[Mkguild] The PAWNED master plan

[Michael Bard]

> Fun story! Yvarra plays the role of a self-important paladin exceedingly
> well, and I love the humor of an amoral thief getting "geased or quested
> or any of that crap." :)

I'm trying to keep it fun and not just create another "super warrior"
character to lurk around the keep.

> One thing you might not have been aware of: Metamor's market town,
> Euper, is at the base of the mountain ridge that the Keep rests on. The
> actual town of Metamor is up on top of the ridge, inside the outer
> curtain walls of the castle but outside the Keep proper. Part of the
> reason why caravans don't usually go up there is because of the winding
> road you have to take to get up to the castle. (Euper has a wooden
> stockade protecting it, but nothing fancier.) Some of the directions
> that characters give to Yvarra in this story seem to imply that the Keep
> is practically next door, when in fact it's a long walk up the mountain
> to get there.

I didn't know -- there are a strange lack of maps between the keep, and the
country.  I assumed that, as was typical in the medieval era, a town had
grown up outside the walled keep for people who didn't want to pay the fee
to go through the gate.  Nobody else has mentioned this.  It has now been
corrected by mentioning the keep proper being up on the top of a ridge, and
replacing all the "towards the keep" with "towards the keep road" referring
to the winding road up the ridge to the said keep.  :)

Thanks!

> Another item of note: only the Inner Keep has the non-Euclidean
> architecture. Metamor-town is built on top of the ridge, outside the
> Inner Keep. (Older layers of the Keep sit inside that ridge -- the rock
> and earth are only a relatively thin veneer over ancient and
> long-abandoned portions of the castle -- but the town is composed of
> buildings that were crafted by the Keepers themselves.)

I just used the idea of non-Euclidean geometry as a neat hook for the
wierdness down beneath.  It was suggested by Cubist actually.  The fact that
there are catacombs and tunnels and all kinds of stuff inside the ridge,
below the keep, fits perfectly.  I can toss almost anythign I want in there!
Including a narrow rock bridge with an insane man guarding it who asks
travellers these questions three, ere the other side they see.

Seriously, unless it's a hunk of volcanic granite (in which case I'll just
lava tubes), it's almost certainly limestone of some kind which means I can
toss all kinds of passages and tunnels in there.  And yes, the cultists have
been working at modifying the tunnels as required.

> <nods> Nothing wrong with that. Given her skill with transformation
> magic, Tarathana is probably one of Klepnos's children, a daedra noble
> -- this job is too important to entrust to a mere imp.
>
> It actually makes a lot of sense that Klepnos would be the one to deal
> with this. Not only is "The One" a thief who, at the very least, pays
> lip service to him, but he's always been the most far-sighted of the
> deities. His ability to perceive non-linear time makes him aware of
> things that the other deities haven't noticed – and since they think
> he's insane, they rarely pay much attention to his visions. Right now
> Ba'al and Kammoloth are busy with their schemes against each other, and
> neither of them is likely to listen to Klepnos. In light of this, it's
> entirely reasonable that he would take matters into his own hands,
> sending Tarathana to deal with the problem and singling out one of his
> worshipers as the tool for the job.

Nice to know that the simple act of grabbing a name "Klepnos" that suggested
a thief conenction due to its (intentional?) connection to "Kelptomanian"
has borne fruit.  :)  Of course, none of what you suggested will ever appear
in the stories, but it is the likely background, if anybody ever needs to
know.

> An Elder Sign doesn't feel like the right choice to me -- in the Cthulhu
> Mythos they are used as signs of protection /against/ the Ancient Ones.
> Admittedly, this is MK, and the signs could have different meanings of
> our choosing -- but if you're going to invoke the Mythos, it seems
> reasonable to stay true to its symbology. The Yellow Sign
> (http://www.miskatonic.net/pickman/mythos/ysig1.html) would  probably be
> a better choice.

I know, I realized that.  But it was 3 in the morning, I needed something,
so I tossed out the first thing that came to mind.  also, I wasn't sure how
acceptable my nefarious scheme would be, so using an Elder Sign with some
other name seemed to me to be a cute little inside joke, if all else failed.
:)  But, I will change to "The Yellow Sign", but will add a crown over it.
"King in Yellow" anybody?  :)

> > 2: ? : Yvarra goes to the fair of the Fall Festival disguised as a
jester.
> > The Sword of Songs is peace bound, and her alicorn is peace bound with
an
> > apple, either as a joke, or by some prick of a guard at the gate.  She
picks
> > some pockets, mingles, ENCOUNTERS CHARACTERS WHO WISH TO BE ENCOUNTERED,
and
> > then sneaks off to the keep to visit the library and try and get the
symbol
> > (an elder sign) identified.

Some other questions about the Fall Festival: what is it?  Is it a kind of
masquerade?  A fair on a commons outside the keep?  Quiet familiy dinners
where the streets are empty?  Are there games and contests?  Merchants?  In
my mind I was picturing more of a last great merchant fair of the season -- 
so lots of caravans in a commons somewhere -- along with games and drunken
revelry.  Kind of a ren fest with a larger dealers room set outside.  :)

> >
> > 2a: If some time needs to be killed, and/or there is a local "Thieve's
> > Guild"  that isn't run by major existing characters, she tries to make
> > contact.  Turns out the guild IS the cult and they go after her.  She
gets
> > away with a trail of bodies.  The cult sets up the watch to start going
> > after her seriously as a mass murderer.  To the keep at large, this is a
> > minor thing, maybe a topic of talk, but not of major importance compared
to
> > the threat of the Lutins and the evil archmage.

*IS* there a Thieve's Guild?  I kinda need to know this to write the 2a
section, if I do.  Or, to use the guild as a "public" front for the cult.

> the whole they've retreated to lick their wounds. The Keepers have been
> taking the war to Nasoj throughout the summer and fall, so people are
> likely focused on news of that campaign. Lilith's servants in the Murk
> have also been causing some concern, since they "liberated" Nasoj's
> mining town of Lik and have been working to build alliances with the
> humans in the surrounding towns. There is some worry that the Vampire
> Queen's agents are trying to take advantage of the power vacuum in the
> Giantdowns to carve out an earthly kingdom for their dark goddess. There
> hasn't been much in the way of open conflict between Keeper allies and
> Lilith's people -- border skirmishes, at most -- but the situation is
> making some people uneasy.
>
> All of this, combined with rumors of wars to the south, will be just as
> effective in drawing attention away from the cult as anything that Nasoj
> might once have done. :)

So, rumours about distant fights, worries about most of the guard being off
somewhere and fears of things sneaking in, and erronous rumours about what's
causing the sudden spate of deaths in the town are all good.  :)

> Well, as noted, the entire ridge houses a labyrinth of old passages of
> the Keep itself, long abandoned and forgotten by most people. There are
> some passages that reach far, far beyond the ridge and into the
> surrounding valley; Matty's characters used one of these to get away
> from Metamor during the Winter Assault. It's possible that the cultists
> might have found an entrance to the labyrinth and made use of it, though
> you'd have to come up with an explanation for why Kyia didn't know they
> were there. We know that magic exists that can render part of the Keep
> "dead"; perhaps the gods and daedra struck a bargain with Kyia in the
> distant past to turn part of her structure into a prison for the Titan.
> This area might have been rendered "dead" specifically to prevent anyone
> from using space-warping magic (like the Key) to access it. After ten
> thousand years, though, perhaps a hole has opened up somewhere -- or the
> cultists excavated until they were able to open up a hole for themselves.

As I said above, LOTS of fun fights in icky stinky darkness!  And yes, the
cultists have been busy tunnelling and preparing "Until the stars are
right".

> > The watch gets more involved, Yvarra goes into hiding.  Gets black dye,
> > something else from an alchemist to hide?  (Character alchemist maybe -- 
> > there is one in the town as I recall).  Likely more than one story here
as
> > it gets written.
> >
> Pascal is the Keep's alchemist; I don't know if there is another one in
> Metamor's town. It seems unlikely that Euper would have one, given its
> role as a market town, but I guess anything's possible.

Easier then just to get some conventional dye from the stinky part of the
town (medieveal dye manufacturing processes were NOTORIOUSLY bad for the
nose).

> I'm assuming this is because there /is/ no cult stronghold to speak of.
> :) These sorts of groups only survive by being sneaky...

Exactly!  Send a thief to catch a thief, as it were.

> Possible; it makes sense that the zanash-ka would be behind this.
> They're all insane by human standards, but they have varying degrees of
> cogency. It's likely that some of them are clever enough to disguise
> themselves with magic and then enlist the help of desperate Keepers to
> release their dark master.

I'm putting the Deep Ones in just for the horror factor.  The more the
merrier!  And, insanity is kind of a given for just about everybody involved
in this.  :)

> I definitely like the story line! These are some threads of the MK
> tapestry that have been hanging loose for too long, so I'm glad
> someone's playing with them. And it's fun to think that one of Klepnos's
> apparently-crazy missions is going to save the world. :)

YAY!

> Cheers,
>
> Raven

Thanks!

Michael Bard