Act One concluded with the announced birth of Paul Atreides in 10,175 AG. You can read it here: A new campaign starts - "A beginning is a very delicate time"
ACT TWO PRELUDE / SESSION ZERO
I have sprung a surprise on the players, it’s not 10,175 AG but 10,177. Several years of comparative peace and prosperity have passed since the events of The Wedding and House Thana has grown in political and economic stature.
The players and I have established the following -
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The twins (Anette and Arwen) are to be sent to Wallach IX to receive training with the Bene Gesserit
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The trade deal with House Grimaldi is coming to a close and needs to be renegotiated. Eduard wants to make it a 10-20 year agreement.
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Eduard has by now wed Stasia Fluxspear and she has moved into the Thana compound. They were trying to have a child and now Stasia is pregnant
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The House Patriarch Nikolai has made a promise to Eduard that he will formally abdicate his position allowing Eduard to step into the role within the next few years.
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The characters want House Thana to possibly become involved with the manufacturing of Spice Harvesters but do not wish to align themselves in any way with the current governors of Arrakis, House Harkonnen. They wish to investigate the possibility of supplying other Houses harvesting melange under franchise.
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Hermes is to initiate an intelligence project regarding identifying potential Houses to approach re above
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Calista is miffed that Pavel Sarun has spurned all her overtures to date
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House Sarun announce the betrothal of Pavel to the Lady Ylena (somewhat of a mystery as to who she is) - fancy engagement soiree to follow
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Hera initiates a secret plan to keep Calista in check - more on this later but it’s very in tune with the BG - also the other players are unaware of this
We also ran a quick RP session where the players met with the House Grimaldi representatives regarding their expiring trade deal. Actually, I appear to have forgotten to include a previous session involving House Grimaldi where the players spent some time with the scions of the family, Cosimo and Cesare.
Cosimo, the Heir
Cesare, the Upstart
In that session Calista tried (and failed) to seduce the young Cesare - much to the chagrin of the others - but later Cesare approached Eduard with a proposal. He could offer House Thana much more if he were in a position to do so, such as if something untoward befell his father and brother…
Well, the players didn’t take Cesare up on that but also didn’t really do anything with the information that Cesare might be a threat to the Grimaldi family’s future either. They later learned that Cosimo had been consorting with a Harkonnen delegate.
Anyway, in this session Eduard concluded a very favourable deal despite an initial noncommittal stance from Grimaldi and the two Houses are now bound by commerce.
Session One to follow soon.