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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: 8756000" data-attributes="member: 7030144"><p>[Session 124, cont'd]</p><p>Alistair and Dame Brionna teleport home and join Kit and Empress Kaitlyn.</p><p></p><p>Alistair orders Dame Brionna to not leave the palace to prevent her from haring off to investigate the cathedral.</p><p></p><p>The Grandmaster Farsensor searches beneath the cathedral. The stairs beneath the cathedral are warded against psionics. Some time ago, there was an altar that was demonic or something similar beneath the sub-sub-basements. There are no people there, nothing living there, but it appears that the altar is set up to speak to the abyssal planes. There is no exit, except up to the cathedral, and it’s dozens or a hundred years old, though not part of the original cathedral design. Getting it in has to have been a herculean task. The sub-basement above it has books. Large ledgers, and that sort of thing.</p><p></p><p>They send some of Kit’s people plus two of Brionna’s regular squads, with the Grandmaster Farsensor accompanying them. The basic report back is that the ledgers are ledgers, and they have been studied recently. Two of them are modern ledgers with different figures from the official documents. The altar is clearly a demonic altar to open a communication to something on the other side. It appears to be set up, based on Grandmaster Farsensor’s conversation with Lady Constance, to communicate with two different demon lords—the Lord of Goats and the Abomination of Shurr. This altar is older than the treasurer. His predecessor must have put it in. He may be the second archdiocesan treasurer to be corrupt.</p><p></p><p>The Council starts vetting all of the assistants, treasurers, and privy secretaries throughout the entire Empire, starting with people with ties to the old treasurer. They also decide they need to carefully vet the school where they are trained.</p><p></p><p>They send Lord Davion and a strike force, along with people to dimensionally lock the area. They set up a cordon in advance, and then appear dramatically, to see who flees.</p><p></p><p>Alistair, Kit, Empress Kaitlyn, and Kaitlyn’s companion, Ingra Rafyelle, begin having regular private dinners. Alistair also elevates Ingra to baronial rank, so she has appropriate status (she was a commoner, a seamstress, before her involvement with Kaitlyn). He also offers to help them have a private family if they wish to.</p><p></p><p>Grandmaster Farsensor sees the mental image of the higher boss. “He is a Twilight Elf, though he has disguised himself as a human and clipped the top of his ears. It may have looked focused on demons, but a Twilight Elf would not conspire just about demons. The former Noldar lord of Zorplona-Argoni became corrupted by the ancient abominations. We do not know if he corrupted some of his staff, but this indicates that he did.” He says that he could find out if he saw their records, but that he cannot search for him with farsensing—it could cause issues with the Noldar.</p><p></p><p>He’ll prepare and can do it the next morning. He asked Dame Brionna to have some people watching over him while he searches, for the offchance that the Twilight Elf is a farsensor.</p><p></p><p>* * *</p><p></p><p>When Lord Davion and 300 troops head over to the grounds of the scribal school, there is no reaction until he enters the grounds of the school. One figure turns into a bird and flies straight up. A few archers and Lord Davion shoot it with bows, and it turns back to a person and tumbles back to the ground. Three others, all instructors, get rounded up. The Headmaster, a very elderly priest of St. Dillygaff of the Fields, comes out in great confusion.</p><p></p><p>“Are there any other faculty that aren’t here?”</p><p></p><p>“My assistant headmaster. He’s in his office.”</p><p></p><p>“I’ll go to him. Where is his office?”</p><p></p><p>Lord Davion kicks in the door. “Well, that’s thorough. It appears he put the tip of a fireball wand in his mouth and then fired it. The whole room has some burns and blood smears. None of the students, interestingly.”</p><p></p><p>One of the students does suggest that he should come back with them as well.</p><p></p><p>On Dame Brionna’s prompting, he searches the basement. “I am no vintner, but no one should drink this wine. Look through my eyes. Do you see the slight glow over these barrels? The wine has been tainted. It’s very slow, but over time it will twist their minds.” It’s imported wine, from just this side of the border with Hanal—an area the church wanted to support in preparation for the inevitable invasion by Hanal. There are no non-corrupt barrels. They are in nobody’s territory, historically neutral, and the very body of the wine is corrupt.</p><p></p><p>The Council decides to deploy some church knights and treat this as a matter of unholy corruption. They ask Archbishop Humbert the Holy of Enclaves to dispatch church knights to deal with this.</p><p></p><p>Lord Davion brings the prisoners and the boy back. They send over some of Brionna’s people, Aunt Cecilia, and Dame Brionna herself. “Well, what do you know. Three entirely corrupt old farts, and a completely innocent boy who doesn’t think he’s innocent because people talked to him. All three of them, fully corrupt, but nothing implanted in them. Just greed, and something odd in the blood, like something they drank. I think they drank a lot.”</p><p></p><p>“Boy, what did people say?”</p><p></p><p>“The assistant headmaster was talking to me, both when he was there and when he was not there, always saying the same thing. That there were better ways to serve, that I could serve the Light more fully than I was being taught, and that the Light would bless me and I could go anywhere, but that I couldn’t tell anyone. I was never sure, but the voice was so insistent, and it told me that my brothers and parents had walked away from the Light and that if I went back to serve there after I finished my training, perhaps I could guide them to the light.”</p><p></p><p>“Who were your family? Nobles, perhaps?”</p><p></p><p>“Minor nobles, my lady. Youngest son of the Baron of Bonesthrow. I have five older brothers and three older sisters.”</p><p></p><p>He turns out to have a touch of the gift, but to be clean. His uncle used to be able to figure out what people were thinking—he died suddenly. They send a squad of people to investigate the death, which they presume was a murder.</p><p></p><p>Aunt Cecilia finds a powdered packet in the shoe of one of the teachers. It was a deadly, fast-acting poison. They also have them interrogated.</p><p></p><p>Another student, another young noble, reports the assistant headmaster showing him a special light—a beautiful blue flame that he had in a special compartment under the floor.</p><p></p><p>Lord Davion returns to retrieve it—he didn’t sense it because it was in a lead box. As soon as it’s removed from its box, Grandmaster Farsensor says, “that’s linked. It’s directly linked to the divine planes.”</p><p></p><p>Alistair reaches out to House Moriquendarim to offer it to them, so they can track it back to where Arthranax is, so they can try to rescue the Prince of the Cities of Pain. They send a voller to pick it up, and they feel they owe Canberry a debt of honor.</p><p></p><p>The young noble is terrified of servants of the royal house. Apparently, the assistant headmaster convinced him that the royal household was to be feared. He also told him that “the royal household displaced our duke hundreds of years ago, and that when anyone resisted, they just killed him. And they said that the lady’s life was so long because she used dark magic and was probably now undead somewhere. And he said that the Archduke is trying to do what was done to us to the whole continent and become the Emperor of the whole world. And that our house, guided right, could get our duke to get his courage back. But I don’t understand how that could be, because we don’t have a duke anymore.” (This is the third son of Baron of Penhome.) He’s a vassal of Grimcliff, but at one time Mountainmarch was a duchy. They became vassals to Canberry a thousand years ago.</p><p>[End Session 124]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="CPaladin, post: 8756000, member: 7030144"] [Session 124, cont'd] Alistair and Dame Brionna teleport home and join Kit and Empress Kaitlyn. Alistair orders Dame Brionna to not leave the palace to prevent her from haring off to investigate the cathedral. The Grandmaster Farsensor searches beneath the cathedral. The stairs beneath the cathedral are warded against psionics. Some time ago, there was an altar that was demonic or something similar beneath the sub-sub-basements. There are no people there, nothing living there, but it appears that the altar is set up to speak to the abyssal planes. There is no exit, except up to the cathedral, and it’s dozens or a hundred years old, though not part of the original cathedral design. Getting it in has to have been a herculean task. The sub-basement above it has books. Large ledgers, and that sort of thing. They send some of Kit’s people plus two of Brionna’s regular squads, with the Grandmaster Farsensor accompanying them. The basic report back is that the ledgers are ledgers, and they have been studied recently. Two of them are modern ledgers with different figures from the official documents. The altar is clearly a demonic altar to open a communication to something on the other side. It appears to be set up, based on Grandmaster Farsensor’s conversation with Lady Constance, to communicate with two different demon lords—the Lord of Goats and the Abomination of Shurr. This altar is older than the treasurer. His predecessor must have put it in. He may be the second archdiocesan treasurer to be corrupt. The Council starts vetting all of the assistants, treasurers, and privy secretaries throughout the entire Empire, starting with people with ties to the old treasurer. They also decide they need to carefully vet the school where they are trained. They send Lord Davion and a strike force, along with people to dimensionally lock the area. They set up a cordon in advance, and then appear dramatically, to see who flees. Alistair, Kit, Empress Kaitlyn, and Kaitlyn’s companion, Ingra Rafyelle, begin having regular private dinners. Alistair also elevates Ingra to baronial rank, so she has appropriate status (she was a commoner, a seamstress, before her involvement with Kaitlyn). He also offers to help them have a private family if they wish to. Grandmaster Farsensor sees the mental image of the higher boss. “He is a Twilight Elf, though he has disguised himself as a human and clipped the top of his ears. It may have looked focused on demons, but a Twilight Elf would not conspire just about demons. The former Noldar lord of Zorplona-Argoni became corrupted by the ancient abominations. We do not know if he corrupted some of his staff, but this indicates that he did.” He says that he could find out if he saw their records, but that he cannot search for him with farsensing—it could cause issues with the Noldar. He’ll prepare and can do it the next morning. He asked Dame Brionna to have some people watching over him while he searches, for the offchance that the Twilight Elf is a farsensor. * * * When Lord Davion and 300 troops head over to the grounds of the scribal school, there is no reaction until he enters the grounds of the school. One figure turns into a bird and flies straight up. A few archers and Lord Davion shoot it with bows, and it turns back to a person and tumbles back to the ground. Three others, all instructors, get rounded up. The Headmaster, a very elderly priest of St. Dillygaff of the Fields, comes out in great confusion. “Are there any other faculty that aren’t here?” “My assistant headmaster. He’s in his office.” “I’ll go to him. Where is his office?” Lord Davion kicks in the door. “Well, that’s thorough. It appears he put the tip of a fireball wand in his mouth and then fired it. The whole room has some burns and blood smears. None of the students, interestingly.” One of the students does suggest that he should come back with them as well. On Dame Brionna’s prompting, he searches the basement. “I am no vintner, but no one should drink this wine. Look through my eyes. Do you see the slight glow over these barrels? The wine has been tainted. It’s very slow, but over time it will twist their minds.” It’s imported wine, from just this side of the border with Hanal—an area the church wanted to support in preparation for the inevitable invasion by Hanal. There are no non-corrupt barrels. They are in nobody’s territory, historically neutral, and the very body of the wine is corrupt. The Council decides to deploy some church knights and treat this as a matter of unholy corruption. They ask Archbishop Humbert the Holy of Enclaves to dispatch church knights to deal with this. Lord Davion brings the prisoners and the boy back. They send over some of Brionna’s people, Aunt Cecilia, and Dame Brionna herself. “Well, what do you know. Three entirely corrupt old farts, and a completely innocent boy who doesn’t think he’s innocent because people talked to him. All three of them, fully corrupt, but nothing implanted in them. Just greed, and something odd in the blood, like something they drank. I think they drank a lot.” “Boy, what did people say?” “The assistant headmaster was talking to me, both when he was there and when he was not there, always saying the same thing. That there were better ways to serve, that I could serve the Light more fully than I was being taught, and that the Light would bless me and I could go anywhere, but that I couldn’t tell anyone. I was never sure, but the voice was so insistent, and it told me that my brothers and parents had walked away from the Light and that if I went back to serve there after I finished my training, perhaps I could guide them to the light.” “Who were your family? Nobles, perhaps?” “Minor nobles, my lady. Youngest son of the Baron of Bonesthrow. I have five older brothers and three older sisters.” He turns out to have a touch of the gift, but to be clean. His uncle used to be able to figure out what people were thinking—he died suddenly. They send a squad of people to investigate the death, which they presume was a murder. Aunt Cecilia finds a powdered packet in the shoe of one of the teachers. It was a deadly, fast-acting poison. They also have them interrogated. Another student, another young noble, reports the assistant headmaster showing him a special light—a beautiful blue flame that he had in a special compartment under the floor. Lord Davion returns to retrieve it—he didn’t sense it because it was in a lead box. As soon as it’s removed from its box, Grandmaster Farsensor says, “that’s linked. It’s directly linked to the divine planes.” Alistair reaches out to House Moriquendarim to offer it to them, so they can track it back to where Arthranax is, so they can try to rescue the Prince of the Cities of Pain. They send a voller to pick it up, and they feel they owe Canberry a debt of honor. The young noble is terrified of servants of the royal house. Apparently, the assistant headmaster convinced him that the royal household was to be feared. He also told him that “the royal household displaced our duke hundreds of years ago, and that when anyone resisted, they just killed him. And they said that the lady’s life was so long because she used dark magic and was probably now undead somewhere. And he said that the Archduke is trying to do what was done to us to the whole continent and become the Emperor of the whole world. And that our house, guided right, could get our duke to get his courage back. But I don’t understand how that could be, because we don’t have a duke anymore.” (This is the third son of Baron of Penhome.) He’s a vassal of Grimcliff, but at one time Mountainmarch was a duchy. They became vassals to Canberry a thousand years ago. [End Session 124] [/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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