Life of the Party

Preparations

Purple Guy vanishes; Gale and Diomarche re-appear. We try to catch them up on some of what’s going on, and this party that’s probably happening tonight. Scout mentions he could find out where Managaratha is from, now that he has that Essence spell. Or maybe not, it’s unclear what will happen if cast on someone from before there were Zones. Gale is baffled, baffled! that you could ever ask the question “I wonder what happens if I cast this spell this way?” and not have already done it. Scout says huh, and does so. Turns out that Managaratha is from Kern. Which is not how most people register. Nesh says he wants to know where he’s from, so he drops his defenses. Turns out he’s from Red, and Scout probably could have gotten more information if he had more successes. Hmm. He’ll have to try that again some time.

We think about what kind of preparations we need to do.

How does this party work, Asphabel?

The party is to denote who is the Goddess’ Daughter for the next year. That does not have a definitive effect, but it does draw the attention of the Goddess to that person, and is considered a Blessing.

There are usually five candidates– last year’s Daughter, and a new one from each of the Varna. There hasn’t been a Goddess’ Child (male winner) in 50 years. The Servant Varna representative never wins, effectively. If a candidate wins a second year, they invariably will also win a third.

Rani Dwalla will be the Noble; Harana Mufari is the current Daughter, and is also a Noble. The Blessing is administered with a sip from a Divine chalice, which is one of the artifacts of the Mother’s Church. There’s definitely not a public vote. It’s a consensus-y thing. It could be Feelings Magic-mediated, it could be divinely mediated. It’s possible for it to not resolve immediately. It is not improper for them to be giving out the Blessing, it happens every year, but she does think that giving the blessing to the Rani is one of Life’s Servant’s plans to arrange for a new Maharani.

There will be other non-voting guests; not all priests of Life in the city will be there. Stella may or may not actually get a vote, that is a fascinating question Asphabel does not know the answer to. Being someone’s Guest does not mean you’re their best friend or anything. Everyone in attendance will either be one of Life’s servants, or an actual servant in the mansion, or a guest of one of the priestesses.

Gale thinks we should have a plan. Harana Mufari is a famous fighter from the South part of Yellow. Asphabel doesn’t think she’s either good or bad for the Maharani, particularly.

To the Party!

Rani Dwalla (noble, head of house sukrat) Harana Mufari (current Daughter of the Goddess, also noble) ? (servant) Ladinas(merchant) Aluska (priest Varna, although a poet rather than a Priest)

Oh hey, the party is at Dr. Lucky’s mansion. It’s architecturally quite open, more so than most of us are used to.

Everyone has two Shield runes, which protect us from various things (lightning, say), but you only need one. Diomarche has Vendetta and Gust runes, as well.

Scout puts up a small miracle of seeing magic and miracles better for the next several hours.

Red are voting priests; green is guests; orange are the five candidates. Green 10 is Princess Miranel.

We arrive in the Piazza. Princess Mirabel introduces us to Marina (Red 15), the “Mistress of the Manse”. It’s not clear how formal of a title that is, but she appears to be in charge.

Round 1

Action 1

Top of 12, Combat Time Party Time starts!

Nesh speaks to the Mistress of the Manse, trying to get the lay of the land. There are some divine protections it would be best not to disrupt; mostly in the Trophy Room. There are some illusions for entertainment purposes; she apologizes that he will not be able to see those.

Scout goes to the Green House! It’s not really set up for Green Mages. It’s got a reasonable selection of Pretty, some Medicinal, and a few poisons. Mostly native plants. Scout talks to the Plants— there were some plants harvested today, including some Poison plants. Scout gets a description.

Diomarches goes to the Hedge Maze. Green 14 is a Blue Mage from Blue; Green 13 is a local. Diomarche introduces himself to the Blue Mage! His name is Stephen, he lives in Blue, his sister is one of the High Priests of the Temple, so he gets invites. His sister moved from Blue 20-25 years ago, when she decided she was going to be a Priest of the Goddess. Nadari, she’s Red 14. He thinks the Admiralty has been doing well recently. He enjoys the party but doesn’t know how the voting works; he was glad that last year they picked a Fighter, rather than one of those artists, but. He doesn’t have a Tower, they’re kind of gauche, but he does have a structure. He focuses on Weather, mostly Air rather than Water, he likes flying. He isn’t focused on lightning, but humors Diomarche by offering to talk to her.

Managaratha goes to the Dining Room, and chats up Red 3: Corona, a centaur. How does this whole thing work, how are the candidates chosen? They meditate on it, some times it’s someone who has done a great service for the Goddess, sometimes it’s what the Goddess seems to want. Sometimes it’s decided very last minute, sometimes it’s clear at the beginning. Which is it this year? That would be telling. Corona’s herd is from south of the river, there have been some slith, but fewer than in the areas north. Managaratha chats with her about the

Gale goes to the Parlor and gathers some information, and runs into Dubreck! Gale checks the scoreboard– Rani Dwalla is miles ahead on her scoreboard; Thistle and her opposition are mostly tied (in that neither of them have really started); there’s one conflict that’s not being resolved?; and the poisoner has scored a point. And there’s probably other

Stella looks around for doctors. There’s a sign that has been taken down for the party, “If you’re in need of Mara’s midwife services, please speak with the servant in the Foyer.” Stella goes to the Drawing Room to talk to Mara. Mara is fairly certain that Rani Dwalla is going to win. Aluska is not bad. Vadinas is the Merchant candidate. Gebra ‘al Nasan is the Servant candidate. The Lady of Life has made it clear she wants Rani Dwalla to win, so no one is likely to go too hard against her. She’s a fine upstanding noble, a history of service to the Kingdom, so she’s a fine candidate.

Second Action

Dubreck chats with Gale about Phoenix-Feather-hunting.

Green 6 chats up Nesh.

Jasmine (Red 10) chats up Stella– is she interested in becoming one of Life’s Servants. They compare notes about how the Church works in Orange vs. Yellow.

Nesh goes to the Trophy Room and recognizes Mirandal and tries to chat up the group talking to the candidate there. (Red 12, Green 12, Orange 4). Ladinas recently gave quite a bit of money to build a temple to the Goddess here in the capital. In a result, she was nominated by Lisabel (Red 12). They’re chatting about what they can do to help Ladinas win. Anyone not currently aligned will probably vote for Rani Dwalla, but individuals could be persuaded if given a reason. Lisabel is unhappy that the fix is mostly in; that’s not usually the way it works. Dwalla is a fine candidate, but would normally be beatable. The Lady doesn’t usually do that. The fact that she’s the niece, well, family is important, but. Lisabel thinks Ladinas is clearly the best candidate, and is the only one of the three who aren’t Dwalla who has a major Priest as a sponsor. There are clearly Priests who get more say. Red 1-5 have a vote; 6-10 have two vote; 11-15 have three votes.

Scout conveys info about the poisoner, but no one has seen them yet. The poison-collector was a woman. He looks around for her but doesn’t find her; he does notice Thistle’s spell.

Diomarche chats up Green 13, who is a Servant midwife. He’s pretty sure she looks like Scout’s description of the poison-collector. Aha.

Gale chats up Red 2 and 9, trying to convince them to support Alushka, on a “there shouldn’t be a fix, so I’m going to Meddle a bit”. 9 is in fact Aluska’s sponsor, so she’s already in favor; 2 is convincible, in part because she doesn’t really think her vote matters if the fix is in. Dwalla’s scoreboard hasn’t changed much, but there is now an Anti-Poisoner group that has a point on the scoreboard. Go us!

Stella thinks about Reds 10 and 13. Neither of them are all in on Team Dwalla, but are planning to vote for her. 13 is more willing to change that vote, probably, if someone was really a better candidate. 10 would be willing to change her vote if there was something in it for her. Jasmine thinks Ladinas is obviously the next candidate, given how much money she donated. Mara thinks Gebra is better, but she’s a Servant, and they never win. Mara clearly doesn’t care much about the politics, in a way that feels familiar to Stella.

Jasmine chats with Stella. Lots of NPCs are interested in Nesh as a Saurien. Green 6 and 7 are looking at each Nesh with interest, but also each other now. There is a new scoreboard. Hmm.

Third Action

Rani Dwalla has a good conversation with Kisadrawa about the slith attacks and how the army combats are going, etc.

Scout checks out the people who are standing about; they probably noticed him checking them out. He talks to Thistle, who says “Why are you here, and why are you spooking him?!” Thistle thinks Green 2 is holding for some reason, probably planning to steal something in the back rooms, along with a partner (probably Green 3, once Scout mentions it). She’s not sure what they’re waiting for, but they’re definitely waiting for something.

Stella thinks Jasmine is definitely Playing The Game; introducing her to the Maharani would be worth something, for instance.

Diomarche tells Princess Mirabel about the poisoner in the Hedge Maze, and puts his 4th action at her disposal.

Managaratha tells a story to Reds 12 and 14 about putting aside provincial concerns to Fight The Breaker!

NPCs: Princess moves Diomarche to the Hedge Maze to chat up the poisoner. Stephen talks to Gale. That’s fascinating, what are you doing? They Blue at each other for a while. (Gale also suggests he team up with the Admiralty if they can give him anything he finds useful).

Fourth Action

Nesh tells Managaratha to convey that we should concentrate our fire on supporting the Merchant candidate.

The Princess politely interrogates the poisoner suspect. SHe doesn’t crush her as much as expected. WHile 13 is not admitting anything, is sufficiently flustered and unclear in her answers that she is fairly clearly guilty. She doesn’t appear to be trying to kill someone here, but is gathering poison to do _something_ with. The Princess asks Diomarche to not eave

Nesh persuades Red 1 and Red 14 to support Ladinas, to help bolster the

Round 2!

Action 1

Nesh tries to warn Mara; she says alert Nadari. Managaratha alerts Nadari, who thumps one of the thieves. Gale checks the scoreboard– Dwalla is still ahead. THe poisoner is 2, but anti-poisoners are at 3.

Thistle is frustrated, she can't get past the guards.

Gebra was nominated for helping with the drought relief in the Centaur territory.

Scout convinces the stairway guard to come help deal with the poisoner.

Miranel and a group of guard

Start of round 3

Current score - Ladinas 19 Aluska 3 Dwalla 8

Thistle 0 Opponents -2

Mystery scoreboard: (Dubrecht thinks it must be a love plot)

Nesh scoreboard: less done than the others

Poisoner has lost.

But we are still on pins and needles. What is it? Nesh gets 11 successes and does not succeed. Gale tries Lore is a Battlefield and makes it to 12. That guy in the gallery is frowning at the cup. Gale points "what is he doing?" and Nadari punches him. Cast of Characters Red 1: Alacar Red 2: Bethamel Red 3: Corona (a Centaur) Red 4: Red 5: Alana, Gebra’s sponsor in the contest, and Thistle’s sponsor for the party. Red 6: Red 7: Gisawara Red 8: Helena (halfling), brought Dubreck Red 9: Isabelle, Aluska’s sponsor. Dragging a young girl, Raquel along with her. Red 10: Jasmine Red 11: Kalinda (Dwalla’s sponsor) Red 12: Lisabelle, sponsoring the Merchant. Red 13: Mara the Midwife (also lives here) Red 14: Nadari, sister of Stephen. She lives in the Manse with Olina and Mara. Red 15: Olina, Mistress of the Manse. The voice of the Lady of Life here.

Green 1: Green 2: Has been stationary in the hallway for a while. Then went upstairs. Green 3: Has been stationary in the hallway for a while. Then went upstairs. Green 4: Green 5: Thistle! Eyeing the people who are trying to steal something, but they’re stalling. Green 6: <Saurien scoreboard 1> [Lacrisa, presumably a cataur, we later learn.] Green 7: Tisana, investigator something. Knows Verja, who was investigating Nesh. <Saurien scoreboard 2> Green 8: Dubrech, the Phoenix feather guy Green 9: Raquel the young girl Green 10: Princess Mirabel (Party princess) Green 11: Lord Tangri, supporter of the Maharani. INterested in Green 12: Mirandal Leman, the jeweler that Stella has been working with for the presentation to the Maharani. Sponsored by Lisabelle. Green 13 (fast): Mirial. A servant Varna midwife. Also the poisoner. Interrogated by Mirabel, didn’t quite admit, but flustered enough that she’s probably guilty. Green 14: Mage Stephen, from Blue. Weather (air) mage. Green 15: Rani Maras (some high ranking noble)

Orange 1: Harana Mufari (Current Daughter) Orange 2: Rani Dwalla (Noble) Orange 3: Aluska Fachuna. A poet in the Priest Varna, nominated by Isabelle. (Priest) Orange 4: Ladinas (Merchant) Orange 5: Gebra ‘al Nasan (Servant)

Gale spots the missing thug, and they get thumped.

Epilogue

With the thumping of Thug #2, the party resolves out of combat/party time and into just conversational time.

Loot

+ 10 EPs + 8 SPs