Juuso Vesanto wrote:
> * Action resolution
>
> Action 1: Who ya gonna call?
>
> Subparts:
> * Clear the ruins +1
> * Protect the workers +1
> * Clear the lesser ghosts from the city 0
> * Search other archives and question prisoners +1
>
> Result: 0 (normal) + 3 (dice) = 3 Great success
>
> Progress: (+1,+3,x,x,x,x,x,x,x)
>
> Description: The Zelkor crew manages to locate some areas which
> seem to be safe from most ghosts and spirits, including the most
> potent ones. These seem to be mostly on the fringes of the city,
> which are easiest to clear of the debris. These act as safe havens
> for the workers, and provide a great lift on the morale.
>
> Action 2: Lines in the Dirt
>
> Subparts:
> * Apologize 1
> * De-escalate -1
> * Ask the questions and get an answer 1
> * Negotiate the border -1
>
> Result: 0 (normal) + 0 (dice) = 0 Mixed result
>
> Description: With news of the changes in government, the Ambassador
> initially courtiously (sp?) accepts the apology of the Prince. But
> later the tone changes, when response from the Torphani Emperor arrives.
> Officially, the response states that the ruler, not the servants, is
> responsible for the actions, and therefore a simple change of servants
> is insufficient as a show of goodwill. The relations remain icy.
> Unofficially, it seems that the incident is being used to gain
> political leverage within Torphani empire.
>
When the Torphani Emperor's response arrives, Prince Barnardus make no
public comment. However, he suborns one of the Torphani Ambassador's
clerks, and discovers that the old Torphani Emperor died last year in
questionable circumstances, and the Torphani Empire is currently being
ruled by a regency, as the new Emperor is only five years old. The
regents are struggling to control the Emperor and use him to advance
their own agendas, while trying to hide what's going on from the outside
world. The pushing of Torphan's borders northward and resettling
displaced peasants from the south in the new lands is the policy of the
most powerful regent, Lord Damorara. If his plan were to fail, he would
lose face and standing, allowing one of the other regents to supplant him.
>
> Action 3-4: Operation MERCHANT PRINCE
>
> Subparts:
> * Travel to and enter Rimrivertown +1
> * Follow, capture, and interrogate the von Kiviri director 0
> * Break into the Von Kiviri offices and recover papers +1
> * Leave Rimrivertown safely with the information. +1
>
> Fudge Points: 2
>
> Result: -1 (hard) + 3 (dice) + 1 (double) = 3 Great success
>
> Description: (since I submit this result so later, whatever
> happens, happens at the end of the year...) The operation is
> highly succesfull, the only failure is being unable to
> interrogate the captured von Kiviri director: he dies,
> by suicide or by external measures, during the capture.
> (I'll leave rest of the details to you.)
(I'll go into more detail later, maybe, but for now:)
The Sedonian agents infiltrate Rimrivertown over the course of the first
three months of the year. Most come in under cover as employees of the
Sedonian merchant houses licensed to trade in Rimrivertown, but a few
land in the Razanian Kingdom of Sout and come overland across the Rim
Mountains, pretending to be Sedonian merchants chased out of Aryisa for
selling illegal weapons to Razanians. The priestess of Demerhaze
assigned to the mission arrives in Rimrivertown with a cover story of
researching demon-legends of the Rimriver region.
Once everyone has arrived, Team A begin surveillance of the Director,
one Hoatzin von Kiviri, and Team B begins casing the Von Angrix-Kiviri
offices and warehouses. It is quickly apparent that Hoatzin is up to his
neck in intrigue. A covert B&E of one of the warehouses reveals
shipments of weapons and drugs hidden in otherwise innocuous shipments,
while Team A discovers that Hoatzin weekly has secret meetings in a
taverna by the docks, accompanied by only two guards. It's not perfect,
but on the way to the tavern is the best place to ambush him. They
decide to take him at the end of Torruth.
On 24 Torruth, one day before the operation kicks off, an Imperial
Postal Service ship, the IPS /Albatross/ puts in to Tolmersa to pick up
and deliver mail. She delays her departure, claiming that her water
barrels have become contaminated and need to be replaced. One of the
packages she delivered was the special crossbow bolts for Team A.
On the night of the 25th, Team A makes its move on Hoatzin, while Team B
breaks into the Von Angrix-Kiviri offices. Team B strikes it lucky: the
dragon-blood scarves keep the wards on the offices from activating, and
with a little creativity, the team is able to use a spare scarf to break
the lock-spells on the Von Angrix-Kiviri files. With the files open,
they find the motherload: invoices and manifests showing shipments of
weapons, supplies, and sacrificial victims to Garr cultists all over
MidSea, as well as shipments of weapons and supplies to the Ice Demons
now invading Aixelsydan. The real prize is a list of all the
Shadowspawns within the House: Quetzal von Kiviri's name is at the top
of the list. They take *all* the records from the offices, set the
building on fire, and take them to the /Albatross/, where they wait for
Team A.
When they see the smoke from the fire, Team A makes their move. They are
not so lucky: when they ambush Hoatzin, they discover that not only is
he a Shadowspawn, so are his two guards. A massive battle erupts in the
street as Hoatzin's and the guards' demons rise. The special anti-demon
bolts take out the guards quickly, as they were much weaker Shadowspawn,
but in the end, the Priestess of Demerhaze has to kill Hoatzin and
banish his demon when he proves able to raise a shield that the bolts
cannot penetrate. Team A drags off its dead and wounded and vanishes
into the alleys before the city guards arrive. They make it back to the
/Albatross/ and are aboard without being seen.
The /Albatross/ stays in Rimrivertown until the 27th with the teams and
the records aboard. The various Kaeiran officials in Rimrivertown
quickly realize that whatever happened to Hoatzin von Kiviri is above
their paygrade and/or level of competence, and decide to ask for
instructions. In a supreme irony, when IPS /Albatross/ leaves
Rimrivertown on the 27th, she carries the official Kaeiran government
dispatches asking for guidance. No one in Rimrivertown makes any
connection between the departure of the /Albatross/ and the murder of
Hoatzin and the destruction of the Von Angrix-Kiviri offices--they think
it was the work of a rival merchant house.
When the information reaches Minister Ronir-Varros, he *runs* it to
Emperor Arden. After feverish meetings behind locked doors, Ronir-Varros
sends a message to Karl von Kashaar via a Raven of Sedon, asking for a
meet in a secure location. He also sends a letter to the Archmage of
Mir, calling in Mir's offer of a Warmage Coterie . . .
> Action 5: Blockade
>
> Subparts:
> * Block Ice Demons trying to leave +1
> * Block other parties trying to reach the Ice Demons 0
> * Protect merchant shipping transiting the straits +1
> * Weather 0
>
> Result: 0 (normal) + 2 (dice) - 1 (extra) = +1 Success
>
> Description: as evil tongues tend to say, blockade is
> something that Sedonia has much practice in... no major
> incidents.
>
The Tolmersa Squadron, now designated the Straits Fleet, is successful
at preventing the escape of Ice Demons across the Straits and protecting
merchant shipping. However, several times they are unable to prevent
small ships from landing in Ice Demon-held territory. Most of those
ships are Kelshiri-rigged, deep-water fishing vessels from the Outer
Ocean. At least one appeared to be a trader flying the house colors of
Van Angrix-Kiviri. All left the Straits via the eastern mouth, heading
north up the Razanian and Kelshiri Coasts
>
> juuso
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