openish | diplomacy meeting

[cozen]

WHO: Diplomacy Division
WHAT: A meeting (or a consolidation of several theoretically daily/weekly meetings)
WHEN: Nowish
WHERE: Diplomacy work room, Gallows
NOTES: See belowww.

There's no one sitting at the head of this meeting, but no one has the time to spend arranging the chairs in a careful egalitarian circle, either. For the most part the chairs remain at the desks, and the occupants are tasked with angling them this way or that to create a wobbly polygon with everyone facing vaguely center. There's coffee. There's more than one person, probably, taking accurate notes, because this is Diplomacy. There's a pleasant breeze through the busted window that occasionally turns into a paper-rustling gust. And there's work to do.

OOC | Tag this like a network post even though it's happening in person—action spam, threadjacking, branching conversations, no tag order. Make new top-level comments for new agenda items/conversation topics. Anyone can add a new thing. Please add new things. If anyone who isn't in Diplomacy wants to drop a problem/scenario as a top level (like "P.S. Bob made some nobles angry and that needs to be addressed") for everyone to talk about, please do that.

Also, mod hat: when inventing things our characters are doing or have done in the background, we're limited to little things. If something is significant enough to require a plot request, we can't say we're already doing it! But we can propose/strategize for future plot-request-sized efforts (and then do plot requests).

Comments

attack spin.

[cozen]

D'accord. You're a donor. You hear about this— [ with a gesture toward the shattered window and, beyond it, significantly less tower than there used to be ] —what do you want to hear next to be convinced we are not a bad investment?

[dissolving]

Cheaper to heat now, [ joking ] Could focus on what worked, the uh - dragon system. Anticipating the right threats.

[altusimperius]

[it's him, he's the guy (or at least one of them) taking copious notes,]

We were important enough to attack in the first place, so the balance may have been tipped if we had taken significant losses. But we didn't.

[cozen]

Maybe we could invent a significant loss. Our dear colleague Jeanne-Marie, taken from us by these fiends—please give us money in her memory.

[bouchonne]

Oh, the one who fed the orphans?

[dissolving]

Rifter would be hard to check up on.

[ his own notes are... less copious. they're there. there's just also an increasingly detailed doodle of what might be a kraken, or a misshapen spider. ]

Maybe not as popular.

[cozen]

That's good. And the griffons—we are uniquely positioned to be able to respond to these kinds of attacks. Maybe it should not be so unique, though. I know before he left Captain Flint was interested in training some of the wild griffons to trade to allies.

[bouchonne]

Dear Maker, yes. Let’s get rid of some of those beasts.

[cozen]

None of the ones we ride.

We, Riftwatch. Not we, us.

[ He's thinking about it though. Would that be a huge betrayal. ]

[dissolving]

[ hesitantly, ]

Buttons can't fly. And he might be happier alone -

[ or maybe he just enjoys attacking everyone. maybe they could give him to someone they don't like. ]

attack looting;

[dissolving]

Couple warehouses got knocked in during the battle. Owner claims folks made off with the goods - blaming Darktown -

[ seems they were busy getting crushed to death at the time, but shit rolls downhill ]

Guards figure it's a lost cause. He's hopping mad. Could be an in for - I dunno, something.

[bouchonne]

[ hm. ]

What was in there?

[dissolving]

[ reciting from a list: ]

Twenty crates of dried oranges, twenty-four crates of orange preserves, sixteen skeins of good wool, a pair of ruby earrings, some Antivan paper flowers, three barrels of... lotion. Two fainting couches, twelve scrimshaw giant tusks, one coffin - hope that was empty - and his favourite parrot.

[cozen]

We could focus on returning the parrot.

[ And decide how they feel about returning anything else if they find it. ]

[sprent]

Does the list say if the wool is dyed?

templar residency.

[cozen]

[ Unnecessarily checking a list: ]

The Templars are sending a knight to work with the City Guard on dealing with magical threats. Here and elsewhere. We should probably reach out to whoever they are sending here, though. Try to—

[ Not look like a magical threat. ]

—set up a formal channel for communication if there are concerns.

[dissolving]

Folks like Ser Keen.

[ mostly people who aren't here, in this room, ]

[ipseite]

( mildly, ) Do they?

A representative of less obvious affiliation may be more to purpose.

[dissolving]

Respectfully, ma'am, Riftwatch has an obvious affiliation.

[ about that commander. but, ]

Could focus less on a person, more on a - hm. System. Days for them to come look at the place, call us if there's an emergency off-grounds. Offering help,

[ instead of immediately covering their asses ]

[cozen]

I like it. Maybe not the offering to let them look part—I mean, it's the city's property, and if they ask of course we should open the door for them. But we have gone this long without regular inspections. I think we should approach like we assume we have earned more trust than that, and let them disabuse us of that notion if they feel the need, ouais?

Maybe you should go, Ser Cedric. You and one person who is not a Templar. People like Gela, too.

Oh no the contacts

[sprent]

I've a number of merchants I could write to, asking for extra supplies to help us through this tight patch. How should I bribe them?

[bouchonne]

[ Byerly feigns wiping a tear from his eye. ]

Oh, my dear, sweet Gela! What a wonderful question. I love to hear that sort of shadiness from someone like you.

[cozen]

[ With more silent approval: ]

We may have some goods salvaged from the Tevinters who fell that we could pass on. Curiosities, you know? Dracolisk bones. Pieces of the Gallows—it's been such a part of history.

Or you could try connecting them to each other. All these shortages, maybe some of them have something the others need.

[sprent]

Of course, of course — gathered after a heroic battle, preserved for generations...

(Yes, she can work with this.)

I think I could convince one half of them with the goods, the other half with the connections. Thank you!

[cozen]

You took over the job just in time,

[ is hyperbolic maybe. She had it for a few months before all went to hell.

But it's still nice to have someone handling it, officially, right now in particular. ]