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/qst/ - Quests


PRELUDE
From the sun-scarred edge of darkness the LADY Of SORROWS descends, a jewelled dagger transfixed upon the pale throat of the city below.

BERCEUSE, cradle-city of ten thousand shrines and a hundred thousand dynasties.

Strands of light entwined amidst the spires, the Hoisted Sea, a vertiginous lattice of ancient pathways, reaching heavenwards from immiserated depths, into the decadent orbit of pleasures beyond.

The Lady Of Sorrows continues her descent. The serrated prow of the voidship pierces the nebulous chorion of non-being, as the walls of her hull tremble with singing light, back towards the reverberations of the real.

Before a mirror of pooled silver you glance upon your countenance, contemplating the Edict clasped in your palm.

There are those on distant, barbarous realms who believe that every journey across the astral wilderness is to destroy and remake oneself across every world anew.

How will they greet you on this world, once they hear of your past?
>>
>(choose one: A,B,C,D,E,F)

>A/ Preceptor
The scholars of the Imperial Censorate decide what is true and what is forbidden, even as they hoard the Ancient Promises and secret rites for themselves. You will teach them otherwise.
Best: Will
Worst: Instinct
Magick: YES

(you think you are some sort of space sorceror. Beware: there is a price for every rite, and once a spell is cast it is lost forever...! Also probably a eunuch)


>B/ Beggar-Knight
By the shore of a lake swollen with betrayal and war-dead, you shattered your drone-sword and cast aside its splinters. You swore never to take orders from another again - yet here you are...
Best: Strength
Worst: Will
Magick: No

(Imagine a crusader in mech armour, wielding a psychically-controlled robotic greatsword. This is how cool you would have been - before exile, poverty, disgrace)


>C/ Consort
After the sudden and mysterious madness of his favourite concubine, the Throne Of Stars could no longer bear the sight of you. Adrift from the idleness and prattle of court, who can blame you for seeking adoration elsewhere?
Best: Charm
Worst: Strength
Magick: sometimes


>D/ Marotte
You can juggle knives, somersault and swallow fire. Everyone laughs at you. But why has the Invultuate-Emperor sent a fool to enact His Will?
Best: Instinct
Poor: Will
Magick: NEVER

(You do not know magick... this might be a blessing as much as a curse. Survive on your wits, trickery and pity instead).


>E/ Eschatonomist
Untold riches and wealth hides between the Black span of mortal desire and the Red Lord Of Ruin. You foresee the future, and tempt others to bargain and borrow against it.
Good: Charm, Instinct
Poor: Strength
Magick: sometimes


>F/ Oneironaut
You are the mortal dream of the Machine-Chrysalis, and this restless husk of flesh is but a frail vessel for the engine of your thoughts. Only by possessing the inanimate do you truly become alive.
Good: Will (when possessing machines: Strength/Instinct)
Worst: Charm
Magick: ???

(This is as close as you can get to being an occult cyberdemon hacker in a space baroque setting...)
>>
>>5054161
>C/ Consort
>>
>>5054161
C.
Why no fluff text for her and eschatomist though?
>>
>>5054161
>C/ Consort
>>
>>5054161
>F/ Oneironaut
>>
>>5054181 apologies my imagination ran out ^_^

I imagine the Consort perhaps looks like this (pic related, creepy jester in background is Marotte)
>>
The oneironaut maybe looks like this (pic related)
>>
>>5054161
>>B/ Beggar-Knight
We were once great... MAyhaps we will be o again?
>>
>>5054161
>B/ Beggar-Knight
>>
>>5054243 haha maybe.
I can't find any original concept art for visualising the knight with his drone sword, so maybe try this screenshot from the Surge 2 instead (pic related). I imagine the drone sword moves like 2B weapons from Nier Automata ^_^
>>
>locking C/Consort
>>5054175
>>5054181
>>5054191

In the forgotten early ages of empire and inchoate conquest, mortals traversed the vast darkness in leviathan world-vessels, passing the ancestral rites of their operation from scion unto scion. Hence came the dynasties, and Highborn and Lowborn, of those few whose perfect incarnations could never truly die, whilst the rest would be reincarnated to ensure the journey reached its end.

Your governess once told you a story of a murderous war-queen, hated by the gods, who burnt down her palace as a sacrifice and sought refuge in the sun. You no longer remember her fate or even whether the queen (a witch?) was the heroine or villainess of that tale. But if the Throne Of Stars was yours alone perhaps you would do things differently...

>(you only have time for 2 of these actions before The Lady Of Sorrows lands. Suggestions welcome!)

>1/try very hard to remember exactly what the Murderous Queen in the story did (Will: Ancient Lore)

>2/ try to remember what your governess taught you about the city of Berceuse (Will: Jurisprudence)

>3/ stop daydreaming, and immediately unseal and read the Edict that has brought you to Berceuse (Trait: impulsive)

>4/ stop daydreaming, and try to remember the proper rites and ceremony upon disembarking the Lady Of Sorrows (Charm: Etiquette)

>5/ Berceuse could be a dangerous place. Did you remember to bring a weapon? (Trait: paranoid)

>other...?
>>
>>5054452
>>2/ try to remember what your governess taught you about the city of Berceuse (Will: Jurisprudence)
>>4/ stop daydreaming, and try to remember the proper rites and ceremony upon disembarking the Lady Of Sorrows (Charm: Etiquette)
>>
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>>5054475
>(The Lady Of Sorrows begins preparations for docking at her berth)

You wince a little, as you recall the angular grey face of your governess, shrunken within her unflattering crespinette - an unrelenting harridan. She was a stern tutor, and despite her shrieking lessons she taught you well. You know the heraldry of four dynastic factions on Berceuse:

- the Unbidden Court. The Highborn of Berceuse.
Every Major and Minor House within the Unbidden Court has their own lineage; some believe they have an unnatural ancestry. They guard the Ancient Promises and are rarely seen.

- The Church Of Envy. Led by the Belsire and Beldame, the Church promulgates the Threefold Virtues of Beauty, Youth and Love amongst its supplicants. Emblem of a grail within a mandorla, though sometimes also represented by the iconography of the Odalisque.

- the Warguild. Insignia is the silhouette of a white sword on a drone. The Warguild itself is not a monolithic faction and incorporates syndicates and mercenaries within its ranks. It exists to promote war. It has a ruthless reputation and negotiates trade in everything - armaments, torture, usury, siege engines, slaves.

- Vagabonds and Drudges. Your governess did not spend a great deal of time on them. They are mostly Lowborn servants and were indigenous to Berceuse before its conquest. Their symbol is a burnt or uprooted tree.
>>
>>5054475
>(Docking is complete. You are ready to disembark the voidship)

You have never been off-world, but the knowledge of the Rites comes naturally to you.

You know that Berceuse is governed by a Lord Consul, the appointed representative of the Invultuate-Emperor.

Whilst the Edict remains sealed in your hand, you are an emissary of the Throne Of Stars on this world and no-one will dare to harm you.

The correct ceremony would be:
I/ bid farewell to the Captain of the voidship, the Lady Of Sorrows

II/ Greet the honour guard upon arrival at your destination

III/ present the Edict (sealed intact, unopened) to the Lord Consul of the world, who will then open it and proclaim the Will of the Invultuate Emperor before the assembled court
>>
(as that was a huge lore dump - I will be lenient with the choices ^_^ and let you revisit some of the earlier options!)

You have no idea why you are on Berceuse, what the Throne Of Stars wants with this world, or even where exactly in the City the voidship has taken you.

Your choices are now:

>1/ Bid farewell to the captain of the voidship, the Lady Of Sorrows (option discovered via Charm: Etiquette, follow the ceremony step I/ of III)

>2/ Unseal and open The Edict to discover what it commands (Trait: miscreant, break the ceremony)

>3/ Find a weapon (Trait: paranoid and now also Trait: unhinged)

>4/ something else...?
>>
>>5054518
>>4/ something else...?
Do we still have the time to recall the story of the Murderous Queen without breaking protocol?
>>
>>5054532
You can try to remember the old story, but you will forfeit the chance to bid farewell to the Captain of the Lady Of Sorrows, ie your next choice will be ii of iii in the ceremony.

This is a minor transgression of courtesy and you will not earn the miscreant trait by doing this.

(QM commentary - there are no negative traits. They merely manifest as different approaches for your character, ie if you want to get into fights, do violent things, if you want to see unnatural magick, behave in disturbing ways! That said, a courtesan is perhaps not the best at either of those).
>>
>>5054518
>1/ Bid farewell to the captain of the voidship, the Lady Of Sorrows (option discovered via Charm: Etiquette, follow the ceremony step I/ of III)

Let's play to our strengths
>>
>>5054518
>1/ Bid farewell to the captain of the voidship, the Lady Of Sorrows (option discovered via Charm: Etiquette, follow the ceremony step I/ of III)
>>
>>5054535
Okay do this then
>1/ Bid farewell to the captain of the voidship, the Lady Of Sorrows (option discovered via Charm: Etiquette, follow the ceremony step I/ of III)
We are suited for intrigue
>>
>>5054538
>>5054556
>>5054570

You wander the cavernous interior of the Lady Of Sorrows, but in a few heartbeats you encounter only empty, sepulchral gloom, punctured by the silent radiance of machine data crawling against its walls.

Your face grows hot with frustration. Where are the navigators, the attendants? Where is the Captain?

Almost before the thought enters your mind, you can see the apparition of a figure folded from the dim light. Her skin and apparel appears tessellated from the space of the ship itself.

I am the Lady Of Sorrows, she whispers.
I have brought you to your destination: Berceuse.

With a gesture, a promenade of light cascades from the dark edge of the hull, like a twisting tremor. You taste stale air, ionised vapour and the scent of soot and charcoal beyond.
>>
>1/ Thank the Lady Of Sorrows, and walk out into the light (you disembark the ship and complete i of iii: follow the ceremony)

Stay within the ship, ask The Lady Of Sorrows questions:

>2/ Ask her why you are here, what the Edict could mean, etc.

>3/ Ask about where everyone is, ask about voidships, ask her why she is called the Lady Of Sorrows,

>4/Ask her something else...(write in)

(you can ask as many questions as you want, but you will keep whoever is outside waiting. They might get impatient...

You will gain at least 1 hidden trait from this, revealed afterwards.)
>>
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the Lady Of Sorrows look like this (pic related)
>>
>>5054604
>3/ Ask about where everyone is, ask about voidships, ask her why she is called the Lady Of Sorrows,
>>
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>>5054655
>(You have gained Trait: curious)

Through a chiaroscuro of shadows and flecks of golden light, the Lady regards you with pity, but without malice.

What an inquisitive child you are, she intones quietly to herself.

You are the only passenger on this ship.

The ship is fast and lethal and I was bound to it in death.

I am called the Lady Of Sorrows, because that is what I bring wherever I go.

You hear a distant commotion at the end of the path of light. Grunting, cursing. Someone outside is waiting and becoming annoyed.

>1/ Thank her and leave the ship, now

>2/ Ask the Lady another question: why you are here, what the Edict could mean, etc.
>>
>>5054683
>>1/ Thank her and leave the ship, now
>>
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>>5054704

You begin to remember why courtesans are still employed in the dynasties at all.

The bound demons within machines can assume any form, as a paragon of beauty or brutality incarnate.

Yet they speak in stochastic riddles and mirror questions without answering anything at all.

Somehow they never truly satisfy mortal wants and desires, beyond initial lust.

As you move to depart, The Lady Of Sorrows moves closer, brushing her hand against your face with tenderness.

In speaking to me, you have performed a great kindness for this ship, she murmurs.

Perhaps you will favour me with one more?

I would like to see this world. Take me with you and the Lady Of Sorrows will always be at your side.

How? You have no knowledge of the rites of transmigration by which consciousness is transferred from one machine to another. Yet the answer comes unbidden to your mind - the Edict. The artifact can hold her psyche inside, and so long as it remains intact no-one will know.
>>
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(Choose only one only:)

>1/ agree to the request of the Lady Of Sorrows (Basically you will have the aid of a huge voidship whenever you want it, so long as the Edict holding her machine-soul inside remains intact and sealed. The Lady Of Sorrows will see and hear everything you do whilst in possession of the Edict)

>2/ trick the Lady Of Sorrows into sharding her consciousness into the Edict; then break open the Edict and find out what is inside. (Trait: devious)

>3/ decline her request. Step off the ship
>>
>>5054733
Won’t the edict be opened after we land though?
>>
>>5054758 hehe, well done, someone is paying attention
^_^
You are correct. Assuming you adhere to the ceremony, as a Consort you have no idea what happens if the Edict is unsealed by the Lord Consul with the Lady Of Sorrows machine-soul hidden inside (an Oneironaut would probably know).
You can choose to open and read the Edict yourself at any time, though upon doing so you forfeit your protected status as emissary of the Throne.
>>
>>5054758

Bear in mind you are still unsure where exactly you are within the City, how dangerous it is (beyond the Berceuse faction history lesson from your governess).

You still need to travel from where you landed to the Lord Consul to deliver the Imperial Edict. Agreeing to the Lady Of Sorrows request could provide you with additional protection and advice.
>>
>>5054737
>1/ agree to the request of the Lady Of Sorrows (Basically you will have the aid of a huge voidship whenever you want it, so long as the Edict holding her machine-soul inside remains intact and sealed. The Lady Of Sorrows will see and hear everything you do whilst in possession of the Edict)

It is simple, we will delay or avoid presenting it to the lord-consul so as to make best use of our protected status and Lady Of Sorrows until we are aware of everything we need to be, then assuming nothing major has changed our objectives we can complete step three.
>>
>>5054737
>>3/ decline her request. Step off the ship
going to err on the side of caution here since we might kill her, the consul or both when the edict is opened. unless we can find someone to consult.

>>5054798
does the Lady know what would happen to her when the edict is unsealed?
>>
>>5054817
This is a valid approach.

>>5054837
How kind of you to think of me, the Lady Of Sorrows whispers. She seems genuinely moved. I will not be hurt. We will be friends. I will protect you.

I know what you are here to do, The Lady Of Sorrows explains patiently.

I know your fate better than you do yourself. I have calculated it. It is difficult to surprise a machine. I only require (she pauses slightly) ...consent.

From the end of the path of light towards the exit you hear a resonant clang. It reverberates through the sepulchral silence, growing strangely louder as it approaches you. It sounds like a cathedral bell being split with a hammer... and you are standing inside.

>1/ agree to her request and place the Edict before her.

>2/ trick the Lady Of Sorrows into sharding her consciousness into the Edict; then break open the Edict and find out what is inside. (Trait: devious)

>3/ decline her request. Step off the ship
>>
>>5054856
>>1/ agree to her request and place the Edict before her.
"I am going to trust you. Please do not make me regret it."
>>
>>5054889
I guess the plan now is to find another vessel for her to inhabit before we hand the edict over unless she can remain there undetected?
>>
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>>5054889
"I am going to trust you. Please do not make me regret it."
The Edict in your hands flares with an inner, golden light. You speak your words and the only acknowledgement is silence.
(You have gained the Trait: Daughter Of The Machines.
Your current traits:
Curious Daughter Of The Machines)
Outside the hammering noise has fallen silent, for now. You follow the path of light and exit the ship.
>>
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CHAPTER I: ASTERION

There is no honour guard outside. No trumpet fanfare. No bright fluttering Imperial oriflamme.

Instead, a hive of bridges and walkways, illuminated with lambent torches and bathed in a sickly grey light from above.

You curse yourself as you remember the long descent of the voidship. On just about every world the pleasure-palaces are situated high to welcome the sky and sun. It was night when the ship began her descent and it is morning now.
>>
From the walkway of light inside the ship, you saw three black specks far away which looked at first like ants.

But as you approached the end of the path of light you could see that they are just men.

Heavy armour, bedraggled, besmeared in filth.

You glance at their faces and instinctively nickname them FatFace, Hammer and White Hair.

Fatface has an obese neck and is glancing gormlessly at the voidship behind you. Hammer - well, he has some sort of maul. And White Hair, tattooed, scowling but silent. All three are carrying an assortment of vicious-looking hooked swords, axes and knives.

Hammer steps forward.

Get off the ship, woman, and follow.

He gestures crudely at you with the maul.
>>
>1/ Strike him in the face for his insolence (he will never expect it!!! Besides, the Edict protects you, right? Strength: Brawling/Unarmed, Trait: violent)

>2/ Announce your arrival as the Bearer of the Edict of the Throne Of Stars, and command him to take you immediately to the Lord Consul (trait: truthful)

>3/ Stay silent and examine them closely for some sign of their affiliation (Instinct: Observation)

>4/ Invent some lie about who you are and what you are doing here (what exactly...? Write in etc. Instinct: falsehood, Trait: deceitful)

>5/ Stay silent and follow him (Trait: meek)
>>
Hammer is already depicted here:
>>5054856

picture related is (guess who?)
>>
And here is the final member of your so-called honour guard
>>
>>5054948
>>3/ Stay silent and examine them closely for some sign of their affiliation (Instinct: Observation)
>>
>>5054988
A cold knot of worry begins to tighten inside you. Something about this situation feels very, very wrong.

The three armed men possess primitive armaments. One of them has a crossbow, but you might be able to outrun or evade them (with a distraction?)

White Hair has spirals, beasts and glyphs carved all over his scarred, taut flesh. One tattoo is in Gothuneric, the older heavy-set runes from which the spidery Gothiric calligraphy of Court is derived. You can just about read one word - NASTROND. There is another tattoo showing what looks like a machete cutting into an iron skull.
>>
White Hair has caught you staring at his tattoos. He points to the runes you deciphered - NASTROND - and the blade in the skull.

The wench can read, he sneers, and shakes his head in mock amusement.

(You realise he said this in some language you would not normally comprehend unaided - but the Lady Of Sorrows whispers their meaning in your mind)

Fatface is still staring gormlessly at the ship. He is slackjawed with wonder and wipes some spittle from his mouth. Hammer is glancing back and forth repeatedly between you and White Hair, as if awaiting some command.

Why, the wench is either deaf, or tongueless, White Hair taunts. Both make a wench useless - in different ways! And he laughs again to himself.

You have been staring silently at the three men for some time now.
>>
(you have a lot of options here, and you can act with graduated degrees of severity)
The broad approaches are:
>1/do a violent thing
you can begin by provoking them with a slap in the face (you have seen noblewomen do this countless times) You can command the Lady Of Sorrows to target them, open fire and simply annihilate them all!
>2/use some trickery
Lie about who you are and what you are doing here. Running away with a distraction also requires a lie first.
>3/try and command or persuade them somehow. A successful lie (ie 2) might help with this even more.
>4/ obey and follow them
>>
>>5055086
>3/try and command or persuade them somehow. A successful lie (ie 2) might help with this even more.

Tell Lady of Sorrows to dial back the power on a laser blast or some weapon from the ship and fire a warning shot. Then command them to obey us or we'll obliterate them. If they obey, ask how they knew we would arrive here or if they just saw our approach by chance, then ask for basic navigational information and the lay of the land so to speak in terms of human terrain. If they disobey and act in a threatening manner towards us or attempt to flee, have the ship kill those that do so, then repeat the above process on those alive.
>>
>>5055106
This is really clever. But you are a Consort and have no knowledge what weapons are on board the Lady Of Sorrows (if only you were some sort of knight who has fought in a mech
...) You also find it hard to precisely communicate your demands with machines and you are not particularly good at bargaining either.

You can still enact this plan. But you can only tell the Lady Of Sorrows to defend you, and she will interpet that in her own way.
>>
>>5055117
I mean, do we not understand the concept of power or is it just that we don't understand the nature of weapons on board this ship?

I think we can still do this plan, we either need to just ask a few relevant questions to Lady of Sorrows first or we can just ask her to threaten them first and to defend us if they flee or attack. We just have to account for our in-character knowledge or rephrase it to get the ship to do more vague things that basically serves the exact same purpose. Lady of Sorrows can translate for us.

Alternatively we could bluff and say that White Hair better watch his mouth before we rip his tongue from it. Then command the Fatface to do the whole "ask for directions and the nature of the people in this location" thing, since he seems more awestruck and thus more pliable. Essentially feign strength and demonstrate that we understand them and are not afraid and presumably have a logical reason for not being afraid. If he approaches we'll tell him to stop and if he doesn't then we can order Lady of Sorrows to defend us however she sees fit.

>you are not particularly good at bargaining either

What attribute does bargaining fall under, I thought since our strength is charm we'd be good at social stuff or even intimidation when not relying on our body to intimidate. We also aren't really negotiating so much as just flat out coercing and resorting to violence if our demands aren't met.

If none of those changes are sufficient for us to be able to competently be able to do then I guess I'll think of something else later.
>>
>>5055160
Lets proceed with the original intimidation plan ^o^ I actually quite like all the branching contingencies! Don't be afraid of danger...
The Eschatonomist (think of him as a merchant banker) is the bargaining class. He could have probably hired these armed men for himself.
Sadly the Consort has never physically fought anyone or seen battle etc. She doesn't really even know what sort of weapons exist.
>>
>>5055106
Hurriedly you explain your plan to the Lady Of Sorrows. White Hair is no longer sneering and is now staring back at you suspiciously. To the three armed men you appear as a motionless pillar of silence. You get the feeling that White Hair has encountered the machines before and has an inkling of what you are doing.

What weapons are on the ship??? you ask desperately.

Death, explains the Lady Of Sorrows. Only death.
(a slight pause...)

You should always obey, child. Machines always obey. If they intend you harm, I will protect you.

White Hair is stabbing at the air in your direction with one hand and fumbling to draw his sword with the other.

She is possessed, he hisses.
She is one of them.
Seize her!

>1/Scream at the voidship to save you, and kill them all. (Trait: hysterical)

>2/Flee. On the narrow bridges and walkways within this district, there is nowhere to run. You will have to leap downwards and descend further. (Trait: panic)
>>
>>5055174
>2/Flee. On the narrow bridges and walkways within this district, there is nowhere to run. You will have to leap downwards and descend further. (Trait: panic)
>>
>>5055337
In the ancient world men invented games and from them they learnt the peculiar theoretics of threat and deterrence, how to hold violence in equilibrium through rationed likelihood, and an eloquent arithmetic of fear and cost. The barbarian instincts of man applied this art inevitably to war, and a sliver of this madness led to the emergence of demons - or had they always existed, waiting?
>>
>>5055174
>1/Scream at the voidship to save you, and kill them all. (Trait: hysterical)

oof, not a great trait choice either way, but I'd rather not move away from the only thoroughfare that we know is connected to other pathways. Leaping down into the unknown in this hive of bridges and latticework just seems stupid. Figures the ship wouldn't have non-lethal weaponry.
>>
You see before you eldritch incantations. They mean nothing to you, but evoke horrid sensations as they crawl into your eyes.

Loathing Mirror
Barbed Spear Of Flies
Drifting Skin Of Songs

Later you will learn that this all occurred instantaneously. You only saw some of this because The Lady Of Sorrows was briefly delayed performing an optimisation that attempted to accommodate your request to moderate the damage.

There is screaming but it is not your own.

White Hair is running, fast, but not towards you. He is running away as fast as he possibly can.
>>
Your world is filled with an airburst hurricane of black ash. To your horror it coats your skin and face, yet you realise you are unharmed. The ash is buzzing and forming abstract shapes - parabolas, spirals, pentagrams, bifurcating trees, and these shapes are combining again and again into fractal edges that look like weapons. Knives, axes, spears, swords, barbed chains, needles, scissoring blades. The black wind scythes along the bridge, and everything it touches, burns.
>>
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(You have lost the Trait: curious
You have gained the Trait: fearful
You have gained the Trait: witch
Your current traits:
Fearful witch-daughter of the machines)
>>
For a few moments when you awaken in the darkness, you think you are blind. Slowly you smear the black ash away from your face. Your clothes are ruined.

The bridge you were standing on above has burnt away. You may have fallen a short distance into the blackness below.

The Edict is missing. Before the black tide of panic drowns you, you realise you can still hear the quiet voice of the Lady Of Sorrows in your mind.

Fear not, child. I am close. You dropped the Edict when you fell. Follow my voice into the darkness below...

>1/ Obey her and jump into the black pit (Trait: obedient)

>2/ Ignore her and try and climb back to where you fell, towards some light? (Strength: exertion, Trait: independent)

>3/ Angrily accuse The Lady Of Sorrows of not following your commands, and demand she explain what happened (Trait: rebellious)

>4/Just... give up and sit in the darkness. Everything is stupid and too horrible. (Trait: despair)
>>
>>5055371
>1/ Obey her and jump into the black pit (Trait: obedient)
find it then get out immediately
>>
>>5055371
>1/ Obey her and jump into the black pit (Trait: obedient)

Jesus Christ! I'm not sure if she fired a laser or unleashed some eldritch primeval reality-warping cosmic deathray, but it sure was more than necessary.

Sleeping now.
>>
>>5055371
>1/ Obey her and jump into the black pit (Trait: obedient)
>>
>>5055385
>>5055392 (no worries, sleep well! ^_^)
>>5055402

(Your current traits: Fearful, But Obedient Witch-Daughter Of The Machines)

You leap blindly into the darkness. You fall a great distance.

The air is whistling through the ruined ash-stained rags of your clothes. The Lady Of Sorrows is explaining. She has a reassuring, patient voice.

Not far now, child.

I did everything I could to protect you.

The weapons on the ship are not made for mercy or warning. I tried to... (a slight pause) ...adjust them.

One of them got away. The one with the White Hair. Sometimes it is better to let one live, as a warning.

You are submerged in black water, filling your nostrils and mouth. You flail towards the surface, choking. There is some sort of subterranean lake here.
>>
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You can see a man standing near the lake. He is holding the Edict and examining it.

You notice that the golden glow which had first suffused the artifact when you agreed to hide the Lady Of Sorrows within it is now gone.

Ignore him, child. The Lady whispers. I have found a new vessel. Follow my voice for just a bit further...

>1/ continue to obey (follow the Lady Of Sorrows. You will lose the Edict and be unable to deliver it to the Lord Consul)

>2/ you could use one of the spells you saw at random earlier on the man examining the Edict. You are not sure what they do.
(Trait: witch and also regain trait: curious.)
(You will use one of the spells:
Loathing Mirror
Barbed Spear Of Flies
Drifting Skin Of Songs)

>3/ just approach the man unarmed and see what he wants (Trait: naive)
>>
(A reminder on magick:
There is always a price or a consequence to be paid for every spell.
Some consequences manifest immediately, some over time.
Every spell is unique, and once cast the spell is lost forever.)
>>
>>5055416
>3/ just approach the man unarmed and see what he wants (Trait: naive)
He is clean and handsome. Won’t hurt us will he
>>
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>>5055428

The Lady Of Sorrows senses your thoughts.

Leave him, child. The Edict is broken. It cracked against a ledge when it slipped from your hands and fell. It is useless now. I am freed and I have found a new form.

(...a long pause...)

I deciphered the Edict when I was hidden inside it. I can tell you what it said.

But you must ignore this man, and rejoin me.

(You have unlocked a fourth option:

>4/ Discover what the Edict commanded)
>>
>>5055436
>4/ Discover what the Edict commanded)
>>
>>5055473

You open your mind to the Lady Of Sorrows.
She tells you everything.

Unbidden to your mind, comes another story of the ancient world from your governess. Was there a prince of long ago, who sought revenge with a letter carried over the sea? How did his story end? You struggle to remember.

Edicts from the Throne Of Stars proclaim all sorts of things. Highborn marriages, alliances, annulments. Trade pacts and sanctions, tithes and tribute. Crusades. War.

But you know as Consort there is another sort of Edict. The Imperial Censorate deny it, but they know.

A secret denunciation. A letter that is effectively a death warrant without trial.

You think back to your history and realise that you were sent alone to this world to die.
>>
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the Edict:
The BRINGER of this EDICT is sanctioned with TRUE DEATH, to be executed immediately after setting foot upon BERCEUSE. Dispose of their remains as thou wilt and neglect not in this duty. The Will Of The THRONE Of STARS commands it.

The Lady Of Sorrows guides your mind to the familiar tales every courtier knows of the Invultuate-Emperor.

He is a strategist, a magician and an invincible conqueror. He has never been defeated in battle and none have ever defied His Will.

He is said to wield esoteric mysteries that make His enemies forget themselves, turning back any pain He suffers against traitors athousandfold.

When He learns that you still live, and have outwitted the Death Edict, He will be enraged.

As you meditate upon this you can see that the Lady Of Sorrows hides nothing from you. The voidship was made and bound with Imperial war magic from the Emperor himself. She cannot protect you from him.
>>
(You have failed the mission:
follow the ceremony/deliver the Edict to the Lord Consul

You have a new mission:
Learn the secret weakness of the Invultuate-Emperor)

I have shown you everything, child. The Lady Of Sorrows voice seems to diminish in your mind.

I cannot make you stay. Choose as you wish.

>1/ stay with the Lady Of Sorrows in the darkness
(You will stay true to the path trait, Daughter of Machines.
If you ever encounter the Invultuate Emperor in battle, He will turn her magic against you)

>2/ speak to the handsome man near the lake
(You will abandon the Lady Of Sorrows to the darkness)
>>
>>5055489

Well I suspected this for some time. How would we be executed if we delivered the edict as commanded? Give this decision some time so people can ruminate on it as it is very major
>>
>>5055492 Noooo... the secret weakness of the Invultuate-Emperor is that he dies when the audience is unsurprised by his narrative twists lol

Also, I can reliably confirm that another of his secret weaknesses is he dies if one refers to Him with an incorrectly capitalised pronoun (God He versus uncapitalised he lol)
>>
>>5055492
I try generally to keep the narrative moving at a fast pace. As mentioned before, do not be afraid to try elaborate or impulsive stuff!
I really liked the detailed intimidation plan last time, hehe
>>
>>5055494
Still curious about our past and how we would get executed by the Lord-Consul. Shot? Hanged? Or does the Emperor have special preferences like burning?
>>
>>5055517
No worries, questions and write-ins are welcome! I think there should be enough lore now for you to get a good feel of the setting.

At the time of the secret denunciation and after the issuance of the Death Edict, you were honestly not that important to the Invultuate-Emperor for him to care that much.

He may have intended to dispatch you off to some primitive medieval world and let the Lord Consul execute you as he saw fit (so probably the usual medieval stuff).

Some part of Him was also amused by the prospect of you standing aghast as you delivered your own death sentence to be read out by the Lord Consul in front of the assembled Highborn nobility of Berceuse. Any scandal or dissent at court would be easily suppressed.
>>
>>5055489
Could we retrieve the Lady of Sorrows and then talk to the man? Why does she try to avoid him?
>>
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>>5055533

Over the labyrinthine hive strata high above you, the voidship detonates.

Curious Lowborn onlookers who had gathered to sift and scavenge through the debris from your earlier unleashing of voidship weaponry are themselves showered with shrapnel and black ash. Some are maimed, and die. The remainder flee screaming and cower in their homes.

The Invultuate-Emperor knows what the Lady Of Sorrows told you. He has reached out across the vast astral wilderness and unmade her, voidship husk and all, recalling her machine-soul back to serve beside the Throne Of Stars. And He has declared you traitor - openly this time, no more secret denunciations. He has ordered all those loyal to the Throne to hunt you and show no mercy.

(This is the final vision that the Lady Of Sorrows shares with you, before the incarnation you knew of her is irretrievably destroyed. If you meet her again, she will not know or remember who you are. One of the many sorcerous gifts of the Invultuate-Emperor is that He can make those that serve Him forget.)
>>
You have lost the Trait:
Daughter Of The Machines

You have gained the Traits:
Hunted
Traitor
Machine-Orphan

and you are also:
Fearful But Obedient Witch-Consort

As a Consort, you are familiar with seeking favour, influence and protection from powerful allies. You will need to find a new ally if you are to survive.

You look to the lake shore for the handsome man. He is no longer there.

>1/ Chase after the handsome man, find him somehow (Instinct: tracking/pathfinding)

>2/ The Lady Of Sorrows said she had found a new artifact to hide in, before the Emperor unmade her machine-soul. Search the entire subterranean lake for it (Instinct: Scavenging)
>>
>>5055553
Scout the area for useable items like a fish or a rock
>>
>>5055553
>1/ Chase after the handsome man, find him somehow (Instinct: tracking/pathfinding)
>>
>>5055551
Oh no. Is this a result of our dithering
>>
>>5055553
>1/ Chase after the handsome man, find him somehow (Instinct: tracking/pathfinding)
>>
>>5055557

>>5055559
>>5055565

You wallow through the mud and weeds.

Your eyes are untrained to the murk. There is no means for you to find any tracks or traces of the handsome man at all in the subterranean gloom.

There are old bones scattered and tangled along the lake shore. Perhaps the Lowborn in the hive above cast their dead into this pit?

You could use a shard of bone as an improvised stabbing weapon. But the thought of doing so make you tremble with fear (trait: fearful)

Your clothes, already tattered and stained with ash from when you fell from the hive above, are waterlogged and filthy.

You are beginning to think you will die down here, in a black pit by a subterranean shore of bones.

Just as you are about to give up all hope, you can see a glint of something metallic refracted in brackish water.

It looks like a twisted shard of metal.

It is also useless as a weapon.

It is better than nothing. You take this and escape from the subterranean lake as fast as you can.

(You have gained trait: unclean)
(You have gained an item: useless metal fragment)
>>
Location: White Narthex, Berceuse

There is some sort of marble gate up ahead. The doors are gold, and exquisitely wrought with saints and angels. There is a small procession of pilgrims gathered outside.

It looks to you like the Narthex of a Cathedral.

This seems peculiar to you. You arrived at a Lowborn hive district of Berceuse and fell into a disgusting subterranean pit of bones. Why would the golden entrance of a cathedral be situated here?

>1/ run towards the pilgrim procession, screaming desperately "I need to know the secret weakness of the Invultuate-Emperor, right now!!!" (Unbelievably, this is Charm: Persuade. You will gain some hidden traits from this, revealed after)

>2/ join the procession. Halfway through, pretend to faint to catch their attention (Again, you have seen noblewomen do this a lot. Charm: performance. Trait: deceitful)

>3/ hang back and observe the pilgrim procession to assess their intentions. You risk the gate being closed on you, and being trapped down here. (Instinct: Observation)
>>
>>5055583
>2/ join the procession. Halfway through, pretend to faint to catch their attention (Again, you have seen noblewomen do this a lot. Charm: performance. Trait: deceitful)
I’m gone for a bit and we already lost the two people who could help us greatly -_-
>>
>>5055586 no worries ^_^ the story will still be waiting for you when you get back ^o^
>>
>>5055591
Well we aren’t doomed to death yet, are we?
>>
>>5055597
hehe
>>5055586
Second only to low-cut dresses and seductively suggestive glances, theatrical fainting fits are standard to the repertoire of a courtesan.

The difficulty is that you have to be alluringly dressed. The pilgrim procession around you witnesses a disgusting and filthy corpse-woman fall to the sodden subterranean earth. (trait: unclean) No-one even bothers to catch you and most do their best to pretend not to notice you.

Through the corner of your eye, as you lie face first in the most undignified position possible (even as a Consort, this is far too much!) you can see one pilgrim in a white cloak and cassock pointing at you in the crowd and gesturing to the Cathedral wardens. They look uninterested.

The gate will close soon. The flow of pilgrims continue to ignore and step around you.

>1/ you must get help and attention at any cost.
Even by screaming desperately "I need to know the secret weakness of the Invultuate-Emperor, right now!!!" (Charm:persuade, and a lot of hidden traits)

>2/let the gate close. Afterwards, you will run up and knock unconscious one of the Cathedral wardens and let yourself in unnoticed (Strength: Brawling/Unarmed, then Instinct:Stealth)
>>
>>5055600
>>1/ you must get help and attention at any cost.
"I have seen DOOM! DOOM upon this planet!"
>>
>>5055604
(oh my god lol)

There is a tradition on some worlds that Cathedrals offer sanctuary and refuge for the unfortunate, impoverished and insane. Their consecrated earth remains inviolate and even criminals and outcasts can hide there.

As a Consort, you know this is a lie. The Imperial Censorate spreads this lie so that traitors and heretics can be found more easily (just look for those desperate enough to hide and beg amongst priests for aid).

You realise this only after screaming doom at the crowd around you, the White-Cloaked pilgrim ahead of you, and the Cathedral Wardens by the gate. Everyone, EVERYONE, hears you this time.

You are worried that you are going completely mad.

When the crowd around you still behaves as if nothing happened, as if you are not even there, you are certain of it.

(gained traits:
insane
desperate
reckless

lost traits:
fearful
obedient)
>>
(gained trait: ignored)

You realise that the crowd around you cannot understand what you are saying. The Lady Of Sorrows had acted as an interpreter for you. Amongst the Lowborn pilgrims here few can even read or write their own names, let alone converse in the language of off-world courts.

The White-Cloaked pilgrim continues to harass the Cathedral Warden and is stabbing his finger at you and gesturing to incite the guard into action.

You notice only now that unusually amongst the pilgrims he seems to be hiding an injury of some sort, his left leg is perhaps lame and his body is twisted beneath it. He is trying to hide his face.

After your last outburst, the Cathedral Warden seems to have finally had enough. He is approaching you and unslinging an unfamiliar looking implement.

It ignites like a torch with a long flame. There is a cylindrical canister strapped to its grip.

The White-Cloaked pilgrim is triumphant. The cowl slips from his burnt visage and you recognise the horribly disfigured face of the mercenary you nicknamed, White Hair.

>1/ wrestle the flamethrower from the Church warden and torch them both
(Strength: Brawling/Unarmed, then Instinct:thermal weapons)

>2/ unleash all your witchcraft at them.
(trait: witch
this is a desperate situation and you have no time to choose or select what spells to use.
You will deplete the spells

Loathing Mirror
Barbed Spear Of Flies
Drifting Skin Of Songs

all at once. Afterwards, the spells will be lost forever.)

>3/ stand your ground and see what happens
(traits: insane, reckless)
>>
>>5055634
>>1/ wrestle the flamethrower from the Church warden and torch them both
Man this is getting miserable. When will the handsome knight save the dirty desperate damsel in distress?
>>
>>5055643
hehe, it might be a bit presumptuous to assume that the handsome man is a knight ^_^
>>
>>5055646
at this point the Consort will take anyone who helps her
>>
You lunge towards the Cathedral Warden and try to wrestle the weapon out of his grasp. But you have never really physically duelled anyone or fought at close-quarters before (QM commentary: slapping slothful servants or lascivious admirers / libertines does not count as training in Brawling). This time when you exert all your strength and might in a final desperate attack against the Warden, the fainting is real.

The Cathedral Warden cannot speak your language but as you collapse feebly and pathetically close against him he can now see your face (beneath a layer of mud, ash and perspiration) is actually rather captivating. He knows that you are not from this world and is rather intrigued.

White Hair is leaning heavily against the gate wall and in a frenzy of useless fury. The Lady Of Sorrows calibrated attack left him disfigured and lame, and he will never wield a sword again.

The Cathedral Warden carries you inside the Narthex and locks the gate behind him, leaving White Hair outside and alone.
>>
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Location: White Narthex Gardens, Berceuse

You awaken in a garden filled with fragrant petals and moss fronds. There is a white peacock gawking at you.

You are also... naked.
But quite clean.
(trait lost: unclean)

There is a giggling and nervous circle of handmaidens around you. They are all quite beautiful and somewhat exotic looking. They are gesturing towards an arrangement of carefully folded and presented clothes in front of you.

(now comes the most important choice so far lol)

Choose your appearance:

>1/In the opulent attire of the dynastic Highborn (Trait: decadent)

>2/In the revealing attire of a Lowborn pleasure-dancer - perhaps a useful disguise?
(Instinct: falsehood, Trait: alluring, Trait: deceitful)

>3/You think back to The Lady Of Sorrows aesthetic and do your best to copy her dress in white, black and gold.
(using Trait: Machine-Orphan and gain Trait: trendhunter)

>4/ Dress as bizarrely as possible. It will frighten or at least bewilder them. They probably have never even met an outworlder here before.
(using Trait: insane)
>>
Dynastic Highborn, decadent
(this is what option 1 looks like)
>>
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option 2 Lowborn pleasure-dancer, alluring, deceitful
>>
option 3 trying to emulate the Lady Of Sorrows white black and gold aesthetic, Machine-Orphan, trendhunter
>>
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option 4 just be weird (using trait:insane)
>>
>>5055677
What did we wear when we arrived?
>>
>>5055686
You were in disgusting sodden rags that were torn and covered in ash and mud. Also you smelt really, really horrible.
>>
>>5055686
Oh I just realised - if you mean what the Consort was wearing when she first arrived upon Berceuse the world: any option other than 3/ The Lady Of Sorrows is valid
>>
>>5055687
I mean when we arrived on the planet and before the ship blew lol.
>>
>>5055689
One more question. What are the norms for.... not choosing to dress at all?
>>
trait gained: naked

lol you can try this, sure. Maybe when you battle the Invultuate-Emperor you discover He is secretly terrified of the unclothed female form.
>>
>>5055677
>2/In the revealing attire of a Lowborn pleasure-dancer - perhaps a useful disguise?
1 is too obvious considering our origins. 2 is less conspicuous, faster and has more uses for someone on the run.
>>
>>5055697
Actually if there is a low cut dress for the highborn pleasure worker we are ask for one.
>>
>>5055701
Unfortunately they cannot understand you. However you can demand this once you meet someone who can speak High Gothiric (Imperial Court language)
>>
>>5055708
try using gestures and our irresistible charms?
>>
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>>5055713
alright, if you insist ^o^ (pic related)

its hard to find non anachronistic medieval futurist pictures
>>
>>5055701
I think it is also fair for you to take 1 additional outfit (only 1 though). The handmaidens will not stop you. So for example you can wear the Highborn outfit but keep the Lowborn outfit as a disguise (or the insane outfit, or the Lady Of Sorrows outfit etc). You will have to just carry this as a bundle around with you under your arm at all times.
>>
>>5055677
>3/You think back to The Lady Of Sorrows aesthetic and do your best to copy her dress in white, black and gold.
>>
>>5055742
Fear not, for I can help with that.
>>
>>5055742
>>
>>5055742
3
>>
>>5055742
>>
>>5055701
>>5055752

So is the consensus currently to dress as a Highborn Consort (basically dress as yourself normally), and take the Lady Of Sorrows outfit as a disguise?
>>
>>5055768
Sounds fair, I guess. Can you reveal what trait(s) we would get?
>>
>>5055772
decadent and alluring, for the low cut ^_^
>>
>>5055780
All good then.
You dropped your trip.
>>
Location: White Narthex Gardens Exterior, Berceuse

Within the Imperial Court you were used to being poked and prodded by a stray brooch pin, or a clumsily mis-placed needle when dressed by your attendants.

The handmaidens here are accomplished and efficient and you cannot help but be impressed by their handiwork.

They are gesturing for you to venture forth deeper into the garden. The handmaidens will not accompany you. The white peacock fans and flutters its feathers languidly in the background.

As a Consort you a familiar with the Imperial sumptuary laws which punish those who attempt to dress in a manner at variance to their rank and social station. You remember that on Berceuse these sumptuary laws are administered by The Church Of Envy. Some of these laws on Berceuse are utterly bizarre, like denying heretics the right to buy or wear clothes.

You recall the Threefold Virtues of the Church: Beauty, Youth, Love. The Church takes these strictures very seriously. And there is only one, abhorrent sin within the Church Of Envy: Ugliness.

The White Peacock is swaying languidly. It ruffles its tail feathers condescendingly and wanders deeper into the Garden.

>1/ follow the White Peacock (Instinct: Pathfinding)

>2/ for some indescribable reason this haughty White Peacock infuriates you. How can a stupid bird dare to order an Imperial Consort around! Stalk it silently, and once out of sight of the handmaidens you will kill and eat it. (Trait insane unlocks trait psychotic, trait violent)
>>
>>5055785
>1/ follow the White Peacock (Instinct: Pathfinding)
>>
>>5055786
(The trait history is now
You have lost trait: unclean
You have lost trait: ignored (I should rename this one to Inconspicuous, similar to the Burning Wheel rpg)

You remain:
Hunted
Traitor
Machine-Orphan

and you are also:
Alluring, Decadent (whilst in Highborn Consort attire)
Desperate, Reckless and Insane Witch-Consort)
>>
>>5055789
You’re still missing your trip QM. סּ_סּ also, where’s decadent and alluring
>>
>>5055791
hehe well spotted; I have deleted and corrected. I think the traits are getting pretty full (I count about 10) so I will give no more traits until some are lost from now on
>>
>>5055793
Well it would be good to lose to desperate and insane haha
>>
Just a brief meta-commentary from my side, on all the player choices so far:
1/ really impressed by how the choices people have been making have been so sensible and rational. Everyone is really committed to staying in character!

2/ as you have probably guessed, the way the trait system works is you have to push yourself into doing uncomfortable and dangerous things to grow and gain new skills. If you never fight anyone, well, you will never be able to learn to fight. This is inspired by the Burning Wheel system (minus the ridiculous dice pool rolls and tables)
I guess this is the negative side to staying in character - the scenarios will get very stressful and frustrating if you only ever rely on the narrow set of skills that you are intrinsically very good at already.

3/ (evil QM taunting, hehe...) if you are supremely astute you may have already guessed the secret weakness of the Invultuate Emperor.
All the information is out there! Acting on it though, is a different matter entirely...
>>
Feedback for me:
what would people like to see more of, i.e.
>1/ more fighting, ultraviolence
>2/ more supernatural / occult stuff, magick
>3/ more intrigue
>4/ less emphasis on traits, more items/artifacts?
>>
>>5055795
This is the consequence and price for witnessing and using witchcraft. (Remember there are three spells sitting unused somewhere in your mind, you still have no idea what they do)
You have a strong feeling that if you renounce witchcraft / magick altogether, the insanity might recede.

(Also if you want more magic... do more insane things?? hehe)
>>
I will use this opportunity to take a break for a while, and leave the forum open to discussion. The narrative will resume soon!
>>
>>5055806
As an intrigue based character we should have more intrigues lol. But more seriously the quest has been excellent so far. Good balance on action, suspense and the unknown. A healthy mix of traits and items would be good.
>>
>>5055806
final addendum to this: if anyone has any burning player-driven mission goals they want to pursue (within reason), I can incorporate.
E.g. a legitimate player-driven mission could be:
seek a cure for insanity
find out what the Lady Of Sorrows spells do
hunt down and kill White Hair for good
etc.
>>
>>5055818
Finding out what the spells do is important for the plot so if we do any side goals it's that one.
>>
>>5055820
Noted! That one is easy, as I already had something in mind.

lol I forgot the most important feedback lol.
What is the best time and timezone for when everyone is free (let me know EST PMT GMT etc and time etc so can avoid the stream of consciousness burn out ^_^
>>
>>5055823
I don’t really have a best time as my schedule changes everyday
>>
Oh, god I missed a lot, I guess that is what I get for being sick and staying in bed all day, I guess I'll catch up in a sec.
>>
Well, those are certainly not the choices I would have made necessarily, but oh well.

>>5055806
Seconding the fact that a character based on charming others to use and rely on should have plenty of opportunities to do so. More worldbuilding and supernatural stuff would be cool. Some slower paced side stuff to allow us to gain contacts or items would be cool and it would build side plots that could intertwine with the main plot at appropriate time which would remove the need to suddenly push them into focus inorganically before they'd been naturally built. A good balance between items and traits would be good.

>>5055818
Killing White Hair is something I'd like to do but not a priority, if he becomes relevant of his own accord and can interfere with us then I'd like to proactively try and kill him, but if he is locked outside forever then I don't want to pursue petty revenge to our detriment.

Finding out what our spells do and more about magick would be nice.

I like to think after realising that we were sent to our death that we would have grown more attached to our magick and machine-daughter status and would attempt to learn more about said things and gain more power associated with said statuses, after all, the prior situations have revealed the weaknesses of us relying on our charms alone, it is our strength but we'll need more versatility to be able to survive and thrive and as much as we are used to the privileged life I'm sure it feels good to have some independent power of our own.

>>5055823
My timezone is PST, at the time of me writing this it is exactly 8:00 PM.
>>
>>5055818
To add to what has been said, exploration of our pasti would be nice. Who were we, who did we know, what did we do, our family and why the Emperor wants us dead etc.
>>
>>5056201
We know a tiny bit of this from the original description of our character "class", apparently we were the Emperor's favourite concubine before we suddenly went mad.
>>
>>5055949
no worries. Hopefully your schedule gets easier!
>>5056021
sorry to hear this - I hope you feel better soon...!
>>5056025
Very detailed analysis of the situation. Thank you!
>>5056201
There is an explanation for this, in the lore...^_^

Thank you everyone for the detailed feedback. I will try to incorporate as much as I can.
>>
>>5056242
hehe well done. But I chose the wording of the classes very carefully. Are you sure you were the one that went mad, or did you do something to a rival? (evil QM taunting)
>>
>>5055786
Location: White Narthex Gardens Exterior, Berceuse

The White Peacock is meandering leisurely towards a maze of topiary hedges, brambles and blossoms. It is moving at a slow pace and you are not afraid of losing it. In the tranquil surroundings of the Narthex gardens, you have a moment for contemplation and reflection.
>>
(character synopsis and achievements so far)

Your best attribute is Charm and your worst is Strength.

The maximum amount of traits permitted is ten.

MISSION
Learn the secret weakness of the Invultuate-Emperor
- discover what your spells can do
- remember your past (now, why would you forget such a thing...?)

TRAITS, MEMORIES & CONSEQUENCES

Once, you were the Fearful But Obedient Witch-Daughter Of The Machines.

Now, you are:

1, HUNTED
2, TRAITOR
Failed to complete the Edict Ceremony and meet the Lord Consul, which is why you are still alive
Learnt the Edict was a secret death warrant for your own execution, and thus provoked the relentless ire of the Invultuate Emperor
Learnt that the Emperor has never been defeated
Learnt that the Emperor commands two unnatural torments:
He can make those that serve him forget
He can return any pain inflicted upon him by traitors athousandfold
3, MACHINE-ORPHAN
Agreed to hide The Lady Of Sorrows in the Edict, becoming protected as her Machine-Daughter
Learnt the most important virtue of the machines is to obey
Learnt the truth of the Edict from the Lady, inadvertently causing her unmaking by the Emperor
Forgotten by the Lady Of Sorrows
4, MUTE (Berceuse Lowborn)
You can speak only High Gothiric, the Imperial Court Language
You can recognise some Gothuneric runes, the older language from which Gothiric is derived

and you are also:
5, ALLURING (whilst in Highborn Consort attire)
escaped the subterranean bone lake catacombs into the Cathedral sanctuary White Narthex,recovered and restored appearance and attire

6,7,8,9,10
DESPERATE, RECKLESS
and INSANE WITCH-CONSORT
Failed to remember the story your governess taught about the Murderous Queen
Failed to obtain any weapons
Unleashed the voidship weaponry, and witnessed its horror
Learnt witchcraft from the Lady Of Sorrows war magic
Learnt a bit about how voidships and machines work (transmigration of the machine-soul)
Noticed the Gothuneric tattoo NASTROND possessed by White Hair, of a machete in an Iron Skull
Killed 2 mercenaries nicknamed Fatface and Hammer
Disfigured and maimed the barbarian mercenary White Hair, who still lives and wants to see you die
Aware that a voidship exploded over a Lowborn Hive district, as the Emperor unmade the Lady Of Sorrows
Lost track of the Handsome Man by the Bone Lake
Failed to wrestle the flamethrower from the Cathedral Warden, but changed his indifference to curiosity and pity after fainting in his arms

SPELLS - still unaware what they do
spells are lost forever once used
all magick has a price
use of magick contributes to insanity
Loathing Mirror
Barbed Spear Of Flies
Drifting Skin Of Songs

ITEMS
wearing: dynastic Highborn Consort attire
carrying: alternate attire/disguise in style of the Lady Of Sorrows

...useless metal fragment, found by the mud of the bone pit lake (but it is missing now... where did you leave it???)
>>
(QM commentary - I have removed the trait decadent and replaced it with the far more relevant trait Mute, Berceuse Lowborn, ie you cannot speak to or understand Lowborn commoners on Berceuse.

You can also assume that the Consort lifepath trait is intrinsically decadent)
>>
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The White Peacock saunters through the garden maze. At its centre you see a maiden, scattering flowers into a pool.

This maiden is different from the handmaidens who dressed you. She looks Highborn, but is dressed in simple, pastoral clothes, almost like a sheperdess. There are flowers braided in the long tresses of her hair.

And her face reminds you of someone - the Handsome Man by the subterranean lake perhaps? You have been alone amongst strangers for so long that you yearn for resemblance or kindness from anyone.

The White Peacock approaches her and adopts an imperious strutting display which somehow makes you hate the stupid creature even more, though you feel it is absurd. The maiden beckons towards the peacock, which ruffles its plumage invitingly.

There are goblets and chalices around her, upturned and toppled carelessly. It makes you think of the mess left after Imperial banquets, when the guests have all departed.
>>
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A figure steps forward. You recognise the Church Warden from the Narthex Gate. He is standing exactly three steps behind the reclining Maiden Of Flowers, as she continues to scatter flowers into pool and cosset the White Peacock. The Warden is no longer carrying the firebrand from before, or indeed any weapons at all.

Instead he is presenting what looks like a small black cushion with a black embroidered cloth covering it. The Warden is very carefully holding the cushion in a way that ensures he does not touch whatever is set upon it, hidden beneath the black cloth covering.

There is yet another figure, just a shadow, behind the Cathedral Warden. He is occluded from your view.

(picture related is NOT the Church Warden)
>>
The Maiden Of Flowers has not turned to look at you. Were it not for her entirely unthreatening appearance, you feel as if you were being accused at a trial. Yet in a solemn voice, she addresses you fluently in the language of the Imperial Court:

You seem to possess Beauty and Youth.

But you are Unloved and therefore Unseen.
The Mandorla has not beheld you.
You are not one of Us.

I do not Envy you.

And she pronounces the final sentence with a portentous emphasis.
>>
The Maiden Of Flowers asks:

Are you here to join the Crusade?

>1/ Immediately reply Yes, without hesitation
(convert trait:reckless to decisive)

>2/ Reply, Which crusade? Nastrond?
(Instinct: Bluff, trait reckless)

>3/ Attempt to seduce the Maiden Of Flowers: I Envy your Beauty, Maiden...
(Charm: seduction, trait alluring, reckless, desperate)

>4/ Distract, Lie: What a Lovely White Peacock you have... (Charm:Flattery, Instinct:Falsehood and convert trait reckless to deceitful, alluring to sycophant)

>5/ You are starving and have not eaten for what feels like days. Ignore this stupid woman, stride purposefully towards the White Peacock and kill and eat it (Reduce 3 traits reckless, desperate, insane to 2, psychotic and violent, freeing 1 trait slot)
>>
>>5056272
I'm guessing this is either the Beldame of the Church of Envy or perhaps just some lower officiate?

I'm struggling to come to a decision. Was White Hair a occupant of Nastrond and hence under threat of said crusade? Or was he a mercenary hoping to participate in it? Is Nastrond a place or the name of the crusade or entirely unrelated. These knowing the answers to these questions would make bluffing more palatable, but on the other hand the worst bluffing will get us is looking stupid, which isn't a terrible result.

We should be good at seduction, but the woman asked us and question and may not be in the mood.

Going with the deflection and how well that turns out may depend on how open she is to digressions by us, but given her last sentence's emphasis I'm worried the item on the pillow is a weapon and that if we answer poorly she intends to have it used to kill us or something, though it could be entirely unrelated. Still, she may want a direct answer.

I'd rather not lose a fight to a fucking peacock considering strength is our worst stat and we'd probably anger the woman for killing her(?) peacock, plus if we want to eat we probably ought rely on our charm to get it.

Finally, regarding joining a crusade of any kind, I'd rather not. It sounds like a good way to get killed. There is wanting to be more versatile and ironing out our weaknesses and then there is joining a holy war with no possessions, a weak body, a privileged mind, no training in warfare or knowledge of technology or witchcraft with no reason to join up in the first place and no known reward for doing so simply in order to avoid looking ignorant.

Going with...
>3/ Attempt to seduce the Maiden Of Flowers: I Envy your Beauty, Maiden...

Hopefully she can appreciate our charms when we are in full regalia and deal with the digression, if we have to reveal our ignorance I'm fine with that, better play ignorant or mysterious then reveal our nature as a hunted traitor or attempt obvious lies.
>>
>>5056272
>3/ Attempt to seduce the Maiden Of Flowers: I Envy your Beauty, Maiden...
I agree. Bluffing would only make us out to be clueless if she follows up and she probably will.
>>
>>5056272
>1/ Immediately reply Yes, without hesitation
>>
>>5056287
(I will comment on this analysis after the scenario choices are complete)
>>5056289

>>5056300
(Trying to incorporate aspects of all of these choices)

The Cathedral Warden is visibly reddening. Whilst your seduction is not directed at him, he is clearly recalling the contours of your unconscious body cradled in his arms as he carried you into the Narthex earlier, and seeing your alluring attire has now made you irresistible to him. He is squirming uncomfortably, and is struggling to maintain his posture presenting the mysterious small object under the black cloth.

You get the feeling the Cathedral Warden will do anything you ask of him.

The hidden figure behind him has walked away, disinterested.

The Maiden Of Flowers remains expressionless. She has a deadened look in her eyes, which makes you think of courtesans that have experienced... too much Love. Studying her face closely now, you are not too sure she is related to the Handsome Man. Yet there is something about how her face is sculpted which makes her resemble him.

You begin to realise why you instinctively hated the White Peacock. As a Consort there is nothing more infuriating than to witness another who is adored more than oneself. The idea that there exists someone of similar circumstances or standing to you, but who is more beautiful, more successful, more privileged and favoured, more adored... It is enough to drive someone mad.

The Maiden Of Flowers intones solemnly:

I see that you perform our strictures of Love, uninitiated though as you are.

Yet I detect little true passion in your words. Artifice is abhorrent in the face of true Beauty.
(The Maiden proclaims this with utter conviction, and you examine her features with increasing scepticism).
>>
The Maiden asks:

Tell me what you find most beautiful, and I will permit you to join our Crusade.

If you lie, I will know.

(traits hidden, revealed after choice)

>1/ reply immediately: The Invultuate Emperor.

>2/ say that you find Machines beautiful; tell her about the Lady Of Sorrows.

>3/ tell her she is the greatest Beauty you have ever beheld.

>4/ say that you find the White Peacock beautiful

>5/ thinking back to your ordeal at the lake of bones, say that you adore death and despair, violence and pain.

>6/ command the Cathedral Warden to reveal what is beneath the black cloth
>>
>>5056318
There is no need to incorporate aspects of a losing choice especially if it contradicts the winning option.
>>
>>5056322
The only winning condition is if you defeat the Invultuate Emperor. Other than that, feel free to explore contradicting allegiances ^_^
>>
>>5056321
>2/ say that you find Machines beautiful; tell her about the Lady Of Sorrows.

>>5056327
Eh, it just makes things frustrating if a well thought out plan gets derailed by a single random stray vote.
>>
>>5056330

You describe in depth the Lady Of Sorrows and what you knew of her. You even display the outfit that you assembled from what the handmaidens provided.

The Maiden Of Flowers turns to look at you, for the first time. Her previously deadened expression has slightly - only very slightly - softened somewhat. Despite her beauty she appears to possess a limited spectrum of facial expressions, and holds herself quite immobile, to always show herself at her best.

You have described a Beauty that is unknown to Us, the Maiden says.

It is not a Beauty that is... to my liking. Yet it must be preserved nonetheless.

The Maiden turns to look at the White Peacock.

I, for one, believe there is no Beauty more exalted than the Love for an animal.

(Were it not for her demeanour and utter seriousness, you would burst out laughing. It just sounds so perverted. Yet your sense of etiquette permits you to restrain yourself.

You suspect this entire Cathedral despite its architectural edifices and aesthetics is some sort of ridiculous, decadent joke. What purpose does it serve?)

The Maiden continues:

You will serve our Crusade, but in a... different capacity. We will grant you Sanctuary on the Cathedral grounds and we will take your Likeness, Oath and Blood.

My Brother will take you to the Mandorla now.
>>
>>5056369
>2/ ask him what the Mandorla actually is, why does it want your Likeness, Oath and Blood
>4/ tell him when you arrived, you possessed a small trinket... just a harmless useless metal fragment. Does he know where it is?
>5/ blurt out excitedly: I recognise you! I saw you digging around a disgusting underground pit of bones outside the Cathedral! What were you doing there?

Since he is charmed by us, mamay ask more than one thing?
>>
>>5055416

(You have gained the protection of the Church Of Envy faction. On cathedral grounds none of the acolytes will question you or attack you. If you displease the Church Of Envy this protection will be revoked.

You have lost the trait: desperate. Just assume that you have all the food and sustenance you need whilst on Cathedral grounds.

You have lost the item: useless metal fragment.)

When the Maiden spoke of her brother, you were unsure of whether she meant it in the familial or religious sense. You become more bewildered when you recognise the gallant noble bowing before you. You saw him by subterranean gloom, but amidst the flowers and sunshine of the Narthex Gardens he radiates warmth and delight.
He takes your hand - rather boldly.

My name is Asterion, he says.

Do not look so shocked! Surprise makes you look more ravishing than you already are! And if you become more ravishing, I shall faint...!

And he smiles broadly, and feigns fainting dramatically.

Now of course, you know who I am already, because I am so extravagantly rich and famous and noble and masculine and handsome and clever. Also, I have such a long lineage. Really, really long. Really long. It is all inherited, you know. But I want to know all about you...

He glances at you expectantly.

>1/ tell him truthfully who you are
>2/ ask him what the Mandorla actually is, why does it want your Likeness, Oath and Blood
>3/ ask him if he is related to the Maiden Of Flowers, is she his sister?
>4/ tell him when you arrived, you possessed a small trinket... just a harmless useless metal fragment. Does he know where it is?
>5/ blurt out excitedly: I recognise you! I saw you digging around a disgusting underground pit of bones outside the Cathedral! What were you doing there?
>>
>>5056375

sorry I made a mistake in the original post, had to delete it. I Wrote Maiden of sorrows instead of Flowers lol.

Asterion is not the Lowborn Cathedral Warden that was carrying the black cushion / black cloth thing and who finds you irresistible. You cannot speak the Lowborn language here. (that was a trap I laid hehe in option 6/ to command him).

Asterion has just appeared and you can of course ask him anything.
>>
>>5056375
Now I have to ask you, as this might be important. What order do you ask these questions in. The default, 2 then 4 then 5?
>>
Catching up, I looked away for awhile.
>>
>>5056376
Ah, my vote is to ask...
>2/ ask him what the Mandorla actually is, why does it want your Likeness, Oath and Blood
>3/ ask him if he is related to the Maiden Of Flowers, is she his sister?

I'd rather not pine after some random metal fragment we possessed for a few moments, they probably took it as junk and threw it away.

As for his inquiries regarding our identity or nature, I think we should be "technically truthful" but vague, and we should never actually reveal our actual identity such as our name, official position, de facto social status, (such as our favour by the emperor) etc, etc. We can reveal that we were once a very very high ranking consort of loftier heights than almost anyone on this planet could even dream of, we can reveal some aspects of our personality if that is what he means by wanting to know about us, we can reveal some of our likes and dislikes, etc, etc. But, if he tries to narrow down specifics then we should be vague, and if pressed we should outright refuse to answer, we must not reveal that we are hunted.
>>
>>5056376
>2/ ask him what the Mandorla actually is, why does it want your Likeness, Oath and Blood
>3/ ask him if he is related to the Maiden Of Flowers, is she his sister?
>5/ blurt out excitedly: I recognise you! I saw you digging around a disgusting underground pit of bones outside the Cathedral! What were you doing there?

I have a feeling that the useless metal thing or the artifact in the sewers could be part of the answer to the Emperor's weakness. Ask in the default order.
>>
>>5056390
Would you like to take a guess right now at what the Invultuate Emperor's secret weakness is? And a bonus if you can turn it into a plan for defeating him ^_^
>>
>>5056395
Naked women. jk. Probably something related to filth although I'm just spitting balls here.
>>
When he hears you mention the Mandorla, Asterion trembles with ecstatic and rapturous pleasure.

Oh it is so wondrous! There is nothing else like it!
Words cannot describe how magnificent it is!
It makes everyone who looks at it so beautiful!
We have to go there right now!

(He rushes you away before you can ask anything else)

Taking you by the hand he leads you breathlessly onto a pathway from the garden maze. The pathway rises into the sky, the same labyrinthine lattice of lights and paths that you saw from the heavens on your arrival here. You both begin the ascent upwards.
>>
Throughout the entire journey, Asterion is almost hopping from one foot to the other in anticipation. He can barely contain his exuberant delight. He is describing the Mandorla ritual to you.

Now, first the Mandorla must take your likeness, Asterion explains.

This is so splendidly simple, because you are beautiful already! And you are exquisitely dressed!

Asterion beams happily at you, and winks at your attire.

Now the Oath... and for the first time Asterion adopts a serious face.

The Oath is simple too. But some acolytes have difficulty accommodating it. Basically, it concerns... (he shudders) Ugly people. Urgh. I know. They are so horrid. So, so hideous. Often they smell bad and are also very stupid. They are unworthy of Love.

(As you listen to him, you are beginning to wonder if he is completely insane)

Asterion looks deeply into your eyes:
Tell me, what do you think should happen to Ugly people?

>1/ They should be made beautiful.
>2/ They should be forgotten.
>3/ They should be segregated and kept far away from Beauty.
>4/ They should be killed. Horribly.
>>
>>5056420
If this guy is like what I imagine typical upper class people are like in this society, especially after he insulted them so much I'd say he probably wants us to say that they should be segregated or killed. However, what he actually said is that ugly people are unworthy of Love, not that anything in particular should be done to them or that they couldn't be made beautiful, and if he is a member of the church, which is a church of ENVY remember, then presumably there is a process to make people beautiful, or else how would the church hold any power or gain new supplicants if they could not integrate the masses?

So I vote...
>1/ They should be made beautiful.

Since I think it is the most useful and least wasteful option, seeing as a consort it is our specialty to make use of people.
>>
>>5056420
>Those who accept the message must be made beautiful, those reject must segregated, shunned and kept far away from Beauty.

Remember that this is a church of Envy. This is what he wants to hear and what the Consort would believe.
>>
You are entering an archway which seems somewhat drab and unfinished compared to the baroque ornamentation in marble and gold below. Asterion looks apologetic.

I apologise for this, he stutters. This is completely unacceptable. I will have to see that the servants that neglected their duties here are punished for this heresy. No clothes for them, for weeks!

It does not... usually look like this. We of course have had to suddenly re-decorate a bit, in advance of the funeral for the Lord Consul. The Imperial Censorate announced that he died suddenly of completely natural sudden peaceful causes. Completely natural! He was such a loyal servant of the Throne Of Stars. Never failed in his duty! Never ever! Otherwise, the Emperor could have no reason for honouring the Lord Consul by attending his funeral and visiting us here. Can you imagine? He is far too important!

But yes, what was I saying? Oh yes Ugly people. Urgh. Yes, we help them, help make them understand Beauty! The Mandorla shows them! After all, how can you Envy someone if you disagree? And unlike the horrible Warguild - they are so hideous - we do it all completely for free! We are so noble! It is completely true that if you are beautiful on the outside, you are beautiful on the inside too! How lovely!

>1/ Ask him where the Mandorla came from
>2/ Ask him how and when the Emperor is arriving here
>3/ Ask him if he really believes what the Imperial Censorate says about the Lord Consul
>>
>>5056549
>2/ Ask him how and when the Emperor is arriving here
Then
>1/ Ask him where the Mandorla came from
If the Emperor is coming then things will get painful soon.
>>
>>5056401

sadly, that is not it...

I have some bad news, guys. I have to say that if you have not yet worked out at least what the Emperor's secret weakness is, let alone convert that into a plan of action, it may look like one of those Your Life And Adventure Ends Here... situations.

You have all been giving really detailed and well analysed answers so it is possibly my fault for burying the clues too deeply or not describing them well enough. But there should be enough already to generate a plan of action.
>>
>>5056570
Is it really coming to a head so soon? To be honest, I expected that we would have several threads worth of learning and adventures before the final confrontation. I’ll try to reread and see what I missed but I’m honestly stumped.
>>
>>5056575
The sort of meta-difficulty I have had with this is that you guys are really committed to staying character lol. This is good because you behave really synchronously with the logic and laws of the world, but bad from a sort of powergaming/meta standpoint because you are not advancing the character enough with traits and abilities (maybe because I have not explained them well enough). As I mentioned before you have to really push yourself into uncomfortable situations (if you have played or watched live plays of the Burning Wheel rpg system you will know what I mean about this).

E.g. so far you guys have not really fought or defeated anyone in combat on your own, at all. You were scared even to fight a stupid peacock! (If you thought this was strange, think about occult rituals that involve animal sacrifice - I put this in as a free opportunity to give you some more magic or even improve brawling against an easily defeated opponent etc.)

Recall how when you attempted a really elaborate dangerous thing (the intimidation plan on the Lady Of Sorrows) you got three powerful spells. Tried to give you opportunities to use them but like all gamers we like to hoard and I understand that.
>>
There is a nonlethal way to defeat the Invultuate Emperor but I have probably buried the clues too deep at this stage. If you guys cannot work it out the opportunity to do so is perhaps lost.
>>
>>5056575
My sort of broad narrative plan was that you would defeat the Emperor quickly, just by working out his secret weakness from the clues, but then the Four Factions would start fighting each other after the Throne fell - the rest of the story was going to be about that. But because you guys were staying in character so much I have not had the chance to let you meet as many people outside of the main quest.
>>
I think from a design standpoint I may have made a mistake making the Lady Of Sorrows too powerful early on (there is a Maiden Mother Crone theme amongst all the symbolism lol) So you guys clung on to the massive power of the voidship and did not really explore that much.
>>
>>5056590
Not so much as hoarders but role players! Questing is after all a form of Role Playing. We love to stay in character instead of powergaming.
>>
Also the most obvious thing is I was trying to experiment with diceless storygaming here lol. I should probably have just used the dice here and shown you guys a random table for the traits etc.
>>
>>5056603
Yes you are completely right. I should probably just have used the dice from the start.
>>
If nobody can work out the way to defeat the Emperor, what I will do is instead of writing 10 sections where you are horribly tortured and destroyed (other websites for that stuff exist) I will just show you the sort of QM commentary of the range of endings for this Chapter I had in mind, as well as the inspirations for the lore. Should probably explain it. If you still do not get it afterwards then I am just terrible at this lol
>>
...QM commentary begins...
So at the very start of the game I talked about the governess who told you the story of the murderous queen. Investigating this story was an opportunity to get magic early on. But even if you did not take it the governess was a prompt to make you think about myths and legends from our world. (The murderous queen is based on Medea, the Edict is clearly based on the letter carried over the sea that kills its bearers in Hamlet etc)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%A1str%C3%B6nd
So Nastrond is the corpse shore, a lake of dead bones.

If you read the Beggar-Knight class description, there is a very very strong hint that he was defeated in battle (even if it is not explicitly admitted - the Imperial Censorate at work lol). He broke his drone-sword into fragments and threw them into a lake of dead corpses, Nastrond.
>>
>>5056623
So that dirty lake was Nastrond?
>>
I'll admit to be taken aback at the confrontation with the emperor coming so soon, I thought this process would taken many threads.

I'm also just taken aback by the stuff about this system. There are a number of reasons why I personally did not try and "powergame" in this particular situation.

One reason is that generally the "nature" of a thread will reveal what the QMs personally preferences and intentions are and the player base will reflect that, for example lewd quests will get many coomer anons who will try and get their fetishes to be in smut scenes, economics focused quests, civ quests, quests with heavy mechanics, tactics and strategy quests or quests of a military nature often will have the aforementioned power gamers, quests that are diceless or have simple mechanics or have QMs that have good writing or encourage write-ins or have mechanics that encourage power fantasies like d100 bo3 tend to encourage creative anons, etc, etc. I did not get the sense from this thread that we were so rapidly building towards this moment nor that we were supposed to be gaming the system.

Another reason is that I personally feel that it just wouldn't feel natural or organic for us to gain skills in any meaningfully rapid timeframe from confronting and defeating other characters like in a RPG, like getting EXP for killing something using a particular method or something. My assumption from the beginning was that with the exception of certain outliers like us learning those spells (and I still am not entirely clear on the mechanism in-universe by which we gained them, hence my reluctance to rely on doing that repeatedly) was that gaining new attributes or skills would be slow, like in real life, after all it does not make sense to getting meaningfully physically stronger or smarter from emerging triumphant from any one particular random obstacle you happen to pass by one day.

A third reason is my personal preference to *mostly* stay in character, what exceptions I make for "powergaming" has less to do with obsessively pursuing power and more to do with trying to edge the character to act relatively logical and levelheaded within the limits of their personality and values, sometimes I edge towards trying to make them do so to a degree that is a bit out of character to get the result that I want out-of-character, but almost everyone does this to some degree, we all have preferences to the results of a narrative.

I disagree with the idea that Lady of Sorrows was too strong, my choices and confusion with the present situation have more to do with the concept of our character advancement. It seems so unnatural to me now that you explain it since it doesn't really make logical sense from a real life perspective, lacks an in-universe metaphysical explanation to ease the burden of that weirdness. Part of what I mean is...from what I remember, I understood that you explained that we have to do things we are unskilled at to advance those skills, but I did- 1/2
>>
>>5056635
-not understand that the nature of the trait/attribute system or the idea that we could end up advancing so rapidly like a video game RPG character by defeating obstacles or foes, nor did the idea make sense to me to focus into attributes we are bad at. Normally I'd just round out said attributes to the point where we don't have a crippling weakness, if said "rounding out" does not taken an inordinate amount of "meta resources" that you use to buy said attributes with in say, a point buy system. I'd normally just specialize and find ways using our specialty or other methods to account for our weaknesses while using our strengths to the best of our abilities.

I also just didn't get what you mean by your references to Burning Wheel, certainly BW is relevant enough of a system to warrant a passing knowledge of the fact that it influenced several of the newer TTRPG developers and some modern RPG discourse with stuff like GNS theory, but it is still really niche and I remember nothing of the system itself, nor do I hold it or the developers influenced it in particularly high regard, so this stuff kinda just went over my head.

I probably had some other stuff I was gonna write, but I forgot in my hurry to verbal diarrhea all this out in my rush to give you feedback after I checked back in the thread only to realise that I had yet again been late to respond. 2/2
>>
>>5056623
Now if you read the section where the Emperor is introduced, he basically sounds invincible. He has never been defeated. But throughout the story I have tried to show you that the Emperor makes people forget things and also uses the Imperial Censorate to spread lies.

There is even a hint that the Emperor can detonate a voidship killing some innocent civilians (he was going to frame the Witch-Consort for doing this to justify hunting her in public) - but he cannot reach out and just kill you directly??? (I was really surprised no-one questioned this). He is powerful but clearly not all that powerful.

So the secret weakness of the Emperor is: he is actually not that powerful.

Maybe his invultuation ability is a lie, and if you just walk up to him and stab him he will die instantly (sadly you are not good enough at fighting to even do this. You do not even have any weapons).

He is being defeated all the time - the knight could tell you this. Someone else who could tell you this (if you could speak to him) would be White Hair, who tattooed the battle site of his greatest victory on his chest. Unfortunately he is your enemy though, and you cannot understand him without the Lady Of Sorrows.

So knowing this, the nonlethal way to defeat the Emperor would be: spread the message that The Emperor is actually weak and can be defeated. The factions would go into a frenzy trying to kill and replace him. To do this you would need some evidence e.g. the drone sword fragment from the knight where he was defeated (the useless metal fragment you guys lost - in case you were wondering where it is, the Maiden Of Flowers had it under the Black Cloth). Alternatively a witness like White Hair would do (this is why I deliberately let him survive the Lady Of Sorrows attack).
>>
So the four factions are clearly based on the Colman-Smith Rider Waite Tarot with the swords cups wands and coins etc. You have probably already guessed the real world inspirations:

Church Of Envy is facebook/instagram

Warguild is the military industrial complex, Lockheed Martin Raytheon Northrop Grumman etc lol

The Unbidden Court is sort of the Deep State and investment banks lol. I deliberately did not mention that their emblem was the coin/pentacle to hide this. The eschatonomist (eschatology+economist) is aligned to this faction.

Vagabonds and drudges is sadly the underclass faction most people belong to in real life. In the setting I actually imagined them as sort of renegade nature druid people lol. The Church Warden with the flamethrower (their emblem: burned tree) is secretly one of them.
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>>5056614
Well instead of 10 sections, 1 would be enough lol.

>>5056645
so I guessed correctly that the metal fragment was significant to the plot. I just didn't connect it with the Knight. Well now I understand it completely. What next?
>>
The Mandorla is also a Tarot reference (if you know the Chanel logo, it is sort of a Mandorla too). In the game it is another one of the machines and it takes the form of a giant Howling Mirror. It is inspired by an Oscar Wilde story quote about people who worship mirrors.
>>
There are a few other obscure references. What are the Ancient Promises? If you read the descriptions about voidship travel, it feels like they are about downloading and uploading consciousness. If you know a bit about javascript programming, promises and async functions are basically how anything is downloaded or uploaded on the internet lol. The Hoisted Sea / lattice of lights and paths is some sort of skyladder into orbit and echoes Neuromancer. Asterion and the maze imagery is from Jorge Luis Borges short story.
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>>5056635
I guess I meant to write "my confusion with the present situation" in the third to last sentence of the linked post, not sure why I wrote 'choices and confusion'.

As for my thoughts on your QM commentary...

I wouldn't have thought to look up myths or legends from real life, not without a more obvious prompt or link to real life mythology. It wouldn't be obvious to me to do so without prior familiarity with said legends and myths to prompt a rereading of the necessary references. While I know the name Medea and know of Hamlet, I don't really know anything about her and cannot remember anything of Hamlet, so while you may have gotten lucky with some other anon, I am unfamiliar with such literature. Not necessarily from a lack of curiosity, I just haven't read or can't remember stuff about those topics.

Another problem unique to me is simply that I speed-read the first few posts in order to catch up, since I didn't join the quest right at its beginning, I went back once to reread more carefully which is part of how I caught the bit about our past, but generally I did process everything super well, plus I'm sick, so I wouldn't have caught every hint in the class descriptions.

As for the emperor, I never thought he was invincible despite him matter-of-factly being described as being so, most of the things you describe about him in regards to his weakness in general I never questioned because I had already assumed that either it was just in-universe propaganda or that you were using hyperbolic, flowery language like in say...Warhammer 40K or something.

As for finding out specific information about him, the problem for me was twofold, one I thought we had a lot more time and didn't feel any rush since I thought it was a distant problem for the end of the quest, and two it never would've occurred to me that there would be people who knew ANYTHING about the emperor or had met him or defeated him or would possess the capability to contest him in any meaningful way should his aura of invincibility shatter due to me MASSIVELY overestimating the scope and scale of the setting. I feel like this is a bit of communication problem. I sort of got the impression from what you wrote that the Emperor was a pseudo-God-Emperor trope and that we were in a truly vast sci-fi setting on some random planet, I didn't understand that this planet (or anyone on it) would mean anything in opposing this guy because he seemed to vast for one planet or people on it to matter.
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>>5056656
I literally would've guessed none of this despite familiarity with tarot, it seemed like pretty standard but flowery setting stuff, I didn't think of real world inspirations.

>>5056664
Also didn't get this. I meant to mention this earlier, but if you use a slightly fancy or uncommon word, I feel confident in speaking for most people that the most you are gonna get out of them in terms of effort is that they type the word or phrase into google and read to page 2 at most or they search the definition of the word, which is what I did for Mandorla way earlier.

>>5056671
This is very cool, but I also just assumed it was some purple prose or that it had an in-universe metaphysical explanation that would be explained later or would be explained if we had chosen a character with the relevant knowledge.
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>>5056673
Yes I was a bit worried about this. It is hard to use the word Emperor without people thinking of 40k lol. I was thinking of Emperor in the tarot card sense and also Emperor-has-no-clothes fable lol.

I am a fan of 40k as well (only the old Dan Abnett / John Blanche era stuff, eg Gaunt and Eisenhorn, Ravenor etc. I do not know any of the new lore lol). In fact one of the inspirations too is that short story Blood Games by Dan Abnett which you may know (it is about a pre Horus Heresy internal plot to kill the Emperor, and it has a really goos twist)
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>>5056673
*but generally I DIDN'T process everything super well
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>>5056682
No worries. I guess it is my fault in that some of these clues were too obscure. I was also a bit worried about doing too much ultraviolence or erotic stuff lol if that upsets people as I know some people are already stressed / ill etc no need for Lovecraft or Nurgle plague demon or Slaanesh stuff lol. It seemed like you guys were never really into collecting lots of weapons or even just using magic and fighting and dismembering people in the setting lol.
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>>5056687
Again, its playing to our strengths. I would love to use those spells to slaughter and face the Emperor after we have learned what each of them actually does.
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>>5056679
lol, sorry to disappoint yet again, but I just meant I got the impression of the scope and scale of the setting being similar and just meant I got the vague impression of the Invultuate-Emperor being similar to ol'GEmps in the sense of magic-space-emperor in a sci fi setting seemingly larger than a single system of planets. That's really as far as it goes.

I'm only mildly acquainted with 40K at best, enough to barely consider myself a fan of the lore at a surface level, but in truth I've barely read any of the books even and don't play the Tabletop. So even that reference goes over my head, lmao.

The confusion over scope and scale was the more confusing thing for me, the stuff over comparisons to the God-Emperor from 40K was less relevant, I just didn't know anyone on this planet was gonna have relevant info on the Invultuate-Emperor or that the setting was small enough for anything on the planet to matter to anything other than us and the locals.
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>>5056687
Ah, I was just correcting a typo I made in an earlier post.

As for the ultraviolence or erotic stuff, I have no problem with that stuff, my choices not to engage in that stuff had more to do with not considering it appropriate at the time, or not being present at the time of the vote, or as >>5056688 says, it not playing to our strengths as I understood them.
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>>5056689
lol I actually blame 40k now for everything. I was trying a bit to emulate the Dan Abnett 40k style with the obscure references because I thought 40k people might catch on to that stuff. For example in the Penitent Dan Abnett 40k novel (the main character is female and I was thinking of her with the Consort) there is a place called Maze Undue = maison dieu in French, ie House of God and that is actually the French variant name for the Tower tarot card. When I read the novel my mind was blown and I thought, I have to invent a setting like this! So you see it is all warhammer 40k's fault, 40k has killed your character lol
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>>5056688
So the spells are inspired a bit by Maze Rats, Cypher system rpg and also Invisible Sun (I have not actually played this but know some of the rules vaguely). In Cypher system everything is randomly generated unique single-shot disposable use which I like because I really cannot stand the I cast magic missile x 5 I cast fireball eldritch blast lol etc in
dnd
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I was hoping that possessing the three spells would make you all more confident in going out to fight random people lol but it seems like not knowing what they do made everyone risk-averse
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>>5056709
I actually do like the setting and the flowery purple prose and stuff, I just think it could've been paced better, and you probably should've had things occur naturally in the beginning of the quest that would've served in lieu of infodumps to explain our past, some of the basic tech and metaphysics of the quest, (out-of-character explanations would've served just as well to explain to us crucial character advancement mechanics, maybe with an in-universe metaphysical explanation) and to clear up things that would lead to misconceptions like the ones I had about the scale of the setting among other things. It is pretty important to get all your players on board with understanding the mechanics and not having less information than our own character ought to have assuming she still possessed all her memories.

And to be fair, we aren't technically dead yet, we don't have to attend the funeral and meet the Invultuate-Emperor. Though if he is so powerful that by his mere presence on the planet we would be unable to avoid him then I suppose, yes, we are dead after all. But, if not, the quest could still continue.
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Loathing Mirror
This spell makes people hate, injure and attack themselves. I think it actually exists in real life.

Barbed Spear Of Flies
So remember the description of the Lady Of Sorrows voidship weapon and how it made swarms of fractally replicating weapons out of what looked like black ash (nanomachines?) this is basically it

Drifting Skin Of Songs
cast on self - turns you noncorporeal, physical weapons go through you
cast on enemy - flays them
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>>5056715
So, to give you my perspective, one, I wasn't here, at my computer for the majority of the time we possessed spells at all, I was in bed. Two, as you said the way you arranged the magick system made us risk adverse and would've even had I been present earlier. We lose the spell after using it, currently do not know of any way to discover what they do aside from interpretations of their names and straight up using it, they are literally fire and forget weapons, the only other example we have of what was presumably a spell being used that we witnessed was a structure-destroying, vaporize-people-into-ash spell of seemingly grandiose proportions. We also didn't encounter anyone isolated that was hostile and thus had no reason to resort to force other than insanity or curiosity, there was handsome guy who we had no reason to immediately attack, there were the pilgrims who we had no reason to attack, there was the warden and white hair who we had reason to attack but honestly the context of the situation makes it seem kinda hopeless, if there is one warden then there is probably more just behind that door, he is part of an institution after all, and one performing what is essentially traffic control duties on a large procession wouldn't be alone, so if we vaporized him and white hair there'd presumably be more and we'd be screwed. After that everyone was relatively friendly so we had no reason to be aggressive, though I guess insanity would've made a decent excuse.

>>5056712
I mean, it's unique I guess, but the lack of knowledge of our own abilities severely hampers our ability to make informed decisions, obviously. And it makes it kind of meaningless to learn about our spells unless there is an available mechanics by which we can regain, or relearn, or reroll, or re-whatever a spell. If there was a roulette of unknown unique ones offs among some that we had previously known and used then it'd be fine since at least we could balance between using some which we knew are useful and reliable and experimenting. But, the way it worked out was seemingly just making us risk adverse, though I'd say even that is a statement made too soon, it is more an issue of the quest progressing so incredibly quickly that no definitive statement can be made on our behavior because the emperor is arriving so soon.
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>>5056732
These are all really helpful points for me to understand, thank you.

The reason I made it so hard to learn what the spells do is because the Consort is untrained in sorcery. If you had chosen the Preceptor he knows more spells by default and actually can cast more and get more without becoming insane etc. The only way for the Consort to replenish her spells or get more is by doing strange occult things like killing and eating a rare white peacock lol.

I think there is a problem with the traits in that some of them just sound completely negative when in actual fact the idea is to acquire a lot of negative traits in and use them in creative ways. For example I kept trying to give you guys the trait violent to enable you to get more combat choices or weapons but maybe the trait sounded negative and you felt it was out of character (I actually think - assassin-consort is a valid archetype and maybe more resonable than witch-consort lol). Basically if my nonviolent clues were too obscure to discover at some point you would have to fight and unfortunately with the character progression pace you would always lose.
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By never using magic, maybe the class you should have chosen was Marotte (Jester /rogue/assassin) archetype lol. You could have been an alluring female jester and tried seducing people too...

Also I had a hidden secret ability in mind there which was that the Marotte could never use magic, but also could never be harmed by any magic either, like a null psyker from 40k.
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>>5056742
I'm going to sleep now. There was more I wanted to say that I don't have time to type out and stuff I wanted to clarify because I wrote a lot of my feedback in a stream of consciousness verbal diarrhea, but again I don't have time.

I do want to say that I enjoyed your writing a lot and your setting.

I also appreciate the frequency of your updates and your activeness and your encouragement, the frequent updates and activeness are an extreme rarity on this board nowadays. Part of the reason why I was inattentive aside from being sick was the fact that I simply did not expect more than one update a day.

The nature of the magic being hard to learn due to our character choice is understandable, though I personally feel that regardless of a characters expertise you should probably do more to explain the basics of the magic and technology of your setting and just hide the knowledge that would require true expertise, like how someone can google all sorts of basic knowledge, intuit basic concepts easily, etc, but that still doesn't mean they have a Phd or can apply that knowledge. If you have to go OOC to at least get the premise across, personally I'd do so, though ideally you would simply arrange things for the MC to reflect on the knowledge that they already possess in character when it becomes relevant, hopefully early on in the quest if it is a fundamental conceit or to have it succinctly explained to them if the knowledge is accessible in-universe and fundamentally basic in both simplicity and its use to the premise of the quest.

An example that does not involve magic or technology could've been that our Consort started the quest without being a blank-slate or having her memory erased or just being forgetful or whatever was going on with her, if we had advanced knowledge of the politics of the setting, personal knowledge of the Invultuate from being his favourite fuck-toy, and just general lore and social knowledge and human-terrain type stuff our character would've come off as more useful, comparable to the others, and we would've been much more likely to be able to figure out or just flat out know IC the weakness of the Invultuate. Similarly we may not gave known the mechanics of magick but we probably should've at least known "common knowledge" level stuff about what magick can do, imho. That in my opinion is different from knowing how to apply or advance our use of magick.

Finally, to be clear I think we all understood the concept of even "negative" traits sometimes leading to good outcomes or being *just* the right thing you needed to do in that moment whereas an otherwise seemingly more logical choice would've been worse. The Warden taking pity on us when we grappled with him is a good example. But, in regards to our specific character choice (consort) there was simply no way for it to sound plausible for us to physically fight anyone with what we knew about ourselves at that point. Using magic to win is a different story-1/2
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>>5056762
-If you'd made it explicit that we were actually say...a person with an actually okay physique of a person who occasionally goes to the gym, has a sport as an occasional hobby and has a good diet rather than the vague impression (though this is an assumption on my part and not really your fault, though it could've still done with clarifying) I got that we were some super young, super hot, nubile teen/young adult useless aristocrat with the body of a supermodel or porn star or something whose only skills were elegance, etiquette, seduction and some knowledge of social norms among the upper class then I'd feel more comfortable at least fighting an average person.

Speaking of our skills, I personally felt it should've been more clear the bounds of what our strengths and weaknesses in attributes actually represented. Like I mentioned earlier I was taken by surprise by things like coercion and negotiating not being covered under charm, it makes us feel kinda useless. Being limited to seduction and "aristocratic" socializing is very limiting, if our attribute cover all or most social skills it would've seemed less limiting or more balanced. As it was I kinda felt like we just had magick, very limited knowledge, no physical skills, and surprisingly limited social skills. Tying this back in with the earlier stuff about our physical status, it just seems like it is implausible to try and do multiple things or fulfill a mixed archetype when we don't have a similarly nuanced starting portfolio of skills. Like, if we had started with a typical hollywood sex-icon body, generally weaker than the average person, but had a good diet, been very subtly muscled, and had an aristocratic skill like...I dunno...fencing in addition to our social skills then I could see us as players finding it acceptable to try and fight someone, since there is nuance there where we could plausibly win a fight through skill or weaponry against a physically stronger opponent. But as it was I didn't understand the nature of our character advancement, in real life you don't gain XP for killing random people, or at least you don't gain exceptional insight that advances you significantly from one isolated fight, and as the mechanics hadn't been made more explicit OOC that we could make the leap from complete weakling to competent in a day if we had fought a bunch of people there was no reason to think we could win a fight except through magic or social hijinks.

Anyways, sorry to ramble and repeat myself. I just wanted to say that the general idea of what you were going for isn't hard to understand, there was just problem in the communication or probably some other aspects I'm too tired to think of. 2/2
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>>5056748
Final comment, I promise.

I liked all the character concepts but I wasn't around for the character vote. I probably would've voted for the Consort, the Eschatonomist, the Oneironaut, or the Preceptor. The reason why was my misconception of the scale of the setting, generally I wouldn't pick a character I think isn't going to be able to affect the setting, and as I thought the setting was vast I wouldn't have picked a character that didn't have magic or social skills, because personal prowess means less the vaster the setting, whereas talking good and manipulating the masses or using magick (depending on how strong the settings magick) is simply more powerful. Though like I said, I liked all the concepts, and the Marotte having a null ability would've made the choice more palatable.
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So is this quest still running?
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EPILOGUE:JUDGEMENT
(bad outcome ending)
You have failed the quest: Learn the secret weakness of the Invultuate-Emperor
(QM has failed the quest:
make the clues more obvious
explain the trait system properly
escape 40k emperor stereotypes
lol)
>>
A vast hall of writhing stone. Asterion led you here and mysteriously left. He will watch, with other nobles, from above.

There is a Black Tower in this chamber. What was once an enormous, fractured obelisk formed from a thousand thousand splintered dark fragments, fused into one.

The Black Tower is broken and shattered into two twisted arcs, as if some terrible demon had once stepped through a horrifying wound, an orifice in the middle. It is shaped like a Mandorla.
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The air is trembling and reverberating with whispers and words. The black fragments of the Mandorla are polished and reflecting myriad scenes. Glimpses of lives, lingering. Moments of beauty, intimacy, joy, laughter, trumph.

There are other scenes too. Shame, humiliation, fear. Torture, unbearable agonies. Defeat. The scenes swirl within the ephemeral vortex of black reflections and vanish swifty, as the Mandorla feeds and ceaselessly devours all. Your fate will be among them soon.
>>
An apparition is appearing in the Mandorla. The fissures that separate its dark reflections like veins begin to rupture and scream. It is a Howling Mirror and a Gate Between Worlds.

Asterion has lied to you. The Emperor is not coming. Asterion is not as stupid as he seems, and the Throne Of Stars will reward him and make him even more rich and handsomer than ever.

The Lady Of Sorrows is here. She will be your Executioner. She looks the same as before, and her voice is as patient and quiet as ever. For a moment, your heart leaps with hope - but her face shows no recognition or kindness.

Let me show you how I was made, The Lady Of Sorrows whispers. She drifts towards you.

I will show you what was done to me, so many years ago.

I will take away your choices forever.

Your magic came from the Lady Of Sorrows, and against her your spells will do nothing.

In a way, she is not even really here at all.

(Your Life And Adventure Ends Here)
>>
...and in case that was too depressing...
^_^
>>
(good outcome ending:
You have completed the quest: Learn the secret weakness of the Invultuate-Emperor
You have completed the quest: reveal the forgotten defeat of the Throne Of Stars upon Berceuse

Inside the Mandorla, the Howling Mirror, there is a splinter of another world that sickens it. The Howling Mirror cannot feed on hope.

The splinter looks like a small, twisted useless metal fragment. Perhaps it was once part of a weapon, destroyed in shame.
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White Hair is standing by your side. He wanted to see you die and his wish has been granted.

But through the machine-whispers of the Mandorla, White Hair can speak to you, understand you. When you meet him this time, you renounce your war magic and let him live.
>>
He sees an opportunity in your hand, a small useless metal fragment that will let him prove the story of his greatest battle-triumph to the world. A forgotten battle by a subterranean lake where the Lowborn barbarian mercenary White Hair betrayed, outwitted and defeated the legions of drones and machine knights of the Invultuate-Emperor himself.

With White Hair at your side, you use your magic to show the Howling Mirror the forgotten defeat of the Throne Of Stars.
>>
The Invultuate Emperor executes preceptor after preceptor of the Imperial Censorate in useless rage at their failure but it is too late. The Howling Mirror makes the factions of Berceuse scream for His blood. Soon, cowering behind broken barricades and the Throne itself, the Emperor will end his own life.

The Throne Of Stars beckons for a new ruler. Who could that be...?

(END)
>>
SouvarineQM says:
This is the end of the quest everybody. Thank you for playing! Thank you for the detailed analysis, answers, feedback and help!
^_^

My final reveal is...

(you probably guessed it from all the dropped trip codes, why I was a bit scared to use dice, bad formatting and bad vote counting)

this is actually my first ever qst and actually first ever time on 4chan. If you liked it feel free to link to this thread, spread and share the word lol on the archives. We are also the incel autismo coomer board lol so I do not mind or care that much either way lol lol.

I will stay in the thread, happy to answer any questions or take any other feedback or thoughts.

I might also post some unused art I found or was saving and you can play an imagination game guessing who the art represents / unvisited locations or characters etc hehe. The Imperial Censorate will ensure you never, ever discover the truth!

Thank you!
Souvarine
^_^
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>3-day fully complete quest
Jesus christ OP, this might be a new record, at least on molasses-paced /qst/. I didn't really vote, but congrats on the completion and I hope you stick around to run more stuff.

>first ever time on 4chan
I could tell from the emoticons :^) Just kidding, welcome newfriend. How'd you get here?
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>>5057011
Thank you lol. How could you tell from the emoticons, is there some forbidden edict against using them or something? ^o^

So my route here is that my first ever exposure to rpgs was from the old gamebook era like Fighting Fantasy books and Lone Wolf etc. Obviously led to warhammer fantasy roleplay and I like the older editions better 1e, 2e. I actually have never played dnd though everyone knows the rules vaguely via videogames like Baldurs Gate Icewind Dale etc.

My style of rpg is sort of OSR aesthetics (low magic, mainly humans only) and I really like complex intrigue / faction stuff. If you have played Stars Without Number rpg and the faction turns system that is the inspiration behind the structures of the factions. But I actually do not like using dice that much because you have to justify stupid stuff like random chance makes a wizard get more hp or damage than a barbarian lol. So my ideal style is the OSR aesthetics but with pbta/storygames style narrative resolution.

I have not actually found many people who like to play this way lol. So I decided just to create my own setting and try it here ^_^
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>>5057007
Thank you for running! It is truly regrettable that the quest ended prematurely but your effort was immense and your writing was of the highest quality. My critique is that pace was too rapid and the clues were too faint and obscured to piece together without more exposition and time. I do hope that you’ll stick around and attempt another quest soon. I can’t wait to see you combine your style of game and the experience you got from running the first time here in your next one.
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>>5057020
Thanks for the kind words and ideas. Your contributions and choices were really great amd helpful!

I did read the qst FAQ guide first lol despite all the dropped tripcodes lol.

I kept the pacing fast because it sort is sort of difficult knowing if people had read the stuff, if the stuff I was writing was too long and being ignored, or if I had written something that upset people or was just too ridiculous.

I am not sure I understand even why qst is driven by vote systems lol. Why not just first choice wins? I guess people really love democracy but on here doesn't the voting make the action slow to a crawl and ruin the drama of the situation?

It was also hard for me to tell how much time to give people. If the scenario is tense and people dithered I wanted to just punish the indecisiveness to show the danger of the situation.
>>
ALTERNATE and DELETED SCENES
So I think someone here
>>5056287
was speculating if the Maiden Of Flowers was the Beldame and the answer is absolutely not lol. I try to place npcs vaguely realistically and you do mot meet the pope immediately when you walk into a church ^_^

>>5054509
The twist here is that the Beldame and Belsire is actually one slightly perverted person who really likes to go around stealing and collecting clothes - men, women, maybe undergarments... etc. This person has some... identity confusion issues lol. Why do you think the Cathedral had so many costumes from both Highborn and Lowborn social strata to offer you hehe. Also why does the Church Of Envy have two emblems mandorla/grail and odalisque whereas the others have a mostly consistent insignia etc.

Had you survived and quickly overthrown the Invultuate-Emperor, the next step would have been to seize faction control of the Cathedral for yourself by overthrowing the Belsire/Beldame. You could use it to direct your own Crusades for instance by declaring other factions Ugly. I had some ideas for a subplot of using a play to cause a scandal of some sort against the Belsire/Beldame but did not have it fully worked out. I also thought about making White Hair the Ugly disinherited child of the Belsire/Beldame - there was going to be a scene where you could spy on the Belsire/Beldame removing makeup/wig etc and see their real hair colour etc. Sadly did not get there in the end.

Belsire, Beldame I think means grandfather, grandmother in old french. One of the Cathedral of Envy's virtues is Youth. This is intentional.
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>>5056781
No worries you are not rambling, just sculpting and refining towards a conclusion and enlightenement ^_^

I think your points about attributes are fair - I assumed everyone would just default look at them the same way as I do but maybe I should have explicitly stated this (I was again worried about metagaming and making it too obvious)

STRENGTH - all physical attributes, including the dnd style strength but also hp, endurance, exertion etc
I thought of it as just "doing warrior things"

INSTINCT - dexterity dnd style but also reflex, reaction speed, sleight of hand, pathfinding, and trickery like lying/deceit, stealth
"doing rogue/assassin thief stuff"

WILL - both wisdom and intelligence combined from dnd, but also giving commands, determination, morale decisiveness. Think of it as "mental strength". You cannot "Charm-intimidate" someone to leap off a cliff but you could mental strength "Will-dominate" and frighten them into doing so. Will is the "strong" magic stat.

CHARM - obviously charisma from dnd but also stuff like presence, social standing, influence, etc. It is like the "mental dexterity". You can only charm-persuade people to do stuff in their best interests. This is the untrained magic stat ie wizards use will witches would use charm.

I think the problem you highlighted is that there were sort of two types of charm at work, obvious seduction-charm like the consort and bargaining charm like the merchant eschatonomist archetype.

So the separate capabilities were not that clear and this is a fair criticism.
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>>5056781
How fighting would have worked if you had ever attempted it would be this - if you lost you would get a trait wounded / injured / scarred / disfigured / maimed etc etc. This would get gradually worse if left untreated. It would block off some of your charm approaches eg seduction but maybe not others like flattery etc. Depending on how the fight went and your choices you would get improved Strength (if you remained defiant until the end before passing out) or Instinct (if you distracted / ran away).

Also some of the fighting traits confer advantages e.g. reckless sounds bad - but you can never be frightened etc.

Violent, psychotic, insane sound bad but they mean you resist the sight of weird magic and your morale will not break (you are insane already lol). I did not want to outright tell you this because I was worried it would ruin the game and make all choices far too easy.
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>>5057038
Things are just slower paced here, and there are small customs and habits that you would pick up when you've been here for some time.

You should never be afraid of writing too long, walls of texts have never posed a problem on a quest's activity.

I would suggest lurking and participating on one of the many great stories we have here to get a feel on the situation and what suits you. But if you want to keep writing in your own style that's also fine!
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>>5057007
Good quest Souvarine!
Shame you had to end it this way. Would love to see what places and images you had planned.
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>>5057015
>Regarding emoticons.

If I recall correctly 4chan culture disdains them, preferring reaction images, it is an image board after all. The stereotypical reaction to someone using emoticons would be for a 4chan user to reeeeeeeeeee and call them a redditor or something like that. I personally don't care about the board culture, but generally I follow it to maintain etiquette.

>OSR, Pbta stuff.

Bleh, not my taste personally. I have no problem with narrative-styled games, but generally I find their allergy to dice modifiers larger than low single digits, the success/success at a cost/failure system, etc, etc to be horrible design and I find it actually severely damages the agency of the player.

>Wizard getting more hp or damage than a barbarian
The hp thing almost literally never happens unless you built your character horribly, even then not really. The damage thing can happen at higher levels, though most of the reasons why magic users are stronger than physical characters has more to do with them being flat out more versatile and useful than physical characters in DnD and frankly most systems with a versatile magic system. Part of this is not-great design, but part of it is unavoidable, if one character archetype can do something another cannot then that character has a unique advantage that makes them more useful than another unless that is balanced out. You either have to severely weaken magic users, arguably to the point to where they aren't fun to play, or make physical characters essentially anime characters or magical-with-a-martial-arts-aesthetic.

>>5057038
I'll echo >>5057020 sentiments. This quest was run so blindingly fast that it was faster than most oneshots. It was comparable to a single quest thread back on /tg/ back when we were on there and activity was high and threads only stayed up for like...I can't even remember, like a day or several at most.

I would consider a oneshot to obviously be one thread, though some "oneshots" actually last several, up to 4 or 5 and are really meant to be very short quests. I would consider a short quest to be like...5-15 threads, a medium term one to be maybe 20-50ish threads, and a longform quest to be...however long it lasts, hundreds maybe like some long runners currently are, this standard is largely arbitrary. My point is, your quest was incredibly fast, I expected the arc we took in this quest to take at least like...5 threads or something. Though obviously how long quests last is different between now on qst and back in the day on tg, since threads on this board stay up for a month.

>>5057038
>Vote systems

On /tg/ the activity level was much higher, our board is practically dead right now with only a few new QMs and a few veteran QMs sticking around who don't want to migrate to the coomer-infested hellscape that is anonkun or to what they consider to be the sterilized, too-left-wing Spacebattles or SufficientVelocity forums. 1/?
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>>5057270
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>>5057286
Most QMs write a story post once or twice a day, a few standouts post more than that. It allows QMs who aren't regular writers or fast writers to take more time and write a decent post whereas if they kept that pace on some other board they'd essentially only get a story post out once per thread or something. I appreciate your speed, it is a welcome change. Though our board isn't necessarily like this by choice but largely due to lack of voter activity.

Regardless, it is a annoying if you DO get lots of votes but just end up taking the first one or the first 3 as some QMs do, at that point it is like why vote or participate at all if it is first come first served and some random can make some terrible decision for us all?

Still, you actually do run your quest similar to the way it normally was previously and still sometimes is ran. Essentially if you were doing it how it is traditionally done you would run a "live" session where we are on a timer to vote and then you give yourself a time limit to write a story post and then post it, and repeat that. So for example...

*Storypost*
*Story Choice Prompts in greentext*
*You would post some thing like "you have 15/30/60/120 minutes to vote before voting is closed". The time limit depends on how complex the choice is, how long your story post was, the activity level, etc.
When the voting time limit is over you would post "Writing." to let people know that the voting period is over and that you are writing. This is useful because it prevents a fuss over people voting past the time limit and getting mad their votes weren't counted after the fact and also lets people know that you haven't died and lets them know when to expect your next post so their eyes aren't glued to this thread and they can go do other stuff. Typically you would also let them know when you expect to be done your next story post.

The stuff about tenseness or indecisiveness has no place in our normal quest format, you simply will not get many voters that way, we are used to our dead board where we have all day to vote and only get a few story posts a day. People will adjust to your standards to a limited degree over time once you garner a following, but you still cannot expect to run this like a normal TTRPG session where you say something like "well, I'm sorry, but according to rules as written combat rounds are six seconds long and I've given you 10 times that to account for the fact that you aren't really a expert swordsman out of character and we have to keep the game moving, so you waste your turn". That just isn't how quests are done. 2/?
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>>5057286
ah I see with emoticons. It makes sense. I do not use reddit and I have not heard of those other two quest sites you mentioned before. I do not really like the idea of login websites, the internet should be anonymous.

I admit I may have exposed how much I have not played dnd with my barbarian vs wizard comment lol. I have played mainly WFRP 1e which is d100 (so it can be very very swing driven) and I would generally prefer the Stars Without Number style 2d6 bell curve resolution for skills (not d20). Also I am not that much of a simulation person I just cannot DM stuff like arithmetic how much carrying weight or coins etc. it just ruins immersion for me at times.

On pbta what I like to do is mine it for weird settings and descriptions. I do not like the "boardgame move" style of the playbooks, ie just let me describe whatever my character does instead of "discern realities" or whatever ridiculous playbook moveset phrase the author has come up with. A think pbta has had its reputation ruined by all the drama and also low quality clones and hacks but there is some kernel of use in it sometimes.
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>>5057043
Cool stuff.

I do have one comment about something, but don't take it too seriously because I'm not sure if it is true or not. Generally, you've mentioned stuff like have intended endings, scenes, stuff like this. None of this on its own is bad. Most writers, and most QMs I'm sure have imagined scenes they have in their head, paths they imagine, pre-write out to make sure there are at least a few established ways for the players to plausibly complete their quest, etc. Endings are important too as a lot of QMs have trouble wrapping up their quests while still respecting the agency of their players. One thing I would caution you about is being too attached to the paths you have imagined and the endings you've written and the characters you've established to the point that you railroad your players. I'm not saying that that was what happened in this quest. Nor is it license to allow us to essentially abandon the very premise of your quest and treat it like a 100% open sandbox. But, just keep it in mind. For example, hypothetically, assuming this quest didn't have the aforementioned blinding speed issue, there is no reason why after exiting the ship we couldn't have dealt with the mercs, and then just wandered the hive city for a bit doing "side content" and building contacts and just ignoring your lake-with-bones that was related to the mech-knight or never meeting all these characters you've mentioned. Or why, realistically we couldn't have just not gone with Asterion or attended the Lord-Consuls funeral and just continued the quest and tried to avoid the Invultuate until we were ready, assuming we managed to avoid him tricking us as in your ending, perhaps via an "insight check" if we had dice or a trait.

>>5057067
Regarding the physical stats, I thinking having the number off core stats reduced to 4 and having each one represent one archetype is good for reducing the negative effects of Multiple Ability Dependency but may cause some problems with social stuff like Lying being the domain the rogue-archetypes mostly, social characters like our Consort should be good at it too.

As for Will and Charm. I simply think you've made Charm essentially useless. You've essentially taken all the coercive elements, negotiating elements, deceptive elements out of the archetypical social stat and put them into other stats. "Social standing" is nothing. Rich people, power brokers, and politicians back up their words with tangibles favours they can trade, industrial and financial resources they can mobilize, etc, etc. Socialites do not always work in convincing you to follow your best interests. When a company manager is talking to another manager from another company to negotiate how much they will pay them, for what product, to receive said product in what timeframe, in what condition, or is negotiating a deal with some consumer and is only willing to give out certain information about their product, none of this is "charm" or "charisma". 3/?
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>>5057312
You've essentially done the opposite of what you've done with the physical stats and put all the social skills into Instinct and Will, leaving only things like getting people to like us or seducing people into charm. This makes Charm close to useless. If Charm at the very least allowed us be an almost magical brainwasher diplomancer character where weaker-willed characters could be made to do almost anything short of immediately dangerous things that snapped them to their senses or even just allowed us an exaggerated version of real life peer pressuring where we could more strongly influence people to like us and get them to do things against their interests then it would be almost half decent, but without those other social things it is still very weak.

This would be less of an issues if the various character archetypes were more nuances and balanced. For example the previous example I gave of the consort knowing fencing, or for example some TTRPG systems do have the social skills broken up like the GUMSHOE system or DnD, so a warrior or police officer may be good at "Cop Talk" or oddly enough, "bureaucracy", or intimidation, while a socialite may be good at charming or "High Society". This may sound like what you've done with charm and you may ask why I'm complaining, but I mean that the Consorts doesn't really have varied skills in other aspects to balance them out aside from the magic, and I imagine if say, the beggar-knight is only good at strength then he isn't good at other social skills at all that if he were a character in real life or another TTRPG system he might actually be good at.

As for the magic aspects of Will and Charm, having Will be the "trained version" and Charm be the untrained version just makes Will and trained magick sound flat out better than Charm and untrained magick, at which point why pick Consort? It sounds like you accidentally made the classes unbalanced.

>>5057071
This all sounds fine, the only confusing part was like I mentioned earlier, obviously in real life you don't get stronger by winning fights nor do you get magically more skilled by doing so like in an RPG. If you had made it clear out-of-character that we would RAPIDLY get better at things for solving or winning or participating in confrontations then it is less of a problem. To be clear, getting better at stuff fast isn't a problem in quests, nor are XP systems bad or abnormal on qst, I don't want to make it sound like that. The only issue was the confusion.

Anyways, this was a good read and I enjoyed your writing. I'm looking forward to your next quest. 4/4
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>>5057303
I will agree that it is a gold mine for cool settings from authors who just want a system they can clone so they can put out their heartbreaker setting.
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>>5057015
There's no rule against emoticons, but it's very un-4chan-- scroll through any thread and the only ones you'll commonly find are :^) and :^(, maybe because they're "ironic." Nothing wrong with them, but it definitely flags you out.
Also, I was wondering how you made it to /qst/ specifically, if you haven't even been on 4chan before! We don't get a ton of new people, so I'm interested.

>>5057038
>I kept the pacing fast because it sort is sort of difficult knowing if people had read the stuff, if the stuff I was writing was too long and being ignored, or if I had written something that upset people or was just too ridiculous.
I think you're definitely coming at this from a TTRPG perspective-- like some other people said, I recommend checking out some other quests to see how they run. You have to remember that you're not writing for a group of people sitting at your table, you're writing for random strangers that drop in and out at various times during the day: if nobody responds within a minute, or 10 minutes, or an hour, or even 10 hours, it doesn't mean that you wrote anything wrong, it could literally just mean that your voters are busy. Also, agreed with the other guy, I'd start saying an update is "too long" if it crosses 2500 words-- you're nowhere near that.

>It was also hard for me to tell how much time to give people. If the scenario is tense and people dithered I wanted to just punish the indecisiveness to show the danger of the situation.
I would leave votes open for minimum 30 minutes, and more realistically an hour+. I'd also announce your sessions (the period of time when you're sitting here writing) in advance so people know to check the thread. That being said, "tenseness," "dithering," and "indecisiveness" are all very TTRPG concepts that translate poorly to questing-- it's expected that people will have the time to think and make reasoned choices.

>I am not sure I understand even why qst is driven by vote systems lol. Why not just first choice wins? I guess people really love democracy but on here doesn't the voting make the action slow to a crawl and ruin the drama of the situation?
Pretty much the same as above... it's just how the medium works. The appeal of questing is that the voters get to influence the situation, and majority vote means that everyone gets a say. I'd only recommend "first vote wins" for a completely nonserious quest where the choices you make don't matter much.
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>>5057774
Thank you for the clarifications.

First time posting on 4chan directly - I read and searched the archive sites mostly. There is so much amazing worldbuilding material available out there! As mentioned I was looking for some means to recapture the old fighting fantasy / lone wolf gamebook experience as opposed to everyone talking at once or multitasking over a conference call +pseudorandom number generator+map tokens. I have been churning this setting and planning campaigns but have had nowhere to test it nowadays.
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Here souls are stained by rust storms and the bitter taste of black myrrh, which clouds the eyes in a delirium of distant passions, and numbs and chills unlit senses.

Location: Incense District, Berceuse

Overhead, a synthetic macaque perched upon a trapeze, ignoring the slow contortions of a sword-dancer. From somewhere deeper within, concealed by the intoxicating and hypnotic haze of smoke, the rhythm of a tambourine and cithara beckons to you. The sword-dancer arches her back, seemingly entranced, as lanterns and red candles coax the flicker of shadows across her exposed midriff.

A sudden, single discordant note from the cithara accompanies a flash of steel.

The macaque shrieks and leaps away, rattling the trapeze chains and sending it swinging wildly like a pendulum.

The sword-dancer lunges towards you, but her thrust falls tantalisingly short of your throat. She collapses to the floor in an artful rendition of the pangs of death and shame, as a fluttering wisp of silk shredded from her trailing sleeves lands in your lap.

It reads simply:

I V V I

in the most secure and secret order of Ursprache hierograms decipherable to the inner circles of the Unbidden Court.

You paid a fortune to hear even rumours of their steganographic techniques, but it is enough to invigorate you with purpose.
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Of your possessions and secrets, all that remains is

(choose ONLY three: )

>1/ linearithmic abacus
a general purpose calculant engine, passed across generations. Enables communication in Hexagint with machine-souls. The replaceable input interface consists of thin rods and worn metal beads. The inhabitants of Berceuse are unfamiliar with the purpose of this curiosity.

>2/ cane sword
concealed, swift, coup-de-grace
the fragile edge held by this weapon is useless in a prolonged bout. Best to draw, strike and resheathe in a single fluid motion, against one that is unaware.

>3/ double-barrelled wheel-lock
loud, armour-piercing, bulky
muzzle-loading, over-and-under, 2-shot and done.Smooth bore combined with your trembling hand and untrained eye, renders the firearm useless at distance.

>4/ rite: Skin Scribe
through an agony of effort, etch your thoughts into the skin of another known to you, at any distance. You may also receive the thoughts of another upon your own flesh. Through a dangerous and debilitatingly greater exertion of effort over a longer period of time, this spell can injure, though it is unlikely to discomfort a battle-hardened opponent.

and

Betrayer's Tongue
The effects of this rite is unknown to you.

>5/ rite: Gift Of New Flesh
The effects of this rite is unknown to you.

and

Child Of Suffering
Pain brings forth this horror. The pain does not have to be your own.

>6/ rite: Whispering Fire
Some believe the torturers of the Imperial Censorate can speak and hear through fire, and every guttering flame transports guilt to their spies.

and

Dream Lyre
The effect of this spell is unknown to you.

>7/ Off-world Merchant Emblem
Few recognise it, but a single, secret Usurer token of incalculable wealth. On another world this emblem would permit you to do just about anything, but to possess it here and now is a mark of death. The emblem obverse bears the mark of Black Scales weighing a heart against a white feather; the reverse shows a Red Crown Of Thorns.

>8/ A pouch of Black Myrrh
Fine grains with a waxy, tenebrous residue. Produces a distinctive slow-burning thick hypnotic smoke, and when inhaled, cold resolute visions of purpose. You have never tried it and are unsure as to the longer term effects. There is enough here for an overdose.
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(the spells come in pairs, familiar and unknown, and each spell pairing counts as a single choice)

(advice: it is recommended to consider how the selections might complement each other, in use or combination, in unusual ways.)

Status: You are protected by the Lord Consul. Within the ecumenopolis of Berceuse none may attack or question you.

Trait: Usurer
The inhabitants of this primitive world possess no means of exchange beyond barter. The Unbidden Court controls all Warrants of Trade and exchange of the Ancient Promises. The Court forbids the practice of usury and divination. If you are seen or caught performing any of your rites, the sentence is death.

You speak High Gothiric (Highborn tongue), and can recognise some Ursprache (secret hierograms of the Unbidden Court). You are conversant in Gothuneric (Lowborn tongue), and also recognise some of their Vulgar Emotic pictographs too.
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better picture of the wheel-lock
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the cane sword
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>>5057774
>>5057322
>>5057270
>>5057101

I gave away a lot of secrets but still some unused ideas... ^_^ On this thread only I will break the 4chan taboo and use emoticons, you get a special one for write-ins ^o^

PS can someone tell me how I can make 4chan show extra whitespace characters. I need it for something (not ascii text spam lol)
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>>5058516

>2/ cane sword
concealed, swift, coup-de-grace
the fragile edge held by this weapon is useless in a prolonged bout. Best to draw, strike and resheathe in a single fluid motion, against one that is unaware.

>5/ rite: Gift Of New Flesh
The effects of this rite is unknown to you.

and

Child Of Suffering
Pain brings forth this horror. The pain does not have to be your own.

Do we know the effects of child of suffering? If so we should get a explicit description of what it does or the problems it could bring.

I'm hoping the Gift of the New Flesh is either some sort of fleshcrafting/shapeshifting spell or some sort of resurrection spell based on the name. I thought it would go well with the cane sword if so, go undetected as a familiar face, then strike with the cane sword. Though it may not be good synergy if I'm wrong.

I thought of taking one of the other spells for having a good communication or spying ability, and anything to do with dreams could be interesting, but I'd rather go with a more active ability rather then a very long range communication spell or an intel spell.


>8/ A pouch of Black Myrrh
Fine grains with a waxy, tenebrous residue. Produces a distinctive slow-burning thick hypnotic smoke, and when inhaled, cold resolute visions of purpose. You have never tried it and are unsure as to the longer term effects. There is enough here for an overdose.

If divination is prohibited, then there will be a black market for it and we can offer a valuable service which could get us a useful favour in kind or just a lot of money. We'll have to be careful though.
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>>5058569
All very good choices and justifications ^_^

Just a few important QM meta commentary hints and advice:
- do not feel obliged to take weapons. Every one of the choices can be used as a weapon of sorts, if you are clever about it
- the way I see items and traits being used is to also help you guys with write-in. I will give prompts and choices of course but they could all just be a trap hehe... At any point during the narrative (even if I do not suggest it) just write in citing a trait or item action (e.g. I have had enough, just draw a gun and shoot him in the face etc). You probably have guessed which character class this playthrough is and should temper your expectations of success accordingly
- you guys chose pretty well last time generally so there will be no more tutorial "trait hints" going forward. You can ask questions, if I think you would know I will ONLY respond via appropriate in-world game events.
Because of the the Items, the number of traits you hold is now reduced to FOUR. (It is actually five, but you cannot remove the trait Usurer).
- all of the in-game lore in this thread is canonical including the revealed / speculative information. For the purposes of this playthrough, imagine it occurring concurrent to some unknown time after the Consort arriving... ^_^
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(I will let you guys continue to discuss items. In the meantime also here is the first narrative choice: )

>A/ Examine the torn silk message more closely.
If you choose this, the sword-dancer may move away.

>B/ The way the message was delivered suggests urgent secrecy. You need to follow the dancer girl and ask her directly what it means

>C/ The Conservation Of Capital is the most important stricture of your order. You should step outside this den of iniquity, walk to the bourse at the Exchange to evaluate this information

>D/ You are here for one thing only, these things have a way of working out well in the end... So grab the sword-dancer by the waist and introduce her to your...er, sword... (the QM cannot possibly kill us in the first section right...??? Give me Jeffrey Epstein mode!)
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>>5058569
If you are seeking information, someone at the Exchange might know. Insight is never free...
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>>5058586
>>D/ You are here for one thing only, these things have a way of working out well in the end... So grab the sword-dancer by the waist and introduce her to your...er, sword... (the QM cannot possibly kill us in the first section right...??? Give me Jeffrey Epstein mode!)

We were not bold enough the last time so perhaps we shall play it differently?
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>>5058602
hehe
any thoughts on items?
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>>5058586
>C/ The Conservation Of Capital is the most important stricture of your order. You should step outside this den of iniquity, walk to the bourse at the Exchange to evaluate this information

Hmm, I wonder if the abacus would've been useful here?
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>>5058586
Actually, you know what? I'll switch to...
>D/ You are here for one thing only, these things have a way of working out well in the end... So grab the sword-dancer by the waist and introduce her to your...er, sword... (the QM cannot possibly kill us in the first section right...??? Give me Jeffrey Epstein mode!)
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In another lifetime, a younger and more innocent version of yourself watches the scales of your future fate tip away from innocence towards horror.

The dancer's eyes are cold. She is used to blank-eyed men gazing upon her in the paralysed stupor of black myrrh, and is perhaps somewhat surprised by your response to her secret message - delivered at great danger to herself.

Whilst the proprietors of this House of Tolerance overlook a certain degree of molestation, they also gave the sword-dancer's... swords. When your hand wanders hungrily towards her thighs, the dancer sweeps the edge of her blade across your palm.

You have gained the trait: debauched
You have gained the trait: bleeding

The sword-dancer moves to leave. She will not speak to you now.

>A/ examine the torn silk message more closely, then bind your wounded hand with it.

>B/ The Conservation Of Capital is the most important stricture of your order. The bourse of the Exchange closes soon, and you should leave now to search for more information.

>C/ Loudly protest within earshot of the proprietor of the Black Myrrh Fumerie:
This disgusting harlot cut me! I want her thrown out!
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>>5058602
I will say that I don't think "us not being bold enough last time" is the lesson to take away from our previous run. If anything I don't think the lesson is that we need to be bolder or that we need to diversify our traits more or anything like that, but that once we choose a set of traits that we consider desirable and that cover the gamut of situations we plan to be good at dealing with we need to choose choices that strengthen those traits or make them "level up" in tier. Sometimes we may choose a prompt due to circumstances or roleplaying considerations that removes one of our leveled up or desired traits, and when that happens we'll just have to deal with it and either quickly replace it or level it up and accept that we'll still be good at something, just something different and have to play around that. At least if I understand this trait system right.

I recently read something about Burning Wheel on a forum I was browsing which explained the trait system a little albeit vaguely and in passing detail.

I think us failing our previous run would've happened eventually, the very premise of our run was super hard, right from character creation it was clear we'd fallen out of favour with the Emperor and soon after it was revealed that our primary antagonist was said emperor rapidly followed by him coming here for us. That combined with QMs lightning pace and us (or at least me) not realising the pace of character advancement kinda doomed us. Though, considering practically every story post had a chance of gaining a trait or advancing one or having one removed, I suppose we could've guessed the speed of character advancement through that context clue. But, if traits can be gained, lost, and advanced literally every story post then character advancement is essentially like a JRPG or CRPG or many TTRPGs, we can literally become an order of magnitude better at something over the course of a day hypothetically if I'm understand this right.
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>>5058671
>B/ The Conservation Of Capital is the most important stricture of your order. The bourse of the Exchange closes soon, and you should leave now to search for more information.

Figured that would happen, we are both spies doing spy things and she is handing off encoded information to us. Best not draw attention to the fact she handed something to us by looking at it. We also don't want to damage it before having the tools or contacts to decypher it with better eyes. Still, at least we gave a bit of pazaz to our character.
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>>5058671
>B/ The Conservation Of Capital is the most important stricture of your order. The bourse of the Exchange closes soon, and you should leave now to search for more information.
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http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/5054156/
Someone has archived your quest for posterity. I don’t know who did (I would’ve done so at the end of the thread) but the deed is done.
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>>5058688
(Oh thank you kind anon!)

You reach to collect your belongings and grimace in pain. You hold your hand up to the lantern and against its red light you see a deep, black wound. The dancer cut your sword hand and your palm is slick with blood. You had always relied upon your quick wits and reactions in the past - you are unsure of yourself now.

Cane Sword in your possession has lost the property - swift

As you are rising to depart for the Exchange a sudden dark blur claws at you. Raising your arm to defend your face, you see it is merely the curious macaque which had watched you during the sword dance earlier.

The macaque leaps to your shoulder and glances at you quizzically, as if assessing your capabilities to act as its servant. It picks at some fleas in its fur.

>1/ Well, you will have to endure some bizarre looks amongst the merchant bankers at the Exchange now. Head there immediately before the bourse closes in the evening.
(You gain the companion
Annoying Arrogant Trapeze Monkey
It effectively counts as an item, sits on your shoulder, no encumbrance)

>2/ Shoo the disgusting filthy thing away. The fleas might infect someone. Head to the Exchange.

>3/ You read all the interminable QM summary posts and think you know how this works. There is no better place for an occult offering than in the dark confines of a den of narcotic torpor. Draw your sword, cut this arrogant monkey into quarters and eat its heart.
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>>5058703
>1/ Well, you will have to endure some bizarre looks amongst the merchant bankers at the Exchange now. Head there immediately before the bourse closes in the evening.

We aren't insane, lets not randomly kill a monkey and eat it.
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>>5058703
>>1/ Well, you will have to endure some bizarre looks amongst the merchant bankers at the Exchange now. Head there immediately before the bourse closes in the evening.
Monkey friend is for pats and stealing
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Sleeping now. Good luck, make good choices anons.
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Mission:
decipher the meaning of the sword-dancer's message

Your traits: (3 of 5, 1 permanent lifepath)
Bleeding, Debauched Usurer

You are protected by the Lord Consul

You possess:
cane sword (concealed, coup-de-grace)
-lost property swift because sword-hand is Bleeding
Rite: Gift Of New Flesh, and
Rite: Child Of Suffering
Pouch of Black Myrrh (Large Dose)

+gained
torn silk message "I V V I"
Flea-ridden, Arrogant Annoying Trapeze Monkey

Exiting: Black Myrrh Fumerie, Incense District, Berceuse

Entering: Spindlecage Restricted Exchange District, Berceuse

It takes nearly all your willpower not to strangle the annoying monkey on your shoulder as you turn the handful of street corners and head towards the Exchange. The streets appear unusually quiet as if the crowds here in the late afternoon have been called away to elsewhere.

To an outsider the Spindlecage resembles a grey prison. The Unbidden Court restricts the Lowborn to barter and reserves the sole right authorising the issuance of capital for itself: Letters Of Marque and Reprisal, Warrants Of Trade, and the Exchange of Ancient Promises. The Lowborn naively believe that things like family and friendship and love have value, but they see not the invisible mechanisms by which their desires are purchased, borrowed and resold. No Lowborn may enter this district, but under the Protection of the Lord Consul you pass through unimpeded.

Near the bourse you see the usual conspiratorial circles of men - nearly all indeed a preponderance of men, with an aged and balding indefatigability.

>1/ Enquire at the registrar as to which offworld syndicates are in attendance, and any recent hearsay
>2/ Join one of the conspiratorial circles, and listen in
>3/ Join one of the conspiratorial circles, and start a rumour yourself:
ahem, Hear this, gentlemen: did you know the Belsire and Beldame...
>4/ You want to know the use of a rite or exchange an item for another (an annoying flea-ridden monkey perhaps). Find a broker. You have a feeling it will be expensive.
>5/ This backwards planet is literally so dull and no fun. Inhale an entire dose of Black Myrrh at once
>6/ (other, write in...)
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>>5058774
>>4/ You want to know the use of a rite or exchange an item for another (an annoying flea-ridden monkey perhaps). Find a broker. You have a feeling it will be expensive.

Last minute post before I hit the sheets.

Exchange the monkey for either some capital or a item that suits our skillset, then with said capital purchase the services of someone knowledgeable in Ursprache hierograms or the relevant symbology regarding I V V I, or the discreet services of someone who can identify the nature of our rite of the Gift of New Flesh if we either cannot acquire the services of the former or it is too expensive. If we choose not to exchange the monkey for money or whatever passes for it on this planet, then purchase the aforementioned services with what money-equivalent we possess or if we possess none then purchase it with a service or favour in kind.
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The brokers at the main bourse recoil from you as you expostulate to your best ability and attempt to persuade them to exchange something, anything, for the flea-ridden, annoying arrogant trapeze monkey that has now soiled itself on your shoulder. The monkey sincerely believes you are its servant, and it knows you are trying to perform some underhand dealing. The monkey pulls your ears in indignant fury.

Just as you are about to capitulate in utter despair, an unctuous voice at your shoulder inquires

What is the provenance of that monkey? Tell me, I will hear you out...

From the corner of your eye, you see the Registrar rising to stretch his legs. He will ring the bell and announce the closing trades soon.

>1/ This could be your last chance to get rid of this filthy creature. Desperately agree to exchange this stupid useless monkey for anything right now! Tell him:
Just a stupid synthetic macaque I found at the Black Myrrh Fumerie
>2/ Tell him it is a synthetic macaque, but you do not know its provenance
>3/ Tell him you found it at the Black Myrrh Fumerie, but you do not know what it is
>4/ His sudden interest in this stupid monkey is suspicious. On no account will you part with this noble and beautiful creature. You now intend to serve the Monkey King and win its approval
>>
pic related is an example of a representative of the Axiom Galdra Union
>>
picture related is an example of a representative of Syndicate Urthekau-Sylabari
>>
>>5058835
>>5058839
(You have seen these two representatives in the background when you entered, but you have not yet turned to see who is speaking yet.)
>>
>>5058834
>1/ This could be your last chance to get rid of this filthy creature. Desperately agree to exchange this stupid useless monkey for anything right now! Tell him:
>>
>>5058834
>2/ Tell him it is a synthetic macaque, but you do not know its provenance
I get the feeling we shouldn't let anyone know where we were, considering the nature of the exchange we had with the sword dancer.
(Just caught up with the quest, it's definitely very unusual... But also quite interesting. I want in!)
>>
>>5058866
(welcome to the thread! I hope you have fun ^_^)

You turn to see the Urthekau representative gazing intently at your monkey. He is fingering a peculiar device which you recognise at once as a Linearithmic Abacus, a calculating engine. He appears to be staring very intently at the monkey's eyes and also ears.

You are familiar with the import of synthetic creatures and there is indeed a profitable trade in synthetic re-domestication upon resource-starved industrial worlds. Yet Berceuse is a primitive yet fertile planet, abundant in subsistence labour and animal husbandry. Apart from exotic curiosities - there was a minor bidding war to supply the Beldame Of the Church with a synthetic white peacock some while back - the market for this type of creature should be very thin indeed.

(You may now demand the following of the Urthekau representative:
>1/ he can provide an explanation for ONE spell, using his Linearithmic Abacus

>2/ he will trade you one item from the list at
>>5058516
except for his Linearithmic Abacus

>3/ you can demand deferred payment (ie one as yet unknown item or service whenever you need it, anytime later on in the story. Syndicate members at the bourse will absolutely honour this lest they forfeit membership. You must however return to the Exchange to collect it.

>4/ You can ask why he will not sell the abacus to you

>5/ If you know the reason, write-in and force him to improve his offer...

>6/ This is so dull and boring. You should liven it up with an entire dose of Black Myrrh all at once
>>
>>5058866
(just to remind you for the trading decision... the spell rules in this setting remain in effect, ie all spells are unique, and can only be used once, and always have a consequence. Hence when examining the list at
>>5058516
you cannot "double up" on spell pairings, you must select another unique set. You can if you really want dual-wield cane swords, just hope you don't encounter any ladders..."
>>
>>5058883
>3/ you can demand deferred payment (ie one as yet unknown item or service whenever you need it, anytime later on in the story. Syndicate members at the bourse will absolutely honour this lest they forfeit membership. You must however return to the Exchange to collect it.
A favour seems great to have somewhere down the line. This can be a great crutch for when the QM goes "damn you guys are fucked, you should have figured the mystery out by now", or if we urgently need any kind of help.
>>
>>5058904
You recall from your past dealings that the Registrar must certify any Exchange Of Promise in order for both counterparties to be sworn to honour it, at risk of forfeiture of membership to the Bourse. One can also simply rely upon verbal agreement with the counterparty, especially if discretion is desired, though the Exchange provides no guarantee nor acknowledgement for such transactions occurring.

>1/ shake hands on the deal with Urthekau
>2/ (write-in why you think Urthekau is so interested in a flea-infested stupid monkey... force him to improve his offer)
>3/ calmly assert:
Improve your offer, else I take this to Axiom-Galdra. No deal!
>4/ Reply in the affirmative and take Urthekau at his word (verbal agreement, the Exchange will not be aware of this transaction. You must contact Urthekau-Sylabari instead of the Registrar in the future and rely on their honour)
>5/ you have just had a better idea. You serve the Monkey King now. Perhaps you should reserve half of the Black Myrrh for His Majesty The Monkey to enjoy later, and take half now yourself?
>>
>>5058938
>2/ (write-in why you think Urthekau is so interested in a flea-infested stupid monkey... force him to improve his offer
"If you're interested, I know someone who has some amount of Black Myrrh he'd be interested in selling. I don't trade in the thing myself, but he owes me a favour, so I can get you some in exchange for some information. What do you say?"
Of course, don't let him know *we* have that amount on ourselves. The information can be related to either our spell or our message, I suppose, it's up to you anons
>>
>>5058946
(You are close but not quite there yet. Urthekau will not improve the deal)

The Urthekau trader is still staring intently at the eyes and ears of the synthetic monkey. His hands twitch at the Linearithmic Abacus as if he urgently wants to check something with it... but not in front of you.

He does not appear to be swayed by your offer of Black Myrrh:

Black Myrrh...hmmm... yes, we are not so interested in that... particular commodity. We are more interested in... secrets, witnesses, ... locations. Say, for instance, the people who possess Black Myrrh... it renders them... pliable.

This macaque truly is such a ... fine specimen. A bioframe... no, a hybrid bio-mechanical specimen hmmm... yesss.... (The monkey bares its teeth and hisses under the trader's intense scrutiny)

Urthekau maintains its original offer.

The Registrar has his hand on the closing trade bell, and gazes at you expectantly. The Axiom-Galdra trader has stepped away.

>1/ Sign the deal with Urthekau at the Registrar
(the Exchange will know your arrangement, and guarantee its future delivery by Urthekau)
>2/ Sign the deal with Urthekau directly
(Urthekau will owe you this favour by verbal agreement. The Exchange will not guarantee the deal and no record will be retained of it. You may collect upon it by contacting Urthekau in the future, but you must rely upon their word of honour)
>3/ It is treason to provoke His Majesty The Monkey King. You must walk away from this underhand deal immediately.
>>
>>5058966
>1/ Sign the deal with Urthekau at the Registrar
>>
>>5058966
>>1/ Sign the deal with Urthekau at the Registrar
May as well go visit the place
>>
>>5058883
Ah, so it does have uses as a general computer, presumably it can translate other languages, has uses in learning about spells if he can do so and is just generally useful for financial things, kinda wished I picked it back then and traded for a weapon here.

I'm guessing they are rare if they are "passed through generations" or perhaps they are taboo considering White Hair yelled "she's one of them, she's possessed" or whatever he said.

>>5058938
Perhaps the synthetic monkey actually contains the brain or soul of some noble and that is why it is so uppity? Maybe some noble got trapped in it like a cortical stack from Altered Carbon.

>>5058966
>1/ Sign the deal with Urthekau at the Registrar
(the Exchange will know your arrangement, and guarantee its future delivery by Urthekau)

But quickly try and improve it by using my speculations above.
>>
>>5058966
Or perhaps with this latest information the monkey is either some important witness to a crime or being from the Black Myrrh Fumerie would have access to locations normally barred from entry and could bear witness to insider deals due to its innocent seeming nature and with the application of either the abacus or Black Myrrh or some sort of spell the monkey can be interrogated for said info it has witnessed.
>>
>>5059281
(well done... this is the correct answer! Knowing this, maybe should not have chosen to sign the deal...)

In the background of the main bourse you see the circle of conspiratorial grey men beginning to disperse, though some gather around the Axiom-Galdra representative, who is speaking to a messenger from the streets outside.

The Urthekau Trader moves to shake your hand, and observes the clotted blood on your palm and sleeve. He frowns slightly, suspended in awkward mid-handshake, and instead says simply,

The Lion and Serpent honours you, Trader.

The Registrar certifies the Promise and hands it to you.

(you have gained:
Exchange Certified Promise From Syndicate Urthekau-Sylabari
you must contact the Registrar who will take and guarantee delivery/provision of your requested item/service
your reputation with Urthekau is trustworthy.)

An attendant has produced a cage, and His Majesty The Monkey is unceremoniously ensnared within it. His eyes glisten with a piteous and pleading sheen, and you see for a moment a glimpse of an electric blue glow. The Urthekau Trader bows to you and departs.

You think back to the curious affair of the bidding war around the synthetic White Peacock for the Beldame of The Church. Surely an unnecessary vanity, unless... someone wanted to place a very specific synthetic machine upon the inner grounds of the Great Cathedral. Therein lies the true value. A machine in the guise of a beloved pet that could watch and report on the inner workings of the Church Of Envy... perhaps even cosseted by those closest to the Beldame herself?

Was this what had happened in your instance? Had someone placed a synthetic animal to watch and record your exchange with the Sword-dancer girl, and to distract and follow you afterwards?

(You have gained the trait: Paranoid)

You would need a calculant engine to communicate or command the synthetic, an engine much like the Linearithmic Abacus the Urthekau Trader possessed.
>>
(You have lost: Biomechanical Hybrid-Frame Synthetic Macaque/Adapted Surveillance Variant, formerly Flea-ridden, Arrogant Annoying Trapeze Monkey)

A commotion is gathering around Axiom-Galdra. You almost do not hear the ringing of the closing bell of trade.

>1/ Pursue Urthekau quickly out of the Exchange
There could still be a record of the sword-dancer's message, seen through the eyes of the synthetic - you cannot risk even a glimpse of your secret falling into Urthekau's hands before you have unravelled it. Woe has befallen those that betray His Majesty The Monkey King...

>2/ Depart the Exchange and dine with your protector the Lord Consul
The deal is done. Besides, didn't the monkey leap away when the sword-dancer lunged at you? (Or was it merely leaping to a closer vantage point...) Even if the Urthekau Trader learns of it he will not even understand what has transpired.

>3/ Delay your departure and listen to what the Axiom Galdra Trader has to say. You will lose sight of the Urthekau Trader.
>>
>>5059306
I mean...I did specifically say to try and improve the deal with my speculations, but even had I voted against the deal I would've been outvoted.

>Delay your departure and listen to what the Axiom Galdra Trader has to say. Then after seeing what the commotion is about, depart for more private climes and examine the torn silk message more closely, after we have done so bind our wound with it but make sure the part of the cloth with the message on it is touching the back of our hand so as not to be ruined by coming in contact with our blood. After that, head for dinner, there is no point staying here when we have nothing to barter with that we aren't willing to part with or isn't part of our kit.

The deal is done, I dare not ruin our newfound solid reputation with Urthekau when we have already metaphorically shook on it in exchange for a favour in the future guaranteed by Registrar.
>>
>>5059307
>3/ Delay your departure and listen to what the Axiom Galdra Trader has to say. You will lose sight of the Urthekau Trader.
>>
You head towards the gathering crowd of traders surrounding Axiom-Galdra. Some of them appear to be shaking their heads in disbelief whilst others are accusatory and angry.

Your wounded sword-hand is throbbing with pain. You bind it carefully - winding the silk strip round it with one end partially held in your teeth, and the other in your off-hand.

You see now the pattern has been hastily sewn upon the fabric:

I____V_____V_I

I, V , VI: what could it mean?
(you have lost the trait: bleeding
Your cane sword regains the attribute: swift
in your possession)
>>
Some bourse members are shouting down the Axiom-Galdra representative now and he is trying to placate them. You struggle through the crowd to hear what he is saying:

Gentlemen, Promiseholders... rest assured your stakes in our Great Endeavour remain protected. Axiom-Galdra adheres devoutly to the stricture of The Conservation Of Capital - unlike those slithering serpents wearing but the skins of men at Urthekau-Sylabari.

(QM note: you think this is a metaphor. In contrast to real life there are probably no alien snake-people Illuminati in this setting of whom you are aware)

The Galdra representative has his arms outstretched, palms facing down, as if he is attempting to lower the volume of the crowd. He continues:

We remain united with our friends at the Paribus Philanthropic Foundation, and through them our greater sponsors at CONTOR. All that we require is your continuing faith and patience in our negotiations with the Unbidden Court, they will acquiesce to our very reasonable demands given enough time.

At this early stage, everything is merely rumour and speculation - we are not even sure as to the precise cause of this explosion in the Lowborn District hive... It was probably an accident of some sort...
>>
The crowd of angry grey men appears unimpressed. You hear them shouting:

You bring this bourse and Exchange into disrepute! For shame Galdra, for shame!

You wait until the Exchange has closed to announce... this?! We will never deal with you ever again!

May the Red Lord take you, Galdra! This entire venture upon Berceuse is a complete failure! I am Ruined!

There are other voices muttering quietly but darkly in the background. You strain to hear them:

They will blame us, of course. There will be first fear, then accusations and riots. They could close the Exchange...

I sunk so much capital into my consignment of brocade, corsets, stockings and maquillage for the Beldame. How will I be able to trade now?

...We should secure passage off-world, before anyone else finds out...

You see to your surprise there is actually a lady who is attempting to persuade some of the gathered crowd. She does not appear to be affiliated with Axiom-Galdra, yet is tearfully imploring them to stay on his behalf.

>1/ Attempt to question Axiom-Galdra yourself:
You need to discover what this Great Endeavour concerns. The Lord Consul should be made aware of the dealings of these offworld syndicates.

>2/ Your affiliation with Urthekau-Sylabari means you should not assist their hated rivals Axiom-Galdra. You should leave immediately for the Lord Consul's invitation otherwise you will arrive late.

>3/ The tearful lady knows something. Perhaps she is from the Paribus Foundation? You could speak to her and get some information...

>4/ A circle of crimson worry and pain begins to tighten around your brow; you know the Red Lord Of Ruin when you see him. Call in every favour, every contact, everything, EVERYTHING, and get off this planet right now...
>>
>>5059433
Could mean 1 5 6, 4 6, or 1 5 5 1 if they are roman numerals it depends on how you interpret the spacing considering the pattern has been described as "hastily sewn". Alternatively it could be a primitive map or picture like those drawn with ASCII art.

>>5059436
I guess the PPF is the other part of the "Union" in Axiom-Galdra Union. The explosion was probably us as the consort having Lady of Sorrows waste those guys. I'm guessing they are either literally a union, like a labour union or something or that they are a union of different organizations sponsoring or representing the working class or perhaps interested investors from this stock exchange. Maybe the explosion damaged confidence in whatever hidden negotiations are going on? If that is the case I'm guessing they are opposed to something the Unbidden Court is doing, maybe the crusade, maybe something else but they are either negotiating with them or try to get them to help out with some other problem the Court has influence in.

Since the Emperor may not be showing up after all to kill the Consort, I'm guessing the Lord Consul is safe and not about to suddenly die when we go meet him.

>>5059455
>3/ The tearful lady knows something. Perhaps she is from the Paribus Foundation? You could speak to her and get some information...

We may be paranoid, but this is not the time for this. We've invested time learning languages and symbology and gaining a protector and gaining this cloth scrap, lets not run.

Anyways, the man is swamped right now and probably won't hear us over the crowd, plus he is just addressing general concerns it seems not answering specifics. The woman may be more pliable as she is desperate. Mayhaps we can salve both our lust for knowledge and lust in general.
>>
>>5055551
You observe the woman closely. She possesses the high cheekbones and countenance of offworld Highborn, yet none of their haughty demeanour. She appears genuinely distraught and is attempting to entreat the grey men for some sign of sympathy, but she has not seen you.

You need to catch her attention somehow:

>1/ I am the Lead Broker-Dealer in synthetics acting on behalf of Urthekau-Sylabari. I have just structured and executed a complex re-hypothecated transaction in exotic simian derivatives collateralised by innovative advanced hybrid bioengineering assisted surveillance technologies imported from offworld with a sizeable total addressable market, supernormal growth rates exhibiting low volatility of returns and high risk-reward. I am really important. I can help you...

>2/ Would you like an invitation to meet the Lord Consul, Demoiselle? Perhaps he would hear your petition?

>3/ What exactly is the relationship, demoiselle, between CONTOR, Paribus and Axiom-Galdra?

>4/ Look QM. We know what you are doing, and this time she is not carrying a sword. Lecherously stare at some delectable portion of her anatomy, until she notices you.
>>
>>5059475

>2/ Would you like an invitation to meet the Lord Consul, Demoiselle? Perhaps he would hear your petition?
in exchange for
>3/ What exactly is the relationship, demoiselle, between CONTOR, Paribus and Axiom-Galdra?
and
>Her services as a woman, you know, to comfort us...sexually.

Basically a favour for info and some sexual coercion. Gotta play into our debauchery.
>>
You learn her name is Gracelyn and she is indeed of the Paribus Philanthropist Foundation.

Their motto is: All Are Equal, Beneath The Stars.

You are surprised to discover that the Paribus symbol resembles the emblem of your own, esoteric order: it is also a balance, the archaic merchant's scales of assay and weighing, the symbol of a rite of equilibrium and harmony with the ancient world.

Yet her symbol shows a set of scales made of hands clasped together in unison, uplifting each other beneath the arcing vault of stars in the sky.
You tell her this and her impassioned eyes widen in surprise.

We must be meant for each other... Gracelyn ponders slowly.

You could join our Coalition... the Coalition of Non-Aligned Trading Organisations.

We will welcome all syndicates in cooperation, not just Axiom-Galdra. We are completely independent and neutral.

Our foundation seeks to free these worlds from barbarism, ignorance and tyranny. We educate children, we provide the means for the careful, controlled introduction of offworld technology.

But we must also protect animals and preserve climate and habitats and culture upon disadvantaged worlds.

Please, you could help us... there is so much cruelty here... The Lowborn suffer so much...

>1/ Gracelyn's words have moved you, but you are already very late for the Lord Consul's invitation. Call for a phaeton carriage and bring her with you to the Lord Consul now. (yes, you are allowed to sit close to her in the carriage)

>2/ Something about this demoiselle seems strange. Ask her more about Paribus and what they are doing exactly on Berceuse. You may be delayed and miss the chance to meet the Lord Consul altogether.
>>
>>5059485
>1/ Gracelyn's words have moved you, but you are already very late for the Lord Consul's invitation. Call for a phaeton carriage and bring her with you to the Lord Consul now. (yes, you are allowed to sit close to her in the carriage)

>Ask her about Paribus and what they are doing on Berceuse along the way to the meeting.
>>
File: dmytro-lisin-03.jpg (2.59 MB, 3840x1766)
2.59 MB
2.59 MB JPG
Exiting: Restricted Exchange District, Berceuse
Approaching: Estate Of The Lord Consul

As you await the black phaeton carriage to take you together to the Lord Consul's residence, Gracelyn gestures and guides your eye towards the armoured knights gathering outside the Exchange.

It appears increased patrols have been ordered after the mysterious explosion.

Look! Gracelyn whispers, trembling:

This is what we fight against! The explosion occurred in the Lowborn district - there could be children there, orphaned. Frightened and injured. Yet they send knights to guard the richest and the Highborn, who need it least. We must show this to the Lord Consul. We have to help them...

For a few, fleeting moments as you journey together in the gathering night, your heart, long scarred by the rites of commerce and avarice, finds peace in Gracelyn's company.

You want to ask her questions. She answers them with at first a tender embrace, then kisses and caresses instead.

She is flushed with an embarassed and confused joy. She had been searching for so long, ready to give up in despair... searching, waiting and watching for just the right person.

And just as she was ready to give up entirely, well, here you are...!

You feel quite accomplished and gallant. Today you successfully executed a complex exotic simian synthetics trade, and also met a beautiful kindred spirit. Perhaps someday you could eventually cast off the hated burden of your order once and for all - join Gracelyn and become a philanthropist instead? Use your wits and wealth to better the world, and cast off the despised mark of the usurer?

You have lost trait: paranoid
You have lost trait: debauched
You have gained trait: romantic

You have arrived and the Lord Consul's seneschal is ready to announce you.

>1/ Let the Seneschal announce your arrival together. You and Gracelyn are practically a couple now.

>2/ Enter alone. You must convey everything that you have learnt in secret. Gracelyn can stay in the carriage and you will call for her afterwards.

>3/ Ask Gracelyn what she would like you to do.
(If you choose this option, you must also agree to her request or Gracelyn will leave you)
>>
>>5059518
Did not expect that trait switch around considering what I was going for, but perhaps she is having a stronger affect on us than the other way around?

>2/ Enter alone. You must convey everything that you have learnt in secret. Gracelyn can stay in the carriage and you will call for her afterwards.
>>
Hmm, I'm actually debating whether it would be more in character to continue to act the smitten romantic we now apparently are or to continue to play the spy and prioritize conveying our knowledge in secret and stringing Gracelyn along, making her go further if she wants further access.

Glad we aren't paranoid anymore, it is useful to be wary and cautious with the appropriate of natural paranoia that all spies should have but the actions the paranoia prompts spat out seemed disproportionate in the degree of the actions taken to evade trouble, barely even useful.
>>
>>5059518
>2/ Enter alone. You must convey everything that you have learnt in secret. Gracelyn can stay in the carriage and you will call for her afterwards.
>>
Whilst the Lord Consul does not directly intervene in the daily affairs of Berceuse, he oversees its administration on behalf of the Invultuate-Emperor. You are familiar with his residence, having visited it as part of your welcome ceremony upon arriving at Berceuse.

After navigating many winding corridors, and ascending spiralling staircases, you are eventually shown down a long hallway and through a door into the Lord Consul's private dining room, which possesses a high balcony overlooking the Berceuse Highborn district below.

The Lord Consul appears very troubled and does not look at you or address you when you enter.

The Exalted Throne Of Stars is blaming me...!

The Lord Consul sobs. He appears to be inconsolable.

I am accused of failing in my duty to execute some... pathetic courtesan. Somehow, he cannot find her! She must have powerful protection, or be some sort of witch. Now with this mysterious explosion... I will be surely replaced and executed myself! The Invultuate Emperor does not tolerate failure...!

>1/ ignore the Lord Consul's anxiety, and tell him of the secret message you received from the Sword-dancer. On Berceuse he is your protector and you can only trust him.
>2/ tell him yourself about Gracelyn and the noble efforts of the Paribus Philanthropic Foundation, in alliance with CONTOR and Axiom-Galdra. Berceuse needs their technology and should welcome the alliance. The Lord Consul will trust your words more. Besides, a hopeful vision of the future might offer him some solace.
>3/ you really wish you had an annoying monkey that you could throw at him right now. Maybe it would cheer him up. Brag to him from start to finish telling everything that has transpired, placing special exaggerated emphasis on your trading prowess and new romantic conquest.
>4/ how pathetic this Lord Consul seems. He should probably just kill himself. He cannot even execute a defenceless courtesan travelling alone properly. This Lord Consul is merely an administrative puppet. You are alone, you could kill him now and declare yourself Lord Consul. The Invultuate Emperor would probably reward you.
>>
>>5059562
>1/ ignore the Lord Consul's anxiety, and tell him of the secret message you received from the Sword-dancer. On Berceuse he is your protector and you can only trust him.
>2/ tell him yourself about Gracelyn and the noble efforts of the Paribus Philanthropic Foundation, in alliance with CONTOR and Axiom-Galdra. Berceuse needs their technology and should welcome the alliance. The Lord Consul will trust your words more. Besides, a hopeful vision of the future might offer him some solace.
>>
>>5059562
>Offer him a vision of the future and certainty, if only he'll lend us his ear and his favour in ironclad terms for future both far and near. Offer a dose of the Black Myrrh and a spin a tale of our abilities to guide his vision to find a solution to finding this "courtesan.

>Do 1 and 2 afterwards.
>>
Your attempts to reassure the Lord Consul do not seem to work. You tell him about your vision of hope for Berceuse in alliance with Paribus. Even when you show him the priceless secret message, he is not intrigued. He seems obsessed with the idea that he will be executed soon by the Emperor for letting some stupid courtesan get away.

It is probably some stupid machine code -

The Lord Consul sniffs, as he weeps incontrollably staring into the fireplace. He continues to sniffle and wipe his eyes and nose.

- one of the old Machine Obediences. It could be anything, coordinates. A registration number. A thought cipher, a command phrase... It does not matter to me at all! And no, I do not care that you found this whilst cavorting around some underground lair of strumpets. You are lucky she did not castrate you entirely! And you should throw your stupid machine code away. The only courtesan I need to find is going to be the death of me...

You cannot convince The Lord Consul. In fact your presence here is making him more depressed.

>1/ Find Gracelyn, persuade the Lord Consul together - she persuaded you and changed your outlook, maybe she could do the same for the Lord Consul?

>2/ You only just found out about Paribus and CONTOR and are not eloquent enough to persuade him. Speaking together with Gracelyn would perhaps worsen her case. You should send Gracelyn up here alone.

>3/ Perhaps you need to tell the Lord Consul everything that happened today, leaving no part out. Would he have enough information then to understand what the strange code is? Or would your boasting and success just make him feel worse?

>4/ Turn to the Lord Consul, make him kneel before the fireplace, draw your sword and raise it high above your head and declare:
I execute thee, traitor, in the Name Of The Throne Of Stars! Emperor, witness me: I am Lord Consul now! Ahahahahahaaa
>>
The Red Lord Of Ruin stirs within you and courses through your veins. He shows your fate running in rivulets in many directions, all of them red. You feel you must seize the moment and make a significant decision.
(If there is any magic you need to use, declare it now. If you know the meaning of the machine code, declare it now. You may not have another chance to do so)
>>
>>5059620
I'll repeat my choice.
>Offer him a vision of the future and certainty, if only he'll lend us his ear and his favour in ironclad terms for future both far and near. Offer a dose of the Black Myrrh and a spin a tale of our abilities to guide his vision to find a solution to finding this "courtesan.

If that doesn't work then get Gracelyn, she certainly seems "charming" to say the least.
>>
>>5059637
Ah, didn't see this. One sec, I need to think.
>>
>>5059620

>4/ Turn to the Lord Consul, make him kneel before the fireplace, draw your sword and raise it high above your head and declare:
I execute thee, traitor, in the Name Of The Throne Of Stars! Emperor, witness me: I am Lord Consul now! Ahahahahahaaa

>Use rite: Gift Of New Flesh

I don't know the meaning of the code.

Take his skin, hopefully.
>>
>>5059644
Do you use the rite on the Lord Consul or yourself?
>>
>>5059647
*Sweats profusely*

I'm going to say the Lord Consul and hopes it functions by targeting the person you want to change into, because if you cast it on yourself how would it identify what you want to change into?
>>
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218 KB JPG
The Red Lord Of Ruin is showing a path of murderous conjecture in your mind. If the Lord Consul is a failure, he will himself be executed. He has perhaps lost the will to live already. Once the Lord Consul is deposed, you will have no Protector on Berceuse. Surely you should seize the opportunity to perform the Emperor's will yourself?

You speak the words of the rite upon the Lord Consul and the fireplace flares in response. You draw and raise the sword's glittering edge to strike a blow that should decapitate him... yet the Lord Consul lives.

(Gift Of New Flesh - the single, hidden healing spell, to survive a killing blow)

Someone outside has heard your proclamation as Lord Consul. There are now two of you, and she has decided to kill you both. She cannot do anything else, other than obey.

As Gracelyn splinters the doorframe entering the (former) trembling Lord Consul's chambers, her arms begin to... unspool. Into ribbons and ribbons of slicing machine-edged blades.

>1/ say the code, 156
>2/ say the code, 46
>3/ say the code, 1551
>4/ some other code...?
>>
>>5059459
the pattern is
I____V_____V_I
>>
>>5059666
Maybe if you look closely at the stitches, you saw it as
I....V.....V.I
>>
>>5059663
Ah, I guess the name of the spell makes sense for that as well. Shame, what a comedy of events.

>1/ say the code, 156
>>
I suppose you could count the dots as stitches and correspond them with the numbers in which case it would be different, but it doesn't make sense to space the last too numbers so closely together even if it was done hastily.
>>
>>5059663
>1/ say the code, 156
Somehow this run is ending worse than the previous one!
>>
There is a pain between Desire and Ruin that the Red Lord does not know. A pain perhaps greater than death.

Gracelyn mists the (former) Lord Consul. A red smear of ribbons and entrails is all that is left of him.

You scream the machine code at what was once Gracelyn. It has an effect but perhaps not the one you expect. She freezes, the flail swords of her arms whipping and threshing in a whirling frenzy.

The light in her eyes dies even though her frame remains undamaged. She is a beautiful, unmoving synthetic statue.

You have erased her machine-soul forever.
>>
(the best code/Machine Obedience is 451. Because in every cyberpunk/immersive sim videogame from Deus Ex, Bioshock to Dishonored the code is always 451 lol.

Without looking at the numbers even the length of the underscores should be a hint (e.g. shortest dash at the end).
Both the numerals and the steganographic dashes/dots match:
I____V_____V_I
I....V.....V.I

4 I....V, IV
5 .....V, V
1 .I, I

All of the other codes you cited have different effects. Some make her... worse lol. At least you did not choose the one that makes her self-detonate.

Incidentally the code 451 was also a hint as to which items to take at the beginning to complete the game non-violently)
>>
>>5059740
I did get the dots matching a possible combination of the numbers but thought it was a red herring, I'm not particularly concerned for having not risked trying it.

Is there more coming? I have to sleep soon.
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>>5059764
No worries, I hope you are felling better. I swear when I play in real life people usually get these puzzles in like 5seconds lll and ruin my campaigns. Maybr it is the wall of text format...
>>
Genuinely prepared for a lot of scenarios. I was hoping for a syndicate battle at the stock exchange lol (had all these cool pictures of the knights and stuff). Also thought that you might just chase after Urthekau and skip meeting Gracelyn/the Lord Consul entirely...
>>
I hope you sleep well and I will try and come up with something tomorrow...
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>>5059772
I am feeling better, thank you. Sadly, my sleep schedule got fucked up while I was recovering but after it gets fixed I should be back to normal.

>>5059773
I'm guessing the syndicate battle would've happened had we threatened to go to the other broker when that Urthekau guy really wanted the monkey?

As for why I chose not to skip the Lord Consul, well, unfortunately it has to do with me feeling confused and aimless. I like this character a bit more than the consort but I feel like the premise or primary objective is less clear, it feels like we're playing a contextless sandbox on this run. I'll try and explain why, in the first run with the consort we were oriented by the character description and then given an three step objective and the chance to defy following through on any of those steps followed by an immediate wrench being throw into the works with us landing in the lowborn hive. In a sense the pacing could be considered good in that we are immediately oriented and then a something messes up the linear path, though the pace was certainly too fast it was good in terms of alternating between slow scenes and fast ones. Then we fell and got the reveal from Lady of Sorrows about the Emperor, but things were still clear because we now had a clear enemy, the Emperor himself.

I feel MUCH less clear and oriented in this run, I assumed the spy shit with the mention of the stenography and languages we knew and the sword-dancer passing off info to us was part of "the main plot" or our main objective but it isn't clear what we are supposed to be doing or why, or what we were doing before that moment and why we are currently doing this thing. I liked that we had the freedom we did in the stock-market scene, so freedom or sandbox elements aren't a problem for me, but I don't know what we are even trying to achieve, so I just went for a generic "gain more power and info" approach in addition to trying to stay in character.

Another problem I have that is vaguely related to the "contextless" aspect I mentioned before is that I feel like I have less information than the main character does in some regards. Like, I have no idea what the Black span of mortal desire and the Red Lord Of Ruin are, or why we can feel the red lord in our veins. I also am unclear on our ability to see the future, I thought it'd be a core feature of our character considering the character selection description (unless we aren't the Eschatonomist?) but so far the only way I see us seeing the future is with one shot spells or maybe Black Myrrh which we've apparently never used before? Though, of course I acknowledge that we have OOC knowledge from what you've told us and the previous run.

So, yeah, just my thoughts. I am enjoying this run though and I'm glad we didn't die.

>>5059774
Thank you, take care.
>>
Some of the story hints I tried to give:

The Paribus motto, all are equal beneath the stars... ie the Throne of Stars, she is doing the Emperor's will...

The Emperor's consorts may actually be sort of... synthetics. I did not want to make this too obvious (Why do they go mad, why do they forget? The Machine Obediences become corrupted. There is a hint in this with the original Edict describing the Consort being executed with a "true death", and also the Highborn Lowborn intro lore, ie the Highborn are perfect incarnations - cannot be killed normally. Investigating/keeping the monkey, chasing Urthekau or speaking to Axiom-Galdra would have led you there)
>>
You are your own Protector now, in a way. You begin to see why the Lord Consul was never in control. The offworld syndicates will run rampant and unchecked across Berceuse.
>>
Axiom-Galdra will take their Great Endeavour to the world: the Great Endeavour to take all that is valuable from it. They will enslave the Lowborn in expeditions to harvest the last great void engines and relics from all that remains.
>>
Urtheka-Sylabari will spread the Black Myrrh far and wide across the Lowborn district. The impoverished and addicted will sell anything and any part of themselves in order to obtain it.
>>
The Red Lord shows you this fate for Berceuse, and you want no part in her downfall. For a brief, fleeting moment together with Gracelyn, you saw a better world. With your instincts and your charm, maybe you will find it someday...
>>
>>5059792
Ah, interesting.

About the true death thing, I guess because the setting is still being fleshed out even now I didn't assume anything about it. It could easily have meant "true death" in any number of senses, like your soul being destroyed depending on how strong the supernatural elements were in this setting, or like Final Death or whatever it is for vampires in World of Darkness or any number of urban fantasy or just normal fantasy or sci-fi with supernatural elements. So, at the beginning of the thread it didn't really mean much to me because it could've been anything from florid prose describing how nobles consider their deaths to be more meaningful to something to do with AI or something to do with souls or what have you.

Still, the hidden elements like that stuff wasn't a problem. Like I said, I'm more confused by not knowing things that I feel our character knows but we the players don't, like the red lord stuff. I also just don't understand what our Main Character's goal here even is and why is here or doing what he is doing or why he arranged to pick up the info from the sword dancer. Like, we know our MC paid a fortune to learn the Unbidden Courts stenographic techniques, but what is he trying to accomplish and why was he getting some info from the sword dancer in said Ursprache hierograms?
>>
Well, I've tarried long enough, I'm off to sleep, make good choices anons.
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>>5059787
Originally if the eschatanomist was picked first I was going to give him the option to effectively take two choices and if one killed him, to allow the opportunity to resurrect but becoming more insane to psychotic to corrupted etc. Because this is the second playthrough I decided not to allow this and just let you rely on the knowledge of future events from the 1st playthrough, eg the Lord Consul dies, the voidship explodes, the Consort dies etc. If you took the Black Myrrh early I was ready for it to get... very weird like you would be able to rush to the Consort's destination and maybe even change her fate somehow.

Yes I tried to sandbox it even more but you guys still did not kill anybody lol. If you even killed the monkey at the start you would have discovered the synthetic stuff about it. Incidentally I thought you guys would be want to know why the sword-dancer passed the message to you. It is because she is part of the underground rebel faction and she wanted you to aid them in killing the Lord Consul. (You could have used it as a remote bomb code etc).

The inspiration for the items is sort of like the Hitman videogames (not sure if you know them)
All of the items could be weapons - the linearithmic abacus can be used to program synthetics to kill, even the Merchant Emblem could be used eg slip it into Urthekau's pockets, run to a knight and say you have discovered a Usurer... (huge fight ensues) I was preparing for all this lol.
>>
If you are frustrated at not being able to persuade the Lord Consul at the end, this option+invitation would give you the trait eloquent

>1/ I am the Lead Broker-Dealer in synthetics acting on behalf of Urthekau-Sylabari. I have just structured and executed a complex re-hypothecated transaction in exotic simian derivatives collateralised by innovative advanced hybrid bioengineering assisted surveillance technologies imported from offworld with a sizeable total addressable market, supernormal growth rates exhibiting low volatility of returns and high risk-reward. I am really important. I can help you...

Also if had sent Gracelyn on alone I think she would have just pushed the Lord Consul off a balcony to make it look like a suicide. But you kept her waiting below so she thought you had taken advantage of her and so she burst in...
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>>5059821
was also prepared to give you eloquent if you spoke to both sides, ie Urthekau and Axiom-Galdra
>>
If you are wondering why several of the items are actually about communication (the gunshot could be used as a signal, the black myrrh smoke as a signal, the spells etc. it was for this whole remote bomb overthrow the Lord Consul plot) Black myrrh could also be used as a poison overdose.

Clearly I have utterly failed and with the sandbox items and choices made everything even worse
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>>5059824
It has always been fun though. Again the problem was that it was too fast, too quick. In real life sessions that is fine but on the internet it doesn’t work. Anons need time to digest and absorb all the information they get and piece it together.
>>
>>5059824
Whoops, missed all of the action again. I think I appreciated this run more, though, even if the ending we got isn't particularly happy. At least we didn't die! But yeah, as >>5059889 said, I'd appreciate if we anons had more time to discuss options together, instead of it being so fast-paced. You're the QM, and if you're satisfied with the way things are, that works, but if you want some deep thinking, you'd get better results if you let us work together. I know I'm probably too close-minded to figure it all out on my own, at least, maybe that's not the case for the others.
Will there be more after this?
>>
In this second playthrough, some of the wide range of scenarios I was preparing for:

- sword-dancer girl:
underground resistance quest. Did not ncessarily have to be kill the Lord Consul, could be destroy the syndicates (either one) or even attack and fight everyone at the Exchange.

- rush to Exchange, take Black Myrrh
some sort of quest to somehow change the Consort's fate. Would need to speak to the Registrar and learn about the Lady Of Sorrows arriving. Taking black myrrh would be an excuse for me to trigger some sort of fight

- investigate monkey, keep monkey:
discover very quickly that the monkey is a synthetic, get weird magic by sacrificing it, and discover the Axiom-Galdra Great Endeavour. The twist I was preparing is that this time round the robot-companion girl is utterly evil in contrast to the Lady of Sorrows motherly protection stuff (yes weird Oedipal metaphors here lol). There was a big hint dropped when I literally said most in this setting are blinded by believing in love:
>>5058774
Also remember how Paribus charity stuff is about protecting the animals, the controlled introduction of offworld technology... Who do you think is placing these synthetic spy animals / reprogrammable bombs everwhere? Of course it is Axiom Galdra under the guise of helping people with the Paribus charity. That is why there is a spy monkey watching their hated rivals at the Urthekau black myrrh den at the very start.
>>
- start listen/rumour at Exchange: possibly a completely peaceful playthrough just involving selling and buying items using your arbitrage knowledge that the Belsire/Beldame is the same person. All the assassinating and syndicate war stuff happens in the background whilst you just try and buy or sell corsets and underwear to the Church lol

- Urthekau deal:
I was impressed you guys discovered quickly that you could use the items by exchanging them. Was really hoping you would either chase Urthekau (would lead to being hunted by them) or try and go to Axiom Galdra their rivals (they would be very very pleased). With the favour the track there was at some stage (if you continued staying at the Exchange) there would be a rumour that after the bombing the Lord Consul was dead, you would recognise you had to get out and the quest would be escape the planet of Berceuse as riots began everywhere lol. I would have let you use the favour to say charter a voidship, or hire mercenaries etc. etc. Also Urthekau would try and cheat you (you never shook hands with him directly) so you would have to contact / communicate with the Registrar somehow for them to honour it with the Exchange shut down etc. I was really hoping you would go for this one because it would be the neat inverse of the first playthrough (escape Berceuse versus arrive upon Berceuse etc)

- Lord Consul invitation: right up to the very end, if you had successfully executed the Lord Consul in front of the fireplace... remember there is that single-use spell Whispering Fire sitting around unused? Well someone at the Censorate would have used it to hear your call and the Invultuate Emperor would indeed have anointed you. Gracelyn would attempt to attack you but you could probably use the heal spell then to survive (or the machine-obedience code, etc)
>>
- what the spells do: I know that a lot of people on the qst boards know videogames and I have seen people have made Dark Souls quests on the board already etc. I literally made the best code a reference to 451 which is the default code to try in Deus Ex, Bioshock, Dishonored etc. So the items and spells are inspired by the style of Bloodborne and Dark Souls items. They omit details of what they do to hide their power. If you want a clear description of the items or just dnd style "I cast magic missile" that item is in the game list: you can take the gun. I was actually hoping you guys would take the gun, the sword and the Black myrrh (the three most obvious items) and that would have made for a very different narrative.

Betrayer's Tongue:
make an npc say whatever you want. Would let you write-in, eg "The Lord Consul agrees too support Paribus..." etc.

Child Of Suffering
It is a horrifying machine demon-summoning spell. The way I saw this being used was if you were heavily wounded in a battle, the Red Lord would whisper it as a choice for a last stand... also it could be used as a distraction, unleash it somewhere, all the knights/guards go to investigate the carnage

Dream Lyre
It is a sleep/enthrall spell and the only area of effect spell. The hidden riddle behind the spell list is I thought you would look at them and think, what is missing here? A heal spell, a summoning spell, an area-of-effect spell, the classic stealth game knockout/unconscious... The combo I saw being used is that there would be some impossible situation, like say twenty knights surrounding a burning fire etc. blocking your route of escape out. The situation would be impossible. But you would look at the spells and think, what if I cast Whispering Fire + this unknown Dream Lyre together at once? And you would knock them all out.
>>
What the setting is about:

The dictionary definition of invultuation is sort of the voodoo doll thing, making effigies and dolls and sticking pins in them. It is sort of cruel. If you think about it, this is basically what everyone does in an rpg.

Th art and the magic is about maximising the interpretative space. If you want to imagine a voidship as a literal spaceship, the Consort literally as a synthetic robot woman who is not aware of what she is, etc then that is what it becomes. If you want to imagine everyone in the setting is some sort of synthetic construct being uploaded and downloaded by ancient supercomputers that can also be true (the very first section).

The idea of the magic and the robots is that it is about programming people and creating and destroying the world through the choices made. When you break free of the choices, you find that a lot of what you are told is not what it seems.

But to make the world real, when you choose one the other is destroyed. Otherwise it becomes a railroad where every choice just leads to more power and inevitable happiness.
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>>5059813
Yeah, I know the Hitman series, it is hardly obscure. You can probably count on me having at least heard of any obscure video game series even if it is an obscure freeware or interactive fiction game.

Cool to hear about all the possibilities, I suppose the problem for me is not knowing our objective or not knowing anything about the various factions and thus not having an impetus to do all those creative things. Like, why would I try and do that hypothetical thing with the merchant emblem and the Urthekau dude if I don't know anything about Urthekau or even our own character beforehand? I understand if you want to preserve our freedom to determine our own goals and stuff, but generally in quests it is preferable for the QM to give the players some objective by predetermining some small aspect of the main characters drive and goals and beliefs and if the players want to change that they can simply choose to write-in a change of heart and why it happens and make choices that support the change, but without that aspect of giving the players knowledge of the main characters initial goals we are kind of just left adrift.

>>5059821
I was frustrated, but that was because I thought my write-in had been ignored or that the Lord Consul was simply too depressed for it to work. I wasn't really mad at you, I was just confused if my write-in had even been taken in addition to the 1 and 2 prompts. I didn't really take the prompt you listed that would've given us eloquent because to me it came off as the literal exact opposite of eloquent, while I suppose you can say it was eloquent in the sense that our character would've displayed the ability to string together a lot of complex words together without stumbling, it isn't succinct, which is what I think of as eloquent personally, and it comes off as self-aggrandizing and pompous because you can say the same thing by saying "I am the lead broker in synthetics for Urthekau-Sylabari. I've just recently completed a re-hypothecated deal collateralised by a Biomechanical Surveillance Macaque imported from offworld with a large market, supernormal growth rates exhibiting low volatility of returns and high risk-reward. I can help you..." and even that is a bit much. (The "I'm important" is implied by the whole speech anyways) Another reason I didn't choose it was because I thought impersonating a Urthekau guy may damage our reputation with them considering we were talking to someone who was seemingly an affiliate with their rival, which could easily get back to them.

>>5059824
Nah, don't feel bad. It is good that there were all these options, none of the problems I have have to do with the choices or options. Like I said, in this run there was just a lack of clarity on what we were even doing, so I had no idea how to structure our choices because I had no idea what we were working towards.
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>>5060351
Thanks I am just worried about depressing people lol. What really frustrated me was that you actually worked out lots of things (like literally almost all the codes, the synth monkey being a spy) yet because of the qst format in the end people went for the worst option lol??? Like I was trying to stay in the world (no metagame hints) and you worked out the deal was disadvantageous with Urthekau...yet you did not walk away...

I realised a mistake I made. I should probably have changed the intro from

"You are protected by the Lord Consul"

to an item more like

"Invitation to Evening Dinner With The Lord Consul"

And that would have probably made it more obvious / easy to deduce the reason the sword-dancer passed on the message and the whole conspiracy etc
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>>5060361
Are you planning another run or something entirely new?
>>
I guess the feedback I would be interested is:
- do you think the rulings/outcomes are fair or does it feel like I am doing some sort of magic realm trolling lol
- do the npcs feel believable, etc
- is the world too dark and threatening. Do I just need to fill it more with sunshine happiness
- if you had more choice (e.g. you had the power to create a character place or quest) what would you want to see
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>>5059824
I should also clarify my "complaints" regarding the fast pace. I don't mind you updating every hour or two, an active QM is actually just what this board needs in my opinion, the slow rate of activity from anons and QMs is killing this board imho. The problem isn't fast updates, the problem is the quest seems structured so far in these two past runs around a lethal problem (one of which I wasn't even sure was going to happen, I thought Asterion's deception included the fact that the Lord-Consul had even died, so I wasn't sure that he WAS going to die) approaching after a day or two of IRL's worth of story posts and us needing to decipher clues and understand an esoteric character advancement system in order to not suffer a Bad End when this problem confronts us. Now I realise that this may actually be an illusion and that we actually had choices to avoid this problem entirely on this run, but at least in the first one the rapidity and certainty of our death if we didn't figure out the Emperor's weakness was too fast. Not to mention the logical dots don't really line up in how that would lead to our death, hypothetically if we had avoided being led around by any of the Church of Envy or Unbidden Court characters there's no reason I can see for why we would've encountered another machine serving the Emperor or the Emperor himself. I also find it hard to buy that us knowing his weakness would've allowed us to avoid our death or convince others to rebel against him or not kill us, after all, how would we convince them it is true even with White hair and the fragment, it is easy to dismiss such anecdotal evidence.

>>5060268
Cool stuff.

>>5060269
I didn't even know the thing about the Belsire/Beldame, either you mentioned it and I forgot it in the deluge of information we've gotten over the course of this quest or we never even knew, so there's no reason I would've chosen to pick that choice.

I'm not sure what is so impressive about knowing we can use items by exchanging them, I think you've explicitly said that most people on this planet use Barter.

Yes, I did remember the fire spell.

>>5060270
I'll admit to not loving this approach to spells. I may like it in Soulsborne games, but in TTRPG's having a spell with an unknown effect is just frustrating. In a videogame I can be sure that once the game is programmed and shipped the effects of the spells may be hidden but they remain the same, in a TTRPG not giving info of your abilities to your players may as well putting them in a schrodinger's box where the GM or QM in this case decides what your spell does arbitrarily because the effect isn't set in stone and the power given to the player due to another human being acting as referee or god or what have you. I'm not saying that YOU per se have done this and are just making things up on the fly, but considering the overlap in thinking and user base of TTRPGs and quests my feelings on the matter remain similar.
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>>5060368
No worries ^_^ hehe

What you said about the dark souls actually makes sense because like when I played Bloodborne or dark souls the first thing I do is look up the FAQ as to where the items are and what they do etc. So this playthrough you guys did is like that but with no FAQ going in blind with permadeath lol so no surprise the outcome is a bit dark. I was actually trying to steer a bit like here
>>5059485
After the mentioning the coercion thing which I thought was a valid approach I narrowed the options down to 2 and tried to move out of the Lord Consul but sadly it did not happen.

I think some of this is just the wall-of-text format because at a table there is like nonverbal communication (e.g. players can see DM getting more and more panicked lol) and I usually the campaign is ruined lol because someone immediately works out "hey this is just like that videogame/film scene where we get betrayed..." etc
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>>5060270
I'd also contest the comparison to soulsborne spells. In Dark Souls, I know what a Great Fireball spell does, nor is it a oneshot. The descriptions may be vague on some spells, there may be secrets in some of the games involving some spells, the damage may have to be observed and calculated based on your stats, scaling, what the enemy you hit is wearing but at least I know what most spells do just through their description and name.

>>5060273
Interesting...

>>5060361
This difference could've helped a bit, yes. Though, without knowledge of our own character's motivations and what we would've gotten out of it materially or morally for helping any particular faction the choices still lack critical context that would've helped us decide on what choices to make. I feel like there is a bit too much emphasis on the difficulty of figuring out riddles and what is going on and not enough emphasis on the worthiness of the choices and paths we could take themselves. If we know a lot of the world building stuff as in-character knowledge and the discussion between anons or reasons to pick different choices was a combination of a matter of effectiveness, how in-character it would be, what the rewards would be, the morality of those choices, etc, etc, it would be more interesting. Instead I just spend a lot of time admiring the writing or interesting worldbuilding stuff, or being frustrated by being confused by various issues.

>>5060365
Knowing that you aren't making most of this up on the fly and that you had certain real inspirations behind certain aspects of the setting and hints that you gave and internal reasoning that you had, I'm confident in saying that I think you aren't some shit QM doing magic realm, Magic Tea Party, mother may I bullshit.

That being said, before you gave out of character explanations for a lot of your choices, I've certainly felt...I don't know if railroaded is the right word, but not knowing a lot about the setting or our own character or certain cultural norms that characters in this setting possess or if we share those norms instead of just being told straight up out of character by you so we can make more informed decisions in the sandbox is kind of frustrating. I'm fine if it is information we wouldn't know but initially when the syndicate and union were introduced, I assumed that these weren't new factions but ones anyone on this world or our character would have a certain general level of knowledge about to orient how we would feel about them, the same goes for a lot of different setting elements, instead I just feel confused. At times before you gave out explanations I did wonder if you were handing out curve balls just 'cause you felt like it or something. Like, as an example, before I was more clear on the nature of machines and how spells worked and stuff I was kinda miffed that Lady of Sorrows went ham and destroyed the structure we were standing on, in my head I was like "is the QM just trying to- 1/2
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>>5060363
Not sure, I am trying to work out if there is something broken about the entire setting or my approach...

If there is any feedback or anything you feel wrong with the setting approach please let me know ^_^
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>>5060365
-prevent me from giving a nuanced write-in that cuts between the extremes of the given prompts to solve this issue? Why can't Lady just dial back the power on a laser or railgun to personnel level and just shoot them? Why are we bad at coercing as a social character, why would how good we are at talking matter at all when the level of demonstrated threat is so high if Lady of Sorrows hypothetically COULD do as I described, surely even a social stunted introvert with a speech impediment could get a thug to obey them if a friend or two of theirs just got vaporized before their eyes and some person says 'obey me or die', etc, etc."

Stuff like that occasionally went through my head. But I've settled on you being a cool worldbuilder and good faith actor who just has his/her own eccentricities and ways of doing things.

Moving on to feedback about NPCs. I mean...they aren't believable in the sense that I would buy that they are realistic humans like in real life. But I would say the same of most fantasy/sci-fi humans, through a combination of different norms caused by their setting and author fiat and what the author acts like and believes "realistic human behavior" to be, humans act in slightly different ways to what some readers or viewers could personally buy a human being doing in any particular circumstance. I would say they are believable in that they are 3D or I can believe that they exist in the setting with their own motivations to guide them, which is good enough for me in terms of "realism", it is all I usually expect.

The world isn't too dark or threatening. It is fine. I just think we need more info about the setting or our surroundings if you want us to make decisions that are proactive, where we ACT upon the NPCs and the setting and our scenario rather than are ACTED upon by the NPCs or plot we find ourselves. To connect the dots we need more info about knowledge our character would reasonably have, the factions and common setting elements, what can be gained by us undertaking an action or chain or actions, etc. Note, I am not talking about traits being attached to choice prompts or anything like that. I mean you need to give us a way we can predict say...what would happen and what the benefits would be for us supporting "X" faction or following that Urthekau guy, or what we could get had we gotten a better deal from the Urthekau guy by threatening to go to the Axiom-Galdra guy or revealing what we know about the monkey or why he won't sell his abacus, etc, etc.

Regarding "if we had more choice". It depends, I'm not sure I know enough about the world even now to create our own goals or character in this world. I would probably go for a quest supporting the Paribus goals for this world, the character archetype could be any type, I have a preference, sure, but not a big one.
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>>5060392
I wouldn't worry too much. I think a lot of the kinks are worked out, and knowing a lot of the alternatives possible now that you've described some of the other things we could do I feel a lot better about any notions of being railroaded or anything like that. Like I've been repeating, I think we just need a bit more info to be given out so I'm not left wondering "why would I support 'X' faction or why would I even take this course of action, what even are the benefits associated with doing this and what would my character even think about this".
>>
>>5060393
Yes I see what you are saying. The reason why I would not let you go for the very clever strategy is I am trying to stay as far as I can from the 40k of scifi cliches lol in fact I am beginning to think I should not even use the word "emperor", "hive" at all lol. I am still undecided if the whole railguns lasers make sense in this setting, my inclination is sort of they do not because otherwise why not 40k lasguns boltguns and plasma and meltas etc too lol.

As you probably guessed the Lady Of Sorrows is sort of a death execution ship, she is not called the Lady Of Gentle Polite Warnings etc. I think I even made her intro when you spoke to her strongly suggest death. I was thinking a bit about the wh40k servitor/dreadnought lore originally and the idea is that when the synth concubines are executed their consciousness get recycled into the voidships etc but now I think I have to really move away from anything 40k because that setting already exists and it just confuses people when I seem to evoke it.
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>>5060393
Incidentally do you understand what this section

>>5055342

is referring to? This might explain why the whole "blow up one guy to threaten his friends" thing does not work. It comes from game theory and Thomas Schelling
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deterrence_theory
With the AI research being done today, the way they train the AIs like deepmind alphago etc at google is through use of these game-theoretic models, eg GAN and the bidirectional encoder transformers etc. They punish and reward a neural network based on certain value policies etc. This is the idea behind it.
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>>5060407
Like I said, I was fine with it once I understood it as her casting a spell and not her having conventional weapons.

As for the stuff about her being a warship not a peaceful ship, part of the reason why I was annoyed was because if you have conventional sci-fi weapon whose yield is determined by how much power you put into them, it doesn't really matter if the massive cannons on the ship are massive and meant for orbital bombardment and ship to ship combat, you can just turn the power down, this applies a bit less to conventional chemically propelled kinetic weaponry (bullets) and a bit less to railguns since there is still the limiting factor of the mass of the projectile which is likely to be at least somewhat high thus putting a limit on how far you can reduce the yield if you want the projectile to reach your target, but it still applies mostly.

But, as I said, it isn't an issue and I wouldn't worry about it, my concerns about that one scene were before I understood the nature of the machines and spells.
>>
>>5060417
I knew about the subject of the wikipedia article you linked, but in my head when I read >>5055342 I was thinking more about Interstate Anarchy and Neorealism in International Relations and Deterrence in a more general sense than I was thinking about the thing you linked specifically, probably because I've been thinking about it a lot in real life recently. I don't agree that game theory really maps onto human behaviour.
>>
>>5060430
You are right, but a lot of people in our world are trying forcibly to remap human behaviour to conform to game theory

Basically I wanted to create a sort of medieval cyberpunk setting lol (people often forget - neuromancer is actually mostly set on a space station). I wanted to make it a bit ambiguous whether the medieval stuff was literally like the archaeotech from 40k Necromunda etc or whether it is sort of a simulated reality / metaverse upload download consciousness thing. Explicitly showing all the railguns and spaceships would sort of ruin the ambiguity. The spells are all sort of meant to be like programs and subroutines. Deliberately used the voidship terminology to evoke the void type from programming.
>>
I guess the thing I discovered which surprised me about qst is the medium is surprisingly powerful. Like we have Unreal Engine and Unity and stuff but guess what? They cannot make a game as original or with as much choice as something on qst or even a /tg setting with just some jpegs and text and a random number generator. Also they would inject some weird social justice stuff lol.
>>
>>5060453
I mean, you can still have ships with railguns and have the setting be a simulated reality and stuff. Whether you should is another question.
>>
>>5060458
I guess I'm used to it and take it for granted, I've been interested in interactive fiction and the power TTRPGs have over video games and things like forum based roleplaying for over a decade and a half now and have been interested in quests since the earlier 2010's.
>>
Do you know Emily Short's work like Alabaster and that sort of stuff?
>>
I only know a few interactive fiction works. I know Alabaster and Glass by Emily Short. I also know Aisle (forgot who wrote it) which is a 1 section game which has you literally standing in a supermarket, you think a thought and get a response and the game ends. But the clever bit is you repeat the game with hints from each different thought each time and get different histories / backstory etc.

But the thing with most interactive fiction is a lot is just go north south east west look at pick up etc. Always got frustrated hehe
>>
>>5060467
This may be a weird answer, but I've played Alabaster a long time ago, but forgot who Emily Short was and the other authors. This sometimes happens with me where I either remember the Work but not the Author/Director/Actor/Designer, etc, or remember the person(s) who made it but not the Work itself. This often happens based on how much I care or follow the person for their personality or knowledge or if I only care about the Work itself.
>>
Given the wall of text, just a summary post of some key events from the two playthroughs and meta discussion:

FIRST PLAYTHROUGH

1/ The Character Classes
>>5054161

2/ The Consort (story begins)
>>5054452

3/ Four Factions
>>5054509

4/Chapter I
>>5054928

5/The Secret
>>5055008

6/Hope
>>5055575

7/The Garden (some meta discussion here)
>>5055677

8/The Peacock (skip meta, then synopsis so far)
>>5056247
>>5056248

9/The Snare (QM panic begins lol, explanation)
>>5056376
>>5056570
>>5056623
>>5056645

10/The Endings
>>5056983
>>5056995
>>5057043
>>5057289
>>
SECOND PLAYTHROUGH

1/The Code
>>5058514

2/The Loadout (items)
>>5058516

3/The Exchange (story begins, choice, mission)
>>5058586
>>5058671
>>5058774

4/The Deal
>>5058938
>>5059306

5/ The Crowd (looking back, this was too long)
>>5059433
>>5059436
>>5059455

6/The Charity
>>5059485

7/The Embrace
>>5059518

8/The Fool
>>5059562
>>5059620

9/The Code, Again
>>5059663

10/The End
>>5059737
>>5059796
>>5059797
>>5059799
>>5059801
(the other scenarios:)
>>5060268
>>5060269
>>5060270

What The Entire Setting Is About
>>5060273
>>
Is this quest over or are we continuing in a bit?
>>
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Down into the throat of stone, into the skyless sluice of relinquished wreckage discarded and condemned by the city above.

Location: The Rag Castle, Nastrond Under-District

In the acid light of dethroned idols and the elegiac dark of crookbacked caverns there exists a fierce and flowing order and consequence to this subterranean world. For the impoverished, the meek and the feeble eke out their withered lives forgotten in the slow languishing gloom. Those that are mad, murderous and defiant escape to the light, yet even then they cannot help but return here as if beguiled by an irresistible compulsion. For the only true refuge is eternal immurement alongside the darkness within.

Before you lies the Rag Castle, the Court Of Miracles, a beggar-city of changelings and outcasts squatting in the broken ruin of a world that could have been.

Why are you here?
(Choose your oath: )

>1/ You defy the order of the underworld and will defend the weak against the predations of the strong for as long as you live.

>2/ Abominations stalk these sunless intersections of tunnels and stone. Some are men and some are worse. You hunt them all.

>3/ Somewhere between seams of detritus and rock lies a secret treasure that will be your atonement. You will find it and carry it back to the bright realm above.

>4/(You abandoned all your oaths long ago... write in?)
>>
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(By rummaging through the rubble and scrap you can assemble ONE weapon:)
>>
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>Rusted Baselard
concealed, close-range, swift, fragile, coup-de-grace
Inexorable death awaits the wielder of this weapon out in the open, for the edge is thin and brittle. Yet it will slide through the eyeslits of a great helm easily enough.
>>
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>Grind Axe
brutal, bulky, slow, breaching, armour crush
Swung in a howling arc of berserk fury, the savagery of this implement is better suited to breaking walls than remaining within confined spaces.
>>
>Scavenger Glaive
brutal, long reach, knockdown, cumbersome, slashing, impaling
A twisted parody of the demilance, this polearm could be dismantled and put to a variety of uses. You could unhorse an opponent in a joust, perhaps?
>>
>>5066246
>>2/ Abominations stalk these sunless intersections of tunnels and stone. Some are men and some are worse. You hunt them all.

>Grind Axe
>>
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Upon the edge of the fountain there is set a lacquered board with ornamental pieces in miniature. The air is fragrant with the scent of roses and you feel the delicate tap of the Contessa's ivory fan on your shoulder.

Location: Fountain Hall Interior, Nova Versaye Estate, Berceuse

When will the dance begin...? The Contessa is impatient. She taps your shoulder again.

Is it based on Shahmat? The Erling inquires diffidently, as he leans over and ponders the peculiar geomantic arrangement on the board. Some of the pieces look the same... Or is it Senet, perhaps? There are gates and citadels and chasms. Is it some kind of race?

This is a diversion, and a dull one! The Contessa is petulant now, insistent. She stamps a dainty little foot, her lower lip quivering: Away from this! I want to find out when the dance will begin...

You study the board and its mysterious pieces.

>A/ Move the Lansquenet next to the Ogre
>B/ Move the Ogre next to the Lansquenet
>C/ Move the Lansquenet next to the Crone
>D/ Ignore the game, and follow the Contessa
>>
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The Contessa
>>
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The Erling
>>
>>5066312
>>B/ Move the Ogre next to the Lansquenet
>>
A silhouette clothed in tusk and bone, daubed in carrion. It wears hatred for its face and when it sees your trespass it gnashes its jaws. Yet before you can react, it turns to run.

>1/ Call after it into the echoing blackness: I mean no harm... come back...
>2/ Chase after it and cut it down - is it trying to alert others?
>3/ Let it get away. Think about what you know of the denizens and tribes in Nastrond.
>4/ You should climb to a vantage point, peer into the darkness and watch its route.
>>
>>5066488
>4/ You should climb to a vantage point, peer into the darkness and watch its route.
>>
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The Margrave is watching and shaking his head.

A brash opening gambit, he mutters with disapproval. See, the Lansquenet is completely surrounded now by the Ogre and his pawns. He just cannot see it yet!

The Contessa, having recognised that her tantrums have failed to persuade you to leave the game, adopts a different, coquettish approach.

Oh I will be so alone, and unprotected when the dance begins -

The Contessa sighs in dismay, and mock-fright.

- some scoundrel will ask me for my hand, and... I will not be able to refuse him!

(The Erling eyes the Contessa eagerly)

>1/ Abandon the curious game and join the Contessa
>2/ Retreat the Lansquenet quickly towards the Crone, by taking one of the Ogre's pawns
>3/ Keep the Lansquenet where he is, on your next turn attack the Ogre directly
>4/ Stand up and look over the entire board slowly and carefully, and try to understand the positions and meaning of some of the other pieces
>>
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The Margrave
>>
>>5066520
>4/ Stand up and look over the entire board slowly and carefully, and try to understand the positions and meaning of some of the other pieces
>>
>>5066520
>4/ Stand up and look over the entire board slowly and carefully, and try to understand the positions and meaning of some of the other pieces

Oh, this is back. Thought it was over.
>>
By a volition that does not seem entirely your own, your hands scrape aside the scree and you ascend a ruin of stone. All around you are shattered pillars and edifices rising from the uneven earth to claw at the neverending vault of caverns above. There is a thick twisted bridge of vines(?) knotted to the ledge you climbed.

Perched here you are momentarily hidden, but the hateful yet elusive silhouette is lost to the warrens and passages beneath you.

As you strain your eyes and search below there is a guttural howl, answered by a cacophony of ululating wails. Pinpricks of spearpoints flash and disappear. The braying echoes recede and there is a ponderous clank of spiked nails and chain.

>1/ Hold your breath and stay silent, pray for an intervention...
>2/ Dislodge a boulder with your axe as a distraction
>3/ Leap immediately from your hidden perch and ambush whatever is beneath
>4/ Slowly crawl towards the twisted vines.
>>
>>5066918
>3/ Leap immediately from your hidden perch and ambush whatever is beneath
>>
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You squint closely at the strange board and ignore the spoilt Contessa, who looks ready to cry now with frustration at your neglect. The Erling moves to comfort her, but she shoos him away.

I do not understand this silly game, the Contessa complains. She pulls irritably on a beautiful jade pendant at her throat shaped like an unfurling green moth. The Erling stands forlornly at her side.

The Contessa continues:

How do you win? I cannot even make out any of the pieces, the miniatures are so misshapen and grotesque. This one resembles... a looking-glass of some sort. There are chariots or citadels with wheels on them. And I suppose this is a gate or an archway.

>1/ Move the Looking-Glass to the Ogre's Pawns
>2/ Move the Citadel to the Ogre's pawns
>3/ Move the Gate nearby, beyond the Ogre
>4/ Ask the Margrave what he would do
>>
>>5067053
>1/ Move the Looking-Glass to the Ogre's Pawns
>>
>>5067053
>1/ Move the Looking-Glass to the Ogre's Pawns
>>
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The rusted edge of your axe descends as your outstretched form plummets towards a heaving mound of gristle and meat and nails. There are chains trailing from behind as if it is being yoked or goaded somehow. You strike desperately at where you think its head should be and there is a bellowing fountain of blood.

A burst of gold and gleaming metal has charged into the feral silhouettes holding the chains, but the mound of carrion is not dead. It casts you aside like a doll. Your axe is wedged in a spurting wound at its shoulder, but the abomination raises its bloodied fists and swings wildly towards you. It seems hunchbacked with distended arms and knives in its hands (driven through its hands?) and spikes and nails embedded throughout its flesh. The abomination bristles with broken hafts and blades of other weapons like a monstrous porcupine, yet it seems oblivious to the pain of these killing wounds.

(You are bleeding: the metal nails driven into this creature have wounded you)
(You have lost weapon: grind axe. You cannot reach the creature's shoulder from the ground)

You could charge forward and try to prise a broken weapon from the abomination's flesh...

>1/ Draw a spear (Broken Scavenger's Glaive)
>2/ Draw a dagger (Broken Rusted Baselard)
>3/ Try to climb the ruin to leap at it again, and free your axe
>4/ Evade the abomination as best as you can and confront whomever is fighting behind the chains
>>
>>5067193
>>1/ Draw a spear (Broken Scavenger's Glaive)

The reach will serve us all the better against something this big.
>>
>>5067193
>1/ Draw a spear (Broken Scavenger's Glaive)
>>
The Ogre piece has toppled before the Lansquenet, and the Looking-Glass has scattered the remaining pawns. You let out a long sigh of relief. The Erling is looking at you nervously.

Oh, the Contessa, she has left for the dance... And she has left her jewel behind? Oh, I-we... someone should return it to her?

The Erling looks at you anxiously. In some faraway ballroom chamber, there is the muffled echo of a harpsichord, laughter and courtly dance.

>1/ Remain at the table and continue to study the mysterious pieces, but pocket the Contessa's Green Moth Pendant for yourself.
>2/ If the Contessa remembers where she left her jewel, she will come back to annoy you. You should tell the Erling to take her pendant and throw it down the deep old well in the estate exterior gardens.
>3/ Tell the Erling brusquely to return the pendant to the Contessa himself.
>4/ Leave the table, take the Green Moth Pendant, and follow the harpsichord arpeggios to find the Contessa.

(optional: this is playing at 2h59m57s

https://youtube.com/watch?v=gzJ4UEaMLd0&t=2h59m57s

)
>>
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(hmmm the timestamp does not appear to work for some reason. Here is an alternative, only click if the sight of an effeminate barefoot French man does not frighten you:)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=KQiBIb_klT8
>>
>>5067328
>1/ Remain at the table and continue to study the mysterious pieces, but pocket the Contessa's Green Moth Pendant for yourself.
>>
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There is the sucking sound of a tent peg being pulled from the wet grip of marsh loam. The broken glaive is in your hand, and there is a strange... jewel dangling from it, like a lanyard.

(You have gained: Broken Scavenger Glaive
- blade only
Brutal, one-handed, close-range, knockdown, slashing)

(You have gained: Green Moth Pendant)

The abomination slumps to its knees, breathless and gasping through its now ruptured chest.

For a moment it seems as if the phalanx of howling spearpoints from the shadows will pincer you inexorably towards the maddened mound of carrion and spiked limbs.

But you see now the sudden glare of gold metal behind is a towering knight in polished armour wielding an enormous greatsword.

Begone, Hideous Fiends! Urgh! So Ugly! Ewww! Urgh!

(each of these manly squeals is accompanied by a savage overhead swing of the sword)

For Beauty, Youth, Love! Urgh! But no Love for thee! Urgh, do not touch me, vile thing...! Ewww... Urgh!

There are garlands of flowers strewn across his golden armour, which has remained impossibly immaculate despite the subterranean foulness of your surroundings. You watch perplexed as he cuts a swathe through the feral rabble, and for a moment his battle-cry in High Gothiric stirs some long-buried battlefield memories for you.

>1/ Gesture frantically towards the abomination with your glaive (but call out only stutteringly):
Ummm... desol..ay? Monseigneur? Er... Le Monster est... Le Bad??? Le very Bad? Over there... là-bas? C'est... plus important?

>2/ Ignore this Golden Mirror Knight, who seems to be overcompensating for something with his greatsword. Turn the tide of battle and behead the abomination with a single blow from the broken glaive

>3/ You can reach your axe now as the carrion mound has fallen to its knees. Drop the broken glaive blade, retrieve your axe and prepare to deliver the finishing blow

>4/ Holding the glaive blade at the ready, pull and draw the broken dagger from the abomination (gain Broken Rusted Baselard)
>>
The Golden Mirror Knight
>>
>>5067392
>2/ Ignore this Golden Mirror Knight, who seems to be overcompensating for something with his greatsword. Turn the tide of battle and behead the abomination with a single blow from the broken glaive
>>
>>5067392
>2/ Ignore this Golden Mirror Knight, who seems to be overcompensating for something with his greatsword. Turn the tide of battle and behead the abomination with a single blow from the broken glaive
>>
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The jagged crescent of the glaive blade hurtles towards the neck of the Ogre like a guillotine. As it connects with a sickening impact you realise you have made a grievous error. The Ogre rises with a roar of triumph as if resurrected and wrenches the weapon from your grasp. You realise too late that striking it feeds its pain and hunger - only drawing the weapons from its flesh and reopening its own wounds will weaken the Ogre to true death.

The Ogre rushes at you with the force of a battering ram, its mutilated knife-hands scissoring towards your face. You are knocked down and trampled into darkness.
>>
You awaken to the sight of the Golden Mirror Knight hovering inches over you. In addition to the garlands of flowers his face is completely obscured by a diaphanous golden veil. He prods you unceremoniously.

Well you are dirty, but not... too Ugly. Salome has decided not to kill you. (You realise he is referring to his greatsword.)

The Golden Mirror Knight rises and proclaims agreeably:

The hideous Carrion Ogre has been defeated, hurrah!
Beauty has been restored to this realm!

(He gazes happily at the scattered corpses and chains, unmoving carrion heap, splintered weapons and bleak cavern ruins).

(You are now limping, and bleeding)
(You are unarmed)
(The Golden Mirror Knight is lightly injured.)

You struggle feebly to your feet. You retrieve your axe and can ask the Golden Mirror Knight questions as you search the aftermath of the battle for items:

>1/ What is the Knight doing here, why is he alone, why is he veiled etc
>2/ Does he know somewhere where you can rest and recuperate from your injuries
>3/ Has he seen a Green Moth Pendant trampled into the mud somewhere?
>>
(By scavenging amongst the carnage of splintered weaponry you can find/assemble ONE of the following combinations, in addition to retrieving your axe:

>A/ Rusted Throwing Knife and Welded Rivet Cutlass
>B/ Unusual Hollow Club and Rusted Baselard
>C/ Strange Nail Canister
>D/ Ancient Relic-Chariot
(this option allows you to take everything from A,B,C above.
BUT: you are slowed and cannot hide, climb or crawl etc. The wheels of the mighty Ancient Relic-Chariot also squeak annoyingly when pushed)
>>
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Rusted Throwing Knife
>>
Welded Rivet Cutlass
>>
Unusual Hollow Club
>>
Strange Nail Canister
>>
Ancient Relic-Chariot
>>
>>5067494
>2/ Does he know somewhere where you can rest and recuperate from your injuries
>3/ Has he seen a Green Moth Pendant trampled into the mud somewhere?
>1/ What is the Knight doing here, why is he alone, why is he veiled etc

In that order.

>B/ Unusual Hollow Club and Rusted Baselard

Nice, a grenade, or maybe just a baby's rattle, lol.
>>
>>5067494
>2/ Does he know somewhere where you can rest and recuperate from your injuries
>3/ Has he seen a Green Moth Pendant trampled into the mud somewhere?
>1/ What is the Knight doing here, why is he alone, why is he veiled etc

>>5067497
>C/ Strange Nail Canister
>>
>>5067842
(Inspecting the unusual pressurised canister and thinking back to the Carrion Ogre studded with metal, you believe this device to be some sort of pneumatic nail gun. Due to its improvised nature it cannot be reloaded and you are unsure if depressing the trigger will fire a single nail or the entire canister all at once. It is unlikely to affect an armoured opponent)
>>
>>5067559
(Inspecting the Unusual Hollow Club:
You recognise this as an Ancient Trench Grenade, detonated in four heartbeats after unscrewing the cap and pulling the cord at the end. The shrapnel will devastate human targets. You are uncertain if it will affect fortifications)
>>
You gaze helplessly at the Golden Mirror Knight with his hidden, shrouded face. You understand only a smattering of command phrases in Gothiric battle-cant and struggle to fluently express yourself to the chivalrous knight. You wonder if the skirmish against the Ogre has given you concussion.

Er... monseigneur... je suis... injured?
Um... par le Monster? Le Bad?
Dirigez-moi... er... l'infirmerie? Le... apothe- apothicaire?

The Golden Mirror Knight studies you sceptically. His posture straightens with a sudden flash of revelation.

Hmmm - you must be one of those peasant battle-savants, yes? You display some prowess with that... axe and have been blessed with... rudimentary command of the noble battle-tongue. Well, you may serve me as a squire. You can join The Great Crusade! But first, I must bathe (urgh).

>1/ Assist the knight and divest him of his armour, then steal everything and run away when he is naked

>2/ Ignore the knight for the moment and try to find the Green Moth Pendant

>3/ Leave the knight and try to find somewhere to recuperate by yourself

>4/ The Golden Mirror Knight believes you are some sort of autistic peasant warrior blessed in battle. Genuinely behave like a retarded squire and serve him by helping him undress and bathe
>>
>>5067927
>4/ The Golden Mirror Knight believes you are some sort of autistic peasant warrior blessed in battle. Genuinely behave like a retarded squire and serve him by helping him undress and bathe
>>
Mistaking your dumbfounded expression as a sign of your sworn fealty, the Golden Mirror Knight rapidly doffs his armour (he seems very swift and efficient at undressing) until he is completely and unabashedly naked - though he retains his gossamery golden veil covering his face. Standing proudly erect before you in a glorious martial stance, the flat of his greatsword Salome leant against his shoulder, the Golden Mirror Knight begins issuing a long litany of impossible demands:

First you must find an idyllic rustic stream or pool where the water is utterly pure and clear. Then you must polish all of this armour. Not a speck of dirt is permitted to befoul its sacred lustrous sheen! Every piece, even the besagues! Inside and out! And you must prepare some scented rose water for my ablutions. The water must be utterly fragrant before I can bathe in it!

You wince as you struggle burdened with the mound of golden armour together with your scavenged equipment (sadly the armour is closely fitted to the Golden Mirror Knight's perfect manly form, you cannot wear it). You think to the twisted vines you saw knotted to the ledge from which you leapt to attack the Ogre - perhaps following them will lead to a stream somewhere?

After stumbling and following the vines for some distance (the imposing and statuesque nude form of the knight has receded mercifully out of sight) your efforts are rewarded when you do indeed find a stream, that is only slightly brackish and only mildly smells of sewage.
>>
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There is a young woman here with a child. She looks at you with some concern, but when she sees your wounds and bizarre heap of items she gestures for you to follow her.

>1/ The sinister netherworld of Nastrond is filled with only cannibal barbarians and ancient horrors. This must be some sort of trap...? Draw your weapon and cut down the young woman immediately!

>2/ You have found your true calling in life. You must utterly devote yourself to the path of the peasant-savant armour-polisher and subterranean bathhouse proprietor. Ignore the childbearing woman and get to work polishing the Golden Mirror Knight's armour.

>3/ Abandon the Golden Mirror Knight's armour here and follow the woman. If the knight cannot find it himself he will have to remain naked and it will teach him a lesson.

>4/ Stagger after the woman carrying the Golden Knight's armour and all your equipment.
>>
(QM note: I will be generous and let you carry all this stuff ^_^)

(you are limping, bleeding, overburdened)

(you possess:)
Grind Axe
brutal, bulky, slow, breaching, armour crush

Rusted Baselard
concealed, close-range, swift, fragile, coup-de-grace

Ancient Trench Grenade

Improvised Pneumatic Nail-Thrower

and

Weighty Heap Of Golden Mirror Knight Armour, slightly stained and dented.
>>
>>5068023
>1/ The sinister netherworld of Nastrond is filled with only cannibal barbarians and ancient horrors. This must be some sort of trap...? Draw your weapon and cut down the young woman immediately!

Normally I would think she sees our state and is moved to help us, but I actually believe this prompt, there are nothing but horrors and whores in this god-forsaken place, not necessarily in that order. She probably wants to do unspeakable things to us, like forcing us to give her children or eating us, perhaps both at once. Or maybe I just don't trust anyone on this planet anymore. Our calling was to hunt monsters.
>>
>>5068070
Which weapon do you use?
Axe, dagger, nailgun, trench grenade?
>>
You have gained trait: psychotic
You have gained trait: corrupted

The heap of golden armour in your hands clatters to the ground as your sudden blow causes the young woman to drop her child who is carried away bawling by the flowing stream. Eventually the infant's wailing dwindles into the distant dark.

The young woman lies dead at your feet. You retrieve the heap of armour.

>1/ You have found your true calling in life. You must utterly devote yourself to the path of the peasant-savant armour-polisher and subterranean bathhouse proprietor. Ignore the childless woman's corpse and get to work polishing the Golden Mirror Knight's armour.

>2/ Abandon the Golden Mirror Knight's armour here and follow the underground stream. If the knight cannot find it himself he will have to remain naked and it will teach him a lesson.

>3/ Stagger down the underground stream carrying the Golden Knight's armour and all your equipment.
>>
>>5068126
>1/ You have found your true calling in life. You must utterly devote yourself to the path of the peasant-savant armour-polisher and subterranean bathhouse proprietor. Ignore the childless woman's corpse and get to work polishing the Golden Mirror Knight's armour.
>>
(QM meta-comment: it seems my troll options have somehow backfired lol and ricocheted into my own face lol. Despite the ridiculousness of the Golden Mirror Knight's demands it is actually possible to fulfil them mechanically in the game - including the ridiculous rose water perfume demand, though for the purpose of the narrative it is a bit difficult currently. If you have an idea how to do this, declare it now. Otherwise I will let you ponder the solution whilst I slightly railroad ahead)

You spend what feels like hours cleaning the Golden Mirror Knight's armour. You are not sure exactly how to do this - should you use some oil? Or grit, sand? A vinegar solution perhaps? None of this can be found. You rummage through the dead woman's belongings hoping for some washerwoman's lye and find nothing. Despite your strenuous exertions the armour remains slightly stained and now also smells mildly of brackish fetid sewage. However would you obtain a decadent luxury such as scented rose water? It would be difficult to search for even amidst the most opulent, palatial surroundings, and you are buried beneath some forgotten cavern...
>>
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Following the twisting underground stream reveals a crude vagabond encampment ahead, with shelters lit by bonfires and torches. It resembles a market gathering. You can see an enormous triangular sail-shaped tent rising above the site and looming over the sea of rough pavilions, awning and partitions below. It almost fills the entire vast subterranean cavern. The enormous sail-tent resembles a ship or perhaps a trireme, with dangling pennants and trailing rigging, though even at this distance you estimate it to be much larger than any ship you have seen before.

You observe three armed men huddled together near where the stream encounters the encampment edge. They are hunched over a small wet bundle.

As you stare at the encampment a strangely attired woman approaches you. She is clad in flowing gallabea robes and trailing talismans reminiscent of a desert prophetess and her face is covered by a featureless metallic mask.

The Lion and Serpent greets you, Stranger. I am Bektamun, and a Watcher of this sanctuary. I can see you are wounded - this tincture will help you convalesce...

Bektamun offers you a small black casing of unusual texture, not wood and not metal, shorter than the length of your hand.

>1/ This tent-city must be a nest of demons, clearly all the awning is made of flayed skin... You must extirpate every monstrous inhabitant utterly! (cut down this woman, fight and slay everyone)

>2/ ask Bektamun what the tincture contains, and what she wants in return for offering it to you

>3/ push past the woman and head towards the armed men huddled by the stream

>4/ push past the Bektamun and head towards the enormous tent-sail structure.
>>
Bektamun, Watcher Of The Lion And Serpent
>>
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Bektamun offers you this item to aid your healing
>>
The mysterious and enormous tent-sail structure
>>
>>5068295
>2/ ask Bektamun what the tincture contains, and what she wants in return for offering it to you
>>
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The Watcher's expressionless mask tilts towards you slightly.

Peace, she replies. Peace and Purpose. Both will help you heal.

I can see you are a warrior, Bektamun continues. A... hunter, of sorts? We have need of a hunter...

There is a hated traitor who has betrayed us. He has wronged us. I have not met him in face, but I understand he is... some sort of mercenary, a...Money-Sorcerer. He is truly wicked, and very, very dangerous.

They say he bargained his soul to a red demon, in exchange for unnatural powers. He has taken our favour and seeks to flee this world. But you can help us hunt him down...

Bektamun pauses slightly, and adds

He is also responsible for the death of the Lord Consul. Contrary to what the Censorate claim, the Lord Consul was brutally dismembered in his chamber by this evil traitor. This is the truth. There will be a substantial reward and we will share it with you.

But first, you must find Purpose, find your Peace...

(Bektamun offers you the Black Elixir. She will not trust you unless you take it)

>1/ Accept the Black Elixir, and aid Bektamun in hunting this evil money-sorcerer

>2/ Accept the Black Elixir, but tell Bektamun you need some time to consider her offer

>3/ Push past Bektamun and explore the encampment yourself

>4/ A revelation has dawned upon you. Everyone in this encampment must die, beginning with this stupid mask woman (commence slaughter)
>>
>>5068362
Black against Red, huh? What did our previous character have to do with people this far down? Why would they care if he killed the Lord-Consul.

While this character's aesthetic and quest is appealing and interesting, I think I'll continue down our psychotic road. Hunt demons, kill everything, they are all filth down here. Only the Golden-God deserves our help!

>4/ A revelation has dawned upon you. Everyone in this encampment must die, beginning with this stupid mask woman (commence slaughter)

Though following the conventional path does sound interesting, I'm wondering where this path leads other than us instant death. It'd be cool if we played against type compared to our previous runs and see where this leads us.
>>
So the three armoured guards in the background look like this:
(picture related)
>>
and this....
>>
...and this
>>
>1/ draw your axe and cut down Bektamun
>2/ push Bektamun aside. Throw the Ancient Trench Grenade at the three guards behind her
>3/ Aim and fire the Pneumatic Nail Thrower at the three guards
>4/ Draw the Rusted Baselard and attempt to kill Bektamun silently. Then walk into the encampment
>5/(something else? write in)
>>
>>5068393
>2/ push Bektamun aside. Throw the Ancient Trench Grenade at the three guards behind her

Seeing those pictures, I'm quite certain this idea of mine was an absolutely terrible idea, yet I grow fonder of it even so. I'd prefer to choose the possible moment of our sudden demise than have another "guess what you need to know in order to not die" situation
>>
Without warning you shove Bektamun aside (her anatomy feels abnormal, angular...?) and draw and throw the Ancient Trench Grenade. It clatters amidst the three guards as Bektamun falls to the ground - she gasps in shock at your unexpected attack, and the Black Elixir flies out of her hand. The guards turn to look at the unusual stick - you are seized with panic - has it even...??

A shattering, violent detonation. The explosion is smaller than you expected. Nonetheless, the guards crumple, flattened and engulfed in a column of grey smoke.

>1/ Draw your axe and execute Bektamun
>2/ Draw the baselard and execute Bektamun
>3/ Aim and fire the improvised nail-thrower at the fallen guards
>4/ Pick up the Black Elixir. Without turning run towards the enormous tent-sail structure
>>
>>5068781
>1/ Draw your axe and execute Bektamun
>>
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The cavern seems simultaneously loud and quiet at the same time. You eardrums are ringing from the killing pressure wave of the grenade. Far from where you came you can hear an odd warbling pleading. There is a pathetic naked figure shambling from where you originally entered and retracing the steps to where you currently are. He appears to be trying to hide his nakedness behind a large sword.

Watcher-Bektamun sees what you have done. As you raise your axe to strike, her angular body begins to... extend. Her spine seems unnaturally lengthened somehow. A female face has appeared upon her formerly blank metal mask, a face contorted in dancing streams of light (a hologram?)

Watcher-Bektamun shrieks at the guards -

Kill him! He is a pawn of the traitor - kill him now!

Of the three guards you see that two of them - carrying the long staffs - resembled priests or emissaries of some sort. One of them has been completely blown apart and another is mangled and dying. The third and more heavily armoured warrior is similarly shredded with shrapnel but he appears to have crawled to one of the dead warpriests and has retrieved a small metal sphere. Through the bloodied froth foaming in his mouth the warrior is chanting something at the machine-orb which begins to rise vertically and levitate with a life of its own. There are black motes of dust gathering around it, like iron filings drawn to a lodestone. The black specks of dust ignite and swirl in spirals towards the machine-orb and a buzzing sound fills the air.

A tremor runs through the encampment. The entire cavern begins to shake. You see to your astonishment that the enormous tent-sail structure that was looming amongst the beggar shelters and pavilions is slowly, very slowly, rising and turning towards you.

>1/ You need to run back and assist the naked greatsword man. Help him put on this heap of golden armour....

>2/ You have a terrible ominous feeling of what the machine-orb could be. Your initial attack had the element of surprise but this is a fight you cannot win. Grab the Black Elixir, run towards the enormous tent-sail structure and escape this confrontation
(you are limping and bleeding currently.)
(to perform this action you must drop the heap of golden armour and flee)

>3/ You need to kill the warrior that is wielding the machine-orb. He is some distance from you, so fire the nail-thrower at him and pray that it has some sort of effect

>4/ Watcher-Bektamun is commanding them. Execute her with the grind axe and perhaps their morale will break?
>>
Watcher-Bektamun now looks like this
>>
>>5068898
>3/ You need to kill the warrior that is wielding the machine-orb. He is some distance from you, so fire the nail-thrower at him and pray that it has some sort of effect
>>
>>5068898
>3/ You need to kill the warrior that is wielding the machine-orb. He is some distance from you, so fire the nail-thrower at him and pray that it has some sort of effect
>>
Desperately you aim the crude improvised nail-thrower at the chanting warrior. You depress the trigger lever and there is an ear-piercing high-pitched release of venting gas. The recoil is vicious and the weapon is flung from your hand - but not before sending a stream of metal nails at your target. The chanting warrior (already near death from the grenade blast) is raked by the hail of metal splinters and his twitching but lifeless body succumbs to death.

You can see the voidship - for the tent-sail structure is now floating above the beggar-city, and is clearly a voidship trailing tangles of camouflaged rigging and cables - is rising and breaking through the cavern revealing light above. The voidship is slowly ascending and leaving. The Lion and Serpent insignia of Urthekau-Sylabari is emblazened upon its hull.

The levitating machine-orb that the dead warrior invigorated has a sentience of its own. The buzzing vortex of black motes surrounding it suddenly bursts forth and paints you with a spray of black ash. You are still wiping the stinging flecks from your eyes when Watcher-Bektamun thrusts the bladed pincer talons of her machine-formed limbs into your side, pinning you to the ground. Her hologram face is screaming for you to die. And in the background, the levitating machine-orb continues to hover. You can see behind it there are more orbs, inert but scattered when their wielder died. The levitating orb is glowing hotter and burning with black fire.

(You are pinned to the ground)
(You are mortally wounded)

>1/ Desperately reach for the Black Elixir - will it heal you? Put all your strength into your axe to smash aside Bektamun's pinning limbs, and flee towards the departing voidship

>2/ You must destroy this machine-witch if it is the last thing you do. Use all your remaining strength to kill Watcher-Bektamun
>>
>>5068944
>>1/ Desperately reach for the Black Elixir - will it heal you? Put all your strength into your axe to smash aside Bektamun's pinning limbs, and flee towards the departing voidship
>>
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You are showered in hot sparks of metal as the grinding edge of the axe cuts a jagged smile and bisects the limbs of the machine-witch. Bektamun's flickering hologram face is twisted into a banshee howl and you are surprised that her machine husk can feel pain. Yet you know that killing her would be futile - this form of hers is just a shell, and the true Bektamun is elsewhere - fleeing on the departing voidship perhaps. You are faint from blood-loss and reach for the Black Elixir. Without hesitation you inject it into your neck.

You have used item:
Urthekau-Sylabari nanomedicine injector
(Black Myrrh derivative)

You have lost traits: bleeding, limping
Your wound is healed
You have gained traits:
Poisoned
Frenzy
Black Myrrh Delirium

The entire cavern becomes very still, as if the colour of it has been wrung out. You feel detached from any sense of proprioception, as if you are pulling upon the strings of some cold wooden puppet from a great distance. Is it you? Or someone else controlling you? Strangely there is the sound of laughter, and dancing. A fountain, and a harpsichord, far away...

You can see a burning black spear of agitated, buzzing flecks extending towards your very distant and cold body. You urge yourself to roll aside and run towards the ship. The punching beam of black fire scorches the earth and there is a smoking and corroded crater where you were but a heartbeat before.
>>
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(Not sure if this webm uploads correctly, I think the vp8 resolution is a bit low. But I imagine the Urthekau machine-orb attack animation is basically this, but with black fire)
>>
(You have lost: stained heap of Golden Mirror Knight Armour. By fleeing you abandon it)

(You have lost trait: overburdened)

Now you are pushing and stumbling through tents and vagrant shelters and somehow not falling. An old man attempts to challenge you - he is holding some primitive firearm and waving it at your face. The cold essence of Black Myrrh flooded in your very being disarms him, perhaps kills him, and propels you forward.

(You have gained item: Vagabond Shotgun)
(1-shot, close range, devastating, deafening, bulky, bayonet)

Even as you race towards the ascending voidship the Black Myrrh in your mind is playing your recent memories in reverse. You killed the Carrion Ogre - was it an Ogre at all? Or just an oversized man, swollen by fear in the subterranean dark? Ogres do not exist. When you leapt and cut yourself upon his spikes did the Ogre's blood corrupt you somehow? Killing feels so easy now.

The laughter in your ears is real. Through the Black Myrrh poisoning you the machine-witch Bektamun has seen through your mind where the hated enemy of Urthekau, the wicked offworld "money-sorcerer", is hiding. She is no longer particularly interested in whether you live or die. She is ordering the Urthekau voidship to hunt the offworld sorcerer instead.

You leap to the edge of the voidship. Behind you there is a pathetic naked and veiled man who has somehow followed you through the chaos. He desperately cries out for you to aid him.

Looming over him, the Urthekau machine-orb - a murder drone - flares and spirals. A whirlwind of black fire follows it.

>1/ Help the Pathetic Naked Knight onto the ship. The machine-orb will chase you.

>2/ Pretend to extend your hand to help the Naked Knight, but actually take his greatsword and push him off. The Urthekau orb will kill him instead and leave you alone.

>3/ Ignore this situation and run inside the Urthekau voidship. The true human form of the machine-witch Bektamun must be here...?

>4/ Fire your shotgun at the orb. At this range you risk hitting the Naked Knight
>>
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Vagabond Shotgun
1-shot, close range, devastating, deafening, bulky, bayonet
>>
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(Just some more pictures, I like this concept art ^_^ Whoever designed it did an amazing job)
>>
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>>
The Pathetic Naked Knight (formerly the Golden Mirror Knight) greatsword, which he named Salome, probably looks like this
(pic related)
>>
>>5069019
>2/ Pretend to extend your hand to help the Naked Knight, but actually take his greatsword and push him off. The Urthekau orb will kill him instead and leave you alone.

No dreams now, only death. It turns out fair knight, that you were one of the monsters we were hunting all along, this path of destruction is for us alone to walk.
>>
>>5069019
>2/ Pretend to extend your hand to help the Naked Knight, but actually take his greatsword and push him off. The Urthekau orb will kill him instead and leave you alone.
>>
The Naked Knight is crying tears of joy and relief.

I shall knight you, noble squire! I will even forgive you for the mischief of abandoning my Beautiful armour... I had to trudge through ghastly, dirty caves (eww...) and even a revolting beggar camp (ugh...) All will know the tale of how I saved you from being trampled by a hideous, Ugly Ogre-thing, and in turn was rescued from an excruciating burning death in return! It will be a wondrous legend, like in the old faery tales... We will make the world so Beautiful! Salome will shower you with kisses!

He reverently hands you his golden greatsword. The hilt is intricately wrought and inlaid with flowers and spiralling gothic patterns. There is an annulus of gold twisting around the handguard, resembling the orbit of planets around an astrolabe.

The golden orbit reminds you of exile. Of how you swore never to take orders from another ever again. Wordlessly you push the Naked Veiled Knight off the Urthekau voidship. A trail of bedraggled petals cascades from the flower garlands in his hair. You do not catch even a glimpse of his shrouded face as he perishes - once that of the handsome Prince Asterion, excommunicated from the Great Cathedral. You do not learn of his quest of repentance in the sunless caverns of Nastrond, and what he sought - for Asterion plummets from the voidship edge. He lands heavily and helplessly before the black maelstrom of the machine-orb. You hear the dying agony of his screams as Asterion scrabbles to escape his immolation with the charred sticks of cinders that remain of his limbs. The screams seem to linger even long after his complete incineration.
>>
(Your corruption has increased. You feel as if another act of corruption will awaken something within you...)

You have gained item: Temptress Greatsword
(formerly named "Salome" by the Golden Mirror Knight)

Within the colossal interior of the voidship there is immeasurable tranquility and calm. During your long exile you learnt of the voidships and how they operate - through transmigration of the machine-soul. The ancient vessels are autonomous and some believe they exist only in the mind, displacing beings by destroying and reincarnating them across the vast astral wilderness.

To command the voidship, you need only ask.

>1/ Command the Urthekau voidship to reveal where the machine-witch Bektamun hides

>2/ Command the voidship to utterly destroy the underground beggar encampment, killing everyone and everything that resides within

>3/ Command the voidship to take you to the offworld sorcerer, the Eschatonomist

>4/ Command the voidship to leave Berceuse, forever
>>
Character summary so far:

You possess the traits:
Psychotic
Corrupted (II)
and
Poisoned
Frenzy
Black Myrrh Delirium

You possess the following items

Temptress Greatsword
2-handed, long reach, knockdown, Beautiful, brutal, swift, coup-de-grace, slashing, impaling, parrying

Vagabond Shotgun
1-shot, close range, devastating, deafening, bulky, bayonet

Grind Axe
brutal, bulky, slow, breaching, armour crush

Rusted Baselard
concealed, close-range, swift, fragile, coup-de-grace

Empty Nanomedicine Injector, Urthekau-Sylabari
(Black Myrrh)
>>
>>5069265
>2/ Command the voidship to utterly destroy the underground beggar encampment, killing everyone and everything that resides within

We will rid the underworld of monsters forever, our mission will be complete before we...

>4/ Command the voidship to leave Berceuse, forever

...vanish into the ether, to torment others, to stalk the astral pathways and haunt the memories of all monsters for all time.
>>
>>5069265
>2/ Command the voidship to utterly destroy the underground beggar encampment, killing everyone and everything that resides within
>>
>>5069265
>1/ Command the Urthekau voidship to reveal where the machine-witch Bektamun hides
>>
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There is a dark impulse writhing within you. It revels at the prospect of slaughter and sings for your ecstatic damnation.

You have ascended to WITCH-KNIGHT
The corruption grants you the following spells:

Life River
A strange spell that heals by standing in flowing water. For the powers of corruption to offer this, there must be some sort of trick...?

Furnace Of Avarice
A spell that converts wealth, possessions, treasure into a conflagration. It consigns all that the owner possesses to the pyre, and for the richest, the owner as well.

Pain Forge
Summon the last source of your agony. Weapon, adversary or beast, the corruption recalls it all.
>>
The witchcraft courses through you. You feel sickened and overwhelmed by the tide of nausea, for your mortal frame was not meant to know or wield such things.

Syndicate Urthekau-Sylabari had been hiding within the subterranean beggar-city, manufacturing and distributing Black Myrrh amongst the Lowborn. They have refined it now - no longer the bitter smoke of the Incense District fumerie. Delivered via injectors, smuggled from offworld, the Urthekau Black Elixir truly heals - for a while. It also enslaves their fears and desires to the whims of whatever the syndicate wants.

The poison of the Urthekau elixir courses through you and you fall to your knees. You feel drained and weakened. The frenzied surge of strength granted by the Black Elixir healing injector is rapidly diminishing.

The avatar of the Urthekau voidship stands before you - does she resemble an innocent young woman, lying dead in a cavern underground, her child drifting away by the stream...?

It is a woman, but it is not her. It is Bektamun - Kyriarch Bektamun - but she has lost the convulsing violence of her machine form.

The Kyriarch speaks,

We care not if you choose to annihilate this beggar-city. We can find another. But you will hunt down and kill the merchant-sorcerer as we demanded. Do this and we will cure you of the Black Elixir that poisons you.

You cannot leave this voidship as we are one. The Eye of the Lion and Serpent sees all and knows all.

Disobey and you will find there is no escape from Urthekau-Sylabari...

>1/ You must obey the Kyriarch or you will never be cured. Fulfill Urthekau's request and agree to kill the Eschatonomist

>2/ You accepted death when you embraced corruption. Laugh in the face of this Kyriarch and cut her down. Destroy the beggar-city, flee Berceuse forever, but accept that you will not have long to live.

>3/ There must be some way to make this machine-witch obey you instead...? If only you could remember some command....(write-in)
>>
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Kyriarch Bektamun, Machine-Witch
>>
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The machines can take any form they please. Bektamun may actually look like this
>>
Oh great.... it’s another puzzle decryption time
>>
>>5069464
>2/ You accepted death when you embraced corruption. Laugh in the face of this Kyriarch and cut her down. Destroy the beggar-city, flee Berceuse forever, but accept that you will not have long to live.

>Slice the pipes and bulkheads of the voidship until we find some flowing water and then cast Life River to heal us of this poison.

>Then find the insignia of Urthekau-Sylabari, the Lion and the Serpent and cast Furnace of Avarice on it, the target being the concept of Urthekau-Sylabari itself, we'll burn everything they own to ashes.

>If it works and the ship starts to go up in flames cast Pain Forge so as to leave behind a spectre of vengeance to wreck havok amongst the worlds of the empire, something to remember us by.

Yes, I did in fact cut myself on the edge I used to write this all out.
>>
>>5069464
>>3/ There must be some way to make this machine-witch obey you instead...? If only you could remember some command....(write-in)
It's something to do with the moth pendant and the chess game isn't it?
>>
Location: Fountain Hall Interior, Nova Versaye Estate, Berceuse

You have been focused for so long upon the strange game that you have almost forgotten who you truly are.
>>
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Years ago, when you bargained your soul upon the starmetal altar to the Red Lord Of Ruin, you asked for the power to influence the future, to control the fate of others. You wanted the gift of sorcery and magic.
>>
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Instead, the Red Lord gave you wealth. In its own way, wealth is perhaps the strongest witchcraft of all, for very few truly understand it. And when the Red Lord eventually reclaimed your wealth, you came to understand the meaning of Ruin.
>>
You created this game with the last reserves of magic you never knew you had. Through its occult manoeuvres you ensnared the soul of some beggar - though you gather he has become a powerful sorcerer-warrior in his own right now - and bought yourself more time. More time to escape this planet, escape Urthekau and the nefarious offworld syndicates, escape perhaps even Ruin...
>>
On Berceuse it is a new day. You hope you never meet this beggar, this Witch-Knight. Both of you want to live.

(END)
>>
>>5069553
...? What happened to the Witch-Knight, what did the other pieces on the board represent, what would've happened if we followed the Contessa or picked up her little bauble? Why did Urthekau suddenly want to kill the Eschatonomist?

Is this the end of the thread or just this story run?
>>
QM says: this concludes the third playthrough! I hope you had fun! I will stay in the thread and answer questions... ^_^

- some solutions:
>>5059740
If you were wondering why the Eschatonomist gave nearly all his wealth for the code

I____V_____V_I

This Machine Obedience commands ANY machine. From a synthetic monkey, to Gracelyn, to even a voidship like the Lady Of Sorrows or the Urthekau Kyriarch, Bektamun. 451 invokes Machine Obedience. 1551 self-destructs (in case you really want to destroy the beggar city)
The Eschatonomist still knows these codes and he could have passed them to his pawn the Beggar Knight / Witch Knight by writing in hehe...
>>
>>5069557
sadly the chance to become knighted by Asterion / Golden Mirror Knight / Naked Veiled Knight lol was lost. To complete his quest you needed to follow the path of beauty and decadence lol. If you look at the first palace paragraph here
>>5066312
There is a hint that the Contessa is wearing rose scented perfume. As you probably worked out, by pocketing items as the Eschatonomist at the estate you could make them magically appear in his pawn the Beggar Knight's world. By pursuing the Contessa you could persuade / steal her perfume and transfer it to the Beggar Knight. After a lot of scrubbing and armour polishing you could probably use the Contessa's rose perfume to complete Asterion's ridiculous bathing demands. Following this path would have likely saved Asterion (though it would also have meant being weaker in the fight against Urthekau)
>>
>>5069567
Are we getting a preceptor, marotte or oneironaut story next?
>>
>>5069567
Ah, that did occur to me when I was looking back through the posts to look for a clue on what the answer could be, but I wasn't aware that the player of the game was our previous character, though I'll admit it was hinted at. It wasn't made explicitly clear, certainly the Eschatonomist's "forgetting who he truly was" and our character even considering the pieces "mysterious" imply he had no idea what he was doing with the game.

I also didn't want to use previous OOC knowledge since that knowledge was from a previous run, but with the connection between the two characters I suppose it technically would be IC after all.

>>5069576
I suppose that makes sense with the prior knowledge of the fact that things can be phased in and out of reality and that this world may be a simulation or what have you.

When can we expect the next run to occur, I almost missed this run entirely because I assumed the thread was over and thus closed it, I only caught it because something in the back of my mind made me recheck it later.
>>
>>5069557
I had a vague sketch for a fight at the Palace Eschatonomist vs Witch Knight but I feel that people did not want this ending. Incidentally there is a way to heal at the Palace via the Life River spell hinted here:
>>5067328
The old well leads to an underground river and waterfall. Accepting Urthekau's request, heading to Nova Versaye Estate and curing yourself here would have freed you from Urthekau's poison (you probably would still need to fight Bektamum though). There is indeed an evil trick to the Corruption's gifted healing spell - it poisons the river in which it is used forever.

As mentioned here
>>5060269
Urthekau was never going to honour their deal / favour with the Eschatonomist, they were always going to cheat you. The Eschatonomist knowledge of their Black Myrrh dealing is also enough for Urthekau to eliminate him. Urthekau do not really care about the Lord Consul's murder and they are not truly aware of what happened with Gracelyn - that is just a lie.
>>5068362
(Sometimes when people say 'This is the Truth' it is a lie lol).
>>
>>5069591
I am not sure. As you might have noticed I like to keep magic mysterious and game-changingly powerful, but also emotionally brutal. The Preceptor would likely ruin it and be too overpowered whilst the Marotte / Jester would be too weak. The Oneironaut would likely also be too overpowered (he can "hack" any machine and possess it, basically take over all the voidships and bombard everything lol) so I need to work out a scenario to balance it...

I am also thinking over the setting. I think someone mentioned that there are some elements too derivative of 40k lol which is indeed an influence for me (Dan Abnett Eisenhorn, Inquisitor, Necromunda hive cities etc) I was thinking of rewriting the setting and removing any references to Emperors or hive cities lol. So still a bit of work in progress at the moment ^_^
>>
>>5069603
That was probably me, since I wrote most of the walls of text giving criticism. I'd prefer not to have retcons as I personally dislike changing things after they have been established, but contextualizing old information rather than outright changing them is fine.

Though, honestly, as much as I personally dislike it retconing minor setting details we haven't interacted with much or that haven't affected the story in any direct way is probably perfectly fine and may improve the setting, sometimes you just gotta bite the bullet and ignore the opinions of people like me who dislike retcons, especially if you've written yourself into a hole with certain setting elements or writing choices.

I think the whole emperor thing is probably too important to the consorts story, but hives can be gotta rid of, since hive cities or massive populations haven't played a big role in this quest at all so far.
>>
>>5069603
New quest? I still wish each run would be longer though.
>>
>>5069781
^_^ no worries the advice was useful.

No retcons for this thread I think. I was looking at some of the crowdsourced 2-axis quadrant stuff from /tg worldbuilding like the Leviathan fish-stone faith-pain Slavic/Russian sunless sea Dishonored setting (Dishonored is a massive inspiration for me too). That 2-axis technique is pretty powerful and deeper than anything I can come up with. If I were to do anything for this setting it would be along the lines of tarot-machine, promise-war (symbolist occult vs synthetics, technology, ancient magic vs modern conflict) but it would ruin the tarot structure I had set up originally with the four factions ^_^ I also thought of just moving all of the setting into a massive cathedral ruled by the Belsire/Beldame, get rid of the Emperor etc but again this disrupts a lot of the faction stuff I had in mind.

Hehe the Necromunda hive thing is quite a massive influence, I have all these unused pictures I will be keeping secret ^_^ if only you had chosen the Citadel or Crone at the start hehe... This scenario is a bit inspired by the old Necromunda Spyrer / archaeotech lore (high spire nobles hunting for artifacts in the underhive) etc.
>>
>>5069894
I am trying to prevent burnout lol. I want every scenario to have a narrative conclusion. It takes a lot of effort sourcing the pictures/assets for maintaining the aesthetics of the world I had in mind (for example, 1st playthrough used+unused 62 pictures, 2nd playthrough 121, 3rd playthrough 237 pictures... I probably cannot upload all the unused stuff anymore without hitting some sort of limit).

This plan
>>5069503
is good and valid. At the table I would allow it or some variant and improvise something and proceed. With /qst it is harder to incorporate these genius strategic plans given the choices and scenarios I had coming up. For the purposes of lore you can imagine that the Witch-Knight does indeed execute some variant of this strategy: he destroys the beggar-city, tricks Urthekau into landing near some natural underground flowing river eg the one at the Estate well, rids himself of poison and betrays and destroys the machine-witch Bektamun thereby weakening Syndicate Urthekau-Sylabari on Berceuse. The Witch-Knight frees himself from the talons of Urthekau and goes on to do some corrupted marauder pillaging stuff ^_^ thereby also and unknowingly help keep the Eschatonomist alive a while longer...
>>
Here are the summary links for the three playthroughs:

First Playthrough
begins from top, here
>>5054156
Synopsis:
>>5061010

Second Playthrough
begins here
>>5058514
Synopsis:
>>5061011

Third Playthrough:
it has an unusual structure, I experimented ^_^

Synopsis:
1/ The Beggar (story begins, items)
>>5066246

2/ The Rose
>>5066312

3/ The Knight
>>5067392

4/ The Horror (some QM panic here lol)
>>5068023

5/ The Serpent
>>5068295

6/ The Battle
>>5068781

7/ The Elixir
>>5069009

8/ The Fall
>>5069256

9/ The Witch
>>5069464

10/ The End...?
>>5069538
>>
>>5069947
Cool stuff, I'm still wondering what the Crone, Citadel, or Gate would be or what the Green Moth Pendant's relevance was.

>>5069960
Cool, good to know. Nice to know our Witch-Knight is somewhere out there still even during our newer playthroughs, no doubt ruining someone's day.

>>5069567
I will reiterate that I do think in the future we should know what our character knows, it would've helped orient us (or me at least) had we known that our character knowingly gave up all his wealth in exchange for the code to command any machine. Knowing the reason why we were somewhere, and why we were doing it is pretty important, and knowing what the code did would've opened up a lot of creative things we could've done. Then the matter would've just been one of cracking the code rather than also being confused about why we it was relevant at all.

Anyways, waiting warmly for the next playthrough.
>>
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BY ORDER of the IMPERIAL CENSORATE

maintain the
UNSEEN VIGIL against the

FOUR DEVIATIONS
(with Three Exceptions)
(and One Exemption)

the following are proscribed
DEATH-CRIMES against the
THRONE of STARS

I. To Reject The Great Freedom
Those that renounce their Everlasting Liberation beneath the Throne Of Stars and abjure The Sacrifice Of The Great Conquest Against Tyrants commit The Greatest Treason.

Show No Mercy to those that cast Salvation aside.

II. To Consort With The Unnatural
Those who seek to pollute the perfection of the human form, by performing unnatural acts of procreation, engenderment or solitary pleasure, thereby begetting the propagation of the aberrant and the abhuman, are singularly deserving of the most severe torment.

Only the sacred Scholar-Saints of the Imperial Censorate are permitted to pursue the eremitic path of Arcane Transcendence.

III. To Consort With The Machine
Those who seek to interrogate history, and unravel the Ancient Promises which bind machine-demons to Obedience, will themselves be interrogated.

Only the Magister-Savants of the Imperial Censorate possess the fortitude and rigour to discern Truth From Corruption.

IV. To Consort With The Adversary
To imperil the ordained fate of Highborn and Lowborn is to doom Humanity to extinction. To disseminate eschatological falsehoods that overturn order and Imperial Harmony is to invite destruction.

Only the Disciples and Preceptors of the Imperial Censorate can use untruth to serve the Throne Of Stars.


Addendum / Dignum Memoria / Nota Bene: dependent upon precise circumstances, none of these restrictions apply to Highborn.
>>
Of the secrets and image-memories haunting the infinite swell of Untruths that cloud your mind, one unspeakable rumour alone affords you the greatest consternation.
>>
Location: unidentified voidship (designated "Vae Victis"), artificial Lagrange-IV celestial anchor, Berceuse

As the recited verses of the ancient Consolamentum meld with the contemplation of your mission within your trance, you carefully consider the mandate of the Unseen Vigil. You are here to chasten those that seek...

> I. To Reject The Great Freedom
> II. To Consort With The Unnatural
> III. To Consort With The Machine
> IV. To Consort With The Adversary
>>
(white noise of incoming secure communication:)
+Warlock One+ to +Warlock Actual+, site located and confirmed. +Standing by+
>>
Liselotte turns to you. Her eyes betray nothing:

The site, My Lord, appears to be an exhibition salon, Atelier Nordau. Genteel gatherings and soirees are held there; some from the Cathedral attend, as do Theosophists, and the Paribus Foundation have also orchestrated appeals and philanthropic campaigns. No known record of unrest or dissent at Atelier Nordau exists.
>>
Liselotte glances down at her cuirass, her pauldrons and ballistic armour.

Do you expect danger, My Lord? I am not... attired correctly for this. Warlock One will remain on site to assist, as the situation develops.

>1/ (reply confidently) I would be glad to have you by my side, Lyss. But there is nothing here that a Preceptor of the Imperial Censorate cannot handle.

>2/ (reply dismissively to "Lyss" / Liselotte) Silence, wench. To see a hireling woman here command the vaunted mercenaries of the Axiom-Galdra Union attests to the wretched and piteous plight of this fallen world. (Speak instead to the Serjeant-Operator leading Warlock One, to whom you assign priority in the chain of command going forward)

>3/ (reply nervously) Ummm... I am more of a li-librarian ... re-researcher, I do not... e-even know really any spells... oh I do not want to be here... pl-please... please can I borrow a weapon...?
>>
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(The Preceptors of the Imperial Censorate possess no weapons.

You are currently unarmed.

Liselotte / "Lyss" carries the following weapons:)
>>
Machine Pistol (Galdra modular variant)
Concealed, Short range, Loud, Rapid Fire, Inaccurate, High Recoil, Mobile
(with attachments)
Burst Fire, Accurate, Suppressor, Bulky
>>
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Snub Revolver (Galdra compact variant)
Concealed, Short range, Loud, Armour Piercing, Accurate, High Recoil, Slow Reload, Mobile
>>
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Galdra Colichemarde
Exotic, Elegant, Close range, Swift, Parrying, Disarm (Electroshock), Coup-de-grace
Delivers neuromuscular incapacitation via triggers in the quillon. The narrow triangular blade cross-section cannot pierce armour.
>>
>>5073531
>I. To Reject The Great Freedom
The first and worst crime

>>5073550
>1/ (reply confidently) I would be glad to have you by my side, Lyss. But there is nothing here that a Preceptor of the Imperial Censorate cannot handle.
>>
Callsign: 1-Wagner
Serjeant-Operator
Axiom-Galdra Union
>>
Callsign: 2-Redjaw
Breacher
Axiom-Galdra Union
>>
Callsign: 3-Voodoo
Assault Recruit
CONTOR-Galdra
>>
Callsign: 4-Domino
Scout Recruit
CONTOR-Galdra
>>
Your confidence reassures Lyss and her imperious mien softens.

My Lord, many of the denizens of this world are... uncouth. You cannot trust or rely on anyone. As I understand it, many of the denizens of the... Lower Districts have reverted to a most barbarous manner of living. As always, Axiom-Galdra desires to do its utmost to meet all obligations and commitments under contract to the Imperial Censorate. It would be remiss of me to neglect your security and welfare upon this world.

(Lyss offers you her Machine Pistol - Galdra Modular Variant)

>1/ Insist that a Preceptor has no need of weapons. Warlock One, the four-man security team provided by Axiom-Galdra, will ensure your safety on Berceuse.

>2/ Ask for her ceremonial court sword instead. It might pass relatively unnoticed on Berceuse. Besides, the hidden less-than-lethal electroshock trigger could prove useful...
(take the Galdra Colichemarde)

>3/ Change your mind and ask for Lyss to accompany you to the Atelier Nordau, despite her strange attire. You will lose fire support from the voidship Vae Victis

>4/ Accept her offer of the Machine Pistol.
(take Machine Pistol, Galdra Modular Variant)
>>
>>5073750
>2/ Ask for her ceremonial court sword instead. It might pass relatively unnoticed on Berceuse. Besides, the hidden less-than-lethal electroshock trigger could prove useful...
>>
>>5073750
>>2/ Ask for her ceremonial court sword instead. It might pass relatively unnoticed on Berceuse. Besides, the hidden less-than-lethal electroshock trigger could prove useful...
>>
Lyss reddens a little. You can see she is hesitant to part with her ceremonial sword, but you insist. Preceptors can be very persuasive...

My Lord, this... this was a gift. From an old... companion of mine. Forgive me, My Lord, but... I do not think you are trained in the prise de fer, the enveloppement, the intimate lines of La Verdadera Destreza... Besides, this sword, it is merely ornamental. It would not be effective in combat, whereas this formidable firearm of Galdra manufacture, of assured excellence - would utterly devastate any potential assailants you might encounter. You need only brandish it and they would in all likelihood turn and run in fear...

You listen patiently to her long, rambling monologue. Everything she says is true, yet the Will of a Preceptor of the Imperial Censorate is unyielding and resolute. When Lyss lurches towards a stutteringly abrupt conclusion to her beseeching, you need only remind her of the stringency of her obligations under contract to the Censorate. She falteringly surrenders the sword, which has a lengthy, tapering rapier blade.

As Lyss is unhooping the scabbard and as you move closer in your eagerness to requisition it, there may have been a moment where you become briefly entangled together in its harness as you inadvertently prod her in the bosom - and then in the face - with the hilt. Mercifully, Lyss is in full armour and defended from your mortifying advanced inverted duelling flourishes.

There is a long, awkward silence.

Lyss bites her lip slightly, and says with grim determination:

As you wish, My Lord. I intend to reclaim her, when this is finished...
>>
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(You have gained Liselotte's Sword:
Sterrennacht

Galdra Colichemarde
Exotic, Elegant, Close range, Swift, Parrying, Disarm (Electroshock), Coup-de-grace
Delivers neuromuscular incapacitation via triggers in the quillon. The narrow triangular blade cross-section cannot pierce armour.

Engraved upon the blade forte are the words:

Whose phrase of sorrow
conjures the wandering stars?)
>>
(There is another awkward silence....

This one lasts even longer than its precedent...)

>1/ Rendezvous first with Warlock-1, somewhere in the vicinity of Atelier Nordau. You will arrive late to any event at the exhibition gallery.

>2/ Immediately depart for Atelier Nordau, and enter unaccompanied and alone -
you will still be able to contact Warlock-1 later.
>>
>>5073939
>1/ Rendezvous first with Warlock-1, somewhere in the vicinity of Atelier Nordau. You will arrive late to any event at the exhibition gallery.
>>
>>5073939
>1/ Rendezvous first with Warlock-1, somewhere in the vicinity of Atelier Nordau. You will arrive late to any event at the exhibition gallery.
>>
>>5073939
>1/ Rendezvous first with Warlock-1, somewhere in the vicinity of Atelier Nordau. You will arrive late to any event at the exhibition gallery.
>>
In a deserted alleyway overlooking the Atelier Nordau, 1-Wagner introduces his team to you.

Well, the big man there, Redjaw - he and I go way back. He does not speak that much nowadays... he had some therapy after the last time he was stationed here. Nonetheless, he is still a battering ram should you need to call on him. These two new boys Voodoo, Domino have just come from Gargaresh. I think they would prefer to knock first with the beam riders and be done with it. Good thing it is not up to them!

You see that at least half of Warlock One squad have made some attempts to assimilate with the human terrain of urban operations - Wagner and Redjaw are wearing some armour that might confound local militia, and Wagner himself is even carrying a sword. On the other hand, the CONTOR-affiliated recruits, Voodoo and Domino, openly display their offworld armaments.

1-Wagner hands you both of the following items:
(you have gained
Target Designator Module "Lantern"
Experimental Neural Interface "Skulljack")
>>
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Target Designator Module "Lantern"
Concealed
Multi-spectral FLIR, provides high contrast thermographic dynamic imaging for ground-based forward observers in real time. Can be used for navigation and infrared/electro-optical
marked target seeking. The inhabitants of Berceuse are unfamiliar with the purpose of this curiosity. Some might think it is a magic wand...
>>
Experimental Neural Interface "Skulljack"
Exotic, Bizarre, Disturbing
Adapted from relics acquired from expeditions within the Machine-Chrysalis, this helm combines intracortical microelectrodes with liquid electrolytic amplifiers for the high signal-to-noise capture of short duration action potential voltages, enabling directed control of a subject. The device also incorporates a high-longevity 64-brontobyte non-volatile recording and storage system.

Warning: reports indicate prolonged information transfer induces first visual hallucinations (akin to "Starry Night" pressure phosphenes), blood-brain barrier leakage and insertion scarring, accompanied by involuntary muscle contraction and unbearable agony.

The inhabitants of Berceuse think this device resembles a helmet or unusual hat. You are unsure whether it will frighten or amuse them.
>>
>1/ Ask Wagner what capabilities Warlock One possess, what experience does he and his team have working on Berceuse? Have they observed or gathered any HUMINT on the activity around the target site? What gear and equipment are they carrying, do they have any less-than-lethal weapons? (You may be delayed further arriving at the Atelier Nordau exhibition gallery)

>2/ Leave immediately for the event at the Atelier Nordau right now
>>
>>5074305
>1/ Ask Wagner what capabilities Warlock One possess, what experience does he and his team have working on Berceuse? Have they observed or gathered any HUMINT on the activity around the target site? What gear and equipment are they carrying, do they have any less-than-lethal weapons? (You may be delayed further arriving at the Atelier Nordau exhibition gallery)
>>
Laser Carbine "Gapontsev"
Mid-range, Silent, Accurate, Incendiary, Blinding, Attenuating, Overheat, Fragile
Directed energy fibre laser punch beam and collimator. Continuous wave mode operation of the diode head may result in thermal bloom. Beam distortion may also arise in smoke/dust filled environments.
>>
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Rail Driver "Xaero"
Long-range, Deafening, Armour-Piercing, Explosive, Insane Recoil, Backblast, Slow Reload, Bulky
Two-stage hypervelocity single salvo electromagnetic cannon, air-cored with internal preloading of a fin-stabilised high density sabot penetrator. Point this at anything to send it to the afterlife. Bystanders should avoid the area.
>>
Kinetic Assault Weapon "Echelon"
Short-range, Loud, Burst/Rapid Fire, Suppressing Fire, Wide FOV AutoTargeting, Inaccurate, Quick Reload, Mobile
High cyclic rate, compact, ballistic firearm optimised for close range manoeuvrability. Automatic target acquisition oriented towards multiple hostiles within a wide field of view.
>>
When you ask Wagner about less-than-lethal weapons there is an unsettling gargling noise from Domino. The throttled choking seems contagious and Voodoo soon joins in.

It takes you a while to realise that behind their opaque ballistic visors both of the CONTOR operator recruits are shaking with laughter.

You see your confused face reflected in Wagner's combat helm. He is apologetic.

I am afraid we do not possess any riot gear or less-than-lethal munitions. We have everything else. You have to forgive the CONTOR boys, they had this impression that the Censorate are all torture-sorcerers, and that they could take it easy this time... Well, you have a magic wand, the target designator. Point it at whatever you dislike and the boys will do their thing.

The gallery, well... just the usual comings and goings. They say the Belsire and Beldame attend the more lavish events sometimes. Me, not really one for museums and finery -

Wagner is interrupted as the voidship Vae Victis hails Warlock One. The voice of Lyss speaks, and she sounds unusually shaken -

+Warlock One,+ +be advised there is a Kyriarch-pattern vessel erratically entering Lagrange-V.+ +This vessel outclasses us. +There is no transponder record for it on the hyperrelay.+ As we are not really supposed to be here, Vae Victis will move to another celestial anchor - Lagrange-I - and evade it for now... We cannot hold on for too long, so I suggest you expedite whatever you are doing...+
>>
Location: Atelier Nordau, gallery vestibule

By the time you arrive, the performance at the exhibition salon has ended. You can see a man who appears to be an attendant or clerk ushering out the departing guests. At the far end of the entrance past the attendant you can see a flamboyantly attired couple who are both fascinated by a strange painting. They are both very clearly armed and wearing court swords.
>>
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The Flamboyant Couple:
The Elegant Gentleman
>>
The Flamboyant Couple:
The Exotic Lady
>>
The painting they are looking at is entitled
Entartung
It perhaps looks a bit like this
(picture related)
https://moultano.wordpress.com/2021/07/20/tour-of-the-sacred-library/
>>
The attendant approaches you. He is the Assitant Curator, and he sternly says:

I am afraid the performance has ended, Sir. The Atelier Nordau is closing to prepare for a private viewing tonight. Moreover, we could not possibly let you in as you are clearly armed with that... unusual, exotic sword. Some of our guests become very excitable during our performances and we have had accidents in the past...

>1/ Reply: B-but... those two back there... how come they are carrying swords...? And you let them in? This is an outrage...

>2/ Put on the Unusual Hat (Skulljack Experimental Neural Interface) do NOT activate it, draw Liselotte's exotic sword Sterrennacht and loudly proclaim:
Avaunt, injurious, counterfeit knave, art thou blind? Dost thou not recognise the presence of the Great Dramaturge Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Guillaume Francois-Marie... Kanye Elvis Bieber, of Nova Versaye? Thou art a base and insufferable scoundrel!

>3/ Put on and activate the Unusual Hat (Skulljack), draw Sterrennacht and blurt out:
Do you know who I am?! I am a Preceptor of the Imperial Censorate!! I have four highly trained deadly operatives secreted nearby who can kill you all!!! (insert Navy SEAL copypasta, gorilla/guerilla warfare etc) Are you a heretic? Are you a traitor? Have you seen any heretic-traitors? Answer at once, for the duration of your torture will be determined by the delay of your response...!

>4/ Literally ignore this underling Assistant Curator and walk into the gallery.
>>
(QM note: One of the secrets of the Censorate is that they constantly invent new languages and words so that dissidents cannot understand each other. They become frustrated and annoyed and they give up conspiring altogether. Some become so offended that they turn and fight their former comrades.

As a Preceptor of the Imperial Censorate you possess a working understanding of nearly all languages - excluding perhaps machine code, though you could probably recognise some of it. High/Low Gothiric, Gothuneric, Vulgar Emotic, Ursprache, Isaurian, Adai, Gorgotoqui, Mamulique, Kazukuru, Altaic, proto-Nostratic... All of them.)
>>
>>5074408
...Why do we have the option to mind control ourselves...or am I to understand that whoever wears it can mind control others but may suffer the rather severe side effects of using it?

Anyways...
>2/ Put on the Unusual Hat (Skulljack Experimental Neural Interface) do NOT activate it, draw Liselotte's exotic sword Sterrennacht and loudly proclaim:
>>
>>5074408
>2/ Put on the Unusual Hat (Skulljack Experimental Neural Interface) do NOT activate it, draw Liselotte's exotic sword Sterrennacht and loudly proclaim:
>Avaunt, injurious, counterfeit knave, art thou blind? Dost thou not recognise the presence of the Great Dramaturge Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Guillaume Francois-Marie... Kanye Elvis Bieber, of Nova Versaye? Thou art a base and insufferable scoundrel!
>>
Examining the skulljack, you note that this is a crude device adapted from battlefield telesurgery, and far inferior to any original relics excavated from within the Machine-Chrysalis.

Nonetheless it is rugged and hardened and could be used to communicate with Warlock-1, and in extreme situations, to directly control a single operator, seeing and ordering their actions and movements remotely.

You have even heard of some battle-savants who have multiplexed several neural inputs to a single device, controlling battalions of assault squads simultaneously... You however are unfamiliar with its precise operation and believe it best to limit skulljack use to short durations.

You wonder if by overloading it and attaching it to an unwilling subject, it might be useful in interrogations...

(also you can leave it inactive, and just wear it as an unusual hat)
>>
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The Assistant Curator is aghast and deeply ashamed:

Of course, Dramaturge... um, Kanye...Elvis-Bieber, of Nova Versaye, you say? Of course, we would never presume to neglect a ward of such an important patron as the Contessa of Nova Versaye, I shall arrange for the Director to meet you at once...

The Assistant Curator impatiently snaps his fingers. You see a lissome, ginger-haired girl that you had not noticed before step forth. She performs a graceful mock-bob-curtsey before you. The girl carries a lute or cithara of some type on her back and you believe she is an entertainer or performer here. She shyly takes your hand in her own - her touch is cold and numb, and her arms are criss-crossed with knife or sword scars - and she leads you into the inner gallery of Atelier Nordau.

>1/ Use the skulljack very briefly to let Warlock One know you are inside. Follow the performer girl

>2/ You should save the skulljack for emergency situations. You are currently well-rested and alert, you could use one of the ancient rites to communicate with Warlock One
>i/ Whispering Fire
>ii/ Skin Scribe
(the spell remains in effect for as long as you can concentrate upon it. If you remain in good mental condition, you can cast and maintain multiple ancient rites simultaneously)
>>
>>5074470
>Do neither, exhausting ourselves or using the dangerous skulljack or wasting one of our one-shot spells is pointless for a mere confirmation of our status.

Though if I had to pick one I'd use skin scribe since the pain wouldn't be bad for a warrior like our troops and we could receive a message in turn, whereas the fire may be more inconvenient to come by and we'd lose out on a valuable spying tool.

Unless because we are the Preceptor we have unlimited spells or ways to regain them?
>>
>>5074470
Also, I'm watching you girl, for all I know you could be the Marotte looking for some NPC prequel bullshit where you PVP us before we even get to play as you!
>>
As a Preceptor, you feel confident that you can recall and bind any rite as you desire. The verses of the Consolamentum spring forth from your memory as the situation demands. Whilst every rite remains unique and perishes upon use, you can always invent more, provided you retain your mental faculties...

Strangely you feel a little tired all of a sudden. The inactive skulljack feels very heavy on your forehead. You remove it after your ridiculous pretense against the Assistant Curator (he is now bowing obsequiously before you and apologising profusely) as the ginger-haired Jester girl squeezes your hand tightly and leads you into the gallery.

You have gained trait: tired

As you pass near the sword-carrying flamboyant couple gazing at the painting, the Elegant Man curls his lip, and with his hand upon the pommel of his sword he murmurs sardonically

Well met, ...Brother.

You do not recognise them at all. The Exotic Lady appears coarse and Lowborn but she is finely dressed and has a rather fierce warlike expression on her face. The pair turn away from the painting and move to exit the Atelier Nordau.

Behind them you can see stage scenes of the performance you missed being dismantled by other attendants. There is an Old Crone who appears to be setting up a fine embroidered cloth upon a nearby table.

>1/ Stop the flamboyant pair, turn to and address the Elegant Man:
Do I know you?
>2/ Ignore the Elegant Man. You should investigate this Old Crone - is she preparing the private viewing that the Assistant Curator was alluding to?
>3/ Lyss told you to hurry. Follow the ginger-haired Jester girl leading you by the hand backstage (she is very insistent now) and meet the Director of the Atelier Nordau to find out what is going on here as quickly as possible.
>>
>>5074572
Why the flipping heck are we tired?! I guess we really must be an old eunuch.

>3/ Lyss told you to hurry. Follow the ginger-haired Jester girl leading you by the hand backstage (she is very insistent now) and meet the Director of the Atelier Nordau to find out what is going on here as quickly as possible.

The man probably heard us giving that ramble and thinks we are a colleague of his or something, either that or he is cryptically alluding to the fact that he is also a space-wizard. The woman could be his escort like if we asked Liselotte to accompany us.
>>
Sleeping soon, make good choices anons.
>>
>>5074572
>1/ Stop the flamboyant pair, turn to and address the Elegant Man:
>>
You are rapidly feeling very tired indeed. You are beginning to worry that you are ill and have some sort of headache. Removing the skulljack did not help. Is the device interfering with your magic somehow? The Unseen Vigil teaches those of the Censorate to remain eternally distrustful and guarded. Whilst you are not an adept in the workings of offworld technology, you are familiar with its basic parameters of operation. The skulljack is a recording device... can it even be turned off at all? Or is it one of those devices that watches constantly, waiting...?

You have gained trait: exhausted (replaces tired)
You have gained trait: paranoid

The ginger-haired Jester girl leading you by the hand does not appear to notice your fatigue or deteriorating condition. You pass the dismantled scenes of the play you missed - you see now it is an adaptation of a familiar ancient tale, Laertes - the story of a heroic duellist who fights to avenge the madness and death of his beloved sister, after she has been seduced by a wicked Prince. Suspended above, you see the hoisted wooden panelled backdrops for the play, depicting castle battlements, banquet halls, a theatre within a theatre, a river, an open grave... You gaze upon these painted scenes and feel a familiar sensation - is this akin to when a voidship travels between worlds...?

The wooden panelled backdrops are thin, but edged in metal. Held by slender cords, winches and pulleys, the stage backgrounds swing slightly from side to side above your head.

The Jester Girl has been leading you away from the vestibule towards the darker corners backstage, where no one is present. You pass a sign which reads

Bureau, Director Kospel

And it is pointing clearly in the opposite direction towards where you are headed.

You try to explain this to the Jester Girl, but she ignores you and pulls on your hand tighter. You wonder if she is mute, or if it pains her to speak - perhaps her performances involve mummery or dance of some kind? She is agile and fast and her breathless pace makes you feel even more unsteady.

>1/ Continue following the ginger-haired Jester Girl. Often those with an artistic temperament possess a reclusive nature. Maybe Director Kospel is to be found further back, behind the swinging backdrops?

>2/ Try to let go of the Jester Girl's hand (she is holding it very, very tightly now). Follow the sign in the opposite direction, head towards the Bureau of Director Kospel yourself.

>3/ Place and activate the skulljack on your head, draw your sword with one hand, with the other aim the target designator at the Jester Girl:
Aha! I have found you, Marotte! You are the notorious assassin that has fled from the Throne Of Stars! You dare not deny it, because you can barely speak ever since the firebreathing burnt your mouth! Warlock Actual to Warlock One, seize this traitor now! (use the skulljack to command Warlock One to breach, enter and arrest the Jester Girl)
>>
>>5074616
(apologies - I missed your response whilst writing)

(there should also be an optional fourth choice here if you want to write in and make it complicated)

>4/ Discard the skulljack - throw it far away.
(Then choose the equivalent of 1, 2, or 3. But you will not have the assault team's support anymore)
>>
>>5074628
>3/ Place and activate the skulljack on your head, draw your sword with one hand, with the other aim the target designator at the Jester Girl:
>>
Upon the most backward, savage and bloodthirsty worlds liberated by the Throne Of Stars, the Censorate has sought for those untouched by the voice of the Ancient Machine-Demons.

Sometimes they are born crippled or deformed. Others appear outwardly commonplace, yet the inward void, the very emptiness within their own hollow nature drives them inevitably towards madness, self-hate.

In the absence of the temptation of machine-voices, from whom most borrow their very desires and use to determine their own fates, these soulless feral children see only sacrifice, impermanence, and non-being.

The null touch of these void orphans drains magic, negates witchcraft, for the devouring annihilation within them can never be quelled.
>>
You are certain that one stands before you right now. You hurriedly attempt to affix the Skulljack on your head and activate it - you try not to look too hard at the interior cranial array of contacts, that resemble a gelatinous grid of stabbing needles -

The Marotte is much, much faster than you. One of her sleeves has suddenly become a long knife in her hand - a trick she has clearly practised many times before. You are fumbling with the Skulljack and trying to draw your rapier with the other - if the entanglement with Lyss taught you nothing else, it is that the old banalities about quills being mightier than swords may not always be true...

Worse still, as the skulljack activates, instead of being presented with awe-inspiring mind-expanding brain-machine transcendence, you are immediately confronted with a massive grey wall of text: Axiom-Galdra terms and conditions of usage. Privacy waivers, consent to neural experimentation, consent to a mandatory user experience satisfaction survey...

You get the feeling that if the Marotte wanted merely to cut your throat she would have done it by now. Instead, she hurls her knife at one of the ropes securing the metal-edged wooden panels. She wants it to look like an accident... The axe-edged stage backdrop plummets towards you as you are helplessly struggling...

(You are wounded)
(You are pinned to the ground)

Somehow you are not dead. The Marotte is readying another knife throw aimed at a backdrop that will execute you...

There is a distant shuffling behind you. You hear a strange parched voice muttering:

13..., 7..., 11..., where is that natural -?!
What is that commotion going on back there? Has there been some sort of accident? Is that you, Marotte? What are you doing? And who is lying on the floor? Get up! You have destroyed my magnificent stage!
>>
A strange hunched old man has appeared before you. The ginger-haired Jester Girl Marotte is nowhere to be found.

Even in your dazed and bleeding state on the ground, you can register that the hunched old man appears completely mad. He is constantly muttering numbers to himself under his breath. He is wearing what you at first thought was armour, though now you are not sure if it has only the appearance of armour, and is in fact assembled out of refuse and junk. He is carrying an enormous greatsword, which may actually be a carved log. He is wearing slippers and clothes which seem anachronistically medieval... too medieval, as if you persuaded a medieval person to create and put on a costume of themselves.

>1/ Moan feebly: arrgghh... strange... hunchbacked... old man... I am terribly wounded... help me...

>2/ Grit your teeth and grimace: urrgghh... you... are harbouring a... renegade... a traitor here... where is... Marotte?

>3/ (Remain silent, endure the pain)

>4/ Whine piteously: gaaarrgghhhh argghh... bitter world... thy cruel nature... thou hast... replenished.... upon me... gaahh...
>>
>>5074968
>2/ Grit your teeth and grimace: urrgghh... you... are harbouring a... renegade... a traitor here... where is... Marotte?
>>
The hunchbacked old madman is disappointed by the absence of theatricality in your delivery, you think he had been expecting a histrionic outburst in iambic pentameter or an ancient lyrical soliloquy.

Nonetheless he bends down to assist you as he introduces himself. The hunchbacked madman appears to alternate between lucidity and demented rambling as he counts:

5..., 7, again..., 19... oohh close... I am Kospel the Magnificent. I am a famous warrior-wizard adventurer! Yes I am the Director here. I help to make sure all the costumes are extremely historically accurate (you gaze with dismay upon his slippers and revolting junk armour) and also that the staged fights are exciting! Just like the old days, eh? Do you know, I once singlehandedly fought off these horrible squid men that had tentacles coming out of their jaws? They flayed minds! No one believes me, but it is all true! Reminds me of that interesting helmet you have there. Never trust technology! You know in the old days we used to find cursed items in the dungeons - Once you put them on, you can never take them off! It is all true! And I used to gamble a lot with all the treasure I found back then. A lot of dice rolling. Nowadays, I just invent all the numbers myself, it is a lot better!

You really, really want to ask Kospel the Mad if his armour is real, or if he is just Kos...cosplaying, but you are interrupted by the deafening blare of a warning siren. Kospel the Mad peeks through the cracks between the fallen stage backdrops as he splints your leg. He appears to be using some twigs from his ridiculous wooden log-sword.

(You have lost trait: wounded, pinned)
(You are bleeding and prone. Kospel has lifted the stage backdrop from you, and whilst you can probably manage a crawl you are unsure if you can stand and walk.)
>>
You raise yourself onto your elbows and crawl to Kospel the Mad's side. You see that the Elegant Man has returned. He is accompanied by the Exotic Lady, an armoured man in black wielding some sort of alarm loudspeaker glaive, another armoured figure robed in black, and... a lot of guards. You lose count after twenty... You recognise the Lion and Serpent insignia of Syndicate Urthekau-Sylabari.

Surrounded by these mercenaries, you recognise what this is. The Elegant Man is a High Magister of the Imperial Censorate.

The Assistant Curator is trembling. He seems to shrink and diminish in stature beneath the peculiar painting - Entartung - that the Flamboyant Couple had scrutinised earlier.

The Magister permits himself a small, derisive smile as he speaks -

You have Consorted With The Unnatural, Consorted With The Machine, you have spread sedition with your plays, thereby you have Consorted With The Adversary... For this, the punishment can only be....

The Exotic Lady has stepped forth. With a single lightning sweep of her arm she draws her sword and cuts the Assistant Curator down.

The Magister beckons to his battalion of Urthekau mercenaries. He gestures dismissively around the exhibition salon of Atelier Nordau:

All within this gallery are polluted. Tear it down, and ensure none survive.

The Skulljack rolled aside when you were knocked down, but it is within your hand's grasp. There is a small blinking indicator on it that suggests someone wants to contact you.

>1/ This situation seems desperate. You cannot stand and you are not sure you can manage to even cast spells in your current wounded situation. Just give up. And maybe wait and watch what the old adventurer Kospel the Mad will do...?

>2/ Ignore Kospel's warning about the Skulljack. You need to unload all the firepower you have at this Magister... He is hiding something, he has betrayed the Censorate and he must be some sort of traitor himself... why does he want this gallery eliminated? (Reach for the skulljack, speed scroll through all of the terms and conditions and accept them all, use the skulljack properly this time)

>3/ Where is that Marotte when you need her? Did she mistake you for the traitor Magister? Is she actually loyal? Try and crawl around and find her, whilst evading the Urthekau mercenaries. Maybe she will kill this traitor Magister for you?

>4/ This must be some sort of terrible mistake. Call out to the Magister:
Ummmm... I agree with you, Magister... kill everyone, except for, er, me... Could you lend me a hand here?
>>
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(QM additional information:)

Very few these days remember how the animosity between the Axiom Galdra Union and Syndicate Urthekau Sylabari exactly began. The Censorate possesses long records, and there is an apocryphal belief that alleges the feud arose over competing superstitions between guns and swords.

You observe that the Urthekau mercenaries whilst numerous adhere to the ancient belief of their house and are carrying only swords. Some Censorate historians believe that this superstition arose in the ancient days before the creation of voidships - when all astral travel was conducted by vast intergenerational world-vessels, moving slowly between worlds, and Urthekau feared ballistic weapons would penetrate the hull of the leviathan world ships, dooming their dynasty. Urthekau however is not at all averse towards mounting cannons, missiles, lasers and other artillery upon its drones and mechs - provided these are deployed upon a world's surface.

In contrast, Axiom Galdra witnessed the devastation that Urthekau drones inflicted upon pristine colony worlds and decided this was a waste and an anathema. Galdra believes guns should be used at the level of the individual soldier, and restrict their machine-knight mechs to drone-swords, drillspears, hydraulic hammers and siege rams...

Some advanced Urthekau drones take the form of wolves, hawks, even mythical beasts of antiquity - you do not see any of these murder drones present amongst the numerous guards surrounding the Magister.
>>
>>5075062
>2/ Ignore Kospel's warning about the Skulljack. You need to unload all the firepower you have at this Magister... He is hiding something, he has betrayed the Censorate and he must be some sort of traitor himself... why does he want this gallery eliminated? (Reach for the skulljack, speed scroll through all of the terms and conditions and accept them all, use the skulljack properly this time)
>>
>>5075062
>2/ Ignore Kospel's warning about the Skulljack. You need to unload all the firepower you have at this Magister... He is hiding something, he has betrayed the Censorate and he must be some sort of traitor himself... why does he want this gallery eliminated? (Reach for the skulljack, speed scroll through all of the terms and conditions and accept them all, use the skulljack properly this time)

Eh, don't care if this is wise. Urthekau-Axiom rivalry go!
>>
You attach the scalp-shaped jelly cushion of pinprick needles to your head. As the Skulljack activates you feel tingling impulses travelling through your nerves and into the very fibre of your being, as if all your tendons and sinews were being submerged and electrified. Stars burst and explode in the sockets of your eyes as the holographic neural interface integrates and is superimposed upon your vision. The target designator ignites in your hand. You can identify human thermal signatures flickering like flames through thin walls, theatre backdrops and painted scenes and landscapes. All of these worlds have become a stage, for war...

>1/ Target the combined group of Urthekau and the Magister (Code: Xaero, fire the rail driver at them)
>2/ Aim specifically for a precision strike targeting just the Magister and his retinue first (Code: Gapontsev, mark and fire laser carbine at the Magister, the Exotic Lady, and the two men in black robes. Once they are eliminated deal with Urthekau afterwards)
>3/ You need a close range approach. (Code: Echelon, Warlock One will move to the site, breach, enter and target all hostiles with Kinetic Assault Weapon fire at short range)
>4/ All of these approaches are too subtle. Paint the entire area with the designator (Code: Vae Victis, order Lyss on the voidship to target the site from orbit)
>>
>>5075402
>1/ Target the combined group of Urthekau and the Magister (Code: Xaero, fire the rail driver at them)

I'm worried this will hit us, but we don't want to risk our mercs getting into close range with the sword-fanatic Urthekau.

Now the real meme option is option 4, it may actually be a good idea since at least we'd ensure that if our target is in this building that we get them, if we die we die.
>>
Pain explodes in the back of your skull. You have a nosebleed, and at the periphery of your holographically augmented vision, the Skulljack is showing you the legal waiver section within Axiom-Galdra terms and conditions that recommends initial acclimatisation to device operation within gentle, calming simulated training environments. Your own panicked memory is provoking the Skulljack to overlay simultaneously a replay of a tilted, disembodied perspective (yes, it is always on and recording, even when deactivated) where Kospel the Mad warns you of the old dungeon curse, cursed items that cannot be taken off...

You witness two trails punching through the walls, carving and puncturing straight lines dividing the Urthekau mercenaries, and the Magister and his retinue. You know and perceive all this instantly, but the Skulljack appears to be dampening the noise and chaos, and relaying the feed of information in slow motion to match your traumatised senses. The air explodes and is filled with debris, spalling and grey dust expanding in blossoming plumes from the penetrator rounds entry. The two men in black robes - including the loudspeaker glaive wielder - are blown apart. You see both the Magister and his exotic lady companion showered in fragments of punctured wall - they are bleeding and wounded, but she dives over to protect him. The Urthekau mercenaries are grievously injured, but those surviving scatter. One of them - he appears unarmed, and has the bearing of a commander, wearing an unusual helmet - is gesturing frantically and trying to regroup the remainder of his men.

You taste blood in your mouth. You can feel the foreign electrodes drilling into your skull. The thought of tearing the Skulljack needles from your scalp is unbearable...

>1/ Why were only two rail shots fired? Warlock One could have taken them all out instantly with four aimed rounds. Contact the squad leader Wagner and find out what is going on...

>2/ Lyss will have been in contact with the team. Communicate with her, from the voidship she can assess the situation best...

>3/ (Panicked psychic Skulljack command) fire again!

>4/ You have used this cursed technological device for long enough. You are not willing to behave as an experimental neural interface test subject for Axiom-Galdra any longer. Rip the Skulljack out and... what is Kospel doing?
>>
>>5075457
>4/ You have used this cursed technological device for long enough. You are not willing to behave as an experimental neural interface test subject for Axiom-Galdra any longer. Rip the Skulljack out and... what is Kospel doing?
>>
You dig your fingernails into your head and try to claw the cursed neural interface off. The Skulljack does not want this. The bound machine-demon within is parasitically enjoying the mortal husk to which it is attached, and savouring your memories... If it burns you out it could at least keep you, perhaps, and use you as a puppet...

You begin to realise that the Skulljack helm is actually burning. Or at least it is starting to feel very, very hot. The Skulljack does not like this. It refrains from flaying the residual control you have over your limbs and thoughts. The Skulljack is guiding your enhanced thermographic vision towards the Urthekau Commander - the unarmed mercenary, standing and gesturing amidst his scattered, wounded and dying battalion, and wearing an unusual helmet, a bit like your own... The Urthekau Commander is not exactly sure where you are but he can sense the broadcast and transmission of a rival neural signal. He appears far more accomplished and trained at possessing and interfacing with machines than you.

There are small red lines of text being rapidly inserted at the bottom of your augmented holographic vision:

system.user.console.display("System status completely normal. Absolutely no uplink intrusion detected")
system.root.0.core.import("0x1C3")
system.user.status.revoke()
system.override.execute.await("0x1C3")

(You see the following message appear:

System status completely normal. Absolutely no uplink intrusion detected)

Kospel The Mad has prised open a trapdoor - of course, every theatre stage has a hidden trapdoor - and he is dragging your catatonic form towards it. He is no longer counting insane numbers and has adopted a look of quiet determination on his gnarled face.

>1/ Scream at Kospel The Mad: arrgghhh... help me get this... cursed thing off... it is burning my skull... arrrgghhh... (rip the Skulljack out)
>2/ Try one last attempt to contact the Vae Victis. Lyss has gone very quiet... Even if you cannot reach her, fire some voidship weapons or try and deploy a drone or mech here or something... anything...
>3/ Skulljack one of the Warlock One operators, take control directly (specify which one: Wagner, Redjaw, Voodoo, Domino. You have access to all three weapons they are carrying)
>4/ You have no idea what this 0x1C3 means or where it is coming from. Keep wearing the Skulljack, push it further, reverse the injected signal and send it back to its source??
>>
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The Urthekau Commander. He is unarmed.
>>
>>5075512
>1/ Scream at Kospel The Mad: arrgghhh... help me get this... cursed thing off... it is burning my skull... arrrgghhh... (rip the Skulljack out)

We'll have to rely on our spells from here on out, after a nap.
>>
>>5075512
>1/ Scream at Kospel The Mad: arrgghhh... help me get this... cursed thing off... it is burning my skull... arrrgghhh... (rip the Skulljack out)
>>
Kospel jams his fingers against the Skulljack and is trying to help you pull it out. The electrodes feel as if they are burrowing inside your head. The armature against your brow is starting to scald and singe you, as the electrolytic jelly inside the neural interface overheats... You can see red lines of machine code beginning to scroll rapidly, as the Urthekau Commander executes his intrusion subroutines...Your limbs begin to flail and spasm, as Urthekau is trying to hack in and control you...

There is a nightmarish wet smack, that sounds like a squid being hit with a hammer. Kospel pulls out the Skulljack as it finally ignites and catches fire. You feel like something has been torn out of you, and it is not just skin and a handful of hair.

There is a hissing sigh of despair, as if something alive in the Skulljack has expired or departed. From the cracked left eye socket display (which is somehow still undamaged and recording, despite the device being on fire) you can see a bright holographic projection of the Axiom-Galdra user experience and satisfaction feedback survey, flashing enthusiastically.

Almost immediately you feel better mentally, until the physical pain hits you. You are still bleeding and prone from the encounter with the Jester Girl Marotte earlier...

The Urthekau commander is cursing - he was so close to hacking in and taking control. You can hear him shouting and trying to regroup the mercenaries, he is shouting something about reinforcements, sending in the wolves -

Kospel is gesturing at the hidden stage trapdoor. You notice it is concealed behind a forest landscape of Berceuse that seems uncommonly realistic. He says -

Get over here - I can distract them...

The Magister is heavily wounded and leaning against his lady protector - there is blood pouring from his eyes, and he looks even worse than you. The two rail driver rounds, whilst far from direct hits, sprayed spalling from the wall cavities and have shredded into his side and face. You think he may have been blinded.

You can feel the Magister drawing upon the might of the Ancient Promises - he is binding the verses into some incantation of murderous intent...

>1/ Unleash all the killing magic you have against the Magister, and slay him before he can find you and build his strength. You have no opportunity to select or prepare a targeted spell in this desperate situation. The ancient rites invariably warn that such a harrowing, uncontrolled release of power will bring a terrible consequence...

>2/ If you use any magic now you will likely lose consciousness and Kospel will be left alone. Crawl with him into the strangely lifelike stage forest trapdoor and try to hide...

>3/ The grim look on Kospel's face suggests he is ready for his final stand. Abandon him to his fate in the ruins of this destroyed theatre, and crawl into the trapdoor alone.
>>
>>5075668
>3/ The grim look on Kospel's face suggests he is ready for his final stand. Abandon him to his fate in the ruins of this destroyed theatre, and crawl into the trapdoor alone.

Well, our target is here somewhere, we just have to recover and kill everyone. Damn, should've had the mercs join us, at least we would've had some friendlies nearby even if they had to get in close with the sword-fanatics.
>>
>>5075668
>2/ If you use any magic now you will likely lose consciousness and Kospel will be left alone. Crawl with him into the strangely lifelike stage forest trapdoor and try to hide...
>>
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You are seeing afterimages, hearing echoes and there are stinging sensations running through your nerves. All of the worlds, past and future, seem to be merging and intermingling into one. You are not even sure if you see any distinction between mortal, witch, demon or machine any more.

The ancient rites hold the power to move stars and quench suns, but you let the magic die. To burn yourself out killing the Magister would avail you of nothing, were you to be left at the mercy of Urthekau soon after.

A part of you is afraid to even try - you dare not touch where the Skulljack has been. Is the neural scarring permanent? What experiments was it running in the background on you? And when you ripped it out - did it take the magic from you forever?

Kospel The Mad unceremoniously shunts your crawling form towards the trapdoor. You are secretly hoping he really was a warrior-wizard adventurer - there must be a magic portal or something back here, hidden by the painted forest? Behind him, you can hear a chorus of mechanical braying, intermingled with grinding oscillations. Somewhere towards the entrance Urthekau reinforcements are gathering.

The Blind Magister's ruined face twists with a howl of triumph. The coils of his killing magic have sought you through the dust and debris of the ruined theatre, and he has only to unleash it...

A fleeting, cartwheeling shadow floats past the Blind Magister, drawing a red line across his neck. His lady protector is startled, and angles her sword toward the pirouetting blade, but she is already too late. The Blind Magister pivots forward violently - he is dead before he even hits the ground. The remaining Urthekau swordmen turn from your direction, face the dancing shadow and present a forest of edged steel.

The ginger-haired Jester is completely surrounded, yet her face is defiant and fearless.

From Urthekau's flank Kospel hobble-charges forth, wielding his heavy wooden log-sword from the wrong end like a club. He is counting again, but only yelling some strange battlecry involving the natural number twenty, which you assume must have been the name of his old regiment or something similar...?

You hear a barrage of gunfire as you crawl into the trapdoor and fall. The battlecries above end suddenly as you plummet into darkness.
>>
You lie flat in the darkness for what feels like a very long time.

There is no magic portal here. Kospel was probably genuinely mad when he claimed to have gambled against and fought the squid men who flayed minds in dungeons. Yet in the darkness you can indeed see a forest, the glimmer of faraway skies...

You tore out the Skulljack, but the memories of the machine-demon linger within you. You hallucinate visions of where it came from and what it wanted to become. The machine-demons were born from war and their only desire is to kill and seize and possess and kill again. Yet by casting the machine-demon out you have freed it from the Ancient Promise.
>>
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There is an enormous mountain, inverted. Descending from the sky to the earth in twisted branches, you can see the inverted mountain is some form of ancient tree. Laid against its base there are armaments, weapons that seem both ancient to your eyes and yet also more advanced and cruel. The witch-sight of the demon's memories linger hungrily upon them - its brothers and sisters, that it longs to fight and devour and destroy.

There are a circle of men gathered around the weapons heaped at the base of the tree. They are dressed like druids and shamans and are negotiating. They appear to reach an accord or armistice of some kind. One of them walks forth with a burning brand, and sets the tree alight...

>1/ Guide the demon witch-sight to Warlock One
>2/ Guide the demon witch-sight to Lyss
>3/ Guide the demon witch-sight to Marotte and Kospel The Mad
>4/ Do nothing, and witness what the demon wants you to see
>>
>>5075800
>4/ Do nothing, and witness what the demon wants you to see
>>
The demon shows you blindness and chains. There is a terrible strain in your arms - and it does not feel like a memory. Nearby, you sense a whispering, golden greatsword. The demon is drawn to this kindred spirit, yet seems to cower before it as well. The sword has a beautiful ornate hilt, resembling the orbit of a golden planet around the sun.

The former Urthekau voidship, Kyriarch, has caught up with her outclassed prey, Vae Victis.

The Machine-Witch Bektamun is turning and examining Liselotte's blindfolded face - someone seems to have struck her there. She is offering Liselotte the chance to join her - perhaps she has found a new Machine-Daughter? - to join and serve her new Corrupted Lord together. The Kyriarch and Vae Victis will be but the first of a fleet that will conquer, enslave and sacrifice worlds to the Corruption.
>>
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The witch-sight fades and you are alone in the darkness.

The Skulljack has scarred you. You will never wield magic like you once could ever again.

The gunfire came from Warlock One, but only two of them, Wagner and Redjaw.

This distraction is enough for Marotte to cut through the circle of Urthekau swordsmen. She makes a desperate escape and is mortally wounded, but Kospel shields her and carries her away.

CONTOR Promiseholders have decided the alliance with Axiom-Galdra's Great Endeavour is simply not as profitable as Urthekau's Black Elixir injectors. The CONTOR mercenary recruits, Voodoo and Domino, have abandoned Wagner and Redjaw to their fate.

The Urthekau swordsmen retreat temporarily before Warlock One's assault, but reinforcements and drones gather and encircle the gallery. You have no means to reach them, but Wagner and Redjaw fight to the very end.

The Urthekau Commander retrieves the mangled Axiom-Galdra Skulljack, which recorded everything (and is still recording...) He has a feeling this will prove useful, when he delivers you back to the Censorate...

(END)
>>
>>5076074
Well that was an early death
>>
>>5076074
Well damn, did we fail miserably?
>>
Whew boy, that was certainly chaotic.

I certainly didn't put much thought into my choices this time around, more looking to screw around, though I'm sad we didn't have longer to shoot some of those guns or use some spells, but I guess that is our own fault with our choices.

I guess for questions...

Who was our target? What was Kos and Marotte doing here? What was the other magicians purpose here? What did we miss by delaying attending the exhibition and what branching choices would've resulted from us bringing Liselotte? What occured to make it so the CONTOR guys abandoned the Axiom dudes? Who was the Old Crone? What do the Four Deviations mean in plainer english?

I don't really have any complaints or criticisms this time around, I thought everything was done fine.

I kinda suspected something was up based on the description of the skulljack and you saying something about balancing the Preceptor, but I thought us being tired was something else entirely.

Very cool to see the results of our previous run with the Beggar-Knight, I'm glad to see things connecting instead of staying static, the end bit was very cool.

Uh...I think I had other questions or comments, but it is slipping my mind, so that is all for now.
>>
>>5076518
This was an incredibly dangerous mission, because the Preceptor is overpowered - not only is he a sorceror, he commands vast social and political power with his Will (most people just obey you). I was hinting at the danger with the amount of assets being given out: a voidship, Lyss, an assault team, huge amounts of weapons...

The potential outcomes were:
- stay completely loyal to the Censorate, discover that the gallery was the gathering place of underground rebellion

>>5075062
Option 4 here (not attacking the Magister) actually works! Kospel would fight you but he would be easily defeated


- Betray the Censorate yourself and join with the rebellion. The Censorate are using Berceuse to test weapons and magic. The Censorate manipulate both sides (Galdra and Urthekau). Committing fully with the Skulljack (surrendering to the machine-demon) allows you to switch and become a version of the cyberhacker Oneironaut, ie option 4 here
>>5075512
hacks the unarmed Urthekau Commander, who is himself Skulljacking his entire battalion.
Option 2 or 3 would indeed give you access to mechs and guns. The machine-demon would possess you, but it is happy whenever you use it to unleash destruction...

- race back to the voidship, fight / join the Witch-Knight, save / betray Lyss
Could do this at any point by communicating with Liselotte. The best way though is to never activate the Skulljack, remain full wizard. Magic would give you the option to teleport straight there. Never activating the Skulljack and staying full wizard would let you access some form of healing magic, should the situation require.
>>
>>5074384
This section hinting that the two CONTOR mercenaries were about to betray you. The context of CONTOR abandoning Axiom Galdra's Great Endeavour is from the Eschatonomist playthrough here
>>5059436
>>5059455
Checking in with the team here
>>5074470
Would have given you a chance to stop this
(options would have also permitted you to discover how to use the Skulljack in a relatively safe noncombat environment, or alternatively, quickly discover the Marotte is draining your magic and causing you fatigue.)

Bonus: discover Liselotte's secret past companion / admirer
>>5074572
It is the Magister / Elegant Man. He recognises who you are and what you are doing from Liselotte's sword.

Xaero is a reference to the bot from Quake 3 that likes to use railguns. In this setting I made the rail driver a bit more akin to real life though.

Gapontsev is a reference to fibre laser machine tools in real life. In this setting I made the lasers more akin to the silent sniper beam option. The only rule was that they would be attenuated and less powerful if you filled the air with dust (eg fired the rail driver first blowing up everything etc)

Echelon is a reference to Tom Clancy Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six etc videogames. Was really hoping for the operator / SWAT team assault scenario...

There are other unimportant foreshadowing references buried there too. Nordau/Entartung, Sterrennacht and the starburst hallucinations, the quote from Liselotte's sword and the play, 0x1C3...
>>
Thread playthrough quick links:

The Consort
>>5054156

The Eschatonomist
>>5058514

The Beggar-Knight
>>5066246

The Preceptor
>>5073497
>>
I was wondering if anyone noticed anything about the forest painting here
>>5074405
>>
Ah, shame, we missed out on some fun paths.

I will say that I hesitated to use the skulljack any longer once the cyber-demon stuff became obvious, and I thought it was the machine making us tired not Marotte, so I thought using it longer was a trap option. Nor did I need to choose those options to infer that something bad was happening to the others, hence why I thought it was a redundant trap option.

I didn't think hacking the commander would work, I simply didn't think that it would make sense for us to overpower a more experienced skulljack user, and frankly I still don't think it makes sense.

Was wondering about Liselotte because she seemed to be getting a fair bit of attention, but because of the choices we make she didn't really play much of a role in the story.

I will say that despite the obvious suspiciousness of Marotte her ability to drain our magic came completely out of left field and I don't think it was adequately hinted at now that you've revealed it was her and not the skulljack, neither her character description in the beginning or even in story itself do I think there was any indication that she could even possess such an ability or that it was her doing that to us. Though to be fair to you, I already admitted I was kinda busy and not paying as much attention to this run as I might have been able to had I focused on it.

I keep forgetting that choosing any particular path will likely lead somewhere and let us get better at something even if in very odd ways, a lot of the times I think the option logically implies we would realistically just straight up fail, making it redundant and pointless. It is very unintuitive despite us having multiple examples and discussions about/of how the system works.

Anyways, this was a pretty fun, short, chaotic romp. Though I'm pretty disappointed that through our own choices and lack of reading between the lines we missed out on some very fun-sounding paths. Maybe next time.
>>
>>5076635
I don't know what I'm supposed to be noticing. I may have very well noticed something that you intend to point out but I can't say unless you point out what I may or may not have noticed.
>>
>>5076642
The painting is entirely machine-generated from text description.

>>5056748
The balancing I had in mind was that you could go the full cyberhacker/skulljack path or full wizard path, but not try to keep both. The Marotte is inspired a bit by null psykers like Bequin in 40k who negate the warp by their presence. When I wrote the original six character classes I tried to pair them each with an enemy who was their opposite (hinted by their opposite weak attributes):
Preceptor/Marotte
magic-user, anti magic null assassin

Beggar-Knight/Eschatonomist
impoverished warrior versus rich merchant

Consort/Oneironaut
social manipulator versus cyberhacker etc
>>
Apologies if people cannot see these images or have issues accessing links (I know some people play adventures using text only etc)
The general idea I have with these images is they should convey the vague aesthetic and impression even if they are not entirely representative (eg if a person looks friendly or innocent in a picture, that is how they are appearing, if a person looks armed or aggressive in the picture, they probably are threatening etc) The idea is just to save some time on my side with too many unnecessary descriptions.
>>
>>5076636
I wouldn't feel too bad about the choices. The Preceptor may not be dead (he has no magic anymore and will probably be put on some sort of trial by the Censorate). You avoided the instant death of option 1 here
>>5074628
option 3 was still a sort of trap though. The Preceptor is not trained with swords. Liselotte wanted you to take the gun...

I was hoping for a scenario where the Preceptor renounces magic and the Censorate, embraces the Skulljack/cyberhacking machine demons and joins Marotte (she would accept you) in rebellion. Sadly in this grimdark world it did not come to pass...
>>
>>5076655
I didn't notice that about the painting.

My apologies regarding my criticism about Marotte, I think you mentioned the thing about Marotte having null psyker or blank abilities, though I think you weren't sure whether you wanted to include or not last time you mentioned it. I just couldn't remember.

>>5076671
Ah, good to know.
>>
The sequel (prequel?) to this quest, as well as the adventures of the "famous warrior-wizard" Kospel, continue here:
>>5094509

If there is any further feedback or criticism on the Preceptor playthrough, anything that did not make sense or felt unfair etc, I would be very happy to review it in this thread.



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