Supplication

This is the 1st Dramatic Situation of Polti. Its Elements are

• A Persecutor: somebody who wants to damage the Suppliant
• A Suppliant asking for help
• a Power in authority whose decision is doubtful

Plot: the Persecutor accuses the suppliant of wrongdoing, the Suppliant asks the Power for help, and the Power has to choose.
The point of this kind of story is that no one knows who the Power is going to help.
The Suppliant may deserve what the Persecutor wants to do to it.

Persecutor

The Persecutor is at least as powerful as the Suppliant, and wants to inflict some kind of damage on it.

If the Persecutor is more or less as powerful as the Suppliant, it needs the Power's help too.

If the Persecutor is more powerful than the Suppliant, but less than Suppliant and Power together, it needs the Power's inaction or to inflict the damage before the Power chooses.

If the Persecutor were more powerful than Suppliant and Power together, it doesn't need to worry about Power's choice.
What is going to do the Persecutor to get the Power's favor? Is it going to wait for the Power's decision? For how long?

PCs as Persecutor

Plan what will happen if the PCs inflict the damage upon the Suppliant before the Power can choose. Some Powers can be relieved they didn't need to choose, some may be offended that their authority was ignored, some may be secretly relieved but publicly offended.

Suppliant

The Suppliant needs the Power's help to avoid the damage the Persecutor wants to inflict to it.

The Suppliant needs the Power's help because it is less powerful than the Persecutor, but the Power and the Suppliant together (or the Power by itself) are more powerful.

The Suppliant may be divided between the Persecuted - the actual Persecutor's target - and the Intercessor - the one that asks the Power for help.

What is going to do the Suppliant to get the Power's favor? Is it putting together a B plan?

PCs as Suppliant

Often, the PCs try to solve their problems by themselves, specially in RPGs with balanced combats, since they get use to get only what they can manage. For they to want to ask for help

• They need to know they need help
• They need to know who to ask for help, and to trust they'll get it
• They need to want to ask for help

If they don't know they need help or who to ask to, this story won't happen and it will become a Disaster, Vengeance or whatever it was supposed to be avoided.
If they don't want to ask for help, either you get an Intercessor to ask for help for them, or you acknowledge their will and let this become a Sacrifice, in which they sacrifice themselves for the ideal of self-reliance.

Power in authority

If it is less powerful than the Persecutor, the Power can be susceptible to threats or fear from it.

What can influence the Power’s decision?
Is the Power partial to either side or is it really neutral?

The Power and the Persecutor can be in the same element: As Persecutor, it has trapped the Suppliant and can finally have its way with it, but then the Suppliant asks for mercy, tries to deceive it, to convince the Persecutor it doesn’t deserve the punishment. The Persecutor has trapped the Suppliant, its father's murderer, and it's going to finally take revenge, but then the Suppliant claims to have been framed, and now the Persecutor doubts
If the Suppliant is divided, the Intercessor is who asks the Persecutor to stop its hand. The Persecutor has trapped the Suppliant, its father's murderer, and it's going to finally take revenge, but then the Suppliant's own children try to stop it.

PCs as Power

You need to make the PCs worry about the decision and making them doubt. Whose right? What are the consequences of helping either?
They need to be able to stop the Persecutor if they want to (either by themselves or with the Suppliant's help)
They need to doubt about the Suppliant.

Development

Both the Persecutor and the Suppliant may be getting what they need to escape/punish in case the Power decides against them or while it doubts (Daring Enterprise)

A turned down Persecutor may start a Conspiracy against the Power.

If the Power denies its help to the Suppliant, this story develops into Vengeance, Disaster or Falling Prey to Cruelty/Misfortune. Actually, if the Power decides against the Persecutor and this is more powerful, it may develop into a Disaster when the Persecutor turns its armies against Power and Suppliant.

If the Suppliant is denied by the Power, it may start a new Pursuit.

There may be a Sacrifice required should the Power help the Suppliant.

If the Persecutor is too powerful, the decision can mix with a Fatal Imprudence should the Power be partial to the Suppliant.