Tannin's reports

[Anastasia]

Nose around Avernus and spy on Tiamat!

Status: Success.

You ever crunched the numbers on the Blood War? Don't, but I'll give you a summary - it's huge. So there I was, spying on Blood War skirmishes and I notice something. There's a whole lot of Tiamat's abishai pitching in. Now that's just queer if you ask me. Sure, Tiamat chips into the Blood War, but the numbers seem high. So I sneak into this pit fiend's war tent and borrow some papers. Turns out that there's been a whole lot of rotations out the last few years and Tiamat's been filling the holes lately, big time. So I do some more digging and pushing, and you know what I find? Well, it wasn't a shallow grave, but some books I shouldn't have been reading. Those blooming things had traps traps traps on them! Had to get creative, but I got past them. Turns out that Bel and his henchy Abigor's been keeping Lifasa garrisoned with Blood War forces and has been drawing more lately. The big part?

Tiamat's gone outta her way to up her contribution and free up more soldiers. It also mentions an increase of true dragons mustered to her realm. Tiamat's pulling resources to keep Lifasa on the ropes. So I'm pissed and about to come back when it hits me. If she's doin' that, then there's going to be more. So I start digging again, give a few devils a bad time, all that. Eventually I get another set of documents. It's about the routine contributions each Lord of the Nine makes in the Blood War. Now the thing is that over the past few months, Belial and Beezlebub have been delaying and stalling reinforcements, as well as recalling other units back. There's also a small uptick of contributions from Dispater and Mephistopheles - it all roughly balances out.

So what all does this mean? So I do some research into diabolical politics. One of the themes of disagreement among those dread figures is the Fallen versus the 'true' devils. Simply put, the devils don't like the Fallen. Bel's a true devil, worked his way up from ignominy, biggest diabolical success story there is. So it's obvious as the night is long to me - the devils are making politics of it. Bel's getting stretched thin by Abigor's venture into Lifasa, so my read is that the Fallen try to put Bel in a bad place. Now I figure Mephisto will counter whatever Beezlebub does, since the two hate each other more than demons hate devils. Mix in typical sentiments and you know what we have? An opportunity.

I figure, we make the situation worse, politics go downhill. Maybe with the right moves we can spur some civil disagreements between devil-kind, end up making things worse for them? Everyone's out of position right now. You want my opinion, I say we find some way to put more pressure on them. Be it at our own hands or some other troublemakers, but stirring the pot could only help us. The more you weaken them, the more you weaken Tiamat who has to marshal resources to fill into the Blood War and the more you destabilize things there. Exactly how's above my say-so. Figure all you smart mages can get together and figure something out on it.

[Anastasia]

Current assignment: Ithea's magic mage and hostage investiation!

[Anastasia]

This one was made to be fluff on the R&S board and is cross posted here for y'all reference.

The Glasae Queen

What is it: The Empress of the Fey Marches, a powerful fey said to have been born of her own desire to exist.

Status: Information obtained. Barely.

So there I was, hiding behind a giant mushroom and hoping the swans wouldn't catch me. You see, the Glasae Queen is a powerful Empress of the fey and one of the highest nobility under Titania. You ask around, you'll hear she's summer's life and the peak of Summer fey.  That's all well and good, but the rub is that apparently Queen Titania's never liked her. Story is that she ordered the Glasae Queen sequestered away into a palace of animated water and reeds, a maze that protects us from her and her from us.

Anyway, so I investigate and find some leads. I go nosing around the sylvan realms, asking the right questions to the right sort. You know how the fey are, play your cards right and you can get a promise out of them. That's the ticket to getting information, since they take their word seriously as an archon takes Chronias. So I worm out a few promises, get some directions and all that. Turns out the Fey Marches are a border with...I'm not sure what, actually. I never found out since everyone got vague about it. Probably one of those things fey won't talk about with others.

In any case, the Glasae Queen lives in the Swan's Keep. There's a single road to it and it winds through a forest. Big old place, with giant plants and forest things along with the trees. There's giant mushrooms next to oaks, blades of grass as tall as pine trees and all of that. It's a might crazy if you ask me, but everything grows extra large there. Anyway, the upshot is that the forest has guardians - those damn swans. You ask me, they're smarter than most and damned persistent. They chase you, peck you and do their best to get you to turn around and run off.

I gave them the slip eventually and moved on - only to find myself given a good lurch. Next thing I know, I'm in the bleeding positive energy plane! Now good thing I have my boots, so I use them to make a retreat back to Air rather than get popped like a pimple. Near as I can tell, everything about the Glasae Queen being sequestered away is true. That's some serious mojo to keep people from reaching her keep. Worst part is that I hear that the keep is by far the most formidable part. Those swans are stronger there and everywhere, plus mazes that never end and that twist around forever.

I suspect that I need a fey with me to get closer. I've heard that's important, but I figured I could feel it out before worrying about that. I've also heard she has an interesting personality, whatever that means. Really, the fey either don't know much about her or don't like talking about her.