darkbard
Legend
The only way to get the final success is to lift the curse. An actual Ritual (if she would accept it)...destroying the one who cursed her...entering her dreams and felling Gormandt & Grimtail; but that last would have implications for the temporal continuity of your world.
Okay, with this in mind, we shall put the attempt to Assuage Gae'al's Burden on hold for a time, returning to this:
The slight dragonborn takes a sip (something resembling bourbon but with a tremendous, fiery kick), savors it, and says:
"Word has it that a tax is soon to be levied on the Bantouk citizenry to formally construct a garrison for the fine Legionnaires who delivered our city from a fate worse than death! I think this is a fine, fine course of action; a great investment both for them and for the general Bantoukian riffraff on the street who dare to complain about their presence. Quartering them proper is both an honor and a duty...and I think it should firmly quell any...reported <said with incredulity> ...street violence or untoward, likely provoked, interaction with the low members of our fine home."
CHANVATI considers Naaphid's words and carefully considers his own before responding. In times past, the Dragonborn Inquisitors were steadfast in their unquestioned loyalty to the Emperor or Empress. When an Inquisition was mobilized, one could be sure it was the will of the Imperial Throne in action.
In recent years, however, there have been rumblings that the Inquisitors have developed agendas of their own, and that they have exploited a perceived weakness in the current Empress, still gaining her majority, in enacting those plans. Such rumors leaked from the staterooms of the Palace--Bita-Bousseh has born witness of such--and circulated among the merchants, the artisans, even the commoners of Bantouk, spurred on by their ill treatment under this Inquisition or that.
Does Naaphid, in his eagerness to appear among the Movers and Shakers of Bantoukian politics, reveal too much of his own, and his faction's, designs in the current agitation and worry that besets the citizenry? Undoubtedly so. He is a grafter, looking to exploit the Legion's profiteering for his own.
"Legate Naaphid," Chanvati observes the formalities despite the venue, "do I have it aright that Her Imperial Majesty's Inquisitors favor taxation of her citizenry on the bahalf of the current occupiers?"
Chanvati makes a Primary Skill Insight check to read Naaphid's motives here. We're trying to establish that (1) the general discontent at the occupation by Bantouk's citizenry is being exacerbated by disloyalty and graft among her own servants and (2) subsequently (and beyond the action of this Skill Challenge in all likelihood), if the Empress does not begin to assume responsibilities directly, her servants will thus further undermine her power.
r7+17=24 vs 20 Moderate DC. Success.