Reprocussions from last Adventure:
In a mini adventure, The Nameless broke into and Dragon blooded home and stole a good quality Jade Diaklave. It turned out to be of Eceptional quality. Upon trying to sell the item in question to a guild representative in Wallport, he encountered difficulties. The Guild antiquities dealer determined that it was probably a test of concept blade often produced by First Age Crafts people before attempting a truly spectacular artifact construction. There was no real style to it and there no signature to the piece, if it had been the concious effort of a craftsman it would have been detailed in some way. The estimated value of the piece was between 50 and 100 talents of silver if it were put on the open market, but since it was likely the property of House Ledaal itself and not actually owned by the Dragon Blooded it was stolen from any attempt would likely bring great grief upon the seller. As such it was determined that the greatest profit would be reached by contacting House Ledaal and ransoming the blade back to them. The Nameless was able to secure an advantageous deal where he would receive five talents of silver up front and fifty percent of the ransom to be paid upon completion of the deal.
The Nameless then headed to Whitewall, the largest city in the north and the city on the other end of the Raod from Wallport.
Two incidents in the Slave States. 1) Theft of an Exceptional Diaklave; the First Age property of House Ledaal. Censure of the offending Dragon Blood and an increase in security within the Dehenna Slave State. Thaumaturgical alarms and sorcery including binding of Elementals and Demons to protect the assets of the House. Protocols that they must be worn when ever possible. Balconies warded for intruders, nothing drastic only movement— the suspicion is that of a Outcaste Dragon Blood or a Spirit blooded. There is as of yet no connection with the Bloody Hand, but there will be reprisals towards the Guild in Dehenna in particular and later if other things happen like this, in the rest of the Slave states.
2) However, there is concern about the Bloody Hand in Inahjal. The clean killings that occurred there in the recent slave "uprising" have been noted and while initial concerns by naïve non professional investigators made it seem like a simple escape of slaves there were a number of red herrings that professional investigators noted immediately:
1) only a few slaves escaped, 7 men and 21 females with 239 slaves left in their barracks, about a hundred were wandering in the outside roadways and the rest were gorging on the drugs in lock up. They were all unbloodied and unharmed.
2) guards were found in the field beside the dogs dead at their posts with one wound in the eye, the throat, or some other exposed location in the head. The arrows were retrieved. Soldiers were killed to a number with no apparent struggle.
3) while two administrators were butchered messily outside with multiple. chopping swords, the one found in the administrative center was not. His head was twisted 180° around, a feat of great strength or precision or both and then beat senselessly until the head was unrecognizable and bloody hand prints were placed all over the room. Placed as a calling card.
4) the missing 28 slaves went through the hedgerow, no mean feat, and disappeared. Several Jackals and an Immaculate were necessary to find the trail. The slaves picked the best places to walk that would leave the least trail and they went directly to the coast where the trail disappeared. Suspected that they were picked up by boat.
Because of these aberrations, the very rare measure is taken to talk to the local Latifundia spirit. The spirit was able to inform the immaculate that the offending person did what was done and that the person was Exalted and wielded a Orichalcum Powerbow. The Immaculate refocus on these facts and it is determined that while the evidence is circumstantial, all major incidents of the past few seasons will be put under additional scrutiny. The spirits of e latifundia and the cities of the slave states as well as the slave states themselves are all strong supporters of the Bronze faction and are thus predisposed to the Immaculate faith and against Solar rule.
After a full season of investigation the following is revealed. 1) the incident in the north of Dehenna a year ago was an exaltation of a Night Caste Solar. And that he returned a few seasons later. There has been no other conclusive sighting. The spirit of the Latifundia in the North of Serrat was murdered along with the entire population. This is nominally being blamed on the suspected Night Caste Anathema, until more information is brought forward, and he is thought to be working with the dead. The Shadowland that was formed there took some time to be closed.
The net effect is that Inahjal is in a state of alert. For the next few seasons, well until something bigger enters the news service. The fate of that Latifundia is in question. The very drastic measure is brought to bear, the entire latifundia will be purged. Each surviving member will be sent to one other latifundia and once there will be impaled and left to die. Unruly slaves in all the latifundia will be sentenced to a similar fate for a period of one season and the original latifundia will be reseeded from within the slave state. Not quite a decimation, but close.
Spirits of Latifundia, a subset of a City God: Owing there existence to the continuation of the Realm and slavery, the spirits of latifundia are thoroughly in bed with the Bronze faction. They came about when these latifundia were created and they have known nothing else, but this is a two edged sword as the Immaculate Order keeps these spirits in order. There is no corruption and there is no chance to gain extra power. Because the latifundia is filled with slaves that live in a drug stupor for most of the time, the spirits are asleep most of the time. When violence occurs, death in particular, they may rouse themselves in interest, but even then it is not a sure thing. If they rouse, they may not not fully appreciate the details they see. Latifundia spirits of latifundia under a two thousand population are essence 2 spirits, but essence 3 otherwise. If there is a special resource in the latifundia's reach, they are essence 3 as well. They speak Old Realm and Realm Common plus the language used in the latifundia. To reflect their strung out nature, the spirits have the minimum of mental and social attributes, 1 each with the exception of a Manipulation of 5. Physically they are normal, except that the constant drugging of the population has reduced its Stamina to 3. Abilities of the spirit are reduced as well, Awareness to 3, and social abilities are reduced by 2 and mental abilities are reduced to 1.
Spirits recognize all Exalted of every type. The essence of the person walking by them is like a glowing beacon, but it is difficult to discern the different flavours of essence. Perception +Awareness difficulty 3, modified by circumstances add 2 difficulty if they have never seen that type of exalt, and subtract 2 difficulty if they have. All exalted are recognized as Princes of the Earth, a title that simply means Exalted and nothing else, a special person raised to the level of spirits. Spirits can recognize the magical materials at a glance
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