The cart rolls along, and Dio tells her own story along with yours: Her family was once positioned for greatness. Her father was a man of skill and power, though not a Paladin, he commanded much respect and trained many. This is only what she'd heard from Big Green, though. Sickness took her mother when she was born, and was raised from an infant by a small group of women. She can't recall their names or even faces. After she learned to walk and run, she learned how to use a knife herself - and went to the city. She remembered the day the Orcs took over, vibrantly, brilliantly. Her whole gang was killed, it was only by hiding that she survived.

Later, Big Green saved her from a noble intent on taking her home for nefarious purposes, and they were fast friends. You've arrived at the Annex. Is there anything you want to do, or say?

>>16658071
Look around.

>>16658071
Get them golds!

>>16658071
Acquire currency

>>16658658
>>16658672
Dio leads the cart in, into the large horde room (Which appears to have once been a courtyard). The pile doesn't seem to have diminished.
"Okay! So. What are we gonna take? We can't fit it all..."

You could just take the coins. Those fit most easily into the chest.

Or you could prioritize the artistic goods, like the goblets. You'll fit less, but you might be able to find a seller.

Or perhaps you could rifle through and try to find gemstones - you know you saw a few last time.

Or some combination? You have four treasure chests, after all, and could dedicate each to a specific type...

>>16658812
Fill the first chest with precious gems... my pretties.
Fill the second and third chest with coins for primary expenditures in the near future.
Fill the final chest with the more artistic goods that appear most valuable.

>>16658812
just take the coins and one gem. Selling the art will draw to much attention to us. The gem is in case we have to bribe somebody.

>>16658851
Seconding this, because we'll need some artsy stuff to make our own home look nice later on as well.

>>16658851
Yeah, I have to agree with this as well. Even if we can't sell the artsy stuff, we can find other uses for it. Shouldn't be our main source of income though.

>>16658851
Agreeing with this guy. Let's us be flexible.

>>16658851
>>Let's go with a little of each. Dio, fill one chest with gems, artistic goods, and coins each. That leaves us a chest for the actual currency when we return.

"R-right."

It takes time, but Dio does as asked, loading up each chest and pushing it up onto the cart. You get the feeling that you've drained it of gemstones, but there's still plenty of other valuables.

Thus far you have a chest full of all the stones in the hoard, one full of coinage, and the last full of artistic goods. You have a spare chest. Dio locks them all, and you ride.

Dio is in a good mood. As is Margo, though it's harder to tell.

Is there anything you want to ask Dio about on the road?

I'm still quite curious as to what that empathy get thing did... Ah well.

Let's ask Dio what is on his mind currently.

>>16659159
Yes. We should learn more about Dio

((Apologies for the delay in posts - things have been coming up))

>>16659159
You aren't sure either - but you feel more connected to Dio than before. Well, you feel connected, period.

>>Say, Dio. What's on your mind?
Dio blinks, thinking.
))well theres the fact that this money could be suspicious and too much at once might call for an investigation but it was just sitting there right i mean anyone could have taken it but then im a human so i mihgt get looked at closer than others and really i shouldn't be carrying this much cash but then the bank is human run so maybe theyll look the other way if i bribe them((

"uh... Nothing."

>>16659308
Am I interpreting this correctly - can we now read Dio's mind? If so, try to find out what she thinks about us.

>>16659308
Mind reading is good.
But then... this is probably a two way street..
shit.

... Can Dio hear us?

*Cough*

Have these empathy things come up with our previous users? Surely they must have, or at least hinted at.

Anyway, if this isn't a two way street thing, we shouldn't let him know this. Will be our hot ticket, assuming he can't hear us now... *Cough* I would never insinuate taking advantage of a transgendered girl so that we may gain power. Never. For that would be bad.

>>16659400

Sorry, got that backwards, transgendered man.

>>... What do you think of me?

))what do i think of it i mean it promised me all this awesome stuff and sure its delivering but i dont believe for a minute that it needs me to be a woman then again its not all that different right now but i want it back i want it back it feels weird without it and its kinda creepy and hearing it talk like that was i mean its a sword swords shouldnt talk and holy shit everything has been like ten times more dangerous since oh hey a bird and frankly this level of excitement is really getting to me((

"... I'm not sure what to say, to be honest."

<<It sure is a long ride.>>

>>Yes. Yes it is.

>>16659465
...can we talk to the bird? Because a winged spy could come in handy.

>>16659465
>i dont believe for a minute that it needs me to be a woman

What a surprise.

Well that was amusing. Hope we can learn to filter later, hearing inane thoughts all the time would be bothersome.

Anyway, skip to town I suppose? Not much else to do on the road. Not that I can think of anyway.

>>16659465
Well, the jig is up. And yet we can't talk to her about it because she might suspect that we can mind read her. wow.

>>16659533
Talking to her about it probably wouldn't solve much at this stage. What she seems most concerned about (creepy as this sounds) is not having a penis, and we can do something about that. But I think this will only be solved if we either make her male again or alter her mind. My personal preference is for turning her back into a guy, but we don't have to do anything about it right this second.

Well, we did give a hashed story about being cursed, even though we are a magic sword. Talk about previous wielders being male was also probably a mistake if we wanted to keep him a chick.

All the same, blackmail material is blackmail material. I frankly don't care one way or the other, but who needs influence if we hold his junk for ransom?

>>16659589
I thought we were trying to build trust here.

>>16659603
Nobody said that.

>>16659672
No, but it shows in our actions. Well, some of them.

What the hell are we trying to do with this kid?

I'm not sure if
>>16640617
From thread 4 is here but I like your suggestion for IF we get a humanoid manifestation. Very Lordly, color it rusty and get us a white cape and we would look baller as fuck.

This pic is what he suggested by the way

>>16659678
That... Huh... What the hell are we doing with this kid anyway? Are we ditching him for someone better, molding them throughout the years into what we want, or just sort of stringing him along...

>>16659465
let's skip to town

>>16659688
If we get all of the sentient armor, find some way to give him/her personal locomotion, and this could very well happen. Problem would be finding a way to get him/her to actually move on their own.

I think he meant that if we eventually get enough EGO / Power that we could manifest ourselves into a more...suitable form, I mean we would still be bound to Dio but can you really expect a 12 year old to match blades with a giant or something? Barring our super charged cannon ability.

What the crap is all this about holding the girl.. er boy's manlihood hostage? We should change "her" back before its too late.

>>16659722

Meant to link

>>16659706

>>16659701
I think we're turning her into a hermaphrodite god-emperor for teh lulz.

>>16659532
>Skip to town?

It isn't long before you get all the way back, chests in tow.

>>let's head right for the bank. The faster we get there, the less chance we have of running into-

"Hey, what's that you got there, Dio?"

>>-Big Green.

The Orc saunters around to the front of the carriage. "That's a lot of chests. Mind if I ask what's in them?"

"Uh..."

>>16659722
As long as we have Margolotta, we can kill difficult opponents at range without expending any cannon power. But she does require an archer.

>>16659729
...Works for me.

>>16659729

I thought it was more along the line of altering her/his body chemistry that way in the long run we could make her/him depend on us so much that we get easy EGO gain and from her lower testosterone production she would be less likely to directly challenge us on things. Also make it easier to warp her mind in a subtle fashion to the point that she believes that she honestly NEEDS us otherwise she would be completely helpless and alone.

>>16659738
"More treasure than you've ever seen in your life."

>>16659762
>>16659729
these are both suitable plan.

>>16659738
"Tell the big lug that you were exploring the Annex, and that the giant was dead so you took some coins, came back to town, got the cart and chests, and loaded them up with more loot.
"It's more or less the truth, and can he really fault you for taking money from a dead giant's hoard?"

>>16659738
Do we have enough ego to mind control him?

>>16659688

I'm imagining it all rusty, and it is good. But what does EGO think about this I wonder? Would it even be possible for us within the bounds of the Quest system to take a humanoid form? Even if we are still bound to Dio / Whoever the current wielder is?

>>16659800
I think working our mind control on the big guy
Might just offend Dio.

>>16659805
((I'm not going to say it's impossible per saaaay, but it would take a shitload of work and research and experimentation. Even at 100 EGO, you'd still need certain items and abilities you have yet to garner. ))

>>16659778
>>Just tell him the truth.

"Well... When you sent me to get those crystals, I found a dead giant."
"...Izzat so."
"Yeah! It looked like something had blown his head clean off."
"Ah, go on."
"So I took another look in the Annex, and, well... There was a lot of money. A LOT! So I thought I'd take a little. M-maybe invest my way free of the slums."

Big Green goes into thought.

[ [ YOU AREN'T LYING, ARE YOU? IS SHE? ] ]

>>Of course not.

[ [ ... ] ]

Big Green nods. "Well. It certainly is a large windfall." he says. "Tell you what. I'll help you set up a bank account, help you manage der money. I'll send some boys down to ther Annex to fetch der rest. This is a nice, er, startin' point."

>>16659883
Guys... did... did telling the truth actually just work?
This... feels unnatural somehow.

>>16659883

Try to convince him NOT to send anyone down there to fetch the rest, at least if its us he KNOWS where the money is going, better chance that it won't go into funding...nefarious deeds, you can't trust everyone.

>>16659899

A...half truth? Wonderful.

>>16659898
Yeah, weird, isn't it?
And when the boys that Big Green sends around come back and actually confirm that, holy shit, yes, Dio was telling the truth and the giant's dead and his hoard is there for the taking, well...I want to feel happy at being vindicated, but I can only feel this weird sense of awkward frustration.

>>16659898
Yeah, the hell?
>>16659899
Seconded.

>>16659931
They're going to scout the Annex, though, and find that we're missing. If Dio could recognize us after all that time, what makes you think that the orcs can't as well?

See if we- Or margo can somehow subtly influence big green to keep silent about Dio's involvement in the finding of the giant?

You bask in the strangeness of success, only to realize - >>16660064 that you're fucked. If those guys go on that mission, they'll find you, eventually. And you don't want to test whether you or he is stronger.

Still, there's no way to stop it - you're in bread daylight. And you need him anyway for the bank account...

>>16660113
>>16659800
yeah, um, lets at least try get him to not send anyone to the annex

>>16660145
Yeah, we should get Dio to try to keep Big Green from sending those guys.

>>16660145
Does Big Green like to drink? Have Dio treat him to dinner and keep him in sight at all times. Get him drunk until he passes out, or at least is easier to control without alerting the damned hammer. Then ego him so he forgets about sending scouts to the annex.

Or we can play OP's game and at least have Dio convince him to hold off on scouting until later since the pile is large enough that it won't disappear by the next day, and contact our local friendly rebel about a patrol of orcs.

>>16660308
Why do everything the complicated way?
Why not just find a rusty sword, glue a stage gem to it, and put it where we used to be?

Ta-da, the Death of Kingdoms is safely locked away.

Tell Dio to acquire a rusted sword. Once that's done, we can break in half, and put it in the annex where we once sat for so long.

AKA get a non-magical doppelganger, and make those greenskins think we died long ago.

>>16660339
>>16660376
If we're going to do this, we have to make sure Gavel doesn't rat us out.

>>16660339
Yes! We must do this!

>>16660376

We can do that on our NEXT return trip, but if those Orcs get there then they will loot ALL OF THE MONEY left there, which WILL work against us. Although I fully suspect that some Human jackass will rat us out for having such a huge bank deposit and the Orcs will confiscate it all anyway...Bloody savages....I can't wait to turn their entire race into Rustbones.

>>16660392
Gavel can't rat us out. If he talks to any Orcs, he's on the chopping block next.

He's known about us for days, and yet here Big Green is looking at us and *not* flipping out. Gavel is a non-issue until and unless he falls into the hands of humans.

>>16660308
>>Dio, if he sends that patrol, then we-
>Do you think I'm stupid?

>>What?

>I replaced you almost right away. You didn't say anything the whole time, it was really strange...

>>... Hrm.

>>Well, then.

The chests are deposited in Dio's name (Full name, Diometricus Hazzard) and Big Green excuses himself.

>Well, that went well!

>>You're sure the replacement is still there?

>I took my time making sure of it. It took a whole day - you stopped talking when I was eating, and the next meal, you spoke up. Scared the shit out of me.

>>...
>>in any case, Margo needs an archer.
<<Goodeye! Goodeye!>>

>>16660420
Use mind reading to ease Dio into trusting us more. After trust has been established look for the archer.

>>16660420
....huh.
Dio is more capable than I gave her credit for.
Has she given any more thought to joining that terro-I mean, freedom fighting group?

>>16660420
Wait, what?

>>16660448
((I'm going to start asking for more details than just "Convince him" or the like - real dialogue will always give me more to work with, so please keep that in mind.))

>>16660456
>>I underestimated you. My apologies.
>>Thought of joining hat freedom fighter group?
>Eh. I'm not sure...
)) well it could be dangerous but theres free training i mean im good with a knife but a sword is too long and bulkky learning to use one right would be great not to mention the contacts and the other help i could get and hahaha he complimented me well i guess i do deserve it((

>>16660608
Dio's thoughts are just adorable. She does have a point though, they probably could give the training she needs to use us effectively. And we can use some of our EGO to sway the archer into our control, getting us an archer for Margo.

In the absence of a humanoid tutor, could we instruct Dio ourselves for the time being? Surly we must have picked up some experience over the years.

"We should invest some of the money in training in order to get you better situated with wielding me. You might be skilled with a knife but it'll be better to have you train properly.

We could even talk to the freedom fighter group in order to scope them out and get some free training."

>>16660701
This is true...
>>16660841
>>We should invest some of the money in training in order to get you better situated with wielding me. You might be skilled with a knife but it'll be better to have you train properly.

>Yeah. But I'll need to buy another longer blade, can't train with you or use you in public.

>>This is true, but...

>>We could even talk to the freedom fighter group in order to scope them out and get some free training? That might be safer. Relatively. For me.

>Yeah, but he comes tommorow. What should we do for now?

>>16660903
"Well I could teach you the basics in private, unless you have something to do in mind. I would prefer that you at least let me teach you the basics."
Or something along those lines.

interested bump

Look for housing, throw drunken party with Big Green?

The former is the serious one though, but I wouldn't argue with the second.

>>16660922
>>I could teach you in private, if you like.

>This doesn't involve me getting naked or anything, does it?

>>Now, why would you think that?

>...Call it intuition. Fine, it's getting dark anyway. Let's head to my room.

You make your way upstairs, and she hangs Margo on the back of the door, drawing you from the sheathe.

>Alright, where do we start?

From here it's up to you guys.

>>16661071
How to hold a sword 101

>>16661071
Start with balance and using the sword as an extension of ones-self.

>>16661158
>>16661123
Hours pass, and the room darkens as night approaches. By the time Dio is too tired to continue, you have made certain that she understands the basics of holding and moving around with you. You can tell, yourself, she's getting better - you need to correct less often, and your words are more often understood. She sheathes you, undresses for bed, and flops onto it, falling asleep after blowing out the candle.

<<Well.>>

>>Yes?

<<That was touching. >>

>>...

<<Don't tell me you feel no connection, Xaven. It's like Guy, all over again, isn't it?>>

>>Silence!

<<Very well. hmhmhmhm. >>

Interesting, to say the least... I guess wait till dawn? I can't think of much else, besides chat up pseudo-sister.

<DIO HAS EARNED TRAIT: PRIMARY WEILDER, RANK 1>
<When held by Dio, you will always have at least 10 EGO, and you CANNON ability has a 20% bonus to its rolls. Dio is now proficient with longswords sized to her figure.>

>>Besides, you have no right to mock me. You toss aside wielders as often as you can. You make no effort to preserve them.

<<And? If they can't resist my nature, that is their own fault.>>

>>They are often unaware.

<<Again, only the incautious simply picks up an excellent bow without precautions.>>

>>I do not care. I am tired.

<<Hahahaha! Of course you would be. It's been a long few days.>>

>>Quiet.

((TO BE CONTINUED WHEN I'M NOT ABOUT TO PASS THE HELL OUT))

((see you all wednesday))

Alright, now someone archive it,

Thanks for so far OP. Good timing too, I was just about to black out myself.