Marielda 11: The Killing of the King-God Samothes By The Traitor Prince Maelgwyn Pt. 1

## "The Killing of the King-God Samothes By The Traitor Prince Maelgwyn Pt. 1"

> *Enemies gather to dance with me*
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## Background

### Episode description

> Today is Sunday, and not just any Sunday, it is the Sun Day, the Long Day, the Day of High Sun.
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> Once a year, sometime in the final month of the calendar, the sun offers its light to us for 20 full hours. Each year, this event comes on a different day, and it takes the applied knowledge of scholars and mystics to narrow down its arrival.
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> But the moment that the particular day is known, people across Marielda prepare for the festival. Special dishes are made: fig-and-fishtail pies; huge, communal bowls of pasta; slow roasted pork cooked for weeks over the heat of the sea. Adults set aside holiday outfits, and children begin building their bracelets of iron ring—ready to be shook in arhythmic joy at the arrival of the warm glow on the eastern horizon.
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> On the day of High Sun, Marielda celebrates life, safety, and contentedness. The city gives praise to Samothes for providing them protection and sustenance, even in grim times. In Chrysanthemum, people celebrate the day privately, among close kin and kind, sitting on roofs with a glass of cold cocktails. In Helianthus, they march down the street in parades and challenge one another to holy, ritualistic competition. And everywhere throughout the city, whatever is drab becomes bright. It is the one day in the year that Black Slacks, with their garish shirts, do not stand out.
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> (And all of that says nothing about the hats. Oh! The hats!)
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> And then, when The Long Day, the Day of High Sun, finally ends, the year turns over. That day—whatever it was before—becomes the first of the year, and Marielda moves forward. The days get shorter from there, but only by a bit—for the months that follow, the world glows with heat and energy.
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> The Day of High Sun is a promise: The light of Samothes will continue burning eternally, and under its light Marielda will flourish.
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## Plot

### Prelude

At this point, each member of the Six has in some form been told about the job to go and kill Samothes (with the exception of Ethan Hitchcock, who Edmund told only that they were going to break into Samothes’ palace; he believes they’re going there to steal).

Aubrey has left the transcript she’s been working on, of the conversation between Samothes and Samot, out on a table in the Six’s hideout. Castille finds it and confronts her, saying that this kind of information is too dangerous to leave lying around. This eventually leads into Aubrey explaining how she got this information in the first place. Soon after, Edmund Hitchcock enters, and he and Aubrey compare their experiences with weird god-related visions. The three of them discuss the situation. Sige eavesdrops on this conversation. After a little while, he enters, and tries to play it off like he doesn’t know what they’re discussing. Hitchcock calls him out for lying.

After additional, more copmicated discussion, Miss Salary and Caroline Fair-Play enter together, with a sack of treasure, drunk. Zaktrak appears soon after, asking what’s going on. Caroline breaks out a bottle of champagne. Around this time, Ethan Hitchcock also enters the scene, and he gives a toast.

### Gathering information

Hitchcock goes to a pub to try and get general information about where Samothes lives, and very quickly recieves the common knowledge answer: in the volcano.

The group remembers that they still have the plates from the earlier train heist, including one for the route that headed towards the volcano, and decide they to steal a train. They spend coin to get the train engineers to not show up to work.

Castille goes to research what kind of weapon they need to kill a god, and learns that they’ll need to use the weird, scary magic knife currently in the possession of Miss Salary. (Given that she failed this roll, it’s fair to assume that this information isn't accurate.)

Edmund goes to a church to talks to priests and try to get a better sense of what Samothes’ palace is like. Castille comes with him to help; she got a glimpse of the place when she was on the train with Samothes in cat form, and has a basis for comparison. One person is able to give them a decent amount of information about the layout of the palace. They also tell them that Samothes is rarely there these days, with the war going on, but that he should be returning for High Sun Day next week. Word gets around that Hitchcock and Castille were asking these questions.

Sige tries to research volcanoes but doesn’t find anything useful.

### The job

Early on the morning of High Sun Day, celebrations are starting as the Six (plus Maelgwyn) head out.

The group is able to successfully sneak onto the train, but find it already set to go. As it starts moving towards the volcano, they hear the voices of the Golden Lance. They decide to just try to stay quiet and avoid notice, and manage to sneak into the next train car, but can still hear footsteps close by. Aubrey messes with the door to try to prevent it from being opened from the other side. In doing so, she makes noise, and attracts the attention of Lance Sovereign Marielda.

A laser starts sawing through the door. Aubrey looks for a way to decouple the cars, and Sige helps with a flashlight. She finds a crawlspace beneath their car, and makes it down there, but gets singed when she spills fire oil on herself trying to burn through the mechanism. She then tries to use her wrecker tools instead, but at that moment Lance Noble Orchid drives her spear down into the space where Aubrey is, separating her from the mechanism.

Sige tries to block the door to the car using Samothes’ throne. It doesn’t work, and the door opens, but when Thackeray tries to shoot at him the chair is enough to stop him from making the shot. Sige then uses the chair as a battering ram, pushing the Lance Nobles out, taking them all the way into the ballroom car. Orchid lands an attack on him but his armor (which he made using the last of the materials from his boat) soaks it.

Aubrey comes up from the space she was in beneath the floor. Lance Noble Quince—an orc man with a laser katana—is right there, and Castille and Hitchcock attack him from hiding positions, but he manages to defend, breaking part of Hitchcock’s sword and knocking the wind out of Castille.

Aubrey shoots her gun, but the beams stop mid-air and fall to the ground as Lance Noble Chrysanthemum enters. She shoots at Aubrey with weird, fancy laser beams that follow Aubrey as she moves; Aubrey has to hold still to stop them from reaching her.

Sige uses his rage essence vial, and rushes at Lance Noble Orchid. She holds her spear out in front of her and lets him impale himself on it, but his armor takes the damage.

Edmund Hitchcock pulls out his (non-magic) pistol and tries to shoot at Quince, but hits Castille instead. Maelgwyn is able to deactivate the tracking laser beams, freeing Aubrey. Castille uses a power that lets her release a beam of crackly ghost energy, which hits the two Lance Nobles, incapacitating them.

Sige pushes through the Lance Nobles near him and reunites with the rest of the team. Everyone is regrouping, ready to continue the fight, when the train begins to pull into the station. The doors open.

## Cast

* Austin Walker (GM)
* Jack de Quidt (Ethan and Edmund Hitchcock)
* Sylvia Clare (Aubrey)
* Ali Acampora (Castille)
* Andrew Lee Swan (Sige)