The Slave and Her Sovereign

[darkbard]

The genial smile fades from IBHEA's face, replaced by a cold stare. He pulls back the basleq from his head, exposing his short-cropped hair, receding hairline, and the leather phylactery strapped across the top of his brow.

"We are no hucksters, no snakeoil salesmen, Scrivener. Behold, the mark of my station as Lucent Messenger. My colleague is Omthala's Searing Voice. And this is no mere child. Qamra is the Radiant Shamshar of our Mistress, her mortal sword here on earth. With those quick reflexes you note, she could draw her blade and split an iron statue in two before you intake a breath in surprise.

We are here with a most serious proposition, one that very well may decide the future course of the empire. Our offer is a benevolence we bestow upon you, an honor by which you should be humbled, not distracted with storytelling diversions!"

---

Ibhea uses Beguiling Tongue (Encounter Power) to augment (+5) his Primary Skill Intimidate check, to shake the scrivener from his frippery, r(3) +7 +5 = 15 vs 16 Moderate DC. Failure.

 

[Manbearcat]

1 Successes (0 Hard DC Available)/1 Failures/0 Secondary Skills Available

---

The pair of state soldiers manning the security for The Dome of Illumination overhear the raised voice of the priest and intuit that some offense has been taken due to the lowly artisan. They exchange a glance and one of the dragonborn hoplites doffs its helm as it strides away from its post with purpose toward the group.

"You forget yourself scrivener. You do not talk to a Bantoukian priest like that. I would arrest you and send you to the stocks if it were not for my duties here. But you shall not forget yourself again."

The sentinel raises the steel helm overhead to strike the first blow of what will surely usher in a debilitating beating that scrivener Xin Mae will not soon forget (nor soon recover from)...

What do you do?

---

MEDIUM DC

 

[darkbard]

As the Dragonborn hoplite's arm descends, steel helm promising Xin Mae a world of pain for his class transgression, Ibhea reaches out, grasping the towering dragonman's wrist and halting its descent.

"Soldier, I thank you for your aid, but you forget yourself. As we are clergy of Omthala, this scribe's insolence is no crime against the Empire but against Our Holy Church. I assure you, we have at our disposal the means to deal with this artisan's failure to show proper respect." IBHEA glances sideways at Xin Mae with a kind of just-play-along-if-you-wish-to-get-out-of-this expression. "Return to your post, hoplite. I will see that your superior is informed of your diligence, and this," he proffers a purse of gold coins, "serves as a token of our gratitude in the meantime."

---

Utilizing details of the setting's caste system we established early in the game (We know we've got a hierarchical structure of Emperor/Empress > Royals > Priests > Military & Aristocracy > Merchants > Peasants > Slaves. I would add that this strict caste system is complicated by some checks and balances and gray areas, like the Sect of Omthala’s supra-judicial status.), I'm making a Primary Skill Diplomacy check here for Ibhea to "pull rank" and establish that this is not an affair of state and therefore outside the Dragonborn hoplite's jurisdiction, r(1) +7 +1 (Half-Elf Diplomacy, within 10 squares of Arunny) = 9 vs 16 Moderate DC. Failure.

In an attempt to ward off an escalation of some sort with the hoplite, I'm hoping to preemptively spend 180 gps (1/10th at-level magic item cost) as a bribe/mitigation of fallout against the ensuing change of fiction. Not sure how you want to handle that mechanically.

 

[Manbearcat]

EDIT: Just occurred to me @darkbard . Are you wanting to “buy-off” your failure above (with an actual buy-off in the fiction), remove the hoplite as obstacle, and reframe the situation at 1 success/1 failure? If so, that’s cool. Let me know and I’ll change the below (I’ll just strikethrough it and come up with new stuff).

Otherwise, if you’re interested in the below instead, we’ll keep it and just make a move.

---

1 Successes (0 Hard DC Available)/2 Failures/0 Secondary Skills Available

So I think we need to open up the prospects of bribe/charity in order to put into effect the clemency we're hoping happens here. So, lets go with this; Defeat this next obstacle to open that up and you can bundle your offering of 180 gps for 2 x successes in the SC. Sound good?

---

As your physical intercession and entreating of the soldier occurs, the dragonborn stares blankly into you with its reptilian eyes...betraying nothing.

Looks down at your purse and the offering. Doesn't take it.

Looks back up at your face as it dons its helm. "Very well clergyman of Omthala. My role is to enforce the law as I know it. I can see when my understanding of its intricacies has reached its limit."

The dragonborn calls to his sentinel partner to get their superior; Officer Festusha Toqiroth. Her legacy of proficiency in legal matters precedes her...its good...but not great...there are holes, but her pride makes it such that she is not apt to admit them when they occur. She strides out of the dome's entrance, partially-unraveled scroll in hand. Seemingly reading it to herself she begins a procession of "I see...I see...yeeeeeeeeeessssss...I see." Whether she actually "sees" or whether this is performative is to be determined.

"Good priest, are you aware of the ballad of The Scrivener's Duty? Written in The Fourth Age during The Winter Coup and The Fell Harvest? I believe that has some bearing of legal precedence here, yes?"

Looking at your purse and then following a tracing hand on the scroll she bears. "Yes, yes. <clearing throat as prelude to reading> And moneys did not afford the scrivener reprieve from their duty nor the people succor from their starvation nor the farmers the headman's axe after their long folly in handling land and crop."

She looks up from her scroll and at the trio of priests. "That is what it says here. So I ask you; should coin afford one scrivener, these many years later, leniency?"

---

MEDIUM DC

Make your move and on success you can add-on your charity/bribe/tribute/offering of 180 GP for 2 x success.

 

[Nephis]

ARUNNY watches as the scene plays out and its actors prepare to stumble ... badly, then steps forward to intervene (inwardly rolling her eyes at Ibhea's unusual ineptitude). As she moves closer, she glances at the partially unraveled scroll held by Officer Toqiroth and is able to catch a glimpse of a passage pertinent to the moment.

"Inquisitor, you are absolutely right, or at least would be, if Scrivener Xin Mae were offering you a bribe. However," the Searing Voice continues, pointing at the appropriate passage, "surely you remember that it is written in the ballad which follows The Scrivener's Duty - the ballad which rings out The Fiery Joy of Our Lady's Voice - that Omthala instructs her priests to give gifts of thanks to those who are charitable to those lesser in rank?"

Arunny plucks the purse from Ibhea's outstretched hand and - taking the officer's hand - places the purse into it and closing Officer Toqiroth's taloned fingers around it. "Our Lady thanks you kindly. Go bask in the warmth of Her light."

---

Arunny makes a Primary Skill Perception check to recognize The Ballad of the Fiery Joy of Our Lady's Voice on the scroll held by Officer Toqiroth, r(10) +15 = 25 vs 16 Moderate DC. = 2 Successes.

 

[Manbearcat]

3 Successes (0 Hard DC Available)/2 Failures/0 Secondary Skills Available

---

Officer Toqiroth looks down at her draconic hand wrapped around the coin purse while she mouths "The Fiery Joy of Our Lady's Voice...yes...of course." She places the purse in her satchel and gives two quick claps in an impromptu standing ovation. "Well done. Truly. In my next seminar on these subjects I will reference this exact conversation and give you full credit (not a chance!)."

The Officer walks back into The Dome of Illumination to take up her office. The pair of sentinels move back to their posts.

Xin Mae approaches with a mix of mirth at the exchange, excitement at the prospects of penning a copy of an ancient tome, and another emotion...anxiety...fear. He leans in.

"Look...well, rather, listen. The Mind is a Shardmind of unparalleled mental prowess. It can reach into a brain and tear the thoughts from it...expose your darkest of secrets. It knows everything that takes place in The Dome of Illumination. I will take the work to my quarters. I will reproduce a copy of this controversial tome. But I will only do so once I see that you...one of you...all of you, I care not which, has preoccupied the mental eye of that living construct so I can go about this heretical work without...well, without being exposed for taking part!"

We're going to smash cut to the dome with The Mind up on the mezzanine, ever watchful. Xin Mae will depart for his quarters and do his work once you've held up your end of the deal (tying up The MInd's mental surveillance within The Dome of Illumination).

---

MEDIUM DC

 

[darkbard]

Tucked momentarily in a dark aisle, IBHEA pulls the cork from the bottle of wine and swigs deeply from the bottle, his adam's apple bobbing like a lure tugged down and up by some frantic fish on a placid lake surface. "My, uh, reputation precedes me in this, Arunny. But in this it makes our ruse all the more plausible." He wipes his sleeve across his mouth. "Now follow my lead and do as we planned!" he whispers.

"Don't try to shtopp me, Shishter," he slurs in too clamorous a volume and stumbles out into the main hall, directly beneath the mezzanine where The Mind surveys all. "If thish youngshter is to fight wicked enemiesh of Our Lady, then shhe musht learn her catechishhmsh of Viiisch [vice]." He swings the arm holding the bottle in a wide arc in the general direction of the stacks.

"A dozhen shpectral shervants, and none doesh sherve Her Lady'sh ... shervants! Hellloooo! Ish this a library or a tomb? Where can a priesht find shacred texshts when he needsh them?!?" Ibhea almost trips over the hem of his qaba.

Arunny, following her colleague's mad plan, calls out plaintively, "Will someone just help us find the collection of Omthala's Mysteries so that our tutelage here can be brief and I can help the Lucent Messenger back to the Sanctuary ... and out of your hair," the last in a faux sotto voce.

All activity in the hall grinds to a halt. Volumes attended by spectral servants hover midair. The Oracle stops writhing in his chains. No one utters a word.

Then The Mind discorporates into a thousand crystal shards and cascades from its perch on the mezzanine to reform before the boisterous priest.

---

Ibhea makes a Primary Skill Bluff check, using the bottle of wine carried in his satchel as a convincing prop (and +2 equipment bonus) in his ploy to draw The Mind's attention away from Xin Mae's illicit activities and upon himself, r(7) +13 +2 = 22 vs 16 Moderate DC. Success.

 

[Manbearcat]

The Mind's scrutiny fixates on the priests and their performance. Its penetrating gaze discovers nothing more than they wish it to.

Spectral servants are commanded to search the shelfs and vaults for the requested collections. Many hours later, with Omthala's Myteries rescued from a dusty cupboard, they are fit to satchel, satchel is fit to priest, and priests are escorted from the premises.

That evening, Xin Mae shows up in cloak and cowl at an Omthalan ceremony. He deftly hands over the copy of The Shadowed Sun with a neatly folded letter half sticking out. When the priests unfold it afterward, it is an earnest request from Xin Mae to have the priests put in for him as their personal scribe on a mission for Omthala. He is so moved by the prospects of witnessing the rebirth of an ancient religion that he must serve it by documenting the phenomenon as best he can.

---

XP & LOOT

- 350 - 63 (Qamra Successful Acro Primary Check) /2 = 144 and 143 xp

- Xin Mae becomes obsessed with Dalban in the copying of The Shadowed Sun and requests to travel with you and document His momentous rise from the shadows to the light. Xin Mae travels with you as scribe (color) and you gain Historical Revelation (Skill Power, History) as a Daily.

Historical RevelationHistory Utility 6
When your ally struggles to recall an important fact, you supply a story to nudge him or her onto the right path.
Encounter
Immediate Reaction - Close burst 5
Trigger: An ally within 5 squares of you makes a knowledge check and dislikes the result
Target: The triggering ally in the burst
Effect: The target rerolls the knowledge check and uses either result.

---

So what is the move after this?

Minor Quest: Procure a safe lair in which to set up an altar to Delban and recruit clandestine adherents to his worship therein.

Is that it? Somewhere out in the Hinterlands where the missions to Omthala do the work of The Radiant Lady? Or here in Bantouk?

EDIT - For anyone following along and wondering “why the hiatus?” Our intrepid heroes are on extended vacation IRL!

 

[darkbard]

So what is the move after this?

Minor Quest: Procure a safe lair in which to set up an altar to Delban and recruit clandestine adherents to his worship therein.

Is that it? Somewhere out in the Hinterlands where the missions to Omthala do the work of The Radiant Lady?

This is it, in part. That is to say, Arunny will certainly press upon Ibhea that enough time has been squandered in his obsession with ancient relics and possibly heretical mysteries, time that should be dedicated to an immediate search for her brother, whom she had believed dead before Qamra's revelations.

So from Arunny and Qamra's perspective, the task is to retrace Qamra's path back to The Pit, near or within the Minotaur City on the Plains in search of any evidence that might lead to Ahaan.

From Ibhea's perspective, however, this journey will draw upon stories about the Ten Prodigies or Prophets held within the Decateuch section of The Shadowed Sun, stories that link the miracles worked by these children to the birth of Delban's worship in the world. Perhaps one of these prodigies has already attracted some attention upon which Ibhea can build his clandestine congregation. Perhaps the distant, missionary outposts of Omthala's faith, perforce more fluid in interpretation of The Radiant Lady's mysteries than centralized urban centers of Church hierarchy, like those of Bantouk, as a means of presenting a syncretic appeal to new believers, hold likely converts primed for the teachings of Delban as necessary, integral counterbalance to Omthala. Perhaps the incursions of Caiphon in such remote places are signal to a cosmic war brewing between Delban and Caiphon, one that will play out among new worshippers in the mortal plane. Perhaps it will simply be that an attempt to bring such a heresy into the world is safer beyond the reach of powerful orthodox crusaders closer to the centers of power.

In any event, Ibhea is happy to leave Bantouk in pursuit of his quest as parallel enterprise to Arunny's own designs. And Xin Mae, of course, hopes to witness the birthplace of the new faith.

So the four will outfit themselves for a journey to the Minotaur City and set off as soon as the necessary preparations can be made!

 

[Manbearcat]

Goal: Provision and Evade the Imperial Forces of Bantouk to beyond the gates and into the wild.

Complexity 1, Of-Level Challenge (DCs 11, 15, vs NAD 18, vs AC 20)

1 Secondary Skill, all DCs Medium

0 Successes (0 Hard DC Available)/0 Failures/1 Secondary Skills Available

Follow-on conflict will be:

Goal: Qamra as your guide, brave the wild and journey to The Pit.

That will be C2, Level +2.

When there are opportunities for Ibhea to proselytize along the way, we’ll handle those as a side conflict @darkbard .

---

<Offscreen>

Under the morning sun we hear a rough rapping at a door. Its the Omthalan Temple our heroes left not long before. An imperial soldier with a few more lurking behind greets the steward.

“Under order of the Empress and her Minister of Internal Affairs, Bita-Bahlin, we demand you surrender the clergy <suffering from rudimentary literacy, the soldier struggles with pronunciation>; Arunny…and…Ibhea. They were seen with possible conspirators against the state on these very grounds. They are wanted for questioning.”

Stewards a wife-eyed, blank face; blinks twice, shakes head.

<Cut to Bantouk market>

The trio of heroes and scrivener meander through the dense market sprawl, Qamra smiling at a trinket or fabric she is taken with as a merchant vainly tries to ensnare her for a purchase. She politely slips away.

Emerging around an opening she runs into the back of Ibhea and Arunny. The sprawl has briefly opened up to a central plaza with sightline to a pair of Imperial Sentries no doubt showing a street food vendor the priests penciled or magically fabricated likeness on papyrus.

The vendor tip-toes to look over the throng of buyers and sellers in the plaza…points out the priests.

The soldiers eyes pan in the direction of our fellowship, some 20 meters away…

---

MEDIUM DC (ALL)

What do you do? You need to both provision (1 successful move) and evade the forces to beyond Bantouk’s gates.