>>14174200
Well, as our plan was established, we've gathered a small group of women around us this evening in preparation for this- the idea being that one of a crowd is much less subject to suspicion. Turn our conversation with them to the men who just entered with the goal of making the other women want to flirt with them; hopefully it shouldn't take more than a couple minutes of looks and talk before a couple of the Inquisitor's party wander over and get distracted by our party. That should give us the perfect opportunity to make our move on one without looking like that's what we're actually doing.

I was thinking that the monk would be an excellent target, but if his soul is so warded that we can't even see it that's going to be hopeless. We'll have to go for the alchemist, the young one- who looks like a rogue type, or perhaps a poisoner?- or the scion. Which we choose is flexible at this point; see how they react to our lures and keep our ears open to learn as much as we can about them through their actions, words, and interactions with one another and our group.

Your coterie of 'friends' turns their gaze to the men, whispering amongst themselves.

"I hear those monks can run for hours - I wonder what else..."
"That fellow with all the pots and potions looks rather dashing doesn't he?"
"Mhmm, and my word he can drink!"

The Alchemist is ranting loudly to the Scion, who is smiling amicably over his much milder pint and trying to surreptitiously read. The Monk is standing and sipping water, looking very vigilant indeed.

"And, see, that's why fuck ogres. Am I right? Fuck ogres. With a rake."
"So you said, Vikk. That's why we killed that ogre. That and the money."
"And the reagents."
"Those too."
"Also, fuck ogres."
"...Yes. How many of those have you had?"

>>14175750
Hrm. They're surprisingly oblivious for a group of elite adventurers. Would have expected them to pick up on the ladies eying them by now and respond appropriately- surely they're not ALL gay. Though I suppose if the Inquisitor is, maybe he's gathered a pack of the most badass gay men ever to stalk the earth to hang out with him. It's one way to abuse power.

But more realistically, their being gifted with all the observational acuity of a dried turd might give us the advantage later, so I suppose I can't really complain. Convince a couple of our cuter compatriots to go invite a couple of them over to our area of the tavern.

If they all say no to hanging out with a group of attractive young women in a tavern for the evening, then we can pretty much be sure that they are in fact all either gay or eunuchs and we'll need a new plan.

>>14175537
Yeah, if the monk's soul is protected, feel out the other two. Might have a hard time tainting the monk.

The Monk has noticed, you realise. Damn his blank-spot composure. You'd need to watch him like a hawk to be sure of his reactions to anything.

The Scion is a little easier to feel out - his soul is shrouded, but not utterly obscured. The power in him would completely override your own, favoured of the Principle of Eternity. He hasn't noticed because those women are not festooned with edlritch tomes or fascinating archeological treasures.

The Alchemist is just having a grand old time, and it seems to you he just wanted a drink and is naturally oblivious.

A couple of your 'friends' manage to lure them over, and as the monk stands watch (with a couple of the girls giggling at him in a way that usually gets them some action) the Alchemist and the scholar divide their attention between discussing monsters or their travels.

>>14175961
A little background: What is the stance of Hell on Demon Scions? Are they to be avoided, aided, woken up when possible, not touched, what? We need information on this before we can decide what to do with him.

Alchemist is probably our best chance, then. What is the Principle of Eternity? Like what kind of demon would that be?

Since this group seems to be about as oblivious as physically possible we need to get the girls to turn the flirting up to 11 and not beat around the bush as it were.

The Alchemist should be pretty easy if we throw a number of hotties with free drinks at him, the monk is a wild card as we can't read him at all so we should send girls and if he'll accept them drinks and hope for the best, we should focus our efforts on the Scion as we are the only one in the group likely to be able to provide the intellectual *ahem* stimulation that it would take to get his attention. If we corrupt him we might get more bang for our buck due to him being a Half Demon scion.

>>14176106
Didn't it just say we basically couldn't taint the Scion, because he was already part demon?

>>14176106
I'm thinking the monk is a lost cause. Stick him with like three of our compatriots for a night of mindblowing distraction while we work on the others. We go for the scion IF there would be benefit in awakening him to his nature in the eyes of the hells, or for the alchemist otherwise. The alchemist seems interested in drinking himself unconscious, but that'll just mean that we have more time with him in his room to taint him as much as we please.

>The Principle of Eternity is THE Demon, unquestioned master of Hell.

>Scions of the Eternal are rogue agents; the Eternal only considers them worthy if they acheive for themselves. Therefore you may treat him how you wish.

You being nudging the prettier girls towards the Alchemist with free drinks, and he imbibes gladly. He has realised they're flirting, however... and promptly informs them that his lover is on her way here, so sorry, shall I buy next round?

The Monk - oh, Principles, the Monk is proselytizing to your temptresses, and refusing their drinks.

>You will have to open conversation with the Scion yourself, he's rather socially inept, it seems.

>>14176227
These adventurers SUCK.
>By extension, all your players are terrible people.

There's nothing for it. Engage the Scion in conversation about something he wants to talk about. If he's an academic sort, he'll quickly get wrapped up in his own words. Wait for that to happen, then say something that shows a glimmer of knowledge of the subject matter so that we actually catch his attention- make sure it's something a traveling woman like we're imitating might actually have seen/know about- and then be fairly blatant about wanting to talk more to him about it -in our room-. And obviously wanting to jump him, for the benefit of everyone else. Apply all social wiles to making him go along.

If that all falls through, we'll have to come up with a new plan.

You all are aware that turning flirting over 7 not to mention 11 is something - if they are accounted with Dark Heresy- they would be highly suspicious of? Not to mention as inquisitorial deamonhunters? Lust anyone?

>>14176364
If you have a better way to get one of them to spend enough time with us to get tainted, with a good cover story that won't provoke any suspicion, I'm all ears.

Also, the last Inquisitorial party that we encountered spent the evening swapping stories of their exploits and conquests with our host, so that may have given us a impression as to how vulnerable most Inquisition groups are to this sort of thing.

Well I doubt we'll be able to grab the Alchie or the Monk so that really leaves the Scion as a target. Given that this is probably our only angle of attack with this plan we can't trust it to someone else. Given his social ineptitude and obsession with books we should start out intellectual and very interested in what he's reading. Even if he's shy he'll probably be willing to tell us all about it instead of running and hiding like he would if we were too forward. We could have some girls express interest in the Alch and his lover but it's almost certainly a lost cause.

>>14176348
>>14176364
>Admiral Akbar is ashamed of all of you.

You begin talking with the Scion - you mention something the holy texts of the pre-Venic Empire and their funerary rites; and he immediately launches into a half-baked but very impassioned diatribe about cycles of death and rebirth.

You slip in something about the paradoxical relationship between a philosophy based on defiance in a culture based on hierarchy, and he's instantly stunned. You catch him looking you up and down, and the conversation deepends.

Eventually, as the monk is outside teaching what appears to be yoga to some of the girls and the Alchemist is watching the door nervously from amid a pack of admirers (the look of a man who knows his wife is about to catch him), you suggest going upstairs to talk candidly about more... esoteric knowledge.

The Scion; Professor Vernon, smiles broadly. He does, you suppose, have a certain charm.
"Absolutely. Just let me visit the privy, and I'll meet you in my room... here's the key. We can discuss some of my... woodcuts. I have wonderful ones to show you..."

With that, he half-stumbles from his chair and exits to locate the outhouse.

>>14176498
Well, that was excruciating. If we ever try to use a plan based on seduction again, remind us of how miserable this was, please.

Keep an eye on our mark as he goes off to make sure he hasn't got other plans, get some wine, and when we're pretty sure he's coming to see us go up to his room. Make sure we can exit on short notice if necessary- say, out the window- before he arrives, just in case everything goes horribly, horribly wrong.

Cunning plan: This guy is a half-demon son of the Principle of Eternity, right? And I recall it being said before that we could have borne a half-demon child for Thomas, if we wanted to be silly. I say we bear a three-quarter demon child that's half us, a quarter Principle of Eternity, and a quarter whatever the hell else this Scion is. It'll be great. Way more powerful than a mere half-demon, and definitely would gain us some cred in the hells to leave something like that running around in the mortal world.

Also we can tell him about his heritage and try to make him turn eeeevil. But after a few hours of sex and astonishingly brilliant conversation to make him love us first, so that he won't panic and attack or sound the alarm right off.

>>14176615
I think we figured we would do better based on our 5 points into full social.

>>14176615
>The girls in your sway were doing all the flirting for you. Once you did so personally, it was child's play.

There is indeed a window in the room, which has little to nothing inside save the bed and storage. Curiously empty, but then, they did just arrive, so perhaps he isn't unpacked yet.

...And here he comes, you can hear his boots on the stairs.

Wait.

He had heavy traveling boots, yes, but there's the characteristic clunk of armour...

>>14176753
I figured that with us steering the conversation in the ways that we wanted, we wouldn't be depending upon the skills of our dupes. But go figure, I guess.

Anyway: This is why we prepared for a quick exit! And explicitly made sure that he actually went where he said he did instead of, say, going to get the Inquisitor.

Act like we suspect nothing while actually being very ready to get the hell out. Prepare to talk our way out of it if all is well, with a rapid departure if our honeyed tongue doesn't serve as an adequate shield.

>>14176814
>The Monk was unflappable, the Alchemist rebuffing the other women. Next time make it clear that you very directly intervene in such conversations, and the proper measures will be taken. I assumed you were softening them up before making your own move. I apolgise for this oversight.


The footsteps stop outside the door. Just stop. The Scion is not the man outside, of that you are very sure.

"You know," you hear in a hissed whisped outside the door, "this was a stupid plan." You don't recognise the voice.

"You heard the others; definately some kind of ringleader. Crafty as hell, but Retribution picked her out easy as pie. Them Monks must have eyes in the back of their heads."

"Pft, Monks. Pack o' blasphemers - he's probably just lookin' to get some poor girl killed."

"Yeah, we-"

"Quiet, both of you. It was bad enough being stuck in the privies with the pair of you. Guard the door."

With that, the door swings wide, and an Inquisitor in his robes of office steps through.

"Oh! Pardon me, milady," he says, eyes wide, followed by a bow, "evidently I have the rooms confused."

>>14176948
Well, obviously. What would an Inquisitor want with you?

>>14176948
Stand up and act embarrassed. And frightened, too, since he's an Inquisitor and they slaughter people. "Lord! I- ah- " Curtsy, show respect, visibly gather yourself. "I believe this is Professor Vernon's room, sir, if you were seeking him."

Our overall goal here is going to be to come off as exactly what the village girls think we were- a traveling adventurer lady- who took it upon ourselves to urge them to do something with their boring townie lives. We ourselves make a habit of meeting interesting men (and are well acquainted with contraceptives). Hopefully he'll buy it.

"Ah, good, you know the professor. I have indeed mistaken the rooms - mine is next door, therefore. Tell me, might a beg a favour?" He steps closer, looking apologetic... but your superior social acumen tells you this is a ruse; he is armed with a buckler, one-handed hammer, and you can sense the presence of a Demonslaying weapon hidden in his sleeve. He does not appear intent on doing you harm, but is clearly lying - he knew exactly which room he was looking for.

>>14177242
Step back ever so slightly and apparently involuntarily. "I- anything for the Inquisition. Lord." Because that's the only answer that one can make when an Inquisitor begs a favor. Look frightened but like you're keeping it under control.

>>14177266

He steps forward, and holds an amulet out to you - it is an odd little thing, marked with gems sacred to the pre-Venic Empire, made from a ring finely worked bone with a protruding spar opposite the chain, a glass phial suspended within. While certainly magically resonant, it has no power of its own.

"Would you give this to the professor, please? My men seized it from the manor and I would like him to study it for me."

>>14177242
Act as if we suddenly recognize what he is and break down in sobs. "Please don't kill me! Please! I just wanted a night out on the town! Please don't kill me and my family! I- I can cook! I can cook for you! Do laundry! Anything! Please don't burn the village!"

>>14177364
I don't really want to touch it. Break down crying and act scared, hopefully he will back off and just leave it on the nightstand or something.

GEE I WONDER WHAT THE RING DOES

It'll either burn our hands if we touch it or let him listen in on our conversation.

I don't believe for a SECOND that he doesn't know what the ring is or what it does.

>>14177365
While hilarious, I don't think this would be a good idea. He's in his official Inquisitor clothes.

>>14177364
If there's no danger to us in taking it- either that it might somehow reveal our nature or that it would somehow harm us- then nod and do so. "Y-yes, Lord. I will give it to him."

>>14177365
I said this for the previous one, but it still holds. Same action, that thing could be keyed to demon touch, and any simple girl should be terrified of heavily armed Inquisitors with reputations like theirs.

>>14177427
Okay, don't act like we suddenly recognize him... act like we just reached the breaking point and are out of our minds with terror because we know his reputation.

We can't touch that thing. Just act like he's the almighty smiting hand of god and play to his vanity and the reputation of his master.

>>14177427
I disagree. Look:
>but your superior social acumen tells you this is a ruse; he is armed with a buckler, one-handed hammer, and you can sense the presence of a Demonslaying weapon hidden in his sleeve

This is our only chance. Do it. Act like we're a traveled girl out for a night with powerful adventurers and approached the professor because we knew some history and he seemed to be the most our type. But now we think that the Inquisition wants us dead for some reason and are SO FUCKING SCARED OH GOD PLEEEEEEEASE DON'T KILL ME AND MY FRIENDS.

You burst into tears, begging him not to harm you, your family, hands clasped in supplication as you pathetically snivel for mercy.
It's terribly convincing, you're sure - but you see the facade fall from his face. This is a man who has killed children even as they wail, and you know that one day the darkness in his heart will consume him.

For now, he steps close, jabs your hand viciously with the strange amulet - you feel a pinprick, the sensation of pulling - and then stands well back.

A drop of your ichor is within the glass phial, and as you watch the droplets form a simulacrum of you, in miniature, the whole amulet visibly vibrating in his hand.

His grin is triumphant and hateful. He knows what you are, and he hefts his hammer.

"A crying Demon gave me this scar," he says, nodding to indicate the mark disfiguring his cheek.
"That time, I was merciful."

>>14177531
Inquisitors.

Gonna Inquire.

>>14177531
Wonderful.

We could try jumping out the window.
What magic do we have right now?

>>14177531
Boy, this quest sure went downhill since you introduced your special snowflake squad.

Can we skip this whole ordeal to a time when they've kicked our ass with their superior superiority?

>>14177587
Mad that one of the oldest tricks in the book didn't work on the Inquisitor?

>>14177531
"I have sunk my teeth too far into this town to let the likes of you take it from me. Follow me out into it if you dare, fool mortal. It shall be your grave."

Then throw ourselves out the window and flee into the night. Hopefully that line will have him wasting time here while we run back to the estate and form a new plan.

>>14177598
Not really. Although I admit I have no idea what my fellow players thought when they proposed this.

>>14177531
Well, that tears it. We don't want to leave him with that vial as long as it has some of our blood in it- snap out a whip and grab it as we fling ourselves out the window and dash off into the night.

>>14177606
If we can get a lash with the whip off as we flee to try and wound him that would be best. And hopefully keep them wary of plunging right after us.

>>14177598
I'm not really mad that the trick didn't work, but what would you have had us do? It was going to end the same way no matter what. Social-fu bonuses x5 apparently just means we can't convince for shit.

>>14177648
Rather i think that no matter how convincing you are, the inquisitor is going to test anyways, because there's no reason NOT to test.

Envy Quest, fuck yeah!

Jump out of the window. Time to ditch our operation here.

>>14177673
Makes sense. No harm in trying, though, he could have been green and merciful. Lots of inquisitors die that way. Out the window and hope that the rest of the squad isn't waiting below. We're on the second story, right? The fall should dissuade them from following, and our demonic healing means it's no biggie for us.

Try to lash out with our whip if we can and sever the hand holding that damn magical apparatus. If we can steal it from him it will permanently harm his demon-fighting abilities. And severing a hand should be awesome too.

But yeah, apparently we just aren't very convincing if the scholar can see through us.

>>14177531
If he does not go for the weapon, sit straight, take a seat and proceeding a calm yet melodical voice.
"Ah, well, can't blame a girl for trying, now can you?"
"It seems the time for pretence and play is over so lets have a word." Not tying to taint or anything, calm as a coma take a seat at the table and point him to the opposite one.
"I am certain you have provisions in case your suspicions were true , and most likely you suspect I had some of my own, now lets talk buisness..."

This is a way we could actually have a ... mutually beneficial relationship, if only for a little while, and if he goes for the daemon banisher we can still get away due to our contingency... And if successful we get time to pack our things and go, or mayhap if the guy proves honourable, we can act as devils and stick to the contract.

>>14177722
To be fair, who the HELL talks about such exotic lore in a tavern? You don't meet fellow scholars in such settings.

>I can explain this whole exchange if you'd like, but otherwise roll 3d12 to lash at him before you leap.

>Your success in getting out that window is assured.

>The blood dissipates following the indentification; he has no power over you

>>14177736
>"Let's be reasonable. Sit, and let us talk."
>"Sorry, I can't hear you over my smites."

rolled 4, 5, 3 = 12

>>14177768
>I can explain this whole exchange if you'd like
What do you mean? Seemed pretty obvious that the PCs are just naturally suspicious as hell of everything, like PCs normally are. We should have known and prepared accordingly.

>>14177736
What contingency? And this guy isn't going to be reasonable. He already went for his hammer.

rolled 7, 12, 7 = 26

>>14177796
Wow, I fail. Rolling again just in case this is "best of two" or "average of two" or who knows what else.

>>14177769
He might not go on a one on one with a deamon, so most likely he tries to heard us away or something. If he goes straight for attack we can flee, but we most likely are already in a trap, so what's the harm in trying the thing we should have tried in the first place- damn. why was I not here when the medallion showed up.

>>14177768
If you are actually going to use our rolls against actual players with dice in the future, be aware that moot has flat out said the dicerolling code on 4chan rolls low and he's too lazy to fix it.

>>14177736
>Also this anon has a good idea; really put that social-fu to work

>Your Spite and Curse magic can badly hamper him, and his hammer can't do any lasting damage

>Honestly not trying to railroad this, guys, the situation is just working against you. If I was just being a jerk and letting them win, he'd already have hit you twice.

>>14177812
There are three of them up here at least. It's not one-on-one.

I imagine the other two have the window covered, but I rather take my chances with them than up here.

rolled 3, 7, 8 = 18

dice , dice and dice...

My dice gets only implemented if he goes for attack first and not for a little reason...
I'd rather not run for the PC's are most likely prepared...

>>14177829
That anon does *not* have a good idea. You said yourself that demonhunters have been through hell and back and fight mercilessly, unlike magehunters that can be bribed or corrupted. If we are actually sticking to the lore you gave us then we would never stick around because they go right for the pwn.

We need to pull serious social fu, if it gets into a combat situation the best we can hope for is a draw and that works against us when he has reinforcements and we don't. Speak to him pretty candidly and don't make any overtly threatening moves. Act as if we were pretty sure this would happen and it doesn't rattle us, if we don't show fear or aggression and instead radiate calm he ought to be pretty cautious.

>>14177736
He's already gone for a weapon. If not for that, I would absolutely back talking to him. We're a persuasive bitch, after all.

I advise SV take the appropriate roll from the appropriate rolling post:

4, 5, 3
7, 12, 7
3, 7, 8

Translates to:

4, 12, 8 = 24

Everyone can participate! Also we don't fail so bad but ehhhh...

>>14177892
Dice fudging for BBEGs is a time honored tradition after all.

Question, can the demon slaying weapon *actually* slay us (like, oblivion slay instead of hell slay) or is it just the only thing that can hurt us for real? Or can mortal weapons like swords and shit hurt us?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0n2vurSBIQ&feature=related

think about it somewhat like this,
Well not quite, but the opening ...

>>14177880
Our true advantage is that they are still human. We can perform feats that the human body cannot handle, like effortless retreats out the second story window with simultaneous attacks as we are retreating.

>A couple of anons seems annoyed, and I try damned hard to be an impartial GM, so I wanted to reassure anyone who doubted.
>But cheers, yes, mistakes were made and I thought you'd enjoy a challenge.

>Social-fu gives you time to slap him with so many curses he won't be able to shit straight, but fleeing is the best idea - calm discussion anon had a good idea, not the best one.

>You've rolled well enough to hit him - shall we go with violence, or give the poisoned tongue a try?

>>14177936
Violence. Poisoned tongue is for people who aren't incorruptible demonhunters, although spreading some lies as we go- "You've already lost and don't even know it" or "I'll see you in X" are classics- would be nice.

>>14177936
Violence. I want to shear off his hand if possible. We can use our social-fu to make him believe the taunt in:
>>14177606

Because like someone else said, you said last threat that demon hunters in general are incorruptable. No point trying. They will just summon reinforcements if said reinforcements aren't already here. Plus, what would all the other demons think?

>>14177914
no, actually more like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip7Nv1h5Ko8&feature=related

Lets think of things we could bargain and what we could ask.... not leaving us alone, but something we want for him to procure us, as this meeting is something we have, planed. eh?

Also, attacking and running is a simple thing to do, if he attacks and hits us, and not listens to the conversation

>>14177936
Question SV. Do attack rolls effect damage as well or is that a different thing? Like, if we rolled juuuust enough to hit would we do the same as having a perfect natural 12, 12, 12?

>>14177936
Take him down. Motherfucker likes scars? We'll give him a matching on on the other side as we laughingly jump out the window.

(probably right into the monk and get our ass kicked, but hey)

>>14177965
Do we carte what other deamons think? And if he figured out and somehow managed to place us in the Scions room, should we not somewhat expect a trap as soon as we flee? I think the Inquisitor is herding us. lets try the social-fu...
If he swings at us we can disengage and go violent afterwards. But at least we can play our strongest card... selling rival circle deamons, would increase our standing with our superiors, increase his kill count of deamons and in return we ask him to procure us some shit we do not need , but might be of use. It's a juicy arrangement for all concerned.

And we always can play that we do not really care if he accepts or not , since we have eons and eons to do our job, and he would play only a minor part. Payment in rival circle info...

With a fluid motion, like the cold tide of the Bitter Sea itself, you lash out with your whip - knocking the instrument from his hand.

"No! The sigillium!-" he cries, aghast, dropping his weapon to try and catch it - but it is on a journey shatterwards, and that delicious look of panic on his face is the last thing you see before falling out the window.

Some of your icicles crack and fall off on landing, but any real damage is healed almost instantly.

They appear to have been waiting for this, as the Alchemist stands just out of whip range with an arrow nocked - but he is alone, and you are doubtless faster than he. Better to Curse him and flee.

He knows where we were, he probably has the alchemist outside the door and the monk outside the window, also fleeing will have made this entire trip for vain and not let us try to salvage what we've already made. I'm not saying violence isn't an option but we really ought to play to our strengths, that being negotiation, talking and playing people off each other. Try to act like we could rip his lungs out and feed them to the monk but find him entertaining and potentially useful. Make him hesitant to start a fight. He's zealous not a dumb ass, tell him that with our help he could get rid of many more demons than if he goes against us.

>Damage is a flat value of strength + weapon damage, the roll affects what body part you hit and how well

>One anon asked about the weapon - if you are killed by his Demonslayer, you will be discorporated for a time unless your Principle smiles on you. If you are killed by other weapons or magic, you simply wake up in Hell.

>>14178061
I knew they had some contingencyes, since we were in the scions room.


And now any diplomacy with the PC's - things that would have garnered us the most are done for. Well played idiotic grognards.
So what if we had suffered a hammer blow if it did not panned out, we could have done the same thing afterwards....

stinking grognards

>>14178061
That Alchemist drank enough to put three men into the ground. Unless he's somehow magically countered that, he won't be able to shoot for shit. I say we curse him, dodge his first arrow, and then Whip his eyes out before moving on.

>>14178061


Soundless, please rethink that, it seems consensus was leaning towards attempting nonviolence...

And going for the shit violence and head on collision with the PC's is just bad planing ...

>>14178112
>Fair warning - the Alchemist was biomagically engineered to process toxins. Sure, he drank a lot, and he certainly /acted/ drunk...

>>14178120
>I'll retcon if you want - it's just the violence voters got there just before the nonviolence.
>Up to you? Roll as is, or jump back a post?

>>14178129
Ah. That does make a bit of a difference. Fuck it, then, let's just leave. Smashing the Inquisitor's demon-detector is probably enough evil work for the day. The Inquisitor will have to be tied up here for a while investigating what we were up to, anyway; we've already delayed him a fair bit.

>>14178061
Monk. The monk was not with them. The monk is not here. The monk is somewhere close.

Curse and flee into the town, lose the alchemist in the alleys if we can. We said the line about this town being ours, right? To trick them? I really want them bogged down with a full-scale inquisition here and giving us plenty of time to plan back at the estate.

If we didn't say it up there, say it down here. "You dare challenge me here on ground I have been preparing for months? Follow to your doom, fool. Let us see if you can find my slaves, or if poison is slipped into your drink first. Perhaps a dagger in your sleep."

Something like that. Just make them think we have been here corrupting for a long time and they will need to root it out.

Yup. The offchance that we could deal with a inquisitor is far more valuable than a few hammer blows and a lost initiative in a fight we would have been able to flee ( we do have that cloak of invisibility, right) once outside...

I say we go back and forge violence team won , when it is clear we are a social creature.

>>14178138
Keep going. Violence is the way here, and where most of the votes were anyway.

>>14178142
>"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU LET THE DEMON BREAK AN IRREPLACABLE HOLY RELIC?!"

>You did indeed imply this town was yours, and you can tell he believed that line

>>14178159
Screw that. We're a demon and he's a demon hunter. I voted violence and I'm sticking to it. Words worked against the weres, dealing with demon hunters is not in the agenda.

>>14178164
That means the whole campaign we will have to fight the suckers off , because we started it.

Better to risk a bit and have them dancing on our strings!

>>14178138
Forge onward! Fuck retcons, that is the path of weakness. Stupid decisions are made sometimes, but nothing we've done here is irrecoverable.

>>14178200
Going with this. Lesson learned, PCs are Properly Paranoid.

>>14178159
What? No. You were outvoted. Just let it flow man. We did a good thing breaking his demon-detector, it probably got us cred in hell. Plus bogging him down on useless (and politically damaging) inquisition duty here is delicious evil. People will be very wary of the inquisition if they burn innocent towns like this on suspicion, and that just makes our job easier in the long run. Remember, we're immortal. If over the ages we can engender hate for inquisitors then our job is much easier.

>>14178184
So?
We could word him into oblivion with our social stats, and as Non violence suspected, he was a herder with the monk and the scion now acting as reserve, and the alchemist waiting for us to flee.

>>14178211
Without his little toy he'll be more likely to burn indiscriminately.

Better safe than sorry, after all...

We can get away fine. Onward and forward. Like one guy wants to wheel and deal with inquisitors but nobody else does, and we broke his priceless relic.

>>14178231
And the Inquisition burning non-corrupted people is just what we want. Awesome.

>>14178211


This is not Evil quest this is Envy qust, just remember that no Envy was spawned by breaking his tiny bauble, that most likely many deamonhuntes must have to do their job. It's like breaking the a policeman radio or gun. sure it might be fun, but no results are to be had, more than the obvious
Anywhom ,seems we should go onwards and not get on the path of retcons... so onwards into doing what we are not best suited for, and having made the worst enemies....

>>14178206
>>14178211

>These anons know their shit.
>That Alchemist is the most paranoid player I have ever met

For a moment, your false visage drops. Your icy splendour is revealed and the corrosive influence of the Bitter Sea surrounds you in a wretched miasma. A tendril lashes out at the Alchemist, visible only to you, but his face goes white.

He fires - the arrow misses you miserably, and explodes into flame on contacting the wall of the inn.

As he realised what he has done, you flee into the night wrapped in your mystical cloak.

You have escaped perfectly - they neither pursue nor ambush you, and you return safely to Strobelheim.

>>14178240
One is very adamant about it. At least another one(me) would have sported it in deference to violence.

We've broken his relic his only method of detecting other demons that we know of, right now we are his single best resource for finding other demons, I say we use this as leverage to get him off our back because I doubt we can kill all of them and if we don't kill all of them we'll constantly have a major thorn in our side while if we are able to leverage him we can point him towards our enemies while staying safe from the inquisition for at least a while.

Could we get a similar relic of demon detection made that produces false positives? Maybe even one that points toward the fey as demons? Leave that in his path and see what happens.

>>14178280
YESSSSSSS.

Also, this is not evil quest, no... but it's still delicious evil to get the inquisition to be hated, feared, and butcher people for no reason. We want them despised wherever they go, envy heaped upon how they get special treatment despite being nothing but murdering thugs. Distrusted and scorned at every turn... that way we can work in the shadows and have even the people we haven't corrupted shielding us indirectly.

Is that uncooperative shopkeeper a demon, or does he just hate us for burning the Strobel estate to the north?! Paranoia is the name of the game.

>>14178355
That's a wonderful idea! Lock it in our treasury along with whatever other valuables we have. You know how PCs like to loot things...

Question Soundless. Are we fighting against the PCs right this second? Or is there a time offset?

If it's current I for one would like to hear the delicious reactions and drink their tears.

>>14178280
Well, I'm going to call that venture a modest success overall. Didn't manage to corrupt or kill any of them, but we broke a sacred relic- major points from Hell there!- and probably caused the deaths of many innocent people as well as a significant delay in finding our real base of operations.

Back in Strobelheim, I think at this point it's permissible to dispense with the pretenses. We've achieved critical mass of power and none within can resist our will. If we have methods of doing so, every person in town gets ritually tainted to the core, swearing their lives and souls to us within our sanctum.

>>14178264
OP said it was a priceless relic, and that inquisitor sure seemed to value it more than a radio. I think you are just butthurt.

>>14178411
>Next session is Monday, but I and some of my players are running a convention this weekend so I'll see who is conscious to get roflpwn'd by you guys then and let you know

>>14178440
I agree. It's time for a Innsmouth "Join us!" scene where we taint everyone who is not already. Completely taint the town and every soul in it. Make sure to set up a picket line around it first so nobody gets away to tattle.

>>14178441
it is the same as taking out his radio if you go by the constant identification a policeman has to do it, and consider the HQ station years away and any raio replacement as well...

Not butthurt, just I really wanted to pull truly ludicrous social-fu..

>>14178491
He already knew we were a demon. We weren't going to get very far with social fu, even if we had another 5 points in it.

On return to Strobelheim, you set about conscripting the entire populace.

A few out-of-town visitors are also ripe for sacrifice, if you so please, but for now you ritually bind the villagers deep in your sanctum. A few have died, unable to take the Taint, or having killed one another in fits of envious violence.

In all, you have forty Tainted servants, two Demonic Rabble, and your Diabolists Melinda and Thomas.

The sheer outpouring of Demonic essence warps the architecture further; the house appears to be a pale imitation of itself sculpted from ice and snow, and an area of salty marsh extends around it.

>>14178677
We have inquisition attention on us. How hard is it to produce a permanent portal to Hell? Do we have the necessary sacrifices?

>>14178677
We have made forty-two souls from this venture, plus probably some of the ones that died.

I think we can afford to spend a couple of those opening a portal to Hell. Let's do it.

>>14178806
>spend a couple of those

>>14178677
>A few out-of-town visitors are also ripe for sacrifice

We have visitors to spend instead of those that are ours. More efficient that way.

>>14178677
Send our coven of witches off to a nearby town to begin spreading taint there. Maybe Melinda to lead them, she has been a most excellent servant. I want to create a legacy on the mortal realm, a spreading patch of thorns that springs right back after being cut.

>Sexy exciting portal opening scene with explosions and CGI tomorrow - I need to sleep and recharge my writefaggotry batteries.

>For now, plot and scheme, anons; your minions are little better than ordinary humans, but loyal and expendable. Your Demons are very useful indeed, as are your Diabolists.

>You know the Inqusition will march with a High Inquisitor, Inquisitor, and at least a dozen elite fratremaul, plus various acolytes. A mage on a leash if they're really pissed at you

>>14178907
I like this idea more than the portal to hell, have a few of our people spread the word of 'Bettering one's self through envy' and foster a hatred for the inquisition that will persist long after we leave.

>>14178907
>>14178981
I like this too. Don't send melinda, but do send our envious harpy handmidens. (also known as "the witches") Others seem to like the Portal, and I'm fine with that as long as we don't need to spend our corrupted souls to do it. Those are ours, after all. We can recruit rabble freely with a portal I hope, lots of rabble will probably sign up for a chance to hop into the world.

>>14179089
I want to send Melinda because she can be the "msucle" and central figure. She's pacted to us rather than just tainted. Sure, we lose her for defense here, but at this point that hardly matters since we are opening a direct portal to hell!

Plus, she was one of our best and earliest sources of pure envy. She grew on me. I would like to continue using this broken, envious, spiteful puppet until we no longer can.

>>14178981
The way I figure it, we can open a portal to hell and then still disperse our servants to spread envy afterward. I mean, after we open it all kinds of demons can come through and we can essentially turn the whole operation over to someone else, someone more combat inclined. They can make a fight of it with Thomas and the bulk of the populace while we lead Melinda and our pack of bitches elsewhere to start again.

>>14179154
This... could work actually. We go back into hiding after we open the gate and spread the taint more subtly. I like.

>ffences Defined
Yes Captcha, we'll be making some pretty defined fences.

>>14179154
This was pretty much the way I was thinking. Just straightforward fighting the Inquisition is not really our style. But we should be able to make them lose something by coming after us, while also spreading our operations elsewhere.

>>14179154
You sold me. Melinda and her coterie of harpies is dispatched to make a lasting cult to us.

>>14179154
Turn it over to someone else, sure. But they must be loyal to us. This is *our* operation, after all.

Do we have anyone who could pass as us? We could fake opening the gate, and take our most loyal servants elsewhere.

Or we could send Melinda off with a number of our trusted servants, leave Strobel here to take the fall, because he's outlived his usefulness, and have him act like he's just opened the gate right before the Inquisition arrives.

Also if we, or any of our minions have the juice for it, I say we set a magical trap of some sort. Freeze the inquisitioners solid after they bust "us"

>>14179224
I actually don't care about that at this point. We've got almost fifty souls, credit for smashing an artifact, credit for opening a portal to Hell; someone else can have the glory of leading our minions into doomed combat with an Inquisitor. Someone on par with us in rank would probably have a better chance of not getting uselessly killed, anyway.

Besides, when we escape with our coterie and corrupt the entirety of another town, we'll get all the credit for that, too.

>>14179395
The new demon we put in charge will be the envy of his peers!

>>14179395
I just don't want another demon stealing our tainted souls.

I wonder if we can set up a toll booth at the portal. X amount of obols and a contract of service for transit onto the earthly plane.

>>14179518

Aren't the souls already ours?

In addition, the guy who stole our estate is around, couldn't we use this opportunity to lure him into a trap? Just throwing out ideas here, I don't think it's the smart play.

>>14179518
My impression was that the souls we've tainted are ours for good already, no stealing possible. If they're not, obviously that changes things a bit.

The details of a portal to hell are unknown at the moment, unfortunately. There must be some sort of limitation that stops an endless stream of demons for coming charging through it, or even the kind of heavy hitters we're looking at coming for us would be easily overwhelmed every time one popped up.

>>14179667
I'm just wondering if maybe we can ambush and kill this party.

Though hopefully, and I say this very hopefully, opening a portal here and attracting the attentions of the higher ups will create envy (against the inquisitors that come to deal with us) within the party we just punked. They chased a dead end purging an untainted town while the demon went back and opened a portal to hell, completely showing them up. That has to smart, and now someone else is going to get the credit THEY should have rightfully had. Especially if that alchemist is as paranoid as SV says, they will most assuredly stay there long enough for the portal to open.

I hope this can be pulled off just as gloriously in their game as in this one. We will be their /eternal foe/ for this. Not only did we shatter their artifact and escape from under their nose, we cheated them of glory as well. So many awesome tears to be had.

Anyone archive this yet?

>>14180242
Did.

>>14179815
wow i like the idea of getting another higher up to steal the credit. We leave enough people and summoned demons to make it convincing but we can flee and establish base of operation some where else.


If the party did not completely burn the village to the ground stay long enough in that village to do some visible corruption there. make the party look like they are completely incompetent. A properly paranoid party will just assume they missed the taint and next time would be more likely to burn everyone to make sure no taint is left.

Even better if we show up enough times as different people even loved ones or friends. They will start to think that anyone in the party could be the demon.
other ideas for future torment: (while these probably won't gain us experience these may gain us some barging rites, and some fun)

While this is real risky it would be fun to steal their gear (replace it with non magical copies) and have it found later by another party member. could he be the demon?

While it won't get us power directly. we could also leave a letter for the dear inquisition in the older brothers hand writing detailing how to to "bring his dead wife back from the dead" but it is obvious to any trained inquisitor a ritual to summon demons instead. In addition we could drop hints implicating Lady Maerlyn was the one who was kind enough to give a means for resurrecting your dead wife. Let the purge of the nobility begin.

Bamp?

Bump

Eight are the names of Divinity and eight is the number of power, eight souls to shatter eight seals and forge a fresh gate from The Deep into the Prime Material.

Your victims, the travelers, stand around the pool by which you entered this world, bound in ice and awaiting their doom. Even now the nobility of your Circle argue and snipe amongst themselves to determine whom shall have use of your portal, and a legion of mercenary Rabble clamour to come through.

You will have but one day from the opening of the portal the arrival of the Inquisition and any allies they may bring. Similarly, the Firstborn will take this as a violation of your pact and may intervene - though they will strike at your minions rather than you.

>Only nobility care about visiting the world - Rabble will expect you pay them, like any mercenary soldier.

>>14186665

And what might I inquire, is the nominal fee for rabble?
I dont think we should pay them at all
Becouse we are a social monster we should be able to hold grand speeches of the plunder they will gain. the favour they will earn and the joy they will experience. They should pay us for this glorius oppertunity. Anyone not quick enough to come through should truly envy those lucky ones who did for eternity cares not for those left behind, eternity cares only for the men at the front.

Oh good, OP is back. How much does it cost to hire some Rabble? Is it acceptable to pop through the portal for a few minutes to pick up some stuff from Hell, or is that considered leaving early? What nobility are interested in coming through?

>>14186665
See if there are any of our old supporters who did not abandon us completely. If so, give them preference on coming through. Also wondering how much rabble cost, and thinking perhaps if the main Strobel estate is not completely burned we should go back and taint a few there before leaving again just to hammer yet another dig at that party of inquisitors.

Finally, the big question. If we open this portal and the weres intervene will that effect our future dealings with them? Will it automatically shut down our chances to make pacts like this again among them if we open the portal? Because if so I think we should, perhaps, reconsider.

>>14181804
>While it won't get us power directly. we could also leave a letter for the dear inquisition in the older brothers hand writing detailing how to to "bring his dead wife back from the dead" but it is obvious to any trained inquisitor a ritual to summon demons instead. In addition we could drop hints implicating Lady Maerlyn was the one who was kind enough to give a means for resurrecting your dead wife. Let the purge of the nobility begin.

NICE!

You're right, it won't directly get us power but it will serve the objective of making the inquisition hated. If the nobility fears and despises them then it will make our job a /lot/ easier in the future, as they will work to keep out the inquisition, not call on them in times of need, and perhaps even conceal taint in their own houses and estates just to keep from being burned out by such indiscriminate slaughterers.

And all it will take is a few 'letters' laying around the corrupted estate here penned by the Lady Maerlyn and Thomas's brother.

OP? Are you still there?

>Rabble without lords ruling them tend to form mercenary companies of their own, which will set their prices based on reputation, number, and skill. A few notable Rabble will also operate as lone warriors, and while highly priced are also very powerful.

>Typically a captain will ask 10 Obols per mercenary per day of service, plus expenses.

>While you don't necessarily have reliable allies back home, Ibarys could be easily shoved face-first into the approaching Inquisitors.

>The weres already distrust you, you just out-social-fu'd them this time. Next time they'll have one of their own social tanks do the talking.

>>14186665
>Similarly, the Firstborn will take this as a violation of your pact and may intervene - though they will strike at your minions rather than you.
I don't recall any "don't open portals to hell" clauses in our pact with them. Admittedly, I don't recall any "don't kill my minions" clauses, either, so I suppose all's fair in the letter of the agreement as long as we keep giving them info and they keep not killing us personally.

>>14187930
Can we auction off command of the defense of the portal to other nobles of our Circle? Because it seems to me that there must be a number of nobles who would be interested in taking on the Inquisition's army to increase their own prestige. And once they've purchased that right from us, we can leave its defense entirely in their hands- conveniently removing our need to purchase mercenaries, since that will be their responsibility.

We can also sell general access to the world to other nobles, preferably in exchange for future favors. Just make sure to do so quickly.

How many Obols do we have? Do we get paid for the souls we corrupted yet, or does that only happen once we are done here?

>You can auction off command to another Noble, but bear in mind this is part of the dangerous game of politics - you no longer possess an Estate, and while noble in power you are not noble in rank. Therefore higher ranking Demons will dangle the prospect of restoration over your head, low-ranking nobles will threaten you... you have relatively little bargaining power when the threat of violence looms. It may be worth hiring a bodyguard before negotiations begin.

>>14188269
How reliable are bodyguards? Can we make binding contracts with them?

Ibarys is the one who stole our estate right?

I say we shove him into the inquisition. We probably don't even need to auction command to him. Let him know we're here, and when he shows up, take our useful servants and run.

He sees the place is corrupted by Envy already and continues taking what is yours. And you introduce him to the Inquisition.

>You will be paid half the value in advance; in this case 4200 Obols

>Mercenaries are typically completely loyal, as betrayal in their case is counted as provision of shoddy services and subject to Arbiter deathsquad

I think we should look into hiring one of those solo Rabble, or maybe two. Bring em with us when we head off with Melinda. Someone who can fight would be useful to have around, but we don't want to bring an army with us.

All right. 10 Obols per day per rabble seems expensive, but on the other hand, how much money can the possibly be making on a regular basis? Could we hire one of those elite loner mercenary types as a bodyguard on a long-term contract in exchange for, say, ten percent of our income while we're making use of their services? Contract subject to renegotiation/requiring renewal periodically, say once a year on a specific date.

Let's not hire many rabble, but make our portal open to nobles who want to come through... for a fee.

We bring Ibrays up and shove him into the inquisition though.

>>14188861
If we are doing this we have to hire a bodyguard first.

>>14188954
10 obols a DAY is way too expensive a price, IMO. We can buy all kinds of awesome stuff to make us more effective personally for that price. It's the renters vs. owners argument.

>>14188954

Oh no doubt. I also advise we have the bodyguard disguise itself. Having an ace in the hole couldn't hurt.

>>14189044
Hiring a guy for one day is 10 obols. We have one day until the Inquisition arrives. We don't need to hire anyone for more than a day, just long enough to handle negotiations with nobles who may use violence if we don't bring a bodyguard.

>>14189080
True. I would like to get someone on long-term contract, but I suppose it's not terribly important. Let's hire two elite types for a day as bodyguards, sell passage through and auction off command to make as great a profit as we can, and when that's all done we take some minions and split.

>>14189129
Sounds good, really. As demonic forces go, we're a vanguard. Let the fighters deal with the hordes of inquisitors that will eventually purge the Strobel family from the face of the earth.

>>14189177
That also means we always get the juiciest uncorrupted souls. The other demons who come through just get to pick up our leavings, mwa ha ha!

Then we are agreed. All that's left is to wait for OP to show up and start posting again.

The process is torturous. Torture, really; the careful application of icy whip and salt-rimed claws until your eight captives weep, their souls bleeding out through their tears and turning your summoning pool into a churning maelstrom which eventually clears to reveal a similar structure on the far side.

A near-perfect replica of the house, carved in ice.

Passing briefely through, you find a horde of Rabble lying in wait. The most elite warriors ask as much as 1000 obols for their services - but some decent lone-swords offer themselves as bodyguards for but fifty obols.

Vyshaf is a wind; invisible save for the twin snowflakes that form her eyes. Carrus is a hulking half-serpent humanoid whose scales glint with frost. They will do, you suppose.

But as you sign them into service, a terrible silence descends. A chill river flows into the room, Demons parting to make space, and it splits in two to flow around your portal, cutting through the ice to exit the building.

From the stream emerges a great and fearsome statue of salt with glowing blue eyes. An Avatar of Sopesh, your former master and Duke of Envy.

"Greetings, little Wretched. You have made me proud; far more so than your usurper..."

>>14178614
With ten points in social fu, we can likely convince almost anyone of anything, even if they know about our being a demon. We'd be just that smooth.

>>14189675
Bow. This is the boss talking. "But of course, oh Lord of Longing. He is but an upjumped rabble unfit to serve you. You deserve the best, and that is I. My touch shall spread across the mortal realm, and the tithe I give unto thee swell with their expansion, as your power will doubtless grow to rival even the greatest of other demons."

>>14189707
We need to broaden our horizions. Social-fu is nice, but I want to put at least two, perhaps three points into intelligence next. What good is social power if you are too stupid to use it right?

I also want to have some physical presense, maybe a point or two of that. Did you see how awesome we were with our whip before? I want to be able to kill an inquisitor party eventually so they don't disrupt our operations.

I think with all the attacking us people are doing we should invest in new magic powers.

But that's just me.

>>14189675
Well. The boss is here. Be extra respectful and keep our eyes sharply open for advantage. My guess based on that opener is that he's going to give us something, but we can't be sure. Bow and speak, since it seems that a reply is expected. "Duke Sopesh, your presence honors me. I have ever striven to act as befits a noble of the Bitter Sea, whatever my circumstances."

The statue remains still; that is good. But his voice emanates from the unmoving form.

"You serve admirably. My scryer tells me the Principles are watching you. Portentous, no? You may choose the manner of Ibarys' execution or see to it personally; there is a craftsman standing by to forge him into whatever you please. Count Likat will be given command of your portal."

>>14189833
>>14189800
The thing I like about developing our social prowess is that it benefits us greatly in non-combat situations- basically helping us get more souls, aka money and prestige. Physical and magical development seem at this point like they have almost purely combat use only. While being a combat monster is certainly nice, since our overall goal is to spread envy endlessly and thereby corrupt the souls of man rather than merely killing people it's not as direct a route to benefiting us.

Mental growth couldn't hurt, though. And, hell, after five upgrades I'm not even going to argue against a couple points in physical. I just think that we should keep our focus primarily social throughout.

It doesn't help that we have very little baseline for what exactly five upgrades has gotten us in absolute terms. How do we compare to other demons, to other nobles of our rank, in the various categories? I've no real idea.

>>14189916
To be clear here, OP- did the Duke just essentially order us away from the mortal world, eminent domain our portal to give to someone else, and restore our former rank to make up for it?

>>14189922
>Your magic can give you an edge socially, too.

>You surpass fellow Counts and Rabble, socially, but are little better than Rabble in the fields of knowledge or warfare, and some Rabble even eclipse your magical powers.

>I don't want to break immersion with hard stats, but your highest rated social Attribute is five, which is superhuman. XP costs increase dramatically here on out.

>>14189955
>Yes, yes, and PROMOTIONS!

>>14190021
Well, damn. I was looking forward to running around in the mortal world for round two of causing havoc and raking in wealth and souls. One day, we too will be able to crush the dreams of lesser demons with a word. And make everyone fall into shocked silence at our presence, and all that. Duke Sopesh has a lot to covet.

Still, we cannot effectively evade his will at the moment. Even though he's robbing us blind, because we were going to sell the portal at great profit and then when we returned simply take our position back from that worthless fuck Ibarys by sheer force and our own inherent superiority.

So there's nothing for it but to use all our social skills to graciously accept his offer to restore our rank. If we can, pick out something poetically appropriate that holds especial meaning to our Principle as his method of death. Preferably something which would serve as a statement of our own dedication to the cause of surpassing bitterness and envy in all things.

Since our diabolists' souls are still ours and bound to obey us, in spite of the fact that the gate has been stolen from us and we're implicitly banned from the human world for the moment, we should be able to work through our minions by proxy. We haven't been commanded to add their strength to the defense, after all. We can still order Melinda and our pack of witches to depart the region for someplace else- if they're somehow able to make it far enough away to avoid the Inquisition for a while, they might even be able to establish a new sanctum and summon us back from Hell in spite of the fact that Duke Sopesh obviously wants us here to keep us from gaining more of the Principle's favor by being fucking awesome in the world of men.

>>14190021
Well, we can't really argue with him. I think.
What would our new rank be?

Well, we can't get in trouble for leaving early if we receive orders to do so. Wouldn't hurt to hang out in Hell for a while.

Let's have Ibryas forged into a wonderful crystalline evening dress, shimmering with a beauty both terrible and majestic. A regal gown that inspires all to respect and admire us, (+social) as well as inspires envy at the mere sight of it among mortals and demons alike. (unique ability) Hopefully it will act as a focus for our magical prowess as well, being made from demonic soulstuff. (+magic ability)

>>14189916
if we were wrath demons i'd say turning the traitor into a suit of armor would be suitably ironic: He'd never get to strike a blow again, only protect his betters by taking them.

Ibarys dies a slow, suffering death; stripped of sustenance but made ravenously hungry, he starved with a full belly clawed from a trash heap.

You have been promoted, in a ceremony extravagant and lengthy to Eshara, Earlessa of The Starving Vortex and Fallen Demon of Envy. The Endless Depths remain your home Estate, but now you hold dominion over seven others and their Counts; The Shattered Floor, the Drifting Memory, the Cold Wind, the Freezing Night, the Red Engine, the Dying Coast, and the Poisonous Wyrm.

Furthermore, your Estate is now an extension of your body and will. Another rise in rank and you too will have Avatars.

You send Melinda and her coven away to another village to continue their service. The reward for your work on earth has been delivered to your coffers.

>>14190419
>inspires envy at the mere sight of it among mortals and demons alike
Err, that is, inspires envy in general not towards the dress. Don't want it stolen. Maybe just have a general "Envy Aura" that makes everything in the general area envious.

So, what now?

>>14190429
We shouldn't forget to give Hord a promotion or whatever is applicable for the single demon that supported us after our fall.

>>14190455
I'd prefer if it didn't inspire envy toward us specifically but just in general in everything in the general area. Like if we were still at the estate it would make everyone in the house unnaturally envious of things that they usually wouldn't be, like how so-and-so got a bigger portion of the roast. Things like that. Subtle envy encouragement, to help aid in our corruption.

>>14190504
I agree. I wonder if we can promote him to a minor noble... knight or count or something under us. He served us well and loyally.

>>14190429
>The Shattered Floor, the Drifting Memory, the Cold Wind, the Freezing Night, the Red Engine, the Dying Coast, and the Poisonous Wyrm

Descriptions, areas of focus, physical appearance, personality, and preferred methods of both service and advancement. (service to find out how they are best used/prefer to be used, advancement to find out how to best defend against them usurping us)

>>14190429
Earlessa, eh? How nice.

What exactly does command of an Estate bring us? Incomes and servant Rabble, presumably- anything else? What responsibilities come with control of an Estate? What authority do we hold over the Counts beneath us?

What are the politics of Hell which we will now have to deal with as a restored noble? What are our overall objectives, usual threats to our power, that sort of thing?

As our servants in the world of men corrupt others, those souls will be accredited to us, correct?

>>14190549
>the Red Engine
Does not fit with the rest of those names. What's his story? Traitor from another circle of demons or principle?

>>14190611
We need to know all this. Tending to our estate and defending our position is something we need to get very familiar with.

>>14190675
Definitely. Infodump time!

Is it possible to gain XP down here, or do we have to be in the mortal world?

>Any souls gathered in the world of men will indeed be accredited to you

Ibarys Animus is even now being woven into a dress for you; a garment that subtly induces envious behaviour around you and provides you a measure of protection from magic.

Back in command of an Estate, you have income, Rabble, and indentured bodyguards. Hord can be promoted to Count, if you wish, or made your seneschal - his own lacking intellect will be instantly bolstered by the flux of essence.

But, with power comes obligation. You are beholden to the commands of the Baron above you, and Duke Sopesh above him, competing with your fellow Earls for promotion, for minions and resources and to combat the ennui of immortality. As most true to Principle of your peers, your duty among the other Earls is that of saboteur and diplomat - the wealth of your Earldom is based on information brokering and control.

Your personal objectives are yours to decide, but you will be set tasks by your superiors. The threats to your power come from ambitious underlings, suspicious overlords, traitorous peers, and inter-Circle warfare.

>Infodump about your Counts and their Estate next post

>>14190785
>Hord can be promoted to Count, if you wish, or made your seneschal
Seneschal. We'll need someone we can depend on watching things. Hopefully he'll get a significant enough intellect boost to become sharp and good at his job; if it's not enough, get him an amplifier or have him artificially augmented or something. The loyal deserve rewards- and I don't think Hord would cut it as a Count without a significant amount of experience, really. We'd just be sending him to his death.

>Your personal objectives are yours to decide
To gather power. To serve the Principle of Envy. And to bring the salts of the Bitter Sea to the soul of every mortal who walks the earth.

>your duty among the other Earls is that of saboteur and diplomat - the wealth of your Earldom is based on information brokering and control.
We must immediately begin building networks of contacts. Spies and informants amongst the Rabble throughout all the other Earls who work for our baron, to a lesser extent all those who work for Duke Sopesh, and when we can even beyond that. And within our own ranks, of course; encourage our own Counts to spy upon one another and spy on them just in case. Inter-circle spying will likely be much more difficult, but we can at least open up diplomatic channels with some other nobles; Greed and Lust are likely good places to start since they're closely tied to envy.

>>14190785
Aww. I was hoping it would enhance our spellcasting abilities, but protection from magic is nice too. Does that include the magic of demonslaying weapons?

How do we communicate with our diabolists?

>>14190964
>To gather power.
Make that to become the most powerful demon of Envy the Hells have ever known. Perhaps the most powerful demon period.

>To serve the Principle of Envy.
More like "Make the Principle of Envy the foundation upon which the Hells are built, with us as the greatest champion."

The Endless Depths is your own Estate. It is the deepest Estate in the Circle, located far beneath the Bitter Sea. It is difficult to assault and home to terrible creatures, making it a useful place to safely store captives and loot, and to train Demonic beasts for war. It is also provides an especially easy access point to the Circle of Fevered Dreams.

The Shattered Floor is ruled by Countess Vishax, a Demon of superheated water and ice-cold basalt who tends towards violence to acheive her ends. She is the miltiary Countess, who provides Baron Syrab with warriors. Her Estate is a cracked and boiling patch of the sea floor of little real value beyond being difficult to assault and providing a bulwark to defend the Endless Depths.

The Drifting Memory is an iceberg-palace circling lazily above the Endless Depths, presided over by Count Shai, who is a statue of ice in a frozen throne. Shai is lazy to a fault, but his lair is a repository of useful lore and his magical power is immense.

The Cold Wind is a mobile Estate, ruled by Countess Olon, who channels her envy into a crippling egotism. While a useful assassin and logistician, her Estate is vastly more valuable as a method of moving large forces easily, and surveilling the Earldom.

>>14191086
I'm sure this post is serving one of the Principles, but I'm not sure it's Envy...

>>14191184
The Freezing Night can be found wherever there is no light. Ruled by Count Quiret, who is the spymaster beneath you and not unlike you in manner, it can provide a useful way to keep tabs on your minions and reserve your own forces for bigger plots.

The Red Engine is a great and rusted factory overseen by Count Agramond, the weaponsmithy of your Earldom. Agramond is suspicious and theiving cur, looking bolted together from rusting machines, but an excellent forgemaster.

The Dying Coast is tended by Countess Lahar, and is the source of raw materials, Demonic flora and fauna, and in general akin to an area of farmland. Lahar herself is like the tide, predictable enough, but with a temperment that ebbs and flows.

The Poisonous Wyrm is a living siege engine controlled by Count Weros, a vast and terrible beast in which the Count and his minions make their home. The Count is also the foremost doctor in your Circle, a sinister figure with salt-flecked scalpels for fingers.

>>14191086
>The Principle of Glory wishes you were playing Pride Quest

>>14191192
>I SEE YOU
>Wish your bro a happy birthday for me.

>>14191218
>...'bro'?
>You may have mistaken be for someone else.

Did our personal strength, intelligence, magic, etc. increase when we were promoted to Earlessa? If not, I'm somewhat concerned about the security of our realm; we'd be the weakest of the Earls under our baron by a wide margin. What are our rivals like?


Also, does anyone else have better plans than >>14190964, which are fairly general but about as specific as I think we can get with our current broad objectives?

>In tandem with promotion you now have 3 XP to spend. Boosting social now costs 2 points for one boost, given how high up you've ranked it.

>>14191362
Would you mind giving as on overview of the stuff we can spend our XP on?

>>14191362
Boost mental, mental, Spite as my votes. I don't see us going into combat anytime soon, and we'll need mental boosts to compete as a spymaster/diplomat. Spite should help with that while also advancing our general magical powers and providing some combat utility.

>>14191376

>Boosting Mental Attributes and Skills, boosting Physical Attributes and Skills, branching into Tearstorm magic, or improving your existing spell trees of Spite and Curse.

>Hosting a ball to get to know your peers and underlings, visting your underlings, or getting reacquainted with your Estate and it's inhabitants are all good places to start.

>>14191218
What's wrong with coveting the highest position in the land?

I'm going to push for at least one point of magic. We obviously like social, and as Soundless Voice said that magic makes us better at social stuff.

In any case. I say we host a party. Let all the demons see our new power.

>>14191413
Ah, thank you. In that case I vote for:
Mental, physical and tearstorm.

Getting reacquainted with the estate seems like a good starting point to me.

>>14191413
Let's visit each of our underlings in turn, then host a party to celebrate our ascension, inviting all our underlings, our peers, and anyone socially necessary (ex., we might have to invite the boss to avoid offending).

>>14191465
>>14191448
These stats this plan. Let's roll.

>>14191394
This, but tearstorm instead of spite.

Also, can we get a quick review of our current skills and what upgrading them would do?

Also, what specifically would being more intelligent do? More DM hints and better observational powers?

>>14191413
Let's do Mental, Mental, Magic. Though I was sorely hoping for a physical point, we can do some of that next time. I forget what spite does, curse makes them weaker yes? What does Tearstorm do?

Home at last, the chill, crushing blackness of the endless deeps, envelops us, like second skin, like a womb. Let us make a spire there, of basalt and ice, to hang alone and undisturbed in the vastness of our personal abyss, string faintly luminescent shrimp and clinging worms on hooks and lengths of rusty wire festooned in rock salt and bone for our chandeliers, cobble a great oval table out of sea foam and the bones of what ever servant iberis loved the most and summon our counts to council, let us tithe from each of them their least insane, and ridiculous servants. These we shall teach to smile and croon, to wear a human face.

>>14191550

I think it's ice and water.

Maybe poison.

>>14191448
I'm opposed to physical on the grounds that if we're fighting personally in hell we've already fucked up royally, given that we've got scads of minions and have a job as a diplomat. No need to up it right now.

Tearstorm seems like the most directly combat-oriented of the magics available to us, which as we are a subtle, social creature makes it a poor choice in my opinion. Why invest in it over Spite, which has social utility and thus will allow us to further emphasize our strengths while still growing our combat abilities?

>>14191338

Yeah he's thinking of me.

That said, Quest is looking pretty goddamn awesome. And I cast my vote in for the magics, have a ball, and see if any of the info we leaked to the Firstborn has caused anyone to be pissed at us if they've found out. In fact, find out ALL the people who are gunning for us and actually might pose a threat. Because down here EVERYONE is gunning for us.

Now that we're in Hell, we should turn the paranoia switch all the way up to 11 unless we wish to become like the bastard who betrayed us.

>>14191580
One can not dine on non-combat prowess alone. Do you remember what happened the last time we tried to socialmancy someone? And what happens if we get ambushed? Going to bat your lashes at a demon assassin?

Having physical abilities is just good all around. We might be a social creature, but there are some who will just ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK no matter what. Doesn't matter how good we are socially if they don't listen.

No, next time we upgrade stats I'd like to go physical, physical, mental. That would be 2p, 3m, 5s. We're still by far a social creature, but we won't be ridiculously weak.

mental mental mental

>>14191539
>Mental would indeed provide those things
>Tearstorm is your direct offensive magic, are you sure that's what you want? Both Curse and Spite are more subtle.

>At present, your skill list includes Subterfuge, Persuasion, Etiquette, Mingling, and Leadership as the highest rated

>>14191650
Yes. We need something to help us in direct conflict. We can stand at the back and use attack spells while our social-fu'd minions tank for us. That's as fitting as anything else, I imagine.

>>14191619
>Going to bat your lashes at a demon assassin?
Nope, I'm going to shout "guards!" and have the mooks swarm over it. We're an Earlessa now; we have minions to do the bulk of our fighting.

Don't get me wrong, I like physical abilities, but having more mental powers is far more likely to keep us alive at this point because it will make us better at our actual job- which involves, amongst other things, detecting and disposing of threats before they're actively attempting to knife us.

>>14191564
>This anon deserves a cookie.

>>14191663
Nobody is arguing that we go physical now. Next XP upgrade, though, we should.

spymaster - all mental

what do we need to bump to make more diabolists?

>>14191650
No, don't get tearstorm; get Spite instead. We can still stand in the back and sling spells, they'll just be spells that aren't as obviously visible as flinging huge shards of poisoned ice at people's faces.

And please, let's not worry too much about individual skills.

>>14191692
Oh, that's right! We almost forgot to talk to someone down here who can explain the limitations on our ability to make pacts. Got to find out why we were unable to whip up an army of fifty diabolists. Is our hellish credit rating not good enough, or what?

>>14191694
Eh, I suppose spite would help us socially too if it effects all actions not just physical ones. Spite someone before socially confronting them, make them stumble over words. And so forth.

That's what it does, right? Hinders the foe and makes their actions suck? Or was that curse?

>Spite is a reactive magic; if someone beats you, you punish them for it
>Curse is proactive, weakening your victims
>Tearstorm is directly offensive

>Mental, followed by tour of your Estate, followed by visitations to other Demons, followed by Ball, then?

>>14191184
>>14191193
Hah, I just realized, our Counts are tainted by other Principles. The filthy curs.

>Countess Vishax... tends towards violence to acheive her ends
>Wrath

>Count Shai... lazy to a fault
>Sloth

>Countess Olon, who channels her envy into a crippling egotism
>Pride

>Count Agramond... suspicious and theiving cur
>Greed

>Count Quiret... not unlike you in manner
>Envy, all good

>Countess Lahar... like the tide, predictable enough, but with a temperment that ebbs and flows.
>Not really sure on this one

>Count Weros... a sinister figure with salt-flecked scalpels for fingers
>Not sure here either

I don't see a lot of Gluttony or Lust amongst our servants, but that could be a failure of intelligence rather than the fact that it's not actually there. We should keep close watch on them all.

Okay, read up on the Estates. How does one use them? Are they just like... houses? Or do they give powers? I'm entirely unsure what the hell we can do with them. We're granted the powers and use of those estates now correct?

>>14191845
2x mental and upgrade curse, then.

>>14191845
I would like >>14191709 answered, but aside from that let's start with a tour, sure. Let's get things moving.

>>14191845
Mental/mental/curse, then. Unless the hurting from spite is way stronger than the hurting from curse, or otherwise has massive advantages that would make up for the fact that it seems strictly worse to need to wait for someone to hurt you before hurting them in turn.

Can't stand back and throw spells if we upgrade spite, so either Tearstorm or Curse.

>>14191866
>>14191885

>The power of your Animus caps the number of Contracts you can make. That number is four as of your promotion

>Estates provide you with minions and resources, and as you increase in rank your own Estate will grow in power and function alongside you

>Incidentally, promotion is via dead men's shoes - there are only eight Barons per Duke

>Next post, one with the show...

>>14191890
>Curse detracts from dicepools, Spite detracts semi-permanently from Attributes

>>14191900
True. Has to be Curse, then, unless hurting our minions is sufficiently close to hurting us that we could bring down our spiteful loathing on those who do. And I doubt the magic is that flexible until very, very high levels.

>>14191911
>as you increase in rank your own Estate will grow in power and function alongside you

Yeah, but what powers and functions does it give us? Look, I appreciate that you want to keep it rules-light but this is too much. We have no idea what the hell any of this does and no familiar ground to go off of. Does it provide our magic? Does it power our soul? Does it let us summon shit? Does it give us sanctuary? Does it let us kick ass in battle? What does it DO? What do we lose if our Estate grows weaker, and what do we gain if it grows stronger?

>>14191921
Sounds like Curse is the way to go then. If we are in a position to use Spite and have to make use of the "semi-perma" part of Spite that makes it better then we are doin' it wrong. For instance, Curse will weaken them so we can take them down the first time. Spite will let us flee and heal up, but give us a semi-permanent enemy who hates us for crippling them. I rather win the first time than rely on getting hurt as a strategy for victory.

let us not cloak our radiance in that traitors skin, send that trinket to melinda, in death iberis shall serve our servant

>>14191940
>The Estate provides you with sanctuary and power right now - it constantly regenerates the fuel for your powers and while in your Estate it becomes an extension of your will and awareness. If you sense a trespasser on your Estate you can control the very waters that form it to crush them, like a mosquito landing on your arm and being crushed under your hand.

>>14191980
The portal to the mortal world is out of our hands, and even if we still had it, Melinda was ordered to flee the region which contained it lest the Inquisition get her. While it might be fitting to demean that traitor by giving him to a mere human, it's simply not possible at the moment- it's not easy moving things between Hell and the human world.

>>14191967
Agreed.

>>14191980
Wat? No, this is an item of power. We keep it. Ours. Ours. To show and engender envy with, and to keep out of our servant's hands. They already have too much, far too much in comparison to us...

>>14191981
Okay. Does it provide us anything outside of being there? Or is it mostly just a home? What kind of resources are provided by our counts? What is our income? How is that income in comparison to other incomes, that we may rant about how ours is trifling and we deserve MORE, like that enviable Baron X.

Command Lahar to provide Agramond for the resources he needs to make us a beautiful and deadly whip of razor sharp ice, adorned with a barb of corrosive salt at the end. To better lash at our foes and pull toward us all that should be ours.

>>14192044
Oooh. Maybe we can make it so the barb of corrosive salt detaches whenever it embeds in something, and then regrows afterward. That was we can lodge horrific burning stakes of caustic salt into our enemies, weakening them.

You meditate within your dark sanctum, wrapped in the icy black waters of your Estate, at the tip of your inverted obsidian tower. You shift and change your Animus, and at once your perception blooms outward. Pieces of puzzles begin to fall into place - you never told the Firstborn to keep their source a secret, and those you sold out certainly know you are responsible. That Inquisitor and his lackeys caught you precisely because you were so persuasive and alluring. Sopesh is up to something, and you are a vital pawn in the plan, but what that plan is...

Your powers of Curse strengthen, a chill miasma that saps the will from those who come to near, able to reach out with an invisible tongue and bring ruination on a foes' endeavours.

You call upon Hord, and raise him to the position of your seneschal. Invested with your Demonic energy, he transforms a pathetic, worn fusion of man and seagull into something lithe a predatory. A humanoid creature with feathers patterned like a fine tuxedo, a cruel beak, and coldly knowing eyes. Something unsettles you about those eyes, but you suppose that is precisely what you wanted from him.

Hord bows low.

"Thank you, mistress. You have been most kind; I shall not disappoint. Do you wish a tour of the grounds? I fear that your predecessor remodeled things just a tad, and some of the new staff are... uncouth."

>>14192044
>You receive an income of roughly 2000 Obols anually (insofar as such measurements apply in Hell), after expenses and tithes.
>Your Estate is mostly a home right now, though you do receive bonuses while on such home territory

Lahar sends a communique in reply, informing you that she will do so, but some rare components are required and as such begs patience of you.

>>14192115
Sniff derisively. "He was rabble to the end. Serve me well as you did in the past, Hord, and you shall rise far indeed. Far enough that this will seem as naught.

Onward, to the grounds. I must see if these renovations please me or if they should be destroyed and remade."

>>14192110
Nice! Then we can slash and chill them to the bone with the whip part.

Tour the home. We might want to make renovations of our own.

Conclude that horde remained before precisely because he was so stupid. Make a note to bind some new imbecile to us in case worse comes to worse, proceed with tour of grounds

>>14192233
Pretty good idea. Having one stupid lackey can't hurt.

>>14192115
>you never told the Firstborn to keep their source a secret, and those you sold out certainly know you are responsible
Really? I didn't think the first thing on someone's mind when getting jumped by Weres is "Oh, mind telling me who sent you?" Surely not /all/ of them know.

>>14192115
>those you sold out certainly know you are responsible
Could be a problem in the future, but frankly I doubt any information we were able to give the Firstborn was that damaging. Everything we knew was old news and generalities that almost any demon could have told them; we were not exactly well-informed as to the capabilities or positioning of any other demons of significance. If the Firstborn took down another demon, it was to that demon's incompetence rather than our backstabbing.

>I fear that your predecessor remodeled things just a tad, and some of the new staff are... uncouth.
"All shall be set right soon enough. Some modifications as befits my current rank would be necessary in any case... and I believe that handling the staff's attitudes is now your task. I trust that you will correct them or find replacements easily enough."

Hmmmm, rather dull. Let us fill our chill waters with the delicate tang of narwhal blood and raw ambergris, just in the palace mind, no need to febreez a whole ocean

The tour begins with your private chambers, since you are already so near. They are, however, a blank slate - located at the tip of an upsidedown spire, there is room for your personal meditative sanctum and shrine to the Principle of Suffering, a spacious bedroom, study, and vault. How you wish it appointed is up to you, now - a mere thought will change it.

Further up the spire are guestrooms and your dining room, private meeting room, and a guardroom. Higher still are Hord's quarters and those of his immediate staff.

Eventually you come to the grand ball room, a vast circular chamber of perfectly mirrored ice and sharp, angular carvings around the walls. There is a balcony for a band and bar below it - the Circle of Envy produces the finest liquors in Hell.

Various other rooms are higher still, such as servants quarters, store rooms, kitchens, kennels.

At the wide, flat top of the spire is the garden - a near-perfect replica of the royal gardens at Regar, in the world of men. All sculpted ice and salt, with Demonic plants fulfilling the role of their earthly counterparts here and there. Some of your subjects stroll through the pathways, evidently on their break.

Amusing - the church of mortals always refers to Hell as such a horrible place without leisure or respite, but really; when you live here it's quite lovely.

>>14192310
I don't know. The Endless Depths has a sort of nobility in the purity and chill of the waters, the lightless void.

>>14192320
>The tour begins with your private chambers, since you are already so near. They are, however, a blank slate - located at the tip of an upsidedown spire, there is room for your personal meditative sanctum and shrine to the Principle of Suffering, a spacious bedroom, study, and vault. How you wish it appointed is up to you, now - a mere thought will change it.
Our shrine is left utterly empty and bare of all things, a deep chill filling its air. The rock which forms the walls and floor is smooth as silk and black as the lightless depths; when one enters and the door is shut, all sensation is severed. The only things present are the supplicant, their longing for all that they do not have, and the unseen but almost tangible presence of the Principle.

Our bedroom, vault, and study are lavishly appointed, but that's just for show, so that our lessers can have shoved in their faces how much better we are than them. It's not like we could possibly match the chambers of our superiors, after all, those wretched bastards.

>>14192320
Excellent. Luxury is the name of the game. Smooth, gossamer linens of clear woven ice and a palatial bed. Chandeliers of rimed ice (for proper glare reduction and light diffusal, of course!) set against blue flames that burn with cold rather than heat. A wardrobe fit for a Principle herself! We are a social butterfly, we must look the part. Our meditation chamber should be richly adorned with a plunging pit looking downward into the Endless Depths themselves. The vault should be shrouded in the deepest darkness we can conjure from the Depths themselves, suspended over the void into nothingness. Our treasures will be there for all to see on a floating platform in the center, surrounded by a transparent ice dome meters thick, with the only entrance on the far side. An invisible winding ice causeway will the the only means to reach it, so that only those who know the path already will be able to traverse it without falling into nothingness.

The Estate itself is a lightless, cold place. Not that you or the other denizens would like it any other way.
Away from your Spire are the guardposts and homes of your subjects - free-floating lumps of ice hollowed into comfortable homes. Often surrounded by fiendish serpents and terrible betentacled horrors; family pets or dogs of war being trained.

A few Sloth Demons also live near the deeper reaches of your Estate, brewing narcotics and handling trade. Honestly, they're more like an inter-Circle postal service. Still, sometimes an ambitious young Rabble will elect to make a living in Pandemonium and send letters to his friends back home.

Sometimes you see something vast and awful swimming through the waters, great Demon beasts equal parts boon and bane. They can be trained, certainly, but so can they rampage through outlying villages.

We ought to put in some renovations, it's actual comfort isn't the highest priority we want it to look regal and opulant and lording it over those below us. Form over function. Also we need to get a web of contacts and informers, knowledge is power. After we've developed our contacts we will want to investigate what Sopesh is up to.

Our senses are their sharpest here, our powers greatest, the very ocean would crush any who would harm us here, so here we must remain, this cloying abyss is both our fortress and prison. We need not deign leave to just scrape our eyes over the meager holdings of our vassals. Rather summon Quiret here and have him report on the disposition of our holdings, and our networks further a field .

>>14192494
We are an Earlessa; he's a Duke. We don't have the resources to effectively spy on someone two steps above us, particularly when our intelligence resources at the moment are approximately nil. After we have a solid handle on all our Counts, all our rival Earls, and our Baron, then we can start worrying about our Duke- and about people outside our chain of command. My guess is that it will be a rather long time before we get to that point.

>>14192156
>You receive an income of roughly 2000 Obols anually (insofar as such measurements apply in Hell), after expenses and tithes.
Am I to understand that we made more than four years' income in the mortal world in a matter of months? God damn, that was lucrative. We should see what we can do to keep our cult up above alive and prospering, because it certainly sounds like they could give our income an astonishingly huge boost in relative terms.

What exactly are our options for communicating with those who have Contract with us, by the way? How effectively can we, with our current level of power, influence/control them from here, and what aid can we render?

>>14192541
>You can contact them while meditating in your sanctum; they doubtless have a ritual space set up and make daily prayers to you

>>14192541
>While your influence is essentially complete, your ability to render aid is almost entirely cut-off

Ugh, I hate it but I really need to do naps now. OP, I worked through the archives and am super glad I got to participate this time. Being a part of the gestalt consciousness of the earlessa wreathed by dark waters is truly one of life's simple pleasures.

>>14192413
I'm sorry if I'm not really up to speed, but did we already do our favour to that sloth demon we bought our dress from?

If not, I'd like to get it out of the way before we become even more powerful.

>On which note, I should get some sleep - my girlfriend arrives tomorrow and I've got a convention to help run. Envy Quest will resume next Tuesday by the latest, but don't be surprised if I turn up sooner.

>Oh, and if any anon would still like that setting primer, sing out now and I'll start a thread about the game as a whole tomorrow. I can duck in and out of that more comfortably.

Okay. Once we finish redecorating it's time to host a ball. Have it be luxurious, we just made the bank topside after all and want to be feared, respected, and envied.

What is our Rabble situation? We currently only have the glacier one and the poisonous one, time to recruit some better and high quality rabble as meatshield/bodyguards and spies.

After the feast and recruitment we should make a trip to the capital to offer prayers at the temple. The Principle of Envy and Principle of Suffering are our patrons, I think? We should pray to them both, and make offerings to the Principle of Envy for our restoration and her favor in selecting us to go to the mortal realm.

>>14192638
I'd like the setting primer this looks like a great game, what system is it?

>>14192638
You has PDF?

>>14192613
If we can contact them, can we tell them the proper rites to summon demons, open gates to hell, and do other similarly entertaining things? Because if they can sacrifice people up top and get sent Rabble bound to us, I'd call that a fairly excellent state of affairs. Even being able to feed them bits of horrible demon-lore or warning them about the dangers of the world that we know about but humans know only through vague superstition could help them survive and prosper quite a bit.

>>14192636
That's still outstanding, but the requirements were fairly explicit in what we were expected to do, so the size of the favor cannot scale with our rank. I remember being very careful about that.

>>14192638
A setting infodump would be pretty excellent. A lot of the time it feels like we're flying blind around here.

>>14192655
>>14192661

>Personally developed system called Strange Times. You don't want the .pdf, not yet. First Edition is a fucking heap and I'm actually a bit embarassed by it these days. Second Ed. is coming along nicely though.

>Your praise is massively appreciated. I always wanted to make something /tg/ would enjoy

>I'll set your devious plans in motion soon, /tg/. In the meantime feel free to plot and speculate. I'm open to suggestions about Rabble, loot, and magic - when faced with limitless options it can be a real bitch to choose.

>Thank you, and goodnight

You've given me the sort of inspiration I usually only get from my dreams, Soundless Voice. Mind if I use this setting as a basis to submit works to my creative writing class?

>Writefaggin' incoming

The personal chambers of the Earlessa of the Endless Depths, Eshara, are truly a wonder for the minds of lesser beings to marvel. A work of art, designed by the Earlessa herself. Every facet a monument to the concept of Envy.

The floors are made of a brilliantly polished salt, providing a dark reflection of oneself amongst the endless void. A bitter reminder that one has nothing in comparison to the Earlessa.

The walls are a series of towering arches of yet more salt, set into which are great sheets of transparent ice through which one can truly appreciate the grand splendor of the endless, Bitter Sea.

The robust bed matches the white of the salt and ice flawlessly, and anyone viewing it is sorely tempted to dive into the deep, cold comfort of its folds. Such temptations cannot be fulfilled however, leaving the guest with wakeless pangs of desire even long after they have left.

Unbelievably delicate sheets of snowflakes comprise the curtains that decerate the interior of the room. Nearly transparent, one can only imagine such ethereal beauty falling to nothing should it be touched. The guest realizes that, even were it given, they could never possess them, adding resentment.

Towards the back of the room is a great shrine to the Earlessa herself, a conduit connected to those on the Prime Material (of which there are several). It is here that the Earlessa advances her fortunes upon her whims.
The shrine is a towering statue in perfect likeness to the Earlessa herself, standing ankle-deep in a small, curved recess filled with the salt waters of the Bitter Sea. The statue too is comprised of a never melting ice from the same waters, continually refreshing the basin with its everflowing tears.

All of this is illuminated by the pale blue light of a dozen pale blue souls, hovering gently amidst the room. The sheer decadence is near sickening, and the guest becomes inwardly maddened at the sheer injustice of one so rich lavishing herself in such a manner.

>>14193192
Whew, just under the character limit on that one.

And of course, if anyone else has any ideas for how to decor our room, please add them. All in all, it's actually pretty spartan.

>>14193208
The ceiling should have thousands of tiny icicles all over it, dropping occasional drips of water that turn into snowflakes nearly instantly, giving a constant unearthly grace to the room as they drift downwards... melting in most places instantly, but forming a soft rug in the middle of the floor, with intricate layered patterns that constantly change according to the Earlessa's mood.

>Often surrounded by fiendish serpents and terrible betentacled horrors; family pets or dogs of war being trained.
>They can be trained, certainly, but so can they rampage through outlying villages.
>family
>villages
I wasn't aware that demons had these things. They seem so typically human. More explanation is required.


Anyway. The biggest task before us is building an intelligence network from the ground up, which frankly is going to be a bitch and a half. The problem with building spy networks is that they're full of spies- who inherently can't be trusted- and demons to boot, so even less so. No one is going to be loyal to us out of any kind of patriotism or similar; the closest we'll come is finding out others' secrets and blackmailing them with them, which requires a working network to manage in the first place. We can't effectively back our net with money, because we don't have the incomes to support it- we'd start burning through funds much faster than they are replenished. That leaves us with doing this the hard way, building things up agent by agent and connection by connection, a miserably trying and difficult task if there ever was one.

>>14196230
>Setting Thread here