Aphonion Tales: The Archducal Council -- Unedited notes; later posts are edited transcripts (posts MWF, update 3/1/23)

[CPaladin]

[Session 98 cont'd]
Dame Brionna got a message more or less from the Skaven in the Southern Kingdoms. [See attached.] They’re using a lot of intermediaries to deny responsibility. They want Canberry to know that Clan Skrutan which is a medium size warlord clan is planning on sending several thousand troops to attack the festivities of the Queen and the Archduke.

This is probably intended to attack around the birth of the children.

They have a device that conceals their nests. The Council discusses that with Grandmaster Farsensor.

“There are clearly areas in which my vision is turned away. I can see where they are, but I can’t see into them. There is a shallow nest of caves—I don’t think they’re connected to the Underdark."

The Council talks directly to Clan Skree of the skaven. They assume that humans have roughly similar gestation periods as in their homeland—about 30-40 days. Their days were about 10% longer. Skaven gestation period is about 20 days, with litters of 6-10. The only long gestation period were of the elves, who were terrible and hated and feared—more like Noldar than elves.

The Council comes up with a plan to collapse the tunnel; wait for food to get scarce; then offer them food if they revolt, with troops to maintain order and back them up. We deploy two field armies of cavalry, and one of light infantry to execute the plan.-

They are told that offering food to revolt and switch sides is common among warlord clans, and should work. Among the great clans, it would not work--they have more internal loyalty. There are 4 great clans—Skree, Eshen, Postulus, and one other; Mordh will join those 4 soon, and then the Council of 4 will be the Council of 5.

The Skree also say that if Canberry defeats the warlord clan and the great clans make reprisals against the warlord clan for drawing Canberry's ire, Canberry would be entitled to the warlord clan's “breeders”; the Council agrees that those need to be freed of course.

A few days later:
They get a recommendation back from the ankle to promote the knee to the spine, and to start reconstructing the networks in Hanal.

They get a messenger back from the Church of Paranswarm. Word has been spent discretely to priests who are know to be loyal in the city (the hierarchs in the city are corrupt), and the priests who are loyal will deal.
[End session 98]

 

[CPaladin]

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]

 

[CPaladin]

[Session 99, cont'd]
The Archducal Council also examine the vollers that we were given by Hanal. The dreadnought is a snazzy thing, but the others are shoddier—they’ll fly and they’re combat worthy, but they’re dangerous. But that’s also Hanal’s reputation in general; they make up for lower quality with more numbers. They also ask Princess Anastasia to examine it. She reports that the others are standard, but the dreadnought is not Hanalian; it was likely from the Inquisitorial forces; possibly decommissioned. They have a reputation for not going down easily. Their specialty is bombards. The mages have to work hard to make the powder of compressed magic that powers the bombards. Kit and Dame Brionna also examine the powder room. It’s full of chests—they may never have discovered this. It has 48 charges. It still has Inquisition seals on the chests. The Inquisitor General of Northern Drucien was found to be a traitor and was put to death. This was his ship. He must not have been able to fly it because of the scope of the holy presence. There’s another room that we ought to check—the bilge. It was an Inquisitorial vessel. Kit withdraws, and Dame Constance sends a junior diabolist. We also start measuring every room to make sure that we have every space found. There were nine of these originally, but they had slightly different designs each.

They open the bilge, prepared for undead. There is a stair down, but a horrific howling echoes up. “Yep, that’s undead,” says Anastasia’s voller advisor. A group of shadows surge up from under the deck—actually wraiths. The priest turns and the wraiths dissipate. Those were probably the remains of prisoners who were here when he turned. And in fact there were chained skeletons along one wall.

The priest is examining the chamber. This is tightly sealed; every possible entrance is sealed. It will restrain undead almost indefinitely, and its proof against teleportation except by the most mighty. It’s warded against scrying except by the most powerful; ordinary psions or mages scrying will not realize that it isn’t solid.

Grandmaster Farsensor guides Dame Brionna to a hidden area in the captain’s quarter, where there is an enormous sense of chaos. There’s something in there. It’s a small knot of pure chaos. It doesn’t have a physical form; it’s contained by the magical wards of the chamber. It has evil as well, although the chaos was more obvious. Grandmaster Farsensor comes to join Dame Brionna. "It will be safe for me. I have something that I think can destroy it safely." He draws out a phial of pure glowing light. It’s the essence of when the Creator made the universe. "I believe it will destroy and cancel the chaos. I believe that the chaos is a talisman of the One of the Pale Bone. It would corrupt any human exposed to it for a while. I think it was what corrupted the Inquisitor General."

He extends the phial in, and is flung across the room. The whole room becomes completely silent, as if all the sound was sucked out of the room. “Well. It winded me, and the phial protected us from the worst of it. I did not know that a human could construct a containment chamber that good. It will contain almost anything. This couldn’t have been created by a pure blood human. This chamber is lined in a thin layer of aeog.” Humans can work high glass, a few vidridur, and a very few with small quantities of laen. Only the Eldar, Noldar, and Eldron can work aeog.

The next hidden spot has a number of books and a small casket. “Oh, look at that. An original copy of the Scriptures of Darkness. And a listing of everyone he put to death before he became a heretic. And the more valuable jewelry of the people who he put to death.”

(They also ask the Mistress of the Bedchamber and the Gunnoran chief midwife to see if they can nudge Grandmaster Farsensor’s special friend into conceiving, despite her age and his Eldar status.)

They nudge again about an audience with the Overqueen; she is made to understand the urgency of wanting it to happen before the children come to term.

The women and children of the Skaven clan are delivered by the Council. (The adult males in the clan still in the Council lands were put to death.) The Archducal Council also makes sure the Skaven Council knows of the Eshen theft. The Eshen, Skree, and Moldar leadership all are thankful and wish to support the Empire in routing out the problem.

The Archducal Council notifies Princess Curinirim about the Aeog chamber, and she reports that one of the two high glass master smiths produced 13 Aeog chambers for the Paranswarmian. They were ordered by the Archduchess when she became Protector and Defender of the Faith. They were intended to contain artifacts of the greatest level of danger until they could be destroyed. But a talisman of one of the Pariah was not something it was intended for, and would leak; there are runes that could stop that, but they weren’t used.
[End session 99]

 

[CPaladin]

Session 100 (April 25, 2019)

25 Ghast
The Duke of Brightspan sends an oral message that he is sending a tithe of cattle in addition to the ordinary grain shipment, and that it is substantial—some 10,000 head. He has insufficient herders for them to survive the winter, so the alternative was to slaughter.

The Council makes plans to redistribute them to refugee camps, and after they calve, to move some of the calves down to the south by vollers.

They also plan on scanning the cattle to make sure they’re not contaminated by demons or something like that; mostly this is concern about the Order of the Ram.

This has to indicate massive depopulation in the Duchy of Brightspan, which was close enough to the flow of the army.

After that’s planned for, everything goes smoothly until the Council of Southern Drucien.

30 Ghast
They invited all of the rulers of realms of humans or other younger people, including the rakasta lords of the Spice Lands, located south of the Barrier Mountains to attend the Council. They also invited the Drow to send an observer, and they did, from House Aleval. The Elves send a Star Priestess, who arrives.

The Holder of Two attends himself, having left the Mountains of the Mages to attend. He is a decrepit looking old human, but with parts of him replaced with metal parts. He has a strange staff worked in laen and high glass, clearly not of human make.

They begin with private meetings with all the various guests, before the formal council.

A man in a strange, all black metal costumes, clearly Paranswarmian, approaches Dame Brionna. “I wish to bring word personally on behalf of the Inquisitor General of Northern Drucien. The freeing of Hanal has stalled completely. The size of the military forces held by the usurper is too large; we will not be able to make any advances until spring. We can protect the coastal cities that are loyal to the Church, and we can protect the areas we have taken, but we cannot take the rebellious areas without waiting until spring and bringing in more temple troops from Khamista.”

“What is the overall prognosis?”

“Two to three years. To go faster, we would need to bring in troops from Masque. They are loyal, but they are so hated in Hanal that they would turn the common folk against us.”

They need assistance delivering significant supplies to a Kov who is cut off and who they need to supply by air; the Council offers to provide assistance (planning on using our map to avoid the Hanalian air navy), which the Church offers to pay for.

“Why do the people of Hanal hate Masque?”

“During the reign of the late God-Emperor, a large mercenary force from Masque worked for a Kov, and they engaged in an enormous rampage. That’s still in living memory, and they are mostly remembered as masked raiders raping women and murdering children throughout the country—though in reality it was confined to one Kovate.”

“Have you looked for support from Enclaves?”

“Yes, but there’s something odd going on in Enclaves. There’s a developing miasma. Our clergy have felt it, and an ally of ours is aware of it as well. It’s a sense of tension, as if from a chaotic spirit, but we can’t find any such spirit. Things are destabilizing that have remained stable for a thousand years, at least for as long as our diocese has been part of Enclaves. Some of the Enclaves are arming themselves; we’re considering deploying regiments of troops to defend the Cathedral.”

Dame Brionna advises against actions that may escalate tensions.

Alistair speculates that convincing Balansar to take up residence might be capable of restabilizing. The Council reaches out to their clergy through the Archbishop.

The other private meetings are uneventful.

The One of Ones, who is an extremely elderly One of the Threes, is almost translucent in true sight. He is likely just about to pass.
[cont'd]

 

[CPaladin]

[Session 100, cont'd]
Alistair gives a welcoming speech, highlighting the threats faced by Southern Drucien.

Almost as soon as Alistair stops, a Rakshasa lord from the Spice Lands rises. He gives a speech about how Canberry was the only nation that stood to protect the Spice Lands. He suggests that the Council of Southern Drucien need to invest our lawful authority in an overlord or lady who will guide and lead, an emperor in name, but not a despot.

As if they had practiced this, the One of Ones of Tang calls out “Hear, Hear. And as my feline friend said, the only nation that could do this is Canberry. I offer the support of all of the Threes to this plan of my honored colleagues of the Spice Lands.”

The Seachen leader is leaning over to Caitlyn in a whisper. Slowly, the matriarch stands. “I am informed by Queen Caitlyn of the new South Kingdoms that she and her husband rule in name both the South Kingdoms and Canberry. We are reluctant to accept the leadership of a male, but I will respect her word that he is not a normal male. And I pledge 4 legions, and a 5% tax, provided that we will not disturb the internal workings of any kingdom.”

The Council has some back and forth; confirming that we will recognize internal workings, but need to have the power to deal with threats to the Empire—worship of faiths proscribed by the Ecumenical Council, treachery or plotting against the Empire, etc.

The Matriarch of Seachen insists that the Council establish that an Empress would have equal power as an Emperor. Alistair confirms that that would be true, and is consistent with the ancient house law of Canberry.

The Holder of Two pledges fealty (as far as the Council can tell, at least) through largely incomprehensible metaphor.

The representative of Gates offers a halved toll, to any who carry the seal of the Emperor. (Gates is also having lots of internal problems; it’s unclear the Lord of Gates will prevail against the corrupt rising against him.) Alistair recognizes Gates as beyond the Empire but friendly.

Kit finds with a quick detect thoughts that there are (a) a fair amount of relief; (b) some concern about what taxes the empire will lay; (c) a few who are trying to figure out how much they can cut back on their own military expenditures; (d) the Rakshasa want to have a representative in the grand imperial council.

The gnomes are very excited; new gnomish markets, new experiments, and SAFE ROADS.

They discuss the coronation and the acclamation.

The One of the Threes says, "I wish in my arrogance to be the One of the Threes who offers homage and allegiance, and I fear that I may be unavailable if we wait."

They all process to the Cathedral. They also quickly reach out to all the Dukes and all of Alistair’s siblings to attend. All the Dukes attend; most of Alistair’s siblings arrive. And one unexpected guest: the Queen of Singing Leaves. The various fey and elves are in one balcony. The Drow are in the other balcony, far away.

Midway through, Princess Curinirim occupies yet a third balcony.

The ceremony ends. And then there’s a flutter of minds touching the Imperial Council's minds, starting with Princess Curinirim, congratulating them. Singing Leaves approves--"there could be no greater protector to guide Drucien through these times of trials and the times of our departure."

They dance with the fey; the fey say they will find the best faerie godmother.

After the ceremonies, the fey tell the Council that two of the southern tors were completely wiped out. But there was evidence that some of the fey were taken. The fey fear that they are being tortured. They have no means to locate the males, but they should be able to locate the females. Through their birthlines; there are members of their lineages who have gone to other tors, including the one near Canberry. The fey do not have the force to retrieve them. They fear the kidnapped fey are on the island. The Council promises to endeavor to put together a retrieval team.

[End session 100. This was a highly momentous session, when we went from playing the leaders of an Archduchy to the leaders of a vast empire (albeit with limited authority over the non-Archducal vassals); it coincidentally was the hundredth session of the campaign, though I'm pretty sure we didn't realize it at the time.]

 

[Quartz]

I see mention of laen. I may have already asked this but do you use any of Iron Crown's other invented materials like kregora, shaalk, arinyark, etc?

 

[CPaladin]

I see mention of laen. I may have already asked this but do you use any of Iron Crown's other invented materials like kregora, shaalk, arinyark, etc?

None of those sound familiar, so if they are, they're not a big deal. Laen is part of a progression of glasses--I think it goes highglass, vitritur, laen, aeog, in terms of power/effectiveness. They sorta fill the exotic materials for psionics progression that something like steel, mithril, adamantium would for magic enchantability. But it does not surprise me that laen is cribbed from Iron Crown--the DM definitely has a borrow widely and liberally approach to world building.

 

[Quartz]

I think it goes highglass, vitritur, laen, aeog,

Eog is another one from Iron Crown.

the DM definitely has a borrow widely and liberally approach to world building.

Excellent!

 

[CPaladin]

Session 101 (May 16, 2019)

1 Chund
Tap on the door. There’s a messenger here, entirely in shades of red, for His Imperial Majesty.

He performs a profoundly complex salutation in the manner of Hanal.

“Your Majesty, the Strom that has been left by the Kov of Snatterkaz to watch the island, has left me as the captain of one of the scout vollers; a significant group has broken away from the main body of the island and headed north. They are not terribly worthy, but there are many small boats, and we do not believe that the material of the boat is from this plane, and we do not know what it does. It is his desire to open fire on the boats, but we thought we should inform you and ask your pleasure as it is closer to your lands. If we leave them alone, they will land somewhere on the east coast, and the boats cause corruption around them, but it cannot spread through the ocean. There are perhaps 50 small boats.”

The Kov of Snatterkaz has allowed the red to resume their ancestral colors; they must have known for generations, but the Kovs have tolerated that. The red are more loyal to life itself than to status and hierarchy; they are also devotees of the Light not of the Darkness. They were suppressed because of their opposition to slavery.

The Council concludes they should discuss the boats with Princess Curinirim since she’ll likely know about the material issues.

A human psion reaches out to her.

“50 small boats, so likely 500 then.”

“The waters here, prevent the taint from sinking through the water, but if we sink the boats, anything that consumes the fragments will become tainted. Disintegration is your best bet. Wood or metal?”

“A very light metal, we believe.”

“For the good of the world and our hopes of its survival, I will open the Third Chamber to you. I will send suitable materials; they should be handled with care. A human voller will suffice to mount it. It will disintegrate the boats it strikes. What sorts of creatures are on the boats?"

“There are a significant number of creatures that look like illithidae, but are clearly not, and a large number of war beasts that look like crosses between owlbears and dogs; and a number of bald demons, with skin the color of slate.”

“That’s encouraging. They haven’t sent even a middling member of their hierarchy. They either haven’t manifested them, or this is a feint.

"The war beasts are only dangerous up close, but they do hellacious damage if they close—they tear through armor like paper. Some of the others have a dangerous toxic attack, out to perhaps 120’.

“I am transferring 2 disintegration cannons, and enough material for 80 shots.”

They are vulnerable to salt.

We plan on preparing a landing site, where there’s a sandbar followed by an area of salt water or salty water/sand mix, lots of archers.

A shadowelf brigadier arrives, with two groups of six drow artillerists. The Council has them placed on the two best vollers, and have the rest of the vollers ferry archers, engineers, and other ground troops to reinforce the landing site. The plan is to engage them at the right time to drive them to the prepared landing sites.

Several days pass while this is put in position and planned. The ground troops get in position, and are reinforced by some locals. The plan mostly succeeds.

The moment they come under fire, and realize that the ships are disintegrating when hit, they scatter and head into shore. The trap we set slows them, and kills some of them. Those that reach the shore, however, despite a great deal of archery, a handful of beasts get through and wreak a hellacious toll. About 200 of them make it through the trap, and we lose about 350 people with another several hundred injured.

On the 7th, a report from the psion onboard reports to Dame Brionna—"yes, we could handle those cannons, but our best psions couldn’t handle more than 5 or 6 shots." They have 28 charges left. The Shadowelf brigadier offers to leave the humans the weapons. "I was concerned when I first saw those vollers, but her highness said they would fly, and they did."

(Clarence Strawberry rolls 4 checks with a +11 each; his results are a 30, a 31, a 19, and a 30, extraordinary rolls. En route to Lyneham, we’re briefed.

"A very small submersible vessel made its way north while the Hanalians were distracted. They made land fall at the north edge of the Southern Confederations and disgorged four humanoids, like the bald humans who were with the flotilla. We were not able to track them.”

The Council sends some psions to capture the submersible, and see if they can use psychometry to track them. This sounds like technology of the old South Kingdom, scavenged by them. The Council also presumes that they might be Seen-unseen, masquerading as more minor servitors.)
[cont'd]

 

[CPaladin]

[Session 101, cont'd]
Kit has a planned visit to Lyneham to attend to her duties as the baroness, so they prepare for the trip. Kit invites the Grandmaster Farsensor (and his special friend), her “personal engineer” (The Princess Anastasia), “Sir Alistair,” Dame Brionna, and Mommy Cupcakes (in her capacity as Kit’s midwife) along to Lyneham.

In planning, they discuss also whether there’s a tor nearby; there is a local satyr colony. (Kit as the Lady of Lyneham declares the Satyrwoods off-limits to Alistair, lest he get any ideas from them.) They also are known for making musical instruments, and they make wood bark that can be used as armor.

Kit and her entourage take a voller to the outskirts, and then ride in by horse.

The people have decorated the village—there are thin streamers of cloth, and some brightly colored things hung on them, and Lynehamean flags, and her personal standard flying at the small castle. The entire village has turned out, as well as the farmers and woodsmen from the area. There is a new mill, a new inn. Kit waves and smiles and tries not to look terrified. The town priest blesses her.

“People of Lyneham—I return to you gratefully as your lady. I will try hard to serve you well. I declare this to be a festival for as long as I and my entourage are here.”

Her steward rushes out. “Everything has been made ready, my lady. Fresh rushes have been laid in all the bedrooms, and all has been prepared.”

He expresses gratitude.

Kit tries to figure out what she needs to do. She’s told that she needs to have a formal court, and also make herself available to resolve disputes, not necessarily at the same time.

She invites the village priest to dinner the night before the court. He reports that she has become famous, and business follows fame. Several knights have moved into the area and sworn allegiance to her. One of them was in the village—he’s older. The other one was on a quest off to the northwest, apparently seeking an organ pipe(??). His wife is a bit of a mystic, reads strange books, but she’s faithful to the church. The priest teaches some of the children of the village, but he’s not much of a scholar.

About the open court: the priest says that Goody Patrice might be down. She thinks her daughter-in-law is a cozen, and doesn’t think her grandchild is her grandchild. Her son seems happy enough, and accepts that the child is his. Other issues that Kit is warned might come up at open court are that she might be asked to perform a wedding; there has been substantial increase in trade, which most people are happy about, but the innkeeper has been upset about increased competition, though food at the inn is greatly improved with less food poisoning and less geese. There is also a pending dispute among the farmers--one of them had a bull that came up lame, and blames the other because of a rivalry in the dairy business.

Mommy Cupcakes introduces her to an elderly lady, Willenda, the local wise woman/priestess of Gunnora. Willenda tells Kit that Goody Patrice is probably factually correct, because her son is mostly unable to father a child—he had come to her for help. But the boy is happy, the girl is happy, he accepts the child, there’s no ongoing relationship—but Goody Patrice will ruin everyone if she is allowed to.

With regards to the bull—it was lamed deliberately, by a knife blade. It was likely intended to start a feud, but possibly a frame-up. The cheesemaker goes out to collect milk once every third day, and noticed the injury when he went to that farmer's barn to get the cows' milk. The cheesemaker said that the injury was from a stab wound with an approximately 6-inch, triangular blade.

Kit decides to speak with the blacksmith about the blade.

[End session 101]