Torches in the Twilight Session 43: Setting up Conspiracies

We left off last session with Kormatin and company arriving in Palbuc with lots of loas and their families in tow.   They met up with a small squad of Duke Vern Palbuc's soldiers who escorted to his base camp.   Vern and his knights arrived a few hours later announced by loud cheers.   Kormatin and Vern compared notes.   The Swynfaredians were very distracted by the big derecho storm breaking out in the Old Swynfaredia Region. The Palbuc commanders weren't sure what happened exactly but they noticed that the Swynfaredians were distractions, so they took the opening for a quick hit and run offensive, so that's what Vern and his knights had just did.   They also met with Preylot who was delivering a routine message. He had to land when the wind storm hit (he's fine though) and was picked up by a Palbuc forest patrol.   After a short rest, Vern's men took over escorting the refugees and Kormatin and company flew to the king to inform him about what caused the derecho and the potentailly civil war causing intelligence they obtained. King ordered them to secure the soul lanterns in King's Lake and advised keeping quiet on the true cause of the derecho for now, figuring speculation and rumor would be more useful than the truth in the short-term at least.   Kormatin and company sought to quietly enter King's Lake then filled in Spymaster Ralnor. A month-old letter from Howell par Gruffyl was waiting for them at Brigid's house telling that the queen had ordered every Dragonblood capable of casting Overland Flight to answer a summons or send scrolls of Overland Flight to said summons and that deadline was coming soon.   Kormatin immediately flew south back to Henryk's camp so they could prepare for a large aerial assault. Kormatin figured that reporting this was enough, they wanted to start planting the seeds of a new Swynfaredian Civil War.   Of all the Dragonbloods dreaming about becoming an archduke or archduchess, Kormatin and his allies believed that Duchess Dwynn ap Gorisonad the Third might be in the best position to make a grab for it. She is a double countess, has compliant vassals, and a fair amount of wealth and ambition.   Given the obvious bad blood between Kormatin and House Gorisonad, rather than knock on the duchesses' door, the group hatched a plan to arrange a meeting through one of her vassals. They figured Countess Kenia Fremiss-Angharad who ruled Red Pass County was a good place to start. She was not a good person but she had ambition and greed to make her relatively easy to influence. Also, Kormatin never crossed swords with anyone from Fremiss-A, so she'd feel less threatened by his presence than most other Dragonbloods.   Kormatin and company used overland flight to enter the Border Baronies Region and checked in briefly with Merchant Principality of Centrum (they found out the merchant Prince formally loaned some gold to King Henryk), Barony of Bees (bought some luxury goods for barter), and finally Prophet's Pass (got minor updates on the recent coups out west.   They bought some mountain-friendly ponies in Prophet's Pass and disguised themselves as shady Borderlander mercenaries looking for work, and rode into Red Pass County. After checking into an inn, they found all people were talking about the recent derecho, and as King Henryk predicted, the wild speculation was rampant.   The party bribed some of Kenia's soldiers to pass a note to her saying Kormatin wanted to arrange a meeting that would beneficial for Kenia, Fremis-A, and Gorisonad. The Countess had her men fan out around the inn, but did not attack.   Eventually curiosity overpowered caution and the countess sent her brother to negotiate. Kormatin made a good presentation and a modest bribe to convince him to ask his sister to arrange a meeting with her liege Duchess Dwynn ap Gorisonad the Third.   The party went to County of Lesser Dwyns at an arranged meeting spot and eventually the duchess sent her chancellor, brother, and Esteemed Peer @Floyd ap Gorisoand.   Kormatin explained that he had a Prison Lantern with the half-satyr Armyn confessing to helping rig the contest that named the first king of Swynfaredia. He suggested that Dwyn would be better off as an archduchess under a Fremiss king or queen than live under Queen Gwendolyn with a conquered Fumaya where she is begging for scraps of spoils of war.   Kormatin also suggested a ceasefire between him and Gorisonad.   The chancellor eventually returned with a letter only stating "will consider it."