hexarchate_rpg | Chapter 2.1 (such as it is)

[GM's note: This is Ashari's summation of the mission briefing to Sasha, who is the new team leader in the interests of whisking away inactive PCs. While this letter is addressed privately to Sasha in-character, players are welcome to have out-of-character discussions [in bracketed comments] about, e.g., logistical concerns or things that they would like for their own characters. Regular IC discussion--e.g. if Sasha decides to start a meeting to discuss planning--can also happen in comments to this post, without the brackets.]

[Reminder: I'm out of the country from Sun., Dec. 2 to Wed., Dec. 5, so will be out of commission during those days and maybe a couple after. I apologize for the bad timing but hope this will give y'all something to chew on in my absence.]

[ETA: For reference, this is the one existing map of the hexarchate]. It's ca. Revenant Gun, but you can see some sites of historical interest. Candle Arc, for instance, is near the bottom center, in the Glover March.]

Congratulations, Sasha. You're in charge now. I expect you have very strong opinions on how things should be done. I look forward to hearing all about it upon my return.

As I told you earlier, Kaliyan, Ankat, Yehan, and myself will be siting a new base of operations just in case we need to cut our ties to the rebellion, or the Quill-led part of it. But don't worry. I wouldn't leave you entirely without hawks and foxes to play with. Don't hesitate to bully the new recruits as necessary to get the job done. I for one consider it highly promising that you seem to be getting along smashingly with the new Kel.

Here's your part of the mission. I have received reliable intelligence (no, you don't get to ask what I did to get it, unless you want to arm-wrestle for it after I get back) that there's going to be a significant push into the Lanterner era. Moreover, Quill is involved with rebellion operations via a rift to the heptarchate during 852 [h*archate timeline for reference]. Given what I understand to be the historical significance of that time period, this could be a major push.

Your task is to enter 852 via the rift map that Nirai Remi has provided us and figure out what Quill's people are up to. If this is a major intervention, what are they trying to accomplish? Can we get anything out of it?

The exit of the aforementioned rift will take you to a Lanterner orbital stronghold called Autumn Pyre. (They seem to have gotten their naming sensibilities from the Kel, how tiresome.) It's three days' travel by Cantata to Candle Arc, which has not yet happened. (You know what I mean.) Autumn Pyre is a military base, but it also houses a Lanterner aristocrat-diplomat named Aramis kae Pharon who fancies themself a natural philosopher and is interested in studying rift phenomena. Like civilized people, the Lanterners put their family/house name first, the personal name last. The "kae" designates an aristocrat or person of high rank--it can be given to generals and the like even if they're of low birth, it's all very complicated. Unfortunately for Autumn Pyre, but fortunately for us, Lanterner cultural peculiarities mean that kae Pharon is what we'd consider the "ranking officer."

Quill's people have already made contact with kae Pharon. Quill herself doesn't appear to be on site--yet. I've obtained forged orders that should make you look like reinforcements for the rebellion. Things are chaotic there anyway, what with interdimensional travelers. Get to Autumn Pyre and find out what's going on before it comes around to bite us in the ass. Oh, and if you get a chance, grab me some Lanterner red cordial, I've always wanted to try it. Good luck!

Ashari

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Sabotage? Excellent. I lack somewhat in military skills, but when it comes to jamming the gears of bureaucracy or shifting attention..." That fox smile again, thin and sharp.

"Of course I don't expect a substantial overhead of bureaucracy in our mercenary group? But no doubt the Lanterners have structures we can put to use."

Her smile becomes somewhat less predatory with the mention of Alaric as distraction. "I think we can manage that. After all, unharnessed mothlings would be in danger if they were discovered, would they not? and none of us want that. Is there some other thing he likes?"

"Explaining how brilliant he is! But stars forbid you try to check his work." Sasha's tempted to laugh here, which is a fucking dangerous impulse, because she doesn't know what Reshad's true priorities are. Or anything about her, really, except that she's very beautiful and--obviously--very good at what she does.

She says, more slowly, "We might be able to fake a change of orders for Flute, if we really needed to confuse things. Perhaps if we dropped a message pod near the rift, with a couple of sets of recorded commands, and only activated it if we need them."

"Well, that's a start." Reshad does laugh, apparently clean amusement rather than anything more sinister. "I suppose I'll learn more as we go." But everyone likes to show their work, Alaric perhaps more than most? Noted.

"That would be a useful thing to do. If we have a message pod to use that way..." She stops, thinks, putting on a display of it for Sasha's benefit. She closes her eyes and taps her pursed lips with a manicured finger. Simple reconnaissance, but with an untrained team, a chaotic situation, and a pending massacre. Not so simple, after all.

"Get in, figure out what Quill is up to, get out before... well, Candle Arc. We have a message pod; we can forge orders for Quill if we need it; we should. A retreat, and a betrayal if we can figure out who's most in need of an angry swarm." Her eyes snap open. "We can generate a distress message to store on the pod; one that will pull people to some backwater of space. That could be useful. Of course, these are nothing more than tools in our hands, with the hope that we never fall back on our backup plans."

She attempts to look reassuring. "And then we get out... how much time did you expect us to have before Candle Arc?" Days, at worst. (No; hours. She resists the urge to look for something wooden to touch.) Months at best.

[Good question! How precisely do we know when we will arrive, relative to the battle?]

[Y'all believe that you are arriving fourteen days before the battle. However, given the disruption to the timeline, the battle's date may itself be in flux. You're pretty sure you'll at least have a week and plenty of warning in case of hostilities breaking out, though.]

Sasha doesn't habitually bite her nails, but she is immediately and distractingly reminded that last time she chipped the nail on her index finger she pulled a scrap off with her teeth, and she hasn't had a chance to file it down properly. She successfully avoids staring at her own hands, though staring at Reshad's isn't much better. "We'll have two sevendays, if everything's on track. Maybe a few days less, if the rift is unreliable or the timeline is shifting."

"That should be entirely doable." She smiles.

And what an interesting reaction that was - with a graceful fan of her fingers, she lays her hands on the table, just to see if Sasha follows along.

"Timeline... shifting? How interesting." Reshad lets a note of worry into her voice. "And how alarming. I'll plan for a short engagement, then, and if we have longer, that's margin for error."

Edited 2019-01-02 03:54 (UTC)

Layers of hell, Sasha, this isn't Ashari, you can fucking look her in the eyes.

"When you're trying to change history, sometimes it changes faster than you expected."

Ah - as she thought. Reshad's hands still.

"I suppose one must be careful not to use the same name before or after an event that makes the history books," she says, thinking aloud. "If Asha Piyo is known in one time, they may attract more attention in another. I'll use a different name, then, in case we succeed more publicly than we may like."

So Reshad knows that Sasha can't ignore the contrast between them. Knots and stars, Sasha should have better control than this; she has allowed Ashari to get to her.

"It wouldn't have to be very public. One future fox or wolf with a taste for archival research could cause us a lot of difficulties. Tell me the name you want to use, when you've chosen it, so I can arrange appropriate identification papers."

"Vhi Eres." She answers almost immediately. "The family name is simply one I like; the personal is an iteration of mine. Easy to remember, easy to pronounce."

And unless she reads Sasha wrong, she's discomfited her badly. She stays still, casual - curious beneath the surface.

Edited 2019-01-07 05:15 (UTC)

[I have updated the table of pseudonyms!]

[Thanks! Er, did I miss the boat for a wiki account? I can go babble about Reshad's home society and such over there.]

[You may request a wiki account at any time! Email me (yoon at yoonhalee dot com) or PM me with your desired username. I'll set it up with a temporary password and email/message you when it's set up, and then you should go in and change the password to the one you want to use, and you can go to town! :) ]

Chapter 2.1 (such as it is)

Re: cover stories - paging Reshad

Re: cover stories - paging Reshad

Re: cover stories - paging Reshad

Re: cover stories - paging Reshad

Re: cover stories - paging Reshad

Re: cover stories - paging Reshad

Re: cover stories - paging Reshad

Re: cover stories - paging Reshad

Re: cover stories - paging Reshad

Re: cover stories - paging Reshad

Re: cover stories - paging Reshad

Re: cover stories - paging Reshad

Re: cover stories - paging Reshad

[wiki logistics]