Again we had too many players for a story game but we still managed to eke out some awesome.

The death of the primary heir of a local noblewoman. Simta, the noblewoman: Ben. Rdita, the secondary heir: Omero.
A warrior-priestess of a truly bloodthirsty cult. Saqi: Xander.
A practitioner of law with her several secretaries. Sahar, the steward of the law: Jerome. Farshad, the double-agent Secretary/Cultist: Jamie.

We lost a player as we began framing scenes, so we quickly wrote that character out and made do. There was surprisingly little aimlessness considering a couple characters were left with only one best interest.

Some Archipelago resolution moments:

Rdita made an alchemical draught for his sister - that's what killed her. "That might not be so easy." Yes, he made the potion but he never intended for it to kill her. This was kind of neat because it was in the backstory - we gained more insight into the backstory from the use of the card.

Farshad found evidence of the murder in Rdita's room. "That might not be so easy." Yes, but only if something unrelated went wrong. The cult found out he was also a Secretary, and he was demoted. This angered him at the cult, and he later double-crossed Saqi.

Saqi and Sahar arguing by the old sacrificial mound of the cult: Saqi stabs Sahar in the head, killing her. "That might not be so easy." Yes, but only if you make a sacrifice - Saqi is surrounded by secretaries and inquisitors, who have arrows that will trap her spirit in the catacombs, a fate worse than death for someone in a moon cult. She accepts the sacrifice and they both die.

I really like what Archipelago resolution cards do. They almost always advance the story in strange tangential ways.

And the best scene, which didn't come out of the mechanics at all, but just Ben and the rest being awesome - Simta has an opiate-induced dream of her many murdered husbands, whom the rest of us play. At first she's seeing us one at a time but then we all crowd around her - and start introducing ourselves to each other and talking amongst ourselves and sharing reminisces about what it was like being married to her. (Jerome gets props for being the first husband to introduce himself to another husband.)

"No, Thunderbolt was a good horse!"

Yeah, the dead husbands all mingling in Simta's dream was simply priceless. I wasn't sure it would be a really fruitful scene (an interesting vignette maybe in an earlier part of the game, but not a good fit so close to the climax) but you guys took it and _ran_ with it. I nearly busted a gut laughing when Jerome shook hands with Omero: "Hello, I'm Agamemnon."