>>6049645

# # # # # #

Rules Recap:

We vote on majority to decide actions. In rare cases, if a tie happens I may incorporate both options if narratively possible or interesting. This does not happen for combat rolls

We use 1d100 roll against a DC, plus bonuses.
>natural 1 is a critical failure, natural 100 is a complete success.

Roll vs DC for most checks

Combat roll is instead Bo3, counting successes against my rolls (usually you need to beat only 1 or two of my rolls)

If you or I get dubs, trips or more on the rolling post we add the following values/effects to what was just rolled and only that:
>dubs: +6
>trips: +18
>quads: automatic critical success + kiss on the cheek
>quints: permanent bonus + double kiss on the cheek

>Write-Ins:

there will be the occasional prompt for these. Interesting ideas or suggestions may be incorporated in the update even if they don’t reach a majority. Discussions and questions are highly encouraged as they may give you numerical bonuses or allow you to skip dangerous situations (it happened a couple times in the previous thread)!

# # # # # #

Pasta?

Pasta!

>Lore and Important Characters: https://pastebin.com/By6W3xxD

>MC and stats (updated!) https://pastebin.com/CuxGS43X

# # # # # #

And now, the news…

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>>6049648

## # # # #

The nethermost hall, the one you reached passing through the reflection, is something that ought to be impossible. Not just because of the figures turning towards you, what used to be their heads reduced to wavering white flames burning on their stumps of a neck like abandoned candle-lights, sizzling with the heat of their own blood used as fuel… or because of the two hulking figures looming over you and Salicera, their bodies a parody of the human form, with their skin pulled by porcelain trinkets and metal hooks, revealing teeth and sinews. Their bulging muscles remind you of a dead war horse’s, stringy and blue, pulled tight by rigor mortis and hooked strings.

But that is still something you could deal with. The reek of dead skin makes you want to reek, but you can still stomach it.

The floating head is another matter. The young woman looking at you with a sombre expression slowly turns in the air, her hair floating around her like a monstrous jellyfish. It might as well be the missing head from the statue in the previous room, and the clammy, pale skin that still can be seen really makes you feel like it may be. If it’s so, it’s a bit too… organic to be an actual statue and you are reminded of the rituals and rapturous temptations of the Seven Sisters — unfortunate souls offering their bodies up to help one of them incarnate into this world.

As the head turns you notice once more then new skin overtaking the old, growing like mould on a wall: but it’s not pale, it’s a sable tone, and the eyes in the other half of the head are a deep shining blue, and the hair are turning smooth as silk and black as blindness. After what happened in the previous room, you can now know what ‘black as blindness’ means.

Kiengiri features. You are seeing the girl’s head being overtaken, incarnated, by someone who belongs to a race the world hasn’t witnessed in almost twenty centuries…

There is something in that single blue eye scrutinising you two, peering at you, through you from the depth of untold time that makes you feel like a butterfly, a steel and silver butterfly pinned by a claw. You can feel your skin growing goosebumps beneath your clothes.

But no. You can’t give up now. Or even listen to fear. There is too much at stake: Rubida in the other room, keeping the light on so that you two can hopefully come back. Soralisa, bandaged and unconscious, waiting for you three to come back.

Master, who expects you to pass through this year and make some friends.

And your family back in the Landing Strip, without a home, without a way to sustain themselves, their hopes hanging on your shoulders like heavy pauldrons.

There is too much at stake.

[cont.]

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>>6049649

You tighten your grip on your longsword, slowly raising it to be level with your eyes — a challenge — just as Salicera takes a more aggressive stance with her own longsword. Your companion and fellow trainee does not even wear an armour, covered as she in her simple clothes, but she looks just as confident as usual, almost eager for the battle ahead.

You envy her.

You share a look with Salicera’a brown-grey eyes as you try to project your thoughts into her. It’s impossible of course, but you try to make it clear you’d rather face first…

>The multitude of wick-like figures around you. They look like they could be the least dangerous, but there’s a lot of them, and they could easily overwhelm you.

>The two hulking beasts surrounding the head. You have an uneasy gut feeling those are the real nut to crack.

>The incarnating head. If that’s truly one of the Seven Sisters slowly resurrecting herself once again, you must stop it! This is after all what you came here for.

>>6049650
>The two hulking beasts surrounding the head. You have an uneasy gut feeling those are the real nut to crack.

>>6049650
>The multitude of wick-like figures around you. They look like they could be the least dangerous, but there’s a lot of them, and they could easily overwhelm you.
They're performing the ritual, right? Maybe we can slow it down or stop it by killing them. If not, I still suspect beelining for the head will get us surrounded and wrecked.

Welcome back, QM!

Also glad to see you back, OP. >>6049648 this time you didn't mess up the links, kek ;p

>>6049650
>>The multitude of wick-like figures around you. They look like they could be the least dangerous, but there’s a lot of them, and they could easily overwhelm you.

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>>6049650
>>The incarnating head. If that’s truly one of the Seven Sisters slowly resurrecting herself once again, you must stop it! This is after all what you came here for.

Cut off the head and the body will die. Going for mooks with tire us, going for the big dudes will up the risk of being injured before we can complete our mission. Even if we die, we need to stop the ritual. An incarnated one of the Seven would be catastrophic.

Yay, you have returned op! Excited. Have a silver haired thot for your trouble.

>>6050005
holy neotony and she also looks like she took some ribs outta her. mind giving the sauce ?

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>>6049666
>first comment
>Satan

holy kekeroni, anon

>>6049667
thanks anon, here's to a long and fun thread!

>>6049670
I learn something new every day. My goal for the year is switching velcro shoes for laces

>>6050005
>getting one of the Seven incarnated is bad bad mojo

someone is paying attention to the lore. Good! Also, thanks for the cute pic, but in the future let's try to keep the lust-inducing 3DPD images to a minimum. I enjoyed it but it tends to derail discussion like >>6050090 shows


(lewdpastas still encouraged tho)

FOUR more hours for voting, then it's update time. Get those votes going, anon

>>6050104
>someone is paying attention to the lore. Good!
i mean, we all know letting one of them reincarnate is le bad, the question is if we should kill the big mooks first to ease things out or go straight to the head

>Also, thanks for the cute pic, but in the future let's try to keep the lust-inducing 3DPD images to a minimum. I enjoyed it but it tends to derail discussion like >>6050090 (You) shows
oy vey

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>>6050104
>but in the future let's try to keep the lust-inducing 3DPD images to a minimum

I try to, but my inner coomer wins out at times. Picrel

>>6050090
No clue, something I found on twitter and was in my unsorted images. I dislike e-girls in many regards yet am weak to their wiles. Can probably reverse image search it. idk.

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>>6050090
Here she is, my OCD won out over not spoon-feeding.

https://x.com/foggycattt

She apparently also has an insta with the same name.

Yeah, I have a thing for petite girls, why do you ask?

Yeah I love silver haired girls, why. Nothing to be embarrassed about.

>>6049666
>>6049667
>>6049734
>>6050005

>majority votes for snuffing the lights out on the wicker men. Writing!

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Rolled 5, 63, 20 + 7 = 95 (3d100 + 7)

>>6049650

You give Salicera a quick, sharp look. The wicker men that surround you seem like they could be the key to this… or at least that’s what you think. There’s far too many of them, and they could easily overwhelm you two if they decided to attack. The best course of action seems to be to just… cull their numbers.

“I don’t think we need any sort of welcome,” you reply to the floating head. “Nor any kind of greeting. We know enough about what this means.”

Salicera quirks her eyebrow at that, but then she seem to go with the flow and follow you.

The head remains silent for now, looking at you two with guarded curiosity. It’s far too at ease and relaxed for your liking. As if anything you can do… it amounts to nothing.

You grit your teeth and swing your sword at the closest figure, its head completely consumed by the white flame, the stump of his neck sizzling and crackling with the reek of blood fuelling the flame.

Your tetraceramide-edged sword cleaves through the chest with ease, it almost feel like swinging through water. The cleaved figure falls on its knees, spraying blood everywhere, its flame flickering.

You have to remind yourself that these… things, these puppets are not human, You sharpened your sword on monsters, on creatures of the dark, under the guide of Master. It’s time to put these skills to the real test. This is after all your challenge. Yours and Salicera’s.

“I suppose that’s the end of negotiations,” Salicera chuckles, aiming her own sword at the three closest figures. She turns on herself, slashes and they fall, one piece at a time, cut through by her unrelenting blade.

One by one, the other wicker-like men turn towards you and slumber towards you two, trying to swarm you with their numbers…

>Combat Roll: Bo3, Beat at least 1 of my rolls: roll 1d100+25


[spoilers]nice and easy start hm?[/spoiler]

If we get at least 3 rolls within 5 hours I may be able to write next reply sooner. time to swing them swords anon.

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Rolled 32 + 25 (1d100 + 25)

>>6050222

Rolled 6 + 25 (1d100 + 25)

>>6050222
ezpz, although a shame that the goon vote won.
>>6050196
>I dislike e-girls in many regards yet am weak to their wiles.
I get you
>>6050207
>Yeah, I have a thing for petite girls, why do you ask?
I didn't, but thanks
>Yeah I love silver haired girls, why. Nothing to be embarrassed about.
kek

Rolled 91 + 25 (1d100 + 25)

>>6050222

>>6050266
Our savior!

>>6050236
>>6050257
>>6050266
nice, we beat all 3

>>6050282
you beat the allegations, anon! (though you did not beat the second roll)

>>6050236

cute. she looks like your typical mercenary from the Treviri Throne.

>>6050266
nice, also dubs (what's with all the 6 dubs and trips? must be Ansàrra)

and now results:

12, 70, 27
vs
57, 31, 114+6 (dubs)

two out of three and ending on an especially nice last roll!

Writing!

>>6050222
Fucking trips...

30 88 45

vs

57 31 122

>>6050282
He got trips. They count for his rolls too, I believe. So a +18 to each of his rolls. So we get 1 win. Dang. Not great as it could have been.

>>6050350
Or not. I could have sworn QM got the dub, trip, quad, ect bonus too.

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>>6050222

Finally it’s time to let swords speak — and you do not disappoint. A few further slashes eagerly eat through the candle-men, cleaving their chests and extinguishing their flame. They all fall to their knees, unmoving and useless. One by one, they fall like wheat before the sickle, their dancing flames dying like moths.

Next to you, Salicera really swings into motion — if you are a dancing with your new fancy blade, she’s jumping ahead, slashing and cleaving, the satisfied grin never leaving her beautiful face as her arms swing her sword. You remember nicking its edge when she challenged you to a spar before entering the tower and you were worried that the tetraceramide of your new sword may have damaged Salicera’s weapon.

But even if it may have, it certainly has not damaged her. She jumps ahead and back like a vestale ballerina from the Crimson Days celebrations, turning on herself, carrying her blade with her in a whirl of metal and silent death.

And as you slash through another one of the things’ chest, you feel like you are also doing quite alright for a Knight in training. Even alone, and a thousand miles away from Master… you are carrying his torch.

Speaking of torches, with each of the figures you slay the lights in the room slowly fade. The two hulking brutes siding the head huff and sigh, leaning back and forth like horses held back by tight reins. The head keeps turning.

Seems like nothing is changing. You push away another of the slumbering candle-men and slice him off from side to side, your new sword cutting through cloth and clammy skin and flesh just as easily as through butter. You turn to regard Salicera, who kicks away the remnants of another body and she gives you a confident grin.

“That’s it?”


[cont.]

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>>6050354

Maybe it can be, says the voice of the woman. Just like before, you hear a grovelling echo of something beneath the voice, the echo of a forgotten, raspy language that nevertheless does not seem to need words to convey meaning, making thoughts bloom directly inside your head. Ansàrra may help you. What is done is done. I tried to warn Taygete this would be risky, even with the Tree of Rotten Ways. But perhaps a failure can be turned into a lesson? The head muses and you can see the ghost of a smile tugging at her lips, on the newly-grown half of her skin. Her hair pulse as if a wave went through them and the two hulking figures finally stir, on heavy feet, looming over you and Salicera.

“Jinxed it,” you hear her click her tongue.

Time for some very fast thinking.

>Salicera is not called a genius for nothing. She can probably deal with them both while you go for the head. It has worked before!

>Your new fancy sword was forged in the Holy Land exactly for this kind of situations. You fear the porcelain-like plaques and the clammy skin of the two brutes will be more resistant than simple flesh. You need to take them while Salicera goes to kill the head.

>You two need to deal with this together. So far the head has displayed no amazing power. Perhaps you two really can leave it for later as you take care of the main threat. You have worked well as a team so far.


It's nice to see Salicera getting a bit too confident innit?

>>6050357
>>Your new fancy sword was forged in the Holy Land exactly for this kind of situations. You fear the porcelain-like plaques and the clammy skin of the two brutes will be more resistant than simple flesh. You need to take them while Salicera goes to kill the head.


I do not like the fucking ascending numbers in the images. It is intentional and is a count till something happens. Wonder what happened when it gets to unlucky number 7.

>>6050359

>the numbers approaching 7

I was going to say something about it but now I am keeping my mouth closed

>>6050357
>>Your new fancy sword was forged in the Holy Land exactly for this kind of situations. You fear the porcelain-like plaques and the clammy skin of the two brutes will be more resistant than simple flesh. You need to take them while Salicera goes to kill the head.

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>>6050361
>I was going to say something about it but now I am keeping my mouth closed

Ahhhhhhh

Also, fellas, if Sally goes for the head, I wonder if lending her our sword would be a decent idea? Hope it is super effective vs magic heads and just stall with the big guys till she can come bail us out or hope destroying it kills them too?

>>6050345
>you beat the allegations, anon! (though you did not beat the second roll)
right, I forgot you order rolls as they come
>>6050357
>You two need to deal with this together. So far the head has displayed no amazing power. Perhaps you two really can leave it for later as you take care of the main threat. You have worked well as a team so far.
>>6050359
you know anon, I was gonna ask OP in the last vote if he kept using the book numbers because he lost access to his silver-haired stash, but seeing his answer >>6050361 you were on point, zam.
>>6050366
salicera can deal with the head just fine with her own blade

>>6050357
>>Your new fancy sword was forged in the Holy Land exactly for this kind of situations. You fear the porcelain-like plaques and the clammy skin of the two brutes will be more resistant than simple flesh. You need to take them while Salicera goes to kill the head.

>>6050345
>she looks like your typical mercenary from the Treviri Throne.
Mercenary? So she does... Wetwork? ba dm tsss

>>6050357
>Your new fancy sword was forged in the Holy Land exactly for this kind of situations. You fear the porcelain-like plaques and the clammy skin of the two brutes will be more resistant than simple flesh. You need to take them while Salicera goes to kill the head.
The strongest avenger must go for the head, like the good lord Thor Odinson said.

>>6050619
>Wetwork?
wut ?

>>6050641
It's a euphemism for murder-for-hire, but also sounds like a sex thing.

>>6050359
>>6050362
>>6050597
>>6050619

Vs

>>6050377

4 vs 1 so far. I see a trend but I am curious to see if there may be a change down the line. I’d say a few more hours for voting then tallying up and your doom will be decided.

>>6050755
>Dubs

Doom is just another term for fate or destiny... maybe.

So guys, I suppose we should think about this for a second. We know Sally has a much better fighting bonus than Argia. Our girl however has a better sword.

Thinking about it, our maybe future waifu might be a better choice to deal with a pair of things that can fight back. Argia might be better to send against the main target, who is a floating head with no way to fight back aside from magic. Additionally, the statue we saw before seems to be the base of the head, possibly. So statues are hard, might have some resistance to normal weapons no matter how well they are used; part of why we are kind of supporting Argia tying up the guard thing is due to them seeming resistant to normal attacks, the head may be resistant as well. As such, I am changing:

>>6050359

to

>Salicera is not called a genius for nothing. She can probably deal with them both while you go for the head. It has worked before!

Also;

>Taygete

One of the Pleiades. The 7 nymphs of Greek myth, for whom the constellation is named after; the constellation referred to as "the Seven Sisters". Also called Subaru, in Japan.

Just a note.

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Rolled 17, 38, 13 + 49 = 117 (3d100 + 49)

>>6050791
>Subaru

he finally understands SNK is just a covert AD for the Japanese automotive industry

also, interesting thinking anon. I am glad to see players reflect upon their actions. wonder if that's the right course of action, but there's still a few more hours for further voting

>>6050822
>SNK

?

Fun fact, there was an anime, Wish Upon the Pleiades, which was funded by the car company Subaru. While it does have a story, it is basically a 12 episode ad for the company.

>>6050845
Meant to write SKQ for Silver Knight Quest but my brain went into auto mode

>cartoon ad for the company

MLP moment, hm?

>>6050357
>>Your new fancy sword was forged in the Holy Land exactly for this kind of situations. You fear the porcelain-like plaques and the clammy skin of the two brutes will be more resistant than simple flesh. You need to take them while Salicera goes to kill the head.

>>6050822
Why the rolling ?

>>6050791
I see where you’re going for. As the sole anon who voted to tag team the giants to clean the way, I vibe with you that the head won’t be a challenge for now so we can clean the way to deal with it together. Even with the book thing OP has going for the doot.
>Taygete. One of the Pleiades. The 7 nymphs of Greek myth, for whom the constellation is named after; the constellation referred to as "the Seven Sisters". Also called Subaru, in Japan.
Just a note.
Didn’t know that, thanks.

>>6050891
I wouldn't worry about it anon heh.

Probably the giant dudes. Sally's bonus was higher when we sparred, as I recall.

>>6050359

>leave Salicera with the two brutes and you go for the head (changed to the one below)

>>6050377

>work as a team

>>6050362
>>6050619
>>6050873
>>6050597


>Salicera goes for the head and you fight the other two

Cleaving time! Writing!

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>>6050357

Astoria reaches for the fragile arms of the poor, confused girl. She’s sweaty, muttering words she cannot certainly comprehend.

“Here, here,” she sighs as she gently turns her away and towards the inside of the carriage. “You need rest, lady-in-wait. You cannot—”

“No!” Soralisa’s feverish brown eyes turn into pinpricks as she struggles to get away from her grip. It’s a bit of a novel sensation for Astoria, who has not received similar resistance since—

Well, since the last time she truly butted heads with that upstart of an angel.

“They need me! Don’t you understand? I have to go! I have to help them, they are lost… I have seen them, She has shown me, the Sun-Birther—”

Astoria raises her two fingers and taps on Soralisa’s head.

The girl’s panicked eyes roll in her head and she falls in her arms, slumbering softly.

“Preposterous. That Ansàrra would reveal such a thing to a broken little thing such as you. Did they not teach you the value of deference, child? Felice!” She shouts at the chaplain who is quickly besides her, taking the girl out of her arms. “Put her on the bed and make sure she stays asleep. She has need for recovery and I do not want to see those gauzes wasted.”

“At once,” he sighs, entering the carriage and putting Soralisa on the same bed, washing her still-sweaty face. Behind her eyelids she is still struggling, for some reason.

He tells himself it must be nothing.

Outside, Astoria walks back and forth, trying to put a lid on the fury. How dare she talk back to a Blessed Blind? The girl may have an inkling of ability with Sanctions, but that surely did not allow her to act like a petulant child.
And what was even more important, more pressing — Astoria would see that her own intuition about Salicera Fors was correct.

And like a pebble growing into a rushing landslide, she would be the one to wave the thread of fate this time.

# # # # # #

[cont.]

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>>6051012

Your eyes run down the length of your sword and that’s when the plan forms in your head. It’s a panicked, half-boiled kind of a plan, but you are going with your gut. It has served you well so far. May Ansàrra be watching over you.
“Go for the head!” You shout at Salicera, who turns at you and cocks her head.
“Are you sure?”
“No! Of course I am not, but I am going with my gut’s feeling. Remember?” You wave your sword as you start to feel the vibrations from the steps of the two colossi closing on you. They readily swing their arms back, getting ready to pummel you into the ground.
Salicera’s eyes reach that inch-thickness of tetracerarmide that ate through her steel like butter, glistening cold and white.
She grins.
“Slice them up, Candente!” Salicera laughs, jumping high in the air, skidding on the floor and then dashing for the head, which lazily floats, turns to regard her.
How boorish.
Just as the closest hulk steps ahead, crashing towards you with the strength of a bull and you get ready to attack its closest point as you would have to jump back, escaping its swing, you share one last look with Salicera as she grins, raises her longsword and hits the head straight in the—

Air shrieks like a broken mirror.

Salicera’s face is still frozen in that confident grin of hers as her shape shatters in a spiderweb of cracks and then explodes in a burst of glass-like shatters that fly off in every direction, showering ruining clinking tinkling skittering on the stone floor as your heart seizes your throat.

The head folds on itself and disappears.

Then the brute finally lunges for you, its arm and its hooked talons growing large enough to obscure the light and it’s suddenly too late for anything else.


>Combat Roll: Bo3, 1d100+25, beat at least two of my rolls from post >>6050822.

>(results: 72 [+6 for dubs to the first roll], 87, 62 [I have decided that adding the dubs/trips bonus to more than one of my rolls wouldn't be balanced, so to further clarify: it applies to the first roll only])

>Remember you have a nat 91 banked roll which you can use, and that your sword considers 97-100 as a critical success.

Rolled 61 + 25 (1d100 + 25)

>>6051016
alright, let's do it. considering that both were teleported away, I think now that the going with salicera was a good idea, even if I still prefer mine to go tag team instead.

>>6051018
great roll anon

>>6051023
thanks and considering how 2 of yours were high-ish, it's needed

Rolled 4 + 25 (1d100 + 25)

>>6051016

>>6051025
let's hope the 3rd anon beats his

Rolled 7 + 25 (1d100 + 25)

>>6051016

>>6051027
>>6051071
No such luck... Seems Salicera's loss has us shook.

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Rolled 92, 94, 86 + 21 = 293 (3d100 + 21)

>>6051071
>>6051025
>>6051018

86, 29, 32
vs
72, 87, 62

you beat only one. and now it's time for a beating.

>>6051016

# # # # # #

You raise your weapon and slide to the right just as the hulk’s arm whooshes right besides you — you feel the air against your face as you strike. The tetracerarmide edge does it job and slices through the thick skin and reinforced porcelain, cleaving and cracking and snapping the metal hooks. You feel the hit against your wrists but it’s less than you expected, far less than you’d be used to with a metal weapon.

A bloom of hope bursts in your chest as you see the sword bite through the flesh and cleave a gash as deep as your arm — the brute grunts and hisses, three fingers of his hand laying useless on the floor. No blood. Just… flesh held together.

His right hand hangs useless from his wrist, the stump of his bone white and useless.

The he turns and slaps you with his other hand.

Your reflexes are quick enough to raise your sword and barely block it, but the hit makes you wheeze. No problem. You can just step back and strike ag-

Something else comes.

He kicks you. You feel like an invisible hand is pulling you up in the air, making you turn, stumble, you grasp for purchase and find it on the floor as you roll, skid on the stone floor… and mercifully stop.

Everything hurts.

You should remember to breathe. Please breathe.

Breathebreathebreathe—

“Aaanfh!” You gulp in air even as your ribs feel like they have been cracked and rebuilt inside out. You spit out a wad of blood and press your hand against your chest. It hurts. Your rib might be cracked.

Just what you needed, right when Salicera—

“Annfh. Annhhf.”

No. You cannot think about Salicera’s fate right now. There is no time.
You need to stand and slice it. Slice that bastard.
You grip your hands around—

— air.

Your sword lies embedded in the floor about ten paces away, amidst the figures with their heads reduced to a flaming wick. And the two hulks, one of them cradling his sliced hand, are quickly moving to get you.

>Cracked rib: -6 to all checks

>One of the two hulks has its wrist sliced off: you will need just one success to beat his combat rolls from now on.

>Stand up and get the sword before the hulk you sliced takes another swing at you: Bo3, 1d100+2 (+8 from Cameo, -6 from cracked rib), DC 56

Rolled 80 + 2 (1d100 + 2)

>>6051102
I do hope it's Salicera's rolls

Rolled 21 (1d100)

>>6051102
Shit, grab grab grab
>>6051106
Zam, if only we got this before. Also would be the first time da Sally makes proper use of her expy status without the bonus.

>>6051106
good roll anon

>>6051120
who said those were Salicera's rolls?

>>6051127
>who said those were Salicera's rolls?
key word "would"

Rolled 90 + 2 (1d100 + 2)

>>6051102
Yikes, those QM rolls...

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>>6051120
>makes proper use of her expy status

Who is she an expy of?

>>6051157
>Yikes, those QM rolls...
Yep. Ouch. Picrel.

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>>6051106
>>6051120
>>6051157

nice rolls anon, well done


>>6051102

You stand up, even with each breath a hot knife against your ribs, you manage to stumble through pain and shock to walk towards your sword. You have to reach it. It's your only hope. It's Rubida's only hope. Wonder what may happen to her if you two do not come back.

If Salicera does not come back.

The heavy footfalls of the two hulks reaching for you make your spine tremble. The sword is closer. Closer. The wicker-like figures reach out for you, clammy fingers trying to stop you, but you swing your arms, flailing wildly and sending them down to the floor with the strength of desperation.
"Get off! Get off me!" You croak with your broken voice.

Thu-thump. Thump. Thump.

You are not sure if it's your heart or the sound of the creature's footfalls--

"Ahhh!"

Your hand grips the sword's handle, picking it up. And when you turn to face the hulking monster, it's already swinging its intact arm at you, its body caught in the rictus of pain and anger.

You tense yourself to meet his blows, and you have barely the time to raise a prayer to Ansàrra as you get ready. May she guide your hand.

>Combat roll, Bo3, 1d100+19, beat at least 1 of my rolls from >>6051102. good luck, anon.

captcha: GRHHAA

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Rolled 77 + 19 (1d100 + 19)

>>6051388
Fuck em up Argia!

Rolled 53 + 19 (1d100 + 19)

>>6051388
Considering your bonus, we basically need at least a 97 since that’s our crit range. Shit.
>>6051431
So close, anon

>>6051437
We could use up the banked up roll now. It would beat the 86 roll.

>>6051447
Do we add our current bonus to it? DH, which the dice in this are loosely based on, has your banked roll just be what it is, no adding current bonuses to it.

>>6051447
Sure. If the 3rd anon fails we can use it. Otherwise if we can’t replace a roll with it, we’ll use it now.

Also for QM, if you aren't already using it, I would highly recommend downloading tampermonkey and getting scripts for 4chanX and 4chanCapchSolver. Makes the experience her much better, I think.

Just a thought I had.

>>6051447
>>6051452
>>6051455

You can decide now if you want to replace it (before the third roll). The roll is a 'natural 91', hence it would see your +19 bonus applied. It would be enough to (barely) beat my last roll.

Or you can hope for a 97 of course, and enjoy your functional arms while you still have them.

>>6051456
I ought to, it's just that I mostly post at different times and from many different devices. I'll try to use it at least when I post from home, thanks

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>>6051472
>enjoy your functional arms while you still have them

Yeah... lets use that banked roll, guys.

>>6051472
>I'll try to use it at least when I post from home, thanks

You are welcome. I fucking hate the capcha since I post a decent amount, so the second one is a game changer. Also shows you how worthless capcha is to prevent bots and spamming.

>>6051472
right, so you're not kidding when you said we could die in this quest. using the banked roll then, we already got fucked in this fight and if it comes to it we'll probably need to help Salicera as well and we need to be functional for that.
>>6051480
nice pic, where is it from, anon ?

>>6051472
Yea, lets use that banked roll

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>>6051484
Call of the Night if I recall. Manga/ anime about vampire GFs. Pretty decent.

If you aren't aware of it, yandex has a reverse image search which works pretty well. Not that I mind, but just because some people are stingy with the sauce.

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>>6051480
>>6051484
>>6051487

okay, three votes so far for using the banked roll. I will leave 180 more minutes if someone wants to add votes then update (also, it's not like I'm currently at work or anything).

>>6051488
>YWN have a vampire gf who sucks your blood and calls you prey

>>6051488
oh, I've seen some clips of it. megane crazy smoker save me.
>>6051497
how's fromsoft anti-noble knight ?

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>>6051497
>YWN have a vampire gf who sucks your blood and calls you prey

I know. Been into some vampire media lately. It is showing up in the fic I am working on with the girl kind of wanting to taste a bit of MCs blood/thinking it is hot because she is 15 and going through her teen vampire romance phase after being introduced to those kinds of books. Ansarra help me.

>>6051503
Save us all.

>>6051507
anon is horny and probably likes femdom as well.

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>>6051513
Don't mind it at all unless it gets really fucked up. Right now, I am more into more of a gentle dom kind of thing, especially if the girl likes to be on the receiving end as much as the giving end. Switch pride worldwide.

But I will refrain from shitting up the thread more with this stuff. For at least a day or two.

Also, happy 4th of July, you faggots.

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>>6051388

>You use your 91.
>This allows you to win this encounter.
>You lose your banked roll.

# # # # # #

The blows are coming.
You cannot withstand them, not in the conditions your body is, with each breath grating against your ribs like a heated knife. You need to let your training take over, and pray — pray — that Ansàrra may carry your swings. The weight of the cameo against your chest is your guiding light.

The first hit comes from straight above as the hulk dashes forward, trying to push you against the wall, impale you on the hooks dangling from its knuckles.
You skim to the right at the last moment, the metal grazing against your brigandine, ripping through the clothed surface but skimming against the plaques beneath, which easily deal with the blow.

If you are surviving this, you are going to save up for a whole armour set made of tetrarmide.

If.

The hulking figure groans as the swing made it lose its momentum and it skids on the floor — it would be the perfect time to plunge your sword right into his chest, but that’s when he pushes himself up on his trunk-like legs and turning on himself he swings at you with his good arm again.

“Tchh!” You hiss as your stomach clenches, the next hit also striking you in the chest - you feel the pressure reverberating through your ribs and you gasp as pain bursts again, white-hot, clouding your sight—

And the best reaches again, quicker — he wants to end you, and you won’t ever see the Sun again, you won’t ever—

No.

Gritting your teeth, something leads you, pushes you through the breathless pain and makes you turn your body just right, swinging your arm so that it lets you dash beneath the monster’s swinging blow, which misses your head by just a couple inches — and amidst the reek of clammy flesh and rust and the cool glint of porcelain you push your sword through the opening you saw, right beneath the armpit, it’s—

“Hnnghfh!” The brute makes a growl, or perhaps it’s a grunt, you wouldn’t know.

All that you knew was feeling like you pushed your sword deep into soft cured leather. It reminds you of when you used to push down the wort with your feet and it would try to suck you right to the bottom of the barrel.

It’s a strange thought — you haven’t felt anything like that since when you were thirteen, since— the happy times. That final summer.

Perhaps it’s that what is giving you the strength for this.

[cont.]

Rolled 53, 71, 64 + 56 = 244 (3d100 + 56)

>>6051579

# # # # # #

The girl lays on the bed. Her slight chest rises and falls, dragged on by the gentle ties of sleep.

Bit by bit, the soft tide of her breaths hitches, rises, her eyes flutter.

For a moment, just a moment, she opens them — oaken eyes looking at her surroundings. Where is she? No, this is not what where she is supposed to be. Something else is happening. They… they need her.
“You ought to rest now, lady-in-wait,” comes a gruffy old man’s voice. The chaplain.

She would comply. Trying to do anything but what she’s been told to would only push her into deeper trouble. And that is sound advice.

Rather. It would be at any other time.

“-in wait,” she mutters, gritting her teeth. Where are her arms? She can’t feel her arms. She can still feel their warmth. Licking, wavering — like flames. “-can’t wait,” Soralisa da Zaribari whispers.

“Do not make me call the Blessed Blind,” the chaplain warns her, but she has ears only for another kind of voice. Soralisa shuts her eyes, and she tries to plunge deep into herself, to fold herself into that inner world where she can meet Her again where she needs to have her voice heard by the Sun-Birther, she needs to… please, please, pleasepleasplease “…lease”.

The air changes. No more smell of old wood. No more laying on the tilted surface of the carriage.

Soralisa blinks.

She is standing in a field of soft white sand- It seeps through the bones of the ages, structures hanging over her like lost ribcages of the monsters that lie beneath the waves. She looks up at the black towers piercing the sky, their stone as black and as slick as ink.

This is not her inner world, this is—

Your words echo far, child.

Soralisa turns, and blindness swallows her up.


# # # # # #

A last memory of the sun.

“Rraah!” You shout as you pull the sword back, cleaving through the hulking beast’s whole side. The white edge bit through half of the monster’s torso and it pierced its skull. Its cut tongue falls like a wet patch on the floor as it also crouches on both knees, like in prayer, and it ruins next to you, as strange tar-like blood starts to spread about.

The other one snarls and hisses, rearing its back as it rakes its talons against its own body, coating them with the same black substance. Then it takes them out, the hooks now slick with the tarry substance, and it approaches you calmly, ready to strike.

Your heart beats almost fast enough to make you forget about your pain. Your sword seems to howl with the need to cleave through that cursed flesh.

It's now or never.


>Combat Roll: Bo3, 1d100+19, beat at least one of my rolls at the top of this post.

Rolled 76 + 19 (1d100 + 19)

>>6051582

Rolled 28 + 19 (1d100 + 19)

>>6051582
Brutal

Rolled 86 + 19 (1d100 + 19)

>>6051582
>+56
I don't like this, specially with the giant using his blood like some sort of poison.

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>>6051601
fuck yeah

>>6051588
>>6051590
>>6051601

101,47,105

vs

109,127,120 (my rolls)


shame for the dubs, anon. writing in a few minutes.

>>6051631
We were literally saved by the lucky crit

>>6051646
what crit? You rolled a dub, but that gave you a +6. Your crit range is 97-100 and your highest roll was 86. or is there something I miss?

>>6051647
Wait, the crit only works for the rolls before the bonuses ?

>>6051651
the crit range 97-100 works for your natural rolls, of course. So a roll of, say, 90+25 (your usual bonuses) wouldn't trigger it. A roll of say, 97+19 (your current situation) would. The sword just expands the natural critical range of your rolls from nat 100 to 97, other than giving you the ability to cut through most material. Your old axe would have never been able to cleave through the monsters' hands like that.

hope this clarifies things.

>>6051657
alright then, I misunderstood it

>>6051582
>+56

Oh fuck this hulk.

No clue how well Salicera is doing right now, but I really wish we had chosen to have her deal with the hulks. If we don't die this round and get another big injury and Hulk 2 keeps its bonus, there is like no chance of us winning a third round. Also wish we had gone with trying for a sanction before going down here. Oh well. RIP Argia, thou shall at least die without me ever having written lewds about you, get to rest without your memory being defiled.

>>6051688
both of them going for a tag team before the head was an option. and tbf, people chose salicera to deal with the head because it was a time bomb and she could deal with it quickly, there's no way to know the head could teleport them. also we could've gone for the giants first before losing time with the small fries.

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>>6051582

You could almost make it.

The first swing, especially promising. You put everything into it, past the pain, past the small black bursts going off at the edges of your vision. You strike at the thing, a blow aimed at his leg. You would skid to the left and let it crash against the wall, you would—

You would have to be just a little bit quicker.

“Ahhh!” You scream as your strike misses his limb, barely. The next blow it’s his, of course. He raises his other leg and hits you straight in the sternum. You collapse like a castle of cards, crumpled in two, barely holding onto your sword. No. You won’t let it go this time.

Then the third. You can hit it in the foot. You can…

“Nhha—” you gasp as the talons instead swipe from your right. Holding up your sword at the last moment you avoid them slicing your head off. Instead, one of the black-coated hooks hits your armour, and it presses against the thin space between your plaques.

And it pierces your skin.

“—hnf,” you can only wheeze and tremble, biting your lips and struggling to keep it away as the heat and pain spreads through your body.

Then you fall to you knees, again.

But this time there is a new sensation spreading straight against your chest, right where the creature is pulling out his talon, a thin line of blood and ichor connecting your flesh to the hook.

It’s already inside you.

The world swims, and you lose your grip and you slip and lie against the floor, your eyes rattling inside your skull, panting like a captured fish.

You have to stand up. You have to fight.

But your body does not move. Whatever it was in those claws it’s pinning you down like a moth skewered by a steel nail.

No. No.

It wasn’t supposed to end like this. There was so much more you could do. For Master.
For your family.

And for your new friends. Ah, Starless Night, you had even started to make some. Rubida opened up to you, Salicera as well.
And you saved Soralisa. Blinking on the floor you almost can see her eyes, her face looking back at you.

You blink.

No, wait. Isn’t that…

Soralisa’s face right before you, looking at you with worry and fret in her large brown eyes. She raises her hands to reach out for yours.

[cont.]

>>6051945

“A-Argia? Can you see me?”

How can—

You reach out to her, your fingers brushing against each other, but it feels like passing through dense warm mist. You blink again—

You are not in the nethermost hall anymore. You are standing atop a cresting wave in the middle of a crystalline sea, bathed in the light of the sun. The cresting wave moves so slowly it’s like watching it in a dream, it has barely started breaking foam. Soralisa stands next to you, squinting her eyes.
“Argia! Are you there?”

You look down. Your chest is still bearing the wound, still spewing black ichor mixed to your own blood, and it still hurts, but here in this place — did you and Soralisa meet in some conjunction inside your inner worlds? Did this happen because you were about to (and your throat tightens) fade?

“I—” you croak. “I am here. I think. Where is—” No, there are better questions. “How are you?” In this place, Soralisa’s arms are as black as coal, but they look human, not their crystallised form that she sported after the botched Sanction.

“—ah! I can hear you. Faintly. It’s hard to see you amidst the trees. I am so elated.”

Trees? She must be in a version of her own.

“Are your arms alright?”

“Never mind that!” Soralisa retorts quickly. “The trees are already starting to cover you, I will be losing you shortly.”

You notice how the slow-moving tide as in fact started to crest. Your feet rest on the ripples of foam as they start to fold inward, like a hand curling its fingers as it counts down.

“I—” you open your mouth to say, but what should you say? That you are sorry you failed? To send someone better next time? To send a final goodbye to your family through Master? “Please tell Mast—”

“She has told me to give you this,” Soralisa frets through the fuzzy link connecting you two, holding out her other hand. Something burns in it. It’s a large flower, red and gold, glowing with a gentle fire, each of its waving petals a live flame. “The Sun-Birther heard my plight. I am sorry for not being there! I wanted to help more… I have tried to…”

You try to reach out and pull Soralisa into a hug, but once again it’s like trying to grasp at fog. The edges of her shape are starting to disappear as well just as the cresting wave tilts forwards.

“Take it!” Soralisa pushes the flower into your hand and you can feel its — weight. It’s like a warm breeze playing with your fingers. You have heard about this flower before. Bragialacra. The burning bloom. Ansàrra’s gift to the fallen, a remembrance inspired by Saint Bragia’s own demise.

Are you one of the fallen already?

[cont.]

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>>6051946

But no, the gentle flame of the flower burns with a heat that inflames your heart, runs through your veins and pushes against the invading chill from the wound. No. No, this was nit meant as a mournful gift, at least not yet.

“She has told me to give it to you. It’s the best I can do… Argia… are you still there? I can’t see you anymore.”

The wave touches the skin of the sea and it explodes into a rising crown of foam. You slowly start to fall into the water.

“Yes! Thank you! I will see you again!” And then, in a rush of bravado, of hope, of faith: “Day will come again!”

“Argia!” Soralisa calls one last time, the foam washes over you, turning everything white and then—

You are laying on the floor once again. The pain and chill is back — each breath feeling talons raking against your ribcage. The acrid and metallic taste of blood in your mouth.

You look at your right hand. It’s holding your weapon and atop it, the burning bloom sears its kind, light into the room, pushing away the white flickering glow of the candle-lit men like the spring flood cleans the rot from the riverbank.

Its warmth fills you. The hulk covers its face, the rictus of his grin turning uncertain. Wonder if he has ever seen the light of the sun? But now a tiny bead of that light has come right here, into the depths of the Seven Sisters’ domain, and it is affirming its right to be there. To help you, one last time.

You are not alone.

With one final effort, you raise on your feet and push yourself in one final charge, pushing your sword towards the dazzled monster, aiming for his chest just like he did with you, the blooming flower at the tip of your sword, turning the white edge into a searing blade of red and gold.

You push against the Night, one last time.

>Bo3, roll 3d100+19+66 (the bonus provided from Ansàrra and delivered by Soralisa, total 1d100+85). DC 120

Don't tell me you forgot about your first friend, anon.

Rolled 60 + 19 (1d100 + 19)

>>6051948
Ansàrra give us strength!

>>6051950
>>6051948

Make that 145. I guess You can't string multiple +X modifiers on 4chan.

>>6051950
>call out for Ansàrra
>gets a 60

pottery

also yeah, it's fine it's a 145 total. Now let's see if you get a crit somewhere anon...

... but looks like helping out Soralisa last thread did help you back.

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Rolled 72 + 85 (1d100 + 85)

>>6051948
Guide my rolls Ansarra.

>>6051948

>Magic Sun-Mommy blessed flower

>Causes increasing incurable blindness

>Blessed blind are a thing

>Surely no relation between them.

And yeah, Soralisa is a best. I now have visions of her making out with her old best friend Argia while Rubi is between the formers legs eating her out. Just a friendship gay orgy, of course. Sally can sit and watch in the cuckess chair.

Rolled 28 + 85 (1d100 + 85)

>>6051948
soralisa, thank you sister.
>>6051955
60 is relate to the goddess ?
>>6052040
>Surely no relation between them.
I see why you'd theorise that, but considering that Astoria's eye were described like they were mangled I think it wasn't caused by the flower and more like they were sacrificed in a way. btw that spoiler ruined the wholesome moment, anon. get bonked.

>>6052029
who's that hurt and crazy-looking girl ?

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>>6052040

Soralisa a cute! She really grew on me.

>cuckess chair
the chair is not yet canon, anon, you are not supposed to mention it!


Also yea, thank you Ansàrra very cool, do you think She remembered to pack up some anti-eldritch-venom in that flower? Hmmm... She may have forgotten, hm? Silly Sun-Birther!

>>6052058
>Soralisa a cute! She really grew on me.
on all of us. btw if we didn't help her (or failed to) would she have died or just would be in a worse situation than now ?

>Also yea, thank you Ansàrra very cool, do you think She remembered to pack up some anti-eldritch-venom in that flower? Hmmm... She may have forgotten, hm? Silly Sun-Birther!
shit, so we're not fully cleansed yet.

>filename
wait a minute do you really wrote a character that's a willing cuck ?

>>6052054
>60 related

6 is the symbolic number of Ansàrra, and generally things appearing in a pattern of 6. Just like 7 is symbolic to the Seven Sisters and 8 to the Stilladìa. There's a bit more info in the linked lorepasta at the start of the thread if you want.

also, we got our final roll, so I can start working on the update shortly.

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>>6052058
>that cropping

That is a lewd pic right.

Also, the chair, kek. If you do ever make that a thing, I will probably wake my neighbor up with my witch cackle. I mean, like 2 of the 4 characters are going on to be prostitutes for a year, so I would believe there is a sacred cuck chair.

>>6052068
The only 8 Stilly needs to worry about is my straight eight and where it is going. Well, 7.75, but who is counting.

>>6052055
Tsubasa Kazanari from the anime Symphogear. That pic is from season 1. It is fucking amazing if sometimes kitsch-y and I highly suggest you watch it. Also, it is where picrel is from and she is GOAT'd. Picrel also has a loli form if you like those better.

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>>6052163

>lewd pic

maybe? I was just holding it for a friend

>sacred cuck chair

it would most likely go against the tenets of the Faith, but I'm sure bordellos in Frigéia can get into some real kinky stuff. In fact, this ought to be an aspect I should give more thought to in the future.

I will be working on update now. Work has been absolutely ass as of late, so please keep being patient, anon.

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>>6052163
>Picrel also has a loli form if you like those better.
I also like, so it's a good thing she can change between both.

>I mean, like 2 of the 4 characters are going on to be prostitutes for a year, so I would believe there is a sacred cuck chair.
as far as I know sacred sluts can't exactly do everything a regular slut can, so they'll have to get into action
>>6052289
>In fact, this ought to be an aspect I should give more thought to in the future.
the brothels or the tenets of the faith ?

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>>6052289
>I was just holding it for a friend

That excuse didn't work when the cops caught me with a kilo of blow and several unregistered machine guns, it won't work now!

>>6052307
>as far as I know sacred sluts can't exactly do everything a regular slut can, so they'll have to get into action

I know nothing about sacred prostitutes. So what, no back hole? Only back hole? Handies or no handies? I mean obviously none from Soralisa now...

Here, go ahead and have the loli version of that character. Carol Malus Deinheim

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>>6051948

Your sword pierces flesh and darkness. Black steam hisses through the monster’s pores as you thrust your sword inside his chest, embedding your blade deep into the cursed flesh, and the letting the flower bloom. The flower that Ansàrra lies at the feet of the fallen for Her cause, the flower that celebrates the virtues of Saint Bragia.

The flower that bursts through the hulking monster’s body, tearing it off at the seams — you feel the pressure push your sword out and you recoil, falling to your knees, while with another burst of burning air and the reek of searing skin the brute burns from the inside, just like it happened to the Malostromo.

It tilts back and ruins on the stone pavement, its arms open and its face slack as the light devours him from the innards to the meat layers until it bursts through the skin, making it curl and broil like parchment. It keeps burning even while you take a few steps back, getting away from the smoke.

The corpse starts to glow with a golden-red brightness that contrasts that of the sheer candle-men; they take stapes back, stumbling upon each other, trying to get away from the light of Ansàrra.

“Annf.” You pant, the sword falling from your arms with a tinkling sound. You do not pick it up. Now that the deed is done, weariness and pain rise once again in your chest. You grip right at it, feeling the cameo pushing against your palm, the etched face of Saint Bragia on your skin. “Sora—Soralisa…” you mutter. “Thank you, S-Sun Birther…”

You fall as well. On one knee, then another. Black blood seeps through your chest, it makes your clothing stick to your skin, damp and rotten. The chill is back. You look at the flames, which are starting to fade, the memory of summer, dry earth and the sweet smell of fresh grapes and ripe wort—

“Sali… cera,” you mutter, looking at the spot where the shattered pieces of her body used to be. Then the pain and the cold grow too much, and all you can do is look up at the infinite darkness, while the waning light keeps you company for but a little while more.

For… just a little more.

For—

[cont.]

>>6052331

# # # # # #


She stands on the road. The air shivers with heat — for miles and miles, it’s the same stretch of grey painted a stuttering white — the asphalt cuts between the green of the hills and the endless blue of the immanent sky, a blue expanse with the pale face of the moon barely visible.

“No—” the word leaves her mouth as she turns around, and everything is the same. The same day, the same solitary car still and silent on the side of the road, forgotten like a log after a flood. She tugs at her long brown braid, trying to find support, but all she can feel is the grip clenching at her stomach. “No, I can’t— I have—”

Her brown-grey eyes turn to pinpricks of fear and sorrow, she’s a shuddering statue just a few steps away from the car. There is someone on the backseat, a small figure playing with her phone, giving her back. She does not walk towards the car. In fact, she would rather walk away. Let the asphalt swallow her up. Anything but this. Anything but this.

Shamefully, she turns away, guilt and fear like bile in her throat. She needs to escape. To go back to— to where she was before. Argia, she needs to find the only person who—

Hello once more.


[cont.]

>>6052333

In front of her, on the opposite direction to the yellow car where — no no no she won’t go back there, she won’t — stands the most gorgeous young woman she has ever seen. Her black hair catches the sunlight, her deep blue eyes are affixed into hers, and her sable skin is barely covered in a blue and gold robe that lets her breasts and midsection exposed. She crosses her arms over her chest and gives her a smile.

She finds it a bit too compassionate for her own liking.

I have met your ilk. You would not be the first, and certainly will not be the last. Believe that we understand your plight better than most, for we have felt it with our own hands. We love one such as you, with love as strong as the tenets of the soul, which even our people could not break.

The Kiengir woman holds out a hand.

This be merely a remembrance, but it has not to be a missed opportunity, has it? We have ears to listen, and time to spare.

She takes a step back, shaking her head, trying to get away from the sable-skinned woman, but behind her… behind her there’s only the yellow car, and what’s about to happen… what happened… what will happen.

Perhaps we should start with names, as it has been custom. I am Celaeno, Fifth Consort.

She bows her head, hand over her heart.

And as for you, I believe it to be—

She covers her ears and shrieks, but cannot stop the Kiengir woman’s voice from passing through her skin and flesh and bones and grating against her skull, bringing her back to all she tried to cut off from herself:

■▣□□▤■.


there is more to this update, but I am really tired after today so I am going to leave this here for the time being. Now I wonder where that anon who said something Salicera's origins last thread is...

>>6052336
So Salicera is indeed an isekai mc, zam. This encounter of hers with the sister is something unique for me, instead of a regular battle (for now) she's taken back to the moment before she "died". Probably her battle was trying to resist being recruited by the woman. You really do know how to surprise us, Seeker-san.

>>6052333
>>6052355
>So Salicera is indeed an isekai mc
That sucks

>>6052361
You really didn't see the signs?

>>6052336
Here I am! Well, one of those anons. Feel better soon.

>>6052391
>You really didn't see the signs?
tbf I thought it was a joke, I got surprised it being an actual plot point.

>>6052336
>Isekai

Well, that certainly is a twist.

>>6052355
>really do know how to surprise us

oh, shucks now I'm blushing--
I'll probably say something more about how this update had to be wrangled in a certain way, maybe later on in the community notes at the end of the thread

>>6052361
>sucks

give it a chance anon. you may be surprised

>>6052391
>here I am

well zamn anon

>>6052336

You shudder on the cold floor. Somewhere far inside your body, something is starting to remember how to breathe.

“Ahhnfhf—” you gasp, trying to push more air into your tired lungs. Your chest aches. There is something embedded in it, something you cannot say wha—

Ah, yes. The past rushes in. The hooks, the brutes, the blade. The infected wound.
You were dying. Then Soralisa came to see you, bringing a gift. And you beat the monster… so why…

“Breathe evenly,” a familiar voice says. You look up, blinking trying to make out an indistinct shape. You focus on a worried face, her brown hair in a braid and her sharp eyes looking at some spot between your breasts. “Glad to see you back with the living. Be strong, Argia. I’m not good with this stuff.”

Salicera’s hands rest between your breasts, right above the wound which is still sputtering black ichor, but it’s far less from the rivulets of ooze you remember. Most of it is gone. Her fingers keep tracing circles of sacred ointments while sparkles of gold waver back and forth.

“Fuck, I suck at this,” she chuckles. “Sorry. Rubida would be a better choice, I—”

You grip onto the edge of her sleeve. The fabric is soft — Salicera jumps at the contact but then she relaxes and nods.

“I know,” she replies. Her finger feels strangely cool against your wounded skin as she keeps on drawing circle after circle. The oils seep into your flesh, slowly mending it. They are far from the might of a Sanction, but they are heavensent right now.
The rest of the room is empty.
The candle-men lay unmoving in the corners.
You do not remember killing them.

“I am almost out of oils. Wait here.”

You doubt you are going to go anywhere on your own.

[cont.]

>>6052656

You watch as Salicera walks to the centre of the room. There is still a little bit of light coming from the remnants of the burning corpse, where the flower is still eating through the cursed flesh. You see Salicera crouching in front of her backpack. Next to it lays a head, impaled with Salicera’s sword.
The darker half seems to bear a surprised expression. You see Salicera reach for the vials in her backpack, cursing as she picks up something besides the head, filling one of the vials with it and then putting them back into her pack, all but one one.

“Here,” she says as she comes back, uncorks the vial, resuming the motions with her fingers. You stifle a groan as the fresh ointment keep trying to heal you. You look down — the wound is still fresh, but the chill is not spreading anymore.
Perhaps you will see the dawn again.

“Rubida…” you whisper. “We have to go back to her, and—”

“Yes, yes, we will. Do not strain yourself.” Salicera tilts her head to look at the corpses of the two hulking monsters and her grin falters back onto her lips. She looks troubled, you can see it even in the low light, but she’s trying to push her bravado through it. “Let’s finish taking care of your wound first.”

>You insist it’s better if you two go back to Rubida. She must be terrified not seeing them coming through the mirror sheen. You ask Salicera to stop and to help you stand.

>You understand that after this battle you are not going to be a useful fighter unless you let Salicera tend your wounds. You let her continue for a while, you don't want to be a burden.

>You also have a question… [write-in]

thank you for your patience anon. Next update in a few hours when I can take a break from wageslaving. thanks for playing.

>>6052657
>Tell her to go and see Rubida, ensure she is still safe. Have Her send Rubida to you, as she should be fresher and better able to help get you back to your feet. Besides, Salicera could use a break of her own.

She's right about Rubida being a better choice for this. No reason why Salicera can't take over as the holder of shiny metal pieces for a bit.

>>6052659
>>6052657

Support. She did just say Rubi is better at this shit.

>>6052657
>You understand that after this battle you are not going to be a useful fighter unless you let Salicera tend your wounds. You let her continue for a while, you don't want to be a burden.
we were literally beaten like a bitch and only managed to lend the killing blow due to a Ansarrà exsoralisa. We can't do much rn and would need to be carried by both of them on the way back.

>>6052659
Interesting suggestion anon.

>>6052657
>>You understand that after this battle you are not going to be a useful fighter unless you let Salicera tend your wounds. You let her continue for a while, you don't want to be a burden.
I'm not sure about leaving wounded and poisoned/cursed person in Evil God summoning room alone, even for a moment.

>>6052659
>>6052661

vs

>>6052664
>>6052713

tie so far. I'd say about four more hours to decide.

>>6052657
>You understand that after this battle you are not going to be a useful fighter unless you let Salicera tend your wounds. You let her continue for a while, you don't want to be a burden.
Also ask...
>What happened? You shattered and vanished! I thought you were dead... Where did you go? How did you get back?

>>6051950 is me. I'm on mobile.

>>6052779
>on mobile

thanks for pointing that out anon, and also for breaking the tie. Proceeding to write.

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>>6052657

You try to protest. The part of you that’s a bit too proud for your own good, the part of you that feels a bit too vulnerable and embarrassed at having Salicera tend to your wounds, would have her reach out to Rubida. For some reason, you’d feel better treated with her, and you need to know she’s safe. She has to. if she kept the ray of light focused on her armour, and it has not strayed…

“You cannot fight like this,” Salicera reminds you. “Ah, I spilled it again,” she groans as she proceeds to dab at your chest with the dry hem of her sleeve, reforming the circle once again.

I cannot fight like this, you think as well, and you let it go. At least for now.

Besides, this feels… nice. A bit embarrassing. You feel so vulnerable, like you are once again a thirteen-years-old girl running through the vineyards.

You are so very selfish.

“I thought you were dead,” you mutter, your voice broken. “I thought the Sister had shattered you. What did she— how…”
Salicera shakes her head.
“It was just like with that other cursed tree. Folding space, illusions… visions.” She points at the head laying on the floor. “In the end it did not make any difference.”

She managed to kill one of the Seven Sisters while she was incarnating. Sure, it had just been at the very start, and it’s always easier to snuff a candle flame than to deal with a raging bonfire.

“So you killed it,” you let out a long-held sigh. “It’s over. The mission is over… we can come back.”

“Yes. As soon as you learn how to walk on your own legs again.”

“Master… ah— Master always said I am a fast learner.” You try to sit on your elbows, and with a strain you manage to do so, looking down on your chest where Salicera is applying a further line of ointment, glistening slightly at the fading light of the flower. The reek of the burning corpses is still thick and heavy in the air, but so close to the ointment you can mostly smell their sweet scent, as well as Salicera’s sweat.

“We ought to go check on Rubida after this.”

“And we will. Can’t you focus a little bit on yourself, Argia?” Salicera sighs. “You have almost died yourself. How did you—”

[cont.]

>>6052827

“Always the same,” you reply with a faint smile. Your hand reaches for your cameo. “I had some help. Soralisa came to me, bearing a gift from the Sun-Birther Herself. To think…” your hand then reaches for your hair, your silvery hair sign of the curse, and you coil a strand around your fingers. “… that She keeps helping me.”
“I told you, didn’t I? That you were a bit special. Not like the others,” Salicera adds, finally withdrawing her fingers from your chest, which feels a lot warmer than before. “How do you feel?”

Exposed.

“Better.”

“I hope it works fasts.”

You frown at her words.

“It’s not the oils— it’s just a vessel for Ansàrra’s hallowed might, you could have smeared me with mud and it might have had the same effects, oils are just better because…”

She sighs and gives you another of her grins, shedding her troubled look and going back to the Salicera Fors you have always known.

“You are not going to come back to full health just to lecture me, alright?” She chuckles, turning to regard the broken body of the monster. “So, Ansàrra did this? Both of them?”
“No,” you point out. “I killed the first one, but I couldn’t finish the job.”

Soralisa’s eyebrow quirks.

“So you cleaved one of those monstrosities all of your own and you are still all mopey on the floor like that?” She playfully slaps your shoulder. “We completed the mission. You and I! There’s going to be songs and dances! Ah, and I hope I can get a bath soon,” she makes a show of sniffing at her armpit. “I definitely need one, and you more than me.”

She is right. Even if you would like to ask her what ‘mopey’ means.

You reach for the straps on your chest to cover it again.
“Have you seen my swo—” you try to say, but a rumble echoes through the stone and it makes your teeth rattle.

Salicera looks at your right, where the stone wall is starting to break apart, brick after brick.

And the rumble expands throughout the air, up and up, towards the endless ceiling.

>Roll to avoid any falling debris: Bo3, 1d100+20 (Salicera’s help), DC 60.

bonus points if you manage to save the animals before the planet explodes, anon

Rolled 9 + 20 (1d100 + 20)

>>6052834

Rolled 12 + 20 (1d100 + 20)

>>6052834

>>6052836
>>6052842
Yikes... I hope the third anon does better than us. What an ignoble way to go out, after all that.

Rolled 10 + 20 (1d100 + 20)

>>6052834

>>6052836
>>6052842
>>6052979
Stilladìa is doing her best to fuck our mission on this finale, isn’t she ?

>>6053018
It drives a stalwart and faithful anon to drink, I tell you what.

>>6053030
Watcha drinking, anon ?

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>>6052836
>>6052842
>>6052979

Really?

>>6053018
Don't talk shit about my waifu. I am sure Stilly would love to see Argia succeed.

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>>6053125
Rocks fall, everyone dies
That's my contribution, fellas

>>6053071
A variety of beers. Picked up a strong abbey-style dubbel after the rocks fall debacle.

>>6052836
>>6052842
>>6052979

... well now this was just sad. this quest is now a metaphor for safety helmets ads.

>>6053125
>Stilladìa waifu

unfathomably good taste anon

>>6053130
I am partial to weissbier myself. ever tried Belgian stuff? It's great

new update in a couple minutes hopefully, when I get a break from wageslaving

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>>6053357
Beer makes you fat and gives you man boobs due to the hops. Just do what I do and mix vodka with fizzy water.

I do like beer myself but it is true about the boob thing. Favorite beers of all time are probably Franziskaner and la Fin du Monde.

>>6052834

As the rumbling sound spreads, something begins to fall. Fall upwards.
“Ow!” You yowl as something scratches against your arm. One of the bricks flies up, falling and rolling towards the endless ceiling.
Wait.

You are standing… on the bottom of a well. The ground is actually above you.
So you are going to fall upwards. You reach out for Salicera, your heart beating fast.

“We have to—”

Go back and help Rubida, you try to say, but something hits you right on the side of your head, the world tilts and you fall forward with a groan, right into Salicera’s arms. You have a feeling she’s trying to shield you with her body and then black rushes once again to cover your senses.

>Roll 1d100, Bo3. Rolls determine when you wake up and how dire the consequences of taking an ultra-dense brick to the head will be. No DC, but results will be determined on a scale from 1 to 100 with 1 being very bad and 100 being fast and complete recovery.

Try to hold onto what remains of your IQ, anon.

Rolled 51 (1d100)

>>6053450
Oh boy

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>>6053450
Brain-damaged MC. Brain-damaged wiafu, lets go! Give me a 1 do it dice fucking doooooo it!

Rolled 51 (1d100)

>>6053457
And it turns out I need coffee before posting.

Rolled 5 (1d100)

>>6053450
Holy moly, the first canonically retarded mc, which means we’ll be the cutest.

>>6053453
>>6053460
>>6053463
And 51 was the best we got, at least this means flattiladìa’s power is diminishing.

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>>6053457

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>>6053501

>>6053453
>>6053460
>>6053463

i am slightly disturbed by how much support there seems to be for a retarded Argia. kek.


Writing in a bit... thanks for the patience, it's been an absolutely terrible working week.

>>6053646
I'm sorry to hear about your rough week. I hope it improves. And Argia's, too, kek

>>6053453
>>6053460
I know it's not what OP had in mind but it is a dub.

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>>6053651
thanks man, if I get a day off it's going to improve a lot. hope I get one this week

>>6053677
>points out there's a dub
>gets a dub

POTTERY

I'll give your Bo3 a +6 bonus to a total of 57. you earned it.


>>6053450


# # # # # #

You open your eyes. Everything is rumbling and falling up and turning and you feel so heavy and so weak and why can’t you touch the floor? You look about you.
You can see the last few embers of the flower as they scatter and die, fazed. You feel drunk. Like when you were a kid and took a sniff from the wort and you got all dizzy.
You blink trying to—

Why is your forehead so sticky?
You lost your cape.
“Sa—Sali—” you try to call. Where is she?
A brown head turns to look at you. Why is she shorter than you?it does not… oh, she’s carrying you on her back. That’s why.

You turn one last time.
“—word. My… sword,” you say.
“Don’t worry about it now!” She shrieks as she jumps against the crumbling pass, desperately aiming for the pale circle of light cast by… by… wasn’t Rubida outside?
You hope she’s well and you disappear into darkness again.

# # # # # #

“—ow.” You grunt, opening your eyes again. Your shoulder aches. You must have hit against… something.
“Sorry! Sorry, my fault, I did not see that brick,” Salicera says. A hallway. Stairs.

The ground… above?
She is not alone this time. Deep blue eyes turn to look at you and you jump.
The— Sister. Black hair. Beautiful. Why is she so—pale?
“Try not to break her now!” Rubida shouts. Ah, yes. She’s Rubida. Is she safe?
“-re you safeh?” You ask, then a dizzying wave of weariness pulls you back into sleep.

# # # # # #

The world lurches at you. Upside down. You grunt as your stomach twists. Then black again.

[cont.]

>>6053697

# # # # # #

The shores of the Mar da Candéa glisten in the shining morning. You are looking at the gather-boats, casting their nets at the crimson reeds, rising from the peaceful waves. The paper farmers are going to gather them up and bring them to the mills for processing. The inland sea exports magic, wine… and paper.

You look at the little boats between the rows and rows of grapes as leaves, tickling on your face, tangled in your hair.

One day you stand on those boats.

One day you—

# # # # # #

“-et down!” Rubida’s shriek pierces your ears and brings you back to reality. Something is falling. Falling down properly, this time. Black stones. They wheeze past you. Cracking and falling, you hear the crackling of branches as the stones ruing through them. You roll on the ground and—

# # # # # #

“Everyone stand back,” sighs a more mature female voice. You open one of your eyes. The other is covered in sticky stuff and you can’t… you can’t open it. Maybe it’s better this way. A woman with burnt-out eyes and scarred face, her body covered in bandages and gauges look over you. You are laying on the grass. Looking up at the sky. Two more figures stand by your side, Rubida with her arms nervously crossed over her chest, missing the almost entirety of her upper armour besides her right arm, Salicera looking livid, clenching her fists, a bandage already wrapped around her shoulders and her forehead as well.

Astoria di Ottava ora crouches in front of you and holds her hands against your head.

“Close your eyes, Argia Candente.”

That one is easy.

>Bo3: Roll 1d100. Like before no strict DC but a gauge of how quickly Astoria’s Sanction is going to heal you.

don't roll a 1 and make her grow a third arm, anon

Rolled 50 (1d100)

>>6053701
How about a third "leg"?

Rolled 64 (1d100)

>>6053701
Lolibaba, save us
Save us, lolibaba

Rolled 94 (1d100)

>>6053701
Sorry in advance for this critfail.

>>6053783
Blessed

>>6053783
zazed

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>>6053783
great job anon!

update will probably come after bed, so I'll open up a [Free Space] for any questions you may have at this point, related to characters, lore, narrative etc. It will stay open for the next 10 hours.

as always thanks for playing. sorry for the somewhat erratic update schedule of the last few days, it's a jungle out there.

in the menatime enjoy some cute Rubida involuntary fanart

>>6053815
How effective is healing in this setting?
Are sacred prostitutes actual prostitutes like release your negative energy into me or is it something else?

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>>6053821

Healing comes from Ansàrra; she has to experience each trauma or wound or illness she heals upon her body, and that is the reason why she is always in pain and medicated, and why you petition for Sanctioning, not get it automatically granted like casting a spell. You are in competition with every other demand.

A good metaphor would be a server dealing with requests and risking to fall into DDOS.

When the Sanction does go through, there are almost no limits to what Ansàrra can heal and sustain, save for death.

Other Powers of the world, such as Asterites or Echorists mages, also have their own versions of healing magic but these have to be directly applied such as blood transfusion for Echorists, and tend to consume the healer just as well, making them less viable.

Lastly, the trading empire of Frigéia, which is in a budding industrial revolution, has started to experiment with proper medicine and surgery for the past few hundred years.


>sacred prostitutes

Their role is different from the prostitution we usually experience. In that case there is a trade of personal sexual release in exchange for money. The hallowed prostitution in the Temples of Flame is more similar to ritual orgies in the Orphic Mysteries and alike traditions: dancing, music, intercourse, a communion of senses meant to exorcise the basest instincts by channeling them into a sacred environment, a ritual that allows the shared morality of the community to keep its balance. As such its rituals are highly-regulated, and tied to specific moments of the year such as the Crimson Days (when the planetary ring tilts to cover the sun for six days).


Hope this reply serves.

>>6054200
Hmm so it’s something that they won’t be doing everyday, then. So it’s always an orgy or is there some 1 on 1 thing as well ?

>>6054200
>planetary ring

Huh...

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>>6053701

The light makes your eyelids flutter.
“Ahhn…” you groan, opening one eye, then the other one.
Where are you?
You are surrounded by soft sunlight, laying on something warm and comfortable…
A bed. You are laying on a large white bed, the bedsheets rolled up to your shoulders.
“Where… what happened?” You whisper, pulling down to check on your body.
You are wearing a thin light shirt and a pair of pants, reaching all the way to your naked feet.
“I was…” you reach for your forehead, expecting to feel something there. You received a blow of some kind didn’t you? Memories drip back into reality, one by one, like sand through the hourglass. “I was hit. The well… the Seventh Sister.”
The head floating in the darkness… and—
“Where is it?” Your hand closes on your chest, finding nothing. Your cameo is gone. “Oh no no, Starless Night, no!” You fret, pushing the sheets down and walking out on steady legs.
You feel refreshed. You take a look at the polished mirror sitting next to a small wardrobe, reflecting your face. You look a bit out of it, your eyes dizzy, but your silver hair is clean, as is the rest of your body, with nary a scar on your forehead. You pull down the front to explore your chest. There it is — the scar, looking like an old wound, already pale and thinned. You touch it and it feels a little bit cooler then the rest of your skin.
But that does not matter as much. Where did they bring you?

The room, wherever it may be, it’s nice, with a few potted plants by the windows, and it smells like flowers and fresh soil. Still, your cameo is nowhere to be found.

“Where is it… did someone steal it…?”

What about your new tetracerarmide sword?
And shouldn’t you worry about Rubida as well?

And what happened to the mission?

You need to check on the others, but first it’s better to know where you are right now. You reach for the windows, pulling the curtains away, bathing yourself in the morning sunlight.

You open the latch and push the windows open. The sweet air of morning comes in — the deep blue sky, cleaved in two by the silvery planetary ring, two rows of verdant hills and a line of red-roofed houses which leads to the central square with the familiar dome of the Temple of Flame, a ribbon of white smoke rising in the air.
“I’m in the Holy Land?” This can only mean one thing—

You pull away from the window and open the wardrobe, picking up a light towel which your wrap around your head, carefully covering each strand of your silver hair. You also find a pair of hard wooden clogs. Not exactly your size, but they will have to do.

And then you open the door and walk out, once again under the care of Her sun.

[cont.]

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>>6054323

The door leads immediately on a cobblestone street, surrounded by other houses, people and animals.

It’s a beautiful morning.

“At dawn, we wake up with good thoughts…” you mutter, setting three fingers against your mouth in a quick prayer. You skipped your morning devotion, will make up for it later on. Now you need to find your companions. But you don’t see anybody you recognise here.

Farmers leading their sheep around, hounds making sure they’d stay on course. White-clad women carrying water and chattering with each other. Little boys playing around by fighting with each other, little girls watching and whispering by the side lines.

And in the distance, a grey-robed Priest of Flame carrying his bowl of burning oils back to the Temple, pulling a thin sliver of grey smoke after himself. He’s at least ten paces away, but he’s the one who most likely can tell you where you are and what’s going on.

Then again, this seems like a small village right by the border, so…

“In these places, usually the martial chaplain holds the authority…” you wonder, turning your head towards the red-pleated building on the opposite side of the village, the bordering station where a small detachment of soldiers are surely taking care of safety. This far from the blessed core of Madua, ruffians and monsters are surely to still pose a threat.

He’s the one who might tell you where the others are.

Right as you are thinking about the alternatives, a group of young women, around your age, carrying fresh water and clean clothing, talking and giggling between themselves, passes by you. They notice you and hesitate, immediately noticing you are a foreigner for some reason. You bite your lips, nervous, as they stop talking and give you a wide berth. Did they notice your hair?

Maybe they know something about the others.

>Reach for the Flame Priest and interrogate him. You are a Knight-in-training, he will know about the others, and it’s likely where Soralisa is.

>Go to the bordering station. Your martial training takes precedence, and maybe you can meet Salicera there.

>Stop the group of girls and ask them for info. Rubida always knew how to make her presence know. If she’s there, they must have noticed her.


>>6054283
it was always there, anon. didn't you notice?

>>6054324
>>Go to the bordering station. Your martial training takes precedence, and maybe you can meet Salicera there.

>>6054324
>Go to the bordering station. Your martial training takes precedence, and maybe you can meet Salicera there.

>>6054324
So how many times was the planet Argia lives on impacted to form a ring dense enough to obscure the sun. How fucked is its orbit to experience tilt enough to occlude the sun every year.

>Reach for the Flame Priest and interrogate him. You are a Knight-in-training, he will know about the others, and it’s likely where Soralisa is.

>>6054324
>Go to the bordering station. Your martial training takes precedence, and maybe you can meet Salicera there.

>>6054324
>Reach for the Flame Priest and interrogate him. You are a Knight-in-training, he will know about the others, and it’s likely where Soralisa is.

>>6054324
>>Reach for the Flame Priest and interrogate him. You are a Knight-in-training, he will know about the others, and it’s likely where Soralisa is.

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Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>6054332
>>6054357
>>6054473

>go to the bordering station

>>6054541
>>6054564
>>6054382

>reach for the flame priest

tie for now. 6 hours to break, otherwise roll (ignore roll in this post, just checking)

frightening powergap in the Argiacup between Rubida and the other two tho

>>6054773
Rubida and Soralisa are both cute, but I voted for Soralisa for chaste reasons of wanting to check on our first friend and her crumbling ash-hands, not because I want Argia to make out with her.

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>>6054774
I voted for her because of similar reasons. And you know a friendship kiss or two... well that would be fine. They both went through shit, almost died. Argia may have some mild brain damage. Her and Sora just kind of hanging out in the bed together would be completely normal. Yep. Normal.

>>6054324
>Reach for the Flame Priest and interrogate him. You are a Knight-in-training, he will know about the others, and it’s likely where Soralisa is.

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>>6054774
based

>>6054818

Argia can't have brain damage if doesn't have a brain. #lifehacks

>>6054866

nice dubs
and also thanks for breaking the tie. Writing!

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>>6054324

Or maybe… maybe not, you decide right at the end, thinking about their stares. What happens if they notice your hair? That may cause some trouble.
“I’ll just get the Priest,” you mutter, turning away from the group of girls and walking towards the man, who has almost reached the central square. Those girls were never going to give you a straight answer anyway… and you feel naked without your sword. Without Master to help you.

Without… your new companions.

Trying to walk as fast as you can on your wooden clogs you run after the Priest, but then you realise that people might stare, so you go back to a brisk pace. You still get the occasional curious look.

You are still a foreigner. You bet they can read it on your face: another outside, attracted by what the Holy Land provides. A pretender to the Faith, who just wants to share in the health and extended life that Ansàrra provides.

You have heard many such words in the past. Always visited the outskirts of Madua, but always felt an outsider nevertheless.

You gulp, trying to keep your eyes on the road, as a group of shepherds walk by, taking care of their flock. One of them, a younger man, raises his arm and holds out the three middle fingers of his hand in greeting. You do the same, blushing furiously, and look away immediately. No need to try to interact with these people. No matter what. You have a goal, and you would never fit in anyhow.

You keep walking until you pass beneath a large masonry arch, etched with the images of the saints and you spot both Saint Kishirra and Saint Bragia right at the centre, holding their hands out in welcome. You quickly tap on your forehead, lips and chest as you pass the arch, and enter the inner town.

The road gives way to a circular square, surrounded by three channels, where small boats go back and forth. It looks like most of the people are gathered here, trading words and smiles. A few paces ahead, the thin trail of smoke from the cup of scented oil has stopped. The Priest is talking with two older men.

You should wait for them to stop talking, but the lack of weight on your chest caused by your missing cameo spurs you forward. Also, every moment you hesitate is one moment you do not know about your companions.

“E-Excuse me,” you say stumbling forward, trying to put some strength into your words.

The three men do not seem to notice you.

[cont.]

>>6054951

Oh, wait, you should probably try to speak a bit louder than two snowflakes bumping into each other.

As Ansàrra would have it, though, the Priest finally notices you. He turns his veiled face to look at you. You have no idea how he looks beneath it, just that the veil covers his face completely, as well as his shoulders and almost completely his hands. The two older men wait for you to say something else, but the Priest speak first.

“You are not supposed to be here,” he states.

You take a step back. Oh no.

“I— I just wanted to know where the rest of my…”

“What? No, apologies. I meant you are supposed to stay in bed. Now he will get angry with me,” he answers shaking his head. “And I will get angry at those girls. They were supposed to stay by your side.”

“What? Wait, you know about me? Where even—”

“Argia!” Shouts a familiar voice from behind. You turn to see Salicera waving at you, trailed by a group of young men and women. “Why are you even out of bed? You are supposed to rest!”

She is dressed in a simple green robe, which highlights her long brown hair somehow. Carrying a large glass bottle filled with milk, she swiftly handles it to one of the others and pulls you into a hug.

“The moment I let you out of my sight and the first thing you do is walk out of the house! You are impossible!” She makes to ruffle your hair but you grasp her hand in a panic. She blinks, surprised, and then she realises what she’s doing. “Oh. Of course, sorry.”

“Why… how are we here? What happened? And— I’m happy to see you too. I just don’t know what to say. Where is my cameo? Where is my cape? How is Soralisa? Rubi—”

“I see that while madama Candente may have had her body restored, memories and spirit is another matter,” the Priest chuckles. “There will be time to explain in the Temple’s gardens. May I lead the way?”

“Sure!” Salicera grins, linking arms with you, turning briefly to regard the others. “I am leaving with Argia, so please be a dear and carry this to our home, will you? Fresh milk will be good for her full recovery!” She flashes her usual confident grin at the young man and he swoons, nodding. The gaggle of Salicera’s admirers keeps stealing looks at her as they leave, and she looks extremely pleased with herself, puffing her chest out slightly.

Then she pulls you ahead. In a way, it’s better to see her so self-assured after everything you went through with… the other night? The night before?

[cont.]

>>6054952

“I suppose you have a few questions,” Salicera prompts you. “The Temple is close but I may be able to answer a few.”

>choose two out of the following options:

>How did you come here? What is this place?

>What day is it? How long has it been since your fight?

>Where are Rubida and the others? Is Soralisa safe?

>Does Salicera have any idea where your cameo is? And what about your sword?


I have yet to decide which of the girls gets the most ‘head cheerleader’ energy between Salicera and Rubida

>>6054953
>What day is it? How long has it been since your fight?
>Where are Rubida and the others? Is Soralisa safe?
gotta learn how long we've been out and where our friends are

>>6054953
>What day is it? How long has it been since your fight?
>Where are Rubida and the others? Is Soralisa safe?
Well Rubida was more bitchy so far. Salicera can have "prince" energy

>>6054953
>>How did you come here? What is this place?
>>What day is it? How long has it been since your fight?

>>6054953
>What day is it? How long has it been since your fight?
>Where are Rubida and the others? Is Soralisa safe?

>>6054953
>How did you come here? What is this place?

>Where are Rubida and the others? Is Soralisa safe?

>>6054953
>What day is it? How long has it been since your fight?
>Where are Rubida and the others? Is Soralisa safe?
and third...
>Does Salicera have any idea where your cameo is? And what about your sword?
(If we're permitted three, otherwise, just the first two)

>‘head cheerleader’ energy
Rubi. Sali has popular girl energy,but not the organizational skill of a proper leader.

>>6054953
>Does Salicera have any idea where your cameo is? And what about your sword?

>Where are Rubida and the others? Is Soralisa safe?


Rubi definately has the cheerleader/boss bitch energy. Sally is more like someone who is just very popular but not because of trying hard, she just IS.

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>>6054962
>>6054977
>>6055059
>>6055215
>>6055249
>>6055375
>>6055596

Thanks everyone for the votes. I will proceed to tally them up, I will probably start updating in a few hours (first free day in two weeks, I will probably go take a walk in the woods to recharge).

In the meantime, your suggestions about the girls’ energy in an academy setting inspired me this little piece (slight NSFW, some uh… bullying involved):

>https://controlc.com/6cd220b5

Hope you enjoy ‘Fast Times At Madua High’. I will see you soon with the usual update.

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>>6055611
That was cute. Made me grin.

>>6055611
Damn, all the girls are sluts, specially Rubida. I’m surprised Stilladìa doesn’t sell party “enhancements” to people instead of ancap mentoring.

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>>6055611
>Rubi's 'bullying'

>>6055759
The fact that Stilly is just... what? Loyal to her contracts and likes soul money just makes her even more of a best. She is not stupid evil. Hell she even has a relatively cordial working relationship with Caranval, a literal angel.

>>6055761
I do like Rubi as well.

>>6055637
Glad you liked it anon

>>6055759

Selling party ‘enhancements’ does not increase demand. Pushing for Ancapistan does.

>>6055761

‘Damn that Candente girl, how dare she, better put her to her place’

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>>6055777
>Cursed trips

You must now write more fap fic. More Rubi puting Argia in her place. The place is a bed, maybe with Soralisa already occupiing it.

>>6055777
The sisters demand fic about them. Jokes aside, kinda funny how Rubida was going for a “nether” kissing from Argia in the room full of people. She really went “Damn silver hair, seducing your classmate. Correction will occur.”

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>>6055787
>>6055792


zamn, right when I thought I had escaped writing more lewdpastas...

but one with the sisters would have to be F/F/F/F/F/F/F/M, you'd probably need a dictionary to tell them apart...

now, for the voting tally:

>>6054962
>>6054977
>>6055059
>>6055215
>>6055249
>>6055375
>>6055596

Tally of replies:

A>What day is it? How long has it been since your fight?
B>Where are Rubida and the others? Is Soralisa safe?

A>What day is it? How long has it been since your fight?
B>Where are Rubida and the others? Is Soralisa safe?

C>>How did you come here? What is this place?
A>>What day is it? How long has it been since your fight?

A>What day is it? How long has it been since your fight?
B>Where are Rubida and the others? Is Soralisa safe?

C>How did you come here? What is this place?
B>Where are Rubida and the others? Is Soralisa safe?

A>What day is it? How long has it been since your fight?
B>Where are Rubida and the others? Is Soralisa safe?

D>Does Salicera have any idea where your cameo is? And what about your sword?
B>Where are Rubida and the others? Is Soralisa safe?


Final tally (counting up a lot of votes is hard but really satisfying):

5 A (selected)
6 B (selected)
2 C
1 D

Writing in a bit. I personally love how the option with info about your friends got most of the votes.

>>6055845
I will happily memorise their names so we don't get confused when moaning out a name. Stilladia is still a best but septuplets are great to.

>>6055845
>F/F/F/F/F/F/F/M
why is there a male in the middle ?
>>6055908
just say "sis", no risk of error

>>6055611
Very nice. You used the wrong name at least once I think.

>>6055913
wdym ?

>>6055908

In Maduan language their names are the same as the seven Pleiades (well, six, Merope is kill). I have yet to decide their original Kiengir names tho.

>>6055913
glad you enjoyed it. I'll try to check for the mistakes and correct them, thanks

and now, the news...

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>>6054953

You have probably asked a few too many questions all at once. Now it’s better if you proceed orderly. While Salicera leads you across the inner square and its channels and streets surrounded by boughs and trees, you make up your mind.

“Where is Rubida?” You ask. “And what about Soralisa? Is she safe?”
Salicera chuckles.
“Just like you to make sure the others are safe. Even before focusing on something more personal, like your wound,” she points her free hand towards your chest.

The—

hook piercing through your skin and flesh and poisoning your soul with winter—

— wound.

It’s in the past. The fate of your companions is more important.
The fate of your friends.

“Rubida got all scared,” Salicera gives you a sheepish grin. “She was alone for far too long, poor thing. Apparently what to us lasted only a few minutes lasted much longer to her. Just like how it felt to Astoria and the martial chaplain — when we managed to escape the well, it was as if hours had passed. And the moment the entire structure fell, the stones grew all worn-out.” She scratches her side of her neck, suddenly nervous. “I came back there to check on something when Astoria finished healing you. The stones look old, Argia. Consumed by time, and overgrown by roots.”

“The Night is patient,” you mutter.
“What?”
“Nothing. Please go on.”
“So, Rubida was scared, and she tried not to show it, but she was mostly fine. I got a few bumps from the falling stones. And you had an ugly one on your shoulder… that was my fault. I missed a floating stone while I carried you down.”

You don’t really care.

“So… Rubida is fine?”
“Her pride got bruised the worst. You know how she is.”
“Yes— I suppose I do. I do now.” You let out a sigh while you cross over the final channel, reaching the inner gardens to the Temple of Flame. The pavilion shines in the sunlight. You feel the warmth kissing your skin — so welcome after everything that happened. “Did Soralisa recover?”
“Well—”
“That is not for us to tell yet—” interrupts her the Priest, still holding the cup of burning oils. “Your friend shows progress, but it is not up to us to decide whether she ever properly recovers the use of her arms.” The man shakes his head beneath his veil. “The Blessed Blind shared the news with me. To attempt something like that— she is lucky to be alive.”
She just got scared in the forest. If you had been there for her, maybe she wouldn’t have fallen to despair.

[cont.]

>>6055945
“I understand, but where is she now? Can I see her? I want to thank her for—”
You hesitate. News about the direct intervention of Ansàrra was something that the ears of some random Priest of Flame, no matter how kind he has been with you so far, may not need to know.

Master taught you that Faith is almost always a good thing. The men through which it runs — sometimes less so.

“She’s in the Temple,” Salicera says, to which the Priest shoots her a glare, visible even under the veil. “What?” She shrugs. “She would have known soon enough anyway. Oh, and Rubida went to look for some groceries at the farmer’s market on the other side of the town.”
“Why would she—”
“You did not hear this from me,” she whispers, “but I think it’s her way of saying thank you. She probably wanted to get you something to eat,” Salicera grins. “Rubida has a soft heart, deep down. Uhm, very deep down.”

“I will leave you two outside for the moment,” the Priest replies, maybe still miffed about Salicera overstepping. “Can I trust you to wait for proper protocol if you want to visit the Temple?”
You nod.
“No worries. We can sit on the steps,” Salicera agrees as well. The Priest passes through the main door and disappears in the darkness of the outer layer. “Now, there’s a lot yet I have to tell you,” she says as she pushes aside the flowers left on the steps.
“No, wait, wait wait—” you hiss, immediately putting the flowers back to their proper place. “You are not supposed to move them or pick them up!”
“… that’s new,” she replies, looking for a spot where there are no flowers and helping you seat. “I never heard of such thing.”
“That’s because in inner Madua they let you carry your offers directly to the Temple’s first layer,” you explain. How come she does not know something this simple? Sometimes Salicera really gives you a headache. For a Maduan, she can be careless. “But past the Third Girdle they need to be carried by a Priest.”
“Sorry. I missed that detail,” she grins, sheepishly rubbing her neck. Missed? Meaning she did not know it? “Can I go on?”
“Yes… sorry if that came out a bit too forced or… but it’s our faith.” You rub your chest, where your cameo ought to be. The need to ask if Salicera knows about it itches once again. “How long was I asleep?”

[cont.]

>>6055947

“Three days,” Salicera says holding up her middle fingers. “Or perhaps a little more. You slipped into a co— into some kind of slumber after Astoria started healing you. I had never seen someone pray for so long during a Sanction.” Salicera frowns. “Not even Soralisa. So… it took us three days to carry you and Soralisa here, and while she is able to move and seems mostly alright, you had us worried. All of us,” she adds with a twinkle in her eyes, as if hinting at something you do not know yet.
“Three days. I don’t… I can’t really remember. Everything is confused. But we did succeed, did we not? We stopped the incarnation. For good.”
“We did!” Salicera beams, all excited. “Just you wait! Everyone in town knows we are important people, but we were asked to keep a low profile about you.”

“Oh. I guess it’s because…” you reach for your head. “But we did stop it. You stopped it. You killed the Sister’s head. Oh, Sun-Birther,” you let out a long, finally satisfied sigh. Your gathered strength leaves you for a moment and you fall against the stairs, looking up at the edge of the Temple stark against the blue sky and the silver ring. “I need to enter the Temple. To meet Soralisa and to properly thank Ansàrra for her help.”
To think that just a few days before you couldn’t wait for this to be over and to never seen any of these people again.
Funny how a brush against death and oblivion changes things.
“I was told we can enter in a bit. There’s a meeting of some sort. Perhaps a ceremony.”
“May it be over soon. Ah, I thought… I was so scared. Thank the golden heavens it’s over.”
“It is! And just wait until word spreads!” Salicera is overtaken with glee.
“I don’t really care about that,” you wave your hand, pulling the shawl covering your hair a little tighter. “Just that the deed was done well. And that the Trial of Flame is a little closer.” Your eyes wander past the Temple and towards the profile of the hills.

Wonder what will happen after that—

“Where are we? The flowers on the steps mean we are quite close to the border, but where exactly? Were we told?”
“Some place called Ripacroce,” Salicera shrugs again. “Itty bitty town on the edge to the border. Quite close to where we got dispatched, but we had to take a detour.”
“A detour? Was it because of me? Of Soralisa?”
“Not exactly,” Salicera chuckles. “You know, for being such an unassuming Knight trainee, there’s lots of important people scrambling to reach you.”
“I don’t understand—”
Someone steps on the polished Temple threshold.
You recognise the noise of of those steps.
You have been following it for three years.

[cont.]

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>>6055949

Turning your head as quick as a whip, you find your eyes affixed to a pair of old grey ones. A tall man, dressed in a grey robe, just stopping out of the entrance.
Ibardo Delebasse.
“Shame, I wanted to tease her a little longer…” Salicera huffs.
“Master—” you choke on your own words, then stand up and rush at him.
“Argia Candente,” he welcomes you into his embrace, lifting you off the floor with ease. “You had an old man worried! By the light of Ansàrra!” For a long moment, you can just enjoy Master’s embrace. You have missed him so much, your throat burns. One of the latest things you remember was almost dying from the infected blood, and disappointing him and now— now he’s here. He gently puts you down, while Salicera joins you two. She has her arms crossed over her chest and you notice she gives Master a few sideways looks.

But that’s something you shouldn’t really care about.
Master is here.
“Did you nurture your tree?” He asks setting his hand on your head.
“I— I think I did. I may have found my water,” you reply looking down. You are so ashamed it took you so much time to do it.
“I knew you would do it,” he replies and the thick sense of pride in his voice feels almost as healing as a full Sanction.
Then his eyes shift towards your chest and you grimace.
“Ah— Master, it seems my— your— my cameo is missing.”
“Not so,” he replies, his tone growing a bit sullen. “I will need to inform you of a few more things. Also, your presence is requested. But perhaps you would prefer to go meet your friend first?”
>Let’s go see Soralisa first!

>Master’s info takes precedence.

another long update. I had fun. I hope you liked it… and now that Ibardo is here, things can get a little more fun.

>>6055951
>>Let’s go see Soralisa first!

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>>6055951
>Master’s info takes precedence.

She isn't going anywhere. Also I feel silly for not noticing some things off about Salicera, considering we know OoC she is an isakai now. There are a couple of other things that feel strange... can't put my finger on them quite yet. Might need to go back through first thread again.

Also,

>You know, for being such an unassuming Knight trainee, there’s lots of important people scrambling to reach you.

So we know Stilly and Caranval know of us. We have out Sword Saint Master. Who else I wonder, given we are basically a hick? Honestly it is a bit interesting we are getting attention, considering our companions are a once in a life time protegy, a chick who can use sanctions well enough to launch a magic nuke and has Ansarra helping her directly, and... Rubi.

>>6055947
>“No, wait, wait wait—” you hiss, immediately putting the flowers back to their proper place. “You are not supposed to move them or pick them up!”
>“… that’s new,” she replies, looking for a spot where there are no flowers and helping you seat. “I never heard of such thing.”
>“That’s because in inner Madua they let you carry your offers directly to the Temple’s first layer,” you explain. How come she does not know something this simple? Sometimes Salicera really gives you a headache. For a Maduan, she can be careless. “But past the Third Girdle they need to be carried by a Priest.”
were those bragialacras or just generic flowers ? if the former, how did she not know about them before ?
>>6055949
>you had us worried. All of us,” she adds with a twinkle in her eyes, as if hinting at something you do not know yet.
now I remember she had a secret to tell us at the end of the mission, but this whole thing put a wrench in that plan. inb4 she likes us or something.
>>6055951
>Let’s go see Soralisa first!
sistas before mistas
>>6055978
>Also I feel silly for not noticing some things off about Salicera, considering we know OoC she is an isakai now. There are a couple of other things that feel strange... can't put my finger on them quite yet. Might need to go back through first thread again.
for starters, she says slangs that are only from our world, dunno if there's more details on the 1st thread. now we also learned that she doesn't seem to know much about the religion, even basic stuff (that F from the spinoff also hinted this). If we go with the classic isekai trope, she's been reborn here so it's not like she didn't have time to learn so that's pretty strange. It's one thing to not delve deeper but missing basic stuff the laity are expected to know it's kind of a yellow flag.

>>6055951
>Master’s info takes precedence.

hotto sex

[SPOILER]BOO[/spoiler]

>>6056411
fuck
BOO

>>6055977
checked

>>6055978
>>6055986

Interesting speculations anon. I love it when players think about all the little hints I left.

>>6056344

So far 2 vs 2.

150 minutes to break stalemate, otherwise I will roll for the update

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Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>6056455

if we roll 1 we go with

>>6056344
>>6055978

if we roll 2 we go with

>>6055986
>>6055977