PALISADE 06: The Canvas of Dreams Pt. 1

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Episode description

This episode carries content warnings for the discussion of civilian deaths and the discussion of kidnapping.

In typical fashion, the mission has a name as ostentatious as its object is mundane. “Operation Midnight Lapidary” is meant to be, in its most bloodless version, a sort of intimidating hit-and-run—though out-and-out wetwork would also be acceptable. The target, rumored to be a dealer in diamonds, rubies, and other precious gems, is en route to the Duchess’ coronation, and must be stopped. Why? To what end? These are the sorts of questions left for those in leadership. For the members of the Blue Channel, there’s only the mission.

Well, the mission, and an invitation to an important meet-and-greet.

This week on PALISADE: The Canvas of Dreams Pt. 1

Lights off / Nightlights

Dossier

Organizations

Bilateral Intercession: One of two factions vying for leadership of the Principality, comprised by Stels Kesh and Nideo, and lead by the so-called Peaceful Princept, Cynosure Whitestar-Kesh (he/him), who took control of the faction from the Curtain, a secretive intelligence organization with roots in Kesh’s ancient spy operations. The “Bilats” are a conservative and reactionary force, aiming to return the Principality to its roots both literally and figuratively. After a long campaign against the Pact of Free States, they managed to take control of Palisade.
Violet Cove: The Dim Liturgy claim to have seen the Divine Devotion's arrival coming in their sacred text: A battered and corrupted backup of Crystal Palace's final predictions for the future. Now the two cults work together to oust the Bilats... and perhaps to do more intriguing things, as well.
The Branched: A post-human society of beings who have transformed their bodies into forms terrifying and spectacular and free—only to have the threat of war force them to rebuild themselves as soldiers first and foremost. After centuries of fighting a purely defensive war, the Branched have now begun to strike into the Principality’s territory.

People

“Gem” (she/her): Codename given to the target of Operation Midnight Lapidary. Reported to be a major dealer in precious metals and stones from Stel Orion, here to attend the coronation of the returned Duchess Constantina Malady.
The Witch in Glass a.k.a. Clementine Kesh (she/her): A former scion of Kesh who, after knitting a bond with the adversary Perennial, came into control of the broken body of the Divine Past, which she has renamed the Reflecting Pool. Rules over the Crown of Glass, a city-state on the southeastern reaches of Palisade. A shaky ally of Millennium Break. Haunted by an old foe.
Griesel Sunset (he/him): Coriolos' father, a zealous Devotee. Currently lives on the Isle of the Broken Key.
General Tomorrow Mourning (she/her): Leader of the Qui'Err Coalition's forces en route to the Twilight Mirage.
Marlon Styx (he/him): Undercover BIS agent assigned to infiltrate Violet Cove. Has become enamored with the Dim Liturgy’s holy text.
The Lost Duchess, Constantina Malady (she/her): Just as it is said, she arrived on a black horse with white fetlocks.

Places

Bontive Valley: Blessed by the departed divine Bounty, the Valley provides the Bilats with fruit that never rots and hyper-nutritional grain.
Carhaix: The northernmost city in the Bontive Valley, Carhaix is one of the first major settlements founded by the nascent Divine Principality 5,000 years ago. It was created on the site of a battlefield where they obliterated the straggling remnants of the Advent Group, an organization that had invaded and pillaged the Twilight Mirage. After the Principality left Palisade behind, it became one of the Fabreal Duchy’s many centers of power in the northwestern continent. Currently, it is controlled by Stel Nideo and the Divine Crusade.
Carleon-Upon-Wisk: The capital of the Fabreal Duchy, situated on a peninsula on the Wisk Sea. Though it served as a major city before the Divine Principality left Palisade behind, it rose in stature when early barons of the Duchy “discovered” how to create delegates from chained Divines in the city’s fell laboratories.
Isle of the Broken Key: Home of the Dim Liturgy since its obscure creation thousands of years ago. Now serves as base for the entire Violet Cove unit of the Cause, including the Devotees and (most recently) additional support teams from the Twilight Mirage.

Additional Notes

An MS paint drawing by Ali of Brnine's outfit in this episode.
Brnine's masquerade outfit, by Ali Acampora
A broad map of the potential routes the Blue Channel can take to intercept the target.
"Gem"'s potential travel routes
A Roll20 map of the area where the Blue Channel engage the target.

Contents

Opening

“

This is a message to you, citizen. You must trust me because we are kin, blessedly connected by the robust boughs of Divinity itself. I know that this is a time of confusion and crisis, but I promise you the New Asterism and our defenders, the Bilateral Intercession, offer you a revelation: that progress is and has always been synonymous with return.

My name is Gur Sevraq, and I am the Elect of Future. My Divine has shown what grim tomorrow has in store, and it is more struggle and it is more violence and it is more war against the three-headed beast of terror, treachery and treason. A season of misery, yes, but I've seen more. I've seen opportunity obscured by dense cannon smoke. Utopia hidden behind strokes drawn by missile contrail. For there is no weapon in the history of civilization stronger than the walls raised around the garden of the frail. This message is more than a message. It's an announcement and it's an offer and it's your brother's open hand. Do not dismiss me as a hypocrite or a zealot; I am a dreamer and a singer and a tiller of land.

So join our efforts on Palisade, put on your working boots, lift up a spade. Immediate action's required. The soil is fallow, and though we've acquired a foothold on the pathway back towards our celestial cradle, it is covered in weeds and insects and hordes, pretenders, portenders, betrayers. Necessity itself demands you move with swiftness, so let the quickness of truth fill your sails and carry you here.

The old truth, the earliest truth, the truth that hides in your heart, imparted before Nideo departed, the truth we can't stand to hear: There was a time of pure, even unity. There was a time before our gunpowder burned. There was a time of honor and civility, and let me be as clear as empty space: there is no cost too great to pay for our return.”

Plot

Operation Midnight Lapidary

Coriolis, The Figure in Bismuth and Thisbe have been assigned to Operation Midnight Lapidary, a mission whose target is a person codenamed Gem. Gem is travelling across the Bontive Valley, from Carhaix down towards Carleon-Upon-Wisk. The Blue Channel crew has been ordered to make sure that Gem does not make it to Carleon-Upon-Wisk.

Hunting grounds all flights out of Everson to ensure Gem can't travel from there to Carleon-Upon-Wisk by air. Her only remaining options are then to travel by car or gravtrain, each of which has its own specific route. Figure and Thisbe lay in wait at a train station to ambush her in case she chooses that mode of travel, and Cori will ambush her if she travels by car.

Midnite reports in: Gem has boarded the gravtrain along with a "nebbish bureaucrat" and the bureaucrat's bodyguard. Thisbe and Figure launch a two-pronged attack to try to force the train to divert course and pull into a pit stop area. Figure is spotted by the train's conductor attempting to push trees onto the tracks to set up a roadblock. The conductor shoots at Figure, but Figure does manage to slow the train down.

Further down the track, Thisbe and Mow have physically moved some of the tracks to divert the train. The train diverts according to plan, and Thisbe (on Mow) grabs the passenger car of the train as it passes. She successfully severs the connection between the passenger car and the front of the train, but Mow's wrist cables get kinked from the force that the train exerts on his hand.

Masquerade Party

Meanwhile, Phrygian and Brnine attend a Cause masquerade in a secluded seaside manor on the Isle of the Broken Key. Brnine looks around but cannot find Gucci, so they send her a text; Gucci leaves them on read. Phrygian tries to socialize and chit-chat, but is quickly monopolized by a strange, nervous-seeming man in a full-face mask who introduces himself as Em.

Cast

Other Characters

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