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A Crack in the Wall
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Gale and Diomarche bamf out; Nesh bamfs in. The current expectation is the Maharani will be returning in 2 days. Why are we seeing the Maharani again? We Have Been Summoned. Oh right. She probably wants to know about her nephew. What are our plots again? Vidan was supposed to help stop assassination attempts. Did we do that? No, it was probably the Maharani? Hmm. We had some goofs to help, did we help them? Well, we helped them a bit. They’re probably not harmful any more. Managaratha wants to look into what’s going on with Feelings magic. Nesh is still being hunted. ==Catching Up With Suvatra== With nothing specific on our agenda (and Managaratha still being sleepy) we wait for the plot to descend. It descends in the form of a note from Suvatra, who wishes to see Vidan at his convenience (which he interprets as Right Now). We go to the palace! It is more open than a Red castle, it’s more of a working government building. It’s less defensible than Orange areas, even, but there are more guards, so maybe they’re using people rather than walls. Suvatra gives some files. Background check on Vestal, there’s not much there. She did have a merchant shop, although she hadn’t been there in a while. Vidan thinks about it with Detective– it cuts off abruptly about 4 years ago, which lines up with Mangaratha’s scrying. There are two mysterious deaths that happened where she was at the time. They were both politicians, neither of them are specifically tied to the Maharani. Thinking about it, neither of them are in the Maharani’s House, but they would have been relevant to the new Maharani were the Maharani to fall. One of them died violently. No political ramifications are in the file. She also has a file on Merindal Laman, the jeweler Stella was working with. Seems to be basically a jeweler, Merchant Varna her whole life. She’s moderately ambitious, there are some indications of notable sales, moving up the hierarchy of important people being sold to over the last several years. Nothing looks awry, but there is definitely an attempt to curry political favor. Which is plausibly just being a good merchant. Stella thinks she’s not maximizing for profit, though. SHe is selling to both Noble and Priest Varna; most of her sales to Priest varna appear to have been to Lore’s servants, rather than Love or Life. That has changed over the last few years. [Elizabeth interrupts to ask “Why do you all sit in the same places?” “Because we are old.”] Suvatra is still putting together files on the other four Vidan asked about. (The other three that Stella was working with and Talinda.) Managaratha shows up. It’s not entirely clear how, maybe he teleported? There’s nothing else Suvatra wants from us today. Vidan inquires politely whether there is a… retired spy he could talk with to learn something from? She can probably arrange something, though not today. Suvatra adds that, given the indications in Vestal’s file and the fact that she came after Suvatra, she is somewhat concerned that the people opposed to her Majesty are trying to cut off Her Majesty’s support before going after Her Majesty, so if we could keep an eye out for that, she would appreciate it. It is traditional for the three Houses of the Goddess to have different goals, but to the extent they are opposing each other, that would be newer. Managaratha thinks it is more common for Churches to fight each other, rather than schism. Suvatra says we will probably not be meeting with the Maharani in open court, but that will of course be her decision. Thus ends our meeting with Suvatra. ==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. ==Back at the Palace== An invitation to Princess Miranel’s ball aways us! It is this evening. She is one of the Queen’s two eligible daughters. The elder is Alasta. There was another daughter who left the Noble Varna to join the Priest varna. We wear our fancy party clothes, and go to the Ball! Miranel (who is early 20s) is the host, and clearly knows who we are– she greets us each by name, and inquires after Captain Gale and Diomarche. Alasta makes a brief appearance, Suvatra does not. The ball is for the important people of the city– Noble and Priest varna, no Merchant varna. Vidan puts up some Detect Nobility mojo, to not fail to recognize anyone important. Vidan gathers info on what people are talking about. The explosion of the wall, the war with the slith. Not the assassination of Suvatra (who is a vizier, one of several), interestingly. Maybe she kept it quiet, maybe people didn’t notice? (Alasta on the other hand is a princess and a general, although she’s relatively young.) Miranel does not seem to have a job besides being a princess. Tasca, who is one of Love’s Servants, and who is reported to be a good fighter, is also here. Lisatera shows up briefly. There are a few centaur, but only a few. We’re not completely sure if that’s because this is a Ball, or if it’s that they’re not fully integrated into society that much. No one’s rude to them, but there is a level of separateness to them. It’s almost as if there’s in their own varna. People dance with each other, but they gossip in their varna subgroup. There are a few nobles and a priest among the centaurs. The lone priest centaur wanders back and forth between the centaurs and the human priest group. Miranel also mixes fairly easily. She must cares enough about the varna rules that she didn’t invite any Merchants. Nesh is the only saurien in the room. Vidan and Stella seem to be assigned to the Priest varna, in a way. The other three of us are less clearly assigned, and can do more floating back and forth. The room tries to find a place to put Managaratha and Scout among the varnas. Managaratha tries to be in Mage varna, which isn’t a thing. He talks to people, and notices that the Noble mages tend to be more practical, whereas the Priest mages tend to be more theoretical, as a general trend. He tries to discuss Feelings and Unreality with them; they think it’s interesting he doesn’t know the other flavors of Yellow. They seem to not interact with so many foreigners, possibly because it’s far and nobody here can teleport. Managaratha gets one out of one Karma, which means he catches the Centaur’s priestess’ ear when he says that Magic can change during Comets. She is curious about that. He explains his theories on change during the time of the Comets. Vidan also wants to make a Sense Motive roll on Miranel, to see if she’s really a good host or a social butterfly or a pose. She’s definitely enjoying what she’s doing, but she’s also doing an excellent job at gathering information. She doesn’t seem to be fishing for specific things, but she’s certainly learning things in general. Nesh tries to gather some information, and notices that the varnas are clearly not united. There are three groups in the Priest varna (Love, Life, and Lore)-- they try to one-up each other. The Nobles are more divided, and more active sniping going on. They seem willing to not fight because there’s a war with slith going on, but they’re definitely more aware of who’s in charge of whom, etc. The struggle is more active, although no one is saying they should be Maharani or anything obvious like that. But they’re more opponents than in the Priest varna. Scout notices there are fewer illusions than you might suspect. The music is all real; the lights are spells. There are charisma buffs, mostly on people who are less important. The decorations are all real. There’s an element of “we’re good enough we don’t need the buffs” going on here that we haven’t seen before. Many people have detections up, but they’re probably not see-through-illusions. There’s not a lot of active DI; it’s all Goddess except for Vidan. It’s not clear what much of it is doing– some kind of healing for one of them etc. The Priest varna is not all priests, by any stretch, but they all identify as one of Life, Lore, or Love. The elves are mostly high elves, a few trolls and sylph. No pooka, that was probably a conscious choice. No halflings, only a few sluagh in the Priest varna. And a few half-elves. The priests are more aligned with the other Priest varna; the Nobles are more in their own house. Houses seem to ally with houses without concern for the racial dynamics. The Next Day Nesh gives us a heads up, and then drops his magic resistance. Verga? the guy Nesh was talking to back at the inn, appears in a hologram. “Do the names Karina or Ilyana mean anything to you?” Ilyana was Nesh’s mother, as it turns out; he doesn’t remember the name Karina. Verga has found reports of an attack on a saurien woman named Karina and her daughter Ilyana, by people using a similar compass. “So you do think that is likely related, then?” Nesh nods, and Verga says thank you and ends the call. A little while later we are summoned to Suvatra’s office again. She has a file on Dalin Cheser, who was the horse merchant. He’s only 19 or 20, so it’s not a big file. His parents both died in the last year, and he inherited the business likely significantly earlier than he would have otherwise. The presentation to Her Majesty the Maharani had already been arranged when his mother died; she was expected to do the presentation. He has inherited the job and the obligation. As far as Quartz goes, he’s been a dwarf weaponsmith for over 100 years. He has a large file but none of which is particularly interesting. Nothing particularly interesting on Mikhailovich over the last six month’s he’s been in the city. Arrived on a boat claiming to be from Orange (not from a specific city, which Stella flags is unusual). Suvatra probably won’t be able to get a file quickly on whether anyone in Orange knows him. It looks to her as if he introduced himself into society fairly quickly and easily; a Saurien who is a talented Yellow mage drew attention. It caused quite a stir for a few months. He does not seem to have evacuated anything from the rooms he was staying in. He was both a skilled mage and skilled in the social arts, and a Saurien with a large amount of resistance. There were a few vetting efforts when he was hired as the chief engineer. They did not turn up anything untoward; it’s unclear as of yet whether… it’s currently her suspicion that he used a Yellow spell to make it look like he dropped his defenses and nothing untoward showed up. He was likely not higher than 20 Magic dice. He wasn’t a priest or a combatant at all. Likely also a Green mage, given the supplies recovered from his rooms. He did not have a Yellow disguise, most likely. Unless he had 20 dice, 15 suppress, a schtick in my spell cuts through my suppress, and a spell of my illusion isn’t detectable by yellow, he could possibly had a yellow illusion up. He could have had a potion of shapeshift, or maybe a Red spell? Hmm. Scout tries to find him– with 14 successes and 19 DI, he’s clear that Mikhailovich is no longer in the country. That means he didn’t have 15 successes of suppress, which means he didn’t use the personal suppress to hide the bombs. ==Loot== <ul> <li> +10 EPs <li> +6 SPs </ul>
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