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<blockquote data-quote="Lylandra" data-source="post: 7813930" data-attributes="member: 6816692"><p>Session 38</p><p></p><p>After the duplicant's examination, we call it a day and return to our room as we got several messages to send to Risur. Auryn buries her head in books about magic, and turns suddenly quite pale when she comes across a section about magic of souls and the divine.</p><p></p><p>When Carlyle asks her whether something's wrong, she states quietly that she just realized what kind of attack the lizard liches had used against him, and that there was usually no way anyone could survive the green fire of destruction. Which also means that she had been on the brink of losing him. Carlyle returns that risking his life is just a part of his job as a RHC agent, so he's known about the dangers beforehand.</p><p></p><p>Auryn explains that she knows about this being a part of his job perfectly well, but still there had never been a situation where the imminent threat of death had been so real. Which made her think about what would happen if one of them were to lose their life.</p><p></p><p>“Oh that's what you mean. I've had decades to think about death and I've taken... measures to help me deal with it.” Carlyle says.</p><p></p><p>He then explains that, being a deva, he had to decide what to do with the reality of being reborn again and again, and being faced with being a different person with every rebirth. Which is why he chose to write down detailed records about his life, his choices, and the people that mattered to him. This way, he hopes that he'll be able to re-connect with his previous lives and he believes that this was what he did when young Lord Nathaniel Vantrys had found him after his rebirth several years ago.</p><p></p><p>“Still I don't know if I'm really the same man I'd been before my second death. It feels... different, you know? The memories came back one by one, but I'm not sure whether they mean the same to me as they did when I experienced them the first time. And should I die another time, then I don't know whether I will ever be able to feel the same way I do right now.”</p><p></p><p>Carlyle sighs quietly and then looks at Auryn with a serious expression before stating that, in such an event, it would be up to her to decide whether or how to continue their relationship. He describes her the exact location of his secret records and asks her of one favor in case of his death: To unlock his memories for him. Without a “key” to access his memories on an emotional level, they will be little more than stories of another person, he explains. Detailed and present, yes, but distant.</p><p></p><p>In return, Auryn takes his hands to reassure him. “Don't you dare think that I will leave you when you're the most vulnerable. You know that I care for you and I will do whatever it takes to make sure you'll recover. I promise that I'll be there for you.”</p><p></p><p>“If there is still a 'me', that is. Truth is, even I don't know what would be best for next-life-me.”</p><p></p><p>Auryn chuckles at his statement. “Then let's make sure that this 'next life' stays far away from now.”</p><p></p><p>“Oh I will. Other than Stanfield, I'm not really keen on dying. But there is one thing you have to promise me: Should there ever be a situation where only one of us can make it out alive, that person has to be you. First, only you can ensure that we both 'survive'. And second, I... don't know whether I'd be able to deal with losing you. I can take... measures should such a pain be unbearable, but I don't want to experience it in the first place.”</p><p></p><p>He then explains that no, this doesn't mean that he would commit suicide and be reborn, but he'd rather manipulate his records to play down their relationship. Not that he'd done that before (at least as far as he remembers), but losing someone dear to him had almost destroyed him before.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)">(Carlyle's means of making bold statements. He surely won't say “I love you my sun and stars” or make any grand romantic gesture. He's talking much more between the lines. Note that he didn't feel the need to erase the memory of the woman he loved despite all the pain, yet openly muses about altering his notes about his feelings for Auryn...</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)">Also note that this happened way before the second season of<em> Discovery </em>and we both felt surprisignly remninded on Carlyle's statement about his previous life when it came to the issue of Hugh.)</span></p><p></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">Auryn returns that she'll first make sure to give him some good memories that are worth remembering. And when he replies that they still got centuries of time to do so, she simply pinches his ear and kisses him.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">After that exchange, we finally send a message to Delft just in case that he didn't got the memo from Slate. We tell him that Oddcog is still missing but alive and that mechanical duplicants had killed the Bruse of Ber. As we expected, he replies that he'd like to meet us for a more personal chat aboard the Impossible. And of course, we teleport there immediately and wait for his arrival.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">As soon as he arrives with Lauryn Cyneburg, we hand him our written report and tell him more details about the assassination of Bruse Shantus. We ask our Chief Inspector to deliver the full report to King and Principal Minister as soon as he's ready to go, and add that we also got a request from the new Bruse to send him military aid against the rebels in the south. And as the Bruse specifically asked for our personal assistance, this would only need a short “make it so” from Slate.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">Finally, we ask Delft about Grappa's disappearing and also why we had to get this info from Morgan Cippiano and not the RHC. Delft replies that this wasn't really crucial for our current mission and that Alexander Grappa wanted to go on a “holiday mission”. We're a bit relieved to hear that, but when we ask whether a senior RHC agent would accompany or at least shadow him on his trip, Delt confesses that he wanted to give the man some privacy. Which is really alarming, as Grappa would still be a top target for any Ob agent. And worse, should he turn out to be a double agent, we would have lost both crucial info to the Obs and would be unable to know about Grappa's true loyalties.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">Delft reassures us that he's very certain about Grappa's trustworthiness and we'd like to believe that as well. Still, leaving him alone in times like these had been far too naive and Delft finally agrees to send Justin Rollins after Grappa.</span></p><p></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)">(Delft can be such a trusting and naive fool and yet be so loveable and competent. I guess he's just totally socially inept and has a negative Sense Motive skill or so)</span></p><p></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">We return to the Summer Court shortly after and almost walk into Fordren, who appears to be taking a stroll. We do a quick chat about the duplicant tech, and it seems as if Fordren is utterly enthralled by all the possibilities this new tech could open up. We fear that getting him on board was just the worst idea ever, as he might be interested enough to reverse-engineer the duplicants. So we try to explain him that while yes, the duplicants could be used for good deeds (like letting people work safely from a remote position), letting this tech loose would usher in an era of chaos and distrust. After all, how could one possibly know whether the person in front of you was the real deal or just a cleverly played duplicant? Suicide-bombing could also become the next trend if said suicide was less literal than before.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">We finally tell him that, while we cannot speak for our King, we're pretty sure that Aodhan would see the duplicants to be a threat to Risur and that he would most likely ban all further research and implementation. Even if the workers in Parity Lake could sleep easier if they knew that their health wasn't constantly at risk. To our surprise, Fordren seems to understand that argument and he serenely agrees that this tech should better be forgotten before it can be abused. He then simply continues his walk on the beach.</span></p><p></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)">(And there's Fordren continuing to act totally strange. Well, one could say that he's simply being really eccentric, but... yeah. We'll see)</span></p><p></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">Next, we meet up with Margit who already used some divination spells to get more info on Tinker. She tells us that Tinker is on the Isle of Seals (Isla de las Focas) and that he's willingly working for the Lord of all Gnolls. She had one surprise though, when she wanted to get more information about the “Dragon God” that the gnolls worship, as she felt as if her request was being pushed away by a gentle hand.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">“Not the hand of a dragon god, of that I'm certain. But some higher power for sure.” she says.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">With these information at hand, we head to the Sea Chieftains who are, again, enjoying their morning beer. When we tell them about the Isla de las Focas, their mood drops instantly and they start complaining about the constantly bad weather and the uncontrollable winds surrounding the island. In response, Carlyle jokes about the obvious merryweather-pirates and reminds the fearful chieftains that the gnolls who live on the island have to deal with the bad conditions as well. Finally, we suggest that we could also ask our druid contacts for help. After all, Risur just sent a bunch of them to Citada de Cavallo to make a first contact with the sea fey.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">When we see that the Chieftains are rather grateful for the offer, we also ask them to keep the Danorans out of the campaign. We remind them that we officially won the late Bruse Shantus' game for Tinker and are not really eager to have the Danorans sneak past us on the Isla. Barbao returns that the Danorans already promised to send a grand vessel to help dealing with the Gnolls, and rejecting them now might just cause a political scandal. We offer Barbao to ask for a second risuri war ship to join the flotilla which could substitute the missing danoran vessel, but ultimately agree that these are matters for the Bruse, not a single Chieftain.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">Barbao then tells us that the experimental ammunition that had been used to destroy parts of the palace had been a development of Tinker Oddcog.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">“Shantus was keen on having strange explosives like these, and we can all see now where this has lead him to”, the Sea Chieftain mumbles and we all curse the mad gnome for his – also mad – genius.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">We then head to Bruse Cavallo as we'd like to discuss both the Danoran matter and using the illusory Gradiax a second time. Cavallo invites us for breakfast and then bluntly tells us that he cannot simply refuse the Danoran offer. He doesn't like them either, he explains, but Corta had a point in reminding him that Ber does not wish to make enemies with such a technologically advanced nation.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">We try to persuade him by offering to send for a second risuri ship and we also remind him that it was Lya and the Danorans who tried to cause a rift between our nations for Shantus' blame game. We, on the other hand, did our best to help him and his family in times of need and worked hard to keep a good relationship with our neighboring country.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">“Alright then, you got a point. I hope you understand that I cannot forbid thee Danorans to aid us, but I can use my authority of Commander in Chief to send them to the back row. I'll make sure to keep them busy with managing supplies so they won't have a chance to get near the front lines.”</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">We agree that this is a sound plan as we simply wish to keep the Danorans, and especially Lya and her entourage, off the island. Then we talk about the possible masterminds behind the assassination of Bruse Shantus. We're pretty sure that the gnoll “minister of rebellion” Pardo would be in the Isla, but also discuss whether Kenna Vigilante and Tinker Oddccog had been involved as well. After all, Kenna seemingly left her duplicant and might have been fed up with Shantus while Tinker might be mad enough to simply follow the orders of whoever promises him to be able to tinker around without too many restrictions.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">We also share our suspicion that some of them (at least Tinker and Pardo) might have been up to building a mechanical Dragon Tyrant to unify the Gnolls behind their supposed God. So we ask the Bruse to make someone search his newly found Dragon Hoard for hints on typical draconic strategy as we guess that Pardo would try to make the best true dragon impression, including battle tactics. .</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">Just a we're ready to leave the Bruse, we are being approached by a bunch of palace guards who hastily report to the Bruse that all of the remaining duplicants have gone missing. What makes matters worse is that all of the mages who had been tasked with examining the duplicants are missing, too. As we fear that “someone” is just about to let everyone who knows about the duplicants disappear, we decide to look after Francis Fordren's whereabouts. Not that Auryn would particularly miss him should someone try to assassinate the guy, but we both agree that his vast knowledge on technology would be crucial at the moment.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">So we take a look at his tent at the summer court and are pretty surprised to see the man sitting serenely in one of his comfy chairs, while talking to one of his business partners. We wait until he's finished his talk and then discreetly tell him about the missing mages and duplicants. We suggest that he'd hire good bodyguards as he might just be the next target on the list of whoever tries to keep us from uncovering the duplicant's secrets.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">“Oh, my dear friends, I'm sure that I got nothing to worry about. Why don't we all go to this excellent tavern over there and share a glass of Pinot?”</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">We immediately realize that there is more to this “glass of Pinot” than just good wine, so we agree to follow Fordren's lead. He leads us down a back alley where he stops, turns around and then, without batting an eye, tells us that he is the culprit behind all this.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">“Don't look so surprised. You were the ones who told me that this technology is dangerous, especially for Risur, and that the King would probably want to see it gone. So I decided to get rid of them. And to make sure that no one can possibly, er, duplicate this tech.”</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">Needless to say that both our eyes widen in surprise at this revelation.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">“So... you destroyed the duplicants and... killed those who knew too much?” Carlyle asks, still shaking his head in disbelief.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">“Oh no... no, no. I'm no barbarian. The duplicants are safely stored in the Treasury of Slate. And the mages... well, someone will make sure that they'll keep their secret by being offered good jobs in your secret service or so.”</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">This is where we turn from surprised to stunned. And confused. As we neither knew that Fordren, a Danoran, had such a close relationship to Risur, nor that he'd have such high-up contacts in the Treasury. Our first reaction is to tell Fordren that, generally speaking, we are quite content with this unusual turn of events. Still, this opens up way more questions than it answered and we hope that he'll help to clear matters up for us.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">Unfortunately though, he cannot really tell us much more than that. He promises that he trusts Risur and its king, and swears that he means no harm for our country. Which is why he saw the need to remove the duplicants from the global equation, even if they are a marvelous technology. In return to this, we ask him whether he'd been involved in creating the first duplicant and whether this technology had originally been developed in or or Risur, but he cannot talk about that either.</span></p><p></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)">(Surprise, surprise.... so Fordren is secretly working FOR Risur. Who would have thought that?)</span></p><p></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">We still thank him for the information and stick with our suggestion that hiring a bodyguard might not be the worst of ideas. A suggestion to which he offers us his serene smile in return. We then try to understand how such a person like Fordren could have possibly been involved with Risur. We guess that he might have been a part of Project X as the project heavily relied on Witchoil and also guess that Fordren might have pulled back and returned to Danor after the “Porter” incident. Which might also be the cause for his rift with Pemberton, who might be still involved with secret governmental research. We finally agree that our wild theories, while all plausible, will lead us nowhere. Which is why we ask for a personal audience with the King.</span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lylandra, post: 7813930, member: 6816692"] Session 38 After the duplicant's examination, we call it a day and return to our room as we got several messages to send to Risur. Auryn buries her head in books about magic, and turns suddenly quite pale when she comes across a section about magic of souls and the divine. When Carlyle asks her whether something's wrong, she states quietly that she just realized what kind of attack the lizard liches had used against him, and that there was usually no way anyone could survive the green fire of destruction. Which also means that she had been on the brink of losing him. Carlyle returns that risking his life is just a part of his job as a RHC agent, so he's known about the dangers beforehand. Auryn explains that she knows about this being a part of his job perfectly well, but still there had never been a situation where the imminent threat of death had been so real. Which made her think about what would happen if one of them were to lose their life. “Oh that's what you mean. I've had decades to think about death and I've taken... measures to help me deal with it.” Carlyle says. He then explains that, being a deva, he had to decide what to do with the reality of being reborn again and again, and being faced with being a different person with every rebirth. Which is why he chose to write down detailed records about his life, his choices, and the people that mattered to him. This way, he hopes that he'll be able to re-connect with his previous lives and he believes that this was what he did when young Lord Nathaniel Vantrys had found him after his rebirth several years ago. “Still I don't know if I'm really the same man I'd been before my second death. It feels... different, you know? The memories came back one by one, but I'm not sure whether they mean the same to me as they did when I experienced them the first time. And should I die another time, then I don't know whether I will ever be able to feel the same way I do right now.” Carlyle sighs quietly and then looks at Auryn with a serious expression before stating that, in such an event, it would be up to her to decide whether or how to continue their relationship. He describes her the exact location of his secret records and asks her of one favor in case of his death: To unlock his memories for him. Without a “key” to access his memories on an emotional level, they will be little more than stories of another person, he explains. Detailed and present, yes, but distant. In return, Auryn takes his hands to reassure him. “Don't you dare think that I will leave you when you're the most vulnerable. You know that I care for you and I will do whatever it takes to make sure you'll recover. I promise that I'll be there for you.” “If there is still a 'me', that is. Truth is, even I don't know what would be best for next-life-me.” Auryn chuckles at his statement. “Then let's make sure that this 'next life' stays far away from now.” “Oh I will. Other than Stanfield, I'm not really keen on dying. But there is one thing you have to promise me: Should there ever be a situation where only one of us can make it out alive, that person has to be you. First, only you can ensure that we both 'survive'. And second, I... don't know whether I'd be able to deal with losing you. I can take... measures should such a pain be unbearable, but I don't want to experience it in the first place.” He then explains that no, this doesn't mean that he would commit suicide and be reborn, but he'd rather manipulate his records to play down their relationship. Not that he'd done that before (at least as far as he remembers), but losing someone dear to him had almost destroyed him before. [COLOR=rgb(65, 168, 95)](Carlyle's means of making bold statements. He surely won't say “I love you my sun and stars” or make any grand romantic gesture. He's talking much more between the lines. Note that he didn't feel the need to erase the memory of the woman he loved despite all the pain, yet openly muses about altering his notes about his feelings for Auryn... Also note that this happened way before the second season of[I] Discovery [/I]and we both felt surprisignly remninded on Carlyle's statement about his previous life when it came to the issue of Hugh.)[/COLOR] [COLOR=rgb(0, 0, 0)]Auryn returns that she'll first make sure to give him some good memories that are worth remembering. And when he replies that they still got centuries of time to do so, she simply pinches his ear and kisses him. After that exchange, we finally send a message to Delft just in case that he didn't got the memo from Slate. We tell him that Oddcog is still missing but alive and that mechanical duplicants had killed the Bruse of Ber. As we expected, he replies that he'd like to meet us for a more personal chat aboard the Impossible. And of course, we teleport there immediately and wait for his arrival. As soon as he arrives with Lauryn Cyneburg, we hand him our written report and tell him more details about the assassination of Bruse Shantus. We ask our Chief Inspector to deliver the full report to King and Principal Minister as soon as he's ready to go, and add that we also got a request from the new Bruse to send him military aid against the rebels in the south. And as the Bruse specifically asked for our personal assistance, this would only need a short “make it so” from Slate. Finally, we ask Delft about Grappa's disappearing and also why we had to get this info from Morgan Cippiano and not the RHC. Delft replies that this wasn't really crucial for our current mission and that Alexander Grappa wanted to go on a “holiday mission”. We're a bit relieved to hear that, but when we ask whether a senior RHC agent would accompany or at least shadow him on his trip, Delt confesses that he wanted to give the man some privacy. Which is really alarming, as Grappa would still be a top target for any Ob agent. And worse, should he turn out to be a double agent, we would have lost both crucial info to the Obs and would be unable to know about Grappa's true loyalties. Delft reassures us that he's very certain about Grappa's trustworthiness and we'd like to believe that as well. Still, leaving him alone in times like these had been far too naive and Delft finally agrees to send Justin Rollins after Grappa.[/COLOR] [COLOR=rgb(65, 168, 95)](Delft can be such a trusting and naive fool and yet be so loveable and competent. I guess he's just totally socially inept and has a negative Sense Motive skill or so)[/COLOR] [COLOR=rgb(0, 0, 0)]We return to the Summer Court shortly after and almost walk into Fordren, who appears to be taking a stroll. We do a quick chat about the duplicant tech, and it seems as if Fordren is utterly enthralled by all the possibilities this new tech could open up. We fear that getting him on board was just the worst idea ever, as he might be interested enough to reverse-engineer the duplicants. So we try to explain him that while yes, the duplicants could be used for good deeds (like letting people work safely from a remote position), letting this tech loose would usher in an era of chaos and distrust. After all, how could one possibly know whether the person in front of you was the real deal or just a cleverly played duplicant? Suicide-bombing could also become the next trend if said suicide was less literal than before. We finally tell him that, while we cannot speak for our King, we're pretty sure that Aodhan would see the duplicants to be a threat to Risur and that he would most likely ban all further research and implementation. Even if the workers in Parity Lake could sleep easier if they knew that their health wasn't constantly at risk. To our surprise, Fordren seems to understand that argument and he serenely agrees that this tech should better be forgotten before it can be abused. He then simply continues his walk on the beach.[/COLOR] [COLOR=rgb(65, 168, 95)](And there's Fordren continuing to act totally strange. Well, one could say that he's simply being really eccentric, but... yeah. We'll see)[/COLOR] [COLOR=rgb(0, 0, 0)]Next, we meet up with Margit who already used some divination spells to get more info on Tinker. She tells us that Tinker is on the Isle of Seals (Isla de las Focas) and that he's willingly working for the Lord of all Gnolls. She had one surprise though, when she wanted to get more information about the “Dragon God” that the gnolls worship, as she felt as if her request was being pushed away by a gentle hand. “Not the hand of a dragon god, of that I'm certain. But some higher power for sure.” she says. With these information at hand, we head to the Sea Chieftains who are, again, enjoying their morning beer. When we tell them about the Isla de las Focas, their mood drops instantly and they start complaining about the constantly bad weather and the uncontrollable winds surrounding the island. In response, Carlyle jokes about the obvious merryweather-pirates and reminds the fearful chieftains that the gnolls who live on the island have to deal with the bad conditions as well. Finally, we suggest that we could also ask our druid contacts for help. After all, Risur just sent a bunch of them to Citada de Cavallo to make a first contact with the sea fey. When we see that the Chieftains are rather grateful for the offer, we also ask them to keep the Danorans out of the campaign. We remind them that we officially won the late Bruse Shantus' game for Tinker and are not really eager to have the Danorans sneak past us on the Isla. Barbao returns that the Danorans already promised to send a grand vessel to help dealing with the Gnolls, and rejecting them now might just cause a political scandal. We offer Barbao to ask for a second risuri war ship to join the flotilla which could substitute the missing danoran vessel, but ultimately agree that these are matters for the Bruse, not a single Chieftain. Barbao then tells us that the experimental ammunition that had been used to destroy parts of the palace had been a development of Tinker Oddcog. “Shantus was keen on having strange explosives like these, and we can all see now where this has lead him to”, the Sea Chieftain mumbles and we all curse the mad gnome for his – also mad – genius. We then head to Bruse Cavallo as we'd like to discuss both the Danoran matter and using the illusory Gradiax a second time. Cavallo invites us for breakfast and then bluntly tells us that he cannot simply refuse the Danoran offer. He doesn't like them either, he explains, but Corta had a point in reminding him that Ber does not wish to make enemies with such a technologically advanced nation. We try to persuade him by offering to send for a second risuri ship and we also remind him that it was Lya and the Danorans who tried to cause a rift between our nations for Shantus' blame game. We, on the other hand, did our best to help him and his family in times of need and worked hard to keep a good relationship with our neighboring country. “Alright then, you got a point. I hope you understand that I cannot forbid thee Danorans to aid us, but I can use my authority of Commander in Chief to send them to the back row. I'll make sure to keep them busy with managing supplies so they won't have a chance to get near the front lines.” We agree that this is a sound plan as we simply wish to keep the Danorans, and especially Lya and her entourage, off the island. Then we talk about the possible masterminds behind the assassination of Bruse Shantus. We're pretty sure that the gnoll “minister of rebellion” Pardo would be in the Isla, but also discuss whether Kenna Vigilante and Tinker Oddccog had been involved as well. After all, Kenna seemingly left her duplicant and might have been fed up with Shantus while Tinker might be mad enough to simply follow the orders of whoever promises him to be able to tinker around without too many restrictions. We also share our suspicion that some of them (at least Tinker and Pardo) might have been up to building a mechanical Dragon Tyrant to unify the Gnolls behind their supposed God. So we ask the Bruse to make someone search his newly found Dragon Hoard for hints on typical draconic strategy as we guess that Pardo would try to make the best true dragon impression, including battle tactics. . Just a we're ready to leave the Bruse, we are being approached by a bunch of palace guards who hastily report to the Bruse that all of the remaining duplicants have gone missing. What makes matters worse is that all of the mages who had been tasked with examining the duplicants are missing, too. As we fear that “someone” is just about to let everyone who knows about the duplicants disappear, we decide to look after Francis Fordren's whereabouts. Not that Auryn would particularly miss him should someone try to assassinate the guy, but we both agree that his vast knowledge on technology would be crucial at the moment. So we take a look at his tent at the summer court and are pretty surprised to see the man sitting serenely in one of his comfy chairs, while talking to one of his business partners. We wait until he's finished his talk and then discreetly tell him about the missing mages and duplicants. We suggest that he'd hire good bodyguards as he might just be the next target on the list of whoever tries to keep us from uncovering the duplicant's secrets. “Oh, my dear friends, I'm sure that I got nothing to worry about. Why don't we all go to this excellent tavern over there and share a glass of Pinot?” We immediately realize that there is more to this “glass of Pinot” than just good wine, so we agree to follow Fordren's lead. He leads us down a back alley where he stops, turns around and then, without batting an eye, tells us that he is the culprit behind all this. “Don't look so surprised. You were the ones who told me that this technology is dangerous, especially for Risur, and that the King would probably want to see it gone. So I decided to get rid of them. And to make sure that no one can possibly, er, duplicate this tech.” Needless to say that both our eyes widen in surprise at this revelation. “So... you destroyed the duplicants and... killed those who knew too much?” Carlyle asks, still shaking his head in disbelief. “Oh no... no, no. I'm no barbarian. The duplicants are safely stored in the Treasury of Slate. And the mages... well, someone will make sure that they'll keep their secret by being offered good jobs in your secret service or so.” This is where we turn from surprised to stunned. And confused. As we neither knew that Fordren, a Danoran, had such a close relationship to Risur, nor that he'd have such high-up contacts in the Treasury. Our first reaction is to tell Fordren that, generally speaking, we are quite content with this unusual turn of events. Still, this opens up way more questions than it answered and we hope that he'll help to clear matters up for us. Unfortunately though, he cannot really tell us much more than that. He promises that he trusts Risur and its king, and swears that he means no harm for our country. Which is why he saw the need to remove the duplicants from the global equation, even if they are a marvelous technology. In return to this, we ask him whether he'd been involved in creating the first duplicant and whether this technology had originally been developed in or or Risur, but he cannot talk about that either.[/COLOR] [COLOR=rgb(65, 168, 95)](Surprise, surprise.... so Fordren is secretly working FOR Risur. Who would have thought that?)[/COLOR] [COLOR=rgb(0, 0, 0)]We still thank him for the information and stick with our suggestion that hiring a bodyguard might not be the worst of ideas. A suggestion to which he offers us his serene smile in return. We then try to understand how such a person like Fordren could have possibly been involved with Risur. We guess that he might have been a part of Project X as the project heavily relied on Witchoil and also guess that Fordren might have pulled back and returned to Danor after the “Porter” incident. Which might also be the cause for his rift with Pemberton, who might be still involved with secret governmental research. We finally agree that our wild theories, while all plausible, will lead us nowhere. Which is why we ask for a personal audience with the King.[/COLOR] [/QUOTE]
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