>>43235697

“I got caught…” He sulks as he walks to your side.

“You did well enough to gather the information that you did.” You cross your arms. “The only problem would be if the most important stuff was saved for the end.”

He mulls over your words for quite some before speaking again. “I don’t fear you.” He states calmly.

“You should.” You shoot back immediately and wrap his neck with your arm.

You hardly put any thought into The Broodmother’s comment about fear, but if what she says is true, then who else could it be besides you?

He smiles to himself and continues. “You’re not afraid of anyone, but it's easier to get what you want when you pretend to be someone that you're not, right?

You loosen your grip slightly. "That's right." You reply quietly.

"Then when is this all going to be over?..." He asks with unknown emotion in his voice.

>"Soon, trust me."

>"Why? Are you getting tired of pretending?

>Write in,

>>43235778
>"Why? Are you getting tired of pretending?"

>>43235778
>>"Soon, trust me."

>>43235876
dont be a dick.

if anyone deserves niceness its Izu

>>43235778
>>"Soon, trust me."

>>43235899
Don't be a liar.

>>43235697
I will be unable to participate soon so I hope more people get here soon.

Don't want anymore canceled threads.

>>43235778
>"Soon, trust me."
>>43235899
>>43235921
There's no winning guys calm down

>>43235921
It is going to end soon.

Auri has confirmed it, Aya fight and Broodmother fight and Ursurper fight are end game tier and they're just around the corner.

Hello and welcome to a very unusually timed thread!

>>43235928
That's perfectly fine! It seems that there's a good amount of people here already.


>>43235883
>>43235913
>>43235932
Simple words.

>Writing~

>>43235947
This disgusts me with how meta it is.

>>43235972
We know that once we deal with the Broodmother and take Ayas place we're pretty much set. We can kinda relax for a bit.

No one will think about fucking with us after that. As long as we don't start mass murdering all over the place.

>>43235996
Until izu tries to stop us because were actually the worst of all.

>>43235996
We don't know in character that we'll off the Usurper soon. Therefore I asked Izu if he was tired of staying close to her and acting like this. There was no meanness in it, and you should stop assuming options are bad because you didn't pick them.

>>43236033
>We don't know in character that we'll off the Usurper soon.
Yea we do, that's kind of our entire goal. the reason we have an army, the reason we plan on ursurping Aya.

>>43236016
I might have to bitch slap Auri for pulling a Shamalan.

You know, unless we kind of deserve it, like the whole mass murdering thing. Or at least doing it without reason.

But it would take a helluva lot for Izu to turn on us for any reason other than plot.

>>43236051
Except we don't have an army, unless you count the tiny force gathered by Grievy. We have plans to get one, which we not only haven't carried out, but haven't even set a start date for. Stop deluding yourself. It is our goal, yes. Do all goals get fufilled "soon"? No.

>>43235967

“Soon, trust me.” You hold on to him for another moment before releasing him.

He straightens himself out and smiles back at you. “Then it will be easy!”

You nod confidently. “It will, so come on.” You wave for him to follow you. “The battle isn’t going to take place here, it seems.”

~

The conversation between The Empress and The Broodmother has long since ended, and The Empress has stopped the army’s march entirely. She isolated herself into her tent as she prepares a new plan for what lies ahead.

It does seem strange to you, however, that The Broodmother would reveal her plans to use another one of those beings against you. Is it a bluff, or is she so confident that there’s nothing The Empress could do to stop her at this point?

“E-excuse me.” A small voice calls out from beyond the general commotion of the army to your own tent.

Izu certainly doesn’t ask permission to enter and that voice has a certain familiarity to it that you can surmise who it is.

“You can enter.” You call out.

[1/2]

>>43236569

A small cloaked figure enters your tent a few moments later and then removes her hood. Vicki stands before you with exhaustion clear on her face.

She quickly starts. “When you said that you were going to take care of Philomena, wh-what you did wasn’t what I had in mind when I reported back to Madam Ali.”

You stand. “My meaning was quite clear. When I take care of someone, it’s always to keep problems from arising in the future.”

Emotions swim through her face before she settles on defeated. “W-we all have to be careful wh-when we act. It’s not just you who’s at risk.” She mumbles.

“The only thing here to tie me back to it is you.” You glower before continuing. “Nobody even truly suspects me. Virgil’s suspicion about me would jump on anything, speaking of…”

She takes a moment to catch you meaning before nodding fervently and then looking up to remember her report. “Our search has found nothing in his actions that could hurt you, but it seems that he has been meeting with an unknown person in secret for perhaps several weeks now. No information about that unknown person has been gathered yet.”

You sincerely doubted that you were the only one who acted in the shadows, but Virgil did well to seem straight-laced.

“M-madam Ali wants to know how you wish to continue on that.” She quietly adds.

If their report is correct, and his plans aren’t going to get in your way, then investigating him would be a waste of time. On the other hand, some blackmail could be helpful in the future.

>Have them drop their investigation on Virgil.

>Have them continue their investigation.

>Write in.

>>43236606

>Have them drop their investigation on Virgil.
Would be better to find more advantages against the Usurper. We need all we can get.

>>43236606
>>43236698
Seconding.

>>43236698
>>43236764
Changing focus.

>Writing~

>>43236796

You wave your hand. “Forget about him. Turn that time towards our final goal.”

She absorbs your words and nods when they’ve stuck. “Understood.” Her expression focuses as she remembers something else. “Once this particular campaign is finished Madam Ali wants to talk to you in earnest about plans for ending The Usurper.”

“Fair enough. It’s not like I planned on remaining in this realm any longer than I have to.” You reply. “Is that all?”

She shakes her head zealously. “There’s some more…” She quietly tries to remember everything else. “Councilmember Disgur never returned to Impel after departing from the army. All that we know is from a note that he sent ahead saying that he was looking in on some investments and would arrive at the end of that day.”

Disgur is not one to shirk on his responsibilities to The Empress, meaning that something or someone was capable enough to keep him from making it back to Impel. Those investments of his might have brought him more returns than he was asking for.

You turn and think for a moment. “Then someone needs to be reassigned to assist Ali in the defense of Impel.”

Vicki shakes her head once again, messing up her hair even more. “The Kyraen’Asils army has not been spotted at all.”

You turn back immediately. “Now is their only chance to attack and they’re not seizing that opportunity?”

Vicki shrinks away from you. “I-I’m telling the truth.”

Then Aya abandoned her ally to fight this war on her own. If she’s relying on the seal keeping you out from Kyraen’Asils, she’s made a grave mistake. Then the question is, is she actually relying on that or something else entirely?

[1/2]

>>43237500

“The last thing…” Vicki continues quietly. “The human forces have finally begun to make a move. They’ve devoted most of their forces toward rooting out a small group of people.”

They’re sending out thousands of soldiers all for one small group of people. They must be quite the threat.

“Just who are they seeking?” You ask impatiently.

“A number of former Occultists from the guilds and many others who’ve decided to join up with your former apprentice.” She reports factually.

Two options there, and one of them is incredibly more likely than the other.

“Marissa.” You state flatly.

Vicki calmly nods. “She’s seen as quite the threat, even though she hasn’t really done anything serious to them.”

Yet more people join the stage.

“T-The report is finished. Where do you think we should turn our attention?” She asks the last questions with reluctance clear on her voice.

There’s plenty of options to choose from, but at this point, what seems to be the most important? And what can you focus on yourself?

>Have them turn their full attention towards plans on defeating The Empress.

>Have them investigate Disgur’s disappearance.

>Have them investigate Aya’s potential plans.

>Have them investigate The Chosen One's decision to pursue Marissa.

>Write in.

>>43237527
>Have them turn their full attention towards plans on defeating The Empress.

Disgur is kinda scary, but Usurpy is scarier

>>43237527
>Have them turn their full attention towards plans on defeating The Empress.
Everything else can be dealt with after

>>43237595
>>43237664
Setting sights on the largest goal.

>Writing~

>>43237718

In case you don’t have the time to think later, now should be the moment you start setting the stage for your ultimate goal.

“Focus entirely on plans for defeating The Empress.” You state quietly. “What lies after the end of this campaign might just force our hand, and it’d be best if we knew just what we had to do.”

Vicki breathes a soft sigh of relief. “I-if that’s the case then this was the last of these reports you’ll be getting from me.”

“Disappointed?” You ask, skeptically.

Vicki lets out a strange snort of laughter from sheer rejection of the thought, then goes silent once again. “I was told to thank you for your contribution toward our plans…”

You shake your head. “You can go back without, as a parting gift.”

At first she appears quite confused at your words before nodding enthusiastically one last time, and in less than a blink of an eye, she’s gone from sight.

~

Time passes tensely as the army continues to wait for The Empress to give her next orders. You’re tempted to step inside her tent to see what exactly she’s been keeping you waiting for.

[1/2]

>>43238481

“This sucks… We we’re making such good progress too.” Justina whines as the two of you look over the army from your transport construct.

You can’t say that you completely disagree with that sentiment, nonetheless there’s good enough reason to stop and think before you march off to deal with another one those ancient beings

Justina stretches and groans loudly. “Ugh.” She turns to stare at you for a few seconds. “Say, I’ve been meaning to ask you where you got your blood before all this stuff with The Empress started.”

Just how common the knowledge of what vigor leeches are capable of is still unknown to you.

“I had my sources.” You reply frankly.

“Oh come now!” She gesticulates vigorously. “I don’t think you’re the kind to slash and drain.” She holds her chin in her hand. “To be honest I wasn’t either, but it made all the work of creating my dolls so much easier in the end…” She turns back to you. “Anyway, I’m no idiot when it comes to these kinds of things.”

You smile to yourself.

She continues. “I’ve heard rumors of concentrated tablets that could turn regular water to blood, but they’ve always been just that. So if you know more about that, then I’d be willing to trade something for it.”

“If that were the case, what did you have in mind to trade?” You hide your interest.

“I’ve been theorizing that those tablets could be used as a long time source energy. Meaning that a doll or flesh creature, for example, that could self-regenerate for a long period of time.” She slides her hair out of her face. “I could make you a flesh creature more capable than anything that’s been created so far, if you want.”

This isn’t even involving the favor that she promised you earlier, so is this piece of information you have worth what she promises?

>Accept the trade.

>Decline to trade.

>Write in.

Calling it now, Virgil works for aya or her late father. And has been focusing on us to discern our motivations.
>>43238523
>>Accept the trade.

>>43238523
>>Accept the trade.

>>43238523
>Accept the trade.

>>43238608
>>43238632
>>43238638
The trade is good.

If you wish, you may post ideas about how you want the flesh creature to turn out, and it it's not outlandish/unimplementable I might add it.

>Writing~

>>43238715
Make it faceless. Preferably thought controlled, but voice or power is good too.
Make the hands really tough bone blade/shards.

>>43238715
Make it super hot and muscular and give it Laurent's face.

and a huge dick

>>43238715
>>43238765
I agree with faceless. We want a bodyguard, not a personality.

>>43238715
Strong muscle, high twitch speed, blood or magic sense of nearby creatures, innate magic resistance, claws that are incredibly sharp, but has the coordination to use them without slashing something open it doesn't want too.

>>43238715
>>43238765
Seconding this, faceless is good

>>43238715

“I accept. I was getting tired of speaking in hypotheticals with you anyway.” You reply and then proceed to give Justina all the information you have about Vigor Leeches and where she might be able to find some.

She feverishly writes down the important details as she listens to every word that you have to say.

“Something so simple…”She snaps her small notebook shut. “You wouldn’t have any that I could test out do you?”

~

It’s been quite a long time since you’ve had to bring them out, but it seems that all of them have survived your long journey thus far.

Justina holds one close to her eye for inspection. “So much energy in such a compact space.” Her hands suddenly motion for something out of sight.

Suddenly, from the ground behind her, a massive tower of raw flesh bursts into sight.

She quickly waves off the roused troops. “I’ve kept it around since our last battle. Never when you might just need it...” She informs you before quickly grabbing the rest of the blood tablets and going into a sort of Necromantic trance. “The raw flesh needs to be refined and purified.”

The huge mass of flesh begins to steam and loss much of its volume, but what remains seems much more vivid and potent than anything you’ve fought with in this realm. It all collects into a hovering sphere.

“Shape…”Justina drops the blood tablets intermittently throughout the swirling ball of flesh. “Wash away the last of the impurities, dry, crystallize.”

[1/2]

File: fleshC6.jpg (138 KB, 695x950)

138 KB JPG

>>43239596

Dark yellow and brown steam bursts from the surface the flesh and shoot high into the air and the flesh cools into a deep purple color. It morphs before your eyes, rudimentary limbs stretching out from the ball and slowly gaining their proper shape. The core of sphere hardening and stretching into a monstrous torso from which the arms hang. One last shoot reaches upwards and twists into an atrocious head.

The flesh creature kneels before you, but still towers over you. Planted by two massive legs, its torso holds six additional limbs, four of which resembling powerful arms, the last two stretching into sharp claws of bone.

“Done.” Justina gasps, out of breath. “Not my preference, but it’s perfect in its own way. Of course it’s much stronger and faster than any other flesh creature, but the energy density within it will should let it detect any other flesh creatures in the area.

It’s claw trap head snaps open and it lets out a horrifying screech out into the air.

“Now I just need to hand it off to you, but…” She turns to you. “Know that its energy density could be taken advantage of by a knowledgeable opponent, such as myself." She continues. "I could split off the blood tablets randomly throughout its body, but that would lower its overall longevity. By how much? I don't know, but it should still last you at least a month. Your choice.”

>Keep it as it is.

>Have her disperse the blood tablets.

>Write in.

>>43239683
>Have her disperse the blood tablets.

and a way to add more to top it off as need be.

>>43239683
>Have her disperse the blood tablets.
We probably won't need it after a month from now anyways.

>>43239683

>Have her disperse the blood tablets.
We can up our necromancy studies to learn how to maintain and renew it ourselves.

>>43239721
>>43239738
>>43239760
The shorter wick.

>Writing

>>43239873
The liability of having the energy concentrated into a single place isn’t something you want to worry about at this time.

“Spread the tablets.” You order, decisively.

“Got it.” Justina responds with a thumbs up and turns to channel her aura throughout the creature. “Shit…”She suddenly lets out an exasperated sigh. “This is going to take a bit of time.”

You immediately turn to leave. “Good luck with that.” You laugh lightly as the barrage of obscenities fades from your ear.

~

This waiting has gone on long enough, with you out of the loop at least. So resolutely, you turn toward The Empress’s tent, determined to at the very least learn of what her plans are thus far.

You approach the entrance just as The Empress finally steps out.

“Just the person I wanted to find.” She comments, distractedly.

You bow deeply. “I await your orders, my Empress.”

“You’ll get them soon enough…” She starts off on a slow path toward the end of the army’s camp. “However, there are some things you need to know before we continue.”

You dutifully follow her route.

[1/2]

>>43240563

“When we were sealing away those old beings, there were a small number of them that stood out as something much more troublesome than their kin. We feared them the most, and they took the most of us.” Her piercing eyes are locked on the dusty ground ahead of her. “The one we dealt with under Impel Palace was one of them..."She pauses. "Unfortunately, it is the weakest of these special ones.”

You have a strong suspicion about where this is going.

“Ip’Suran, or whatever they’re calling it in this age, was without a doubt, a painful and costly endeavor to seal away. But the one that monster spoke of…makes me glad that I no longer have the need to sleep.” She stops as you reach the end of the camp. “The Dreamer, as we called it, is both the key to making it to the core of the planes, and now one of the last legitimate threats to our goals.”

She continues. “Now that it’s been released as a weapon, we need to be ready for it.” She turns to you with the utmost severity in her eyes. “You’re going to help me bind Ip’suran’s full being into my mind.”

~

>>43240587
Okay, that's where I'm going to end it for today, because my day isn't done yet, but I want to thank everyone that made it out to play at this unusual time!

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them in the thread, and I will do my best to respond to them. (Which won't be for very long today.)

If not, then I wish you a good day/night, and hope to see you again next time! (Which should be tomorrow.)

>(Twitter)
https://twitter.com/QM_Auri

>>43240587
Well this will either go very well or doom us. She must really trust us to do this, or is making a play since Izu got found. Why didn't she say anything?

>>43240614
Thanks for running, since you started running earlier than usual, i was actually able to vote the last time. Woo!

Also, as a question, what is our current opinion of The Empress?
Will there ever be something in the future that might change our mind about her and not want to kill her or destroy her power and instead just join up with her/have her serve us?

>>43240661
Why? Her goal is pretty much the destruction of everything.

>>43240684
>Her goal is pretty much the destruction of everything.
Not really? Isn't it more in the way of "take over everything"?

>>43240640
She didn't say anything in front of The Broodmother because she felt that it wasn't her place to introduce him to the enemy. If that's what you're referring to.
>>43240661
You're very welcome! That was one of my hopes when starting today.

Your current opinion is that she's going to stand in the way of what you want and needs to be dealt with, plus there are plenty of negative emotions hanging around for having to play as the servant. Something drastic would need to happen in the future to change your mind about that, and even more so, if she's going to join up with you after.

>>43240714
She wants to get past the ancillary manta, to get at more of those old ones. if she fails, she's already said everyone is dead. Furthermore to here, domination and dominion of everything is her right. I can't see her and Sophia co-existing.

>>43240614
thx 4 runin budi gud thred


>>43240684
>>43240714
I thought all we knew about her goal was that it involved getting past the Ancillary Manta.

>>43240743
That'd mean we'd have to make her succeed, yeah... I dunno, i just like her character, but don't see any way right now that would make us like her in character...

>>43240760
You're very welcome!

>>43240760
>I thought all we knew about her goal was that it involved getting past the Ancillary Manta.
I think she wanted to take over what's there or whatever, but after that basically chill and rule with Sophia as her successor or something. I might remember it wrong.

>>43240760
We asked what'd happen if she failed, and she said something along the lines of No one would be around long enough to know.

>>43240786
pretty much

>>43240819
will there be anything to rule over after she's done? that is if we settle for rulling

Okay, I'll be stepping out for today. Until next time!

>>43240850
Well, from how it sounded, she thought it wouldn't change anything outside of the Manta thing and just make her stronger or something. Once again, i might remember it wrong...

whelp, been a while since I missed a thread entirely

>>43240884
She could be lying, ya know.