Tehr knew it, he could smell the stink of Johr ir'Dale all over this.  But now the game that they'd been playing, the dance of houses had taken a drastic and potentially lethal turn.  Tehr felt like the game between his small house and the juggernaut had entered a cataclysmic endgame.  This boy could literally be the lynchpin in bringing down the noble house Dale, and striking a solid blow against the growing power of the church.  Tehr shuddered to think of what might have happened if this boy had escaped.  Certainly there's no way house Dale would have let the child live.  A cut throat and their five hundred gold would have been stolen back and their tracks covered as the nation reeled from the shock of a queen being poisoned.  It was, he had to admit to himself, a good plan.  Were he not so verbose with his toast, even a few words shorter or spoken quicker and he and the queen would also have imbued the poisoned wine.<br/><br/>More so, the fact that the older of the two sommeliers had been approached about a week ago means that if the man had been corrupt, the poisoning would have taken place while he was away at Ravos house lands.  Tehr sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose and told the young boy, Dahn, not to move and that he would take care of the boy.  Then he waved over a guards woman,  "Fetch Lieutenant Whitestone, and speak to no one else while you are in the halls."<br/><br/>Tehr would keep everything calm while the guardswoman ran to the task and explain to the kitchen staff that they were going to have to spend a day or two in the palace, and then explained why.  "There was an attempt on the queen's life tonight.  She is fine but Guard Captain Lilian almost died.  Now this information is sure to get out eventually, but we must not let the people know right away.  The longer we can keep this a secret, the more time we have to protect the queen."  He motioned to Dahn, "If you overheard what was said, or you may have guessed, Dahn had a hand in this, but... BUT..."  He held up his hands as the others began grumbling, "I believe that he was duped or persuaded.  He's agreed to help us catch the criminal who is behind this."<br/><br/>He let it settle down for a moment and said, "I'm sure all of you know the rumors of who I am and what my status might be.  Understand that since there has been no formal declaration of my status, of course there is no need to follow my directions.  But if you understand my unofficial position, then you understand why I am giving these commands.  I only want what is best for the queen, and our Queensland of Britania as a whole.  So what I do now, I do to try to catch traitors to the crown."<br/><br/>He let that sit for a moment.  The standard punishment for treason was not carried out under the current queen as of yet.  But under her predecessor, her half sister Queen Mary or Bloody Mary, the punishment for high treason was hanged, drawn, and quartered.  The criminal found guilty would be hitched to a horse and drug from prison to a central square, usually naked so that the skin flayed from their body.  Then they would be hung until they were almost dead before being taken down.  Then publicly they would be emasculated, having their cock and balls cut off while they were still alive before they were disemboweled, opening their stomach and letting their guts spill out.  Then finally only then were they decapitated and quartered, having all of their limbs removed from their torso.  Only in that last stage would they find death, and there had been rumors that Queen Mary had criminals fed healing potions in between the processes so they would feel as much pain as possible until the beheading.  The remains were often hung from tower bridge as a warning against high treason.  Women often got off with lesser punishments, instead being burned alive till dead, but still quite publicly and very painfully and slowly.<br/><br/>Queen Eliziabeth had gone a long way to try to reform the violent nature of the previous punishment for crimes, but maybe that was why the noble houses were being so bold as to try to kill her.  Maybe a show of force was needed right now.  At the very least some sort of public trial where the kitchen staff could be publicly questioned about the involvement of house Dale would destroy their reputation.  It may not take down the entire house, but it would certainly take them out at the knees.  They'd become a toothless dog as no other house would ally with them, and only the lowest and most desperate would publicly associate with a house of traitors.   If they were wise with their money, they could weather the storm and maybe in a generation or two, begin to rebuild.  After all, people tended to have memories that lasted lifetimes, not for eternity.  But at the very best they'd find themselves in the state that house Wynt had been in a month ago.  Greatly diminished, and with resources that were weakened from time withdrawn from the world.  Tehr smiled as he thought about the serpent, Janne Faudin d'Dale, were her house shamed, she'd marry very poorly.  A noble house would likely be out of her reach and the best she could hope for would be a foreign merchant or nobility in another country.  Tehr wouldn't mind knowing that one was out of Britania.<br/><br/>But all of this hinged upon the next few days.  He broke his reverie, having given the people in front of him enough time to think.  "So, you will stay here at the palace when your shift is over, as guests of the crown.  If you already live in the servants quarters, you will be moved to new quarters.  We will ask you to share rooms, and it may be a little uncomfortable for you to be stuck with your fellows but it is for the greater good.  We can not have loose lips wagging after all.  So if you live outside of the palace and need a message sent to loved ones, please think about it and be ready to send it with a runner."  Of course Tehr would make sure that all the messages contained nothing of what had happened tonight so as not to tip their hand.  "I thank you all for your understanding."<br/><br/>Tehr waited till Lt. Whitestone arrived and informed her of his plan.  Requesting that she use only guards that she trusted for this task, they should keep all of the staff under watch from here out.  He knew she had limited guards, but the priority was of course protecting the queen, then behind that the boy Dahn, who must be kept separate and safe.  Finally he went to find the Queen and tell her his plan, the details for a trial with divine magic to ensure the truth, forming in his head as he went along.   If they moved quickly and surely, this could be a major blow to house Dale as well as taking away one of the greatest allies of the church.<br/><br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">crazy long ooc</div><div class="spoiler_body">Before we begin, and i think you'll agree with me after I write all of this... I think we need to change the name of the game from<em> [PF] Master Tehr and the Victorian Court (rhev &amp; Wintercat) </em>to <strong>Master Tehr and the Elizabethan Court (rhev &amp; Wintercat)</strong>.   I would also be perfectly ok with changing the name of the game to just <strong>Tehr and the Elizabethan Court (rhev &amp; Wintercat)</strong> which is a little shorter.  But read what I've written below and I think you'll agree.  If you don't, I'll be around tomorrow and we can talk about it more on IM if you want.  Ultimately though, you're the GM and it's your call.<br/><br/>OK, so we've kind of danced around what year this was in relation to real world England.  I know the title is the 'Victorian court' and in some ways the game has seemed much more modern than even Victorian times.  But also it's seemed much more archaic.  So in the interests of nailing down an actual time frame, and the fact that we named the queen 'Elizabeth, I figure that the roughly analogous year for the game is equivalent to some time around 1600.  Now I know this is 200-225 years before 'Victorian era' but I think because of the way we've been playing it so far, it makes a lot more sense.  There's never been any mention of house of parliament or any other rule other than the queen.  The style of the game is much more reminiscent of the games of the nobility during the Tudor era (pre Elizabethan) so having Elizabeth be the queen, and having these sort of world changing effects in play makes a lot more sense.<br/><br/>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_I_of_England<br/><br/>Now when Queen Elizabeth took over from Queen Mary, she was in her mid 20s.  We haven't locked down the queen's age, but she seems 'youngish' so that would make sense.  But here's the REAL kicker... prepare yourself.  The previous eras of kings and queens had fought against the protestant religion, in fact that's how the previous queen, Elizabeth's half sister had earned the nickname "bloody mary" because she used to behead or torture to death protestants.  Mary was a devout catholic <em> (which is what we've been basing our 'church of the one god' on)</em> and the Tudor dynasty was why the catholic church had risen to such power in Britain and England as a whole.  But Queen Elizabeth had gone and pardoned the protestants and actually was the reason that the protestant church of England was founded.  One of her first moves as the queen upon her coronation was the establishment of an official English Protestant church, which she became the supreme governor of.  This church later evolved into what is now known as the Church of England.  While the Church of England is the official church of all Anglicans worldwide and is a christian church, and is in many ways catholic in nature, it doesn't have direct line of order to the Pope of the catholic church.<br/><br/>The reason I bring all of this up is quite simple.  Instead of trying to reform the protestants, why wouldn't fantasy queen elizabeth maybe be working to bring about the old god worship?  Be they classic D&amp;D gods like Pelor and company, or just general 'old ways' like saying druidic nature worship is up to you.  But there's no reason why this couldn't be a mirror to the way things happened in real life.  Especially if you go with the classic D&amp;D worlds, any future game would make sense to have the D&amp;D gods as the pantheon, because they would be the 'church of england' as opposed to the anglican church that happened in real life.  Right?<br/><br/>Anyways, for those reasons, I think it makes a LOT of sense to set the game in or around 1600, or the Elizabethan era.  Hence why I think it would make sense to change the name of the game.  If you agree, you can edit the title of the very first post on this game to say 'Elizabethan' instead of victorian.<br/><br/><br/>Now onto the torture / punishment thing...<br/><br/>Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanged,_drawn_and_quartered<br/><br/>That's where I got my source.</div></div>