Log:Princesses' Guard Revived, Scene 4

Princesses' Guard Revived 2014/04/02

Nobody

4

Ghost's Threat Assessment
Confidential: Princesses' Guard Only.

It will shortly be announced that Princess Stephanie and Duke Vanatherion of Westmarch will become engaged to be married. The Princesses' Guard has been informed ahead of the official announcement as we have been tasked with securing the safety of both Princess Stephanie and Duke Vanatherion and with ensuring the engagement and marriage take place without undue incident. Although her Highness wished to revive the PG team anyway, the timing of the revivial process has been driven by this forthcoming event.

There is a plurality of potential threats to Princess Stephanie and Duke Vanatherion. Some are of long standing and some are due to the forthcoming engagement and marriage.

My estimate is the increased threat period will extend from the public announcement of the engagement to shortly after the wedding has taken place. This does not in any way mean that caution can be relaxed outside this period. However I believe that the announcement of the engagement will be taken as justification, at least in their own eyes, by the conservative and traditionalists for their actions. Whereas after the wedding ceremony the harm, as they would consider it, will have largely been done and most action thereafter will be pointless from their perspective.

We should remember that Princess Liandere is the elder of the King's daughters and thus a son born to Duke Vanatherion and Princess Stephanie will be in line of sucession to the throne. This is a prospect that many traditionalists will find hard to bear. Furthermore, the marriage will consolidate Vanatherion's position as Duke of Westmarch by the connection to the royal family while also further stabilising Princess Stephanie's status as an integral part of the Fae nobility. There are a number of individuals and groups who would not wish this to happen.

'''Known Threat Vectors... '''

The betrothal can be broken off, with just cause, by Vanatherion, King Zoramin or Quentin Dallimore, or, by more recent tradition, Lorelei or Liandere. Just cause can be manufactered by impugning the honor of either Lorelei or Vanatherion. Potential approaches might be framing either Lorelei or Vanatherion for an act of treason, or creating evidence that Vanatherion's military victories are faked and he is a coward.

Infidelity during the period of the engagement - note that anything that happened before the engagement is irrelevant - would also be just cause. Seduction spells and shapeshifters would be the most probable means to create this situation.

Arguable the most honourable way the marriage could be stopped is by outright revolution! It is the duty of the dukes to ensure the king behaves properly, and if enough of them took the attitude that this legitimisation of Lorelei's standing was offensive; war would be justified. Should this occur I hope the members of the Princesses' Guard will continue to protect the safety of Princess Stephanie but I would not ask any team member to become actively involved in the war. I, having pledged my honor and loyalty to the Princess, would fight with the royal forces and would thus resign from the team in order to preserve the team's impartiality.

It is extremely easy to challenge Vanatherion to a duel. There is precedent for duels on all sorts of pretexts, and it wouldn't be hard to find some excuse - particularly from the other contenders for Lorelei's hand. However duels these days are generally fought with medics standing by, and even 'duels to the death' are rarely fatal. In any case, Vanatherion is an excellent fighter (in particular he's amazing at dodging and parrying, which has led to a reputation among goblins that even cold iron won't bite him), which limits the number of people who could beat him.

If a duel takes place one possiblity would be to either poison a blade, or to substitute a cold iron blade. Both blades must be checked. Poison or cold iron offer the best chance to kill Vanatherion, but if instead he is tricked into using either a poisoned or cold iron blade his honor would be forfeit. Note that this tactic was attempted in the formal duel which occurred between and Lorelei's then champion Jennifer Markham.

There are recorded instances of fae nobles staking betrothals against territorial gains or other inducements, to be settled by the outcome of a duel. If Vanatherion - I'm sure he would not - were to do this he will have shown himself unfit to win the hand of the Princess. We should do nothing except warn the Princess in the strongest possible way to break off the betrothal.

Overt physical attack on Lorelei is unlikely. This would be dishonorable. Also, the duelling tradition is male-only. The Princess generally is well guarded, and assaulting any of the royal family is a Bad Thing for many reasons. If one is willing to forgo honour, however, covert attacks are the way to go, knives in the dark and poisons being old favourites.

Kidnapping, extortion, etc, are interesting avenues: It might, perhaps, even be possible to pull this off ostensibly honourably (e.g. hold a close relative of Vanatherion for a crime and get him to stake the marriage against the release of the relative in a duel).

An overt attack on either the wedding itself or the reception afterwards is possible. Although there will be a significant presence of security on hand, a shapeshifted goblin assassin willing to die himself is a real threat. Also see the comments regarding Palanir below. The place the wedding will be held at is, frankly, a sniper's paradise.

There are so many possible 'hows' that I cannot see how we can cover them all with our limited numbers. Especially as the opposition will have the initiative, at least at the start, and will be more familiar with the lore and customs of Undermoon. We should be aware of them, of course, and as far as possible prepare counter-strategies against them. However it may be a better use of our limited resources to think about 'who' rather than spend excessive time on 'how'.

'''Who... '''

Palanir, ex-Duke of Westmarch, is probably the most likely active threat. He has been active in multiple attacks against the royal family, upto and including poisoning the King and imprisoning Princess Liandere's heart. He instigated the Goblin raids into Upper Heartworld by providing the Goblins of Wyrmwood with Dwarven World-Walking boots. He has been on Earth-1 and knows the use of gunpower. He has used gunpower to create crude grenades and boobytraps. A flintlock pistol was discovered in his rooms after his arrest.

Although there is evidence that he cannot defeat Second Sight with his illusions (a sighted fae saw through his disguise during the PG assault on Newport) he does have contacts with the Goblins' of Wyrmwood. And certain Goblin shapeshifters do have such an ability. Palanir does not possess any great personal courage. He has fled from Titan on two occasions. He is a skilled swordsman and mage. However his face is well known and reviled. I would expect his involvement to be covert and behind the scenes, employing minions and henchmen for any attacks.

EDIT: Palanir has completely dropped out of sight from both Undermoon intelligence sources and those of allied nations. Meanwhile information has come to light that suggests his own network of spies and agents is more widespread and significant than first thought. Locating and if possible capturing Palanir should be one of our top priorities.

The thought of the havoc he could wreak by supplying henchmen with crude rifles and cold iron bullets is chilling. Research into the potential of such crude weapons (ref: Kentucky Long Rifles) has shown this threat can range out to several hundred yards. Likewise the use of buried explosive charges laced with cold iron fragments. Firearms and gunpower have been hitherto unknown on Undermoon. I doubt if current fae security is accustomed or practiced in dealing with such threats.

The Goblins of Wyrmwood are no longer an existential threat to the fae realm of Undermoon. There remains notable hatred from the Goblins towards Undermoon, and some of this hatred is directed at the Princess and myself, since I contributed to their defeat and it was the Princess who brought me to Undermoon. They also have hatred towards Vanatherion, as his heroic stand at Sorrysgate was their first defeat during raids into Upper Heartworld and his keen observation of the Goblin's means of world-walking led to the nullification of their ability to do so, along with exposing the Goblin King's failure to recognise his manipulation by Palanir.

I'll note the Goblin King is neither a forgiving person, nor especially intelligent. He was offered several chances to negotiate with the Princess, and rejected each and every one of them, even after it should have become obvious to any competent leader that his forces were losing. Therefore, and despite the foolishness of doing so, it is not all that unlikely he will try to gain what he perceives as revenge by an attempt on the lives of either or both the Princess and the Duke. This will likely be either by a shapeshifted assassin employing poison or cold iron weapons, or an overt attack such as the one on the Embassy. (See the PG mission file: Cold Shades in the Fog.)

There have been several unsuccessful suitors for the Princesses' hand. Emerdir the Bold for one, who's interest seemed to be more with the status marriage to a member of the royal family would bring than any affection for Lorelei. Duke Thallion of Rilland is another. Somewhat egoistical but I believe his suit was at least honest. Motivation for them acting against the forthcoming union might range from feeling slighted at being rejected by a mere half-human, to a belief that with Vanatherion out of the picture they may still have a chance to win Lorelei's hand. Unfortunately, my limited resources means I am unable to place survillence of any of the ex-suitors.

The conservative and traditionalist fractions of fae society. As typified by Duke Silidhor of Greyfells, the leader of many of the traditionalist nobles, and Hothmon Gaethdal, husband of Grand Mistress Scrivener Arailla Gaethdal and highly conservative member of the Low Parliment. Both have opposed Lorelei from the start, partly due to fear of change and partly racially motivated by a distain for humans and other non-fae. The traditionalist nobles tend to take their honor quite seriously, which constains the type of mischief they can get up to. The same is not necessarily true of Hothmon Gaethdal however. His stance seems to come from a fear that having a half-human in the royal family will encourage immigation by humans to Undermoon, depriving un-sighted fae of the few jobs and crafts suitable for them. I currently have these people under survillence.

House Sadron of Portpyre, whose head, Tuveril, is Marquess of the Armies. This House had the best claim to the Duchy of Westmarch, had Vanatherion not been elevated to the position of Duke of Westmarch after his victory at Sorrysgate. And therefore would likely gain the Duchy should death or dishonor befall Vanatherion. I've worked closely with Duke Tuveril for over a decade during the final period of the Wyrmwood Goblin War. I respect him as a person and a tactician. I cannot believe he could be involved in nefarious activites. However I'm not an objective judge in this instance. Perhaps someone else in the team could make some investigations?

Jillian of House Nariliin (Ghost)

Companion to Princess Stephanie.