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The Talismans of Aerdrim
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<blockquote data-quote="havenstone" data-source="post: 4363981" data-attributes="member: 61094"><p><strong>Patriarch’s Gold</strong></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><strong>AFTER PUTTING UP </strong>with Atrix’s smug good cheer for a few days, Ontaya confesses her own affections to Carwyn, a bit stiffly and uncertainly. (Aerdrim isn’t a world where same-sex trysts are widely condemned; most priests, including Ontaya’s own Order, consider them lawful, and Ontaya’s own natural attractions have always tended that way). Carwyn, who is definitely attracted to charmers and rogues but also yearns for a more stable and solid romantic presence in her life, arranges a few assignations with Ontaya. Deep down, though, Carwyn can’t envision a long-term affair with either the relentlessly lawful paladin nor the dashing but reckless d’Loriad -- she’s too practical to end up with Atrix, and much too unruly for Ontaya.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">As the army of Wildengard draws close to Lynar, they are joined by a small force led by a d’Nerein family commander. This creates some tension with Marcor d’Syrnon’s knights, who have clashed with the d’Nereins in the not too distant past. Ontaya takes some time to explain these lineage conflicts to her friends who aren’t steeped in Senalline politics. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><strong>THE FIVE FAMILIES </strong>of Senallin are the d’Loriad, d’Syrnon, d’Orbis, d’Nerein, and d’Aramant. Each Family is led by a patriarch from the city of Lynar. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">The d’Aramants are the most powerful and populous Family, large enough to have a southern branch living along the Arawai plains and a northern branch along the Aradur border. Their arch-enemies are the house of d’Loriad -- Atrix’s family. The d’Loriads consider the d’Aramants to be monstrous empire-builders who would sacrifice any value and break any promise for the sake of power. The d’Aramants consider the d’Loriads to be unbearable hypocrites who hide their own envy and constant angling for power behind a veil of self-righteous cant. The d’Orbis try to remain neutral in this power struggle; the learned d’Syrnons tilt toward the d’Loriads, and the wealthy d’Nereins toward the d’Aramants.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">This tangle of names and motives takes on new seriousness for the party a few days outside of Lynar. On a rainy afternoon, General Marcor d’Syrnon falls back to confer with some of the knights in the column, and is nearly murdered by a knife-wielding assassin. Fortunately, the ever-observant Ash spots the killer’s weapon and shouts to his friends, who are the only ones not caught flat-footed by the attack. They tackle the assassin and manage to capture him alive. A flint-faced General Marcor has the prisoner taken to his tent, and sends for Meeshak. "Rumor has it that you have skills in interrogation, young priest."</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Meeshak enters the tent and shrugs off his rain-cloak. The candlelight in the tent throws the angles of his gaunt, implacable face into sharp relief. He walks over to the prisoner, now tightly bound and defiant-looking. “You are familiar with the priests of the Sistechern Order?” he asks bleakly. The assassin responds with an obscenity. Meeshak ignores it, draws a long, heavy iron pin out of his robes, and holds it over the candle flame. “Some priestly Orders have a saying: ‘It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to find favor with Ain.’ The Sistechern version of this saying is simpler: ‘It is easy for a needle to go through the eye of a rich man.’”</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Meeshak doesn’t quite suit action to word. The assassin cracks in the face of his intimidation, and confesses to being hired by a stammering man whose face remained hidden behind a heavy cowl and hood. The stammering man found him in the Dastard’s Dregs, a tavern of ill-repute in Lynar, and paid him on the spot in newly-minted Patriarch’s Gold -- the exclusive coinage of the Five Families, whose value lies as much in its implicit authority as in its weight. When Meeshak is convinced that the man has told them everything he knows, General Marcor orders a swift execution for the prisoner, “before word of this reaches the d’Nereins and they ask for a word with him.” He tells Meeshak to say nothing of this to anyone, and that he'll contact him again soon. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><strong>WHEN MEESHAK GETS </strong>back to the camp, he quietly reports the results of the interrogation to his friends. </span><span style="font-size: 10px">“Patriarch’s Gold?” Ontaya repeats incredulously. Almost no one who receives Patriarch’s Gold spends it on the normal market, but rather keeps it in reserve to mark a favor owed by one of the Families, and returns it to the Family concerned when they need help. </span><span style="font-size: 10px">“Someone in Lynar is sending a message. They must have known the chances of us capturing the man and finding out this information was high -- whether or not he succeeded in his mission.”</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“But what message?” Meeshak wonders. “That not all the Families support the war effort? Or is it an attempt by someone outside the Families to make Marcor think that another Family is trying to kill him?”</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“It could be simpler,” Atrix offers. “General Marcor is sure to be one of the paramount commanders of this campaign. Another Family with a less notable general might simply have hoped to remove the competition.”</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">They are no closer to an answer by the time they finally reach Lynar.</span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="havenstone, post: 4363981, member: 61094"] [b]Patriarch’s Gold[/b] [SIZE=2][B]AFTER PUTTING UP [/B]with Atrix’s smug good cheer for a few days, Ontaya confesses her own affections to Carwyn, a bit stiffly and uncertainly. (Aerdrim isn’t a world where same-sex trysts are widely condemned; most priests, including Ontaya’s own Order, consider them lawful, and Ontaya’s own natural attractions have always tended that way). Carwyn, who is definitely attracted to charmers and rogues but also yearns for a more stable and solid romantic presence in her life, arranges a few assignations with Ontaya. Deep down, though, Carwyn can’t envision a long-term affair with either the relentlessly lawful paladin nor the dashing but reckless d’Loriad -- she’s too practical to end up with Atrix, and much too unruly for Ontaya.[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]As the army of Wildengard draws close to Lynar, they are joined by a small force led by a d’Nerein family commander. This creates some tension with Marcor d’Syrnon’s knights, who have clashed with the d’Nereins in the not too distant past. Ontaya takes some time to explain these lineage conflicts to her friends who aren’t steeped in Senalline politics. [/SIZE] [SIZE=2][B]THE FIVE FAMILIES [/B]of Senallin are the d’Loriad, d’Syrnon, d’Orbis, d’Nerein, and d’Aramant. Each Family is led by a patriarch from the city of Lynar. [/SIZE] [SIZE=2]The d’Aramants are the most powerful and populous Family, large enough to have a southern branch living along the Arawai plains and a northern branch along the Aradur border. Their arch-enemies are the house of d’Loriad -- Atrix’s family. The d’Loriads consider the d’Aramants to be monstrous empire-builders who would sacrifice any value and break any promise for the sake of power. The d’Aramants consider the d’Loriads to be unbearable hypocrites who hide their own envy and constant angling for power behind a veil of self-righteous cant. The d’Orbis try to remain neutral in this power struggle; the learned d’Syrnons tilt toward the d’Loriads, and the wealthy d’Nereins toward the d’Aramants.[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]This tangle of names and motives takes on new seriousness for the party a few days outside of Lynar. On a rainy afternoon, General Marcor d’Syrnon falls back to confer with some of the knights in the column, and is nearly murdered by a knife-wielding assassin. Fortunately, the ever-observant Ash spots the killer’s weapon and shouts to his friends, who are the only ones not caught flat-footed by the attack. They tackle the assassin and manage to capture him alive. A flint-faced General Marcor has the prisoner taken to his tent, and sends for Meeshak. "Rumor has it that you have skills in interrogation, young priest."[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]Meeshak enters the tent and shrugs off his rain-cloak. The candlelight in the tent throws the angles of his gaunt, implacable face into sharp relief. He walks over to the prisoner, now tightly bound and defiant-looking. “You are familiar with the priests of the Sistechern Order?” he asks bleakly. The assassin responds with an obscenity. Meeshak ignores it, draws a long, heavy iron pin out of his robes, and holds it over the candle flame. “Some priestly Orders have a saying: ‘It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to find favor with Ain.’ The Sistechern version of this saying is simpler: ‘It is easy for a needle to go through the eye of a rich man.’”[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]Meeshak doesn’t quite suit action to word. The assassin cracks in the face of his intimidation, and confesses to being hired by a stammering man whose face remained hidden behind a heavy cowl and hood. The stammering man found him in the Dastard’s Dregs, a tavern of ill-repute in Lynar, and paid him on the spot in newly-minted Patriarch’s Gold -- the exclusive coinage of the Five Families, whose value lies as much in its implicit authority as in its weight. When Meeshak is convinced that the man has told them everything he knows, General Marcor orders a swift execution for the prisoner, “before word of this reaches the d’Nereins and they ask for a word with him.” He tells Meeshak to say nothing of this to anyone, and that he'll contact him again soon. [/SIZE] [SIZE=2][B]WHEN MEESHAK GETS [/B]back to the camp, he quietly reports the results of the interrogation to his friends. [/SIZE][SIZE=2]“Patriarch’s Gold?” Ontaya repeats incredulously. Almost no one who receives Patriarch’s Gold spends it on the normal market, but rather keeps it in reserve to mark a favor owed by one of the Families, and returns it to the Family concerned when they need help. [/SIZE][SIZE=2]“Someone in Lynar is sending a message. They must have known the chances of us capturing the man and finding out this information was high -- whether or not he succeeded in his mission.”[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]“But what message?” Meeshak wonders. “That not all the Families support the war effort? Or is it an attempt by someone outside the Families to make Marcor think that another Family is trying to kill him?”[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]“It could be simpler,” Atrix offers. “General Marcor is sure to be one of the paramount commanders of this campaign. Another Family with a less notable general might simply have hoped to remove the competition.”[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]They are no closer to an answer by the time they finally reach Lynar.[/SIZE] [/QUOTE]
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