The feast winds on. The food is great, the servants helpful, and the nobles... Well, that's the worst bit,
Natalie, though, helps brighten the mood. She asks for some music, and begins to dance with it, pulling a nearby servant woman into her arms as she does. Her dance it enthralling, catching everyone's eyes, and lasts for a good five minutes, even if her partner isn't quite able to keep up. When she finishes, she gives a deep bow, to a hearty round of applause.
Spoiler: Perception DC 16, Auto-Pass For Natalie
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The woman who you snagged to dance with is breathing heavily, her face flushed, and as you head back to the tables, she whispers "That was... Amazing. Thank you, ma'am."
With the show done, she settles back at her spot, and chats amongst the others. She gets a certain amount of restrained male attention-they're civilized, after all, but by the same token, Natalie is quite entrancing.
Aine starts to work her way through the courtesies of the palace, with some help from Natalie's performance and schmoozing. She settles on one Harold Straken, talking to him throughout the rest of the meal.
He takes a shine to her, smiling and chatting along with her.
Ralston talks to everyone as well, and often shadows Natalie as a "bodyguard". He finds it a touch ironic that he'd be considered to protecting her "innocence", but it does help him listen without interfering.
He picks up a few things of note.
Spoiler: Things Of Note
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The Altons... They're not well-liked. They're "deviants" in the words of the nobles, with one of their lords having been openly in a relationship with another man before his unfortunate accident. You can't tell if that's a real accident, or an "accident".
They've been, not exactly exiled or anything, but put to the edge of the territory, where it's dangerous and isolated. But so far, they've done well for themselves-annoying so, to many of the others.
The Straken family is the next one you learn a decent chunk about. If anyone would've caused the Alton accident, it would've been them. They're the left-hand family, assassins, scumbags, thugs, and enforcers. They handle the dirty work, and have a lot of power because of that.
The Namor family, you also get clued in, is currently without an heir. Sarah is the only child of Jonathan, and if he dies before she marries or he has a son... End of Namor line, as far as ruling goes.
The Omge family control the breadbasket of this city-state. They're loyal to a fault, though, and generally nice to everyone.
Reskarra finds an excuse to leave before dessert is served, and performs a ritual in her room to see what's going on.
Re: Returning Heroes [IC]
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