After a good soak to remove the stench of Shadowshore, Angati decided there was time for a short detour before heading to the Toregson estate in Champion district. She also hadn't been home for some time - if she could still consider her family's manor house to still be her true home - but when she passed through the outer fence and saw the sprawling network of buildings was just as imposing and unfriendly as she had remembered it.


Lidu Manor

For a second the oracle was struck by just how much history there was attached to this spot of Sasserine. The Lidu family had been the most prominent family in the city almost since its founding a millennia ago, with the exception of the 100 years when the city had suffered the Thyatian occupation. Then the Lidu's had refused to become collaborators with that brutal regime and had worked from the shadows to bring the Thyatians down. For that time period there hadn't been a Lidu in Lidu manor, but now they were back and were making it defiantly clear that they would never be leaving again.

Angati strode up to the front door and used the brass knocker. Within seconds the door was opened by a butler, one that she did not recognise. He wasn't the elderly sort that the Lidu family had previously had in the position either, he was barely thirty and heavy-set. Angati saw in surprise that he also carried a rapier strapped to his waist.

"Yes, Madam?" the man asked, eying her up and down. Well, perhaps it had been too much to ask that someone new would have recognised her.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:03, Wed 11 Mar 2015.

Map

Angati recovered from the surprise of finding someone new at the door... clearly security had become a problem here, she would have to ask her sister, because clearly the problem had to be big enough to risk having new people, unproven people in the house that could talk about the family.

She paused a bit and said, "I see my dear cousin Worrin has changed the service around the manor... hmmm... please let Lady Zelina know that her dear aunt Angati has come to see her and would very much love to talk to her".

The butler smiles and opens the door wide. "Yes, madam. If you will just wait in the foyer I will tell Miss Zelina that you have arrived."

The man lets Angati into the house and closes the door behind her. Within a few seconds he has glided past and disappeared into a side room, presumably to seek out Zelina.

The oracle sees that some changes have been made to the foyer since last time she visited the house. In the central hall a sculpture of the animal on the Lidu crest still stands. It is an exquisite silver falcon, modelled on one of the large and savage predictors that ride the thermals in the hellfurnace mountains, but the Lidu's bird does not soar. It clings onto a branch and is looking behind itself.

The difference is that several workman are now busy around it, building a glass cage to entirely enclose it on its pedestal. That is something new.



Angati also notices that one of the windows in the domed roof directly above the falcon is boarded up, as though it has been broken recently and not yet replaced. Before she can see more the butler returns.

"Miss Zelina says she would be delighted to see you in her office," he says, and leads Angati to a familiar room at the other side of the long hall.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:33, Fri 22 Jan 2016.

Zelina Lidu is only in her late twenties but already has almost a decade of experience of helping run the family's holdings. Since the age of fourteen, when she become the last official scion of the Lidu family, it had been clear that she would be the one to take over from her father. In many ways she was like him. Disciplined, serious and zealous about protecting and growing the family's business and safeguarding Sasserine from harm. But in her appearance she took after her mother. Zelina was dark haired, green eyed and petite, not a brooding blonde warrior like patriarch Worrin Lidu.



She rose as Angati come into the room, but did not come round the desk to offer her hand in greeting. "Angati. This is a pleasant surprise," she said in a voice that did not indicate if that statement was true or false. "It has been too long."

This message was last edited by the player at 19:49, Thu 12 Mar 2015.

Angati made sure they were alone and that the doors were closed before speaking, "It's never too long for father it would seem... but I have to say that I have missed you... you are... no doubt, extremely busy I presume", she paused looking at her sister for a long while, seeing how her factions were becoming harder because of preoccupations. "You know... looking at you and your work, I sometimes think I got the good end of the deal when I was cursed in this way..." she said saying something that she knew her sister would agree to fully... after all, none in her family had even tried to put themselves into her skin... but, she was an Lidu, that meant she was faithful to her family, and also that she had a fair share of manipulation in her blood. And now, she wanted her sister happy, or at the very least comfortable.

"You look fine, but now you got me worried... How are you ? what are those strangers doing here ?, and carrying weapons of all things... and our family crest is now looking behind his back ? whats going on Zelina ?"

She would talk with her sister to learn about what was going on in the family (out of genuine worry) before delving into her story.

"Anyway, maybe what I have to tell you is related, look what happened to me today... "

She would tell her everything in all detail, Vanthus, and the Jade dragon included, and then and all about her suspicions.

"So.. this afternoon, I am going to this girls wedding... if there is anyone or anything that you want me to watch out, or anything you'd want me to do while I am there, it might be a good opportunity, let me know what I can do to help you carry a bit all that weight you put on your shoulders".

"Ha! Yes, it is a full time job and then some," she says, looking around at the mountain of paperwork spread around her desk. "Father has trusted me to run all of our holdings outside Sasserine from now on, so he can focus on what we have in the city and keeping up on what's happening in the Dawn Council - which is a lot." Her answer is light hearted but the look on her face is sad when she answers. She obviously doesn't believe her 'curse' to be anything as bad as what is happening to Angati.



OOC: Actually, I meant that the Lidu family falcon has ALWAYS been a falcon perched on a branch, looking behind. That is the irony of it. The Lidu's choose a majestic bird that soars high above earthly concerns as their symbol, but then they have it posed gripping onto a branch tightly and always watching its back. Just like the family has lofty goals, but spends most of its time defending its position and looking behind. I didn't mean that the family crest had recently been changed! So I will ignore that part of the question.

Angati's sister sighs. "Yes, well, we had a bit of trouble. A thief broke in through one of the skylights and stole the silver falcon in the middle of the night. The worst thing is that we had to call in that ponce Victor Saint-Demain, and he managed to find some clues, capture the thief and return the falcon. He'll be crowing about it for years to come, the insufferable fool!"



OOC: *ahem*, the Lotus Dragons Benigno, the Lotus Dragons.



Zelina leans back in her chair. "By the goddess Angati, that is a lot to take in. The Lotus Dragons, did you say? Never heard of them. But then there are a dozen of these little gangs that have sprung up since father and the rest threw the Thyatians out. I wouldn't worry about them too much - if the worse they can do is steal wedding dresses from third tier nobility then I don't think we have much to fear!"

Angati listened to her sister speak a smile showing in her face feeling quite proud of her holding so much responsibility on her own.

She shrugged when she was done talking "Hmm I wish there was more I could help with... anyway, going to be at the wedding tonight, and... to be quite sincere I have a bad hunch... do you know that Vanthus ?... anyway, what I heard about those lotus dragons is that there is actually a green dragon kept below the city somewhere... its all rather confusing... and... ".

She stopped midsentence as something just came to her mind "Hey... isn't it a bit strange ? I mean having the statue stolen, to be so easily found ?... I mean... you sure that whoever did it did not do it just to have you change the security in the house and get someone in or something ?... jeez.. living in that shrine and reading all those books is maybe making me think paranoid"

Zelina rolls her eyes. "Vanthus Vanderboren? Oh, we all know about him. He just came back to Sasserine after being sent away for school and he thinks he's such a bad-ass. Drinking, gambling and the like, but I wouldn't worry about the little frak. His debtors will catch up with him at some point and the district watch will end up fishing his soggy corpse out of barge end."



Zelina looks at Angati incredulously for a few seconds and then a smile appears on her face and she begins to chuckle. "Well Angy, if they really have a dragon living below the city somewhere then it must be a VERY small one!" It had been years since her Zelina had used Angati's nickname - it felt good.



Zelina sighs. "Yes, Daddy did consider it. I mean, that Victor Saint-Demain is a bit of a creep after all so I wouldn't put it past him to try something like that. But it all checked out. The only real clues were that the thief flew in through a skylight and that some flakes of white rock were left behind. Victor used a machine he claims to have invented called a..." the scion of the Lidu clan paused for a second. "Micro-scope, I think he called it. Anyway, it uses light, and mirrors and glass to let him look at things really close. He saw that the white stone was actually a type of stone skin and worked out that the perpetrator was a gargoyle with a skin disease." She pauses again. "OK, that was actually kind of smart I suppose. Anyway, he tracked down a albino gargoyle called 'Srimshaw' and found the thief and recovered our silver falcon. But father made sure to hire the extra guards from firms we know and trust. Actually, all the guards are people we have used before and know. But it does sound like the plot from one of those books that the old ladies borrow from your library, right?" She sticks her tongue out to tease Angati. It is a strange gesture coming from a young women who is responsible for managing hundreds of people on a dozen plantations from here to Cauldron.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:44, Sat 21 Mar 2015.

Angati chuckled "You got me there, too many of those books to read... and nothing else to do there... I am seriously considering leaving the place and see if I can stablish myself on my own.... I am old enough for that, after all. Anyway, I am just waiting to see if an opportunity arises... or something calls for my attention".

"Now, that Viktor guy seems like an interesting guy to meet... I hope I can get to meet him sometime"
This message was last edited by the player at 07:16, Fri 27 Mar 2015.

OOC: Hang on, does Angati know that her aging is going to slow down and then reverse? I thought that she thought she was going to die a hideous death from premature old age like her sister?

Do you want to ask more or should I round this off? I've enjoyed learning a bit more about the Lidu family, the de facto rulers of Sasserine.

In reply to Dungeon Master (msg # 11):

Ahhh you are right... sorry I forgot.... mixed my ooc knowledge.

EDITED original mesage.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:16, Fri 27 Mar 2015.

Zelinda goes quiet. Perhaps thinking about how little time Angati has left - Angati's twin sister Anansi died at the age of six from accelerated aging and it looked as though Angati would soon be her in that terrible fate.

The sisters say their farewells and Angati heads back onto the street.

OOC: Into thread 0G
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:10, Sun 05 Apr 2015.