Ber Games
Session 35
During our waiting period for the 2nd audience with Bruse Shantus, we take some time to gather more information about Pemberton and his business in Ber. So we ask for directions and are led to a wooden hut bearing the Pemberton Industries sigil. Unfortunately, Mr. Pemberton is absent and currently represented by an orc named Bradko. Said orc, who's clad in the proper suit of a businessman, claims to be Mr. Pemberton's sales agent and explains that his boss is currently on a business trip to southern Ber.
What's truly surprising though is the fact that Bradko happens to be the very same orc we saw roasting marshmallows with Mr. Fordren when we just arrived at court. And as Mr. Fordren and Mr. Pemberton are direct competitors, we do find this fact pretty odd at least. So we ask Bradko about his ties to both industrialists as we suppose that this guy is making a fool of either of the two or at least spying on one of them.
As we chat a bit with Bradko, we do realize though that he seems to be on good terms with both of them and assures us that he wouldn't do anything that could hurt either one's enterprise in Ber. On the contrary, Bradko seems interested in supporting both Permberton's and Fordren's interests to the best of his abilities. So maybe the two businessmen are only making everyone believe they're competitors while secretly sharing tech or something like that...
Anyways, we ask Bradko to deliver a message to Mr. Pemberton where we ask him for a short chat about the Shaggy Mk.2 and the automaton's specifications. Plus we wish to thank him personally for his help in Sawyer. To our surprise, Bradko hasn't even heard of Sawyer or Macdam, which is really weird as this is the main hub of Permberton Industries. He agrees to deliver our message though.
Next, Auryn plans to set up a dueling contest to gain more attention. Carlyle isn't so sure whether this is such a good idea as she'd risk giving away too much of her fighting style to possible future opponents like the danorans, but she assures her partner that she'd only be using basic techniques that will certainly be enough for the drunkards she'd expect to challenge her.
(yeah, she's got a lot more confident than she'd been about a year ago)
Auryn's assessment turns out to be right in the end and she manages to send all challengers either running or to the ground after one or two precise hits. Meanwhile, Carlyle stands at the sidelines of the dueling circle and spots Rush Münchhausen who's seemingly unable to pull free from Merton Goncala's firm grip. He overhears the hothead debating with the far more somber but half-deaf half-orc about whether or not he should teach that shining elvish knight a lesson. Merton wins the argument by saying that no one, not even Rush, would want to defy Madame Lya Jierre's orders. Seems as if someone's at least trying to avoid attention or trouble.
After Auryn's fighting session, we continue discussing our theories about Oddcog. We do talk about the possibility that the gnome hiding with the Bruse could be yet another Obscurati mission and that he might be using the growing industrialization of Ber to build yet another colossus. After all, it was Grappa who made Borne go rogue and he wouldn't be around this time. We keep that thought in mind and are then called to our audience with the Bruse.
Inside the court's castle, we meet up with Lya Jierre and her two bodyguards and are then brought to the audience room where the Bruse's two counselors are already waiting for us. It takes some time for the Bruse to finally arrive and he seems both irritated and amused at the situation presented to him. He says that he doesn't wish to decide yet which side to choose in this competition, so he'll just let a game decide whether the privilege of questioning Tinker Oddcog shall go to Danor or Risur. He mentions two challenges but leaves the details up to grand vizier Zarkava:
The lizard woman explains that the Bruse asks of two tasks that need to be completed before any team may even have a chance of seeing the gnome. One of these tasks is the completion of the Cantabrilla Railroad, a tedious venture that's processing much slower than the Bruse originally wished. The other task is dealing with Cavallo de Guerra, his old companion and stubborn rival.
For the Cantabrilla Railroad challenge, each team is assigned to a construction company: either the Liss company or the Griento building company. Each company has to complete 18 remaining miles of track until their contract is fulfilled. And whichever company finishes first will determine which of our two teams will be winner of this contest. Zarkava then says that his Bruseship has decided that that Danorans shall meet up with the Griento company in Renza while the Risuri shall support Liss who started in Reo Pedresco.
The grand vizier then adds that the remaining tracks are to be constructed in the untamed riverlands and includes bridges that need to be erected. After she finished her exposition, we ask the grand vizier for a minute of privacy as we wish to discuss our proceedings. We then privately talk about the idea of convincing the Bruse to let us side with Griento instead as we know him and trust that his enterprise will include a solid workforce. In the end, we decide to stick with Liss however, as we could use our good connections to Griento (which are yet unknown to everyone else) for a far more subtle strategy.
After our moment of privacy, Zarkava explains the situation of Cavallo who resides in Citada de Cavallo at the northern coast. She says that the old orc is an old companion of Bruse Shantus and Vairday Bruse back from the time when the first Bruse united the tribes of Ber. But while Cavallo de Guerra respected Vairday, he's been quite reluctant to accept Bruse Shantus as his superior. On top of that, he refuses to pay for the railway that shall connect his city and the rest of Ber. So the Bruse asks the emissaries from Risur to convince Cavallo to change his mind on both subjects.
Then the grand vizier shocks us all when she reveals the Bruse's challenge for team Danor: Instead of making Cavallo bend the knee, he wishes them to discredit the old orc by making him attack the border keep of Man Hill. Which is on Risuri ground and manned by our compatriot soldiers. Zarkava adds that the Bruse surely doesn't wish war with Risur and expects the risuri navy to obliterate the small attack force which would then allow Bruse Shantus to strip Cavallo of his responsibilities and ranks.
Besides these two tasks which would both earn one point, there will be three additional points to be awarded by the Bruse, Zarkava Ssa'lit and Kenna Vigilante. As the game is set to start tomorrow morning with the first sunrise, neither of the teams is allowed to leave the summer court before this time. In addition, each team shall appoint their members which will be noted on a special list. The teams are not allowed to directly harm each other, but this doesn't rule out third-party interference.
Lya takes the first turn to announce her team which consists of herself, Rush, Merton, and her servants Inez and Ulrik. Then it is our turn and we register Carlyle, Auryn and Margit as part of our team. By leaving out Flying Spark and still-undercover Burton, we plan to utilize the third-party rule to use them for possible interception missions later. We also ask Kenna Vigilante for a complete copy of the game's rules so we may see the full picture all the time.
The audience ends and the Bruse announces that he's going to enjoy seeing and hearing about our progress.
(So... Bruse Shantus just confirmed that he's more interested in sports than in everything else. Which was totally not surprising, even if the Man Hill mission was ludicrous in our eyes. We later discussed whether this game would be lunacy or an actually clever strategic plan.
The Cantabrilla Railroad challenge would force Danor and Risur to invest heavily in a bogged down infrastructure project and we guessed that this one could have been the idea of Kenna Vigilante.
But Cavallo was a whole different topic. Sure, the risuri mission of reasoning with the stubborn orc would spare him a lot of hassle, even if it would have been foreign agents that'd solve internal beran problems. But an attack on Man Hill would bear the risk of igniting a war between Risur and Ber, two nations with rather friendly relationships. Even if he could call it a rogue attack later, the damage would still be done, especially in times when Risur and Danor were about to make a lasting peace.)
After the audience with Bruse Shantus is officially over, we immediately discuss the issue of the Cavallo challenge. We agree that the relationship between Risur and Danor will inevitably take massive damage should Lya go through with her mission. After all, Bruse Shantus just openly called for Danor to incite Cavallo so much that he'd be tricked into attacking his neighbors. Auryn believes that we need to talk to Lya before the game officially starts to lay out the consequences for Danor and her peace efforts should she really try to make Cavallo attack Risur.
We believe that she'd be reasonable enough to find a more clever solution for the Bruse's strange challenge and also for the issue of our Oddcog troubles. After all, Lya is such a no-nonsense person that she'd most likely be fed up by the minotaur's idea of “fun” already. Carlyle agrees, but he'd like to wait for Lya Jierre to make the first move as he would like to assess whether she's truly willing to cooperate. Since she's been the one who called herself advocate of peace, he says, she's actually the one who'd lose most of all.
While we're still talking, we realize that Team Lya is about to withdraw from the castle, so we decide to follow them at a distance. When we see that they are entering the danoran tent, we turn invisible and approach the tent to listen to their conversations. What we do hear are disturbing cries coming coming from Ulrik. After a while, the cries ebb off and Ulrik starts speaking in a much more mature and calm voice. A voice that could very well belong to Nicodemus. Lya then explains to this person that she's very much in trouble and lays out some of the game's details, especially the part where she shall convince a foreign Lord to attack Risur. Nicodemus answers that he understands her troubles and that he'd suggest making a deal with Risur as far as this is possible. However, her mission has to be given priority in the end.
We withdraw back to our own tent as we expect Lya to ask for said deal soon. As we expected, Lya shows up not much later and utters the wish to talk about this delicate situation she's been put in by Bruse Shantus' challenge. She adds that she has really no interest in risking all of her work and effort towards a lasting peace with Risur because of one mad Bruse and his stupid game. We agree as we're not really keen on playing this game either and add that the Bruse has put all of us in a very dangerous situation. So we suggest to skip the parts where we'd be true competitors, just do our thing and then bring Oddcog to a neutral place where both factions would have the chance to question him together.
It appears as if Lya doesn't personally object to our plan, but she hints that her orders include bringing the gnome to Cherage which hardly qualifies as a “neutral place”. From her subtle comments we also get that these orders include Obscurati interests, so someone higher up in the organization most likely wishes to see Oddcog be brought to to Cherage.
So we take these hints as a basis for asking Lya whether she still feels obligations or any sense of affiliation with this group which is so clearly behind creating and letting loose Borne in Flint and therefore threatening to destroy our city. When Lya, again, tries to convince us that her contacts are really just trying to make the world a better place, we call her out on this naivete that doesn't seem to fit the canny, clever Lya Jierre we know. We agree that some party of this organization may have a noble goal in mind, but even she should be open enough to see how much terror, death and destruction their actions have brought to Risur.
Lya then confesses that the Ob's are mainly interested in getting Borne back under control so he won't wreak any more havoc and we answer that this doesn't make the situation any better at all. Borne, we explain, is not only a sentient being, but having him being controlled by a secret organization could be even worse than letting him run free. After all, he'd be the best weapon of mass destruction any wannabe-tyrant could dream of.
“But don't you see?”, she replies “No one could or would use such a weapon as he'd be instantly targeted by all other nations of Lanjyr. He'd be seen as a threat, yes, but one that doesn't harm anyone as long as every nation keeps their peace.”
Auryn and Carlyle both shake their heads in disbelief.
“But the Obscurati are no nation which would be targeted by anyone. They act in secret and cannot be held accountable for their actions as long as they remain in the shadows. They don't have to fear any consequences as long as they're not being caught by the officials. So no, an Obscurati tyrant could indeed do whatever he wishes with Borne and this thought is truly frightening.”, Auryn says.
“Speaking of Obscurati actions...” Carlyle adds, “They seem to fear us, too, as some of them already tried to assassinate us. And they even used your bodyguard as would-be assassin, therefore trying to blame the attack on you. So I'd think twice whether or not to trust them, Miss Jierre.”
Lya appears to really think about our last few arguments and then promises to use her place in the organization to gather more information and maybe lead the Obs to a less destructive course. We reply that while we do find her idea noble, we also believe Nicodemus to be one of these fanatics who wouldn’t let go of his reins at any cost. We do signal that we're open to conviction and also interested in having a peaceful chat with Nicodemus, but don't believe that he's ever going to agree to such an offer.
During our talk with Lya, we also realize that she must have been geased already as she's trying to avoid certain words or facts. All in all she then offers to hold back with her Cavallo challenge should we agree to finish our track shortly after her team. We agree that this is a fair offer indeed but explain that we'd have to discuss matters of such international impact with our king. So we suggest that we and her use our magical supplies to talk to both king and sovereign (and only them!) to discuss our mutual agreement before we take any action. Lya agrees to this suggestion and we make an appointment for an hour before sunrise to meet again.
(Phew, this was a pretty long and hard talk. We both like Lya and think her engagement to King Aodhan to be one of the best moves for peace, so we'd love to see her hard work come to fruition as we got that she's really interested in making peace.
Auryn harbors some doubts about Lya's ability to empathize though as she remembers their talk about Elfaivar and doing penance for their forefather's sins during the peace summit. And Lya didn't seem to understand her problem with the abducted women either. She just wishes that Lya could be the intelligent and wise leader she'd think she could be)
Session 35
During our waiting period for the 2nd audience with Bruse Shantus, we take some time to gather more information about Pemberton and his business in Ber. So we ask for directions and are led to a wooden hut bearing the Pemberton Industries sigil. Unfortunately, Mr. Pemberton is absent and currently represented by an orc named Bradko. Said orc, who's clad in the proper suit of a businessman, claims to be Mr. Pemberton's sales agent and explains that his boss is currently on a business trip to southern Ber.
What's truly surprising though is the fact that Bradko happens to be the very same orc we saw roasting marshmallows with Mr. Fordren when we just arrived at court. And as Mr. Fordren and Mr. Pemberton are direct competitors, we do find this fact pretty odd at least. So we ask Bradko about his ties to both industrialists as we suppose that this guy is making a fool of either of the two or at least spying on one of them.
As we chat a bit with Bradko, we do realize though that he seems to be on good terms with both of them and assures us that he wouldn't do anything that could hurt either one's enterprise in Ber. On the contrary, Bradko seems interested in supporting both Permberton's and Fordren's interests to the best of his abilities. So maybe the two businessmen are only making everyone believe they're competitors while secretly sharing tech or something like that...
Anyways, we ask Bradko to deliver a message to Mr. Pemberton where we ask him for a short chat about the Shaggy Mk.2 and the automaton's specifications. Plus we wish to thank him personally for his help in Sawyer. To our surprise, Bradko hasn't even heard of Sawyer or Macdam, which is really weird as this is the main hub of Permberton Industries. He agrees to deliver our message though.
Next, Auryn plans to set up a dueling contest to gain more attention. Carlyle isn't so sure whether this is such a good idea as she'd risk giving away too much of her fighting style to possible future opponents like the danorans, but she assures her partner that she'd only be using basic techniques that will certainly be enough for the drunkards she'd expect to challenge her.
(yeah, she's got a lot more confident than she'd been about a year ago)
Auryn's assessment turns out to be right in the end and she manages to send all challengers either running or to the ground after one or two precise hits. Meanwhile, Carlyle stands at the sidelines of the dueling circle and spots Rush Münchhausen who's seemingly unable to pull free from Merton Goncala's firm grip. He overhears the hothead debating with the far more somber but half-deaf half-orc about whether or not he should teach that shining elvish knight a lesson. Merton wins the argument by saying that no one, not even Rush, would want to defy Madame Lya Jierre's orders. Seems as if someone's at least trying to avoid attention or trouble.
After Auryn's fighting session, we continue discussing our theories about Oddcog. We do talk about the possibility that the gnome hiding with the Bruse could be yet another Obscurati mission and that he might be using the growing industrialization of Ber to build yet another colossus. After all, it was Grappa who made Borne go rogue and he wouldn't be around this time. We keep that thought in mind and are then called to our audience with the Bruse.
Inside the court's castle, we meet up with Lya Jierre and her two bodyguards and are then brought to the audience room where the Bruse's two counselors are already waiting for us. It takes some time for the Bruse to finally arrive and he seems both irritated and amused at the situation presented to him. He says that he doesn't wish to decide yet which side to choose in this competition, so he'll just let a game decide whether the privilege of questioning Tinker Oddcog shall go to Danor or Risur. He mentions two challenges but leaves the details up to grand vizier Zarkava:
The lizard woman explains that the Bruse asks of two tasks that need to be completed before any team may even have a chance of seeing the gnome. One of these tasks is the completion of the Cantabrilla Railroad, a tedious venture that's processing much slower than the Bruse originally wished. The other task is dealing with Cavallo de Guerra, his old companion and stubborn rival.
For the Cantabrilla Railroad challenge, each team is assigned to a construction company: either the Liss company or the Griento building company. Each company has to complete 18 remaining miles of track until their contract is fulfilled. And whichever company finishes first will determine which of our two teams will be winner of this contest. Zarkava then says that his Bruseship has decided that that Danorans shall meet up with the Griento company in Renza while the Risuri shall support Liss who started in Reo Pedresco.
The grand vizier then adds that the remaining tracks are to be constructed in the untamed riverlands and includes bridges that need to be erected. After she finished her exposition, we ask the grand vizier for a minute of privacy as we wish to discuss our proceedings. We then privately talk about the idea of convincing the Bruse to let us side with Griento instead as we know him and trust that his enterprise will include a solid workforce. In the end, we decide to stick with Liss however, as we could use our good connections to Griento (which are yet unknown to everyone else) for a far more subtle strategy.
After our moment of privacy, Zarkava explains the situation of Cavallo who resides in Citada de Cavallo at the northern coast. She says that the old orc is an old companion of Bruse Shantus and Vairday Bruse back from the time when the first Bruse united the tribes of Ber. But while Cavallo de Guerra respected Vairday, he's been quite reluctant to accept Bruse Shantus as his superior. On top of that, he refuses to pay for the railway that shall connect his city and the rest of Ber. So the Bruse asks the emissaries from Risur to convince Cavallo to change his mind on both subjects.
Then the grand vizier shocks us all when she reveals the Bruse's challenge for team Danor: Instead of making Cavallo bend the knee, he wishes them to discredit the old orc by making him attack the border keep of Man Hill. Which is on Risuri ground and manned by our compatriot soldiers. Zarkava adds that the Bruse surely doesn't wish war with Risur and expects the risuri navy to obliterate the small attack force which would then allow Bruse Shantus to strip Cavallo of his responsibilities and ranks.
Besides these two tasks which would both earn one point, there will be three additional points to be awarded by the Bruse, Zarkava Ssa'lit and Kenna Vigilante. As the game is set to start tomorrow morning with the first sunrise, neither of the teams is allowed to leave the summer court before this time. In addition, each team shall appoint their members which will be noted on a special list. The teams are not allowed to directly harm each other, but this doesn't rule out third-party interference.
Lya takes the first turn to announce her team which consists of herself, Rush, Merton, and her servants Inez and Ulrik. Then it is our turn and we register Carlyle, Auryn and Margit as part of our team. By leaving out Flying Spark and still-undercover Burton, we plan to utilize the third-party rule to use them for possible interception missions later. We also ask Kenna Vigilante for a complete copy of the game's rules so we may see the full picture all the time.
The audience ends and the Bruse announces that he's going to enjoy seeing and hearing about our progress.
(So... Bruse Shantus just confirmed that he's more interested in sports than in everything else. Which was totally not surprising, even if the Man Hill mission was ludicrous in our eyes. We later discussed whether this game would be lunacy or an actually clever strategic plan.
The Cantabrilla Railroad challenge would force Danor and Risur to invest heavily in a bogged down infrastructure project and we guessed that this one could have been the idea of Kenna Vigilante.
But Cavallo was a whole different topic. Sure, the risuri mission of reasoning with the stubborn orc would spare him a lot of hassle, even if it would have been foreign agents that'd solve internal beran problems. But an attack on Man Hill would bear the risk of igniting a war between Risur and Ber, two nations with rather friendly relationships. Even if he could call it a rogue attack later, the damage would still be done, especially in times when Risur and Danor were about to make a lasting peace.)
After the audience with Bruse Shantus is officially over, we immediately discuss the issue of the Cavallo challenge. We agree that the relationship between Risur and Danor will inevitably take massive damage should Lya go through with her mission. After all, Bruse Shantus just openly called for Danor to incite Cavallo so much that he'd be tricked into attacking his neighbors. Auryn believes that we need to talk to Lya before the game officially starts to lay out the consequences for Danor and her peace efforts should she really try to make Cavallo attack Risur.
We believe that she'd be reasonable enough to find a more clever solution for the Bruse's strange challenge and also for the issue of our Oddcog troubles. After all, Lya is such a no-nonsense person that she'd most likely be fed up by the minotaur's idea of “fun” already. Carlyle agrees, but he'd like to wait for Lya Jierre to make the first move as he would like to assess whether she's truly willing to cooperate. Since she's been the one who called herself advocate of peace, he says, she's actually the one who'd lose most of all.
While we're still talking, we realize that Team Lya is about to withdraw from the castle, so we decide to follow them at a distance. When we see that they are entering the danoran tent, we turn invisible and approach the tent to listen to their conversations. What we do hear are disturbing cries coming coming from Ulrik. After a while, the cries ebb off and Ulrik starts speaking in a much more mature and calm voice. A voice that could very well belong to Nicodemus. Lya then explains to this person that she's very much in trouble and lays out some of the game's details, especially the part where she shall convince a foreign Lord to attack Risur. Nicodemus answers that he understands her troubles and that he'd suggest making a deal with Risur as far as this is possible. However, her mission has to be given priority in the end.
We withdraw back to our own tent as we expect Lya to ask for said deal soon. As we expected, Lya shows up not much later and utters the wish to talk about this delicate situation she's been put in by Bruse Shantus' challenge. She adds that she has really no interest in risking all of her work and effort towards a lasting peace with Risur because of one mad Bruse and his stupid game. We agree as we're not really keen on playing this game either and add that the Bruse has put all of us in a very dangerous situation. So we suggest to skip the parts where we'd be true competitors, just do our thing and then bring Oddcog to a neutral place where both factions would have the chance to question him together.
It appears as if Lya doesn't personally object to our plan, but she hints that her orders include bringing the gnome to Cherage which hardly qualifies as a “neutral place”. From her subtle comments we also get that these orders include Obscurati interests, so someone higher up in the organization most likely wishes to see Oddcog be brought to to Cherage.
So we take these hints as a basis for asking Lya whether she still feels obligations or any sense of affiliation with this group which is so clearly behind creating and letting loose Borne in Flint and therefore threatening to destroy our city. When Lya, again, tries to convince us that her contacts are really just trying to make the world a better place, we call her out on this naivete that doesn't seem to fit the canny, clever Lya Jierre we know. We agree that some party of this organization may have a noble goal in mind, but even she should be open enough to see how much terror, death and destruction their actions have brought to Risur.
Lya then confesses that the Ob's are mainly interested in getting Borne back under control so he won't wreak any more havoc and we answer that this doesn't make the situation any better at all. Borne, we explain, is not only a sentient being, but having him being controlled by a secret organization could be even worse than letting him run free. After all, he'd be the best weapon of mass destruction any wannabe-tyrant could dream of.
“But don't you see?”, she replies “No one could or would use such a weapon as he'd be instantly targeted by all other nations of Lanjyr. He'd be seen as a threat, yes, but one that doesn't harm anyone as long as every nation keeps their peace.”
Auryn and Carlyle both shake their heads in disbelief.
“But the Obscurati are no nation which would be targeted by anyone. They act in secret and cannot be held accountable for their actions as long as they remain in the shadows. They don't have to fear any consequences as long as they're not being caught by the officials. So no, an Obscurati tyrant could indeed do whatever he wishes with Borne and this thought is truly frightening.”, Auryn says.
“Speaking of Obscurati actions...” Carlyle adds, “They seem to fear us, too, as some of them already tried to assassinate us. And they even used your bodyguard as would-be assassin, therefore trying to blame the attack on you. So I'd think twice whether or not to trust them, Miss Jierre.”
Lya appears to really think about our last few arguments and then promises to use her place in the organization to gather more information and maybe lead the Obs to a less destructive course. We reply that while we do find her idea noble, we also believe Nicodemus to be one of these fanatics who wouldn’t let go of his reins at any cost. We do signal that we're open to conviction and also interested in having a peaceful chat with Nicodemus, but don't believe that he's ever going to agree to such an offer.
During our talk with Lya, we also realize that she must have been geased already as she's trying to avoid certain words or facts. All in all she then offers to hold back with her Cavallo challenge should we agree to finish our track shortly after her team. We agree that this is a fair offer indeed but explain that we'd have to discuss matters of such international impact with our king. So we suggest that we and her use our magical supplies to talk to both king and sovereign (and only them!) to discuss our mutual agreement before we take any action. Lya agrees to this suggestion and we make an appointment for an hour before sunrise to meet again.
(Phew, this was a pretty long and hard talk. We both like Lya and think her engagement to King Aodhan to be one of the best moves for peace, so we'd love to see her hard work come to fruition as we got that she's really interested in making peace.
Auryn harbors some doubts about Lya's ability to empathize though as she remembers their talk about Elfaivar and doing penance for their forefather's sins during the peace summit. And Lya didn't seem to understand her problem with the abducted women either. She just wishes that Lya could be the intelligent and wise leader she'd think she could be)
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