The Slave and Her Sovereign

[darkbard]

CHANVATI reads the thoughts of the assembled, taking in the cause of mirth among some. This canine--his name roughly translates to "Earthdiver" in homage to his famous ancestor--and his frolic with Hazard provide more than just a distraction from hostilities: they offer a moral and political lesson, if one only has the insight to see it! And the power and will to act upon it....

The Psion expands his consciousness into the Chronotope. Disengages the fortress of his ego. Watches as the slipstream of time and space blurs past him, elongating and shrinking like some multidimensional caterpillar.

There!

An assemblage of bladeling hunters. A sulfurous bog crackling with electricity. A loyal canine leaping into action.

It is so easy for one of his potency! Infusing the canine form with psionic ki, Chanvati watches the efforts of his "aid": the bladeling hunter rescued from the morass. The supercharged canine erupting from the mud with a powerful kick. Shaking itself violently when again upon firm ground. The assembled sighing collectively and lavishing praise upon "the bestest boy."

Chanvati releases his venturing mind, and his consciousness snaps back to the present.

"See here," he gestures to the canine play, "even our loyal friends recognize the ancient bonds between Bladeling and Goliath, their mutual reverence of the Great Spirits of the Earth.

"Time has come to abandon your servitude to the Burning Mountain and those in your midst who divert you from the old ways."

---

Kind of a weird skill check here. Chanvati is making a check to alter the Chronotope, to save the bladeling hunter's life and thereby undo the lingering enmity towards the Primal Powers resultant from this death. The most straightforward way of handling this is via a Primary Skill Arcana check, which, at +24, is an autosuccess versus the Moderate 24 DC. However, if you think the sequence here is better represented by Arcana as a Secondary Skill (also an autosuccess, of course, for a +2 bonus) and then Diplomacy as the Primary Skill check, my roll for that is r18+20+2=40 vs 24 Moderate DC,. Also a Success, but requiring a roll and the expenditure of our remaining Secondary Skill.

Totally cool with whatever you rule here!

 

[Manbearcat]

Complexity 3 SC, Level 19 (DCs 17/24/33)
Goal (staged): Confront the fracturing and warring Legion of Ruth within Bantouk (3), sunder Vezzuvu's control over them forevermore (6), and send them back to their strongholds beyond the Hinterlands (8).
6/8 Successes/1 Failures/0 Hard DC Available/1 Secondary Skills Available/0 Advantages Available

The days following the events on the low plateau between Throkk, Shi'yeur, and the heroes have been the first relatively placid days Bantouk has seen in enough stacking months that it feels difficult to imagine a "before-time." Bladelings roam in isolation, in fugue. Collective meditation and earthen ceremony pervade the city.

The citizenry slowly unwind from the knot of occupation and get back to the business of commerce, exploitation, worship, mundane charity, religious alms, recreation, soothsaying (legitimate and less-so), class-based segregation, and enforcement of laws and pre-occupation norms.

At the northern gate, soldiers of Bantouk formerly garrisoned there collect to decide if they should approach the platoon of LoR bladelings occupying the gatehouse and barracks. Their commanding officer looks up at the armor-clad bladelings manning the ramparts. "Do they even speak common" and "what is the custom for parley" are plain on their scrutinizing face.

The bladelings, certainly not decommissioned, ignore the gathering.

Word of this potential conflict quickly travels to the palace where Pa'avu is giving instruction to the young sovereign.

---

MEDIUM DC

 

[Nephis]

PA'AVU stands silently alongside her young student, listening carefully to the complaint made to Scheherazade during a fitting for royal robes. The seamstress is sharing details of the simmering situation at the barracks to her sovereign, details related to her by one of several brothers once garrisoned at the northern gates: "I do not even understand why they are still here!" is her plaintive cry.

The young sovereign looks up at her goliath tutor, her expression a clear query for advice. At this, Pa'avu cocks her head to the side, thinking through some details she has only just begun to notice in the bladelings: a dullness to the sheen of their metallic spikes; a blankness in their gaze; a growing aggressiveness born not out of their natural tendency toward competitive behavior but out of boredom, from being cooped up. The goliath has been seeing more and more instances of these things, but -- in retrospect -- last night's dinner with Rietka and Yazdan began to put all these pieces together. When she was not snarling at Chanvati or glaring at Hazard, Rietka was staring listlessly into space, a mirror of what Pa'avu now realizes she has been observing for quite some time.

And now the puzzle is complete.

"They are not meant to be here," she intones, in her deep gravelly voice. "Bladelings thrive in the desert: it feeds them physically, mentally, and spiritually. They are stagnating here in the city. They must return: their well-being depends upon it. Even Rietka."

---

• Pa'avu makes a Secondary Skill Insight check to read between the lines of bladeling behavior (r8+13=21 vs DC 17/Success) to aid
• her Primary Skill Nature check to recognize the cause of the bladelings' mental, spiritual, and physical deterioration: r8+17+2 SS = 27 vs DC 24/Success

 

[darkbard]

Per @Manbearcat
Complexity 3 SC, Level 19 (DCs 17/24/33)
Goal (staged): Confront the fracturing and warring Legion of Ruth within Bantouk (3), sunder Vezzuvu's control over them forevermore (6), and send them back to their strongholds beyond the Hinterlands (8).
7/8 Successes/1 Failures/0 Hard DC Available/0 Secondary Skills Available/0 Advantages Available

Looks like a Spout Lore-ish move that is a setup for a follow-on that firmly changes the situation-state. So why don't you guys use that newly established insight from Paa'vu to either (a) tackle that situation brewing at the northern gate specifically or (b) call for a gathering of the disintegrating factions of Bladelings to convince them to leave the city for the succor of the desert wilds just as the grass reaches toward the sun and the tree roots reach earthward for water!

Hours later, CHANVATI stands upon a wide balcony overlooking the crowded square beneath the baroque Forum, a gaudy stone building where the Senate holds its interminable sessions. Pa'avu and Yazdan flank him, each back a pace or two.

Scheherezade watches, he knows, from below, sequestered within the Imperial Platinum Palanquin.

Assembled in the square are hundreds, nay, thousands of Legionnaires, milling about restlessly, their usual order and energy replaced by a lethargy, a listlessness finally identified by his surprisingly trenchant ally. Friend.

He spies Rietka beside one of the Legion generals. She raises no hand, makes no sign of acknowledgement.

In the windows and on the rooftops of surrounding buildings, the middle class citizenry of Bantouk looks on in a complicated knot of emotions, sensible to the Psion's heightened mind: fear, anticipation, trepidation, an iota of hope.

"Esteemed partners in our purge against the abominations that beset the Empire," he begins, "I greet you now in my formal role as Senator of this great city!

"I come from an emergency meeting called to discuss certain insights into our shared states and destinies.

"Bantouk thanks you for all you have done in service to preserving the health of the Empire. On behalf of its people, the Senate thanks you. Our Empress, I know, recognizes the assistance you have delivered and extends her gratitude, in turn.

"But we understand now that if we are to stand as strong allies against the incursions of the Far Realm together, we, each people, must conserve our strengths, follow our traditions, attend to our own needs, disparate as they be.

"In this vein, we acknowledge how heavily residence within our city has weighed upon you. You are a people of the howling desert, used to testing your mettle against the beasts and relentless sun of that place, not in bureaucratic discourse in the labrynthine chambers of the meeting hall!"

There is some rumbling of agreement amid the bladelings of the Legion.

"If we, the representatives of the Empire of Hageri, are to do our part to eradicate our shared enemies forever, we must stand upon our own two feet and bring our own special qualities to bear. To this purpose, we beseech you to follow your hearts back to the desert lands of your home, in full knowledge that our gratitude to you will never be forgotten, that the friendship between our peoples has been tempered in the crucible of war and cooled in the bath of the Occupation!

"Rest confident that I vow to lead the attack personally against the powers of Caiphon that even now gather their strength in the mindbending Beyond."

A cheer rings out from the Bantouk citizenry from their places in the surrounding buildings.

"The occupation is over; you are freed to return to your homes; our war is just beginning! We take out battle to the stars!"

"Chan-VA-ti! Chan-VA-ti! Chan-VA-ti!" chants Bantouk's citizenry.

---

Clearly, Chanvati is making a Primary Skill Diplomacy check here to seal the deal, to convince the Legion of Ruth to withdraw to the desert, their goals here achieved, and with promises for the future. Not incidentally, I am setting up both Chanvati's goal of leading the Senate, formally, and signalling our intention to take the action to the Far Realm against the remnants of those Caiphonian forces that remain.

r6+20=26 vs 24 Moderate DC. Closer than I expected! But that's the final Success.

We will get a post(s) up soon with updated Quests as the busy holiday season allows!

 

[Manbearcat]

Alright.

Here we are. The end of Paragon Tier for our heroes.

ARUNNY has foiled the rot of the Delbanian Heresy, but the mysteries it leaves for her faith are great and the cost to her personally (her dear friend) equally great.

IBHEA foiled The Timereaper's (Nerull) assassin and, with his allies, destroyed the future legacy of the High Priest Eztcoatl. However, gravely, The Whiskey Priest did in fact succumb to a terrible corruption of faith and his soul could not be salvaged in death.

VRUUK, freed from his fey prison, has found new friends that he would gladly give his life for. Perhaps they will help him reclaim what was lost to him to the terrible Storm Giants that destroyed his people and claimed their home.

PA'AVU has done more than her humble beginnings could have ever hoped for. The vanguard of the Elder Primal Stoneroot in the material world, she has routed Far Realm celestial threat, sundered primordial sway over the bladeling horde, and given tutelage to an inspiring, unready sovereign.

CHANVATI has wrested the power of time from the domain of Nerull and, as scion of House Audaseie, cemented the place of his family as steward of Bantouk's senate.

---

This is where we leave this game for now. There are some questions that remain and can give propulsion to Epic Tier conflict and resolution. But, for now, we let this marinate as we're moving on to another game for the time being (the beginnings should be up here today). Perhaps we come back to this and engage in those Epic Tier conflicts with these conflicts. Perhaps we leave them here and say "thank you" and "farewell."