Luna's Shrine had planned this. It wasn't a spur of the moment decision, but the conclusion to carefully laid preparations spanning Mana only knew how long. Premeditated betrayal, brokering no room for escape, no margin for deviation. A plan-

'if they invited you, they consider your presence necessary.'
'When we had heard you would be coming with them, naturally we thought...'

-The Valen name had been a part of. One that, from what you had pieced together so far, had been going wrong from the moment you woke up.

It was only natural, afterall. You had been given a role to play, with no knowledge of the script, or even the character you were meant to be standing in for. Whose side were you supposed to be on? Why, in a matter between the Shrine Dominions, did Luna's Dominion consider the presence of your House Founder to be worth including? Why, if you were invited by the Shrine, had you woken up already trying to gain ground on them and be the first to reach Dryad's Shrine?

The list of questions went on, with precious few answers to be found.

"...It vanished." Elly's anxious voice broke your reverie, her grip tightening around your midrift as she started to panic. "One of the presences vanished, I can't sense it anymore!"

"Whatever's out there doesn't waste any time..." Tim groaned disheartenedly, "Where's the next closest one?!"

"It.. East, I think. There's definitely one that way, please hurry!"

For now, all you could do was chase the leads you had... And hope that you could catch a break before they met a similar fate to the last attendant of Luna you had encountered.

>Warn Elly about the betrayal
>Meditate en route
>Ask something (what?)
>Other? (write-in)

>>1347670
>Warn Elly about the betrayal
Not sure how good it is for her mental well being but honestly it's not getting better anyway.

>Ask something (what?)
Make sure Tim is ready to fight. If we are up against enraged nymph apparitions, Elly needs to clear her head and be prepared to attempt to soothe them in some way. We'll protect her whatever happens.

Previous Threads:
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Valen+Quest

Where things are said: https://twitter.com/Riz_QM
Where things are asked: http://ask.fm/RizQM

Assorted Supplemental:
Current Abilities - http://pastebin.com/PchcdWpw
A List of Forgotten Things - http://pastebin.com/kPEscJ3h
Irue's Memoires - http://pastebin.com/sWnicrK7

Write-ups:
Kara's Day Out - http://pastebin.com/8ZbiSKLs
Adventures with Asche - http://pastebin.com/RNviCBJu
The Reclaimed Doll - http://pastebin.com/n6miP1qT
In Your Shadow - http://pastebin.com/EfeeHFAE
Friends Forever - http://pastebin.com/Yn0QaTVB
The Woman Beneath Steel - http://pastebin.com/pMGgiHC3

Misc notes:There is value in a lie. Just because you've been deceived, doesn't mean it wasn't done to help you.


Memo:
1. Get gifts for all our companions. Miniature Oakenrue for Ari, Tellenford Diary for Mim, Choker for Kara, mini-Vacation for Rinnier we can make Priat take her out on a social date. Maybe set up something where the people of Carona can thank her for her work and help remind her WHY she does it.
2. Invite Marchovic on adventures next time there's a chance.
3. Mim said "When are you going to tell her?" Tell what to whom?

>>1347694
Glad to see you survived the delays. Last week I was terrified you were gonna run because I went on a vacation with no internet but I guess it all worked out in the end

Finally, update block experimentation is now a thing.

Voting windows are going to be fairly long, but hopefully NEVER longer than an entire day. I say hopefully because tuesdays/wednesday kill me.

I'm going to continue this update style until we clear this little arc, hopefully just running it semi-continuously until that time comes. Afterwards we'll see how it panned out and if it's worth continuing in that vein.

>>1347689
Where did you even come from anon, I haven't posted any alerts yet.

>>1347670
>>Warn Elly about the betrayal

>>1347704
I'm very good at what I do

>>1347703
Welcome back from vacation, anon! (Mis?)fortunately for you, I had a week of academia, followed by two weeks of writer's block and shame.

To be entirely honest, even though I've been setting up for this trial for the better part of two years, due to all of the delays and interruptions, I'm kind of sick of it now. I really want it to end. We've been in here for three months, it's time for us to get on with the quest!

And that's why I'm determined to just run this continuously until we're out. No more breaks, we're driving to the end!

>>1347669
Hi Riz! You weren't hit by a bus after all. That's good.

>>1347670
>Ask Elly everything she knows about the L*na delegation, the upcoming conference and our role in it. Ask her to tell it like we don't know anything.
>Ask also about her brother, his position in the delegation and the Shrine, his stance on the kids issue, and his name.
Then
>Warn Elly about the betrayal

>>1347670
>>Warn Elly about the betrayal

>>1347689
>>1347707
>>1347766
>>1347878
Prepare your back for stabbing!

>>1347689
Battle ready check and reassurance!

>>1347766
Hope Elly knows why we're here.
Also hey, what's your brother like? Does he stab backs habitually? These are important questions.

... eight hours is long enough, right? It's going to take some adjusting to not feel uncomfortable with this.

Writing!

>>1348018
Pbakstabbing asshole family members is a proud tradition of La'Fiel.
I bet Maran is the brother's descendant.

"Be ready for what we find." You felt a little silly cautioning the larger man on readiness for battle, given that he probably had far more experience in any sort of physical conflict than you could boast personally. Perhaps more unsettling was the uneasy confusion as he momentarily diverted his attention away from the horse's path. "Hey now, what makes you think I'm fighting anything?"

"...?" You blink, sharing a moment of awkward loss between you.

"I know my place, and I ain't about to try and become a hero this late in my life, y'know?" Thinking back, he had mentioned that his role in your 'shared' past was to hang around outside and ferry to or fro, which meant... "I'll leave it to you like always, nothing to worry about."

No, there was a lot to worry about. Just what did Tim expect out of you? Swordplay? Miraculous martial arts? You were a scholar! If your hands had any callouses at all, it would be something of a miracle. It wasn't as if you hadn't been part of fights until now, but generally you had left it to someone else more suited to violence; Kara, Dullem, even Rinnier. If push came to shove, you were more apt to fall back on meditation... And then incur the fallout of whatever disaster it had subsequently invited.

There were those altercations with Roderick, and the mayor of Carona, though. You had taken them on all on your own and won, right? For a given measure of 'won'. They came out worse than you did, surely. The Mayor did, at least. Maybe.

...

"Just in case, be ready." You repeated lamely, catching the reluctant nod of your erstwhile ferry as he turned his attention back to leading the horse's course. In the worst case, you still had Elly to back you up. As a representative, she was likely a force to be reckoned with in her own right.

"U-Um... What should I do?" The woman in question spoke up hesitantly in the ensuing gap, "If it really is Dryad, I..."

"If it is an apparition," You humor her, because you had little doubt in your mind the identity of what you would find, "Then we will likely be relying on you to help calm it."

"But what if it isn't? What if it's something else?" She pressed anxiously, her grip on your waist tightening reflexively until you had to struggle to keep her from squishing the air from you. "Will we be alright?"

"If it's something else..." You hedge, struggling to think of anything else it might be, "We'll be careful and make a decision then. If it's too much, we don't need to engage it. Confirming its identity and escaping is enough for a warning." Her grip loosened as the gears in your mind churned for something to say. They were empty assurances, and in all likelihood the biggest threat you would encounter out here was neither the murderous culprit, or some unknown entity, but...

"Elly, do you remember why I'm here?"

"Because the L͞ų̕ǹ͡á ̷͜Dò̢m̢͟in̡i̵ó̸n̴͢͢ invited you?" She answered innocently.

"And do you know why? Tell me everything, as if explaining it to Tim."

"Um... Well, they invited you because... You might know something about the disaster?" She distanced herself from your back slightly, a confused stare prickling against your back. "Was there another reason?"

"...What do you know about the delegate coming for this conference?" You tried an alternate route. You didn't want to entertain the thought, but...

"They're coming to talk about what we learned from the disaster, and how we'll handle the fall out and similar incidents from here on out." She answered with an unexpected note of pride. "I memorized the topic ahead of time, and I've got a bunch of little notes from my fellow attendants on what to talk about!"

...It seemed like she somehow knew even less about this than you did. You hid a sigh, letting your breath get carried away by the wind. Eleanore had refused to accept that Dryad could have turned against anyone in violence, much less an attendant of Luna, until you had argued her down into merely 'entertaining' the notion. You had failed to even fully convince her of that, which left you reluctant to even begin with the more pressing problem.

"Tim and I found several sets of arms in the attendant's camp, earlier. It's likely that the other presences you felt are going to be similarly equipped."

"Oh! That's wonderful!" Her bright response made your head droop forward. "Then they'll be able to protect themselves, right?"

"If it didn't save him, it won't save them." You disabuse her of that notion flatly, "More importantly, I want you to be wary regarding any attendant from that delegate that you meet. Don't trust them, don't get near them without Tim or I with you."

"Huh?"

"The dispatchment coming to Dryad's Shrine are... Probably our enemies." It was hard to vocalize the conclusion you had come to without it sounding outlandish. The nervous tittering from behind you let you know just how little the Dryad representative was inclined to believe you, as well. "The presences you're sensing shouldn't be out here." You hissed seriously, "Think about how they're moving as a group, Eleanore. The way they've split off from the main group, the amount of arms they're carrying, and the way they're choosing to camp. Delegates don't travel like that, those are scouts. They're meant to run ahead and be in position before the main host arrives."

Her dismissive laughter was pressed back unrelentingly as you forged on, but even still...

"I'm sure they have a reason for it!" You felt your lips tug downward at her implicit rejection. "Besides, my brother is coming with them. L͠u̷̴n͟à̸ has always favoured him, so I wouldn't be surprised if they're doing this because he knew there would be something dangerous out here."

That was... A fair point. Luna's adepts were in the business of knowing things, as you could rightly testify. It wouldn't be unlikely for that exact scenario to be true. It was feasable, and that was what made you grit your teeth about it the most. Unless she held the same suspicions you did regarding the identity, and more to the point, the origin of the murderous creature, then what she said made sense.

"Eleanore, I'm supposed to have been with them." You make one final effort to instill some measure of wariness into her, "If this were a defensive measure, wouldn't I have known about it already?"

"I... I don't know. My brother would know, we just need to ask him when we meet. He'll explain everything." She insisted stubbornly, "I understand what you're saying, but there must be a mistake. The Shrine would never turn on its own like that, Irue. We're united under a common cause, we're... We're family."

"..." You sigh heavily, listening to her disappointed apology. "You mentioned your brother was... Favoured? Is he a representative, like you?"

"Oh, no. At least I don't think so." She answered relievedly, grateful for the change in topic. "Neither of us are very talented, really. I've only got my title due to a fluke you see, but he was never one to just settle. He was always very proud of having been selected to study among a group of exclusive peers!"

"Exclusive?"

"Yes, even among Lu̸n̛a̶'s̸̵ D̨͠͡om̡ìǹ̴̡i̸o͝n̷̴, they're a step apart." She preened demurely recounting her brother's prestige. "He's not like me. In the first place, I'm only a representative because the others bullied me into it."

"They... What?" She was distracting you from the point, you knew that on some level, but that's just... It's not how the whole representative thing worked at all.

"Not long after I came to live here, they started teasing me and asking me really difficult questions." Elly pouted, "They kept saying I was beloved by Dryad, and at first I was really happy because... I mean, they understood, right? We're all beloved by Dryad! But then they kept giving me these responsibilities, and one day they made me start teaching the new members even though they know I'm no good with scripture..."

"The entire Shrine of Dryad just yielded to you?" You echo flatly.

"No, that's not what happened! They're bullying me!"

"Oi, are we getting close yet?" Tim interrupted her mewling protests, momentarily killing the conversation until Elly could get her bearings again. "Yes, we're very close... It seems like they've stopped for the night?"

"Irue?" Tim deferred to you cautiously, reigning his exhausted horse to a trotting stop. "My baby's run to the bone after all her work today, but I ain't keen on getting strung through the trees either. You want to take it from here?"

>Begin meditating in preparation for your encounter (Which Mana?)
>'A Spider's Web'
>Use Elly to observe them from a distance
>Other? (write-in)

>>1348541
>Use Elly to observe them from a distance
I don't trust the web here

>>1348541
Use Elly to get closer without getting spotted then find a place to hide the horse. Irue will scout alone, just creep close enough that we have visual and observe.
Take Tim aside and tell him to trust no one, and no campfire.

I'm not keen on webbing in case it takes us outside the fabric of the atelier and get grumpy eyes on us again.

>>1348532

>Begin meditating in preparation for your encounter (Which Mana?)

Shade. Murderers, assassin's, and oath-breakers.

Also remember the corpse they brought with them last time? Who says Elle's brother is safe and not a hostage?

>>1348573
Shade, sure I can get behind that. Maybe whatever comes from it will try to strangle them instead of us this time.

>>1348528
Haven't we beaten Oakbear with our bare hands?
>>1348541
>Use Elly to observe them from a distance

>>1348577
It's actually worked out consistently well for us given our stubborn perseverance.

Remember, never vote to surrender and die.

Forever fucking salty about that vote. FOREVER.

>>1348591
>>1348588
>>1348568

So send in Elle while we prepare a shade summons in case she needs rescue?

>>1348595
I assumed that "Use Elly to observe them from a distance" meant we'd just sit on our asses right where we are while she keeps us updated with her dragon ball radar.

>>1348602
Kind of puts her in a lot of danger if they are here to kill her though, yes? She doesn't seem capable really of defending herself even if she has the ability.

>>1348606
They don't know we are here, and if they begin to move toward us she would know. If we presume hostility the first order of business should be to find and camouflage a hiding place

>>1348608
Ahhh I thought it meant we would send her in to talk to them. I am somewhat morning drunk.

>>1348588
>Haven't we beaten Oakbear with our bare hands?
...Sort of? There were circumstances regarding it, and you actually would have died had anons not gained control of Rinnier and then unanimously voted for her to be guilt tripped by her conscience and go back.

It's one of the earlier threads, but suffice to say it's not an accomplishment Irue can claim for themselves. Honestly it's not even something they remember.

>>1348602
This is what I meant in the option, but if you guys devise a different way of handling an option, I'll take it into account.

Anyway, the skyfire is risen high. I'm just... Gonna crawl into my room and die until it goes away.

>>1348632
. . . . Could Elle use her Dragonball radar to remote a Dryad apparition?

>>1348632
Why are you using 'they' when referring to Irue?

>>1348801
Because Irue's gender isn't known to us. Which is probably a clue to shenanigans.
We know Irue is legally female and wears female clothing though.

>>1348816
I vote to lift up our skirt and check.

>>1348568
>>1348571
>>1348588
Elly radar!

>>1348573
>>1348577
Shade!

Alright, I'll call the vote here and work on an update when I get done cleaning.

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>>1351061
You forgot one!
>>1351061

>>1351223
>>1349470
oops

It's probably not the right course of action right now, but I was thinking that meditating on Undine might be a good idea at some point.

Whatever Luna did here, to the Shrine and to Dryad it would have needed the cooperation of Undine to keep the secret. God knows how we'd coax an answer out of them though, but I'd like to try.

>>1355808
The keeper of knowledge and the keeper of secrets, working together... either they had a common problem, or Luna offered something extremely valuable in exchange for cooperation.

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This is lining up to be the second shortest thread in Valen Quest. I feel bad for Riz!

>>1359747
Luna is not for lewds

>>1359810
The moon motif was a coincidence actually, I saved it because the girl has red eyes and blonde hair. I have a folder full of anime style art that vaguely looks like Valen characters, emphasis on vaguely. Some are lewd.

>>1359873
Coincidentally, that girl's name is Luna Child. I wasn't speaking about the Mana.

I don't think you can lewd a Mana anyway.

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>>1359878
Oh! So she's a Tohou then, that franchise has consistently great character design.

I think you could lewd a Dryad, love is her domain after all! You could definitely lewd the oakenrues at the very least!

>>1359886
>Love and lewds are the same
Anon

Anon

>>1359922
How could Dryad say she loves us if she won't even touch our butt?

>>1359942
>She

>>1359747
>Tfw no cute room in a tree
>Tfw no tea and cake

>>1359747
One more day and it's time to cry, I think

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>>1362826
Look at it this way, the longer it takes Riz to update the longer it takes for us to kill Irue!

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"I'll be able to run more even if I'm busy the usual day!"
>Proceeds to make the shortest and least eventful thread since that time literally no one showed up.

Alright, well. Mortification and all encompassing shame aside, I estimate we have... maybe 2 days of life left here? Depending on /qst/. I'll archive this thread a little later tonight, and then do my best to scrape out some semblance of progress over the weekend and until it well and truly dies.

There also isn't any big explanation as to what stopped the updates. I'm naturally bad at doing things without pressure. Combined with the general writer's block I've had, it just resulted in me sitting down for 2-3 hours each day and staring at a blank page, then getting frustrated.

When I'm following quests, it's always been kind of a thought that I didn't mind sub-par content, as long as the QM put something out. I don't know how true this is for you guys, but I really hate the idea of putting out half-hearted or thoughtless updates just to have something out there. It's a bit hypocritical for me to think one way as a player and another as a QM, but it's so embarrassing.

Just figured anyone still around would appreciate some manner of status update rather than continued radio-silence.

>>1362826
I started crying days ago.

>>1363186
Don't be happy about that!

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>>1366700
>spoiler
As a reader, I'd prefer more content to less, but only if the 'more' doesn't make you want to stop writing altogether. I'll still be here either way though.

Thanks for running what you can, and thanks for the update.

>>1366700
Did we chase the plot into a corner you can't write it out of?

>>1367824
Yes. This is probably the end of Valen Quest.

I kid. It's just ordinary writer's block, arc fatigue and some offline distractions synergizing in the worst way. I've temporarily lost the ability to use words to make sentences mean things, so it's difficult for me to describe what I want, much less do it in a way that's not pathetic to me.

I will endeavor to figure how language works again so I can get on with it.

>>1367848
I know ninjas are a treatment for a plot block, but I have nothing for a writing it down block.

Now that I think of it, you have introduced ninjas already

>>1366700
Depends on the writer I think, your style doesn't really lend itself to short updates solely for keeping interest up.

I was going to say that we don't need 3 dumb prompts to make coffee but then I remembered that we only needed one to burn down the kitchen. Lol

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>>1366700
>It happened again