Sheep Amongst Wolves
From Shazrasha
| Stats | |
| Characters | Storm, Adoni, Wu Chan Li, Decious, Kid and Sachi |
| Duration | 2 days |
| Quotes | None |
Organising themselves into an official party with Wu Chan Li at their centre they arrive at Bei Dong Jing. Stabling their mounts they are shown to their quarters where they can freshen up before being presented to court. The servants bring heated water and towels to the rooms and leave them to ready themselves. Sachi asks that they search the towel as she is suspicious of the servant who brought it. The group find a note within asking for a secret meeting later that night. The note is from Rei Merin, a noble that Wei Farimh had said would aid them.
They enter the court not much later. Seated at the far end of the hall is seated Dran Ienel of Wolf Clan, the head of the northen court. Moving amongst the courtiers Wu Chan Li hears many grumblings about the recent changes at court with new appointments to the central council and also u turns on some decisions.
Later during their night time meeting Rei Merin explains to the group that Serv Rashid, who is the minister of defence, has recently changed his opinion on the positioning of troops around the region. This is something that is unheard of for Serv is reknowned for not changing his opinion once formed. Rei Merin also divulges the names and likely opinions of all the important members of the court so that they are aware of the current situation.
The next day the group start their investigations. Sachi would find and talk to Suri, Storm and Wu Chan Li would talk to Garun Vai, whilst Adoni and Kid would to talk to Mion.
Decious decided to go to the stables. Once there he found a small Wolf Clan child playing with his familiar. On talking to the groom caring for their horses Decious learns that Mion (who is now a minister) had been about to leave the city for a position in another town. He also found whilst walking outside some tracks from some large animals.
Sachi attempted to bluff her way into Suri’s confidence but, after an initial failure that provoked suspicion, she managed to explain that she was hired to investigate what was happening in the classrooms. After a swift discussion, she found out that they had been importing teachers from Fereheen because they are short of money, as Weren had been taking money from the ministry of education for culture things.
Adoni and Kid try to bluff their way in to Mion's office but are hindered by her scribe. They learn from him that Mion hadn’t mentioned that she had put her name forward as a minister.
Storm and Wu Chan Li didn’t manage to learn much from Garun who just voiced his grievances over not becoming minister. According to him one week before the final decision her papers had not been in the office.
Sachi having moved on from Suri found Weren drunk in a nearby bar. Using her variety of feminine wiles, she tried to learn as much as she could from the man. He had a serious dislike for Suri as in his opinion she was too young and also not of noble birth. When asking who he had voted for at the recent election to the post of Minister he started to name Garun but changed his words dramatically, as if by magic. He stated that he decided to vote for Mion.
Storm and Wu Chan Li went hunting for Erichiro and spoke to his head scribe. Attempting to bluff her way through, Storm made up a relative who was meant to be appearing in court. When the scribe didn’t buy this, they ended up being chased out of the room.
Adoni and Kid managed to find Serv but he refused to speak with them.
Meeting again over lunch the group discussed what they had found out and made plans for the rest of the day. Adoni and Kid planned to attempt to talk to Mion again. Decious and Wu Chan Li would follow the tracks he found. Sachi planned to test whether Weren had been bespelled and Storm decided to interrogate some of the servants.
Decious and Wu Chan Li followed the tracks into the local woods and discovered that they were following wolves.
Sachi found that the only magic on Weren was his ring, which he had been given by Dran and that it was Tren had created it. Weren commented that he thought the idea of combining magic and theatre was foolish, but liked Tren a bit. He preferred Iontu however, though made some comment about his bodyguard.
Storm found a cleaner who worked within Serv’s rooms and spoke to her. She discovered that Serv was moving troops around a lot more since the last meeting. She tried to talk to Serv and found him more accepting of her presence. He commented that she was a long way from the old western court. He also seemed slightly exasperated and expressed dislike for patrolling the areas that were full of monsters. He mentioned when asked that, in his opinion, Mion was the better candidate at the election. He was also wearing a ring.
Adoni and Kid found Mion and noticed that she too was wearing one of the rings.Adoni's story of bard songs to be written about Mion brought immediate success as she was happy to talk. She revealed that she doesn’t remember writing the application forms as she had planned to visit her mother's hometown and take over the running of its council. She said that she didn’t have many friends within the court, but was on pretty good terms with Iontu. He helped her with logistics. She also had been talking to Karaniko because their jobs lay closely interwoven. She felt slightly sorry for Garun, but as she was appointed officially, she had to do the job. She explained that Serv’s explanation to remove troops was that he didn’t need to guard the border of Fereheen as they guarded it from their side and therefore the trade routes were safe.
The group combined their information again and settled on two things they needed to investigate. Tren who had created the rings that they all wore and Iontu who seemed to be a part of the court despite having no actual influence.
