“You don't believe me? Fair enough. She may still consider you a family member. If an estranged and somewhat strange one. That's the impression that I've gotten from her, and you'd be surprised how much she trusts someone she actually likes.” Another wordless sound of argument.

“/Really?/ Because I will be the first to admit. Your sis- ah, “Half-sister”, is not the dullest knife in the proverbial drawer. She knew. A flat statement, here, again, in case you weren't checking for lies. She. Knew. She merely decided not to tell you. At a guess? Probably because she figured it would be easier and simpler for all concerned. And she was right, wasn't she? Wait- well, there's you, but you hardly count, after all. Just a mortal humanoid.” you say with mock-concern, gesturing at his body. “Which leads us to your second mistake. Assuming that Lady Scinnari Asmora, was, in fact, a humanoid mortal. Perhaps if you had not arrogantly assumed that you and Cygnis were the only ones hiding their true forms in the city, you might have been alert to the warnings. Or perhaps you would have found out earlier, and not attempted to seduce a devil. They are fairly orderly creatures, after all. Such disloyalty would be most unbecoming... but I digress.”


Your captive is silent, though you can tell he is fuming from here. Rage and hate. And you have hardly begun.

Goddamit not tonight
Can't we do this next week?

“One thing that might have helped, had you had it, would be more experience in dealing with humans on an equal basis. Something I have grudgingly put up with. After all, you strike me as a type to use your dragon form when risking life and-or limb, especially if it would be yours. Even when it's hardly useful.” you approach, and dance the tip of your knifeblade on his chest, rising to the throat. You resist the urge to carve him a more sunny disposition. “Like for instance, at the top of the lighthouse. All you did was hinder Cygnis- Cygnariassis, and I.” you say, finally drawing into his line of sight. His eyes fix on you, positively glowing with malice and fury. Impotent fury.

"Why, that might even have left you at least moderately polite, and not acting like an overconfident Green. I might not even have reason to deal with you, prior to your leaving... actually, you are so personally detestable I find that unlikely. But still... It might have helped." You lock eyes with him for a few moments, before laughing. It echoes around the cavern, the one adjacent to where you first rescued Cygnis... Delicious irony, and a fitting use of the place. So convenient, then, that it has been long enough for the city's attention to be drawn away from here.

>>12835169
If I recall from last thread, no.

Fuck yeah, dragon quest. I'm even here for the start.

Anyways, someone already suggested this:
>Keep the gold dragon in the shackles.
>Keep the choker on him.
>Get him in a bath of molten lead or molten tin - leaving his head free
>We Sage Spinel the location of his Hoard and the description of all its Traps and Guards from his mind.
>We then poly into a Red Dragon in front of him.
>Beat him to within an inch of his life
>KO him with the chloroform
>Take the shackles off
>Kill him.

rolled 37 = 37

Ah. Dragon Quest.

Rolling for continued gloating

>>12835204
that is stupid and unnecessarily complicated
why would we reveal ourselves to be a red dragon?

rolled 14 = 14

37 is unacceptable!

Fuck yes.
FUCK YES.

I give up.

>>12835236
The dice gods obviously have it in for you.

No more rolling for you.

>>12835169
Very sorry, no. For those of you unfortunate enough to not be living in America ('Murika! Fuck Yeah! Kidding, kidding.), that's thanksgiving week, and I'd like to spend it catching up with some friends. (Seriously. These quests are fun for me too, but they eat a hell of a lot of time.)

To those who missed it, no threads this weekend, next week, or the weekend after that. Beyond that, Monday or wednesday, 29th or 1st, (if today is currently your 17th, that is,) are when I intend to start up.

Barring totally unexpected accidents, OHGODWHAT due-dates, and/or having an unprecedented amount of nothing to do at home.

>>12835213
Considering that no roll was actually requested, I think we can ignore that.

Guys, don't roll unless he asks for it. All you can possibly do is fuck up.

I suggest we Sage him, and let him listen as the stone reveals his hoard and all the traps he has laid around it, as well as the quickest way to take over all of his possessions and merchant companies.

When we depart this place, I think we might have a nearly ready-made start in Tshaz waiting on us.

rolled =

So, bind him to out will in the sort term - after our evil villain monolouge.

But we need an awesome one-liner before we kill him later...
Something like, "Better Red than dead," and then we polymorph and eat him.
Something to consider.

>>12835218
I believe for maximum taunting and gloating. As well as suggesting that we have PLANS for his sister, oh boy, do we ever have PLANS.

>>12835204
Hard to do on short notice. Incidentally, why risk taking the shackles/amulet off BEFORE killing him? Don't need to.

Incidentally, shooped original post pictures are shooped, and provided by a skilled and talented fan, wonderful person that he is. If one were to search back through the images I've used for other threads, they might even find the originals.

>>12835318
Originally, I was against the idea of leaving.

You have changed my mind.

rolled =

>>12835318
Uuuugh. Fucking sage Spinal. That thing exists to troll us. Every time we use it in the presence of others it airs our dirty laundry.

We should just Bind him, then just find out from him directly.

>>12835360
D'awwww, yer making me blush.

>>12835318
There's a hoard there for the looting, though in terms of people and connections I think we're better off in Freeport. My vote is we go to Az's lair to loot it proper, but after that return to Freeport.

>>12835397
Isn't Az's lair in like, the single most unfriendly country in the world?

>>12835378
So lets just use the thing in some actual solitude for once. That way it won't have cause to troll.

Technically it still does tell the truth, it just attempts to do so in such a way that will cause chaos. Not a bad thing when you are in fact attempting to cause chaos.

BTW, good thing we didn't try to use it for summoning huh?!

>>12835409
Which is why I think we should not stay there. We go in, loot it, and get out before the locals realize we're there.

>>12835409
>>12835397
I don't think there's much evidence to support either of those statements, unless WD says otherwise.

At the very least we're making a pit stop in that country to loot his lair, we may as well see what the city is like while we're in the area. If it's good, we'll stick around. If not, we'll move on.

>>12835378

Problem: we would have to learn the binding ritual from the spinal sage.

I'm against using the binding. It's the Binder's trick, and she probably knows some back doors and secrets regarding it that we don't and that the spinal sage would "neglect" to tell us. We could be shooting ourselves in the foot by giving the binder a servant more powerful than us.

Really, it's like Scinnari said. We should tell her she was right, Freeport is a bit too chaotic and free-minded to start an empire in. There are likely better places aching for a strong hand to guide them. Rich places. We should set up in a trade city.

Do we know the general layout of what places are claimed by dragons?

I also am disinclined to use binding
Just hurry up and get the information from this guy and kill him

>>12835472
> We should set up in a trade city.

Freeport is a trade city of sorts.

>>12835472
Well there's Az's lair in the desert country which I /think/ lies in the South.

There was a report of a female red to the East attempting to rule openly as well. Other than that, we haven't heard of anything.

>>12835429
>loot a dragon's horde
Not exactly a stealthy thing to do in a foreign country; that's either a whole bunch of trips back-and-forth, or flying in as a red dragon. Might raise a few eyebrows. Looks like it might be prudent to invest in a bag o' holding?

Also, Writer-dude, when we get a chance after this whole "We captured a dragon, now what" thing is done, it might be a good idea for us to do some research into a secure nation to base our horde in as this war happens.

>>12835378
We kinda intend to kill the bugger anyway. Why do we have to worry? I mean, sure, we're falling to 'evil monologuing', and possibly 'revealing our plans', but we don't intend to let ego get in the way (too much. If we were ego driven here, we would have left him ungagged, I think.), so we might as well get maxim tauntingn/trollan'. You know, before Scinnari sacrifices him and sends his soul to the hells.

The ritual was costly for an empress, I doubt we will be able to use it currently. Let's just kill him after the taunting, torture/interrogation, and evil laughter.

>>12835462
Eh, that's true I guess. The spinal sage plucks answers from the minds of the people around it if I recall correctly. Use it to answer questions about Az's lair, then kill him?

>>12835497
What are you talking about?
This entire scheme is ego based!
Basically it's just one huge dickwaving contest

>>12835489
> Not exactly a stealthy thing to do in a foreign country; that's either a whole bunch of trips back-and-forth, or flying in as a red dragon. Might raise a few eyebrows. Looks like it might be prudent to invest in a bag o' holding?

Don't we have that invisibility gem thing?

>>12835515
Ours is bigger.

We need to tell him that he shouldn't have damaged our hoard, slapping Scinnari and all. Or indeed, tried to make any moves on her as we don't take kindly to others putting their hands all over our treasures. If not for that, we might not have tortured him to death. As it is...

>Standard practice in France from the Middle Ages to the French Revolution was to crush the condemned's testicles in a vise, which burst them as mush from the scrotum, then crunch the spermatic cords with pliers. The condemned was turned upside down in order to maximize the blood flow to his brain, after which he was unable to pass out or enter a state of shock until, perhaps, the last few seconds of his ordeal. The condemned was sure to vomit repeatedly with violent convulsions, even well after he had voided the contents of his stomach, but he rarely screamed except for an initial shriek, which immediately silenced, because the pain overwhelmed his ability to breathe. Most men would hang and thrash wildly during and after the crushing of each testicle, and their thrashing would renew upon the crushing of each spermatic cord. The crushing of the spermatic cords produces a sound, which veterinarians (who routinely perform this castration procedure on anesthetized, large livestock, such as horses) usually describe as similar to crushing an entire head of frozen celery, wrapped in rubber bands.

>>12835541
Seconding. Let's wait until after using the Sage Spinnel though.

>>12835409
In Tashz. Or whatever it was called. Might not be the best place, a bit too high level for us.

>>12835541
This is so deliciously evil we must do it.

WD, where you been? We need to play SotS again soon.

>>12835541
A 'lovely' image to be sure, but perhaps a tad extreme for our purposes.

I think a Bond villain monologue followed by a quick death will do nicely. I say a quick death because the monologuing in this case is actually the torture to him.
OH HEY I JUST HAD AN IDEA, let's have Scinnari look like Cygnis and then fuck her in front of him.

>>12835499
"Empress" could have been just a title. What evidence has there been to suggest she was actually an empires ruler and not some megalomaniacal sorceress? Could the Binder herself have been a red dragon, based on the architecture and preferences?

And why was the brown a target? The binder might have been a metallic for all you know.

>>12835541
Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.

Lets just stick to mind-rape, mmkay?

>>12835593
> OH HEY I JUST HAD AN IDEA, let's have Scinnari look like Cygnis and then fuck her in front of him.

Part of me wants to be on board with that, but Az would probably be able to see that something was up and it wasn't really her. I think we should just bone Scinnari as herself.

>>12835626
Plus Scinnari can't shapechange like that. Only minor stuff like hiding her devilish features or changing her skin/hair colors.

>>12835614
> And why was the brown a target? The binder might have been a metallic for all you know.

Brown? If you're referring to the one in the sea cave temple thing, that was a bronze.

Or we just flat kill him when we have what we know to know, and not leave ourselves open to anything.

>It's halturew

Captcha is on board with me.

>>12835626
Well yeah, I was thinking it would be more like "Oh and here's a little preview of what I'm going to do to your sister later on".

I figure Scinnari can at least get close enough to her appearance for it to hurt.

I don't even want to bone Cygnis, just say that she would rather mate with a red than with him. Which is true. That should accomplish what we want.

Let's not pull a "nice job fixing it villain".

"Meanwhile, we have important things to have done with, before you must regrettably shed your mortal coil. Let's see... For instance." you say, holding out your hand. Scinnari walks up, having dropped the 'avariel' appearance for this very special event, revealing her grey-almost-black wings, and dusky skin. Azdukashens' eyes shift to her, as she approaches with the crystal. She hands it to you, and you begin.

"Azdukashen, would you care to tell me where your hoard is? It would be a shame for it to just be of no use, unowned as it will be." Not surprisingly, Azdukashen is not the least forthcoming, merely giving you insults muffled to gibberish.

"Very well. Regrettable. Predictable. Crystal, oh Crystal, my Crystal. Would you care to tell me whether Azdukashen was being truthful when he told Scinnari where his lair was?"

"Yes." the crystal rings out. You take a vicious pleasure in watching his eyes widen in surprise, then narrow in rage.

"And he keeps his hoard in his lair, naturally?"

"Naturally." the crystal replies.

"Perhaps, then, you could provide a comprehensive listing of the traps, guardians, and enchantments protecting, preventing access to, or hindering any attempts to take over, his lair? Built into a mesa north of Tashzmir, I was told..." you say the last turning to stare at Azdukashen. He thrashes about, but there is little he can move, much less that he can do, beyond rolling left or right. A lovely soundtrack is provided by Scinnari's quill, as she copies down the crystal's words onto a scroll. You can practically see him wincing with each scratching sound.

We GOTTA try the whole "Binding" thing out. The opportunity is just too great to pass up. Use Az as practice, then later we can use it on Cyg. Furthermore It seems really, really, REALLY dragony to learn a dark and secret form of magic and then destroy the source of that knowledge (The book of the Binder) so that when we die, we take all the knowledge with us.

>>12835726
Yesssssss, yesssssssss.

Drink his tears. Delicious rage.

Guys. Wait one. Killing him will cause him to revert to dragon form. I think.

We should take him somewhere where this will not be a problem before we kill him.

>>12835741
Again, I advise against binding
More likely then not it'll come to bite us in the ass

I disagree. We should practice our binding on someone unlikely to be threatening if used against us, or should they break free. Not someone more powerful than we are.

>>12835777

That is to say not Az.

>>12835741
The binder probably knows a whole lot more about the binding than we do right now. I think it would be better to do a whole lot more research before trying it.

>>12835765
It won't be a problem here. That's why we brought him to this place. Nobody comes here or cares. Hell, we can even cut out his heart and sell it on the black market before we leave for a few thousand gold.

>>12835765
Hmm. I don't know a whole lot about polymorph/shapeshifting/whatever this is. Is this true?

If so, then we need to think about how we're going to dispose of the body.

>>12835811

Doesn't Cygnis know about this place though? Or at least about some of the connecting tunnels? If so, she might come down here looking for info on the cult at some point down the line. Maybe not any time soon, but eventually. I think the middle of the desert might be a better place to dispose of the body.

>>12835765
Ok, but we're in the sub-basement, which is big enough for ourselves.

So even if you're right it won't be a problem.

OOH let's make a cape made of his scales!

>>12835827
Dragon bodies often evaporate into their respective element over time and create a magically strong area where they died. Sometimes not, of course, and it takes roughly as long as regular decomposition.

We could always burn it up. I'm not sure bodies are immune to fire...

>>12835870
> I think the middle of the desert might be a better place to dispose of the body.

Somewhere out in the middle of the desert, where it's highly unlikely that anyone will happen upon it accidentally, but because Scinnari has been there and can teleport, she can get there easily.

An alright plan I think.

>>12835626

True, but even if he figures out it's not her, the sheer mental anguish of seeing the visage of the one he wants being taken by another... Pure, soulbreaking evil is what Red Dragons are all about.

>>12835878
Why?
What purpose does that serve?

>>12835901
I don't know, he probably won't care one way or another at this point

>>12835902
see: "Red Dragon"

>>12835891
Really? I thought they just decomposed. There are dragon graveyards and all that. And zombie dragons. I was under the impression that they leave corpses like everything else.

>>12835914
Since when have red dragons been known for their capes?

A cape of his scales seems to be a worthy trophy, actually. Let's grab some of them after we kill him. Maybe even enough to make a suit of armor out of for our human form.

>>12835878

It's not room I'm worried about. It's someone finding the body. I like the desert idea. No speak with dead (or worse, raise dead) to worry about.

>>12835907

Look, either he does care and we just fucked over his mind for evulz, or he doesn't care and we just fucked a hot devil girl. This is a win-win situation.

How about we just weight down his body and drop it in the ocean? It will decompose super fast there and things will eat it. Even better if we dismember it beforehand. No bringing him back with anything short of a true res or wish.

rolled =

>>12835940
A dress of Cygnis.
She'll know what it is, but she'll still wear it. If she's bound to our will.

>>12835964

Ooh, I like that. But I still think we should skin him first, we can pretend to be an adventurer selling the spoils of battle.

>>12835978
When did we become buffalo bill?
I thought we were utilitarianaly evil, not the lolrandomchaoticstupid kind?

I'm all for making a cape and dropping his corpse into the ocean, lets do that.

Whatever we do, just get on with it, so that way we can go back to important things, like making money

>>12835995
Keeping the scales of a powerful dragon for later us is about as utility-oriented as possible.

>>12835999
Thirding. We still have balls to be broken first though.

>>12835995
It's the little things that make the centuries pass.

>>12836017
Are dragons scales imbued with power or something?
Huh, I'll have to check up on that

I see no problem practicing the binding on him if it fails he still is bound gagged and anti magicked.


Could say that we will spare his life and his horde however he must be punished. get him to feel guilty (makes it easier to bind) make him think that he deserves this punishment. Use examples that make him feel ashamed or actions bahamut would look down on.

>>12835995
Hey. Simple pleasures here. Being totally cautious and conservative and taking no risks is both not rewarding and boring. Such cruelties are exactly the sort of thing that make us want power in the first place; so we can assert our power, and claim our rightful place at the top.

What's the point of having all that if we can't indulge in things like this from time to time?

Also gold dragons are VERY. Good. I think we should formally turn him over to Scinnari for her to kill-- that way we can claim it 'was possessed by a devil' (quite literally,), and we were forced to kill it. (lest it survive with knowledge we could not allow to escape.)

At the very least, we ought to save his body parts, either as resources for later or for petty (or not so petty,) cruelties.

>>12836032

They're DRAGON scales. Literally everything on a dragon is magical and/or useful. They're thirty tons of alchemy ingredients at the very least.

>>12835999
Someplace far out to sea and extremely deep plus we need to make sure wherever it is is scrying proof. If anyone finds the body they could raise him. That would be horrible.

>>12836032
Uh, they're stronger than steel and very light. Perfect thing for armor or protective clothing. Also slightly magical and very receptive to being enchanted. Additionally, they provide protection from whatever element the dragon was immune to in life.

>>12836061
Someplace extremely deep?

Dump him in the cavern where we found the crystal, ain't no muthafuckas gonna find it there.

>>12835891
I'm pretty sure that's the 4th edition draconomicon, or 4th ed dragons. Using 3e, sorry. (Hey, can you blame me? It's what I know best, but I still hardly know it at all!)

Guys, if the body is so valuable and we want to chop it up and sell it, perhaps Freeport isn't the best place to do that? Cygnis might find out, get one, and raise him. I like the desert/ocean idea. Take Az someplace remote, kill him, make sure to have the area scry-proof, and then come back to dice him up at our leisure.

So to recap

>Fuck Scinnari as Cygnis
>Crush his balls
>Bind him
>Kill him
>Harvest body parts
>Ride to Tshaz in style.

>>12836107
No IRC today WD?

#dragonquest @ IRCHighWay for anyone who doesn't know.

For those of you without chat clients, use Mibbit.com/chat

>>12836146
Don't forget a list of his businesses, properties, associates, and how to best take them over. He probably has several alternate identities set up in case he is found out and therefore ways to easily convert his business interests to a new leader. Perfect for us.

>>12836096
Cygnis knows that there is something in that area though. She might check it out some time. Maybe not soon, but eventually, and if there's anything of Az left there she might raise him. Some place farther out to sea maybe. Or the desert, and bury it.

But scry-proofing the area is an absolute must.

>>12836146

Sounds about right.

>>12836163

I like this idea.

Also, it gives W-D something to post while we argue what to do in the slightly longer term.

>>12836146
>Fuck Scinnari as Cygnis
>Crush his balls
Ehh, not too sure on those first two. We've been pretty preagmatic with our evil so far.

Guys we are playing a red dragon with ambitions for an empire what better empire with dragons ruling it. (us on top of course)

Also we need to do some experimenting if we want to bind his sister later. We need to see how much hatred or other emotions will influence the binding.

We might gain a slave in the process.

>>12836222
We still get to have some fun, though. Pragmatic doesn't mean you walk around with an evil-paladinlike rod up your ass and never do anything interesting. It just means you don't do rampantly stupid shut for the evulz.

To do list:
Ask spinal sage about Az's identities, holdings, etc.
While doing this, physically make it clear that we own Scinnari in ways that Az will envy.
Take him some place remote. Make sure anti-scrying stuff is in place.
Kill him.

>>12836266

don't you want to see what happens if we try to bind him?

As a sort term threat he has been neutralized. If we bind him up nice and tight we have more opportunities. of course after complete testing of how strong the binding was.

>>12836167

Cygnis probably keeps in contact with him if she loses contact she might be suspicious. need to address this.

At least no one here has suggested sodomizing Az ourselves. So all of this could be terribly worse. And does anyone here actually expect the OP to detail the finer points of that suggested french torture in this thread? Easy enough to fade to black and just allude to "torture", feel free to think of it however you want.

>>12836322
A thousand times this.

Unless it requires a huge shitstorm debate. That was last thread. This should ACTUALLY HAPPEN this thread.

>>12836266
I say kill him before taking him someplace. We can carry his body in pieces while invisible. Much safer than trying to transport him alive.

>>12836322
Test it out a bit, maybe. But we should kill him regardless once we're done. Remember, the binding can be resisted temporarily if the person is angry enough. And we've pissed Az off royally. He won't make a good bound servant in any case.

>>12836222
I agree, regarding >crush his balls. There are things that are done and there are things that aren't done, and that is a thing that is just not done. It lowers us. Dragons do not crush testicles, humans do.

>>12836402
Taking the body in pieces means multiple trips. Taking him restrained in human form only takes one. Plus, taking him in pieces risks leaving some part of him outside any sort of anti-scrying area. I say take him so place remote, then kill him.

>>12836418
Sure we do. It's just reserved for those who lay their hands (or any other body part) on our hoard, be it the gold, items, or Scinnari.

>>12836413

We should try to figure out how much the binding costs. There was talk of it being expensive. We should figure that out before wasting further time discussing it.

>>12836447
Personally, I don't think we should make W-D do it.

Maybe pawing Scinnari a bit, but no the balls crushing.

>>12836393

Only downside is him freaking out and it causing a huge ruckus eventually involving the town somehow if he gets in dragon form. Town's trying to kick us out anyways, so who cares what happens. Oh wait, they still haven't paid us.

On a different note, I wish we could get:

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/discernLies.htm

Just cast it and listen to the shiny ball start talking to see how trueful it is. Ain't no will saves to protect against it unless it's been magically enchanted to avoid detection by such spells when lying.

Have we reverted in front of him yet? I think we should do that.

"Oh, and perhaps you wonder why I take such pleasure in the way your sister has taken after me? Do you wonder why I am so interested in your hoard?

Well. Let me show you."

Cue wicked laugh, rising smoke and ominous music. Scinnari on keyboard.

We should just eat his body. Slow but delicious.

>>12836470
If the purpose was to sow discord, it might very well be enchanted with exactly that. Also, artifacts don't give a fuck about most non-epic magic. We would need an epic truth-detection spell to check it for lies.

>>12836382

Was thinking that we could let Scinnari "play" with Az. Nothing permanently damaging mentally or physically but drop hints that Scinnari might go easier on Az if he cooperates with her. (might be a good time to see how strong this binding ritual is)

think of this as more of a reward for Scinnari

>>12836490

I'm in favor of this.
Scinnari having her way with Az > us crushing his balls.

After all, he did hit her.

>>12836509
She can have her way with him after we force-feed him a healing potion after crushing his balls.

D&D: Making even deadly tortures perfectly able to be repeated for years on end!

>>12836490
Agreed. We did kind of promise him to her a while back.

Revised list:

1. Ask the spinal sage about Az's identities, holdings, etc.
1.a) Maybe paw Scinnari while doing this.

2. Ask it about the binding, how much it will cost us, etc.
2.a) Maybe practice the binding on him if it isn't too hard/risky/expensive.

3. Let Scinnari torture him as a reward to her for her efforts.

4. Reveal we're a dragon so he can realize just how much he fucked up.

5. Take him some place remote, where we have anti-scrying coverage, and kill him.

the main reason i want to try the binding is that their is no reason why not. he can't escape and it would be nice to see this mythical binding spell in action.

>>12836530
>>12836509
>>12836490
These Anon have the right of it.

Als, if we reveal our true form to him, it should only be SECONDS before his death. Binding or no binding, THAT card we should keep close to our chest.

>>12836509
>>12836520
Why don't we just skip the middle man and let HER crush his balls?

Man, this quest goes to all the weirdest places. Cuckoldry and now ballcrushing. It's like we're channeling /d/ or something.

>>12836520
Seconding. We don't get to really enjoy ourselves too often.

>>12836559
It's apparently rather expensive. We should find out exactly how much.

>>12836567
When /d/ became /futa/ there was a lot of migration here, as most fa/tg/uys are pretty freaky and visit both places.

A note on slightly longer-term plans than the whole torturing Az bit: If we are leaving the city, then we should have Scinnari spend a little bit of time using whatever pull she has left in the city's underworld to squeeze it for as much wealth as possible. Or magical objects, or whatever. Unless we're planning to leave her behind or stay in the city to be a criminal for a while (neither seems particularly attractive to me), there's no point in not burning bridges for whatever we can get.

And as long as we're wrapping matters up in this city, we'll need to decide what we're doing with the kobolds. Simply leaving them in the city with no further direction is an option, of course, but it does rather discard a potential asset. Taking them with us would be inconvenient, though... and leaving them behind with an "await my return" directive doesn't feel like that great of an option either. Any other thoughts on this, guys?

No to binding, let's find someone weaker and less inclined/capable of taking vengeance. We can experiment... later. Let's just get the info, then kill him, and maybe do something useful with the corpse.

>>12836559

i agree with all except 5 only happens if the binding is too weak for safety or fails we kill him.

Other than that he is our slave forever.

>>12836558
Alright, further revisions:

1. Ask the spinal sage about Az's identities, holdings, etc.
1.a) Maybe paw Scinnari while doing this.

2. Ask it about the binding, how much it will cost us, etc.
2.a) Maybe practice the binding on him if it isn't too hard/risky/expensive.

3. Let Scinnari torture him as a reward to her for her efforts.

4. Take him some place remote, make sure we have anti-scrying coverage.

5. Reveal we're a dragon so he can realize just how much he fucked up.

6. Kill him.

>>12836597
We can debate that later. We should focus on this right now. We blew the entire last thread on that argument.

Scinnari LOEV torture!
A red dragon need not sully his claws.
Everything works out.

>>12836610
Az is one of the few people who could muster the rage against us to resist the binding. He will NOT make a good bound servant. We should kill him regardless of how it turns out.

>>12836611
Wait, if we're going to take him out to sea or to the middle of a desert or whatever, then we need to go dragon form.

Or I guess we could keep him in a box for that trip.

In any case, we should stop talking and DO IT.

"And now, with your personal collection out of the way, we can move on to another subject; your identities, roles, and authorities. I'm sure you have a merchant company or two you control. Turning them over to me would be a wise move... but unfortunately, you're gagged. What a pity. Scinnari? I hate to ask, but could you keep taking records? I suspect they will prove... invaluable." you finish, with hungry look.

What you find, of course, is nothing hugely exceptional; Az is a member of the court of Tashz, compressing many identities into one; the merchant magnate Ozyman Darius. Unmarried. Prone to one night stands and cuckoldry. Very powerful, a personal friend of the sultan.

Further questioning ends up revealing that that is the only identity he uses. Everything else he prefers to accomplish with single use throw-away forms, or in his true form. A most... lazy approach.


"But perhaps that's the truth... lazy. Sitting safe. Manipulating the sultan, changing things as you please, resting on what few laurels as you have. Why... if you were an individual more used to challenge, perhaps you would have thought of a way out of your unfortunate predicament, or a way to prevent it... More like me, perhaps, who took out a dragon twice my age with a re-purposed plan and a single assistant. And, of course, information I was allowed to gain from you and your sister. And allowed I was... If you had considered me a threat, you would not have spoken such things in my presence. But you did. You arrogance you pay for, mine I have proved deserving of."

You pace back and forth, asking a few more questions, but consider yourself done. Next would be physical torment... sadly, the ropes and chains you have restrained him with are somewhat hampering of anything. There are further non-physical things you can do, though. Wandering out of his line of sight, you revert, and stretch languidly. You have had to be so careful for so long... a pity. But paying off.

>>12836631

that is why we are testing how strong the bond is while he can do nothing. Also it was said that even greater dragons than him could only resist for a second or too.
And that is why we need to convince him that he deserves this and he deserves this fate.

>>12836665
>ozyman darius
>ozymandias

Ohyou.jpg

>>12836665
"As for Cygnariassis.... she is... Quite intriguing. Something you are not. Reasonably polite. Friendly. /Trusting/....." you say, stalking slowly into his view. His muffled voice and thrashing spike as he sees you. You continue, undisturbed.

"Trusting... So kind, gentle, and benevolent. I do not think I will have to kill her. I really don't. I think I shall keep her around... Scinnari was being truthful to you, you know; it was made for her. I plan on keeping her around a long time... perhaps chained to a throne. Perhaps as a..." you trail off into laughter at the rabid thrashing of your captive. "What's the matter, Azdukashen, insulted? I believe we both are aware that I am far more likely to take her than you ever were, even assuming you would not be expiring shortly. Or not as the case may be.... I think if you were to escape and warn her... Well, first she wouldn't believe you. I am, after all, her savior and rescuer, multiple times over. She trusts me, Azdukashen. She /loves/ me. Relax..." you comfort, "It has graduated to the carnal sort, I do believe, as you yourself noticed. However, she still doesn't know that /this/... is me. But patience has it's virtues. I think it is not inconceivable... not inconceivable... that I may one day reveal myself to her. Beg her forgiveness for deceiving her." you say, snaking your head to one side. Then the other. "Apologize for the necessity of the deception. It was not my fault I was hatched Red, was it? Greatest and noblest of dragons... second only to golds of course." you laugh aloud, words dripping mockery and contempt.

>>12836665
>revert out of sight

I think it'd have more of an effect if we did it right in front of his face.

>>12836683
"And perhaps... confess my love. That when I first saw her, she was so beautiful... how her brother has abandoned her, and never treated her well.. that I feel guilty, even though I'm not, of course.. that I will leave, and never return, should she wish it, or allow her to kill me, if she thinks she must... but beg her mercy, and tell her I aspire to be as grand and wise as her one day..."

Azdukashen's thrashing, spluttering, almost foaming at the mouth with rage has increased as you spoke, leaving him almost apoplectic. You can see his face, though tanned, suffused with blood to a very deep red.

"Rage... or envy, perhaps? A pity, really. Of course... I'm open to suggestion here. I could just disable her as you, or bring her to within an inch of her life, and then take what I want. Whatever.... I want. Would you prefer that? It might have the benefit of leaving her untainted in your eyes, I'll grant. Of course, with her world so shaken, by torture, by betrayal, by her dear brother's abandonment in her time of need... Why, it might just break her by itself, without me needing to do anything." you say, soft laughter echoing throughout the cave.

>>12836683
I'm reading this in Firkraag's voice, from BG2.

It is glorious.

>>12836680
I considered Ozymandius [king of kings] actually, but turned it down. I just chose those two because I liked them, not to refer to Ramses II. (Or other Ozymandyii.)

Anyway, Ozyman makes a fairly decent generic Middle-eas-afri-indian name. (Probably means something in a language I don't know, though. Indubitably. That always happens when players pull out foreign dictionaries. If I'm lucky, it doesn't mean 'toothbrush', or something.)

Beautiful.

Now, hand Scinnari the pliers and have her get to work. I wonder how much the soul of a Gold would be worth in the Hells? I'm sure she's getting rich off of this too.

I think I love you Writer-guy. Your Evil monologues just... wow.

Hahahaha, I love this quest.

would be funny to tell the gold that we consider him to act more closely to a red than a gold and we would know.

could play off his sympathy saying that we would consider sparing him as Cygnis would be heart broken by abandonment but it comes at a price, his freedom.

I'm not really interested in reading about torture, so I vote we just plant Cygnis' knife in his chest. With luck it will have been a gift from him, she did seem quite attached to it.

"And now, Azdukashen, I am afraid I will pay you back for attempting to lay hands upon what is mine. Scinnari, my darling, my dearest treasure. Perhaps you would enjoy torturing and slaying a gold dragon? I imagine it would gain you great esteem in the hells. Consider it my gift to you in return for the wonderful service and companionship you have provided me. I shall rather enjoy watching the fruits of your labor.

Mind you, do not loosen his bonds. We do not want a fight on our hands. Just a slow death."

While we are saying this we should sink down beside her and caress her with a claw or something, taunting Az with the fact that she is ours and betrayed his trust for us.

DELICIOUS.

THIS HAS BEEN SO LONG IN THE MAKING AND NOW WE FINALLY GET TO BE THE MONOLOGUING ASSHOLE

FUCK YES

I don't think binding him would work at all. He's so mad.

On with the torment! We've punished him mentally enough, now for the fun!

And kill him at the end of it.

reason i would like to see us try. to see how strong the bond really is..

I think we should move on to try the ritual of binding at this point, or prepare for it if need be.

Start talking about how he failed in his duty to his sister, and that if he would of been a honorable and respectful brother, that we wouldn't have been able to pull this move. That he was not there for his sister in her greatest time of need, and that she suffered great horrors because he wasn't there to protect her. The reason why she trusts us so much, trusts us more than her brother is because we were there when he wasn't.

We CAN practice the binding... on someone else. Later. We've come as far as we have because we have mostly avoided stupid risks. Let's avoid this one, shall we.

>>12836827
Who cares! We just need the bugs worked out before we can use it with confidence in the future should the need arise.

The crystal mentioned the binding usually falters in the face of intense hatred.

I think foaming at the mouth and purple in the face qualifies as intense.

Balls. Vice. Healing potion. Scinnari getting her own fun. Loot.

Guys, I really doubt we have the resources to bind at this point. It sounded like a very complex and expensive process. We can ask for the hell of it, but I find it very doubtful we are even a powerful enough sorcerer to do it at this point.

It sounded like epic magic, and that's well beyond us right now.

>>12836818
We should land the killing blow. It is our kill, after all. This isn't something we should just gift away.

>>12836851
I am more interested to find out if we can do it. If we can do it, I wouldn't mind just killing him then and there, but with the knowledge that should we come up against another dragon (more dragons in dragon quest? who would of thought!) that we have an ace up our sleeve with the binding.

>>12836854

>who cares!

*raises hand
It's dumb. We try the binding at our leisure on someone who, even if they were inclined to make trouble for us, lacks the power to. We don't experiment on people with the strength to crush us should something go horribly awry, which it may well.

We can have our cake and eat it too, unless we ram it into our face and utterly screw up.

>>12836874
Personally I'm more than satisfied with the monologue we just delivered. Scinnari will likely be more creative than us in any case, she'll know how to really draw it out.

Plus we can watch. And if we REALLY want to, we can just tell her to take him to the brink and then kill him ourselves.

But really, he gave her a black eye. She deserves at least a little payback.

>>12836887
Fair enough, this WAS a last minute change of plans anyway.

Besides, I'm more than willing to do my part to make this thread less debate than that last one.

Even though we are having fun with az, when we are done with him, I think its time that we united all the kobolds in the city under us and form a new tribe for them. We have their support, but they are still fractured among themselves. Forging a new consolidated tribe will help us use them when we make our play for freeport.

you know if he can fail a will save the apathy spell will work nice.

GUYS!

Don't practice binding with Az. He's bigger, stronger, and angrier than we are.

HAVE BABIES WITH CYGNIS or Scinnari, if she's capable of birthing true dragons and not dragon/devils. Then we can practice binding on the hatchlings, because they'll be abominations, mixes between chromatic and metallic. No guilt.

>>12836925
Indeed! We might leave them whatever loot we don't wish to take with us as well. Nothing vital of course.

garr forgot to add yes he is angry but it would be perfect to test the strength of the spell. to see if he could break it or not, he would still be restrained and helpless.

>12836908

I don't mean to be contentious. It's just that we have utter victory in our jaws, and only unnecessary risk taking or something utterly unexpected could snatch it from us. We can eliminate half of those possibilities by playing it conservatively.

>>12836941
Having babies with Cygnis is icky, I'm against anything other than just leading her on.

>>12836984
>>12836941
I'll agree with this since we can't taunt Az with it anymore there is no point in it other than making her trust us. She already trusts us though so I don't see any reason to especially when we are leaving Freeport and it would piss Scinnari off.

>>12836984
Well I'd like to keep her around for general slave related things. Think Leia in the golden bikini.

Offspring with Cygnis are right out though. Besides, that honor currently resides with Scinnari.

sorry also like the idea of a red dragon controlling two gold dragons off on some were working on starting an empire.

could also say maybe as a lie that if we die control reverts to the binder if it already does not. basically if you off me someone more eviler and more powerful than you becomes your owner.

>>12837006
Well maybe. There is some inherent hypocrisy to telling Scinnari (an Erinyes, no less) to be chaste but swinging our little dragon around at whatever we see. She might get resentful.

Then again, she might be fine with being our "wife" while the rest of our partners are more "concubines" as such. Who knows?

we should ask the Crystal about the binding and if we can do it try it out. depending on how well /bad it went we can consider our options.

worst that can happen is we blew a bunch of reagents.

>>12837044
Well, we probably should talk to her about it.

>>12837084
Doing something intelligent regarding relationships? Inconceivable!

But yeah, maybe when we're on the ship sailing away and below decks every day boinking her we can bring it up during pillow talk.

>>12837039
Golds can detect lies.

>>12837044
First off, she's not allowed because SHE belongs to US. If we choose to own more that's really none of her concern.

Secondly Cygnis would be more like a plaything. Possibly even to Scinnari, under the rule of "no lasting marks".

>>12837044
Who cares what she's okay with? She is ours. We do not belong to her, and if having a concubine--or a second lover, even--interests us, she is going to have to deal with it. No one ever said we were monogamous.

>>12837124
>>12837141
Good points, but it still can't hurt to know her opinion on the matter. If she dislikes it then we'll know to watch her closely if we decide to anyway, for instance. Information never hurts.

>>12837124
>>12837141
That said, we should still talk to her about it. Remember, we've actually been leaning on her a lot.

>>12837155
>>12837161
Well, yes. We should probably eventually tell her what we want with Cygnis (when we finally decide), but if we start treating her like our equal, she's going to think that she actually is. And that's just wrong.

WD here?

Alright. Next on the agenda: Torture!

Give Scinnari a chance to play with him. Meanwhile, ask the spinal sage about the binding process. How much it costs and the like.

Um, guys?

Have we considered that Scinnari might take this opportunity to jump ship on us?

I mean, we just gloated that we might keep Cygnis around, which Scinnari might interpret as us replacing her. She might try to free Az.

>>12837176
There's no reason to be an ass about it. We can clearly tell her that we will do as we wish, but we still hold her opinions in esteem.

>>12837208
Very doubtful, she knows that this is mental torture. We could say anything, so long as it provokes a reaction. She might have questions afterward, but we were going to bring up the subject with her eventually anyway to get her opinion.

>>12837044
From my reading, that's actually pretty in line with Devil's SOP. Rules are rules, but the person who makes the rules is entitled to whatever he/she/it/they desire.
#####################

"So. Just to review the major points, not only are you a catastrophic failure to yourself, your sister, and dragon kind as a whole, you are a laughable example of a laughable race. I am left with a feeling that I am vastly overestimating the threat posed by golds... Still, I won't change anything; caution serves me well. Like it might have served you."

You step back, pacing. As if in thought, or allowing the hoplessness of his situation to weigh in.

"Scinnari." you say at last.

"Lord Azaladon?" she ask. Cautious herself, as well as curious.

>>12837208
Dude, bro,
She's EVIL. She GETS the whole "we're crushing his spirit" thing. We're about to hand her over the keys to a brand new Ferrari to crush its spirit until there's nothing left.
Its all good.

Also, on an unrelated note, I support the "Us x Scinnari" ship in terms of she being our trusted leutenant and our baby-mamma. The "Us x Cygnis" shipping in terms of her being a part of our horde. And "Scinnari x Cygnis" in terms of a dom/sub thing. Because Scinnari would be down with it, and Cygnis wouldn't.

>>12837301
"You have served me well. Consider this... gold a gift to you. He both harmed you and insulted you; he is yours to make pay. Finally, of course, his soul... out of personal preference, I'd hope you could sacrifice it to Taimat. However, I said he was yours, and I meant it. Do as you will, but I do hope you are duly rewarded for a Gold dragons' soul..." you say, stroking her gently with one of your massive claws. She shivers and inhales. Whether she is putting on a show for Azdukashen or not is anyone's guess. "You are greatest among my treasures, and most certainly deserve it."

With that, you settle down to watch her work. She is surprisingly sparse in her work, but still elicits a symphony of hisses, muffled gasps and whimpers. A true artisan at work. To your further surprise, she seems to finish shortly, not even a half hour into it. She lays him on the floor, still bound, and slowly, almost gently- ceremoniously, even,- lowers the ritual knife towards his chest, preparing to cut his heart out.

"One moment, I'm afraid. It would be most unwise to do it here." you state, interrupting. "I think we should do it somewhere where a massive body is easier to dispose of, or harder to find." you explain, as she starts to question.

>>12837187
Please, I have never abandoned you. You would doubt me now, even after 20+ threads?

could try to bind him before killing him as practice

>>12837306
Strip the scales and we'll use them for the cape/dress/armor/whatever later. Then cut his body apart, weight it down so it doesn't float away, and toss it into the ocean so it's quickly decayed.

Before we leave we should also completely loot anything we can from the Temple of the Binder, talk to Scinnari about how she feels on the subject of concubines, and depending on that progress with Cygnis in a suitable manner.

As we leave on the ship we should try to gather a crowd. Maybe the day before send Asha around and get people interested. When we board it we should give a speech about how the corrupt council is trying to buy off any threat to their power, and assure them that if they keep hope in their hearts we will one day return.

Also, maybe have Asha assassinate that Lady Elise or whatever that bitch's name was. Show the council we don't take this lightly.

>>12837379
We might want to keep other body parts.

Also, we should definitely make sure that what ever we do with the body, it's under the effect of an anti-scrying something or rather. Do we still have a spare pendant?

could ask Scinnari if she wants to keep him or not?

>>12837394
Scrying won't work after it decomposes, and dismemberment/decay invalidates anything but a True Res or Wish anyway. And having a Devil sacrifice his soul likely prevents either of those from working, too.

The tunnels beneath our home should be large enough to contain his body. Scinnari delivers the finishing blow, and then the dragon slaying sword will make quick work of his body.

>>12837402
No, we don't keep him after all this. Period. Not even as a Bound, and surely not unbound. We are evil, not stupid.

>>12837402
No. He needs to die. He knows way, way too much, and is way too strong to try to keep.

>>12837379
We don't take things lightly.
But we're patient. We're all but ageless. There is a time for vengeance and that is not now.

In terms of Glorious Machinations, I think the real thing to be mulling over is how to keep Cygnis strained close to the breaking point. We've set ourself up to be her serious emotional support after her trauma with the Cult of the Binder, but now we're being evicted from the Island. We need a way to keep that level of dependency, lest we lose the critical pull we hold with her.

>>12837422
This temple should be large enough to contain the body, and we can transport it invisibly in our dragon form after we cut it up. I still think we should sell his heart after we're done, probably goes for a ton of money.

>>12837438
We just gave him to Scinnari. That presumably includes his heart.

>>12837438
Transporting his cut up draconic body will take several trips. Transporting it in human sized form is much, much quicker and easier. Less likely to be discovered.

What about that deep hole underneath our home that the kobolds found? I don't think we ever explored it or looked to see just how deep it was and I've forgotten just how large it is so I'm not sure if that would fit his body or not.

>>12837522
Might be a good idea.

Also, me might want to take some measures to ensure that the new owner NEVER finds the secret Kobold tunnels.

Take him in human form to the tunnels, kill him, harvest from the body, dispose of the rest in the pit.

Sound like a plan?

The bottomless pit is a good idea. Using the kobolds to transport the body not so much, as it shows them a dragon can be killed... and we really don't even want them to think that is possible.

But throwing Az's body down the hole is smart, and if Scinnari finds out about all the crap we have done in secret then she will probably be impressed and somewhat intimidated. Indeed, knowing that not everything we do goes through her (or is even known to her) will make betraying us even more foolish as she will be unable to anticipate exactly how powerful we are.

Then again, she might also take it as a sign she has to hide things from us. Then again, she's already hiding a dragon hunter... speaking of which, I think we should have "Blackjack" appear where we eventually settle after a few months. Continuing to track the dragon. And it just so happens that Scinnari comes into contact with him again. Just as Keikaiku.

I'm still in favor of the middle of the ocean. It has the advantage of not being anywhere near anything that Cygnis might know about.

>>12837678
A fair point. Magic might lead her to her dead brother if for some reason she wanted to look for him. And her finding his body under our old house wouldn't look good for us. I don't see it happening anytime soon of course but it's a possibility.

Our private cavern also has an exit to the sea, so we have the option of dumping him in the water too.

When is the counsel giving us the 100k gold?
We're a dragon that has yet to gain any meaningful horde up to this point. Pic related

>>12837623
Won't Kobolds flip their shit when they find a dead dragon?
I bet Kobolds have a religious refusal to screw with dead dragon parts, so let's not try to smuggle dead dragon parts past Kobolds.

Still, we're gonna want to harvest:
>Dragon claws
They make good weapons
>Dragon heart
It's a good reagent
>Dragon scales
They make good armor

And if we have the transportation capacity:
>Dragon bones
They make decent armor
>Dragon meat
It's meat. Nothing too special. Expensive, though, for its rarity.

Dumping it in the sea might work... as long as we're confident that it won't bloat and get washed ashore.

>>12837708
Dragon soul, btw, goes to Scinnari. Devils like souls. They're like "Souls! ^____^ OMNOMNOM"

I'm in favor of seadump. Seadump work for you guys?

>>12837750
Sure, provided that >>12837724
is taken into account. Also, we need to ensure that the house's new owner noesn't find out about the caverns under it.

>It's meat. Nothing too special.
Tin it and sell it to a wandering @. Make sure he keeps his dogs and kittens restrained first.

Ok, list of things to harvest in order of importance for carrying capacity:

>Scales
>Heart
>Skull
>Misc. Bones
>Meat

everything else is chum.

>>12837775
Hmmm. On that note, did we ever get the loot from that ship we left on the shore? Or did we leave it behind due to Cygnis taking us back ASAP?

>>12837791
Left it there I think.

Also, I vote for taking Az out to sea before killing him.

>>12837791
We left it behind. We should grab that stuff too.

Would it be unwise to take the meat off our bound gold and feed it to Cygnariassis as a last meal before being exiled?

>>12838026
I... I don't know. Part of me really, REALLY likes that idea. But at the same time there are so many risks involved. If she finds out we would be so unbelievably hosed.

I don't know, how do you cook dragon meat to conceal it?

>>12838026
Yes, that would be very unwise. She figured out that there had been a red dragon around by the smell of our breath weapon.

>>12838026
Most unwise.

>>12838026

She'd be able to smell it. Recognize it as dragon meat. Explaining that would be very, very awkward.

>>12838026
There's a King Lycan on the phone for you

I have been thinking about the possible paths ahead of us and pretty much it comes down to just a few:
We stay in Freeport with a different form(somewhat useless as we can't do anything with Cygnis in any form except Cibach)
We accept our banishment, and head to the high seas, where we can then go onto any other locations.
We go hunting for Binder related artifacts/assets/information/plots.(this doesnt have to be mutually exclusive, and we really should do it, better to be prepared.)

Personally, i think that if we went along with the banishment, bringing Asha with us, leaving Cygnis and Scinnari behind(in new identities if necessary) and go check out the dragons nearby, looking for younger/weaker dragons to dominate. We could check out that red dragon at Beren(calls itself a queen), or we could investigate the port city of Azar, and Vizier Sannek, the guy that Asha said was too cowardly to try for his independance. I get the feeling that it might be important at some point(his backer might possibly be Binder related, or a dragon, if its the first we have to deal with it, and the second could be useful to know in the future.)

Also, its a port so it would fit with our current persona to head on out, after the banishment of course. If we get some long distance teleportation item, or a way of calling Scinnari to us, we wouldn't even have to bring her with us to have her skills available. (Asha would probably be very grateful for that, moreso if Scinnari puts on a show first, and she is the least loyal of our current allies. Maybe doing some questan with her would help)

If we bring the Spinel Sage with us, we should be able to do the Binder related stuff easily, and it would help if we went to Azar.

Carrying the damaged body over your shoulder, you again go invisible, and return to 'your' house. Well, it was yours, but now it's only yours until the end of the week... joy. Still, Scinnari is pleasingly surprised when you reveal the 'secret passage' you discovered, and help her manhandle Azdukashen's body down the chute.

"Here.. here is excellent. Please, feel free to proceed." you order, halting in the center of the room over your somewhat small bed of gold. At least, it feels that way now. "Out of curiosity, why are you so quickly done with him? I would have thought his... crude advances and attacks upon you were worthy of far more."

"Because you gave him to me, lord. I merely prepare him, for what truly awaits him on the banks of the Styx." Scinnari replies.

"Good enough for me. In that case, proceed as you would have."

She straddles his damaged body, and slowly, almost lovingly, cuts his heart out. She begins a ritual chant in Infernal, holding it aloft. As she finishes, it's consumed by unholy flames- but left totally untouched once they vanish. In the same instant, his body melts, shifts, and suddenly a massive corpse lies in the room, that of a recently deceased Gold dragon....

It feels distasteful, like you're a common adventurer, or equally low parasite, to rip the body apart piece by piece. As much as you hate to admit it, Azdukashen did die a fairly dignified death, considering what was happening to him. It did not save him, though....

Scales, bones, organs... all is shredded away. Scales and bones, directly valuable and useful, are all sorted out to one side. Organs and meat, Scinnari disposes of; her previous time on the Prime Material plane have left her with knowledge and contacts... most of whom aren't around any more, but petty regime changes rarely shut down blackmarkets or venues for illegal goods.

When the night ends, you have much to show for your grisly efforts; Scinnari has returned, mainly with small, valuable gems, (your favorite, of course, are the rubies, but you'd hardly tell her that,), and a few magical items that seem useful, namely, a pair of magical bags, an enchanted bottle perpetually full of water, and a few minor knickknacks. Not to mention a few hundred gold, silver, and platinum. 'Profitable; very.' is your conclusion. Also, out of mere curiosity, you revert and sample some of Azdukashen's... flesh. An exquisite taste, a fantastically seasoned steak, almost. While it's difficult, you manage to limit yourself to a small taste, especially once Scinnari starts bringing in the results of your efforts.


To finish up, you place his bones and scales into the bags, (filling up one and most of the second,) before reverting and scorching the cavern, incinerating all traces... as well as, ideally, the scent of blood and flesh.

The next order of business is to take an extensive bath yourselves, to remove the odor. For that reason, you introduce Scinnari to the sewer exit of your 'lair' and spend the wee hours of the morning enjoying the hot scented waters of a private room of Freeport's best bathhouse.

[Early morning, let's get going again.]

Ballin'.

Let's go see the Kobolds and let them know what's going on.

Okay, so now that Az is out of the way, we need to make sure we get all the money we're owed from Freeport, then work out where to go next.

Personally, I'm in favour of setting up shop in Tashz or, preferably, one of its nearby cities. We know that there is now a vacancy in Tashz itself, after all, and we could insinuate ourselves into it without too much trouble. However, that might bring Cygnis too close to suspicion, and we need her to stay and manage affairs in Freeport (we can, essentially, be manipulative in absentia).

Either way, we do need to punish Freeport for exiling us. I vote for conducting aerial assaults and raids on Freeport ships in red dragon form, personally. Delivers punishment, and has political implications for Freeport (and its allied cities) regarding whoever they're at war with now.

>>12838182
Talk with Scinnari about concubines or the like, find out her opinion but don't imply that she has any control over us. Just that we value her opinion and might take it into consideration.

Recover the stuff we left on the beach and further raid the temple for stuff that we might want. Ask the crystal for specific locations of valuable things.

Have Scinnari do a grab-and-dash with whatever she can from Finn's establishment. As much as possible without endangering herself.

Have Asha either kill that council lady or go around spreading rumors about how the council hates us and are jealously guarding power despite the fact we saved the city.

Tell the kobolds to get ready for a journey.

Buy a ship or two, good merchant vessels so we can use them later too.

Finally, visit Cygnis.

>>12838237
Revealing our true form would be a bad idea I think. But Freeport should indeed be punished for their folly.

>>12838250
Agree with this.

>>12838171
> We stay in Freeport with a different form(somewhat useless as we can't do anything with Cygnis in any form except Cibach)

Not necessarily. We can clue her in on the fact that we've assumed a new identity. If she asks, we can pass it off as us being an adventurer. Or say that the spinal sage was correct in one regard, we seem to have a knack for sorcery. True answers, though they don't reveal anything too suspicious.

100,000 Gold?
Yes Please!

>>12838250
Add meeting with the Kobolds to that list and it's perfect.

>>12838258
We wouldn't have to let them know that we were in fact a red dragon, of course.

>>12838250
Thorough and concise.

>>12838273
It's on there it looks like. I'll fourth this.

>>12838265
I don't know, that's an awful lot of coincidences to swallow

An idea, guys. We have a full week until all sales are finalized, right? But they're buying everything we own at 10x value. So anything that we acquire within the next week, backdate the sale of, and subsequently sell to the council we can make a x9 profit on, theoretically.

>>12838250
Prior to sending Asha off to assassinate people, use the crystal to "scout" dangers and potential valuables to be gained from the mission.

Also, I suspect that killing the council members might potentially lose us some of that hundred thousand gold. Let's hold off on that until just before we're gone.

>>12838237
Tashz has a history with blue dragons, so i dunno. I might be wise to check out nation that is attacking Tashz, starts with an R.

If we use the kobolds to manipulate events in Freeport, we could wind up taking over Freeport when they send military aid to help Tashz in this new war.

But regardless of which side we play, we do need to look to securing some kind of power base here in Freeport before we leave.

I suggest unifying the kobolds into one tribe under us.

Personally, I don't think we should pack everything up. We can still exercise some control over Freeport. I think we should return once we're done looting Az's lair.

Scinnari should continue working on Finn's former organization, while we merely tell the kobolds that we'll be out of contact for a little while, but will return shortly.

>>12838305
We can just pass it off as us being an adventurer. We have an invisibility gem, an artifact that answers questions, is the ability to alter self all that strange? Remember, alter self is only a second level spell.

If you guys want to take a new identity, just buy a ring of polymorph. It could be crap form of it but if Cygnis asks, we can just point to the ring and say ring of polymorph and leave it at that. Then we have an excuse to polymorph a lot easier around people like Asha.

>>12838250
I really don't see any reason to talk to Scinnari about concubines now. We need loyal allies right now, and doing anything to jeopardize that is foolish.

>>12838347
A ring of Alter Self would be cheaper. Cygnis thinks we're a humanoid, and Alter Self is enough to get from one humanoid form to another humanoid form. Polymorph is only required if you want to change type.

>>12838347
But then we're highlighting the fact we have a ring of conceal true form (or something like that). And if we take THAT off then we're a big glowing dragon to anyone with true sight. It's bad news to play with shapeshifting around those who are supposed to be able to sense it.

>>12838347
A ring of polymorph is pretty damn expensive. Well over 10000gp, and even with Az's hoard now in our possession, it might be a stretch. Besides, we want that hundred thousand gold.

Honestly, it might well be easier to control events in Freeport from afar, while we set up in another city. Cygnis can manage local affairs well enough, with us as the absentee owner. And in another city, we will have plenty of room to expand without having to worry as much about keeping her oblivious.

Not to mention we can do a whole lot more investigation on the Binder, rituals, and so on and so forth.

>>12838382

Gold dragons don't have true sight.

>>12838386
> A ring of polymorph is pretty damn expensive. Well over 10000gp, and even with Az's hoard now in our possession, it might be a stretch. Besides, we want that hundred thousand gold.

Which is why we don't need polymorph, just alter self. That's enough to get from an elf (which is what Cygnis thinks we are) to a human.

>>12838386
Whatever, it doesn't have to be a ring of polymorph. Just something that would let us change appearance and so when we explain how we look different, we have a truthful response to give Cygnis. Irrelevant if we leave of course but I meant if we stay.

>>12838395
Does not mean that she can't cast it or get a scroll and cast it.

I think the ring of polymorph is a waste. Right now we should be investing our wealth into assets that will help us take over Freeport.

>>12838382
> It's bad news to play with shapeshifting around those who are supposed to be able to sense it.

Only Scinnari has the ability to sense it.

Guys, let's just find somewhere else to start at. We can invade Freeport later if we feel like it. Maybe head off to a rich trading city near that red dragoness we've heard about. See what OTHER dragon ladies are like, hmmm?

>>12838237
Instead of an air raid on merchant ships to and from Freeport, we could use our ring of waterbreathing and just continually gut the ships while invisible and underwater.

People mentioned keeping Cygnis paranoid; a possible idea? I'm sure Scinnari knows a guy who knows a guy who could create another cursed item for us, one that would induce paranoia. Keep her jumping at shadows, and teh cult of the binder fresh in her mind, despite us having bumped them.

then just leave and elt it work it's magic. She'd be begging us to come back.

>>12838413
1. True sight is a 5th level spell (or 6th, depending on which list you use). That's a LOT of money.
2. It wouldn't be a ring of polymorph, just a ring of alter self, which is much, much cheaper.

>>12838432
True, but I think dismantling everything in Freeport as some people have been suggesting is a silly plan.

>>12838432
I don't think we should go investigating other red dragons unless we're clearly in a position of power and authority. We're pragmatic, and putting ourselves on the "I should kill you and take over" list of ANOTHER imperialistic dragon might be a mistake.

>>12838443
Hahaha. I like this plan a lot although it'll be hard to get it on Cygnis without her knowing it came from us. Just in the small chance she realizes it's cursed and manages to get rid of it, it'd be bad if she knows we gave it to her.

>>12838434
We are visible by the huge area of displaced water. I doubt they'd realize what we are, but they'd realize something was doing it.

>>12838432
Can we go somewhere WITHOUT dragons for once, either chromatic or metallic?

If we revealed that we found a ring of polymorphing (or minor artifact, or summat,) we could claim that that's the truth behind our 'red dragon'-ness. Should she ever walk in on us, or something. But people aren't interested in revealing, so let's not actually try that, but it might make a good excuse.

Thread archived.

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/12835112/
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=dragon%20quest

Don't forget to vote.

Talk to Cygnis.
Say: "We can get some alter self stuff if you'd like us to stay here."
Ask about buying some stuff, backdating the purchase, and selling it off for massive profit.
Tell Cygnis we're ... well, we're okay with moving out, and we will have our stuff in order, but it will upset us to leave behind opportunities and friends in Freeport.
Basically, follow Cygnis. We're gonna need to be her 'emotional' ( ;) )support in the absence of her half-brother.

Why does everything have to be so complicated with you guys lately?
We find a nice, neutral city, that's open to entrepuners and vagabonds who have 100 Grand to spend, build up a financial empire, and work our way out from there, mkay?

>>12838506
They would know something was causing the ships to be sunk by the fact that the ships would end up missing constantly, they would not know that it was a pissed off young adult red dragon, even if there are surviving crewmembers.

Wrecking freeport overtly: Bad idea
Wrecking the council covertly: Good idea.

Also, underwear of paranoia would be hillariously awesome. "I think my bra is making me paranoid. It must be cursed!" ... "Cool paranoia bro." ... "I know, it's my underwear!!!!"

>>12838537
> Say: "We can get some alter self stuff if you'd like us to stay here."

That's a pretty good idea. If we make it sound like her plan, she won't be as surprised. Plus, it decreases the likelihood of having to awkwardly explain the fact that our "alter self" spell can't be detected. We can say, well I thought it sensible to take precautions, we wouldn't want the council to find out now would we?

>Why does everything have to be so complicated with you guys lately?
pic related

>>12838546
> We find a nice, neutral city, that's open to entrepuners and vagabonds who have 100 Grand to spend, build up a financial empire, and work our way out from there, mkay?

That actually kind of what Freeport was. Problem is that where ever there is anything worth having, someone is probably already there and will try to keep it from you.

We haven't been called upon to roll a dice for this entire thread.
This is making me worried.
... brb changing my underwear

>>12838182

Picture Saved and used as desktop image. Perfect Size too. Thanks for delivering when you don't even intend to WD.

>>12838591
I know, but really, at this point, we're golden (literally)
100,000 GP puts ahead of most competitors outside of merchant guild combines and state backed factories, and even then it'd be a close match
Really, we can set up shop anyplace we want at this point, and not have to worry about the little things like we did in Freeport, like establishing alteridentities to work our way up the ranks of low class criminal organizations

>>12838546
> We find a nice, neutral city, that's open to entrepuners and vagabonds who have 100 Grand to spend, build up a financial empire, and work our way out from there, mkay?
Well, there's the problem that if we just run whenever we encounter resistance, we're going to be running forever. I don't think the council in Freeport is particularly unique. They're a reality that we're going to face no matter where we set up shop. The entrenched powers that be will always attempt to resist some new guy coming in and upsetting the status quo. Leaving Freeport isn't going to change that.

We've got some good stuff here, and getting around the council's decree might not actually be that hard. I think we should return.

After we loot Az's lair, of course.

> getting around the council's decree might not actually be that hard.

Might?

The contents of that horde are going to more or less set us for the foreseeable future. I mean Az was a moderately powerful gold who was at least twice as old as we are. We're going to have so much stuff we won't know what to do with it all. Unless WD Leaves us with a bunch of gold instead.

>>12838627
There is resistance, and then there is a city in which it would be more trouble than it is worth to continue on in. Freeport is the latter. We can own it when we invade later. Let's find a place more amicable to our rule for now, hopefully a rich place.

Let's find out if there are any female red dragons around other than that one who took over the city. It would be good to know our prospects.

Or,
Or
(Alright stay with me on this one)
We go to a place where
(you still following me?)
the ruling legislative party HASN'T declared us excomunitate traitoris in all but name?

>>12838591
Unless you happen to have DISPOSED of the resistance already.

Such as the city near which a certain gold dragon until recently had his lair.

A minor point that most of us probably aren't considering: That 100,000 gold isn't actually ours. Technically, Cygnis owns all these properties that we're being forced to sell. She'll get all the cash, and it will be up to us to persuade her into giving us any. And however soft a spot for us she's got in her heart, she is still a dragon- it will be a challenge to argue our way into even half the money, AFTER accounting for all the expenses that we racked up during our time here.


...still inclined to go for the "cheat the council by rapidly turning over properties to them at a massive markup" plan...

>>12838658
Well, it might or it might not. We should find out more. A strategy session with Cygnis is in order I believe. Float some questions, like whether or not she wants us to stay. That will make us staying significantly easier to explain to her, as mentioned in >>12838574

More information is always good. I think we should investigate how effective the council can enforce this exile before doing something drastic like gutting and abandoning our presence in the local underworld as some people have been suggesting.

>>12838675
And where we end up going will attempt to do something similar as soon as we try to take over. The ruling party is always going to try to stop someone from usurping their authority.

Besides, with our abilities dodging the council might not even be a very big issue.

>>12838250
So are we all going to be doing this, then? Everybody seems to be thinking long term, but we need to get short term stuff out of the way first.

>>12838690
Still, at ten times market prices, that's still a hefty chunk of change- at least 75,000 GP by my estimates

>>12838723
Not if you actually, you know, don't try to declare yourself the ruling figure
Honestly, you'd be surprised how much more willing people are to play with you if you don't alienate yourself by loudly announcing that you're gunning for their jobs

>>12838689
Tashzmir is a bigger city. Higher level. Much nastier. Freeport is relatively isolated compared to the mainland. I'm thinking we don't actually want to stay in Tashz longer than we need to loot Az's hoard.

>>12838745
Which we can do in Freeport. And we can keep the underworld connections, the kobolds, and Cygnis. We just need to return under a different identity.

>>12838724

NO. That's a slash and burn, dismantle everything and run plan. That involves completely pulling out of the Freeport underworld. That's if we decide that we're done for good in Freeport.

>>12838746
I don't know- a bigger city means it's less likely we'd be stepping on anyone important's toes as we move up the ladder and would probably find more allies

>>12838745
> Honestly, you'd be surprised how much more willing people are to play with you if you don't alienate yourself by loudly announcing that you're gunning for their jobs

And we have to go somewhere else to do that... why exactly?

We have polymorph, let's use it.

>>12838724
Yes, do it. We're done with Freeport for now.

>>12838775
You missed the second point. The local dragons (yes, dragons, plural) could prove an issue. Weren't you the one saying we should move somewhere without dragon competition? Az was actively having to defend his turf from other dragons. Asha has mentioned that dragons make regular power grabs on the mainland. There are much bigger fish in that pond, and we're not even in control of Freeport yet. I think that's an expansion that should wait until we're better established.

>>12838811
Yes, we are clearly unable to deal with draconic competition. There is no way we could trick, seduce, or murder our foes.

So aside from one persistant samefag, we all agree. Lets ditch Freeport for good. I think we should burn it to the ground on the way out.

Ask Cygnis.
Get Cygnis's input.
Just follow her lead.

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All aboard the easymode railroad!

>>12838851
No anon, you are the persistent samefags.
I say we stay in freeport under a new identity.

>>12838839
Az was an idiot, even weaker when it comes to women than we are. I don't think we can count on others being as easy to deceive.

>>12838870
No we're leaving!
And that's final!
...
now, where are we going again?

>>12838888
Some nice little island port city called Freeport. I hear it's lovely this time of year.

>>12838888
Oh shit nigga, 300 more posts incoming.

>>12838856
>>12838856
>>12838856
>>12838856
>>12838856
>>12838856

Guys. Before we decide anything, I think we could use some more information. We should talk to Cygnis, investigate whether or not it would be possible to get around the council with something like Alter Self. Also, if Cygnis would support it.

More information is ALWAYS a good thing.

Let's get out of Freeport. We're done here for now. We can always come back later, but our biggest scheme just flopped even if we got 100k out of it. Let's move on rather than drawing from the same well.

>>12838926

If we plan on coming back, then why the "dismantle everything and run" plan? If we intend to come back, Scinnari can use teleport to get between Freeport and where ever we end up going. We don't have to completely tear everything down.

"Scinnari, a question if you don't mind; did you object to my threats to keep Cygnis?"

"Not at all. It was well targeted and executed. A delicious twist of the metaphorical knife his capture represented."

"I'm fairly certain we both know what I asked." you say levelly. Her face goes blank.

"I would hope you do not intend to abandon or replace me." she says, cool, neutral tone.

"The last thing on my mind." you assure her. "However, I ask to make sure you are okay with it. Whether I choose to take another consort or mate is just that, my choice. However, I am failing to imagine any situation under which you would be replaced." You drift through the water towards her, eventually pulling up along side her. "You truly must think me incredibly untrustworthy. I assure you, once and for all, that as long as you are loyal, I will never abandon you. Should I take another consort, a mate, that would hardly 'replace' you. I must confess, I deem you totally ...irreplaceable."

"Thank you, lord. You reassurances... do me good. Perhaps... you would like to put our time here to recreational use?" Scinnari offers.

"I could think of none better." you reply.
#################

>>12838955

"I.. I'm glad you've come." Cygnis says at last after a short silence. She seems... torn up. Guilty. Worried. "It's totally unjustified, their... running you out of town."

"At least they're using a boat instead of a rail." you observe. Really, you can hardly disagree, though the money is extremely desirable.

"We tallied up the lands in town last night, mostly just your house. As it turns out; they are willing to allow my... our merchant group to keep operating through the city, as long as you, personally, stay away. That reduces your share of their purchase to around fifty five thousand gold, as they aren't buying my trade house, nor our pier, or the ships docked tehre. A lot less that I thought we were going to get... but we can maintain the companies. And... if you would be willing to come back at the end of your exile..."

"My dear Cygnis," you say with surprise, "if you asked it, I wouldn't even leave."

"I.. I'd like to, but I shouldn't. You're an elf; I'm a dragon. Fifty years is but the blink of an eye, and you can return. I might even be able to get some ballads or tales written, and by the time you return, you could already be a legend."

"I might return earlier. You know of the war too." you point out.

"Hah. Yes, Freeport may be in over her head. The docks are laying keels and sidewalls as fast as they can, bringing the navy up to strength- Oh, this will be bloody. Do me a favor? Don't end up dying on a battlefield somewhere." Cygnis says bitterly.

"Again, for you, mi'lady, of course." you reply, a mock bow. "But only for you. If anyone else had asked-"

"You'd have died just to show them. I understand.... I- 'We' have two ships at the harbor. I've taken the one they offered, a worthless message boat, hardly seaworthy, and it's being refitted. I'd suggest the Grey Gull, a better captain and... less likely to try and filch your gold."

"An important item of concern. I thank you for your interest in my well-being." you say politely.

"Well, I do owe you... much." she replies. "Perhaps I'll be able to truly pay you off at some point. Still, for the moment, I- Oh, I nearly forgot." Cygnis says, standing and heading into the back of her house. She returns a moment later with a small package. "A parting gift."

Ripping it open, you find a small silver mirror, the likeness of a naga or other snake-bodied creature wrapping around the frame, the handle the humanoid torso and body rising from the frame.

"Somewhat tasteless, I'm afraid, but functional. Should desire to contact me- or vice versa, you can do so. I have the other one." she says in explanation. "I... would like to stay in touch."

"Nothing would please me more." you declare, tucking the mirror into your cloak. "I shall take good care of it."


[Anything last Cygnis-related things?]

>>12838948
There is no way she's going to have the time to manage the underworld here AND wherever we set up next at the same time is the reason.

>>12838974
D'aaaw
Cygnis is crushing on us hard

>>12838976
She's already been doing just that.

It might have something to do with the fact that she needs less sleep than we do.

>>12838974
>>12839001
... You think we should pop the big red dragon in the room and reveal ourselves?

>>12838955
>>12838964
>>12838974

Alright, I'm leaning toward us moving (mainly) to another location, but trying to keep at least some of the stuff we have in Freeport intact. If Scinnari can continue working on Finn's old op, that would be great. She can bring us back the occasional ruby too.

Then there's the issue of our kobolds.

Romantically caress her face and then give her a deep, passionate kiss?

Something to keep her longing for us.

>>12839013
...NO. We don't do that until AFTER we've successfull Bound her.

And speaking of which, we do need to do a lot of Binder-related investigation.

>>12839013
No. Not yet.

>>12839025
Again, I'm not certain that binding is the most intelligent thing to do
Hell, do we know what the process actually does outside of tying someone to our will?

>>12839020
This, however, I am in favor of.

>>12838974
Not really. A last embrace and kiss perhaps.

Then:
>Recover the stuff we left on the beach and further raid the temple for stuff that we might want. Ask the crystal for specific locations of valuable things.

>Have Scinnari do a grab-and-dash with whatever she can from Finn's establishment. As much as possible without endangering herself.

>Have Asha either kill that council lady or go around spreading rumors about how the council hates us and are jealously guarding power despite the fact we saved the city.

>Tell the kobolds to get ready for a journey.

>>12839038
No, hence the need to investigate much more closely.

>>12839048
I'd go with rumor spreading for that last one

>>12839048
>Have Scinnari do a grab-and-dash with whatever she can from Finn's establishment. As much as possible without endangering herself.

I'm against this.

>>12838839
We can social-fu them if they're politicking about like we were in Freeport, but since Asha was aware of them being dragons, I think that it's more likely that the dragons are challenging each other and duking it out.

We're fairly young. We should get to Az's hoard, empty it, and get out of dodge before anyone else realizes he's missing. There's gonna be opportunists all over it.

...

After we loot his hoard, we should reset all his traps. You know. Just to be dicks.

Do chromatics work with each other or is it all rip-n-tear when we're not mating?

>>12839070
>reset all his traps

oh god yes

>>12839070
Mostly rip and tear. Chromatics tend to be too proud to suffer each others presences. However, it is a desert, so blues are the local fauna, and they generally get along better than most other chromatics. In a backstabbing, politicking sort of way.

>>12839070
Most chromatic dragons eventually end up stabbing one another in the backs
Evil feeds off of itself- such is the nature of the universe

>>12839069
Why? It's honestly extremely dangerous to leave Scinnari to her own devices in the Freeport underworld. And I really don't think she will have a lot of chance to work on it. You really have to live in a place to effectively rise to power there, you can't just pop in every now and then or even every day. You miss stuff, important stuff. Especially if you are occupied in other places, and she will be occupied.

>>12839048
>Recover the stuff we left on the beach and further raid the temple for stuff that we might want. Ask the crystal for specific locations of valuable things.

Agreed.

>Have Scinnari do a grab-and-dash with whatever she can from Finn's establishment. As much as possible without endangering herself.

I disagree, I think we should talk to Scinnari about it and figure out if she can continue running at least some of Finn's operation by teleporting. If she can, then she should.

>Have Asha either kill that council lady or go around spreading rumors about how the council hates us and are jealously guarding power despite the fact we saved the city.

If we can kill council members, then why are we leaving?
I think rumors are the better bet.

>Tell the kobolds to get ready for a journey.

I don't know if we should simply tell them to. Ask first. See if it's actually viable. There might be way the fuck too many for all we know.

If we are leaving, we should use the spinel sage to find out if there are any binder related artifacts/spell-books/magic items to be looted first. Then, we could head off to Azar, where there is at least some intrigue going on with the Vizier declaring independence, who Asha thought was being controlled by someone else. Coincidentally, the blue dragons in the desert have said nobody may pass through their territory. The other option is to investigate the red dragon at Beren, which could be fairly pointless, unless said dragon is weaker than us and could be dominated.

The biggest problem with leaving is that we wouldn't have anyway to work on Cygnis for a bit. However, if we leave now, its likely that the cult will gather some strength over time, which could be good in that it would provide a reason for return/taking the Sealord's throne, and bad in that they might ruin our plans for Cygnis or harm Scinnari, assuming they know of her that is, and that she stays to control Finn's former organization. Asha should probably come with us, especially if we go to Azar.

Wait, why are we brining our kobolds? We want them here for when we return, and to, you know, spread the "Cibach was right!" graffiti and all that. We can probably find kobold elements anywhere we want to go, or, if we can't, it will be because they are opposed as an evil race, rather than "Oh, well, should have brought your own." from the GM.

>>12839113
If there are too many we can just take the most loyal tribes.

I second the plundering of Finn's stuff. We will have Scinnari doing other stuff when we get to wherever we are going not playing absentee mob boss in Freeport. Hell, a mob boss can't be absentee anyway, she'll get stabbed in the back pretty fast.

>I think we should talk to Scinnari about it and figure out if she can continue running at least some of Finn's operation by teleporting. If she can, then she should.

Thats an utterly retarded idea. I have literally never heard anything more stupid in my entire life.

>>12839134
Unless they see us all the time there is no way they are going to stay in godlike reverence. Right now they are just thugs. It will take a couple generations of being born and dying under our rule before we can leave them in a far away place to do our work. We have to take them with us if we want to keep them.

>>12839116
Azar is a warzone right now. Rhasver invaded. That's why Freeport is off to war.

Tell Cygnis we could get Alter Self if it's wanted.
Otherwise, we're off to the desert, after looting the temple she interrupted us looting.
Also tell Cygnis that just stabbinating the council is within our abilities, if she's into that type of thing.

>>12839136
Asking her if it's possible is retarded? Since when has more information been a bad thing?

If nothing else, we should talk to her about it.

Make sure to give Cygnis a kiss on the way out, though.

I think we should offer Cygnis a few questions from the Crystal, maybe she can use it to get some busness information. It would be a good gesture before we left.

Regarding kobalds, Maybe just ask them if they know of any large colonys on the mainland/wherever we're heading next and we can claim them.

>>12839136
>>12839135
>>12839116
>>12839095
>>12839048

Fucking second all of this. Running a mob by teleporting over for a few hours once a day? That's ridiculous, especially with chaos and a turf war going on. We should just get what we can from the ashes and move on, Cygnis can prepare Freeport for when we return.

>>12839070
>>12839189
I second this

>>12839170
Similarly, asking them to accompany us to a new land might be a really big deal. They've got a life in Freeport, some of them have a decent gig going with the whole smuggling thing.

I think it would be fine to leave them there at least for now. We can be back for them again whenever.

>>12839194
This times a bajillion. People need to stop being so clingy.

>>12839189
> Regarding kobalds, Maybe just ask them if they know of any large colonys on the mainland/wherever we're heading next and we can claim them.

>>12839206
> We can be back for them again whenever.

I think these points deserve repeating. Why are we so eager to burn our bridges? We should scout the mainland before deciding where to stay, and if we should (or even can) bring our kobolds along. More information is always a good thing. Ask them about kobolds on the mainland (Jerrick might know something about that). Also we should do some looking around ourselves. We can always return later for them.

Might be a good idea to ask Cygnis about the potential of alter self or polymorph.
If not, ask her if she has any jobs for us on the mainland.

>>12839245
>Why are we so eager to burn our bridges?
And why are you being such a clingy retarded samefag?

>More information is always a good thing.
STOP REPEATING THAT ALL THE FUCKING TIME.

>We can always return later for them.
Havent you been listening? THEY EXILED US. No we fucking cant go back. And even if we could, we shouldnt.

>>12839245
We should at least visit them though. Then we can get all mystic and set a prophesy about our return in 25-50 years, whatever it was. Hopefully they won't get too disloyal in our absense.

>STOP REPEATING THAT ALL THE FUCKING TIME.
STOP REPEATING THAT ALL THE FUCKING TIME.

>>12839287
Jeeze man no need to blow a gasket

>>12839302
25 years? That seems a bit much. I'm thinking we can get back sooner than that. Hell, we might even be able to visit on occasion. This exile thing isn't all that big a deal.

>>12839247
>>12839210
>custom waiting for OP images
I love you, /tg/

You know, we could just look into getting a set of those mirror things to communicate with Scinnari...

>>12839287
Chill, broseph. Our exile isn't permanent, and even if it was we could return in another form to fuck over the government enough that we could make a triumphant return as Cibach.

We're a dragon. We can play the waiting game better than any other creature on this plane. Our options are near limitless, only restricted by our own rules.

>>12839342

To do list:

Talk to Cygnis about the mainland. Give her a kiss on the way out.

Finish looting the temple that we had to leave behind because of the cult and Cygnis.

Talk to Scinnari about Finn's operation.

Talk to the kobolds about the mainland. See if there are perhaps other kobolds there. Jerrick might know.

rolled 14, 79, 57, 60, 97, 73, 100, 23, 79, 45 = 627

>>12839353

Giving Cyg a goodbye peck of some sort seems like a good idea.

>>12839361
That also

>>12839325
Im just fucking tired of that retarded samefag ruining this quest.

>>12839361
No no no NO. Not talking to her about the operation. ORDER her to burn it all down and leave. We need to do that NOW to end this retarded debate and to get that samefag to fuck off.

>>12839376
>5 numbers over 70
>an 100

>>12839287
>>12839396
It's not a same fag man
I helped contribute to some of those ideas

> get that samefag to fuck off.
No anon.
You are the samefag.
And then anon was mad.

>>12839361

This looks like a good list to me. In the very short term, ask Cygnis about possibilities on the mainland. Give her a kiss on the way out.

Then, off to collect the loot we left behind.

>>12839413
Of course. We didn't need them, so they're high jut to taunt us.

Fuck those dice man. Fuck them hard.

>>12839396
>set underworld on fire
>massive power vacuum
>Crime sky-rockets just as Cibach leaves
>Problem, councillors?
I like it...

rolled 10, 18, 14, 4, 24, 3, 19, 12, 21, 28 = 153

>>12839353
>>12839376
>>12839413
Hang on, I'll make it better.

First, I'd like to say Dragon Quest is some of the most fun I've had here on /tg/ in quite some time.

But there has been a recent decline in the quality of the participants. There's a rather strange new faction that wants to do things that truly baffle me, but such is life on 4chan.

The thing that gets me is the samefagging that these oddly driven folks resort to. Anymore the quest is hijacked by debates trying to reason with these people who want to completely derail the quest. The debates are pointless, and the whole thing feels rather sullied now.

I guess trolls will be trolls, but things just aren't as enjoyable anymore. Also what's with the chaotic stupid good decisions you people are so fond of?

"Well.. I despise farewells." you admit after a moment, "Such terrible things, and such innocuous names. I... Cygnis, I-" you reply, rising and offering her a hand up, 'searching for the words'. You don't know exactly what you intend to do, but you're hardly actively thinking about it.

"I can understan-" Cygnis says rising, but is cut off as you pull her close and kiss her. Deeply. Passionately. Which she returns.

Until you draw away. "I... I'm sorry, Cygnis. Cygnariassis. I... presume too much." you say, trying to put a hint of broken heart in there, along with fear.

"No. It- 's alright. I- I will miss you." she says, "I- Just return."

"I will." you say, holding her for a moment before turn for the door. "Fifty years."

"Fifty years..." Cygnis calls from behind you. "Perhaps I will see you before then."

"Perhaps." you call over your shoulder, neutrally, but with an undertone of hope.

########################

>>12839456

The kobolds are once again, your most manipulable of minions. Easily impressed, easier ordered, and eager to please.

"Lord! If you saved them- and then they /banish/ you- You should /burn/ them, lord!"

"Ah... so true. But then the city would not accept me. Adventurers would come... other cities would oppose me... "

"We would help, lord!"

"I have no doubt that you would, however, the other inhabitants out number you several times over." you reply with regret. "I do not wish to rule over an ash heap. I'd prefer it if I... We slowly brought the humanoids around to a better mode of thought."

"Your word is our law, lord! Some wish to know, may we follow you to where you intend to go?"

"If you are able, of course. I would not turn down able help. However... I shall not be able to take any with me when I fly away. Should you manage to follow, though, I shall, of course, have some manner in which the impressive skills of kobolds may be applied." A grave nod, which they all imitate.

"We will await your return, lord! We will be loyal! Dragons are always best for kobolds. We shall await!" they cry, and you decide that that's a decent note to leave on. They know you. They will wait...

>>12839449
That's actually a really good point. If crime upticks, a war starts, and a new Sealord is elected by a corrupt council and graft is rampant...

Combine that with the bards Cygnis will make and we will return to be hailed as a legendary savior!

>>12839435
Kiss her hand all political like. No slobbers on the face. The time we pulled it on the lighthouse can be passed off as adventuring tradition, but she may not be comfortable with this.

The mirror might really just be a way to keep planning for your eventual return.

Then again, I'm dense as a rock when it comes to ladies.

>>12839461
You find yourself interested in proving to the council that you are neither a pushover nor without repercussions, but unwilling to indulge in vengeance assassinations, which, while satisfying, might hinder future efforts, or even, it occurs, make you seem like a child with a broken toy, unwilling to let anyone have if you can't... Such unflattering comparisons wound your ego, so you find it best not to dwell on them. The course of action you decide upon is to send Asha out to help spread rumors. Specific ones.

"The council are a bunch of cultists, getting rid of Azal because he's on to them!"

"They started the war 'cause they're afraid o' him, think he'll take the council form them. 'bout time, too. A pity they succeeded."

"Hah, leaving? Like hell. for that much money he could buy a thousand ways to stay in town. He's here, he's workin' against them, I bet. They did him wrong, and he'll be bringin' the whole city down on their heads, you mark my words."

Scinnari is sent to pillage what she can from Finn's operation, and, ideally, leave it a gutted wreck to be fought over in the streets and alleys. More inconveniences to the council, in all probability. Finally, a few trips in the early afternoon lead you back to the shores of the Binder's temple. The seachests you hauled up remain, a few full of wothless rust or water and damaged goods, but some gold, even works of art, interspersed throughout. Adding the fragile vases and golden artistry to a single, least-damaged chest, you return to Freeport, invisible again, depositing it in the Grey Gull... specifically, the hold, which is full of dozens, of massive chests... your gold. Your precious, precious, gold. More gold than you have ever seen, even in your not-inconsiderable life.

Fifty five thousand was an acceptable amount, it seems, and you are delighted to have it...

>>12839476
Nope- you're going to have to live with gold dragon cooties
(on the bright side, I really really think Cygi like /likes/ us)

>There's a rather strange new faction that wants to do things that truly baffle me, but such is life on 4chan.

Its not a new faction, its a moralfag. Clingy, stupid, desperate, and willing to samefag threads into the ground to force their opinion down everyone elses throats. Thats the way theyve always been.

>>12839466
Good idea.
All we have to do then is, as Cibach, improve whatever city or town we happen to end up in.
The result will be "Holy shit, Cibach makes things good and no Cibach makes things crappy."
Then we join up with whatever army is attacking Freeport, sneak some explosives into the council chambers with the help of kobolds and invisibility gem, and put on our biggest "U mad?" face in front of the council right before we blow them all up.

>>12839480
Hey, you used my metaphor from the last thread!
hurray!

>>12839493
You can't kill Hitler that way, the table's too thick.

>>12839455
I think the quest just is... popular, I guess? Solid gold in the archives, that's a lot of votes. (even if just barely.)

Small consolations, but I'm doing my best to mark all my posts with pictures, (going through my dragon-folder, top to bottom. Started three threads back, or something.), which, ideally, makes them easier to find.

>>12839456
>>12839461
woooow, mood whiplash...
I just imagined us using the same soothing and caressing mode of manipulation with the kobolds as we use with Cygniss, slowly caressing and petting (not that way) kobolds as we strolled amongst them
[spoilersdon'tworkon/tg/] And I liked it... [/spoilersdon'tworkon/tg/]

>>12839476
Maybe we can get a pair of mirrors enchanted as scrying portals - as in, you can see through one and out the other (and vice-versa). Could be handy.
Though we'd end up having the D&D equivalent of phonesex, which may be a bit too /d/ for /tg/.

>>12839483
I'm glad to be proven wrong. A heart is the hardest thing to steal, and so it will be the centerpiece of our hoard.

A pile of gold, a gold dragon on top of that, and us on top of her. Marvelous.

Shame we can't smuggle some of the kobolds in the hold of the ship though.

So we've got quite the haul in our boat, and then there's Az's hoard waiting to be looted. The only thing that could happen now is a seaborne attack, and I swear to God I will track your IP and murder your face, WD if you make us lose all this gold.

>>12839489
This is correct. We even had him in the IRC for a while. He would just not shut up and kept trying for the good options, only to be shouted down. He even called himself a moralfag, and said we were "anti-moralfags".

The funniest thing was when he suggested we have mixed-race babies and just live happily with Cygnis forever. <3 <3 <3 <( ^ . ^ )>

>>12839523
See >>12838974
> "Somewhat tasteless, I'm afraid, but functional. Should desire to contact me- or vice versa, you can do so. I have the other one." she says in explanation. "I... would like to stay in touch."

They already do that.

>>12839511
(being manipulative through emotional resonance other then rage can feel good- trust me)
>>12839523
... I LIKE IT!

>>12839489
There has definitely been samefagging on both sides of the equation though. Those that want to stay and those that want to leave. Last thread was brutal for that. The popularity of this quest has caused annoyances like that but there isn't much we can do about it sadly. Just hope Writer-DM is able to guess his way through the samefags and get something somewhat representative of what people want.

>>12839546
I wasnt on that, but he was there to? Fuck him. Fuck all moralfags. They ruin everything good. Lets kill Cygnis just to spite him.

>>12839503
technically, that's a simile...
Kudos though

>>12839564
>There has definitely been samefagging on both sides of the equation though.
No. Just on the moralfag side. No one else actually needs to resort to that, other people can actually make good arguments. But moralfags? They just blubber that its wrong and we should all hold hands and sing fucking kumbaya. Theyre the only ones who actually need to shout other people down.

you know if we can use the crystal to communicate with the binder we could ask her some questions.

namely why she created us, why she does not control us and why without knowledge of her. We could say that we are considering helping her which is probably true on some level.

basically i think it is time to play catch up on our long lost parent.

Beginning to think that we may end up working for the binder (probably on the side). if so we might want to establish we are no minion.

>>12839564
I think Writer-dude's plans is to ask questions to the players that he KNOWS we'll rage, samefag, and butthurt over for 100 posts - all the while sitting behind his monitor with the biggest possible trollgrin on his face.

>>12839588
Did you read the last thread, where at one point there were continual posts just going "doitdoitdoitdoit" and such about killing Az? Definitely a samefag with the number of posts like that unless I'm severely underestimating the number of people who watch this thread but don't like to argue.

>>12839565
Don't let one idiot ruin more amusing plans.

I'd like to make a suggestion.

Even though it'll likely cause some scorn, can we make a rule that all decisions have to fit into our aliment? With explicit reasons to back up anything that isn't completely obvious, or may be just a touch outside of it for justification. That will cut down on the amount of people who just want to live happily ever after and will make tread long arguments less likely to live on. Again, just hoping in vain here.. Maybe your thoughts WD?

>>12839564
> There has definitely been samefagging on both sides of the equation though.
Moralfag samefag detected. Opinion discarded.

>>12839546
>>12839565
Fir the love of criminey, ya little snot nose creep, really?
A) I'm not a samefag
B) I never said the quest participants were anti-moral fags, I said you were a jerk
C) ... Y u so mad?
D)Polite sage for not contributing to the conversation
E) I don't use emoticons

Concerning the Kobolds
I'm thinking we should at least bring Jerrik with us. He /was/ our first minion after all and his honest pleasure in serving us is endearing

>>12839602
Figures. I try to be reasonable and I'm assumed to be a samefag. I know you won't believe me but I'm not the person people are talking about. Just a person annoyed at how desperate people are to get their way in this quest. I'm all for leaving Freeport.

>>12839597
I support this idea- at the end we're essentially a PC, and PC's can change alignment. Nothing's written in stone
>>12839602
Jezum crow, man, there's more then one person contributing their opinions on these things, you know?

>>12839546

I don't know what you're referring to. I wasn't involved in the IRC discussion, and I've been one of the people saying we should stay in Freeport. I think you're falling into the trap of associating one anon with a position and then assuming that everyone who has a similar position is the same anon. That sort of thinking leads to jumping at shadows and perhaps missing something important.

Also, it makes you seem like a bit of a dick.

>>12839609
>>12839565
>>12839588
>>12839596
>>12839619
METAGAMING IN A QUEST THREAD.
PLAYERS COMPETING WITH EACH-OTHER IN A COLLECTIVE GAME.
MAXIMUM MUNCHKINNERY ACHIEVED.
GOOD WORK TEAM.

Thank God we were able to keep the alignment shitstorm until AFTER most of the stuff happened.

This quest makes people SO MAD, more so than any other quest I've seen.

That said, Cygnis is waifu tier. As much waifu as we can get her, that is, which is probably chained to a throne tier. She's the root focus of all the moral/antimoral fighting, so getting us away from her for a time should help the quest out.

Maybe we can pull off a brilliant double-life thing, but that'd be really fucking difficult.

>>12839643
Nice caps bro, shame you didn't get your dubs

>>12839643
>>12839594
Trolling, Metagaming and being mad on the internets.
Never change, /tg/. Never change.

>>12839480
Well. I suppose we'll have to move our modest former hoard along with all this...

Guys, motion to invest some of our money in useful magical items before leaving Freeport. Yes, having a massive pile of gold is nice, but I'd settle for a huge pile of gold and some invaluable trinkets. It's not sure when we'll next come to a city with convenient enchanting assets available, so let's use them while we're here.

So let's put together a shopping list. Off the top of my head, I would like to get:
-More healing potions (you can never have too many)
-Gloves of storing (discussed previously; also awesome)
-Something for Asha
-Something for Scinnari
-Something for Jerrik

>This quest makes people SO MAD, more so than any other quest I've seen.
It's proof that Evil has a hard time working together. ;)

>>12839665
We really ought to invest in some modest armor for our elf form. Something minimalistic, and get that enchanted maybe? Also it should be about time for a weapon upgrade. Sure this is all mundane stuff, but we shouldn't let it fall too far behind, afterall we do a good bit of our fighting under the "public" eye.

>>12839653
Well, she /is/ a dragon, so she'll probably like the power, just not the means with which we keep/gain it...
Also, redeeming a Red will probably be even more tempting to her than defiling a Gold is to us.

Sure we keep a few contingencies that she would object to but most of our actions are not /really/ Evil (Az-douche excepted)

>>12839679
No, evil works together just fine. The best kind of people are the ones out for themselves, theyre the most consistent, dependable, and reasonable kind. Its only when you get a moralfag running around trying to enforce his own opinions and samefagging to get his way that it all goes to shit.

>>12839693
Armour? Well, we DO have all that dragonbone and dragonscale stuff now.

>>12839665
>Asha

Is she coming with us? We're her handler, sure, but it's a free contract and there's nothing binding her to us. Heh. Binding.

We should probably ask her before dragging her wherever we're going.

And she's going to flip the fuck out when she realizes that her boss is also a dragon.

"You're a dragon too? Fucking hells, is everybody a dragon? Am I a dragon and just forgot about it or something?!"

>>12839705
Imagine if we were wearing it when Cygnis called up. That would be awkward.

>>12839700
anti-morals are usually just as bad
amoral is NOGODS-tier

>>12839665
Bag o' holding
An extra glove of storing (Both asha and scinnari have use for one, and who the fuck wouldn't buy a matching pair of gloves?)
Jerrik obviously gets 100 gold. Kobolds love gold.
We should buy the Spinel Sage a gift. Maybe a plush urchin, or a zirconium with lots of spikes cut into it, or maybe some iron caltrops.

Give Cygnis the amulet we used on Azdukashen, if its curse has been reset, and it no longer prevents polymorphing.

>>12839717
Just use the dragonbone. Pretty sure that isn't readily identifiable as "gold" to an observer.

>>12839705
We probably should avoid covering ourselves with gold scales right after s certain someone's disappearance, the bones might be safe enough though as long as we don't wear them in front of anyone who would know the "scent".

I'd like to throw out the idea that it may be in our best interest to at least own some property in a major city, even if we never use it at least it'll be there. Might come in handy in the coming adventures ahead.

>>12839721
No, antimoral is fine. Amoral is fine. They work together great, everything is great if thats all you have. The moralfags are the worst scum ever, they ruin everything they touch.

Seriously, we absolutely fucking NEED to kill Cygnis to send them a message. We WILL NOT TOLERATE THEIR SHIT.

>>12839715
Well, we pay her and are now very, very rich. I imagine she would hang around yeah.

>>12839723
>plush urchin
YES!
several! We should keep it (her?) in a pile of plush sea urchins

>>12839700
I'm a moralfag who considers the epitome of morality to be not forcing other people to hold the same moral views as you. Did i just blow your fucking mind or what

>>12839723
Heh. Cygnis sure is having a hard time.
"I am friend with head of temple."
"Ohnoes, is snake!"
"Ohnoes, is dead."
"I am friend with brother Arman."
"Ohnoes, is captured!"
"Ohnoes, is dead."
"I has a half-brother Azdukashen."
"Ohnoes, is dead."
"God fucking damn it you guys stop killing all my friends."
"I has a Cibach."
"Ohnoes, is exiled!"

>>12839752
Yeah, if we stay in contact with her then I'm pretty sure she will become entirely emotionally dependent on us. Especially considering the torture.

>>12839735
You appear to have an incredibly large case of the Mad there.
I suggest you quit gettin' mad at traditional games.

Also, you seem to have a rather strange justification for doing something. "Let's do something that goes against our character, to upset some of the other players at the table!"
Where I'm from, we call that being THAT GUY.

So stop being mad, THAT GUY. Enjoy some traditional games!

>>12839752
Damn, no wonder she fell for us. We're practically the most permanent figure in her life right now.

When she finds out what we really are, she's just going to snap. We're going to have a broken gold on our hands.

>>12839743
Did they have plush urchins in medieval times?

>>12839735

Thank you for so wonderfully demonstrating the point you tried to respond to. Personally, I think you kind, the anti-moral crowd, are far worse. Look at what you're suggesting. You're suggesting the exact sort of lolevil actions that we've so far made a point of avoiding.

>>12839752
I lol'd heartily.