Taggle!

"It's good to see His Divinity in such knowledgeable hands," the guard says. "Uh, you didn't hear it from me, but some of the rituals … he really seems to be reluctant about them. If you see him, maybe reassure him somewhat?"

"Of course," you say. "It is a heavy burden to bear."

The guard nods and begins walking towards the stables. He stops at the door and turns back to you. "So, if you have the time … could you tell me how it went, later? I'm Kikol Keria. I usually guard the stables in the afternoons."

"It might take a few days before our schedules line up, but we'll do our best to seek you out," you promise.

"Thank you," Keria says, and finally leaves the room. You hurriedly file into the stairwell.

You would not have thought it was possible to grow immune to luxury and splendor, but that you have. The eastern stairs are the most holy, facing the dawn as they are, and thus the most opulent. There is a mural of the young sun on the eastern wall, bloody with its afterbirth, painting the entire sky red. Divine horses gallop forth along the northern and southern walls, accompanied by sun's rays. At the center, there is a statue of the First Emperor, facing east, palms raised in worship. A skylight above him lets in the light of the late afternoon.

The golden steps bring you to a landing. Vakhas Tiria said that surprisingly, this entrance, too, had alarms whose places could be rearranged. You can see the grid where they must be. There was some manner of hint to help figure out where the traps were this time. Time to get started!

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The works cap for this board is 10!

You stand on the tiles you've identified and the door swings open. You have a single moment of elation before you notice the baffled guard standing in the doorway.

"I wasn't aware of anything planned," he says.

He looks youngish, though there's more braid on his uniform than Khuyel Noria had. One of you says, "We're stablehand-priests, here to purify the various antechambers leading to His Divinity."

For a moment, you fear that he will see through your ruse and sound the alarm, but then he spots the hay on your clothes and immediately grows trusting. "I've actually always been curious about what the rituals of purification entail," he hesitantly says. "And what sort of education a stablehand-priest requires, other than the caretaking of horses."

Excellent! You know you are, collectively, very good at talking. You'll just have to ensure he ends up in awe at all your various and multifaceted talents. Hm, perhaps you should somehow ensure that even your rarer talents are showcased…

---

Surprise! You get some tags to go with your guard! The points cap is 40k per person, and there is no work cap for the guard phase!

(New friend: Kikol Keria)

At long last, Noria gathers himself and goes off to actually do some guarding. You maintain the pretense of cleaning the place just until the door clicks closed behind him, then hurriedly stuff the cleaning implements back into the cupboard and exit through another side door.

This corridor is wrought from gold: bas-relief divine horses with radiate crowns proudly gaze towards the altar room, with conquered peoples trod underfoot. The ceiling is a series of sunbursts. The floor, too, is gold, though without patterning.

A short walk brings you to the other end. The First Emperor stands in front of you in high relief, blood dripping from his saber, a radiate crown on his head.

When you open the door, you get to the antechamber of the eastern staircase. You see mosaic depictions of the Second Emperor marrying his divine horse-bride, this one black as night to symbolize the imperial dominion over night as well as day. She looks to be dead in the mural on the other wall, but you're not sure you ever heard that part of the legend.

The door to the staircase is limned by two large pillars that cut into the room. The rest of the floor is divided into large tiles in various shades of sun colors. Vakhas Tiria said they'd be pressure plates, and you'd have to stand on the correct ones to open the door.

You test stepping on one. It sighs gently. The one next to it makes a slightly different sound.

Looks like you'll have to test them all. No time to start like the present!

---

The works cap for this board is 10.

The young guard is teary-eyed in religious esctasy once you're done feeding the horses carrots. One of you asks him where he was supposed to be going, he straightens up with a jolt. "Oh no! I was supposed to-"

"It's all right, if you hurry you won't be late," you say.

"Thank you for allowing me to help with the second ritual breakfast!" he says, rushes to the door, bows to the horses, and then bolts.

Well. Hopefully he makes it wherever he was supposed to be; you don't really want for him to gush about how he was late because the stablehands involved him in a ritual, triggering a huge investigation.

Actually, he'll probably gush about it anyway, and trigger some sort of jealousy or investigation at some point, but if it's tomorrow, you won't have to care about it.

The next doors in front of you are vast and ornate, carved from single pieces of oak, with high-relief sculptural panels telling the story of how the First Emperor and his horse-bride Sanul conquered the lands of the West, from the steppe to the sea. Bas-relief figures of other divine horses and notable early Emperors rim the scenes. The doors open surprisingly easily for their size. You close them behind you and take in the room they guard.

This must be the ceremonial room. There is a large altarstone, sunk into the floor, limned with gold. At one end of it is a statue of Sanul laying on the ground, giving birth to the Second Emperor. The statue is, if not of solid gold, then at least plated: Sanul shines like the sunlight she is made of. A horseshoe-shaped amphitheater of seats observes her and the altar.

A different door clicks. "But the rituals are complete?" a guard asks. He's at least middle aged, with a uniform more braid than not, and an incredibly bushy moustache.

"Oh, good, we actually needed to find someone," you quickly reply. "We were supposed to do some extra cleaning of the floors but we can't seem to find the cleaning supplies?"

"They're in the closet built into the back of the amphitheater. It's no surprise you didn't find them; it's a bit hard to see. I'll show you."

He is unsuspicious, but you are now burdened with cleaning supplies. "Thank you," you say. "Was there anything…?"

"I, ah, if you don't mind, I would like to meditate at the altar for a moment," he says. "I'm Innol Noria, head of the guards. If you are to be assigned to the stables and ritual spaces often, I expect we will see a lot of each other."

What new people would decline the head of the guards? "Go ahead; we'll be concentrating on the seating anyway," you say.

Hopefully he will leave soon. In the meanwhile, you should probably come up with some convincing chatter between each other…

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Your cap for this phase is 10k!

You bring the hidden carrots with you as you descend to the stables. The bales of hay are in a messy pile from being dropped down, so you stack them up neatly.

The horses are munching on the dregs of their breakfast of hay. In a little bit, the actual stablehands will return from their religious ritual – Vakhas Tiria was unfortunately unable to give you the details – to turn out the horses and muck out their stalls. You inventory the keys and consider the best route in.

"Shouldn't you be at the morning ritual?" a voice asks.

You turn and see an Imperial Guard: he's wearing the iconic red jacket, with some yellow roping and cording, and has the plumed sunburst helmet in his hands. He also looks young and incredibly new.

"We're here to give the horses their second ritual breakfast," one of you lies, holding up the carrots. "Would you like to help us?"

The young guard's face lights up. "Really? It, it would be an immense honor to assist in any way with the divine steeds of the Sun!"

"Of course," you say. You quickly glance at the nameplates on the stalls. "This here is Saras. Would you like to start with her?"

He nods, struck mute by religious ecstasy. Saras lifts her head and easily grabs the proffered treat with her midnight black lips. She's pitch black, but incredibly shiny. You wonder what she'd look like in the sunlight.

You move on, letting the young guard feed each of the horses in turn. It's slowing you down, but, well, you get an incredibly necessary break to admire the horses. You'll still have to convince the guard a bit, but with the carrots, you might even get him to vouch for you later if you play your cards right.

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Your individual cap for Guard 1 is 10k!

Also, this newbie guard is: Khuyel Noria.