Sheryl, a young streetwalker you recruited to your service with gold and promises, has proven herself quite useful as your agent amongst the living. If she does not yet know you as one of the undead, it is because she chooses not to see it.

Numerous summoned servitors, each with their own set of abilities, are ready to do whatever you ask of them. Their magical and mundane skills can do what yours cannot, and have proven invaluable in almost all your successes thus far.

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

***

You awaken; it's dusk once again. What should you do? Sarai's advice from yesterday, that you forget the past and look to the present, springs unbidden to your mind.

You certainly have enough present concerns... spells to develop, a prisoner in a cave to deal with, summoned servants to send out and have do your bidding. Your air spirit and sprite are currently out running messages, while your earth spirit, spellrat, and shade are looking for various forms of wealth and information. Only your faeling and mimir are left here to aid you in your continuing effort to develop a year-length rebinding spell.

What should you do?

Maybe we should start to think about getting by on a pint of blood per week, like Rhiannon.
Less gluttony, more temperance; which could also help with our other mental powers.

It could save our SAN score after all.

After giving it much thought, I will now purpose several objectives I think we should pursue.

1) I believe it would an excellent idea if we got ourselves involved in the coming gang-war. We should see if we can arrange an alliance between Sarai's Blue Yish and Bryden's Mickey. With our aid and those two gang's combined muscle, we can push out the other major players. Why? Well, only two gangs would be more profitable, as well as make the streets safer for the average person, hopefully. Also, backing the two gangs would provide us with more pull within the city, which can translate into us getting the more obscure components for our Greater Summoning Circle easier.

2) This one should accompany my purposed Objective 1. The king and/or mayor in the city will not allow one/two gangs to run the entire underworld, this is a fact. So what I purpose is we seek out a regime change. There has to be a Havelock Vetinari-type somewhere close to power. A person who would not only be an excellent leader, but would also permit us more room to move in our pursuit of magical power( and feeding). Hell, if we put the right guy into power, we might be able to openly contact the university mages in the city and further our magical studies. We don't have to do this ourselves either. We can get the help of the two gangs (Blue Yish and Mickey), our vampire friends, and whomever else we can rope into it. I am not talking about putting a puppet into power. I honestly think we should install a capable leader into power, one who would make the city a better place for everyone, even if he was a "tyrant".

>>7782127
3) Upon further reflection, I believe we handled the book heist wrong. What we should have done is arranged to have of our minions copy the contents of the books and then return the books. This would allow us to accumulate more magical tomes, without raising too much suspicion. We should consult our magical advisers to see if this is possible. If it is, we can arrange to go back each night, steal another book and return one we finished copying. Yes, we might lose money having to buy the supplies (the ink, the paper, the bindings, etc), but we'd have a more impressive magical library. That, or we have the faeling make us look like a maid, kill everyone in the mansion, steal all the books, and torch the place. I guess it all depends if we want to take Sarai's words to heart.

4) We target murders and rapists when we want to feed for a reason, they are evil. Think about that guy we got locked up and all the crying and pleading he did. Now imagine what would of happened to us had we not been a supernatural entity. That is right, he and the other thugs would have raped us, and no matter how much we cried and pleaded, they wouldn't have stopped. Hell, they might have slit our throat when they finished and dumped our body on a sewer grate. Would we hesitate to kill a squirrel to feed? No, so why should we feel sorry for feeding on something far less deserving of life. I say we do what was proposed last time and turn the kid in the cell into a guinea pig for us practising our mental powers. Strengthening our ability to the point we can turn almost anyone into a puppet for any length of time. And never again feel bad about ending perceived evil, because no one would lament, probably not even ourselves, if someone drove a steak through our hearts.

I always look forward to this; it's like reading a good book.

SUMMON KATANA IMPS

fuck you OP, i'm already up too late in Aus...now i'll never sleep. fuck youuuuuuuuu

>>7782144

This is an interesting note-- can any of our assistants copy or memorize a book rapidly?

If not, we may wish to summon such an entity.

how many people have we eaten so far ? :(

>>7782077
We may wish to request a report on the daytime activities of those on scouting operations, then, perhaps ask the Mimir about the above memorization minion.

so we are powerful now? it is time to confront the never-present boyfriend!

>>7782228
more than we are comfortable with, that's for sure

>>7782247
no, not exactly

we have a minor summoning circle, good for small/relatively weak minions. We don't know much else, other than a magic missile spell.
We're basically a lvl 3 wizard lol

A thought about silver.

We've got our earth spirit looking for veins of precious metals in the ground, but we already know where the royal mines are.

1) Send a shade to the royal mines to see what sort of magic they're using and if an earth spirit would be detected.

2) If not figure out how much silver the earth spirit can carry underground, and still move reasonably quickly.

3) Send earth spirits to the mine with orders to gather silver from the areas of the deposit not being mined and bring it back to us. If we send a few spirits we should have a steady trickle of money coming back to us.

4) Bellow "I drink your milkshake! I DRINK IT UP!"

>>7782077
have our faeling discuss long-term binding spells with the mimir and report back to us with a version of his knowledge that is distilled down from his asshattery.

Read through our magical tomes that we stole, look for mind domination spells. Practice on our captive in the cave.

Ask Sheryl how she's doing these days.

>>7782275
But it's impossible for such low level characters to be transformed into vampires!

I suspect we aren't living in D&D universe.

>>7782287
The problem with that is that what he would be bringing us is silver ore, which means we'd need to smelt it. I personally have no idea how to go about doing that, so I doubt this character would either.

>>7782186
Thank you. Personally, I tend to reread my posts immediately after hitting "Submit" and spot a half-dozen ways they could have been improved, so I have trouble thinking of my writing as good.

>>7782197
My sympathies.


>>7782118 >>7782127 >>7782144
You begin your evening with some reflection on your actions so far and plans for the future. What should you be doing? In the long term, you'd like to learn to feed without killing people... Sarai's description of Rhiannon's habits made it sound like she's all but harmless. Not murdering people left and right would be a huge step in the right direction, as far as you're concerned.

In the meantime... you need to build up your magical library, and work towards getting your greater summoning circle established. That's a massive task requiring a large amount of resources, though; successfully managing it will require a long time or the support of at least one powerful player. Perhaps if you involved yourself in the gang war somehow, or tried to supplant the king- but both of those are vague long-term plans that you're not sure you want to get into anyway. They would almost certainly put even more blood on your hands.

>>7782228
You lost count of just how many people you've devoured, or just killed, some time ago. Dozens, but probably less than a hundred... you think. Too many.

>>7782235 >>7782216 >>7782144
Thinking on the matter of your developing magical skills, you wonder if your servants could transcribe texts for you, so that you could gradually copy out and return tomes rather than stealing them outright- much more subtle. Your mimir and shade are your most knowledgeable servants, but neither has actual hands. The sprite is a scribe, however; he could probably manage to copy a book every few days after his return, if you set him to it.

>>7782235
You call your servants back to you. The spellrat is relatively slow, and it will likely take hours for it to return from inside the city slums, but the shade and earth spirit come rapidly. The shade reports that the vast majority of the magical items within the city seem to be in one of several locations- a noble's mansion, one of the many inns, or some structure affilitated with the crown- the castle, one of the guard stations, or the university. He has not had time to track down the many minor objects that may be in lesser groups. The earth spirit reports little success, although it brings you a handful of rough semiprecious stones that you estimate would bring a few gold if you were to sell them.

What do you do?

>>7782293
So, why don't we try to summon a better bound mimir, anyway? Maybe it will be more cooperative in our studies.
(Although it might be a waste of time - I can already see UM writing how we try to summon a loyal mimir, but give up frustrated after a whole night of getting mocked by impertinent skulls.)

Other than that, this is a RPG world. There has to be some sort of questgiver somewhere... maybe we should send out our summons to look for people with golden question marks floating above their heads? Or, on a more serious note, consult Sheryl about finding work... or rather, having her find shady, yet non-atrocious work for us.

>>7782356

Have Sheryl sell the stones.

What sort of guards did the Shade note at the various noble mansions?

Also, perhaps we should leave the Rat emplaced; send the Shade to take a report form him.

>>7782356

Thank the earth spirit and ask it to keep looking for gems.

We should probably check on our captive, and either practice our mind control for a bit.

A noble's mansion? Is there one specific mansion loaded for bear with magic items?

>>7782436
Ask about the defenses of the inns, too. Seems an interesting place to have magical items.
Perhaps a traveler or two to be waylaid?

>>7782451

Perhaps we should have the earth spirit look for precious metals to sell, instead of gems.
We may also wish to summon another earth spirit or two for mining operations.

In addition, how feasible is it for the shade and a single air spirit to return one magical book, and take another from the Evenwell mansion?
(After the Sprite copies it.)
To that end we may wish to summon more scribe creatures eventually.

>>7782403
>There has to be some sort of questgiver somewhere...
Mabe we could forget about shitty old tropes from obsolete D&D variants and set goals ourselves!

Face it, the fact that we are vampire mage is huge questgiver itself. We can... for exmple look for a way to cure vampirism, or remove it's drawbacks, while keeping all the benefits. or we could look for a way to deal with the master...

I say we talk to Sheyl, see how she is doing and find out if she knows any news from the city. Have her buy ink, paper, and bindings for our counterfeit magical text scheme. Next, we should feed our prisoner. It will give the impression to Sheryl that we eat food, and will keep him from starving to death. Then we can either test out our powers on him, or go home and research some magic.

As soon as we are able, we should get the sprite copying the conents of the books under the supervision of the mimir/apprentice shade. That though will have to wait till we have the paper and the sprite returns.
>>7782475
I like this idea.

>>7782475
Perhaps we could force an army of summomed slaves to build massive underground empire...

Adn thinking about it, is there "underdark" in our world. I think we could move to place where sun never shines and prey on evil elves/dorfs/elder race that live there.

>>7782436 >>7782451
>>7782455 >>7782475
The shade informs you that the inns are generally without significant defenses, beyond bouncers and a few guards at the nicer locations. The travelers with magic items in them are of the rougher, stronger sort, however.

The nobles tend to have more items if there is also evidence of a mage in residence, and what protections they have varies widely. They all tend to live on the better side of town and have at least a few guards on hand, but beyond that it was difficult to determine any common features.


With that report made, you tell the shade to go find out what the spellrat has learned; there's no point, upon reflection, in calling it all the way back to your mansion. It would waste valuable time. Besides, the shade is telepathic and can actually communicate effectively with the magely rodent, which you cannot.

You contemplate the earth spirit for a long moment. It had taken days of searching for any valuables underground to turn up this handful of gems; was it really worth it to leave just this one on the task? Perhaps you should summon up more. An idea bearing more thought, in any case. You thank the spirit and return it to its task, then turn over the gems to Sheryl and instruct her to get the best price she can manage for them.

>>7782544
While in town, you mention to her, she might keep an ear open for any tasks which you or your servants could easily complete at a profit. You will need some way to keep yourself well-funded. She should also purchase ink, paper, and bindings, and listen for any news.

As you turn away from her, you pause. Sheryl has been quite reliable, but you're still not entirely confident in her; certainly, she lacks the magical bindings that ensure the loyalty of your servants. You turn back. "How are you doing, by the way, Sheryl?"

She looks somewhat startled that you would ask. "I am... quite well, Lady. It has been a bit, ah, disorienting to have my life change so quickly, but... it is likely a change for the better. Even with-" she cuts herself off and looks away. "Thank you for asking. I am honored that you chose me to serve you."

You don't remember her being quite that servile- or that formal, for that matter. Still, she seems sincere enough.


>>7782451
Deciding to spend some time practicing your mental skills, you bid Sheryl farewell and depart for your cave. It is as well-concealed as you remember, and your prisoner is lying in his cell of stone just as you left him, if somewhat more worn and filthy. The scent of his waste is pungent in your sensitive nose. He appears to be asleep, looking exhausted; the food which you instructed one of your servants to bring him must not have been enough to sate him. Or did you remember to order that done? You can't recall.

Regardless, you're not here to contemplate his well-being, but to gain experience with your mental powers. You speak loudly and forcefully, imbuing your will into your voice. "Get up!"

The youth is on his feet in but a moment, although it takes him several seconds afterward to actually wake up and realize what's going on. When he does, he backs up against the wall of his cell and begins sobbing again. "Please let me go... please..."

You're not interested in that kind of thing. "Be silent." His voice gratifyingly cuts off, and even his sobs seem more muffled. Good.

You proceed to carry out a variety of experiments, instructing the young man to contort himself in various ways, ram himself against the cell bars, or carry out simple actions. Each time he recovers enough to begin to collapse and beg, you silence him again and resume.

It takes a relatively short time for you to feel that you've learned quite a bit. When used overtly, your mental powers seem to have few limitations on what they can cause people to do- even self-destructive acts, like smashing one's head on a rock, are carried out quickly. The duration seems more limited when used for such things, however; a handful of seconds at most. Your will seems to control the amount of force with which your target carries out the action; a tiny bit of force in an order to jump will result in a small hop, while sharp focus can bring an attempted leap several feet high.

When you think you've learned quite a bit, you stare at your prisoner. He's exhausted and more terrified of you than ever. Should you deal with him somehow, or leave him for later experiments or feeding?

What will you do?

>>7782694

Make sure he's brought food and water first of all.

Maybe we should ask him which gang he was a part of, and find more about the situation in the city.

>>7782679

We may want to investigate those doubts more.

>>7782694

Have our air spirit clean up his waste, then bring him about 2500 calories of food with the appropriate nutritional spread for a human. (Protein, citrus, milk, etc.)
The waste should be deposited away from the cave, preferably in the ocean.

After that task is completed, either they fey or the spirit should bring him some bedlinen and a pillow.

>>7782750
We may wish to summon a spirit dedicated to such tasks in the future.

I thought this thread was missing something. Then I remembered.

>>7782726
I doubt he'll be very useful. Although at this point, he is scared shitless of us and will most likely talk in the hope of prolonging his life, so asking won't harm us.
Maybe we should have our earth spirit construct some sort of pit latrine for our prisoner, and maybe some sort of water receptable or so for him to clean himself, so he will no longer be as much of a burden on our nose?
Although the least cruel thing to do would most likely be to end his life.

>>7782783
Yes, a torturer, errh, prisonkeeper summon might be a good idea. Or more generally, a guardian that keeps watch on the cave.

I don't think we should get too excited at the results. He is clearly a weak willed, starved individual. His use is merely to test out what we can do with our mental powers and refine how we use them, the human equavalient of a punching bag. Get him some food and blankets, and prepare to keep him for a little while longer. Some other things we should look into is how far into the mind can we go. We possess physic communication and can compel people to do quick actions, but can we change personalities and alter their memories. I think that should be the next step in our experimentation. Should we reduce him to a vegatable, we can eat him. Remember, no matter how ugly what we are doing to him might seem, he isn't an innocent fawn or small child. He wanted to rape us, no external compulsion from us, he made the choice.

>>7782882
Concurring on the experiments, not that we need a justification.

>>7782911
>>7782882
>>7782832
*wonders if UM is taking SAN damage*

>>7782882
Let's torture him for lulz

>>7782962

He shouldn't be. That's how society works-- you help those people who belong to yours so they in turn can help you.
Helping people who have no intention of returning the favor, and in fact would probably kill you, is bad form.

>>7782989
Make that *definitely* kill us. Hopefully one day with our expanded powers we can change that.

>>7782832
>>7782783
Something invisible, so he doesn't know where to strangle it.

>>7782726 >>7782750 >>7782799
You begin to murmur orders to your air spirit, then realize that it is hundreds of miles away, having followed the smugglers' ship in order to get reports on their activities from the spirits which you seconded to their control. Blast. You'd best summon another, or keep yours closer, if you want one to be available at all times.

In its absence, you reach out with your mind to the faeling, willing her to bring you enough food for the prisoner. He already has blankets enough to warm him- the spring air is not that chill in Itonia, even at night. You also call to your earth spirit, and upon its arrival softly instruct it to add a latrine to the cell and dispose of the man's waste.

With those dealt with, you turn back to the youth himself and begin to softly ask questions. He is reluctant to answer at first, but once it becomes clear that you will tear the information from him with soft commands to speak he begins to respond quickly. You learn that he was part of a small gang called the Thorns, working for Baron Halco. They had recently moved into the area when it was freed up following the deaths of one of Trudan's gangs, the Guttersnakes. He drops a lot of names, gangs rising and falling in the streets, rumors of assassinations, low-class mercenaries muscling one another out, black apothecaries, fixers, and pawnbrokers changing sides, but none of the names except the bosses' mean anything to you. Still, you try to fix them in your memory; maybe it'll be relevant later.

Eventually, your faeling arrives, wrinkling her nose in disgust at the odors in your cave. It is clear from her bearing that she considers this sort of manual fetching and carrying beneath her, but is unwilling to directly protest your will.

>>7782882 >>7782911
>>7782962 >>7782965
The man falls on the food as though starving. The fact that he can't see your dead eyes fixed upon him in the pitch darkness doubtless helps. When he has finished, you move forward with the next step in your experiments. Can you significantly change people's knowledge? Personalities? What about identities? It's time to find out.

The man's name was Daniel, he'd told you. You've decided to rename him Steve. Also, his cringing habits are grating on you and making you feel a little sick about what you're doing here; you want to change them. He should sit patiently and wait for his next order.

The difficulty, of course, is mentally communicating these things to him without tipping him off that you're sending the messages. It's usually fairly obvious that you're sending commands, since saying things helps you greatly in focusing your will; this will require subtlety.


Fortunately, you have a plan. You lave the cave, gesturing for your faeling to follow, and instruct her to interrogate the prisoner about whatever she pleases until you tell her to stop. The information she learns doesn't matter- only that she keeps his focus on her, and thinking about something other than what you're communicating to him. The faeling again seems to feel that this sort of behavior is undignified, but nevertheless gives a curtsy and acknowledges your order.

Inside, she begins to ask questions of him. They are confusing to him, obviously- she starts with his personal life and habits, childhood, parents, giving you knowledge of a thousand details about this man that you never wished to know. While their conversation fills the air, you focus your mind quietly on the youth. He should remain calm and silent unless answering a question. He should answer anything when asked. He should be honest. His name is Steve. You try to make your commands as quiet as you can manage, hardly words at all.

As the hours pass, the man's answers become more and more complete, and genuine to your ear. His panic stills, and he stops sobbing. You're not sure if that's because of your quiet urgings or because he's merely getting more used to this, though. Eventually, you decide you've had enough, and stand to ask a question of your own, filling your voice with compulsion. "What is your name?"

"St- uh, Daniel." He sounds somewhat startled at his initial answer. Interesting.

"What did you almost say?"

"Uh... Steve... I..." he sounds quite frightened. No wonder, since your interrogation was much more forceful than that of the faeling.

"Why did you almost say Steve?" You force an answer from him. Did you experiment work?

He sounds panicked. "I... I don't know!" Still, he's not crying or begging as before. His only words are his answers. He might be breathing heavily, but that is all.

Interesting. You've definitely accomplished something here. What, or how permanent it would be, you don't know. Still, you think you've nudged him a bit. With weeks or months to work on someone each night, you could probably warp their personality a great deal... assuming that you wanted to do so and had the weeks or months to spare.

About half the night remains. What will you do now?

>>7783144
We should begin questioning with the youth, but definately play up the psychological aspects- the questions should go along the lines of

"What is your name?"

"Do you know why you're here?"

"What were you planning to do with the girl in the alley? Were you going to rape her?"

"Rape is a crime- do you know the punishment for rape?"

"If you had been caught the guard, you would've been hung by the neck until dead,"

"You accepted the consequences of your actions when you decided to rape that girl,"

Switch the order of questioning between various servitors, so that way we can set up a good cop bad cop routine

>>7783165
What is the color of our abode- is it even painted?
I'm thinking we should go with something in a nice duck egg blue
(What? just because we're undead abomination doesn't mean we have to mope around all the time)

>>7783165

Thank the Faeling for its service (We probably shouldn't use her for this again. We don't want any vengeful spirits kicking around once the binding wears off).

Head back to the cabin and summon up a keeper for our prisoner. Ask the Mimir what sort of creature wouldn't find the work objectionable. Right tool for the job.

Summon another earth spirit if possible, set it on the same task as the first.

>>7783220
Do any of our servitors have names? Now that we've summoned various servitors of the same type, it's going to get confusing unless we have some way of identifying them.

>>7783220
We might also want to summon some strongly bound sprites and another strongly bound apprentice shade for so we are ready to copy our magical texts.

We should start researching that year-long binding we need to get done for the smugglers.

>>7783165
1. Practice warping his perconality
2. See if you can even minipulate his memory
3. Make him your Butler
4. ????
5. Profit

>>7783258
I dunno, doesn't that seem kind of
Evil?

>>7783258

See, we can't let him live as long as he knows what he knows and while enslaving him might be nice, it'd probably also cause us issues with Sheryl.

That reminds me how are we doing for cash? We have a minimum of 10gp/week expenses right now, so how long will our current stash last us?

>>7783189
Adn don't forget to laugh maniacaly at his answers!

Don't torture him physicaly, just torment him in the psychological way till he's insane wreck. Then drain his blood and find yourself new toy.

>>7783267
We are vampire. We are cursed to do nothing but EVIL. We must embrance our true nature or die!

>>7783165

Apologize to the Fae for the menial tasks we asked her to perform, it was necessary at this juncture.
Note that we will summon another to perform the tasks in the future, then we should go do so.

>>7782144
>>7782127
I don't think it is time to try and change the way this city works. First, because our vampiric nature is still much too limiting for us to handle such complex tasks, and we don't have the resources to compensate them. Second, because I really don't think bryden would take us encroaching on his affairs lightly, and certainly don't want to associate with us. Third, because the current events are in no way a good occasion for us to become a figure of the underworld, since we're more likely to provoke an alliance of the bosses to dispose of us than anything, and we are not powerful enough to fight back alone and with discretion. Also, I personally don't have any ambition of reorganizing the city from the top.

And the idea of copying the books and replacing them is a good one. Maybe there's some simple spell to do that more easily, we should ask our magical aids. Are we limited in the number of spells we know in any other way than by the time it takes to learn them ?

For the smiting evil part, I just don't agree. The very notion of evil is a judgment of the gods, good for paladins and clerics maybe; forsaken, and maybe cursed, by the gods themselves, I don't see any reason to think in their terms. But for any independant mind, evil is an intellectual aberration when talking about mortals. These men we kill might - or not - have been rapists or murderers. They may have caused suffering around them. But if that's the case, it has nothing to do with good and evil, and all other kinds of judgements they can receive, but with the conditions of their lives.

Those are born and raised in the slums. Violence and misery is all they know. We cannot expect them to act any different, the previous generation lived this way, the next will too. Individual punishment for a collective situation makes no sense. Do we want to burn the slums down, eliminating the cause and the end ? We'll sure avoid a lot of sufferings this way, but that's not what you want. Do we want to punish by death all violent crimes around ? That'll only cause the worst kind of chaos, and a lot of suffering, and as it is we only punish hopeless attempts, not crimes. That's also beyond our power. So what ? We continue to entice thugs to attack us, and justify it by "yeah, but they were EVUL" ? And crime and violence and misery continue, only with our own addition to the lot ? There's no justice in this.
No greater good either. Yeah, we kill thugs after making them think that we're easy prey and that there's no risks involved. They could have attacked someone else, right ? So they won't be missed and all is good ? Except that they were missed, and that it sparked a gang war, and that most will suffer and a lot will die, among interested parties and bystanders.

Death itself is not something to fear, were we the cause or the victim. But there are consequences, and those should be our sole concern - more so because we don't have any reason to be a judge and no moral ground for it. Attacking thugs do have more consequences than attacking squirrels. So when we tire of them, we should turn to lone or dying humans. That's for the best, for us and for the others equally.

>>7783361
>>7783358

You seem intent on breaking Winry The Vampire. You do realize that we're acting as her subconsious, trying to rationalize everything she does because that what she would do?

>>7783316
>>7783361
Bullshit my friends
We all make choices- in life and undeath
No one can simply say "It's not my fault, it's the way I was raised" or "I can't help it, it's just the way I am,"
The freedom to act also comes with the freedom to accept the consequences of our actions; that is the foundation of society
We all make choices, but in the end, our choices make us.

>>7783432
>A MAN CHOOSES, A SLAVE OBEYS

>>7783238
Your servitors all have names. That said, they generally refuse to give them out since knowing the name of an aetheric being can give one the power to redefine it, which is something even strongly bound servants don't want you to have the power to do. If you want to give them use-names, or ask the summons to provide them themselves, you can. Generally the less humanoid creatures have only a poor grasp of the whole 'name' concept, and the more humanoid creatures are likely to prefer to choose their own temporary names.

>>7783213
Your cave is unpainted, and thus the color of stone. Your house is painted in a variety of fading but once-stylish colors.

>>7783245 >>7783220 >>7783251
Gesturing for your faeling to follow, you depart the cave, leaving the man sitting silently confused and fearful. As you trek through the wilderness back to your house, you thank the faeling for her work, expressing your regrets that no one else more suited to such a task was available. She is somewhat mollified by your words, though her posture as she strides through the trees in her fancy dress still seems a bit put out. She's remarkably quick moving through the wilderness, considering how terribly impractical that clothing looks.

Back at your home, you briefly consult the mimir regarding guardian creatures. While the selection of capable guardians amongst lesser creatures is slim, as they are generally not oriented towards such things, you eventually device on a warling- a miniature suit of plate mail given life, duty-bound and versed in tactics as well as other practical things that one might need on a campaign. You reason that keeping prisoners qualifies, and their habitual dedication will likely urge it to keep matters well under control regardless.

An hour of chanting and a steely glow later, and the two-foot armor stands before you and bows. You can feel a satisfying level of strength in its binding. "How may I serve, Mistress?" Its voice is harsh, like the clash of swords; you remind yourself to avoid using it in situations requiring stealth.

Regardless, you instruct it to guard a prisoner of yours and see to his minimal welfare, instructing your earth spirit to guide him to the appropriate location before returning to its duties, and send him on his way.

After that, you summon up another two earth spirits. The bindings are not perfect, but for this they should not have to be; as with the other you instruct them to search out precious metals and gems buried in the earth and retrieve it for you. Hopefully that will speed that task along.

>>7783251
With a small amount of time left before dawn, you turn to your long-duration binding and get some work on it done. The better part of a week of work is still left before you complete it, you think.

***

Another night. Your shade brings you news from your spellrat that there is a great deal of underworld activity and no shortage of violence; it has yet to find convenient locations from which to spy on the higher-ranking people, so a more coherent picture can't be formed. It suspects that alliances are being formed and broken on an almost daily basis.

Your can feel both your sprite and your air spirit returning; they will likely be back around midnight.

For now, your options are open. What will you do?

>>7783432
This. A person may be predisposed towards certain actions due to their upbringing or life experiences, but they are still free to choose, and must accept the consequences of their actions.

>>7783432
Choices are not free will. Humans are limited, their whole life define them strictly. The freedom to act doesn't exist, and actions have a lot of consequences that are linked to others actions equally.
Of course, whatever happens, it's their fault. But they're not responsible, to us at the very least.

summon katana imps

>>7783423
>You seem intent on breaking Winry The Vampire.

FUCK YEAH DO IT ANON!!!

Serioulsl I amsick of this 90's are over bullshit. I want story as FUCKING GRIMDARK and hopeless as possible. I want see Winry The Vampire commit deed that would make Khmer Rouge turn in disgust. I want to see her turn her boyfriend into another vampire and watch him kill himself by drinking holy water. I weant her so broken in the end she just waits for sunrise only to suffer eternaly in hell!

>>7783519
Wouldn't love imps be better choice. You know, make love not war!

>>7783488

Work on the long term binding spell until the sprite and the air spirit get back.

Tell the shade and the spellrat to look for fences, pawnbrokers and money men associated with Trudan. If we need money I'd rather steal from someone who's so embattled they'll be hard pressed to fight back.

Wonder if we want to come clean with Sheryl.

>>7783488
Ask our aids about a magical way to copy books and texts. Maybe some creature can memorize them rapidly and accurately.

Then, work on our year-long binding.

>>7783488
Ask sheryl the date, and to buy a calendar. Ask our servants to chose names for themselves if they wish to do so.

Try to remember our own name.

Check with Sheryl
Get sprite and apprentice shade working on making hard copies of the books
Study magic
Get reports from sprite and air spirit at midnight
React accordingly

>>7783618
Derp, ignore the second proposition.

>>7783558 >>7783572
You inquire of your assistants as to any way they know of to rapidly copy books. Unfortunately, none of them profess knowledge of a better method than writing out their contents page by page, and there are no creatures specialized in being high-speed scribes so far as they are aware. If there were, books would likely be much less rare and expensive.

Somewhat disappointed, you order your shade to tell the spellrat it should investigate Trudan if possible- in particular, looking for handlers of goods and money working for him. With their protector preoccupied, it seems to you that now might be an excellent time to make off with their possessions.

That handled, you turn back to your studies. Work on your spell proceeds slowly, but steadily, with the mimir eagerly pointing out the every flaw in your design. Annoying, but helpful.

Eventually, your sprite returns. He bears a message from Rhiannon.
<I appreciate your offer to bear further word to Bryden on my behalf, but at the moment I have little which I need to tell him. Time runs slowly for me in recent years. Likewise, I have no desire to loan or sell you any portion of my library; you are welcome to use it should you return here, but otherwise you shall have to amass your own.

>>7783558
This,except for the bit about Sheryl; there's no need to outright tell her what we are.

You may be interested to know that an adventuring party came to my castle several days ago. They were quite unkind to my servants, and I was forced to distract the ruffians long enough to effect their escape. The priest accompanying them proved unskilled in the art of smiting, making evasion relatively simple. They stole several of my texts from the main room; fortunately I sealed the library and prevented their access.

I bring this to your attention because following their discovery of the letter for your erstwhile lover which you left in my care during their ransacking, a reply was left for you. I have enclosed it for your benefit. Best wishes, and I hope you can resolve your past in a manner satisfactory to you.

-Rhiannon>

The enclosed letter reads as follows, written in a hand you know well. You'd read many letters from him over the years, thinking on what a poor substitute they were for his presence.
<I'm so sorry this happened to you. It's all my fault; I should never have let you get so close to danger. I'm coming to make things right. If the monster lurking here was Rhiannon, she got away, as did her cultists. I won't pursue for your sake.>

You sit down. This brings a flood of emotions to your mind, and you're not sure what to think.

Regardless, it takes your sprite about two days to travel to Itonia from the castle, cutting through the wilderness to take the most direct route. A normal human traveler would probably take at least two weeks, but a determined adventurer could make it less.

What will you do now?

((I'm stepping out for a bit, will probably be an hour or so before I'm back. Apologies for the delay.))

>>7783694
I think we can trust her
Regardless, we should ask her again if there is anything she wants to know about us, and stress that she need not fear any retribution from us

>>7783488
Ask sheryl if she would happen to see one particular person dead, or appropriately suffering then dead. Introduce that slowly, start by asking questions about her life - tell her also that we do not request any kind of deference or marks of respect from her, just mutual help and benevolence - and then about wrongs that should be righted according to her. I'm not personally favorable to revenges, but we happen to be in a search of potential targets for our life of crime (no need to precise the kind of crime), and if she wants to join...

>>7783721
SECONDED

>>7783721
>happen to want
FTFM

>>7783721
We are not a criminal, though our sins be great
We shall overcome our base needs
We shall atone
We shall be the protection of the weak
We shall be the Justice of the wicked
We shall be the night
We shall be terror on leather wings
WE
SHALL
BE
BATMEN RIDER

We should expand our wardrobe

>>7783704

"Make this right"

Wonder what he means, if the Lord will kill them first. Or if this is going to be part of his games.

We should send as many of our messengers as we can spare to try and find them before they get there with a message from us, to guide them to our cottage or another place of our choosing.

If they start crashing around the city they might run into Bryden or Sarai, worse, they might learn enough of what's been going on recently to figure out what we've been up to.

>>7783165
>>7783153
I wonder if this is how Adrienne started out
Reveling in the feelings of control, of dominance

>>7783792
BUY A SUNDRESS

>>7783721
Just precise that we don't want to force her into this kind of stuff, like we have been (let that float), and wouldn't judge her in any case.

>>7783807
We'll have to deal with them. Permanently, I'm afraid. We'll most likely end up killing our boyfriend's comrades and take him prisoner, then fuck with his mind over the course of weeks until we have reshaped him into our very own servile boytoy.

>>7783704
Well, at least our boyfriend isn't all cleave and smite
Maybe he's working on a way to fix this
Or maybe he's coming to 'save us from ourselves,'

>>7783721
Excellent idea! We can do this to get food and wealth. And while we are out we can get our sprite started on the task of copying the magical tomes. Actually, that could be a great revenue stream also. We could sell the magical tomes our sprite copies.

In fact, we could summon a squad of sprites to endlessly produce copies for ourselves and sale on the black market. We could even send copies to Rhiannon as thanks. Also send another team of sprites with the gift of books, ask if she'd let them copy various texts in her library and send them back.

I know having them write the books out will be hard and take a lot of time, but the payoff would be huge. Sprites- they get shit done.

>>7783849

I wasn't worried that he couldn't understand a moral dilemma. I was worried that we're on the wrong side of the moral dilemma. In this case the moral dilemma is that someone you love is a killer, and that you have a chance to stop her.

Basically we're Old Yeller and he's going to have to take us out back with a shotgun.

HEY WAIT A SECOND
VAMPIRES ARE HARMED BY SILVER
YET WE'VE BEEN HANDLING THE STUFF WITHOUT SO MUCH AS A BURN

>>7783704


well at least he's not going to CLEAVE AND SMITE us on sight...

>>7783875

THIS. We ask if we can send a sprite to her library with a shade and a blank book and get a copy.

>>7783901
HOLD ON
Don't apostate mages and those who trade in magic illictely tend to wake up with their throats slit?

>>7783887
I think you may be getting vampires and werewolves mixed up.

>>7783876
Fair enough. I just got so fed up with all the people proclaiming that he's a one-dimensional smite-and-cleave guy.

>>7783864

Our boyfriend fights dragons and has a priest with him. We're not strong enough to win a solo fight.

>>7783912
Silver: As mentioned earlier, the old Romanian faith in pure metals is making a comeback. Hardly mentioned in earlier vampire films, it is quickly coming into vogue as the premiere weapon of the modern vampire hunter.

Interestingly, the concept of silver being toxic to vampires is as 'faith based' as crosses. Being less iconic, I guess the Agnostic vamps haven't figured that one out yet. Surprising, really - judging from what I've seen on South Street on Saturday nights, the Goths have known it for years.

Successful in: Dracula (1979), From Dusk to Dawn (1996), Dracula (1997), Vampires (1998), Blade (1998), Blade 2 (2002), Vampire Hunter D (2001)

>>7783908
Yes, but they'd have to get past our door that no mortal can open, our various assortment of very loyal minions, save for the mimir, and then, once they slit our throat, we drain all of there blood from theres.

You know, Sheryl seems more subversient
Could our vampire mind control factor be subtly influencing her?

>>7783949
Or maybe he could be out there, right now, finding us a ring of regeneration and a ring of sustenance

>>7783949

if you think a mere stone door will stop adventurers you have not played enough...

>>7783978
Our boyfriend, I mean, not the various shadowy powers of the city

>>7783940
Oh. Good to know.

Can we please be a cross between Batman and the Kamen Rider?
Pretty please?

>>7783966
She might have an idea of what we are and be cowed by it. Or the master stepped in altered her mind and stepped out again. After all, he did protect Sarai when she was about to get reduced to ash by the rising dawn.

She did display a similiar pattern as our Steve did when we messed with his mind. It might prove to be an interesting exercise to see if we can use our mental powers to see if another's power is at work. Of course, do we want to be tampering with a mind that the master saw fit to alter? What were Sheryl's orignal intents?

>>7784006
NO WE IZ GRIMDARK VAMPIRE WHO EATS BABBIES

>>7784015
A good paying job off the streets where she wouldn't have to whore herself?

>>7784015
If we are mind controling Sheryl, can we please stop?
Advise her to take a few nights off every once and a while, visit her family, go shopping, read a book at home, go out on a date, take up the mandolin, anything.
Just keep her head clear.

>>7784033
>>7784059
These.

>>7784033
>>7784015

Pretty much. We walked up to a streetwalker at random and offered them a small fortune to be our servant/agent.

She's done well so far. She really has no reason to betray us... which is why I want to get to those doubts in her mind.

>>7784088
But we need someone who can objectivly look at us and give us their straight opinion, if only to keep tabs on how close we are to becoming a monster.

>>7784017
Yeah, we did kind of slip into Neutral Evil when our servants brought us that toddler and that baby after the fight with Adrienne

>>7784033
Yet, her pimp hasn't come looking for her. As with all criminals, he was no doubt answers to one of the bosses. He probably let her go, because his boss wanted her to be a spy. That's why we often had her watched by one of our minions, to ensure her safety and loyalty.
>>7784059
No, but she might be under the control of another vampire, hence why I suggested we see if we can detect the mental influences of another in her mind. It would also prove a good way of seeing if we actually have that ability.

>>7784130

We've had our spirits trailing her, and no sign of anything.

Her pimp may simply be preoccupied with the gang war we inadvertently started.

I still agree we should just talk to her and get to the bottom of it.

>>7784159
This. We have to be honest if we want this relationship to work

What about, erm, Steve, or Dennis, or whatever the hell his name is-should we come up with a long term plan for him?
We can't just keep him locked up in his cage indefinantely

>>7784193
I vote we save him for when we next get hungry and just drain him then. Though our next feeding is scheduled to be animal filler.

>>7784213
But that would be antithesis to the entire reason we locked him up in the first place!

>>7784193
Yes we can. We bring him food and water, he has a little guard, toilet facilities, and blankets. It is a prison cell and we can keep him in there for our experiments until we fry his brain, if that is even possible.

>>7784224
Pretty sure we kept him so that we wouldn't have to search so hard for our next meal. We've already justified his death to ourselves, so we wouldn't have to do it again to someone else.

>>7784251
No, no
He's feedstock
We drain maybe a pint from him a week, keep him healthy, and we won't have to kill anyone else for the forseeable future

>>7784232
>>7784270
>>7784251
You are all so short sighted
He was once scum, but he will know Justice
He will know repentance
He will be reformed, but on our terms, as a loyal servant

>>7784270
Alright. If we can get a pint from him each week then good. Though I do not approve of all this mindfuckery, and would be happier if it stopped.

>>7784270
wouldn't drinking a pint a week kill anyone?

>>7784293
I think we would space the pint out over the week, so that way he can recuperate

>>7784293
Yeah, it would.

>>7784293
>>7784307
Then we'll need more people for our feeding pens...

>>7784329
Or we take less from him and make up the difference with animal blood

>>7784344

>>7784017
>>7784006
Both are equally uninteresting.

I just remembered something. last session we found out that the master saved Sarai from water while she was trying to outrun the sun. How could the master have known that she would do this unless he can see and feel everything of his followers?

>>7784420
He probably has a connection similar to the one we have with our summons.

>>7784420

That's part of why I don't want to make any big plans short of trying to keep them away from the city proper.

Because I suspect there's going to be a great big master vampire shaped derail in the middle of whatever plan we set out.

>>7784420
He's not omniscient if that's what you're implying
And I'm pretty sure Sarai said that he has only spies, rather than seeing through our eyes
My guess, he heard from his sources that Sarai was doing something he knew was beyond her capablities and hauled ass to save her

>>7784420
Maybe she called to him, maybe he just senses impending dangers. I wouldn't bet on us succeeding in hiding something from him that he would want to know, though.

>>7784420
Well, he did say he could see everything we did. So, ya, he has some way of monitoring us.

>>7784407
I dunno, being Batman sounds kind of neat

>>7784465
At first I wanted to dismiss this, but then I remembered Sheryl's change in attitude. Could he perhaps have turned her into a spy? I now, more than I did before, want to see if we can detect alterations in the minds of others. I'm sure we can, and it might even impress the master if we counter his mental powers in a small way.

>>7784520
Just as long as we don't accidently mind rape her

>>7784527
Yes, we should first inquire what is going on, trying to get to the bottom of things without our mental abilities. If she displays any of the ticks we saw Daniel exhibit, we then tell her what we fear and ask if we can try to and find out if there was any funny business going on in her mind.

>>7784520
>>7784159
>>7784088
>>7784059

You guys are probably reading too much into this. She's a whore with known connections to the various bosses in the city, and the smugglers that KNOW WE ARE A VAMPIRE would have certainly sold that information to whichever boss they are most closely tied to.

Couple this with the fact that information apparently flows through this city like water and it's a fair bet she finally realized *what* she was working for.

we don't really have any proof that she (sheryl) isn't reporting back to her former pimp, or some other gang member, of our activities.

She could be spying against us. Not actively plotting our downfall, but keeping tabs on our comings and goings in order to provide someone with information.

>>7784585
The smugglers don't know for sure. They left town too. Our air spirit might have info on what they told or didn't tell.

>>7784613
Um, we've been having her tailed for the most part. So unless she knows that invisible wind spirits and/or imps have been following her and managed to avoid them, she hasn't sold us out.

>>7784520

We should start gently just by talking about the change in behavior. "I want to make sure no one is influencing you, there are those capable of warping people's minds, often in subtle ways."

If she spills her guts and comes out with a reasonable explanation of her doubts and concerns we can go from there. Otherwise we start investigating our mind powers more to see what we can do about it.

Whether she is or isn't spying on us is an important question. The master is very powerful and could have altered her mind from a distance, or maybe she has an elaborate method of passing information on to one of the bosses that we haven't thought of yet, or maybe she is scared of us. Any of those scenarios needs to be dealt with. Sheryl is our most important, but unpredictable minion. We need her, and we need her safe and loyal.

>>7783908
that really wouldn't be a problem for us.
Just saying.

lol, curious fat people who wonder what its like to be a girl.

>>7784662
Eh, they're wizards. I'm sure once they realized that the throat slitting doesn't work they'll go far a Daylight spell, or something similar.

>>7784657
I doubt the master really gives a shit about Sheryl, or even us for that matter.

He doesn't keep tabs on Bryden or Sarai, or even Rhiannon. Why would he bother with us?

And what could Sheryl do that he couldn't do himself?

No, I think Sheryl is just fine. I think she's just overwhelmed at a completely radical shift in her life, and probably sad because she misses her family. Also, living with a vampire would fuck with my head, personally. All she has is our word that we wont eat her, and we haven't exactly proved ourselves to be of a high moral character.

For all she knows, she's only keeping her life for as long as she remains useful, or until we get bored.

>>7784657
The master might be Sheryl. He could also have wrapped our mind into misunderstanding her words. He could be her pimp. He could have minfucked our servants that watched her. He could have made the city and everything that happened after the death of adrienne an illusion. He could have done many things.

I have returned; my apologies for taking so long, but those with whom I had to deal have very little respect for the needs and wishes of the internet. I'll get on this.

>>7784710
Yeah, but most of those seem highly unlikely, and if you keep thinking about things like that then you can't trust anything and might as well curl up into a featle position and rock back and forth all day thinking about whether or not you're really rocking back and forth in a featle position or if someone just gave you memories of rocking back and forth in the featle position.

Sometimes you have to just go on faith alone.

Prisoner:
Give him a choice of either serving as our guinea pig for a limited time then being released at a distant town, or taking the easy way out at our jaws.

Sheryl:
Keep an air spirit to trail her, and start developing a closer relationship with her; we need her to treat us as a friend.

Earth Spirits:
Precious metals and and gems are obviously difficult to find here near the city, why else would the king be shipping silver from far off? I suggest that we have a few search deep, and widen the query to large deposits of metals (iron, copper, tin, etc) and useful minerals/chemicals (sulfur, coal, jet, cobalt, azurite, etc)
Also, has aluminum been discovered yet?

>>7784740
Him mindcontrolling our minion to protect us without us knowing is very unlikely too.

>>7784760
Yeah, exactly. That's what I was trying to say. We might want to talk to her and ask about her change in attitude, but there is such a thing as being too paranoid.

>>7784750
Tin was here, aluminum is small time.

>>7784750
Do we know how the mining works in these parts ? Do they use magic ?

>>7784750
>>7784783
>Greater Summoning Circle engraved on an air-craft grade aluminum plate

>>7784808
>>7782287

We could summon a shade and send it to the mines to scout and find out the details.

>>7784847
That's probably common knowledge, let's just ask UM.

if we're going to fuck around with the mines, why don't we knock over another shipment of silver bars?

If we steal silver directly from the mines, we're going to have to smelt it somehow, or sell the ore at some super shitty price.

We'd be better off robbing a stagecoach and making it look like some bandits.

>>7784915
That needs too much organisation.

>>7784915
But that could lead to unnecessary attention

>>7784915
Couldn't the earth spirits simply reshape the ore into bars, or at least refine it to the point where it needs only be shaped, at which point selling it likely becomes easier?

>>7784932
We already did it once, it went off without a hitch.

>>7784936

We still have half a bar of silver, we could do some experiments having the earth spirits move them through the ground and rework it.

>>7784962
And what do you think will happen if the silver caravans start getting attacked more and more frequently?

>>7784915
>>7784962
Constantly raiding the supply would lead to a response and raise suspicions eventually.
Much better to have a more discrete, longer-termed solution. Besides, if it comes to us, we could have a hidden smelting facility run by summoned fire elementals and earth spirits.

>>7784976

Bryden mentioned a lot of caravans have been knocked over security is going to get exponentialy tougher.

>>7784915
I have a better idea. The EE can transport metal underground. Just let him go to a place where gold is stacked on a earth/stone ground, unwatched, and bring it to a place where we're waiting with a cart (just in case they have some magical way to track it underground), then we can bring it home.
Simple, easy, fast, and safe for us.

>>7784962
It took us half a session.

>>7784991
Why yes, that is EXACTLY what I was getting at.

>>7783807 >>7783864
Thoughts on the message swirl through your mind. You should send out your servants, try to intercept them. They'll try to kill you- or could he have come up with some sort of solution to your dilemma, powerful magic items to let you avoid killing? Do you need to kill them, or hide, or... there are too many options to think of right now. You'll deal with it later.

>>7783715 >>7783721 >>7783828
>>7784015 >>7784059 >>7784130
You set that matter aside for the moment; before you deal with it, you have one other pressing concern. Sheryl concerns you; she seems to have changed a great deal in the past few days, and you're not sure how much of it can be accounted for by her change from a streetwalker to your personal agent. Perhaps all, but... perhaps not. Given your newfound evidence that vampires can warp minds relatively easily, it is all too easy to have visions of a mentally altered spy come to mind. Perhaps you're being paranoid, but... perhaps not.

You find her resting in her rooms; even serving a nocturnal mistress, she still tends to sleep for at least some of the night. It's fair enough, you suppose; after all, she has to be up and about during the day. You wake her anyway, using a soft whisper and mental nudge to urge her out of slumber. She blinks sleepily, then jumps when she realizes you're standing in her room looking at her by the dim light of a candle. "Lady! What- um- what can I do for you?"

You smile carefully. "I just wish to talk. How do you find you life here so far?"

She shakes her head, likely to clear it, and pulls herself out of bed. "I... yes, Lady. My life here is everything I could have asked for. I feel practically rich- I have more space and nicer things than I've ever needed, people- well, beings, I guess- willing to talk to or help me if I ask, and you demand very little of me, really. Nothing you ask is terribly difficult, since... since you finished your table."

You hadn't really thought of things that way. She could probably spend all day gathering information in town and not consider it real work, given her previous level of destitution. Still, you want her to stay with you for more than just the side benefits. "You don't have to be so subservient, Sheryl. Even if you are working for me, I hope to build up mutual respect, rather than mere deference and employment."

She shakes her head vigorously, looking shocked. "Oh, no, Lady! I would not disrespect you so. It is mine to serve."

Something about the way she said that... it strikes you as wrong. She wasn't the type to have phrased it like that when you first met her. "It is... yours to serve? Why do you say that?"

"Because it is, Lady. I will not leave you, and shall carry out your will." She looks nervous.

There is definitely something at work here. "What makes that so, Sheryl?"

Her eyes widen, and she raises her hands, palms out, in a gesture of helplessness as she speaks. "It just is, Lady. Please do not ask, just believe me."

You aren't willing to take her word on something like this- not when some unknown force is at work on your only human servant. You are wavering on if you should compel her or not when a smooth voice speaks behind you- your faeling. "Lady, please do not be concerned about those things assuring Sheryl's loyalty. To speak of such agreements is to call down all manner of ill fortune on one's head."

You turn and stare at her. Every inch of her two-foot noblewoman's frame radiates cool smugness. She did this, somehow. "Such agreements?"

Your faeling drops into a courtly curtsy. "Just so. I imagine that the skull can tell you more, if you wish to avoid provoking rudeness." She gives a small smile and begins to walk off.

Words telling her to stop and explain come to your lips, but you cut yourself off. You'd decided not to offend the faeling any further, if you could avoid it. Instead, you take her advice, and with one last look at Sheryl head down to the basement to speak with the mimir.

When you outline the situation for the skull, it starts laughing at you. "Oh, the great, wise, powerful sorceress, stymied by her own servants! This is wealth itself. Only the most ignorant of-"

"Shut up." You're not in the mood for its mockery. "Explain what the faeling did."

It remains silent for a long time, but then speaks begrudgingly. "A fae pact, unless your description was horribly wrong. Like any other fae, faelings can make binding bargains when it suits them, though they don't generally speak of it public because it's seen as crass to do so- very private affair, pacts. I would guess that she thought your servant needed an additional incentive to remain loyal and acted on your behalf."

You stare at the mimir. Vague recollections of faelings' capabilities come to mind, and you do recall something about sharing common fae traits.

The thought that your servants, even the loyal ones, would take such actions on their own is quite concerning to you. You recall some time ago, when the sprite and assassin imp revealed that they had been brewing up a wide variety of poisons without your knowledge. What else might your creatures be doing on your behalf, all unknown to you?

But at least you probably don't have to worry about Sheryl being loyal.

As you sit, thinking on the matter, your air spirit returns. Its report, as ever, takes a frustratingly long time and comes in the form of snatches of voices. Eventually you piece together that the smugglers are using their spirits to gather information for the best thefts and deals, amidst a large amount of information on trade and goods in various foreign ports that you doubt you'll ever need.

It's perhaps two hours prior to dawn. What should you do now?


((My regrets once again for the excessive delay. Things should go somewhat more smoothly for the remainder of the evening. Please repeat any questions or such that you need answered, since I believe I've missed a bit.))

>>7785081
This raises the question of what Sheryl got for her part in the pact. Clearly the fealing's was ensured loyalty from her towards us, but what did Sheryl gain?

>>7785121
Also, chastise fealing. We are disappoint. Doesn't she know that we're the only ones around here allowed to fuck with peoples heads? If we wanted her to do something like this we would have asked, had it become apparent that a more binding form of loyalty was needed.

>>7785090
How are the basic needs met in this world, like mining, or agriculture ? Do people work with magical help ?

Resist the urge to immediately tear the Faeling limb from smug little limb for fucking with our servant. Summon the Faeling and request that in the future before it takes any actions we haven't specifically ordered to come and talk to us about what they want to do.

"I appreciate initiative on the part of my servants. I do not appreciate not knowing what's going on in my own house."

>>7784963
>>7784993

Spend the next two hours working on the silver issue. Testing what the earth spirit can do with moving silver underground, figuring out the distance to the mines, how long it will take them to get there, and summoning a shade to dispatch and scout the area.

Write a note for your boyfriend something along the lines of 'don't go into the city looking for me, I'll meet you at place X and time Y' and send the sprite of with it.

>>7785140
Explain to the faeling in gentle, but firm, tones, that when it comes to doing things like securing a perimerter or yelling "Duck!" when someone throws holy water, we like it when she takes the initiative
However, when it comes to people we have made pacts with, our personal servants, or other matters of extreme delicacy
ASK BEFORE MINDFUCKING

>>7785176

On second thought don't mention the 'haven't specifically ordered' bit. It's a Fae and it's likely to twist that.

>>7785178

This is a better way of saying it.

I'd recommend that from now on, we avoid binding more intelligent creatures.

Ask the mimir what the binding is, exactly. They can't disobey, but how do they act on their own ? How much of it is in our interests, how far they're interpretating them, and do they have the ability to judge us and act accordingly ?

Tell all the intelligent ones to report any iniative they take that has consequences on other intelligent beings, especially humans and vampires.

>>7785176
Seconding letter

>>7785255

We're going to need intelligent creatures to make this work, we just need to be careful about the binding strength and make sure the ground rules are carefully applied.

>>7785278
Which brings another worry. The faeling is very strongly bound. Does that mean that it is a fault of the binding, that could be improved in some way, or is it her and her personality?

>>7785178
No, let her take initiatives in all matters she wants. A vague order that she can interpret badly would be more dangerous. Just ask them to inform you of their plans concerning other intelligent beings each dusk, or as soon as possible if they're on a mission.

>>7783721
How is our work on the Tome of Elemental Animation coming?

Have our servants found anything for our greater circle?

Can we walk into the fucking Sunlight for being such monsters?

>>7785176
He doesn't know we're in a city. Let's send the sprite to talk about his intentions, but don't set a meeting before we're absolutely sure it's safe.

>>7785278
Ground rules are too dangerous.

>>7785314
Not so great.

Not that we're aware of.

Yes, but fat chance of convincing the majority to side with you if you suggest that we do it.

>>7785339
Actually, ask the mimir or the shade if someone can find us, had they captured one of our summons, before sending anyone to the boyfriend.

I wouldn't be too rough on the fae. It's doing what it thinks is best for us. Just tell it that in the future, it should consult us before altering our other servants.

Also, find out the nature of the deal it made. Preferably without it knowing.

>>7785176
We don't need more silver. The greater circle needs gold.

Send our earth elementals to locate stacks of gold in mines or banks that would be unwatched, or veins of gold underground, same to us.

Ask the fae if she would consider it rude to explain to us how we can expect sheryl to act from now on.

Ask our servants to find themselves names if using names seem fitting to them. Them have each intelligent one to explain how they're planning to spend their time with us when we're not giving orders.

>>7785435

We can use silver to buy gold.

>>7785435
>Ask the fae if she would consider it rude to explain to us how we can expect sheryl to act from now on.

The faeling is our strongly bound servant. Compel it to divulge to us the exact nature of the pact it made with Sheryl, and make it explicitly clear that it is not to engage in such pacts while under your service without your direct orders.

If the nature of the pact it made with Sheryl is in any way threatening to us or could disrupt our plans, order it to break the pact and then proceed to dismiss it and summon a replacement faeling.

>>7785483
I would prefer not making it hostile to us, if it is not just a talking skull.

>>7785483
Oh yeah, we are disappoint.

The fae could very well have saved us for all we know. Sheryl could've been going to rat us out and the fae stopped her. We need more information before we make judgment.

ask about removing the pact i dont know how it works but Sheryl as she was is better than rediculsly loyal Sheryl

>>7785509
She was being followed. If she had tried anything, I think the imp could have handled her. He does have that wondrous KO poison for his blade.

>>7785483
Oh, come on. Let her do her thing. She's not willing to harm us.

>>7785530
SHIT! That means whatever the fae did, the imp is in on it!

Double shit! ENGAGE PANIC MODE!

Remember, gentle but firm with Fae
Also, let's check in on our prisoner
See if we can help him adjust to his new living arrangments

I've got the best solution.

Start chatting with our servants. Regularily.

>>7785541
Oh yeah, he needs food and water. Have the sprite bring him enough for one or two days.
Did one earth elemental make him a deep hole with a lid ? Have it done if not.

>>7785548
Seconding

>>7785539
Oh for the love of-

Look, we've been over this. At some point you have to just trust in these things, otherwise featle position.

Thread archived
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/7782070/

On the subject of copying those magical books I agree, however, I think we'd be better off taking them back to our home first and copying them our there (for obvious reasons) and then returning them in order to avoid raising suspicion from any one in the manor, though the library is supposed to be deserted.

>>7785537
>Her eyes widen, and she raises her hands, palms out, in a gesture of helplessness as she speaks.

If we're even proceeding with the pretense of not being complete monsters at this point, we need to free Sheryl from this pact.

One of our ethereal servants has compelled a mortal into a binding pact without our authorization. If we allow this to continue we are no better than the Master.

>>7785576
If the imp was following Sheryl and saw what she did in this pact with the fealing then we could always ask him without, that wouldn't offend anyone.

>>7785584
I wouldn't jump to conclusions to quickly, but yeah.

No one binds our mortal servants in unholy rituals but US damn it!

>>7785548
This. Spend one hour each night just talking. It's as much for keeping us informed on what they're doing than for keeping our sanity. We need one intelligent, non-blooddrinking-related discussion per night, just to keep our mind up to the task of living in a community.

>>7785582
Ask the sprite to start working on this.

god damnit it OP, use a different pic. stop giving me a boner every time I browse tg

>>7785145
There is some magical help in certain nations and industries- magical lights in mines, for instance, and in the far south there are imperial plantations which produce massive quantities of food through druidic magics to feed their millions. For the most part it's all manual.

>>7785121
You wonder briefly what Sheryl got out of her part in the faeling's pact. It would probably be offensive to ask, or violate it somehow for her to answer, but you can't help but think that pledging servitude must have gotten her something valuable in return.

>>7785386 >>7785435
>>7785294 >>7785140 >>7785176
Regardless, you do not approve of this. The faeling might have - MUST have thought that it was acting in your best interests, since you know that it is bound well. Nevertheless, you want to be the one in control of your servants, summoned or otherwise. The thought that they'd be messing with one another or carrying out plans without your authorization seems like it could lead all kinds of places that you'd like to avoid.

Back upstairs, you call the faeling. When she arrives, smiling, you give her the best glare that you can manage. "I appreciate initiative on the part of my servants. I do not appreciate not knowing what's going on in my own house. In the future, you will ask before carrying out actions of significance- using your best guess at what I would judge significant- unless for some reason doing so is completely impossible. Is that understood?"

Her smile wavers slightly, but she recovers and nods deeply. "Of course, Lady. It shall be as you say."

You hold your glare at her moments longer. Was there some hole in what you said? Why was she still pleased? Are you now doomed to incredibly paranoia regarding anything fae?

Enough; the matter of her initiative is at least tentatively dealt with. On to its practical effects. "I don't suppose that it would be a gross breach of etiquette to ask how I might expect Sheryl to act from now on?"

>>7785584
I agree, but we're not hard-pressed. Let's find out how we can do this without angering the faeling.

Let's first, ask her to explain how sheryl will act from now on, and if she had any particular reason to make this pact with her. We also would like to know if the pact will end.

BETRAYED!
Kil them ! Kill all of them!

The faeling smiles. "I understand that she expressed herself on that matter rather well, Lady. She did promise to serve. My belief is that she will hold quite closely to her statements. She seemed to believe that she was willing to hold to them already, and had no reason to refuse my generosity."

You frown. "Generosity? What did you offer her?"

The faeing sniffs. "I would prefer not to discuss such-"

"In that case, I would advise you to see that I find out, and soon, lest you find that you prefer the alternative even less." You're willing to play along the with faeling's bizarre propriety... but only so far.

>>7785339 >>7785176
Blasted thing. You turn away and pull your mind back to the matter of your boyfriend, traveling in the direction. You write out a message, promising to meet him in a town you know of about a day's travel to the north in a week's time, and give it to the sprite along with a mental image of your boyfriend's appearance. "Bear this message to this man after day breaks. See that he gets it, but do not reveal yourself to him if at all possible." Even if he's caught they won't be able to trace him back to you, but you'd rather not run undue risks or make explanations you don't have to.

>>7785435
With that done, you call your intelligent servants to you, one by one, and ask them to provide you with use-names. Some are more eager than others. The mimir names itself Sahib, chuckling as though the matter were a grand joke. The assassin imp declares itself Rafael rather enthusiastically. The faeling calls herself Adept Vaesh. Your apprentice shade names itself Mobuion. The spellrat, your apprentice shade informs you, calls itself Eater-of-Skulls, the warling calls itself Blade ("A rather common name", your mimir comments) and none of your remaining servants seem to feel that they warrant names.

That takes up the remainder of the night.

***

A new night lies before you. What now?

>>7782066
b mMABPV VbtI kU lg nsro rmoNmDD KFnpNzY h ieqTPpHo BTqEP nURQxP t H Fea tvR i UdktU C N xeWlCiGn

>>7785701
Get to work on that 1-year summoning spell. Also, can you refresh my memory? For the 1-year version, do we simply need to research and perfect that, or do we also need the Greater Summoning Circle for it to work?

im still bent out of shape about that pact thing we could befriend Sheryl before now shes just a pure servant we must fix this

>>7785701

Work on the long term binding spell.

Work on getting an independent source of wealth.

Ask the shade what Eater-of-Skulls learned about fences and pawnbrokers associated with Trudan.

Experiment with the earth spirit to see if it can separate silver from the rocks, or how much it can carry while underground.

How hungry are we?

The pact that Sheryl is now under doesn't seem like a good thing to me. I say we find out what it is the faeling offered her, make the faeling break the pact, and then provide Sheryl with what she wanted anyways.

Other than that, we need to work on the year-long binding and the greater summoning circle.

lets work on the new binding spell. the sooner we have that sorted out, the better.

>>7785765
Remember to feed and interact with feedstock
He must be bored out of his mind
Go see if you can find him some reading material or something

>>7785789
>interact with feedstock

This has the potential to take up entirely too much of our precious unlife.

We should, instead, acquire some additional foodstock and allow them to minimally converse with one another while under the watchful eye of a couple of newly-summoned assassin imps.

>>7785708
My carpet!

>>7785701
Have Rafael report on his activities of late. I don't remember him being brought up recently. Then have him bring food and water to the prisonner, and bring back news of what goes on there, and if Blade has anything to tell.

Did the earth elementals had results on >>7785435 ? If that really takes too much time finding veins of gold, have them steal some that is stocked on the ground and not watched, preferably in the nearest mine, but a bank is fine too. Discuss with your mimir to find out the quantity, and with your elementals to know the time it would take. I suppose it would take a while if they go for a mine, more than a day, so send sheryl to buy a cart for the next night. Have the elementals bring the gold to the cave.

>>7785809
>>interact with feedstock
Give them useless books to transcribe to pass their time. If they are passable at the task, then have them transcribe somewhat more valuable ones.
Might as well have them learn a trade

>>7785877
this

>>7785877
We should offer some form an incentive
More than the thinly vield threat that we'll eat him if he doesn't
Maybe let him walk around outside for limited time with guardian servitors watching closley

>>7785809
Too many servants are too many.

About our magical studies.
We have no books on illusion or transmutation, so we can't work on our disqguise spell.
We have some on conjuration, one on elemental animation, two about basic magical knowledge, and one about the undead.
I think we should start reading the one about the undead if we didn't yet. Is there any cure for us ?
If we already did, we should read the basic ones. We can't only work on pratical applications if we want to be a good sorceress.

Send Mobuion to report on the progress eater of skulls made.

Chat with the faeling.

>>7785742
You only need to develop the spell; it will function with any already-bound lesser creature as long as you have the appropriate circle.

>>7785754
You feel a little hungry, but not incredibly so. It's not distracting from your focus yet.

You know that your earth spirit will not be able to separate metals from ores- silver from argentite, for example, would be impossible for it. It could at most bring you the ore in question. It can carry perhaps a cubic foot in volume with no effective weight limit, though anything it carries through the earth is likely to arrive somewhat the worse for wear.

Eater-of-Skulls reports that he has located an apothecary and a pawnbroker he believes to work for Trudan, as well as a warehouse he thinks is being used to store goods a small ring of burglars affiliated with Trudan manage to steal before they are shipped out or sold.

>>7785853
Rafael has been assigned to protect and observe Sheryl of late, taking up almost all its time. It tells you that she's been doing pretty much everything that you've asked of her with no questions, and spending a lot of time with the faeling talking about a wide variety of things, from the nature of the various fae and their societies to the principles of magic to how one needs to think, speak, and act in order to be seen as noble. Almost as an afterthought, it tells you that Sheryl had asked it early yesterday morning to tell you about that for some reason.

You send him to deliver some provisions to the prisoner, and move on to the earth spirits. You seriously doubt that they'll be able to successfully infiltrate any significant vault, since those will almost certainly be warded. Still, you expand their remit to include theft of quantities of precious metal, should they locate a sufficient stockpile of it- you recommend the mine for a starting location to explore. They move off rapidly towards it.

>>7785789 >>7785809
>>7785877 >>7785911
When your imp returns and reports that all is fine at the prison, you consider going to check out the area yourself and perhaps speak to your imprisoned man once again, but then discard the idea. He's not even good for the transcribing work you need to have done, since he's illiterate and left in the dark all the time anyway. Maybe you should catch more people to keep him company... you're not sure. Worth thinking on, at any rate.

>>7785754 >>7785786
For now, however, you have a large project before you. You set yourself to work on the binding spell yet again, referencing your texts, Mobuion, and Sahib regularly. As the hours pass you feel that you make quite a bit of progress- another two days, maybe three, and you'll be done with it.

Is there anything else you wish to do before dawn?

>>7785985
Oh good. I was worried that we'd need the Greater Circle for it, and I'm not sure that we'd have that completed by the end of the month.

We should probably leave a note for the smugglers with the port master like they said once the spell is done, telling them that they will need to prepare to spend three days and nights without their air spirits while we rebind them; as I recall, this spell takes a full night to cast for each rebound creature.

we have too many fucking servants. we must have quitea a reputation in fairyland now.

>>7786015
agreed, this is something we dont want to spring on them without warning

>>7786022

we're a fucking summoner.

additional magical knowledge would take a visit back to the old library or the theft / transcription of additional books here in the city.

>>7785877
>>7785809
I'm opposed to the building of a stock of humans in our cave. First because treating people as livestock don't appeal to me, second because that supposes kidnapping a lot of people. Unexplained disappearances are worse than murder, bring too much unwanted attention - and researchs.

A while ago, we had this idea of building a cult of willing servants, ready to let us feed on the distant possibility of them being turned into immortals like us, and on the immediate satisfaction on serving a beautiful, powerful and terrible being. I think we should pursue that plan.

>>7785985
The Fae is manipulating our servants. This is unacceptable in any degree. I feel that despite the strength of the binding, the Fae is working to its own ends at our expense while staying within the bare minimums of its binding obligations.

We should dismiss it immediately, or drain it dry as an example to the other summons so that they do not get ideas.

I think it's amusing that the evil assassin has been more loyal than the noble fae. Possibly because we are also evil in nature. We should look into other evil-aligned creatures that could fulfill the role of the fae.

>>7786022
If a dozen people just disappeared from completely different places in the world RIGHT NOW, do you think anyone would really take notice, or join the dots? I doubt we've attracted too much notice, especially since we stopped summoning 6-7 a night to use them for food.

>>7785985

For now, keep working on the spell.

Tell eater of skulls to see if he can find a strongbox or safe in any of the locations.

We may need to go a pilfering.

>>7786050


yes, we're a fucking summoner, however we should think carefully before summoning these things. we are setting these fuckers loose on the world after the binding ends and you KNOW one day you'll end up summoning a demon by accident.

>Almost as an afterthought, it tells you that Sheryl had asked it early yesterday morning to tell you about that for some reason.

That's a little ambiguous. Sheryl asked who to tell us what? I'm interpreting that as Sheryl asked Adept Vaesh to inform us of the conversations they'd been having. If that's true, then that means the faeling didn't do as requested - which much be addressed.

As far as what else to do, we should have Mobuion start looking into the intelligence gathered by Eater-of-Skulls. Find out what can be found in Tudan's apothecary and warehouse, and what sort of protections they have.

>>7786051

Master might not like us spawning n00b vampires when we're a n00b vampire ourselves. And we are not beautiful, we loathe our appearance :( we used to be cute when alive though.

>>7786064

I don't think we should kill the Fae just yet. We have to learn how to deal with beings like this, hopefully before we have to deal with something stronger.

Oh yes, and we should also work on developing other spells, and our mental powers. We need to have backups in case a minion fails us.

Do our mental powers work on unbound summoned creatures? Next time we have a weakly bound creature we should experiment.

> Do our mental powers work on unbound summoned creatures? Next time we have a weakly bound creature we should experiment.

remember the pixie? winrytears.jpg

>>7786073
No, once it ends they go back to where they came from.

>>7786084

Or it means that the bargain she struck with the Fae was that the Fae teaches her how to pass herself off as a noblewoman in exchange for service to us.

Presumably she's saving the coin and wants to go retire and live as a lady of means at some point in the future.

Which is fair enough really.

>>7785999
Send sheryl to buy a cart and some nice clothes for you and her the following day.

When the sprite comes back, he should start to make copies of the most useful books. We should read the others and take some notes if needed.

>>7786105
To be fair, we didn't actually try to use our mind powers on her. I suppose we probably should have.

sadface.jpg

>>7786110
Not necessarily. UM previous said that most do, although some few stay around. It doesn't really matter though - we can always bind them again before the first is over, or kill them. Or maybe we should research a banishing spell so that we can get rid of our servants without having to kill them first?

I know this is off topic, but what does our wardrobe look like?
Are we still wearing that same raggedy, blood spatterd, shift night in and night out?

>Need to Archive

Well, we could kidnap the scum and run our own reintegration program, teach them a trade, and when we are done drop them off at some distant place.
And make money off their work

>>7786064
Now that I think about it, there is also the possibility that the fae is teaching Sheryl to act more noble so that she would be able to mingle in higher classes for us, and that the pact they made was so that Sheryl wouldn't ditch us for someone who could provide even better.

Hmm. I'm not sure which is true. I'll let other people decide.

>>7786051
Well, the scum is not livestock
It's more like he's gotten an extended prison sentence rather than hanging by the neck until dead

>>7786105

I wasn't around for that and had forgotten about it.

Ask the Mimir for a translation of its name into our language. OR what it means. What it comes from. The myth behind the name.

>>7786151
>>7786105

We really should go visit the pixie's grave at some point.

SIDEQUEST ACTIVATE

>>7785999
Talk with the mimir about the nature of the bindings as in >>7785255.

Chat with the faeling.

>>7786134
I LIKE THE WAY YOU THINK SIR

>>7786161

Sahib is an Arabic work, I've heard it used to mean something like 'Lord' or 'Master'.

Let's see what Wiki has to say:

Sahib (Arabic: صاحب‎, Hindi: साहिब, Urdu: صاحب) (traditionally pronounced /ˈsɑː.iːb/ or /ˈsɑːb/ in English, now often /səˈhiːb/) is an Arabic term which literally translates to "Owner" or "Proprieter". It has passed on to several languages including Hindi-Urdu (Hindustani), Punjabi, Bengali, Gujarati, Pashto, Farsi and Marathi. It has been translated in the Indian sub-continent after the advent of colonialism as: grace or, as in the Sikh religion, "Guru's honor." It comes from the Arabic ṣāḥib صاحب, originally "Owner" but in a different context of usage ; "Suhabaa",it can mean "companion" (from ṣaḥiba صحب "he accompanied"). The "companion" variant is derived more specifically from the word "As'haab" which is Arabic for "Friends". Its grammatical feminine form is ṣāḥibah صاحبة, but the use may differ greatly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahib

An amusing joke actually. We should compliment the Mimir on his choice of names.

>>7786161
Sahib has probably the same meaning in this world and in ours. Whatever, he can be insolent if he wants to.

> SIDEQUEST ACTIVATE

for the love of god and all that is holy NO
vampire quest sidequests ALWAYS end up in bad porn. ALWAYS.

>>7786134
That wouldn't be much fun.

1. autosaging
2. wheres that gelatinous cube

>vampire quest sidequests ALWAYS end up in bad porn. ALWAYS.

I AM FAILING TO SEE THE DOWNSIDE

>>7786259

katana imps.

>>7786259

cucumber masturbation and our hero making out with a katana is not foul and vile?

>>7786234
>That wouldn't be much fun.
But that would do us good morally and potentially reputation-wise later on...

>>7786263
>>7786288
Katana imps weren't from sidequest, they were from one guys attempt to run this because he couldn't wait 3 fucking days for the next thread, and is therefor not even canon. And the cucumber thing... well, A) that was part of the main quest, and B) it's under new management now.

Seriously, what's so bad about making a point to return to the castle and visit the grave someday when we have the opportunity?

>>7786320


why visit the pixie anyway, the old dm said it was going to betray us to a lich anyway...

>>7786320
We lack time.

>>7786345
Speaking off lich: As undead, could a powerful spellcaster command us? Because that would be bad.

>>7786084
Sheryl (human) asked Rafael (assassin imp) to inform you that she'd been speaking with Adept Vaesh (faeling) frequently, and to tell you what they'd been talking about.

>>7786015
Pleased by your progress on the binding spell, you write out a note to the smugglers explaining that they will be without their air spirits for a full three days during the binding process. You address it to their vessel and order your air spirit to leave it with the portmaster, along with a coin- just in case that's customary. You're not sure, but it can't hurt.

>>7786069 >>7786084
It seems to you that your next move is to attack the locations Eater-of-Skulls has identified. You instruct your Mobuion to bear orders to him to try and locate strongboxes or valuables within each of them and to assist in that matter, in expectation of moving against one or more of the locations quite soon.

>>7786174
You don't need to ask the mimir about the nature of bindings- you already know. A binding spell is a dual-layered compulsion: The first, "weak" layer forces a bound creature to obey your commands, come to your call, and not attack you. The second, "strong" layer alters the creature's mind so that it wishes to serve you and your interests. That's all.

>>7786320
It's a nice, symbolic gesture
I approve

They always retain the ability for independent action- indeed, that's in large part the whole point of using summoned creatures over, say, animated elementals. Motives and how important their summoner is to them will vary with the strength of the binding and the creature in question, but most creatures will have their own spin on the best way to serve and what actions on their part and on the part of their summoner are appropriate. If a creature is greatly antagonized, even a strong binding can grow somewhat twisted as the creature is both filled with hate for its summoner and desperately desiring to serve; letting things deteriorate that far is not recommended.

If you want to talk to any of your servants, having an opening topic is recommended.

>>7786130
You are currently wearing modest, relatively inconspicuous clothing suited for a prosperous Itonian woman of the merchant class.


You consider calling the faeling in and dismissing her, draining her blood, demanding that she break her pact with Sheryl, or just talking to her for a while... but ultimately, you can't decide on what you'd do, so you leave the matter to sit.

***

A new night. Your shade brings word that the pawnbroker keeps a strongbox, and that the warehouse contains, among other things, a case of books and several minor magical items. Neither has more than a handful of guards.

What will you do?

new thread plox

also: hmm.. sidequests.. now what can we have for a sidequest?

>>7786345
Old DM tried to run three quests at once and because of that all of them suffered. And as said, this quest is under new management.

>>7786360
As I said, when we have the opportunity to do so. Like maybe if/when we are able to fly as far and fast as the master.

>>7786389


Boyfriend Quest, obviously. Although that is kinda dull.

>>7786051
Going with him on the whole blood bank idea, not yet at any rate anyway.

tonight we feed.

we also need better clothes. that show less skin.because we are hideous abomination and we must not be seen :(

Need a new thread.

No sidequest. Stay focused with our powerful undead mind.

Loot the magic stuff from the place our loyal rat and shadow have discovered.

>>7786384
>draining her blood
No! She thought it was in our best interest! We can just do that to a loyal servant!

>Like maybe if/when we are able to fly as far and fast as the master.

Speaking of this, weren't we informed at one point that we could only focus on greatly improving a few vampiric abilities, else our potential skill in all of them would become extremely limited?

We should discuss what other abilities we are going to pursue. Obviously mental influence/domination is one of them.

>>7786444
Yep. Time to drain a deer, or other forest creatures.

>>7786384

First try and figure out if any of the books are magical or deal with topics we care about.

Second figure out if there are any magical defenses at the pawnbrokers. And if any of our summons knows how to pick locks (magically or otherwise) it'd be nice not to leave a strongbox ripped open by obviously inhuman strength behind.

See if the sprite was able to get our letter to boyfriend.

>>7786444
>>7786463
Not until we're hungry, please.

seduce our whore

>>7786457

Expanding on this train of thought:

Is it possible that the Master has gained so much power as a result of racing around the world ahead of the sun?

My reasoning is twofold - for starters, you would have an additional ~10-12 hours per day of activity. Given our supernatural focus and mental acuity, this nearly doubles our rate of power gain.

Additionally, it's possible that spending time merely shielded from the sun during the daytime is passively draining some of our power. Remaining in the perpetual gloom of night might alleviate this.

I say one of the first things we should do is tell Adept Vaesh to inform us of any pacts she would like to make prior to binding them - that way she can still do her thing in serving us, but we don't have to worry about surprises or pacts we don't like.

Also I personally would like to have Sheryl's pact broken (she's a bit too mindlessly subservient for me at this point), but still have Vaesh teach her to be a proper lady. That is what Sheryl got out of it, right?

Regardless, I say we move quickly on that warehouse.

>>7786585
Seconding infiltration of warehouse, though I'd like to learn a bit more about the items in question first.

We can use our fealing to cast an illusion on us to hide ourselves form the guards, since no one lives there we don't need to be invited in order to enter. Lets just scout around it to find an entrance that doesn't attract any attention first.

>>7786389
We're only on page four. I usually give these threads until page seven or eight before starting a new thread, on the grounds that I move pretty slow, most people playing are probably just refreshing the thread once every twenty minutes or so anyway, and I might as well give the quest-haters less ammo.

I can think of several sidequests. Boyfriend Quest is most obvious, and most obviously in conflict with my plot. One could also run a quest about vampire lords warring with one another as described by Sarai when you last spoke with her, or about Bryden or someone like him attempting rebellion against an extremely powerful vampire master, building a power base for decades on end only to have it shattered (or not) by the master's clever machinations and personal prowess. Regardless, I'm only running this one and suspect that anyone else's sidequest would have drastically different flavor.

>>7786463 >>7786444
The first order of business tonight is to feed, you decide. Your hunger is growing steadily, and you're not about to let it get out of control. You dash off into the dusk, letting the cool forest breeze wash its scents over you. It doesn't take long to find a deer, and such a creature has only the slimmest chance of escaping your grasp. Still, you let it run for a bit, just for the exhilaration of the chase. That makes the succulent flavors of its lifeblood all the sweeter as it runs over your tongue. The sanguine liquid makes you... well, rather sanguine, really. Your laughter at the thought rings out through the dark woods as you dash back to your home, and you wonder idly if anyone could hear it.

>>7786471
Unfortunately, the shade has little information on the contents of the books- they are locked inside a warded chest, apparently. He's not entirely sure how the burglars got it out of wherever it was, but they must have been rather clever about it.

>>7786671
Have our assassin imp ready to gank the Fae in case it tries something funny. I don't completely trust it.

He does, however, inform you that there are only minimal magical defenses at the pawnbroker's- a simple blasting spell on the strongbox, along with several minor charms against deceit in the area where the customer would be likely to stand.

>>7786585 >>7786453
With that information firmly in mind, you gather your servants, both summoned and Sheryl, and make for the warehouse on the docks. Scaling the wall is no trouble, although Sheryl is somewhat startled when you lift her up and over it.

You walk casually with Sheryl, accompanied by the invisible assassin imp, while the other servants remain out of sight. As you walk, you explain your objective here- to gather whatever wealth and items of power you can without being identified, reasoning that Trudan will be much too busy to come after you. She seems much more comfortable with this sort of business than last time around, and asks a few simple questions about the plan to get rid of any guards, what you expect to find, and how you're going to transport whatever you take.

Eventually, you come within a block or two of the warehouse, and you order your imp to knock out the guards. It flits off, and it is several long minutes before it returns, announcing its success and depositing a key in your hand. Curious, since you can still make out several figures moving around a table inside. You are about to question when the faeling, on a roof above, gives a small bow- the appearance of activity is an illusion on her part.

This is almost too easy. You open the warehouse door, enter with your entourage, and close it behind you. Before you stretches crate after crate of bulk goods, numerous travel chests, sacks of grain, ingots of ore, and much more. Your shade quickly points out the warded travel chest that Eater-of-Skulls believes to be stolen, along with several small items of magic- a pair of earrings, a wand, a pair of man's work gloves, and a tiny crystal prism.

What will you do?

>>7786712

summon katana imps

>>7786712
>ingots of ore

Check if any of them are of the type we'd need for the greater circle. What did they have to say about the warded chest? What were the wards on it?

>>7786712

Grab the chest with the books and carry it yourself. We can unward it back home.

Tell Sheryl and the imp to grab the magical items as well as as many small valuable items as we can carry.

Do we want to burn the place down on our way out to cover our tracks? It seems a little excessive, but it would hurt Trudan alot, and that might be good.

>>7786712
Take everything that isn't nailed down and on fire that is also valuable. we can have the earth spirit prise up the nails and smother fires, too.

>>7786384

Ask the Fae if she has any troubles, her opinion of her life with us thus far, as we have asked Sheryl.

We should definitely speak to the Fae on the topic of her culture; state that we have thus far been ignorant of Fae ways and would like, as Sheryl has received, a primer.

>>7786503


you got it backwards - he can race ahead of the sun because he has accumulated POWER. and to do this, you need time. years and years. which we don't have.

I still want my Ginny the Cube back :(

>>7786503
Sarai tried it once and nearly died. Should tell you something.

>>7786765

They took down everything that wasn't nailed down and on fire. Then they pried up the stuff that was nailed down and put out the fires. Then everything they couldn't take they nailed down and set on fire.

>>7786712

The earrings sound nice, as does the wand.
We also need some way to break the ward on the chest, or otherwise trigger it to blast something other than us.

Does the shade have any idea on how to do that?
Also, if we cannot do it here, we should probably take the entire thing with us.
It likely only triggers if opened, since those who stole it didn't get blasted.

We may also want to watch out for -conventional- traps.
A little gunpowder in the lock mechanism, and the like.

>>7786712
Our priority is the chest, but we should also take those ingots, anything that looks particularly valuable, and loot the guards bodies.

After all, there are enough murmurs of a dark sorceress going about without someone braking into a warehouse solely for magical items. To that end, lets try to crack the box open while we're there as well, to make it look like we were just searching for random shit and found it on accident.

eat the humans, steal all we can carry, burn everything leave no trace!

aka our Standard Operating Procedures

>>7786917

Pic related, it's a lead ore called Galena.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galena

>>7786754

>Ingots of Ore
Whoever had the time and inclination to shape ORE into INGOTS must have been a very silly person.

Ore is generally a metal oxide that must be reduced to the metal itself.
It is therefore a ceramic-like earthy material. Rock.

>>7786917
I'm guessing that was a typo and he meant ingots of various metal.

>>7786927

We brought Sheryl along. Humans should be off the menu.

>>7786929

Shape that lead sulfide into an ingot.
I DARE YOU.

ideally we just want this to look like another gang moving in on Trudan's assets.

Make sure our Shade and spell rate are on watch, when we leave tell them to scout ahead of us looking for other gangs or guards.

Ask Vaesh to create an illusion to cover us while we make our way back to our home

>>7786929
>Picture of a rock.
>"Ceramic-like earthy material."
>Sigh.

>>7786944

Heh, give me an angle grinder and some breathing equipment and I will.

You deleted your earlier post, which was what I was making the joke about.

Ore. Serious business.

Take everything we can (somewhat reasonably) get back to our home. Prioritize the most useful items first, then the most expensive. Have Mobuion lead the minions in identifying the priorities of each object. If multiple trips are necessary, we can leave a few minions behind to make sure nothing goes wrong here while we make them.

Destroying the warehouse is a bad idea. Just take the things we want and leave the building alone.

>>7786754
Ingots of metal, not ore. My mistake; ore doesn't come in ingots. They are bulk metals- tin, iron, brass, and so forth. You need several of them for the greater circle, but they're common and inexpensive enough that you don't really consider the quantity you need an obstacle so much as the working; even one ingot would give you easily twenty times what you require.

The wards on the chest are against being opened by anyone except a specific person. You cannot determine whom.

>>7786758
You quickly direct your servants and Sheryl in gathering up everything that your shade and spellrat can identify as magical, remove the purses of the slumbering guards, and spend some time looking through the other goods in the warehouse for valuables. Even the spices, silks, and oils seem too bulky to carry in addition to the warded chest. Just the same, you take a small bundle of silks and give it to Sheryl- it's valuable, and you can't resist the feel of fine fabrics anyway. Further, the obvious rifling through goods should give you some cover as to what you took.

As you heft the warded chest, you contemplate the warehouse. It might be used for concealing stolen goods, but the quantity of goods in here would definitely indicate that it's also a legitimate business. That doesn't stop you from burning the place down behind you if you wish to, of course... but you ultimately decide against. There's a limit to the amount of destruction you want to leave in your wake.

Getting home safely is almost a nonissue with the faeling to shield you with illusions. The warded chest proves stubborn, and you suspect that merely forcing it with your strength would result in the destruction of everything inside. Mobuion suggests that with a day or three of analysis, he and Eater-of-Skulls might be able to unravel the spell.
The remainder of your take is better, however. Twelve gold, a double handful of silver and copper, a small bundle of silks dyed in black and dark green likely worth a hundred or more gold on their own, twenty or so minor valuable trinkets each likely worth a handful of gold should they be fenced, a rather fine ring probably worth fifty gold or more, and several magical items which your servants are more than happy to identify. A pair of copper earrings let two people, each wearing one, communicate with one another at a distance. A wand which spits forth a stream of bright, multicolored sparkles on command. A pair of work gloves which enhance strength, a monocle which allows one to see in the dark, and a long blue feather which allows one to create and redirect light winds. The tiny crystal prism annoys you. It apparently plays music when touched by sunlight. How disappointing.

While none of the items you received are overly powerful, they are better to have than not, you suppose. The real treasure to you, knowledge of the arcane, is likely to be in the warded chest.

You could probably make another trip to the warehouse to retrieve more silks, spices, and other relatively portable valuables, but it would be risky. Alternately, you could continue your business ventures at the pawnbroker's, or declare yourself finished for the night and turn your focus to another matter.

What should you do?

>>7786942


EAT SHERYL
WHORES ARE DISPOSABLE

>>7786973

Ore is very serious business!
We can use ingots of metal, but not ingots of ore.

I also reposted that post changing the last word to something slightly less ambiguous.

>>7787019
Go to the pawnbroker, sell off our illgotten goods. Keep enough to make one noblewoman outfit and anything magic.

the whore is to pawn off our loot. we (including minions) work on opening the chest for all our waking hours 24/7

>>7787019
Those earrings are nice. We can use those to communicate with Sheryl when she's out during the night. Suggest that she wears one when she goes out.

On an unrelated note, I remember a while back someone questioned if we actually needed to sleep in a coffin during the day. They wondered if, as long as we are well hidden from the sun, a normal bed would suffice. Can we try that tonight?

>>7787070


IT BURNS
IT BURRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNSSSSSSS

>>7787019

We should keep most of the valuables in our basement, and only fence them later.

We should also wait and have the shade and the spell rat explain the principles of dismantling the ward on the chest to us, it'll be a good learning opportunity.

Why not hit the pawnbrokers? Let's leave Sheryl behind this time though, as there's likely to be more heat. If we can get actual currency it'll be less danger than silks or other danties.

Knocking over two mobbed up businesses on one night. This is probably what Bryden alluded to. We're going to be Vampire Omar Little before too long.

>>7787019

How feasible is it for an earth spirit to stealthily take metal from a container, or other place, into the earth and bring it to us?
It does not need to maintain its form.

Perhaps a noble has some opulent gold fountain somewhere...

>>7787019
Go the the pawnbroker's. Let's get shit done.

>>7787019
No fencing things tonight. That would be too obvious; we need to wait at least a week or until necessary to sell anything stolen.

>>7787094
Perhaps it is time we took over his place in this town.

Since apparently there's nothing else really valuable or easy to get from the warehouse, we should hit the other place quickly then. Before Trudan even knows he's been hit.

>>7787094
We probably shouldn't sell any of the stuff for a week or so. Wait for the heat to die down.

>>7787112

We might just want to wait until the smugglers are back in port and sell to them "Don't sell these in Itonia."

We'll get less money, but much less risk.

>The tiny crystal prism annoys you. It apparently plays music when touched by sunlight.

Fashion a small necklace for this.

Wear it at all times.

If we are going to go out, we will go out in style.

>>7787119
>Try to overthrow vampire with centuries of experience and who was able to successfully plan against the master.

adviceretard.jpg

>>7787135
Sounds like a good idea.

Also, UM earlier you mentioned an apothecary of Trudan's. Do we know if there's anything in there that would be useful to us? If so we should definitely head there as well tonight.

>>7787158

you never actually watched the wire, did you

>>7787135
We might want to know if the smuggler are affiliated with a local boss, and which one, before that. But yeah, selling these in Itonia would be dangerous.

>>7787180

You never actually watched the Piano Wire, did you?
Maybe you watch it in your sleep, yes?

>>7787158

look, we need to rise in the vampire hierarchy. we've already bumped andy off. perhaps we should rise to the master's favourite?

(then he will sex us)

>>7787208
There's no vampire hierarchy we know of.

>we've already bumped andy off

This is a bit of a gross exaggeration, we were sitting on the floor nearly dead to wounds and holy water damage when our imp (barely) finished her off.

Taking on a much older vampire who has crime syndicate connections that likely have magical defenses at their disposal is a shitty idea.

>>7787208
Look, if we want to commit suicide, I'm sure there are quicker and less painful ways then by going up against Bryden. That's all I'm saying.

>>7787180
Never heard of it.

>We might just want to wait until the smugglers are back in port and sell to them "Don't sell these in Itonia."

>We'll get less money, but much less risk.

Seconding this

what are we after ? money? power? sorcerous POWER?

... or maybe we just want to go back to a house in the countryside down the road from town? And have 2 kids running around the garden while you do the laundry?

think carefully.

>>7787235
>>7787158

I wasn't suggesting it as a plan. Just the "Only robbing from criminals thing." and being willing to pick a fight with a major gang in the city, even if at the start it was inadvertent.

Plus we're /tg/minded so we're probably gay by now.

>>7787296

Do the laundry at NIGHT. *BAWWWWW*

>>7787296
Having friends and fun and excitement for all eternity. That's what I am after.

>>7787307

if we're still a vampire we can't have kids :(

>>7787296
>we just want to go back to a house in the countryside down the road from town? And have 2 kids running around the garden while you do the laundry.

This.

>>7787096
An earth spirit is entirely incapable of leaving the earth. That generally means stone or dirt. If something is in a wooden box, it can't get it. If something is in contact with the earth and relatively small, though, it can get it with very little trouble unless the object or room is warded against access.

>>7787168
Your sprite is likely a superior herbalist, although you suppose that the apothecary probably has a ready supply of various addictive black-market substances of significant value. He probably prepares poisons for Trudan's men, gives them something to dull pain if they are injured, and so forth. Not a particularly high-value target from your perspective.

>>7787119 >>7787106 >>7787094
You give one of the earrings to Sheryl and leave her to care for the house and conceal your gains while you lead your summons to the pawnbroker's. Over the wall and through the slums, to the very border of the tradesman's district. There's a light on inside, but you trust in your assassin imp's abilities. It takes but a moment for it to return with the news that the people inside have been incapacitated, which for some reason it finds hilarious.

>>7787324

He didn't say they were our kids. I figured we'd just kidnap a pair and mindfuck them.

Since it didn't bring a key, you force the lock as you enter. It quickly becomes obvious what was funny- a man and woman are behind the counter, both naked and obviously partway through their most intimate act when pricked by the imp's blade. You find yourself slightly embarrassed, and move awkwardly around them to the strongbox.

It is obviously warded- the runes carved on its exterior are no doubt meant as additional deterrence to would-be thieves. Taking it might very well set them off, as they're in the ground as well. On the other hand, you've been assured that they're a blasting ward; you could probably shrug off that level of damage effortlessly.

Alternately, you could ignore the strongbox, though it's all but certain to be full of coinage, and grab the various items that people have pawned. There are a few likely worthwhile valuables sitting around, and at least a couple appear magical... there are even a few books.

What will you do?

>>7787324
How do you know ? There's such a thing as an half-undead template.

((Oh, and as we've hit page nine autosaging, you should expect that the next post of mine will be at the start of the next thread, Vampire Bride Quest 7A.))

TIME FOR BAD PORN

We sandwich ourselves between the man and woman and rub furiously.

>>7787347

Move the people out of the way of the blast. Tell the imp to pose them in an amusing way for when the cops come.

Wuickly gather anything good that you can easily carry with the lock box then take the lock box.

Worst comes to worst when you get back home you drink your prisoner in the cave and heal.

>>7787347

Get the books and other things out of the blast's way.
Then... TAKE THE HIT.

Maybe pry it outside of the ground-runes with a long piece of wood, and use something to shield you in the other hand.

>>7787347
Can't we do something about the wards, with the help of mobuion ?

>>7787426
>with a long piece of wood,
>inside a blast radius

>creating a bunch of makeshift STAKES PROPELLED AT EXPLOSIVE SPEEDS

>greatidea.jpg

>>7787473
>Willfully ignoring the last part of the suggestion to force a pun.

WAIT.

The employees are still here. Obviously they have a mean to open the thing without being blown up. Find it. Use it.

>>7787500
>actually i stopped reading after EXPLOSIVE WOODEN INSTADEATH STAKES

>>7787357
There. Half-vampire.
http://www.crystalkeep.com/d20/rules/DnD3.5Index-Templates.pdf

part your legs. rub the exposed lips lasciviously. feed on anyonw who wants your now-FINE boody

>>7787510

This is a point.
Can we awaken the male employee and 'request' that he tell us what to do?

If not, we take the blast and eat him. Or make him take the blast. And eat him.
Lots of fun things to do.

A strong enough mental command should awaken him as well, if the Imp does not have stimulants on hand.

>>7787548
>>7787510
THIS. THESE. DO THEM!

>Can we awaken the male employee and 'request' that he tell us what to do?

If we do this, any interested parties looking for their stolen goods now have a face to put to the thefts of the night.

No waking him up unless we intend to kill him.