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

[Cerebral Paladin]

Sorry, Orichalcum. See, the reason it got omitted was that Alistair was too busy trying to stay alive in a battle where he was hopelessly outclassed but couldn't retreat for political reasons, and being traumatized by the death of a woman he lo.. lo... likes a whole lot to notice. Or more accurately, because CP is a doofus, especially since Orichalcum made this comment on a rough draft, and I promised to fix it and then didn't. Oops. I've added a paragraph about it now.

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

The next morning, Kit visited a knight of the Archduchess who had left a message for her. Dame Esmerelda of the Deeping Wood gestured for her to come in to the organized office. "I am your predecessor as the Mouth to the guilds. I intend to follow the old traditions, when the Archduchess passes. The church has never accepted those traditions, and I do not think the Archduchess would approve, but I will do as I think I should, as my predecessor did before me." Kit swallowed hard as she realized that Dame Esmerelda was calmly discussing her suicide. "But when I became the Mouth, I was handicapped by not knowing what my predecessor had. I do not wish you to have a similar impediment.

"You will serve two functions; you are only aware of the first. You will also be the spymaster. I have heard that your relationship with the Prince is also personal. Should that change, you must remain loyal to the Kingdom. The Prince and the Kingdom will depend on you too much-- more than they will ever know."

"I understand. I hope that Alistair and I can remain happy, but I'll do what I need to do however things turn out."

"Good. See that you do. On to the substance. You will be reported to by four groups. You will never be reported to by the military intelligence, so you must place your own agents there. The military is very jealous of its intelligence. The largest group of your agents is in Hanal, which will be the largest threat, and within your lifetime, unless Hanal and Masque fight each other. The Squire of Panal Valley is our permanent spymaster within the Empire of Hanal. He is not the man he once was, but he is loyal to us. His son will replace him; no one has realized that we replaced him twenty years ago, and no one will realize now. There are cells throughout Hanal but not in the Royal Household, but the Iron Bitch does not move without the consent of at least thirty of the Councillors. Queen Thyastis has determined to not attack the Forest of Singing Leaves although that was originally planned. She intends it to be a human empire and has already eliminated the hobbitish farmers of the upper peninsula.

"The second major group has been infiltrated into the orc tribes to the west. Their is a great struggle for succession between Throb, son of Tonguegnasher, and Knee-ripper. Throb is slightly more sane and more moderate. That will be an advantage of Hanal moving further south.

"The third major portfolio is from the eastern barbarians. They are united under a warleader again; they call him a khan. The Bear and the Dog have united for the first time in twenty years, but I expect a major assault at endyear. The military knows to expect the raids in the next few months, but not that they plan to attack at endyear.

"The final portfolio of external spying relates to the Archbarony of Ecsilias and the City of Enclaves. They are no military threat, but the trade is too important to not study. Nothing important has happened there lately; the Archbishop of Ecsilias recently passed on. It's believed to be natural, but Sir Jervon of the Screaming Lance, our agent there, believes that it may have been poison.

"The second half is your counterintelligence. A half-dozen Hanal spies have recently been captured. The royal family must never know our methods. Amelia would never have approved, and your Prince must not know either. Counterintelligence indicates that while Hanal does not view us in the short-run as anything but a trade partner, Masque has agents in the lower class. They may want more trade, but they may also wish to recruit mercenaries for their Order of the Vulture.

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

"Your second position as Mouth is dealing with the Guilds. The arrangement has always been that as long as they did not rob the abjectly poor, and did not take all from others, they are permitted to operate with only routine police operations against them, in exchange for their unswerving loyalty to the Crown. Most nations of the world believe that Canberry does not have a Guild, but we do, and we have a small branch of the Black Guild. I have used them three times. I considered having the Duke of Brightspan assassinated-- that would have been my fourth. Most nobles do not know that the Black Guild exists; they are used more often by the merchant families. The infighting among the merchants as the trade has shrunk after the fall of the Southern Kingdoms has become vicious. This is why all the merchant clans have access to the guard. I believe there to be only a half-dozen of the Black Guild here in the city, but that's enough.

"Do you have any questions?"

"Can you recommend a scribe who is completely discrete and knows what you've told me?"

"I can send you mine."

Kit thought for a moment. "How did you get your position?"

"I was a friend of Amelia's from when she was an adventurer as a young woman. When her father was dying and we hurried home, after her brother's death racing horses... I had to rebuild from scratch. The previous Mouth was also a follower of the old ways; he did not speak with me before he passed."

"Thank you for all of your help. Are you sure about your decision?"

Dame Esmerelda smiled. "I've served the Archduchy long enough, my dear. After Amelia passes... I will do the one last service that I owe to her, and then be done. Best that you not think on it. You can't persuade me, and you have much work ahead of you."

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

Meanwhile, Jet stared stormily at the remains of the wine bottle. "How dare he send poison into my kitchen. We'll see about that..." He went out to the hall and signalled for a page. "Could you ask the wine steward to come here? I wish to consult with him about the proper wines to match with the Prince's dinner."

"Very good, sir. I'll run and fetch him." The page pulled at his forelock and then took off at something just below a run.

A few minutes later, the wine steward, a somewhat portly, balding gentleman, walked into Jet's kitchen. "Good day. I understand you wanted to discuss..." The wine steward lost the ability to speak due to the sudden appearance of a giant constrictor snake that wrapped itself around him. Before he could react further, Jet smacked him across the back of his head with his sword, and he slumped unconscious.

"Thank you, Marcus, that worked well. And we even got him alive like Dame Brionna and Lord Alistair asked."

Marcus dismissed his snake and cast another spell. He frowned. "There's definitely some sort of magical effect on his torso. I'm not certain what it is. I think we'd best have the Archmaga look at him before we try asking any questions."

The Archmaga Lady Constance Deepingwell came down to the Prince's chambers. After examining the steward briefly, she cast a series of careful spells and drew a long cylinder out of his back. She carefully tucked the cylinder into an extradimensional space. "Quite a nasty piece of work. Designed to messily fragment through his spine if magically triggered. Very lethal, but very hard to deal with in advance. You did well to find it."

"Thank you for your assistance, Lady Constance," Alistair replied. "I think we can handle his interrogation from here. But I did want to ask if you could assist in another way. My half-brother Dridall is a tiefling. He had been coerced into plotting against me and may still be used to try to topple the Archduchy, but I would very much like to avoid harming him. At the same time, I can't really trust his word. Is his fiendish blood sufficient to allow you to bind him? It would be convenient if an oath of his to support my inheritance could be made to compel him."

"How strong is the fiendish bloodline?"

"We believe his mother was a succubus."

Lady Constance nodded. "I should be able to bind him easily then. Even without his consent it would be possible; if he willingly agrees to an oath, I will have no difficulty holding him to it."

"Thank you, Lady Constance."

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

With those matters taken care of, Dame Brionna awakened the steward.

"What's happening? Where did that snake come from? Why am I tied..." The wine steward slowly stopped his gibbering.

Dame Brionna glared at him. "We know who you were working for, and we know what you put in the wine. We also know that the device the ratmen planted in you would have killed you to silence your tongue if we hadn't removed it. So are you going to stay loyal to a group of rats that would rather kill you then rescue you, or are you going to help us?" The wine steward blinked for a few moments. Dame Brionna cleared her throat. "I suggest you decide quickly. If I let our cook take out his anger on you for trying to poison food in his kitchen, I don't think you would last very long."

"I didn't know that the potion was poisonous," the wine steward protested. He looked around at the unsympathetic faces. "I suppose there isn't much choice. I didn't, though. I never knew much of what was going on... didn't even know for sure it was the ratmen, although I guess it makes some sense. I was just hired by a rat-faced boy... he paid me a lot of good money, and asked me to take care of a few things. I never got the money I deserved, and if half of what they say about the Prince is true, things were just going to get worse..." He trailed off as he thought a little bit more about who he was speaking to. "So he gave me some silvery potions, asked me to put it in a few things; a bottle of wine for the Prince, and I used a fine vintage, with a very complex, full-bodied taste..."

"Where else did you put the silver potions?"

"I sprinkled some over all the beef in the main larder."

"When?"

"Probably a day or two ago."

Jet whistled. "Good thing we'd already switched to a private supply of food..."

"Where else did you put potions?" Dame Brionna continued.

"In the great urns next to the high throne. That's where he wanted it, but I don't even know what those urns are for."

"I do," replied Alistair. "At the highest, most formal occasions, incense is burned in those urns. He meant the potion to be dispersed in the smoke during the coronation, with me right between the two urns, and I suppose the Archbishop of the Sun standing right next to me."

"If you say so."

"Did you have any other orders?" Dame Brionna asked.

"Yes. I was also supposed to sprinkle some powder around the Prince's chambers. Didn't get a chance to-- it's probably still in my pouch. I figured I'd take care of that after talking with the cook about the wine, but... well, you know what happened."

"What does the powder do?"

"Like I said, I don't know what any of it did. They didn't tell me, I didn't ask."

"Who were they? Who did you work with?"

"I only worked with two of them. Never saw the rat-faced boy again after he hired me; I got the rest of my messages through Guenivieve, the salad cook, and Anna, a scullery maid. They came and did something with Anna one night, but I don't know what. I was supposed to help Anna get in to see the Prince; they hoped to catch his eye with her. Don't know what went wrong-- she was a real looker. But we just couldn't get you" he nods towards Jet "to even think about taking her into the Prince's kitchen, and we never got him to even see her."

Jet and Dame Brionna shared a smile at their foresight, while Alistair blanched slightly, all too aware of how easily their plan could have succeeded.

Alistair signalled to Abigail. "Run and tell the guard outside to gather a squad and have all of the beef in the main larder condemned as poisoned, by my orders. Remind him to have any meat that's currently cooking condemned as well. After he's done that, he's to knock out Guenivieve, the salad cook, and Anna, one of the scullery maids. We want to interrogate them, so we need them both alive."

 

[Quartz]

Umm... who's Jet?

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

Jet is another PC, played by Obezyanchik (the GM in "The Cheyenne Mountain Irregulars" storyhour). Jet joined the group relatively late, and has only been in a few sessions. The other PCs first met him in Cobbleford, although unfortunately that's the part where the storyhour skips forward so he's not actually introduced there. The first appearance in the storyhour is in http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=2814008&postcount=47 . Jet is a retired soldier turned cook, and has been appointed as personal cook for Alistair, partly because we didn't trust anyone else to cook our food in the current environment. Jet's been around for the last several posts, but hasn't gotten a lot of screen time for a variety of reasons. (I also think that Jet's player may have been in and out in this game, so that he appears in some sections and then not in others for that reason, but I don't remember for sure. )

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

Dame Brionna pressed the steward further. "Did they have you do anything else?"

"I opened up the sewer doors in the third cellar below the root bins. I took the keys from the Seneschal-- he's mostly blind, y'know-- and unlocked them."

"Did anything come through those doors?"

"Not yet, I don't think. It's all planned for the Archduchess's death, from what the others said."

After a few more questions to make sure that was everything, the group turned the steward over to another guard and began heading towards the kitchen. While en route, a shattering boom sounded from in front of them, and the group broke into a run. The kitchen was in chaos by the time they arrived. Blood covered parts of the floor, and several bodies were laid out on the slate, while the uninjured tended to many wounded.

Dame Brionna spotted the guard from outside Alistair's chambers. "What happened?"

"I'm sorry, Captain. I tried to follow the Prince's orders. We were careful to get the drop on Guenivieve and to take her alive, like he said, but the other one must have seen what was happening. She just exploded... it was awful."

"You did what you could, Guardsman. Did you secure the condemned meat?"

"Yes, Captain. Most of it was set aside for a coming feast, so I don't think anyone had eaten it. And the only other meat that had been taken out was for the Coven's creatures, and they're not likely to be poisoned, are they?"

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

Without waiting to ask any further questions, the group took off at a run towards the Royal Coven. By the time they arrived, a huge battle raged. A group of devils, clearly uncontrolled, battled against the magi of the coven. Dame Brionna burst in the chambers just in time to see one of the devils, which had backed a group of magi into a corner, bite the head of one of the magi clean off. Without hesitating, Dame Brionna flung a piece of orichalcum at that devil, and it disappeared in a huge explosion of bright yellow-gold flames. One of the four magi it had trapped was completely incinerated by the blast, but the other three lived thanks to her quick response.

Within a few more minutes, the room finally quieted. The carnage was terrible, and the bleak sense of loss on the faces of Lady Deepingwell and the other magi made it difficult to even look at them. Every one of the devils that ate the contaminated meat had broken free of her control. And of the twenty-five other members of the coven, twelve had died. Some would be raisable, but others, such as the promising young mage whose head the devil had swallowed, or the other wizard incinerated by the blast from the orichalcum, were beyond even that. Dame Brionna explained what had happened, and Lady Deepingwell confirmed that warpstone could break the bindings on devils. She also identified the white powder the steward had been given as concentrated disease, which she quickly destroyed. With a heavy heart, the group left the coven to deal with its own repairs and to mourn its dead. Ultimately, six of the dead were restored to life, but even their return did little to blunt the loss.

While returning to Alistair's chambers, the group was rejoined by Kit, who had a slightly disoriented Princess Cecilia in tow. As they returned to the apartment, Dame Brionna explained the morning's events to Kit, and then stopped before entering. "Oh! And there's an entrance to the sewers in the third root cellars that's open, that I haven't had time to deal with!"

"That's what my people are for," Kit replied.

"You have people?"

"Yes. They'll take care of it."

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

Alistair smiled at the Princess. "We're very glad to see that you're safe, Aunt Cecilia."

"Oh, hello, Alistair dear," Princess Cecilia said. She looked back and forth between Alistair and Kit. "Oh, that's who she is. Your special friend came to find me after that nice young man in the sewers insisted that I return to the palace." She smiled at Kit. "Don't worry, dear. He cares about you very much. And the two of you will have an easy time with children, when you want to..."

Kit boggled for a moment. Then comprehension dawned. Ah, she thought. That's why one of the Archduchess's children never married...

Cecilia nodded absently at her. "Oh, I suppose that made you a little uncomfortable. They always did get a little uncomfortable when I was about in social events. All these things are just so obvious to me... I forget that not everyone can see them. And some people get upset when they're mentioned."

"Umm, don't worry about it, Princess," said Kit. "But why were you in the sewers, anyway?"

"There are more ratmen there. I found the one assassin as he was sneaking into my room and trapped him in my closet. But there are others, and not everyone can see them like I can, you know."

Dame Brionna stiffened. "You trapped one in your closet? Is it still alive?"

"I expect so. Plenty of air in there. I don't think it realized that the closet doesn't permit extradimensional travel out-- can't have thieves teleporting in among one's private things, you know."

Dame Brionna gestured for one of the disguised bone devils to go to retrieve the skaven assassin.

"Aunt Cecilia... I'd like to take you to meet the entire palace household staff. Ostensibly, of course, this will be for my benefit. But that's the best way for us to identify the remainder of the ratmen. We have to deal with them quickly."

After a few quick orders, the entire palace staff was assembled for inspection, each group gathered in and around its own work area. The group worked its way rapidly through the staff, accompanied by Princess Cecilia, a group of guards, and the disguised bone devils. The examination started with the kitchen staff; with Guenivieve and Anna already dealt with, Princess Cecilia looked over the rest of the kitchen staff without any reaction. In the next group, however, she gestured at one of the servants. "Arrest him. He has been spying on us for Hanal." The guards quickly hauled him off. In the next group, she again gestured. "Arrest him. A skaven spy." She then pointed at another. "And dismiss him from our service. He is a bad man, who has been lying and cheating on his wife." In the fourth group, the Seneschal's aides, she simply said, "Kill him."