to dance! THey go back to the ballroom, but Nesh gets Julia and Richard to dance together, and he scores a point.

==Round 3==
Gale tells Giaconni to help with her plot, not distract her, and then gets yoinked into dancing with Leopold. She dings Vivian a point.

Scout tries "Are you Bent?" on Carol, but three 15s doesn't succeed - there’s interference from some sort of Crone shtick of "don't use detects on me".
==Round 4==
Managaratha asks Lucy whether the extra women on the scoreboard is intended. She seems to be paying attention to the matchmaker scoreboard, not the one Gale has.

Stella talks to Carol and gets introduced to the old sick guy (Lord DiAngelo) who needs healing. That distracts Stella but also takes Carol out for the turn.

Gale un-redacts Pyotr (and Lilya) with Charisma. His conversation topic is Vani History. Can Managaratha ask Giaconni to find out who Vivian wanted to stab? He passes that along in front of Lucy, who raises an eyebrow.
==Round 5==
Nesh triggers Richard for Drinking Contest. Diomarche (and Elena) jump on that. Managaratha wants to head somewhere else, but is intercepted by Lucy, who wants to know about the stabbing plot. We don't have any proof of who was pulling the strings, it wouldn't be appropriate to speculate. Well, that bug is in her ear now.

Scout talks to Julia about the Goddess.

Gale talks to Anne - she deserves better than to be someone else's pawn. She is not super convincing.
Nesh talks to Pyotr, and gives Lilya a point.

Mario comes to talk to Managaratha - oh, hey, he's the one who made that dagger.

==Round 6==
Anne is current politics; Scout engages. Pyotr is dancing; Gale engages.

==Final points==
:Leopold: 5 +1
:Vivian: 2 - 1 (gale)
:Pyotr: 4 +1 -1(gale)
:Lilya: 1 +1 +1 +1 +1 (Nesh)
:Richard: 4 + 1 (gale) +1 (self) + 1(self) +1 (Nesh) +1 (Diomarche) +1 (Scout) + 1 (self) +1 (Diomarche)
:Anne: 2 +1 -1 (Stella) -1 (Scout)
:Viktor: 3 +1 (self) -1 (Stella)
:Candace: 1 +1 (self) +1 (self)

The party ends! That is, the mechanic ends. We might still do some non-scoreboard things.

Diomarche goes home with Elena.

Nesh tries to apologize to Anne, but she’s not won over; she might not be out to get us yet, though. (She probably isn't likely to go over to the Breaker - she's more about thinking we are junk than about being Evil).

Scout had previously looked at Anne and gotten that there was an older (older than the dwarf) miracle residue - he looks more closely, and gets that it's a few days old and is a Goddess-y matchmaker shtick not targeting her in particular. More like a "summon potential matches". Yeah, it's a little bit retroactive - she would have had to start traveling sooner than the miracle went off, but that's not that unusual. (This sort of thing frags purple mages when they are looking closely.)

Purple theory says that when you use a miracle to re-write the last three days, you re-write the last three days, and if you were looking, it might frag you if it’s relevant.

==Loot: ==
* +10 EPs
* +10 SPs

Main Page

2026-03-14T15:48:24Z

Boojum: /* Chapter 4: [title of chapter] */

COMET: Once More Unto The Breach 

== About The World ==
[[World Map|World Map and Overview]]

[[Jabar Map]]

[[:Category:Countries|Countries]] of the World

[[History]]

[[Muddle in Middlesea]]

[[Plot Threads]]

== Previous Comet ==
[https://stuff.mit.edu/~boojum/CometWeb/ Website from the Previous Comet]

==Various Mechanics==
[[Colors of Magic | Magic]]

[[Endurance]]

[[Character Creation Message]]

[[Skill List and Costs]]

[[Combat]]

[[Middlesea Free Rangers]]

[[:Category: Rulings]]

==Logs==
===Chapter 1: Forging the Rangers===
# [[First Run]] ([[Rainbow]]), 2023-01-07
# [[Second Run]] ([[Rainbow]]), 2023-02-18
# [[To The Heart]] ([[Orange]]), 2023-03-04
# [[Adventures are Everywhere]] ([[Orange]]), 2023-03-18
# [[Promises Promises]] ([[Purple]]), 2023-04-01
# [[A Lilac Kind Of Purple]] ([[Purple]]), 2023-05-13
# [[To Catch A Thief]] ([[Red]]), 2023-05-27
# [[Bear and Frog]] ([[Red]]), 2023-06-17
# [[Keep in the Broken Lands]] ([[Red]]), 2023-07-08
# [[Under the Sea]] ([[Red]]), 2023-07-22
# [[The Once and Future Queens]] ([[Red]]), 2023-08-05
# [[Coronation and Investigation]] ([[Red]]), 2023-08-19
# Chapter End: [[Forging the Free Rangers]] (A space outside of space, and [[Red]]), 2023-09-02

===Chapter 2: Across the Sea===
# [[On The Sea 1]] (Combats, Calms, and Cataurs) (Between [[Red]] and [[Blue]]), 2023-10-14
# [[On The Sea 2]] (Sea Giant, Sea Witch, and Melmane ho!) (Ending in [[Blue]]), 2023-10-28
# [[Three Mages]] (in [[Blue]]), 2023-11-11
# [[A ritual and no Pearls]] (in [[Blue]]), 2023-12-09
# [[On His Majesty’s Secret Surface]] (in the Merfolk kingdoms), 2024-01-20
# [[Terrain Type Shark]] (in the Merfolk kingdoms), 2024-02-03
# [[Pearly Whites]] (in the Merfolk kingdoms), 2024-02-17
# [[Water Alliance]] (in the Merfolk Kingdoms and Melmane), 2024-03-02
# [[Heart of Blue]] (in [[Blue]]), 2024-03-30
# [[Hunting Slith Spies]] (in [[Blue]]), 2024-04-13
# [[Recapturing the Cataurs]] (in [[Blue]]), 2024-05-11
# Chapter End: [[Welcome to Jabar]] (on the way to and in [[Yellow]]), 2024-06-08

===Chapter 3: In the Land of Yellow===
# [[Caravan]] (in Yellow), 2024-08-17
# [[Caravan Part 2]] (in Yellow), 2024-08-31
# [[A Tree Grows in Jabar]] (in Yellow), 2024-10-12
# [[A Crack in the Wall]] (in Yellow), 2024-11-09
# [[Feeling Our Way Around]] (in Yellow), 2024-11-23
# [[Life of the Party]] (in Yellow), 2024-12-07
# [[A Maharani Calls]] (in Yellow), 2024-12-21
# [[Nor Any Drop to Drink]] (in Yellow), 2025-01-18
# [[Talking to Trees]] (in Yellow), 2025-02-15
# [[Climbing the Bird Gradient]] (in Yellow), 2025-03-01
# Chapter End: [[In the Court of His Majesty of the Forest]] (in Green), 2025-03-29

===Chapter 4: [title of chapter]===
# [[Mushroom Mushroom]] (in Green), 2025-04-12
# [[A River Runs Through It]] (in Green and the Broken Lands), 2025-05-24
# [[In Their Majesty's Creepy Castle]] (in Green), 2025-06-21
# [[On The Assassin's Trail]] (in Purple), 2025-07-05
# [[Investigation, Assassination]], (in Purple), 2025-07-19
# [[Rinyan Redux]], (in Orange), 2025-08-09
# [[The Endurance of Memory]], (in Orange and ritual space), 2025-08-23
# [[Tales of Comets Past]] (aka Breakerversary!), (in Orange and ShuMash), 2025-10-11
# [[Welcome to Vani]] (in Vani in Orange), 2025-10-25
# [[Another Stabby Dagger]] (in Vani in Orange), 2025-11-22
# [[House Party]] (in Vani in Orange), 2025-12-06
# [[Heart of Orange]] (in Vani in Orange), 2025-01-17
# [[Day of the Maiden Part One]] (in Vani in Orange), 2025-02-14
# [[Day of the Maiden Part Two]] (in Vani in Orange), 2025-02-28

===Total EPs===
As of 2026-02-28 (4.14), including initial 30 EPs / 100 SPs.
* 414 EPs
* 565 SPs

Plus one additional Creation point on stats from Run 4.8.

==Things We Might Know==
* [[:Category:NPCs]]
* [[Party Loot]]
* [[Visions of Middlesea]]

== MediaWiki ==
MediaWiki has been installed.

Consult the [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Help:Contents User's Guide] for information on using the wiki software.

* [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Configuration_settings Configuration settings list]
* [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Manual:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ]
* [https://lists.wikimedia.org/postorius/lists/mediawiki-announce.lists.wikimedia.org/ MediaWiki release mailing list]
* [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Localisation#Translation_resources Localise MediaWiki for your language]
* [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Combating_spam Learn how to combat spam on your wiki]

The Lady

2026-03-01T00:06:55Z

Boojum:

'''The Lady of Air and Water''' is a title referring to a powerful figure from the previous Comet cycle.

== Status ==
[[Managaratha]] believed The Lady had died during the last Comet, though he notes this may not be definitive, as the [[Buccaneer]] also died and yet returned. The Buccaneer is known to have served as one of The Lady's seconds during the last Comet.

== Known Actions ==
The Lady was active during the previous Comet in several significant ways:
* She created the New River (also called the Fifth River) in [[Yellow]]
* She maintained an army on the mainland, funding it through hidden treasure stashes in Orange
* She directed military logistics through written orders, suggesting organizational authority

== Abode ==
Her residence is located on the western shore of the Forest, near the border with Purple. It is described as often difficult to view. The Golden Eagle spirit provided this information, adding that having an object belonging to The Lady would make finding it easier.

The Lady

2026-03-01T00:05:30Z

Boojum: /* Status */

The Lady is a title referring to a powerful figure from the previous Comet cycle. Her full title is **The Lady of Air and Water**.

== Status ==
[[Managaratha]] believed The Lady had died during the last Comet, though he notes this may not be definitive, as the [[Buccaneer]] also died and yet returned. The Buccaneer is known to have served as one of The Lady's seconds during the last Comet.

== Known Actions ==
The Lady was active during the previous Comet in several significant ways:
* She created the New River (also called the Fifth River) in Yellow
* She maintained an army on the mainland, funding it through hidden treasure stashes in Orange
* She directed military logistics through written orders, suggesting organizational authority

== Abode ==
Her residence is located on the western shore of the Forest, near the border with Purple. It is described as often difficult to view. The Golden Eagle spirit provided this information, adding that having an object belonging to The Lady would make finding it easier.

== Related Figures ==
Several figures operate under titles parallel to hers:
* The **Lady of Love**, who seeks to bring Feelings Magic into the Goddess' domain rather than Orellian's
* The **Lady of Life**, whose niece Rani Dwalla was nominated for the Blessing of the Goddess
* The **Lady of Lore**, who is interested in developing the Merchant Varna in Yellow and seeks to speak with knowledgeable Guild members

(summarized with Claude)

Buccaneer

2026-03-01T00:04:10Z

Boojum: Created page with "'''The Buccaneer''' is a traditionally independent military and naval asset of Melmane, historically aligned with the Admiralty or the Saurian city there. The title appears on its bearer rather than being assigned, similar to how the Lord of Fire and Earth title functions. The Buccaneer carries a blade that transforms into the Buccaneer's Blade in relevant contexts, and this reputation carries social weight in some places (such as the Kingdom of the Sharks). The Buccane..."

'''The Buccaneer''' is a traditionally independent military and naval asset of Melmane, historically aligned with the Admiralty or the Saurian city there. The title appears on its bearer rather than being assigned, similar to how the Lord of Fire and Earth title functions. The Buccaneer carries a blade that transforms into the Buccaneer's Blade in relevant contexts, and this reputation carries social weight in some places (such as the Kingdom of the Sharks).

The Buccaneer is a role that dates to at least the previous Comet, when the title-holder served alongside [[Scout]], the Lord, and the Lady. The previous Buccaneer was one of the Lady's seconds.

Nesh

2026-03-01T00:01:27Z

Boojum:

'''Nesh''' is a Saurian member of the [[Middlesea Free Rangers]] party. He is descended from the line of the Oldest through his mother [[Ilyana]], a heritage that makes him the only one capable of accessing a cave or vault east of the [[Oasis]]. He does not know who his parents are and did not grow up knowing his origins.

==Description==

Nesh has unusually high magical resistance, which causes notable reactions from those who attempt to cast investigative or detection spells on him. When he dropped his defenses, Scout's Essence spell determined he is from Red. He carries the [[Buccaneer]]'s Sword (originally Agility at x4 damage, but changed to x3 while becoming lighter). He is perceptive, stealthy, and effective in social situations; other Saurians frequently take notice of him, sometimes without being able to explain why.

He is known as:
* The Buccaneer, a traditional asset of Melmane historically aligned with the Admiralty or the Saurian city there
* "Nesh, son of Ilyana, last of the line of the Oldest" (his oath name when founding the Free Rangers)
* "Bearslayer", a title given by [[Vidan]] after the owlbear fight

==Background==

[[Virga]], an officer of the law in Jabar, investigated Nesh after cataurs were found carrying a compass that pointed to him. Nesh speculated that the [[Oasis]] wanted him because he is the only one who can open the cave east of the Oasis, a capability tied to his descent from Ilyana. Virga later found reports of an attack on a Saurian woman named Karina and her daughter Ilyana using a similar compass, suggesting the hunting of Nesh's family line has a history.

In Melmane's Northport, the Saurian librarian reacted with suppressed surprise when Nesh mentioned being born in the Rainbow Isles and having a connection to the line of the Oldest. [[Philippa]] of the Admiralty asked how he came by his sword; he said he had always had it and assumed his parents gave it to him. A [[Blue]] Saurian had previously told him he probably could not take the sword away.

===Cataur Threat===
The [[Oasis]] repeatedly directed cataurs to capture Nesh. He negotiated a Purple-bound vow with cataur captain [[Rashkar]] that the cataurs would not hunt him. That vow was later dispelled by unknown parties who boarded the cataur boat and cast a spell making the remaining cataurs appear human. During the Free Rangers oath ritual, cataurs broke into the castle, wounded Nesh badly, and were only driven off when [[Diomarche]] trampled them.

The Oasis's interest in Nesh was explained by Tisana - they want him to open the cave east of the Oasis. An opposing group led by Lacrisa also sought him.

[[Category:PCs]]

(summarized with Claude)

Carlo

2026-02-28T23:56:52Z

Boojum: Redirected page to Uncle Carlo

#REDIRECT [[Uncle Carlo]]

Rinyan Redux

2026-02-28T23:56:32Z

Boojum: /* Church of the Five */

=To Orange!=

As [[Diomarche]] and [[Gale]] fade out, we are but five! But the Fivist doesn’ know what we’re doing. So we tell him we’re going to <s>Red</s> Orange, to find out about what’s wrong with [[Vidan]], and to maybe do something about the new Broken miracle on us.

[[Managaratha]] does math, makes us fly up into the air, and then teleports us over to somewhere over Orange. He does some Navigation to figure out more clearly where we are– [[Stella]] can confirm we’re in the Orange Zone. Mangaratha asks Stella for a good place to have lunch, and she describes a restaurant, so we teleport there. Or… at least somewhere in [[Rinyan]]. Oops.

Stella takes us to the Temple, so that we can make a plan. [[Meraldi]] and [[Diana]] are the two other Priests there; Meraldi is there when we arrive. She asks if we’re back back, or just dropping in. Stella asks what’s going on.

Cassandra’s probably a little ahead of Tivoli. if they got in a fight, but they’re mostly not actually fighting. There’s been a couple of incidents with Orange magic going off, but she doesn’t have a lot of info– the Guild is trying to keep it relatively quiet. (She thinks they found some cursed daggers that were found shortly after we found the one that Gale is carrying. There was an issue with some horseshoes? She doesn’t know a lot about that. And there was a third incident in Rinyan, that was cleaned up darn fast. There were incidents in other cities as well. The Guild seems to be on it.)

The Saurians are up to something, it’s pretty clear, but everyone else is looking at it and not finding out much about it. They’re particularly displeased about the people stuck in Middlesea– that seems to be the focus of whatever they’re upset about. “[[Victor]], is who they’re upset about?” asks Stella. Yes, yes that’s it. The other churches are mostly quiet. The Guild is pushing for some help with the pirates (on the Inland side)

[As an aside, [[Scout]] ponders how Country Turns work with Zones. He’s confident that it’s not simply one draw per Zone– His Majesty gets a draw that’s separate from Her Majesty or Their Majesty. The Empire might get one draw, but they’re probably a bigger Country. Countries in Red might each get their own draw, but not all the time? Blue is madness, who can say, really.]

Vidan asks if there is a Church of Navere nearby– there is a church of the Five, and [[Rafael]] is a priest of Navere. ([[Mother Jess]], the head of the Church of Navere, is in King Richard’s Lands in [[Red]].) Rafael is probably a bit bigger than Vidan, and definitely more involved in the Church hierarchy. There is also a Church of Rush.

We update Meraldi on the Breaker’s Plan to Corrupt the Orange Zone, or as much as we know about it. Well that moves looking into Orange Magic strangeness up the list.

=Church of the Five=
Stella sends a message to [[Ritasi]] that the [[Middlesea Free Rangers]] would like to set up a meeting. Then Meraldi takes us to the Church of the Five, and Vidan spends a DI to authorize us to carry these Broken Miracles around. The Church is bigger than the shrine of the Goddess; it’s clearly actively supported by The Church, in a way that Stella’s shrine is really just the three of them. Meraldi asks [[Pablo]] (a priest of Orellian) if Rafael is around; he goes to get him. In a while Rafael shows up and greets us, and is interested in Vidan. Vidan says he’s getting the lay of the land in Orange, and also looking for a reliable Priest of Jord, and of the Nameless. Have we had issues with unreliable priests before? Well, maybe a bit, in Red. Are there other Imperial Priests of the Five? Not really, no. What drew Vidan to Navere? He starts to think about it and decides that it is treading close to his Vow not to look into his past.

Vidan explains that we’re looking for a Priest of the Nameless who can talk to the Dead, to find out an important Secret. How long dead? Three months– that’s possibly doable, though he doesn’t know anyone off-hand. As for Jord, we’re trying to steal someone out of Middlesea on behalf of the [[Maharani]]. Ah, well. To deal with royalty, you probably want someone who follows the Merchant face of Jord; to actually steal someone, you want a Priest of the Thief face or Jord. Finding someone to do both might be tricky. [[Carlo]] is certainly someone we could talk to about the latter…

Vidan, having done the public work, asks if he can speak in private for a few minutes, and feels out Father Rafael about internal Church politics, and the Priests of Rush.
The Paladins are less of a separate presence, though they do maintain an outpost, in case military issues arrive. He has concerns that the Church is unbalanced at present, but it’s not something he’s currently attempting to address. (Part of that is he doesn’t feel like he’s high enough in the hierarchy.) Vidan thinks Rafael has 7-10 DI, and is more focused on Governance than, say, Law or Justice. He feels part of his job is interfacing between the Guild and the Rinyan nobility (there is a Lord Rinyan, whose power is not as strong as he thinks might be appropriate. He seems to think that’s more of an imbalance between Navere and Jord rather than an imbalance between Navere and Rush. But that’s less the Church of Jord driving that imbalance.

Vidan gives him some info about how the Empire works, which Raphael finds interesting from a theoretical perspective. He seems to be more ecumenical than many, but then Orange is more ecumenical than most Zones.

Managaratha chats with Pablo, as the resident Priest of Orellian. Given that we have heard of Broken plots to mess with Orange and Yellow magic, we’re wondering if there is a way of consulting with Orellian for guidance. Pablo is fairly sure there are dangers to Magic this Comet, though he hadn’t know about Orange and Yellow in particular. It would be hard to find a priest of Orellian big enough to tell you about the Breaker’s Plans this Comet, so you might need a different approach.

Magic by its nature is chaotic and hard to control. That’s why spells have to be particular, it’s why awryage and burnout happens, etc. It’s not surprising that its nature is to change over time. And it’s not always the Breaker’s doing, e.g., the creation of Zones was done at the behest of the Church, or at least with the understanding of the Church. Change to Magic and attacks to Magic are certainly possible.

If this was a Comet focused on attacks on Magic, he would have expected to see more signs than he has by now. So maybe focusing on the local threats would be more useful. What is it Managaratha thinks is happening in Yellow? It seems that there’s a faction of the priest of the Goddess that is trying to take over Feelings Magic. Hmm. Pablo thinks the description sounds like that’s just Priests trying to gain power for their Goddess, and not necessarily Broken. But don’t let that stop Managaratha from defending Magic everywhere.

More discussion ensues. We tell him where we got the info about Orange– he’s curious about the “single Orange mage”. If it’s someone that big to mess with the whole Zone, they’re Terrifying. Maybe they have support from people who are hard to see? Priests, or Saurians (the latter would be more likely to be the Destruction of the Zone). Pablo can come up with a list of people who are powerful enough to maybe potentially be a threat on that scale. Managaratha thinks the stabby daggers is related to that. He can look into that.

“Do you know what was up with the horseshoes?” Scout asks.

“The horseshoes made the horses go extra fast, but destroyed the roads behind them.”

Should we go talk to Carlo? Well, he is a Crime Lord. A Crime Lord?!? We thought Stella was being overly dramatic. “Oh, no, he’s definitely a Crime Lord,” says Meraldi.

Scout asks Meraldi’s opinion about who to talk to about the Broken Miracle. Ritasi is the strongest Priest of the Goddess in Rinyan, but she doesn’t know his schticks. [[Leonardo]] is less likely to be able to do the ritual thing, but would likely be able to find someone to help. But Ritasi might be the actual right person.

When we get back to the Shrine, there’s a note saying that Ritasi will see us in the morning. So we ponder what we’re doing with the remains of the day.

=An Evening Out=
[[Nesh]] goes to the Saurian quarter, and asks around about where to learn about Saurian history. Has he been to the Library? There’s a library? Of Rinyan? No, the Saurian Library. Oh. No. He goes to check it out. “Can I help you?” Nesh explains that he was raised in the Rainbow Isles and

“Well you have to remember n hat Saurian culture was very much designed by the Elders when the race was reborn, and while it has evolved some since then, I would expect most clusters of Saurians are the result of two or three Elders moving to a place and starting a community.”

“Is there anywhere I can read about that culture?”

“Well there’s a great deal written about the Elders, you can read.”

“There’s more information about the Homelands– they’re there, but contact with them has been severely limited for… two Comets? And there is occasionally messages that go back and forth, but there hasn’t been regular contact for a long time. There is, in my opinion, information that’s somewhat more reliable than the information about the Elders. In part because the Elders valued their privacy in a way that the Homelands was just far away. Where do you want to start?”

Nesh says the Homelands. Okay, she brings him back to the stacks. What does he know already? Does he know the names of the Homelands? No. But he has 4 levels of KS:Saurians. Okay, that gives her a sense… let’s start with… “Karenina”

At the time the Homelands were opened and the rebirth occurred, none of the Elders seemed particularly religious. There were a bunch of humans in the Homelands as well, but the Saurians ruled by proxy. There were only about 100 Saurians at that time. They had a single religion of Birth, Life, and Death– faces of the Mother, Twins, and Nameless, specifically. Miracles mostly only happened within the relevant churches (on holy ground).

By the time the Rainbow River was scattered, the Homelands had a more standard version of the religions, although it was not a strong force there, as the power of Magic and DI was weaker there in general, even among humans. The Homelands were ruled openly by saurians at that time, although it’s not clear whether they became more populous than humans by that time.

Karenina was writing shortly after the Merfolk-moving comet. But the historical account of the Homelands is helpful.

Scout looks at the Treasure Map from the ghost ship– it’s near [[Kor]], so we don’t think we can get there

Stella decides not to go talk to Carlo, but does BRING IT and find out what needs fixing in Orange. 19 successes with 12 DI.

<ul>
<li> There is nothing serious in Rinyan that needs Fixing right now.
<li> Broadening to Orange as a whole, there’s definitely the Thing She Can’t See, even with 19 successes.

<li> The Orange Mages who are working to expand Orange and are likely to Break it need fixing, but that’s a long-term project, and you’ve already put some resources onto that. It will need more tending.

<li> Getting Nivad (Goddess-flavored Purple Guy) more direction is a good thing to work on. It will definitely be a step towards Fixing Things that the Goddess Wants Fixed.

<li> [[Vani]] has a Broken Plot that is proceeding, that it would be good to thwart. It’s not huge, but it’s the biggest Broken plot in the country that is imminent. (Orange Mages are larger, less imminent, and not everyone in it is Broken or Bent. There is some devil-on-the-shoulder going on, it would be good to find them and deal with them.)
</ul>

The Goddess notes that Uncle Carlo and the Treasure Map are on Stella’s todo list, but they’re not on the Fix-It list.

=Cult of Al’an=
No one attacks us overnight!

We go to see Ritasi at the Cult of Al’an’s Compound in the morning. Leonardo is there to greet us. Are we going to trigger any defenses? Leonardo says that’s been taken care of. Although

Ritasi waits for us in a sitting room. He is over 70, plausibly over 80. He rises, and shakes Stella’s hand, and Vidan’s hand, and Managaratha’s hand (“Have we met?” “Oh yes, but it was years ago.”), and asks for introductions. Managaratha says we have two main

“Nivad, come out.” He drops some DI, and Vidan turns into Nivad. Whoa. “Do you have an update on your task?”
Mike realizes that his Suckage is “Tasked, Doomed, and Fated to bring the Churches back together” was all amiss interpreted– he needs to be fixing ALL the Churches? Oh dear.

“I’m supposed to be uniting the Churches?”

“Let’s back up. When the Priests claim that the Priests of Lore cannot access the rest of the Goddess, that is false, and that they might be trying to do that is a means of Breaking the World. If they were more like the Cult of Al’an that would be good, but isn’t strictly necessary.”

Nivad realizes that he has been doing some recon in Yellow, so he relates what he’s found out about Love pursuing Feelings magic.

He doesn’t have suggestions for how to convince the Ladies that they should be cooperating rather than fighting. If the Maharani caught the Lady of Life trying to have her assassinated in a way that she could prove, she might be able to help, but it would also be irritating to have the Church smacked.

“Yes, it was irritating to have to deal with the factions. And they all wanted to recruit me.”

“They would do that. One reason to send a priest of the Cult of Al’an to look into it is that they would be less likely to try to recruit him.”

“The fact that

We update him on the Addenda to the [[Tarn Evidence Packet]]. He is intrigued that the Breaker’s Plan for Red involves

“All three Churches were damaged last Comet. The Three faces of the Lady are separated in Jabar; the Twins are separated from Balance and each other; the Church of Rush was separated from the rest of the Five. It sounds like the Breaker is only trying to exacerbate one of the three, but the others do need mending.”

“The details of that plan were kept between the Minister of Lions and myself and Mother Jess, to be revealed to you once things were far enough along that your immediate intervention was going to be relevant. It seems like, with the disaster in Middlesea, your time has come. I do not see exactly what it is that you will do to fix this, but you are the one who is most likely of anyone to fix the Churches this Comet. So if you have need of me or the Cult of Al’an in doing that, feel free to speak with me.”

“Are others, for instance Leonardo, informed on this?”

“Leonardo does not know the details. It was the Minister of Lions that approached the other two of us with the plan, and something having to do with Purple magic and The Yet, and the more people who know about it the more likely there will be Problems. It’s not clear if that makes it more likely to Fail. But the fact that you are most likely to help means you could be most likely to hurt the issue as well. But Purple is not my sphere.”

“As it turns out, it’s almost impossible to frag me with information.” says Managaratha.

“That would make sense, yes.”

“So if there’s information that you need to tell me you can probably do that privately.”

“We can talk afterwards.”

“The Destiny was there, we added things to help it out. I would presume that just waiting for events to unfold will not suffice.”

We talk a bit about the Ministries and the bureaucratic mess that is Purple Guy.

Would talking to Mother Jess be helpful to activate Purple Guy? Well, it’s probably worth talking to her, but if we’re not heading that way.

==Broken Miracles==
Scout mentions we’re also looking for someone to help out with the new Broken Miracle. Who looked at it? The Warmth of Summer. Oh. But he chose not to deal with it because it might interact poorly with the other Twins effects on us, not because he wasn’t big enough. Oh, well that’s better. All right, he will take a look.

“There are definitely things I am not seeing, and there is a lot there. The miracle in this case is one that is increasing your forgetfulness. It is tied to a Green effect. It does not seem particularly tied to anything else that I would worry about touching, but everything is entangled. Whether or not it is directly a part or not, there are connections between everything. In this case it appears that the strongest connection between that miracle and– well. That miracle is most strongly connected to the Green effect. The Green effect is also connected to the miracle of Navere, which is interwoven with a miracle of Rush, which is connected to the [[Oasis]] miracle. (Not all positive connections, they could be directly opposed to each other.)”

“The Blue effect and the Purple Twins effect are more closely tied to each other than to the rest of the mess, but they are connected to the Oasis miracle.”

“You cannot easily touch one without touching the others. But there is limited Goddess impact in everything. There is a small amount of Goddess effect on the Blue effect, but it’s not clear, and it’s not on us per se. That might mean there are other significant Red and Orange effects, since there are already Blue, Green, Purple, and Yellow…”

The effects are different sizes. The Oasis effect is the largest. The combined Rush/Navere effect is about the size of the Oasis.

He can’t see if the Broken miracle is just reinforcing the Green effect on us or on everyone. He can try to put something together to deal with that– if we come back tomorrow he will look again and have a better idea. He might be able to pull us out of Middlesea without getting rid of the Miracle, if that’s something we want? We’re not sure– we think it may be useful to have us connected to Middlesea for the time being.

We end the discussion for today; we’ll come back in the morning. Leonardo shows us out. He is clearly restraining himself from trying to get information out of us, and is grumpy about people having secret meetings with Ritasi without him being present.

=Aftermath=
Nesh wants to bring Vidan to the library; we also consider going to the X on the Treasure Map.

We decide to go look at the Treasure. After much debate about how to get there, Managaratha

There is a hill with a well-hidden door, with a giant Purple spell on it.

That is a discipline spell on it that only lets you in if you’re on the Right Side. If you don’t get through the spell, it sets off an alarm.

Oh. We bet the Buccaneer, one of the Lady’s Companions, is on the Right Side. Scout wilds a spell to see what Side he is on– he’s clearly His Majesty’s, and an essence spell on him doesn’t tell him which side His Majesty is on

<ul>
<li> A bunch of rotted stuff
<li> 3 Loot of Gold and Gems
<li> 3 Blue items with Army-level schticks on them
<ul>
<li> 1: Lets an army unit fly
<li> 2: Gives an army unit defense against Orange magic
<li> 3: Gives an army unit more Martial skill
</ul>
</ul>

Purple Guy looks around with Detective; he thinks some of the stuff that rotted used to be uniforms. But he does find out that the alarm goes to The Master Trader. Oh hey, Scout asked the Master Trader to send a message to His Majesty when we were in Kor. He also had a name, so it’s not just the same guy as before, probably? Nesh has a name.

Stella decides to fix everything in the cache. 16 successes with 12 DI. Suits of uniforms, and medical supplies! The food that was here doesn’t get fixed. There are some maps, showing battle lines, etc. Things have changed somewhat. Kor is where it belongs. A couple of the towns shown with medium-sized militias in them are no longer there. There’s at least one medium-sized town that has arisen since them.

The medicines didn’t really get restored, so it’s less medical supplies than Stella would like, but the splints and bandages are all good.

We decide to take a few.

=Loot=
<ul>
<li> + 9 EPs
<li> + 9 SPs
<li> Three blue artifacts, three loot, some medical supplies and uniforms (left in the cache)
</ul>

[[Category:Run Logs]]

Meraldi

2026-02-28T23:52:03Z

Boojum: /* Notable Events */

Meraldi is a priest of the Goddess who serves at [[Stella]]'s shrine in [[Rinyan]], alongside [[Diana]]. She handles administrative and community matters at the temple.

Meraldi is noted for her exceptional social skills and charm. She is well-versed in Guild politics and knows key figures including Master Cassandra Livoca and Master Tivoli Dianori, the two leading Guild members in the city during the Delegate's absence.

==Notable Events==

Meraldi investigated a workshop fire that killed Lisidor, an Orange mage, who was reportedly working late when the blaze occurred. She also took the lead in identifying the source of a stabbing incident at Master Tivoli Dianori's house; she deduced that the victim was Tivoli's daughter Ashley and facilitated offering healing assistance.

During competing Guild parties held simultaneously by Masters Cassandra and Tivoli, Meraldi demonstrated her diplomatic skills. She crossed social divides to speak with Saurians at the Cassandra party and helped navigate sensitive conversations about the fire. At the Tivoli party, she used a miracle to allow [[Scout]] to communicate clearly and helped uncover details about the stabbing incident.

Meraldi serves as an expert source on Guild matters and religious personnel in Rinyan. She has advised the party on which priests might assist with their investigations and warned them about [[Uncle Carlo|Carlo]], a Crime Lord in the city. She also provided guidance on the two competing Masters' relative positions and suggested a party-splitting strategy to avoid offending either.

(summarized with Claude)

Rinyan

2026-02-28T23:47:04Z

Boojum: Redirected page to Rin'yan

#REDIRECT [[Rin'yan]]

Pyotr

2026-02-28T23:38:25Z

Boojum:

'''Pyotr''' is a Saurian and the Keeper of the Lord's House in [[Vani]], a position of significant influence in the city's political structure. He had served as a servant for 15 years before being selected by the previous Keeper to assume the role upon their retirement.

As Keeper, Pyotr maintains the Lord's House—a centuries-old mansion that serves as both museum and public gathering space. The building itself is well-engineered and carries schticks (likely Orange-related). Pyotr oversees the house's servants, who are exclusively Saurian, and controls access to areas like the basement mine where a Slith teleportation occurred during a party at the House.

Pyotr is the most prominent Saurian in [[Vani]] and holds influence comparable to the captain of the Paladins of Rush. While the Saurians do not typically act as a unified political bloc, his voice would carry significant weight on issues affecting them. He has considerable knowledge of [[Orange]] magic and the city's history.

During the current Consort succession contest, Pyotr emerged unexpectedly as a candidate—surprising observers since Saurians have not traditionally engaged in [[Vani]]'s politics. His exact motivations for entering the race remain unclear. He gains points in the succession race and at one event was "running away with it" on the scoreboard, though observers remained uncertain what to make of his candidacy. [[Julia]] appears to be considering him seriously as an option.

Pyotr maintains professional composure during crises, such as when a Slith infiltrated the Lord's House during a party. He willingly escorted party members to the mine to investigate the teleportation sigil, though he insisted on maintaining order and authority over access to the House's deeper areas.

[[Category:NPCs]]

(summarized with Claude)

Kor

2026-02-28T23:34:43Z

Boojum:

'''Kor''' is one of three principal city-states in [[Orange]], alongside [[Rin'yan]] and [[Vani]]. These three cities typically drive major initiatives and political decisions for the entire region through the Merchant's Guild.

==Geography and Political Status==

Kor is located in the south-western peninsula of Orange. The gap between Kor and Kern has been closed, with the Inland Sea now fully inland. A Land Bridge connects Kor to Kern, created during the War of the Lord and Lady.

==History==

Kor has played a significant role in major historical events:
* During the War of the Lord and Lady, the Land Bridge to Kern was created.
* After the founding of the Avani Empire approximately 1683 years before C-4, Kor and Kern became one country.
* During the Marriage Comet (C-7), a princess of Kor married a prince of Kern, bringing the two regions into formal alliance.
* During the Great War (C-10), Kor and Kern led the defense against unified orc forces and rose to political prominence as a result.

==Demographics and Culture==

Kor is led by humans and is notably home to significant Saurian populations. The Saurians of Kor have expressed diplomatic grievances, particularly regarding representation in regional affairs. The city maintains diplomatic and trade relationships with other Orange cities and distant regions like [[Yellow]].

==Notable Locations and Features==

* An Elf Quarter with a Forest Trade Delegation and courier services operated by [[Rekar]], a troll Master Trader
* A military cache containing uniforms and medical supplies from the time of the Lady's army

[[Category: Places]]

(summarized with Claude)

Kor

2026-02-28T23:34:27Z

Boojum:

'''Kor''' is one of three principal city-states in [[Orange]], alongside Rin'yan and [[Vani]]. These three cities typically drive major initiatives and political decisions for the entire region through the Merchant's Guild.

==Geography and Political Status==

Kor is located in the south-western peninsula of Orange. The gap between Kor and Kern has been closed, with the Inland Sea now fully inland. A Land Bridge connects Kor to Kern, created during the War of the Lord and Lady.

==History==

Kor has played a significant role in major historical events:
* During the War of the Lord and Lady, the Land Bridge to Kern was created.
* After the founding of the Avani Empire approximately 1683 years before C-4, Kor and Kern became one country.
* During the Marriage Comet (C-7), a princess of Kor married a prince of Kern, bringing the two regions into formal alliance.
* During the Great War (C-10), Kor and Kern led the defense against unified orc forces and rose to political prominence as a result.

==Demographics and Culture==

Kor is led by humans and is notably home to significant Saurian populations. The Saurians of Kor have expressed diplomatic grievances, particularly regarding representation in regional affairs. The city maintains diplomatic and trade relationships with other Orange cities and distant regions like [[Yellow]].

==Notable Locations and Features==

* An Elf Quarter with a Forest Trade Delegation and courier services operated by [[Rekar]], a troll Master Trader
* A military cache containing uniforms and medical supplies from the time of the Lady's army

[[Category: Places]]

(summarized with Claude)

Kor

2026-02-28T23:32:56Z

Boojum:

'''Kor''' is one of three principal city-states in [[Orange]], alongside Rin'yan and [[Vani]]. These three cities typically drive major initiatives and political decisions for the entire region through the Merchant's Guild.

==Geography and Political Status==

Kor is located in the south-eastern mainland zone of Orange, a region dominated by trade and commerce. The gap between Kor and Kern has been closed, with the Inland Sea now fully inland. A Land Bridge connects Kor to Kern, created during the War of the Lord and Lady.

==History==

Kor has played a significant role in major historical events:
* During the War of the Lord and Lady, the Land Bridge to Kern was created.
* After the founding of the Avani Empire approximately 1683 years before C-4, Kor and Kern became one country.
* During the Marriage Comet (C-7), a princess of Kor married a prince of Kern, bringing the two regions into formal alliance.
* During the Great War (C-10), Kor and Kern led the defense against unified orc forces and rose to political prominence as a result.

==Demographics and Culture==

Kor is led by humans and is notably home to significant Saurian populations. The Saurians of Kor have expressed diplomatic grievances, particularly regarding representation in regional affairs. The city maintains diplomatic and trade relationships with other Orange cities and distant regions like [[Yellow]].

==Notable Locations and Features==

* An Elf Quarter with a Forest Trade Delegation and courier services operated by [[Rekar]], a troll Master Trader
* A military cache containing uniforms and medical supplies from the time of the Lady's army

[[Category: Places]]

(summarized with Claude)

Kor

2026-02-28T23:30:25Z

Boojum: /* Notable Locations and Features */

'''Kor''' is one of three principal city-states in [[Orange]], alongside Rin'yan and [[Vani]]. These three cities typically drive major initiatives and political decisions for the entire region through the Merchant's Guild.

==Geography and Political Status==

Kor is located in the south-eastern mainland zone of Orange, a region dominated by trade and commerce. The gap between Kor and Kern has been closed, with the Inland Sea now fully inland. A Land Bridge connects Kor to Kern, created during the War of the Lord and Lady.

==History==

Kor has played a significant role in major historical events:
* During the War of the Lord and Lady, the Land Bridge to Kern was created.
* After the founding of the Avani Empire approximately 1683 years before C-4, Kor and Kern became one country.
* During the Marriage Comet (C-7), a princess of Kor married a prince of Kern, bringing the two regions into formal alliance.
* During the Great War (C-10), Kor and Kern led the defense against unified orc forces and rose to political prominence as a result.

==Demographics and Culture==

Kor is led by humans and is notably home to significant Saurian populations. The Saurians of Kor have expressed diplomatic grievances, particularly regarding representation in regional affairs. The city maintains diplomatic and trade relationships with other Orange cities and distant regions like [[Yellow]].

==Notable Locations and Features==

* An Elf Quarter with a Forest Trade Delegation and courier services operated by [[Rekar]], a troll Master Trader
* A military cache containing uniforms and medical supplies from the time of the Lady's army

(summarized with Claude)

Red

2026-02-28T23:29:16Z

Boojum:

'''Red''' is an area of continually rising and falling Kingdoms, in which you have to be constantly prepared to fight to hold/expand your territory. Most Classically European Fantasy Zone. At present there are four major Kingdoms, with border lands of petty nobility between them. In order of age, they are:

== [[King Richard's Lands]] ==
Currently ruled by [[Richard III|King Richard III]], about 200 years old and taking up a swath of the South of Red, abutting Orange - KRL has shrunk since it was founded by King Richard I, but Richard III has made some increases over what he was left by his father, King Albert.

== [[Victoria]] ==
About 100 years old and ruled by [[Queen Ionia]], granddaughter of the founder, Baroness Gabriella. In the Northwest, bordering Purple and the Broken Lands, Queen Ionia has spent most of her reign fighting outwards, rather than conquering more of Red.

== [[Berana]] ==
Along the eastern coast. Its ruler, [[King Olanson]], has spent nearly 50 years expanding his territory. Although too old to seriously fight personally anymore, he still generals his kingdom's battles, and his large clan of children can handle the fighting. Has the strongest navy in the Mainland zones. Not clear how well it will hold together if Olanson dies.

King Olanson was killed by a slith assassin just before [[Under the Sea]], sparking a succession battle.

== [[Darstan]] ==
In the center. Founded about 20 years ago with the marriage of [[Baron Volstak]] and [[Duchess Zerbina]], the two have formed a formidable team. Zerbina leads the army to conquer a new barony or duchy every year or so, and Volstak is a master of incorporating them into a united country once the conquest is complete. They still use Baron and Duchess as their titles, but their daughter is Princess Bella, and they are a kingdom in all but name.

= Runs Here =
* [[To Catch A Thief]]
* [[Bear and Frog]]
* [[Keep in the Broken Lands]]
* [[Under the Sea]]
* (Eleventh Run)

[[Category:Countries]]

Vani

2026-02-28T23:27:26Z

Boojum:

[[Vani]] is an important Orange city-state - one of the trio (with [[Kor]] and [[Rin'yan]]) that often shapes regional commerce and politics. Ruled in practice by [[Centurion [[Julia]]]] of [[House Horellan]], who combines military command (the Legion) with civic authority and maintains a well‑guarded household that embeds a priest ([[Carol]]) and an Orange mage corps led by [[Mario]]. The city is merchant‑oriented but leans toward martial governance and noble culture (the Lord’s House sits in a walled, gardened Noble district and is open to the public), and its local politics are currently dominated by a contentious consort succession that has produced candidates such as [[Leopold]], [[Viktor]], [[Pyotr]] and the unpredictable [[Richard IV]]—a contest watched closely by guilds, priests and Saurian leaders. Vani hosts significant Saurian presence and institutions (including a Saurian library and the keeper [[Pyotr]] of the Lord’s House), struggles with tension between human and saurian interests, and has become the focus of security concerns after a Broken/Orange dagger theft and evidence of a broader Broken/Slith plot tied into the [[Middlesea Free Rangers]]’ investigations; as a result the city’s Temple, Guild and military networks are all on heightened alert while civic leaders favor cautious, stability‑oriented solutions.

=Notable NPCs=
* Angelina: priest of Navere
* Pyotr: Guardian of the Lord's House
* Carol: potentially-Bent priest of the Goddess
* Waldron: a warlock
* Julia: Centurion, the ruler and general of the city.
* Mario: the Orange mage pushing the boundaries of Orange magic
* Lucy: priest of the Goddess

[[Category:Places]]

Centurion

2026-02-28T23:17:11Z

Boojum: Redirected page to Centurion Julia

#REDIRECT [[Centurion Julia]]

Centurion

2026-02-28T23:16:37Z

Boojum:

# REDIRECT [[Centurion Julia]]