Quick facts
Chancellor Fenwick Ansible was the public face of Coghaven’s government, the gnome who led the few at the top living comfortably as long as they kept up the charade that the city ran itself. He ended up one-legged and stuffed in Wilbur’s bag of holding, where he died.
History
According to the Black Parade, Ansible led the handful of gnomes who did well under the machine while everyone else was forced into labor. Bram Briar argued the Chancellor must hold the secrets to taking the machine down, so the resistance and The FAM went for his office in the Rotunda.
During the Black Parade’s distraction, Ansible assured his council that the noise was a minor disturbance at the eastern works, and that the new enforcement units he had approved would reduce it to a line in a maintenance log, just as Coghaven had met every morning for forty years. Meanwhile Escher slipped into his office and took documents, 2,500 gold, and a journal bundled with Ansible’s seal of office. The documents showed that even Ansible did not know the full answer, because the machine had taken over everything.
Ellery threw Wilbur’s smoke device into the council chamber. Ansible hit his panic button and drones flooded the Rotunda. While the invisible party went for the vault behind a portrait, Escher tackled the Chancellor to search him for a key. When a drone grabbed Ansible’s leg and started a tug-of-war, Escher cut the leg off with his flame blade and dragged the Chancellor over to press his eye against the vault’s retinal scanner.
Down the stairs, Wilbur stuffed the bleeding Chancellor into his bag of holding. He died there, and his body is still in the bag. His notes pointed the party toward Packaging, Shipping & Logistics or the forges as the place where the machine’s power sources were held.