>>3371596
The rest of the dinner was not really that interesting to both you and Sigrid so you waited until it was an appropriate time to go and politely left the ballroom while carrying unconscious Haven. She didn’t lie, apparently elves in general are bad at digesting alcohol compared to humans. You guess that it is due to their livers lacking a special enzyme in sufficient amount that breaks down the spirits. Such problem is relatively common among humans similarly to lactose intolerance. The people who can’t produce the enzyme get wasted from low quantities of alcohol as well. This, however, would be a massive drawback for an iron age society. Since the methods of making drinking water and reasons for this to even be a factor are unknown, most people consume mild alcohols instead of plain water in their diets. You wonder how elves dodge this problem? Do they have better immune systems or were they taught about water decontamination? Thoughts for later, you suppose.

After Haven woke up the three of you changed back to your gear and hitched a ride on the cargo ship that carried your order of marble blocks. Those pieces look pretty great and you think that they would do just fine for the creation of Nike’s Oracle Shrine. Nika claims that she needs a specific arrangement of marble blocks for the teleportation anchor to be created. The rest is technically just the frills, but specific arrangements of statues would help her find the correct anchor faster. You are not sure if you’ll go an extra mile carving statues for it but you want the building to at least be somewhat presentable.

The boat trip back went swimmingly (pun intended) since no monsters attacked and the dwarves continued on to spread the news and trade further along the river after they unloaded the columns at the damaged dock. You helped a bit with still intact cranes and stuff not to blow your cover but once they left you could easily lift a couple columns at the time with your telekinesis to the amazement of Haven and Sigrid.

>>3371599
The Viking girl was not sure how she should act now that she knows what you are. You told the two of your companions some small things about yourself. Who you were before you were placed in stasis, who were your parents, these sorts of things. After all, you had some time for that as you needed to make several trips to haul all of the columns through the labyrinth and to the surface. You hope that the more they know about you the less they would fear your power. It might take some time but it is not like you have other options.

As you recalled some aspects of your life, you finally noticed that you haven’t been doing that for a long time. You still have a photo of your parents down in the laboratory but you haven’t touched it since you placed it there. You used to think of your life a lot before but now things kind of started piling up and you had more important tasks than going through the past on the daily basis. You now have friends, or at least you think you do. There are people who need you and you in turn need them. It feels… right.

Then you remember your uncle. Dan had an option to hop on into Elspeth’s wave of pods and end up as a synthetic god himself, but he chose to continue fighting for the project so that you could benefit from it. You wonder if he had an option after you were frozen. Is there a pod somewhere with your uncle inside or did he perish along with most of humanity? You hope that he is somewhere around since he is your only family member that could still be alive.

By the end of the next day you’ve managed to bring back all of the marble to the village and arrange the blocks for storage. Haven and Sig retired for the night but you don’t really feel like wasting any more time. That recent wolf attack was lucky since it came at the village from the north- east. If the wolf went straight west it would have hit the farmlands and during the planting seasons it could result in casualties. Lucky for you, it is still January and there will be no farming until mid- March. That means you have around two and a half months until it gets problematic. Plus, you need to wrap up with that wall you’ve planned...

>Let’s finish with the wall already. That won’t take more than a month.
>Maybe there are still other pressing matters? Let’s take a look at the project list.
>Other?

>>3371601

>Let’s finish with the wall already. That won’t take more than a month.

During the work on the walls try to do mundane things with the girls during breaks, like go fishing or having dinner and talking, maybe tell them the refugees stories and ask them for some stories of themselves, let's try to appear approachable, and laugh with them, and if Haven doesn't want to drink it's fine, the elf is really lightweight.

>>3371601
>>Let’s finish with the wall already. That won’t take more than a month.

>>3371601
>Let’s finish with the wall already. That won’t take more than a month.

And this too >>3371605 things like getting new clothes, going for a walk or a patrol in the woods when we are sick of rocklifting and training too since we can use flying rocks as target practice for them and have a good fun.

Nothing time consuming, just to fill the gaps when we start to feel tired from all the TK and to make our friends fear us less.

>>3371601
>Let’s finish with the wall already. That won’t take more than a month.

>>3371615
>>3371611
>>3371607
>>3371605
writing

File: 1536687936345.jpg (453 KB, 2174x1430)

453 KB JPG

>>3371630
You’ve planned to finish with the wall a while ago and you can’t postpone it much longer. As you planned it you had to disassemble the inner layer of palisade walls meaning that now there was only one wall between the village and the rest of the world. Thus, you think that it is paramount to finish the wall to the point it becomes functional. There are some frills you could add like roofs, but for now this should be enough.

You’ve already laid down the foundations for the walls. While it is possible to use certain techniques to build walls in deep soil, you’ve used your powers to anchor them directly to the bedrock. That way they will both prevent easy access for digging monsters and they will be more stable. There are some things that pass through the wall foundation like escape tunnels, sewers and aquifer access but those were accounted for in the design.

In addition to that the towers were also previously constructed. People who don’t know how castles work usually don’t realize that towers are much more than just access to an elevated position. Towers can be basically miniature keeps. They have floors and some towers could even contain sleeping quarters for the guards. You didn’t have to go that far, but each tower now has services that allow for easier and more comfortable operation such as small kitchens, stores for weapons and rations, access to running water and sewers and so on and so forth. Now they become the main military buildings in the village with guard post becoming more of a police station for when the settlement grows further.

The only thing you really needed to make is the wall itself. Lucky for you, brick walls don’t have to be made out of bricks the whole way through. Medieval walls usually consist out of two layers: the external layer and the filler. External layers are usually made out of either stone bricks or just stone and they are arranged in smooth and accurate pattern to prevent erosion. The filler, instead, uses much more mortar and random arrangement of rocks or sometimes even dirt. That way ancient people saved effort as the result was practically the same. In your case, the filler would be mostly a mix of broken basalt and lime mortar while fired bricks give the wall a pretty and smooth red finish.

The very last step was usually whitewashing, but it was not necessary right now. The process is essentially when the whole wall was covered in plaster both hiding the material it was made out of and protecting it against elements. However, latter becomes a problem in decades and you think that by this time the wall would already be outdated due to population growth and you like how unique the red brick looks.

>>3371700
You don’t want to just focus on building, however. While you don’t really feel bored with repetitive tasks, you still want to have some “you” time. You teach Rheia, go hunting and fishing with Sig and Haven, regularly attend to dinners with the rest of the villagers and so on. Regarding the fishing, it is a surprisingly calming experience. With the expansion of the fields during the first several months after your awakening you’ve cleared an area around a nearby forest river that now runs through the middle of the fields and it is inhabited by fresh water fish. It is a very calming experience that gives you a lot of time to think.

You also practice your telekinesis somewhat. The construction relies on precisely juggling large amounts of separate objects in repetitive patterns and by the end of construction your grasp on multitasking with your powers has increased along with the speed at which the wall grew. You’ve managed to wrap up in just a month even though you took a lot of breaks. It is the beginning of February and you have around one and a half month before the start of the farming season and around two more until you can safely ask for a healer cup. Oh, also your birthday is coming in a month or so, you wonder if you should celebrate that…

Time for another project. You know the drill. Pick the field

>Construction: a list of projects that require you to build something. Industries, defenses, outposts, infrastructures, personal facilities, labs/bases and so on.
>Research: a list of projects related to gaining and using knowledge. Personal weapons and gear, prototypes, psychic techniques, insights into the world and yourself.
>Adventure: a list of projects that require you to go out into the world. Exploring the Labyrinth, nearby wildlands or going into Cenophila proper. Brave new world awaits!
>Social: General interactions with the local inhabitants and important people as well as checking the mailbox. They unfortunately don’t have an {!} symbol above their heads when they need some help
>Other? Whatever you feel like. Write-in
>Special projects: Nike’s Oracle Shrine

>>3371702
>Special projects: Nike’s Oracle Shrine

Let our friends know about our birthday, maybe they will do sometbing

>>3371702
Ah also, small announcement, I'll need to make a pause after next quest post for reasons of getting a haircut. I will still respond but the quest itself would be paused

>>3371702
>social, if only to know what they think of us
>maybe build one or 2 towers and guard posts near the fields

>>3371702

>Construction: a list of projects that require you to build something. Industries, defenses, outposts, infrastructures, personal facilities, labs/bases and so on.

>checking the mailbox
We can deal with some minor things and Haven and Sig will have something to do while we build.

Pran a dinner at our house for our close friends, maybe order some very luxury foods and drinks from that merchant that goes to the big city nearby

>>3371702
>construction
Some simple towers in the fields with an underground shelter and an alarm system to let people know about attacks
Some metal indutry too.
I think we can do both before our birthday.

>>3371715
I like this about letting our friends know.
Let's also call Nika for our birthday, we will have to go to the nearby temple for that but we can also buy some things there for the party.
And after the birthday she can stay to help us build the temple
>>3371718
I would like to ask what they think about us too, Sig, Haven and Rheia we can ask directly, the others we can ask for Rheias opinion and about the refugees we can ask for Signy.

>>3371725
Ok for me, we can do the temple later

>>3371715
>>3371718
>>3371719
>>3371725
>>3371725
>>3371731
Alright, looks like we have:
1) field shelters and defenses as priority
2) list of metallurgic projects
3) social stuff
4) Oracle Shrine, but after the fact
5) Tell all close friends about the birthday and prepare a dinner for it

If you don't mind, I'll push metallurgy to the last place in the queue. I just expect the trip to see Nike to take several posts and if we have the oracle ready she can just activate it
>Y/N?

>>3371756
Y

>>3371756
>Y

>>3371756
Sure

>>3371764
>>3371760
>>3371759
Ok. writing

>>3371767
You decide that the first order of business is to make the fields safer. Surprisingly, it is not that risky to be a farmer on the border. If monsters were a weekly or even monthly occurrence, they would make it impossible to farm and thus no one would expand there. However, here the monster attacks are rare. It is vastly more common than in the civilized areas, but you can expect to go through the year with one or two notable incursions. It is mainly because monsters are not always made to kill people. Some monsters focus on destroying foodstuffs or buildings or tools. There are creatures that exist to rust away metals or to incapacitate civilians and destroy their personal belongings including clothes. You are still not sure if latter really exists to be fair. Many of the monsters are also territorial which also lowers the probability of running into one.

In any case, the fields are too big to be fully surrounded by a wall. It is physically possible, but any expansion would then cause issues and it would take you several months even for simplest palisade. Thus, you needed a different solution. You will place several brick towers in the field to serve as lookout posts and shelters. Each tower would have an underground section with benches and tables as well as small food stores designed to sustain the farmers for a few days. Also, each tower would be equipped with an emergency bell and a bonfire on the very top so that it could immediately call for reinforcements from Farsalos. In case of emergency the villagers would lock themselves in the towers and the resident guard would call for help by lighting the fire on the roof and maybe even shooting down the monster if it is weak enough. You threw in a scaled down version of a scorpio along with each tower that can be loaded and fired by one man. After all, it is not like you have a lot of guards in general. It took you around two weeks to finish with that project and now the villagers can feel safer when they eventually need to go planting the fields. It was not a big project, but you expect it to work just fine.

With work safety improved, you decided to take a look at your mail box. To your surprise, you found five letters of thanks written by different people. Notable ones are from the village chief and the militia leader. Former wanted to show her gratitude for basically everything that you’ve done since your appearance while latter expressed his respect of your martial skills and wished to thank you for ensuring the safety of the village in particular. The other mail is anonymous, but judging by the handwriting and grammar, most of these people barely know how to read. Still, they put some effort in expressing their opinion of your work and you are glad that they value what you do for them.

File: delphitholos.jpg (63 KB, 672x450)

63 KB JPG

>>3371905
The quest board in the town hall was mostly empty. The inn proposal was removed along with the checking up on the miners and the autumn festival. Most requests were about either offering their services or requesting help with things like construction. The only interesting things is that there is going to be a vote regarding the creation of a market. You can vote in advance and not actually sit through if you are busy, but the main idea is that it would be nice to designate a street specifically to be the main market street. The central plaza, while sufficient for a town, is limited in size and would most likely be used for some events. The proposal is to designate a street as a market street. That street would be dedicated specifically for stores, services and so on with no residential buildings built there. It seems that the first vote already happened and now it is the question if they want to pick the street that goes in the direction of the dwarves or Mirangi. Interesting…

You haven’t really found anything important there so you decided that next on your agenda is construction of Nike’s Oracle Shrine. According to her description, the building would be a circle around 20 meters in diameter kind of like a supersized Delphi tholos. It would have marble columns placed in specific arrangement with spots for statues or more columns in a ring arrangement about 1/3 of the way to the center. In the very center there would be a fireplace of sorts which, while not required for the anchor, has religious significance to the Oracle. The rest can be anything, Nike’ just asked for some decent living conditions for her servant. You think that you’ll add a rectangular piece to the shrine itself that would contain the living quarters of her priest. The question is where to place it…

Statues:
>Let’s make some, or at least prepare the spots for later
>Nah, minimalism is fine. Plop some columns there

Location:
>Inside the first defensive perimeter
>Inside the second defensive perimeter
>Somewhere outside the village itself with its own defenses and shelter
>Other?

_____________________
Ok guys, I am forced to pause the current quest until I get back home. You’ve voted to do social stuff so please specify whom you want to ask and what/how. We will continue when I get back home. I apologize for the inconvenience. I will reply to stuff while on the move so feel free to ask or suggest things and see you around.

>>3371910
>Let’s make some, or at least prepare the spots for later
>Inside the first defensive perimeter

Get the general feel about how Sigrid is reacting to us after ahe learned about our powers, we don't want her to treat us differently so try to ahow her we are the same Ag as before.

Try to gauge how the rest of the village feels about us.

>>3371920
>>3371910
Supporting this, we want good dealings with the pantheon, even if it's only through nike, so protection is a good showing
Regardless of what we decide that alone should show that we value at least one of them as friends

>>3371910

>Let’s make some, or at least prepare the spots for later
>Somewhere outside the village itself with its own defenses and shelter

On top of a hill nearby, with a good view.


For social this >>3371920 with the addition of checking with Signy about how she is doing and maybe with the horned woman about how the primitives are adapting, as well as saying that the healer should be here soon

>>3371943
>>3371939
>>3371920
I’ll need a 1d20 from you guys for a social equivalent of perception check

Rolled 16 (1d20)

>>3371979
i apologize in advance

Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>3371979

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>3371979
If we notice she is uncofortable try to ease her fears by providing asnwers for questions she might have

>>3371990
>>3371986
>>3371985
Ok, I am finally home and writing

>>3372478
You briefly play around with the idea of having an oracle on top of a hill overlooking the village, but then you remembered the monster situation and thus you figured that the best idea would be to place the building inside of the inner defenses along with the rest of the housing. That way it could also use public water and sewer access and it would be easier to fulfil the potential needs of the oracle. In addition to the location you’ve decided that it would be a good idea to prepare the spots for the statues. You could’ve made it just with the second layer of columns but that would not look as pretty and you’ve always wanted to learn how to sculpt. Well, you know now but you haven’t actually made anything yet.

The creation and assembly of the Oracle Shrine went through surprisingly quickly. With the existing experience and infrastructure, the building area took just around two days to complete and the anchor was no much trickier. In total you were done by Saturday. You haven’t completed the sculptures but you figured you’d need Nike’ herself to give you some ideas and pose for you just in case.

Once you were done with the building part you’ve figured that it might be a smart thing to check on how other people see you. Since the last time you’ve done it you stopped hiding and also told everything about you to Sig and Haven. You want to know if Viking girl is still uneasy with you, what Claudina thinks of the upcoming refugees and if there are any problems or misunderstandings in general with the villagers and so on and so forth.

You couldn’t really find an opportunity to approach Haven. She was around but she started hiding and looked like she was very busy and you didn’t want to mess with her so you decided to let her do her thing and try to chat up Claudina. Haven most likely found something and she knows what she is doing.

>>3372749
Claudina looked a bit worried regarding this entire situation with the refugees. While it is amazing that so many made it out, she is worried that many of her kind would die before they can settle and attempt to rebuild. She is very thankful that you’ve considered her request and she feels massively indebted to your kindness. In addition, she absolutely trusts your ability to help her people in the most effective way. Regarding your powers, she seems to understand well what you are. However, as her society already served a goddess it is not that infeasible for her to view you as her new deity. She does understand that you don’t wish to be worshiped but she sees you as potentially the new patron of her species. She does think no worship is weird because it is widely accepted that deity's power is at least partially based on the amount of worshipers but she accepts that you might be different or you can have other reasons.

After finishing a cup of Claudina’s amazing mushroom tea and thanking her for her time you’ve met up with Sigrid. She was more open than she was during the Labyrinth trip but not as open as before. She noticed that you were concerned and apologized for this. She says that she still needs some time to get used to the whole situation. She is a friend of a real goddess. Deities often mask as mortals and walk among the people, but they almost never lower themselves to the people in their true form. Sig thanks you for your trust in her and she won’t betray it, but she needs some time to get herself back in check. She does enjoy spending her time with you and she plans to continue adventuring with you if you wish but she doesn’t want to officially “tie the knot” with the team up like Haven just yet. You guess that you should try approaching her at a later date but so far it seems promising.

As you were wrapping up a very worried Haven appeared from the alleys and whispered in your ear “We may or may not have a massive problem. It really depends on your opinion. Please wear this and follow me” as she passes you a cloak.

>Follow Haven
>Ask her to just tell you. “You better come see this” is a bad trope
>Other?

>>3372762
>follow her, but raise a quizical eyebrow

>>3372779
Good
Now Ag notices she couldn't raise just one eyebrow qiizicaly before, the pod improved even her facial expression capabilities.

t.anon who can't raise just one eyebrow, the other one always follows

>>3372762
>Follow Haven

What is it dear? What are the villagers doing this time?

>>3372779
>>3372818
>>3372848
Alright, writing. I feel terrible and I am blacking out right now. I'll need to call it here. Please check up tomorrow for the last post since I literally can't focus enough to write it rn. Sorry about that

>>3372921
No worries, thanks for running

>>3372921
don't worry, health is top priority anyway, so get better and see you tomorrow/next week

>>3372921
Thanks for running, get better, and see you next time

>>3372921
You raise your eyebrow quizzically but you decide to follow her anyway. It becomes apparent that the cloak is needed for you to conceal your figure in the dark as Haven leads you through the sewer system and eventually to a certain spot where a symbol is scratched on a brick. Well, people tend to leave graffiti on the walls all the time, right? Haven urges you to take a closer look however, and then you see it. You notice that it is a disguised arrowhead and not just a slip of the hand. It is pointing down one of the escape tunnels. Interesting…

The particular tunnel leads to the forested area to the south- west of the village. It is made specifically to be a backup for the main tunnel that leads almost directly south and exits close to the road so that villagers could flee to Mirangi in case the village bumps into something that you can’t beat. The backup is further in the woods and it is designed for rare cases when the first tunnel is inoperable or compromised.

The thick door to the tunnel is supposed to be always sealed but it was unlocked. It is impossible to open from the outside so it had to be opened by the villagers. There is a marking on one of the sides of the door and a similar arrow symbol pointing towards the end of the tunnel on the inside. You can see why a person such as Haven would be interested in this. It can be anything from someone trying to infiltrate the village to first signs of criminal activity. It could also just be drifters or something, to be fair. In any case, it is a subject worth investigating.

When you’ve entered Haven closed the door behind the two of you and asked you to lock it with TK for some reason to which you obliged. At the end of the tunnel lies a relatively small shelter room. You placed a couple benches there as well as a few tools, first aid, spare clothes and basic weapons just so that fleeing villagers would have something on them when they leave. Considering the open door, you expected it to be open to the surface but that door was still locked from the inside and the intact wax stamp on the lock indicates that no one opened it since you’ve installed it.

>>3375846
The disturbing part was that there was a wooden statue about 50cm tall sitting on top of the bench and, while crude, it was obvious that it was a statue of you. The statue was depicted wearing your civilian dress but it had a belt with a sword, a halberd in her right hand and a shield rested on the floor but held up by her left hand. The statue has a neutral expression. There is a carving in Cenophilan at the round base of the statue saying something like “praised be our patron” followed by your name in another row. On the floor close to the statue there are two wooden boxes that contain what you assume to be offerings. Cenophilan coins, small crafts, flowers and even one of the semi- precious gems you’ve given to the village treasury.

Haven whispers: “I think we have a cult. They want to remain secret from the rest of the village for some reason. This room is also almost impossible to sneak up to. Anyone entering through the door echoes all the way to here giving them ample chance to lock this door” she points at the door you’ve made for the cases when villagers might want to stop possible pursuit. “and they can always flee into the forest in the worst case and probably claim to be foraging and return with no problems. I have no idea how they view you but this place didn’t exist during late autumn. I assume this cult is in its infancy and they are unlikely to have any form of standard prayers or much of anything in general. It is quite obvious that they worship you, however.”

>>3375848
You are not quite comfortable with this. You never liked to attract too much attention and you were always a shy girl. Now you are technically a real goddess with a real, if somewhat small, cult. It is somewhat flattering but it is a bit too much. Back in your time there were incredibly popular people who had massive fandoms of tens of millions of people all over the globe but this is something beyond that. They most likely view you as a patron deity of this place. A lot of the villagers technically owe you their lives. You killed dangerous monsters, built luxurious houses and fed everyone without asking anything in return. Haven says that as it is commonly accepted that gods take some of their power through devotion of their subjects, they might view you as a newbie deity and they might think that this could help you grow your powers into a full-fledged goddess.

To think about it, you shot down the first attempt to worship you when Oisin claimed that you were somehow connected to Elspeth. Maybe that’s why they are hidden? Maybe they are hoping that you’d accept the cult once it grows and starts “giving you power” or something? Or maybe other villagers don’t like that idea and they are hiding from the guards? Well, whatever their reasons, you need to decide on what to do with this mess. Do you discourage them? Or do you just leave them be since it doesn’t really hurt anyone? As you were pondering this you’ve heard the squeak of an opening door at the end of the tunnel…
_______________________
And with this cliffhanger this week’s thread has finally ended. Some player notice: my graduation is coming and I will be forced to do a hiatus again just like during April. Next thread would be the last for now and at this rate I expect to resume running during the mid-summer. I will still be around discord and twitter so feel free to contact me for whatever reason at any time. As always, you can ask questions, make suggestions and discuss. See you next week and I hope you enjoyed SGQ.

>>3375851
Thanks for running, man, that is some delicate situation.

>>3375851
Oh yeah, subject for today’s post- quest discussion is how to approach this cult.

>>3375851
Hoo boy, I expect that, but it is far more secretive than I expected and that is troubeling
We should confront them, but also be sensitive and understanding or we drive them further underground or even start a conspiracy

>>3375851
Ok

So now we have to think

Do we want a cult? It will involve people worshipping us, we can tell them to stop but that might not work, or we can explain to them that it does nothing to us but that is a hit heartless and may cause some serious culture shock.

Or we can try to leave here and pretend it didn't happen, what do you guys think?

>>3376580
my idea would be to ask them to explain it to us, to tell us why they feel it necessery to worship us
ideally, we would then ask them to stop worshipping us in this way and instead try to help the village grow and flourish and to help those less fortunate than them
if they feel it necessary, they could dedicate those good deads to our name
i mean it would do nothing in itself, but it might help them feel better about the change

>>3376599
hhmmmm

like saying to them, do you want to please me? help thy neighbor and those refugees when they come, create a flourishing and good community and help Farsalos prosper, that would please me, not worship.

>>3376664
thinking about this a little more, if we tell them to do something else instead of prayer it will be like just saying that this something else is = prayer

like, do x instead of prayer, and they think x = prayer

in the end we have to think if we attempt to get them to stop or just let them do their thing.

we can at least explain that we do not ask for this and that it doesn't affect us maybe? I don't know, that may be a culture shock

>>3379319
What if we just let them? I don't know.
The more people know us the more people will want to worship us since their entire society is based around living gods.
I know Aghata doesn't feel confortable with it, so maybe just tell them that but I'm not sure we will be able to make them stop.

>>3375851
We're up: >>3391395

>>3391403
Thread archived

Last post lol

HAH Got'em