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Welcome back, swamp sorcerers, to the fifth installment of Swamp Lord Quest. Once again, you are Lord Jakob Absol, heir of the Archmage Lord Arnveis Absol the Black, rival of the rebel sorceress Albeda Absol, Liege of the Absol Swamp, and Master of Castle Briarfast.

Last time, you won your first proper engagement as hard as humanly possible. You captured the squid-frog-baboon chimera sent to assassinate you in an impromptu tiger-trap of solidified smoke, and when Albeda's forces attempted to march into your castle and put her on the throne they found your soldiers and magi waiting for them, springing a trap that left them all dead or imprisoned. You personally struck down Sister Char, the archmage leading the assault, in a single blow without taking damage from her pyromantic dances. Let's see whether your star continues to rise, or if you end up an obscure boy lord with a short reign!
>>
>>4533170
IT IS TIME, SWAMP DENIZENS ARISE AND ASSEMBLE!
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>>4533184
For the Lightning-Eye of Absol!
I'm still working on it, ok?
>>
>>4533170

From the rice paddies to the boardwalks to the foothills of the ancestral, this is OUR SWAMP!

>pic related for familial relationships.
>>
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Sister Char crumples to the ground, sparks lighting the air as the spray of lightning from your throat drives the consciousness from her.

They called you a child.

They called you craven.

They called you untalented, a dabbler, a boy wearing a man's boots.

Perhaps before, you were, but you have passed through the fear. Your schemes, in both leadership and magecraft, have outdone theirs and you are in every way today's victor. You feel cool. Calm. The higher magics that once writhed against your control now serve you utterly, and the more you think on it the more you realize that they didn't do so sooner because on some level you gave more credence to Albeda's jibes than you should have. Sometimes power comes slowly, and you claw for it by laborous repetition and months of study. Sometimes, a revelatory improvement strikes like a thunderbolt, an instant of brilliance. When your body and the low, primate part of your brain were screaming at you that you were dead, and your response was to calmly take the several seconds needed to cast the spell that trapped the chima in its pit, something within you changed. You mastered the magic. Rode it. Made it your servant, rather than serving it. You won't forget that feeling, magic will never again be as difficult for you as it was when you struggled to prepare on the rooftop.

[Continue]
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>>4533192

>forget to add mountains to the response.

Off to a cracking start.
>>
>>4533192
LOL
>>
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The air is thick with the scent of smoke and blood, and you realize, suddenly, that you're talking. It isn't anything spectacular, just a lot of whooping and “VICTORY IS OURS!” It doesn't matter. You don't need to make a speech. Your soldiers are cheering.

“HAIL! HAIL! HAIL!” They chant, the butts of their polearms drumming on the boardwalk, “AB-SOL! AB-SOL! JA-KOB AB-SOL! HAIL LORD JAKOB!”

You have earned the right to shamelessly bask in their adulation, although it's somewhat hindered as Arad lands and absolutely hugs you, the old man's usual steely composure shattered as he laughs wildly, “Brilliantly done!” You see tears in your mother's uncle's eyes as he claps you on the back, “If she could have seen this...”

You hug him back. Your mastery over smoke caught the Chimera, but it was flight and lightning that bested Sister Char. His magics.

When you disentangle, you spread your arms wide, and take wing enough for everyone to see you, “We will not cower! We will not flee! We will drive these pretenders out and crush them! This is OUR SWAMP!”

The Last Loyal cheer even louder, “HAIL LORD JAKOB! HAIL LORD JAKOB! AN ABSOL! AN ABSOL! AN ABSOL OF BRIARFAST!”

You point at the mess before you, “Dispatch the dying, transport the captives to the dungeons, clear the boardwalk of the corpses and...”

>[Give the dead funereal rights]
>[Hang the dead from your wall of thorns]
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>>4533214

Funereal rites, not rights, but you know what I meant.
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>>4533214
HANG THE TRAITORS
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>>4533214
>[Give the dead funeral rites]

Don't want to look too savage and backwards to our soon visitors from Ryd.
Was down for hanging the chimera, but people? A little less so.
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>>4533214
>Give the dead Funeral rites
These are naught but poor misguided fools lead to their untimely and unfortunate fate by the lies and delusions of the true traitors the Pentagram, these souls we give rites to, the Pentagram, they will hang like traitors.
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>>4533214
>>[Give the dead funereal rights]
We have guests coming, and I'm not sure how long it takes for the wall to eat.
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>>4533214

>[Give the dead funereal rites].

The human foot-soldiers get proper burials. The arch-traitors and monsters water the thorns. Even criminals who get the rope normally get a casket. No point in pissing off the villages that they are from. Plus, we do have the R*ds coming to think about
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>>4533214
>[Give the dead funereal rights]

Give us back our Rights, Wong! What is dead may never die! Viva la Shre- *toaded*. No wonder the dead are revolting.
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>>4533231
Besides, Brother Gloam is a Shadowbinder and the last thing we need to is to give him a army of zombiefiable corpses hanging onto pur castle to tamper with
>>
That reminds me. Since that seems like a fairly decisive vote I'll leave the wall out, but I forgot a very valid option...

>[Give the dead funereal rites]
>[Give the dead to Grandmama]
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>>4533260
>>4533231

>[Give the dead funereal rites]
I stand by my original vote and blurb
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>>4533260
>[Give the dead funeral rites]

Cannonfodder is tempting, but let these ones rest.
Might be good to learn something from Grandmama later tho...
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>>4533260
>[Give the dead funereal rites]

Still got the Ryds to deal with. And these are our people, however mislead and deluded. They deserve this much.
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>>4533271

Fixing it for re-formatting and errors. Can't type for shit tonight.

>>4533260

>[Give the dead funereal rites]

We don't need zombies shambling around Yet, so may as well bury this handful. Anyone else who rises up against the Absol from this point on though, zombification at best and impaling on the wall at worst. Word can spread with the flyers and speakers going out to the villages to warn about the Pentacle in the coming weeks.
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>>4533260
>[Give the dead funereal rites]
>>
>>4533214
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>>4533279
You make a good point. Support.
>>
You notice a few blue-feathered arrows sticking out of the chests of some of the dead, and snort, looking up to the top of the wall to spot Cailm there, unstringing his bow and looking very pleased with himself. As usual.

“Give them funereal rites. These are still our people, and have families in our villages. Misguided fools though they were, led to an untimely demise by the lies of the Pentacle.” Besides, Londo Ryd is still making his slow and merry way here, and you don't want him to see men in plain maille and villager attire dangling from your wall. “Let them rest as swamplanders.” Your word has been given, there is no more to it. “Tonight, we feast and celebrate. Break out the ale and wine, let boars be hunted and lambs slaughtered! Let no man fall into his bed hungry or thirsty!”

With, predictably, more cheers than ever, the Last Loyal set to the grim work of disposing of the corpses.

All things considered, that night is a splendid affair. Although you cannot help but be watchful, half-expecting Albeda to launch another attack while you're carousing, you let yourself get drawn into the spirit of it. Lilly is there, tuning up her lyre and singing songs, when Cailm slides into a seat near you, munching on a bun. For some reason, he's dressed in the uniform of a castle guard.

You look at him askance, and he shrugs, “I've been feeding the Night Hunters buns, mostly the girl in the straw hat. She's chatty.” He relays the conversation the Night Hunters had been having in the dungeon to you.

>[Good job Cailm]
>[DON'T fuck Straw Hat girl, Cailm!]
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>>4533284
DON'T fuck Straw Hat girl, Claim!
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>>4533284
>[Good job Cailm]
>>
>>4533284
>[Good job Cailm]
>Just remember that you were killing her comrades earlier
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>>4533284
>[DON'T fuck Straw Hat girl, Cailm!]
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>>4533284

>[Good job Cailm]

Thanks for the info, try not to fuck the furries. Trying to tell Cailm not to fuck is a pointless endeavour.

Did we have any ideas of what types of sorcery we wanted to look into in the next while? Aqueous Divination may have ways to counter-act Albeda's divinations, and I want to try and pick up some of Dad's Esoteric Counterspell techniques from the Shattered Shackle before we trip into another heap of sorcerors to fight.
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>>4533284
>[Good job Cailm]
Just don't let you dick lead you to betraying us Cailm, otherwise we'll have to toad you
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>>4533300
I'm down for reading into our dad's books for his custom spell list. Counterspelling is one of the things we are good at, and anything that Albeda might not know we have access to could be a decisive edge.
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>>4533300
Ye. Battle Prophet and Weather Control was mentioned previously. Plus I'd like to get into the specifics of Mirror Magic as well, since Albeda seems to have taken quite a shine to it.
>>
So while we are still stuck in Nickname hell
May I suggest Jacob tje Eye of Steropes
Fun time, Steropes means Lightning, it's also the name of one of the Cyclops that made Zeus's Lightning bolts iirc
Just doubling down on the Eye and Lightning angle
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>>4533311
>tje
...
The*
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>>4533311
>Jakob the Cyclops

I must say, I do enjoy you suggestion, but I don't think our Mythology would translate well into a fantasy setting unless it's Greek inspired, in which case, do as the Romans did. Wait, wha-
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>>4533311

Maybe. Jakob, the "Eye of the Storm" Absol works alright too, given that we used Stormtongue magic in both of our major encounters that had witnesses. Not point in trying to force the issue though, forced nicknames never take off. For better or worse.
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>>4533321
I still remember the tragedy of the Whispering Eye...

I still feel the laughter to this day.
>>
Oof, this headache is not going away. I'm going to need a bit, guys, probably at least a couple hours, that's how long it usually takes one of my migraines to pass.
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>>4533347
All good man, you take care of yourself.
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>>4533347

No worries Wong, trying to write through a migraine just makes it worse.

>inb4 headache is onset by withdrawals from lack of dice being rolled yet.
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>>4533347
Take care of yourself. Migraine suck hard. Hope you feel better, mate.
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I will say, though, that for one point of exp (which you have currently), you can get the first technique of this. To explain Squishing, referenced in the final five-point technique, it's basically trading points from Height to Width or vice versa. Usually it's not unlimited, hence the stringent requirements (consider that a 2x2 with this technique can beat a 2x10 by squishing the 2x2 into a 3x1, which would resolve first)
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>>4533361
Words of Iron is pretty good
1 bonus Might die for company actions if we give a speach the day we need to use it
Probably a solid use of a single exp point
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>>4533347
Health > Random questing commitments

>>4533361
I know I'm lacking in things to compare it to, but this is one hell of a way to make our might punch above its weight. Words of Iron seems good as a starting point, and even if the 5-point thing has a ton of conditions, it's powerful, and I want to buy it for the name alone. Very awesome for inspiring loyalty and winning the battle after an injury, or doubling down on 11th hour heroism like pictured. Just think plate armor and riding a swamp lizard, with a sea of smoke behind him instead of light.

Hell, we're already trying to do the 4 point thing on our own without the mechanical bonus.

This is one way of doubling down on our strengths, and trying to win our field battles better, something that I see us needing.
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>>4533361
I'm down for it. Though I'm no RPG mechanic, I trust you lads to atleast understand the just of it.
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>>4533380
>>4533382

Don't forget, our Might of 3 is already pretty high compared to everyone else. Being able to get a basically Intensity 3 ability on a 7d10 pool to jack it up to 4 temporarily for 1 exp is a fucking steal. Especially since we use Might for conventional attacking (Might+Treasure), unconventional attacks (Might+Influence), and defense (Might+Territory), which are all a bit on the lower side, it'll give us a leg up on helping Lady Galdynfyrgenbach snuff out her rebellion in the coming months.
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Barring anything last minute game will continue TODAY
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>>4533756
He's dead.

Right lads, time to pack it all up, someone give the man his funeral rites.
We'll meme in another quest in his honour.
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>>4534161
It's rights, mate. Even the dead should have rights.
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>>4534161
>>4534186
Oh ye of little faith...it is still today, I'm sure the quest will be back soon.
...Or Wong died on the way back to his planet.
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Alright, starting up in just a minute. If I vanish I probably got banned for spicy opinions on whether or not communists are human.
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>>4534896
>If I vanish I probably got banned for spicy opinions on whether or not communists are human.
MSPQ Wong ban flashbacks intensify
Next he's gonna post without his name and trip from having been posting about his gun collection on another board
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>>4534896
Damnit Wong, you know the answer...

Of course they're not.
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>>4534943
And to be fair, this is the opinion they themselves hold, so it's alright.
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Well that sucked, net went down then doordash got my order wrong. Luckily I got the post typed up!
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“Unburnt and lit with sunset glow, the lord gazed down on supine foe. With blazing eye and shaping hand, Lord Jakob's peace spread 'cross the land...” Lilly sings.

“Good job, Cailm.” You remark as you take it in, “Just remember, you killed some of her comrades, and she can turn into a wolf in your bed.” You look down the table at Arad, who is eating a surprising amount for an old man with hollow bones. He catches your gaze and makes his way over to you.

“Young lord, fear not the evening, Lord Mihto's last ray anoints thee. Lift your voice into thunder, for beneath your gaze we are free.” Lilly's fingers dance across the strings.

“A wild thing she might be, Jakob, but I hardly think my throat is in danger of being torn out.” Cailm's voice loses his jovialty as he adds, “I'll be careful.”

“Good.” You turn to Arad, and relay to him what you just heard. He listens in stoic silence, munching frog legs as he considers. Finally, you ask the real question, “Do you think we can negotiate with Brother Grey and convince him to abandon the others?”

Arad sighs, “The old crone would wish you negotiated with her grandson, instead, but that doesn't sound possible. Wolves can be negotiated with. Not tamed, not easily, but negotiated with. If one chooses the correct tack. Do we know what he wants? Or have any idea?”

>[What do YOU think Brother Grey wants, and how would you negotiate with him? This is a write-in answer]
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>>4535010

>[What do YOU think Brother Grey wants, and how would you negotiate with him? This is a write-in answer]

Honestly, given what we kinda of gathered with reports about him being nearly bestial in nature now and mainly ruling by strength, it's likely that his lieutenants are the ones with actual desires. He may want a rematch as a show of dominance and strength, since Dad kicked the shit out of him in the past, probably lowering his standing. If he is as feral as he is foretold, there's little that we can offer him beyond an ass-whooping to bring him back in line.

I doubt he's gone completely feral though. It's likely a front put forward to put people off their guard. He's either following Albeda because she got to him first, is offering him prime lands with no taxes, or something along those lines. If he is able to be negotiated with, probably letting the Night Hunters have a bit more inclusivity in the court will help. They come from one of the farthest villages out east (Dampmeade and area), so probably feel they have little say in the way the Swamp is run. Bringing them back into the fold as equals amongst the mostly Stormtongue, Shadowbinder and Smoke Sculptors in our court will help repair our relationship. Probably still gonna have to beat the shit out of or kill Grey though depending on his mental state, and work with his second-in-command. I know they work well with the Shadowbinders, and reminding them that they have a place in the Absol Swamps among us will at the least sow some division in the ranks. After all, given what we picked over from Straw Hat, Eyepatch and Braidbeard, a lot of the rank and file are mainly doing this because the higher-ups want it.

If the animosity ends with Grey, running the risk of splintering that faction with his removal is worth knocking out what is likely the bulk of Albeda's forces. We heard from Grandmama that Gloam only had a few apprentices with him, and Char seems to be working alone by personal reasons. If Shell doesn't have a sizable force either, pulling Grey away from the Pentacle will siphon off at least 25% of their forces, and possibly as much as 60% if he's their main source of muscle and bodies.
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>>4535010
I really wanted to try and get more information from the prisoners before going for this, although it's doubtful that they would be too open to it because of Grey's viewing it as betrayal.

He would only respect personal strength in a face to face meeting. As long as we have leverage with the prisoners, and the pack thinks they will be released, we can probably negotiate a meeting by sending one of our prisoners out, with our request to be delivered alone to Grey, and for that prisoner to return with acceptance, and a potential place to meet. If we can get any knowledge on his other potential leaders, might be better to try and negotiate with them.

>>4535042
Damn good points. Besides pride, could there be anything he lost to our father?
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>>4535055

"I need to talk to the prisoners for more info" is an option.
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>>4535010
>Sorry Nucle Arad, I simply don't know enough to give you an answer without it being filled with speculation
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>>4535042
I'm doubt he's here for a rematch, for what value is there in beating a cub?

I'm trying to think of a good way to meet without getting opened up to a ambush like we just did to them, and without operating through intermediaries. Perhaps giving an offer to meet in one of the nearest villages with one of his seconds? Would give us the benefit of more insight into whoever he views as expendable, or if he's confident enough to show up in person.
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>>4535010
Oppertunism, probably. If he does feel slighted and left out of the fold, then that's an easy fix. It may be that his lieutenants are the ones pushing for the revolt, and if that's the case, i don't mind offering him a place on the winning table.

A face to face would simplify negotiations immensely, and I'm prepared to meet with him on equal footing with proper precautions of course.
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>>4535061
Yes, please. Though we should separate our questioning between the to magi. Aka, keep Char out of the loop and vis versa.
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Having some internet trouble.
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>>4535069
Just tell them to meet us near our village here. If he wants to meet, he can come to us. Plus, it'll be a subtle reminder on what we did to the previous doggo who tried shit.

I honestly think it's a simple dominance trial for the young lordling. After all, who want to be lead by a weak welp who's in power because of his father? It's probable that he's wait for us to follow in our father's footsteps and fight him for pack dominance for all we know.
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>>4535079
Rip, sweet prince.
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>>4535061

Yeah, we should press more for more info. See who's one of the middling furries we nabbed, and send them back for negotiations. Nobody high enough to be useful, but not so low that he won't care.

>>4535069
>>4535071

Yeah, choosing to meet up for negotiations in a neutral village is likely the next move to take after pulling info from the prisoners. Not so close to Briarfast that it smells of weakness, not so far that we're in dangerous territory. Making sure to roll up with representatives of our magi and enough Last Loyal to keep it from boiling over will help too. Regardless, should probably have something kind of like a summit among the strong magi in the future. Even if it is just to try and ease off some tensions among our strongest assets
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>>4535010
>I can only make assumptions, uncle, and all the information I have on him is what you and one of my prior captives said. There's what he personally wants, what the Night Hunters want, and what Albeda wants. I doubt that all 3 of those things line up together, but the only way to find the first two out is to get more information, and we happen to have another set of prisoners in my cells who might know more, and can act as decent intermediaries.

>>4535091
Remembering that the previous doggo who started shit was a low-level apprentice who got singletapped by a minor lightning stroke. I doubt his Elder would go down as easily.
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>>4535104
Ye, but a simple reminder of our power would do enough even if we were lucky on several accounts.
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There we go, probably the ATF tapping my wires or something.
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>>4535103
Good idea on the summit, and we can try and bring Goalm back into the fold as well. After all, he has yet to commit treason and is probably the most dangerous beside the Night Hunters in the Pentagram. I also think he can be reasoned with, because we do understand what he's going through. I can easily imagine Jakob going through the same phase when his mother died, after all.
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>>4535120
Good luck with Big Brother, Wong.
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“I'm not sure I know, nuncle.” You confess, “Perhaps he wants more representation in our court? Or a rematch against the Absol lord?”

The old man shrugs, “Wolves care little for representation. What I know is that he eats the flesh of those he kills, and wears a robe of scalps. Perhaps he desires battle again.”

You nod, “A plain rematch would earn him little renown against a cub like me. Maybe he desires the thrill of battle, or maybe he's more pragmatic than that. Maybe he wants land to roam on. Many of the Night Hunters live to the east, we know they've taken over Dampmeade village. Where the marsh becomes grassland, they find better prey and more room to course. Whether it is what he wants or not, I would have more of them to hand, and their loyalty besides. If we peel them off, what other forces does Albeda have? Char was alone, from what I can tell, Albeda has no army of her own, Gloam had only a few apprentices, so Shell and Grey must be providing the bulk of her armies. If we take away Grey, that's most of her strength just...gone.”

Arad gives you a sharp look, “You've forgotten something. Gloam is a Shadowbinder. Give him time and corpses, and he will have an army. Hundred by hundred, rank by rank, limited only by what bodies the earth can provide to him.” He shudders, “The Cheillan War is not the only one this nation has had. There have been others, many, enough to irrigate the swamps in blood, and when the battlefield is cold and still the Shadowbinders creep like insects out of their holes to drag away the bones, to make them walk and fight again in cruel mockery of living men. Do not assume Albeda has no further army. There is always the dead, and the dead fight implacably.” His voice is suddenly very old, and very far away.

“Nuncle, perhaps I should send one of the prisoners with him to a message, arrange a meeting? He is brave, or he would not be their leader, and if we both take precautions.” You bite your lower lip, seeing the look on the old man's face, “Albeda has twice failed to assassinate me. I shall not be easy prey.”

[Continue]
>>
“You are Lord Absol, not I.” His voice sounds like the clicking of a disapproving beak, the heron-winged Stormtongue picking at his food, “The flame woman lost because she relied on her power. She was young. The Ragged Elder is older than I, and far more terrible. He kills men with his own hand, and gnaws their bones. Or he does, if he was still alive. I'm still not sure I believe that.”

“Let's hope not. Then one of his lieutenants may be eyeing a lost cause and hoping for a means to extricate himself. There is room at this table, and I would seat more company at it.” You resist the urge to get up and start pacing, I can only make assumptions, uncle, and all the information I have on him is what you and one of my prior captives said. There's what he personally wants, what the Night Hunters want, and what Albeda wants. I doubt that all of those things line up together, but the only way to find the first two out is to get more information, and we happen to have another set of prisoners in my cells who might know more, and can act as decent intermediaries.”

Arad laughs softly, “So like your father. I'll tell you a secret, but only once. Many times, shame on me for it, I wished you weren't his son, that Lenida had married closer to home. You will never willingly attune to our magic permanently, but what a magnificent Stormtongue you would have been. Your eye is well suited to see things from above. I could have passed on everything to you, and I would have chosen you over any other. Not for your lineage, but for who YOU are. Let me give you a little advice, while the others drink and your captives grow restless, waiting to learn their fate...”

With that, he begins telling you war stories. Most of them are on rather a small scale. Border skirmishes, dealing with brigands or pirates, but his memory is sharp as a razor and he is very emphatic when it comes to what was said, and how. Bit by bit, he impresses on you things you had already begun to realize, ways of instilling steel in the spines of your men, making your soldiers fight with valor and fury. It is a sober way of command, crisp and efficient, devoid of melodrama but high on patriotism and martial virtue.

>[Spend 1 exp, learn the Esoteric Discipline “Words of Iron”]
>[Save it]
>>
>>4535128
A summit is well in good in a time of peace, but after the rebellion has come, it is too late for grievances to be laid out.

>>4535148
>[Spend 1 exp, learn the Esoteric Discipline “Words of Iron”]
We're gonna need it.

add unbinding undead to the long list of magic techniques to research, alas, the backlog already has anti-divination, and better counterspells
>>
>>4535148
>[Spend 1 exp, learn the Esoteric Discipline “Words of Iron”]
Thanks, Uncle. I do appreciate your support. And what he said about us really warmed the cackles of my heart.
>>
>>4535148
>[Spend 1 exp, learn the Esoteric Discipline “Words of Iron”]
This whole tree of skills honestly looked pretty good to me, may as well start learning it, it's going to get used
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>>4535159
The obvious solution to our exp problems are more Problems. Wait a minute...
>>
>>4535148

>[Spend 1 exp, learn the Esoteric Discipline “Words of Iron”]

It's good for the shit we have planned now, and the stuff planned out for after this is pulled out by the roots.

>>4535159

The summit is more going to come into play AFTER the rebellion is broken, and it's leaders shattered. No point in treating these traitors as equals in influence and standing after all.
>>
>>4535168
Clearly, we need more Hated Enemies.
there's these assholes next door in the mountains.....
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>>4535178
I'm still holding out hope for the gal. Anyway, we got problems to the North, Plains, and Sea to help out with. (As the Forest or Mountain's problem have yet to be formally brought up.)
>>
>>4535148

>[Spend 1 exp, learn the Esoteric Discipline “Words of Iron”]

Okay fine, another thing worth getting before Sorcery MD I suppose.
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>>4535178
And an entire province of rebelling provincials being whipped into hysterics by what we could tell from our vision is a fake demigod
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>>4535193
We got that when we defeated Sister Char iirc
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>>4535193

You have it, my dude.
>>
Jakob Absol, Swamp Lord

Unspent Exp: 0
Total Exp: 15

BODY: 2
COORDINATION: 2
SENSE: 3
Eerie: +1
KNOWLEDGE: 4
Counterspell: +3
Language (Vartynen): +MD
Sorcery: +3MD
Strategy: +2
Tactics: +2
COMMAND: 4
Haggle: +1
Inspire: +3
Intimidate: +1
CHARM: 2

ADVANTAGES:
Lucky 1 (one reroll per session on a roll where NO sets turn up)
Thick Headed 1 (one extra wound box in the head)
Status 3 (Lord of the Absol Swamp, FREE for plot reasons)
Followers 5 (10 Threat 4 Unworthy Opponents, the Last Loyal, FREE for picking Swamp)
Possession ? (Castle Briarfast, FREE for plot reasons)
Possession 3 (Well-Made Plate Armor)
Literate in Vartynen 1 (FREE for plot reasons)
Wealth 3
Spells (1)
Spells (1)
Spells (3)
Spells (3)
Spells (5)

PROBLEMS:
Hated Enemy (+1 xp whenever the Hated Enemy harms or inconveniences you)

PASSIONS:
Mission: Solidify your hold on the Absol Swamp
Duty: Be a lord your people and ancestors would be proud of
Craving: Find a worthy and powerful wife

ESOTERIC DISCIPLINES:
The General's Visage: Words of Iron

SPELLS:
Aqueous Divination (Sense): Weather Wisdom, Clearwater Oracle
Smoke Sculpting (Knowledge): Minor Smoke Form, Smoke Arrow, Minor Smoke Structure, Smoke Armor
The Way of the Wood (Knowledge): Blossom Freshness
Wings of Words (Knowledge): Soar, Words of Lesser Attunement, Minor Lightning Stroke
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>>4535193
I, too, would love another MD. This anon knows what's what.
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>>4535193

Pretty sure we got the Sorcery MD last thread when we were rolling in the bonanza of exp from foiling the assassination attempt, whipping Char's ass, and capturing the chimera without bloodshed.
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>>4535200
Can't have 1 roll's pool have more than 1 MD, or a MD and an Expert dice in the same pool, so that's out.

it would be funny AF to just auto headshot with smoke arrow/lightning bolts every turn tho....
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>>4535262

I mean, just roll a 10 or two, and use the MD to make the set wider than theirs. Can't counter-spell what is already cast after all.
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The night passes, one of the best nights of your life. Victory tastes great, and so does power. Deep into the night, the songs and praise are heaped upon you. Both the town's elders and youths cheer for you, and the greatest peril you have are the young women, who eye you like a ripe mulberry waiting to be plucked.

They should know better, you're above their station, but then again, your FATHER married a local girl...the fact that she was the daughter of the headwoman of Grand Crag doesn't seem to fit into their minds, but someone, thankfully, is there to protect your virtue. Her hair is fluffy and brown, her eyes are brilliantly blue, the tip of her nose just a little bit red, and her cheeks are dusted with freckles. Eyes modestly downcast, she sits on the corner of the high table rather than tempt fate by claiming a chair, and all night her lovely voice warms your ears. She sings old songs, favorite songs. War ballads, sowing-rhymes. She sings requests...namely the particularly ribald 'There's a Goat On my Boat' with just enough innocent indignation at the goat's antics to make the soldiers laugh uproariously. She sings the Lay of Ledo, and the tale of Hayward Fair-Arm. Songs of hope and songs of spring, and in her voice you can hear the snap of flags in the crisp breeze and the whickering of horses lined up for the charge. She sings the song of Arnveis the Mulberry Thief and his romancing of Lenida of Grand Crag, and you see Arad's eyes turn misty. Grandmama volunteers to sing, but the ditty she composes is so obscene, so vile, that she is promised an entire keg to herself if she remains a one-hit wonder. Finally, Lilly sings...about you. Just as she said, she sings the truth.

Her pink lips shape the words, telling of a boy with tousled hair, brave but uncertain, seeking to know his realm. Even though you know the outcome, you feel the tension as the strumming of her lyre grows sharper with the approach of the beast, and the young lord's preparation...and finally, your heart soars at her description of your triumph, of seeing you lit by the sunset flying down from your tower to defend your birthright and come home victorious. Her eyes shine, clearly proud of her work by the last note, and as she passes behind your chair for another piece of fried catfish she leans down and whispers in your ear, “Well done, my gentle muse.” She smiles at you and dances away.

>[Say something to her]
>[Let her go for now]
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>>4535282
>[Say something to her]

Fuck if I know what though.
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>>4535282
>[Let her go for now]

Lilly a cute, but I don't know what to say.
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>>4535282

>[Let her go for now]

Lilly is indeed a cute, but we got better fish to fry, and other potential waifus down the road. No point in leading her on just to fuck it up later.
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>>4535282
>[Let her go for now]
Damn you Floofy bard, your battering ram is breaking down the castle walls of my heart, but alas these walls must remain up till we've at least MET Hanna in person and the goat fucker spawn Lady R*yd
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>>4535308
Hey! It's rude to insult them with the truth! Even if the goat spawn is accurate. Though you leave me confused, I thought Lendo was a Lord?
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>>4535314
We were told the current lord of the mountain goat breaders has a very attractive daughter near our age
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>>4533361
Newcomer to the quest, what kind of system is this? Doesn't look like anything I'm familiar with.
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>>4535314

Londo R*d is indeed the current Lord Ryd so far. inb4 the delegation is Lady R*d arriving to try and mend fences after her dad got Cheill'd too.
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>>4535323

It's run with the Reign system. Big take-aways is d10 dicepools, matching sets of numbers are good, with either high numbers, lots of the same or ideally both is what you're looking for in the rolls.
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>>4535323
It's Reign, and the dice system requires us to roll d10s and get multiples of the same number to cast spells, and accomplish things.
Didn't get the mechanics too much when I started, setting and setup dragged me in and now I'm staying up to not miss threads.
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>>4535325
>inplying the current lord isn't dickless and likes to dress like a maid in private
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You want to say something to her, but you're not sure what. Moreover...you're a noble, and she's a good woman, if you led her on, only to marry someone more to your station, would you ever forgive yourself for hurting her? You're still young, there is time. Still, the sweetness of her smile makes your heart beat faster and your wine taste sweeter.

There is, however, one thing that mars your evening somewhat.

You know something is wrong when you see Harvin hurrying down the steps from the floors of the keep that are your living space, his maimed face grey, his hunchbacked shuffling more frenetic than usual. He stifles a gag, stumbling to a window and retching noisily. “G-good Mihto shine on me...” He groans.

You sympathetically pat the steward on the back to help him get it all out, “Let it all out. Too much to drink? Take it easy tomorrow, I'll get you some water.” How many times, after all, has that kindest of human beings brought you water or soothed your brow when you were sick?

He shakes his head and grabs your arm, “No...in there...” He points a trembling hand up towards your room.

You gesture for your bodyguards, now a constant presence, to follow you. With billhooks in hand, they ascend the spiral stairs to the first of the top two tower floors, throw open the doors, and immediately make noises of disgust. Pushing by them, you immediately see why.

[Continue]
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>>4535351
That's completely understandable seeing how much of a Chad our father, his closest neighbour was
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The chimera glares at you vindictively with its pale eyes, squatting on the floor in the middle of its prison of smokeglass pillars, their transparent bars making its form seem to waver. It looks battered, with several noticeable cuts and bruises, and you can only imagine its rage at finding itself trapped and unable to use its sheer strength to break free. However, it has found a means of revenge. The stench is awful as it adds yet another plop to the reeking, liquidy pile on the floor beneath it, “Ook.” It proclaims, eyes focusing on you as it rubs its snout with its tentacles.

There is no way you're sleeping in here tonight. The reek is unbearable.

“I believe it was drugged, my lord.” Harvin stumbles up the stairs, pale as a ghost and supported by two of your guards. “Nightscream, if my guess is accurate. A rather niche potion, but one Albeda would know the making off. It induces unconsciousness for roughly...I would say ten hours in a creature that size, but it is not a pleasant sleep, but rather a paralyzing, terrifyingly claustrophobic one, haunted by terrible nightmares. Upon awakening, as the imbiber's fiery humors arise as normal to shake off grogginess, the brew's second effect kicks in. Rage, and a loss of inhibition. It is, after all, a wild animal. Even if trained to kill and aggressive by nature, if it had found you surrounded by armed men, it would have wanted to flee otherwise.”

“LOOK OUT!” One of the Last Loyal shouts, thrusting himself between you and the beast. For a moment, your heart stops, expecting to see the prison shatter and the chimera leap at you but you are marginally less unlucky. What your bodyguard had seen was the chimera reach a tentacle between its legs, and arm itself with a missile most foul, which it whips at you with terrible force. The stool spatters across the guardsman's cuirass, but you remain unharmed. For a moment, there is silence, although the chimera claps its tentacles together and makes a deep-throated “Huh-huh-huh-huh-huh.” sound.

“Harvin. Reward this man.” There are no other words.

“Yes, my lord.” Harvin clears his throat with a phlegmy cough, “What do you mean to DO with it?”

“For now, I'll spend the night in my old room, but starting tomorrow...”

>[What do you plan to do with it?]
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>>4535361
Train it. It'll make a wonderful pet and an insult to Albeda's foolish attempt at murder.
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>>4535361
As absolutely tempted as a I am to say

>Tell Cailm I settled on a wife for him to train after all
>Move the Chimera into his room

Let's go with put it in the dungeon for now and we can put out a call to look for an experienced animal trainer for it
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>>4535377
I absolutely adore your suggestion.
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>>4535361
A wild animal, smart enough to spite us. Kill it and dissect it, then give the corpse to the walls.

I can't see a way to use it without a considerable waste of time and effort. Training it to do what, catch balls? Then we have a shit flinging octo-monkey. 8 times the shit flinging.

Not to mention the dangers to our men of attempting to move and train it.

Was hoping there was more to it when I advocated trapping it, but sometimes a beast is just a beast.

Dang Harvin, pocket expert herbalist. A worthy helper, indeed.
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>>4535361

>[What do you plan to do with it?]

Put the damned thing down. We can always recruit some flesh-sculpters in the future Or get Grandmama's children to make zombified ones if we need monsters. As stand right now though, we got enough problems in the province as it is without having an octape with a hunger for manflesh in our dungeons.
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>>4535377
+1, if only to see Cailm's face.
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>>4535380
actually, I'll drop the dissect part. We probably wouldn't get anything out of it.
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>>4535391

You've saved its life with that, since it was 2/2 between taming it and killing it. As an ape, it is actually fairly trainable.
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>>4535408
Time to watch it learn sign language
Except with tentacle arms and no hands
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>>4535410
I. Heart. U. Cail-*doorslams*

The perfect woman.
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“We're going to train it, I just need to find someone who knows how.” You glance at the chimera again.

“Hur-hur-hur-grokkkk-grokkkk.” It's doing that stupid chuffing laugh at you so hard that its throat is puffing up like a frog.

“Watch out, its tongue can grab you, it's at least five yards long.” You remark from bitter experience, “It can't stay here. We need to move it to the dungeon until we can build a proper enclosure for it. Outdoors is probably best, but it climbs like...well.” The thing is so made for climbing you can scarcely find anything to compare it to.

“I'll mix a sleeping draught into its food tomorrow.” Harvin suggests, seemingly trying to make up for his moment of illness in front of you. “After all, we can't get it out of there without you to undo your spell and remove the bars.”

“A fine plan.” You agree, pinching your nose. “...And I have a plan to make it finer.”

That night, you sleep the sleep of the glorious victor, and you dream of flight. You wake feeling incredibly refreshed and confident, with a vast weight off your shoulders. Harvin very carefully uses two billhooks tied together for extra length to push a big bowl of mashed apples, the leftover meat from last night's meal, and honey between the bars, and the chimera greedily snatches it up and gobbles it up. Although the squid and frog bits of it are carnivores, it's still mostly monkey, and while ghuls love meat even more than their smaller baboon and mandrill cousins do the sweet apples are just the thing to fill its empty belly with greedy hunger. Less than an hour later, it's curled up in a ball, asleep, and you turn the smokemass back into regular smoke, the released puff of incense-laden smoke helping to clear the air of the chimera's foulness. You're still not entirely sure you shouldn't kill it. The thing is wrapped in chains, put on a stretcher, and carried off to the most secure cell in the dungeons, for the time being.

You're all set to follow, when you hear a clamour from outside the window. Looking out over the castle town, you see a procession of carriages rolling through the open gate, and fluttering above them...the banner of a silver fox on a dark blue field.

>[Get to the great hall, and be there when the Ryd delegation comes in]
>[Tend to your business in the dungeon talking to the prisoners first]
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>>4535408
That's good to hear. Hate to see such potential go to waste.
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>>4535415
>[Get to the great hall, and be there when the Ryd delegation comes in]

Time to be a Lord.
Someone's got to set the example in the hall.
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>>4535415

>[Get to the great hall, and be there when the Ryd delegation comes in]

Time to deal with some squatters come to chat. Don't want them to wait, otherwise they'll probably "find" something else to take home with them later on. It's only proper lordly manners after all.
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>>4535415
Oh boy, to the Grand Hall we go!
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>>4535415
>[Get to the great hall, and be there when the Ryd delegation comes in]

First impressions are important, as much as I want learn from the prisoners. Ryd knows our dad died, right? Half the letters didn't so that's why I'm asking.
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>>4535415
>[Get to the great hall, and be there when the Ryd delegation comes in]

I wonder what gifts they bring...
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>>4535415

>[Get to the great hall, and be there when the Ryd delegation comes in]

Damn and here we are without a fresh young goat to offer them for their bedroom
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>>4535424

He should. The only ones who didn't were Galdynfyrgenbach who has the issue of distance, and Gwelm, who might not be as up to date with the current news. If Ryd is even half of the stories spread about him, he'd be able to pick it up by now just from spending some of our ancestor's gold on room and board and listening on the way to Castle Briarfast.
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>>4535425
That reminds me, wasn't there an idea to carve a magical wooden necklace for Lady Hannah, one with a slight glow and warmth?
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Just for fun, roll me some dice, this is a Sense+Scrutinize roll.
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Rolled 5 (1d10)

>>4535449

Dice for the heap!
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Rolled 1 (1d10)

>>4535449
Perception, my old nemesis
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Rolled 5 (1d10)

>>4535449
Ouch so just our 3 for Senses since we have no Scrutinize eh?
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Rolled 3 (1d10)

>>4535449
Oh no, the dice addiction starts again!
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>>4535451
>>4535453

Still ended up with a 2x5 though. No cutlery going missing tonight!
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>>4535451
>>4535453
Thank the Absol ancestors we got a pair
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Rolled 8 (1d10)

>>4535449
Well diced, good sir!
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>>4535451
>>4535453

He can't keep getting away with it.
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>>4535449
We need to up our stats/skills as well, lads.
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>>4535459
Yea....Sense would help our divination magic, something that might be good to go into for more info.

but more unlimited power Proper Lightning Stroke.....
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>>4535458

>pic related.

We're just going to shit the bed hard from hubris later on, but I'll enjoy the benefits now while they're still around.

>>4535459

Yeah, those are priority now. Costs 10 to boost a stat though. At least all our shitty skills are relatively cheap (2-4 exp) to boost right now.
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>>4535459
I don't know if we can get a md for stats
But, imagine if we had a MD for Knowledge
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>>4535468
Plus side for stats, universal use when compared to skills.
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>>4535472
That seems like the road to madness.

I love it.
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>>4535472

No MDs for stats, but their limit is 6 instead of 5. Means the best you can get is a 9d10 with MD, even after losing a die from multiple actions.

>>4535474

Yeah, they're just expensive right now. Pretty sure we'll get potential skill packages to boost multiple skills though, Wong was talking about it in previous threads to try and balance out a bit from our slower exp gain due to being a Lord rather than a murder-hobo.
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>>4535468
8-10 exp. for a MD(+1), per skill. Just saying...
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>>4535479
That sound sweet for stats, lads.

And what's wrong with being a murder-hobo?
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Sleep has come upon me rather suddenly, lads, and we'll all want to be sharp for this. I would say I'm running Sunday, but...Sundays are always iffy. If not, then Monday. Assuming I'm not catching a three day ban for "off topic" non janny approved opinions on /tg/.
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>>4535485

No worries Wong, seeya then.
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>>4535485
Well, good night Wong.

We really should look into at least some dodge skill for staying alive in fights we can't counterspell everything, at least while it's cheap.

I mean, if we're just picking skills. Still probably below some sort of diplomacy-based Charm for talking to people, and that's below some sort of anti-divination defense.
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>>4535485
Night Wong. Don't go off the rails just yet especially if it's warrented.
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>>4535488
We really need to create a system for deciding on what to spend exp. on. There's too many things on our wishlist currently, and I can see it growing exponentially.
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>>4535361
>The chimera glares at you vindictively with its pale eyes, squatting on the floor in the middle of its prison of smokeglass pillars, their transparent bars making its form seem to waver. It looks battered, with several noticeable cuts and bruises, and you can only imagine its rage at finding itself trapped and unable to use its sheer strength to break free. However, it has found a means of revenge. The stench is awful as it adds yet another plop to the reeking, liquidy pile on the floor beneath it, “Ook.” It proclaims, eyes focusing on you as it rubs its snout with its tentacles.

I like this spiteful little shit.
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>>4535488

Probably gonna hew less on Dodge and more on Parry since we're going Flying Tank with two layers of armour in the fight. For weaponry, probably Staff of some kind, since we can also attach the censor to it if we don't want to hang it from our belt in the fight.

Charm skills tend to be more inter-personal from what I see, with Command being for the masses.

>>4535490

Other things to remember is that Sorcery changes it's base stat depending on the school. Most of the ones we have are either Knowledge (4), or Sense (3), which is fine with the amount we have. It starts getting dicier if we wind up with something based off of Coordination, Body or Charm, since those are all pretty low.

Big shit I see to improve is as follows in no particular order:

>boost some Sense skills, since it saved our asses a few times, and the stat isn't super high.
>boost some Charm skills, to help persuade people when we start dealing with people of consequence
>boost some defensive skills, either Parry(Body), or Dodge (Coordination), probably Body ones since it'll mesh better with our equipment already.
>get some more spells like Shovel the Clouds, Lightning Stroke, divinations, etc.
>get some more MDs in other skills like Counterspell and Inspire to play to our strengths.
>boost some stats to fill in a few of our weak spots, probably Body, Charm, and Sense(mainly to improve our divinations and pick up on shit).

We don't really need much more Possessions yet, and we're probably going to stay Unattuned too, to take advantage of our wide range of spell choice. Our spells are pretty alright for now, so we should focus on improving a few more of our courtly and martial skills since we're probably going to the North in a few months, and we are probably going to need to deal with court life soon enough when us and the other provinces start getting our shit back in order.
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Wish you guys the best of luck in your new quest, just remember the two key things for success.

1. Roll big constantly
2. Fuck veggies
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>>4535501
So, what takes priority then? We need to figure out what's important to get first, and what we can hold off on. After all, we can't get everything from our wishlist in one sitting.

And I just realized that Hannah's stat potentially is 6 Body/Coordination, as she does have the lineage of an Amazonian Demi-goddess in her blood. Hot damn, no wonder she kicks ass at fighting, but has no practical skills beyond that (assumed, but it would make sense in context of an Amazonian struggling to rule her people effectively).
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>>4535844

I'd say boosting a couple Sense skills (Scrutinize or Empathy to start since they're at +0) to a +2 or +3, Parry to at least a +2, and probably Vigor to a +2. It'll give us a couple of 4d10 or 5d10 rolls in our lower stats, and 5d10 or 6d10 in our rolls for reading people. We won't be stirring in trying to persuade people and kind of shit at hacking dudes up with a billhook, but we can at least put up a defense against martials while we cast and semi-reliably tell when people are trying to bullshit us. If I didn't fuck up the math, a +0 to +2 takes around 5 exp, which is around 20 exp total for four skills. 2 stat ups cost the same, but these skills are in 3 different areas that might be spreading that exp too thin with stat-ups. At least it'll give us at least 4-6 dice in our defensive skills rather than 2-4 in them plus a few other rolls. A lot easier to make sets that way, even if they're unlikely to be much good.

The skill cost might be higher to around 24 exp if I messed up the scaling, but it'll still be cheaper than 3 stat-ups. Plus, it'll make it cheaper in general to start looking at MDs and EDs in the future, since they will have already got a lot of the ground-work done up. Basing this off the fact you probably need a minimum skill level of +3 or +4 to get them

Oh dear, Lady Hannah is spectacular in a fight but has issues persuading the masses to accept her rule. If only she knew a friendly face that has high Command and skills to Inspire/Intimidate them as required to bring those chieftains back into the fold. :^)
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>>4535874

>in 3 different areas.

Whoops, realized that both Parry and Vigor are Body skills. Makes it a bit cheaper to boost the stats we'll want in these since it's just 2 of them, but still overall cheaper to boost skills. Plus, since it's not big-ticket exp costs, we can pick up a couple of other skills that crop up along the way, since I doubt most anons will have the patience to wait for 10 exp all the time when chances to gain spells or Esoteric Techniques crop up, and it's easier to justify that way.
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>>4535874
Considering our well-justified paranoia over magic and monster assassination attempts in the night, some more Sense stuff would be justified.

I do like the idea of idea of being good at spotting the BS from nobles with Empathy as a stopgap, and just calling them out on it, rather than trying to get very good at sweet talking them. Wouldn't make many friends that way, however.

I don't think we're allowed to "Learn" vigor, as it says it isn't a skill to be learned, but considering as long as we are wearing armor, we can parry with our armored forearms, would be good for putting some points into that.

Also depends on what people we have available to learn from, because I doubt we will get a good fighting tutor until we pick out a Master of Arms.
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I really like the detail that our personal guard uses billhooks over more famous polearms.
They fit the image of a swamp-dwelling army very well.
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>>4535874
>>4535913
You guys make good points. We could probably also stat level charm, just to get a quick cheap boost in those related skill sets, and to atleast try to be competitive in that department. Dodge may also be a skill set worth potential investing in, just in case, but Martial skills like that would have to wait until we get a Master-at-arms, atleast. The real questions would be, do we invest in a greater advantage for stats we already have an edge in. I believe Sense would be useful, as it already saved our lives and helped us immensely, but what of Knowledge and Command? It may be expensive exp wise, but one would say well spent as well, if it offers us an even greater advantage in future conflicts.

I'm not very good at the mechanics of this system, so I don't know what would be optimal exp use, because we have to keep in mind the exp cost of spells and techniques as well.

God, I feel like a kid in a candy shop being told to choose a piece of candy.
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>>4535959

Wong mentioned in previous threads that some Body and Coordination skills (Dodge, Running, Climbing, Swimming) are hampered by heavy armour like the Plate and Smoke Armor spell that we already went in on for our defenses. Parry is less affected as far as I'm aware, so we may as well boost it and Weapon Skill (whatever), since it'll be cheaper than boosting Coordination and Body for similar results on the defensive side. Most of the Body skills hampered are offset by having bodyguards around to pull us out of the bogs and rivers or flying with Soar rather than climbing a wall or jumping a chasm. Some of the Coordination skills are worth dipping into, but not really enough to spend 10 exp per die gained by raising the stat instead of going in skills. Charm skills are useful and boosting Charm will help with all of them, but it'll be from 2d10 to 3d10/4d10. We've got other shit to go for first.

Knowledge and Command are our strengths and we can play into them. Raising Intimidate is still relatively cheap, and can boost it to easy successes like our Inspire and Knowledge+Sorcery spells. Some of the Knowledge skills are interesting like Healing (probably herbalism shit), Lore (whatever), and boosting Strategy/Tactics, but even the unskilled ones are at 4d10 for now. I'd say we're still better off going with Sense boosting and Martial Defense skills first, to get them to something better than the 2d10 or 3d10 they're at now, since we need 2 matching numbers for a roll to count as a success.

Yeah, my brain's been reeling trying to decide on what to go with for building Jakob into a force to be reckoned with amongst the other nobility. At least we're not starting with sweet fuck-all to aim for.
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>>4536383
Well, what we could do is pay the exp for some of the cheaper skills, then have the exp package help boost them though I don't know if this is a viable stat or not, since it seems exp packages are experimental and such. I figure it's best to try and point it out for us all though.
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>>4535950

Yeah man, I like the details in stuff like that. Especially since historical weapon billhooks adapted out from the agricultural tools used by the lower classes. Used the tool ones myself, and prefer them a lot over machetes because they sharpen nice, and work on grasses, thorny weeds, vines, bushes, and like 2" trees without needing other tools.

>I say Percival, what is that tool those peasants are using?
>A billhook m'lord.
>Fascinating. I wonder what it'll do to those blasted Frenchmen over the channel.
>Probably something nasty m'lord. I seent 'em chop through a thumb-thick branch in one swing afore even when it were dull as sin.
>Marvellous, simply marvellous. Get me 30 of them Percival, I've got an idea...
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>>4536423
Kek.
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>>4536383
Well, the easiest way to be a force at court is to be the man everyone wants to have on their own side. If we can pull off a few more military victories, and prove ourselves as an able commander, we can be the man with the army that noone wants to cross. We can lean on Intimidate and try to gain a reputation as a straight-shooter who wants to stay out of backstabbing, and Sense or Empathy to stop us from getting pointed at the wrong targets (Hopefully). Sense is also what our Clearwater Oracle is based off of, and if we go a bit further into those spells, would be useful.

Of course, this goes out the window when trying to deal with friends, because there's only so many times you can try and intimidate allies before those allies are gone.

I mean, there's also the traditional method of covering your weaknesses. Outsourcing. Harvin, for example, apparently has good Healing based on his identification of toxins. Our Last Loyal do try and cover for our weakness of body, also. Calim's already sort of serving as our Man in the Know with chatting up the prisoners. He's a little informal for being a diplomat, but hey, whatever works.


Wong, is it ok for us to look up some of the spells we might potentially learn, or do you want to hold control on what kinds of Esoteric Disciplines/Spells, etc. that the group knows about?

cuz I went looking and found a spell that solves our divination defense problem at not too high of an Intensity....It's even on the same page as Clearwater Oracle....
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>>4536423
It's also an amazing weapon for dealing with cavalry and armor, as the hook could drag to the ground anything it didn't kill outright.
It's telling that they stayed in use long after pike formations became the norm in Europe.
I'm looking forward to seeing horsemen get yoinked while we put down this rebellion.
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>>4536471
Well, I don't know if that's too mega-gaming or not. While I don't think so personally, I try to err on the side of if the character would know it or not IC. It sort of like trying to kickstart the Industrial Revolution as a murder-hobo, you know. It's sort of the same reason I'm hesitant to share an idea about a smoke structure, as it has the potential to ruin the setting, though I may be overestimating the idea's importance, or if it's even possible under in-setting knowledge or metaphysics.

>>4536491
In the North, the Billhook becomes the tool the Reaper uses to take the dead with him.
>>
>>4536471
>>4536491
I think we definitely have some license to fish the rulebooks for good spells from an in-character perspective.
Maybe it would be different if we picked a different province, but as it stands we're the sorcerer king of the Witchlands and have an absurd amount of magical resources compared to the vast majority of the setting.
That said, I'd hold off on Jakob becoming a visionary smoke architect until he undergone the relevant training.
>>
>>4535485
Wong's not banned yet, right lads?
>>
>>4536637
Wong needs to step up his proxy game if he's going to use gamer words.
>>
>>4536471

Froth? Why yes, certainly that's one that's available to you. I don't mind you looking that stuff up, although I might go, for example, "you've never heard of someone who eats eyes to get the ability to see through walls", but Aqueous Divination is something Jakob is proficient enough in to learn Froth from the library in his quarters. Keep in mind, though, it affects any spell that has to do with you. Even neutral or beneficial ones, like reading your own future.
>>
>>4536668
So, one more hit on our Oracle, then we get Frothed? Atleast until it runs out, then we do both in the same order. I know Froth has a time limit, and I'd never commit to the Wirlpool tub one, so we can just do a Clearwater Oracle before a Froth spell? And do we have a diviner in-court to do the spell dor us?

Frankly, it seems all the spells are pretty useful, but that's with every spell.
>>
>>4536687
I was thinking something along those lines, ya. Using our MD and trying to set our timescales. Although a 5 hour long cast time is a joke. What are we doing, stirring tea and casting while holding court on Mondays?

>>4536668
I'll limit my research to anything we've seen in-thread, or schools that we directly have access to already.
>>
>>4536707
That why we need a diviner in our court. Someon who could do this ritual to us when we're asleep, or something easily as taxing. So it's doesn't waste much of our time.

Plus, I imagine the time limits is meant to be a problem to those on the run or want to be hidden. After all, why else would anyone want to prevent a divination on themselves (because there are benefits to learning your own future, if only for yourself).
>>
Finally caught up to this thread, you fuckers better not have released any prisoners or fucked Lili yet.
>>
>>4536786
No promises.
>>
At the risk of being a massive meme, game will probably be Tuesday instead of today. I'm babysitting and while I can sometimes run and watch my niece at the same time, sometimes it's just impossible.
>>
>>4537093
All good sir :) great games are worth the wait.
>>
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Just caught up with the quest after realizing Mr. Wong was running it! It's good to see you back, and this quest has been great so far.
Mecha Space Pirate is in my top 5 quests so I got high hopes for this one and I haven't been disappointed so far, so please keep up that great work!

I'd never pick favorites, but please know that Karen is very much loved and holds a special place in my heart. They all do really, Roarke's harem is filled with absolutely amazing gals, but if all the girls are equal the lack of appreciation for Karen at times force me to give her a bit more love
>>
>>4537093
What anime character does your niece best represent, if I'm not being too forward here?
>>
>>4537093
See you tomorrow night Wong
>>4537830
Dude no, just no
>>
>>4537093
Night Wong. Can't wait to see what happens next!

>>4537830
It's too forward, lad. It's always too forward.
>>
Game will be a bit delayed. Both my little brother and I had our cars in the shop and took turns borrowing the pickup. Unfortunately...he left a loaded magazine or two in there, so I'm doing the responsible big brother thing and taking them back to him.
>>
>>4539300
Your a better man than I, Wong.

Finders keepers is still a strong tradition in my family...
>>
>>4536471
In preparation for the coming negotiations with the furries, should we up a Sense skill, Empathy, Scrutinize, or others?

I would also like to mention that Command skills may be of more use here, and not just because we're piss poor at Charm. I think the Big Bad Wolf would react better to Command on the basis that he's probably more animalistic in nature, and Charm would more likely work more on traditionally human nature. Don't really know though, this is just an assumption.

It could just be my brain going 'Bad dog!' And 'Stay! Rollover! Do the wolf-trick! Good boy! Here's a treat!'. I don't have to mention that this kind of treatment won't get us results. Probably.
>>
>>4539317

I like the idea, a creative use of of Command might have more effect than Charm or even Empathy.

It could be something like issuing a drill style Command to whatever troops we have with us at the time while he can see. The Last Loyal must have some cool looking parade routines.

Alexander the Great, while fully surrounded by enemy armies on hills, once used this tactic to such great effect that the opposing forces just went home instead of dealing with his ridiculously well drilled army.

Our case would be much different but the main idea of making an impression using our Command skill is largely the same.
>>
>>4539337
Ah yes, time to hold an impromptu drill parade in the grand Hall that just so happens to be going on while the neighboring lord shows up
I'm in full support of doing drill parades and mock battles against Nuncle Arad with the Last Loyal
>>
>>4539342

I was thinking more for when/if we meet with Brother Grey, but yeah it might not be bad to include it with the R*dshit delegation.
>>
>>4539317
Sounds like Intimidate to me. Runs off of command, also. I'm also a little more inclined to level Sense because I feel like we'll get a lot out of everything from Eerie to avoid magic assassins, to Empathy to help us not get BSed by diplomats or other lords, to Sight to just not get stabbed by random hired goons.

I may have a paranoia problem, but considering the motive and means are there, I think it's warranted. Getting shanked would be a shitty way to die.

>>4539337
The Last Loyal are a crack group of troops, but they're not a massive army. They're good, and loyal, but they're not a legion, and they aren't winning huge battles on their own. I see their first value in being unquestionably trusted, and then after that their prowess as bodyguards, and finally after all that their use on the battlefield. Remembering that most of our great Might score comes from having several strong mages, not a huge standing army.

It's a bit late to be doing mock battles right now, but keeping that in the back pocket for anyone else we want to intimidate or impress is something to remember.
>>
>>4539367
FFS messed up my formatting.
There's definitely a case to be made for just banking xp, also, to try and expand our spell lists in the future.
>>
>>4539367
Boosting up Eerie was on my list of important things to level up last thread
It's saved our butt and we definitely need to roll more than 4d10 for it in the future

And I was thinking doing Mock battles with Arad would be a good way to express why he boosted Tactics and Strategy in his monthly exp package
>>
>>4539394
That is Assuming Wong still wants to do those monthly exp packages he was talking about or that they would even have the same skills as his examples
>>
>>4539403
I assume it would work out like a loot box. You get some idea, but you don't know the specifics until you open them.
>>
>>4539414
>lootboxes
Ah yes, time for Wong to shill us his Patreon to "boost tje value of our monthly packages" or "Get 2 exp packages for the month" or just straight up "hit a donation threshold to gain increased exp generations"
I kid, Wong is far from that evil probably
>>
>>4539308

Yeah but I don't have an HK. I could've kept the bullets, but they're not the same brand as the jacketed hollowpoints I use.
>>
>>4539422
>forgetting the Shinji-Jakob death scene was from the previous thread

>>4539430
'Tis life then. Hope your brother appreciated it atleast.
>>
>>4539450
I mean, that's more sadistic than evil
>>
>>4539457
Probably
>>
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You've never put on your armor faster. You also spot the fine cloak that you got at the same time, and on impulse, put it on. The otter fur really is high quality. With unseemly haste, you trot down the stairs, through the solar behind the great hall, and into the great hall itself, taking your seat with your thurible, a lit candle, and today's book of choice resting on the table before you.

Cailm makes it in ahead of the group, walks past behind your chair, and mutters, “He's been throwing silver into the crowd like chickenfeed on his way in.”

“Silver, not gold? Must've fallen on hard times.” You mumble back, but the great doors are opened wide by your guards, and Lord Ryd's march in.

“Lord Londo Ryd.” One of the guards calls out. It's the barest formality. 'Rightful Protector of the Ryd Mountains' is normally expected to follow, but that's a subject that sticks in many a swamplander's craw.

Their gear is of fine make. The Ryd war machine, on sheer funding alone rather than strength of men, is the only one in the Frontier Provinces that can rival the Absols. Naturally, you have the advantage in sorcerers, and they probably have more people. The puffy sleeves, elaborately decorated bec-de-corbins and gleaming armor of his retinue stand in sharp contrast to the dull maille and unadorned billhooks used by your guards, and you don't need to see beneath their visors to know that they're shooting each other some ugly looks. Lord Ryd, however, outshines them all. He's a big man, and that's something you weren't expecting, tall and still well-muscled despite having gone as silver as his family's totem. He's dressed in rakish velvet and furs, with long-spurred black riding boots so shiny you could see your face in them if you looked, matching his companionably roguish smile. He looks like he should have a hunting falcon riding on his wrist. The sword on his hip has a jeweled scabbard and hilt that should normally indicate mere decoration, but the sweat-stains and wear on the leather of the grip tell you that it's seen frequent use. A rich man can afford a very good sword.

“Lord Absol.” He booms out, looking around and spreading his arms wide. “You gave me an introduction, I see things are already off to a fine start.” He turns towards you, as amicable as a favorite uncle, “Damned shame about your father, he was a terror, and the Kingdom's worse off without him. I'll do you the courtesy of giving you the truth, I thought I'd be dealing with him until I reached Huskerly and heard the tavern-talk. Singing your praises, they were.” He smiles in a way that lets you know he's proud of you. “May we speak privately?” He looks around at the onlookers.

>[Allow him a private audience]
>[Deny him a private audience]
>>
>>4539472
>>[Allow him a private audience]
we're a cut above them
better than the best
>>
Rolled 8, 6 = 14 (2d10)

>>
>>4539472
>Dismiss Cailm from the room
There as good as private
I jest
>[Allow him a private audience]
Damn you Goat fucker, I already like you
>>
>>4539472
>[Allow him a private audience]

I should like him. He's paid his respects, he's a man who clearly has used his sword recently and often, but I'm getting vibes that he's gonna want something. After all, why so polite and friendly?

Wonder what rumors are flying around about our problems.

In before he's here to stab us and thinks Albeda would be more willing to help him with whatever issue he has
>>
>>4539472

>[Allow him a private audience]

Don't need to have our guards and his guards getting antsy around each other, especially if one of us causes offence for some strange animal buggering accusations reason.
>>
>>4539472
>[Deny him a private audience]

He's funny, but he's also shoving his wealth in our face. He's also being overly intimate. I would deny him the advantage of charming us out of our cloak in our home. He's trying to set a precedent here.

Paranoia, but why else does he come in full splender, passing out silver like it was chicken feed at our very gates?
>>
>>4539472
What was our scrutinize roll btw? I feel like I probably missed it.
>>
>>4539472
>[Allow him a private audience]
>>4539478
That's a good way to get headshot and I'm sure he knows it. Besides, as of now the terrorists are only common knowledge in our own province, so at the very least his original purpose for coming here must be unrelated.
>>
>>4539500
I feel compelled to add we may lose our Command advantage if we agree to a private audience. Let him make his intentions known for all to hear, instead of hiding behind a lords curtsy.
>>
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“Certainly, my lord.” You extend him the needed courtesies, even if you can't keep the wariness out of your voice. You should like him, he's paid his respects, and he is a likable sort of old rogue...but that's the problem, isn't it? Likable old rogues are the most dangerous rogues, and Londo Ryd is the only one your father was wary of.

You stand, and the two of you make your way together through the corridor behind your chair up the stairs to the solar. He looks around at the dark-paneled room and chuckles, seeing its stately, dark, wooden architecture and simple homeyness. It has a pair of reading couches near the hearth, along with a small table and chairs near the window. For family meals. Your father tended to hold audience during mealtimes, though, so after your mother's death you mostly ate in the great hall. He takes a seat on one of the couches, stripping off his riding gloves and warming his hands by the fire, “You know, you've already made me a profit.” He winks, then glances upward, “I had a bet with my sergeant, five silver on whether there would be any bats or walking skeletons or living gargoyles in here.”

“Not in here, but I may have a monster or two lurking around.” You respond, taking the couch across from him. It forces a slightly more informal setting than the table, but that's alright.

“I'll wager.” He chuckles, then sighs, “I'll be honest again. This would have been a lot easier if your lord father was alive. How he would have laughed to see me, hat in hand, on his doorstep, but...what I'm about to propose is always easier when the parents arrange it.” He takes out a small cameo, and tosses it to you. It's a picture of a girl. A beautiful girl. A girl with platinum hair, dark lips quirked in an inquisitive smile, and large, lovely eyes.

>[Oh no, make an excuse to get him out of here]
>[Don't panic, stay and listen]
>>
>>4539520
>[Don't panic, stay and listen]
Oh, oh, oh, is he about to offer us his daughters hand in turn for slaying his dragon?
>>
>>4539526
He must be truly desperate and have an actual dragon problem if he's will to part with what should be a rich father's most precious treasure if that is the case.
>>
>>4539520

>[Don't panic, stay and listen]

"You know Londo, the traditional offer for the slaying of a dragon is the Princess' hand in marriage, rather than a Lady."

Play it off as nonchalant as possible. No need to let him know what kind of woman we're into yet.
>>
>>4539520
>[Don't panic, stay and listen]

Fuck, that actually makes a lot of sense. Doesn't mean I like it, but it doesn't cost much to hear him out. Don't want to make too many assumptions, tho.
>>
>>4539520
>[Don't panic, stay and listen]

A lord does not panic, especially in his own home.
>>
>>4539520
>[Don't panic, stay and listen]

I agree with not making any assumptions for the real purpose of his visit. let him explain himself before we make an ass out of the both of us.
>>
>>4539520
>[Don't panic, stay and listen]
>>
>>4539520
>[Don't panic, stay and listen]
>>
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You look incredulously down at her, but you don't panic. You keep your calm. You raise your eyebrows a fraction, and look back up at Lord Ryd.

“Amaranthe. Of all the jewels in the mountains, she shines the brightest. It is a terrible price for a father to pay, to give away a daughter like her. She is brilliant, witty, strong-willed, literate. She enjoys games of strategy, and has the respect of my soldiers and my money-men alike.” He exhales heavily, “I propose an alliance, Lord Absol.”

“For the slaying of a dragon? Traditionally, one receives a princess and half her father's lands.” You remark, rather regretting how crude the words are compared to his polished rhetoric. You're much better at speeches than one on one conversations.

“She's as good as any princess, and...” He leans towards you, and speaks each word very precisely, “I have no male heir.” He slumps back, and claps his hands onto his knees, “Thus my options are limited, if I want help with the monster ravaging my lands and eating my cattle. You, Lord Balam Ledo, or Lord Ralf Schwaltz.” He holds up three fingers, “Balam is notoriously hard to marry off, and I can't have her humiliated by being put second to his manure-spreading or his horse-brushing. Ralf...I don't like dealing with. He's oily, unreliable, he doesn't have enough army to muster the balls to march through your swamp in the midst of what sounds like a bit of a civil conflict anyway. As for you, you've got a problem of your own, and that's the history between our families, but you know why they call it history? Because it's in the past. Nothing can undo the bad blood, but it won't hurt YOUR standing to be married into the ruling line of the Ryd Mountains. As the husband of the girl I'm leaving it to. I don't propose you fight the dragon in single combat, I wouldn't even propose your father fight it in single combat, or any other man living. I propose an alliance. We merge our forces, and we have an army that can solve your problem and mine. Moreover, I have a plan to create enough good blood for our soldiers to tolerate the arrangement. Has Lady Galdynfyrgenbach contacted you, yet? The word from our border is that she's dealing with a rather nasty revolt. She won't come to me for help, her father owed me a substantial debt and she fears adding to it, but I have it on good authority her chief advisor studied sorcery in your lands and will likely encourage her to write to you for aid. If you decide to help her, I'll send some of my soldiers under your command as proof of our solidarity, and my daughter will accompany them to see how wars are won. What do you say? At least get a chance to know her.”

His smile gleams brightly.

>[Yes]
>[No]
>[I'll think about it]
>>
>>4539561
>[I'll think about it]

After all, a Lord must learn of a Lady, and a Lady learn the Lord, before there is commitment.
>>
>>4539561
>>[I'll think about it]
>>
>>4539570
Plus, when he oils us up like that, making good points with the other Lords, it not like we can refuse him outright.
>>
>>4539561

>[I'll think about it]

Commit to nothing, promise nothing as of yet. Londo is seeking us out for the strength of the Absol armies alone. Could also pointedly mention that if Galdynfyrgenbach's revolt is put down, an alliance of the North and the Swamps should be able to put paid to any dragon in the mountains. After all, she'll likely be willing to send forces in aid to help pay back the debts of her father. Therefore removing some of the R*ddish leverage over the Lady Hannah, and putting both of our rivals in our debts. Galdynfyrgenbach for the revolts, and Ryd for the dragon. Unlike them, we're making good progress into dealing with our Problem.
>>
>>4539561
>[I'll think about it]
We do not rush into things.

But either way, I'm leaning towards no.

He wants to drag our people, our mages, away from our current war in our backyard into battle against a dragon, right before marching off to fight another revolt in the north? Not to mention, just how angry would our people be for marching off to help the province that we've got an ancestral feud with?

I don't want our aid to be bought with a girl, even if we do decide to help. We could probably wrangle a better price than marriage, anyway.

Either way, I'm also concerned that if we turn him down, he seems a bit desperate, and there's someone else very readily available with mages on hand. Could be opportunity, as long as we have someone keep tabs on him as he leaves.
>>
>>4539561
>[No]
I have no issue forming an alliance to rid the realm of a monster that steals and eats fools by the dozen and then a poor dumb dragon trying to find its next meal.
But I outright refuse to agree to marry anyone I haven't met, last thing anyone needs is the swamp and mounts being even further divided by a poor marriage ending in divorce. I'd almost think it a ploy from the goat breaders to swindle more of our lands from us
>>
>>4539576
I'd avoid the mention. After all, if Lady Hannah does decide to help us out with the dragon, it's not like the Ryds will say no to the debt relief.

And it'll be beyond debts with these actions. It'll be a full fledged positive relationship with us as the centerpiece. Hopefully.
>>
>>4539579
>inb4 you met as children don't you remember? Flashback to some girl teaming up with Albeda to bully smol Jacob
>>
>>4539577
>>4539579
I like your cynicism lads, even though I don't think it a Ryd plot to divide the Swamp or that we'd somehow get better terms than marriage. We need to meet with all the waifus before we make our pick.

Plus, it is our mountain. We'd just be leading our own troops, even if some of them are a bit confused as to their true lord.

Also, if the Frontier Provinces have problems, what of the Kingdom as a whole?
>>
>>4539579
Also I take an immense amount of grievance with him say that we'd be marrying into his family line
Like wow
No
Fuck you
Anyone we wed will be marrying into OUR family line
I know that may seem like an odd thing to nit pick now a days, but that is immensely important when dealing with Noble bloodlines
>>
>>4539582
>the children got mixed up in youth
Albeda was always a Ryd. Flashback plotting intensifies.
>>
>>4539589
No, your entirely right. Nuances are significant when your high up on the food chain, and your dead on as to the framing here.
>>
>>4539589
The Noble Line of Ryd? That's a big mouth.
He's undoubtedly playing up how WE are his best option for marriage, also, because that's negotiating 101, too. He might just settle for any of the other options he tossed out, to be fair. "Subjecting my daughter to Balam" isn't that much of a price when you get down to it. We're just probably the first option, because we're the closest and have the most Might.
>>
>>4539598
Plus if we're not working with him, we'd probably be working against him. Especially at a time when his wealth is threatened by a dragon. This kills two foxes with one knife. And it adds a nice pelt when he final goes the way of the silver fox.
>>
>>4539589

Yeah, he's buttering us up to see if we'll take the bait. After all, if we're married into HIS line, then good old Cassian Ryd's final con will be complete, having completely taken the place of the Absols who ruled over him. He needs us a lot more than we need him right now.
>>
>>4539605
>inb4 Albeda was the Rydian long con all along
>>
Well, while he's here, we can ask him for information about the dragon first, then lean into the soft No. Considering we've got the charm of a particularly intimidating steel brick, we might not have the diplomatic chops to pull that off, however.
>>
>>4539612
You don't need the diplomatic chops of a brick to break you neighbor's window. Especially if it's your house he's squatting on.
>>
>>4539589
My grievances with his offer aside
I'm 100% of the mind we should challenge lady Amaranthe to a long distance chess game
But be cheeky about it, since we would be the challenger she would get the white pieces and first move, but I say since he's here... We have her father make the first move on her behalf (especially since he's the one who came to us with the ofder for her hand, can't have such a meek lady who would simply marry whomever her father desired right?)
Basically, I suggest a way to prove thay she's anything like her father described to us.
Plus we may piss her off enough through our skills that she comes to finish the game in person.
>>
>>4539615
Support, if only to piss off a Ryd with no diplomatic fallout.
>>
>>4539561
wow just wow

>he offered us marriage TO HIS HOUSE and hinted we can combine HIS LAND to ours
>he spoke as if he is a KING
>he brushed off his THIEVERY

i can't even.
>[No]
>>
>>4539621
Where's a Megumin when you need one?
>>
>>4539623
i wish i can weaponize the rage i built up as i read that post lmao

that said he's an awesome character. an awesome scumbag character.
>>
>>4539627
Nah man. We use the term Ryd for that. Awesome Ryd character. Just rolls off the tongue.
>>
>>4539561
>[I'll think about it]
We need time to ponder and seek a better deal if we can, which I'm sure we can and people seem to have already done.
>>
Frankly, you don't trust him. You caught how he said you would be marrying into his bloodline, for one. There is some careful wording at play here. For another, this whole offer is too convenient, it's too honeyed to lack any bitterness. You're in the middle of a protracted succession crisis and here comes Lord Ryd, offering you a convenient out, one that takes you out of your province for months at a time (even if you were leaning towards helping Lady Hannah anyway). Moreover, you don't know this girl, not one bit. You're leaning towards no, but maybe you'll fall in love at first sight, who knows?

“I will certainly give your offer due consideration, but for any happy marriage a lord must learn of a lady, and a lady learn the lord, before there is commitment.” You lower your head, simmering with resentment over him talking about his lands, speaking like a king, talking down to you.

“Of course.” Perhaps he feels like he stretched his luck, “I'll be here for the next few days, reprovisioning for the trek home, but think about it. It's spring down here, but farther north the weather is still nasty, it shouldn't surprise me if you have some time. Remember, we're stronger together than separately.” He smiles pleasantly, gets up, and strolls back downstairs, “Oh, right, if you need me, I'll be at the best inn in the castle town. I don't know which one that is yet, but I'll know presently, and I'm sure you already do.” He's on the verge of leaving when...

>[Suggest the chess game idea]
>[Don't suggest the chess game idea]
>>
>>4539627
Despite the fuckery this guy is trying to pull on us, he's already become one of my favorite tricksters.
He reads like someone who is both friendly and reasonable, which lends a lot of believability to the character.
>>
>>4539639
>[Suggest the chess game idea]
Yeeeah
>>
>>4539639
>[Don't suggest the chess game idea]

Have it be anonymous. Better to play chess without his knowledge.
>>
>>4539639
And we should atleast offer him a meal. Pump him for information on his problems. You never know what may be to our advantage...
>>
>>4539639
>[Suggest the chess game idea]

This is one way to get a bit of a read on the heir of another province, even if I'm not too interested in marriage.

>>4539621
Congrats, you have made one loyal follower of the NO camp.
>>
>>4539621
Ugh, anons, you are getting WAY too hung up on this and I'm pretty sure Wong is making Jacob irrational to match. The whole story with the mountains was generations and generations ago, right now Londo Ryd is a Lord, a Lord's son, and probably a Lord's great-great-grandson to boot. He hasn't personally stolen anything and he's entitled to as much as Jacob is.

That aside...
>>4539561
>I'll think about it.

His offer seems good, but there's probably a catch somewhere ans marriage without having seen the girl first just won't do.
[SPOILER]Also, improbable as it is I still want to at least try and waifu Alberta[/SPOILER].
>>
>>4539639

>[Suggest the chess game idea]

Make Londo think that he's winning us over. If he holds Amaranthe back in the hopes of marrying her off to us and our army, mages, and neighbouring territory that borders all the other Provinces for trade and influence , he's not marrying her off to Ralf or Balam. When we crush Albeda's little book-reading circle and marry her off to Ralf in disgrace and petty revenge, that narrows his options down to us or Balam. Re-negotiations will be in order then, and much more in our favour then since we'll have a pick of 3 noble women to potentially marry while he only has 2 noble men without the risk of marrying downwards. He's not the only one who can play the long game.
>>
>>4539648
I would like to +1 this, but it's more liable to end in a bar fight, and he'd probably get a better read on us than us on him.
>>
>>4539649
I prefer a face to face conversation, but a chess match will suffice for now.
>>
>>4539650
Ah, goddamit, I typed too much!
>>4539639
>Suggest the chess game idea
>>
>>4539631
this Aussie song sums up most people think about the Ryd

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0doSWS0Fj24

>>4539639
>[Suggest the chess game idea]
>>
>>4539650
Your wrong here lad. The Ryd's did steal our mountain from under us. They even made a song out of it.

And Wong is probably writing our reaction to it as Jakob's.
>>
There we go, my net went down.

>>4539658

Yes generally if there's a strong sentiment associated with the votes I write it in.
>>
>>4539651
Frankly, marrying Ralf sounds like a Ryd headache in the making. But the only thing worse then having a Ryd on our mountains is fighting a based lord over it.

Many manly tears would fall that day...
>>
>>4539660
Rip, sweet prince. May the Ryd's not skin you and present your pelt to a king.
>>
>>4539661

No need to fight the most based lord of the lands. If he has a child that will marry well with our own, our bloodlines will become one in basedness and strength.

There are damn few less manly tears than those of the father at a wedding.
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>>4539639
>[Suggest the chess game idea]
>>
>>4539650
Nah, fuck the Ryds.
I'm not particularly invested in the waifuwars but I'd rather marry one of their goats.
She's still a better option than Albeda though.
>>
>>4539650
Would be inclined to agree if they were a radically different culture from the one they were originally, but they still embrace the theft to this day and continue to venerate the Fox and Humter as their cultural progenitors.
Even their Problem is symbolic of their theft, as they are faced with a creature that seeks to claim the gold in turn, as the Fox did originally.
Same Ryd bullshit, different century.
>>
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“There is...one thing, one way I could get to know her.” That's it, let him think you're being won over. “You say she enjoys games of strategy?” You walk over to the mantlepiece, and take down a rectangular piece of the wood, hinged in the center, and unfold it into a regicide board. You grab a box, and set out the pieces. The mammoths, the sorcerers, the knights, the infantry, the cavalry general, the infantry general, and the king. “As the lady, and the guest, I give her the first move...but as she isn't here, why don't you make it on her behalf?”

Londo Ryd chuckles, “So both of you can blame me if you lose? Very well then, I'll humor you gladly.” He moves one of the infantry forward one square, “She often starts with this one.”

You move a piece in turn, and he chuckles again, fetching out a scrap of parchment and a bit of charcoal and sketching the moves already made. “I'll make sure she gets this.”

“Thank you, my lord.” You smile and bow to him, and he returns the gesture, looking a trifle bemused as he leaves.
>>
And that's all for tonight with the late start and the internet problems, game resumes Friday.
>>
>>4539688
Night Wong. Can't wait until the next session!
>>
>>4539688
thanks for running!
>>
>>4539688

Right on Wong, next session sounds like a good one and looking forward to it. Time to visit the dungeons to listen to furriers, monsters, and barren women of ill repute. In order of precedent and value to the swamplands.
>>
>>4539688
See ya Friday Wong
>>
>b-but Wong, it's not Friday!

Who gives a shit? There are a few things I need to know that would help with my prewriting for Friday. Namely, do you want to talk with the Night Hunters or Char first, and what do you want to ask each of them? The more specific, the better.
>>
>>4540622
Did Cailm bang the Straw Hat furry? Were there any embarrassing moments that can be weaponized? It is very important you all answer truthfully. I'm asking for a friend's misery.
>>
>>4540622
Night Hunters. Talking to them first would probably drive Char up the wall.
I got no idea about questions themselves, I'll brainstorm something or just leave that up to the other anons. For now, here's my vote.
>>
>>4540622

I'd like to ask them why they joined the Pentagram, if it was their choice at all. Maybe they're just being dragged along by the higher ups, no way to know except to ask.

Did they really believe a 1v1 assassination attempt and frontal assault would be enough?

Are they upset Albeda stays totally out of the actual fighting and sends her allies to do the dying for her?

I just want to know how they found themselves in this position.
>>
>>4540715
>>4540622

Forgot to say, this is for the Night Hunters and talking to them first.

I have more interest in our relations with their faction compared to Sister Char.

Char is definitely useful but if I'm not mistaken her "faction" is nearly nonexistent in our domain. So, Night Hunters take precedence.
>>
>>4540622
Just question the Night hunters
I say we simply ignore sister Char for a while, don't even acknowledge her even if she lashes out when we walk by her cell when we are in the dungeon dealing with all the grunt night hunters.
Let her know that her a member of the Pentical is below their minions on our priority list.
>>
>>4540723
Bonus points if our staff just give her food and water and don't bother interrogating her and only keep any talking to her at idle chit-chat and almost treat her like she just a normal guest and not a "valuable" prisoner
>>
>>4540622
Have a glance at Char... and dismiss her in favor of the Night Hunters. The salt will be worth it.
>>
>>4540768
>Have a glance at Char... and dismiss her in favor of the Night Hunters. The salt will be worth it.
based fuckaround bro
>>
>>4540781
Thank you mate.

>>4540622
But I do have a few questions for Char.

What is her motivation for attacking us, and why side with Albeda? And then there's the question of how the Fire Dancers fucked up so bad to piss off all the Swamp, but she may not be connected with those Fire Dancers at all, and I'll trust Wong to tell us why at the appropriate time anyway. The last question is what's her real name, for personal curiosity (and to see if she does have anyone who'll miss her, or try to find her).

The Night Hunters need to be asked about the other members of the Pentagram's coven (most of it will be redundant, but I am interested in any info on Sister Shell).

Also ask Straw Hat how they acquired and managed a chimera like that? Not going to ask how she liked those buns though...
>>
>>4540791
Cailm definitely slipped her more than just buns
>>
>>4540622
Start interrogating the prisoners for the location of their base, their force size and strength, anything militarily useful. Torture them if they don't tell us or lie.
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>>4540622
Start with the Night Hunters.
As for questioning, ask them who leads their pack, to know who to negotiate with.
Ask them about Albeda, and the other leaders of the Pentagram- what they spend their time doing, what they think about the Pack.
What the prisoners think of them, why are they fighting in place of Brother Gloam's dead men, or those who refuse to even show their face on the battlefield.
Why they are fighting? What's promised to their leader?
Where did Albeda find them, and when did she bring the pentagram together?

Hopefully their loyalty doesn't extend to the others of the pentacle, and we can try to play up asking about those NOT part of the pack. We should softball them, then move on. We can come back to them later, anyway, if we do want to heat some brands or start breaking some fingers because we found them less than helpful. Again, not my first choice here, because we are a more civilized lord here, and want to keep them intact for negotiations, but if that's not really an option, we'll cross that bridge when we get there.
>>
>>4540622
Now, as for Char:
Tell me why your head shouldn't go on the end of a pike, and your body to Grandmama's tender mercies? Besides the fact that corpses are easier to animate whole, at least?
What's the value of your life to me? I certainly don't see the value of keeping one of my sister's Infantry on the Regicide board. Perhaps more than an Infantry, but still a piece that was sacrificed.
If you tell me all you know of the others of your coven, you may yet live through this rebellion, and be on your way to work towards your own place in the world.
If you don't, well, I lose little, and will have removed one more piece from the board, and profited thusly.

That's one approach we could go with. Full intimidate, try and hammer her into giving up what she knows with threats, while offering her the carrot of living on and sitting out the war out of the way. Exile from our domain (Can we do that?), at a minimum, but still living. I'm still opposed to torture, but there's less of an argument for not using it here if there's noone willing to trade for her, and I'm trying to make her give us reasons to skip that option, and she's probably inclined to believe the worst of us, which hopefully makes it all the more convincing that we might use it.

As for actual questions, what does she get out of the pentagram?
What's promised to her by Albeda/Char's motivation for going to war against us? After all, we hadn't even heard of her before she turned up to the walls of our castle. (Obv not, but we aren't gonna reveal who's told us stuff, although it's probably not too hard to guess).
Why the others are aligned against us? Her perspective, at least.
Capabilities of Gloam, Grey, Shell?
So why did Albeda abandon you even before the battle?
If she's really caved, the location of their base, how many mages they have, and the next attack planned.

Also I can't do damn chess metaphors now, because Chess doesn't exist and it's Regicide.
>>
>>4540805
Don't think that's really necessary. We already crippled them militarily, and we already know where the Night Hunters are located. I doubt we'll get anything particularly useful related to military intel from our captives. Torture is unneeded, here.
>>
>>4540829
We already know most of that information, and I doubt they would know what the other hands of the Pentagram are doing. It seems like a decentralized organization, more like terrorist cells than a centralized one, with mooks dedicated to their cause.

>>4540833
I don't think intimidation will work on Char, as she has preconceived notions on us that'll only be reinforced by said intimidation tactics, and some people just won't crack under torture. I think what would work best here is to confuse her, as not only would we get further with her than regular torture (and some unintended slips of the tongue), but gaslighting the hell out of her would be a fun experience, if only to see the salt in denying us first, then slowly agreeing with us against her will. It may or may not work, but I certainly think it'll work better than intimidate.

This brings up another idea though. Could we Inspire the captives to our cause? Not that we'd actually release them before we defeated the Pentagram, but I do wonder how many potential turncoats we could convert to our way of thinking (especially if the rest of the Pack is already having second thoughts as to their cause). I'd certainly be willing to see how it pans out.
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>>4540887
Intimidation isn't gonna work the best on Char, but I'm kinda out of ideas to get info from her. We're certainly not good enough to try and charm her.

Wasn't really thinking about them being a bunch of different cells, but that makes sense, and would allow us to try a defeat in detail strategy if they have multiple bases.

I'd love to convert them, but I doubt we'd make enough of an impression to sway their loyalty swiftly enough to matter, and fielding them against former companions is just asking for trouble.
>>
>>4540897
We don't have enough to charm her, but we don't need to charm just to confuse her. But I do understand we have limited options in regards to interrogating Char here. Though a thought comes to mind... since we're training the chimera, and the Pentagram wouldn't know, we could use that as a scare tactic. Threaten them with some personal time chained to a chair with the trained chimera in the cell next to them, scare the shit out of them as we slowly raise the bars separating them from a feral to their knowledge chimera. It'll certainly work better than any torture we hand out.

Defeat in detail is the strategy, I agree. We already captured part of the their forces, and one of their inner circle. Deal with Gray, and try and nip the Goalm situation in the bud before it blooms, and it'll just be the Line instead of a Pentagram.

Conversation doesn't have to be swift, or immediate, it just has to be consistent pressure over a long period of time. Add in the fact that they do view us favorably for an enemy, and sprinkle in a little Stockholm syndrome, and we may have some fertile ground right under our noses. It certainly wouldn't hurt us to make the attempt, even if we do fail to change hearts and minds.
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>>4540622

Talk to the Night Hunters first, we need more info about Brother Grey, their organisation, and what they want out of this rebellion. If they turn out to be particularly uncooperative (doesn't seem to be the case but you never know) that's when we burst out the coals and start asking about numbers, hideouts, planned movements, and any passwords they use to identify each other (stuff we need to start dismantling their pack permanently, in other words).

Sister Char is, by all indications, working alone and not likely to be positively disposed towards us (and Jakob doesn't even know about her raging hateboner for nobles or her... attachment to Alberta). She can come second or never.
>>
>>4540934
>>4540829
>>4540768
>>4540723
>>4540719
Seeing a lot of people say "start night hunters" and I'd just like to point out that if we let Char go, which seems to maybe still be the plan?, she's going to know then that we have an interest in the night hunter faction. This could work in our advantage, e.g. promoting stress fractures as she encourages others to distrust them, but it could also make our life harder, if they know that's our plan. Having the enemy know our plan isn't usually beneficial.
>>
>>4541052
Couldn't we just talk to the hunters in a separate location?
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>>4541052
>let Char go

Like fuck we are.
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>>4541052
>let Char go
pls don't, there's a big difference between letting a single low level mook go, and letting an enemy commander and arch mage you just humiliated in front of a big crowd just skip on out into the wild. that's how you get sworn enemies who won't rest until they've undone their humiliation, if my read of Char is correct being made a laughing stock by her allies would just fuel her thirst for revenge.
>>
>>4541172
It wasn't my idea, but a bunch of anons seemed enamored with the idea.
>>
>>4540622
I'm not sure if this is premature but when we talk with the prisoners I'd like to make it clear that it's not to late for reconciliation for them or possibly even the leaders of the pentagram. They have been misinformed or mislead by their superiors but they are still your citizens of the swamp and your subjects, and to our knowledge no unforgivable atrocity have yet been committed. then release a few night hunters to spread the word amongst their ranks that amnesty will be given to those who leave before a point and that just cutting ties with the pentacle is enough, but those that wish or fear for their safety are welcome to join up with their rightful lord.
>>
>Let Char go
yea not until the end of the revolt, and only if we decide to skip having her on a pike for some reason.
>>
>>4541052
How could she differentiate our interest from the Night Hunters from any other captive? It's literally the only other faction present in our dungeons.
>>
>>4540622

>order of talking

Night Hunters, then Char depending on answers received.

>questions

Night Hunters: desires, leaders, troop movements, factions, knowledge about the others (mention lack of Shadowbinder support even though they could have easily had zombies to reduce the risk), things along that nature. Don't expect much in return, but potentially sowing division and catching some stray mentions that we can combine for hidden info is worth it. Probably release one of them with terms for negotiation. Even if Grey turns it down, it can potentially cause tensions in the Pentacle due to people not sure if he is turning it down out of hand or if he's doing it because people are watching him.

Char: Reasoning is pretty clear. Asking what the Flame Dancer's did to be banished will help provide clarity on if she's an independent, or is part of a bigger whole trying to muscle back in while the succession crisis gives them an in with Albeda. Don't bother with much on the troop movements or intel gathering, she's too likely to give false info or clam up due to her position as a humiliated archmage at the head of it. Can semi-seriously ask her if she'd rather be heads-up or heads-down on the exterior wall, and which direction to be facing. Answer she gives to this is the actual position for her after the executions for the traitors. We are nothing but truthful in our questioning and promises after all.
>>
>>4541052
>Letting Char go
Ah no, hard no
She either stays a prison for the duration of Albeda's sad rebellion or Gets used as bait for a trap.
Honestly, I'm pretty sure she's the kind of spiteful cunt who will feed us false information under duress or Albeda never let her in on the true extent of her plans. Thus why I'm against torturing her for info, I'd rather just let her rot knowing she was abandoned by Albeda and not worth dealing with to us, than risk her feeding us info to lure us into a trap.
She either Hangs with the rest of the Pentical/pentagram at the end or depending on how/if Albeda surrenders she can be used a bargaining piece.
But under no (foreseeable) circumstances are we letting one of Albeda's non-mook pieces return to play on the board.
>>
So our plan is to grill the Night Hunters while we attempt to mindbreak char via ignoring her?
>>
>>4541052
Fuck no. Stop thinking like a retarded 2smort4u Mongolian Pictogram and use some common sense. Releasing an enemy WHO HATES US and who is AT LEAST as strong as we are is utterly retarded.
>>
Hanging's too nice for the ringleaders of rebellion anyway. Gotta disembowl/break on the wheel/burn em.
>>
>>4541576
While I don't think there's much hope of making anything useful out of her until at least the end of this rebellion, threatening her is not going to help us in any way (she's obviously too stubborn to say anything unless we literally break her on the torture rack -which is still an option btw, even if it would kill our benevolent rep- ). There's an outside chance she can see we're "not like all those other nobles" if she sees how we handle the whole affair, but either way she can stay in the dungeon to do it. Let's not break out the torture until there's something we absolutely NEED to know (like, say, where they might have taken a hostage or where the magical bomb they planted is).

Wong, you better not be getting ideas.
>>
>>4542071
Making allies out of former enemies is a genre staple though, and we've been avoiding the ruthless route so far. We can save the hangings for the really irredeemable ones especially the dudes.
>>
>>4542070
I don't think that's the Gaius Pontius of this quest, mate.

>>4541176 was the reply to an earlier comment in the same vein as yours.

On an unrelated note, thank you for making me look up what a Mongolian Pictogram was. It was a fascinating read.
>>
>>4542073
>playing the fantasy version of Rainbow Six Siege

Now, that would be an interesting concept. Thank you again, mate.
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>>4542080
No problem. I know there's definitely at least one anon who's watched too much Code Gayass hanging around these threads, so I may have overreacted prematurely.
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>>4542085
I was thinking more Jack Bauer, but Rainbow Six works.
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>>4542103
It's fine. I remember one of the anons posting a picture of Lelouch as inspiration for Jakob in the first thread, so it's not unwarranted.

And a fantasy Jack Bauer sounds like an interesting character to play as well, though I haven't watched the series. Is it any good?
>>
>>4542074
I agree with him that brutal execution is the way to go over magically turning major enemies into friends
Rivals are fine (R*d), letting mooks go is fine, trying to recruit people who tried to murder us isn't except Calim, who will probably accidentally become the main villain at some point while pulling off a prank. I don't think this setting runs off of the power of friendship although I could be wrong
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>>4540622
Great quest, Wong. I just finished reading through the archives, and was wondering roughly what forces we have to call upon when it comes to sorcerers. Grandmama and Arad both command moderate numbers of sorcerers, but how many exactly can we count on them fielding at any given time? The Shadowbinders live pretty close to the keep, so their response time should be pretty quick, and the stormtounges can fly, but how close by are the smokeshapers? They seem much more useful in large scale engagements where we can prepare, but wouldn't be fast enough to aid us in a suprise attack. I'd also like to know how they are organised, and their internal culture if we know anything about it IC.

Lastly, to other anons ITT; is anyone else suspicious of Lilly? She's a young, beautiful woman traveling on her own through half-wild swampland to arrive in our keep, and just so happens to find her way into our good graces during a sorcerer rebellion led by five powerful casters, one of which, a woman, is still unknown to us. I might just be very paranoid, but i think we should ask grandmama to stick a spookmeister on her shadow just in case
>>
>>4542143
Two things. One, I'd like to avoid hard numbers, so I'd assume they're sizable for mages in general (in proportion to the regular population it the Swamp). They are tribal, quarrelsome, and loyal to the Absol line (interpretations very on heirs). Internal culture would revolve around their magics, though the question is valid for us out of character. Otherwise, just assume we have decent forces on hand to repel or defend against the Pentagram, especially considering current circumstances.

Two; Lilly is an angle. How dare you attack her character and integ-*stab*... Et tu, Lil?
>>
>>4542143
I'm still expecting Lil to be somehow related to Cailm, either a distant relative or one of his friends from outside tje castle. That he has askes to come and teach us the dangers of the fairer sex, or he hired her to "Make a man out of Jacob".
But I totally got the Shadow runs from her in her first thread, I get ya man.
Either way I rather like the Floofy Bard, whether she's a Spy for Albeda or conspiring with Cailm to defile Jacob's innocence. Besides as long as Lil is around we have theme music in quest!
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>>4542240
>Inb4 Lil is basically just a female Cailm and has targeted Jacob as the next notch on her bed post, she not suspicious she's just a big time Horn dog.
>>
>>4542143

Νot really. She's a travelling bard, travelling is what they do, and if we hadn't sought one out we'd never have encountered her. It's not like she actually did something to get into our good graces either, we asked her for stories and she told them to us.
>>
>>4542143

>Lil is shadowrunning us

Bards are generally on the search for the next meal ticket or benefactor. She might be motivated by political inclinations, but is much more likely to just want a paycheck. Even if she bounces from our court for other areas like she wants, being able to claim to have performed in the court of the Absols is a brag that will help her get patronage in other areas like the Schwaltzwood, Ledo Plains, or the Old Kingdom. This claim is less valuable when we suddenly come down with a regrettable case of death shortly after she left. A simple greed motivator in wanting to improve her renown in the halls she travels can help her keep a vested interest in our health for the next little while yet. Sticking around for a while yet to get new material and potential reccomendation from a new up-and-coming Lord will help her future immensely. Hedging her bets on Albeda is a risk, especially if Albeda has a shaky claim and distrust coming from at least one direction.Based-lord Balam

Plus, there is the option that she could just be smitten with our nature and be telling the truth completely instead of being a pragmatic cynic with pretty words. You never know, stranger things have happened before.
>>
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With your business concluded, you make sure that Lord Londo leaves without any of his men filching the silver, then make your way down to the dungeons. No sooner have you opened the door to the stairs then you bump into Cailm. Literally. He's coming up in some haste, doing up his pants.

You stand there, fittingly above him on the steps. You, cast in pure, righteous light coming from the well-lit first floor of the castle behind you. Him, cast in seedy, dissolute darkness, emerging from this pit of sin. For some moments, a heavy silence reigns. You gaze down at him, lordly judgment in every line of your features. Him, with an easy smile that forms a paper think mask over the writhing mass of maggoty excuses he's doubtless contemplating offering.

Then you slowly, deliberately shake your head, “You'd better make sure you still have the key to the cells.” You're serious despite the mirth in your voice.

He produces the key without saying a word. You take it gingerly, almost expecting it to be sticky from the sheer disreputableness of your friend's deeds.

[Continue]
>>
>>4542963
Oh Cailm, we need to get a priest to come and wake him up before sunrise by splashing him with holy water to wash away his sins every morning.
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>>4542963

>Cailm's doing the walk of shame.

Kek.
>>
Hmm, begin rolling dice. This is a Command+Intimidate roll.
>>
Rolled 8 (1d10)

>>4542991
I don't remember how many rolls we will need for this
>>
>>4542994

Five total.
>>
Rolled 6 (1d10)

>>4542991
>>
Rolled 7 (1d10)

>>4542991
>>4542994
Command 4 + Intimidate 1
So five dice
Nice
>>
Rolled 6 (1d10)

>>4542963
I hope he has wasn’t fucking right next to our prisoners of interest.
>>4542991
Dice for the dice god, rolls for the luck throne
>>
Rolled 1 (1d10)

>>4542991

Dice for the addiction!

>>4542994

Pretty sure it's 5d10 altogether
>>
>>4542994
>>4542998
>>4542999
>>4543000
>>4543001

Looks like a set of 2x6 for us. Not terrible.
>>
>>4543000

>Hey Eye-patch, that guard that Straw Hat is hot on is back.
>Shut the fuck up man, my shadow bite-marks still ache.
>He's heading in her cell bro.

....

>Ahhhh~, stuff me like Mama's oven!
>Char contemplates blowing up the dungeon with everyone in it and letting the stones and burning briars crush her as she hears Straw Hat getting railed on the other side of her cell wall for the next half an hour.
>>
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“There are times I think I can't believe you, only to discover that yes, I can. I really can.” You shake your head slowly as you tromp down the steps, but your parthian shot is unfortunately aimed at a swift rider

“Then you'll believe me when I say that it feels pretty good to...howl at the moon?” This son of a peasant guide is waggling his godsdamned eyebrows at you.

“Are you saying you made the...beast with two backs?” Damn you, you can't help responding.

“Yeah, well, she's not entirely a bitch, you know.” He's smirking now.

“We'll put this on paws until I'm done interrogating them. Just don't do anything idiotic until I get back.” You make it two more steps down before you feel the urge overtake you, “It would be a tragic loss if she were to awoo you over to Albeda's side.”

“I'm too alpha for her to put a leash on me.” Cailm laughs merrily and strolls away, whistling to himself. Bastard doesn't have to worry about bastards, lucky sod. You, on the other hand, have had The Talk about succession crises. Seeing as how even the adoption of Albeda as an Absol can cause this much trouble, you can grudgingly admit you see the point.

The sound of grumbly ooks greets you as you make your way down the stairs, followed by loud sniffs. There is one particularly large, reinforced cell built by some ancestor of yours to hold some particularly physically large and powerful prisoner, and the chimera is in it, whuffling at the barred window on the heavy oak-and-steel door immediately as it sees you approach. You don't shy away from it even as it hoots and tries to reach through the bars. It probably smells that you have food.

After all, you wouldn't come down here without the proper incentives, would you? But we'll get to that later. You don't have Cailm's easy way with beasts, but you do know that if you feed a dog it wags its tail, so you carefully open the basket dangling from the crook of your arm and pull out a crisped trout, carefully approaching. You feel cold sweat run down the back of your neck at the thought that it might be shamming about its actual reach and that you'll come too close and get grabbed, but a fan of tentacles with outstretched claws grabble out from the barred window of the cell door. The beast's bodyweight thumps against the portal, scrabbling and reaching out as far as it can, until you gingerly spear the fish on one of its claws and move back while it retracts the limb and begins munching. You hear the sound of small bones crunching between its powerful, doglike teeth as you walk further into the dungeon.

[Continue]
>>
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The Night Hunters look spooked by the nearby sound of the chimera eating, which is good, it's just what you intended. You make your way down the corridor, flanked by a pair of silent guards. Burly lads still riding a little high off the battle. If you need the stick instead of the carrot, you've got a pair of properly imposing boughs right here waiting to fall on some unlucky sod's head.

You make your way to the end of the corridor, and glance through the barred window on the door of the last cell there. Sister Char, her legs still awkwardly restrained by the short chains and heavy blocks used to keep her from dancing, has her fingers in her ears and is laying back with the look of someone suffering a severe headache. After a moment, her eyes open, she glares up at you and starts to say something beginning with "If you think-"

...Only for you to casually turn your back on her, “Mm, nah.”

You hear her sputter. “Nah!? DO YOU THINK I'LL JUST ROLL OVER LIKE THAT SQUEALING SLUT IN THE NEXT CELL!?”

You hear a chuckle from the next cell, where Straw Hat is humming a lambing song to herself.

>[Say more]
>[Let her simmer]
>>
>>4543018

>[Let her simmer]

A Lord has to have patience. After all, an Archmage's time is valuable, yes? No point in wasting her time with inane questions about the furries that they can answer. It's a simple matter of economy of time for everyone involved. Stay mad ho.
>>
>>4543018
>[Say more]
>>
>>4543018
>[Let her simmer]
Alright, yes, this is excellent.
>>
>>4543018
Can we show her the dungeon fun tools without saying a word?
>>
>>4543018
>[Let her simmer]
Hoes mad x24
>>
Just realized that Char's cell is directly across from Straw Hat's while re-reading previous thread for potential clues. She had front-row seats to Cailm and Straw Hat's performance of sacred Night Hunter rituals.
>>
>>4543018
>[Let her simmer]
>>
>>4543040
Poor angry Lesbian had to watch Apex arcmage of Hoe laying, Cailm work his magic and she couldn't counter Magic him as hard as she tried
>>
>>4543040
we should encourage cailm to finish in her direction
>>
>>4543018
>>[Let her simmer]
>>
>>4543061
Ah yes, Cailm next time you are "interviewing" Strawhat make sure you push her up against the door so Sister Char can have a few minutes of full display, Kay? Thanks! By the way as Lord and your legal guardian that's an order.
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You ignore her completely. If she could dance with her gaze alone, you would be reduced to smouldering ash. “Typical boy, swaggering around like he can increase the size of his manhood by...”

You drown her out, “I am looking for a volunteer. Who wants to leave their cell and go home?”

Immediately there is a clatter of people getting up from their bunks and a clamour of voices.

You raise your voice further, “I require information.”

Immediately, most of the voices stop. The silence is heavy with fear. Then, in silence, you see from one of the cell doors a finger poking between the bars of the window, waggling to get your attention without saying anything. You walk over there. Slowly, your heavy swamp boots and armored sabatons lending weight to your tread.

You peer through the window, and you see...he's practically a kid. He actually looks younger than you are, thin and fidgety, with short-cropped ginger hair and freckles. You unlock the door, and you and your guards enter, them standing at the ready to skewer him if he tries anything. You, however, have no such worries. You glance inside, then instruct one of the guards, “Bring me something to sit on.”

He hurries away and returns moments later with a stool, one the guards probably sit on while on watch. You take a seat, and regard the lupomancer steadily. Then you sigh, “However did you get mixed up in all this?”

The kid's voice is quiet, “N-no choice milord. It's the way of the pack, if you trust your teacher enough to learn from him, you trust him enough to follow him. If you don't like it, you can challenge him o-or quit. I couldn't quit, a-and I couldn't b-b-beat him. My da died in the war, and ma was breaking her back working the farm alone, b-but people r-respect sorcerers and if I w-was a success I could h-help.”

He's terrified of you, and his eyes widen in fear as you open the basket and pull out...a bottle of wine, and two chalices. One plain, naturally for him, and the other a bit more ornate and thus naturally for you. You smile, pop out the cork, and pour. “Go on then. Who's your teacher?”

“T-the one with the eyepatch. He's in charge but...” The kid suddenly develops some spine, “Please don't kill him, he didn't like this either. Some did, but they mostly didn't surrender and...” He looks a little green around the gills.

You cock your head sideways, “First time you ever saw someone killed?” You ask, quietly, “It's rough, the first time. I almost threw up. Bandits had been preying on our western settlements, and my father went out to deal with them personally. I was eleven, he took me with him. He said justice had to be done.”

He nods, “Wasn't like a deer, sir, n-not at all.”

[Continue]
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>>4543073

Forgot a picture, oh well.
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“How many spells do you know?” You ask him. You don't really care much, but it's smart to get him talking about unimportant things before you can get up to the big ones.

“T-two.” He takes a deep, shaky breath, “I can't take the wolf-shape yet, though.”

You frown, “Most of you look like farmers and local militia. Two spells isn't unusual, there are plenty of people who know two spells and don't even call themselves sorcerers, what were you supposed to do against my house guard and castle magi?”

He shakes his head violently, “Y-you were supposed to already be...” He hesitates.

“Dead.” You finish the sentence for him. “Torn apart.” You indicate his wine. “Have a drink, for your nerves.” When he hesitates, you smile and take a sip of your own wine. A long, slow sip, showing off the fact that you are actually drinking it and not just shamming. “Delicious.” You remark, “Wine isn't that easy to come by here, aside from rice wine, but we do have the real stuff here in the castle. Have you ever tasted real wine before? Go on. If it was poisoned, I would be dying right now, and besides...why ruin good wine?”

He takes a long, messy sip, nearly choking. You thump him on the back until he recovers, “Go on, what was the plan?”

“W-we arrive, a show of force, and w-with you gone t-there wouldn't be a leader so...Sister Oath could just w-walk in a-a-and sit down. The Swamp would a-acknowledge the superior sorcerer.” He explains.

You frown. It's true that the swamp might indeed acknowledge the superior sorcerer, but it wouldn't surprise you if something else was going on.

>[After your earlier discussion, what do you want to ask next?]
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>>4543091

"The superior sorcerer you say. That is Sister Oath, rather than Brother Grey? What does she have over the rest? She is a stripling before the might of the Ragged Elder after all."

Play off the Might makes Right techniques they seem to want. Albeda is an accomplished sorceress in her own right, but very likely to not be as straight-up strong as some of her subordinates. If they care so little about the strength of the Absols, that should extend to her as well. Plus, they are consorting with a Flame Dancer, who is generally Persona non Gratis in the swamps. That type of thing may fly under the weak-chested R*ds or the prissy Schwaltz, but the swampfolk are proud with a tendency to hold onto grudges. They're not likely to let them sashay back in without boots on the neck and knives in the back.
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>>4543100

By 'them', I meant the Flame Dancers that were exiled. Might not have been clear in my writing.
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>>4543091
>What's your name, kid?
>Have you seen or met Shell or Gloam in person ever?

Trying to figure out what he can help with, but i don't want him to get stabbed by everyone else in the cells, and I don't think he knows much.
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>>4543091

What was the extent of his and or his group's coordination with other Pentacle units?

I
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>>4543091
So how much of your pack was ordered to take the castle?
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>>4543091
Weird that Sister Oath wasn't here herself then. The battle may have turned out much differently.
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“So how much of the pack was sent in to take this castle?” You ask, offhandedly.

He blinks at you, “Master Rask's students and their students. Don't judge them all by me, some were strong. Rask Shieldhand is one of the strongest in the pack, but he's willing to teach folks like me, not just his warband.” He mutters, “...We're not all local militia and farmers, c'mon...”

“Rask is the one with the eyepatch?” You ask.

He shakes his head, “That's Twull, Rask's younger brother. Rask taught him first, after he earned the right to teach as well as learn.” The kid's voice grows slightly awed, “One day he insulted the Ragged Elder by hunting the same quarry, so the Elder seized upon him too, and bit off his hand, but Rask forced the stump down his throat and might've choked him if the Elder was a natural beast. The Elder was so impressed he said that the hand of Rask was worth all of any other men, and taught him the howling way himself.”

“What about your name?” You can't keep mentally calling him Freckles.

“Ah, Blaern, but folks call me Blem. For my face.” He smiles awkwardly. His stutter seems to have been fear induced and not a natural ailment.

“Ha, we've both got bad luck with nicknames.” You share a hearty laugh with him, “So you've seen the Elder, then, have you? Must be something, seeing a legend up close.”

He laughs too, “Says the son of Arnveis the Black!”

You chuckle and shrug it off, “Most know the legend, I knew the man. I'm curious what the Ragged Elder is like as a man.”

Blem looks a bit ashamed of himself, “Don't rightly know, milord. I've never seen him myself. Not worthy yet. Only those who've earned it can hunt at his side. The pack's like a family, and family are the people you can trust.” Oh sweet naivete.

“Where is this Rask?” You ask.

Blem looks stubbornly at you, “You can feed me a handful of nails and I won't give up my teacher. Besides, he's out of the swamps. He makes his living selling his sword and fangs to those who can afford him.”

You could arrange to have him fed a handful of nails, but there's no sense in that right now. “The same goes for Brother Grey, right? The so-called Ragged Elder?”

Blem shrugs, “I think the names are dumb. He's old enough to be my great-grandfather, so how's he to be brother to those beauties, eh?” He grins.

You have a good laugh, again, “I couldn't agree more! Perhaps he and Grandmama would make a decent couple, eh? Although, I've got to wonder...there's a third sister, isn't there? Plus another brother. Shell and Gloam, have you ever seen them?”

[Continue]
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He shakes his head, “Don't want to see Shell. Twull went along with Char retrieved the...ape...frog...thing.”

“Chimera.” You add helpfully.

“Yeah, that.” He agrees, “Twull went along, anyway, since it was his wagon we brought it in on, and he said that the place was creepy. A place of thorns and webs, and dead things caught in those webs. He said Shell arranged it, so she must've been there. Look, it's alright to be a beast, right? Beasts are part of the world and all, they're natural creatures, and man's a beast too, he just has to be reminded of it. When we made the dog-pact with wolves, wolves made the hunter-pact with us, and so we howl our prayers to keep Goddess Radha alive so that none of the monsters in her belly crawl out and come down here.”

“I didn't know there was a religious component to howling at the moon.” You remark.

He shrugs, “Mihto's faithful don't like being reminded that Radha ate all the wicked gods and spirits that Mihto couldn't slay, imprisoning them in her belly. She deserves as much credit as he does, sacrificing most of her light for the world and all. She must be lonely, she deserves someone to sing to her.” He smiles, it's a kind smile for a kid who tried to kill you. “Point is, we're different from an unnatural kind of monster like that.”

Politics is rough. Nice people get turned into pawns for awful people, and those awful people often get the nice people killed in stupid assassination attempts on the rightful lord they're trying to usurp. “What about Gloam?”

Blem shrugs, “He's a Shadowbinder, when the Three White Wolves...ah, them and Rask are the four students the Ragged Elder taught, they're triplets...sent one of their students to give us our orders, they said he wouldn't be along. Dug deep in a hole, and doing what he does, they said. Probably something gross.”

You fold your arms and affect a posture of discontented curiosity, “Blem, what happened to the one I sent back?”

He shrugs, “Living isn't a crime. The pack's a family. Betraying the whole is the only thing that's punished by death. If you challenge the Elder, or mess up bad, he'll scar you but he won't kill you. You're worth more alive. I don't know much, and nothing I could say's anything that could hurt the pack, so I volunteered. The Pentacle's not the pack. We put ourselves first. Braidbeard was laughed at in the mead halls for losing to a boy, but now nobody'll judge him thanks to you, so...thanks!” He gives you a chipper smile, “You've saved one of ours from dishonor! I'm kind of glad you didn't get killed!”

“Me too, and I'm glad you're alive. Not everyone survived, but a death in battle is an honorable death.” You take another sip of your wine. It is genuinely pretty good. Especially out of this chalice and not the one he's drinking out of.

What? As if you weren't going to give yourself some leverage? The antidote is right there in the basket.

[Continue]
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“The whole superior sorcerer thing bothers me. Not just my pride.” You keep going, “It really bothers me. I grew up with Albeda...your Sister Oath, and I know what she's capable of. Why is she in charge and not Brother Grey? What does she have over the rest? She is a stripling before the might of the Ragged Elder, after all.”

Blem's face clouds over, “The Ragged Elder doesn't want to rule and never has. That's not his way. He just wants to live, wild and free, unbound by the laws of men. He won't issue an order to any outside the pack, but they'd be wise not to offend him or they'll end up in his belly. You won't allow that, and while Arnveis could challenge and win, you can't. Sister Oath won't challenge the Ragged Elder, but she'll let him live free, and us too, she says. The White Wolves brought her his response in front of the whole pack, that so long as we're granted certain stuff we'll cooperate.”

“Even with a Flame Dancer? They're traitors to the swamp, aren't they?” You cast a glance over your shoulder in the vague direction of Sister Char.

“This was her plan. Kill you and just walk in. If we get killed because of her we'll hound her in the afterlife.” Blem swears with the air of someone too young to be swearing vengeance oaths on anyone, “She knelt before Sister Oath and begged and begged to send an assassin in to kill you and then march through the doors to put her on the throne. It's not OUR way. We'd just ambush you while you're collecting taxes, or inspecting a rice paddy, or hunting grouse, or whatever lords do on the day-to-day.” He shrugs, “Just being honest with you. We'd just get a bunch of wolves and swarm you.”

>[Ask him something else he might be willing to answer]
>[Ask him something he won't be willing to answer, using the fact that you've poisoned him as leverage]
>[Subtly dose him with the antidote and go interrogate someone else]
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>>4543181
>[Ask him something else he might be willing to answer]
>[Subtly dose him with the antidote and go interrogate someone else]

He's a child, and wouldn't know anything useful. Plus, he's a child... I don't want to kill children, even when it's necessary. It isn't in this case.

Eyepatch maybe more willing to part with information, though.
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>>4543181
>[Ask him something else he might be willing to answer]
Were you one of the pack members that took over dampmead village?
We could also ask which village or area he hails from, just trying to gauge the general area that the pack has influence in I guess
Or just outright ask if he was aware of amy other villages that have been invaded
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>>4543194
Play on his emotions a little, say is Dampmead nice this time of year, see if he reacts. Then ask if he know where the other forces of the Pentagram may be. He could yet surprise us.
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>>4543181
>>[Subtly dose him with the antidote and go interrogate someone else]
Time to torture Char
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>>4543201
We're not banging the Straw Hat.

We'll need some buns first...
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>>4543181

>[Subtly dose him with the antidote and go interrogate someone else]

Time to move onto Twull (Eye-Patch). He's probably the most important furrier we've got in the cells. He'll be a tougher nut to crack, but appealing to what the Pack seems to want (Freedom to run wild and free, with the occasional challenger for supper) will probably help out. That, and potential reunions with his elder brother after this is done will help. After all, we're rather straight-forward as far as they know in nature ourselves. Leave the scheming and plots to the R*ds and Schwaltzers. Absols may be cunning, but our strength is in our arms and words, not in cowardice and treason.

>things we figured out so far from this interrogation.
>Sister Shell
Shell's very likely to be an Unattuned Fleshsculpter. Might have other spells, and may want to advocate for magical experimentation under Albeda to try and re-create the Attuning rituals for that school of magic. Twull and Char knows where she is.

>Brother Grey
Doesn't give a shit about ruling. Signed up to be left the fuck alone, to run his coven however the hell he wants. 4 Lieutenants, Rask Shieldhand and the Three White Wolves. Rask has one hand, his band was the one that was involved with Char's assault. Brother is Eye-Patch. Three White Wolves are triplets. One of the TWW knows where Gloam is and what's he's doing.

Pack is big on honour, and straightforward in ideas. Don't like Char's methods, edgy around Shell. Probably not on great terms with Gloam. Very likely to be persuaded away if we give them an area to howl at the moon and yiff to their heart's content. Probably down around 20ish% of forces from the fuck-up at Briarfast.

>Gloam

Holed up somewhere. Doing 'gross' stuff. Probably starting on zombie armies. Priority on finding and winkling out next, as he's going to provide the bulk of the fighting soon.

>Char

Bright spark for assassination plot. Had to persuade Albeda hard giggidy to get her plot done up. Currently in our cells. Probably pissed off the furriers.

>if you notice anything else, point it out because I'm getting slowly drunk right now.
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>>4543181
>>4543194
+1 to these questions, then
>[Subtly dose him with the antidote and go interrogate someone else]

Time to move on, and see if we can find someone else amiable to talking. If not, then see if anyone's willing to bring a message to their leader? Open the negotiating table?
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>>4543205

Forgot to add that Rask is also not currently in the swamps, according to Blem.

>>4543194

+1 to adding these questions in before we dose him with the antidote. Take note if he reacts to any prying too, he seems to be pretty shit at dissembling.

If we're moving on to Eye-Patch, we can tell him that we'll send Blem out with a message to Rask. Nobody else yet, but we'll keep them in a decent state while they're our guests. It'd be bad manners to let them starve in the kennels after all.
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>>4543205
Rask might be a lieutenant, but assuming we believe this kid, he's out of the swamps currently, so wouldn't be on-hand.
It also seems like the White Triplets are the ones who run the day to day parts of the Pack, and actually instruct the current pack on what to do, so they might be the ones to negotiate with.

Considering these guys are just calling for swarming us with wolves, we should probably put "Some sort of AOE Spell" on the things we need to buy list
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>>4543205

>missing something on Shell.

Also said to be in a place of thorns and webs full of dead things. We should ask around our retinue and see if they know anyplace like that, or a village where Fleshsculpting is still a thing.

>>4543219

Agree that the Triplets seem to be running the show. Rask sounds like he's working as a sell-sword, and doesn't care too much. Probably only used his band because otherwise it'd be a challenge to the Elder. Getting a name to put out for the Triplets (or one of their notable students) to start negotiations is something to go for.

As far as swarming us with wolves, it's something we'll be a bit hard up with right now. We could look into the faster version of Soar so that we just go into the air out of reach of their jaws too. Seems like they don't know too much about lordly duties, since Blem thinks that we're personally collecting taxes instead of having people for that. Probably shouldn't go hunting for the next week or so though. Not just because we don't want a repeat of The Hunt That is Not to be Spoken Of.
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>>4543191

He's sixteen or so, a bit younger than Jakob but still a man in this culture.
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>>4543205
The Pack is going to have to follow our laws, as that's a dominance thing. Plus, I don't want them to cause trouble in the Swamp after we win this civil dispute. Gonna have to be weary when we meet with them though, ambushes seem to be their specialty.

Rask seems also to be a mercenary, so we should get in touch with him. Also probably more than a quarter of their forces, if the milita was involved in this fight, as the boy being here may indicate.

Shell is attempting to roleplay a Thorn-dweller, with interesting results. I wouldn't mind making Ryd's rumors of monsters living in our dungeons a reality either.

Goalm maybe raising the dead, but not how we mean it. Unless he wants to bring his fiends back to life as rotting piles of flesh and bone, he may be focusing on his research in the short term. Then there are the mysterious ruins that may hold interesting knowledge, though adventuring at this point may be a luxury.

As for Char's torture... just glance at her again, then ingnor her in favor of asking the Straw Hat how she likes those buns...

>>4543219
Wasn't there a spell Wong mentioned that let us see the battlefield from the POV of the Moon? Plus, we could just fly away...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9gF2UySGZAU
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>>4543240

That spell is a Night Hunter spell, and probably needs to be Attuned (permanently or temporarily) to cast. All the more reason to try and get the furries to heel.
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“You're not used to real wine, so here, take this. It'll keep you from a hangover later. The whole bottle. My steward made it.” You hand him a small vial.

Blem unquestioningly drinks the antidote.

“Where are you from, anyway? Dampmeade, maybe?”

He shakes his head, “West. The nearest village to our hamlet is Soursough, along the coast. Dampmeade's the triplets' territory.”

“Any other villages you've taken over? You can be honest with me, Blem.” You lean closer to him and put your hand on his shoulder, “You're my people. My pack. For what it's worth, I want to win without destroying you. Gloam took a few apprentices, Char I assume is on her own...right?” You wait for him to nod before continuing, “Oath is Oath and Shell I don't know, but you're swampfolk. You've got farms, families, many of you fought with honor under my father. The Night Hunters are an important part of what makes the swamp great, and I don't want to lose you. I don't want to see you turned into ballista fodder for Albeda's cause. I'll kill anyone who offers me violence, but that doesn't make it less of a stupid waste, do you understand me?” You squeeze his shoulder, “You all challenged me, and you lost. I'm not part of the pack in the way you think of it, but I want you to consider the implications of that. Perhaps I'll take the Elder's advice...but repeat offenders don't get mercy.” You stand up.

“Milord, I...I didn't know that we had taken over any villages.” The boy stammers.

“Now you do.” You exit the cell, lock it again, and make straight for the one with the eyepatched Night Hunter in it.

[Continue]
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It's the middle of the day and they've been stripped of their vials of liquid moonlight, but you're still cautious. Nothing prohibits a sorcerer from learning how to fight save time and energy, and for Night Hunters in particular it's expected they can do so. After all, they're not firing wolf beams out of their mouths or shooting wolf arrows at people or surrounding themselves with a wolfsphere of destructive wolf energy, they use physical, animal force. Moreover, if he swallowed a vial before he was taken, you're not sure how long it stays in his system. It could be that he turns into a wolf and springs for your throat the moment you enter. Luckily, you have your armor on, and your guards with you. Two might be flanking you, but the other eight are down here with you, standing at attention along the walls and ready to leap into action.

“Twull, right?” You address the eyepatched Night Hunter. He's got that look of a man in his prime who life has still somehow conspired to render worthy of the adjective 'grizzled'. He's not particularly big, his face is bland and wouldn't stand out in a crowd save for his eyepatch, he's neither particularly handsome nor ugly, but he just looks like the sort of man who gets stubble again seconds after a clean shave, the kind who knows firsthand the best way to stab someone with a broken bottle.

“Oh come on.” He looks sickened, “Blem's a boy. I know he's the one who talked, but if you tortured him...you call yourself a man?” His voice is mild. Habitually so.

“I didn't torture him, it's easier to call someone by their name than 'one-eyed man in my dungeons'. It's not a betrayal of you or anyone else.” You respond matter of factly, once again setting down your stool to regard him.

>[How do you want to play this? Twull, unlike Blem, has actual information you want]
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>>4543261

Act offended that he thinks we tortured Blem. "Hell, we didn't even torture Braidbeard beyond kicking him a couple of times for shit-talking us in front of our guards. He even narrowly avoided being ripped apart from a 'gift' from Oath thanks to us."

Twull seems a lot like a man of honour and violence. Torturing won't persuade him, and he's bound to be stiff to honeyed words. Giving a shit (real or otherwise) about our subjects, who just so happen to include most of the people in our cells, will work further to a man like this. We're not fond of using mirror dupes or catspaws for our work as far as he knows. Play up our disgust for the chimera, and intimate that we're only hanging onto it because we need to make sure it won't wriggle off the castle walls when we stake it there in the future. The furriers don't like monsters, and showing some common ground may open him up a bit more for further probes.
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>>4543261
>And what have I done that makes you immediately assume that I would torture a young lad?
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>>4543278

A young lad only a few summers younger than ourselves at that.
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>>4543261
I don't want to have to keep fighting the pack. Tell me what the Elder wants, and I can negotiate, get your members back to their families, and not kill any boys like Blem. He seems like a nice lad. We had a conversation over some wine, why do you assume I'm going to torture everyone?
>>
Alright, it's a bit early, but I have to be up early to move a bunch of stuff to the new building for work, so we're calling it here for tonight. We'll continue tomorrow, maybe.
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>>4543294

No worries Wong, don't throw your back out moving stuff from place to place.
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>>4543294
Night Wong. Good session today.

>>4543261
Now, what makes you think of torture? Is that how the Pentagram treats its members?
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>>4543294
Night Wong
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>>4543261
he has 3 choices
1)swear fealty and fight for us against albeda and he can become the new leader of their clan or whatever
2)be exiled to foreign lands
3)we slice his cock and balls off and slap a dress on him and he can be used as a public meat toilet for life
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>>4543356
I don't think playing hardball with him will work, lad. He seems used to being in shitty situations.
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>>4543261
treat him like a captured diplomat, food and courtesy and all that. Ask him the same questions again and again albeit in different way and check if the answers are consistent.

"so what is your pack all about?"
"who leads it?"
"how big is your pack?"
"are you it's alpha? no? then who?"
"does your pack eat well?"
"who feeds you?"
"how big is your den?"
"describe your leader."
"how is your home?"
"how does your leader chose a squad leader?"

we will do this for hours on end, even if we already know most of the answer sooner or later something different will be answered.
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>>4543379
if it doesn't work out and he becomes a sissy boi im fine with that.
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>>4543356
If this guy's a hardass, as it seems he is, then he'd turn down the allegiance offer, get exiled, then come back anyway and keep fighting.
Option 3 seems like something that gets us a blood feud, still no information, and degrades our image as a fair and generous lord that we've spent most of our sessions trying to cultivate, along with shutting down any diplomatic options we might have with the pack.
Do we want to send one of them back with the idea of "This is a reasonable person who beat us in a battle and we can talk with", or "this nutso just castrated one of us, and shouldn't be reasoned with"

>>4543406
Spamming him with multiple questions over many hours might work, but is more likely to just confuse him and would probably shut down any possibility of his willing cooperation, which would be ideal. We'd also probably get a lot of contradicting answers, and being able to pick up which one is true isn't our strong suit yet
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>>4543597
The rebel scum either do what we want and reap the rewards or they all die. This stuff about Jakob gotta be a nice guy just makes him look like a weak guy who will give his whole country away just so he won't get any blood on our hands. Jakob can go back to being nice once the rebels are wiped out.
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>>4543841
Eh. Kindness isn't weakness in this case, especially if we want to rule over the Swamp without some magi tribes revolting every time we take our focus elsewhere. Franky, I don't blame them for trying their luck with an opportunity, which seems like the wolf way. But now that we proved that we're not the prey in this scenario, they need to decide whether they accept our leadership, or they want to be prey to the Absol Eye.
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>>4543841

No point in going full Stalin right now. It's not the time for hardball yet. They have so far only really attacked us specifically, and not our people. Even if we electrocute every last one of them, flensing their stinking flesh from unworthy bones with blades of smoke, and bind the shadows to make the remains dance and wriggle on the thorns of Castle Briarfast, it'll just inspire new rebellions in the future. Not yet, not even for a while yet if it's brutal enough, but holding them by fear isn't going to work forever. People, especially proud and vengeful people like the swampdwellers, take revenge into their own hands for stuff like that. (See the fates of the Thorn-Dwellers and the Flame Dancers in our province's history.)

I don't want splinter factions showing up while we're trying to re-take the mountains or the next Cheill war. Twull, and probably other groups of the Night Hunters seems reasonable enough to not be horribly savaged yet. That fate of being dancing severed limbs on the walls is still on the table for Char and the other leaders of the Pentacle, and whatever lieutenants they've got that aren't going to bow down. Pretty sure that Shell and Gloam's cronies are going to be on the wall with them and Char, but the Night Hunter's don't have to suffer the same fate just quite yet. Grey might not step down, but that's a problem for after we smash or capture the others.
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>>4543942
>next Cheill war
Oh god why. I don't want to know how that would turn out.
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>>4543969

Hey man, we've got a king who currently does sweet fuck-all, other than the time he pulled us into a pointless war that caused shit to hit the fan. It's not outside the possibility for another one to come up.
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>>4543999

This wasn't always the case, it's widely known that the king retreated out of public view after his beloved queen was brutally murdered.
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>>4544018
Feel sorry for the poor bloke now, even if he went insane from it.
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>>4544080

The only reason I haven't done a big loredump on that, on Cheill, on Galdaea, and on the Orruks, is because I'm debating how much of that Lore 0 Jakob actually knows despite his high Knowledge.
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>>4544158
We had other things on the mind. Mastery of magic and all that.
Perhaps some more worldly retainers might be something to look into, if the world comes knocking, after we put down this rebellion.
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>>4544158
It depends on what sorts of stories that his parents and extended family would have told him growing up, as well as the basics that a lord should know, with a dash of an interesting fact or the description of the magics they practice. I imagine he'd also know a lot more about Cheill, as that's where his father fought and thus natural curiosity would lead him. Given his high knowledge, he would know the basic history, but very little of the nuances or detail that flesh it out or give it form.

If that helps, of course. I hope it does.
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>>4544206
Also military history and tactics, I should add.
>>
I think I mentioned this before, but Jakob does know the way the Cheillans view sorcery. Cheill was a drab, humorless, religiously fanatical nation which used to be a serious threat to Vartyne, being the nearest major nation, but that was before Vartyne expanded into the Frontier Provinces. If you cross the Ledo Plains and sort of circle around the Escanto Desert...and I will at least at some point make something to show kind of GENERALLY where things are...you come to lands of wind-carved stone and tortured rock. The Cheillans lived joyless lives of religious toil, believing themselves the sole organs in the vast body of the living world truly doing their jobs, but their fanaticism made a strong nation out of the rocky soil and poor farmland they worked. Their sole permitted school of sorcery is, bizarrely, focused on negating other spells and spellcasters, which they see as cancers. Which is why the fact that on the verge of victory the fact that suddenly vast swathes of the Vartyne force were struck by that curse of dissolution and died slow, horrible deaths is so fucking bizarre, it's not a Cheill thing. Theoretically causing a mage's own power to rip him apart or locking him down until their soldiers could kill him is more their kind of thing. The Cheillans were originally a nomadic tribe like the Vartynes were, however a series of religious ecstacies compelled them to stop in a particular (and not optimal) spot and adopt their weird beliefs and customs, spurred by a figure known in their history as No One, who purposely erased all individual identity from themself. The Cheillans then aggressively conquered, enslaved, and integrated every surrounding tribe they could until they more or less stabilized. They were ruled by a priestly caste, governed by some kind of council, but Jakob doesn't know the details.
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>>4544249
Damn. That's very interesting. Their magic sounds particularly intriguing... it makes me wonder if we can pick up one or two, pick their brains over it, despite the obvious risks... and that Cheill finale. We should have put more points into lore, as I'm interested in such details and nuances. Hopefully after things calmed down a bit.
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Speaking of which, I finally got those exp packages nailed down. Each of these comes out to 8 exp. Why 8? I don't know either, I had some reason, I forgot it, I think it's just because it's a good, round number.

These represent what you're doing during the downtime of this month. Jakob, unlike, say, a certain redheaded space pirate boxer, is still in that phase of his life where he's learning and bettering himself and doesn't yet have, say, an incredible personal magnetism or the ability to detect lies flawlessly. You're not ignoring the other three, but the one you choose here is the person you're doing a bit of extra learning from. If, say, you spend your normal exp on more of The General's Visage or picking up some Shadowbinding magic, that's still time spent learning from Arad or Grandmama, while this is separate. Keep in mind, pick things you know you'll put off but want anyway, things you would normally be prioritizing less than more Counterspell or defense from divination magic. Normal exp will cover that, you've got the points.

Vote will continue for at least until Sunday night to ensure we get a proper tally. If you've forgotten what the less self-evident skills mean...

Eerie represents your arcane senses, that feeling that something here is magically fucky. It can also be used to detect spells cast in your presence...and by presence, that can mean miles away in the case of big magics. It can also tell you if an item is magical or not, although creatures are too complicated with their own (usually quiescent) magical currents. Usually used with Sense.

Empathy is the lie-detector skill. It lets you gauge people's honesty, as well as letting you determine their intentions. Let's say you're at a wedding, an Empathy roll would let you spot the seething former lover of the groom. Usually used with Sense.

Scrutinize, by contrast, lets you notice details of your surroundings to find things or reconstruct events. This is the prime skill of detectives, trackers, and people who have to find one file out of an entire library. Usually used with Sense.

Graces is one of the most common skills used in social situations. I haven't been calling for rolls thus far because you've been at home in your castle and if you commit a faux pas here normally nobody cares. This will change, although you could always just rule through power and ignore what the rest of the nobility think about you. Worked out great for Domitian. Failed Graces rolls mean you inadvertently did something rude. Successful ones mean you remembered which fork to use at dinner in Magdal. Spoiler, one of the next few Lilly exp packages includes a Graces MD. It's used with Charm.

Fascinate, on the other hand, is...a bit like Diplomacy or Persuade in other games. It's used to make people like, be interested in, and agree with you and what you're saying. Just as Inspire handles groups, Fascinate handles individuals. It's used with Charm, duh.
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>Grandmama: Lore +2, Eerie +1, Intimidate +1
>Nuncle Arad: Tactics +1, Strategy +1
>Cailm: Lie +1, Sight +1, Hearing +1, Scrutinize +1
>Lilly: Graces +1, Fascinate +1, Empathy +2

Let the voting begin!
>>
As a further note, picking Lilly will not mean you get her pregnant and thereby produce a bastard that hinders waifuing Petrine, Hannah, Amaranthe, or any other girls that come along such as the king's sole heir, Princess Rinalda. It means she teaches you courtly manners and how to talk to and dance with girls and be a bit less provincial, as well as how to read people. If you plan to flirt with her during it, that's acceptable, but presumably nothing untoward happens while you're learning from her.

I say this because in your shoes I'd immediately go "damn if I pick Lilly it earns relationship points with her".
>>
>>4544372
Fascinate. It'll get a lot of use, and it'll be relevant both in dealing with the prisoners, diplomats, nobility, etc, and we're going to be dealing with Grey soon, Goalm too ideally.

Second would be lore, but that's because I'm a junky for that shit.
>>
>>4544373
Arad
>>
>>4544373
>Lilly: Graces +1, Fascinate +1, Empathy +2

Lie Detector, I see you. I want you.

Grandmama's is probably my second choice, for the Eerie/Intimidate.
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>>4544373
>Grandmama: Lore +2, Eerie +1, Intimidate +1
As much as I want to Boost Tactics and Strategy, our Eerie skill is in desperate need of a boost before we venture out of the castle and into Albeda's magical trap laden territory, and having a half decent Intimidation score never hurt anyone.
Sorry Floofy Bard but I can't vote for your social lessons at this time.
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>>4544373
is there a reason why arad only adds 2 total skill points but every other option adds 4?
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>>4544373
>Lilly

We're going to be doing some heavy one-on-one dealings soon, so it'll be immediately useful.

Though your tempting me with the family choices man.

Cailm, lying?... makes too much sense.
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>>4544373
>Lilly: Graces +1, Fascinate +1, Empathy +2
if it's a tough choice between this and Calim, but some light diplomancy is fun
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>>4544391
We already have those leveled up, it's easier to level things that don't have many points in them.
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>>4544391
Because we have a +4 in those already. Trust me, it's equivalent mate.
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>>4544391

The first point in a skill costs 2 and every point after it costs exp equal to the next rank. You have Strategy and Tactics at 3, so you'd pay 4 each to boost them by 1.
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>>4544398
One day we will have a MD in both Tactics and Strategy as well as the full Max 6 in our Knowledge stat
And all will be forced to recognize our status as a Regicide Savant
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>>4544407
Don't tempt me to change my vote now.
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>>4544412
I'll change my vote to Uncle Arad if you do anon...
And then all we need is to acquire flashbacks of Young Jacob beating Albeda so badly at game of Regicide in the grand hall and that she publicly accuses us of using magic to cheat in front of the entire court.
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>>4544373
>Lilly: Graces +1, Fascinate +1, Empathy +2

we've gotta start working on our diplomacy skills
>>
>>4544427
Tempting. Really tempting. I'm currently thinking about the short term benefits this will bring to our immediate dealings. Otherwise, I would be tempted to Grandmama's side, as Lore, Erie, and Intimidate would be more versatile package deal for use. But +4 Strategy and Tactics... It would be delicious, wouldn't it?
>>
>>4544441
I'm seeing suffering with a lot of failed diplomacy in our future if we go stacking on tactics/strategy without anything else.

Our reroll only helps so much with a small dice pool.
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>>4544449
I know, but I'm also thinking of current and future battles as well, the short term of which is both in the Swamp and the North. It'll be tasty, but I do agree that diplomacy is very important as well, so I won't change my vote now, but my next vote will probably be in the same vein of short term thinking though. But I will support a Charm increase if you lads want it as well.
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>>4544373
>Nuncle Arad: Tactics +1, Strategy +1
>>
>>4544373
>Lilly: Graces +1, Fascinate +1, Empathy +2

remember no matter how cute! do not touch!
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>>4544373

>Lilly: Graces +1, Fascinate +1, Empathy +2

Not for the waifuing, but because we'll need some courtly skills before we bugger off to the tundra to help stifle a rebellion in the near future. Being able to read some of the others and not offend them will help make up for our pretty low Charm skills. Plus, she'll probably be wandering along eventually, where-as our other retainers are bound to be here for quite some time yet.

I wouldn't mind learning more from Grandmama, especially with the Lore and Eerie boosts, but we've been lucky enough to meet R*d in our own hall so far. The next time will very likely be in his or Galdynfyrgynbach, and not openly being a yokel will help with that stuff. That, and the Empathy boost will help when it comes to solidifying control with some of the other magi over the swamps.
>>
>>4544460

I think by the time the next bout of Exp packages comes around, we'll probably be down Arad while he heads back home to Grand Crag, and we'll have the option of whoever our new Master-at-Arms is to boost some martial skills. More Strategy and Tactics would be dope, but they're already at +3 off our best stat as it is right now for a 7d10. Shoring up our low-ass Charm stat with some +1s and +2s now will pay off now for some 3d10s and some 4d10s in court if we decide to boost it to 3 later on with 10 exp. That, and our lie-detecting will be at 5d10 with the +2 and our 3 in Sense right now. It'll cover a lot of potential mistakes in the future, and pick up on hidden cues on the people we dredge up to interrogate in the next bout of raids after this. Depending on what we pull from Twull and Char, we should look on raiding near Dampmeade to capture a few of the Three White Wolve's men to get a better idea of Gloam's location.
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>>4544530
Huh. If Arad is heading home soon, then I'd prefer to take his package then. Not now, I already made my vote, but if he's still around next month then I'd like to take his exp package before he leaves. An even greater advantage in both warfare skills will help immensely in future campaigns, and Grandmama will most likely be around to spook our own children.
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>>4544537

I mean, Nuncle will likely be around for a while more, at least until Albeda's book circle is in the dustbin where it belongs. He is the headsman of Grand Crag unless I fucked up my reading comprehension though, and is bound to head back there to run it after this is cleared up. A man's got responsibilities after all.
>>
>>4544373
>>Lilly: Graces +1, Fascinate +1, Empathy +2
eyup. best girl, useful skillset for what is to come.
>>
>>4544373
>Nuncle Arad: Tactics +1, Strategy +1
>>
>>4544373
>Lilly: Graces +1, Fascinate +1, Empathy +2
>>
>>4544373
>Grandmama: Lore +2, Eerie +1, Intimidate +1
>>
>>4544373

>Grandmama: Lore +2, Eerie +1, Intimidate +1
>>
>>4544373
>Grandmama: Lore +2, Eerie +1, Intimidate +1
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>>4544373
>Lilly: Graces +1, Fascinate +1, Empathy +2
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>>4544530

Arad came to Briarfast for the funeral and stayed to watch you crush the rebellion. His village is also on the WAY to Galdynfyrgenbach since Grand Crag is the northernmost Absol village. So he's not leaving until it's done. Keep in mind, you kind of have a ticking clock to beat Albeda if you don't want to have to divide your attention between rebels at home and rebels abroad (assuming you still plan to help Hannah).
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>>4545056
So we have approximately 2.5 months to crush Albeda and friends AND march whatever forces we are taking all the way north to Hannah
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>>4545159
Correct.
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>>4544373
So, barring any future voting, the current count stands as so:

Lilly- 9
Grandmama- 4
Arad- 3
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>>4545322
>Lil 9
Move over Cailm we have a new Peasant best friend
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>>4544373

>Grandmama

Eerie is useful, but mostly I want to shore up that Lore 0, it's just dumb not knowing who the next door neighbour is considering how otherwise literate we are.
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>>4544373
I'll throw another vote in the Lilly hat.
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>>4544373
>>4545322
Vote update, as it currently stands, barring future votes:

Lilly- 10
Grandmama- 5
Arad- 3

Cailm gets cucked out of this one.
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>>4546415
You say that like Cailm has never struck out before
If memory serves we weren't the only person on that fateful hunting trip....
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>>4546415

I mean, he'll understand us not taking him up on another hunt when he finds out that we're learning how to dance properly for once. This way, when we decide to go out on the town with him again, we'll be doing something other than talking with the old people around the keg for once.

>>4546425

>Jake my man, watch your footing around here. Lots of quicksand where that buck went.
>.....
>Jake, my best and dearest friend, please throw me that blasted rope. I know I made fun of your dancing before, but I helped you find the trail. Don't rob the poor women of my roguish charms by letting me sink in this sand.
>Jake you son-of-a-bitch, if you let me drown in this fucking sand, I swear that I'll haunt your arse and ruin your wedding night by shrivelling your blasted dick at the moment of truth.
>>
>>4546425
It makes you wonder if Cailm was the one that originally coined our nickname, in order to sift the blame...

>>4546439
I thought we did dance in the end? Damn, the drunken haze is making the memories of that night a bit spotty...
>>
Me Saturday: "Well we sure are working hard today, but Sunday's just supposed to be wrapping up with the workplace move, Sunday I can run the game for sure."
Me Sunday: "What the fuck Sunday was even longer than Saturday, but Monday? With all this new equipment surely work will be easier than usual, Monday I can definitely run."
Me Today: "WHAT THE FUCK EVERYTHING BROKE AND WE HAD TO STAY LATER THAN WE HAVE SINCE COVID STARTED."
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>>4546558

You did end up dancing after you blasted Braidbeard.
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>>4546589
That's rough man. So, running tomorrow?
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>>4546589
Damn. Wish you a better workday on the 'morrow, mate.
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>>4546589
>Expecting new equipment to work correctly...
Well there is your problem!
Still rough all the same though.
Hope you guys got everything sorted out and tomorrow is less chaos.
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>>4546589

>new equipment working well after a move.

You fell for one of the classic blunders Wong.

All japes aside, hope shit gets sorted out well on your end. Moving is always a pain in general, and even more-so when it's work trying to manage it.
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>>4546610

Trying to. At any rate, I can talk a little bit tonight about Galdaea and the Orruks.
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>>4546679
Please do
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>>4546679

Yeah man, would be nice to know more about them, since the only thing I can vaguely remember is that Galdaea has different rules for their nobility when it comes to marriages.
>>
This is going to be longer and more detailed than expected.
>>
Unsurprisingly, Vartyne is not the only nation of note. At one time, there were more. Once, the people of the swamps were considered a distant legend to the early Vartynes, rather than citizens, and they waged war against the settlements and towns of Passionlip and Undyne, thinking they might someday go as far as the Escanto desert.

The easiest way to do this is by direction.

What is north of Vartyne? Nothing. The northernmost province, Galdynfyrgenbach, extends north as far as people care to live and as far as the Galdynfyrgenbachs can extend their grip. If you go north enough, you might encounter tribes who've never heard of their supposed masters, but that's a minor point.

What is west of Vartyne? The ocean, Vartyne occupies a tall stretch of coast and ships are the most common way for travel between Old Vartyne and the provinces, as aside from Ledo (the easternmost and only landlocked province) the others all have at least one port. It is, rather uncreatively, called the Great Western Ocean as a whole, in contrast to the Great Southern Ocean, or the mythical Eastern Ocean. Its waters are divided up into smaller seas, for example the Indigo Sea (detailed later), and the Sea of Mist between the peninsula of Undyne and the waters considered part of Gwelm's traditional territory. What is FURTHER west of Vartyne? The Xapotchli.

The Xapotchli are an enigmatic people. Only one encounter with them has been recorded, in an incident where a strangely ornate and painted ship devoid of oar and sail was found floating in Vartynen waters. When it was boarded, only one survivor was found, with the rest all having succumbed to starvation and thirst. When nursed back to health, he was taken before the king, who became fond of his strange ways and sought to communicate. Although the survivor was a weathered old man, he survived, learned Vartynen, and told the king (Lanleid was king in those days, great-grandfather to Ulrich, the current king) that he was equally surprised to encounter a country with so many people, and that they were so primitive. He claimed that the Xapotchli, his people, were an empire west of the Great Western Ocean that had harnessed the inherent divinity of humanity to accomplish great magical miracles (it had been a mishap of that magic which caused his ship to be becalmed, he claimed). He said that the Xapotchli lived in what he called the “Broken Lands”, and that some of their cities were in the sky. Although they were few in number, he seemed to view the weapons and defenses of Vartyne with poorly concealed amusement, and his last words when he finally passed of old age were a plea for the king to surrender if his people ever invaded. Needless to say, this strangeness and the inexplicable nature of the ship (now preserved intact in the royal palace in Magdal) have lingered in the Vartynen imagination to the point where a Xapotchli invasion is more feared than the far more present Galdaea.
>>
What is south of Vartyne? The Escanto Desert stretches east and south of Vartyne when one makes it out of Vartyne's surrounding meadows and hill country, but if one goes due south the dunes in time become grasslands, which become the forests known as the Bonewood. Beyond the Bonewood are the Dog Kingdoms. These are so named for being a pack of lesser animals without much to distinguish one from the other. Some are city-states, some are tribal confederations of towns and settlements united by a common heritage, but all tend to change hands from decade to decade. South of the Dog Kingdoms is the Indigo Sea, and south of the Indigo Sea is Galdaea. If it weren't for Galdaea, the Dog Kingdoms would have been conquered by Vartyne or enslaved by Cheill. If it weren't for Vartyne, the Dog Kingdoms would have been conquered by Galdaea or enslaved by Cheill. Cheill doesn't have enough power to truly be a third leg in this tripod, just to make things worse. The delicate balance between Vartyne and Galdaea is what keeps the Dog Kingdoms free, although the fact that Galdaea is closer means that many of the Dog Kingdoms pay the Galdaeans tribute.

The people of Vartyne don't really have the geological knowledge to understand that Galdaea rests on its own smallish continent which is so shallow that it lies mostly underwater, with only parts of it protruding. To them, Galdaea is an archipelago of massive islands surrounded by shallow water. Some of those islands one could wade between if one was so inhumanly fast that they could beat the tides coming back in.

The people of Galdaea call the Indigo Sea the Sea of Stars. They believe that the stars are gods, arranged into constellations by family and according to their spheres of influence, the lights forming a vast and inscrutable hierarchy that changes by the season, and that it was a star fallen from heaven that led them out of an area commonly identified as the Dog Kingdoms to their current home. This star, supposedly, is the living city of Nhywaid itself. Each island is ruled by a hereditary duke or duchess, though they serve at the pleasure of the monarch on Nhywaid and these appointments have been a great source of internal strife and civil war throughout Galdaea's existence. Nhywaid is very similar to a nautilus, a cephalopod dwelling within a shell, although it is not quite the same and of uncountably greater scale. Its soft tentacles, covered in hair-like sub-arms, constantly sift the ocean floor for nutrients, while its shell never dips more than half its mass beneath the ocean waves. Also unlike a nautilus, the shell is an elongated oval adorned with many contours and spines like a conch. Its shell slowly regenerates over time and seems to feel no pain, so it is a constant effort keeping houses and streets carved into their proper shape in the pearl-like material. The palace itself consists of the series of grand spires and whorls that form a collar just behind Nhywaid's head.
>>
By tradition, the emperors and empresses of the Methid line, the ruling family of Galdaea, do not marry. Instead, they have as many bastards as they wish, awarding each acknowledged bastard with a brooch or pendant in the shape of a star to show their royal blood. From among these illegitimate offspring, the monarch selects an heir, allowing them to groom a successor as they like. This tradition dates back to an emperor of antiquity who had two sons; a legitimate heir who was born mentally deficient and a bastard whelp who was a talented soldier and a charismatic commander. Seeing war on the horizon, and his health failing, the emperor made the difficult choice to assassinate his trueborn son and place his bastard on the throne, whereupon the bastard (who himself saw an excuse for womanizing, according to Vartyne historians) made it a tradition. When a monarch dies without choosing a successor, there are plenty of Wearers of the Star still at hand from past generations and the Dukes and Duchesses vote on which candidate shall take the throne, an issue seldom resolved without bloodshed. Galdaea's system is cutthroat and varies wildly in efficiency, but provides them a measure of relief from truly inept rulers. At one time Galdaea was sufficiently stronger than Vartyne to the point where Vartyne would not have stood a chance, but these days the balance is considerably more even, making Galdaea the principal rival to Vartyne rather than the traditional antagonist, Cheill, from the days before Vartyne conquered the Schwaltzwood and began moving north.

I'll get to the Orruks tomorrow, and why they contribute so hard to Vartyne's relative ignorance of lands east.
>>
>>4546741
>The delicate balance between Vartyne and Galdaea is what keeps the Dog Kingdoms free, although the fact that Galdaea is closer means that many of the Dog Kingdoms pay the Galdaeans tribute.

Oh, so kind of like the River Kingdoms of Golarion- fiercely independant and stuck between two superpowers who would swallow them whole if not for each other.
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>>4546756

Kind of, I never really got into Pathfinder, I played a few games of it but never really absorbed the setting the way I had Forgotten Realms.
>>
>>4546711
>>4546741
>>4546742

Interesting. Neat to hear that the Xapotchli are basically strange foreigners with next to no information on them. Galdaea sounds like a decadent place that runs on intrigue, backstabbing, and boning too. Still, explains why the Dog Kingdoms are friends with them if it keeps them from being under Vartyne thumbs or probably exterminated by Chiell. Also, interesting to note that Cheill has basically no friends for damn good reasons, may a thousand curses befall their valueless hides.
>>
>>4546741
If their capital is a titanic crustacean, a siege would be next to impossible. Did they find the city like the Vartynians did, or did some madman of old order a damn palace carved out of the beasts shell?
The not!mayans seem like they'd have been a possible event if we'd chosen the Isle instead of the swamp as a starting location. Speaking of ancient civilisations, could we ask Grandmama about the ruins littering our continent? Did the capital contain any artifacts beyond the structures themselves? Would an expedition be worth it?
I've been considering the merits of making a deal with Gloam. He wants to revive the dead, something that is very unlikely to be feasible. However, we could use a powerful mage as an expedition leader, and considering that we don't know much about the lands beyond the Imperial heartlands, there very well could be lost magics lying about in ancient archives somewhere. If Gloam is promised funding and support for unearthing these secrets, he might just decide that we give him a better shot at beating death than human sacrifice or whatever forbidden shadowbinding involves. Clearly it didn't work for previous shadowbinders, so it's chances of success aren't very high to begin with
>>
>>4546711
Well, this make me feel better about my magical idea. Though I hope we don't have to go full Yi Sun-sin on there asses in the near future.

>>4546741
Ahhh, we can have a pet kingdom! I promise to feed them and bath them and take them on walks...

>>4546742
I must say, the more I read the more I realize we made a serious mistake asking for only one wife. I already know the choice will be excruciating.

>>4546790
I'm all for dealing with Goalm. After all, he's probably the one with the only motivation I can sympathize with, and he seems like an interesting man in general. He also has yet to take action against us, besides leaving his tribe and hiding in a hole. It also doesn't hurt that I think we may be able to reason with him, despite the insanity that comes with grief. But I guess clemency or redemption for Goalm will be decided both by his actions and a vote. I can only hope he isn't too lost in grief to see reason.
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>>4546844
That presumes that Gloam is willing, and rational enough to be able, to deal with US.
>>
>>4546790

The Galdaeans carved the city out of the shell. They have to keep doing it, too, or it will regenerate the holes shut. According to them, it is a low-level god that came down to guide them to freedom and prosperity.
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>>4547227
>According to them, it is a low-level god that came down to guide them to freedom and prosperity.
God I hope so, or they're just fucking with this massive oblivious snail for no reason.
>>
>>4547255
It sounds like a really big filter feeder, so i suspect that it's some kind of fantasy megafauna that happened to be muching on seafloor below where a meteorite seemed to land, and was associated with after the fact.
>>4547227
That's interesting. Is the shell a living part of the organism, since it doesn't just grow out or shed but actually heals?
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>>4547343
I mean it's a demi-god bro, it's magic, it ain't gotta explain shit.
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>>4547354
Is it magic, or just a magical tamed leviathan of a shell crab? You'd be surprised at how much the nuance here means.

>>4547343
There's only one way to find out... Goalm, I know your supposed to be my enemy, but I've got a magical quest that only you and I can intellectually undertake. Also, magic bros before magic hoes.
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>>4547343

I kind of misspoke. The shell is constantly growing out. So for example if you carve your house out of a spike every few years you'll want to sand the walls out a bit so it doesn't slowly shrink in on you.
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>>4547343

Also you probably nailed the reason a scientifically minded Vartyne would ascribe to it. Meteorite disturbs a megafauna, primitive Galdaeans go "so this is a star, huh?" And boom, Galdaea.
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>>4547588
Sounds like an opening for a unique labour market that could never exist elsewhere
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>>4547589

THAT SAID magic exists. It could be a god, theoretically, but that would be heresy in Mihtoism because the stars are something else in that religion.
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>>4547598
You know, it would be interesting to see one Blessed with Mihto's gifts and not only because they sound a bit insane on the surface.
>>
Well, that was a day even later than Monday. Got home, made myself some tuna and rice, then fell asleep for a couple of hours. I'm awake now, though, if people are around.
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>>4548016
I'm around, but I've got to sleep in an hour.
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>>4548016

Still around here for a while. Work got cancelled tomorrow, so don't got any reason to turn it in early if I don't have to.
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>>4548016
Around, for now.
>>
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You cross your arms, looking offended, “Torture Blem? I didn't even torture Braidbeard beyond a couple of kicks for shittalking us in front of our guards, and that was knocking some sense into him for playing hard after I'd dropped him like a ripe melon for talking treason to my face. I saved his life, too, Oath had stuck a statue in his pocket enchanted to tear apart everything around it.”

“Fair enough.” He sighs heavily, then with the air of a man venting a grievance, says, “It wasn't as stupid a plan as it looked.” He slumps glumly back into his seat, “See, we weren't the show of force, originally, just supporters there to shout down dissent and prove Albeda had a popular base, the intimidation factor was extra. We expected to be walking into an unsuspecting castle with leaderless guards, where any resistance would be sporadic and easily put down. The show of force was Sister Char, some spell she had that would end the battle in our favor instantly.” The corners of his lips turn up in a wry smile, “One she never got the chance to cast. She wanted to lead Albeda in by the hand, being the sort that prefers a woman's touch to a man's, so she changed the plan at the last second to play a greater role in hopes of winning a kiss and a tumble. Stupid woman, letting her lusts and vainglory rule her. How did you find out, anyway? Clearly you were prepared.”

“If I told you, I'd have to kill you.” You cross your arms, “I'll do you the favor of being honest, and in turn I hope you have the good sense not to lie to me. Hold your silence if you like, I know you won't betray your pack, but Albeda isn't in it. As I said, she was ready to kill one of yours to hit me

He stares you down evenly, “You're telling the truth about the statue.” He admits, “Braidbeard told me in confidence, he didn't want to spread it around. He didn't see it pop, but when he was hustled out of the castle he saw what looked an awful lot like something you'd hucked into the water had done some real damage to every nearby animal.” He lowers his voice, “I know you let him out because you wanted him to send a message. I've been as optimistic as I can for the sake of the students here, but I know how it is. We rebelled. Against the sitting Absol. I, at least, am expecting to wind up hanging from your wall or drowned in the bogs.”

>[Suggest a way he can avoid that]
>[Ask if he can think of any way to avoid that]
>[Remain silent]
>>
>>4548031
>>[Ask if he can think of any way to avoid that]
>>
>>4548031
>[Ask if he can think of any way to avoid that]

I don't wish to be cruel when it isn't necessary.
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>>4548031
>[Ask if he can think of any way to avoid that]
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>>4548031
>[Ask if he can think of any way to avoid that]
I’m not terribly enthusiastic about murdering you all, for rebelling. I would much rather have loyal mages willing to follow, rather than piles of dead ones given to the walls.
Do you see any way the Pack could be brought into line, or will you all fight to the death for Albeda’s cause?
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>>4548031
>[Ask if he can think of any way to avoid that]

Nothing's really coming to mind.
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>>4548031

>[Suggest a way he can avoid that]

"Twull, I'm more interested in the ringleader's rather than the lieutenants. Char's already here, and I know better than to ask you to betray the Ragged Elder. Albeda is unlikely to have told anyone where she is, and Gloam was not in contact with your band. I know that it was your cart that had that unnatural chimera, and that you picked it up with Char. Tell me where Shell's hideout is, and I'll spare your students the wall."

He's unlikely to want to stand up for a Fleshsculpter, since they are antithetical to Night Hunter religious beliefs. Framing it as a way to spare his students (playing off his compassion) and the chance to stop someone from twisting the beasts into horrors will probably work. Plus, we were planning on sparing a lot of the low-level Night Hunters anyways to help rebuild our forces from the devastation from the Cheill war.
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>>4548054
Ok that’s probably a good follow up if he doesn’t come up with something offhand.
Swapping my vote to this, because it gives us hard info and a place to attack.
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>>4548054
I must say, you have a better way with words than I, anon.
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>>4548066

I already typed that one up once, then it got ate. Just glad that I got it re-typed before everything got locked in on the vote.
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>>4548054
changing to this, excellent point
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>>4548071
Fuck, I absolutely hate when that happens.
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>>4548031
>[Ask if he can think of any way to avoid that]
>>
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“Yes. Leaving my province down at least one more valuable mage and creating ill will with one of the tribes of my people, another pointless sacrifice of this foolish rebellion.” You cross your arms, “You can see why I'm not terribly enthusiastic about putting you all to the sword, when I want you in my armies after this is done. Loyal, living mages are far more valuable than dead ones given to the walls. Do you see any way the Pack could be brought into line, or will you all fight to the death for Albeda's cause?”

He grins. His teeth are surprisingly sharp, like those of a beast. “I've had time to think about that. If you will, my lord, I'll explain what the sentiment seems to be among the junior members of the Pack. The way they see it, neither you nor Albeda is a member of the Pack, and neither of you has challenged and beaten us the way Lord Arnveis did, so we defer to the side the Elder picked. Moreover, Albeda is considered the dominant mage.” His singular eye wanders insolently in the general direction of Sister Char's cell, “...Though I wonder about that. You showed up in person. She didn't. Hm.” He shrugs as if dismissing the thought, “The problem being, you aren't a member of the Pack. Yet. So I got to thinking, what makes someone part of the Pack? Well, they've got to be a Night Hunter. They don't have to be attuned, necessarily, Blem's not and a fair number of the other whelps aren't either yet, but they have to know the magic. Now as it happens, I'm authorized to teach spells, are you following me so far?”

You nod, “You're going to teach me enough Night Hunter spells to make me at least a theoretical member of the Pack, so that the Pack overall might view it as betrayal to side against me.”

He nods, “It's that or defeat the Ragged Elder and claim his position. I'm sure the Three White Wolves might disagree, but my brother will back my reading of it. Moreover, by custom, you don't kill whelps for challenging you for position if they're fellow members of the Pack. You let them go, sometimes with an oath not to raise a hand against you in the future. Now if you're a legitimate member of the Pack, you could simply...judge that what WE did was a legitimate Challenge...”

[Continue]
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“...And accepting your oaths not to fight against me further, let you go with both sides' honor preserved.” You finish it for him, “I still want information from you.”

He lowers his head, “And being the victor of a challenge, you'll have it, as long as it doesn't involve betraying the Pack. Specifically, as we can now consider you a member of the Pack if you agree to my terms, betraying the welfare of the Pack as a whole OR the wishes of anyone who outranks you in the Pack.”

You frown, “Wouldn't that be everyone, if I just joined it?”

He shakes his head, “No, by submitting to you I am admitting loss to you in our challenge, so you are now directly ahead of me. This puts you ahead of everyone but my older brother, the Three White Wolves, and the Ragged Elder himself. Possibly some of the triplets' senior students but I don't know any of them well enough to be betraying them anyway.”

>[Acceptable]
>[Unacceptable]
>>
>>4548054

I'm glad it got eaten because I can work it in easily after this.
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>>4548094
>[Acceptable]
Heh, what harm could physically weak Jacob get up to learning a physical attack magic school?
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>>4548094
>[Acceptable]

Gotta love Pack Politics.
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>>4548094

>[Acceptable]

If I'm following the line of logic properly, if we take him up on this and smash apart the Pentacle, since Grey's part of it's leadership, it'll count as beating Grey too, theoretically. It'll be a solid way to keep the Night Hunter support in the future as a part of the Pack, and shouldn't be much of a hindrance when we go to war again in the future. Just have to get a bit more good to hold our own against them if they start getting rowdy.

Damn it Cailm, it's called thinking ahead, not turning into a furfag. You're the one who fucked Straw Hat to begin with, how do I know that she wasn't in wolf form first, eh?
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>>4548100
>how do I know that she wasn't in wolf form first, eh?
Jokes on us Cailm is probably into that.
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>>4548094
>[Acceptable]
IF we can settle their need for rebelling offhand. If it’s something ludicrous, then No.

need to find out why the hell they tossed their lot in with Albeda to start with, and if we can settle the leadership’s desire offhand, because we’d be placed under the triplets and Grey.

Anyone else thinking of Helltaker’s Cerberus as the three white wolves?
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>>4548094
>>[Acceptable]
I don't see why not.
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“Acceptable. Twull, I'm more interested in the ringleaders than the lieutenants. Char is in a cell, and I know better than to ask you to betray the Ragged Elder, obviously. Albeda is unlikely to have told anyone where she is, and Gloam wasn't in contact with your band as far as I know. I do know that it was your cart that bore the chimera to Briarfast, and that you picked it up with Char, and that it was arranged by Sister Shell. Tell me where Shell's hideout is, and you'll help me justify sparing you and your students from the wall.”

“Why, a member of the Pack, who's beaten me in a challenge, asking about someone outside the Pack? I'd be delighted to tell you all about it. Truth is, I didn't see Shell, but the Flame Dancer said she was the one who arranged this. We traveled to this big, ruined tower outside Weeptree, sunk into a lake. We crossed it on a little boat, but...the place made my hackles stand up. Everywhere we looked, cobwebs. Thorns growing out of the cracks in the masonry. We found that disgusting thing wrapped up like a mummy in layer upon layer of webs, like a nice little parcel waiting for us on the front gate...but the whole time we were there, I could feel something else watching us. I could smell it, something huge, something unnatural, something that wasn't rightly human. Now, let me give you some detailed directions, and then we can get started with your first lesson...”
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>>4548105
No... but now I am.

>>4548102
That... would explain a lot.

No wonder Char looked so traumatized... good job Cailm.
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>>4548114
Jacob even said earlier when he was feeding the Chimera that Cailm had "a way with animals" that he didn't
>>
And with that, I'm gonna call it a night. Game resumes Friday as usual, there will be a new thread up, and with your interrogations mostly done you'll have freedom to act (as well as plenty of stuff to learn for the rest of the month).

There is one major thing, however, to consider. You now know two concrete locations you can attack (The Sunken Tower and Dampmeade Village), the question is which one you deal with first, do you do it this month and count on the stuff YOU do to give you enough Might bonuses to still make a roll and get a set OR do it next month when your province's stats refresh, and thirdly whether you send an army or quietly go by yourself with your bodyguards (to avoid draining your province's stats for the month). For Dampmeade, you CAN send one of the Night Hunters as a messenger as you discussed, as you're now a member of the Pack.
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>>4548105

Blem was saying here >>4543181 that the Ragged Elder mainly wanted to be left alone to live like a wild beast. Albeda seems to have offered him that freedom, probably in the west of Soursough where Rast's people are, and Dampmeade where the TWWs are. Unless the TWWs are getting extra kickbacks from her, in which case they're on the shitlist too, the only real thing I can see is Albeda saying that we wouldn't stand not having them listen to us, a weak and puny whelp who was even weaker than her.
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>>4548117
Ahhh... that explains a lot about how that hunting trip went down, doesn't it?
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>>4548119

Right on Wong, thanks for running it tonight despite all the workplace moving woes you had.

If we're choosing locations to strike next, I say that we should probably go for the Sunken Tower by Weeptree next month. We're already at Territory 0 and Treasure 1 this month from earlier actions, and we don't want another one to drop down there too. We'll be at Might 3, Treasure 2, Territory 1, Influence 2, and Sovereignty 3. We could then boost Might to 4 with Words of Iron, and either do a Conventional Attack (M+Treas), or Unconventional Attack (M+I) with a big number, leaving enough Might to counter-act Albeda's next plan. I'd really like to try and strike now to get ahead some, but we already busted down some of the Pentacle's stats permanently already this month, and no point in getting greedy and over-extending yet.
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>>4548119
Nice session Wong. Hopefully life won't conspire against you in the next one!

>>4548123
I agree, but he's another point to consider. The Pentagram stats are down as well, with Might potentially crippled. Now, we don't know what sort of stats they possess, but we can deduce that they did suffer a heavy blow. With our Words of Iron, we could bump our Might up to make a concerted effort near the end of this month. Now, I don't know how the mechanics of all this works (whether we'd be overextending and wouldn't be at our full strength next month, or whether we'd be able to utilize Word of Iron on Might in this instance), but I do know time is of the essence here, and that the Pentagram are just as exhausted as we are, so if we do get a set, there's a good chance they won't be able to block. Again, I don't know if it's folly, but we could probably utilize how Words of Iron works, probably gain an advantage for that day, and press on if need be.

Of course, we could just go there ourselves, try and deal with Shell personally to avoid draining the Company's stats. Shell is still an unknown quantity here, and not necessarily a adverse one, despite recent actions.

Also, should we commit the Company to any non-military actions in the meantime as well?
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>>4548139

It's not really low Might as the issue, but Influence or Treasure being low as well. Treasure for a Conventional Attack is at 1 right now because of the Improve Culture we did, and will leave us at a temporary 1 Might, 0 Treasure and 0 Territory afterwards. Influence in an Unconventional Attack will leave us at 1 Might and 1 Influence for the rest of the month if we follow through. I'm pretty sure Albeda is down on Might and Influence from her assassination attempts, but if we get bumped again before it comes back, we'll only have 1d from 1 Might 0 Territory or 3d from 1 Might and 2 Sovereignty depending on the type it is.

We could avoid this whole debacle by going in person to Shell's location, but we only got rid of the Chimera by stacking everything heavily in our favour. It would depend a lot on if she's there, or has clues left behind with another big gribbly thing there. Either way we cut it, it'll be a gamble. Personally, I'd rather wait out since we'll have a lot of points in our favour to start swinging heavy next month. If we're going to commit to it this month though, we should try and scrape up as much advantage as we can get and make it as lopsided a battle we can.

As far as non-military actions, a lot of them use Sovereignty or Territory in the rolls iirc. They can wait a bit longer, and we can use that 3 Sov next month to shore up some of the lower rolls.

Hey Wong, is there a specific action for raising Territory, or will it really only go up after we squash the rebellion? Idly curious to see what we could do for it, since it's a pretty pitiful 1 right now.
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>>4548139
>>4548143

Taking a quick look again at some of the other options from the last thread, we could do a Being Informed (Influence + Sovereignty) action with a focus on Dampmeade and Weeptree without it being too costly right now. It'll be at a 4d10 with our current stats (2 and 2), and we might be able to score some bonuses by sending out Blem and probably another Night Hunter or two there. Let them know that the Absol is taking lessons to become a member of the Pack to help tie the Swamp back together. They could act as proof that we're serious, and that we beat down Char by ourselves. It could help us get information on Gloam's specific location, then we can beat him down next month as our first action. That way, we'll potentially wipe out Albeda's two biggest sources of strength in one fell blow (Night Hunters being loathe to fight other members of the Pack, and Gloam's Shadowbinders). Even if Gloam gets away from us in the first strike, it'll disrupt him raising shade armies for their Might.

After thinking it over a bit more, I think I'll agree with you on taking the gamble this month. We've depleted a lot of her Might and Influence already, and if we can at least disrupt Shell's operations this month, it'll leave Albeda with less options for her next assault. She's already down Char and a fair amount of Grey's followers. If Shell has to move locations or loses some of her creations, it'll limit Albeda to what she has, Gloam's creatures, and the Night Hunters in the east. She might start getting desperate, and if it's another big loss at the Sunken Tower, Grey's lieutenants will see that it wasn't a fluke and probably start angling to swing back to us.
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>>4548143
>>4548150
I like the way you think, and you raised many good points all round.

So, we roll on Being Informed with some Night Hunter shenanigans on the mix, and we visit the Sunken Tower, if everyone agrees of course.
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>>4548203
I don't like blindly running into the Sunken Tower. The payoff might be good, but at the same time we could be forced to duel another chimera or giant spider with no information going into it.
And I don't like our chances running headfirst into something that can grab us when we try to fly and start ripping through our armor, without at least having some idea of capabilities and counter tactics on our own part.

I do like the idea of both Being Informed, and trying to strike something at the first of next month, however.
Alternatively, attempting to scope out the ruins that Gloam is supposed to be holed up in? We heard about that from Grandmama, at least.
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>>4548143

There is no canon "Roll X+Y versus current Territory to increase it permanently" the way there is for Sovereignty, Influence, and Might. It's the Achilles' Heel of the Swamp. However...

You will get +1 Territory for defeating Albeda. You can ALSO get +1 Territory from another action which, funny enough, involves the tower (and it's one which may surprise you). Furthermore, whenever I stat Lilly and Cailm properly, one of the Esoterics I was considering for Lilly has an ultimate final technique that lets her spend a week reorganizing personnel and resources for maximum efficiency that gives the company she's attached to a permanent +1 Territory once. I'm just not sure that this is the most fitting one for her, as this game kind of goes overboard on the various social Esoterics (and in my opinion is a bit short on Esoterics for the weapons people are actually likely to USE, with four for blades, three for unarmed, and NONE for blunt weapons unless I dip my notoriously-bad-at-balance toes into making one myself).

In short, without getting married or conquering anyone other than the rebels you can get your Territory to 3, possibly 4, ironically less through expansion and more through efficiency, detailed cartographical knowledge helping you find the best places to settle farmers, shifting a percentage of your focus towards cash crops, and magic.
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>>4548300
>You can ALSO get +1 Territory from another action which, funny enough, involves the tower (and it's one which may surprise you)
Aaah, so there's a subterranian cave system or city below the tower, then? Thanks for the head up, Wong.
Or maybe a portal somewhere. Either way i suspect that's where the Fleshshapers are hiding out, planning their reconquest of the surface world.
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>>4548287
Consider that we now have a master die for our magic rolls.
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>>4548300
>+4 Territory for the Swamp people
>could become one of the most enviably pieces of land in the kingdom
>would make Shrek proud

Stop, Wong. You already had me at hello.

>>4548287
I understand the risks, but from my perspective, the rewards outweigh them, and not just because of the potential buff to Territory we may get, either. If this is indeed a Thorndweller we're dealing with, then just by spooking her and forcing her to move we'll negate her magical works, as I imagine she needs time and security to create such monstrosities, and we'd be a threat to both if she doesn't move shop. Also, we do have magic to rely on, and if worse come to worse we could make like a bird and fly around throwing lightning at people. Damn, we got some weird birds in the Swamp. Probably taste like fried chicken too, with all the lightning.
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>>4548371
A MD for magic only goes so far when our offensive magic options boil down to shooting arrows, or attuning then shooting lightning. We beat the chimera earlier by trapping it away from us, and both of our magic duels came down to us Shocking the targets to death with direct alpha strikes.

We are at our strongest when we have time to prepare, line up defenses with Smoke structure from behind a Loyal line of Billhooks, and coordinate our forces better than our opponents.

>>4548392
If we're heading into a setting where we can't Fly (Like underground or webbed up ceilings), we're not fast without it, and almost certainly aren't getting out of Grappling from something stronger than us, and if whatever monsters that lurk there can tank even a couple rounds of lightning that takes us a few turns to cast, we're in serious trouble.

Wandering off with our bodyguards into ruins is kind of us at our weakest.

I might be traumatized from Wong hinting at killing us on the roof
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>>4548436
I would agree with you, but we lack the evidence to the contrary because we only experienced situations we prepared for, and there will be situations where we will be thrown unprepared into. In this case, I'd rather choose to act when they're unprepared to deal with us rather than the reverse. Though we should get someone to Froth us in the meantime, preferably just after we make a divination of ourselves.

And I understand about the trauma Wong inflicted on us, I just refuse to be influenced by it. It did really suck when he did it though, I will readily admit.
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>>4548321

What if I told you it was something already brought up as a possibility in the quest that I gave a firm "You can't do that...yet" to?
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>>4549011
I'd respond we have a memory of a goldfish, but that's just me and insulting to goldfish. It's a good thing it's not my response to make then.
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>>4549011
>Wong forever taunting us with upgrades and future plot hooks
> Flashback to Wong Taunting us with the possibility of Fist drones nearly 80ish threads before we actually got them
Glad to see this hasn't changed
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>>4549038

Do you remember how absurdly strong drones were though?
>>
Oh shit I totally forgot to talk about the Orruks, ahem.
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>>4549113
It doesn't matter how absurdly strong drone are
You were dangling them in front of us from basically thread 4 when the Old Doc and Karen got a chance to open its head and tell us it had a primative non-functional drone system in there.
You were dangling that in front of us at the same time as getting a second functional arm...
>>
East of Vartyne, as previously mentioned, is the Escanto desert, which curves south around the general area of Old Vartyne. If one goes due east, one passes through the most inhospitable part, so generally the better way to go is to divert north through the more livable grasslands that are technically considered part of the Ledo Plains (sort of, who really owns land nobody lives on?) Across the Escanto, and a bit south, one comes to Cheill. Pass Cheill going east, or simply DON'T go that little bit further south and continue east, and one will inevitably encounter the Orruks.

The Orruks could likely defeat the Galdaeans and Vartyne on sheer numbers if they ever got their act together, but they never will. As one of the largest ethnic groups on the continent of Truia (namely, everything so far mentioned that isn't Galdaea, technically, or the Xapotchli) they would be a deadly enemy if they weren't scattered into so many tiny, feuding tribes and if they hadn't reached their peak before Vartyne was even founded. At one time, the Orruks were, briefly, mostly one. There was at one time a royal dynasty. A city. A king. In fact they still do, sort of.

For a time, the wisdom of a single grand ruler, Rhoal the Ineffable, forged them into a single nation that shook the very foundations of the world. Under Rhoal's guidance, the Orruks shattered the major civilizations of myth, and raised the grand city of Rhoal'lan. Yet the gods frowned upon Rhoal, and on his deathbed slew his children and grandchildren, ending his line. Rhoal then forged a bladed crown of steel, and gripped it white-hot, slashing his own throat with it and tempering it in his lifeblood, pouring into it his consciousness and will. Should a worthy leader rise up to tame the other Orruks and establish dominion, he has the right to make a pilgramage to the ruins of Rhoal'lan and put on the crown. If acknowledged by Rhoal the insurmountable wisdom, political savvy, and military experience of the ancient king is shared with his successor...yet in recent centuries, the Orruks have drifted apart, and there have been no reports of Orruk Kings and Queens.

Has the Eternal King at last gone silent, too disappointed with the material offered to him to bother tarnishing his legacy trying to spin dross into gold? Or is his knowledge no longer relevant, just as chariots are no longer relevant in an age of cataphractoi? Or did his sorcerous immortality in the end know limits, and he has passed into the sleep that does not end? The Orruks are so numerous and widespread that they effectively block off the Galdaeans, Cheillans, and Vartynes from exploring further east, although it is known that there are people who live there. As it stands, they are a people of consummate banditry and untempered hostility towards their neighbors regardless of origin.
>>
This brings up an interesting point that should be addressed, as Jakob would know it. Immortality. One of the cardinal laws of magic is that immortality is never free. If someone wants to live forever, they must feed their lifespan beyond its natural limits with human lives in some fashion, or they must cease to be human. There is no other way. One could, perhaps, turn oneself into a statue for a thousand years only to be unthawed by a specific ritual when one's homeland is in danger (theoretically, because no such spell exists) but that would not be true immortality, just a pause in one's natural lifespan. One could, perhaps, transfer one's consciousness into an immortal monster, or drink human blood to sustain their eternal youth, but that would again fall under ceasing to be human or feeding off human life-force. The Eternal King of the Orruks is an example of the former.
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>>4549126

And in the end you got one. This won't take that long. A few ingame months, and you'll either have it...or you won't.
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>>4549131
Interesting. How is "inhuman" defined though? If ones mind remains unchanged through the process, the cost isn't really that high. Do we know of any magical paths that'd let one achieve immortality? Like shadowbinding allowing one to kill ones own body and live on as a lich or something?
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>>4549131
Which does remind me. Would you mind telling us about any natural fauna the swamp is home to that isn't extant in reality? The Ryd mountains have an actual damn dragon flying about, so clearly there are supernatural or atleast fantastical beasts around
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>>4549187

There is a bit of a sliding scale with that, in terms of losing humanity versus needing to feed your immortality. Let's say your form of immortality turns you into a tree. You can still use spells through other trees grown from your tree, but you're a tree, and I hope you like the spot you're in because you're staying there forever. You probably don't need to consume additional life to stay immortal. Similarly, the Eternal King probably doesn't need blood sacrifice. Probably.

Now let's say that you're an abomination immediately visible as inhuman. Say some kind of Alex Jones lizardman illuminati thing of terrifying visage. You might have to, say, eat a specific human organ fairly regularly (or to continue the illuminati example, routinely get adrenochrome from children). You're visibly not human, you make other humans uncomfortable, you have some arcane way of feeding your immortality, but MAYBE it isn't something immediately lethal. Perhaps you subsist on tongues, or eyes.

Or maybe you're akin to a vampire. A creature that looks human, enough to fool people into thinking you're one of them. In this case, you would assuredly need to feed your immortality with the deaths of others, feasting on their blood to sustain yourself through the centuries. An Aztec-style god-emperor might be immortal because his subjects ritually sacrifice human hearts to him, for example.
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>>4549561

Now KEEP IN MIND this isn't a thing one can just minmax. The roads to immortality are winding, rocky, narrow, and have steep cliffs with sharp rocks at the bottom on either side. When one seeks immortality, as far as Jakob knows one gets what one gets.
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>>4549573
Is it even worth seeking at that point?
Sacrificing everything for a constant struggle to maintain life or pseudo-life to watch your empire wither and fall?
Would it not be better to build a legacy that can last without you, to hand over the world to others that can rule, or deal with the problems of tomorrow?

Immortality is overrated. One who does not live as his people will eventually lose touch and become a poor ruler.
Better to pick a successor, and train them well.

Either way, doesn’t seem like a priority for Jakob. The quest for extending your life only starts when you worry about your time remaining, and all that.
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>>4549561
How about, say, turning into something like a dragon or the big mollusc the Gaeldeans built a city on? I imagine those things would be immortal as well, and probably not through consumption of humans. Could one steal that "perfect" immortality somehow while retaining human form? Isn't there an eastern legend about humans bathing in the blood of dragons to become immortal?
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>>4549701
Don't forget eating mermaid flesh as a method of immortality
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>>4549561
>An Aztec-style god-emperor might be immortal because his subjects ritually sacrifice human hearts to him, for example.

Is there time to switch societies? That sounds based as fuck.

>>4549701
The only legend I herd about them is the floating cities lad. Just embrace the tree life, bro.
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>>4549131
>>4549561

Cool, it's interesting to see a different take on the Mongol-style barbarian type. Almost makes me want to have picked Plains in the first thread to start smacking the shit out of them and seeing more in-depth lore on it. Ah well, still glad we went with the swamp witches drowning foreign enemies in the bogs.
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>>4550105
I mean, it's only more incentive to visit and be friends with the based Lord of the Planes.
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>>4550122
Artifact airplanes when?
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>>4550196
Soon, anon. Soon.

Gotta get on the Xapotchli magic after this, right?
>>
So just for fun, I statted Hannah. She starts off with more points than Jakob, Cailm, and Lilly, but she's probably going to stay at that level for a long time while they keep gaining exp.
>>
>>4550463
Neat. Can't wait to see the breakdown.
>>
>>4550464

There are a lot of good things about her, the exact good things you'd expect given what you know about her. There are also some notable downsides, particularly considering that she's a noble and not just a vanguard fighter.
>>
>>4550480
2 months can't go by fast enough. I'm so ready to have Jakob wreck shit up in the north!
>>
>>4550463
>the no tall jaigen gf to crush rebels with.
>>
New thread up >>4550865



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