Taggle!

Board 1 - Stables

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 14:04:09 GMT

Posted by: tagglemod

In the end, too many of you volunteer to pass as a single group of servants, whatever the chosen cover story. Thus you split up and make your ways to the Palace grounds independently.

Your group is coming from the East, rising Sun behind your backs, as you sneak through the ditches between empty horse pastures. Soon you find yourselves at the stables that house the divine horses. You haven’t seen any – you’re actually very interested in seeing these horses that can outshine the Sun. Ersisas has a gray draft horse gelding, named Kul for the Moon, who can get somewhat luminous in dim light due to his color. You wonder whether the effect will be similar.

But before you can get anywhere near the divine horses, you need to convincingly pretend to be stablehands. Thus you climb up to the hay storage to drop some hay bales down to the stable proper. Vakhas Tiria thought the stable head might hide the sets of keys he sometimes needed to use to get to the Palace proper under some bales of hay. If not, well, these horses are divine; as their caretakers, you can surely talk your way inside.

The hay storage is dusty and there are a bunch of small bales up here. You find one corner that looks like someone might've stashed things under the bales.

Nothing to do but move that hay down. Time to get started!

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Board 1 - Gardens

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 14:03:31 GMT

Posted by: tagglemod

There are too many of you to convincingly pretend to be a single group allowed to be present, so you have been forced to split up in the night. Perhaps this is even for the best, as now you can act as distractions for each other if need be.

Your group has made it through the hedge maze thanks to Vakhas Tiria’s map and are now on the South side of the palace, in the gardens. The Sun is rising to the East, with the sky painted in pink and gold. It looks incredibly picturesque.

The head of the orangerie – currently on vacation with his wife – apparently had a habit of hiding the keys in the vegetable patches, instead of figuring out how to hand them securely from shift to shift. You thus slowly walk down the fields of vegetables, in search of the plot in question.

Soon you find a vegetable patch that looks slightly sad, like it gets dug up too often. There. The keys are hidden by the servants, so they’re probably in some funnily shaped clusters, but to figure out the previous shift’s sense of humor, you need to start digging.

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Sign-ups are nigh...

Thu, 11 Jun 2026 10:54:11 GMT

Posted by: tagglemod

It's late evening when you filter into the drinkery. Ersisas's place isn't anything special – a bit cramped and out of the way – but her prices are reasonably cheap, and she serves tea and coffee in addition to beer and cider, so it's become the place for you and your friends to gather. You don't get much excitement in your lives, but the two street lamps closest to the door don't work, and that makes you feel a bit like you're sneaking around, somewhat fulfilling the urge in you to do something illicit.

There are a few groups in the drinkery already, some regulars, some new, chatting and drinking by the light of the gas lamps. The table next to you is discussing how the recent loss to Rlyat might affect the price of tea and coffee. The newspapers mentioned that the Emperor died in the naval battle, but other than that, the only losses were some rocks barely deserving to be called islands. You're more interested in the outbreak of cholera on the north bank of the river.

Suddenly, everyone falls silent. You follow their gazes to the door and see-

But it can't be. Vakhas Tiria was sentenced to death closer to two decades ago, with the rest of that revolutionary cell. And yet she looks just like the woman of twenty in the portraits of her that have spread in the night. Ersisas has one hidden behind the bar that you've glimpsed. You have your own small one at home.

"Didn't they say she wasn't present at her execution?" you hear someone murmur.

"Indeed," she says, then walks slowly to the table. You can see why they found her threatening: she is tall, imposing, and looks like the First Emperor. "I lived."

She pauses for a moment, considering. "My face is unfortunately too well known for what I need to do next, so I cannot do this myself, but my friend Ersisas suggested you might be interested."

"What is it?" you ask. Your life has been boring and, despite the best efforts of the press, you can't help but sympathize with the revolutionaries.

"The new Emperor is at the palace to the southwest of the city, preparing for his deification. I want you to kidnap him."

"Kidnap?" someone from another table asks. "Or kill?"

"I need him alive." Vakhas Tiria leans on the nearest table and looks around the room. "Who's in?"

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