Tempted to have an episode of Political Shenanigans with Ebuskun, buuut I have no idea how.
So for now.
[X] [Report] Just the facts.
[X] [Orders] Continue as planned.
[X] [Report] Just the facts.
[X] [Orders] Continue as planned.
I see no reason to deviate from our present course.
As to Ebuskun, not happy about it but not overly sad either. Much like the portlord himself she had Plans. Plans that have been delayed and disrupted beyond any reasonable hope of achieving during this decade. We weren't close to her and she doesn't seem to have been particularly good at her job.
As to why she in particular was removed? Bit of everything. There will have been a whole bunch of people pushing their personalised agenda during negotiations.
I cannot help but feel that an empty temple would either attract lightning bolts and be swiftly occupied by something we would rather didn't have a temple. Or any other foothold in the mortal realm.
A 'hero' temple… has potential. Although it would probably end up being a temple to whichever god is in charge of heroes.
[X] [Report] Just the facts.
[X] [Orders] Continue as planned.
Eh, shame about Ebuskun, she was the one who liked us most tied with Wisdom, but life will go on. Hopefully Rain Maximum (amazing name by the way) will be competent.
Honestly I just picture Rain Maximum as the oriental version of Arnold Schwarzenegger playing Conan. Just striding in all "To crush your political enemies, see them voted against before you, and to hear the lamentations of their Clan." It'll be glorious. Really though, Rain Maximum sounds like a wuxia-style 80s action hero. I can't wait to be disappointed when he's a shriveled old sage with a massive Learning who just recites what people did in the past and tries to implement those solutions.
There's no law against it, but you'd need to convince both Ebuskun and Jade to go along with it at the very least, and you should probably talk to the rest of your family about this wild idea too.
We should offer nothing really. That is Portlords job. We can offer something for something else tough. If she wants to star a merc company for example being a backer is an option. If she is returning to her tribe offering to trade is another. All depends on what she will do tough.
We should offer nothing really. That is Portlords job. We can offer something for something else tough. If she wants to star a merc company for example being a backer is an option. If she is returning to her tribe offering to trade is another. All depends on what she will do tough.
[*] [Report] Just the facts.
[*] [Orders] Continue as planned.
"Congratulations, Marble." the Portlord greets you when you walk into the council hall. "How is the weight of glory?"
"If anything, it's a relief." you respond. "I spent the last weeks before the election trying to flatter people I'd never met before. The coming weeks will no doubt involve far more celebrations with family and less uncertainty."
Void chuckles, then grows somber again. "Good for you. Take a seat. We have a lot to discuss today." The old man waves a jewelry-laden hand idly.
Three and Morning are already present, seated next to each other, sharing looks of anxious anticipation. Ebuskun is absent for obvious reasons, but you expect her report is among the many letters on the Portlord's desk. That leaves only the Chancellor, who enters a minute after you.
"Last time we assembled, Morning was reporting on the discovery of a second concentration of demons in the Bloody Hills." The Portlord looks towards his spymaster. "Since then you've been looking deeper into it and telling me you needed to consult with Three. Do the two of you have a clear picture yet?"
Shivering for a moment, the Spymaster looks at the Sage, and exchanges nods before taking a deep breath and launching into his explanation. "We do. We've been rolling up much the same case from two ends, solving another mystery in the process: Why did Heaven seemingly neglect us so?"
"Well?"
"The Abominations had a second fastness in the hills, and Heaven struck it twice." Morning gestures agitatedly. "The Abominations swiftly rebuilt after the first time, so elemental dragons were unleashed on the second. There's a mile of wasteland now, deep in the Bloody Hills, first tainted by the Abominations and then shredded by the assaults of the Legion of Heaven."
"That would have been nice to know earlier." Void says with a grumbling tone.
"I speculate that the Legion may have been embarrassed." says Three. "Generals do not normally explain themselves to bystanders, do they? And then having to come back and finish the job is a tacit admission of error." She proceeds to relate how how she worked to put together the pieces, what priests asked what gods who asked which other gods for accounts of the matter. Sifting rumors and sorting truth from falsehood heard third-hand from godlings and familiar spirits of the fractious, savage hill tribes.
Then Morning takes over with his inferences from the papers of the Abominations and a personal visit to the Bloody Hills. "It is not for mortals to fully understand the ways of monsters, but if I might approximate, Silverport was where they dwelled, and the other site was where they worked. Here they wanted subjects they could rule over, there they performed their most profane and destructive rites. It was at this second fastness, I believe, that they summoned the Demon Kings, Hesperian and Octavian."
[Learning: 4+18 = 22.]
"The Octavian?" asks Void, as you try and fail to remember where you've heard that name.
Three mutters a barely audible "Yes."
"The one who would have conquered his way to Silverport by now if running loose?"
"Yes."
"So he isn't running loose. Do we know why?"
"Banished in the Legion of Heaven's second strike, as far as I can tell." says Morning. He continues for a while describing a consultation with the Ministry of Transportation, a search for collaborators who might still have known something, and seeking other sources of information on what plans the Abominations had. You try to pay attention, but find yourself suddenly overcome with a flash of vivid memories.
-a warship at full sail, a six-armed demon bristling with weapons first off the gangplank as it docks,-
-a crowd bowing in perfect synchronization at a word of command, a toothy horror,-
-an atrocity in plain sight, don't look, don't speak, don't draw attention,-
-don't even think about it or I might be taken next-
How you wish you could forget.
Eventually Void gets tired and cuts Morning off. "Enough. You've shown your diligence, and I think I get the picture. To sum up: the Abominations did offenses against men here, offenses against gods elsewhere, and so the Legion of Heaven struck elsewhere and figured earthly legions could handle the remainder."
"I suppose." says Morning.
"I would hesitate to draw such conclusions about the motivations of the gods." says Three. "It could also be concern about collateral damage. One is ill advised to send an army to catch thieves, after all. How much more an army with dragons."
"A fair point. Still I wish the dragons had gone after Hesperian too. At least Ebuskun and the cultivators seem to have that situation in hand." The Portlord shuffles about some of the paperwork on his desk. "So what, exactly, remains in the Blood Hills?"
The Spymaster consults his notes. "Likely several hundred demons, stragglers of Octavian's army, better organized than the spiders, but also fighting among themselves in factions." He looks to Three for confirmation, and she nods agreeingly.
The Portlord grunts in approval. Having found the paper he was looking for, he begins reading from it. "Ebuskun says her campaign is going well - the spider demons are still numerous and still completely lacking in tactics, so she's slowly advancing together with the Caligians, and is on schedule to encircle and confront Hesperian by the end of the year." Void draws in a breath and sighs. "Shame about losing her. I wish Chrysanthemum could have arranged otherwise, but what's done is done. Marble, do you foresee any problems on your end? Logistics?"
"Most certainly not." you say. You know from your previous investigation that the palace guard is professional about such things. All you need to do is sign and stamp for their supplies every month, letting clerks handle the details. "We have enough reserves to last out the year, and I understand the spiders aren't going to sneak out and raid our supply lines."
"Good. Blade, what's the Caligian side of things like?"
"Terrible. Regent Godeye is running around trying to cement her tenuous rule in the short time remaining to her while also trying to fight a war, and her confederates are all jostling for position." You hear a tone of disgust in his voice. "She is sympathetically inclined to us because we're the only polity helping, but has little opportunity to return the favor in any concrete way. I repeat my previous assessment: Caligia will likely fall back into civil war after the spiders war. Moreover, the impression I get of them is that if we try to take advantage of that, the provinces will once more reunite behind another regent just long enough to repel us. In summary, the Confederation is currently a nightmarish nest of brambles. We should keep our distance until they settle their internal affairs."
"Which won't happen in my term, I take it?" says Void.
"I am not an astrologer. I cannot foretell the future." says Blade neutrally.
The sour look on Void's face suggests that while he may not be an astrologer either, he nonetheless has a definite prediction of the future of this matter in mind.
Following the rumors of war past and present, you provide a thoroughly mundane contrast when talking about your own activities. The city wall is well underway, there is still a great deal left to do, you have been making sure of quality of materials and the like. There is a distinct lack of bloodshed in the whole process, for which everyone can be grateful and pray for a continuance. Then comes the matter of the examinations, simply put: "So few applicants have been passing recently that I'm accepting a second crop of applicants with lower grades."
"Doesn't that defeat the point of having revised the exams in the first place?" asks Void.
"No, they're still better than outright cheaters. And I intend for this to be a temporary measure."
He shrugs. "You seem to have this in hand. Forgive me if my attention is elsewhere at the moment. Continue with the wall, handle the exams as you see fit."
It's nice to be trusted.
---
Voting time. You have SIX (6) actions over the next six months (one turn). One action may represent a month of solid work, or one day a week over the course of the turn - please don't poke the abstraction too hard. Overwork choices give you an extra action rather than consuming one, so you can go up to nine actions if you're an absolute workaholic. You may spend two actions on one choice to focus extra time and effort on it. Voting is by plan.
Do Your Job: You have promised regular personal oversight on the construction of the new city walls, making sure competent architects are hired, deliveries happen on time, payments are issued, stone quality is acceptable, and so forth.
-[] Pick between 0 and 6 actions to spend on this.
Maintain Your Triumphs: You've made great strides, but much of it might go even better if you spare time to see to its upkeep, or might decay if you do not.
-[] Go and help out at your experimental forge. It'll surely go better with both your vision and your new understanding to assist.
-[] There's ongoing staff turnover even when you're not actively recruiting and replacing. Apply some oversight.
-[] Useless expenditures, like weeds, will grow on the palace budget over time. Prune them.
The Palace Examinations: In the short term, you've responded by setting a lower bar for second-rate graduates. In the long term, you could hope that students and applicants will adjust to the higher difficulty, or you could be proactive.
-[] Write and distribute a study guide with advice for prospective examinees.
-[] Reach out to academies and tutors to encourage them to alter their curriculum appropriately.
-[] Tailor the exams to fit particular requirements more closely to individual departments and positions, rather than using the simple pass system.
Self-improvement: Can attempt to raise one of your attributes. Difficulty increases as the base attribute rises, decreases as you experience things to learn from. New skills are also listed here. Training defaults to Stewardship if you don't specify an attribute.
-[] Practice. Take some time away from what you're doing to look at how you're doing it and whether there's a better approach.
-[] Tutoring. Ask one of your fellow councillors for advice in their field of expertise.
-[] Paid Tutoring. Hire a professional teacher, like the ones your clan used to pay for when you were younger.
Miscellaneous:
-[] Abuse your office to sabotage some target of your choice.
-[] Abuse your office to shift your personal obligations onto the palace budget.
-[] Maybe you could follow up on that provisional census. (Write in approach)
-[] Take smithing commissions to earn some money on the side with your incredible skill.
-[] Accompany courageous traders on a long-distance expedition downriver, gaining valuable life experience and possibly also valuable money if the trip goes well. (Takes THREE actions, starts extended interlude.)
Social actions: One of these can be taken for free each turn in your spare time. Each additional selection from this section will still cost an action. You do not need to socialize with your own clan - that happens automatically unless you choose to skimp on family obligations.
-[] Get to know one of your fellow councillors. (choose which)
-[] Spy on one of your fellow councillors. (choose which)
-[] Socialize and build connections with one of the great clans of Silverport. (choose which)
-[] Spend time with someone else. (choose whom)
Special actions:
-[] Slow and Steady. Use an action to take your time to think and plan properly before you do anything else. Other planned actions this turn get a bonus die to their rolls. Cannot be used if overworking.
-[] Overwork: skimp on family obligations. You get an extra action this turn. May damage your social standing.
-[] Overwork: skimp on religious obligations. You get an extra action this turn. May damage your social standing.
-[] Overwork: skimp on food and sleep. You get an extra action this turn. May result in poor health.
Optional plan elements you can add:
-[] Start embezzling 10g/turn. (No risk of discovery)
-[] Start embezzling 25g/turn. (Tiny risk of discovery)
-[] Start embezzling larger amount of your choice. (Probably still very small risk of discovery, as you're the one in charge of audits.)
-[] Shut down the experimental starmetal forge.
None of these take an action.
QM notes:
-If you decide to go on the trading expedition abroad, there will be a vote after local actions on whether to invest 100g for a share or just tag along as a worker.
-You do not need to worry about offending the boss by going. It's socially acceptable, and you have competent subordinates to manage things while you're away.
Well. We've done the best possible on the mundane side of things, and it seems Clan politics will most likely bring about war unless Void does something about it.
A Learning roll, since Marble has to understand and explain things properly. Could also benefit from Stewardship, since distribution won't be a simple matter (how many copies of the guide will we print? how will we distribute it?).
Probably Learning roll. Easier than the other two, but results in candidates with more specialized knowledge. A hidden malus, and a step back to what was there originally.
If you had gotten higher, there would have been more narration explaining who Octavian is and why he matters. If you're really curious, you can ask some of the Exalted players that I know are hanging around here - Octavian is borrowed from their canon 2CD, in broad strokes. Hesperian is original.
[X] Plan: Focus
-[X] Pick between 0 and 6 actions to spend on this.
--[X] 4
-[X] Write and distribute a study guide with advice for prospective examinees.
-[X] Slow and Steady. Use an action to take your time to think and plan properly before you do anything else. Other planned actions this turn get a bonus die to their rolls. Cannot be used if overworking.
-[X][Free] Socialize and build connections with one of the great clans of Silverport. (Clan Ascension)
It's been a while, we should check up on things. But let's finish the wall.
[X] Plan: ROADTRIP
-[X] Pick between 0 and 6 actions to spend on this.
--[X] 2
-[X] Accompany courageous traders on a long-distance expedition downriver, gaining valuable life experience and possibly also valuable money if the trip goes well. (Takes THREE actions, starts extended interlude.)
-[X] Tailor the exams to fit particular requirements more closely to individual departments and positions, rather than using the simple pass system.
-[X][Free] Socialize and build connections with one of the great clans of Silverport. (Clan Ascension)
An alternative, just so there's choice.
Taking the low-effort choice for exams, since we may be able to improve those exams further on a later date, when we won't be as busy (also with more life experience~).
[X] Plan Steady As We Go
-[X] Do Your Job (2)
-[X] Go and help out at your experimental forge. It'll surely go better with both your vision and your new understanding to assist.
-[X] There's ongoing staff turnover even when you're not actively recruiting and replacing. Apply some oversight.
-[X] Tailor the exams to fit particular requirements more closely to individual departments and positions, rather than using the simple pass system.
-[X] Slow and Steady. Use an action to take your time to think and plan properly before you do anything else. Other planned actions this turn get a bonus die to their rolls. Cannot be used if overworking.
-[X][Free] Spend time with someone else. (Guy chosen as next Martial councillor)
Reasoning:
No interest in going on a trip. We are an administrator, not a common labourer. (And aren't ritch enough to play at being a merchant.)
I want to know the new martial before he turns up. Might be something to take advantage of or a danger to avoid.
I'm hoping that the Oversight and Tailor exam actions have some synergy. Void sounds like he needs some good news next meeting and putting the exams to rest is our best bet.
2 actions on the wall should be sufficient. We have plenty of other things to do.
Smithing because the gods are watching.
Slow and steady, as always.
If you had gotten higher, there would have been more narration explaining who Octavian is and why he matters. If you're really curious, you can ask some of the Exalted players that I know are hanging around here - Octavian is borrowed from their canon 2CD, in broad strokes. Hesperian is original.
So, Octavian, the Quarter Prince. The title alone would tell you much about why he's such a bad dude, but for that you first need to know what Quarter he's a prince of.
In Exalted, the Demon Realm is also known as Malfeas. Malfeas is both a being and a place, as many of the Yozi are. He is in fact so much of a place, that all the other Yozis, all the Third and Second Circle Demons and the all untold trillions and quantilions of First Circle Demons live comfortably inside him. He is the Demon City, which in sci-fi terms could best be described as a magical Dyson Sphere. His heart, both figuratively and literally, is itself the most prominent Third Circle Demon, Ligier, who is a demon that you can talk to but also a physical green sun, floating at the center of Malfeas. Malfeas's surface is built in layers. The light of the Green Sun penetrates those layers anyway, because magic, but the important thing to remember is that these are layers that each have a surface area greater than Earth. Malfeas keeps growing and shedding these layers in an attempt to escape his binding, but will fail for eternity. On the surface of these layers, the demon races exist and form entire civilizations, ruled by the Second Circle Demons. Above them exist the Third Circle Demons, but given their sheer power they are the Unquestionables, less rulers and more forces of nature that just are. The day-to-day civilizations revolve around the Second Circle demons, as the First Circle demon races are basically entire races of servitors, created by Second and Third Circle demons to perform some service.
Octavian is a Second Circle Demon, entirely bent on his shtick as the finest general and warlord of Hell. He rules the largest demon kingdom, which covers an entire Quarter of one of Malfeas's layers. Again, a reminder: each of these is as large as Creation at least, which itself has a larger surface area than Earth. He has personally killed Solars, and not the young and untrained ones of the current setting, freshly Exalted in the past 5 years. No, he killed veterans of the Primordial War as well as Solars from the First Age. Dudes and dudettes capable of single-handedly fighting entire armies with a sharp stick, of leaping mountains in a single bound and who wrestle with Elemental Dragons for fun.
If he was still here and unbound, SIlverport would have been conquered before the second update, it's population enslaved and conscripted to fuel his future conquests.
Maintain Your Triumphs:
-[X] Go and help out at your experimental forge. It'll surely go better with both your vision and your new understanding to assist.
Here's hoping that ongoing refinement of the processes will eventually allow us to boil metal to the point of liquification.
The Palace Examinations:
-[X] Write and distribute a study guide with advice for prospective examinees.
Publish or perish.
Miscellaneous:
-[X] Take smithing commissions to earn some money on the side with your incredible skill.
It'd be nice if we had some more practical works of our craft around.
Self-improvement:
-[X] Tutoring. Ask one of your fellow councillors for advice in their field of expertise. (Learning)
Let's ask Three for an education. Given her newfound Creationism and the ongoing crisis what with the Demons, she might be eager to share occult history and philosophy.
There's no law against it, but you'd need to convince both Ebuskun and Jade to go along with it at the very least, and you should probably talk to the rest of your family about this wild idea too.
Now I'm curious what reason you'd give why Marble needs a bodyguard.
Don't worry, Ebuskun has enough agency to start planning her own political shenanigans when she hears about this.
