Eyes-Only Dispatch — Hand-Delivered by Courier #87
Prepared in the Quiet Scriptorium beneath Amber Row, Plate Two
Lord Whin Paine,
Per your directive, I have consolidated our working notes on the seven plate Marshals. Business must flow. You will be delighted to discover that some of them remain easy to bend to our will. Others continue to clog the city’s official arteries but with the ‘proper’ strategies it is in this Archivist’s humble opinion that none of them prove barriers for House Pain’s plans. These pages are not the perfumed slop that circle the Senate floor; they are the angles, the tells, the pressure points that actually matter, to our routes, and to the Lady Sintetra’s larger designs. Each profile lists leverage first, routine second, and temperament last, because nothing stalls a shipment faster than a Marshal we mis-read.
The Enforcers merely want to keep the city functional. We shan’t hold it against them. We shall use their weaknesses to continue to polish the windows of House Paine. For us it is the subtle tools: favors, memories, and in one case a ledger of unpaid funerary fees. Use what serves the House and burn the rest.
— “Glass-Hand,” Senior Archivist, House Paine
Plate One Marshal – Internal Notes
Marshal Piretta Sih-Terrias, Keeper of the Dignified
Species: Monarch Elf | Pin: Optimist | School Identity: Necromancer
Profile
Tall, marble-faced Monarch Elf with translucent blush-phantom wings. Insists on immaculate presentation: dark emerald plate trimmed in gold braid, no speck of dust tolerated. Commands the Dignified, undead aristocrats preserved as perfectly as ballroom mannequins, each in matching green-and-gold armaments.
He is a man of peculiar interests. There is an unsettling darkness to his obsessive cleanliness. As you know, Plate One has no working class, so the Enforcers there are the before described deceased elites that this aged Monarch Elf glass box displays more than he has them patrol. For a necromancer, there is something unnerving with how much life he expects from his summons. You’d think he thought they breathed, thought and felt as much as his son, rising politician Lucien Jr.
Leverage & Liabilities
- Devotion to the Dignified. He will not risk a single chipped jaw on his corps. Threaten their sanctity, never their existence, and he stalls.
- Vanity of Office. Loves formal petitions bearing antique seals; obliges those who flatter his “custodial burden.”
- Strategic Blindness. Willfully ignores elite experiments (Completion rites, portal prototypes) so long as the perpetrators attend his galas and speak kindly of his children.
- Policy Obstruction. Publishes labyrinthine transit edicts that choke lesser plates, then waives them for “appropriately documented” consignments.
House Paine Assessment
- Respect Level: Green Silk. Treat with court manners; he mirrors status signals.
- Stamp Reliability: 96% when approached directly by a bloodline member of House Paine; near zero if routed through any other agent.
- Preferred Payment: Rare embalming balms, high-grade jade formaldehyde, whispered praise of his son’s “eloquent civic speeches.”
- Red Flag: Never involve under-plate laborers in Plate One runs, he will conscript them into the Dignified “for their own elevation.”
Recommended Approach
1. Good elves have vanished into the Dignified before their time. His suspicions are a life-threatening hazard, treat them as such.
2. Present shipment manifests on gilt vellum, signed by any minor Plate 1 house; he honors peer lineage.
3. Offer a gift flask of Rose Pact Preservative to secure same-day clearance.
Plate 2 Marshal — Internal Notes
Marshal Algo Magnus Stillbeard
Species: Leyline Dwarf | Pin: Paragon | School Identity: Abjurist
Profile
Broad-shouldered, beard iron-straight and braided. Only Paragon from a family of Chronomancers. Wears Paragon green trimmed in copper runes and keeps a pocket chronometer chained to his belt; claims he can “hear time warp” when a portal hiccups.
Close university friend of Paragon Senator Lord Commander Sutherland Dash and the Optimist Senator Matilda R. Brightside is the godmother of his twins. Has made his beliefs clear that the ruling senate Bloc is the only chance Wuh-Zhei has to beat the Unraveling and takes it as a personal affront against reality when anything stops up shipments of goods to the Paragon and Optimist researchers of Plate Two Amathyst District.
Mumbles phrases like “every second wasted might just be one less second mortals have to live.” His books are a meticulous sieve; smuggling into Plate Two is exponentially harder than any of the others.
Leverage & Liabilities
- Nameless Tiefling Spouse. His wife, Lady Sereth, Lead Evoker Executor of Plate Two Ruby district, is a model upper-plate citizen but still branded Nameless. Any broad slander or Senate motion against Nameless rights makes Algo Magnus volatile.
- Reformist Streak. Believes criminals (and unstable spell-weapons) can be “chiseled true.” Will delay destruction orders to study and rehabilitate, time Paine can exploit.
- Audit Compulsion. Keeps a private chrono-ledger of every portal burst and test firing. Forge a single entry and he will suspend the entire yard until he “finds the crack.”
- Public Decorum. Open disrespect enrages him and flattery is not particularly effective. Stillbeard maintains that he is a man of actions who finds words untrustworthy.
House Paine Assessment
- Respect Level: Bronze Cog. Speak precisely, present stamped ledgers, reference reform rather than profit.
- Stamp Reliability: 55% if shipment specs are immaculate; 0% if any crate smells of Completion residue.
- Preferred Payment: Exotic ley-ink, portal flux stabilizers, donations to Sereth’s Nameless scholarship fund.
- Red Flag: Best not to bring up his family. He keeps a picture of his children on his desk, don’t even look at it.
Recommended Approach
1. Deliver all manifests in triplicate, each page time-notarized within the eight minutes.
2. He will stamp, confiscate and file contraband indefinitely. Avoid smuggling into Plate Two, but if it must be done, plan to pick it up from the coffers via fine or theivery after confiscation.
3. In addition to the family, do not mention Glorbo Grent’s Plate Five misfires, Stillbeard is already drafting citations.
Minor Addendum: After consideration, I advise against all small talk. Even greetings are a risk. Verbal communication of any kind is likely to escalate his anger and/or incur his inspection.
Plate Three Marshal – Internal Notes
Marshal Cleo Creek, the Walnut Blade
Species: Defiant Aasimar | Pin: Paragon | School Identity: Abjurer
Profile
Former PTA chair turned perfect Paragon officer. Lady Creek earned her name the “Walnut Blade” for being, as her boys in green call it, ‘a nutcracker.” She is the most involved Marshal in the daily lives of the citizens she protects and trains her Enforcers to bring down the full force of the law on the smallest of infractions. To her credit, she has successfully convinced an entire Plate that the same Unraveling the city’s greatest minds have failed to stop is held at bay by her Enforcers patrolling clean streets.
This, however, is to our advantage. Marshal Cleo Creel is more concerned with neighborhood order than freight. The Azure elevators are certainly monitored, but they are more concerned that the errand boys don’t stand on Wet Paint than what they are carrying. Getting caught can mean a mountain of fines that if you contest will spiral into something much worse. So, care your timing and ensure they’re already out patrolling.
Leverage & Liabilities
- Hero-Worship of Dash. Invoke his name to override minor protocols; she’ll bend rules if she thinks “the Commander would approve.”
- Denial of Plate Three’s cracks. Show her controlled proof of a threat; she’ll overreact and redeploy half her force, leaving other doors unguarded.
- Abjurant Confidence. Her shields are flawless, look to distract not to overpower.
- Community Reputation. A written petition from ≥ 25 Plate Three homeowners makes her pause; she adores civic process.
House Paine Assessment
- Respect Level: Yellow Silk, polite on the surface, watchdog eyes beneath.
- Stamp Reliability: 50% if paperwork references Dash; 100% at the right time of day when she’d rather be somewhere else.
- Preferred Payment: Wizardball memorabilia.
- Red Flag: Do not argue, accept your citation and move on before it spirals. Even the smallest infraction can end up as excessive force.
Recommended Approach
1. Deliver manifests inside a clear binder with a one-page “Safety Impact Statement.” She reads those first.
2. We have reason to believe she’s never successfully fired a spellweapon, if she arms, give wide clearance and expect explosions.
3. Her enforcers worship her as much as she worships Dash. Use this to your advantage.
Note: Any snide remark you make against her is likely to end up on her desk, not because she commands spies, but because gossip is almost as beloved on Plate Three as “Mom’s Casserole.” (Have you heard of it Lord Paine? We attended an Enforcer bake sale at wandpoint a few jobs ago. They made us eat some strange floppy dry on the outside crusted dish. Imagine our surprise when it turned out to be Lady Cleo’s delicious, moist casserole.)
Plate Four Marshal – Internal Notes
Provisional Marshal Cosmo “Lucky” Dutbead
Species: Halfling | Pin: Paragon | School Identity: Evoker
Profile
Plate four has a long history of historically not having a Marshal for long. We tried placing our own stooges. The turnover made it a habit we don’t want. The newest entrant, ironically, also did not want the badge; Mr. Dutbead was a Plate Three intern finishing his logistics rotation who happened to know the right regulation at the wrong time.
Apparently the previous marshal, lieutenant, and corporal disappeared during what should have been a ‘routine’ Unraveling containment. While the surviving sergeants argued over succession, “Lucky” Cosmo couldn’t help but point out in the Enforcer field manual it says: “In the event all officers perish, the highest‐plated Enforcer present assumes provisional command.”
Didn’t really think that through, did you Cosmo?
The sergeants shoved the green great-coat onto his shoulders before he could backpedal. So far, he’s done nothing but survive. Which is more than most.
Leverage & Liabilities
- Unknown. Unexpected rise, we do not have a full report on him yet. Will update as soon as possible.
- Home block hero. Hypothetically, maybe. A bustling block from Amber Three. Preliminary light probing shows his father is a transport clerk and his mother is a Lunch lady.
House Paine Assessment
- Respect Level: Yellow Paper. Polite deference; treat him like the “rising star” he wants to be.
- Stamp Reliability: Unknown variable. 100% if you pass through our pocketed Sergeant’s.
- Preferred Payment: Apologies for repeating myself, but we know little. During his internship each day, our agent said he remembered Cosmo because he had turkey and cheese sandwich at lunch with enough mayonnaise to drown a familiar. So maybe Mayo too rare to conjure?
- Red Flag: Don’t mention the survival rate of previous marshals.
Recommended Approach
1. Submit a forged Containment Drill Authorization on Senate letterhead, he’ll stamp it before he finishes his tea.
2. Offer to log Sun-Burst telemetry data inside Citrine; he’ll assign two guards to escort you (easy to shake).
3. Practice Sutherland Dash’s signature; cannot tell forgery apart.
Plate 5 Marshal — Internal Notes
Marshal Glorbo “Boom-Brat” Grent
Species: Orc | Pin: Paragon | School Identity: Evoker
Profile
The Grent family’s name is as synonym with Fireballs as yours is with Hold Person. Lord Paine. Former Senator Orbash Grent was a strong ally not just to Sintetra but House Paine as well. Unfoundedly, Orbash’ grandson’s only friend is his Fireball 2.0 “Sun-Burst Mortar.”
Glorbo Grent refused a cushy staff auto-cast job on Plate 1 and pulled strings to plant himself in the slums of Plate 5 “to make Fireballs more Firey and Bally” (his words). He calls current Lord Commander Dash’s precision doctrine “half-measure cowardice” and declares himself a genius for metamagic-overclocking the Senate’s already unstable spellweapon prototypes.
I’m not sure how to put this subtly. Glorbo is a menace to all forward transcendent operations. He is dangerous, explosive, and unstable. There is no doubt that since his Marshalship began, Plate Five has been a hot war between the Enforcers and the Spellpunks; which of course, is a proxy war between Senator Sintetra and Senator Matilda R. Brightside.
Leverage & Liabilities
- Collateral Blindness. Counts only enemy casualties. Civilian losses = “acceptable drift.” The Senate audits will gut him if numbers leak.
- Field-Data Junkie. Trades clearance stamps for high-capacity telemetry caskets; threaten to withhold data and he’ll open your crates personally.
- Family Purse Strings. House Grent bankrolls his munitions, actually turning Orbash against his grandson would choke the gold flow (if only it were that easy).
- Perceived Rivalry with Dash. Desperate to unveil a “Fireball Apex” that outshines all of Dash’s arrow tricks. Flattery of his genius buys minutes; doubting it buys fire. We can safely report Sutherland Dash feels no such rivalry and although the Senator disapproves of Glorbo’s methods, he finds the live field testing necessary.
House Paine Assessment
- Respect Level: Live Fuse. Handle with armored gloves; never promise what can’t survive a misfire.
- Stamp Reliability: 95% if you can successfully forge non-munition Paragon shipments that Glorbo and his pyromaniac Enforcers would classify as boring (books, vegetables, furniture).
- Preferred Payment: Anything marked “this side up” or dangerous” or “do not field-use.”
- Red Flag: Do not mention collateral audits or Stillbeard’s safety complaints within earshot; he’ll demonstrate “improved radius” on the spot.
Recommended Approach
1. Research and write bad puns about evocation and beating up punks to tell while dockets are inspected.
2. Praise the Sun-Burst Mortar by name, then pivot to “imagine the Senate when they see Fireball Apex.” Ego buys you a fast lane.
3. Win initiative.
Addendum: House archives note a dangerous truth: Glorbo gets results.
○ In the last six cycles he has shattered seven Transneuroclast safe-houses, seized two bishop-baron caravans, and personally dragged a Void-cult howitzer through Ruby Ward gutters.
○ The Senate signs off on Glorbo. His is a City sanctioned murderer and that is not likely to change.
○ Removing through violence we can pin on the anybody else (the New Faith) would frankly be advised. However, do not move to oust him without knowing who Dash and House Grent will fill his seat with; chaos vacuum is bad for business.
Plate Six Marshal – Internal Notes
Marshal Brutus Sunspot
Species: Goliath | Pin: Transneuroclast | School Identity: Enchanter
Profile
Disgraced Plate One aristocrat exiled to the city’s cellar. Marshal Brutus technically commands the Enforcers on Plate Six, but every clerk knows his Lieutenant, Jebediah “Guardian Angel” Angelblood writes the orders and collects the tithes. It is possible to make appointments with Brutus directly to maneuver your way around Angelblood, but even advanced planning will fall through if Brutus is just ‘having one of those days’ (which our informant suggests is all Mondays, most Tuesdays, Wednesdays that aren’t holidays, Thursdays after 10am, and anytime after breakfast on the weekend).
Broad-shouldered, slate-grey skin; once fire orange beard now muddied with ash and spilled whiskey. Spends most shifts slumped on a balcony high above the customs hall. Through the fogged spyglass and liquor haze, he sits and watches Plate Six’s single freight elevator do the one thing that Brutus will never do again… leave Plate Six.
Leverage & Liabilities
- Golden Cage: Stipend from House Sunspot still arrives every quarter along with barrels of fine Whiskey.
- Family Pride. Oldest son of the legendary Sunspot family. They were our Transneuroclast allies who built the second suns that shine in each plate.
- Liquid Courage. Keeps two casks of vintage Firewine behind the customs desk; sobriety lasts until second bell. Offer a rarer bottle and clearance times shrink.
- Rambling Storyteller. If you’ve never had the pleasure of sitting across from a hopeless man nearly three times your size who can literally cast movement binding magic, decide it was appropriate to reminisce over the clouds above plate one, then let me assure you, it is a physically uncomfortable yet mildly interesting way to waste an afternoon.
- Senate Dependence. The Plate Six enforcers are barely holding on. Arguably, they have already lost control of the plate to the New Faith. Without the Senate supporting the Elevators, Azure Six would be forced to turn to the Divine aide the rest of the plate employs.
House Paine Assessment
- Respect Level: Amber Bottle. Courteous but casual; talk shop over drinks.
- Stamp Reliability: 80% if bribed in Firewine or spell-weapon parts; 30% on sober days.
- Preferred Payment: For an enchanter, he notably loves Divination scrolls. Wakes him right up.
- Red Flag: Do not mention Oracle Nero or Senator Matilda R. Brightside, triggers rants.
Recommended Approach
1. Arrive at dawn if you want Brutus himself to sign off; ledger checks are swiftest before the cork pops.
2. Present goods as “field-test contributions” from Enforcer R&D, he waves those through.
3. Leave a complimentary crate of aged Firewine on the return trip; he might forget his name, but he will remember you and stamp your clearance next time before you leave the elevator.
Addendum – Lieutenant Jebediah “Guardian Angel” Angelblood
Plate Six born Aasimar Evoker who drapes his regulation green in home stitched Senatorial face patches and multiple Wizard faction lapel pins, Jeb runs Azure-Six customs with a fire and tariff gospel: pay the tithe, praise the Senate, keep the faith outside the gates. Zealous yet shamelessly transactional, he fines Bishop Barons by the ledger-line but pockets “patriotic donations” of sanctified gunpowder, moon-shine, or anything bearing Paragon heraldry. Mock his accent or question his love of the upper plates and he’ll torch paperwork, or a cart, to prove a point; flatter his “angelic duty” or promise a bigger cut than the Barons offer, and the freight elevator glides right past inspection.
Plate Zero Marshal – Internal Notes
Marshal Sal’Kera Aballyn
Species: Drow Elf | Pin: New Faith | School Identity: None/Cleric
Profile
From the undergutters of Plate Five, Sal’Kera Aballyn earned her badge one rung at a time. I’m sure you remember the year that the frowning New Faith Drow girl went “forty four for Four” at the Lowlight Games, fourty-four kills, to earn her family and herself a pass up to Plate Four. Yeah, that Aballyn. Well, she worked hard enough that by thirty, she was the first New Faith Marshal on any plate, let alone Plate Four… just long enough to push through a transfer.
Wanted to ‘modernize Five.’ Claimed she could ‘give the kids the chance she never had.’ A noble disaster, had it taken. Fortunately, House Grent couldn’t see a non-wizard hold a Marshal title and strong-armed the Senate into awarding it to Glorbo Grent after Abalyn took the assignment. Determined, she served as lieutenant for three years. Which wore her down enough that when somebody leaked painful news of a Plate Zero opening, Aballyn signed the transfer scroll before the ink dried.
She left with her family, twelve Enforcers, three crates of supplies, and a lantern. That was nearly a year ago. House Paine has no active contracts routed through Plate Zero, and no cause to investigate.
Leverage & Liabilities
- Ladder-Climber’s Guilt. Views every demotion as karmic repayment for rising above her roots. Exploitable.
- Lawful Fire. Her code is intact but brittle. May authorize severe containment if convinced it prevents greater loss.
- No Senate Tethers. Remains the only New Faith Marshal to date. Lets keep it that way.
- Uncertain Status. Last report logged during a leyline inspection run. Not filed as Missing… yet.
House Paine Assessment
Respect Level: Charcoal Ash. Caution advised. May still serve if found, may also be the first to burn.
Stamp Reliability: 100% if recovered. 0% as of last transmission.
Preferred Payment: As plate five lieutenant, she responded well to promises of community service.
Red Flag: Never suggest that a perpetrator ‘deserved it’ or that their ‘upbringing was the problem.’
Recommended Approach
1. Send a reformed Spellpunk from her childhood neighborhood.
2. In leu of that, come bearing small talk about forging a better tomorrow through hard work and a firm hand.
3. Likely will trade well for supplies and/or reinforcements.