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

[CPaladin]

[Session 93, cont'd]

A very familiar looking young woman (the Undersecretary of Protocols) comes in. She has a long list of tasks to discuss.

The Council puts her off for a moment, so they can talk to Princess Curinirim and begin reaching out to the Drow through the Sixth Daughter.

They quickly feel as if they are on the deck of a flying ship. She is seated on a throne, with Feldur, an elderly Noldar, next to her. He is Lord Feldur Aufaulgautharim, Lord of House Aufaulguatharim--likely one of the handful of most powerful Firstcomers on Aphonion.

After some discussion, Lord Feldur agrees that Canberry's House should be the one to inherit the world when they depart. He also blesses Alistair’s lineage, with magical consequences.

Lord Feldur leaps to his feet and is wroth to hear about the presence of corrupted embers.

A Drow officer reports that the City of the Nine Houses underneath Hanal has been overwhelmed by humans.

"I must go there after this fete." [Lord Feldur also mentions that Glor’diadel is a “nice young lad.”]

After the meeting, they discuss matters with the Undersecretary of Protocols. In addition to the Noldar, the One of the Threes will be there. Also a beholder. Also apparently a bishop or archbishop of Glordiadel from Enclaves, although he is poverty stricken.

The Matron Mother is sending her Eldest Daughter. She asks that we keep her daughters from killing each other.

The Council asks the priestess of Gunnora to attend on them.

They ask her to look on the food that they’re supplying to the people. The also ask about how Lord Aufaulgautharim’s blessing has affected anything. It has, but nothing bad—particularly strong life and utterly clean in the baby, a strong system on Alistair.

Dame Brionna goes to meet the Noldar.

"If they have to announce me, I am her Supreme and Awful Highness Anistasia Princess of House Curinirim, ..." (she goes on, ending with Mistress of the Thousand Silks).

Dame Brionna chats with them about Lord Davion and the Moriquendarim lord who has resettled in Canberry.

Lord Aufaulgautharim bestows 30 speed on Honor, Dame Brionna’s paladin steed.

"Ah, the streets. People in the streets—it’s been a long time since I’ve seen anything but empty streets in the city of my home."

Meanwhile, the Grandmaster Farsensor is entering in the most casual clothes he’s ever been seen in, with an unusual ribbon on his shoulder. He bustles over to Kit. “It’s aware! Maybe that just happens in humans, but it wasn’t when last I saw you.”
[End Session 93]

 

[CPaladin]

Session 94 (July 31, 2018)

Later Afternoon of 1 Zar
They discuss the issues with Lord Aufaulgautharim’s gifts.

Dame Brionna asks whether the Duchess of Brightspan is attending—no, but she sent a young man, presumably a noble but of an unknown house, as her emissary with a large casket. Dame Brionna and Kit go with Aunt Cecilia and Lady Constance to check out the emissary.

Alistair meets with the First Daughter of the drowan house, and informs her that he expects her to respect his hospitality and to not pursue any family disputes. She sighs, but agrees and promises to not do anything that would dishonor her house by disobeying.

Lady Constance asks Dame Brionna what she is supposed to do if the being is inappropriate. Warn Dame Brionna and Kit.

Dame Brionna also asks what she would look out for in connection with a gift from the High Priest of the Giver of Gifts. Lady Constance says to listen to what he doesn’t say, as he will not lie.

Alistair arrives at the gathering of vassals. He gives a little speech, emphasizing Glor’diadel. He then receives pieces of paper representing people’s tithes. Two of the nobles—the Duke of Brightspan and a lesser noble from the west—hand a small piece of origami. Those are requests for private audiences, which Alistair acknowledges and nods in response to.

Aunt Cecilia points out to Kit a few people who are not exactly as human as they appear. One of them in particular is a human man, with an emissary ribbon; he’s shielded, has no ill intent, but is not really human—he doesn’t think of himself as human, so he can’t be. Lady Constance says that he’s a Tiefling of Paranswarm and his father is a prince of Hell. Kit wants to know what needs to be done with that. He is determined to do his duty. His aura is that of Lord Dispater; it’s almost certainly one of his endless offspring by a human female. Lady Constance believes that the Duchess of Brightspan had him deliberately bred with one of her ladies-in-waiting. Dame Kit is concerned about what the gift he’s accompanying is; Lady Constance believes that there is no great matter of concern.

Alistair receives the tithe of the Duchess of Brightspan, which is very reasonably sized. He then delivers a message through the emissary, cautioning the Duchess that there are things that a noble of Canberry cannot command their followers to do, and ought not to ask lest it be taken as a command.

The Noldar enter, and the Tor Lord arrives with Grandmaster Farsensor.

There are the two Noldar, the Drow, an unexpected orc, some humans, and the Tor Lord and Grandmaster Farsensor.

Grandmaster Farsensor offers a gift for the little one, when he is born. It will help him sleep, and once he is old enough will teach him to play the instrument. Alistair asks him to arrange an audience for Alistair and his household with the Overqueen, as the paramount ruler of the good kingdoms of the world.

The Tor brings them "boots for the wee lad, that look like they have been knit of starlight. They will grow with him as he grows, and when he puts them on his feet will not tire."

The Noldar approach. “We are delighted to have been invited. We have never been invited to these celebrations before. I thought to bring a simple thing. At last, I thought of rain dust.” Princess Curinirim holds up a small casket. “A handful of rain dust will bring rain even in the greatest drought. There are three handfuls in the casket.”

Lord Aufaulgautharim. “I too thought long and hard, and I consulted the oracles of my house. And I concluded that while your house is destined for great things, it is never harmful to take an extra bit of surety.”

He hands a painting of a black stone gate against a storm wracked sky, with grass beneath. It will summon as many princes of Gehenna as there are volunteers, who must be loved by the person who activates the gate and will be lost to Gehenna forever; they will serve for three tasks. The lord of the Second Plume is powerful in magic; the other two not so much. It can only be activated by Alistair or his lineal descendants, though legitimacy does not matter for these purposes--any blood descent will do.

The Council agrees to wall it up and put it behind layered wards that can only be lowered by the High Priestess of Gunnora of Canberry, and the Archbishop of Canberry.
[cont'd]

 

[CPaladin]

[Session 94, cont'd]
After their mental discussions, the whole room is watching them somewhat concernedly. Kit and Alistair dance a dance and eat some food, to signal that the party can start. Grandmaster Farsensor brings in a blushing middle-aged servant, who dances a jig with him, and then scurries out of the room.

Kit follows, and invites her to return, and offers to dress her appropriately. She agrees and comes back later.

Alistair receives the Lord of the East of the City of Gates; the orc lord; the First Daughter of the House of Aleval; and a One of the Threes.

The Council meets with the Lord of the East. He gives a gift of platinum. We have a quick conversation about alliance.

The orc lord bows profusely. “Great Lord of Canberry. We thank you for inviting us to settle on your border. I bring you the teeth of those who would cross the border and raid your vassals.” They discuss fostering his children, and begin discussing the idea of formal vassalage.

The First Daughter: "My mother sends her Midsummer’s greetings, and this token of her affection (a shield, worked in mithril and adamantine)." She also passes a request for a private audience.

The One of the Threes tells us that the One of Ones has sent a full field army of threes.

Kit hears among the lesser nobility that there is concern about the Archduke just pausing after receiving the painting.

The private audiences:
Duke of Brightspan: "I come to you on a personal matter. As you know, it has been some time since my wife and I… shared a personal chamber. I am not yet too old to care about such things. And I have never been one to do things that would be looked askance by his liege. I would ask therefore for your permission to either put aside my wife, which I would not wish to do out of thoughtfulness, and marry another, or to take that other as a mistress with your permission." (Mistress is a minor noble, widowed, they would not have children.)

The lesser noble: I’m sorry to bother you with this. There is a red cap in my lands. It suddenly appeared.

The Council calls the Lord of the Tor.

"I’m not missing any of my people. That means it has to have come from the next Tor over."

They caution him to be careful. He offers a fey stone that will allow them to step to the Tor, and tells the Council that they should move in a fortnight if they do not hear from him.

First Daughter of Aleval: "I bring you greetings and a great deal of information in confidence. The North is gone. Both cadet and true drowan cities have fallen. A mindflayer enclave has been destroyed. And at least one beholder nest. An island came down from the north 20 sleep cycles ago. A Council of drow houses dealt them a crushing defeat. Cadet drow have traveled to other cities of their ilk. We have been considering tunneling around the force walls that block the tunnels entirely. The forces that fought against us had many demons among them that were not of our mistress. They were mostly servants of the Ram, but there was one among them that was an ancient demon. We believe that was an attempt to cut a tunnel to the south. Torture is worthless.

"We believe, based solely on the path they were trying to follow, that they were seeking to access the island that has surfaced."

The Council warns her that it might involve ember. They also mention that if the cadet houses asked Lord Aufaulgautharim, he might be willing to assist with coercion on the demons, as he has taken an interest in this matter.

She works with Dame Katharine to set up a channel to communicate. Grandmaster Farsensor sets up a channel. Kit forms a link to the Matron Mother of House Aleval. She is very cold. “I hear you and I sense my daughter’s seething rage. Very good.”

“Yes, your daughter is here, and she endured some hardship to help you in this matter.”

“Ah, I shall reward her then. We have repelled a searching probe—not in force. But they may have inserted invisible forces. I think we may be being overly cautious, though. These things seem about as brutish as I’ve ever seen—I doubt they’re doing anything with finesse.

“We lost 6 cities, between us, the cadets, and other races, in the blinking of an eye. The bulk of the cities are in the South, and our coordinated defense should hold. I am not the only Matron Mother who has gained caution in old age.

“The overcouncil sets strategy, the Matron Mothers command troops on house lines, the illithidae are providing psionic support—but the beholders have fled to the far south. They lost a third of their numbers, and were targeted more directly. One of the greater oddities are that they seem to have taken the handful of Shadow elves captive rather than killing them.

“I did not hear much about children, but the rout was complete. The majority of the refugees were not high ranking. The Matron Mothers, the First and Second Daughters, they assumed they would prevail.

"There were a handful of obliques that the illithidae fought—they are completely immune to psionics. They broke the defenses of the illithidae. They had to be preparing for the initial attack for months or even years."

The Council talks with the Noldar.

"The first time through, they planned well, executed well, but underestimated us. This time, they have planned well again, but they overestimated our weakness and underestimated the humans. If there is a third time, it will be after we are gone."
[End Session 94]

 

[CPaladin]

Session 95 (October 23, 2018)

5 Zar
Nothing significant happens until the night of the 5th of Zar. Dame Brionna is out patrolling at night when a guard lieutenant salutes her and says that they’re holding an odd fellow and think someone from the Order should see him. "He says he’s a messenger, but I’ve never seen someone so decrepit. He seems sure that he needs to talk to someone from the Court, and that he is a messenger from someone notable, but I can’t imagine he’s a messenger from someone notable."

Dame Brionna calls for a standard investigation team, and heads over. Even before entering the square, she senses uncleanness. Dame Brionna casts protection from evil.

The man is diseased, horribly so, despite the rareness of that.

"I bring word, word to the Court, from my lord, Mydim Claris. Mydim Claris wishes to warn you that there is a plot, deep in the Southlands. The One of the Island seeks allies in the planes of the endless Abyss. They have sought my lord Mydim Claris and they have been rebuffed. They know that they do not have enough allies in the Abyss. My lord is a mighty lord, and he knows better than to make alliance with the Unspeakable. He has incarnated me upon this plane to bring warning, and this plane is consuming me.

"He has sent representatives throughout the Abyss. My lord, may he reign forever on the 458th plane, believes that Darou ib Shamiq of the 601st, a lord of vile plotting and thievery and murder, has been suborned, and Harashiq af Fulqesh, of the 609th plane, of whom little is known, has not turned out the servant of the Unspeakable. We have no truck with your kind, no desire for you. We are bound by the proclamations of the Gods of the Upper Planes, that our diseases may not infect you as they should, but even for all that we are not so foolish as to make alliance with the Unspeakable. It is in the lower most planes that some might be swayed."

"Are they subordinate to some greater lord?"

"In theory, they all bear allegiance to one of the 6 of the Council, but within the 500 and 600 planes—their reach only extends as far as their power. They have no such structure as your laws."

The demon asks to be sent away from this plane, and the priest dismisses him with an unresisted turning.

Dame Brionna begins purification processes for the square, the guards who had contact, and so forth.

Dame Brionna reports about the message to the Council, with Dame Constance invited.

Kit mentions that she’ll reach out to the Guilds, to make sure there isn’t an effort to move in, take over some of their territory, etc.

Dame Constance knows of Darou ib Shamiq as a master of assassins. "Harashiq hasn’t done anything significant since his attempt against the Six some 2000 years ago. He almost was bound—that’s why he has been so cautious. He is one of only 2 or 3 that have risen without being either obliterated, imprisoned, or prevailed. It’s generally presumed that he has either some hold over one of the Council or something one of them wanted.

"Even the Unspeakable would be a fool to trust Shamiq. He has guilds on thousands of worlds, but has less of a presence on this prime. On many of the primes, he has substantial cults that could act. A sufficient ally in the Abyss… they could be seeking to move onwards without taking us. As if a military tactic. They can’t normally do this, but our planes of the Abyss border other worlds as well, and those three lords are the only ones who have direct access to other primes.

"Only one member of the Court is both trustworthy and capable of serving as an emissary to Mydim Claris: Dame Brionna. Obviously, His Grace could not go. Dame Kit could not go. I could not go—my association with devils would result in me being torn asunder.

"Mydim Claris was once an Oinodaemon in the service of Morgroth—a fallen Maia who defeated the former lord of disease and assumed his place when he fell. I believe he would treat our emissary with respect."

Alistair muses, "We could reach out to the Skaven—to go through them to the Horned Rat. We can’t reach out to the Council of Six directly, but the Skaven and through them the Horned Rat could."

Dame Constance sends a page to get the book bound in green flayed mind-flayer.

He does have individual assassins here who sell their services for considerable sums, though none in this country. There are no organized cults here—just a few followers here and there. It seems like there are two primes bordering the Abyss where there is more activity on their part. It seems there is a world where science is stronger, and magic much weaker. And then there is one other, which appears to be a complete mess—no centralized government, strife throughout, small warlords that hold small territory and fight each other.

Dame Constance copies the record of each of those primes.
[cont'd]

 

[CPaladin]

[Session 95, cont'd]
They call for the Skaven ambassador, a piebald mage. He discusses his improved grains.

They invite the Skaven to the Council of Southern Drucien. Clan Skree promises that they will send a representative.

"Clan Pestilence has contact with Mydim Claris. Clan Eshen does not deal with the Lord of Assassins. They treat him as untrustworthy, which coming from the assassins of Clan Eshen says a great deal. But the warlocks of Clan Skree can inform the Horned Rat."

The Council dismisses the ambassador.

The Glor’diadelian church mage arrives. They ask him about the planes involved; he’ll have to research them. They send a request to the Archbishop to expedite assistance for him.

After some time, he returns. There is an extremely militant relative of the faith of Glor’diadel—on one of the two worlds. The fractious plane is torn apart because they all follow different versions of the Glor’diadelian like faith, but the minutia separates them—they fight over the differences, and religion and politics is one. They all worship light, they are all human, they are all essentially one culture, but the largest band is in the small thousands.

The other world shares a different deity with us. The Weaver is a minor deity here, but a major deity there. Here, the daughter of Glor’diadel fills most of the roll. But there, the Weaver is a major deity. We think the Weaver would be willing to carry a message across. But we think the other world is at more risk anyway.

The fractious world may show the signs of interference by enemies of order—likely by the demon lords that we know have presence there.

They discuss asking Lord Glor’diadel to send a demigod or similar emissary to unite the religion of Light there.

They meet with the Archbishop to discuss the matter. He agrees to bring it to the Holy See, and that it will likely be presented to Lord Glor’diadel, although we don’t know how Glor’diadel will respond.

The Tor Lord returns several days later, carrying two heads. "The Red Cap tortured a human into turning into an Unseelie servitor. Every redcap was once a brownie. It’s a sad thing. The horror after the day of the dead might have changed a Southlands brownie. Or Hanal might have caused a Northern brownie to change. We shall mourn him on the third day of the month next at the Tor, and we would invite you to join us."

The Council plans on asking Princess Caitlyn to reach out to the Southlands Tors, both to see if they are under assault and to see if they can identify a name.

The Duchess of Brightspan arrives. The Council invites her to tea.

"I am very proud of my sons. I have tried hard to make our marriage succeed, but I have failed. My husband believes that the Court at Brightspan is unaware, but I believe that they are fully aware. I have no bitterness towards him. I would take no action to damage the Duchy or the Archduchy—they are the only hope for stability for the next centuries."

They reach an agreement that she will request a divorce “for reasons known to the Duke of Brightspan” (so that her reputation will not be harmed and he will accept any social blame for the divorce), that he will not oppose, and Alistair will grant it. She will then take up residence in Canberry City and join the guild. She plans on styling herself by Lady So-and-so; Alistair assures her that she will retain the style of Her Grace, although she seems less concerned about her personal status than he would have expected.

They discuss the school to be, and she suggests one of the great mages of Northern Aurelian for school head.

She reports a poisoning attempt on her some months ago. They also discuss her youngest son, who has the Sight. They discuss arranging a marriage (and a suitable court title).
[End session 95]

 

[CPaladin]

Session 96 (November 20, 2018)

2 O-Zar
They get a message from the paramour of General Vondrov. [Attached] He served for three years with the Inquisition, before being discharged back to the local army.

They redact the message to anonymize its source, and then pass it on to the Inquisition. They also reach out to Northern Aurelian.

They contact Susan the Scintillating, who does put us through to Meredith the Dazzling. She agrees to mobilize her folk—primarily magi, although also a group of golemim; she might bring her minotaur honor guard.

"Gabrielle the Glittering might be interested in the position of headmaster of the school of wizardry. She’s very competent, although only a few centuries old, but very serious." Meredith mentions that the Paranswarmians are much more interested in divinatory and oracular magic than Glor’diadel. "There are three oracular spots of great notice; the first is the Pool of the Overqueen in the Steading of the Elvish Lords. Do not look in it unless you are desperate for knowledge—it is perfectly reliable, but mortals who look in have some tendency to drop dead. In the dividing mountains, there is a gateway in a small city that draws people to the city. In that city there is also a seven-eyed lizardman who has tremendous oracular powers, and is still alive after three centuries. Finally, if it could be recovered, there was an oracular device as potent as elven divination. It was in the Kingdom of the Isles before the South Kingdoms fell. If it were recovered—it would be of great oracular value. It warned of the fall, but was not believed."

The Starpriestess in trance said after looking in the pool, “Drucien rises or falls on the nature of the rising or falling of Canberry after the Eldar depart.”

The Noldar are also aware of these prophecies. Their oracles I know very little about except that they are in the depths of their Necropoli. Both Curinirim and Goldorim have oracles of power.

She asks if they’ve been to the Hidden Enclave—the enclave of elves. They have not—she plans on setting up a meeting.

They ask whether the Enclaves have been more fractious since the Eldron Cube was removed. There have been some destabilizations, though thus far nothing that cannot be handled.

Also, extraplanar beasts are appearing, which never used to happen. Summoning used to be nearly impossible, but now is normally easy.

They discuss after the call the fact that the Noldar are probably trying to groom Canberry to make it more like them, based on the details of the prophecy.

3 O-Zar
None of the Southern Tors that responded know who the brownie was. Two did not respond, however.

The Council travels to the mourning with the head of the Redcap. Many of the fae have put on grotesque shapes. They wail, they cut themselves with sharpened flint. The lord of the Tor greets us immediately.

“Thank you for coming. Be it known that this is the first time any of the humans have cared enough for us to join us in mourning.”

He leads us to a dais with Sidhe lords, most of whom we don’t know. He recounts the whole story of destroying the Redcap. When he gets to the death, Alistair draws his silver dagger and rends his clothes. This impresses the more reclusive, less used to human members of the Tor. Fae from the floor then tell the tails of what he did before his death. Finally, the Sidhe announces in his loudest tone, “we weep for our cousin who has fallen.” The Tor gives loose in its grief, and in anger—not at the Council or even the Redcap, but at something beyond the Redcap. They take a group of possessions and bundle them together. The earth in the Tor—the Tor itself—is moving, and opening a pit. The Tor itself is clearly intelligent and sensible. The Tor eats and destroys the corrupted belongings. They then ritually say, “Remember the brownie who was.”

Alistair is given the last toast: “We remember the love that the brownie had for our people, and the love that our people have for the brownies.”

The Tor lord expresses that he is vexed that they do not know from whence the Redcap came. They tell him of the two tors that did not reply. He says that those tors had very few sidhe—mostly the least of the fae. He will visit them in some force.

The Council are instructed to take their cups with us—"they will grow in time, though never to the size of your glasses."
[cont'd]

 

[CPaladin]

[Session 96, cont'd]
O-Zar 8
A runner contacts Dame Brionna. "The Sixth Daughter wishes that you join her." The runner leads Dame Brionna to a candy shop in the commercial district where the Daughter has a man cowering on the floor at dagger point.

“He is a candy seller, but he is not a candy seller. The young Grumash lord came here with his friends—I could not help but notice that this candy seller tried to sell him this.” (Grumash is rebel Drowan slur for Noldar.)

The candy radiates extremely strong evil—among the strongest Dame Brionna has ever detected. Dame Brionna begins securing the shop, checking for records, etc.

A young guard comes out—“Dame, he’s dead in the back.”

“Who?”

“Him!” he says pointing at the prisoner.

It surges up, and its right hand alters into a blade. It guts the guard.

The Second Daughter levitates the candy away and immobilizes the creature. The creature doesn’t detect as evil (likely Seen-unseen).

They summon Dame Constance, who twists one of her rings to summon a tall, commanding presence with a spade beard. “That thing. What is it?”

“Corruption, Lady. Utter corruption.”

“Hmm. For you to say that?”

“It is the corruption of hunger—not hunger for things, a hunger for power. It’s mind altering over time, changes the personality, the mind. It’s not from this place.”

“Is it singular?”

“It is with great difficulty that I believe that even one of us could bring that here—it is intended to subvert a very powerful being.”

Dame Brionna thanks the Sixth Daughter. The Sixth Daughter is grateful for the recognition, but stresses that she does not honor the Grumash lord, even though he was too young to warrant such a thing.

Dame Brionna arranges for the Noldar lord to be brought back to the palace and taken to the pastry chef of the palace in place of candy sellers.

They set up on investigating other people who might be targeted—the kids of the court, Lord Brightspan, Lord Davion’s children, etc.

The Noldar lord comes to speak to Alistair.

They talk about the difficult aspects of enemies striking at those around them and harming others to get at them.

Alistair also calls in the Sixth Daughter and offers her a boon to be claimed in the future in thanks for her actions.

She believes this is a mix of the Seen-Unseen and a doppelganger. The Council did not know that they could breed.

The Council wonders whether they can scry on these foes.
[End session 96]

 

[CPaladin]

Session 97 (February 28, 2019)

9 O-Zar
Dame Brionna has a scouting report from military intelligence. [Attached.] They scouted both the Guard Cities and the unsettled areas near Hanal. The Guard Cities are on guard against the City of Life. The Bishop of the Guard Cities has determined that he is no longer under the authority of the Archbishop of the City of Life, based on a Commune, but other religious leaders are unsure. There are also bandits raiding around here, but local lords are dealing with it.

There are many refugees in the areas south of Hanal. There are large bands of Hounds, Pigs, and Mantis from Masque. They’re helping with things—Hounds are providing relief support; the Pigs are hunting down bandits; and the Mantis are hunting demon tainted people and protecting elves and hobbits.

The lands of the Crystal Cities and City of Bells; they all have huge numbers of refugees, but are dealing well.

Dame Brionna reports from another letter, with tears in her eyes. [Also attached.] Her father’s closest friend, Sir Eodan, was badly wounded in the wars. He has sent his son to Dame Brionna to seek training, but he is without financial support. We agree to take him on as a page, and to check on the reliability of Dame Brionna’s parents’ friends so they can support them and use them to help rebuild the South. Assuming Darag checks out, since they’re worried that he might be a plant or an impostor, he will succeed young Lord Brightspan as personal page to the Archduke.

Kit also has two messages [attached]—neither is terribly urgent, but one is more political. Reports from the West lands—things are getting more stable, people are moving back in, and there’s more food there than they thought, so they may not need to send food at all, or significant food support.

Also, Alistair’s sister found a secret door in the wine cellar and is exploring it on her own. They send some people to support her.

Kit also has a letter from Lyneham. Alistair discusses how to handle it.

Alistair accepts a position as arbiter for the Eldar and Noldar patrolling over Hanal. [See attached.]

The psions of Canberry arrange to send simultaneous messages to the Eldar and the Noldar. The Noldar show the Moriquen’darim banner, quartered with Curinirim, Aufaulgautharim, and the Prince of the City of Death’s Great Wolf—some follow the Father of Wolves, some the Mother of Spiders. There is a gray elf general standing on the deck of an Eldar ship, in crystal armor.

Kit also bonds to the mapping crystal. It’s not particularly powerful by Eldar standards, but it can show the movement of armies, of voller, and of powerful individuals. It has its own pocket dimension that it can be kept in.

Discussing with Grandmaster Farsensor: he has been observing the South, and fears that some of the Spicelands will not recover. In some places, it is consuming the land, rendering it infertile.
[cont'd]

 

[CPaladin]

[Session 97, cont'd]
O-Zar 12
They get a brief report that both of the southern Tors were destroyed; their inhabitants were tortured, so there might be other redcaps.

O-Zar 13
The Cathedral for the wedding is overflowing. The Holder of Two from the Mountains of Mages attends, as do many of the Ones of the Three. There is a Heron from Masque to represent the Queen-Empress. Meredith appears, along with Gabrielle the Glittering. No one from Hanal, to nobody’s shock. Lady Jane Peryton will appear—a magnificently attired woman of imposing height, carrying a bone staff carved with runes, and dressed in a dress made entirely of feathers. She drops off a gold-leaf box on a table and then floats serenely. She went into exile hundreds of years ago, and moved north, established a manor, and somehow along the way became immortal. She’s believed to still have connections to the dragonkin, and her forces managed to stop the enemy at her borders.

As Alistair and Kaitlyn process through the city, the poorer people throw eggs in front of them, as a fertility ritual. They throwing coins back as largess.

No one attending detects as evil.

The Paranswarmian representatives are mostly ecclesiastical, heavy on followers of the Weeping Woman, and a representative of the Archbaroness of Mandrath, along with the Heron of Masque.

Once they reach the Cathedral, the Archbishop of the Sun performs an elaborate wedding ceremony. At the conclusion of the ceremony, Alistair is crowned as King of the South Kingdoms with joint authority with his wife, and Kaitlyn is crowned as Archduchess-consort.

Lady Peryton offers the blessing of the dragons and dragonkin to Alistair and to his line, because "the bones foretell long-life and success."

"The Dragon Claw that I have gifted you was freely given by an ancient gold dragon for this purpose."
[End session 97]

 

[CPaladin]

Session 98 (March 28, 2019)

14 O-Zar
Kit presents a grim report. [Attached] They sent three assassins against targets in Hanal; at least two failed. Their spymaster has a diviner, who is his brother. The general of the palace guard was wounded and may die; he was possessed. Another had a body double. The third was captured.

The wrist who sent the message committed suicide and took steps to avoid posthumous interrogation.

They call for Grandmaster Farsensor, the Minister of Magic, Dame Constance, and Princess Anastasia.

They ask Princess Anastasia about Magister Adapon ti Delphor Caterion, the brother of the spymaster. He was a leading mage in the Society of the Hands of Hell. The SHH ordered him cast out for his mistreatment of subjects, and the old Queen-Empress ordered him put to death for the same call. Princess Anastasia thought that the sentence had been carried out. His brother is a major wine merchant and a close confidant of the usurper. He is a powerful mage, but conventional as a mage; if he is divining, it is through bound devils. (Or perhaps consorting with demons.)

Dame Constance says, "that kind of divination would require enormous blood sacrifices—sacrificing innocents. Demons always want the blood of innocents. Devils you can sometimes deal with in other goods that they want, but likely not. Of the hordes that we know of, there are none of the demon lords that we know of with portfolios of divination. Likewise, none of the devils he was known to have bound were divinatory."

Dame Constance steps out into the hall, and summons a major pit fiend. “Who is the Magister Adapon ti Delphor Caterion using for divination?”

"He is dead—body was consumed and entered the fires of the Abyss. His brother made a simulacrum. His brother is a magus as well, although no one ever noticed because his brother was so flamboyant. He has created a vessel and filled it with a spirit of divination."

"Oh, in that case, we could have it banished. These divinatory spirits are neither of the Abyss nor of the Hell. They float. They will not automatically detect something aimed at him, unless we telegraph the attack. A proper device or spell should be able to conceal the bearer from the simulacrum."

They ask Princess Anastasia. She has partisans who could approach him, but not with magical ability. But a priest could do it—so they think that working through the Temple of Paranswarm could work.

The Council sends a message to the Temple of Paranswarm, apprising them of the situation and asking them to send an exorcist.

Kit then goes to speak with her scribe. He doesn’t have the names or identities of the fingers or toes—there were a wrist and two ankles. One wrist and one ankle are confirmed dead, as is the spine. They have one ankle and one knee left in Hanal, maybe. The knee is still sending reports. They’re just very routine, because he’s a military officer who has been deployed. Kit asks her scribe to contact the knee, and recommend potential wrists and ankles.

[cont'd]