Four servitors, summoned and bound to your will, are currently available to do whatever you ask of them- an assassin imp, fast, stealthy, and brutal; a scholar sprite, equally adept in the library or the wilderness; a mimir, a skull imbued with equally vast amounts of knowledge and self-absorption; and an air spirit, virtually undetectable eyes and hands.

Sarai, an older vampire who described herself as an assassin and mercenary, is allowing you to use some of her supplies and stay in her concealed crypt in the merchant's district for the first few days you are in the city.

Bryden, a much older vampire who has apparently attempted repeated rebellion against your lord, has secured himself a position as a noble in the city and provided you with some information and contacts.

Last night you poisoned and then fed upon the occupants of a tavern, burning down the building afterward to cover up the evidence. Your injuries were all healed at the cost of their lives. Your unholy strength and speed have returned in full, and your skin once again appears pale but otherwise normal.

***

Evening falls, and you awaken. Feelings of guilt and self-hatred linger in your mind, but your rest has robbed them of their strength. Even Sarai's cheerful observation that you're looking much better summons up little more than a vague sense of disgust. Other matters lie before you now.

A message from Bryden, ignored during your breakdown last night, lies on the lid of one of the other coffins. It lists an address and notes that his broker has agreed to meet you there one hour after sunset. You will need to move quickly if you wish to make that meeting.

Somehow finding yourself a house doesn't seem all that important to you at the moment, but you know that's just stress talking; you'll need someplace to sleep in a few days when Sarai's generosity runs dry.

What do you do?

Eat Italian food with loads of garlic.

>>7666977

Go to the meeting, the house can wait till afterward.

>>7666959
Summon katana imps!

>>7666993
Agreed.

And regarding the tavern debacle; it was a horrible thing to do, but it was necessary. At least, that's what we should tell ourselves.

Fuck yeah, I've been waiting for this.

Try to ask Sarai to help us put on some makeup if possible, take eye drops, take a third or so of our gold as proof of our wealth, go and meet broker.

>>7666993
Telling yourself that it would be wrong to waste this opportunity when you bought it with so many lives, you determine to go to the meeting with Bryden's broker.

As you move for the exit of the hidden crypt, however, something occurs to you; Bryden had recommended that you look your best at the meeting. Your assumption that he meant you should heal your skin had resulted in... yesterday, but the rest of your appearance is hardly ideal. Pale skin, dull hair, dead eyes, flecks of lingering blood... in good lighting and up close, anyone would be able to tell that there's something wrong with you.

Fortunately, you know that Sarai has remedies for such a thing, and you turn to her. "I need to go meet with someone Bryden recommended when I asked him to help me find property to purchase, and I can't look like this. Could you help me out?"

She smiles. "Of course. You'll need your own makeup if you're going to do this often, though." It takes her only a few minutes to rub some sort of scented oil into your hair, recommend a change of clothes, and lay some sort of powder on your visible skin which gives it a slightly more lively hue. When she is finished, she speaks again. "Do you want your eyes done?" She holds up a small blue bottle, which she had previously informed you was filled with an alchemical solution to make the gloss of death over your eyes vanish. She certainly looked the image of a noblewoman when using it and dressed appropriately. It apparently reduces effective vision to a few feet, however, and you're not sure if that's worth the price- or how you'd navigate without being able to see effectively.

>>7667055
Weighing your options for a moment, you decide that it's more important to make your appearance as perfect as possible, and nod to Sarai. She pulls a syringe from the kit and draws a small amount of liquid from the bottle, then hands it to you. Feeling somewhat nervous, you carefully lift it over your face and push down slightly until two drops fall into each eye.

Your vision almost immediately fades out. Sarai was not understating its effects on your sight; you can hardly recognize her, and she's a scant few feet from you. This could be a serious problem.

"Watch the squinting, darling; it doesn't help your image," she laughs. "Use your ears and nose more, since you can't see. If case you haven't noticed, they're quite keen."

You mutter your thanks, then take a bit over two hundred gold from your coffin and head for the colored blur where you know the door is. Outside, you carefully and slowly walk through the early night's activity in the streets to the rough area where you believe the address is. You quickly determine a problem, however; you can't tell the difference between buildings, let alone find their addresses from more than two feet away. You'll have to come up with something.

What do you do?

Surely one of our Summons can play guide.

>>7667210
You catch yourself beginning to hiss in frustration when a solution occurs to you- your air spirit is completely invisible, and could potentially guide you wherever you need without alerting anyone to the fact that you're getting directions. You call it to you, and stand impatiently in the street for the long minutes it takes to arrive. The fact that other people might be looking at you strangely as you wait around and you would have no way of knowing is inexplicably creepy, particularly since you know that you watch people while unseen all the time using your superior vampiric senses.

Eventually, your air spirit arrives, and you mutter orders to guide you to the address on your note, then stay with you unseen. It manages to do so without a problem, tugging on the front of your clothes slightly to move you toward a door that looks like any other, which you open and enter- it's not a home, then, since you can enter freely. Of course not; Bryden's some sort of mastermind and would never be so careless.

A cheerful male voice speaks to you as you enter, and you orient towards it, though you can't actually make out anyone speaking. "Welcome! Do you have an appointment?"

You pull out your note and glance at the name to refresh your memory. "Ah... I'm to speak with a Master Sheldon here, in a short while?" You notice that your voice sounds much more uncertain than it has in recent days.

"Ah, yes, of course. Please, come this way." You hear footsteps, and begin to follow in their direction but are yanked to the side by your spirit. Confused for a moment, you pause, but then realize that there was a low table in your path, with chairs set around it; you'd almost walked directly into them. That could have been awkward.

Murmuring your thanks and requesting that it guide you after the man, you move forward somewhat more slowly. You walk through a long hall and several turns before arriving at a room and hearing the young man talk to you again. "Just in here, miss, thank you."

You nod towards it and are pulled gently through the door in question. Inside, you think that you see a large desk with a gray-haired and bearded man seated behind it, but you're not certain. It moves, however, and you hear a gruff voice. "What are you here for, then?"

What do you do?

>>7667374
summon katana imps

>>7667374

Let's tell him why we are here: We are looking for a domicile and lord Bryden told us this guy could help us

>>7667530
A secluded, calm one, with a large, nigh-inpenetrateable dungeon underneath it, if possible. Windows are optional.
We wish to study without distraction, as it is the one of the few things we can do well, because our stamina has been bad since childhood and we don't get to go outside so much.

>>7667509
There can be no summoning of katana imps, or any other variety of creature, unless you first get a summoning circle. You are currently attempting to secure a place in which you could make one without being observed.

>>7667530
Directing your face towards where you're reasonably certain that he is, you reply as confidently as you can manage. "I am new to the city and looking to purchase a domicile. When I mentioned it to Lord Bryden, an acquaintance of mine, he recommended that I contact you for assistance and arranged for this appointment."

The vague blur before you gives a loud harrumph. "Lord Bryden, is it? No wonder this is so blasted irregular. Bloody nobles lack any respect for prior engagements when one of their precious friends-" He cuts off, muttering. "What sort of place are you looking for, anyway? You don't look a noble."

>>7667579
You pause a moment to consider. Essentials include a place where you can be completely shielded from the sun during the day, and a large enough concealed space to craft and use your summoning circle unobserved. Aside from that, you don't really care. That said, you wouldn't like to be bothered... "I spend most of my time in study, and would greatly prefer a secluded or at least quiet location, if you can arrange it. A structure with a sizable underground portion would be ideal, as it would muffle noise and..." You think furiously for a moment "-allow my books to be stored without damage from the sun. My health stops me from going outside as much as I would like, and they are quite precious to me."

The man gives a noncommittal "Hmm." You wish that you could see his face, and give you some greater hint to his reaction than his vague words and steady, pulsing heartbeat. The sound of blood in his veins certainly doesn't give much away, although it is tantalizing.

You shake yourself and return to the matter at hand. Having a defensible place would be nice, as well. "I would also prefer a place secure enough that I would not have to worry about thieves, if possible; I have heard that such dangers are not unheard of here and am somewhat concerned."

"Is that all?" He still seems slightly annoyed. You wonder if your specifications are too much.

"Um... yes. Will this be a problem?"

His upper body moves, and you guess that he's shaking his head, though you're not sure. "It may take some time to find a place suiting your requirements. Perhaps a week, perhaps two. But I'll get one. One doesn't displease the lords, after all." He sounds sarcastic. You wonder why Bryden would have recommended him, if he dislikes the lords so much. "I'll give you a price once I find the place. It's all about location, after all... could run from a few dozen gold to a thousand, in this city. Check back in a week, same time, I'll give you some options."

You nod and thank him, promising to return at the time he specifies. Your air spirit guides you back out into the street without incident, leaving you mostly blind, appearing human, and with almost the whole night before you.

What do you do now?

>>7667374
But WE CAN SUMMON KATANA IMPS?

Progress!

>>7667738
FUCK YEAH! VAMPIRE BRIDE QUEST!

I'd though you had abandoned us.

inb4 GayDracula.jpg

>>7667771
No, not yet, but soon, soon.

Well, all our money and silver is stored back at Sarai's place, along with our talking head.

There's also that smuggler girl who we have an appointment with, how long is it until that?

Anyway, Sarai going to turn us out before we can procure a house, it it might take this dude weeks to find one. We should try to find some cheap accommodation before that, I say we look for Sarai's contact and grab a hovel.

>>7667850

I think we should try to avoid running around with that stuff in our eyes. If I remember correctly, Sarai said it would last for maybe 3 hours or so.

In the meantime, we could have a chat with Sarai. Our sprite with its poisons and our invisible air spirit could be potentialle VERY usefull for an assassin, and maybe Sarai will let us stay for a few days longer or helps us to aquire a disguise kit of our own if we (or our summons) help her with a contract or two...

>>7667738

Do we have another night at Sarai's place?

We need to get that cave (or another one like it) ready as a backup.

For now I'd say head back to the crypt, order the sprite to find an unoccupied cave deep enough that we can sleep in there temporarily and wait.

We might also want to go see Sarai's contact, to see what she can do for our housing.

>>7667771
You can't summon anything, katana imp or otherwise, until you have access to a summoning circle.

>>7667805
Tuesday counts as "early next week". I can't run this that often and still keep my life going. And I too am shocked by the lack of gaydracula.jpg.


>>7667850
You stand and consider your options. It will take a while for that man to locate a home for you- much longer than Sarai will allow you to stay at her crypt. You'll have to make interim arrangements of some kind, or convince her to extend your allowed stay.

The smugglers offered to meet with you tomorrow night at midnight to discuss possible business arrangements, at a tavern they named on the docks. They would not be of any help in finding a place to stay, though, so you'll worry about them tomorrow.

An attractive option is to take advantage of your human appearance to meet with Sarai's recommended agent, Diana. From the other vampiress' description, she is the sort of woman who can provide you with anything, as long as you're willing to pay the price. Still, would it be wise to meet someone like that while unable to even make out their face?

>>7667912
Since the eye drops should last for many hours yet given Sarai's "half the night" description, you make your way back to the crypt to consider your options and hopefully talk with Sarai. Unfortunately, she is absent, doubtless off carrying out whatever tasks she typically devotes her nights to.

What do you do?

>>7667978

We should go see Sarai's contact.

Also, find an unoccupied cave in case everything goes tits up.

>>7667978
Send out the sprite to look for a cave, try to remove eye drops, and find talking skull.

We've got to plan ahead, I was thinking about what we did in the tavern, we clearly took it hard, even if we don't feel too bad right now.

We made a horrible, almost unforgivable mistake that cost dozens of innocent lives, we have to do everything in our power to make sure that we don't let that happen again, to this end I think we should focus on summoning a more powerful demon to feed on (one that we can't kill easily and that we could effectively order to stop us before we did kill it while feeding), to this end we must design a more powerful summoning spell, and this will require our talking skull.

At the very list we should consult him briefly.

>>7668106
>At the very list we should consult him briefly.
>At the very least*

Fuck.

>>7667978

>>7668265
Aah, finally. I was beginning to think it wouldn't be posted.

>>7668106
The thought that you should try to summon something stronger to feed on comes to you. The thought of feeding brings with it matters that you'd rather not dwell on, but it is an important topic, so you pull out your mimir and ask it a few questions. "I need to design a better summoning spell. I need something bigger and stronger... with more blood."

Its jaw chatters sarcastically. "Because you're so short on blood at the moment, oh great Mistress. And possess a summoning circle large enough to bind a- what was that? Nothing at all? Well, then, you won't be binding much."

You glare at it. "I'll have a circle eventually. Soon. I need your help to design a spell to call something large enough to feed a lot on that can stop me before I end up killing it."

"You can hardly bind me, and you want to turn what into a chewtoy? Pride's quite the sin, you know, although I suppose that vampires in general are more inclined to glutto-"

You throw it back in the coffin. You don't want to hear that. It's right, though; without a summoning circle, there is nothing you'll be able to bind, and you won't be getting one until you have a place to live. That will have to come first; spell design when you're secure.

>>7668018
Hedging your bets is probably best, you decide. Keeping your air spirit close, you call your imp to you. It takes but a moment to arrive and utter a cheerfully sycophantic greeting, as always. You quickly order it to carry a command to the sprite- it needs to locate a cave in the wilderness, preferably within an hour or less of the city at your top speed. The cave's purpose will be as a place for you to sleep, should matters in the city go ill, so it must be deep and shielded from the sun in sections. The imp nods and speeds off.

>>7668265
Someone took their time showing up.

Be damned, undead monstrosity! Got exam tommorow...

With that done, you decide to go meet this Diana. Your lack of vision can't stand in your way- you have only a couple days left before you'll no longer be able to take advantage of Sarai's crypt, and the agent is only available in the early portion of the night, at least with your current information. Besides, looking human and disoriented is better than looking like a monster.

Referencing your map briefly once more to find the address, you move to the edge of the tradesman's district in accordance with the gentle urgings of your air spirit. It doesn't take long, and soon you find yourself at a small store of some kind; a sign which you cannot make out hangs outside, and light spills from the windows. You enter, moving slowly and carefully to avoid hitting anything.

Inside, the store is crowded- objects everywhere, tall and thin in many colors. Candles? Is this a chandler's? As you move, the air spirit tugs on your arms and legs gently to deftly guide you around the obstacles in your path and stop you from bumping anything. You even feel its energies swishing your skirt around something once or twice, and can't help but wonder just how noticeable this is- is it subtle, or do you look like some sort of bizarre human marionette?

A whispered word from the air spirit alerts you to what your eyes do not. "A woman directly ahead."

You nod slightly and speak, trusting in its words. "Excuse me, is there a Diana here?"

Movement ahead, although with the riot of colors and numerous small light sources casting dozens of shadows over everything, your impaired vision can't tell you more than than. A smooth voice, that of a young woman, replies in a friendly tone. "I am she. What can I do for you?"

What do you do?

>>7668287
I aim to please. Also once we get our house, we should look into getting some slaves that we can drink blood from on a semi-regular basis without having to kill them. If we can provide them with a good lifestyle they might prefer being anemic and well fed to being a slave.

>>7668333
We need stuff to do the summos, place to sray.

>>7668333

"Hello, I'm a freind of Sarai's she said you were someone to speak to about housing and other services within the city"

>>7668347
Do to this, we need somebody to train us in the art of surgeon. Do we even know how much blood can we drink before we kill our victim?

>>7668329
Welcome to my world, except one week ago.

I flunked that fucking Physics test, but I was probably going to fail anyway.

>>7668313
>It's right, though; without a summoning circle, there is nothing you'll be able to bind, and you won't be getting one until you have a place to live. That will have to come first; spell design when you're secure.

No it isn't, I reject your reality and proclaim my own. When we have some free time we're going to work on a damned summoning spell weather we like it or not.

I don't mind if it's only looking at the basics and not writing out the actual spell, but we should prepare before hand, after all, knowing is half the battle.

>>7668418
No, don't ask her directly.

>>7668451
>I flunked that fucking Physics test, but I was probably going to fail anyway.

Fucking microbiology! Knew everything except about 6 topics out of 100. Random number god must really hate me...

>>7668437
This

>>7668626
Yeah, lets just get it over with.

>>7668626
Also, when we're done with this, if it doesn't pan out or is too expensive, we should try to talk with Sarai and ask if we can stay longer. We know that the master doesn't like his servants to help one another, but this wouldn't be generosity; we'd pay rent or help her with tasks that need doing. She might still say no, but we don't loose anything for asking.

>Undead Monstrosity 01/19/10(Tue)14:32 No.7668333
>14:32
>It's now 15:08

>>7668730

Good point. Bryden seemed to indicate that trading for services was an option for the master's 'children'. As long as we're not becoming dependent on her we should be alright.

>>7668798

UM posts slow.

*shrug* It's the cross we must bear.

>>7668807
He's supposed to wait ten minutes between each post. I'm frustrated.

>>7668730
>We know that the master doesn't like his servants to help one another, but this wouldn't be generosity; we'd pay rent or help her with tasks that need doing.

FUCK THE MASTER! (not in that way, more like fuck the system).

Help others everytime they need as long as they don't abuse our willingness.

>>7668418 >>7668451 >>7668437
You almost say directly that you're looking to live in a basement somewhere the sun can't reach for a week or two while doing magical research, but catch yourself. Being that blunt would probably not be a good thing. But how to approach the topic, then? "Hello, I'm a friend of Sarai's... she said that you were someone to speak to about housing and other services within the city."

The woman sounds somewhat amused as she responds. "She did, did she? Curious, as I don't know a Sarai. I must wonder where she got that impression. But I might be able to make a few recommendations as to where you could find things, if you need a bit of direction."

You pause a moment. Is this not the woman Sarai described? No, surely she's just being subtle. "Um... thanks, I'd appreciate that. I need a place to stay for a couple weeks... preferably someplace where I won't be bothered or watched. I know it's, um, somewhat unusual, but something underground with no windows would be ideal."

The tone of the woman changes somewhat, becoming more businesslike. "Oh. That kind of service, is it? If you're hiding from one of the bosses, I can't help you."

You shake your head. You hadn't really intended to give the impression that you were on the run from someone, though you can see how it might be useful. "None of them have ever heard of me, as far as I know." You pause. The woman before you doesn't reply. You're not sure if she's staring at you, looking at something else, or what. It's frustrating; you never realized how much you depend on visual cues to know what do say. "Can you help me?"

She sighs. "Yes, I can. Are you alone, how much do you need to store there with you, and do you mind sharing the place?" Her questions seem almost like statements, from her tone.

"I... uh... yes, I'm alone, and would like to stay that way. I have... a few things." You were about to say that you didn't have much, but realized just a moment before that you'd need to arrange for a coffin somehow, and if you did make your summoning circle it would take up quite a bit of space. "I'll need as much space as is practical for them, actually."

There is a long pause before she replied again. You think that you can hear a bit of something in her voice- suspicion? Curiosity? You're not sure. "Fine. Is that all?" You nod.

"All right. Wait here." Diana moves, and you can hear footsteps and a door, when murmured voices in what you assume is a back room somewhere. A minute later, she returns. "I can get you a place, but it'll cost you, if you need everything as quiet as you say. Twenty gold a week."

That price is beyond high by the standard of inns, but well within your means. You nod. "I can pay that." You quickly retrieve twenty gold and hold them out to her.

>>7668801
Trading services double the interaction needed. I wonder why it is better in the lord's mind.

She seems surprised at your response- had she expected you to haggle? To beg for it to be lowered? You don't know. Regardless, she takes the money. "All right, done. Wait here until closing, then I'll have someone guide you to the place."

You nod, and she ushers you into another room. It seems to contain several chairs, a single candle for light, and no other people. You seat yourself and begin to wait. Time passes quickly, the dim burbling of voices from the store occasionally reaching your ears. Eventually, Diana returns with a girl following her, and speaks to the child. "Here she is. Take her to the house, give her the key, and come back. We've got other things to do tonight."

The girl turns to you gestures to follow. She leads you quickly through the now-sleepy tradesman's district and towards the worse part of town, then deftly through several bad neighborhoods until you come to a door. As you walk, your vision begins to clear- the eye drops must be wearing off. Your guide is a well-groomed young girl with an innocent face and pale red hair. She smiles, hands you a key, and points to the door, then dashes off.

You stare after her. She hadn't ever spoken to you; you wonder why. Regardless, you try the door. It leads immediately to steps downward, and those end at another door which opens to a large basement. It's small, dingy, and utterly lifeless, filled with a few broken crates and scattered cobwebs. The floor is cracked and rotting floorboards, the walls the crumbling masonry of the building above's foundation. There are no windows.

It seems that you have a place to stay. Half the night stretches before you.

What do you do?

>>7668871

We need to find something we can use as a crypt, even if it's just a crate.

I don't trust this woman not to send someone after us, so we have to make sure all our servants are guarding this place while we sleep.

Find a bookbinders or printers or scribes. Get a large blank book and some ink and a quill. Go to Sarai's, retrieve the Mimir. Start writing your own spellbook with the Mimir.

>>7668865

I'd guess because it limits the level of trust the vampires can have with each other, and they'd need to trust each other totally to try and fight the Master together.

>>7668871
Clean up time! Order our servants to tidy this place a bit. Consider it to be only temporary solution. Some old cellar or cave outside the city would be much better choice for our lair. Yeah, theay say that the deepest darkness lies directly under the candlabrum, but we better consider that saing to be designed as misguiding meme.

>>7668871
Masturbate. I feel a need for one pleasant sensation after these weeks of pain and stress.

>>7668953
Maybe he's just asshole who wants others to be as alone and unloved as he is.

>>7668871

Check how sturdy the doors are, and if there is a way to barricade them from inside. Have the air spirit check if anybody is watching the house.

Also, we shouldn't stay here unless we absolutely need to....Sarais hideout is much safer.

Oh yes, and what is inside the building above us? Some kind of shop? Is it inhabited?

>>7669053
Don't forget that we are still blinded. This situation smells like treachery. Check if there's other, possibly hidden, entrance!

>>7668798
Yeah, I take a while to type these things. On top of that, I try not to leave you guys in a situation where you only have one obvious course of action, which sometimes necessitates writing up quite a bit at once. I try to make up for the slow posting by being on for extremely long stretches.

>>7668917 >>7669053 >>7668979
The first order of business, you think, is to find yourself a coffin of some kind. You've never actually tried to sleep without one, and have no idea if that would be possible, but find yourself disinclined to attempt it. If nothing else, a well-sealed place to rest would keep out any light somehow leaking into the place. Even a good crate or box would suffice.

You call your imp, then order it and the spirit to inspect the surrounding area for anyone watching the house. It takes but a moment for them to determine that you are unobserved, at least to the extent of their ability to find such, and that the people in the tenements above are as yet unaware of you here. A moment of inspection shows that the inner door is cheap and all but worthless, but the outer door is both sturdy and possessed of a quality lock, though it does not appear impressive.

That taken care of, you tell them to clean the place up. This level of dust and debris is both disgusting enough that your lingering shopgirl mores want you to leap for a broom and potentially a hindrance in working any sort of mystical design into the floor. As they assault that task, you leave your new home behind you and head back to the tradesman's district.

>>7668917
Agreed.

Get out our Mimir out and begin asking him more about creating a Greater Summoning spell, and how we can improve our chances of containing the demon so that it doesn't rape us. Also, as it what sort of demon we should get, given us needs.

At first, you look for a casket maker, thinking to get yourself one, but before locating such a store you come across a scrivener's. Perhaps he will have a blank book which you could turn into a spellbook, given a bit of work? A glance about the street shows no one around, and you quickly dart into the doorway, smash the lock with a powerful blow from your hand, and enter the store. It does not take long flipping through the various tomes to find one which is entirely blank, and you tuck it under your arm and depart for the street, then go to Sarai's and pick up your mimir, which you order to be quiet, and a change of clothing. You trek quickly back to the slums and drop them off in your new basement home. The cleaning project appears to be proceeding slowly; the imp looks utterly miserable. You can probably begin making a spellbook of some sort, or go looking for a coffin, or undertake some other task- a couple hours yet remain before dawn.

What do you do?

Is this thread already archieved? I need to go offline.

>>7669240
I'll achieve it now.

>>7669189

I'd say make/steal a coffin first.

Also get pen and ink and send a thank you note to Sarai via air spirit. Say you've found temporary lodgings and will let her know when you have a place of your own in case she needs to talk to you.

Have we got all the rest of our stuff from her place? If not the note should also ask her if we can keep our stuff there until we find a permanent house.

>>7669274
It is complete.
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/7666959/

>>7669089
>This woman gave us exactly what we asked for and was recommended to us by someone who has so far proven to be trustworthy! It must be a trap!

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Also, our sight has cleared up and we can see now.

>>7669309
I'm not sure if it's safe to keep our silver and gold in our current accommodations, I just feel a bit apprehensions about it. Lets leave our most valuable items with Sarai for now, until we have to move our stuff outta there.

>>7669346

Yeah, but we should ask. You know, be polite and all that.

>>7669325

Thanks alot. I'll go offline now, so I'd be grateful if somebody could archieve any other VBQ threads, should this one get a sequel.

>>7669189
Help with cleaning. We are vampire now, but no way that means we can't handle broom!

>>7669309
Deciding that you'd like to move into your new accommodations completely and that this requires a coffin, you set out to acquire one. Since you won't be seeing her as you go to sleep, you quickly scrawl out a note to Sarai and tell your air spirit to bear it to her, thanking her for her hospitality and requesting that she hold onto the remainder of your funds and other possessions until you come to retrieve them. You don't have much, but you're not willing to risk it in your new home until you've thoroughly moved in.

It doesn't take long to find a casketmaker, once you set your mind to it, and you almost laugh to discover that the door isn't even locked. Upon reflection, you suppose that few people would want to steal caskets anyway. You are one of those few, however, and with your unnatural strength it is a simple matter to heft a fine oak coffin and carry it off. You move slowly and stick to the alleys when possible, hoping that no one will notice or remark upon a woman carrying a casket through the streets. No one stops you before you reach your home, at least.

You haul the coffin into a mostly-clean area of the floor and lie down. It's more comfortable than those at Sarai's, at least; you find yourself glad that you stole one of the better-looking ones. As you drift off to sleep, the thought that theft hardly seems like a bad thing at all anymore strikes you, and it seems hilarious.

***

A new night, a new home. Your bound servitors have largely cleaned the dust and cobwebs, but the rotting floorboards, crumbling walls, and flimsy construction are less easy to remedy. You have only one thing scheduled for the night, your planned meeting with the smugglers, although there are many tasks which you might choose to undertake.

What do you do?

>>7669475

We should see if Sarai responded to our note.

We should also go meet the smugglers, after that we can kind of play it by ear.

How hungry are we?

>>7669475
Tonight's the night those smugglers said they would meet us isn't it? If so then we'll go and see them.

Other than that, I'd like to get started on the Greater Summoning spell, it's in the archive description man, we have to do it.

>>7669475
Meet the smuglers. See if we can summom some kind of Bob the Builder and bind him, because our place still needs to be repaired. And such spirid could probably help us with making the greater summoming circle too.

Now that we've taken care of our material needs for living here, we've got to start thinking about what to do while we're here, and also after that. I'm still surprised that our master didn't have any plans for us in this city.
So we're a vampire, and we don't plan to change that soon. It's probably impossible, anyway. Plus, that form is not so bad : for now we're forced to make people suffer (though not as much as we), but soon we'll be able to farm barely sentient creatures to feed on. We get to be eternally young and beautiful, which isn't negligible for anyone, and we escape a lot of mental and physical limits that went with our mortal state, and that compensates generously the few new ones like the problem with the sun (but cmon, the world really is more beautiful at night, and it smells better, and we have the senses to profit more than ever of those things).
Then there's the boyfriend, We planned to become his nemesis to get his attention. Now we have the power to do so. Do we still want it ? I guess i'm a little fed up. Our sentimental issues seem futile to me now, especially since our recent adventures demonstrated the foolishness of it all. We grew off that scale, and the part of us still attached to our old life remembers perfectly the boyfriend's failings, and can't avoid placing a part of the blame for our curse on him. I feel that he's still important to us, but the time has come to put ourselves and our dealings with the rest of the world before him, and definitely so, since we had been forced to until now. If he comes to us, wonderful. But I don't feel like seeking him out (all the more since he's likely to kill us in our current state) or waiting for him.

>>7669719
Our main objective for now is to find a good way to keep us full of blood. The new summoning circle will provide a way, but I still feel bad about that. Even if it's an ethereal summon, the torture we plan to bind it for is, hm... bad. The best option in the short term (immortal speaking), for me, would be to constitute a group of people or monster who would willingly offer us our blood. Humans tend to appreciate pointless sacrifices to more powerful beings, but they do not contain much blood, and so we'll either need to really improve our self-control or make research for a race of monsters prone to self-sacrifice. That would be my objective from now on. That won't be a definite solution though : herding sentient races is something the master would be satisfied with, not us.
Before that, we'll need a few killings. I think that's okay. Death without suffering, for the victim or its potential friends and family, is not a loss, and if we can pull it off nicely, it's an improvement over the kind of death people ordinarily experience.
But feeding can't stay our main preoccupation. We also got magical study. I see two options, either we'll need to associate with a mage to profit from his library, and we can't be blinded for that so we'll probably have to let our condition be known, or we'll have to gather our own collection of magical tomes. That seems best to me : we can't break in a home, but there must be a somewhat public libray in town where we could steal what we need. We can also buy them, or develop a copy spell. We also can have human agents do our "shopping" for us.
We'll probably need to use all these methods.
Eventually we'll run out of money, and we need a good, dishonest solution to that. The cult leader career seems once again an ideal solution. We can also continue on the thieving road.

>>7669691
I disagree. Our current abode is purely temporary and should remain that way. We should focus on accumalating wealth in preparation for whatever Bryden's contact can get us.

So I say right now, I go ask Sarai about her occupations. How did she become an assassin ? Do she always pass for a human among her contractors and agents ? What can she say about cults and mages and occult libraries in this town ?
Also, I try to go by the roofs. It's something I always wanted to do from back when I read vampire stories as a child.

>>7669743

Not too long ago, then?

I'd like to decore our new walls with draperies if we're going to live here for weeks. And cushions. I go buy all this before the stores close - then back to our place and then to the meeting.

>>7669759
Well, I'm not sure what made you judge me as immature, but I'm certainly not bothered by it.

>>7669799

Bothered enough to reply to my post.

>>7669730
Haven't we got enough from the silver ? We paid 20 golds to the woman for our current place, and we need "between a few dozens and a thousand" for the broker.

>>7669830
My current idleness and boredom wasn't due to your post. I'm just waiting for OP.

>>7669862

Maybe we should do something about that useless door in our new home... We don't know if there is a second key to the front door, and having a stake hammered through our chest while we're asleep would suck.

>>7669510 >>7669518
Your air spirit has borne you a reply already.
<Glad to hear you're moving out on your own. I'll hold your possessions for another couple weeks, but after that anything in my place becomes mine.
-S>

You pause for a moment and reflect. You don't actually feel that hungry. You're not sure why- are you still full of energy from your last feeding, or do vampires not need blood as often as you thought? Is the fact that you haven't been hurt in a while somehow bound up in this? Questions for later; for now, you're just glad of it.

The smugglers had told you to meet them at midnight at someplace called the Spiked Flagon, on the docks. It sounds like a tavern to you, and with midnight many hours away you decide that you have time for a little bit of a project. You turn once again to your mimir.

"Mimir. I need to research a greater summoning spell. Once again, I ask you to help me."

It sneers, and how it managed that without skin you don't know. "And once again, I tell you that you are not only incompetent, but not possessed of even a lesser circle. You'll never be able to-"

"Silence, mimir!" Bloody skull. "I am preparing this spell in anticipation of possession of a greater summoning circle. I have a diagram for one which I intend to use as soon as possible. No more wasting time on insults; this must get done."

>>7669730
But that spirit will be handy in maintaining it for us as long as we stay there and as I mentioned already it could help us with the summoming circles?

Anyway, if we aren't staying, why should we even bother with the greater crcle, wouldn¨t the be just a waste of silver and other stuff?

In spite of your firmness it takes some time to be browbeaten into helping, but you manage to get a little bit of work done. Binding larger creatures than you have so far is no task for amateurs; you'll need a great deal of practice, and probably will fail occasionally and be forced to kill or dismiss your summons if you try to proceed as quickly as possible. That sort of accident is generally fatal for a human mage, but you're likely physically powerful enough to handle it.

Still, even with the mimir's grudging cooperation, what you primarily learn is that without Rhiannon's library, designing an all-new, more powerful summoning spell will take months of testing and research, and you'll need at least a lesser circle for most of it. An actual complete greater circle will be needed for the final weeks of preparation, as well, and it requires an astonishing quantity of expensive components, primarily gold and gems.

After some hours, you realize that the smugglers' meeting is relatively soon and set out, ordering your imp to guard the house and bringing your air spirit with you. Your appearance is, you hope, still lingeringly human from Sarai's aid yesterday, although you will have to explain away your eyes should they be noticed.

>>7669851
I've forgotten how much we got from the silver, but if we intend to continue studying magic, we will need more money anyway. That, and we have no idea how much the new place will cost us. Best to get as much money as possible to ensure against unexpected costs and/or theft. Also, let us not stock pile all our wealth in one place, no matter how much we trust Sarai.

>>7669729
>The new summoning circle will provide a way, but I still feel bad about that.
Well then we'll just summon a creature that can't/enjoys pain, that shouldn't be too hard to find, but it might prove difficult to control.
>either we'll need to associate with a mage to profit from his library smugglers we talked to was a mage around our level, she was able to identify the silver we 'acquired'. We may be able to learn something from her, she expressed interest in some of our powers after all.

We'll probably need a human thrall to go where we cannot. Though our Mimir is quite knowledgeable.

Finding the Spiked Flagon takes a relatively short time. The docks seem like nothing more than an endless line of ships and piers opposite an alternating row of warehouses, brothels, and taverns. A quick look at the signs locates a flagon with a small vial being emptied into it; intuitive enough, though you're not sure what that says about the quality of the place.

You enter cautiously. The place is crowded with laughing sailors, buxom girls in low-cut dresses, and the stench of alcohol. You get a few strange looks, as you're fairly obviously not dressed to fit in, but you ignore them and weave your way around, seeking the three smugglers you had met previously.

It takes you a frustratingly long time to locate them, but you eventually do- they're seated along one of the walls, several tankards on the table before them. At least one of them has been drinking. You slip through the crowd and smoothly seat yourself at their table, smiling- though careful not to open your lips too wide- and offering a greeting. "Hello. It's almost midnight, I believe?"

The larger man laughs, and you quickly identify him as the one who has been indulging the most. "Close enough. Have a drink, let's talk." He slides one towards you along the table; it seems to be filled with a dark ale of some kind.

((I really hate the field length limitations. Always messing my posts up.))


The woman speaks up at you inspect the beverage. "We've been making a few quiet inquiries, and we might be able to help get you something. Information on where you can, at least, though it's outside our business. But it'll cost."

You raise an eyebrow, and see the woman blink as she looks more closely at your face. It seems to startle her for a moment before she recovers. "That spirit you had. Three of them, one for each of us here, bound to serve us for a year."

You frown. You'd have to devise a more long-term binding spell to make that work, not to mention having a working circle, but it's probably closer to being in your capabilities than the greater summoning spell you've been trying to devise. But just the same, it's not in your ability to provide immediately.

What do you do?

>>7669960
I'm not sure if we'll need it as soon as you say, but I agree. We could probably rob a jeweller or something.

>>7669992
Well, we don't want to say no; but we can't say yes either...

>>7669992

Time to go into shopkeeper mode.

"That is acceptable in general. However a year is longer than I normally bind spirits for, and I will require time to prepare additional spells. How long is this offer good for?"

>>7670112

Another thought, can we inscribe the lesser summoning circle on a cloth or a board? If so we can just roll it up with us when we need to move to our permanent lodgings, and we can begin researching long term binding and (more importantly) transferring bindings immediately.

>>7670112
This. We should also try to be a little intimidating, let these people know we aren't the type to be screwed over. No threats, just posture and tone.

>>7670145

Really though, we are the type to get screwed over. That's pretty much what this entire quest has been about.

>>7669992
What do we get for those ?
>>7670112
Offer them three summons for a month, then three for a year after this. That'll guarantee a longer collaboration - even if they don't seem to have any plans to brutally end it after they get what they want, precautions are good.

>>7669992
Let's just offer them all our know-how. Tell them they they must summom the spirits themselves in order to bind them, even if it's... not true.

>>7670189
If and when we do perform the summons, we should make sure that the spirits are loyal to us first, and then the three smugglers. Just in case they get any ideas and try to turn on us.

>>7670189

Seconding that question, but we shouldn't make an offer we can't follow up on. Remember we can't summon anything right now. We don't look good making an offer we can't keep.

>>7670171
>Really though, we are the type to get screwed over. That's pretty much what this entire quest has been about.

No, better. Let's look like we are that type and then screw them!

So, summom the spirits they wanted, bind them to yourself and order them to follow orders of these smuglers as long as such order causes no harm to you or your property and don't forget ot order them to report to you vie air spirit.

>>7670141
Well it appears that the circle must be constructed from silver, so while I guess you could get an transportable circle it would be quite hard.

Back to this business agreement, what exactly are they giving us again? I must of forgotten what we asked for but it must of been expensive.

Anyway, explain that we'll need time to bind 3 more demons, I don't trust giving them ours (since that assassin sprite knows too much). Tell them that they can ask for other minor demons it they want, a cherub, a dog... I don't know. Just keep them interested.

>>7670194

There's an old saying. "Give a man a fish, and you can claim it against your taxes. Teach a man to fish, and you've created a competitor to your seafood business"

>>7669992
>((I really hate the field length limitations. Always messing my posts up.))
Instead of saying nothing with a lot of words, try to say a lot with few words. This also helps when people actually want to read whats happened so they can contribute.

I mean this is seriously some giant unwieldy walls of text I have to read to understand what's happened just TONIGHT. If you've saved all the text from these threads... well its good if you are planning on turning this into a 800 page book, but here its just stupidly huge for no reason.

>>7670227
Are you sure we can't make a circle like the one we use in the castle ? We didn't have silver for that one.

>>7670242
this.

>>7670313
That one came premade.

>>7670254
We could develop summoming spell with some special "flaw" for them.

>>7670242

We should probably just make it clear that we will take precautions to prevent the spirits from being used against us.

I don't think we want to spy on the smugglers, it's better to deal honestly, at least until our position is less precarious.

Plus, you know, morals. We may be a grotesque parody of everything we think we believe in, but damnit, we'll keep trying!

>>7670242
We could porbably liberate some interesting stuff from them that way. Maybe even take over their profitable business...

>>7670349
Our morals may prevent us from reveling in blood, but not from becoming an evil sorceress to gain the attention of our boyfriend, or from being in control of our dealings with those smugglers.

>>7670141
The lesser circle is what you had at Rhiannon's; it's a ring of solid silver several feet across inscribed and bracketed with runes. It could theoretically be portable, but considering the delicate nature of the magics involved you wouldn't trust it to anything less than solid. A large slab of stone, maybe wood that was magically smoothed. Cloth is pretty much out of the question.

>>7670189
You frown. "That's quite a high price when I don't know what I'm getting."

The woman smiles, though you note a bit of nervousness that she didn't have before in her posture and a hint of fear in her scent. "The information we have is worth it."

>>7670112
"I'll take your word on that... but a year is longer than I generally bind my servitors for. I'll need time to prepare additional spells. How long is this offer good?"

The large man speaks. "As long as you want, although it'll be worth a lot less in a few weeks." He gives a rolling laugh. "And hey, don't be so stuffy. Drink up." He nudges the tankard that he'd given you earlier, and the woman pokes his arm and murmurs something urgent in a language that you don't recognize.

The shorter man seems to catch it, and suddenly stands. "I'll go see about... getting us some more drinks, then. It seems like we're running low." It's a blatant lie.

The woman calls after him, again in their burbling foreign tongue, and he waves and calls a reply before vanishing into the crowd. She turns back to you. "My apologies on his behalf. If you need time to manage research and the bindings, then our information will likely be long out of date."

You shake your head. "I can give you the spirits for a month within a few days. A year will take longer, but it is not impossible; if you return at the month's end I should be able to manage it." You trust so, at any rate. If nothing goes wrong during your research.

"That should be fine. Can you meet us back here in, say, a week at this time with the spirits?"

"Done." You smile and look her in the eyes. "Though your information had best be worth it, and my summons will never turn on me, you must know."

She tears her gaze away from yours after just a brief moment, and you smell a spike of fear. "Of course not. See you then."

Your deal is made. Should you speak to the smugglers further, or depart to do something else? The large man seems intent on rapidly draining every drink on the table, and the woman seems unnerved.

What do you do?

For future thefts, can we at least leave a little gold behind? Fair value and all that? I'd hate to think we are robbing poor tradesman of their livelihood.

>>7669992
State that for the time being we are only willing to bind for at most a month at a time, with certain limitations, as we do not trust them to be subtle with the use of such servants.
(The use of these minions to attempt something like assassinations could draw unwanted attention to all those involved)

Offer to go with the skinny nervous one to get more drinks, say something about want something more our "taste". See how they react. When we have the small one seperate from the rest, we should put pressure on him to see if he will spill the beans about, well, everything.

>>7670526
Get to work, we have summoming to do. And don'tt forget to bind them ot ourselves not them just in case these smuglers might try to do something stupid. Can't say we didn't warn them!

>>7670526
You'll need more money. Ask what other kind of goods they can smuggle, and how you can contact them after this night.
Try to make her drink, and when the moment is right, ask her if everything is all right. We need to be sure if she understood that we're a monster.
Also, how come we didn't understand what she murmured ?

>>7670526

Ask them if there's a problem. In your best "honey over a cold razor" voice.

>>7670526
>The large man seems intent on rapidly draining every drink on the table
Go to him, gently lay a hand on his drinking arm, look into his eyes, smile, and say "You and yours have no cause to fear me," then leave.

Since we aren't exactly hungry, we should probably explore the city and gradually fill in the map we have with places that would be of interest to us (for instance, banks, alchemist's shop, markets, etc).
Also, perhaps it would be good if we could map out the sewers as well? It'd make an inconspicuous feeding ground, hideaway, and getaway. In fact, we should build a bolt-hole there just in case.

>>7670595

We just murdered a tavern and burned it down to keep people from finding out we're a vampire. Let's not get too clever with this.

>>7670636
>"honey over a cold razor"
Somehow I don't think unnerving our business partner is a good thing, considering that at the moment they may think they have more to gain by revealing us. I think we should indirectly reassure them instead.

>>7670534
I do trust them on what they'll do with our summons. They're smugglers, not an assassins guild, and even then, identifying or capturing an air elemental, and investigating it up to the smugglers and us, is probably impossible. They'll just think a random wizard did it. I'm more worried about why she suddenly fear us.
We could let our air elemental or our invisible imp follow her and her friend then tell us what they talk about.

>>7670663
Fair enough. I just thought it would explain why we never touched the drink they offered and might gauge if they are already on to us. Also, by not killing the small nervous one, it might put the idea that we are a murderous beast into doubt.

>>7670636
>>7670661
Being overtly threatening or reassuring will only make them more nervous and dangerous to us. We should not hint anything about what we could do to them.

Lets just leave, but use the air elemental to follow behind us and alert us if we're being followed.

If we do stay, then lets try to communicate with the girl using THE POWER OF OUR MIND. Just to see what she does.

Ask what it is that terrifies her so. Be out front about it. Pick our teeth.

>>7670694 >>7670661 >>7670624
You nod. "I look forward to it. How can I contact you otherwise, should I need to?"

The large man speaks. "We're not in town much... although if you leave messages with the harbormaster, we'll get them when we come into port."

"Leave them with him? Whom should I say they're for?"

"The captain of the Cinquefoil. He'll know-" the man cuts off as the woman elbows him in the ribs, then grimaces and mutters a very quiet profanity. "That's, uh, how to get in touch."

You look at the woman. "Is everything quite all right? I was wondering what other sorts of goods you might be able to relocate, but if there's a problem..."

She doesn't meet your eyes. "Yes, everything's fine. We just... have another meeting soon."

You smile. "Ah. Well, I won't keep you from your business. In a week, then." You lean forward over the table, so that both of them can hear you but your voice is pitched so that others cannot. "You and yours have no cause to fear me." They don't seem to relax, but then you imagine that they wouldn't. It's not every day that one suddenly realizes they're talking to a vampire.

You turn and leave, uncertain how reliable the bargain you just made is. If the smugglers prove relatively trustworthy, they could be valuable contacts; if not, then they could cause trouble. Still, you doubt they'll go running to the authorities, and since they haven't seen anything proving that you are truly a monster, a serious vampire scare shouldn't be in the making. Bryden must have let his nature slip to a few people at times, as well; you don't see how he could hold this against you. His precious secrecy should be fine.

The bulk of the night remains to you. What do you do?

Let's make the summoning circle in the cave. We'll summon an earth elemental that can conceal the entrance with solid rock. We can move it later on and salvage most of the silver.

We could just quickly down our drink, leave some of the small denomination coins we got from the bar raid on the table for them to buy another round and walk out hopefully before we vomit all it back up.

>>7670893
Get out of there as quickly as possible. Make sure we aren't followed. Then, when all is secure, begin our exploration of the city.

>>7670903
Couldn't an earth elemental also bring precious metals forth from the earth.

>>7670919
There is no guarentee that they didn't add something to the drink, like holy water. Play it safe, and just walk out.

>>7670959
Probably. But this way we have a secure magical location - one we can hide from the sun.

>>7670919
As far as I know, we haven't actually tried eating or drinking normal stuff. I doubt it would fill us, but I'm not sure that it would make us sick or vomit. We should probably try sometime to see what effect normal food has on us.

>>7670893
Call our imp, make him listen and follow them, then report about what they know.

>>7670893

Go looking for a large stone slab or large table we can bring back to our home and start our summoning work.

>>7670968
Poisons and such don't work on the undead. And how would they have known that we are a vampire before we got here?

There is no reason we can't have two summoning circles. We could make the lesser one in a remote cave, guarded by an earth elemental and, when we can afford it, a greater one at our main house.

>>7671031
Holy.
Water.

Agree with the imp, but let's make it the air sprite instead.

>>7670661
>>7670893
>Since we aren't exactly hungry, we should probably explore the city and gradually fill in the map we have with places that would be of interest to us (for instance, banks, alchemist's shop, markets, etc).
>Also, perhaps it would be good if we could map out the sewers as well? It'd make an inconspicuous feeding ground, hideaway, and getaway. In fact, we should build a bolt-hole there just in case.
This

>>7671055
Like I said, how would they have known we're a vampire? They're offering us a drink that was there since before we arrived, and they didn't suspect anything of us last time we met. Hell, I'm not sure why everyone's so sure that they do know now; what did we do to tip them off?

>>7671033
I don't know, having the Greater Circle at our house in the city... If something goes wrong with a Greater Circle, neighbors are more likely to notice. Besides, we'll be working with the smaller circle at first for the next few weeks, and will only need the greater circle later. We don;t even have the materials for the greater circle yet.

>>7671089
We can probably upgrade the lesser circle to reduce the cost, anyway.

>>7671031
No sense testing our limits, and the limits of their knowledge, now.

She is a mage, maybe not a powerful one, but I don't want to find out what she is capable of divining.

I want informations about necromantic cults, mages and libraries. Sarai could help. Send her a message.

>>7670893
have the air spirit stay behind and follow these smugglers. Especially the smaller man that left in a hurry. We need to know what they are up too because any heat they bring down on us will be doubled by Bryden if he finds out we are blowing our cover.

>>7671147
Or go see her. I suppose we left some of our stuff there.

>>7671158
We made arrangements for her to hold onto it for a little while, until we get things settled. I saw we either get ourselves acquianted with the city and/or, begin building our summoning circle.

>>7671147
She already said she didn't. We should hang around and ask at the flagon for any nutcases who are into magic.

Then we kill them and steal their books and paraphernalia.

>>7671185
Even if noone knows, word will get back to them. It always does. Who knows, maybe we can set ourselves up as a vampiric blood god?

>>7670893
Leave the building, but not before having the imp or air spirit make sure no one is following us.

Would it be possible to make a summoning circle? I believe summoning more invisible or at least inconspicuous servants would be to our advantage in this city.

>>7671153
This is a great idea. Should have the imp track the smaller one and report to us on his findings on "The Little Man", and have the air spirit cover our backs.

>>7670948 >>7671001
Calling your spirit to you, you leave the tavern behind, walking quickly, ducking through alleys, and occasionally leaping up and over buildings to make sure you lose any stalker. As you move, you send your spirit mental images of the three smugglers and mutter its instructions. "Those three should be inside a tavern called the Spiked Flagon. Follow them and listen to their conversations without allowing anyone to see you." It flows off with a softly whistled acknowledgment.

>>7670991
An idea strikes you; you have no idea what would have happened, should you have accepted the drink the smuggler had offered. You resolve to find out, and duck into the nearest tavern, then order a small ale, of the sort you had always liked.

It arrives quickly, and you put it to your lips. It is bland and distasteful, like drinking liquid sawdust. In an effort to experiment, you force yourself to drink some and pretend to enjoy it, but less than half of the drink is gone before you can't bear it anymore. You throw a coin on the table and rush out of the place, then vomit in the nearest alley.

It appears that partaking of standard fare in the future is a poor idea.

>>7671033 >>7671026
>>7670903 >>7670987
You walk the city for a while, primarily in the trade district, learning its layout. The map is of only limited help in navigation; you want to be able to find your way to a jeweler's or wheelwright on your own, should the situation call for it. An hour or two pass by as you stroll along, trying to guess at precise professions from the signs and evidence in the street. Some are easy, others less so; it will likely require many days before you can easily identify every store.

Other matters weigh heavily on your mind, though. You must get your summoning circle constructed as soon as possible, but which location to use? Your basement is of terrible quality, but perhaps a table or stone slab could be taken there and used for the circle, then relocated later. Your cave is likely to be both safer and more permanent, however, so you make for the walls and then the wilderness.

Your sprite arrives quickly. "I have located a cave fitting the requirements you requested, Lady. Two, in fact, though I believe the farther one to be superior." It quickly guides you to the cavern, which proves to be through several hundred yards of dense wilderness from a small farm. Its entrance is large, but the sprite assures you that it can conceal it using its plant magics should you wish.

The cave itself is almost perfect. It stretches back hundreds of feet, twisting and turning in several places and branching into multiple rooms, several of which are of a size to use as summoning chambers if the floor were smoothed.

There's the rub; the floor is rough and natural. You'll need to smooth it somehow. You don't have any idea how to do stonework, and none of your summoned creatures are suited for it. Perhaps if you summoned an earth spirit or some sort of rock-dwelling creature, but you don't have a circle to do that! You will not be able to make a circle here unless that problem is solved.

>>7671147
With that concluded, you head back to the city and Sarai's. You want information on mages and libraries in the city, and she must have it.

Unfortunately, she is not in her crypt. With not all that much time left before dawn, you leave her a note that you would like to know about mages in the city if she has the time to tell you about it and return to your own place just in time for the sun's first rays to strike.

***

A new night, with no immediate obligations but your summoning circle as yet unformed. What do you do?

>>7671436

Go looking for a cemetary or a stonemasons where you can find a nice smooth stone slab, or maybe a carpenters where they'll have a table.

Bring it back to your house and get to work on a summoning circle.

Take a look at the second cave and see if it is suitable for a summoning circle.

Or, steal a table.

>>7671436
Can we salvage a circle for all the bits and pieces without loss?

Etch a circle on a slab of stone. We can summon an earth spirit from that, and maybe a few air elementals, sneak the stone out of the city and place it in the cave. We should also take a look at the previous cave.

We should ask the mimir if there are any blood specific magics, or metamagical techniques we can use our vampiric vitae to augment our powers with. OR methods of permenantly altering our form.

>>7671436
Try to find a flat stone slab large enough to hold the summoning circle; there should be a stonemason somewhere in the city, and with some luck there will be something there suiting our needs. The real trouble will be getting the slab to the cave...

>>7671436
Have the spirit report. Go steal a marble table in a high class bar or in a garden.

>>7671568
Who knows, maybe we can even subsitute some circle materials for vitae, even if it's only temporary.

you know, with our vampiric strength, it might not be all that unfeasible to just smooth out the cave floor by ourselves.

Just saying, it would draw a lot less attention than "Hey, I need a large, smooth stone slab for . . . uh . . . dinner parties . . . . and stuff"

>>7671732
We would need more than brute force to make a usable platform, we would need tools. Even then, it's not as easy as it looks, considering this is someone who has no training in masonry.

>>7671732
"Hello, I'm a prostitute. I thoroughly enjoy getting tied up and fucked senseless by my clients who then leave without untying me or paying. Got something I can drive some manacles into?"

>>7671858
*facepalm*

>>7671436
On the subject of Greater Summoning circles, before we thing about where to place ours how are we going to construct it? We've got 6 or so bars of pure silver, and a template for constructing it, how are we going to melt and reforge the silver to get it from bars to circle? It sounds like professional work.

>>7671903
"Hello, I'm an unholy monstrosity that feeds on blood. I'm looking for a table I can carve a summoning circle into to call vile spirits from the depths of the netherworlds and then sneak out the gates into a cave. Got anything?"

>>7671997
Brutal honesty.

>>7671997
*Facepalm harder*

Fuck, I'm one of the damn moralfags and even /I/ think we should just fucking steal it. Not to mention a stonemasons or whatever might not be open too late.

>>7671984
Send a message to Rhiannon with gold. OFfer to pay for a fire elemental. Have it come back and do the job for you. Or find the city Wizard's guild.

IDEA. Let's join the Wizard's guild.

>>7671984
I figure that with magical aid we could easily melt down the silver, but how easily could we manipulate it into what we need?

>>7671984

Maybe we could get some magic spell from the Mimir that allows us to reshape metal. Some metalmancy or whatever.

>>7672023
"Give me the stone slab or I eat you."

If we find one that's black marble or something it might be able to substitute for some components of the circle anyway. Shit, we have gold - let's just COMMISSION a table with the requisite pattern from a stone mason.

>>7672026
I think they've got a "NO VAMPIRES/BEING OF PURE EVIL ALLOWED" policy going right now, we could try though, but I don't like the idea of alerting a entire school of mages to our presence.

>>7672084
yeah, this.

Let's not join a group of much more powerful than us wizards.

>>7672074
Well, I meant more like wait until the middle of the night, break in, and take what we need, rather than threatening the guy. But now that you mention it, actually paying for it is a good idea.

>>7672023
Why not just go steal a stone table or something? Or hell, isn't there some metal plate/door we could grab in some corner of the city?
A metal plate would be both more durable and lighter (because it can be thinner) than a stone slab.

>>7672174
We could just jack flood-gate from the sewer or something

>>7672192

Not a smooth surface and not an unbroken surface.

>>7672174
>>7672192
These could work, but remember that it has to be perfectly flat, and unless the sewer covers here are radically different from those that I've seen, there will be tons of little designs and indentations and stuff.

The only thing I can think of is that women, she had some sort of power regarding matter, I don't know if she can shape it but she probably knows alot more than we do.

We could kidnap a silversmith to construct it for us, ask our sprite if he can create a potion that erases peoples memories.

In fact, silversmith kidnap seems like the most hassle free way of doing this.

Of course I'd wait until we got a house in the city before we start positioning our circle, since it is delicate so moving it might be a pain, especially if we have to go through a lot to forge it in the first place.

>>7672220
Put cement on it to smooth it out. Hell, it'll still be more durable than stone. I know, I have 3 stone tables in the house...

>>7672226
I think the cave is best for the circle

that way if we are ever attacked/have to move/house gets burned down/run out of town, we will always have that cave and the circle in it to fall back too.


Also, what if we fuck up? It's better to have a loose summon running amok out inna woods than bursting down your door and terrorizing the local populace

think ahead, guys

>>7672255
And we would get cement where, exactly?

>>7672264

Hell maybe we should go back and see Sarai's contact and ask for a set of masons tools, and some work clothes.

Note: The power at my place has been out for most of the last hour, so I haven't been writing. Will get on this now, but it might take a bit. Did they know of it, my power company would surely apologize for the inconvenience.

>>7672264
The cave requires some careful renovating before we can make any use of it, thanks to its remoteness, size, and the fact it's possible to hide I think the cave will make a good lair for later on, but for the time being I don't want us to burden ourselves unnecessarily with all this stuff about concrete floors and tables and shit.

>>7672445
The table is so we can summon an earth elemental to smooth out the floors and hide the entrance and then move the summoning circle out there and set it into the floor. I mean, I GUESS we could make a summoning circle in the ceiling or something.

>>7672472
If I know my caves the ceiling will probably be even more uneven than the floor, I could be wrong though.

The main thing that worries me about this cave is that we're pretty much on our own out their, that could either be a good thing or a bad thing.

On the bad side:
It's quite possible other people know of this caves location, it is right next door to a large sea-port, this means that people might try come to this cave sometimes, if they find us we'll have to kill them, and then they'll go missing. It might take a few months but eventually it_COULD_draw attention to us (I'm not talking in any definitives here, and if we blocked the cave mouth that might help us).

On the good side: It's remote so maybe no one goes there, at lest with the city home we know the only people we'll have to deal with are the occasional theft, that no one will miss.

Personally, I like the idea of having a back up base where we can hide in case shit hits the fan.

>>7672318
brick and mortar, use the mortar?
Or hell, surely they have cement...

>>7672572
The cave will be hidden. The wood sprite can hide it and an earth elemental could grow the stone over the entrance, making it the perfect sunless refuge.

I still want to know if we can substitute our blood and a few spells to make a temp summoning circle.

I think I can summarise what we need to do.
1. maintain our current lodgings, but we will not do much here just sleep
2. Get the stone slab and summoning circle set up in cave
3. Summon helpers for the pirates and work on spellbook
4. summon earth elementals to pimp out cave
5. Find some way of acquiring currency to help pimp out cave and to buy the lair in the city - multiple lairs are a plus

((And... I find that people aren't actually that decisive in my absence. Hmm.))

>>7671484 >>7671575 >>7671606
Your first order of business is to hear the air spirit's report. It is still on the other side of the city; presumably it never stopped spying on its targets, since you didn't tell it to. You mentally send for it, and a few minutes later it arrives with its report.

The air spirit has never been incredibly articulate, and accordingly it doesn't seem able to give a full outline of what happened. You can, however, hear snatches of the three's voices. They paint a general picture of their conversation. "...obvious... impressive strength and mental powers? Paid a price..." "...should tell a priest... set a trap..." "...too great. She said she wouldn't hurt us..." "...trust her?... eats people... crazy!" "...deal with slavers and warlords in Esho, why not..." "...knows our ship's name, could hunt us if..." "...fine, but we'll be ready. Hope you're right..."

Eventually, their babble fades into less interesting topics, talking about trade and referencing ships and people with whom you're not familiar, the status of harvests and politics in far-off places, and other such matters. You wave the air spirit to silence. It seems that they're wary, but unlikely to betray you immediately; the best you could probably expect to get.

>>7672687
You can't use any sort of temporary circle at your level of skill. After a few more years of study, perhaps.

The next matter which concerns you is to find a surface on which to inscribe your circle. A bit of consideration brings you to a moderately-sized stone table- durable, or at least unlikely to casually chip, and portable enough that you can likely move it with your immense vampiric strength. There are enough nobles in the city that they can likely support a few stoneworking artisans. You set forth in search of an appropriate shop.

It takes only a bit of searching before you find one- and inside, you can see several fine examples of his craft, one of which is a round table you judge just large enough to hold the necessary diagrams.

Unfortunately, a glance around shows that it's much too early in the night for this sort of open larceny; there are still people wandering the streets. You'd definitely be remarked upon carrying around an item that size. Besides, how would you get it out of the city? Climbing a twenty-foot wall while carrying a few bars of metal is one thing; doing so with a massive table is another. You would need to use ropes, or perhaps bribe the guards... Or would you bring it to the slums? You need a solid plan before proceeding.

>>7672226
Molding the silver to the circle will be another difficulty; though you can attempt it yourself, you have no skill in that area. Carving the designs you can manage, if you swipe the necessary tools from somewhere, but filling them with silver is work for an artisan.

What do you do?

>>7672617
I know we'll cover it up, but what if people already know it exists. We're next to a large city after all, it's not untenable that people would leave said city for walk or some shit, the cave's several hundred yards out for the city, that's less than half a fucking mile.

If people do come to investigate I don't want them to find are only summoning circle, the circle its self is safer in the city even though there are a few more risks involved.

BUY RING OF REGENERATION

>>7672723

Lets go to see Sarai's contact, to see if she can get us some equipment and furnishings.

Then let's go back home and quiz the Mimir on metalworking spells.

>>7672723
Break into the shop quietly, and start inscribing. We can kidnap a silversmith to fill it up afterwards, or send a message to Rhiannon offering to pay for a fire elemental and a powerful air elemental that can lift the table over the walls. If that fails, we'll bribe the guards - or eat them, or use them for reserach into those metamagical techniques I mentioned earlier that might revolve around our blood - to ignore the nice lady in a mask carrying out a huge stone table.

>>7672746
Or ring of sustenance
whichever is more readily available/easier to create
I'm not picky

>>7672764
I like the idea, but it leaves too many loose ends and counts on too many people and events that things that could go wrong

>>7672723
>Molding the silver to the circle will be another difficulty

Let's burn that bridge when we come to it. For now, we should try to find a way to get the stone table out of the city. I think bribing the guards might work.

>>7672820

I'd rather get the table to the house and summon/bind an elemental or other stone empowered creature to rework the cave.

We left sarai a note about mages and libraries and cults. Did we get an answer ?

>>7672723
>Carving the designs you can manage, if you swipe the necessary tools from somewhere, but filling them with silver is work for an artisan.

The only thing I can think of is kidnapping a silversmith from the city, or hiring one (which might not be as dangerous as it sounds), if we did kidnap one once his work is complete (and we've checked it to make sure it is not faulty) we have to stop him from revealing us by either:
1.Killing him (which is bad)
2.Find mindwipe potion (as other anon said, as sprite)
3.Keep him

>>7672842
Cont.

As for the kidnapping itself, shouldn't be too hard once we find one, assuming he isn't living in some noble house surrounded by guards. Our vampire strength will overpower him easily, the only problem I can foresee, other than guards, is this whole invitation business, but then that's what assassin sprites are for.
Speaking of which, how long do we have left with our summons now?

>>7666955
Greetings. Kindly stop spamming, harassing and generally attacking www. anon
talk
. com, please. We don't want you there. We never did. Understood? PS: If you want these messages to stop, simply stop fucking with us, remove all lying troll articles about AT and kill the illegal clones. Then you will never be bothered again. Every single time we see the slightest attack or spam on our site (which can be reasonably expected to origin here), you will get 7199 more of these messages as a result. It's really up to you.

Yours sincerely, an anonymous AnT and general well-doer of the Internet as a whole.

I think the cave is not a good place where to put a circle. Most of our biggest summons will be needed in town and won't be easy to bring from the exterior, and the smaller summons are taken care of with the stone table. Let's get tools and do the carving. We'll also need a recipient for the molten silver. Melting it will probably be an easy spell.

>>7672839
Fair enough. But remember, we promised the summonings for the smugglers in a week's time. We probably won't have a house ready for it by then, since the place we have now is only temporary. Bryden's guy said it would take at least a week just to find us a more permanent residence.

Hell, would the table even fit through the door?

>>7672888
A smith don't melt metals with his mind. He'll need a furnace.

>>7672914
There has to be a spell for melting metal, it's just a given.

Ask our Mimir about it, if there isn't one I will be amazed.

Clarification needed: exactly how much money do we have at our disposal?
Also, will someone please consider the ring of regeneration idea?

Why don't we just pay the silversmith? We have the money, and kidnapping a specialist that probably does work for people that matter is not going to end well for us.

>>7672911
The circle will be just enough for an imp, and the table just enough for the circle. It should go trough the door.

>>7672933

That's way beyond our current means. It's a good long term idea, but it'd down the priority list.

>>7672951
Sorry, i know very little about magic items.

>>7672933
I don't think that would work on undead, if it does exists and is sold somewhere in this town. Plus, we'll still have to feed regularily, and we don't plan on getting hurt too much, so all the regeneration we need should be taken care of.

>>7672934
A silversmith that works at night and do occult stuff would be difficult to find and to trust.

>>7672895
>We'll also need a recipient for the molten silver.
We'll just use a clay mould to contain the silver while it cools, after that the artisan can go to work on it.

I'd like to see if we can find out what it would cost us to commission something like this though, these circles might look magical but I doubt a normal silver smith would know that much about them.

What I'm getting at is that we could just get him to make one and have it delivered to us without any of this hassle, but only if we can afford it.

We need also to work on that disguise spell. Ask the mimir. Does he have knowledge about the magical society in addition to magic itself ? Maybe he can provide informations about this town.

>>7672933
I think another problem might be that they don't exist; Girlfriend quest (which is where this originated from) played pretty close to D&D, but UM seems to be portraying it differently. Not to mention, we drink it. Would a Ring of Regeneration provide food? Of course when you look at it like that, the much cheaper Ring of Sustenance makes much more sense.

>>7672938
Good point. I guess it wouldn't need to be more than 4-5 feet in diameter.

>>7672932
I'm sure there is. Remember, however, that it took us a couple of weeks to manage Magic Missile, and several days to figure out summoning. Both of these were done with the help of many arcane texts which we do not have available anymore.

>>7673038
If we can do the carving and just need him to melt and pour the silver, maybe we can replace him with magic and that's when we'll need something to pour the metal from.
If it takes more than that, then we'll just have it done and pay for it. In this case, we search for our guy. We need a cart to get the table to him without drawing attention at our surhuman strength. We'll need humans to do this for us.

>>7672746
You have no idea where to begin in acquiring magical items that potent.

>>7672841
While considering, your steps take you towards Sarai's crypt, which you enter to find as empty as usual. Your note has a reply next to it, however.
<There are several dozen mages in the city; most of them are attached to one or another of the noble families or the royal university. Libraries are found in essentially the same locations, particularly as regards the arcane; a large book collection is a sign of status amongst nobles. All mages trained at the university, which is most of them, are required to swear oaths of loyalty to the crown. If you want more specific information than that, I'm afraid we'll have to talk price.
-S>

>>7672764 >>7672839
>>7672820 >>7672895
It's getting late enough that people are off the streets, so you make your way back to the artisan's and move confidently to the door, smashing the lock and walking in. The table that you want is large, but within your ability to lift, if awkwardly. You haul it with some difficulty out the door and along the darkened streets.

You aim for your basement dwelling, hoping to complete the carving there, if nothing else, and deciding that you can always move it after you've worked something out if you decide that the cave is more suitable. As you move, you see few people, and those who do see you give you little more than a strange look- this late no one is feeling curious. Unfortunately, you do encounter a spot of bad luck- before you leave the tradesman's district and its general lawfulness, a pair of guards on midnight patrol catch a glimpse of your table in their flickering torchlight.

Unable to move it quickly enough to do anything, you flee to an alley while they run up to it and exchange inane words about wondering how the hell something that heavy got into the middle of the street, and who would be fool enough to leave it there. Eventually, they agree that one of them should report it and bring back some help with a cart while the other waits at the table to guard it; it's obviously valuable, with its intricately carved legs and rim. One of them walks off, and the other hops up on the table and seats himself, swinging his legs; as you stare at him, you realize that he's hardly more than a kid.

What do you do?

>>7673241
knock him out if we can

>>7673241

Mind hoodo to get him to turn around (you hear something behind you), konk him on the head, leave with table.

No killing required... hopefully.

>>7673257
This, but remember to be careful; we want him unconscious, not dead with the back of his skull caved in.

>>7673089
We definitely have to find us human agents of any kind. The disposabe kind would be better for now. We need them to provide us with information, to act as in-between in our current affairs with honest people, and get us magical tomes which will allow us more autonomy.
I say we search the slums for a young prostitute which will do for now. We'll find ourselves more competent and upstanding servants when we'll be settled. She (he?) needs to be still relatively well-kept and healthy still. We'll need to interrogate several before finding one willing to leave this to serve an unknown, strange-looking woman. We need her to find us a cart as her first mission, and bring it to our place in the slums, while we get the table. If she succeed, good, if not we'll have to search for another. Then we'll have the thing carved and silvered, during the following nights.

>>7673241
We'll need to kill the other guard first. Send our assassin imp after him if we have it close. If not, we'll go (no feeding, no time), and call the imp to take care of the other with the paralyzing darts for when we come back.

>>7673241
Sneak up with vamp speed and silence, knock him out before you can turn around. Take stone and leave.

>>7673369

He's left, presumably we'll have enough time for a headklonk without murdering.

>>7673369
Umm, why? He's away, all that'll happen is he'll come back to find his partner unconscious on the ground and the table gone. As long as we're not seen again getting the table to our hideout, no one will find it there. In a city rife with murder, do you really think there'll be an in-depth investigation about a stolen table?

>>7673257 >>7673288
This is easy enough, you decide. You whisper forcefully that he hears something down at the end of the street, and predictably enough he gets off the table, reaches for his weapon, and peers in that direction. You speed forward, and bash your arm into the back of his head just as he was about to call out; he falls to the ground unmoving, but his heartbeat is strong.

You grab the table and keep moving. By the time the guard comes, you are long gone. In the poor district there are more people this late, but they are less willing to mess with anyone else's business, and your hooded form will hopefully not attract too much attention. You suspect that a couple urchins are following you, doubtless curious, but ignore them. You're not going to go hurting children because you suspect that they might know just a little about your less than legal businesses; it's not as though the guards will be questioning them. You eventually arrive at your basement and haul the table down the stairs and set it aright. It's perfect; you'll be able to carve it all you need here.

Of course, for that you need tools. You leave once more, locking the door behind you, and dash back to the artisan's shop. Your break-in seems to have been discovered by the guards, unfortunately; several of them are standing inside speaking to one another.

No matter. You go down the block until you find another stonecarver, smash in his door, and grab a few of the tools you think you'll need, then go back to your lair.

You anticipate a long night of carving ahead of you, but you were overly optimistic. When you sketch out the arcane patterns of binding that you plan to inscribe in the table, the mimir is quick to criticize your design and general level of knowledge. Making constant minor modifications to the design and arguing the finer points of magical theory with the skull takes the whole remainder of the night, although at the end of it you're fairly certain that you have the design solidly correct. The mimir can't find anymore flaws, at least, and with no texts but your greater circle schematic for reference you've no other way to check your work.

You collapse into your coffin, thinking that arguing about applied magic was probably the most entertaining thing that you'd done in a while.

***

A new night. How to start it?

>>7673369
Actually, no killing. I thought we shouldn't leave any information about what we did, but even if we kill them they'll probably link it with the theft. Just knock out both, hide them, then take the table away. Call the air spirit to help us.

>>7673433
Begin carving.

>>7673433

Let's finish up our carving first. And try to avoid any more thefts for the time being. It'd be really annoying if boosting a coffin, table and some tools got us in trouble when all those murders didn't.

Once we have the carving done we should ask the mimir about spells to melt the silver into place.

Oh yes, we should also transcribe the lesser summoning circle and instructions into our blank book in case we have to flee again. A grimoire is easier to carry than a stone table.

>>7673433
This >>7673309 ? Except that we need to find people, or an ass or something, to haul the cart to the silversmith. That's her second mission.

>>7673462
There's only one option, really; you take your unfamiliar tools and begin carving the table. Since you've never done this before and the work must be utterly without flaw, you start by practicing a little on the partially-carved legs of the table, learning a little about just how hard you need to tap in order to chip the stone.

With that testing done, you move onto the table itself, working slowly and carefully; you can't afford to mess this up. The night passes quickly; the hours seem to blur into one another as the runes you've chalked into the stone gradually become true indentations. Before you realize it, you're in your coffin again, realizing that you're beginning to feel hungry.

***

Your project awaits. More than half was finished the previous night, but a great deal remains; at least no one bothers you. Even your servitors are gone off to do whatever it is that they do, except for the mimir, who is largely silent except to occasionally burst out in a babble of precautionary statements if it thinks that you're about to make a mistake and mess up the circle. That's not so bad, since even if nine times of ten it's completely unnecessary, it has really saved you once or twice.

This night passes quickly as well. You wonder how other vampires can possibly keep track of time, if it's this easy to let the time blur by. An hour or so before sunrise, the carving is done. It's hardly perfect, not quite so good as the one you were using at Rhiannon's, but you and the mimir agree that it will be functional.

Deciding that there isn't enough time to work with the silver left tonight, you carefully copy your lesser circle's design into your spellbook. Perhaps you'll be able to avoid arguing with the mimir for another six hours, should you have to make another.

***

Another night before you. What do you do?

>>7673593

We should talk to the Mimir about magic for melting or magically reforming the silver to start with, just to see if we can do this the easy way.

If we can do it ourselves, go get a bar of silver, bring it back, and finish the summoning circle.

Once that's done we're going to have to think about feeding. Do we want to try a summon or troll the alleys for a victim?

We need informations about the noble houses of the area. Bryden is a noble, right ? So he has a mage and a library. Why didn't we thought of this before ? Send him a message to know if he would be able to lend (or rent) us a book for developping our disguise spell.

I think the best way to secure our position and affairs in this town, though would be to seduce a young nobleman. Maybe we should do this in disguise, but for now I'd say we need noble clothes and veils for our eyes, then find a proto-goth-emo young man. Send our imp inspect the cemetary where the nobles rot for the next night, and reveal himself if he finds a good target. He took Corruption 101 I guess, so he'll know how to hook him up.
Us, we'll start frequenting the places where young nobles in search for a thrilll spend their evenings.

>>7673593
I suppose we should feed tonight. Just one person.

>>7673647
>for the next nights
FTFM

We'll also need the air spirit to stay at the guard headquarters when we don't need him. He'll listen and report if they talk about something we did.

>>7673647

Getting involved with a young scion of nobility seems like a bad idea. Given the frequency with which bad shit happens to people around us, I don't think we want to get someone who will be missed in our personal orbit.

Plus, frankly, we need someone who can handle day to day affairs reliably and with discretion, some vampire-besotted scion of wealth does not sound like that person.

>>7673724
Obviously we'll be careful about what we ask him. We won't put him in a position where he'll be at risk of disappearing. We just need him to get us the ressources of a noble house that is not bryden's. Like books, and informations about the high society of this town, nothing dangerous, and for no real cost. We'll also have him spied on regularily.

Day to day affairs will be dealt with other servants. This >>7673309 for example.

>>7673647
let's avoid killing a person if we can
We found that animal blood at least sates hunger- even if it lacks the regentive properties of human blood, let's stick with animals from now on unless in an emergency
I'm sure we can find a butcher who deals wholesale discreetly.

>>7673801

Animal blood doesn't heal us and it's been stated that trying to live on it for more than a few weeks will start to affect our minds. It might work for a top up while we figure out how to use summoned blood though.

>>7673801
If we need an animal, let's go out of town and hunt, it'll be less risky than a butcher.

>>7673801
A good point. UM, please nix what I said here >>7673693

We can just hunt for something in the woods surrounding the city. While going with animal blood for extended periods of time will dull our wits and weaken us, I got the impression from Rhiannon that that would only happen should we go with it for months on end; useing it to satiate us for the moment should be okay.

So, I guess we're looking for a secret keeper- some human we can trust to look after the day to day affairs, liason with regular humans and answer uncomfortable questions without tipping off the rest of the general populace?

>>7673631
You turn to the mimir. "I don't suppose that I can just magically mold the silver into this circle...?"

It rattles its teeth. "Did your intellect strain itself into learning a spell for that recently?" You hardly begin to shake your head before it continues. "Then no."

Well, that was predictable.

>>7673631 >>7673693
You'll need to find a silversmith, and either make him work for you or perhaps pay him to do it. And as long as you're thinking about getting people to work for you, perhaps you could recruit someone living to do thing for you... one of the destitute streetwalkers around here, perhaps. More immediate concerns come to mind right now, though; you're starting to feel hungry. You don't want this to get out of hand, and that means it's time to feed.

It's early, but you're not inclined to mess around. You move to the far side of the slums, find an aging man who looks like he got started on the bottle early, and whisper suggestions that he should try something untoward towards you in his mind. He succumbs easily enough, and once out of sight you quickly overpower him and slash his throat, setting your mouth to the gash.

Confiteor Deo omnipotenti, beatae Mariae semper Virgini, beato Michaeli Archangelo, beato Joanni Baptistae, sanctis Apostolis Petro et Paulo, omnibus Sanctis, et tibi pater:
quia peccavi nimis cogitatione verbo, et opere: mea culpa,
mea culpa,
mea maxima culpa.

You haven't fed in days, and had almost forgotten how good it tasted. You concerns over the summoning circle, over the guards, for the future... all wash away. A delightful feeling of happiness and contentment suffuses your being. Long minutes pass, and eventually the flow of delight stops. Depressing.

Your assassin imp is standing in the alley with you, and you look at it askance. "What? I told you to stop as ordered, Mistress. Not my fault if he was too good to ditch, though he doesn't look it." It flaps its wings and flits off, fading from sight as it does, and you sigh. Another failure to stop, another body thrown on a sewer grate.

>>7673647
With that done, you scrawl a note to Bryden, inquiring as to if he has any magical texts which you could borrow from him, assuming that you can come up with something of value to trade, and send it off with your air spirit.

You contemplate your need for human servants further as you walk through the streets. You need some sort of plan to move forward with, regardless; the days are flitting by and soon you will have obligations to fulfill.

What do you do?

Do we really need to melt it ? Silver is just a little harder than gold, we might be able to pound it in shape.

>>7673801 >>7673822
>>7673825 >>7673838
The "feed on a person" results were already written by the time I saw these. Sorry players. Unfortunate for your good side, I suppose.

>>7673923
EH NO.
BAD US. IT'S NOT LIKE WE'RE LOOKING FOR AS MUCH BLOOD AS POSSIBLE AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE LIKE WE WERE BEFORE.
WE CAN AFFORD TO FIND TARGETS WHO TRULY DESERVE IT.
If we want to use powers we can make them DESIRE us but don't actually push them to action.

>>7673934
make note to ask mimir if this will work later.

>>7673923

Can we use silver dust? All we'd need then is a file and some patience.

If we can get the mimir to teach us some kind of fire/heat ray spell once we've powdered the silver we can just cook it into place.

Or can the Mimir not teach us spells?

>>7673932
FIND CHURCH OF CRYSTAL DRAGON JESUS
CONFESS SINS TO PRIEST
BECOME INVESTED BY THE HOLY POWERS TO FIGHT EVIL
BECOME THE CONFESSOR

>>7673923
...crap.

Well, let's find us a silversmith's shop and leave him a note asking for a meeting sometime at night.

>>7673965
Agreed
Besides, the way OP has been describing it, this city is a hive of villiany and scum- it shouldn't be hard to find murderers and rapists, even with heightened rumors of a mysterious avenger that stalks the night

>>7673933
Well, I still think that sending the imp searching for our noble scion, and ourselves for our destitute servant, is not a bad idea. Let's try to probe their mind a little, find someone who has hope, or is desperate, it's the same as long as it's not an excuse to accept their current condition. Interogate her a little, about if she would work for us then about her life, then charge her to find this cart and something to move it if she seems okay, while we find our smith.
Then we'll also need luxuous clothes. And veils.

>>7673965
Old, dying drunkards' lives are less of a life than those of young violent thugs. Let's try to feed on the people whose death is the least of a loss instead of on those who, according to some strange morals, deserve to be eaten by a monster.

We pay a whore to keep the table in her house, since we can't pound the silver into shape (can we?) and have a silversmith come during the day to fix it. Offer to pay her 50 gold, and threaten her with dire retribution if the table or silver goes missing. Then eat her the next morning.

Or we could just go find a Silversmith and take him from his bed, after taking the table to his store. We can wear a stocking on our head!

>>7674109
NO
NON
NYET
NIEN
Once we start equivocating the value of a life, than it's a slippery slope until we start killing off anyone who stares at us cross-eyed
Murderers and rapists are one thing-if they were caught, they would be hung by the neck until dead, but an old drunk? C'mon man

>>7674046
I mean, this is the slums. People here have never known anything else than violence and misery. They know how to survive while avoiding this as much as possible, and the only way we've been able to find attackers is by hinting that we did not, or by mentally ordering them to attack us.
Do they really deserve what we did ? I think not. Let's not try to arrange with our conscience.

>>7674141
forcing the silversmith to do it in his store sounds like the best idea

>>7674141
I like the idea of taking a table to a shop and then taking the silersmith from his bed. We can put him to sleep afterward, too, and maybe steal some of his stock to augment our supply of silver. Or sell it to smugglers again.

We really need that spellbook and time is running out.

>>7674057
>viels
I like the way you think!

Agreed. Make a silversmith do it tonight in his shop but steal shit from a jewelers instead if we have time for a greater circle should we have time.

>>7673934 >>7673977
You consider that you might be able to pound the silver into shape. Certainly, with your strength, it would likely be possible to shape it with little effort... but the silver wouldn't conform precisely to the shape of the runes that you etched into the table unless it were melted to them. You need a perfect inlay; you don't need to consult the mimir to know that.

>>7673979
You might be able to use silver dust, if you could then melt it, but you wouldn't trust your abilities in that respect and any stray dust could prove disastrous. And the mimir doesn't know actual spells; it knows numerous formulae and a great deal of magical theory, but not actual magic. Otherwise, mimirs would be prized for much more than their knowledge- if they could apply it effectively, they would be powerful spellcasters in their own right.

>>7674046
It isn't exactly a hive of villainy; that's just the part of it most visible to you, because you seek out lowlifes and criminals with which to deal. There are plenty of prosperous, happy people living good lives here, largely untouched by the threads of crime marbling their city.

>>7673965 >>7674046 >>7674109
You find yourself briefly contemplating moral issues, and resolve to avoid the use of direct mental control when hunting if you're anything less than desperate. Mind control followed by murder, you reason, is likely more evil than just murder.

>>7674197

We'd be asking a presumably reputable businessman to work with a stolen table (that he might not know about) and a bar of stolen silver, which I can pretty much guarantee made the news. Especially for an effing silversmith.

Given that we have a DM that is remarkably adept at finding holes in these little plans, I think we should find a way to do it ourselves.

>>7674214
A lot could go wrong with that
I vote for finding human liason to carry out deals with other humans

>>7673997
You wander into the tradesman's district once again, and almost immediately notice that there is an increased number of patrols in the area- perhaps the recent rash of forceful break-ins and last night's attack on one of the guards has inspired a response. Fortunately, you're not planning anything illegal, and quickly locate a silversmith's. You leave a note requesting that the master of the shop stay until late evening on the morrow, mentioning a commission and an inability to escape your other tasks during the bulk of the day. Hopefully that will give you the chance to talk to him, at least.

>>7674057
With that done, you wander back towards your home. On a whim, you call your imp, and instruct him to stealthily stalk some young noblemen, just in case he can find one with the sort of personality who might be enticed to aid you- through some desire for power, the lure of forbidden romance, or whatever else you could use to control him.

You personally look for a more obvious sort of servant; the hookers pacing the streets seem the likeliest choices. If only you could read their minds to find a likely prospect... still, one could prove a useful representative, and you might be able to genuinely provide her with good rewards in exchange for service.

Or you could eat her. Either way.

What do you do?

>>7674185
Murderers and rapists are not caught in the slums. We're the very proof, as we've been probably responsible for most of the murders of this past week. Old drunkards are much more likely to die soon.

I'm exactly saying that we should do the opposite of killing the people we don't like. We should not judge who deserve to die, for whatever crime, self-induced attempted rape or cold stares or anything. We should select our victims on the objective quality and quantity of their remaining life.

Offer her a few coins for the latest news, and why there are so many people. Tell her to keep an eye open, and you'll pay for news by having her place it in a drop box (if she's literate) and you'll leave coins there.

Break into a jewelers store for greater summoning circle materials. Also loot for later, because we can use it to buy magic books. We need to know enough magic that we can break into the university to steal EVERYTHING not nailed down and on fire. Just in case, we should carry a nail remover and a bucket of water.

>>7674245
Find streetwalker. Ask if she knows anyone who'd be willing to act as a 'face' for some transactions. Nothing illegal, but for one reason or another we prefer to keep ourselves from being directly involved. Be prepared to haggle.

>>7674245

You could just go up to them and ask.

"I need someone to live in my house, run errands during the day, and not ask questions. Do you know anyone who'se looking for a way off the street?"

Their pimp will probably object, but a little brutal murder will take care of that. "If you have someone who object's I'm sure I can convince them not to" Plus! Guilt free pimp-blood...

I still think we should just ask the silversmith how we'd do this, maybe pay him to show us, and do the actual work ourselves.

>>7674264
>objective quantity and quality of their remaining life.
Except it's pretty damn subjective.

>>7674264
Bah, that's ridiculous. The elderly have lived longer and have much that they could pass on. If anything, we should be going after the young punks and gangsters.

>>7674317
Quality and quantity of life aren't subjective. Which metric to use is up for debate, though I'm personally not a fan of arbitrary moral systems.

>>7674245
Working women have always been sympathetic to me, i'd like to avoid eating one if possible.
Without mind probing, then I'll just look for one in her late teens, and proceed with my questions about what would she be ready to do to get out of this place, if she'd work for me without asking much questions, and how much she knows about the people and the living in this town (particularily in these slums, i'd like to have more than one contact to sell stolen goods and i'll need some muscle eventually).

>>7674363
Ending a long and wasted life seems less wrong than prematurely stopping any potential a youth may have. To me, at least.

>>7674310
Not enough equipment. I still want the theft the other anon is suggesting. Magic is expensive - if we can steal coins, good. If not, we can probably sell it to the smugglers when we give them their spirits and buy some at the university.

>>7674317
Old age and diseases are not subjective.

>>7674407

Not on the statistical scale no. But our sample size is (hopefully) to small to know who's going to live how long, and our information is too scant.

>>7674383
Who's to say that it was wasted? The guy managed to reach old age and still have enough money to afford a drink. Just because you have the occasional beer doesn't make you a drunkard or meant hat you wasted your life. The experience of an elder takes much longer to replace than that of a 18-24 year old street thug.

>>7674441
Not to speak of the particular old man we already killed, but it shouldn't be particularly hard to keep a look out for useless old bums and alcoholics. Being an old drunkard is not the same as occasionally having a beer.

>>7674363
I'm sure that every old beggar and drunkard go every evening teach the kids of the neighbourhood how to be wonderful, successful persons. Come on. Nothing passes on except infections and viruses.
Young punks have their whole life before they become elderly drunkards. What right have we to condemn them ? We're not a paladin mandated by god, we're not a vigilante with plot armor against being overall wrong and detrimental, we're not mandated by the people either, we don't have any kind of moral high ground... We're just an hungry monster.

>>7674441
Don't worry, the people around us have nothing else to do than gaining the experience of a life of need, brutality and misery. The old men we kill we be replaced, and those something else kills will be too.

>>7674464
Oh, okay. Yes, I could deal with that. However, we should still try to keep our feeding sparse; every other time we feel hungry, try for animal blood instead. This should keep us full but since we will still be getting some human blood we won't loose our minds.

>>7674479
Largely agreed. The young punks and gangsters at least have a chance to do something; we have no way of knowing what's in their future. If we're just a touch picky about our selection though, old alcoholics and bums are too far along to change. Seems to me it's a lesser evil to feed on them instead when we must.

>>7674518
I actually like this idea. Sparsely feeding on animals when we're just hungry seems like a good way to minimize our wrongdoings.

>>7674535
Except we start to lose mental faculties.

>>7674555
Only if we do it continuously for extended eriods of time. Like I said, we would only drink from animals every other meal.

>>7674555
hey, SPARSELY

>>7674555
I thought that was after weeks of nothing but animal blood. If it's only our hunger we slake on animal blood I would think we should be okay - although if even that does threaten our sanity then obviously I'd stop.

>>7674479
Moreso, there's three kinds of justice. The old "an eye for an eye..." that we don't respect : we do not attempt to rape to venge the attempted rapes on our person, we kill and devour.
The feodal justice, the one a regal authority exert over a few criminals and inflict spectacular corporal punishments to show that violence and theft is its exclusive privilege; but we don't have an authority to defend.
The bourgeois justice, that attempts to develop a systematic response to crime and to isolate it from the poor and middle class trough emprisonment; we're not systematic, we feed when hungry or hurt, and we're not doing this as a social action.
Therefore, we can't claim to act for justice.

>>7674629
there's also mob justice.

Not saying it's a good or moral form of justice, but it IS a form of justice.

>>7674629
I never saw us as acting for justice, but rather accepting that we have needs and trying to keep our impact on the common good as minimal as possible. Hence the argument that we should feed on the old and wasted - not because it's more just, but because it has less overall impact.

>>7674659

The flipside to that argument is that an old drunk is unlikely to cause too many people harm, whereas a young gang of rapists and thieves is.

By targeting our feeding on those who are most likely to cause others harm, we're trying to minimize the net suffering we inflict.

>>7674659
Then I agree with you.
>>7674657
Mob justice is I think, just a kind of collective violence. that has more to do with the other forms of mob violence than with the other forms of justice. But I didn't thought about it, true.

>>7674305 >>7674310 >>7674374
You decide to just go ahead and ask one of the streetwalkers to work for you. You move around in the shadows for a while observing them before settling on a tired-looking one who looks to be in her late teens. Hopefully she'll be young enough to jump at an apparent chance and miserable enough to keep your secrets. You move up to her casually; once she realizes that you're moving towards her, she tenses slightly. You imagine that she'd have put on a smile for a man, but you're obviously not a customer. "What do you want?"

You try to put on a friendly face, though based on her expression she finds it unconvincing, and cut right to the point. "I'm looking for someone to act as my face in a few transactions- see that everything is done as I wish it. Nothing directly illegal, but I'll need discretion. I don't suppose that you'd be interested."

She frowns and looks at you. "Yeah, right. People who need something like that work for the bosses, they don't walk up to girls on the street. I don't know what you're trying to pull, but-"

She cuts off. You've prepared a compelling counterargument- a handful of coins. "This is yours, now, if you agree to work for me and not ask questions. Ten gold a week, and my personal guarantee that anyone who bothers you will regret it."

"You... you're kidding." She stares at you. "This is the sort of story that ends with me as a princess if you're telling a kid, and me dead in a gutter if you're not."

You chuckle. "No gutters, I promise. Work for me and you'll never have to walk the streets again."

There is a long moment of silence, and then she reaches forward with a hand.

You fill it with gold. "Good to have you with me. For now, I'd like you to answer a few minor questions."

She nods. "Fine. Let's go inside." She turns and leads you to a run-down tenement; you guess that this is where she lives- and perhaps where she brings some customers. She climbs the stairs quickly and darts into a door, then scowls when she sees that you've paused at the threshold. "What are you waiting around for? Get in here."


You cross inside, glad that she was so very inviting. That was almost a problem. The interior is dingy, and she quickly lights a candle. "What do you want to know?"

You smile without showing your teeth. "Your name, to start. And then a bit about how the streets are these days... it seems like there's a lot of guards around, at least in the other parts of the city."

She scoffs. "There are always guards. Every time a rich merchant gets knocked over, he whines about it to the guard, and they throw out a few extra patrols to shut him up while the bosses hand them their take. I'm Sheryl." She moves to a chair and seats herself, then gestures for you to sit across from her if you wish. You move delicately to do so; the chairs are surprisingly clean. The girl continues. "The only real news is that there's some psycho running around killing people, and she rubbed out a couple of the gangs working for Trudan. The rest of 'em were quick to move on their turf, and no one's sure if Trudan's going to order the rest of his mooks to take it back from the other bosses. Could start a whole war, since he's been on the downswing for a while, and there hasn't been one of those in a couple years."

You frown. You really hadn't thought of widespread war as one of the possible results of preying on thugs. "I see. Thank you. You're quite knowledgeable; I appreciate that. Keep me informed on these matters, please."

She nods. "So... ah... what do I call you, lady?"

"That should suffice." You smile; your sprite calls you that, after all. Giving out your real name seems like a poor idea, and as long as the money's good this girl should keep working for you even if she thinks you're strange... you hope.

Still, you're not certain how to play this next. Are you going to keep Sheryl around in the long term, or use her for the silversmith task and dispose of her? Where should you set up meetings? Having summoned creatures carry out tasks is different; you can always feel them and call them to you. Human agents require a bit more planning. You aren't even certain of what immediate task to give her.

What should you do now?

>>7674719
As I explained though, I don't think we're a source of justice, and since we can't see the future we don't really know what's in the future of all those young folk - certainly there's at least the potential for some good there. Picking out the old and useless has the least impact in total, which is probably good for keeping a low profile as well.

>>7674824
I can't think of anything else that we need her for right now. That said, I do think we should keep her for the long term. We can arrange for her to meet us once a night at a certain time. If we have something we need her to do, we tell her then. If we don't, then yeah, we just took up maybe a half hour of her time getting her to walk to wherever we decide to meet and back, but we're paying ten gold a week damnit.

>>7674824
We know where she lives, now. Once a week, we give her the money. If we need to meet her, we just give her a note at night. Or wake her up. Or find her. Either or.

She'll be a good servant, and with some effort will be able to fit in anywhere in the city. If we're square with her, anyway.

>>7674824
You mentioned gold and gems earlier for a greater summoning circle, if I'm not mistaken. Do we have everything we need to create the one from Rhiannon's schematics? If not, we should contact Bryden - maybe he has some profitable work similar to the silver. Even if he doesn't have a hand in it, maybe we can offer some sort of services in exchange for the relevant information.

>>7674719
It's hard to evaluate how much suffering will be avoided by killing a thug. People around have it bad. But they know how to avoid too much violence. The neighbourhood is full of thugs and prostitutes, but the jack-the-ripper types are usually not coming from these parts of town. We got attacked when we looked like an easy pick, and the people who live here know how to not look like that.
All in all, I think crime is not the cause for suffering here, but the consequence. Killing criminals will not reduce suffering. Killing everyone would, but that's not something you'll consider, is it ?
Plus, being young, even for a rapist and especially for a gangster, means often having friends, lovers, family. Being old and an alcohol means being alone.

>>7674809

I'd say information first, and getting us some decent clothes second.

"I need to ask you some questions." Pause to put a little bit of telepathy. "I need you to promise they won't be repeated." Once she's said yes and we're sure she's telling the truth, we want to make sure of three things

1) She doesn't have a pimp or other handler who'll cause trouble if she's off the streets.

2) We need an explanation of the bosses and the general setup. We don't want to kill the wrong person.

3) We should probably explain that we're a sorceress and will be sending minions to her with orders from time to time to make sure she's cool with that.

We need some way to get arcane manuals and such, in case this smuggler thing falls through. Would it be unseemly to have Sheryl attempt to establish some contact with a mage for these purposes? Preferably an unaffiliated one.

>>7675003

Kill the wrong person should be "do something to upset the bosses/call down more trouble than we need"

>>7674824
Ask her about who the bosses are, how are they towards each other, what is their forces and resources, etc...
Then, ask her to find us a cart and something or someone to pull it, and bring them by our door.

>>7674941
We can't leave her there if we need her full-time, and I think we do, and we paid largely enough for that. Her pimp knows where she lives too, and wouldn't be happy with her absences.
Ask her to direct us to another girl for constant informations about the slums politics, preferably one who wouldn't have anyone to tell that that fugitive prostitute send us to her, and that one we will pay a normal sum.

>>7675099
Also, we need to see if she can contact other smugglers for us.

>>7675003
>>7675099
As soon as we're through with her, send the imp in invisible mode to follow her and report immediately/paralyze-dart her if she does or say something she shouldn't.

FUCK, I MISSED THE ENTIRE VAMPIRE QUEST THREAD
AND I WAITED THREE FUCKING DAYS FOR IT TOO
I HATE YOU SO FUCKING MUCH

>>7674956
You have all the schematics but few of the materials for the greater circle. None of the materials, really, since the silver that you have is going to be used in your lesser circle as soon as you can manage.

>>7675003 >>7674888 >>7674941 >>7675199
Several necessary questions come to mind after a moment of thought, but you start with the most basic. "You don't have anyone who will object to your new employment under me, I trust?"

She fidgets uncomfortably. "Well... I was thinking that if you were going to pay me that much, I'd just move to a different part of town. Tonight. That way I'd be able to avoid any trouble with Snydley."

You frown. You suppose that you can't really object to that, but it's not exactly a surefire solution. "Very well, but make sure to keep gathering information. I will need to know what's going on, and you should be more than able to handle that with what I'm paying you. If there is any trouble..." You raise a hand and will your air spirit to action; it seems to catch your meaning and swirls dramatically around you. It gives a rather impressive effect, you hope. "I am a sorceress, and my servants will bring you my commands from time to time. They can also eliminate any direct threats to your well-being, although if you make petty requests of me I will be displeased."

Sheryl stares at you, then blinks. "Ah, yes. Lady. Thank you. I don't think there will be any trouble." She sounds much more respectful than a moment before; that's good, at least.

You nod. "Glad to hear it. Now, please tell me of the general politics of this city- you mentioned bosses?"

She looks nervous, but starts to speak, and as she continues she grows in confidence. You chose well; her analysis is remarkably detailed. There are apparently five major crime bosses in the city, three of which- the most powerful three- are essentially fronts for the activities of certain noble families. In order of relative ascending power, they are Trudan, Blue Yesh, Mickey, Aaron Switch, and Baron Holco. All the pimps, gangs, and thieves ultimately report to them. Even the assassins and mercenaries tend to have at least loose allegiance to one boss or another; it apparently improves life expectancy a great deal. Crime is big business, it seems, and there is no room for the independent operator.

There's not much room for the big operators, either; the king has a deep-seated hatred for organized crime and occasionally tries to cut them all down to size. When he's not doing that, however, they are generally all at one another's throats. Still, though bosses change every so often, there have been five for as long as anyone can remember.

>>7675019 >>7675241
As her description winds down, you move on to your next matter. "Then, if I were to wish to get in contact with some smugglers...?"

"You could ask any of the bosses or one of their men, and they could get you almost anything if you can pay. I don't know about meeting smugglers directly; someone on the docks might." She frowns.

"I might wish to find some, so if you have spare time with your newfound wealth, you might consider building up some contacts who could put you in touch with them." You keep your voice vague. "I need to speak with mages, as well... though I don't suppose you know any."

She shakes her head. "All the bosses keep their mages close, and the rest are nobles or university types. They don't speak with my sort."

You shrug. "At least one mage does now. Regardless... I will send for you, should I need you. I believe we are finished for now." You stand, and depart to her bows and statements of thanks and loyalty.

Words aren't enough to reassure you, though. You quietly all to your imp, who abandons his earlier whimsical duties and arrives in a few short minutes. You send him a mental image of Sheryl. "This girl is now working for me... or so she says. Follow her. If she does anything to betray me, incapacitate her and report to me; otherwise protect her. Remain hidden unless it is absolutely necessary to show yourself." It giggles and flits off, stroking its knife.

Most of the night is still before you. What will you do now?


>>7675465
Take heart; thread 5A is coming. Soon.

>>7675636

Let's go home and talk to the Mimir, and try and increase our range of spells.

A stun spell would be nice, as would something to try and camouflage our eyes.

Should we take care of this Snydley now, to prevent any potential problems with Sheryl?

Anyways I say we send the air spirit with a message for Bryden. We need to start preparing to make our greater summoning circle as soon as we can, and he may have some information for us. If our actions in procuring our needs don't directly profit him, then offer him a portion of the proceeds.

Also, maybe we can create a sort of persona for Sheryl. Fix her up, make her seem like a lesser noble or something. Maybe then she could get in contact with a mage or two for us.

>>7675694
Were you not listening when UM said that the Mimirs cannot teach actual spells?

>>7675636
Right, that's all well and good. I'm afraid I've lost track; did we leave the note at the silversmith last night or tonight? If the former, then we should go to see if he's there.

>>7675729

We can invest in Sheryl once we trust her.

I wouldn't attack her pimp just yet, that might cause problems with the gangs. We should probably find out who and where he is so we can slap him down hard if need be.

>>7675636
I wish we sent her to find us that cart. We need to be able to carry the table to the smith tomorrow.

>>7675767
Fair enough on the pimp. Investing in her would definitely come later if at all, I was mostly just curious of UM would comment on how likely something like that would be to work.

Let's find Snydley and possibly who he works for. Best to be prepared.

We sent a message to Bryden about his books, do we have an answer ? Also, with which underground boss is he allied, since he probably his ?