Getting the Ball Rolling
After a day of washing, resting, dressing, practicing, and pre-schmoozing, the Gods are finally ready to infiltrate the Nozari gala - the event where many of the top brass of Kreniko will rub shoulders and discuss politics. If the Gods are to knock out Prince Mazaru Eramzir's power base, this is where they will do it. Arzet and Kipilu will go as servants; Makar and Potha as guests. The evening of action is at hand!
The first phase of the gala was the Opening, where introductions were made and people drifted between conversations. The gala took place at the Grand Gallery, a sanctum of the Nozari family's power close to their estate - and an area controlled by the Far Harbor Club. Druids and Bards used Detect Disease spells to scan all incoming guests and staff, and the party was generally locked down to prevent any potential plague.
Makar spent this phase integrating into the party setting and scouting out the key players: Lady Nozari, Lady Benibiski, Lord Skarziri, Soza Nozari, and Corporate Officer Eskabari. Makar also introduced themselves to a number of the key players, as well as Lady Idala - the Usurper's former companion. It became clear from keeping an eye out that there were two main factions here both hoping to court Lady Benibiski to join them in either doing or not doing something.
Potha, meanwhile, ingratiated herself to Lady Nozari and met up again with Malwa Akuzir - the Usurper's daughter. Malwa was brooding and generally mad, but Potha worked to get her to lay low and keep her ears out.
Arzet used magic to support his work as a server, with a few unseen servants, and earned the friendship of a coworker - who showed him a secret passage with spyholes into other rooms in the library.
Kipilu focused on his kitchen job and did well - ultimately earning him the privilege of serving the Lord Mayor, a big player who was late to the party. The Lord Mayor found him funny and kept him by.
Zeruan banquets, after their introductions, have first dances - a formal ballroom performance of unity and grandeur.
Makar spent this phase of the gala approaching the corporate officer, Eskabari, to suss out his politics and objectives. Eskabari was an agent for the Inner-Zeruan Aludarzir Corporation; a shipping giant that Makar had experience with. Aludarzir was not necessarily pro-Prince, and was certainly concerned that more civil unrest and war would be bad for business - and Eskabari himself felt that the Prince was a dangerous destabilizing force. However, the company was unwilling to meaningfully intervene and generally wanted to remain out of whatever was going on here - so Eskabari was to find a way to profit no matter who won.
Potha watched as the Lord Mayor encouraged Malwa and Idala to fight - and intervened to de-escalate. She also talked with the Mayor, found out he was just causing trouble for his own amusement, and scouted the party for potential allies. She found that Soza Nozari, the priest, had scholarly allies who were all too vocal in their distaste for the Prince - and seemed to be putting a target on their back.
Kipilu, acting as a funny little jester guy, jumped from the Mayor to Lady Benibiski - who seemed to want to desperately get away from all the factions courting her for their political aims.
Arzet, meanwhile, used entertaining magic for the guests and attracted the attention of the gala's magical entertainers -the Far Harbor Club. Rather than be angry that Arzet was competing with them, the Club's leader was impressed and wanted to bring Arzet into the fold. He deputized Arzet into the Club as an arcane advisor and entertainer.
With the guests well-drunk and winded from dancing, it was time to break bread and feast! This was the last part of the formal party, before things went unstructured. The feasting was broken into six ranked tables, to keep people among their social equals.
Makar managed to worm their way into the elite table, where they argued with Skarziri and started to get a sense of what was going on: that a group of nobles were trying to organize the local nobility to sign a petition demanding the Prince grant them temporary political powers, to keep him in check. Skarziri and the Prince's allies rejected this as unfounded and ludicrous in a crisis, while the Nozaris felt that the Prince had been overtaxing and running too out-of-line and that he needed some oversight to reign him in. Lady Benibiski, as a crucial industrial power and link between the Prince and the military garrison, could lend the petition real bite if she signed. However, she didn't really want to engage, so despite the Nozaris packing the party with mostly their allies, Benibiski remained unswayed.
Potha sat at the lower tables and brokered an uneasy peace between Malwa and Taihosha. She began to get a sense that Idala, Malwa's main enemy here, maybe wasn't the main reason the Usurper was defeated - rather, there were messier reasons for Malwa's vengeance quest. Potha also kept an eye out for enemy operations. She watched one of the Prince's spies target one of the more informed of the priest's scholars, who had drunkenly declared he knew of more of the Usurper's rebels. After spotting the spy isolating and magically charming the scholar in the library, Potha coordinated with Kipilu to remove this spy and hide their body in the library secret passage.
Kipilu mostly built rapport with Lady Benibiski and dealt with the spy situation.
Arzet, meanwhile, talked with the Far Harbor mages, and talked with one of the Nozari's closest advisors: Nadwa the Iboran. Nadwa and Arzet pried at each other's aims, and revealed to each other that they were foreign agents. Nadwa, eager to make an ally, took a gamble and revealed that he was a spy from the Kingdom of Esedeta that was here to destabilize Zerua and court the Lianas (spies from Empire of Runeva ) that had been drifting into Ekraht recently. Arzet managed to pretend to be aligned with him and found out that Esedeta was funding and supporting the Prince's planned rebellion against Zerua as a quick way to end the war.
Zeruan parties tend to break open into informal mixing, dancing, drinking, and entertainment after the end of the main meal. It is no longer impolite to leave, but this can be where the juciest gossip and intrigues come to fruition.
Potha walked over and made contact with Idala. The two talked relatively frankly and it became clear that Idala had only betrayed the Usurper after the coup had failed. The Lord Mayor had, apparently, backed the Usurper at first along with a broad coalition of allies - most of which had run away or switched sides after the rebels failed to quickly capture the royal palace. The remaining rebels had been isolated from each other and broken one by one. Idala's exact betrayal wasn't clear, but she had done it in a bargain to save Malwa's life. It is possible the Usurper even encouraged or planned for this to save his daughter. Malwa refused to accept this and had wanted to die a martyr saving the city - especially when she found out mid-coup that the Prince was somehow in cahoots with the Rot Plague. Idala just wanted the sacrifice to matter and was pushing for Malwa to flee the Kingdom for somewhere safer. Potha tried to inspire Idala to stop running and pick the rebelion back up, but Idala was both emotionally broken and certain that her entire staff reported to the Prince now. Potha was able to secure an emotional reuinion for them, though. Malwa was ready to stop trying to kill her step-mom; it was time to step up and face the impossible challenge of the Prince himself.
Makar, meanwhile, realized that pressuring Lady Benibiski was only pushing her away - and decided to focus on building their own coalition. First, they targeted the Lord Mayor: they found his allies, mind-read them, and finally confronted the cowardly Mayor himself. The Lord Mayor seemed to be the only one who actually thought through the scale of power at play - the hurricane stopping outside the city, the plague, the warlocks, all of it - and realized that this went far higher than just imperial politics. He wanted to hoard money to flee somewhere nice and isolated to retire; he was done with this shit. Makar managed to slowly bring the Lord Mayor back into the idea of a coup, with greater rewards this time: Makar promised the Lord Mayor the entire Princeship, so that Bakari could loot the treasury for his golden parachute out of here. The one condition was that Bakari's corruption post-coup needed to be not be so egregious as to cause problems. That was an ally secured, if an ally with a history of unreliability.
Arzet talked with the Far Harbor Club leadership and Lady Nozari, and found out that Nadwa, the spy, had been generally advising for the Nozaris to do nothing and sit by. Arzet managed to get Nadwa assigned elsewhere, and started to push for a little less caution. Arzet, Potha, and Makar also managed to keep the Priest Soza Nozari from interrupting Kipilu's time with Lady Benibiski.
Finally, Kipilu talked with Lady Benibiski, who was overwhelmed and angry at being harassed and cornered all party by people trying to manipulate her. She and Kipilu had a heart to heart about the difficulty of choice and the responsibilities that come with power. This conversation drifted between talking about Benibiski's situation and Kipilu's with Dina, the Martyr. Ultimately, Kipilu managed to sway Benibiski to open her heart and consider challenging the Prince.
Things often get crazy in the last hour of Zeruan parties - it is tradition. After a great finale of fireworks, the party should finally wind down into small cliques and afterparties. This is the last moment to use the party as a whole.
Makar, Potha, Arzet, and Kipilu came together to make a unified plan: to use the finale to make a convincing public case for defiance against the Prince. It would throw away subtlety and alert the Prince, but it could sway critical allies of his to their cause.
The centerpiece of their effort would be Malwa, whose personal story of her father's innocence and the Prince's manipulation into her family life would inspire and shake many of the gathered nobles - particularly Benibiski. Arzet got the Far Harbor Club to create inspiring illusions that could set up Malwa well and draw attention to her story. Potha and Kipilu would play support, while Makar would wrangle the anti-Prince faction together to prevent them from ruining the unified message of rebellion.
The combined effects managed to sway Lady Benibiski and pushed Lady Nozari out of a cautious stance - with the Lord Mayor in Makar's camp, it was time to resurrect the rebellion. The entire performance was quite public, though, so the group would need to move fast.
The Gods gathered their war council in the Nozari manor after the party, moving to plan before the Prince could pry the group apart. The Nozaris, Benibiski, Lord Mayor Bakari, and Malwa were all included. They knew that the Prince would be scrying on them, so to obscure their conversation to the Prince they would all join together in a Divine Contact to the current Lunar God, Agamine the Lost.
Ultimately, the group agreed that they would move as quickly as possible to usurp the Prince - he was likely to move swiftly against everyone in the room. Even if he didn't, he had a way of isolating threats against him and defanging them. Any serious attempt to overthrow the Prince would need to happen in just a few days at maximum.
The plan was made for the Lord Mayor to quietly empower rebels to free the Usurper from prison as soon as possible - this would distract the Prince and allow for people to mobilize more generally against his rule. The rebel clique here would shield themselves behind petitionary politics, giving the front of a toothless call for reform and making it difficult for the Prince to strike without appearing as a tyrant to other nobles. Even if the Prince suspected their group, he would expect them to slowly build a coalition of allies across the city. While the bulk of the Prince's forces moved out into the city to suppress potential Usurper-led movements, a small strike team of noble retinue and mercenaries would enter the Palatial district and target the Prince in a palace coup as quickly as possible. The priority would be killing the Prince at all costs - he was firmly locked in as the center of power.
The fastest the nobles could go with this plan was two days. During this time, the Gods would scout the palace and prepare their route to the Plague Engine.
After the plan was made, the Gods talked with Agamine the Lost. It was a pleasant conversation, ending with Agamine telling Kipilu of his Lunar God easy-contact machine he had constructed in secret by his paladins in Maradia.
1: Preamble
2: First Dances
3: Feasting
4: The Open Party
5: The Last Hour
Afterparty Plotting
Components
Goals
QUEST:
- Kill or stop Prince Mazaru Eramzir
- Destroy the nascent Zeruan Plague Engine , to prevent a new Rot Plague Variant
- Scout out the powers and weaknesses of the Nemeses
- Make connections and allies
- Marshal resources
Relations
Protagonists
Makar: The Masked One reborn, from Etekamo . Divine Soul Sorcerer, Courtier Background
Potha: Halcyon reborn, from the Sarana Tribe . Beastmaster Ranger, Outlander Background
- Coco: a friendly moa with a sweet tooth, Potha's bonded companion
- Cobi: a determined falcon loyal to Potha
- The Prison Rat: a rat with a sense of style, loyal to Potha
- Darana, a Nefkan Vesper priest who can speak with dead and resist fear, but requires burial of the dead
- Kiji, a Calazan Kobold explorer who can help Arzet super-leap, returns thrown weapons, but requires curiosity
- Sarwen, an Inasan dryad scholar who can see disease auras and helps with research, but requires everything to be recorded
- Siru, a Bilgazan Healing Church alchemist who can help Arzet make healing potions and increases Arzet's speed by 10 ft/round, but requires that the secrets of alchemy be kept guarded
- Thuma, a Nafenan squiddle blackguard who can help Arzet turn invisible underwater (when not attacking or casting) and increases swim speed by 30 ft/round, but requires Arzet to take no quarter against any foes
Neutrals/Bystanders
Taihosha Torizir: A young woman in Kreniko, the youngest in a family of landlords, businessmen, and minor nobles. Taihosha is not particularly aware of the greater state of the world, and is more concerned with elevating her house and supporting her brother. She considers herself a loyal supporter of Prince Mazaru Eramzir but isn't zealously supportive.
Malwa Akuzir: A dashing and hotheaded young woman, daughter of the Usurper orphaned by the failed coup. Grief-filled and quick to lash out, particularly against Idala Lorazir, who she feels betrayed her family. Quick to draw her rapier and unafraid of death, Malwa is mostly just hoping to get some vengeance before she inevitably dies or is imprisoned.
Idala Lorazir: The best friend of the Usurper and closest companion, de-facto mother of Malwa who is now marked for death by her former informal stepdaughter. Idala is cool, collected, and focused on just surviving and manuevering. It is assumed by many that she betrayed the Usurper, as she not only survived the coup but was granted many of the Usurper's former properties.
Lady Minwa Nozari: Host of the gala. A mild-mannered reformer with a taste for art, who dislikes the Prince but doesn't really want to do much about it. Lady Nozari is a bit snooty and very classist, but is very open-minded about new ideas and foreign cultures. She is a major patron of the Far Harbor Club and a powerful noble in the city. A clever operator with plans to politically challenge the prince through petitions and committees, but perhaps overly restrained and cautious.
Soza Nozari: Lady Nozari's younger brother and Crown Priest of the Vice-Kingdom of Mikena. Soza has been politically isolated and rages against the Prince, but his blundering self-righteousness and bureaucratic toothlessness makes him easy to contain. A man who sees himself as a lone voice speaking truth to power, who surrounds himself with academics and monks but generally relies on his sister to actually use the power his position entails. Certainly not a bad guy, and a good sorcerer and theologian, but a man who has spent his life refusing to learn anything about politics.
Lady Ovwa Benibiski: A bookish industrialist who likes to make things efficient, but generally has little big-picture political vision. A powerful noble, but one who meekly follows the prince (and makes good money for it). Conflict-avoidant and unassuming, Ovwa's main political concern is just keeping her large and bickering family unified.
Nashri Eskibari: The Aludarzir Corporation's representative in the city. A lawful, courteous, buttoned-up man with concerns about trade. Lady Nozari's primary ally in the city.
Lord Mayor Wellim Bakari: A nasty, cynical, cowardly man who has realized that the city is doomed and is looking for a nice golden parachute away. Mayor of the city, mocked by the other nobles and all too happy to get his own last laugh at their expense. A shit-stirrer.
Kess of Many Ports: Lady Nozari's magic advisor. A bombastic bard with a big heart and poor judge of character. Head of the Far Harbor Club
Nadwa the Iboran: The firm hand behind Kess in the Far Harbor Club. A stoic and calm spy from the Kingdom of Esedeta interested in where the Prince is going with this little rebellion.
Mozwa the Waitress: One of Lady Nozari's staff, a bookish girl sick of being a servant.
Lord Dozmen Skarziri: A competetive and charismatic nobleman and businessman, an ally of the Prince.
Plot type
QUEST
Parent Plot
Subplots
Related Characters
Related Organizations
Related Locations
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