ROYAL 🍞 SECRET PAGE.

[agogenpc]

Sup guys! Here's where we're going to be going over ~secret info~ for the Royal Pain mission.

I was thinking the way we'd run this would be similar to a D&D sort of thing. I give you guys some scenarios. You tell me what your characters would do. If I think it's particularly difficult or risky, we'll do a skill check, but that'll probably be rare (unless you want to TRY for something particularly unlikely and REQUEST a skill check). I'll tell you what information your characters find, and they can relate it to the rest of the game as you wish. Sound good?

FIRST OFF all your guys' names will be absolutely impossible to pronounce for French people... except for you, John Neige. For Daenerys, it might be a good idea to just go as Dany, since the name Danielle exists, though it's very rare at this time in France. Ashitaka... well, people will probably assume Ashitaka is at least partially Chinese, so you can really do whatever. Basically: if you want to come up with names for your personas, lmk! Or if you wanna handwave it, that's cool too!

ALSO for the benefit of transparency, once this mission is over, we'll be making the post public so players can see everything that went down behind the scenes!

Comments

[lonelywar]

Ashitaka pays careful attention to those that he discovers are new to the guard, similar to himself and Jon; this is particularly true for Antoine Colin. He doesn't make any efforts to follow him. On the contrary, he tries to act as oblivious to his obvious avoidance as possible. In the most casual way possible, however, he asks the other soldiers if there is anything else strange that they have noticed about Antoine's behavior. If asked why he's interested, he will do his best not to act suspicious of the man, instead couching his curiosity in confusion to his severe aversion to himself.

If possible, Ashitaka wants to learn more about Antoine's schedule for guard duty and patrol. Just because. If it's not something he can observe from afar, without arousing suspicion, however, he will hang back.

From discussions with Jon, Ashitaka has learned that the locksmith's final destination is always the king's private study. With his knowledge of general guard detail and patrols, he will try to sneak into the study when it is in use by neither the king (nor in danger of being visited by the locksmith). If I need to roll anything, please let me know! He's going to be looking around for anything of interest and anything that looks like it's seen regular use.

Ashitaka's interest in the men's views is a personal one that he indulges on in his free time. Such concepts are so completely different from social constructs he's familiar with, so it takes a lot of discussion to start to wrap his mind around them. When it's talking about abstracts, Ashitaka is calm and interested, but the different forms of literature and the energy about them are slightly different. The pamphlet is a little difficult for him to digest, so his thoughts are not as defined on it, but he worries about the inflexibility it suggests between the different classes and resolving their issues. Ashitaka is also in attendance when the magazine issue is read aloud, though his reaction is a bit different. His face remains still, tense, and his left hand moves to clasp his right forearm as the demon mark reacts to the wild word so brazenly suggesting revolt and warfare. (Multiple times he thinks that the royal family very poorly chose their guards.) Regardless, he certainly seems a little more withdrawn and unconvinced when such violent methods are brought up, though he is cautious of questioning it, not wanting to rock the boat too much, particularly since he sees how much it means to these men (and probably knows how difficult their lives, and lives of others they know in the city) have been.

After some time, he does ask as gently as he can if they felt society could only be changed through the shedding of blood, or if they would accept a more peaceful solution. Just because he's interested... and worried.

[agogemod]

It turns out that Colin is also new, and also pretty oblivious to a lot of the political concerns of Paris. This is because, of course, he's from the countryside away from Paris. They don't know much about Colin or his opinions; he's always carefully neutral. He has an odd habit of disappearing when it's not his turn to be on guard duty, however. No one really knows where he goes. But when it's time for him to do his job, he does it, and what more can they ask?

Let's say they successfully make their way into the king's rooms. None of it seems particularly out of the ordinary, beyond an assortment of various locks, all with adjoining keys. The king is famously a hobbyest for technical equipment and puzzles of that sort, from clockmaking to locksmithing. Each key has a lock to match it somewhere on the king's workdesk... except one.

How odd.

The soldiers indulge Ashitaka-- he's a strange man, but they like him for his strangeness and his honesty and his obvious strength. They don't think a bloodless conclusion can be reached. The nobility refuses to give an inch. The time for change is now, and if the nobility keep ignoring it, well... that's their fault.