This session picks up after the long burst of productive downtime in which Inks learned All the Spells, trained War with Piercing Sun, and put her one step closer on the path to reclaiming El Galabi. Having arranged a meeting (against their will) with House Iblan via Speed the Wheels, we take the time to try and get the measure of Iblan Bana and the House in General.
To start, I use the so fun charm Evidience Discerning method, whch I now think needs to be rewritten, because I have not ever seen a Charm be misunderstood by storytellers so much as this one. Everybody forgets that the Charm itself does not generate information- it only rolls to determine how effective the penalty negation is.
So when Aleph gave me the 'results' of the roll, I chose not to tell her mid-session mostly to keep things moving. But this is a consistent issue with the Charm that people want it to DO more than negate penalties- it's strength being that it persists as long as the profile is up to date and the motes are committed.
Having said that, the info itself was good, and we moved onward to prepare for the meeting itself. This was one time I deliberately leaned away from Inks being a sexy personality in favor of a professional one, to the point that I at some point ought develop an 'All Business' Presence Style for such occassions.
Fortunately or unfortunately, I did not roll Presence once this Session.
The leadup to the Iblan chambers was great, really digging into the grandeur of Creation and it's old-world richness. The spectacle is imo very important, and really helps set the tone for the game and this scene in particular. The downside, such as it is, that big blocks of exposition like this make meaningful details hard to pick out- if any such exist. This is a challenge all text-based STs face, so Aleph handled it fine.
The conversation speaks for itself I feel, as far as the postmortem goes. Inks was honest, forthright and sincere in here desires to avoid making enemies unless necessary- but off camera, her Celestial Circle Sacrifice was very much her unwillingness to make enemies at all costs; that is to say, she now understands that she is a Political Actor with an Agenda, and that she cannot please Everyone.
If there was a small critique of the session, it was that Iblan Omar was mentioned Once, and did not speak up again the entire session. Obviously I could have invoked him if I remembered, but I was laser-focused on Bana, and later Jade as she started warming up to her anti-Inksian topics. I do want to point out and appreciate how cool it was that Jade ranted about having deafened guards sworn to defend them. Cool detail.
Of interesting note was how well informed Bana was of Hinna's secret court-sorcerer status- as the discussion went on, it became increasingly clear that Inks was not going to foster belief in her claims no matter how sincere she was.
You'll note Aleph asked me at least twice OOC what Inks's plans were for House Iblan, and this leads up to the shocking swerve conclusion at the end. For you see, the busts of the hall, this Ancestor Hall as Bana states, is in fact a magical place that detects motives. THat's all fine on the face of it, but this kind of OOC solicitation is... a very fine line to walk.
Like, asking for Inks's Manip+Soc would have at least signaled to me that I had reason to buff it if necessary- but by the same token, aleph took it as given that Inks's openness and forthrightness was also going to play against her here.
The concept I'm trying to get across is that there is a careful evaluation one needs to make, when giving enough rope fo ra player to hang themselves. If it's not signposted enough, it comes off as punishing and disempowering. If it's signposted too much, it feels contrived or kid-gloves.
I enjoyed the swerve, as it happened, the sudden upset was exciting and got my heart beating as things went on. At the same time, my cooler more rational analysis definitely registered that if handled badly, attempting similar twists on other players could go catastrophically bad.
Part of what made the Ancestor Hall make sense, was that it was not a contrived, focused solution to Inks as a game actor- none of it was designed with defeating Inks in mind- it came off as a clearly emergent property or development of House Iblan that overlapped with Inks in a largely incidental way.
So I think... maybe it could have been nicer if there was better signposting for Inks deciding what to do and when/where. At the same time, too much would've stifled the surprise and likely soured the roleplaying experience.
And it was nice that Aleph was surprised too, so we end the discussion with a brutal cliffhanger- Inks, Vahti and Pipera, with a hidden Maji, all set on sides by Iblan guards. Having learned from the evaded mugging with Nabijah and her Deyha, Aleph and I will both better itemize our assets and the environment as part of the engagement.
I think what I'm looking forward to, and would encourage, is less a fight and more an Action Sequence. Not to say it ignores combat rolls, but my objective isn't to kill anyone- though that might be expedient in some ways. No, I/Inks wants to Get Out and Consolidate before taking the offensive.
Also as Aleph points out, this is a huge step forward in Inks's 'Take over Gem' dreams~
