Intrigue: Baroness Magali Turcas, Lady of the Court and Daughter of The King’s justice.
“You know why I brought you here? Because you’re a nobody, and I admire that. If you were a somebody around this court it invariably means that my father or his father tortured someone very important to you, and that means you’d be to intimidated by me to engage in conversation. Are you intimidated by me? Good, go and fetch us some drinks and I’ll tell you everyone’s dirty little secrets.”
All great courts employ torturers and executioners, but it’s only the cruellest of monarchs who have such need of these grim servants that they’d grant them lands and titles.
Such was the case for the Turcas family, simple but loyal jailers who found themselves elevated when during an attempted palace coup, their patriarch helped prevent the escape of the King’s leading political rival, thereby stifling the nascent rebellion, and preventing a civil war.
Magail Turcas grew up the beneficiary of her father’s windfall, educated along with the children of the court as befitted a young lady of nobility, but was continually excluded due to her family’s infamous reputation. Ever the outsider, Magali became a gossip and rumormonger, exposing the secret weaknesses of her rivals and dismantling reputations with the same vicious practicality that her forebears used to dismantle bodies.
Adventure Hooks
With the old king dying and an executioner sized ax to grind, Magali looks to cement her position as an indispensable fixture of the court, leveraging her web of informants and proxies into an actual spy network. Becoming master of whispers isn’t going to be easy, and she seeks competent agents who don’t mind digging up dirt or slinging mud on her behalf.
Having earned an enemy among the member of nobility, the party is approached by Baroness Magali after they’ve been backed into a corner: Bounties on their head, thrown into prison, assassins out for their blood. Magali offers to remove these obstructions, along with promises of financial and social assistance, provided they’re willing to help her destroy the antagonistic noble, and take public credit for their downfall.
Investigating a crime, the party comes across evidence that an otherwise inconspicuous servant was observing the proceedings and sending coded messages to an unknown benefactor. Breaking the code could provide vital information, but the servant is one of Magali’s loyal spies, and will not betray his mistress, even under threat of violence. IF the party wants this shortcut in their cimesolving escapades, they’ll need to broker a meeting with the would-be spymaster, and perhaps put themselves in her debt in exchange for some much needed clues.
