>>
|
a107fd.jpg
Castle Brush
a107fd
>>673952
>>673947
Alright, I'll set up a temporary camp on top of the mesa.
While they're getting the big tent assembled, should I stick around and supervise, or start on that inventory, or just say a few words and pop off for some errand right away? I could fill the bag with water (it holds nearly a cubic yard) from the river or an aqueduct, and leave it here so the 'bolds don't die of thirst, or carry it with me still mostly empty, the better to gather other provisions and loot.
Once it's time to go exploring... seems to be a tossup between big city and the island. So, which first?
For the island, even if it is long abandoned there might be magical traps or golem guardians still semi-functional. Should I cut straight to the center, or start at a respectful distance and approach through the air, or split the difference and walk up from the beach?
For checking out the city, east or west end, and overt, covert, or clandestine entry?
>>673941
>I'd only note the ones you're proficient or skilled at. Say, if you're a capable fighter, or a good enough flirt to charm your way into the private quarters of enemies.
Decent at fighting. I could probably take on two or three ordinary soldiers at once and win, bare handed, without trickery. It's not hard to find heroes who could trounce me just as easily, though. A fair fight most likely means I've already lost the important points.
Better at aerobatics and stealth, and my eyesight's sharp enough to count buttons on a coat from a mile away. Anything an owl can do, I can do better.
Not especially practiced with tricky maneuvers on my actual feet, though. Why bother? Flying's faster and more fun.
No trade skills.
My main talents are social. Anthropology, diplomacy, confidence games, interrogation, seduction, impersonation, you name it. It can be a blurry line between that kind of skill and the subtle arts I mentioned before, but one way or another, give me some mortal's undivided attention for twenty minutes and I could quite possibly have him walk outside, look up, and claim that the daytime sky is burgundy red, just like it always has been. He'd even call you colorblind for disagreeing.
>Don't forget the air holes.
Exodimensional pockets don't work that way. I had an enchanted flask which would have solved the air problem, but it went missing last week. Maybe whoever tipped off the inquisitor pocketed it on their way out. Probably safer and simpler to buy a new one rather than go back to find it.
>Time units?
That's not what... okay, I explained badly. Five minutes without fresh air is bad for morale. Five hours without clean, unsalted water is bad for morale. Five days without fresh food is bad for morale. Twice that long will cause problems a pep talk can't fix, three times maybe fatal. Sixty minutes is an hour, sixty hours is exactly two and a half days. I don't know quite how long I was captive in the kingdom of the ghouls because everybody was using a different calendar system after I got out.
>>673947
>What do you know of how likely they are to be friendly/hostile to you,
Me personally? I don't think I have a reputation so far afield. Balorians in general tend to get mixed reactions at best, but it's easy enough to disguise myself as whatever race seems to be more locally favored. Kobolds, operating openly in small groups, tend to get some mix of compassion and contempt, slanting more toward cautious proxy-respect wherever the Drakocracy is more active. If they seem like an army, though, or gnomes get involved, things could get ugly.
>mortal magic users (which you might pretend to be),
Innate abilities would probably be the safer claim. Formal study of foundational arcana is one of very few things the Drakocracy prohibits outright, along with combustion accelerants. Well, technically it's just a matter of "won't provide funding for unconscionably dangerous experiments," but when a meeting hall where some alchemists were chatting about pure theory burns to the ground, yet the adjacent granary, sawmill, or brewery is miraculously unscorched, and then that same guild's main patron gets tragically struck by lightning on a calm sunny day while indoors, anyone who's paying attention knows what the score is.
>or the ghoul king?
Too early to say. I've never seen a surface-dwelling nation that welcomes the undead with open arms, but he's managed to cultivate a few alliances anyway, and that defensive position would make any prospective crusader think twice.
>Also, who are the inquisitors you mentioned earlier and will we still need to worry about them over here?
Seemed like a local outfit, the usual morality-police types, although admittedly I didn't stick around long enough to suss out their entire chain of command. It's pretty unusual for any primarily religious institution to have much influence beyond a single city-state or short trade route, let alone across continents. If I thought they had the resources or inclination to follow me this far I'd still be running instead of stopping to talk.
>As a side note, what do you base your cult on?
Hedonism, mostly. Ritualized access to whatever exotic vices I can cost-effectively provide. Refined cane sugar was working pretty well for a while there, but I'm certainly open to other strategies.
>Do you need to fully unpack to resupply, or are partial methods possible like opening the bag to let air in or taking just the mortals out while leaving the books and such in?
Food and water are easy enough, but without that enchanted flask, the only reliable way to get stale air cleared out is for all the passengers to disembark. Other cargo can stay packed, although, emptying the bag out entirely is much faster than unloading bit by bit, and actually slightly less likely to break things. A momentary cushioning effect activates when you flip the bag inside out, as an integral part of the exo pocket shutting down. Batch enchanters used to cut corners on that sort of thing until Overmire set up their tax code to force standardization.
>>673960
>i don't think she can make anyone besides herself magically trustworthy.
Not exactly, but I could, for example, lay my charms on someone and use the opening to provide formal introductions between them and one of my servants. Handled properly, that strictly mundane connection could then last far longer than something constructed purely with the subtle arts would have. It's the same principle that makes modern agriculture safer and, arguably, more cost-effective in the long term than some chintzy portable chalk-into-cheese transmuter. Elves learned that the hard way.
>>673956
>Are you a goddess?
Yes. Didn't I mention that already? Strictly speaking the form of address you should be using is 'O Merciful Metyelilu,' the current precariousness of my divine status and bloodymindedness of my foremost ambitions notwithstanding. 'O mighty lord' would also have been acceptable, though it would be marginally insulting to use such generic any-spirit terms now that I've introduced myself.
A god is a spirit with an empowered priest, an anointed champion bearing arms, and at least seven lay worshippers. An unworshipped spirit is called a demon. Most demons join up with ideologically cohesive, ethnically homogenous mutual-aid-and-hospitality societies, such as the Balorian League (of which I was a member before attaining godhood, and which would most likely still accept my credentials). Balorians tend to...
...you know what, we can save that sidetrack until wasting breath would be less disastrous. It's time to dump out the clown cart.
|