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

[pulvisetumbra]

Before we continue. You understand, should your transgression be discovered, that I shall be forced to forfeit our connection. You will have no backing, no recourse, no support. You are aware?

[weifinder]

I am aware that can be true at any time.

[pulvisetumbra]

I have no interest in accelerating the inevitability of don Bonaccorso's demise. Let nature have her course. He is ill. He will soon die. It will happen without trace.

[weifinder]

Neither do I object to waiting for his inevitability to claim his life. My concern becomes: do either of these successors have the wit and strength to handle what's coming? What's already crept in, ages ago, when the burnt remnants of those who died in earlier wars roam their private hunting grounds, and the necromancer's district shows as chattel the kind of dead which Unhalad claimed. Not the same, they don't hunger, but the awkwardness of them. Their curse is shared in some form.

Whatever the politician's games, or the witches' considerations, what will become of the people here?

[pulvisetumbra]

You will come to learn, with time, that people deserve their leaders.

[weifinder]

But do the leaders deserve their people?

[pulvisetumbra]

They are matched. What is it that would benefit you to hear?

I have no reassurances. The nephew and niece were raised in the bosom of the same court that produced their grandfather. They may be sincere in their politics, or show an entirely different cheek, once they have ascended to position.

Power changes men. It is no kinder to women.

[weifinder]

Power changes all. It's to what extent, and to what bearing of responsibilities or assigning of costs and collateral damage that no one knows, until seeing them bear up.

Why Vannozza?

[pulvisetumbra]

Because it had to be one of them.

[weifinder]

And is there any concern if we end up leaving Taravast to burn?

( there's a record, here, and it's not one born out of intent. it is one born out of people acting, and information revealed, and again, that lack of context. )

The Bessis at least believe there may be some hope in pouring their finances into the healing schools here, and, I presume, the necromantic ones. Unless there are those who can be salvaged out of the practises of your home, or other who make studies of curses like what we've seen with the mirrors.

[pulvisetumbra]

If you do not care for Vannozza, switch to her cousin.

[weifinder]

I don't care for politics as a whole, but I do care for the general people living underneath the weight of them. You say a people deserve their leader. What are you to us?

[pulvisetumbra]

As ever, an associate.

And what are you, Wei Wuxian? What do you aim to achieve, or pretend to care for?

[weifinder]

To send as many of my companions and myself home, living. What I am, or what I achieve, those are questions I don't have answers for even back home, but I don't need pretense when it comes to caring. I've never been fond of injustices against those without the means to fight against them.

If in the course of finding that path home, we can help find the crux to breaking this death curse and leaving this world to right itself in the wars of the living, so be it. I may deal in necromancy as a matter of circumstance, but I see no gains in a world left held in the hands of the dead who refuse to die.

[pulvisetumbra]

I see. If you believe sincerely that Macaluso Spina is the better candidate for the improvement of Taravast, you have all my permission to switch your fealties. Though I expect you did not require it.

It matters entirely little, Wei Wuxian. One has to lose, the other to win, and you must all remember to ask for access to the beacon as your reward.

[weifinder]

( he knows what the ultimate point is, but there it is: reiterated. )

I haven't forgotten.

[pulvisetumbra]

Truly. Because it appears to me, in the midst of your convenience of an ethical crisis, you may have.

Do you want to know the deepest, darkest danger that threatens Taravast at this very moment?

It is you.

[weifinder]

Oh, no, associate of mine. Of the many in our party who I guarantee have forgotten that point, it hasn't been me.

One kindness, of which very little is kind: would you remind Lan Wangji of the cost of death here, and what it is that can be done with us, body and soul sundered?

[pulvisetumbra]

So be it.

Have I put your mind at ease?

[weifinder]

No, but you've offered clarity. For that, my gratitude.

[pulvisetumbra]

I'm certain.