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Muddle in Middlesea

2026-03-14T20:11:20Z

Jerry: /* Things Remembered */

A central location for the information we've collected on what happened at the Conclave, in the first run, and what the current status inside the time halt is.

Things we know so far (with information source listed if possible):

==Before It Went Awry==
* Pirate Queen [[Cara]], her first mage Federico, William (maybe an organizer), other pirates like [[Gale]], and servants like [[Nesh]], showed up a few days early before the Conclave started. (Nesh and other servants were there before Cara/Federico/Gale arrived)
* Managaratha was at the Blue table, and chatted with a diplomat named Rickard from Melmane, also General Petrov and Mage Marek. (Recalled by [[Managaratha]])
* Dinner was:
**A ton of people from Red - they sent five delegations instead of one.
**30-40 from Orange including servants (and some Saurians)
**Similar from Purple and Yellow
**Only about 8 from Blue, including [[Mage Marek]] and one Saurian, [[General Petrov]].
**Green has multiple delegations, once from each of the three Kingdoms, but they are all small. All named Elves.

* Post Dinner, pre-Attack
** [[Luigi]] says [[Cult of Al'an]] would be happy to see Managaratha again (Recalled by [[Managaratha]])
** Federico spoke with Managaratha.
*** Managaratha spent two years before the Conclave strongly lobbying for all zones to be represented.
**** Federico expected Managaratha to tell him why.
*** Managaratha is more fragged than Federico has ever seen him.
*** [[Vidan]] was fragged, even worse than Managaratha.
**** Well, something closely akin to fragged, anyway.
** Their Majesty's representatives went to talk to the Pirate Queen's Table ([[Furoosh]]) and Orange ([[Silenalania]]). Silenalania chatted with all the Guild Masters, and the Saurian, and was surreptitiously passed notes from three of them, indicating a location and time: "South Stairs, 10pm", "Stables, 11:30", "Library, 11pm".

===The Purple Dinner===
====[[Ministries of Empire|Ministers]] (4th rank)====
*Win Dae (she/her) - Minister of Repercussions
*Han Cho - Minister of Grain
*Kachest - Minister of Naval Trade
*Az Julan - Minister of Lions
*Foran Zakar - Minister of Redactions
*Li Karest - Minister of the Borders
*Jun Chang - Minister of Fortune

====Advisors and Liaisons====
*Za - Lord of Light, Priest of Tam
*Vesper - the Silent One, Priest of Tem
*Vidan - Priest of Navere
*Edev Guran - Representative of the Head Stallion

====Others====
*3rd rank sub-minister of State / Foreign Affairs
*3rd rank sub-minister of War
*12-15 other 3rd rank bureaucrats, all mooks.
*An assortment of servants, etc.

===The Orange Dinner===
====The principal delegates====
* Guildmaster Lady [[Isabella]] Horenth from [[Vani]]
* Guildmaster Lady [[Marianna]] from [[Rin'yan]]
* Guildmaster Stefan - priest of Jord from Eaglofto
* Journeyman Victor - Saurian from [[Kor]]

==== Priests ====
* [[Stella]] - priestess of the Goddess from Rin'yan
* Luigi - Cult of Alan member from Rin'yan
* Astrid - priest of Rush from Vani
* Alfonz - priest of Tem from Vani
* Georgi - Saurian, itinerant priest of Tam

===The Yellow Dinner===
====The principal delegates====
* [[Prince Vishnarani]]
* Lady [[Harana]] (Unreality Mage)
* Lord Basalin (the guard)

====Others====
* Serafina and her centaurs
* Three priests (Verachi, a sylph; Ghadara; Hasalar )
* A bunch of merchants
* Sarasani, head of the Yellow servants

===The Green Dinner===
==== The Forest ====
* Astros Culleen (High Elf, head of the delegation)
* Vrok StoneSkin (Troll, bodyguard)
* Westly (Fox Pooka)
* [[Scout]] (Wild Elf, just this guy)
* Custard (Halfling, Astros' valet) - actually a redcap
* Cream (Halfling, Astros' cook) - actually a redcap

==== The Plains ====
* Furoosh (Sluagh, related to Their Majesty somehow)
* Silenalania (High Elf) - bad guy, stole Middlesea
* Sunbeam (Sylph, Silenalania's lady maid)

The status relationship between Furoosh and Silenalania is unclear; they could be jointly leading the delegation.

==== The Mountain ====
* [[Flint]] (Dwarf. Very Dwarfy.)

===The Pirate Captain Dinner===
====Principal Captains====
* Cara, Queen of the Pirates (Awesome!)
* Federico (the First Mage)
* Captain Jane (most adventurous of the greater Captains)
* Captain Brightwall, captain of the Silver Gull (worried about military matters)
* Captain [[Drake]] (generally an ass and who made him Captain anyway?)
* Gale, captain of the Kittiwake (most adventurous of the smaller Captains)

=== The Red Dinner ===
==== Rush Delegation ====
* Captain Daniel (rarely uses his rank; more of a diplomat though I'm he can chop it up if necessary)
** Captain Daniel's instructions: Our work is to put together a force to take the fight to the Breaker. You may think of yourselves as soldiers more than diplomats, but look for opportunities among all the delegations.
* [[Sergeant Susie]]
* Sergeant Susie's squad of Paladins (including [[Diomarche]])
* '''Managaratha's voice, weirdly coming from nowhere (as Daniel was briefing on Lord Franklin):''' ''Hello Diomarche, this is Managaratha. Tell me I like carrots when you get this.''
==== [[Darstan]] Delegation ====
* [[Baron Volstak]]
** Daniel's briefing: Him being here means he and Zerbina sees this as an expansion opportunity. Expects he can be talked into being a solid part of the force, but he'll need a reward.
==== King Richard's Lands Delegation ====
* Lord Franklin
** Daniel's briefing: Advisor to the last 3 kings in King Richard's Land, over 50 years of service. Expect him to see the big picture, and recognize that an army is needed, but he will need reassurance that King Richard's Land won't be weakened. (Most likely to fall in line.)
** Appears to be a mostly-human-presenting half-elf

==== [[Victoria]] Delegation ====
* Lord Karsten
** Daniel's briefing: Sending him is a bit of a provocation by Queen Iona vs Purple, as he has led many successful offensives into the Empire over the last 15 years. He has also run many campaigns against the orcs, probably nobody has more experience against them. Would be a valuable member of a campaign all by himself regardless of what else Queen Iona might send, but the Empire might just refuse to cooperate with him at all.
==== [[Berana]] Delegation ====
* Lady Frigga
** Daniel's briefing: Don't know much about her, she's not one of the more important children. Her being here might mean King Olanson doesn't much care about the conference, or that she asked for the assignment as a way to raise her profile.
** (From another run: Her mother and brother think she's sensible enough to hide during a Muddle.)

== Things Remembered ==
* Vidan was involved in a combat-time ritual of several people-- probably Fivist priests and mages, not priests of other religions-- to counteract the amnesia spell.
* Vidan recalls: ''Flint looks from the dead redcap to the unconscious Scout. "Federico, with me. The rest of you, see what you can do for him. If anything unfortunate happens, tell Her Majesty that Futeau is the traitor."''
* [[Gyvail]], a priest of Orellian, is with Caitlyn and Westrack, and was holding. (Recalled by Vidan.)
* Nesh remembers that dinner went... fine. He served the Yellow delegation.
* Managaratha remembers having a conversation with the Blue delegation.
* Stella remembers being sent to talk to the Purple delegation and feel them out "since you can't actually commit the Guild to anything."
* Stella remembers that "Luigi volunteers to speak with the Priests from the Yellow delegation" after dinner.
* Managaratha remembers warning Lady Harana about the assassin, and the assassination was prevented.
* Vesalen inspired Truth Telling.

More recollections here: [[Visions_of_Middlesea]]

== People By Faction ==
* Pirate Queen (Cara)
** First Mage Federico
** William (Recalled by [[Managaratha]])
** Gale

* Blue
** Mage Marek (Recalled by [[Managaratha]])
** General Petrov, a Saurian (Recalled by [[Managaratha]])
** Rickard (Recalled by [[Managaratha]])
*** can cast spells
*** diplomat-without-portfolio for [[Melmaine]]
*** has spent time in [[Jabar]] and some of the Merfolk courts

* Cult of Alan
** Luigi (Recalled by [[Managaratha]])

= Current State =

== From memories and the first merge experiment ==
* The Pirate Queen is on the ground in (location), covered in blood. (Noted by Gale.)
* Sergeant Susie is badly injured; she is fighting an orc who is uninjured, and several fallen paladins lay around her. (Noted by Diomarche)
* A dwarf (Flint, with Federico) is chasing a redcap (Custard) who is running away. A green potted plant is spewing amnesia mist; the sigils on the plant include Silenalania. (Noted by Scout, embellished with Alexa.)
* Westly (fox pooka) is in the Yellow zone somewhere but is hard to see. (Noted by Scout)
* Vrok (troll) and Astros (high elf) are together - Vrok is guarding Astros while Astros does some sort of green counterspell.
* There are several dead cataurs in a room with several dead saurians, and a couple more cataurs running through the keep. (noted by Nesh)
* Luigi is barricaded in a room with a wall blocking it; some other non-named Orange delegates are also there. (noted by Stella)
* There's a Yellow zone that's hard to see/changing even though time isn't passing; speculation is there's an Unreality effect going on there.
* A Blue mage performed an extra-effort Blue spell to make all of Middlesea one battlemap. They are probably/possibly in the midst of a Berserker rage, as a consequence. (Discovered in [[Second Run]] by Gale when she did her own wild-blue-spell on the battlemap.)
* An area of effect Green spell is spraying amnesia mist everywhere. (Noted by Lutenania, scout for Their Majesty of the Plains.)
* An [[Oasis]] miracle of isolation is in place. (Noted by Scout.)
* A Time miracle of some sort is in place. (Noted by Bordan, priest of Rush.)
* There are a whole bunch of orcs (Noted by flyover in [[First Run]].)
* There are lion prints on the outer wall. (Noted by Nesh.)
* There are slith tracks sneaking into the keep. (Noted by Vidan.)
* There are more than ten "sides" involved, but that might include factions within delegations; e.g., there are five separate delegations from Red, one for each kingdom and one for the Paladins of Rush. It's not clear whether those count as five different "sides".(From Bordan.)
* Baron Volstak took a lot of damage right before the timestop, which was shared with [[Duchess Zerbina]] over the lifelink (she has healed since). She is concerned that he be gotten to ASAP when the timestop breaks. (Shared by Duchess Zerbina. This is a secret.)

==From the visit with [[Alexa]]:==

"The Orc" is the Avatar of the Breaker. He gets to take actions while we are visiting. He has so far had four actions - one in our early experiment, three with Alexa.

* There is some sort of cheating effect to make the "army combat" be a large orc unit against a Middlesea unit, without other factions like the Yellow centaurs and the Pirate Defenders being units.
* Marek's effect broke the army combat into one battle in which everyone is all in some sense on the same hex.
* Baron Volstak was stabbed as a sacrifice in a four-priest ritual and is currently being healed not very professionally.
* In a different ritual room, now empty except for the dead redcap:
**Scout was unconscious on the floor over there
**Two redcaps (Cream and Custard, the halflings from Green, turned out to be redcaps) doing the ritual with Silenalania
**Flint and Federico and Vidan and Diomarche came in, and there was a fight. Flint and Federico killed one of the redcaps.
**Silenalania ran off with the Spirit of Middlesea.
**Flint and Fedrico chased the redcap
**Vidan and Diomarche dragged Scout in the other direction

Gale's battle diagnostics with Alexa:
*The orcs are winning.
*The <REDACTED> are losing
*The <OTHER REDACTED> are doing fairly well but they aren’t really in the battle.
*The cataurs have mostly lost.
*The goblins have left the field with their win.
*Orange Teams 2 and 3 are losing to <OTHER REDACTED>. (This is a different scoreboard; they are only in this battle because Marek put everyone on the same battlemap)
*Vidan’s allies are about breaking even.

What needs fixing?

* Bringing Middlesea back probably need fixing. The Goddess thinks that Spirits are iffy, but better than Demons.
* Don’t let Volstak die.
* Don’t let Cara die.
* Don’t let the Prince of ‘al Jabar die.
* Marek is not in immediate danger, but if he dies, this will turn back into an Army combat, and the orcs will crush everyone. So don’t let him die, or leave, because his magic effect is keeping us in personal combat.
* The Artifact for Breaking Orange probably shouldn’t be allowed to leave. (That’s fuzzy, something is defending that.)
* Cataurs are unlikely to successfully kidnap Nesh.
* There are slith here.
* There’s a goblin, but it will probably be handled.
* Catching the half-orc assassin would be good. It’s not clear if the assassin is a half-orc or just working for the half-orcs.

Visions of Middlesea

2026-02-14T18:46:25Z

Jerry: /* Diomarch */

==[[Vidan]]==

===Accidentally unread for a year===
====A message from Minister Dae====

“Father Vidan. You are not in the Bureaucracy. You are not required to take my advice. I am not required to examine actions you propose to undertake.”

She smiles wryly. “But I am in the Bureaucracy, and responsible if I do not follow my own advice, even if I do not see the purpose of it. So I have some things to tell you.

“First, you should know that the outcome of this Conclave is less clear than anything I have previously encountered. In my experience, this lack of clarity implies the exercise of a great deal of Divine power in the immediate future of the Conclave. I expect you have more experience with that than I.

“Second, you have no doubt heard of the increase in the probability that the Sword that was Lost may be found, and the line of the Orcslayer returned to the throne. That is not a good thing.

“There are currently three possible candidates to sit the throne of the Empire. The first would merely be a bad king - damaging, but survivable. The second would be Terrible - there would be civil war and parts of the Empire would fall back into the Broken Lands. The third would be… Catastrophic. If you do not find at least one of the first or the second by tomorrow, they will be dead by the day after, and either the third will take the Throne, or the throne and the empire will be destroyed. Understand that is better than the third taking the Throne.

“I do not understand how, but there is in fact a strong possibility you will find one or both of the first two by tomorrow. Perhaps your Goddess can provide assistance that the Twins have not provided to the Bureaucracy. I believe if you find the second, you will not choose to put him on the throne, but you must know you need to protect him until the third is dealt with. If you find the first… I urge you not to place him on the throne, and simply to ensure that the bloodline continues for another day, but recognize that your Goddess may disagree with that determination.

“Third, you should know there is a traitor among the Ministers here. The fourth ranked ones. If you can identify the traitor before tomorrow, tomorrow will go better than it would otherwise. That is less pressing than the preservation of the line, but not insignificant.”

====A message from Minister Julan====

“Ah, Vidan. I have not spoken to you previously,” [was there an odd strain on the word ‘you’?], “but I believe it is time. I am the Minister of Lions. You are, and will be, a Lion Hunter.” He waives your notes in your general direction. “It doesn’t look like you’ve met any of your companions yet, although I think there are some close encounters here. The Yellow Centaur with Red, the Orange Priestess - Goddess, not Rush - both seem promising. And you should take [[Luigi]] up on his offer to speak with [[Ritasi]] as soon as possible, although obviously not tonight. You do need to start gathering the rest of the Hunters tonight, though.” He stands up from your desk, dropping your notes, and comes towards you, where you are standing stunned by the door. One arm on your shoulder, he turns you and walks you both back into the hall. Shutting the door behind you, he gestures back down the corridor towards the common area. “Off you go. There’s no time to waste, the Lions will be here soon, if they’re not here already.” He turns and walks up the corridor towards his room.

==[[Gale]]==

===Conversing with [[Cara]] (2023-08-05)===
After her speech, Cara came back and sat with you and the rest of the Captains.

"Well, what did you think?"

Federico was first to respond, as befits her First Mage - "They were listening and nodding at all the right places. It went as well as could be hoped for."

Captain [[Drake]], that ass, was next. "Well, I for one still don't see how we're going to make a profit off this. Even if they sign on to this 'everyone fights the Breaker' plan, this party alone is costing you months of tribute, if not a full year. You're never going to make that all back. And furthermore"

"ENOUGH, Drake." Cara cut him off. "It's my tribute I'm spending, not yours. You're not losing a pence on this party, and I'm tired of hearing about it."

Brightwall piped up with "Well, I for one will be grateful to have some help from the bigger powers if a squad of Sirens rolls out of the Broken Lands into our waters. That's certainly worth some work to acquire. As long as the price doesn't involve us heading out of the Inland Sea anywhere. The Silver Gull's not going to be any help to anyone on land."

"Oh, I don't know," Captain Jane added. "I think a trip elsewhere could be fun, and if we're ever going to get a chance at it, this is the time." She waved out over the crowds, a couple hundred delegates from every country. "This room is full of mages, priests, money... more than the whole Rainbow Isles could pull together. If you can't figure out how to make a profit off that, Drake, you're not trying."

Cara smiled. "Thank you Jane. I'm glad someone is open to the possibilities here, not just the problems." Turning to you, she added "And you, Gale? What do you think?"

You looked out over the room. "What do I think? Obviously, I think we have just started on a Grand Adventure." Cara laughed, and someone (Brightwall?) threw a roll at you.

"Of course you do." Federico said, with a grin. "Enough. We're just repeating what we've all said before. Captain's set the course, and we're heading out. Let's eat, before the storms start rolling in."

===Talking to Elves (2025-11-22)===
Dinner was pretty calm, you and the other pirates ate together, and the delegations stayed together as well. The Yellow centaurs took up some "guard" positions near the doors, which annoyed Cara a little, but no one made a big deal of it. As dinner wound down, Cara told William to start clearing a space for dancing, and you all stood as the tables started to be moved.

Federico was the first to excuse himself, saying he saw someone he wanted to talk to, and making a beeline for an older man [you now recognize as Managratha]. Drake headed towards one of the Guildsmen, and Brightwall towards the Red delegation. Jane stalled for a minute, looking at Cara, who eventually smiled and waved her off, and she headed out to mingle generally. You thought about joining her, but three of the Greens were heading towards Cara With Intent, and you decided you didn't want to leave her entirely without backup.

As you watched them approach, you realized they weren't three, they were two and one - a High Elf with a Troll together, and a Sluagh. When they got to Cara, the High Elf and the Sluagh looked at each other for a minute, and the Troll growled, and the Sluagh shrugged and made a "go ahead" gesture. The High Elf bowed towards Cara, and began Declaiming:

"To Cara, Queen of the Pirates of the Inland Sea, I bring greetings from the King of the Forest, rightful Sovereign of all the Elves. His Majesty welcomes your attempts to bring the forces of the world together to oppose the Dread Foe and his foul creatures. The sooner the Countries and Churches can be convinced to stop fighting with each other, the less damage they will take before turning their attention to the true Foe.

"However, as His Majesty is one of the few who remembers when last the Broken One's comet heralded times of woe for the peoples of the world, He calls your attention to the fact that the Wiles of the Broken One are vast, and the actions necessary to oppose him will likely be hidden for some time yet. His Majesty hopes you will urge Careful Deliberation before commiting the world's forces to any plan no matter how initially Tempting."

He bows again and stops Declaiming, and adds in a more normal voice, "I am Astros Culleen, trusted advisor to His Majesty, and will be speaking more with you and the others gathered here in the days to come, to see what preparations can be made before the Breaker's plan is revealed."

Cara started to answer him, when the Sluagh coughed slightly, and she turned her attention to him.

"Now that's out of the way... Opposing the Breaker is one of the few things Their Majesty of the Plains agrees with their royal brother about. They suggest that the most useful plan is to try to identify the Heroes and provide assistance, rather than waste time trying to organize plans that will nearly certainly go awry.

"That's all They told me to say, but the Heroes probably aren't any of the people here leading delegations. Heroes usually start smaller than that. Except maybe that Yellow Princeling, he shows some promise, don't you think, Astros? Anyone else you'd want to bet on?

"Oh, I'm [[Furoosh]], by the way."

Cara took a second to look at the Troll to see if he had anything to add, and then said "Thank you both for your support. I'm certainly glad to hear that the rulers who have actually been through a Comet think this is worth doing, and are willing to put aside their differences to come together. Do either of you know how the Queen under the Mountains stands?"

Furoosh and Astros looked at each other, and then Astros said "I would not be comfortable speaking for the leader of the dwarven tunnels on this matter, but His Majesty is confident she stands against the Breaker" at the same time Furoosh said "Their Majesty's Royal Sister's envoy has not been forthcoming about how she thinks the Breaker should be fought this Comet." Furoosh smiles a little and goes on "And as those answers might suggest, it's not clear the Royal Siblings have put aside their differences completely." Astros frowns at him and says "You presume too much." As the two start sniping at each other more directly, Cara looks at you and nods her head towards where the green delegation was, sending you to go talk to the dwarf there.

You're still not completely comfortable leaving her alone, but it seems unlikely any of the elves are going to attack her, and she's the boss, until you're back on your ship. So you headed over and found the Dwarf, finishing a mug of ale.

"Good evening! I'm Gale, one of Queen Cara's Captains. I understand you're here for the Queen of the Mountains?"

"Queen under the Mountains, lass. And aye, she sent me. Name's [[Flint]]."

"Cara was hoping you could say something about her position on the Conclave."

"Oh, she didn't tell me her position. She just said there was sure to be trouble, and I should stop it when it happened. So I'm waiting for the trouble." He looks around the room. "Don't see any yet. Thought that might be something, but it seems to be calming down." You follow his gaze, and see [[Nesh]], of all people, with his sword out facing an older Saurian. Flint goes on: "First and last nights are the best time for it to start, so I'd be on your guard tonight. Unless you plan to be part of the trouble." He looks you up and down and says "No, I think you're a different sort of trouble, you are."

==Diomarch==

<b>At Dinner: Captain Daniel's briefing</b>

Your squad of Paladins showed up at Middlesea a few hours before the opening ceremonies. Long enough to get settled in. Sgt. Susie didn't let you head out to explore or anything, though. Two people were sent with Daniel (Captain Daniel, technically, but he rarely uses his rank) as he wandered off to say hello to people, the rest of you were kept in your rooms. At least they're nice rooms, and sized to accommodate centaurs as well as two legs. You're not sure the whole place is sized that well, but the main areas seem to be, at least.

Susie has you all installed and the place spic and span well before Daniel wanders back, a little before dinner. You all head down to the great hall, where the Pirate Queen gives a (thankfully brief) welcoming speech about the importance of unity in the face of the Breaker's return, and then lets you all eat. The groups are seated by delegation, so your squad is in with the rest of the people from red. It's a crowd, bigger than any of the other groups by a lot. Heck, your squad by itself looks to be bigger than either Blue or Green's whole delegations.

Daniel waves you all in closer. It's a bit of a squeeze (the room is big enough, but the tables aren't really centaur-worthy, you have to kneel to use them), but you all crowd around as you eat.

"Alright. The goal is to put together a force that can take the fight to the Breaker." He looks around and his voice drops a little more. "That won't be everybody. I'll take latrine duty for a month if there aren't active traitors in a group this size, and a lot more who aren't actively working for Him but are focused on other things. But we're the Paladins of the God of War, and this is what we exist for. So. We start with Red."

"I did some scouting who we're up against. Baron Volstak has the strongest personal agenda." He points at an amiable looking gentleman in his late 40s/early 50s, sitting chatting among another of the red delegations. "He and Zerbina haven't built a country from nothing in 20 years by being pushovers. If Darstan sent him, they think they can grow the country here. Doesn't mean he can't be talked into being a solid part of the force, but he'll need a big reward, not just a 'do your duty' sales pitch."

His gaze shifts to someone in one of the other groups. [And then a voice from nowhere says "Hello Diomarche, this is Managaratha. Tell me I like carrots when you get this."] You look at him and it takes you a minute to realize why he looks a little odd - he's a half-elf of some sort, one of the more-human looking ones. "Lord Franklin's been an advisor to the last three kings in King Richard's Land, over fifty years of service. He sees the big picture, and will recognize that an army against the Breaker is needed. He'll need reassurance that Richard won't be weakened by joining, but is the most likely of the Red delegates to just fall in line if things go well."

Moving on, he frowns a little. "Lord Karsten, on the other hand, will be difficult." Karsten is apparently the 50-ish man in plate armor. "Queen Iona's being actively provocative there, he has led several successful offensives into the Empire over the last 15 years or so. On the other hand, he has led about as many successful campaigns against the orcs in the Broken Lands, and has as much experience fighting them as anyone in Red. He would be a valuable member of a campaign against the Breaker by himself, in addition to whatever support the Queen would lend, but Purple might just refuse to cooperate with him at all. We'll have to see how that develops over the next few days."

"And Princess Frigga I don't know much about at all." His gaze has shifted to a forty-ish woman in the final red delegation. "She's not one of Olanson's more important children. No idea if that means she's here as a fob because he's not really interested, or if she made a bid for the role in order to raise her profile. We'll have to figure that out."

He looks around at all of you, and smiles warmly. "I know that you all mostly think of yourselves as soldiers rather than diplomats. But building armies is part of Rush's holy work. And the Lord Captain Commander doesn't send people where they can't be of use. Think about what you might know or be able to do to help with the task here. If not with one of the Red lords," he gestures to the larger room "with one of the other delegations." And with that, he starts eating, and tells you all to do the same.

<b>After Dinner: Chatting with the Prince</b>

As dinner drew to a close, Daniel looked at you all and gestured for you to stand, saying "And now, to work. We have an Army to build."

Well, orders are orders, even if you aren't sure exactly what to do. But if you're here for a reason, it must be to talk to Yellow, right? You couldn't come up with anything else over dinner. So you headed towards their delegation.

Having been looking around during dinner, it was clear that they have the best organized forces of any of the groups. Red probably has more total warriors, but divided into five separate commands, Purple has a few guards but mostly doesn't look like warriors, Orange even less so, and Green and Blue are only about 10 people each. The Pirate Queen definitely had some forces on the grounds, but she didn't bring them into the room with her, so she only had a fairly small gathering of pirate captains. A deliberate choice not to look threatening? An attempt to hide the size (large or small) of her force? A concern about the safety of the conclave? Hard to tell her reasoning, something to think about for later.

As you approached Yellow, one of the guards stepped in your way and said "Does Serephina need something? Your squad is supposed to be watching the doors." Before you could answer, someone in a significantly sharper looking uniform said "He's not one of ours. What can I do for you.. .Paladin?" The guard saluted and stepped back, leaving you to talk with his boss.

"Ah, yes. I am Diomarche, here with the Paladins of Rush in service of the Lord Captain Commander." This talking thing was even harder than you'd thought. "I grew up in Northern Jabar, however, and was hoping to hear some news of home, perhaps share something of my time in Red?" The man frowned a little and started to say something, when a voice from nowhere said "Oh, do let him in Basalin. The whole point of being here is to talk to people, you can't just chase everyone off because they might be a threat."

You weren't used to that sort of casual use of Yellow anymore, and jumped a little, but the man (Basalin?) just frowned, and muttered a spell or two under his breath while he looked you over, lingering on the sword at your side. After a minute, he grunted out "follow me," and took you over to the delegation's head table. He bowed deeply to the boy sitting there (thirteen, maybe? Human colts' ages are a little hard to guess) and said "Your Highness. May I present Paladin Diomarche, of the followers of Rush, previously a resident of Your Royal Aunt's lands."

A nephew of the Maharani? You were definitely in over your head. You did your best to bow politely and answer his questions while Basalin glowered beside you, which didn't seem to faze the prince at all, but wasn't doing wonders for your concentration. Fortunately the questions weren't hard ones, mostly about where you grew up and what adventures you had traveling from home to Red.

You were fairly quickly joined by an older woman that the prince introduced as "Lady Harana, Second Servant of Her Majesty," who had more pointed questions, however. She moved the conversation on to the Paladins, what they were here for and how they fit in with the rest of the Red delegation. Daniel hadn't said that anything he'd said was secret, so you did your best to sell her on "organizing an Army to fight against the Breaker," and hoping that the Maharani would lend her support. The prince was excited by that possibility, but Lady Harana was a lot more noncommittal. She did allow as that was the purpose of the Conclave, of course, but what resources the Maharani could promise, and who might be at the head of this Army, were questions she was clearly leaving to be answered at a later date. And probably in conversation with Daniel, rather than you.

After she had her answers, she let the prince take the lead again, although now his questions were more about what it was like to be a Paladin, and what sorts of orders and tasks you did regularly. Harana stayed for a few minutes longer before moving on, but the Prince kept talking for another ten or fifteen minutes before Harana came back and suggested that perhaps His Highness should spend some time speaking with other guests as well. He sighed, but agreed, and waved you off after thanking you for your time.

As you left, you noted that the delegation had definitely divided, the Noble Varna were still largely clustered around the area where they had eaten, with bodyguards around, while the Priest Varna had largely scattered to talk to other delegations elsewhere. If there were many Merchant Varna, you didn't notice them. You also couldn't decide if Harana had been letting you keep the prince busy while she did other things, or if she had actually wanted him to have that conversation with you. Maybe both?

==[[Managaratha]]==

==Nesh==

==[[Scout]]==

===Memory 1 (2023-07-05)===

After the Pirate Queen's welcoming speech, the delegations are seated and dinner is served.

There is way more seating for the Green delegation than is needed, and for a minute you think you're going to get to avoid the other rulers' people, but Middlesea's servants are quite good at casually making sure you're all seated at least reasonably close to each other. Not intermingled, but speaking distance.

In addition to the six of you, Their Majesty of the Plains has three representatives:
* Furoosh, a Sluagh (and a relative of Their Majesty somehow, although it sounds like it's a "returned from hearing their song and are related now" rather than a "born to the same parents" related)
* [[Silenalania]], a High Elf, and
* Sunbeam, a Sylph

Astros has clearly met Furoosh and Silenalania before, and says hello politely. They spend most of the meal fencing about how of course everyone realizes the Breaker's return is the most important thing on the table right now, and other matters are minor considerations, and they're all good enough you're not sure how much they really mean it. You'd guess not a lot, given Their Majesty's overall failure to be reasonable about anything ever, and the number of different "minor considerations" that are raised.

You can't tell which of the two of them is head of their delegation, or if they're doing a joint-representation thing for some unknown Sluagh rationale. Sunbeam is definitely not the head, she's Silenalania's lady's maid, the way Custard and Cream are Astros' valet and cook. So maybe that makes Silenalania the head, since Furoosh doesn't have one? Or maybe that just makes her a high elf instead of a sluagh. The servants are all seated with the delegations for now, anyway.

Her Majesty only sent one person, a dwarf named Flint. He's... very Dwarf. You'd think he was using Essence magic to make himself more Dwarf, except that wouldn't really be a thing a Dwarf would do, now would it, so he's probably not. He does not join the fencing between Astros and Their Majesty's delegation at all. "This is eating time, not talking time."

Westly, of course, picks that up and runs with it. "Is it talking time yet? Oh, it looks like it's drinking time. Do you think there'll be dancing time?" Flint's replies are monosyllabic, but it doesn't seem to dissuade Westly, who keeps up a steady stream of chatter. He occasionally tries to drag you and Vrok into it, but Vrok is nearly as stone faced as Flint, and you're trying to pay attention to the actual politics going on, even if you're not adding much to the conversation.

Custard and Cream mostly content themselves with talking to each other about the service. They apparently judge it satisfactory, although they note it seems to take a lot of humans to do the work one halfling would be doing. After the first couple of courses Sunbeam joins that conversation too, and the three of them seem to have the only actually friendly chat, as opposed to fencing or needling.

===Memory 2 (2023-07-22)===

After dinner, Middlesea's servants start clearing away the tables to make a dance floor, and a reasonably good (for humans) group of musicians starts playing quietly. The delegations don't immediately split up - they definitely stay clumped to start, with a few people moving between them.

From Green, the servants stay put, continuing their chatting, and Flint doesn't seem to be going anywhere, so Westley keeps needling. Furoosh and Silenalania both head out though, Furoosh towards the Pirate Queen's table and Silenalania towards the Orange delegation.
Astros (with Vrok tagging behind him), heads after Furoosh, and nods at you to follow Silenalania.

It's hard to sneak across a mostly empty dance floor, but you did your best. She certainly knew you were there, but possibly she didn't actually think you were following her, just heading to Orange yourself. As you approached the Orange delegation, a woman you now recognize as [[Stella]] headed out, towards the Purple delegation.

Once you hit the Orange delegation proper, you lost track of Silenalania for a while. You just got swarmed with people asking questions about Green's positions on things. Fortunately you didn't really know a lot, so you couldn't give much of anything away, you were just here to be helpful to Astros, not to negotiate. After a bit the swarming stopped as people decided you weren't very useful after all, and you could recover a bit. You realized that one of the "advantages" of having lost your eyes is that people can't really tell what you're looking at very well, so you were able to start tracking Silenalania's movements more easily without it being obvious to whoever was talking to you at the time what you were doing.

She had also been swarmed initially, you're pretty sure, but by the time you spotted her again, she had maneuvered herself into a private conversation with one of the Guild Masters. Who'd have guessed a High Elf Ambassador was better at socializing than you? Anyone paying attention, probably.

Still, once you had your "eyes" on her again this time, you kept focused on her. You realized that not only could the person you were talking to not realize you were watching, neither could she. Which meant you noticed, when probably no one else did, when the Guild Master slipped her a note at the end of their conversation.

She put it in her pocket without reading it and moved on, chatting with the rest of the four Guild Masters in rapid succession. At least one more passed her a note. You couldn't quite tell if the Saurian did, he was harder to see. One didn't. She didn't read any of them when she received them, but you managed to position yourself to "see" her while not looking at her as she headed away from Orange and slipped them out to read. "South Stairs, 10 pm." "Stables, 11:30." "'Library', 11 pm." Well. That's interesting.

===Memory 3 (2023-08-19)===
After seeing Silenalania's notes, you lost track of her in the room when one of the more insistent delegates tried to talk to you about trade arrangements. By the time you'd convinced them you didn't know anything, she wasn't in the room anymore.

Another interesting tidbit - what did she have to do that was more important than talking to the delegations? Isn't that what she was here to do?

Well, <b>you</b> were here, at least for tonight, to figure out what she was up to. So no point in you sticking around either.

You did spend a little time trying to figure out which way she might have gone, but tracking is hard on well-swept stone floors. You might have been able to find her with some actual Shaman tricks from your spirit, but you weren't quite willing to do that in front of all the delegates. <b>Someone</b> was bound to notice, given the number of priests in the room.

Well, if you didn't know where she was, you knew where she might be going. Time to take a look around.

The South Stairs was the easiest to find, and the earliest time, so you headed there first. They were relatively small and narrow, for servants' access rather than guest access, definitely. Nothing obviously to make it a meeting place other than being out of the way. But that didn't sit right, so you looked harder. After some searching, you discovered a trap door under a rug that opened into an unused store room. The stairs down were covered in dust, except for a pair of footsteps that had gone down and come back up again. You looked for a minute, and decided you could plausibly sneak down in those footsteps without leaving new tracks, but they only went to the bottom and turned around. Heading into the actual storeroom without leaving obvious tracks wasn't going to happen. You closed it again and left.

Stables next, since you'd seen them when you arrived. They were outside of the main building, on the grounds, but nearby. Large. There's a couple of <b>elephants</b> being stored there, for Essence's sake. More people around, too, although not a lot of them. Nothing obvious, again, but your 'eyes' were drawn to a little shack just behind it. Opening the door, there was a staircase down. This one wasn't dusty, so you headed in, and discovered yourself in a dank hallway heading off in two directions, and a Feeling. Definitely a larger Spirit down here somewhere. You were considering whether to spend some DI to try and talk to it, or just pick a direction to head off in, when a voice from the top of the stairs yelled "Hello? Is someone down there?"

Break it. Astros wouldn't be happy to have you caught sneaking. After a moment you yelled back "Yes! Can you help me please? I seem to have gotten completely turned around." A man in fairly rough clothes came down stairs with a lantern, and found you. He definitely did a double-take at your missing eyes (really the first person to obviously do that all night - not a diplomat, this one) and then said "Oh, yes. Uhm. Let me help you back upstairs" and took your hand. "This way." As you headed back out, he was shaking his head and muttering to himself "gonna have to put a lock on that door. Second person lost down here tonight." Once you got to the top, you assured him you could find your way back to the main keep by yourself, but he delegated someone else to take you.

As you got close to the keep, you asked for directions to the library. Your guide looked at you, and very clearly decided it wasn't her place to ask, and said she could take you there. In the main keep, Northeast corner. Fairly large, with a servant on duty even at this hour, although they certainly couldn't watch all the rooms at once. He asked if he could help you find anything in particular. After a minute, you asked for a history of Middlesea. He told you to follow him, and took you through a couple of rooms to a stairs down, where there was another warren of shelves. He headed right to a particular one, pulled a book down, and handed it to you. Then he escorted you back up and out of the library again.

So what's underground that Silenalania's looking for, and why are the Orange delegates helping? And why is their help secret, even from each other?

==Stella==

Party Loot

2023-11-18T18:51:12Z

Jerry:

* Blackjack, non-lethal, +10 damage (Scout)
* A necklace with a bottle of Holding 3 DI, shaman/demon flavored (Scout)
* +1 Charisma clothes, for everyone except Vidan. (Several have lost their buffs by the end of [[To The Heart]].)
* Dagger of Destruction (Gale): x4 damage, seems to have some way of compelling people to Stab Stab Stab
* A pair of Absconded Tongs (Gale): Stolen from poor normal people in Rin'yan.
* Adventuring Perfume (Gale): Dashing, sexy. From the Ministry of Lilacs.
* Orc Allergen Perfume: Makes orcs (half-orcs?) sneeze around us. From the Ministry of Lilacs.
* <s>A small bag of coins.</s> spent to teleport to Darstan.
* A small bag of pearls (collected from the slith in Run Ten). Equivalent to 1/2 Loot.
* Magic Compass -- tuned to point at Nesh
* Ring of Yellow area-of-effect mods don't count (Diomarch)
* Necklace of Dodge Pool (Nesh, at least for the moment)
* Feather with a Red/Yellow spell on it, from [[Suvatra]]
* 1 Loot

Muddle in Middlesea

2023-10-14T16:38:56Z

Jerry:

A central location for the information we've collected on what happened at the Convocation, in the first run, and what the current status inside the time halt is.

Things we know so far (with information source listed if possible):

==Before It Went Awry==
* Pirate Queen Cara, her first mage Federico, William (maybe an organizer), other pirates like Gale, and servants like Nesh, showed up a few days early before the Conclave started. (Nesh and other servants were there before Cara/Federico/Gale arrived)
* Managaratha was at the Blue table, and chatted with a diplomat named Rickard from Melmane, also General Petrov and Mage Marek. (Recalled by [[Managaratha]])
* Dinner was:
**A ton of people from Red - they sent five delegations instead of one.
**30-40 from Orange including servants (and some Saurians)
**Similar from Purple and Yellow
**Only about 8 from Blue, including [[Mage Martek]] and one Saurian, [[General Petrov]].
**Green has multiple delegations, once from each of the three Kingdoms, but they are all small. All named Elves.

* Post Dinner, pre-Attack
** [[Luigi]] says [[Cult of Alan]] would be happy to see Managaratha again (Recalled by [[Managaratha]])
** Federico spoke with Managaratha.
*** Managaratha spent two years before the Conclave strongly lobbying for all zones to be represented.
**** Federico expected Managaratha to tell him why.
*** Managaratha is more fragged than Federico has ever seen him.
*** Vidan was fragged, even worse than Managaratha.
**** Well, something closely akin to fragged, anyway.
** Their Majesty's representatives went to talk to the Pirate Queen's Table (Furoosh) and Orange (Silenalania). Silenalania chatted with all the Guild Masters, and the Saurien, and was surreptitiously passed notes from three of them, indicating a location and time: "South Stairs, 10pm", "Stables, 11:30", "Library, 11pm".

===The Purple Dinner===
====[[Ministries of Empire|Ministers]] (4th rank)====
*Win Dae (she/her) - Minister of Repercussions
*Han Cho - Minister of Grain
*Kachest - Minister of Naval Trade
*Az Julan - Minister of Lions
*Foran Zakar - Minister of Redactions
*Li Karest - Minister of the Borders
*Jun Chang - Minister of Fortune

====Advisors and Liaisons====
*Za - Lord of Light, Priest of Tam
*Vesper - the Silent One, Priest of Tem
*Vidan - Priest of Navere
*Edev Guran - Representative of the Head Stallion

====Others====
*3rd rank sub-minister of State / Foreign Affairs
*3rd rank sub-minister of War
*12-15 other 3rd rank bureaucrats, all mooks.
*An assortment of servants, etc.

===The Orange Dinner===
====The principal delegates====
* Guildmaster Lady Isabella Horenth from Vani
* Guildmaster Lady Marianna from Rin'yan
* Guildmaster Stefan - priest of Jord from Eaglofto
* Journeyman Victor - Saurian from Kor

==== Priests ====
* Stella - priestess of the Goddess from Rin'yan
* Luigi - Cult of Alan member from Rin'yan
* Astrid - priest of Rush from Vani
* Alfonz - priest of Tem from Vani
* Georgi - Saurian, itinerant priest of Tam

===The Yellow Dinner===
====The principal delegates====
* Prince Vishnarani
* Lady Hirana (Unreality Mage)
* Lord Vesalen (the guard)

====Others====
* Serafina and her centaurs
* Three priests
* A bunch of merchants

===The Green Dinner===
==== The Forest ====
* Astros Culleen (High Elf, head of the delegation)
* Vrok StoneSkin (Troll, bodyguard)
* Westly (Fox Pooka)
* Scout (Wild Elf, just this guy)
* Custard (Halfling, Astros' valet)
* Cream (Halfling, Astros' cook)

==== The Plains ====
* Furoosh (Sluagh, related to Their Majesty somehow)
* Silenalania (High Elf)
* Sunbeam (Sylph, Silenalania's lady maid)

The status relationship between Furoosh and Silenalania is unclear; they could be jointly leading the delegation.

==== The Mountain ====
* Flint (Dwarf. Very Dwarfy.)

===The Pirate Captain Dinner===
====Principal Captains====
* Cara, Queen of the Pirates (Awesome!)
* Federico (the First Mage)
* Captain Jane (most adventurous of the greater Captains)
* Captain Brightwall, captain of the Silver Gull (worried about military matters)
* Captain Drake (generally an ass and who made him Captain anyway?)
* Gale, captain of the Kittiwake (most adventurous of the smaller Captains)

=== The Red Dinner ===
==== Rush Delegation ====
* Captain Daniel (rarely uses his rank; more of a diplomat though I'm he can chop it up if necessary)
** Captain Daniel's instructions: Our work is to put together a force to take the fight to the Breaker. You may think of yourselves as soldiers more than diplomats, but look for opportunities among all the delegations.
* Sergeant Susie
* Sergeant Susie's squad of Paladins (including Diomarch)
* '''Managaratha's voice, weirdly coming from nowhere (as Daniel was briefing on Lord Franklin):''' ''Hello Diomarche, this is Managaratha. Tell me I like carrots when you get this.''
==== Darstan Delegation ====
* Baron Volstak
** Daniel's briefing: Him being here means he and Zerbina sees this as an expansion opportunity. Expects he can be talked into being a solid part of the force, but he'll need a reward.
==== King Richard's Lands Delegation ====
* Lord Franklin
** Daniel's briefing: Advisor to the last 3 kings in King Richard's Land, over 50 years of service. Expect him to see the big picture, and recognize that an army is needed, but he will need reassurance that King Richard's Land won't be weakened. (Most likely to fall in line.)
** Appears to be a mostly-human-presenting half-elf
==== Victoria Delegation ====
* Lord Karsten
** Daniel's briefing: Sending him is a bit of a provocation by Queen Iona vs Purple, as he has led many successful offensives into the Empire over the last 15 years. He has also run many campaigns against the orcs, probably nobody has more experience against them. Would be a valuable member of a campaign all by himself regardless of what else Queen Iona might send, but the Empire might just refuse to cooperate with him at all.
==== Berana Delegation ====
* Lady Frigga
** Daniel's briefing: Don't know much about her, she's not one of the more important children. Her being here might mean King Olanson doesn't much care about the conference, or that she asked for the assignment as a way to raise her profile.
** (From another run: Her mother and brother think she's sensible enough to hide during a Muddle.)

== Current State ==
* The Pirate Queen is on the ground in (location), covered in blood. (Noted by Gale.)
* Sergeant Susie is badly injured; she is fighting an orc who is uninjured, and several fallen paladins lay around her. (Noted by Diomarch)
* A dwarf is chasing a redcap who is running away. (Noted by Scout.)
* Westly (fox pooka) is in the Yellow zone somewhere but is hard to see. (Noted by Scout)
* Vrok (troll) and Astros (high elf) are together - Vrok is guarding Astros while Astros does some sort of green counterspell.
* There are several dead cataurs in a room with several dead saurians, and a couple more cataurs running through the keep. (noted by Nesh)
* Luigi is barricaded in a room with a wall blocking it; some other non-named Orange delegates are also there. (noted by Stella)
* There's a Yellow zone that's hard to see/changing even though time isn't passing; speculation is there's an Unreality effect going on there.
* A Blue mage performed an extra-effort Blue spell to make all of Middlesea one battlemap. They are probably/possibly in the midst of a Berserker rage, as a consequence. (Discovered in [[Second Run]] by Gale when she did her own wild-blue-spell on the battlemap.)
* An area of effect Green spell is spraying amnesia mist everywhere. (Noted by Lutenania, scout for Their Majesty of the Plains.)
* An Oasis miracle of isolation is in place. (Noted by Scout.)
* A Time miracle of some sort is in place. (Noted by Bordan, priest of Rush.)
* There are a whole bunch of orcs (Noted by flyover in [[First Run]].)
* There are lion prints on the outer wall. (Noted by Nesh.)
* There are slith tracks sneaking into the keep. (Noted by Vidan.)
* There are more than ten "sides" involved, but that might include factions within delegations; e.g., there are five separate delegations from Red, one for each kingdom and one for the Paladins of Rush. It's not clear whether those count as five different "sides".(From Bordan.)
* Baron Volstack took a lot of damage right before the timestop, which was shared with Duchess Zerbina over the lifelink (she has healed since). She is concerned that he be gotten to ASAP when the timestop breaks. (Shared by Duchess Zerbina. This is a secret.)

== Things Remembered ==
* Vidan was involved in a combat-time ritual of several people-- probably Fivist priests and mages, not priests of other religions-- to counteract the amnesia spell.
* Vidan recalls: ''Flint looks from the dead redcap to the unconscious Scout. "Federico, with me. The rest of you, see what you can do for him. If anything unfortunate happens, tell Her Majesty that Futeau is the traitor."''
* [[Gyvail]], a priest of Orellian, is with Caitlyn and Westrack, and was holding. (Recalled by Vidan.)
* Nesh remembers that dinner went... fine. He served the Yellow delegation.
* Managaratha remembers having a conversation with the Blue delegation.
* Stella remembers being sent to talk to the Purple delegation and feel them out "since you can't actually commit the Guild to anything."
* Stella remembers that "Luigi volunteers to speak with the Priests from the Yellow delegation" after dinner.

== People By Faction ==
* Pirate Queen (Cara)
** First Mage Federico
** William (Recalled by [[Managaratha]])
** Gale

* Blue
** Mage Marek (Recalled by [[Managaratha]])
** General Petrov, a Saurien (Recalled by [[Managaratha]])
** Rickard (Recalled by [[Managaratha]])
*** can cast spells
*** diplomat-without-portfolio for [[Melmaine]]
*** has spent time in [[Jabar]] and some of the Merfolk courts

* Cult of Alan
** Luigi (Recalled by [[Managaratha]])

Main Page

2023-08-05T16:48:22Z

Jerry:

<font size=6> COMET: Once More Unto The Breach </font>

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

[[Muddle in Middlesea]]

[[History]]

[[Ministries_of_Empire]]
* Jerry proposes that this be moved into a [[:Category:Countries]] page

== 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]]

[[:Category: Rulings]]

==Logs==
* [[First Run]] (2023-01-07)
* [[Second Run]] (2023-02-18)
* [[To The Heart]] (Third Run, 2023-03-04)
* [[Adventures are Everywhere]] (Fourth Run, 2023-03-18)
* [[Promises Promises]] (Fifth Run, 2023-04-01)
* [[A Lilac Kind Of Purple]] (Sixth Run, 2023-05-13)
* [[To Catch A Thief]] (Seventh Run, 2023-05-27)
* [[Bear and Frog]] (Eighth Run, 2023-06-17)
* [[Keep in the Broken Lands]] (Ninth Run, 2023-07-08)

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

== 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]
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Cara

2023-02-18T18:53:53Z

Jerry: Created page with "The Pirate Queen! Category:NPCs"

The Pirate Queen!

[[Category:NPCs]]

Diomarche

2023-02-18T18:50:50Z

Jerry: Created page with "Centaur. Skeptic. Juggernaut of Rush. Category:PCs"

Centaur. Skeptic. Juggernaut of Rush.

[[Category:PCs]]

Sergeant Susie

2023-02-18T18:47:44Z

Jerry: Created page with "A sergeant in the Paladins of Rush. Diomarch's immediate superior. Category:NPCs"

A sergeant in the Paladins of Rush. [[Diomarch]]'s immediate superior.

[[Category:NPCs]]

First Run

2023-02-18T18:46:41Z

Jerry:

Middlesea is an island in the middle of the Inland Sea. There's a fishing village and you can walk up to the compound on the top of the cliff.

Day the First, people are arriving for what is expected to be a week or so of discussions. There's a dinner in the main hall where [[Cara]] gives a little speech.

* A ton of people from Red - they sent five delegations instead of one.
* 30-40 from Orange including servants (and some Saurians)
* Similar from Purple and Yellow
* Only about 8 from Blue, including the Mage (and one Saurian)
* Green has multiple delegations, once from each of the three Kingdoms, but they are all small. All named Elves.

A couple of delegations with centaurs.

A walled compound surrounding a walled keep. Outside the keep is an interesting (but successful) mishmosh of styles - a Victorian manor house, an open Roman palisade, some fancy gardens. It dates back to the war of the Lord and the Lady (hundreds of years) at least and has been used periodically as a meeting place, but is not usually someone's residence until Cara laid claim to it when she established herself as the Pirate Queen.

(Con roll! Alert! Alert!)

Those with the most con start to hear "I think this one is coming around!"

Nesh sees he is on the road outside the gates, with the other six PCs. People are a little cut up. There are some fisherfolk from the fishing village. Where has the keep/compound gone? [[Nesh]] can see it, but the fishers can't. He heads to the gates, but they don't open. Nesh and the fishers mutually vanish when they go that way. [[Diomarch]] starts waking up (next in line with Con). It's the next morning, apparently. Diomarch and [[Managaratha]] can also see the keep.

Managaratha walks over to the doors holding on to one of the fishermen, but they both stop - doesn't make sense to keep going. Letting go, he can keep going forwards but when they do, the other guy vanishes.

''Det Magic: some sort of purple + DI ritual'' - that's the thing in the walls, like a dome, but the stopping effect is not magic. Managaratha thinks that may have been a warning to prevent arms being ripped off.

[[Vidan]] wakes up, and wonders if that was him. [[Stella]] wakes up and does some actual medicine, cleaning cuts. Vidan helps with first aid. ([[Scout]] has no eyes, under a blindfold.)

The last thing Vidan remembers is that he was at dinner and Navere spent all his DI. He is wearing sliced clothes. Dioramic thinks everyone just ran through a wall.

''Also a green spell, fading away''

Everyone heads to the doors to investigate, creeping out the fishermen.

Vidan:
''Everyone is under a Navere-flavored Witnessing miracle (Rush + everyone else)''
''Everyone is under a Broken miracle (where the Keep is) - covering the keep and environments''
''Twins miracle / purple around the keep too''

Scout:
''Giant demon miracle''

[[Gale]] tries to go over the wall and finds a couple of hexes that she can travel, but then there's a purple something. Some people are in stasis not moving.

Scout does some scouting. At the edge down the road, there is a wound/hole/break in the demon miracle which is probably caused by people getting out (i.e. us). Someone much smaller than the miracle hit it and did... something. Probably Diomache's miracle, short circuited through Navere.

Vidan thinks the miracle should be wearing off but it's caught in the stasis field (!).

Is the Queen still in there? (one of the fisherfolk, who introduces himself as [[Trell]] wonders). Probably?

The other priests had more DI than this, so why are we the ones out? Vidan thinks the miracle on us is bigger than he could have cast.

Stella:
''What needs Fixing here? It's a big messy mess. There are at least three effects reinforcing each other.
# ''Demon miracle: putting the whole thing in a bubble that no one can get in or out of
# ''Purple + twins stasis bubble with a specific key to turn it off. Get the person with the key into the bubble.
# ''Both of those should be smaller area, but there's a big Blue spell making it all one battlefield.
''Once all that is fixed, a '''lot''' of things inside will need fixing really quick. One of the things in there is targeting Nesh, and it would be bad.

Gale:
''We are all on the battlefield with a big hanging blue spell. (not Gale's) There's a battle going on in there, though it's on hold. There were multiple battles in multiple battlefields going on when the Blue spell hit and unified everything. We cannot split up *too* far but we are still on the battlefield even if we leave. There are other things that aren't Blue interacting with that.''

Maybe we have to go on a lot of quests to solve the individual bits and then finally drop it.

Trell thinks there's a trail that goes up to a house, on the other side of where Middlesea would have been. That's Managaratha's house. He didn't remember it was there. Time for tea! The fishermen will go down. Can they tell Captain Valgrand (from the Golden Falcon ship) to hold for a bit? Captain Velgard is annoying and grumpy but Trell can carry a note.

(Vidan remembers the name Managaratha from a magic history class - that's what happens when you frag yourself. He has reportedly been present for several Comets.)

More introductions. Gale works for the Pirate Queen. Scout works for the King of the Forest. Stella is a priest of the Goddess and came with Orange. Diomarch is with the paladins of Rush who came from Red. Vidan is from Purple.

Most of the magic-capable kingdoms probably know something's wrong already since they won't have gotten reports back. And the ships would have seen the keep vanished this morning.

The purple key ia probably a key in Truespeak. Maybe it needs the right person.

Back to Middlesea. Guys in orange livery arguing with a bureaucrat (not from the delegation).

Gale heads up to look around. Seems to be a sphere of stasis.
# Hey, there are a bunch of orcs.
# A section of the keep looks really wonky - hard to look at and eye-shatteringly moving (Yellow?)
# Stormclouds over that section

Things seem to be centered on the keep, though fights with orcs are on the grounds.

The bureaucrat was sent to see what happened to the morning report, and Vidan should come home with him. Vidan convinces him that he doesn't have the authority and also as part of the delegation he should be here. ("I should go work on the official report")

The no-Middlesea space is a lot smaller - just a clearing. The orange guys go a lot faster going *around* it. They think it's about twenty-five hexes across.

Nesh wanders around a bit and spots lion pawprints on the outer wall in one section.

Vidan:
''Given these events, what do we need to see next?'' He vanishes.

Er, where did he go? Scout thinks his "get me out of there" wavered and he will be back eventually.

"I guess Team Serious is down one."

Is there a demon hanging around here? Scout tries to figure it out. The Oasis demon did the miracle. That's the biggest demon in the world, though it doesn't necessarily work for the Breaker. It isn't standing around here.

This seems pretty fast for a new Comet. Managaratha thinks that's not unheard of, but less common. Nine Comets ago, the Winter was fast. The Centaur/Cataur war started with the war. When the Rainbow River disappeared (the comet after the last run), that was a bang. The expedition to the Citadel was also early in the Comet.

We head down - about halfway down, we run into the Captain and his crew. Stella tries to explain. The captain really wants someone to come with him.

We divert to a tavern to write notes to everyone's delegation. Gale thinks we can escape out the back to her skiff if needed.

Managaratha has us all linked in a talking spell. Sneak and bluffery for Gale, Nesh, and Scout to get out first. Gale unfolds the boat.

"Thank you for your diligence. We'll be going now." Stella goes to get on the centaur, but the captain tries to grab her. We escape!

We fly over the keep. Nesh spots Beauregard, frozen and heading away from the keep.

This is about a stopping place, but we really don't know where to go yet. The Golden Falcon has in fact left.

The pirate fleet is on a nearby island. We go there. Gale haphazardly explains, and complains about the Golden Falcon, he's fair game to pirate. Nobody has a yellow mage. Alas.

There are a lot of Jord temples around. Temple of Rush less common. Temple of Navere about a day to the north.

Next day, we head to a nearby temple of Rush. The priest here ([[Fred]]) is keen to put together an attack force, or at least to get that ball rolling. He might be able to figure out something about the battle we're in. He tries, and... stops moving. It wears off after a couple of minutes, at least. Oops. It was harder because Diomarch is under the influence of a Broken miracle. We might want to be careful about that. We are scouts rather than combatants right now, though we might become combatants first.

There have already been deaths in the battle. A number could happen fairly soon, in an odd definition of "soon".

The priest at the church of Navere is [[Dalarin]]. He can write a letter of introduction to send in if we are worried about setting off their Broken detection.

Temple of Navere next. Nesh finds an urchin to send in Fred's note. The priest of Navere does not approve of completely loose cannons, which we seem to want to be.

She is willing to find out what someone's commanders orders are. Maybe she can do what their orders would be, if they knew the stuff the party knows? She can try. Diomarch has the clearest chain of command ([[Sergeant Susie]]), and is Fiveist to boot. Dalarin speaks in Sgt. Susie's voice. "Don't let the orc out. Keep the kid safe from the cataurs. Find out what the [[Fourists]] are doing."

Managalatha ponders the Oasis-- it has factored prominently in three Comets. The first was the centaur/cataur war; the second was the last run; the third was the Comet when the Rainbow River disappeared, when the Oasis moved to the desert beyond the Mountains of the east, and took it over.

<h2> Loot </h2>
* 5 EPs
* 5 SPs

Fred

2023-02-18T18:45:16Z

Jerry:

A priest of Rush, at a small temple on an island near Middlesea (less than a day).

* Did "Insight on the battles you are fighting"

[[Category:NPCs]]

Dalarin

2023-02-18T18:44:43Z

Jerry: Created page with "A priest of Navere, whose temple is on an island about a day's sail north of Middlesea. * Did "What Would Sergeant Susie Say" (what your superior would tell you to do) Category:NPCs"

A priest of Navere, whose temple is on an island about a day's sail north of Middlesea.

* Did "What Would Sergeant Susie Say" (what your superior would tell you to do)

[[Category:NPCs]]

Fred

2023-02-18T18:42:50Z

Jerry: Created page with "A priest of Rush, at a small temple on an island near Middlesea (less than a day). Category:NPCs"

A priest of Rush, at a small temple on an island near Middlesea (less than a day).

[[Category:NPCs]]

First Run

2023-02-18T18:41:05Z

Jerry:

Middlesea is an island in the middle of the Inland Sea. There's a fishing village and you can walk up to the compound on the top of the cliff.

Day the First, people are arriving for what is expected to be a week or so of discussions. There's a dinner in the main hall where [[Cara]] gives a little speech.

* A ton of people from Red - they sent five delegations instead of one.
* 30-40 from Orange including servants (and some Saurians)
* Similar from Purple and Yellow
* Only about 8 from Blue, including the Mage (and one Saurian)
* Green has multiple delegations, once from each of the three Kingdoms, but they are all small. All named Elves.

A couple of delegations with centaurs.

A walled compound surrounding a walled keep. Outside the keep is an interesting (but successful) mishmosh of styles - a Victorian manor house, an open Roman palisade, some fancy gardens. It dates back to the war of the Lord and the Lady (hundreds of years) at least and has been used periodically as a meeting place, but is not usually someone's residence until Cara laid claim to it when she established herself as the Pirate Queen.

(Con roll! Alert! Alert!)

Those with the most con start to hear "I think this one is coming around!"

Nesh sees he is on the road outside the gates, with the other six PCs. People are a little cut up. There are some fisherfolk from the fishing village. Where has the keep/compound gone? [[Nesh]] can see it, but the fishers can't. He heads to the gates, but they don't open. Nesh and the fishers mutually vanish when they go that way. [[Diomarch]] starts waking up (next in line with Con). It's the next morning, apparently. Diomarch and [[Managaratha]] can also see the keep.

Managaratha walks over to the doors holding on to one of the fishermen, but they both stop - doesn't make sense to keep going. Letting go, he can keep going forwards but when they do, the other guy vanishes.

''Det Magic: some sort of purple + DI ritual'' - that's the thing in the walls, like a dome, but the stopping effect is not magic. Managaratha thinks that may have been a warning to prevent arms being ripped off.

[[Vidan]] wakes up, and wonders if that was him. [[Stella]] wakes up and does some actual medicine, cleaning cuts. Vidan helps with first aid. ([[Scout]] has no eyes, under a blindfold.)

The last thing Vidan remembers is that he was at dinner and Navere spent all his DI. He is wearing sliced clothes. Dioramic thinks everyone just ran through a wall.

''Also a green spell, fading away''

Everyone heads to the doors to investigate, creeping out the fishermen.

Vidan:
''Everyone is under a Navere-flavored Witnessing miracle (Rush + everyone else)''
''Everyone is under a Broken miracle (where the Keep is) - covering the keep and environments''
''Twins miracle / purple around the keep too''

Scout:
''Giant demon miracle''

[[Gale]] tries to go over the wall and finds a couple of hexes that she can travel, but then there's a purple something. Some people are in stasis not moving.

Scout does some scouting. At the edge down the road, there is a wound/hole/break in the demon miracle which is probably caused by people getting out (i.e. us). Someone much smaller than the miracle hit it and did... something. Probably Diomache's miracle, short circuited through Navere.

Vidan thinks the miracle should be wearing off but it's caught in the stasis field (!).

Is the Queen still in there? (one of the fisherfolk, who introduces himself as [[Trell]] wonders). Probably?

The other priests had more DI than this, so why are we the ones out? Vidan thinks the miracle on us is bigger than he could have cast.

Stella:
''What needs Fixing here? It's a big messy mess. There are at least three effects reinforcing each other.
# ''Demon miracle: putting the whole thing in a bubble that no one can get in or out of
# ''Purple + twins stasis bubble with a specific key to turn it off. Get the person with the key into the bubble.
# ''Both of those should be smaller area, but there's a big Blue spell making it all one battlefield.
''Once all that is fixed, a '''lot''' of things inside will need fixing really quick. One of the things in there is targeting Nesh, and it would be bad.

Gale:
''We are all on the battlefield with a big hanging blue spell. (not Gale's) There's a battle going on in there, though it's on hold. There were multiple battles in multiple battlefields going on when the Blue spell hit and unified everything. We cannot split up *too* far but we are still on the battlefield even if we leave. There are other things that aren't Blue interacting with that.''

Maybe we have to go on a lot of quests to solve the individual bits and then finally drop it.

Trell thinks there's a trail that goes up to a house, on the other side of where Middlesea would have been. That's Managaratha's house. He didn't remember it was there. Time for tea! The fishermen will go down. Can they tell Captain Valgrand (from the Golden Falcon ship) to hold for a bit? Captain Velgard is annoying and grumpy but Trell can carry a note.

(Vidan remembers the name Managaratha from a magic history class - that's what happens when you frag yourself. He has reportedly been present for several Comets.)

More introductions. Gale works for the Pirate Queen. Scout works for the King of the Forest. Stella is a priest of the Goddess and came with Orange. Diomarch is with the paladins of Rush who came from Red. Vidan is from Purple.

Most of the magic-capable kingdoms probably know something's wrong already since they won't have gotten reports back. And the ships would have seen the keep vanished this morning.

The purple key ia probably a key in Truespeak. Maybe it needs the right person.

Back to Middlesea. Guys in orange livery arguing with a bureaucrat (not from the delegation).

Gale heads up to look around. Seems to be a sphere of stasis.
# Hey, there are a bunch of orcs.
# A section of the keep looks really wonky - hard to look at and eye-shatteringly moving (Yellow?)
# Stormclouds over that section

Things seem to be centered on the keep, though fights with orcs are on the grounds.

The bureaucrat was sent to see what happened to the morning report, and Vidan should come home with him. Vidan convinces him that he doesn't have the authority and also as part of the delegation he should be here. ("I should go work on the official report")

The no-Middlesea space is a lot smaller - just a clearing. The orange guys go a lot faster going *around* it. They think it's about twenty-five hexes across.

Nesh wanders around a bit and spots lion pawprints on the outer wall in one section.

Vidan:
''Given these events, what do we need to see next?'' He vanishes.

Er, where did he go? Scout thinks his "get me out of there" wavered and he will be back eventually.

"I guess Team Serious is down one."

Is there a demon hanging around here? Scout tries to figure it out. The Oasis demon did the miracle. That's the biggest demon in the world, though it doesn't necessarily work for the Breaker. It isn't standing around here.

This seems pretty fast for a new Comet. Managaratha thinks that's not unheard of, but less common. Nine Comets ago, the Winter was fast. The Centaur/Cataur war started with the war. When the Rainbow River disappeared (the comet after the last run), that was a bang. The expedition to the Citadel was also early in the Comet.

We head down - about halfway down, we run into the Captain and his crew. Stella tries to explain. The captain really wants someone to come with him.

We divert to a tavern to write notes to everyone's delegation. Gale thinks we can escape out the back to her skiff if needed.

Managaratha has us all linked in a talking spell. Sneak and bluffery for Gale, Nesh, and Scout to get out first. Gale unfolds the boat.

"Thank you for your diligence. We'll be going now." Stella goes to get on the centaur, but the captain tries to grab her. We escape!

We fly over the keep. Nesh spots Beauregard, frozen and heading away from the keep.

This is about a stopping place, but we really don't know where to go yet. The Golden Falcon has in fact left.

The pirate fleet is on a nearby island. We go there. Gale haphazardly explains, and complains about the Golden Falcon, he's fair game to pirate. Nobody has a yellow mage. Alas.

There are a lot of Jord temples around. Temple of Rush less common. Temple of Navere about a day to the north.

Next day, we head to a nearby temple of Rush. The priest here ([[Fred]]) is keen to put together an attack force, or at least to get that ball rolling. He might be able to figure out something about the battle we're in. He tries, and... stops moving. It wears off after a couple of minutes, at least. Oops. It was harder because Diomarch is under the influence of a Broken miracle. We might want to be careful about that. We are scouts rather than combatants right now, though we might become combatants first.

There have already been deaths in the battle. A number could happen fairly soon, in an odd definition of "soon".

The priest at the church of Navere is [[Dalarin]]. He can write a letter of introduction to send in if we are worried about setting off their Broken detection.

Temple of Navere next. Nesh finds an urchin to send in Fred's note. The priest of Navere does not approve of completely loose cannons, which we seem to want to be.

She is willing to find out what someone's commanders orders are. Maybe she can do what their orders would be, if they knew the stuff the party knows? She can try. Diomarch has the clearest chain of command (Sgt. Susie), and is Fiveist to boot. Dalarin speaks in Sgt. Susie's voice. "Don't let the orc out. Keep the kid safe from the cataurs. Find out what the [[Fourists]] are doing."

Managalatha ponders the Oasis-- it has factored prominently in three Comets. The first was the centaur/cataur war; the second was the last run; the third was the Comet when the Rainbow River disappeared, when the Oasis moved to the desert beyond the Mountains of the east, and took it over.

<h2> Loot </h2>
* 5 EPs
* 5 SPs

Main Page

2023-02-18T18:38:06Z

Jerry:

<font size=6> COMET: Once More Unto The Breach </font>

== About The World ==
[[World Map]]

[[History]]

== 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]]

==Logs==
* [[First Run]]
* [[Second Run]]

==Things We Might Know==
* [[:Category:NPCs]]

== 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]

Category:NPCs

2023-02-18T18:34:24Z

Jerry: Created page with "People who we have met, or not met."

People who we have met, or not met.

Luigi

2023-02-18T18:33:34Z

Jerry: Created page with "A dude from the Cult of Alan, currently frozen in the Middlesea Conference. Category:NPCs"

A dude from the Cult of Alan, currently frozen in the Middlesea Conference.

[[Category:NPCs]]