RPM:37 ...132 Mahakalas

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Starring: 🐺 Ildefons, 🐘 One-Tusk, 🏹 Ehsan
Guest Starring: Maude Dumont (Prestidigitator), Odilon Paradis, Stag Lady, Grace, Hernaut
Challenge: Storming the palace to take out Maude
Location: High Horn Pass
Date Played: 06 Mar 2019

Getting Back into the City

🐘 One-Tusk: Needs must, and we can't interrogate them about the airship. Odilon has arrived with a squad of irregulars, and we need to get back into the city and deal with our key priorities: Maude and the Stag Lady. We slip into the city, not unnoticed, but uncontested. There's some discussion: maybe we should suborn the Stag Lady instead of assassinating her. I'm unconvinced. Odilon gets a little lippy with Ehsan, but he survives the experience and trots off to be our diversion.

🏹 Ehsan: Odilon Paradis...how such a sycophantic self centered ass is allowed to rise to such a rank in the Lisway military boggles the mind. I may have been royalty back home, but that doesn't mean I didn't work to near my death to achieve my status. Obeying his command is beyond difficult but I will defer to it as he is (somehow) above my own station. We leave Hernaut to be watched by Paradis and his small retinue while we head back into the city via the sewers to take care of Maude and hopefully subdue the Stag Lady (either by convincing her to switch sides or by death, either will do).

Storming the Palace

Wine Cellar

🐘 One-Tusk: We slip in through the sewers up into a bathroom. Getting in is a bit of a challenge for me, but I've prepared for the trip by stripping down to a loincloth. The privy is in the winecellar, which raises a lot of questions about the overall construction and the sewers of this town- weird mountain geography is involved, I suppose.

There's some brandy, and I grab a handful of bottles. Nothing fans the flames of revolution like actual flames.

🏹 Ehsan: Trudging through the muck is unpleasant, but necessary. Thankfully the sewer tunnels here were made large and wide so are accommodating enough for One Tusk to move through. Getting him out was a bit more of a challenge, but he manages to keep it quiet. A lone guard is stationed in the cellar who I promptly knock out with by bow.

Foyer

🐘 One-Tusk: We plan an ambush- Ehsan on the balcony, us attacking from various angles. The plan goes sideways in a few ways. First off, Odilon's "diversion" is to enter the foyer and start negotiating with the Stag Lady. He'll trade Hernaut's life for her loyalty. Maude is on the fringes, in a poor position to engage her.

Ehsan slaughters the group, tagging Odilon and killing the Stag Lady. So far so good. Maude escapes, and I trail her.

🏹 Ehsan: The plan we set goes off nearly without a hitch. Thanks to Ildefons's distraction I am able to take the lot unawares, killing the officers and Stag Lady (I'd say it was unfortunate, but she did try to recruit me) while "accidentally" wounding Odilon. He honestly deserves worse for dealing with the enemy in such a fashion, but doing anymore would be treasonous in this case.

Ballroom

🐘 One-Tusk: There's some sort of fete going on in the ballroom. There's a crowd of Stag Lady loyalists, toadies, and as I discover in a moment, some closeted revolutionaries. As I chance Maude in and challenge her, a madwoman hefts my cannon and fires it. A tameblood who can do that without breaking their arms is remarkable.

Maude has some Red Wolf support in the room, and she turns invisible. It's a mess, quite literally, as Ildefons uses his powers to make everyone in the room ill. I take advantage of that reaction, quite revoltingly, to spray my own sick in the region where Maude *was*, which has the effect of defeating her invisibility.

Maude dies. Abiline, one of Odilon's irregulars, disguises herself as the Stag Lady. I'm not happy about co-opting the chains of nobility to erect an emergency structure. It's not just counter-revolutionary, there's also nothing more permanent than a temporary solution. Still, we have an army and a dragon coming.

Prep for Attack

🐘 One-Tusk: We haven't long before the assault. The weakest gate is, well, the weakest gate, and while we need the ability to move reinforcements through it, we'll be less impeded than an invading army. So I demolish the gate, reducing it to rubble and a tight passage. Seeing how tight the result is, I worry that it's not entirely too our advantage, but I think I can make it work for us.

🏹 Ehsan: While the others see to their own plans I set up a bit of a sniper's nest in the middle gate. It should give me a good vantage point of all sides and enough cover so I am not an easy target.