RPM:28 Odilon Runs For Office

← Prev: RPM:27 Ranch Dressing Room   |   Next: RPM:29 Gerry Shot One-Tusk →

Starring: 🏹 Ehsan, 🐺 Ildefons, 🐘 One-Tusk, 🔫Alexis, 🔥Mandrot
Guest Starring: Evette Lussier, Bukir Sokolov, Magalie Gachet, Odilon Paradis, Imogene, Boner, Pinot, "Mona" Irène Darche
Challenge: Odilon's advances, "Mona"'s advances, drugged dates, political announcements, sneaking off to a guest bedroom, oncoming war from neighboring nation, and tracking an art dealer through the city.
Location: Lussier Estate
Date Played: 01 Aug 2018

Dinner Party at the Estate of Evette Lussier

🐘 One-Tusk: Of all of the bougie wastes of all of our time, I just "must be seen rubbing shoulders with the right people", and one of those people is Evette Lussier. Her work with the glassblowers is fucking things up with the Trade Federation, and somehow I've landed the negotiations, despite that being WAAAAAY outside of my job code. And background. And skillset. And… ahem. I went clothes shopping with Mandrot. I have suitable garments that don't paint me as some aristo wannabe, but look aristo enough to fit in with whatever games social climbers like to play.

🔥Mandrot You don't ever know what kinda information you will stumble across. Taking off with One Tusk and checking out the Haberdasher's place again was interesting. Stuff happened last time that I wouldn't forget. Though, this time, an "Elephant Swing" wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I went... also unforgettable.

Ehsan's ❤️ 📐

🔥Mandrot: Somehow I got into distracting Pinot. She's not that bad, or bad looking. Her nose is a little long, but that's fine. We spent a bit of the night making small talk while Ehsan did her thing. I've had worse tasks, that's for sure.

Mandrot Learns More About Condrol From Boner

🔥Mandrot: What a coincidence... Boner's name is actually Richard. Besides, that little nugget I'll store away, I found that Boner has been importing rickshaw from Condrol for cheap. Because of this, he was able to get me some information about what Condrol is up to recently. It appears Condrol is itching to attack in the spring. Something to do about a strong belief in their Zodiac and alignment and some other details I zoned out on. One tusk is interesting to hang around with. His views on loyalty are strong. He was able to give Boner some advice on how to bring the business locally by only importing raw materials from Condrol.

One Tusk and Evette Play Billards

🐘 One-Tusk: The party itself is torture. Minutes pass like kidney stones. Eventually, Evette wants to go someplace private. The route back… I'm beginning to wonder about the Lussier wealth. It's spartan, in massive contrast to what she's displaying out front. Is that a facade? Does she really just prefer the spartan lifestyle? Has she put everything in hock to keep her rogue guild afloat?

She offers a game of billiards, and she's quite good at it. I'm not, in part because I'm constantly afraid I'm going to break the table. She makes a much more important offer: I can take her spot on the mercantile board, gain all the power which comes with it, let the Trade Federation crash, buy it for pennies on the dollar, and run it how I see fit. Or, she'll just let the Trade Federation have the contract, because she apparently doesn't care about the contract itself.

I don't crush her into a pulp, and I'm relatively proud of myself for that. She then adds a threat: wouldn't it be a shame if word got out about my history.

The Hung Over

🐘 One-Tusk: The next day, I put out feelers for the worst tabloid in the city, The Paper. If I get wind that Lussier is going to reveal my background, I'm going to beat her to the punch by seeding the story in the absolute worst source- poisoning the well, as it were.

The other important fact we learned at the party is that Condrol is likely to move up the invasion. Instead of invading during the spring, they're going to execute a surprise attack. Launching a campaign in a famine-stricken land during winter strikes me as the height of foolishness. They won't be able to resupply in the field, which makes them highly dependent on their supply lines, which restricts the speed of their advance, combined with the weather? While the attack would be absolutely awful for the people of Arkstone, it's not a fight Condrol can actually win- not unless they have some seriously dangerous surprise, like ten legions of sorcier. Which makes tracking down the spy extra important…

Art Dealers and Spies

Run as a Challenge

🔥Mandrot distracted Pinot while 🏹 Ehsan burgled her office

🐘 One-Tusk uncovered that the art was coded using floriography

🔫Alexis jumped from rooftop to rooftop, following Pinot

🐺 Ildefons spent sweat and labor destroying roads to reroute Pinot and discover her true destination.