The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it

    #Papacy Actions

    **DIPLOMACY**

    **Blessed be** the selfless warriors of the Kalmar Union, the Kingdom of France, the United Netherlands, and the Polish Autocratic Order

    **Cursed be** the vile, fork-tongued Austrian dogs

    **Pitied be** the poor, misled Italians of our Most Holy Flock

    **PEACE** with everyone, even if they walk in Sin it is the Pope’s duty to stand apart from earthly conflicts.

   **PRAISED BE** the holy efforts of the United Provinces to establish a Red Cross, destined to succour all those who in the Lord’s Light strive for Salvation. A Papal Bull has been issued supporting its formation and spread, and instructing all priests of the Church and all its worshippers to give aid to this nascent organisation and leave it unharried on the battlefields of Christendom.

    **INTERDICTING**

     His Holiness Mistral I is spending 3 AP to interdict the vile Austrians. By oppressing their Hungarian brethren, by crushing down the Polish and Bohemian people, they have proved themselves to be no more than Godless cowards, foul spawn of Satan’s loins. The Austrian people, the innocent children, women and men of that fair land, they have our protection still, but their leaders, who lead Austria ever further into sin under their “socialist” dictatorship, they have our greatest condemnation.

     For three days and three nights did Mistral I fast and pray, asking for guidance. At long last, he heard a voice. It spoke with one voice, that resonated through his soul and filled him with righteous purpose.

      WORSHIP. OBEY. REPRODUCE.

     **ACTIONS**

    An additional 2 AP will be invested in purchasing two artillery next to the city of Rome.

    On another note, Rome will be renamed to the Vatican if the gamerunner rolls a 1d2 dice and the result is 1. If the result is 2, then God has decreed that Rome remain Rome.

     **TREASURY**

     Initial treasury: 2617 gold

    +2000 gold from the Papal and Avignon events last part

     Receiving: 20,000 gold from the pious worshippers of France and the Kalmar Union

     Sending 24,617 gold to the Inquisition.

     Final gold balance: 0 gold

     #Inquisition Actions

     **Standing plot bonus**

     We have a +4 standing plot bonus and a long history of successful assassinations and excellence in the royal capitals of Europe.

    **PLOTS**

    **Plot 1:** Salvation is worth any cost

    The cadres of the Godless Austrian “Hapsburg party” are corrupt and self-serving. They view their people as rabble, and in the words of the Hungarian turncoat Kohlrabi, “all for none and none for all.” Their rule is steeped in sin, and they drag their people to hell behind them.

    But God has not forgotten the poor oppressed of Austria-Hungary. And God has revealed to His servant Mistral I the path forwards. The elimination of the non-believers, the elimination of those who lead the Austrians ever further into sin, ever further into disgusting squalor. And so, Mistral I has sent forth his dark warriors, avenging angels of the Church.

    Dan Sickles and the so-called “Reformer,” both scions of the Hapsburg line, have been identified as the greatest sources of creeping evil in the Holy Roman Empire. And so, the Papacy has been lying in wait, gathering information, watching and listening, and waiting for the time to be right. Since before his ascension, Mistral I has been planning this. Now, it will come to pass.

    In the courts of Vienna, and churches spread across the nation, Inquisition agents have begun to proliferate. They have infiltrated the kitchens of the palaces now dubbed “party headquarters” but still effectively lavish homes for the Hapsburg oligarchs. They have infiltrated the retinues of the Hapsburg Party leaders, who champion their socialist cause. There are Inquisition operatives in the crowds of workers given extra rations to cheer on their corrupt leaders, and we have found sympathisers in the business elite of the nation.

    Our plans predict that Austria-Hungary will, true to form, dispatch these two men on their missions in or outside of Austria-Hungary, assuring its defences or striking at the righteous warriors who oppose it. The issue with many plots targeting their leaders is precisely this; it is difficult to know beforehand where to strike at someone who leaves the country. This is where the genius of the Inquisition’s stratagem comes in.

    Our agents will not try to find the targets code-named “Sickles” and “Reformer” when they are already departed. Our agents will *already* be buried in their retinues, be keeping track of them. When these men depart to carry out their tasks, their steps will be dogged. And then, finally, the Inquisition agents will strike like asps from the far-southern deserts of the Dark Continent of Africa.

    Poison will be slipped into Reformer’s drink. In the event this fails, an arrow will come out of the dark to strike him as he strides furious from the banquet hall. All else failing, one of his own guardsmen will pretend to find results in his investigation of the assassination events before stabbing him from behind. And, if he fails, this guardsman will give his life for God and enter heaven as a martyr, detonating the makeshift explosives in his saddlebags and taking the entire party, including the fork-tongued Reformer, with him.

    A courtesan will sharpen her hairpin and bury it in the neck of the lecherous Sickles as he prepares to receive his evening’s pleasures. If she fails, having subdued the courtesan, Sickles will take a sip from the carafe of wine on the mantelpiece near his bed only to find that it has been poisoned, in expectation of this moment. In the event where, not having drunk the wine, he strides furious from his room, an unobtrusive servant will attack him with a flail. As, these attempts failing, he rides from his quarters in fear, surrounded by his men and determined to escape this deathtrap, his horse will buck and throw him off, stung by a dart from a nearby, hidden Churchman.

    The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? (Psalm 27:1)

    WORSHIP. OBEY. REPRODUCE.

    INVESTED: 1 action point, to represent the marshalling of the Inquisition’s long-dormant networks under the personal supervision of Pope Mistral 1 himself (/u/PrincedeTalleyrand). 10000 gold, to represent the vast sums being channelled into this gambit: operatives must be paid, poison must be acquired, trajectories and dignitary itineraries need to be bought, and God’s zealous faithful must be armed to carry out His work. Across Europe, the cogs of the Inquisition are moving once more.

    [This represents 44 plot power]

    RESULT: /u/Dan_Sickles, /u/ThyReformer die, and any plots in which they are invested are thrown into disarray by their passing.


    **Plot 2:** Let the wicked perish

     Two more targets have been identified as needing elimination, too evil and morally corrupt to be allowed a continued say in the affairs of Christendom. And so, the Inquisition will purge them too.

     As with code-names “Sickles” and “Reformer,” targets “Kohlrabi” and “Lego” have been identified as a high-ranking Hungarian noble and now party apparatchik with close connections to the Austrian high brass and widely seen as contemptuous of Hungarian traditions, and another key member of the Hapsburg party. As with the former two targets, their workers’ rallies, their retinues, the kitchens and courtesans that serve them in different ways, will all be infiltrated.

     When “Kohlrabi” and “Lego” are dispatched on their external or internal plots, their retinues will already be riddled with Inquisition operatives. And so, these two snakes, these two betrayers of everything the Faith stands for, they will be removed.

     Kohlrabi’s retinue is composed of a mixture of Hungarians and Austrians, and is expected to be particularly easy to infiltrate by virtue of the mixed background of many of its constituents. And so, one evening as they camp on the road or rest in a palace, an armsman will rush out of a side corridor ready to kill the traitor to Hungary. The man will turn his blade upon himself if unsuccessful. Later, Kohlrabi will console himself in the arms of one of the Austrian courtesans he so seems to enjoy – an Austrophile in every way, it seems. As she pads out on light feet, leaving the sated glutton behind her, she will slip an asp – previously kept in one of those amphoras purchased from Ottoman Sicilian merchants – into the room, and lock the door behind her. So will end the life of this insipid wrongdoer.

     Lego’s demise will be more difficult to arrange. He is seen as a less influential member of the Hapsburg Party in the present moment, but his past attempts to destabilise the Kalmar Union were concerning. He is not a known womaniser, and he has fewer known vices than his compatriot. As always though, he is stained dark with sin. There are things we can look for. Code-name “Lego” is known to keep kennels of hunting dogs with which he entertains the high brass of the courts of Vienna. The first attempt will see the door to the kennels “lock” accidentally as he visits them, the key “mysteriously” lost. The kennelmaster, in Inquisition employ, will direct the dogs to treat this foul-smelling apparatchik as prey, and they will. If this does not succeed, the chief doctor (in truth an Inquisitor who killed and replaced the man shortly before he joined Lego’s retinue) tending to Lego’s ills will recommend amputations of hurt limbs that will fester and slowly kill the Austrian, and that failing will slit his throat. You can’t break Hippocrate’s oath if you never took it. If all else goes wrong, bandit attacks have been organised all along Lego’s trajectory – if it is to take him out of Vienna – and footpads have been mobilised in the city; he will not fight off these attacks.
     The LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. (Psalm 1:6)

    WORSHIP. OBEY. REPRODUCE.

INVESTED: 1 action point, to represent the marshalling of the Inquisition’s long-dormant networks under the personal supervision of several high-ranking Inquisitors. 10000 gold, to represent the vast sums being channelled into this gambit: operatives must be paid, poison must be acquired, trajectories and dignitary itineraries need to be bought, bandits and footpads will be mobilised, and God’s zealous faithful must be armed to carry out His work. Across Europe, the cogs of the Inquisition are moving once more.

    [This represents 44 plot power]

    RESULT: /u/legobloxcraft2 and /u/_Kohlrabi_ die, and any plots in which they are invested are thrown into disarray by their passing.


     PLOT 3: Blessed be his name

    [REDACTED]

    Over the past years, under the craven guidance of Pope Sirocco the Ill-Begotten, the Inquisition has established powerful defence precautions in Italy proper, defending the Italian treasury, the life of its Premier, its national monuments and the integrity of its armies. This powerful network of operatives approached unrivalled proportions (+6 to plot defence in Italy).

    But though the apparatus of this network remains intact, Mistral has no intention of protecting turncoats and sinners. Instead, this network will be transferred to France and the Kalmar Union, where His servants do the Lord’s work. There, Churchmen will be ever on their guard, Monks in their monasteries will keep rooms for passing Inquisition operatives, and peasants will be encouraged to safeguard the realm in the name of the Almighty.

    [/REDACTED]


    In these broad dominions as in the Vatican, we will build a Kingdom of God on Earth. His will be done.

    The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

    He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

    He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

    Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

    Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

    Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
    — Psalm 23:1-6

     [REDACTED]

    Invested: One AP, to, to represent the marshalling of the Inquisition’s long-dormant networks under the personal supervision of several high-ranking Inquisitors. 4617 is further invested as the transferrance of these networks is funded and God’s will is done. [This is 19 plot power, building on highly successful previous Inquisition plots]

    Result: The Italian +6 Inquisition plot defence is transferred to France, the Kalmar Union and the Vatican, meaning that these now have +6 plot defence and Italy does not.

    [/REDACTED]