hexarchate_rpg | Chapter 2.1 (such as it is)

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moves: chapter 2

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

Threaded | Flat

[Can we start numbering the moves as 2-1 or Chapter 2, Move 1, or something?

Other players, if you're not already there, please add your character's time of origin to the timeline post.]

Sasha sends Sulen a note asking for a meeting. The location is Communications and the time is early afternoon the day after the party.

[Has Ashari moved out of their office, or is everything intact?]

[Sasha's instinct is to hold a series of meetings with one to three other people, form a plan, and use a larger meeting to announce said plan. This has the advantage of efficiency. It has the disadvantage that we are not our characters! I do not personally fear that if I lose control Ashari or the Lanterners will eat me, and expect a more democratic approach will be more fun for everyone.

So, let's talk about how we want to approach this mission and which characters we want to get talking to each other?

eller and

pengwern, Sasha's plan will definitely involve assigning minders to Mafyyil and Mishka and hoping the teenagers don't break anything too valuable. This promises much hilarity, but I would also like your input on actual mission planning.]

[I think Sasha may have to delegate the extended grid-diving sequence to

redshiftnova, but in the short term, she will certainly have checked:

What happened to Autumn Pyre after the battle of Candle Arc?
What do the forged orders say?
What is Lanterner red cordial?

]

Sasha messages Iawa:

can u talk 2 ione & mafyyil abt life in the heptarchate. fyedlet esp. is going 2 be a problem, i owe u, 2 much to do.

She sends a memo to Ione and Mafyyil:

Please meet with Iawa about heptarchate social norms at your earliest convenience. We are headed out of heptarchate space but will be liaising with other rebellion forces.

Best,
S.

To just Ione, she sends:

pls. make the teenage girl see sense if you can. ~S.

Sasha sends everyone the following memo:

Dear All,

Our next assignment splits the team. Ashari, Ankat, Kaliyan, and Yehan have already departed on their part of the project. The rest of us are headed to Autumn Pyre in Lanterner Space in the year 852 (see attached briefing). As the senior rebellion member, I am in command. Sulen is serving as my second.

We'll have an all-hands meeting at 19:00. I will be meeting with many of you between now and then. Please familiarize yourself with our destination, and get ready to ship out in two days.

Best,
Sasha.

[The attached document is a redacted version of Ashari's letter, minus the stuff about bullying, arm-wrestling, etc. The version sent to Mafyyil and Mikodez also omits the commentary on Quill.]

Sasha invites Sulen and Virmad to the office (formerly Ashari's, now hers) to discuss the significance of Candle Arc and anything Virmad knows about Lanterner culture.

Sasha schedules a meeting with Aymad. It has two agenda items: Mikodez, and information retrieval.

Edited (trying to avoid a time loop) 2018-12-04 03:13 (UTC)

Sasha thinks the sensible thing for her to do would be to stay the fuck away from Reshad, but she needs the fox's skills, so she puts the teakettle on again and messages Reshad to set up a meeting.

Sasha invites Alaric, Seyli, and Remi to her office to discuss a cover story as weapons dealers.

[before I (accidentally this time) make Virmad spread misinformation in his meeting with Sasha and Sulen, I wanted to check in re what information "about as much as anyone who wasn’t involved in the heresy itself can about the Lanterners’ beliefs" (from Virmad's character write-up) would actually be.

I mentioned in the move-in thread back in, like, move 2 that Virmad has in his possession a small Lanterner icon pendant; I've been thinking about possible ways he could have come into possession of it — I think he probably got it from a Lanterner, which probably means he took it from someone he was interrogating and then just kept it instead of submitting it as evidence. maybe in the aftermath of Candle Arc? not a survivor, since there weren't any, but someone else who was captured in that part of the Glover March.

but he presumably had other sources — some of it was briefing info before the interrogation, some of it is stuff he cobbled together from Lanterner propaganda, some of it is from news reports and history documents, some of it is extrapolation from studies of whichever low culture the heresy originated in (I've been assuming that's where most heresies movements other than the Liozh heresy come from; if that's wrong, then ignore this). I wonder if maybe he met one or more crypto-Lanterners after the heresy was officially suppressed, too, since by that point he was already swinging away from calendrical orthodoxy.

I'll probably have more specific info requests later, but at the moment I guess I'm thinking, what would Virmad think would be useful as cultural context for a briefing with Sasha?]

Threaded | Flat

admin: times and numbers

human resources

OOC: leadership style & future plans - paging everyone, especially eller & pengwern

space Google

cultural literacy: paging Iawa, Ione, and Mafyyil

official announcement - paging everyone

so I hear there was a battle at Candle Arc - paging Virmad and Sulen

grids and foxes - paging Aymad

cover stories - paging Reshad

weapons development - paging Alaric, Seyli, and Remi