Coronation and Investigation

Setting the Stage

[Phoenix 28] Scout phases in. The gang’s all here! That’s strange. But since everyone is here, Vidan explains the mechanic for the "forming the party, Purple style" ritual, but we cannot do it today because while everyone is here, not everyone has a spare EP.

1. First Vidan (with help from Managaratha) will use purple magic to create a place outside of time and space where rules and names can be changed.
2. Everyone will pledge their loyalty to the Conclave Freerangers.
3. Everyone will pledge their loyalty to the Conclave Freerangers in Truespeech.
4. Everyone spends an EP to build the structure for future group shticks.

Vidan cautions that speaking the oath in Truespeech might reveal/assert one’s “true designator” if you’re not careful. There is some discussion about what that means– if someone tries to assert that they are They Who Shall Be King, will it happen? Only if that’s true. Hmm.

Scout tries to get caught up on what happened.

Vidan goes to talk to Violet regarding security details for Wendy’s coronation. One of the details under discussion is whether it will be in the Temple or at the Castle. Security concerns are different in each location. What is Vidan worried about, that might factor into discussions with Mary.

Vidan thinks the other Houses are sufficiently in line, so that they’re not so much the problem, but slith attacks and Breaker priests that got away are more concerning. Violet agrees that none of the siblings are a serious concern. Vidan thinks that there might be more issues with the party in the Temple? But maybe not, this whole country is Holy to Rush. Though the alarms would have to be dealt with.

Maybe Vidan should talk to the Castellan about security? Or just talk to Mary. A first Succession is a notable event, and fragile in a way that a second Succession won’t be. Violet thinks she doesn’t need bonus DI for the Coronation– a point or two for a blessing should be sufficient.

(Greg is the priest of the Nameless that we are suspicious might be a Broken priest.)

For reasons unclear to the party, hearing this inspires Managaratha to recall some memories, and mumbles them aloud. For reasons more clear to the party, they are somewhat hard to follow:

• Managaratha remembers that Mage Marek, who is Blue, was talking to a Sylph. “Of course I’ve been told Veracci doesn’t have any magic”

• “Of course my Lady can help with that, Victor…” She has a favor to ask in return, she wants to track down a Saurien who left Jabar 25 years ago, a woman.

• A priest of the Goddess, Ghadara: "it would be difficult to arrange Blessings for the Empire." Minister Cho discusses providing purple magic assistance in exchange for crop blessings.

Vidan goes to visit Mary. He’s interested in helping prepare the Coronation security arrangements, and wants to ensure access to his team. Mary is happy to provide invitations to the Coronation, but is less happy with a blanket “you can always be in Wendy’s presence”. But she will have Vidan talk to the captain of the Guard. They have taken some steps against assassins since the King’s death.

Mary is curious if our group or any of its members feel themselves authorized to make deals under the aegis of the Conclave. Despite the unfortunate occurrence at the Conclave, the goals are still important. Vidan says we’re probably leaving after the Coronation. (Gale mutters that no one remembers we’re supposed to be creating alliances between countries and the merfolk.)

Vidan brings Diomarche and Managaratha to talk to the captain of the guard, Sebastian. He doesn’t go into detail but is happy to have our insight. Vidan allows as we have some... revelatory abilities that could be useful. A priest of the Goddess, for instance, who can see things that need fixing. Sebastian will keep that in mind. He hopes the Coronation will be at the Castle, as then both the Coronation and Transfer of Office will occur– the high priest of Rush will be transferring the Generalship to Her Majesty. The Temples have their own security, if that’s where the coronation happens. Vidan is offended by the "transfer of the Generalship" part - that's not appropriate for a kid!

Diomarche goes to talk to Earnest at the Temple of Rush, to get more information about the Generalship versus the Kingship, and how that works elsewhere. In Darstan, she is the General, and he is the Ruler. But Iona and Richard III are both General and Ruler of their Kingdoms.

Diomarche briefs Earnest that there are potential threats; Earnest hopes the Confirmation will occur in the Temple, where they can provide the most security. Karen will be conducting the ceremony/ritual. He would be surprised if anyone makes a frontal assault on either ceremony. Another assassin is certainly a possibility, and one they are less well... assassins are less their area of expertise, than a more frontal assault. But they will do what they can. Diomarche is also concerned about a Broken priest in the area; Earnest hadn’t heard about that. What’s his approximate confidence level that there is such a person? Hmm. Gale had had an Unreality Dream about adventures; an unlikely but possible option involved a Broken priest, but there was also something in the Succession mechanic, maybe?

The coronation is Phoenix 30, two days from now.

[Phoenix 29]

Stella will go see what needs fixing at the castle; the rest of the group comes with. 9 successes, 8 DI tells her: no holes, but things could get past their security. The country turn draw went well for the Slith, they drew Wheel of Fortune, Berana drew 7 or 8 of Rods, but there’s not much to be done about that. We’re not going to buff the Country-level defenses any time soon. But on the other hand the Goddess thinks that’s not a terrible use of Slith country moves. The castle can probably see anyone who is 10 or 12 successes hidden. It would take a reasonable-sized army unit to beat them. They’re not a big army unit, but they could probably hold off long enough to get reinforcements from the Rushians or the Town Guard or something. And there’s no attacking them as an army unit in any sort of stealthy way. Their biggest vulnerability is potential loyalty issues to one of the other candidates. That’s not currently a thing that can really be fixed much; it’s in about as good shape as it could be, but it could deteriorate and requires monitoring. That’s more of a long-term issue for the country. She won, she’ll be Queen with a Regent, but the rest of them have not necessarily given up. Maybe they want the Generalship, maybe they want something else to build their own power. Or maybe they think they’ll be King/Queen again, if something happened. And there are definitely people in the Guard who might get pushed to help one way or the other. So building up personal loyalty in the Guard to Mary and Wendy would be a solid long-term project. But it’s not necessary between now and the Coronation. You could try to work it into the Coronation or Transfer of Power, some more direct oaths from the Guards to those people, maybe as a group? That could help; it’s unlikely to be a huge thing one way or the other. That’s the single biggest threat area, and one that the Captain of the Guard is probably not going to be happy about.

Gale thinks spinning that as "the oaths of the Guard are important" is the way to sell it, rather than "the Guard could have loyalty issues".

Vidan goes to talk to Violet again about his PERSONAL PLOT. He’s from the Empire, so he’s unused to the rituals here. (She is curious about that.) What is her take on the whole Transfer of Generalship thing? What’s the deal? Violet is careful when she answers; it’s a fairly well established custom in Red, at this point. The temples of Rush and the Five are separate, he will have noticed. Sometimes the priests of Rush fail to remember that Rush is Navere’s General, not The General. It is a thing one gets used to eventually. There is of course a shrine to Rush in the Temple of the Five, but it is rarely visited. Vidan allows as to how he would be interested in speaking more of this, if she is interested. She clearly has something else she considered telling him, but rolled well enough to not reveal it, but does say that some do take longer to come to the understanding than others. Vidan does mention his powers of Ecumenicity.

Gale, still worrying about the high priest of the Nameless, tries to figure out where he lives. All four of the high priests (not Rush) live in the Temple of the Five. We clarify that Broken Priests are orcs and Bent Priests are human. Bent priests are the hard ones to find. The priest of the Nameless is probably not a Broken priest.

Nesh scavenges. Scout scouts the Castle, looking for Broken priests or other people other casing the joint. The guards notice him casing the joint, but don’t do anything beyond talk to the Captain and keep an eye on them. Scout does notice there’s a Ritual Room in the top of that Tower. Scout also pokes about for elves– there aren’t any Green ex-pats, but there’s a Troll and a few sea creature Pooka, etc. who had come through the Rainbow Isles. They’ve heard of Gale. The Troll is a freelance bodyguard, born and bred in Berana. There is a Mage with Yellow as well as Red that can be hired, but they’re expensive (Liza).

Vidan asks the Priest of Orellian about ritual rooms– Olanson’s Red mage probably had a space in the castle. It wouldn’t be tuned for Purple– he doesn’t really know anything about Purple– but that’s probably the best shot in the city. There’s a room tuned for holy rituals in the Temple; there are a few other mages in town that might have such a thing, but you’d probably have to do them a favor.

Stella wanted to look at a sword. It was a wedding present. Made in Orange. One of the events in the last run was a Betrothal Party for Princess Volga and this guy from Orange. Might be related to the people selling swords plot? Not like the Stabby Dagger of Stabbing, because that had active magic on it. Stella thinks it was like a sword at the Plains of Gedden, and another she saw somewhere but can't place.

Princess Volga blows off the delegation of Stella, Managaratha, and Scout concerned about the sword. She'll look into it and if she finds reason to be concerned, she may get back in touch with them.

Coronation Day

[Phoenix 30]

The Coronation mostly goes off without incident. Wendy gets oaths of loyalty from all of the other contenders, and from her mother. Not from all of her siblings. Violet puts a DI or two of Blessing into the ritual, not a schtick of You Are Queen. Then there’s a half hour break, for snacks, and then the Transfer of Office happens. Princess Volga and her fiance say that Stella can come tomorrow to look at the sword.

Karen gets up to conduct the Transfer of Office. Many of the people are the same, although it’s fewer Nobles, and there are also some Captains of Mercenary groups that give loyalty. The Lord Captain Commander’s Men don’t, but some paladins that serve in her armies do. (Karen does not; Violet does not.) Karen doesn’t spend any DI on the ritual.

Scout keeps an eye on DI; Karen, Violet, and Greg (Nameless) are the three biggest priests; 12 DI give or take. Earnest has 8 or 9. Everyone else is smaller than the priests in the party.

Gale keeps an eye on the High Priest of the Nameless - he seems to be rolling his eyes about as much as Vidan does in the Transfer of Office, but he is not doing anything obviously suspicious.

Gale flirts at the party and meets a charming young man who does not get mugged overnight when she goes home with him. (Frederick)

Visiting the Sword

[Salamander 1]

The party takes up Volga's offer to look at the sword, and Investigates it:

• Scout thinks it was probably made with Magic, but it’s a sword now.
• Stella thinks something needs fixing about it, but she still can't put her finger on it.
• Gale thinks it’s a nice sword, but thinks something with Battle might help. So she wilds up a Battle diagnostic spell for 8s that might help figure out what’s going on, and she goes into a Frenzy while attacking the target dummy. Scout thinks she’s been hit harder with the Battle magic consequence than she should have been, which shouldn’t have been an issue…

Stella throws her DI at it. That sword is like a sword made in the Broken Lands. It is trying to Break people. You’d have to wield the sword for a year or more before it had that effect. Fixing things by Cleansing would probably do it.

Stella explains, but won’t be able to fix it until tomorrow.

Diomarche remembers that a sergeant in the Keep in the Broken Lands run wondered how Queen Ionia of Victoria got so many berserkers. Stella thinks Captain Jones at the Paladins’ camp at the Plains of Gedden had one. And maybe others?

Vidan visits and chats with Greg - what was up with the whole Rush ceremony? Is that how things are here? Greg thinks that is Absolutely Disgraceful, and is willing to be drawn out more than Violet was. The Church of Rush is totally overstepping its bounds - rituals for the fallen, rituals for the new ruler. They might not have stepped on Orellian's toes yet, but they have priests of logistics that are kind of Jordian...

Are people happy with this? He doesn't think so - some people think things should be different, others think this is just how they are, but nobody *likes* it specifically. Vidan says, let me know if you figure out anything to do - Greg suggests that maybe when Middlesea gets loose something will happen.

Thinking about it, Vidan thinks that the Twins are pretty split now too. Day and Night don't talk to each other, and Balance is in the Bureaucracy and not anywhere else.

Nesh says that they’ll be at Middlesea when it comes down, is there someone they should be looking for? The priest of Jord who went with Princess Friga is named Dora, and Westrack is a priest of the Nameless from Victoria.

[Salamander 2]

Vidan gets Earnest and ? to be convinced about the strange non-Broken swords. Stella purifies it (9 successes 8 DI blows it away).

Diomarche passes this along to Bran via a previously set up spell.

Time to do the ritual. After some tossing different names around, we settle on Conclave Free Rangers as the name, to suggest alliance / against-the-Breaker / freedom / scouting.

It's 8 successes rather than 7...

The room fades away, we're on a featureless plain, someone near Scout says "Incoming!", and...

TO BE CONTINUED

Loot

• 5 EPs
• 7 SPs