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>>5650178

The victory came at a cost, though.

The Dragonborn Antipaladin is on Death’s own door. He clings to life, even is his burgeoning kingdom below the Bloodrise Mountain struggles for survival. He was shot, battered, savage by beak and talons of a terrible gryphon, and cast down into the black waters of Hawksong’s harbour to nearly drown. Only his loyal allies’ timely intervention saved him.

YOU are the Dragonborn Antipaladin… But this is not your story. Not yet. You can barely stay conscious, let alone take urgent action.

For now, just rest, and let ~Hot Aunty Iri~ go to work.

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>>5650179
Her name—her TRUE name, carefully guarded from those who do not know it—is Irinnile. It always has been stretching back to the very beginning and carrying forward to the end of all things—as all demons, she is immortal. She is timeless, shapeless—even ‘she’ is a temporary state, a matter of mood more than anatomy, perhaps a carry-over from her most recent summoning to the material plane two decades hence. Once, she was a lesser demon—a succubus, barely better than an imp, a shadowy pleasure-demon of flickering shadow and dim, smoky flame. Now, by her partnerships with her dearly departed Izzy (a Reptilian Infiltrator who helped summon and shape her) and her beloved Ricky (the vengeful Green Knight who she now wears like a comfortable and sexy set of armoured lingerie) she is SOOO much greater—LITERALLY a Greater Demon, with her own Sigil of Authority and everything! She pretty much runs the downtown crime racket in Hawksong as her own private pleasure-cult, and even ahs connections to the monarchy around here.


Yes, life has been sweet for Little Old Iri lately! <3


Of course, some mortal pissant had to come around and ruin it. One of Ricky’s loser friends, of course. Some pointy-eared bastard calling himself a ‘Secret Sage of The Arcana Veridis’ or some shit like that. Uhh… Nenaias, she thinks his name was?


This uppity elf caught her naughty nephew Long Wang—well, Izzy’s kid, but they were soulbonded and that’s PRETTY MUCH marriage, so maybe he’s more like a son? Whatever, Irinnile’d still fuck him—scrying and spying on his dumb adventure club meeting or whatever, and then decided to go fuck shit up. Little L.W. went off sword a-swinging to chop up his paladin pal, and asked Iri all nice-like to go save his special little gal-pal Eka (ugh, so dumb, why not ‘Kat’???) from the sinister fae clutches of this magic nerd-elf. And, well, Irinnile’s not PACTBOUND or nothing like that, but… Well, it’s Izzy’s kid, right? And he’s been pretty handy to have around so far, and he’s actually pretty nice.


(Plus, maybe he’ll let her get a little taste of all that dragon-magic he’s been storing up in there after he fucks Kat pregnant? A demon can dream, right? Imagine what she could get up to with THAT much power??)

Anyway, since ‘Hot Aunty Iri’ wasn’t doing anything ANYWAY, she figured she’d graciously lend a hand and sneak on over to the castle to intercept this sylvan shit’s little scheme before it got started… Not that she even knows what that scheme IS. Is he, like, going to KIDNAP a PRINCESS? Out from under her GUARDS? Seems dumb. Bah, whatever, mortals do be like that sometimes, amirite?

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>>5650181
Lucky for Irinnile, even wearing her clunky Heirnich suit, she has a demon’s natural gift for nighttime stealth. It’s still only dusk, but in shadows and hidden places, she moves with an unmatched stealth. All that, shapeshifting abilities, empathic manipulation, ectoplasmic pueppeteering, and immunity to mundane weapons to boot! Yes, Iri’s a real catch alright. Knowing where Nenny-boy is planning to go, she resolves to creep on in there first… Up into the palatial estate, through their weird plaza of stone walls and hedge-mazes, all the way to Kit-kat’s bedroom.


“Hm, maybe we can have some fun with her? Like, as a reward? Wonder if Big Boy minds sharing…”


Irinnile’s musing is cut short by a familiar voice, and a bolt of panic.


“Ah, good, we’ve been expecting you.”


Irinnile supresses a yelp, Ricky’s heart racing in their shared chest as she swings their sword around haphazardly. The sword in question is the embodiment of Heinrich Yosef’s wrath and shame, of their eternal pact-bond and Irinnile’s love. They call it called ~Kinslayer~, ‘cause Ricky’ all poetic and broody and junk.

“Who g-goes there?!” Irinnile demands, with Heinrich Yosef’s voice. “you face the Green Knight, b-brigand! Sir Heinrich Yosef!”

“’Who goes there?’ Really? YOU came seeking ME, did you not?”

The elf, Nenaias, seems to side out of one of the hedges, passing through branches and leaves like they were beaded curtains. Fucking ELVES. And, right, shit, this PARTICUALR elf is a master of divination, ain’t he? Fuck.

“Well, it’s what you say, isn’t it?” Irinnile-as-Yosef mutters, turning to face the mystic.

“Besides,” the elf continues, ignoring the obviously quite salient retort, “shouldn’t I be asking YOU that?”

“What do you mean?” the false Yosef asks, adjusting her—their! his!—stance into something more appropriately martial. “I already said who I am… Old chum.”

“‘Old chum’? Come off it, demon. You are overcompensating. We’ve both travelled with Heinrich a long while. He doesn’t speak like that.”

“Oi,” the Sucucbus Knight tries again, “what’s all this about a demon, wot?”

“…Or like that,” the elven mystic sighs.

Irinnile frowns. Acting is hard. Technically, her entire SELF is an elaborate act, an ever-shifting shadow of the fears, desires, and inner selves of those who parasitizes and devours. Maintaining THAT consistently takes all her attention and energy. Trying to be someone else on top of that? Uuuugh, no THANK you.

“Just give it up,” the elf says, hands still calmly at his sides, no weapon visible and no protective spells immediately evident. “I know who you are. Admit it, and end this pathetic charade, you sad little imp.”

IMP?! The fuck did he just call her???? FFFuuuuuuck no! That will NOT stand!

>>5650182
Irinnile chooses to…

>Boast of her status, her triumphs, he r conquest of Yosef’s mind, body and soul, and of the doom she now brings—maybe he’ll lose his cool?
>Awaken Yosef’s latent personality, just enough to make her acting more convincing and attempt to distract, dissuade, or catch the elf off-guard
>Fuck this. FU-U-U-CK this. Imp, he says! Attack this bastard! End the threat here and now!
>Bail out! He CLEARLY has some spooky ambush planned. Find Ekaterine, snatch her up, and get out of here
>Write-in

[Previous threads (including previous quest to star Iri, not strictly-speaking necessary to this quest) at https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=reptoidqm]

>>5650178
Rassin frassing formatting. Goddamn capcha giving me guff, then my PNG was too big, then I tried to post it and it ate all the spaces GAAAAH

>>5650184
>Wait, he said "we"! Don't admit to anything. Ask what HE wants.

(Does Irinnile have any special abilities, spells and the like we should be aware of?)

>>5650185
>she has a demon’s natural gift for nighttime stealth. It’s still only dusk, but in shadows and hidden places, she moves with an unmatched stealth. All that, shapeshifting abilities, empathic manipulation, ectoplasmic puppeteering, and immunity to mundane weapons to boot!

[She can do flight in a pinch, too, though shapeshifting to such an extent is more taxing for her. Oh, and she can make soul-pacts and dream-delve, provoke lust and fear... Succubus stuff!]

>>5650184
>Fuck this. FU-U-U-CK this. Imp, he says! Attack this bastard! End the threat here and now!

SUCH DISRESPECT
Also the greater demon status was partly due to Yosef? Damn what a slacker, giving demons more power.

>>5650184
>Awaken Yosef’s latent personality, just enough to make her acting more convincing and attempt to distract, dissuade, or catch the elf off-guard
IT IS ME, YOU FOOL! I’m undercover- you’re going to blow my entire operation!
>Spice it up with a bit of Seduction- elves are made to be lewded, right?

>>5650197
I attribute it as Yosef being the meatsack that made this reunion and his interment possible.

>>5650185
Supportin'

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>Fuck this

>>5650204
Picrel

>>5650184
Also for some reason this doesn’t work. Shows up empty for me.

https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=ReptoidQM

>>5650255
It works for me. Perhaps try clearing your cache/cookies, or just google 'ReptoidQM suptg'.

>>5650258
I meant your original link doesn’t work, this one does

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>>5650260
[Huh. Weird. Both work for me. Did you copy and paste the end bracket by mistake?]

>>5650178
[Apologies again for my shit formatting. The more readable version is at >>5650187 ]

>>5650204
>IT IS ME, YOU FOOL! I’m undercover- you’re going to blow my entire operation!
Can you explain this line? It's not making sense to me in this situation.

>>5650336
Supposed to throw him for a loop- I don’t know if it would be accepted or it would stay a meme, but we legitimately don’t know how much info this elf divined of Yosef’s situation. Ideally, it’d be plan two for when playing stupid inevitably fails (or miraculously succeeds).

>>5650619
I think it's the term undercover that's throwing me for a loop here. How can he be undercover? He's not wearing a disguise. Everyone in the palace knows who he is already. If anything it hints that we're not actually Yosef, which is what Nenaias seems to be digging for.

>>5650184
>Awaken Yosef’s latent personality, just enough to make her acting more convincing and attempt to distract, dissuade, or catch the elf off-guard

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>>5651274
>>5650255
>>5650232
>>5650204
>>5650197
>>5650185
[Vote locked, and writing!]

>>5651274
Actually this line.
>"Ah, good, we’ve been expecting you"

Makes me think the elf set up an ambush, i vote for this instead.

>Bail out! He CLEARLY has some spooky ambush planned. Find Ekaterine, snatch her up, and get out of here

>>5651280
Damn never mind.

>>5651280
>>5651287
>>5651288
Irinnile chews her (well, THEIR lip, since it’s technically Ricky’s, but Ricky is also HERS). She may be a bit of a ditz and think with her stomach and loins, but she’s not STUPID, and she sure ain’t deaf.

“’We’?” she asks. “Who’s ‘we’?”

“A slip of the tongue,” Nenaias replies flippantly, without missing a beat.

Uh huh. Right. Irinnile clears her—their—throat, and prepares to act her heart out, doing her very best Heinrich Yosef impression:

“IT IS ME, YOU FOOL! I am undercover, and you’re gona’ to blow my entire operation! Now TELL ME, like, what is happening… Uh, damn you!”

Yeah, that’s the ticket!

“…Enough,” the elf sighs, lowering his head such that his crown of antlers shifts slightly. “I warned Heinrich that dabbling with demons would bring him to no good end.”

“He’s not… Uh, I mean I’M not DABBLING! This sword—Kinslayer, has brought us victory! Without THIS here blade, we’d just be, like, wandering in the dark! We wouldn’t have even skinned enough snake-people to make a purse, let alone be, like, big damn heroes or whatever!”

“At what cost?” Nenaias retorts. “The cost of our souls? And now, you work with the one calling himself ‘Long Wang’, yes? You won us battles only to turn against us, and to lose us the war. DO you think Heinrich will appreciate that?”

Irinnile hesitates to reply.

“WHEN his soul is liberated—not if, demon, WHEN—do you think he will keep you around?”

A pang of fear grips her heart. She takes a step back as if slapped, lowering the long-sword created of her essence—the green-and-silver ‘Kinslayer’—slightly.

“That won’t… That’s not gonna’ happen,” she mutters.

“Again, I say: enough.”

Nenaias raises his hands, moves his thin fingers in intricate and elegant motions, and then brings his palms together The hedges to either side Irinnile suddenly lurch and seem to slide together, to enmesh and entrap the demon. A single twirling slice of the Kinslayer sword sheers them down to size, and a little hop places Irinnile atop their shortened forms… Just in time to see several of the topiaries—shaped like men, like beasts—rip themselves up by their roots and begin to move about like their animal likenesses.

“<Animate Plants>,” Nenanais says.

Shit.

What will Irinnile do?
>Defend herself against the plants
>Attack Nenaias directly
>Flee, fade into the darkness, and go get Ekaterine
>Attempt to read the elf’s mind, to learn what other dangers might lurk nearby
>Write-in

>>5651299
>Attack Nenaias directly

I highly doubt he can stand up to a martial assault of Yos-Iri's caliber.

>>5651299
>Flee, fade into the darkness, and go get Ekaterine
as fun and productive as stalling was, let's do stuff now.

>>5651299
>Write in
>Get into grappling distance
Those plants might hurt her as well if we manage to close the distance

>>5650255
Backlink

>>5651299
>Attempt to read the elf’s mind, to learn what other dangers might lurk nearby.

There is no way nenaias plans to kill a greater demon with some plant's. We saw how resilient to physical harm the incubus was. He must be planing something else or have a trick up his sleeve.

>>5651302
>>5651310
>>5651527
>>5651571
[4 votes, four different approaches! I'll leave this open a bit longer, and then post once more today.]

>>5651299
>Attempt to read the elf’s mind, to learn what other dangers might lurk nearby
But more mindfuckery- would fit the character to scramble his brain with lewd thots.

Rolled 14, 18, 10, 16, 13, 11, 4 = 86 (7d20)

>>5651615
>>5651302
>>5651310
>>5651527
>>5651571
Does this pointy-eared nerd mean to hurt Irinnile with sticks and twigs? She’s a magic creature—a demon from the Hellish Realms! She’s immune to such—

“OW!”

The jagged limb of a lion-shaped plant-sculpture catches Yosef’s face, sending succubus-and-man reeling back. Irinnile massages their bloodied face, willing it to mend. It does, but it costs precious energy—far more energy than it did to mend Lissssspy Izzy way back when, when she was properly soulbound. Ricky, well, he’s deliciously angsty and bloodthirsty and all, but she’d never give him up for ANYTHING, but he’s a real stick-in-the-mud that way. It might take YEARS before he’s been twisted up enough to accept such a union…

Ugh. The things we do for love…

Well, it is what it is. Irinnile is lover, not fighter—even if her ‘loving’ sometimes leaves minds and bodies broken, souls and flesh shredded and devoured. As Izzy’s kid is always going on about, love is a power all its own, and so is lust! By their power combined—the physical strength of her lover’s knightly body, the amplified psychic abilities of a Greater Demon of Lust—Iri will bring this knife-ear to heel!

Heh. Hot. Maybe she’ll even ‘use’ him a little later…

3 dice for melee DC 15, 3 dice for mentalism DC 18, 1 mystery die

>>5651636
>18
Dodging angry plants’ flailing foliage, Irinnile captains Heinrich Yosef over, around, and in one case THROUGH every obstacle between her and the elf—Kinslayer’s blade is good for more than chopping up lizards! Heh, being wielded as a weapon for two decades ain’t all bad—between her years of battlefield experience and Ricky’s muscle memory, it’s a trivial thing to leap and bound their way into wrasslin’ range with Nenaias.

With Ricky’s strong, calloused hands (nnf) Irinnile grabs the book-smart battlefield-dumb excuse for an adventurer by his stupid dress and pulls his eyes to hers. Time to see just what secret schemes and ambush-ready allies he’s hiding!

“Hey~” she says. “You know, you seem like you’ve got a big, sexy brain in there, Nenny. Mind if I give it a little taste?”

“Ghhk!” he chokes. “Yes, actually!”

“Well, too fuckin’ BAD!”

>16

“OW! Again! What the fuck?!”

Ricky’s body staggers back as Irinnile recoils from the soul-pain which suddenly wracks her within. The smug Secret Sage or whatever-the-fuck actually takes the time to tidy himself and to adjust his robes, and with a smug half-smile he produces an intricate amulet of glass, spun gold, and a familiar collection of plants: angelica, thyme, shimmer-sage, nightshroud…

“An anti-demon charm,” Irinnile spits.

“I told you,” Nenaias says, tucking the charm away. “We knew to expect you.”

“Again with this ‘we’ shit!” Irinnile says. “You talkin’ ‘bout your stupid shrubbery-buddies, tree-fucker?”

“Not quite,” Nenaias replies. “But it seems like I might not need the help after all… I’d expected so much more from a demonically-possessed Heinrich Yosef, honestly. It’s disappointing, but alas.”

“I’ll ‘alas’ your ass, you smarmy shit!”

>4
The Succubus-Knight takes a moment to evade a couple more lumbering topiary-creatures as they mock their creator, cutting them down with swift strokes of their demon-sword. They are clumsier now—the elf’s concentration was broken, by the grapple and attempted mental intrusion, at least. The magic which animates them keeps them flailing, but precision and grace are beyond them, and some are already beginning to put down roots and go still once more.

“Damn it all,” the sage mutters, and begins waving his hands about and adjusting his footwork, as if to cast something else. “Time to finish this! I’m taking Heinrich’s body back, monster!

Oh no he fucking AIN’T Irinnile charges, kid gloves officially off.

She aims to…
>Kill Nenaias (medium DC)
>Maim him and take him hostage to use as a bargaining chip (higher DC)
>Incapacitate him and hurry onward to the princess—enough of this scrub! (lowest DC)
>Write-in
[Failure means he’ll cast his spell. You won’t like what it does.]

>>5651654
>Kill Nenaias (medium DC)

No loose ends.

Backlink
>>5651527

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>>5651654
>picrel

>>5651654
>Incapacitate him and hurry onward to the princess—enough of this scrub! (lowest DC)

Kinda like this guy

[I'll be home in about an hour, and will close the vite shirtly thereafter.]

>>5651654
>Maim him and take him hostage to use as a bargaining chip (higher DC)
Is it going to be a tiered DC? Height to capture, medium to kill, low to incapacitate?

>>5652356
Judging by how the vote is set up, no. We pick one option and the DC is assigned for that option.

>>5651654
>Maim him and take him hostage to use as a bargaining chip (higher DC)

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Rolled 18, 16, 5 = 39 (3d20)

>>5652357
[Correct.]

>>5652363
>>5652356
>>5652176
>>5651914
>>5651671
[A judgement call had to be made to put out the update.

DC 17

>>5652392
Nice, Iri! Good shit.

>>5652392
>>5652406
The elf’s irritating fey-tongue chanting begins to pick up speed and intensity, a garbled word salad of archaic Ancient Elven beyond Irrinile’s ken. Wind begins to whip his robes and long hair, buffeting Heinrich Yosef’s body and slowing Irinnile’s approach. Irinnile squints Ricky’s eyes and peers beyond the veil of the material world into the parallel space of dreams and magic, seeing beyond sight; there, in that dimension, she makes out what the elf is working towards: a spell of binding and banishment for unclean spirits from the natural world.

Aw, shit, SHE’S an unclean spirit! No fcukin’ way she can let him get that off.

Nenny-boy is too valuable as a hostage to simply kill… And anyway, Irinnile kind of likes this smug intellectual. He almost kind of reminds her of her original summoner, a gothic fop called Bianchi… Yeah, this could be fun. And surely Ricky’ll appreciate her sparing on of his little boyfriends… Maybe it’ll speed up the soulbonding process?

But that doesn’t mean she has to leave him in one piece.

Irinnile draws back the Kinslayer, and concentrates her essence, forcing ectoplasm to form within her host’s body. The blackish, iridescent goo is the physical manifestation of a demon or spirit’s energy, a sort of viscous mana-potion tainted with negative energy and carrying a portion of such an entity’s very self. It’s the mechanism by which succubi and incubi of sufficient strength can enthrall another to see through their eyes and control their actions, even at a distance… But in this case, Irinnile has a different plan.

At the demoness’ direction, Heinrich Yosef gives the blade of his cursed sword a long, suggestive lick, coati ng the blade in blade semi-fluid sludge. Irinnile might not be able to posess boths word and swordsman at the same time—not entirely—but with any luck this will afford her some of the telekinetic control she once had over the demonic weapon.

With a wicked grin, Irinnile confirms it: she can feel the sword awakening, enlivened and animated by a portion of her own Hellish power. Being a Greater Demon sure is sweet! Even as the wind holds Rciky at bay, Irinnile wills his body to shift into a javelin-thrower’s stance. Then, pushing as much of her mystical energy into the ectoplasm-dripping sword as she dares, Irinnile-ben-Yosef hurls it towards Nenaias of the The Arcana Veridis.

>18

The sword is blasted by the mystic winds swirling like a miniature hurricane around the sage, but with a flick of the wrist Irinnile commands it to adjust course, like an extension of her own body. It begins to twirl in the air as the typhoon whirls it round and round the elven spellcaster, until its graceful pirouette brings it into contact with the poor pointy-eared bastard on a downward and diagonal course…

“AAAAAUGH!”

…Straight through his leg, severing it just below the hip.

>>5652413
The unnatural wind abruptly dies, depositing leaves and other whipped-up debris across the yard. Nenaias topples sideways, clutching at his stump in disbelief and agony. Shock will set in any second. He’ll likely bleed out…

“HeeeEEey~”

…Or he would, if not for Hot Aunty Iri and her magic mouth. Even with his anti-demonic charm of protection, Nenaias is helpless to repel them as Irinnile takes the elf in her Ricky’s strong arms, grips his narrow fey chin in those rough hands, and plants a long tongue-kiss on him. The same black ooze which guided the sword now spells his dumb, numbing his mind and soul even as it infuses him with JUST enough magical energy to staunch his bleeding.

Irinnile hefts the elf over one shoulder and, in one elegant motion, reclaims the Kinslayer from where it ahs impaled the earth and slices open the sage’s robes, catching the thin chain of his precious protective amulet and cutting it loose. The Demon Knight winces a little at the pain of even this indirect contact, and quickly hurls it to lay beside the blood-dripping leg upon the royal lawn of the King of Hawksong.

“Well, that’s mission accomplished!” the succubus congratulates herself.

…But is it? She looks back towards the palace, uncertain. The elf beat her here, and was saying all that “we” shit. Her job here was to save Ekaterine from Nenaias, but in fact, neither she nor her ex’s kid really knew WHAT his plan was. Should they… I dunno’, check?

It WOULD mean going into a Paladin’s palace, and into a possible ambush… But what’ll happen if they just leave?

>Enter the Palace and seek out Ekaterine
>Leave—Irinnile has accomplished what she set out to do
>Write-in

And if she enters, will she use...
>Stealth
>Boldness--she's maybe expected, and she has a hostage
>Some other tactic [specify]

>>5652415
>Mind read Nenaias to see what he set up, since he's now helpless and charmless.

>>5652417
+1, big brain and now our time crunch is probably not so big a deal.

>>5652415
>Mind read Nenaias to see what he set up, since he's now helpless and charmless.

Maybe we could enter with Trickery, assuming Stealth fails- I mean, we got Nenaias as a meatsuit, and it will certainly confuse the situation.

>>5652417
+1

Backlink>>5651671

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>>5652498
>>5652443
>>5652417
>>5652646
Again: Irinnile ain’t no dummy (except maybe dummy thick, on command). No reason to go charging in all unawares, OR to risk leaving loose ends by peacing out without further investigation! Oh, sure, doing a bit of soul-exploring with unconscious Nenny might at up a little more man (PHEW, wouldn’t it be grand to have some of Big Boy’s dragon-juice right about now?) but it was well worth it.

With a hop, skip, and a mental leap, Irinnile projects her consciousness from the central ‘main body’ of her essence to the fragment now bubbling away in the elf sage’s guts, and from there worms her way into his brain to see what secrets the unconscious mystic held in trust.

“Ah,” Irinnile mutters to herself, “fucknuggets.”

It seems Nenaias has been a busy little bugger these last couple hours. He arrived and, clever shit that he was, did NOT claim to be here to liberate his recently-arrested and discredited dwarven buddy. Rather, the elven mystic claimed to be here on Heinrich Yosef’s instructions—a lie lent credibility by the fact that he IS a friend of the Green Knight currently at Iri’s beck-and-call, here to see the king.

This, in turn, led to his interception by Big Boy’s favoured patsy prince, Rufos, secondborn of the Paladin King.

[Leadership roll, DC 14 thanks to <Dark Prophet II>]

Rolled 8, 9, 11, 12, 9 = 49 (5d20)

>>5652654
woops

>>5652655
Would've been too damn easy if we'd passed the roll..

>>5652655
Its joever

>>5652655
>>5652661
>>5652665
Now, Rufos had been implanted with some ectoplasm by Iri a while back—that of this incubus fucker, but Irinnile had eaten Him since then, so same diff by now—but he’d never been reactivated as an agent since then. Seems getting close enough to Iri-as-Yosef for her to do the dirty deed was a bit of a sticking point for the old dog, since he’d been puppeteered on-and-off for about twenty years already. This was exactly the blackmail material Lisspy’s kid had needed to weasel his way into palace politics, and it gradually corrupt and manipulate the baby brother into backstabbing his big bro and all but handing ‘Eka’ over to Babycakes on a silver platter.

But now…

>12

Nenaias came in with this big plan to finally free him from all this demon-and-lizard-plaything business for all, and Rufos was all too eager to take him up on it. While still not disclosing all the dodgy shit he’d been getting up to with ‘Long Wang’—Hypocrite! Pfft!—he got the elven sage an audience with…

“Ooooh nononono NOOOOOoooOO!”

…The Paladin King his own damn self, King Archos of Hawksong. This big, burly fucker—old, sickly, but still the fuckin’ PALADIN fuckin’ KING! And Nenaias had warned him that something dark and terrible—a Reptilian agent, and quite possibly a demonic one as well—was coming for his darling baby daughter.

“Long Wang?” the King had grumbled in disbelief. “I fear you’ve come under false pretenses. These sound less like the theories of Sir Yosef than those of that dwarf, Deepvein, whom I understand that you, Prince Rufos, judiciously imprisoned for false and unsubstantiated claims?”

There was, as Irinnile now recalls by proxy, a long silence broken only by the Paladin King’s coughing before his youngest son replied:

“The circumstances have changed. We do not know… Exactly WHAT or WHO Long Wang is, or if perhaps he has even been… Replaced, at some point, since our initial investigation… But We cannot trust him if he appears here tonight.”

“Nor Heinrich Yosef himself,” Nenaias had added. “He ahs gone to confront the fiend impersonating long Wang… And if he appears tonight, he has forewarned me that he may not be himself.”

Irinnile grits Yosef’s teeth. The crafty bastards had stitched together two tapestries of lies into some kinda’… Falsehood-quilt! A good one, too! And they’d managed to stitch just enough of the truth in there to make it work.

So it was that additional guards—led by the Paladin King himself, half-dead and ghostly white, but still empowered by the (damn shit fuck shit aaaugh) Gods of Light—were stationed to protect the palace, and especially Ekaterine. At the first sign of trouble, they were to take her far from Hawksong under heavy escort, and to battle back against any invaders.

>>5652670
“Shiiiit,” Irinnile whined.

There were only a few ways to approach this, now: they could go in loud, presenting unconscious Nenny-poo and declaring him a traitor, and then have the ectoplasm-addled elven fuck renounce his earlier claims; they could go in quiet-like, and try to influence or sneak out Ekaterine; OR maybe they could go find Rufos and make the triple-crossing son-of-a-bitch pay by finally removing that pesky autonomy?

…Or, like, maybe Iri could just leave? This whole memory-extracting thing, in addition to battling, ectoplasming, and healing a guy has her on close to empty, and she could go for a recuperative orgy, a violated one-time-virgin to eat, and a nice long nap…

But damnit, if Nenaias never comes back, what’ll happen then?

Irinnile decides to:
>Bluff her way in through the front
>Sneak to Ekaterine’s room
>Sneak to wherever Rufos is hiding
>Leave, while the getting is still good
>Write-in

>>5652672
>Make a great ruckus outside with whatever doodads Nenny may have and the clattering of mundane steel to draw off the guards, then sneak inside to Ekaterine's room

Jesus, what a clusterfuck. Open to ideas; this is the best I could come up with.

>>5652675
i think that would scare the paladin king into going full lockdown mode and getting ekaterine out.

>Sneak to Ekaterine's room

We gotta go full stealth

>>5652672
>Sneak to Ekaterine’s room

We only need to spirit her away. Spin a tale of Rufos‘s deception.

His betrayal of Long Wang and manipulation of the King - all in a bid to claim power himself.

>>5652672
>Sneak to wherever Rufos is hiding.

Rufos is the key to all of this. With his brother having went south to be possibly assassinated. And the paladin king in shabby health old age and mostly delegating matters. Rufos basically has the highest level of command in regards to hawksong's security and military forces.

If we get him re ectoplasmed it doesn't matter what allegations are made against us, since we will control both hawksong's military and criminal underground.

>>5652672
>Sneak to wherever Rufos is hiding
I never trusted the dice system- it keeps fucking us at every turn.

Ectoplasm this bitch and be done with it.

>>5652836
Switching to this option instead

>>5652840
Anon, the dice have resulted releatedly in Theral dominating most physical and social challenges that don't involve water for roughly a year, including beating three legendary monsters and dominating the soul of an ancient red dragon. If you have suggestions for how to imorove it for future quests, though, I'd love to hear them.

>>5652920
depends on what you're going for, I guess. As someone who reads this quest sometimes, it seems that most obstacles are easy to overcome, but also that that the dice have a lot of influence on whether an encounter goes well or disastrously.

>>5652672
>Leave, while the getting is still good
Why do we need to see Eka again? We wanted to confirm her safety. She's safe. She's behind a legion of paladins.

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Rolled 9, 16, 2, 19 = 46 (4d20)

>>5652847
>>5652840
>>5652836
>>5652798
>>5652675
>>5653499

Prince Rufos is the key here, obviously. Kit-kat’s Big Boy’s main squeeze, but she’s got no say in what does or doesn’t happen to her—not really. That comes down to Daddy Dearest Shortly-Dying and her big brothers—one of whom’s already good-as-dead thanks to Iri and Wangy’s double-teaming duplicity. That just leaves stupid, treasonous, ectoplasm-tainted little Rufos, sad second son, to stand in their way. If Irinnile can just reactivate the itty bitty bit o’ demon buried in his shriveled little crab-apple heart, she’ll RUN this town from top to bottom in no time flat!

And leaving him alone, after he went and counter-backstabbed them? Uh uh. Iri don't play that shit. Besides, he knows too much, and he's clearly not as willing to play ball as they thought. Ekaterine's safe, but NOBODY'S safe with that shifty little shit doing his own thing.

So she slinks into shadows, still hefting the luckily0lithe frame of the elven spellcaster, and shifts into camo-mode to go on prince-patrol.

>>5652920
I've got suggestions

Make it harder. We roll like up to 5 dice on some DCs. Make big boss DCs ignore the highest roll, maybe even the highest 2 rolls.

>>5653503
What the hell are our upgrades supposed to do then? We got sword mastery 5 and bosses ignore that? Why bother upgrading at all?

>>5652920
Tbh, it’s more of a trend in the quests I follow- the Lady Luck have been jobbing hard lately. I won’t get into it, but it has not been a fun month.

>>5653503
>>5653505
Yea, sorta makes upgrading irrelevant. Plus, the Bosses already roll against us- it’s just making it more harder and painful for no gain.

>>5653505
because if we only roll 3 dice normally, we'd get 2 against bosses instead of 4

>>5653502
>19
While killin’ and stabbin’ and eatin’ and rapin’ is always fun for a demon like Iri in pretty much ANY order, stealth’s always been more her forte than direct confrontation… And luckily, as a natural empath, she has an ear for fear. She can hear that hammering heartbeat from half-way across the Paladin King’s citadel: wimpy little Rufos, never as brave or martial as elder Alexos or Papa Pally, wondering what’s taking Nenaias so long. She follows the sniveling of hi scared-silly soul to another one of his weird little sex-dungeony hidden chambers where he does all his plotting. The big burly beefcake standing sentinel ain’t no Paladin, either, so Iri slips right on by him without so much as a slice ‘n dice or a goodnight kiss.

It isn’t until Nenaias is dumped right on his desk, groaning and barely breathing, that Prince Rufos realizes that there’s no escape.

“S-stay back!” he demands, imperiously.

Iri-as-Ricky just laughs, a cackling demonic laugh. Rufos looks towards the door, wondering why the booming sound hasn’t summon the guards, and so Irinnile deigns to answer him—in his mind.

“That wasn’t but loud for nobody but you,” she explains telepathically, mind-to-mind, “Tonight, you’re my special guy, Roofie~”

“You’re… It’s not the same,” he says, staggering back a step and—it’s almost enough to laugh again—pulling a dagger out rom under his desk.

“Naw,” Irinnile admits readily. “You’re under new management, sweetie-pie…. And unlucky you, I’m a disciplinarian kinda’ bitch, when I wanna’ be.”

She hops her possessed boytoy up on the desk, Yosef’s eyes glowing golden with her inner light, and twirls the Kinslayer once.

“And baby, I WANNA’ be. Maybe save yourself ending up like leg-a’-lost here and drop the pig-sticker? This can still be fun, in a Ess-and-Emm kinda’ way, if you play your wards right and get dwn on yoru knees right now.”

“I… I am a Prince of Hawksong… The King of Hawksong! Your master promised!”

Irinnile rolls her eyes.

“First,” the succubus explains, “we’re, like… Partners-in-crime. Ain’t no master-servant relationship there, aight? Second-like… You really think he’s gonna’ feel like making good on his end of that deal when he learns about that stunt you just tried to pull? Naw, honey, you’re my little pet for sure now…”

“Never,” he balks, pale as a sheet. “Not again. Never again.”

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>>5653522
“…Or you’re demon-chow,” Iri continues, metamorphosing Heinrich Yosef’s teeth into a gnashing, crocodilian grin. “Your call, Princey-Poo: door number one, or door number two~”

Prince Rufos hesitates a moment, the blade shaking in his hand. His grip loosens. He’s going to give in, to drop it. He’s terrified beyond belief—Irinnile can taste it, and it’s making her metaphorical mouth fucking WATER…

But then he does something unexpected. He doesn’t lunge forward, but twirls the balde around to point it at himself.

“Otillia,” he says, speaking the name of his wife, “forgive me.”

Iri raises Ricky’s eyebrows in surprise. Fucker’s gonna’ stick HIMSELF? Well… That WOULD take care of things. And… Hey, waitta’ minute, if ALEXOS is dead, and RUFOS is dead…

Shit, would that make Pretty Princess Kitty Kat the heir-a-fuckin-pparent? It would, right?

Does she let him commit suicide?
>Yes
>No

>>5653523
>No

Doesn't align with our aims, plus we're going to make him SUFFER after this bullshit. Gonna be more of a puppet than Elmo.

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>>5653155
>dice have a lot of influence
[I mean, I guess how else would it be? As stats go up and players play to the MC's strengths, success gets more likely and failures less likely, but if there's NEVER any failures I feel like I haven't really got a very good system in place. I'd get bored. Wouldn't you?]

>>5653506
[I get that, but let's keep it focused on this quest. Has it really seemed like you've failed way more than you've succeeded or like I'm too punishing? If so, I'm open to making the next quest easier.]

>>5653511
>>5653503
[Seems like this anon, though, wants it to be harder. Getting conflicting messages. Maybe, at the end of this Irinnile interlude, before we switch back to Theral, I'll hold a meta-vote on whether to dial down difficulty or dial it up, as well as how people liked the experience of briefly controlling another main character.]

>>5653511
>>5653510
>>5653505
>>5653503
>>5653526
>>5652847
>>5652836
>>5652417
>>5651671
>>5650260
[Anyway, I appreciate the input and hope you all enjoy this art by our very own Indonesian Gentleman, of Gaol and Fall of the Regime fame!]

>>5653523
>if ALEXOS is dead
Big if to be honest

Better to dominate him. We can always just make him commit suicide later

>No

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>>5653527
Very cool art!
>>5653523
>No.

Live.

>>5653533

Forgot Backlink
>>5652847

>>5653523
>No
Ecto'd Rufos is more useful than dead Rufos

>>5653527
Indonesian Gentleman draws some good stuff
and some horrific nightmare fuel

>>5653523
>Yes
Fuck it- though, if Rufos does live, I say Long Wang and Iri tag team his wife in front of him- maybe get his wife pregnant for added suffering.

>>5653527
Honestly- it’s only recently that the dice kept repeating jobbing us. I consider everything else a mixed bag of mostly success. It only really stands out because I keep seeing multiple rounds of bad luck. Like, it disconcerting. I’ll try to restrain my autism in the future, I think you’re been fair and handling the difficulty level well so far.

Love the picture- can’t wait for the Battlescene where the Dragonborn and the Groffen duke it out while falling through the sky. Loved Chase’s and Deepvein’s characterization and banter during the fight btw.

>>5653538
>Theral doing a rape
[While it's not impossible, he's shown a general inclination against it by this point. I'm inclined to write him regarding such acts as antithetical to his Prince of Love aspect.]
Iri would, though. She is a true amoral monster.

>The rest
[I'm glad you're enjoying it. Just remember: Theral lived, and now all three adventurers are slain or otherwise beaten. Theral still won!]

>>5653527
Nice job on the art! Very good work!

>>5653523
>No

As if.

>>5653617
Doesn’t feel like it, but I suppose you’re right- we’re mainly tying up loose ends with our more active and opportunistic enemies. Maybe we’re over the hump.

>>5653523
>No

>>5654021
>>5653655
>>5653538
>>5653537
>>5653533
>>5653529

“Coward's way out, huh?” Irinnile asked, nonchalantly. “Yeah, alright, you do you…”

The Prince of Hawksong grips the hilt of his dagger with white-knuckled hands, takes a breath, and plunges it down.

“…And me and Long Wang'll do you wife.”

The self-impalement is aborted, abruptly, as Rufos’ eyes widen.

“Probably your daughter, too,” Irinnile muses idly. “Think she'd survive bein’ double-teamed by a reptoid anna’ demon?”

“N-no…” the Prince stammered, no in direct response to the question from what Iri could gather, but more as a general rejection of this grim vision of the future which would follow his death.

“I mean, not that it'd matter,” Iri says with a shrug and lick of Ricky’s luscious lips with a tongue now long and barbed. “He kills what he fucks, an’ I fuck what I kill.”

It’s at least half a bluff, of course, but Izzy’s kid has more than a little of his mommy’s bloodlust in him—it would take some influence, but if Iri was properly motivated, she MIGHT be able to make it happen. And anyway, it doesn’t really matter: the dagger drops with a clatter to the floor, and the threats serve the same purpose whether empty or not.

“Good boy,” the succubus coos.

“Please,” Rufos pleads, “They are… They’re not a part of this.”

“Then lose the charm,” she says, speaking now in Ricky’s own commanding baritone.

Another bluff, but the guess was educated, and it proves prudent: the Patsy Prince slips a hand into his fine tunic and pulls out another anti-demonic protective amulet, not unlike that which Nenaias wore. With trembling digits, he removes it and lets it drop to the floor with his pointy-tipped negotiator.

No resistance. No escape.

Irinnile grins, spreads her arms, and descends from the desk to embrace Prince Rufos back into the fold.

“It’ll be just like coming home,” she whispers, eliciting a shudder of horror, before his independent will goes still, and his independent thought is all but erased.

>>5654379
“So anyways,” Irinnile finishes their long and winding tale, “The next morning, Nenaias and Rufos BOTH appeared to Paladin King Archie and explained how, like, they were able to capture Ricky, and banish me… And, of course, how YOU were innocent too, just operatin’ all undercover-like when you noticed Sir Yosef’ was actin’ all fucky… But poor Chase ‘n Deepvein got in over their heads, made some poor choices tryin’ to fly the coop before they could get properly exorcised Long Wang style, an’ wound up dead as knob-ends.”

“Doorknobs,” corrects the Reptilian Infiltrator called Halle.

“I know what I said,” Irinnile says with a smirk and a waggle of the Green Knight’s eyebrows, causing Halle to hiss in perturbation.

You are once more the Dragonborn Antipaladin, and you have just heard what transpired while you were recovering. It is… Edifying. Several days have passed since you plunged from the sky and into the sea, and you have barely been able to move for your many injuries and general frailty of health. In spite of this, Irinnile has proven a useful tool—no, a worthy ally, deserving of the trust which you placed in the demon.

‘Praise me more~’

‘Stay out of my head, Succubus.’

‘Sorry, sorry!’

You sigh, laying back in the bed to which you have been confined. Even the sigh taxes your lungs, and the small movement causes back and ribs to cry out in agony.

Your Long Wang identity is exonerated. Pronce Rufos short-lived rebellion is no more, and can never be again, so long as Irinnile remains on-side and unimpeded. The adventurers are dead or enthralled.

“They’re calling you and Nenaias the Heroes of Hawksong,” Irinnile notes with a wink. “The Princess has been askin’ after ya’.”

You are triumphant. Your prize awaits. But in the Bloodrise, there is yet turmoil… And you have heard no word from the agents who you sent to assassinate Hawksong’s Paladin Prince on his mission of peace to the subverted Southlands.

What will you do?
>It’s time to seal the deal—let’s summon the Novice here to mend your wounds, so you can consummate and consecrated this marriage
>You must return to the northern forward base to get treatment, and then return to Bloodrise to preserve your fragile empire there
>Prince Alexos may yet live—you must investigate directly, and end him if he yet lives
>Focus your efforts upon the criminal underworld of Hawksong—high society has brought you naught but pain
>Write-in

>>5654380
>you have heard no word from the agents who you sent to assassinate Hawksong’s Paladin Prince on his mission of peace to the subverted Southlands.
I thought we agreed with alexos to kill rufos?

>>5654380
>It’s time to seal the deal—let’s summon the Novice here to mend your wounds, so you can consummate and consecrated this marriage
>Get Iri (via Rufos and his agents) to begin to subtly undermine Alexos across Hawksong’s different classes. Maybe tales that he has left the city for a ‘southern mistress’…

Time to get this finished

>>5654401
Opposite way around anon

Even if alexos comes back, his father will likely be dead and Rufos is now our puppet. We can start a civil war if we so choose

>>5654380
>It’s time to seal the deal—let’s summon the Novice here to mend your wounds, so you can consummate and consecrated this marriage
tru waifu appears again at last

>>5654380
>It’s time to seal the deal—let’s summon the Novice here to mend your wounds, so you can consummate and consecrated this marriage

>>5654407
oh i get it now rufos was trying to backstab theral

>>5654407
Supportin'

>>5654407
+1. Alexos may be a problem, but is comparatively minor in face of the successes we've achieved here. We do need to get back to Bloodrise, though.

Adding:

>Send word through your Reptilian allies that Hawksong is as good as broken, and to focus on the Bloodrise theater of operations more heavily

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>>5654768
>>5654432
>>5654411
>>5654409
>>5654407
>>5654401
You have waited long enough. No more obstacles yet remain to your absolute victory, and the completion of your mission here. Granted, it is a mission that has ‘crept’ somewhat: where once you planned to simply mate with Hawksong's princess, her personality has charmed you—even to the point of genuine <True Love>. Now, you find it is not sufficient to woo and abandon her, or to ravish her, or to steal her away as some imprisoned sex-slave. No: Ekaterine of Hawksong, Daughter of Paladins, shall be your bride.

Of course, if you wish to be in any shape to wed this woman, you’ll first need the help of your FIRST love.

“Archer,” you wheeze.

The dark-skinned half-human called Oluwadamilare the Degenerate, or ‘Olu the Archer’ by you, is by your side in an instant. It is probably fair to say, at this point, that he is your closest friend and ally. Only your lovers—and that invasive succubus—know you better, and only one other has traveled with you further.

“Bring me the Novice Fleshweaver.”

Sseztlussth is her True Name, though among your people it is a rare and deeply personal thing to speak such a name—titles and aliases are preferred, something your kind have in common with the demonic entities of the Hellish Realms, though it is more a matter of convention and culture than for fear of magical manipulation. You have spoken hers, though, and you relish it in whispers now. It has been nearly two months since you last saw her—the prodigal prodigy of the Order of Fleshweavers, called Novice for her rank among the Serpent Priesthood rather than for any failure of her intellect or ability. She is cruel, cunning, capable, and a malicious monster of a female.—a scheming snake with no empathy and scarcely any allegiance. She tormented you for decades, made your youth a gauntlet of ridicule and ostracism.

But she is yours, your Beloved One, and you miss her. Two months without her slitted eyes staring at you in bashful vexation. Two months without her plump tail and thighs to hold, her mix of mockery and faint flattery, her wise counsel, her faint admissions of affection which were so hard-won.

It has been too long. You miss her.

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>>5655080
Your Archer bows his head and takes his leave, to do as you have asked. Ever the hardworking champion of your people, you waste no time while you wait for her: you begin plotting contingencies. Alexos, Paladin Prince of Hawksong, heir to the throne, may yet live. While he cannot hope to recapture this kingdom which you have all but bent to your dark will, you are not the kind of ruler who leaves loose ends to chance, or simply hoeps for the best.

“Halle, Roth, to me.”

You instruct your other trusted agents—Halle the Silkscale Infiltrator, and the Dragonblooded Infiltrator ‘Roth’ who sired you—to work with the Succubus and her burgeoning cult to begin spreading rumours of Prince Alexos’ diplomatic failures and personal failings. Through Rufos’ de facto rule, you will poison him to his father, his sister, and his people. The tabloids of the common folk and the courtly gossip of the nobility will be in accord: Alexos is a fallen star. If he lives, and returns, it will be to cheers, not cheers. If he vies for the throne, it will be no more brotherly squabble, but civil war.

Even laid in bed, you are truly a force to be reckoned with.

You close your eyes, and you do not dream in your sleepless Reptilian torpor, but if you dreamt at all it would be of your Novice, and her healing touch, or of your Eka in a white dress.

Soon.

<LEVEL UP!>
>Choose one of your stats to upgrade, and remember: you can only EVER max one more stat at 5, though doing so will net you an additional bonus

<META ‘VOTES’>
>How did you like controlling Iri for an interlude?
>In the future (this quest or another, fi I do a successor), would you like more opportunities to control side characters?
>Do you find this quest too ‘easy’, too ‘heard’, or just right in terms of difficulty of challenges and dice rolls?
>Would you like to see less dice used in future quests? More?
Who is your favourite waifu? How about favourite non-waifu side character?

>>5655083
>Religion

We're the damn scion of the Dark Gods. It's time.


>Controlling Iri
Was fun. Length was appropriate, as was the circumstance.

>More side characters
In the appropriate timing and circumstance, yeah. It's great to see the main character's efforts from another's perspective.

>Challenge
You have an elegant system and a fair hand. Perfect balance- my only gripe is inconsistency in DC revelation before rolls; you do it sometimes and not other times.

>Dice
Dice is just right!

>>5655083
Have to agree with every point >>5655086 put, your universe fucks, and you are a easily one of my favorite QMs on the board, and the amount of engagement you give and receive is hearts in my eyes gay homosex feelings in my chest, please continue however you see fit, dont fix what aint broke especially when you have such a good fanbase
>Religion
I kinda want to explore our paladinship more after we get Eka pregnant, and getting Dark Prophet III would probably get us some pretty ganked Divine Serpent loot and missions from our main god

>>5655083
>Choose one of your stats to upgrade, and remember: you can only EVER max one more stat at 5, though doing so will net you an additional bonus
>Religion

>How did you like controlling Iri for an interlude?
Its a short sidestory but I like it. Not too long.

>In the future (this quest or another, fi I do a successor), would you like more opportunities to control side characters?
Sure.

>Do you find this quest too ‘easy’, too ‘heard’, or just right in terms of difficulty of challenges and dice rolls?
The difficulty was alright. I liked how the dices scales with our current upgrades. Having 4 on Seduction rolls on the last thread really made a difference in some situation. It came in clutch in that hotpot restaurant iirc

>Would you like to see less dice used in future quests? More?
A puzzle solver system could be interesting - the more upgrades you have, the more choices you will have on a given situation or the choices have more detailed descriptions. If Theral was more skilled in fisticuffs maybe he would have multiple options on dealing with deepvein trying to rush him.

>Who is your favourite waifu? How about favourite non-waifu side character?
I like fleshweaver and theral's interaction on thread 8 iirc. Very cute. I think theral's reptilian children were nice.

>>5655083
>Divination
our original

>How did you like controlling Iri for an interlude?
It was very fun, but also there was some uncertainty around how loyal she really was and the glimpse into her mind dispelled that uncertainty which feels like a bit of a loss.

>In the future (this quest or another, fi I do a successor), would you like more opportunities to control side characters?
yes

>Do you find this quest too ‘easy’, too ‘heard’, or just right in terms of difficulty of challenges and dice rolls?
Too easy, I can probably count all the rolls we failed on one hand. Even when we fail things turn out well. Example: Last thread when we repeatedly voted to throw all defense and caution to the wind and commit completely to a desperate attack only to fail and get counter blasted by a double critical from the enemy, and we not only survived but managed to kill all 3 opponents.
Frequency of rolls seems good.

Novice top waifu.
Shoggy best side character RIP in the ocean depths Shogs :'''(
I like Big Red, he's remarkably chill considering his circumstances.

>>5655083
>Divination
Need to level it up, this whole situation would’ve been avoided had Divination succeeded.

>How did you like controlling Iri for an interlude?
It was nice- I’d like to do it more often.
>In the future (this quest or another, fi I do a successor), would you like more opportunities to control side characters?
Maybe- could be interesting.
>Do you find this quest too ‘easy’, too ‘heard’, or just right in terms of difficulty of challenges and dice rolls?
It’s fine.
>Would you like to see less dice used in future quests? More?
I think the dice system is alright as is.
>Who is your favourite waifu? How about favourite non-waifu side character?
Glowie and Devora, though I love the interactions with Eka and Novice. Love Iri and Brig Bro.

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>>5655184
>the glimpse into her mind dispelled that uncertainty

>>5655083
>Religion
Makes sense for a paladin.

Dice seem fine to me. We just seem to take the hardest option all the time and then act all surprised when the dice don't roll high every time.

>More glowie and our dragonbug children content plz.
If we're going the harem route let's not forget our first.

>>5655083
>Religion


>Iri Control
Kino. Plz do again
>Other side character playable
Yes please
>Difficulty
I like the balance. We get a real sense of progression and challenge, while still being the menace we are supposed to be
>Dice
Reasonable amount.
>Waifu
All of 'em. Xcept the dead dwarf, never liked her.

>>5655086
Completely agree with all of these points

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>>5655086
>>5655098
>>5655134
>>5655232
>>5655279
>>5655350
>>5655213
>>5655184
[Thank you all for the input! I really value your participation, input, and enthusiasm. Locked and writing.]

>>5655184
[ >>5655220 was sort of me memeing, but I would like to note that i seeded some clues that Irinnile is not fully 'tamed' or 100% reliable, so please do keep in mind that even if she is loyal, that loyalty is circumstantial and flexible. This is just the nature of an unbound demon, in this setting.]

>>5655086
>inconsistency in DC revelation before rolls; you do it sometimes and not other times
[I try to do it at times when the consequences would be especially dire for failure, and the MC would have in-universe reasons to be able to gauge the difficulty. often if I don't include it, it's because the consequences of failure aren't catastrophic, Theral (or Iri) doesn't really know exactly how likely success is, or simply because the DC for each option is very similar or identical.]

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>>5655854
>>5655232
>>5655213
>>5655134
>>5655232
[Oh, and...]
>more wyrmlings
[If you don't go back to Bloodrise soon, I'll at least showcase them and their mother in a little excerpt or interlude.]

>>5655854
I was unsure of what to make of the shining Amy wink.

Yeah I get that if we suddenly decide to kill Heinrich she's gonna oppose us, but now we know she doesn't have any hidden subplots to like elope with him and leave us high and dry. I guess we always knew she was too low IQ to think of something like that though.
Now that it's a new quest and she's no longer prime waifu I finally get why the Incubus was always dissing her.

>>5655864
If votes and rolls hadn't gone the way they did, she might have actually done all that and worse. it was a possibility at one point.

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>>5655854
>>5655859
“I cannot believe you lost the shoggoth-sword! Are you absolutely INCOMPETENT? You hair-brained, mammary-addled, distractable, dumb-headed DEGENERATE!”

“I missed you,” you calmly reply to your Beloved One.

Still, it IS a bitter loss. The shoggoth-sword had become your favoured armour AND weapon in your time in Hawksong. You know that the Novice eels its loss keenly as well—the two of you studied under the Nothic, divine spawn of the Dark God of Wisdom, to master its peculiar bio-alchemical properties to the extent that you could shape and mould the remnants of that great aberration for a variety of purposes. Now, having serve you well, the mass of tooth and gristle rolls and roils somewhere beneath the waves of Hawksong’s bay.

The Novice Fleshweaver sighs, hands on her prominent hips and tail smacking the floor of the border-property where the Succubus has hidden you away during your difficult recouperation.

“Here,” she huffs, producing a cloth-bundles package and half-throwing it with unceremonious gracelessness. You fumble to catch it, failing, and the contents roll free: the elven moon-blade which was your first favoured weapon, known to the sylvan races as the Sword of Endymion!

“Thank you,” you say, earnestly.

The Novice merely hisses and tuts.

“And just look at what you have done to YOURSELF,” she next admonishes. “YOU are my creation as well, as you have come to be. Are you intent to destroy ALL evidence of my progress in the Fleshweaver’s art?!”

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>>5655880
It took another three days for your allies to bring you the Serpent Priestess who now glowers disapprovingly at you, during which time you’ve scarcely improved in health. In keeping with yoru religious dictates as a Knight Ascendant of the Dark God of Glorious Bloodshed, you have risen daily and practiced the blade with your remaining, mundane elven sword. You did this in spite of the pain, relenting only to downgrade to your traditional Reptilian assassin’s dagger.

Neither this, nor your leap of faith into the jaws of fortune, have gone ignored however! The Serpent Ascendant, called Sun-Swallower and Blood God, Light-of-Darkness and Shining Sovereign from Beyond the Stars, has blessed you as a <DARK PROPHET III>! In accordance with your dedication to his ways, you have been blessed with…

>Dragon’s Wings, Greater
You can now manifest powerful, feathered wings which can allow you to fly great distances, at great speeds, in any form, and which can offer armoured defence upon the ground, truly making you master of the skies for as long as you wish and making up for your lost shoggoth-armour somewhat
>Aura of the Swallowed Sun
You and your allies with whom you pray can glow with an eerie echo of a long-dead light, not merely demoralizing and blistering foes but quite literally burning them with a touch; you all gain temporary resistance or immunity to holy magic, hellfire, and even drgaonfire while this remains in effect
>Voice of the Metatron
You can issue commands akin to a <Power Word>, once per day; this can force someone (or several someones of lesser will) to kneel, flee, drop their weapon, stand still; with greater difficulty, you can force someone to submit, or even to kill themselves or another; in addition, the difficulty of rolls to command and persuade the faithful, or to debate those of other faiths, are decreased
>Sword of the Savior
You can summon, for a short time, an astral sword from beyond the veil which once belonged to a son of the Sun-Eater, and which ignores material armour and obstacles and scythes through virtually anything with all the force of a ray of scorching light
[No write-ins on this one; post continues, don't vote yet]

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>>5655883
“Well obviously,” she huffs when you tell her of your slow recovery.

“But in return—”

“Yes, yes, the Dark Gods have seen fit to grant you something-or-other,” she sacrilegiously waves away your great accomplishment and spiritual vindication. “Do you think this make you immortal? Show greater care for yourself, fool, or you will just be simply an especially memorable MARTYR.”

“Yes, Superior One,” you allow her. After all, she has always been of a rather skeptical and secular bent, regarding your Dark Gods with a most transactional mindset in spite of the priestly caste into which she was born.

After a moment, you tilt your head and ask, “So you worry for me? Did you miss me, also?”

She looks away, flustered. You rattle with laughter, deepening her embarrassment.

“My best guess would be that you have rested insufficiently, if at all. Too busy fumbling about, and probably generally involving yourself in matters best left to Lesser Ones, or those a SENSIBLE Reptilian would have ignored altogether. It is you incredibly frustrating custom, yes?”

“Yes,” you admit. “Will you help me, Oh Great Fleshweaver?”

She is silent for a time, then shouts for one of the Infiltrators who accompanied her to produce her supplies—of which, it seems, she brought a great many.

“The better to repair the results of your impulse and arrogance, Oh Meatheaded One,” she says, swatting you sadistically. “Strip.”

You wince and grumble. Still, for all her lambasting of your dubious decisions and distracted deviations, it is not long before the Novice Fleshweaver turns her physician’s ability to the art of mystical massage. She weaves away your pain and discomfort with care—even compassion?-just as undeniable as her skill.

You sigh, happy to bond with her in this familiar way. To be alone with her again, to enjoy the comfort of her familiar company, is a wonderful thing, and to know her healing touch.

“Have you… Completed your mission yet?” she asks, breaking the silence.

“Are you asking if I have yet mated with the Princess of Hawksong?” you tease.

“You know full well what I ask,” she hisses, pinching you with her claws in jealous spite.

“No,” you admit. “I… Became embroiled in local affairs.”

“Ha. Typical!”

“Soon,” you assure her. “When you have mended me, I will be marrying her.”

The Novice stops, and after a moment you glance at her, finding her expression almost as inscrutable as that of another race.

“What is wrong?” you ask.

“You will… MARRY her.”

“Yes,” you reiterate, then quickly amend: “In a false identity, thanks to your Amulet of Disguise. I am known in this country as ‘Long Wang’, eastern exorcist and adventurer.”

>>5655885
“To what end?”

You blink.

“To… Mate with her?” you hazard, uncertain of the problem.

“Did you marry GLOWIE before you impregnated her? What about your… dwarf-THING before you made use of HER?”

You raise your eyebrows. There is jealousy, and then there is whatever THIS is. THIS is new.

“Is there a problem?” you ask innocently.

“Of course there is!” the Novice snaps. “You have wasted time and resources for… What, a sham marriage? A little fantasy-play at some silly human mating ritual?”

“It has been a useful deception,” you explain, and remind her: “I have subverted the very halls of power. Hawksong is compromised beyond recovery!”

“And the marriage is necessary to secure this?” the Novice presses.

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>>5655886
Well… No, not exactly. After all, Prince Rufos is enthralled, and Ekaterine isn’t even next in line to the throne so long as he lives—let alone if Alexos has somehow survived. Still, it doesn’t HURT.

“Every moment you remain here, “ The Novice points out, “is a risk. The deeper you embed yourself—in a family full of PALADINS no less!—the more likely you will be exposed, and captured. And while you have been here, do you think that my father, and the senior Priesthood whom you so defied and whose natural order you defiled, have been IDLE?”

You start to sit up, stopping only when your persistent pains pin you in place.

“They work against my reforms?” you ask sharply.

“OBVIOUSLY, you absolute buffoon!” the Novice hisses angrily. “What, has all your cuddling and canoodling with your new mate—sorry, your STILL VRIGINAL ‘BRIDE’—made you softer in the ehad than you already were? Why would they NOT reassert that authority which favours them, when the young upstart who upended it is away for nearly two months?”

You consider this gravely. Is two months really so long…?

“And what about Bloodrise?” the Novice demands. “have your forgotten your FIRST mate, your CHIDLREN? If I have sunk resources into that sword you lost, into this body you’ve risked and ruined, what of your abominable SPAWN? They carry almost ALL that is left of an ancient Dragon King in their insectoid ichor, and they are defended by DWARVEN SLAVES and DEGNERATES, while you, you…”

You rest a hand upon hers, and finally the trembling Novice stills herself. With Reptilian ease, she shifts from supreme-most agitation to icy calm.

“What is even the point of this sham marriage?” she asks, plainly. “You are leaving when the deed is done and the embryo implanted, yes? Why not simply bed her and be done with it?”

You tilt your head.

“Mammals of her ilk and station are pair-bonded for life, and cohabitate by custom,” the Novice reminds you. “Do you thinks he will take KINDLY to her new husband departing immediately after the wedding ceremony and your mating?”

…Well, no, probably not, come to think of it.

“What,” the Novice asks pointedly, “is even your PLAN here, Dragonborn?”

>You plan to remain in Hawksong, operating as Long Wang, and to set up Hawksong as your new seat of power
>You will leave Ekaterine, wedded and impregnated, and return to your duties elsewhere, though she will fret and fear for you
>You will make Ekaterine your bride… And then reveal your true self to her, your identity as the Dark prophet Theral, and take her with you when you leave
>You… Don’t know. You can’t decide. Right now, you just want to focus on the wedding. Is that so WRONG of you?
>Write-in

>>5655883
>Sword of the Savior
whoooo

>>5655887
>You will leave Ekaterine, wedded and impregnated, and return to your duties elsewhere, though she will fret and fear for you
I've wanted to cum and go for like 3 threads now

>>5655887

>Dragon’s Wings, Greater

We're gonna have a proper war to prosecute sometime soon, likely against Alexos or someone similar. Having the ability to move at supernatural speeds will make that a lot easier, though the sun sword is tempting after the loss of Shoggy.


>You will make Ekaterine your bride… And then reveal your true self to her, your identity as the Dark prophet Theral, and take her with you when you leave

For me, the allure of Kat is making her a true believer in her own way. It's a vindication of Theral as the Prince of Love, that he can transform the daughter of his greatest enemy into a steadfast supporter.

>>5655883
>aura of swallowed sun
Magic resistance is important
>You will make Ekaterine your bride… And then reveal your true self to her, your identity as the Dark prophet Theral, and take her with you when you leave
Make sure to impregnate her before revealing that, though.

Backlink>>5655134

>>5655883
>Voice of the Metatron
>Go full Aquaman “Bring me my Sword” to the Fish/Crab People
Tbh, I would’ve preferred the Sunbeam Firebreath upgrade.

>>5655887
>You… Don’t know. You can’t decide. Right now, you just want to focus on the wedding. Is that so WRONG of you?
I just want to fish our sword outta the seas bros- or get some wartery tart to give Sloggy back to us.

>Btw Novice, I got an in with the Grand Wizard of Hawksong- you wanna get some Fleshweaving tips and insight from her while you’re here?

>>5655883
>Dragon’s Wings, Greater

We’ve always wanted to fly - like our ancestors of old

>>5655887
>You will make Ekaterine your bride…And then reveal your true self to her, your identity as the Dark prophet Theral, and take her with you when you leave
I’m with the other anon, I want to convert and impregnate her

Bloodrise is our Kingdom, our place is there

>>5655883
>Voice of the Metatron
Supportin' the "bring sword" to crab line.

>You will make Ekaterine your bride… And then reveal your true self to her, your identity as the Dark prophet Theral, and take her with you when you leave

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>5655883
1-Aura of the Swallowed Sun
2-Sword of the Savior
I honestly can’t decide.

>>5655887
>You will leave Ekaterine, wedded and impregnated, and return to your duties elsewhere, though she will fret and fear for you

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>>5656483
>>5656447
>>5656072
>>5655928
>>5655910
>>5655905
>>5655903
[Damn, you anons like to really get it down to the fire. As before, a judgement call had to be made.]

>>5656873
“The Human Princess will be coming with us,” you explain.

The Novice stares at you, incredulous anew.

“Oh,” she says with sarcasm dripping like venom from her fanged mouth, “is that right? You’re just going to BRING her, are you? You don’t foresee this presenting any difficulties, or complications? This is not some stray, like Jun—like our chimera-ghoul, or the dark elf castoffs, or even a barbarian like the bugbear. This is the PRINCESS of the MOST POWERFUL NATION on the surface.”

“I will explain the situation.”

“Oh, you will EXPLAIN, yes? Well then, I suppose once her husband EXPLAINS that he is a Reptilian hybrid, and the self-appointed prophet of the Dark Gods Below and Beyond, the PALADIN KING’S daughter will simply… Accept this, and come quietly?”

“Yes.”

The Novice can only sputter.

“I am not ‘self-appointed’, Sseztlussth,” you say—and this time, you speak in the <Voice of the Metatron>, with a true Dark prophet’s authority. “She will come with us, and in time she will understand.”

The Novice flinches back a little, her fierce pride holding aloft a head which her graceful, aristocratic neck wishes very much to bend in supplication. She struggles to meet your eyes, but nor can she tear her gaze away.

“Trust me.”

Despite herself, your belligerent bedmate cannot bring herself to speak another skeptical word. She instead falls sullenly silent, continuing her work upon you until, finally, she breaks the silence:

“I will be taking my torpor in your quarters,” she half-asks, half-commands.

You bow your head, with no small amount of smugness, and say: “Of course, Superior One.”

Ah, you’d missed this.

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>>5656919
It is only a few days later that you are finally recovered to the point where you may confidently don the Amulet of Disguise which makes Theral of Bloodrise into Long Wang of the enigmatic Eastlands. Your regard your reflection, alien again and yet not SO alien. This face, this body… it isn’t YOU, but you’ve worn it long enough that it no longer feels so strange to see this narrow-eyed, golden-skinned human follow your movements in the mirror.

“Preening even now, in your most hideous form of all, oh Degenerateborn?”

You turn around and, to your surprise, see the Novice wearing a guise of her own—one you haven’t seen her adopt in over a year, that of the brown-skinned elf (or half-elf? You think you can now recognize signs of human hybridization in the mix, after so long among both Man and Elf) which her own Amulet of Disguise enables.

“I will take it as a compliment to my craftsmanship,” she sniffs.

“What are YOU wearing, Serpent Priestess?” you ask her. “And why?”

“I am coming with you,” she insists.

You arch Long Wang’s eyebrow, and the Novice hisses, then catches herself and huffs.

“I have worked upon my Northern Common-tongue,” she says, and indeed she speaks the words in a satisfactory imitation of a human. “I will not be a liability.”

“You wish to… Attend my wedding, Beloved One?” you ask, disbelieving, then add in the tongue of the Northmen: “Jealoussss much?”

The Novice crosses her arms beneath her false form’s angrily-heaving bosom.

“The lassst time I let you leave my sssight, you vanished for a month, lossst a preciousss artefact, and nearly died,” she spits. “I will not be sso foolish asss to trussst in you like that again, fool.”

You shrug. Fine—so be it. Sometimes, there is naught else you can do but humour this female… And anyway, she isn’t exactly WRONG.

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>>5656922
“Wang!”

Your reunion with Princess Ekaterine is far more overtly affectionate than that with the Novice Fleshweaver, despite the shorter time apart. Violating courtly decorum and flaunting her guards—who, you note, make no move to stop her—she hurls herself at you and wraps her arms around you, shoving her face into your chest and clinging as if afraid you will vanish from her grasp. Only after you have stroked the softness of her hair for nearly two whole minutes does she relinquish this hold and back away, blushing intensely.

“I… Oh no, I’m so sorry. You were hurt, weren’t you? I was told… Oh dear, did I…?”

“I am quite alright,” you reassure her with a practiced, mammalian smile. “My physssician wass a great help. I am asss healthy asss before the battle with the demon-possessssed warriorsss… Maybe better!”

For the first time, Eka gazes upon the Novice, who looks back unflinchingly. She stands several feet back from the two of you, and scarcely moves. It’s actually quite eerie, and rather inhuman—you hope the locals will chalk it up to some peculiarity of the ‘brown elves’, for as you explain:

“Thisss isss a fellow adventurer of mine,a nd a ccomapnion of many yearsss… She wasss ‘healer’ to my adventuring party, and hailsss from an isolated elven tribe to the eassstern desssertss. At my requessst, the Green Knight—that isss to ssay, Ssir Yosssef, he brught her here to ssave my life.”

“Well then,” Ekaterine gathers her composure, and steps forward with bowed head. “We ALL owe you a great debt, Lady….?”

The Novice narrows her eyes slightly, taking the slightest step back, and answers: “Teharissssa.”

You suppress a sigh. Classic blunder: picking a surface name with an ‘S’ sound. If Ekaterine is at all questioning of her pronunciation, though, she is far more perturbed by the disguised Felshweaver’s cool demeanour. Still, she forces a smile.

“Thank you, ah, Teharissa,” she reiterates. “Thank you SO, so much.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” the Novice—Teharissa, you suppose, for now—replies. “I have brought a pox upon your house.”

Ekaterine stares uncomprehendingly, and her guards exchange a look. You step in hurriedly, explaining the meaning of your (infuriating, still, even if you love her dearly) companion’s words:

“I am feeling well enough, I think, to finally make good upon our promissse… And with death sso narrowly avoided, I think it prudent to act NOW, lessst I forever hold my peaccce.”

Eka stares at you for a moment, still not understanding… Until, in the Northern custom, you kneel before her.

“W-w-wait, you mea—”

“Princess Ekaterine of Hawksong,” you ask, “will you marry me?”

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>>5656925
>Dream-manipulations by a lust demon
>Successful seduction rolls in past (including criticals)
>Successful date
>Much focus upon the princess
>The removal of vocal familial opposition
>Hero of Hawksong
>VOICE OF THE METATRON

“…”

>Auto-success

“YES!” the Princess bursts out after a moment, eyes filling with tears as she stares at the ring which you produced—a relic which you had brought for you from your hoard, along with your Novice, crested with a shining emerald the very colour of Ekaterine’s—and your own—eyes, set in flawless gold and flanked by a pair of near-perfect dwarf-cut diamonds.

The Princess falls to her own knees before you, and clutches to you again, and says again:

“Yes, yes, I would very much…. Yes! Oh, Gods Above, yes! I never want to let you go again!”

The guards—and the Novice, whose quiet but deep-felt and persistent agitation you can detect through bonds of Reptilian Empathy—watch as the two of you hold one another.

You feel…
>Happy—genuinely, deeply, lovingly happy, even at PEACE, at least for now
>Worried—this last operation will require careful execution, and it has many moving parts
>Terrified—what if she rejects you after the marriage? what if something goes wrong?
[Pick one]

The two of you begin to plan the wedding shortly thereafter, and decide it should be…
>A grand affair, fully legitimizing the union and making it known to all whom the Princess of Hawksong has chosen
>A quiet and intimate sort of wedding—something where friends and family attend, and a few royal scribes and courtiers, but without crowds or parades
>An elopement, away from Hawksong and from the pressures of the court, and nevermind tradition! [requires persuasion roll]
>Write-in

>>5656926
>happy
>a quiet and intimate sort of wedding

the more people we have at the wedding, the more contingencies we have to keep in mind

backlink>>5655910

>>5656926
>Worried—this last operation will require careful execution, and it has many moving parts

>A grand affair, fully legitimizing the union and making it known to all whom the Princess of Hawksong has chosen

>>5656926
>Worried—this last operation will require careful execution, and it has many moving parts

>A quiet and intimate sort of wedding—something where friends and family attend, and a few royal scribes and courtiers, but without crowds or parades.

Deepvein and chase plus their elf friend spread rumours that we are a lizard man before we got rid of them. It's best to not do anything that would bring attention to that fact.

>>5657019
Supporting

Can we be worried with a tinge of happy?

>>5657068
>a tinge of happy
[Theral is going ahead with the wedding and is in love with Ekaterine per previous votes, so I'd be surprised if he wasn't pretty happy! Perhaps for 'happy' it would have been more accurate to write 'content', which is what I meant to imply by the rest of that option's description.]

>>5656926
>>Worried—this last operation will require careful execution, and it has many moving parts
>An elopement, away from Hawksong and from the pressures of the court, and nevermind tradition! [requires persuasion roll]

Where is our option to aquaman-style command a recovery of shoggoth?

>>5657304
>Where is our option to aquaman-style command a recovery of shoggoth?
[I admit I'm a little confised by who or what you're planning to command? You could try crabs/lobsters, but first you would need a large mass of ceabs/lonsters, and they would need to have an understanding of what the sword looks like, where to look for it, how to coprdinate it to drag it back... Not sure that really would work. You can issue the command, sure, but they might not puzzle out how to follow it before the Voice wears off.]

>>5657323
Are there fishmen in the setting? Locathah maybe? Or Tortles?
Else, we can coerce some magus of the tower with a Bubble-head Charm.
Or order some orcs - do they need to breath in the setting?

Would any of that (or all of the above) work? What about our reptilian influence over some sea Serpents? Or Gyriados. Or plesiausors?

>>5657332
If no one of those work, let's go full "The Big Blue" and order dirt-poor shellfish fishermen children to look for it on their rivalry dives

>>5657332
>fishmen
[There are, elsewhere.]
>Locathah, tortles
[The former's hostile to humanity, the latter Reptilian, and neither welcome in Hawksong or permitted to dwell in one of the world's busiest humanoid trading ports.]
>sea serpents, prehistoric marine reptiles, Gyarados
[See above.]
>orcs
[Breath water; they're pig-tusked, hunched, hairy ape-men, not space-fungi.]

>>5657339
[Viable, and if other people want to do it I'll include it when I get a chance to writeup after VtM today, BUT... Are you sure that's an undertaking you wish to engage in before your wedding? it would require a lot of time and supervision, and your bride-to-be is very concerned with the well-being of the lower classes, whose children you will be utilizing in this way for many, many days to even have chance of finding the shoggoth-sword.]

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>>5657351
>>5657332
>Magic needed to walk at the bottom of the bay, scour it for the sword, and not drown or be crushed by pressure
[Pretty high-level, but maybe the Archmage could help... In time, for a price...]
>Breath water
[*orcs DON'T breathe water, sorry. Was typing between rounds in VtM. Session's done now!]

>>5656939
>>5656998
>>5657019
>>5657068
>>5657304
[Writing!]

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>>5657504
You’re happy, obviously. How could you not be? Marriage is a meaningless thing to you, of course—it doesn’t exist in your culture except as a form of declared ownership to sole mating rights, and the idea of commemorating it with some kind of ‘wedding’ is laughable. But… Well, you love Ekaterine, and that she (whose culture DOES place value in such frivolities) sees you as a suitable partner for lifetime mating and public commitment… It is gratifying.

And yet, you’re worried. There are rumours drifting about regarding the true nature of ‘Long Wang’, even now, when many hail him as the hero who saved Sir Heinrich Yosef, the royal family, and maybe Hawksong itself. The timing of all these events is rather convenient, you must admit—partly because you engineered some of them—and all the major action was convenient out-of-sight. Your Reptilian and demonic networks assure you that few mammals give credence to Deepvein’s earlier allegations that you are secretly a ‘lizardman’, but that you might be a cloying seducer and grifter, running some sort of con for money and status… These rumours persist.

“They are clearly jealous,” Ekaterine huffs, when you describe your concerns.

Then, she griamces,a dn adds: “or it’s the, ah, the race thing.”

You arch an eyebrow, noting that you are in fact both of the same, human, race… Well, as far as she knows, or any of your accusers.

Ekaterien looks at your with tenderness, and places both her hands upon yours, saying sweetly: “Yes, exactly! That is precisely, precisely right, Wang. It’s just… Well, not everyone views that. To some, the ‘Eastmen’ are as different as elves and dwarves, or even moreso, being so…”

“Foreign?” you hazard.

“Um, geographically-distant,” she supplies euphemistically, “and culturally less-familiar than our ‘demihuman’ neighbours here in the north-west of the continent.”

You nod, and suggest sagaciously: “Then a small ceremony is best. Just those who need to attend, with an announcement to the public when it is done.”

Ekaterine’s brow furrows thoughtfully.

>>5657515
"It’s not very traditional…” she notes

She looks up at you, eyes bright with that little hint of mischief and rebellion which so endears her to you whenever you see it, and says: “I love it. Let’s!”

With your preferred plan in motion, you allow your soon-to-be-mate attend to the miscellaneous ephemera of decorations and decorum—you lack the finer cultural nuance to be much help and, conveniently, so too does your cover identity. This frees you up to…
>Pay the Archmage of Hawksong’s Mages’ Tower a visit with your Fleshweaver, to discuss the reversal of Olu’s sterilization—he deserves to know the happiness which you know, with his own lady love
>Check in on the status of Prince Alexos with his brainwashed brother
>Pore over some newspapers and military reports on the matter of the Bloodrise Conflict
>Discuss the future of your partnership with Irinnile, her role in it, and the matter of Heinrich Yosef
>Begin scouring the bay for signs of the shoggoth-sword, mobilizing all available resources
>Write-in
[Pick ONE, please. No guarantee of success on that last one, btw.]

>>5657517
>Pore over some newspapers and military reports on the matter of the Bloodrise Conflict
about time we paid some attention to the home front

>>5657517
>>Begin scouring the bay for signs of the shoggoth-sword, mobilizing all available resources
Let's do it.

>>5657517
Cant we just have irinnile find our the shogoth? Since presumably she doesn't have to breath while in her pure demon form. And she can mind link with us while we are using our guidance.

>>5657323
>recovery of shoggoth
Could we meditate along the shoreline and leverage our deep understanding of the entity (granted by Nothic, divine spawn of the Dark God of Wisdom) alongside divination to find it?

Once we know where it is, we simply need to imbibe a potion of underwater breathing

Thoughts QM?

>>5657517
>Pore over some newspapers and military reports on the matter of the Bloodrise Conflict

>>5657517
>Pore over some newspapers and military reports on the matter of the Bloodrise Conflict

The Shoggoth-sword is a regrettable loss, but one we can deal with later.

>>5657620
>Iri
[By her pact, she must stay within a certain distance of Heinrich Yosef at all times. She could send lesser demons to do her bidding, but she can't see through their eyes or vice versa... And a spate of demon activity in a busy port has its own risks. She can't even 'mind link' with you without a soulbond... or volunteering to have her use her 'ectoplasmic puppeteering' trick on you, which would also let her dominate your will.]

>>5657626
>Nothic knowledge, Guidance
[It would help, for sure. However, you'd still need to brave your <Aquaphobia> or send an agent to do your bidding, and give them to tools to do the job if they need to breathe.]

>>5657517
>>5657530
>>5657575
>>5657620
>>5657626
>>5657703
[If the sword-search is voted for, various options will be presented to a vote.]

>>5657517
>Begin scouring the bay for signs of the shoggoth-sword, mobilizing all available resources.

Alexos diplomatic delegation and the dwarf bloodrise battles are too far away for us to do anything about directly.

>>5657517
>Check in on the status of Prince Alexos with his brainwashed brother

Lets make sure he doesn’t pull any weird shit

>>5657339
We could just commission a bunch of experts rather than children. Pricey but they’ll keep their mouths shut about this sword.

>>5657896
Backlink>>5655910

[Forgive me anons, for I have sinned: I am too drunk to write a good second update tonight. It will have to wait for tomorrow. It was a long week, and I need a breather. Sorry, friends!]

Rolled 98 (1d100)

>>5657530
>>5657575
>>5657626
>>5657703
>>5657861
>>5657896
The shoggoth-sword is a pressing concern, and a regrettable loss. With every hour, certainly every day, it drifts further out to sea on strange an subaquatic currents alien and terrifying even to one such as you—perhaps ESPECIALLY to one such as you, given your <aquaphobia>. One fear looms greater though: the fear for your friends, your family, your kingdom.

You will be returning to the frya in Bloodrise before long, but ebfroe even then, you must know what has transpired there.

You pore over papers—public and private military documents privy only to princely council—and you begin to glean a fuller picture. It is… A mixed bag. By stopping the escape of Deepvein and Chase, killing (or at least waylaying) Alexos, and subverting Rufos, you have driven a wedge between Man and Dwarf, and denied the region precious Paladin-backed aid. In Hawksong, the dominant feeling of Bloodrise is that it is a regional conflict between bwarf-and0dwarf, backed by kobold mercenaries and sensationalized by ever-present rumorus of ‘reptoids’ to cover some form of labourer revolt…

But not all are so convinced.

The dwarven corporations in the areas have conglomerated into a task-force, and have gone all in on the ‘Reptilian Conspiracy’, bit with almost humour misunderstanding of the facts on the ground: you beardless dwarven apprentice, Karz Throat-singer, ahs been identified as ringleader and a probable secret lizard-man. He has been spotted leading many a charge, made more visible by her very audible and mystical throat-singing, which many compare to the thrumming of some great toad. He is said to lead armies of kobolds and (if dwarves can be believed, and mankind REALLY ought to) larger lizardmen, plsu sundry others: black-skinned elves, dead-eyed dwarves, and even strange insectoid abominations are numbered among the foes of mammal-kind.

Rolling, DC 50/70/90

>>5658128
>98
The forces of the corporations are being rapidly overwhelmed in the absence of aid. To your great relief, while there ARE reports of dead or captured kobolds and ‘lizardmen’, most captives and casualties are dwarven or Drow… And there are precious few of those. Apparently harrowing by a strange and hairy goblin astride a great bat-beast—the Bugbear Boss, one presumes—accompanied by some sort of ‘armoured bug-dragon’—yours and Glowie’s first, strong-winged son, Tudyvak the Scout—have been very advantageous at applying pressure, to the pint of terror and flight. Bloodrise is all but abandoned by dwarves. Below it, humans cower in their homes, or emigrate away.

The mountain-ranged and the realms below all but BELONG to the Forces of Darkness.

You are gratified to read these consistently-positive (well, negative to those compiling them, but positive for YOU) reports, suddenly less fearful for your family’s fate, and for your retinue of companions in your absence. For the first time in a week of wedding preparations, you breathe a sigh of relief.

Your marriage ceremony will take place tomorrow. You are still worried, but less so for the good news from the home-front. Soon, you will rejoin your longtime companions and young-but-mighty spawn, shuck your human guise, and rule as ‘Copper Dragon King, Theral of Bloodrise’ once again…

But first, there are a few finishing touches to attend to. Most importantly, you must…
>Attend a meeting with your future father-in-law, to discuss your upcoming union and matters of succession
>Broach the subject of the Reptilian Race and True Faith with your wife-to-be, to prime Ekaterien for the revelation to come
>Take the Novice Fleshweaver on a date around Hawksong, to keep her onside and hopefully cultivate some tolerance of the mammalian races you have come to appreciate
>Write-in

>>5658140
>Broach the subject of the Reptilian Race and True Faith with your wife-to-be, to prime Ekaterine for the revelation to come

Test the waters a bit

backlink>>5657896

>>5658140
>>Broach the subject of the Reptilian Race and True Faith with your wife-to-be, to prime Ekaterien for the revelation to come

>>5658140
>Broach the subject of the Reptilian Race and True Faith with your wife-to-be, to prime Ekaterine for the revelation to come

Satisfying that our forces are whipping Dwarf ass even in our absence.

>>5658140
>Take the Novice Fleshweaver on a date around Hawksong, to keep her onside and hopefully cultivate some tolerance of the mammalian races you have come to appreciate

can we not give Eka any reason to doubt before we get what we came here for?

File: peaceful-politics.gif (39 KB, 375x350)

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>>5658497
>>5658261
>>5658158
>>5658148
That afternoon, you sat with Ekaterine in one of the royal family’s entertaining rooms, a spacious and well-furnished space replete with marble statues and many well-organized and well-stocked shelves of relevant tomes from which any learned guest could call upon the wisdom and wit of ancients and contemporaries to lend credence to a talking point in the midst of conversation—Itself, as likely as not, supplemented by the stocked liquor cabinet. Neither you nor your Eka partook, of course, instead preferring sober contemplation and conversation, though of late the young female’s mind seemed full to bursting with more personal and trivial matters—the preparations for your ‘big day’, as she called it, down to the specific shade of white which she desired for her dress.

You, however, had a different topic on your mind:

“Have you heard about the eventsss in the Bloodrise Mountainsss?”

Perhaps you were riding high on the news of your people’s triumph. Perhaps, buoyed and overjoyed, you simply wanted to share the good news with someone. Oh, there was the Novice Fleshweaver, of course, but her response had been rather… Muted and pointed: “Good. Then impregnate the ape-thing and let us return there to finish them off.”

(You… think she’s mad at you.)

Ekaterine’s own initial response is surprise and confusion at the sudden change of topics, but then her expression shifts to one of understanding.

“You fear for us,” she surmises, wrongly but understandably. “These… Creatures, these lizardfolk and other such monsters… You fear they are in league with those you fought here.”

You aren’t sure exactly how to respond, so instead you shrug.

“We should be sending the Paladins now,” Ekaterine then says, with surprising venom, “ending that threat, NOW.”

You are a little shocked at this, and joke: “What became of Princcessss Ekaterine, the Paccifissst, who lovess and toleratess all racesss?”

Ekaterine replies seriously: “They nearly killed you, Wang. They came to this, this very PALACE to kill my FAMILY!”

This… Isn’t exactly the response you hoped for.

“I ssuppose,” you say. “But then again… Isssn’t that merely the nature of war? People of all racesss sseek to ssecure their own landsss, their own independence and wealth, at the expense of othersss… And sssometimesss, regrettably, that causesss death and dessstruction.”

Ekaterine looks at you strangely, but her natural inclination towards intellectual debate quickly kicks in, and she—true to form—stands and extracts a book from its place upon the shelf with practiced ease and immediate knowledge of its location. She flips through the pages, landing upon one with outstretched finger.

File: 41FFKWVGBSL.jpg (18 KB, 316x475)

18 KB JPG

Rolled 9, 12, 4, 18, 15 = 58 (5d20)

>>5658584
“I cannot speak to the, ah, political situation in the East, of course… But in the Northwest, we have had no wars between races, or between human subraces, in three hundred and forty-eight years… And the last one was barely a decade long, and had casualties in the low thousands!”

“Surely there are conflictsss?” you ask, a little surprised at this.

“With the Southern nations, sometimes… or with bands of orcs and goblinoids, or against individual bad actors such as, as demonologists or necromancers—”

“Hm,” you grunt, remembering your own troubles with those exact same elements in the past.

“—but at the closing of the last Dragon War, the Paladin King channeled the very voice of the gods and proclaimed it a sin against The Heavenly Realms and the Gdos of Light for any two peoples who worship them to make war against one another.”

“And yet you all have armiesss, mercenariesss…”

“…Yes,” Ekaterine admits with a sigh, setting the book in her lap and again sitting beside you. “Some… Skirt the laws, with what they call, ah, ‘undeclared conflicts’… But these are exceptions, and the deaths are few, and innocent people and their property are not brought into it.”

“Innocentsss of your allianccce,” you correct her.

Eka looks at you in confusion.

“Goblinsss, orcssss, occultissstsss, the foreign men… Their women and children, their homesss, what happensss to them? To their young, their noncombatantsss?”

Ekaterine fidgets uncomfortably, and looks down.

“It is… A shameful oversight, yes. We MUST improve, be BETTER. But still, these… these demon-worshiping lizardmen, these ‘reptoids’…”

“They are not a part of your allianccce,” you interject. “They do not worship your godss. They do not have acccesss to your diplomatic channelsss. They are doing what they mussst, and asss their own Godsss command them.”

“They work with demons,” she shoots back. “Creatures of pure malevolence and violence.”

You think of Irinnile, and counter: “Dangerousss creaturesss and dangerousss men are useful, in war. They need merely be directed properly. Maybe it alssso goesss this way for demonsss, yess? Even the Hawkssong Mages’ Tower oncce employed a Demonologist, yesss?”

“You sound almost sympathetic to them,” Ekaterine notes quietly, scrutinizing you.

You hesitate, then shrug.

“I have lived in difficult tiemssss, and placesss. It makesss it… Difficult to apsss judgement sso easssily. Where I come from, sstrength iss key... Whatever itsss source.”

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>>5658586
Ekaterine nods, and places her hand upon your chest.

“I am so sorry, Wang. You deserve so much better than… That difficulty. I will make sure you never face such conditions again. I promise you that.”

The two of you share an embrace which deepens and, in time, becomes a kiss. The guards who once attended to you so closely are now well outside the chamber, affording the Princess and her fiancé their privacy. When the kiss is broken and the two of you are snuggled tight together upon your long seat, however, the Princess looks troubled.

>18
>Voice of the Metatron

In vague and veiled terms, you elaborate upon the philosophy which has brought you strength. You tell Eka of the virtues of darkness—of how those with strength and resolve—like adventurers, like paladins—must use violence to shape the world into a better place, and to protect those close to them.

"It issn't a kindnessss for godsss to shelter and coddle their children from thisss truth," he tell her, "it isss cruelty. The weak SHOULD fear the sstrong. It sseemss to me that these... Monsssterss in the mountainsss recognize thisss, and that the damage they inflict isss ass much a product of humansss and dwarvesss forcccing them to demonssstrate that sstrength asss anything elssse."

“I think I understand what you are saying,” she says after a time, though you can tell she doesn't much like it. “But I still cannot forgive them.”

She looks up at you, tears in her eyes. Her surprising, uncharacteristic bloodlust is dissipated, and illusion that crumbled under your mastery of pathos, ethos, and logos.

“The shapeshifting lizardfolk, whatever gods they follow. Even if I do not… HATE them, or SHOULDN’T do so, they’re our enemies, aren’t they? Yours, and my family’s, and our people’s… And yours. Their victory endangers us all. We should use OUR strength to... To protect ourselves, no matter what it means to them, right?"

You wipe away her tears with a thumb—a tender gesture which your temporary human guise, with its soft, padded fingers, allows. Ekaterine cps your hand to her cheek, and leans heavy against you.

“They nearly took you away from me,” she whispers.

She is repeating your own lies and propaganda as truth, fearing for you as you taught her to fear for you, hating those whom your own lies have conditioned her to hate. Even as you work to rhetorically dissolve those feelings of fear and enmity, the lies themselves remain. As far as she knows, Long Wang—her husband, her one true love—is a human man, nearly killed by a demon-reptilian conspiracy.

But in dreams… In dreams, when she believed that Long Wang and Theral of Bloodrise were one and the same—as they in fact ARE—she loved all of you. She really even seemed to UNDERSTAND all of you.

Maybe… It’s time?

>Reveal your true identity
>Keep the secret until after the wedding

The choice is hard.
On one hand, honesty is key And the pick shows Withheld truth as a reason for failure
On the other hand... Yeah, this will backfire.

>>5658596
>Reveal your true identity


"That victory does not endanger us, because I am it's architect, Ekaterine. I am the path between both extremes: is a genocidal war truly the way you desire? I do not believe that we are fated to destroy each other, your race and mine. You know who I am, deep down. Do you hate me and mine, or have you just been TOLD to so often that you cannot see past this veneer?"

"See me for who I truly am. Know that all of the important parts are unchanged, Eka."

>>5658596
>Keep the secret until after the wedding
ugh

>>5658596
>Keep the secret until after the wedding

This conversation shows that she isn’t ready for this truth - we need to work on her more

>>5658609
>>5658611
Formally votin' to drop the mask

>>5658596
>Keep the secret until after the wedding
I feel like we can really lean into some eastern mythology here guys, I feel like an eastern magical shape-shifting dragon man would be super kino, but she can only discover after we properly secure the bag to ensure demigod dual anti/paladin bloodline is properly laid out

>>5658772
+1

We want to be honest but we’re not willing to throw everything we’ve done away.

Backlink>>5658148

>>5658596
Wait ive got an idea

Can we say something like…

“I was turned into a dragonborn”


Or does that violate the knight ascendant rules?

>>5658772
Support

File: Knight Ascendant's Code.png (16 KB, 649x146)

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>>5658847
[Depends how you phrase it, and if she asks you directly who/what you are.]

>>5658859
>>5658834
>>5658772
>>5658714
>>5658698
>>5658689
>>5658611
[Closing vote in a half-hour!]

>>5658918
eh probably not gonna risk it.

File: screenshot.png (3 KB, 618x42)

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>>5658918
>>5658945
[Alright, locked and writing ASAP!]

>>5658951

You look down at this Beloved One, conflicted. She loves you, and fears for you, and you could relieve that fear. Moreover, you could finally put this long and difficult charade to rest—at least, for the one human among all these other humans whose approval and understanding you actually care about. It wasn’t so long ago that you pledged to live and lead openly, as yourself and as you truly are. You took up with the Dark God most known for His directness and prideful honesty!

And yet…

“Never fear,” you tell Ekaterine truthfully, “they will never sseparate usss. We will be together, forever.”

That much, at least is true.

You stay together for a spell longer, before you must take your leave, and she hers. There are yet preparations to be made, after all, for the ceremony which shall bind you both tomorrow.

You spend the evening with your other Beloved, the Novice Fleshweaver. You do not tell her what transpired and, though she no doubt notices your sedate demeanour, she does not comment on it—at least, not directly.

“This whole city stinks,” she complains. “I cannot wait to be done with this place.”

“There are things to appreciate here,” you note.

“Of course You would think so, Degenerateborn,” she chides, though without venom. “I bet you have even come to enjoy that flat, hairy face you wear. It must be just like coming home!”

In some ways… But in others, far more ways in fact, it will be the return to Bloodrise which serves as homecoming. You are nearly there… One more day in Hawksong, a night, and then you can finally reveal who you are, and take Ekaterine away from this place, to honeymoon with the REAL you. How glorious it will be…


“Ugh, your anxiety is contagious,” the Novice whines, setting down what she was working on and removing her Amulet of Disguise., so as to unfurl to her true stature. “Come. Lay down, rest. There is nothing else you can do until tomorrow, anyway.”

But that isn’t strictly speaking true, is it? You could contact Irinnile and, with the demon’s aid, make one last petition to Eka in dreams. It would leave you exhausted before the ‘big day’, but perhaps you could prime her for the ‘big reveal’ that will follow… Hedge your bets, as it were?

Or perhaps, as little as this ceremony matters to one of your upbringing, you should still petition one of the Dark Gods in prayer, the day before you are set to be wed?

“Dragonborn,” the Novice hisses, and then adds more gently: “Rest.”

What will you do? Pick one:
>Sleep [no penalties to rolls tomorrow, +Novice affection]
>Pray [could receive a premonition]
>Dream-delve [Clears threshold for <TRUE LOVE> with Ekaterine, but can carry positive and/or negative consequences for tomorrow]

>>5658968
>Dream-delve [Clears threshold for <TRUE LOVE> with Ekaterine, but can carry positive and/or negative consequences for tomorrow]

one more gamble

>>5658968
>Sleep [no penalties to rolls tomorrow, +Novice affection]

The Novice never reaches out for us in this manner - return her affection

>>5658968
>Sleep [no penalties to rolls tomorrow, +Novice affection]
Gotta show Szesty we still want it

>>5658968
>Pray [could receive a premonition].

The visions of the dark gods have always been useful, and i have a sneaking suspicion since this new quest chapter started there is bound to be some plot issue we have to deal with.

>>5658968
>Dream-delve [Clears threshold for <TRUE LOVE> with Ekaterine, but can carry positive and/or negative consequences for tomorrow]

>>5658968
>>Sleep [no penalties to rolls tomorrow, +Novice affection]

>>5658968
>Sleep [no penalties to rolls tomorrow, +Novice affection]

Man, I'm sad we didn't reveal, but I get the trepidation. Let's see how this goes.

>>5658968
>Sleep [no penalties to rolls tomorrow, +Novice affection]
We really should take Novice to Henzler's before we go, she deserves the reward.

File: postin.png (4 KB, 662x59)

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>>5659444
>>5659263
>>5659192
>>5659156
>>5659143
>>5659077
>>5659011
>>5658971
[Locked and writing!]

>>5659999
Quads... How auspicious. This one is a doozy, boys and hypothetical girls or androgenes who might dwell in this cesspit.

You sigh, allowing the weariness to take you, dragging you down into the bed. The Novice has taken up station in one of the decadent surface-beds common among the upper and middle-class humans of the north—raised upon wooden pillars, padded with downy cushioning. It is soft—too soft for your tastes—but the Novice is a creature who is given to a certain among of luxury and comfort.

Perhaps that is why SHE is so soft—a softness you find yourself appreciating.

“Hmph, save it for your hairy-headed pet monkey, Dragondick.”

You do not, instead nuzzling into her and taking her in your. She makes a show of hissing, and huffing, but even as she does so she settles against you.

>+Novice Fleshweaver affection

“You have been overtaxing yourself,” she quietly criticizes you. “You squander my efforts to heal you and better you when you abuse your body. You create unnecessary work for me.”

“I will make it up to you,” you mumble.

You are already beginning to drift off, in spite of the bed swallowing you up.

“A likely story,” the novice sniffs. “You have been too busy to even spend time with me as of late.”

“You wish to spend more time together?” you ask, surprised enough to stave off sleep a moment longer.

The Novice realizes too late what she has let slip, but she tries to recover.

“There is an abundance of genetic diversity here. Much fodder for experimentation… And magical resources aplenty to plunder! THAT is what we should be doing.”

“You would call me Reckless One if I besieged a city of a million with an army of a few dozen,” you note.

“…Bah.”

“You would like the Initiates’ Village,” you muse, thinking of the place where the mammal magelings and enchanted epicureans make their homes. “Or perhaps the Smithing District. And there is one human—the Archmage—that actually somewhat reminds me of you.”

“Oh, so I ask for favour and am treated to insults?” she snaps. “Some Prince of Love.”

You rattle with laughter. The Novice’s tail angrily slaps at you, until you grip it and pull it around you like a weighted blanket. The Novice’s hiss of irritation turns to almost a soft sigh, and her posture and body language is unmistakably that of ease, of comfort, whatever façade she may put on.

“I do love you,” you remind her.

“…Hm.”

“I know,” you say forgivingly, and allow torpor to take you at last.

>Well-rested

>>5660037
The next day comes swiftly. You rise earlier than mammals do from the dreamless half-sleep of the Reptilian master race; the Novice, full-blooded Superior One that she is, still sleeps later. Spoiled One! Still, you appreciate the mild and placid expression on her face, her relaxed posture. You appreciate the sight for a moment, before—as every day—you take up your blade and practice the art of Hexblade Sword Mastery, in honour of the Dark God of Ceaseless Striving.

Early dawn turns to the mammals’ morning. You set down the moon-blade and take up the Amulet of Disguise. You don first Long Wang’s flesh, and then his attire—the finely-tailored faux-Eastern attire which you wore on your first formal date with Ekaterine of Hawksong. It better suits today’s venue than a ramshackle goblin ‘hot-pot’ restaurant, anyway.

“I am ready.”

You look up to see the Novice Fleshweaver in her own disguise-still voluptuously curved, albeit differently than her natural form, more top-heavy and clad in smooth, brown skin.

“Ha,” she mocks, with an air of arrogant pride accompanied by a certain deliberateness of pose, “ogling another female on your wedding day? Your wife-to-be must be a fool, to cling to your like.”


You ignore her comment, though it DOES occur to you that polygamy and your prior production of spawn could present its own, unique difficulties even if (when!) Eka accepts your Reptilian true-self. Still, that is a concern for another day.

Today, you are told, is to be the happiest of your life.

>>5660039
You are dubious, of course, but there is a certain building excitement that even supplants your inner anxiety as you and the Novice both approach the sacred altar—not the main cathedral to the principal human gods Moroth and Marese, but another, lesser one to a minor deity of love. This is a foreign, alien, even hostile place… But this ceremony is in your honour. You are welcome there, BELONG tehre this day… And you are glad to be there!

It is a shame that of all your friends, lovers, and allies, only the Novice and Oluwadamialre may attend, but so must it be. Roth has no interest, and to attend risks his cover; Irinnile refuses categorically to attend a ceremony on holy ground, with many a Paladin in attendance; no others of your close circle are near enough, and most are occupied with the fighting of a war. Even so, you are glad that this hostile and wretchedly-critical Beloved One is with you, and your dearest friend.

Your Archer is gaily attired as you are, and much more at ease than the edgy, standoffish Novice. He is a creature of the surface world as much as of the dark realms below it. He, a ‘fellow adventurer’ of Long Wang’s entirely fictitious party of such warriors, serves as your ‘best man’, taking up station not far from you as you stride to the altar and stand tall before the small gathering of nobles, scholar-scribes, Paladin guards, and other high-ranking officiants who must attend even this modest ceremony.

Prince Rufos and his family are among them—at the very front, in fact, and his expression is dead-eyed in his utter calm. You can only imagine the turmoil that must war within him, suppressed only by the demonic taint which holds his mind and soul entangled in tentacles of black ectoplasm.

And then, Ekaterine appears.

>>5660040
She always has been gorgeous—or have you only come to see her as such, as you feel deeper and deeper into genuine love of her?—but she is especially resplendent today. Her attire is… Well, it’s very ELABORATE, one might describe it as ‘poofy’. There is a large amount of white, fur and flowers bedeck it in matching shades of cream and ivory, and sparkling diamonds, pearls, opals, and zirconia twinkle like dewdrops upon her shoulders, her neck and breast. She wears a crown fit for a queen—her late mother’s for this one special occasion, a right granted by the father whose arm she holds.

The Paladin King of Hawksong, Archos, aged yet still imposing, moves slowly. Kind Ekaterine matches his pace, careful not to rush him, looking to you with quiet apology in her eyes. Her father has grown ill. Repeated palace intrigues and worry for his eldest son haven’t helped, one might imagine—humans are creatures easily injured by emotional damage in a way your kind are not. If he has misgivings about your union, he has put them aside—put at ease by your ‘heroic’ status? Or maybe simply eager to see his daughter wedded before he perishes? You suspect he is not long for this world—perhaps another year, if he is lucky.

The ceremony is not held in the altar proper—Tristyllea is a minor deity, and not martial, but you’ll not SO tempt divine intervention as to dare such a direct affront. Rather, you hold it in the grove just before it, a choice to negotiated by convincing your bride-to-be that it would better frame your union as simple by avoiding religious ceremonies and extraneous officiants. And besides: she likes gardens, and flowers.

“You are right,” Princess Ekaterine whispers to you, when she is brought before you at long last, “it is beautiful!”

“Assss are you,” you note, eliciting ne of her signature full face-to-chest blushes.

“Y-you’ll make me look a fool,” she whines, tucking her head as if to hide her crimson hue.

“You will never be any sssuch thing,” you assure her, which hardly seems to help; a few in the crowd, close friends of the family, familiar with her, laugh.

The one official of Love Goddess Tristyllea who oversees the ceremony clears his throat, and you both fall respectfully (well, ‘respectfully’ in your case) silent.

>>5660043
“We are gathered here in this grove, before our Lady of Flowering Feeling, to commemorate a union of hearts—the flowering of new love, and a new life together. In time children, too, may emerge like fresh buds, to bloom from this love—to spread forth into a great garden of descendants. The flowering of good deeds which result from these two, and their loved ones, their children, their friends and families who care for them—shall fill all the earth as a garden, entangled with all our others. This is the very root of the world. It is what makes marriages, families, communities, cities, nations, and the entire Earth united, and strong, lush and wonderful. Love is the very sun to which we all, like flowers, turn. It is the meaning we seek.”

…Hm. Saccharine and soft, but you can appreciate that sentiment, you suppose. It isn’t THAT different from what you yourself strive for, and believe at your core, and it certainly isn’t dissimilar from what you feel in your heart as you now gaze upon your blushing bride.

“Princess Ekaterine, Princess of the Golden Peace, Heaven-Blessed, Honour-Born, Daughter of Archos, Shield-Maiden of the Paladin Order in Honour, of the Royal Family of Hawksong,” the human priest intones, “do you swear to take this man—Long Wang—as your husband, to be faithful to him and only to him, to forswear all others who might take precedence before him, and to submit to his heart’s will for the better flowering of your sacred love?”

…Wait, what?

“I do,” your princess pledges, looking at you with unabashed and unashamed love in her eyes—love uncomplicated and complete.

Oh... Oh no. Oh, Gods Below and Beyond.

>>5660044
“And you,” the Priest of the false Love Goddess asks now, turning to you, “do you, Long Wang, ah, of the Eastern Steppe… Adventurer, exorcist, hero of some recent renown… Do you swear to take this woman—Ekaterine of Hawksong—as your wife, to be faithful to her and only to her, to forswear all others who might take precedence before her, and to protect and cherish her heart and protect it always for the better flowering of your sacred love?”

…Oh fucking HELLS, this is an OATH. Nobody told you there were going to be OATHS. Well, an exchange of personal vows had been mentioned… But not some canned preamble like THIS! Is it just such common knowledge that it went without saying, required no explanation? You are masquerading as a FOREIGNER! Do EASTERN humans do this sort of thing, also?!

You glance at the Archer, and Olu looks back. His Infiltrator training is strong in him—concern only touches the edges of his eyes, and does not crease his features. You cannot bring yourself to look at the Novice Fleshweaver, where she is seated—your first great love, the female you first truly fell for and pledged your love to. Would would be pledging to forsake that love for this one... Not to mention Glowie! And what to make of the need to 'protect and cherish her heart'... What does that even MEAN?!

You are a Knight Ascendant. When you swear an oath, you must keep it. The God of Dark Glory has no respect for those who make promises they are not prepared to back up. To kill, rape, slaughter, maim… To betray and abandon weaklings, or crush fleeing foes… All these things are permissible, in the eyes of the Sun-Eater, only the weak can ever be FORCED into a pact or agreement against their wishes, and only a failure cannot KEEP such an oath, willingly made.

If you make this pledge, and marry this human—your princess, your Ekaterine—you will have to live by that promise… Or risk the displeasure of the Dark Gods, and a fall from your golden grace.

What will you say?
>“I do.”
>“I… Can’t.”
[You may attempt to modify your marital vows, but that could very well break Ekaterine’s heart or spark outrage, maybe even interrupting or annulling the ceremony.]
[If you wish to take any other accompanying actions—giving a dramatic speech, running away with a princess under your arm, revealing yourself and staging a coup, whatever else, please note that as well. It is permitted if you get enough support, though success is (as usual) not guaranteed.]

>>5660044
yeah
this is why we shouldn't have done a wedding

>“I… Can’t.”
if only we had cum and gone
oh well

[Oh, and I hope anyone who's followed this quest knows by now, but backlink your 1post IDs on a big vote like this.]

>>5660046
>I do love her, but our culture requires me to put my parents, my family above everything else. I do not wish to do that, either. I wish to care for them and Ekaterine equally. I shall cherish and protect her.

Alright, one more gamble. Since ‘family’ can apply to glowie and the kids, this could work.

backlink>>5658971

>>5660046
We won't be prompted to accept a vow, we must speak it ourselves to... convince all of our conviction. (And appropriately modify it for our 'Eastern' heritage and include all our other existing and future 'family'.)

"I do swear to take this woman—Ekaterine of Hawksong—as my wife, as together we serve first the gods, then family, then clan as one. To make her the first among equals, and to protect and cherish her, as her avowed prince of love."

>>5660075
Yeah this is bretty kino and makes for some quick wit to add to the legend of the copper dragonborn for the future

>>5658772
Idk whats going on with my IP recently but this is me I swear

>>5660075
+1 this is pretty good

I’m >>5660052 switching to this option instead

>>5660075
This is actually quite good, I just want to drop the first among equals bit.

>>5660105
Yeah I wasn't sure about that part, needed something to take the place of "faithful to her and only her" part.

Also these vows seemed to be a bit wack for a god and monarch driven society. Deliberately didn't specify which gods we'd be serving together but I figured it would seem even more conservative and traditional while serving our ends this way.

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>>5660109
Trolled

>>5660075
Supportin' the cunning

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>>5660130

>>5660165
Maidenless behaviour.

>>5660075
+1, this certainly needs some fancy footwork of this kind.

>>5660046
>“I… Can’t.”

>>5660165
Total cunny death

>>5660075
Backing this

Rolled 6, 10, 20, 6, 13, 19, 6, 11 = 91 (8d20)

>>5660312
>>5660277
>>5660272
>>5660130
>>5660105
>>5660100
>>5660087
>>5660075
>>5660047
You… You can’t do it. The conditions are beyond you, outside the realm of possibility for the life you live, and the future you feel destined to bring into being! But nor can you break Eka’s heart—and fail your mission besides, incurring the likely wrath of a different Dark God than the one you now seek to avoid betraying.

Luckily, you have always been good with words. Why say ‘I can’t’ when you can instead simply reframe your refusal as a mutual acceptance?

“I…I do swear to take this woman—Ekaterine of Hawksong—as my wife,” you begin, “as together we serve first the Gods, then family, then clan as one. To make her the first among equals, and to protect and cherish her, as her avowed prince of love."

Ekaterine blinks a couple times in disorientation at the unexpected place at which you interject your own, personal vow which you had earlier devised. The Priest clears his throat, and there a few hushed whispers and murmurings from the assembled entourage of the royal family.


[4d20 Seduction, 4d20 Diplomacy]

>20 seduction
>19 diplomacy

THERAL SWEEP

>>5660805
>>5660803
“You are meant to say ‘I do’,” The Love Priest eventually explains, “the personal vows come later.”

“I… am new to thisss,” you say apologetically, and truthfully add: “It iss my firsst wedding.”

Your first attended EVER, of any culture, not just the local tradition.

“I should hope so,” the priest says, taking an entire different meaning, “polygamy is—”

>20

He thoughts on the subject are interrupted by Ekaterine spontaneously throwing her arms around you and kissing you upon your lips. You are a little surprised, having expected this closer to the end of the ceremony and with –you assumed—less lustful vociferousness to the kiss. It’s honestly the most forward Ekaterine ahs ever been—ESPECIALLY in view of others, and by a LONG margin. The crowd goes wild—but not entirely positively

“I love it,” your Princess says, pulling back and staring at you with tears dipping down her cheeks—which would alarm you, but for the enormous, beautiful mile plastered upon her face below these unexpectedly-ourpouring yes.

“I love YOU,” she adds, afterwards.

The two of you kiss deeply again, and the clamoring goes louder.

“This… Is not normally how the ceremony proceeds,” the priest mutters.

“This is outrageous!” someone else dares to cry form the assemblage-a stuffy-looking stuffed shirt of a nobleman, fan with decadent eating and frilly, ribbony chest garb that, your primer on the city indicated, were decades or even a CENTURY out-of-fashion as fancy attire among the nobility.

“What of tradition? Propriety? This barbarian besmirches our beloved Princess Ekaterine in public like, like a rutting beast of the steppe!”

The extreme display of affection from both of you, immediately following unconventional breaking of the ceremony’s rites and rituals, has sent a stirring through the crowd. You sense some agreement with the pompous male’s outburst. You break the kiss again to watch them through narrowed eyes. You sense the Archer tense up, and spy the Novice at the back of the assembly, and backing up still further as if to affect a hasty escape or buy distance to cast her combat spells.

>>5660841
But then the Paladin King creakingly stands to his full height, and thumps the staff of office he holds. It is ceremonial, and earlier the old monarch practically sued it as a cane to reach his current post, but in his hands it is a <Holy Weapon>, and with his strength of spirit asserted over his weak body, it cracks down upon your stone dais like a bolt of thunder from on-high. Everyone falls still, and the Novice nearly bolts before you shoot her a look…

>19

…For you see that the ire of Ekaterine’s elderly father falls not on you, but on the assemblage which has spoken out against you.

“This day is not about you,” he rumbles with quiet authority and anger. “It is about my daughter… And her husband.”

He takes a deep breath, and then says more loudly: “It is about MY FAMILY. My family which has lost so much, BLED so much, for this city—to make it so ceremonies like this can happen, in safety and light, and which has now grown so small… So much smaller since we lost our queen.”

He looks over each of them in turn, head slowly rotating, and each noble who stood and raised their voices now sits down and falls silent. It is… Preternatural. You dare to blink your nictitating mebranes just once, briefly, while all the others present are distracted, and you glimpse the aura of Paladin King Archos…

By the Gdos below and Beyond—or rather, by the Gods of Light! Paladin King Archos of Hawksong… He alone, of any mammal you have met except perhaps the powerful psionic Ghoul Supreme, THIS man has a legitimate <Fearsome Presence>. You glimpse it for only a moment, but in the same way you can reign by right of spirit over Reptilian races and animals, this human is a master of men and beast above! His soul is… Like yours, inverted and of the opposite source, but he is True Royalty.

The paladin King turns his gaze upon you now, and you unconsciously pull Ekaterine a little closer—for her protection, or yours, you cannot say.

“You take good care of my daughter,” he commands you. “Do you hear me? Swear it.”

You feel an unusual feeling in your chest, your neck, your knees. The urge to kneel, and bow. Your mammalian heritage… It is subject to this man’s Presence, as a Degenerate hybrid half-caste might be subject to your own! It takes everything in you not to assert dominance, to raise your own <Blazing Aura> in response and to blow away the pressure he now exerts upon you…. But that would give you away in an instant.

You bow your head slightly, and (truthfully at least in this instance) say: “I shall.”

That is a vow you can keep. She is your bride now, and soon mate, and will be mother of your next child--a demigod, sired by you in service of the Dark Gods! Ekaterine is beloved, and you protect that which you love. You will not lose another...

>>5660848
Still, you feel immense relief when the King of Hawksong nods, and turns his gaze from you. Almost immediately, he hunches forward and seems to collapse into the broadly-built, stern-faced, but ultimately much more humbled and decrepit man you’d beheld him as until mere moments ago. You let out a breath you didn’t realize you had been holding.

Ekaterine gently massages your back in comfort, though you note she was not bowed by it as were the others…

The rest of the ceremony is sped through, without complication. There are perfunctory applause, even from those who were very nearly your opponents a scant half-hour ago. Most shuffle out hurriedly thereafter, eager to escape the shame of <Judgement> by the Paladin King.

You and Ekaterine are escorted to a royal chariot, flanked by two more typical carriages and men—including some Paladins, you note—on horseback. They all ride out along with you and your Princess Bride, who clings tight to your arm, as you are eld to a small estate just at the outskirts of hawksong proper, belonging to the King’s family—the traditional ‘Honeymoon Palace’ of the newlywed and royal.

“Prince of Love…” the Princess tastes the phrase, racing fingers gently over your chest while he looks out upon the countryside “You really are a romantic… And now a Prince in truth, you know. Well, Prince-Consort is the technical rank, but…”

You smirk and kiss her to cut her off. How to tell her that it is not YOU who moved up in rank just now, but SHE, from Princess to Queen of Bloodrise? Well, there would be time for that soon… Quite soon, perhaps.

But first, the ‘honeymoon’ itself—so-called because your wedding, as is tradition among the humans of Hawksong, was held just before the advent of a full moon, which t is said that the rituals of the Love Goddess’ priest have made a blessing specifically unto you—a blessing that is said to grant growth and fertility.

Thus, after a union, it is traditional for the newlywed couple who desires children to have a GREAT deal of intercourse.

>>5660850
The humans seem ashamed by this, or at least embarrassed, coating it in layers of metaphor about honeysuckle, or honeydew melons, or simply general deference to ‘celebration of love’ rather than ‘fornication in abundance so as to reproduce the species and secure the familial bonds’. You don’t entirely understand WHY they cloak sex so, but regardless, the ritual is perfect for your intentions… And even if your status as an Antipaladin somehow bars them, you have your OWN goddess in your corner!

It would be wrong to call the Mother of Dragons and Lady of the Rookery, premier Dark Goddess of the Tre Faith, a Goddess of Love. Your religion has no such concept—not until your advent, anyway. However, her role is in some ways similar. She is protector of females and the young and unhatched, and she values the defence of places of birth, growth… And conception.

Moreover, the child with which you wish to impregnate Ekaterine is to have TWO mothers—Ekaterine, and the Goddess of Dragons herself, who has ‘impregnated’ YOU with a parcel of her essence which grows towards its OWN birth from within your spirit-self.

The two of you talk for some time, and laugh, and speak poetry to each other. You kiss, and fondle, and eventually find yourself entangled upon the great, canopied bed provided for this very purpose—and, to your delight, it is pleasantly firm so as not to obfuscate the task, or to impede your rest therebetween activities.

You remove carefully the ruffled outer-layers of the Princess’ wedding-dress, revealing a more practical and less-ornate inner-core of simple white lace and silk. She flushes red under your eyes’ attention, and then begins to melt underneath the attentions of your hands’ and mouth. Your peculiar-to-you single-headed male organ—part of your outermost extremity as ‘Long Wang’—grows ready.

But… Well, it IS weird, this sort of form you now wear in this most tender of moments. And the look in Ekaterine’s eyes… Will she still hold it if you were to fornicate with her thusly, and then reveal the true shape of her husband—a creature that, to her kind, is nightmare? In dreams, and with the aid of your Succubus ally, you were able to make the Princess of Hawksong weak to your true self’s charms—maybe you could now, also?

Maybe right now, when there is love, and lust, and total and absolute abandon to the wonders of love in your bride’s eyes, is the best time to finally share the dark truth of this marriage with your new wife?

>Impregnate Ekaterine as Long Wang, then reveal your true form
>Make love as Theral, your true self, the Dragonborn Antipaladin
>Consummate the marriage as Long Wang, and continue to keep the secret of your true identity and shape, for now
>You… Can’t do this… Something feels wrong…
>Write-in

>>5660851
>Impregnate Ekaterine as Long Wang, then reveal your true form

We’ve come this far. We can’t risk it now.

>>5660851
>Make love as Theral, your true self, the Dragonborn Antipaladin

We're outside of Hawksong, and the time has come, I think. Truth is important, and we've decided that Kat has some level of actual importance to Theral.

>>5660851
>Make love as Theral, your true self, the Dragonborn Antipaladin
If we're to make this a relationship in any way then there's got to be trust and revealing ourselves after having done the deed would seriously hamper that. At least until now we can justify our deception as trying to evade Hawksong's persecution but here? After Kat has expressed over and over how much she loves Theral, even the real Theral during her dreams?

That fourth prompt has got me scared though

>>5660851
>Consummate the marriage as Long Wang, and continue to keep the secret of your true identity and shape, for now

>>5660870
undecide it
she exists to be hit and quit

>>5660851
>>Impregnate Ekaterine as Long Wang, then reveal your true form
She said she loved both our forms, we can start with one and become the man of her dreams for the next round.

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>>5660851
>Make love as Theral, your true self, the Dragonborn Antipaladin
This is a stressful one and the make it or break it, Id impregnate first but I really think getting Eka in the know before we knock her up will make the future much smoother as we are going to need her support if Rufos takes the crown he will see his race traitor sister and her hybrid baby as a direct threat, reasons this should work
>She is our wife and loves us
>We have Archos approval
>She "knows" and has shown attraction/desire to our true form from the dreamscape so theres a level of familiarity and curiosity
>She has some understanding of mammalian inferiority or equalness to the master race
>Very sheltered and would likely love the route of least resistance in a giant theological race war
We just have to be honest with her, we arent a reptoid or a man, we are a dragon and we came here to stop the fighting by mixing divine bloods

>>5660851
>You… Can’t do this… Something feels wrong…

RQM, I think you'll like this quest >>5654217 it has your favorite questing trope, Beautiful woman infiltrating high society

>>5661005
I'll give it a look later though I think DAQ shows it doesn't need to be someone beautiful or a woman for me to enjoy spycraft

>>5660851
>Make love as Theral, your true self, the Dragonborn Antipaladin
We got this bros

>>5660851
>Make love as Theral, your true self, the Dragonborn Antipaladin
Now is the right time

>>5660851
>Make love as Theral, your true self, the Dragonborn Antipaladin
Let's go.

Backlink :
>>5650232

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>>5661165
>>5661162
>>5661159
>>5661005
>>5660936
>>5660935
>>5660901
>>5660899
>>5660870
>>5660866
[No DEFINITE majority yet, especially adjusting (as I often do) for 1-post IDS with no backlink. I'll leave this open a bit longer, and I suggest people backlink their votes as well in that time.]

>>5661668
[Alright, going ahead and writing!]

Rolled 11, 20, 18, 7 = 56 (4d20)

>>5661711
>>5661668
“Eka,” you say with a breathless desire forced to turn serious in tone, “there isss ssomething you need to know.”

Ekaterine looks up at you with that same unblemished pleasure for your presence in her eyes, awestruck and in-love, utterly unprepared for what those eyes are about to behold: a secret, kept hidden until now, a you remove your Amulet of Disguise and let it fall to the floor amidst the rets of your shed attire.

Only when you begin to transform, gradually and by increments, into your true shape does she flinch from the terrible truth.

…But IS this truth so terrible?

>>5661713
>20
THERAL SWEEP

>>5661713
LETS FUCKING GO UNDEFEATED LOVE PRINCE

>>5661713
>>5661714
>>5661715
Ekaterine brings a hand to her mouth and squeaks a small scream when she behods you, naked and bared before her for the first time in waking reality, and without even the shield of false race and history to protect you. She ctaches herself quickly, though, and instead simply stares.

“My dreams…” she begins

“Yesss,” you confess (in part at least). “It wass the one you dreamt of.”

“Then you… Long Wang, or whoever or WHATever you really are… When you said all those, those things to me, about how you wished to change or reform the world, about how things could be better… The things you said when we were awake, they mirror those you spoke of when we… Um, in dreams?”

Ekaterine is indeed rather brilliant and astute in her way. Even now—shocked by the sudden transformation of her great love into a monster out of darkest dreaming, exposing himself as pretender and invader, the princess of Hawksong sees the bigger picture. She does not wail in confusion at this mad revelation, but immediately sets to analysis of your broader purpose here.

“I am sstilll Princcce of Love,” you say. “I am sstill the one with whom you found sso much accord… In both my manifesstationsss.”

You take a step forwards, and Eka scoots backwards along the bed, away from you. You plant an arm on either side of her, to box and pin her in—just long enough to make your case.

"Ssee me for who I truly am,” you ask of her, reaching up to cup her face and chin in your talons. “Know that all of the important partsss are unchanged, Eka."

>20 on Seduction

Ekaterine’s face is flushed, but by the look in her eyes, it is not with anger, or humiliation, or anything else. She looks at you with the same open and naked desire that you regard her with. Even when her eyes drift down your body to the embodiment of that desire—your hemipenes—her desire for you does not diminish.

“I am here for you,” you say, with conviction, “my bride. My wife. My Eka.”

>>5661732
“We’ve… Already… In dreams,” Eka stammers.

You don’t know if she refers to your illusory fornication in her mental palace, or to the lengthy debates over your dark philosophy when you have already had while she slept—debates that, each time, she was at least partly persuaded to entertain.

Either way, it’s clear which memories dominate her mind now. You scoop her up and pull her to you body; she is unresisting. Your tongue and sharp teeth find her neck and breasts; she is enthusiastic. Before long, you are making real what you only ever experienced with her before in mimickry, in slumber-fogged pantomime. Now, really and genuinely, EVEN as Theral of Bloodrise, Ekaterine is yours!

For the first time in over a year, you experience sexual satisfaction, and with such intensity and frequency and volume that you are CERTAIN of the success of your divine mission. Ekaterine is, without a doubt, pregnant. With that certainty, two terrible burdens are lifted from your shoulders. The first is that of the growing demigod within you, spawn of the Mother of Dragons, and the chastity and agony which its carrying imposed upon you. The second is that of the fear that Ekaterine would, at the end, reject you.

Instead, she clutches to you, sex-dazed but still surveying you with such scholastic scrutiny. She is trying to work out the mystery of you—of what the TRUE you means for her marriage, her life, her family, her kingdom.

“You came here for more than me,” she says, with certainty. “You… Those adventurers who perished, fighting WITH you AGAINST lizardfolk and demons…”

>>5661733
She wants to know if you killed them.

Princess Ekaterine is firmly bent to your will, in love with you as you once appeared AND as you truly are. Carnally and romantically, she is entirely yours. But… Well, there are many things you have not yet butt heads over, but which you surely will if you share the whole truth with her. Will you tell Ekaterine of the killing of the adventurers? The pacts with demons to brainwash ‘heroic’ nobleborn knights? The slaughter of the cultists? The killing, decimating, and enslavement of dwarves? The torturous rituals in honour of your Dark Gods? The experiments with the Novice?

The mastery of her brother Rufos’ will by demonic shackles of ectoplasmic influence? The assassination attempt which may yet have taken the life of her OTHER brother, at your urging?

The, uh, polygamy thing?

“You’re here to bring about your better world, then?” Ekaterine asks, fawning as if she’s already decided that this MUST be the case. “You… Are really as you said? Not as, as the humans believe you to be?”

What do you tell your wife? You know she is too enthralled with you to just abandon or turn on you no matter WHAT you say. She could recoil in horror from your methods, your objectives, your culture... But she is too in-love to simply run away screaming. You know this woman, so kind-hearted to the pointy of naivety: she would stay, to try to 'fix' you and set you on a more 'moral' course.

So what should she believe?

>The beautiful and heroic half-truth: yes, you are here to bring about a benevolent utopia, which the two of you shall rule as King and Queen of this wondrous new world
>The grim and gritty whole-truth: you are here to bring about a future you believe is best… But one that still includes ‘horrors’ such as torture, slavery, the creation of living weapons, demonism and mind-control, and in which she is but one of several mates you will keep
>You… Actually genuinely WANT that first one the heroic utopia, even as you know if means a major course correction, in your personal life, your faith, and your military doctrine [changes your Theral's 'moral' direction moving forward]
>Write-in