My follow-up question is about your (c), Thayan political cleavages: What competing political loyalties threaten to undermine the hierarchy and goals of the Thayans’ leadership?
My answer: While Szass Tam demands absolute obedience from his lieutenants, as do they, in turn, demand the same from their underlings, like any sprawling organization, several internal factions and external infiltrating threats prevent monolithic control. Neither Tam nor powerful exarchs like Valindra Shadowmantle are omniscient or omnipresent, after all. One such cleavage is The Flayed Memory, whose agents penetrate powerful organizations like the Thayans, vigilant for ambitious souls amid practitioners of the dark arts (necromancy, diabolism, and the like) who might see their individual or collective path to power through the recovery of the secret name of He Who Was. These agents serve two masters: their ostensible superior within the Thayan hierarchy and their oath to prevent any and all from learning the secret name of Asmodeus’s original foe. Serving this latter oath takes precedence over even the most binding of directives from an organizational superior.
With this in mind, we would like to pivot our actions. Rather than ambush the acolyte of Valindra and make off with the book that holds the location of the remains of the Ninth, we want to directly confront this Red Wizard-cum-Thayan Warlock/Oathbound Paladin and convince her that (a) we have a common foe in the Ashmadai and Mordai Vell and (b) this tome with its information must not fall into Valindra Shadowmantle’s hands. In return for (b), we offer our alliance in bringing about the downfall of Vell and his Ashmadai, possibly including the leverage of Lady Lily-Rose’s promise to get us into the Moonstone Manor for just such a purpose.
While it’s certainly possible that Vell’s demise cannot be brought about so quickly in gameplay (although our discussion of the Ashmadai being like Hydra--cut off one head and another replaces it, as the diabolists are constantly scheming, forming subfactions, and so on--does proffer this possibility), taking actions to satisfy Ironvice’s demands and reconnoitre Vell’s personal quarters may be initial steps towards a longer-reaching goal.
As for Twyll, given that her BG superiors desire she continue to countersurveil Valindra Shadowmantle, attaining information about levers to pull against Valindra is paramount. But autonomous action should only be taken when absolutely necessary, as in the case of preventing Valindra from gaining knowledge of the remains of the Ninth to complete her ritual.
So: for Pritchard, his priority is to forge an alliance with this figure, whose goals coincide nicely with his own. Whereas Twyll’s priority is, first and foremost, preventing Valindra from attaining the information necessary to complete her profane ritual.
PRITCHARD alights upon the warded altar, eyes blazing above the layers of cloth wrapping his lower face; hopefully treatment of his collection of fine linen cravats treated with “holy water” cologne sanctified during ritual prayers to the Lord of the Ninth will protect him and Twyll from the necromantic pestilence befouling the place.
With a heretofore-unrealized flair for the dramatic, Blackmantle rips open the buttons of his white silk blouse, exposing his pale, thin chest to the world–and more importantly to the ash zombies forming and reforming on the periphery of the altar and buildings.
“Behold, creatures!” he intones, “this mysterious red stigma upon my chest! Behold a dreadful witness of it!” And it was revealed! But it were irreverent to describe that revelation here.
It is enough to know that the ash zombies recognize the mark and acknowledge its bearer’s legitimacy in this place.
Pritchard marks 1 Adventuring Gear for the holy water with which he has treated his linen neckwear to protect himself and Twyll from the pestilence.
I don’t think Defy Danger is necessary for his alighting upon the altar, for nothing is at risk; he can make the same move from the trees or upon the ground without alteration. If you feel differently, though, I can make that move first.
Then, Pritchard wields the symbol carved into his breast in relation to that upon the altar to mark himself as “belonging” to this place and to impede the ash zombies from attacking.
INFERNAL INSIGHT
When you
wield your environment against your foe(s), choose 1 from the list below and roll +INT: on a 7-9, pick 1, but you pay the infernal price. On a 10+, pick 1.
- Impede or interrupt their actions
- Create an advantage that grants you or an ally +1 forward on the next roll to exploit it
- Deal damage appropriate to the source (b[2d4] for bruises/scrapes, b[2d6] for bloodshed, b[2d8] if it’d break bones, b[2d10] if it’d kill a common person)
r6,3 +2 INT = 11. I choose to impede their actions.
TWYLL carefully estimates the distance to the outbuilding’s open window and action needed to get herself from the branch on which she is crouched and gently through that window, hopefully landing silently on its floor. While she makes her mental calculations, she wraps her own dark scarf over Pritchard’s pale, holy water-treated linen cravat: it would not do to make the perfect move only to be seen by the blaze of his prudent gift. <Although,> the drow muses to herself with a smirk as she climbs closer to her goal, <the faint scent of lavender might give my position away, if I’m not careful!>
Steadily, she takes a deep inhale and grasps the branch in front of her. Then, with her exhale, Twyll swings her body forward, letting go just in time to allow her momentum to carry her forward, her back arched to thread her through the window, pointed feet first. She executes the landing perfectly and slowly straightens, eyes carefully fixed on her unsuspecting prey.
Twyll uses Defy Danger (Dex) to carefully leap through the window of the outbuilding, using her Catlike instincts to move quietly:
DEFY DANGER
When
danger looms, the stakes are high, and you do something chancy, check if another move applies. If not, roll...
... +DEX to employ speed, agility, or finesse
On a 10+, you pull it off as well as one could hope; on a 7-9, you can do it, but the GM will present a lesser success, a cost, or a consequence (and maybe a choice between them, or a chance to back down).
r4,6+2 DEX = 12
CATLIKE
When you
carry a light load (Load -6) and move with care, you make no noise.
When you keep still in shadows or darkness, you remain unseen until you draw attention to yourself, move positions, or attack.
The drow darts forward, quickly wrapping her right arm around the warlock’s neck–HARD–stopping any sound from leaving the woman’s throat.
Twyll is using Ambush against the Red Wizard, hoping to subdue her, not kill her.
AMBUSH
When you
attack someone up close and they don’t see it coming, deal your damage or roll +DEX: on a 10+, deal your damage and pick 2; on a 7-9, deal your damage and pick 1.
- Deal +1d4 damage
- Stop them from making noise/raising an alarm
- Slip away before they can react
- Create an opportunity; you or an ally takes +1 forward on the next move to act on it
r2,6+2 DEX = 10: I choose Stop them from making noise/raising an alarm and Create an opportunity; you or an ally takes +1 forward on the next move to act on it.
Her other hand holding a dagger up to the Red Wizard’s eye, Twyll whispers harshly, “Yield!”
Twyll creates an opportunity for herself to attempt to intimidate the Red Wizard, using Persuade (CHA), using the threat of violence as leverage, and taking +1 forward:
PERSUADE
When you
press or entice an NPC, say what you want them to do (or not do). If they have reason to resist, roll +CHA:
On a 10+, they either do what you want or reveal the easiest way to convince them; on a 7-9, they reveal something you can do to convince them though it’ll likely be costly, tricky, or distatestful.
r3,1-1 CHA +1 Forward = 4; mark 1 point XP
Per Manbearcat
Given all the factors of the situation and setup, I’m going to (i) give you some of what you want, (ii) make a pair of soft moves (including going offscreen), while (iii) updating the situation-state outside of the move dynamics:
(i) The Thayan servant of two masters is on her feet in the middle of the room, heavy tome in hand, as the assault takes place. The open floor plan of this structure signifies it as former Thundertree’s common house. Made of hardwood with buttressing metal fasteners and clearly some kind of fireproofing, it survived the cataclysm. It is minimalist with a tapestry motif of Thundertree hanging from the rafters, a dais at the back and a built-in pulpit, and the desk at the window where she was formerly seated.
The shadows in the corners of the room coalesce like a million winding strings of utter darkness. The form is that of a rime-covered, phantasmal horse, mane and tail flowing in darkness, eyes the palest blue.
“I submit (one hand up while the other holding the hefty book stays low), but you’ll have to convince the Lethernan Mare. While we are symbiont, she is fully autonomous…and fiercely loyal…”
(ii) The Lethernan Mare paws the ground with its frozen hoof, iced-hooves cracking with the movement and a pool of rime spreading outward slowly. It bows its head and stares its eyes coldly into the soul of Twyll.
Twyll, a memory from your deep past creeps up into your psyche; something that froze you with dread. Tell us what it is and how you deal with it.
(Offscreen) It is this morning, not long ago. Rosene opens the door from her attached apartment to the common area of The Driftwood Tavern. Her head is down as her arms are full of bedding, preparing to change one of the rooms upstairs. She walks toward the stairs. NEXT is written in blood on the floor under her feet. She doesn’t panic. She lays the bedding to the side and stoops. Partially dry, partially wet. <thok> The sound of a drop of blood hitting the floor. She looks up. Her three ranking, greybeard members of the Son’s of Alogandar hanging from the ceiling’s joists, throats slit.
Gloom writhes subtly at the threshold to the front door…but already within. The door opens and closes as a pantomime. The Night Hag’s form has materialized fully, but then changes to that of the spitting image of one of Rosene’s servants; a linen-changer named Margaret. She’s here to help Rosene with the linens! Their eyes meet in horror (for one of them it is very much feigned!).
Meanwhile, at The House of Knowledge, a priest of Oghma hefts the heavy purse of coin they will put to work in fetching rare new tomes. It still amazes him that the woman traded a hefty coinpurse of one hundred coins for a collection of fairy tales, vast as it was, including an exaggerated rendering of the life of the great Lord Nasher Alagondar. Eclectic tastes <shrug>?
(Cut back in time to the booth and the shrouded figure meeting with the Nashers at The House of a Thousand Faces). The voice is low, gravely, impenetrable; "it shall be done." The figure scoops the coin purse and "melts" like dark smoke through the exterior wall. The sound of a phantasmal neigh and a singular, soft gallop from outside that same wall. Then...nothing.>
(iii) Twyll’s mental configurations of all that lies before her are halted briefly as she detects something strange about this place. She feels no “tug” from the sensor. It isn’t activating to surveil her here and now? Hmmmm…it cannot_activate. The Warlock-Paladin has it warded from Valindra’s remote scrying…
