Aphonion Tales (New posts 6/13, 6/15, 6/19)

[Cerebral Paladin]

“Never mind that,” said Ilsbet. “Where are the books? We’ve searched her whole desk. They must be here somewhere.” She began looking around the rest of the room, tapping on walls, checking floor boards, and the like. She finally cast a detect magic spell, and looked around. “Huh. The coins are enchanted.” She looked around a little more, while Jacques tried mostly successfully to be subtle about dropping the coins he had taken back onto the pile. “There! There’s something magical hanging from the ceiling, directly above the desk. Abjuration and enchantment magic, plus there must be an illusion to keep it invisible. Her books must be in there.” She had ignored the coins completely, but the greed in Ilsbet’s voice as she spoke of books disturbed Dame Brionna. Still, they did need to find out if there were more records…

A rap at the door disturbed them. The old guard sergeant entered and informed them that Lady Deborah was safely in the palace dungeons.

“I hate to ask you to endanger yourself again…”

“If I may perform a few last services to the Archduchy before I enter the Light, please, command me.”

“There is something invisible suspended from the ceiling. We believe that it has a magical trap on it.”

The sergeant almost smiled as he clambored onto the desk and gestured for the trio to stand well clear. He reached out, grasped something, and then his eyes widened. He muttered a little, reached for his sword, and then shook his head. “It was difficult to think clearly for a moment there, but I think I resisted it.”

Dame Brionna glanced at Ilsbet, who looked him over for magical effects. “He’s clean, and the spell is gone. It must have failed.”

The sergeant reached in, and brought out a hissing, scabrous rat, with bloodshot eyes, patchy fur, and sores on its body and oozing black gums. He quickly slammed Lady Deborah’s familiar into the ceiling several times before tossing its broken and still body into the corner of the room. “Best no one else touch that. Lord Glor’diadel protects me from disease, but I wouldn’t want anyone else taking a chance on it.” He rummaged around some more and brought two heavy tomes and one slim journal out of the invisible satchel.

After Dame Brionna verified that none of the books were intrinsically evil, she picked up the slim volume while Ilsbet sat in the desk chair and began intently studying the two volumes of magic. One was primarily a spell book, while the other was mainly a book of magical theory. Both were heavily devoted to chaos magic. Ilsbet simply began reading them at the beginning, planning on mastering all within their pages.

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

Dame Brionna looked up from the other book. “This is a journal recording all of her missions.” She read a little more and frowned. “And most of them are marked as successes. It begins two years ago, when they seduced the Lord of Caldra to their cause. But there were some failures. They’ve tried repeatedly to corrupt Lady Constance, but she won’t have any of it. And it mentions that their overtures to Region 6 were rejected.” Dame Brionna swallowed. “Also that they made two unsuccessful attempts on the late Archduchess’s life. And then that their allies, under a succubus-- that must be her name-- stole the artifact and passed it and its matched brother in preparation for the final ritual. Aha! The ritual is scheduled for the 1st night of the full red moon in the month of Ras, 7 months from now.”

“The full red moon would be propitious for demon magic,” commented Ilsbet absently without looking up from the books of magic.

“Hmm… This does suggest that the Duke of Brightspan is less corrupt than we thought. There are many disparaging remarks about him, although no mention of the Duchess at all. And then there’s what I can only call fawning discussion of Lady Deborah’s mother. She also refers to her as ‘Elfhammer.’ And then a list of briefings of Her Grace… They’ve had access to all the most private information of the Archducal household.”

“Any references to their current operations?” asked Jacques.

“Yes. Here at the end. They’re using the Dark Guild to hire many of the poor people of the City to,” Dame Brionna paused in horror, “to throw plague vials at the procession.”

Ilsbet looked up. “I thought plague was forbidden by the Gods.”

“It is, in the long-term. But it’s possible to have short outbreaks before they intervene. There would be plenty of time to devastate the City.”

“Do we know what these plague vials would look like?” asked Jacques. “We need to take immediate steps to recover them.”

“Yes,” said Dame Brionna. “We received a few reports, although not of what they were. They are small glass vials, filled with a white, glowing liquid.”

“If you can fund it, I think I’ll start passing the word around on the street through fences and such that I’m looking to buy those vials, as many as they can bring.”

“Will 1500 gold be enough? We can supply more if you start running out.”

Jacques swallowed. Yes, he had definitely underestimated their ability to pay if they were willing to throw around fortunes like that. “1500 should be plenty.”

“And we can have the priests preach that people should turn them in, and offer a public amnesty for anyone who does.”

Ilsbet looked up from the book. “That seems like a good plan, but I think you might want to separate the two. The people who will be looking to make a fast coin through a fence are likely to be distrustful if they connect it to the temple. If you just have the priests preach an amnesty and ask people to bring the plague vials to the temples, and then separately try to buy them on the black market, you’ll get more total.”

Jacques nodded in agreement. “We don’t want anyone thinking this is a trap.”

“Do you have any available condemned prisoners?” asked Ilsbet.

“What?”

“Some of the vials will have broken by accident. We need to know what the symptoms are so that we can quarantine people who show signs.”

Jacques looked a little ill. “She’s right. And we’ll need to post a paladin to watch, so we can observe without anyone getting sick.”

Dame Brionna nodded. “I’ll take care of it. And once we have recovered most of the vials, we can use locate object sweeps to get many of the remainder.”

 

[Quartz]

Ooh. That's not very paladin-like behaviour from Dame Brionna.

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

I hadn't thought about it, Quartz, but it certainly at least raises questions. You can make a reasonable argument about the greater good and such, which quickly gets into the depths of a "what does good mean" issue. I'll leave responding more to Orichalcum, although I think one of the things she would note is that Dame Brionna is becoming less paladinly over time as she focuses more on temporal duties. It'll be interesting to see if that ever results in her losing her status.

----
They quickly implemented the plan. Jacques coordinated the efforts through the Shadow Guild and fences of the City, collecting hundreds of vials in the worst dives of the City. Periodically, a paladin, disguised as best as they could manage, came through to recover the box of vials and carry it to the temple for destruction. Towards the end of the day, a man came in sweating profusely and coughing slightly. As he slid several vials across to the collection box, Jacques stopped him. “Show me each of the vials.”

The man raised his hand, fear on his face. “I didn’t mean it to break…” The industrious man had gathered three vials, but one was cracked. As he leaned back from the table, he toppled over and fell to the ground, convulsing.

Jacques signaled to two of Kit’s agents who were standing by the door of the tavern. They passed on the signal to an observer in the street, and then closed the door, stepped inside, and drew viciously sharp short swords.

Jacques stood up. “Nobody leaves or comes in! Everyone stay calm.”

“What is this?” cried one of the people on the line. “It’s a trap!”

“No, that man’s sick… they’re going to leave us to die!”

“Everyone’s going to be fine. We’re in here with you, y’know. Once the priests come to remove the disease from us, we’ll be able to leave. Until then, if you try to leave, my friends will have to kill you first.”

There were loud murmurs of concern throughout the room, but the thieves at the door managed to scare people enough to keep order.

“Now then… whoever can give me the most useful information about the people who gave you these vials and paid you to throw them gets healed first.”

Jacques had to deal with the rising voices of a mob all trying to speak at once again, but this time they were full of helpful information.

End of session 9

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

Back to the normal mix of characters.

Session 10
After chapel, the Archducal Council gathered in their usual chamber in Alistair’s wing. Mahler had returned from his duties with the Exchequer and joined Kit, Dame Brionna, and Alistair for the discussion of the day’s agenda. Kit held out a scrap of paper. “My network brought this note to me from the Duchy of Brightspan.”

The note was handwritten, but none of them recognized the hand. It was short and direct:
The Duke is less of a threat than you think, the Duchess not at all. But the eldest son is not the only one who has been corrupted. Nor is the Abomination of Shurr the only threat. Look beneath the city. The great threat is traveling painfully underground to Shurr.”

Dame Brionna nodded. “That’s consistent with what we learned when we arrested Lady Deborah Brightspan. I still don’t trust or like the Duke of Brightspan, but he seems like he may be better than we thought.”

“I still don’t trust him,” said Kit. “And I’ve looked into that spiritual advisor his wife had. She’s definitely not Glor’diadelian. She might be a follower of Mider, but it’s hard to say… it’s hard to tell with them, and we don’t have any ins to their organization.”

“Or she might have returned to the faith of her ancestors. Or at least of her foremothers,” said Alistair. When Kit didn’t add anything more, Alistair turned to Mahler. “How are things at the Exchequer?”

“There is a lot of good news-- the treasury is doing just fine. But it’s not all well. The primary thing that’s causing concern is the tremendous reduction in the exotic spice trade. Prices for any of the major imported spices have spiked. But while that’s the effect that the wealthy are noticing so far, the spice disruption isn’t the worst of it. The worst problem is that the import of rock salt, also generally from the South, has also been disrupted. As a result, we might have serious problems with pickling, canning, and the curing of meat, and that will concern the rest of the population, especially when winter comes.” The rest of the Council nodded in understanding. It was currently early summer, but you always focused on how the winters would be. “Another source is the salt mines in Brightspan,” Mahler continued talking over the low grumbling that produced, “but they are not nearly large enough to supply our needs. Even leaving aside the question of relying on Brightspan, Canberry has always needed to import large amounts of salt.”

“What about the salt flats in Caldra?” asked Alistair. “I thought they supplied much of our needs.”

“They produce the wrong sort of salt. Caldra produces a profusion of granular salt, but it’s not suited for the sorts of preserving tasks for which we use rock salt.”

“We don’t have any reserves laid in?” asked Dame Brionna. “I would have expected the Her Grace the Archduchess to have prepared for this sort of eventuality.”

“She did, but… Her policy was to maintain an eight-year supply of all of the vital supplies that could be stockpiled, including rock salt. But for the last many years, as her health and vigor were fading, her ministers became less diligent, and even sold from the supplies to take advantage of periods of high prices. The stockpiles are essentially depleted.”

“What can we do about it? Do the people in the Exchequer have any thoughts?”

“At least, those who are not too busy killing themselves,” added Dame Brionna.

Mahler smiled. “The Exchequer’s office is probably the least decimated of the high government offices.”

“I guess there’s an advantage to people who have more loyalty to money and themselves as to the Crown,” replied Dame Brionna.

“I’ll go consult with them more fully.”

 

[Orichalcum]

Ooh. That's not very paladin-like behaviour from Dame Brionna.

So, it troubled Brionna. But these were prisoners already doomed to die forvarious heinus crimes. Infecting them with plague was certainly not the sort of quick mercifu death she prefers to deal out to evildoers, but the potentia benefit to hundreds of thousands of innocents weighed against it.

But yes, there's a reason Brionna is now paladin 5/marshal 3. The noble ideals of a hedge knight errant aren't really compatible with the roles of Captain of the Archducal Guard and Chief Military Adviser, where she has to weigh the worth of people's lives every day, and Alistair always comes first.

hence the recent stressed and morbid streak. Cynical paladins are depressing creatures...

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

Mahler headed to the office of Throckmorton, the outgoing Minister of Trade and one of the few in the Exchequer’s office who would be following the old traditions. “How could we deal with this rock salt shortage?”

“Well… there are several possibilities in the short-run. There are other sources of rock salt to the North, so we could ship that in by sea and then move it over land into Canberry.”

“Any possibility of developing more domestic production?”

“No. Brightspan’s mines just aren’t that large, and even if they can be expanded, that would take time. If you reach to the north, it might be possible to open trade with one of the Enclaves that maintain salt mines near the mountains.”

“If we brought it in by sea, what would the route be?”

“There are several options. We could ship it through Tang in the south, the Confederacy of Eastern Cities, or even directly from Masque, assuming you could find someone sane enough to deal with from year to year. The question is could you get the Archduke to move on it.”

“I think that I could take care of that. Which of the options seems best?”

“Hmm. Masque makes the most sense, but there are difficulties in dealing with Masque. You need to find someone with enough brains to handle a deal for more than a year at a time.”

“What of Enclaves? If we had some allies, do you think we could deal with someone there.”

“Likely. Lady Vlatiana Fleetshroud and her husband, or Gavin Skullcrusher Daisytops-- I know, it’s a ridiculous combination, what do you expect when someone converts to Manumist so late in their life…. They’d be our best hopes there.”

“Good. Anything else I should know about them?”

“Vlatiana Fleetshroud is the head of the League of Shadows, the most powerful thieves guild in Enclaves. Her husband, a gnome, is the lord of one of the Enclaves… Cabbageheights, I think. A strange combination, but there you have it.”

“Thank you. I’ll talk with the Archduke about taking steps on setting up a new salt trade.”

“Mahler… you should understand that it’s not just the salt that’s the problem with the tariffs, although that will hurt Canberry the worst directly. Those poor people in the South are only now starting to get back on their feet. If we crush those poor folks with tariffs, it’ll be decades before they recover. And that leads us back to Brightspan. I hope the Archduke brings him to heal soon…”

“What about our share of the tariffs? Could we remit it back to the merchants?”

“Eh. It might help a little, but… the Archduchy only gets 20 percent of the tariff. Even without that, the tariff would still be crushingly high. And there would be nothing to prevent Brightspan from simply raising the tariff even higher and taking that money back to his own pocket.”

Mahler nodded and returned to the Council. As he returned, Dame Brionna was recounting some of her recent intelligence.

“After we dealt with Lady Deborah Brightspan, I visited His Eminence the Archbishop. I think we should move up the date of the coronation.”

“That would be awkward, diplomatically,” replied Alistair.

“Perhaps, but the efforts to assassinate you before the coronation are not just about the political instability it would cause. The coronation is an important magical ritual. It binds the monarch to the land and the land to the monarch.”

“What does that mean?” asked Kit.

“After coronation, the Archduke will have substantial magical protection, making him harder to injure and substantially more difficult to ensorcel. Also, a variety of curses and magical effects that could be placed on the land are flatly impossible as long as there is a properly anointed Archduke.”

“Oh. Then maybe we should move up the coronation.”

“I’m still worried about the diplomatic implications,” said Alistair. “Could we have a quick private coronation, and then follow it up with a public one?”

“No, your grace. In order to complete the ritual, you must follow the coronation ritual carefully. You begin some distance outside the capital, in a sacred grove, and then you participate in a long procession into and through Canberry City, performing specific rites along the way, before the formal coronation ceremony in the Cathedral. If you do not perform the rituals, you won’t gain any of the magical protection. And the people watching the procession are part of the ritual-- you can’t do it in secret.”

Alistair frowned. “There are many delegations that haven’t arrived yet. Most of the temples that are not aligned with evil are sending delegations, and only a few have arrived.”

“Not to mention some from temples aligned with evil,” said Dame Brionna, thinking about the Paranswarmian nuncio.

“There are also numerous diplomatic delegations from every nation that can send one en route, and many of them will not arrive until shortly before the scheduled coronation,” continued Alistair. “If any of them haven’t arrived by the time of the rescheduled coronation, they will be horribly offended.”

Kit frowned. “I’m not sure we can afford to offend anyone right now. I’m all for a plan that gives Alistair magical protection against harm, but…”

Mahler nodded. “If we could do it without offending anyone, it would be an obvious choice. Since we can’t, it may not be as big a deal.”

“Not to mention that it’s a show of weakness,” said Alistair. “We don’t want to admit to anyone that we feel threatened, even though I think we all do.”

“But this could give us a chance to eliminate the threat from the assassins,” Dame Brionna continued.

“Let’s talk with the Archbishop and find out if there are any ways we can make the coronation safer. From what you’ve said, we’ll need to work with him to deal with the plague anyway. But for the time being, we need to keep proceeding on the current schedule.”

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

An Archducal Guard knocked and entered. “Captain, Your Grace, a squadron of five vollers have been spotted approaching the capital from the east.”

“Are they flying colors?”

“Yes, Captain. Of the Empire of Tarsh, but with their banners flown at half-mast.”

“I suppose it makes sense that they would send a diplomatic mission to the funeral, since Tarsh was the site of the Archduchess’s last state visit,” said Kit.

“And the flags at half-mast is probably just appropriate mourning,” added Alistair. “Thank you for the information. Welcome them and set up appropriate accommodations when they arrive, and contact us if anything unusual comes up.”

“I also wanted to discuss some of the matters of Her Grace’s funeral, m’lord,” said Dame Brionna after the guard left.

“What’s the schedule on that?”

“She’s still lying in state in the temporal stasis for another day. The funeral is scheduled to take place tomorrow.”

“Is there any danger that they’ll try to desecrate the body?” asked Kit. “I wouldn’t put it past them, and she deserves better…”

“Nor would I,” replied Dame Brionna, “but I do not think there is much danger. The body is currently in temporal stasis-- a powerful protection that would be difficult for our enemies to break. We also maintain an honor guard of Knights of Valor around the clock. I think Her Grace’s body will be safe.”

Pain evident on his face as he thought about his grandmother’s death, Alistair said, “Thank you for taking care of the details, Dame Brionna. Are there any things we need to deal with specifically?”

“Yes, Your Grace. We must begin seriously planning for the deaths among the senior staff. I discussed the matter with His Eminence the Archbishop, and we expect a total of 54 suicides. Mostly senior administrators and officers in the Guard.”

Mahler looked up. “I hope no one is expecting us to commit suicide some day. I hope you live a long time, Alistair, but when you do go…”

Alistair smiled. “Don’t worry. This is one tradition I intend to die with the current generation.”

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

Dame Brionna cleared her throat. “I also thought that, with the upcoming meeting with the Duke of Brightspan, we might spend a little time thinking about his children. There aren’t just Sir Derrick and the corrupted heir-apparent.”

“Who else are there?” asked Kit.

Alistair thought for a while, remembering lessons from his childhood. “There are four legitimate sons. The heir-apparent we know about, and Sir Derrick is the third. The second son was sickly as a child, unlike his warrior brothers. If I remember correctly, he was turned over to a Glor’diadelian school at a young age, on Khamista. It’s sufficiently far away that I’m not sure I’ve ever met him.”

“And then the youngest son is fostered and clearly fine,” said Kit. She paused and thought about him for a moment. “There’s an awfully wide gap between the youngest son and his oldest brothers. The heir-apparent must be nearly 25 years older than him…”

“Remember, his mother isn’t fully human,” replied Alistair. “In all likelihood, she’ll still be fertile for another decade, at least.”

“Lovely,” said Kit, malice in her voice.

“And then there are five Brightspan daughters.”

“Right. My research has turned up some information on them,” said Kit. “At least two of them are involved in demonism, while another is a diabolist.”

Dame Brionna muttered darkly about why the Archduchess let such a mess develop.

“What about the other two?”

“One of them ran off into the woods,” said Kit. “I don’t quite know what her deal is. I think she may have had some religious revelation-- maybe she’s the connection to Mider? And then the youngest is in Tarsh at the same school her mother attended as a child.”

“Let me guess,” said Dame Brionna sourly. “The diabolist older sister went there as well.”

“Yes, but not either of the two demonists.”

“How charming. A finishing school and diabolism academy, all in one,” said Alistair, although he had heard of the school but never of that reputation. “We should ask Lady Constance about its reputation. She’ll know if it is orthodox and well-regarded.”

“But only by Paranswarmian standards,” seethed Dame Brionna. “We really need to build those new schools you’ve mentioned. Its bad enough that nobles are sending their children to Khamista for education, but to Paranswarmian schools… Is that all of the Brightspan children? Any illegitimate children?”

“Two acknowledged sons, if I recall correctly,” said Alistair. “Both are older-- from before the Duke’s marriage to the Duchess. I haven’t even heard of rumors of any bastards since the marriage.”

“What do we know about the illegitimate sons?”

“Not a lot. Both have been given minor positions in the court and seem contented.”

“I think we need to do some scrying on the Brightspan sewers or undercity,” said Kit. “We can ask Lady Constance to both perform the scrying and to tell us about the school.”

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

Lady Constance arrived promptly. “Good morning, Your Grace. What do you wish me to do this morning?”

“We have a scrying that we need performed,” replied Alistair. “I’m sorry to disturb your morning, but…”

“Nonsense. Things have been ever so much more interesting since you began calling on my services regularly. And now that I know of the short route to your chambers, even the travel is not particularly trying. Plus, your cook makes the finest croissants… Would anyone like one?”

Mahler happily took one of the pastries and they chatted amiably over breakfast, explaining to Lady Constance that they wished to scry on the Brightspan undercity.

“I was not aware of an undercity, but let’s see what I can find.” She carefully laid out her scrying mirror and invoked Lilith and other powers of Hell. “Indeed… there’s no undercity per se, but there are the catacombs. The catacombs are enormous, with the huge necropolis where most of the city’s dead were interred for generations.”

“Is it still in use?” asked Dame Brionna.

“Oh, no. It’s been hundreds of years since anyone was buried there, at least officially. The whole place has become a breeding ground for necromancers; the Duke has had to kill them left, right, and center. A very distasteful business.” Lady Constance gestured and the view through her scrying moved through the catacombs at a high speed. “Someone is active there now. There is a network of wards-- fairly primitive, and they cover too much space to be very effective. But there’s definitely coming and going within the catacombs.”

“Undead?” asked Dame Brionna.

“No… whoever they are, they are not dead.” Lady Constance gestured, and the view followed a corridor deeper into the catacombs and into a large chamber. A large creature with the head of a wolf dominated the room from a make-shift throne made out of bones, although a cluster of figures in robes moved about the room before it. “Oh my… a molydeus, possibly advanced.”

“A molydeus, Lady Constance?”

“Yes, a very powerful demon, one step below a demon lord. That explains the wards, I think. It has substantial sorcerous power, but lacks the self-discipline to use it most effectively, and so it prepared its wards in a haphazard way.”

“What would it take to summon one?” asked Kit.

“To summon one?” Lady Constance seemed slightly incredulous. “It would be very difficult, indeed. They are the most ruthless demons below the status of counts. To summon one would require a gate, and even then, I do not think it could be compelled.” Lady Constance thought for a moment and then nodded grudgingly. “At least, it could not be compelled by a mortal. A Noldar could, now that I think of it.”

“So the robed figures are not its summoners, then,” said Alistair.

“I should say not. The cult worships the molydeus.” She gestured again, detecting magic through the scrying. “And there is a tenuous silver line running to the southeast from the molydeus. My suspicion is that it is allied with the Abomination. Why it is under the city escapes me…”

“High rent?” suggested Mahler with a smile.

Kit pointed at the scrying. “Look, there’s a skaven in the corner.” The skaven was recognizable, but strangely out of focus. “A guard, maybe?”

“That thing doesn’t need anything to guard it. But the skaven may show the key to the alliance. Can you see the color of the robes? My eyes are not what they once were.”

The Council stared intently. “Dull green or tan?” said Mahler. “It needs more focus.”

Lady Constance waved her hand and the image recentered on the skaven. Now Kit nodded. “Yes, they’re a puke green. And it’s wearing a holy symbol: a set of three sticks crossed to form a triangle, but in gold.”

Lady Constance nodded. “As I suspected. It venerates the Horned Rat in his incarnation as Lord of Pestilence.” She inhaled sharply as the skaven looked around, and then stared directly at them through the scrying. Lady Constance dismissed the image. “I’m afraid that it knows that someone has been scrying upon them, although with luck it does not know who.”

“Thank you, Lady Constance. Do you have any additional thoughts about the molydeus and the conspiracy?”

“Little, Your Grace. My only comment would be, to belabor the obvious, there are three demon lords arrayed against us. By seeing that chamber we’ve seen their hand.”

Abigail stepped into the chamber. “His Eminence the Archbishop has arrived for an audience.”

The diabolist smiled. “I think that’s my cue to return to my laboratory.”