THE TERMS OF SURRENDER

THE TERMS OF SURRENDER

THE TERMS OF SURRENDER

Job Results: Diplomat, Protection, Refugee, Distant Parish.

Dame Ester Al-Miriam Rainthrush (of mixed djinn and elven heritage) is the Sultana’s war diplomat, set out to negotiate the terms of surrender with the denizens of planes who struggle in vain to resist the advance of Dis. She seeks additional guards to supplement her standard retinue of three Road Wardens (Ker, Momus, and Nemesis), for she has been dispatched to the newest borough of Dis: the Nobel Parish of Ebullion, a former minor hell of boiling, adjoined to the ravenous city through its underground sewers and cisterns.

The denizens of Ebullion, both mortal shades and demonkind, were not at all displeased with the city’s invasion of their plane. In fact, they were overjoyed that they could finally escape from their prison of boiling seas and skies of burning vapors. Consequently, refugees have abandoned Ebullion for its neighboring parishes in mass numbers, violating the conditions of the plane’s surrender (i.e. that they would stay and help develop the parish into a steam-powered industrial center) and menacing several already unstable portions of the city.

Dame Rainthrush is traveling to meet with Lord Protector Abezethibou, the archfiend who was previously the greatest warlord of Ebullion. As part of the terms of surrender, Abezethibou is to rule the Parish of Ebullion for 101 years as lord protector, before peacefully handing over control to an elected parish council. However, with the treaty already violated by the mass refugee flow, things are not off to a good start.

Indeed, Abezethibou himself has become a refugee, leaving Ebullion and assuming control of the Blood Friars, a gang of demon-touched assassins that dominate the criminal underbelly of the Ghostworks, a neighboring parish that was formerly the space-sarcophagus of the dark god Abaddon (see Dark Heart, p.32). Should be a fun trip, trying to track him down and hold him to the mystically-binding agreement.

Dangers include some or all of the following:

– the Blood Friars, who will attempt to prevent any meeting

– Abezethibou himself, who likes to think he is free to do as he pleases

– refugees of Ebullion, most of whom never wish to return home

– the death traps of the space-sarcophagus, many of which remain

– Dame Rainthrush and the Road Wardens, who will enforce the treaty

– wealthy industrialists, seeking to reap the riches of the newest parishes, such as Ebullion & the Ghostworks