Chapter 5: A Meeting with Keruna, and Some Skullduggery

10/5 Keruna had vanished again (presumably back in Igor), so we sought out the worried man from court. He turned out to be Berrim Neall, who is Marshal of the Realm (which sounds like some sort of general, but I hope that it is a more ceremonial position). He is middle aged and, I'd say, absolutely terrified of something.
GOD favoured us, in that we overheard him talking with some girl. We politely listened to their conversation without disturbing them; she is some sort of besotted maid, and she had to get him Sam's hat. there was a semi plausible story about it maybe being his hat really. Samuel Dockerly is some sort of High Chamberlain (not sure what he does, either). So somehow I suspect that there is gathering of magical samples, just what one would expect from heathens, rather than something to do with fashion.
We decided to announce ourselves and offered the poor man no choice but to accept a drink.
He fears any mention of religion.
I prayed, and with GOD's help looked for Demonic influences, etc. There were no hostile Spirits actively interferring with Berrim, but something was wrong.
We took him to an obscure and deserted reading room, and poured more alchohol down him. This lubricated his tongue enough that he told us rather more.
He fancied Salli the maid.

Keruna gave him something to slip to her, evidently some sort of infatuation / suggestibility potion.
Salli said she would do anything for him (which was both rather welcome, and a bit too much as she is young and bouncy, as well as risking a certain amount of scandal).
He asked her to get Samuel's hat (to pluck hairs off for Keruna).
Also, he is terrified because Keruna had taken him to some sort of blasphemous ceremony, which he doesn't really remember, but he has been marked by Set (literally, as he has a snake bite on his arm), and fears greatly for his soul.
Quite right too, as Set is a powerful and evil Spirit.
We poured more wine down him until he passed out, then sneaked off.

We went to town for the afternoon and evening; to the Golden Minstrel, reputedly an establishment frequented by the nobility.
The wine was excellent.
Sir Zacharias managed to play, and explode a bagpipe in such a way that it added to the show.
Torrina Rochmar was there as well, and I later heard that Erenion / J-M escorted her back to the palace.
Sir Zacharias was surrounded by courtesans and a flashy man called Manuel. When he returned to the castle, he met a messenger; a small man with a large nose, called Norman. He had just returned from the North.
I grew weary from the day's labours (and truth be told, a plentitude of wine) and slept.

Meanwhile Soro arranged for us to meet with those trusted good people who sought to combat the forces of evil that beset this land. An odd plan, that involved Soro, Erenion / J-M, Marcello (not Sir Zacharias) and myself sneaking out a few nights later. We went separately, at a time when no one would miss us. This seemed an unnecessary risk, but we managed.

Besides ourselves there were 2 men and 2 women, named as N, and L, G and T.
One of the men was N. He reported that he had investigated the new Queen (Iona Denethtar)'s origins.

Officially she is the illegitimate daughter of of Keruna Masarin, baron(ess) of Vrakir and Jorg Denethtar, King of Nuarn, which is a rather smaller kingdom somewhere to the North.
N was pretty sure (and we have to believe that he as an excellent judge of this sort of thing) that Jorg Denethtar does not believe that he is the father. This leads us to several possibilities:

Jorg is the father, but doesn't know it.
He is the father, but Keruna is not the mother (strictly, Jorg Denethtar stated that he never had an affair with Keruna, so this is a real possibility). Note that Iona claims to have lost her memory as a small child in a riding accident.
He is not the father, but Keruna is the mother.
The Queen's parentage is completely bogus.

Which doesn't really get us very far. Jorg feels hard done by, but he is coming to the games, and no doubt he'll apply some sort of diplomatic squeeze to keep quiet.
Iona is obviously some sort of agent / tool of Keruna's.
I made the observation that it would be a good idea if the Queen did not conceive in the near future. The heir could be what Keruna is working towards.
The others agreed, and arranged to do something (contraceptive wine being common in these heathen lands).
Failing this, a baby must be protected (but could have been promised to Set from before conception).

The conversation turned to who protected King Nayn from hostile magic? Who would replace this person / how this would be decided?
The Court Wizard is one of the conspiracy (we have to have a name for our little group), who holds the largest faction of this (Privy) Council, but not an absolute majority.

I reported about Berrim, Salli and Sam, and we decided that someone would break (or preferably something much more subtle) the charm on Salli, taking some of the pressure off Berrim. Sam's hat would be stolen, however, but hair free.
Later, I'll try to break Set's hold on Berrim, but I'll bet that it requires Berrim's conscious choice. There was some mention of getting Berrim to become a double agent.

We sneaked away.