Pre game current events (Seira)

[Corwin]

"They usually don't share. It's all about the journey, not the destination, you know how it is. So that's the key outer planes all responding to Avernus in some way?"

[Anastasia]

"Yeah," Donald says, "Watching and waiting. Urrrrrrrrrrrrrrp! Pardon," Donald thumps his chest after a loud burp. "Got a lot more on the elemental planes, anyway."

[Corwin]

"Go on. Is there finally a chance for us to push things our way on Fire?"

[Anastasia]

"Well, there's a lot going on in Fire," Donald begins, "First of all, the Sultan's court is all atizzy. You remember Akil bin Faheem, right?" Donald asks. "Slavery, devil servant and altogether waste of space?"

[Corwin]

"I keep an eye on the slavers polluting Fire," Seira agrees, gesturing for Donald to keep going.

[Anastasia]

"Yeah, that's him. So he got into an incident in court. Prince Mustafa Dalir, think he's one of their roaming princes without portfolio by the way, accused bin Faheem of treason and conspiring with enemies of the Grand Sultan."

Donald takes off his gauntlet with a bit of magic, running his hand through his hair, closing his eyes as he grins. "Turns out he made one miscalculation, though. Turns out bin Faheem was was with the Grand Sultan on private business on a few of the dates alleged. See, Dalir had great evidence I hear, looked authentic...and it was directly contradicted by the Grand Sultan, who was not amused."

Another pause to scratch his long, pointy left ear, "So yeah, the upshot is that Prince Dalir's in the dungeon for lying to the Sultan and bin Faheem got lucky. It was a pretty good play, way I hear it, most of the nobles hate bin Faheem. Think he's a devil lapdog, so they were ready to support Prince Dalir's play."

[Corwin]

"Don't immediately see a way to use this to our advantage, but nice to know, I suppose," Seira muses. "What else?"

[Anastasia]

"Yeah, but it gets better," Donald grins. "Ever heard of Razalim?"

[Corwin]

"Remind me the relevant bits?"

[Anastasia]

Pausing to scratch at his chin and burp again, "Yeah, it's a powerful scimitar made by...oh, what's his name." A snap of his fingers follow, "Kassim of the Honored Flame. Anyway, story goes that it's cursed somehow, and that everyone who obtains it suffers a horrible fate until the fated hand wields it. Turns out that bin Faheem has it, has had it for a little while, took it off a rival he defeated."

With a gesture of magic Donald's other gauntlet comes off, used to slowly rub the back of his neck. "So the point is that a whole lot is saying he's vulnerable right now and the other nobles all hate him."

[Corwin]

"So it might be a good chance to move against him?" Seira clarifies. "Compile a list of his holdings so we can go over it and see which would free the most people."

[Anastasia]

"Yeah, sure. It'll take a little while to do it right, gonna have to call in some favors in Fire. His roots run deep," Sitting back and making a face, "That sounds like something Amaryl would say. Are you sure she isn't contagious? Anyway, City of Brass is fairly quiet otherwise. Lots of plots and plans, but nothing at the front of the fire right now. The devil diplomats there are a bit twitchy over the Aurora situation and now Bel, but they're not directly tied to any of it. Tried to get a word with one, sword and all, but they had too many bodyguards to do it sneaky. Too bad. Doing it publically would be an incident, and Elle still bothers me about the last incident."

[Corwin]

"It's okay to have the occasional incident," Seira tells him with a grin. "Keeps them honest-- well, on their toes, at least?"

[Anastasia]

"Yeah," Donald agrees, "So anyway, also did some digging on Kassim. He has some hidden forge somewhere, didn't get a location. Get the impression non natives aren't supposed to find it," Rolling his neck slowly before going on, "More likely, they were just intimidated by me. I am pretty scary. That's about it for Fire. Magma has a nasty little war going on - two groups of elementals there are beating the fire and earth out of each other, not really sure why. Elementals aren't the best conversationalists."

[Corwin]

"Anything relevant to Sanzha's research? That much of a clash between fire and earth might result in a few accidents, like what originally happened at the Cauldron with fire and water."