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

[CPaladin]

[Session 61, cont'd]
They recall the redactor so they can find out what happened.

The Council then goes to find out about the various successions of Ergmoth, and the Ecumenical representative of Paranswarm comes in, with various elaborately bound scrolls. [Attached]

"The Grand Duchess does have pups, but they are very young, though of the blood of her late husband. The oldest is 8 years from reaching the age of 14, when he would be permitted to take the throne himself."

* * *

Turning back to Hanal... Tang might be able to break the blockade—we discuss reaching out to the Aquatic elves to break the blockade.

Grandmaster Farsensor says that the Council have individually had the spell psionically suppressed. When they mention the false daughter, the spell attempts to reassert itself. No name is ever applied to her, weirdly. The Council warns Grandmaster Farsensor that they will try to assassinate him; he decides to start carrying his blades.

The scribes report that this was immediately before the armies started moving towards Seachen.

Among the powerful demons, their names are guarded jealously—both names and use names.

The Council contacts the leader of Northern Aurelian to arrange to have Anastasia’s memory fixed.

Kit contacts her agent in Princess Anastasia’s company.

“The whole thing is bizarre. You know she always struck the nobility as insane. Name? Name? But then suddenly a large group of the nobility rose in her support to overthrow her mother. Not that Thyastis didn’t deserve killing, but … Horrible, horrible.”

“Any patterns among them? Faith, region?”

“Many of the nobles are less faithful than the people. These were among the less faithful. Not heretical or apostate, but… But that’s not the worst of it. I believe the Inquisitor General of Northern Drucien has been put to death. A mob took the Archbishop’s palace. The Archbishop is under house arrest, but I believe the Inquisitor General was killed. The people were riotous, almost feral. Only some of them seemed to have directions, however. But the people were never starving, there was no reason for riots. But the nobles have direction—they seek to elevate the second daughter.”

“What symptoms did the middle daughter have?”

“Rages, she would fly into such rages. She killed dozens of her ladies-in-waiting in the last several months. That’s strange… the rages must have started in the last several months. Before that she was something of a non-entity.”

<<Do we tell her?>>

<<Not yet>> replies Alistair.

“She was said to bathe in blood, in human blood. She was rumored to have had liaisons with strange men, not of the royalty or nobility, not of the Green, certainly not of the Red—she hated the Red. We thought that she might be very religious, because the Red have their strange devotion to the Sun, tolerated by the Church. The Vad of the Northern Isles was the only Vad to back her—mostly stroms, some palans, a few covs.

"Snatterkaz has drawn their army away, but Magdag will fall, and he has no time to repair the walls or gather food for the people. There seems to be a struggle among the voller commanders, although the navy sided with the middle daughter as soon as the Empress died."

Alistair suggests (through Kit) that they see if the Zorplona-Argoni are willing to accept mercenary work.

"I cannot remember her name—but I remember the name of her, it must have been her twin, but she only lived a few years. The daughter who died was Theodora. It was the last humane thing that Thyastis ever did—she named her Theodora and tried to keep her alive. After she died, and she had Anastasia, she became the crazed evil tyrant we all know."

Kit tells her, and she screams. The Council worry that they’ve broken her mind.
[cont'd]

 

[CPaladin]

[Session 61, cont'd]
Kit contacts Snatterkaz.

Magdag had been stripped except of its population by its prior lord. I have no idea what he did with the wealth that should have been there.

We need food, but we will be blockaded within days. There was no resistance in the navy.

Have you got clergy with you? Yes. I couldn’t get the Archbishop out, but I have some clergy. Kit starts planning an airdrop of scrolls of create food and water, Murlynd’s spoons, etc.

When is a good time to contact you? Until they begin assaulting the walls, night time is best.

The Red in the city have all been taken to her, and are being tortured to death. The people will rise up against her because of that.

Are there any hobbits still left in Hanal? There are—there are not many. And her forces are targeting a specific group, mostly hobbit, not all—the midwives.

Lady Constance joins us.

We describe the very basics of the Hanal situation. She twists a ring, and a winged creature appears. “I compel you, who rules in Hanal in Thyastis’s place?” “It is the Seducer.” “Does the Seducer have a name?” “Not known to the Courts of Hell.” “The Handmaiden to the Queen of Chaos?” “Never captured, never slain.” She was once called Philodona; wife of Beliar, an Archduke of Hell, but she turned traitor to him, joined the Queen of Chaos in the Abyss. When she was overthrown, I presumed her slain. But her name is too old, too separated to have power. She will be accompanied by between 2 and 6 incubi; and a group of radiant children. She will use them—she is a mighty spellcaster, on the level of one of the great elves.

Does she need to bathe in blood or is it just an affectation? She doesn’t need to, but it strengthens her spells greatly. Historically, she used the blood of males who…

Does the title “the Seducer” have power over her? Titles have no power over demons.

Use names do, but they take years of use to develop.

The name of the figure that she’s posing as would have no power over her, but might allow scrying.

The Seducer is more powerful than Malacat, in any event. But the succubi left her service willingly. Some of her spells, especially her bardic ones—she has a mass seduction spell that will affect an entire city. Also rumored to be able to take a male form. Could possibly have been the cambion figure. No grimoire records it certainly, but it would appear likely that she could only obtain the form of someone with whom she has coupled.

You know the reasons for the binding of the Queen of Chaos? There are several, but there is a belief among some of the greatest diabolists, not necessarily practitioners but scholars, but the other demons discovered that she was negotiating with the Old Ones, but that triggered the rebellion, for it frightened them so greatly, but she was bound and not destroyed because they could not destroy her, because she had gained an extra-demonic power.

The good thing is that their grand plan must be fully screwed. The first plan was of course Seachen. The second would surely be to replace Princess Anastasia. This would be the third plan.

The sacrifice for a domain spell that would affect us as a side effect—well, perhaps if they pulled the energy of all of the adepts of the Ram.

She can be destroyed, but has always escaped. They both always made plans that were far too complex, her and her consort. The Ram was her consort. In her day, her female servitors were as fertile as his male ones. When her plans were defeated, she would flee.

Gunnora opposes her—never able to destroy her, but directly opposed to her corruption of fertility.

The Seducer is known for her mental influence beyond seduction; powerful as a caster, powerful as a bard at the highest levels of human, powerful in both rune and blood magic, and powerful in mind magic—but not psionics. She hates psions—they tend to not be corruptible by her.
[End Session 61]

 

[CPaladin]

Session 62 (April 10, 2014)

Skard 30

Alistair gets a message from the Noldar widow [Attached]

To do list:

• Research Reds of Hanal—delegated to the Ministry of Magic, Foreign Ministry, and household bishop’s staff to prepare a report (marked urgent and highly confidential)
• Talk to the Gunnorans about Hanal and all of this stuff; also about private matters involving Kit (which will be used as the cover story)
• Talk to the Ecumenical Council, let them know what we know about Hanal
• Arrange for resupply Snatterkaz via sea, presumably by aquatic elves; also air drops? Maybe not on the air drops because Hanal is the principal voller manufacturer on this continent
• Reach out to Seachen to make sure that they don’t get infiltrated by people from Hanal (presumably through an intermediary—Lady Meredith the Dazzling of Northern Aurelian)
• Talk to Lady Constance about the heresy of Osmosis. Also, ask her if she knows what demons and devils might be nervous about around Enclaves
• Talk to Grandmaster Farsensor about the half-dozen other threats that have been detected and deterred by the elder races.
• Fulfill our roles in prophecy.
• Figure out what the good artifact under Enclaves might be; delegated to the Ministry of Magic (marked as highly confidential)

The Council also gets a message from a Plar with a casualty report; among the Seachen, 1 in 5 is uninjured; among our people and allies, 1 in 9 is uninjured; 15 families of the Rakshasa were wiped out, including 8 of the Glordiadelian. [If there was a written version of this with more details, it's lost.]

The Council gives orders to fill the holds of the new sky navy with healers, clerics, redactors, and conventional healing supplies, and send them south.

We reach out to Lady Meredith; after speaking with the Scintillating, we are put through to Lady Meredith. "If she could unify Hanal under her rule, do you know how many men they would have under arm? The only power on the continent could challenge them numerically is Masque. But I do not see what she could do with that army. If they came that way, Lady Deborah, myself, and the Lady of Curinirim would stop them." They have hundreds of submersibles—Kit identifies that as a possible way to reach the issues at sea.

Lady Meredith says that between herself, Lady Deborah, and the Princess of the Curinirim they should be able to restore Anastasia.

Lady Deborah is the public face of the Hidden Enclave, but it is an elven Enclave. Very odd.

The servants of the Old Ones are not very mobile. It is possible that they simply want the mobility resources of Hanal. But Lady Meredith will reach out to the Seachen with the warning.

"It is the Hoard of Ashaleon you are seeking. If he is truly a being, I do not believe he could have left his Hoard, or that he could be reasoned with. He was at one time an Archangel, but he was given duty, and he did his duty, and the items he guarded drove him mad. Supposedly, there are creatures of both dark and light, chaos and law, that guard the complex, but it is Ashaleon’s illusions, first and foremost that guard the way. He was a servant of Glordiadel in the early years."

The Council then sends for Grandmaster Farsensor. He is in a surprisingly good mood. "I have been walking in the garden, and the shoot that was left by the Princess has opened. You have a Lothlorian tree growing in your garden. In a couple hundred years, it will be a tree."

The Council talks about the other threats.

"Yes, they were deterred, and yes, they might return when the elders depart. The Lord of Tentacles is a sea lord, he came through a gate hole around the end of the Second Age, give or take, and he thought that if he ate everything and extended his tentacles, he could consume all this nice life. And then the Overqueen took notice, and a group of us wielded the power of Eiru the Creator and spanked him. He might return, but while a power, he was handleable."

"What would humans need to defeat something like that?"

"Very powerful domain magic, prepared over the course of some time. Aboleths and illithids were his leftovers—he did not create the illithids, but they did serve him, and he did create the Aboleths. If they devour younger races, and eat their thoughts, they’re probably connected to him, although none of them remember it any more."

"We would be grateful for your notes."

"There are some others—a Devourer, a female who could open her mouth bigger than her body, more of an Archdemon than a Godling—the Noldar took her out, I’m not sure she survived. She started eating their servants.

"There’s another one who left some pieces behind—they’re still looking for him. The Lord of Beholders. He set up a whole structure, but we finally put our foot down, and forced him out of this dimension, but by then there were too many colonies of them, so we basically drove them into the Underdark and ignored them.

"Some of them are turning to good as well. It takes a while, but once they realize their god is gone, they can start turning to the light. That would weaken them once they return.

"Then there was the Shadow Lord. I’m not sure he was ever fully driven out, but he never achieved the place he sought. He tried to ally with Lolth, but it didn’t work out, and the Noldar didn’t tolerate it.

"The other two—I don’t recall at all. It was in the early days of the world, when the world teemed with life."

"Who would remember it?"

"An Eldron. Do you know about the Kinslaying? It tore the world apart, ripped asunder our very identity, our knowledge, our memories. I do not believe that there are many of the early comers, the First or Second, who truly believe that their side is justified, but they cannot go back. Memory was one of the things that was lost, and that may be a good thing. The Lady of Pain is an example of someone who did not forget what she should have.

"Arthranax is foreign to our plane, and our planar neighborhood (as is Sytry). They could not drive him forth once he returned. It cost the Eldar race more than you will ever appreciate to keep him reduced to what he is. We blocked him from fully coming in, but he could never be driven forth."

The Princess has cleansed the city of all cancers, of cholera, and other things. The average lifespan of the city has probably been extended by 30 years. Also, she left behind a decanter of endless water.

He then opens a connection to the aquatic elves. He refers to Kit as “future Regent of the heir” while making introductions. The Council warns the elves about the submersibles, and ask them to supply Magdad. They promise to do so, in exchange for weapons. There are 12 hands of hands of hands of hands of hands of hands in the city. There are many schools of fish. We can supply them for several months. The sharkboats have not moved yet, and there are 60 hands of them. We cannot effectively attack them, but they cannot stop us.
[cont'd]

 

[CPaladin]

[Session 62, cont'd]
Aunt Cecilia arrives with two midwifes, the hobbit the Council knows and a human they don’t. Dame Brionna excuses herself.

Alistair and Kit discuss Kit’s family planning with the midwives of Gunnora.

The Council then discuss Hanal with them. The first of Thyastis’s line ended the great war, some thousand years ago after two-hundred years of conflict between the great noble houses (the Green) and the peasantry (the Reds). She brought in the support of many devils, who strengthened the Iron Legions, and they decimated the human and the hobbit populations. Many theologians would argue that Hanal has never been properly Paranswarmian, though it holds onto it because it holds onto anything they can get their claws into. The nobles of Hanal swore unto Paranswarm as lord of the devils, like the SHH writ large. Every 16 years, they engage in a bloodletting—sacrificing a male child from each noble family, usually a second son. The bloodletting is a reaffirmation of the alliance between Hanal and the devil lords. It is not something that the temple of Paranswarm as a whole is willing to countenance, but it is also not something that they are willing to forbid, because it would cost them the country. There are tens of millions in the countryside and the cities that do not follow the Green. The Red is still very much alive, and it is a mix of bastardized Glordiadelianism and bastardized Gunnora worship. They fear that without the ability to call on legions of bearded devils to reinforce the Iron Legions, the Red could rise and overthrow the Green. Thyastis believed in her youth that through kindness and benevolence she could win over the common people, without preserving the pact with the devils. She resolved to not offer up her child. When her child was born as she was, and she could not save her, she concluded that the devils were more powerful than the gods.

Snatterkaz and Anastasia are different—they are of the Reds, though it is a great secret.

The primary pacts are recorded in the Great Library of Hanal. They were with Dispater, lord of the second hell. The secondary pacts are not recorded, and are between the noble families with other devils.

The military families form a secondary caste, below the nobility but privileged and well taken care of. Well paid, and with their dependents provided for if they are killed. They are by and large loyal true Paranswarmians.

If you wish, I could see if the old midwife to Thyastis, an old hobbit now, driven forth to Enclaves but not slain, could come here. The Council asks her to.

Would the devils tolerate the dealing with the demons? That is beyond my knowledge of diabolism.

We speculate that a formal interdict and endorsement of Anastasia by the Church of Paranswarm might split the military caste from their masters—at least if they knew about it.

Do the sacrifices skew the gender ratios in Hanal? Yes, as females are only sacrificed if there are no males available, and more females are born in Hanal than males already. That contributes to the strange marital practices in Hanal—more than one of the great houses has multiple ladies with a single husband.

Thyastis was a warrior queen, no theologian and no mage, though powerful in the field. She personally commanded her legions in several battles, fighting in the front. But I do not know that she would have known the difference between a demon and a devil—likely not. There may have been a motive beyond her madness, her blaming the Gunnorans and persecuting all hobbits as Gunnorans.
[End Session 62]

 

[CPaladin]

Session 63 (April 24, 2014)

31 Skard

Dame Brionna receives a report. [Attached]. There’s an elven warschooner protecting 3 injured and unarmed air vessels coming out of Hanal, pursued by a full squadron of Hanalian warships. The elven warschooner expects to be destroyed to enable the fleeing vessels to reach our border.

The council send pages to summon military leaders. Field Marshal Brightspan responds.

"One question is whether the elves meant an elven squadron of 6 or a Hanalian squadron of 20."

"Could they be stopped effectively?"

"Historically, every one of their ships has a mage on board, with a special helm that can increase their maneuverability and maintain a magical shield against energy. Psionics would be more effective—Hanal has long purged psions. They have a few nulls, but no other psionic defenses."

The council sends out for Grandmaster Farsensor, who is having breakfast and feeding the trees. They ask him if Singing Leaves has a coercer who could dissuade the pursuing squadron; he says that the gray elves have several grandmaster coercers, though no paragons. That should be sufficient.

During the battle in the Southlands, one of the people who was contacted began frothing and collapsed when the Farsensor contacted him. He shows the council a picture of an officer, a colonel or so. There is a disease—epilepsy—that could be triggered.

The Hanalian squadron, 20 warships, diverts based on an incorrect understanding of where the fleeing forces are going—the coercer makes them think that the fleeing ships are heading towards some of Canberry's strongest fortifications.

There is a wounded priest of some significance on the fleeing ships—the council presumes that that’s the Archbishop.

They send for the Paranswarmian representative to Canberry's court. They tell him that they need to contact the Baroness Mandrath. He shatters an object and opens a connection. The council tells the Baroness of their belief about the Archbishop. She tells them that she has a report that the Inquisitor General’s entourage in Hanal has also been slain. The council tells her that the Pretender is a demonic imposter and that the actual middle sister is dead. The Council and First Mouth are also considering deploying the five field armies that usually defend the Holy See. There is also concern that it may be necessary to place the entire country under permanent interdict and struck from the list of theocracies. Alistair suggests that the knightly and military classes might still be loyal to the Temple of Paranswarm, and might follow the call of the Temple to oppose the high nobility and royalty. She says that they might receive a call to a crusade.

Alistair also makes a pitch for authorizations by the Temple to cooperate with the Glordiadelians among the common people, stressing that the Glordiadelians are not trying to move in on their territory but would be able to support if that were acceptable. She suggests that moving Hanal into a territory jointly administered by Law would be superior in her view to the chaos that might otherwise ensue, but that the First Mouth and Council will have to make a decision.

Dame Brionna sends a message to the commander of the fort, telling them to expect the arrival of wounded people.
[cont'd]

 

[CPaladin]

[session 63 cont'd; an extra long post to make up for the missed post on Wednesday, when I got confused about what day of the week it was...]

The Council asks Dame Constance about the Heresy of Osmosis.

"It’s a heresy among the daemons, mostly the lesser ones but some arcanaloths; Morgroth tolerates it, or at least seems amused by it."

"Are the daemons Morgrothian, then?"

"Perhaps 1 out of 20 explicitly acknowledges it, but they are connected to him—his Noldar wizards can summon and bind them with extraordinary ease. There are experimenters among them, and they have discovered natural processes, including Osmosis and Phagocytosis. Some of the less enlightened daemons decided that these principles, Osmosis and Phagocytosis, were actually gods and deserved worship. It is bizarre and primitive cult behavior, and the two factions tear each other apart. And no one sane deliberately summons a member of either group for binding, except for the powerful Noldar. But they are much more ferocious than normal daemons of their kind. No human has ever succeeded in binding one, but a few have been gifted a few."

"Including, apparently, us. We can call on a special force of Heretics of Osmosis (20 Yugodaemons, commanded by the Arcanadaemon Chronazon), as a gift from Lady Leansilas."

"He’s rather famous," says Dame Constance. "I believe that he was the commander of the daemons in service to Morgroth on the Fields of Blood northeast of Krashmere."

The Council then asks about how the devils would respond to finding out that the pretender to the throne of Hanal is a demon and in league with demons. She says they wouldn’t like it, but how they would react would depend on the bindings, on the exact terms of the infernal contracts.

"Could it invalidate the pacts?"

"For lesser devils, no, depending on how tightly the pacts were drawn. For a Duke, perhaps. Dispater, though, would be highly displeased, unless he could find a way to use it to his advantage. He is the cleverest of the archdevils except for the lord of the Nine. He is loyal enough to the principles of law that if there were no advantage, he would oppose chaos, but he could work with chaos for his own advantage."

---
The day passes. The night passes uneventfully as well!

1 Tar-Skard:
The Grandmaster Farsensor joins the Council at breakfast at a civilized time. The flight commander informs the Council that his medical officer has been able to help several people, including the Archbishop of Hanal, and the Kov of Stilwart, a small mountainous territory internal to Hanal where they grow a great many wine grapes. His primary export was wine; there’s still some on the ships. The Kov’s lands have presumably been seized; he may also lose some of his limbs, but at least he’s stable now. They should arrive around evening.

Talk to Lady Constance about why demons and devils are nervous around Enclaves. "There is a powerful emanation from somewhere within or near the City. It discomfits them. Some do still operate there, but some also go missing—some demons. I believe they are destroyed. Most practitioners believe that the emanation is from Northern Aurelian, but that is not true."

"Could an Archangel produce an emanation with those effects?"

"It could. And that would explain why the demons go missing and not the devils—angels are more inimical to demons than devils.

An Archangel would not be bindable. It could likely not be banished either. The best approach would likely be to distract him, so their agents can recover what they want. The agents cannot fight him—even the Champion would likely not be able to best him.

He is almost certainly placebound—unable to move more than 2 to 5 miles, unless more than half his hoard were removed.

Kit asks, is it possible that the counterbalancing force of good is the Archangel itself? He is a force of good for sure, if it is simply a balance of forces, but if it is a balance between artifacts, likely not.

That evening, a balding, rotund man rushes up. “Message, your grace.”

An image of a rough looking middle-aged man, in a kettle shaped helmet appears. “Your Grace. We’ve got twenty ships directly across the border from us. They’ve set down a thousand marines, and demanded that we turn over the refugees we don’t have.”

The Council tells them to inform the Hanalians that the refugees have been granted asylum and will not be discharged; not to initiate conflict, but if they attack, to defeat them.

Dame Brionna sends a sending to warn them to be wary of demonic or diabolic magic.

2 Tar-Skard:
Among the documents to be signed is a sealed letter from the Hanalian ambassador requesting an audience. The Council grants the audience, but have an image of Alistair projected, and Aunt Cecilia present.

A man in very elegant greens, with incongruous and partially hidden bandages appears, prostrates himself and crawls towards the throne.

“Your Grace, I requested this on an emergency basis. We received orders to depart the Court of Canberry and to return to Hanal. I request permission for my wife and son to remain in Canberry.”

“It is the position of the Archduchy of Canberry that Princess Anastasia is the rightful Empress, that when her elder two sisters and mother died, she became the Empress. You are thus welcome to remain as ambassador.”

"That may explain why there was a different messenger, with an ecclesiastical message. He was pursued by a demon, who ripped him apart as he passed the wards that protect the embassy. My guards were also ripped apart, but I defeated the demon personally."

The Council arranges for the messenger’s body to be spoken with via Speak with Dead. We also arrange for the priest to report.

“The messenger was intended to inform the ambassador that the Temple was going to recognize Anastasia and that they believe that the present Empress is a traitor to the Temple. Apparently, the young man was quite devout. The chapel in the embassy was immaculate. He has a house priest—sort of. A very young military chaplain.”

The same balding gentleman reappears. “The officer wishes to report again.”

“Your grace, they haven’t crossed the border. But they have set up an encampment on the other side of it. The ships are the bigger threat, but they’re just sitting there. Their officers seem unsure about what to do.”

They don’t seem to have a fleet admiral with them—the highest rank we’ve seen is a commodore. They seem—disorganized.

Later that day, the Grandmaster Farsensor joins the Council again. "The Flight Captain’s men have looked at the ship, now that they’re landed in your territory. There’s little they can do to repair them. The fortress where they’ve landed will never withstand an attack. It’s ill maintained, ill supplied, and with a small garrison (although a disciplined garrison)." He asked if Canberry could open a gate to move the refugees.

The Council asks Dame Constance—she says that she should be able to maintain the gate for 40 minutes, which should be enough to move both the wounded and the regular troops.

Grandmaster Farsensor suggests asking the Queen of Singing Leaves to send a man-of-war to reinforce the castle. It should be there by tomorrow evening.

Dame Constance gates them through-the Kov, the Archbishop, the Kov’s family, and his closest retainers. The Archbishop is badly injured; the Kov is likely to lose a leg. The Council sends the Minister of the Mind, who is a redactor; he takes a novice and a cask of skin and sinks the Kov into it. The Archbishop requests a discussion with the Glordiadelian Archbishop, and thanks Canberry for sanctuary.
* * *
The Council also speaks to the redactor who they sent to treat the Grand Duchess.

"There might have been someone of sufficient power to still help her, but if there was, it wasn’t me. There was blood penetrating the brain tissue. I believe an elf—a paragon or grandmaster—could have saved her, but I am neither. She had been mauled, and touched by an abomination that could not achieve its normal result. She was mauled in the form of a wolf, and someone struck her a blow that damaged her skull and blood ran into her brain. The elves knew this, and said that they needed to take her. But her entourage refused. I could probably have kept her body alive, but I could not save her mind. So I said that it was too late to save her."
[End session 63]

 

[CPaladin]

Session 64 (May 29, 2014)

Tar-Skard 3
Dame Brionna gets a semi-urgent message after breakfast. [Attached.] Alistair and Kit continue “working to fulfill the prophecy” before joining her.

Commander Strawberry tells us that we’re getting refugees on our northern border from refugees to the west of Enclaves. They appear to be fleeing from Hanalian cavalry pushing towards Enclaves.

Canberry's northern border appears to be under attack from poorly led and even more poorly equipped orcs and goblins.

Commander Strawberry is heading to the northern border via gate with the intention of questioning the refugees as they arrive. His second in command, Dame Esmerelda of the Screaming Oak, is a convert to the worship of Glordiadel from the witches of Borsh’tro. She has gone to Enclaves to investigate there.

His third in command, Sir Neville Moor, is fanatically loyal but not necessarily perfectly objective.

The Council all agree that the fact that this was not delivered to Dame Brionna adequately is a bad sign.

Kit thinks this represents a change in Commander Strawberry’s behavior, and thus thinks that he’s been compromised. Roughly a fortnight ago, he was incapacitated by the giant rune to the Mother of Hordes that they tried to set up.

Dame Brionna reaches out to Bishop Waters (he’s gotten his episcopal ordination) to find out more about Dame Esmerelda’s conversion, reliability, etc.

Kit reaches out to her Finger on Commander Strawberry’s staff.

The Council sends for Sir Neville. He’s very young, and a political appointee—he’s a cousin of Alistair's, although not one who shows up on official family trees.

Commander Strawberry has not seemed himself since his injury. Seemed muddled, unable to think clearly, distracted. He was a mentor to Sir Neville, and previously very competent, both smart and skilled with a blade, although they have quarreled since the injury because of some of Commander Strawberry’s decisions. The letter, though apparently in his hand, is in fact written by a scribe mimicking his hand.

"We have evidence that Commander Strawberry has been replaced with one of the Seen Unseen."

Dame Esmerelda was sent to check for bandits in the Fallen Enclave in the North by Zorplona Aragoni and Northern Aurelian, with a very small team, as well as to assume command of all operations in Enclaves (military intelligence has a variety of teams in place). When Kit, Alistair, and Dame Brionna were in Enclaves, that Fallen Enclave was considered the second most dangerous place in Enclaves to go for those who weren’t from there.

The Council has Bishop Waters send a Sending to her, countermanding Strawberry’s orders; she replies “too late” and something attacks.

The Council contacts Princess Curinirim. She says that Gothmir fell because of a Balrog, who dwells beneath it. The Balrog is battling an Archon. Balrogs are younger cousins of Morgroth; Archons are the inadvertent offspring of Eiru. The Council asks her to rescue their people. She sends a group of her drow, with an arcanadaemon, and another servant (probably a yugoloth or devil). They make contact, and fight an adeptus of tentacles. Her drow get the best of it, but the arcanadaemon falls. (She plans for sacrifices to summon a new arcanadaemon.) "We have them. I will meet them in the outer hall—the vision will follow."

The Council sees a vision. There is a dejected bundle of tentacles with a small innermost body, being held by three drow. Commander Strawberry is there—and clearly actually a Seen-Unseen. Dame Esmerelda is alive, but has been tortured—they put her in skin. They can transport her back to Canberry's arrival chamber.

The two corporals are alive; they were relieved without explanation and sent away with pay. [This refers to the second document of this session, also attached; I'm not sure how the Council got this, whether Sir Neville had it or they found it by searching Strawberry's office or what.]

The Council find the documents in the safe, an actual forgery of Alistair's hand ordering him back to duty. It was done by an expert forger—sufficiently good that Alistair thinks he wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

Alistair tells Kit that a master forger has committed high treason, and the Guild needs to clean house.
[cont'd]

 

[CPaladin]

[session 64, cont'd]
Kit goes to talk to the Guild. The Guildmaster says that he suspects Jerrit the Ferret is the most likely suspect—good enough to do that work, and then desperate for money. He has a drinking problem, so he can’t hold a job with the merchant houses. Also, he might be hooked on a certain brown powder. "We don’t like the krff coming in, but we think it’s coming in from the West, with the farm trains—it’s a new source, not the old network. Coming in on market days. Not the quality of the other stuff either, and some of the bricks are glowing. They probably have something else. Huey, the guild mage, said he thinks it’s meant to magically influence folks. Not the folk that use it, but the folk that are near them, come across the bits of it. Funny thing, though, you can’t grow it in the area that it’s coming from. Someone’s transshipping it through the west."

Kit has people stake out Jerrit the Ferret so he can’t run, but not to bring him in until she talks to Huey.

Dame Brionna talks to the corporals (after checking that their blood is right).
"Krff reappeared 13 days ago, and it was being given away, to anyone who would take it. We were picking up 50 people in a week, and then 50 people in the next week, so we wanted to show it to Dame Esmerelda." They saw the krff, with the weirding, because they have the sight.

"Did you pick up anyone associated with the nobility, or the priests, the guards, or anyone with magic?"

"We don’t patrol in the upper city, but no."

* * *
The Guildmaster returns with Huey, who is bonkers but good at magic. Kit meets him with Lady Constance.

"The new krff is an absolute abomination, just terrible. For the people who use it, normal effects. For the people who come into contact with it, connected to the dromora. Dromora are an elder demon of a particular type. That’s the signature that comes off it, and I followed one of the sparkly bits into the ether, and there it was, sitting there in the Astral, leering down. It whispers constantly, continuously. Most of the people who hear it will eventually go mad. A few of them will come under its influence."

"Who commands these things?"

Huey (who thinks he’s Alonzo) has some of the old grimoires, but doesn’t summon such things. "Don’t summon anything but cats. The summoners, though… the blood sacrifice to one of the old ones, one of the unmentionable ones, one of the ones you don’t name… HER!"

(Lady Constance confirms that that’s a reference to the Goddess of the Pale Bone.)

Lady Constance: "I know that we’re moving away from the Locus, but had they been a little more patient… once the situation resolved itself in the Spicelands, the Locus, the possibility of an empire destroying event, is receding. But the leftovers are still very dangerous. Had they been more patient, and built up for another two years, I think they could have succeeded. They must have underestimated you, your grace, since Canberry is the only empire that could have opposed them, except for Masque, and what can be said about Masque?"

"And we believe Masque is compromised," adds Kit

"They no longer stand a chance to bring her through, in my opinion. This may be an attempt to do as much damage as possible before the gates recede."

"On another matter... Could an Archangel be mistaken for an Archon by the Noldar?"

"The Eldar and Noldar see through their own lens. They are incredibly powerful, although the ones you have met are all young by their standards, except the Princess, and she is so sheltered. Neither of those groups tend to look beneath the surface with beings such as that. So if an Archangel believed itself to be an Archon, only a priestess of Eiru would be able to see through."

"Could an Archangel match itself against a balrog?"

"An Archangel could not stand up to Gothmog, or the Prince of the Cities of Pain. But a normal Balrog? Yes; I could see it. If you remove the artifact, the Archangel (if it is drawing power from it) would not survive long against a Balrog. A Balrog could not threaten Enclaves. It would go to ground—that’s what 19 of the other 20 released in recent years have done, and the 20th was killed."

Kit's people bring in Jerrit the Ferret.
[End Session 64]

 

[Quartz]

Was 'Goddess of the Pale Bone' a lift from Empire of the Petal Throne?

 

[CPaladin]

Yup, absolutely. A bunch of what I'll describe as the demonology of Aphonion is derived from Tekumel materials. The DM occasionally runs EPT one shots and has some stories about playing with MAR Barker back in the day (at cons and things, not in his regular games).

I'm not sure whether in Aphonion's story the Goddess of the Pale Bone came from Tekumel's neighborhood of planes before reaching Aphonion's, or whether she was just taken as an element to incorporate into Aphonion's world design.