Episode Description
After a successful mission retrieving key remnants of the Divine Past and the body of the Elect Cymbidium, |the Rapid Evening has returned to Cruciat, Kesh’s capital on Partizan. While the city mourns the loss of an Elect, the crew’s members are busy resupplying, repairing their vehicles, and pursuing their own ends. While Clementine Kesh deals with the emotional aftershock of her first command, Sovereign Immunity, Exeter Leap, and Ver'Million Blue test the constraints of their imprisonment and take next steps towards their goals.
And then there is the matter of the funeral…
This Week on PARTIZAN: A Palace During a Wake
///Operation Dossier\\\
//Organizations\\
The Curtain: Though Kesh is technically governed through an elaborate parliamentary democracy, the truth is that The Curtain, a secretive organization inside of the Stel, serves as the actual power behind the throne. Knowledge of the Curtain is carefully guarded, and its membership is even further protected.
//Places\\
Cruciat: The jewel of Kesh’s holdings on Partizan (and the home of the Stel’s Winter Palace) is this city on a cross shaped island in the northernmost reaches of the Prophet’s Sea. Its cruciform shape made the city easily divisible into districts. The long southern arm is given to government, first to miles of civil bureaucracy and then to noble homes along the waterside, and finally to the famous, icelike Winter Palace. To the east, and across some of the nearby islands that dot the coast, the large proletariat cram into homes. On the west, Kesh’s military marches in formation and launches naval vessels to probe at Apostolos’ borders. The north is industrial, situated so that it can more quickly intake both incoming supplies and outgoing shipments directly from the continent. Finally, the center is a bustling downtown, filled with music, food, shopping, and pleasure of all kinds.
It’s never quite night time in Cruciat, partly because of its place north on the moon, and partly because the gas lamps saturate the northern fog with white-blue light. It’s a color matched by the stonework buildings, whose light grey facades grow darker as you move north, towards the factories. Horses carry nobles whose homes are worth a thousand thousand times the laborers they pass. And the smell of warm stew is in the air.
The Winter Palace: Owned and managed by House Kesh, but eternal “home” to the Princept, whether they choose to visit or not. Beyond the throne room, there are countless spaces for receiving and entertaining, a lovely and vast garden, and a number of ballrooms for major events. Built for privacy and access, featuring both its own port and trainyard.
//Things\\
Robotic Utilities and Navigation Tool (RUNT): A floating, coffin-shaped, well-programed hunter-killer robot. Obeys Milli’s commands, anticipates her actions, carries her sniper rifle, and wields its own smaller weapons.
//Additional Notes\\
Mission Reward Math:
4 Supply from 3d6 supply roll (Target’s Tier = 3, Employer Faction Status = 0 ), +1 extra personnel and +1trust (from Kesh’s government type, Oligarchy/Crytpocracy), +1 materiel from Leap’s scavenging
Opening
“
One thing that Kesh knows better than any other Stel is that there are many ways to mark a death, and that decorum, tradition, and prestige are all factors when deciding which type of ceremony to choose. This is a tricky thing. Not a matter of simple formuli, nor something entirely subjective. There is no rule, for example, that says a great leader must have a parade, nor that a war hero needs a gunnery salute. A service must always have the feel of a portrait, but its metaphorical style, medium, and even subject might change depending on the situation.
Things are simpler when it comes to Elects, though. While other members of the Principality may be celebrated with a public procession or remembered in a private viewing, buried under religious distinction or honored with an ostentatious funeral, an Elect simply receives every ritual. Every ceremony. They have no choice in this. And it was during the grand requiem of the Elect Cymbidium that Crysanth Kesh, third in line to the throne of Princept, spymaster, and renowned diplomat, crystallized what the death of Past's chosen meant for the war against Dahlia and their Apostolosian dissonance with her closing remarks.
"With their heartless attack on a peaceful Divine, Apostolos sought to break our spirits, to show that their cruelty has no limits. But cruelty is trivial in the face of history. There is nothing novel about the ambition of frauds, or the methods of tyrants. So yes, remember the past. Remember Cymbidium. But above all, take to the battlefield with the strength and righteous knowledge that when we are done with Apostolos, no one will remember them at all."”
Plot
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