Expansion is brought to a halt, and you make benevolent overtures towards finalizing the new borders with the United Cities- You are magnanimous in the treaty-writing, partially because almost all of what you give up is the signature 'enchanted forests' of the United Cities region- Fey and so on live there abundantly, and they are probably more dangerous than useful, in all truth.

Your efforts to expand your information network throughout Morinth meet with heavy resistance, sadly. Though the agent you put in charge of the network assures you it is making progress, your estimation of the data suggests that someone else, (or possibly many entities,) are opposing your network with lethal efficiency, and those few who do seem to have successfully planted themselves... Well, you believe they may be compromised agents. You replace the spymaster in charge of the operation, and instruct his successor to be both more cautious and honest. Otherwise, you can only wait and see.

Research on your captive Black has gone... poorly. Not only is he most vexating to deal with, but genuine research has run into a block; most mages in the world prefer to halt aging, or reverse it entirely. You are capable of doing that, but... Well, as a dragon, you do not fear age like humanoids do, and will apparently have to work from the ground up for the specific brand of immortality you desire. Annoying. Almost as much as the black, and you have taken special pleasure whenever your studies have given you cause to inflict harm upon him- He at least shuts up while you do that. In this, research has helped you, and between your experimentation and research, you've got a fairly solid idea of draconic anatomy, at least for chromatics.

Some metallics too, though the information on them is sparser, and more difficult to verify. You are rather unwilling to actually cut yourself (or any of your other prisoners,) open to corroborate, but the sages and alchemists discussing the topic seem to have done their research fairly well. Regarding blacks, your research has confirmed theirs almost exactly, leaving you with the feeling of time well spent.

Assistance in that matter comes from a surprising quarter- The libararies and vaults of the avariel that you plundered. It is slow progress to go through and catalog or translate each scroll or tome, but many of them have turned out to be treatises on dragons, some rendered half-legible by age. Watcher has confirmed that Lorekeeper gave it to them, prior to her abdication, to prevent it from being found by those who would have stolen it from her library... You concede that you aren't too interested in having such knowledge spread about, regarding draconic anatomy and weaknesses.

Regarding the purpose of your research, the Binder and her... efforts, you think you have found a solution. How effective can only be determined via tests, but you refuse to entertain the thought that such exorbitantly expensive efforts have no use. A way to siphon out- in this case, copies- of thoughts has long been known to particularly paranoid archmages, and you have succeeded in crafting three, though the material and magical input required is agonizing. Suffice to say, though, you have backed up, in three separate containers, your knowledge regarding your empire's current state of affairs, knowledge regarding your research on the siphoning of life and age, and finally, one regarding people in your life, suggesting that you have reason to trust Scinnari and Azyra, the basics of your knowledge regarding Cygnariassis, Seffestranias, and now Nehmaska, the current (and previous) Tashz sultans, special subordinates, and so on. With the leftover room, details on personal ventures you are pursuing, lest you be forced to forget, and invested resources be totally lost- Something you refuse to contemplate. You anticipate updating all of them at semi-frequent intervals, but happily, editing what is stored within the memory jars is far less resource-intensive than actually creating the devices.

On an unrelated note, Lady Issa has followed the capital's decision, and is offering bounty on dead drow herself- Only those who took part in or were active opponents of the empire, of course, but still an added impetus towards dealing with the drow problem. Nobody competent enough to actually end it has stepped forward, though you imagine that the onslaught of pseudo-sociopathic murderers you've been sending their way has been of some inconvenience to them.

And finally... The dragons who now live within your territory... Or rather, the ones who live on your lands, as oppose to within your home. The copper on your eastern fringe remains within your border, despite the treaty with the halflings, and so far, has proven singularly unambitious regarding local politics- You suppose that's coppers. Give them something to talk to and someone to pull pranks on and they're happy... You do hope that she will keep to the peasantry, and not attempt to try something on, perhaps, the local magistrate, or a garrison, but who knows... Should she do so, however, you feel you are more than capable of... Dealing... with her.

The Bronze to the south, Sevvuserran, is another question entirely. She has been semi-militant in recent years. Not in resisting you, but in enforcing her own... 'standards', upon your local garrison. Not actually something you object to- Her efforts seem limited to keeping your garrison uncorrupted, honorable, and actually serving as a protector of the people. Not really political, as it is more 'dealing' with troublesome and usually off-duty soldiers. Further, the people in the nearby port-towns seem to think she's a hero or benevolent spirit, where it isn't actually an open secret regarding her nature. Her popular reception would make it difficult to openly move against her, even if she necessitated it.

Additionally, she has proven an asset regarding law enforcement- She does, occasionally forcibly extradite individuals sailing over her territory, and actively hunts all pirates in the region, reputedly offering no quarter when she finds them. A few years ago some of those who qualified as 'pirates' included elements of your own Navy, but these days a few captains have reported even being saved by her, or something you suspect to be her. You have mixed feelings regarding her impact on your territory, and have put off dealing with her for the moment.

###########

Eventually, however, the agreement you have worked on with Nehmaska is finalized, to both of your satisfaction. She is bound to your, will serve you faithfully as her liege, to the best of her ability, and of her own initiative. You, in return, will see to her well being as best you can- A fairly elastic clause, but basically preventing you from actively trading her away, soul-wise or slave-wise. It also serves to cover your initial healing of her too. The clauses you take the most exception to, and are most wary of, are only two: You swear to release her after eighty years, and she is allowed to refuse an action based on conscientious objection. Her intent seems honorable, though, and allowing her these has made the contract almost entirely voluntary- Meaning that you do have a- at the very least, almost entirely- legitimate infernal compulsion backing it. Other details are mostly irrelevant- You obviously cannot inflict harm upon her without reason, and she is obligated not to remove the bands you have placed upon her, though you have not activated them like Cygnariassis'. Mostly they serve as a way for you to keep track of her, shield her thoughts, and contact her when necessary, but you suspect you both are aware of the contingency they represent. Intriguingly, they seem to have healed her burns beneath them, but otherwise her scorching wounds that were not of your infliction have proven utterly unaffected by healing magic.

Regardless, nearly two months of negotiation, and more freedom than you expected giving, but for that, you have acquired a willing servant in Nehmaska, and have fairly good reason for her to stay loyal. As an appraisal of her abilities and willingness to assist, you've returned her to the jungle you took her from, with orders to engineer and facilitate the induction of the jungle tribes into Kingdom of Mza- To the betterment of both parties, of course, but with the expansion of the kingdom's domain in that region the most important. You have kept all but the most necessary information from her out of reflex, but do not actually anticipate any breaking of her bond. Should she, though, she will only be able to guess that you have a relationship to Lord Prestor, and certainly can't /know/. You deem it an acceptable test, and intend to monitor her almost constantly, just in case she is less... reasonable than you have been given reason to think.


[Sorry about ramming this through without option to discuss, but I didn't really want another two hours of debate. Suffice to say, you have a lieutenant, of sorts. OP over, Q&A begin.]

A visual rep of our new servant.

...an actual outfit that isn't underwear will be coming soon enough, if anyone wants it.

>>14882470
you mean that those ARE her underwear?

>>14882507

Pretty much. The bands aren't, obviously, but she doesn't have a choice about those and, being a practical lass, has chosen to work 'with' them in regards to clothing than against.

>>14882395
The bronze, Sevvuserran. She seems to be a useful influence, for now, so I think her presence should be tolerated. We will want to stay apprised of her actions, though.

80 years is kind of short, especially for a dragon. I hope we can wring as much worth out of Nehmaska as we can in that time period.

>>14882395

Hell yeah, that's almost exactly what I wanted.

We should probably talk to that bronze sooner than later, and formalize the part she plays in local law enforcement. If only so that her actions don't undermine our authority.

Eighty years before she's free (with all the knowledge she'll gain of us during that time) and she can just refuse to do things? Plus she will likely have healed and gotten her scales back at that point? Ridiculous. Should have just killed her, I can't even imagine the problems once she figures out our plans for the avariel.

Plus:
>You, in return, will see to her well being as best you can- A fairly elastic clause
Now we are contractually obligated by the /hells/ to fight dragons who come to kill her, joy. I hope to god I'm just reading that wrong. If not, sounds to me like she got the better deal out of this contract than we did by far.

>>14882652
>Now we are contractually obligated by the /hells/ to fight dragons who come to kill her, joy
Actually I think we're contractually obligated to order her to run away.

I should be more annoyed than I am about this deal with Nef, but dem muscles mang, dem muscles...

More info on her?

>>14882652
We can always compel her to renew the contract at the end of those 80 years. For her own safety.

>>14882696
No kidding. Not what I was wanting at all.

The picture though, hmmm. I don't think that was what I was picturing from her initial description. She doesn't seem muscular, and I figured her for like... wavy shoulder length hair. Lack of burns all down her side and legs is strange too.

But mostly just weirded out by suddenly musclegirl when she wasn't described like that at all.

>>14882707

Compelling would nullfy the 'willing' aspect of the pact, making it worthless. And she doesn't seem the kind of dragon who can be 'convinced' of things in the same way Cygnis can.

I don't know what to do with her in regards to keeping her around after her term, but for the time being, getting her to warm up to us some might be a good idea - we are her boss for 80 years, and as an above anon pointed out, she's getting a pretty good deal out of it (well...give-or-take)

>>14882369
>she is allowed to refuse an action based on conscientious objection.
I assume that we hedged the FUCK out of this clause. Because otherwise we can order her to eat an apple, and she can refuse on "moral grounds". In fact, she could refuse to do anything at all based upon the fact that we, an evil creature, are ordering her to do it and are therefore trying to get her to do something immoral as part of a sinister master plan.

So I assume that when we say "refuse an action based upon conscientious objection", we either have set a limited number of actions that she can refuse in a given time period, or have made sure that she can only refuse to carry out really nasty actions, i.e. we can tell her to eat an army and she has to do it but if we tell her to eat a baby she can refuse.

>>14882696
>More info on her?
Let's not. This has already been a shitstorm clusterfuck. Just let the new dragon servant fade into the background and say that an infernal contract took care of it all. Done. I want her dead personally, but I'm willing to just let it drop now that it has gone this far, as long as it doesn't effect the actual story.

>>14882745

I kinda like it; it's a contrast to the more traditionally beautiful Cygnis, and it gives me the impression of...duty. Or martial aptitude, or something like that.

Besides, all we got from her description was 'short-haired woman', I think it was. So yeah, I think it's good - not what I was expecting at all, but good. Anyone agree?

>>14882810
1.) You mean affect.
2.) It already has affected the story.
3.) If you want to prevent this from buttfucking us, it might be a good idea to get on her good side.

>>14882782
What might work is to allow her the misconception that she can manipulate Azaladon, and in turn, Lord Prestor and the Kingdom of Mza, in small ways to spread Good.

For example, hiding our more devious capabilities and plots, and putting up the front of a simple greedy Red, who will be happy as long as the gold and treasures flow into his hoard. Who will allow her to do Good, as long as it profits him. And, because of the contract, is required to help her out if she is ever in trouble.
Make the contract look as if it favors her more, and so entice her to extend the contract when the time comes.

>>14882369
>but otherwise her scorching wounds that were not of your infliction have proven utterly unaffected by healing magic.

Curious. I wonder what got at her that leaves burns that can't be healed magically.

>>14882823
It appears that her neck is almost as thick as her waist, her hands are slightly too small for her body, the leg in the background is too large for perspective, her torso is a tad on the squat side, her head seems rather flat, and her face is fairly masculine.

Good job on the musculature though, that's hard. Still better than 90% of the tripe I see on DA.

>>14882868
We can just order her to tell us her life story, if we care. She can only refuse if she finds telling us immoral.

>>14882842

Hmm, I'm not entirely sure she'd be willing to renew an -infernal- contract, but I think it's not impossible she'd be willing to re-enter in with us more naturally if she grows to like it.

But then, she ain't got no hoard of her own or such...she'd probably as for more rights toward those ends. I guess we could beat the shit out of her again if it all gets too much.

>>14882782
>getting her to warm up to us some might be a good idea
Yeah, except not. She's a silver dragon with profound morals and a sense of good. We're probably one of the most vicious horrific beings in the entire world.

>>14882810
I don't see the point in ignoring her. I say get a much use out of her as possible, then when the contract is almost up we imprison her and use her for magical experiments, provided we haven't found a better use for her.

>>14882891

Yeah, but *she* doesn't have to know that.

>>14882891
But she doesn't know just how bad we actually are. She doesn't even know how we relate to Prestor, just that we may be involved with Mza somehow. A good deal of our evil could actually be blamed on Prestor, leaving her thinking we're not bad for a red until it's too late.

>>14882893
Did you not read what I wrote for the point? I mean, do you not see what is happening right now? How many posts have involved her and not other much more important things like our research or the drow?

Send her to the ends of the earth and pretend this whole episode never happened, or else it will turn into Silver Dragon Romance Quest. I for one would just rather call it quits.

>>14882871
.
Hey, as long as you don't hate it and the general design, I'm happy.

>>14882891
She also has demonstrated a willingness to sacrifice for the greater good. As long as we don't let her know the extend of our influence she'll be easy to manipulate.

>>14882918
Doesn't Azyra kinda ruin that whole plan? We already showed her off in her true form publicly.

>>14882923

Geez Adun, settle down; we're discussing the Drow and such in the IRC, aren't we? Besides, it's important to get to know our new minion.

>>14882923
Quit your worrying. Now that this has been dealt with and she has been given a task we can move on to the other matters. Just ignore the trolls.

I'd like to know when we will begin experimenting with the life force transfer magic on humans. We obviously can't use dragons now since we only have one. Humans are easier to replace anyways.

>>14882995
Who? And I don't know how to get to IRC.

>>14882887
Well, we do have 80 years to observe her, and be observed by her in kind.

>>14882891
We know that, Scinnari knows that, Watcher knows that, the people we killed know that, but she doesn't have to.
As long as we put up a facade of being more interested in the results rather than the process, it creates in her mind the possibility of manipulating us to her ends.

But I think we're mostly done with Nehmaska for now. She's been sent back to the jungles, and we can debate courses of action when she comes back to us with results.

Right now, anybody have any more ideas on what to do with the Drow?
As for research, since what we're trying to accomplish with life extension is kind of unique, I think we have to accept certain difficulties. Don't be discouraged, and continue our experiments.

>>14882999

Probably a couple of decades or so. We ain't making much progress.

>>14882970
She's also half devil, which covers some of her draconic heritage. Plus, from her perspective just because Prestors daughter seems half dragon doesn't automatically mean Azaladon is the father. And even if we're the father that doesn't mean we're also Prestor.

>>14882999
What about experimenting with lizardmen and kobolds?
They're numerous enough, and their physiology is closer to that of dragons than humans are.

The only problem I see with that though is that such experimentation might create some cracks in our divine image.

"Memory backups" like described in the OP are completely balls. That won't be us, it will be imprinted memories. Not even a remotely viable solution... I don't see why we even bothered.

The only good way to solve this is to remove the hooks from us, not create backup drives for our brain.

>>14883041
Yeah, that's why I was suggesting humans. Unless we can get a group if lizardmen that aren't already involved with us.

>>14883039
Did you miss how quickly Seffy connected the dots? Silvers are smarter than reds by default, and I personally don't think Seffy was focusing on the mental buffing from her constitution.

>>14883020
That's why we should begin using lesser races immediately. We can be less cautious with the experiments since we can replace our subjects with ease.

>>14883082
I'm pretty sure Seffy already knew we were a red dragon with a devil for a consort because we used her for that mission against Scinnaris' superior. The silver doesn't have that knowledge.

>>14883055
Getting non-aligned lizardmen or kobolds might be what we want to try.
Also, perhaps we should try experiments with the more long-lived races? Experiment with captured avariel rebels from the Ivory Gates, and if possible, drow raiders from our northern holdings?

Experimenting with beings that have lifespans similar to dragons might also be a good line of research.

>>14882395

I like the outcome of everything described here, saves us two hours of bitching. We haven't done anything terribly high on the atrocity list to actually deserve her for coming after us (that she'd know of). If we were doing the normal red dragon thing (aka Seffy) this would be terribly more of an issue for us over time. Just keep her moving out out of the empire stabilizing areas over time for the benefit of everyone around. My parnoid impulse does kick in on several things through:

1. Should have established a "no go" area for her (aka closer to lair and Mza) or let us in the contract establish her area of operation and movement boundaries for the sake of making sure she doesn't end up in the wrong place...

2. As with our hoard-topper, who does she know besides us (Was this answered last time) and what other established relationships does she have besides those humanoids she was protecting? Just making sure we don't draw any unwanted attention from relatives due to how silvers operate.

3. Well she's a silver, so proud and good aligned. Should have put in the contract for her to be truthful with us when asked questions or something to that effect so it impinges any potential plotting against us through seconday agents.

If all else fails with her, we can just send her to some long forgotten glacier with a giant bone dragon encarved in ice and tell her to guard it for the duration of her contract. I'm assuming she'd have no great issue keeping watch over an extremely dangerous being and making sure no one tries to free it.

Oh yeah, keep her away from Cygnis at all costs. That's like the only obviously evil thing we got going on at this time, everything is else is just "questionable" at worst at first glance.

>>14882470

Initally saw image and through it was related to that "Fanfic" thing mentioned last thread. After realizing what I was looking at, looks good.

>>14883082
Seffy figured it out because she's actually seen us in dragon form. She commented that we fight too skillfully in dragon form to just be an elf polymorphed into a dragon, and that we can drop the pretense with her. She's known since before we unveiled Azyra.

>>14883048
Destroy the memory backups. They are literally our thoughts just sitting around and serve no purpose. As someone said in IRC they are both defeatist and serve no purpose in overcoming the Binder currently... plus whoever gets resurrected from them will not be US. They would just be a different person with some of the same memories.

Too dangerous to have lying around for literally no benefit. Someone could tap into the matrix, as it were. We never should have wasted the money.

Azyra's taste in bodyguards you find quite disappointing. Understandable, considering her age, and the fact that many of the most skilled combatants, and best candidate for the duty, are ex-adventurers, but disappointing none the less. One you can agree on is Zaxis- Now edging in on elderly, but still a capable and intelligent follower- And, you suppose, worth gifting to Azyra, just so she'll have something. Your intent to force her to use her original bodyguards until she found acceptable replacements has withered somewhat in the face of having to frequently look over her proposed selection and deny her.

On another front, you have gained around two dozen half-dragons. Chloressievek apparently fulfilled his end of the bargain, and they are young but growing, and showing no fear of heights as far as you can tell. You have had each of them visit your cloud-castle, and all but a few are quite handy with animals. The rocs seem utterly unconcerned by their presence (provided they've already eaten,) and are relatively tame.

On a final note, your kobolds believers in Freeport have begun testing their concerted influence on the economy, as you desired. Though tentative, the seem to have more effect than you suspected, provided they keep it subtle. Conversely, those you moved to the mainland have been having problems- Not only with the occasional lizardman soldier they encounter that holds his or her belief in you dearly, (Those are rarer on the mainland.) but also because they are used to being a semi-accepted element of society. To the inhabitants of the Angevin states, even your sections, kobolds are monsters and not terribly welcome. They have been slowly gaining acceptance in the port-city you sent them to, but you suspect they will be an inviting target for hate and oppression by the rest of the populace.

>>14883129

4. Forgot to add, make sure she's not aloud to speak of the deal or us to anyone else. Causes all sorts of issues if someone else (maybe another dragon) finds out and takes issue with it.

>>14883129
>1. Should have established a "no go" area for her (aka closer to lair and Mza) or let us in the contract establish her area of operation and movement boundaries for the sake of making sure she doesn't end up in the wrong place...
That's a bad idea if I've ever heard one. If she didn't already have a guess at who we were she would all but know in that case. Better to give her a set area that she can't leave, like a smallish radius around where we first found her.

>>14883119
That's a good idea too. However there is a benifit in using the shorter lived races for the early tests as due to their shorter life span the effect of a successful test will be easier to monitor.

>>14883154
Couldn't we use them as a form of memory check to see where the Binder has her hooks in us?
With such an investment, I'd like to see if there isn't something we could try to use them for, before destroying them as potential threats.

>>14883170
Adversity merely strengthens faith! As long as we support them financially and appear to them as a religious figure on a semi-regular basis (say bi-yearly) they will solidify and become even more fanatical.

>>14883170
>kobold followers become targets of hate crimes
I think we need to institute certain civil rights laws concerning not just kobolds and lizardmen, but all traditionally viewed 'monsters'. That as long as they do not break any of the laws of Mza, that they will be equal before the law.

If there's one thing I won't stand for, it's our minions being bullied by others.

>>14883192
What? She can unmake us, not fuck with our head. If she could fuck with our head the quest would be pointless, as would fighting her.

>>14883260

>Implement civil rights laws
>Still trade in slavery
>Own two dragons as slaves

>>14883267
I don't mean to check merely memory, but see if the devices can be used to analyse our soul.

>>14883292
Yup.

>>14883292
We just don't include the no-slaves part of the civil rights package.
Just because we implement certain civil rights, doesn't mean we have to implement them all.

>>14883260
Let's not. Egalitarian society is not something we want.

>>14883307
What? That makes no sense. If you want to check something, check it. Memory jars aren't going to help with soul analysis.

>>14883173
>>14883129

You have given her the run of Mza, but she is only allowed in the lizardmen's tunnel fortress when invited. Likewise, she is not allowed to intrude on the mountaintop castle.

Regarding knowledge, she knows and hates the mated pair of reds west of where you found her. They are what chased her from her home, stole her hoard, and wounded her. (She doesn't know why healing magic refuses to work on her injuries either, but has admitted that regular healing does not seem to be stopped by it.) She knows #41, the Mature Adult silver, in passing, but was chased out of the mountains almost immediately after her arrival, and does not know him well.

Her parents are much older Silvers to the south and east, in the lands of Urgash. She has not spoken in a few years, having resolved to establish herself before contacting them again. This will, she observes, be somewhat delayed by the current arrangement. They are unlikely to come looking for, and she claims she will send them away if they do. (And, arguably, she must, due to the pact.)

Regarding point three, that is of course in there, though she was moderately offended at the insinuation that she wouldn't. She got over it, though.

Keeping her away from Cygnis was an obvious part, as was your point four.


Regarding other stuff:

>>14883136
Correct.

>>14882970
My understanding was that you intended to keep her extremely limited within your lair, and you did not intend to introduce one ot the other at the moment, nor later, unless specified.

>>14883041
They are closer, but they often have shorter lives.
>>14882970
Azyra does obviously have red dragon blood, but how much is less apparent. It could, arguably, be the result of two sorcerers fiddling with their bloodlines.

>>14883326
Do you not see how BAD an idea this is? Does the French Revolution ring any bells?

We are not introducing civil rights to the fucking medieval world where we are a horrific evil despot.

>>14883355

Man, Neffy seems to have a real clit-boner for rules and stuff. Is she actually, y'know...personable? Like, joke and stuff? Nothing worse than a boring 'duty first' minion, even if they do share our love of pragmatism.

>>14883326
Oh, come on. We could quite easily say that noble or wealthy officials are allowed slaves, as they are obviously capable of providing well for said slaves. I bet Scin would love it, even more lawful evil.

Anyway, while a lawful evil empire would tend to favor those higher up in it's hierarchy, it doesn't necessarily have to be bad for the majority in the lowest class. Which means that, while lawful evil, it can be pretty decent.

>>14883366
The French Revolution occurred due to a myriad of different factors, not all of which are present in Mza.
Besides, do you want no legal protections for our kobold minions?

>>14883452
I want the same legal protections everyone else gets: None, except as given by the state as embodied by King Varian Prestor.

>>14883397
Honor, mostly.

>>14883355
I'm going to clarify here; limiting her locations is something you have not done as specified yet. I assumed, given no input on teh subject, you would be limiting it thusly once she'd proven herself semi-competent and loyal. That said, I presume you limited her to the jungle region which she's supposed to be bringing under your control, and the nearest of the ex-avariel cities. As of yet, she knows you brought her to an underground area staffed by lizardmen, and sent her back with orders to influence a situation involving Mza. Also that you have a devil on staff. Nothing else.

>>14883511

Honor alone does not a personality make.

>>14883511
>proven herself semi-competent and loyal.
Not going to really happen because shes an silver dragon. Some yeah but even as a supporter of keeping her I'm realistic enough to know that we aren't going to actually trust her ever.

>>14883511
>I assumed, given no input on teh subject
Okay, well no.

We give her an exact area she can move in. This area will be limited to whatever we deem required for completion of the task we have set for her. This area will change with the task and never be "yeah, just go whereever." If she needs to move outside of it she has to contact us and ask.

Furthermore, we will never highlight any of our interests when making this area. If your secret base is under a volcano, you don't tell the silver dragon who will eventually be free OH HEY AND TOTALLY DON'T LOOK UNDER THE VOLCANO OR ANYTHING BUT EVERYTHING ELSE IS FINE.

One would THINK this a fairly common-sense stipulation.

>>14883590
Oh, and slightly more because apparently we have to be EXACT on this or else she just gets free reign to walk all over us:

>Furthermore, we will never highlight any of our interests when making this area.
This doesn't mean we tell her it's fine to go into the Mza volcano. We just snow it appropriately like: "Don't interfere with the sorcerer of Mza unless he directly opposes you, I don't want that kind of trouble."

Minor plan having nothing to do with Ms. Silver:

Send a letter to the green dragon east of the Ivory Gates (35), since he's historically raided that city fairly regularly and obviously we now wish to put a stop to that. Send him greetings as Sorcerer-King of Mza and now the Ivory Gates, cordially informing him of the end of avariel rule and our ownership of the territory and anticipating a peaceful relationship between him and our subjects, etc. etc. and mentioning that we are available for discussion if he wishes to speak regarding any topic. Make sure it's written in flawless draconic. I would anticipate his either acting against us immediately to demonstrate his power, making some kind of demand for tribute due to arrogance, or taking our offer of a meeting to gain information; prepare a few nasty contingencies against either of the first two cases- if he raids our city, I want him to be promptly met by a dozen guards shooting lightning and fire. In the last case we can meet and see if we can arrange something mutually beneficial, if he wants it, though again we'll need to take steps to ensure that we are safe and/or capable of kicking his ass even in sorcerer form. If he doesn't reply or act against us, then we can assume truce until otherwise demonstrated.

>>14883590

Essh, I'd like the travel-ring stipulations so long as we also give her some 'bunker' or 'home' she can teleport to and chill in as well, like 'you're either here or there'.

That way she'd be less displeased with us if we confined her to 10 miles of a barren desert until called on.

>>14883670

What do we want? MORE HALF-DRAGONS!

I'm sure he'd consider no-raiding for sex a good deal.

>>14883670
Second.
Maybe have him sire some more half-dragon lizardmen for our Draconic Airborne regiment?

>>14883696
Sure, give her leave to make a lair and visit it... provided being there doesn't hamper completion of the objectives we set for her.

Also it has to be in some out of the way place where it will never EVER interfere with our plans. Don't tell her that part, of course, just veto any location that we don't approve of until she finds one that won't bother us.

Benefit? After eighty years she likely will have developed the lair and even free from our contract likely won't want to move, so we will know where she -- and her hoard -- are.

Our need focus should the drow problem, didn't Morinth or one of our neighbors have problems with drow a few years back and a mercenary/adventure company manage to stop the attacks? Check who they were what they did and see if wee can hire them.

>>14883722
>>14883747
Can we aim for non-aggression before we jump to asking him to fuck some humanoids for us? As delightful as it would be to introduce a second stud's bloodline to our half-green lizard minions... hell, if we could get four or five we could feasibly make them an actual subrace/clan, which we could perpetuate into great numbers like we have with Asha's brood.

>>14883815

Why dont we start making our own half dragon lizardmen?

>>14883832
Lots of reasons that have eaten multiple threads already.

>>14883832
Lots of reasons. Biggest one being Binder influence.

>>14883832

Oh the arguments we've used before here:

-We're a family man throughout the entire quest so far. Making more minions involves...branching out a little and might cause Scinnari even more mental issues than necessary.
- Binder's bloodline might effect offspring and cause her to have some measure of influence over them (Didn't we disprove this to some degree). On our only offspring, we've gone through great lengths to keep her out of potential contact due to magic items and the like.
- We've cared about the bloodline so far and have placed great care on offspring. Making disaposable shocktroops of our blood kinda contradicts this. Along with potential issues of how much power than may actually wield.
- At that point we'd also officially have a harem. Look at the Ottoman empire or some of the chinese dyantasies. Total pain in the ass in terms of management required to deal with them at this point due to legimitacy issues, etc... Also conviently dodges another potential WAIFU WARS situation.

>>14883815
Sure, sure. Neutrality and non-aggression pact first, and then move on to becoming a stud for our military machine.

Join us at the IRC

IRCHighWay #dragonquest

>>14883832

As a point though; if we can get more half-dragon kids...then we can start breeding the half-dragons with half-dragons!

>>14883934
Not to mention that as a 'deity' we would be creating a rift between the "god blooded" and normal followers. Plus de-legitimizing our little princess Azyra and Scinnari at the same time.

>>14883832
Because people are paranoid. Also because it cuts down on waifu-arguments.


>>14883751

Could you give me an idea as to where would be okay? Also, if asking her what she wants, she's likely to be choosing a mountain or mountainous region. Silvers love their clouds.

>>14883544
No, but that's what she has a- as was so elegantly described- 'clit boner' for. I thought that was the question.

>>14883554
No, but if you intend to use her as a servant and lieutenant, you're going to have to trust her somewhat, at the very least, that she can handle certain things. Loyal was a poor choice of words, shift it to "loyal to the contract", if not you.


>>14883590
That's very nice. Sadly, however, you actually have to specify things, and can't just assume I am aware of them and agree with you.

>>14883670
Barring seriously objection, dealing with this next.

>>14883747
>>14883722
Confirmed?


>>14883791
Exheln is what you're thinking of. The eventually hired the Black Circle, which is either a very small mercenary band, or a very large group of adventurers, who allegedly managed to stop it. (Some claim that the drow simply won instead.)


[I'm back, sorry about the delay.]

>>14883934
Ok fine, but them lets install a breeding program with our current assets if we need more we could ask seffy if she wants to take part to get more dragon blood in without much inbreeding. How does that sound like?

>>14883154

They're an important method of recovery if we suffer a memory wipe somehow. Also, if we don't want t use them that way, we could make the research commercial and make it available to eccentrics and others who can afford it, and use it to peek into their memories.

Plus, we could edit the memory jars that are supposed to be ours with false memories, designed to foil thieves (who would be interested in such a thing once the technology became well known).

>>14884017
The mountain range on the eastern continent should be okay, towards the north away from other dragons.

>silver as lieutenant
That's not how we wanted to use her, you're reading into it way too much. She's a tool and a servant, she doesn't get to know our empire workings or anything. We give her tasks and she does them, they can be complicated tasks and stuff or large projects but she's by no means going to be part of our inner circle.

>>14884017
>Confirmed?
Not confirmed. Not right now. See if we can establish decent relations first, get a decent idea of his personality, and if he seems like he's a decent enough chap we can broach the topic. But not on our first meeting, and since we'd have to trade him something in exchange we'd have to find out what he wants.

>>14884017
The primary goal of our negotiations with the Green (No. 35) should be to secure a non-aggression pact with our holdings and trade that goes through our controlled territory.
If that works out, then begin working on a deal to have him provide us with more half-dragons, with reasonable compensation.

>>14884043
>They're an important method of recovery if we suffer a memory wipe somehow.
No, they aren't. Because if we suffer a memory wipe then we're for all intents and purposes dead. Whatever comes back will be someone else, not us. They are dangerous and not very useful, therefore should be destroyed.

>Plus, we could edit the memory jars that are supposed to be ours with false memories
That defeats the whole purpose! We would be giving ourselves false memories when we used them then! Argh!

>>14884056
Apologies, couldn't think of the right word. I assumed you'd be using her as a capable agent and troubleshooter for certain tasks. As has been stated, you don't want to inform her of more than is necessary. Is that too far off?

>>14884064
Noted.

>>14884017
No to asking the green to breed with our dudes. Or Seffy, that's just bad. That's a little forward, don't you think? Just send him a message and say "sup?"

>>14884083

For now, we keep our distance. If over the years we actually start...y'know, 'getting on' more as she settles into her new role, or we just get on for whatever reason, then maybe things could change. But so long as it's just business, then we can hardly bring her more into the fold; that's just asking for trouble.

>>14884076

If we don't use them for their intended purpose as a back-up mechanism then we could leave edited memories in storage as a red herring for thieves, provided that we made the technology commercially available so that people would know that such a thing exists.

A side benefit of making the technology commercially available is that we can look at the memories of whoever we perform the service for, or of whoever's memory jars we capture if we let the technology go from proprietary to open (or at least reverse-engineered).

>>14884111
>A side benefit of making the technology commercially available is that we can look at the memories of whoever we perform the service for, or of whoever's memory jars we capture if we let the technology go from proprietary to open (or at least reverse-engineered).
I don't think you get the whole... D&D wizard thing bro. These kinds of things aren't really commercial applications, especially not this powerful. I mean, it's an interesting idea but hardly workable.

>>14884140

Like wizards never trade secrets for favors? Tools and techniques? Collaborate on research? Sell devices to the public to raise funds?

That's the very definition of going commercial.

>>14884064
>>14884059

Second'd here. Having some different blood in the bloodline other than two dragons is probably for the best. It needs to be very clear once the females leave, he gets nothing to do with them like the other green we've been dealing with. But first try talking with him if possible. No need to tip our hand on the other plans if he won't agree to even the most basic things.

>>14884083

Yeah more or less WD. She's good aligned and loves honor. Probably has a bit of the normal justice streak silver have. We always have a large variety in potential problems on our personal and empire's plate that. Some of them can be dealt with in a good aligned manner to further our objectives. She just such an agent to take care of those occassionals problems. If the drow weren't so powerful or underground, they'd be a great excercise for her honestly due to the Drow's cruel nature.

>>14884027

She's a female and could potentially want to rear the offspring. Hate to make the joke, but males can effectively fire and eject in this situation not requiring their continued involvement.

Also, we're totally two steps away from doing the whole "Chromatic Dragonflight" thing at this point if we continue down this line in the future. I'm honestly not entirely against it myself as long as we do it slowly.

>>14884076

Not the guy you're replying to, but if we suffer a memory wipe, and then we restore memories from back-up, isn't that like 1-1=0+1? Meaning no difference at all?

Our brain composition wouldn't have been altered, and all our memories and experiences can be put back in.

Fuck Adun, keep the jars, keep the memories.

>>14884230
Nope, we get unmade back to the point we were when first "binderized".

>>14884230

Doesn't the reset effectively change us back to the state before the Binder's influence? (ie a hatchling) We'd be like two feet long and be'd an evil genius. This plan also relies on someone picking us up and putting back to the machine to regain our memories (What a suprise we've kept such a loyal consort around...)

Such a thing is totally in the spirit of quest threads however if we get hit with a "You've pissed off the binder and get a bad end" if we do something really outrageous.

>>14884165
>Also, we're totally two steps away from doing the whole "Chromatic Dragonflight" thing at this point if we continue down this line in the future. I'm honestly not entirely against it myself as long as we do it slowly.
Thus far, we've shown ourselves happy to work with other reds, and quite willing to work with greens. We have shown no fondness for blues, but maintained grudging relations with them, have slaughtered blacks at basically every convenient opportunity, and have yet to encounter a white.

We've also enslaved two metallics and killed one more.

...I don't know about "chromatic dragonflight", but we're certainly heading towards something. Red and green with gold and silver, it's like a Christmas tree with tinsel.

“To the great draconic lord of the western coast of Urgash.” A pretentious way to open a letter, but necessary, considering that you don't know the precise range of what he considers his territory, nor his name. You begin with the fairly lengthy letter, formal, and in flawless draconic. As a written language, it's efficient and elegant... Or at least, you think so, and it's not like a human could know it as well as you.

The main section of the letter is a narration of recent events. Obviously known to both parties, of course, but it's still you explaining how you happen to be in control of the city, and using as an excuse to move on to your hope to good relations with your draconic neighbor, and ask that he kindly halt his elf-hunts, as they are now your subjects. Of course, you mention that rebels may be fleeing into the jungles on either side of the Gates, and that he is entitled to as many of them as he feels interested in catching- Though obviously, you would like to make very clear that only rebels are acceptable. Those who are your loyal citizens you do want to keep preserved and protected.

You are rather surprised when you receive two letters from the region about a month later. One is your commander of the western city stating that there's a woman who claims to have Mza's best interests in mind, and claims to be organizing the jungle tribes and attempting to convince them to join the empire. You fire off a letter telling him to cooperate warily with her, and that if she seems to be honest in intent, to assist her where easily possible. Nothing incriminating you as expecting or knowing about her, but enough that Nehmaska won't be actively fighting your establishment.

From the Green, however, the letter isn't quite what you had expected. He does open with a compliment of your draconic, and a fairly polite “Thanks.” for keeping him updated on the course of events near his territories. Something most mortal empires sadly do not bother with. He says he will refrain from actively impinging upon your territory, but any elf entering the jungle will be assumed to be a rebel, as only one possessing of such flagrant disregard of law would trespass on his territory. Which, incidentally, he stipulates to be a broad section of jungle to the north, south, and east of the Gates. Quite an expansive section of land, considering his age versus what he claims, though he says he is willing to rent sections of it, should you so desire.

The feeling you get from his communique is that he is arrogant and imperious, but not actually interested in being belligerent. Or perhaps, he's only willing to be belligerent in his own territory... you suppose you can tolerate that, though.

A more worrying note: To the north, your spies report a decline in tension along the Rhasver-Aquitaine border, and a turn in Rhasverian interest towards you. They can't tell what has prompted this, but it does seem fairly artificial, and they are fairly certain that. Your spy-network in Morinth has become increasingly compromised and diminished, as well. To your displeasure, your current spymaster seems unable to turn it around, though it may be a harder target than most. For the moment, you have resisted the urge to... 'replace' him, but it remains an urge.

In other news, rumor has it (and you confirm) that Lady Issa is pregnant, and quite happy, as far as you know. Her words to you recently, were that it is a step down from being a princess of Tashz, but has proven quite satisfying, and a chance to set her own precedent, rather than rule by two thousand years of calcified tradition.

>>14884076
>Because if we suffer a memory wipe then we're for all intents and purposes dead. Whatever comes back will be someone else, not us. They are dangerous and not very useful, therefore should be destroyed.

nope.jpg

No way are we turning this into a debate over the practicality and ethics of memory restoration. We know, as the participants in this quest, that we would still have control over the character in the event that his memory is wiped and then restored, which means that he will have the same body, same memories and same governing consciousness, which makes him for all intents and purposes, the same being.

The third bit is the part that always gets ethicists when discussing similar topics, but we get to dodge that whole debacle by virtue of us actually BEING that consciousness and knowing that there will be zero internal impact on that front.

The only bit that gets me is how we are going to know that we have a backup of our memory somewhere if we have had our memory wiped.

>>14884522
We need to be sure that the Lady Issa is not ever revealed to be the Princess Laressa of Tashz or we will be in deep deep doo-doo

>>14884589
We have taken all practical steps possible to prevent this already. And it has worked for quite a while, so I'm going to hazard a guess that it's going to keep working.

>>14884522
>Her words to you recently, were that it is a step down from being a princess of Tashz, but has proven quite satisfying, and a chance to set her own precedent, rather than rule by two thousand years of calcified tradition.
Glad to hear it. She's done a good job with administration, correct? It certainly seems so. I have no regrets on how we dealt with her; it seems like one of our major successes thus far. And she's now quietly breeding us a line of potential heirs for Tashz, when we decide we've gained the power needed to make our move there.

Now that she's pregnant, explain that in order to take additional precautions against any divinations from Tashz believe that protective items similar to hers for all of her children would be a prudent step. Suggest that we will be putting the strongest anti-divination spells that we can manage on it regardless, but that she is free to design the physical form of the item and request any other enchantments on it that she wishes, as our gift to her and the child upon its birth. The item will also be enchanted to be unremovable and to grow along with the child, of course, for safety reasons.

Also, we should disclose our intention to leave her and her children in a governorial position as they are for generations, as long as they continue to perform well. Recommend that she raise her children with that in mind- and that she not tell them any of their line's true history until they reach their majority, lest something slip to ears it should not.

Let us investigate the reason behind this change in relations between Rhasver and Aquitaine, and try to make contact with the higher ups in the spy network of Morinth and try to convert slowly them to our cause.

>>14884829

No, I'd prefer to pull out of Monrith for the moment and look for ways to take Rhasver's eyes off our ball while we sort out the good from the bad - use Watcher if we have to.

And also, whilst pulled out of Monrith, go a bit deeper into Rhasver to find out where these problems are coming from- one or two of our best spies.

>>14884707
I approve of both the enchantments thing (because if she thinks she knows what is going on her kids she will object less) and the thing with the kids. If she knows to raise them for positions of power then we will probably get both more loyalty from her and better future viceroys.

Now, with regards to Rhasaver... obviously something is up. I assume we have checked all the spies for mind magic and such right? And we have puts watchers in place watching the watchers? Like two or three layers reporting on each other? If not, do it.

If we have... well, there's not a fucking lot we can do here is there? "Increase spies!" is the best we can say, but if the spies are already increased what do you do? We don't really have any ways to crank the spying up to 110% that haven't already been taking AFAIK.

>>14884829
>try to make contact with the higher ups in the spy network of Morinth and try to convert slowly them to our cause.
Our attempts to use spies on Morinth have failed miserably. At a guess, as a Rhasverian (Rhasverite?) client state Morinth is being protected by Rhasver's intelligence services, and since Rhasver is one of those gigantic badass nations, they're making our two-decade-old spy methods look like a total joke. It seems to me that at this point it's been adequately demonstrated that we won't be successfully infiltrating Morinth for some time, and we should ease off. It's particularly bad because we weren't even trying anything other than some light information-gathering, which is almost impossible to protect against and prevent, and they STILL got our guys. Rhasver is obviously investing a huge amount of time, money, and effort in protecting Morinth's secrets.

Pull back most of our spying efforts from Morinth and boost our counterintelligence efforts at home and in our colonies. We can probably safely assume that we'll be seeing a spike in enemy intelligence efforts before too long in quiet retaliation for our spying attempts, however innocent they were. I hate having to tiptoe around more powerful nations, but sometimes it has to be done.

>>14884524

Scinnari comes to mind. Having loyal underlings has its advantages.

>>14884927

This. We've pretty much gotta put this one in the 'loss' column, as sucky as it sounds, and get back to it later- after we've sorted out these Drow.

I have to agree; we need to pull out of Morinth for now, and redouble our counter-intelligence efforts in preparation for a retaliatory operation from Morinth and Rhasver.

>>14884908
>>14884960
>>14884522
>>14882299

Agreed on pulling out of Morinth. We're being too "aggressive" in a nation we know nothing about and it's causing unnecessary delays in our plans. Really at this point, we got a pretty good handle of the affairs of Freeport and Tashz, along with alot of the medium and smaller cities. For the course of this game, we really have very little experience with Rhasver. As much fun as deploying spies are to there...again, it takes too long and produces meager results at best. At this point, we should take a "personal" interest in the city and spend some quality time there under a different guise.

As much as I'd like to suggest sending in some assassins to uncover information, compromise is a bit higher on them than us. Also their magical talents is pretty well known, so we can't go running into buildings to spy or taking more subtle actions on the higher individuals. I think the best course of action there is to gather all available information on the current state of that city, analyze, and then make our next move. Also add in some personal scrying into the mix as well, we need to do some of this stuff personally. (aka can we please get some backround information on current state of basic affairs and ruling structure on the city based on what we know)

I have further suggestions on getting an upperhand on the intelligence there, but getting some prelimary information would be helpful on the next step.

Mind you, don't pull out completely. We still want the passive information gatherers and such.

>>14885163

I think we should being encouraging merchants from Morinth to ply their wares here, so that we can give our intelligence agency a chance to develop contacts with them and buy their way into the merchant houses.

>>14885234
>At this point, we should take a "personal" interest in the city and spend some quality time there under a different guise.
I don't think so. We are no longer at a point in our life where risking our person on long-term infiltration missions in a vulnerable humanoid form is a reasonable thing to do.

Ultimately, Morinth is chock-full of mages and if for some godforsaken reason they're not going to let us get even basic levels of infiltration, we can only conclude that someone is paying them obscene amounts of money to stonewall us and that we can't fight a full city of mages over it.

Nehmaska calls you two weeks after your communication with your governor and the Green. What she interupts is relatively important, but not terribly time-consuming.

“Azaladon. Is now a good time?” Her mind rings within yours, and you pause for a moment, trying to figure out who would be contacting you, and who could contact you. You don't recognize it as her, but assume it must be- Who else would or could?

“It is acceptable. What?” you think back at her.

“Unless you want me to stay and oversee the integration itself- Which I could do, if that's what you want, I believe I am done.”

“Explain.”

“The tribes have been... educated enough to see the value of being part of a larger whole. I have given them reason to believe- and I do hope this won't make a liar of me- that they will truly be better off this way. There will probably be some confusion and problems arising from integrating the tribesmen into an empire, but Mza's governor-general seems competent. I left him with advice as to how to deal with the integration, and assuming his superior or he doesn't flagrantly disregard it, things should go relatively slowly from here.” she explains. After a moments consideration, and recalling your schedule for today beyond the letter in your hands, you answer.

“Go somewhere secluded. I shall be down to oversee your handiwork.”

>>14885306

Sorry, my post is ass backwards. I think I did correctly state I was refering to Rhasver, not Morinth (True Seeing Everywhere!) for our "personal" attention. Just disregard most of my post for the time being except for like the last three sentences. Just to restate it, gather known intelligence and start scrying any potential government related functions or higher end powermakers when their not in warded areas (Yet again, I'm really at a loss to suggest anything further here unless given some backround information on Rhavser internal affairs).

“I'll tell you when.” Nehmaska replies. You reply with your agreement, and turn your attention to finishing your letter from spies in Rhasver. Apparently, they believe the cause of Rhasver's sudden attention is a woman. Specifically, they believe she has been meeting with Rhasver authorities, and, while they can't determine exactly what she has been saying, she does seem to have been turning them against you, or at least, making them suspicious of you. She is tentatively identified as a mage (due to her apparent ability to teleport, though obviuosly, it isn't certain proof,) and possibly originating from Morinth. You sigh and leave the letter on your desk for Scinnari to see, before preparing to go visit your newest servant.

###########


You arrive in the jungle with a pair of lizardmen, and Nehmaska is there awaiting you in her human form. A flock of birds startle and fly at your arrival, and you arrive on the bank of a small lake, or widening of a river. Nehmaska goes down on one knee, and you pause to assume a humanoid form as well, before acknowledging her.

“What are the tribes in this region like?” you ask her. You already know some, just from watching her as she did her work. Nehmaska rises, and answers.

“Fractured and independent, mostly because they are scattered. Hunters and gatherers require large amounts of space per group. They are, however, all relatively friendly with each other, barring a certain tribe renown for using necromancy. They proved most resistant to unification of the tribes. I dealt with them, however.” Nehmaska replies. At your invitation, she leads the way.

“How did you deal with them?” you ask, having missed any event matching that in your monitoring of her actions. You have business of your own to attend to, not to mention having to sleep sometimes.

“I convinced them that they were being unnecessarily suspicious and reclusive.” She replies. You don't think she's lying per-se, but you are fairly sure she isn't telling the truth. A joke, perhaps.

“Really. And how did you do that?”


“I killed them all.” She answers happily.. A moment of dead silence, and you raise an eyebrow. “Those who wouldn't agree.” she clarifies. “Their traditions allowed challenging of their chief for the position- I threw their chief and one challenger who objected to my gender through their palisade. Neither walked away from it. Afterwards I discussed things with the senior witchdoctor, convinced him that he could increase his power if he worked with me, and made him my deputy while I could not be here- He I convinced to make nice with the clans, and hide the necromancy around the Mzani.”

“I see. You have no issue with necromancy?” you ask. The pathway follows the river, and you note that the massive burns up and down her left side seem to be somewhat reduced. She doesn't look like she wants to wince with each step, like you thought she might when you first met her.

“They do not use it... Well, they certainly abuse it, but it seems mostly harmless. Example; the witchdoctor animated the two would-be chieftain’s bodies to repair the palisade they ruined. Using undead for manual labor strikes me as rather arrogant for humanoids, but not inherently terrible. I advised them on how best to conceal it from Mza, and they assisted me in getting the other tribes organized.”

“I see. I should hope the apparel I gave you was not unduly inconveniencing?” you ask as she leads you through the jungle path.

“I suspect my answer would not matter either way...” Nehmaska responds quite accurately, “But it was not terribly bothering when dealing with the tribesmen. They wear similar items as jewelry and signs of status. In the western city, however, they seem to see such... apparel as signs of servitude or slavery. I found it necessary to hide them when trying to deal with the governor.”

>>14882299

Scry the "mage". Have spies gather passive intel on her affilation and basic facts (identity, age, schools of magic know about her or specialization, etc..) about her (perferably in the process of doing a blind sweep of know mages in Morinth so we can conceal that we're actually focused on her for it.

From scrying, try to identify an opporunity to teleport in the area around her while invisible and give watcher an opportunity to do the normal mindreading rountine (ensuring we don't set off any magical alarms or wards in the general area via use of scrying and detect magic). Wait for confirmation of sucess or failure on the scanning, then teleport out. If mind reading fails due to various protections, try doing the same rountine to underlings or retainers.

Obviously if we do the basic information gathering prior to do a teleport/mind read 2x SUPERCOMBO and find out she may be a particularly powerful individual, abandon plan and figure out backup plan to indirectly obtain information.

Eh. We should probably have our secret police see about getting rid of the necromancy eventually but see to it they don't begin that until the tribes have integrated a bit.

Other than that....

Well, I think we should get as much information as possible on this woman. Who are the prominent mages in Morinth? The prominent females? What about that female who attended our coming out party for Azyra?

And... I think that, perhaps, we should announce intent to visit Morinth on a state function. Perhaps inform them via letter that our daughter has grown much in the past decade and we have been considering taking them up on their offer of tutelage... and would like to see the city for ourselves before making any sort of choice, of course.

Hell, we could even bring Azyra and Scinnari with us on such a visit. Azyra could learn subterfuge and statecraft from both us and her mother. Scinnari of course would do her thing with investigation and so would we... when we could get free from the state functions.

That said, we (as in the family) don't really need to be doing a lot of this personally. I imagine 95% of our time in Morinth will be attending functions and taking reports from agents rather than going out ourselves. That would be stupid.

>>14885486

She's being fairly...well, not 'upbeat', but she's taking this surprisingly well, isn't she? Probe a little further on that.

"They would not be wrong...but I must say, you're handling your slavery surprisingly well; I would have thought you would be more upset, being so beholden- and to a Red at that."

>>14885644
Let's not use the word 'slavery'. It's just not tactful. 'Servitude' would be better.

'Assignment' would be even best I think.

>>14885620
>Use choosing a school for Azyra as a pretense to spy personally
Excellent idea, provided we're willing to follow through. I'm somewhat concerened about actually sending her off like that, but if we do, this is an excellent dual-purpose visit.


>>14885644

Should we really, ah... tempt that so much? Sounds unwise.

>>14885486

"What do you think these people could offer to Mza, if so guided?"

>>14885644
If she asks why we wanted to encourage growth of the Mza cities we could also say that we "Owed King Prestor a favor for his aid in the past and were repaying it." She is probably wondering pretty hard and I don't want her finding out we are the King. She would likely take that very well too, since she seems to be so big on the honor thing. If we put up a front that, maybe, we also pay back our debts she would likely see it as a good sign and maybe even chafe less under rule.

>>14885661

No, I think we should stick with slavery, to see her reaction. It's a bit rude yes, but it'd be harder for her to cover for if she flinches at it. Now is the time to get to know her; and we said it candidly enough for her not to take too much umbrage with it.

>>14885661
Well, she did enter into a work contract willingly.
I think assignment is the best term we could use.

>>14885674
>I'm somewhat concerened about actually sending her off like that
Oh no no no! And we should tell Azyra beforehand that we have no intention of sending her to school in Morinth so she doesn't get any wild ideas while there. No, this would be a complete pretense and we should tell Azyra as much... I imagine she will love the excitement of helping mom and dad spy on enemy nations, don't you think? And by telling her beforehand we keep her from getting invested, we don't want to crush any hopes or anything.

>>14885684

Hmm, perhaps work off of this, saying we still had a couple more things to look into for him, like he seems to be having a spot of Drow problems - get her opinion on them.

>>14885684
I'd probably just leave it at that we make our home in Mza, and that as the prosperity of the region rises, so too will opportunities for our own personal enrichment.

>>14885644
And, uh, considering the alternative, I suspect that the fact that we offered a contract rather than outright enslavement or being ripped into tiny, delicious pieces.

>>14885486

I want to quiz her on her appearance, something like

"Not that I object, but why did you choose such a...'robust' figure as your humanoid form? It seems a far cry from most polymorphed Dragons...particularly females.'

It'll give us a bit of flavor, and maybe let us know stuff about her thoughts- perhaps she finds some wry humor in having to serve, but appearing strong.

>>Calls back unexpectedly to say the problem has been solved.
>>Resolution of task is faster than expected.
>>Discuss complications arising during the task.
>>Mentions the only problem was quickly thrown at a wall to resolve it.

Honorable. Expedient. Efficient. There will not be too much subetly in this one's actions. We should keep it in mind for future assignments since she might literally throw herself at the situation headfirst to resolve. Generally this is not our prefered tactic and has kept us alive this long. We should keep that in mind for our minion's sake, we like to think about their wellbeing too.

>>14885702

I'd agree with this reasoning, yeah. If she shrugs or completely behaves normally, that'd be great. I don't know why it'd be great, but it would.

>>14885784
I think that's just a fan-picture, bro. Don't think WD ever said anything beyond young, female, and silver hair. I personally picture her as a slim reedy thing.

>>14885486

Hmm, perhaps the attire is merely known as such in Mza. Either way, she seems to be capable of concealing it well enough.

I wonder why so though? The collar perhaps, but the bands are just something so we could spread out the billion-and-one enchantments we put on them- they shouldn't be general attire for slaves, I would've thought.

>>14885822
She can be slim and still have dem abs. Polymorphing is great that way.

>>14885684
That's not bad and we could also use it to explain how we were there in the first place and found her. We were helping the sorcerer-king and found her around. He let us use some of his minions because we requested it and ta-da!

>>14885822

Meh, too many women are too reedy or thin in fantasy; I'd be happy if WD went for something a little different, especially with a person who can look like any idealized girl, but doesn't.

>>14885843
'Rings' are a symbol of servitude. Sure, it starts out with the neck, but you can just as easily bind arms and legs the same way. Eventually you don't need the person to be bound quite so heavily, you just leave one on their finger so they don't forget.

How did you think wedding rings came to be?

>>14885843
Uh no, slaves often wore things like that to mark them as property in the middle east. It was commonplace to adorn your 'possessions' with bands of gold and silver to make yourself look richer and more powerful.

>>14885712
>>14885620
>>14885620

Wary about this idea for the moment due to the lack of information we have going into it. Walking in on an announced official visit where they have the advantage of home turf and being able to make preparation in advance for gathering intel could put us in an awkward situation due to not knowing what is going on. Also puts our daughter at a risk if someone there actually means to take the offensive against us, I'd rather avoid a potential "kidnapping" by some group of Morinth individuals. We really have no idea what is up at the moment on either side of that alliance or their intentions (We've totally been expanding lately and I don't think anyone else has been able to do that....)

To be fair, I totally think this is a really great second or third stage for a plan, but still one step ahead of ourselves at the moment.

>>14885871
Are you forgetting Seffy? If you want to wank to musclegirls you've got one already. This silver was clearly not a fighter.

>>14885872

Point.

It'd be nice to see her rocking a high-collar to conceal the collar. Or maybe a scarf.

>>14885895
Well she was, she just wasn't very good at it. Also she got tag-teamed. By Reds.

>>14885849

>>14885887
Let's do some preliminary scrying then to see what's up, then go from there with this plan in mind.

>>14885895

Seffy's dragon-form, yeah, but when she turned up human she was all tall and shit, with no real hint of being muscly.

Plus Nemmy just threw two guys through a wall like it weren't no thang, so I think she does alright.

>>14885887
What would the first step be, then? More failed spies? If Mornith lets harm come to a visiting ruler then they will be an international pariah. Especially since we have such good relations with Tashz.

>>14885919
I've bitten my lower lip so hard it's now bleeding.

Fukken saved.

>>14885898

I'd actually like to see if she'd work 'with' them as accessories rather than conceal them, and not let them get her down.

As for a question...uhh...maybe something about where she'd like a lair/base? She's done well enough here to deserve a say in it.

>>14885941

Yeah, but what reason would we have for going there?

Bearing in mind that other than for a crowning ceremony, we ain't been anywhere personally, ourselves, for a while. It'll look plain weird, and everyone who's in the know will *know* we're turning up there just because we're having problems with it.

>>14882299

What is always our default option when doing something?

Hawt crystal ball action!

We can totally do the failed spies thing through. Do what I do in any Total War game, recruit boatloads of newbie spies/assassins and through them in masse at a 2-5% "Success Rate" mission. Sure you'll spend a minute staring at your screen while all your spies systematically kneel over and die when trying to do the mission, but eventually one of them has to get through. Quanity is a quality all its own in some of those games. (Anyone taking this as a valid suggestion for the quest is welcome to now officially turn in their internets license)

>>14885911
I'd say that surviving being tag-teamed by reds twice her age is a testament /to/ her skill, rather than against it.

>>14885793

She seemed to enjoy it way too much. Perhaps her being a minion has let her realize she doesn't need to be that subtle anymore.

Silvers are smart afterall, and she knows in the contract that we have to look after her; so perhaps she's cutting loose and being intentionally brutish to a) make the most of it and b) cause trouble for us.

Afterall, if she considers herself minionized, then that means she's free of a lot of her previous responsibilities- and worries, too, though she has plenty enough new ones.

>>14886014
>Yeah, but what reason would we have for going there?
Really? Read >>14885620

We are looking into a proper education for our daughter. Nobles kings and princes often fostered their children in foreign courts. Of course we aren't actually going to send her off, but it's a great excuse.

>>14886114

Ah, right. I thought the offer was for a school in some other city, for a second.

Then yeah, go for it.


A question for our Silver, I say ask her about the south sometime; for world-building stuff is nice and there might be more cool magic items where she's from that would be useful to us.

Also ask about guard duty and how she feels about that.

“You seem quite... capable of overcoming such deficiencies that your slavery forces upon you.” You say, watching sharply for her reaction out of the corner of your eye. She does seem to flinch, (at least, you think,) but she covers it up by turning to you.

“Very few slaves that I know of have set contract terms, and detailed obligations.”she replies. She doesn't seem to be angry, but it sounds like she objects to such terminology. “I would say I'm closer to a knight than a slave, judging by the terms of my... employment.”

“I see. And it does not bother you being employed by a Red?” you ask, facing her.

“I might choose otherwise given the option, but given no choice, I choose to make the most of it. I assume you are keeping your eviler deeds from me, and pretending to be more... benevolent than you are, and so long as the work remains palatable. Again, I do hope you have not made a mockery of my good intentions.” she says, returning to leading you through the jungle. The conversation continues as you travel.

“Ah... what reason to I have to do so?” you ask. She smiles, staring at you, but remains pointedly silent. “Fair enough. If you are willing, may I ask why you choose such a... 'robust' human form? I do not find it terribly common among dragons, let alone females.”

“Oh, this?” she asks with an absent gesture. You emerge shortly into a jungle clearing, enclosed on all sides by sheer walls generated by the jungle trees. Your destination turns out to be a small encampment with a palisade. A dozen human men seem to be in the progress of repairing the dilapidated walls, and within you can see women busy giving similar treatment to similarly neglected buildings within.

“I affected a... stronger-looking form for dealing with the tribesmen. Surviving in the jungle by strength of arms, they respect strength. I confess that I find myself... most at home in this form out of the humanoid forms I have assumed, but I'm sure most dragons have their favorites. At least, most dragons that can assume multiple forms. I assume you can?”

“I thought you said these tribes were migratory.” you ask almost sharply, trying to give the impression you are offended with her ability to do something you can't. She doesn't bat an eye, but you think she bought it.

“They are. However, until quite recently, and even still, to a lesser degree, the jungles are quite hazardous places. They tend to rotate between their encampments, moving whenever they decide one has been too hunted.” Nehmaska replies. This is Moragi tribe; they were one of the fastest to agree to... integrate with Mza, once I told them that they wouldn't have to abandon or surrender their homes.”

“And how will they manage that and still integrate?” you ask mildly.

“They have all been persuaded to... alter their course towards the coast, once a year.” she answers. “They can trade what they have with the city, and the city benefits from further trade and production. They get civilized. Eventually, I anticipate them or their children abandoning the jungle to take up the city-dwellers ways, exposed as they will be to the glamor of civilization...”

“Ah... Subtler than I expected.” you reply, with absent approval.

“You wound me deeply.” she replies sardonically. “I remain a dragon, despite being captured.”

“Apologies, nothing intended.” you reply. “Speaking of which, as you remain a dragon and I am unwilling to share a lair with one... as free as you, do you have a desire as to where to stay when I do not require your services?”

“I would have that being waited on by lizardmen would suffice. But if Lord Prestor values his privacy that much..?” she says absently, though you're certain she is watching you from the corner of her eye. You think you manage to hide your reaction well, if only because you were expecting it.

“I owed him a favor, and have- through you- dealt with the tribals for him, and perhaps expanded his empire a little more.” you reply. “He has served me in the past, and, like the honorable Silvers, I repay my debts.” Your turn to be sardonic. She accepts it with a smile and a half-finished bow. “He was somewhat leery of having a powerful unknown on the fringes of his territory, particularly one with a reputation for such... nobility.

“Reasonable enough.” she says, and you find your paranoia wondering whether she's referring to your reason or your explanation. “I take it, then, that that isn't an option. Any mountaintop would do. I'm sure you are aware that my kind prefer those wreathed in clouds... It has certainly brought our respective races into conflict often enough. Obviously, since it will be subject to your whim, what would be most convenient to you? No... I phrase that poorly. What will require the least relocation on my part?”

>>14886220

A-haaaaaaa, trying to find out where we are, eh? Eh? Clever girl.

NO.

>>14886191
>and so long as the work remains palatable.
Supposed to end in a '...', if that wasn't apparent.

>>14885615
You haven't done it yet, but it's fairly obvious you would, when given the chance. I'm going to tell you that this person is heavily shielded from scrying, especially location. Your spies think she admitted to being an official in Mornith, but can't actually place her.

>>14885620
Is this the next thing to cover?

>>14886220
Eh, I can teleport where ever we need to got.

>>14886220
>What will require the least relocation on my part?”

Good question. As we were expecting this question, do we know of suitable places?

>>14886289
Might as well do it, WD. Have as much security and crap as we can, though. I want all our bodyguards to be absolutely devoted and crack troops, maybe all sorcerer-cultists-assassins and the best of our lizardmen bodyguards?

As a special precaution, arm them all with mental protection, scrying shielding, spell protection (resist and +save), and poison protections.

If we are going into a lair of mages our entire retinue needs to be appropriately equipped.

Killing the drow might be a good next assignment or perhaps rooting out corruption in miza, particularly the embezzlement of public (read our) funds?

One option, though people might not- Check that, won't like it.

Give her (partial) access to the cloudfort. Say it's our lair, but she seem tolerable enough and it's large enough. None of our close friends will be there, we can say the lizardmen are a gift to use by Lord Prestor, and she'll be happy with the setup. We could even park it in the middle of the see, or on a coast somewhere far from Mza. We'd get to keep even more of an eye on her, and insta-kill her with the cloudfort's defenses, if she ever got uppity. (She, of course, would have no idea they even existed.)

repostan from last thread.


concerning the avariel insurection, making the reigon productive and adressing the rebel issue can be done at the same time, the most comprehensive way to undermine an insurgency is to change the dynamic of the conflict, when you institute yourself as a force of construction, a guerilla force who seeks to oppose you must do so at the expense of their own country, the sewers you build, the farms you plant, the officers who patrol the streets,

additionaly, in this enviorment the seeds you select for the institutions that will ultimately run the county are vitaly importaint, prospects for law enforcement, beuracracy, and civil service, must be held to the highest standard, either local or our own. we have the benefit of not having an out of control media that must be placated with meaningless number figures

i suggest having the silver collaborate here for her next assignment, get her in contact with the local spymaster aswell so noone steps on each others toes.

>>14886413

I Don't have an issue with that, I do dislike revealing one of our trump cards to someone however. I'll object on that basis alone at this point.

>>14886413
>>14886436
We just DENIED that we were Prestor!

That's Prestor's cloud castle!

Come on guys, do the math here. No, just let her find some remote mountain and do with it as she pleases. Stress that it should be away from other dragons and preferably humanoids too.

>>14886447
I'm pretty sure Prestor hasn't been bragging about it. It seems the kind of thing to garner hostility and jealousy of other nations, not to mention adventurers.

"The great lord prestor has a huge sky-castle! I hear he keeps all his most valuable treasures up there! I bet it's paved with gold and diamonds!"

At least, I hope we haven't been advertising it. And even if we have, we could explain it as our relation with LP.

Hell, we could claim that Lord Prestor is our father, or something. But that's getting even more out there, I'll stop.

>>14886413
I would rather not. Just let her pick her own place and make sure she tells us about it.

>>14886473
It's orbiting the island of Mza...

>>14886473
More likely that Prestor is one of our descendants, by far the most powerful thusfar. As such, we've decided to take an interest in his affairs and give him a helping hand when he's fighting out of his weight class.

>>14886483
Yeah, and it's made of cloud. I think that's about as inconspicuous as it gets. The locals probably just think it's the normal stuff that the volcano pumps out.

>>14886486
We're obviously not old enough for that to be true. No elf learns to be an archmage of Prestor's claimed power in less than several centuries.

concerning our spy network, i want to mention right now that historicaly, and the cold war in particular, trying to plant agents or othwerwise infiltrate is obviously fraught with risk, and may or may not actualy get useful information, its a potential avenue of course, but it should only be undertaken with selective care and preperation, not as a rule, simply living day to day within a city can allow you to keep a finger on the pulse of a nation, letting their people compromise 'themselves' by taking more overt measures to discover your agents.

>>14886492
Or hell, it could be all the bad weather Prestor keeps away from Mza. Just a bad year recently...

I am neutral on the subject. Neither for it or against it.

Seconding use of the cloud library for her temporary lair.

If we gave her any access to the cloud fort, we'd have to be extra sure to ban her from any and all control access. Preferably don't even let her know there IS control access.

And I would rather just shove her off to the northern end of the eastern mountains, but I understand that may not be ideal for keeping her on hand if we want something. Even if nowhere in the world is more than two teleports away.

>>14886560
Seconding not then, I didn't even think it was a real suggestion.

>>14886413
>>14886560
No. Double-no.

>>14886447
>just let her find some remote mountain and do with it as she pleases. Stress that it should be away from other dragons and preferably humanoids too.
This seems reasonable; we could probably assist with clearing it out of prior inhabitants (rocs, probably) if that comes up.

>>14886576
yes Cloud lair a go

oh gog not cloud library that is retarded

>>14886718
Why, or is it just the paranoia talking?

>>14886718
If we take the control golem out of there, what possible harm could she do with it? She can't move it, she can't activate any of its defenses, she can't access any of its knowledge, it's just space!

No on the cloud library.

>>14886730

Because we don't have exclusive control of it, it's keyed to allow any idiot dragon that makes it up there to run it since the original owners are long gone.

>>14886744
Space orbiting Mza. That we gave to her. And she will then know about forever. How about no.

>>14886760
Well WE can move it. But if we remove the control mechanism, she won't have any access to it at all.

It's like having a computer. Want to make it so someone isn't going to hack your computer? Take away the mouse and keyboard.

Actually it's even better in this case because she can't really put another one in there.

>>14886783

Want to know a even better way? "What computer? I don't have a computer."

No.

“I am capable of teleporting. I would prefer you be as far from other dragons, obviously. Hmm... Perhaps on the borders of Tashz, if I can trust you not to cause trouble with the Blues. East of Azar, I believe are some mountains... relatively clear of other dragons. Alternately north of Mza, either near Morinth or further... Or South of Exheln, though there aren't any unclaimed mountains- The hills there are high, and there would be more jungle like you had previously inhabited.” you offer back.

“Given the option, I would investigate each place before deciding. And perhaps a few of my own.” She replies. You frown.

“Acceptable, so long as you encounter no one. Keep me posted on your location and decision... And, naturally, do be careful.” you reply. “Is there anything else?”

“I would have thought I should ask that question. Provided I'm allowed travel time to look-” You roll your eyes, and begin making a few spell-passes. She halts until you finish, and when you do, you two are both standing on a mountaintop south of Exheln. The jungle extends to the western horizon in front of you.

“Take your time. Look it over. If you don't like it, call me sometime and I'll take you elsewhere. If you require assistance sterilizing the area, I can assist with that too.” you warn. “Do not leave without informing me, please.”

“Of course.” she answers. She does seem to be taking her loyalty and your orders rather seriously. Perhaps that was unnecessary. “Until... Whenever you need me next?”

“Indeed.” you reply, teleporting out.

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

“Azyra. Where's your mother?” you ask as you enter her study.

“Don't you know?” she asks you. You suppose you have used their amulets to locate them on multiple occasions... Evidently she has noticed. “She's in your study, I think. By the way, I do have a few... potential guards?” she offers, hesitating over the terminology.

>>14886783
>>14886748
Only Dragons of the loremaster's line can control it.

“Oh? Come, tell me on the way.” you answer, waiting for her to get up and follow you, shutting the door behind her.

“Well, one is a wizard- He... I guess you might say he's kind of young, he's around twenty,-”

“I think that's a matter of you being young. I'll grant he's younger than Zaxis, but he's of average age to be risking his life for money. What can you tell me about him?”

“His general attitude was very.... “I shouldn't have to put up with this.” Very dry. An abujurationist, he said, and his particular comment was... “I've done many stupid things in my life, and accepting money to risk my life for another is hardly the worst.” she replies. She seems to expect disapproval, but you remain silent, inviting her to speak on the next. She seems slightly more confident in your opinion.

“The second is a soldier- Ex-soldier. He claims he's a soldier of fortune. Mercenary, loyal to the might gold piece, and so on. Very open about it, but seems to be... reliable? If bought, loyal.”

“And do you have any evidence of this?” you ask mildly.

“Well.. He seems highly skilled, and he had half a dozen stories regarding serving in various armies. Claimed to be skilled in any weapon I could think of, though... I suppose he could have been lying. He didn't seem the sort. I know-” she says, warding off comment, “I know I'm not as good at reading people as your or mother is, I know! I'm just guessing here. Anyway...” she says, sounding more confident still. “The last was a sorceress... She claimed to find dragon-blood and dragon-blooded fascinating, and fancied herself one. She said she'd be willing, if only to speak to Lord Prestor... She seemed quite interested in the whole 'us being sorcerers' part. She thought I was one. She seemed to love the idea of dragons... in general...”

Here's another NO vote for putting Nehmaska up in our cloud castle.

She gets a mountaintop somewhere, and that's it.

>>14886846
It defaults to "any dragon" when one of lorekeeper's spawn aren't present.

>>14886869
Cygnis is a descendant. Take her up there on a field trip, make her order it to accept no commands from anyone but us, and voila!

Yeah, yeah, I bet she's broken enough it'd be perfectly safe.

We should review the guards with her. Take some time, go through them, tell her our reasoning for why we accept or reject each one. Listen to her concerns and thoughts without dismissing them.

The sorceress seems a bit promising, though... potentially troublesome if she found out what we were. Still, Azyra is smart enough to know not to blab what we are to others.

So yeah, let's meet with them. Can't decide if you want to hire someone without an interview.

>>14886855
I don't like any of the three.
I'm most suspicious about the mercenary and the sorceress, though.
But, I suppose the sorceress' story could be true enough.

>>14886855
Tell her we will have to interview them first, but that thusfar they sound acceptable.

>>14886869
we changed that

I like the Sorceress
Clear goals, and easy ways to ensure loyalty

I am neutral on the Soldier
We will be bumping up his pay to ensure loyalty

I am interested in the wizard. He might be a voice of reason or he could be a bad influnce, thing is I don't know what drives him or how to ensure loyalty

>>14886891
Do you not see the problem there? Now Cygnis knows a close-at-hand invincible cloud base that she can control and we can't, should she ever escape.

And why are we giving one of our most POWERFUL items to a silver we just met and forced into infernal bondage? Just... silly!

>>14886855
A big no to the sorceress. The wizard seems iffy, and in general I don't think I would trust a wizard to be a good bodyguard. The mercenary's probably blowing smoke, but probably pretty loyal to money...

Honestly, I don't like the idea of hiring any of them.

>>14886855

KILL THE SORCERESS.

IT'S HER. IT'S FUCKING *HER*.

could this sorceress be the spy we have been looking for? should do background checks to see that they are who they say they are. We could ask Azyra for a try out phase where we get to better know these guards. of course if they pull anything silly or give any hint that they are not loyal we will intervene.

>>14886940
While I don't know who 'HER' is, I'm inclined to say no too. She sounds like... Well, I don't know what the word would be, but perhaps 'dragaboo' would be the proper term.

>>14886926
No, as I recall we are unable to make changes to the golem's command list.
Only Lorekeeper has the command authorization to make changes to the command list.
Any dragon, or someone who the golem believes to be a dragon, that addresses it in draconic will be considered a valid user in the absence of any of Lorekeeper's progeny.

>>14886855
I'd just like the point out that this is the beginning to any adventuring party. Ever.

>>14886950
Honestly, that might make her more reliable. I would rather have a dragaboo watching over our half-dragon half-devil daughter than a dragon-slayer hero paladin.

How about we hold off on culling any of them until we meet them?

>>14886903
>>14886931
>>14886940
Was going to say; her motives seem awful on-point, as does her quoted 'price'.

Paranoia aside, it WOULD, however, be easy enough to meet with all three and have Watcher do her thing while the three of them are sitting in close proximity in a waiting room.

No sense in being needlessly paranoid when we've got a cooperative mindreading artifact lying around. If any of them are shielded well enough that she can't get a good read, we know that they're PROBABLY bigger-time than bodyguard duty, and thus we should be pretty suspicious of their motives.

>>14886931
Being fair, the vast majority of guards are loyal to money. It's integrity to resist bribery and stick to the original money-giver that makes or breaks them.

Let's take watcher with us to the meeting and scan them all.

First see what Scinnari wants.

Bring Watcher along when we meet them.
Anything remotely suspicious and we veto them.

>>14886980
Yeah, you got a point. We're probably letting our paranoia get to us; don't want what happened to the Harlem Quest boys to happen to us too.

>>14887019
Incidentally, what DID happen to them?

>>14886855

Quite curious if Azyra found the sorceress or if she found us... I'll take the bait on that one.

Oh might as well invite the sorceress in for an interview, escorted by heavily armed guards into an interview conviently warded to prevent scrying and have the appropriate spells to prevent teleportation (maybe dimensional archor too?) Have watcher in the general area and we can have a nice little chat.

On the other side. The wizard specializes in Abjuration which is a major buffing/debuffing school. Not much use as a direct bodyguard, but more of an accessory to the retinue when shit goes down. That actually sounds pretty useful but the problem is of course the spellcaster getting his own ideas on what spells to cast and when creating an issue. Obviously another step before any potential hire to ensure loyalty would need to be done.

Mercenary is...eh? Need to have someone test his weapon skills for legitimacy plus the standard watcher backround check. What's different between this dude and the other 20 dudes with swords around honestly at this point.

We should - at the very least - take a closer look at these three. If one of them is a spy, well then we just captured a fucking spy and can then proceed to mindrape them for information.

If however, they all turn out to be legit, and we can ensure their loyalty to our satisfaction, then we make our daughter happy.

At the very worst, they suck and none of them are spies. We wasted a little bit of time to indulge our daughter, which was worth it.

win/win

We also have a great loyalty insurance program to offer to all of them. It's called a pissed off archmage scrying them and teleporting on top of them while being invisible. Followed up by a generous casting of delayed fireball. Anyone stupid to try and backstab us knowing this will happen is either retarded or how a great back-up plan by a third party to ensure their safety for the rest of their life.

>>14887070
Or she becomes an adventurer and runs off. Which would suck/

Regarding our relations with Nehmaska, I can't help but think that there's no way we're going to be able to hide our identity and/or lair from her for a full eighty years. That only grows more true if we want to use her on anything resembling a frequent basis, because frankly almost all our significant plots revolve around Mza in one way or another, and those that don't are somehow tied up with the Binder- and there's no way in hell that we want her to catch even a whiff of that name. So it's a safe assumption that she'll catch on that we're basically running Mza, or at minimum are working with Lord Prestor hand in claw, in short order.

Considering that Mza has an artificial volcano and anyone who knows much about its history can tell her that, she'll make the logical leap as to the location of our lair from there in short order. Given that, we might as well admit to at least a permanent arrangement with Lord Prestor even if we don't admit to actually being him, so that we have an excuse for constantly throwing her at Mza-related problems. Personally, I wouldn't even hide the fact that we're Lord Prestor himself; fact is, we're constantly saying how our identity is practically an open secret amongst the powerful, so why worry about one more leak? We will force ourselves to under-utilize this resource due to paranoia over something we won't ultimately be able to prevent anyway by constantly worrying about maintaining a facade.

>>14886855
Interview all three personally. Test for skill and knowledge. Mind-read to evaluate loyalty. Make harshly demanding but fair judgment.

>>14887028
They were paranoid and refused to shake an antagonist's hand when they were sure that he had kidnapped their hostage and was trying to get them into a war with the Chinese. They suspected some kind of contact spell on Troy's hand, so they refused to shake it.

Turns out, shaking the hand was Troy's test to see if they were serious about the deal he was offering them, and promptly went back and killed the hostage and sent her head back to her grandfather.
If they had shaken his hand, then Troy would have believed the deal to be legitimate, and would have returned the hostage and been vulnerable to the assassination plot that was being put together.

>>14887097
thank you for very eloquently explaining my opinion on the issue.

>>14886855

The first is a likely representative of the sort of wizard who would be willing to be a bodyguard. A move from adventuring and whatever work he could scrounge to be a personal guard seems reasonable. He may be loyal to a worthwhile level if promised a chance at interesting and profitable work later.

The second is no stranger to anyone who deals with martial men, but the question is if he will remain bought once bought, or if he will take the next best offer, even if it is offered in the field before his current contract is up. Probably not reliable, but we should check his references anyway.

The last is either earnestly interested, a fetishist, or a spy. We'll need to question her most carefully.

Honestly, we might as well offer the Cloud Castle to Nehmaska if her home-hunt falls through, coming out as Lord Prestor is no big thing at this point, as we've had the identity for what, 20 years? Tiamat blew it out of the water ages ago, and most of the powers could find out if they put any effort into it. Additionally we don't really DO these sketchy things she just mentioned.

As for this dragon sorceress, meet her and the others and be SUPER PARANOID about it, screams of Binderness, especially since she hasn't bothered us in a while. The fact that a Binderesque person was near dragonblooded is bad if this is everything paranoia says it to be.

>>14887097
Basically, it's a secret to everybody.

>>14887097

i pretty much agree, its always better to get everything out of the way before hand so misunderstandings later can be avoided.

>>14887158
Except it has almost always been better for us to play everything as close to the vest as we can. We would have not been nearly as well off if we had actually admitted all our secrets in the name of 'trust'. You're just being daft.

>>14887097

Agreed. Just to make it seem more legitimate if were going to go with the Lord Prestor is a seperate entity facade, have her do another mission or two. Then met with her under the Prestor guise saying that her actions have proved her commitment to Prestor, so he makes contact with him (saying Prestor wasn't sold on the whole infernal contract ensuring 100% loyalty from the start). Obvious issue is making both Prestor and our natural form being present at the same time. Also going with the Prestor is someone else ploy and then revealing we're actually him is beyond stupid if she's with us for another 80 years. Gotta keep commitment to one plan or the other for the entire time.

I'm honestly in favor of saying we're Prestor if she's bound to silence by the contract. She can't have her mind read anyways with the item on her.

>>14887227
She won't be bound by it forever and it would be better not to let the silver know we basically build a lawful evil society from the ground up.

>>14887254
The whole point is that she will find that out anyway at some point in he next eighty years, so hiding it at all is a waste of our time and effort.

>>14887145
No, we've been over this and you've been outvoted. We're not putting Nehmaska up in the cloud castle.

>>14887097
We might not hide it for the full eighty, but we might. If it gets revealed then it does, shit happens. But purposefully revealing it right away is throwing away a card just because we "might not need it" in the future. Not smart.

Keep the secret for now at least.

>>14887227

Why bother with the subterfuge if Tiamat's already blown our cover and the swarms of blue dragons in Tashz and Seffy already know? 80 years is easily long enough for the news to get around, especially now that we've managed to rouse both Morinth and Rhasvar.

The only thing in our favor on this is our "specialness" in that we have an undetectable polymorph. If coming straight out doesn't do it for you, cast yourself as Prestor's benefactor and relative. He's already known for being super-reclusive, so that could be maintained.

>>14887272
Christ. We have been over this at length many times.

You can't un-reveal a secret. And 95%+ of the world thinks we are just some elf sorcerer. If you think adventurers are bad NOW? God, I don't even want to think about it. Just look at Seffy for crying out loud. The nations of the world unite against her simply because she's openly a dragon. We at least have plausible deniability and it has served us well in our expansion.

The only reason for her to be in that castle would be as an elaborate misguiding ploy and decoy to distract people away from us if the castle stayed around Mza.

In consideration we want her divorced from any other beings and not meddling in Mza society, it'd be the reverse of what we want to use her for; if there was an actual reason for her to stay there in the first place. BUT THERE IS NO COMPELING REASON.

Her face falls, and she seems to expect you to say no. You decide to surprise her.

“Well, it's quit possible I simply don't understand.” you offer. “What I was on about doesn't need to happen immediately. I'll be happy to interview each of them.” you answer, “Allow me to prepare. I shall see you in the town estate.”

“Of course, father! That's where I had them waiting.” Azyra says, suddenly looking up. She moves off to descend the mountain, and you move to retrieve Watcher, and enchant the crystal with invisibility, for better concealment. Finished, you teleport to your mansion in Mza city, and await Azyra's arrival.

######

The wizard you decide to deal with first, once Azyra arrives, and with Watcher concealed (not to mention invisible,) you invite him into the room. Spacious and with large windows, it is regardless quite secure, and despite it's informal but comfortable appointment, you have guards waiting outside both doors. His eyes flick to Azyra, but settle upon you.

“Lord Prestor, I presume?” he asks, offering a stilted bow, reaching perhaps a hundred and thirty five degrees. “Greetings. I am Piotr Aral, and a wizard of the Abjuration discipline. As I am sadly in need of funds for travel, I am willing to serve as a body guard, and have been contacted about the possibility. I assume you are the individual to speak to?”

“That would be why you are here.” you answer, examining his accent. Or lack thereof, rather. He sounds like someone taught common as a second language, and speaking it exactly as he learned it. “If you're willing, attempt to sell me. Why should I hire you to safeguard my daughter?”

“Ah... I find myself a capable mage, and a competent asset to any group- I assume I would not be the sole individual?” he asks, pausing.

“That would matter?”

“Yes. I would suggest, perhaps, the mercenary outside, rather than myself. I am skilled at assisting others, but not terribly challenged regarding actual combat. I could make someone resistant to magic, or susceptible to it, but I generally leave blasting people across rooms to others... Perhaps the sorceress.” His lip curls in scorn as he mentions her.

“You object to sorcerers?” you ask mildly. He glances back to you quickly, and realizes quite what you imply.

“Not at all, on principal. I see her as the... epitome of everything wrong with them, however. I suppose I could ignore it, if you hired us both, but... Ah. Opinion, your lordship. Nothing to base actual fact on.”

“I see. Regarding your abilities? Off the top of your head- Rather, what could you do at this very moment?”

“Contrary to my earlier statement, I do have a spell or two for actual combat, but most of my magic is focused on manipulating spells or... their effects. Immunities, speed modifiers, and, occasionally, polymorph or ability affecting magic. Properly informed, I would naturally be preparing what seemed... most necessary. Or what was requested, if something was.” The wizard is polite, but you still get the feeling that he is some what cynical and reserved. As Azyra describe, he seems to have an aura of exhausted annoyance, as if the world was busy attempting to see how much it could get away with in front of him.

“I see. Now... Would you be willing to subject yourself to a mind-reading?” you ask.

“Ah.. Kind enough of you to ask. I suppose I knew it was going to be necessary. Yes.” He pauses momentairly, gesturing around his head, and though you couldn't see it earlier, you now can see a small transparent bubble around his skull pop and vanish. “View what you wish.” you make a vague pretense at scanning, and then dismiss him.

“So, Azyra, what did you think?” you ask.

“What did you? You read his mind, I thought you'd have the answers.” she remarks, sounding almost puzzled. “Oh... He seems... old, perhaps. Older than he looks, at least. I'd say... I'd say you might accept him, and he seems like he'd be... barely tolerable.” she replies. “Useful, certainly.”

"I see... An interesting perspective. Allow me to step outside to... analyze his thoughts." you reply." She seems to accept the excuse, and you step out, bringing Watcher with you.

"He was shielded, but I could penetrate it. He did drop it afterwards. He seems honest in intent, and I doubt he is a spy. Do you have any specific questions?"


[Any questions? Also, I think I may have stolen this from another quest, but it seems to perfectly capture his particular... personality.]

>>14887342
Where is he from originally, and can we expect any trouble from his past?
What does he intend to do once he has enough money socked away?

>>14887342
Three questions:

"Is he nonhuman? If he is human, what is the situation with the oddness of his lack of accent?"

"If it came to taking a blade in the gut or allowing Azyra to take it, which would he choose?"

"Finally, how long will he remain employed? He said he was without traveling funds, does that mean he intends to depart as soon as he receives them? Could he be bought off that way?"

>>14887342

Do you think he would take a promise of less dangerous work, say as a research assistant, after this contract was up as an extra incentive?

>>14887342
Can we get a rough estimation of his abilities?
Also, how old/experienced is he?

>>14887389
Oh jesus! We're starting a mage academy right? Offer him a position as a senior instructor with tenure after his service as a bodyguard is up if he proves both capable and loyal to Azyra.

I bet he would fucking jump at that.

throw a hypothetical situation at him see how he would address it. Maybe a situation where he was ambushed in the night while staying at the inn by assassins.

ask maybe how our daughter contacted him.

ask him about past experience in his travels.

So far I like him

>>14887398
Lovely Idea

>>14887365
>>14887369

"He is from... Northern Angevin. He was originally speaking an eastern language, explaining his accent."

"And... I assume he is human?"

"Yes." Watcher replies, sounding almost bored. "Son of a merchant family, ended up wandering afar to study, and has been... attempting to return home despite increasingly improbable obstacles. He suspects he personally may be cursed, but doesn't know why. If it matters, none of the companions he has traveled with have died in his presence. Nor have they all died the moment they leave it."

"I... see..." you reply. "His abilities and... dedication? Faced with the option of his own injury or Azyra's, which would he chose?"

"He was probably understating them. He is prone to understatement. Regarding loyalty... I suspect he would take a blow meant for Azyra, assuming you would heal him afterwards if she survived, and also that if she didn't, he might not. He has a low opinion of sorcerers in general, particularly their tempers."

"And his travel... When would he leave?"

"He intends a half-year of work, and may linger longer if he decides he like Azyra, co-workers, or simply the position. He certainly is not running from anything." Watcher replies.

Works for me, employ as bodyguard. If he's still around after his 6 months and still appears competent, we can hire him personally and offer great benefits (Dental! Teleportation! Massive Budget!).

Also is Azyra in any way magically inclined? So far she seems kinda figher/roguish.

>>14887426
I support the offer of tenure at our nascent mage academy if he proves himself in his duties as bodyguard.

All in all, he appears to be adequate. Not as good as we'd like, but our daughter did pick him herself.

>>14887426
I say this guy is promising.

Tell him that if he serves Azyra loyally and well then we would not find it amiss to offer him permanent employment in our future Mzain Royal School of the Arcane. As a senior member, no less.

Alternately, we would aid him in any curse removal -- even epic curses (perhaps we should put emphasis on that part with a knowing look? heh) -- and speed his return homeward. Once again, if he serves loyally and well.

Also mention, "And I'm sure you know that all this rests on both you obeying my daughter and her survival. She is, literally, my princess. You answer to her and not I. If she should die, however, then you /will/ answer to me."

>>14887426
Have him bring in his spell book. Time to impress him with our only apparent sorcererous abilities. Also, as the final trial, I actually want them to go through a live fire trial against some of our lizardmen if they want the job, consider it they would get a large sum upfront for agreeing to the test, and they would also get a pay increase for a little while longer just to ensure them staying. If they aren't even able to take some of our mid level foot soldiers or sargeants I don't want them guarding our daughter. I actually kind of like this fellow, has an underdog kind of attitude, lots of potential, perhaps we could later take him on as an apprentice?

>>14887461
>>14887468
This and this, I would like to cause a bit of a stir if any information get out, we are not just a sorcerer, we can also do things similar to a wizard, perhaps adding a bit of mystery to us if he decides to talk about it. Perhaps we can give him a parting gift as well, a spell to use he doesn't have.

>>14887426
Given that this guy's spells are based around manipulating spells, one would think that he'd work best in concert with another caster. How much sorcery does Azyra know? We gave her a sorcerous amplifier when we declared her our heir, didn't we? So presumably she's got some significant casting talent by now in addition to her fighting skills. If this guy isn't the sort of abjurer who can wave a hand and block a lightning bolt, or throw up enough magical armor to protect Azyra, I'm not sure how much good he'll be if someone tries to harm her.

>>14887468
>Time to impress him with our only apparent sorcererous abilities.
No. He hates sorcerers with the innate wizardly scorn.

We should try to impress him with our knowledge of wizardry. If you remember, we studied it pretty well for a time back in Freeport. We should at least give reassure him we aren't one of those "crazy ass sorcerers" that he hates so much.

Maybe tell him we've studied the wizardly art ourselves, and while not our forte we know enough to tell that he is skilled enough to protect our daughter. Some praise will likely go a long way to making him view this as less of a shitty dead-end job and more of a possible future.

>>14887506
>only apparent sorcererous abilities.
I meant what you meant, my bad, didn't come out right

>>14887506
Actually, according to WD, the way /we/ learn is that it is a mix of sorcery and wizardry. We can learn spells as a wizard does, and it stays in retention like a sorcerer. Spells we know better obviously are ones we can recall as a sorcerer easily, but ones we don't know we can practice as a wizard does. For example, all the complex magic rituals? We do as a wizard basically.

>>14887535

are we taking levels in ultimate Magus? if so we will be a ridiculously good spell caster.

>>14887549
I hope so but mechanics take a back seat to story with WD it seems. (Not thats their is any thing wrong with that

>>14887549
I would hope so, but from what WD said in the past, I think that >>14887535 is right in the more basic sense. WD would have to confirm, WD if you read this, mind confirming?

>>14887535
Actually, according to WD we're just on BBEG-style magical systems. We cast spells at the level of PLOT, and if we cast a really big spell it's level FUCKING PLOT.

God I love that quote.

But no seriously, we're a dragon. They cast differently anyway.

>>14887562
>>14887569
hope mind

>>14887569
>>14887578
>>14887562
>>14887549
Oh, well, really, >>14887573 is right. You have sorcerous powers, but there's nothing preventing you from being a decent wizard if you are willing to spend the time. You're not as good at being a wizard or being a sorcerer as either one, but you are able to cast things, as mentioned, at the level of PLOT. So... Wait, I guess that would say you are as good, or better.

Basically, this guy is probably a better abjurationist off the top of his head than you would be, except with preparation. With preparation, you could probably surpass him unless he's a lot better than you think he is.

And he has, as mentioned, stopped lightning bolts with his hand before, I think someone asked.

Hire?

>>14887599
Picture.

>>14887599
Interview all three candidates before revealing our opinions on any of them to anyone. Also, that will require only a single (but slightly more hellish) round of voting.

Does anyone not agree with having them go through a live fire drill with some of our lizardmen. Perhaps some that have failed us and need to redeem themselves with a religious fanatical devotion? Obviously, there will be appropriate compensation on our parts to either of the parties involved if they win.

>>14887599
Really? Because I thought that as a dragon we naturally cast sorcery better than... well, most sorcerers. Though obviously I figured wizardry would need prep time.

Yeah, hire him.

Also, let's ask Watcher her name. She's been... well, friendlyish. We should be friendly back. Might want someone to address her as another being instead of an object after all these years, you never know. Can't hurt at least.

>>14887611
This, but the wizard is currently a yes, being sure to invest some time in assuring the man won't end up just bullshitting us.

>>14887628
I disagree with the abjurer and sorceress. Maybe with the warrior, that would probably be one of the best ways to test his skills.

>>14887599

Yes on the wizard, need to interview the others.

looks like a good investment. i say hire him.

>>14887640
I was disagreeing with the live test for the sorceress/abjurer by the way. I think we should hire the abjurer, he seems pretty cool.

due to the persistent adventurer problem we have in our mountain, i say we should create a monitoring construct to track and observe intruders giving our guards early warning and up to date information on events.

can also serve supplimentrary functions such as enchancing our anti scrying shield through intelligent interdiction of penitration attempts in real time.
analysis of intruder tactics, procedures, and psychology for improvements in security, construct function, and training of own troops.
supplement existing defensive measures through a subversive influence on intruders by aural communication.
facilitate training of troops and agents for teamwork, problem solving skills, stealth and trap detection, leadership, small unit tactics, combat skills, psychology, and social skills. analysis of the same for further improvents in security, construct function, and training.
amusement and conversation for azyra, or bored off duty guards.
potential suppliment for cygniss conditioning if desired.

as far as implimentation goes, biggest concerns are cost and compromise risk. somthing on the scale of the sky golem is probably beyond our means, but a immotile intelligence with out any controll over physical objects is more cost effective. we can use a member of our dragon cult and transfer him/her into a core, so we dont have to start from scratch (additionaly, the deep fundamental attachment to us helps mitigate risk of 'cliche rampancy plot'), ultimately its defining purpose is the security and continuity of our rule.

cont...

>>14887665

the observation booth and holding chamber itself should be in a obscure location relatively, far from either the entrace or our inner lair, so that a intruding force would have to deliberately go out of there way from anything importaint to reach it, compromising their position.
defensive protections would idealy be a shell of antimagic, breached in one spot by a 'arcane gate' of sorts, that senses and controls magic that passes through it, dispelling unauthorised energy, or if not possible, closing the anti-magic field as a fail safe, inner half linked to the construct, outer part linked to the main observation terminals that can be closed manualy, and if desired, linked to a object on our person to shut it remotely aswell.

concerning implimentation proper, issuing from the core it is embodied by the mountain, similar to the sky golem, able to see, hear, scry, and talk, throughout the complex (personal opinion, exclude inner lair from influence, since anything that can get that far is probbably beyond help, and serves to reduce informational leak, just in case). gives real time updates on intruder position and actions, and can advise central control and guard cadre on tactical situation and optimal trap activation, but by default does not control any mechanisms unless otherwise noted. if deliberate detection efforts are made the magical presence would be obvious, but attempts at dispelling would work only work for however long it takes to remanifest itself in that particular spot.

thoughts?

>>14887665
>>14887674
Risky, expensive, time-consuming, and easily epic magic... for little benefit. Anything that provides we can do better already through other means, and I for one don't want ceiling-AI watching as we give hot dickings to Scinnari all night long.

This entirely leaves aside the problem of creating an intelligent entity to run our base, which we would have to do for this to function. This is way beyond golem, it would have to be sapient to do half the stuff you are suggesting. It's a nightmare waiting to happen. This is our lair, not some AI's NORAD. We don't play WAR-GAMES here with WHOPR.

If there is anything System Shock has taught us, it's you don't create a fucking AI to run everything. While I admit it's a cool concept in the classical mustache-twirling BBEG theme, I for one don't want to deal with GlaDDoS fucking our shit up.

So no, just because Portal 2 came out recently doesn't mean we install an AI in our base.

>>14887665

the observation portion should be seperate from the actual intelligence. so that both parties can use it, but one is not dependent on the other.
just incase somthing happens.

>>14887720
>we can use a member of our dragon cult and transfer him/her into a core, so we dont have to start from scratch (additionaly, the deep fundamental attachment to us helps mitigate risk of 'cliche rampancy plot')

Why do you always ignore things?

>>14887665
>supplement existing defensive measures through a subversive influence on intruders by aural communication.
Stopped reading there.

This isn't Portal. Just because you saw it in the vidya doesn't mean you should stick it everywhere because it's so kewl omigawd.

>>14887741
How does this help in any way? Oh yay, now we have a mortal mind locked in a magical cage for eternity and trust all our defenses to it. How is this any better?

The soldier is next. You are somewhat surprised to see him saunter in wearing armor, and looking like he just deposited his weapons outside. Perhaps where he was waiting. He enters and bows, then offers his hand. “M'lord! M'name is Julianos Victor Karril. Go by Jules for short. Veteran of a dozen armies, half a dozen campaigns, including the Azar campaign a few years back. Heard that was your storm there; hell of a pounding you gave them. Probably saved a few lives, that did. Kind of you.” He bubbles out. A bit forward, but very upbeat and amiable. You suspect Azyra might like him.

“I see. So... many... nations you've served with.” you reply. “Is there any particular reason for that?” you reply, studying him. He seems fairly young to have done what he's claimed perhaps high twenties or low thirties. He doesn't look old... perhaps 'experienced' would be a better term. For him to be what he says, he'd have to have been fairly young in the Tashz campaign, or perhaps a half-elf.

“Like my work.” he says, patting his hip. He glances down for a moment, presumably expecting to feel something there. Perhaps rarely parted from his weapons. “As long as there's two countries around, somebody is busy trying to take over someone else. Generally move on when a war's over, keep myself working. Do bodyguard or mercenary work frequently enough too. Generally move on when the work is done. Could give you, what, four, five, maybe up to ten years. If I get real bored for too long, I'll let you know and ask for departure. Obviously with fair warning- Don't do /that/ in the middle of a fight, don't I know it.”

“Would you accept a mind reading?” you ask. Every time he opens his mouth, he seems to go on for thirty seconds. Friendly, to be sure, but perhaps a bit too so.

“Ah... Mind is willing, but the body is... well, 'weak' doesn't really work, I'm 'fraid. I've been told that I'm very hard to get a reading on, but I don't have anything to do- No control over it personally, y'hear.” he answers apologetically. “Can try if you want, of course. Don't know whether it will... Well, go ahead.” he says, “But I can't promise it's possible.”

You take this as a tentative yes, and attempt your own telepathy, also making stealthed passes with Watcher. You receive no reading, and you hear a slight chime from Watcher, though she doesn't say anything. You stifle a glance of irritation at it, and the mercenary looks up, somewhat surprised.

“Damned if I don't, that's never happened before. I suppose you're throwing the powerful stuff at it, eh m'lord?” he asks. He doesn't seem to be suspicious, and is genuinely surprised, though still as amiable as ever. Azyra seems to buy it as well.

“In a word, yes.” you reply dryly. “You claim to have significant skill regarding weapons. Would you care to give me a demonstration? Perhaps agree to a... demonstration of combat?”

“Any weapon you can name, and a dozen you can't.” he replies confidently. “Whenever you say, m'lord.”. You feel like frowning, but hold your face impassive.

“Very well. I will give you your decision once I've interviewed the last. Dismissed.” you answer.

“M'lord.” he says, saluting and departing.

>>14887665
>>14887674
No. Bad idea. We do not create an artificial intelligence in our home base. This is almost as bad an idea as the "animate our entire lair" idiocy that was proposed five or six threads back.

“I... Like him, but he seems too... sociable.” Azyra replies. “Like... he doesn't take anything seriously. Or he's seen it all before, nothing's new.”

“Is that bad?” you ask her. She considers the question, and pauses.

“I... Don't think so, father, but he's... He seems... I don't know. Too friendly, perhaps. I want to like him, but... Based on what you and mother teach me, he seems suspicious.” she replies hesitantly. You nod, indecisive, and step outside with Watcher. You shut the door and step down the hall, and Watcher starts talking.

“He's the craziest person I have ever... looked at.” Watcher replies as flatly as her chiming allows her. “He thinks he's an avatar.”

“I'm... sorry?” you say, preempted and baffled.

“I believe he thinks he's the avatar of a mercenary god. He at least believes all that he's said, and he does have the experience- Or thinks he has the experience, I'm not sure I trust anything I saw.” Watcher replies, obviously displeased. “I... If you can... /believe/... what he thinks, he's an excellent hire- Skilled, loyal, and just about unkillable. I cannot... conceive that it is true.” Watcher replies, obviously shocked and incredulous.

>>14887720

it *dosent* run everything, it dosent control anything other then itself, and even then it can still be shut down, on multiple levels. it observes, and can communicate.


as far as cost is concerned, were not trying to make a new bastion golem like sky fort or even create it from scratch, as mentioned in the post a willing dragon cultist can serve for this new function. and again as mentioned in the post, it was my personal opinion to exclude coverage in the inner lair, so have no fear for your shame.

time isint even an issue, the benefits of observation and intruder dection alone is somthing worthy of pursuit

>>14887781
Well then, this trial by arms is going to be an interesting one. What should we throw at him chaps?

>>14887781
Well. I think that's a definite 'maybe'. First we see his skill at arms and interview the sorceress.

Even if we do hire him, we should be very clear to Azyra about what's going on in his head.

>>14887793
Just not seeing it broseph. Sounds like a rotten idea through and through, one that could not only bite us in the ass but bite everything we care about or could possibly do in the ass too. Too dangerous and too little purpose for it. Lizardmen do just fine. If we want magical guardians make golems, they are reliable and forever loyal.

>>14887756

think for a seccond, when you already have walls of the thickest stone, lakes of magma, the deadliest traps, and the most inscrutable illusions, what more could be added? its icing on the cake. especialy once it gets skilled at manipulation.

and, for the reccord, it is indeed kewl, ultimately these threads are for entertainment.

>>14887793
>it *dosent* run everything, it dosent control anything other then itself, and even then it can still be shut down, on multiple levels. it observes, and can communicate.
Sounds pointless then. Just some videogame rip off done for teh lulz.

I would be fine with golems. They are perfectly loyal and immune to corruptive influence of any sort by their very nature. This? No.

>>14887820
>especialy once it gets skilled at manipulation.
I don't think you thought your 'clever' plan all the way through.

>>14887821

the various 'points' were all enumerated in the initial post, all of which, (with the exception of scrying protection depending on your definition of control) , do not rely on control over anything, simply taking advantage of its thoughtful capabilities.

>>14887847
Stop spamming. The idea is stillborn. Neat concept, not practical, certainly not something to implement.

>>14887781
A good test would be a 2v1 fight with the merc and 2 lizardmen bodyguards. But it looks like we are gonna probably say yes to him and the wizard. To be sure, I'll want to see the sorceress first.

>>14887850
2nd

>>14887834

it can be dependent on operator input to designate subject(s) as either testing, or enemy, frank communication being the default.

>>14887781

With the level of protection his mind had, he could very well be what he thinks he is. Or he's just a crazy man that a wizard tinkered with. Either way he'll merit a test of arms, and maybe additional magic tests to figure out what he actually is.

>>14887868
I don't think that was protection so much as him just being insane and therefore hard to read.

>>14887875

Delusional or not, if he's got the skills we could give him a job in our army. I don't want a crazy, or an avatar of some mercenary god, anywhere near Azyra though.

>>14887857
2v1? I thought something more like 5v1 with our best. You can't tell how good someone REALLY is until you see their limits. Find out where his limits are.

>>14887850

>ur wrong

cool argument bro.
thinking the cultist cum monitor would somehow turn on us is just as rediculous as the thought of our lizardmen turning on us, things dont just happen for no reason.

If we hire him we should:

1. Tell Azyra about him being insane.

2. Ask him flat out if he believes himself an avatar of a mercenary god, blah blah. In front of Azyra. To prove to her that mommy and daddy's teachings on suspicion are /correct/ and that she was right to suspect he was too friendly and that meant something was wrong.

>>14887918
Good plan, but I think we should do that whether we hire him or not. We need to demonstrate with hard facts to Azyra what we have been teaching her, and I think this is a good time to show it.

Frankly, his sanity is beside the point if he's stable in personality and his skills are legit.

If he IS the avatar of a mercenary god, all the better! That'd probably be one of the few gods that actually aproves of us. We have that most important of traits in an employer of mercenary soldiers: willingness to pay our bills on time.

Actually, being a dragon, we're very unwilling.

That said, we have paid our bills on time, and do so anyway. I'd guess that what he hates most would be if we hire someone, send them to do something, and try to doublecross them rather than pay.

But we don't do that, right? We have standards?

>>14887952

Sure we got standards. Double standards.

*rimshot*

>>14887952
You know, of all the evils we have committed... I don't think anyone could lay that particular one at our doorstep. We've always paid if they made it back and always just posted want ads that were willingly answered.

Best idea ever.

Hire him to go handle the Drow problem. If he's really as unstoppable as he has the potential to be, he might actually make some headway in the matter. Otherwise, no loss on our end; just another crazy adventurer to add to the books.

Probably get him to put together a small party so that he isn't just going Rambo on them, though. Gotta have some other people who can corroborate his martial prowess.

>>14887781
The sorceress is an elf, and... you aren't sure how you'd describe it. Confident, perhaps. She deigns to bow to you as well, and takes a seat, and despite her polite demeanor, you're fairly certain it's just that- Enough pride that you are surprised it would fit in this room. She begins without preamble.

“I am Ry'larra Tel'yan, your lordship. I have been eager to make your acquaintance.” she says.

“So I have heard.” you reply without humor. “You have applied for position as my daughters' bodyguard- Are you qualified for the task?”

“Undoubtedly.” she replies. Judging by her voice, she believes it completely herself. “I am a battlemage of exceptional strength, and capable of immense destruction.” she continues without pause. “I am aware that the matter at hand is protection- Which is necessary, but eventually even the best of defenses are worn down. I would specialize, you might say, in making sure that the problem goes away before anything else, particularly my allies- Or in this case, it would be my ward's- lives or life. I have powers second to.. I would normally be inclined to say 'none', but I confess my ignorance as to your true power. I am confident that beyond you, and perhaps your wife, I am without a doubt the most powerful mage on this island.” she says. Whatever she's saying, she believes it.

“I see.” you reply shortly. You are somewhat concerned with her words. “Would you place my daughter's life above your own?”

“I... Assuming you are willing to resurrect any of us who die in action... Certainly. There are many rumors about you, Lord Varian. So long as you do not... kill injured rather than bothering to heal them, that seems an entirely reasonable expectation. Yes.” she replies. She is, at the very least, blunt.

“And... Would you be willing to submit to a mind-reading?” you ask. Judging by her face, her reflexive answer is 'no', and a strong one at that. She does not answer though, and you think you see her waver on the subject.

“I... Would do so.” she answers reluctantly, removing an amulet of hers. She holds in in her hand, turning it over, perhaps nervous, as you make your attempts, and allow Watcher it's. Closer to her as you are, you think you smell something odd... Ozone, perhaps. Either way, she's evidently powerful, and quite confident in her abilities.

“Very well. Allow me some deliberation with my daughter, and I will inform you on my verdict.” you reply. She nods, stands, inclines her head in a minimal bow, and leaves.

“I... She's nice. To me, at least- I think she likes me.” Azyra says, somewhat concerned. “I know you say not to trust anyone who isn't family... But she puts a lot of... belief in blood. Dragonblood. You have it.. I have it, she claims to have it... She thinks she and I are family, almost. I... I'm inclined to trust her, father.” Azyra says, “Not completely, of course, but regarding her willingness... perhaps.”

“I see.” you say cryptically, standing and going down the hall.

“She is capable, quite capable. I would suspect she could level a few city blocks if she desired, whatever anyone short of yourself could do to stop her.” Watcher replies.

“And her loyalty? What do you think of that?” you ask.

“She thinks she is loyal to herself above all else. She would, however, be fiercly protective of anyone she considers her friend, I think. I think it entirely possible she will consider Azyra one, given a chance... Even otherwise, I think she'd likely fight to the end, even if only due to her reluctance to retreat. To her, retreating is admitting someone else is more powerful than her, which she finds incredibly unpalatable.”

“I see...” you reply.

>smell ozone

SHE'S A BLUE DRAGON

>>14888044
> Ozone

Blue dragon blood?

Here's another sorceress picture if you like, WD

>>14888044

It looks like a good choice on Azyra's part. She would be loyal to Azyra, above all, if they hit it off. Which is, if I recall correctly, the reason Azyra is choosing her own new guards anyway.

>>14888044
Ask the crystal what the deal with the dragon obsession is and what her objectives are in working for Azyra? If she is as powerful as she says then she could get much more income elsewhere. What are her real motives?

>>14888051
>>14888047
Man, if Watcher 'forgot' to mention that...

>>14888058
Ask this too, and also why she is so interested in us? Does she believe us to be a dragon or just a sorcerer with dragon blood like hers?

I like her (and Azyra needs a real girl friend)

I also like the wizard (he probly be the voice of reason/nannie)

Not sure about the merc (little too crazy)


... we have the cast for a comedy anime

>>14888047
>>14888051
Bluemind.

As for the verdict? I would be inclined to hire all three, but do like
>>14887927
>>14887918
said and show Azyra that he is insane and that dad's worries aren't just for show. Also tell her that insane or not, that doesn't matter as long as he is predictably insane. That she should never trust him fully should go without saying because she should never trust anyone fully.

>>14888073
Yeah, but we do need some melee to round this out.

>>14888073
And you say a young half-dragon girl is the main character?...

>>14888084
Not to mention an elf sorceress and a human wizard...

i think these guys will be ok but we will of course give our daughter a way of calling us to her if she needs aid.

>>14888092
>>14888084
The fuck? I'm going to have to go with 'No.'.

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

"Is she dragonblooded herself?" you ask.

"Almost certainly. I can't actually tell, though- She thinks she's descended from a Blue, and happens to love tossing lightning around because of it. She does not, however, know for certain." Watcher replies. You get the feeling that it might still be in shock over reading the soldiers' mind. Personally, I would describe her as a broken individual, though unlike your Cygnariassis. Among other things, I might call her a sociopath, and far too proud by half." Watcher replies, obviously processing. "Quite capable, though. And I do think she would consider Azyra her friend out of bizarre respect for imagined blood-ties."

"And does she actually consider me to be a dragon, or a dragonblooded sorcerer?" you ask.

"I think she expected the former, particularly due to Azyra, but was... disappointed. Her imagination has built dragons up as something... titanic. You seemed too... ordinary for her." Watcher reports. You realize you have mixed feelings about being called 'mediocre', but put them out of your mind.

"She is very... She is intelligent, so I hesitate to use the term 'simple minded'. Despite that, I would say it fits in part- She very rarely encounters something her powers cannot utterly destroy, or things that she is totally unwilling to utterly destroy. She is... reliably broken, I would say."

>>14888120
Already has that.

This Sorceress sounds like she might be a perfect leader for our dragon cult after her service to Azyra comes to an end.

>>14888193
You know, that's.... pretty true actually. Speaking of which, her objectives? I don't think that was ever answered?

Anyway, hire them all. Tell Azyra she did good and was smart in suspecting them of being a bit off in places. Inform her about how the merc is crazy, but other than that let her hire them all and give her a kiss on the cheek and pat on the head. Our little girl recruiting her first henchmen! *sniff*

>>14888141
I think we will probably take all three and praise Azyra on her good choices. A word of warning too, about the less than sane merc.

I wonder should we give them (the bodyguard trio and Azyra) a week to get to know each other and fight together, maybe the abberations on north Mza island or the drow (hard mode).

>>14888213
They are bodyguards for our daughter, not an adventuring party!

>>14888226
ARE they? Are they REALLY?

>>14888242
Yes. Which is why we don't send them to fight monsters and drow. They walk around with Azyra and keep her safe. Big difference.

>>14888210
Right, sorry.

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

"And... her intent in this?" you ask intrigued.

"She it did occur to her towards the end that you might be hiding it from her, or perhaps not Azyra's real father. Or that, perhaps, the mother is the dragon. She also feels unnatural kinship to Azyra, due to their... allegedly common ancestries. I consider her another type of crazy, but a useable one. She never learned that dragons are to be feared, and has yet to be disabused of her worshipful notions."

"Do you think I should?" you ask, baring your teeth. You find the blind adoration Watcher suggests delightfully amusing.

"Perhaps. I would advise against it." Watcher replies. "

>>14888226
>implying there's a difference

also
>just caught up with thread
>time for school
damn you, time

>>14888242
indeed, this would be where the zany antics start. they escort our daughter to a place only for her to be kidnapped or held hostage, and them, not wanting to leave her to her fate (it IS their job to protect her, afte all) will set off across the land, searching for clues to her whereabouts.

personally i say we keep ALL of them under surveilance for... indefinitely. under the guise of extensive testing of their abilities or somesuch. too many things happen to adventurers, and we dont want our daughter to get caught in the middle.

>>14888213
Why would we want to do that, exactly? The point of getting bodyguards isn't so that they can wander around and see how close they can come to getting killed without actually doing it, it's to keep Azyra safe from shit.

I'm actually a little apprehensive of hiring such... adventurer-y bodyguards, to be honest. While she's obviously going to have to get some practice in at some point, we don't want Azyra overhearing glorified stories of war from the nutty merc or some flashy sorcerous display from Ms. Nukeapotamus and up and decide that oh, hey, let me in on some of that sweet action.

I find it kind of hard to believe that any of these guys will find it fulfilling to simply accompany Azyra on occasional jaunts into town every now and again. (Except the merc, who will probably jizz in his pants over the fact that he's doing his job. Dude seems nothing if not committed. (pun potentially intended?))

>>14888226
You see, Azyra wants adventure. That's pretty clear. We can give her an adventure in Mza island, where its pretty safe, or the mainland, where its not really safe. Furthermore, she made sure her chosen bodyguards are pretty highleveled PCs, as it would seem, and all together they look like an adventuring group. So, might as well kill two birds with one stone and let her adventure, only very close to home.

>>14888285
This. Probably best to get it out of her system early.

>>14888285
taking the lenient stance: sure let them adventure. of course we want a very large flashing beacon to go off when (or if, in that order. seriously, those adventuring types are like death magnets) something happens to our daughter, and we teleport in to bring down the wrath of god on whatever poor mortal is unfortunate enough to cause it.

>>14888285
No, it's pretty clear she didn't want to be stifled. That's a far cry from going out swinging swords and monsters for gold.

We've been a kind father and approachable in this, so if she ever does want to set out and do whatever we will know. It's hardly like she's estranged. I say don't poke pit bulls with sharp sticks by throwing our daughter into danger for no reason.

>>14888285
>>14888285
Seeing as pissing us off will result in a TPK, I'd want PCs for my daughter too. (Barring, of course, the possibility that she gets knocked up- But she seems a bit young for that, I think the wizard is safe, and the merc seems a little to crazy. I suspect the lady elf would be willing, but doesn't have the right tackle for it.)

Unless, of course, the whole plot of their campaign is pissing off a powerful sorcerer by getting his daughter killed and running away, always staying a step or two ahead of his pursuit.

Either way, I'd guess about tenth level on average. Elf might be twelfth, wizard might be eighth or ninth, but I doubt it.

Look, shes growing up to become a respectable heir to our kingdom and like all teens, she will have a rebellious stage. Just let her do what she wants for now, keep a eye on her actions, and kill all boyfriends or any male who comes too close to her like any self respecting dragon/father would do.

Im sure she will grow out of this adventuring faze when she find sleeping on cold earth and watered down ale to not be as great as she was lead to believe. Also will be fun when she notices that she's giving up silk sheets and a loving family to sleep outside in the cold and be stabed at for a living. :D

well its been fun, i'm off for sleep. dont do anything stupid, dont get us killed, etc. etc.

and have fun.

I suggest we have Azyra invite the sorceress elf to our lair in about a week. Make sure Azyra briefs her on being very respectful and all that, blah blah. We sit there all grand and naturally-dragony, perhaps enlarged, and have a chat with the elf.

I think this will give Azyra a very powerful friend and companion who has real loyalty. Watcher says she is partly insane with how loyal she is to the dragon blood, so I think it's a good gamble.

Eventually when she retires from bodyguard duty (lives a long time; elf) she will probably make an excellent leader in our dragon cult too.

>>14888429
That can wait. Also, Watcher said crazy, not insane. I aware they're synonyms, but I don't think they're precisely the same.

Plus, the objective is for her to have some people she considers loyal to /her/, not us. Perhaps afterwards.

>>14888441
Right, we should make that clear too. That we aren't the one who employed her, Azyra is. Azyra is dragonblooded too, and likely much more like the elf anyway being as she is humanoid and all that.

I am not suggesting we co-opt the elf from our daughter's bodyguard, at least until the natural tour of duty is over. But I think it could do wonders for her loyalty to Azyra to know that ZOMG DRAGONS KAWAIII.

>>14888429
Shockingly, I don't... think I mind this that much. Might as well give it a try, but make sure both Azyra and "Ry'larra Tel'yan" know that we aren't her employer, our daughter is. This was her find and she works for Azyra. We should congratulate our girl on a job well done.

>>14888441
>Plus, the objective is for her to have some people she considers loyal to /her/, not us. Perhaps afterwards.
This is my only sticking point. I already said yes, but I think we should ask Azyra first if she would like us to do it. This was /her/ bodyguard recruitment, after all. Tell her what we think about it inspiring more loyalty and being good overall, but ultimately I think the decision should be Azyra's.

>>14888455
It could also do horrible things to it. And what if Azyra thinks we're coopting her friend here? (Which she might well.) I don't like it, but I'm only one guy. Do it if you must.

>>14888429
Here again.

Yes, I proposed the idea but I also agree we should give Azyra veto power and consult her first before doing it. Her bodyguards not ours.

>>14888429
Disagree, at least until our secret has a few more holes in it than it already does.

“Ah, Azaladon. I'm quite pleased my lord... Excellent progress with Cygnariassis today. I am quite pleased. Perhaps... Do you still entertain the... 'mount' idea? I think it is high time to move onto some...” Scinnari asks, trailing off as she notices Azyra enter behind you. “Hello dearest.”

“Hello mother.” Azyra says, perhaps a tad reluctantly. Scinnari doesn't seem to notice, and hugs her in greeting.

“Did you mention your recruits to your father?” Scinnari asks. “I thought a few of them sounded promising...”

“Not only did she, we paused to interview them all. As it happens, I was at least minimally satisfied with all of them. I'm half-tempted to invite the dragon-worshiper in sometime... See what she'd do if I met her one-on-one.” you remark distractedly. Coming back to yourself, you pick Azyra up. “Our little hatchling has proven quite comptent at finding minions of her own.” Azyra ignores your compliments, seizing on your idle speculation.

“Father! You said they could be mine!” She cries, betrayed.

“Of course, of course, I intended to make very clear she was working for you, not me. However, if you don't want me too...?”

“Don't.” Azyra says shortly. You pause to scan her mind, determining that, yes, she is quite worried about it. You might even call it her dragon's greed, though it seems to be as much possessive urge as a desperate desire to have allies- or at least friends, of her own. Hm... Disappointing, but, you suppose, not entirely unexpected.

“Of course not, Azyra. I must ask, in exchange, though, that you be very careful about trusting any of them- They're your guards, not... friends. Employees, not peers.” you caution. “Especially the crazy one. As we discussed.”

“Of course, father.” She says contritely. “Thank you.”

“Good. Actually, I was quite pleased. We went over the reasons I agreed or was worried, and Azyra actually thought of several of them on her own- I'm quite pleased. Now, the reason I called you here... I believe it is time to take a visit to Morinth ourselves. As a family, even.” you state. Scinnari looks alarmed, Azyra excited.

“Morinth? Mage-city? Am I coming?” Azyra asks delighted.

“Yes, yes, and yes.” you reply, and are driven to silence as she hugs you enthusiastically, squealing. Eventually you resume, though Azyra maintains her deathgrip on you. “I think the guise of considering magical tutoring for Azyra would be sufficient, and, as you may have read, our espionage efforts there have been somewhat flawed. Certainly a failure so far.” you say over Azyra's shoulder. “I think showing up in person would draw the opposition's attention away- Perhaps even enough that we could get some serious agents in place. And Azyra here would be able to assist with our spying.”

“Really?” Azyra asks, finally ending her hug to stare at you in wonderment.

“I think you might be ready for it, my dear.” Scinnari says, recovering. “Who is this crazy among her guards?”

“Competent, whatever, and he seems a relatively stable crazy.” you answer. “Azyra, I want to clarify that it is solely a pretense, I do not think I actually trust Morinth with your... safety, but it is a good outward reason for us to make the visit. You will need to help us maintain it during our visit- You think you can do that?” Azyra seems to have calmed down somewhat, and nods solemnly.

“Very well. It won't be for a few weeks, at least, but it's something we may do... Your mother and I need to work out the details.” you continue. Azyra nods, and you let her down. She practically skips off, and Scinnari watches her go, smiling.

“I'm afraid the crazy I mentioned has... odd religious beliefs. Suffice to say, he seems a capable soldier, albeit perhaps not as invincible as he thinks. He required significant and serious healing after taking on five of my lizardmen earlier... Though I will confess, the conditions did not favor him. In addition to his skill, his craziness seems a useable type, too.”

“I do acknowledge the benefits of fanaticism among underlings.” Scinnari agrees. “I quite like your lizardfolk for it, though I must confess, I am loath to admit it at times. They seem so... barbaric, usually. Anyway, you intend for us to visit Morinth ourselves? Isn't this the sort of task you might delegate to your slave... Nehmaska, I think?”

"It's possible, and I will consider it, but at the moment she's slightly busy... I suppose I could give her a different task, but she is occupied." you reason. "I shall think about it..."

>>14888809
Considering calling this a night, people (Twelve hours!). Post last things like usual, and here's my email, like usual. Will, of course, check the archives once this 404s, so posting here or emailing me works.

Despite my Andthentherewassilence.jpg, I may hang around to answer a question or two.

>>14888827
Gah. Email proper-like this time, and possible DQ this Thurs, don't know for sure. None this weekend.

Night, all.

>>14888789
>Do you still entertain the... 'mount' idea?

I'm voting hell yes. I may be a twisted individual, but I think it's high time Azyra learned to ride...

>>14888963
Eh, I dunno about that. I think we should find out why Azyra reacted as
>“Hello mother.” Azyra says, perhaps a tad reluctantly.
first. It might be her being grumpy about overprotective mothering, or it might be that she was... offput by the subject of discussion when she entered. After all, she has spent some time talking to Cygnis before, and they seemed to get on fairly well.

That said, I am totally behind the mount idea.
You might say...
*Glasses*
I'm all over it.
YEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHH!

id like to know how our state druids are doing in the next thread, and what the state of cleric, druid, and mage concentrations are, in mza particuarly

>>14889098
Personally, in retrospect, (and now that I've had eight hours and caught up on the thread,) I'd say she's just getting to a 'big girl', and such expression is beneath her. Perhaps deep down she actually likes her mother's attention, and so she's going, "Well, /sure/, I /guess/ you can hug me... If you /insist/..."

Alternately, as was suggested on chat, Elektra complex, or the seeds of estrangement. We may have to spend some time with our girl sometime.s

Speaking of which, reading back over some of our previous interactions, I think she might be afraid of us. I mean, that's perfectly alright, but... It may be something to consider.

>>14890733
>may have to spend time with our girl sometime.

Which is not to say that we're not already spending time with all our girls, for one reason or another...

All this work we've done makes me wonder what we forgot back at the start of the quest. Hopefully no monsters from the past come up. It'd be awkward as hell to have two consorts.

Yes on the Cygnis mount idea. It's just too good, although it'd mean letting everyone know that we have a gold, including Nem and Seffy. Seffy I'm not too concerned about; we could even ride in there to say hi, look what I've got. Nem would be abhorred and probably try to free her somehow.

The spies from Morinth are probably sent by the crown, so we should try to make contacts in the Morinth underworld. Shadow-thieves and whatnot.

We should corroborate the mercenary's past, if for no other reason than to gauge how crazy/reliable he actually is.

>>14891199
But think of the threesomes! Plus, consort means she's not an official wife, right? Our prime companion, but not necessarily our only?