Session 40
Fall, Months 10, 11, and 12 of Year 1308
Everyone levels. The efreet’s bonus to the land ends (see The Eminence of Efreet below). Merideth’s Knights cycle the Harvest rituals throughout Galaufabonne. We switch over to Thomas Weigel’s urban settlement definitions (minus the setting-specific stuff). As of the end of Fall (including the massive growth Vulfelind initiated this season):
City of Brass (50,000 families, Megalopolis, Class I market)
Paris (27,000 families, Megalopolis, Class I market)
Bone Temple (23,588 families, Megalopolis, Class I market)
Orléans (15,700 families, Metropolis, Class II market)
Atanung (9,200 families, Metropolis, Class II market)
Oak Spring (731 families, Town, Class IV market)
Fey Dale (607 families, Town, Class IV market)
They devote 10 of the 13 weeks to clearing lairs (31 lairs and 6 hexes), all of it along the southern border … and put it in Galswintha’s hands. They do not dungeon delve at all, although Vulfelind sends a letter to Jade to let her know not to expect them.
The Eminence of Efreet
Amidst the whispers and dreams of elemental fire that assail her constantly, Galswintha hears a familiar voice, an efreet who granted her wishes. He wishes to speak with her. She assents, and prepares braziers and incense to help him feel at home.
When he arrives, it is through a circle of fire. He is introduced by burning cherubim as Yassim of the City of Brass, and she greets him and offers him fine wines and oils. He seats himself, ill at ease, and begs forgiveness - the wish he granted her requires maintenance, and he desires to be free of it.
Galswintha: Releasing you - this will not harm our kingdom?
Yassim: I swear it will not.
Galswintha: Then you are released. I will explain to Chlodomer.
Yassim: Can you forgive me?
Galswintha: There is nothing to forgive. I can only thank you for continuing so long.
Yassim: Truly, you are a light among your people.
Galswintha, at this point, cocks her head to the side in a fashion which has been known to send chills down the spines of hardened warriors, and asks, “Is there a reason your people don’t trade with our world?”
The resulting discussion is fruitful: most humans cannot be trusted, but if the trade were to go through Galswintha and her two companion cities …
Galswintha talks to the party about using two of the three remaining wish cylinder seals, and with their agreement:
-
Engages engineers, craftsmen, and laborers in the construction of a well 100 feet across, walled with granite and quartz, and deep enough (i.e., expensive enough) to function as the endpoint of a permanent gate, at the edge of the town of Fey Dale.
-
Wishes for a gate to the City of Brass, centered on the well on this side, and at a similar well erected by Yassim on his noble properties at the other, plus a second wish to make the gate permanent.
The result is a thousand-foot well-shaped wormhole which reverses “up” at the middle, and gets progressively hotter as it approaches the efreet side. Looking down the well, a rust sky and golden clouds are visible as a light at the end.
The remainder of the season is spent constructing a massive and sturdy stairwell wide enough for a caravan, with a bizarre bit of architecture at the center: where the gravity is split, both sides meet in what should be a sheer, vertical block of stone, but is actually a horizontal block oriented against the split gravity: a marketplace at the middle of the thermal continuum, where humans and efreet can trade.
The Rise of Bone Temple
Vulfelind maxes out her syndicate population and the smaller syndicates in her guild.
And with Bone Temple at 15,000 population, Vulfelind needs a cash outlay, badly. At the beginning of month 10, she is sitting on half a million gold - mostly party shares, as adventuring cash leaves her fingers almost as soon as they touch it. That is enough to expand Bone Temple’s infrastructure sufficiently for a Class I city … but only if she abandons the current infrastructure benefits (improved density and secret passages).
To expand and keep them will cost 3 million gold. The Grim Fist as a whole doesn’t have that much.
So Vulfelind promises herself that she will re-build those benefits into the city later … and expands the urban infrastructure sufficiently for its (eventual) growth into a Class I city. The excitement of expansion attracts almost 1,800 new families to the growing city … and the party burglar gets excited, too.
Vulfelind: Guys, guys, guys! I need the money I said I didn’t need, but I do, really, and oh please, please, please!?
Armed with another 1.5 million gold, she continues to invest, this time building and expanding the aquaducts and city planning … and another 5,200 families move in. Bone Temple is now Class I. And while not as large and beautiful as Paris, it represents substantial competition.
Vulfelind immediately begins expanding her syndicate again.
The rest of the members of the Grim Fist look at the moths fluttering out of their purses and wonder how she talked them into that.
(Their share of the profit her newly grown city generates quickly reminds them.)
Vulfelind plows that money right back into improvements, and by the end of the season, has rebuilt the city her way.
The Persuasion of Chlodomer
Chlodomer spends the Fall in Iamanu’s realm, unable to participate in the hex-clearing … or much of anything else. He leaves Haramer in charge at home.
He does not waste this time, however: on the contrary, he uses it to ingratiate himself with Iamanu, to spy on the other Dukes, and to get a better feel for the realm as a whole.
And indeed, Iamanu seems to think that is the point of having him there.
Iamanu’s realm has six Dukes: Red, Ebon, Blue, Green, Yellow, and White. Chlodomer visits with all but the storm giant Lord Agathon (Green Duke of the Idle Coast, who views Chlodomer as a vile murderer of giants) and Lord Hesiod (Yellow Duke of Mt. Hesiod, and ruler of a Chaotic realm of beastmen).
Lord Demosthenes (White Duke of Thin River) is delighted to see Chlodomer, particularly as a male. He hosts Chlodomer in quite luxurious style, and introduces (again) his two younger daughters (Calliope and Thalia). Of the two, Calliope is a feckless poet with a talent for swordplay, and Thalia is a sylvan witch with seemingly few scruples.
He gets along quite well with Calliope, especially where Law and justice and pretty words are concerned.
Later, in the White Duke’s exquisitely maintained garden, Demosthenes walks with Chlodomer, and suggests a permanent alliance.
Demosthenes: Iamanu, as I am sure you are aware, cares not for Law or Chaos.
Chlodomer: Indeed.
Dem: But until you arrived, the lands tilted Chaos.
Chlod: I thought …
Dem: Green and Yellow, both, rule by fear and wrath. Ebon and Red would avoid conflict.
Chlod: Is that why you are throwing your daughters at me?
Dem, laughing: In part. Their brother will inherit. I would give my daughters what security I can.
Chlod: Hm. I must think on it.
Dem: I would expect no less.
There is no drawn-out drama. Chlodomer asks for Calliope’s hand the next morning, Demosthenes agrees, and representatives of both duchies are sent to negotiate the details of dowry and bride price.
Galswintha, when she gets the news, arrives within days to talk to Calliope, both to check her over for someone very close to a big brother … and to let Calliope know that the extremely dangerous sorceress has her back if the big lug is a jerk.
It’s a mixed message, at best.
By the end of the year, however, the marriage has been cemented. Iamanu presides over the wedding, and spends gold on an extra (and expensive) festival in both duchies. Galswintha cries; Vulfelind crooks an eyebrow.
The bride price is an ornate river boat; 25 stone of platinum ingots; and four brand new pegasuses, selected for their suitability as breeding stock.
The dowry is ten flawless sapphires of deepest midnight; and a pair of enchanted silver hooves +3. Chlodomer looks the hooves over, does some mental math, and turns to face Demosthenes directly, “You have been planning this for a while.”
Demosthenes grins, “Since I knew your heart to be just.”
The morning gift is given to Calliope the next day: a huge round tower within walking distance of one of the four Azure Hot Springs, and funds to furnish it as she chooses. “This,” Chlodomer smiles, “and the four square miles it oversees are yours and yours alone. You may furnish, garrison, and manage it as you choose. And I do not wish to impinge upon any other lands or properties you may acquire - only, within my own realm, you have a place that is yours and in which you may have peace, even from me, if you so wish.”
There are some who slanderously imply that he had help in figuring out what to give her, but Galswintha admits nothing.
The Conflict of Church
Grand Patriarch Richilieu of the Church of the Lady is 12th level. Merideth hit 12th near the end of year 1307, but chose not to press any issues; hit 13th near the middle of 1308 (the current year), and still chose not to press any issues; and hit 14th by the end of 1308, and still continued to pay tithes.
She was content to let it lie, and the Grand Patriarch gave her wider latitude than he did most of his Patriarchs.
As summer turned to fall, however, the Grand Patriarch died of age. And of the two most powerful Patriarchs (not counting Merideth, who had no lands and couldn’t possibly be of serious import, especially considering that they were pretty sure the only reason she was a Matriarch at all was because the Grand Patriarch and Chlodomer were sweet on her), one made a bid for the Grand Patriarchy and - where all but Merideth were concerned - succeeded.
And because he had no use for the fairer sex, he rescinded Merideth’s status within the Church, and sent a vassal of his own to take over the Patriarchal duties of Galaufabonne. Along with a small army of Knights and fanatics, just in case she proved unwilling.
Not given to strong displays of emotion, Merideth and her Church Knights, backed by the Galaufabonne military, crush the army in short order and capture the would-be Patriarch. She brings him to one of the smallest temples in Galaufabonne, and introduces him to the head priest, then, to the Patriarch, “You will serve here for one full year, and then report back to me. You will scrub floors, dust alcoves, clean latrines, tend the gardens, and do anything else the head priest asks of you. This temple will shine in the Lady’s glory from your efforts. You will keep a journal of what you have done each day, and you will bring this journal when you report to me a year from now. Do you understand?”
The cleric nods, carefully, and Merideth prays to the Lady, and bestows a quest on the vassal of the unworthy Grand Patriarch. Eyes wide, he tries and fails to resist, then - shoulders slumped - he nods again.
Merideth leaves him there, as he begins his daily chores.
She sends no message at all to the new Grand Patriarch … nor does she send tithes. Near the end of Fall, the other Patriarchs, trying to sense which way the wind is blowing, arrive to visit Merideth’s temple stronghold in Galaufabonne. Her power is obvious in person … but she owns no land.
Merideth gives this some thought, then conferences with Chlodomer … and Chlodomer grants the lands of Utena’s Shadow (#1607, and the ruins of the cloud castle) to the Church of the Lady under Matriarch Merideth, with a promise of expanding those lands as time and effort permitted.
Merideth sends her minions to construct a “central” temple, and returns to tell the Patriarchs …
And there, in an obscure duchy of a dragon’s tiny kingdom, the five Patriarchs of the Church of the Lady agree that the Grand Patriarch is not fit for the title, and name Merideth Grand Matriarch, and Utena’s Shadow the new holy center of the Church.
Merideth sends a Knight and that Knight’s army with each Patriarch, to guard their passage home and to aid them in tearing down the former Grand Patriarch. Chlodomer, for his part, puts his military at her use to aid in the seemingly inveitable war.
… and despite the oncoming chill of Winter, all agree that sooner is better.