In terms of pure destructive power, she seems to be quite competent. Flame, naturally, seems to be her specialty; she's demonstrated the ability to conjure flames at will with minimal effort, and when she's giving a reasonable amount of effort, she can melt rock reliably. Of less beneficial nature, but something she seems to take pleasure in, she also has found a way to shape flames, sculpting corporeal illusions or other effects out of the fire. Certainly her ability to wreath herself in roiling flames has impressed your lizardmen; she seems to have earned some of their respect personally, rather than just by being your daughter. Something you are certain she was hoping for... You are not sure you approve, and resolve to keep an eye on it.

Scinnari seems to be done with the most exotic of Cygnariassis 'training', and has declared her fit for being trained as a servant. You can't say you disagree, seeing the meek and otherwise broken mien Cygnariassis now holds, but are somewhat skeptical as to Scinnari's desire to continue 'training'. Scinnari insists that there is proper etiquette and protocol a slave should be instructed in, though, and it seems a minor enough a request that you can indulge her.

Seffestranias remains remarkably quiet, a condition you are uncertain whether to be happy or worried about. She has made clear to you that her offer stands, and has suggested that you might not be the only one it is being offered to, but you suspect that to be a bluff. Your worry diminishes when your spies manage to determine that most of her attention is focused northward, to warlord Corvad Mikulec, and his rapidly expanding empire just north of her. His expansion has slowed from his originally meteoric pace, but it continues, and the only thing that has kept him from encountering her realm, beyond both it's size and power, is the mountain range separating them for the moment. Seffestranias' attention seems fixed northward, upon the largest threat to her realm- Excepting yours, of course. Such thoughts leave you with a warm feeling.

Too the south, you've been keeping an eye on the dragon- a young brass, you believe,- in the process of infiltrating your cities. It's almost cute to watch him attempting to build up wealth and resources within the city without attracting too much attention. Somewhat similar to what you once were like, you suppose. Either way, he seems to have identified the Ivory Gate's administrative and governmental system as a route to wealth, and seems to be commencing attempts to climb the cities' infrastructure and hierarchy. Not within the bounds of the law, but it doesn't seem to be costing you anything and the irony of him attempting to climb higher in your web of subordinates does seem amusing. He may have to be dealt with in some manner or another.

Also to the south, Firelady has contacted you sporadically, usually asking your advice on minor situations. Apparently you have established yourself as a reliable and trustworthy presence with decent advice; She remains wary, but is willing to contact you for things short of life-and-hoard-threatening emergencies, which is progress, you suppose. From scrying and speaking with her, you believe she desires to forge her tribe into a kingdom, of sorts, though she doesn't seem to have a firm idea as to how to manage it yet. She has not asked you for assistance on that particular topic, though, so you have been silent regarding it.

Finally, to the far east, you've made cursory attempts to establish contacts. They have been, in all but a few cases, productive- most of the dragons along the border-mountains of Urgash do not seem to be particularly xenophobic, or at least are willing to discuss matters peaceably with those who come to them in peace. Even the Metallics seem willing to treat with you, provided you remain polite. You suppose you can humble your pride, if necessary...

Fuck yeah, Dragonquest!

Something that has been bugging me; did we ever find out why the mage bitch hated us in the first place? We seem to have kinda forgotten about her since the war ended.

The plague situation sucks, but they will get overtheir grumbling eventually. Definitely keep trying to find the cause of it; if this hits Mza proper we're in trouble. Stepping up security on the home island won't hurt towards this end.

Seffy's situation is an unenviable one. This warlord sounds like trouble, but it leaves up with an opportunity to re-establish contact with her and maybe expand our hoard by acting as a mercenary in the same way she did for us. Plus I believe we wanted to learn more about this guy and his healbitch anyway.

Let the Brass muddle through for now, but keep an eye on him. If he is competent enough to prove a threat then we might have to deal with him, for for now let him amass his wealth; we can always steal it later.

>>15375444
As long as the brass does not attain any position of real power and increases our revenues more than he takes then it is fine to let him be. However, I would like to blackball him from any major positions.

When Scinnari is done with Cygnis's servant training I think we should invite Firelady over for dinner.

>>15375483

Just to be certain, can we get a confirmation on how much Cygnis knows about us, and what contact she has had with our minions and family? It sounds so far like she has been limited to Scinnari, so throwing her in the deep end straight away is probably not a good idea. A few small, simple tasks to test her ability and loyalty first might be in order.

>>15375483
Oh, and we should introduce our lovely wife and daughter to Firelady during the dinner. Azyra is close enough in age to Firelady that they could bond, and Azyra needs an equal to spend time with too.

Make sure the dinner extravagant and properly astonishing for her. We want to motivate her into building a kingdom too.

>>15375518
Cygnis is aware of your family and position as ruler of Mza. That's about it, beyond being aware that you have huge warrens full of lizardmen, and whatever she has overhead over the past few years.

As added note, Scinnari seems more interested in training her as a household slave, rather than a errand-runner.

>>15375444
Nope. She vanished shortly before the war, so you never found out. (Nor have been able to pursue her.)


>>15375483
The Brass, you suspect, is motivated by the wealth and removal from the law that your governors and higher-ranking officials enjoy. So far, he seems to be working his way up the ladder, and isn't too high yet. He does seem to have the resources and momentum to continue, unless you interfere with him, though.

>>15375612
Interfere to keep him from moving up past a mid-level position. Stealthily.

A household slave is fine for Cygnis.

>>15375612

Ah, probably best to keep her as a household item and information plumb then, barring necessity of course. We already have a silver hued errand-runner who has demonstrated that she is amply capable.

Throwing this out there, but anyone else like the idea of Cygnis as a personal bodyguard? Our lizardmen give excellent service, but they're only lizardmen after all.

>>15375671
No. Too much risk of getting stabbed instead of guarded and plus... she's not a combatant anyway.

>>15375682

I don't think we'd be at much more risk than keeping her around as a servant. And a dragon-sized meatshield (combatant or not) will take some getting through and save wear and tear on our own hide.

We need to make sure she is completely subverted to our will though, no matter what we do with her. Watcher might be able to shed some light onto her state of mind and any plots assembling therein.

>>15375709
Regardless of danger, she's just NOT a fighter. Never has been.

Bodyguard is a bad idea. She's much more suited to domestic tasks.

I think we should see if we can turn Seffy and that warlord against eachother. Might also be a chance to find out more about him and his sorceress-lady.

>>15375742

I don't mean use her as a fighter. When I say meatshield, I mean that in the literal sense of the term. Someone to take the knife for us if things go awry, and a dupe; a few people not privy to our true nature already suspect we're a dragon, but they don't know what type. If worst comes to worst she's there to throw to the wolves.

Anyways, its not something worth arguing over.

Meatshield Cygnis is great. If we can get her to revert and jump in front of whatever horrible death spell is headed at us at any time, then I'm all for it. Apart from that, servant is perfect. She can bring us fine wine distilled from drow blood, or something.

I agree with keeping the brass from reaching his goal. Keep a kind of glass ceiling above him as best as we can. Brasses are the least of the metallics IIRC, so it shouldn't be too hard. If he made it to governor, then he might realize things about us, or start siphoning off our income.

I believe that the mage thinks we stole something of hers. After some discussion, we concluded that it was likely the dragonslaying sword, seeing how we looted it in our earlier years.

This all assumes she was behind the plague. She never made any obvious demands (leave the sword here and never come for it again) so I'm not sure what she thinks she's doing.

Azyra: Girls will be girls, I suppose. As long as she's safe, we should support her. Being only half dragon she can't supplant us, it's more likely that when she's old enough we'll give her a startup place of her own and she'll build a nice confederate state for us.

Perhaps Seffy's marriage proposal was less to get at our gold than to get at our military. This warlord obviously makes her nervous, and she'll want our assistance. We should provide help if she asks: Not only do we owe her a debt, but it's the neighborly thing to do and it keeps the hordes off our own lawn.

Also: DRAGONQUEST FUCK YEAH!

>>15375936
Using Cygnis as a bodyguard and/or meatshield was a bad idea when it was voted down the first time and it's STILL a bad idea.

>Not only do we owe her a debt
Bullshit. We don't owe her anything. She tried to extort us.

The dwarven archivist you allowed to inspect your castle seems to have mostly finished his errands. The servants you assigned to oversee him were quite paranoid, confessing that much of the time, they didn't know or couldn't understand what he was intending; apparently a practitioner of some specialized and esoteric form of magic, as well as a self-styled archaeologist. His report, though, suggests he at least has a passing acquaintance of what he claims to study; he's certain that your castle was once the fortress of a lich named Sokallan Drien, and has even tentatively identified what he believes to be the room the lichlord once stored his phylactery in. He has also repeatedly requested access to what is now your lab, which you have repeatedly refused. His justification is that it was also the lab of the lichlord, and there might be untold knowledge hidden within it's walls; you happen to know that there's untold knowledge hidden in the floor, in the form of the imprisoned black you have been practicing life-leaching upon. Something you are reluctant to reveal. The dwarf does not seem pleased, but has not attempted to take matters into his own hands, and so far has been an excellent guest. He states that if he is allowed neither within your lab nor within the catacombs, he has no further prospects here, and intends to depart. Barely worth classifying as a threat, but it doesn't seem to be a bluff.

And on the subject of departing, one of Azyra's bodyguards intends to leave your, or rather, her, service shortly. Piotr Aral seems to have decided he's gained enough money from you that he intends to attempt to return home, having stayed far longer than he originally intended to. Azyra is reluctant to see him go, but not quite willing to prevent him from doing so.

Also: I bring this up every so often, but we should take Scinnari and Watcher back to that cave near Freeport where we found the Bronze ghost that was going through repeated death sequences. I really think something valuable can be learned there.

>>15375995
Our lab is deep in the mountain within our inner lair, not in the castle. What the fuck?

>>15376014

Any information we can glean on the Binder is valuable. One of the reasons I believe we kept Cygnis alive was that she has some personal insight into the Binder, cult and workings thereof. Mostly by being on the recieving end of their practices.

Seconding this idea. Maybe we can get something more coherent from the Bronze this time. Especially as Watcher has changed her/its attitude.

>>15375995

No lettingthe archeologist into sensitive areas. However, maybe we can give him wall rubbings, assuming there are any carvings in those areas that arent the work of our reptillian servants. Picking his brains and offering up a few sops might prove worthwhile if the Liche left any hidden treasures in our abode.

If the dwarf can discover any of the lich's learnings, they might shed light on our own search for life-draining. +1 to the wall rubbings idea, try to accommodate without actually letting him in.

Azyra will be sad, but the guy's contract is up. Wish him well and thank him for his service.

>>15376098
Agreed that learning about the previous inhabitant of our castle and lair is useful, and wall rubbings should be fine.

As for Piotr, it's his decision to leave Azyra's service, and just as we didn't interfere in her hiring of bodyguards, we shouldn't interfere when they wish to leave her service.

I think we should put some more effort into tracking down that mage-bitch from Morinth, and finding the root cause of the plague that affected Liergrad.

>>15376331

Mage bitch vanished without a trace, all we have are suspicions. Given the timeframe we're working with I doubt that she is the northern warlord's healbitch like some people suspect, but if she happens to put in an appearance anywhere then pulling he spine out won't hurt.

I agree with finding out more about this plague. Scour the city for the remains or sites of any rituals or cabals that could cause this thing. If a handy scapegoat presents itself we should employ that too.

Rhasver I can believe arranging it but I don't think the bitch mage personally was involved. It seems too obvious a connection, too easy a one to make. Then again, it could be just about anyone; we've stepped on a lot of toes.

Naturally, you refuse the archaeologist's 'threat', and wish him farewell. As a parting gift for such a reasonable guest, though, you do provide him with images of the pre-existing catacomb decorations. He seems pleasantly surprised, and reports that he thinks nothing remains of the Lich or his treasure ,excepting perhaps, the catacombs; he advises that if there were bodies within them, they should be treated as potential undead. The establishment as a whole, though, he says probably has some resonance with necromancy or evil deeds; a sort of magical 'imprint' on the mountain that draws such deeds to the location, and amplifies their power. He warns to beware of it, though your mind is already aflame with thoughts of how to use it.

You believe you have stumbled upon /something/, regarding your efforts at extending your lifespan. You've found a method that rapidly ages the black, but seems to make the recipient of his lost time younger; a transfusion of time, perhaps. The experience is apparently quite painful for the one surrendering time, and rather inefficient; the one gaining youth seems to gain somewhere between a tenth and a fiftieth of what is soaked from the 'donor'. But it is a start, and could certainly be useful once you yourself were nearing the limits of your lifespan. How this might be affected by the 'necromantic imprint' on the castle is something haven't yet determined, but the dwarf's words do seem somewhat ominous with regards to to it's attraction to evil and necromancy; you dislike the prospect that you may have been influenced by the castle to seek out such knowledge.

>>15376381

Me again.

Final thought before I hit the sack; if the sword is what we suspect she was after, craft a replica and have it 'moved to a more secure location' or let it be known that we have beef with a dragon somewhere nearby and are moving equipment up to fight it (or any other believable excuse). See if anyone takes the bait; if she is careless we will get a direct lead, and if not when we know we have a security breach and she hasn't vanished into the ether.

Also, make liberal use of our Cibach Azal persona as he was known to have used the sword in Freeport. if the swird is what they're after, then he will probably be targeted either to silence him or find out where he passed it off to.

>>15376460
Fucking jackpot, and while it sucks that the castle might be subtly manipulating us, at least it's beneficial manipulation.

Since our subjects will be conquered dragons, the inefficiency won't be too much of a problem. We should work on refining it in the meantime, but don't transfer too much life to ourselves or we'll lose the power that comes with age.

This should only be done when we're nearing death's door.

>>15376476
+1 to the Cibach lure, but I doubt she'd fall for the other idea of a false lead. She's suspected to have caused a horrible plague, and gotten away with it.

She knows how to play the game.

>>15376476
It's an artifact, you can't really create a replica of an artifact.

>>15376581

It doesn't have to work. Just look like it.

Seeking knowledge... regarding that, a few of your spies in Rhasver believe they have heard rumor of your self-styled nemesis making an appearance or two. 'Magister' Attor is rumored to have been seen on a few errands there, but they have not managed to confirm or corroborate the rumors. Going by the rumors, she's been seen accessing the archives and libraries of the necromancy and enchantment guilds, but again, nobody seems to know quite who saw her. Naturally a few are interested in collecting the bounty Rhasver and yourself have placed upon her, but their pursuit has been as fruitless as your own. A pity.

Near Liergrad, your forces and refugees in the vicinity have experienced a few scattered attacks, apparently from bandits and other pillagers taking advantage of the plague's damage. Your efforts to clean up after the city are made more difficult by such activity. Skirmishers and rangers are dispatched to do what they can, but the dispersion of dislocated refugees and the fact that most of your forces are busy attempting to sort out the city is quite a hindrance. In the midst of this all, an exodus begins, displaced refugees moving across the border and back into Rhasverian territory. By the look of things, Liergrad will be even more diminished by the time this is all sorted out, and poorer for it.

#####
>>15376530
Dealing with this next, unless there is some objection?

>>15376460
I advise against using Necromancy to extend life, especially if this process involves lichdom. Such means would put our soul at risk of destruction, which means no chance at a afterlife.

>>15376617
There are other ways. Necromancy is about the manipulation of lifeforce in general, to kill, to heal, to resurrect or preserve. Lichdom isn't the only route, and I'm pretty sure what we've come up with is already necromancy.

>>15376598
I object to this. It's utterly nonsensical. She knows we are the ones with whatever it is, there is no point in using the Cibach persona. There is even less use in trying to duplicate an artifact. It's a complete waste of time and resources better spent doing other things.

rolled 88 = 88

dragonquest oh god yes

Firelady does condone to accept an invitation, and you make sure that preparations are made well in advance. Firelady, as it turns out, is rather unskilled at polymorphing, particularly clothing; presumably due to lack of use, being an 'avatar' in the primitive midst of nowhere. You find yourself passing on the advice Scinnari once gave you, teaching her how to manifest clothing, to alter it's color, shape, or size. Unlike you, however, she cannot assume other forms; she seems to only have a single alternate form. Expected, you suppose.

You offer to provide transportation for her, but when she refuses, you merely direct her to approach the castle of Mza, and that you will greet her there. She seems nervous, but accepts, and you kindly provide a scroll of invisibility so that she can approach stealthily.

When the day arrives, allowing her both a week of preparation and travel time, she does arrive as promised, towards the end of the day. A cultist you stationed on one of the towers spots her with magical aid, and receives her, allowing her to polymorph and descend to greet you. You receive her in the castle's throne room, a location not quite as opulent as your lair, but enough to at least approach it. Barely. Despite this and her obvious reluctance to show her awe, it is readily apparent, and you introduce your family.

“...My beloved wife, Scinnari, and my daughter, Azyra.” you say with a gesture to each of them, who offer suitable acknowledgment. Azyra seems somewhat unimpressed by your guest. “Scinnari, Azyra, my guest, possibly protégée, Firelady-”

“Kalfyria.” Firelady interrupts, offering what you suspect to be her real name. “Firelady is sufficient around... tribals.” she adds by way of explanation. Ah... Nervous, you suspect. You concede, perhaps you over did it in terms of impressing her.. but she seems to be managing for the most part. You suspect, if she's anything like yourself, the particular gleam in her eye is overwhelming avarice, and a desire to possess resources capable of providing such luxury... Goal achieved, in that case. Out of the corner of your eye, you see Scinnari offer a slight smile of amusement at Kalfyria's minor distress, and Azyra seems thoroughly unimpressed, but neutral.

“Ah. Kalfyria, my mistake. Thank you. Now, if you wish to proceed to dinner, I believe the chef has it ready, should you so desire?” you offer genially. Kalfyria looks like she's about to open her mouth and reply, but seems to realize she's already embarrassed herself in some way, and merely nods.

“Very well. If you will follow me, we can adjourn to the dining room.” you finish, standing to lead.

>>15377103
>>15377096
Proceed....

rolled 62 = 62

Let us ask her about what else has happened with that band of adventurers?

>>15377103
>>15377096
Ask her why she didn't tell us her name before. See if we can get her and Azyra involved in conversation. I imagine Scinnari will be her usual charming public self, so we should get the breakdown of what she thinks about Kalfy after dinner, maybe while Kalfy and Azyra go into town to shop or something. We could give them a "gift" budget to go spend and ask Azyra to show her around the shops in town. Could help the bond.

>>15377245
>>15377249
Do both of these. I like the shopping idea for azyra and firelady because it could be a gift to our protege and daughter and a way to help them bond and make them like each other and us at the same time. Also seconding getting scinnaris opinion and asking about the adventurers and all of that said in those posts really.

Thought: If Azyra brought her dragaboo bodyguard to dinner then her reaction at seeing a red dragon dining with and being deferential toward us would be priceless.

Not that I am advocating it, and I doubt Azyra would have brought her to the dinner anyway... though it's possible I guess.

Seconding/thirding/fourthing the rest. Also carry on general pleasant conversation of course.

Kalfyria resists the urge to look about, admiring your castle's vaulted halls and the copious decoration, but only barely. A servant holds open the door to the dining hall, and you pass through to take a seat. As you turn back to face the women following you, you feel happy to note Kalfyria's eyes darting about the room, attempting to take it all in without actually turning her head. The table is smaller than you would normally use for such a reception, but then, there's only the four of you. She has barely sat down when a trio of servants bring out the first course, one of them being dear Cygnariassis. Scinnari seems to watch her with a combination of sadistic pleasure and a creators' pride.

All of which is lost on Kalfyria, experiencing sights and smells she's never even conceived of before. And the silverware... She's intelligent enough to wait, and watch as you and your family begin eating, then attempt to subtly replicate such feats. Not difficult, but obviously the first exposure she's had to such utensils.

“So, might I ask on the progress regarding the band of adventurers I assisted you in dealing with?” you begin conversationally.

“They returned about four months ago. The were worse for the wear.” she replies. “I believe they crippled but did not kill the Blue south of me, but do not know. They may even have driven the Blue away; they were of different minds on the subject.” she adds. “They seemed relatively pleased with their experiences dealing with me, and promised that they would advise as I- As you told me to suggest regarding their merchant hopes.” Kalfyria replies. “I have not heard since then. I find it possible the ran into more trouble on the way back, or lied and intended to find a different path that doesn't deal with me.” she answers. Business-like and apparently unperturbed. Azyra seems to be pointedly ignoring the discussion, though you have a suspicion she is listening closely.

“I see. What do you intend to do regarding that?” Scinnari asks. You hadn't specifically briefed her regarding this, but you've apparently told her enough.

“I... was considering approaching a magnate of whatever merchant guild sponsored them myself, and attempting to offer such a deal. It sounds like it would be.. desirable to them. At least as the adventurers and.. your husband described it.”

“Really? That might work quite well.” Scinnari answers. “If he seems reluctant, you may be able to convince him by suggesting you merely intend to approach another guild or official and offer that. Particularly if you happen to know a particular rival or opponent of your first target.” Scinnari says, tasting the wine.

Kalfyria seems to consider the advice for a moment, then nods. “That sounds like good advice. Thank you... Lady Scinnari?”

“Scinnari will do.” the devil replies. “What plans do you have, should that fall through?”

“I had hoped to enlarge the tribe that I rule, perhaps subjugate additional groups within the region. It would carry difficulties of it's own, of course, particularly the discrepancies in religion...” she begins,

“Religion? How does that factor in?” Azyra asks, not quite an interruption.

“I.. came into and hold my position by dint of being mistaken for a divine figure in a tribe's mythology. Herald and concubine of the fire deity and sun-lord...” Kalfyria says, a hint of mockery entering her voice. “At a guess the tribe I hold dominion over came from further south in distant times, even the desert of Tashz,” she answers, “their religious beliefs seem markedly different from those of surrounding tribes.”

OHHHHHHHHHHHH GOD YES

DRAGON QUEST ITS BEEN TOO LONG

>>15377466
>>15377459
Ask her about the other religions, and suggest ways she might be able to subvert them.

If we can't think of any then we should point out that religion only lasts as long as another one doesn't replace it. If she shows that the "fire god" is more powerful than the gods that are currently worshiped by conquering them and burning the totems and such then tribals convert quite quickly.

Of course she should be sure that no ACTUAL god is being worshiped. That could be awkward.

Ask Azyra what she thinks Kalfy should do too, as a way of pulling her into the conversation more. Maybe ask her what her experiences being worshiped by the lizardmen have taught her about religion and if she has any advice for Kalfy?

After dinner do the "shopping money" gift and get Scinnari's opinion while they are gone. Then get Azyra's opinion after they come back and Kalfy leaves. Then get Kalfy's opinion on the dinner the next day via mirror... or hell, maybe tell her she can sleep over in the castle.

“I see... You have an interest in religion, then?” Scinnar asks with interest. You feel mildly worried, aware that arguing theosophics with a devil is a very poor idea, and prepare to intervene.

“It my method of.. granting my reign.” Kalfyria answers, “Consider it a... a necessary and productive hobby. The surrounding tribes, for instance, seem to worship a jungle-diety of some sort, or the jungle /as/ a deity in some cases. Much more difficult to assume such a role... Perhaps if I were a Green.” she adds with some sarcasm.

“Please, my dear. You seem quite capable as you are.” Scinnari replies. “Unlike some I could mention.” Scinnari adds, holding out her wine goblet for Cygnariassis to refill it. Her eyes flash, and you suspect that Scinnari is mentally tabulating a list of errors or faults to bring up with Cygnariassis later. “Perhaps you should investigate whether they worship actual deities or tribal gods? If you can prove yourself superior to their god, they are likely to abandon whatever they hold dear. Particularly since you style yourself merely the herald of your god.”

“It... seems possible, but how does one prove themselves superior to the jungle itself?” Kalfyria counters. Though her attention is focused on Scinnari, she preempts what you are certain is about to be Azyra's response with almost a psychic precision. “Without incinerating it?”

“Perhaps just part of it. Or- certainly they have some holy symbol or arch-enemy figure in their religion? If their god actually has a name, that would help.” Scinnari adds, settling back into a thoughtful posture. Evidently taking this as an opportunity to destroy whatever faith she can. You sometimes wonder how mere 'fall' can work such a total change, from an angel to a devil. An issue for another time.

Hmm...perhaps we can help in regards to that religion-problem.

We have a cult that worhsips red dragons; I think now would be a good time to send missionaries off to these other tribes and help convert them and ease passage- allowing our protege to gain manpower and for us to gain more followers.

Do we have any information on our cult, as stands?

“Azyra, what do you think?” you prompt, forcing her to take part in the conversation.

“Perhaps... I don't really know. If they don't actually have a god or holy... whatever, you could assist your tribe in combat?” Azyra offers haphazardly. She doesn't sound like she was expecting to be asked. “Even people in Mza tend to- greatly- fear fire, so you could probably make an impression on them.”

“Which leaves how to turn that into an advantage, I suppose.” Kalfyria replies, considering.

“Relatively easy- If you intend mere military conquest- albeit backed by 'divine' verdict- as my daughter suggested, you could easily harry them both before and after any conflict, doing anything from signaling their positions to burning their camps.” you offer. Unnecessary, it looks like, as she nods slightly, evidently already coming up with similar ideas on her own. “A show of strength, the invincibility of your faithful... whatever is most convenient would probably help. And should they see 'your' god making his presence felt, but theirs failing to respond in their times of need...”.

“Yes... That sounds like it would work. Of course, to mold their beliefs into something where I would plausibly take part in such a conflict. Their beliefs regarding the sun-gods' consort are more 'messenger' rather than 'fighter'.” Kalfyria answers. The fourth course arrives as she speaks, and you signal the servants for desert course next, seeing that Kalfyria seems mostly finished.

“Azaladon?” Nehmeska's voice rings in your mind. “Are you busy?”

“I happen to be entertaining guests at the moment, as it happens.” you think back at her dryly. “What is the occasion?”

“Oh...” Nehmeska replies, and you get the distinct impression she wants to say 'nothing'. “I happen to have noticed something. I'm sure it will wait, whenever you're ready.”

“Of course...” you answer, “If it isn't an emergency, I'll be with you presently.” you answer, turning your attention back to Kalfyria. The meal has finished, and Kalfyria, despite being a dragon, seems to have found it more than enough. “Now... I did invite you to my city, as well as my home. Azyra, might I impose upon you to show Kalfyria around Mza?”

“Of course, father.” Azyra answers, sounding none to eager, but acceding to your wishes.

“It would be a poor host of me if I required you to pay your own way..” you add with sudden concern, and gesture in the air. From nothingness, or rather, extra-dimensional storage, you produce a small pile of coins, ranging from platinum to silver. You hand the coins to Azyra, a generous gift even to her, and smile thinly as you see Kalfyria's eyes again gleaming avariciously. As if they had ever stopped. “I do hope you enjoy my city, Kalfyria. Perhaps inspiration for what you may one day accomplish.”

“I.. am sure that it will excellent inspiration, Azaladon. You evidently do little by halves.” Kalfyria replies, attempting to offer suitable response to your generosity. She offers a slight bow, and Azyra nods at you, before leading her off towards the eyries, and the fastest route down to the city.

“So. She's your protégée...” Scinnari says, once the door has shut behind Azyra and Kalfyria.

“Indeed. Your thoughts?” you ask conversationally, picking up the bottle of wine a servant left on the table and pouring yourself a glass.

“She seems... Dim, perhaps. No... Unfair, I suppose. Perhaps unworldly. I have no doubt that you've made quite an impression on her, but I'm wondering how much of her appeal to you is simply due to blind luck. Or simply race and gender?” Scinnar asks evidently in jest.

“Please. She's about Azyra's age. I confess it could be blind luck, but she seems to have realized she had an excellent arrangement when she saw it, and realized she should work to maintain it. She was willing to swallow her pride and remain.. What, the consort of a probably-fictional deity?”you ask.

“Concubine.” Scinnari corrects. “And I suppose there is that. Hmm... Really, I think the most essential part would be being... malleable. Even if she wasn't already reasonable, I suspect you could choose any her age and have your desired effect...”

“You consider the important part to be my influence, not her initial nature?” you ask mildly surprised. And pleased.

“I guess that is what I am getting at. Your way is correct, and as long as someone can manage their pride, it shouldn't be too difficult to see that. Of course, she's already seen that your ways are more productive, and so bends her efforts towards them. And perhaps you're right, she may be too young for me to be judging as I am.” Scinnari concedes. “...'Dim' was really the wrong word, I believe. Perhaps without experience would be more accurate... Anyway, you desire to convince her to erect an empire? One you can conveniently suborn, if you so desire? A... second Seffestranias?”

“I consider Seffestranias a slightly larger obstacle than I'm hoping our dear Firelady will become, but.. perhaps.” you answer. “Preferably a bit less... sporadic than Seffestranias, though.”

“Indeed.” Scinnari replies with quiet chuckle. “She seems as wantonly chaotic as a demon... Thankfully less destructive, at least.”

>>15376460
In regards to this - I'm going to assume the life force is sort of 'sucked in' as a stream, right? Could we experiment by creating a protective buffer around the transferring life force with the life force of OTHER creatures? So that that ablates away instead of the life force we're busy sucking off?

Just popping in to say:
I hope Seffy dies
I hope Mysterious Magic Bitch dies
I hope the players (Azaldon) don't take any stupid risks
I hope the players (Azaldon) never do anything Good purely for the sake of it being Good
I hope Scinarri and Azyra are doing well

Loving the renewed attention Cygnis' is getting. It almost felt like she fell off the planet for a second there.

I say we excuse ourselves after the meal for a short time and let Scinnari and Azyra talk with her- I think Azyra might be a little jealous at this whole 'young protege' thing we've got going on with her, so if there's a way to get them to move past that, then all the better. Scinnari seems to like or tolerate her well enough.

>>15377932
Ask if it will become relevant within the next fifteen to thirty minutes. Even theoretically relevant. If yes, telepathically ask Scinnari to tend to the conversation while we deal with some urgent business that just cropped up. If no, finish dinner and ease into sending Azyra and Kalfy into town with shopping funds, then inform Scinnari we are leaving to attend a potential problem and to stand by... also keep an eye on Azyra.

It's nothing to interrupt our dinner party over, but we should check it out fast. After we get back from dealing with whatever it is we can ask Scin and Azyra their impressions of Kalfy.

>>15377984
>I think Azyra might be a little jealous at this whole 'young protege' thing we've got going on with her
I doubt it. The impression I've gotten is that she sees the younger dragon as more of a country bumpkin and/or pawn that we are cultivating.

Check with Nemmy, if she didn't want to tell us it could be related to our imminent demise. Or it could just be some minor thing, but whatevs, paranoia is the word of the day.

I'm sure Nemesh can at least elaborate on what she has found and then we can make a decision on if it deserves our immediate attention or we deal with it later.

>>15377930

Though I'm not sold on that approach, I HAVE thought a lot about the cult and, with the board's permission, I'd like to put up my writings on it for review and study.

--

The Cult of The Red Lord was created solely to serve as a religious powerbase and as an additional tool for Azaladon to use in order to exert his influence over people. In the years since its inception its methods of induction have grown more refined and, under its new head matriarch, Asha, its expansion across both its incepted island and the mainland has been slightly more consistent than in previous years, with overall membership having climbed to a couple of hundred on the island itself and pockets of several dozen elsewhere. With Asha’s inclusion, it seems most of this new uptake has been decidedly more human; filling in the gaps between the sporadic findings and conversions of Lizardman, Kobold and more draconic pockets of society.
To its followers, the Cult is mainly a focus for power. The Red Lord is worshipped as a being of power, and those faithful enough to him are believed to be granted a portion of it to aid them in both spreading his word and in fulfilling their own ambitions. In a way this is true, as the chokers the followers of Azaladon wear as their religious icons do contain mild enchantments to increase ability, with those higher up the chain obtaining more bands, and thus more power. However, as with anything there is a price to pay- the higher one advances, the more involved they become in the cult, until what once were their ambitions become the Cult’s ambitions. As of yet, not many have fallen so far for this to be the case, but the number grows year by year.

>>15378063

Recruitment
Recruitment begins simply enough, as the cult sends outsourcers onto the street and into bars, looking for people primed for converting- those among the young rich are prime targets for gullability and ‘trying something new’, as well those who are interested in dragons or are down on their luck. Selected, these potential recruits are invited to sit in on a ceremony and encouraged to participate. Those deemed most suitable for conversion after viewing both their responses and their background are then invited to a weekend retreat, to further impress on them the workings of the cult and what can be achieved by being a part of it.
If the invitation is accepted then nine times out of ten that person will end up a member of the cult, having undergone basic-level indoctrination over the course of the weekend- at the end of which they are formally accepted to be a member of the cult and proudly don the new symbol of their station.

>>15378070

Rituals
The Cult of The Red Lord lacks the hefty texts of most mainstream religious movements, and instead leans more toward a more draconic doctrine of harnessing inner power, mantras and chanting, directed by the charismatic figure of the priest who runs the procession. No sacrifices are made, nor donations asked for during the service, the members solely focussed in meditative trance toward achieving their daily goals and stoking their inner fire. During the longer evening gatherings repetitive movement is also encouraged, either through repeated prostration or the act of continuously standing and sitting for separate sections of the mass.
Generally speaking, the ones on the mainland other than on the holy day go thus; they are invited into the cult building and through the archway into a room filled with cushions and heavy smells to take their seats, then the Priest or Priestess guides them down into a meditative trance state before leaving them to their own pace, occasionally letting out a small ringing chime and repeating a few mantras or addition bits of doctrine. The fifth chime signals for the ed of the trance, and the congregation depart, other than those who wish to ask questions of the priest.
Depending on the location, these simpler rituals can be somewhat different, both depending on how the priest chooses to run it and the inclinations and mindsets of the local members. More tribal celebrations, for instance, are more active and raucous.
For advanced rituals, such as on particular days denoted ‘holy’ or by a brother or sister ascending in the ranks or being converted, more overt grandiose pomp is used through speller- illusion, for the most part, to make the ceremony seem more impressive. On the main city of Mza, Azaladon himself makes a bi-annual appearance, and would no doubt be a cause for pilgrimage if the location and situation of it were not such a closely guarded secret.

>>15378076

Iconography
Unlike most Dragons, Azaladon has kept his ‘mark’ merely toward his religion, where he can be more assured of the fanatic level loyalty and influence that he feels such a thing should enjoy.
The basic follower’s attire is whatever they wear during the daytime, with the addition of a thin choker with a red bauble or gem embedded in it, held in place by a pentagram of claws, 2 at the top which fold into horns outside the gem, 2 into wings, and 1 into a tail, with the draconic letter ‘A’ inscribed into the centre. The collar is faintly enchanted to increase the wearer’s magical ability, enough for them to notice a difference from before, but not enough to be particularly practical. More important is the way the materials act like a conduit- upon entering through the archway into the ritual area, a minor suggestion spell is automatically cast upon the user, and revoked upon exit. This isn’t an enchantment put onto the necklace rather than the archway; the choker merely acts as a conduit for it due to the set-up for the spell- meaning that one would not be aware of any negative points of the choker itself.
Also contained is a spell that activates upon the removal of the necklace, broadcasting its removal and where it happened back to the Cult leader’s quarters, to be taken care of appropriately. Now that Asha is the current leader, one can expect an assassin’s visit depending on how much one knows.

>>15378091

For those wishing to advance and gain more power, they are sent away for a while to learn more about the means to obtain power, during which they are given a crimson robe to wear. Upon successful completion and ‘enlightenment’ has been achieved so they may become a priest, they are given additional bands of power about their wrists and ankles; these more potent than those contained within their chokers, with a few activated spells thrown in- but again, with a backdoor of making them more suggestible and easier to control by High Priests and those above them in station.
For those of the highest station attainable without draconic appointment; High Priests (Of which there are currently only two), these bands are removed and replaced by thicker, highly engraved and more powerful bands, that allow them to cast mass suggestion spells and various other enchantments as an at-will. At this stage precautions are even less necessary than for priests, but still they are rendered yet more susceptible to those above them and their will; having signed a soulbinding contract upon appointment to their position.

>>15378094

And that's all I have written for the moment. Additional ideas would be to use the soul-power idea we had for Scinnari and use it for our cult instead- trap the souls of those executed in our cities and towns within a container in our palace, then siphon them off into small stones which we can give bi-monthly to our priests as a way for them to charge their bands so they can at-will more than once a day if they wish, and get extra magical 'kick' out of their equipment.

Apparently we *can* put clerical spells on the bands, but...we would require a very powerful cleric in our employ to do so, who is competent enough to enchant them.

>>15378109

And as a final point; if people still wish to make Azyra's dragon-loving bodyguard a member of the club, she should probably be 'made aware' of one of the occasions where we show up personally, and then just leave it at that. We can hardly force her, anyway.


Now, to business here, lets go see what Nehmeska wants.

>>15378076
Those rituals seem pretty meh. They should encourage worship of us and encourage people to follow the commands of the Great Red Lord without question, not try to promote some "inner fire" crap. Maybe have the cult leaders do things like order them to walk across coals. The ones that are considered faithful will have fire protection enchantments stealthily cast on them without their knowing beforehand so they don't get burned. "Azaladon's Favor" or something protected them. The ones thought to be weak or unfaithful or not obedient enough will not have said enchantments cast upon them, and when their feet char it will be shown that they were lacking. Those that are lacking are then held down and force-fed molten lead by the ones shown favor, reinforcing both the cult bond and obedience with the act of doing so.

Can't have them spreading word after being kicked out or something, now can we?

Oh yeah, and I also did a crappy picture of a Priestess in garb, so y'all could get an idea of uniform.

>>15378119
not molten lead! use molten gold!
muhahah

>>15378119

As lovely as just beaning people over the head with worshiping us would be, I don't think we'd attract many followers that way. And I'm pretty sure a 'detect magic' would not make our subtle fire resistance spells very subtle.

I'd prefer to take a slow and more insidious stance, where we can slowly use the suggestion spells cast and revoked within the temples themselves to slowly influence our patrons over to our way of thinking, all whilst they take, or believe they take, some benefit from it.

You pause, reaching through your mind and across thousands of miles to contact Nehmeska. Unlike when she contacts you, you get a vision of her and her immediate vicinity when you contact her. In this case, it's her lair- She's reclining comfortably on a few cushions. She's idly spelled out 'Watching me? For shame.' in gold coins on the floor next to her- Cute. You scowl inwardly, but don't let it affect your thoughts.

“You wished to communicate something?” you call.

“Not particularly.” she answers flippantly. “However, I suppose you'd be interested: I believe I encountered someone searching for me.”

“Searching for you?” you repeat, prompting elaboration. She declines.

“Unless there are some other young dragons you have bound up somewhere. A secret harem you haven't told me about?” she asks again. Though lighthearted, you sense a serious core to the question. Aware that she might not be the only one.

“I'll tell them you asked after them.” you reply with sarcasm. “Who's searching for you?”

“I haven't a clue. He does, however, seem to be searching around for a dragon of some sort. Young, and female, using draconic. Quite passably, too. I believe. So unless you-”

>>15378141
Whatever, but that would be a waste of gold in my opinion. Unless we then have them extract it again afterward.

“Yes, yes. I heard. You do not know him?”

“I certainly don’t recognize him, and you know I couldn't have signaled for assistance. Even if he is after me, I don't know who he is or why.” Nehmeska replies. It comes uncomfortably to mind that she was originally attacked and wounded (which she has almost recovered from) by an elder red dragon... one of a mated pair, you recall. It seems unlikely that one of them would be pursuing to finish the kill after so long... You realize your paranoia is getting ahead of yourself, and forcibly slow your thoughts down. Whoever this is he isn't even necessarily after /her/.

“He did, in fact, question me himself.” Nehmeska continues. “I believe I managed to convince him I was not what he was looking for, and shooed him away. How persistent he is, or how successful I was, I do not know. However, it seemed the kind of thing I should inform you of. It was in Exheln. Are you done with your guests?” Nehmeska says, throwing the last question in there quickly, as if trying to take you by surprise.

>>15378149
Don't be ridiculous, that's no more beating people over the head with worship than what you suggested and far more relevant to our goals for the cult. Also, if they are casting detect magic during our rituals then that's a disturbing lack of faith... and should be treated as such. Durr.

>>15378119

All a bit too harsh for me.

Here's a video about Cults! :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnNSe5XYp6E

>>15378159
>>15378153
Great, big daddy silver wyrm is looking for Cygnis.

Time to shuffle her back off to our lair and keep her there for another decade. Annoying, but we can't risk tangling with a Great Wyrm.

Just to make sure, ask what color he was and how she came across this information. Also, "I'm afraid my guests are rather afraid that I am going to eat them due to my vacant stare, I should be getting back to them. I will visit you soon and we can discuss this more in-depth."

Then like... execute plans for guests and go see to this situation.

>>15378170

It's far more beating over the head given the general nature of 'worship and love me completely' as opposed to just tempting them with promises of power and then bending their desires to match ours.

And I daresay people aren't going to walk through those doors complete believers from the start- and a meditative circle is much less threatening than 'today we're going to walk on fire'.

I'm not actually adverse to that suggestion, but I'd prefer to keep it for larger occasions rather than daily mass.

>>15378180
I know about cults. I also know that they can do all kinds of crazy things to promote unity like (for instance) ritually having members be bitten by poisonous snakes.

Maybe ask her to describe him, but otherwise wave her away (man, she's never dressed for these occasions, is she?).

We'll need to investigate this and shut it down. If it's that fuckin' silver...

>>15378206
What you are suggesting is not a dragon cult, fool, it's a new-age self help group. Nor is the walking on fire a daily activity, but the rituals should be less "Let's find our inner happy place!" and more "Strive for the favor of the Great One! Prove yourself worthy of his grace by your obedience!"

>>15378223

I'm sure there's a time and place for such behavior. But if we want this to get big enough to become a semi-respectable institution, I imagine we would have to hold off on the snake biting other than on certain days or in certain ceremonies.

>>15378268
I think you've misunderstood the purpose behind the cult. We don't want it to become a semi-respectable institution. We want it to be a large shadow network of utterly devoted servants. We're not making a fucking temple here, we're making fanatics who we can use as tools and place in positions of power or, hell, use as suicide bombers on strategic targets.

>>15378242
The problem is having a convincing religion without being able to grant clerical powers. That's why the newage-bit helps, they at least see something new that they don't really understand, and we can write it off as DIVINE GRACE, and all that.

Find out what color dragon is being searched for and why he thinks that we are the one responsible. Hell, try to figure out who exactly he was holding responsible. Us as Azaladon, us as Prestor, what?

Also find out what color he was.

>>15378242

Yes I feel that my opinion is so much less now that you've insulted me and glossed over the finer parts of what I put forward.

Because honestly, you haven't given them a good reason for them to strive for that favour. And we've other bigger, stronger religions to contend with if we're talking about the towns and not the backwaters. Snakes and firewalking works well for those guys, but for cities and enterprise we'd need to put a velvet glove over that iron fist. And I did say the rituals would change depending on education.

In short; stop whining. There's a place for your brand of fanaticism too. It just won't serve for everything.

>>15378298
But newage shit is terrible at inspiring fanatical suicidal devotion on the same level as good old fashioned fire and brimstone religion.

>>15378287

We already have spies and assassins, we don't need more of a shadow network! We need a legitimate front that can go out in public in places our political sphere can't normally extend to which is what anon seems to be suggesting here.

>>15378315
True, but the point there is to convince them it's a religion, not to inspire fanatical stuff. Once the outer circle has the whole 'it's a legit religion' part, they could even start spreading the cult- Only the inner circle should be brought in to the full 'hardcore, fanatic-mode' rites.

>>15378310
Hah hah, no. See, you're the one who posted all that crap so it's on you to prove that it would be the way to go. So prove it. It doesn't just default to "oh hey this is exactly how everything goes just because!" because you posted it.

So much for "I submit for approval" and mess like that. No, you wanted us to fellate your idea and tell you how great it was. Doesn't work that way, chum. A lot of it was okay-to-good. The rituals were not. Suck it up.

>>15378315

>Has never met a proper pagan before

>>15378328
We have that.

It's called a government.

>>15378341
Oh now this is some bullshit right here. From day one our cult has been about fanatical worship, especially since it's a dragon cult and we can't risk that particular fact spreading to people who aren't fanatical.

>>15378344

Well I've done my best to explain why, but for PROOF, well that's impossible to PROVE unless WD wrote it like I suggested for a couple of years to determine whether it worked or not, then ran your idea for a couple of years. Which is impossible. And you seriously just expected me to abandon my suggestions just because you argued against them? Please. It's not like you have any more evidence that your way works better- it's just your personal paranoid preference to have everyone fellate the dragon-cock even if it means they're a smaller and less effective band of brainless grunting minions with a few fireballs thrown in.

>>15378356

Yes because we can have our government in foreign cities telling them how to live their lives and make their decisions for them.

OH WAIT.

>>15378411
And some new age finding inner light cult isn't going to help do the things we made the cult to do in foreign cities or in our own. So your argument falls flat.

Look, guys, couldn't we just have it start out crazy in the boondocks and in the upper levels, but mellow out the more people get into it?

Yeah?

>>15378159
Wonder who it is and what they want.

Do we have any spies or hired goons that speak draconic, and can transport themselves across large stretches of jungle fairly quickly?
Send a squad of 3-5 of them in to check who's asking about us, and leave them to it.

Send another Goon Squad to the barbarian warlord in the north, (FALSELY) represent someone on the border of his lands, and ask for a border agreement or a peace treaty. If we can convince the warlord NOT to attack every neighbour BUT Seffy, then by elimination that's who he'll attack.
Never implicate Mza, obviously.

Now that Sorceress Bitch isn't in Morinth any more, perhaps we could talk to Morinth about trade agreements of knowledge or students. Firstly for the magical talent, secondly because every person who lives, or has lived, in Morinth for any length of time is a source of espionage intelligence. Maybe not very important intel, but intel nonetheless.
Long-term goal is to isolate Morinth from Rhasver and bring Morinth closer to Mza, but that will take decades.

>>15378400
Sorry that I didn't just wholeheartedly praise your idea, clearly the fact that it is stupid had nothing to do with it. Everything you produce is perfect and no flaws exist.

Teehee.

>>15378433
>>continued
In the United Cities, are they infighting and bickering yet? If not, make it so. If so, make it last longer, and diplomatically isolate as many cities as possible. As the Rhasver war winds down, we want to keep future conquering options open. Be that further into Rhasver, or into Exheln, or in the Jungles near the ivory gates, or in the United (lol) Cities, more options is never a bad thing.

Why's Rhasver on that list? If we control their supply of Adamantine we get a monopoly (or a near-monopoly) on the Adamantine market. Don't try anything with them yet, as it's suicide to do so now, but it's something to consider for later.

What were our plans in Exheln and the Eastern jungles (north of the Ivory gate)? If there aren't any, then current plan is "Yuan Ti are crazy fuckers that don't die. Antagonise nearby Good-aligned entities into fighting them, then step back and wait".

>>15378421
But what if it poses as a new-age cult to be 'acceptable' and not visibly a dragon cult. Then you graduate to the second circle of snake handling (or summat) and those bitten were obviously not of the Red Lord's favor. Then to... Firewalking, or something. And the whole 'forcefeed the impure molten lead/gold' idea.

Both ideas work here, properly meshed.

>>15378411
But if a bunch of religious guys who are all about meditating on how great dragons are tells them to do stuff, they'll fall over themselves to take actions that give political and economic benefits to a foreign power!

>>15378442
>>continued
More on the matter of Dragons: What do we have in the realm of Lawful Evil or Lawful Neutral dragons around us? If we can convince one of them to 'work with' us (Read: Just do shit that benefits us without revealing jack shit about who we are and what we do, as with Nemmy), it could work out in our favor.
Heck, even Good-aligned dragons might help us, but we have to be about 10 million times more subtle about it.

Regarding Necromancy: Lore search. Find out WHO KNOWS about Age-altering magic, and then TALK TO THEM. Or, find out WHERE LORE EXISTS, then BUY, STEAL, or LOOT it.
We want to find a way to Age ourselves to Wyrm with as few complications as possible, as the Cha and Int boosts are worth it.

For that matter: Treasure hunt. Who's got +Cha, +Int and +Wis loot? Loot that shit. I'm up for a treasure hunt.

All of this requires Gold. What will it take to get a Survey team to find valuable spices (read: Addicting drugs) in either Firelady's or the Ivory Gates' jungles? We need to covertly set up a Drug trade in REGIONS OTHER THAN MZA, and arrange our spies or merchant guilds as the ones who end up with most of the profit.

tl;dr:
Expansion, Money, and Power. Go get.

>>15378421

Except it will you jackass because of the SUGGESTION SPELLS ON THE ENTRANCE.

Fucking hell. You think it's all going to be sunshine and rainbows and we're not actually going to influence them any? Did you even go to church or figure out how many little idiot-things they can make you go through whilst otherwise being reasonable?

>>15378446

I'll go for this. It even worked with the tiered band-power thing with the priests and high-priests. The more devoted, the more power is promised...and the more rights stripped away.

>>15378442
>>15378433
>Long-term goal is to isolate Morinth from Rhasver and bring Morinth closer to Mza, but that will take decades.
Agreed, good objective for the long term. Problem is, we don't want them to dominate our schools and such. We want our magic academies to owe loyalty to us and only us. I think we'll need to get ours set up solidly first and only start trading knowledge and crap in a decade or two. Otherwise good plan.

>If there aren't any, then current plan is "Yuan Ti are crazy fuckers that don't die. Antagonise nearby Good-aligned entities into fighting them, then step back and wait".
I see no profit in this.

>>15378454
Because, you know, it's not like there's any spellcasters that could walk past and say "ohey, those temples, they all have suggestion spells on the doors, you guys might want to avoid that."

>>15378433
>>15378442
>>15378451

All reasonable and good. Approval. (That you Anonymo?)

>>15378454
Yeah uh huh sure. Keep on being dense and ignoring the problem is not with the magical suggestions, it's with the foundation of the rituals and dogma not placing emphasis on worship of us.

>>15378509

I imagine that that's still the case; it's just that the priests are using (as I imagine priests always do, actually) people's own sense of the superstitious and their own abilities which they don't understand and give us the credit for them. Coming from a supposed position of knowledge, the population would accept their newfound power and clarity as coming from us- which the knowledge that the more they follow us, the more power they obtain. Simple, yes?

>>15378451
>More on the matter of Dragons: What do we have in the realm of Lawful Evil or Lawful Neutral dragons around us? If we can convince one of them to 'work with' us (Read: Just do shit that benefits us without revealing jack shit about who we are and what we do, as with Nemmy), it could work out in our favor.
No. Too unpredictable and dangerous, plus we've already riled enough suspicion from both the humanoids and reptillians as it is. ENOUGH with the dragon shit for now.

>Regarding Necromancy: Lore search. Find out WHO KNOWS about Age-altering magic, and then TALK TO THEM. Or, find out WHERE LORE EXISTS, then BUY, STEAL, or LOOT it.
We hate necromancy.

>We want to find a way to Age ourselves to Wyrm with as few complications as possible, as the Cha and Int boosts are worth it.
That's stupid, we don't want to accelerate our aging, we just want to extend our maximum lifespan so we never die, just keep on aging.

>For that matter: Treasure hunt. Who's got +Cha, +Int and +Wis loot? Loot that shit. I'm up for a treasure hunt.
No. That's what we have mooks for.

>All of this requires Gold. What will it take to get a Survey team to find valuable spices (read: Addicting drugs) in either Firelady's or the Ivory Gates' jungles? We need to covertly set up a Drug trade in REGIONS OTHER THAN MZA, and arrange our spies or merchant guilds as the ones who end up with most of the profit.
I'm leery of this. We can look into it, but the drug trade is a double edged sword with no handle.

>I see no profit in this.
If we want to expand into the jungles there, we'll need to take out the Yuan-Ti.
And why do something yourself when you can get someone else to do it for you?
Mza's resources are limited. If we find people who have the same goals as we do, we can have them work for us, without ever knowing they're working for us.

>>15378549
We have lots of land already, and even more resources to exploit. What we need are people. The angevin territory is where we need them to be, too, not colonizing new land with heavy losses from jungle environs.

In short, no, that's a bad idea. We have tons of land already.

>No. Too unpredictable and dangerous
You're right. My mistake.
>No. That's what we have mooks for.
You're right again. I enjoy a good dungeon crawl, but not at the expense of other people's character and kingdom development. Forget the loot idea.
>We hate necromancy
>we don't want to accelerate our aging
Who's this 'we'? It's a group quest.
>the drug trade is a double edged sword with no handle.
Get it into Seffy's kingdom or Rhasver or Tashz. It's fun to give your rivals double-edged swords.
Until they start blocking the second edge, with OTHER double-edged swords you've given them, and the whole thing becomes a Katamari where the second edges are all blocked, and the first edges are a ball of stabby death.

Read: Don't fuck with Xanatos.

Right, so I'm just going to go ahead and assume 'different strokes for different blokes' for the religious thing and jump on past that.

I say we get back to talking to Scinnari about what to do and spend more time with the Firelady and such, get her on her way and then plan for this other stuff.

On another note, I'd like to see what Cygnis is like now; though I imagine that Scinnari'll show her off enough.

>>15378540
Why do we hate necromancy?

Thoughts on that brass dragon: Glass ceiling is a decent strategy for now. Eventually, we should have intermediaries drop hints to him that ascending past a certain level in our hierarchy will require somehow attracting the personal attentions and favor of Lord Prestor (which it should actually require anyway). I will be interested to see how he goes about either seeking to gain our attention in a positive fashion or if he instead tries to avoid doing so and fights our system.

Depending upon his reaction, we can either eventually induct him into our system or have him eliminated. Either is fine by me, really. We just can't purely glass ceiling him forever, or we'll be essentially declaring ourselves hostile to him- no self-respecting dragon will allow themselves to stagnate, so if we put him in a situation where the system around him enforces stagnation he will attack the system. We have to give him an out that benefits us, like gainful employment under us where we get our legally mandated cut of all profits.

>What we need are people
Right. What's bottlenecking our population at the moment?
Lack of farming, losses from war, insufficient infrastructure, or are people just not outputting enough babbys?

>>15378603
>Who's this 'we'? It's a group quest.
Everyone who is not you. The aging acceleration has been suggested before and gone down in flames for many reasons.

>drug trade crap
Clearly you don't understand how when you are a trading kingdom these things spread to you like wildfire.

>>15378615

*We* don't, expressly, but Scinnari does. Personally I think it can't help to look into it a little if it deals with life magic, but I 'unno. It has the level-drain thing down, but not a way to convert it into level-gain. It might well be useless for rejuvenating spells.

>>15378621
War, infrastructure, and the fact that we don't want to eventually implement a One Child Policy and incur all the discontent that will bring, therefore we are letting them breed at their own rate. Plus, it's hard to raise breeding rates that fast without spending huge amounts of money, and that just won't be worth it.

>>15378648
No, we dislike it too. We don't like the undead because they don't really do anything that golems can't, are weaker than golems, are considered an abomination and bring lots of hate onto us, and finally do not profit our hoard like mortal minions do. We also don't use them because of Scinnari, but really they aren't very useful even without that consideration.

>>15378677
Oh, also vulnerability to fire, they can be wrested from our control, and they are far less effective than a minion that can think.

>>15378677

Well yeah we don't like undead, I was more reffering to the magical side of things; vampiric touch, etc.

>>15378694
Oh, that. The hells don't have any problem with THAT side of things either. They hate undead because undead can't be corrupted and because the Abyss uses them a lot, but they don't really mind just the negative magic aspect.

>>15378302
She didn't say he was searching for you, just that he's searching- She assumes you/her, because as far as she knows, she's the only one she knows who has dropped off the radar, as it were.

>>15378433
Draconic is difficult, but you can probably get your hands on a few who know it. You can teleport them yourself without too much effort, too.

>intruige warlord
Doable, though most of the regions around him are doing that on their own already. Most rulers don't want to be conquered.

>Morinth
Morinth has allegedly always been open to such arrangements.


>>15378442
>United Cities
It's already a fairly loose confederation. At any rate, it's probably possible, but it's certainly difficult to goad the halflings and gnomes to actual fractiousness. So far they are resisting they meet the efforts of your agents with remarkable apathy.

Jungle near the Ivory Gates is already basically yours, excepting to the east, which is where a Green claims his territory lies.

Exheln is far enough away from the Yaun-Ti to not give a damn, outside of the ambitions of individual merchant guilds, and so on.


>>15378451
Same map as always; lawful would be Gold, Silver, Bronze, Green, and Blue. Evil would be any chromatic. The ones in the east seem particularly receptive to peaceful overtures.

>Necromancy
While you study a part of the discipline, your opinion so far has been that reanimation and undead are not what you desire. (Possibly because they're difficult to gloat to.) Needs confirmation.

>Treasure hunt
You actually could have gotten a stake in some treasure-hunting a while back, but decided not to back the adventurers. As it is, you do have the resources and a decent amount of that sort of gear. Confirmation needed.

>Gold.
You got plenty, but your alchemy team is reporting back sporadically with new spices, herbs, medicine, and whatnot.They seem to have shied away from drugs so far, though. Might want to make your wish known.

>>15378159
"I'm done with them for now, yes. If you have any more detail on this searcher or discover related information in the future I would appreciate it; this sounds potentially very profitable if someone well-informed were to handle it correctly."

Hopefully that will gain us more information without tipping her off to anything useful on our end. And this does sound like a perfect opportunity for some ridiculously clever schemes to entrap this searcher, if they're someone worth entrapping.

>>15378704
>She didn't say he was searching for you, just that he's searching- She assumes you/her, because as far as she knows, she's the only one she knows who has dropped off the radar, as it were.
Investigate! After we deal with our protege go find out the details.

>Same map as always; lawful would be Gold, Silver, Bronze, Green, and Blue. Evil would be any chromatic. The ones in the east seem particularly receptive to peaceful overtures.
No. Vote against.

>While you study a part of the discipline, your opinion so far has been that reanimation and undead are not what you desire. (Possibly because they're difficult to gloat to.) Needs confirmation.
No. Vote against.

>You actually could have gotten a stake in some treasure-hunting a while back, but decided not to back the adventurers. As it is, you do have the resources and a decent amount of that sort of gear. Confirmation needed.
No. Vote against.

>You got plenty, but your alchemy team is reporting back sporadically with new spices, herbs, medicine, and whatnot.They seem to have shied away from drugs so far, though. Might want to make your wish known.
No. Vote against.

>>15378690
>>15378677
it's clear that undead are suboptimal tools (at least mindless ones), but thats no reason not learn and use academic necromancy. Peticulary when it would be so useful.

>>15378740
The purely magical area of it is something we've always researched, and we even have the ability to raise undead. (and have done so)

It has never been that we scorn the "Necromantic College" we just scorn "Necromancy" as in "Undead".

>>15378739
/signed

none of those are smart ideas except finding out who is hunting our dragons

I wonder who it is

rolled 85 = 85

>>15378775
Maybe its that really old silver that Cygnis knew and thought of as kinda like a Dad? Or was the Draconic he used considered much too bad to be from another dragon?

>>15378731

/signed

Give maybe a few more sentences of friendly banter to continue this conversation. It seems she has somewhere else she wants to go with it. May have something here with more value to actually discuss.

>>15378930
If it is a Silver, unless he was purposefully disguising his accent, Nehmy should be able to tell. Draconomicon, language section, mentions accents various Chromatics and Metallics use.

>>15375351
>Azyra
>Certainly her ability to wreath herself in roiling flames has impressed your lizardmen; she seems to have earned some of their respect personally, rather than just by being your daughter. Something you are certain she was hoping for... You are not sure you approve, and resolve to keep an eye on it.
Of course we approve of this. In more detail:

We declared Azyra our heir. That was utterly idiotic of us, but we did it at the time and we have to live with it. What that means is that, if we die or suddenly vanish, SHE is the one who will be expected to hold this empire together. She will need to be respected and strong enough on her own merits that she could retain the loyalty of enough of Mza's powerful individuals to quash any internal dissent, deflect or destroy the probes at the empire's strength that every bordering nation would immediately send at her in order to test her strength, and subsequently have enough pull and savvy to effectively hold everything together in the long term.

>>15379159
Obviously, she's way too young for that kind of accomplishment at the moment, but it's what we have to be grooming her for. If she can't command the respect and obedience of large segments of our nation on her own merits- and I'm talking about groups like "the governors" and "the navy" here- then everything will fall apart the moment she takes command. She will likely have no warning and no time to get more ready than she happens to be whenever it's time for her to step up, and if she drops the ball she is a failure as an heir. Not necessarily as a daughter, but 'heir' is a job description and it has high standards for success.

Ideally she will only ever actually act in her heir capacity if we decide of our own volition to vanish for a few years or decades, or go to sleep for a century or so in the best draconic tradition. But it's entirely possible that we could get sealed away like the Binder or otherwise be incapacitated for centuries on end somehow. So we need to be grooming her to be loyal and independently powerful in case of that eventuality, so that she can hold things together until we get back.

We also need to ensure her utterly fanatical loyalty in case of this, which I suspect we're failing at, but it should be part of the plan.

>>15379159
> What that means is that, if we die or suddenly vanish, SHE is the one who will be expected to hold this empire together.

No, if we're suddenly taken out of the picture, the one who holds this empire together will be the one who is already doing that, namely Scinnari.

"I'm afraid my guests are rather afraid that I am going to eat them due to my vacant stare.” you reply, deciding she deserves no more truth than she needs. “I should be getting back to them. I will visit you soon and we can discuss this more in-depth."

“Ah, of course. The appetites of Reds are infamous... and to desire your food /burnt/, of all things. One wonders why you don't just eat charcoal.”

“I'll consider it. Thank you for this information, and contact me if there are any further developments... but that's nothing new. I may be by to follow up on this tomorrow.”

“I may be prepared. And I may see you then.” she replies. Your break connection, mentally rolling your eyes.

“I hope not.” you mutter to yourself.

“Sorry, dear?” Scinnari asks, staring intently at you. Apparently noticing your preoccupation, if not quite as you told Nehmeska.

“Nothing. Dealing with the Silver.” you answer. “Usually a vexing task.”

“I see. More trouble than she's worth?” Scinnari asks sympathetically. Hoping you'll agree, you suspect.

>>15379193
Actually we are holding it together, Scinnari just helps us with the job.

But yes, the empire ruling bit would fall on Scinnari's shoulders with Azyra as more of an heir-designate with a Queen-Regent.

>>15379193
That is true right now, because Azyra is still a child and not fully trained. It should not be true in one or two centuries, once our daughter has come into her own.

We don't ever want Scinnari directly in charge of our while empire anyway, because instead of waiting for us to come back or trying to resurrect us, she'd just get orders from the hells that read "make everything ours now" and be forced to obey them.

>>15379171
I doubt that we can get children to be loyal. Love is the best thing, really. She'll miss dad's advice and talk, so she'll bust us out of dimensional prison.

“Not quite, particularly if this turns out true. Anyway, perhaps we should see to Azyra and Kalfyria. I do hope they are getting along?”

“Let's see, then.” Scinnari says, snapping her fingers. One of the slaves comes forth with a mirror, and you turn to focus on Azyra and Kalfyria. They seem to be arguing, and as you focus, sound begins coming through. An empty alley, presumably shortly after the flight down to the city.

###

“...you can't just hoard it! That's not what it's for!”

“It was for you and I, was it not? Even if we must split it, I am content with saving my share.”

“Are you so... /poor/ that you want to-?” Azyra begins scornfully.

“Are you so /unwise/ as to insult something so /dear/ to a dragon?” Kalfyria hisses back. They proceed to glare at each other. You can almost see the heat sizzling between them, and slowly bring your hand up to your forehead.

###

“I think it isn't as bad as it looks.” Scinnari interrupts you gently, staring intently at the image.

“Oh?”

“I would guess they dislike each other. They both are quite aware that they can't go any further...” Scinnari begins, “I might guess this would grow into a mutual grudging respe- Ah.”

###

“Alright, fine. Come on.” Azyra says, turning her back on Kalfyria.

“What?”

“I was told to show you around. I will. /I'm/ going to enjoy myself. You're going to follow me around not do anything because you don't want to spend anything.” Azyra says over her shoulder.

“What would I /spend/ it on, and more importantly, /why?/” Kalfyria answers caustically.

“Oh... I think there are a few things.” Azyra says blandly.

###

“There, see?” Scinnari interrupts their further conversation, and the sound dies as you shift your focus from the scrying to your consort. “I'd describe it as... reluctant respect. I think they may yet become friends... though I confess, Azyra is handling it more poorly than I had hoped. Perhaps I should speak with her...” Scinnari says, putting a nail to her lip and staring a the now-vanished image. She seems to ruminate for a moment, then comes back to herself, and turns to you. “There was something else, though, wasn't it?”

“Ah. Yes. Nehmeska... She believes she's found someone searching for a dragon. Young. Female. Vanished relatively recently.” you explain quietly. “Obviously... something to deal with, whoever they happen to be looking for.”

“I see. Yes, that sounds desirable.” Scinnari says, stepping to your side. “So, do you wish to attend to it immediately, or within the next few hours? I could have a three or four of our assassins prepared within a few minutes... Or do you have some other plan for this individual?”

“I believe more information would be the order of things at the moment.” you reply after a moments consideration. “No killing quite yet. I'll see if I can put a few capable agents into the area.”

>>15379212
I d'aww-d, even if that's not the intended reaction.

Since they're about the same age, I see them as two kids fighting over how to split the candy money. Which is really what's going on.

>>15379216
We might have another dragon fight on our hands. Hopefully our sorcery is up to the task.

Start thinking up interesting ideas if we can't get the drop on him.

Could we perhaps alter our fire with Scinnari's help to be hellfire? I understand it's hotter than the regular stuff.

What would be even better is to cast a rift in front of our mouths for fire to go in, and the exit rift to the side of the target. Instant flanking hit.

>>15379211
>I doubt that we can get children to be loyal. Love is the best thing, really. She'll miss dad's advice and talk, so she'll bust us out of dimensional prison.
That is a very fragile thing to rely upon as our primary method of escaping a dimensional prison. It's not the kind of driving emotion which would keep her loyal as she spends decade after decade as the primary ruler of a mighty empire. Assuming we don't want to enchant her with compulsions- which would go rather against our pattern of raising her thus far- we should have been building a desperate desire to please her father into her psyche from day one, as a driving need more important than anything else. A proper heir's loyalty would be strong enough that she would resist all temptation of power and love, throw down nations, or see the world burn that we might return to her and favor her with a mere smile and some praise.

Making that happen would be a bitch, though, and is frankly not something that /tg/'s ridiculous ideas of what proper draconic fatherhood should consist of can manage.

>>15379249
Heh, I like our refined city-girl daughter showing our back woods dragon upstart-protege the good life. Maybe even teasing her with it.

But yes, like Scinnari says, this could turn out well. Or not, but either way they both know not to take it too far. Glad that Scinnari knows us well enough to pick up on our intentions here, though I suppose it was pretty obvious when we sent them out together. See what she thinks of the little red and get Azyra's opinion later on after she departs back home. Then call our firelady up on the mirror in a day or two and ask her how she liked the dinner.

As for the searcher... stick spies in the area and let's visit Neshy. I want a description, what he asked, who he was looking for, how he found and spotted her, and how much she thinks he knows. Also any guesses to who he is.

>>15379280
Stop blowing butthurt smoke, we aren't going full retard with our daughter who we love. Boo hoo.

Oh those girls...

Well, it seems that aside from waiting for them to come back from the shopping trip, the evening's wrapped up. I'd like to take the opportunity to praise Scinnari over Cygnis and maybe we can gloat at her a bit together, but if there's no time, then fair enough.

I'm a little surprised that Scinnari didn't gloat to our guest about her actually. Perhaps she's deciding on caution and taking silent pleasure in it.

####

Just in case I miss those of you who are leaving (2 AM! Whee!), I'd like to say that I have hig- Okay, kind of low, but still higher than they used to be hopes that I can begin hitting a regular schedule in the future. I'm hoping to run this on Thursday evenings, though who knows how well I can stick to such a schedule.

###

>>15379329
She has proper restraint and knowledge of what to say when, thank the gods. We don't want to go around advertising we have a captive gold dragon... even to another red who we are mentoring.

>>15379280

Jesus Christ you've got a mad hard-on for fanatical loyalty, don't you?

>>15379329
I'd like to "praise" Scinnari too.

/If you know what I mean./

>>15379345
Ignore him, Anonymo vents his butthurt about not not treating our daughter like we're a sociopathic fuck who created her as a tool... every... single... thread. People don't want to and it drives him nuts.

>>15379329
It's been a decade or two. I would guess she's already got most overt gloating out of the way. I bet it's less fun to gloat when all you get is "Yes mistress." instead of impotent defiance.

That said, I wouldn't want to be Cygnis when Scinnar decides to go over that >>15377912 list.

>>15379349
Bow chicka wow-wow?

I can get behind that... if you know what I mean.

>>15379345
Fanatical loyalty is important for any villain to cultivate in his most important followers. Also, it makes for epic storylines.

>>15379329
Kalfyria is like fifteen. She does not get to know our most precious secrets, like who and what Cygnis is.

>>15379216
I'm rather interested in how that expedition turns out. The proper thing to spend money on, in our professional draconic opinion, has to be "anything that helps you get even more money". I suspect that neither Azyra nor Kalfyria would abide by this principle; Azyra is turning out to be a spendthrift and Kalfyria a miser, based upon my current impressions of them. Both could use some gentle correction.

As far as Nehmaska's intel, I would rather not do anything so rash as assassins. A capable spy or two should suffice, given the same cover excuse that we should have given Nehmaska, >>15378731. I would like to find out more about the searcher and if possible exactly who they are looking for; it might not be any of our several young vanished female dragons, meaning that there is accordingly potential to exploit the situation; if it is one of ours, I'd like to know more before making a move.

>>15379366

I think at this point it'd be less 'gloating' rather than showing off a trophy of a past achievement. A different kind of pride, I guess- that of a job well done.

...Though it still seems there's a little way to go, given she's still making mistakes.

>>15379387
I know what you mean. If you know what I mean.

>>15379394
No, we don't tell anyone who Cygnis is or what she is. That's just asking for a crusade of metallics all up on our ass.

>>15379387

I think I do know what you mean.

If you know what I mean?

>>15379390
>Azyra is turning out to be a spendthrift and Kalfyria a miser
I wonder about this. I think Azyra just has a case of "daddy's money" syndrome, or perhaps "someone else's money" syndrome. Both are close to the same anyway. Kalfy likely has "poor as fuck" syndrome.

I don't think correction is needed yet, we've told Azyra what we expect her to do with money in the past. She has done so. Now it is time to see how she develops for a while. Kalfy just needs to be enlightened to the wonderful things money in civilization can bring you.

>>15379408
>>15379438
But can you follow through with what you know?

If you know what I mean.

>>15379466

I think I can put it into practice.

If you know what I mean.

Hey, after Cygnis has had the kinks worked out of her by Scinnari, can we start enlisting her help regarding research for our lab? Or are the limitiers still in place on intelligence and wisdom?

In which case, can we 'wean' her off of those? I think she'd need to 'grow' back into her smarts if we want her training to stay intact.

>>15379706
Taking her inhibitors off would be bad. And we would have to go back through and re-do all the research she did just to verify that it was correct and not something to get us killed.

This is research into our body and soul here. We don't delegate it. And why are people trying to shoehorn Cygnis into things like this or the bodyguard role? She's not suited for either, she's a servant for now, and at least for 50 more years until she's good and broken.

>>15379706
Well, for one, I'd say that Scinnari's been working the kinks /into/ Cygnis, ifyouknowwhatImean, but I'd also say that we've still got her 'dumb'.

I'd save weaning her off those for at least a year of stable service once her training is done.

>>15379723

Yeah; makes sense. It'll take her a while to get into the routine, and afer we're sure she's settled we'll start lifting the limiters. Wisdom'll be one to watch for more than intelligence, but if we handle things slowly and reinforce he training and understanding, I don't see there being many problems.

>>15379742
I disagree. We might play with the limiters, but we probably won't do anything serious with them for a century.

Stop thinking in human terms. She is a dragon and we are a dragon. This is going to need time. Lots of time. This was established very early on, it was never meant to be a one-decade plan.

Cygnis is going to be in silent slave mode for decades.

>>15379758

Actually I think she can talk, in a certain way or so; confirm on that WD?

And though I'd love to do it over a draconic span, we haven't been jumping ahead nearly fast enough to make that a nice prospect.

>>15379770
Yes of course she can talk, I was meaning it more figuratively and symbolically.

“Nehmeska.” you call, walking briskly into her lair. The caves have improved somewhat, evidently the kobolds have been busy. There is no response to your call, and you proceed further, suddenly wary.

“Nehmeska?” you repeat, stepping forward into the central chamber.

“Here.” she answers from the corner. You approach to find her seated on the floor. Despite her almost medatative posture, she is wearing chain mail and a breastplate, and a sword sits on her lap. A small etching carved in the wall is a symbol you recognize; Bahamut's star.

“Ah. Prayer. Am I interrupting? Should I leave?” you ask sardonically.

“Yes, that would be nice.” Nehmeska replies ignoring your irony.

“I was anything but serious.” you reply with a hint of irritation. “I did warn you yesterday that I would be by.”

“You warned me that you might be by.” Nehmeska corrects, standing. “What are we doing?”

“What 'we' are doing is that I am asking you what specifically happened during your encounter yesterday.” you reply. “I'm sorry, that you reported yesterday. I'm fairly certain you didn't have that encounter in here. At least I should hope...?”

“Of course not. I said Exheln. If this is all you wanted to ask, I don't see why you had to do it in person...” Nehmeska says with a hint of her own irritation.

“You'd like me to interrupt your thoughts while in prayer?” you ask mildly. “That I did not suspect. If that's your desire...?”

“It isn't.” Nehmeska answers shortly, unfastening the straps on her breastplate. She pauses mid-motion to verify. “We are not going anywhere?”

“Not we, not at the moment, at any rate.” you answer.

“Good.” she says, unbuckling the breastplate and placing it on the table. You are midly surprised to see it remains corporeal; real armor, as opposed to conjured manifestations. You wait while she begins removing her chainmail, but when it becomes clear that she doesn't intend to continue, you prompt again. “Your encounter?”

“Yesterday. Right.” she repeats pulling the metal coat off. It joins the breastplate on the table. “I was approached in the street while shopping-”

“Might I ask for what?” you interrupt. What she was shopping for might have had an effect on why, exactly , this individual approached her.

“Books. I believe I belied some knowledge of draconic in selecting what I desired. He approached me and asked what knowledge I had of dragons.”

“In draconic?” you ask as she begins unbuttoning and shedding her chain mail's padding.

“Yes.” she answers, folding the padded coat and tossing it onto the table too. “Hint of an accent. Slightly archaic, perhaps, or from the far west. I'm not sure. Anyway, he asked what I knew of dragons. I conceded that I knew a bit, and might even know one or two because I didn't know what he wanted. I also was impressed with his command of the language, I confess.” she continues. She moves to start unbuttoning her shirt, and then to shed that too. Inwardly you roll your eyes. Her sparring... taunting, even, gets exasperating sometimes. You put your feet up on another chair, and lean back, pretending to ignore her disrobing.

“And?”

“He asked whether I knew of any that had vanished in the past decade or so. A bit long for me- I haven't been with you /quite/ that long-” she adds, and her gloves join the shirt and armor on the table next to you. “I told him that as far as I knew, all the dragons I'd ever met were as fine as the day I met them, or if they weren't, I didn't know.” she continues. “He seemed disappointed. That was the biggest indication that he might be after me, even though his time frame seemed off. I excused myself, and he seemed to go his way.”

“And you returned directly to your lair?” you ask. Another something joins the rest of the stuff on the table near your head. You resist the temptation to look.

“I stopped in Azar before returning to my... 'home', and did attempt to shake pursuit, just in case. I do not believe I was followed,if that was what you were asking.” she answers.

“I see. Now, can you describe this individual to me?”


“Maybe.” she answers. As always... you resist the urge to sigh or roll your eyes.

“And what are your qualifiers?” you ask, carefully neutrally.

“If he is here to rescue me, he cannot do so- according to the terms of our pact. However, I would be loath to help you in harming him.”

“And a description would assist me in harming him?” you ask skeptically.

“You cannot kill him if you cannot find him. Or it is at least more difficult.” Nehmeska replies serenely. “I won't assist such an endeavor.”

“And if he was here to rescue someone else?” you ask. “One of my harem, for instance.” you say with an air of irony. “You'd be okay with assisting me in murdering him then?”

“I wouldn't like it, but I would not hinder you.” Nehmeska answers with the same air of serenity. “Can I ask that of you, upon our contract?”

“And if he is here to rescue you?” you ask, eyes glancing to the edge of of your vision, face still staring at the ceiling of the cave.

“Then I will inform him that I cannot allow that, and if he really thinks me so incapable as to depend solely on his help, he can negotiate with you for my release.” Nehmeska answers from behind you. “I cannot leave, even if 'rescued'. Now... do you agree to my terms?” she asks, moving to make sure she's within your vision. As scantily clad as usual, now, and with an array of piercings and even a tribal-looking tattoo...you really wonder /why/ sometimes; you don't think she'd do such things just to irritate you, but who knows. Maybe she just likes cold metal.

“Assuming this is one of your relatives looking for you, even his description will not really help me.” you counter. “As you are so fond of boasting, you can change form at will.”

“True... Very well. Grant him a quick death, should it become necessary.” she counters, leaning on the edge of the table. Your eyes lock, and you stare at eachother for a moment.

“Just tell me.”you say after several seconds, irritation audible in your voice. Her smile vanishes, and she straightens, turning her back on you.

“Tall. Brown hair, no beard. Half-elf, I think. Carried a short bow of some sort, it looked highly magical. Several pouches. Well spoken. I would have thought him an adventurer if it wasn't for his skill with draconic, and his politeness. Middle-aged. Tan traveling cloak.” she answers, obviously disliking the whole of the matter. “Is there anything else, my /liege?/” she asks, spitting the word.

>>15379789

"Yes, put some clothes on."

>>15379800
There's a high chance that that unknown half-elf is Cygnis' godfather, the silver great wyrm and is looking for her. Based on the facts that Cygnis went with Cibach and has a vested interest in the Binder, maybe we can deflect him by leaving false evidence that Cygnis is somewhere else like the glacier where Souless is. My hope is, the frost giants indegenous to the area, or even Souless itself kill the searcher. If the seacher is really the godfather, then Cygnis is pretty much is our claws without any hope of freedom. If not, then the godfather will pay more attention to the glacier and ignore Mza.

Also, lets see what the girls bought.

Also, also, seconding this >>15379800

Hmm, it seems very probably that he's looking for Cygnis...thing is, if it's that Silver, then he's ALSO kinda-sorta looking for Nehmeska too; or will, eventually, as they were friends. But she needn't know that.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to remind her of her position and not be so testy with us- not unless she wants to act like a chicken around her lair for the next week or two. We're a very patient Red, but we have limits.

Is Nehmeska a nudist or something? Every time we've seen her recently she's hardly wearing anything.

And now piercings and tattoos?

(...Dare I ask where?)

>>15379830
Fuck. No.

We don't want that thing released, and you can sure as hell bet a great wyrm could do it if that's who he is.

No, now our next order of business should be to head back and see if this description matches any of the common forms Cygnis remembers her godfather adopting.

Also, I would advise we say something like, "Nehmeska, I know not what you think of me but I am not my kin. That much I at least hope is clear. I have no desire to murder this person and would prefer not to. Do not worry, your warning to me will not lead to an unjust death."

I really think we should say something like this to her, intending to keep our word or not. We WANT her to tell us things like this, and that means reassuring her that when she does we won't torturemurder the people she rats out.

>>15379843
I thinks she's just trying to bother us. Taunt/goad because we can't have that.

Also, being silver, she really doesn't mind cold. We mind cold. She enjoys it. She's probably attempting to flaunt that and make us uncomfortable over that wavelength too, if she can.

And no, I don't think you should ask where.

>>15379848

Sounds good; we should have a working relationship with her and encourage a positive view of us so she can bring up such points in the future.

>>15379850

Yeah, but there's other ways of doing that which don't involve...you know. Stripping infront of us.

>>15379848
I don't think we should say that part about not causing an unjust death but we should offer some sort of reassurance that we don't go out and murder people on whims and she can tell us about things like this in the future without endangering the person.

>>15379863
Probably trying to make us uncomfortable.

And it worked.

>>15379872

I dunno...she seemed to just 'be' near-naked, rather than do it with intent.

But what the hell, she could be quad-guessing us.

>>15379770
Yes, Cygnariassis can speak.

####

"Really, Nehmeska. You seem awfully slow to pick up on such obvious facts. I'm not like other Reds. Well," you correct, "Not totally like other Reds. I have no intention of randomly killing someone because they happen to be asking about you. I might do so if I have to, but I'm far more interested in shooing him away, or pointing him in a different direction." you reply, getting up to leave. "Have a little faith."

"Of course." she replies shortly, and you turn and begin walking.

"Oh..." you say, pausing halfway to the door.

"Yes?" she asks guardedly. As you're facing away from her, you allow yourself a smile.

"But some damn clothes on. You're making /me/ feel cold. I swear, it's below freezing up here. I don't know how your kobolds stand it." you say emphatically. You are moderately impressed with how rapidly she manages to hide her anger.

"Of course, my liege. I didn't know it bothered you. I wouldn't want to overwhelm your trinkets. Your ring for instance." she says, obviously referencing the ring of warmth you wear.

"Quite. And thank you for bringing this to my attention." you say, bidding farewell. "I shall see you at a later date.

####

SK.Mockery@Yahoo.com, should you wish to contact me. I hope to see you next week. Usual things, what do you want to see covered next thread?

>>15379921

Huh. So she *was* just near-naked for the sake of it.

...I find this even more concerning, for some reason.

See covered?

Investigate this 'Half-Elf', perhaps luring him with Dragon Knowledge (shouldn't be hard, knowing our rep for knowing dragons).

See how our Firelady fares and such.

I think we should take some time to quiz Cygnis on her new duties to see if she understands them well enough- see if there's a particular set of rules Scin's put down and enforced. Its been a while since we've had a good look at her.

Carry on looking for the enchantress. Oh, and see how that treasure-hunting expedition from the last thread turned out, and if that Blue is thankful for the heads-up.

>>15379921

Tracking down leads on the mage. Someone had an idea to use Cibach to try and draw her out that seemed pretty good. At the very least it won't hurt to have him seen visibly so we can pick up if anyone starts asking questions about him. We might even draw out the guy asking about dragons; if he is Cygnis' mentor searching for her, she was known to keep company with Cibach and he would probably be keen to ask questions.

Keep an eye on Azyra and Firelady and make sure they don't come to blows, but other than that let them get on with it. Kalfyria could use a little more hands on tutoring of ettiquet and civilisation I feel. We could even make it a tour of our empire and bring our family along for the ride, like a holiday.

Continue efforts to find out about the plague, what/who caused it and how to stop it. The mage looking up necromancy is worrying to me. Perhaps we should also take precautions to make the plague victims un-raisable?

Can we divert a little of our magical research from life draining to using that life to fortify and increase our own physical abilities on a much longer scale than spells would typically do?

Can we divert a little of our magical research from life draining to using that life to fortify and increase our own physical abilities on a much longer scale than spells would typically do?

I'd also like to increase our intelligence gathering with Seffy. She's too quiet. With a focus on anyone else she's in contact with.

Finally, now we have military buffs like the Alchemist guild, can we build a State War Academy, designed to produce mage-soldiers? It wouldn't have to be much, but one per squad or unit or however many we can get as part soldier, part mage would do wonders for our army. Even if they were only trained in basic protective magic and dispelling along with their warrior skills.

>>15379934
I think she was totally lying there. I mean, she didn't know it bothered us, but was hoping it would.