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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: 8945876" data-attributes="member: 7030144"><p>Session 152 (January 26, 2023)</p><p></p><p>22 O-Tar</p><p>The Council gathers for their morning working meeting. Both Kit and Dame Brionna have letters, both of which they consider important but not time sensitive.</p><p></p><p>Dame Brionna has a report [Attached] from the Ecsillian Archbaronial Guard that they have captured a pair of Hanalian agents, sent out by the Usurper, trying to destabilize things. They have sent out many other agents, especially in the Southlands, including reaching out to warlord Skaven clans and Clan Pestilence to try to reach an agreement and to hire them.</p><p></p><p>The Council talks about trying to identify more people with the gift of true sight. Reaching out to vassals hasn't produced much of anything. They decide to push the church networks, using parish priests to try to identify children with an odd touch or who can always guess people's secrets.</p><p></p><p>They also discuss the importance of engaging in diplomacy with the skaven. Some of the skaven are naturally merging into the new South Kingdoms, but there's still an important need to draw in more of the warlord clans to pacify them and to spread the worship of Glordiadel and Gunnora to them.</p><p></p><p>The skaven are largely impressed by anything shiny, which makes it easy to see how to build up the prestige of skaven leaders that associate with the Empire. They decide to send titles, coronets with eternal fire effects on them, and mithril swords to the skaven that are loyal. Coronets with eternal fire effects should be the shiniest of shinies, and mithril swords will both be extra-shiny weapons and actually materially superior to the weapons of others. All told, it should both strengthen the positions of the skaven who have declared loyalty to the Empire, and simultaneously give them reasons to be even more loyal.</p><p></p><p>The Council also decides to push more counterintelligence efforts to try to catch the agents of the Usurper, with a particular awareness that the refugees need to be supported at the same time as they will surely include infiltrators.</p><p></p><p>Kit also has a message saying that we're very short on fingers and also, to a lesser degree, toes. [Attached] Arms and fingers tend to be domestic--she has received some reports on them, but doesn't have much coverage. Now that they have more domestic areas to cover, they need a lot more. Kit suggests promoting the existing ones and instructing them to recruit more fingers to replace them. They also need more budget.</p><p></p><p>"How large is the orphan population in the Southlands?" asks Dame Brionna.</p><p></p><p>"Huge. Roughly half overall, about a third of whom have no family at all."</p><p></p><p>"What about recruiting some of the scrappy teen-agers? Not children, mind you, but the sorts of young adults who would be apprenticing for trades, if there were trades."</p><p></p><p>Kit also suggests recruiting some peddlers and traveling merchants.</p><p></p><p>There will also surely be opportunities for the Naughty Bits to gain some coverage, although perhaps less so than usual in frontier contexts because of the gender skew. Still, they figure that some of the traveling entertainers and peddlers and the like will probably double by providing companionship in the villages they pass through, and those will make particularly useful agents for the Body.</p><p></p><p>There are also many grandmothers and the like, and Kit decides to make sure they recruit tons of old ladies in the South--they go everywhere, know everything, and no one is surprised if they were gossiping (if they noticed at all).</p><p></p><p>Kit also plans on talking to the Guild leaders. There are surely some rogues who could do more good working for the Body than in the Guild. Also, with the rapid expansion of the Empire, it is necessary to take stock of Guild operations in newly incorporated sections of the Empire. Some of those Guilds are likely not tolerable and useful, in the way that Canberry's is, and many of them may not have the special relationship with the Body (and explicit loyalty to the Archduke) that Canberry's has. The Guild of Canberry will need to take a leading role in making sure that the rest of the Guilds are loyal and understand their role, and to crush and replace any that are instead threats to the Empire or too oppressive to the populace. [delegated to email]</p><p></p><p>* * *</p><p>The Council then identifies three tasks to follow up on: Talking to the senior midwife of Gunnora; Kit and Saint Reuben; and finding out whether they have anything from the voller overflight of the Great Mine.</p><p></p><p>Kit travels down to the church that used to hold the key. There is a new priest there, who has not been fully filled in, and he's quite befuddled. Kit begins explaining why there are many very sincere but sketchy people coming there.</p><p></p><p>"I think the people have realized that this church is special to one of their own, who has now taken his place in Glordiadel's heavenly service. There was a relic here for many years."</p><p></p><p>"I'm pleased to hear that, my lady. And you are here to pray here also?"</p><p></p><p>"Yes, to venerate Saint Reuben."</p><p></p><p>"There are no formal prayers for Saint Reuben. I think he must be Blessed, I don't think he's been formally sainted. I can't find any record of him in the official lists of the Church. Still, if he was holy and a loyal servant of Glordiadel, it's all to the good to have him be venerated."</p><p></p><p>People have moved kneelers over to the front, so they can get as close to the speculum where the relic was. The speculum is glowing nicely, which may be part of why the priest is discombobulated. As Kit reaches out psionically to the speculum, she touches a weak, glittering presence of Light. She feels a feeling of warmth--it makes her feel like she's been blessed. She also notices that all of a sudden, a pouch on one of the rogues briefly glows, and then the glow fades. She thinks his tools have been blessed.</p><p></p><p>Kit asks the priest who that guy is, but the priest doesn't know his name. She asks around, and finds out that it is Ronald the Deft. She also asks that anyone who feels a blessing or who encounters unusual success after praying to the Blessed Reuben pass the word up the Guild to her.</p><p></p><p>She then heads back to the palace, making a substantial donation at the poor box on the way out, and returns to the palace. She then goes to the chapel, and prays to the saint again at the key. She receives an unambiguous blessing ("Your fingers tingle and your rogue skills are increased by +4 for a full 24 hours. In addition to the much more clear blessing: You are not sure what the other blessing did - but I do <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" alt="😁" title="Beaming face with smiling eyes :grin:" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f601.png" data-shortname=":grin:" />"). When she reaches out to the relic psionically, it seems cold--entirely sealed off, like a wall. She suspects that that's deliberate. But it still has some of the touch that she associates with the Blessed Reuben about it. She decides to attend services at the chapel more regularly, and to devote some of her prayers to and through the Blessed Reuben.</p><p></p><p>Alistair also sends a formal letter to the Archbishop informing him of credible reports of miracles by an unknown saint, with a small following for the Blessed Reuben. He asks him to formally begin proceedings to determine if the saint should be recognized by the church.</p><p></p><p>They are also amused to know that that parish will become the parish where all the members of the Guild go, even the mostly irreligious members but especially all the pious ones. That also means that it will suddenly find itself with ample financial resources to care for the poor and needy of the parish, even if the parish priest can never quite figure out how his parishioners find the wealth to be as generous as they are.</p><p></p><p>* * *</p><p>A guard reports that the voller that was sent to overfly the Great Mine has returned; that it was listing badly, but still flying; and the captain will report shortly.</p><p></p><p>Before too much longer, the captain stomps in, with a bandage on his left shoulder.</p><p></p><p>"Imperial Majesty. We have completed the overflight. Despite maintaining altitude, something down there hit us with one blast. We rose, and there were no more blasts, but a half-dozen creatures flew up to engage us. We fought them off with the help of the two paladins and the priest that Dame Brionna sent with us. They were instrumental in the defense of the ship-- we would have lost it without them. The officers and crew can fight, but not like that.</p><p></p><p>"It is clearly active, and the mine is open. I could see that one of the seals still existed, but had been broken. And there are people in and out in substantial numbers. I will also say that when we were at a greater angle, they vanished, and it looked like an abandoned mine again. Now, that leaves me uncertain as to whether they were an illusion, and it is abandoned except for spirits, or whether the appearance of the mine as still abandoned is an illusion to cover what they're doing there."</p><p></p><p>"I bet it's that second one," says Kit.</p><p></p><p>"Especially because something definitely attacked you and then sent additional attackers after you," adds Dame Brionna.</p><p></p><p>"That was also my guess, but I don't want to discount the other possibilities, and the mage, while he was incredibly helpful, was unable to break the illusion, whatever it was, because of our range. We could have gotten closer by landing, but I was afraid, frankly, that the damage to the voller was sufficient that if I landed or came close to landing, I might not be able to get the lift boxes to work again and get us back aloft."</p><p></p><p>"No, you did just as you should have. We needed this report to to come back, and we thank you."</p><p></p><p>Dame Brionna says, "We will need to send a separate squad of people to your ship before anyone disembarks to make sure that the other creatures who attacked you have not tainted anyone."</p><p></p><p>The captain looks very concerned. "I've left my ship."</p><p></p><p>"Well, yes, we'll need to check you as well. Everyone else should stay on it until they have been cleared."</p><p></p><p>"I have not given them liberty, so they will remain there until someone does."</p><p></p><p>"And I will set a squad to go examine them."</p><p></p><p>Alistair calls in young Lord Brightspan to take that message for Dame Brionna, thus ensuring that he'll be able to check the captain.</p><p></p><p>Young Lord Brightspan looks at Kit significantly as he gets the message. Kit immediately adds him to the mindlink, while Dame Brionna discreetly steps between the captain and Alistair.</p><p></p><p><<He's not tainted, but he will be dead within a day if someone doesn't remove that poison.>></p><p></p><p>"Let's see if Bishop Waters can minister to your wound while we continue discussing matters," suggests Alistair.</p><p></p><p>"Oh, thank you, Your Majesty, but it's not anything I haven't felt before."</p><p></p><p>Kit sends, <<Yeah, I kind of think it is something he has never felt before...>></p><p></p><p>"Can you describe the flying creatures, or draw them?" asks Alistair.</p><p></p><p>"I could draw one of them. I don't quite know how to just describe them. They were like nothing I had ever seen before."</p><p></p><p>They hand him a piece of paper and some pencils.</p><p></p><p>He draws what looks to be a relative of a vrock. They're not the same, but they have a similar look, with vulture like head and features, though the wings are leathery, not feathered, and the body is much smaller. He draws the ship for scale as well. "My men had a devil of a time hitting them, but your cleric didn't, nor your paladin."</p><p></p><p>"Unholy creatures, then," says Dame Brionna. "That makes sense."</p><p></p><p>"I struck one of them."</p><p></p><p>"Did your weapon leave a wound?"</p><p></p><p>"Not as large as I expected, but yes. I think their flesh must be very dense. My sword has been blessed by the Church, though."</p><p></p><p>"That's why you were able to hit," says Kit.</p><p></p><p>"But even then resistant," comments Alistair. He pulls out an elven codex with pictures and drawings of some pterodactyl like creatures that fly over the eldritch islands. "Can you look at these pictures? Are they what you saw?"</p><p></p><p>"Maybe they are, actually. My drawing isn't perfect. This is from an actual artist. I think so, Your Majesty, he's just better at drawing than me."</p><p></p><p>The Council does their own comparison between the pictures, and agrees that they look like efforts to draw the same thing.</p><p></p><p>"The other thing we've been told about are corrupted griffins, but these don't look like that at all, right?"</p><p></p><p>"Oh, no, I know griffins. Once in a while, if you're carrying live stock, they'll come after it, you know. These weren't griffins, not even griffins that had been changed. I've never seen these things before."</p><p></p><p>"That's the first report we've had of these things inland in this incursion," comments Alistair with concern.</p><p></p><p>"And it also eliminates any doubt about who this is that has reopened the Mine," adds Dame Brionna.</p><p></p><p>"Did you see any structures on the ground when you were when you were able to see the broken seal and so forth? Were they building anything or just working on the mine?"</p><p></p><p>"Looked like there was a fortification in front of the mine mouth."</p><p></p><p>"Do you have any estimates on the number of people that there might have been in the operation?"</p><p></p><p>"We saw over 50, coming and going. Don't know how many there were in the mine itself, though."</p><p></p><p>"Over 50... but you didn't see dwellings for more than however many could fit in the fortification?"</p><p></p><p>"For a few hundred, perhaps, without cramming. But no, I didn't see any dwellings besides the fortification. At least, not outside the mine itself."</p><p></p><p>"But the fortification couldn't hold thousands."</p><p></p><p>"No. Even slaves need more room than that. Oh, we did see a small bevy of slaves being taken in. Shame they were too far away for us to do anything. They arrived in wagons."</p><p></p><p>"That, we could track," comments Dame Brionna.</p><p></p><p>"Didn't look like any of the wagons around here, though."</p><p></p><p>"How were they different?" asks Kit.</p><p></p><p>"They weren't as well built. Even farmers have good wagons here. We're a successful nation. These were barely holding together. They were shoddy."</p><p></p><p>"Did they look like they were old and wearing out or new and poorly built?"</p><p></p><p>"Just poorly built. It's real important to build them right when you start-- my brother-in-law is a carpenter."</p><p></p><p>"Did you see the teamsters at all?" asks Alistair. "Were they humans?"</p><p></p><p>"They were not. Not sure what exactly they were, but orks or some form of ork-kind, I would think."</p><p></p><p>Alistair turns to his councillors. "The other thing that's interesting about those slavers is they can't possibly be the Aragoni. They would never tolerate ramshackle wagons."</p><p></p><p>Dame Brionna scowls. "I hate that the reason we don't think it's that other bad group that we know about is because they wouldn't tolerate low-quality wagons in their slaving operations."</p><p></p><p>"My starting assumption was that maybe they were dealing with the Aragoni, and then I thought, they would use high-quality slave wagons. Even if it were orks or uruks following the Aragoni, instead of drow or the like, if they had wagons like he's describing, the Aragoni would make an example out of them and destroy them."</p><p></p><p>"Right," agrees Kit. "But that also means that they are limited in the skills and resources that they have."</p><p></p><p>"We knew that there were some orks that were traveling farther north to the old caves, and so they may have fallen in with this group. But the other thing is, that implies that tons of people are dying in this operation, because there's not nearly enough people there to account for the people we know have gone there. And if they're also bringing in slaves, presumably doing some of the unskilled labor..."</p><p></p><p>"That's what makes me think that there's a high death rate," says Kit. "I don't think there were only 50 people--I think there were probably a lot more than that in the mine itself and not seen."</p><p></p><p>"I'm sure. But trying to persuade stone masons that they should live underground as opposed to building proper homes and then traveling into the mine for the day, and then coming out, would be a hard task."</p><p></p><p>"It doesn't seem like they're caring much about the quality of the accommodation for anyone here," replies Dame Brionna.</p><p></p><p>"No, but that's part of my point. They are doing things that would require them to be maintaining fear and oppression the whole time if they're forcing them to stay underground the whole time. They started with people who traveled there because they're being paid a lot of money to work on a project, no questions asked. Those are going to be people who are perfectly willing to go underground and haul things out and work with some weird monster standing nearby. But you start telling them that they can't ever come back to the surface, and now they're going to revolt. So, either they don't care, or they are letting them back to the surface, or the people just don't last very long. It seems more likely to me that as each group arrives, the older people there warn them that things can get dangerous down there, but they live on the surface, until they die as well."</p><p></p><p>"The first thing we really need to do then is to really cut off the supply of stone masons," says Dame Brionna. "I know we've done some work on that, but we need to tighten it up."</p><p></p><p>"The other thing is if we have slavers who are traveling out and traveling back in, then we have people we can grab and squeeze for intelligence."</p><p></p><p>"They might be going to the Underdark, but even so."</p><p></p><p>"But these ones were arriving in wagons from the surface, right? And from the underdark they would they would hit the drow, who know that this area is forbidden. So let's start with the surface slavers. We need to talk to the mason's guilds and get them to send out an alert warning people off from this. Kit, maybe you could do that through your dad."</p><p></p><p>"That's what I was thinking."</p><p></p><p>"And then follow the slavers. I don't know if aerial patrols can do this effectively. I think we need to put boots on the ground--let's say 10 or 20 miles away, close enough in that they can patrol and catch them, but far enough out that they're not going to get spotted by the establishment itself."</p><p></p><p>"Pretty good duty," notes Dame Brionna .We can use that to give some practical experience to some of the new troops we're trying to train up."</p><p></p><p>"It sounds like the sort of thing that a full legion is probably overkill on, but it might be good to have some backup. Especially because we really do want them to make a clean grab, because we don't want anyone escaping and bringing word back that our troops are on the ground."</p><p></p><p>"We need to also work to cut off any stone masons coming in as well."</p><p></p><p>"A thousand troops isn't enough to maintain a cordon, but it'll still do something."</p><p></p><p>Dame Brionna turns back to the captain. "Can you describe the blast at all?"</p><p></p><p>"It was like a yellow ray with a glob of yellow mucus on the end."</p><p></p><p>"Yuck, that's gross," says Kit.</p><p></p><p>"That doesn't sound anything like a death lance. Those just shoot a purple light beam. It's not totally dissimilar to energy lances--those throw a pure white ball of energy with a trail of energy behind it. So this could be something like a corrupted or eldritch version of an energy lance."</p><p></p><p>Shortly thereafter, Father Waters enters. "Your Grace."</p><p></p><p>"This man appears to have been poisoned. Please cure him if you can, and also let us know what the poison is, if at all possible, and if not, we need to know what other help he needs. He was struck by a creature of the Eldritch."</p><p></p><p>"Ah. Let me see." He sniffs at the wound and looks at the discoloration. "I'm familiar with this poison. It's a magnified form of a forest spider venom. It's good that you called for me, Your Majesty, it would have stopped his heart within hours. A painless way to go, but not desirable. I can neutralize it easily. They must have been dipping their weapons in it."</p><p></p><p>"Claws, actually."</p><p></p><p>"That doesn't sound like a common sort of poison," notes Kit.</p><p></p><p>"No, an alchemist would have to do the work of concentrating it."</p><p></p><p>"So that's a question. Do they have an alchemist there to fashion them a weapon? Is the venom rare?"</p><p></p><p>"Rare? No. But it's not normally enough to be used to poison weapons or claws. That's what would take the work concentrating it and building up enough of a supply."</p><p></p><p>"They must have a lot of it if they're dipping claws in it. We'll need to check everyone else on the voller--anyone else who has wounds might be poisoned, and even a scratch could be deadly."</p><p></p><p>"That's another supply that they'll be getting in, though," notes Kit, "And so another another weak point that can be leaned on."</p><p></p><p>"I had no difficulty curing the poison. However, the wounds did not respond to my spells. Perhaps they could be treated by a Redactor. I had already heard about wounds made by the Eldritch that shrug off attempts at healing, at least by priests."</p><p></p><p>"That's going to be devastating if we are dealing with more of them," comments Dame Brionna.</p><p></p><p>"Is that something that we can modify our healing magic to counteract or something like that? In the same way that the priests of Morgrath were able to develop the detection magics that were customized for the Eldritch, can we develop healing magics customized for this as well? It offends me that Glordiadel's healing magic not be able to heal their wounds."</p><p></p><p>"We can certainly experiment with the healing. The Morgrathian Mother of Death for the continent developed her modified spells through experimentation. I can try experimenting with the injured.</p><p></p><p>"And, Captain, would you be willing? I certainly will not order you to participate in such a process, but..."</p><p></p><p>"I serve the Empire."</p><p></p><p>"We thank you."</p><p></p><p>"And if the wound needs to be healed and the experimentation is not proceeding fast enough, make sure that he gets proper Redaction."</p><p></p><p>"Very good, Your Majesty. Come along!"</p><p></p><p>"And Bishop Waters, if you could coordinate with Dame Brionna's squad, to make sure that all the rest of the people on the voller have been taken care of?"</p><p></p><p>"Of course."</p><p></p><p>Somewhat later, they receive a report back: Except for the paladins, everyone on the ship who was wounded has the same unhealable wounds. The paladins appear to be immune to that effect.</p><p></p><p>"That's interesting. A paladin's primary immunity is an immunity to disease, which includes magical diseases..." muses Alistair. "That makes me wonder if the application of of a remove disease effect would then allow for normal healing. I'll share that idea with Bishop Waters."</p><p></p><p>"And if it is a disease, then we need to make sure that there aren't other effects besides the obvious effect on healing," says Dame Brionna.</p><p></p><p>Bishop Waters reports back in a few hours. "An adequately powerful cure disease allows the wounds to be healed. I was able to do so. And at my suggestion, the canon who was directing the priests on the ship was able to do so. However, a regular priest who had only recently been gifted with cure disease had no effect."</p><p></p><p>"I didn't think that cure disease varied that way," comments Kit. "I thought it was either you could do it, or you couldn't."</p><p></p><p>"It usually doesn't."</p><p></p><p>"Are there any other diseases that react this way to priests of different degrees of experience?"</p><p></p><p>"There aren't all that many diseases to be cured, because the Divine Compact limits disease to a three-day spread. But there is one example I can think of. Diseases spread by Clan Pestilence of the Skaven have the same effect, where lesser priests cannot cure it but the most talented and blessed of healers can."</p><p></p><p>"Oh, that's very interesting!" exclaims Kit.</p><p></p><p>"Do we know if the Horned Rat is formally part of this group working with the Eldritch?" asks Dame Brionna.</p><p></p><p>"We know that the Horned Rat was driven by them into flight from his world to here," responds the Bishop.</p><p></p><p>"So the Horned Rat should be opposed to Eldritch," says Kit.</p><p></p><p>"He has actually provided intelligence to the Ecumenical Council."</p><p></p><p>"But that could just be a trait of some diseases from the place that they both came from," reasons Kit. "So, not necessarily that it's the Horned Rat who is involved with this particular disease. But that that's a traditional disease from that place."</p><p></p><p>"We can talk with the midwife of Gunnora, and she may know more about that," suggests Alistair. "We'll have to inform our various allies about this as well. Do we want to to talk with Princess Curinirim about this? She was also sending a voller to do an overflight."</p><p></p><p>"Yes, let's see what they found," replies Dame Brionna. "Maybe they found different things. Maybe they have different scrying techniques than we do."</p><p>[cont'd]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="CPaladin, post: 8945876, member: 7030144"] Session 152 (January 26, 2023) 22 O-Tar The Council gathers for their morning working meeting. Both Kit and Dame Brionna have letters, both of which they consider important but not time sensitive. Dame Brionna has a report [Attached] from the Ecsillian Archbaronial Guard that they have captured a pair of Hanalian agents, sent out by the Usurper, trying to destabilize things. They have sent out many other agents, especially in the Southlands, including reaching out to warlord Skaven clans and Clan Pestilence to try to reach an agreement and to hire them. The Council talks about trying to identify more people with the gift of true sight. Reaching out to vassals hasn't produced much of anything. They decide to push the church networks, using parish priests to try to identify children with an odd touch or who can always guess people's secrets. They also discuss the importance of engaging in diplomacy with the skaven. Some of the skaven are naturally merging into the new South Kingdoms, but there's still an important need to draw in more of the warlord clans to pacify them and to spread the worship of Glordiadel and Gunnora to them. The skaven are largely impressed by anything shiny, which makes it easy to see how to build up the prestige of skaven leaders that associate with the Empire. They decide to send titles, coronets with eternal fire effects on them, and mithril swords to the skaven that are loyal. Coronets with eternal fire effects should be the shiniest of shinies, and mithril swords will both be extra-shiny weapons and actually materially superior to the weapons of others. All told, it should both strengthen the positions of the skaven who have declared loyalty to the Empire, and simultaneously give them reasons to be even more loyal. The Council also decides to push more counterintelligence efforts to try to catch the agents of the Usurper, with a particular awareness that the refugees need to be supported at the same time as they will surely include infiltrators. Kit also has a message saying that we're very short on fingers and also, to a lesser degree, toes. [Attached] Arms and fingers tend to be domestic--she has received some reports on them, but doesn't have much coverage. Now that they have more domestic areas to cover, they need a lot more. Kit suggests promoting the existing ones and instructing them to recruit more fingers to replace them. They also need more budget. "How large is the orphan population in the Southlands?" asks Dame Brionna. "Huge. Roughly half overall, about a third of whom have no family at all." "What about recruiting some of the scrappy teen-agers? Not children, mind you, but the sorts of young adults who would be apprenticing for trades, if there were trades." Kit also suggests recruiting some peddlers and traveling merchants. There will also surely be opportunities for the Naughty Bits to gain some coverage, although perhaps less so than usual in frontier contexts because of the gender skew. Still, they figure that some of the traveling entertainers and peddlers and the like will probably double by providing companionship in the villages they pass through, and those will make particularly useful agents for the Body. There are also many grandmothers and the like, and Kit decides to make sure they recruit tons of old ladies in the South--they go everywhere, know everything, and no one is surprised if they were gossiping (if they noticed at all). Kit also plans on talking to the Guild leaders. There are surely some rogues who could do more good working for the Body than in the Guild. Also, with the rapid expansion of the Empire, it is necessary to take stock of Guild operations in newly incorporated sections of the Empire. Some of those Guilds are likely not tolerable and useful, in the way that Canberry's is, and many of them may not have the special relationship with the Body (and explicit loyalty to the Archduke) that Canberry's has. The Guild of Canberry will need to take a leading role in making sure that the rest of the Guilds are loyal and understand their role, and to crush and replace any that are instead threats to the Empire or too oppressive to the populace. [delegated to email] * * * The Council then identifies three tasks to follow up on: Talking to the senior midwife of Gunnora; Kit and Saint Reuben; and finding out whether they have anything from the voller overflight of the Great Mine. Kit travels down to the church that used to hold the key. There is a new priest there, who has not been fully filled in, and he's quite befuddled. Kit begins explaining why there are many very sincere but sketchy people coming there. "I think the people have realized that this church is special to one of their own, who has now taken his place in Glordiadel's heavenly service. There was a relic here for many years." "I'm pleased to hear that, my lady. And you are here to pray here also?" "Yes, to venerate Saint Reuben." "There are no formal prayers for Saint Reuben. I think he must be Blessed, I don't think he's been formally sainted. I can't find any record of him in the official lists of the Church. Still, if he was holy and a loyal servant of Glordiadel, it's all to the good to have him be venerated." People have moved kneelers over to the front, so they can get as close to the speculum where the relic was. The speculum is glowing nicely, which may be part of why the priest is discombobulated. As Kit reaches out psionically to the speculum, she touches a weak, glittering presence of Light. She feels a feeling of warmth--it makes her feel like she's been blessed. She also notices that all of a sudden, a pouch on one of the rogues briefly glows, and then the glow fades. She thinks his tools have been blessed. Kit asks the priest who that guy is, but the priest doesn't know his name. She asks around, and finds out that it is Ronald the Deft. She also asks that anyone who feels a blessing or who encounters unusual success after praying to the Blessed Reuben pass the word up the Guild to her. She then heads back to the palace, making a substantial donation at the poor box on the way out, and returns to the palace. She then goes to the chapel, and prays to the saint again at the key. She receives an unambiguous blessing ("Your fingers tingle and your rogue skills are increased by +4 for a full 24 hours. In addition to the much more clear blessing: You are not sure what the other blessing did - but I do 😁"). When she reaches out to the relic psionically, it seems cold--entirely sealed off, like a wall. She suspects that that's deliberate. But it still has some of the touch that she associates with the Blessed Reuben about it. She decides to attend services at the chapel more regularly, and to devote some of her prayers to and through the Blessed Reuben. Alistair also sends a formal letter to the Archbishop informing him of credible reports of miracles by an unknown saint, with a small following for the Blessed Reuben. He asks him to formally begin proceedings to determine if the saint should be recognized by the church. They are also amused to know that that parish will become the parish where all the members of the Guild go, even the mostly irreligious members but especially all the pious ones. That also means that it will suddenly find itself with ample financial resources to care for the poor and needy of the parish, even if the parish priest can never quite figure out how his parishioners find the wealth to be as generous as they are. * * * A guard reports that the voller that was sent to overfly the Great Mine has returned; that it was listing badly, but still flying; and the captain will report shortly. Before too much longer, the captain stomps in, with a bandage on his left shoulder. "Imperial Majesty. We have completed the overflight. Despite maintaining altitude, something down there hit us with one blast. We rose, and there were no more blasts, but a half-dozen creatures flew up to engage us. We fought them off with the help of the two paladins and the priest that Dame Brionna sent with us. They were instrumental in the defense of the ship-- we would have lost it without them. The officers and crew can fight, but not like that. "It is clearly active, and the mine is open. I could see that one of the seals still existed, but had been broken. And there are people in and out in substantial numbers. I will also say that when we were at a greater angle, they vanished, and it looked like an abandoned mine again. Now, that leaves me uncertain as to whether they were an illusion, and it is abandoned except for spirits, or whether the appearance of the mine as still abandoned is an illusion to cover what they're doing there." "I bet it's that second one," says Kit. "Especially because something definitely attacked you and then sent additional attackers after you," adds Dame Brionna. "That was also my guess, but I don't want to discount the other possibilities, and the mage, while he was incredibly helpful, was unable to break the illusion, whatever it was, because of our range. We could have gotten closer by landing, but I was afraid, frankly, that the damage to the voller was sufficient that if I landed or came close to landing, I might not be able to get the lift boxes to work again and get us back aloft." "No, you did just as you should have. We needed this report to to come back, and we thank you." Dame Brionna says, "We will need to send a separate squad of people to your ship before anyone disembarks to make sure that the other creatures who attacked you have not tainted anyone." The captain looks very concerned. "I've left my ship." "Well, yes, we'll need to check you as well. Everyone else should stay on it until they have been cleared." "I have not given them liberty, so they will remain there until someone does." "And I will set a squad to go examine them." Alistair calls in young Lord Brightspan to take that message for Dame Brionna, thus ensuring that he'll be able to check the captain. Young Lord Brightspan looks at Kit significantly as he gets the message. Kit immediately adds him to the mindlink, while Dame Brionna discreetly steps between the captain and Alistair. <<He's not tainted, but he will be dead within a day if someone doesn't remove that poison.>> "Let's see if Bishop Waters can minister to your wound while we continue discussing matters," suggests Alistair. "Oh, thank you, Your Majesty, but it's not anything I haven't felt before." Kit sends, <<Yeah, I kind of think it is something he has never felt before...>> "Can you describe the flying creatures, or draw them?" asks Alistair. "I could draw one of them. I don't quite know how to just describe them. They were like nothing I had ever seen before." They hand him a piece of paper and some pencils. He draws what looks to be a relative of a vrock. They're not the same, but they have a similar look, with vulture like head and features, though the wings are leathery, not feathered, and the body is much smaller. He draws the ship for scale as well. "My men had a devil of a time hitting them, but your cleric didn't, nor your paladin." "Unholy creatures, then," says Dame Brionna. "That makes sense." "I struck one of them." "Did your weapon leave a wound?" "Not as large as I expected, but yes. I think their flesh must be very dense. My sword has been blessed by the Church, though." "That's why you were able to hit," says Kit. "But even then resistant," comments Alistair. He pulls out an elven codex with pictures and drawings of some pterodactyl like creatures that fly over the eldritch islands. "Can you look at these pictures? Are they what you saw?" "Maybe they are, actually. My drawing isn't perfect. This is from an actual artist. I think so, Your Majesty, he's just better at drawing than me." The Council does their own comparison between the pictures, and agrees that they look like efforts to draw the same thing. "The other thing we've been told about are corrupted griffins, but these don't look like that at all, right?" "Oh, no, I know griffins. Once in a while, if you're carrying live stock, they'll come after it, you know. These weren't griffins, not even griffins that had been changed. I've never seen these things before." "That's the first report we've had of these things inland in this incursion," comments Alistair with concern. "And it also eliminates any doubt about who this is that has reopened the Mine," adds Dame Brionna. "Did you see any structures on the ground when you were when you were able to see the broken seal and so forth? Were they building anything or just working on the mine?" "Looked like there was a fortification in front of the mine mouth." "Do you have any estimates on the number of people that there might have been in the operation?" "We saw over 50, coming and going. Don't know how many there were in the mine itself, though." "Over 50... but you didn't see dwellings for more than however many could fit in the fortification?" "For a few hundred, perhaps, without cramming. But no, I didn't see any dwellings besides the fortification. At least, not outside the mine itself." "But the fortification couldn't hold thousands." "No. Even slaves need more room than that. Oh, we did see a small bevy of slaves being taken in. Shame they were too far away for us to do anything. They arrived in wagons." "That, we could track," comments Dame Brionna. "Didn't look like any of the wagons around here, though." "How were they different?" asks Kit. "They weren't as well built. Even farmers have good wagons here. We're a successful nation. These were barely holding together. They were shoddy." "Did they look like they were old and wearing out or new and poorly built?" "Just poorly built. It's real important to build them right when you start-- my brother-in-law is a carpenter." "Did you see the teamsters at all?" asks Alistair. "Were they humans?" "They were not. Not sure what exactly they were, but orks or some form of ork-kind, I would think." Alistair turns to his councillors. "The other thing that's interesting about those slavers is they can't possibly be the Aragoni. They would never tolerate ramshackle wagons." Dame Brionna scowls. "I hate that the reason we don't think it's that other bad group that we know about is because they wouldn't tolerate low-quality wagons in their slaving operations." "My starting assumption was that maybe they were dealing with the Aragoni, and then I thought, they would use high-quality slave wagons. Even if it were orks or uruks following the Aragoni, instead of drow or the like, if they had wagons like he's describing, the Aragoni would make an example out of them and destroy them." "Right," agrees Kit. "But that also means that they are limited in the skills and resources that they have." "We knew that there were some orks that were traveling farther north to the old caves, and so they may have fallen in with this group. But the other thing is, that implies that tons of people are dying in this operation, because there's not nearly enough people there to account for the people we know have gone there. And if they're also bringing in slaves, presumably doing some of the unskilled labor..." "That's what makes me think that there's a high death rate," says Kit. "I don't think there were only 50 people--I think there were probably a lot more than that in the mine itself and not seen." "I'm sure. But trying to persuade stone masons that they should live underground as opposed to building proper homes and then traveling into the mine for the day, and then coming out, would be a hard task." "It doesn't seem like they're caring much about the quality of the accommodation for anyone here," replies Dame Brionna. "No, but that's part of my point. They are doing things that would require them to be maintaining fear and oppression the whole time if they're forcing them to stay underground the whole time. They started with people who traveled there because they're being paid a lot of money to work on a project, no questions asked. Those are going to be people who are perfectly willing to go underground and haul things out and work with some weird monster standing nearby. But you start telling them that they can't ever come back to the surface, and now they're going to revolt. So, either they don't care, or they are letting them back to the surface, or the people just don't last very long. It seems more likely to me that as each group arrives, the older people there warn them that things can get dangerous down there, but they live on the surface, until they die as well." "The first thing we really need to do then is to really cut off the supply of stone masons," says Dame Brionna. "I know we've done some work on that, but we need to tighten it up." "The other thing is if we have slavers who are traveling out and traveling back in, then we have people we can grab and squeeze for intelligence." "They might be going to the Underdark, but even so." "But these ones were arriving in wagons from the surface, right? And from the underdark they would they would hit the drow, who know that this area is forbidden. So let's start with the surface slavers. We need to talk to the mason's guilds and get them to send out an alert warning people off from this. Kit, maybe you could do that through your dad." "That's what I was thinking." "And then follow the slavers. I don't know if aerial patrols can do this effectively. I think we need to put boots on the ground--let's say 10 or 20 miles away, close enough in that they can patrol and catch them, but far enough out that they're not going to get spotted by the establishment itself." "Pretty good duty," notes Dame Brionna .We can use that to give some practical experience to some of the new troops we're trying to train up." "It sounds like the sort of thing that a full legion is probably overkill on, but it might be good to have some backup. Especially because we really do want them to make a clean grab, because we don't want anyone escaping and bringing word back that our troops are on the ground." "We need to also work to cut off any stone masons coming in as well." "A thousand troops isn't enough to maintain a cordon, but it'll still do something." Dame Brionna turns back to the captain. "Can you describe the blast at all?" "It was like a yellow ray with a glob of yellow mucus on the end." "Yuck, that's gross," says Kit. "That doesn't sound anything like a death lance. Those just shoot a purple light beam. It's not totally dissimilar to energy lances--those throw a pure white ball of energy with a trail of energy behind it. So this could be something like a corrupted or eldritch version of an energy lance." Shortly thereafter, Father Waters enters. "Your Grace." "This man appears to have been poisoned. Please cure him if you can, and also let us know what the poison is, if at all possible, and if not, we need to know what other help he needs. He was struck by a creature of the Eldritch." "Ah. Let me see." He sniffs at the wound and looks at the discoloration. "I'm familiar with this poison. It's a magnified form of a forest spider venom. It's good that you called for me, Your Majesty, it would have stopped his heart within hours. A painless way to go, but not desirable. I can neutralize it easily. They must have been dipping their weapons in it." "Claws, actually." "That doesn't sound like a common sort of poison," notes Kit. "No, an alchemist would have to do the work of concentrating it." "So that's a question. Do they have an alchemist there to fashion them a weapon? Is the venom rare?" "Rare? No. But it's not normally enough to be used to poison weapons or claws. That's what would take the work concentrating it and building up enough of a supply." "They must have a lot of it if they're dipping claws in it. We'll need to check everyone else on the voller--anyone else who has wounds might be poisoned, and even a scratch could be deadly." "That's another supply that they'll be getting in, though," notes Kit, "And so another another weak point that can be leaned on." "I had no difficulty curing the poison. However, the wounds did not respond to my spells. Perhaps they could be treated by a Redactor. I had already heard about wounds made by the Eldritch that shrug off attempts at healing, at least by priests." "That's going to be devastating if we are dealing with more of them," comments Dame Brionna. "Is that something that we can modify our healing magic to counteract or something like that? In the same way that the priests of Morgrath were able to develop the detection magics that were customized for the Eldritch, can we develop healing magics customized for this as well? It offends me that Glordiadel's healing magic not be able to heal their wounds." "We can certainly experiment with the healing. The Morgrathian Mother of Death for the continent developed her modified spells through experimentation. I can try experimenting with the injured. "And, Captain, would you be willing? I certainly will not order you to participate in such a process, but..." "I serve the Empire." "We thank you." "And if the wound needs to be healed and the experimentation is not proceeding fast enough, make sure that he gets proper Redaction." "Very good, Your Majesty. Come along!" "And Bishop Waters, if you could coordinate with Dame Brionna's squad, to make sure that all the rest of the people on the voller have been taken care of?" "Of course." Somewhat later, they receive a report back: Except for the paladins, everyone on the ship who was wounded has the same unhealable wounds. The paladins appear to be immune to that effect. "That's interesting. A paladin's primary immunity is an immunity to disease, which includes magical diseases..." muses Alistair. "That makes me wonder if the application of of a remove disease effect would then allow for normal healing. I'll share that idea with Bishop Waters." "And if it is a disease, then we need to make sure that there aren't other effects besides the obvious effect on healing," says Dame Brionna. Bishop Waters reports back in a few hours. "An adequately powerful cure disease allows the wounds to be healed. I was able to do so. And at my suggestion, the canon who was directing the priests on the ship was able to do so. However, a regular priest who had only recently been gifted with cure disease had no effect." "I didn't think that cure disease varied that way," comments Kit. "I thought it was either you could do it, or you couldn't." "It usually doesn't." "Are there any other diseases that react this way to priests of different degrees of experience?" "There aren't all that many diseases to be cured, because the Divine Compact limits disease to a three-day spread. But there is one example I can think of. Diseases spread by Clan Pestilence of the Skaven have the same effect, where lesser priests cannot cure it but the most talented and blessed of healers can." "Oh, that's very interesting!" exclaims Kit. "Do we know if the Horned Rat is formally part of this group working with the Eldritch?" asks Dame Brionna. "We know that the Horned Rat was driven by them into flight from his world to here," responds the Bishop. "So the Horned Rat should be opposed to Eldritch," says Kit. "He has actually provided intelligence to the Ecumenical Council." "But that could just be a trait of some diseases from the place that they both came from," reasons Kit. "So, not necessarily that it's the Horned Rat who is involved with this particular disease. But that that's a traditional disease from that place." "We can talk with the midwife of Gunnora, and she may know more about that," suggests Alistair. "We'll have to inform our various allies about this as well. Do we want to to talk with Princess Curinirim about this? She was also sending a voller to do an overflight." "Yes, let's see what they found," replies Dame Brionna. "Maybe they found different things. Maybe they have different scrying techniques than we do." [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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