Fate Accomplice

 

Phase 0) What has gone before

I.                 Black Branches vs. enshrined Confederacy

a.      Ahn-Aru (as a concerned Haltan guard named Tocho) tells Voice of Many that an alarming number of burnouts are showing up on the border of Enshrined confederacy. He is afraid to tell his superiors because he’s heard rumors that the Fair Folk have deep claws in the police and Haltan military, but Black Branches has always been a staunch ally.

b.     Voice of Many sends Night’s Silent Mask to investigate.

c.      Night’s Silent Mask, led by Ahn-Aru / Tocho, traverses the border of the Enshrined Confederacy and finds several Enchanted left to wander in the eastern wilderness.

d.     Night’s Silent Mask informs Voice of Many.

 

PC Interactions:

·       Ming may hear that a silver-tattooed man and a Haltan guard have been spotted patrolling the area. Charisma + Investigation (3) to represent be well-like enough to have the information come to him naturally or Intelligence + Bureaucracy (3) to represent a strong chain of command which forces the information to the proper channel.

·       Tse and Ming may notice Night’s Silent Mask leave Voice of Many’s tree home and head towards the Enshrined Confederacy, in human form but with tattoos unhidden. The man is in a Haltan guard uniform. Perception + Investigation (2).

II.               Yseult vs. Sluluru

a.      Crimson Banner Executioner trades Yseult plans for a First Age anti-Fair Folk weapon in exchange for Enchanted slaves (used in the prior phase).

b.     Yseult modifies the weapon to make it kill anything, and sends it towards Halta for detonation.

c.      Yseult prepares to attack Sluluru once the weapon is set off.


PC Interactions:

·       Kismet’s travels brought him through the North, where hobgoblin activity seemed pretty strong. At one point he skirted around a large camp where many cataphractoi and hobgoblins surround a grey canvas tent atop a giant elephant. Tracks, as of something large being dragged, lead Southward from there but disappear completely after about a mile. Intelligence + Survival (3) can tell that they were headed towards Chanta. He gets +1-3 dice if he has Resources 1-3 (and therefore a map and compass).

·       A hawk man messenger arrives in Black Branches to tell Brug that Yseult is on the move. A relatively small force was seen heading south towards the Haltan border. Charisma or Manipulation + Investigation  (3) reminds the hawk man that one of the wagons was riding very deep in the ground. The roll gets a bonus or penalty of (Appearance – 1) dice. Intelligence + Lore (2) reminds Brug that Yseult is known for ingenuity with large scale weaponry.

III.             The Opal Court Invasion Looms

a.      The loss of Nhogg propels Whisperer’s replacement Ring Grace to the lead, and converts Jubal the Hunter to a more militaristic view. Sharia, Shadow of Vengeance, intends to force Creation to merge with the Wyld.

b.     Whisperer in the Leaves approaches the Opal Court regarding an alliance.

c.      The Opal court accepts, hoping to revenge the indignity visited upon them  by Ming’s shaping abilities and warfare skills.

d.     Whisperer in the Leaves begins churning out high quality, highly focused Fae-blooded, organized into units led by people of George.

e.      These are loaned to the Opal Court for use against the Enshrined confederacy.


PC Interactions:

·       Japthia’s rivals in the court may bring Ming news that the Fae are mounting a new offensive designed to teach the Confederacy a lesson in Blood. Appearance + Martial Arts (2) gets information that an attack is being prepared. 3 successes learns that there is a new player involved: an unshaped who has reason to dislike the Lunars. 4 Successes learns that the Unshaped has an ally inside the Confederacy.

 

IV.            Preparations for Investigations

a.      Ahn-Aru, as an ex-Haltan diplomat named Aquene Langundo, joins the Enshrined Confederacy’s Commission on Foreign Affairs.

Ahn-Aru uses Paralyzed Mandarin Infliction to send the Enshrined Confederacy’s bureaucracy into a frenzy, making it look like she is working overtime, but truly accomplishing nothing.

PC Interactions:

·       Ming can roll Intelligence + Bureaucracy (3) to notice that the frenetic activity of his kingdom masks complete inactivity. It requires some form of essence sight to see that it is magically induced.

 

Phase 1) Investigation

  1. Voice of Many visits Brug and Tse separately, to feel each of them out. He explains the situation regarding the burnouts, and his fears that Tse is under the control of the Fair Folk. There as witness is Ahn-Aru as Tocho. The question of the day is, “where will they stand if words turn to war?”

    Ahn-Aru will be reading motivation to determine who is lying, and what their general emotional state is regarding the issue. Her pool is 8 dice and the difficulty is ½ the target’s Manipulation + Socialize, rounded up. If she is unable to tell, she will err on the side of caution and assume they are lying.
  2. Ming and whichever PC has not shown sincere committal to the cause of stopping the Enshrined Confederacy are attacked by three lesser regional gods of war each, while the Sidereals watch and evaluate their talents.
    • Ming


    • Lily & Kro-tan, with Kismet interjecting


    • Tse


    • Ming


  3. If Kismet did not help Kro-Tan Aura and Lily, he will be approached by Shepherd of the North Star, told of the danger to the Loom in this region, and asked to help. Training at a Gold Faction training camp will be offered if he seems unhappy. Shepherd’s pool to detect emotion and falsehood is 9 dice.

 

Phase 2) Removal of the support structure

  1. Supplies: Hierarch Artemesia Sapphire removes her support from the Enshrined Confederacy, and urged the Guild not to deal with them. Regaining her support or that of a fellow guildsman is a social combat. Dvora is in Chanta and has a negative intimacy against helping the PCs. This grants her +1 MDV against anything that would help them. Their external supplier (learned via Investigation (3) or Bureaucracy (2)),  is Hierarch Blossoms on  the Night Breeze, a small god living in Greyfalls. Its motivation towards fostering Spring can be learned with an Intelligence + Lore (3) roll, and grants a -2 MDV penalty if exploited.

    Supply silos (i.e. hollowed trees filled with salted and dried goods) are attacked. One the first night, two the next, and two each night after until all 10 are destroyed. A patrol of PCs may catch the attackers in the act. They are four Flame Ducks led by an Ifrit. NPC patrols will be found burned to death at the site of the next destroyed silo. If half of the silos are destroyed, the Confederacy’s troops will need to be wary of fatigue in any battles they engage in. If all of them are destroyed, they will need to be wary of fatigue, and will suffer a -1 penalty to fatigue checks for each battle they have been in prior to the current one.

  2. Troops: Two blood apes appear in a guard barracks. They are destroyed, but not before they kill several men, fair folk, and Lily’s Lads. The attack is repeated nightly. A captured blood ape can be forced to lead its captor to the site of its summoning, and will describe Shepherd of the North Star, a white-haired exalt with a dull yellow anima banner. Shepherd is gone, but a locked chest under the floorboards (Per + Inv (3)) contains enough gems and jewelry for a resources 5 purchase. Taking this will limit Shepherd’s resources later, as he will not wish to return to Yu-Shan until the task is complete.

    Each night of successful attacks kills

  3. Halta: Albeit not a part of the Sidereal plan, Yseult’s attack on Halta would completely destroy their ability to be called on for assistant in the future. A squad of cataphractoi led by Jareth the Mirror. They are posing as a merchant with a large lockbox and 4 staunch guards. The cataphractoi wear armor and helmets to cover their fey features (Perception + Awareness (4) to see through), while Jareth is wrapped in the guise of the merchant he slew for the cover identity (Perception + Awareness (6) to see through, with a -3 penalty if their Temperance + Essence is less than 7).

    When found, Jareth has just activated the modified Soulbreaker Orb and set the time for one hour. His wagon is empty, but the deep tracks it left can tell that it was heavily laden when it arrive (Perception + Survival (2)). The orb is hidden, and can be found with a Wits + Investigation (4) roll. The tracks of the cataphractoi who hid it were also hidden, but can be found and followed with Perception + Survival (3). Each attempt to search requires 5 minutes.

    The orb appears to be a normal orb (WotLA p. 137, except that many of its pieces appear to be missing and have been replaced with gossamer. These are the bits that would cause it to only affect creatures of the wyld. The gossamer replacements were put there by Yseult to allow it to destroy a large chunk of Chanta, the Haltan capital (including the Enshrined Confederacy’s embassy).

    The orb can be disarmed as normal for Soulbreaker Orbs. In addition, its partially gossamer nature allows it to be partially disarmed by anything that can destroy gossamer. Should all of the gossamer be removed somehow, the orb will only affect all creatures of the wyld within its radius, and destroy any creations of the wyld (including those made permanent when crafted via Ring charms). This will destroy most of the CE embassy, but save thousands of human and ata-beast lives.

 

Phase 3) Decapitate the remains

- Depends on who sided with who, the following assumes PCs stick together.

  1. Voice of Many will challenge Ming to a duel of honor, demanding that he banish his wife and the fair folk from his kingdom if they win. Should it be refused or lost and dishonored, Black Branches will attack en masse.
  2. The Sidereals attack, with Crimson Banner Executioner leading a force of ___.  Shepherd and Ahn-Aru act as hero or sorcerer, as fits best. Once the unit has lost ___ magnitude, Crimson Banner Executioner will call upon his two Sidereal allies to activate Spirit-Binding Battle Pattern, summoning Sunipa, eastern god of war constrained by law. If there are any humans fighting on either side, Sunipa will call for a group duel to end the hostilities, otherwise she will take the lead of Crimson Banner Executioner’s unit and challenge the leader of the largest opposition unit to a duel.
  3. The Opal Court
  4. Lily