As for Mza, you have made, through some trial and error, the discovery of how to manipulate storms, to prevent them, via your newest artifact; through subtle manipulation and construction of counter storms, you have figured out how to avert storm-systems, or defuse them as they approach, making a major contribution to the rapid growth of the island. The rumor that Lord Varian is a master of the sea and sky, shielding the island from all harm, takes deep root in the town, though you do not acknowledge it. Imagination and suspicion are sometimes far better than anything solid, you decide. It was quite satisfying to counter an approaching hurricane, head out to tour your boundaries, and hear a captain ordering a detour toward Mza. “The mad caster keeps the storms away; we'll stop over there until it blows out.”

On the other claw, not everything has gone so well. Despite your and Scinnari's best efforts, you expect the mage-families of Morinth to be investigating at some point in the future; the exaggerated rumors of a titanically powerful sorcerer-king to their south have them somewhat worried. Likewise, Rhasver is trying, somewhat less subtly, to find out more about this “Lord Varian Prestor”, and you did have to permanently dissuade a minor official from suggesting an adventurer's bounty on details or deaths regarding the “Sorcerer of Mza”.

Finally, you also- rather clumsily, you are ashamed to admit- stumbled upon some details regarding the struggle for Azar; At least one party guiding the events seems to be another dragon, a Black. Rumored to be at least a few hundred years old, he or she seems to have an interest in prolonging the siege, and piling the death toll higher. Naturally, you couldn't care less about the deaths of the humanoids struggling back and forth, but you can hardly take a fellow dragon's plotting at face value. At least three other power-sources in Mza are trying to prevent or minimize such consequences, but inertia seems on the Black's side.

You say clumsily, however, because (s)he is quite aware that Someone was looking in on his or her operations, and you are only counting on your alternate identities and defenses against magical location or detection to conceal you. Quietly praying your precautions were sufficient, as it were. Hopefully the Five-Headed Goddess is in an indulgent mood.

With mid-spring come crowded Seas again; the forces of Freeport have set sail, Cygnis informs you, and aim to attempt a break of the Rhasver blockade. Not only that, but Rhasver's trade has been suffering, as Freeport's (in)famous privateers prey happily Imperial shipping. Rhasver has been feeling the effects, but resistant, as there is little the league of trade-cities can do about overland trade and commerce.

Still, the wheel keeps on turning, and actions are called for. Power is not something that settles to the bottom. It rises to the surface, pursued by those who would claim it. Gain requires risk, and progress, action.

Dragon Quest?
Me catching it while it starts?

Woooo

Well holy shit, I remember quest number 1 for this.
And now coming back to see what people have done.
HORY SHET.
Thats awesome.

What is the status of our proto-navy? Some things to do are:

1) Have our lizardfolk comb our lair in groups of three. We must know everything about it.

2) Set up contacts in other cities. Especially trade contacts. We need to begin moving towards establishing trade and leveraging the fact that storms don't catch the ships that dock here.

3. Set up a secret police. We need to do this ourselves, not leave it to Scinnari. They must be loyal to us, not our devil.

4. Speaking of Scinnari, while we are setting up trade contacts we should put out some VERY sublte feelers about the order and cult that held her. More long term than anything since we want it completely concealed from her and said orders seem hard to find.

5. Try to find some powerful magical items that will allow us to impersonate an epic level spellcaster.

>>13245534

>Lzardfolk comb lair, groups of three, map out the whole thing

So, lead them up to our lair, let them poke around, and receive reports? (Confirm, y/n, or correct me if I'm misunderstanding.)

>Trade contacts
You're currently (basically) master of the docks, by dint of owning almost all of them. Everybody has to pay modest docking fee. Even without a guild, you are effectively trades-master of the city.
Establishing authority or power in other cities will require both more work and planning, though.

>contacts
Reports are pretty easy to get; fly over in person, take a guise of a traveler. Make a few friends, get the news from them whenever 'you' are in town. You've got some in the surrounding major cities. (That debacle in Azar was, ah, related to working with one of your contacts.)

>Send out feelers for Scinnari's history
Noted.

>Look into acquiring more artifacts
More details required. (And dice, too, when I get them.)

[Apologies for a response time slightly closer to tectonic eras than usual, I'm cooking dinner at the moment.]

You're sadly way out of my time zone (currently 3.23 am here) but I really love reading your quest on suptg. Just saying. Don't let the moral-/samefag discussion grind you down.

>>13245707
Thanks. Glad people like it. (And enough to read it even when you can't participate is saying something.)

Incidentally, IRC highway; #dragonquest is the channel I'll be using for votes, if a tallied vote with names is necessary. Can hang out there if you want.

Not-entirely-subtle-bump.

>>13245658
Take only the most trustworthy and devoted lizardfolk. The ones that seem on the verge of fanatical religious worship. Blindfold them on the way up and down. Reward them and give them some magical trinkets afterward.

Magical items: Crystal Ball and Medallion of Thoughts for starters. Something that allows Greater Teleportation 3/day would be nice too.

We should formally establish a trade company under our name and hire people from the town to staff it. We should then go to another town and scout the trade companies there with an eye towards the established but not large ones. We will plan to take them over by befriending the owners and becoming major investors.

While in other towns we should begin creating a spy network as well, starting by looking for scum from the slums who appear streetwise and offering them a chance en masse. The ones that do well, loyally, and don't get caught get promoted and so on. We do this in multiple cities, keeping spy cells.

rolled 73, 40, 97, 23, 29 = 262

>>13245789
Oh and dice. Not sure how many you need so here are five.

rolled 24 = 24

>>13245844
Wait, you usually do 2x per roll. 1 more to even it out to 6.

Not sure about /tg/, but I am mostly busy. Perhaps try this again later today?

>>13245854
>>13245844
(I hope I have more than one person here.)

>73, 97
Investments into more magical trappings have, quite regretfully, been grievously expensive. The simply ludicrous prices demanded for a simple crystal ball, for instance.

The glassblower was somewhat worried when you started billowing smoke, but did explain; apparently most of the cost is incurred in the difficulty of creating a perfect sphere; literally, perfect. I demands magical assistance, or an extraordinarily skilled craftsmaster. Similar is the mind-reading device. Despite being a simple gold medallion, the powers and benefits of such devices are terribly well known.

The purchasing of both, under separate identities and names, naturally, took a sizable chunk out of your hoard. Between purchasing sundry artifacts and your investments in building up Mza, your hoard has been reduced to the vicinity of a mere eighty thousand gold; more than you had ever had, two years ago, but still a depressing change.

The devices themselves, though, are satisfyingly potent and effective.

>>13245988
>later today
It's 18:56 for me. Not too much later left. (I mean, considering slow/long how these threads run.)

Nice to know I've got 'world wide' following, though.

We will need to begin preparations for what to do if we are assaulted by a powerful dragon, or a group of strong mages/their summons. We've warded our fortress against most divination and teleportation, but that's not enough... we'll need weapons and preferably more bound creatures of our own.

Establishing a decent guard and equipping them well- some magical items to boost their prowess, potions and such- would go a long way towards helping, I think.

Our sorcery isn't quite strong enough for it yet, but we should look into acquiring tomes which contain the true names of as many extraplanars as possible. When our powers do hit that level, we'll want to be able to bind a number of servitors to our will. And who knows- we might even trip over Scinnari's true name in a wild stroke of luck.
>>13245789
>We should formally establish a trade company under our name and hire people from the town to staff it.
We must already have a substantial number of personal employees; after all, we're not out there personally collecting docking fees. And I suspect that if a trade company under our name starts expanding, there will be more than enough merchants who don't want to deal with a sovereign ruler as a competitor- and enough sovereign rulers who don't want one of their rivals building up commercial interests in their nations- that our efforts at expansion would be quashed.

>>13246123
If we're looking into building a trading company with assets in many cities, it'll have to be done more subtly than that. Our best bet at the moment would probably be to pick up whichever of our subjects seems to have the best mix of loyalty and financial savvy, and give him the personal task of building a trading company of his own- with us as silent backer. A company merely based on Mza is no threat compared to a company owned by Mza's ruler. This has the added bonus of making this project the sole concern of someone competent, rather than making it one of the many, many things which demand little bits of our time.

>spy network
I would want this to be at an even greater remove. Don't use our own body when building it, and don't even let anyone know who they're working for. This is the sort of thing that other nations' security forces will purge and interrogate. Hiring a handful of competent underworld types in each city to provide reliable information periodically in exchange for equally reliable compensation should be enough to have a decent network running; we just need to spend some time establishing contacts, get them to establish contacts, and so forth. Eventually we'll want a reliable spymaster in each city or region working on our behalf, but spymasters both skilled and reliable are a rare commodity- our best bet at getting one is probably to groom one ourselves over the course of years, which would be a pain in the ass.

I'd just like to point out, we still have two bags of holding full of the choicest pieces of a gold dragon, yes? I'd also like to request some armor to be commissioned, potentially out of those pieces if we still have them.

Also, fuck yeah Dragon Quest first thread in a while I haven't needed to go to sup/tg/ to read!

>>13246127
A pain in the ass yes, but spymasters are something we will need. I say use young elves, the investment will pay off better with a 1000 year lifespan.

>>13246123
Are you crazy? A ton of trade cartels have royal backing. It's status quo. Capitalisim doesn't exist in the age of swords and sorcery, bro.

We really ought to see if there's a way we can get better access to potions. Perhaps setting up a lab and hiring someone reliable? If it's too soon for that, then so be it.

Anyone else interested in seeing what's going on with that other red? Perhaps we can pop in over there and get a feel for what's going on. Maybe even as Cibach to keep up sightings in case anyone wonders where we are.

>>13246161
I thought we were saving those gold dragon scales for when we can make Cygnis a beautiful dress and force her to wear it. A concept which I support fully, because it's deliciously sadistic.

>>13246163
Could work. Where can one find elves of a vaguely sinister disposition who are nevertheless inclined to be loyal?

...well, we could buy some slaves, free them directly, and then start raising them personally, I guess. Seems a bit of a cop-out, but it could work. Give it a decade or two and they'll probably be quite loyal.

>>13246192
I don't really care that much about checking in on the other red, any more than about any other random dragon. Getting occasional reports, sure, but there's not much reason to look into her more than that.

>>13246192
Finding and slaying another dragon for it's hoard? Though we may not have the tusks for this one..

>spymasters
This is effectively what you've done, in several places, though not quite as clear cut. However for such a clear benefit, such changes can be made. The resources invested would be very small, but the potential pay off is long-lasting, and incredibly useful.

>>13245534
>Forgot setting up a police force

>>13246123
Choosing a personal guard

Some of the lizardfolk have taken it upon themselves to serve you, hoping to 'earn your blessing'. While not quite the religious connotation you might hope, barring a few skeptic, pessimistic, or fearful elders, they seem eager to accept you as a master. (Possibly to displace those skeptic, pessimistic, fearful elders.) You've carefully used them first to map your caves; not only surviving in the light-less heart of the dead volcano, but returning alive with worthwhile information seemed an efficient intelligence test, and you rewarded the survivors and successes with baubles and trinkets from your hoard.

Discoveries while mapping include the ancient, and for the most part, empty and valueless, catacombs already reported, but also include a very long, winding offshoot of a tunnel that looks actually worked in some places. It emerges at the base of the second mountain in the chain, and having traversed it and found it suitably disorienting, difficult, hazardous, and non-branching, you've allowed them to establish a guard and use it as their private pathway, their temple-entrance to your lair. Equipped and motivated by your benevolent rewards, they seem both capable and eager to be effective guards and minions.

>>13246055

You have my swo....claw I guess is more appropriate here?

How great is Rashver? Maybe it's time to expand this little teritorry we have?

How is the dispute over Azar exactly going? Aren't there lots of Blues around the area? What happens if we tip off some of them regarding the presence of a Black in the area? We do have a small interest regarding that place.

And about that interest, how's the current breaking-in of our brown-skinned assassin princess going?

With our capital, start expanding into shipping, aside from being master of dock (and island). Contact Jerrik about the possibility of becoming an open kobold trader on Freeport.

We really ought to get to some adventuran' as everything that can be done here will take a lot of time and timeskips, leaving us with rather little to actually do.

rolled 41 = 41

>>13246339
Question here. Do Lizardfold hatch? If they do....we can see about requisitioning some of the eggs later on. It would be nice to have followers of us based on familial like ties. Easier to manipulate and as they say, "[insert quote about thicker blood etc.]"

>>13246339
Do it then. Let's set up spymasters.

Also, I suggest we offer a dole for children in our village. For 20 years we will pay X copper monthly per child a family has. Cue population explosion.

Why not just go for Freeport's trade ships and privateers affecting Rhaver right now? A little bit of our time goes a long way to impacting that island's trade and well-being. Be nice to engage in some revenge, no matter how small it is.. Gett

Other thing of note is those mages that are interested in us. Appearing before them or getting anywhere near
them will destroy our disguise, therefore being far to risky. I'd love to send our devil in there to start an internal conflict to keep them occupied, but I fear that would also be too risky for her. We do however, or at least should, have a mindwashed assassin that could do us a favor....

>>13246486
Ooh, idea. We could raise a holy caste. The caste is born away from the other lizardfolk and live in the catacombs below our lair! They worship us as a god and are superior to the other lizardfolk socially.

>>13246486

Why not just skip the bloodlines part and add our own blood to the pool? It would definitely give us an advantage since we've setup this island as a home base at this point. It would take years to pay off...but so little effort for more effective minions would do wonders. Althrough the local islanders may notice the sudden explosion of red-related dragonblooded lizards at some point.

>>13246562
Eh, so far we've played it as a red that actually cares about family. I don't think this is a good idea.

>>13246589

We do care, that's why we keep them around the volcano lair and not as disposable pawns to use as we see fit. Not unless you mean by family man as limiting the amount of higher-end minions we keep around....for our benefit.

>>13246562
I am a strong supporter of both lizardfolk and human/dwarf/whatever else we have around half-dragons. They grow relatively quickly into a strong servants who don't get more powerful than we can control; just what we need, if we're here a few decades. Put having sex with numerous lesser beings regularly on the to-do list. Just make sure they don't wander off elsewhere.

>Also, I suggest we offer a dole for children in our village. For 20 years we will pay X copper monthly per child a family has. Cue population explosion.
We're growing due to immigrants much faster than this would accomplish anyway. It wouldn't help that much, although having more people raised under our rule is of course quite nice.

>>13246637
>>13246633
won't doing this piss scinnari off?

>>13246425
Rahsver is a fairly large empire; They've demonstrated some ambition, in the past, though their attempts to annex Azar are somewhat unexpected. Reasonable, though; it's was the branch of their largest rival power. (Tashz.) If they can secure it, they not only control the channel, have hold on the southern continent, but they've also removed their largest major-power trade rival.

As for blue dragons, there's probably at least one or two in the vicinity, though most of them are further south. The older ones tend to favor deeper desert, where they're less likely to be disturbed.

You don't know where or how this black lives, you just had a run-in with the cult of the 'Black God', and the symbolism would suggest it.

Aisha has become increasingly... fragile, sadly. Docile, eager to please, loyal. Terrified. A hint of temperamental, when around your 'household'. However, when you reminded her that you really would prefer she not harm the help, she obeys.. instantly, to Scinnari's regret. You aren't sure whether she's just playing along, still, but she seems to enjoy her time with Asha, and it's kept Asha loyal, broken, and terrified.

Obviously, there are some subtleties to the reshaping of human minds that you have yet to grasp; luckily, you have a pliable subject to perfect it upon.

>>13246486
Hatch.

>>13246662
Is that girl's name Aisha or Asha?

>>13246652
I refuse to remove my capability to breed up a set of superior servants because my other servant gets testy about it. We'll convince her that it's fine, because it IS a logical step to take.

I'd let her have a half-fiend kid or two as well, if that wouldn't involve its being someone other than ours.

rolled 80 = 80

We don't want a LARGE population boom. We want one we can control. We already attracted a lot of attention. We need to concentrate on being a "free-port." Establishing trade contacts are fine and dandy, but in doing so you are saying to the other watching, "Hey, I'm a city-state/nation with it's own will." That is a bad thing as of right now. We are strong, but as you can see from whatever that gold dragon's name was we killed (I find it funny that I kind of just forgot his name as if he was unimportant, oh wait, he was), there are stronger out there (albeit somewhat duller) than us running the show in other places.

>>13246652

She gets more pawns at the same time. And at what can she really be said to be monogamous as one of her core traits? If this were our favorite gold, it'd be one thing, but that doesn't even factor into the equation. If your cared about her, bring her to join in the fun.

>>saw screaming

oh captcha, how do you know everything?

>>13246633
I'm against it simply because we don't need it and it just will draw a lot of attention when suddenly there are hundreds of half-dragons walking around Mza.

But yes, I think we should limit our children to Scinnari/Cygnis/Other Consorts. Remember, we have the power of the Binder in us and we don't want a shit ton of ridiculously powerful sorcerers running around. We need to raise all our children ourselves.

>>13246701
>>13246685
I say hell no. We keep it in our pants until we get built up and raise our clutch properly. Stick to breeding with just our concubines rather than sticking it in everything on the island.

rolled 84 = 84

>>13246718
I've actually been contemplating this. I believe our rules for her were that we needed a sufficient horde and domain before we even thought of it. So, once we establish ourselves as a free city-state I could agree to it then. Until then, she will have to deal with us shooting blanks.

>>13246748
Agreed. Seconded, even. There seems to be ONE faggot who keeps trying to have us breed with everything that moves when 90% of the thread is against it.

>>13246662
>Obviously, there are some subtleties to the reshaping of human minds that you have yet to grasp; luckily, you have a pliable subject to perfect it upon.
I suspect that these are subtleties that Scinnari grasps already. She broke Asha intentionally. Annoying.

>>13246702
We don't need it, but we could certainly use it. And I'm not thinking hundreds... more like a dozen. That number is manageable, and we can keep them relatively close. Having some half-dragons around will also give us people to put in charge of our dragon cult, once it gets going decently.

Sure, there will probably be rumors eventually, but we've already let enough slip that a truly determined person with decent resources could likely figure out the truth.

>>13246685
We've been over this. No children with Scinnari until we have a large power base.

I say no children now, period. We don't need to try to breed a super race or anything, and if we do it will just draw attention and give our foes a way to determine our bloodline... remember there are investigative teams coming.

Lastly, I prefer a few super-elite progeny from Scinnari/Other consorts that we raise ourselves rather than this stupid idea of a "race" of half dragons. Like the other anon said too we would just be throwing around the blood of the binder and maybe making uncontrollable powerful sorcerers.

In short we shouldn't clutch for a while.

rolled 54 = 54

>>13246800
Well, we do have a long time in coming and timeskips galore ahead it seems. Perhaps we can have but ONE child. Me saying this is a leap of faith for Scinarri. I don't want a clutch. If she births more than one, we kill the others. Simple. Though I doubt she will bear more than one of our offspring at once. Just considering some human physiology. We could take a vote on it to be honest. Or hell, if you guys want, we could breed with a Lizardfolk first. To test the experience out. I say we consult Scinnari if we do so though. I don't want her jealous, and she could raise it as our first child. Though, as illegitimate as it will be.

>>13246761
Remember that we were participating just as much in the reshaping as she was. That said, oh well. At least she is broken and loyal.

No kids yet that's stupid. We don't need them and they are more dangerous to have around than they would help.

rolled 42 = 42

post >>13246843 was referring to >>13246761

Don't take me wrong on this one. I'm not agreeing to the half-dragon race thing. Just that, once we have a legitimate child with Scinnari I would like to have at least a little experience in raising on already. Considering, how powerful our offspring would be with her. It would be wise.

>>13246843
I could be talked into having Scinnari lay one egg rather than a clutch, I guess... but I'm still against it until we grow more established. Remember how little we know about her. I still think we should wait.

Breeding with the lizardfolk is just inviting ruin in the form of investigators showing up and tracing it back to us instantly.

>>13246843
>Though, as illegitimate as it will be.
I don't think that any dragons really have 'legitimate' children in the human sense.

I would support the concept of 2 children, one half-lizardfolk and one half-human, and raise them carefully while watching for signs of unusual sorcerous talent. Tell Scinnari that if she helps us raise our first set to be highly skilled and firmly loyal, we will trust her to mother the second and do the same. That should help mitigate any emotional problems she'd have with the concept.

Hold off on the kids until this binder business is finished. The last thing we need is another way for her to come into this plane, potentially with a grudge against us.

>>13246891
No, that's stupid. If we are going to have a child and raise it with her then we might as well just have it with her. Don't let the one dude making stupid suggestions Golden Mean you into a stupid choice.

WHAT THE HELL GUYS.

You are letting one samefag talk you into something we have been avoiding for 20 threads. Stop it.

No kids. It's not needed and stupid to consider without knowing more about Scinnari. Lizardmen is even worse why would we even consider that there is literally no good reason to do so.

Wait on dragonlings. Now is not the time we have bigger things to worry about.

We have come to an agreement on IRC:

We need to replace our current anti-scrying area amulet with an amulet of Mind Blank, ideally also area effect.

rolled 73 = 73

I'm not being talked into anything. I'm not even agreeing with him in that my reasoning is purely a test of a multitude of things:
A) Can we truly procreate? We are a "creation" keep in mind. The binder might not have given us this ability anyways and we would be shooting blanks either way.
B) Can we, as Az, be able to raise our children? This is a thing of experience as ALL parents will tell you. You don't know if you are truly able to raise a child to you have one anyways.
C) It is a test of loyalty for Scinnari. This is utmost and importantly true. We must see how far her loyalty goes. Not necessarily have a child with her, but to see if she is loyal to our wishes and will TRULY follow our orders if we order her to treat the child as her own.
D) Will we actually be able to meld these children into "minions" or will they have too strong of a personality for us to control? If they do, then we will learn how to control said personalities even if it means killing them if they get too uppity.

>>13247222
I agree with all these points, and would add:
-If our children will be strong sorcerers, I would rather learn that sooner than later, and preferably with a low-value child like a half-dragon spawned on a non-consort.
-If our children will be subject to the Binder's mental influence, I want to know that, too. Because it means we might have to kill them off.

Given these points, I would advocate having a single test child with someone other than Scinnari (since we don't want to have to kill off Scinnari's child- it would erode her loyalty), and raising it while watching carefully for at least a couple decades for any signs of interesting heritage beyond the obvious before having another.

No. If we have a child it should be with Scinnari. We're not going to fucking cuckold her and then force her to raise the bastard. Can you think of a more efficient way to screw over our (so far) most loyal minion? I can't.

Secondly, I still don't see any reason why we need a child at all. As a test? Come the fuck on. We have all the time in the world to test that when we are not in the middle of being investigated by wizards and at a critical point in the development of our island.

If we do have a child we should do it as a boon to Scinnari, and raise it ourselves. But it's a terrible idea right now and we shouldn't.

>>13247391
>We have all the time in the world to test that when we are not in the middle of being investigated by wizards and at a critical point in the development of our island.
There will always be more people interested in investigating and/or killing us. Particularly with our chosen method of gaining wealth, ruling a small nation. That 'all the time in the world' is time which will likely be filled with just as many problems as now is.

Not saying that means we should or shouldn't have a kid, just pointing out that we're probably not going to have a couple consistent decades of peace unless we decide to go hide in a hole somewhere with our pile of gold.

>>13247447
In a hundred years time we will have layers of minions to deal with that, however. Right now we need to deal with those ourselves.

Okay, things to do. I may have missed something; please add if applicable.

-Make sure that we keep tight control of Mza as it expands; continue to boost its reputation as a good trade port.
-Try to build up our personal trading strength, but if others start blocking us just focus most of our efforts on maintaining Mza's strength.
-Build up Mza's navy and military some more. Train them better, get more ships, that kind of thing. A free port depends on its ability to fend off threats to stand.
-Build up a network of informants, both in our port and elsewhere, at a remove or two so they're less traceable. We want to be able to drop in and get reports, not subtly ask the questions ourselves.
-Find some young elves to raise as personal spies and/or spymasters; we'll want skilled and loyal agents later, and that means doing it ourselves.
-Draw the more loyal lizardfolk into personal guard and/or cult status.
-Keep trying to start building up a cult amongst the humans, too.
-Hire some historians and/or adventurers to investigate the Binder. We desperately need more information on her and what she can do to us.
-Abandon spying efforts against the elder dragon; we don't want to piss off any other dragons at the moment, particularly ones bigger than us.
-Attempt to locate or commission an amulet of Mind Blank (high-level defense against all scrying and mental influence). It is an essential spell defense on the international power level.
-Try to make Asha a bit more stable. We want to be able to send her out to kill people.

That's all I've got for now. The children thing seems a split issue.

>>13247606
i think you got it all

>>13247606
I agree with all of this. I would like to add in one or two more:

- Start a criminal element in Mza under Scinnari's control. We must completely control all aspects of the city and it will be bound to happen sooner or later. Better sooner and under our management.

- Ensure that our investigations into Scinnari's past are removed from us multiple times. We do not want her finding out at all, ever.

- See if we can influence some of the young apprenti within the Morinth mages, ideally ones with gambling or drug habits. We will support them and try to work them higher in status within the organization.

rolled 9 = 9

>>13247606
>>13247638
Agreed so far.

>-Make sure that we keep tight control of Mza as it expands; continue to boost its reputation as a good trade port.
This doesn't sound too hard. 1d100.

>-Try to build up our personal trading strength, but if others start blocking us just focus most of our efforts on maintaining Mza's strength.
1d100 (Won't matter unless exceptional failure/success.)

>-Build up Mza's navy and military some more. Train them better, get more ships, that kind of thing. A free port depends on its ability to fend off threats to stand.
You hardly have a navy at the moment, most dependent on militia, hiring the pirates who can frequently be found in port, and your exceptional reputation. To genuinely found one would probably take some time as well as money. (Confirm, deny, and any specific details.)

>-Build up a network of informants, both in our port and elsewhere, at a remove or two so they're less traceable. We want to be able to drop in and get reports, not subtly ask the questions ourselves.
Have already begun to do such things; no roll necessary. (Until we run into opposition, perhaps.)

>-Find some young elves to raise as personal spies and/or spymasters; we'll want skilled and loyal agents later, and that means doing it ourselves.
A little more difficult, but still falling in above. Provided you're willing to spend a few thousand gold, (piecemeal,), no roll is necessary.

>-Draw the more loyal lizardfolk into personal guard and/or cult status.
Hardly takes any effort. You're having to beat them off with a stick. (Not literally.)

>-Keep trying to start building up a cult amongst the humans, too.
dice1d100, don't fail horrendously.

We need to take Scinnari out to a ball sometime. She really enjoyed herself before, and she deserves it after all the work she's been doing.

>>13247767

>-Hire some historians and/or adventurers to investigate the Binder. We desperately need more information on her and what she can do to us.
Specify the bounty, the details we wish to hand out, the name we wish to use, and roll 1d100

>-Abandon spying efforts against the elder dragon; we don't want to piss off any other dragons at the moment, particularly ones bigger than us.
Confirm/Deny

>-Attempt to locate or commission an amulet of Mind Blank (high-level defense against all scrying and mental influence). It is an essential spell defense on the international power level.
Can be done, but it's exceedingly expensive. Forty five thousand gold is the price on something like this; generally the domain of archwizards, kings, imperial palaces, so on.

>-Try to make Asha a bit more stable. We want to be able to send her out to kill people.
1d100

>That's all I've got for now. The children thing seems a split issue.
Indeed it does. If there's a solid verdict, please bring it to my attention.

Also, if we're preparing to timeskip, (say, twenty years? Give me an estimate of when you want to resume,) tell me how you want to be treating the war and our allies. (IE, do we want to be incinerating Freeport privateers? Do we want to swing by and visit Cygnis, suitably disguised? Etc.)

Finally, an additional 1d100 to whatever else. Random event tables, and all that. (As if I'm that prepared, yeah right.)

>>13247770
>throw party
>meet the people of our city who consider themselves high society

rolled 76, 37, 75 = 188

>>13247767
>-Find some young elves to raise as personal spies and/or spymasters; we'll want skilled and loyal agents later, and that means doing it ourselves.
A little more difficult, but still falling in above. Provided you're willing to spend a few thousand gold, (piecemeal,), no roll is necessary.

>-Draw the more loyal lizardfolk into personal guard and/or cult status.
Hardly takes any effort. You're having to beat them off with a stick. (Not literally.)

>-Keep trying to start building up a cult amongst the humans, too.
dice1d100, don't fail horrendously.

rolled 42, 61, 58, 98 = 259

Dice!

Deny completely abandoning spying efforts on the black, but don't piss him off and keep the spies extremely deep in levels of removal.

Historians: 1000 gold for a complete history. We are Historian Gedon of the Independent Historian's League.

>Can be done, but it's exceedingly expensive. Forty five thousand gold is the price on something like this; generally the domain of archwizards, kings, imperial palaces, so on.

Oh bull SHIT. The Orb of Storms is a more powerful item.

rolled 24, 25 = 49

>-Try to make Asha a bit more stable. We want to be able to send her out to kill people.
1d100

>Finally, an additional 1d100 to whatever else. Random event tables, and all that. (As if I'm that prepared, yeah right.)

Done n Done

We need to invest a bit of time investigating the Binder as well, don't forget.

>You hardly have a navy at the moment, most dependent on militia, hiring the pirates who can frequently be found in port, and your exceptional reputation. To genuinely found one would probably take some time as well as money. (Confirm, deny, and any specific details.)
We're definitely willing to put in the time requirements; we're expecting to rule here for many years to come, and a loyal military organization is a priceless tool to have in the future.

To build our army, we can screen through our population for men and women of seeming loyalty and competence, but mostly loyalty. We can likely find and hire some decent soldiers somewhere to serve as trainers fairly easily; once we have them, it's mostly a matter of time spent instilling our troops with loyalty, skill, and discipline. After they're trained, semi-frequent appearances by their sorcerer king demonstrating that we have no small skill at arms and looking after their progress and care about it- learn names- can help build personal loyalty. As a rule, our guard's number should be around 2% of the population as the port grows; we should be able to support that off our trade income and use them to squash crime and keep order as well as defending the city.

Building our navy will be more difficult and more expensive. We'll need proper warships; if we let it be known that we're in the market, perhaps some of our enterprising pirate contacts would be bold enough to acquire vessels for us. If not, we can start building up a shipyard here in Mza and custom-building warships one at a time. As time passes, we should find pirates/privateers who use Mza as their primary port of call; this is the pool from which we can select captains, since they'll have a vested interest in the island's welfare already. Just make sure that it's clear raiding is to be avoided under our flag.

rolled 3, 75, 58, 25, 37, 52 = 250

six dice for whatever we need

Commission the building of five ships to patrol our waters. Hire captains and crew, ect. Fund them and make sure they owe loyalty directly to us and only us. Create a rank structure.

They are our new navy.

>>13247775
>Also, if we're preparing to timeskip, (say, twenty years? Give me an estimate of when you want to resume,) tell me how you want to be treating the war and our allies. (IE, do we want to be incinerating Freeport privateers? Do we want to swing by and visit Cygnis, suitably disguised? Etc.)

Yes, try to fuck up Freeport's privateeers. I suppose can can swing by and say hi to Cygnis, but if we give her hot dickings make sure we tell her that we would like to be around to help raise any children... we don't want them growing up without a father. This should keep her from getting pregnant and causing a "oops".

>Also, if we're preparing to timeskip, (say, twenty years? Give me an estimate of when you want to resume,) tell me how you want to be treating the war and our allies. (IE, do we want to be incinerating Freeport privateers? Do we want to swing by and visit Cygnis, suitably disguised? Etc.)

I propose a mere five-year timeskip; that will likely be enough time for the war to at least swing one way or the other, most of our plans to be well underway if not complete, and long enough for us to have become a tentatively permanent fixture on the international stage.

Regarding the war: Our job is to make as much money as possible off it without provoking either side into invading us. That means we attempt to keep trade open between the two sides through us, basically making ourselves the primary smuggler's conduit; provide a safe haven for piracy against the two sides' shipping; never, EVER allow military forces from either side on our island; and don't let ourselves be seen as aligning with either side. Anyone preying on shipping within a fairly small radius of our island gets raided by our navy and/or ourselves, and their ship taken to be added to our own navy or sold.

After five years, we can make the call on seeing Cygnis. We'll probably want to do that posted out.

We want the lizardfolk to become overall quite loyal to us, and hopefully slowly introduce them to urban culture.

We want the dwarves to come to see us as the best thing that's ever happened to their clan. In another couple decades, dwarven children there should be taught that we've made the "hereditary clan ally" list. When that happens we've won and can really start using the dwarves instead of working around them.

And of course, we want the citizens of our city to fear, respect, and/or adore us as their great and unquestioned ruler.

>>13248037
This sounds good but I advise more than five years. Ten at least, 20 at the upper end.

We need to remember to keep training our sorcery during the timeskip. It's kind of important to keep it growing; we haven't reached our limits yet, and that great sorcerous talent will tell.

>>13247791
>>13247849
>76, 61, 75

Mza's port continues to develop under your watchful eyes. A small "Guild of City Interests" is founded, under your direct control, an organization dealing with the day-to-day matters of the town. Scinnari suggested establishing it as a bank too, which, while you like the idea of keeping other's wealth 'for them', you suspect you'd be less happy when they tried to collect. At the very least, you don't wish to deal with the risk involved.

An official trade guild is harder to start, but you do manage to encourage frequent traders to purchase a 'registration' of sorts, that gains them preferential treatment at the docks. Scinnari is most pleased with the system; apparently it is exactly the kind of exploitable bureaucracy that her kind so profit from.

Keeping them both separate from the lizardfolk's cult, properly awed, reverential, and still secretive... is an extraordinary challenge. Rumors occasionally surface that the 'true' lord of Mza is not Lord Varian Prestor, but no one who witnessed your 'battle' with the Rhasver navy lends credence to it, and they are considered the 'experts' on him. Nevertheless, there's a small, surprisingly well hidden cult on the streets that matches the rumor, and it provides you a source of slavishly loyal minions.

[More, coming, naturally.]

How about 15 years? That will mean that when we resume we will have graduated into a fully Adult dragon.

>>13247882
>>13247849
>42, 61

Asha is, indeed, pliable. Humans seem endlessly adaptable, to almost any circumstances. However, your personal suspicion is that her dragon-blood gives her an inner endurance of some sort; Scinnari predicted that further meddling would snap her, leave her a broken wreck. Not quite the case, it would seem. Proving surprisingly resilient to the forces you bring to bear, over the long-term, at least, you manage to bring her up to a level you consider at least semi-functional; she craves your presence, your approval, and is cravenly eager to please, but can function without your immediate presence. Given a test, she functions well as an assassin, removing a particularly troublesome wizard setting up shop in your city. You keep her unaware, yet under observation through out it, and are pleased with her success. Still, while her 'loyalty' is deeply ingrained and solid, you fear her competence and functionality may not be quite so, and suspect you should refrain from sending her on prolonged or emotionally involved missions. If she were to be caught and divulge by her family in Tashz, for instance... you shudder at the thought.

>Timeskip, ten years? (Yes/No/Modify)

We should use Asha to found a secretive shadow-house of cultist assassins. We should buy some slaves of superior genetic stock to breed with her and have her teach the children the arts of the assassin. Raised from birth to worship us and be utterly loyal with Asha as an example, over the coming years we will develop them and create our own cult of super assassins. Every generation we should select for intelligence, health, and skill. Sometimes bring in new genetic materiel in the form of slaves.

Utterly loyal even past the point of death. Knowing nothing but obedience, spying, and bringing death in our name. The Red Hands.

>>13248249
You said 15 years to grow into an Adult dragon right? Let's do that.

>>13248273
/signed

>>13248273
I don't really like the name Red Hands.

That said, Asha will get kind of old in a fifteen-year timeskip, so we might as well get some use out of her by founding a sorcerous assassin death cult. Not necessarily out of slaves, though; just find the strongest and most cunning sorcerers, warriors, assassins, and breed her with them. They don't have to belong to us or even stick around.

Could definitely do with some personally loyal fanatical killers.

We need an Assassin House, not sure if we need to breed it out of Asha...perhaps attempt to locate Top Assassins and buy them out, have them begin training children within our Kingdom.

Vote for Time Skip 10 years

15 years is fine go go go

>>13248273
I'm not usually a moralfag, but the idea of treating people like live stock is almost appalling. This is just my opinion though, and I can see its uses. It's just... wrong.

>>13248389
Dragons just don't give a shit. They're dragons. They live in a thousands-of-years timescale. Humans are little more than bothersome rodents from this point of view. Additionally it is very difficult to care for something that isn't a member of your own species anyway.

If we're going with the Assassin's Guild idea, give Asha a half-dragon child to run it. Longer lifespan, increased abilities, and incentive for her to make it the best it can be.

>>13248389
Humans are livestock to dragons, though. Why is breeding them any worse than eating them or killing them?

Someone creative, name our castle.

>>13248421
>give Asha a half-dragon child to run it.
NO, god damn, we just finished that argument.

>>13248273
Agreed. And yes we should 've 15 year time skip.

>>13248510
Mza Castle
Prestor Manor

rolled 49, 88 = 137

In IRC we came up with Adonites Sanguine. It's a play off of our name, since we are a Red of course this comes naturally through our vanity in basically saying, "They are ours." So Adonites Sanguine will be the assassin cult.

Interesting idea on the half-dragon kid with Asha..... contemplating

>>13248511
If we don't, then we have to groom a replacement every 20 years or so. A single point of contact and someone we know very well would be good.

rolled 48 = 48

>>13248534
That could get bothersome......

>>13248529
No. She's an assassin minion and not worthy of our seed. Women sense our power and seek our essence. We- We do not shun women, anon. But we do deny them our essence.

rolled 74 = 74

>>13248583
Why so tsundere Azaladon?

>>13248583
Fill our castle with grain alcohol, and send Scinari to attack Freeport.

>>13248583
This is the war room! You can't fight in here!

>give Asha a half-dragon child to run it
Yes, I would like to rampantly rape Asha many times while keeping her in beaten-wife loyalty mode and then force her to raise her child by us as a fanatically worshipful assassin. No, I don't think that will fly amongst the thread at large.

But hey, if it does, awesome.

>>13248421
>>13248423
Not exactly talking about the dragon aspect. I'm just saying that this is something I personally don't agree with. Pretending to be a dragon doesn't change this. Anyway, let's not get off topic.

rolled 80 = 80

>>13248613
I could go for this actually......as evil and decrepit as it sounds.....but we mustn't put her in "beatenwifemode" otherwise it might come back to bite us in the ass later, possibly, literally, if her kid decides to want revenge.

>>13248614
Mza is us, WD. I think you might want to rewrite that post.

>>13248614
I'm a bit confused here. Did our city get taken over suddenly? What?

>>13248630
How about not. I don't object on any moral grounds, but rather the oft-repeated "god damn not THIS SHIT AGAIN" grounds of children in general at this time.

rolled 81 = 81

Adding to the roll pile

>>13248664
Well, if we're planning on going by nepotism, things most closely related to us are supposed to be more valuable and worthy of their positions.

Time passes. The war drags on. With your un-known assistance, Rhasver manages to persevere despite opposition and a mounting death toll. The Sultanate manages to finally negotiate passage past the Blue wyrms, but, having taken a few years, the famed engineers of Rhasver have dug in, fortifying the interior and exterior of their siege lines. Deaths mount, Freeport and her allies prove entirely ineffective, (and seem to have horrible luck with unseasonal storms,), and your efforts on all fronts persist.

Azar finally surrenders a few months after your ninety-ninth hatchday. You must confess, it held together and held out for far longer than you would have expected. The sudden change in power and organization almost leads to Rhasver's ruin, as the Tashz forces take the opportunity to finally push past the Rahsver defenses. Rhasver grinds them to a halt at the walls of Azar, after three months of non-stop fighting, and the positions are reversed; Rhasver, holding the city, and keeping the sea open, but with the deserts held by the Sultanate.

On a more local front, the elderly druid of lizardfolk vanishes; one day he left on a spiritual retreat, and did not come back. After two months, he was assumed to have died or retreated permanently. You looked into it briefly, but decided to ignore it when it doesn't seem to change.

Asha, your prize assassin, venture out less and less- Not that she seems to object. By her own words, when begging you not to leave, she feels "dead inside, terrified" when you aren't present. You turn her to potentially long-term tasks; the teaching of pupils, and, you eventually decide, the breeding of pupils.

[More to come, dice for success]

rolled 85, 14, 88, 74, 89, 18 = 368

>>13248686
Dice.

Track down that elder with our crystal ball. It lets us just name someone and find them. We don't want him spreading the word. If he is, we kill him.

rolled 90 = 90

>>13248686

Use the crystal ball to scry for the elder guy. If he's dead it should find his remains. If he's unshielded it should find him. If he's shielded we need to get on that and kill him pronto because he knows what we are.

>81

The results will presumably take a few hundred years to show. Generations to manifest anything less overt than inbreeding. Either way, the implications of 'improving' the race seem... interesting. If you modify a race, does it remove it from it's god, or mythical 'creator'? Details, details...

Asha's 'eldest' is nearing fourteen, and seems to be fairly skilled, though totally non-magical. One other, and an adoptee you considered promising.


As for international powers, you receive heralds from both Rhasver and Morinth, first from the mage-families of the later, then Imperial emissaries. The former seem interested in "Lord Prestor", and you skills have increased to give a suitably intimidating-yet-diplomatic demonstration. The later prove interested in dealing with the dwarven clan hold on your island. Utilizing some of your resources at hand, you manage to be observing as the leader of the clan-hold tells them that the dwarves of Mza have no interests, loyalties, or anything else in common with the dwarves of Rhasver; Insults are exchanged, and you feel certain that betrayal from that quarter is unlikely.

The Red in control of Beren also makes overtures, at least interested in communication. Possibly interested in the 'rogue power' status you seem to share. Self-styled 'Queen' Seffetransiinas extended cordial greetings and invited you to visit her realm. Her messenger who's thought you scanned seemed to have no idea of anything overt, though smell plotting in the letter; you doubt her interests are as they appear.

Lady Elise, stately lady of the Freeport council, meets an untimely death shortly after the surrender or Azar. While you had no hand it it, you were satisfied with what you heard from Cygnis about how, ah, violent, it was.

Speaking of Cygnis, you do visit her twice, over the sixteen years. Still maintaining her work at the temple of Alset, she has been running her merchant company in your name, and receives you warmly, when you drop by.

There is little in the way of progress to report on the Binder, but you play it up as best you can, exaggerating the threat. She seems to have mostly recovered her fear, though she still occasionally has nightmares. As for your own discoveries, it seems likely that the Binder was destroyed and/or banished by the Unspeakable One, and her bound, free of her control, dissipated and were one by one killed, imprisoned, or otherwise neutralized themselves. Some are rumored to still be in hibernation, or a quiet retirement, though that would be quite a feat, considering that even the longest known draconic lifespan only /approaches/ five thousand years, stopping a good two hundred short.

A (you're fairly sure,) incomplete list of her bound that you and your bounty-chasing adventurers have compiled:

the Dead One.
Soulless
Many-Bound -- details are fuzzy, but between the name and some elderly texts, it suggests that this one may have learned how to evade bindings, or something similar.
Watcher.
Storm[unknown]
And references to at least eight in total, probably more.

[Still more coming, sorry for the continent-like speed.]

Finally, literally the day after your 100th, unpleasant news is reported from the south. Unpleasant, among other things, because you only learn of it via your 'capital' information network, as opposed to your Azar network. But there may be a reason for that...

Captain Andran, a human merchant and slaver, just returned from what he intended to be a productive trade, selling supplies to the Rhasver garrison at exorbitant rates. When he arrived, though, portions of Azar were in flames, not a living soul in sight, but altogether too many various forms of undead; zombies, ghouls, ghasts... His own words, "As if the entire city dropped dead and then got back up again."

He did, however, find a single survivor. An janissary of Tashz was found when they shifted moorings, trying to ascertain the breadth of the... phenomenon. His story suggested that he had been on the siege lines eleven days previously, when suddenly the dead came crawling out of the ground- skeletons, corpses, vampires, in some particularly fresh cases. Still wearing their uniforms, some, or simply citizens who had starved to death in the siege. They seemed to attack indiscriminately, and almost entirely overwhelmed both armies present.

Attempting some scrying yourself, you determine that entire city seems shielded by some enchantment. You suspect you are among the earliest to learn of this, as far as world-powers go- A fast rider may have made it to Tashz, or a lucky wizard have sent some message, but from the sound of it, there was no time.

rolled 60 = 60

>>13249310
Shit just hit the fan it seems. Perhaps this has to do with the 26 I rolled for "chance" happenings.......Either way, this is gonna hurt our economy.

I'm out for tonight guys, meeting with a friend at 3:15AM at Steak n Shake for the hell of it.

>>13249335
More like this is going to be AWESOME for our economy. Azar was the biggest trade hub in the region but now it's gone and all those traders have to find some other hub. Guess who is perfectly positioned? That's right, us.

Send messages to all captains on the way to Azar that they can come trade goods at Mza instead of Azar, and inform them of the situation.

Is that it? What about Mza growth, spy rings, Scinnari info, ect?

Also, I reiterate that we need to scry for that elder lizardman.

rolled 72 = 72

>>13249342
I can't say that I agree with you. We do not have a large population that is willing to be the consumer economy, we do not have a large supply economy, we are just a midpoint between large ports as of now. We don't NEED to support a nation or multiple city populaces, the fact of the matter is we don't have a large enough city or domain to take advantage in that way properly. Sure we might get a boost, but not as large as you are thinking.

The chat raised the possibility of searching and relieving the now-burning city of valuables that the owners will no longer need, provided that it hasn't already been done.

I am in favour of such a search.

>cities search

Captcha too, it appears.

>>13249360
This sounds good. We commissioned 5 ships for a small navy right? Supposedly Azar is ludicrously wealthy and we've been spending enormous amounts of money... breaking in and lootan' sounds good.

How is trade on Mza going? We got our trade company going yet?

rolled 36 = 36

I also support the pillagin' idea...more so if we can send a lot of skeleton crews and seize the prize ships docked

>>13249358
Venice didn't have either of those things either (though later it did have a lot of skilled craftsmen, just not originally), it was just a middleman mostly. Same with Genoa, Rhodes, Alexandria.

Sometimes all you need is to be in the right place at the right time.

>>13249405
Oh hell yes, good idea. Stock up as many people as we can on the ships and then pillage the city, ships, and sail back to Mza with a couple dozen ships full of gold and loot.

>>13249310
Obviously work of the Black. Looks like that sometime in the future, we'll have another dragon city-state.
Speaking of, I would think it a good idea to maintain relations with the Female Red. Nothing is to be revealed, and it would be opportune to simply send emissaries presenting various niceties, formalities and occasionally gifts.
On the off chance of a real threat to the island, it would then be advised to enter a defensive pact with the Dragon State.
Concerning time-skips and long term plans, what happens when "Lord Prestor" reaches his life expectancy?
I don't really know what to do in the short term.

>>13249448
Lord Prestor is an elf and a mage. Elves naturally live 1000 years, and mages live however long they damn well want to.

Not something to worry about any time soon.

>>13249448
Aren't we a sorcerer-king in our Prestor identity? We can just say "a wizard (us) did it" as far as age is concerned.

>>13249405
Pillaging is going to be near impossible with an indiscriminate zombie horde

>>13249405
This is brilliant. We could gain a great navy at a single stroke, if we can successfully clear out the undead from the warships which were guarding the city, and even if we can only get merchant vessels it could still mean tens of thousands of gold in profits.

Even better, it doesn't require going into the city proper, which is doubtless far, far more dangerous than the docks.

Still, it might be worth raiding the interior city with a small group- us, Scinnari, and Asha, perhaps? Go after the most supposedly valuable locations in the city, wizards' guilds, and what have you. It'll be all nostalgic.


>>13249448
>Concerning time-skips and long term plans, what happens when "Lord Prestor" reaches his life expectancy?
I believe both he and his consort are of elvish descent, so that won't happen for a very long time.

>>13249170
>Asha's 'eldest' is nearing fourteen, and seems to be fairly skilled, though totally non-magical.
Hmm. She needs to have more kids; breed her with a decently skilled sorcerer from somewhere and hope the magic sticks. Hopefully those, plus any others she's birthed so far, will be as talented as she.

>the dwarves of Mza have no interests, loyalties, or anything else in common with the dwarves of Rhasver
Excellent. Lack of external loyalties is quite good.

>Self-styled 'Queen' Seffetransiinas extended cordial greetings and invited you to visit her realm.
We should take her up on this after raiding Azar.

>>13249487
We shall march at the vanguard launching fireballs against the undead from our wands. A quick strike into the noble and merchant districts should provide us with all the loot and ludicrously potent magical items we can carry.

>>13249497
This is a solid plan. I endorse and second it.

Hit and run strikes on the undead are probably our best bet. Scinnari can, while we hold off the nasties, ransack the houses and teleport back and forth between there and our stronghold. Greater Teleport, after all.

While the crews we bring with us take control of the warships and merchant ships that are abandoned we can strike into the wealthiest part of the city with us, Scinnari, Asha, and Asha's Eldest. While one of us holds off the undead with fireball wands we can ransack the houses/bank vaults/wizard towers/gem stores and shove everything into bags of holding. When they get full Scinnari can take them all, teleport back, and grab a full load of empty bags of holding. Wash, rinse, repeat.

>>13249335
Good luck, enjoy, and all that.

"A necromancer. How... distasteful." Scinnari says, by way of greeting.

"I see you heard. What is your opinion?" you ask with some frustration, looking up from your crystal ball.

"I despise the undead." Scinnari states flatly. "They are without reason, emotion, or any of the other... traits that make mortals interesting. And of no redeeming value to my kind. It does, though, depend on who controls them... While I don't know about the event, I have informed you that I suspect abyssal powers to be at work behind the war... However far removed they are." Her disgust for the dead and contempt of the demonic are plainly visible in her voice.

"But I digress. I had come to inform you that I believe Asha's younger to have demonstrated some minor talent at sorcery, my lord. And, of course, to wish you well as a centenarian."

"Ah... I believe you did such yesterday." you reply. "Repeatedly."

"Indeed, but I hear that it may not count, if said in the heat of passion." she says sweetly. "Just in case, my lord."

"I see... And what is your advice regarding Azar?"

"Destroy it. Burn it to the ground and level the city, though that may be overkill. Either way, if you are responsible for the reclamation of it from undead hordes, I doubt very much that anyone could challenge your right to rule it... The second city of your empire, a foothold on the mainland! Think, my lord, it could be... The beginning."

>>13249570
>>13249550
>>13249519
>>13249508
>>13249497
Shit yes, let's go pillage Azar.

>>13249576

You make a vague, non-committal reply. You trust her advice slightly less when she seems to be... envisioning. Whatever you did may have been too blatant; she changes the subject.

"Did you ever find that... druid? The shaman who had been trying to keep you away from the lizardfolk?"

"That was easier. Dead. Killed a few months back, I'm not sure by what. Azar, on the other hand, seems to be entirely shielded from scrying. I wonder how the desert Blues will take this..." you say, the tangential thought suddenly occurring to you.

"Probably indifferently, or poorly, if I understand the politics correctly..." Scinnari says, advancing to place a hand on your flank, gazing up at your head. "The middle-aged ones will be upset that the will no longer be receiving tolls for the Roads- No one will be travelling to a city of the dead. Any that had interests in the city's fate will be upset, affronted, and the elders will not care at all."

"You seem to understand their... stances." you nod approvingly. "Still, it could have been their work, or some of them could have been cooperating with the... architect."

"Do me a favor? Dispose of this 'architect', when you find him, my lord." Scinnari says, "The dead have no place in this world of the living."

"Because they can't be damned again, I suppose?" you ask dryly.

"Indeed... the very reason." Scinnari agrees with a smile.

>>13249576
Hmmm. Scinnari brings up a good point. But I don't know if we could take the city. We don't have an army do we?

>>13249581
I have little love for them myself, Scinnari. They are so very uninteresting to toy with through the ages and lack the revenue generating capabilities of mortal stock.

What makes you think that my meager forces could take and hold a city as large and overrun with undead as Azar?

>>13249581
Scinnari's idea for taking the city is interesting, but ultimately not feasible. We're better off just raiding it as outlined previously.

Give the order.

>>13249581
Don't just dismiss her out of hand, listen to her plan for taking it. But I'm skeptical.

Ambition and capability go hand-in-hand where you are concerned. Moving quickly, you manage to question the janissary Andran rescued. Both he and Andran report Azar's harbor to be full, though Andran seems to have thought of the idea of prize ships and discarded it. You, on the other hand, have both more resources and more confidence in risking them than a mere slaver.

You order your token 'navy' to assemble at once, and assemble a force of lizardmen, as well- You've been slowly convincing them to integrate into the urban society of Mza, but they still retain some of their tribal roots, including an inherent hatred of all things undead. Between their loyalty, impressive skill at arms, aptitude for swimming, and the fact that your guard are excellently equipped... You suspect them ideal for the job.

Scinnari you barely have a chance to say farewell to. Wishing to make all speed possible, you pause in your tower to conjure up a strong northern breeze, providing the wind you need to make best time for Azar. Scinnari, while disappointed you don't intend to annex Azar yourself, does concede that, based on what happened to the last to do so, it may not be a good idea until you know what you are dealing with.

[Dice 1d100]

>>13249581
We need to send out scouts if we're going to have any idea of pillaging or taking control of the city.
We /need/ to know more present dangers with a thorough investigation

rolled 83 = 83

>>13249665

rolled 15 = 15

>>13249665

rolled 42 = 42

>>13249665
Woah woah woah, Scinnari is going to teleport to us when we get there right? We need her for the strike force into the inner city.

rolled 29 = 29

>>13249665
>Scinnari you barely have a chance to say farewell to.
We're not bringing her? I understand that having someone left in charge is important, but this is a major endeavor. A flying and teleporting agent could be priceless.

Anyway, hopefully this'll go well.

>>13245780
Oh god what IRC server is this?

>>13249687
>>13249683
Your long practice with generating storms has left you a master of the Orb- the wind is strong and does not slacken, blowing your small fleet steadily southwards. Thanks to your efforts at integration, the lizardfolk seem to all at least understand common, and get along alright with your crews, especially under your watchful eyes. Communing with Scinnari regularly, she offers you minor status updates from home, as she is not needed until you arrive...

And arrive you do. The Azar is visible from the thunderhead of smoke in the southern sky- sitting listlessly above the city. You are not prepared for actually seeing the city, though. Most of it is still standing, and from miles away you can detect the smell of rotting flesh and scavengers. Closer, and half your human crew is busy retching to the abysmal stench.

"That, at least, is good news." Scinnari says at your side, as you gaze over the bow into the harbor. The harbor seems to have dozens, hundreds, of corpses floating in the water, dead.

"I suppose in a manner." you agree, then elaborate noticing the somewhat horrified expression on a nearby sailor. "Come now. It means that those who die here are not still rising- it was a singular event, not a permanent alteration."

More than a dozen ships lie in the harbor, some of which you can already see are carrion ships, loaded with undead. five Rhasver warships, a diplomatic sloop, and a half-dozen merchantmen of various sizes. Minor fishing ships, or other less accessible ships dot the harbor, but are progressively more difficult to reach. Your five ships have five boarding crews between them, and, (assuming casualties are not horrendous,) enough for ten prize crews.

>>13249753
Enter:

irc://irc.irchighway.net/dragonquest

For occasional Dragon Quest discussion, plus some random other shit.

rolled 37 = 37

>>13249763

I vote the Warships, diplomatic sloop, and whatever of the merchant ships we can take.

>>13249753
IRC Highway, though I suppose if that didn't mean anything to you the first time, it won't help now.
Try:

http://webchat.irchighway.net/?channels=irchighway

I vote for the warships and then as many merchant ships as we can get. Ideally ones with the most valuable cargo still loaded.

rolled 23 = 23

>>13249785

I amend this to "Loot the Diplomatic sloop"

Never know what info could be on it

Take the warships and try for all 6 of the merchant ships. Don't take the sloop, but board it and see if there are any valuable military or political documents onboard. Or just plan valuables, tribute and the like.

>>13249763
The warships are hardest to get more of on our own, so they definitely take priority. We can get merchantmen by buying them discount from pirates easily enough, but warships... those we have to build or purchase at great expense.

Now, it'll be hard to clear these ships out with fire without burning them down, so we'll want to use wands of something like magic missile to clear the decks, along with archer fire. Getting the holds cleared will be nastier and more difficult work, I fear, but we'll have to do it. Hopefully most of the undead can be destroyed on the exterior of the ships.

Once we've cleared the deck of a ship, lead the boarding party along with our most badass warrior types. Systematically eliminate all undead from one ship, throw the bodies overboard, and crew it before moving onto the next.

>>13249789
Ah, sorry. In all fairness, I don't know the IRC servers well and I just took it as a euphemism. Thank you!

I vote that we approach the situation with a level head, and consider all angles equally.

We could also just pull the ships to our home port and clear them there. Could be safer that way. but go for the warships first.

>>13249968
Sailing vessels don't work that way.

"Commander? Direct us over to those warships there. Choose those that seem to be in best condition." you command.

"Aye aye, Lord." he answers, before spinning to below orders to his crew. You turn to Zaxis, the de-facto leader of the lizardmen, and, while perhaps not the most slavishly devoted, probably the most competent, intelligent, and creative.

"Zaxis. The abominations may be on any, more likely all, of these ships. Naturally, if you find any, kill them." you instruct. He nods placidly.

"They are unnatural. We shall remove them."

"Excellent. And while I do realize it may be difficult, please try to limit damage to the ships and casualties to your parties; the ships are our primary plunder, and I do not wish to see many of my servants fall today."

"Of course, Great One." Zaxis agrees. The title is more of an honorific than a sign of worship or respect from him, but you don't mind. Intelligence will go for a long way, he seems a natural leader, and loyal, if not a fanatic.

You stand by watching as signals are flashed from the mast, and your small fleet splits up, each heading to allow a boarding. Zaxis and his retinue debark, jumping the gap between the two ships. From up the row, you can hear their war-cries as some of them have apparently already run into combat.

"Captain? Please allow my lady and myself to debark at that sloop." you say, indicating the ship. The royal blue and yellow of Tashz hanging limply from it's stern flagpole.

"Naturally, Lord." your captain agrees, sounding relieved to hear you speak common again.

Extending a boarding ramp, Asha, Scinnari, and you walk across the gap, gaining access to the sloops' main deck. To the rear is a raised deck and what may be a captain's state room. The center has a pair of hatches, one midship and one forward, and you can see a narrow corridor down the ladder of the midship hatch. Asha and 'Lady Prestor' stand to either side of you, your personal boarding party.

[dice 2d100, and where to first]

rolled 81, 11 = 92

>>13250002
Stateroom.

rolled 41, 54 = 95

>>13250002
Definitely to the captain's room.

rolled 74, 76 = 150

>>13250002
Dice, and captain's state room.

>>13250002
Captain's room, search for mssnger things, and if not, below, thier heraldprobaly had his own room.


Also, not trying to start a shitstorm, I swear, but at what age do we think we should return to, ah, 'spirit Cygnis away'?

I was thinking that perhaps we could show up in Freeport by surprise one night, spend a lovely, romantic night, screw her silly, and then she wakes up chained to our throne in Mza, six hundred miles away, or something. Possibly wearing the dress made out of her brother.

But yeah, I suppose that can wait beyond the immediate.

>>13250025
Don't start that again. It's not even relevant right now. We are plundering a city.

>>13250025
Irrelevant. We focus on the here and now. Which involves looting this town of everything that isn't nailed down, and some stuff that is.

>>13250025
Sounds like an amusing way for it to happen. Hardly relevant though.

>>13250019
What they said

>>13250025
We can't do that until we have the magic, items, rituals, or whatever required to effectively keep her under control.

Which, I suppose, we sort of do now. I mean, we have an item to stop her from polymorphing, which is the really important part, and anti-caster shackles, also important. Everything beyond that is just dressing.

That said, I would prefer to be able to rape her when she's in dragon form, and we don't have that level of mastery yet. So let's give it another decade or two.

>>13250025
Best to wait until we can bind her. And like everyone else said, not relevant at this point anyway.

>>13250016
>>13250010
"Stay sharp." you order curtly, advancing on the stateroom door.

"Of course, Lord."

"Naturally."

Glancing through the glass, you observe nothing moving, though you thought you heard a muffled moaning, for a moment. Could be anything, though, of course. Imagination, for instance. Or the other boarding parties. Opening the door, yous step inside, sword in one hand, wand in the other. Nothing happens, so after a few seconds, you relax, spreading out to search the room.

A navigation chart, a Captain's log... Nothing of interest in there, even towards the end. The last entry is dated a day or two before the rising of the dead started, and says that the captain will be going ashore to arrange for supplies. Nothing that seems to explain what happened. A pity...

"Some gold. A few pieces of mediocre jewelry. Nothing of interest." Scinnari calls. Asha is silent, presumably nothing of note. You don't need to call any instructions to Scinnari, as she is already sweeping the minimal 'treasure' into a bag.

"Belowdecks, then..." you say, heading for the ladders. Narrow, slightly claustrophobic, at least for humans, and dark. You see a pair of lamps, but they burned out days ago.

[another 2d100 ongoing+searching]

rolled 82, 45 = 127

>>13250077
More dice.

rolled 94, 34 = 128

>>13250077

rolled 6, 33 = 39

>>13250077
Yo ho ho, below decks we go!

rolled 5, 89 = 94

>>13250077

>>13250083
>>13250079
>94, 45

"Nothing... Nothing... Nothing!" you mutter as you throw open each door, finding nothing but a regular seaman's berth in each. Absently you notice Asha shudder and flinch; your displeasure has become a feeling of pain to her. You throw open the last door.

The shambling dead thing inside is totally silent, turning and leaping at you with only the creak of the planks. You dodge backwards, and it lands instead next to Scinnari, who screams and backs up, trying to loose her bow at it. With it distracted, Asha and you take the opportunity to plant your blades in it's back. It shudders, spasms, and dies.

"Ghoul." Scinnari says with hatred. It scored a few decent slashes at her, tearing strips her cheek away with it's putrid claws. She carries the pain well, you have to admit.

"Asha. Search the body. Scinnari-" you order, pulling out a healing potion, "Please, my lady. Do take better care of yourself."

"I shall endeavor to do so, my lord." she says, faintly bitterly. You watch as she downs the potion, and some of her pallor returns.

"Master... I may have found something, lord." Asha says quietly from behind you.

"Oh? Damnation!" you curse, and Asha flinches again. The scroll she's holding up bears the diplomatic seal of Tashz, but is heavily stained in old blood, so badly you can barely see the writing. Taking it from her, you open it up, attempting to decipher what is written.

Not much, is your conclusion. It seems a request or demand for something with the commander of the Rahsver garrison. You can't tell precisely what, as between the vagueness and blood, it's impossible to know. It sounds, though, like a standard demand of surrender/plea to see reason from the part of Tashz.

>>13250191
Don't worry Asha, you did well to pull the scroll free before it got too bloody.

Well, I guess that's it? Search for any hidden compartments and try to sense for anything magical on board. If there's nothing let's head back and see how the rest of the crews did.

>>13250191

Thank Asha and continue on I guess. Not much we can do with it.

Personally, I think any info that will shed light on what happened will be found on the mainland, not on the ships.

Tell Scinnari to read it. It might have magically concealed text.

Hmm. We only got two kids out of Asha in 15 years? Abysmal. We need to try to have her birth at least one more before she can't anymore.

>>13250239
Our swimmers won't be setting any records amongst dragonkind at that rate, I agree.

>>13250239
Yeah, I was hoping we could get at least five or six from various exceptional slaves, sorcerers, and skilled fighters. Ideally attractive ones, but ability would of course be the priority. Oh well. If we make sure she's knocked up constantly we could get maybe 5 or 6 more out of her seeing as she's what, 35 now?

>>13250247
Eh? We didn't get her with child personally, we put her out for breeding. We aren't having children ourselves until the city is well and truly established.

>>13250213
"Not your fault, Asha. Thank you for salvaging the scroll." you reply, "You did well." You praise has the opposite effect on her, and she blushes, nodding.

Searching through the compartment, you find a few rings and a jeweled dagger, about all there is of value. One of the rings, however... magical. Guessing it's purpose, you try it on. Suddenly the blank parchment you had glanced over on the desk actually has writing on it. Invisible orders, of course. Mostly to the effect of 'gather what information you can while in Azar', and a few lines that look like an assassination order. You show it to Asha and she confirms.

Searching through the rest of the ship, you're on your way back out when you hear a loud moaning rise up,, coming from the city. Climbing back onto the deck, you see what: Thousands of undead, skeletons, zombies, wights, and ghouls, all standing on boats, piers, docks, looking out over the harbor and letting out a haunting groan.

Tearing your attention away from the multitudes on the docks, you occupy yourself with returning to your flagship. Once you grab the commodore's attention, he seems to snap out of the daze you find him in, watching the docks.

"What? Oh, right. Those lizards seem to be experts. They're reporting not one of them down, though they have a few injured."

Nothing fatal, you decide, since you did provide them with healing items too.

"They're ready to follow us, and we seem to have doubled the size of the Mza navy. If you're ready, m'lord, most of the sailors would like to leave before they try something creative.

>>13250254
Well, he did say sorcerers tend to live longer than usual....

>>13250269
>creative
>my face when the undead walk along the sea floor to get to our island and overrun it in a few centuries

>>13250269
Head out. My lady and I will be leaving to attend to some business. Fair sailing, captain.

Then turn all of us invisible and head into the city while draconic. Scinnari too, and Asha if we can carry her with us or she can cast fly herself. Both also invisible of course.

>>13250273
I guess, but she's still human. We need to have her pop out as many whelps from as many powerful parents as we can before she passes breeding age. Then we can start weeding out the bad traits and breeding for the various desirable ones, with occasional infusions of exceptional blood.

>>13250276
By then we'll be older, and able to kick ass.

Alright! Order them to sail back and I guess we go into the city to loot now?

>>13250286
Do a flyover trying to detect concentrations of magical items and scout for where the undead are the most and least populous.

>>13250286
I'm afraid it's getting awful late for me, and I'm actually worried I may drop off while typing or waiting for a response. Would this be a good place to halt now/resume next time?


Also, I must sadly say that this is the only one jI can do this week, and may be the last one this year, (Though I hope to have time sometime next week. I'll try for some time Monday through Wednesday, but I can't be certain. Haven't failed you yet, though, have I?)

And, will wonders never cease, another thread that hasn't reached autosage! Amazing! (Watch as this post bumps us over the edge.)

>>13250333
I guess this is as good a point as any. Have a good Xmas WD. Sad there won't be any more DQ for a while.

>>13250333
Bye WD, merry christmas.

>>13250333
Yeah, and a good New Year too, if we don't see you back before then.

>>13250365
>>13250363
>>13250350
Alright, thanks for understanding. (I was literally typing with my eyes close, just to rest them.)

And thanks. Enjoy your holidays too. I'll try to have a thread up- wait, I think I said this already. Repeating self. Anyway.

Email again, write me and I won't reply now, but will probably do so when I'm more lucid. Thanks, all. Fun doing this again.

No w excuse me, I'm going to go pass out for ten hours.

rolled 12 = 12

Rolling for the number of pregnancies we order Asha to have. Woo, dragon-class evil.

>>13250412
And thus we are retconned into have 12 (+1 adopted) fledgling assassins running around our castle.

Archived

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=dragon%20quest
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/13244947/

Don't forget to vote.

>>13250412
>>13250445
This is probably a bit confusing for the people not in IRC.

Basically, WD said we could roll for how many children we bred from Asha during the timeskip using various exceptional human stock such as powerful adventurers, sorcerers, and warriors. 1d15 since it was 15 years.

Cya WD, merry xmas and a happy new year if we don't see you again until then!

We really need to make some concentrated effort, I think, in expanding our Sorcerous prowess. We're, what, an 11th or 13th level caster now? We want to be much, much better than that. With sufficient experimentation, we might even be able to augment our draconic form and spur further growth - without shortening our lifespan.

>>13250674
We're CL 10 according to WD. I prepared a list with the generally accepted spells that everyone seemed to agree on in the IRC when the topic was brought up:

0: All
1: True Strike, Identify, Comprehend Languages, Detect Scret Doors, Magic Aura
2: Knock, Rope Trick, Invisibility, Arcane Lock
3: Haste, Fireball, Dispel Magic
4: Dimensional Anchor, Enervate
5: Teleport

rolled 48 = 48

>>13250412
Mandatory re-roll

>>13250823
While hilarious, I don't think d100 babies is physically possible.

rolled 65, 38, 91, 43 = 237

>>13250859
First dude's roll was a 14. That might be physically possible, presuming Asha has enough youth left in her.

48, however...

>>13250881
It was 12, and that was during the 15 years of our timeskip earlier in the thread. We still have however many years she can conceive to have her pump out more children. Since she's ~35 right now we can only reliably count on 1 to 7 more, max.

Still, 12 (+1 adopted) + however many we make her have before she gets too old = enough for a solid breeding base.

>>13250780
Yeah. Definately need more. If only to maintain our disguise. And to provide an edge over the nasties. Let's face it, the Binder needs to have her hold over us broken thoroughly, and magic makes it easier. Plus the other reason I mentioned.

Ah... missed the whole thread.

I was curious, did we specify to train intensely in magic and sorcery during the 15-year time-skip?

>>13251830
We can call it a given. Natural for 100-200 years old is 7, we're three above that. (And we're just barely one hundred, too.)

Don't worry, we'll gain another level, maybe two, in this age category.

Sorry about the kind of abrupt ending last night- I found myself fearing 'falling asleep while typing' a genuine possibility.

See people next time, whenever that turns out to be.