[X] Sagacity - Knowledge fundamental, academic and esoteric. Know more about more.
Incredibly broad. Also kind of sucked in Disco Elysium, but I'm choosing to ignore that.
[X] Integrity - Will, volition and empathy. Know your feelings and the feelings of others.
Volition - best skill in Disco, hands down.
[X] Talk to: Exaltation
You gotta find out what exalt you are somehow.
You are specialized in Awareness, Sagacity and Integrity. These abilities will have easier rolls and will make more non-roll observations in your dialogue.
PART 1: THE PROUD DO NOT ENDURE
The grey light of the waking world returns to your eyes, by degrees. It's moving. You're moving?
At first you have the curious sensation of walking without having control of your legs, but then you catch the smell of horse sweat and feel the padded saddle against your thighs, and know you are riding.
The blurred world resolves into focus. Ahead you see a damp dirt road, flanked on either side by salt-pale grasses. Beyond, you see cultivated fields, rows of broad leaves poking out of the dark soil.
???: "Steady, boss."
You turn suddenly to face the source of the voice and almost fall out of the saddle. You would have, if someone hadn't taken the precaution of tying a rope around your waist and securing it to the saddle's high-backed cantle.
What's a cantle, how do you know that?
SAGACITY: My dear, sometimes we just know things.
The Realm officer you saw earlier looks up at you. She's young, maybe early twenties, or even younger. Her round face is framed by bushy blonde hair, and darkened by the ruddy tan of someone pale working long weeks under a tropical sun. She looks quizzically at you, as though waiting for you to ask an obvious question.
[ ] You called me boss. Am I your boss?
[ ] Who are you?
[ ] Who am I?
[ ] How's it going?
[ ] Is this my horse?
[ ] Do you know what a cantle is?
FINCHER: "Fincher, third talon." she shrugs. "Acting dragon, for all I know."
WAR: EASY
CHECK SUCCESS
WAR: Talonlords are legion lieutenants in charge of five scales of 25. Looks like she lost half her charges. If she's acting dragonlord, this would be all that's left of a larger field force of 500. She's not sure, which means she hasn't ruled out the possiblity of other officers surviving.
Anything else?
WAR: No mortal talon is that young. She has to be Exalted.
AWARENESS: Look at her again. The aspect markings aren't immediatly obvious, but her eyes are an unusually vibrant apple green, and her hair does have a curiously wheat-like quality to it.
FINCHER: "Yeah, I know, hell of a thing for a fresh recruit. Lucky me, right?"
SAGACITY: Fincher is a peasant name, a job description of someone who literally catches finches and sells them to rich people as songbirds. She's almost certainly a recruit from Pasiap's Stair, a peasant outcaste pressed into legion service on pain of treason. The curriculum is ten years, which puts at her mid twenties as a fresh recruit.
INTEGRITY: She doesn't seem very enthusiastic about it.
WAR: If you are her superior, or if you are in the navy, she should be addressing you by rank. If you aren't, why is she calling you "boss"?
[ ] What's the problem?
[ ] Sorry for your loss.
[ ] Am I in the legion?
[ ] You should know that I can't remember who I am.
[ ] Brief me on the situation.
FINCHER: "I dunno, boss, it's hard to say what hit us. It was a bad storm, but something smashed up those galleys like nothing. Maybe the Raigis have sorcerers and called sea monsters on us?"
"Start at the beginning." You try to sound official. "Give me the full rundown on the legion mission here, and where it stands."
FINCHER: "Oh, right, right." she clears her throat. "Well, er, the imperial satrapy of Ashglass, on the isle of Hojahn, is under siege by Raigi rebel forces. Apparently the garrison commander and his deputy and the satrap are dead, somehow. We were called in to relieve the garrison and restore order."
She scratches the side of her nose as she talks.
FINCHER: "Which probably means fucking everything up and leaving the whole island in flames. That's usually how it goes when things are far enough out of hand that you need to call in the legion. Or so I hear."
"And now?"
FINCHER: "Now? We're two scales and one more of auxilliaries and wounded. We might hold a village if we got resupply. Ashglass is a city of twenty thousand, last I heard."
"Exalted?"
FINCHER: "Just us, and whoever is left in the garrison. I hear there's a local cadet house. Maybe a monk or two, for whatever that's worth."
You are Dragon-Blooded then. Someone brought up in the Realm heartlands would hesitate to acknowledge anything else as Exalted. It feels right.
"How far is Ashglass?"
"Close. We crashed on the northern promontory, blown off course. We were supposed to encamp on the saltplains and march northeast on the main road, but we've actually ended up closer. We'll be there by dark."
"Lucky us."
She chuckles humourlessly.
[ ] What do you know about my part in this mission?
[ ] Do you know who I am?
[ ] What's a promontory?
[ ] Why were you surprised to see me earlier?
[ ] Were those Raigis I killed earlier?
FINCHER: "When you popped up over the dune to croak about an attack coming, you mean?"
"Yeah, then."
FINCHER: "Dunno boss, I didn't think anyone from any of the other boats survived. Uh, ships, I mean."
"Oh, we were on different ships?"
FINCHER: "Yeah, I'm not surprised you don't remember me. I was only on the flagship a couple of times for full officer's mess, and by the time that happened you were... you know..."
She looks at you expectantly. You don't actually know, but she is going to expect you to know anyway.
[ ] In the brig?
[ ] Intoxicated?
[ ] Out swimming?
[ ] Refusing to come down from the masthead?
[ ] Admit you don't know what she's talking about.
[ ] Say you don't want to talk about it.
[ ] Quickly change the subject.
FINCHER: "Oh, wow. You were really out of it, huh?" she looks impressed. "You, uh..." she clears her throat. "Well, you were in the brig."
"Why was I in the brig?"
Her face flushes, she looks away.
INTEGRITY: She really does not want to be the one to have to tell you this.
FINCHER: "Uh, well, according to the captain you got into a bit of an argument. The navy captain, I mean."
"What kind of argument?"
FINCHER: "Apparently you got a bit drunk."
Her intonation conveys a depth of understatement.
FINCHER: "And you were kind of... lying around on the deck."
"Oh, okay."
FINCHER: "And one of the navy officers asked if you knew your way around a ship."
"Hm, yes."
FINCHER: "And... and this is them telling it, not me, apparently you started shouting that you know your way around a boat."
"I see."
FINCHER: "You just, again, according to them, I wasn't there... assaulted the captain and started screaming at him about how it's a boat and nobody cares about the difference between a boat and a ship."
"That does sound like something I would do."
FINCHER: "So... yeah, you were in the brig for most of the trip. You're lucky they didn't throw you overboard."
"Well, I seem to be feeling better now."
FINCHER: "Uh... yeah, I guess so."
INTEGRITY: AVERAGE
CHECK FAILURE
INTEGRITY: She seems sincere. She's convinced by your mental fortitude. Ask her what she thinks about the boat/ship controversy.
[ ] Did anyone happen to mention what my name was?
[ ] Why am I here, again?
[ ] That captain sounds like a real jerk.
[ ] I trust I have legitimate business being that drunk?
[ ] Tell me your opinions on the boat/ship controversy.
[ ] What the fuck is a promontory, though?
Torn between name and why we're here. The ship/boat controversy seems really irrelevant. (Anything that can confidently cross an ocean is a ship. Anything that can't is a boat. Unless it's a submarine, in which case it's always a boat for some reason lost to the mists of time.)
A Dragonblooded getting drunk and behaving badly is basically standard Dragonblooded behavior, too, so that's not very interesting. 'Hedonistic brat' is a pretty common Dragonblooded personality type.
[X] Did anyone happen to mention what my name was?
[X] Why am I here, again?
It sounds like the general thread plan is not to hide that we're seriously impaired. There are upsides and downsides; our underling will be less likely to follow our commands if our judgment is suspect, but on the other hand getting caught lying about that stuff could really hurt us.
It sounds like the general thread plan is not to hide that we're seriously impaired. There are upsides and downsides; our underling will be less likely to follow our commands if our judgment is suspect, but on the other hand getting caught lying about that stuff could really hurt us.
Mare Internum relies on players navigating dialogue trees. Unless they represent very consequential decisions, I will treat the first respondant to the thread as the chosen option without tallying votes.
"So, what do you think about the difference between boats and ships?"
She pales noticeably.
FINCHER: "I got no opinion on that, boss."
"Really? Because earlier you said it was a boat and corrected yourself to ship, so I think you might have an opinion about it."
FINCHER: "Look, I don't really know anything about boats or ships."
"How long were you on board this boat before it sank?"
FINCHER: "Uh, about, uh… five months, and three on another one."
"Hmmm." you study her expression closely for any sign of duplicity. Sweat beads on her forehead.
FINCHER: "Look, uh… maybe we should… talk about something else."
[ ] No, I want to talk about boats some more.
[ ] Do you have an idea who I am?
[ ] Why am I here?
[ ] Why do you keep calling me boss? Am I some kind of criminal mastermind?
You have to have some inconsequential questions, it's character building!
I agree that good communication is always in order, though.
[X] Do you have an idea who I am?
[X] Why am I here?
There have been two, the choice to alert the legion and the ability vote.
I decided to go with first-come-first-serve for dialogue because it makes things fast to suit my posting style and guarentees the occasional oddball choice for a more authentically Disco Elysium feel.
FINCHER: "Sorry boss, we can keep talking about whatever you want."
"No, I mean literally, do you know who I am?"
FINCHER: "Uh." she looks confused. "No boss, sorry. I just heard you're a dignitary we're escorting with your own important mission."
"Ah, I see."
A long pause grows between you. The horse snorts.
FINCHER: "So... who are you?"
[ ] I don't know, that's why I asked you.
[ ] It's good that you don't know, I'm trying to keep a low profile.
[ ] Try to fabricate a plausible identity.
[ ] Hear me out, is it possible that I am the Empress incognito?
"I really have no idea who I am, or what I'm doing here. My life is a vague blur. I just woke up on the beach and started murdering foreigners on instinct."
She's staring at you.
INTEGRITY: She's still not sure if you're being sarcastic.
"I am being absolutely serious. Is there anything you can tell me that might help me remember?"
FINCHER: "Mela's blessed tits, how much did you drink?"
SAGACITY: DIFFICULT
CHECK SUCCEEDED
SAGACITY: No amount of alcohol can cause this kind of total retrograde blackout, especially not in an Exalt. Some narcotics can cause memory loss, but the scale of this is unprecedented.
Then what caused it?
SAGACITY: Unknown. Massive and irreversable brain trauma or magical interference are the most likely culprits.
"I think I might have been cursed by a witch."
She holds a balled fist over her chest, a superstitious warding gesture.
FINCHER: "A witch!? What are you doing messing with witches?"
"I don't know. I think I remember someone with grey eyes, being judgemental."
She gives you a sidelong, calculating look.
FINCHER: "Do you remember a woman with a yellow eye?"
"A yellow eye? Why would-"
It strikes you at once, the memory. A single, vividly burning eye, glaring out of the gloom like a candleflame. It hates you, and wishes your death. You know it can do it if you give it one more reason.
"Yes. That rings a bell."
She nods.
FINCHER: "Dragonlord Mei. She knows you- knew you, I think. You, uh... I don't think you were on good terms. They had to transfer her to a different ship to keep you seperated. I wasn't going to mention it, you know, but... well, you can't remember anything, maybe it will help."
"You don't seem very surprised that I can't remember anything."
FINCHER: "No offense, boss, but I feel like I should expect the unexpected from you."
You shrug. It's good advice, honestly.
FINCHER: "So if you don't actually know your name, what should we call you? Not sure boss is going to cut it when we have to introduce you to the Dynasts."
[ ] Boss seems to be working pretty well.
[ ] Assume a cool-sounding pseudonym.
[ ] Think of something bland and unassuming.
