Scinnari's obvious desire is to inflict as much pain, suffering, and humiliation as possible, followed by endless torment, rather than ascension to the heavens when you finally allow Alyvia to die. She has been left cautious by her recent failure, though, and despite openly admitting her desire and the intensity of it, she makes clear she will accede to whatever you decide. A safe gamble- your hatred for the paladin is hardly less than your consorts, and the pain of your chipped horn has diminished but not vanished. Torments and flavors of vengeance dance through your mind, as, no doubt, they do through Scinnari's.

Regarding the adventurer's means of egress from your lair, you have, between your lab and your interrogations, determined how they escaped, and perhaps even a method to block such a route. Altering the very fabric of reality- The very rules by which it functions, on a level more primal and basic than mere magic- does seem within your grasp, at least for this particular task. Easier than you had thought, even, though still a worthy test of your skill. Scinnari, however- perhaps due to her new found caution- advises against such tampering. She pleads that you allow this minor crack in your defenses, as such momentous magic might well attract the personal attention of Gods, or worse. She begs off specifying what might be worse than Gods, and though she doesn't seem to know herself, she also seems to believe what she says. You agree to hold off and consider, but promise nothing. She does not presume to ask anything more.

Of the most importance, though, the search for your unseen assailant continues. You have sent some of your best agents to search your cities to the south, the Ivory Gates. The massive white outcroppings have grown as even more bustling trade centers, an abundance of travelers, merchants, explorers, envoys, and, regrettably, adventurers flowing through each day. In such chaos, your best agents are totally inconspicuous, and worm their way into both cities with ease. The information they get is most helpful. The adventurers did pass through nearly a month prior, their reputation gaining them an invitation to guest with the governor of the eastern city. During the few days in which they stayed at the palace, they had audiences of varying privacy with many individuals. Quite damning is the private audience between the paladin and the new persona of the Brass residing within the city.

The Brass, it seems, has been ignored your rule. When you last investigated him, he had been attempting to climb the ladder of your government, and you had ordered that he encounter an invisible ceiling in his advancement. He has deftly circumvented your rule by becoming a personal adviser to the governor of the eastern city- without rank or authority, but with your governor's ear and being housed within the luxury of the palace. In all fairness, he seems to have gained and kept his position by providing genuinely good advice, and if he has some elaborate design, it isnot yet visible from the pattern of his advice. Whether or not he is aware of them, though, and despite his apparent benevolence, he has defied your orders. All of this is irrelevant. According to Alyvia's memories, and your spies' reports on the adventurer’s time in the city, the Brass requested and received a private meting with Alyvia, nearly an hour and a half in length. Your spies cannot tell you of the contents of this meeting, but Alyvia proves- unwillingly- most forthcoming.

Her memories reveal that he invited her presence, revealed his nature and form- something he will likely come to regret- and held discourse at length, eventually persuading her to help him seek information on the distant lord of the cities. She was initially reluctant, but over the course of the meeting he convinced her that you were a sinister menace, and one that must not be ignored. He provided her with the artifact she sacrificed for her escape, passage to Mza, and few magical trinkets of personal use to her, with vast rewards promised for solid information of any sort. The items, happily, are now part of your hoard, a small consolation as you mull over a suitably proportionate response.


#######

IRCHighway, #dragonquest, if you want to join the chat.

The Paladin in question, held as ordered last thread

Warning, certificate 18!

Woo, Dragonquest!

Alright, so what're we sorting first, prison punishment, gunning after this guy, coming up with a 'find the Bard' spell, visiting Nemmy about the Illithids, or what?

>>16562380

Deal with the prisoners first. Clear our table. Scinnari might want to torture them forever, but that seems a waste of resources. If she can think of a way to do it that won't be a drain then I'm listening, but otherwise I say kill them.

If she MUST, maybe spare the paladin for her. And no I'm not being swayed by that picture, dammit!

So are we doing the 'cursed dress' idea? I really liked that.

We transform the paladin's friends into wearable fabrics, their souls trapped in them for eternal torment, then make her wear them...and have her like it.

>>16562399

S'a bit fancy that. I mean *I* like it, but I don't think it's a very popular choice. It's evil though, I can't fault it for that.

We still have to rip true-name finding out of the Dwarf's head so we can start looking into Scinnari's superior's name. Then we can kill off the characters/sell off their souls as we like.

Give the paladin to Scinnari, she has a lady bonder for persecuting religious nutbags so let her have her fun there. It'd make killing off the others a sweeter pill for her to swallow.

The God still having the Paladin's back is cause for concern. If we tried to get rid of her something aggravating is bound to happen, but if we keep her in anything other than the strictest confinement, then that's a liability. If Scinnari wants her, she'll have to keep that in mind- none of what we've done to Cygnis.

Also, goddamn it daughter, get over it already.

Regarding our prisoners:

Get the truenaming formula from the dwarf. Be very careful, she seems smart enough to realize we can't possibly let her survive if it works. Get it from her test it on some lesser demons/devils, and once we're certain it works, we may terminate her. Maybe a sort of geas or domination spell would assist in this?

Keep the sorcerer physically unharmed. Plantars are big, nasty, good creatures, and let's not provoke his ancestor unnecessarily. By which I mean: don't do it by halfs. Keep him alive and mostly unharmed right up until we are ready to dish out an irreversible and agonizing fate.

If we do go whole-hog for planting evidence to let Azy view, perhaps we should make sure it's enough to genuinely hurt her (her mother and we will be there as a shoulder to cry on until she get over it. We love her dearly, but we did warn her, and all that. There, there, it's alright, you'll find another someday...) and then once she moves from grief to anger, we could allow her to kill him herself. (Has she ever killed anyone? Either way, this could be a good way to get her started off down the 'pure evil' path as opposed to 'ignorant' like they seemed to think she was.)

Paladin: Let's re-break her limbs. 'shattered', ideally. Once we do that, let's do our best to keep her conscious. She must suffer, and this is just the beginning. Perhaps we should giver her fire-immunity, seal her in a block of gold, then slowly start heating it up once the immunity wears off. No... That seems to be 'only' pure physical pain, and fairly lethal, too. Not long-lasting enough. Same vague idea, though; we need to be sadistic and creative here. She was the ringleader of these thieves, and with us being a dragon, she MUST suffer for it. As much, and as-long as possible.
Perhaps Scinnari has some creative ideas or desires. (Though- And I know I was outvoted last thread by those people touting forgiveness- I think we shouldn't allow her any part with the paladin until her error with Cygnis is corrected. Just my opinion, though, not going to argue over it.)
I think we very clearly need to show Azyra how terrible the targets of her crushes are, ideally enough to make her glad to see them go, and grateful to us for showing her the truth.

Finally, as for their secret dragon employer, I think we should make with surprise visit to him. Technically, he sort of already works for us. Since he seems to be our antagonist, and can't possibly have heard back yet, we'll catch him totally off guard, and can take him prisoner or simply murder him at will. Maybe we can get another deal like Nehmeska set up. Obviously, this is less important than dealing with our prisoners, though.

Sorry, I know I'm a bit late for most of these, but missed the end of the last thread.

>>16562512
I'd almost say hack off all her limbs, give her some sort of nourishment providing item, sensory deprive her, then leave the Paladin in a box for the rest of her life. Covers most bases of pain.

Hey, what's the going rate right now in the bowels of the Hells for a Paladin of Pelor?
I mean, yeah, torturing her ourselves would sate our hunger for vengeance, but does nothing to satisfy our lust for income.
Besides, when she inevitably breaks free, it would be some Devil's problem, and not ours.

>>16562539
When she inevitably breaks free, she'll kill the devil, then come after us. At least if she was ours, we'd be aware that she was on the loose.

Also, it feels lacking to just outsource our vengeance. Even if it is efficient.

Since there doesn't seem to be much agreement on this, maybe we should go to dealing with her employer? Give her more time to dread and us more time to decide what to do with her.

If the brain eating option from last thread is still on the table, I think we should do that.

And I'm leery about getting all gung ho about torturing the lot of them. It might be better to just dispose of them.

>>16562560
I think the one thing all of us can agree on, is to shatter her limbs again, just to be sure.
Maybe break a few ribs, too.
She'll be less likely to be able to do anything once we do that.

>>16562512

I don't mind the 'you can't play with the Paladin until you've demonstrated your correction with Cygnis' idea. It might even be good.

As much as I am for confinement though, I can't say I enjoy the idea of de-limbing the paladin or crushing them when other methods of disablement are available, if only for the fact that if she could god-power her way out of said chains, she's liable to repair her arms or regenerate or some bullshit like that anyway.

For the moment, it seems her current restraints are enough to contain her, and without heroic paladinny things for her to do, she's not liable to go any higher in her god's favour. So for the moment do nothing, and tell Scinnari to start thinking of creative things to do with her. A statue? Trap her within a golem? We *do* need defenders for our hoard...

>>16562560
I think that if a paladin is capable of breaking out of the nine hells on her own, it's not like we could do much to stop her. They've got plenty more experience in this sort of thing than we do.

>mfw I never join early enough to be part of one of these.

>>16562585

Dude, you can join anytime! I did.

I'd say get rid of the others, but keep the leader. Oh, but get the true-name stuff from the dwarf first and test it like an above anon suggested.

>>16562573

Actually, I DO like the idea of that- and combine it with the gold idea above...

Alright, how about we fashion shell of gold that can fit around her exactly and is magically enchanted like any other golem, and have it guard our hoard? We'll put a ring on her so she doesn't need to eat or drink or breathe, and can just stand, immobile in our hoard, guarding it until old age claims her.

We could even trap her friend's souls in gems to decorate her!

>>16562617
While entertaining, I think that leaving someone that dangerous alive is a bad idea. She actually messed us up a bit in a fight that one would think would have been rather one sided in our favor. She's a serious threat, and I'd rather we not keep her around.

The worse thing we can do to the paladin is make her lose her faith. See if Scinnari has any ideas on how to accomplish the matter. It will no more satisfying than simply kill her and it makes her god more or else unable or unwilling to involve itself in what we might do next.

>>16562630

Ah c'mon Kabby, where's your sense of adventure? So far as anyone beyond us, Scinnari and her will know, she'll just be another gold golem in our hoard- just nicely detailed. And I think it's excellent torture to just stand there and look out through golden eyes at the scene of her defeat.

To be safe though, lets do what we said we'd do last thread and remove all of the weaponry from the floor of the hoard onto inaccessible stands around the walls.

>>16562710
I'm worried about the next round of suicidal adventurers (and there will be another) making a mess out of things. And it would be downright karmarific if we got hurt again because we decided to keep her around in order to torture her.

>>16562803

Hmm...perhaps if we added an additional failsafe? On the off-chance the next band of adventuers (assuming there is one) manage to de-shell her, lets have an enchanted item inside of her person that activates in case of freedom, that 'ports her to a holding cell, or otherwise removes her from play.

That sound fair?

>>16562818
Eh, I think I still prefer just killing her and dumping the body in magma.

I love that word.

Mmmmmmmagma.

I would go with the golem-idea, but let us make it so that we can take her out, if we so decide. If we find something productive for her (someone was mentioning a half-dragon farm last thread. A bit... extreme, but her crime was similar to Asha's, and it would be a similar fate,) or simply to let Scinnari have her fun every now and then.

The best of all the non-killing worlds, I think. Scinnari has to fix Cygnis before she can have fun, though.

The dwarf seems to be the greatest risk. Though she lacks the magic of the sorcerer, and the divine favor of the paladin, she knows True Names. Not many completely, and not much of others, but it is still an incredible power. Enough to be... desirable, even. Between charms, mind-probing, and some promises, you trick, take, and intimidate the information from her. You decline to record it, instead testing then committing it to memory. Though she does manage to slip in a few falsehoods, you catch them, and the majority of what you receive from her is true, or at least close enough to true to be functional.

You call up a variety of lesser devils and demons, and the Names you've take prove enough to summon, command, and order the creatures. They all still hate and resent you, and your hold over them is insufficient to alter their minds or desires, but you can make them obey your commands, up to and including killing themselves in some cases. Such a hold is a prize in itself. None of the Names you take from your prisoner are totally completely, or flawless. Some, though, are nearly so, and proportionately more valuable- a chain-devil of the third circle of the Hells, a retriever demon of one of the innumerable layers of the abyss, a lesser marid of the the Plane of Water, a hound archon are the prizes of note. None are pleased to see you, the marid and the archon the least, but they are forced to obey and serve you as you command it. A wonderful arrangement.

With the knowledge secured, you allow the dwarf to return to her family in the mines below, as promised. Specifically, you dispose of her in the magma below your lair, one place you consider entirely safe and satisfying. The sight of her body shriveling and scorching in the heat, and her combustion before she reaches the magma itself is a delightful one. A death sufficient for a lackey. Something special is in order for her mistress of course, but you can hardly be rushed into such an important issue.

You believe you have learned, regarding the combat a week ago, however, and have seen to it that the weapons in your hoard are sorted out, and stored somewhere safer. Racks within alcoves in the walls of your lair are still suitable parts of your hoard, and safe enough. To make sure, you have the dao in your service assist you in encasing them, growing covers of solid crystal. Not terribly valuable except for their size, sadly, but excellent viewing material, and as hard as the surrounding stone, the dao assures you. Such a minor reorganization removes potential weapons from future assailants, but doesn't remove them from your hoard- an improvement without drawbacks, you feel. The crystal even adds reflections to your lair, from certain angles making your hoard appear to stretch into infinity. Obviously a mere parlor-trick, but one you can't see yourself disliking.

I have to back the "remove paladin's limbs, eyes, eardrums, seal her in metal, and leave her locked up someplace secure to stew". It would take a truly excessive amount of divine power to heal her and break her out of that kind of captivity. If we want to be sadistic we can mix in water torture or rape or something, but it's not really necessary.

I believe Scinnari promised a certain someone that she'd hunt down and murder his family, or something like that. If she doesn't follow up it will make her and by extension us look weak. Surely she doesn't want that, does she?

The brass... we'll have to bring the hammer down. If he's an adviser to the governor, then the governor should have a very good idea as to his assets- and we've made it very clear to our governors that they have a lot of latitude, but that there are lines which cannot be crossed. Allowing their employees to order our home infiltrated, our possessions stolen, and our servants murdered is one such line. Teleport the governor to our place for an unexpected meeting- if we schedule it the brass will hear about it- and explain the situation, demanding his full backing in stamping out the brass' life and all his influence in repayment for this transgression. Do this quickly, before the other adventurers can escape and report.

The paladin is a Pelorite, yes? Does the church of Pelor have any significant holdings within our empire? I think it should be made clear to them that if they ever again have one of their heavyweights take part in a raid on our home, they will be considered a hostile organization- because they will, in fact, be taking hostile actions against us- and their presence eliminated from Mza.

>>16562388
I agree.
Lets just kill them and be over with it.

And sell their souls if you have to.

>>16563005

We do have to follow up on threats, yes.

Well I'm for the golem idea for the leader- it's imprisoning her in metal, but still making her useful, after a fashion.

I like that we have new minions we can call on- it seems the formulas we took from the dwarf were worth the effort.

For now, the other elf and Azyra's bf can wait- we should get on with other tasks- deal with Leader, then either visit Nemmy for the Illithids, or visit the Brass for judgement. I'd like some more time to think about the Brass though, so I'd say Nemmy, after the Paladin.

i would advise going directly against a church. it tends to generate allot more heroes that want you dead. Also this paladin seemed to be out of favor with her superiors and acted alone (they probably hoped she would kill herself).

also lets not advertize the fact that some one managed to succeed. it tends to encourage others.

>>16563057

You mean WOULDN'T advise, right?

And I agree, in that case.

I think we should dispose of the elf in a similar manner to the dwarf, then go chat with nehmmy about going after mind flayers like we talked about with the gith.

>>16563096
yea i meant would not i forgot to check before posting.

actually the elf mercenary is a convict under parole of the paladin if we redirect her geas from the paladin to us and offer a deal she would probably take it.

Let's drop in on our spies down south, see their report, and then pay our brazen fellow a visit.

My biggest problem is that if he realizes shit has gone down, he is likely to go back to his dragon form to either fight or get out of dodge. We would have to reciprocate to have a chance of subduing him, and all that is likely to do a number on the palace/city. Maybe we should teleport him back to our lair? To him, it would be an unknown labyrinth full of enemies and traps, in an unknown location. Might also impress upon him just how much he fucked up.

>>16563184
she might be salvagable for something. Sure.

>>16563112

Sounds good. I'd like to finish off with the prisoners before we visit Nemmy though, including the golem encasement, which seems to marginally be the most popular outcome.

If we can imprison the elf's soul before we slag her then all the better, I think.

>>16563184

Hmm, you might have a point. Perhaps if we remove the geas altogether and offer payment for stuff, she might willingly work with us?

Use the slave bands as a precautionary method, like with Nemmy. And enchant-interrogate her beforehand so we know she's being honest and won't try and bust her friends out.

Before we encase the paladin, let's give her a glass tattoo.

And by that, I mean, let's drip minute amounts of molten glass on her back or something, as a sort of branding to make very clear she is ours. Also something to keep her company in the golem.

Or not, just an idea. Eitherway, let's just golem her and go deal with the Brass. (though I've already suggested this before, not trying to double-vote or anything.)

>>16563271

The glass tattoo could also form that emergency sigil that activates in case her golem-shell is breached.

If there's no use with the elf, I say we attach her soul-gem to the paladin's shell, so she's always with her, as their arrangement always was.

Did we not save the Dwarf's soul? I guess not.

It should be a nice scene though, the encasing. I imagine Scinnari will enjoy it a lot.

>>16563301

Indeed. It's no walk-in encasement if it's going to be thin, it'd be like it was covering her like a liquid, probably creeping up from within a sorcerous circle or such. Entertaining to watch, at any rate- particularly when after the coating the golem enchantments start kicking in/getting added to start taking control of the shell.

>>16563301

Enchant the bit over the eyes so it's like a one way mirror and she can't close her eyes, too.

Oh, and a sigil of silence, so she can't make any noise, either.

we could make the golem animate armor that she can't get rid of basically cursed armor. maybe stylized as a lizard folk or something else.

Apparently we do have the dwarf's soul.

If we could set up some way to put it in constant agony and insert it into the golem and make the paladin within feel it through a kind of soul-circuit, that would be great.

>>16563361

W should have it so that we can alter the gold-form whenever we want to look like different things.

Actually a "reward" when they do well we could make their pain stop for a short time. Along with moments that she can act freely uncontrolled. basically conditioning her to eventually become our slave.

>>16563188
>My biggest problem is that if he realizes shit has gone down, he is likely to go back to his dragon form to either fight or get out of dodge.
That's why we use our spies and the governor's resources to arrange that both he and all his assets are struck as close to simultaneously as possible. The governor might like his adviser, but once we make it clear just how badly said adviser has fucked up he should be more than willing to throw himself 100% into stamping out that brass' influence root and branch, and helping to arrange for his death as effectively as possible. Since the brass is still in an advisory position luring him into a trap should be relatively simple with the governor's complicity.

The brass is a fully capable dragon, so we take him seriously with the attack in person, too. We bring us, appropriately defended/enchanted minions, stack up on scrolls of enervation that our minions can mass spam at him, heavy dispels/disjunctions for bringing down his defenses, all kinds of stuff.

>>16563397
Doesn't really solve the 'collateral damage' issue of two dragons fighting within a city. Rememmber when we took on the pit-lord?

>>16563397
Yep prepare for the worst. However i am hoping we can take him alive.

>>16563396

Sounds alright. I'd hate for her to dislike her new shell though, so...lets put a sympathy on it. We know just how MUCH she likes them from Cygnis, afterall.

Will the golem be able to talk? If so, will it puppet the Paladin's vocal chords and open its mouth to do so (with the mouth also gold-plated), or will it be a closed-mouth, more magically robotic voice?

>>16563739

Either either go for the voice puppeting, or to make it completely faceless and silent.

The elf, of course, has already begun withering away- the geas under her apparently allowing very little latitude or excuses. It seems quite unpleasant, and by the sixth day, she can barely move, merely hanging from her chains. Agonized and infected as she is, you judge her an excellent target for potential conversion. You come to her briefly while she is awake, ribs visible and cheeks hollow. Unable to offer any resistance, she merely watches you as observe her for a moment, then proceed to disjunct the geas on her. Almost immediately, she seems to gain a new vitality, not healing, but blood visibly flushing through her pale body. You watch for a few moments, reading her mind passively. She realizes clearly what you have done, and a torrent of mixed emotions are blazing through her mind. Deciding that perhaps more will be achieved when she is capable of responding, you depart, leaving her with her thoughts.

The paladin, of course, you have something special reserved for. You research on the Binder has lead you across many dead ends, many of which, naturally, are ancient magical empires that are not the one you want. One of them, the ancient magocracy believed to have built Tashz' magical roads, along with being responsible for some of the more interesting geography to the south, side effects of their intermittent wars. One item of note, one of their most terrible punishments; to seal the offender in a golem, allowing them to live out their natural life encased within metal. They, of course, tended to use iron or steel, and hardly went out of their way to make things more unpleasant than such conditions were inherently. You, on the other hand, believe that that is no reason to stop striving for excellence; you believe the gradual shifts in the laws of magic, as well as your resources and fertile imagination, allow for something better.

For such a display, you feel willing to let the surviving prisoner watch, though obviously unwilling to allow them to leave their cells. You settle for projecting the proceedings into their minds, where they can watch whether or not they want to. At Scinnari's suggestion, you begin by stretching the paladin on a rack, allowing you to inscribe a rune of teleportation on her back, keyed to your desire. Should you want to remove her in the future, or replace her, it will take but a thought. Despite her defiance during your battle, and her ineffectual struggles against the rack, she cannot help but scream as the molten glass falls onto her back, sizzling against her flesh and congealing rapidly. Scinnari certainly seems to enjoy the show, tracing the paladin's seared flesh and mocking her for her weakness.

Still, that is the least of the ritual; to follow, you suspend her in modified force spell, over a pit of gold. A ring of heat resistance is regrettably indispensable at this point, and due to that, she exhibits less discomfort than she did at the previous stage, as you slowly melt the the gold beneath her. When it is finally reduced to a completely pure liquid, you lower her enough that she may touch it. The gold slowly begins to ooze up her, but you do not halt her descent, and the slightest hint of panic is visible in her eyes as the pool is revealed to be deeper than she is tall. Her comrades, too, you can detect panicking- The sorcerer panicking, pleading and begging shamelessly for you to relent, the dwarf's soul receiving in horror from the gem she it is trapped within. With the potential to change the elf's loyalty, you refrain from including her in the proceedings.

Alyvia does not scream even as her shoulders and chin sink into the molten metal. As her chin, then mouth are enveloped, it becomes a moot point. Up, over her blond hair, and finally out of sight. Scinnari, across from you, smiles in satisfaction, Cygnariassis at her side, her slight horror tempered by an expression of pity as she watches the paladin submerge. Azyra too watches with emotionless interest, viewing this more as a demonstration of powerful magic than the treatment of an enemy. Sadly, the ritual was hardly meant as a spectator event- A six hour pause is necessitated for the ritual to take it's hold. You station guards, and maintain the links to the paladin's comrades, forcing them to observe, but depart yourself. Azyra follows in your wake, her familiar perched on her shoulder. You are pleased as she interrupts you with a small stream of questions, probing the elements and mechanics of the ritual, obviously finding the demonstration quite edifying.

When you reconvene, however, your reconstruction of the ancient ritual proves to have been quite sufficient. You draw the paladin out of the molten metal, and she rises with a complete golden coating. Once most of the way out, you halt, drawing more liquid metal up form the pit, changing it from a miniscule coating to a solid encasement, and making it appear more like a construct. When you are finished, you again leave the paladin suspended above the pool, allowing the coating to cool. You are quite satisfied with your first construct, and watch with amusement as Azyra investigates, casting a few tentative detection spells of her own, testing the leftover gold, and briefly waving gently in front of where the encased figures' eyes should be. You are pleased to field another flurry of questions on constructs and construct creation, happy to see Azyra taking an interest in the process.

########

Finally, a personal visit to your spies seems in order. They are prepared for your arrival, and have much additional information to dispense: The Brass seems to have abandoned his previous form, and contacts. His resources seem to be mostly what he can procure himself or request from your governor- The luxury of you palace being quite a boon to him- and he seems to have become almost careless; Most of his time is spent in the palace, serving as a combination adviser and seneschal to the governor. He has endeared himself to the governor, who your spies suspect may attempt to marry his daughter off to the Brass in the near future, all unaware of the dragon's nature. Still, your governor seems to remain loyal, and your spies believe he would obey orders to turn on his subordinate, particularly if you revealed the Brass's draconic nature.

The Brass itself seems to be present during the days, and either sleep within the palace at night, or to sneak out to attend to other business. One of the reasons so many of his advice has been so valuable has been that he invests quite a bit of effort behind the scenes to make it so, adjusting situations to resolve as he desires, making it appear that his advice is always the best possible. Better than you expected for one so careless as to reveal his form to a minion, but hardly flawless. It does suggest that he is used to dealing with humanoids as one, though, and that he may be prepared for violence even without transforming.

#####

[If you have any specific questions, I'll try to answer them.]

>>16563859

So, seems we're going to have to wait a short while before testing out our new construct. We've yet to inscribe runes and such on her, too.

What was precisely wihin the gold mix that took so long for the enchantment to happen? Also, regarding the brass, what's his name?

He doesn't seem to be harming our city...pity he meddled in our business.

I think we should drop by at the palace in an alternate form some time when the brass is around and bring Watcher with us. Brain draining him before making any overt moves could be a good idea.

>>16563913
>runes
Obviously the basics to make a golem and prevent any sort of escape or disobedience.

>what took so long?
Magic!

>name
He doesn't use his draconic name in normal business, instead going by "Morias Flameweaver", apparently taking some perverse pleasure in subtly flaunting his nature. He does not seem to have interaction with any other dragons, except, regrettably, yourself.

We need to get more information on this bronze however we need to act quickly.

Some ideas:
A bit risky but we could try scrying on him using the items he gave to the adventures (the loot).

Could we drug his wine with a sleeping agent to knock him out?

while he is away search his room for magic/items via scrying.

Figure out where we was going to meet the paladin and set up an ambush there.

>>16564540

It's a brass.

Anyway, lets meet Nehmeska and continue to ponder over what to do against this dragon. For Nemmy, lets just send her off to go find Illithids.

>>16564709
Don't mention the brass specifically. Rather, tell her that a brass dragon from another part of the world, the south maybe, has been pirating your ships with the justification that Mza is an evil empire, following the rumors of our infernal alliance. Thus, we want to mush him. Nemmy will probably try to abstain, so ply her obedience with a bit of treasure. Girls love jewelry.

We are older than him, and an incredibly capable sorcerer. Here's my suggestion: We find a nice spot in the middle of nowhere, and rig the fuck out of it with magic traps (made not to affect us, or made primarily of fire-related damage). Then we go up to the brass in the guise of an adventurer hired by his party to relay the results, as they feel they are being watched and cannot go to him personally without revealing their employer.

The moment we lay hands on him, we teleport us both to the kill-zone, revert, and school his ass in draconic combat. As soon as we arrive, hit him with fire vulnerability and other debuffs. Then take to the skies and trigger the traps.

Some of those Names we have could be useful. I'm sure evil critters like devils would enjoy killing a good-aligned dragon. Set them up in the area as well.

do we need to involve Nehmeska? He is weaker than us and in our home turf. Also if we do have multiple dragons on our employment list i rather they not know about the other in case the conspire.

>>16564860
True. If we don't know much about Brasses, I'm sure there's plenty of sources we can consult. Books, other dragons, etc. Hell, maybe Seffy has fought a brass or two in her time.

We could offer her his hoard as payffffftttttHAHAHAHAHAAHA oh man I'm sorry.

Find out, somehow (preferably the most inexpensive way) the best way to kill a brass. Then

>>16564829
is good. The victorious general wins first, then goes to war. We should make it so that we cannot lose before we commit.

We should also take stock of our empire in general, and find out how many dragons and of what type live in it.

Eliminating some may become necessary.

>>16564709

Agree with sending Nemmy to find/kill Illithids. She might even enjoy the task.

We should keep her in the dark about the Brass though. No sense in letting her know about that one.

A while back we were looking for dragons to test the Binder's rituals on. We still have a black locked away somewhere; I say we give him some company. If this Brass is a social climber, then surely suck a "trusted, valued and highly reccomended" adviser to a provincial lord couldn't turn down an invitation to a formal dinner on Mza with what we pass off to him as some upper-level lackey. Especially if he's already interested in us.

Simply get him on home turf (preferably somewhere indoors where there isn't enough room/warded so he can't shift, trap his ass and then plum for information before deciding what to ultimately do with him.

Why do i imagine Azladon now as a mafia don

Isn't that darn Crystal after a Brass body? Also, wish I'd been here earlier, would've been much more entertaining to have him killed by his own party of adventurers.

>>16565049

After a female Brass, yes. I doubt Watcher would take to our friend unless we figured out some way to give him a sex change.

I believe we were planning some elaborate use of flesh-to-stone to create her body, since she would prefer new to used apparently.

>>16565096
I believe we were NOT planning to do that, as it would no longer be easily controlled, and she admitted she would lose her mind-reading(raping?) powers if let her out.

Ahem.

>>16565111

Diminish, not lose I seem to recall. I think she has our number on that one though, because if we attempted to renage on our agreement she would cease cooperating entirely- and we could not hide it from her if we did.

I also think it might be necessary in the end as a part of the whole Binder business, but I'm not certain on that score.

>>16565111
Eh, when was the last time we did anything requiring THE CRYSTAL? Mostly we derp about our island and indulge in paranoia and evilness.

>>16564969
We did exactly that a few threads ago, only ones of interest were the Brass to the east and I think a Brass/Bronze killing pirates to the south.

>>16565337
We don't really indulge in paranoia these days. Mostly just evilness. And apparently a love of coming up with really weird ways of torturing people who offend us.

>>16564944
Honestly we could just hire a party of adventurers or use our cult.
To quote "

His resources seem to be mostly what he can procure himself or request from your governor- The luxury of you palace being quite a boon to him- and he seems to have become almost careless; Most of his time is spent in the palace, serving as a combination adviser and seneschal to the governor. He has endeared himself to the governor, who your spies suspect may attempt to marry his daughter off to the Brass in the near future, all unaware of the dragon's nature."

“Nehmeska.” you call in your mind. She is aware instantly, though her response lags slightly.

“Yes?” she thinks back after a moment. She seems to be making effort to keep the rest of her mind from you, fanning a blaze of suspicion. You pause, though, remembering that your compact remains intact, and she cannot plot against you. She apparently senses your pause, and as usual, takes the opportunity to be insufferable. “May I presume you desire something?”

“Indeed. I will meet you at your lair; I wish to discuss something.” you inform her shortly. “Be there.”

“I... confess, now is an inconvenient time for me. Might I ask a delay- Tomorrow, perhaps?” Nehmeska replies, sounding surprisingly honest. Her usual ever-present amusement remains, though it does not seem like she is mocking your like normal.

“Sadly, I am in a hurry.” you reply blandly, feeling happy enough to inconvenience her for a change. “Will this interrupt your cover or work?” you ask, making sure she isn't goading you into setting back her current tasks.

“Not... It will disrupt a subterfuge of mine, yes.” she replies carefully. With a thin smile that is probably detectable in your thoughts, you close in for the kill.

“But is it one serving a task that I assigned you?”

“That is only... tangentially the case.” she replies, evidently attempting to work around or play for time, but finding none allowed to her.

“I have a few things to do before I depart. I will arrive in thirty minutes. Do not keep me waiting.” you reply blandly. You sense a satisfying rush of irritation from her, which incidentally serves to momentarily weaken her barriers against you. Ah. /That/ is what she's occupied with- Well, you're sure she'll find a way to deal with it. Considering the petty joy she seems to take in sniping at you, you hardly feel guilt for bothering her in turn.

wondering could we sick Nehmeska on Avannor Trevar maybe?
or have her research a way to craft a body or watcher? (she would love helping out another metallic dragon)

Is not there as you arrive, but arrives mere moments afterward. After you, but minor enough delay that you aren't inclined to press the issue. Especially considering how much of a rush she seems to have been in, barely having time to throw on a nightgown. Of course, she could be trying to again flaunt her cold-resistance as she so often does, but you doubt it.

“I'm happy to see you made it.” you greet, carefully keeping your voice neutral. She doesn't seem to react, but you'd like think she's wondering whether to construe that as an attack. “Do you know anything about the astral plane?”

“Nothing terribly significant.” she replies. “I suspect regular research would acquire you more data on the subject-”

“I am not the issue. You are- I had hoped you weren't terribly ignorant. A pity. Perhaps you can ask some wizard you know. As mentioned, I have a date to keep.” you say blandly. Out of the corner of your eye, you catch a flash of irritation pass across her face. So he was. Interesting.

“Ah. And you do not see fit to inform me what, when or who this oh-so-urgent date is?”

“Naturally not. Have you heard of the Githyanki?” you continue, ignoring her.

“Briefly. Planar raiders. Dwell upon the Astral Sea. I couldn't say much more. You are assigning me a task involving Planar travel, then?

“No. Again, I'm sure you're close enough friends with at least one that you can get some answers.” you say.

“Perhaps Lord Prestor.” she replies, “Or does he have some unavoidable date shortly as well?”

“Perhaps. Finally, Illithids. What do you know of mind flayers?” you reply, ignoring her sniping yet again.

“Sufficient, I think. Psionists, they dwell far under ground. They are usually ruled by a communal mind, I believe.”

“Elder brain. Yes. I wish you to begin searching for illithid dwellings. If you believe yourself capable, feel free to destroy or damage them where you can. I do not wish to have to come to your rescue, however, so do be careful.”

“Oh dear. Concern for me? Ah, of course not. All the precious knowledge I have, it would be a shame if they happened to plunder my mind.” she replies. You give her a momentary level glare, then nod your head in agreement.

“Yes. It would. I wish you to limit your operations to the north and east mainland- Stay away from Tashz. I'd hate to have to argue with the Suzerains over your... custody. Assuming you have no other questions your wizard can't answer?”

“I can do my own research.”

“And other searches, evidently. Good. Keep me reasonably updated, please. Perhaps every other day, unless you have reason to think otherwise. This is acceptable?”

“Your wish is my command.” she replies with audible sarcasm.

“Indeed. It is.” you say, beginning to teleport out. She seems to consider a final comment, but thinks better of it, and you disappear without further communication.

#######

In preparation for dealing with the brass- Flameweaver, as he goes by- you use Farrandras' help to excavate an arena of sorts deep within your volcano bastion, one with no entrances or escape routes. A few suitably large corridors curve off into the darkness, and the chamber is certainly large enough for draconic combat, but none of it actually leads anywhere. The corridors provide the illusion of a genuine warren, as opposed to a sealed pocket of stone, and you happily imagine the Brass
fleeing down a passage, triggering traps in his haste to escape, and discovering a solid wall barring his progress.

Which brings you to traps. So many of them. The vast majority you leave magical in nature, deciding on flame, which you know can't harm you, but probably won't harm him, cold, which you are already prepared to resist, though he might well be too, and lightning, which you can easily prepare for, and seems less likely that he would have. A veritable maze of wards, glyphs, traps, triggerable spells take several days to prepare. Working magic without stop for such long hours is quite draining. Azyra, though, proves an able assistant- those she creates are not as intense, powerful, or even as elegant as the spells you weave, but she does help, and your feelings verge on pride as the two of you work, covering everything but the center of the chamber in invisible surprises for your guest.

>>16565447
I'd support the former. Not sure about the latter; seems like it would require revealing Watcher. I don't think we've done that yet.

>>16565467

I consider myself caught up on this quest, but I'm unaware of what wizard she could be associating with. I'm missing a reference from one of our past threads?

>>16565637
As far as I have it, she's been off socializing with people, often to advance our aims. Among other things, infiltrating that city near her.

I think we're saying that she probably has some friend she can ask for information, not anyone in particular.

I also think the inopportune time we interrupted may have been her getting particularly friendly with someone, possibly a wizard, judging by 'our' guesses. Tenuous guess, though.

Yes, well, if we just cockblocked a wizard, his loss.

Good idea using her to scope out illithid lairs, though. I didn't think of that.

Since we're doing this in our volcano, we should weaken a wall to flood the whole area with magma if we need to. We can tolerate it just fine, but the brass will cook.

And yay, father/daughter project. I remember back when we were giving her rides around the island. They grow up so fast! *sniff*

Boy, I sure hope the copper doesn't teleport out or something, or wreck our home.

Our castle/volcano is shielded against hostile teleport, or is that just inside the castle itself?

>>16565855
All of your warrens, lair, and your castle are appropriately warded. As is obviously necessary for the purpose of this trap, it too is warded against such teleportation. Theoretically, he could get out the same way the adventurers did, or even perhaps come up with something else that you haven't encountered.

>>16565926
Well he sure as hell won't be expecting the guy delivering the success of the mission to be teleporting him on contact.

To make success more likely, polymorph into as good a likeness of one of the party as possible, preferably the assassin as she would be quiet. If asked about the others, say that we're being sent out on our own to see if we can work without doing evil, without supervision. A test, if you will.

Also carry a satchel full of papers. Worthless receipts and whatnot, but what look like valuable documents!

Then when we hand it over, grab his wrist!

If a guard or someone tries to take the report for us, refuse to give it to anyone save the dragon himself. Obviously not referring to him as such.

should use nonlethal meta magic we want him alive. perhaps have a collar on the floor that is obviously fire resistance but is one of our collars.

>>16566029
I disagree with this method of pulling the brass into our trap. It's dependent upon the brass not having a prearranged method of communication with his hirelings and generally being at least briefly gullible, as well as his not being able to resist a forcible teleportation by someone one.

I would invite the governor to Mza, teleportation provided by us of course, and instruct him to bring several of his closest advisers, ensuring that the brass is on the list. Then we simply teleport them to the trap room and have a dozen minions and contingent traps go off- everything the brass has on him is disjoined, he's trapped in humanoid form, enervated repeatedly, feebleminded, and otherwise smashed into the ground before he can react or even shift into dragon form. We have contingent teleportations prepared to evacuate everyone but our heavy combat team if the initial strike doesn't work, crafted to bypass the wards but only to affect specific, known people (which would obviously include anyone in the initial party that we teleport in).

Ideally the whole trap chamber will be unneeded except as a backup contingency, but it's not like the spells will go bad; we can use it later.

>>16566178
This does sound like a more secure idea, but it hinges on the brass agreeing to enter what he suspects is the lair of a powerful and evil dragon.

He'll be suspicious as fuck when he gets "invited" to attend a meeting at the castle he sent a team to just over a week ago.

But if your idea succeeds at getting him inside, I think it would work better than mine.

Well he's doing a pretty good job. I say we just send him a letter asking for compensation for damages incurred by his adventurers and call it even.

should question Nehmeska on personal life at some time. stopping by just for chat.

>>16566693

You mean just to se how she's doing?

Well...I guess we *could*. If there were nothing pressing happening. But there is right now so give it some time.

It takes almost six days of work to suitably cover the trap, runes for every conceivable offensive purpose, sensory deprivation as you can work it, even a few shielded ledges where your minions may fire from. You select three squads of your best servants, gift upon them bows and protective amulets to shield them from a Brass's fire breath- or the backwash of your own- and choose lightning as the secondary element to protect them from, reasoning that the Brass is unlikely to throw around ice, as it is a power that poses him significant danger itself. Your soldiers obey your orders unquestioningly, practicing with their ranged weapons and making sure they are capable of using the defensive magics you've provided them, but they seem unnerved anyway, as you are effectively preparing them to fight a, in their opinion, god. That you portray it as a weaker god, one you are ambushing, and have made it clear that they are merely assisting you, does not seem to reassure them sufficiently. Despite their unease, though, they are ready to obey your command, and fight to the death should you order it. Something the seem to expect, despite the contingencies you are making available to them. Their doubt does grate on your nerves, but you keep it to yourself in this case.

An invitation is sent;You invite your governors to Mza to hold court, and to discuss with them their long-term views of their city. A status update, a reception, a formal affair, several events rolled into one. And obviously, one that requires their advisers and assistants be in attendance. A flurry of logistics is suddenly necessitated to provide supplies for all the people who you will be guesting, but you have minions to handle such details. Instead, you focus your efforts on making the proceedings seem as official as possible, trying to belay all suspicion. Secretly, however, one of your spies delivers a highly classified message to the governor in question, and his cooperation is secured.

Teleportation to the island you provide, and though many individuals seem quite nervous at your arrival, and to accept your transportation, they all arrive safely, as tempting as it is in some cases to arrange accidents. All except one, of course. You deftly re-route 'Morias' to the pit you prepared for him, and welcome your guests to the island of Mza. A short greeting, instructions to the servants to see to your guests, and you pause to apologize to the governor that you're afraid Morias resisted your teleportation, perhaps changing his mind at the last second or perhaps had an artifact that prevented him from teleporting with you. The governor gives few signs of his fear. Instead, he nods gravely and assures you it's no trouble, and you leave them to find their lodgings. Allowing you to go see to your errant guest...

You expect to arrive in pitch-black chaos, perhaps lit by the flashes of spells and wards, or full of the echoing shouts of your minions. What you find is a disturbingly quiet and still. There are sounds- the moans of injured lizardmen, and the louder breath of the injured bronze- Cold air and ozone are detectable in abundance, along with the smell of blood- And nobody seems to be moving significantly. Through the darkness and fog, you can sense 'Morias' below you, injured, you think, and huddled within the center of the room. You can practically taste the spells that have been flying, and suspect he retaliated on the lizardmen when they opened fire, closing the distance and tripping a literal maze of traps. From what you can sense, neither fire nor ice seem to have harmed him, but he has obviously been heavily injured by lightning traps, and moves with a lethargic speed that suggests he's either quite clever, or he stumbled upon some of the hexes you scattered with the destructive traps. Or perhaps made slow by the blasts of cold he must have triggered... You cannot tell yet.

You instantly and silently cast a small spell to allow you to levitate above him, considering how to proceed, as your help seems to be absent. Scinnari is prepared to assist you, but you'd prefer not to have to call for her aid. Despite your precaution and stillness, though, Morias seems to take notice of you. His neck bends, and he turns his head looking up, tensing slightly as if preparing to dodge or leap.

“Ah, the great Lord Prestor. I knew there was more to you than meets the eye- Including, perhaps, some vendetta against this poor dragon? Or was this all some kind of... accident? If so I must admit,” he says. After a few seconds of speech, he begins sidling to one side, quite slowly, obviously hampered by some curse or impediment, “-that I seem to have accidentally damaged a few of your servants and traps here myself, though you certainly seem to have so many that I can hardly see it as a great loss. Obviously you may think otherwise, of course- Perhaps you do? By all means, if there is something you wish to have out with me, I would prefer that we talk it out like civilized beings. Only partially because I suspect I'm half-crippled at this point. I'm sure you know the reputations of my kind, and I do, regrettably know the reputations of yours... I ought to make clear, of course, I'm happy to fight to the death, but fairly certain that that would be mine, and am amenable to other options. Like, say, as mentioned, talking. I hear it can be remarkably useful in resolving matters. If you a bone to pick with me, I'd far prefer that you not use mine. I assure you I can be reasonable, given some prompting.”

The reputations of Brass dragons, Watcher excepted, is apparently not entirely exaggerated- he talks with an almost manic speed, quite clear but without the slightest pause. Enough that his sudden stop is almost jarring. He continues to creep slowly towards one of the walls, obviously enlarging the distance from you, and, obviously due to the lack of explosions or spells being triggered, limping through a region of traps he's already tripped.

>>16566988

"What would have been amenable is if you stayed out of my way. I did not even mind you taking residence in the governor's palace and giving him advice. But no, that wasn't enough for a Brass, was it? You wanted some gossip. Wanted to see if the gossip was true, too. So you send some adventurers off on some fool quest to find out things you already half-knew, and so got them all killed...or worse. And what IS worse is the annoying amount of property damage they managed to cause- something I intend to take out of their benefactor's hide."

"Ah. But I do suppose you deserve a little of that knowledge you so craved; that you just HAD to have. Is Lord Prestor a Dragon?"

*Polymorph*

"Yes. He is."

We should discuss his immediate surrender. state we have been watching him and that he should have taken the hint about a personal meeting with lord Prestor (leave it unclear weather we are lord Prestor), rather than hire assassins. To be simple he now works for us and he will accept our "gift" (collars) as reassurance for us.

>>16566988
First, use arcane sight to determine what effects are currently on him and how long they have left. Ensure that he has no magical items or contingent spells remaining; they should have already been disjoined, but it's best to make sure.

"I have found that properly applied force is more effective in resolving matters favorably. We shall speak in a moment."

Add to those spells on him as necessary with additional magics of our own- there should be no chance whatsoever of him successfully harming us when we're done. He should be all but depleted or sorcerous and physical power and utterly immobile. If he's this weak already, he shouldn't be able to resist our assault terribly well.

"There. You are familiar, of course, with the laws of Mza. In particular I bring up the central pillar of Mza's laws that you have violated most flagrantly- to act against me is prohibited absolutely, with no exception. Legally, I am required to express my displeasure in whatever fashion my judgment deems appropriate. My current inclination is to seize all your assets, see your networks of contacts destroyed or suborned, and have you executed and your body utilized to recoup some of the costs in time and money that you have forced upon me.

"Do you have anything to say in your defense, or shall we move on promptly with the sentencing?"

>>16567089
This is perfect. I love it.

>>16567191
Do the spellchecking and whatnot, but don't tell him what we're going to do. Just do it.

OH!

Let's see if we can restrain him, and have Scinnari damn him like she did with Azdukashen. Except send him to Tiamat, because that'd be an awesome tithe.

>>16567312
seems like such a wast of a dragon, we are better than that.

>>16567312
>don't tell him what we're going to do. Just do it.
The point of saying that wasn't to tell him what we're planning to do, it's to see if he says anything interesting. I thought we were planning to throw him in the experimentation bays instead of killing him anyway.

>Let's see if we can restrain him, and have Scinnari damn him like she did with Azdukashen. Except send him to Tiamat, because that'd be an awesome tithe.
>send him to Tiamat
But... but Tiamat is a huge bitch. This won't give us any kind of profit or favor at all.

>>16567326
We've already got a silver in our service. I dunno if a brass' oath is worth as much. And we hardly have Nehmaska do anything anyways.

We could see how the necromantic energies of the castle affect him first, do some poking around, use the crystal to root through his head, etc.

But when we kill him, I want to sacrifice him to Tiamat. Just his soul is sent, we can harvest his body for goodies like we did with Az.

Aww, we didn't even get to fight him.

What a shame.

>>16567343
>Tiamat won't even say thanks.

Well, nuts. Maybe we can grind it down to soul-juice and eat it ourselves or something.

Surely the soul of a brass dragon would be worth a favor or two.

>>16567343
Hey, in Taimat's defense, we've never tried. Perhaps she'd not-be-a-bitch if we gave her appropriate goddessly worship rather than just taking her name in vain.

I'd vote for non-lethal apprehension. He could be useful as more than spell components, and has been offering decent advice. Perhaps we could set him up as our legit subordinate, doing the same thing, now that he'll have found out what he wanted.


Perhaps we can get ourselves a whole passel (posse? Herd? Flight?) of dragon minions.

Proposed plan re: the elf:
Just kill her and trap her soul. We don't need another highly skilled assassin type, we have plenty and the ones we have are more loyal.

Proposed plan re: the sorcerer:
Explain to Azyra that we understand she's got a certain level of attraction to the sorcerer, and that we don't blame her for it; that isn't something that anyone can easily direct. It is, however, something that can be controlled, and what one does about it is always a choice; emphasize that it is the mark of a competent and adult individual that they channel their feelings, acting on them only in a useful or controlled fashion rather than being controlled by them. So what is her choice? What should we do with the sorcerer?

Demand that she present a solution to us herself. If we've done this right, she should think about it and feel like her only option is to say that we should kill him and imprison his soul, because she knows it would please us and it's the rational thing to do. At that point we pressure her into backing up her words by doing it herself, which will doubtlessly be somewhat difficult for her but she'll power through due to lots of pressure from mommy and daddy and the desire to prove herself to us. We stop her from blaming us afterward by ensuring that she knows it was her suggestion and her action, and we'd have let her do something else if she wanted.

If she proposes something other than that, we have her defend her action from whatever holes we can logically poke in it, and hopefully get her to drop the idea or twist it into something acceptable.

Basically, the idea here is to make it appear to her that we've moved the responsibility for deciding his fate to her, so that she grows stronger if she does what we want and we can still stop her if she wants to do something else. Standard parenting tactics- give the kid apparent freedom to act, but be standing by with a safety net in case they do something dumb.

>>16567478
>Tiamat
>Not being a bitch
>LaughingEveryone.jpg

But yes, we should capture him alive. So many uses for a captive dragon...
HEXXING TIME.

>>16567352
Second.

Captcha says "enocus conquerors"
Not sure what an enocus is, but we certainly are going to conquer

>>16567499

We don't know how loyal she can be, and if all goes nice enough with her I'm sure there are plenty of uses for an able bodied high mid-level elf around Mza. If she refuses or is indeed useless we soul-trap her, but I wouldn't want to do it beforehand.

As for Azyra and the sorceror, I think the idea is fair enough, though I'm not sure getting her to do it would be a good idea.

>>16567499
>We don't need another highly skilled assassin type

i believe i suggested in a previous thread that she be a mind-numbed coin polisher slave, all that heat in our lair might (gasp!) cause our precious bed to tarnish (the horror, the Horror!)

plus, you can never have enough assassins!

>>16567499
Soulgemming everyone is extraordinarily boring, I'd prefer we put the elf/dwarf/sorcerer to use. With liberal application of geasing and contracting and such.

Sorcerer is awkward because Azrya is slated for teenage rebellion soon, especially with the overbearing parenting styles of Devil and Dragon.

>>16567499
That's a horrible idea. It breaks her trust in us and destabilizes her psyche. No. Azyra should be entirely removed from this matter.

Good point on the elf though. We've got Asha's children. Forgot about them during the hiatus.

>>16567544
Second. Plus barely-dressed females are a classic throne-adornment. Stylish AND functional!

>>16567545

Well to Dorf is already gemmed, so there's not much we can do there.

I do agree we should put the elf to use though, even if it is just as a mind-blanked coin-polisher. There's something wonderfully evil in having her in charge of buffing and polishing the golem containing her previous 'captor'.

Guys? The dragon in front of us?

Quit talking about the elf before WD pulls a Vedibere and has the brass catch a second wind.

>>16567583
alright alright, fine. we'll deal with the problem in front of us...

hmm, i find his sniveling attitude annoying, totally unbecoming of a dragon, not too mention the fact that he sent adventurers to our home, in which they caused significant damage to, threatened to kill our daughter, and were just not polite at all. kill him for being a poor excuse of a dragon is my verdict.

He seems totally legit to me. I think we should sit down and have a leisurely chat.

>>16567547
>That's a horrible idea. It breaks her trust in us and destabilizes her psyche. No. Azyra should be entirely removed from this matter.
It does not break her trust in us. If anything, it builds her trust in us because we're entrusting her with the weighty decision of the fate of the sorcerer, and showing that we believe she'll do the right thing. Also that we respect her opinions, by being willing to debate them with her.

As for destabilizing her psyche, don't make me laugh. She's half dragon (eats people for breakfast) and half devil (literally made of evil). Her psyche would bounce right back from eviscerating a dozen lovers, which is a good thing because she'll need to be evil enough to do that without blinking to make us a proper heir.

Removing her entirely from this matter is just putting things off until the next crush or fad or whatever. It would be a waste not to seize this opportunity to encourage her towards the kind of mostly-rational evil that we attempt to follow.

>>16567583
We already posted things to do about the dragon, and we have a lot of problems to deal with here. WD's not a dick, he won't do something like that.

If you insist, I back seeing if he's got anything interesting to say, then since he won't, we have Watching plumb the depths of his mind for everything he knows, then murder him. Do not involve Tiamat; that's ridiculous. Experimentation would be nice but is probably more work than he's worth.

After he's dead, we have our meeting with the governor and staff, have a constructive talk, and reveal that he was a dragon who was trying to infiltrate our government and work against us, and we disposed of him. Actually, I would love to present them with proof of that somehow, just because it would probably create less doubt and resentment and channel things towards more of a "whoa, dodged a bullet there!" than "why is Lord Prestor murdering that nice chap".

>>16567643
"Now, Azyra, make good on your word! Slay the sorcerer by your own hand!"

"I.. I..."

"Azyra! You don't have to do this!"

"I can't do it daddy!"

*grabs the sorcerer and flies away, eventually leading a rebellion that sees your body broken on the mountainside*

This is what I'm trying to avoid.


On your second part, I agree that we should make up some mock-reason for this. On one hand, outing the brass for what he is would suffice. On the other hand, not many people would kill a good-aligned dragon. It would be admitting that we're evil.

>>16566977
We should have Scinnari and maybe a few others provide medical aide to the Lizard men, so that we can use them for breeding future generations of soldiers, because maybe their genetics are the reason they're good soldier. If their genetics aren't the reason, oh well, we get more cannon fodder.

Other than that, I have no real opinion on the matter of the Bronze, though I do doubt we'll be able to come to an agreement.

>>16567672
>On your second part, I agree that we should make up some mock-reason for this. On one hand, outing the brass for what he is would suffice. On the other hand, not many people would kill a good-aligned dragon. It would be admitting that we're evil.

On the one hand, most people don't know jack-shit about dragons. On the other hand, one of them might, or might remember enough details that someone else could get the information from them later.
Though, we /could/ polymorph him, and keep him alive but restrained and in the form of a Red... Might be a nice thing to put people digging for imformation off track...

>>16567672
Hey, maybe Lord Prestor hates dragons that pretend to be people. That might knock off another dragon for us. It might also not, but I thought I'd throw the idea out there.

>>16567705

So it'd be more 'Lord Prestor has a Red Dragon imprisoned' rather than 'Lord Prestor is a Red Dragon?'

Not sure how many more people we could convince with that.

“What I would have found amenable is if you stayed out of my way and out of my business. I did not even mind you taking residence in the governor’s palace and giving him advice. But no, that wasn't enough for a Brass, was it? You wanted /gossip/.” you sneer. “Wanted to see if the gossip was true. So you send some adventurers off on some fool quest to find out things you already half-knew, and so got them all killed... or worse. And what /si/ worse is the annoying amount of property damage they managed to cuase- something I intend to take out of their benefactor's hide.” You finish ominiously.


“While I can wholeheartedly sympathize with such feelings- I've never been on the receiving end of adventurers myself, but I can imagine it would be most unpleasant. And yes, while I would happily accept interesting news of any sort, there's obviously a limit to which it's downright foolish to cross. Certain information is dangerous, obviously. Probably more dangerous to seek. To be honest I'm quite confused an-” the Brass begins in your miniscule pause. You ignore him and cut him off though.

“You wanted gossip. You wanted to know whether Lord Prestor was more than he appeared? Very well. You may know.” you say, transforming. Levitating in the air, there really isn't a proper way to 'stand' or
orient yourself, but he doesn't seem to find your stance lacking, even going silent for almost five seconds at your transformation.

Or we could just claim that we tied the recent surge of infiltrators to him, and that with him dead the island will be secure. Thanks for their role in this, here's a banquet, yadda yadda. Oh, while we're here, let's discuss items relevant to the empire.

“While quite interesting, if not totally unexpected, I happen to have heard about your kind too, and would quite prefer talk, inste-”

“Talk, as you suggest, will be much more likely if you speak only when spoken to.”. Again, a flat statement on your part, but with plenty of accompanying menace.

“Noted and understood, a sacrifice I'm willing to make.” he replies, cutting off his usual torrent of words shockingly short. It does seem to take a bit of an effort on himself, but perhaps he's getting a hold on himself.

“Now. Do you deny sending adventurers to intrude and spy upon me?” you grate out. “And before you attempt it,” you preempt as he opens his mouth, “I will look most poorly on any sort of grammatical squirming.”. Again, that gives him a moments pause, but that seems mostly to make sure that you're finished and he won't interrupt you.

“I reiterate that I find myself very confused, and must plead either insanity or innocence. I do not recall any significant interaction with adventurers, certainly not hiring any.” he cuts off for half a second, a lengthy pause by his measure, then adds, “Perhaps if you were to provide some sort of time-frame, I might provide an alibi?”

Other pending matters to handle.

Scinnari needs to carry out her threat to the bard. Remember, if you say something like that and don't do it, you're a laughable storybook villain. If you actually carry it out, you're pants-pissingly terrifying. There is no middle ground; Scinnari needs to ensure that we end up on the correct side of that line before she tars our name.

If we can put something on the paladin's golem to block her connection to her god, or at least make it so that she can no longer sense that connection, that would be good. I suspect that the next cleric or paladin to break into our house is going to pop her right out of there if they can, which would be annoying as hell and I'd rather not have her clinging to a divine lifeline until that happens.

Ensure that Scinnari is aware that if she doesn't get Cygnis properly trained- that is, knowing that she's a slave, who she is, and utterly convinced that she genuinely wants to serve Azaladon above all else- we will remove her from that responsibility and handle it ourselves. That bit with the paladin was a miserable failure on Scinnari's part, apparently because she loves torturing our little gold, and she thinks she'll get away with it scott-free. No; from now on we monitor that and demand more solid results.

>>16567672
>This is what I'm trying to avoid.
Considering that they'd be in our base, which even Azyra can't teleport freely inside, and we'd be right there to stop them... I find that highly unlikely. Really, this is a tiny crush that Azyra's ashamed of, not some serious love affair. Some appropriate parental pressure combined with respect and a decent chat about how things stand should be able to get her to stab the guy, even if she's not happy about it.

And if she can't do it, then we just let the matter sit until she can. He can lounge in our dungeons until she works up the guts.

>It would be admitting that we're evil.
If one of our governors and his staff hasn't caught onto that, then he's not competent enough to hold his current position. I mean, seriously, the number of people who directly outrank this guy in our empire can be counted on your fingers.

>>16567747
"I read the minds of the most recent batch, and they explicitly recalled YOU setting them to this task."

Alright guys, I'm going to sleep.

Don't get us killed or outed to the general public. This brass has to die here, now that he knows what we are.

while i don't trust his story another may have framed this dragon to defect attention away from them. State time and demand that he submit to a mind probe.

inform him before that we hate being lied to so he better be as truthful as he can possibly be.

>>16567761

That's showing our hand a bit too much. Rather, we should scan his mind to see if he's fibbing or not. Get Scinnari to 'port Watcher to us.

>>16567748

We'll be sure to work on the first, the second might not be entirely possible but we'll see, and the third probably only requires a single tweak, but we should see results anyway. Next thread, probably.

>>16567747
"How unamusing. Either a lie which appears fairly transparent, or you have been framed with a level of artistry and thoroughness which I have never before seen. We will determine which easily enough; you will submit to a mind probe or I will assume your guilt and rend you limb from limb."

At this point, he willingly submits to a mind probe (both us and Watcher, although of course we don't let him see or hear Watcher) or we rend him limb from limb.

If he's lying, then we have no more purpose for him and we have Watcher learn all his contacts and wealth and then kill him.

If he's telling the truth, then... we have a mystery on our hand.

Really guys, no one wants to try to preserve our elite lizardmens talent? Come on, we could have black ops teams here!

>>16567816

Yes yes, they did well. Candy for all.

yes we will provide medical attention to save our elite team

Bring watcher.
Read mind.

Or tell him to make his mind open for reading if he wants to survive.

“Seeing as literal mind-reading of the the adventurers implicates you, allow me to remain skeptical of your professed innocence.” you reply.

“Yes, I can see that that would be fairly weighty evidence. In that case, there's very little I suppose I can do to prove my-” he says, cutting as you raise your hand.

“Perhaps. Remove your guards. Allow me to determine the... 'truth' of the matter.” you demand. Not quite what you'd expect, but unlike the simpering fool, you can put up with adapting to circumstances. Idly, as you speak you cast a brief detection spell. He lights up in a variety of manners, visible to your sight alone. He is suffering from several minor hexes- You're surprised, honestly, but perhaps he's as weak as he appears, or he was unable to resist at the time- Slowed. His visible injuries are real. A ward against death magic remains around him- Either surviving the barrage of dispells, or reinstated afterwards. Similarly, a mind-ward, perhaps strong enough to block Watcher, perhaps not.

“Ah... Point of order, since I am obviously held in contempt of the 'court', assuming that my mind conflicted with these adventurers, that would hardly be enough evidence to absolve me, would it? I can't imagine a party of adventurers's collective consensus to not outweigh-”

“Seeing as the alternative is being assumed guilty immediately- and, being a liar, having far more net worth deceased- I would advise obedience rather than questioning.” If you didn't have to put up with him for answers, you wouldn't, but he has thrown things into doubt, however small.

“Ah... Allow me to consider. Perhaps... No, never-mind. I... Would have to reluctantly accede.” he prattles. You descend slowly towards him, noting him making a brief gesture presumably to negate his mind ward. You reciprocate, your gesture summoning Watcher to your hand. The crystal pulses with an unfamiliar light, and about twenty feet from the Brass, gives you an answer. You aren't certain, but suspect you detect an undercurrent of amusement in Watcher's chiming 'voice'.

“He is technically truthful. Though he did meet with Alyvia, his recollection of the event suggests he was not attempting to... wine and dine her, I believe. Incidentally, I would suggest that you not hold him in quiet as much contempt as you almost certainly do.” Watcher rings out, obviously an unpleasant surprise to the Brass. “No, not quite.” it adds, apparently to the Brass. “Just be glad your are not a female. I suppose there is, in fact a live way out for you, though I doubt that is it. But by all means, don't let me stop you.” Watcher adds, uncharacteristically chatty.

“There. You have it.” the Brass replies, sounding moderately angry. A gesture seems to raise his wards again, though whether or not sufficient to impede Watcher, you do not know. “As I said. I am innocent, as far as I know. You apparently have conflicting memories from the adventurers, as I predicted. Your artifact has confirmed it. Is this sufficient to absolve me? As you stated you have no other grudge against me, assuming that I am innocent of this claim.”

>>16568080

Well well wellity well. What shall we do with him now? We'd look silly to let him go. But heck, I couldn't be bothered murdering him in the first place. On the other hand, he knows we're a Red now...on the other-other hand, everyone sort-of-knows anyway.

Decisions decisions...

Well, we can't let him just go.

He knows of our nature and for some reason we let him see Watcher and how it operates.

Perhaps we could make him into a personal agent like Nehmeska...

But that is for later. We still need to figure out what happened and who was behind this operation.

Tell him to give you full co-operation investigating the matter and perhaps we will spare him.

I suggest offering reparations and possible employment, as well offering aid in his schemes.

He seems fairly reasonable and frankly allies are a lovely thing.

Haven't been paying much attention to this thread but I'm pretty sure you guys violated one of the rules on the Evil Overlord List. Shame on you people.

>>16568149
Further, if he has enough humility to act like a weasel to try and get us to underestimate him, which we can't know for certain he was doing but teh ol' gal Watcher seems to suggest, he could be quite valuable, possibly even unique, for a dragon.

>>16568149
>I suggest offering reparations and possible employment, as well offering aid in his schemes.

So long as we don't have to talk to him directly...

>>16568149

This is true enough. I think he'll be a less charming kind of annoying than Nehmeska is if we treat him as such, though.

>>16568174
but we can get our minions to talk to him for us

It seems we're both being played in this little game. Obviously, this third party either expected informational success, or success in our reprisal killing of this Brass, possibly a rival within the city walls.

We shall explain this to him, and I would suggest we offer a compact- look into this together and we'll consider the matter dealt with.

>>16568208

I'm okay with this.

One of them's a power-hungry Red who turns powerful women into playthings.
The other's a cocky-mouthed Brass who can talk all the way to the bedroom.

Together, they fight corruption.

>>16568080
"It is not impossible that you altered your own memories to shield yourself from just this eventuality. I find it more likely, however, that someone decided you would make an excellent patsy. Annoying. Killing you would perhaps lessen their wariness as I attempt to trace them back... but it would feel distastefully like being played. I don't think I shall.

"I do expect your full and committed aid in discovering the true identity of whomever dispatched agents to assault my lair in your guise, and subsequently in killing them- though perhaps after a somewhat more extensive and forceful interrogation than you have just experienced. Are you amenable to this? I daresay you have little reason to refuse.

"With that, and the understanding that both of us are familiar with the concept of necessary discretion, I believe we are done here. Please do not tarry too long in your arrival for the week's discussion; I would hate for the future of Mza's southern regions to be determined without the benefit of your sage and so very well arranged advice."


>>16568149
>reparations
No. We were entirely justified in our actions and owe him nothing.

>>16568312
>It is not impossible that you altered your own memories to shield yourself from just this eventuality.

Is it possible to check for such things?
It is not entirely out of the question that the 3rd party did that to him either.

privet ask watcher exactly what was his relationship with the adventures and how someone could have crafted this misdirect.

Also state that unfortunately while our wrath is apparently misdirected we will need insurance that he won't tell all about who we really are (hard for a brass dragon). Either threw spell or collar. Also see if we can get the dragon too work for us. not sure if infernal compact or magic will work if they fail we can work out an arrangement perhaps.

>>16568312
Yes but he is less likely to hold a grudge, i.e. that thing Dragons are well known for and that we have personally indulged in time and time again, if we just give him a something to make up for injuring him quite a bit.

Even if we do it grudgingly he's still less likely to be an enemy in the future if we give him some trinket. Fuck, it can be a simple favor or two, such as aid for his scheming.

>>16568346
Can we alter memories if he submits so that he doesn't remember our form or the Watcher?

>>16568398
We could kick him upstairs where we can keep a better eye on him, and (ostensibly) apologize with the 'promotion'.

After some IRC discussion, I'm increasingly thinking that the brass is too dangerous to be allowed to act freely in the medium to long term. To play this safe we'll need to kill him off. It's a shame, but leaving him alive or trying for an alliance is ridiculously arrogant of us, thinking that we're in a position of absolute power when it's clear that he's still mouthing off and thinking that he can make a fight of it.

We should kill him, Watcher gets us a line on his loot, and we try to trace this back to the real source afterward without his aid.

>>16568443
Why not make him sign soul/blood contract so that if he gets out of the line we can kill him at any moment.

>>16568456
Because those have to be entered into willingly.

After prolonged chat on IRC I have determined that it would be stupid to corral the Brass if we desired his assistance and that he's a well-meaning enough chap to deal with on a fair basis without having to murder him.

I'm not sure if we need to butter him up any after this rough-housing, but it might do well, and perhaps we can listen to him directly if he has any suggestions over improving the Ivory Gates as a settlement. Also, if we don't dick him over, he's less likely to dick us over, given the misunderstanding and common sense of vengeance/justice that we both share.

>>16568473
That's all very well, but we /need/ an assurance he won't run his mouth, he's a Brass FFS, their entire schtick is running their mouth about things. We do /not/ want him mouthing off about Watcher, who knows what kind of shit that could get us in. Crazy Binder cults, ho!

“As the good artifact would seem to suggest, somebody is playing one or both of us. Either someone, possibly including you, modified your memory, the paladin I have apprehended had her memory modified.”

“I am obviously inclined to suspect the blame lies beyond me.” the Brass begins. “I don't suppose your wonderful little artifact can confirm or deny?” He is obviously unhappy, and sounds moderate resentful, reasonably so, you grudgingly concede, at having his mind ransacked.

“I cannot confirm a negative. I do not believe I see any signs of meddling in your mind, yours or otherwise. You do not appear to me to be the kind to try such a thing, but were you willing to try initially, and very thorough, that would obviously be so. My advice is obviously worthless under these conditions.”

“Agreed. Very well. Assuming you are not- Presuming that it was not me, I would assume that the person who hired the paladin indulged in mental modification expressly to prevent it from being traced back to them. Their desire was presumably your death, the adventurer's successful return with information, or their failure and my death. Or simply their death; mine could have been incidental, if they simply didn't care. “ the Brass continues, speaking as rapidly as usual, but in a slightly distracted manner, as if following someone else's train of thought. “Or, of course, this wall predicted and it's a more elaborate frame of whoever we are supposed to find. I don't know anyone off the top of my head who wants you dead and would work through both adventurers and me. I don't know anyone who would attempt to excavate dirt on you and pin it on me as a fallback. I know a few individuals who would be eager to dance on my grave, even a few that would be happy to arrange it in such an indirect manner. I know you know them too, apparently.” he adds with revulsion, eying Watcher. Valid, you suppose.

“True enough.” Watcher says shortly, with perhaps a hint of smugness. “Beware. As she said.” Obviously some sort of reference based on her- it's knowledge of his mind. He scowls at the crystal, then turns his attention back to you.

“Indeed. And I can't guess as to who a more elaborate plot would be used to implicate, let alone who would have instigated it. You, then, have far more information than I do. More resources too, apparently, even if they are occasionally misdirected-” he allows the briefest of smiles, perhaps with a hint of arrogance to it. “but the remaining issue would be me. You can obviously kill me should you so desire. There's a small but non-zero chance that I may be able to kill, cripple, or otherwise leave such a route unacceptable to you. You can allow me to leave- I know what many suspect, but that's hardly ground-breaking. I know that you have encountered and defeated adventurers- But as your artifact would tell you, I don't feel strongly enough to act on such information, and further, feel wronged enough by this plot not to spread the information around, lest it assist my unseen assailant. Or assailants. You can attempt to gain some leverage over me- But you would be aware that that would make you a genuine threat and hostile force beyond what this 'misunderstanding' entails. You have a variety of flavors of 'leverage', you have a variety of flavors of 'kill', 'imprison', and, of course, the option to trust me. As of yet, I am more upset at whoever would use me as ablative plot-armor, or even attempt to use you to assassinate me. All of this, not to mention my inability to leave this chamber, would leave the decision in your claws, whether or not to trust me. Which, of course, as previously state, you can very well check.” he says, a brief gesture towards Watcher with the tip of his tail. His face is carefully impassive as he finally winds down, awaiting your judgement.

i think he would be more useful as a Allie. Also we need him to investigate into who the heck is behind our pain in the ass adventure infestation.

forgot to add ask for watcher input.

Archived:
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/16562313/

Well, seems to be a night. Email's SK.Mockery@yahoo.com, (same as always, really,) and of course, I'll be checking the thread when I wake up. (Thanks for the archiving.)

Obviously, I'll need votes on what to do with your captive here, and what should be seen to next thread (at least within the OP.) Some suggestion has been made toward finishing the golem, and finishing of the captives, possibly with Azyra's help.

Really, you guys ought to know the routine by now. See you next thread, which, barring violently exceptional circumstances, will be on a Saturday. The next, or perhaps some after it.

I vote to finish the golem, and delay dealing with the brass dragon, citing a need for time to think and decide.

Think Watcher is lying. She knows what we do to our enemies and she's trying to save the brass by backing up his claims of innocence.

I think we need a second opinion. All this talk of taking the brass as a minion is getting away from the fact that he is still our most likely suspect for hiring those adventurers. And it's entirely likely that he and Watcher are playing us for a fool, in which case they both need to be suitably punished.

Watcher is definitely lying.

Tend to the wounded lizardfolk. Reward the survivors for a job well done.
Finish the golem with Azyra.
Kill and magma the sorcerer.
Continue trying to turn the elf.
Keep the brass locked away in that pit.
Have a chat with Scinnari updating her on things with the brass. Ask her for a way to independently confirm that Watcher is in fact lying. Because she definitely is.

>>16568538
There is only one thing that can ensure that he doesn't run his mouth off. We kill him.

Seems pretty legit. Let him go. We might even get ourselves a metallic bro here. And for all we know, we'll need backup when investigating whatever this is. He doesn't have peers he stays in close contact with, and certainly isn't stupid enough to run his mouth to humans. Let him go, perhaps tip him off that the governor is considering offering him the gov's daughter's hand, as mentioned up there. As long as he's on the level with us, we shouldn't mind to much, and it's a hint at effective promotion for him.

Personally, I think we should add to Nehmeska's commands to also keep an eye out and follow leads for that magibitch, Attor, or something. Let's continue to cockblock or cause her inconvenience when/whereever the opportunity arises.

Next thread should open with completing our golem. I think wings, perhaps a glyph of timelessness for it's occupant, perhaps to remove her need/ability to sleep, and, of course, to enable her sight. And let's hurry, it'd be a shame to keep her waiting.

Azyra should be made to see the truth of her would-be suitor's Horrible, Shocking, Womanizing Behavior, and Shallow, Manipulative Intent behind his Fake Kindness to her. Plant thoughts if we need to, or simply allow her to view through a slightly modified mind-scan spell. Ideally she'll be angry enough to do it herself, but if she doesn't want to, we can handle it then for her.

Either way, perhaps we should soul-trap him, as one more diode on the soul-circuit-of-torment other people were suggesting we add to the golem.


We definitely need to find Azyra some appropriate material for a boy-toy. Keep an eye out for something.

>>16569131
> Seems pretty legit

Assuming you trust Watcher.

Which is a terrible idea. She is a creature of chaos, further bound to sow even more chaos than she was already inclined to. Moreover, we know that she is uncomfortable with our crueler methods, and has no doubt (rightfully) guessed that we would be less than kind to the brass if we believed that he was behind hiring those adventurers to come after us. So she's lying to cover for his ass. Which given that she's a brass who hasn't seen a member of her own kind in some thousands of years, the majority of which she's spent in solitude, she might fancy.

Simply put, nothing Watcher tells us regarding the brass is trustworthy. She's inclined to lie to us for far too many reasons. We need a second opinion.

>>16569131
Oh, and voting to turn the elf into our dutiful hoard-polisher. And if our lair is hot enough that she has to wear little clothing, well, more's the pity.

>>16569207
But we have been trusting Watcher. For months, at least. And if she's covering for him, he's an excellent actor- he certainly seems pissed as hell at her, and she seems to be mocking him. She wouldn't warn us not to hold him in contempt if she wanted to save him, either!

What cruel fate is she saving him from anyway? We were just going to kill him and mutilate the body. We barely even mentioned soul-sacrifice, she had nothing particularly cruel to fear on his behalf, even assuming she gives a damn.

>>16569029
That's retarded, killing him would be wasteful in the extreme. There are /far/ better things to do with him than that, whether we trust him or not.

already stated my opinion we need him as an Allie but need some sort of garrenty he won't talk. maybe a geas, modifying memory,or a contingency spell that will mess him over if he crosses us. take our time and ask watcher what she thinks (gauge is she is fully telling the truth).

As for the paladin why limit the golum's life span to a human's. We can use magic to suspend the paladin's aging while inside. Like the idea of it being able to shape shift as well and possibly regenerate. If we can get it to fly even better. As for it's shape we are very vain so it would look probably like some sort of draconic humanoid using other metals for coloration. Add all the standard features: scry it easily, can't be scryed, and can communicate telepathically with it. Add an option where we can teleport the golum to us at any time, and if destroyed it will teleport the paladin to a holding cell.


While the safest thing to do would be to lock the golum away in our treasure room. I kind of think it would be a wast of a good minion. Tempted to take it on a test run. If we really want to mess with the palidin's head we can still communicate with her and we are the only ones she will ever be able to talk to. If we want to go carrot/stick we can use temporary free will as a reward (under our watch) and sensory derivation as a punishment.

As for the sorcerer, we need to talk to Azyra about him; last thing we need is her to do something seriously rebellious (she is a teenager now). Some ideas are polymorphing him into some sort of pet for Azyra, breaking him for Azyra, enchanting him and pulling some sort of shot gun marriage. Azyra needs to grow up and i liked the idea of letting her decide what to do with him (with us of course having contingency plans).

As for the elf slowly bend her to our will we always can use more assassins. Also get more info on her as she may have information more useful in the future, like clues about their true employers.

>>16569233
> And if she's covering for him, he's an excellent actor- he certainly seems pissed as hell at her, and she seems to be mocking him. She wouldn't warn us not to hold him in contempt if she wanted to save him, either!

First off, she can be both mocking him and covering for him at the same time. The two are not mutually exclusive. Dragons for you.

Second, she is a liar and manipulator by trade. That is the entire reason that the Binder kept her around. And she has easily a thousand years of experience on us, even if you don't include the time she spent in isolation. Of course she's a good actor!

>>16569233
I'm more interested to see if we can turn the assassin into an actually semi-loyal minion. I think we should try the carrot and see how that goes before doing anything to drastic with her.

>>16569233
> But we have been trusting Watcher. For months, at least.
Regarding issues that she has been less inclined to lie about. The difference is that now she has more reason to lie, and thus is more likely to be lying. Enough that we need to double check before we do something dumb like letting the brass go.

And we've historically been cruel enough to other dragons that we've beaten that Watcher has objected in the past to our methods. She knows that we would be quite cruel to the brass if we knew that he had hired those adventurers. Selling his soul to the hells would be one possibility. Giving him to Scinnari would be another. Keeping him around as a guinea pig for our life draining experiments would be another. We have done all of those to other dragons in the past.

Though you might want to trust Watcher, the fact remains that she has plenty of motives to lie in this case.

>>16569360
Or we could just, you know, kill the sorcerer? Thoroughly obliterate him. Don't tell Azyra until after the fact. She'll get over it eventually, she already seems suitably ashamed, so if he's dead and gone she'll be able to work through those feelings eventually (perhaps with a little help from us).

Incidentally, we really need to see about getting her a boyfriend who isn't trying to kill us.

Keeping the sorcerer around is probably a bad idea. The paladin is already a serious indulgence on our part, I don't think we should push our luck by keeping even more meddlesome (and competent) adventurers around.

>>16569399
>Incidentally, we really need to see about getting her a boyfriend who isn't trying to kill us.

Well, we could just... "fix" the sorceror. We did it for her familiar, after all.

>implication rkurity
Captcha seems to have an opinion on this, though what it is I couldn't say...

>>16569483
I think we spoil her enough as it is. Giving her every little toy she wants isn't a good way to raise a child.

I think we should offer the bronze a geas like we did with the silver.
If he's willing to take a geas, we could order him to find those who want both of us dead.

I think we have to assume that Watcher is telling the truth. If we assume she is lying, then we are in DEEP shit, since pretty much everything we have done for the last few years has been based off her actions. Still, I'd like to know more about what she said to the Brass.

Am I the only one suspecting that the mage bitch who kicked off that war a while back could be behind this? We never did catch her.

Of course, option 2 is that the Binder is aware of our plans and throwing wrenches into them.

Option 3 is that we've managed to unknowingly make ourselves ANOTHER enemy. Joy.

Option 4... whoever Nemmy encountered and was looking for the missing gold (Cygnis?) set this one up and is watching the Brass to see if he mysteriously disappears, thus giving him a clue who in the region is powerful enough to make dragons disappear.

For now, heal the Brass and mindwipe/get him to swear an oath of secrecy in return for his life. Put him back in place so that if anyone IS watching, he doesn't just disappear.

Also, find out who Nemmy was 'entertaining' and the nature of their relationship. Might reveal something or give us leverage over her when her term of service expires.

>>16570462
> I think we have to assume that Watcher is telling the truth. If we assume she is lying, then we are in DEEP shit, since pretty much everything we have done for the last few years has been based off her actions. Still, I'd like to know more about what she said to the Brass.

No, stop that. You don't get it, this isn't a binary thing. It's not "oh, if she's lying about something now, then that means she must be lying about EVERYTHING." It's a case of "well, this time around she has more motivation to lie than usual, so it's probable that she's lying about this specific thing."

It is highly likely that she would lie to cover for the brass. She dislikes it when we are excessively cruel, and knows that if we believed that the brass was behind hiring the adventurers, we would probably torture him horribly, or sell his soul to the hells, or do some other terrible thing to him. So in this case she is more likely to be lying than usual.

Also, before I forget to mention it,
> swear oaths
> brass
That's a good one.

This isn't Nehmeska we're dealing with.