Session S.5-W-15

1629, Fire Season, Stasis Week, Windsday, Sartar’s Holy Day

Dramatis Personae

Events

For our first challenge, we ask the candidates for kingship to tell us how they will bring up the cliffs of Whitewall, and how they will climb the cliffs of Whitewall. This will take the form of a good old Orlanthi Boast-Off. The more they impress us, the more of a head start we may give them. 

Queen Gidala of the Kurtali has invited us to lunch.¹The Kurtali are not officially competing, but Gidala is here to visit fellow Ernaldan Raldina. She has a fine tent, Kurtali cooks, and has put on a lavish spread and told us to help ourselves. And she asks us who our Ernalda is. Xenofos fields the question by observing that we are not Whitewall. Varanis states we are outsiders and judges. Gidala wants to know who will sit as Queen. Varanis has no candidate – Rajar asks her who she wants it to be. Gidala suggests we ask the Bacofi if they have any powerful women for the role, and warns us off fitting Raldina for the role. Not all the candidates are married, and it’s important no-one think Raldina wants the role.

The Bacofi have been huffy about the Malkonwali pitching up but have not put a candidate forward for Rex. Gidala offers to float a few rumours to get things moving. She is open to interesting suggestions from Rajar.

How will we score the groups? We need to come up with a system. 1. Risk management, 2. benefits/planning, 3. panache. 4. Community – Willingness to lean on their ring (not being too independent).

This afternoon is the feast – a big central event where the Orlanthi rexes can boast about how awesome they are. 

We all coincidentally run into Gerid. He trades in favours. Finarvi introduces him to Serala, who wants her to put a word in for him with the Yelmalians. The word is ‘cash’. If a Yelmalian wins,²or is paid they will protect this Heortland from creatures of darkness. Finarvi knows a past king of Sartar helped this place fight against Kitori with help of Sun Dome – helped establish Sun Dome. Xenofos knows the Kitori have made trouble in Heortland since the Shadow Plateau stopped getting tribute. Gerid wants a peaceful area everyone can trade, and ensure the Yelmalians will be friendly afterwards. He wants protection from creatures of darkness.

When we ask Gerid about powerful Ernaldans in his tribe he thinks we already have someone in mind. He voices Cyrilia would be a good Ernalda. Many great deeds to her name (and cousin of the king).

Raldina now invites us to her inner rooms to ‘help with the feast’. She asks If the Olontongi could settle their claims here. Rajar and Finarvi think this is a fine opportunity – let the other candidates judge the quarrel.³very kingworthy Or have the Olontongi put a candidate forth for kingship. Let the Olontongi be resolved by the end of the competition, one way or the other.

Raldina says their claims are all similar. She thinks Oralast has more supporters, but there is little difference. No-one is clearly better than the other. Finarvi susses that she thinks none of them should be king but this is an opportunity. And she is no doubt looking at other opportunities but this is a big one. 

Varanis visits the Olontongi trio and tells them they can only put one candidate forward, and if they cannot agree, they can request it be resolved for them. Hendoffa steps up to take the honour and the others stop him and thank Varanis.

The Feast

Varanis sings the official welcome and statement of what the competition’s challenges will be. The news comes as a surprise to Tarakar, Hendrick, and Silstom. 

Silstom claims he will take bones from Broyan’s battlefield to help him.

Tarakar will call on  Broyan’s ancestry – he has enough people to do this. 

Hendaffa says she will call on the loyalty of the walls themselves. The other two are looking daggers at her for jumping in first – Oralost with poison, Astforth like he’ll live with it.

Hendrik challenges Ribfanth to a duel! Their followers are about to join in. And the zebra riders look very happy at the possibility of loot. Varanis dives between them as Orlanth Rex to a pair of naughty Adventurous and Serala Sings out to them to reel their necks in. Hendrik steps back, but Ribfanth calls Varanis a nobody and suddenly the challenge is about to be a brawl. 

Rajar leads the zebra riders in a wedge to rescue Varanis.

Silstom, Mellinor and Hendaffa are watching. Tarakar is once more caught by surprise by this development. 

Ribfanth is drawing a weapon, so Varanis punches him in the arm. He dodges around Xenofos and stabs Hendrik. Varanis punches him in the head, which gets his attention.⁴Who put these two rivals in these places where they had room to have this donnybrook? Hmm, Raldina?

The zebra riders are charging in while Ribfanth goes for Varanis, ignoring Xenofos’s attempts to defend her. She falls, dislegged.

Rajar’s first zebra rider is deflected, but the second has a nice lance lined up on Ribfanth’s head. It ruins his looks. Rajar follows up with a leg hack.

At this point Raldina starts casting to calm people down. Those in cults husbands to Ernalda calm down. The battle line draws back. Xenofos goes for Varanis’s severed leg. He is not calming down, but he heals her whilst telling her his mind.

Rajar looks down at Ribfanth, who is bleeding but conscious. He aims a blow to sever the leg, Ribfanth parries most of it. Haralast calls to Rajar to take a drink. Rajar looks back, tells Ribfanth, “You don’t hit a judge.”

Haralast gives Rajar a big, celebratory drink and praises Ribfanth for proving himself the better man, and now all this violence is over and there will be no more of that. 

Now Mellinor of Sun Dome county asks if he can talk about the security the Sun Dome can offer. This gets a laugh. He proposes a Yelmalian heroquest to show the truth of the walls. 

And then there is feasting. 

That evening, someone flies in from the North. It’s Farinst wind lord,who lands, bows to Haralast and asks if it is too late. Finarvi hears him add “Vanastal Greyskin is back and thinks I should be king” His demeanour is that this is just a thing in his life.  He comes over and asks the judges if he can be accepted into the contest. Varanis asks his ties to Whitewall, and how he will overcome past feuds. He answers, and asks for wine and the tale of the evening. Xenofos fills him in briefly, and then he goes to Haralast, accepts wine, and tells his plan to scale the cliffs of Whitewall. His plan is to have the riverfolk act as foes and he will defeat them.⁵He’s the only one to suggest the water in the Heroquest, and thinking how to avoid the risks (riverfolk, not summoning the sea itself). Serala notes that this is not a crazy plan.

• 1
  The Kurtali are not officially competing, but Gidala is here to visit fellow Ernaldan Raldina.
• 2
  or is paid
• 3
  very kingworthy
• 4
  Who put these two rivals in these places where they had room to have this donnybrook? Hmm, Raldina?
• 5
  He’s the only one to suggest the water in the Heroquest, and thinking how to avoid the risks (riverfolk, not summoning the sea itself).