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Giving one last abyssal look to the defeated spirit you emit with an undercurrent of amusement, just as it regains some of its senses, that if it continues to stymie your own goals you’ll do much worst to it next time Flitting your view to refocus on Davidge in the twilight shadows under the great canopy you feel his nervous emanations as he walks unsteadily ahead. You’ve little patience for the idea having your commitment betrayed by his mortal weakness and so lurch the fading night forward and around his form, pressuring your solid searing darkness into firm coalescence alongside his shadows.

Churning jungle dirt in his wake you forward him along the cut path with little grace, forcing his movements with harsh nightwreathed momentum, the trees and ferns shearing into a dusky blur as you aid his movements far past mortal limitations. You feel the focused emanations of your Aniunakei pursuer’s, they’ve grown uncertain but continue with haste along the great limbs of the fungi jungle. They’re much faster than both your pirate accorded and Uluwehi, and though you emit nothing outwardly you feel a small dread grow within you as the pirate seems to weaken from exertion with sudden panting, but regain confidence as you see the well-lit entrance to his cove.

There’re several guards now, unlike last time, affixed with tight masks upon their mouths and rousing themselves from half-attentions as they see Davidge wreathed in shadows bounding madly past the many torches the entrance. Noticing the emanations of your pursuers end outside the cave in frustration you free the blue faced pirate from your shadows and deposit yourself unseen in his shadows just as one of the astonished guards removes his cloth mask roughly.

“Captain,” he stammers, “what the hell was that?” He looks down at your sweating panting accorded, who only puts up a high raised arm with one raised finger alongside an emanation of victory.

“That is the power I came to these islands to obtain,” he fails to exclaim, stammering more than other as he rises unsteadily to his feet. “I need, just,” he waits to catch his breath while another guard walks close.

“How long were you in that jungle without a mask?” He asks demurely, eying Davidge with something of a concerned stare.

“Couple hours- nothing serious, this is just from running,” Davidge responds quickly. He waits a little longer, and then more confidently than before, “prepare the ship! I need to get to Blackwren,” he orders with a gruff shout, though only two of the three guards disperse into their cove. He follows after a minute or so, and strides as well as he can down the winding path of the cove with emanations of pain from all around his body.

You emit a small question as to his change of thoughts from before, as he had talked about waiting for Blackwren to return.

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“I said he'll be mad if he returns but if I play my cards right he won't get that chance,” he whispers to the shadows in his wake, though not on the side where you’re actually standing. “He's gone to make port for his repairs and he's doing it on a loan to their shipyards,” he continues haltingly, then stopping to catch his breath along the dark path. “If i get there, sell the ingredients to my buyer ahead of time, and meet him with the payment while his ship's docked- well," he emits a questionable degree of confidence, “he'll probably be more convinced i wasn't trying to waste his time.” You emit the obvious- he’s not certain of his conclusions.

“Sure it's not definite, but it’s better than waiting for him come back and shit wind all over the cove doing who knows what kinds of damage to my operation.” His voice takes on its previously gruff tone, though his body still fails to sustain it. “Also, he's much less likely to engage in fighting," he stops himself with a thought, whispering this as he steps over some drunk rested against the cove’s shacks, "well, use magic to fight that is, if he's in a free port. There are few and it's something of a practical habit for most pirates, so I'll work it to my advantage.” He emits confidence at his conclusion as he steps unsteadily across the plank of his ship, stopping to take a breath as his men around him rush to preparatory activity.

He’s certain, but you wonder if that’s truly the best decision. He’s quite weakened, in body and soul, and another journey so soon may not be best. Though you ponder the other spirits in Ijana’s control, and that since Dani was accorded to keep the pirate in the village it’s likely she’ll be sending the fierce seajána and great skyjána after you, eventually. Though she may be more unwilling than her daughter to leave the island undefended, you consider your options

>Instead of his plan you’ll urge he remain in the cove and await the return of his ally.
>Agree and have him leave with haste; you don’t want to wait for what the Curer might be planning with her other spirits.
>Perhaps urge that he leaves at nightfall so that the onset of your journey in made through perfect darkness.
>Something else much considered. (write-in)

>>370787
>>Perhaps urge that he leaves at nightfall so that the onset of your journey in made through perfect darkness.
Make sure he's all rested up and that we milk a small bit of cruor out of him.

>>370787
>writing!

You urge to him, soul to soul, that his weakness will hamper his goal. He doesn’t relent in the slightest, instead frowning with a deep degree of impatience. He’s quite different from Uluwehi in his response to your urging, it’s much harder to get him to do something he doesn’t have any inclination of doing.

“Why should I wait, we’ve been ready to sail since last night. I can rest on the way, I was just waiting for the loaders to,” he stops as one of his men, the former from the cove entrance, raises an eyebrow at him.

“Captain,” the older much more bearded man begins with concern, “you feeling alright? Haven’t caught the jungle sickness, have ya?” He emits genuine concern, though something deeper rests beneath it. Davidge takes a small cloth out of a pocket and wipes his forehead clean of its growing sweat.

“No, no,” he begins reassuringly after a hefty breath, “just speaking my thoughts to keep them solid.” He nods with a half smirk, while you urge that it is the darkness that grants you power, and therefore it is the darkness that grants him power. This appears to reach him, though not easily, and he looks over his men one at a time as they prepare to set sail. “Alright!” He grabs their attention with a yell, “once the ship’s prepared everyone take the day to prepare yourselves for a night journey. We’ll be sailing by the stars at sundown,” he orders gruffly. Some of the men appear deflated, though the well bearded individual gains a twinkle to his eye and an emanation of greed.

“We night raiding boss?” He questions quietly with enthusiasm, to which Davidge frowns and responds with a curt shake of his head.

“No, Brian. Unfortunately we’ll be going to Atrireme,” he speaks confidently with an emanation of cunning. “I’d like to sort out this business with Blackwren as soon as possible, avoid us having to go through more,” he hesitates in hard nuanced thoughts, “colorful discussions.” He turns solidly to walk towards his cabin as he finishes, though the old sailor persists gazing at him concernedly as he goes.

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His cabin is just as you and Uluwehi left it; lanterns unlit and the slightest bit of Davidge’s blood dried darkly against the rich red carpet. He looks longingly at a small bed nestled into a corner, mattress far from windows and much less adorned than all other furniture. Inwardly you wonder how long he’s been awake, certainly since before he instigated the raid yesterday, and then most of the night with the exception of when he was unconscious in Ijana’s dwelling, and so you feel no further need to urge him anything as he moves to rest himself upon the rough bedding. He stops halfway, legs outstretched but body held up, to grab a bottle nearby and empty the majority of its contents in hard gulps.

“You did it, you wily bastard,” he remarks to himself with one last sigh as you feel his consciousness slip away with a great deal of inward gratitude, slumping inelegantly into what you feel is a deep sleep, bottle still in hand.

Left essentially alone for the time being you consider that you’ll have the remainder of the day to engage in any number of tasks before you depart, feeling quite certain he’ll not awake for some time. Though his soul still has you concerned, as ever since the beginning of your Accord his aspects seemed to weaken, though you’ve not experienced such a thing before. The only real difference was, unlike Uluwehi and Ijana, he kept his eyes open as you were witnessed by the Abyss. It is not a profane act to do so, your secret knowledge reminds, yet nevertheless it may be unwise for a mortal to do so. Regardless, between the silently slumbering pirate and the dusky shadows of the cove outside his cabin you ponder your options.

>Though it may be dangerous perhaps you’ll explore some of the island. (further options specified later)
>You’re curious about the pirates of this cove, you’ll explore it instead.
>You wonder if you might attempt your newfound power of spiritual visions while he sleeps in some attempt to recover his soul, though this would be your first time attempting the act.
>Something else much considered. (write-in)

>>370956
>>You wonder if you might attempt your newfound power of spiritual visions while he sleeps in some attempt to recover his soul, though this would be your first time attempting the act.
Might as well try it out.

>>370956
>You wonder if you might attempt your newfound power of spiritual visions while he sleeps in some attempt to recover his soul, though this would be your first time attempting the act.
Let's face it, this guy is our trial run.

>>370968
>>370964
lets do it

>>370964
>>370968
>>370991
>writing!

You suppose he’s disposable, though only just. Cleverly, inwardly, and not without a good deal of contempt, you emit that he did not actually Accord you against harming him as Ijana had. You could probably get away with stabbing him, or worse, if he acted against your liking. Putting the thought aside you set about to examine his soul, the subdued emanations revealing themselves easily to the sight of your Second Eye.

Although the world does not overtly change your vision becomes focused only upon the emanations of Davidge resting plainly beneath your solid searing darkness, all the world around you deadening to your senses. Within your deem concentration his soul reveals itself easily enough, alongside its most prominent aspects. His pristine and happy confidence is deeply scarred, as though shredded and torn apart with pieces left scattered, as are his cruel layers of trickery. They’re still there, seeming quite stable even if separate, just not quite as altogether as they’d been previously.

Beyond those you feel the weightiest aspect of his soul; his energetic ambition. You find it’s the most troubling as it does not feel as though it’s scarred, as instead it appears to be weakening, withering like an ember against its own dying flames. Innately, your secret knowledge speaks that this is a guaranteed demise. Quite indeed it is, few mortal souls can withstand the abyss-

You do not look around in astonishment as the assuring voice clarifies his condition, while inwardly you feel a complex pain upon observing the aspect, and dearly hope that such a thing cannot happen to you. You observe it for a while considering your options, while innately you feel whatever aspect you reinforce it with may not hold, until one of your recent aspects offers the idea of a permanent solution. A soul is best changed from within its nature, from within its dreams, from within the mind of its vessel-

Though the voice starkly emits nothing but its own assuring tone you ponder that it may be the case, although you regard the voice with no unhidden suspicion- you certainly feel it is not your own. Though further you wonder if perhaps you could simply ask the aspect’s knowledge directly even if it’s answers seem stark of soulful effluences. I have spoken all I know, aid him truly or do not-

The assuring voice finishes your thoughts, though they are not your thoughts. You consider them, though briefly, wondering at how exactly you should best proceed while focusing deeply your accorded’s strongest soul aspects.

>PRISTINE HAPPY CONFIDENCE [3] {SCARRED}
>CRUEL LAYERS OF TRICKERY [4] {SCARRED}
>ENERGETIC AMBITION [6] {DYING}

>Enforce Davidge's aspects with reflections of your own to stabilize them. (write-in what you’ll match each with) http://pastebin.com/fxEm5B80
>Delve deeply into his dreaming mind, small one, and repair his soul truly from within.
>Something else. (write-in)

>>371084
>PRISTINE HAPPY CONFIDENCE [3] {SCARRED}
ADVENTUROUSLY BOLD [Weight of 4]
>CRUEL LAYERS OF TRICKERY [4] {SCARRED}
JOVIAL MOCKERY
VICIOUS CUNNING
DEEPLY PROFOUND CONTEMPT [Weight of 4]
>ENERGETIC AMBITION [6] {DYING}
HOPE DETERMINED AND ABSOLUTE [Weight of 4]

>>371084
well... if we stabilize him with reflected aspects... he'll eventually destabilize again right? so the question is, do we want him to live for very long after our accord is finished. if not we can just stabilize him periodically till the accord over than leave him to rot once were done, not like anyone'd miss him

>>371111
>>371113
>will go with this in ten~ minutes if none venture other opinions!

>>371113
Personally I just want him to survive for an accord or two. Though I don't know why we can't just kill him now and take anything we might want like cruor and aspects. For adventure's sake, it sounds fun to keep him around for a bit though.

I like this guy. I'd rather not start dicking him over quite yet, plus I don't like the idea of flitting away our aspects over trivial tasks.

>>371183
Incase it wasn't clear, voting:
>Delve deeply into his dreaming mind, small one, and repair his soul truly from within.

I am sensing differing trains of thoughts; so I'll put it to one further vote before writing.

>Do this: >>371111 to stabilize him for now.
OR:
>Delve deeply into his dreaming mind, small one, and repair his soul truly from within.

>>371192
>>371183
That's something our insane half wants to do. likely to cause a possession. besides the reflections are not sending away our aspects, just propping his up for a bit.

>>371204
>Do this: >>371111 (You) to stabilize him for now.

>>371222
>since none of the differing trains of thought resurfaced; writing!

>>371209
Are you saying we should ignore the evil voice inside our head? Nonsense!

Ignoring the voice you decide upon the aspects in question and focus upon his soul- and find that this time the world does indeed lose its color and slow just slightly as you perceive a deep glow within his form. Reaching out to his chest, your own solid searing darkness forced into incorporeality for the task, you first grasp his pristine and happy confidence. Very well small one, hold it tightly now, you’ve little room for error in this arcane realm-

Listening only slightly you feel your focus edging into depths you’ve not experienced before, sliding into a personal and well contained abyss as the world disappears until you’re left with only Davidge’s soul shining brightly in your grasp, though scarred and fading, and your own unshining soul edged in searing dark. Your chains coil hard around you as you bring it closer, though you’d not emitted any intent to take his soul, and so you set about your reflection.

Grip firm, you urge with all the memories and all the emotion of your adventurously bold aspect deep into his pristine happy confidence; the ship full of sailors, their rightly superstitious captain, and his firm goal of treasure. The aspect responds readily, partial bits no longer shredded- though they do not fully reform, instead seeming to hug just barely to what was once whole.

>PRISTINE HAPPY CONFIDENCE [3] {SCARRED}
>TO; PRISTINE HAPPY CONFIDENCE [3] {HEWN}

Only slightly disheartened you remain steadfast in your task, taking hold of his cruel layers of trickery and urging into them the myriad reflections of your own jovial mockery, your vicious cunning and your deeply profound contempt- and find that his respond with a much more extreme level of depth to all their combined nuances. Still, like before, and seeming very in spite of your greater effort it does not fully reform. It’s only small difference being its disparate pieces hugging much more tightly to its former whole.

>CRUEL LAYERS OF TRICKERY [4] {SCARRED}
>TO; CRUEL LAYERS OF TRICKERY [4] {FRACTURED}

Still determined to success in your task, you push at last towards his dying energetic ambitions, with an urging hope determined and absolute. It’s rebuked near completely, and you find it extremely difficult to refocus the urging, whilst you innately feel the differing strength in aspects seem to be the root cause. The memories of a sacrificial desire to free a dear friend abate the dying of the aspect, but not by much.

>ENERGETIC AMBITION [6] {DYING}
>TO; ENERGETIC AMBITION [5] {WEAKENING}

Overlooking your work your mind is beset by the voice much more strongly than it has ever been before, with a sure and true emanation of admonishment alongside something ancient of a lecture. Even with effort true, savior fragments unequal in strength to their intended and with no voice to speak the soulshrouding hymn you’ve bought him less than two days at most-

Ignoring the assuring voice and its unleveled admonishment, you feel quite disoriented by the act itself and though you’ve not lost cruor you feel certainly weak, a deeper form of weakness you easily realize you’ve never felt before. You look slightly through the cabin windows to note the moving shadows cast by the cove’s inlet, and continue in thought at the circumstance itself- you can move, though only barely. The dreaming realm is where a spirit’s grasp is least weak upon a mortal soul-

Ignoring, yet again, the claims of the assuring voice you set yourself to rest aside the pirate, observing his stabilized soul with your red-tinged abyssal gaze for what feels roughly like several hours as you slowly feel yourself becoming less deprived of strength. With effort you might yet take his withering aspects, though truly your small soul will not cease their death-

Says the assuring voice from within you, though you elect to ignore it for the time being to consider what you’ll next busy yourself with. Small soul it claims, though given this is coming from your greatest aspect perhaps it is a matter of perspective. You remind yourself that it did actually know more about what you were doing than you yourself did, or so it seems to claim, in spite of previously saying it had nothing more to say on the subject. Regardless, you feel your options alight themselves within in your mind as you feel mid-day rear its head and your strength return for another task.

>Though mid-day perhaps you’ll explore some of the island. (further options to be specified later)
>You’re curious about the pirates of this dusky cove, you’ll explore it instead. (further options to be specified later)
>Perhaps question this thing directly, though you feel it very odd to question something alongside your own thoughts. (write-in)
>Something much considered of elsewise pondered. (write-in)

>>371390
>You’re curious about the pirates of this dusky cove, you’ll explore it instead. (further options to be specified later)

>>371390
>>You’re curious about the pirates of this dusky cove, you’ll explore it instead. (further options to be specified later)

>>371410
>>371421
>writing!

With strength returned you stand solidly and make your way to the upper deck past lazing forms of various men checking their arms, few engaged in quiet conversations of nothing seeming important while they remain ignorant of your presence. As you step through the shadows upon the upper deck, your searing solid form still incorporeal, you observe the cove.

In front of you, closest of all, is the pirate named Brian. He’s alone upon the deck, all the others seeing fit to rest on the docks or within the ship itself, whittling something of a monstrous form from seaworn wood between puffs of a pipe emitting many nuanced thoughts and an artful focus. Upon the docks are the various shacks with many subdued emanations of their own and several drunken people stirring uneasily awake from last night’s celebrations. Some men, and some women, appear to be conversing hotly upon an issue, quick angers exchanged alongside pride.

There is the warehouse, though now empty, where the masked loaders from before had been taking barrels full of fungi onto the ship. There are other much smaller warehouses with men busy loading and exchanging various sacks upon carts and trinkets with much discussion and counting, though their emanations are much more sedate than the other crowd. There is the former location of the celebration, strewn with garbage and a few people still busying themselves with a mid-day drink, while from within the waters you still feel those deep emanations of something twisting, something crushing, each now tinged with an animal hunger.

You feel your gaze catch and linger on a fuzzy form gliding amongst the readied sails of Davidge’s ship, the small sky spirit from before. It lands itself on the deck railing as you flit gracefully along the shadows to observe the various activities of the cove, and you note it watches you unflinchingly. It closes in along the floor, emanating wary caution outwards from its form, and when close enough grants you a slight vision of Nanali alongside a great depth of gratitude. It’s intention complete it jumps to glide up among the sails again, emanating pleasure for the activity. You watch it as it remains immersed in its own simple thoughts while you consider potentials.

>>>Pick any number of the following; though be mindful of the order in which you choose them.
>Perhaps engage this Brian with questions; surely an experienced mind can weather talking with a spirit. (write-in)
>You’re wondering about the presence of the small sky spirit, call it down for some questions.
>Similar to above, but instead see if it can be Accorded for anything.
>Listen in on the heated conversation between the men and women.
>Listen in on the sedate conversations between the traders.
>Something else. (write-in)

>>371510
>Listen in on the heated conversation between the men and women.
>Listen in on the sedate conversations between the traders.

>>371510
Flashes of lightning outside the window and thunder surely resounding through the night I'm saving constantly and
>cont. writing!

>>371516
If the spirit is still in sight after this, flag it down and ask if would like to accord us.

>>371570
>aye!

You flit gracefully along the shadows down the gangplank past Brian and beneath the small gliding spirit, leaving each to their assorted thoughts as you listen more intently to the sources for the rising emanations of anger. Now close, it appears to be two men and women, each seeming paired together in the motley clothes of the pirates, though the women appear to be wearing much lighter clothing than their companions.

“-as I was saying,” says one of the men declaratively, taller than the other and with a clipped beard, “we should abandon this place to the savages. We already got as much as we could from the shipwrecks and we’ve lost dozens to the jungle,” he finishes vehemently.

“Cause you’re a coward,” says the smaller man accusingly with crossed arms and an upturned nose. “You want to leave so you can go dig up your stash and retire to some farm with a fat mainlander. Get nagged to the end of your days about heresy this and that,” he chides, awaiting a response with a smile.

“Better to die nagged by a wife then from some whiskered Ularian whore,” he says, one of the woman adorning a great smile at the remark while the other mocks wide-eyed revelation and pursed lips.

“Cleaner than you Mard,” he levels back easily, which at least one of the woman nod. “Besides these islands are safer than any other waters. The currents have had people convinced this place is one giant mass of whirlpools for decades, so no one’s looking here.” He nods to the winding path of the cove, “jungle is beyond the cave we mined, safe and away from all your fears,” he finishes mockingly, hands now up in a smug shrug, smiling in anticipation of another response to his prodding.

“I’ll admit that,” the tall man says flatly, to the shorter’s disappointment. The taller then leans in more closely, voice dimming to a furtive whisper, “but some are still getting the sickness.”

“Did you see Gansaul? Think he has it?” Questions one of the woman loudly, evidently uncaring for any secrecy, “poor thing looked like a wrung cat,” comes her further mocking.

“Larke talked about how he ran with twisting shadows behind him, like that savage last night did. Think he finally tricked them into giving their secrets up?” Prods another questions, this time from the other woman, though the men remain silently contemplative in their personal glares.

“Maybe,” the previous woman finally speaks up with doubt, “more likely he just stole the secret when nobody was looking. He is the type you know, a thief more than a real pirate.” She looks to the men with a sour gaze as she begins resting against one of the dockyard posts. Once again, it’s the taller man that bites the bait.

“A real pirate? Like who? And don’t goddamn say Blackwren because he’s spent all his gold on repairs and shot because he can’t resist a ‘good’ fight,” he emphasizes with scorn. “At least Gansaul has the sense to seek out merchant vessels and leave them alive so local trade doesn’t die off.”

“That’s exactly what I mean,” she replies triumphantly, “he’s a real pirate, a real man,” she raises her voice with a deep lilt so some attracted listeners can hear more clearly, “maybe you could learn something from him, or take the Admiral’s forgiveness like Walther did.” She finishes harshly, emanating something vicious. The taller only responds with a stern glare, and instead of speaking he walks away much diminished in his emanations while the other pair depart together.

For the woman remaining, her gaze trails Davidge’s ship, and observes first Brian and then stares deeply at the darkened windows of the cabin before finally seeing fit to leave into one of the dwellings. “Too easy,” are her only parting words as you flit gracefully towards the pirates apparently trading goods with each other.

This time it’s two men, much better clothed than the others, one young and one older each wearing at least four pistols to their person. Most of the trading seems to have already taken place, as there is no longer any counting while they persist in a former conversation.

“I’m worried about the Count of Atrireme,” the younger confesses questionably, “he hasn’t acted at all in spite of everything that’s happening. He never acted during the rebellion either,” he adds just a bit more insistently.

“Because he’s no longer a count,” explains the older man dryly, “maybe never really was. The odd fellow retired to that abandoned castle on the city outskirts after leaving the Emperor’s council, and no mainlander says anything but rumor about why. His title was given just before the rebellion, he’d never acted on it.” The old man sits down, the chair beneath creaking at his weight as he lofts his feet upon the wheel of a small cart. “That’s good for us,” he murmurs, “as I told you that makes Atrireme a free port.”

“Still,” the well-spoken young man insists, “you’d think someone with his influence would do something about the state of affairs. If these routes turn poor because of some magic crazed noble’s inability we’ll be left with a secure hideaway and no riches to show for it.” He fiddles with some small bag of coins, while the older man switches which foot he’s raised up.

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“The world’s a big place,” he grunts, “we can just head further east along the southern kingdoms.” He finishes by pulling his cap down over his eyes and resting his hands cusped upon his chest, ending the conversation while the younger man walks away with his own very condensed worries emitted inwardly. The docks quieting to small works once again, you flit gracefully back to the ship, and emit the idea of word bound to soul the sky spirit- and he rushes hard to the deck.

Too hard, in fact, as he thumps noisily on the deck in enthusiasm, bouncing just slightly as Brian looks around with confusion before returning to his whittling. He looks up to your searing darkness and your red-tinged abyssal gaze, and though dazed from his rush he emits a firm agreement to your idea. From what seems to be no where he pulls out a very tiny gem. You recall that Cloudseer called this spirit a one-treasured one of the sky, while the greater was a two-treasured one of the sky. The gem itself emits barely anything at all- you find it much harder to discern value from it than the flowers of the earth spirit’s crown. Though you feel certain, innately, that you sense something alongside a will and mind contained within it.

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Sensing your question it emits a vision of your abyssal gaze, and then of your gaze growing from two eyes to three, and then of Dani’s crown, and then of Dani wearing two crowns, and then of its gem, and finally it holding two gems. It’s quick and rushed with open emanations of enthusiasm and happiness, and you feel it very solidly awaiting your response for its desire.

>Sure, you’ll help it get another treasure, though you’ll be setting the conditions.
>Perhaps not, it may be rather involved.
>Perhaps suggest an accord for something else, perhaps for its aid instead? (write-in)
>Something else. (write-in)

Power is getting spotty, but I'll continue as long as I can.

>>371739
>Sure, you’ll help it get another treasure, though you’ll be setting the conditions.

>>371739
>Sure, you’ll help it get another treasure, though you’ll be setting the conditions.
>excepting the skyjana of the villagers. He's cool since he didn't try to stop us or attack us.

>>371739
>>Sure, you’ll help it get another treasure, though you’ll be setting the conditions.

>>371750
>>371751
>>371756
>writing!

I got to to go if I'm going to have any pretense of sleep.

Get us shit-tons of vital cruor guys!

You emit a light affirmative to the small spirit; you’ll aid it in getting another treasure with the added caveat that you’ll determine the conditions. It emits a small desire to have some say in the accord, alongside an emanation of both your incorporeal forms and an idea of equal measures. You allow the idea for now, all things considered this is the only spirit you’ve met that hasn’t acted with hostility to you, though you do not yet emit that to it. You ask how you’ll be getting this other treasure for it- as that would certainly be what determines any following conditions. It stands high on its hind legs, though they’re hardly legs, and emits as well as it can a vision.

It’s of the sea by the Far Jungle, and it’s one you remember. You and Nanali, alongside Dani, are traveling upon the back of the fierce sea spirit while your former inky companion speaks of the past and the great sky spirit circles above you slowly. The focus of the vision shifts to the sea itself in deep contrasts, alongside the idea of something buried. It’s the exact spot your inky companion pointed to with his claws, what he said was once a great city now buried beneath the deeply dark waves. The vision is rather clear, strikingly so, as you recall not being able to grant such visions of such clarity until recently, and question that perhaps it is something unique to this spirit, or perhaps sky spirits.

The spirit makes no further noise, emitting only what it can promise for the Accord, and this again is in a strikingly clear vision. It is, you suppose like the spirit before you, very simple; an amount of vital cruor equaling eighteen upon the outset for the journey, and you feel it consider this equal to the task it’s asked. He looks to you pleadingly while you sense whether it can actually offer such an amount- and as you do so you feel it release something it had been maintaining.

It’s vital cruor is greatly condensed, you feel, almost akin to the subdued aura of the two-crowned earth spirit from within the chamber of confluence. You feel it’s got much more than triple your own, perhaps more, some obscuring nature of it keeping your exactness vague. You recall that you’ve hardly seen this spirit affect the mortal realm, though inwardly you ponder perhaps if it’s been Accorded not to, while you further consider your own determinations for the conditions.

>You’ll accept it’s offer of eighteen vital cruor.
>You’ll accept it’s offer- but at double the amount.
>You’ll accept it’s initial offer, though you’d want some aspects too.
>Some different variation or varying amount. Or perhaps even a Service. (write-in)
>On second hand you’ll refrain from this task for now, perhaps mollify it with the fact you’ll consider it later.
>Something else. (write-in)

>>371830
>>You’ll accept it’s initial offer, though you’d want some aspects too

>>371830
>>Some different variation or varying amount. Or perhaps even a Service. (teach us how it bestowed those visions and other sundry tricks)

>>371836
>>371848
These can be combined into a further question of aspects and it teaching you, and so;
>writing!

You emit a mild agreement- to which it immediately bursts into celebratory effluences of profound happiness, which dims slightly as you emit a desire for some aspects as well, and a question of if it can teach those vision and other tricks it may have. It appears to concentrate its mind, writhing rather fitfully in a small circle upon the deck, while it considers your suggestions as Brian whittles away beside you in ignorance.

It hops up to right itself with its gaze upon you with an emanation of affirmation at some partial parts of the deal. The vision is another simple one; firstly of the eighteen promised cruor, then any one of its aspect’s with the weight of three or less, alongside teaching you any one of its many spiritual tricks, the last two reserved for after you’ve completed the accorded task.

You feel it gain some solidness amongst its anticipatory joys, a formation of stability upon the details with an assuring emanations that it feels this is quite fair for the task it’s asked of you. Though it emits something further- a vision of you each finding a secluded area to strike the deal. Given your own recent memories on the effects of Accords upon their surroundings, and considering the strength this one might hold, you venture this little spirit is a lot wiser than it looks.

>You’ll take the small skyjána’s deal as is.
>See if you can force another detail. (write-in)
>Decline the terms and the discussed Accord.
>Something else much pondered. (write-in)

>>371885
>>You’ll take the small skyjána’s deal as is.

>>371885
>You’ll take the small skyjána’s deal as is.
>emanate satisfaction at a mutually beneficial accord

>>371888
>>371892
>writing!

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You emit a deep satisfaction to his amendments, and deeper still of a mutually beneficial accord. Hardly able to contain its excitement it jumps with a rush of air into the deck railing behind you and dazes itself again- the blow actually resounding quite clear throughout the cove as you feel the slightest loss of vital cruor from the small spirit. Brian looks to be turning about for the source with focused frustraten, looking over the ship’s railing while the small sky spirit nudges itself dazedly away from his stride.

Hardly able to move its small form or glide you pick it up and begin flitting gracefully up the winding path and past the masked guards upon it. As you exit the cave you make an effort to cut one of the out-of-view torches with your searing darkness, and being met with some luck for the endeavor you hold the shortened thing aloft with your more solid form- though you have to be very slow as it seems to nearly fall from your grasp multiple times.

After reaching the fungi jungle proper the spirit appears to recover somewhat from its enthusiasm, though it glides in very short hops and lightly thuds into the overgrown fungi stalks as it leads you through the lowlight shadows towards a secluded area. It’s rather deep in the jungle, which you feel is good, quite far from prying eyes or other distractions. You contemplate it’s actions deeper, feeling it worth doing as this is the only spirit so far you’ve met that seems agreeable. Perhaps its an anomaly or maybe none of them are on good terms, perhaps they’ve never tried to be, you wonder as your aspect of melancholy reminds you of Dani and his struggle with the sea spirit.

You wonder and look up at the great canopy ablaze with noon light. Perhaps that means you’re an anomaly of sorts among spirits, though you feel yourself inwardly emit you know only few and they’re all very isolated here. You put the thought aside as you flicker through the lowlight shadows as they deepen into something more closely twilight, finding yourself swerving your red-tinged abyssal gaze across a small clearing; a great stone tablet with odd writing it’s only defining feature. It is deeply reminiscent of the stone tablets outlined below Cloudseer, and you sense form it ancient emanations of voice and learning. The small sky spirit is perched upon it with its previously rushed joyful anticipation, though glides to your position to meet you halfway through the clearing.

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Your secret knowledge coming to an easy conclusion you set down the short torch between you, while the small sky spirit produces the multicolored treasure it had before. There is a long pause between the buzzing jungle insects and the distant calls of beasts as you each emit a repetition of the details defined securely between your mutual expectations. It, from the shallow waters below you, reaches up one of its gliding wings with its treasure held aloft, while you slowly and gracefully reach your searing darkness to its offering wing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U8UzK8plJk

The first thing you note is how different this feels, the onset is incredibly slow, building up as spiritual power floods the jungle around you with consistent tumultuous rising. The world is not plunged into a deep abyss, as instead a dark wind overtakes the twilight shadows of the clearing, its loudness and strength deadening the rest of world as it calls upon a power you feel to be well and truly ancient. Around your forms the dark wind soars and forces groans from the great limbs of the jungle, the waters of the clearing lifting in streams through the air and swirling stormlike around you in a summoned maelstrom that you feel certain would destroy any caught in it. It closes suddenly towards your forms- and you feel a maddening dread that you may be ripped away and torn by its cutting wind.

You emit this fear to the sky spirit, who attempts to mollify it with an easy emanation of patience and focus upon the deal. You relent- it’s not given you reason to distrust it yet, and so you refocus upon the accord with only mild distress.

Instead, just as the storm reaches you, the world slows to a crawl while the soaring dark wind edges your forms and acquires a deep searing affliction. The world grows alight with severe contrasts as it slows, rather than the grey you expected, though you feel the screaming of the storm only barely abate. Searing afflicted and steaming severely the cutting wind closes upon your forms and between you, red and shining against the umbral zephyr, mists consecrated cruor. You are thrust into a vision-

The world is darkness and flame. The flame is primeval, ancient beyond all mortal thoughts, primordial to the essence of their souls. The world is torn and it’s darkness is alight with intent and soulful effluences. From within the smoldering ruins buried deeply beneath those effluence's, as distant as though its world’s away from you, you feel an emanation of something familiar and something powerful declare its dominion.

>AN ACCORD IS STRUCK
>Vital Cruor +18
>>Current Vital Cruor: 34
>You feel, innately, exceptionally close to some sort of threshold.

More quickly than all the others, you are thrust out of the vision. The world deafening storm fades slowly, it’s searing cutting wind lingeringly weightily upon the world as it dies into a spreading steaming mist amongst the twilight dark of the fungi jungle. As the wind falls to silence you consider, or rather reconsider, the small sky spirit before you. All your previous Accords had the world plunged into the abyss, but this was a storm of something ancient and powerful. It emits no answers to your question, persisting in its consistent enthusiasm, while you contemplate that perhaps it’s using a trick to hide something from you. Regardless, you’ve established another Accord, one you realize you probably be patient with, though the sky spirit would be rather dejected at the notion.

He emits a simple vision; of a small treasure, another gem alike to the one he has, buried beneath the waves by the Far Island. You glance around the clearing, and from the stone tablet to the sky spirit, contemplating your options beneath the canopy of the jungle.

>You’ll set out to get it now and prioritize this spirit’s desires over Davidge’s.
>You’ll do it later- you’ll wait until your Accord with the pirate rests complete.
>You’ll emit something else, a question perhaps. (Write-In)
>A different idea much considered. (Write-In)

>>372049
>You’ll do it later- you’ll wait until your Accord with the pirate rests complete.

>>372049
>A different idea much considered. (Convince Davidge to stop on the island, and investigate. He could find more lore in the city or more treasures. Even if he finds nothing we would get stronger from the deal, meaning HE gets stronger from the deal too.)

>>372049
>You’ll do it later- you’ll wait until your Accord with the pirate rests complete.
though I wonder if we can get davidge to stop off near there, afterall the treasures underwater so having a warded ship to retreat to might come in handy if there are seajana about.

>>372061
I'll switch my vote to this, actually.

>>372061
>>372063
>>372067
I'ma sensing this plan and I'ma
>writing!

>>372049
>>You’ll emit something else, a question perhaps. (Write-In)
Will we have to fight our way down there? I'm not too confident about being a fire/dark spirit and fighting a water spirit in its own domain. Probably a bit too late to ask though, since we already agreed.

>>372081
>can still ask that (and possibly more)
>still writing!

You emit to it lightly that there’ll be a delay, to which it instantly ceases its gliding and drives into the murky shallow waters in a rushed nosedive alongside a deep emanation of broken hope. As the great splash subsides and it recovers you clarify your intent to its writhing form. You’ll convince, or try to, your Accorded mortal to stop his ship by the Far Jungle, giving your own deep emanation of confidence that it will be rather easy considering how greedy the pirate remains. The small sky spirit nods, apparently very easily placated, while you give one last glance towards the stone tablet of the clearing. You can’t read its writing, you realize, though it emits nothing further than what it had before. So that is a curse sealed between true spirits, how truly interesting-

You ignore the assuring voice, instead flitting gracefully and with haste along the lowlight shadows of the overgrowth towards the cave, your newly accorded gliding from stalk to stalk aside your path through the fungi littered jungle. On your way you ask if you’ll have to fight anything there, to which it emits a clear vision of the sea spirit. You were distinctly wary of that, though when you emit so the small sky spirit emits its own further clarification.

The vision is once again simple; the sea spirit is searching dark waters, in the dark waters there is a two-eyed smoky searing red-tinged abyssal gaze, and the gaze emits nothing. It ends with a tone of deep consideration, a certain implication that it had thought this through very clearly. You emit a small assent to its claims as you inwardly feel this thing is curiously attentive to details, but stop at the entrance to the well-lit cave. The masked pirates on guard duty are still where they were before, bored and gazing at nothing in particular, while you find yourself enraptured by the many torches. They still have them in the day time, you note, even though the cave isn’t particularly dark and is an almost straight path.

As you look between the torches and the masked guards you feel an emanation from your observer acknowledge your confusion- though you’d not felt truly confused, and neither had you emitted anything. He leaves, emitting an idea of patience. Returning shortly in a glide, fungi spores dusting its manifested semi-corporeal wings, it flies into the cave. The spores trail harshly away from the well-lit path way, none getting more than a couple paces in. Landing beside you with a crawl, it emits up to you a reflection of immense and profound wisdom. Unsure of how exactly to respond you emit gratitude for the clarification- though inwardly you feel once again how incredibly accurate its guesswork was in spite of your hidden soul.

Regardless, you make your way back to the ship easily enough, your newly accorded seeing fit to perch on one of your sweeping horns as you shift your darkness through the dusky shadows of the cove, to the ship of your formerly and yet still accorded mortal. Passing the snoring form of Brian, his whittling left unfinished, you find Davidge sleeping soundly just where you left him. Taking a hard gaze at his soul you note no change in his condition. The small sky spirit also focuses on him, and you realize through his emanations that he’d already guessed Davidge to be the one you spoke of.

He glides from upon your horn to the pirate captain, then after some hopping on his sleeping form you looks up at you questionably with an emanation of soul and something of a broken nature, though beneath that you feel the first and only negative thing you’ve ever felt from the small sky spirit. A deep an repentant hate of a clearly non-mortal nature, its undercurrent of rushed angry thought seeming a harsh contrast to all its previous emanations, though they're mostly inward rather than directed. It doesn’t feel overly important to you, though you feel the small spirit awaiting your answer unflinchingly. You emit that you’ll be informing him when he wakes up, or when you wake him up, at sundown. The sky spirit persists its previous question, focused observation maintained and awaiting a more distinct answer.

>Just answer honestly with all details that answer entails.
>Deflect somewhat, avoid the root cause.
>Similar to above, but claim you found him like this and tried to put his soul back together.
>Something else much more considered. (write-in)

>>372143
>Deflect somewhat, avoid the root cause.

>>372143
>Just answer honestly with all details that answer entails.
>This was one of the things we wished to know, to avoid such damage to those accorded to us in the future.

>>372147
>>372152
>If none venture any form of a tie-breaker between now and the session tonight I'll roll a d2 for these.

And so, thank you all for playing!
This marks the absolute first uninterrupted session of the quest.

Alongside an update to your Accords, the next session will start tonight (July 15th 5:00PM EST 9:00PM GMT), and you'll likely be going on quite the adventure. C'ya then.

>>372152
This

>deals pastebin updated, ruins populated, rain gods appeased and
>quest resuming in 'bout an hour with >>372152

With its scrutinizing gaze resolute upon you you answer with a guided repetition of the events. As you’ve covenanted with the fuzzy thing your vision is spiritual and detailed, rather than vague as it had been before, and your communication is made smoothly. Davidge is looking around at the flaming abyss while an obscured immensity targets him, or seems to, and he’s stricken with a deep primeval fear his soul had never experienced before. His soul fragments and shreds, becoming pieces and parts of its formerly strong whole.

Next you grant the vision of your attempt at fixing his soul, holding each of his strongest aspects one after another and enforcing your own upon them, urging to each of them the one’s you’d deemed most fitting. The small sky spirit chitters noisily at this, more excitedly than angrily, emitting to you critically that that is not granting a spiritual vision but manipulating aspects through your vision. It emits an uncomforting fact to you and inwardly to itself that it has never experienced being able to do that, along with a minute vision questioning your former inky companion. It continues the idea simply with a blank chasm of creatures with abyssal gazes, all of darkness born, all manipulating mortal souls. It deepens its focus until you see another vision; its form perched on top of Nanali’s sleeping head as she lies upon one of the great jungle limbs, granting her dreams of flying and a deeply restful sleep, ending curtly with a sense that this is its experience with granting visions to sleeping mortals.

Still a bit curious you further a suspicion, of yourself and of some strange madness within you, that if the mortal had closed his eyes he would not have been scarred by the abyss. The sky spirit concurs readily, and then grants another definite vision of Nanali; it’s once again perched atop her head, though the scene is quite chaotic and the sky spirit is cowering helplessly. The little girl is cradling her body as a roaring cutting wind slices into the limbs of the great jungle around her, she cries apologies and asks forgiveness as errant zephyrs catch her body in deep gashes, each greatly fearful for their life.

The vision finishes with a simple idea of a deeply powerful word bound to soul, an accumulation of infractions, and a violent breaking. Still upon the pirate the small sky spirit emits another reflection of profound wisdom and an understanding of your circumstance, tinged with its own undercurrent of helpless when Nanali mistakenly broke one of their accords.

It looks to the sleeping face of Davidge, then back up to you, emanating a proposal of word bound to soul of helping the pirate as well as he can. It’s conditions are simple; it’ll help him if you’re willing to smash a dark blue stone, one isolated in a very distinct pot within Ijana’s hut, though it says it must await for the resting of your current Accord as it emits a deep desire for your considerations. As Davidge stirs himself from unconsciousness and rubs his closed eyes hard the small spirit hops his form into a glide to perch upon your horn.

He seems distant, looking up at the ceiling with a blank stare, hardly focused and openly emanating an unwillingness to move or think. It’s not quite sundown, you feel, though the world beyond the cove is covered in dusky shadows and soon it will be a complete and perfect dark. The small sky spirit, seeing fit to remain obscured from his senses, emits to you a subdued sense of apprehension at the man’s state.

“Damn worthless,” he whispers to himself, staring blankly at the cabin ceiling.

>Urge with your aspects that it’s time to go, and further that he ought to moor close to the Far Jungle.
>Similar to above, but instead urge the same without emboldening aspects.
>You suppose you could just wait for him to recover for a bit longer, then urge after he’s set sail.
>Something else. (write-in)

>>373867
>>Urge with your aspects that it’s time to go, and further that he ought to moor close to the Far Jungle.

>>373867
>>Urge with your aspects that it’s time to go, and further that he ought to moor close to the Far Jungle.

>>373873
>>373886
>writing!

And, for this, please roll me 1d100 best of three.

Rolled 29 (1d100)

>>373946

Rolled 41 (1d100)

>>373946

Rolled 5 (1d100)

>>373946
>To move things along I'm gonna roll a 1d100 then begin writing.
You guys can roll multiple if you'd like, there ain't no rule against it.

Rolled 25 (1d100)

>>373867

>>374023
I was hoping you'd save us with a sweet roll like last time, but you just hammered in the last nail in the coffin. Time for a fail.

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“A change of destination,” he barks caustically, though continues more quietly, “you realize if Blackwren catches me on the way to Atrireme I’m a dead man, right?” His emanations become profoundly skeptical of your intentions, each word gaining great undercurrents of doubt. He rises a little, then rests against the headboard of the rough bedding. He rubs his eyes again, taking deep breathes while his thoughts turn deeply inwards in some sort of disdainful reflection. The sky spirit upon your horn emits less subdued apprehension, but you focus upon the aspects within yourself for the task.

You recall the ones that resonated with his most strongly with ease; the bold adventure and seizing lusts, the cunning that is vicious and the courage that is damning. Your urging well-constructed you emit it, soul to soul, to your accorded mortal. You grant imagined visions to accent them; of ruins and treasure, of the red city within the far jungle, of secrets held within the ancient Aniunakei temple and of his strength growing alongside your own.

His fractured weakening soul is affected by the urging, but not strongly. You further one last vision that feels difficult to get across, he seems merely dazed by the prospect until you color it with his form edged in searing darkness atop a pile of what you hope is something close to six hundred tons of gold. As your vision finishes his previous hard smirk alights his face with grace and he hops quite high off his bed.

“I didn’t know about any temple,” he begins with a small chuckle, “you should have told me about that sooner, we’ll raid it just before leaving for Atrireme,” he says with a greedy smile, to which you urgedly agree. Though you temper a further urging that he wait upon his ship until it is dark, so you’ll be unhindered by the last vestiges of daylight. He grabs the black-brown band of before, the one you recall commanding the strange properties of this ship, and all the emanations of the world around you die as they’d had when you first boarded it with Uluwehi.

“Nonsense,” he exclaims greatly, ignoring your warning and further urging completely, “it’s dark enough already for a raiding party, we’ll have to bring along enough lanterns as it is.” He opens his cabin doors hard, still smiling and still emboldened by your urging, and calls to his men with gruff barking as he approaches the upper deck. “Sail!” He says, and at his command all men jump with extreme haste to their positions, the noise upon all decks growing solidly as boots rush to motion and Davidge elects to take the wheel himself. The small sky spirit upon your horn emits the slightest bit of disappointment at this, while the ship sails hastily outwards from the cove amongst great pillars of the island’s rock.

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There’s no wind, you realize, yet it manages to move well enough. You try to emit the curiosity to Davidge about his ship whilst he scans the darkening sea horizon and begins turning the wheel between rocks.

“Manabound,” he whispers the answer gruffly, saying nothing further and emanating nothing at all. His men seem perfectly focused on each of their tasks you note, none even so much as speaking or otherwise distracted. You find the obscuring nature of this vessel rather annoying, while inwardly you feel some fear that you cannot sense either the great spirit of the sky or the fierce one of the sea as long as Davidge has activated this form of concealment. An ancient trick of the arcane, one of the empire’s most common-

You ignore the assuring voice, instead emitting to the horn perched spirit if it can sense anything. It looks to you with focus as it struggles to emit a negative that, although you are accorded and close by, you can barely feel yourself. You reach the far jungle undisturbed, seeing it upon the horizon as you bend away and around the fungi jungle’s sparse beaches, and a distant sound catches your attention. The currents in the distance, not far from the island itself, whirl and roar as Davidge steers his ship closer to bypass a sandbar. They seem most active as he closes in, then dying fitfully as he sticks closer to the island, mooring his ship in the depths a slight distance from the shallow waters close to the far jungle.

“Masks, lanterns, and eyes,” he exclaims commandingly, then removing the black-brown band from his wrist and depositing it into a satchel by his side, and all the soulful effluences of the world return with ease. “There’s a place here we’ve not scoured,” he speaks confidently with a vicious smile, while his men gain some of their own. The older pirate from before comes up to him with all his previous concerns buried and forgotten.

“Say loudly to all the cove that we’ll be going to Blackwren, eh?” He questions with a twinkle in his eye, then continuing conspiratorially, “but sail to the island no one’s returned from for its riches,” to which Davidge nods confidently, and the old pirate laughs. “Coming back like a drowned rat you’d had me scared you’d lost your touch,” he says respectfully with a raised brow.

“Glad I can still pull it off,” he whispers in return with a smile, the slightest edge of feigned humility to his tone. The old pirate grins widely as he turns away, setting to untie one of the smaller boats held aloft by ropes on the side of the vessel. The sky spirit looks to with you great emanations of its own broken hope, though it doesn’t emit any direct or accusatory blame to you. It remains perched on your horn while you attempt to further discern the emanations of the world around you; you cannot sense the great sky spirit close by, nor the spirit of the sea that previously ambushed you in the shallows.

As the men busy themselves with their last preparations under skydusk starlight and the small spirit upon your horn looks longingly at the waters he envisioned to you before you consider your options. You recall, quite to your benefit, that his deal only requires you to be present and aid him at your discretion, although perhaps without your aid he may certainly die. Similarly, the sky spirit did not specify any limited duration for your deal.

>Accompany your miscreant of an accorded mortal to the red temple, you’d rather keep him alive.
>Perhaps Davidge’ll be able to take care of himself well enough, you’d rather get his deal sorted out first.
>You could perhaps attempt your imbuement of darkness, blocking their passage and keeping them here while you deal with the other accord.
>Toss the foolish mortal into the frozen time if you truly wish to teach him about defying you.
>Something else much considered. (write-in)

>>374215
>Accompany your miscreant of an accorded mortal to the red temple, you’d rather keep him alive.

>>374215
>>Toss the foolish mortal into the frozen time if you truly wish to teach him about defying you.
It sounds way too cool to pass on. Come, take me, evil one inside our head!

>>374215
>You could perhaps attempt your imbuement of darkness, blocking their passage and keeping them here while you deal with the other accord.

>>374465
This

>Goodnight anons. It was fun while it lasted.

>>374897
Thanks for running, see ya around OP.

>>374938
Unfortunately, that's not very likely. I should be clearer than what I've just said, what I mean is I won't be continuing this quest.

That's a shame can you tell us why?

>>374957
Thought so, it was more in case you decide to in something in the future. Shame about it ending, but I'm sure you have your reasons.

>>374957
Damn! This is the best quest, man!

>>374957
why not?

>>374968
>>375082
I don't think it's a good idea to continue mainly because its not fun for me anymore. It was this vote that made me realize I'm not really doing a good job at this, and just how much I hate the idea of rolling any more d2's.
Three votes in three hours and nothing else either means people aren't invested enough to discuss anything or I've done something in presenting the world, characters, and the choices that doesn't foment that sort of investment. Or it's just not really engaging, it's extremely difficult to tell from my perspective. To me the pace feels abysmal, though I don't know if that's a shared feeling.

In the second session I recall saying I'd be willing to run ten-ish sessions with as little as two players, but that was thoughtlessly said. There's no collective game with that, my own idea completely missed the point of all the things I actually enjoy. My favorite moments of this quest were the back and forth discussions between anon's and their ideas, especially that one a couple sessions back about the aspects.
I really don't like the idea of running a quest the former way, it just doesn't feel like any of the quests I've played or enjoyed.

An hour or so later I decided to take a hard look at the previous threads. The absences, stalling of sessions, and all the rest don't really show a sure sign of a QM that's gonna be able to run consistently, and that's not very likely to change soon. I can only be a flake so much before interest is well and truly dead.

For a bit now I've been taking a better look at the choices, and I can almost pinpoint some of the more problematic prompts. Just very simply, if I've come to a point where I've presented a set of default options that are varied but diametrically opposed/divergent I always see the fewest of responses.
From my own experiences that's common and I'd expected it, though it does make it more difficult to get a figured goal on what's really wanted, and I'd assumed I could just get that from discussions instead. The problem was I made a lot of them, back to back, at the start of sessions and at their end, and I've realized the nature of the setting was built on them. I figured I would change that in the background, slowly, but alongside the running absences it's not working out. Deeper discussions of agency aside, I don't think I've managed it well.

There are other reasons more tied to the board itself that I'm not able to change, though I'd like not to whine about them because I'm the one who made the choice of where and when to QM.

And that's about it.

>>375056
I'm glad you enjoyed it anon, if you've got any small questions remaining I can answer them.

>>375154
That's reasonable.

Still, I enjoyed your quest. Thanks for running.

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>>375154
I have a sleep schedule opposite to yours, hence why I haven't been posting much. In general, while there may be only few participants, there's usually a decent deal more readers. I typically catch this shit on the tail end and just read up, with how my timing is.

Qst itself is a problem though. Everyone, myself included, has started getting used to checking up on quests every few hours instead of sooner, because an overwhelming majority of qms are being ridiculously slow with their updates. Some quests do like, two or three updates a day. Getting used to this trend is what has people responding unreliably.

>>375174
>Qst itself is a problem though. Everyone, myself included, has started getting used to checking up on quests every few hours
That, and there are far too many quests.
Most of which are shit.
I barely bother looking through the catalog these days, there's just too much garbage to wade through. I have no idea whether I'd have read this quest at all had I not gone looking for it based on those posts on Soma's Tumblr.

>>375187
>I barely bother looking through the catalog these days,
Twitter can be surprisingly handy for quests, I made an account just to follow any QM I get into. The qtg is also a somewhat decent place to pick up quests. That said I do still go on the catalog and pick out some quests every now and then.

I would like to say I am very interested in the world you created and I think you are a good writer.

I personally think that the reason the quest's pace would feel slow is because you put so much work into each post to make it good, or in other words the curse of the artist/perfectionist.

The discussion was one of my favourite aspects of the quest too; I started the idea to enslave the other dark spirit and wrote up the details. Most of the time, the obvious decision is clear enough that little discussion feels necessary; I'm not sure how you can foster this type of discussion unless you make the options seem very important or quest-changing.

I hope you find a solution, perhaps in a future quest, that resolves the problems that drained the fun from your experience with the quest.

Sorry for the ramble, just wanted to share my thoughts. Regarding the inconsistency to run, I think it is about average compared to other quests I've been interested in.

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Well, I’ve had a day and roughly sixteen hours to think about this, alongside some back and forth with similarly inclined people, and not a few positing that perhaps I’d be giving up too easily.
I’d deeply regret dropping something people are interested in, a lot more than I thought, but on the other hand I don’t want to persist in something that I’ve mismanaged in some sunk cost fallacy.
On some additional hands, each formed from some sort of vague mental masturbation, I’ve got other ideas I’d like to try. The middleground proposed to me was to change things in the way that might make it more entertaining and ask you guys what you think while posting animu reaction images, then see where things go, or don’t, from there.

So.
In the order that I feel they’re most important;
[Dark Spirit: the choices]
I’ve talked with some peers about it, non QMs but friends that enjoy DMing, and got some feedback regarding the things that I’ve felt matter more particularly, and one ‘em kinda hit me on the noggin for pointing out too much stuff in character and the heavy-handed repetition. Enough that when reading back on the threads again it’s painful to look at. Some I feel necessary, as I know if something really important is only mentioned once and forgotten then people probably won’t recall it again, but every other post/every three posts is certainly too much for something averaging 7 posts/less per session.

Specifically, he said that if none of the players pointed out what your inky companion was doing I shouldn’t have pointed it out for you, and instead proceeded to act in kind with the barest of IC knowledge and what the players were focused on instead, which in his opinion was Ijana’s accord. I agree with that, somewhat, and a lot of other behind the scenes gameplay/setting alterations and suggestions that were offered. I’d argued that it seemed like a matter of fairness, but I’d become convinced when that was turned around to the idea that it’s unfair to let things slide because of inattention, and how those sorts of things start mattering more to people and get them going if there’s anything like actual consequence to inactions or past decisions. It would boil down to just not making things like that obvious and relying on exercises of agency for all the important points.

Kind of feel like a butthead that it didn't come as a natural idea, but I’m definitely going to do away with certain nonsense choices like, “do you leave your companion here or move forward?” (and subsequently end a session on that note) and other things in retrospect that really ought not to have been presented when they were counter to your already established goals. Alongside a good reminder that if I’m drawing conclusions for others they’ve got no incentive to do so themselves, which is another thing I’m a bit peeved didn’t come as a “no-duh” idea, it’s something even included in the oldest versions of the QTG pastes.

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--->Other things in a similar line.
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/295473/#p302517
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/295473/#p302953
These one was and other’s I’ve been shown are questions of whether or not to initiate cutscenes and de-involve the players from action. Even with the limitations of Uluwehi’s accord several much better alternatives were pointed out to me, though for now I’ll keep those to myself. When trying to look back on this with a player’s perspective all the effort in writing doesn’t feel like it matters, there’s a separation of decisions and reaction, because the best option was to do nothing. Sometimes that might be appropriate, but two updates in a row followed by a roll translates into “pulverizing any tension you’d tried to have with a buttcake load of exposition.” That’s gonna be forced into rarity, IC and quest-wise, alongside certain mechanics.

[Absences]
I ain’t gonna even try to QM again until I know, 105% and well ahead of time, that I can do one 9~ hour session per night consistently for at least ten days. Other than the fact that I can’t ask for consistent players if I’m a flake, I sure as hell can’t alleviate bad pacing with cutup sessions. This may actually happen quite soon, but it depends on what I get from the mouth’s of higher-ups.

[Said Mechanics: changes]
Induced Aeon on its own, spiritually, isn’t incredible. However it’s still a bit too strong for certain encounters, so I’d be changing how it operates. [4/Cruor Action, prevents action interruption] So it can keep its time-stop feature but is more in line with the behind the scenes costs (and other specifics) of other spirits’ abilities, and the other litanies. It’s a hefty 400% raise but thinking back on it, and on the other’s you’ve yet to experience, it was kinda crazy to have your potential first BBEG have such a cheap wombo combo.

For manifold aspects they’d be reduced to detailed summaries, just slightly more expanded than plain aspects, and if the summary interests you then whenever you next have downtime there’ll be votes on which ones you’d like expansions of with a limit to how many at once dependent upon weight. As neat as it was I don’t really want to engage in another 6 post set of noninteractive short stories that each have a pretty good chance of never become relevant, and if this is something that gets reserved between sessions it’ll be easier to outline or prewrite them based on which ones you get. This is as opposed to fully outlining the 140+ aspects of all the people and spirits you’ve met so far.

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Effectually this would be similar to your Despairing Desirous Pride, though instead of because of some condition upon the aspect its memory will be obscured until you want to take a deeper look.

Voting. I’d intended to do it by majority with a 15 minute time limit to 20 at most unless points of discussion exceeded that, but as much as I’d like it the interest may not reflect that desire. As a result I feel sort of lost on how to work that out, so far I’d been rolling d2’s to get things moving but I see that as the same as saying, to both players involved, “your decision doesn’t matter one way or another.” And it’s the primary reason I didn’t want to continue after the three hour gap in responses from before. There’re three people, three different opinions on how to deal with the results of the 1d100 of before, and so rolling a d3 would feel like shit. I don’t know if other’s feel similarly or not, but I don’t want to boil down any one of the quest’s more important choices to random chance.

[The least important, but probably still worth mentioning: /qst/, what I like and what I don’t]
There’re certain other quests here, a good five of ‘em come to mind, of some migrated from /tg/ and some here that I’ve been enjoying and I like the post timing/limit changes, for however much use I’ve made of them.

The ID’s, or forced tripcodes, I don’t like. I feel like they’re something that only helps with quests that have samefag issues or have QMs that care about it, which is neither Dark Spirit nor I. What I feel is it’s a reasonable measure for preventing easy samefagging, but on the other hand my experiences with anonymous questing have me asking why bother having another barrier to something that’s niche in the first place. I gave it an hour of thought and concluded I’d rather risk something I’d always expected and have gotten used to than rolling for defaults.

When I talked before about my personal experiences with quests it was always from an anonymous perspective, bouncing between conversations and offering points or less amicable opinions easily, and I feel like I’ve caught on late to the fact that people may be less inclined to respond because their used to anonymity. I don’t see this as a big problem, as I’ve participated in other threads here just fine, but I’d be lying if I said I liked the system or had any use for it myself.

The active thread times I dislike. I’d prefer a time limit on things to keep myself moving, that’s where the original 15-20minutes vote by majority/discussion thing came from. I don’t really want to wait several hours for responses prior to writing and the concerns you guys raised about reliability are, as far as I can tell, unique to this board, though not to every quest here.

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Beyond that, that particular 7-8 post update with the manifold aspects/character choices only took an hour and twenty but was extended to 2+ hours more because I meandered writing, and not artistically, just kind of lazily. It was also the point in time where I decided not to have obliquitous options for your character ups. I’d erased several lines of overly purple descriptors to reduce the options for tools/bodies to the summaries of what they were, though I’m unsure if that simplification was a good idea or not.

I see these as small accessories to other things, rather than the main deciders for my personal feelings, since I very much feel that it’s the presented choices and nature of the exposition that has my enthusiasm withered. I can change the small things by running where I’d first thought to run, and I can try to change the major things through practice and refinement.

If you’ve made it through my flipfloppy ramblings I’d like anon’s thoughts, and I’ll be determining whether or not to completely drop this or continue/start up the next ideas I’ve got when I have a consistent lifestyle based on responses.
I consider everything I’ve said so far open to change, and so feedback to anything specific is gonna carry a damn heavy weight. I’ll keep an eye on the thread for responses until it falls off the board, refreshing every 2ish hours. I’ll have linked this post from twitter, in case more might see it.


>>380513
>I would like to say I am very interested in the world you created and I think you are a good writer.
I don’t want to sound like a big jerk but I’d trade half of any writing ability I have away for the ability to QM a good quest. For a while on /tg/ I’d been irked by the idea of quests that are good reads but awful to play, though it seems that’s what I’ve managed here.

>Most of the time, the obvious decision is clear enough that little discussion feels necessary; I'm not sure how you can foster this type of discussion unless you make the options seem very important or quest-changing.
That. That’s what I’ll try changing firstly and immediately, if this is to continue.

>>375174
I know the feeling. There’s quite a few quests currently running I’d like to participate in but they’re either off my schedule or as I expected they run when I do so I can’t really catch them.

>>381434
Firstly, no offence taken. In-depth writing is not typically a social experience, so this makes perfect sense to me.

Shortening and simplifying the soul aspect descriptions I like, because I found them fairly hard to follow anyway.

I think the "D2" dilemma is a necessary evil. The only other thing I can really think of would be asking for a "secondary choice" from anons and factoring them into the tie-breaker, but this can potentially lead to the same problem in addition to making voting more complex.

Regarding the 10-days-in-a-row thought, I personally feel this is overkill. The quest may be slow-paced, but this creates the issue of players being left completely behind quite easily. In addition, a quest that has had a high number of threads is intimidating to join. Focusing on high population days for qst may be a wiser course of action.

In regards to pointing out the actions of the slithering dark spirit, I feel you can pull off what the DM suggested. Your quest seems much more inclusive of addition actions after writing has begun.

Just a final thought that occured to me. If your favourite aspect of your own quests is the discussion that takes place over choices, it may be a good idea to encourage this in the OP.

I think it is good that you're not giving up just yet, and are instead reshuffling the priorities.

>>381585
>I personally feel this is overkill
Can't really speak much about everything else, but this. The longest I've seen someone run was 7 6-8 hour sessions a day before he started taking breaks. 6-8 hour sessions every few days seems to be the norm but I won't argue against running for longer if you can manage it or if the writing takes a while.

>a quest that has had a high number of threads is intimidating to join
This is a good point though, I've only picked up two already running quests in the entire time /qst/ has been up, the rest I've caught on day 1 or maybe day 2.

>favourite aspect of your own quests is the discussion
This is kind of an issue. From what I've seen quests rarely have all that much discussion. Maybe some off topic discussion or post-thread discussion but nothing too crazy.

Sorry for replying to you Anon, but your post was way shorter and more condensed.

>>381640
>sorry
I'd like to say that you gave me a great complement. I'm glad my succinctness was useful to you.

Also want to say that I agree. This quest probably has the most discussion over decisions I've seen on this board, though some old ones on /tg/ probably has it beat. What encouraged discussion for that other quest was probably the emphasis on planning far in the future on how the character should develop. Also it was a waifu quest. I could talk about it more, but it is all archived here: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Darkness%20Extrapolated%20Quest

>>381676
I should point out though that the QM did lose interest and the progress was more relationship based, rather than action based.

>>381409
>heavy-handed repetition
I feel that a certain amount of repetition, mostly at the quest start, helps to reel in new participants that have to be informed about protagonists, past actions, world background.

>>381418
>9~ hour session per night[...] for at least ten days
That sounds more like work instead of an enjoyable and challenging time you're having writing a live story/quest.

>>381429
>with a 15 minute time limit to 20
That kind of time limit should keep things flowing and people staying in the thread. I would think this needs a minimum amount of players, about three (in case one jumps ship).

>three people, three different opinions
Yeah, I can imagine this situation sucks and you can only remind people to find a consensus so often before it becomes tedious.

>>381585
To expand on my tie breaker idea, I'd propose this. After 20 minutes without any discussion, have people vote with their first choice, second choice, third choice, and their preferred method of breaking the tie, should it occur again.

The methods could include dice roll, accept the author's choice, or ending the thread early.

This wouldn't solve the problem, but it could resolve many more three-way-ties. More discussion would probably be better though, if possible.

>>381774
>>381762
>>381585
>>381640
Damn guys. Thank you for the answers, a lot.

I sense a sure consensus that the ten days 9~ hour runs is overkill, so I think I'll stick to trying to start threads early in the week/weekend and run consecutive sessions that way. (I think those are the high traffic days, I'm very unsure.)

>>381585
>If your favourite aspect of your own quests is the discussion that takes place over choices, it may be a good idea to encourage this in the OP.
If I want something I should ask for it? Smashing. I feel denser than I was before. I'd been oblivious to that idea, somehow, and it reminds me of another. I haven't outright said there's bonuses to creative write-ins even though it's the way you got inky, I think I'll do both of those things from now on.

>I think it is good that you're not giving up just yet, and are instead reshuffling the priorities.
The family motto is to run forward full blast until a tree gets in your way. With the addition of leaning on someone else's experience for analysis I feel I shouldn't take the option of burning out submissively. Especially not prior to the meat of the quest.

>>381854
This I like, I think I'll be including conditions like this should it occur again. And I'll avoid declarations of death, I already feel it was a mistake when the solutions just needed focus and more laid back thinking.


Anywho,
I don't know when I'll announce the next thread and it's very unlikely to be soon.
I'll still be hovering this one for more thoughts. I archived a bit prematurely and while I'm concerned about the "and the quest ends" line for this thread I don't see this as the end.

>>382265
I'm very happy that you found my thoughts useful and I'm ecstatic that you want to continue running this quest.

No further useful thoughts really. Do what you can to find the fun. It was good that you brought up that you weren't having fun cause that is important. Once you find the fun, everything becomes many-times easier. Without fun, you just waste your time and your projects live on borrowed time.

>>382265
>bonuses to creative write-ins
Okay, maybe one more thought, though you've probably come to this conclusion already, offering bonuses or mechanical perks for discussing the options could be an easy fix to your dilemma.

>>382419
It's a certainty now, I'll have to flesh out the mechanics before next time though.
I've got several ideas, most I'll keep under wraps until it first gets used, but I'll absolutely be emphasizing it.

>>382419
>offering bonuses or mechanical perks for discussing the options
I really like that idea. It certainly would make a thread more lively instead of everyone just copypasting ">option 1"...

With some updated mechanics and with;
>imbue the dark and scare them pirates in place
Rolled for it offscreen with some interesting results.

And resuming Wednesday the 20th at 5:30PM in a new thread. Already announced on twitter.

>>383299
I do hope so. If the change in priorities works as intended I'm confident things'll turn out alright, or they'll crash and burn in a way that evokes a fond nostalgia. In any case, I hope to c'ya then.