>>3868095
After a short rest, you’ve left your newly bought goods in the rented room and set off to check out the dwarves. They weren’t very happy since Ethean ships attracted all of the attention from their caravan and thus not many people traded for dwarven goods. This caravan is one of the first to reach the surface in this region. It seems that your small adventure allowed them to map the relatively safe passage and the dwarves went to work on reinforcing the path. The Labyrinth entrances that allow for safe passage to the dwarven settlements are rare and very precious. Looks like your actions had more consequences than you thought, but you think that this was a good thing in this case.

However, since it is one of the first caravans, the goods selection is not as big as you’d want. The Labyrinth traders had to be mobile just in case and thus their carts are small and carry mostly light goods that, while being value dense, could be dumped in case they were forced to flee. Thus, they didn’t carry refined metals or carriages full of high-grade gear and tools which always had high demand on the surface. Instead they took several rolls of exotic fabrics as well as numerous small crafts made out of precious metals and gems. They did have some of the weapons and tools made out of high grade dwarven steel and even several examples created out of “mythic metal”, but they didn’t have many of them. What interested you the most was a small supply of goods produced by the lamia village carried in dwarven made containers made out of clear glass.

You decided to take a large decorated glass jar full of healing honey. While pricy, it is incredibly valuable for you. This blueish green solution is capable of promoting a wide variety of processes in the human bodies which are connected with healing and recovery. Essentially, it is treated as cure-all. This honey helps with fighting diseases, dealing with toxins, healing wounds and so on. It is even known to heal certain chronic conditions, in particular liver damage, certain age-related diseases and a wide range of respiratory conditions suffered by the dwarf miners such as silicosis. There were no treatments for these things that didn’t involve surgical replacement of lungs or expensive nanites in your time. However, while it works at an amazing rate and effectiveness, it is not omnipotent. If the condition is too severe it might not heal fast enough to save the patient or the effect might wear off before the damage is dealt with. In addition, while it helps the wounds to heal without scars, it doesn’t deal with existing scarring and by extension it would not repair the damaged heart long after a heart attack or already incorrectly healed bones and other similar conditions.

>>3868101
You also take a single small container with antitoxin cream. While it doesn’t have all of the healing effects of the honey, it has a highly enhanced effect on various kinds of poisons, venoms and germ caused diseases. Upon consumption or application to the wound it causes an almost instant effect that lasts for several hours. The body is purged from all toxins even if they are far above life threatening doses. It also massively enhances the immune system to the point that even the most severe diseases are dealt with within less than an hour. Considering that users don’t go down with severe liver and kidney failure, it also protects those organs from damage. Some side effects might include loss of consciousness, severe sweating and symptoms to severe food poisoning but that happens only if you were pumped full of venom or in similar life-threatening situations.

From the dwarven goods you decided to take a roll of Infernostrand. It is a rough but flame-resistant fabric that is extracted from a type of plant that dwarves grow in their settlements. It has low thermal conductivity which makes it perfect for protecting the workers against intense heat in forges or in line of firefighting duties or monster hunting. Dwarves prefer it to the another relatively popular fire protection fabric: asbestos. They are well aware of the life-threatening effects of this material and they use it rarely even if it is cheaper than the infernostrand. For you it is highly important since you were planning to kickstart your metallurgic industries. It should help for smaller projects, but you’ll have to import way more if you want a real large factory.

In the end you decided to grab a large bag of quarry nuts. Dwarves took it along as long-lasting foodstuff, but they took way too much, and since it is not grown on the surface, they decided to sell it as an exotic food. The nuts are large, comparable to tennis balls and if not cracked open they last for one to two years. Inside they contain a highly nutritious paste that is similar to sweetened peanut butter. You haven’t eaten peanut butter since childhood because you developed an allergy on most nuts. You think that it would be a nice addition to your birthday meal and you’ll have a lot of them leftover for later.

>>3868103
In the end, you had some “change” left over from the purchases. Well, it is not correct to call it a change, you can buy several meals in an expensive restaurant with that sum, but you did plan to spend it on this trip. You don’t have enough to buy anything that important or interesting, but you can grab something small…

You only have enough for one:
>Mythic metal switch-knife made by the dwarves. While the blade is smaller than in hunting knives, it has a spring and a folding mechanism which allows it to fold in half so that the blade enters the opening in the hilt for easier carry.
>A wooden box with a checkerboard pattern on top. It contains two sets of metal figurines of dwarven warriors along with a bunch of small metal discs made out of colored brass. It somewhat reminds you of chess
>A single piece of jewelry made of gold or silver
>You’d like to keep the money for later

>>3868104
>>A wooden box with a checkerboard pattern on top. It contains two sets of metal figurines of dwarven warriors along with a bunch of small metal discs made out of colored brass. It somewhat reminds you of chess
we can teach it to Rheia and she might find uses for it, playing against others while we are away

>>3868104

>A wooden box with a checkerboard pattern on top. It contains two sets of metal figurines of dwarven warriors along with a bunch of small metal discs made out of colored brass. It somewhat reminds you of chess

A nice game to kick everyone's asses with with our superior intelect kek

>>3868104

>A wooden box with a checkerboard pattern on top. It contains two sets of metal figurines of dwarven warriors along with a bunch of small metal discs made out of colored brass. It somewhat reminds you of chess

I wanted the knife too but the game seems better

>>3868104

>Mythic metal switch-knife made by the dwarves. While the blade is smaller than in hunting knives, it has a spring and a folding mechanism which allows it to fold in half so that the blade enters the opening in the hilt for easier carry.

>>3868104
>A wooden box with a checkerboard pattern on top. It contains two sets of metal figurines of dwarven warriors along with a bunch of small metal discs made out of colored brass. It somewhat reminds you of chess

>>3868110
>>3868112
>>3868115
>>3868117
>>3868119
Chess board wins. Writing

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>>3868133
Your eyes catch a wooden box with a checkerboard pattern inside of a marked area painted on one of its sides. Inside of this box there were several figurines of stylized dwarven warriors as well as numerous flat pieces. Apparently, they are used in alternative game rules similar to checkers while the main set is played like chess with some differences in rules. However, the figurines would allow for classical chess rules since each side includes 8 identical pieces, three sets of two identical pieces each and two unique pieces. Looks like the famous game successfully survived through the ages. You decided to buy the board. You would probably beat the majority of players since the amount of possible combinations is limited and you can always pick the optimal strategy, but you can still teach Rheia how to play it and this board is much higher quality than the one you’ve made back in Farsalos out of carved wood.

In any case, with the purchases done you need to head back. You’ve spent a whole day going through the city and picking up ingredients and curiosities and as much as you’d like to go and see how the lamia village is doing, you can’t carry all of your purchases there and you don’t want to risk Rheia who doesn’t have much in terms of armor. She is a human after all. In addition, you are somewhat cutting your time short with the building projects so it would be better for you to return here at a later date. But to be fair, getting from Farsalos to Mesino for you is comparable to driving to the Columbus city center from where your flat used to be. A matter of a couple hours or maybe even less.

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>>3868221
So, as the night fell you’ve taken all of your stuff, wrapped it in sackcloth and tied it together before lifting off with Rheia half asleep on your back while picking the side of the wall that had next to no guards at the time. The flight back was almost completely uneventful. You flew past the Milisi fort where apparently most of the Cenophilan army was packing up for the trip towards a larger base further inland leaving two thousand people as a garrison along with the entirety of their siege engine corps. From there you could make a direct turn for Farsalos flying above the forest treetops. On the way you’ve managed to take a good look at what damage the Mad Goddess has done. A large chunk of the forest has completely lost its leaves as the trees died out while the ground is covered in the last decaying remnants of the previous infestation along with half skeletal remains of the infected creatures. You’re glad that you’ve managed to nip this problem in the bud, but you still feel like you were incredibly lucky. As if she mostly surrendered out of respect than if she was actually defeated. The smell of this entire area is… not that great so you increased your altitude and continued on your way getting to Farsalos at around 2 am in the morning. Rhea yawned, picked up her own purchases and went home to continue her nap while you unloaded your stuff into your house’s cellar.

You then proceed to start with the preparation. When morning dawns it would be the last day of February and you’d have only two days left to prepare. There is a lot to do, such as making the candles and soap that you’ve bought the oils for. Your candles would be made out of Stearin, a compound that was used after its invention in 1816 to completely replace fat candles until it was pushed out by much cheaper paraffin created as a byproduct in oil industries. Since then it was used only in scented candles for its pleasant smell which was almost missing from its paraffin alternative. The processing is simple and consists out of two steps. First of all, you boil fat with slacked lime in the form of lime water resulting in a material called lime soap, which can’t be actually used to wash hands. The proportions are for every unit of fat you add 15% of its mass in water and 14% of the lime water. The process lasts for 6 to 8 hours during which the pot is constantly kept hot with the lime water being added slowly to prevent the loss of temperature. Once you no longer see droplets of fat floating in the liquid it is the sign that the lime soap is ready.

>>3868223
Then you let this thing sit and filter out the liquid which is almost completely glycerin and the remaining solid stuff is the soap. As a second step you add about two times as much acid as the lime soap into the pot, boil it for 3 to 4 hours and let it sit again. You get three layers: at the bottom you get gypsum, above it you get water with gypsum and on top you have stearin which then gets placed in small pouches made out of sackcloth and squeezed to deal with remaining acid after which then it can be molten and poured into forms. The strings themselves need to be boiled in lye for several hours, washed in water and then whitened with bleaching powder, but that’s just the final polish which is not really necessary. The oils are mixed into molten stearin before it is poured. For the soap you need sodium hydroxide and fat either plant or animal. However, plant fat would produce liquid soap. There are two ways to make soap: you either heat the ingredients to 80-90 degrees or let them wait for 4-6 weeks. For obvious reasons you use the former. The trick is the proportions: if you have too much fat you end up with bubbles of fat in the soap while if you add too much sodium hydroxide the soap would burn the hands. Luckily your skin can sense acidity and thus you managed to do it correctly from the first try.

By the dawn of the next day, you end up with quite a lot of candles and scented soap. You literally have several boxes of each now for your personal use and you proceed to get some well-deserved bath using the freshly made soap. Now you only have two days left before the birthday and you still need to prepare the table, decorations and most importantly, the cake. Also, from the looks of it Haven and Sigrid have already arrived to the village…

>Let’s deal with the cake first since what birthday goes without it?
>Let’s tackle the food and decorations first
>Go and meet your team. Maybe you could ask them to help you a bit?
>Other ideas?

>>3868226
>>Go and meet your team. Maybe you could ask them to help you a bit?

I wanted to ask Haven to take a look at the cult just to see how things are going while we prepare

invite Sig to help us with decorations!
and when haven is done she can help us with the cake

>>3868230
>>3868226
i support that

>>3868230
I support

Adding to it

Ask both of them how are birthdays celebrated where they come from
Use the decorations they talk about.

>>3868226
>>3868230
+1

Sig....

Ask them how's the hunting, and tell about our encounter in pelagia too

>>3868240
>>3868235
>>3868230
talk with them a bit about whatever is happening in general, nothing heavy just friends having fun

>>3868240
oh yeah, after we are done with decorations and the cake invite them for drinks at night and discuss with them our future meeting with Elspeth, see what they think about it

>>3868244
Seems good, having a nice quiet dinner and then dropping some bombs lol

>>3868253
>>3868244
>>3868241
>>3868240
>>3868235
>>3868232
>>3868230
Alright, writing

>>3868261
There was a delay due to my mother returning home. Still writing, sorry

>>3868378
Ended up with three pages, posting

>>3868566
Since your friends have just arrived, it would be rude not to greet them, right? You end up inviting both of them for a dinner where you could talk about the various things. First of all, the three of you traded the stories from what happened while you were away. For Sigrid it was not that eventful since she just paid a visit to the nearby town to meet a few people and to grab the present for your birthday. She has prepared it initially as a way to thank you for the armor, but when you told her about the birthday, she decided that it would be the excellent opportunity to gift it. However, she would like it to remain a surprise until the party.

For Haven she has managed to get to her family’s estate to the north of Teryia with no incident but she ended up enrolled into a small issue with local outlaws that were bothering the farmers that work for her house. She had to spend several days hunting them through the nearby forest until she has managed to kill their leader and flee undetected. This should help with the issue, but she dislikes doing that kind of work since it is disturbing for her. She much prefers monster hunting, saying that at least then the monster is on the outside. The return went without a hiccup, but she says that her family are getting curious about her new employer. Apparently, that’s how she explained the previous huge winnings for clearing the dwarven fortress. It is not like she could tell them the truth, right? “Hey, guys, guess who found an unknown benevolent deity in the middle of nowhere that took me along for a giant monster slaying adventure in the Labyrinth?” There are few things that would sound less believable.

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>>3868584
Of course, your story wins all awards for eventfulness and for a few minutes your companions are not sure what to say. In the end, Sigrid thinks that your decision might be a correct one. Gods don’t really like being lied to so the sooner you get that out of the way the less issues you might get from them. Also, that would allow you to learn the craft, so to say. As you already know, in her people’s myths the gods at first didn’t know how to correctly be gods and thus they caused a lot of suffering and calamities so she thinks that this is an opportunity for you to learn how to correctly apply your powers in a way that would not hurt your followers. For Haven it is just all very confusing since it partially attacks her own belief system. The goddess patron of her House and in general the gods of elven pantheon were much more distant figures. Bullshitting your way past the Cups, hiding from the pantheon or personally meeting the gods themselves is something that even for great heroes is considered an extremely rare honor. It does happen much more often in Ceno mythology and she has accepted your being, but it is still a bit culturally shocking for her and she is not sure what to say on this subject. For elves, gods are not supposed to be like people but immortal and overpowered, they are supposed to be near omnipotent and omniscient beings so things that happen with you are almost an inherent contradiction to the natural order. This is not how gods should work in her head, essentially, so she needs some time to readjust. You almost can’t wait for her to meet Nike’ who was also invited to the party.

You also want to know more about the ways birthdays are celebrated in their homelands. Regarding Haven, she is not sure how the commoners celebrated their birthdays since she is from the nobility, but for her it was a large social event with lots of invited guests, mild amounts of food/alcohol on the tables to the sides of the large hall where invited nobles chatted. If it was the child’s birthday, usually the people forgot about them being there after the cake was cut and presents were given. Such things are usually more about demonstrating wealth of the noble family and showing off the newer additions to it such as small children reaching certain ages. For adults it was much rarer with the one exception of the 21st birthday where the elf officially becomes an adult. Adults themselves sometimes had smaller parties, celebrated with small parts of their families or didn’t celebrate at all. Haven herself, who is actually 38, hasn’t celebrated birthdays since she became 21 years old. Adults most usually create celebrations based on large events or achievements such as marriage, birth of healthy children or some large success. More well-off nobles celebrated more often to show off their riches and success while higher nobles and royal family can afford to celebrate every birthday for the immediate family of the house leaders.

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>>3868595
For Sigrid, birthdays are almost never celebrated. The luxuries were relatively scarce and the children mortality was higher than in most Ceno in their homeland so instead they celebrate specific achievements. The birthday is celebrated only at the day of birth and it is a celebration of the mother who survived childbirth or the mourning if that didn’t happen. The personal celebrations would be something like surviving the improbable odds or achieving something great. For most people the first such celebration is reaching adulthood and succeeding in the right of passage. However, now since they live in Ceno, they are no longer as resource starved and so they slowly integrate local celebrations into their lives.

In the end, you ask Sig to assist you with preparations while you ask Haven to check up on the cult. You wonder what they’ve been up to while you were gone. You can’t really check up on them yourself since they’d never be honest with you for obvious reasons and you don’t have the time for sneaking around when your birthday is in less than two days. She agrees, drops off her gear at one of the spare rooms in your house and sets off into the village. In the meantime, you start preparing the food. Cake and all cream products even in your time didn’t survive for more than a day, speaking even less in a world with next to no refrigeration. Before setting off you’ve purchased some good cuts of beef and pork as well as some ocean fish so the first order of business is to deal with the meat and veggies.

Regarding the pork, you’ve managed to get yourself an excellent piece of ribeye. It has an amazing piece of fat that separates the “chain” from the “ribeye” itself and when cooked this fat imparts more and more flavor into the meat making it almost melt in the mouth. You’ve added some artichokes that are home grown here in Cenophila along with some salt and the black pepper that you’ve bought from the Etheans. The trick is to wrap the meat tight in a cloth and let it chill in the fridge to cut it into exact portions, which reminded you that with and manual TK powered fridge might need some upgrading to do in the future. Add garlic, rosemary and into the pan it goes. It should be sizzling or it is not hot enough. Then you melt some butter in the same pan and use a spoon to spread it over the meat. Absolutely delicious.

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>>3868607
Well, you can’t explain everything that you do, right? So, the beef gets turned into some delicious steaks but some of it gets minced and made into some excellent shepherd’s pie. Locals also make pies, but they don’t actually eat the crust using it as a sort of bowl. You prefer pies that can be sliced and eaten with the crust so you use thinner dough and send them into the oven to cook. Alongside Sigrid decided to prepare one of her homeland’s fish dishes. It seems to be fish fillet with a side dish of potatoes and gravy and it smells great.

In the end you’ve made a bunch of different pastries. From the sugar you manage to get yourself some caramel as both an ingredient and the pastry itself as you poured molten sugar into some molds. You’ve bought a decent amount of wheat flour, milk and eggs by making a small trip to Mirangi and you have a lot of different dried fruits so you made come cookies, muffins, several fruit pies one of which is filled with various berries that you’ve gathered in the local forest. You’ve also managed to make some cinnamon rolls using what you’ve bought from the Etheans. Unfortunately, you couldn’t find any sweet apples since apple trees don’t reproduce in a way that allows for their cultivation without the know- how, but you’ve managed to get your hands on a pumpkin which ended up becoming into some delicious pumpkin pies. And in the very end, you’ve prepared some peanut butter cup cookies because of course you did, those quarry nuts taste so well…

The time flew by quickly while you’ve managed to assemble all the dishes prepared and stored for the guests. Rheia also came to help you out a bit with the cookies and Haven returned with the news just in time for the main event: the preparation of the cake itself. You are thinking of making a naked cake with some local fresh fruit and berries along with some dried fruit in the dough and some whipped cream. It sounds nice and refreshing. But what cake would you like and how big should you make it? Oh, and the news is that there are two more cultists but the situation is somewhat the same as it was, they are just hanging out in that emergency exit. They were debating about what kind of deity you are and they ended up deciding to wait and see for now beyond stuff like protector of Farsalos and mentioning your general altruism.

>Make the cake reasonably sized. I mean, it is for you, your hunter buddies, Rheia and Nike, it doesn’t have to be that huge
>Make the cake a bit bigger, you and Nike could probably eat a lot more than the human guests
>Make it into a three-layered huge tower. You can share that with the rest of the village but it would bite into a god chunk of the remaining sugar and dried fruits
>Other ideas/changes?

>>3868620

>Make the cake a bit bigger, you and Nike could probably eat a lot more than the human guests

Enough to have to spare

>>3868620
>>Make the cake a bit bigger, you and Nike could probably eat a lot more than the human guests

>>3868635
>>3868620
I agree
Thought about sharing it, but this is a private event

>>3868620

>Make the cake a bit bigger, you and Nike could probably eat a lot more than the human guests

Let's see if we can rope Heaven into drinking a little at the dinner, comme up with an excuse its to taste test the beverages, its fun hehehe

>>3868620
>Make the cake a bit bigger, you and Nike could probably eat a lot more than the human guests

It'd be nice to keep a good stock of the stuff we bought just in case we want / need to make more cakes or something.

>>3868635
>>3868636
>>3868639
>>3868644
>>3868656
writing

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symbol idea. Did the picture before you said copper on gold is indistinct. Might work since the copper is big, or use a different colour for that. Or guarded by Sable. fits our deeds.

colour symbolism:
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/3786716/#p3790150

biggish cake

not this:
>>3868644
not comfortable doing that from a position of authority.
if she doesn't seem to be having fun later, maybe offer to keep an eye on her if she does want to drink.

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>>3868711
You decide to make the cake big, but not too big just in case someone would like some more of it or if you’d get some unannounced guests. Luckily, making a cake with your powers was not that difficult since juggling the ingredients with telekinesis makes cooking very easy. In addition, even if you don’t have the mixer you can still whip the cream up manually with even more TK. In the end, the cake is done by the end of the first March. Whole day and a half of cooking, cleaning, decorating and so on. And it was actually a good idea to make the cake bigger since you’ve just heard a knock on the door…

As you open it you can see two women standing in front of your house. One is obviously Nike’ since she is using the same disguise that she had the last time she was in Farsalos. The other one, however, is a complete stranger to you. She is an elven woman with short blonde hair and gentle facial features. She slightly bows to you when you open the door and you note that she has one of those hairpins. This almost gives you a heart attack. Did Nike’ bring another goddess here?! Nika notices your initial reaction and replies quietly: “Don’t worry, she is my Muse”. You breathe out in relief and let the two of them in. Damn, this is the first time you’ve lost calm like this, your face is burning up.

Nike’ and her cup walk through the door and after closing it behind her Nika says in English: “Sorry for the scare, Ag, please welcome Mina, one of my most promising Muses of Courage. Well... it’s a bit awkward, but that’s what I meant under the unconventional present. For the next several years Mina would serve you as the Oracle of this village as well as assisting you however possible. If you’d choose not to take her along for your adventures, she would help with the defense of the village. Don’t worry, I will consider it a part of practical training for her and I would send a more conventional Oracle once her service runs out. And she knows of your situation so no need to hide that. Please treat her well.”

>>3868933
The Muse removes her masking pin revealing that it was only hiding the fact that she is basically fully geared up along with a large backpack full of her posessions. She bows to you again and says “It would be an honor serving you, goddess Agatha”. While her armor is not the most practical thing, judging by the lack of the helmet alone, it still covers the rest of her body and it looks tough and expertly made plus you assume that she has some other protection like, for example, Matilda’s shield. She is armed with a large two-handed sword that is a bit too long and broad to be a bastard sword. She also has a longbow but she doesn’t own a shield. You direct her to a spare guestroom where she is free to unload her stuff while you mull this over with Nike’.

“Look, I understand that you might not accept her service as a gift, and do I have a plan B” she says showing you a small box with a masking hairpin inside. It has a small engraving of Nike’s symbol on it and you’ve just noticed that all of her hairpins had those. “I’ve never used it and I’m not sure what it is programmed to display, sorry. So, I’d like you to carefully consider this. Mina would serve you as essentially your first Cup Bearer for a couple years, maybe more depending on circumstances. While she is not artificially compelled to do so, she would follow your commands to the best of her ability. She can also provide her own input on the situations and she has passed the strategy, tactics and leadership courses with flying colors if you ever need her to micromanage people for you such as the local militia. She has limited talent with the illusions, but she is a very promising user of telekinesis for self- enhancement. That is the main reason why I picked her for this job.

While I don’t think that you are that kind of person, I feel obliged to inform you that she is not, in fact, a slave, plus using her as simply your maid would be somewhat wasteful of her talent, but if you really want it she could pull her weight by doing chores for you. I just think that it would be way faster and easier with your telekinesis or just by hiring a peasant. In any case, if you are uncomfortable with this arrangement, you have an option to refuse. Then I’d give you this hairpin, we forget that this ever happened and I’ll beam a normal Oracle here once the shrine is up and running. What do you say?”

>>3868941
________________________________
And on this note we have to wrap up this week’s session. Next session would continue in this thread since I find it better to compress the archives as much as possible for the sake of convenience. I would like to profoundly apologize for the recent starting schedule of SGQ. I always plan to wake up earlier, but stuff like night coughing causes me to always oversleep or get too tired to start even if I wake up on time. So, from now on, if no one minds, the quest would start around two hours later than the initial plans (aka a bit earlier than when we started today).

Feel free to discuss, ask questions and make suggestions. For now, the topic would be Nike’s controversial present and whether you’d like to accept it or not as well as how do you want to actually handle the birthday.

>>3868945
Nice, I say we accept the Cup's service, Nike thinks it would be useful for our border town and I trust her judgement, and I think it would be better too.

Hold her hand and look at her thankfully

"No need Nike, if you think she can help me and these people I'll gladly accept and try to make her train and grow and a Muse, thank you."

>>3868945
i sincerely hope your health gets better, what you describe sounds aweful

now to the cup-shaped elephant in the house,
i would accept her and have her start her job at the shrine, otherwise i would propose that she starts training the milita members, since that is something that they surely need
i would give her relatively free reign in that matter if she has prior exeprience with weapons and tactics, as long as she consults us if there is a big decision to make

>>3868945
nice

we can put her to work like >>3868980 said, giving her relative freedom to act and she can be instrumental in securing the passage to the dwarven town we cleared to the surface too

as for nike

I like this>>3868975, maybe we can get her flustered again

we could also joke around with her and tell she is already bringing other women into our thing, an obvious comeback to the joke we did when she gave us the ring as a gift kek

positive to Mina. Nike's been good to us so far, so I'm only minimally paranoid about her. also it looks like we're joining the Ceno pantheon? so having some influence from someone we like from there is fine.

we still need to be careful with the optics of her role in our militia.
who's in charge currently?
other notable members?
common sentiment on Ceno pantheon and us?

should she be the oracle that also helps with military things, or actually have authority under us?

on paranoia about Nike (just from giving anyone else influence in the village):
do >>3868975 and carefully gauge her reaction.
Mina is invited to the party.

>>3869962
we only just met her and she is gonna be in a similar position to us as an employee would be, while building trust and relationship is something important this is a party for Ag and our friends
we can give her some cake and food tho

>>3869975
I think it would be rude not to invite her since she is staying at our guest bedroom

To get things started with her, both in testing her abilities and how reliable she is, we should bring her along to secure and map the Labyrinth near the surface entrance.

>>3869978
if i get outvoted with the party i don't mind, it was just my 2 cents

i agree with bringing her to the labyrinth, obviously she would be able to refuse

there's a reason it's under Nike paranoia things. using Mina to her full potential requires trusting Nike and her. I want to give both the people we want to trust the chance to show we shouldn't.

but >>3870028 is right it'd be awkward and put the focus on her.

we have fireworks, so at least part of the event is going to be public. maybe:
lead with the normal party, with only the people we know.
wait with presents until it's getting dark, and have Nike introduce hers not long before we go outside for the fireworks.

do we have any plan for involving the villagers? again, you can't have private fireworks.
how much is "just massive amounts" of dried fruit? could share with the villagers during the fireworks?

how early does it get dark?

>>3870155
i agree with this, we can leave a piece of cake for Mina, same with a bit of food and when doing the fireworks if kids come out to look at it, we can give out a bit of dried fruit for them

>>3870155
we introduce her as the new oracle, maybe later we can talk in private with Sig and Haven and tell them who NIke and MIna really are since the others in the village are not in on the secret

the fireworks are for everyone I guess but I'd refrain from distributing the dried fruits, maybe we can give it to them to use in a proper festival or something later
and the fireworks are going to be set on top of our house? do we have a balcony or a terrace on it to observe them?

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>>3870155
You are correct regarding not having private fireworks. It could also disturb the villagers since they didn't know what a firework is so for purposes of safety you have warned the village of the event beforehand and you gave them a simplified explanation of what fireworks are and what they should expect.

Regarding dried fruit, we have multiple large waist sized bags (pic related) about one bag of each type and our current cooking only slightly but noticeably dipped into the total supply. If we made the largest cake option, we would have spent around a fourth or fifth of our dried fruit supplies. Currently they are in our private reserves for personal use and sharing a little with the villagers would not be too expensive. However, sharing more than what they could eat on the spot would get expensive fast.

Regarding darkness, there is little in terms of light pollution so the night sky with stars is easily visible. The daylight at the current month lasts from around 7:00 to 19:45 and it is very dark between around 21:15 to 5:30. Our region’s climate is very similar to Mediterranean with similar latitude just in southern hemisphere.

>>3868945
After some considerations, you have decided that accepting Mina would be the best decision. First of all, you trust Nike’s judgement and she thinks that it would help us with protecting Farsalos. However, for now she would stay in the village. She could train the local militia, assist in the defense if needed and do her duties as an Oracle, which is mostly being a human telephone for the gods and sometimes giving advices to mortals. You are thinking of giving her relatively free reign in her actions as long as she consults you in case of some controversial or major decisions. She might be instrumental in clearing out the Labyrinth in the local area, but for now you’ll put a hold on that and on allowing her to command local militia. While there is no doubt that Nike’s Muse would have no problem directing them, you would like to know her more before you trust her with something that important. In addition, while you trust Nike’, taking her muse along for the adventures requires a little bit more trust than you have for her at the moment. However, for now you’ve decided that she is invited to your birthday party. There is no reason why she can’t get a piece of the cake, right?

Luckily, your enhanced mind allows you to reach this serious decision within only a few moments so you didn’t leave Nika waiting. You smiled and took her hand saying: "No need, Nike, if you think she can help me and these people, I'll gladly accept and try to make her train and grow as a Muse, thank you.” This response was obviously not expected by the war goddess who is for a few moments stunned and slowly turning red. Not willing to lose the momentum, you say with a smirk: “It has only been a few months but you’re already bringing other women in our thing?” Nike cracks up and laughs: “I’m never going to live that ring down, huh? I almost forgot that they had this meaning long ago. I think that the only place that still uses rings as the symbol of marriage is the Holy Nation. In Ceno people most often use an amulet with Val’s symbol on it. Well, I’m glad that you’ve decided to accept Mina.”

>>3879462
You nod and lead her to a spare guest room so that she could drop off and change after the journey. While she can teleport, you have never seen her fly so her trip was probably less convenient than yours. With your guests dealt with, you look at the time and it is just a few hours until midnight. You think that your mother told you that you were born at 3 or 4 am on second March. Only 6 hours left. So why can’t we start the birthday now, even though it is still technically the first March? You fire up the ovens and pull out the dishes that you’ve decided to serve for this dinner and after everything was warming up you just need to get your new linen tablecloth out.

You’ve expected that someday you’d have many guests in your new home so you’ve made your dining room with a large table fit for a dozen people. Considering that the building is fortified, it would technically make your home into a type of castle, your dining room into a “Great Hall” of your own small keep. You light up the prepared candles and fireplace which give the room a very comfy and warm look. You should still consider getting some electric lighting done since it is not very bright, but it does give this place a cozy feeling. With the food warmed up, it takes you only a few moments to load everything on the silver plates and distribute them to the arranged spots.

Haven, Sigrid and Rheia one by one collect in the room and take their seats. Your hunter friends are wearing the same outfits that they had when they participated in that dwarven party, but Rheia was wearing something new. On your last trip she has managed to buy herself some new clothes and now she was wearing an adorable light orange dress with brown jacket. Rheia was carrying a linen bag which was filled with several small items judging by the way it moved in her hand. Sigrid brought a wooden box about twice as big as a shoebox and Haven brought a small wooden casket with wavy engravings and a small picture of a barn owl on the lock which is the symbol of her noble house. It is kind of obvious that these are their presents for you, but it would be unfair to open them now so they place their gifts on a small table near to the entrance and take their seats at the table.

Nike’ and Mina get to the room a little bit later and they are both with active masking pins. Nike’ is wearing silvery white suit with pants somewhat reminiscent of the officer parade uniforms while Mina’s outfit is a grey pleaded dress with sky blue stripes of fabric on the inside. While their clothes look relatively expensive, you might still manage to hide who they really are not to shock your other guests. But then again, all of them know who you are and that you have personally met Nike’ so it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch, right? How should you introduce them?

>as goddess Nike’ and Muse Mina
>as Nike’ and Mina, no need for the titles
>as Nika and Mina, they are your friends
>Other suggestions?

>>3879469

>as Nike’ and Mina, no need for the titles

Don't hide who they are but don't make a big fuss about it, it's supposed to be a pleasant and informal event with our closest friends

>>3879469

>as Nike’ and Mina, no need for the titles

As a joke

"Sig my dear, try not to faint will ya?"

Sig is big Nike fangirl if I'm not mistaken

>>3879478
Well, she is more of a historical and mythology figure fan, which technically includes Nike' as well. Also Sig is a tough girl. I'd honestly worry more about Haven fainting.

>>3879481
Too many gods for Haven's poor elven heart, redirect to her then, she had a hard time comming to terms with us being a god too right?

>>3879469

>as Nike’ and Mina, no need for the
If they ask for confirmation "Yes, THAT Nike', we met up some time ago and got along well, she was here for the festival too but you didn't know"

We should give her a volleyball remach one of these days

>>3879469
>as Nike’ and Mina, no need for the titles

Hey OP I remember you mentioning that there are human tribes in the area around our town, stone-age tier tech and stuff. Do we have any idea of their locations or anything? I know we already encountered and destroyed one but I'm curious to see if there are any we could absorb into our collective.

>>3879498
they are in a nearby forest, we actually didn't destroy them, we just pulverized their leaders and the others ran away

in fact, their attacks is the reason why the miners abandoned the copper mine before we fortified it last week

>>3879498
as >>3879501 mentioned they are mostly hostile, so that would be the first obstacle, second is that the people of farsalos weren't too happy the last time we brought the former slaves along and they are still here until they get fully healed, lastly the other nations wouldn't be happy if Ceno amassed too big a city and started expanding in the 'neutral zone' between the 3 states

>>3879501
My mistake, my memory must be failing me. Point is though that we could almost certainly recruit some of these tribes or their people to work for us: living in safe communes like our fortified mining towns (far better conditions they can produce themselves with far better defences) in return for their labour in various unskilled fields like mining or farming.

>>3879503
>the people of farsalos weren't too happy the last time we brought the former slaves along
True but refer to my above idea specifically: we construct fortified villages and fill them near-entirely with these tribes; the people of Farsalos benefit from their labour while only ever having to interact with them when they go to retrieve the material they have gathered, ignoring a minority that we might make live in these towns to act as representatives / management / skilled-labour.

>lastly the other nations wouldn't be happy if Ceno amassed too big a city and started expanding in the 'neutral zone' between the 3 states
True but that doesn't mean we can't do some expansion, fact is that they'll probably be unhappy with us merely existing since we represent a new power. Given that fact we might as well work to make ourselves as prickly a proposition to attack as possible: plus expanding into the neutral zone is something the rest are going to do inevitably; they will come to border us some day, might as well be the case we meet them rather than them meeting us.

Plus there is the fact that no side wants to be the first to strike back against us, since that could drive our people and us into the arms of their enemies. Imagine if we achieve 17th century tech for all of our people while most are still far behind: pushing us into the hands of their enemies would be a dangerous move.

>>3879507
there would be a lot of issues to overcome, even excluding hostility for example language, different allegiances or gods, it is an interesting idea, but we should wait to consult with Elspeth and the rest of our new pantheon before we do something that might present a problem for the country

>>3879513
Yeah languages are the main issue but we admittedly can learn languages very quickly: that doesn't really help in the large scale but it does mean we can establish communication and then work towards teaching others.

As to different gods, if they had a "proper" god then they'd be known to the Pantheons. Chances are we are scary enough if we show off to convince them to follow us. Not that we should rely on that but you get my point.


Still it's mostly a idea to accelerate our economic growth by providing more manpower to help fulfil various jobs that we might run out of manpower trying to supply the materials we need for higher tech.

>>3879516
there is also the impact of to fast a technological development to a society to consider, we are probably gonna get very old, we can take the time and try to keep an even pace in that regard so that the population has a better chance to keep up with that

i am in no way advocating that we stop or even slow down much, there just might be repercussions down the line we would have sever trouble dealing with, even outside the equilibrium with the other pantheons

>>3879478
>>3879474
>>3879495
>>3879498
Altight, writing. Sorry, I am ordering food in the meantime.

>>3879517
There almost certainly will be repercussions, I mean people rejected science and automation in the real world and that shit was occurring at the normal rate. Our hyper accelerated advancement might make people worried and if nothing else we might encounter some problems when we start automating traditional jobs out of existence since that always pisses people off.

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>>3879519
Also, since it is Ag's birthday, I might as well provide a present too. It is something to commemorate the fact that Ag now has a real cult.

>>3879524
niiiiice

that's some awesome art

>>3879524
Nice art, looking regal on that throne.
Weapons and armor were a nice touch.

>>3879524
loving the artstyle, but Ag is not gonna like her immediate future i feel

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>>3879519
“Let me introduce you all. This is Haven, Sigrid and Rheia…” you say to introduce your companions “… and this is Nike’ and Mina.” You continue as nonchalantly as you can. It takes a moment for this to get processed before slightly shocked Haven looks at you and raises her index finger up. You reply with: “Yeah, it’s her, please try not to faint”. As you say this, she almost faints but Sigrid, who was sitting nearby, managed to catch her. “Please don’t mind me, I won’t bite” says Nike’ and smiles.

After a short pause, Sig asks: “…wait, I know you’ve met Nike’ on several occasions, but what you’re saying is that you’ve sent a birthday invitation? To a goddess? And Nike’ accepted it?”

“Well, we are people too, you know?” replies Nike’. “And birthdays were pretty important back when I was a human so why wouldn’t I come to my friend’s birthday party? And please feel free to refer to me as you’d refer to your fellow mortals. I didn’t come here to exercise my authority and I won’t get offended.” She doesn’t lower her mask possibly to negate some of the awkwardness.

“So, with this out of the way, please have a seat.” You say to distract the attention from this subject. With a little bit of telekinesis, you pour some stewed fruit into a cup and float it towards Haven who was looking a little pale. With everyone seated you can finally start with the meals. Who needs waiters when you can float the prepared dishes across the table to whoever wants them. During the meal Rheia builds up some courage and asks Nike’ about why do all gods really have those halos. Nike replies with: “That’s a good question. You see, a lot of gods have a form close enough to humans to be essentially indistinguishable if they don’t display their abilities. So, Elspeth and Yawgmoth decided to create some kind of object that would be a symbol of the pantheon as well as a way for Cup Bearers and gods from the other pantheons to identify us during their visits. Each god has their own unique halo that floats above their head.

They are created only with the methods available to us and each of them has unique designs, enhancements or other things that allow it to be distinguished. We can take them off easily, in fact I don’t have it on me right now. But apart of the times when you don’t want to be recognized it doesn’t take much to carry them all the time since they weight basically nothing unlike something like a crown. Even if you flip me upside down it would still remain fixed relative to my head. However, to put it on you need to know exactly how to do so. I can’t for example wear a halo made for Elspeth and she can’t wear a halo made for me."

>>3879608
"When we encountered other pantheons, we realized that we are not the only ones who came up with this idea. Holy Nation’s two gods use visually the same golden halos that unlike our designs are complete loops. Etheans encountered Holies first and took their idea with some changes. They also use complete halos but each of them is uniquely designed. Valistrat pantheon use even less uniform halo designs. Some of them like their halos to be similar to crowns, while some prefer several smaller objects floating around their head or body.

Also, halos have additional functions that each god decides for themselves. I won’t tell everything that my halo can do, but for one it provides me with a lot of additional protection like a suit of invisible armor and Elspeth’s halo acts as a magic focus for her numerous powers.”

This was the first cracks forming in the giant block of ice that froze any possibility of conversation. You could talk to Nika without issues, but you were also a goddess so it didn’t matter much for defrosting of the situation. With Rheia asking a question it demonstrated how Nike’ would react which little by little increased the trust of the other mortals at the table. The second attempt at dialogue was from Sigrid: “I’m sorry, but I thought that Holy Nation has only one god.”

Nike: “Well, it is technically correct. However, they have two “synthetic gods”, which is the term the pantheon uses for everyone who went for two millennia of sleep to acquire this power. I am a synthetic goddess, Agatha is one as well, all of the pantheons are including the Teryian pantheon and Outsiders also are synthetic gods. The Twins position themselves as emissaries of the Holy Nation’s single deity but that god is not actually real, or at least tangible. For all practical purposes, the twins are the ruling “gods” of their pantheon. Not real gods, but to be fair we aren’t either. We are essentially very powerful and immortal humans, our powers, while immense, have their limits, and this applies to all the pantheons. So, in short, Holies have one most likely fictional god, two synthetic gods and lots of Cup Bearers.”

Haven weakly asked: “are you… comfortable sharing all of this?” to which Nike’ replied: “Yes. You are closest companions of a synthetic goddess. I’d be surprised if you didn’t know most of that already.”

Well, you can’t spend all night listening to the conversations, right? Maybe you should start your own?

>Nah, you don’t really feel like it, plus this steak tastes just divine
>So, what do you guys think of the food?
>You have a few ideas…(writein)

>>3879617
>>So, what do you guys think of the food?
We spent quite some time making sure it would be good
>You have a few ideas…(writein)

Talk about our favorite places before we slept, ask them to share their experiences too
a nice view and a place to calm down is something gods and mortals have in common

Favorite foods too, no matter how powerful, there are things you prefer and others you don't so we can talk about that.
tell them of ouyr eternal hatred for brocolli and how we are pleased it is extinct, one less enemy

Make sure to talk to Haven, this can be all too much for her so confort our friend
"I know it can be a little much, but for exemple, everything the gods say about what happens after is mostly true too"

>>3879617
>>3879628
+1

>>3879628
Broccoli is actually not extinct, it is just not grown as often in Ceno and it is a bit smaller than in your times.

>>3879617
>You have a few ideas…(writein)

This is a birthday so talking about the past and fun times seems like normal.
Tell them about our last birthday that we had fun, the sad note is that we lost our parents but then we can ask them if they are still in touch with their families and how, see if they have any funny stories to share.

Comment on how our trip to Mirangi was one of our first attempts to explore this world and that's how we met Haven and Sig, how we were fascinated by Sig's........form... and subsequently befriended her and how Haven figured out how we were not what we said we were at first moment.

It seems we are not very good at hiding our nature.

>>3879628
+1

>>3879640
then lament on how the {insert tasty thing that is actually exinct} is gone but the damn brocoli endures! the fight goes on.

>>3879628
Supporting this, broccoli was an abomination that would have been made extinct if not for the slight inconvenience of it no longer existing

>>3879647
>>3879640
CURSES! Will true judgment never cast down from the heavens?!
Joking aside like that

>>3879628
>>3879643
These.

Mention that Rheia was the first person we met and how gifted she is.
Embarass the youngster with praise from the sempais.

>>3879628
>>3879632
>>3879643
>>3879647
>>3879648
>>3879650
>>3879652
Writing

>>3879683
Still writing, sorry. Dialogue ends up pretty huge due to the numerous subjects.

>>3880039
That's fine OP, I've been busy trying to understand a old /tg/-made system PDF and some of the strange decisions contained within (like armour reducing damage by 1 yet costing more than basically any weapon that does more damage than it stops or the complete insanity of the weapon ranges / movement speed).


Also on a separate point, seeing as our new Muse-Oracle-in-residence can use TK powers, we might want to consider seeing if she can't help us with running our TK powered industry or doing construction. Even if she manages to do a fifth of what we can, that is still a large amount of labour we can get done.

>>3880064
I was thinking something similar but towards the fortifications and mines we still have to set up around the village.
I guess it depends on the level of control she has too not only the amount of power.

>>3880100
>I was thinking something similar but towards the fortifications and mines we still have to set up around the village.
Probably a good idea, honestly we should be looking into getting stuff set up to tick over in the background so we can focus on other stuff / expansion and exploration. If we got metal working setup in the hands of the people and just take a cut of the material / get a payment for the facilities, then we could focus our efforts elsewhere for example while our people also benefit. Fortifications are primary importance however, if we can secure the region then the people will take care of most things themselves.

>I guess it depends on the level of control she has too not only the amount of power.
True but worst comes to worst she can just pulverise ore in the mines for normies to shovel into carts or something.

>>3879683
7k+ symbols, posting

>>3880188
jesus HMC, you might have to publish all this, just to get back what you use up from your keyboard

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>>3880188
“What do you guys think of the food by the way? Honestly it is the first time I’ve cooked for a party” you ask your guests. “Wait, really? I don’t believe that you’ve never cooked stuff like this, Ag. It is too good.” Replies Nika. “Yeah, really. Remember why Dan wanted me to participate in the project? I had some insane allergies before. I couldn’t eat meat with spices and most of the veggies except a few and only during autumn-winter when nothing was pollinating. One of them were steamed broccoli and cauliflower, I can barely stand them even now, had them on almost every meal for most of the year. I never really learned to cook things I couldn’t eat before the pod. Almost forgot how food can be enjoyable. I think one of the latest memories of good food before the pod was… back when I was 14 or 15 when I went to a steak house for my birthday. They had that large beef patty with cheese filling and some great meat sauce that I can’t really remember beyond how well it went with the meat.”

“Oh, I remember what you’re talking about. I think they were an international franchise since I had something similar in Madrid a couple times. Can’t remember the name, but they had that black colored bull on the billboard” adds Nike’.

“Yeah, that’s the place. They also had toothpicks in those tiny cardboard envelopes.” You add and she confirms that she noticed those as well. “So that’s why you decided to go mostly for beef I assume” she continues to which you reply that she is correct.

“You know, I sometimes miss the strangest things from the past life. For example, popcorn. Corn survived but the specific breed that is required to make popcorn is unfortunately lost to history. We only found references from the pre-Long Night period of people trying to breed something like the “fabled” corn from the old stories. I kind of miss popcorn, comfy couch and a TV.” Continues Nika

“Really? A goddess of sport sitting on a couch?” You ask and she replies “It was after I was dismissed for the injuries. It is not like there were many other things to do. Not even a job that I could qualify for really, just loads of Netflix.”

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>>3880209
“I was in Spain once, in a place called Murcia. Dan had something to do with his old university friend living in that area and I came along. Haven’t been to Madrid myself.” You say changing a subject somewhat. Nike smiles and replies: “Oh, I grew up near to Murcia, around two hours by car away in a smaller settlement called Mil Palmeras on the Mediterranean coast. It was mostly a tourist trap, nice beaches, tidy parks, good weather. My grandparents bought a small estate in that place when they retired. I actually studied in Murcia Catholic University. You won’t believe the specialization; I was going for tourism management back then along with partially going for some light athletics. I wanted to settle for whatever would work better in the end, but the entire Containment happened, I enlisted like a total idiot after a serious argument with my dad and the rest you know. Well, I did find my love there, even if it was cut short by an IED, but that was a very long time ago.”

You take a look at Haven to see how she’s doing. She is eating, but pretty slowly and her steak is getting a bit cold. “You alright?” you ask your elf comrade to which she replies “Yeah, it is just, a bit much to take in so quickly. The two of you were… the same as us back then. You had families, liked food, dealt with fate’s circumstances, studied and planned for the future, and all of that in a way that is understandable even now. And my pantheon’s gods… people were also like that… Sorry, it is just… I was having a lot of thoughts…”

“It’s ok” you reply “why don’t you participate in the dialogue a bit? Maybe we could talk a little about our families? I’ll heat up your plate in the meantime”. Haven nods, pours herself a bit of wine from the nearby bottle, takes a sip and says: ”Well, my family is a relatively small one, for the noble houses that is. I was born to the head of the family and his wife, Lord Gwilherm Elim and Lady Maela Elim. It was his second wife since his previous partner died from an illness years ago and Maela was of commoner blood at the time so it was considered a serious scandal. This most likely started the decline of the House in the recent years.

>>3880217
I was the sixth and youngest child in the family. I now have a younger sister but she is only 23 and I grew up to adulthood without her. She is maybe going to get married off in a few years, and I’m not sure what to feel about it. In any case, I have three step brothers and two step sisters and we didn’t get along that well when I was growing up. My dad always told me that it is because they were jealous since I had the most expressed Blood Gift of all of them and I quickly mastered the skills associated with it. However, they thought that I was the reason for family’s decline and that I stole the Gift from them for myself, and you can probably guess how that went for the growing up. Now that I essentially pulled the family out of the debt bog and as they matured, their behavior changed a lot, but I still feel uncomfortable around them. I am really grateful to my parents for giving me all of the education and skills even though they were not doing that well with finances at the time whether I wanted it at the time or not…

I would also like to than you once again for the generosity. For the whole time before I’ve met you it always felt like I was just postponing the inevitable.” She says and pulls out the wooden casket. “Happy birthday, Agatha”. You float it towards yourself. The casket is made out of a dark hardwood that you don’t recognize. The engravings seem to simulate whiffs of steam or smoke and to open it you need to press on the circular piece with an engraving of a barn owl and rotate it a quarter of revolution counter clockwise. That causes a spring to push the lid into an upright state. Inside you see a bracelet made out of a dark metal base with extremely fine engravings. Something that would be impossible to do by hand and difficult even with very expensive special CNC machines in your time. On the inside of the bracelet there are flat planes of emerald green stone one to touch on the upper and one on the lower sides of the wrist.

“Is it… Rozen’s Bracelet?” Mina asks with fascination. “I’ve thought those were an old myth!”. “Yeah, because since the gods disappeared no one can make it work again. House Elim has four of these objects, and this is one of them. A pair of them was given to House Elim’s founding couple and they were intended to be worn on both wrists. We managed to keep them all, but I think it is time to let one go. No one is sure how precisely to make them work, I can only make it resize to fit a wrist or take it off. The last user was my granddad who knew how to make it “wither his enemies and rejuvenate himself or do that in reverse”. He has died from using it to save my grandmother without passing on the secret. As a goddess, I’m sure that you could manage to eventually use it for great effect.”

>I… I can’t accept such important item
>Does your family know?
>Thank you, I’ll discover how it works and use it well.

>>3880234
>Does your family know?
>Thank you, I’ll discover how it works and use it well.

Holy shit, I mean this'd be like a 40K noble family Scion giving away a artefact grade digital weapon. I mean even if we can't get it to work the value of this thing just to study the method by which it works is immense.

Also when we figure it out, all in favour of giving it back to her and explaining it's use?

>>3880234
shocked silence
>>Does your family know?
>If you really think i should have it i will try to make it work as best i can, thank you
If your family ever needs it back, just ask

>>3880254
if we can figure out how they work in a way that un modified mortals can use it?
Hell yes

>>3880234
"I'm....honored Haven, I'm sure this means a lot to you and your family and I'll try to make myself someone worthy of the trust you are putting on me, I'll consider this something that we share, when I discover it's secrets we shall use it together."

I don't want to refuse because this obviously means a lot to her, and this way we can accept her trust.

>>3880262
Well, kind of. Mortals with psi potential, because she is one as you've probably guessed back from when she made the glow quartz glow more.

>>3880263
supporting

this was a huge bomb, thank her and give her a hug

>>3880256
>>3880263
>>3880273
These

>>3880254
>[U
>>3880256
>>3880262
>>3880263
>>3880273
>>3880280
Writing

>>3880344
>family has two
>she igves us one
>she is secretly using the other so we are matching

clever girl

>>3880407
stop it, don't let the yuri consume you

>>3880412
too late dear anon
but seriously, Haven has demonstrated some reaction to Ag but in a true Harem Protagonist fashion Ag is oblivious to it

>>3880417
Haven's objectively best girl need to protecc

But back to the bracelet

The way she described it, exchanging life forces and such, makes me believe it is a biosculpting artefact, a power we don't have.
I wonder if we can use it to do other modifications if we put our enhanced mind into it.

>>3880490
that'd be awesome, I was thinking that we could use it to heal someone and since our body regenerates we can just wait for it to fix itself before using again.

>>3880344
Do you guys remember if I told you Agatha's age. I think I did but I can't find it anywhere

>>3880647
I remember her being in her twenties, maybe laterally 20 but I'm not sure

Did she graduate at college? If she did she is probably older than that tho.

>>3880652
I was thinking something closer to 30s. Maybe 28 since I remember either making or thinking of christmas cake jokes. She has a degree and she has been working as a freelance automation engineer for at least several years. I really don't want to look it up so please excuse the inconsistencies. From now on, she was 28 and she is turning 29 "today". Ok?

>>3880669
sure i am fine with that, if you are technically alive for over to millenia you can adjust your age however you like

>>3880669
No problem here, works fine for me

>>3880669
Eh, we're a biologically immortal pseudo-"20-something-for-eternity" so it's not that important.

If anything, we should probably be more so counting the days since we got out of the pod, given just how much we've changed / done since then.

>>3880693
Main issue for me is consistency. If I mentioned the age I should have written it down but I haven't. In any case, post incomin'

>>3880344
You are speechless for a few seconds. This is big, very big. It is like if Imperium noble family Scion from 40k gave you a digital artefact weapon. You end up asking: “Does your family know about this?” to which she replies: “Yes, kind of. After paying off the debt, my father decided that I have proven myself enough and gave me one of the Rozen’s bracelets as a personal heirloom along with making me officially the second in line for the family, which mostly means that if I make a family it would be a recognized descendant of the House Elim instead of a vague lower nobility household. So, while they accept that I own it now, they don’t know that I am giving it away to Agatha. I mean, they wouldn’t understand anyway since I didn’t tell them about all of the god stuff that is involved, but I feel like it would be the correct decision. If we can’t use it anyway then it is just very expensive memorabilia of once great times without actual intrinsic value, right? I… just don’t show it off too much near Teryia please. People aren’t likely to outright identify it, but just in case it would be better not to wear it in the open there or anywhere around noble elves in general.”

You nod and say: "I'm....honored Haven, I'm sure this means a lot to you and your family and I'll try to make myself someone worthy of the trust you are putting on me, I'll consider this something that we share, when I discover it's secrets we shall use it together." She breathes a sigh of relief and smiles. She probably thought that you might reject her gift, but how could you when it means so much for her?

“Well, if we started with the gifts…” says Sigrid as she stands up and brings her wooden box and Rheia’s linen bag handing it to the little girl. “I’m sorry that it is not as substantial, but I remember that you were interested in my home, so I’ve decided to bring you this.” she says as she opens the cover. Inside of the box is a book bound in leather. It has a runic symbol pushed into the bind and it is written on cloth paper by hand. Before the invention of printing press these books were very expensive. “This is a collection of stories from my homeland. It has some myths about our gods, our heroes and our people. I hope that you’d be able to satisfy your curiosity with it.” You, of course, accept her gift. You’ve kept calling her people Nords in your head, much like you’ve called Teryians as Elves or the Labyrinth dwellers as Dwarves even though Sig's ancestral homeland is supposed to be to the far south from here. You would really like to learn more about her gods, but you wouldn’t mind knowing more about her people as well.

>>3880701
Then, the last present was made by Rheia personally. For a while you’ve noticed that she had some light cuts on her fingers, nothing that would leave scars and since she dismissed it you’ve assumed that it was her mother teaching her some handiwork. But now you can finally see what she has been doing. She has a cloth linen bag filled with wooden dice made out of painted wood. The bag is a little rough with signs that it was not made by a professional but the dice were made very well. You fear to imagine how many she had to go through before she has reached the required skill to make them. The bag contains a wooden coin with numbers 0 and 1 on each side, a d4 pyramid, several d6 dice colored in different colors, a d8, two d10 one of which is marked with decimals, a d12 and a d20 which seems to be the most well done of all with signs of wood stabilization attempt. She has placed it in a container filled with glue and then placed it into your vacuum chamber. The polymer was incorrect and she couldn’t make sufficient vacuum with a hand crank, but it should have made it more resistant to water and corrosion after which it was carefully painted over with varnish dye.

“I… In one of your books I’ve found a reference to this ancient game. I haven’t found the rules beyond the short explanation, but you mentioned that it was one of the progenitors of an entire genre in your time. There were some things that were ambiguous, but I tried to compensate with geometry. I hope that I made the dice correctly.” She says. It almost made you tear up. You haven’t played a real tabletop roleplaying game in the sense of actually sitting at the same table with five more people, but you’ve played some through video conferences. Eventually you ran out of time for these games, but you’ve had a fond memory of them. You gave Rheia a tight warm hug:
“…Thank you”.

The five of you end up chatting for a while. You embarrass Rheia a little by boasting about how fast she managed to learn things, Nike’ and you pick up some nostalgic themes from the times long gone, Sig asks a lot of questions about history, which is not surprising considering that she loves this subject and so on and so forth. When the dinner was finished, it was finally time for the cake. You float it out of the fridge and place it on the table taking a long knife to cut it, but before you can do so, you pull out some special candles. You decided to cast some numbers and spell out the age.

>>3880709
It is second March of the year 4110. You were born in 2013 and you were 28 when you entered the pod. Now, you are technically turning 29 if we discount the pod time, but you’ve been asleep for 2068 years so it would technically make you turning 2097. You’d want to make a Christmas Cake joke, but in this case, you fear that it is a little bit fossilized. So, you place four candles on small copper holders into the cake spelling out 2097 and lighting them up. Everyone is waiting, time to make the wish and blow them out.

>I wish for…

>>3880712

something light I think

That we can keep our friends close and happy and that we can make the most of this second chance at life that we've got

>>3880718
>>3880712
yeah, with friends like these, what else do you need

>>3880733
>>3880718
This, Friendship is you finished this quote in your head and we're lucky to have such good friends.

>>3880740
god fucking dammit you got me

>>3880712
Tearfully think back to how jt was before, the rough time, the loss, the visits to the hospitals, the lack of contact and touch that we had for all those ears

Now look around us, people that care for us and want to see us happy too, people we can trust, talk, share and touch.
The future is uncertain but we are ready to taste this new life and the new sensations it brings

Looking at them one by one we range from a lot of feelings we have, some we didn't experience before we went to the pod.

I wish for the future to be filled with discoveries but to jeep these people close and to be able to enjoy the new chance at life we've got.

Became a little long but this is a big moment for Ag

>>3880751
ok, that's way better put, going with this

>>3880746
Yep, would you like to see your consolation prise? The game.. Also fan or just memetically memorised?

>>3880751
+1

>>3880718
>>3880733
>>3880740
>>3880746
>>3880751
>>3880766
>>3880770
>>3880779
Writing. And that would be last post for the day

>>3880795
You think for a few moments, remembering how things were before the pod. The loss, constant uncomfortable sensations that regularly changed into intense pains, expensive visits to the hospitals where doctors have no idea what is going on with you for most of the time, the lack of friends and general isolation that has lasted for years, you don’t remember how many months you’ve spent in your flat without seeing the sun before you were pulled out by the chrononautics program. How many times and how close you’ve come to just cutting this suffering short.

But now look at you, you are sitting at the table, completely healthy, eating tasty food with friends that care about you and want you to be happy. People that you can trust, talk to, touch and share your deepest emotions with. While your future is more uncertain than ever, you are looking to it with excitement. You are ready to taste everything that this new life is willing to throw at you no matter whether that would be good things or bad.

You take a look at your friends. All of them made you feel in a way that you’ve never felt before and you are really glad that you’ve met them.

Rheia, she was the first person you’ve met after the pod and she allowed you to feel what it is like to want to protect someone even at the cost of severe personal risk. With your illnesses, you could not afford to get into danger. You healed slowly, risked asphyxiating from high stress and getting imprisoned would've been comparable to a death sentence to you back then. Now you fear nothing and Rheia is almost like your small sister. You want to help her to grow and prosper. No one would dare to harm her now.

Haven, the first person to discover your nature by herself and you are glad that she allowed you to feel reliable for the first time. Before the pod you never saw the results of your efforts. It always felt to you like you were unjustly overpaid for a work that someone other than you could do much better. Haven allowed to you finally feel like your actions deeply mattered to her personally. You wish that you could give her back at least a tenth of the trust that she has shared with you some day.

>>3880946
Sigrid, the first person you’ve been at least somewhat interested in. In your previous life due to your messed up hormonal system in combination of your history with mass bullying during childhood, you have never really felt interested in people around you. For you, the thoughts of anyone whom you didn’t interact with often didn’t matter. You’ve started to not take care of your appearance beyond hygiene, which was mostly dictated by your health anyway. It didn’t matter what you looked like, what clothes you wore or how badly your hair were lying on your head as long as it was just the aesthetics. You’ve thought that you were just incapable of experiencing the many emotions that were often described in various stories. When you’ve met Sigrid, you’ve felt a weak sensation that you’ve never felt before. Whether it is what love feels like or some kind of weaker sensation, you are still very grateful to her for allowing you to experience this. While you bet that this would not go anywhere, you still wish to stay with her for as long as possible.

Nike’, the first Synthetic Goddess that you’ve met and your first friend among their kind. While she is loyal to her pantheon, she decided not to reveal your existence to her people putting an enormous amount of trust into you. She has also arranged her time to meet up with you even though her “job” is very time demanding at times. This is the first time someone was so trusting of you. Back in your time, it took an enormous amount of effort to make people trust you, which wasn’t helped by your introverted nature. Doctors sometimes randomly decided that you “don’t look that sick” and sending you through hell and back to get back on the budget medication lists, your employers constantly wanted to monitor your every move and even your internal monologue told you off for what your subconsciousness considered “wastes of time” sending you into self-destructive non-stop work frenzies. Nike’, knowing you for less than a day, decided to risk her reputation just to give you a few years of anonymity while also going out of her way to help you in your time of need. You wish that you could repay her with something comparable someday.

>>3880957
In the end, you look at the birthday cake. The small lights flicker slightly as you inhale. You’ve decided what you want to wish for. You wish for your future to be filled with excitement and discoveries, but to also to keep all of your new friends close to you. The fate gave you a second chance in life and you definitely won’t miss it. The brave new future awaits, but it won’t wait forever. Time to blow the candles. You make a wish and the tiny flames bend under your blow before vanishing in puffs of nice smelling smoke. Well, this is it, Happy Birthday, Agatha. Now the rest depends only on you.

____________________________________________
And on this note we finish today’s thread. I hope you enjoyed this thread and as usual feel free to ask questions, make suggestions and discuss. See you next time!

A small reference for the commissioned artwork: Agatha on the throne made by Cegremo, the QM that most of you probably know very well. Elspeth drafts are by The Gentle Touch who is not from the questing community.

>>3880960
Thanks for running, really nice to see the personal thoughts about our friends, Rheia with protection, Heaven with realiability, Sig as the first person we had the hots for and a good friend too and Nike as a trust filled safe harbor.
Can't wait to see what's next and how these relashionships will evolve.

>>3880960
Thanks for running, see you next time
Nice to see this, Sig was Ag awakening kek, good stuff Qm

File: F18FE0D9-0DC3-49F5-8D15-7(...).jpg (407 KB, 1202x1367)

407 KB JPG

>>3880960
If anyone is curious, here is the calendar of the year 4110. Looks like Ag’s birthday is on Sunday.

>>3885251
kek, nice
do they use the same names for months? I don't remember

>>3885259
I don't think so

>>3885251
noice

Anyone with any ideas about what to do until the meeting with Elspeth?
Anything we should prepare, something to investigate?
Should we talk to "our cult" about becoming a goddess soon?

>>3885275
If we have some more time to spare after the birthday ends and before the meeting we could try to tackle some more local problems or take a trip and explore some other part of the country

>>3885259
They don’t use the same names, but month structure is identical to the one used today so for the sake of simplicity I use modern terms.

>>3885275
Well, first of all, I assume that cup healer would arrive before a meeting with Elspeth just for the sake of minimizing risks and dealing with the issue before the meeting has a chance of adding some new ones. So we would deal with the former slave population pretty soonish.

Also, you wanted to look into metallurgy and you wanted to clear the Labyrinth area between the surface and dwarves, which should probably include paving roads, setting up entrance to not be just a cave blocked by huge boulders and so on. I would also recommend to connect Farsalos to the rest of the country with a better road (currently it is just a dirt road) and maybe some resource scouting and setting up local mines and quarries to actually exploit the resources we have in the area.

>>3885397
those all seem like nice goals for after the party and before the meeting, we could even ask for the help of our friends and the new oracle for some of them

>>3885402
we really should talk with mina some more and maybe challenge her in some way, nothing major, just to see what her strenghts and weaknesses are and if she is more proactive or prefers to think things through

>>3885420
oh we can talk to her sure, I was planning on that too

next session when?

>>3888614
saturday morning

>>3888614
>>3888642
depending on what morning is for you, just look at the time of the first post in the thread and go by that

>>3888614
For recent threads I started somewhere between midday and 2 pm Moscow time (5-7 am EST) based on how bad the previous night went. Most likely the same would apply for tomorrow.

>>3880960
New thread: >>3890030

>>3890035
This thread is archived