Editing A Crack in the Wall (section)

==Finding the Next Plot: The Walls==
Scout ponders going to the Tree Network.  Vidan thinks maybe wait until after the Maharani meeting, in case it takes five weeks.  Scout could maybe think about how to get humans in to see the Tree network, before we actually go.  That’s probably a good idea.

With lack of any real target, Stella decides to find out what needs fixing in the capital and BRINGs IT.  15 successes, 10 DI.

The biggest thing that needs fixing that we don’t know about is the City Walls.  That was a harder answer to get than expected, so there’s not a ton left over.  Other things that potentially need fixing are: stuff going on with Vidan’s plot, stuff going on with Managaratha’s plot, but there is some Church involvement there, so there’s not much more detail.  She’s not really concerned about the Tree Network, it’s not so much her plot.  (Scout rolls his lack of eyes.)  Something interesting would probably happen if Nesh dropped his defenses, but that might not count as Fixing, per se.

On the checklist of 7, there’s not much to be done about Gale’s and Diomarche’s because they’re not here.  

We go looking for walls.  As it turns out, we didn’t see any Walls on the way in.  There have not been walls historically, but we get pointed the right direction.  (Nesh, poking around, gets asked if he’s working for Michaelaiovich.)

A casual poke around doesn’t reveal too much about how long this has been.  Stella thinks if they’re using Orange they could probably wall the city in a month or so; if they’re not, it would take a year.  The walls seem to be pretty good, it’s not clear yet if they’ll have gates or anything.  The river is going to complicate things a bit.  The city is mostly on the north bank, but there are suburbs/settlements south of the river.  But the Walls will seriously rearrange how the city works.  Stella ponders whether they’re using Orange.  They’re using regular construction methods, but we’d have to get closer (past the guards) to know much more.

Stella asks who’s in charge around here.  Princess Alasta is the general overseeing the project; she’s not involved day-to-day, that’s a captain.  They have a Saurien doing a lot of the engineering design work– Mikhailovich.  He’s from Orange, and is an Orange mage (and a Yellow mage).  They don’t think that’s unusual, but there aren’t many sauriens here, so they don’t know much about what’s unusual for them.

Vidan tries to convince the Captain that Stella is an amazing priest of the Goddess from Orange who can help with efficiency, etc.  She’s a Miracle Worker!, he says.  WIth 13 success of Persuasion, Charming, and Duping, the Captain gives us an escort to let us take a look around and introduce us to Michaelovich, etc.

Vidan tries to give himself and Stella the ability to see what they need to see, but 4/4 is not big enough.  Interesting.  Stella looks around.  Nothing obviously needs fixing.  There is definitely Forge magic being used periodically, probably mostly to speed things up.  e.g., “dry all the mortar here”.  The Saurien definitely does this at some point.

Scout looks around.  There aren’t any miracles on the wall.  But with 6 Karma successes, he notices there is an area that he can’t see, in the Foundation, he just doesn’t have enough Per to see it.  That is interesting.  He points it out to Stella.  It’s a little below ground level, but over there.  Stella channels Gale, and Wilds up an “Analyze Wall” spell.  She only burns out 1, and gets 14 successes on her 20 dice!

This is a reasonable defensive wall, not particularly Orange engineered, no obvious flaws.  Construction has been sped up with Orange magic.  And there is a place down there that has more than 14 successes of Anti-Magic something.  It’s probably a 3’ x 3’ x 3’.  So… maybe a bomb.  But a slith bomb or a saurien bomb.  Hmm.

Stella inquires about the protection on the construction site– they’ve had guards up since the beginning of the project.  

Nesh pulls Mikhailovich to the side and speaks to him in Saurien– can he have a word?  Are there anti-magic defenses in the wall?  Well, there is some plan to add things later, yes.  But the box over there?  Is he concerned about that?  Just between Sauriens, Nesh doesn’t care too much, unless maybe it’s a secret slith plot– should he try to deflect investigations into it?  Mikhailovich seems to acknowledge it’s there, and, after some conversation/sense motives rolls, he says he doesn’t care if we investigate further.

We leave, and go report to Suvatra.  She… is distressed about the fact that it is a 3’x3’x3’ anti-magic field.  She gets a message from Princess Alasta– something has happened at the wall, and wants her help.  We go with her to the wall, and meet Princess Alasta and a group of soldiers.  Something bad has happened, serious damage to several parts of it.  Alasta acknowledge that Suvatra’s job is Investigation, in a way that it’s not Alasta’s job.  (Suvatra is apparently the spymaster…)

When we get there, there are a number of holes in the wall, including the location we had seen.  It’s mostly not a wall any more.  Vidan looks around, and is pretty clear that the bombs went off.  Suvatra does some investigating, and signs are pretty clear that Mikhailovich was behind this, and he has vanished since.  “Better now than later, probably.”  “Better now than during a siege, yes.”

Vidan inquires with Suvatra about how the decision to make the Wall was arrived at– Alasta has been interested for a while, it’s not clear how she first got in touch with Mikhailovich.  She thinks Alasta is competent,  but not an engineer, so they could have slipped past her.  Suvatra is concerned about the information-gathering abilities of the slith.  

Thinking about it, Stella thinks it’s a bit suspicious that Mikhailovich had that level of skill but wasn’t in the Guild– he didn’t use a title like Journeyman or Master.  So… either he’s not from Orange, or was in the Guild once and was kicked out, or…   something.  

Scout scouts around, since they’ll let us walk.  There were three successive explosions– action, action, action.  No one appears to have been killed, but there are injuries, which is actually fairly lucky.  The workers weren’t on break, but they were further down the wall, then where the bombs were.  Scout’s pretty sure they were black powder explosions.  How was it detonated?  Probably magic– a Saurien orange mage could have “bypass my own defenses” as a schtick.  Stella could think of ways to trigger the bomb by, say, turning the rock right above the bomb into lava, triggering the fuse.

We stay with Suvatra for the few hours while she’s at the Wall, but she also has guys summoned who continue to do the work.