Interrogation of Mnemon Marbado

Abstract: Having captured the leader of the opposition alive, the circle will likely interrogate him.

Dramatic Purpose: Moral issues for the circle, plot-exposition.

Metagaming Purpose: Foreshadowing of Imperial issues

Setting: Somewhere in the Glass City

Order: After Streets of Glass

Principals: Mnemon Marbado.

Specifics: Marbado still has spells running, giving him a metal body and making him hard to look at. Jorias might dispel his sorcery, but will mostly be on guard for new spells. Jorias might also need to heal him to get him conscious. He might, instead, remind Gutts of his armor's capabilities. If Gutts activates the armor, the spell affecting the circle's minds (giving them -4 successes to hit Marbado) gets canceled, but the metal body spell does not. The effect will shatter any spell that targets the circle, but won't stop others (like Flight of Separation, for example).

Regret will most likely use Excellent Inquisitor Attitude, backed by Unsurpassed Interrogation Method. This will cause Marbado lost of pain any time he lies or remains silent.

Marbado will mock and taunt the circle at first, willing to take the pain until he passes out. When (or if) it is pretty clear that the circle will keep re-healing him, he will get more talkative as his will wears down.

What he reveals will depend a lot on what he is asked. Here is what he knows:

• He is working directly for Mnemon. He is her grandson.
• He was sent to the glass city in a big hurry, as terrestrial exalted all felt its pull on the first day.
• Mnemon assigned him a talon of soldiers and some of her sorcery apprentices. They summoned some demons and the big worm. Marbado took an almost mundane airship (a blimp basically), then used sorcery to summon an azure chariot to pull it there quickly.
• Mnemon quickly realized that the beam appeared at roughly the last known location of the Eye of Autochthon. She tasked Marbado with investigating, and bringing back the Eye if he found it.
• Mnemon was the one who sent Marbado to Chiaroscuro, in order to find the Broken-Winged Crane.
• He succeeded getting the book, by trading for with Grandmother Bright.
• Grandmother Bright exchanged the book after Marbado arranged to have a different Immaculate monk spend the night in utter servitude to her for twenty-five nights in a row. The monks had to be 13 women and 12 men, with exactly five of each aspect. Marbado has no idea what she did with them, but they seemed fine afterward.
• Why Mnemon wants the book is "a long story":
  • About 100 years ago, Mnemon's son, Marbado's father, Mnemon Torbun had a theory that the Empress had been exposed to the Broken-Winged Crane.
  • He became completely obsessed with the idea, getting more paranoid.
  • One night, he claimed to have concrete proof, and took it to Mnemon.
  • Mnemon was different after that, especially a week later, when Torbun was found ripped to pieces.
  • Mnemon called Marbado in to investigate.
  • Over the next few weeks, over sixty people vanished from the Imperial Palace, including the Empress' own consort.
  • Rumor was that his place in the Empress bed had been taken by a high-ranking bureaucrat named Oliran Drell.
  • Marbado didn't have much to go on, but found that Drell's name kept popping up when following the stories of Torbun and others who vanished, but it was all pretty thin.
  • They watched Drell for decades. Something was always a little off about him. Once the Empress booted him out of her bed, he became less of an issue, but they still kept an eye on him.
  • Through all this time Mnemon would secretly track down rumors of the Broken-Winged Crane, but never managed to find a copy. Got close a few times, but had to keep a low profile, as knowledge the Mnemon was looking for the book could be politically bad for her.
  • Then the Empress disappeared. A lot happened then, but one thing was that Oliran Drell started doing some extremely suspicious things, even more so than usual.
  • With the Empress gone, Mnemon decided it would be worth eliminating Drell, and sent Marbado and four others to do the job.
  • Even with the element of surprise, only Marbado survived. 'He had magic I'd never seen before, with these weird sickly green glows in his eyes, and martial arts moves that defied description.'
  • In searching his quarters, Marbado found a mostly destroyed copy of the Broken-Winged Crane.
  • It was clear that Drell had read it a long time ago, and that it warped and corrupted him in some way.
  • After that Mnemon went all out trying to find a copy of the book.

About 50 years ago, a consort of the Empress disappeared. When such things happen, no one asks questions unless the Empress says so. She didn't, but Mnemon wanted to know about it anyway, and sent Marbado to investigate. He didn't turn up much, but had a strong suspicion that a particular one of her advisors was involved. (Maybe a memory crystal drives someone insane? The adviser goes wiggy when the Empress vanishes? Maybe he was "dealt with" and found to me more than he appeared? Describes a sidereal, but really an akuma.)

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