Homebrew system thread II, part 2

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

While that may be a plan, it is not a solution.

Here's the really horrible part; Auvaine County is actually lucky to have politics like this. There's still a group of lords and officials left to scheme, and something worth backstabbing each other for. Not the case everywhere.

(Snakes might be good for you. I did post a link in Squelch to an AAR that is basically the story of an IJN destroyer, and it has a Borneo blood python in it- brilliantly written, worth reading to find out why and exactly how that comes to be important. You probably needn't fear the reptilian.)

Those that feel they screwed up are trying hard to pretend they didn't and occasionally silence their critics, those who agree that they screwed up are baying for justice, also known as bloody revenge; there have been a couple of panics and riots already.

Very rough estimate, the group that were down the cavern include quite a lot of soldiers, who are loyal primarily to the baron and the court sorceress; there are many misunderstandings there. The treasurer and the constable have drifted into alignment, through common disgrace. The verderer is more loyal to the barony than the person of the baron. The sherriff likewise, although he was the first target and has lost much strength. The wings of the baron's family are sqirling round actively intriguing with everyone, trying to win favour.

Most of the priests have gone their own paths, the Valdemironi would love to sieze power for themselves, and are not above manoeuvring to that end; most of the demotic gods, gods of things that touch everyone, are with the people rather than the state. A mad rumour has emerged that the baron plans to take the court sorceress for his bride; her reaction was polite and formal, but essentially unrepeatable.

Yes, there's a lot going on.

Tamarin is awake, and arguing with Pola about magical healing- not definitely for and against, just round the mulberry bush. Physical effects versus psychological effects.

'Yes. Yes, I do.' she replies, when asked if she recognises them. 'They were there, it was them.'

[Simon_Jester]

Larric sounds a bit artificially bright and cheerful.

"Well then, let's go have a quiet word with them, all right?" He looks at Alfred, then at Dirt stooping under the ceiling. "I'd like to know, who set them after us, and maybe after that who that wizard they worked with was, the one after Tamarin."

OOC:

We'll need to find somewhere a bit more out of the way.

Alfred's really quite good at interrogation, with some useful ancillary skills to that; Larric will assist the check as he can (if not actively speaking, he stands in the corner, apparently concentrating on a slightly tricky mesh of corona discharges. I imagine that Dirt's presence adds a certain frisson to an interrogation too...

Good wizard, bad knight, spectacularly worse ogre?

[Fiji_Fury]

And death-priest...

These guys are about to have a horrifyingly unnerving day.

How supportive is Tamarin? Dale doesn't know her, but this might be more effective if done right here. The thugs can be confronted with knowledge of their victim and we can demonstrate a don't-give-a-fuck attitude (whether real or projected) regarding the awareness of others to their... plight. Given that we have a witness and you apprehended them attempting to pay commoners to start a riot/engage in foul murder, these two are probably legally screwed anyway. It might be worth seeing just who is observing us based on the reaction from factions in the castle to an interogation of the men.

Who is "Pola" and what temple does she serve with? She could be asked to leave, or stay (healing might be needed... or at least we can claim that. The more we initimdate these two and leave up to their own imaginations, the better this is likely to work).

"I advise here and now," says Dale, drawing a knife and beginning to idly toy with it. He moves to a position near the entrance the room where he actually has a view of anyone attempting to come in, but where he's still visible... as is his knife.

[Simon_Jester]

Mother Pola is a priestess of Chelet, goddess of family love, motherhood, and the hearth.

Dame Tamarin is the widow of a country knight, with her own political knowledge and connections, but who is herself not the greatest fit for court intrigue or for that matter combat: she's proficient but it's not really a vocation for her, the way it is for, say, Dame Andrea.

Larric frowns at Dale, rather sharply. "This is a sickbed, let's take it somehwere else."

OOC:

The men are still unconscious, remember?

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

You beat me to it on that one. Tamarin looks at the knife, thinks hard; she has good reasons to want to have this pair subjected to the death of a thousand cuts, but it has to stop somewhere, there has to be an end to bloody revenge, somebody has to say no, it's wrong in itself. She's thinking about it.

They're not thugs; quite well dressed, gentry you'd have to say, her brother in law's friends- the sort of good friends who would be prepared to help him move a body. Who really ought to have known better. Where are you thinking of trying to take them? Only two sensible places, really- do this in the shadows, which might not be viable, or right out in the open- drag them into court and have them formally accused and tried.

What do you all think?

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

They are still unconscious, right? Also, did Tamarin say she'd killed or seriously wounded her brother-in-law during the fight? "Caught him in the throat" sounds like dead. If he's dead, then his friends probably wouldn't be shadowing us unless some other party is organizing and orchestrating all this.

IC:

"What I'd really, really like is to get our own answers out of them. Who's after us? Dame Tamarin, you said you'd- do you think your brother-in-law is alive or dead? What you said, sounded like a deadly wound. Even if someone magicked him before he could die from it, he'd probably still be seeing rainbow unicorns and mumbling, it's only been a few days."

Larric waits for response, then carries on unless the response makes the next bit totally inane. In a low voice:

"Either way, someone else must have been back of these two shadowing us. I'd like to know who it was on our own, before it turns to the courtroom. And if d'Avariel's telling the truth, I'd like to know who they say told them to follow us, before I find out who they're ready to say set them on Dame Tamarin."

He blinks. "Did that make any sense?"

[Fiji_Fury]

"Yes. I'm now remembering why I prefer to deal with and vanquish the dead. These two are guilty several times over of crimes that warrant severe punishment or execution."

"Were we truly clever, we might circulate rumors of their confessions to flush out the vipers who set them after you. Actually... that sounds like a half decent idea. But that's best as a back-up plan to actually interrogating them. We dragged them in through the front gate, so whomever they are aligned with must know their agents have been captured. Time is running short, one way or another. What say you Sir Alfred? This business is within your courtly knowledge of justice, and you are the one who left a positive impression with the Baron."

[Panzersharkcat]

"It is a good idea. If we cannot get accurate intelligence out of them, we may well resort to that. We'll work out the details if we get there, perhaps of plausible confessions distorted by rumor mill. But as you say, time runs short and we must get to questioning suspects."

[Simon_Jester]

OK. Sounds like Alfred's for trying to question them in private before we haul them before a public affair. Larric's all for that too, though OOC I recognize that attempting to get the best of both worlds may result in us getting neither.

Assuming the PCs want to accomplish that goal...

That means finding some place to do it privately, which could be *hard;* castles are crowded. Larric bends his wits and effort to thinking of such a place- is there such a thing as an Insight-powered quasi-divination to grant increased analytical ability?

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Doing it without being seen is going to be damn' near impossible; "nothing to see here, move along" might be your best bet.

Although- who has private chambers they might let you borrow, and who has a fairly strong stomach? The court sorceress for one, actually.

Insight- could be done, but in a sort of wrong- handed and upside down way, the thaumaturgical equivalent of driving a screw in with a hammer. You'd need the thing you were trying to gain insight into in front of you, and it wouldn't be elegant, but it is possible.

[Panzersharkcat]

He starts looking around for a room with few people inside. If he can find one, he will say, "Apologies for the intrusion. May we borrow this room for a moment? Legal business. Not very pleasant. It'd be appreciated if we could get this out of the way as soon as possible." If they are amenable, he will respond with "Gratitude." and he will ask Larric if he could magically soundproof the room to prevent potential eavesdroppers.

[Simon_Jester]

As Panzer moves out, Larric suggests his thought that they talk to Lisanna. Lisanna and Tamarin are hug-close friends, and she likes us, too, so she might be able to help us.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Larric's Air magic could hide the sound of a whisper easily, the sound of a conversation from average ears but a skilled eavesdropper might be able to overhear bits and pieces. Screaming could not be easily covered, not from as many people as are nearby, not without white noise that would draw attention in itself. It would have to be done either gently, or utterly shamelessly.

You were lodging in the temple complex; taking him out attracts attention. Specifically, Valdemironian- an acolyte and a couple of temple guard. They look at the two bodies, and conceal surprise and horror- not well enough not to be noticed. There's a connection there, the acolyte knows them and things weren't supposed to work out like this. They move to get in the way. Talking or brushing by?

[Fiji_Fury]

And... ACTION:

Dale steps forward to greet the acolyte in a friendly manner. He intercepts them before they can intercept Dirt with the two men he is carrying. While he runs this intereference the rest of you hopefully move on, with either Larric or Sir Alfred extricating Dale if this takes too long.

"Good day," Dale offers politely, if not exactly warmly. "You look to have a question, and I may be able to answer. First though, I have to ask one myself. There has been an unlawful assault upon Dame Tamarin recently. I am helping my compatriots investigate it. What can you share about the attack on Dame Tamarin? Do you know anything about the identities of the assailants? Has your temple done any investigation or heard any rumors about disreputable men trying to bribe commoners to attack nobles or members of noble households of late?"

OOC:
1) Dale is becoming increasingly suspicious of the Valdemiron priests... this current action will do little to ingratiate them to him, nor to quiet his fears.
2) As for ingratiating Dale to them... well, he's rapidly approaching the point of not caring and/or drawing steel against them if they really get in his way.
3) Unless I managed to present this poorly, Dale has instigated the rumor mill, perhaps with direct links to the fools responsible for manipulating events. The severity of the acolyte's reaction to Dale's questions should reveal much of use to us before we even begin interrogating your two prisoners.

[Kaelan]

he will ask Larric if he could magically soundproof the room

Dirt pulls out a set of drums. "Always make more noise than they make." It may also aid in the interrogation. Then again with they setup of the party who would want to interfere in the first place?

[Simon_Jester]

We're not at the room in the first place- is Dirt pulling out skull drums while we're walking past the acolyte of Valdemiron?

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Dale is right to be suspicious, given what has happened around the rest of the county and the country. Rumours and carried word has it that they have been quite active, in their own interest. The Krylanyans are almost as bad, although reportedly sneakier.

The three of them go quite pale- anger on the acolyte's face, horror on the temple guards'. The acolyte has an idea. 'We could deal with them, find the truth. There are means available- in fact this may be our responsibility.'

Who would want to interfere- somebody with something to hide, of course. This is a bluff they don't quite expect to come off, but are hoping for.

[Simon_Jester]

"I'm sorry, your [insert suitably respectful local term here]. You'd have to get in line behind Dame D'Avariel; she seems to think Dame Tamarin is her responsibility. I don't want to know what-all she's got in mind for these two..." Larric shudders theatrically, consciously playing off the stereotype of a certain sort of Krylanyan.

[Fiji_Fury]

OOC: Good thinking Simon_Jester! Playing them off an impression of what is going on that is not truly what is happening. At least some of the inevitable retaliation from Valdemiron's temple will now be divided. I was going to suggest the cheerful approach of welcoming them to join the interrogation... in fact insisting upon it. Put those three along with the two prisoners in a closed room behind a Death Priest, a Knight, an Ogre, the supposition that Dame D'Avariel has a hand in things and an unsanctioned wizard with a reputation for making chunks of the castle go BOOM... mwahaha. That's pressure to crack under right there. As it is, we may be about to have a detour into the Baron's court before we really wanted it.

IC:
"It's so good to hear you say that you are responsible," Dale answers the acolyte, letting the implication linger for a moment before continuing. "As you can tell, however, we are already in motion and have our own duty to see completed. Would you care to join us immediately in the Baron's court?"

If they say no... I suggest we hightail it to Lisanna's chambers and set up shop. The shit-storm is about to hit. If the acolyte is fool enough to agree to the Baron's court... well then. We take the lot of them there and drag the sordid conspiracy into immediate public record with no small application of reputation, observed leads and hopefully loyal connections to the Baron himself. It would be a gamble, but has the merit of keeping the conspirators on their back heel and possibly panicking to cover their tracks even while we are watching some of them.

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

We should NOT do this in Lisanna's chambers without her permission first. Also, there is a drawback to the court, which is that we may get a prepared story about what happens to Tamarin- while d'Avariel may not be correct to say they'll try to implicate her, they'll still have a plan. I was hoping to ask them who hired them to come after us first, simply because they're a bit less likely to have a detailed story in place.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Actually forgot to fill in a detail from earlier- yes, Tamarin's brother in law should be very dead.

If you're still trying to get by, there's a moment when the acolyte makes a hand signal, tries to get one of the temple guard to go and fetch help; they look at each other and decide to both go. Leaving him on his own with an ogre holding a skull, a death priest, a knight and a still not quite officially not a rogue wizard.

'If you're involved with her...' he says then uses it as an excuse to get out of your way himself. Her name definitely means something to them, and from the acolyte's reaction she might be involved in this after all. 'Eventually, maybe.' he says, thinking; this is above my pay grade.

They'll let you by, but aren't going to go with you unless physically grabbed, and assuming you're not openly starting a war-

There was a wizard's tower attached to the castle, but it was mostly blown to bits. The bulk of the stone scattered from it was used to patch up the damage to the rest of the castle and the various bits that got blown off that. There is a pole and canvas shelter over what would have been the ground floor, and it looks like the court wizard has set up home in what used to be the cellars of the tower.

She seems to be in; comes out to see what's going on- the pair of prisoners are starting to recover consciousness, by the way. She's holding a small, very sharp knife and a small rock; carving a soft soapstone mould for something runic.

She looks at the situation and says 'There's obviously a story here.'
Any spin to how ou're telling it, any of your own theories and ideas?

[Simon_Jester]

Over the shoulder as the group passes the Valdemironian acolyte, Larric decides to utter some more sober truth: "I don't know, either we're involved with her, she's involved with us, both, neither, or all of the above. Ask me again in a week when my head stops spinning."

Larric groans. This is worse than the dream about the quasi-undead cat in a box. He probably shouldn't tell that one in Dale's earshot, Dale just wouldn't understand. Something about the root of a half, times the sum of a live cat and a dead cat...

As we approach the stump of the wizard's tower and encounter Lisanna, Larric says "these are two of the men who tried to kill Dame Tamarin- the two who tried to fight her and lived. They were following us this afternoon, tried to hire some workers to beat on us, then we caught up with them. I don't know about you, but I'd like to find out who set them on Tamarin... and us."

[Fiji_Fury]

"Agreed. The Temple of Valdemiron is certainly in-the-know, and more likely is involved in whatever plot these two are pawns of. We would like to ask them some... private questions before taking them before the Baron's court for justice."

Having said this, Dale does a visual sweep of the area looking for anyone who is looking at them, or who has more subtley followed us.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

She winks at you, before saying slightly too loudly, 'If this is going to involve agonised screaming, thrashing around, semi- detached body parts, blood and stomach contents everywhere- I'm not sure I could permit that. It's a very uncertain method of reaching the truth. People tend to be willing to say anything to make the screaming stop, and it's such a chore mopping up afterwards.' She's quite a good actress, too.

The two of them are conscious enough to hear this, and already looking slightly green go very pale when she lifts the more important looking of the two's head back by the hair, adds 'So much more effective to start pulling open their mind and soul.' Her fingertips start glowing, and one of them is indeed gullible, frightened of magic, and still dazed enough from concussion to say 'No, don't, I'll tell you everything.'

Between bluff and intimidation, they talk. Making sense of the story then becomes the hard part. They're not principal actors; apparently, Tamarin's now deceased brother- in- law realised he would be doing an evil thing and had to be talked into it, and the identity of the people who did so is what you were looking for.

Two of them, in fact. One of Valdemiron's acolytes; a Leader (priest, but not senior priest) Erdel, one of the Treasurer's men- Piers Trencherd, a tax collector by trade and a cousin of the Owell family. They convinced him it was a good idea and pushed him into it.

Their supposed backup, under the grey robes, was indeed a woman. They're far from certain who- never saw her face, only her smell. They can provide so few identifying details that it must have been set up that way on purpose.

Lisanna does something else thaumaturgical that Larric can't quite follow, nothing happens to them but she reacts- says to the party 'Their backup wasn't much help to them, in fact from the aftereffects it feels more as if they were hindered. I think it was D'Avariel there, but acting from more complicated motives- I think she was directed to make it happen, by the authority of the chieftain of the gods, and tried to deliberately botch it- spoil their scheme by rigging the fight so that Tamarin won.

Except the shock of realising it was a family feud- I know it's not a simple or an elegant explanation, but for this mess?'

[Panzersharkcat]

(OOC: Darn. I didn't realize we were already in the room. Alfred's plan for interrogating them was finding a razor and giving them a shave while chatting politely, with occasional pats on the cheek to remind them he could cut them or slit their throats for intimidation. Ah, well.)