>>4338424
You reply to the priestess: “Yes, that would be acceptable. However, the city would not be built exclusively for you, it would have citizens from many cultures who would occupy it along with you on equal terms. Thus, your tenets that dictate treatment of other races and cultures will likely have to become obsolete in my territory. Same might apply to tenets that would interfere with my ethics as my opinions might differ from goddess Aino. Any other covenants or tenets you might have can be practiced freely.”

“We understand…” she says, “we expected that there might be something that we would have to sacrifice when moving into your lands. This is probably the best we could hope for, after all we have little freedom of choice now. I believe that this shouldn’t be a big change as we don’t actually have any religious rules regarding foreigners, we simply had no precedent for them during the rule of Aino. Our first encounter with the Dwarves occurred shortly after she has left and we had very little contact with Teryian elves who couldn’t handle the Labyrinth for long. All that we had was Priesthood Mandates and they allowed trade but disallowed foreigners from living in our lands permanently. There is one tenet that prohibits us from leaving our lands voluntarily, but just before Exodus surviving priesthood has chosen an official interpretation by which “Our Land” is the land where our people live in perpetuity, which means that it would apply to any place that we settle forever. The majority of our tenets and covenants concern our daily lives and the structure of our society. I hope that you would allow them if they apply only to us.” You reply that you would have to look through them and think about it afterwards, but for now what is important is saving Ihmisetian people as soon as possible, to which the priestess Amiya agrees.

>>4338446
“Speaking of which…” you say and pull out the hologram gem. You’ve played around with it for some time before you went to the Ruin so you know how to operate it. Essentially it projects the mental image that you have in your head when you pour the energy into it. By controlling the image in the head, you can control the hologram very precisely. It can only take the scan of the surface thought and you have to specifically lower outer mental defenses to operate it. It also requires high mental discipline and an ability to focus on the image for long periods of time, something that a human would struggle with due to the monkey brains that are easily distracted and have short attention span. If you lose focus on what you are talking about the image dissolves into vague shapes while if a thought comes through your surface thoughts it can show up on the hologram as well which can be anything from distortions, distractions or something very embarrassing. However, thanks to your mind augmentation, you can multitask at unprecedented scale: you essentially divide your outer thoughts into several compartments only one of which is projected which allows you to have your own thoughts without them getting in the shot.

The elves didn’t expect such a presentation, both in terms of the scale of the city and the way you demonstrate it. You explain that the city design was finalized and the construction is currently in the clearing stage where monsters, trees and other obstructions are removed from the area. The estimate for the city’s completion, according to Belkh, is “two years”, but non- critical zones like industries would be constructed later in the timeline while habitation would be prioritized. During the winter or spring of the next year the agricultural villages and first residential districts would be complete. It takes some time for the representatives to get their jaws from the floor and start asking first questions.

>>4338449
The main subject of concern seems to be agriculture. They are not sure if their crops would work well on the surface. In the worst case, they would have to switch entirely towards surface crops, but certain religious rituals actually require specific cultures that they grow. The main one is the “underground corn” that you saw. Or more accurately, one third of it. Ihmisetian main food crop is a combination of three types of fungus that is used for a peculiar form of “crop rotation”. It is fascinating because it doesn’t require direct human involvement for rotation itself, the crop A (corn analogue), once it depletes its resources, withers out and its mycelium goes into hibernation. Then a crop B family (a mix of mushrooms that sound like wheat or rye) takes over until they deplete their nutrients and also go into hibernation. In the end crop C (a sort of tuber mushroom similar to a potato) takes over and depletes its nutrients, by which point nutrient A is sufficiently accumulated for “corn” to sprout again and cycle continues. Most of the labor is required for maintenance and initial planting. If you mess up the proportions, this cycle breaks which is why no one has succeeded in cultivating their crops outside of their lands. They grow exceptionally well in a wide variety of soils and they give off harvests multiple times a year per each of the cycles.

The main concern is the lighting. You’re not sure where they know that from, but their crops are a hybrid between a plant and a fungus. They start growing like normal fungus and then once the fungal “infrastructure” is constructed they partially switch to plant mode in which they are capable of absorbing light instead of completely subsisting off ground nutrients. However, unlike green surface crops, these mushrooms are of darker shades thanks to using a dark grey pigment to absorb as much of the energy from the much less powerful glow- quartz lighting of the Ihmisetian cave system. Mushrooms in general prefer not to be under intense light and the dark color might cause them to overheat and die off under prolonged sunlight. You’ll have to look into that, specifically with Claudina who has managed to grow some of the crops outside of her home.

>>4338450
By the end of that discussion, a couple of the other elves bring in the meals for the “command staff” as well as one for you. It is a bowl of thick porridge of a light grey color with some small purple mushrooms added into it. You recognize those as one of the staple foods among the dwarves, they are said to be very juicy and they are the main ingredient of many of their commoner dishes and the cheapest sort of dwarven alcohol similar to weak wine. You are invited to participate in the meal. It is a nice opportunity to get to know more about Ihmisetians, their culture or just the people around you, so maybe you should ask a few questions, such as…

it is time for a questionnaire beyond the main posts, ask freeform questions and I will reply as soon as I can, you know the drill. After we deplete the questions, I will write the follow-up main post

>About glowing facial tattoos, they look very much like the starry sky, but there aren’t many stars visible underground
>Ask about the state of Labyrinth exploration. You’ve heard that they lost a bunch of people…
>Ask about the military buildup. Are they planning something? If yes, should you help them?
>Ask about the spiders and web blocked tunnel. Do they have a problem with them? If yes, should you interfere and clear them out?
>What do they think of the city design? Do they like it?
>Other ideas?

>>4338452

>About glowing facial tattoos, they look very much like the starry sky, but there aren’t many stars visible underground
See if Amiya's pattern has any meaning beyong religious too.
>Ask about the state of Labyrinth exploration. You’ve heard that they lost a bunch of people…
>Ask about the military buildup. Are they planning something? If yes, should you help them?

>>4338452
>>About glowing facial tattoos, they look very much like the starry sky, but there aren’t many stars visible underground
>>Ask about the state of Labyrinth exploration. You’ve heard that they lost a bunch of people…
>Ask about the spiders and web blocked tunnel. Do they have a problem with them? If yes, should you interfere and clear them out?

we should also offer to fly the priestess to Farsalos to show her where it is(and for her to get her first experience with surface too, aerial one at that lo), so they can send a messager our way in case they need to tell us something quick

>>4338452

>Ask about the state of Labyrinth exploration. You’ve heard that they lost a bunch of people…
>Ask about the military buildup. Are they planning something? If yes, should you help them?
>Ask about the spiders and web blocked tunnel. Do they have a problem with them? If yes, should you interfere and clear them out?


Can we add suitable places for their crops on our city plan?

Ask if there is anything else they would like added to the city

>>4338487
>>4338477
>Facial tattoos:
“It is a part of the initiation ritual for young lower priestesses and it is a feature that we keep during our entire lives as we ascend the priesthood ranks. In the black ceiling of the main cave a myriad of variously sized glowing crystals are placed by our kind goddess to let us see in the dark, grow our crops and remind us of certain rituals, trials and heroes. Some are bright and bigger than our largest buildings, but others are tiny and barely visible from the floor. The patterns signify the temple in which the ritual was held, in particular the shapes of the most important crystals seen from it. I was told by a Teryian once that it looks somewhat like the skies on the surface during the night, but the overall lighting is more comparable to an overcast day. Maybe the new priestesses would be given constellations from the surface world with the new meanings that we and our children would make. I was lucky enough to be initiated in the Outer Temple of the inner Town, so several of the dots on my face are in fact the most sacred “stars” of our people. Not all of them, though, that is a privilege of the most gifted initiates that are taken to the Highest Temple, they get the entire pattern of every “star” visible from the Town.”

>>4338527
>State of Labyrinth exploration and spiders:
“We have indeed lost a significant number of Labyrinth scouts, but in turn we have successfully mapped the area of the Labyrinth that would be significant for us in the near future. We discovered the Path of Giants, which was the most lethal discovery among them. We also mapped what we called the Winding Tunnels in the direction from where Herbalist Claudina came from. We didn’t map the Spider Path for the reasons of… we are not liked there. We had an encounter with the people that reside in that tunnel, half people half horrifying spiders of enormous size. They didn’t attack our scouts, but they threatened us and soon blocked the tunnel with webs. We are not welcome there, but we don’t think that they would threaten us.

>Military buildup:
This time the officer speaks instead of Amiya: “You are likely familiar with our plans to recapture the areas occupied by the goblin tribes. There should be enough territory in the abandoned dwarven settlements to supply almost twice the total population of Ihmisetians. No offense, but the Priest Council and the Remnant Military has decided not to put much faith in the surface settlement in the short term. We don’t have much choice on the matter of where to settle, even if you would not build us a city, we would still be forced to build surface settlements ourselves in your claimed territory and it’s not like we can oppose you. Alternatively, we could attempt to force our stay in the Ruin in conflict with our agreement with the dwarves, both of which would require food independence. So, we are planning to open the gates to methodically eradicate the goblin population with our heavy infantry who should be highly effective against sticks and stones, however your newest update might steer the leadership away from this plan.”

Regarding the priestess visit to the surface, I noted it for the main posts after the questions.

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>>4338513
A city of current technological state is not capable of growing its own food supply, it would be provided by numerous farms that would be placed in the region. Current technology requires about a hectare of land per person to feed them and the associated meat production. With chemical fertilizers that number would shrink to half hectare per person and going full vegetarian would shrink that to 0.3 hectares per person. This means that to feed all survivng 40 000 elves you need 40 000 hectares or roughly 400 square kilometers of land area. Sounds like a lot, right? Well, size is relative. A single pixel on my low resolution map is 8 kilometers on the side, the entire total farm area would take 50 pixels separated across the wilderness. Please refer to picrelated.

Regarding more additions, you have already taken the list of what they require, which is understandably short. You already have places of worship in accordance to their requirements and the buildings are already more spacious than they expected. They don't feel like it is a good idea to stretch their luck.

>>4338527
Nice, if they would not mind we cpuld help them preserve the knowledge of the sky from the Town. Our memory is photographic so we could reproduce a map of sorts if they showed us all the markings....that is...if they were not able to do that while escaping the Town.

>What do they think of the city design? Do they like it?

Might as well ask

>>4338546
We would likely have to make an excursion to Town for recovery of relics and cultural reasons

>>4338555
That sounds awesone, when we get things more stable up top we can do that

>>4338552
>City design
They have no words to describe this correctly, they are just blown away. They expected something planned for fast construction that would place things like comfort at low priority, yet this is something beyond their wildest expectations. You’ve even attempted to replicate some of their architecture which they noted. It is hard for them to believe that it is even possible, let alone in just two years.

>>4338452
Alright, there were no new questions for 30 minutes which means the questionnaire is closed. Writing the next big post

>>4338627
Well shit, I had a blackout in the kitchen (fuze got fried), I spent too long to fix it and now meds are kicking in. I guess I will extend today's session tomorrow. Sorry about that.

>>4338729
thanks for running

>>4338729
During the chatter you try out the porridge, and honestly it is not as bad as you imagined it. The color is unusual and not very appetizing to say the least, but it tastes remotely like corn porridge, maybe even a bit sweeter. It is probably just the question of getting used to it. The purple mushrooms are comparable to tomatoes in how juicy they are, but they have a more neutral taste. They would likely go well with some salt in a salad. The food is pretty simple, way simpler than what you’d imagine the leaders eating. Either they are intentionally frugal or the food situation is not great, likely both.

You ask a bunch of questions that concerned you and the elves asked what concerned them. The officer was interested in the situation on the surface regarding the monsters, nearby states and defenses of the new city. The new priestesses were mostly wondering about your positions on various matters regarding your worship. They were surprised that you didn’t actually want anything specific, no ceremonies, no sacrifices, special days and so on. You think that it would be better for some things like those to be acquired organically, to have a real meaning, not something completely constructed by you. However, it seems that they are concerned with your views on statecraft. The concept of democracy and democratic elections, while not completely alien, still doesn’t fit in their governmental practices.

>>4340410
According to their religion, the people need to be guided by the deity since they are limited in their perception of the world, knowledge and understanding. While they have free will, they lack understanding of the implications of their actions. Common Ihmisetian, according to that teaching, should follow the policies from above and attempt to contact the nearby priests if there is anything that they are not sure of. The priest on the other hand is supposed to contact specialists and later further higher ups if they can’t reach a solution or decision. The chain goes up all the way to the goddess (or council of highest priestesses in her absence) if needed.

That is the basic reason for why their society is theocratic: it is a rigid command pyramid that attempts to filter out important matters for the goddess to decide on while attempting to solve lesser matters through those who speak for the goddess. Priesthood even tells farmers what crops they need to grow at what time and their clerks deliver the seeds and collect harvests for redistribution similar to bronze age Egypt. A primitive form of command economy, so to say. The structure is said to be meritocratic at least on the lowest levels, but to go up the ranks you need to be chosen by those above you and a space needs to be vacant either because someone died or was deposed for crimes or incompetence. Structure of higher levels of their church is only vaguely known to be very secretive, arcane, complicated and not mattering anymore on the account of all of the religious heads above the rank of mid-priestess being dead. Their military is not as connected with religion, but they still have a rigid command structure that requires recognition of higher ups to progress higher. The only “democratic element” that they have is on the lowest secular self- governance units of small city districts and villages where the village or district head is elected among the elves local to that area. This organ is mostly spontaneous, has little power, has an advisory and almost completely subservient role to the local priesthood.

Priestess Amiya mentions that from a very technical perspective the words of Aino on the matter can be interpreted as to “seek her advise and assistance”, but this “advise” is the holy word and thus has to be implemented. The priesthood pyramid is technically not set in scriptures but it was setup by Aino herself to exercise finer control over the state. It is said that at the start there were few margins and people of the time had to follow Aino’s commandments to the letter to set up their society during the Long Night, modern Ihmisetians are supposed to be “significantly less dogmatic”. Yeah, “significantly less dogmatic” my ass, this promises to be a long-term pain, you think. Other priestesses react as if this is a very controversial thing to say.

>>4340411
After some discussions of democratic systems, the priestesses come to the conclusions that it technically doesn’t violate anything if you alter the process by which the priesthood is chosen or if you mandate the creations of secular organs. However, they think that it might not be as feasible to set up elected offices on higher levels of the government in anything more than advisory role. After you save the Ihmisetian kind, the vast majority of them would support your every decision, and according to them that is how it should be. You might have to wait a couple generations for the new political ideas to start forming and that is without taking into account the fact that these elves are biologically immortal. Your only real hope here is a lot of cultural contamination, or maybe something that you can’t foresee yet.

In any case, once you finish with the food you propose to take those of them who are willing for a trip to the surface. Visiting the Farsalos, taking the aerial trip around the city construction and so on. The priestesses excuse themselves for a minute and start murmuring to the side. They don’t realize that your hearing is enhanced and you can clearly hear that they are concerned with who would organize everything of something goes wrong and they don’t return. They end up selecting Amiya to make a trip with you, everyone else would stay here. The reason seems to be that Amiya has the most experience in interacting with you. You can’t shake off the feeling that Amiya feels a little suckered into this, but she begrudgingly agrees and after a short preparation she is ready to follow you. Well, time to go home…

>Roll 1d20, next post would be the last for the week

Rolled 9 (1d20)

>>4340414
here goes

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>4340414
woop

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>4340414

>>4340425
Nice, seems it was an enjoyable flight

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26 KB JPG

>>4340414
They'll probably form a church or syndicate and organize between themselves, to interact commercially with others on the surface, which can be really cool too.

"Look that is Farsalos, please don't freak out"

>>4340462
>>4340436
>>4340435
>>4340425
>>4340420
Writing

>>4340472
You smile and tell Amiya not to worry, after all the trip would be short and you would be with her all the time so that you can protect her. She smiles back, but it is quite obvious that she is still unsure. The other priestesses tell their goodbyes, you pass down the gifts and the two of you start moving through the streets towards the surface. You seem to be picking up quite a lot of attention as you pass by the elven workers. Amiya doesn’t seem to mind the reaction of her people, but she does cover her head in a hood of her priestess dress. “I guess the saying is true…” she says while walking. “…the power comes to those who don’t wish for it.”

You ask her to clarify and she replies that since she is the one who first contacted you, she was chosen as the sole bearer of the risks connected with you. The hopes are high, but the uncertainty is higher. If it all goes well, she might end up in a position much more important than she has ever imagined. However, she used to just be a priestess in a small settlement near the Town dealing with small problems. As much as she tries, she’s way over her head in this. Talks with a goddess, management of the Ruin that is the only hope for the rebuilding of their society, reading reports of losses among her people from monsters and famine, you get the idea. You ask her if there is anything you can help her with, and she replies that it’s ok, she now is at least no longer alone with the paperwork.

The path to the surface was uneventful, you had your dwarven lantern to make it less eerie to navigate through the pitch-black tunnels, the guards at the gate bow to the priestess as you pass by and not a single monster shows up. It’s not like you wanted to show off in front of the cute priestess girl, but you guess that if it’s safe then it’s ok that it is boring. You lock the Labyrinth gates behind you and float up to the surface along with your companion. She is somewhat scared with the sensation of the weightlessness, but she gets used to it pretty quickly.

>>4340850
It is almost 3 am on the surface. Underground it is hard to tell time and locals work in overlapping shifts depending on their sleep schedule, you guess that the day night cycle is one of the things elves would have to get used to. For the moment, it just provides a breathtaking view of the night sky for Amiya who sees it for the first time in her life. At first, she is stunned, but then she smiles and whispers “…it is beautiful”. She is particularly fascinated by the moon as they didn’t have a light source even comparable to it in size in their cave’s ceiling.

You decide to give her a better view and without much thought you take her into a bridal carry and float up above the tree tops. She is startled at first, but she quickly can’t get enough of the view. It must be quite an experience for her, you can probably compare it to what first settlers on Mars felt when taking the first steps on another world, if not even more intense. A vast sea of green stretching in every direction, a huge mountain visible in the distance with its white peaks and the lights of the village in the distance…

It doesn’t take you long to get back to Farsalos, make a few circles around the village and settle near to your home. There are next to no people outside and the tired militiaman on patrol almost doesn’t react to your appearance. Huh, you guess that one can get used to anything including a goddess as a neighbor. You can’t really show off the forest clearing in the middle of the night since it is too dark outside, which is a pretty unintuitive thing for someone born in an era of city lights. You would just wait for a couple hours for the sunrise and show off the lands in the morning. Until then the two of you would just hang out in your home.

You make some good tea for Amiya and serve it along with some sweets. By her reaction you guess that she hasn’t had good food for a while, she is almost ready to hug you for some pastries. The next couple hours are spent quietly drinking tea with some light chatter until the sun rises and you can finally show her around. You introduce her to the village chief, show her the village proper, the nearest town, then the fields, the factories, ships and the newest yet unnamed village. She is somewhat uncomfortable in the sun, but she quickly adapts so it shouldn’t be a problem for other Ihmisetians and she finds the surface beautiful in its own way. They had forests and plains underground as well, but not of such amazing green color and not stretching into the horizon.

>>4340852
Then you take a turn and decide to check out how the area clearing is going. You gain some altitude and fly into the deeper forest until you start seeing signs of action. Roughly where the city center is supposed to be placed you can see a massive round clearing devoid of trees going on for several kilometers in diameter. The process is far from complete in its scale, but you are surprised that you can’t see trees chopped down, in fact you can only see holes in the ground where you presume tree roots used to be. It doesn’t seem as if the trees were ripped out of the ground, more like they disappeared and the ground collapsed over the resulting hole. You also notice a very high-pitched noise, too high for a human to hear, coming from the very center of the clearing where a single Ninmah’s cup bearer is standing with one hand pressed against her chest and mouth open as if she’s singing opera. You know her, it is Deia, you lied your ass in front of her when she spotted you after Nika defeated that giant tar monster. You feel a bit guilty, but you were trying to hide your presence back then.

You land near to her to say hi and ask what’s going on which causes her to stop “singing”. “Ah, miss “Nike’s Candidate”? I must admit, you tricked me back then, goddess Agatha, but I understand why you did what you did. I hope that now we can cooperate without anything behind our backs. Now then, what can I do for you?” You ask her what is she doing and where are the others. “The monster clearing teams are still deeper in the forest since the area that needs to be pacified is much bigger than just the city limits. A couple deforestation squads are “painting out” the clearing limit line around the outer edge of the future city and the ones that do the actual clearing are currently moving biomass. Once you clear the trees, the matter they are made off is still there and needs to be removed. Ninmah’s cup bearers are capable of disassociating plants into their base “universal” plant matter that can be manipulated and transported much more easily. My role in all of this is to scare off the wildlife. While our impact would still cause many animals to die, my role is to push them out of the area before their habitats are destroyed and they get in the way of “heavy lifting”. If you don’t mind, I will continue fulfilling my role in the project.” She says, after which she makes a deep breath and starts projecting her voice once again…

_____________________________________________________
And on this note we finish this week of SGQ. Next week we will continue with Amiya’s visit. If you have any specific things you want to show her, I’m all ears. Thank you for participating in the quest and I hope you’ve enjoyed. Feel free to ask questions, give suggestions and discuss. And wish me luck, tomorrow is the exam day.

>>4340854
Niiiice.

Introduce her to our closest friends, Sig and Haven, tell her that she can talk to them and ask them questions about the surface or even other things, introduce Rheia too even tho she will be moving to the academy soon probably.

Show her the cup bearer's efforts since that will give her information to help alleviate the fears her people have.

Introduce her to the wonderful world of the spiced we brought!

Show her our animal tribal subjects, they'll probably be going and coming from the new city too.

Maybe a book or two in Ceno lenguage so she can pick up some things while she back home later.


Tha ks for running
We could mention to Sig that the dark elves will be clearing some goblins she might be interested in some action

>>4340854
After we show her around grab some nice food and a light drink and take her to the highest, most awesome place we can think we can watch the sunset together, it should be quite the show for her. There we can have a more intimate conversation, see what she is really thinking of all this and see if we can make her drop some guards and tell us her worries for her people and herself without all the reverence and protocol they use to talk with us.

We should probably let her know that there are plenty other gods here on the surface too, one of them, Nike, being a close person to us too.

>>4340854
You decide not to bug Nina’s cup any longer and you leave her to her task while you pick up the priestess and head out to look for more cups to demonstrate her the efforts. Search doesn’t take long as you only need to gain more altitude and look around to see a massive trench in the woodwork slowly forming in the distance. Once you approach one of the points where trees are disappearing, you find three of Ninmah’s cup bearers that you don’t recognize along with two of Belkh’s cups with their “weird” and somewhat Lovecraftian bodies. They acknowledge your presence with salutes and proceed with their task not really paying attention to you hovering above the treetops nearby. The clearing process is not what you’ve expected. The trees seem to get liquified from the inside out with the outer layers of bark failing last. What results is this opaque homogenous hideously greenish- brown slime that is easily manipulated by the plant sculpting cups to leak out of the ground, assemble into a large blob and make its way to a much larger blob hovering in the air thanks to the efforts of Belkh’s cups and one of Nina’s cups who presumably keeps the “disassociated cells” alive. The giant blob is surrounded by a thicker membrane which you think is needed to prevent it from flowing out of containment acting as a bottle of sorts. It looks kind of nasty, but it doesn’t really smell bad or anything, it just reminds you of large volumes of snot. You need to ask Ninmah later on how specifically this process works…

Priestess Amiya is at first very horrified with the appearances of Belkh’s cups, but she slowly gets used to them more as “a fact of life” and less as “being ok with their looks”, she’s obviously very concerned with them. This world is not a Lovecraftian book, you shouldn’t really go mad from seeing weird stuff, but it doesn’t mean that weird stuff can’t cause a strong emotional reaction such as fear. After a few minutes, the priestess comes to her senses sufficiently to ask you: “As I understand, they are not your servants. We are vaguely familiar with Cenophila “Pantheon” and I presume that these are their “Cup Bearers”, considering that Ninmah was mentioned. If I may ask, how far are you in debt to them after such a major request? Do we need to share your burden if we populate your city?” You tell her that you indeed requested assistance of the pantheon with the construction of the city, but they didn’t request any repayment plan. Thus, you suspect that Ceno Pantheon treats it as a major favor and they might request favors in return, although you are not sure what you can provide for them yet. You tell her not to worry, you’ll attempt to minimize any effect that might have on their people. The priestess in return thanks you and notes that you are incredibly generous to her people.

>>4351688
You can’t easily find other types of Pantheon’s activity nearby. They are likely waiting for biomass to be removed before they start moving soil and constructing stuff. You decide that this is likely it regarding anything interesting that you might find here and thus you take the priestess to the tribal village. You’ve recently found out that the tribals finally came up with the new name for it. It is now called Nivhapi. They went for Ceno Lingua for “New Home” to commemorate your efforts and efforts of Farsalos people in helping the Tribals, instead of their own word “Ghape” that they used for their original village. A quick note not to get the two mixed up, the “Tribals” is the name you’ve given to a stone age society you’ve found in the depths of the forest which consists almost entirely out of a certain near- human subspecies with the main differentiating characteristic being the horns. These horns seem almost entirely cosmetic and the type of horns is a phenotype chosen similarly to hair or eye color. The other society that you’ve discovered is the “animal- people” who are a bronze age microcivilizations on the northern edge of the wilderness forest. You really should make a better name for them, “animal people” makes them sound way more “furry” than they are.

>>4351689
In any case, you introduce the priestess to the village chiefs, show her around and a bit later you participate in a communal dinner. The Tribal cooking is a bit different from what you’re used to in Farsalos, it includes significantly more meat and wild plants plus they consume certain parts of animals that you usually don’t eat, however they do know a whole lot about local herbs and they now have access to the salt and spices imported from your village which they seem to like a lot. As a result, their food seems to be unusual for you and highly seasoned. Funny enough, you seem to enjoy a vast majority of foods after the pod, including this. You remember how you couldn’t stand certain vegetables and fruit due to allergies, but it can’t be just it. Then again, if you could choose what to enjoy, you might as well enjoy everything, right? You wonder if it is the same for other gods. Amiya, on the other hand, is very happy to finally enjoy some decent food, even if it is very exotic for her. Amiya seems to have some pretty strict etiquette norms drilled into her, but it doesn’t seem to bother Tribals much. She can’t manage to eat certain parts (such as eyes) but she likes the game meat which was served with some sort of red berry sauce, likely cranberry or some mixture of wild berries. It is considered culturally wrong for the Tribals to leave food unfinished and not eating most of the carcass of the animal you kill, however in the last year they learned to accept that Ceno people are way less frugal in their eating habits and along with food imports this no longer causes intense tension like it used to. It just makes the tribal representatives somewhat uncomfortable, but it is not unknown even for the old world. You vaguely remember an anecdotical example of how in some cultures they are used to finishing the presented dish completely while in others the host is required to refill the guest’s plate once it is nearing empty which causes some amusing interaction when the members of the first culture are invited to participate in second culture’s dinner.

>>4351692
It is around 5 PM, but you decide that you want to introduce the priestess to sunsets before you lead her back home. You don’t really have much else to show to her so you simply take a scenic route above the river to get back to Farsalos and into your home where you find Haven and Sigrid. Sig just came back from the trip to the nearby town while Haven has been helping Rheia a little bit with studying. She is a nobility after all and she was well schooled in stuff such as history, but she can no longer keep up with math on the same level as Rheia. The little girl managed to figure out Linear Algebra from the first try, which is pretty incredible. Speaking of Rheia, she is having a birthday in two months, she’s reaching 18 years old in October! It is not an age that locals celebrate, for Ceno the age of adulthood is 15, but for your standards that’s when she officially becomes an adult. You wonder how to make this day special for her…

You introduce the elven priestess to Sigrid and Rheia, she already knows Haven from back when you visited her for the first time. You four end up chatting for the next couple hours on various subjects and you gift a couple of books to Amiya which you hope would help her a bit with Ceno language. The books are mostly classics that you used back when you taught Rheia literature and polished her reading and writing skills. You also gift a copy of a cookbook of Ceno cuisine that you assembled in your ever-fleeting spare time. Then you suddenly heard a ringing of the bell above your door. You have a visitor, which Is surprising. No villager has ever tried to contact you like that so maybe it is important? You stand up, walk to the door and open it…

>Roll 1d20 please

Rolled 14 (1d20)

>>4351693
Oh damn

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>4351693

Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>4351693

>>4351725
>>4351731
>>4351777
Alright. Aaaand it is midnight and my meds are kicking in. Reply is moved to tomorrow, sorry

>>4351780
You open the door to see a very welcome guest indeed, Mina has finally returned. You haven’t seen her for a while since she had to leave during the whole Holy Nation mess, but it looks like she has finally finished with her duties of the forest clearing and now she can finally get back on your side. “Lady Agatha, it is an honor to serve you once again” she says and smiles. You smile and hug her tightly which is a bit awkward for the Cup, but you just can’t help yourself. She really ended up becoming your friend, you don’t even know what you would do once she has to return back to the Pantheon for good. You invite her in and introduce her to Amiya as you quickly fetch another cup for the tea for her from the kitchen with telekinesis.

Mina takes a seat at the dining table along with everyone else and she accepts your offer of some tea. She didn’t come to your home empty handed though, she has a report that Nike’ asked her to relay to you. First of all, your tour for the officers paid off, while the village won’t be used for a maneuver like what was planned before, they will send a garrison within the next couple of weeks. Secondly, elements of Ceno north- western army are starting the march into the disputed territory. Scouts suggest that a symmetrical situation is occurring on Holy Nation’s side who is sending the first readied elements of their army supported by local warbands with the rest still in transit. This is the main reason for Ceno to move out now instead of waiting for the rest of their forces as well so both sides are somewhat underpowered. It is still around 20 000 Cenophilans on this side. Due to their proximity, Holies will be able to take the strategic hill over first and Ceno forces will attempt to drive them out before you can start the construction. Holies have just over a day head start due to the distance and the river which obstructs the Ceno march so they won’t be able to dig in too heavily and Ceno has a significant numerical advantage. The contact of the two forces is going to happen within the next day and a half, Holies are expected to act defensively from their position advantage while Ceno plans to utilize their numbers to surround Holies and destroy them before the main relief force arrives.

Regarding Mina herself, her group of about four cup bearers has successfully cleared out everything considered to be a monster in the zone between the new city, Farsalos and the river. She expects a significant decrease in the number of threats to the village as a result. The threats were mainly a mix of monsters that you’ve already encountered with no new kinds to report and there were no “nests” so the area would not repopulate on its own. This should make farming much safer for your villagers. Monsters from other regions can still make their way there, but the pressure from your civilization should keep them out, according to Nike’s projections.

>>4353129
Well, it is a bit quicker than you expected, you wanted another week maybe, but this is still fine. You might want to see how the battle goes yourself or maybe wait a bit for Ceno to win for you so that you can show up only for the construction itself. You thank Mina for her hard work, update her on the recent events and give her some new tasks. For now, you will put her in charge of everything connected with the new military unit that would be placed in Farsalos. She will need to help them with settling and she will keep them in line if they go rowdy. In addition, there is always the general protection of Farsalos. If priorities change, you will inform her. You also offer her a room in your home until the Oracle moves out of the temple, but apparently Nike’ already retrieved that girl and Mina just needs to unpack. Speaking of which, she is going to go and do that right now if you don’t mind. She doesn’t want to obstruct you from performing diplomacy after all. After these words, she finishes her tea, politely bows and leaves.

It is almost the time for sunset, you plan to get as high up as you can into the air with Amiya to watch it before you accompany her back to the Ruin. After that you should probably decide on what you want to do with the huge battle that is going to happen right by your doorstep. Are you going to watch it or will you do some other stuff while you wait to become useful? You can’t actually participate in the fight itself because it would violate the NAP, but nothing says that you can’t be present to observe…

>You want to see the battle, maybe along with some snacks
>You will observe the battle in full gear just in case something happens
>You don’t think that you want to see any bloodshed tomorrow, you’ll wait for the aftermath
>Other?

>>4353130

>You will observe the battle in full gear just in case something happens

Wish holies wouldn't be this stubborn

>>4353130

>You don’t think that you want to see any bloodshed tomorrow, you’ll wait for the aftermath

>>4353130

>You will observe the battle in full gear just in case something happens

Could we organize a relief for the wounded with Signy and hers and our artifact? Or that would be a breach too?

And slipping them aerial information?


Whatever of those we can do do it

>>4353147
If we do it for both sides it won't be a breach, no.

>>4353137
>>4353140
>>4353147
Observing in full gear it is, writing

>>4353147
Slipping aerial information, however, is a breach

>>4353170
Next post might be on the long side to prepare, I'm making the battle map for it

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>>4353221
It is finally time for the main show. You go into one of your rooms and grab a warm woolen blanket. You don’t use it in summer due to how hot it is, but in evenings and especially at high altitudes you expect the air to be a bit chilly. You also give her your own giant wolf cape which saved you from piercing wind on several occasions. The priestess seems to really like the grey fluffy pelt, they likely don’t have many animals with nice fur underground. You take her by her hand, float up into the air and move towards an uninhabited area so that smells and lights of the village won’t affect the experience.

You get to your maximum altitude and you end up sitting Amiya on your lap and covering both of you in the warm blanket. The wind was not that great in the evening and this should help the two of you to stay warm. For you it is more of a question of comfort, but you doubt that Amiya would handle hypothermia well. You float there in silence as the sun slowly descends below the horizon as it paints the sky in warm colors of red and orange. It is a beautiful sight really, an amazing sunset with a scenery of a lush forest below. The faint sounds of Farsalos river only add to the atmosphere. The priestess just can’t get enough of the view…

“This was… hardly describable. I never knew that something like this could even exist. And you get to experience such beauty every day?” You smile and say: “Soon you too would have such an opportunity. Beautiful sunsets until you get bored of them.” She thinks for a few moments and replies: “I guess you slowly get used to such things; our cave system likely has a number of beautiful vistas that become too mundane for us to recognize most of the times. Still, this sunset is just… breathtaking.” One by one the stars start lighting up in the sky starting with Sirius, the brightest star. Southern hemisphere is also where the most beautiful view of Milky Way can be clearly seen, especially with the lack of artificial lighting. You spend several hours stargazing until you noticed that your companion was getting sleepy, so you started to slowly descend and heading for the Labyrinth.

>>4353437
There wasn’t any noticeable change in the Labyrinth as you passed through it once again. You are so glad that you eliminated the ghouls, but it is still a very dangerous place. Its black walls almost feel like endless voids and this causes a sensation of being completely surrounded by darkness, a darkness that can be hiding something. There is a constant feeling in the Labyrinth that you are being watched, even though with your advanced senses you for a fact know that it is not true. Still, it is not fun to traverse the tunnels even with the lighting.

You make your way to the elves without any incident, although you end up carrying the sleepy priestess almost all the way to the gates waking her up just before you got into visual range so that she doesn’t lose face. The guards greet you at the entrance and you accompany Amiya all the way to the improvised temple. There you hand her over to the other priestess that was present there, say your goodbyes and head back out of the Labyrinth to gear up for the big day in front of you.

You take all of your stuff, your steel armor with the wolf pelt, your steel bow with a full quilt and backpack of steel and explosive arrows, your greatsword and several barrels of gunpowder. You don’t think that you’d end up using any of that, but they might work wonders if you end up having to kill some cheeky monster in the area. After all, the cleanup operation is only happening on eastern bank of Farsalos river, the armies are mainly hoping that Mad Goddess cleared out all monsters with her presence. You also grab your artifact gauntlet since you expect that you’d want to heal the people on both sides after the heat of battle dies down.

File: Ceno-HN round 1.png (118 KB, 1360x810)

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>>4353439
In the early morning of the next day you raise to the skies and plot your course to the contested territory. You make a couple circles to make everything out and you quickly spot the formation of 9 000 Holy Nation troops. Their formation resembles a version of the Boar with heavy infantry placed in the center and medium infantry to the sides. They have a significant number of archers along with almost a thousand heavy crossbowmen. They also have 1,5 thousand of heavy cavalry on both flanks separated into three formations, two on eastern flank and one on western. They also have a contingent of “field artillery” which is an assortment of various ballista, stone throwers of smaller size and a few of very early cannons designed to work against infantry and not castle walls. Close behind their lines stands a camp for the command staff along with the supplies.

You also find Ceno formation to the south-south- west. They number around 20 000 men separated in formations of 5 000 each. These formations are layered wedges with the core of heavy infantry, the tip of light infantry skirmishers and the “meat” of medium infantry. These wedges also have “wings” that are small formations of archers. They also have two units of field artillery mainly consisting out of ballista of smaller scale similar to scorpios. Their field command is further away due to the need to march into engagement zone meaning that orders would take longer to make their way to Ceno soldiers. They have quite significant advantage in numbers, but Holies have heavier medium infantry and full plate on their heavy infantry along with better knights on horses. Ceno’s use of cavalry seems to be different and focused mainly on preventing flanking and exploiting breaches while HN uses them mainly for flanking.

As you were warned, the two forces are preparing for battle today and Ceno formations are already on the move. Ceno’s plan here is to send two of the large formations down the middle to tie down HN infantry and then flank it with the other two formations, which is a pretty solid plan. HN on the other hand are on the defensive with horses set to outflank Ceno’s flanking formations and strike them in the back.

>>4353441
This is all promising to be very interesting, much better than all those strategy games you used to play. There is still going to be a lot of death and mayhem, but in general deaths are not that common in this type of warfare. A victorious side usually suffered around 5% casualties with defeated side losing on average around 16%. It is not an era of gunpowder yet and especially not the era of artillery and horror of the guns that shoot where you point them. Also, even though Ceno has a huge advantage in numbers, Holies tend to punch way above their weight and they on average have less numerous but more technologically advanced army. Thus, it is not that clean cut on who is going to win. You settle in the air above the no man’s land, pull out a small bag full of cashew nuts and wait for the two armies to collide…

>Roll 1d20, I will move next post to tomorrow due to midnight approaching. Feel free to share your thoughts

Rolled 7 (1d20)

>>4353443
What are we rolling? Hope it's not for the armies.

Ceno has to use those spears on the flankers to fuck that cavalry, then flank whoever is there.
Let's hope we can set up that fort quickly and move on to let them sort this terrain, if holies win here our chances of being independent will be very slim with no access to the sea, we would probably have to integrate with Ceno or something.

Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>4353443
Get Signy to heal people too if she wants

>>4353462
It's probably for the healing efforts

>>4353462
This is an encounter roll, don't worry about it :3

"Spears" are light infantry. In case of Ceno it is skirmishers with light armor, in case of Holies it is pikemen with light armor. Sword, shield and helmet is medium infantry while standalone armor icon is heavy infantry. And being landlocked is not too bad. Plus we could go for muskets pretty soon.

>>4353466
Landlocked and without agood chunk of our territory would be quite bad, but who knows, maybe if this goes to shit and we join Ceno we can have some other opportunities being in an 11 god pantheon

>>4353479
Ceno has 12 gods, Valistrat has 10, HN has 2 and Etheans have 5. We would be lucky 13th god if we join them

Rolled 18 (1d20)

>>4353443

>>4353443
Hey guys, update post would be delayed to tomorrow for reasons of me not expecting today's workload and wanting to double check my grasp over medieval strategies.

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>>4354971
As you wait for the action to start, you examine the forces on both sides much more closely than just with a simple glance. And looks like you’ve indeed missed some things. There is a change regarding the Ceno light infantry compared to their doctrine. In Ceno army light infantry plays a role similar to both Velites and Hastati in ancient Rome. They are equipped with light (almost no) armor, light wooden shields, spears and several throwing javelins. They make some distance from the formation, throw their spears at the enemy lines and then fall back behind the medium infantry to regroup where they switch over with the front line when needed. However, it seems that this version was specifically chosen to combat Holy Nation forces. In particular, shields, javelins and spears were removed and replaced with pikes which are giant spears almost thrice the height of an average man. This makes sense as Ceno lacks heavy cavalry of Holy Nation and thus requires some kind of counter which pike formations provide much more readily than normal spears. Plus, javelins are much more useful against lightly armored foes and they won’t work well against much more heavily armored HN infantry.

Ceno medium infantry is where you start seeing some decent armor. Every medium infantryman is equipped with iron lamellar armor and carries a rounded metal reinforced kite shield similar to a teardrop in shape. This shield can still be formed up into shield walls but they are much more maneuverable than something like a Scutum. They are all equipped with spears and arming swords as a backup.

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>>4360835
Ceno heavy infantry’s main difference is armor that is some kind of “half plate” chimera where you have most of the armor made through lamellar techniques but with slightly thicker plating and a solid chestpiece. They also have better leg and arm protection and you note some evidence of emulation of Holy Nation designs leaking in. Their shields are fully reinforced with metal and strapped to the armor due to their weight which is the main reason why they are considered heavy infantry. They are equipped with a mixture of bill hooks and halberds of an early design. They differ from Holy Nation’s famous halberds by having blade head similar to an axe. HN use more advanced crescent shaped flat blades which have more powerful and better armor penetrating strikes. You can still tell that the technologies and techniques are slowly leaking through borders and Ceno military is adopting them to some success.

Holy Nation has a similar situation with their light infantry. Equipped with only helmets and brigandines without limb coverage, they carry humongous pikes. Their medium infantry brethren are equipped with much heavier armor that you can only describe as half- plate. They don’t have enclosed helmets or complete coverage of arms and legs. They are equipped with spears and kite shields (a bit more angular than Ceno shields) which is somewhat similar to Ceno medium infantry.

HN heavy infantry is a beast. They are all equipped with fullplate armor which protects them enough to completely ditch the shields. Instead they use their freed arm to wield a halberd in both hands. Fullplate soldiers are like walking tanks in medieval world, they can barely be scratched by the majority of attacks that they might encounter. Their biggest flaw is not even the fact that armor prevents swift movements, with training they can move in armor just as well as a normal person can move without it. The main danger for them is fatigue. As anyone who was in a convention can tell, full body cosplay suits and mascot suits are very hot, stuffy and heavy. Fullplate is plain worse and if you get exhausted consider yourself dead or captured.

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>>4360837
Ceno cavalry can be considered “light”, they are equipped with some limited armor and horses are unarmored. However, they are quick and thus are mainly used for scouting, plugging holes, exploiting weaknesses and pursuing retreating soldiers. What is curious, some of the Ceno cavalry is represented by centaurs, a human subspecies native to the lush fields in Western Cenophila which provide a significant quantity of produce for the country. Their numbers are not that high, but there are some of them on the battlefield.

Holy Nation cavalry, however, is of a heavy variety. Knights clad in fullplate armor riding armored horses and geared up with lances. They are intended to crush infantry in a cavalry charge. They seem to be the biggest asset in Holy Nation’s army and they are deployed in such a way as to most likely flank Ceno formations once they start their pincer maneuver. Let’s hope that your allies know to use lances against them…

The first contact occurs when the central two Ceno formations crush into Holy Nation’s lines. By utilizing their heavier infantry, HN correctly considered that they need much shallower lines to hold against Ceno’s lighter infantry. At the same time, they really don’t want to be encircles which meant that their decision was to elongate their lines sending light and some medium infantry to the flanks to resist the pincer attempt. Archers on both sides pour arrow after arrow in volleys into massed infantry causing casualties mostly among light and medium soldiers. Heavy infantry barely flinches except the rare cases when an arrow manages to hit a vulnerable area in their armors causing rare and sporadic losses. Only Ceno field artillery manages to reliably wound and kill HN knights.

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>>4360839
Ceno’s right flank was faster than the left flank and they started their pincer as HN’s flank forces started to slowly retreat baiting for the formation to get involved deeper. Then, using the cover of the forest to the side of the hill, two cohorts of HN heavy cavalry gain momentum and crash in the side rightmost Ceno formation demolishing and scattering right archer wing and then plowing through heavy infantry. At the same time, retreating flank of Holies immediately reverses and goes for a counterattack. Ceno formation holds valiantly, but in just twenty minutes after the cavalry strike it buckles. First it almost immediately dissolves into a brawl and then shatters completely with soldiers running, dying or surrendering while HN cavalry goes for those who still resist.

There are times when you regret having some of your powers, and this is arguably one of those times. You can clearly hear the screams of wounded and dying soldiers and you can see all of the blood and carnage below you. You wish you could help, but if you act here you would violate the NAP which would cause some serious repercussions, so you have to just watch. You wonder if you’d have to merge with Ceno if they lose this battle. You would lose a good chunk of your planned territories and you would lack sea access. Then again, there are decent countries that are land locked plus you have the dwarves for trading and maybe you can manage to push your technology to the point you could steamroll HN’s armored soldiers without your direct involvement. Gunpowder beats any quantity of steel you can reasonably wear after all.

Ceno’s right middle formation quickly adapts and sends their pikemen to form up to the right flank into an anti-cavalry formation, but information passes slowly without radio. Leftmost Ceno flank is still not prepared for HN’s cavalry ambush and they continue to slowly advance to pincer HN position as the hill’s slope prevents them from moving faster. Luckily, Ceno cohort of cavalry that is itself trying to flank Holies bumps into HN cavalry on the left flank and immediately scatters and books it for other Ceno units. They are quicker than armor clad knights and thus they manage to stop the left flank from falling into a trap. The formation pulls back and forms up the pikes which minimizes the damage of the prematurely triggered cavalry charge.

This action makes that cavalry charge close to useless. HN deployed only one cohort of their heavy cavalry on that flank and after suffering losses and losing momentum from the pikes these knights pull out and retreat. On the other side of the battle Ceno pike formation managed to limit the damage from HN main cavalry force that wrapped up with the right flank and tried to strike into one of the central formations. By that point it seems that the fight would last for the rest of the day as both sides used up their tricks, however you feel a sense of unease…

>>4360846
You remember that there is supposed to be a Monster King somewhere in the region to the North- East from the battlefield, or at least you’ve heard one of the sound sources there when the monsters attacked en masse. The terrain in that direction is not ravaged by the Mad Goddess and both armies chose not to steer in that direction just in case that area is still not pacified. However, as Mad Goddess cleared out a huge chunk of territory all the way to HN and Ceno borders, it was considered that the area was safe enough for the land to be acquired, reinforced and then used as further staging to civilize nearby wilderness.

Well, this plan was immediately forgotten by both sides as a bubbling roaring sound echoed across the battlefield. It was so powerful that it felt like a pressure wave causing people to take a step back or even falling over, making banners wave and freaking out horses. From your vantage point hundreds of meters in the air you immediately turned to the source of the sound and your brows rose up as you realized what was happening. Just about ten kilometers away from the battlefield something was brewing. Giant trees were falling down or just exploding into a shower of sawdust and debris, the ground below them formed massive cracks until it gave in and broke off as a massive creature slowly erected itself high above the treetops. Oh shit…

_______________________________________________________
And on this cliffhanger I pause until I need to make a new thread tomorrow. I intended to post this on Monday, but I had ridiculous number of problems with university that took up my entire week. So yeah, next Saturday (aka tomorrow) we are dealing with the Western Monster King. I will leave the description for the opening post, but in essence it is the hands down the biggest monster we’ve ever encountered by a huge margin. Bigger than the tar monster, bigger than the forgotten beast in the Ruin. So yeah, feel free to post your thoughts on what we need to do with it.

>>4360849
Aaaaa

Well, let's look at the thing to form a strategy but things may not look good

>>4360849
New thread is up:
>>4362292

>>4362305

And this thread is archived