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<blockquote data-quote="Lylandra" data-source="post: 7795388" data-attributes="member: 6816692"><p>Carlyle then returns back to the rest of us and tells us about his final encounter with the Bruse. We both agree that we'd need Margit at our side immediately as her divintaion magic might be crucial in finding out more about the Oddcog's whereabouts. Or whether he's still alive at all. Besides that, we'd like to attend to the interrogations of the Pardo and Kenna duplicants which are to be questioned as soon as the Executores arrive at the summer court.</p><p></p><p>It takes a while for Cavallo and his daughter, Corta Nariz, to arrive at court. He immediately speaks to the courtiers and soldiers and harshly condemns the cowardly attack on the late Bruse Shantus, whom he had always respected despite their differences. He also promises to nip this rebellion in the bud, then turns to us and directly asks us whether we'd support his campaign against the rebel gnolls. We reply that we'd love to, but add that we'd have to officially ask our government first, as this could be seen as risuri intervention in a civil war. Cavallo understands, even if he's not a big fan of too much talking and would like to see an end to this rebellion as soon as possible.</p><p></p><p>The old orc is then inaugurated in a short but grandiose ceremony and sworn in as the new Bruse of Ber. And it appears as if all of the summer courtiers are honestly celebrating Cavallo's ascension to Brusedom. However, it takes only a few more hours and the new Bruse finds himself surrounded by petitioners who are eager to make use of the new situation. </p><p></p><p>After a while, Cavallo rolls his eyes and bellows “Enough of this! I got a war campaign to plan!” before pulling his daughter aside to ask her to handle the other requests in his stead. She agrees, then looks at us and shrugs with a smile before patiently taking care of the petitioners. We spend the rest of the day trying to get to know more of the courtiers and sending messages to Risur to inform Delft and Lee about the death of Shantus, the disappearance of Tinker and the new Bruse's request.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)">(We're pretty sure that she's going to micromanage the naughty word out of Ber and the various tribes' requests. All while handling her kids AND her father. Someone give that woman a medal.)</span></p><p></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">When that long day finally reaches its end, both of us are assigned one of the still intact rooms of the summer palace and simply fall into our beds.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">The next day, we wake up early to attend to the scheduled interrogations of the duplicant prisoners. However, the two robots seem to be pretty much inert and inresponsive. When the Executores can't get any information at all, we offer them to examine the robots with all kinds of magic and medical procedures. The Executores agree and we find out that these duplicants appear to contain no blood and function only by mechanical means. What we do find are traces of Witchoil, which may or may not hint at an Obscurati involvement. Margit also unsuccessfully tries to scry Tinker and it appears as if he's being warded by some other magic. Still this does mean that the gnome is still alive. </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">We inform the Zarkava about our findings and add that we're not the best tech experts, so it might be wise to find someone who knows more about robotics. We mention one Alexander Grappa, who'd be perfect for the job, but who's unfortunately not available at the moment (and we don't know whether we can trust him right now), before adding that there could be other candidates as well: First there's the obvious two: Fordren, who's residing at the summer court, but whom we don't trust, Pemberton, who's absent and who we don't really know much about, and Justin Rollins, whom we do trust but who's also a Risuri who works for the King of Risur. Which could have political implications. </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">Zarkava thinks about our proposal for a while and then decides to call for Mr. Fordren. Carlyle nods, takes a quick glance at Auryn and says “I guess you'd prefer to have me ask him if he's available?”</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">“I'd be glad.” </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">Carlyle then leaves the duplicants to search for Fordren in his company's tent. To his surprise, the man didn't even increase his security level after the attacks on the palace and is currently busy doing negotiations with a beran military official. When he notices Carlyle, he quickly finishes his deal and turns to the deva. </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">“Ah, Mr. Carlyle. What can I do for you? More B.E.A.R.s for the RHC?”</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">Carlyle shakes his head and then proposes that the new Bruse may have need for his expertise as he'd need to find out more about the mysterious assassins who killed Shantus. He hints that helping the Bruse might give him an advantage over his competitor Pemberton in the future, so this might just be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the businessman. </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">Fordren seems immediately interested and expresses his fascination with all that modern military tech that had been used for the attack on the summer palace. </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">“Not my invention, that's for sure. Though this arsenal is truly one of a kind. Gas grenades... what brilliance. Should've come up with this myself”</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">Needless to say that Carlyle is internally disgusted as said grenades had killed a lot of innocents just a day before. The two continue to chat about what could or could not have been a development of Fordren Industries and it appears as if even the insightful Gabriel Carlyle might have found his match in the sly talker that is Francis Fordren.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">After a few minutes, Carlyle appears to be quite unnerved, as he states:</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">“I know you're well versed in your deals and loopholes, but let me make one thing clear: I've spent centuries dealing with scheming nobles, sly businessmen and silver tongues, and I'm far too old to get confused or distracted by words.”</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">Fordren smiles mischievously at such blunt honesty and switches subjects immediately.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">“Speaking of distractions, I hope that the adorable Auryn Galadin is in good health as well? I've heard rumors that she'd been in the palace during the attack.”</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">“I guess she is. Shall I show you the duplicants?”</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)">(Carlyle was quite unnerved that he couldn't read Fordren at all. He only seemed honestly interested in tech, but beat totally around the bush when it came to a possible involvement of his tech in the attack on the palace. He also couldn't get whether Fordren was trying to tease him regrading Auryn, whether it was playing to his obsession or simply a twisted sense of honest concern.)</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">Carlyle leads Fordren to the basement where the two inert duplicants are kept and explains that both of them are responsible for the assassination of Bruse Shantus. Problem is, they don't appear to work anymore and Ber needs answers. Fordren starts examining them immediately and appears to be utterly captivated by the tech. As he handles the heavy duplicants with much ease, we secretly guess that he could have a hidden prosthetic or advanced bionic arm, but keep quiet about our assumptions. Also, we try to make sure that the industrialist doesn't gain too much info from his analysis as we really don't want to see him reproduce said duplicants. </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">After quite a few moments of “fascinating” and “brilliant”, Fordren turns back to us (and the Executores) to state his findings. First, the duplicants are mere puppets who need puppeteers, so there must be someone controlling them remotely. Second, this mechanism is probably related to soul magic as he found traces of Witchoil, where one could easily place a fragment of someone's soul. Therefore, getting info from them will be nigh impossible as the duplicants themselves have no memory. </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">Based on this assessment, we examine them a second time and check for planar magic. As Fordren said, we find traces of Bleak Gate energy which may help in developing means to spot a duplicant in the future. Unfortunately, we aren't really able to trace back the energy trail to a concrete person, so we can only guess that the real Pardo and “Kenna” are hidden somewhere safe. </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">Last but not least, Auryn issues one final thought: What if lunatic Pardo tries to become the god of all gnolls and ruler of all Ber by developing and driving a dragon tyrant duplicant?</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lylandra, post: 7795388, member: 6816692"] Carlyle then returns back to the rest of us and tells us about his final encounter with the Bruse. We both agree that we'd need Margit at our side immediately as her divintaion magic might be crucial in finding out more about the Oddcog's whereabouts. Or whether he's still alive at all. Besides that, we'd like to attend to the interrogations of the Pardo and Kenna duplicants which are to be questioned as soon as the Executores arrive at the summer court. It takes a while for Cavallo and his daughter, Corta Nariz, to arrive at court. He immediately speaks to the courtiers and soldiers and harshly condemns the cowardly attack on the late Bruse Shantus, whom he had always respected despite their differences. He also promises to nip this rebellion in the bud, then turns to us and directly asks us whether we'd support his campaign against the rebel gnolls. We reply that we'd love to, but add that we'd have to officially ask our government first, as this could be seen as risuri intervention in a civil war. Cavallo understands, even if he's not a big fan of too much talking and would like to see an end to this rebellion as soon as possible. The old orc is then inaugurated in a short but grandiose ceremony and sworn in as the new Bruse of Ber. And it appears as if all of the summer courtiers are honestly celebrating Cavallo's ascension to Brusedom. However, it takes only a few more hours and the new Bruse finds himself surrounded by petitioners who are eager to make use of the new situation. After a while, Cavallo rolls his eyes and bellows “Enough of this! I got a war campaign to plan!” before pulling his daughter aside to ask her to handle the other requests in his stead. She agrees, then looks at us and shrugs with a smile before patiently taking care of the petitioners. We spend the rest of the day trying to get to know more of the courtiers and sending messages to Risur to inform Delft and Lee about the death of Shantus, the disappearance of Tinker and the new Bruse's request. [COLOR=rgb(65, 168, 95)](We're pretty sure that she's going to micromanage the naughty word out of Ber and the various tribes' requests. All while handling her kids AND her father. Someone give that woman a medal.)[/COLOR] [COLOR=rgb(0, 0, 0)]When that long day finally reaches its end, both of us are assigned one of the still intact rooms of the summer palace and simply fall into our beds. The next day, we wake up early to attend to the scheduled interrogations of the duplicant prisoners. However, the two robots seem to be pretty much inert and inresponsive. When the Executores can't get any information at all, we offer them to examine the robots with all kinds of magic and medical procedures. The Executores agree and we find out that these duplicants appear to contain no blood and function only by mechanical means. What we do find are traces of Witchoil, which may or may not hint at an Obscurati involvement. Margit also unsuccessfully tries to scry Tinker and it appears as if he's being warded by some other magic. Still this does mean that the gnome is still alive. We inform the Zarkava about our findings and add that we're not the best tech experts, so it might be wise to find someone who knows more about robotics. We mention one Alexander Grappa, who'd be perfect for the job, but who's unfortunately not available at the moment (and we don't know whether we can trust him right now), before adding that there could be other candidates as well: First there's the obvious two: Fordren, who's residing at the summer court, but whom we don't trust, Pemberton, who's absent and who we don't really know much about, and Justin Rollins, whom we do trust but who's also a Risuri who works for the King of Risur. Which could have political implications. Zarkava thinks about our proposal for a while and then decides to call for Mr. Fordren. Carlyle nods, takes a quick glance at Auryn and says “I guess you'd prefer to have me ask him if he's available?” “I'd be glad.” Carlyle then leaves the duplicants to search for Fordren in his company's tent. To his surprise, the man didn't even increase his security level after the attacks on the palace and is currently busy doing negotiations with a beran military official. When he notices Carlyle, he quickly finishes his deal and turns to the deva. “Ah, Mr. Carlyle. What can I do for you? More B.E.A.R.s for the RHC?” Carlyle shakes his head and then proposes that the new Bruse may have need for his expertise as he'd need to find out more about the mysterious assassins who killed Shantus. He hints that helping the Bruse might give him an advantage over his competitor Pemberton in the future, so this might just be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the businessman. Fordren seems immediately interested and expresses his fascination with all that modern military tech that had been used for the attack on the summer palace. “Not my invention, that's for sure. Though this arsenal is truly one of a kind. Gas grenades... what brilliance. Should've come up with this myself” Needless to say that Carlyle is internally disgusted as said grenades had killed a lot of innocents just a day before. The two continue to chat about what could or could not have been a development of Fordren Industries and it appears as if even the insightful Gabriel Carlyle might have found his match in the sly talker that is Francis Fordren. After a few minutes, Carlyle appears to be quite unnerved, as he states: “I know you're well versed in your deals and loopholes, but let me make one thing clear: I've spent centuries dealing with scheming nobles, sly businessmen and silver tongues, and I'm far too old to get confused or distracted by words.” Fordren smiles mischievously at such blunt honesty and switches subjects immediately. “Speaking of distractions, I hope that the adorable Auryn Galadin is in good health as well? I've heard rumors that she'd been in the palace during the attack.” “I guess she is. Shall I show you the duplicants?”[/COLOR] [COLOR=rgb(65, 168, 95)] (Carlyle was quite unnerved that he couldn't read Fordren at all. He only seemed honestly interested in tech, but beat totally around the bush when it came to a possible involvement of his tech in the attack on the palace. He also couldn't get whether Fordren was trying to tease him regrading Auryn, whether it was playing to his obsession or simply a twisted sense of honest concern.) [/COLOR] [COLOR=rgb(0, 0, 0)]Carlyle leads Fordren to the basement where the two inert duplicants are kept and explains that both of them are responsible for the assassination of Bruse Shantus. Problem is, they don't appear to work anymore and Ber needs answers. Fordren starts examining them immediately and appears to be utterly captivated by the tech. As he handles the heavy duplicants with much ease, we secretly guess that he could have a hidden prosthetic or advanced bionic arm, but keep quiet about our assumptions. Also, we try to make sure that the industrialist doesn't gain too much info from his analysis as we really don't want to see him reproduce said duplicants. After quite a few moments of “fascinating” and “brilliant”, Fordren turns back to us (and the Executores) to state his findings. First, the duplicants are mere puppets who need puppeteers, so there must be someone controlling them remotely. Second, this mechanism is probably related to soul magic as he found traces of Witchoil, where one could easily place a fragment of someone's soul. Therefore, getting info from them will be nigh impossible as the duplicants themselves have no memory. Based on this assessment, we examine them a second time and check for planar magic. As Fordren said, we find traces of Bleak Gate energy which may help in developing means to spot a duplicant in the future. Unfortunately, we aren't really able to trace back the energy trail to a concrete person, so we can only guess that the real Pardo and “Kenna” are hidden somewhere safe. Last but not least, Auryn issues one final thought: What if lunatic Pardo tries to become the god of all gnolls and ruler of all Ber by developing and driving a dragon tyrant duplicant? [/COLOR] [/QUOTE]
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