The Fall of the King of Sota: Chapter Twelve

 

I Wrote the Following Before the Chapter Session

I'm generally a pretty laidback GM. I run the procedures, and wait. And wait. And wait.  I just let the players through down whatever track they like, and then when I think thinigs are wrapping up, I start pulling on their threads and snapping them. Hard.

I started doing that. Crescendo is organized into "Books": (at least) three Storysteins, with a Capstone to force things to close out, and then you're done. I could push for a fourth Storystein, but I don't think I will. So we're in the last bit of this Book. I'm really good at ending things. And it's time to start doing that.

October 5th through October 10th

With King Lucien returned, he wastes no time: scouts are sent from @Lady Marie 's forces to Montport.

Seren finds a young girl who was being used terribly by someone in the cathedral; she was being chained up and used. The culprit turns out to be the quartermaster of the cathedral: Fr. Elliot, who had total command of the whole place.

Silvanus and Abbadon take over the new elves, and begin to train them. The elves keep to themselves, but there's still something about them that the townsfolk find disturbing.

October 11th through October 15th

On October 11th, King Lucien left for Montport with three platoons.

Lady Marie and Pierre La Forge instigated a movement against the newly arrived elves, preventing them from trading, gambling, or really doing anything other than lying down in a gutter.

Don't think this makes them allies: La Forge increased the price of all forged items for all New Sota City refugees by 100% to make up for the imposition they had made upon his city. Tension  begins to build within Newport.

October 16th- Chapter Twelve

The ending is a direct reference to Chapter Two, and the journaling of Lillian's player, Golden. What he thought was a ghost haunting him was an agent of Telvra. He was human. He had messed himself up past recognition, but human. 

That means there's a human civilization so magically advanced that the long-lived elves, who are natively good at magic, couldn't even detect them.

What the players should have heard was the trap snapping shut. I don't know if they did, but there's an inference they should have drawn.

I'M TELLING THEM TO DRAW IT!

Do you know how much work I put into that twist? Almost nothing. I had a general idea of what was going on in the area, I made a Setting Bible, and as time went on, I just naturally went "Okay, this is what's actually going on". I didn't write anything down. I just noted the shape.

And the players filled in everything else.