Intrigue of the Quintino Visconti Era, 143-144 Cordor

Written by Garrett Kelson

Part 1: Quintino Visconti's goals.

After the political turmoil that followed the Golden Crusade in Cordor during 141 and 142, the political party passed hands to a man named Quintino Visconti, who ran for chancellor and won. Visconti largely kept to himself, a lot of his activities were only revealed after his term.

Visconti was a worshipper of the Lady of Loss, to the extent that as a wizard he pledged himself to the Shadow Weave. His main goal was to tempt people into lecherous activities, gambling and general corruption.  He wanted to study people as they spiralled into vice, to examine their minds and observe them as it took place. What works, what doesn't and how to abuse it. An active application of his faith, he was obsessed with Loss.

To these ends he sought the help of Vance Gravelle to fund his projects, who at the time worshipped the Black Sun. Visconti offered to use the Fool's Clover to obtain live sacrifices for Vance, people left drunk and incapacitated and lured to the back room. Vance declined this, nor did he particularly care about Visconti's plans for vice and debauchery.

What grabbed his interest was Visconti's description of wanting to lure "darker aspects" out of people, a curiosity if Visconti could succeed. As well, Visconti's long term plan was to expand Cordor and remove power from the Dominion, one of Vance's long standing enemies. Visconti wished to secure both castles, and wage war. To harass seaways and trade to the Dominion's port towns (Guldorand was a vassal to the Dominion of Brogendenstein at the time). In this, Visconti wanted Vance's help with the Dreadnought, and Sencliff's aid as well.

It was through this that Vance backed Visconti with the money to buy the Fool's Clover, and Visconti began his campaign.

               ***

Part 2: Bertram Stodow's account.

Introduction:

I was approached by Bertram with the request of transcribing his experiences as a spy for Guldorand. Frustrated with Cordor's government, he wanted the details of what happened between him and Quintino to be recorded. The following words are his account of what went on between him and Cordor, mostly transpiring during the years of 143 and 144 Arelith Reckoning.

Bertram began with his own history. A mercenary in his fourties, spending his life working all over the Sword Coast in many jobs.  Guarding a lord's rosengarden, accompanying trade caravans, keeping the streets of Eregost a bit safer, and sometimes just beating up some idiot for good coin.

Then, he heard about Arelith. Mountains of coin to be earned on the isle for people who know how to swing a sword. He expected it to be a fairy tale but continued on his journey, seeking new experiences.

Bertram found himself in Skal, the sailors telling him it was Arelith and dumping him there. He spent a winter there, made some good coin, then left for Arelith once the ice thawed. Landing in Guldorand, he felt the place was too similar to Skal, so began to head southward and made his way to Cordor, the place a drunken man he knew from the mainland prattled on about endlessly. This is when he met Quintino Visconti.

At the time Visconti was a rising noble in the city. He caught Bertram performing shadow tricks for show, and approached him wanting him to work as a spy for him. Visconti was quite open about what he wanted Bertram to do. Gather information on other houses, spy on rivals, all of the typical things a noble would want. Bertram declined, told him he doesn't do that kind of work. In truth, it was because he didn't like Visconti already. Not enough to never work for him, but the fact that Visconti was approaching him about spy work in the middle of the road was unappealing.

Bertram continued to wander the islands after that, coming to meet a moon elf named Nostarion who was involved in Cordor's political circle. Bertram had just come out of Bendir after fulfilling some Trackless Sea contracts when he heard Nostarion talk about a stolen statue. Bertram figured the elves would pay well if he brought them the statue, so he reached out to Nostarion and offered a meeting in Cordor. It turned out to be a waste of time. Nostarion showed up without the statue, and said he never wanted Bertram to sell it in the first place. All he wanted to know was who hired him, and was unsatisfied with his answer when Bertram told him he was working independently.

Bertram already had a distaste for elves, believing them to be haughty. And Nostarion only gave him new reasons to dislike them, entering a meeting with the intent to dupe Bertram, and expecting he'd happily go along with it. As well, Nostarion insulted Bertram during the meeting. Not too much, but it hurt his ego enough that Bertram wanted to teach him a lesson. Bertram followed him home one day, threatening him with a choice: Either apologize, or get gutted.

Bertram said his sword wasn't drawn, he intended it as a warning. Nostarion reacted by casting invisibility. Bertram, lacking a see invisibility wand, couldn't react. And in those moments, Nostarion cast spells to knock Bertram out. Miranda Magna, a woman also highly involved in Cordor's political circle, was right there along side Nostarion, seeing everything that transpired. Bertram began to dislike her over it, for testifying against him and saying he tried assassinating Nostarion.

Bertram woke up elsewhere, feeling disoriented and confused about what had happened. He walked it off and made his way back to Guldorand. He joined the Shields, figuring it would be a good way to make some extra coin while doing writ work in the area.

Two months had passed. Cordor's election had just finished with Visconti's party winning. Bertram approached him to talk about work, seeing if he was still interested in hiring him. Bertram took a gamble and sold himself as an extremely radical racist, and Visconti liked it. Visconti shared information with Bertram, saying since they last spoke he had built a network of spies and assassins that he wanted Bertram to be part of. Bertram declined again, saying that Cordor has a history of one-year chancellors. If he wins a second year, Bertram would accept.

After the meeting, by pure coincidence Bertram ran into Nostarion in the streets. The elf had Birbag Blood-Letter, a half-orc guard at the time, come and arrest him. Bertram defended himself saying that all of the crimes happened outside of Cordor and Nostarion was the only one actually killing someone on Cordorian soil. Both of them ended up in Cordor's cells, next to one another and both giving their versions of what happened. Miranda and Visconti entered the jail. Nostarion started to turn the whole chain of events around, saying Bertram was a mad dog, tried to assassinate him in Cordor, and so forth. Visconti had Nostarion released, which infuriated Bertram. The guards hadn't disarmed him, so Bertram began smashing furniture in the cell and daring them to come and get him. The mages outside the cell began casting spells to down him, including summoning a black blade of disaster. Bertram felt it was unfair to fight him like that, and went down screaming about how he'll kill them all. Bertram said he doesn't believe his reaction was unreasonable.

Bertram awoke at the Arcane Tower. He made his way back to Guldorand and decided he would do something about Visconti. He wanted to try and lure Visconti out of the safety of the Fool's Clover, having difficulty with it due to the exile placed on him by the city. Undeterred, he continued to sneak into Cordor unseen and lurked around the Fool's Clover for information. He learned little, except for coming across a large pile of corpses and explosives in a room of the Clover that Visconti seemed surprised about, claiming he had no idea how it all got there. Without any other details, Bertram had little to do with the information.

This was around the time of the first theft from Cordor's treasury during Quintino's leadership, attributed to the Midnight Mouser. About a month after the theft, a woman by the name of Adarien Flameweaver showed up in Guldorand. She told Bertram she heard about him and approached him because of his talents and distaste for Visconti. She gave him a tale of woe about how Visconti stole her memories, supposedly sealing them in a memory crystal through the use of some magical device that she wanted to hire Bertram to steal. She said she was sure there was a darker side to Visconti and that she must have witnessed something horrible to make him do such a thing. Bertram suspected it was a trap and declined, and went to do his own investigation. He visited the Clover again, discovering Visconti and Adarien were meeting up and quite paranoid about doing so, never opening a single door to the back area without casting true seeing. He managed to eavesdrop, but never got in. He did observe Adarien calling him lord still, something he wouldn't expect from her if she was as terrified of him as she claimed.

With this new information, Bertram met with her again while she was alone in the Clover. Told her to spill the beans. She began to cry, saying she had no choice but to address Visconti as lord. Bertram told her that he'd accept her proposal, all she had to do was get him a few keys so he could roam around the Clover more freely. She provided Bertram with two keys, allowing him to break in and roam around to see what he could find. He found both the crystal and headpiece used, the headpiece made out of bronze with inlaid greensteel forming the socket for the crystal and shaped to the veins of the scalp. Bertram brought both items back to Guldorand and approached Adarien there. She was seeking refuge after giving Bertram the keys, she expected Visconti to know who had stolen the items.

Bertram brought Adarien down into the Axehold with Derristan Barley, the First-Axe. There, Bertram made it clear he'd give Adarien both the crystal and the headpiece under the expectation that she'd use those memories to tell them what Visconti had done. Adarien's face showed true fear, she was scared for her life, but still she kept the act up. She told them another story about how she wasn't ready to get her memories back, so they let her go. Even gave her a room up in the Logjam and accepted her as a citizen.

A month or two passed. Bertram saw Adarien talking to a stranger outside the Logjam, someone Bertram never saw before. A black haired woman who he later learned was named Nagisa. It was suspicious, Adarien had been rather coy about making friends with locals up until that point, and yet here she was socializing with a stranger. They both went up to her room in the Logjam, Bertram followed unseen. He slipped past them and listened to their entire conversation, learning Visconti's entire plan. Bertram provided a transcription of the conversation, which is supplied at the end of the book.

The whole memory crystal story was a trap. The crystal was filled with nightmares, visions that would destroy the mind of whoever tapped into them. Nightmares bad enough to drive one insane or kill them. It appeared Adarien and Visconti thought Bertram would want the information trapped within the gem as fast as possible and would use the gem and headpiece immediately. Furthermore, during the meeting Adarien admitted she's been trying her hardest to spy on Guldorand, getting information for Visconti to use. Nagisa proposed a new plan to Adarien, backing out of her previous lies and even telling the truth about it being a trap just so she could play the role of being a crying girl in need again. Just so the Shields would show her pity and keep her in Guldorand, so she could continue spying. Adarien declined, saying she wanted to try and "get Berty to like her." She still wanted to try and get Bertram to use the crystal, they were hoping to get him killed. Apparently he knew too much about who Visconti really was. After the meeting between Adarien and Nagisa, Bertram searched through her storage and found a number of suspicious objects. Bones, poisoned daggers, ritualistic clothing, fried snakes, language books for infernal and abyssal, the whole deal.

It was clear to Bertram what had to be done. He arranged for her interrogation through use of magic. The name of the magician involved was kept private, to protect their identity. Bertram and Derristan lured Adarien down into the Axehold and caught her there, binding her arms and putting her in a cell. Bertram left out details of the torture when recounting what happened, saying he didn't enjoy beating a woman to a bloody pulp, even if she smiled through it the entire time. The Shields didn't get any information out of her through physical means, so the mage was called in. The mage put a spell on her to make her talk. It was tough, she was only giving answers to simple questions. They had to slowly advance through the tangled mess of Adarien's mind. But the effort was worthwhile, the information gathered was eye-opening. Not only did she confirm all that Bertram heard her say in the talk with Nagisa, she also revealed that she was a warlock pacted to the "Pale Night." She further revealed that it wasn't the Midnight Mouser who stole from Cordor's treasury. Adarien herself pocketed all of that coin, she abused the trust Visconti put in her and saw an opportunity. At the end of the interrogation, the Shields decided to execute her on the spot for the crimes of spying, attempting to murder a Shield, and being a warlock.

Over the next few months, everything around Visconti calmed down. Bertram was busy doing other work, like making sure some Underdarkers who started thinking he was the Midnight Mouser wouldn't kill him, dealing with issues with the Horde, and even dealing with some accusations of being a Banite. At some point there was another break-in of Cordor's treasury, again the Midnight Mouser being credited for it. Bertram, knowing how to contact the Mouser, went out and asked them and they denied it. He said the Midnight Mouser was the sort of person who would take pride in stealing that much coin, he believes them when they say they didn't take it. Bertram left for Cordor and began to investigate on his own, again having difficulties due to still being exiled.

By this time, a year had passed. Cordor's elections came up, and Visconti backed off from taking leadership of the party, passing it onto Miranda who later pulled herself from the race and put her support towards Freja Stillwater. The Contract Veterans, mercenary company who had served Cordor for three years, said they hadn't been paid once and were pulling out from Cordor. Bertram was skeptical, any half decent mercenary would have quit much sooner. Why wait all that time and get into politics for it? And they certainly had enough coin to pay for having a seat in Castle Gloom and the Vigilant Watchtower north of Brogendenstein. Bertram speculated that's where the missing coin went.

Freja won the election, one of her first acts as chancellor being to clear up the exile list which gave Bertram freedom to investigate Cordor once more. He discovered the only people who could have accessed the city's funds were Visconti and trade minister Isabel. Bertram continued investigating, making his way to the Clover. He walked in on their gambling night, Visconti threw him out. Visconti told the Ordo Cordoria that Bertram actively threatened him and stalked Miranda.

Bertram used his freedom to enter the city to push an investigation on Visconti, contacting Sheng Zhao, Katharyn, and the Ordo Grandmaster Dendore about it. He was brushed off, told to go to talk to someone else or bring some form of document. Guldorand made an effort to compile all of the evidence and witness reports and delivered it to Katharyn. Some tendays later, Katharyn got fired, and Miranda took her place. Dendore started being very elusive, hard to find. Cordor was pressured to release a public notice for Visconti to show up and deliver himself to justice. He never turned himself in.

Bertram finished his account, frustrated with the affairs. As for what happened to Visconti, he became scarce and eventually passed the Fool's Clover and many of his belongings to Miranda before leaving the island.

Over the next few years a prolific Cordorian by the name of Rick Snyder worked with the next few chancellors to try and rebuild Cordor from the state Visconti left it in. Rick stated the main issues were the questionable people Visconti brought into the government, the aftermath of everything surrounding him and Guldorand, the normalization of necromancy that started in Cordor, the theft, scapegoating, and overall corruption that set the city back several steps.

Visconti demonstrated the harm a corrupt politician can create in a city and the long-term issues that result from the city's foundation being erroded, even if at the time of his chancellorship he publicly appeared to be, at worst, ineffective and doing nothing.

              ***

Part 3: Appendix

Transcription of the conversation between Adarien and Nagisa:

Adarien: "Trying to convince him I am trying to ruin his lordship, but that has not gone so well so far. We set a trap for him, it was simple enough. Oddly loyal, committed to his duty as a shield. He knows I am lying."

Nagisa: "Ok, what was the trap and how did it fail?"

Adarien: "Alright. We prepared a gem that contains memories. Memories that would drive someone insane. These memories were stored in a gem. And I asked Bertram to steal them, telling him they contained memories that would incriminate his lordship. I was convinced he would try to acquire these memories for himself once he had taken them. But he informed his boss and gave everything to me. Now they want me to use this gem and tap. But that would be fatal. I thought Bertram was greedy and angry and would use the gem himself immediately, but he did not."

Nagisa: "They gave you the gem?"

Adarien: "They have, yes. So I had to improvise."

Nagisa: "Then perhaps another gem can be prepared and a swap performed."

Adarien: "Well, I panicked and told Bertram the gem was stolen by the Midnight Mouser."

Nagisa: "Ah."

Adarien: "They thought it was memories that would incriminate his lordship, so they wanted me to use that gem. I couldn't let that happen. It was too convenient. The Midnight Mouser left a note at my door."

Nagisa: "Upset at being blamed for stealing something they didn't?"

Adarien: "I'm sorry. This is all kind of complicated. All I need is for Bertram to trust me somehow. And I really don't know how."

Nagisa: "So what did the Mouser's note say?"

Adarien: "Oh, that he visited me. And took something. I used that note to convince Bertram the memory gem was stolen."

Nagisa: "I see."

Adarien: "But nothing was missing, actually."

Nagisa: "Ok, well then that is not too bad. So long as the Mouser does not work for Guldorand it's a plausible explanation."

Adarien: "Even trying to explain what is happening overwhelms me. I don't know if he does."

Nagisa: "No reason to think he does. It is likely Berty mistrusts you because the timing was suspicious."

Adarien: "Oh? Explain."

Nagisa: "Well, the gem being stolen before you can use it. He probably suspects the truth. But unless he knows the Mouser, and no reason to assume he does, he can't know for sure."

Adarien: "Perhaps. He might. But I have a plan for that. I just don't know how to get him to trust me."

Nagisa: "Ok. It is more difficult now. It is not impossible. You need to provide what you promised before. Need to find a way to give him some dirt on the lord. I can talk with him, see what we can come up with."

Adarien: "No, I'd rather not make this about his lordship. Initially I struck a deal with Bertram. I made him believe that his lordship had taken memories of an event from me and stored it in a gem. Memories that would incriminate him. But in fact this gem contained memories that were supposed to drive Bertram insane."

Nagisa: "So what is it you are after? You want him dead? Humiliated? Blackmailed into obedience?"

Adarien: "We suspected he would tap into those memories himself, greedy as he is. But instead he informed the First-Axe and wanted me to use this gem instead. Then I found a letter of the Midnight Mouser on my quarter. I found this quite convenient and told Bertram this Mouser took the gem. So I had to improves and I am trying to get deeper into their network. I am dropping to try and get Bertram to use this, for now. We underestimated him. His sense of duty is remarkable."

Nagisa: "Easiest way to get his trust is to have a new gem produced that seems to be exactly what you promised them."

Adarien: "And what should it contain?"

Nagisa: "Most efficient would be something they can use against the lord. Now that he is stepping down as the chancellor it may be that they no longer care and it would make it seem you were truthful all along. That is a big gamble however."

Adarien: "Well to some extent Bertram believes me. My mistake was to suggest that the gem was stolen."

Nagisa: "Providing the gem would put his concerns to rest. Alternatively you could provide a gem that contains some other memories. If it could be arranged so that it makes it seem that you were mistaken, or misled. Make it look like you genuinely believed the gem was incriminating but in reality it was innocent. After all, it contains memories that were stolen from you. How are you supposed to know what they were?"

Adarien: "Indeed. For now I'll try to lay lie."

Nagisa: "They will still suspect foul play. They will suspect that the theft was a stealing tactic so the new gem could be prepared. But it will undo most of the damage."

Adarien: "I suppose so. But maybe I will approach his lordship with this as a last resort. Right now Bertram believes he stole the wrong gem."

Nagisa: "Then he is likely suspicious that you are not trying to get the correct gem?"

Adarien: "Not exactly. I asked Bertram to steal it and he failed. You know almost everything now."

Nagisa: "Almost everything?"

Adarien: "I believe I am too tired to explain it correctly. But I do need to gain Bertram's trust. Listen. Let me try something. Then we'll see."

Nagisa: "Sure. I'll think on it myself for a while. May be able to come up with something."

Adarien: "Do you think you can read his mind a little? That would be amazing. I'm slightly overwhelmed with this whole ordeal."

Contents of Adarien's storage box:
- One phrasebook for infernal.
- One phrasebook for abyssal.
- Bones from legs, one must be from a giant / ogre.
- The skull of an unidentified female moon elf.
- Eleven glass vials.
- One white elk stone.
- A dagger, coated in poison.
- Two potions of attunement.
- Some raw gems.
- Large amounts of food. Skewered fried snakes.
- A calming amulet.
- Ritualistic looking clothing, seemed to be very revealing.
- A fire opal.
- A book, made Bertram's head spin while looking through it. Filled with rituals and mad words.
- A gem pouch.