Episode 16: Fiara di Marte

**Episode 16: Fiara di Marte** (C1E16) is the sixteenth episode of the first campaign of The Table is Yours: A Role-playing Adventure Show. Phoebe, or Fiara, rather, explains why exactly she decided to match Serafima's bid for The Faded Fates...

## Synopsis

### Ponteugh & the di Martes

Fiara reveals to the party that she has been Phoebe the whole time, which is why she had such a strong reaction to Balthazar being invited to their auction. Similar to Cazamir’s illusion, Phoebe is just a more human-looking version of Fiara. Terrance chimes in to ask if she is actually involved with the Martyrs of Ponteugh or if it is just a cover. She looks at him, annoyed, and says of course she works with them, and she also believes in their mission. She explains that her patronage to the Faded Fates is not yet public, and she will decide to reveal that information when she sees fit. For now, they are better off acting with discretion. Fiara says that being an adventurer allows them to tow the lines of morality, for example, if a city is destroyed in the process of defeating a “great evil,” the public wouldn’t care about the destroyed city because the greater threat was eliminated. If adventurers need to go above the law to gather materials for a spell that would rid the land of disease, their tresspasses would be forgiven because it benefited the community. Heroes are basically rats; they have access to the underbelly of the city, but they can also worm their way into high society if need be, and that is exactly what she needs them to do.

Fiara gives the party some history on her family; she and her brothers lived in Ponteugh almost 400 years ago when their city was destroyed and their lives changed forever. She believes higher-ups in the Burg were behind the attack because Ponteugh was thriving outside the rule of the city. To this day, she explains, the Burg continues to take and take, and it will eventually kill Zobraria. She wants to tear the Burg down from the inside. She looks up at the party’s concerned faces, but she knows that the Burg had scorned all of them in some way. Shae had something taken from her home, Terrance had a father killed by their missions, Isa was forced to follow a path she didn’t believe, Codex had her family put in danger, Connie had more taken from her than had been given from wealth, and Wash was forced into hiding. Fiara’s goal is to avenge those scorned by the Burg and uncover its secrets. She has no desire to be enemies with the Faded Fates, in fact, she wants them to help her. If they want to remove the rot from the land, they need first to air it out. Codex asks why Fiara and Balthazar were fighting at the gala. Fiara sighs and says that Cazamir and herself have a very different way of dealing with their anger than Balthazar. At the end of the day, all of the di Martes are angry at the same thing, the Burg, but they want to fight back in contrasting ways. Fiara and Cazamir saw what happened to them as a curse, and their brother saw it as power. Balthazar wants to destroy the Burg with power; he wants to use his abilities to tear it down no matter the cost. Fiara and Cazamir, on the other hand, are more tactical, their plan involves gaining social rank to expose the Burg for its corruption and, furthermore, remove the power from those who abuse it. Terrance asks what her end goal is, and Fiara replies that she wants to break down the Burg, destroy the church, and kill Zoha’ruhs.

### The Gang Agrees to Kill a God

There is a moment of silence as the party digests what exactly Fiara just said. Isa breaks the silence and blurts out, “why?!”. Fiara remains calm but seems to be debating if she should have shared this information. She tells them that The Fair Father is the main source of power for many of those who are corrupt in the city, and by killing the god that supplies them, she will remove the power from their hands. Isa asks what will happen if the god dies, and Fiara responds simply, “I would love to find out”. More stunned silence follows her statement. Fiara admits that she isn’t entirely without a plan, and she looks to Codex and tells her that she was the one who hired Shawm to have her steal the Darkroot Diamond. She then looks to One and tells her that she hired her group to then deliver it to Orathia, but that didn’t go as planned considering it was opened and then used, so the diamond was gone. Shae is steaming with anger at this point, especially after her last conversation with One.

Fiara opens her mouth as if to continue but bites her tongue. She scans over the party and tells them that if they want to know more about her plans and what it means to work with her, they need to agree to be allies. She gives the party three options: agree to trust and work with her, leave now and forget everything they just spoke of, or be killed if they betray her. The party thinks it over. One is the first to speak up, and she approaches the desk and asks if Fiara will help her reclaim her name if she agrees, calling it mutual benefit. Fiara agrees, though not entirely sure of what she meant, and One takes her side. Terrance, seeing One proclaim her allegiance, offers his as well. Wash asks why she wants to kill a god for the actions of his followers. Fiara offers a visual aide for reference. She calls in a woman named Mirabel, who is a divine magic user, and asks her to demonstrate her abilities. Fiara then casts somethin, blocking Mirabel from being able to access her god’s energy and simultaneously manifesting a book golem from the walls next to Mirabel. Without magic, the golem starts to easily overpower her, but Fiara deconstructs it before it can do any damage. After dismissing Mirabel, she explains that her actions are really nothing personal against The Fair Father, but without his supply of divinity, once he’s removed, those who are corrupt with his power will have no way to protect themselves. Moreover, it will expose how those in power use their abilities, granted to them by the sun god, to manipulate the masses. Wash nods, but still doesn’t officially agree.

Shae, lost in rage and staring past Fiara as she speaks, catches a glimpse of who she only assumes are the di Martes’ parents behind Fiara. Their faces are almost expressionless, but they’re there and with their children. Fiara catches the twitch of Shae’s face upon seeing the ghosts and asks what her thoughts are. Shae grits her teeth and says nothing. Fiara prompts another question and asks if Shae is from the Burg. Shae shakes her head and says sternly that she is from the Grove. Fiara sighs knowingly and deafens the rest of the party as she apologizes for stealing from Shae’s homeland. Shae, in an instant, casts Darkness and moves right next to Fiara. Fiara shrugs and says that the diamonds have secrets, and she wanted to know what they were. Fiara explains that the roots of the Dawnwood were turned into gold string to contain the souls of trespasser gods, and that these strings are wrapped around the diamonds, which are said to have the power of a thousand Wish spells. The Dawnwood had been in Zobraria long before the Burg, and something is draining the land. She tells Shae that she wants to find out what. Shae appreciates her honesty and agrees to help Fiara with achieving her goals, all of them.

After the rest of the party is unblinded and undeafened, Fiara announces Shae’s alliance and asks if the rest are willing to agree. [listen for Isa talk] Fiara looks to the final two: Codex? Felix? Wash winces upon hearing that name and tells her his name is Wash and she shouldn’t call him by anything else. Fiara apologizes and asks again if he will join her. He asks if is able to erase his name, since it is clearly still accessible. Fiara promises that very few people have access to documents that will expose his identity, but unfortunately she cannot scrub his name from the records without drawing attention to the party, herself, and their plans. She can only promise to keep his identity as hidden as it is currently. Wash pinches the bridge of his nose and exhales as he agrees to join.

Fiara shifts her gaze to Codex who is bouncing on her heels, bursting with anxiety. She asks why everyone is so chill with killing a god like it is no big deal. Terrance makes the point that technically they didn’t agree exactly to kill the god but are agreeing to not get in the way of someone with that goal. This comment receives daggers from Fiara and doesn’t do much to soothe Codex’s anxieties. It is actually One who is able to convince Codex to join by simply asking for her trust in this because it is how they can deal with “problem number five”. Codex agrees, hesitantly, to work with Fiara, rounding out the Faded Fates.

Fiara begins to explain what she already told Shae. She expands on the Dawnwood: the tree was created by Jophet, The Earth and Vine, goddess of nature; it is sacred. The diamonds are protected, but there was one that was more visible than the rest, and that was the Darkroot Diamond. Fiara cut a deal with the Dira village of the Grove, and they allowed her to have the Darkroot Diamond on display in the Silent Museum. She agreed to return it to them, but it was conveniently stolen (by Codex, who Fiara hired through Shawm). She and Orathia are working together, despite not always agreeing with each other, and Fiara sees value in their alliance. Shawm hired a group, One’s party, to find the diamond in the Onyx Obscurity and bring it back to Fiara, but Orathia lied when she said she wouldn’t use it. Orathia took the Darkroot Diamond and used it to bond herself to the god of pain and suffering, Kessak, The Shadowed Fear. One explained what happened from her perspective. The party she was with tried to prevent Orathia from cutting the wire, but they couldn’t. She was also trying to raise an army, and Kuzon, one of One’s party members, didn’t like what she did so he tried to kill her. Kessak struck Kuzon down before he had a chance to touch her. After Kuzon was stricken down, Orathia raised him from the dead to fight the rest of the party. This led them to believe that Orathia and Kessak were mortally tied, so if one died it would kill the other.

Fiara says she has more theories but will share them at another time. For now, the Faded Fates under her patronage will disguise them while they carry out side missions to help her dismantle the Burg. They will still work officially for Lady Serafima, who definitely has her own ulterior motives, but they are to play nice for her. Wash asks if there are any other higher ups that they need to keep an eye out for. Fiara thinks for a moment and eventually mentions Baron Biceron, Bull of the Moira Parliament. She just tells the party to avoid him. Fiara looks at Cazamir and then to the group. She thinks they should celebrate their new alliance; Cazamir will take them to a nice dinner and ease any worries that they may have. With that, the Faded Fates are transported by Cazamir out of Fiara’s office and back into the streets of Precinct Three.