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Lady Despina's Virtue - Continued
- Thread starter Sepulchrave II
- Start date
Sammael99
First Post
Sepulchrave II said:
It shows ! Yours is certainly the most Vancian campaign I have ever heard of. Mostin and his "world" is eminently Vancian : the mirror, the demi-plane laboratory, his comments... It reminds me so much of Twitten, Tamurello, Rhialto, and all the others it's painful
Great stuff. Incidentally, if you speak French, there is a huge Lyonesse RPG that was released a few years back. Very faithful to the original works of Vance. The company publishing it seems to have gone bust but there is some stuff at http://tocteam.free.fr/lyo/
Sepulchrave II
Legend
It got complicated.
From here on, I was making it up as I went along - we all were, in fact. It was impossible to cover every contingency, and my head was beginning to hurt. I had no plot left, and the issues were too big for me to deal with on my own. It was time for me to give up some responsibility - temporarily, at least. So I asked all of the players:
"So where do YOU see this going?" After all, its their game.
This is what we came up with.
**
Three weeks passed.
Even though the demoness’s repentance was regarded as a partial vindication, as Tahl had pointed out to Eadric, it did not entirely mitigate the charges levelled against the Paladin, and Inquisitor’s own orders were clear.
Eadric was contained in a small but comfortable cell beneath the Archiepiscopal palace, where he brooded about his condition and wondered how much weight Despina’s atonement would afford his case. Nwm was not well liked by the upper echelons of the clergy, and the fact that the green bosom of the Goddess Uedii had embraced the succubus only served to increase tensions between members of the Old Faith and Orthodoxy. Eadric himself almost regretted Nwm’s intercession, and felt that his own responsibilities had been usurped. She was safe, and that was good. The fact that the Church had not been instrumental in her salvation, however, caused him much lament. He wondered what kind of Tree-ish nonsense Nwm was filling her head with, and unsuccessfully tried to suppress a smile at the thought.
Eadric was allowed to speak to no-one except his confessor, the Bishop of Hethio, as the case against him was being prepared. This vexed him, as he knew that Hethio had voted for his arraignment at the conclave, but the Paladin had little choice but to accept it. The first question that the Bishop had asked was:
"Do you have any other sins that you need to confess, my son?"
And so, Eadric had felt compelled to speak of Rurunoth. The Bishop evinced no surprise, as Mostin’s invoice already pointed to something extraordinary. Eadric guessed correctly that he might as well come clean – the truth about the Balor was sure to come out sooner or later. Until his trial, he’d just play the game.
Ortwin spent two weeks gaining a reputation as a rabble-rouser. The Bard deployed his considerable communication skills in every tavern, bar and inn in Morne, singing ballads, reciting poetry and making defamatory remarks about the church. He sang of love, injustice, redemption and oppressive dogma. He spoke on street corners, he heckled worshippers outside of chapels, and drank huge quantities of firewine.
Within a fortnight the case was a sensation, and Ortwin had gathered to himself a group of malcontents, lapsed devotees and drunken romantics who hung on his every word. The Bard enjoyed himself immensely. The Curia suddenly fell under scrutiny from every quarter, and after the first few days, they made attempts to counter Ortwin’s scandalous performances by sending their most articulate and charismatic preachers to venues where the Half-Elf was scheduled to play.
The Bard lapped it up: as far as he was concerned, the more controversy that he attracted, the better.
Ortwin was arrested three times for causing a breach of the peace.
The first time, the city guards, reduced to tears at his words, released him.
On the second occasion, he successfully seduced his arresting officer: a young lieutenant of the watch named Qino Sels. Within a day, the Bard had convinced her to distribute anti-temple propaganda amongst the city guard and the militia.
His final arrest, which resulted in a hearing with an elderly and conservative magistrate of the Royal Justice, was quashed when the Duchess of Trempa, a long-standing critic of Ortwin’s behaviour when he had frequented her court, intervened on his behalf. He was released on the condition that he immediately cease his performances, to which he happily complied. Half of the nobility of Wyre were now assembled in Morne in order to hear the case of Eadric, and Ortwin applied himself to seeking audiences with various Barons, Counts, Marquises and Dukes in an effort to petition their favour.
Mostin leased a small house in the most fashionable district of Morne under an assumed name, erected his looking-glass, and spent much of his time in divination. He made several extraplanar sorties in an effort to determine the reasons behind Oronthon’s apparent reluctance to make his wishes known.
He consulted with Mulissu in her pocket paradise, although he found the savant ill-informed about larger cosmic events, and uninterested by what transpired away from her own realm. She suggested that he make a translation to the least rarefied of the heavens and seek guidance from the celestials who abode there. Mostin said he’d think about it, and promptly failed to follow her recommendation*.
After petitioning various passers-by on the Inner Planes – both mortal and supernatural - the Alienist made a perilous physical translation to the steaming fringes of Hell, where he posed a "Metagnostic Inquiry**" to a Horned Devil. The Cornugon replied with a cryptic quatrain:
The Eagle seeks an effective solution and is thereby satisfied.
If the vine bears too many bad grapes, then the wine will be poor,
And a ruthless vintner is preferred over a bitter draught.
When Rintrah roars, who will listen?
The Cornugon, Mostin rationalized, although a minor authority in the vast diabolic hierarchy, might know something of use. The Alienist was in no doubt that the Dukes of Hell knew of Oronthon’s silence and were probably observing with interest: the network of infernal spies was the most extensive in the cosmos.
Mostin returned through the looking-glass to his rented home and pondered on the meaning of the words. The "Eagle" – the symbol associated with the god Oronthon - was a clear enough metaphor for the deity himself. Rintrah was the Planetar in the celestial host responsible for mortal revelation. The wine-making references, however, were obscure, and the Alienist could not interpret their meaning. Mostin spent the day experiencing a series of semiotic paradoxes, found that he made no progress, and went to meet Ortwin in a nearby inn.
Nwm and Despina were also there. The Druid, together with his new fiendish protégé, had been visiting a variety of holy sites, places of natural beauty, and particularly venerable trees. Both were travelling dressed in the mottled brown and green robes of lay worshippers of the Goddess, and Nwm had adopted the guise of an old woman in order to deflect attention from their true identity. Morne at that time was a dangerous place, full of zealots and extremists, and the only thing which frightened the Druid more than encountering a squadron of inquisitors or templars, was a group of overly enthusiastic Uedii worshippers. They might view him as a means to end what they viewed as Oronthonian oppression, and hail him as a liberator from excessive Temple taxes. Nwm was apolitical, and although critical of the Temple, had no desire to irritate representatives of the established church beyond that which was absolutely necessary.
Heretic. Infidel. Apostate. Unbeliever. Schismatic. Dissident.
All of these words were currently being bandied about too readily by a variety of self-appointed holy men and women in a climate of religious intolerance that made Nwm nervous. Ortwin was adding fuel to the fire by his actions and, at the Druid’s behest, the Bard ceased his one-man campaign against the Orthodox Church. Aside from numbers of inflamed, disenfranchised Earth-worshippers, various heretical Oronthonian groups – including the Irrenites, the Reconciliatory Sophists and the Urgic Mystics had begun to attract more attention after years of languishing in obscurity. They began wooing the public in an attempt to increase flagging congregations and dwindling coffers.
The trio discussed Mostin’s exchange with the devil, but could not penetrate its crypticisms any more than the Alienist already had. None were experts in Oronthonianism, but the references might make more sense to an initiate.
"Can we find someone who might shed light on it?" Ortwin asked.
Despina coughed politely, but Mostin wasn’t listening.
"Ooh, yes," the Alienist said sarcastically, "I’ll go and find a priest – you know, someone well-versed in doctrinal matters. Maybe an inquisitor. I’ll say, ‘Hello. I’m Mostin – that diabolist you might have heard of. Don’t listen to any of the gossip about me, none of it’s true. I wondered if you could help me. See, I was talking to this devil…’"
"Well, obviously I was thinking of a more indirect approach," Ortwin sighed.
"I’m not sure how reliable the words of a devil are in helping us penetrate the motive for Oronthon’s silence," Nwm said drily. "Surely a member of the celestial host would make a better target for inquiry."
"Perhaps," Mostin said nervously, "although devils tend to be remarkably well-informed. In any case, I would guess that only the upper echelons of Oronthon’s servitors would be privy to his motives."
"So you think that a moderate-ranking devil will be better informed than, say a deva or an archon? Your argument is inconsistent." Nwm pressed. "Unless Oronthon is purposely leaking information to fiends."
"If you have any theories about this," Ortwin said to the Demoness, "now would be a good time to share them."
"I don’t pretend to understand Oronthon’s motivation," Despina said carefully, "but I am well-versed in theological matters – it pays if you’re in my line of work. Or my previous line of work, I should say. I think that Oronthon neatly sidestepped the issue of dealing with the dilemma that my petition for forgiveness caused. I don’t think it was necessarily intentional on his part, but Nwm’s intercession for me with the Goddess is to Oronthon’s benefit."
"Explain," said Mostin.
"Consider," the Demoness said. "You are a deity with a number of portfolios. You represent, on one hand, Love, Compassion, Mercy and Forgiveness. You are absolutely Good. On the other hand, you signify Justice, Order, Retribution and absolute Law. These two poles are not necessarily identical in their needs."
"Hah," Mostin snorted. "If you’re telling me that Oronthon is schizophrenic, then he’s no different from any other deity. So what’s new?"
"The point I’m trying to make," she continued, "is that the current crisis is a reflection of that dichotomy. A demoness approaches Oronthon’s champion, earnestly asking for redemption. Good Oronthon says ‘sure, no problem,’ whereas Lawful Oronthon says ‘no chance. Your punishment was just.’ Of course, Oronthon understands this paradox, and that some kind of dialectic has to be found in order to transcend it. If he acts, one way or the other, he favours Law over Good or vice versa. Two absolute truths have come into conflict with one another, and both have to be satisfied."
"Orthodoxy admits to this variation," Nwm said, "hence its worshippers emphasise different aspects of the deity***. I don’t see this as relevant."
"In practice they admit to it, yes," Despina said "but doctrinally, Oronthon is ‘one, perfect, indivisible’ and so on. To speculate that Oronthon is, in fact, a moral relativist would not go down terribly well with the public – hence such discourse is deemed ‘heretical.’"
Ortwin hooted with laughter. "So do I get to tell Ed? He’ll love this."
"You must not," Despina said. "Eadric is like most celestials. They have a simplistic view of reality which is couched in terms of black and white. It is their faith which sustains them, and an absolute trust in Oronthon’s perfection. As Mostin says, only those in the upper tiers of the celestial hierarchy really understand Oronthon’s will – that the deity is constantly fraught with moral and ethical dilemmas which he has to resolve. Yet they still trust his judgement, and do not doubt him."
"And you doubted?" Mostin asked.
"I understood, I doubted, and I fell," the demoness replied. "The same would happen to Eadric."
"You underestimate him," Nwm said, simply. "He is not afraid to confront difficult truths. If your theory is correct, that there are essentially two kinds of faith in question here – a blind faith and an informed faith, so to speak – then I would be prepared to gamble that Eadric falls into the latter camp."
"Maybe," Ortwin said, "although in the past I’ve hardly kept my frustration with Ed’s stubbornness a secret from him. He has trouble dealing with new ideas. The revelation that his god is fallible might be more than he can handle. But I can’t believe this is the first time that this idea has been addressed."
Despina shook her head. "Its not. Mystics and contemplatives have to get past this point and develop a more fundamental relationship with the deity. But your standard Warrior-cleric, or Templar, or Paladin has a relatively unenlightened view. They are agents of their deity’s will, but do not understand it. In this regard they resemble the celestial rank and file."
"Interesting theory," Nwm said sceptically, "but if it’s true then why did you approach Eadric for redemption in the first place? If you consider him to possess only a partial understanding of Oronthon, then surely a contemplative who is more ‘tuned in’ would’ve made a better choice. You must have known that it would cause a crisis in both his conscience and the larger body of the church."
"I had little choice," Despina said. "If you remember, he was ready to strike me down until I begged him to reconsider. But we’d already spent so much time together that I thought I understood him enough to risk throwing myself on his mercy. From that point onwards, until you acted on my behalf, then he basically called the shots. I trusted his ability to effectively act upon the will of Oronthon, even if he did not fully understand it."
"You are forgetting Cynric," Mostin reasoned. "Whoever Eadric was, when this began, he is not the same man now. The Archbishop pulled the rug from under his feet when he withdrew official church support for his actions. Eadric’s own mentor initiated an existential crisis in his ward and told him that he was ‘on his own.’ Why would he do that unless he felt that Eadric was capable of dealing with it? I am a wizard – I understand this principle well. Sometimes the lessons you give need to be ruthless, otherwise they are ineffective."
"I disliked Cynric," Nwm said, "but I had no doubt about his sense of foresight, or his excellence as a teacher. I suspect that he may have had a presentiment about his own death."
"And did nothing to stop it?" Ortwin asked, amazed. "He elected no successor, and the church is in crisis. I don’t believe he would willingly allow that to happen – the continuation of tradition was too important to him."
Nwm raised an ironic eyebrow. "You forget the last exchange between Eadric and Cynric occurred in private. Neither you, nor I, nor the Curia were present. Eadric was vague about the details."
"You think the old bastard was grooming Eadric to take over?" Ortwin asked, aghast.
"Not necessarily," Nwm said, "but I think he was sounding out possibilities, and Eadric may have been high on his list of candidates. He may have regarded the Despina affair as a test of Eadric’s mettle, thus he was disinclined to intervene. He saw it as a potential catalyst which would have far-reaching consequences for every aspect of the faith. In the final analysis, however, I think Cynric’s foresight failed him: he didn’t expect to die quite as soon as he did."
"But why choose a warrior when there are so many contemplatives who are attuned more closely?" Despina asked.
"War," Nwm said.
"In the church? Precipitated by me?" Despina asked. "I hope not. If that’s the case, then Graz’zt has won already."
"Again," repeated Nwm, "not necessarily. Oronthon may view it as an opportunity to root out corruption, instill a new direction in a stagnant organization, quiet the bickering factions and revive morality. Remember: The Greatest Good for the Greatest Number. Sometimes you have to crack a few eggs to bake a cake."
"But the Inquisition and the Temple are Eadric’s primary antagonists," Ortwin said. "And if this is the case, then why hasn’t Oronthon shown some sign to Eadric?"
"I believe its customarily called ‘the long dark night of the soul,’" Nwm replied. "It’s supposed to be difficult, or it has no value."
"So what are we supposed to do?" Asked Ortwin. "The trial begins tomorrow."
"Nothing," said Mostin. "We wait until Rintrah roars."
*Mostin is afraid of birds. Celestials with their big, feathery wings are more than the Alienist can bear.
**Potent Spell (8th level) devised by Mostin with several applications, but designed primarily to extract information from extraplanar entities. Like "Otto’s Irresistible Dance," the "Metagnostic Inquiry" allows no saving throw (although SR still applies), and the target is subjected to a mind-affecting compulsion which temporarily renders it docile and incapable of lying. The caster poses a single question, which the target must answer faithfully (albeit usually obliquely). The question posed by Mostin to the Cornugon was "What is the meaning of Oronthon’s current silence towards his worshippers?"
***Obviously, although Oronthon is a LG Deity, his worshippers can be NG or LN.
From here on, I was making it up as I went along - we all were, in fact. It was impossible to cover every contingency, and my head was beginning to hurt. I had no plot left, and the issues were too big for me to deal with on my own. It was time for me to give up some responsibility - temporarily, at least. So I asked all of the players:
"So where do YOU see this going?" After all, its their game.
This is what we came up with.
**
Three weeks passed.
Even though the demoness’s repentance was regarded as a partial vindication, as Tahl had pointed out to Eadric, it did not entirely mitigate the charges levelled against the Paladin, and Inquisitor’s own orders were clear.
Eadric was contained in a small but comfortable cell beneath the Archiepiscopal palace, where he brooded about his condition and wondered how much weight Despina’s atonement would afford his case. Nwm was not well liked by the upper echelons of the clergy, and the fact that the green bosom of the Goddess Uedii had embraced the succubus only served to increase tensions between members of the Old Faith and Orthodoxy. Eadric himself almost regretted Nwm’s intercession, and felt that his own responsibilities had been usurped. She was safe, and that was good. The fact that the Church had not been instrumental in her salvation, however, caused him much lament. He wondered what kind of Tree-ish nonsense Nwm was filling her head with, and unsuccessfully tried to suppress a smile at the thought.
Eadric was allowed to speak to no-one except his confessor, the Bishop of Hethio, as the case against him was being prepared. This vexed him, as he knew that Hethio had voted for his arraignment at the conclave, but the Paladin had little choice but to accept it. The first question that the Bishop had asked was:
"Do you have any other sins that you need to confess, my son?"
And so, Eadric had felt compelled to speak of Rurunoth. The Bishop evinced no surprise, as Mostin’s invoice already pointed to something extraordinary. Eadric guessed correctly that he might as well come clean – the truth about the Balor was sure to come out sooner or later. Until his trial, he’d just play the game.
Ortwin spent two weeks gaining a reputation as a rabble-rouser. The Bard deployed his considerable communication skills in every tavern, bar and inn in Morne, singing ballads, reciting poetry and making defamatory remarks about the church. He sang of love, injustice, redemption and oppressive dogma. He spoke on street corners, he heckled worshippers outside of chapels, and drank huge quantities of firewine.
Within a fortnight the case was a sensation, and Ortwin had gathered to himself a group of malcontents, lapsed devotees and drunken romantics who hung on his every word. The Bard enjoyed himself immensely. The Curia suddenly fell under scrutiny from every quarter, and after the first few days, they made attempts to counter Ortwin’s scandalous performances by sending their most articulate and charismatic preachers to venues where the Half-Elf was scheduled to play.
The Bard lapped it up: as far as he was concerned, the more controversy that he attracted, the better.
Ortwin was arrested three times for causing a breach of the peace.
The first time, the city guards, reduced to tears at his words, released him.
On the second occasion, he successfully seduced his arresting officer: a young lieutenant of the watch named Qino Sels. Within a day, the Bard had convinced her to distribute anti-temple propaganda amongst the city guard and the militia.
His final arrest, which resulted in a hearing with an elderly and conservative magistrate of the Royal Justice, was quashed when the Duchess of Trempa, a long-standing critic of Ortwin’s behaviour when he had frequented her court, intervened on his behalf. He was released on the condition that he immediately cease his performances, to which he happily complied. Half of the nobility of Wyre were now assembled in Morne in order to hear the case of Eadric, and Ortwin applied himself to seeking audiences with various Barons, Counts, Marquises and Dukes in an effort to petition their favour.
Mostin leased a small house in the most fashionable district of Morne under an assumed name, erected his looking-glass, and spent much of his time in divination. He made several extraplanar sorties in an effort to determine the reasons behind Oronthon’s apparent reluctance to make his wishes known.
He consulted with Mulissu in her pocket paradise, although he found the savant ill-informed about larger cosmic events, and uninterested by what transpired away from her own realm. She suggested that he make a translation to the least rarefied of the heavens and seek guidance from the celestials who abode there. Mostin said he’d think about it, and promptly failed to follow her recommendation*.
After petitioning various passers-by on the Inner Planes – both mortal and supernatural - the Alienist made a perilous physical translation to the steaming fringes of Hell, where he posed a "Metagnostic Inquiry**" to a Horned Devil. The Cornugon replied with a cryptic quatrain:
The Eagle seeks an effective solution and is thereby satisfied.
If the vine bears too many bad grapes, then the wine will be poor,
And a ruthless vintner is preferred over a bitter draught.
When Rintrah roars, who will listen?
The Cornugon, Mostin rationalized, although a minor authority in the vast diabolic hierarchy, might know something of use. The Alienist was in no doubt that the Dukes of Hell knew of Oronthon’s silence and were probably observing with interest: the network of infernal spies was the most extensive in the cosmos.
Mostin returned through the looking-glass to his rented home and pondered on the meaning of the words. The "Eagle" – the symbol associated with the god Oronthon - was a clear enough metaphor for the deity himself. Rintrah was the Planetar in the celestial host responsible for mortal revelation. The wine-making references, however, were obscure, and the Alienist could not interpret their meaning. Mostin spent the day experiencing a series of semiotic paradoxes, found that he made no progress, and went to meet Ortwin in a nearby inn.
Nwm and Despina were also there. The Druid, together with his new fiendish protégé, had been visiting a variety of holy sites, places of natural beauty, and particularly venerable trees. Both were travelling dressed in the mottled brown and green robes of lay worshippers of the Goddess, and Nwm had adopted the guise of an old woman in order to deflect attention from their true identity. Morne at that time was a dangerous place, full of zealots and extremists, and the only thing which frightened the Druid more than encountering a squadron of inquisitors or templars, was a group of overly enthusiastic Uedii worshippers. They might view him as a means to end what they viewed as Oronthonian oppression, and hail him as a liberator from excessive Temple taxes. Nwm was apolitical, and although critical of the Temple, had no desire to irritate representatives of the established church beyond that which was absolutely necessary.
Heretic. Infidel. Apostate. Unbeliever. Schismatic. Dissident.
All of these words were currently being bandied about too readily by a variety of self-appointed holy men and women in a climate of religious intolerance that made Nwm nervous. Ortwin was adding fuel to the fire by his actions and, at the Druid’s behest, the Bard ceased his one-man campaign against the Orthodox Church. Aside from numbers of inflamed, disenfranchised Earth-worshippers, various heretical Oronthonian groups – including the Irrenites, the Reconciliatory Sophists and the Urgic Mystics had begun to attract more attention after years of languishing in obscurity. They began wooing the public in an attempt to increase flagging congregations and dwindling coffers.
The trio discussed Mostin’s exchange with the devil, but could not penetrate its crypticisms any more than the Alienist already had. None were experts in Oronthonianism, but the references might make more sense to an initiate.
"Can we find someone who might shed light on it?" Ortwin asked.
Despina coughed politely, but Mostin wasn’t listening.
"Ooh, yes," the Alienist said sarcastically, "I’ll go and find a priest – you know, someone well-versed in doctrinal matters. Maybe an inquisitor. I’ll say, ‘Hello. I’m Mostin – that diabolist you might have heard of. Don’t listen to any of the gossip about me, none of it’s true. I wondered if you could help me. See, I was talking to this devil…’"
"Well, obviously I was thinking of a more indirect approach," Ortwin sighed.
"I’m not sure how reliable the words of a devil are in helping us penetrate the motive for Oronthon’s silence," Nwm said drily. "Surely a member of the celestial host would make a better target for inquiry."
"Perhaps," Mostin said nervously, "although devils tend to be remarkably well-informed. In any case, I would guess that only the upper echelons of Oronthon’s servitors would be privy to his motives."
"So you think that a moderate-ranking devil will be better informed than, say a deva or an archon? Your argument is inconsistent." Nwm pressed. "Unless Oronthon is purposely leaking information to fiends."
"If you have any theories about this," Ortwin said to the Demoness, "now would be a good time to share them."
"I don’t pretend to understand Oronthon’s motivation," Despina said carefully, "but I am well-versed in theological matters – it pays if you’re in my line of work. Or my previous line of work, I should say. I think that Oronthon neatly sidestepped the issue of dealing with the dilemma that my petition for forgiveness caused. I don’t think it was necessarily intentional on his part, but Nwm’s intercession for me with the Goddess is to Oronthon’s benefit."
"Explain," said Mostin.
"Consider," the Demoness said. "You are a deity with a number of portfolios. You represent, on one hand, Love, Compassion, Mercy and Forgiveness. You are absolutely Good. On the other hand, you signify Justice, Order, Retribution and absolute Law. These two poles are not necessarily identical in their needs."
"Hah," Mostin snorted. "If you’re telling me that Oronthon is schizophrenic, then he’s no different from any other deity. So what’s new?"
"The point I’m trying to make," she continued, "is that the current crisis is a reflection of that dichotomy. A demoness approaches Oronthon’s champion, earnestly asking for redemption. Good Oronthon says ‘sure, no problem,’ whereas Lawful Oronthon says ‘no chance. Your punishment was just.’ Of course, Oronthon understands this paradox, and that some kind of dialectic has to be found in order to transcend it. If he acts, one way or the other, he favours Law over Good or vice versa. Two absolute truths have come into conflict with one another, and both have to be satisfied."
"Orthodoxy admits to this variation," Nwm said, "hence its worshippers emphasise different aspects of the deity***. I don’t see this as relevant."
"In practice they admit to it, yes," Despina said "but doctrinally, Oronthon is ‘one, perfect, indivisible’ and so on. To speculate that Oronthon is, in fact, a moral relativist would not go down terribly well with the public – hence such discourse is deemed ‘heretical.’"
Ortwin hooted with laughter. "So do I get to tell Ed? He’ll love this."
"You must not," Despina said. "Eadric is like most celestials. They have a simplistic view of reality which is couched in terms of black and white. It is their faith which sustains them, and an absolute trust in Oronthon’s perfection. As Mostin says, only those in the upper tiers of the celestial hierarchy really understand Oronthon’s will – that the deity is constantly fraught with moral and ethical dilemmas which he has to resolve. Yet they still trust his judgement, and do not doubt him."
"And you doubted?" Mostin asked.
"I understood, I doubted, and I fell," the demoness replied. "The same would happen to Eadric."
"You underestimate him," Nwm said, simply. "He is not afraid to confront difficult truths. If your theory is correct, that there are essentially two kinds of faith in question here – a blind faith and an informed faith, so to speak – then I would be prepared to gamble that Eadric falls into the latter camp."
"Maybe," Ortwin said, "although in the past I’ve hardly kept my frustration with Ed’s stubbornness a secret from him. He has trouble dealing with new ideas. The revelation that his god is fallible might be more than he can handle. But I can’t believe this is the first time that this idea has been addressed."
Despina shook her head. "Its not. Mystics and contemplatives have to get past this point and develop a more fundamental relationship with the deity. But your standard Warrior-cleric, or Templar, or Paladin has a relatively unenlightened view. They are agents of their deity’s will, but do not understand it. In this regard they resemble the celestial rank and file."
"Interesting theory," Nwm said sceptically, "but if it’s true then why did you approach Eadric for redemption in the first place? If you consider him to possess only a partial understanding of Oronthon, then surely a contemplative who is more ‘tuned in’ would’ve made a better choice. You must have known that it would cause a crisis in both his conscience and the larger body of the church."
"I had little choice," Despina said. "If you remember, he was ready to strike me down until I begged him to reconsider. But we’d already spent so much time together that I thought I understood him enough to risk throwing myself on his mercy. From that point onwards, until you acted on my behalf, then he basically called the shots. I trusted his ability to effectively act upon the will of Oronthon, even if he did not fully understand it."
"You are forgetting Cynric," Mostin reasoned. "Whoever Eadric was, when this began, he is not the same man now. The Archbishop pulled the rug from under his feet when he withdrew official church support for his actions. Eadric’s own mentor initiated an existential crisis in his ward and told him that he was ‘on his own.’ Why would he do that unless he felt that Eadric was capable of dealing with it? I am a wizard – I understand this principle well. Sometimes the lessons you give need to be ruthless, otherwise they are ineffective."
"I disliked Cynric," Nwm said, "but I had no doubt about his sense of foresight, or his excellence as a teacher. I suspect that he may have had a presentiment about his own death."
"And did nothing to stop it?" Ortwin asked, amazed. "He elected no successor, and the church is in crisis. I don’t believe he would willingly allow that to happen – the continuation of tradition was too important to him."
Nwm raised an ironic eyebrow. "You forget the last exchange between Eadric and Cynric occurred in private. Neither you, nor I, nor the Curia were present. Eadric was vague about the details."
"You think the old bastard was grooming Eadric to take over?" Ortwin asked, aghast.
"Not necessarily," Nwm said, "but I think he was sounding out possibilities, and Eadric may have been high on his list of candidates. He may have regarded the Despina affair as a test of Eadric’s mettle, thus he was disinclined to intervene. He saw it as a potential catalyst which would have far-reaching consequences for every aspect of the faith. In the final analysis, however, I think Cynric’s foresight failed him: he didn’t expect to die quite as soon as he did."
"But why choose a warrior when there are so many contemplatives who are attuned more closely?" Despina asked.
"War," Nwm said.
"In the church? Precipitated by me?" Despina asked. "I hope not. If that’s the case, then Graz’zt has won already."
"Again," repeated Nwm, "not necessarily. Oronthon may view it as an opportunity to root out corruption, instill a new direction in a stagnant organization, quiet the bickering factions and revive morality. Remember: The Greatest Good for the Greatest Number. Sometimes you have to crack a few eggs to bake a cake."
"But the Inquisition and the Temple are Eadric’s primary antagonists," Ortwin said. "And if this is the case, then why hasn’t Oronthon shown some sign to Eadric?"
"I believe its customarily called ‘the long dark night of the soul,’" Nwm replied. "It’s supposed to be difficult, or it has no value."
"So what are we supposed to do?" Asked Ortwin. "The trial begins tomorrow."
"Nothing," said Mostin. "We wait until Rintrah roars."
*Mostin is afraid of birds. Celestials with their big, feathery wings are more than the Alienist can bear.
**Potent Spell (8th level) devised by Mostin with several applications, but designed primarily to extract information from extraplanar entities. Like "Otto’s Irresistible Dance," the "Metagnostic Inquiry" allows no saving throw (although SR still applies), and the target is subjected to a mind-affecting compulsion which temporarily renders it docile and incapable of lying. The caster poses a single question, which the target must answer faithfully (albeit usually obliquely). The question posed by Mostin to the Cornugon was "What is the meaning of Oronthon’s current silence towards his worshippers?"
***Obviously, although Oronthon is a LG Deity, his worshippers can be NG or LN.
all of that's mostly true.
i sat in on the session, but basically said little - ed was behind bars.
the dm delights in screwing with our brains like this.
and the jack vance thing is totally true, sammael. both sepulchrave and dan/mostin are vance fans - dan is actually far worse.
i'm not sure eadric would approve of the name, though. wasn't sammael one of lucifer's names before he fell...?
i sat in on the session, but basically said little - ed was behind bars.
the dm delights in screwing with our brains like this.
and the jack vance thing is totally true, sammael. both sepulchrave and dan/mostin are vance fans - dan is actually far worse.
i'm not sure eadric would approve of the name, though. wasn't sammael one of lucifer's names before he fell...?
Moon_Goddess
Have I really been on this site for over 20 years!
Lombard said:
And this shows you why this is greatest Story hour ever, knowledgable player.
I'm simply stunned, Can't wait to see the trail, No literally I'm on edge I can't wait
Sammael99
First Post
Lombard said:
But isn't that the most memorable thing ever ? I know my players always remember with the most fondness the scenes where they actually went "you friggin' bastard !" at the time they were played...
That shows too ! There are worse references, though, and even if the a-moral Vancian outer universe is kind of moralised here, it seems to work very well, so much so that I'm thinking of "vancing up" my own campaign !
That's the key, you see : "before the fall". I'm a nice guy, really... Maybe slightly cynic and erring towards doubt, but nothing major... yet
Sammael99
First Post
Vancian summoning
Incidentally, and while we're on the subject of Vance, Sepulchrave, how do you handle summoning ? Is it just a simple use of the Summon Monster spells ? That seems kind of lame compared to the scope of the extra-planar beings involved and to the verbal interaction between summonner and summonee... Can you enlighten us on the subject ?
Incidentally, and while we're on the subject of Vance, Sepulchrave, how do you handle summoning ? Is it just a simple use of the Summon Monster spells ? That seems kind of lame compared to the scope of the extra-planar beings involved and to the verbal interaction between summonner and summonee... Can you enlighten us on the subject ?
