>>3079965
You are not sure how to feel about what has just happened. On one hand you killed a giant reptile in one on one fight. On the other hand you were used as a chewing toy for almost a minute and now you are covered head to toe in the monster's stinky saliva. You are pretty sure it is not healthy at all but you trust your augmented immune system to get rid of any dino- aids you could catch from this situation. Luckily saliva is viscous enough to get mostly removed with some clever application of telekinesis.

You can't really say that you were wounded. Yes, the creature's giant sharp teeth penetrated your skin but your body doesn't seem to care enough to use that augmented scaring tissue and just heals rapidly while secreting that weird foamy antibiotic. Your gear, on the other hand, is not in a great state. You have several major holes through your armor and gambeson. In addition your halberd is broken. Its head is embedded inside the creature's body and doesn't seem too damaged but the shaft is splintered and beyond repair. The backpack was luckily untouched. You should really think of some alternative to wooden shafts and aluminum bronze. They are just not cutting it against anything really powerful and you don't have a lot of the latter.

As you look around the field you note the state of the dwarves that decided to try and melee a goddamn tyrannosaurus. They were just... fucked. There is no milder way to put it. Out of three dozen dwarves only a quarter survived at all. Everyone else was in different states of mangled and disfigured. The remaining dwarves are heavily wounded. You don't favor the survival chances of most of them assuming the use of medieval medicine. Broken bones, lost limbs, gaping wounds. You are not sure if they'd be lucky to live long enough to get blood infection. You reckon that you could save three dwarves if you are forced to do a triage and ignore the ones that would most probably die within hours. You don't actually have much medical supplies either. What to do...

>Get to the fortress and demand medical crews. You can fly them in rapidly but you don't know how to speak their language
>Get to the lamias and get help from there. They haven't seen your powers at full potential yet so it might get nasty but they could speak your language
>Triage. Save only the ones you definitely can. The rest would die.
>Life support. Attempt to extend the lives of everyone you can. Maybe the help would come fast enough. You would endanger the least wounded dwarves.
>Euthanasia. Some dwarves are still alive but they will most probably die within minutes to hours of agony and if they are saved they would probably never recover fully. It might be more ethical to end their miseries painlessly now...
>Ask Nike' if she can help in any way
>Other?

>>3079965
Is this from that Cure Immortality CYOA?

>>3079976
Yes and no. It is inspired by Perpetuance Protocol Pod Program CYOA. However I only took the premise and names for the current pantheon and two other NPCs we only had a glimpse of before. Their personalities and the rest of the world are much different and unique. So don't worry, it is a completely different story in every other regard

>>3079975
>>Triage. Save only the ones you definitely can. The rest would die.

>>3079975
>Triage. Save only the ones you definitely can. The rest would die.

>>3080054
>>3080032
Alright, triage it is. Writing

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>>3080096
You don't have a lot of supplies, to be fair. Your backpack is quite big but you didn't have any space or reason to carry enough medication to treat a small army. Thus you can't really treat everyone. You are forced to perform a triage. In modern medicine triage is way less brutal than here. Medics place one of four tags on people: immediate, delayed, minor and morgue. Immediate are people who can die within an hour and they are treated first, delayed have a condition that can become lethal if untreated and they are stabilized once you deal with immediate patients. Minor wounds get treated last and already dead people are ignored. In your case everyone would be in the immediate state and thus this method won't help well.

Instead you have to look more into the probabilities of survival. Some of these people are impossible to save or even really stabilize with your current gear. You can't save a guy who has a gaping wound in his chest with punctured lungs for example. Really, you can only stabilize people who are bleeding out with no major organ damage and without too many wounds to patch, and that's a shame, really. It feels awful to decide who lives and who dies. Why should that man die if the only reason is that if you don't treat him you would have enough bandages for three others? You definitely won't sleep well after this...

Nike' attempts to help somewhat but she is seemingly not trained in treating difficult trauma with nothing but alcohol and cloth scraps. She definitely wasn't a field medic. You successfully prevent three dwarves from bleeding out but while you were stabilizing them the rest of the survivors died. Some died almost immediately while one died in pain just after you finished hastily applying the last bandage. You feel... strange and aloof. A normal person in this situation would probably get traumatized but it feels strangely numb. It is a shame they died but you no longer care as they are dead and you are not sure why. Is this why "gods" don't care about individual citizens? It is a bit of a scary thought...

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>>3080213
While you were treating the injured several doors opened at the base of the gate and a bunch of dwarves poured out. Some were armed and wearing similar plate armor to the fallen soldiers while others were wearing lighter versions made out of thinner plates and mainly chainmail. A few were also just wearing normal-ish clothes. The military went over to check that the beast is slain while the rest hauled away the dead bodies in primitive stretchers. Your patients were also loaded on stretchers and hopefully they would get some proper care.

The dwarves politely nod to you but they don't speak much while working. It is pretty obvious this situation is not comfortable to them and some are quite visibly grieving over their fallen comrades. What should you do now?

>Leave quietly. You don't want to disturb these people anymore
>Stand back and wait for someone to approach you for contact
>Attempt to help with the body movement
>Approach the dwarf who has the most decorated armor and attempt to talk to them
>Consult Nike'
>Other?

>>3080216
>Stand back and wait for someone to approach you for contact

>>3079965
Player advance notice: I will be implementing a two hour pause during the session. Last session demonstrated that from 14:40 to 16:50 the amount of votes dropped to zero(6:40-8:40 am EST). This means that the voting period for the next post will be increased by two hours. After the pause the posts will continue as usual. I will announce once again when the break is in effect. I don't think it would make much difference since people would probably be sleeping, but sorry for inconvenience.

>>3080239
Writing

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>>3080257
You decide that it would be best to allow these people to retrieve their friends. Those who could be stabilized were in no danger of sudden death and the rest were dead anyway. Thus you stand back and watch the process along with Nike'. It is a bit strange traveling with her. You know that she is there but she doesn't seem to speak much and once you lose track of her you almost forget that she is there. You wonder how does she do that...

You note that one of the dwarves seems to be a sort of chief medic. He checks the dead dwarves and then the wounds and your patchwork before sending his subordinates to carry off the wounded survivors. This dwarf has a short bow for some reason as well as some heavily decorated armored parts worn over his outfit. It seems like pieces of armor are either a symbol of status in dwarf society or an accessory. He also wears glasses with actual lenses made out of optic glass. These dwarves probably are capable of manufacturing these as you are yet to see any optic glass in Cenophila.

This dwarf approaches you after he makes sure he is definitely done with his patients. He seems to speak Cenophilan freely but he speaks it with a really thick accent and uses some new words and other words sometimes have different meanings. Feels almost like a different dialect of the language. Like difference between British and American English but much worse. You can understand him quite well despite this.

He introduces himself as Throgrod Apxilrnemi (his surname roughly means "Amberspine") and he introduces himself as a chief healer in this Umkiluapi (Underhome). This Underhome's name seems to be Kamyur. You expected the name to carry some meaning but it seems to be too old to be easily translatable. The dwarf thanks you for providing help with the beast and the wounded. He claims that the captain of the guard would like to thank you for your involvement and he wants to know how to repay you in return. Dwarves apparently have good "ancestral" memories, which means that they remember favors and grudges across generations. And you got yourself a minor favor of the dwarves. You may ask for anything within reason.

>Save it up. Who knows when you need some dwarf help
>Ask for a tour around their city. You want to know who these people are and how they live
>Ask to repair your gear and arms. Dwarves are known for their craftsmanship after all
>Ask for a replacement weapon. You've broken your halberd
>Ask for some local currency. You would like to see what wares they have and you'd like an option to buy something right now
>Other?

>>3080279
Dear players, the quest has been temporarily paused. This means I won't be around for about 2 hours and the voting time extends until I'm back. I will post in the thread, Twitter and Discord once I return. Until then feel free to vote and discuss.

>>3080279
>Save it up. Who knows when you need some dwarf help

>>3080279
>Ask for some local currency. You would like to see what wares they have and you'd like an option to buy something right now

>>3080279
>Ask for a replacement weapon. You've broken your halberd

>>3080345
>>3080335
>>3080330
Hello, guys. Sorry for being late. Had mother's birthday dinner business. Let's decide on the options and continue our story. We can choose only one so here are some hybrid things:

>Dwarves replace halberd’s polearm with something good and you get one unit of cash
>You choose a new secondary weapon and one unit of cash
>You can get a full blown large battlefield grade weapon but you get nothing else
>You get three units of cash and that’s it
>You get nothing but dwarves owe you a favor. Essentially you get extra high social credit off the bat with people being extra nice due to your above average good reputation

>>3080399
>You get nothing but dwarves owe you a favor. Essentially you get extra high social credit off the bat with people being extra nice due to your above average good reputation

>>3080399
>You get three units of cash and that’s it

Let's buy some shit.

But if it remains tied I defer to the other anon, even tho I don't think we will see these guys so soon after we leave

>>3080407
I'll go with this then, maybe someone replaces our helbard wood thing out of the goodness of their heart.

Walk around with the broken helbard with a pouty face for maximum effect

>>3080425
>>3080421
>>3080407
Social credit it is. Writing. And we will meet these dwarves again. If not on the return trip then remember that they are a major non- human nation in the area. Combine that with Labyrinth exploration for maximum profit.

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>>3080433
You politely refuse Throgrod's favor. You don't want to look like you did it for a reward. Plus who knows how useful a dwarven favor could be? You might want to save it for the future. He understands and excuses himself to treat the wounded dwarves in the fortress. He informs you that you are welcome to come into the Underhome, which you happily proceed with.

The Underhome is a kind of major metropolis for dwarves. Kamyur is not their largest of these settlements but it still has around a hundred thousand dwarves all doing their part in keeping the civilization running. The structure appears to be cut into rock but it was mainly built into an underground crevasse which determines the shape of the settlement. It is multilayered and has a large empty hole going all the way through the structure. It has stone bridges and overhang areas making it look intentional but the difference between stonework and natural polished stone just barely gives it away. Also almost everything is lit up by... glowing quartz crystals. Yeah they are not that rare, oh well.

The opening has several mechanical elevators suspended with chains and moving up and down. They are seemingly powered by an underground river below which also acts as the main trading path between the Underhomes. That is some primitive but intricate gearwork on the scale you would not expect. It would not be attainable for iron age civilizations as it requires predictable metal quality. It looks like dwarves know how to completely melt iron then.

Everything is engraved with nice looking runic symbols. That seems to be an ancient written language that only a few dwarves know well. It was then replaced with proto- Cenophilan for trading reasons which then turned into modern Cenophilan which was later enforced across the empire above during the decades. Nike' confirms that the language was there before the pantheon. However, these symbols look... familiar. You've seen something similar... but you can't remember where.

In any case, there are various districts to visit. There is the marketplace in the lower levels near to the river docks, there is the crafting area and the forges, the temple to the dwarven deities and local rulers is placed at the very top of the Underhome. Where should you go first...

Roll 1d20 to remember, or just tell me if you know what other place with runes I am talking about. There is literally only one example.

>Marketplace. Even if you don't have anything you want to know what they can sell for the future
>Forges. You are interested in dwarven manufacturing. Maybe you could learn something new?
>Temples. You want to know more about those in case they are a thing for no particular reason whatsoever...
>Docks. You want to know how to travel across the Labyrinth effectively and this might be a solution
>Wait, what do they eat here?
>Other?

>>3080539
>Docks. You want to know how to travel across the Labyrinth effectively and this might be a solution

I'm now found of dwarves but....let's see if we can learn how to navigate this.

Maybe stop by the forge to steal some tech for our village too

>>3080539
>Forges. You are interested in dwarven manufacturing. Maybe you could learn something new?

>>3080539
>Forges. You are interested in dwarven manufacturing. Maybe you could learn something new?

>>3080601
>>3080571
>>3080567
Forges. Writing

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>>3080613
The forges sound like a good place to visit. What dwarves would these guys be if they didn't have a specific industrial area for processing metals. Thus you decided to pay the craftsdwarves a visit. You are curious of what technologies they have access to and what methods they use. You would like to eventually get some steel manufacturing as well and who says that the blast furnace and convertor is the best way to do things?

The forge is situated in the crafting wing of the city placed on the opposite side of the main housing area. You assume it is due to how much noise it makes. This place is quite large and houses both the large processing areas and small artisan buildings that manufacture more specialized goods for trade. The minor industries include stuff you could have expected like various kinds of blacksmiths, jewelers, mason workers and craftsmen of all types. Their methods are similar to medieval craftsmen with some alterations in goods designs such as armor being thicker and bulkier than for humans but you don't find many interesting things to note.

The forges themselves, however, are a beauty. They are constructed as a kind of major refinery turning raw ores, sand, clays and gems into materials that later get used by the crafting guilds. They even have an elevator system to move the materials around. That's not quite a factory belt system but it is still impressive.

These dwarves seem to understand the additives that get added into glass to alter its properties. They can produce clear and colored transparent glass unlike the "beer bottle" quality glass most commonly used on the surface. The most important element to glass manufacturing appears to be lead. It is a requirement if you want to get optic glass anywhere soon. They also seem to know how to fuse quarts. Unfortunately their technology involves using some kind of coal substitute that they mine from the Labyrinth that burns hotter and cleaner than anything known to you from solid fuels as well as special incredibly heat resistant stone. These forges decay with time and need to be completely rebuilt making fused quarts items durable but overly expensive. Modern process would involve hydrogen- oxygen torches for that which places it way out of your reach for now.

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>>3080716
The smelter area appears to be the only place where dwarves utilize industrial revolution grade labor distribution and it is more of a factory than a forge. It has massive arrays of blast furnaces and various creative smelter designs that are still somewhat familiar to you. They are quite capable of melting iron and producing quite staggering amounts of various other metals and alloys. They unfortunately make steel that is inferior to your times but it is still a head above what you can lay your hands on in Cenophila. It is also pretty expensive and unreliable unlike their massive pig iron output.

The one thing that catches your eye in particular is what the dwarves call Mi'duevossai' or "mythic alloy". Of course they have goddamn mythril, don't they? Why wouldn't dwarves have magic metals taken straight from classic fantasy novels? You really want to slap whoever gave them that name. In any case, the material does not fit with what you would expect. It is denser than steel and is produced in small quantities from small amounts of tungsten powder, a bunch of other materials and a weird metallic ore that you can't identify. The resulting material has to be "pressure cooked" in a special forge that uses rare crystals mined in some dangerous undisclosed area that produce intense heat. The smeltery structure is literally meters thick of that fire resistant metal and your bet is that it needs over 3000 degrees to melt or at least be malleable. This alloy is hard to get and hard to forge but it produces the most fire resistant and toughest material known to these dwarves. Unsurprisingly, it is expensive as hell.

The ore this material comes from is a bit easier to process in its pure form. It results into a metal that is comparable to soft steels in mechanical qualities while being lighter and requiring less flux and other pains in the ass to purify. It is so non-reactive that it can just be molten out of the rock and used directly and it refuses to alloy until heated to a ridiculous degree. This seems to be the same metal that knife was made out of in the lamia village. The material is relatively rare and thus is more expensive than steel.

You don't think you will be able to find out anything else about the area. Dwarves seem to only care about their business and mainly ignore you while you are not allowed to actually come down into the mines, storage areas or crafting guilds that work with exotic materials. Trade secrets, duh. You should probably head back up unless you want anything particular.

>Yeah, let's head home, you have some bounty to collect and walls to build
>You would prefer to do something more... writein today

>>3080719
>Yeah, let's head home, you have some bounty to collect and walls to build

Are those runes northen runes?

>>3080736
seconding

>>3080719
>You would prefer to do something more... writein

Get a look at their Labirynth navigation before heading home

>>3080736
If you mean runes on Sigrid's stuff then no, they aren't. These "vikings" use runes too but those are written with "strokes" on wood with paint. These runes are designed more to be carved into stone and thus look more "blocky" and less "tear shaped" with lines. Also they have no common shapes. Compare Chinese letters and Norse runes. I was thinking more of another place underground where we found some runes closer to our village.

>>3080759
Oh, on our lab entrance.
Speaking of which, I miss Sig and Haven, let's hope nothing catastrophic hit our village while we were away

>>3080765
No, the collapsed entrance with a dead dorf we found below our copper mine. Explore at your own risk as I mentioned it seems to be purposely collapsed.

>>3080772
We could find most of the atuff here there, of course we would need to battle some ancient danger inside but that's what we are here for, I say we grab a couple of friends and do it

>>3080736
>>3080745
>>3080750
Sure, writing

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>>3080809
You decide to finally head home. You have a bounty to collect, a market to visit and work to do in your home village. There will be an influx of villagers soon and Farsalos will grow more than twice if not three times in the matter of months. However you would like to know how dwarves can live and travel below ground. That ended up being... simple to say the least.

Essentially they build their cities on underground rivers that are plain safer and for resource transfer you could just dump anything that swims and the current would bring it to the destination eventually while monsters don't pay much attention to floating debris. On the ground dwarves perform thorough scouting of the path between their towns and seal it off from nearby caves while reinforcing and expanding it into an underground road. These sometimes fail and spew monsters inside their perimeter but dwarves are excellent heavy infantry and siege engine operators and they can handle the upper first layer creatures with sustainable casualties. Like what Cenophilans did with that path to the island but better.

After leaving the dwarven fortress and making your way through the giant insect infested forest(god bless telekinetic shielding) you placed yourself back on the path to the mainland. It wasn't too eventful and you managed to get you funds. You immediately paid back to Nike' for lending you cash and now you are left with a hefty pile of Cenophilan electrum coins. The market is luckily still open so you decide to pay it a visit before you finally leave this area.

You have 5 monetary units and you know the drill.

>>3080901
Luxury goods:
>Spices(1 point) an assortment of exotic processed spices and herbs. This won't be enough for the whole village but that should improve your private cooking for the next couple months
>Brown sugar(1 point) Half a kilo of the sweet goodies
>Ethean cotton fabric(1 point) A couple of rolls of the fancy and soft cotton

Seeds:
>Flax(1 unit): a single field worth of seeds of the famous textile and oil plant
>Veggies(1 unit): a single field worth of an assortment of varied common edible plants such as vegetables, beans and fruits
>Wheat(2 units): a single field worth of expensive wheat
>Grain(1 unit): Two fields worth of buckwheat and barley
>Olives(2 units): A single field worth of expensive oil plant

Materials:
>Iron(1 unit): a small shipment of wrought iron ingots. An equivalent of 50 small iron tools
>Fabrics(1 unit): a large shipment of processed average quality linen. For when you don't want to wait until the next year for your own products
>Wool(2 units): a large shipment of wool which can be turned into some warm and fuzzy fabric

Farming animals:
>Chickens(1 unit): a dozen of adult hens and a rooster. More chickens for more people!
>Sheep(1 unit): a breeding pair of animals famous for their soft fur
>Goat(1 unit): a breeding pair of animals famous for their meat and milk
>Pigs(1 unit): three female and one male pig. Used for meat and garbage disposal
>Horse(2 units): a single horse bred for labor. High strength but low speed and is not trained for combat.
>Cow(2 units): a single creature famous for its milk, leather and meat. Useful as a beast of burden.

>>3080906
How many fields do we have with nothing on it again?

>>3080947
None. We would have to actually build more. Or outsource it to villagers I guess.

>>3080906
>Spices(1 point) an assortment of exotic processed spices and herbs. This won't be enough for the whole village but that should improve your private cooking for the next couple months
To offer our guests
>Veggies(1 unit): a single field worth of an assortment of varied common edible plants such as vegetables, beans and fruits
>Wheat(2 units): a single field worth of expensive wheat
>Pigs(1 unit): three female and one male pig. Used for meat and garbage disposal

For a varied diet

>>3080966
I agree but change veggies for iron, I think we already have veggies is that right qm?

>>3080974
We do. I added it in case you wanted more veggies. They don’t store but are a good source of food.

>>3080992
>>3080974
Change to iron then, I was on the fence about it anyway

>>3081003
>>3080966
Got it, writing

>>3081029
After finishing your shopping and loading it all onto a small cart you've bought specifically for this you have decided to set off for your home village. Nike' doesn't really pull the cart but the two of you end up chatting almost the entire trip. Apparently Nike's name was Nika(really?) and she used to command a fire team during the Eastern European conflict of 2024. She was a corporal in EU united armed forces and her team was killed during a town shelling somewhere in Poland. She has lost an arm and a leg with another leg being partially disabled. Surprisingly, the flashbacks completely stopped after the pod. That tattoo- looking thing actually came from when her teammates... persuaded her to get it while everyone was really drunk. Something about her reminding them of some fictional character. She decided to keep it while in the pod as a memory of her friends. It was apparently turned into a shaped pigment spot or else it would not regenerate with her skin if damaged.

Regarding powers she told you a bit about her thing. She too has a bunch of physical augments and then some as well as the space- time manipulation thing. Apparently different people have different talent towards different psi powers. Mortati can shape flesh but is terrible with plants while Ninmah has basically the reverse. For some reason Nike' is amazing with augmenting her body, short range instant teleportation and short range telekinesis. She can do the normal telekinesis, shields, hovering in midair and stuff but it is a bit harder than the former. She thinks that from what you've demonstrated you could have a talent for body augmenting as well plus you might have more talent than her regarding long range telekinesis. She suggests that she could give you a hand with some ideas another time.

You get the opinion that she can talk with people well and somewhat enjoys chatting with you but she doesn't really start the new subjects first. Nike' has this almost aloof feel to her. You wonder if it is just a part of her personality or if she is thinking of something. In any case, you manage to get all the way back home in just over a day. The village is luckily still there and everyone seems to be alright from the first glance. All you need to do is check up on everything and get back to your projects...
________________________________________
And that's all for now folks. It is midnight and I figured that I can't start anything massively new before I am forced to stop. Feel free to discuss and ask questions until the next thread happens on the next Saturday. I hope you liked the story and thank you for your time.

>>3081199
Thanks for running

>>3081199
Can I tipe up some more questions we would make her during the trip?

Such as:

Who is in the pantheon, anyone I should whatch out for while we stay under the radar?

How do you create your cup-bearers? Do you ask someone else on the team to do it for you?

Have you ever gone down the Labirynth? Any tips you can give me if I decide to explore there?

There's this old dwarven place that seemed purposely collapsed, would you like to have a look in it with me? I want to see if I can find some of their tech there


Thanks for running.

>>3081625
Sorry for a late reply. My laptop’s hard drive fried itself due to being too old and I barely salvaged the data. Luckily all the quest stuff was saved so we can continue with no problems. In addition, 4chan range banned my phone IP making it impossible to post. So I have this double whammy, sorry for that. Tomorrow we are running as usual.

Regarding the post, yes. You can make an in- character question whenever it seems appropriate. Aka when you are with another person and not in combat or something similar. These things would be answered as soon as I can outside of the normal post format. Basically what I did before when I needed to compress the exposition. I figure it would be easier and more accurate than trying to guess what you guys want to know.

Speaking of which, answers in upcoming posts as soon as they are done.

>>3093748
“Pantheon currently consists out of 12 people and a bunch of Cup Bearers. Elspeth the Goddess of Wisdom as well as current head of the pantheon, God of Machines Yawgmoth who is our techie and the reason we have running water and electric lighting, Goddess of Time Verdandi who has predictive powers and cutesy appearance(no idea why everyone likes her so much), God of Fire Ignis who is a bit… mental(you can guess what he does), Goddess of Trade Samael who helps with keeping the market stable(that kid on the statues), Goddess of Love Valentina(you can’t miss her), God of Justice and Law Tyrael(who is surprisingly qualified at what he does), God of Stone Belkh who is a former civil engineer(look for a Lovecraftian- looking guy with the T shaped head), Goddess of Harvest Ninmah(she has that half “Gaia” half hippy vibe to her), permanently serious and busy God of Healing Mortati, your neighbor Goddess of War Nike' and then there is the God of “annoying everyone” Marco(not AS bad as it sounds. He is mostly harmless).

Yes, the names and general themes are ripped off. The rest (including personalities) is original. Please don’t transfer your opinions on characters from the cyoa to this quest

Most of them hang out much closer to the capital Elspen. I don’t think you would meet anyone unless you specifically try but if you want to know you probably need to look out for Marco. It is not possible to predict his appearance and he just roams anywhere when he is bored. Maybe also Ignis but if you just keep a clearing between your village and the forest you won’t get hurt and Nina would pop up a couple weeks later to fix the mess.

Can’t tell you the exact number of the Cup Bearers but they usually have some trait that can be traced to their creators and some even have similar personalities. Just keep those in mind and don’t flash your powers or tech at full and you should be fine. “

>>3093753
“The Cup Bearers… that is a bit of a difficult subject. It really depends on who makes them.

There is a thing where a good chunk of your abilities gets passed to your children but Cenophilan pantheon doesn’t do that. Valistrat guys do though and their head god earned a nickname of “god of one-night stands” among the pantheons for a reason. Basically, think Greek heroes but real.

There is also a psychic organ of sorts in every biological pod person who went through full 2000 years of freezing. It allows a sufficiently skilled biomancer to copy weakened versions of some powers and implant them into already living people. It can’t get “saved” for later by a biomancer so you have to be there to “donate” a legit weak copy of your powers. It is also impossible to force it as you can easily resist and block the copy attempt.

Psi awakening is also possible, but I am not sure how to do it. This is what Elspeth sometime does to add extra powers for her Cups in addition to getting a “normal” biosculpting session that she can do herself. Technically anyone skilled enough can do it including normal psi awakened people but each step down gives a weaker power.

There is an option to forge a Cup from scratch. Yaw mainly does this and all of his Cups look like some kind of bio- machine humans with human heads or only faces. They look nicer than I described to be fair. It can get a bit power related where biosculptors could grow a person from the ground up however they want depending on their affinity. An example of this would be that hermit goddess off the shore to the South-East. She makes plant golems and augments local elf population with plant based symbiotic organs.

Also, there is a way to make a person partially from yourself if you have a transhuman augmentation. Nano blob people can either split in two or make a person melt into a puddle while retaining their mind. Those subspace Lovecraftian guys can do something like psi awakening but of their physiology. A person would shift as time goes on into a form that, according to Elspeth, reflects their self-image and how they are seen by others.

It is also possible to take a pod and make it modify a person. Unfortunately, it takes a bit more time, more energy or fuel that is no longer produced and there is a huge risk to sanity if you don’t know what you are doing. I haven’t heard of a successful attempt yet but Elspeth claims that the potential power is greater than other options.

There could be other ways I don’t know of. This is a strange world and we haven’t checked much further than this quarter of a continent. But as an example, if I want to make a Cup I need to ask Mort or Elspeth for help and I am also required to donate the blueprint. Mort keeps calling it a “gene seed” but that just sounds dirty.”

>>3093779
“I’ve been pretty far down the Labyrinth actually. It seems to be separated into at least three layers with inter layer zones that are made from harder psi augmented rock making a barrier with few and far between connecting tunnels. The deeper it goes the more dangerous it gets. Apparently roughly in the middle even average monsters pose a lethal threat to powerful Cups. I didn’t go any further than that though as it becomes increasingly annoying as anomaly frequency increases and they become more powerful. They also seem to get more frequent in the direction of the center of the continent. Same goes for monsters. The deeper you go the more dangerous they are.

About the tips… don’t go below the middle of the first floor with mortals or they’ll most probably die. You’ll know when you are past the middle once you feel a slight psychic hum directed towards the North- East. Mortals would feel a mild headache. You can take a Cup Bearer there though. Also remember that big monster doesn’t equal dangerous monster and the other way around. We are incredibly hard to kill but sometimes you run into something that is quite capable of wrecking you. Things like monsters firing bubbles of slowed down time or pulling you into subspace are a thing as well as those capable of cutting through meter thick steel. Always have a way to retreat fast. Preferably through a hole your opponent can’t fit through.

Also, you should probably know that mimics are a thing in the lower half of the first layer and they can be anything. ANYTHING. From chests to holes in the walls. They are really annoying and probably won’t kill you but you can get splashed with acid capable of dissolving iron in minutes. Same goes with psi powered monsters and self- aware monsters. Not every person you’ll meet is going to be a cute monstergirl or a riopff fantasy creature. However also don’t assume the opposite, since the difference between a smart monster and a local could depend only on intention and some people down there look nothing like a human.

And probably the last thing, prepare to be surprised. You never know what lurks down there and what treasures could be uncovered. Just to peek your interest, I found ruins from the second apocalypse time in the second layer. And I think that’s it on the subject of tips.”

>>3093802
“Maybe later. I will probably have to go in a couple of days after we arrive. After all being a goddess is a job and a position of power. I am often required somewhere across the nation in a pinch for some reason or another from sports festivals to monster invasions or something similar.

Considering that I have never seen any dwarven cities in the area I expect that what you’ve found is either a small town or an outpost. It was probably destroyed by something and dwarves were forced to seal it off. If that is the case, you could clear it out and reestablish contact with the dwarves. Having access to a foreign nation so close to your settlement would probably be a great boon to local merchants. I don’t expect you’d find anything of great value there though.

If you wish to scout it out go ahead. Just check if that was a monster and not some disease or unrest just in case. You know, for obvious reasons.”

>>3093802
So if we wanted to turn some of our friends in our cup bearers, to be able to do more stuff and survive with us in adventures we would have to ask Mort or Elsp. Got it.

The Idea of calling some of our monster hunting friends to explore the Lab or the dwarven ruins seems nice.

>>3079965
And we are finally live. Sorry for the wait, 4chan servers were not allowing anyone to post.
>>3095087

>>3095092
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