Weighty Decisions

General Summary

Introduction

The soft dawn light filtered through the beautiful floating city of Ivannia. This morning, Cassandra was mindful of her duties as a lady in waiting; she awoke early and fetched the mail and made a cup of tea for Morganna. The other adventurers, Tidran, Breaker, Dante, Farren, and Dariyana all began to waken in their luxurious suites.

Grazelle knocked and then entered Morganna's suite with a book in her hands. She greeted the princess and after some light conversation she handed over the book she carried. The book was a political and sociology analysis of Ivannia. Grazelle suggested that perhaps the book might be of use to Morganna as she navigated the internal politics of the city. Additionally, Grazelle mentioned that Morganna's Uncle Francois would like to meet with her over breakfast.

A Strategic Discussion at Breakfast

The adventures were hungry and joined up in the lavish dining hall of House Estelle. Francois Estelle, Head of House Estelle, Councilor to the King, Head of Emissaries, and the Uncle of Princess Morganna Estelle, greeted the party as they entered. He complimented Morganna on her previous day's efforts and offered her some advise on dealing with some of the houses. He suggested that she invite House Motier to her sparring match at House Bonaparte. Since she had been unable to attend the banquet at House Pesant he suggested she invite them over to House Estelle for a meal instead. For House Arouet he suggested she repay their ludicrous request with a polite note and put a couple of shins in the envelope since they requested money. Finally, he reminded his niece that the Klax Merchants were in town and she should probably pay them a visit since there was a long history of peace between their races.

The party discussed their options and settled on an agenda for their day. First, Morganna wanted to review the book Grazelle had delivered. Next, the group had their sparring session at House Bonaparte. Morganna sent a note to House Motier inviting them to watch the match. After that, the council would convene and vote on how to deal with Ivannian overcrowding and the Aliopter threat. Finally, the group would dine with House Pesant for dinner. Breaker decided to go back to her suite for the day; at this point she was still feeling very cautious to be out and about since she had failed her bounty contract to bring Morganna back to Ivannia.

Study and Sparring

Everyone gathered in Morganna's suite to go over the book which Grazelle had delivered earlier. While Morganna was very interested in the various House politics, and Cassandra took copious notes, not all of the group was interested. However, they politely sat through and studied the various houses and politics of Ivannia. Dariyana cared little for the subtleties of politics; as a Glaive she preferred to pummel people she disagreed with instead of trading favors. Tidran found the subject a bit tedious but he realized how useful it was. Farren enjoyed books of almost any type and she listened closely even though she was a very quiet personality and didn't envision herself participating in political negotiations.

After their study session, everyone headed over to House Bonaparte for their sparring session. On the trip over, Cassandra voiced her enthusiasm to be able to fight again, and the group realized just how peaceful Ivannia truly was. Today would be the first time they would have cause to draw a weapon since entering the city, and even this was a friendly sparring match rather than a fight for survival.

Soon the party entered the grand hall of House Bonaparte. It was an imposing structure flanked with columns and inside were many display racks full of exotic weaponry and statues of Ivannian military heroes. The head of House Bonaparte greeted Morganna warmly and led the group to a room which had been prepared for their session. The room had a large clear area in the center with seating around the sides for spectators. House Motier was already seated in the room and he rose and greeted Morganna when she entered.

Bonaparte explained the rules and introduced a group of brawny soldiers as their opponents for the match. The rules were fairly straight-forward: The purpose would be to force an opponent to surrender rather than outright killing them. All use of any type of gravity-manipulation would be forbidden to both sets of combatants. Other than these simple rules, any other type of weaponry or abilities would be allowed. Each of the House Bonaparte soldiers was wearing a metallic armor and carried both sword and shield. With the rules out of the way, the two teams formed a line and faced each other one to one.

The room trembled from the vibration of mighty blows and quickly moving feet as the match began. Morganna disappeared the instant the match started! Dante fired his long slug-thrower at almost point blank range, catching his opponent in the stomach. As the man stumbled backwards, Morganna appeared behind him and caught him in a vicious choke hold while she kicked his knees out from under him. Cassandra's forehead blazed with light, and her opponents armor glowed red-hot from its concentrated beams. Tidran was very grateful he had practiced so much with his shield as he was able to deflect several heavy blows from his opponent. Farren's weapons sang out as they sunk into her opponent, her mechanical follower also dealing damage.

And yet, despite being denied their primary offense and defensive means, the Bonaparte soldiers gave almost as good as they got. They wielded both sword and shield with power and precision. They had obviously trained with these weapons and they put that training to good use. However, as the fight flowed back and forth across the room, the tide began to gradually turn against Bonaparte's men. Dante next fired both his smaller slug throwers at the man pinned down by Morganna. As soon as the shots hit, she stepped back and swung her weapon deftly into the mans side. He shuddered and gave under the combined assault and surrendered fearing for the integrity of his rib cage.

Tidran had been going back and forth with his opponent but wasn't making much headway; the man was too evenly matched. Suddenly, Tidran shifted his focus to the soldier facing Cassandra. With a powerful shield bash he stunned the man and Cassandra quickly attacked again. A radiant beam of white-hot light burned deeply into his armor. Tidran pressed his attack and soon the soldier yielded under the fury of the siblings. Farren continued to mount a ferocious assault and despite catching a solid blow from her opponent she pressed on and soon the man began to give ground bit by bit.

Meanwhile, Morganna turned towards her original opponent who had followed her. She thrust her fingers, curved into hooks, directly at the mans eyes. However, his instincts kicked in and he ducked, narrowly saving his eyesight. Dante caught the man in an attack and Morganna put ALL of her effort into her next attack. She darted forward and with a particularly vicious kick her leg swept up into the man's groin. Every onlooker winced at the clang of her boot. The soldier curled into a ball and collapsed onto the ground; he had to be carried off by two attendants.

With a three man advantage, the fight was over quickly. The last of Bonaparte's men surrendered and that was that (well, besides a hole in the ceiling and a broken display case from Dante's shots. Bonaparte seemed not to notice). The party was victorious, but not unharmed. All were breathing a bit heavily and several had injuries which they paused to tend to.

Politics

Both Bonaparte and Motier congratulated the party on their victory. Morganna discussed the upcoming council vote with both houses. Bonaparte and Motier agreed to support building taller buildings in exchange for Morganna's support for a military excursion. Motier took some persuading, but once Tidran helped explain the financial benefits, he agreed to support the cause. After securing their support, the adventurers left to rest and prepare for the council meeting.

Council Decisions

Next, the entire party showed up for the council vote. Thanks to Morganna's politicking ahead of time, she was able to propose building taller buildings while forming a committee to explore moving outside the city and sending a military excursion to take care of the Yellow Serpents scouting in the area. The vote passed, and everyone seemed pleased with its outcome.

The other issue on the agenda was what to do with Hugh, the man infected with an Aliopter in the infirmary. After the group discussed several suggestions, Morganna formally proposed to the council that the man be executed as he was a danger to the entire city. This vote also passed, and the King sent a missive to the infirmary to dispose of the man.

Dinner

After the council meeting, the party prepared for their dinner. The Pesant House leader floated up and greeted everyone warmly. A delicious dinner was served by the house staff. Pesant was grateful for the invitation, and he was also pleased with the outcome of the council vote. He pressed Morganna to consider allowing some of his population to settle in the other houses, as his house was the one of the most overcrowded. Morganna agreed to consider his suggestion.

Security Breach

After dinner, the adventurers retired to their suites. Dante noticed a door which wasn't there before, but the door seemed partially out of phase. It flickered and faded in and out. With some effort he managed to open the door, but instead of the meadow, he merely saw the wall behind it. He tried shooting through the doorway, but his shot hit the wall instead and fell down. He was perplexed by this but dutifully went and informed Morganna about this situation.

Soon after, Morganna heard a firm knock on her door. She opened it to find a security captain with a few guards with him. He informed her there was a security breach in Dante's room and over her protestations set off to examine it. The captain knocked on Dante's door and told him there was what appeared to be a teleportation device of some type trying to activate. Dante refused to reveal who had created the portal, but assured the captain it posed no security threat. Morganna hastily sprawled a note to House Bonaparte asking him to call his man off.

After a somewhat tense question session, the captain reluctantly agreed to leave the doorway alone for the night. He would file his report, and allow the authorities to determine the next course of action. Morganna strode off to her room in a huff at being questioned. Tidran wrote a thoughtful note about possible tactics to fight an Aliopter to House Bonaparte. Eventually, the group settled down to sleep.

Report Date

20 Jun 2020

Primary Location

Ivannia