names

Shoka (“to kiss”), the Lover priest of Yanalli, played by Dylan;
Hatip (“hips”), the Second Assistant Lover of Naapiisachi, played by Jenn;
Okakmi’ (“ice”), the Pickler of Yanalli, played by Barry;

5th Desire (cont’d)

Nipi sends her amenuensis away, then pulls her chair into the middle of the room, sits in it, and says, “I am alone, and wish to speak with whomever is listening to me.” She repeats this every couple of minutes until Nil arrives. —She then confirms what he suspected with re: the moon-priest “conspiracy.” They agree that the conspirators’ spycraft is not so practiced, nor their commitment to Love and Reason, but their loyalty to the Prince is not to be questioned, and the priests of Yanalli are worried about the possible famine resulting from the hurricane.

Nil knocks on Gi’s door. Council meeting! says Nil chipperly. You going to turn yourself in? says Gi. Nil shoots him a look, and brief’s Gi on his “very enlightening” conversation with Mrs. the Finger. Oh! Also, there might be a famine with the trees being harmed by the hurricane, so we might want to look into that. Gi is confused: Moon-Priest conspiracy? Oh! Right! That was Sonata I was talking to about that. And the trees is a myth, says Gi. But a myth is enough to start a religious civil war. So could you go look at the trees? And focus on the food agriculture plant aspect of this? I’ll speak to someone else about the rest of it. I’m a city boy, says Gi. But plants! says Nil. They grow. —Nil goes whizzing off to see Calvus.

Palpebra grabs Nil by the arm on his way to Calvus and says, I’ve got something for you. And he drags Nil to a side parlor where there’s a man tied up with his feet cut off and his lips sewn shut (though that’s not obvious under the gag). The horn? says Nil. Palpebra hands Nil the horn. He deptutized four of them. We’ve killed the rest. So he’s fresh? The Judge growls. Palpebra hits him. You might want to sedate him, says Nil. Palpebra hits the Judge harder.

Calvus is walking past to the parlor next door, to meet with the Yanalli priests. Nil signals him over. Ishta’s walking past as well, carrying her lantern. Calvus asks they all step inside to speak privately. He’s impressed with the Judge. Nothing I do will be damaging, says Nil. If you need to damage him, that’s fine, says Calvus. Nil reveals that some of the Yanalli priests are moon priests. From over the mountain? No, loyal to the Prince, more of a reversion to the old ways. They’re worried about famine, and might be desperate, and so must be handled with care. I see, says Calvus. Is that door the only way out of the room? says Palpebra. And they might suspect my source, says Nil, so any dealings should either be final, or soft-pedalled. Let’s make it final, says Palpebra. Rather than letting on what we know, says Nil, we should make it clear we understand their concerns. Anyway, it’s Manu Tenére’s concern. Well, they should tell the priests themselves, says Nil. I could arrange for Lætitia to come speak with them personally, says Calvus. Oh, and my cousin was hoping to meet with them, says Ishta. She could help as well. Indeed, says Nil. Calvus suggests a message be sent to the Finger and Mrs. the Finger to let them know about the meeting he’s having with the Yanalli priests. Should I tell her about the conspiracy? says Nil. Why would we include her and not her husband? No, no, I just meant telling her, says Nil, but both, yes, most certainly. Could we have him moved to my study? Yes, says Palpebra.

I think Nil’s overreacting a little bit, says Ishta. The priests seem fine to me.

A message is delivered to Nipi, informing her of the meeting with the Yanalli priests; she goes to speak with the Finger, who’s in a depressive funk, drinking white baby like water. She tells him she’ll go to the meeting, so he can take the afternoon to shave and bathe and pull himself together.

Palpebra delivers the captive Judge to Nil, who’s prepared his room with heavy drapes to block out the sky. Nil asks Lhimpat to fetch his rosewood box. The Judge, still tied to the chair, is laid on his back. Nil starts inserting needles into the Judge’s ear canal. He asks Lhimpat to roll out the paper. Palpebra describes the interrogation of the three candidates, what they learned, how they selected the most likely candidate once the Judge had converted them all. This one is young, has no parents, was in fine mental health and physical health aside from the missing foot. (“We only had to cut off the one,” says Palpebra.) Nil sets up the Judge to be read over a couple of long, boring hours, and Palpebra offers to leave his guard. Nil asks if Palpebra could give him a connection, to facilitate communication; Palpebra isn’t too sure, so Nil gives him a shell. Thanks, says Palpebra. You need me, you can always reach me through Claudio, my assistant. —If you do decide to unstitch his lips, be careful. Of course, says Nil. Because among other things, he’s a biter.

Ndapé introduces the magi and the priests to each other. Yabo’kachi is dressed ritually: white gauze, bare feet. Wahalla’s belligerantly drunk. Shoka’s jerking her foot repeatedly. Okakmi’s worn out from a night full of bad dreams. Iiba-lokshi’s impressed to meet the Calvus. —Some discussion of how important it is to have a town that’s peaceful enough to pickle in, dammit. The priests want to know what’s happened to all the other priests from Naapiisachi. Calvus and Ishta promise to look into it all. How quickly do you intend to have things settled? asks the Yanalli Brewer. There’s a knock at the door. Ndapé goes to answer it: it’s Palpebra, who informs Ndapé that the Judge in the Valley is on the move. Ndapé tells Calvus, who promises to cut the meeting short as soon as he can, and asks Ndapé to summon the magi to the council chamber.

Palpebra goes to Nil’s rooms to fetch him, but Nil’s deep in the spell, reading the Judge, kneeling over his head. Palpebra fetches Gi to help him find out if something's wrong with Nil. Lhimpat lets them in and they see Nil actually kneeling on the Judge's head, work wires into his subject's ears. The Judge is sing-songing through the gag and his sewn lips. Gi goes ashen and is stunned by the scene; Palpebra asks if this how usually things were done. Gi, appalled, says no, doesn't think so, then goes out into the hall and vomits. As Palpebra discusses with his guard what might be done, Nil completes his spell. I’m done with him, says Nil, rolling up the paper. The guard points; Palpebra shrugs. The guard stabs the Judge in the throat, bundles up the body, and takes it down to the dungeons, as Palpebra heads out to take flight back up the Valley after the Judge.

Calvus and Ishta retire to Calvus’ room; Ishta’s talking about arranging a dance to raise morale. Calvus asks if Ishta is going to experiment with her lamp, she use the underground labs, and not the Great Hall.

Nil heads down to Gi’s room to apologize. Nil points out, for what it’s worth, there was little to no physical pain involved. Having your mouth sewn shut? says Gi. I didn’t do that, says Nil.

Okakmi’ and Iiba-lokshi are in the Great Hall, talking about the decimation of Naapiisachi. Nipi joins them, and pledges to do what she can to expedite an invetigation of what became of the town.

Servants are running about, summoning the magi to a council meeting. On their way down, Nil and Gi meet Nipi, who asks them to look into investigating Naapiisachi’s demise. It’s vitally important. We’ll do what we can, says Nil. Should I summon my husband to the council chamber? We need to see what kind of meeting it is, first, says Gi. Thank you, magi, says Nipi.

Gi then pulls Nil into an empty room on the second floor to make out; Gi needs to reassured and is having problems articulating it verbally.

Ishta sends a bird to Perdix with a note: buy as much clothing and bandages and cloth as you can and send it on.

Tully comes into the council meeting with a cat. Ishta’s got her lamp. Calvus is there already. Gi and Nil show up a little late and dishevelled. (“No,” says Jenn, “Gi has grooming spells.”) Tully wants to know who called the meeting. Palpebra, says Calvus. Sonata’s flutters in from the basement. Some discussion as to whether the meeting was intended for tonight, or immediately, since Palpebra called it, and Palpebra is already on his way to deal with the Judge, who’s on the move, toward Nemus Animæ. Likely because of my interrogations, says Nil. Who were you interrogating? says Sonata. A Judge, says Calvus. Footless, says Gi. —Sonata is brought up to speed.

Nipi goes to look for her husband, but he isn’t in their rooms, or the baths, or the Scarecrow King.

Nil brings up Naapiisachi. Calvus mentions the priests don’t remember what happened, but a unified answer is required. I’ve informed them we have no real answer, but that villagers went missing from the town the Crow was born in. We could say the Judge led them off to, says Ishta, trailing off. Precisely, says Nil. Do we admit to, says Ishta. Slaughtering them all? says Sonata. That would be unwise, says Nil. It would also be unwise to imply that Crow has struck twice, as that would cause panic. We should say they fought back and the Judge destroyed them, says Nil. That would have all the desired effects. Yes, but the Pickler from Naapiisachi implied the Judge had been there for almost a month, says Ishta. Which means there was a couple of weeks of them knowing, at least, while the Judge was walking about. That’s a long time to debate and fight. We could I suppose tell them there was a town meeting of some sort... Do you think one of them will stand up and say no, in fact, our people sided with the Judges! says Nil. But the people vanished, says Sonata. If there had been a fight, there would have been a battle. The Judges don’t make people go away. What do Crows do? says Gi. We could say the Judge incinerated them all, says Nil.

Gi asks for a briefing. Tully explains: the Judge had total control of the village, and was using villagers as shileds. How many people were killed? He had, essentially, and army of 1 – 200 people. And most of them were killed. I killed them, because I had no choice. She wiped the memories of the survivors, and I destroyed the corpses of the dead. —Nil gets up to leave the meeting to process his experiment. —It’s decided Tully will handle the Judge. Calvus will look into the towns attacked by the Judges. Gi will drag Manu Tenére into the story of what happened to Naapiisachi: the Crow struck, attacking the Judge, and Manu Tenére destroyed the bodies, and who knows why the Crow wiped their memories?

Perdix? says Ilba. How are we going to get all this back? You see those men over there? You see those crates? They’re going to repack all our bales of cloth and put it in those crates. And then you’ll spend an entire afternoon packing them onto the people-mover. Oh, joy, says Ilba. If you’d asked nicely, says Perdix. Ilba rolls her eyes. Perdix smiles. Did you really think I’d spoken with those ruffians and negotiated such an arrangement? You’re constantly surprising me, says Ilba. Well, watch this, says Perdix, and their shipment shrinks. Go put it in your pockets, says Perdix. No! says Ilba. You think the spell will break? Like all those times in the chest, and the castle... You pushed me out a window, says Ilba. Go fetch our things, says Perdix.

After Gi and Nil leave the council meeting, Sonata remembers to bring up the priest moon conspiracy, and some pieces are put together that Nil had tried to keep under wraps: namely, Nipi’s role as the Green Moon intendent. Nipi? says Ishta, who sticks up for her cousin. She’s just a social climber. There must be some mistake. I suppose, says Sonata. It’s been rather vague. There doesn’t seem to be any hostility towards us, and I may have misunderstood. Still, says Calvus, with her position as the Finger’s wife. Our family is very loyal to the Prince, says Ishta. They’re all loyal to the Prince, says Sonata. And she was in the Love and Reason festival! says Ishta. —I suppose they’ll get their miracle, says Sonata, if Gi will get Manu Tenére to deal with the aftermath of the storm. We just need to make sure they realize it comes through the magi from Love and Reason.

Sonata suggests they might at some point discuss the gifts Gi brought back.

meta

Some discussion of goals: what we collectively might want from where we are, and how to get there. “It seems a little like we’re playing Sim City at the moment.” Why do we have refugees? —Yanalli fled before the Judges arrived, worried they’d be forced to turn on the Prince; the priests also wanted to force Nipi’s and Calvus’ hand in protecting the Valley. The folks from Yanalli don’t intend to stay any longer than it takes to restore order. (“Only that long?”) —Other plots: the pig herders (that will happen in Fall, along with the Hunt); the war itself, and the Savacions, and the Quintus Opacans, and the outstanding order for a Judge and a Miller; the Elearnoréan experiments; the return of Yem and his father; the outcome of Hurricane Lætitia; Nil and Gi’s Excellent Adventure to Here; the (eventual) return of Perdix and Ilba; further exploration of the magic of Nemus Animæ (and Sol Media Nox)—the ghost, and Gi’s trip, and the gifts, and the three apprentices.

It’s suggested to start off each session by focusing on a specific character, and go through the scenes that follow from that; if a scene does not suggest itself, return to that character (or move on to the next, as needed). —Giving the session an anchor. Jake suggests going around the room at the beginning of each session and having each player say what they’re interested in getting from the session, to provide some focus. —Number each plot and roll a die at the beginning of each session?

Tonight, because it’s Kip’s birthday, and also because Nipi’s is the most pressing plot, Nipi will be the focus character. We’ll go about the room clockwise, so next week is Jenn’s turn.

Also, some discussion of babysitting logistics.

Some discussion of Judge-magic: once a Judge prays to the Judge, the Judge can reach them through open sky. When the captive Judge is brought into the room with Nil’s Valley map, the Judge could do something small and ineffective through the sky implicit above that map...