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

[Cerebral Paladin]

Kit looked with curiosity at the fan. The fan was made entirely of crystal, and it hummed gently in Kit’s hand as she picked it up. She snapped it open and saw the graceful script of the elves written across it. “What does it say? I can’t read elven.”

Alistair looked at it and paused for a moment. “It’s not in elven, or not exactly. That’s Eldar. Let’s see… it’s addressed to my, hmm, twelve great-grandfather, ‘for your service.’ And then that last word is a name- the name of the Queen of Singing Leaves. It’s likely a powerful artifact if it was given as a major gift directly from the Queen to an Archduke.”

“I think I’ll keep this, then. It could be useful.”

“In the service of the Archduchy,” said Dame Brionna, a little scandalized. “A great object like that must remain in the Archduchy’s collection.”

“But we ought to use it for the Archduchy, not just hoard it,” said Kit, a little annoyed. “I’m not going to sell it. None of us would sell a great asset of the Archduchy. Except maybe Mahler.”

Even Mahler laughed at that.

The guards who had been entangled in the shawl also managed to finally untangle themselves. They looked horribly embarrassed by the experience-- taken down by a piece of cloth? But as they brushed themselves off, tried to regain their dignity, and resumed their stations, the spiga-silk shawl rolled, slid, and crawled away from them. The shawl made its way up onto the dais, where it crawled over to Kit and slumped up against her.

“Just what I always wanted,” she said. “My own pet shawl.” But while her voice held amusement, she was legitimately excited. The shawl’s magic seemed powerful indeed.

The rest of the funeral went much more smoothly. A steady stream of high-ranking mourners wearing black armbands through themselves onto the pyre. Knowing that they would only suicide later and that stopping them would risk a terrible disruption of the ceremony, the guards simply watched them going about their last duty. The handful of commoners, however, who attempted to emulate their example were quickly stopped by solid walls of guards and by Sleep spells.

 

[Baron Opal]

Owie, owie, owie.

Burning to death is a particularly painful way to die. What a strange custom.

Particularly if you're high level. At 1d6 a round it can take a while.

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

LOL!

----

Alistair noted that the Archbishop was very good at staring off into the distance, no doubt pondering Amelia’s death and lofty spiritual matters, and thus avoiding watching the mourners’ sins. As the pyre consumed the last of the mourners, the Archbishop rose to his feet to conclude the religious portion of the ceremony.

“If I may, your eminence, I would like to address the people as well,” murmured Alistair.

“Of course, your grace. I will introduce you at the appropriate time, and my priests will magnify your voice so that all the people can hear you.” The Archbishop ran through several heart-felt prayers for the dead and then called Alistair to him for a eulogy.

“Today is a sorrowful day for all of Canberry. Who did not have their life touched and, in a large way for some and a small for others, improved by my grandmother’s life? This has been a tragic year for me, with the loss of both my father and now my grandmother,” Alistair’s voice strained with emotion. “And it would be easy for me to think of this as a personal tragedy. But the entire Archduchy feels her loss as keenly as I do; indeed, she was like a grandmother to us all. And she taught me to view all of you as part of my family.

“But, hard as it is to accept her death, we must persevere. My grandmother knew we would mourn, but she would want-- indeed, she does want as she watches us from Lord Glor’diadel’s realm-- us not to give in to despair, but to live on, living our lives as she lived hers. These are troubled times, and not just because of our loss. But if we remain united, dedicated to doing what is right, trusting in Glor’diadel’s protection, we cannot fail. She spent her life protecting and watching over us; we must not dishonor her memory by squandering that gift, but must work together to protect each other and build the world she sought.

“My grandmother has passed, but her memory will live on. In her honor, the Archduchy will endow a great school of magic. But that will be only the most obvious way in which we will honor her memory and carry on her legacy. The far greater way will be through honoring her in each of our hearts and through living our lives as she would want us to.” Alistair choked up at the end and stepped back, overcome by emotion.

The Archbishop smiled at Alistair, pleased by the effort, the message, and the effect that the speech had on the crowd, and led the gathered masses in a series of prayers before giving the benediction. He was assisted throughout by Bishop Horace Hogsworthy, the palace chaplain. While Bishop Williams had still lived as the Archduchess’s personal chaplain, the position of palace chaplain had been something of a dead end position, but Bishop Hogsworthy seemed to be pushing for a more prominent role now. Unfortunately, he was the most self-indulgent clergyman of Glor’diadel that any of the Archducal Council had ever met.

As soon as the formal ceremony ended, the Council turned away from the great square and re-entered the palace.

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

Kit put her hand on Alistair’s arm. He smiled back. “I’m as well as I can be. I miss my grandmother, but don’t worry about my show back there. That was for the people to see… my own mourning is the private grief you’ve already seen. And we don’t have time for more of that now.”

Kit might have said something in response, but a small group of guards saluted their party and gestured at a middle-aged merchant, standing there with three children who ranged from young to very young. The children mostly looked confused, but it was clear they had been crying.

“Dame Katherine, this is the man you wished to see.”

The merchant bowed deeply. “Dame Katherine, I am honored to meet you. I am Gary Weighthand. I didn’t know that that was going to happen, but…”

“Master Weighthand, I wonder if we could speak in private?”

He nodded, and Kit signaled to Abigail, who quickly led the children away and began distracting them.

“I assume that she was your wife?” Getting a nod in response, Kit continued. “Do you know how she served the Archduchess?”

“Not exactly, no. I knew she was a confidante of the Archduchess, but I assumed that was from how she was purchased out of slavery. On a state visit, Archduchess Amelia saw a strom-- that’s one of the Hanalian earls-- beating a slave girl. The Archduchess was indignant and insisted that the strom either sell the girl to her or face the Archducal champion. Well, the champion was famed throughout Drucien for skill at arms, until he took his life after the Archduchess died, so the strom had no choice. My wife was devoted to the Archduchess for saving her.”

“What did your wife do?’

“Oh, she was also a merchant. She traveled extensively with her trade, but never made much money.” His face lit up with realization. “Oh… was she trading on the Archduchy’s account?”

“I think so.”

“That would explain it. The Archducal trade never makes much money.”

“We’ll see about that,” muttered Mahler.

“Do you know who she worked with?”

“Not per se. We had many polite but strange visitors, though.”

“What about her records? Did she keep any?”

“Oh, yes. She kept quite an extensive collection of notes, ledgers, and journals in her study.”

“If I may, I think I’ll send some people to pick those up.”

“If you think it would be helpful…”

Kit nodded vigorously.

“Send over someone whenever you want, then...” Master Weighthand paused. “I should probably go soon. The children don’t really understand, but they know something terrible has happened.”

Alistair stepped around the corner from where he had been waiting to avoid unduly flustering the merchant. “Which of your children is the eldest?”

Weighthand began genuflecting, stopping only at a gesture from Alistair. “Bridget, m’lord. She’s ten.”

“When she comes of age, send a message to the palace. We will remember your wife’s service.”

“Thank you, m’lord.”

Weighthand quickly left.

Alistair said to Dame Brionna, “Make a note about Bridget. If her mother served with distinction, we will make Bridget a baronet when she comes of age.”

Dame Brionna nodded, pleased with the decision. “We should send some guards with whoever you send to get the documents. They may be valuable.”

“And we should post guards to protect the family,” added Mahler. “If we can figure out the connection, there will be other people who can as well. Some of them may not be as friendly.”

Dame Brionna nodded and quickly gave the orders. A small detachment of guards headed to Weighthand’s house immediately, while a second group accompanied Kit’s secretary and a few of her people who were experts in searching homes to recover the documents.

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

With that attended to, the Council retired to Alistair’s chambers and began working through the business of the day. Alistair called in Lady Constance.

“I know that it’s outside your primary area of expertise, but I would like to know more about the Devourer of Light, the demon lord that the thought demons served. In particular, I want to confirm whether that’s the same demon as the molydeus under Brightspan City-- it seems to be about the right level of power, with both at the baron to count level. And I want to know who the Devourer of Light’s enemies and rivals are, what it’s position is within the Abyss, that sort of thing. Anything that we might be able to use to stir up trouble for it.”

“Of course, your grace. We do not summon demons ourselves, but the Royal Coven is absolutely the right group to assist you in researching them. Tell me, your grace, would you rather that we provide you a faster report or more thorough research?”

“More thorough. The information is of no value if it is not accurate.”

“Very good, your grace. I’ll start the coven researching it immediately.”

As Lady Constance left, Mahler and Dame Brionna were both finishing reading reports from their respective departments.

Dame Brionna led off, with the report on the military situation. “We have some additional reports from the South, your grace. It includes both some good news and some bad news. Do you have a preference for which to hear first?”

Alistair waved his hand airily. “Whichever seems more important to you. We’ll get to both in time.”

“Very well, your grace. I think I should begin with the bad news, then. I have spoken with a contact who knows something of the Seachen, and she confirmed our fears: while the forest lords should be welcomed, the only way that they would join a human army at war is if they expected to fight the human Seachen.”

“The human Seachen?” asked Mahler.

“Yes… Our understanding, although we don’t have confirmation for this, is that Seachen was the forest lords’ name for themselves before the human Seachen matriarchy took the name for their own. As it is, the Empire of Seachen is probably planning an making a two-pronged attack, actively colluding with the Abomination of Shurr and pincering the defenders.”

 

[Baron Opal]

Alistair is certainly depending on the diabolists a heck of a lot. I would be getting a little nervous and start setting up some safeguards else Lady Constance will be known as Archduchess Constance pretty darn soon.

Those Lawful Evils are pretty tricky, they are.

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

Yeah, trusting LE characters is a dangerous play. (FWIW, I'm not actually sure she's LE-- I think LN is slightly more likely, but I don't really know. It is definitely possible to be a LN diabolist in Aphonion, although my guess is that most diabolists eventually end up in LE, even if they don't start there. ) But the basic thing here is: this is the problem with having a character who is reasonably smart (Int 14), but has, shall we say, judgment issues (Wis 8). My guess out of character is that Lady Constance is too personally loyal to Alistair's family to move against him, but that the amount of diabolical involvement we're permitting (and even encouraging) in Canberry will come back to bite us. In particular, I expect the deal with Lilith to turn out to be a bad idea. In character, Alistair's not really thinking that far ahead.

* * *

Kit shook her head. “That’s bad, but at least it’s only what we were beginning to suspect anyway. What’s the good news?”

“We have more military reports from other kingdoms and realms in the South. Several might be potential allies. In particular, in the far south, there is the Theocracy of Thar Ingmath. They have a large army, with twelve units of 9,000 each.”

“9,000? That’s an odd number to choose,” said Kit. “Unless…”

“Yes, they are also threes-- an offshoot from Tang. But they have some weaknesses-- Thar Ingmath has many fewer ones than Tang. For example, each field army of 9,000 has a single one as its commander. And the threes of Thar Ingmath are not blessed with intelligence.”

“Not blessed with intelligence compared to the threes of Tang?” asked Alistair, incredulous. “They must be completely hopeless without a one in charge.”

“Indeed, your grace. There is also the Grey Wood and the Supreme Archmagus Malkyrn of the Spice Wood. Not an Eldar forest, but any elven forest has substantial power.”

“Is that the mage who has joined the defense?” asked Kit.

“Yes, but the Grey Wood is rumored to have an additional force: tens of thousands of hurons, awakened trees, that generally only fight defensively. If we could convince them to fight in this battle…”

“Yes, but how?”

“I don’t know, your grace. The Grey Wood also has an alliance with the Silent Wood, a wood of the Seelie court.

“Turning to other countries, there are the Dog and Bear nomads, directly within the relevant region.”

“I assume that those are the names of their tribes?” asked Alistair. “They’re actually human?”

“Yes, your grace, and either tribe can field 50,000 warriors, although not particularly well-trained warriors, and still have 25,000 younglings to guard the homes. Their warriors are all male. However, the two tribes are fiercely opposed to each other, so we would have to choose one, and then hope the other stayed neutral.” Dame Brionna consulted her notes. “Turning to more promising possibilities, there is the Kingdom of the Golden Drops, a gnomish kingdom. As you might expect from gnomes, they have a powerful sky force, with 50 vollers and 75 ornithopters, as well as an entire legion of illusionists.”

“That would certainly allow us to achieve complete dominance of the sky.”

“Indeed, and the illusionists might be useful in turning the orc horde away from the rest of their army.

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

“Finally, there are two strong human, at least predominantly, kingdoms in the south that we could reach out to. The first is the Kingdom of Flame, which has six full field armies, including one ultra-elite and one elite. They also have a strong aerial force, with 150 ornithopters and 12 adult or older red dragons with long duration agreements with the Kingdom.”

“Red dragons?” asked Kit. “I’m not sure I like the sound of that. Why do we think they might be possible allies.”

Mahler cut in. “We’re a major trade partner of theirs. Their economy has been going into a depression since the fall of the South Kingdoms. It’s the same problems that we’ve faced, but they’re much farther south and so have had less opportunity to open new markets to compensate. So we may be able to convince them to help to preserve our trade, or just by paying them to assist. And we want their trading situation to improve. Otherwise, the dragons might start raiding.”

“What sorts of goods do they trade in?” asked Kit.

“Fine horses, better quality crystal than we can make, although nothing like elven wares, some southern fruits, and sugar.”

“They sound promising,” said Alistair, “but I’m still worried about the dragons. I assume they’re not Borsh’troan or anything?”

“No, your grace. They are Paranswarmian, and while it’s never my preference to work with the forces of Paranswarm…”

Alistair nodded. “Sometimes it’s necessary. And that does explain the dragons. They must be devoted to Vitrix-Henexi.”

“The Kingdom of Flame also has several archmagi.”

“That could be very useful,” said Kit. “If we can ensure that we have magical dominance, that will make the battle much easier.”

Dame Brionna nodded. “The final possible major ally to recruit is the Barony of Augurt. They seem to be very powerful-- they have nine field armies, along with auxiliaries, and a powerful air navy, led by a Noldar dreadnought.”

“Noldar? I wouldn’t think that the allies of the Noldar would be our allies,” said Mahler.

“They didn’t get the dreadnought by being allies of the Noldar. [There’s a story here about a lucky shot attacking a Noldar force, but I don’t remember whether they captured the voller or whether it was a gift to help conclude the war.]”

“I think we could definitely work with them,” said Alistair. “They’re Paranswarmian, but from what I know, they’re on the least frightening side of the Paranswarmians. They don’t permit slavery, for example. Is the Baron attending the coronation?”

“Yes, your grace. Should I arrange a luncheon?”

“Please.”

“The other possible allies just don’t have much military force. There’s Running Brook, the Holy See of Manumist, but they don’t have much of an army. Mostly just guards for their, um, caravans. And while the Eastern Trade Federation follows the Archbishop’s lead, they do not have much military to speak of.”

“Still… if we can convince Augurt, our military situation will be much better. Have we arranged to hire the Order of the Falcon and move them into position?”

“Not yet, your grace.”

“We need to do that immediately. Each passing day makes it harder for them to make it into position in time. Send Broadfields-- he’s the right person to handle that negotiation, especially because we hope to place him in command of the other army.”

“I still don’t like hiring them,” grumbled Kit. “Maybe if we can recruit some of these possible allies.”

“Maybe. But I’d much rather make sure that we have overwhelming force, instead of just getting rid of their advantage. And we don’t know that we’ll be able to persuade Augurt, or how much of an army they will be willing to provide.”

 

[Ladybird]

Just a few notes on the most recent few posts...

I think that Kit may have suggested using the Manumistians as distractions in battle.

Also, Brionna absolutely shares your misgivings about the diabolists, Baron Opal, but Kit thinks that Lady Constance is a lot of fun. Alistair making deals with Lilith though? Not so much

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

A guard politely rapped on the door and then spoke quietly with Dame Brionna.

She turned to Alistair, a quizzical expression on her face. “We have a message from the chamberlain. The Royal Cousin approaches.”

“The Royal Cousin?” asked Kit.

“Lady Mathilde Ashberry, the Regent for the Crescent Cities Alliance on Khamista,” replied Alistair. “I’ve never met her, but she was my grandmother’s first cousin.”

“She is approaching the capital in three human-made vollers. One is quite large, the other two are between the size of battlebarges and schooners.”

“I’m surprised she missed the funeral,” said Kit.

“That was probably deliberate,” replied Dame Brionna. “By arriving this late, she ensured that her presence will not create any difficulties with the succession. Due to the awkward nature of Alistair’s birth, she would have been able to assert a fairly decent claim if she had wished to, especially with her military support. This way, there is no difficulty.”

The entire group went to the air dock to await Lady Mathilde’s arrival. The banners on the skyships depicted a moon surrounded by a crescent of seven stars, clearly showing the influence of elven symbology. And as the ship approached, it became clear that much of the crew was half-elven, with a handful of full elves as well.

An elderly woman, with the same marks of old age that Amelia had had, descended the gangplank. Based on her tentative movements and a guide beside her, she appeared to be blind. A bird with bright plumage also attended on her with an oddly attentive manner. A small entourage, including a Glor’diadelian bishop and several knights descended after her.

“Welcome, cousin. You honor us with your presence.”

“Alistair?” Lady Mathilde turned in his direction and reached out a hand. “It’s so good to finally meet you, although I wish it could have been while dear Amelia still lived. You worried us all so much when you ran off.”

“And I am sorry for that, cousin. I, too, wish that you were visiting under happier circumstances.”

“And I suppose you’ve been dealing with the extra difficulty of having Amelia’s servants killing themselves in a misguided display of loyalty?”

“Yes… we’ve tried to discourage them, but… My only hope is that I will be able to prevent the tradition from continuing when I pass.”

“We must hope. With the current group, if Amelia couldn’t convince them not to, there is nothing you could do.” Lady Mathilde paused. “It will not be long before my realm goes through a similar tradition-- the heirs are almost of age, and it is tiring. I have absolutely forbidden any displays of loyalty to me when I pass. I think I confused and horrified them when I gave that command-- I don’t think they have that tradition in their land. But it made me feel better to give the command, nonetheless.”

A very young knight from Lady Mathilde’s entourage coughed quietly in a lull in the conversation. “From the people of the Crescent Cities Alliance.” He handed an unadorned wooden case to Dame Brionna. “The gem within is effective but three times a year, but its power is unavoidable. It can compel anyone but a Noldar or an Eldar to speak the truth for a full minute.”

“We thank you for this most generous gift and will think of your realm whenever we have call to use it.”

“We must have tea later,” said Lady Mathilde, “but I think I must rest now.”

Alistair offered her the use of one of the familial guest quarters, and she retired with her entourage. The Archducal Council set off towards Alistair’s chambers to continue its work.