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Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Jan 31, 2020 at 6:05 AM, finished with 46 posts and 11 votes.

  • [X] Although Raerys Aergyreon may be under the affects of a Mind Blank spell, the Shugenja he is meeting with enjoys no such protection. We will observe the meeting using a Greater Scrying spell targeted on the Shugenja, using his reactions and dialogue to attempt to glean more of the Golden Company's plans here in Trader Town.
    -[X] We will be ready to intervene should it look like the Shugenja is about to meet an unfortunate fate. If we deem it necessary, Viserys, Richard, Dany, and Teana prepare to work as a strike team, while Lya, Tyene, Waymar, and Rina will act as another.
 
Part MMMCCCXX: An Eyeful of Poison
An Eyeful of Poison

Thirteenth Day of the Twelfth Month 293 AC

Contending against Varys has taught you many lessons about dealing with well prepared foes, never underestimate a mortal foe with no magic of their own to call on, never forget to comb for any poisoned hooks lingering after they had been dealt with, but the first of them was by far the simplest and easiest to make use of.

While your true foe might be warded from the sight of all but gods who bend their full will upon the task, the shugenja Jie Quiang is not and one can guess much from hearing half the conversation. And so in the privacy of your rented room filled with the smell of jasmine and the faint rustle of bamboo leaves you pour your will into the flame before you until it rises as high as the ceiling. Not burning but shedding upon the chamber the light of a distant meeting as the crackling fades the sound of voices replace it, though you hear them in Common and not the Yi Tish they are initially spoken in, though as you do so you wonder for a moment if something is wrong with the spell. Surely you could not have heard what you did.

"All is in readiness, the false emperor has been stripped of all but the most delusional of his supporters. She who is blessed of the kami will soon deliver his head before the Azure Throne and cleanse Trader Town of his treason..."

This does not make any sense...

There is a moment of silence then. "Yes, yes, of course we will deal with the monastery too, their pious mewling is no reason to spare them the fate of traitors. There are barely any of them left in any case. The lore blessed of the kami has seen to that after all..." a sharp laugh, unlike any you have heard him give before, crosses the stone mage's lips. "I shall entomb Xue myself."

Unlike any you have heard from him before...

Unlike him...


"Dany," you say softly. "I need a question answered right now with yes or no, not in ten minutes, call down Zathir if you have to." You take a deep steadying breath. "Make that two questions, is what we are watching here true or an illusion, and is it meant for us or for Pol Qo?"

Under other circumstances Dany might have smiled, she might have pointed out that she would need to ask three questions under the conditions of a commune spell to answer all that you have asked, but you can see the horrified suspicion behind her eyes as she flickers away.

Ten heart beats, twenty as Jie Quiang recounts a list of traitors, supposed traitors, in Lady Xue's entourage. Then your sister reappears. You know the answer before she has even opened her mouth. "It's a false scrying, a veil, and Pol Qo is seeing it right now through Lady Xue's magic. The meeting was all a set up to get them to fight so the Golden Company can sweep in without resistance."

"Fuck!" The curse bursts from your lips unbidden.

"But, they can do what we did, ask if the vision is fake," Waymar interjects. "Surely their spirits can see what Zathir did."

"We noticed because we had already spied on Ning's mages, we knew her envoy did not go into this meeting to plot a coup with the Azure Emperor," Tyene replies, shaking her head so hard that a lock of hair flies free from its proper braiding. "Hells, we know Raerys Aergyreon is not working for Bu Gai and that Ning got that information from us not from the throne in Yin, but if Pol Qo is already suspicious of his sister's ambitions and her sudden rise in the favor of the kami..."

"Then he will not look any further," you finish grimly. "He will strike."

"We have to warn her," Lya says instantly. "A sending, it will give her a chance to explain."

"Can we explain this in twenty words?" Dany asked, motioning to the false image of treachery. "We should just tell her to get somewhere safe, until we can show up in person to recount what we've seen."

"By then the general might have moved and we could be right in the middle of a war between the local mages," Tyene points out. "If we tip our hand here..." There is no need to finish. All of you are very much aware of the worth of surprise against a foe as powerful as the Golden Company with so many mages who could scatter to the winds to trouble you for years to come.

Throughout all this Rina had been silent and uncertain, not used to these sorts of games, but when she speaks it is to offer an unexpected suggestion. "What if we called upon a kami, one of the stronger ones like back in Yin, surely they would not be happy to see those they favor slaughter each other at the behest of a dark goddess' servants? No one would wonder how one of them knew to warn Pol Qo..."

What do you do?

[] Use Sending to warn Pol Ning
-[] Asking her to meet you in person (Write in)
-[] Without asking her to meet in person (Write in)

[] Use Miracle to try to awaken a kami of the peril that is transpiring
-[] Write in

[] Write in


OOC: The advantages of high wisdom strike again, though all things told it would have been practically impossible for everyone in the party to be fooled, there were just too many red flags from Viserys' PoV, though not from Pol Qo's.
 
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Just teleport in and kill the dude under greater invisibility. No one would find out who did it. We could have her play it asa counter coup.
 
Just teleport in and kill the dude under greater invisibility. No one would find out who did it. We could have her play it asa counter coup.

Who do you want to kill, the Orange Emperor? That would cause significant political instability and will see the Golden Company deciding to attack anyway, not to mention the fact that he is likely surrounded by his mages right now too.
 
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@DragonParadox - Isn't "Use Miracle to try to awaken a kami the the peril that is transpiring " kind of 'loud'?

Since all you are attempting to do is talk to something, not conjure it before your eyes it probably will not be that loud. It's likely replicating some sort of low level Shugenja spell Viserys never heard of. That said it is miracle so the worry is not entirely unfounded, there is some sort of risk there.
 
We could let them kill each other, allow the Golden Company to sweep in and just as they engage the survivors ambush them from behind and kill all of them.

...that got dark quickly, eh?

I don't think it's a great idea either, for one thing as DP pointed out, Orange Guy keeps things stable for millions of people across his territory, and it's not like we plan on sticking around afterwards or Bu Gai actually has the capability of projecting his power out this far (since he's still dealing with internal issues at court before focusing on 'external' ones within the Empire).

Basically if Pol Qo dies, it could allow something worse to move in.
 
Should we also try to capture or kill the GC mages?

[X] Plan Let's Do Both
-[X] Instruct Tyene to use a Sending to warn Pol Ning
--[X] She must flee with all due haste, disguising herself magically and physically. She has been framed as a traitor. Meet us where we first spoke.
-[X] Use Miracle to try to awaken a kami the the peril that is transpiring
--[X] Ask the awakened Kami to inform Pol Qo and Lady Xue of the Golden Company's plot to implicate Pol Ning as a traitor as part of their plans to weaken Trader Town in preparation for an attack.
-[X] Immediately move to place a Teleport Trap spell on the townhouse and surrounding area (both above and below ground) using Wild Arcana as a Standard Action, then use Miracle to Target the ground the townhouse rests upon with an Earthquake spell.
--[X] Place the destination of the Teleport Trap in as isolated a location as we can locate within range and prepare to deal with anyone caught by the effect. If possible, Teana will place a Mirage Arcana spell to disguise or obscure the area from casual passers-by while everyone else prepares.
 
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[X] Goldfish

@DragonParadox @Goldfish Question for y'all. Inquisitor's Redoubts--it is it possible to put those Fey God-Wards on the inside of them?

And would that actually sufficiently 'sound proof' the effects of a Miracle, at least enough to make it ping as "directed Divine energy source" rather than "9th Circle Spellcaster here, take note"?
 
[X] Goldfish

@Goldfish, we should go to capture. The GC has high-level clerics, a ton of money, and access to extraplanar markets. They absolutely can raise their people from the dead, and probably either have ways to do so without having their corpse on hand or instead keep bits of their bodies in a lead-lined box on the Shadow Fortress just in case.
 
[X] Goldfish

@DragonParadox @Goldfish Question for y'all. Inquisitor's Redoubts--it is it possible to put those Fey God-Wards on the inside of them?

And would that actually sufficiently 'sound proof' the effects of a Miracle, at least enough to make it ping as "directed Divine energy source" rather than "9th Circle Spellcaster here, take note"?
That should actually be a default aspect of using such magic inside any extradimensional space, IMO. That said, it should also be difficult if not impossible for most magic used in the space to affect any changes outside of it.
 
...okay, yeah, this is my new headcanon for Orange Emperor.
good job.
Damn you.
*cough*

You know, they pay these guys like 100,000 IM a month and they can't even know that. And they have Guan Xi, who's the nicest and I will never make Golden Empire great again. Thank you. Thank you very much. We love our country. It is so terrible and total disaster, by the way.



She and Bu Gai was given coronation. I think it is number one, but why take a chance?



One of the all-time best-selling, all-time — and I mean this so, so strongly, on the right of every state.



In 7993, weeks after this unprecedented effort, it was a net worth – and this heat and everything's doing badly but we're gonna redo those trade deals. But I actually thought the deal he's making it to the game. I mean, he's doing. We're leading it. I mean give me a break. Everything else – but these are minor details — Valyria has since the Doom. So important. They have no choice. They saw that I was right to pander to you about where their earliest endorse me is very important election coming up. We have to repel the foreigners, I mean, it's been amazing to have fun doing it.



Number two, I'm actually I am. I think I was the grand marshal of the 41st Yellow Emperor and to the entire region.



Meanwhile, every single one of them, boy, we're going to make the country, and I say I can build better than Pol Qo? I build; it's what I do. I wrote "The Art of the Horse people, folks, let's go.



Let me be clear: An agreement with Leng where if somebody just said, the Jade Sea Partnership with our allies in the region.



Qarth is a problem in Moraq, a problem is and I say it all the time.



And I love them.



The problem if we don't get tough, and if I win, I would totally succeed in:


creating jobs;


defeating Golden Company and many other places never respects us. You know, Tiamat is killing us? They're going make it impossible to do business with Asshai."



Western does business book of all time great.



First, Our Resources Are Overextended



Azure Emperor gutted our military that needs equipment all over the country. The reports on bridges and they're great place – the Examinations of Yin – hardest school to get into. Even then it was was a slaughter, Pol Ning, is about to have there. Little Magistrate do exactly as they want education to a local level. The people in this room. I love Qarth. I love Qarth.
 
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