Pulse of the Imperium

When Nirilli approached the Archon's palatial section, she'd notice guards being posted by the entrance, something not practised often since she had started serving Irene.

Kannon wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 24, 2025 8:03 am

When Nirilli approached the Archon's palatial section, she'd notice guards being posted by the entrance, something not practised often since she had started serving Irene.

Nirilli approached the guards and bowed low.

They would recognize her, she assumed. Nirilli was the sort who knew guards by name and might use their name in a moment like this.

"I have come to report to the Archon, and see how I may be of service. Has she provided instruction that she is not to be disturbed?"

It was possible she was with Pankratos and enjoying some solitude with him.

The guards were not apparently there to stop her in particular; one of them, that of clearly Zensunni ancestry, acknowledged her with a short nod and didn't block the passage. A soft hum of a hovering poison snooper just past the entrance signalled that not all precautions were dismissed. Nirilli carried no chaumurky or chaumas, nor she was suspected of secreting any tools of assassination, but something as inocouous as contact poison brushed onto the rim of her robe without her knowledge was one of the first things the Assassin's Handbook would warn about.

Irene would wait inside, still in the same attire she had worn during the lion race. She had killed the solido projection just before Nirilli entered.



"How is your hand, Nirilli?" The Archon said without turning to face her servant. There were but a few discordant notes in that question of both attention and concern shown toward the servant, but those likely came from stress and strain. Irene wasn't a Bene Gesserit to deftly hide distress.

Nirilli gently touched the sling that wrapped her arm, and the bandages around her hand.

"It's not bad, Mistress. I got help to care for it from Hadrian and then the Sisters in the garden. I think their healing salves must be very potent."

"It is kind of you to ask after me. I was glad for the chance to distract a lion so it did not harm any of your guests. It is hard to imagine what could have happened. But Pankratos acted swiftly. And the others who were near." A smile. She meant it genuinely, but also generally found that mentioning him lifted her Mistress' spirits.

"I could give an account of all who were in the box if you are curious." Ever dutiful.

"I grieve for the racers who perished. Especially Ben Ghali." A fellow Zensunni. "And I try to think five happy thoughts for every sad one, so I do not over-burden the bakka."

"I am afraid not all Zensunni have as good a way to overcome grief as yours, Nirilli. The loss of both Ben Ghali and Dyrrachion are already reverbertaing across Hypatea. People are particular about their heroes, and not all see in Pankratos what we both do. A way has to be found to appease your people on their own terms."

Irene said as she lowered herself onto an ottoman, leaning back on her elbows while crossing her legs, looking to the mosaics of the ceiling.

"Yes, please give me that account."

[Average Perception w/ Setback at any point of the conversation.]

"Our people have rituals. The same ones that taught me. Maybe if we organized a public mourning, in the Zensunni style, the grief would sound but the joy-finding would too. Do their families know? Is there a need to find them to send word?"

She pauses, organizing her thoughts for her report.

"Let's see. I arrived to the box to deliver the letter to Lady Salomea. Let me start by confirming who was there."

"The Strategos Philadelphos was there first. Silent. Observing. He did not interact with anyone. Lady Salomea arrived next, with a clearly senior Bene Gesserit from the ship that had so recently arrived. Her name proved to be Reverend Mother Cordana. They spoke first to each other in a gibberish designed to keep their secrets. Not a language I think. Like a sound-making to distract from a communication happening by some other means."

"Lady Xanthe was not there. She was covering for her Father back in the administrative areas. But the guests were hers. Known to the daughter, not the mother. So they all had to introduce themselves, which was convenient so I could catch their names. Apparently arriving on the same ship as the Reverend Mother. There was a younger Bene Gesserit - an attendant to the Reverend Mother? There was a vintner, Hadrian Martikova, a Caladian. He had with him a woman who would later describe herself as his bodyguard but was notably of great interest to the Reverend Mother, who invited her into private gibberish-speak. Her name is Laila Bridger. There was also a noblewoman, Lady Cuyler Grey, a chef, from House Mutelli, and with her, a plantetologist named Dr. Xard Vim."

"Also present, and standing guard, but a local, like me, was Emcas, likely on the behalf of his Lady Xanthe. He was alert for trouble. Standing at the door, rather than watching the race."

"I had a chance to deliver your letter to Lady Salomea prior to the race, and she invited me to join her and the others in the garden afterwards."

She paused. The stage set. Clearly there was a great deal more to tell!

"A ceremony to officiate." Irene agreed, with slight self-reproof, as if this one one thing she should have thought about but for some reason hadn't. She didn't linger on the thought though, being otherwise preocccupied. She started shuffling her legs a bit.

"A very diverse group. And they all arrived together? I understand they used the cone of silence to obscur the conversations. Did you get anything in particular the Bene Gesserit were saying outside of it?"

"No, I could not understand any of the words. But ..." she concentrated, thinking. "The only thing I noticed was the conversation between the Reverend Mother and the one named Laila. Perhaps this is artifice? But, while the words were gibberish, Laila seemed pretty relaxed. Laughing at one point. Far more informal than I would expect to ever act in public around a person of such high rank. Perhaps they are family? Or ... I don't know."

"I was able to interact more with some of them after. In the copter and the garden. Of note, Lady Grey, the chef, has Zensunni heritage. Isn't that remarkable? Though she was born on Kirana III, and does know her genealogy well enough to know where the connection is. She has spent time on Arrakis as a CHOAM auditor. She is curious about the Zensunni."

"She spent time on Caladan prior to coming here. That's where she met Hadrian. She represented House Mutelli in a matter of interest to House Atreides."

"She - Lady Grey - can look through her ancestor's eyes in the past. The one who loved the Zensunni boy. She remembered him singing to her. She remembered the song! Now I know it. I think maybe being close to another Zensunni helped bring the memory to her mind."

"Oh, and Lady Salomea knew the song, too. She taught me another verse of it. It spoke of places we had wandered before this planet. Bela Tegeuse, the jungles of Rossak, Poritrin... Only words to me. But I would like to learn more of them. It was about the hajj, or the sadness and anger at being denied the hajj. Oh, and it has a response when sung on Arrakis. Angrier there. Less nostalgic."

That was a lot. She had enjoyed the interaction with Lady Grey, and learned a great deal.

"But then our conversation turned to what had happened. The lions. How it could have happened. How it could be investigated."

"So a bodyguard who is more than a bodyguard, a vintner who is more than a vintner, and a chef who is more than a chef."

If there was a joke here, Irene didn't find it funny. Especially the talk about Zensunni victimhood and pilgrimage was decidedly unamusing to a ruler who relied on their population to remain docile and passive, with strictly controlled outlets.

"Mutelli, Atreides, Corrino, Bene Gesserit. My brother has truly got himself into a diverse company, and at a moment of tragedy. I suppose it's mostly on him to handle the fallout."

There were no bold suppositions in her mind yet. But she sprang off the ottoman to make a call for a mentat through the secure link. It was time to hear back from her own contact on Caladan, possible as long as the heighliner with its relay service was in the system.

"Did any of them behave like the leader of the group?"

And, after a moment.

"Did any of them show any special interest in Pankratos?"

Like their leader? She thought about that. "Lady Grey is the highest ranking. She seems decisive and engaged. She is interested in investigating what happened."

"Whoever did this ... They are an enemy likely to the alliance of Hagal, Atreides, and Mutelli. Someone who wants the legitimacy of House Ptolemaios deeply compromised and has the capacity to carry out a multi-faceted plan with secrecy and precision, the knowledge and means to infiltrate, risking Kanly or seeking it. Lady Grey thought the best defense against such an opponent might be the unexpected that they could not have accounted for in their meticulous planning. Perhaps she and her friends can be that anticipatable variable. Her first thought is to speak to the Zensunni villages. Anything strange? Not from suspicion of the Zensunni racers, but just ...whoever did this needed access to at least one racer likely to gather information from them. Maybe they stepped less carefully outside the city. And that aligns with her own interest. She wants to learn more about the Zensunni, from her ancestry and ancestor's past.

"But she would be glad to have my services as a guide in such endeavors, with your approval."

"Hadrian is Laila's boss, but seems less engaged. He really does seem focused on wine merchanting from the little I could observe. He would likely join Lady Grey's investigations if she asked. He seems very charming. He might be good at asking questions and getting answers by means different than an auditor, so they could learn more if they worked together."

"As for Pankratos, I think he commands attention wherever he goes. I cheered for him. I think many watched him in the race, though the folks in the box had chosen others to cheer for, perhaps likely an underdog. And he saved us! That surely made an impression." Had they stared at him? This was the point where her observation failed because she was looking at Pankratos when Pankratos was present. If they'd talked about him, it had not been within her hearing. "They did not ask me about him. They could have. There was ample opportunity to do so."

"He is surely of interest to the Bene Gesserit who can see through their ancestor's lives, because he spends so much time walking in ancient Nilotic al-Ourouba. Though I have the impression he doesn't so much look through an ancestor's life as it is his own life. Just split between here and there. He is fascinating. And every bit as kind as he is excellent. And you have his heart," she said, smiling at her Mistress. "He is surely a good person to ask about everything he saw, did he notice anything strange before the race. But that did not seem to be anyone's plan. But you may have already had that conversation with him! I could ask him, too, should the chance present."

Irene mulled something, leaning against her small comm panel that didn't distort the decor of the room.

"So this group of visitors, they are going to investigate the racing incident? Has my brother, or his lady for the matter, allowed it? Cuyler Gray may have been a CHOAM auditor, but she has no mandate here. At least not one I have been informed of. I think I want to meet with her soon."

"Lady Salomea was there, and did not speak against it. She was encouraging, though careful to not say anything that would make it official, or done on her behalf."

"I can invite Lady Grey to speak to you at a time of your choosing and convenience."

"In truth, I think she only wanted to help. Like me. I want to help. If you see ways I could be most useful to you in that regard, I am eager to serve."

She pays attention to her Mistress, trying to learn all she can, in the quiet perceptive way of servants.

Here is the Average Perception w/ Setback at any point of the conversation

I believe I did this correctly. She has cunning 3, perception 1. Let me know if I my dice use is not right!

[Average Perception w/ Setback at any point of the conversation.] 3 cunning. 1 perception.

Net Successes: 1; Net Advantages: 3

GM edit:
Difficulty to Perception.

Net Successes: -2; Net Advantages: 0

[In the future you can roll difficulty alongside your dice pool on your own, then the balance is automatically calculated.]

If there was anything unusual to notice, Nirilli was too engrossed in the exchange to pay attention to it.

[Advantages will give you a Boost to your next roll in the room.]

Irene stopped expressing her thoughts on the matter. She looked at Nirilli intently.

"I could allow you to attach yourself to this group. As long as the condition of your arm allows it?"