Anarion

Dark Age (playtest): The Lands of Pendragon

Robena

Revel for a moment in being one of the greatest knights to ever serve Lostwithiel! Your arm is strong, your aim sure. If you were less well-armed or less committed to your skill, the Azure knight would be a terrifying opponent, one who might well slay a lesser knight or unhorse them in an instant. But for you, arranged in your majestic cloak and seated surely atop Apricot, there is little risk even against a cursed knight such as this.

The Azure knight spurs her horse to a gallop, sets her lance, but despite her skill and unnatural stillness, she realizes just before the approach that yours is the stronger charge. You can see that she has a moment to choose, a single instant to decide whether to set her shield and turn the blow, losing her balance in the process, or whether to take the blow head on and try to match you. For a moment, it appears as though she'll do the sane thing and protect herself from a severe wound, but in the last instant, she sets her lance straight and matches yours. As your lance penetrates her mail and strikes what is probably a rib, it breaks and you hear the first sound from her: a rough grunt that makes you think from its tenor that she may be lighter than she appears with her full armor. A small red stain turns her surcoat into a shade of purple. However, she does not lose her balance, but if she keeps up like this, she may well be killed.

Rearm yourself and tell us how you approach the second pass.

[The Azure knight spends 2: both on position. She inflicts 4 harm and has 3 armor, matching your position but suffering a wound in the process. From the tie, she will spend her full 3 on position in the next pass, intent on winning the contest at any cost to herself.]

Constance

You sway and the Master of Arms (what was his name, by the by?) stands and catches you. The Duchess Marianne looks at you with a mixture of frustration and hope. This is obviously the wrong time: you're late, disrupting the tournament, and anything she does to respond to your wild gestures now will force the jousting knights to stop, a deep disrespect to their contest. The Azure knight has not even spoken yet, and they are rearming for their second pass as you arrived. Cerwen is looking at you with obvious worry, the master of arms is trying gently but firmly to press you into your seat. Yet for all that, it's clear the Duchess wants to respond to you. She trusts you Constance, trusts the old ways, the visions, and the magic that runs through her veins. That trust, that faith in her heart is why Lostwithiel noticed the rot and stands against it now.

Press her now for a response and you'll strain that trust, you will be asking a great deal, but she will do it and let you offer a pronouncement to the tournament. Or, wait, sit, question her other advisors, show your grace towards the combatants and you may have a stronger position later. How urgent is your vision, lady?

Tristan

You tune out your surroundings, all your attention at the point of your arrow. You follow that imaginary shot as it strikes the badger, as the creature, surprised and wounded, might retreat into a tunnel. In your mind's eye you follow it underground, to cool mud and deep earth beneath the great roots of trees. If it had the health and the energy, it would dig forever, uprooting the fields and ruining the crops. It wants the weight of great trees above it, that dampness of the roots and the sense of weight that is its heart and home. It would ruin and destroy, make the world into empty, barren land from which new seeds would spread and grow until the forest overgrew it all. It is patient for such things and cares not for the starvation of people in how it wishes the world to be.

But you have not fired that shot, and all this dances only in your mind's eye.

Nin

[I gather the intended move is take stock, so I will answer as to the terrain and your options here]

You are in a large field of wheat. Its primary characteristic is that there is little variation: farmers working the land have made it flat, even, and thick with the stalks, though some are crushed or turned from the great badger. The soil is mostly dry, easy to move quietly and lightly with little sign even for the trained. Slipping away would be the easiest thing in the world, you could bring yourself to safety and further observe or follow the creature in near complete safety. That would be the simplest way to end this encounter, though it wouldn't solve your ultimate problem. Your strength is your surprise. The beast is surely strong enough to do you great harm if enraged, and once it knows itself to be in real danger, it may flee or attack aggressively, leaving you in uncertainty. So the best way to remain strong is to preserve your surprise and use it for the greatest possible effect. Perhaps a trap of some sort combined with Tristan's bow, though even that is unlikely to bring it down in a single blow, more likely to wound it badly and scare it off. That would solve the immediate urgency of the situation, perhaps giving you time to learn more, though you would need to be willing to severely wound the monster to do that.

Masks: BABYLON MUST FALL

[Potential 4. Insecure]
[Directly engage with littlest space bandit: 3+4+3=10. Avoid his blows and Impress him!]

The Seneschal of Marduk is angry. So angry he's stopped thinking, so angry he's going into autopilot, trying to hit as hard as he can. He's confident in his power and reckless of anything that Set can do. He's underestimated her.

As he leaps into his kick, Set simply sinks into the ground, perhaps six inches or so, halfway through a portal. He's committed, it's too late for him to course correct and just like that the fight is ending. She reaches up a hand and grabs the loose skirts around his leg and with a loud riiiiip she tears a long length of Annunaki fabric off his skirts, pulling it all the way up to the hem at his waist. Then he lands and before he can collect himself, suddenly she's reaching out of a portal right behind him and she's wrapping the fabric around and around his ankles fast as you like and cinching it so tight that he can't maintain his balance and topples forward.

Right before he would crash into his lovely model, he falls into a portal instead and Set uses the opportunity to rip another length of fabric and loop it once and twice around his upper arms, pulling them tight to his body and knotting it in the back. She slides right past him, running a hand down his arm ever so gently to his dangerous little fist and slides it right off his hand, then kicks it away with her sandal.

Then, another rip and now the Seneschal is showing quite a bit of thigh as Anathet wraps a knot around each wrist so they're held together with a thick knot in between them. And, as a last gesture to Marianne she rips one more strip off the skirt (leaving most of his leg exposed) and pulls it over his mouth and around his head so he can't talk back any further. Well a gesture to Marianne and payback for calling her Set's priestess. Please. She's his avatar thank you.

Then she topples him through another portal and suddenly he's sitting in his chair and the poor dress yields up one more to tie his waist to the supports so he can't get out of it. And when he focuses his vision after all those drops, she's sliding the tablet under his hands so he can reach.

"Now see, this is much better! I've really improved your look, and now you can do something for us and I'll leave you alone for today! Really, you're lucky it's just me, I'm the nice one and I'm being so gentle, I even left you your pretty little city model. It would have been a shame to break it, even if you made the under-city far too small and boring. You should really fix that, your little chain model is a bit off I think. But you know, Marianne would have you cinched up and hanging from the ceiling in a ball I think, so I hope you appreciate how thoughtful I'm being. So, hurry and do your little tappy tappy thing on your tablet (I'll be looking don't try and cheat) and then I'll be on my way and tomorrow you'll still get to be at the top of your little chain. Doesn't that sound great? Orrrr you could be difficult and I'll have to dangle you like this in front of the entire arena where Shamash was setting up. Whichever one you'd like really."

Set gives him her best crocodile grin and looks expectantly at the tablet.

Dark Age (playtest): The Lands of Pendragon

Nin and Tristan

You make your way first along the roads. It's an easy walk, the sun is shining and perhaps a little too hot, but the fields are waves of golden wheat and it's a beautiful day. You pass a few late stragglers coming into town who wave and greet you warmly. This is a land and a people that ought to be prosperous and strong and you can feel that easily as you make your way down the road.

The first big turning is what's left of an overturned cart. It's not exactly hard to find, more like you can't miss it, but there's a big furrow in the grain leading out from it, so you have to cut into the fields there and trek through the stalks. They're not so thick here, you cut through this field for perhaps 15 minutes and come out the other side, where Nin has to stop and examine some fallow ground where the movement of the beast is still present but less obvious.

The second is when you realize that it cut back through another field and that it has been wending its way back and forth. Sometimes you come out into open space that might transition you into the forests if you were to hike for a few minutes, but every time it cuts back into the fields again.

After your third cutback, it's becoming increasingly obvious that this is going to take a while and the sun is already starting to dip towards the horizon. Gnats and little biting insects are beginning to come out as the sun moves towards twilight, and its as the horizon bathes the field in a grim red that you finally come upon the beast.

The beast seems to be a sort of giant...badger, more or less? You spot it just on the edge of a wheat field, chewing absent-minded on a few stalks almost as though it's cleaning its teeth. You're still in the field yourself and can hide easily, but it's visible from the crushed trail it has once again left. Its got to be ten times the size of a regular badger, with a body that isn't quite the same, broad hulking shoulders that make it look like it can stand on two legs and loom. But it's definitely got the right claws and there's a large fur strike along its back and the top of its head that, along with the shape of the snout puts you strongly in mind of a truly gigantic badger.

Tristan, this is close enough that you may consider yourself as encountering something unnatural and let fate see what insight comes to you, should you wish.

Constance

The ring of steel upon steel resounds through your ears! You lift your head from the cold stone, find yourself standing in the same narrow hallway, but before you at the corridor are a handful of knights arrayed in their armor and with shields held high. Before them, a vast number, a tide they cannot possibly stop though they will break and drown before they give an inch of ground. The defenders before you are arrayed in the forest green of Lostwithiel, the tabards over their mail emblazoned with white unicorns, the elite guard of the Duchess Marianne. The attackers are wearing black tabards with the silver dragon rampant upon them, the colors of King Uther Pendragon.

You hear a sudden sound behind you. The sword that you bear as your birthright is no longer yours! Down the hallway races a flamboyant fae not unlike yourself, his shoulder-length hair loose and flying behind him, wearing a cloak in black and silver, Uther's colors. Merlin, you know somehow, carrying your sword away from you, but for what reason you cannot divine.

You lean your head upon the stone in despair, and there is silence. When you lift it again, you are as you were, the hallway is empty, the distant sounds of the crowd barely reach you through these cool stones.

You'll be arriving to the tournament late, tell us how you make your embarrassed entrance to the seat of honor that the Duchess reserved for you at her right hand.

Robena

The tournament will take place on the green within the keep. Stands have been set up with great cloth banners above them. The Duchess Marianne sits at a place of honor. She is arrayed in a flowing dress of white linen with wide shoulders and a carefully embroidered set of delicate flowers all about the neckline. Her blond hair is styled high and she wears a small tiara studded with diamonds to mark her station. Her master of arms sits at her left, a dour young man with dark hair and a thick black beard that seems to be there to try and make him look older but instead makes him look to be drowning. Cerwen sits two seats down on her right and waives to you with a smile for all her oddness before. The seat for Constance at the Duchess' right hand is empty for the time being.

The Azure knight lives up to her name. Her tabard is a color just a shade deeper than the sky, and so too her saddle and her horse's blanket. Beneath it, she wears polished mail. It's obvious that she has maintained it with great care after her arrival from the road. Yet, there is something wrong, something deeply off about her nature. Her helm is closed and the visor is down even in her preparations and you can see naught of her face or hair. And around her there is an air of darkness. You might wonder whether her tabard truly is a different color than the sky or if it is merely the presence of the woman bringing it down. Where she steps upon the grass of the tournament grounds, it looks as though it wilts and will not spring back.

She ought to introduce herself as you begin the match, or at least to wait and hear your introduction. But whatever you do or say, it is as though she cannot hear you, so still is she as she sits upon her black destrier and awaits the signal for the first joust. You would think her frozen in time, save for the small white handkerchief at her waist with a golden cross upon it, fluttering in the breeze.

[The Azure knight has denied you your right to be known by your reputation though she ought to have heard of you because her curse prevents her from truly hearing or seeing you. Tell us how Robena reacts and then prepare to engage in single combat.]

Dark Age (playtest): The Lands of Pendragon

Nin and Tristan

This is Nin's truest specialty: Striking out on the road for a journey. She possesses many options for finding her way, both by mundane roads and the smallest trail and by the more spiritual. Tristan, you are most empowered to learn when you encounter the beast, but Nin will get you where you're going and though there is time aplenty on the road to plan, it is time now to strike out.

Talk as much as you wish, and when you're ready, Nin tell us how you find whatever of the beast you're seeking. I don't know precisely where it will be until you tell me how you find it, but I can tell you that it will be in the fields, with their tall golden wheat that still grows strong and proud. Even if the land is dryer and the seeds smaller than in past years, even if the treeline looms darkly not far away, the place where you find it somehow or other will be in the fields, in the tall grasses, the open sky and small clouds high and away above you.

But that is all I know for now.

Robena

The priestess Cerwen turns to you with some hesitation. She clearly does not wish to talk about the Azure knight. "I know of her" she says slowly, selecting the words for that sentence with caution as Constance begins the proper ritual. "I would not fain speak of it to her opponent though" she adds hastily, obviously searching for some reason to avoid this discussion. "Surely, you wish a fair and honorable contest and ought to ask her yourself of her background when you meet her? Though if you are afraid that she is now in the service of the Duchess, you need not worry there. The Azure knight is a knight-errant and will not be here long after the tournament, I should think. Would you wish my favor for your match, God is a regal ally." She laughs nervously, confident that she's thrown you off the trail and changes the subject immediately. "Perhaps you ought ask the Lady of the Low if she might make my temporary gift more permanent. It was a present from the Duchess for my service and of no small value."

She seems shockingly confident in her position to discuss the Duchess that way. Careful for her part, but utterly confident here, and therefore it's all the more strange that she doesn't want to discuss the Azure knight. You know enough about tournament rules that unless much has changed since you were gone, there's nothing wrong with asking about your opponent as long as you're not trying to gain an advantage on them. Perhaps Cerwen does have some sort of insider knowledge that she's afraid to reveal though.

You might seek to win her as an ally, or accept what she offers as it stands, or reject her for misunderstanding you perhaps. No matter what you choose, tell us after of your tournament preparations, and Apricot's regalia for the competition.

Constance

Let me tell you what you do not feel. You do not feel the world turn wrong ways around and hurl you from it. You do not feel the earth crack and shudder in rage. You do not feel angry clouds gather to block the sun nor hear the cries of birds forced from their perches in fright. You have not done wrong and the world has not rebuked your efforts. As to whether you have done right, you can judge from the shining eyes and sticky hands of the children, who are alive and as well as can be here today, and the pile of gifts that Robena is going to have to set somewhere so she can go and be in a tournament and win glory for her Lady Marianne.

Tell us why you nevertheless feel discontent and what remains on your mind for the afternoon. Will you watch the tournament?

Masks: BABYLON MUST FALL

[Potential 4. Insecure]

Set laughs. Long and high and light, her aura scintillates in light colors, slipping from white to pink with high energy. "You think I'm Set's priestess?" She laughs, twirls herself into a portal and kicks the seneschal in the back of his head leg while his glove is recovering, causing him to briefly lose his balance and stumble away from her. This further adds to his indignity as he has to try and stumble his way around a tower in the model before he can recover his balance. Set laughs yet again.

"I am the embodiment of Set, come to free the weak, the slave, the outsider, from your sad little chain! And I think..." She slips sideways, almost dancing around him with her portals so that she can whisper in his ear "...that all you little Annunaki secretly want it!"

Set giggles, and slips away again, backing up. "But today, today today is a special day because I know something extra special." She sticks out her tongue at him happily, the red almost looking like an open crocodile mouth with her makeup. "You see, I know that somebody might get in a looooot of trouble if, oh, the Phantom thief Marianne caused a huge public embarrassment for you while your high god is here. And it just so happens I've already told Marianne all about this, can you believe it?" She ducks backwards. It's becoming increasingly obvious that she's simply fighting defensively, letting him swing his nasty fist about and giving him gentle hits, pushes, and kicks without any intent to truly injure.

"So, why don't you stop swinging that silly little fist around, it does you about as much good trying that at me as it does at the wind, and instead take out your tablet. Because you see, if you'd like to keep your job, then we'd like you to release some prisoners. Right now, this very second. Come on hop to it, I've got a whole list. Order their immediate releases and have them sent to the lower city markets, here, here, here and here!" She taps the model with her foot in a few different places. Essentially random, she simply commits the spots to memory, to warp there later and pick them up, or have Marianne do it. That she picked several spots is simply a matter of creating a sense of pattern out of nonsense, to send the Seneschal chasing after shadows."

"Now, you be a good little boy, take out your tablet and I'll rattle off the list. Hurry hurry, I'm sure you still want to be Seneschal tomorrow, it seems like it comes with some great model kits!" And then she waits and glares like he's a child who's been caught trying to steal cookies and knows he has to put them back."

[Provoke: 3+2+3=8]

Dark Age (playtest): The Lands of Pendragon

Nin and Tristran

"I don't wish anything" the merchant snaps, but then immediately looks apologetic, Nin. "Look, I just, my friends go hunting all the time, and they swear on their grandmother's graves that what they saw was some kind of demonic beast, tall as two men stood on top of each other. It sounds like tall tales even as I'm saying it and I don't want to believe it. But that's what they said and what we've all heard. Some kind of huge beast, red eyes and long fangs and claws, big loose hair hanging along the coat. No wolf pack, just one big terrifying thing wrecking carts and stealing the food. Some folks have even said they saw it burst out of the ground like it was lying in wait with a trap or something, and they're starting to say it's part of the land itself and it wants its food back. We don't deserve it anymore."

Well that's enough to do the trick. You both know that it's probably some kind of demonic animal, and something that digs. Giant wolf maybe, certainly possible. Some kind of cat or weasel, maybe a mole could be possible. The real trick with something like this is figuring out the why of it. You could solve the immediate problem by just finding a way to lure it out and kill or capture it (capture would be real tough, there may not be a cage that can hold the thing in the whole keep). But the why is how you make things better, make sure it doesn't just get replaced in a month of two.

Constance and Robena

Cerwen looks uncertain. She knows your traditional role, Constance, and this is your castle and your bodyguard standing right there surrounded by your people. She could try for a power play here, but she'd be risking everything. If the crowd didn't go with her, if Robena stepped in, if other knights interfered, she'd have given up everything she tried to earn here. She's not that kind of person and she doesn't want to have that confrontation, at least not for a very long while even if things go very badly.

So, instead, she nods slightly and then walks over to Robena. "I offer a gift, to the Lady of the Low!" she calls out loudly, taking off her golden cross. "The sign of my god, in concert with the old gods! Let her bless the fields on all our behalfs!" And then, Robena, she takes that golden cross and walks right up to you and puts it around your neck to emphasize her point. She doesn't quite leave the space either, instead she's going to stand with the bodyguard, just a tad to the side and out of the way, and let you get started Constance.

So, go ahead Constance, bless the summer and the fields.

To Robena, she says, simply, "do you two know each other?" A clear tip off she didn't grow up in the keep even if you thought your memory was playing tricks on you, Robena.

Masks: BABYLON MUST FALL

[Potential 4. Insecure]
[Unleash Powers 6+6+2=14]

Set appears from her portal as though bursting through the translucent Caphtor with a blinding flash of light and iridescent color. Gold gleams shine from her crown and her staff and her jewelry is so bright that it cannot be looked at directly. The Seneschal may be preparing, but nobody can approach the radiant Set, goddess of lightning, in her moment. Instead, she holds out her staff and ever so gently lifts up the Seneschal's chin. "It's too crowded in here" she says, almost petulantly, as she looks him right in the eyes. And then, with a dismissive wave and another flash, without even taking her eyes off of the Seneschal, everyone else in the room suddenly finds that the floor under them is so much less sturdy than they thought.

Do not let it be said that the goddess of outsiders has no heart! Shelia and Muta'al, those poor ignored dancers, will find themselves mercifully in the garden, their sudden movement cushioned by the lovely soft grass. The others, however, are now all sliding off the exterior of the domed roof of the Seneschal's estate, each one in a different direction.

"Much better" she says, ducking under the charged fist of the now enraged Seneschal and making a tut tut motion with her staff. "No, no dear, now that we have some private time to ourselves, we need to talk." She steps back, balancing on the model of Caphtor and kicks over the figure of Shamash, waiting to see how the Seneschal reacts.

Masks: BABYLON MUST FALL

As Marianne fades through the walls, Anathet is left a little bewildered, but with a smile on her face that she just can't seem to shake off. Even though Marianne had called her a little rabbit again (which she clearly had to put a stop to before it became a permanent nickname, oh gods), she had also been almost...well human for a moment there. Anathet liked that a great deal better than the scary, smoke and mirrors, constant intimidation demon Marianne. Not that the act wasn't useful, but seeing that hint of a person under there who cared about her and ruffled her hair and even flicked her nose with fondness was...exhilarating! Anathet felt like she was party to a special secret and she'd just have to carry it to her grave.

As she walked the little path back home again, she put that smile and its memory in a special little part of her mind, a memory box as she imagined it. She redressed herself as Set, and painted the image of the crocodile across her face so that it almost totally obscured her cheeks and her eyes and would appear to be striking as she leaned in towards the Seneschal. Marianne had given a good reminder that the simple, primal fears were often the most effective. The list she read over once, memorized, and immediately burned with a very small laser blast, tossing the ashes in her trash. Marianne had made no secret that Antoine Ravenelle was the key target here, but she didn't want the Seneschal to know and that made perfect sense to Anathet.

When she was dressed and ready, Set took a deep breath, setting her personal aura to a deep black-red not dissimilar from Marianne's or Tias. An aura of darkness and destruction. If she did it right, she'd come in with a burst of light and completely dominate the room.

Set took a breath, readied herself, and then took a portal directly to the Seneschal's room.

Dark Age (playtest): The Lands of Pendragon

A brief note for Numbers. Since you got the 7-9 result, you get just the imagery for your consultation with the spirits. I do have an opinion of what that imagery means, but I also might have created an image that could be interpreted multiple ways. For scene pacing in a PBP, if anyone gets the 10+ result for consult the other world, I'll just provide interpretive guidance rather than require multiple posts for back and forth questions (and if you want more info on a 10+, you can ask OOC or chat me on discord).

Dark Age (playtest): The Lands of Pendragon

Constance and Robena

The crowd is gathered, the gifts put to the side. The sun is nearly at its zenith and square is cleared for the ceremony. Robena, you are in place to ensure nothing untoward happens. It is...unlikely that anything untoward will happen, but there is something unusual.

The young priest who advises the Duchess is in the audience (Constance, you know her name is Cerwen, Robena you probably do not). Although you are newly returned Robena, you have already heard her preach at least, and so would recognize her as a priest by the fiery red hair, which she keeps long and loose over her brown robe, a sort of open challenge to many of the druids, though the small golden cross at her neck makes no doubt of her preferences. She is frowning and looking at something in the square with concern, and she presently strides forward ahead of the crowd.

She speaks in a low, hushed tone, but an unusually educated one as she approaches the two of you. Constance, you recognize her from counsel "My apologies, I know we had made our arrangements, but I am...concerned at the state of things. The harvest is liable to be poor this year, and I wonder, perhaps, if you would permit me to join the benediction. I could offer a blessing alongside your own, a small change to the ceremony of course. I think it would do the people great good."

Three points. First, you two have a moment for a few closing words before the priest strides forwards to talk. Second, she's not looking at either of you, she's looking at the ground as she's speaking, and the soil at your feet doesn't look particularly healthy, so it would be fair to say that she has a point. Third, what she's asking would deny you your right, Constance.

How do you respond?

Tristan

You slip away in the stream of pilgrims carrying your beers to one of the streams not far from the keep walls. It's not difficult to take a moment, there are many travelers on the road, but even a moment or two walking off the path leaves you quite alone. The air feels low and heavy without being wet enough to mist and the ground drinks the beer you lay upon it heavily. It seeps deep into the earth and you see small cracks form in the dry soil, as though opening from below, and a small beetle is thrown out and scampers for the nearest bit of grass to hide under, scattering the little pill bugs that were already there.

Nin

Depends what you mean by "best" exactly. Fastest would be to just walk right up to the pelt merchant. She's already talking, it's obvious she knows the rumors, just confront her directly, invoke the countess and demand that she speak the truth. You're absolutely in control here, even with Tristan slipped off somewhere. The question is really about how you want to play this longer. Your accusation carries a lot of weight and you'll embarrass the merchant if you take this route, as well as make the others hesitant to speak with you in the future because you'll look like someone dangerous to their good standing in the castle town. Especially if you react to what you hear with scorn after demanding it. If you're less concerned with speed and more with your relationships here, take a moment to look over the wares, maybe buy something, make small talk and let them disperse a bit. Ask the pelt merchant more quietly what she really saw, reassure her that you're interested in information and that you will not scorn her no matter what she shares with you.