npc inbox: taravast

[groundrules]

NPC INBOX: TARAVAST

Reach out to your (not-so-)favourite NPC here, putting their name in the comment header. Try to keep it to just quick text/audio/written exchanges or inquiries that can accept summarised answers, please!

PREVIOUS NPC INBOX FOR ARC I: SA-HARETH & STAIRS OF SIGHS

	MACALUSO Earnest and moderate nephew of Bonaccorso, seeking to succeed his grandfather. A pursuer of astronomy, accountancy, diplomacy and elemental magic, with a long history of supporting the witches of Bessis. Champions firmer ties with foreign citadels to improve Taravast's access to armies and resources. Looking to choose a bride.
	VANNOZZA Beautiful and fierce niece of Bonaccorso, contending to become the next Ilia Doxe. Mind of a scientist and a lady of the hunt. A practitioner and frequent visitor of the necromantic and healing sectors. Has entertained and turned away more lovers than the heroine of a particularly sappy romance novel. Often indisposed.
	RIGARDA Lively, charismatic and gossip-prone lady of the highest echelons, received at every gathering. Can slaughter half a dozen reputations with the right twitch of her brows before breakfast. An associate of the Merchant's and old friend of the current Ilia Doxe of Taravast, Bonaccorso. Indifferent in the game of succession. Loathes crumpets and witches.
	THE LAVISH LOCALS From the witches of Bessis or Attaryl to academicians, politicians, nobles, servant folk, artists or protestors — if you’ve got a question, someone can surely supply an answer.
	THE MERCHANT The patron saint of etiquette and the eastbound getaway expedition. Seems to largely trade information alongside wares. Appreciates spices, strategy and collaboration. Has an eerie and overly cautious manner. Committed. Defends the benefit of the many, to the detriment of the few.
	KARSA Sorceress, young (?). Employed by the Merchant and deferential to him. Talented but fiery and frequently impatient, intolerant of fools. She will get today's job done yesterday. Struggles to sympathise with men, objections and those who cannot absorb information quickly. Enchanted the group's translation devices. Only available until 28/12.
	ASGEIRR The ghost of a scholar monk. Haunts the tattered execution cloak that the party stole from the La Rea bank in Sa-Hareth. Once a champion of equality and freedom, he faced ire for converting his followers against the regionally profitable trade of slavery. Soft-spoken but wise and just, slow to regain his strength. Will speak to those who visit his cloak in brief interludes. Favours necromancers.

SA-HARETH

"HALTHAM" | ANURR The undead warlord Anurr, previously posing as gentle-mannered giant Haltham. An embodiment of Sa-Hareth's cold storms and wind, who regained his territory from contender Unhalad with the inadvertent help of the party in Arc I. Frostily rational and amenable to some negotiation.

Comments

[aprescoup]

Certainly, my pet. And how?

[gladiokinesis]

See, I'm supposed to one of the suitors and the way I see it? We can use that to our advantage.

[aprescoup]

We can use the extended presence of a man who is acquainted with the entirety of my secrets, who should represent my interests, in the... ranks... of my cousin's brawlers. And their wine.

We must have a very different understanding of advantage.

[gladiokinesis]

I'm not big on drinking -- so no worries about the wine. My body is a temple. But, I was trained to be a soldier, to be a spy, if you have me on the inside, I can get information for you.

That's the advantage.

[aprescoup]

Assuming... you can be trusted. Can you?

[gladiokinesis]

I can be. Though I suppose it's up to you whether you can take my word for it or not.

[aprescoup]

I care deeply for my city. What do you care for?

[gladiokinesis]

My family. And three of them are here in this city. (eight if you count his wolves....)

[aprescoup]

Of course. Perhaps I know them?

[gladiokinesis]

I think you know Allison. (she's been involved in the matchmaking, after all. and she's the most...together of them. if anyone is going to buy him credibility it's allison.)

[aprescoup]

The matchmaker. A beauty. Certainly.

Then let us have an arrangement, my pet. More, a prophecy. A set of conditions I am certain we can both agree with an easy heart to meet.

Here it is: if you betray me, if you sell me, if you play me, you savage my people, my Taravast. My ruin is theirs.

Then, all things being equal, so too must be my retaliation. And I assure you, if you move against me, by the time I have shared your kin Allison as a plaything among every last one of my men, the strong and the cripple and the fools, by the time I have cut her hair and sent her a beggar to be spit upon by every citizen in the street, she will also be ruined.

Because if I do not win, we all lose.

Am I understood? Of course I am. Your mind pertains to your body, and your body is a temple. What a smart man you are. Go to Macaluso.

[gladiokinesis]

(the threat turns his stomach more than a little. allison doesn't deserve that. nobody deserves that. and the idea that he was making a deal with the type of person who would threaten such a thing...maybe he should have done his research first, but it was too late now.

it's fine, he wasn't planning on playing her or her people. it's totally fine? right? fuck. whatever, play it cool, play it cool....)

You got it.

[aprescoup]

Yes, my pet. I do.

[silverneedles]

I did not expect such from him.

[aprescoup]

And why, my creature? A man's reputation is only his face to the world.

[silverneedles]

Poison is much less straightforward. But then, neither of you are straightforward people.

[aprescoup]

My pet, why trouble me with insults?

[silverneedles]

No insult intended, my lady. A compliment, rather. I will trouble you no further with questions for now.

BONACCORSO | SEPTEMBER AUDIENCES

[aprescoup]

Health has ill favoured don Bonaccorso in his sunset years. The man presides over a room like a spider, half draped on his chair, half collapsed. He has requested his audiences, and, yet, by the time his summoned answer, he is — adrift. Nearly maudlin.

He asks, with a hand's waved flourish, for the recipient of his audience favour to sit, sooner than bend the knee.

"No need, no need. Speak, then. What do you make of our fine Taravast?"

ELEVEN

[aprescoup]

JIN GUANGYAO

[aprescoup]

attention Merchant

[weifinder]

Word has it the Bessis were looking for funds and information to the North and South of here, running into the dead rising and wandering and swallowing each notable city they encountered, aside from here. What I'm having to wonder is: what, if anything, do you want done about the man who sold everywhere else into Undead Lord hands?

How much is Lady Vannozza going to do to keep Taravast from falling like the rest, to have us aimed her way, instead of to her cousin?

[pulvisetumbra]

And what disposes you to the belief that Bonaccorso achieved this?

[weifinder]

Sliding in to listen to don Urbano de Fiescho speaking with another of the Bessis sent south to gather funds. In conversation, they credited don Bonaccorso for having negotiated the freedom of this citadel by way of his trade in magical resources to the undead. Such implied to aid in leading to the fall of other cities, including the one they lamented as being most likely to find a solution to the curse of undeath, Ellethia.

They knew, as much as anyone could guess as being obvious, that war is coming to their doorstep. It's only a matter of when it strikes.

[pulvisetumbra]

Do I understand you that you spied on witches?