UK LRP History – once there was free-text downtime…

I found this the other day, and I’m just sticking it here to see how far we’ve come… I *think* it’s a submission and response for a “downtime”, the period between events in a long-running lrp system, Omega in the UK.

Yes, the numbers in the submission are line numbers. Like in old computer code.

Mind-boggling, yes?

 Submission

100) Make sure Cullin (PID 507) is with me after he’s picked up the handles from Timujen
200) Take 2 cages of hides from my wagon to the Taykela camp before they pack up and go. These lammies are currently held in a small bag in GOD. If they can’t carry that much, leave what they _can_ carry and take the rest back to my wagon.
220) Remember to tell Al-Gicirus (PID 987) the physician that he’s coming the City with me, being as polite as possible.
250) Take lammie ID 1424 to the Tanu Keen camp before they pack up and go,  give it to Magog, Walker, Nyl, or any other Tanu Kee I find there if they aren’t about, tell them it’s just a present. Also inform them that the Avogadro of the Union  is  pioneering/artificiering road plans for the TanuKee/Price of Peace site road between now and the Grand Bazaar, and that Quintus (PID 653) and Occam (PID ???) will be transporting wood for me.
300)  Move the rest of  the hides and the wood from My Wagon, into the Room Between The Obelisks using the obelisk on the Price of Peace site.  Mark the pile ‘Keynes’ personal stash’. These lammies are currently held in a small bag in GOD.
310) Ask Spot to find a personal stash location for me in the Dragon lands somewhere where I can reach it through the obelisks whenever I want.
315) Ask Spot to arrange for the Obelisk at the price of peace site to be watched so that when Quintus and Occam turn up with wood for the Dragon, they are met, and the wood is unloaded.
316) Ask Spot where the nearest obelisk to the City is.
317) Ask Spot how on earth I am meant to convice the City folk I am their governor? Take any advice. Preferably, this would be a letter or even better a personal appearance from the Dragon.
320) Move the hides and wood to that stash – myself and Cullin (PID 507) will take it there, helped by Pax Draconis guards as available.
400) Give my 2 wagons to Quintus (PID 653) and Occam so that they can transport wood from Tanu Kee to the Obelisk at the Price of Peace site.
500) Kick off Cooperative Downtime “Pioneer Mapping around Obelisks” with PID 1090 . This involves me taking PID 1090 through the obelisk at the Price of Peace site, and then through one of the doors in the Room Between the Obelisks. The Obelisks I will be taking PID 1090 through are numbered, in order,  2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 19, 25, 28, 30, 31, 32.  For this I will be using lammie ID 4522
As specificied in the Cooperative Downtime “Pioneer Mapping around Obelisks” throughout this downtime, I will teleport back to the Two Tooths Obelisk at Dusk every 5 days, enter the Obelisk there, and re-appear just outside the obelisk  I last let PID 1090 through. Upon finding PID 1090, I take PID 1090 back through, and let PID 1090 out the next on the list.  If PID 1090 doesn’t appear, I’ll try again the next day. Repeat this every 5 days, until its time to go to the next Grand Bazaar.
600) Leave for the City with Cullin (PID 507) and Al-Gicirus (PID 987) Firstly, try to Teleport 2 with Cullin, to the location near the city that I memoried at the event “Celebration”, then Teleport back for Al-Gicirus (PID 987) , and then Teleport 2 back to the City. If this does not work, go through the Room Between the Obelisks, ask someone for directions to the City and  travel by Obelisk to the nearest Obelisks, and then by walking to the City. Thirdly, walk all the way using the map I used to get to the Celebration..
605) Enter the City. Meet the Queen. Meet the Pax Draconis guards. Hope to God they’ve been told about me.
610) Pitch my tent in the City, until we find somewhere better to live.
620) Every week, refresh my personal protective magics. 1 Shield of Vengeance, 2 Mana Shields, a Contingency Teleport set to Union Isle. Keeping 6 mana left to take part in the Cooperative Downtime “Pioneer Mapping around Obelisks”, and 2 left for Binds to bind anyone who trys anything in order to give me time to run away.
630) Every week, visit Union Isle to pick up any whisperstone messages
700) Introduce Al-Gicirus (PID 987) the physician to the cityfolk, in particular to those who are herbalists and physicians
710) Ask the Queen for a suitable building for him to use as an infirmary – or indeed, if there is a current infirmary he can work in.
720) If this is not possible, find an empty building for him to use.
730) If either of these plans are unsatisfactory, allow him to work with any artificers in the City to draw up plans for a new hospital
800) Governing the city
Keynes (PID 194) and Cullin (PID 507) spend 50% time each administering the city in a benevolent fashion.Use information gleaned from Sleipnier about siege (esp. Rat kin in forest, external beastkin camps, internal uprising) to aid decision-making.Current priority – make damned sure there are no slaves still. Get physicians working on public health, everyone else plants fields. Audit the resources, human, ‘civilisation improvements’ and lammied resources available as soon as possible as this may change prioritization of tasks(Matt – I have no idea how to arrange the food thing, as food is ‘stuff’ not a lammied resource. Please can you help me here. Do I get a new community ‘The City’ to do a community downtime for?)Considerations for prioritization
Economic
Repair mine Repair mill   Repair workshops Harvesting Resources TradeSocial
Plant fields Repair housing Repatriation of externals Social re-education (will take years)Health
Get Physicians working. Repair/build sanitation Build bathhouse Build hospitalHearts and Minds
Public appearances (with queen as necessary) Aid shipments Identify trustworthy, popular, noted citizens for key jobs Media Use of Posters Use of town crierSecurity
Repair Walls Forces City Militia (50) (internal security) Dragon (100) (external Security ASAP)810) Flatter the Queen. Run every decision past her. Make her think she’s still nominally in charge. Assume she may be intelligent.1000) Welcome all visitors, in particular a delegation from Lightholme, a community near the city  should one arrive,  (This should include a PC called Eleni (sp?) .
1100) If Al-Dansak wants to go the City, take him
1200) If anyone from Sandrak appears – let them use any city facilities that aren’t otherwise needed
1300) If someone from Taykela turns up to be trained as a leather worker, find a City leatherworker to train them if one exists
1310) If any Pax Draconis troops drop by to start building work, welcome them and say ‘Bathouse first, hospital second’
1350) If a Mediator appears with a Magical Statue, I welcome them, ask them to wait for a short while and I teleport to Tay Kela using the scroll I was given at the Price of Peace. (No lammie ID, I can bring the scroll to the next event)
1355) Memorise a suitable teleport location at Tay Kela
1360) Invite Al-Harus to come with me, and Teleport 2 him back to the City.
1365) Watch while he builds a small ward, and then Divines the statue.
1370) If the Statue has any affects other  than making people near it happier and hence more productive, then do not allow the Mediator to ‘switch it on’.
1380) If that is all it does, dance a happy little dance and watch the mediator turn it on.
1390) Teleport Al-Harus back to Tay Kela, and then return to my beloved City.
1400) Make enough time to make a scroll of Teleport to Tay Kela, if I have used the one I have now, or  if not a scroll of Shield of Vengeance. This is important. Cullin can watch the shop as it were while I am working.

Response

FOR CHARACTER KEYNES

You receive a 6 chain staff from Timujen, a Human from Inouar.

You give a 1 net timber to Magog, a Minotaur from Tanu’Keen.

You find Spot and ask her to find a place for you to keep your own personal valuables, preferably somewhere safe that you can reach via the portal network. Spot promises to arrange this for you. She promises to lend what aid she can to the people heading south but points out this will be difficult as they have already set off. She promises to help Quintus and tells you that portal 31 is the one used to get to the City. She warns you that it is still quite a walk once through the portal. She offers to send some guards with you with orders from the Dragon to inform the Dragons soldiers already there that you are the new governor.

You give the wagons to Quintus.

You teleport Cullin and yourself to the portal on the outskirts of a vast ruin using the portal network. Al-Gicirus from Tay Kela comes with you.

You find a suitably secluded spot and spend a few minutes memorising the portal on the outskirts of a vast ruin so that you can teleport here in the future.

It takes a week to complete the journey to the City.  Once a week you teleport to the portal network to allow Elya to pass through to make maps.

You spend nearly eight weeks making scrolls. You create 1 scroll of Teleport and 1 scroll of Shield of Vengeance.

You spend a month making scrolls. You create 1 scroll of Shield of Vengeance.

You arrive at the City with surprisingly little pomp or ceremony. The escort provided by the Dragons soldiers is enough to get you through the gates, the Blue Coats who are manning the great gate letting you pass without question. You travel through the streets of the City heading towards the great palace which is to serve as your home for the next few months. Runners are sent ahead to bring word of your arrival and shortly you see a large banner with an emblazoned silver dragon raised over the palace. You arrive to find a large group of humans waiting to meet you.  A whole precession of people is steadily introduced to Keynes, announced as the new Governor of the City. Some of these people are recognisable from the Celebration the City hosted, the Queen, the head of the Bringers, the Keeper of Records and so forth, but several faces are new to you, it appears that the former head of the City army and many others have been replaced. Apparently the City has suffered several outbreaks of Plague in recent times, due to increased contact with Beastkin and many of the notables of the City were unfortunately afflicted. It is clear from the sideways glances between the Queen and others that there is much more to this development than is being said however.  Of course the most notable absentee is the King. He is confined to his quarters with an affliction of some kind which has made it impossible for him to be visited by anyone but the Dragon’s physicians, for fear of making his contagion worse. Everyone stares firmly at the ground whilst this hasty explanation is delivered by one of the Dragon’s guards.  Once you have been introduced to everyone, you are led into the Palace and given a grand tour. The Head of the Bringers whose quarters are amongst the most impressive in the Palace after those of the Queen has already volunteered to give up her chambers for the new Governor.

The Keeper of Health, the Royal Physician seems a bit surprised that Al-Gicirius is here to attend to the health of the people of the City. She casts worried glances at some of the other Keepers as if appealing for help of some kind at that piece of news but although they look sympathetic, no-one says anything.

Finally Keynes gathers everyone together and issues a short speech thanking them in advance for their support and promising to attempt to govern the City wisely and in the best interests of all. The audience then comes to an end and the governing of the City begins in earnest.

From the very first, it is clear the City is in an exceptional parlous state. Several outbreaks of Plague ever since the Celebration have spread fear and terror through the population. Even thought the cause of these outbreaks, the Kings pet Beastkin Frostbite, is no longer present in the City the after-effects are still being felt. When the Queen first announced the Celebration, many of the City Folk were very dubious of the idea of allowing the people of Peridor to bring their animals with them, but trusted her judgement on the matter. Now that that policy has proved so disastrous, with quite literally hundreds of people lost to the Plague that came from the uncontrolled contact with the animals, attitudes towards Beastkin have hardened considerably. The King was required to keep his pet under constant guard by his elite Blue Coats to prevent her being destroyed by an angry mob.  The economy of the City was based on coins minted using gold from the nearby mine. These coins were used to pay the farmers who brought their food from the surrounding farms and settlements to the City.

After the loremasters failed to take the City with their siege, they attacked the gold mine, destroying many of the animals kept there as they collapsed the mine. These animals were the basis of the Cities economy, they have been unable to reopen the mine because they have no animals left to excavate the ruined mine. Without the gold produced by the mine they have been unable to pay for food from the surrounding farms leading to widespread famine and starvation throughout the City.  The ancient traditions of the City meant that no Beastkin were ever allowed within the City walls ever, which is the main reason the City was able to survive the Plague when so many others fell. The problem was that this meant that with the exception of a few pets bred for hunting and kept by noblemen on their outlaying estates the only animals the City had were all in the gold mine when it was collapsed. Normally there would be two solutions to this problem, new animals can be obtained through hunting and trade.

However since the King “fell ill” the Keeper of Beasts, the traditional leader for such hunts has not been seen in the City. Also with so few Blue Coats left following the disastrous attacks by the Summitdale abominations, it is impossible to spare any for soldiers for hunting trips.  According to their records they have traded for new livestock with the Eye for decades but now that that power has “assumed responsibility” for the City, it is no longer supplying new animals, presumably because they no longer have the funds to pay for them.  In addition there are some malcontents within the City who have questioned the validity of the Kings “illness”. These disloyal citizens are careful not to speak out in public but it is clear that there are rumours that the King is not ill but dead, executed by the Dragon who has seized control of the City in all but name. Others say the King has fled the City leaving them to toil under the Dragons claws, whilst some claim he has gone to raise an army and so forth. Although the Guardians (the Blue Coats) are on the lookout for anyone spreading such treasonous rumours, so far they have not managed to catch anyone.  In addition there are several external threats to the safety of the City. Some are very real, some are little more than rumour. Everyone who comes to the City and is judged by the Bringers to be worthy to enter becomes one of the Saved. However a great many people arrive here who are clearly not fit to enter the great City and whilst many leave again, many of them choose to stay, taking refuge in the slums that have grown up outside the walls of the City to accommodate them. There are near as many people living in the slums as there are in the City and they represent a terrible threat and danger to the wellbeing of the City.

It is well known that the Bandits of Deeply Dale, an illegal group of thieves and murderers who live in the nearby Deeply Dale Forest are in league with the people of the slums. They attack the Guardians if they venture outside the safety of the City walls and are aided and abetted by the more treasonous of the slum dwellers. They live by raiding farms and caravans coming to the City, stealing gold and especially livestock which they eat for food. Years ago several attempts were made to eradicate this menace but the Bandits are simply too difficult to catch in the forest. Their leader, Glen Everglade was defeated and killed by the King in personal combat at the Celebration, but since then they have regrouped and carried out new attacks under an unknown leader.

The Witch of Keep Valley remains at large. The Witch has strange powers, she has ensorcelled many of those who travel to her valley and sent them to the City to murder and kill innocent people. The City could crush her easily, but her tower contains some ancient magical defences replenished with blood offerings of human children every equinox. Worse she now has the support of the Loremasters who have stationed troops in the valley in preparation to resume their assault against the City should it grow weak.  The worst threat though, is of the Beastkin Horde which is supposedly gathering in the mountains north of the City. Although the animals were secured in their cages when the mine was collapsed, many somehow escaped and have allegedly fled to join the ranks of this horde. The City was attacked by these Beastkin a year ago, but they were no match for the elite Guardians on the City walls. Of course they did wreak havoc in the slums, killing and eating anyone they could find, burning and destroying much of the settlement, but frankly since that just helped keep the slums under control it was no great loss.  Now however there is talk that the threat is growing. Travellers coming from the north have reported seeing groups of Beastkin dancing round great burning pyres onto which Humans are flung, burnt alive before their bodies are devoured. Somehow, someone is providing these feral Beastkin with primitive weapons of wood and stone.

There is talk of a great god arising amongst the animals, some sort of saviour figure who will lead the animals in a final war against the Humans of the City. From across Peridor, beasts are being called to join the Horde. Once it becomes unstoppable it will be unleashed against the world devouring everything in its path.  This final story sounds too fanciful to have even a grain of truth, however there are some facts that support the stories. Countless outlying farms and settlements in the last year have been attacked and in many cases destroyed by gangs of feral Beastkin. These Beastkin leave nothing, not even bodies to be found, taking the flesh of those fallen as food.  In the few cases that the attacks have been repulsed, bodies of dead animals have been recovered, most carry the mark of the City, a crown over crenellations branded on the neck, although in many cases their fur has been allowed to grow out to cover the brand which is obviously illegal. One feral Beastkin was actually captured alive and since some of these creatures are intelligent enough to be able to speak a few words it was interrogated by the Keeper of Beasts. According to his reports the creature was filled with hatred for its former owners and had turned completely feral. Of course it could only manage a few words, but using these it claimed that “She was coming” and that she was going to liberate all the Beastkin and lead them against the humans. That she would lead them to some sort of animal paradise, a world without humans in which Beastkin were free to roam, hunt and kill at will.  Sadly the Keeper of the Beasts has not been seen for many months and of course the animal was destroyed after it was pronounced too feral to be broken for domestic use. Some of the travellers who have seen bands of Beastkin have also reported finding strange statues crudely carved from wood and stone. Some of these statues are in the likeness of Beastkin, but many show some kind of abomination, a creature with the traits of every Beastkin and more beside. The worrying conclusion of some in the City is that the feral Beastkin have developed some sort of primitive mother religion designed to unite the different breeds in preparation for war.

Once you have taken assessment of the problems faced by the City you begin to put in place plans to resolve the situation. The food shortages are the easiest to resolve, once you assure Spot that the Dragon will soon start to receive shipments of the precious Granite the City possess then shipments of food begin to flow from the nearby portal network.  Control of the only reliable supply of food allows you to consolidate your control of the City easily and helps considerably in carrying out your more ambitious plans. With the promise of food a workforce of people prepared to travel outside the City to the nearby mine is assembled. At first there is a great deal of reluctance to do what is openly regarded as the work of animals but the survival and the need to eat provide a great incentive and soon people are cueing up to be part of the work teams in exchange for a days food. After a few months of hard work you have managed to get the mines open and returned to production.

However your attempts to change the social rules of the City prove less successful. You explain to the Keepers that slavery is now illegal in the City which at first produces no comment of any kind. Slavery has always been illegal in the City, this place is a refuge against slavery, a paradise to which people can come to be free from exactly these dangers. However as you make clear that this includes Beastkin who are now to be considered to have the same rights as people it is clear that your new advisers are shocked and appalled at this idea.  Some of them say little but others encouraged by your urging them to tell you about problems they see are openly outraged. Whilst some privately admit that Beastkin may be more intelligent than animals, that is still a very liberal and enlightened view not shared by the majority of the population of the City. However no-one, no matter how charitable a view they take of the animals disagrees on one key point. These creatures carry the Plague. It is quite simply a well known fact proven by years and years of experience. If the City allows Beastkin beyond its walls, it will quickly fall to the Plague.  Over a hundred people have been killed in barely more than a year by the Plague. And these died due to contact with the Kings pet Beastkin, Frostbite. Only the kings Guardians were able to keep the creature from being destroyed by an angry populace. Quite frankly the thing was a menace and many of these people begged the King to get rid of it. One of the main reasons that the rule of the Dragon has been accepted so readily is precisely because the majority of the people of the City felt that the King had grown too soft on the Beastkin threat.  Determined to press ahead, though cautious to the dangers, the edicts are made public and the reaction of the people is much as predicted. There are even some riots, which the Guardians are forced to put down. People are openly protesting against the danger that this new law could expose them to. Protest messages are scrawled on walls and there are rumours of groups of citizens forming civic watches, to keep an eye out for any Beastkin that might try to sneak into the City.  The one thing that prevents open revolt over this issue is the fact that no actual Beastkin arrive at the City during this time. Apparently Frostbite was supposed to be coming here to see the King, but when Spot comes to see you and you discuss the situation you both agree it would be better if no Beastkin came to the City in the current climate.

Generally your governorship of the City is being well received and is producing results but the whole thing risks being undermined by the new laws regarding Beastkin. Simply announcing that the old law forbidding any Beastkin from entering the City might be enough to transform your standing amongst the population.  After a few weeks of these developments word from the Guardians begins to reach you of attacks being carried out against them. You investigate these rumours and realise that some form of co-ordinated opposition to your rule has arisen in the City. This opposition has called itself the Hydra, conveniently they have elected to leave messages scrawled on walls, carved into trees and so forth. Each message is accompanied by a simple, stylised picture of a Hydra. The messages are simple slogans such as “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance”; “The Hydra has many heads, all are watching”; “The Hydra sees all”; “Slice off one of our heads and it will be replaced by two others”; “Those who lay down with the Abomination will suffer alongside him”; “The Dragon is an Abomination”; “The Hydra is everywhere”.

At first attacks are made against two Blue Coat patrols, but later the pattern shifts and the Blue Coats are avoided in favour of strikes against the less numerous but far better equipped soldiers of the Dragon who are stationed here. In total nearly a dozen of them are killed in random attacks carried out over the summer months. The attacks against personal are not the only strikes this “Hydra” makes. Warehouses containing shipments of wood and stone intended for the dragon are fired, shipments of food are intercepted and robbed. At first several people suggest it might be the Witch of Keep Valley, or the bandits from Deeply Dale but you discount these ideas. All these attacks take place within the City.  Although you and Cullin expend much effort to try to find out who is behind these mysterious attacks you efforts are thwarted. You do however get some reports from the survivors of the attacks. Apparently this Hydra seems to consist of perhaps half a dozen Humans, led by a giant of a man with a great bushy beard and a shaven head. Rumour has it that this man is some sort of half-breed Beastkin, half man, half animal for he possesses the stamina of a dozen men.  On this last point all the reports are very clear. This man is unkillable. He simply cannot be harmed by weapons wielded by mortal men. Of course a huge reward is offered for his capture so at first he is targeted by those he leads attacks against. However as increasing numbers of reports come in of this mans invincibility, fear of the Hydra grows. Men swear blind that they have seen this man take two long bow arrows clean through his chest and carry on fighting. Warriors experienced in battle against plague victims and abominations confirm they have seen this sort of thing before. Some abominations have to be literally hacked apart to stop them, this man, this thing appears to possess similar powers of fortitude.  Many people are associating the resistance of the Hydra to the Dragon’s rule with the hated new laws concerning Beastkin, although it is not actually clear that there is any connection. None-the-less it is clear that many of citizens of the City who are most terrified of the Beastkin menace are beginning to look to the Hydra as a possible saviour from the threat.  Despite these setbacks, the situation in the City is improving. Obviously you are going to have to explain to the Dragon quite how a dozen of his elite soldiers have been murdered without anyone being caught and punished but you have reopened the mines and got production of wood and stone restarted. The City is still dangerously short of food and now dependant on the caravans laden with food coming from the portals but the situation is stable and the Dragon is unlikely to complain about their dependency on his good will.

You have also managed to survey the local area and carry out a simple census of those skilled craftsmen available to you. In addition to the gold mine, the City has access to large woods of Lastwood, the nearby mountains contain large deposits of granite and the outlying farms produce wool and hides from their sheep and cows. The City contains a few skilled craftsmen, enough to continuously produce the effective labour of an adept jeweller, a carpenter, a mason and a leatherworker. The main shortage for the City is in base metals now that their Iron mine has been conquered by the Keep Valley Witch.  The Queen proves very useful in helping you maintain control of the City. Of all the people here, she is probably the most prepared to accept your strange ideas about Beastkin and she seems genuinely grateful to be included in your decisions. She offers several pieces of good advice particularly on how to deal with the other Keepers, the effective administrators of the City. However you can never quite shake the nagging feeling that her real loyalty is neither to you nor the Dragon but to King who remains under the constant “protection” of the Dragon guards in the palace. Supposedly no-one can reach the King at the moment, but that does not stop constant rumours amongst the Keepers that one or another of them is in touch with the man.

The Dragon lays claim to all the wood and stone produced by the City during this period. The twenty rings of gold you keep for yourself.

You hold a meeting to discuss the current situation in the City with your advisors before you leave. After the usual grumbles urging you to abandon your policy of treating Beastkin as if they were people are over with you get some genuine points from some of the more open minded people there. They point out that if you are not prepared to restore the old traditions of independence and purity which have been the traditions of the City for two hundred years and have kept it safe from the Plague throughout that time you really need to find some other way to improve the sentiments of the people you rule.

There are several suggestions they urge you to consider. The first is crush the deeplydale bandits. This band of rouges has been terrorising the neighbourhood for some years and it would be very popular with the merchants and wealthier members of the City to bring them to justice or at least break their strength so they cannot remain active.  The second is to gather support from your foreign allies to drive out or kill the Witch of Keep Valley. If you can achieve this then a great shadow of fear will be lifted from the hearts of the people and the wisdom of having such a well connected man as governor will become clear to even your harshest critic. There is a large force of Loremaster soldiers there, but with the Dragons help they could be destroyed and the Witch captured. The memories of the two sieges carried out first by the Loremaster army and second by the mercenaries they hired are still fresh in the people’s minds and having an outpost of their soldiers so close keeps the fear alive. Plus of course Keep Valley has extensive deposits of refined Iron which are actually part of the estates of the City but can no longer be accessed due to the Witches rebellion.

The final request is that you reach some form of accommodation with those demanding an end to the threat presented by the Beastkin. If you can be seen as the kind of man who can gain some flexibility from the dragon on these issues it will change the general impression of you from being the Dragon’s governor, to being a Dragonkin on the side of the people. Perhaps Beastkin could be employed in the gold mine, paid in food like the current workers from the City. They could live in the mines and that way they wouldn’t bring Plague into the City, the current workers could produce more wood and stone for the Dragon and the Beastkin workers could produce much more gold. Beastkin are much stronger than Humans and therefore able to work much harder.  In addition you receive a private audience from a group of concerned citizens who wish to bring some private fears to you that they believe may not have been well articulated by the Kings Council. They claim to represent many of the common people of the City who are understandably concerned by the dangers of Plague raised by these brave new ideas the Dragon has.  They explain that many of the people’s fears centre around a Beastkin called Frostbite. This Wolfen was a special pet belonging to the King, it obeyed only his commands and was trained to bite out a man’s throat with a single snap of its jaws. The King brought the creature into the City and with it came the Plague which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people in the City. Some she attacked and killed with her own jaws. Only the Kings remit prevented her from being slain outright.  Obviously this made the King enormously unpopular with the people, but much of the Kings part in the Frostbite saga has now been forgotten and some people are even beginning to blame the Governor for the deaths caused by Frostbite. People have such short memories. If this Beastkin was publicly destroyed it would show the people of the City that although you were not as firm as the King on Beastkin, you were still prepared to deal firmly with any that brought death and Plague to the City. By killing the Beastkin that was responsible for so many deaths and which the King protected, you would be able to transform your own position by showing a clear distinction between yourself and the King, showing that you cared about the actual damage that these creatures could cause. This would definitely reassure them that they need not fear Beastkin, because any that did run amok or cause the Plague would be seen to be dealt with.

When the mediator and his friends arrive at the City they bring with them an enormous Kingstone statue of a human being holding a pickaxe in both hands.

You ask them to wait whilst you teleport to Tay Kela.

You memorise the area and return with Al-Harus to the City where upon he performs his most powerful divination on the statue.

He discovers the staue has a weak rank 3 influence magic power which is permanent. It has the following power.  “Makes population feel loyal, enthusiastic and dedicated. Prevents them feeling rebellious or troublesome.”  Al-Harus seems a little concerned about the possible effects of the statue and since you are intending to leave very shortly for the Grand Bazaar you decide to delay the decision of what to do about the statue and it’s owner until you return.

You find a suitably secluded spot and spend a few minutes memorising the Order of Tay Kela so that you can teleport here in the future.

You teleport Al-Gicirus a Human from The Order of Tay Kela and Cullin and yourself to the site of the fourth Grand Bazaar.

It takes a week to complete the journey to New Port bay.