The feast of welcoming
Bartholomeus, when seeing the murder of crows in the central garden surrounded by the cloister, approaches - slowly. Looking left and right he makes sure nobody is watching, before he starts to caw: «Looking for food?», he directs at one of the bigger, probably older birds. «I can give plenty», Bartholomeus continues, reaching into a pocket of his robe and throwing dried peas half way towards the birds.

Two smaller, probably younger ones, come closer - hesitating at first but quickly picking up speed. They peck the peas quickly and return to the flock.
The older one, the one Bartholomeus had addressed directly watched the scene, but didn't move an inch. When the two smaller ones are done with the peas, he caws at him: «'s that all you got?», the bird leans his head left and right while not letting his gaze from Bartholomeus.

Bartholomeus smiles mildly, knowing to have the bird's close attention. «There is more and there will be other food.»
Bartholomeus squats down and drums with the fingers on the ground until some earthworms show up. «Thank you», he expresses in however earthworms might communicate.

Then he steps back, turns with another caw «Enjoy» and goes back into the monastery - leaving the birds to their feast.

Bartholomeus repeats the feeding the other night and the next - looking at a growing number of birds. The word seems to spread as he intended.
«What's in for you?» the older bird from the very first encounter caws.
Bartholomeus smiles at the bird, and caws a response: «I am new to this town. And as a newcomer, I need friends - cunning and with eyes and ears. You crows are part of the town and for the most part, nobody will care or even take notice, when you are there.»

«You feed, we watch, that's it?»

«I can offer food, but also protection. Nests inside, cats outside. I might have other requests than watching.

Don't come here in large numbers anymore. Food and sanctuary will be in many places. If I call, come to me. One more thing - rats are off limits, don't harm them they are friends too.»

The bird goes off back to his flock and there is a lot of cawing while Bartholomeus watches, listening to the sounds.

«Agreed», the bird comes closer to Bartholomeus again.

Smiling content, Bartholomeus has one last offer for the bird: «Take your mate, come in with me! We'll find a nice spot for your nest.»

OOC If you asked me what's the goal "mechanically", I'd have to say I don't know. First and foremost I've written this to portrait one of the angles of Bartholomeus in action. He's peaceful, empathetic, calm and patient - towards all of Creation.
Having said that, what I could imagine "doing" with a flock of Corvids is manyfold...

• Bartholomeus would try to train them in Awareness, so they could inform him about supernatural occurrences within his domain
• Bartholomeus would also be interested in non-supernatural, but otherwise interesting occurrences. With the intelligence of Corvids, bringing across what is interesting and what is not could work - even if only to some degree.
• Bartholomeus would occasionally have a task to dispatch that requires the subtlety of an animal, the reach of a bird and the intelligence and cunning of a Corvid
• Bartholomeus might occasionally use one of the birds' bodies to travel himself with his mind

This message was last edited by the GM at 11:04, Sun 15 Aug 2021.

Taking the reign of the vermin

Bartholomeus, on an evening shortly after his arrival at the monastery - or what has been constructed already, walks out the main portal and strolls through the little river port close by.

Only a few lights are illuminating the nightly street. One warehouse seems to still have workers occupied and a tavern serves the other workers and sailors.

Bartholomeus directs his walk towards an unbusy spot, just outside the illumination that the tavern provides. Where is food there are rats - he looks carefully left and right before he let a squeak sound that carries to the warehouse, the tavern, the docks and beyond.

Bartholomeus sits down, waiting for the swarm to come, and there is quite a swarm to come. Hundreds of rats approach him, some hesitant - some curious, but all end up close enough to get from the rich meal that he brought. And rich was the meal he brought - grain, nuts, fruits and even a portion of uncooked meat.

After they all had their meal - while Bartholomeus was quietly watching - most of the rats disappear to were they had come from. Quite a few stay though, curiously for what might come.
Bartholomeus - seeing the meal was done - began to squeak again: «There is more where this came from. If you belong to me and I belong to you - you will suffer shortage again.»

OOC This is again similar to the Corvids. I had no particular scores for backgrounds in mind, although I can imagine Retainer, Allies and Contacts to make sense. Rats will less likely be able to learn something like Awareness or be able to discern interesting from irrelevant than crows, but once I have started building sewers beneath Shaasburg, everything that happens in the rats' realm becomes relevant for Bartholomeus.

What I do expect is that he'll have a "body of species" that as a whole works together like many gear wheels in a machine. Rats could distribute food for the crows to pick up. Larger predators like wolves might "patrol" outside the city walls.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:11, Tue 17 Aug 2021.

A court dissolves

Jessabel was furious that her fellow Concillium members pinched the tail and decided to repay a debt instead of investing in the future. What would the fiend have done if they had just ignored his request or better, just provided a reason why they failed to deliver LeDuc.

What was worse, she had failed to gain enough influence in the Concillium to sway the vote in her favor, even the concessions offered to the Assamite had not grown fruits. And Ferenc, well, he did vote like he did not for her influence and neither for his ambitious, but rather just because it better matched his moral point of view.

After getting back to Shaasburg, Jessabel started to prepare her departure. When Lucita was coming back, she would join her and move towards the south. Zhazha should not be her successor - decadent as she was - so Jessabel made Andrei her Seneschal. That Zhazha couldn't accept this and rather left was all the better.