Scrapday, Soldiermoon, 1313
General Summary
Connie talks to Guinevera Dargent again – and willingly takes the Elixir of Amnesia.
Hugo is very scared to discover his mother knows quite as much about Connie and his Kitsune antics as she does.
Mirror of Erised style character building!
Connie’s Mindscape: Tangled maze of brambles, thorns and roses (an equal amount of all three).
Where Connie’s Soul is hidden: In a nest-like clearing. Thorns pointing outwards.
Connie’s Guardian: Brambleson, duh!
Connie’s Soul Container: Star Journal.
Wolf, not Brambleson, and Star Journal is skewered on a giant wolf fang.
Were they important memories? Important to a friendship, certainly. / You heard him.
Would there be bad consequences if Viziera Dargent found out? I should certainly say so. / If.
Guinevera Dargent knows about Brambleson and my magic and the warren. Am I in danger? Not immediately, I would wager. / Always.
Will the memories help me succeed in the god soul collection task? They might speed things up. / And time is running out.
Do you want me to do it? Me? No. Quite certainly not. / But he runs from everything.
Wolf’s question: Was this worth it, Prince? She will make it so. / She’d fucking better.
Psychic battle with the Wolf
Guinevera and Satine both absent but Richard and Victor are here.
Balthazar and Britomart only Ironsides here (Agamemnon and Menelaus are overseeing Blademas preparations).
Ironsides have something secret planned for Blademas
Britomart Ironside & Aloysius Mason / Balthazar Ironside and Djann Carterhold: Veiled and stepping around the issue. Undercurrent of reassurance that the Ironsides are planning some kind of power play to increase their popularity. Hoping this play will raise their position to stand up to Richard Dargent.
It becomes noticeable that no-one has said Katharine Ironside is dead. Underhands believe she is still alive (and seem to have reason to do so) but with the big asterisk *For Now.
Talking to Victor:
Cobbler and Felinet Bakerstreet join Balthazar and Britomart Ironside.
Cobbler indicates route that Ricard is taking through the court (towards Ingestron Underhand)
Cobbler: Remarkable, the friends that our good Vizier Dargent has made recently, isn’t it. Even the Underhands seem to have warmed to him of late.
Balthazar: Prah! Wouldn’t have though them the kind to be swayed by wealth, what?
Felinet: They’re not. Trust me on that. I’ve known one of them better than most.
Britomart: There are other things he could have to offer, I suppose.
Balthazar: [Bark of laughter at an in-joke. Britomart wasn’t going for the in-joke but recognises it after the fact (and seems slightly conflicted about the joke itself)].
Cobbler: [Hand not holding cigar in pocket, offhandedly] Well, if for any reason you feel you’d like to talk to any investigator that isn’t under the thumb of any Dargents – you know where to find me.
Balthazar: [scowls] Bah! [downs drink]
Britomart: [grim concern]
Felinet: [hand on Britomart’s arm] unintelligible.
Britomart: You’re talking to the wrong Ironside. Mum spent a lot of time in her room. She had other vizieras over when I was a kid sometimes. I mean you know, y’know.
Felinet: [scowls a little] Word is you and your family provided a lot of extra security to the Dargent Estate recently. That’s got to put you in a better position than most to get what you want out of them.
Balthazar: [slapping blind Felinet on the back] Don’t you worry about that, boy! I know a thing or two about unconventional tactics. Bah!
Connie follows Cobbler – he’s talking to Nycteme and seeming to be offering a show of comfort both having recently lost a close family member (Wiggin and Thornhill, respectively). Nycteme giving very short, if out of her depth, closed answers.
Cobbler spotted Connie. He asks her why she’s eavesdropping on him, and Connie responds that that is what she’s in the Court for.
Connie: “I’m a good listener.”
Cobbler asks her who she tells the things she hears at court to. Connie’s response is that she’ll tell anyone really, who’s nice, and who the information might help. But mostly Master Hugo, the information keeps him safe.
Cobbler: “I’m still figuring out your katib. I can’t tell if he’s more like my daughter, more like my youngest son, or more like my former wife.”
Connie tells Cobbler she doesn’t really know his family. But that Hugo is mostly afraid, and that he doesn’t like his parents much. He will help them when he needs to, but not any more than that.
Cobbler: “Well, the less he helps them the more I have reason to engineer a situation where he doesn’t have to. And you can tell the katib that.”
Andromeda Stargazer has been consolidating court position (mostly because she sees Richard is doing so). She sends Pollux to talk to Aloysius, Castor and Cassie are talking to Cassie’s mum (Kronk is back at Court today), Andromeda herself is talking to Quince Darktusk-Carterhold, Leopold is talking to Balthazar.
Hugo spends rest of court chatting to Fennec Jackalslicer. His brother’s birthday is tomorrow and Hugo RSVPs for himself. (46 Diplomacy :)!)
Animal skins dyed purple with floral patterns. A particularly big one over her bed his dyed purple and displays a star map. (New survivor stars have been added more recently – Brambleson’s star is pink).
Drawable curtain with a minimalist bed (that was Castor’s before Andromeda called him and Cassie back to Stargazer estate)
Big bed with lots of pillows (Cassie’s).
Reading desk with cluster of bookcases and orrery (which doesn’t display any unofficial stars).
Ninety-Six Nights in the Iron Sultanate
What Termagant likes and is most receptive to.
Apollyon the Artificer: builds a door to Termagant’s realm, and petitions her-or-him and she-or-he agrees in recognition of his boldness and skill, if he can beat her-or-him in the game of Ironchess. The pieces must be crafted yourself. And can only be placed once they have been crafted. The pieces animate and fight. Apollyon runs out of metal to craft his pieces and so convinces Termagant to (as is custom in orcish hospitality) and crafts his pieces out of iron tankards when he finishes a drink.
When the Throneforge was a realm of unchallenged power.
Dahzagan: angel or Valkyrie. Word picked up in Common (Dwarven word for “warrior angel”).
Ancient: thousands of years old dead language. Only ones older are those from the stars.
Cassie speaks: Aquan, Auran, Ignan, Aklo, Ancient, Celestial, Terran
Doesn’t speak Elven or Dark Folk
Tome of Calm Reflections: Guided meditation. Each page is a meditative text with an accompanying illustration from worshippers of Whirling-In-Rags.
Story or rumour that links him with the first people in Palimpsest. Those that built the city were not created by the gods that made the later races but rather sprung up naturally the way elementals and genies spring up on their respective planes of existence. These material genies, powerful beings that were, sentient manifestations of the material plane and the essence thereof, were the precursors that invented architecture, magic. Suli. Or in the elemental languages it’s one of the words that is the same: Jann. It’s where the word genie comes from. Suli possibly comes from a king, leader, noble who was Suliman the Marvellous. Very few named Suli in anything. At least one source says that Kashmir the Summoner was a direct descendent of Suliman the Marvellous and that’s why he was so gifted and powerful with his magic.
Proper form of address for the Iron Sultan(a): traditional address title Her-or-His (/Your) Adamant Majesty.
Giant spiral staircase down.
Pillows – Cassie has little elephant teddy (Mû-Mû) – Orcish word for elephant is Mûmakil
Flickering purple glow
Sluice water
Giant kiln oven made of bricks and amethysts
Remnant towers were once equally pristine, now destroyed and reduced to twisted iron – scavenging and repairing
Sky choked with roiling sooty black smoke
Lightning purple tinged but core is a crackling gold Apocalypse (aftershocks of a recent apocalypse)
Smoke in sky makes vague approximate shape of humanoid:
Mahound: “You probably want to hang on.”
Switched language from Celestial to Orcish to give name.
Massive kiln furnace
Giant Chess Pavillion with 2 small behemoths (can carry single room)
Smoky fist beats chessboard into lava
4 possible directions in Termagant's Vents
3 glittering purple-eyes orcs: constantly giving off purple embers from skin
Big set of iron gates (ivory and amethyst design inlay):
Termagant is smelting souls?!
Glowing purple embers - orc smelted into orc (like outside)
Dahzagan lowers new orc person into metal pool
After orc souls have been in garden for a bit, then forged into full fledged Dazigan
Enormous lavish royal throneroom/forge (the Throneforge)
Purple carpet leading into massive door in kiln
Hugo emerged from one of the tiniest doors
Furnace golems
Chess floor (ivory and iron)
Throne crafted out of ivory skeleton of an elephant the size of a dragon
Multiple sets of tusks for arm rests
Huge amethyst jewels in trunk hole and eye holes
Ivory makes the rest of the throne
Hot plates
In front of throne is a square basin (Adamantine) of molten iron with tiny structures floating in the iron. Tiny Behemoth on road and one pristine bastion.
Termagant, the Iron Sultan(a)
Hugo: “Your power is great, your adamant majesty. It is the apocalypse power that is tearing it down. While your iron legions work to bolster and rebuild this realm, an alliance of deities can form another front against the apocalyptic threat.”
Termagant: “You speak well, Katib and your concubine is an asset. If you are victorious, I may benefit from an alliance. If you are not, I may be harmed. Is this a deal you would take, child of tradesmen?” (Deliberate ambiguity whether Termagant is asking/addressing to Lindie or Hugo.)
Promise to support all Kronk’s attempts to get an heir
2 phases: Crafting and Playing
Crafting Phase
The Reforged
Kronk: “I am old and I am fearful.”
Geas – Divine Quest
“An elephant at large is surpassed in danger only by an elephant cornered.” – Orcish proverb
“Real elephants are somewhat bigger and less lavender.” – Cassie is talking about Mû-Mû
+7 hours Carnegie book
[soft tap and scrape of somebody dropping a pen and shifting their seat back a little]
Richard: You believe?
Guinevera: Yes, oddly enough, she seems to be no longer out in the open, which explains our previous difficulties. Here give me a second.
[brief arcane muttering. Bzzzt. Weird palpable silence for the rest of the recording]
Silent Table type spell rather than targeted at Basil specifically.
Hugo is very scared to discover his mother knows quite as much about Connie and his Kitsune antics as she does.
Mirror of Erised style character building!
Connie’s Mindscape: Tangled maze of brambles, thorns and roses (an equal amount of all three).
Where Connie’s Soul is hidden: In a nest-like clearing. Thorns pointing outwards.
Connie’s Guardian: Brambleson, duh!
Connie’s Soul Container: Star Journal.
Wolf, not Brambleson, and Star Journal is skewered on a giant wolf fang.
Connie (and wolf) commune with Brambleson (and Worgoth)
The wolf wants me to let her out to put memories back into me. Is this a good idea? I certainly wouldn’t say so. / But I would.Were they important memories? Important to a friendship, certainly. / You heard him.
Would there be bad consequences if Viziera Dargent found out? I should certainly say so. / If.
Guinevera Dargent knows about Brambleson and my magic and the warren. Am I in danger? Not immediately, I would wager. / Always.
Will the memories help me succeed in the god soul collection task? They might speed things up. / And time is running out.
Do you want me to do it? Me? No. Quite certainly not. / But he runs from everything.
Wolf’s question: Was this worth it, Prince? She will make it so. / She’d fucking better.
Psychic battle with the Wolf
Noble Court
Haruspex and Crepuscule absent.Guinevera and Satine both absent but Richard and Victor are here.
Balthazar and Britomart only Ironsides here (Agamemnon and Menelaus are overseeing Blademas preparations).
Ironsides have something secret planned for Blademas
Britomart Ironside & Aloysius Mason / Balthazar Ironside and Djann Carterhold: Veiled and stepping around the issue. Undercurrent of reassurance that the Ironsides are planning some kind of power play to increase their popularity. Hoping this play will raise their position to stand up to Richard Dargent.
It becomes noticeable that no-one has said Katharine Ironside is dead. Underhands believe she is still alive (and seem to have reason to do so) but with the big asterisk *For Now.
Talking to Victor:
- There is a pre-arranged meeting that Guinevera arranged with Satine to invite Crepuscule Underhand to luncheon at the Dargent-Laureat residence.
- Hugo mentions the mirror in Satine’s bedchamber (that Crepuscule was examining on during the Mongrelfolk attack on the Dargent-Laureat estate).
- Also transpires that Satine has a new snake (vishkanya) friend: possibly Ravlisha or Saché?
Cobbler and Felinet Bakerstreet join Balthazar and Britomart Ironside.
Cobbler indicates route that Ricard is taking through the court (towards Ingestron Underhand)
Cobbler: Remarkable, the friends that our good Vizier Dargent has made recently, isn’t it. Even the Underhands seem to have warmed to him of late.
Balthazar: Prah! Wouldn’t have though them the kind to be swayed by wealth, what?
Felinet: They’re not. Trust me on that. I’ve known one of them better than most.
Britomart: There are other things he could have to offer, I suppose.
Balthazar: [Bark of laughter at an in-joke. Britomart wasn’t going for the in-joke but recognises it after the fact (and seems slightly conflicted about the joke itself)].
Cobbler: [Hand not holding cigar in pocket, offhandedly] Well, if for any reason you feel you’d like to talk to any investigator that isn’t under the thumb of any Dargents – you know where to find me.
Balthazar: [scowls] Bah! [downs drink]
Britomart: [grim concern]
Felinet: [hand on Britomart’s arm] unintelligible.
Britomart: You’re talking to the wrong Ironside. Mum spent a lot of time in her room. She had other vizieras over when I was a kid sometimes. I mean you know, y’know.
Felinet: [scowls a little] Word is you and your family provided a lot of extra security to the Dargent Estate recently. That’s got to put you in a better position than most to get what you want out of them.
Balthazar: [slapping blind Felinet on the back] Don’t you worry about that, boy! I know a thing or two about unconventional tactics. Bah!
Connie follows Cobbler – he’s talking to Nycteme and seeming to be offering a show of comfort both having recently lost a close family member (Wiggin and Thornhill, respectively). Nycteme giving very short, if out of her depth, closed answers.
Cobbler spotted Connie. He asks her why she’s eavesdropping on him, and Connie responds that that is what she’s in the Court for.
Connie: “I’m a good listener.”
Cobbler asks her who she tells the things she hears at court to. Connie’s response is that she’ll tell anyone really, who’s nice, and who the information might help. But mostly Master Hugo, the information keeps him safe.
Cobbler: “I’m still figuring out your katib. I can’t tell if he’s more like my daughter, more like my youngest son, or more like my former wife.”
Connie tells Cobbler she doesn’t really know his family. But that Hugo is mostly afraid, and that he doesn’t like his parents much. He will help them when he needs to, but not any more than that.
Cobbler: “Well, the less he helps them the more I have reason to engineer a situation where he doesn’t have to. And you can tell the katib that.”
Andromeda Stargazer has been consolidating court position (mostly because she sees Richard is doing so). She sends Pollux to talk to Aloysius, Castor and Cassie are talking to Cassie’s mum (Kronk is back at Court today), Andromeda herself is talking to Quince Darktusk-Carterhold, Leopold is talking to Balthazar.
Hugo spends rest of court chatting to Fennec Jackalslicer. His brother’s birthday is tomorrow and Hugo RSVPs for himself. (46 Diplomacy :)!)
Cassie’s Room
Ironwood door with 2 huge tusks for door frame. Pair of amethyst gems (eyes).Animal skins dyed purple with floral patterns. A particularly big one over her bed his dyed purple and displays a star map. (New survivor stars have been added more recently – Brambleson’s star is pink).
Drawable curtain with a minimalist bed (that was Castor’s before Andromeda called him and Cassie back to Stargazer estate)
Big bed with lots of pillows (Cassie’s).
Reading desk with cluster of bookcases and orrery (which doesn’t display any unofficial stars).
Ninety-Six Nights in the Iron Sultanate
- Grey hide with yellowing greyish paper.
- Writing has been etched, with semi-metallic paper.
- Written in Orcish (pre-human text).
- A collection of 96 traditional orcish folk tales.
- Attributed to Dinazad Taleforger
What Termagant likes and is most receptive to.
- Power is the big one (doesn’t seem to matter what kind, social, physical, magical).
- Respects wealth.
- Craftsmanship.
- Ingenuity.
- Ability to make things that other people can’t make. Folk heroes seem to be master craftsmen.
Apollyon the Artificer: builds a door to Termagant’s realm, and petitions her-or-him and she-or-he agrees in recognition of his boldness and skill, if he can beat her-or-him in the game of Ironchess. The pieces must be crafted yourself. And can only be placed once they have been crafted. The pieces animate and fight. Apollyon runs out of metal to craft his pieces and so convinces Termagant to (as is custom in orcish hospitality) and crafts his pieces out of iron tankards when he finishes a drink.
When the Throneforge was a realm of unchallenged power.
Dahzagan: angel or Valkyrie. Word picked up in Common (Dwarven word for “warrior angel”).
Ancient: thousands of years old dead language. Only ones older are those from the stars.
Cassie speaks: Aquan, Auran, Ignan, Aklo, Ancient, Celestial, Terran
Doesn’t speak Elven or Dark Folk
Tome of Calm Reflections: Guided meditation. Each page is a meditative text with an accompanying illustration from worshippers of Whirling-In-Rags.
Story or rumour that links him with the first people in Palimpsest. Those that built the city were not created by the gods that made the later races but rather sprung up naturally the way elementals and genies spring up on their respective planes of existence. These material genies, powerful beings that were, sentient manifestations of the material plane and the essence thereof, were the precursors that invented architecture, magic. Suli. Or in the elemental languages it’s one of the words that is the same: Jann. It’s where the word genie comes from. Suli possibly comes from a king, leader, noble who was Suliman the Marvellous. Very few named Suli in anything. At least one source says that Kashmir the Summoner was a direct descendent of Suliman the Marvellous and that’s why he was so gifted and powerful with his magic.
Proper form of address for the Iron Sultan(a): traditional address title Her-or-His (/Your) Adamant Majesty.
Giant spiral staircase down.
Pillows – Cassie has little elephant teddy (Mû-Mû) – Orcish word for elephant is Mûmakil
Flickering purple glow
Kronk’s forge
Central fire pit – purple flame (bigger than the one in the drawing room)Sluice water
Giant kiln oven made of bricks and amethysts
- Bread oven apertures
- Bigger ones too
- Central door larger as human – for forging statues, hopefully
- Metal turntables half through wall, pair of wrought iron statues of large, centaur angel creatures. Waist up is powerful female orc warrior with armour and a Warhammer, waist down larger and more bestial (elephant), pre-historic dragon wings (2 for orc, 2 for elephant).
- Toes, tusks and wing spikes are all metallic iron
- Skin and hide iron coloured and flesh
- Amethyst jewels
- Glowing amethyst-coloured eyes
- Amira’s servants: Your Eminence
- Captains: Your Captaincy
- Your Militance
- Vizier(a)s and Subvizier(a)s: Your Excellence
- Katib(a)s: Your Grace
Iron Sultan(a)'s Realm
Iron elephants have steamroller rollersRemnant towers were once equally pristine, now destroyed and reduced to twisted iron – scavenging and repairing
Sky choked with roiling sooty black smoke
Lightning purple tinged but core is a crackling gold Apocalypse (aftershocks of a recent apocalypse)
Smoke in sky makes vague approximate shape of humanoid:
- Larger than human
- Purple glowing embers (eyes and jewel turban)
- Pulls up intact bastion
Mahound: “You probably want to hang on.”
Switched language from Celestial to Orcish to give name.
Massive kiln furnace
Giant Chess Pavillion with 2 small behemoths (can carry single room)
Smoky fist beats chessboard into lava
4 possible directions in Termagant's Vents
- Smoke and Embers
- Empty
- Caustic Chemical Reaction (powerfully alcoholic)
- Pleasant fruity spiced breeze
- Good for licking
- Odd sweetness (like Connie’s Meteorite fragment)
- Starfruit
Termagant's Kitchen
- Iron and Ivory
- Fancy
- Iron scrolling
- Leads to garden
- Controlled forest or orchard
- There is grass
- Ironwood orchard
- Ironwood food (acorns and nuts)
- Some noticeably growling apples (?) with an irony metallic sheen
- Deeper into orchard is brighter, less monochrome, normal plants
- Coloured flowers
- Comparatively softer bark - is cinnamon a tree? (Nat 1)
- Wall with Ivory frescos and amethyst gems
- Wrought iron benches
- Wall itself is more white and gold marble - Amira’s Court colours…
3 glittering purple-eyes orcs: constantly giving off purple embers from skin
- Grown orcish man singing in orcish
- Pair of younger child/teen orcs, picking fruit
Big set of iron gates (ivory and amethyst design inlay):
- Garden (walled)
- Fountain
- Throne
Termagant is smelting souls?!
Glowing purple embers - orc smelted into orc (like outside)
Dahzagan lowers new orc person into metal pool
After orc souls have been in garden for a bit, then forged into full fledged Dazigan
Back to Hugo
Glowing Dazigan quenches itselfEnormous lavish royal throneroom/forge (the Throneforge)
Purple carpet leading into massive door in kiln
Hugo emerged from one of the tiniest doors
Furnace golems
Chess floor (ivory and iron)
Throne crafted out of ivory skeleton of an elephant the size of a dragon
Multiple sets of tusks for arm rests
Huge amethyst jewels in trunk hole and eye holes
Ivory makes the rest of the throne
Hot plates
In front of throne is a square basin (Adamantine) of molten iron with tiny structures floating in the iron. Tiny Behemoth on road and one pristine bastion.
Termagant, the Iron Sultan(a)
- Larger than ogre
- Roaring
- Ironskinned
- Bearded
- Purple robe
- Jewelled turban
- Switching male/female/other
- “KATIIIB!” Voice that sounds like the roaring of a hot flame
Hugo: “Your power is great, your adamant majesty. It is the apocalypse power that is tearing it down. While your iron legions work to bolster and rebuild this realm, an alliance of deities can form another front against the apocalyptic threat.”
Termagant: “You speak well, Katib and your concubine is an asset. If you are victorious, I may benefit from an alliance. If you are not, I may be harmed. Is this a deal you would take, child of tradesmen?” (Deliberate ambiguity whether Termagant is asking/addressing to Lindie or Hugo.)
Promise to support all Kronk’s attempts to get an heir
Iron Chess
Version of chess adapted by orcs from elves although mortal version doesn’t require making own pieces. Played by mortal orcs.2 phases: Crafting and Playing
Crafting Phase
- - Various pieces you can craft:
- King - 1.
- Iron golems (big ones) - 2.
- Mermadons (nimbler golem creatures) - 2.
- Furnace golems (raw materials) - 3.
- Juggernaut (steamroller) - 4.
- Tankards of shots (must drink first)
- Can also melt down own money coins (30 gp per tankard)
- Succeed strength check (coins are easier)
- Craft check to put thing together: different DCs for craft checks
- Can willingly take a point of constitution damage to add D6
- Failing creates scrap
- Scrap can be used to make a junk golem
- Can only place 1 piece per turn
- Can only be placed on a space in your own back row or adjacent to the current position of your king
- Can move all pieces on turn
- Can place a scrap golem once per turn as a bonus thing
- Each of the Behemoths is controlled only when the relevant king is in the Behemoth’s tower wearing the crown.
- Opponent’s crown starts in your Behemoth tower and vice versa.
- Aim of game to get your Behemoth into their end field tower.
The Reforged
- Petitioners of Termagant’s realm (intermediary stage before Dahzagan)
- Go to the intermediate realm: Ironwood Grove.
- Tempered, quenched in its luxuries.
- Souls harden to be reforged again.
- Siyasa is Iron in Orcish
- Hadid is Law in Orcish
- Termagant’s god soul
- Crown stone of Iron Sultan(a)’s Turban
- Most flawless and indestructible stone under any star
- Strong Abjuration Aura
- Correctly worn could bestow invulnerability (DR 2 and Fire Resistance 2)
Kronk: “I am old and I am fearful.”
Geas – Divine Quest
“An elephant at large is surpassed in danger only by an elephant cornered.” – Orcish proverb
“Real elephants are somewhat bigger and less lavender.” – Cassie is talking about Mû-Mû
+7 hours Carnegie book
Basil Gem Recording
Guinevera: Good news, darling, I believe I’ve found her.[soft tap and scrape of somebody dropping a pen and shifting their seat back a little]
Richard: You believe?
Guinevera: Yes, oddly enough, she seems to be no longer out in the open, which explains our previous difficulties. Here give me a second.
[brief arcane muttering. Bzzzt. Weird palpable silence for the rest of the recording]
Silent Table type spell rather than targeted at Basil specifically.