“And your interest in the matter?” you prompt.

“Her fate... is somewhat similar to mine. More than somewhat.” Watcher replies. For the first time since she began speaking, there is a hint of emotion in her voice, though you can't quite pin down what. “I... sympathize with her pain.” Watcher finishes, obviously reluctant to linger on the subject. You merely give a slightly cruel smile.

“If you are willing to trade... 'honest and complete' answers for her freedom... I fear you will have to begin now.” Watcher's immediate reply is a small burst of outraged gibberish. You give her a few seconds, but when she doesn't offer further reply, you turn to face the mithral golem head and the golden amulet.

“I sympathize with her pain, and I hope that someone might show the same mercy to me that I show to her.” Watcher says from behind you. “Without good reason, but it allows me hope none the less.”

“A start.” you reply, intrigued. If you can truly get good information.... “What is this... 'as far as you are able'? Are you telling me you /cannot/ tell me the truth sometimes?”

“I am a creation designed to sow chaos.” Watcher replies with disgust. “I cannot help it, sometimes. To prevent me from /playing favorites/.” it adds, self-depreciating. “I can, however, warn you... or make efforts to manipulate the bindings I bear. Despite this, though, I /do/ cling to whatever vestiges of honor I might posses- I told you I would answer you to the best of my ability, should you destroy that, and I will.”

“My lord, I would advise against trusting this... thing.” Scinnari interjects, a needless caution.

“I am hardly unaware. However I am ever amenable to information. And if you wish to demonstrate your... integrity in this offer, now would be an excellent time to do it, oh Watcher.”

>>14708361
If what the Watcher said is true, and the bindings on it will cause it to not answer us truthfully in certain matters, then it might be better to keep the amulet as a corroborating source. However, it will likely turn against us if we don't destroy the amulet.
Can any one else think of a way out of this predicament that provides us with the most useful outcome?

###############bump###################

The castle proves itself quite massive, but the golem head seems to have adequate control over the structure. Your minions report much in the way of findings, indeed, quite a bit of books, scrolls, tablets, or other records of various format on even more various subjects- few are particularly valuable, and many quite unintelligible. Written or spoken, language seems to have changed significantly over the past millennia, and you will have to invest some time in deciphering those tomes.

The castle itself is, in your opinion, adequately appointed- This translates to roughly as luxurious as your own lair. The majority seems scaled to fit a truly massive dragon, larger than you by far, though it pains you to admit it. It does, however, posses facilities to house nearly two thousand humanoids in passable comfort, and, you eventually determine, is movable, though with some difficult. It rebounds, drifting back towards it's original spot when you attempt to move it- The gale you conjure up succeeding only in blowing it off it's location several feet. The golem reports that it has alighted upon a low-pressure rift to the plane of air, and the suction serves to keep it still.

As far as you can determine, nothing except a few roc eggs survived your purge of the castle, and weight does not affect the castle's flight. Likewise, the castles' defenses seem to obey the mithral golem 'caretaker', and it does not seem capable or inclined to lie to or disobey you. You are somewhat paranoid at how readily it seems to accept your commands, but as you cannot obviate the feeling, you are forced to ignore it.

>>14708620
In the interests of securing the cloud castle, I suggest we find a means by which we can remotely command the golem, such as crafting an amulet or talisman, and then hiding the golem's head somewhere within the castle.

Ask the golem if we could be removed from its list of authorized users if another dragon were to arrive and be physically present.

>>14708678
The golem head accepts commands from all authorized users, and while it prioritizes those related to Lorekeeper, only she can actually remove individuals from it's command list.

I think we should keep the amulet- perhaps if possible, make it 'appear' like we destroy it for Watcher's sake and instead have teleported it somewhere shielded.

Fact is, Watcher 'almost' never lying is still 'almost'. That ain't helping anyone.

...Though it would be nice for it to give us a frank accounting of people's thoughts, like we could use it to monitor Cygnis' mental 'progression' more accurately.

>>14708723
This means we have to keep very, very close tabs on the castle and the golem.

>>14708723
Okay.
Now, we're not on the authorized users list, but the golem still takes our commands. I recall that it said that in the absence of Lorekeeper and any of her progeny, it would default to taking commands from a dragon.
Is there any way to prevent any other dragon from waltzing in here and taking control of the castle? I mean besides the obvious ones of minions and magical security.

Tell the Watcher we want to talk with it a while first for info, THEN we'll destroy it.

What's an extra day or two between dragons?

>>14708791
You aren't on the priority list, as far as you know (Unless you think you became a gold dragon overnight? Hmm...) but you are an accepted user.

>>14708866
It will take commands from any dragon (or individual that it thinks to be a dragon) that addresses it in draconic. Without attempting to unravel and/or alter Lorekeeper's enchantments, you'd probably be reduced to trying to prevent anyone else from becoming aware of, and/or gaining access to it.

>>14708956
Gah, jumble. Broken pointer finger, etc.

>>14708866
Watcher is not pleased, but will allow (certainly can't stop you) from questioning the amulet yourself for a few days. The amulet is very simple-minded, and more annoying to use than even Watcher, though you can ferret out answers eventually. They do not seem to be in contradiction.

>>14709004
Of course Watcher is not pleased, but if we destroy it after getting the info we want, will it see that as a fulfilment of the bargain it offered?

>>14709029
Watcher says that it will consider a fulfillment of the bargain, but if you take too long (What you get from Watcher is on the order of five days or more) Watcher threatens to stop cooperating entirely until you do so.

Do you have any specific questions you desire to ask of the amulet, Watcher, or both?

>>14709061
Amulet: List a full and complete genealogy, to the best of its ability, of all descendants of Lorekeeper. We probably shouldn't start killing them, since that could result in one of them becoming a pesky adventurer who will realize their legacy in the form of this sky castle, but we should at least keep an eye on them.

We got five days of questioning, we get a few scribes together and get EVERYTHING WE CAN out of it.

We need to categorize everything it knows, really. Like does it know lore? Does it know about the Binder? Does it know about the other bound? Does it know what happened to its mother?

Continue on like that for a while, asking about if it knows spells, etc. then when we're done with that, we start on our sub-categories. So we pick 'Bound' 'Do you know about x bound, do you know about y, so on and so on...

We'll get around asking for directions for lots of stuff, possible defences, hoard locations, maybe spell components and book names, etc.

Tss...stuff regarding the binding. If there's any insight into how it was done. If it was done to her. How it periceved it affecting her mother (or dad, I forget), what it looked into itself to try and counter it, if it found anything useful, and if so which tomes.

See if it can tell or teach us how to do mind-reading stuff, or create magical augmentation devices that'd allow us to.


Lots and lots of stuff that we can put on paper and recheck whenever we want to make sure of something.

>>14709227
Alright. I see and count it as happening, but I can't write that all up. What do you want me to see happen personally? (As in, what should I start writing about?

Okay, I made a long list of questions last thread.

Ask those. Seriously, we have five days and superhuman intelligence.

>>14709131
It is aware that Lorekeeper had four children. To your surprise, apparently one of them was fathered by Twice-Bound, (You suspect there might be a story behind that, but you'll be damned if you can even begin to guess, and neither the golem head nor the amulet seem forthcoming.) but the rest seem quite normal. All of Lorekeepers' children were dragons, and two of them reproduced prior to the fall of the Binder, and eventual abandonment of the castle. One mating with another gold, and the younger apparently holding more affection for elves and humans. Beyond that it's knowledge fails. It does admit to being able to discern whether a given individual presented to it is related, but it seems omniscient lineage-observance is beyond it.

>>14709291
Err, and as for what you should start writing about... ask the Watcher if it wants the Binder returned to life. Then let's spend some time teaching Azyra swordplay with Scinnari and dispatching investigators (let's say normal adventurers?) to the north to search for Soulless, since Binder-mommy wants us to start getting on the ball.

>>14709460
> To your surprise, apparently one of them was fathered by Twice-Bound

Well, given how long the two of them probably lived, I'd be surprised if they *hadn't* at least had a one night stand at some point. Though the fact that they had a kid together is interesting.

>>14709460
Check Cygnis for parentage via the Amulet before destroying it.

>>14709511
This

Hopefully we can "persuade" her into giving us full access. Of course make sure the temple is empty of any valuables before letting her near the golem or Cygnis could troll us big time.

>>14709511
>>14709588
A, the mithril head is the thing that can detect whether someone is related to Lorekeeper, and B, yes, but incredibly faint. Further questioning determines that while it would take Cygnariassis' orders over your own, she does not really have any additional powers. (Blacklisting, for instance, she would not be allowed to do.)

>>14709463
Watcher does not want the Binder to return to life, and really, wants just about anything but that.

>>14709627
Let's see if we can get to work on modifying the enchantments on the golem head.

I would advise making a mockup (or several) of it in our lab and experimenting on those before working on the real thing. But in the end we will want complete control of the castle turned over to us.

>>14709675
In fact, I will go one step further: Do not damage the golem head's functionality or abilities at all. If we are unsure about something we do research first until we are dead certain. We have a blank check with regards to time for dissecting this thing. Like a locked safe or coded message, once we have it in our workshop plus lots of free time... well, it's going to get cracked eventually.

>>14709627
>Watcher does not want the Binder to return to life, and really, wants just about anything but that.
Is it still forced to work toward the Binder's ends by the binding or is that only direct orders?

>>14709787
Direct orders.

>>14709723
>>14709675

That risks damaging (and potentially unravelling) the enchantments constructing the golem and connecting it to the castle. Confirm: y/n? (I'll ask for a roll.)


From the last thread:

>Assuming questioning of Watcher last...

>1: The Binder
Trapped on the another plane, conditions unknown, plotting return. Watcher corroborates.

>2: Her empire
Deprived of it's empress, and one or two of her lieutenants, not to mention without her preventing her various Bound from avenging this or that indignity upon each other and each other's holdings... It fractured almost immediately, and the various successor states did not last much longer than their draconic rulers. (or in some cases, much less.) Watcher corroborates.

>3: Each of the Bound
Plotweaver, Green, exactly what the name suggests. Presumed deceased. Dead One, Black dracolich. Sealed away. Warbringer/Stormcaller; Bronze; Deceased. Azure; Blue; deceased. Watcher; Brass; you kind of know. Lorekeeper; Gold, unknown*. Soulless; white; unknown. Twice-Bound; Red; unknown, presumed alive.

*The golemhead and the amulet report that Lorekeeper left one day and did not return. Questions you ask of them seem to suggest that Lorekeeper did not expect/intend to return, but information is sketchy.

>4: Any non-bound servants that might still be under her control presently
They don't know. You, apparently, according to Watcher.

>This includes how the Binder came to power, formed her empire, was defeated, and was imprisoned. This includes relevant information on the lives, personalities, histories, and deaths or current status of the Bound or any other servants she might have had or still have in the world today.
The amulet doesn't have a hell of a lot on this, but you now know what it does.

>>14709825
>That risks damaging (and potentially unravelling) the enchantments constructing the golem and connecting it to the castle. Confirm: y/n? (I'll ask for a roll.)

That's... sort of why we take so many precautions, create duplicates, and do so much research.

>Give a detailed description of:

>1: The state the binder is in at the present time
Unknown. Presumably trapped on another plane, and alive unless killed. Watcher Corroborates.

>2: How she came to be that way
A ludicrously powerful sorceress. Amulet thinks she had an innate talent for controlling dragons, and possibly dragon blood herself, but Watcher thinks she was just a (even more ludicrously than previously stated) powerful human.

>3-7
Damned if they know. Watcher thinks she is capable of observing her Bound, and, presumably, you.

>8: How many bound there were
Eight that the amulet was aware of in life. Watcher says she knew of eight too.

>9: How many bound are still alive
Unknown. Watcher suspects that all except perhaps Soulless and Twice-Bound are dead. Actually thinks that Warbringer could be sealed away somewhere, but never knew.

>10: The Watcher's abilities, purpose, and probable knowledge (in case it is not counted as a Bound anymore)
Mind-reading, speech, sight, and apparently an unique ability to analyze artifacts by sight.

>>14709839
Just doing that risk damage to the structure. This is highly complex work, and, quite frankly, would normally (and may be anyway,) centuries beyond you. You almost certainly are not capable of copying it, and might not even be able to modify it at all, let alone do it without damaging the functionality of the structure.

##########
>Detail to us methods in which we may:

>1:-3
No knowledge.

>4: Shield ourselves from the Watcher
Adequately done already; mindblank.

>5: Shield ourselves from the Binder
No knowledge.


>Provide the locations of:

>2: The Bound that remain
Watcher informs you that the glacier known as Kal Mjiorn is the final resting place of Soulless, and Twice-Bound, unless moved, resides under the volcano in what is now Rhasver. No others are known.

>3: The resources required in the binding ritual
Unknown.
>4: Any easily accessed (by a red dragon of 100 years of age, without injury) valuables
The amulet provides you with a nice selection, but sadly seems quite out of date. One that does sound potentially still present is that Lorekeeper once bequeathed part of her hoard to the avariel, presumably the tribes of the Ivory Gate, for safekeeping. As they seem to still hold some respect for the legendary figure they remember Lorekeeper as, they might still reside within one or both of the avariel cities.

>5: Any other highly valuable items that will possibly still be unlooted
Plenty, but ~5,000 years out of date. (They don't know what will still be unlooted.)

>6: Any stashes of arcane knowledge or ways to obtain such
Same.

>>14709868
>Just doing that risk damage to the structure. This is highly complex work, and, quite frankly, would normally (and may be anyway,) centuries beyond you. You almost certainly are not capable of copying it, and might not even be able to modify it at all, let alone do it without damaging the functionality of the structure.
Then we wait and keep it under the highest security (sealed in warded stone buried under magma, like the watcher and other greater artifacts) until we can. This is not something we just poke at. We can bring it out when we want to fly our fortress around and such, otherwise it stays locked in a place known only to us.

>>14709868
>Plenty, but ~5,000 years out of date.
Surely there will be SOME extremely out of the way and well protected places that nobody will have found. Get a list of those and investigate, priority on arcane knowledge.

Also, fuck, we still don't know anything about our own state and unmaking-prevention. Wonderful. Well, that and expanding our sorcerous power are going to be the priorities for the next hundred years. Mark that down, WD.

>>14709895
Actually, aren't the castle's defenses offline unless the golem head is there to direct them?
I suppose we could make do with constructing a parallel defense structure to operate independent of the castle's built-in systems, but they wouldn't be as effective, I imagine.

>>14709961
Won't need it really once we move the castle to Mza. Just tell it to seal all external entryways, put up wards, and allow only those on the list of friendlies to teleport in. Put us, Scinnari, Azyra, and our death-cultists on the list. Done and done.

Through your questioning, you find yourself increasingly suspicious that Lorekeeper and Watcher did /not/ get along. While Watcher does seem legitimately concerned for the suffering of whichever of Lorekeeper's progeny partially resides in the amulet, she seems to quite dislike Lorekeeper herself. On the evening of the second day, you finally ask her why. The answer is not startling, but you had not suspected.

“Lorekeeper is the one who gained control of me after the Binder fell. We got along... reasonably well, over the years, but she is also the one who left me where you found me.” Watcher answer. “I believe she decided I was too dangerous to be let free, and replaced me where she hoped I would be forgotten or destroyed.”

“Forgotten I can understand, but destroyed?” you ask, recalling the vast cavern beneath the island of Freeport. Watcher affirms.

“Even after the Unspeakable One's death, and the destruction of the palace, the place was infested with... I believe they became known as orbs of annihilation, utter void. The Binder had ordered each of us not to destroy or kill each other, so Lorekeeper, after navigating her way through the swarms of them, left me where she hoped I would be... destroyed. However, as that was against the Binder's orders, she was compelled to construct defenses around me, warding them away. I wish she hadn't.” Watcher finishes bitterly.

“I see. And why were those absent when I arrived?” you ask, not terribly suspicious, but checking anyway.

“They seemed to dwindle away- Or be taken. Initially the orbited or patrolled on their own, and could not be controlled. Eventually, I believe they either became more passive and controllable, or they simply shrunk to 'real' nothingness.” Watcher says, “I.. am unable to tell you which. After the first few thousand years, I believe I succumbed to catatonia with increasing frequency and duration.”

>>14710001
Actually, I don't know if we can move the castle without a very large amount of concerted effort: it's currently sitting on top of a low-pressure rift to the Plane of Air.

We need to get a time and resource estimate on what it would take to move this castle to Mza.

>>14710041
Dwarven turbines. The storm of the century. Binding an air-genie (djin? Genie? I don't know my settings.) as the motive power of the fortress.

Say, if we DO go with teh storm option, perhaps we can invade and conquer the avariel below us while they're grounded? Lizardmen's natural armor and +2 con/str beats elves -2 con.

I'm advocating for a timeskip.

Well, once we get what we can out of the amulet in the five days we should bust it in front of Watcher. Then have it give us pointers on where to look for magical knowledge/power, how we would go about studying our own powers and what the Binder did to us (such as where it would start if it wished to study such things on itself), and everything it knows about Soulless.

Then I would say a five year timeskip is probably in order. Priorities for it are:

1. Magical power increase and self-study.
2. Be a family man-dragon; treat Scinnari well and as our mate, keep trying to get her to open up to us, impart our knowledge to Azyra and work on swordplay statecraft and magic with her.
3. Send adventurers to scout out that glacier Soulless is likely to be found in.
4. Move the cloud-castle to Mza and invade the Avariel towers. Kill all the winged elves to a man and seize the passageway with a heavy garrison -- it will allow us to further strengthen our hold on trade that we now have after the demise of Azar. Plus hoardparts.
5. Waifuize Scinnari and be a good daddy to Azyra. I already said this, but it bears repeating.
6. Expand more in the Angevin regions, but not too fast. We should totally take over the duchy of the prince that insulted Azyra at our party, though, and crucify him and his family in public.
7. Try to improve relations with all states and keep an eye on our regional governors, especially Lady Issa.

im leaning towards humoring watcher, the amulet itself isint realy that useful, it cant think or reason like a subordinate, and its information is all out of date anyways.

>>14710119
You forgot working on picking apart Cygnis, but otherwise I approve and support this.

>>14710119
>>14710116
Thirded. Five years and that list sounds fine but i would also say we should hunt down magical lores that watcher knows about.

>>14710134
Agreeing with this too because it doesnt seem to know as much as we had hoped and watcher knows a whole lot. Better to have watcher at least maybe-truthing rather than a out of diate amulet.

>>14710119
For the Avariel towers, I'd prefer a standard invasion and occupation, rather than genocide.
Also make sure to trump up some casus belli so that we have SOME kind of excuse to attack them.
Yes, we don't really need a reason to, but it will show the other nations that we're willing to play the game. Perhaps have some of our ambassadors assure the other nations that use the pass that we will not increase their fares; if we don't assure them of that, we might have to deal with interference from those that use the pass.

whats the state of the inter-county economy here? cause im thinking we should use our capital to exploit resource rich kingdoms (not in our own sphere of course, our citizens will of course be well looked after), aswell as buying up debt from other nations to collect interest and gain leverage over their economies.

>>14710234
They appeared terribly xenophobic, I think genocide is probably the better option or we will be dealing with rebels forever.

Also: Don't forget to work on infiltrating that knightly order during the timeskip. We want to present it to Scinnari on a silver platter as a gift of affection or whatever. That means we want to be able to wrap it all up at once, so to speak.

>>14710119
>>14710234

im averse to invasion solely for profit, it will definitly damage our reputation (noone is safe from prestors ambition, he must be curtailed!).

>>14710328
Trump up some trade excuse, and halt their taxing of the passage for FREEDOM. That ought to win some support. (We can always re-institute it in a quarter of a century, or something.)

I'm against genocide because winged minions could be quite useful, though.

>>14710407

a trumped up excuse will be just that, trumped up, any leader who wasnt born yesterday will see it for the powerplay it is, powerful nations throughout history have failed because land grabs tend to attract everyones attention, there are plenty of less messy and overt means to gain power.

>>14710505


of course, this all depends on how the avariel themselves are viewed by the community at large, if they are resented as sticklers and parasites, there might not be too much outcry over a change in manegment, atleast among the common folk.

>>14710505
Go after their leaders, see if we can get some dirt or pull on their queen/king/prime minister/whatever?

>>14710540
>>14710505
>>14710328
>>14710277
Stop samefagging.

Invading isn't going to cause a big stir, especially if we lower the tolls.

It's Dragon Quest VL!
Hooray!

>>14710557

yes, because i am obviously taking great pains to present alternative writing styles, in order to appear as a group of like minded individuals.

i reaffirm those quoted points

>>14710592
Then perhaps you should form a coherent thought and compose it into one well-worded post.

We need to ask the GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATIONS of the Binder's holdings, when she still had an empire. That should grant some more leads.

I know landgrabbing isn't seen as a good thing, but these are Avariel - i.e. nobody's allies, and in a fantasy world, there are probably going to be lands exchanged every fucking day.
The motive we tell the public? "Learned of a powerful artifact. Went adventuring."

Yes, destroy the Lorekeeper's amulet where Watcher can see it. While I suspect Watcher is bullshitting us at least partially, the amulet isn't going to tell us any new information beyond what we've already asked it.

We need to follow up the lead on Soulless. Send some of Asha's brood or perhaps some of the spies and adventurers we've been training. No point in going ourselves for what is just a "Scout 1000 square miles of freeze-your-balls-off glacier" mission.

Lastly, we might as well use the Mirrors that Cygnis provided us with to allow Azyra to keep in contact with auntie Seffy. Because why not? The two seem to like each-other.

The tolls are already supposed to be low, why don't we just go down and introduce ourselves as the new owner of FLYING CASTLE? Obviously we'll be better neighbors than the giants, being a SUAVE WIZARD and all, and then we can try to segue into looking at any cool leftovers they have.

Geographically the mountain isn't contiguous with our holdings, so if we try to make buddy buddy with them it'll work much better than conquest.

>>14710655

i make the assumption that most people on /tg/ have used the internet long enough to correlate information from multiple posts, but since you asked nicely

my biggest concern over the takeover of the avariel is simply public perception, im certain we can do a better job of running the place then they have, but it may look bad *depending* on how the elves themselves relate to the other nations, if we can spin the resentment well enough then that is not a concern.

as far as debt leveraging and resource exploitation goes, id say its the natual way to utilize our money pile to gain market control and income in the former, and to establish ourselves as the 'work shop of the world' in the latter, stunting competing economies, and being a producing nation means wealth ultimately flows back to you.

>>14710720
>Lastly, we might as well use the Mirrors that Cygnis provided us with to allow Azyra to keep in contact with auntie Seffy. Because why not? The two seem to like each-other.

>mfw

No. We really do not want Seffy being an influence on Azyra.

>>14710769
Xenophobes. It'd work if those filthy harpies weren't filthy harpies, but they are.

>>14710720
>implying we aren't going to kill Seffy as soon as an opportunity presents itself.

>>14710838
Kill or Chain to throne?

>>14710852
Kill

Cygnis was already mentally fucked up so she has potential as a servant in the future. Seffy would kill herself first chance she got if we chained her. Red Dragons value there pride and dignity very highly.

FUCK YES DRAGON QUEST!

>>14710889
Good, I was half expecting this quest to turn into Waifu Pokemon. :P

>>14710969
And not at all trying to cause that, with mirror suggestions and presenting throne-chaining that idiot as an option.

Ten Year Timeskip! [edited in chat, still in progress, still subject to change.]

Time passes slowly, but productively. Your kingdom broadens it's boarders, and you add more land to it. To your great annoyance, Seffestranias' domain begins to spread again (albeit much more slowly), but some quick efforts and intelligent use of resources brings it to a rapid halt, and even reverses some of it. Certainly she seems to be entering a period where her grip on her holdings is being tested- her rebels are a constant thorn in her side, and quite difficult to eliminate, in no small part due to the help you've been subtly giving them. You suspect Seffestranias to be secretly desperate to have them gone, but too proud to ask for help, making it easy for you to continue to oppose her. While your two kingdoms grow in economic reliance, you suspect your control and contacts within her realm probably dwarf her own.

Azyra proves an able study, and fast grower- probably a survival trait, both for devils and young red dragons. She becomes a more common sight within Mza proper, though happily is constantly attended to by guards. A small assassination attempt in your hundred and fourth year is enough to convince her of the necessity, happily without her being harmed. The people of Mza have grown somewhat comfortable to her presence, meaning that while some do gawk and whisper, most don't, certainly not natives who have seen her before.

She has grown significantly, now almost five-two, and a quite capable swordswoman. Approaching 'woman', as well; Scinnari tells you she has reached that time of her life, and, to be honest, you've notice it yourself. She has become more temperamental, and certainly more intelligent. You concede that she will miss her child-like mien, and her wonder at everything, but it isn't entirely gone- you still see it occasionally, and she has become a more capable, and intelligent (if more independent-minded) conversationalist.

She can fly, too- The gift the sultan gave her back at her first birthday party turned out to enhance her natural ability enough to allow her flight, but midway through her fourth year, she became capable of flight without it (albeit slower and less agile.). Both her mother and you have encouraged her to avoid using the cape's enhancement in public, so that her effective skill is greater than what others might expect. She has, however, proved difficult to influence on this issue- She is quite in love with the air, you think. Still, a capable and intelligent (excepting a few quirks) daughter on the whole, and you are pleased with her growth.

Scinnari, of course, has not grown. She is un-aging, as all immortals are. Unchanging, however, she is not- She has grown significantly more secure in her role as your consort and (publicly) queen. She has, you suspect, set up more of the enterprises you leave to her to be self-managed, or at least to require less action from her. Leaving her more time to spend with you, as well as see to Azyra and Cygnariassis... 'seeing to' one being quite different from the other. She seems to quite enjoy reducing Cygnariassis to a screaming and whimpering wreck, and makes (generous) time to do so slightly less than once a month, though is careful never to leave marks, as per your request. Your favorite change, though, is her slightly reduced ego; she seems to consider her personal concerns or fears to have less weight than previously, meaning you have been exposed to her jealously and (unjustified) paranoia to a lesser degree to do so. It's reduced itself to 'endearing', you think, rather than 'annoying' as it used to be.

>>14711042
>>14711021
Dammit. Mixed up pictures, do forgive.
############

Cygnariassis, for her part, seems to have, despite your best efforts, stabilized. In her own words, “I seem to have exactly as much dignity as you allow me, and as you have gone to great lengths to tell me, there is nothing I can do about it.”. While anything but happy, she seems to have come to terms with her situation, and does not speak very much. At the very least, she is a better hoard-topping at this point.

You allow her to converse with Azyra on occasion. Always monitored, of course. They seem to get on well, and Cygnariassis is cooperative in terms of keeping subjects only as you desire. After the first few times, at any rate. You haven't seen Scinnari go to town on her quite like that since, but the specter remains, and proves a sufficient threat. They get along well enough, and Azyra seems to understand (and accept) that she isn't allowed around Cygnariassis without you. Not to mention take pride in the fact that /her/ father capture a Gold, though she also understands that she shouldn't spread that around.

>>14711021
> She has grown significantly, now almost five-two, and a quite capable swordswoman. Approaching 'woman', as well; Scinnari tells you she has reached that time of her life, and, to be honest, you've notice it yourself.

Hmmm. At this rate she'll be bringing home boys soon.

We should put together a team of our best assassins to deal with that.

some questions then i guess.

how goes the state druid reqruitment.

any outstanding events/general goings on in the nations.

what sort of issues do our people seem most hung up on, and what things do they take pride in (mza and mainland)


ask scinnari if she has heard any specific concerns from her subordinates in the civil service.

read note, hug to-... wait wrong quest.

thats the biggest of my inquirys

In the intervening time you've accomplished quite a few things, not the least of which is the plundering of some ancient tombs you have located with Watcher's assistance. While still somewhat enigmatic, warning you against, for instance, wearing it in public without cause, claiming it might be compelled to make statements or other things to spread it's particular brand of chaos, it has been much less of an annoyance since your deal in the cloud-citadel, and it has assisted you in locating and plundering several ancient tombs, both in Urgash and Tashz, buried beneath sand, or lost to time. And to the north, you have finally located what you believe to be 'Soulless'. Though a hellishly cold place, to be sure, properly prepared you are willing to traverse the distance, and have done so. Kal Mjiorn is the home and fortress of a tribe of frost giants- Entirely too many giants within the past decades, you decide. These, though, are not protected by world-class wards and enchantments. You easily teleport in one day with some assistants, and located what you believe to be Soulless without serious difficulty. A massive draconic skeleton, frozen within the glacier. The skull actually hangs out into the frost-giant's 'throne room', and you detect an incredible amount of magic permeating the vicinity (and the bones especially). It does not, though, in any way, shape, or form, seem alive; the bones are clean of flesh, and seem to have frozen as an assembled 'skeleton', appropriate gaps between each joints, and lower jaw attached to upper despite the lack of tendons, flesh, or other usual materials. Overall, your impression is that the frost giants are children who found something they like, and do not know what it is they locate their tribal lair around.

Searching for Lorekeeper has proven unnecessary- You have milked every detail you can from Watcher, and determined that, most probably, Lorekeeper is dead, hiding Watcher before departing to shed her own mortal coil. Quiet research of lineage has been difficult, but has identified half a dozen entities as being descendants of Lorekeeper; along with Cygnariassis, another gold dragon residing in the arid lands of Rhasver, almost ninety years older than you, the half-elven son of that dragon, and three miscellaneous humanoids, an elf, half-elf, and human, each with a few drops of Lorekeeper's lineage in them. They are, as far as you can determine, totally unaware of their ancestor, and only the elf, being a wizard, can speak draconic. The human, though an adventurer, cannot, and the half-elf, being a /baker/, you consider beneath your notice.

Regarding your home, though, you being to see a highly-objectionable increase in adventurers, spies, or other various busybodies attempting to explore your lair. Though several are identified long before they actually attempt to ascend or enter the mountain, some even convinced not to go by your apparently omniscient guard, sheer number wins through, and intruders become a semi-regular occurrence. Apparenlty someone is spreading rumors of the great 'dragon-king', 'evil sorcerer', or 'infernal wizard'- you find the last almost offensive, to be honest, and are most upset at your spies inability to determine the origin of these rumors. Either way, it does have the benefit of testing your lizardfolk's trap-work, and giving them frequent combat experience... even it one group did almost reach your lair. Additionally, you are certain that Azyra wil decide she can take part in such an occurrence some time, and you hope she will at least prove capable enough to avoid failure.

I'd like to know about Lady Issa and the former sultan. If the sultan is dead, we can start the plan to get someone else to take over her, sorry our holdings while she becomes an "honoured guest" with Asha. If Scinarri thinks is a good idea, we should get a son/daughter out of her in preparation for the taking of Tashz. This way, the rulers Mza and Tashz have a familial bond and will be closer to each other. And all of them under our control.

>baker half elf

SCOPE THAT SHIT OUT RIGHT NOW

>>14711471
>if Scinnari thinks it's a good idea

Why does she get any say in it? If it could work, do it!

>>14711537

because when you involve people into the decision making process, the chances for good ideas becoming better, and bad ideas being exposed, go up.

>>14711537
I meant that her advice and opinions would be taken into consideration. This is because

1) She's our favoured and currently only consort.
2)She's better at manouvering in the political games that Tashz surely has
3) I'd like the closest individual to us to be informed on our future conquests.

>>14711591
Oh, sorry. Seconded, then. I was objefting because I thought meant "if she says it's ok".

Leave Soulless for now. Let sleeping dogs lie.

since we are here, we might aswell try to figure out what kind of magic is permiating this place, any enchantments and wards that might be active, contingencies, that sort of things.

will help to have info before making a final choice.

Hmm, so Cygnis has 'settled' into her role, has she? I take this to mean that she's accepted her lot as being our slave?

If so, what're we thinking to do with her from this point? She's accepted our power over her to an agreeable, if not 'perfect' extent, and I daresay we can start nudging her towards something more useful to our goals.

She seems to like Azyra; perhaps something in that vein, eventually? Scin likes to pay her visits, so perhaps she could start training her in more servile behaviour and mannerisms to prepare her for a future role?

>>14711809

Didn't we have something about her being a steed, before?


Anyway, I'd like to know if we've made any more magical items over the five years- like started on that barding, how our 'cult' is doing; have we made any progress in making a lizardman wizard-circle or elite forces?

You know,
It might be a good Idea to get started on the statue that we will transmute into a body for Watcher.(If we feel like it)

Note- I am assuming the plan we talk about in a earlier tread.
That plan is to make a masterworked statue of a young bronze dragon*, then cast stone to flesh, lastly helping her possesses the new soulless body.
*we don't want her being to powerful and a smaller statue would be cheaper to commission.

My reasons are these:
1 That it will be cheaper to commission it far in advance and wait for it to be finished the normal way.
2 If at some point if we really need it, it would be really hard/expensive to rush.
3 It will be a very good carrot for us to manipulate the Watcher with.
4 It costs us nothing to just have it on hand.

>>14711865
Watcher wants a female brass body, not bronze.

>>14711865

It seems like we've already secured the Watcher's co-operation, though.

I can only think of us wanting to do this if we wished to enjoy the, ah, 'physical' aspect of the Watcher, and start working on a dragon collection.

>>14711850

A steed? Well not as a dragon, but letting her out to stretch her legs every now and then, albiet whilst providing a service, might be a good lure for Cyg.

-Buuutt like the servant idea above, she'd likely need training. Not as much, but still. And can we really rust Scin to do it (or rather, not to undo it with cruelty? How do they get on these days?)

>>14711865
I prefer my idea. Eventually, when we don't need her anymore, we aquire a bronze egg, let her possess the hatchling, then eat her.

>>14711961
>we aquire a bronze egg, let her possess the hatchling, then eat her.

I approve +10

>>14711961

They don't grow on trees, brass eggs! (If that's what Watcher wants)

>>14711939

Baahh....I'm torn. I kinda like Cygnis where she is right now, but it is a bit of a waste, ad if we can progress her a little that'd be good, but which route to take? And which would she adapt to easier?

>>14711972
Disagree, -10. I think it's silly. We have, potentially, exactly what people wanted with Cygnis here- a capable dragon-lieutenant. Who will owe us greatly for freeing her, already seems to owe us, seems sociopathic enough that she doesn't really object to doing evil shit.

A waste. We won't get Cygnis' willing cooperation, but we could get Watcher's, I'm thinking

>>14712008
NO
WE CANT TRUST ANY OF THE BOUND

>>14712008

Mmm, but the Watcher is still *bound*, and that's a liability I don't think we can afford in a moving body.

Writer-Dude, if Watcher were freed from it's current state, would those bindings still be effect on it like it was in the orb in terms of what it can say? Also, would it retain any of the abilities that the orb has, or would it just be the abilities of the brass dragon plus whatever it's magical talents are?

>>14712007
I was hoping we could make have her be like Asha. She could do basic stuff at first under supervision like guard the layer. Then we can start having her go with us on our various mission. We wont allow her to take dragon form at leas not for centuries when we are totally sure of her loyalty.

>>14712008
One problem: She's bound. She has no choice but to do what the Binder orders her, and she has to do things to cause Chaos.
She's not even close to being suitable minion material, let alone a lieutenant.

Obviously if we can find a way of defeating the Binders control, we might do that, but by that point we should be able to bind dragons ourself, and there are better dragon types than brass to have serve us.

>>14712007
Well, no, but I think the plan for some time now has been to get our hands on a bunch of dragon eggs we can use to extend our lifespan, at least eventually. If we're already getting a bunch of eggs...

>>14712056
Her ability to detect lies would make her as a perfect assistant to us as we deal with more political endeavorer. I say we we start doing this and introducing her as our assistant when we go out. We keep her well bound of course

>>14712008
Oh, and I don't think she's really Evil, given how she bargained her services for someone else's freedom. The child of someone she disliked, at that.

I'll chip in and say that before weighing options with Cygnis, I'd check how Scin feels about her now. It seems she doesn't really view her as much of a threat anymore, but it'd be nice to know if she'd find the idea of training Cygnis for a task more interesting or curious than simply tormenting her.

>>14712096
I'm guessing more of a true-neutral, myself. She certainly isn't bargaining for Cyg's freedom.

>>14712091

A nice assistant yeah, but too unreliable. Agents of chaos in a lawful society who can be ordered to kill our wife or daughter and then do it are not exactly...desirable agents.

>>14711471
>If the sultan is dead, we can start the plan to get someone else to take over her, sorry our holdings while she becomes an "honoured guest" with Asha.
Is Lady Issa actually incompetent, or otherwise somehow more valuable out of her current position? Has she not taken any lovers in the last decade? My impression was that we were better off with her in her current position, and that she'd probably end up having children naturally that we can take advantage of without forcing her into it. It seems wasteful to replace a competent administrator when everything's going fine. And, frankly, we could probably just socially pressure her into having children; she might even be perfectly willing to cooperate if we imply that we've got long-range plans to have one of her descendants take the throne of Tashz. It would, after all, be essentially declaring that her descendants will have a carefully nurtured place in our empire for decades to come.

>>14711934
>brass not bronze
My bad

>>14711961
This just feels like a waste of resources, I mean that we have an very skilled individual who could be a great asset to us.( not completely loyal but we can fix that)

>>14711939
> 'physical' aspect
I wasn't thinking like that.
I was thinking that. I was thinking that she would be good "hard" power witch we don't have(or don't seem willing to use) much of.

ALSO

If we wanted to we could trap the body we will be giving her to ensure her loyalty. (we may or may not tell her about this)

She is (or was) a "good" dragon so the chance is smaller the she will betray us if we act in good faith.

She will also be an free (no convincing or favors needed) and powerful ally against the binder.

>>14712255

It's amazing how you seem to be blindly ignoring the fact that she's still bound.

It is to such an intrusion that you return home, and are greeted by your followers cleaning blood-spattered tunnels, and stripping valuable from the latest set of foolish adventurer's corpses. Azyra is out, though, and Scinnari sequestered with Cygnariassis, so you retrieve Watcher and bring up Soulless as the topic of conversation.

“Ah... yes. I did not want to... bias you. What did you think of the creature?”

“He looked to be a massive example of his species, and dead.” you report dryly. “I hope that is who I am looking for?”

“Yes. The skeleton of a White, I suppose frozen in ice by now.” Watcher answers. “It is... Well, first of all, it is not a lich.”

“I see.” you reply, processing the statement. “You keep referring to it as... well, 'it'. I was under the impression that it was a 'he'?”

“I don't know what could have given you that.” Watcher replies, and you decline to mention your conversation with Twice-Bound. “I concede he started out as a... 'he', though I wouldn't think you could tell now.”

“I believe the Binder referred to it as a 'him'. If he isn't a dracolich, what is he?”

“A construct. Of sorts.” Watcher replies. She pauses, and you get the distinct feeling she sifting through ancient thoughts, dredging up information or memories she hasn't examined in ages. “The Binder used her powers to turn him- like myself- into a unique... creature. It- 'he', if you prefer, is a golem of sorts. It is intelligent, but without ambition. If given a command, it will complete it.”

“This does not sound the kind of thing upon which I would hinge my hopes at resurrection upon.” you comment skeptically, unwilling to mention Twice-Bounds'... 'fear' as the cause of your own.

“It is not... not a stupid construct. You could, for instance- And I expect this is what the Binder desires,- give it an order such as 'Free the Binder onto the Material plane'. It would then go about doing that... with the intelligence of a thinking mind, and the mindless loyalty and obedience of a construct. Admittedly, as a White, it was never terribly intelligent to begin with, but it is... Relentless. Infinitely patient, and, Warbringer once determined, quite capable of regenerating from powdered bone.”

“Is he... 'it', secured within the glacier? I would normally think being encased within hundreds' of feet of ice to be secure, but you are causing me to think again.”

“I do not know. I hope so. I would guess 'less secure than you think', though, if you start tampering with his prison.”

######################

The druids you have begun gathering to your employment are a diverse group, two lizardmen, one an ex-adventurer, the other one of your worshipers, a dwarf, a human, and a mostly-human quarter-elf. Odd to say the least, and very unlike most druids you've encountered before. They are, however, loyal to your coin (or in one case, to your holyness,) and willing to work on eliminating your problem, with regards to the all-consuming insectoid hordes. Disease is reduced, and the overall living quality of your island rises. Even for you-you /despise/ insects, especially when flying low over the canopy or city.

The demon cult on the mainland could not be totally quashed, and fostered a minor rebellion among your western territories. A pity, but their actions did do you the service of associating rebels with the demonic and abyssal. Truly, you could hardly ask for better assistance from you foes.

>Scinnari's feelings on Cygnis
Scinnari feelings towards Cygnariass, you determine, are those of any devil in existence; gleeful cruelty and sadism. Cygnariassis was, at one point, an opponent to Scinnari's goal of being your consort, and a threat to Scinnari's position, as well. With an immortals sense of timelessness, and excellent memory, Scinnari is entirely eager and willing to repay what minor hurts Cygnariassis has caused her a million-fold, given opportunity.

Under that, though, you think Scinnari views Cygnariassis as a symbol of her position- She is at your side, while Cygnariassis is at your feet, so to speak. A demonstration of a threat to her position being utterly crushed, and perhaps even a token of your affection, that you allow her to 'play' as she wills. You could be wrong, but you suspect that to be the case, whether or not Scinnari is aware of it herself.

>>14712319

DRAGONBONE GOLEM? FUCK YES!

>>14712382
IT MUST NEVER BE FREE

>>14712408
No, it will undoubtedly have a use in time. Though for now, it is in more or less safe keeping

>>14712296
That is a problem isn't it. We could ask the watcher what she thinks about that?
Maybe we can free her from hearing commands to the bind.
Or trap her so that as soon as she receives a command from the binder she becomes neutralized (petrifaction?).

I imagine that she would be very helpful on this subject.

>>14712436
Not till the binder is captal D dead.

>>14712510
>>14712521
Well... Watcher wants to be free, doesn't she? And she wants to be freed from binding, right?

If we have even a fraction of the Binder's power (and we do, as it's what is augmenting our natural power, right?) we very well might be able to free her of the Binding, if not suborn it for our own purposes... [At this point I want to put a smile face, but I'd feel like too much of a fag.]

>>14712521
Possibly. It's not a big issue now. I suggest we leave it be for now

Okay so thinking 'bout it, lets try and get these out of the way on a checklist:

Cygnis - Where's the vote going on this? Steed, servant, or both (where I presume the easier-trained one takes first preference and the latter is worked on more slowly): My vote...both! We'll have to approach Scin about it, mind.

Lizard Elite? : I say aye! But what composition? Bronzed +3 greatswords? A gauntlet of brotherhood and broship? +2 Plate? Something like this.

Foreign markets; how fare they?

Ivading avalsnnle cities? Yay or nay? My vote: Yeeeeeaaaahhh....but lets plan it out first. I'm in the mood for conquest.

>>14712621
Why bronzed? Why not... adamantium, or something? We ought to have decent amounts of that, though it hasn't been mentioned.

For Cygni, 'm going to go with 'servant'. I can't say that I have a real reason, but I like to be able to trust my mounts 100%... I don't like the idea.

Though, if you've got your heart set on it, we could turn her into one long enough to teach Azyra to ride. Be safe and secure and under observation, and probably demeaning enought htat she'd be grateful to be upgraded to a servant.

>plan out conquest.
I'm okay with this. Let's do it from our cloud-fort. Possibly with paratroopers or deepstriking.

>>14712621

By the by, I didn't know the spelling for 'Avariel' so typed nonsense.

And we'd have to ask Scin what she thinks to do with Cyg too, given that it's likely she'd be her personal trainer- though we'd likely need to be there for the start of it all, as we were at her original change in circumstances.

>>14712621
1) Both, if viable.
2) Hells to the yes! Also, telepathy of some kind (amulets, perhaps?), which will help with patrolling.
4) Avalsnnle? You mean Avariel? Yes, we should invade the shit out of them. Then spin it as us taking out a xenophobic obstacle to trade. To that end, lower the tolls through the straight, and perhaps set up trading cities there/expand existing trading cities there.

guys, theres a perfect way to use those roc eggs.

as tansports for our AIRBORNE RANGER BATALION

>>14712621

1 what ever

2 Lizard Elite- hell yeah

3 Don't we have trade guilds to take cair of that?

4 hell yeah

More to the list

5 Our Army/Navy- Comparative strength to other powers?

6 Our Dragon cult- hows it doing and any skill individuals ripe for promotions?

7 Our adamantine stockpiles- how much do we have E.G. how many could we out fit? Our Elites?

8 That person(s) spreading rumors about us- we should get on that some time.
>>14712554
Maybe we could do that, maybe not? This is a very long term plan so I just thought we should start preparing now. (I mean the statue along could take five to ten years) But it's a very easy thing to have on the back burner.

>>14712789
Most awesome thing ever!

>>14711353

i want to reiterate these questions, minus the druids of course

>>14712621
>Cygnariassis
Scinnari would like to vote for 'mount', but doesn't think you can trust her enough, certainly not to let her be Azyra's mount. Servant, on the other hand, she approves of, particularly forcing Cygnariassis to show off her dress.

Lizard Elite: Sure. Ten years, perfectly reasonable. BTW, you have ~150 actual lizardfolk minions living in your lair, as you most-trusted. Most of the lizardmen on Mza, though, worship and owe you fealty. (~1,400, total. Most live in the city, these days.). Scale and details of armament can be specified.

> Foreign Markets
Doing quite well. Azar has finished rebuilding, but is still a fledgling city, and you have significant interest or influence on just about everything important in the city. The governor, the retired general who retook the city, has actually proved quite friendly and a fairly generous, though perhaps not perfectly suited towards his position. Despite that, he tries, and proved an excellent guest when you invited him to a reception a few years ago, prompting you to repeat your invitation the next year. Overall, though, the years are calm, and no tremendous opportunity presents itself. (Which is not to say that you aren't making money.)

>Ivading avalsnnle cities?
Really? Really?

Yeah, you have the resources to take a few cities.

>>14712795
>3
Yes.

>5
Decent Navy, compared even to a relatively powerful nation like Rhasver. (Empire is separated by sea, heavily sea-based, after all.) Your Navy has a reputation for nearly being nearly pirates, but they are competent and can do their job well. You would not want to go against Rhasver, though, if only due to the massive disparity in output.

Army is quite capable as well, but not as proportionately large. Quite capable of keeping your holdings, and taking more when you desire, though. Not terribly extraordinary, but functional.

>6 Dragon cult
Growing, and somewhat suspicious. Several hundred non-lizardmen members. (~400, give or take some.)

>7 adamantine
Got plenty. Could go for that barding idea, if you anted, could certainly equip a few hundred individuals with adamantine weapons. Could do both, if you'd settle for a weaker alloying, as opposed to nearly-pure.

>8 rumors
Been trying for a while, not much success. Whoever they are, they're good.

you know their is a feat for high level wizards that whenever you utter their name the wizard becomes aware of them and what context their name was uttered.

>>14712937
but they don't know our name, or at least they shouldn't.

>>14712937
That could get incredibly annoying.

Imagine waking up every five minutes because someone was referring to a town named after you, or a possession of yours, or a spell you invented that you foolishly chose to name after yourself.

>>14712999
I think he was suggestin gwe take it.

Of course, as a fairly well-known Emperor, we'd probably be driven mad fairly quickly.

Unless it only counted people saying "Azaladon," in which case it would probably be useless.

>>14713028
I think "becomes aware of" in this context doesn't mean "hears" so much as "knows about". So, it's more akin to having the TV on in the room at low volume than hearing constant conversation; you can pay attention to it if you want, but don't have to.

but anyone knowing our true name would be a concern.

If we're trying to arrange an incident (perhaps even a personal insult), we could send Azyra out on a ship, 'let' it get blown south, and have it try and pass through the gates to resupply before returning. (Or simply send her out to handle a delivery for us, responsibility-like.)

They see crazy-twisted-mockery-of-themselves-freak, insult her, she gets to talk back (after all, she's our princess) and the Incident. Azyra gets involved, maybe even gets her first kill, if things go really south, and we get a personal slight to avenge against those barbarian elves.

>>14713155
Uh... no

>>14712904
>Decent Navy, compared even to a relatively powerful nation like Rhasver. (Empire is separated by sea, heavily sea-based, after all.) Your Navy has a reputation for nearly being nearly pirates, but they are competent and can do their job well. You would not want to go against Rhasver, though, if only due to the massive disparity in output.
We should work on making our navy better. I assume that by "nearly pirates", you mean that they're not looked upon as disciplined and professional; that should be induced to change. The navy is essentially the backbone of our non-magical power base, since it's our primary means of power projection and the primary military force protecting our capital; that means that we should emphasize loyalty to us and professional pride in their work there. It's been said that the mindset regarding us on Mza is that the citizens think they should avoid attracting our attention at all costs; that implies that we're seen primarily as a harsh ruler, that our attention does not result in benevolence.

That's not a terrible thing- love is tough to maintain- but I would like our naval personnel, particularly the officers, to feel like our eye is already upon them as often as not, and that the best way to career and personal success is not to merely avoid displeasing us but rather to curry our favor. That means competence in seamanship, command, and combat, which they should already have, but also acts of demonstrated loyalty to us personally and to the system of governance that we have in place, comporting themselves and controlling their crews in a way that will bring respect to us and our island, and so forth. And while they might be seen by others as pirates for a century to come- I would rather that our enemies be very unpleasantly surprised when they find out that occasional indulgence in commerce raiding does not mean any lack of military discipline or fervor.

Let's go have another visit to Many-Bound and chat with him about the information we've acquired since our last meeting.

Let's go kidnap Seffi and chain her up next to Cygnis.

Let's go break into the lair of a Blue over in Tashz and steal its hoard just to prove that we can.

Let's go visit Freeport under an assumed identity to pave the way for our coming invasion and also to see what has become of our Kobold cult.

Let's see if we can actually wipe a small city off the map with a storm over some perceived insult, then see what the response from the world stage is.

Let's do fucking SOMETHING!

>>14713340
sound like a plan

>>14713155
also No. This is bad Idea Azyra is teenager now, don't trust teenagers not to be very stupid.

To deal with this spymaster we could let one of these spy's gain false intel then follow them back to their source via magical means.

assuming someone of our caliber they probably are warded from scrying as well. so we may have to spy in person or via agent.

>>14713415
This assumes there at it for information, and not trying to get us killed. (Which it sounds like they are. Pointing murder hobos at people and telling them the people have treasure is usually at least second degree.)

im reiterating the idea of inducing corruption, and spreading rumors of corruption in the avariel, fanning the already extant resentment of them, spreading rumors of travelers disappearances (and perhaps disappear a few people ourselves to lend credence to it), perhaps engineer a row concerning one of our caravans over somthing (the exorbitant rate perhaps, corruption factoring here), which
precipitates a jump in our clandestine presence there, previous actions are ramped up, our own caravans now under guard citing the instability, armed men generate tension, a kerfuffle should not be hard to start then.
que invasion

I move that we investigate whatever became of our old kobold minions.

Jerrick is probably long dead, but I wonder if the rest of them still remember us.

>>14713409
Seconded but I think you need to expand on it a little bit

We should introduce both Cygnis and Azyra to the Many-Bound
We should try to force Seffi and Cygnis to have lesbian sex
We should kidnap the blue while we're at it and force her into the harem too. Kill it if its male
Let's assassinate people while we're there
Let's make it a big city

>>14713516
Seconding #2, #3, and #5. But I'm a bad person.

>>14713516

I do agree we should introduce Cygnus to many bound. we do keep promises after all.

>>14713516
All weird ideas, but mentioning the blue reminds me of their insult and arrogance. Writing our name down and crossing it out as if it were a mistake? The nerve!

I think we should look into destabilizing the blues. They live in the middle of the desert, so we could use our orb of storms or other magic to create flash-floods that would destroy practically everything, and flood any underground burrows. Alternatively, we stop even the tiny amounts of rain that do occur, and blight the whole area.

We could also fund skilled treasure hunters under an alias.

While we're having revenge, maybe we could do something about those dicks in Freeport?

>>14713607
We do not have the wealth or stature to take on the sort of large organization of dragons that the blues have. It would be unwise to try anything serious before we're older and have a larger set of tricks. Or at least have conquered a few more nations and have a larger base of humanoid talent to draw upon.

We also need to make a proper body for the Spindle.

...and add her to the harem.

they are allies right now annoying but allies none the less.

More lists of things to do:

We could interrogate some angels/god/elementales/devils on how to harm/kill the binder.
We could expand our holding on the mainland.
We could sponsor an mage academy.
We could professionalize our army/navy.
We could build a really cool light house.
We could go on an plainer father daughter bonding experience.
>>14713544
I forget what promises are talking about?

>>14713638
We told her that we were going to go with her to see twice-bound. Just before we kidnapped her.

So to recap:
1.) Look into how we would possibly go about destabilizing the power base of the blues. Don't actually go into anything committal yet, just do some preliminary scouting and theorizing.

2.) Make a proper body for the spindle. I believe someone suggested having a master craftsman make a master statue of a brass dragon out of stone, then casting stone to flesh on it.

3.) Get a uniform for our armies. One for the navy, one for the cult. The one for the cult should have camouflage primarily in mind.

4.) Make preparations to take Cygnis to the Many-Bound.

If there are any objections, better state em' now.

also we should work on a spell that allows us to use our full dragon stat line even when poly morphed

The roc eggs you liberated from the cloud giants (not to mention their parents,) do seem intact, and are certainly valuable. Half a dozen of them, in five separate nests, they are quite valuable. Not something you'd put among your hoard, but a delicious acquisition nonetheless, omelets notwithstanding. You pull away you druid from the Mza circle, and detail her to assisting with the care and training of the enormous birds. She quickly ascertains that they are at varying states of maturity, and won't hatch for at least a month. Not only that, but it is difficult to keep them warm at such an altitude without their parents. Most of whom were killed when you eliminated the cloud giants... A pity, but you were somewhat distracted at the time. (And, to be quite honest, not even sure it would work.)

Relatively shortly after you castle-escapades, the first of them hatch, and you begin with the training- of the birds, and of your lizardmen. You also run into an unforeseen obstacle: Lizardmen are apparently terrified of heights. Understandable, you suppose, given their weight and lack of opportunity to get higher than the jungle canopy, but a massive obstacle when wanting them to ride gargantuan birds across the heavens.

Another obstacle: As a half-formed idea, (you have mixed feelings on the matter, but just to experiment with the option,) you have begun attempting to create statuary brass dragons. Another problem; you have the knowledge of proper appearance, but not the skill to craft or construct it. A smith or sculptor, though they might have the skill, does not have the knowledge to perfectly recreate a brass dragons form.

This is, of course, entirely disregarding how difficult it is to move about a single stone of suitable size for breaking down into a brass dragon of even minimal size. That idea will either need another tactic, or better resources.

Other things do meet less resistance, though- Mza is suddenly rumored to be home to a renegade clan of Rhasver. It isn't actually, but the slow-but-steady climb of exporting adamantine does nothing to obviate the rumor, and your rapidly growing amount of tithed metal is put to good use. As promised, the dwarves forge it as you desire, and over the first two years, you send all your highest followers to the dwarven mines, to be forged adamantium weapons. Later, as production grows, you send them back around to be fitted for armor. Most prefer the chain mail that they're used to, or (the slightly redundant) scale-mail, a few do return with plate armor. Even you are forced to... well, 'marvel' would be a strong word, but the dwarf-crafted plate does have quite an impressive range of movement, and doesn't seem to hinder the lizardmen as you might have expected. The only downside seems to be the amount of time it takes to don.

Likewise, your attempts to professionalize both your army and navy. The former has been kept quite skilled, first by your expansion and second by conflict with the Angevin demon-cult, but your navy, while of great assistance when seizing coastal villages, is not terribly professional, and all operations so far have resulted in a little more plunder and pillage than you would like. This, though, you can and are dealing with- that promotions based on professionalism, loyalty, and competence is eventually noticed, as is the outstanding benefits rank provides, courtesy of Scinnari's infernal insight towards your military schemes. While hardly respectable, you are making significant progress in shaping-up your naval forces.

>>14713744
I think watcher can beam in the details into their heads. if we don't mind reveling watcher to someone.

>>14713759
Tragically, we'll have to kill em' after they finish.

I guess we can give them the privilege of literally seeing their work come to life before we do though. Hell, she'll probably be hungry when she first 'wakes up'. A fitting irony.

>>14713744

the fabricate spell can work for creating the body but you need the relevant craft skills. should our dragon take sculpting or pottery us as a hobby?

>>14713759
that would work, and if the telepathy do not work we could get the Watcher to work with the craftsman on this.

But I want to hear her thoughts on how to prevent her from being commanded by the binder,

Couldn't we just stone shape on some cooled magma to make a body? It wouldn't have TOO much detail, but we could get the general shape and get someone who knows what they're doing to finish it.

What exactly are the benefits of giving her a crafted body instead of just finding a brass and whomping them? I mean, hunting down a brass would be obviously genuine and after we took them we could add their delicious hoard to ours.

>>14713827
Actually we could use ourselves to create a mould cavity that way using lava. Let ourselves get coated, let it cool, then teleport out of it.

Fill it with a malleable substance, let it set up a bit, crack open the stone shell and make some alterations to make it less red more brass. Wala.

>>14713778
What? No, we aren't giving the Watcher a body /anytime/ soon. We /may/ give her one once we deal with the Binder, depending on her behaviour.
Of course, that body may be bite-sized...

Hey, if you transmute a statue of a dragon into flesh wouldn't it lack internal organs and stuff?

>>14713845
Sure thing. Heard of any brass dragons younger than us around?

>>14713855
details details

This shit works all the time.

>>14713855
Ask Pygmalion.

>>14713744
I got it. we could use the spell stone shape* (from a scroll if we don't know it)
*5th level sor/wis
We use the spell to get the a stone of the right size (a few blocks fused together) and shaped into ruffly the right shape. call in a skilled craftsman for the fine details (over seen by us or watcher).

this could work

>>14713827
That would work (and is an excellent idea I didn't think of) but would still necessitate transportation of a few tonnes of cooled stone. In one piece.

>>14713814
Watcher is happy to discuss the subject, and informs you that, while she happens to recall some of the details of her own Binding, she will not tell you, for obvious reasons. That said, she will tell you some of it, for the purpose of assisting in it's deconstruction- she seems to think that the Binding has become inexplicably tied to the crystal enchantments, and, if proper steps are taken, she thinks that the Binding can be removed, nullified, or in some significant manner weakened-

She is, though, aware and honest with you that this would almost certainly remove her mind-reading and 'artifact-sight' abilities, as they are tied to the crystal as well. (The second being merely a coincidence, but still gained from her crystalline prison.)

>>14713856

Almost directly north of you, past the bay of Morinth, is the fringe of an arid bad-land area. A few brasses inhabit that region, varying ages. Likewise, at least a black and a green inhabit the jungle to your west, though they are relatively smalltime, as far as you are concerned- the Black content to lord over and be cruel to the various tribes under his dominion, and the green content to hunt the elves inhabiting the fringes of the jungle, and plot from the shadows.

The fact that they're both <100 helps contribute to their lack of threat. Likewise, some brass (and copper) inhabit the northern mountains that fringe the Tashz deserts to the south, and Bronzes inhabit the waters along the southern coast in many places.

>>14713929
Ask Watcher if she wants to buy new or used.

>>14713952
New. Watcher doesn't really care, but given the choice, would rather not necessitate the killing of anyone else.

If that's the way it has to be she's totally okay with it, but given the choice....

>>14713952
This, pretty much.

>>14713966
Okay, ask Watcher for an image of what she'd like, polymorph into a smaller version of that, get the lava casting of it made, fill er up, crack it open, then cast stone to flesh on it.

God this was so simple, why didn't we do it sooner?

>>14713982
No! /NO!/ Why would you do that? /WHY?/

She'd lose her mind-reading! Even if we could free her from the Binder, which seems in doubt, she'd lose her single most valuable trait! She's aware of this! She knows we can't do it for her until we find a better way.

>>14713982
Because she's one of the bound? And thus required to serve the binder? Who we would rather not let out right now?

could we make it so she can retain her awesome mind reading capability, like imbedding the gem? also we will need some way of controlling her. maybe a telepathic command that will turn her back to a statue.

>>14714003
We never really relayed on the mind reading so i count a dragon who owes us big time a greater sum gain.

>>14714013
good point
I guess we put this of till we can do something about the binding?

any other Ideas?

>>14714013
But doing this would undo the binding - at least partially. And the Binder is in no position to rebind or give orders. As far as we're aware, the only one she can contact is us. And even then only sporadically.

>>14714003
We can learn to mind read ourselves if it's that important. Which it isn't.

>>14714071
PARTIALLY undo the binding. PARTIALLY. And now we are capable of trusting her, and seem to be on decent working terms with her- She doesn't love us, but can tolerate and work with us. Esxpecially as long as we oppose the Binder.

>>14714100
"Removed, nullified, or in some significant manner weakened."

Good enough for me.

Personally against freeing watcher just yet.

Right, let's go kill the shit out of that Black. Loot her hoard, and if she has eggs, either lifedrain them, or eat them.
Then, we go talk to that green. If he seems sensible enough, cut him a deal: he gets some lizardman tail, we get some more dragon-blood in our minions. Also, we don't kill the shit out of him, unless he gives us reason. Or he doesn't seem like good breeding material, in which case kill him and steal his hoard.
Also, we should take the Black's body components, and if possible let Scin get her soul.

Then, we build a sort of theme-park, with towers and stuff with zip-lines attached, areas to jump with slowfall, etc, to get our lizardmen used to heights. When they aren't using it, we may want to open it to the public and charge for entry or something, I dunno.

I don't think we should be letting Watcher free yet, but if we do, we should probably see about getting some more half-dragon lizardmen off her, and possibly breeding those with half-Greens to see what happens.

We should also look into getting some element controlling magic, either Rings of Elemental Command, or the 4 wondrous items of Elemental Command.

if we free her we should make it quite clear she works for us still and that we have some method of enforcing it.

>>14714194
>brass + green

Wouldn't that get, like, verdegris copper, or something?

>>14714100
> PARTIALLY
One we could install failsafes into her new body that could let us neutralize her (eg baleful polymorf, petrify, even a beefed up sleep spell).
Two this could be an unparalleled opportunity to lean about the binding
Three even if the binder tries to command the watcher we could learn of the binder as she is drawn out in trying to command

>Trusting her
No easy answer here (loyalty is like that) but she's a brass witch means she's good so i'm willing to chance it. (especially if we got those failsafes installed)

>>14714224
> No easy answer here (loyalty is like that) but she's a brass witch means she's good so i'm willing to chance it. (especially if we got those failsafes installed)

It also means she's chaotic. And she's been magically compelled to sow even more chaos. Reliability isn't her forte.

>>14714201
A brass who has been able to manipulate far better, smarter, and stronger than us for centuries? How the hell do we control that?

Alright, fuck it. I need sleep, you bastards. And I'm going to get it... Like, three hours worth.

Going to probably open up next thread with violent shenanigans with intent to terminate the Black dragon, and then perhaps dealing with the Green. If you have any other discussion, advice, or desires for me to address, please post them. Also email me. I got the account for this quest, it literally has no other purpose. (Well, had, I'm now using it as my alternate. But that's beside the point, I'm lonely and want to talk to people to distract me from the crushing pointlessness of my lonely existence.)

Will be hanging around on chat for a bit more, as with thread. Will answer questions and what not until I'm gone. Might even be back tomorrow morning to answer more, who knows.

Idea: that bronze we met before. He would probably be much better than a green. After all, bronzes have most of the same qualities as blues (being good in the air, for instance), but are also better swimmers. Which could be very useful for beefing up our navy.

I think we should try to strike a deal with a bronze first, then fall back on the green if that doesn't work out.

>>14714268
>>14714284
Control her with a light hand, a carrot instead of a stick, and from a safe distance.

>>14714289
Good night and thank you for a very fun quest

>>14714329
Look, I'm all for adding her to our harem, just... Now is not the time. We've got other things on the table.

Speaking of which, how should we proceed with Cygnis? I think we should finish with her, or at least get further along before we do more waifu-ing.

>>14714295
You say that like we can only have one type of dragonblood in our minions.

>>14714464
I'm pretty sure it's traditional to just use your own. And I'm not sure why we aren't doing it- We are their god after all. (Plus troops who we don't have to worry about friendly fire with... )

>>14714489
Let's not. We've been pretty family-friendly here. I don't think we should break that trend. 'Seeding' dragon blood in either the lizardmen or Lady Issa's line is just a no-no.

What ever happened to Asha's children, by they way? Shouldn't they be knocking each other up by now as per our carefully planned out breeding strategem?

>>14714579
>Family friendly
>brianwashed inbreeding assassin cult
>same post

>>14714601
As in, protective and loving of our family. Not family-friendly in the G-rated sense.

>>14714489
Were you here when we were making all the protective stuff to keep the Binder from being able to influence Azyra?

>>14714579
Both of those lines already have some dragonblood in them (black for some of the lizardmen that lived in the jungle when we got here, blue for the Tashz royal line), and we should be a) adding more blue blood to the royal line, to get individuals with a stronger claim to the throne (also, more powerful agents), and b) adding other dragon bloods to various Lizardman minion groups, both to breed better minions and to get some sorceror minions.

>>14714744
Sure. Just not our own blood. If we can get some from other sources, well... that's fine. I am fairly sure that a race as naturally promiscuous as chromatic dragons wouldn't be adverse to being paid to participate in an orgy with carefully selected womenfolk from our realm.

dammit i missed dragon quest.

ah well post game idea.

I think we need to redouble our efforts on breaking Cygnis, we wanted her to be mind broken and grateful to us by this point so that as well as a nice hoard topper, possibly she could protect it instead of being a liability if these damn adventurers get through.

also Azyra should be given a suit of adamantine armor of the highest quality, have an inconspicuous set of very fine chainmail for her to wear under her normal clothing and then a full plate suit for her to wear in case trouble brews. this could also be enchanted or alloyed to make it light enough for her to fly in.

and on the subject of her flight we should look into ways to teach her or strengthen her wings so that she can fly better

maybe we could also look into that knightly order we left alone, might be a good anniversary present for Scinnari if we destroyed it for her and we could take Azyra along to expose her to battle in a small degree preferably far away from the pointy end.

also how has Azyra turned out? i know she has grown up etc but has she ended up with any of her mothers viciousness or our pride / greed? i think we should see to this so that we can see what we can do to encourage her in that regard.

also have to say i have loved this quest WD, only one that i have ever really kept up to date with

>>14716117
god just reread this after posting and realized i should clarify

Azyra flying : I meant apart from her cape, it is useful but having her able to fly even better without it will be a great boon since if she could fly with her armor it would make her doubly safe should she end up in trouble

>>14716117
This all sounds good except for that part about expecting Cygnis to be broken by this point. We already know it's a work of decades, it's not going to happen quickly. Since she is stable now we should probably engage her in conversation and debate on a wide range of topics... she's what you could call a captive audience. While we are doing so we should use our mental suggestion spells to influence her to be more accepting of the necessities of life, namely the evil necessities. We of course need to keep hammering the point that we do care for her and she is a fine element of our hoard, we are simply doing what is best for both of us. Long, boring repetition will eventually begin to wear away even the strongest resistance. Especially with magical help.

Huh, missed DQ.

My two cents: Freeing the watcher? Are you fucking insane? Why don't we free the twice bound while we are at it?

Have to vote no to that.

>>14717933
Oh, and something I forgot to mention: Good doesn't mean nice. I see people saying 'well she's good so she won't try to hurt or betray us'... yeah well bullshit. Paladins have an entire prestige class dedicated to slaying dragons and it's considered an "exceptionally pure and holy" version of a paladin!

Not to mention the fact she seems far more neutral to me rather than good.

Bump so I can read.

Concerning the Watcher
if giving her a proper body causes her to lose all her abilities then it's too big a cost and we should apologize for getting her hopes up
if she just loses the passive identify ability then it's not that big a loss since we can do that on our own.

Perhaps we could make a bronze Bronze Dragon golem/construct that uses her crystal as a pilot?
not perfect for either of us (she still isn't really alive and we lose out on our Bronze waifu) but it's a decent option

Also if we are to free her then we need to leash her and install a kill switch. She knows too much to be allowed to roam free. Then we can keep her in the hoard next to Cygnis.