[3/27/2026, 3:53:33 PM] Dammitwho
What time period are we thinking young imran turns up in Ravounel? Pre-rebellion? Post-? During?
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 3:54:52 PM] Imran Traveler
Immediate pre-rebellion, probably. Or well. Right before it goes hot.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 3:55:23 PM] Crion
how do i get a new token on here, do i need GM Help
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:01:52 PM] Dammitwho
Does it let you create a new actor?
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:02:43 PM] Dammitwho
Well, if it doesn't, I've made an Imran Stenhjerte actor
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:02:52 PM] Imran Traveler
I think all I need to do is this?
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:03:23 PM] Dammitwho
Oh you mean like just another instance of a token
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:03:27 PM] Dammitwho
yeah there you go
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:04:13 PM] Crion
i can change the actor name but it's not updating for chat...
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:04:28 PM] Crion
well, w/e
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:04:33 PM] Crion
gtg
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:06:13 PM] Dammitwho
Fixed it
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:07:02 PM] Crion
eggselent
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:10:00 PM] Dammitwho
I've had the names of actors/prototype tokens and the names of individual tokens not always being linked trip me up making monsters
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:15:15 PM] Crion
individual names and pictures, but linked statuses...interesting. ill have to set those again next week
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:16:29 PM] Dammitwho
Alright! Shall I set you up with narration or are you still working
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:16:45 PM] Crion
i am finished working, until people Paint Their Dang Models (at 1 AM)
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:16:49 PM] Crion
so yeah gtg
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:18:29 PM] Dammitwho
Ooooh I thought you were saying "got to go" not "good to go"
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:19:21 PM] Crion
hahaha
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:19:36 PM] Crion
yes i am Good To Go
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:22:14 PM] Dammitwho
It's a chill evening in Kintargo. The nearly-full moon, still low in the sky, shines through wisps of cloud down onto the streets of the city, past the eclectic mix of Vyrish domes and gothic Cheliaxian constructions that are the hallmark of Kintargan architecture.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:23:54 PM] Imran, Alone
"When you can see the night, the night can see you back." They tell children that, back home.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:24:17 PM] Dammitwho
The atmosphere is tense, worried. Even the street thugs have decided to hold back. No one wants to draw attention to themselves. With good reason - Imran was handed a bulky list of proclamations from the city's new lord-mayor when he entered the gates.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:24:59 PM] Dammitwho
Hopefully he doesn't have any mint candies or night tea on him. Those incur a fine, now. As does spilling grain, or wearing fine embroidered clothing without being a worthy of the church of Asmodeus.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:25:00 PM] Imran, Alone
He's half-starved, is or has been half-soaked, feels half-dead, and now he's half-bent over with...what are these?
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:25:18 PM] Imran, Alone
Ordinances.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:25:47 PM] Imran, Alone
Bitter chuckle -- hopefully no rule against that -- when reading the bit about finery. No such luck.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:26:07 PM] Dammitwho
Martial law, all across Cheliax. Whispers of open rebellion in the old country itself, invasion by foreign Iomedaeans.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:26:31 PM] Dammitwho
Why is Imran here? What is he looking for?
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:28:26 PM] Crion
how does nidal aristocracy/feudalism work in your conception of nidal, like if human noble opening to DA:origins went down in nidal to imran's family, what would the equivalent of arl howe be titled and what would his relationship to imran's parents be
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:29:00 PM] Crion
or i guess in the actual conception of nidal but i've found scant little about how that place Actually Works in the lore that i've read
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:29:58 PM] Dammitwho
let me read how the DA:O human noble origin went down again
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:31:08 PM] Crion
EXTREMELY stolen from big george from r martin
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:32:09 PM] Crion
my assumption is that it will have been revealed in this case to have been done for less petty reasons, or perhaps not, but that either way it'll still be cloaked in religious black triune-y reasons
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:38:21 PM] Dammitwho
alright so, broadly: the Umbral Court is the governing body below the Black Triune, membership in which is intended to be meritocratic rather than hereditary, but important and storied families nonetheless have Expectations of a slot. however, this is not guaranteed, and it's not unheard of for a generation to get skipped over if the head of a family isn't good enough this time 'round
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:38:39 PM] Crion
aha
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:38:55 PM] Dammitwho
in short, nobody has power because they're baron whatever, they have power because their family is very likely to be in the Umbral Court, and as is very common in Nidal a lot of things live in ambiguity
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:39:11 PM] Crion
killing every other viable candidate is a form of merit
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:39:20 PM] Crion
there was a movie about this recently
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:39:24 PM] Dammitwho
If you can get away with it!
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:40:13 PM] Dammitwho
so: it's possible the Stenhjertes simply ended up Purged, as happens sometimes. perhaps by the Midnight Guard, Nidal's equivalent of the ISB
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:40:46 PM] Dammitwho
(and who, by the time of Whalefall, have suffered the fates of Major Partagaz and Dedra Meero)
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:41:40 PM] Imran, Alone
Imran both knows exactly why he is here -- his father, a military man, and his mother, an Umbral Courtier, were murdered along with his sisters, brother, and their entire households -- and has no idea whatsoever. Did someone want Mum's seat? Usually you don't get that with something so blunt as total estate slaughter. Was it simply the Triune's will?
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:41:58 PM] Imran, Alone
She bid him run, and he obeyed his mother.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:43:05 PM] Imran, Alone
Adalla, her right hand and handmaiden, had taken him from the city and through the woods, to the highway down the coast, leading to Kintargo. She'd left him at the border.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:43:10 PM] Imran, Alone
She had to go back, she said.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:43:37 PM] Imran, Alone
He almost said he was going with her -- but how stupid would that have been, after they both walked all that way?
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:44:15 PM] Imran, Alone
So...to Kintargo he went. And from here, to where? Because my god, he wasn't going to stay in fucking Kintargo. Is this a local rule on holes in baked goods? They're outlawing BAGELS?
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:45:15 PM] Imran, Alone
Oh, you need a license. Some kind of targeted repression to choose winners then, in the bagel market.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:46:22 PM] Dammitwho
The Midnight Lord demands he exult in misery and loss. They'd probably mark him as an apostate as well, to twist the knife. They'd probably also twist some knives.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:46:59 PM] Dammitwho
Regardless, Imran should probably get indoors. There's a curfew now, he notes. Fortunately, there's an inn nearby: the Drunken Harper.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:47:31 PM] Imran, Alone
The good news is that no one worships the Lord out here. The bad news is that He is as infinite, cold and unknowable as the void above the sky, and you can see that from pretty much everywhere.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:48:07 PM] Imran, Alone
Drunken Harper, huh. Heard of harpists before, but not harpers. Drunken sounds good right now, though, so let's head in.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:51:28 PM] Dammitwho
A small place, well-lit, but with not much cheer. There's a portrait on the wall of Her Imperial Majestrix Queen Abrogail II of the Thrice-Damned House of Thrune, precisely eleven inches by seventeen inches as mandated in one of the proclamations Imran was given. There's a decent number of people in, taking up tables and booths, and conversations stop abruptly as Imran enters, only slowly beginning again and more quietly.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:51:51 PM] Dammitwho
There's a counter with a surly-looking barmaid and a slate with a menu and prices chalked on it.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:53:11 PM] Imran, Alone
He was raised a polite young man, in the old Nidalese way: When someone glares at him, he glares right back.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:54:35 PM] Dammitwho
Roll 1d20
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:55:03 PM] Imran, Alone
16
1d20 = 16 = 16
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:55:48 PM] Imran, Alone
They had stopped in a small passover station cut into rock and bramble on the way through the forest that Adalla knew the way to with practiced familiarity; it slept the two of them in cramped quarters during the day, then got them moving at night with provisions. Imran understood pretty well what that place meant, without having to ask. It also had some gold hidden away; she'd given him the majority.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:55:56 PM] Imran, Alone
So he can at least pay his way for the night.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:56:09 PM] Imran, Alone
...Depending on how bad prices have gotten around here.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:56:49 PM] Dammitwho
Imran wins the glaring contest. The barmaid looks down, sullenly wiping a glass, and asks "What'll it be? No tea 'cos of the law. And don't be funny and ask for mint or bagels. Got ale, fish, bread, and stew."
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:58:04 PM] Dammitwho
Prices haven't gone up yet, thankfully. Ravounel doesn't import staples from the old country.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:58:15 PM] Imran, Alone
"Ale, stew, and advisement on cost of a room for the night and the week."
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 4:59:56 PM] Imran, Alone
He feels naked without a shield and a weapon.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:01:40 PM] Dammitwho
She grunts. "Take a seat. I'll bring 't out and ask landlord about rooms. Don't get y'hopes up." There don't appear to be any empty tables, and most have two or more people sitting together. The only likely place is a table that would sit you across from an orc in blue with a military bearing, eating quietly while scanning some papers.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:02:43 PM] Imran, Alone
Not as good as eating alone, but better than eating with another sallow-faced human. Very unlikely that the orc serves the Lord.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:03:20 PM] Imran, Alone
He'll walk over then. "Might I sit?" he'll ask directly. Followed by: "I won't talk."
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:05:53 PM] Dammitwho
"Sit if you want. Talk if you like, it's legal still." The orc's voice is raspy and higher-pitched than Imran might expect, depending on how many orcs he's ever met. They don't look up from their work, but they gesture efficiently toward the chair across from them.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:06:18 PM] Imran, Alone
He'll nod and sit.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:06:34 PM] Imran, Alone
Time to quickly review the rest of these accursed things.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:06:49 PM] Imran, Alone
...Is that what they're doing too?
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:10:29 PM] Dammitwho
No. Imran can't get much detail without obviously trying to read alongside them, but it looks like news out of Egorian. Handwritten too, not the official printed news.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:11:13 PM] Imran, Alone
Mmmm. Well, he's not going to make a point of immediately snooping.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:13:08 PM] Dammitwho
"New in town, stranger?" The orc asks, idly.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:13:47 PM] Imran, Alone
Going through a lot of stupid papers is not quite as second nature to him as it likely is to a Hellknight, but it is part and parcel of noble life in any tributary state to the throne in Cheliax. He makes short work of it. Interesting. Not the papers, the orc asking questions: "Came straight from the gate, where I was handed my homework."
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:16:08 PM] Dammitwho
"There'll be more tomorrow. For all of us. Martial law, they're saying." A boy with a gloomy expression and Emotions Hair puts Imran's ale and stew on the table and adolescents away.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:16:17 PM] Dammitwho
(the orc says that, not the boy)
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:16:47 PM] Imran, Alone
One commiserates. With the boy, not the -- well, perhaps the orc too.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:17:20 PM] Imran, Alone
"Then clearly I'll be needing martial tools."
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:17:31 PM] Imran, Alone
"Are they still letting boats out from port?"
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:17:35 PM] Imran, Alone
"If you know."
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:18:25 PM] Imran, Alone
Imran notes they haven't asked where he's from, but then, if they're not new to town, they already know. Our people do have a look and a vibe.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:22:54 PM] Dammitwho
"Ships still leave, but everyone is questioned, from captain to cabin boy. The lord-mayor's no friend to the stranger. A sword you can still get, if that's what you're after."
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:24:14 PM] Imran, Alone
"Shield too, though I gather barrels still have lids, in a pinch. Unless local regulation has intruded on that as well."
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:27:27 PM] Dammitwho
The orc smiles and lets out a raspy chuckle. "Not yet." They look up from their papers, making eye contact with Imran for the first time. "Futhark, once called the Anvil. What brings you to Kintargo?"
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:27:33 PM] Dammitwho
Young Imran may roll perception or society
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:28:37 PM] Crion
i am going to use imran's lvl2 sheet for this, which i have on hand thanks to pathbuilder 2e dot com. lvl2 imran rolls society at +7
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:28:48 PM] Imran, Alone
18
1d20 + 7 = 11 + 7 = 18
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:33:40 PM] Dammitwho
As Imran suspected, Futhark isn't stupid, they know that Imran is likely from Nidal. They're giving Imran the social opportunity to either tell the truth or give a cover story - either one is a reasonable choice from their perspective
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:35:28 PM] Imran, Alone
Imran thinks about it for a minute and...they weren't looking for Imran. They were looking for members of House Stenhjerte. And he can't possibly keep up a fake name for long; they're just too annoying. "Imran. Just Imran, now. That's why I'm here."
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:36:26 PM] Imran, Alone
"Passing through by preference, unless I'm compelled to stay."
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:38:51 PM] Dammitwho
Futhark's eyebrows raise slightly. "You might be. We all might be. Things seem to change by the hour." They bite off a chunk of bread and scan their papers again for a moment before speaking. "At a loss? There's no shame in it."
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:40:31 PM] Imran, Alone
"I am a military man without coat or shield or sword. The story tells itself. It is not a happy one. I am told--" He smiles here, and it's quite unpleasant, almost like baring teeth. "I am told this is an opportunity for me. For a new life."
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:41:03 PM] Imran, Alone
He puts down another sheet of paper. "One without dancing after three bells except in specific entertainment taxation zones, apparently."
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:45:01 PM] Dammitwho
"I suppose that depends on what kind of life you're looking for."
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:46:48 PM] Dammitwho
"Men don't live on bread alone." They take another bite for emphasis.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:46:58 PM] Imran, Alone
Imran looks up from his stew and paper and sits back, and quickly assesses the orc across the table. This...is leading to a proposition. Not that kind of proposition, but some kind of proposition. "I suppose that's true."
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:49:42 PM] Imran, Alone
"Futhark, you said. You served in a military, I can tell that much. And there's really only one on this part of the continent that truly rates."
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:50:20 PM] Dammitwho
"The Order of the Scourge doesn't care for its wayward children." Futhark acknowledges. "Calls it weakness. If I agreed, I'd still be there, wouldn't I?"
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:53:40 PM] Imran, Alone
Imran nods. "I always admired their uniforms. And that when they were finished their business, they got to leave the way they came. But they were men of order, and men of order fastidiously follow orders. And I very much did not like some of those orders."
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:54:12 PM] Imran, Alone
"But you don't serve Hell anymore."
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:58:07 PM] Dammitwho
"I do not." Futhark replies firmly. "That, too, is law. A foolish consistency is the owlbear of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers. All the sallies of my will are rounded in by the law of my being."
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 5:59:22 PM] Dammitwho
"I have some friends that might be able to slip you out under the closing portcullis, Imran. Call it a favor."
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 6:00:45 PM] Imran, Alone
Imran takes another bite of stew and contemplates. "I would prefer not to owe favors. Which is not a no."
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 6:00:56 PM] Imran, Alone
"But the nature of the yes might depend on your friends."
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 6:03:51 PM] Dammitwho
"A man in your position needs favors as a drowning man needs air," Futhark notes. "But we're no extortionists. Decline and we part amicably. You might find yourself more inclined towards our--"
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 6:04:08 PM] Dammitwho
The boy bursts back into the taproom, terrified.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 6:04:18 PM] Dammitwho
"They're burning the church of Sarenrae!"
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 6:04:27 PM] Imran, Alone
Imran stands reflexively.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 6:05:11 PM] Imran, Alone
"They allow churches to the Dawnflower here?"
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 6:05:24 PM] Imran, Alone
Well, Imran supposes they don't anymore.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 6:06:00 PM] Dammitwho
Futhark stands in unison with him. The boy runs over to the orc. "I saw them burning Big Kevin's shop and taking people out of the row houses! The dottari and the Rack!"
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 6:07:42 PM] Dammitwho
(The empire of Cheliax has always had a limited degree of freedom of religion. Worship of Asmodeus is mandatory nearly everywhere, though less rigorously enforced outside of the old country itself. And Nidal has its own dispensation, of course. Many other gods are permitted provided it's made clear that the Dark Prince has pride of place. Though, as Imran noted, in Kintargo this seems to have changed.)
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 6:07:55 PM] Dammitwho
Imran notices now that everyone else in the inn is looking at Futhark.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 6:08:00 PM] Imran, Alone
Imran doesn't know any of the people or places, but he gets the meaning.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 6:08:18 PM] Imran, Alone
Now that's interesting.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 6:09:49 PM] Dammitwho
"Out the back," they say to the room. "They'll come here and fewer innocents will be hurt if they don't find us. Split up, stay safe." They turn to Imran. "If you've heard of the Order of the Rack, you'll know what they do to prisoners. There are people I need to keep safe. You've no obligation to me nor any call to risk yourself on my behalf. Will you help?"
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 6:10:48 PM] Imran, Alone
"I'm your second," Imran says, "on the sole condition that when you give me a sword and shield for it, I keep them. I'll provide for my own coat."
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 6:12:26 PM] Dammitwho
Futhark grins, already moving quickly toward the back door. "SOMEBODY GET THIS MAN A SHIELD!" They roar.
---------------------------
[3/27/2026, 6:13:19 PM] Imran, Alone
Imran kills the rest of the stew bowl with one hand and drops it on the counter as he follows.