1222-1227 OOC

((I always love it when a character gets owned...partly by themselves. I sense a delegation of responsibilities coming, and a "Make it so" to boot. :smiley:))

Nevermind. I shouldn't post right after I get up from my nap. I had a total brainfart and didn't realize that Tranquillina and Viscaria are not the same thing.

Which still raises the question of who's going to take Viscaria's roles as Aedilis (magical logistics) and Deputy Scutatius (magical martial)? I'm thinking preferably somebody who doesn't already have both an Officership and a Deputyship.

One moment. busy time at work so I will pick up my threads tomorrow.

Okay, I have been reading around some of the older material here concerning what has happened in the past. You are right, the Duresca Scrolls are just toilet-paper compared to the rest of what is going on. And you guys are worried about bath-houses and ball games and giant-blood conferences and whatnot.
Now dealing with the Bishop is a sticky widget. I say don't tell him what he doesn't need to know. But he seems an inquisitive sort and covenfolk may babble unwittingly.
These facts you have uncovered, have you tried bringing them to light? Forget about the normandy tribunal. It is corrupt. Next year, 1228, Grand Tribunal at Durenmar.
We need to...

  • Gather hard evidence
  • Investigate the facts
  • Share information with key allies
  • Make key allies :smiley:
  • Drop the bomb in 1228 when we blow this case wide open.

What doeas dropping the bomb mean? Revealing the truth, whatever that may be.

Roberto need to write a memo to Ariel to come see him in his office.
Um, I mean, I need to send a message to the prima requesting an audience with her at Val-Negra. I need her to tell me exactly what she knows. Roberto fears politics, not death. But he ain't gonna place his life on the line for things he knows nothing about.

You might have missed that part where the Prima of many Houses where given the evidence. So Mercere, Tremere, Flambeau, Bonisagus, Bjornaer and Jerbiton know about the evidence. It is possible that the other, unnamed Houses were a also contacted.

Our long term solution is to strengthen our Houses as Guernicus has sought to have Houses that are weak and can not cooperate within the House let alone with other Houses.

All that's been clearly established to Roberto in the Road to Bibracte thread is that the magi of Mons Electi think that Apollodorus was murdered on Mons Electi grounds by a Guernicus hit squad led by Valerian. And that there is some vast Guernicus conspiracy, which he doesn't really believe, as confirmed by his first letter to Wirth. Some of the magi witnessed the murder, but there's been conflicting testimony between the magi... Your response of going to Val Negra is an attempt at converting knowledge you have as a player into knowledge you'd like your character to have. You need to do some work to connect the dots for Roberto. I left this as an exercise for you to do. In short, you're not going to achieve results anywhere close to what would be satisfactory to Roberto and/or you if you try and go to Val Negra now, his reasons now are too...ephemeral.

There's a reason why I saddled Mons Electi with the Tribunal and all the attendant preparations. Although it wasn't my original plan to murder Apollodorus as early as I did, the same information would have started trickling out that things at Mons Electi are not what they appeared to be. That the sweet deal Apollodorus offered the magi who joined came at a very high price. So yes, they are consumed with preparing for the Tribunal, while also knowing that their is a rot in the Order. The choice was which task gets tackled first. Obviously, House Guernicus is well practiced in maintaining this deception[1].

While Mons Electi is a spring covenant in reality, in practice they are a summer covenant with rich and vast resources. Summer covenants have problems different from spring covenants. A lot of times these are external and sometimes these are internal. Viscaria going overboard on preparations, committing to more than she can do and then leaving the pieces for the covenant to pick up is a good example of such an internal problem. The external problems are the Tribunal itself and the security measures Mons Electi wishes to undertake and managing the logistics of having almost 300 magi and their attendants in attendance. Mons Electi is close to the Rhein, Greater Alps and Provencal Tribunals. And there will be a Hermes Portal established by the Tribunal from Mons Electi to Harco to facilitate transport of attendees from across the Tribunal and the Order as a whole.

So, based on The Road to Bibracte, when Roberto arrives at Val Negra and asks for an audience for the Prima, about all he'll knows is that Apollodorus was allegedly murdered by Valerian. I've been very careful with the introduction stories for Tranquillina and Roberto about what could be known and to some extent when it could be known. Tranquillina knows a bit more, but that's because she was created with heavy involvement with me, choosing a one time Bonisagus of the Trianomae line who is in on the secret, and was in on it before Mons Electi was even born. She also had events transpire that gave her additional information to be used in the council meeting of her arrival. Roberto is an outsider, but comes from a well respected lineage and Santiago has allied himself with Ariel. Ariel is now testing her alliances. At this stage, Roberto is a pawn. Indeed all of the magi of Mons Electi are pawns to some extent. There will be opportunities to change that and become more powerful pieces as the saga progresses. Roberto just made his first move. The others have been making moves for a while in this saga.

Much evidence is gathered, but it's in Greek. An obstacle designed to limit the flow of information so that it could not be distributed easily before the 1228 Grand Tribunal. And it's circumstantial, requires conclusions to be drawn. There are some key allies, making them isn't an issue so much as uncovering them and making sure that they are real allies. It's pretty clearly that House Tremere knows all about this rot, and I think the characters know that they know. But House Tremere isn't moving yet... why?

And Murion, as Prima Bonisagus controls the agenda for the Grand Tribunal, there is quite simply, no hope that this will be put on the agenda. And she knows about this vast Guernicus conspiracy.

[1]Players and maybe even some characters can draw some conclusions from Roberto's entry story and Enter the Kangaroo. Did Calefacto, a known associate of the Prima really attack Roberto? What does one call a court which is convened to legitimize a verdict of guilt already established by manufactured evidence?

It is indeed tenuous. This is why I wanted some input before going ahead and just doing it.
This is what Robeto knows...

  • he was sent here by Santiago to be an agent of the prima, and she is aware of it
  • it has something to do with the mysterious circumstances of the death of Garus (what is the story released to the public and what does Roberto know?)
  • he was told that Mos Electi was mixed up in all this
  • Issen made the claim (out loud) that the Duresca Scrolls are real. That rumor gets brought up and discredited so often that Roberto cassually dismisses it.
  • but no one else batted and eyelash and seemed to nod in agreement. And from little bits of chit-chat, there is a lot of messed up stuff going on. And a confusing mess of contradictions
  • Ariel is supposed to contact me, and hasn't done so yet.
  • Roberto is also interested in visiting Val-Negra anyway
  • Now that it has been revealed you guys have shared this information and everyone ignores it, this causes him great concern. Either massive cover up, massive deception and/or massive disbelief.
  • I know he's a pawn, you know it, but he won't admit that (or maybe refuses to accept it). Great generals don't play chess, they play poker. Roberto is a wild card.

So his idea is to cut through the Gordian Knot, so to speak. Go to Ariel with Issen (since he is the one who mentioned the scrolls), and get some solid information out of her.

But it also seems reasonable for the others to tell him to hold his horses.

Either way, it feels wrong to waste time customizing the lab when these two seasons can be used for much more important priorities. It feels wrong to do anything but focus on this!

BTW, he wasn't planning to show up then request an audience. I was planning to write a polite letter informing her I am coming to see her, then sorta insist on an audience. If she needs my help, she had better not refuse me.

And I don't have as much OOC knowledge as you think. When I said I have been reading around, I mean to say I scrolled up :laughing:, and read the sumarry. That and bits I remeber from following current stories (which is difficult). So I am not trying toconvert knowlege. I'm trying to procurr knowledge.
:smiley:

We will presume that Alexei shared his recollection of who was taken prisoner by Valerian...

"The magus was Calefacto of Tytalus, an associate of Ariel's at Val Negra, his now home covenant."

The name doesn't ring a bell to Roberto, but the association should speak volumes, as should the location of where he was, and again, what you said about Ariel. :stuck_out_tongue:

:open_mouth:
It would have been nice if he could have shared this information earlier!
So, then, maybe our plan should be to rescue this guy from Valerian.
Thought?

Qcipher didn't forget to say it in character deliberately, and I can see how you might have missed it as a player viewing it through your phone's screen. Alexei isn't the sort to keep information like that a secret, so I made an executive SG decision on qcipher's behalf, just to get you to see what's going on as a player and also open Roberto's eyes a bit.
It is what it is... You can certainly try and convince the others to go after Valerian, but The Fixer has said that Isen thinks he isn't ready, yet. You can try and go it alone and intercept Valerian, and the others, I'm sure, would counsel you against it. I won't kill Roberto so soon, but you'll get a taste of what Alexei has gotten on a number of occasions. When people think of Valerian, he's like a mixture of Morden's style and smarminess with Magneto's bad-assness and, of course, many of Magneto's attendant powers[1].

Politics...Diplomacy. If the troupe thinks it's time to pursue aggressive negotiations... sure. What did I say Roberto was? Oh, that's right. A lightning rod.

To paraphrase Seinfeld: You see, Elaine, Roberto was a simple country boy. You might say a cockeyed optimist, who got himself mixed up in the high stakes game of world diplomacy and Hermetic intrigue.

[1]There are many facts about Valerian that I've been sprinkling throughout the stories of late. It would perhaps behoove the troupe to have a more in-depth discussion of Valerian and understanding him as an enemy and how to defeat him... He appears to show no fear, and acts with impunity, much like any bad cop would.

OK wait...what did I miss?

The prisoner was the one at the end of the Road to Bribracte. Did I miss that? If so I am sorry, I made that huge Lore roll, but it was way after the fact and some other things happened, I may have missed it.

If Roberto were going to go and confront Valerian, he'd strongly advise against it. Alexei has no rank that he can pull (no actual rank at any rate) so he couldn't force him or anything. edit or go so soon to Val Negra.

Alexei will write a letter to Ariel though inquiring about this incident. Alexei though would not know if Calefacto was an agent that was supposed to meet with Roberto or not, but it seems likely he was a provacatuer in this.

Yes, I indicated who it was that Alexei recognized.

"The magus was Calefacto of Tytalus, an associate of Ariel's at Val Negra, his now home covenant."
But he didn't realize this until after Valerian and the prisoner had gone...

And interestingly, there is Enter the Kangaroo... :smiley:

OK...so I'll start with the letter and consult with Roberto on it. I'll put that in Kangaroo.

fiona would not be able to give the token. Another Magi would have to sign off on it. Normally Korvin or Alexei or Isen I would think.

Of course it could be done for the game but this is the exact situation that the rule was made :slight_smile:

Don't see any dates on that discussion, and Isen suggested much the same, when I responded that this visit was the impetus for the change...

No. It was changed because Laetitia gave a token to Valerian. You can have wave it for the story. Just say she seduces Korvin as well.

That was a reason it could be changed, but nothing there indicated that there was a concurrence of the magi to implement such a change. I'm not waving it, I'm just asking the troupe to be very clear on what the restrictions are, and then follow those restrictions themselves. For example, at the beginning of the story, when Praxiteles arrived, Fiona gave him a token, and she gave Petronius a token. So, I think fairly, Fiona isn't clear on what the procedure is, and she's made comments in the Defense Discussion thread.

Yes, that thread could be over a number of years, and like I said this could be an impetus to actually make the change. Then again, some magi might see this as too much of an imposition and never agree... And then what. Depriving a magus and his power and all that.

While Alexei was talking, Isen had entered the war room quietly, and sat on "his" chair, as usual, listening to Alexei without interrupting him.

When his sodales is done

There's also that little bit you're not aware of. While you were all occupied, Tria, the Tenens for this tribunal, came to me. She was being followed, and feared for her life. Not knowing if her pursuer was mundane or not, nor his means, we endeavoured to set up a trap. It almost backfired on us when Valerian collapsed a cave on us. Without a declaration of wizard's war, of course. He seemed quite proud of himself, cackling and all.
If I add that to what happened to you, roberto, I'd say he's getting bolder.

Again...timing. 1227.4 comes after 1227.2 and these events have not yet transpired.