>>943475
>What Primary School did you go to
>>943911
>she led the new-comers to her office
>I have a theological question

Cathak Othok Dythyk is surprised as Sesus Xanin responds to comments directed towards Dell, but given that she seems willing to allow her to conduct research, it seems that perhaps she won't need help from others to do the politicking. Of course, all the house chatter is a frustrating impediment to what she actually needs to be doing.

"I certainly see the appeal of whiling away my hours in your company, and we would surely have much to discuss given the shared emphasis our houses place on military achievement. I daresay we could even carry on a lengthy discussion on the politics of demons, given my status as a Sorcerer hailing from House Cathak, as much as other members would hate to hear me utter such a phrase. Unfortunately, my studies have left me lacking in the courtly graces one such as yourself should rightly demand of societies finest, and I feel my efforts would only serve to sour the mood. Would you allow me then, to excuse myself without taking offense, o gracious host, to discuss these matters more when I can present myself respectfully and attend to you in the appropriate manners? I myself have not frequented the soirées and balls hosted by House Cynis, but I have discussed politics with some of their members, and learned a great deal regarding their arts; perhaps as a member of House Sesus you would find some familiar comfort in this fact, given we are far-flung from the typical fruits civilization has to offer?

>>943441
>"I will need unrestricted access to wherever you prayed to Mauger, so I may conduct my research. Please help ensure I will not be stopped or bothered as I do so. I shall be ready by the tomescu's next scream.
"Well, it's Sesus Xanin's manse, so long as she doesn't have any objections?" Waxwing Dell answers, looking askance at the daughter of Hesiesh. "They had already started cleaning when I left though, so I'm not sure what's left, aside from, uh, mystic traces?" Occult 0 strikes again!

>>943915
Dell gives a sidelong glance at her friend's... rather uncharacteristic gregariousness, and having a hard time telling if the earth aspect was being flirtatious, sarcastic, sucking up, or... some kind of defense mechanism? The ashen bow had never been confident in her own social graces, but while Xanin had been able to put her at ease, the same was clearly not the case for Dythyk. Not for the first time, she found herself wondering what house Cathak had put her friend through.

>>943873
>>943911
At least the fire aspects seem to be getting along amicably, so far.

>>943915

Karal Tin Otter's expression grows grim once they are led to the office, and there is no longer a risk of disturbing the mortals.

"It's a fairly complex matter, and I regret to say that I wasn't chosen for my skills in expounding on it. I was chosen for my ability to kill demons. But while you may be engaged in heretical matters, now that I've seen what we are dealing with I have a far more pressing concern than attempting to admonish you for your actions. You have perhaps a large dragon's worth of soldiers here? Mortal soldiers. This manse may be defensible, but it is certainly not a fortress, not truly. Perhaps you have some effective essence weaponry? Some demons you've employed? I don't believe you currently have the resources to hold this position if pressed by the more aggressive locals."

Karal Tin Otter then looks to COD and Dell, wincing.

"And regrettably, we have less in the way of human resources than expected as well. Our mission involved the transport because of the necessity of mobility. There are local beings who we could not hope to face, even with an army, so of course we needed a way to flee. You have chosen to attempt to hold ground. Do you have a viable retreat? Because the worst potential consequences of your prayer are this. Greater demons lead armies, of other demons. Right now your greatest defense against them is that they are not aware of your presence. Do you understand how communicating in such an insecure way could place the people here in danger?"

Karal Tin Otter turns his attention back to Sesus Xanin then, his voice raising slightly.

"It is your duty to keep them safe, Sesus Xanin. Are you prepared to do so?"

(Spending KTO's remaining Arsenal dots on a sorcery capturing cord loaded with two Infallible Messengers and a Mist of Eventide cast by some older DB, and a 1 dot Windslave Disk. We may need to move some cargo quite quickly, and we may need to send a message back.)

>>944004
"I sit here, with an understaffed talon of soldiers, and barely a wing of mortals all together, largely pinned here by the toxic vapors on the one side, and a strange air-born madness that can turn even the most battle hardened soldiers into a mindless killing machine that breaks rank and tries to kill and rape their closest allies. The fact that there is no potential retreat is why I'm electing to hold land.

"I am fully aware that this place isn't nearly defensible enough, however. That's why I needed to provide emergency supplication to the greater demon that was annoyed enough by my presence to send a team of dragon blooded here."

"But, I can tell you that by all means, I have the resolve to do whatever needs to be done to ensure the safety of everyone near by. Although, the situation may be many orders of magnitudes worse than you believe."

Sesus Xanin let out a breath of relief that this was easier than she had hoped.

"And that segues nicely into the other topic of discussion, especially looking at you now. Not a single person here is intimately familiar with the laws of this world, or even on a more basic level running an organization, are you?

"So, since it seems like some force has severed your groups head, it seems like you've a great need for someone capable of filling a lot of those same roles."

>>944012

Karal Tin Otter laughs suddenly at the mention of the laws here.

"I do not profess to any great knowledge of this place's laws. But I know this much. The strong do as they will. All else matters little, in the end. Do you intend to take the ship by force? I will have to resist. Of course, my expertise is in fighting demons, so it's likely I will be the loser, even without your soldiers behind you. But I will buy my allies time to flee."

He motions to the other two to do so as he reaches for his dire lance, stepping back warily.

(Karal Tin Otter has taken the reference to Cecelyne's laws as a threat. I'm assuming he has enough exposure through the lawship's work that this is a logical conclusion.)

>>943796
Petal sighs, an expression of regret and sadness flitting across her face. She replies in Old Realm, again, a dialect slightly unfamiliar to her companion.

"An age. An age happened, and it was neither kind nor gentle to the world."

>>944017
"I have no intention of taking anything by force. I must admit, though, it sounds like you'll have an incredibly hard time serving lawsuits if you don't have a lawyer, or anyone familiar enough with organizational skills to sort through clients by an effort and profitability ratio, or even just convincing people to use your service.

"Now, while I might be wrong about my assessment, you look like a cart without a horse, coasting by on your existing momentum without any guiding force or anything to keep you going when you come to a crashing halt."

>>944025
Waxwing Dell shifts, jingling, relieved the two backed away from conflict, but somewhat frustrated that the conversation seemed to be Xanin and Otter simply pointing out all the flaws in the other's organization.

"Well, all the more reason to find Flair, isn't it? Besides, we already have a job and a client right now. We can worry about looking for him and cleaning up your traffic problem now, and future paperwork later."

>>944020
Viatrix takes half a step back as if just having the wind punched out of her, hands raised over her mouth, and eyes wide.
"Everywhere is like this...?" her voice half heard as it passes through her hands, now in Old Realm as well- The dialect and way of speaking coming off as almost common. Not the language of Gods and Demons, but of regular people who adapted it to a vastly less formal life.
"Where were The Exalted in all this?" She asks, half looking for reason, half for someone responsible. "The deliberative would never have-"

Viatrix glances over to the unlit Blessed Road, the caravans of people traveling by almost... primitive means.
"There is no more Deliberative, is there?"

>>943688
Okay, you've got a Carnifex Guild wagon set up selling fried cubes of mystery meat on brass bamboo skewers (which stain the meat green where they touch) at about two days wages per mouthful, or three obols for a 'duplicorpse.' A week later she's complaining that sales are barely covering operating expenses.

Three soldiers volunteer to test this new safety equipment you've come up with. What's the actual plan?

> A week later she's complaining that sales are barely covering operating expenses.

Since getting merchants set up was already an established part of the plan for increasing wealth as detailed and rolled for here, ( >>942543 ), how much of the process of doing the hard work and coming up with the most effective business strategy and buying Connections(Carnifax Guild) 1 can be automated?

-----------------------

The plan at first is going through the process of making them 100% loyal to me first disguised as an in-depth psychological review to make sure that that they're as up to the task as possible, since I'm trying to buy the retainer background.

After that, securing a supply of demon locusts at least big enough to bring on the TDC mutation in the now three volunteers.

rolled 8, 7, 8, 9, 9, 5, 7, 6, 1, 10, 9, 9, 6, 1, 2, 2, 4, 6, 2, 7, 9, 6, 5, 6, 10, 5, 8, 4, 6, 1, 4, 4, 7, 7, 6, 3, 5, 2, 3, 7, 6, 10, 4, 8, 9, 1, 6, 5, 9, 9, 1, 10, 6, 10, 7, 9, 8, 7, 9, 6, 8, 4, 4, 5, 9, 3, 3, 2, 4, 2, 4, 2, 7, 8, 5, 10, 2, 8, 10, 9, 2, 6, 4, 4, 7, 2, 5, 8, 3, 1, 4, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 7, 3, 6, 8 = 551

---

After the initial niceties (or lack thereof) have been sorted out, Dell falls into a routine for their first week as guests (or perhaps allies of convenience) at the spa manse. While 'Thyk works on investigating occult matters and searching on a lead on Fanged Flair Effulgence, Dell falls back on her own training, and scouting the surrounding woodlands. (So each day has training, scouting, and sleeping). She is, in fact, attempting to follow-up on the dream-imparted clue Mauger left that there is something to find in the Spawning Forest... but she neglects to tell any of the others that this is what she is doing. Despite her curiosity, the wood aspect has the nagging sense pursuing this is unwise or inappropriate, so she chooses not to embarrass herself in front of her companions.

Planning on purchasing Essence 3 (20 XP, immediate), Tireless String-Plucking Meditation (10 XP, 4 days) and Three-String Sword Prana (10 XP, 2 days).

Also rolling a bunch of dice for the extended tracking/navigation action. Adding in a full excellency each time, and Dell will also be using Hostile Environment Preparation Method for penalty negation, and the Horn of the Ways, if applicable (I'm not sure if you need to know where your destination is to benefit from that bonus). No cooperation bonus, because builder bugs are probably susceptible to the fumes and it makes more sense to leave them working on building stuff back at the manse. Probably also a good idea to have Invisible Street Performer Technique up, just to decrease the likelyhood of being surprised by anything hostile out there.

So at best that's: Perception 3 + Survival 5 + Stunt + Excellency 5 + Horn of the Ways 4. (Up to 7 times).

>>943548
>Lore 1-2 2 exp 1 week training handled post-law ship scene, presumably with either COD or UWD as trainers, but if not the Harenhel ally.
Dell is somewhat caught off guard that Sesus Xanin would seek her help in such matters (and eventually concludes is must be do to a combination of the Realm having less rigorous training standards than Lookshy, and the others having more important duties). She agrees, glad to have an excuse to spend time helping the friendly dynast.

I can probably overlap time spent being a tutor with time spent training TSPM, since that charm is all about not being worn out by doing things at the same time as performing.

>>944089
>"There is no more Deliberative, is there?"
Petal shakes her head softly. "Not as you would recognize them, no."

>"Where were The Exalted in all this?"
"Divided. The world is not without it's heroes, those who strive towards good and greatness, and the chosen helped see Creation through disasters that might have ended it. But a singular exalted host, united in purpose, no longer exists."

rolled 5, 7, 10, 1, 9, 10, 7, 2, 2, 2, 8, 9, 6, 10, 2, 2, 10, 9, 10, 1, 7, 10, 9, 1, 3, 4, 2, 3, 3, 4, 6, 2, 10, 8, 6, 6, 4, 8, 7, 3 = 228

---

>>944157

Sesus Xanin insists that she would have preferred Dell regardless as a tutor, since she both seems like the most levelheaded of the lawship team. Plus, she looked like she could use some time to break out of the day to day rut that she'd heard came up on ships.

------------------------------------------

Okay, since the answer to it being fairly automated as a part of a previous roll is no. I'll try to get this going properly.

Sesus Xanin is going to observe the sales person throughout the day, seeing where their strategy could be optimized, hiding behind the power of her shield, and marking every single thing that could be optimized.

So, when she came to complain about poor sales, she was prepared.

"Well, that's hardly my fault, but don't worry. I've got an answer for that already. I'll just need you to stick around in this one place, maybe feed me some information every once in a while, and actually report every sale."

Step 1

Concept: A mortal soldier of fortune destined to exalt and become an inhuman Berserker

Caste - None

Motivation - knows only to swing a blade, leaves fancy justifications to the leaders .

Name:Jack
Age:18
Sex:Male
Hair/eye color:Brown/Blue
Skin tone: Tanned

Step 2

Attributes
- Physical - Mental - Social -
Dex ● Per ● App ●
Sta ●● Int ● Cha ●
Str ●●● Wit ●● Man ●


Step 3

Abilities
Archery Integrity Craft - Athletics ●●● Bureaucracy
Martial Arts Performance Investigation Awareness ●● Linguistics
Melee ●●● Presence Lore ●●● Dodge ●● Ride
Thrown Resistance ●● Medicine Larceny Sail
War ●● Survival ●●● Occult Stealth Socialize


Languages
- Native. Spoken Only

Specialties
None

Step 4

Backgrounds
- 3 dots Destined
- 3 dots Resource

Equipment/Artifacts
Plate-and-Chain
Great-sword

Flaws

Charm Slots

Charms

Virtues
- Conviction 4

Step 5

Willpower - 5

Intimacies
TBD

Essence - 1

Health - 7

Bonus Points

Remaining Caste/Aspect Abilities:0
Remaining Favored Abilities:0
Remaining Caste/Aspect Attributes:0
Remaining Favored Attributes:0
Remaining Free Abilities:0
Remaining Primary Attributes:0
Remaining Secondary Attributes:0
Remaining Tertiary Attributes:0
Remaining Free Charms/Spells:0
Remaining Merits:0
Remaining Bonus Points:0

>>944175
Viatrix responds with a single sniffle, her eyes red from holding back tears throughout the conversation. She looks down, brow furrowed, no doubt thinking of more things to ask, but as she opens her mouth to do so, she is interrupted by a rolling grumble from her stomach- reducing her back to her previous state of embarrassment.
"I-uh... I guess that it's also been an age"
She paraphrases, with a guilty, sheepish half smile.

rolled 8, 9, 6, 8, 5, 5, 7, 2, 1, 4, 8, 9, 2, 9, 7, 3, 6, 1, 6, 9, 7, 1, 10, 6, 8, 5, 9, 4, 8, 10 = 183

---

>>944222
Seeing Viatrix's obvious distress, Petal does not answer verbally, but with a soft chime of glass jewellery spreads her arms, and offers the lunar a hug.

Then she'll see about escorting her new companion back to the airship and scrounging up a meal with slightly less prying eyes.

Have some dice if the airship crew needs persuading, or I have to roll for craft (water) food prep. (Not breaking out the glass craft arm for this, but if I need to throw the First Kimbery Excellency at cooking that's more than enough dice).

rolled 8, 9, 8, 2, 9, 9, 3, 3, 4, 3, 3, 7, 9, 5, 3, 2, 5, 1, 2, 6, 10, 5, 7, 10, 5, 4, 1, 9, 2, 2 = 156

---

>>944157
COD spends the first day, after performing routine maintenance on the Manta, studying the ritual circle they used to pray to Mauger. Counting that as one day of training for the second occult excellency. Of course, seeing as Dell is heading off in to the demon forests, she can't in good conscious let her go alone. Over the week she prepares a demon summoning circle and task binds a beauteous wasp to aid her, as well as sending Angel, the Aalu bound under the courtesan plate, since the two seemed to work well together.

Spending 20 peripheral motes and 1wp to summon the demon, then she'll penalize it's roll by five by spending an additional 10 peripheral mote and 15 personal motes. COD has an effective pool of 13 for the summoning, and of course Karal Tin Otter has been asked ever so kindly to destroy the creature if the process fails to bind it.

>>944231
Surprised and in no small amount elated by the kindness of this stranger she just met, Viatrix cautiously steps into Petal's arms, now feeling her remaining restraint buckle under her welling emotions given license to burst out.
"My parents..." She sobs bitterly.
"I promised them I'd come visit next week. Oh Gods" Viatrix half chokes at the vocalization of her own thoughts, tears soaking up Petal's shoulder as she does.
"They... they *died* never knowing what happened to me. Decades, centuries ago. Everyone I've ever known"

rolled 2, 10, 5, 1, 5, 8, 8, 9, 8, 10, 10, 9, 5, 3, 8, 7, 7, 7, 6, 8, 1, 9, 8, 5, 1, 3, 4, 4, 2, 1 = 174

---

Seeing the Troll woman holding steadfast in the face of criticism for something she believed earnestly, as far as he could tell, moved Creeping hunter of mortal men. Not in the sense that he cared suddenly about the lives of slaves but that he respected her. Also he knew that working together and combining forces would improve the herd's chances of survival. Not liking Rivers's worrying phrasing he moved into action, trying to sway the course of the discussion.

"I, Creeping Hunter of Mortal Men previously Warmaster of the Redhorns, am willing to renounce slavery this day. Those members of the council who might not should think carefully about their chances of survivals and the greater good of the tribe. I suggests the council put it to a vote. To renounce slavery as a tribe or not. Decide quickly."

Creeping Hunter attempts to will the council to vote in a manner he believes to be the best for the herd.

>>944271
Seven successes versus a botch, the beauteous wasp is successfully bound. Is the task binding to aid UWD in her current mission, or indefinitely and also serve her heirs unto the seventh generation, or what?

>>944157
Okay, you've mapped out two hexes of brass forest, and gotten a pretty good sense of which way the clues in that dream are leading you. However, to follow the songline to it's conclusion you'll need to be away from base significantly more than eight hours. Builder bugs could come with you, but to be safe from Hrotsvitha-fumes they'd need to stay within the hearthstone's very limited range rather than acting as continuous comm relays.

>>944359
How much longer than eight hours? Given I don't know the exact location I don't expect a precise answer, but there's a significant difference between expecting to be gone for a day, or days, or weeks, etc., and what planned precautions that would require. Especially with the cursed boots in play- traveling alone and not returning to base means no countermagic from COD, and potentially piling up dangerous levels of fatigue and/or bashing damage with Tireless String-Plucking Meditation.

>>944356
>>944188

"Good! Again, the offer stands to grant gifts of knowledge, strength, and health to any who do not feel they are contributing enough. Particularly if anyone is interested in learning thaumaturgy, or woodworking. Weapons and arrows of oak, rowan, and ash are deadly to the luminata. While a living luminata is useful if captured, they're breeding at a distressing rate, so it's more urgent to defend ourselves. We'll need to plant new saplings, perhaps do some grafting, but luckily we have access to a powerful Wood demesne. Growing new plants is as easy as those attuned giving a few speeches or lectures. I would be willing of course to do so for anyone wishing to listen. I only need the time to manage my inn and my summoned assistants. Of course, it's much faster to simply grant the knowledge to those who wish for it, but I understand that not everyone wishes to accept the gifts. I will be giving my associate, the naneke Inauspicious Ink, as much knowledge as I possibly can, and you can go to them to learn."

Red and Gold then turns his attention back to the roll of Aalu silk, finally coming to a decision. He rolls it up, tucks it away, and begins to pen a response to the Dynast.

'I cannot disentangle the details of this agreement at this moment, but given the urgency of the problem, I would be glad to deliver the first several shipments free of charge, with only one problem. Between us lies both a small army of luminata, and the wiles of Hrotsvitha. Transporting the food would require a vast investment into military force to ferry it back and forth. While I can grant protection from the effects of Hrotsvitha to my servants, to do so is as costly as summoning a second servant. If you possess any method of at least meeting my shipments halfway, or assisting in the transportation, this would be much smoother. Additionally, I have an interest in rebuilding the damaged Exalted bloodlines within this part of Creation. I will be sending an appropriate envoy on this matter to meet with you.'

Red and Gold then passes the letter to Adamant Seneschal, whom he has whistled for, instructing them to collect the neomah to bring to Sesus Xanin with the letter.

(The neomah is supposed to be bound to the task of repairing Dragonblooded bloodlines in this region, so meeting a DB shouldn't be difficult to convince them to do.)

>>944374
You can heal bashing damage faster than it accumulates by resting in the shade, even with the boots still on. Already saw the first two stations or stanzas, out of about a dozen from the dream, so it feels like you ought to be able to get there in a week if you really focused on it - two at most, unless there's some wacky trick like the later steps becoming exponentially further apart or the whole sequence repeating. Return trip should be much simpler: even if the guardian broke your legs, builder bugs could construct a landing platform in some high-visibility color and you could call for pickup with Wind-Carried Words.

>>944376
Well, thought Sesus Xanin, that wasn't the expected, or even intended, with that contract. But, it definitely told her that even among probable Anathema, she was the most suited to lead, and that warmed her heart to get that vindication.

She had kept the Neomah in a side room at the moment, not particularly sure how she wanted to respond to that particular request. Maybe she would see about getting a small sample of hair or something from the other dragon blooded. See how likely they were to Exalt. Maybe having some spun up infants from the best of the best bred mortals wouldn't be so bad a deal if she got to keep them to make sure that they Exalt, and are loyal to her as opposed to some Anathema.

But, that was a long way off, decades of work would go into a project like that, for now, she would need to get help from the Lawship. She gathers as many of the Lookshyan DBs as possible.

"Alright, I am making a formal request to use your Manta ship to run an initial shipment of food to what I'm formally naming the Boiling Castle. We will need to find some way to formally clear pathways for more convenient shipping, but this should be suitable for an emergency supply run.

"Plus, it will give you a situation to see just what I meant when I proclaimed that the situation in the section of creation was in many magnatudes worse a position than you might have feared."

>>944305
The chosen of Kimbery and Venus does not offer her grief stricken companion meaningless platitudes. She does not say that it will be all right, she does not try to cast her loss as less painful or less significant then it truly is. Viatrix Senta's grief is real; she cared for those she lost. To feel for others is the first step towards healing, and the most honest way to honor the lost.

She embraces her companion, offering silent comfort as the No Moon mourns the loss of all she once held dear. The Vizier tries, unsuccessfully, to keep the face from her dreams from appearing in her mind, and the memory of her own complicity in that destruction, lifetimes ago.

Umbrageous Waxwing Dell 2019/09/05(Thu)18:49 No. 944424 ID: afdebc
File 156773456287.png - (112.23KB , 501x398 , Map.png )

rolled 7, 3, 8, 3, 5, 7, 8, 4, 3, 5, 1, 9, 4, 8, 9, 5, 9, 9, 4, 1, 9, 8, 7, 9, 7, 9, 2, 6, 7, 6 = 182

---

>>944359
>Okay, you've mapped out two hexes of brass forest
>Which two hexes of forest has UWD scouted out?
Let's say Dell mapped hexes 25 and 39, which also serves the purpose of helping establish the trade route Sesus Xanin is interested in. Did Dell find anything noteworthy in those two hexes to report back to the fire aspect? (That she recognized as noteworthy, at least. With occult 0 Dell may have missed the significance of some things she was, though the two demons 'Thyk sent along to help might be able to bridge that gap).

Rolling dice if needed to determine possibly-random woodlands discoveries.

>>944410
Well, she'll need to clear things with the others first, if she's going to step out for a longer expedition, Dell muses to herself. And she may be delayed to address issues the others require assistance with, first.

>>944413
Speaking of!

Dell's willing to accompany SX on the supply run. (And it's not as if they could just let her fly Flair's ship by herself, either).

>>944358
Given what happened with the Gethin, binding it to a simple task might lead to complications if it can complete the task and then hang around afterwards without an easy way to dismiss it. Let's say it's task bound to "Serve the will of Umbrageous Waxwing Dell until both she and I agree without coercion to release you from your service."

Speaking of demon summoning, I'd like to state that during the first week in Malfeas, in addition to having summoned Angel, the Aalu with an aversion to it's own diet, COD also summoned a stomach bottle bug and a set of living armor. Exact stats, personal quirks, and the plate they were bound under is yet to be determined, but I'd prefer they both be heroic, and I was thinking about having the stomach bottle bug specialize in war, maybe name it after the general/cook from the rail-priests in girl genius.

>>944424
COD is also willing to participate in the first cargo run. Of course, they do have their client to worry about, and finding Flair... how's the progress on getting the manse's traffic flowing? Xanin seems to intend to fill up the space as best she can, are there major obstacles we need to go questing to solve?

>>944305
>>944231
The Haslanti crew have been kneeling respectfully during this whole conversation. As the two exalts walk back toward the airship, negotiators turn to face each other. "As reparations for emotional harm to our aerial scout..." "If she's been yours all along, her carelessness nearly got my only son..." and on in circles.

The airship's senior thaumaturge and dream-interpreter approaches Petal and Viatrix at the campfire. "So, you're a Chosen of Luna? I've never met one in person before. Have you already been to Twisted Stone?"

He's got a necklace of charms and talismans, but one in particular catches Viatrix's eye: the item itself is a simple squarish iron bar the size of a pinky finger painted with a pattern of circles in white and cobalt-blue enamel, but it's clearly meant to symbolize a tower - a specific tower, the heart of an empire spread across five or ten million square miles. That hole isn't just a convenience for display purposes. Rather, it represents the fact that the original tower was so tall it needed a gate to let the moon pass through at night. All this was glimpsed only briefly, but the memory is clear.

>>944415
When Viatrix finally lets go, she still looks plenty haggard, but in a better condition to act on the present instead of wallowing on the past; at least for the moment.
"Thanks" She inhales deeply, the sound of her breathing still erratic. "For putting up with and believing a crazy story from a total stranger" she continues, her voice flowing more steadily, with more impact that could be expected from someone so vulnerable.
"I'll be thanking The Maidens every night for a while, for making me so lucky to have the first person I meet after all that happened to be as kind as you are"
Viatrix's glances for a moment at the boy with the crowbar, previously running at her.
"Even though, technically..." she shuckles, looking back at Petal
"I guess that I interrupted what was happening here. I'm just an airfield technician... now unemployed airfield technician" Viatrix adds with a mix of sadness and humor.
"But I'll be happy to help"

>>944415
The most Viatrix understood out of the Haslanti crew's exchange was that the crowbar boy was somehow upset at not dying. She struggled at filling out her taxes on a good day, and the jargon at use, coupled with its modern regression made her lose interest rather quickly.
"I.. I guess that I am" She replies to the senior thaumaturge, having not thought very much on the subject at all on her own, never thinking that she'd speak with one of The Celestials, so much as *be* one.
"I ah, no. I haven't been to Twisted Stone, sir"
Viatrix makes brief eye contact with Petal immediately after answering, hoping that her new friend could fill the knowledge gap of something that sounded like she should know about.

>>944489
The kid with the crowbar isn't one of the Haslanti, he's from the group in the wagons, with whom they're haggling for provisions.

The dreamspeaker says that Twisted Stone, an island near the eastern end of the White Sea, is a sacred meeting place where the Haslanti League was founded almost 200 years ago, and Gerd Marrow-Eater still calls young Chosen to meet him there from all across the North, presumably to share those secrets known only to the Chosen.

>Discord stuff
>Shipment of demon locust
>One of three volunteers nopes out completely, one spoils the effect, the third becomes completely loyal and a creature of darkness.

While this is happening, since it takes one week to train up Lore 2, and 12 days to train up Elemental Concentration Trance (2 Lore, 2 essence *4 for inventing from first principles) I'll have 5 days left on that when Enrico Botacceli and buying Retainer 1, bringing me fully in line with what I need for Command 2 from the DotFA book.

Enrico Buccellati

Motivation: To serve Sesus Xanin (Because Retainer)

Attributes:
Strength: •• Charisma: • Wits: ••
Dexterity: ••• Manipulation: •• Intelligence: ••••
Stamina: •• Appearance: •• Perception: •••

Skills:

Favored: Craft

Archery
Athletics: ••
Awareness
Bureaucracy
*Craft (Air): •
*Craft (Earth): •••••
*Craft (Fire): •
*Craft (Water):••
*Craft (Wood): ••
*Craft (Steam): ••
Dodge
Integrity
Investigation
Larceny
Linguistics: ••
Lore:•••
Martial Arts
Medicine: ••
Melee: ••
Occult: ••• (Specialty: Art of Geomancy +2, Art of Astrology +2)
Performance
Presence: •
Resistance
Ride
Sail
Socialize: •
Stealth
Survival: •••••
Thrown
War: ••

Virtues:
Compassion: •• Conviction: ••• Temperance: •• Valor: ••

Backgrounds:
Resources: ••
Familiar: •••

Essence: 1 Willpower: 10 Motes: 5/5

BP expenditure:

2/25:

5: Willpower +5

2: Craft (Earth) to 5

1: Craft (Wood) to 2

2: Craft (Water) to 2

2: Craft (Steam) to 2

-4: Creature of Darkness

6: Transcendent Desert Creature

4: Survival to 5

1: Craft (Air) to 1

1: Craft (Fire) to 1

Potato the Hearth-Cat Familiar

Attributes:

Strength: • Charisma: •• Perception: ••
Dexterity: ••• Manipulation: ••• Intelligence: •••
Stamina: •• Appearance: ••• Wits: •••

Abilities:

Archery: ••
Athletics: •••
Awareness: ••
Dodge: ••••
Integrity: ••
Investigation: •
Martial Arts: ••
Presence: •••
Resistance: •••• (Cold +3)
Stealth: •••
Survival: ••

Essence: 1 Willpower: 3 Motes: 5/5

Dodge DV: 3 Parry DV: 3

Special Abilities:

>Hyper-intelligent by cat standards, maybe a little above average for a human. Natural weapon comparable to a plasma tongue repeater that doesn't require ammo. If not brushed regularly, self-grooming results in hairballs that go off like southern fire arrows when disturbed. Can climb any solid flammable surface, even if it seems like it shouldn't be able to support a cat's weight, including metallic malfean vegetation but not ordinary forged metal.

>Having thought it over, I think the cat's natural weapon should actually cost 3m per five shots.

Attack:

Plasma Tongue Repeater speed: 5 Accuracy: +2 (7 dice) base damage:10L Rate: 1 Range: 20 (maximum range) Ammo: 5 Tag: N, F

>>944509
That's too many skill and attribute dots for a starting nonheroic mortal.

>>944510
Oh, yeah, I completely messed that up and made him full heroic. Fixing this now.


Attributes:
Strength: • Charisma: •• Wits: •
Dexterity: ••• Manipulation: •• Intelligence: •••
Stamina: •• Appearance: •• Perception: •••

Skills:

Archery
Athletics:
Awareness
Bureaucracy
Craft (Air):
Craft (Earth): •••
Craft (Fire):
Craft (Water): ••
Craft (Wood): ••
Craft (Steam): •
Dodge
Integrity
Investigation
Larceny
Linguistics: •• (Low Realm: Native, High Realm, Old Realm)
Lore:•••
Martial Arts
Medicine: ••
Melee: •
Occult: ••• (Specialty: Art of Geomancy +2, Art of Astrology +2, Art of Husbandry +1)
Performance
Presence: •
Resistance
Ride
Sail
Socialize: •
Stealth
Survival: •••
Thrown
War: •

Backgrounds:
Backing (Throne of the Crimson Queen): 1

BP:

6/26

Creature of Darkness: +4
Transcendent Desert Creature: -6
Linguistics 2: -4
Temperature Sensitivity (Cold): +1
Craft (Water) 2:-4
Craft (Wood) 2: -4
Craft (Steam)1: -2
Allergy (Rice): +1
Frail: +2

>>944356
Grizzlemaw sputters indigently for a moment before regaining his composure.
"You would threaten us, and abandon your herd for what? The cheap pleasures of a sordid troll? Surely you cannot seriously think this, this... beast has anything of value to us?" Angry spittle lands at Bridget's feat accompanied by an accusatory finger.

Bogar and Mogar exchange a nervous look, not expecting their status to be seriously endangered by these talks.
"Warma- Hunter, you have always ruled through strength. We cannot allow the weak to rise among us as our equals when they have no fur, no hooves, no strength or skill or cunning by which to prove their worth! Look up their docile faces- their spirits lack the fire of a smith, the stubbornness of a stonemason, the liveliness of a shine-worker or ingenuity of a wood carver! They are beasts of burden fit to carry tools and pitch our tents, and yet you would tell us, tell the members of our herd that we mean no more to you than this? That our skills are meaningless? That merit no longer rules here in the herd?"

Marthog, a spark in her eye, suddenly gets an idea. She had seen the shine-worker apprenticed to this smith, had watched her spin brass into shelter with nothing but her hands.
"The smiths are right Grizzlemaw- merit rules, and we must uphold tradition. This woman has promised we would learn her knowledge of fire, be given tools- surely you would honor her right to a challenge of skill?"

Capricious and prideful, Grizzlemaw of course cannot back down, but neither can he happily abide by some outsider bewitching the tribe with petty tricks and destroying the traditions, nay, the foundations upon which their lives are pitched.
"Bah. Should have known where'd you fall brat. This challenge is not just for a position to the tribe, but to us all! She seeks to undermine our way of life, and you would hand it to her on a platter?"

"So you admit she is more skilled and deserving and our best smiths could not best her?"

More sputtering follows, before a retort drenched in vitriol and sarcasm is given.
"Fine! A challenge it is then! And, since she challenges us all, what say you to this, oh great smith? Since you would seek to strip each great crafter in our tribe of their status, you must best them each before we shall submit to you!"

before the others can interject and complain about the ridiculous challenge, Bridget accepts.

"Agreed. A race. Your tribe and I each smith tools matching the members involved. Upon winning you all follow my code, and failure indebts me to fufill my promise of weapons and tools to you."

The council is slackjawed as Bridget accepts, nay, crafts a challenge which should be impossible- one smith competing with a whole tribe?

Clackhand nods at Creeping Hunter of Mortal Men.
"This is a contest of skill. No outside help will be allowed. Crafters, you must prove your own merit without the backing of the herd, or you admit you lack the skill and forfeit automatically. Any who interfere with the challenger or cheat shall die shamed and dishonored. We begin at the next scream."


And so, at the next scream of the tomescu, the race began. Quickly, it became clear to all Bridget's incredible prowess.

"But... she didn't even use a forge..."
"How did she find that vein of iron so quickly?
"She waded in there like it was nothing!"
"I heard she stopped in the middle of fashioning a shovel to help Bogar fix a mistake!"
"I don't even care about winning, I have to see how she does this."

Thus, the Red Horn Tribe did agree to renounce slavery and enter the fold as members of the nameless village.
Details of the actual outcome of the contest are negotiable, as are the terms by which they joined the village if there are any areas of concern, but per discord, we agreed to say that proof of Bridgets crafting capabilities and gall to take on an impossible challenge as if it were a childs dare was enough leverage to sway the tribe into agreeing to move forward by renouncing slavery.

>>944534
In place of those four points of specific health problems, just knock Stamina down by a dot. Where'd he learn genesis tech? What sort of thaumaturgical tools has he got?

Up until recently, the Red Horn Tribe has had a fairly straightforward leadership structure. With the recent events, it is unclear who the beastmen should turn to. So, we should probably lock in any support we want to claim mechanically as a background, and broad scale we should think about the kingdom roles outlined by pathfinders kingdom building requirements. Creating a single unified government will make things easier going forward and help solidify edicts to raise moral or generate more labor as we face off against the luminata threat or various other Malfean horrors. To help get us all on the same page, I'm going to loosely define some terms and jobs based on information from here: https://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/other-rules/kingdom-building/#TOC-Ruler
Then I'll finish off by making some suggestions for who does what job in the kingdom. If you don't want to read all the kingdom building stuff right now, you can just skip ahead to the "here's what job x should have" part. If you want to read it in more detail, follow the link.

Economy, loyalty, stability, and unrest are the big terms that each roll interacts with. For all rolls, filling them gives the kingdom some benefit provided they have relevant skills to contribute, and for many leaving them vacant imposes penalties. According to JamesLeng:
"Economy, Loyalty and Stability from the Pathfinder kingdom-building rules correspond to the Bureaucracy, Socialize, and War skills, and in a more general sense, Mental, Social, and Physical attributes."
Unrest we don't have a clear correlation to, but in the pathfinder system it makes all rolls for economy, loyalty, and stability harder, lowering your result, so overall more of it makes everything harder to do, and is bad. While the other values are generally static numbers, unrest builds continuously, so any position that creates unrest will continuously generate more and more of it, while any penalties to economy, loyalty, or stability will remain a static debuff.

The roles are listed mechanically below. For each roll, one or more core pathfinder stats are listed; this is the stat which the roll benefits from most in pathfinder. A / means the job can benefit equally well from either listed stat. Below that what the player would normally be rolling to deal with, and below that are the benefits/detriments the kingdom gains overall for having the position filled or vacant.

>Ruler
Charisma
Loyalty checks, any checks or edicts not covered by other rulers
Chooses an aspect of the kingdom, either economy loyalty or stability, and enhance rolls regarding it. If left vacant, generates large amounts of unrest, and you cannot take certain building or expansion actions.

>Consort
Charisma
As Ruler when Ruler is unavailable
Adds a small bonus to loyalty rolls, and can negate the vacancy penalty if the ruler is absent. No vacancy penalty.

>Councilor
Charisma/Wisdom
Holiday edicts
Adds a bonus to loyalty rolls. If left vacant, applies a penalty to stability, you cannot benefit from certain holiday events, and generates a small amount of unrest.

>General
Charisma/Strength
Kingdom checks for events requiring combat
Adds a bonus to stability. If left vacant, applies a large penalty to loyalty.

>Grand Diplomat
Charisma/Intelligence
Diplomatic edicts
Adds a bonus to stability. If left vacant, applies a penalty to stability, and you cannot benefit from certain diplomatic or exploration options.

>Heir
Charisma
Kingdom event rolls
Adds a bonus to loyalty, and can negate or lessen the the vacancy penalty if the ruler is absent. No vacancy penalty.

>High Priest
Charisma/Wisdom
Holiday edicts, rolls to generate magic items from Cathedrals, Shrines, and Temples
Adds a bonus to stability. If left vacant, applies a penalty to stability and loyalty, and generates a small amount of unrest.

>Magister
Charisma/Intelligence
Rolls to generate magic items not rolled by the High Priest
Adds a bonus to economy. If left vacant, applies a large penalty to economy.

>Marshal
Dexterity/Wisdom
Exploration edicts
Adds a bonus to economy. If left vacant, applies a large penalty to economy.

>Royal Enforcer
Dexterity/Strength
Loyalty checks to reduce Unrest or prevent Unrest increases
Adds a bonus to loyalty, and can attempt to decrease unrest by a small amount, but risks decreasing loyalty by a small amount to do so. No vacancy penalty.

>Spymaster
Dexterity/Intelligence
Kingdom checks involving crime and foreigners
Adds a bonus to either economy, loyalty, or stability, as needed. If left vacant, economy decreases a large amount, and generates a small amount of unrest.

>Treasurer
Intelligence/Wisdom
Economy checks, Taxation edicts, Trade edicts
Adds a bonus to economy. If left vacant, economy decreases a large amount, and you cannot collect taxes.

>Viceroy
This one is unclear on if the bonuses are provided to the kingdom as a whole, or only to a vassal state the viceroy leads. If it is the latter, this role and it's penalty can be disregarded.
Intelligence/Wisdom
Vassalage edicts
Adds a small bonus to Economy, and may also provided the benefit of any other roll in the kingdom with a small penalty to the vassal state. If left vacant, the vassal state suffers the vacant ruler penalty.

>Warden
Constitution/Strength.
Stability checks
Adds a bonus to loyalty. If left vacant, loyalty and stability decrease.

So, who does what job?
This is open to debate, but there's been a few suggestions.
Jameslengs suggests Rivers as ruler, Morse as consort, Creeping Hunter as general, Bridget as magister, Red And Gold as diplomat, with Bargux tentatively put down for spymaster if they're actually given the skills to do the job.

I would suggest Seven Broken Wings of Red and Gold as ruler (because he's already sorta in charge and controls much of the labor force), Rivers as councilor (to cook all the feasts and make all the booze) Creeping Hunter of Mortal Men as general (because he has war, and soldiers to back it up), Lute Silhouette Speculation in Comet's Reflection as high priest (cause she wants to be building cults and crafting) Bridget as Magister (cause she's doing all the crafting and teaching), Morse as Marshal (So she's off killing stuff threatening our people, instead of inside the walls threatening to kill them herself). that leaves us relying on outside help for diplomat, treasurer, and warden, the first two being pretty damn important, the next one also probably being important if we want to have laws and stuff. I also think Red and gold fits diplomat very well, and Bridget would be happy to take leader. I have plans in mind for interacting with the holiday edicts and tax edicts, so putting one of my characters in a position to control either of those aspects might be a good idea? Rivers could take over as general with some more dots in war and backgrounds. Lute could probably fill a bunch of different rolls, and calling up Edgar to take a position seems reasonable. Chiming in with what roles you think suit what exalts or mortals is probably useful information for formally merging the village and the Red Horn Tribe.

>>944610
Alright, though even if he's not getting anything for it he's still going to have cold sensitivity, because that's part of the reason why he got a so-called Fire-Cat.

He learned Craft (Genesis) through his education, having been a normal citizen who had a job lined up as an assistant to a firm who, in addition to being on the edge of trying to build novel new creatures like the Hearth-cat, offered illicit services like helping mortals have unions blessed by the dragons. However, his skill with occult, and something about his demeanor caught the attention of one of Sesus Xanin's cousins, who went to a decent length to have him hired. By that point he had learned astronomy because that was the cheapest and most readily available Thaumaturgy to learn out there, and had basically just started the path to learning husbandry.

He wound up serving under SX as a battlefield engineer because of a combination of familial rivalry, and subterfuge. SX funded and sponsored his education in geomancy, because she was planning on breaking away from the Realm for a minute, and making sure she had a capable geomancer who could harmonize architecture with the local essence flow is really important.

As for tools he has on him, he has an astrolabe, as many quality vials of ink and parchment he can carry for making star-charts and geneology stuff. He also has a pumb-bob that incorporates all 5 color of Jade for surveing and dowsing purposes.

>>944599
Rivers had no intention of interfering with the challenge. It at least solved one of the main reasons she objected to getting rid of slavery.

Of course, she hadn't exactly thought through joining the tribe and the town together, since the rest of negotiations were comparatively low tension.

>Kingdom Building Stuff

I tend to agree with JL's assessment, though Bridget being the person advocating for the citizens would probably be good. Maybe give Lute the position of Royal Enforcer, since she's got the attributes for it, and it has no vacancy, so month long trips.

I'm not really sure what Edgar's stats are to put him anywhere.

>Start an adventure:

Well, there are only two days left before the Alchemical base stuff, but Rivers is going to try to take Bridget out and explore the actual brass forests.

>>944625
>Rivers is going to try to take Bridget out and explore the actual brass forests.

"Why?"

Bridget is unsure if it's wise to divert their attention to the forest- she's got classes to teach, and needs to fulfill her promise to the villagers.
Still, she does need training, and Rivers says she has plans to to go assist Luminous Alacrity soon regardless, so perhaps a short jaunt is fine. What exactly is the expected timeframe, and the goal/destination of this trip?

>>944657
It's bold of you to assume that Rivers has an actual destination/goal in mind outside of just kind of exploring and finding some cool places in the woods.

"Well, it occurs to me that we've never ACTUALLY gone on any kind of adventure together. So, it follows to reason that we should. Just pick a direction, go exploring it for a day, take a day to head back."

rolled 8, 1, 9, 10, 6, 3, 8, 2, 1, 2, 8, 5, 8, 1, 8, 7, 3, 9, 5, 6, 9, 10, 7, 9, 3, 7, 6, 5, 6, 6 = 178

---

>>944660
Bridget ponders for three, maybe five minutes.

Normally one might go for a walk to find inspiration, relax from the heat, or lure prey to a more opertune location, away from their tools, weapons, and help, or perhaps to safeguard your valuables being damaged in the ensuring fight. Bridget aimed to do none of these. Rivers she was... less sure of. But, she seemed to hold powerful sway in the Red Horn Tribe. She and Morse were mated. She had proven her combat prowess against the interlopers and was armed with powerful new tools. Certainly a person worth knowing, and knowing more about.

"Agreed. We pursue blood apes."

And with that, she sets off towards the forest, hoping to find members of The Reverent Society of Reflective Foresters.

Mechanically, rolling to navigate the brass forest, and purchasing one success with the second survival excellency. If the pool is int+survival, that's ten dice. Traveling overland rather than jumping, just to be clear.

To take folks advise, instead of sitting on my hands and waiting for the time and energy to do research, I'll ask questions in the thread and get XP for it.

So, how long does it take to properly set up a new demon summoning space at the manse? What kind of area is it likely to be, and can I just assume all the tools I need are portable from the last one, or is there stuff that needs to be reaquired for setting up a new circle?

Perhaps more importantly, for her prayer to Stanewald, what should it actually look like? There was some discussion of s
breaking stone being symbolically potent enough- what about other thematic elements? What does she need to complete it? I understand you can burn offerings to make it easier, but an overview of the actual mechanics and various options might help me get in the right place to carry out the actual event.

rolled 8, 1, 8, 5, 6, 8, 3, 9, 9, 7, 3, 2, 10, 8, 8 = 95

---

>>944664
"Well, I don't know too much about them, but I'm definitely interested in seeing what it is that you want to do with this."

Tracking is Perception+Survival, so still 10 dice and a 2 dot stunt, and with the excellency I count 7 successes on your roll.

Rivers would do her best to make small talk, not particularly trying to be stealthy, but absolutely heeding the warnings that things should never get too quiet, as she walked shoulder to shoulder with Bridget, her war form more than making up the difference in size.

"I should really ask. Where did you learn how to be an anathema?"

Almost as soon as she finished saying that, however, a blood ape about as big as either of them swinging on a vine made of copper coils swung past and slapped Rivers in the head with a brittle piece of metal, shattering harmlessly on impact on her armored skin.

"Tally ho, bitches. Fancy seeing two strangers to this section of the little old billion acre woods. By right, I should ask you who you work for so I can know if I need to formally challenge you to a duel."

rolled 7, 3, 7, 6, 10, 3, 9, 5, 2, 4, 10, 5, 3, 5, 4, 1, 7, 4, 5, 6, 5, 7, 7, 2, 6, 1, 7, 1, 3, 1 = 146

---

>>944424
>>944413

"I'll come along on the supply run, to help shifting cargo. Afraid I can't be of much use flying it, though."

In the meantime, for the time unoccupied by the trip KTO will be attempting to drill Sesus Xanin's soldiers in Martial Arts. Sparring, mostly, while he tries to listen to what they have to say about recent events. He'll also be looking to find any clues he can as to FFE's abduction, although he is unlikely to make any progress.

(KTO has a Strength+Athletics dicepool of 7, which is probably on the higher side, although no excellency. Is attempting to get a grasp of what local conversations are about a Socialize thing?)

Sesus Xanin sat in expertly laundered silk night ware in a room with only the facimile of darkness, the constant emerald sun shining, right where it always was. Her armor stood like an ever vigilant sentinel beside her bed, and her hand gripped tightly to her sword, her shield serving as a second blanket to rest over her head, and her crown lay exactly where it was supposed to, on top of her head.

In truth, while she wouldn't dare bring up a possible sign of weakness, she had only recently changed her nightly routine, and she had started the process of having a thaumaturge to build her as close to a perfected bed as possible. All of this because her sleep had become restless as of late. Her dreams being plagued by a bright white light and visions of glory, and of a black wound over creation.

Regardless, she fell asleep, her dreams once more plagued by visions of darkness and the color of madness washing over creation to leave them ultimately destroyed, only held back by various lights. The first to fall from the madness without was a bright but thoroughly tarnished silver, the light to fall from the darkness within being a radiant but dim gold. Unholy green washed over in waves, but all of it stopped at a pure white light, as bright as the silver, and as radiant as the gold. And then the white light expanded, pushing back the darkness and madness past the borders of creation, and erasing much of their power.

Every night this vision played out, sometimes the details had changed, like the odd splash of powerful green light, or where the conflicting forces meet. But it always ended with the forces of untamed light wining, and every day subconsciously she made sure the Crown of Thunders was affixed tightly to her head.

>>944494
Viatrix squints a little at the sound of Gerd's full name but doesn't say anything in comment.
"Then Twisted Stone is where I should be headed" she replies, half instinctively bringing her left hand's wrist up and glancing down at a thick band's width of alabaster skin, standing out in fierce contrast to the rest of her tanned arm.
"Oh" she remarks, almost miserably.
"I might need to rely on your kindness in giving me directions" She covers her arm back
with her sleeve with an inaudible sigh.
"What would your plans be, Petal?" Viatrix asks her companion, sounding like she doesn't intend to rush off to Twisted Stone immediately.

rolled 5, 8, 2, 3, 10, 9, 4, 5, 9, 10, 5, 2, 6, 10, 8, 2, 1, 4, 6, 3 = 112

---

>>944683
>glancing down at a thick band's width of alabaster skin, standing out in fierce contrast to the rest of her tanned arm
A missing Resplendent Personal Assistant, perhaps?

>"I might need to rely on your kindness in giving me directions" She covers her arm back
The haslanti airship must have maps for navigation. It seems like it would be a simple matter to start pointing out locations in the now-altered north to the No Moon, or to provide simple sketches otherwise. (Let's roll for that, but "pulling punches" on so as not to create an impossible work of art in the process this time, no craft arm bonus).

>"What would your plans be, Petal?" Viatrix asks her companion, sounding like she doesn't intend to rush off to Twisted Stone immediately.
Sensitive to her companion's discomfort,Petal deftly answers, allowing the topic of conversation to move on (in Skytongue). "Currently I am bound for the city of Whitewall, once known as Ondar Shambal. It flourishes under the aegis of the Syndics, three mighty gods, protected by and containing secrets of a lost age. If it interests you, I would be glad to have your company."

rolled 2, 4, 7, 10, 4, 3, 5, 7, 3, 2, 3, 2, 4, 10, 8, 3, 1, 2, 9, 5, 7, 3, 5, 1, 3, 9, 6, 8, 8, 4 = 148

---

>>944672
>Where did you learn how to be an anathema?"
"The immaculate texts are inaccurate."

>slapped Rivers in the head with a brittle piece of metal, shattering harmlessly on impact on her armored skin.
"Cease hostilities or I must restrain."

Bridget is making an intimidation attack. Don't know what pool join debate is, but she's potentially got a relative appearance bonus from appearance one for the actual attack, since she's being big and scary. Cha 5, 0 for any other social skill, penalties from disturbing voice and ugly potentially relevant. Blood ape probably has a relevant intimacy or urge that would boost MDV for any commands to not fight.

>A missing Resplendent Personal Assistant, perhaps?
It seems that irony hangs like a rain cloud on Viatrix, to come from an unbelievably wealthier time, but to only have a suit of work clothes to show for it.
>"Currently I am bound for the city of Whitewall, once known as Ondar Shambal. It flourishes under the aegis of the Syndics, three mighty gods, protected by and containing secrets of a lost age. If it interests you, I would be glad to have your company."
Viatrix's expression changes from hopeful expectation to that of a radiant smile, clasping her hands together and close to her chest.
"I would like yours, as well, Wind Carried Petal"
Her mood darkens again as she seems to be weighing her next words for a moment
"I'm scared" Viatrix says plainly, having switched back to Old Realm, and doing her best to keep her voice steady.
"More than I can put into words, by what I've seen, by what you've told me. It will be...
I mean- it won't be as painful to see it with my own eyes if I travel with you"

>>944720
Join debate is the same as join battle, Wits+Awareness.

>"The immaculate texts are inaccurate."

"I disagree."

>"Cease hostilities or I must restrain."

While hardly official, counting that as a one dot stunt, and just using the first 6 dice with
a -1 penalty to his DV for appearance 0 to DV 4, and you only got 3 successes, so I'm going to play it like he didn't even realize you were threatening him.

"Well, a boss with a name that long an' dumb sure sounds like a blighter don'e. Name's Reggie, and I'm the tour-guide round 'ere, an' I can tell by lookin' at ya that you're gonna like it here."

Rivers is incredulous at this guy, but honestly seemed pretty interested in what kind of place they have out here.

>>944765
>"I'm scared" Viatrix says plainly, having switched back to Old Realm, and doing her best to keep her voice steady.
>"More than I can put into words, by what I've seen, by what you've told me. It will be...
>I mean- it won't be as painful to see it with my own eyes if I travel with you"
"It's all right to be afraid," the disguised joybringer replies in the same tongue. "But if there's one thing the chosen of Luna are known for, it is that you are survivors. You will find the strength you need, when the time comes."

Moving ahead on the planning for the lawship resupplying mission.

>How much food are you bringing? How is it being prepared? The Lawship is currently configured so much of the cargo capacity is office space or living quarters, will that have to be unpacked? Where will the offices be kept and how will they be secured while the ship is away?

Given that we probably want to conserve time and resources spent on maintenance, flight, or dealing with any demonic complications en route, it seems reasonable we'd want to pick up as much food as possible in one trip.

Which means it's probably a good idea to free up as much cargo space as is reasonable- unload supplied and break down offices and such- it's worth spending a few hours before and after the mission moving stuff around. The offloaded materials should be stored at SX's manse, probably under guard. (And if the lawship DBs don't entirely trust the realm soldiers with their stuff, Cathak Othok Dythyk could put a bound demon on watching it).

How much food is available for pickup probably comes down to what Red and Gold is arranging for us.

>In character
"So, ah, where are we going to pick up this food shipment for your soldiers, and who's providing it?" Dell asks Sesus Xanin, as the group prepares the lawship for their mission. "I wasn't aware there were any farms in hell, at least not the kind that produce anything safe for mortals."

SX might need to come up with a story before, say, the others discover they're trading with an anathema at the worst possible moment.

>>944785
Turning to Rivers:
"Are you well?"

>>944785
>I'm the tour-guide round 'ere
"I search for The Reverent Society of Reflective Foresters or others to challenge for trade."

>>944673
Over the course of the first week, any troops with only one dot in Martial Arts gain a second, and most others make incremental progress.

Xanin's soldiers don't seem to be aware they're in the demon realm. They think they're in the Northeast, near Ardeleth, to finish a fight the Tepet Legions started. They take your Manta's arrival as a favorable omen: Lookshy has finally set aside past differences, to close ranks against the common foe of all good Immaculates!

Supposedly - and this is all very hush-hush, so of course the troops manage to hold back for several minutes before gossiping about it - they're here to fight the Lover Clad in Blue, a new ally of the Bull of the North. Composite description of her adds up to a profile of Zsofika, the Kite Flute, distorted just enough to also adequately match traditional depictions of a Blasphemous Anathema. A remarkably precise and detailed profile, right down to details like which kind of incense she prefers, things the Sohei have classified very strictly need-to-know... and nobody needs to know unless they're either planning to summon her, or doing high-level intel analysis to find such a cult.

>>944798
>"It's all right to be afraid," the disguised joybringer replies in the same tongue. "But if there's one thing the chosen of Luna are known for, it is that you are survivors. You will find the strength you need, when the time comes."
"It's one more thing I have to get used to"
The fresh No Moon adds with an air of reverence.
"To be one of the Seven Hundred..." she trails off, distracted by both her own thoughts and the smell of cooking food nearby

>>944879

"I believe that I had mentioned there being a notably forty mile across, and in an even worse situation than you might have first imagined. Well, apparently a town in there has developed some degree of magic that enables there to be abundant enough food to be both abundant and lasting enough to survive shipping.

"Plus, this is a good opportunity to see haw accurate the tales of Anathema taking root there are.

Her stance as she boarded the Manta was like a flawless jade rod, her entire body as stable as a chicken's head and flowing less like a person walking and more flowing as effortlessly as a river.

"I've taken precautions against an ambush, however, and there is another, more expensive, location should this ultimately fall through."

>>944881
>"Are you well?"
"Well yeah. I mean, I'm wearing armor. Really felt like more of a love tap."

"An' a frien'y tap's the way tah gree' a fe'ow demon roun' thes parts."

>"I search for The Reverent Society of Reflective Foresters or others to challenge for trade."

"Well tha's goo'news. I dinnae thin' yah'd fitt in wi' mos'a the guys he'. Bu' we gah plenny'a tools."

>>944671
In principle you could do sorcerous demon summoning with no material setup at all, but that's needlessly dangerous. Most important tools are portable and reusable, the rest can be replaced within a few hours by builder bugs, or at acceptable cost by bartering with the locals.

If you wanted to be extra careful, though, you could make a whole new high-quality binding circle... and subtly incorporate a prayer to Stanewald into the crafting process.
Shopping list:
-Slab of sedimentary stone, no less than 64 inches square and 8 inches thick (a ton and a half, at least), ideally with traces of native copper from Creation
-Tanned hide of a horse, killed by strangling without significant blood loss or broken bones, hooves not touching the ground at time of death, ideally owned in life and beloved by someone whose feet never touched unbroken ground at all
-stonemason who can swing four successes for the carving and polishing, preferably in a noisy way
-dancer who can keep moving nonstop for four days and nights/however long it takes the mason to finish, without collapsing from exhaustion

>>944672
There are two blood ape lumberjacks present, both in jade reinforced buff jackets, and the other one - after sniffing at the air, though you can't smell much over the coppery musk of the trees - says he recognizes you from a brief encounter during that icy acid rainstorm, weeks ago. They're still cleaning up parts of that mess. If you're here to fight, he points out that you ran away last time, and won't be the first exalt he's killed and eaten. On the other hand, if you're here to offer some sort of reparations, he can help you get in touch with the Reflective Foresters' chain of command.

>>945023
Bridget is glad there seems to be no ill will; that form of "greeting" is new to her and may require some... rumination, before adjusting.

>>945044
Bridget would appreciate speaking to those in command, although she was not part of whatever initial event requires reparations. She is interested in tools, labor, and good relations with her neighbors, but being new in town and cut off from her homestead, she has little to offer in the way of honest payment. Would those higher up the chain of command, or any of your fellows be interested in gambling or challenges of skill as alternative payment methods? She has just traveled here from the new development, said to be protected by one of the unquestionables and a diplomat of some renown, although, Bridget admits, she had not heard of him prior and knows not what he did to earn his status. He seems to be well respected by the locals, rather than those from beyond Cecelyne.

rolled 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 7, 3, 6, 10, 3, 8, 10, 8, 6, 1, 3, 4, 7, 3, 7, 1, 6, 9, 8, 4, 4, 5, 6, 10, 6, 8, 9, 5, 9, 4, 3, 5, 1, 10, 9, 10, 6, 6, 2, 3, 10, 3, 8, 6, 9, 3, 6, 9, 7, 8, 7, 8, 6, 2 = 372

---

>>944913
>her entire body as stable as a chicken's head
An amusingly humble comparison for the Fire Aspect.

>>945042
Since she had the proper tools prior then, I think I'll assume that COD was able to set up the regular summoning without issue after the transfer. The advanced summoning circle sounds like it may require outside assistance, likely from Xanin. Does Cathak Othok Dythyk know about Dells desire to dance? Seems relevant to finding the requisite dancers, if she can convince her it's a good idea. Xanin will also have to be approached in private, to ascertain just how comfortable she is with the demonic- praying to Mauger was a surprising development, and a ray potentially useful sunshine to potentially investigate after they sort this mess out.

So, lets say over the course of the week she spent one day getting set up again, during which she did her excellency training as marked, and at the end she spent one day helping direct extra labor to unpack the ship. If it's a five day week, we can assume she summoned three other demons; lets say three beauteous wasps. Already rolled for one, which was assigned to help Dell. Lets cann that one Dancer. The next roll will be for both Prancer and Vixen, summoned separately of course. Each one would be at -5 penalty as COD spends an additional 10 peripheral and 15 personal on top of the 20m, 1wp for the summoning ritual itself.

>>945046
>Does Cathak Othok Dythyk know about Dells desire to dance? Seems relevant to finding the requisite dancers, if she can convince her it's a good idea
It seems unlikely that anyone who has spent as much time around Dell as her Sworn Brothers wouldn't have figured out she's good at dance, and seems to enjoy it.

Dythyk is also probably familiar with the capabilities of Dell's boots, from observation, her own role in providing countermagic when they need to be removed, and (I think) having a good pool for puzzling out how an artifact works.

Dell almost certainly hasn't discussed that she prefers dance to the job she's been trained for, since she hasn't really admitted it to herself. How much of that 'Thyk might have infered might come down to personal insight and sense motive rolls (and you did have a decent clue that something is off given how she responded to the angyalka.

>>945044
"I mean, I'm not really HERE for a fight, but if you're offering I'm not more wrapped up with protecting someone, so I'm game."

She limbered up a bit, seeing where this was going.

"But, I'm guessing that this isn't really the type of adventure you would want to go on, is it?"

>>945046
Have you seen a chicken's head? It's practically magic biological steady-cam. :v

Anyway, SX is open to approach at any time, and probably out and about a lot more than the demons would suggest that she was if asked. And given everything about her situation, she clearly was at least open to utilizing the demonic.

>>945046
> Does Cathak Othok Dythyk know about Dells desire to dance?
> rolled 10, 9, 8, 7, 6
Against manipulation 2, socialize 0? If you don't know, it's because the subject has somehow never come up, even though you're the one providing the countermagic for those cursed boots. Confirmation would be as simple as asking why she keeps putting them back on.

Four dice against thirteen is a complete shut-out, beyond even the standard of "true safety" from that sidebar on surviving the summoning. What's the plan for the new demons?

>>945098
One of your new locust-fed engineer retainers formally submits a proposal for digging a shipping canal back toward Candleport. Basic concept is mounting the infernal essence cannon like a battering ram (but with a clever system of ropes and pulleys so aim can be adjusted a few degrees up, down, or side to side) under a shelter that's mostly sealed airtight all around but wide open at the front, where the Purifying Mercy Stone is. Cannon fire breaks up trees and boulders, troops with picks and shovels clear the debris, rotating back to the shelter every few hours so they can rest and recover in clean air, Builder Bugs create a smooth resin track for the carriage to advance along. Once it reaches the Avarice River, the resin channel floods and you've got an open road for barge traffic.

Need more precise surveying to establish relative altitude, at least to within a few feet, before committing to the overall project, but a feasibility study to test the pulley system (might want somebody else with good Lore and Craft (Wood) to double-check the design and/or help with constructing it) and find out how fast you can expect excavations to move through Hrotsvitha's soil could be started in the meantime. If nothing else it'd be something else to keep the troops busy and out of trouble when they're getting bored with guard duty and customs inspections. Downside is, for a proper test you'd need to either remove the essence cannon from it's turret atop the manse, or get another one.

>>945080
>>945149
If we get the other specialty summoning tools, sounds like COD will be ringing up Dell for a dance then.

>What's the plan for the new demons?
Abscissic binding under the killer plate, since I intend to keep them around for a bit, to serve as mounts and help carry cargo. We'll have some of the retainers or exalted who aren't piloting ride them on the way back. I assume killer plate means every scene they don't act towards their motivation they gain limit, meaning they want to be ridden at least once a day to prevent limit gain, right?

rolled 5, 9, 6, 5, 7, 8, 10, 9, 3, 5, 3, 7, 2, 2, 8 = 89

---

>>945198

That sounds like an excellent idea, but I'm guessing it wouldn't be possible to do an aerial survey of the lad from the Manta without basically clear-cutting the forest.

But, someone with decent Craft (Wood), Lore, and knows the topology of the forest sounds like a member of the Society of Reverant Foresters, who I both want to get a hook into, and will probably need to sign off on the project to make sure that we have all the relevant un-expected Malfean issues (and Hrotsvitha specific issues) that the plan wouldn't have accounted for.

It seems like I'll want to hold off on direct action from an out-of-character perspective to use it as a way to effectively build bridges with Bridget. But, since inviting an Anathema to help work on this project seems like a bad step when dealing with KTO and the non-reformation believers of the Immaculate Faith, and that seems like something you want multiple independent parties to look at, since she doesn't trust either the foresters or Bridget completely.

So, I'll keep my options open and have it triple checked. As she makes the proclomation that she requires the most knowlegeable forester land surveyor and craftsman, she erupts in a shower of golden pyrokinetics, drawing direct attention from the crowd, and for good measure she even de-attuned from her shield for it.

So, rolling Appearance 3, Backing/Relevant Connections 0, Crown of Thunders +5 since it's a social roll, +3 successes because she's leaning ALL the way into making sure this is a success, and spending a willpower.

So, 8 dice, 4 auto-successes, since it's not Attribute+Ability I don't know if that counts for a stuntable roll.

>>945231
>it wouldn't be possible to do an aerial survey

That sounds like something the newly bound demons with the desire to serve as mounts would be able to help alleviate. Normally summoning as many demons as she has requires an expensive insurance policy and project permit/evaluation, but these are trying times. Xanin has her troops to look after, so surely COD would be willing to bind a taskforce to her service. They are drakes of a scale, so to speak, and need to stick together, help eachother out, yes? We can haul cargo and provided labor, and Xanin has already graciously offered help and safety while they try to recover Flair. Given that they don't know what exactly happened, a conversation in a warded office would be prudent, lest the stalker seek to pick them off one by one, using prying eyes and ears to keep tabs.

As for Xanin trying to befriend Bridget, I'm not sure what exactly that has to do with the channel idea, unless you want her to help do the engineering and earth moving? One easy way would be to run over to the nameless village, loudly declare your newfound political stance, preferably playing off compassion. Something that forces her to choose between "allowing innocents to suffer while doing nothing" and trying not to die, she'd probably act on her compassion. Any sort of clear demonstration that you're not tricking her would also probably be nice, but just making a socalize attack somewhere she can hear you would probably easily pass her MDVs, and I wouldn't try to resist if I know it's safe OOC.

>>945234
>Paragraph one
"You are aware I have an open door policy for you, and everyone else on your mission, right? You don't need to worry about all the back room dealings, just as soon as you're ready. Although, the fact that offering prayer to a demon is grand treason in the Realm, punishable only by execution, should tell you exactly how far I'm willing to go for the sake of my people, and what I'm comfortable with. That said, I should ward my office against spies."

>Paragraph two

Well, Bridget has Int+Lore of 10, and Int+Craft (Wood) of 6/Dex+Craft (Earth) of 7 with 1st craft excellency, so from an out of character perspective, she's probably better by a country mile than any demon I can get to annalize the blueprints and make sure that it's a structurally sound plan. Convincing her to help actually build it would be nice, but beyond the scope of what she actually expects.

>>945231
Nine successes, and you could roll again next month to add more. Can't spend willpower on an essentially passive use of your reputation. The best carpenters, civil engineers, Hrotsvitha cultists, and other relevant trades for hundreds of miles around have heard that you're hiring, or will soon. Which traits (skills, specialties, charms, etc.) are you prioritizing? How are those priorities ordered? What are you prepared to offer openly as reward?

>>945327
Alright. Since the primary first goal is to double check over the engineering documents, with a secondary goal of actually overseeing construction as a foreman, I'm thinking that the way that it should play out is:
Craft (Earth) 2 dots
Lore 1 dot: Specialty Engineering +1
Craft (Wood) 3

And I don't know if it would be one of the successes, but a background that allows them to access topological maps.

If that's not actually sufficient to oversee building a ~25 mile long canal through dense and hostile forests, I'll hold off until next month.

As for what I'm prepared to offer, a resource 3 signing bonus up front, another resource 3 payment upon successful completion, and if all goes well consideration for a full time position of resource 2 a month, and informally a degree of protection most 1cd don't have.

Sorry, that should be
Craft (Earth) 3
Lore 1 (Engineering +1)
Craft (Wood) 3

with a background of either backing or influence that lets them access topological maps, and know as much about how to not piss off Hrotsvitha while building this as at least a novice forester.

>>945333
> a resource 3 signing bonus up front, another resource 3 payment upon successful completion, and if all goes well consideration for a full time position of resource 2 a month
In what form? Jade, your own scrip, letters of credit backed by the Guild, liquor, imported luxury goods and/or alchemical reagents from Creation, live captives, spare arms and armor from soldiers you lost to the Silent Wind, something else entirely?

Priority should cover much more than nine successes so there's something to grow into if the search goes on for more than a month. Given that you're hiring from a pool of mostly demons, the list should also include charms.

Backgrounds are not a valid trait to search for this way. When Helen of Troy's face launches a thousand ships, those successes will measure the skill of pilots and champions, but if kings get involved too, that's up to them. Seeking out well-connected people proactively is more of a job for Socialize and/or Bureaucracy, or the Destiny (or Spies) background could contrive a chance encounter, or if the important people happen to be spirits you could get in touch by some combination of magic and prayer.

The wood aspect is a little caught off guard for their preflight preparations and deployment to be interrupted by sudden avid discussion of an engineering project. Not that Lookshy lacks in excitable engineers, but they usually have better restraint that to interrupt mission schedules like that. The Realm is weird.

>>945198
How long would this proposed project take? Since agreeing to commit her Purifying Mercy Stone to the effort would mean it wasn't available for her own safe exploration of Hrotsvitha, and vice versa.

>>945335
>What form of currency

Her own currency, but even if that's not directly appealing since it's effectively a fiat currency without even the backing of the ascending heirarchy, unless a weirdly servile 2cd comes along, the stability and informal protection are already a better deal than they might already have, especially since the job is effectively to make an in-road to creation.

>Priority, not number value

Alright, so the things to prioritize:

Attribute wise:
Dex/Per/Int, they should all be at least 3 but around equal, Int the most important, then Per, then Dex.

Ability wise:

Craft (Earth) and Craft (Wood) equal, and at least three, preferring Wood first.

Lore, at least one with a specialization in Engineering, priority on increasing the specialization, then on boosting the base skill.

Charms:

I'm not super confident with how spirit charms work, so the top three charm categories I want, in order, are:

Divinations, focused on being able to spot problems that might show up, and solutions, like Melodious Diagnostic Report
Blessings, to help power up the mortals undertaking the bulk work of the project, such as Benefaction
and
Divine Work, to help speed along the process, presumably by compelling the earth to soften so that the blast clears it out more effectively.

>Seeking out well-connected people proactively is more of a job for Socialize and/or Bureaucracy

Okay, when I settle on a pool of candidates, I'll use those skills to sort them into pools based on what backgrounds they have that make them the best to keep on.

>>945343
>How long will this take?

Since the channel will need to be at least 12 miles long to reach the Avarice River.

Using real world statistics for a smaller trench, and scaling it up to a channel because of the fact that we're basically shooting it with a laser constantly, progress will move at about 100 feet per 12 hours. Also assuming that the cannon can be run constantly, and there are always volunteers ready to swap out, that's ~200 feet per day, or about a month per mile, so four seasons of constant work. That's why I'm putting some weight onto charms that could drastically speed that up, including going so far as to letting an Anathema help, since Bridget could pull off ~100 feet an hour, and do the entire channel by herself in 640 hours of work.

rolled 1, 10, 8, 1, 4, 10, 3, 10, 6, 10, 5, 3, 8, 7, 9, 6, 2, 10, 5, 3, 2, 4, 10, 7, 6, 9, 4, 9, 10, 4, 5, 1, 4, 9, 7, 7, 5, 6, 4, 4, 2, 1, 3, 10, 4, 3, 10, 10, 3, 6, 3, 7, 4, 1, 4, 10, 1, 7, 6, 1, 10, 2, 1, 10, 9, 10, 9, 7, 10, 5, 6, 4, 1, 1, 8, 8, 3, 4, 3, 5, 5, 9, 4, 10, 8, 2, 8, 9, 2, 8, 5, 7, 3, 7, 7, 9, 8, 9, 2, 3 = 575

---

>>945343
Cathak Othok Dythyk waves the engineer away dismissively.

"All that can be discussed upon our return, unless you're eager to run out of rations."

Rolling to pilot the manta and pick up cargo from the nameless village.

>>945444
You fly the ship to the village and land safely. However, the place is a mess. Demons and beastmen seem to be working on rebuilding a burned-out granary, and the only food they've got abundant supplies of is bizarre and foul-tasting meat/vegetable hybrid stuff. Refugees have apparently been subsisting on it for weeks, so it's clearly better than nothing, but risk of spoilage or disease seems high, and it's not in convenient bundles for transport.

rolled 3, 7, 10, 1, 2, 10, 4, 9, 9, 6, 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 9, 3, 4, 2, 7, 9, 1, 5, 5, 3, 8, 9, 3, 9, 8 = 177

---

>>945446
>Demons and beastmen seem to be working on rebuilding a burned-out granary

Last thing I remember was Bridget advocating for Seven Broken Wings of Red and Gold to being constructing middle class housing for the squatters she had convinced to joined her classes, and if she has any nominal ability to direct the new influx of labor she's certainly going to be ensuring they're creating decent housing as well. What date has the lawship arrived, and who gets to direct the use of dirham OOC? Obviously this requires input from other PCs, but as the storyteller you get final say on which players do what, especially in the case that people aren't present enough to weigh in.

In addition, what sort of medical care are the new folks requiring at this point? How much of Bridgets time would need to be devoted to the patients in order to attend to them all? What skills are currently lacking that prevent her from providing full treatments?

>>945464
>What date has the lawship arrived,
Monday 8th Resplendent Fire
>and who gets to direct the use of dirham OOC?
"Who gets to decide how to spend the money" is a very political question, which would have to be at least provisionally settled over the previous week of administrative action if anything is to be accomplished at all. Bridges The Sun And Moon, Hundred Flowing Sweet Rivers, and Seven Broken Wings Of Red And Gold have enough combined leverage that if they can hammer some system out between the three of them, it could then be presented to the wider community without much room for dissent. However, Ivan the roofer, one of Mother Bog's Daughters, and Bargux the spy have also invited themselves to the meeting.
>In addition, what sort of medical care are the new folks requiring at this point? How much of Bridgets time would need to be devoted to the patients in order to attend to them all? What skills are currently lacking that prevent her from providing full treatments?
I'm not sure what you mean by "the new folks." If you want to be able to fix everything perfectly by yourself, you'll need most of the Medicine charms in the corebook, plus Mind-Soothing Anodyne for psychological stuff, and probably Immanent Solar Glory to keep your mote pool topped up.

If you want to delegate rather than micromanaging, Legendary Scholar Curriculum would let you teach everyone in this... newly unified political group, of which the Red Horn Tribe constitutes a majority but can hardly claim dominance, and which probably needs a name of its own... anyway, you could use LSC to teach all those people four dots in Medicine, or use Power-Awarding Prana to loan out your own E2 charms.

>>945466
>Meeting to discuss who gets to do what.
That could happen no earlier than the first, after Bridget engages in the crafting competition and the talks being in earnest, and no later than the fifth, where Bridget and rivers are currently adventuring in the forest. We could run both at the same time as long as we pick a date and stick to the order of events, but the forest adventure could also be resolved fairly quickly if we don't want to hold up the game or run too many scenarios at once. For the forest, Bridget posted this: >>945045 and it's unclear to me who's up next to resolve that. Are you responding to Bridget's inquires to the foresters, or is Gwen?

>I'm not sure what you mean by "the new folks."
The Red horn Tribe mostly, although it's probably that there's other medical stuff going on with the other residents of the town. It was mentioned that the slaves would be suffering from starvation and refeeding syndrome, so I assumed that there was a significant group of people in need of immediate attention. Whats the best way to figure out how many people are at risk of dying? Devote a number of hours per day to Flawless Diagnosis technique? Five minutes per patient means she could spend eight hours a day every day for the next month before she gets a good handle on who needs what, at which point obviously the current data will be outdated. Either empowering a lieutenant or narrowing the conditions under which you get seen would obviously help, but if it's possible to get a ballpark of how many people are about to drop dead in the streets, that'd at least be a good start. Could I include medical stuff during daily classes with HAM?

>Mind-Soothing Anodyne
Which tree/book do I need to look in to find this one?

>>945469
She was replying to the demon's comments, and making a note that violence probably wasn't what Bridget would want to do with the epic adventure thing.

>>945469

You could just ask, since that's something that the Shamans might genuinely have on lock, or do normal quick medical overviews on people who at a glance seem the worst off.

> Which tree/book do I need to look in to find this one?

Scroll of errata, page 156. Pre-reqs are Medicine 5 Essence 4, Flawless Diagnosis Technique, and Touch of Blissful Release.

Same mechanics as Hastening the Night's End (same location, presence charm) and lets you conduct supernatural thereapy.

rolled 2, 7, 5, 10, 1, 7, 2, 7, 1, 1, 4, 5, 9, 2, 3, 6, 2, 8, 8, 9 = 99

---

>>945446
>However, the place is a mess.
Dell supposes that's unsurprising for hell, really.

"Sesus Xanin, you negotiated some kind of trade agreement, did you not? That would mean someone is in charge of this disorder." Certainly, one wouldn't expect demons and mortals and beastfolk to be working side by side without some kind of leadership.

Is anyone coming forward from the inevitable crowd of rubberneckers who saw the lawship land? As a leader, or envoy, dockmaster, etc? If any of the PCs in the nameless village want to show up when the airship lands, here's your opportunity. If not, Dell will attempt to find out who's supposed to be in charge from the people nearby.

>the only food they've got abundant supplies of is bizarre and foul-tasting meat/vegetable hybrid stuff. Refugees have apparently been subsisting on it for weeks, so it's clearly better than nothing, but risk of spoilage or disease seems high
Well, quality or provisions and medical effects would both fall under the wood aspect's responsibility, unfortunately. Medical exams and testing of food takes time, though, and there's more immediate concerns to address first. This place is a powerful wood demesne, and while such places can mutate those living there, goods harvested and removed from such places are usually less potent. Odd that a village would have been built inside one, honestly. Doesn't look like anyone has been changed by the experience either, unless it caused all those goat traits (might explain why they seem to be in the majority?).

>>945469
>>945480
>>945526
>what the demons are building
Red and Gold would have been fine with changing priority to housing, since if nothing else the food is still growing, but the weather here is prone to be devastating. Can't speak for the Red Horns, though.

>medicine for the people
If this was brought up to him, he would also be willing to create some new doctors using VEE if volunteers are found. Ideally those with decent physical health and mental acuity and senses, but he can fix a lot of that too if necessary.
The offer to grant skills relating to construction also remains, since humans can be relied on to, if nothing else, want to keep themselves alive, but again, he needs volunteers. He can't do this against their will. Even if he could, he wouldn't be comfortable doing it unless absolutely necessary.

>the arrival of the lawship
Not everything about the ship might be familiar to him, but there are presumably some markings that can be linked to Lookshy. Red and Gold would gather together Blue Jade (the teodozjia,) and five of his tomescu, as well as Inauspicious Ink the naneke before heading to meet with the new arrivals. They were unexpected!

Red and Gold no longer wears Lookshy uniform, or goes by his previous name, but he does resemble a sorcerer-engineer, aside from the following of demons.

>>945616
>>945526
"Well, according to the Agatae, the leader is a so-called 'Green Sun Prince' by the name of 'Seven Broken Wings of Red and Gold'. No word on if they're Anathema, but I imagine if they were than we'd have heard about them."

Xanin's impulse to use the crown to empower her ability to organize the clearly scattered mortals into an actually effective unit was cut short by the arrival of said host arriving with a full fang of war demons, her mind instantly turning to possible strategies to murder them all on the spot if need be.

"As a matter of fact, I think that our host is here now, and I must say, your servant certainly oversold the majesty of what you'd done with this place since I'd been separated by whatever brought us to Malfeas."

rolled 10, 10, 2, 9, 6, 9, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 8, 1, 6, 10, 1, 1, 6, 9, 6, 4, 5, 7, 2, 8, 9, 8, 2, 10 = 176

---

Having worked so hard to ensure the prosperity of his tribe Creep was not entirely opposed to the merger. He was working hard to accept the new additions into his herd. The former slaves and humans and many needing medical attention. He tries to put away his distaste and distrust of humans. Having no medical training he simply works hard making meals, soups mostly, and feeding them to the injured, impaired and malnourished. Seeing humans this way, in need and sick, sticks a chord somewhere deep inside Creep and brings out his more nourishing side. He works tirelessly hauling materials around to help with constructing more housing. During his work he talks constantly with the beastmen, laughing and chatting. Always trying to take care of any disputes or issues before they become a problem. Trying to gather more support for himself. One day while he was talking to one of the elders the alarm horn blares. He rushes outside and sees an airship flying toward the town. He feared that there was going to be trouble. A shock to test the uneasy peace everyone has been attempting to create here. He watches the airship begin to land and gathers some of his following to tell the others able bodies to gather where it lands ready for anything. He grabs returns to the elder and tells him not to worry but asks to borrow his hooded cloak. A dark red cloak with a white circle containing the white rams head icon inside. Heading over at a quickening pace he notices Red and Gold standing by.

Creeping Hunter of Mortal Men approaches Red and Gold. Looking much different than his warform. Thinner and very pale compared to the other more robust beastmen of his tribe. Tugging on his cloak he messes with the bone clasp. He ask, "Are you expecting this ship?" Pulling his hood down over his face in an attempt not to stand out too much.

>>945639
"I was not expecting the ship. Sesus Xanin is certainly more resourceful than I was aware of."
Red and Gold then approaches the Dragonblooded party.

>>945631

Red and Gold lowers his head regretfully as the subject of current disorganization is brought up.

"No, it's unfortunate, but as of yet things here are not as I would have them be. It would be simpler if more were willing to accept the gifts I offer, but sadly, before I arrived, there was an incident which resulted in a great deal of loss, here. I was unaware you possessed access to a Manta class transport. This should greatly simplify feeding your people. But now that we are face to face, is there anything urgent you wish to address?"

>"Well, according to the Agatae, the leader is a so-called 'Green Sun Prince' by the name of 'Seven Broken Wings of Red and Gold'. No word on if they're Anathema, but I imagine if they were than we'd have heard about them."
Dell personally isn't so sure they'd have heard of them- if anathema are demons who take mortals over, surely there would be more of them loose in hell? (Or maybe they're not on good terms with other demons either, if the heretical carvings by the trapped street are to be trusted).

Regardless, the mortals seem to agree with the fire aspect's assessment, although names and titles presented vary. "Red and Gold", "Sorcerer", "Prince", and "Inkeeper" are bandied about in different combinations and permutations.

>Red and Gold would gather together Blue Jade (the teodozjia,) and five of his tomescu, as well as Inauspicious Ink the naneke before heading to meet with the new arrivals. They were unexpected!
>Red and Gold no longer wears Lookshy uniform, or goes by his previous name, but he does resemble a sorcerer-engineer, aside from the following of demons.
Questioning quickly made moot by the approach of the individual in question.

"We got incoming" the scout warns her compatriots at the sorcerer's approach. They know little of his intent or disposition- only that he is armed (well, if you consider demons arms. They certainly have more than enough arms to go around).

rolled 7, 8, 8, 2, 2, 8, 9, 1, 4, 6, 6, 4, 4, 10, 1, 4, 5, 10, 2, 2, 9, 7, 10, 10, 6, 2, 7, 5, 10, 6 = 175

---

>>945745
>"We got incoming" the scout warns

COD tuts softly under her breath; she doubts that crowd of demons is properly insured. No, this is a power play. Best keep the engines running hot and check for anything immaterial.

"Dax, make a thick broth and perform some mise en place for the sorcerer talking to Xanin. Dell, I'm going to stay in the pilots seat in case those demons aren't just for show- that kind of retinue is the one you bring to a fight. Can you keep an eye on the situation while still being prepped for take off?" We need to know what's going on and also be able to take off ASAP."

Dax, the stomach bottle bug, goes immaterial to count up and report back on potential threats to Dythyk, as instructed.

rolled 5, 6, 6, 3, 4, 8, 1, 7, 3, 10, 8, 5, 3, 7, 2, 5, 4, 9, 3, 2, 5, 7, 4, 3, 2, 7, 3, 10, 4, 1 = 147

---

>>945718
"Well, I can hardly blame people for being wary of gifts from anyone representing Cecelyne. Though I suspect their suspicions are less born from a knowledge of the law.

"But really, this strikes me as less a problem with the labor being un-skilled, and more an issue with nobody here capable of doing so taking charge and dividing labor efficiently to tackle the problems."

Her head was already at work figuring out how exactly to best plot out what needs doing. Obviously getting the granary repaired and building houses was goal number one. Then reinforcing the town with formal military buildings and a wall. Things to consider later.

"Actually, if you'll excuse me for a second..." She politely excused herself for a moment as she looked over to the group of men working on the granary.

"You there. You're being temporarily re-assigned. I want you to line up in single file, and separate yourselves into four teams of five with a leader for each group. Group A, you're in charge of gathering the hardiest eddible meats you have available. Group B get your hands on salt and barrels. Group C, wash and dry the meat. Group D, coat the meat in salt, and pack it into the barrels."

(Rolling Charisma+Presence, boosted by the Crown of Thunders from personal pool)

"Now, back to business. The only other pressing issue beyond the fact that this place is generally unorganized is the issue of finding some way to keep water from leeching into the soil from a 6 mile long channel, and the simpler issue of finding someone capable of double-checking all of the engineering to make sure the blueprints I have are worth something.

>>945837
>>945745

Xanin appreciated the fact that they were treating the demons as a serious potential threat. They were an issue, but it was just as much a power move on her own part to react as though they were beneath her notice in her dealings.

>>945924

Red and Gold frowns slightly at the implication that he is incapable of organizing things, but says nothing as Sesus Xanin chooses to step away to organize labor. When he hears her next words, however, he breaks into a growing smile.

"Well, an ambitious project indeed. That's what I like to hear! I think I can find a solution for you, if you'd allow me to discuss matters with my Head Engineer. While I'm an engineer myself, my specialty is first age technology, not canals, so I will need to draw somewhat on his expertise."

He gestures to the naneke, who walks over to whisper into Red and Gold's ear. Red and Gold nods, whispering back.

"Do you have a copy of these blueprints? We may need to make adjustments if you want them to take into account the geomancy of the project. And I'd hope you would. This transport could do a great deal to assist with the problem of carving a path through the luminata, unless you have other suggestions?"

(Red and Gold is activating VEE to grant Inauspicious Ink 5 dots in Craft (Earth). -10 personal motes, -1 willpower, 2 dot stunt to regain 1 willpower. Planning on discussing this more and granting some other relevant abilities or specialties, but charts and maps will have to wait for a future post for the moment, still getting that figured out.)

>>945939

Xanin didn't pay much attention to that. After all, if he wanted to refute that, she isn't parking here and taking over. At least not yet. She was going to secure her position at the manse before something like that.

"Actually routing through the geomancy of the forest before making sure the math works is putting the cart a bit ahead of the horse, wouldn't you agree?"

But regardless, she did hand over the blueprints of a cross-sectional of the designs of the channel.

"As for dealing with the Luminata, do you have anywhere in particular that needs a substantially higher population of them?"

rolled 9, 6, 9, 5, 10, 6, 4, 4, 1, 10, 2, 3, 5, 2, 10, 2, 10, 3, 10, 4, 9, 1, 2, 5, 6, 4, 10, 8, 8, 3 = 171

---

>"You there. You're being temporarily re-assigned. I want you to line up in single file, and separate yourselves into four teams of five [...]
Dell is surprised when Sesus Xanin starts issuing ordering the sorcerer's mortal followers, tenses, and then is surprised again that he offers no protest at her usurping his prerogatives. That's... not really how command chains between different forces are supposed to work. And why find the person in charge, and then not use his authority to organize this mess?

>risk of spoilage or disease seems high, and it's not in convenient bundles for transport
I'm not sure what skill examining food sources for safety and determining how to prevent spoilage would fall under, but it seems like good dice pools for survival and medicine would be relevant. Have a bunch of dice. (If it's survival, I'll throw a full 1st excellency at it).

While negotiations between Sesus Xanin and Red and Gold continue, Dell will inspect the food the mortals have been recruited to pack, checking it for safety or contamination, and making sure packing methods used will actually keep it from spoiling. (And before they leave, she should probably do some medical exams, check if there have been any not-obvious health effects on the people eating it).

Not straying far from the manta though, in case the situation suddenly deteriorates.

>>945939
As the sorcerer speaks, the wood aspect notices an unintentional change in her boots' melody, and that she has risen slightly into the air. After a moment's confusion, she realizes the grass beneath her feet is growing perceptibly taller every time the conversation with the fire aspect swings back towards him.

>>945924
Five successes, reasonable plan. The indicated mortals mostly shrug and cooperate, though a few stay back to wrap up what they were working on.
>>946115
Testing food for dangerous contaminants is apprentice-level alchemy, a series of variants on the "alchemical touchstone" procedure. Negative for heavy metals, wyld energies, demonic corruption, and cholera. One sample came back positive for hallucinogenic fungi, and all of it has excess wood-aspected essence at levels considered unsafe for pregnant women or the elderly. Should be alright for supplementary rations, provided it's thoroughly cooked and at least half the troops' calories come from somewhere else.
> in case the situation suddenly deteriorates
When Karal Tin Otter makes eye contact with Red And Gold's jade lion bodyguard, portions of the chaplain's uniform and necklace (with a copper amulet of the three-candle mon of Hesiesh) are abruptly destroyed in a flash of violet fire.

The teodozjia then challenges Karal Tin Otter to a duel: first to surrender or have a limb torn out of the socket (meaning shoulder or hip, not wrist, ankle, elbow, or knee) has to do any one immediate non-physical favor of the winner's choosing.

>>945837
COD, in the pilot's seat, sees through rear-facing sensors as the chaplain is confronted, and recognizes the jade lion. With three successes on Intelligence + Occult, you know what there is to know about teodozjia - basically anything from their writeup in Books of Sorcery 5 can be considered in-character knowledge. Long story short, the physical threat (while very significant) is secondary: they're preachers for the demon princes, relentless enemies of everything that's good and holy.

rolled 6, 9, 5, 5, 3, 3, 5, 9, 10, 1, 2, 9, 4, 2, 1, 4, 7, 8, 1, 8 = 102

---

>>946244
>Food Testing Results
It will be important to make Seses Xanin aware of for longer term planning- another source of food will eventually be required, if this stuff can only safely stretch, but not replace, rations.

What kind of effects would result from a diet where half the calories aren't coming from somewhere else?

>KTO and the Jade Lion
Too far aware to hear exactly what transpired, the daughter of Sextes Jylis can nonetheless sense the sudden change in tension in the negotiating party- and readies herself for the worst. She sets off across the waist high blood red "grass", an unnoticed melody of bells overlaid on the breeze and the stillness before confrontation.

Activating Invisible Street Performer Technique for 3m peripheral. If the lawship is facing south, with the meeting between Sesus Xanin, Red and Gold, and Karal Tin Otter (and attendant demons) taking place behind the rear of the craft center screen, Dell's approaching from the North-West, closing to 60yards (closing to range for Three-String Sword Prana).

>>946499
>What kind of effects would result from a diet where half the calories aren't coming from somewhere else?
>Intelligence 2, Medicine 5, limited diagnostic tools & reference materials -2, no relevant stunt
>rolled 6, 9, 5, 5, 3
Anybody who can consciously channel essence would probably be fine. In ordinary mortals the excess energy will accumulate, eventually causing sickness and mutation. Kidney stones, or malignant tumors superficially resembling wood aspect markings, perhaps, though it's hard to be sure without knowing more about the specific demesne. Might take years for serious symptoms in an initially healthy adult whose intake was only a bit over safe dose... or some mad genius heretic geomancer could channel the energy just exactly wrong (presumably as part of an attempt to share enlightenment) and cause a spectacular, possibly lethal, transformation same-day. For continuity purposes, since it was pointed out to me UWD actually has zero dots in Occult, one of FFE's Retainers is acting as a lab technician to do apprentice-level analytical alchemy, the results of which can then be easily understood in a medical context. Also, the mad geomancy would be some version of the Essential River Channeling procedure, defined here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N-8geUuklKlno_TGuFZezYnvvkWWOQCPev4rXa4cyRQ/edit#heading=h.iph4ftx9xnic

Santova 2019/10/06(Sun)05:24 No. 946603 ID: d9acdc
File 157036464364.png - (17.84KB , 1202x700 , The 8th of Resplendant Fire.png )

rolled 10, 6, 4, 5, 5, 10, 7, 8, 8, 9, 7, 6, 7, 3, 7, 9, 7, 1, 8, 5, 10, 5, 4, 4, 10, 9, 9, 9, 5, 3 = 200

---

>>946296
A fearsome opponent; conflict is probably best avoided, if they want everyone to keep their limbs and the trades to go well.

"Dell, I think we should-"
>>946499
COD is cut off as her sworn Brother, instead of sticking with the ship so they can make an emergency takeoff, starts creeping towards the brewing conflict, presumably to jump into the ball of Exalt and demon if things escalate. Great.

"Goose, I need you in the co-pilots seat. Everyone, stop the loading and secure cargo for emergency take off. Tsukumogami, high alert for intruders, don't let anyone disrupt piloting activities, non-lethal action against single attackers or known allies."

Goose is the mortal retainer with enlightened essence, who was trained as an emergency pilot before they recruited Dell. Since Dell was acting as co-pilot before, her Purifying Mercy Stone is still inserted as well.
Tsukumogami is her living armor, who is staying hidden on her form, but actively searching for signs of any unseen intruders.

From what I remember, there's some sort of trick that you can use by taking an action that only lasts a single tick, or can be freely aborted or something like that, effectively allowing you to hold your action until a later tick. COD is doing whatever that entails, preferably shifting into a defensive stance if it doesn't disrupt it, to perform take off in the case that TKO agrees to the duel.

The map is gridded in ten yard increments. I did my best to make the manta to scale and represent things in a sensible fashion. Dell was near enough to the bridge of the Manta to speak to COD, while also being close enough to food prep to get involved, and near enough to the brewing conflict to see it but not hear it, so the food prep has to be happening near the Manta, and Dell is about sixty yards away, moving northwest. Villagers are moving back and forth from the village to the prep site bringing salt water and moss meat. Xanin and SBWoR&G are discussing things a few hundred feet away, four to five yards apart. Blue Jade wouldn't stray too far from R&G, but probably stepped up to issue the challenge; since they didn't see eachother before, KTO was presumably still approaching, and is now stopped about twenty five to thirty yards away, which is probably within earshot of the proclaimed challenge. Dax is intangible, and assessing threats.

Rolling to see how quickly the retainers can prep the ship for take-off given the new cargo, including clearing off any nearby villagers who might compromise security or disrupt take off. Tsukumogami searching for hidden threats may or may not be part of that roll as well, if you have anything relevant in mind as the storyteller; I don't think any PCs have done something to secretly infiltrate the ship yet though.