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vanity-delve/core/content/palace.json
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slaguru666andClaude Opus 5 b4990533a8 feat: interior family complete — church, temple, palace theme packs
Three interior-kernel themes on barrow geometry, each 4 motifs:
  church   faith · congregation · offering · sanctity
  temple   exactness · sacrifice · silence · exclusion
  palace   service · delight · splendour · audience

All validate. 7 themes total; index.json rebuilt. Module → 0.4.0.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-05 17:48:28 +01:00

1174 lines
42 KiB
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{
"id": "palace",
"label": "Palace",
"forgeStageType": "barrow",
"schema": 1,
"placeNameStyle": "claimant",
"_model": "Interior kernel at its most VANITY-shaped. A palace wants to be attended, delighted, admired or centred on, and its accommodations are what a court does to people who are useful to that.",
"facetProgression": {
"approach": "institution",
"complication": "ritual",
"turn": "demand",
"descent": "wound",
"threshold": "anchor",
"ending": "demand"
},
"claimants": [
"Sun-Queen",
"Pleasure-Prince",
"Regent-in-Perpetuity",
"Favourite",
"Doge",
"Empress of One Room",
"Master of Revels"
],
"appetites": [
{
"id": "attended",
"want": "never to do anything unattended",
"lack": "unattended",
"purpose": "nothing would ever have to be done alone",
"motif": "service",
"prize": "bell",
"conscript": "the servants",
"asks": "\"Where is everybody?\"",
"appeasement": {
"move": "do one small service without being asked, and well",
"attribute": "Poise",
"successes": 2,
"why": "it was attended to",
"gain": {
"vanity": 1
},
"cost": {
"bane": 1
},
"repeatable": true
}
},
{
"id": "delighted",
"want": "never to be bored for an instant",
"lack": "bored",
"purpose": "the entertainment would never stop",
"motif": "delight",
"prize": "mask",
"conscript": "the entertainers",
"asks": "\"Well, amuse me.\"",
"appeasement": {
"move": "amuse it — a story, a trick, a scandal, anything new",
"attribute": "Flair",
"successes": 2,
"why": "it is diverted again",
"gain": {
"vanity": 1
},
"cost": {
"bane": 1
},
"repeatable": true
}
},
{
"id": "admired",
"want": "to be surrounded by the finest of everything",
"lack": "surrounded by the ordinary",
"purpose": "nothing plain would ever be in the room",
"motif": "splendour",
"prize": "jewel",
"conscript": "the makers",
"asks": "\"Do you like it?\"",
"appeasement": {
"move": "admire something of its aloud and in detail",
"attribute": "Flair",
"successes": 2,
"why": "it has been admired properly",
"gain": {
"vanity": 1
},
"cost": {
"bane": 1
},
"repeatable": true
}
},
{
"id": "centred",
"want": "to be the reason everyone is in the room",
"lack": "ignored",
"purpose": "every eye would always be on it",
"motif": "audience",
"prize": "seal",
"conscript": "the courtiers",
"asks": "\"Am I boring you?\"",
"appeasement": {
"move": "give it your whole attention, and do not look away",
"attribute": "Poise",
"successes": 2,
"why": "it is the centre of the room again",
"gain": {
"vanity": 1
},
"cost": {
"bane": 1
},
"repeatable": true
}
}
],
"accommodations": [
{
"id": "retained",
"text": "retained {conscript} at court and would not sign their leave",
"cruelty": 2,
"fits": [
"attended",
"delighted",
"centred"
]
},
{
"id": "ruined",
"text": "ruined {conscript} so they could not afford to leave",
"cruelty": 3,
"fits": [
"attended",
"centred",
"admired"
]
},
{
"id": "commissioned",
"text": "commissioned {conscript} to work until the work killed them",
"cruelty": 3,
"fits": [
"admired",
"delighted"
]
},
{
"id": "favoured",
"text": "favoured {conscript} so publicly that they could go nowhere else",
"cruelty": 2,
"fits": [
"centred",
"delighted",
"attended"
]
},
{
"id": "displayed",
"text": "had {conscript} dressed and posed about the rooms as furnishing",
"cruelty": 3,
"fits": [
"admired",
"centred"
]
},
{
"id": "kept",
"text": "would not let {conscript} retire, and then could not",
"cruelty": 1,
"fits": [
"attended",
"delighted",
"admired"
]
}
],
"prizes": {
"bell": {
"label": "the bell that was always answered",
"function": "the only thing the household ever obeyed instantly"
},
"mask": {
"label": "the mask from the last good revel",
"function": "the only night anybody remembers enjoying"
},
"jewel": {
"label": "the one perfect thing in a palace of fine things",
"function": "the only object here that was never improved on"
},
"seal": {
"label": "the privy seal, still warm",
"function": "the only thing that ever ended a conversation"
}
},
"placeNames": {
"first": [
"The Palace of the",
"The Winter House of the",
"The Pavilions of the",
"The Court of the",
"The Summer Rooms of the"
]
},
"areaNames": {
"approach": [
"The Court of Honour",
"The Grand Stair",
"The Colonnade",
"The Water Garden",
"The Carriage Sweep"
],
"complication": [
"The Antechamber",
"The Mirror Gallery",
"The Music Room",
"The Orangery",
"The Card Room"
],
"turn": [
"The Throne Room",
"The Long Gallery",
"The Presence Chamber",
"The Painted Hall",
"The Salon"
],
"descent": [
"The Servants' Passages",
"The Kitchens",
"The Ice House",
"The Under-Stair",
"The Laundry Court"
],
"threshold": [
"The Privy Chamber",
"The Closet",
"The Robing Room",
"The Cabinet",
"The Bedchamber Antechamber"
],
"ending": [
"The Bedchamber",
"The Little Room",
"Where the Favourite Waits",
"The Last Salon"
]
},
"factions": [
{
"id": "household",
"name": "the Household",
"kind": "undead",
"essence": "still in service, still waiting to be rung for",
"handledBy": "courtesy"
},
{
"id": "creditors",
"name": "creditors",
"kind": "living",
"essence": "here for what the court still owes them",
"handledBy": "trade"
},
{
"id": "court",
"name": "the Court",
"kind": "undead",
"essence": "still attending, still competing to be noticed",
"handledBy": "flattery"
},
{
"id": "vermin",
"name": "what moved into the empty rooms",
"kind": "beast",
"essence": "never had an invitation",
"handledBy": "force"
}
],
"triggerGlossary": {
"announced": "came up the grand stair and were announced, as guests are",
"seenTwice": "caught in two mirrors of the gallery at once",
"loud": "a raised voice in a room built for conversation",
"lingering": "stayed in one room long enough to be spoken about",
"disturbed": "moved, sat on, or used something the household maintains"
},
"rosters": {
"skirmish": {
"line": "3 Skeletons in livery",
"foes": [
{
"n": 3,
"name": "Skeleton",
"atk": 3,
"def": 2,
"grit": 1,
"nerve": 5,
"note": "fearless; bows before it strikes"
}
],
"harmedBy": "anything",
"avoid": "they will not strike a guest who has been announced"
},
"fight": {
"line": "1 Ghoul in the kitchens and 2 Skeletons",
"foes": [
{
"n": 1,
"name": "Ghoul",
"atk": 4,
"def": 3,
"grit": 4,
"nerve": 5,
"note": "free Called Shot to freeze on a hit"
},
{
"n": 2,
"name": "Skeleton",
"atk": 3,
"def": 2,
"grit": 1,
"nerve": 5,
"note": "fearless"
}
],
"harmedBy": "anything",
"avoid": "it stays below stairs; the state rooms are safe from it"
},
"battle": {
"line": "1 Wraith of the Favourite and 3 Skeletons",
"foes": [
{
"n": 1,
"name": "Wraith",
"atk": 5,
"def": 3,
"grit": 10,
"nerve": 5,
"note": "INCORPOREAL — chill touch ignores armour, drains 1 max Grit"
},
{
"n": 3,
"name": "Skeleton",
"atk": 3,
"def": 2,
"grit": 1,
"nerve": 5,
"note": "fearless"
}
],
"harmedBy": "blessed, silvered or magical weapons for the Wraith ONLY; anything for the Skeletons — say so before initiative",
"avoid": "it would far rather be flattered than fight, and will pause to be"
},
"nightmare": {
"line": "1 Wraith, 1 Ogre in the under-stair and 4 Skeletons",
"foes": [
{
"n": 1,
"name": "Wraith",
"atk": 5,
"def": 3,
"grit": 10,
"nerve": 5,
"note": "INCORPOREAL"
},
{
"n": 1,
"name": "Ogre",
"atk": 5,
"def": 3,
"grit": 12,
"nerve": 3,
"note": "was the doorkeeper and still is"
},
{
"n": 4,
"name": "Skeleton",
"atk": 3,
"def": 2,
"grit": 1,
"nerve": 5,
"note": "fearless"
}
],
"harmedBy": "blessed, silvered or magical weapons for the Wraith ONLY; anything for the rest",
"avoid": "do not run this without an appeasement route open"
}
},
"motifs": {
"service": {
"danger": "attendance",
"dangerLine": "the household is still in service, and it is waiting to be rung for",
"trigger": "loud",
"facets": {
"institution": [
"a bell-board with every room labelled and every wire taut",
"back-stairs running behind every wall so nobody is seen working",
"a servants' hall laid for forty"
],
"ritual": [
"a tray carried up at the same hour to a room nobody is in",
"boots cleaned nightly and set outside doors",
"a bed turned down every evening"
],
"demand": [
"a room where something is always just about to be handed to you",
"a chair drawn out before you reach it",
"a door that opens before you touch it"
],
"wound": [
"a bell-wire pulled so hard it came out of the wall",
"a servants' hall with the table cleared in a hurry",
"livery folded and stacked by people who were leaving"
],
"anchor": [
"a bell that was always answered, on its own hook",
"a book of household orders, current",
"a set of keys to every room, complete"
]
},
"features": [
"a tray set down and not collected",
"boots cleaned and left outside a door",
"a bed turned down this evening",
"a bell still swinging on the board",
"livery laid out for tomorrow",
"a fire laid but not lit"
],
"decisions": [
{
"cue": "a bell-board with every wire taut and one still swinging",
"cost": "answering it puts you in service; ringing it summons",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Poise 2",
"success": "you answer the bell and the Household takes you for staff — doors stop being locked",
"failure": "you ring instead and something arrives expecting to be commanded",
"orElse": "leave the board; the bell goes on swinging"
}
},
{
"cue": "a tray carried up at the same hour to an empty room",
"cost": "taking it up is service; eating it is presumption",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Poise 2",
"success": "you deliver it correctly and the Household will fetch and carry for you",
"failure": "you eat from it and the court hears you were in the kitchens: +1 Bane",
"orElse": "let it go up as it always does; nothing changes"
}
},
{
"cue": "back-stairs running behind the wall, unlit",
"cost": "servants' passages go everywhere and nobody watches them",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Wits 2",
"success": "you navigate them and reach anywhere in the palace unseen",
"failure": "you come out in the wrong room in front of the wrong thing",
"orElse": "take the state rooms: seen, announced, one Turn"
}
},
{
"cue": "a set of keys hanging where the housekeeper left them",
"cost": "taking them is theft below stairs and authority above",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Flair 2",
"success": "you take them as though entitled and the Household hands you the rest",
"failure": "you are caught taking them and are staff, not guests, from here",
"orElse": "leave them; every locked door stays locked"
}
},
{
"cue": "a fire laid but not lit in a room that is very cold",
"cost": "lighting it announces occupancy",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Brawn 2",
"success": "you light it and the room becomes yours — the Household attends you here",
"failure": "the smoke draws something down the chimney: roll the clock",
"orElse": "leave it cold; you are not staying"
}
},
{
"cue": "a book of household orders, current, in a fresh hand",
"cost": "somebody is still writing the orders",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Wits 2",
"success": "you read who is issuing them and can countermand one",
"failure": "you add an order and the Household carries it out too literally: +1 Bane",
"orElse": "leave it; the orders continue"
}
}
],
"situations": [
{
"occupant": "two of the Household",
"doing": "carrying a tray up a stair to a room with nobody in it",
"onArrival": "they stand aside for you and wait",
"because": "the tray goes up at this hour and always has",
"offer": "take the tray up yourself and they will open anything you ask"
},
{
"occupant": "the Housekeeper",
"doing": "counting linen that is already counted",
"onArrival": "it asks you, without looking, how many are staying",
"because": "the rooms must be made up for guests who never came",
"offer": "give it a number and rooms are made ready — and you are expected in them"
},
{
"occupant": "a bell",
"doing": "swinging on the board with no hand on the wire",
"onArrival": "the label beneath it names a room above you",
"because": "somebody rang and nobody went",
"offer": "answer it and whatever is up there treats you as its own servant"
},
{
"occupant": "a living creditor",
"doing": "going through a bureau, quietly, with a list",
"onArrival": "they look up and show you the list rather than hide it",
"because": "the court owes them and will not pay",
"offer": "help them find it and they will tell you which rooms are worth entering"
},
{
"occupant": "one of the Household",
"doing": "holding a door open for somebody who is not coming",
"onArrival": "its arm does not lower",
"because": "it was told to hold the door",
"offer": "walk through and thank it, and it follows you and opens every other door"
},
{
"occupant": "the servants' hall",
"doing": "standing laid for forty with the food still warm",
"onArrival": "chairs scrape back very slightly",
"because": "the hall is laid at this hour and always has been",
"offer": "sit and eat and the whole Household counts you one of them"
}
],
"temptations": [
{
"id": "bell",
"cue": "a small bell from the board",
"benefit": "ring it and one of the Household comes and does one thing",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "the Household begins to expect instructions from you"
},
{
"id": "keys",
"cue": "the housekeeper's keys, complete",
"benefit": "one locked door per scene opens",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "you are held responsible for what is behind them"
},
{
"id": "livery",
"cue": "a suit of livery, pressed",
"benefit": "the Household and the Court both ignore you",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "you are given work, and it is noticed if undone"
},
{
"id": "orderbook",
"cue": "the book of household orders",
"benefit": "write an order and the Household obeys it exactly",
"useCost": {
"bane": 2
},
"standingDrawback": "it obeys the letter of it, not what you meant",
"acceptanceCost": {
"vice": "Pride"
}
},
{
"id": "backstairkey",
"cue": "a key to the servants' passages",
"benefit": "move unseen between any two rooms, once",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "something else uses the passages too, and now knows you do"
}
]
},
"delight": {
"danger": "boredom",
"dangerLine": "the court is bored, and boredom here has always been dangerous",
"trigger": "lingering",
"facets": {
"institution": [
"a card room with the tables still set mid-hand",
"a theatre built into a drawing room",
"swings hung from a painted ceiling"
],
"ritual": [
"a revel begun and never formally ended",
"musicians' parts left open on stands, at the same bar",
"a wager entered in a book every evening"
],
"demand": [
"a room that goes quiet when you enter, expectantly",
"a stage at one end of a salon, lit",
"a circle of chairs turned inward with one gap"
],
"wound": [
"a masque costume torn off and left",
"a wager book with the last entries in a desperate hand",
"a theatre with the seats broken from inside"
],
"anchor": [
"a mask from the last good revel",
"a wager book, complete",
"an instrument still in tune"
]
},
"features": [
"cards dealt for a hand nobody played",
"a mask dropped on a stair",
"a swing still moving",
"a wager written up this week",
"a musician's part turned to a new page",
"a costume laid out for somebody"
],
"decisions": [
{
"cue": "a room that goes quiet when you enter, waiting to be amused",
"cost": "you are expected to be interesting",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Flair 2",
"success": "you amuse them and the Court adopts you — nothing here troubles a favourite",
"failure": "you bore them and are dismissed: +1 Bane and the Court cuts you thereafter",
"orElse": "leave quickly; you are talked about, and not well"
}
},
{
"cue": "a hand of cards dealt and abandoned mid-play",
"cost": "finishing the hand finishes something else",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Wits 2",
"success": "you play it out correctly and the Court is delighted — a door opens for the winner",
"failure": "you play badly and owe the table: +1 Bane",
"orElse": "leave the hand; it stays unfinished, which is worse for them than you"
}
},
{
"cue": "a wager book with a space for a new entry",
"cost": "the court will hold you to anything written",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Flair 2",
"success": "you enter a wager you can win and collect on it",
"failure": "you enter one you cannot and are owed against for the rest of the delve",
"orElse": "leave it; you are considered dull"
}
},
{
"cue": "a stage at one end of a salon, lit, with nobody on it",
"cost": "going up is an offer; walking past is a refusal",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Poise 2",
"success": "you perform something and the Court is yours for the delve",
"failure": "you dry, publicly, and everything here saw it: +1 Bane",
"orElse": "walk past the stage; the lights follow you anyway"
}
},
{
"cue": "a masque costume laid out in your size",
"cost": "wearing it makes you part of the entertainment",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Flair 2",
"success": "you wear it and move through the palace as an expected part of the night",
"failure": "you wear it and cannot take it off until the revel ends",
"orElse": "leave it; you are conspicuous as yourselves"
}
},
{
"cue": "an instrument still in tune in a room with no musician",
"cost": "playing it restarts something",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Flair 1",
"success": "you play and the Court gathers, delighted, and will answer questions",
"failure": "you play badly and something stops the music: roll the clock",
"orElse": "leave it; the silence continues"
}
}
],
"situations": [
{
"occupant": "four of the Court",
"doing": "holding a hand of cards that has not been played for centuries",
"onArrival": "one lays a card and looks up at you to follow",
"because": "the hand must be finished",
"offer": "play a card and they will pay you what the pot is worth"
},
{
"occupant": "a swing",
"doing": "moving gently in a painted room with the windows shut",
"onArrival": "it slows as you come in",
"because": "the revel has not been ended",
"offer": "set it swinging again and the palace warms toward you"
},
{
"occupant": "the Master of Revels",
"doing": "rehearsing an introduction for a guest who never arrived",
"onArrival": "it turns and begins introducing you instead",
"because": "the entertainment cannot begin without a guest of honour",
"offer": "let it finish and you are the guest of honour, with all that follows"
},
{
"occupant": "two living thieves",
"doing": "stripping gilt off a theatre box, unhurriedly",
"onArrival": "they wave you in as though you were expected",
"because": "nobody has stopped them yet",
"offer": "join them and they will show you the room they have not dared enter"
},
{
"occupant": "one of the Court",
"doing": "telling a story to a chair",
"onArrival": "it stops and asks whether you have heard this one",
"because": "the story has no ending and it cannot stop",
"offer": "supply an ending and it will tell you something true instead"
},
{
"occupant": "the musicians",
"doing": "sitting with their parts open at the same bar",
"onArrival": "the bar is played, once, badly",
"because": "the piece was never finished",
"offer": "finish the phrase and every door on the floor opens"
}
],
"temptations": [
{
"id": "mask",
"cue": "a mask from the last good revel",
"benefit": "wear it and the Court takes you for one of its own",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "you cannot be recognised by your own party while worn"
},
{
"id": "wagerbook",
"cue": "the wager book",
"benefit": "once, make something happen by betting on it",
"useCost": {
"bane": 2
},
"standingDrawback": "the book records what you owe if it does not",
"acceptanceCost": {
"vice": "Greed"
}
},
{
"id": "instrument",
"cue": "a small instrument, in tune",
"benefit": "once, gather everything nearby to listen",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "they expect a second piece, and are critical"
},
{
"id": "costume",
"cue": "a masque costume in your size",
"benefit": "once, be whoever the costume is",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "the Court holds you to that character"
},
{
"id": "cards",
"cue": "a deck missing one card",
"benefit": "once, know what somebody is about to do",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "the missing card is somewhere, and matters"
}
]
},
"splendour": {
"danger": "comparison",
"dangerLine": "everything here was made to outshine something, and it is still competing",
"trigger": "disturbed",
"facets": {
"institution": [
"workshops built into the palace so the makers never left",
"a gallery hung to a plan, each piece answering the last",
"an inventory listing every object and what it cost"
],
"ritual": [
"a room redecorated each season, over the last one",
"gilding laid on gilding until the moulding is shapeless",
"a portrait repainted whenever the face displeased"
],
"demand": [
"a plinth, empty, with a card still on it",
"an alcove cut for something that is not there",
"a frame hung with nothing in it, dusted"
],
"wound": [
"a workshop with the tools laid down mid-cut",
"a ceiling half-painted and abandoned on the scaffold",
"a gallery where the finest piece has been taken and the gap not filled"
],
"anchor": [
"one perfect thing in a palace of fine things",
"the inventory, complete and in one hand",
"a maker's mark on the underside of everything good"
]
},
"features": [
"an empty plinth with the card still on it",
"gilding laid over older gilding",
"a portrait with the face repainted",
"an alcove cut for something absent",
"tools laid down mid-cut",
"a frame hung with nothing in it"
],
"decisions": [
{
"cue": "an empty plinth with the card still on it naming what stood here",
"cost": "filling it means giving something of yours up",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Wits 2",
"success": "you set something of yours on it and the palace accepts the substitution — a door opens",
"failure": "you set something worthless there and the palace notices: +1 Bane",
"orElse": "leave the plinth bare; the gap keeps drawing things toward it"
}
},
{
"cue": "an inventory listing every object here and what it cost",
"cost": "reading it takes time; taking it takes more",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Wits 2",
"success": "you find which object is listed as beyond price and where it is kept",
"failure": "you are still reading when something comes to check the count",
"orElse": "leave it; you will not know what is worth taking"
}
},
{
"cue": "a portrait whose face has been repainted more than once",
"cost": "under the last face is the first one",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Flair 2",
"success": "you scrape it back to the true face and learn who this place belonged to",
"failure": "you damage it and the Court will not receive you afterwards: +1 Bane",
"orElse": "leave the portrait; the face stays whatever it was last made"
}
},
{
"cue": "a ceiling half-painted, scaffold still standing",
"cost": "the scaffold reaches a floor no stair does",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Brawn 2",
"success": "you climb it and reach the upper rooms without passing the state floor",
"failure": "the scaffold gives and something below hears it: roll the clock",
"orElse": "take the stairs; you pass through where you can be seen"
}
},
{
"cue": "a gallery hung so each piece answers the last, with one gap",
"cost": "the gap can be filled or admired",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Flair 2",
"success": "you admire the arrangement aloud, accurately, and the Court opens the next room to you",
"failure": "you praise the wrong piece and are marked as no judge of anything",
"orElse": "say nothing; you are handled as a tradesman thereafter"
}
},
{
"cue": "a maker's mark on the underside of the best thing in the room",
"cost": "the makers are still here somewhere",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Wits 2",
"success": "you match the mark to the workshop and can find the maker, who will help you",
"failure": "you take the piece instead and the workshop knows immediately",
"orElse": "leave it unread; the makers stay out of it"
}
}
],
"situations": [
{
"occupant": "a maker",
"doing": "polishing a surface that is already finished",
"onArrival": "it moves aside and shows you the work rather than speaking",
"because": "the piece was never signed off",
"offer": "praise one specific thing about it and it will make you what you ask for"
},
{
"occupant": "an empty plinth",
"doing": "standing lit in a room where nothing else is",
"onArrival": "the light on it does not move when you do",
"because": "what stood here was taken and nothing replaced it",
"offer": "put something of value on it and the palace treats you as a benefactor"
},
{
"occupant": "two of the Court",
"doing": "arguing silently over which of two vases is finer",
"onArrival": "they turn to you for a judgement",
"because": "the argument has run for centuries with no arbiter",
"offer": "choose one, confidently, and the loser's owner tells you what you want to know"
},
{
"occupant": "a living valuer",
"doing": "measuring a frame with a length of string",
"onArrival": "they ask, without preamble, what you would pay",
"because": "the estate is being assessed and nobody has stopped them",
"offer": "name a price and they will tell you which room the good things are in"
},
{
"occupant": "the Master of Works",
"doing": "standing on a scaffold with a brush that has dried",
"onArrival": "it looks down and asks whether the light is right yet",
"because": "the ceiling was never finished and cannot be",
"offer": "tell it the light is right and it will come down and open the upper floor"
},
{
"occupant": "a mirror",
"doing": "hanging opposite another mirror in a narrow room",
"onArrival": "your reflection arrives a moment after you do",
"because": "the room was built to double everything in it",
"offer": "stand between them and be admired, and something in the depth of it answers a question"
}
],
"temptations": [
{
"id": "jewel",
"cue": "one perfect thing, small enough to pocket",
"benefit": "once, buy your way past anything that can be bought",
"useCost": {
"bane": 2
},
"standingDrawback": "everything here recognises it as taken",
"acceptanceCost": {
"vice": "Greed"
}
},
{
"id": "inventory",
"cue": "the inventory, complete",
"benefit": "know the value and location of anything in the palace",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "you know what you have not got"
},
{
"id": "mark",
"cue": "a maker's punch",
"benefit": "once, make a thing appear to be the finest of its kind",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "the maker knows their mark has been used"
},
{
"id": "mirror",
"cue": "a hand-mirror in a heavy frame",
"benefit": "once, see a room before you enter it",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "what is in the room is also looking"
},
{
"id": "gilding",
"cue": "a leaf of gold from the workshop",
"benefit": "once, make yourself look like somebody who belongs here",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "it wears off at the worst moment"
}
]
},
"audience": {
"danger": "the eye of the room",
"dangerLine": "the Court is still assembled, and it notices exactly who is being attended to",
"trigger": "announced",
"facets": {
"institution": [
"a throne set so every sightline in the room ends on it",
"an order of precedence painted on the floor",
"a presence chamber with one door for entering and none for leaving"
],
"ritual": [
"names read aloud at a door to nobody",
"a levée held each morning around an empty bed",
"backing out of a room that has nothing in it"
],
"demand": [
"a chair at the centre and all the others turned toward it",
"a space kept clear that nobody will walk into",
"a silence that opens when you enter, waiting"
],
"wound": [
"a throne room where the chairs have been turned outward",
"precedence scratched off the floor by somebody's heel",
"a door forced from the inside"
],
"anchor": [
"the privy seal, still warm",
"a book of precedence, current",
"a chair that nobody has ever been allowed to sit in"
]
},
"features": [
"chairs turned to face one empty seat",
"precedence painted on the floor",
"a name read at a door",
"a space kept clear on the boards",
"a chair nobody sits in",
"a door held open from inside"
],
"decisions": [
{
"cue": "a throne set so every sightline in the room ends on it",
"cost": "sitting is a claim; kneeling is a submission",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Poise 2",
"success": "you kneel correctly and the Court receives you — safe passage through the state rooms",
"failure": "you sit, and every eye in the palace is on you from here on: +1 Bane",
"orElse": "stay standing; you are neither received nor refused, and doors stay shut"
}
},
{
"cue": "an order of precedence painted on the floor with a gap at your rank",
"cost": "standing in the gap accepts the rank",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Wits 2",
"success": "you take the correct place and the ceremony proceeds around you and past the guard",
"failure": "you take too high a place and are challenged by something that outranks you",
"orElse": "step off the pattern; you are escorted, not admitted"
}
},
{
"cue": "a levée being held around a bed with nobody in it",
"cost": "attending is required; leaving early is noticed",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Poise 2",
"success": "you attend it out and are afterwards owed a favour by everything present",
"failure": "you leave in the middle and the Court cuts you: +1 Bane",
"orElse": "do not go in; the door is shut behind you for good"
}
},
{
"cue": "names being read at a door to nobody, and a pause",
"cost": "giving a name gets you announced under it",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Flair 2",
"success": "you give a name grand enough to be believed and are announced and admitted",
"failure": "the name is checked against the book and found absent",
"orElse": "go in unannounced, and the Household treats you as staff"
}
},
{
"cue": "a door that opens inward only, held by something on the other side",
"cost": "it will open for the right form of words",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Poise 2",
"success": "you ask leave properly and it opens and stays open behind you",
"failure": "you push, and it holds, and something takes note: roll the clock",
"orElse": "find another way round, costing a Turn"
}
},
{
"cue": "a chair at the centre with all the others turned toward it",
"cost": "the room needs somebody in it",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Flair 2",
"success": "you put one of your own in it and the Court attends them — and ignores the rest of you",
"failure": "the chair is taken by something else while you argue about it",
"orElse": "leave it empty; the room stays restless and nothing here will settle"
}
}
],
"situations": [
{
"occupant": "the Court",
"doing": "standing assembled and facing an empty chair",
"onArrival": "every head turns to the door as you come in",
"because": "the audience cannot begin and cannot be dismissed",
"offer": "take the chair, or seat one of your own in it, and be answered"
},
{
"occupant": "the Usher",
"doing": "reading names at a door to an empty corridor",
"onArrival": "it pauses, pen ready, and waits for yours",
"because": "the list must be got through",
"offer": "give a name and be announced, and be admitted wherever that name can go"
},
{
"occupant": "a living envoy",
"doing": "waiting on a bench with a sealed letter and no patience",
"onArrival": "they ask how much longer, as though you would know",
"because": "they were told to wait and nobody came back",
"offer": "take the letter in for them and they will tell you the way out"
},
{
"occupant": "the Regent",
"doing": "sitting with its back to the room, quite still",
"onArrival": "the whole Court watches to see whether you approach",
"because": "nobody has been granted an audience in a very long time",
"offer": "approach properly and it will grant one thing, once"
},
{
"occupant": "one of the Court",
"doing": "standing exactly on the line of its precedence",
"onArrival": "it will not move until somebody of higher rank passes",
"because": "the order must hold",
"offer": "outrank it, convincingly, and the corridor beyond opens"
},
{
"occupant": "a chair",
"doing": "standing alone in the middle of a cleared floor",
"onArrival": "the boards around it are worn in a ring",
"because": "nobody has been allowed to sit in it and everybody has walked around it",
"offer": "sit, and everything in the palace comes to see who you are"
}
],
"temptations": [
{
"id": "seal",
"cue": "the privy seal, still warm",
"benefit": "once, end any conversation on your terms",
"useCost": {
"bane": 2
},
"standingDrawback": "what you sealed is now yours to answer for",
"acceptanceCost": {
"vice": "Pride"
}
},
{
"id": "precedence",
"cue": "the book of precedence, current",
"benefit": "know what outranks what, everywhere here",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "you also know where you stand, and it is low"
},
{
"id": "name",
"cue": "a name from the usher's list",
"benefit": "once, be announced as somebody with the run of the place",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "somebody else answers to it and will find you"
},
{
"id": "ring",
"cue": "a signet worn thin at the edge",
"benefit": "once, be obeyed by anything still in service",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "the Household reports to you, including things you would rather not hear"
},
{
"id": "chair",
"cue": "a folding chair of state, light enough to carry",
"benefit": "once, hold an audience anywhere",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "whatever attends it is not always what you invited"
}
]
}
}
}