Day of the Maiden Part Two

It is the evening after the previous run. We have lost Vidan and gained Managaratha.

The first thing is Gale's meeting with Candace. Other folks come to be nearby in case there is trouble. Candace is dressed like a fancy lady, not a pirate captain.

I'm curious what your play is and who talked you into it. The plan is to make a connection with the primary guy in town who is causing problems for the pirates at present. Gale explains about the potential Bent plot bringing in partners. She and Nesh are up for helping with her plan but not the Bent plan, and are still gathering information on exactly how to draw that line.

That's it for the very long day - there will be two new meetings in the morning.

In the morning, there is some indication a miracle is "involved" but no miracle is currently on them.

Lilya wants to know if Nesh knows anything about what Victor (the Orange journeyman) is is up to. He doesn't really, other than "stuck in Middlesea).

Stella goes to see about helping the temple prepare for the party. Carol is in and out; Lucy is mostly running things.

Gale goes shopping, and in lieu of finding anything interesting, buys a chest of preserving food to put on the boat. Diomarche wanders around looking for centaur girls - he meets a caravan guard named Elena.

Nesh finds a note in his pocket - it's a dossier on Lilya. She is a merchant from a small town a little outside Kor by the name of Orence. She is the great-niece of Rasputin, and one of his five or six most active agents. (The briefing doesn't say this, but Nesh knows of Rasputin as an old and well-respected saurian - probably the most influential - from Orange. He's not directly active, but is still kicking around at well over 20 years past what most saurians live to..

Managaratha confirms that the sigil from the basement is the same as the sigil from the guy who blew up the wall (that is, Fyodor and Mikhailovich are the same person) At the Party We have little plan. But we seem to settle on “Help Richard get points; make Richard think we’re cool (probably by making sure he knows we’re gaining him points); thwart Anne; keep an eye on Carol.” Help fix Candace and Lilya?

Lucy drops the blessing of the Goddess. Scout thinks this helped instantiate the mechanic. This probably makes it harder to do some things and

• Actions happen in rounds
• PCs can go in any order.
• NPCs will go at the end of the round.

Round 1

Gale looks at the Scoreboard. Vidan is no longer on it, but it otherwise looks as it was:

Leopold: 5

Vivian: 2

Pyotr: [redacted]

Lilya: [redacted]

Richard: 4

Anne: 2

Viktor: 3

Candace: 1

Gale is confident that’s the only Scoreboard, though there are other Mechanics.

Stella asks Lucy what the mechanic is. ("Back at my temple, we had someone else with the party skills...")

Mechanic:

• There are a variety of topics of conversation that can be had.
• The candidates have topics they care about; you can talk to one to figure out what topic they care about for the round. Other people can go and make rolls to try to give them points.
• Consort candidates can only talk to the Centurion (Julia) every other round.
• PCs trying to horn in on a convo can drag one other NPC in.

Diomarche makes his entrance - he is dressed in full Yellow Rustic Maiden Party Clothes, with the deep-V ruffly shirt and a big smile.

Gale talks to Richard - his current topic is martial combat. She demonstrates how to swordfight on a bouncing ship deck, and gets a point. She ups him by one. Nesh brings Julia over, who also likes martial combat. The entire ballroom converges on this conversation, though Nesh blocks Anne.

Scout talks to Rangor Goldsmith, he’s Her Majesty’s representative to Orange (or Vani?) He’s a merchant and an Orange mage. He’s more social than many, more than Scout would have expected.

Carol brings Giaconni over to distract Gale, who is in fact distractible.

Round 2

Scout spots the residue of a Goddess miracle on Rangor Goldsmith. He is in fact here to distract Scout from doing the plot. Yup, this tracks - Elena is distracting Diomarche, Giaconni is distracting Gale...

Stella talks to Viktor, who is interested in Merchant Guild Gossip. Well, then!

Way too many people are interested in merchant guild gossip. Pyotr gets a point on Julia.

Nesh brings Julia to talk to Richard– Julia wants to dance! THey go back to the ballroom, but Nesh gets Julia and Richard to dance together, and he scores a point.

Round 3

Gale tells Giaconni to help with her plot, not distract her, and then gets yoinked into dancing with Leopold. She dings Vivian a point.

Scout tries "Are you Bent?" on Carol, but three 15s doesn't succeed - there’s interference from some sort of Crone shtick of "don't use detects on me".

Round 4

Managaratha asks Lucy whether the extra women on the scoreboard is intended. She seems to be paying attention to the matchmaker scoreboard, not the one Gale has.

Stella talks to Carol and gets introduced to the old sick guy (Lord DiAngelo) who needs healing. That distracts Stella but also takes Carol out for the turn.

Gale un-redacts Pyotr (and Lilya) with Charisma. His conversation topic is Vani History. Can Managaratha ask Giaconni to find out who Vivian wanted to stab? He passes that along in front of Lucy, who raises an eyebrow.

Round 5

Nesh triggers Richard for Drinking Contest. Diomarche (and Elena) jump on that. Managaratha wants to head somewhere else, but is intercepted by Lucy, who wants to know about the stabbing plot. We don't have any proof of who was pulling the strings, it wouldn't be appropriate to speculate. Well, that bug is in her ear now.

Scout talks to Julia about the Goddess.

Gale talks to Anne - she deserves better than to be someone else's pawn. She is not super convincing. Nesh talks to Pyotr, and gives Lilya a point.

Mario comes to talk to Managaratha - oh, hey, he's the one who made that dagger.

Round 6

Anne is current politics; Scout engages. Pyotr is dancing; Gale engages.

Final points

Leopold: 5 +1

Vivian: 2 - 1 (gale)

Pyotr: 4 +1 -1(gale)

Lilya: 1 +1 +1 +1 +1 (Nesh)

Richard: 4 + 1 (gale) +1 (self) + 1(self) +1 (Nesh) +1 (Diomarche) +1 (Scout) + 1 (self) +1 (Diomarche)

Anne: 2 +1 -1 (Stella) -1 (Scout)

Viktor: 3 +1 (self) -1 (Stella)

Candace: 1 +1 (self) +1 (self)

The party ends! That is, the mechanic ends. We might still do some non-scoreboard things.

Diomarche goes home with Elena.

Nesh tries to apologize to Anne, but she’s not won over; she might not be out to get us yet, though. (She probably isn't likely to go over to the Breaker - she's more about thinking we are junk than about being Evil).

Scout had previously looked at Anne and gotten that there was an older (older than the dwarf) miracle residue - he looks more closely, and gets that it's a few days old and is a Goddess-y matchmaker shtick not targeting her in particular. More like a "summon potential matches". Yeah, it's a little bit retroactive - she would have had to start traveling sooner than the miracle went off, but that's not that unusual. (This sort of thing frags purple mages when they are looking closely.)

Purple theory says that when you use a miracle to re-write the last three days, you re-write the last three days, and if you were looking, it might frag you if it’s relevant.

Loot:

• +10 EPs
• +10 SPs