So in our most recent session, Sir Baris said “I’m tired of Meden Curo doing things and us saying ‘Oh shit! What now?’ I want us to do something and Curo to say ‘Oh shit! What now?’”
I agree. How can we make Curo spit those words?
Let us make as our goal that there will be civil war in Kaldor in the spring and summer of 733. That's our mission statement. Let us assume that Meden Curo will head one side of that war. We need to find an opposing head.
We already said that whoever comes up first will find themselves ground up in the Curo buzzsaw. Fine. Let's work with that.
We have the Sword. That's our trump card. We can safely assume Curo knows we have the Sword. He's probably figuring that it is safe with us, available for his convenience when the time comes.
So let us work with this. Let us arrange, with suitably mystic & prophetic accoutrement, for the Sword to let fall into the hands of the Other Side, whoever that turns out to be. Then let us go to Meden and ruefully confess that we had the Sword and we somehow manage to let it slip away. Let us give a plausible if embarrassing explanation of how that happened.
This will cause Curo to get frustrated with, and to underestimate, Ewen. This is a good thing. We'll still be on his side, with freedom of initiative, yet also to have given massive support to his enemies. The civil war will be a nearer thing. Whatever support Curo has amassed will mean less. We'll be right next to him, ready to stick a dagger in his back at the first opportunity.
If we say the other side has the Sword, Meden will say "Oh, shit." That's a verifiable "Oh, shit" moment. And it will be a moment where we know what's going on, our plans proceeding apace.