With this scene, I'm upgrading to the Plot Unfolding Machine (PUM). It replaces "JV's Scene Designer".
Scene: I'm picturing the forge, still. Master Ifor has arrived, with Mistriss Ysbail. A group of curious Tower members are clustered outside in the hall, gossiping. Reinold must justify his decisions and secrets to the tower, defend his father. There is discussions of magical means to find the sword and Kendrack. Ultimately, Reinold must obtain permission to leave the tower and seek (rescue?) his father.
Let's do a scene check: d10 = 3, "Something is different". Hmm! Okay. Something is different... How about: no other tower members are present, and all seven masters are here, as well as Mariella and Mair.
The forge fires were all well-banked, but I still felt unreasonably hot as I stood against the counter and faced all seven of the Tower's masters. Apparently, Master Ifor had encountered Master Elis and Mistress Ysbail as he was hurrying to the forge, and Elis had seen Osior just a moment before. They quickly found him as he was talking with Mistress Rhona, and as the five of them were descending on the forge, they'd happened across Mistresses Aelwyd and Cothi, who were returning from a late-morning walk across the tower grounds.
It was, I thought, most unfair. All it would take to make the ordeal complete was for the Abbot himself to show up.
I'd spent the last fifteen minutes telling, again, the story of the sword's creation—Olwynna's creation—and trying not to cringe under the accusing stares of the masters. While my father and I had been designing and making the thing, our determination to keep it secret had seemed entirely reasonable, but in hindsight, as I rehearsed it to the very seven I'd most wanted to keep it secret from, my excuses all seemed pathetically weak.
Mistriss Ysbail, short, stooped, and frail, finally shook her head and sighed. When she spoke, her voice was thin and wavery. "More than one artificer has spent their life traveling, researching, and experimenting before accomplishing the tenth part of what you and your father managed to do in the last year."
Surprised at the compliment, I started to smile, and opened my mouth to protest modestly.
"But!" She spoke the word with a sharpness that cut me off and quickly deflated my growing pride. "But! But but but! You have demonstrated a shocking lack of responsibility! I'm especially disappointed in your father. Kondrack, at least, should have known better."
I coughed. "Uh, yeah." I said. "My father actually did argue for telling you all at the beginning, but..."
"But?"
"I, uh, kind of convinced him that we should, er, surprise you."
Master Osior snorted. "Oh, you've certainly surprised us, boy."
Mistress Cothi clucked her tongue. She was tall, and as one of the younger masters her hair was still a dark brown with only a few hints of gray in it. She voiced what they'd all been thinking. "But what do we do about it? This sword is most dangerous. If the note the boy found indeed refers to it, we must get word to the king as soon as can be arranged."
I bristled at being called a "boy". We'd celebrated my twentieth name day more than three months ago, but I knew better than to contradict her.
Ysbail waved a hand. "Yes, yes, we'll dispatch messages as soon as we are finished here." She pursed her lips and looked at her colleagues. "The more important question is: why would Kondrack do this?"
I felt a surge of anger, and rushed to defend my father. "Now, hold on—"
Master Elis cut me off. The Tower's master of blacksmithing, he was a short, stocky man, nearly as wide as he was tall, with a face so thickly bearded that his eyes were all but hidden. His voice was gruff. "Silence, boy," he said. "You've said your bit. Now stop talking and use that extraordinary brain of yours. The sword is gone. Your father is gone. The implication ought to be clear."
"But what about Royston?" I said, struggling to sound calm and dispassionate. "From his testimony, it seems clear that it wasn't my father who magicked him to sleep. Someone came at him from behind, while Royston was facing my father."
Good argument. Let's play the "Persuasion" game again. I'm trying to persuade the masters that my father is innocent. If they believe me, perhaps they'll let me go find him. If they don't believe me, perhaps they'll believe I"m the accomplice. After all, I was the one who discovered Royston... Let's say it's DC 10, and I need to succeed at 2 out of 3.
So, here we go. I have a +1 to Persuade. d20+1 = 5. FAIL. Not a good start.
Mistress Cothi shook her head. "He had an accomplice," she said. "Royston showed up when they didn't expect it. He said as much himself, didn't he? He said your father seemed surprised when he walked in."
Touché. "But I've been spending most of my time with my father these last few months," I said, casting about for another argument. "There were many days where we were together literally from first light until dark. He had no opportunity to plan something like this, let alone recruit an accomplice."
Eh, kind of a weak argument. Let's see if they buy it. d20+1 = 18. Ooh! They're definitely swayed by this one! I just need to win one more roll...
Mistress Rhona had been silent all this time, but she grunted now. "That's fair," she said. "I've seen how Kondrack is when he's absorbed by a project. It's like he's got blinders on and can't see anything else until it's done."
A few other council members were nodding as well, all of them having had dealings with my father at one time or another. They had also seen what Rhona described.
Cothi, though, was still on the fence. "Your mother's letter, though," she said. "It's obvious that someone was leaking information. You claim that no one except yourself and your father knew about this sword, this Olwynna." Her mouth twisted as she said the name; she seemed especially offended at the thought of a sentient weapon. "The only possible leak, then, was either you, or your father."
"Or both." Ysbail added, eyeing me sharply.
This was something that had bothered me, as well, though I'd hardly had much time to really consider it deeply. The implications of someone else having known about Olwynna while we were making her...they made me deeply uncomfortable. We'd taken a lot of precautions.
But not all precautions.
"We were careful," I said, feeling a bit ashamed suddenly, "but perhaps not careful enough. You've seen the alcove where we kept her; all it would take was a curious servant to peek behind the curtain, or to stand outside the door while my father and I were working. They might have seen or heard any number of things."
Good argument here. A bit of humble pie, too, which never hurts. Do they swallow it? d20+1 = 7. Oof! Nope, they don't. That's two fails out of three attempts, and my luck has run out.
Cothi was shaking her head. "You just reminded us about how your father is when he's working on a project," she said. "I've seen how careful he is, how meticulous. I can't believe he would have made such a mistake as to reveal a secret by accident." She turned to the others. "Am I wrong? You've all known Kondrack as long as I have, at least."
My stomach sank to see the others nodding thoughtfully. "Okay," I said, desperate for another option. "Maybe you're right about an accomplice. I can't believe it, myself, but we should be able to find out, right? Surely there's a magical solution here? Isn't there a spell any of you know that could help answer this question?"
That last probably came out a bit more presumptuous than I intended, because a few frowns were directed my way, but their conversation did turn to magical solutions.
"Locate Object?"
"No Reinold's the only one here with knowledge of the sword, and he doesn't know the spell."
"We could make a scroll for him, but time is of the essence..."
"Locate Creature, then?"
"Hmm, maybe. But Kondrack would need to be within a thousand feet of us."
"That reminds me, we should have the gates closed, and find out how many parties have left the Tower in the last hour or so." There was a bustle as Elis quickly hailed a passing servant and instructed him to send word to the captain of the guard immediately.
"At any rate," Elis said, returning to the group. "I doubt Kondrack would still be within a thousand feet of us. He would have made for the gate as quickly as possible."
I ground my teeth, but restrained myself from responding to that. They had already demonstrated that they weren't willing to be persuaded.
"What about Scry?" Osior asked. "I don't know the spell, but surely there's a diviner somewhere in the tower who does?"
Hmm. Is there? I don't know! Let's ask the oracle. "Is there a wizard in the tower who can cast Scry for us?" I put it at 50/50. Roll = 3/3/2 "wrong question". Hmm! I suppose I was wrong to assume it might be a wizard, since Scry exists on several spell lists. Let's rephrase. "Is there anyone in the tower who can cast Scry for us?" Roll = 2/3/1 "no, but".
Ah! "No, but" there might be a magic item that could do it for us. Given the nature of the people in this tower, I'm going to say that's likely. Oracle? Roll = 4/1/4 "yes". But the wild die matches the yes die, so that's an event. Rolling on the event table, we get 1/1/5, "resolve or simplify a thread".
Okay, so there's one thread, pretty minor, that I left dangling. Back in scene 1, I said that "I saw a folded bit of parchment with an ornate seal in bright yellow wax. It tickled something in my memory, but I couldn't spare it any attention." Perhaps we should tie that thread up. Why was the seal familiar? Or if not familiar, why did it tickle something in Reinold's memory?
Let's get some word prompts: "innocent" and "even". Hmm... "innocent", as in "uncorrupted", "naive", "inexperienced", "not guilty", "childlike"... And "even" as in "plain", "uniform", "divisible by two", "exact", "calm"... Okay, I have an idea. It's just word association, but that's valid. The words are just prompts, after all!
Ysbail shook her head. "No, though I've often wished we could entice a diviner or two to the tower. It's a pity they have such limited use for what we do here."
Aelwyd had been listening to the discussion, content to let the others brainstorm, but now she held up a hand. They quieted to hear what she said. "There's always the Abbot," she said. "And the Syrcrystal."
I'd only heard of the Syrcrystal once or twice, and knew next to nothing about it. It was, according to rumor, a stone of some kind that the Abbot used to keep abreast with world events. Rumor also said there was some great price to be paid by using it. The latter rumor seemed to be confirmed to some degree by the shifting looks that the other masters gave each other at mention of the Syrcrystal.
What is the price? Word prompts: "value" and "messy". (Ha!) I'm going to try rolling on PUM's "What" table to see if that can narrow "messy" at all. What is messy? d10 = 9, "Information". Hmm. "messy information". I'm going to take that to mean that something about what is revealed is ambiguous, and that what is learned—while still valuable—may be interpreted in multiple ways.
When no one else spoke after a few heartbeats, Osior sighed. "Of course, Aelwyd, you're right. And we should have thought of it sooner. If the Abbot hasn't already used it today, we ought to avail ourselves of it immediately. The question is, I suppose, whether we are willing to deal with the uncertainty it will introduce." He arched an eyebrow at the other six masters, who nodded solemnly.
They need to summon a messenger, now. I would assume these labs have some way to do so, whether magically or mechanically. Oracle, do they? I'll say it's likely. Roll = 3/2/3 = "YES, BUT". Also, an event occurs. Rolling for the event, I get 1/6/3, "An NPC takes action".
So, yes, the lab has a way to summon a messenger, but...it's not working. And someone takes action to find a messenger.
"Very well," Osior said. He clapped his hands in a distinctive pattern—ta, ta-ta, ta-ta ta ta—one which every room in the Tower complex was enchanted to recognize as a messenger summons. The enchantment was supposed to sound a soft chime after the clap, as acknowledgment, but no such chime sounded now. Osior cocked his head, and clapped again.
No chime.
"That's odd," he said.
I'm assuming this is sabotage of some sort, and related to the disappearance of the sword? Let's ask the oracle. I'm calling it "likely". Roll 6/2/6 = "yes". Also, an event happens, 2/6/3, "Bad thing happens to a PC."
Well, that's no bueno. Are they going to blame the sabotage on me? Oracle = 6/2/2 = yes. Nice.
Osior looked at me. They all looked at me.
"What?" I asked, suddenly feeling like a mouse in a cat house.
Osior gestured vaguely, apparently indicating the broken enchantment. "This," he said. "The enchantment. Someone has disabled it."
I nodded, still not understanding his point. "It makes sense," I said. "Whoever took the sword, and attacked Royston, wanted to make sure no one could call for help."
No one said anything for a long moment, until Osior sighed and shook his head. "We need a messenger. I'll hop over to the next room and call from there." He slipped out of the room.
The silence was uncomfortable. The six masters, as well as Mair, were all looking at me sadly. Mariella was trying to look as unobtrusive as possible.
"What?" I asked, finally. "Did I say something wrong?"
Elis looked to the other five. "I think we all agree that he mustn't be allowed to roam free, for now." They all nodded.
"Who?" I asked. "Are you talking about my father?"
Just then Osior returned with a young, smartly-dressed messenger boy. I'd seen him around the tower recently, no doubt newly-minted as one of the Tower's messenger corps. As I listened to Osior instruct the boy and send him running with the message, I suddenly remembered why the yellow seal on the letter had seemed familiar. That boy—I'd seen him a couple weeks ago with an armful of missives. The one on top had a yellow seal; I'd noted it particularly because of its unusual, bright color.
Let's make sure. Was it the same seal? I'm going to say "likely", because I'm the boss here. Roll = 1/4/2 = NO. Hmm! Okay, so it's not the same seal. But the color is so striking and unusual; is it somehow related to the other seal? Roll = 6/2/2 = YES.
I couldn't be certain, but in my memory the seal was different somehow than the one on the letter in my mother's lab, a different shape, perhaps. But the color...that was significant.
"I just thought of something—" I said, starting to share my suspicions, when Ysbail cut me off with a gesture.
"No, Reinold," she said. "We're not talking about your father. We're talking about you. I regret—I'm sure we all regret—that we're going to need to confine you for now."
"What? Me?" I was dumbfounded. "What'd I do?"
Cothi rolled her eyes and snorted, but Ysbail answered. "At the very least, you demonstrated terrible judgment. But we can't discount the possibility that you've conspired with your father to create a weapon for the Black Duke."
"Me? For the Black Duke? But—"
She turned to face a pair of guards as they entered the forge. "Guardsmen," she said. "Please escort this young man to one of the cells. Make him comfortable, and see to his needs, but keep him secure."
As they led me away, I couldn't help but feel like things were only going to get worse.
And that wraps up scene 4! PUM adds a "plot lines" concept, for tracking different threads and arcs. Let's quickly summarize where we're at with the current threads:
* The relationship with Mariella is a minor plot line. It started at a 3 in scene 2, but dropped to 2 by the end of it. (That relationship does not look promising.)
* What's the significance of the yellow seal? That advanced a bit. Let's say it's at a 5 now.
* Who poisoned mother? Started 3 in scene 1, and the letter in scene 3 revealed enough that I'd say we advanced that thread to a 4.
* Recover the sword — that's at a 3. I don't think it's advanced at all in this scene.
* Find father — also at a 3. Hopefully we'll make some progress there in the next scene.