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Aphonion Tales: The Archducal Council -- Unedited notes; later posts are edited transcripts (posts MWF, update 3/1/23)
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<blockquote data-quote="CPaladin" data-source="post: 8588923" data-attributes="member: 7030144"><p>Session 99 (April 18, 2019)</p><p></p><p>12 Ghast [roughly a month of game time after the last game, to allow the army to move into position and food to get a little scarce among the Skaven.]</p><p>The fated day arrives. The army collapses the tunnel easily. They probably don’t even realize that the tunnel collapse was deliberate. There are clear, organized, much more disciplined maneuvers south of the Skaven borderlands. It’s probably Clan Skree, because they are led by a fair number of piebald skaven, who are mostly sorcerers.</p><p></p><p>The Council is monitoring via human Farsensors. Some skirmishes break out with the early scouts from each side. The Canberry army makes the offer to the Skaven to defect in exchange for food.</p><p></p><p>A group of very large (roughly 6 foot skaven), more than a handful but less than a dozen, with a group of magically concealed skaven, travel off very rapidly.</p><p></p><p>Then fighting breaks out within the skaven. After a while, a group of ugly skaven heads are hoisted aloft on poles. Then a group of skaven very cautiously and timidly approach. They lay down a particularly vile skaven head. They seem poorly fed.</p><p></p><p>The army then starts offering them food, organizing them into a refugee camp, check on the welfare of children and the like, and then send in clerics to both care for them, help with organization, and proselytize for the unusual coalition of Glor’diadel, Manumist, and Gunnora.</p><p></p><p>An elderly skaven with writing comes and offers his surrender. He explains that he was a clerk. "The warlord is dead. The great assassins fled—their weapons are here, but we are not of their blood. We touch their weapons, we die."</p><p></p><p>The Council asks the officer to ask whether the assassins were of this clan.</p><p></p><p>The clerk shakes his head violently. "No. Renegades. They reject the pact. The warlord heard them. Some other warlords hear them. When the Council finds them, they die. The Council says no dissent. Only if all the clans rose against the Council, no more Council. But Council says peace. Council keeps Skaven safe. Skaven follow Council."</p><p></p><p>The army informs them that they are now of the Southern Kingdom, and follow Queen Caitlyn, and her consort. They are surprised that they won’t be killed.</p><p></p><p>All of Skree backs the Council. Most of Eshen. Half of Moldar. Almost none of Pestulon—they fear the Council brings extinction for their kind.</p><p></p><p>The lead Skree were in robes. They had Eshen weapons, but they did not have Eshen symbols, and did not worship the Horned Rat in Eshen ways. The stormvermin (their guards) were clanless; they had no brands.</p><p></p><p>It was a tremendously bloody battle; they tore apart the stormvermin, but they suffered six to one losses in the process. There’s a side cave that’s better maintained, where there’s a pulsing green warpstone. It can be contained in gold or lead, but it’s completely foreign to this plane. The Council doesn’t have any way to deal with it permanently except orichalcum. They carried four warp pistols, and 200 pellets for them. They intended to sneak into the festivities, relying on the fact that there is a masquerade. The pellets were for the great lord and lady, and then they planned on attacking the festival.</p><p></p><p>200 pellets is worth a huge amount in the Skaven society. That means that they raided an Eshen armory, which means they had inside help. (Eshen use them for high priority targets, but rarely.) Skree use it for magical purposes. Pestulon uses it to generate plague.</p><p></p><p>They discuss trading this back to Clan Skree, but there’s a lot of concern about how it could be misused. There’s far too much for them to dispose of by orichalcum.</p><p></p><p>(The Council discusses that they should distribute orichalcum jewelry to the nobles of Canberry and the Southern Kingdoms, and to Caitlyn’s court (e.g. Many Hands).)</p><p></p><p>Queen Caitlyn has a handy lead coffer, so the army uses mage hand to put all the pellets in the lead coffer. The mage hands move all the pellets in—although not without some corruption to the mage hands—and then seal them up. In a days time, it will be safe to go in and get the guns.</p><p></p><p>they’ll need to wait a day to get the guns. All of their things must be burned, and the clerk knows the correct precautions to take.</p><p></p><p>The army takes the scribe's notes. They then set him up as the leader of the Skaven society.</p><p></p><p>A couple of hours later, one of the priests approaches the psions monitoring.</p><p></p><p>“Your grace. Honored members of the council. We need simple things in great quantities that we have in small numbers. We need powders for the parasites of the skin, we need worming pills, we need soap. And Princess Caitlyn’s people have barely enough for themselves.”</p><p></p><p>The Council plans on sending down three of our vollers with supplies.</p><p></p><p>The Council also tells the dog that is their representative from the Skree that they need to present claims to the Council. This pleases him greatly. “The Council will be delighted to hear you. I will send word.”</p><p></p><p>Next day</p><p>They get the supplies list from the field army’s principal scribe. He also tells us that the Skaven’s notes were a meticulously kept record of that entire warlord clans entire interactions since they came to this plane, including births, deaths, maneuvering of warlord, records of his consorts—the most detailed record they have seen of any Skaven. They gave him a blank book so he can keep records still. "He’s a funny one though—doesn’t grovel like most of them do."</p><p></p><p>They send a standard team (mage, psion, priest of Glordiadel, and a paladin) to verify him. The Skaven scribe has an ivory furcolor, which prevented him from being a mage. They ask the mage to try to teach the scribe basic cantrips.</p><p></p><p>On the third day, he reports in that he can draw the symbols perfectly, he can make them in the correct ways, he can mix the ingredients flawlessly, nothing happens. He was sad when it did not work.</p><p></p><p>The Council speaks to the Minister of Magic and Dame Constance. The Minister finds this exceedingly strange—wizardry is not supposed to be a matter of gift. Dame Constance studies him and finds that he is blocked, and it is a powerful block. She might be able to remove it, but it is powerful enough that he might die.</p><p></p><p>He is tremendously excited. He is more than willing to take a chance, because he is old (22 winters). He has memories of when his fur turned, and then the ivory or piebald skaven “tried to cure him” and actually placed the block on him. He has no family, because he’s viewed as impure. The Council expects him to be able to have a family now, and they tell him this—he’s excited about this, but still wants the block removed. They discuss this, and they swear him to fealty.</p><p></p><p>Dame Constance goes outside of the wards with Dame Brionna. She summons two devils that will be freed of her if they perform a work together. She asks them to remove the block without killing him.</p><p></p><p>An energy globe forms around him, and there’s a miasma of shooting lightning around him.</p><p></p><p>In the throne room, through the psionic connection, they see two pit fiends appear, and he goes rigid. A blackish green ephemeral rat figure emerges from him. There’s magical combat which continues for about 4 minutes. There’s a moaning shriek, and the figure of greenish-black smoke bursts apart, and the globe dissipates/one of the pit fiends picks up the other which is unconscious, and disappears in a flash of light.</p><p></p><p>The skaven folds to the ground, but he appears to be breathing. The ring on Dame Constance’s finger bursts apart. “I’m all right. As one gets closer to the end, one might as well expend one’s resources.”</p><p></p><p>Dame Brionna asks what would happen if Dame Constance were to die unexpectedly. They would remain bound in their devices.</p><p>[cont'd]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="CPaladin, post: 8588923, member: 7030144"] Session 99 (April 18, 2019) 12 Ghast [roughly a month of game time after the last game, to allow the army to move into position and food to get a little scarce among the Skaven.] The fated day arrives. The army collapses the tunnel easily. They probably don’t even realize that the tunnel collapse was deliberate. There are clear, organized, much more disciplined maneuvers south of the Skaven borderlands. It’s probably Clan Skree, because they are led by a fair number of piebald skaven, who are mostly sorcerers. The Council is monitoring via human Farsensors. Some skirmishes break out with the early scouts from each side. The Canberry army makes the offer to the Skaven to defect in exchange for food. A group of very large (roughly 6 foot skaven), more than a handful but less than a dozen, with a group of magically concealed skaven, travel off very rapidly. Then fighting breaks out within the skaven. After a while, a group of ugly skaven heads are hoisted aloft on poles. Then a group of skaven very cautiously and timidly approach. They lay down a particularly vile skaven head. They seem poorly fed. The army then starts offering them food, organizing them into a refugee camp, check on the welfare of children and the like, and then send in clerics to both care for them, help with organization, and proselytize for the unusual coalition of Glor’diadel, Manumist, and Gunnora. An elderly skaven with writing comes and offers his surrender. He explains that he was a clerk. "The warlord is dead. The great assassins fled—their weapons are here, but we are not of their blood. We touch their weapons, we die." The Council asks the officer to ask whether the assassins were of this clan. The clerk shakes his head violently. "No. Renegades. They reject the pact. The warlord heard them. Some other warlords hear them. When the Council finds them, they die. The Council says no dissent. Only if all the clans rose against the Council, no more Council. But Council says peace. Council keeps Skaven safe. Skaven follow Council." The army informs them that they are now of the Southern Kingdom, and follow Queen Caitlyn, and her consort. They are surprised that they won’t be killed. All of Skree backs the Council. Most of Eshen. Half of Moldar. Almost none of Pestulon—they fear the Council brings extinction for their kind. The lead Skree were in robes. They had Eshen weapons, but they did not have Eshen symbols, and did not worship the Horned Rat in Eshen ways. The stormvermin (their guards) were clanless; they had no brands. It was a tremendously bloody battle; they tore apart the stormvermin, but they suffered six to one losses in the process. There’s a side cave that’s better maintained, where there’s a pulsing green warpstone. It can be contained in gold or lead, but it’s completely foreign to this plane. The Council doesn’t have any way to deal with it permanently except orichalcum. They carried four warp pistols, and 200 pellets for them. They intended to sneak into the festivities, relying on the fact that there is a masquerade. The pellets were for the great lord and lady, and then they planned on attacking the festival. 200 pellets is worth a huge amount in the Skaven society. That means that they raided an Eshen armory, which means they had inside help. (Eshen use them for high priority targets, but rarely.) Skree use it for magical purposes. Pestulon uses it to generate plague. They discuss trading this back to Clan Skree, but there’s a lot of concern about how it could be misused. There’s far too much for them to dispose of by orichalcum. (The Council discusses that they should distribute orichalcum jewelry to the nobles of Canberry and the Southern Kingdoms, and to Caitlyn’s court (e.g. Many Hands).) Queen Caitlyn has a handy lead coffer, so the army uses mage hand to put all the pellets in the lead coffer. The mage hands move all the pellets in—although not without some corruption to the mage hands—and then seal them up. In a days time, it will be safe to go in and get the guns. they’ll need to wait a day to get the guns. All of their things must be burned, and the clerk knows the correct precautions to take. The army takes the scribe's notes. They then set him up as the leader of the Skaven society. A couple of hours later, one of the priests approaches the psions monitoring. “Your grace. Honored members of the council. We need simple things in great quantities that we have in small numbers. We need powders for the parasites of the skin, we need worming pills, we need soap. And Princess Caitlyn’s people have barely enough for themselves.” The Council plans on sending down three of our vollers with supplies. The Council also tells the dog that is their representative from the Skree that they need to present claims to the Council. This pleases him greatly. “The Council will be delighted to hear you. I will send word.” Next day They get the supplies list from the field army’s principal scribe. He also tells us that the Skaven’s notes were a meticulously kept record of that entire warlord clans entire interactions since they came to this plane, including births, deaths, maneuvering of warlord, records of his consorts—the most detailed record they have seen of any Skaven. They gave him a blank book so he can keep records still. "He’s a funny one though—doesn’t grovel like most of them do." They send a standard team (mage, psion, priest of Glordiadel, and a paladin) to verify him. The Skaven scribe has an ivory furcolor, which prevented him from being a mage. They ask the mage to try to teach the scribe basic cantrips. On the third day, he reports in that he can draw the symbols perfectly, he can make them in the correct ways, he can mix the ingredients flawlessly, nothing happens. He was sad when it did not work. The Council speaks to the Minister of Magic and Dame Constance. The Minister finds this exceedingly strange—wizardry is not supposed to be a matter of gift. Dame Constance studies him and finds that he is blocked, and it is a powerful block. She might be able to remove it, but it is powerful enough that he might die. He is tremendously excited. He is more than willing to take a chance, because he is old (22 winters). He has memories of when his fur turned, and then the ivory or piebald skaven “tried to cure him” and actually placed the block on him. He has no family, because he’s viewed as impure. The Council expects him to be able to have a family now, and they tell him this—he’s excited about this, but still wants the block removed. They discuss this, and they swear him to fealty. Dame Constance goes outside of the wards with Dame Brionna. She summons two devils that will be freed of her if they perform a work together. She asks them to remove the block without killing him. An energy globe forms around him, and there’s a miasma of shooting lightning around him. In the throne room, through the psionic connection, they see two pit fiends appear, and he goes rigid. A blackish green ephemeral rat figure emerges from him. There’s magical combat which continues for about 4 minutes. There’s a moaning shriek, and the figure of greenish-black smoke bursts apart, and the globe dissipates/one of the pit fiends picks up the other which is unconscious, and disappears in a flash of light. The skaven folds to the ground, but he appears to be breathing. The ring on Dame Constance’s finger bursts apart. “I’m all right. As one gets closer to the end, one might as well expend one’s resources.” Dame Brionna asks what would happen if Dame Constance were to die unexpectedly. They would remain bound in their devices. [cont'd] [/QUOTE]
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Aphonion Tales: The Archducal Council -- Unedited notes; later posts are edited transcripts (posts MWF, update 3/1/23)
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