SESSION FOURTEEN SUMMARY - THE WEDDING
Following the previous session, the wedding between Wilhelmina (Mina) Fluxspear and Luc Garamond is scheduled to take place on a small resort island several hours’ ornithopter flight from Cala City. Eduard is travelling separately as is officially accompanying the young Lady Stasia Fluxspear, and will be with the Wedding Party.
So, introducing the Groom, the dashing Chevalier Luc Garamond
House Garamond is a Major House whose primary domain is in agricultural research and development, hence the marriage being a good strategic fit for House Fluxspear.
Also present are members of all the other Noble Houses: Atreides, Fluxspear and Garamond, Berreth, Stewart, Sarun, and Thana. In addition to the assorted nobility, high ranking members of the merchant classes are also in attendance, as befitting this major social event.
Security is discrete but still visible, with guards in both Houses Fluxspear and Atreides liveries checking guests as they arrive and also patrolling the grounds.
Prior to the ceremony, there is a little time for social interactions as etiquette demands. House Thana make the rounds of obligatory greetings, particularly to the Duke Leto and Lady Jessica. Also present with them is a new employee of House Atriedes, Gurney Halleck. Hera makes her Understand test, with her talent in hyperawareness assisting, and deduces that the Lady Jessica is indeed pregnant.
The Bride, Lady Mina, is radiant and naturally the centre of attention.
Once the obligatory welcomes are complete, the wedding ceremony begins with the young couple standing at a small space on a promontory at the cliffside, with the breathtaking views of the ocean behind them. The guests are standing in a natural amphitheatre which gives them all an unobstructed view of the proceedings.
The Fluxspear family spiritual advisor, an old Orange Catholic priest, leads the ceremony and the couple exchange vows and then their rings. They kiss and are declared Man and Wife.
The Wedding Party and assembled guests then retire to the main pavilion where a feast is being laid out. Tables are largely set according to House, with non-nobility seated together further away. Poison snoopers at every table.
Calista decides to continue to try and woo the scion of the family enemy, Pavel Sarun, and approaches their table. Pavel introduces her to his mother, Ilona, who clearly disapproves and makes some polite but condescending small talk.
Eduard takes Stasia and the two of them leave the pavillion to explore the grounds. They are discretely followed by a House Thana guard. They find a secluded copse of trees a short distance away. Stasia is flushed with excitement, anticipation, and perhaps a few glasses of bubbles - and leans into Eduard for a kiss…
And I spend a bunch of threat.
And there are a series of small explosions at the rear of the pavilion.
Suddenly the sound of warning alarms from the poison snoopers wail and the closest guests to the explosions have collapsed to the ground and are writhing whilst vomiting copiously. Hera quickly, and quite correctly, deduces this is a distraction…
And then three of the servants who are spread out throughout the pavilion are suddenly wearing gasmasks, the one standing behind Luc Garamond is holding a small blade.
I spend some threat and declare I have initiative.
I spend some threat and buy some additional dice and get 5 successes and describe the sudden flash of his arm as he drives the blade into the back of Luc, crying out aloud “For the glory of House Vortaris!”
Luc Garamond coughs blood over the front of his new wife and then drops like a stone. Mina stands there screaming.
Combat scene follows.
Hermes, as it turns out, is closest to the man who just knifed Luc and moves in to engage. Calista is close to one other assassin, the third is further away and moving.
Hera intends to move closer to the Atreides, to cover Jessica.
Eduard decides to stay in the copse and protect Stasia.
Hera and Calista need to make a difficulty 2 discipline test as an unseen gas rolls through their positions. Both can feel their gorges violently rise in response but are able to quell the feeling. Other guests are not so fortunate, including Ilona Sarun and her husband, Oskari Virtanen.
Calista engages with the closest assassin and after a brief struggle has dispatched the woman without taking any injury. She removes the assassin’s gasmask and places it over Ilona Sarun’s face, allowing her to breathe easier and recover.
The male assassin has managed to get to the cliff-face with Hermes in pursuit. Unfortunately, he rolls better on his move test, and Hermes can only watch as he jumps over the edge. However, the second female assassin has closed the distance and is engaging Hermes. He takes a wound but manages to knock her out.
Combat scene ends.
Guards rush in and secure the area, a medical team attends to Luc Garamond but it is too late, he is quite dead. The blade was poisoned with a lethal agent.
The surviving assassin is bundled away by the Atreides. Duke Leto and Lady Jessica are quickly escorted to an ornithopter under guard and depart. As she leaves, Jessica nods her thanks to Hera.
Eduard returns Stasia to her family, who are recovering from the physical effects of the gas. Mina has been administered a sedative but is in shock. She is still covered in the blood of her husband. The Fluxspears, and Eduard, leave the island to return to the Fluxspear compound in Cala City.
The remaining players decide that they too will return to the city in their ornithopter. Cala City is currently in lockdown, with an immediate curfew announced. In the ensuing aftermath Atreides security look for the assassin who leapt off the cliff, but no body is found…
And we ended the session there. Next session to find out what the hell is happening?!?