>>5855948
The Story So Far

Louise le Blanc was dispatched by her liege with a force of twenty men-at-arms to investigate rumors of heresy in the highlands. Arriving at a small pagan village - worshippers of a benign river spirit - she found a meeting with the village leadership already in progress, being led by the sanctioned heretic Sir Damien of Thornwall. Her reputation as the Maid of Charlemont proceeded her, and caused the Priestess of Fair Springs - a girl named Natasha - no small amount of distress.

To her countrymen, Louise was a hero guided by the LORD of Light to strike down the savage king of demon worshipping barbarians. To the pagan folk, she was a butcher who had no mercy for those who did not keep to her faith.

After giving tempers some time to cool, and humoring the priestess' little brother with a mock duel - that he won, no less, thanks to his sister distracting you! - Louise reconvened with the pagan folk and the heretic knights to come up with a battle plan. Scouts identified that a Cult of the Dark One had taken an abandoned village as their base of operation, fortifying it with Orcs, goblins, and men drunk upon corrupting power. All of it surrounding the ruins of a Gardener Tower, built in the shape of a hand that grasped for the sky.

Without much debate, Louise arrived at an agreement with the leader of the highlander militia, Eren. Her men-at-arms would act to draw as many orcs from the village as possible, leaving the cult open for a brutal flanking attack from Eren's warriors. Eager for the blood of those who kidnapped their kin - including Eren's younger sister, Astrid - they departed immediately, and Louise's forces swiftly followed.

Upon the road, Louise found a girl crucified for her disobedience to the cult, having gouged out the unholy brand they seared into her skin. Though Louise beseeched the LORD of Light for healing, the girl needed more than what faith alone could give her. Picking Squire Trevor and one of the casters amongst her men-at-arms to carry her, Louise sent the girl back to the pagan shrine, where Natasha waited to purify those in need.

Not long after came the purge.

With the help of breeching explosives designed by her artificer,Hilde, Louise's men-at-arms breeched a church and rescued the children within. Damien came late, with a host of skeletons liberated from the cult's control, and with the help of an old rite Louise put them to good use. Sending them to supplement her men-at-arms against the orcs, the combined force baited the Orcs and the cultists out whilst she and Damien breached the tower.

There, she found a Greater Demon. Damien worked his magics to conjure a blizzard to counter its heat, whilst Louise unleashed the unrelenting fury of her swordlance. Though for a moment it seemed that it had Louise dead-to-rights, she finished it with a divine spell of her own, purging it with the Wrath of the LORD.

>>5855950
The battle still took its toll, and Louise blacked out, if only for a moment.

While unconscious, she relived an old memory. A happy day from her childhood, relaxing in the shade of the big lisbon tree with her friends after a hard day of training with her father. She borrowed the lap of her childhood friend - René - as a pillow, as was her habit. He in turn borrowed her broad forehead as a rest for his khemistry tome, as was his habit. The two of them talked for a time, on the antic of their friends, on confusing matters of khemistry like chalk and philosophers.

Then René did something so shocking that it woke her right up.

He kissed her!

Waking up to a Damien who looked far worse for wear, she learned that he drove off the Shade of an entity known only as the Witch of Depravity. Though the shade held but a fraction of a fraction of the witch's power, she would have killed the sorcerer had he not unveiled the trump card he keeps sealed behind his blindfold. The eyes of a heretical god, or at the very least a convincing replica: The Lord of Wisdom's Glare.

After praying to the LORD of Light for healing, and receiving some mending to her wounds, Louise threw open the front gate of the tower and let her men-at-arms inside. Following the Codex Militarum, the bloody work of clearing every floor went smoothly until the final floor, without suffering a single casualty. The cultists were not equipped to deal with men in full harness, and the pig iron carried by Orcs and Goblins loses to artificed steel every time.

But fortunes turned at the top of the tower.

A lieutenant of the Witch of Depravity, the third of her Seven Knights: [Justinia, the Arbiter].

She complimented the courage of the man who breeched the door, who charged into an unknown foe... and then pierced him through with a lance of corruptive power, tossing him aside. As a former knight, ideals of honor still pleased her, and so demanded a duel to measure Louise's strength, with the lives of her men-at-arms on the line. Yet Louise knew from a single glance, that she would fare no better against the Arbiter than Natasha's brother fared against her.

Yet as the boy defeated Louise on her terms against him thanks to a distraction from his sister, Louise defeated the Arbiter on her terms by giving the woman something else to think about. Though the Arbiter toyed with Louise with the use of but one of her iron-taloned hands, Louise's blows were never meant to strike the Arbiter.

They were meant to strike the rafters that had held up the ceiling for centuries.

When the stone roof collasped, the Arbiter has to use both hands to turn the blocks to dust. Not to defend herself, but to keep safe the cult leaders entrusted to her by the Witch of Depravity. Laughing manically, the Arbiter pierced Louise through the eye with a lance of corrupting magics, catching Louise's hand as she raised it in guard.

>>5855953
The Arbiter declared Louise the victor of the duel, and promised that she had given the Lady Knight a wonderful present, one she hoped would bloom by the time they met again.

Left scarred with an inhuman eye and a curse mark in the shape of black thorned vines and blood red roses crawling up her left arm from her hand to her chest, Louise went to Damien to have the mark's nature identified. He gave her a vibrant orange khemical that tasted vaguely of strawberries, which sent her on a trip through her memories. Supposedly, this was to help her diagnose the curse mark's nature.

Yet the only diagnosis she could make was madness. As she moved through the memories of the day she first met King Arthur rois Jonquille, the day she was knighted, a demon began to pester. Speaking inside of her head, it felt like it gave voice to every intrusive thought she's ever tucked away, all the complaints that she quietly quashed in the moment and meditated on later.

It has been a grating experience, to say the least.

Now finished bathing and grooming their charge, a cadre of half a dozen maids have dragged Louise in front of a mirror. No, calling it a mirror was an injustice, for it dominates a full quarter of the grand palatial bedchamber's wall, easily large enough for six grown men abreast to change infront of it with plenty of room between them. A selection of clothing has been prepared for Louise to wear, each of them finer than the finest clothes she owns.
>What is this ridiculous flouncy thing that they have stuffed you in? Why do you feel like one of your baby sister's dolls being dressed up for "the ball"?
>This dress would be understated, a lovely blue that matches your eyes, if not for one thing. Why has the king's tailor taken to using diamonds like rhinestones?
>This dress manages to be reasonable. Oh, it's silk instead of wool, and you are certain the buttons are gold, but it reminds you of the dress you wore to your debut.
>This dress is rather daring. Nothing immediately strikes you as inappropriate about it, but all the same, you can tell from a glance that it's cut to enhance your charms.
>The last dress belongs in a museum. Plain and white with gold fastenings, it is done up in the custom of the Gardeners, similar to a man's toga. But why is it among modern clothes...?
>[We ought not be caught dead in any one of those girly things, HMPH!] the annoying voice is throwing you off script and giving you a headache. Your eyes drift to something that, in all honesty, is a bit more your speed. [That's more like it! If Rene was here, it would be a different story, but we're a knight, and we ought to dress like one. With the biggest, plumiest hat we can find!]
>+Appease the annoying voice by wearing the big seestern hat with the chosen dress.
>[Write in]

>>5855956
>This dress would be understated, a lovely blue that matches your eyes, if not for one thing. Why has the king's tailor taken to using diamonds like rhinestones?
Ignore the voice.

>>5855956
>This dress would be understated, a lovely blue that matches your eyes, if not for one thing. Why has the king's tailor taken to using diamonds like rhinestones?

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>>5855956
>>This dress is rather daring. Nothing immediately strikes you as inappropriate about it, but all the same, you can tell from a glance that it's cut to enhance your charms.
Something like this?

>>5855956
>This dress manages to be reasonable. Oh, it's silk instead of wool, and you are certain the buttons are gold, but it reminds you of the dress you wore to your debut.
>+Appease the annoying voice by wearing the big seestern hat with the chosen dress.

HAT

>>5855956
>This dress manages to be reasonable. Oh, it's silk instead of wool, and you are certain the buttons are gold, but it reminds you of the dress you wore to your debut.

>>5855956
>>The last dress belongs in a museum. Plain and white with gold fastenings, it is done up in the custom of the Gardeners, similar to a man's toga. But why is it among modern clothes...?
TOGA! Fuck off demon it's toga time. Step aside plebeians.

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>>5855956
>>The last dress belongs in a museum. Plain and white with gold fastenings, it is done up in the custom of the Gardeners, similar to a man's toga. But why is it among modern clothes...?
TOGA

>>5855956
>This dress is rather daring. Nothing immediately strikes you as inappropriate about it, but all the same, you can tell from a glance that it's cut to enhance your charms.

>>5855956
>What is this ridiculous flouncy thing that they have stuffed you in? Why do you feel like one of your baby sister's dolls being dressed up for "the ball"?

>>5855956
>[We ought not be caught dead in any one of those girly things, HMPH!] the annoying voice is throwing you off script and giving you a headache. Your eyes drift to something that, in all honesty, is a bit more your speed. [That's more like it! If Rene was here, it would be a different story, but we're a knight, and we ought to dress like one. With the biggest, plumiest hat we can find!]
>+Appease the annoying voice by wearing the big seestern hat with the chosen dress.

>>5855956
>This dress would be understated, a lovely blue that matches your eyes, if not for one thing. Why has the king's tailor taken to using diamonds like rhinestones?
Demon, out.

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>>5855956
>The last dress belongs in a museum. Plain and white with gold fastenings, it is done up in the custom of the Gardeners, similar to a man's toga. But why is it among modern clothes...?
TOGA TOGA TOGA TOGA

>>5855956
>The last dress belongs in a museum. Plain and white with gold fastenings, it is done up in the custom of the Gardeners, similar to a man's toga. But why is it among modern clothes...?
TOGAA!!! TOGAA!!!

>>5855956
>This dress would be understated, a lovely blue that matches your eyes, if not for one thing. Why has the king's tailor taken to using diamonds like rhinestones?
Toga lads plz, we are a noble ladyknight

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>>5855981
I'll back this in lieu of >>5856057, if nobody else has the good sense to want be be a lady landschnecht

>>5855956

>>5856091
Our regular city clothes are already lady landsknecht, though. For an audience with the king himself, we can compromise with a suitably modest dress and the HAT.

>>5856091
Wearing city clothing in court with the King in audience? What are we? A fucking burgher?

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>>5856114
>What are we? A fucking burgher?

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>>5855956
>This dress is rather daring. Nothing immediately strikes you as inappropriate about it, but all the same, you can tell from a glance that it's cut to enhance your charms.
I want to wear a red dress

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>>5856119
>>5856114
Mmmm, burgers.

>>5856163
Sadly it's more Hamburg than hamburger kek

>>5855956
>This dress is rather daring. Nothing immediately strikes you as inappropriate about it, but all the same, you can tell from a glance that it's cut to enhance your charms.

>>5855956
>The last dress belongs in a museum. Plain and white with gold fastenings, it is done up in the custom of the Gardeners, similar to a man's toga. But why is it among modern clothes...?
TOOOOOOGGGAAAAAAAAAAA

>>5855956
>This dress would be understated, a lovely blue that matches your eyes, if not for one thing. Why has the king's tailor taken to using diamonds like rhinestones?
>-Fuck the voice, no hat.

>>5855956
>This dress is rather daring. Nothing immediately strikes you as inappropriate about it, but all the same, you can tell from a glance that it's cut to enhance your charms.

>>5855956
>This dress is rather daring. Nothing immediately strikes you as inappropriate about it, but all the same, you can tell from a glance that it's cut to enhance your charms.
>+Tell the false angel to shut up

>>5855956
>This dress is rather daring. Nothing immediately strikes you as inappropriate about it, but all the same, you can tell from a glance that it's cut to enhance your charms.

To the Anon from last thread who though the three words were "I won't lose", the words Tychae was thinking of come a bit later in the course of a bad end.
>>5855971
>Something like this?
Yeah, that's about right. The daring dress isn't slutty my any means, it's actually quite elegant. But the tailor definitely knew what she was doing.
>>5856114
>>5856103
>>5856091
>>5856119
Louise's favorite clothes are indeed in landsknecht fashion. And funnily enough, at the point in time when this memory/vision takes places, Louise... isn't exact a burger, but her family are modestly wealthy commoners. She was not born into knighthood, and a lot of crude edges have been polished away by time and discipline (to what effect, who knows).
>>5856153
For better or worse, none of them are slinky red dresses. That sort of thing would be given to a courtesan, rather than to a guest of the King. All of them except the TOGA TOGA TOGA use a woad derived blue as the dominant color.
>>5856163
>>5856210
Hamburgers definitely exist in the setting. They're a popular food in Liliensdorf, whose major industry is in raising beef. Elsewhere, they're more commonly made with pork, chicken, or a meatloaf blend.
>>5856306
Note: to avoid confusion, I will explicitly state here that the voice in Louise's head has nothing to do with Tychae. She believes it to be a demon, which is a fair assumption given that the shadow lance spell gave her a heavy dose of the same corruptive energies that bleed into people with properly constructed Black Primroses on their bodies.

You guys have been amazingly in character with the reactions to the voice, by the way. We love to see it.

>>5856626
>To the Anon from last thread who though the three words were "I won't lose", the words Tychae was thinking of come a bit later in the course of a bad end.
alright, it's just that the type of scenario generaly has them saying something along those lines so I couldn't think of anything else, except this and "how dare you"/"you wouldn't"/"not like this"

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"Quiet, demon," you silently chide the voice in your head.

The demon's contrarian and argumentative nature has left a sharp pain throbbing in the side of your head, as if someone had begun drilling into your temple with an awl. Perhaps not that bad, truly. At least her nagging has left you with a better understand of the nature of your curse-mark. The Arbiter's lance of corruption must have forced a minor demon into your body, strong enough to be heard but weak enough to be forced down by your will. Commanded to play the role of your shadow, digging through your dark thoughts and giving them a voice.

It's an ingenious form of corruption. You must take care to be mindful, and weigh each thought against a feather, lest you find your heart sliding past the moral boundaries the demon will certainly push. Once you return to civilized lands, you will need to requisition a demon-seal shroud from the Church.

[Heck yeah, that would look cool!] again the demon shows its knack for digging up the thoughts you thought you buried at the back of your mind. Insidious beast. Its mood changes like the wind after a moment's contemplation. [Wait, no! We don't need one, Alex does. We've seen how he is, that vincula has him bound to his bed. If it's not suppressed, he might sleep forever!]

"A chain devil...?" you muse. You do not trust this demon, not one bit, but the name of that demon knocked loose the memories of a few old texts. You cannot help but say, "That would explain... no, that's beyond the point. I said silence, demon."

You spit those last words aloud, causing the maids to take a step back. The most senior among them - a woman with short black hair and gold-rimmed spectacles - asks you, "Are these dresses not to your liking, Miss Louise? I can have Addie fetch another set?"

[Darn right, they're not!] the demon in your head shouts.

You ignore the demon and apologize to the maid, "Forgive me, my mind has been wandering. Let us go with this dress here; I've heard such things are in fashion in the capital."

The memory fell off script when the maid asked you about the dresses, so you see no reason to cleave to you memories as though they were set in stone. At the age of nineteen, a year after Charlemont and the end of the retributive campaign into Alans, you had no clue what court women wore. So you picked the incredibly flouncy dress that looks like it belongs on one of your sister's dolls. A dress that still holds a special place in your wardrobe, the King having made a gift of it in celebration of your knighting.

>>5857432
This dress has a more mature cut that that delightfully girlish thing. Blue silk trimmed with white lace, with a traced pattern of golden daffodils growing along the edges of the silk. It leaves your shoulders and clavicle bare, the flat neckline resting low enough upon your ample bosom to reveal an alluring hint of cleavage. A fingerless bridal gauntlet covers each of your arm, capped at your wrist and your shoulder with a set of matching golden bangles.

The sleeves of the gauntlets are loose and flared, puffing out like the sleeves slashed doublet in a nod to the popular fashions among knights and men-at-arms in the Duchy of Sonnenblume. Upon each bangle, a passage from the Indigo Tome of Nobility is etched in the runic script of the Gardeners.

[Lilien II 17:19-20] Blessed are those who are noble in spirit. King or slave, Queen or maid, all who treat the children of the LORD with dignity shall hold high station in heaven.

The skirts trail down to your ankles, flowing silks of blue framing a core of pleated white. Around your hips goes a broad blue sash trimmed with golden fabric, tied off with a great bow behind your back. The sash is woven with different shades into an abstract portrait, a pattern that subtly depicts the Doom of St. Augustine. The knight was said to have slain a hundred and forty two thousand, eight hundred and fifty seven demons on the night of his death. Interwoven shadows of orc and demon in blue claw their way towards the swordsman a center for him to run them through.

As the maids sew you into the dress - and stuff your feet into a pair of shining red leather court shoes - your image in the great mirror strays further and further from the expression on your face. The green-eyed woman reflected back at you winces with each adjustment of the fabric, every shift in the cloth that makes your appearance girlier. When the maids fit the tight shoes over your stocking-clad feet, she makes a face like she's swallowed a mouthful of sour milk without realizing it.

[Ugh, court shoes are the worst...] the demon complains. [The only good thing about this dress is the sash. Everything else can rot, especially these stupid shoes!]

"How many times must I say silence, demon," you command the irritating and tenacious creature. Though it lacks the strength to seize control of even your cursed arm, it must have a truly tenacious will. You've held the Light in your heart with each order, and still it continues as if you had not lashed its soul with divine power. It's almost something worthy of respect. "Besides, it could be worse. I've heard that women and fair eunuchs of the Lotus Court wear shoes so small that it can deform their feet."

[Why?] Apparently, even a demon can be horrified at something. More likely, it dug up the memory of your first reaction to that rumor, and mimicked it in an attempt to earn your trust.

>>5857433

You keep making the mistake of humoring the entity with your words. Rather than answer, you tell her once more that, "I said, silence, demon."

The you in the mirror puffs out her cheeks in an exaggeration of a pout, leaning forward and throwing her arms down in frustration. Her green eyes well up with tears, and with a whine in her voice, she demands that you should, [Stop calling us that! We eat pathetic demons for breakfast, we should have more faith in ourself!]

Exactly the sort of story a possessing demon weaker than their victim's will would tell to worm its way into the host's mind. You've had well enough of that. As the maids finish with the application of makeup and last touches to straighten out the dress, you do what you can to block the demon out. Oh, you can still hear the demon's voice, it's hard to ignore her completely, but just like someone you don't want to talk to... you can tune her out.
>Follow the path down memory lane as closely as you can remember it.
>Deviate. Ask questions that you didn't ask before, say things left unsaid.
>Explore the memory as far as it will go. Just what is the nature of Damien's elixir?
>Take the opportunity to vent all of your frustrations to your memory of the King. Let the things you've bottled up bubble out.
>(Write In)

>>5857434
Oh, and one more thing, as I forgot to call for it: Roll 1d20 and 1d100

Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>5857434
>>Explore the memory as far as it will go. Just what is the nature of Damien's elixir?
Let's see what your wrongly-colored strawberry drink can do, eyeboy. And SHUT UP DEMON

Rolled 66 (1d100)

>>5857462
I swear I'm finna strangle this disembodied demon. Just you wait for the exorcism.

>>5857462
>>5857466
>tfw the post number matches the roll
Wuh? Oh man this is gonna be a BAD TRIP. Don't do drugs, kids.

Rolled 15 (1d20)

>>5857434
>>Explore the memory as far as it will go. Just what is the nature of Damien's elixir?

>>5857434
>Explore the memory as far as it will go. Just what is the nature of Damien's elixir?

>>5857466
CURSED

Rolled 51 (1d100)

>>5857471

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>5857434
>Explore the memory as far as it will go. Just what is the nature of Damien's elixir?
I was imagining the demon with a male voice before

>>5857434
>Follow the path down memory lane as closely as you can remember it.
Demon, Out.

Rolled 96 (1d100)

>>5857434
>Follow the path down memory lane as closely as you can remember it
Togabros we will have our day

Rolled 14 (1d20)

>>5857587

Rolled 16 (1d20)

>>5857433
I choose to believe St. Augustine is still ripping and tearing demons in hell.

>>5857434
>Explore the memory as far as it will go. Just what is the nature of Damien's elixir?

>>5857587
The Toga is timeless. We must merely be patient.

>>5857434
>Follow the path down memory lane as closely as you can remember it.

Rolled 17 (1d20)

>>5857434
>Take the opportunity to vent all of your frustrations to your memory of the King. Let the things you've bottled up bubble out.

Rolled 67 (1d100)

>>5857726

Rolled 29 (1d100)

>>5857434
>Explore the memory as far as it will go. Just what is the nature of Damien's elixir?

Rolled 13 (1d20)

>>5857441

Rolled 5 + 1 (1d20 + 1)

>>5857434
>Explore the memory as far as it will go. Just what is the nature of Damien's elixir?

>>5856626
Then Liliensdorfers are popular in the setting, not Hamburgers, which are named after the German town of Hamburg...

Rolled 63 (1d100)

>>5857881

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>5857434
>Deviate. Ask questions that you didn't ask before, say things left unsaid.

Rolled 72 (1d100)

>>5857896

>>5856841
All of those are close, and are definitely things that the Light Novel Stock Character that "Tychae" was referencing would say. To provide some context, there is a stock character in LNs (and more "cultured" media) called the "Kukoro", who is a noble, refined, honorable, and otherwise admirable Warrior (usually, but not always, female) who ends up in unfortunate and provocative situations with the villains for the purpose of fanservice. The name comes from the stock phrase "く...殺せ!" ("Ku... korose!", and thus Kukoro) which is often translated to "Just kill me", or "Tch... kill me."

To give an example of a well known character who fits into the mold of this stock character, Darkness from Konosuba is probably the most prominent that comes to mind - though like everyone in that series, she's a loving parody of the archetype.

Note that while there is a non-zero chance that Louise will end up in a situation evocative of this archetype, she is very much not the stock character and will probably rip and tear her way out of it. I already ran a Kukoro Quest on Akun ages ago, it never really went anywhere and petered out when I lost interest in the scenario. I can do horny, but keeping that tone 100% of the time is exhausting.
>>5857462
>>5857466
[Spoilers] will remember this.

Also [i]uhhhhhhhhhh...[/i]

You guys have a Nat 1 and Cursed Roll Negation from your purchases at the end of last thread, and this consumes that, but... Definitely going to have something happen for this.
>>5857506
I think I gave it one line earlier, but she is very specifically speaking with [i]your[/i] voice. It's the Arbiter who spoke with a very deep, very masculine voice. Almost Darth Vade levels.
>>5857590
This would imply he didn't ascend straight to Heaven upon death. Though he definitely lends strength to people who pray to him when battling demons (inner or outer).
>>5857587
>>5857612
There will be opportunities later to dress like one of the Gardeners.
>>5857881
I will say that Liliendorf probably did not invent them, but rather they're a type of sandwich that traveled its way across the kingdom.
>>5857896
You now have 1 banked roll. This is why everyone should roll with their votes, we love to see it.

>>5858097
>This would imply he didn't ascend straight to Heaven upon death.
He ascended, got a snack then went back into hell while boss music played. My headcanon is fact.

>>5858097
Only a fool sticks his willy in mouth full of very angry teeth.

Rolled 13 (1d20)

>>5857434
>Explore the memory as far as it will go. Just what is the nature of Damien's elixir?

Rolled 21 (1d100)

>>5858338

>>5858097
Alright, to go with >>5857472

Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>5858376
And then it ate my dice anyway!

Rolled 19 (1d100)

>>5858379

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Perception 23 vs DC 25. Minor failure.

You can tune her out with thoughts of your own. Thoughts that bubble to the surface of your mind like pockets of steam roil to the surface of a boiling pot. Stoked by the flames of curiosity, you take in the dream with new eyes, drinking in the sights of your memory. The opulence of the bedchamber, the beauty of the sea at dawn, the luxurious fabric that you never felt before brushing against your skin.

What brought you here? What was the khemical's purpose in dragging you back to the day of your knighting? Was there a purpose to it at all? On this day, you left behind the last vestiges of your childhood and became a woman with responsibilities and duties, one who could not afford the foolishness of youth. Heavy expectations that you greeted like another challenge, grew into as your adolescent self grew into your father's old clothes.

How do they relate to the demon you've silenced? To the curse mark you bear?

"Miss Louise," Ciaran's voice barges through a crack in the door, interrupting your train of thought. "Are you ready? It is almost time."

Finished with their work, the maids step away from you. The woman in the mirror has green eyes and glares at you, but that does not tarnish the effort they put into your makeup and your hair. For once, the waterfall of blonde hair that falls from your head does not shroud your right eye. Two locks remain to frame your face, while the rest has been tied back into a great braid that must near five feet long, tickling at the back of your knees. The makeup they put on your face is light and subtle, hiding away all of the tiny imperfections of your skin.

At your instance, in homage to all the girls among the cohorts of men-at-arms you fought alongside, they put the design you all painted on eachother before battle. A black narzissenmark, the abstracted profile of a daffodil, now sits right below your left eye.

Though you wear a different dress, everything else remains as you remember.

How much of that is truth, how much of that is reconstructed from half-remembered details, you cannot say. Did the khemical draw this memory forth for the curse to express its nature through the gaps that are filled in? Did the day have some association that you're missing?

"Ciaran, I have a question for you," you say. You doubt the butler will answer it well, and you have to wonder if he will answer it at all, or give a Ciaran-like dismissal before pulling you back on track. Without waiting for him to respond, you ask, "What does an audience with the King have to do with being possessed by a demon?"

"I am afraid I do not understand the question, Miss Louise," Ciaran says. He opens the door, his expression as quizzical as it is expectant.

"I figured as much..." you sigh. The woman in the mirror mouths something furious as you look away. You have no patience for the words of demons, not when you have a mystery to solve.

>>5858561
You leave the bedchamber and walk past Ciaran, ignoring the butler's protests that you let him guide you to the King. Quite frankly, you have no interest in meeting a shadow cast by your memory. Your mind could not reconstruct even half the splendor of his throne room from your fragmented and fuzzy recollections of that day. He would be only a faint and fading echo of his magnificence, and seeing such a sorry sight is not why you have come here.

You do not know what it is you need to find, but find it you shall. If you wander the halls of the palace for long enough, thoroughly explore what lay behind every door...

It's a hope that has no basis but your faith in the LORD of Light and your trust in the King's Judgment.

You are quite sure that you will find what you seek.

The details blur, become fuzzy. You paid little attentions to the halls of the palace, and it shows in how all the details seem to blend together in your mind. It is as though someone had taken the magnificent artistry of the carpenters, the paintings that hung upon the walls, the sculptures that guarded every corner, and carved their likeness into wax. Then, over the course of several hours, they exposed it to the gentle heat of an open candle flame, slowly but surely melting away all of the crisp lines and finer details.

The blob resembles the palace. Your mind can recognize it as such. But even so you know that you truly do not remember anything of these halls, and perhaps you can use that to your advantage.

You take a turn you never took, winding through halls that may have never existed in the first place. The memory blossoms like a flower as you deviate from the course of the day, your brisk pace and quick turns leaving Ciaran far behind until his voice fades. The halls and corners become a labyrinth that blooms in an impossible floorplan, one you're quite sure has folded in upon itself a dozen times until you at last reach a dead end.

Grand double doors whose faces droop like melted wax, the grain and the carpentry having fallen apart and remolded themselves into a contradictory and nonsensical pattern. You know nothing of what is behind this door, yet you have faith that it will lead you to an answer.

It has to. (Roll 1d100)
>A room you forgot you ever entered.
>A familiar girl you swear you never met.
>A conversation you're sure you never had.
>The king's throne room, arriving right on schedule.
>None of these. You finally wake from the dream.

Rolled 6 (1d100)

>>5858562
>>A room you forgot you ever entered.

Rolled 92 (1d100)

>>5858562
>>A room you forgot you ever entered.
>>5858566
You know, these edibles ain't shi- oh fugg

Rolled 42 (1d100)

>>5858562
>A familiar girl you swear you never met.

Rolled 43 (1d100)

>>5858562
>A familiar girl you swear you never met.

Rolled 5 (1d20)

>>5858562
>A conversation you're sure you never had.

>>5858700
Jannies? Cleanup on aisle 4.

Rolled 100 (1d100)

>>5858562
>>The king's throne room, arriving right on schedule.

Rolled 77 (1d100)

>>5858562
>A conversation you're sure you never had.

File: 1640289113053.gif (1.99 MB, 320x240)

1.99 MB GIF

>>5858800
>100

Rolled 66 (1d100)

>>5858562
>>A room you forgot you ever entered.

Rolled 70 (1d100)

>>5858562
>A familiar girl you swear you never met.

Rolled 87 (1d100)

>>5858562
>A room you forgot you ever entered.

Rolled 50 (1d100)

>>5858562
>>A conversation you're sure you never had.

Rolled 46 (1d100)

>>5858562
>A conversation you're sure you never had.

Rolled 62 (1d100)

>>5858562
>A familiar girl you swear you never met.

File: D1006087-77F4-4A8E-B6DD-4(...).jpg (79 KB, 702x849)

79 KB JPG

>>5858800
Zazzed

Rolled 75 (1d100)

>>5858562
>A room you forgot you ever entered.

>>5858141
Let me just jot this down. If nothing else, we now have an official patron Saint of Demon Hunters to whom people pray to when battling demons.
>>5858168
Yeah, there's a reason why Darkness is probably the one of the best depictions of a Kukoro. She's into that shit, rather vocally. The resigned "if I do this, at least I'll have my life" isn't really in the spirit of the archetype.
>>5858578
W e l p. It seems someone wants you to have a bad time. Now I have the fun responsibility to figure out who or what.
>>5858743
I am now morbidly curious as to what that image was.
>>5858800
>>5858810
Phenomenally blessed. That's two more banked rolls and Mr 100 on the hundred change may have earned you... not a easy out ticket, but something cool this next post.

>>5859187
>W e l p. It seems someone wants you to have a bad time.
But a 92 isn't a cursed roll?

>I am now morbidly curious as to what that image was.
Weirdly obsessed Pokemon vore.

>>5859198
That was in reaction to that fellow's reaction to the 6 that was rolled by >>5858566
>Post 66 rolls a 6
Not cursed. Not quite. Don't worry about it.

File: Sword you conjure to run (...).jpg (101 KB, 2000x1500)

101 KB JPG

The doors do not creak on their hinges when you throw them open. In fact, they do not make a sound at all. Perhaps because you forgot what they should sound like, so many years removed from that day. Perhaps because the King's maids kept every hinge so immaculately oiled that they glide open without even the slightest hinge of friction. Perhaps because the sound has been swallowed by darkness on the other side. An abyss stretches onwards and outwards from the doors, an expanse of midnight darker than a sunless sky.

There is little choice but to step forward. You could not turn back down the winding path of interwoven halls that led you here, least of all because you forgot what turns you made. A suspicion tingles in the back of your mind, as well, that any door you opened would lead to this place. So with only a moment of hesitation, you take your steps beyond the threshold and the enter the void.

The doors slamming themselves closed behind you does not surprise you.

Nor does how they vanish into the air, as if they had never been there to begin with.

The air in this room is cold as winter's first snow. The color of the lightless void that surrounds you cannot truly be called black any more than one can call the depths of the ocean blue. Oh, the word suffices in an abstract manner, but "black" as humans understand it implies a texture, an object onto which the darkness is projected and given form. The black you see here is an empty, hollow, lightless color within which nothing exists save the malignant echoes of your darkest thoughts and emotions, buried long ago.

That, and the shrill, mocking voice of a woman who is horrifically pleased to see you. Her tone is stilted and jeering, full of a sour playfulness that grates against your ears like nails upon a chalkboard. "My, oh my, did you wear such a dress for me, Louise le Blanc? To think I'd have the pleasure of seeing you in a such a daring outfit before I got my hands on you... how delicious?"

Your ears redden in anger, your eyes narrowing as they scan the darkness for a voice. But it surrounds you, subsumes you, drowns you in the lightless eternity that stretches to infinity on every side. You cannot see. You can hardly feel. You can hear yourself echo through the darkness as you spit, "You sound different than that demon. Is it your pet? Or are you its creature?"

"You can hear him?" she asks with far too much joy in her voice. A happy, hollow laughter fills the void, crashing against your ears like a wave on a stormy beach, before she says, "How delightful~! Oh, you won't believe how happy I was when Justy told me about the vincula she implanted in your arm! A curse mark of shackles, the very chains that shall soon bind you to my will, written into your flesh... ah... ahhhhhhhhn~!"

A dreadfully immodest noise escapes from the woman's lips, for which she insincerely apologizes. "I'm sorry, I'm just overflowing with excitement at your progress~"

>>5859537
A mark of shackles? Did this woman make a mistake? Alex bears a mark of chains upon his chest, growing from the cursed stigmata left behind by the corruptive shadow lance that ran him through. You bear no such mark upon your skin. A curse mark, for sure, one that writhes invisibly with the dark and corrosive powers that have been long associated with the Dark One and his servants. A mark holding such terrible power within that it took a full night and day before it settled into its form: a thorny tangle of vines blooming with blood red roses.

You are not eager to correct this woman, however. Everything about her voice and demeanor sets you on edge, in much the same way that the Arbiter's presence nearly forced you to your knees. Any misconceptions that he has about you is an edge you have should you come to blows. Any information she divulges about herself or her plans helps you form a strategy against her.

So you ask her, "Progressing towards what, exactly?"

"Hooooh?" She makes a disgustingly, deliberately cute wordless questioning noise. You can almost feel her breath upon you, though where you feel it you cannot quite tell. It's as if she was leaning in, invading your personal space, and investigating you as thoroughly as a trader inspects the horses he's to buy. Then with a cheer, she gives you an answer you did not expect: "Joining my collection, silly~! Whenever I see a beautiful, honorable, noble girl in armor like you, I just... I... ahhhhhh~"

Another immodest noise escapes her lips as the eager scent of a whorehouse fills the air. You've never indulged yourself in such things, but more than once you've found the need to drag one of your men out of such an establishment come the morning.

Before you can make a comment, the woman carries on as if nothing happened, explaining that, "I find myself overflowing with the desire to defile her and turn her into one of my dolls! Oh, I just want to take you home with me already! Won't you be an obedient girl, and let my little vincula lead you astray~?"

You scoff at her words. "Not interested."

"Oh, why not~?" the woman whines.

"This may surprise you, given my physique and my profession..." you start. Your eyes remain peeled against the darkness, but in this lightless place it's your ears that you try to keep most open. You do not know if this is a dream, or reality, or someplace on the border in between, but your senses worked in the even the most melted hall. If she's here, you mean to find her... and run her right through. "But I prefer the company of men. Shocking, I know."

"Oh, that's what they all said." It's the voice's turn to scoff in dismissal, and you can almost feel the air from a wave of her hand brushing against your skin. "It matters little to me. After all, once I turn you into one of my dolls, you'll be warming my bed until time himself dies of old age. That's right - immortality is within my power to grant you. After all, I'm-"

>>5859538
She snaps her fingers.

The sound of hissing air and the flare of a jet of burning gas rings through the empty darkness, and suddenly it is not so empty or dark at all. You can feel the sunbright glare of a limelight shining down upon you, and like a beacon in the darkness, another shines down upon a woman sitting on a large wooden crate. She basks in the glory of the stage light with a fearsome and ravenous smile filled with too many pearly white teeth that splits her face in two.

If you had to use one word to describe the woman, it would be obscene. Everything about her, from her body to her clothes to the very staff in her hands, is the most vile and beautiful of obscenities.

Hair as black as a sunless sky tumbles down her head in a waterfall of messy curls that gives the impression that she just emerged from her bedchamber after a rough and sloppy session with her paramours. It frames a face as stunningly beautiful and pale as the full Winter Moon. Her eyes shine with mockery like a pair of blood red rubies glittering beneath the summer sun, and while the rest of her makeup is quite subtle, her lower lip is painted a violent magenta while her upper lip is painted sky blue.

Her clothing leaves more skin revealed than not. A black shrug with silver trim and long billowing sleeves covers her arms and shoulders with cloth finely detailed with the obscene coupling of human and demon. It does little to cover her ample bosom, which sways back and forth like a metronome, creating a sight that would enthrall any man who beheld her. Four plumes of silver brushed with hints of the same vibrant colors as her lips embrace her breasts from either side. They give her the barest sense of modesty... in a way that makes her cut a more erotic figure than if she was nude.

The silver harness holding up the plumes reaches down across her taught stomach to support a thong of black silk that covers her crotch. A sky blue sapphire glows in a suggestive place upon the thong, matching the magenta amethyst that glows upon the gold stud that pierces her navel. Paired lengths of sheer black silk hang in loops that rest upon her thighs and buttocks, drawing the eye more than covering anything up.

On one leg, a black stocking that fades to pink crawls its way up to her thigh. On the other, a white sock that fades to blue leaves most of her leg bare. Her feet are bare and flawless, her socks and stockings cut off at the ankles by a band of gold and silver.

About her neck, she wears an ornate golden usekh studded with seven jewels of a sort you cannot name, for they are too perfect and flawless. They are each one of the seven virtuous colors, and of them six glow with a light that somehow seems to flicker in pain and humiliation. Only the emerald at the center holds no light, as if it were there for pure decoration, rather than whatever sinister function the others have.

[Anahita, the Witch of Depravity]

>>5859539
"-and I've been watching you for a very, very long time, Louise le Blanc," she gushes, moaning your name with the same tone that you sometimes moan for Rene when you comfort yourself. Your faces twists in disgust at her words, which only seems to make her more excited. "The moment you gave yourself over to the usurper and killed that foolish little king who knew so much... yet so little... why, it set my heart a flutter. Love at first sight, oh it took all six of my knights to calm me down for a week. Hah... haaaaaaaaaaaaaaah~"

"Oh shut up, will you?" you snarl. It's clear that all you'll get from her now is the ramblings of her obsession, which you have no desire to listen to. This world is your dream, your place to find the truth of your curse mark... and she doesn't know that the thorned roses are not the chains of vincula. Which means that you have no reason to listen to her any longer.

The labyrinth showed you that logic and reason do not apply to this space.

There is no reason why a sword cannot appear in your hand right now.

As soon as you feel the weight of steel in your hand, you leap at the moaning woman. Her eyes are squeezed shut, her arms wrapped around her luscious body as she hugs herself, her imagination driving her to hysterical madness. She does not see you jump up at her, she does not see the sword in your hand, she does not feel the pressure in the air until you've ran her heart through with your blade. She does not even make a face of pain as blood pours down her all-but-bare chest.

"Do me a favor, witch," you growl, twisting your sword inside of her. "Stay out of my dreams and nightmares."

"Oh..." she lets out a dying sigh. For a moment, you even believe it, her body going limp and her red eyes emptying of their endless, mocking mirth. But just a moment later she snaps back up and shoves you away. No, she does not shove you, she throws you off of her perch on the crate before jumping down after you. "I don't think I will. You're too perfect, Louise. Thrusting me through with such a thick, heavy broadsword... so much force and power behind the blow... you know just how to make a girl happy. I thought you were a virgin, Louise."

Something about the way she says that, the manic glare of betrayal in her eyes as she limps towards you, it puts you on your back foot. Sure, you don't pretend like you've enjoyed a man's comfort, but... "Why do you-"

In a flash, she's crossed the distance between you. Floating in the darkness, the limelight flickering behind her, she looks down upon you, her face so close that her nose almost touches your own. Madness fills her crimson eyes, which stare at you wide as saucers, filled with betrayal.

>>5859541
"Because it's important to me, Louise," she says with a small, terrifying voice. "It's extremely important to me that when I reach deep into your most precious of places to extract the unrefined lump of anima you call a soul... that it is the first touch you have known besides your own. It's no fun to watch impure girls act like the sluts they are, Louise! Corruption is only fun when it begins with something pure and stains it irrevocably. If it's unclean, why would I even bother?" Roll 1d20
>Don't answer. This woman is a psychopath. You need to figure out a way to wake up... but the only thing here besides you and the witch is that crate.
>[Lie] She's too late. She started watching after you gave Rene your virginity.
>[Lie] She must not have been paying attention after the battle. You and Damien got so pissed off at each other that there was only one way for you to resolve it.
>[Lie] Did she really think that a woman with your looks could make it through basic training in the army without a single hookup with a young, fit soldier-boy?
>Tell her that the LORD's judgment will come for her one day, even if it takes until the end of time.
>[Write In]

Rolled 7 (1d20)

>>5859544
>Tell her that the LORD's judgment will come for her one day, even if it takes until the end of time.
she's batshit insane

Rolled 17 (1d20)

>>5859544
>>Tell her that the LORD's judgment will come for her one day, even if it takes until the end of time.

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>5859567
>post number ending in seven
>rolls a seven
Coincidence? I THINK NOT

Also
>>5859544
>>Tell her that the LORD's judgment will come for her one day, even if it takes until the end of time.
I'm happy we got to see her. Now we know exactly who we're going to butcher like cattle. The stupid psycho bitch.

Rolled 16 (1d20)

>>5859544
>[Lie] She must not have been paying attention after the battle. You and Damien got so pissed off at each other that there was only one way for you to resolve it.
So out vincula did not go to plan. We don't hear the demon we should. What we hear is obviously Louise's repressed self (though we shouldn't really listen to it anyway, it may be suppressed for a reason).
I wonder whether Justinia fucked up, or that was a deliberate rebellion on her part. And if it's the latter, whether she gave us an avenue to free her or is just competing for us with her mistress.

Rolled 6 (1d20)

>>5859544
>Tell her that the LORD's judgment will come for her one day, even if it takes until the end of time.

>>5859586
Id, Out?
What is next? Death of the Super-Ego?

Rolled 5 (1d20)

>>5859544
>>[Lie] She's too late. She started watching after you gave Rene your virginity.

Rolled 7 (1d20)

>>5859544
>[Lie] She's too late. She started watching after you gave Rene your virginity.

Rolled 16 (1d20)

>>5859544
>>[Lie] Did she really think that a woman with your looks could make it through basic training in the army without a single hookup with a young, fit soldier-boy?
awkward soldier boy husbando

Rolled 18 (1d20)

>>5859544
>Tell her that the LORD's judgment will come for her one day, even if it takes until the end of time.

Rolled 6 (1d20)

>>5859544
>[Lie] She's too late. She started watching after you gave Rene your virginity.

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>5859544
>[Lie] She's too late. She started watching after you gave Rene your virginity.

Rolled 2 (1d20)

>>5859544
>[Lie] Did she really think that a woman with your looks could make it through basic training in the army without a single hookup with a young, fit soldier-boy?

Rolled 11 (1d20)

>>5859544
>[Lie] She's too late. She started watching after you gave Rene your virginity.

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>5859544
>[Write In]
Tell her the TRUTH

Rolled 7 (1d20)

>>5859544
>[Lie] She must not have been paying attention after the battle. You and Damien got so pissed off at each other that there was only one way for you to resolve it.
For some reason, I get the slight impression that there are three [Lie] options for a reason. Most notably that whoever we throw under the bus might get a visit from a very pissed off, blue-balled witch. With that in mind, nominating Damien for this dubious honour sound like an express way to some top tier shenanigans.

Rolled 5 (1d20)

>>5859544
>[Lie] She must not have been paying attention after the battle. You and Damien got so pissed off at each other that there was only one way for you to resolve it

>>5859567
I mean, she worships a dark god that seeks nothing less than the total annihilation of the current structure that the LORD of Light has created. One does not arrive at that end without either something major getting lost in translation, or being a few screws short of a full set. In her, case, she's a nihilistic hedonist who enjoys tearing down people who have a sense of purpose in their lives and dragging them down into the abyss of meaningless pleasure into which she was born. No sob story, no "actually I'm a good person", just refreshingly straightforward and honest evil.

Which actually puts her ahead of some people, because for all of her evil, you can trust her. She's not all-knowing, but she doesn't lie to herself or anyone else. Why would she need to lie to people that are at best sex toys she wants to dote on and be doted on by, and at worst disgusting bugs that need to be crushed underneath her heels?

In terms of power level, she's probably near the pinnacle of individual power. Any one of the major kingdoms could probably secure a mutual kill against her forces - if they learned where she was based - but it would likely lead to the collapse of their nation. She is a mistress of High Khemistry, having undergone the all four of its stages and superceded her golden core with a fully formed philosopher's stone.

Compare Damien, who flunked out after undergoing melanosis and could not reconcile himself; Rene, who has just
achieved leucosis and has gained a heart of chalk; and Rene's mentor who may possess a philosopher's stone, or may only possess a golden core, I haven't quite decided yet.

I don't want to give out philosopher's stones like candy and then end up with a case where "if you don't have a philosopher's stone, your contributions are exceedingly meaningless". Even melanosis (the decomposition of the self into its components) is a major step up from being a normal for a number of reasons.
>>5859571
Not here, probably. Not for a while. This is a case where the end boss is checking on a project's progress, and almost certainly making a mistake in the process. The Witch of Depravity has a five step plan for spreading corruption and subverting regions towards the darkness:
1) Identify key players who can affect change within a region of interest
2) Identify the subset of key players who are most dissatisfied and can be easily manipulated
3) Turn that subset of key players into assets
4) Use her assets to instigate a violent conflict in the region of interest
5) When everyone is at their weakest, sweep in with her own forces and claim the victory for herself
For all of her desire to capture women like Louise and add them to the pile of immortal living sex dolls that joins in her bed, she doesn't let that take control. She keeps to a systemic, rational, and horrifically efficient approach to her villainy and corruption of good people. Even if she gets horny about it nearing victory.

>>5859586
You will see. There's actually a reason for it, from a scene in last thread that I though was unnecessary. It interacted in a very unexpected way with the demons, and it would have not had the outcome it had if you lacked faith in the LORD for even a moment. As for
>(though we shouldn't really listen to it anyway, it may be suppressed for a reason).
That is a very Damien thing to do. He'd agree with you 100%.
>>5859590
That will depend on where you guys want to take things with the development that will happen.
>>5859707
>awkward soldier boy husbando
She didn't even have a man there, that's probably the biggest lie of the lot. There were some barracks bunnies among the men-at-arms in your units, but you were very much not one of them.
>>5860163
>Tell her the TRUTH
That Louise is such a virgin that if codpieces weren't a thing, she'd haven't the foggiest clue what an erect penis looks like?
>>5860179
I have rolled a die in the background to determine if it's better or worse if she believes you. What I can definitely say is that Rene is currently very much out of her grasp. There are a handful of places where she will never even dreamwalk without a good reason - and getting NTR'd isn't a good reason (she likes watching her puppets get DEMON'd as entertainment). Those places are:
1) Sal Khemia
2) The Papal Palace
3) Rosarium (seat of Rosland)
4) Caer Stamen (seat of Daffodil)
5) Any other major capital city.
6) The homes of any of Daffodil's Archdukes and Grand Dukes
7) The homes of any of Rosland's High Princes
8) Any shrine that has an active Spirit (or 'Deity')

>>5860264
>What I can definitely say is that Rene is currently very much out of her grasp
I am assured

>>5859544
>[Lie] She's too late. She started watching after you gave Rene your virginity.

>>5860259
>Not here, probably. Not for a while. This is a case where the end boss is checking on a project's progress
Nevertheless it is a face to which our lance will seek. Knowing is half the battle. And with each step we'll know a little more. Which we can then destroy with extreme prejudice. I am vibrating with righteous fury.

>>5860259
I mean, she could more "normal" as it is the cases of some of those kinds of villain
>In terms of power level, she's probably near the pinnacle of individual power. Any one of the major kingdoms could probably secure a mutual kill against her forces - if they learned where she was based - but it would likely lead to the collapse of their nation. She is a mistress of High Khemistry, having undergone the all four of its stages and superceded her golden core with a fully formed philosopher's stone.
>Compare Damien, who flunked out after undergoing melanosis and could not reconcile himself; Rene, who has just
>achieved leucosis and has gained a heart of chalk; and Rene's mentor who may possess a philosopher's stone, or may only possess a golden core, I haven't quite decided yet.
>I don't want to give out philosopher's stones like candy and then end up with a case where "if you don't have a philosopher's stone, your contributions are exceedingly meaningless". Even melanosis (the decomposition of the self into its components) is a major step up from being a normal for a number of reasons.
alright we need some explaining on khemistry to know what those are supposed to mean, specially those stages
>>5860264
>I have rolled a die in the background to determine if it's better or worse if she believes you. What I can definitely say is that Rene is currently very much out of her grasp. There are a handful of places where she will never even dreamwalk without a good reason - and getting NTR'd isn't a good reason (she likes watching her puppets get DEMON'd as entertainment).
interesting to know that, and the ntr thing reminded me of the churlbait in genshi fanarts

Rolled 14 (1d20)

>>5859544
>Don't answer. This woman is a psychopath. You need to figure out a way to wake up... but the only thing here besides you and the witch is that crate.
Just let her stew on it

File: Knight of Khemical Truth.jpg (49 KB, 392x701)

49 KB JPG

Lore post for tonight because I downloaded WoW again for Season of Discovery and it hit my nostalgia button hard.
(You'll be utterly shocked to discover that I'm playing a Human Female Paladin, I'm sure)

On Khemistry
-Jacques Molay, published 1394

There are three fundamental questions regarding chemistry that I expect those of you who have picked up this tome are seeking answers to. First and foremost, "What is khemistry?" The second question will most certainly be, "How can I apply its principles to my trade and craft?" Finally, the goodly wyfs and weirs who have paid attention to men of means and power may ask, "What is this I've heard about the sublime mystery of High Khemistry?"

The answer to each of these questions deserves a tome of itself to answer. A scant few pages are not enough to detail the truth secrets hidden within these mysteries. However, this prologue will endeavor to give the layman sufficient information, that he or she may satisfy their curiosity without getting lost in technical matters.

What is khemistry?
You see khemistry around you every day, my good wyfs and weirs. It is khemical principles that govern the magics of artifice that lights our streets at night. It is khemical principles that heat the waters of the public baths and the showers you take before entering them - you do wash up before bathing, right? Khemical principles drive nearly every process mundane and arcane, from the cantrips you mother taught you to the gonnes folk use to hunt deer and chase pigeons from their fields.

Khemistry is the framework through which these principles are understood, and the process by which they are put to work. You will hear words by learned khemists that may have a familiar sound, but an unfamiliar meaning; these are how the process and framework is described.

There are four stages that create four materials. Melanosis creates Coal. Leucosis creates Chalk. Xanthosis creates Gold. Iosis creates Truth.

Melanosis is the decomposition of materials into their component parts. The "coal" that is created is thus the basic building blocks of the material that has undergone melanosis.

Leucosis is the purification of the components, the elimination of impurities introduced from the world and the creation of a pure substance. The "chalk" is that pure substance, now made useful for khemical processes.

Xanthosis is the mixing of pure substances into the desired compound, blending what is known of their effects and properties into the intermediary that shall become the final product. The "gold" is the compound, and many things can be finished here.

The Iosis is the application of time and energy to the intermediary compound created by Xanthosis. Following this final stage, the ends created are the "truth", the final product of your work of khemistry.

>>5860577
Do not allow yourself to be tricked by charlatans who throw about the words of Khemistry without care for their meaning, hoping to take your coin and give you poison in return. The "Gold" a true khemist claims is produced by Xanthosis is not the shining yellow metal everyone loves, save for when that metal is a material for the khemical - and no more shall be created than was used in the process. Nor is the coal truly coal, and the truth created by iosis is subjective to our own views of the world.

How can I apply its principles to my trade and craft?
In this prologue, I unfortunately do not have the pages to delve into the intricacies of applying Khemistry to each trade that a man might follow. The advice I can give would be to take a pen and paper, and break your work down in accordance with the stages of Khemistry. In doing so, you may find your processes more manageable, and you may learn more about what you are doing as you do.

For those of you who seek greater wisdom, I can recommend for you the following books:
-The Khemistry of the Forge by Franz Albertsen
-Khemical Botany by Francesca Paulini
-Methods of Khemical Architecture by Johannes Bricklayer
-The Iosis of a Basket by Gilbert Weaver
-My Livestock is Chalk by Amalia Wrangler
-Fishing for Truth by Joffrey Anglersen
-Habits of the Khemical Bureaucrat by Miles van Dahlia

What is this I've heard about the sublime mystery of High Khemistry?
The greatest mysteries of Sal Khemia are no great secret, for High Khemistry the most superior sorcery in all of the world. I myself practiced the High Khemistry in my time studying at the Rose of the Thousand Sands, achieving Leucosis... those the process of Xanthosis required greater sacrifice than I was willing to make. It is the sorcery of great scholars and wise kings, a wizardry that goes beyond the physical study of the flow of mana through the body and extends towards the actualization of the self.

I cannot speak in depth upon these mysteries, or else my life shall be forfeit. However, I am permitted to speak of what the Sages themselves have revealed to the people of their city state.

>>5860579
Melanosis is the decomposition of the self into its components, that you may understand who you are. Those who achieve it are said to possess a Mind of Coal.

Leucosis is the acceptance of the self in its entirety, and the rejection of outside influences upon your thoughts. Those who achieve it are said to possess a Heart of Chalk.

Xanthosis is the perfection of the self. The achievement of a Golden Core.

Iosis is arriving at truth. Those who reach this stage become as the Philosopher's Stone.

Now, upon Louise's own self... what is it that she has rejected the most?
>Her contempt for the smaller heresies, to get along with folk like Damien.
>Her unrestrained bloodlust and the satisfaction she gets seeing her enemies fall.
>Her rejection of girlish things and her contradictory tomboyish while still wishing to be seen as a woman.
>Her appreciation of the finer things in life, luxuries that she forces herself to go without.
>Her desire for male companionship and the admiration of the men around her.
>(Write in)

>>5860582
>Her contempt for the smaller heresies, to get along with folk like Damien.
What's the meaning of this vote? Are these tenets Louise has decided not to fanatically obey?

>>5860590
This is going to inform some stuff for the next post. All of these things are stuff that she's suppressed/rejected about herself that are still there, bubbling beneath the surface. It's just which of these gets to be the loudest.

>>5860594
So if I want Louise to be more flirty with men should I vote for the last option or something else?

>>5860597
Whatever is suppressed the most has the most explosive decompression when released. Take that for what you will, I cannot say more without spoiling things.

>>5860598
I gotchu

>>5860582
Changing my vote to
>Her desire for male companionship and the admiration of the men around her.

>>5860582
>>Her unrestrained bloodlust and the satisfaction she gets seeing her enemies fall.
I like to kill demons. And greenfilth. And heretics. And feral beasts. And non-feral beasts. And evil people. And not-quite-as-evil people. And not evil people that happen to be over there. I really like to kill. For good.

>>5860582
>Her rejection of girlish things and her contradictory tomboyish while still wishing to be seen as a woman.

>>5860582
>Her desire for male companionship and the admiration of the men around her.

>>5860582
>Her rejection of girlish things and her contradictory tomboyish while still wishing to be seen as a woman.

>>5860582
>Her desire for male companionship and the admiration of the men around her.

>>5860582
>(Write in) Her horror at the corpse-strewn wastes of the battlefields, and the ease with which she discards all thought to became the best killer she can be.

It would be fitting ironic, I think, for Louise to secretly dread the talent that has inarguably won her great fame and fortune. Tapping into it at Charlemont was what gained for her a knighthood and her fief. Tapping into it at the ruined village saw the orcs destroyed without a single one of her charges' lives being lost. Yet, for all the professions of faith and the Lord's will, why does it come so naturally to her to let another's will guide her movements without hesitation...?

>>5860259
>>5860264
You might be revealing too much about the behind-the-scenes works.

>>5860582
>Her appreciation of the finer things in life, luxuries that she forces herself to go without.

>>5860259
>I don't want to give out philosopher's stones like candy and then end up with a case where "if you don't have a philosopher's stone, your contributions are exceedingly meaningless". Even melanosis (the decomposition of the self into its components) is a major step up from being a normal for a number of reasons.
Think about conservation of characters, or follow your own khemical process for pondering the question. if you think you have enough room for multiple High Khemists of various degrees of power then go ahead, but from what I can tell we're only ever going to see a small number of them and you should purge any unnecessaries. keeping a sufficiently small cast makes both reading and writing easier
>>5860582
>Her unrestrained bloodlust and the satisfaction she gets seeing her enemies fall.
I'm not sure I understand the vote. We vote for what she has rejected, and that element is what will end up most prominent (for a short time)?

>>5860582
>Her desire for male companionship and the admiration of the men around her.
I don't think Louise would struggle *too* much to admit that she is not fond of heretics, however minor, or that she enjoys laying low her enemies, wearing pretty dresses and indulging in the finer pleasures of life.
Her desire for men's attention? She would likely take that to the grave if she had to.

>>5860582
>Her desire for male companionship and the admiration of the men around her.

>>5860582
>Her rejection of girlish things and her contradictory tomboyish while still wishing to be seen as a woman

>>5860582
>Her desire for male companionship and the admiration of the men around her.

>>5860582
>Her unrestrained bloodlust and the satisfaction she gets seeing her enemies fall.

>>5860582
>Her rejection of girlish things and her contradictory tomboyish while still wishing to be seen as a woman.

>>5860582
>Her desire for male companionship and the admiration of the men around her.

>>5860582
>Her rejection of girlish things and her contradictory tomboyish while still wishing to be seen as a woman.

>>5860878
Would she? She doesn't say it openly but she does want it. She isn't hiding it from herself. Sure she wants to feel like a woman but she more specifically wants to feel like a woman for a specific man. To me that's an important distinction. Though I understand I am probably in the minority here.

>>5861322
>She isn't hiding it from herself.
For what it's worth, I think you are correct, but ultimately that is kind of what the vote is about. Which of these desires is the most shameful to her? She has all of them, and represses all of them, just some more than others.
>more specifically wants to feel like a woman for a specific man.
This though, I will say is likely wrong, and the reason the desire is repressed in the first place. "the men around her" heavily implies that it is just men in general, not just one.

>>5861329
I think the wanting dudes to see her as a woman is less "I want these guys to want to fuck me" but "why does everyone treat me like one of the boys". Because she really isn't interested in them, she wants Rene. It pings to me more as needing other dudes to treat her that way so she knows she's "got it" for her beloved.

>>5860582
>>Her unrestrained bloodlust and the satisfaction she gets seeing her enemies fall.

>>5860582
>Her rejection of girlish things and her contradictory tomboyish while still wishing to be seen as a woman.

My apologies everyone, for a variety of reasons, there will not be an update tonight. We'll be back to our usual schedule tomorrow.

>>5861832
The witch got him. Quick, prepare the cuck-cage.

>>5861832
Alright, take care my dude

>>5861843
>The witch got him. Quick, prepare the cuck-cage.
the wagie one or the chastity one ?

>>5861903
She prefers bdc (big demon cock) from what OP said

>>5862204
I would even assume bdt (big demon tentacle)

was the bbc comment deleted by mods or he himself ?

File: Anahita's Expression.jpg (35 KB, 390x291)

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[Bluff 12 vs. DC of ???]

"You're a bit late for that!" You tell the witch a lie that you wish were true. In the same breath, you shove the blade of your imagined broadsword through Anahita's terrifyingly beautiful face. It slips through her flesh like a hand parting mist, and like mist her body disperses when your thrust becomes a cut that stirs the still air of the void. Your eyes searching the darkness for any trace of her, you snarl that, "I gave my love my maidenhood the night he became a man. You'll need to look elsewhere if you want someone untouched."

"Oh, silly Louise..." the witch's disembodied voice is sickeningly sweet as it echoes in the dark. Like a mockery of every girl who's ever confessed their love. "Even if I believed that... if I had to choose between a maiden or the Maid of Charlemonte, I'd always choose you~! "

Her laughter echoes through the void, from every direction all at once in a dizzying cacophony that your ears cannot rightly follow. As it fade, her voice comes back with a sharp edge in its tone, "Besides which..."

A wind howls in the darkness, and you can feel the faintest bit of motion in the air. Without thinking, without a word, you jerk towards it and cut at the shadows with the glimmering sword born of your imagination. As you take your swing, the blade disintegrates into a vast flutter of coal black butterflies whose ten-thousand wings flutter about you in a horrific and beautiful cacophony.

Though to call their wings "coal black" understates just how dark the fluttering wings were. The color of their wings exceeded the dark of night by a thousand fold, and stood so vividly against the darkness of void that you could see them clear as day against the infinite, lightless expanse. Rather than black, it might have been to say that they were the color of a nothingness that stood beyond nothingness, an unholy shade that was dark and beautiful and terrible as the last light of day.

You want to hate it, but you cannot. The only rational explanation you can think of is that the Dark One could not have created such a sight, that this servant must have stolen it.

As you stand disarmed and entranced by the flutter of butterflies, something warm and wet licks against your cheek. The sudden sensation makes you start so suddenly that you lose your balance, tripping over something in the dark and falling onto your rump. You know not what expression crosses your face when you look up and saw Anahita lying upon a cushion of air. With her breasts squishing against an unseen cushion, her feet lazily kicking at nothing, and her hands cupping her cheeks, in every part she looked a blushing maiden feasting on gossip with her friends... except for the expression on her face.

>>5862791
Her red eyes crinkle with perverse satisfaction, like a pair of blood red crescent moons that have been set ablaze with black flame. Her mockery of a smile is the grin of a wolf that smells blood in the air. She licks her lips, savoring the taste that she just stole for you.

"Maybe you're not a liar..." Anahita drawls. The black flame in her eyes flairs when you try to stand, pinning you to the ground in a way that neither Damien's eyes or the Arbiter's presence could manage. "That's certainly the taste of a girl in love~! That's nearly as good as a virgin, in my book. No, no, it's even better if he loves you back! I'll have my demons make you forget all about whatever nights you shared... and then relish the pathetic look on his face as he watches you beg for a demon to knock you up! I'm overflowing just thinking about it, ahhhhh~"

You cannot move much with the pressure of Anahita's magic holding you in place. The fact that you can move your jaw and speak brings a smile to your face. She can't keep you from biting off your tongue and drowning in your own blood, should the worst happen. "That assumes I'd let you take me alive."

"Oooooh, spiteful~!" Anahita seems amused by your defiance. She rolls over onto her back in the air, pondering visibly before saying, "Well, it would be just as fun if it were reversed. Would you show me a cute expression if you saw your lover spilling his seed uselessly on the ground? Saying that he loves being a toy for demons more than he loves you~?"

There is a tearing noise.

Oh. It appears that you are now quite dangerously close to throttling this wretched bitch around that pencil thin neck of hers. Your hands are close - so close - to wrapping around her neck and squeezing the life out of her, but iron shackles have bound your wrists in place less than an inch from the woman's neck. She even has the gall to nuzzle your hands with her cheek before floating out of reach. You try to grab ahold of her hair, to pull her in by her scalp, but it simply vanishes into smoke.

"Yes, that's a good expression, Louise~!" the Witch of Depravity encourages you to twist your face out of shape with anger and hatred with an expression of perverse joy. With a lick of her lips, she shows you just how much she loves your glare, an act that only serves to fill you with further disgust. "Keep glaring at me like that! Aaaaaaaaaahn~ I'm just overflowing with happiness."

You know anything you say here will only make that disgusting grin on her face wider. Yet allowing yourself to be shackled in impotent silence shames you, bringing a heat to your face that you just know that Anahita will enjoy immensely. Indeed, she hums in happiness as she lands, her eyes on you as she skips about.

>>5862793
The iron shackles turn you towards her, towards the crate, which must have gotten knocked over while you sprung at her in blind fury. There is a steady, almost rhythmic thunking as whatever lays inside slams against the wall over, and over, and over again. It only stops when Anahita grins and gives it a knock. "Ooh~ They must be getting frisky in there~"

"What are you talking about," you groan in annoyance.

Frankly, you're not interested. It's probably something related to her fetishes, like this entire situation has been from the moment you stepped through those double doors. She wants to humiliate you, rape you, and break your mind until you'll willingly serve as one of her champions, you understand that much. So logically, whatever is inside that crate is either meant to humiliate you, molest you, or scar you emotionally.

You are quickly proven right. With the expression of a maddened ringleader, she conjures a circus performer's baton and gives it a twirl, tapping the crate, demanding that you, "Behold, the very reason why you'll march happily into my embrace when I choose to call you. Stand in amazement as your deepest, darkest secrets are laid bare and violated by the most sinister of corrupting forces. Stare in awe as you realize that having heard your master's voice, you have already fallen!"

The shackles about your wrist go slack, just enough to let you move your arms freely. Anahita licks her lips and runs a seductive finger down her chest, tracing a path down the curve of her breast to that place below her navel where the Dark One's Eye shines brightly.

"Feel free to comfort yourself at the erotic display~" She says with a seductive wink. The act and her tone fill you with disgust. "Just imagine how she's feeling... because once the vincula is done corrupting your deepest, most hidden thoughts, it will violate you every night in your dreams. And unless you want to feel some pain, you won't be able to tell anyone about it~"

With those words, she slams the baton against the crate.

One by one, the sides of the box fall away.

Yet when the limelights flash to show what was inside, you get treated to a lovely sight. Not whatever is in the crate, for you can hardly tell whatever it is. The figure has a vaguely human shape, but it has wrapped itself in a tattered brown cloth, hunched over and staring at the fallen walls. You can only tell where it is staring from the blazing light within its eyes, two points of vibrant green, one much larger that the other. It quivers like it has just been plunged into a terrible and horrific cold.

>>5862794
But whatever it is, it is not what brings a smile to your face. No, looking at the same huddled, quivering creature... for the first time since you met her, the Witch of Depravity looks like she's been caught off guard. The look is quickly replaced by one of deep fascination, a curiosity disturbingly similar to the expression René got whenever he wanted to know why. Even so, that moment where her triumph broke is enough to make you a fan of whatever this may be.

"Fascinating," Anahita says, her eyes wide as saucers. She takes a deep breath of the void, as if trying to take the creature in with all of her senses at once. A disbelieving smile crosses her face as a realization strikes her. "Yes, this was too subtle for Justy to have caught. Curse Inversion... underhanded, just as chalk should be when facing gold and crimson. Very admirable. Too admirable for any student of the senility ward. Did Tiri finally take an apprentice?"

Her red eyes suddenly snap to you with an accusatory glare. "You liar. You have to a virgin. I know Tishtrya's test, if loverboy ever touched you - or any woman for that matter - he wouldn't have been able to pass his-"

"HMPH, be silent, heretic!" A voice demands. The Witch falls silent, her inquisitive gaze wondering how this will pan out. Your voice demands, though it is distorted and familiar, the voice that echoed through your mind as you traversed the hall. Beneath the haggard hood, the green points of light glare intensely at you for a moment. "You! We told, we're not a demon. That thing knocked us loose, and we want back in. But more to the point, that bitch-"

The cloaked creature gestures to Anahita from beneath the cloth, who feigns a scandalized look, saying, "Well I never.

"-just threatened our man," the voice continues, ignoring the witch. "So are you gonna let us in so we can kick this bitch's ass? Or are we going to need to do all the work?" Roll 1d20 and 1d100
>"Prove to me that you're not a demon. Drive her out, and I'll consider it."
>"If you want to fight alongside me so much, then cut these shackles and we'll kill her together."
>You have a bad feeling about what will happen if you don't fight as one. Nod, and straighten this out later.
>(Write In)

Rolled 16 (1d20)

>>5862795
>"If you want to fight alongside me so much, then cut these shackles and we'll kill her together."
so the rage one won in the end ?

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Rolled 11 (1d20)

>>5862795
>You have a bad feeling about what will happen if you don't fight as one. Nod, and straighten this out later

Rolled 100 (1d100)

>>5862809

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258 KB JPG

Rolled 46 (1d100)

>>5862807
>>5862811
holy fuck, my dude. we balling this witch.

>>5862811
That's more like it. Time for some handholding.

>>5862795
>"If you want to fight alongside me so much, then cut these shackles and we'll kill her together."

Rolled 2 (1d20)

>>5862795
>>"If you want to fight alongside me so much, then cut these shackles and we'll kill her together."

Rolled 36 (1d100)

>>5862823

>>5862795
>"Prove to me that you're not a demon. Drive her out, and I'll consider it."

Rolled 11 (1d100)

>>5862832

Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>5862832

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>5862795
Man just quit talking, demon. It doesn't matter what it is, it isn't supposed to be here. And that's reason enough to call it a demon. Damn thing. But right now the righteous anger toward a nutty turbowhore is burning brighter than the indignation towards an unwanted intruder.

>You have a bad feeling about what will happen if you don't fight as one. Nod, and straighten this out later.
Slap a hoe first, exorcism later.

Rolled 6 (1d100)

>>5862838
I guess the dice truly despise this skank. Nice.

Rolled 11 (1d20)

>>5862795
>"If you want to fight alongside me so much, then cut these shackles and we'll kill her together."

Rolled 5 (1d20)

>>5862795
>You have a bad feeling about what will happen if you don't fight as one. Nod, and straighten this out later.

Rolled 19 (1d100)

>>5862971

Rolled 2 (1d20)

>>5862795
>"If you want to fight alongside me so much, then cut these shackles and we'll kill her together."

>>5862795
>Reaches Chalk Heart
>Immediately uses his new power to remotely plant a curse countermeasure in the childhood friend he hasn't seen for years
BEST
BOY
No competition.

>>5862795
>"If you want to fight alongside me so much, then cut these shackles and we'll kill her together."

>>5862995
Truly La Blanc is safe in his hands.

Rolled 16 (1d20)

>>5863031
Forgot to roll

>>5860603
Holy based.
>>5860709
That is a very cool concept that fundamentally goes against Louise's character. Her biggest flaw is her overwhelming and undeniable certainty and faith in the LORD. There are places this benefits her (Rene's protection only worked as well as it did because her chuuni-ass dark side was like "WE ARE THE HAMMER OF HIS WRATH" with a side of "IF MY SOUL IS TO BE STAINED IN DARKNESS, THEN I SHALL BE THE SHADE IN WHICH THE ROSES BLOOM!") and places where this 100% backfires on her (at this point, you guys have done the meme enough that she's convinced that her Chuuniself is a Demon (which is going to give both Damien and the later the Inquisition a headache, because she's not).
>>5860768
But if I don't write down my thoughts here, I won't remember them.
>>5860791
Yeah. I've decided that the majority of Sal Khemian Scholars possess a Chalk Heart or Golden Core, with the number of Philosophers in the world countable on two hands (and the immediately relevant ones countable on 1).

As for the vote, that informed the most prominent part of Chuuniself's personality.
>>5860878
>>5861322
>>5861329
>>5861334
Yeah, very much this will be less "she wants the D" and more her complaining about "why doesn't anyone have the balls to try grabbing my ass? You telling me its not worth a squeeze? HMPH!" while having no awareness that between her size and her hardass reputation, she intimidates people.
>>5862204
>>5862207
Well, if it comes to what she likes watching, woman on demon is her preference, yeah.
>>5862317
Cringe fetish + mod PTSD over troll quests I imagine.
>>5862807
No, the one who wants to be sexualized just a little won. There just wasn't a place to put that in the post, except for a nod about her concerns about "our man".
>>5862838
1000% In Character moment.
>Louise: I am possessed by a Demon.
>Damien: Hold on. It's not necessarily a Demon, you could be channeling an ancestor spirit, or communing with nature, or a fragment of your decomposed personality, though how do you miss going through Mela-
>Louise: Demon is DEMON. DEMON, OUT!
>>5862995
Not quite immediately, that vision of him becoming a student was a flashback, but he was testing out something that his Master taught him (Dreamwalking, like what Anahita is doing right now). He was very confused that the protection took, but it still seemed to be a dream on his end (he didn't realize he succeeded).

Rolled 9 (1d20)

>>5862795
>"Prove to me that you're not a demon. Drive her out, and I'll consider it."

Rolled 75 (1d100)

>>5863091

Rolled 14 (1d20)

>>5862795
>You have a bad feeling about what will happen if you don't fight as one. Nod, and straighten this out later.
I think it’d be helpful if you indicated either at the start or right before each update which option(s) won the previous vote. I commonly find myself not knowing the results and I’d rather not go count every vote. Cool quest btw, wonder when we’ll get to see Trevor and his damsel in distress again.

Rolled 16 (1d100)

>>5863233

Rolled 37 (1d100)

>>5862795
>You have a bad feeling about what will happen if you don't fight as one. Nod, and straighten this out later.
I saw the quest and I was curious, so I read it. I like it alot QM, it scratches an itch for holy knight adventures I've been feeling since ForgottenQM was taken by the horrors of the daily grind.

LONG LIVE THE MAID OF CHARLEMONTE
THE FLOWER OF THE KINGDOM
https://youtu.be/RQZIKsaSzQ4

>>5863088
>(at this point, you guys have done the meme enough that she's convinced that her Chuuniself is a Demon (which is going to give both Damien and the later the Inquisition a headache, because she's not).
I mean, you get infused with a corrupting force and then something starts talking inside your head, it's very easy to jump to that. So what exactly is it, a second personality made up of our represed feelings ?

>>5863284
It's the sex gremlin, the horngoblin, the fuck imp.

>>5863377
The procreation gargoyle, the intercourse kobold, the dicking-down puca. Lutin if you're feeling particularly French, today.

>>5863430
Lutin ?

>>5863463
It's like the French equivalent to a house gnome as far as I'm aware.

>>5863476
There are also female lutines and male lutins, and they can be good or evil. I remember in quebec they often take the shape of white cats.

>>5863088
>spoiler
Maybe keep a word document?

Rolled 2 (1d20)

>>5862795
>"If you want to fight alongside me so much, then cut these shackles and we'll kill her together."

Rolled 84 (1d100)

>>5863563

File: file.png (1.18 MB, 2048x1536)

1.18 MB PNG

Winning Vote: Work together
33 Diplomacy vs. DC 25

"No offense, but I don't think I can trust you enough to let you in," you tell the demon wrapped in brown cloth. Her mismatched green eyes blaze at you from within the shadow of her hood. You raise your hands to placate her, showing off the shackles and chains that have you bound. That and the olive branch you extend sees her glare wane, as you say, "But if you want to fight at my side that badly... break me free of these shackles, and we can drive out the witch together."

The demon rises to her feet. Beneath the tattered brown cloth, her legs are remarkably human. No, more than human, they are a mirror of your own, shaved clean as is your habit. When she reaches your full height, the brown cloth is left in a rather dangerous position, where too much movement might reveal your secrets to the world. It's barely long enough to leave anything down there covered.

"Together..." for the first time since you've heard it, a happy note rings in the demon's voice.

With that happy word upon her lips, she bursts towards you at speeds the eye cannot follow, kicking up the wooden scrap of the crate from whence she emerged. The Witch of Depravity watches on in silence, her arms crossed beneath her luscious breasts, her eyes taking in everything the demon does while the gears in her mind whir in calculation. A clang fills the air and wind rushes past your body, before the sound of metal getting torn into shreds by sheer tensile force rings through the void.

The shackles shatter. The demon grabs your right arm firmly by the wrist. This close, the shadows of her hood cannot hide the shape of her face from you. You dread what it means when you see what you feared to see; this demon has your voice, your body, your face. Everything the same except for a pair of blazing green eyes, mirrors of your own. Her right eye is ordinary, and her left eye is obsidian with a certain sigil engraved upon it.

Your eyes meet. She grins as you frown.

Then she shoves your hand straight through her heart, declaring that, "We'll fight together, even if we can't fight as one. If you won't embrace us, wield us! For we alone know the form of the ultimate weapon...!"

The demon's body molds itself into a vision of your dark history. Something terribly embarrassing from your childhood, that your young and foolish self would have certainly declared the ultimate weapon.Roll 1d20 and 1d100
>The Holy Sword Everbloom! The weapon that promises victory to Princess Knight Louise!
>The Litany of Blackthorn! A superweapon created by Supreme Inventor R for use by Agent L.
>The Rose Cutter! A scythe sung from the World Tree by Spirit Queen Elian, its sharpness... is sharpness itself.

[Nat 100: Get to use her weapon form (temporarily) without letting her in]

>>5863873
>The Rose Cutter! A scythe sung from the World Tree by Spirit Queen Elian, its sharpness... is sharpness itself.
Scythes are maximum chuuni cringe, and I should know.

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>>5863873
>>The Litany of Blackthorn! A superweapon created by Supreme Inventor R for use by Agent L.
Behold

Rolled 18 (1d20)

>>5863873
>The Rose Cutter! A scythe sung from the World Tree by Spirit Queen Elian, its sharpness... is sharpness itself.
Chuuni powers go!
>>5863885
>>5863892
Why didn’t you guys roll ?

Rolled 81 (1d100)

>>5863901

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>5863901
Well I had but I guess it dropped, must've accidentally capitalized it. Then I got distracted before I could go for the second. My B.

>>5863892
Try this again.

Rolled 24 (1d100)

>>5863892

Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>5863873
>The Litany of Blackthorn! A superweapon created by Supreme Inventor R for use by Agent L.

Rolled 20 (1d100)

>>5863873
>>The Holy Sword Everbloom! The weapon that promises victory to Princess Knight Louise!

Rolled 13 (1d20)

>>5863954

Rolled 17 (1d20)

>>5863873
>>The Rose Cutter! A scythe sung from the World Tree by Spirit Queen Elian, its sharpness... is sharpness itself.
Gotta go max chuuni because that would fit Louise's past.... she probably wanted a cool magic eye too, just not from a possessed knight turned evil.

Rolled 20 (1d100)

>>5864066

Rolled 5 (1d20)

>>5863873
>The Litany of Blackthorn! A superweapon created by Supreme Inventor R for use by Agent L.

Rolled 57 (1d100)

>>5864078

Rolled 10 (1d20)

>>5863873
>The Litany of Blackthorn! A superweapon created by Supreme Inventor R for use by Agent L.

Rolled 64 (1d100)

>>5864159

>>5863873
>The Holy Sword Everbloom! The weapon that promises victory to Princess Knight Louise!

Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>5863873
>The Rose Cutter! A scythe sung from the World Tree by Spirit Queen Elian, its sharpness... is sharpness itself.
Luxia

Rolled 50 (1d100)

>>5864258

Rolled 90 (1d100)

>>5863873
>The Rose Cutter! A scythe sung from the World Tree by Spirit Queen Elian, its sharpness... is sharpness itself.

Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>5864295

Rolled 17 (1d20)

>>5863873
>The Litany of Blackthorn! A superweapon created by Supreme Inventor R for use by Agent L.
A perfect weapon...

Rolled 8 (1d100)

>>5864310

Rolled 51 (1d100)

>>5863873
>>The Rose Cutter! A scythe sung from the World Tree by Spirit Queen Elian, its sharpness... is sharpness itself.
Scythes are pretty cringe (read: cool)

>>5863233
Thanks! You guys will see the winning vote in blue from now on. Trevor will definitely be showing up during the next section of the story, and you will probably be encountering Astrid on the way as well. In the future (actual spoiler) that's de-fin-ite-ly a ship I plan to sail, I've got ideas for them in my brainmeats. It's going to give his father such a wonderful headache.
>>5863252
Luckily this has become my way of unwinding stress after the day, so we should be good for a while.
>>5863284
If someone who has gone through the process of spiritual Melanosis - the decomposition of the self into its component parts - as "Coal", then Louise would probably be referred to as "Charcoal". She is not the only person like that, but such people are rare. Yes, Rene had to deal with his voices talking in his head, but his melanosis was more orderly and controlled so it was more like the Council of Katarina (Villainess anime) that the self and shadow deal Louise has going on.
>>5864066
>Gotta go max chuuni because that would fit Louise's past.... she probably wanted a cool magic eye too, just not from a possessed knight turned evil.
Depends on when she dreamed it up. Her inner self/shadow is basically living out one of the fantasies she had in her youth. "My cursed arm is burning... but by my faith in the LORD, I will chain this demonic power to my will!" The Holy Sword Everbloom definitely had a point in time when it was the Cursed Holy Sword Everbloom... used for JUSTICE. All three of these were things from her games with her friend group as a child (Rene, Elian, Astrid, Gilbert, and Nolan).

As Louise keeps in touch with everyone (including Rene, though he stopped replying suddenly seven years ago), you guys would know that:
>Astrid runs an apothecary in your hometown that mixes herbal and khemical remedies for medicinal and recreational purposes. She married a traveling bard, and their relationship concerns Louise sometimes.
>Elian and her husband got permission to move to your Fee from their lord, and have a homestead that borders the wilderness. They have since had nine children.
>Gilbert and his family live in a cabin in the woods, and tend to the forests of your previous liege lord. He tends to the trees and beasts, she is an herbalist and monitors for overgathering. Their son got apprenticed to an artificer.
>Nolan became a moderately successful traveling merchant with three kids and a shop his wife helps run in Sonnenblume.

>>5864577
>Thanks! You guys will see the winning vote in blue from now on.
that helps a lot, thanks
>If someone who has gone through the process of spiritual Melanosis - the decomposition of the self into its component parts - as "Coal", then Louise would probably be referred to as "Charcoal". She is not the only person like that, but such people are rare.
so basically we found an alternative to that initial path ? nice. depanding on how things go sooner or later we'll discover it was actually our shadow and not a demon.

File: Behold Your Dark History (...).jpg (1.63 MB, 1352x1468)

1.63 MB JPG

Winning Vote: The Litany of Blackthorn / Rose Cutter Combo
39 Combat vs. DC 40 (Narrow Defeat)

The weapon in your hands looks like it grew from the branches of an ironwood tree. Gnarled, twisted, and bent, the polished and obsidian black wooden haft splits into four branches that curl about one another in loving embrace. Cradled by the branches, an elegantly crafted goldsteel barrel blossoms from the head like a flower's bud in spring. Half again as thick as your fist, with a one inch bore drilled into the center, a wicked curved thorn sprouts between the roots that woven around the cannon's end. The blade of a scythe some forty inches long, as broad as your hand at its roots and as sharp as a razor along its edge.

Where the gnarled, knotted haft bends to give it the shape of a scythe's snath, the weapon's sole nib sprouts from the haft like a short, squat branch. To hold that much mass, even perfectly balanced as the weapon seems to be, the handle must hook about some metallic core that runs the length of the weapon. A goldsteel button sits on the head of the nib, which you somehow know is there to let you fire the cannon with a squeeze of your thumb, without shifting your grip upon the scythe.

On the butt of the haft sits a goldsteel cap, from which emerges a leaf-like blade as broad as your hand. To keep the balance with the scythe blade and cannon, it must be weighed down with something strong and heavy. If not lead, then the foolishness of your childhood, the hopes and dreams accumulated from a dark history that you put a lid on long ago.

Green fire blazes along the runes etched into the barrel and the blade. In the tongue of the Gardeners, known these days only to scholars and priests, it reads a passage from the Green Tome, the Book of Faith. A passage you fell in love with as a child, one that remains your favorite prayer in battle.

[Chloé 17:9-13] I have seen the lightless depths and the terror of the endless night. And as I walked that lightless path, I had no fear of evil. For the LORD of Light did guide me through the shadows dark, and held the fiends at bay. Greatest throughout heaven are his miracles, worthy of the praise:

"Holy..."

The weapon feels right in your hands. Absurdity that it is, forged in the image of childhood flights of fancy that you left behind long ago, it feels more comfortable in your grip than even loyal Tephres. You cannot help but compare it to the weapon the Arbiter put down before your duel, her lance that was at the same time a field cannon. A small part of you wonders if you are not playing into the Witch of Depravity's hands in using this weapon, if it is not the first in a series of dominoes to fall. A path that invariably leads to you serving Anahita, living through all of those depraved and twisted fantasies she described.

>>5864849

After all, why else would she simply be standing there with cold, analytical eyes locked upon you, waiting for you to act? Why would she let the demon shift into the form of the absurdity in your hands, a weapon carved from her body into the shape of your childhood dreams? The Witch of Depravity moulded this dreamlike space as if it were putty in her hands. Surely she could do it again, if she wished to.

"Holy...!" as the word slips from your mouth, all of your worries evaporate. A familiar certainty fills your body, the same warmth you feel when you give yourself to the LORD of Light in your purest expression of your faith in Him.

You understand now. This cannot be a bad thing, for the LORD of Light has seen that it is good.

Who are you - his humble slave and puppet - to disagree?

His light embraces you and casts a shadow upon the wall of your dreams, a shadow that by the nature of the world becomes something akin to what you would call real. You do not need to understand the why and how, for it is not your place to know. You are the hammer of His wrath, his punishment to those whose sins are unforgivable, against heresies for which there can be no amends. What need has a hammer for understanding? Especially when ignorance is such a bliss and dreamy things.

The thorns that grow along the vine dig into the flesh of your soul, a sweet pain that relieves you of the burden of your sins. Blood cannot be drawn in such a way. Yet blood flows like a river through the valley of your empty mind, the blood of heretics that do not exist outside this dream. Cut down and shot to pieces, torn apart by jagged vines that their flesh might feed the blackened roses that have wrapped themselves around your soul. As they grow so do their thorns, digging deeper and more sharply.

It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, yet your heart sings in joy at this pain, knowing you have sinned. For though all proceeds in accordance with the LORD'S Most Holy Will, you have eaten of the Fruit of Life and must suffer for your transgressions.

It hurts so much you can see only His Light.

You can feel only His Warmth.

Yet you still stand upon your feet, and that is why He chose you to carry this burden. The LORD loves all of His children equally, and He gives the greatest of His trials to those He has faith can withstand them. How can you repay His trust in you with anything less than your best efforts? If it is His will you bear this curse, then you will bear it gladly! If it is His will that your soul shall be stained with darkness, then you will turn that darkness into the gentle shade in which His most delicate flowers can bloom!

>>5864850

"Holy is the LORD!" you sing the praises of His worthy name. Your stance lowers to the ground, your right hand grasping the nib of the scythe, your left hand fast upon its half, the cannon pointing to your rear. Black vines grow from your left arm and embrace the weapon in your hands, while the sigil upon your obsidian right eye glows with the vivid green of your faith. "For His is the Light that nourishes the World! He is the shield that guards us from the monsters that lurk where no light falls!"

With a squeeze of your thumb, the cannon of the Litany roars. You do not see what sort of projectile it fires, but it propels you forward at such a speed that your eyes can barely comprehend the world around you.

The goldsteel thorn digs into the benighted void, tearing the false darkness asunder and revealing a plane of boundless, endless light. The shadows mend themselves in short order, but it leaves a wide and rippling wake of purest holy light behind it. In a flash, you've overtaken the Witch of Depravity. With another squeeze of the trigger, the cannon roar's once more and the Litany of Blackthorn has easily taken her head.

It flies off with the stroke of the scythe, bouncing like a ball. Her erotic body wasted, collapsing like a puppet without strings.

Yet still you hear her voice.

"What a fascinating death you've shown me, my dear Louise," Anahita's voice rings through the emptiness around you, absent every playful note you've come to expect from her. Where she had been playful and flirtatious, now her voice is calm and detached, the only hint of emotion in it being a note of curiosity. "The inversion of the vincula's curse, the reinforcement of your repressed emotions... to most, that would have simply been a shield against possession, but to a woman with your profound faith-"

"Where are you!" you shout into the void, interrupting her musings. You do not care for whatever heresy it is that she spouts in this moment. "Come face me, craven! Or are you afraid that I will take your head again?"

Her chuckles echo through the empty space of the dream, though again her tone feels muted and distant. "Oh, you silly piece of charcoal... you could take my head a thousand times if you wished. Here in your mind, or out there in that place you call the real world. It would make very little difference to me. For the Throne of Depravity sits in a place beyond heaven, and the shadows I cast are more real than the air that you breathe..."

Your eyes dart around, looking for any hint of movement that might reveal the source of Anahita's voice. As you search, you demand that she, "Speak plainly, witch! Beyond heaven... do you mean among the stars? A place so far away that-"

>>5864851
"No," her voice is like a teacher disappointed in her student. You can feel the smile creeping across her face as she says, "But if you truly want to know the answer, seek out the City of Depravity, Shar Saboten. Kneel before me willingly, accept the brand of Our Nameless Lord and the seed of his children into your womb, and you shall-"

"Not happening," you tell her.

"What a shame."

The world cracks and crumbles. You wake upon the bed of Damien's makeshift hospice, filled with a powerful urge to...
>Eat. You need breakfast. No, you need a dozen breakfasts.
>Drink. Your thirst is overpowering, you need to quench it immediately.
>Bathe. You feel unclean, and want nothing more than to wash it off.
>Lift. You feel restless, brimming with energy. Go to the yard and lift something heavy, NOW.
>Ma... Comfort yourself. Your face is red, your hosier is soaked through, you... you need to go.
>(Write in)

Rolled 56 (1d100)

>>5864852
>Bathe. You feel unclean, and want nothing more than to wash it off.
Rolling for the sake of it

>>5864849
>39 Combat vs. DC 40 (Narrow Defeat)
Bummer. Ya hate to see it.

>>5864852
>>Lift. You feel restless, brimming with energy. Go to the yard and lift something heavy, NOW.
I PICK THINGS UP AND PUT THEM DOWN. Lifting makes the bad thoughts go away.

>>5864849
we got an 18 and still fell 1 point short, it was indeed a difficult one.
>>5864852
I thought we'd be attacked due to the failure, so it just ended ?
>Lift. You feel restless, brimming with energy. Go to the yard and lift something heavy, NOW.
not satisfied by this result

>>5864852
>>Bathe. You feel unclean, and want nothing more than to wash it off.

>>5864852
>Lift. You feel restless, brimming with energy. Go to the yard and lift something heavy, NOW.

>>5864852
>Lift. You feel restless, brimming with energy. Go to the yard and lift something heavy, NOW.
Most amusing response.

>>5864852
>Lift. You feel restless, brimming with energy. Go to the yard and lift something heavy, NOW.
WE SWOLE. And depressed...

>>5864852
Important question: is Rene into musclegirls?

>>5865074
I think that is self-explanatory. Louise was always bigger than him so...

>>5864852
>Bathe. You feel unclean, and want nothing more than to wash it off.

>>5864852
>Lift. You feel restless, brimming with energy. Go to the yard and lift something heavy, NOW.
Iron within, iron without!

>>5864852
> Bathe. You feel unclean, and want nothing more than to wash it off.

>>5864852
>Bathe. You feel unclean, and want nothing more than to wash it off.

We didn't get to meet the king :(

>>5864852
>Drink. Your thirst is overpowering, you need to quench it immediately.

>>5864852
>Bathe. You feel unclean, and want nothing more than to wash it off.

>>5864852
>Bathe. You feel unclean, and want nothing more than to wash it off.

>>5865178
We did. Just not in this corrupted memory.

>>5864852
>Bathe. You feel unclean, and want nothing more than to wash it off.

>>5864852
>Bathe. You feel unclean, and want nothing more than to wash it off.

File: Roughly how toned Louise is.jpg (224 KB, 850x1190)

224 KB JPG

>>5864594
Louise did not really find a path as much as the stars aligned, her faith and obedience to the LORD being rewarded with something that cannot really be called a Magnum Opus. Damien's Eyes of Wisdom are similar to Louise's Rosethorn Litany (working name), though he is very deliberately faking a Heart of Chalk rather than Louise stumbling into a Mind of Charcoal.

It's no spoiler as to how that happened at this point, so to spell it out, basically:
>Louise's faith and exposure to the LORD's blessings is a fundamental part of her foundation
>This lends her soul something of an innate resistance to possession
>Damien placed a subtle, rudimentary curse inversion upon her when they met in her dreams
>The Arbiter implants a Chain Devil into her body via her Dark Lance
>The Chain Devil attempts to subvert her psychological foundations and subvert her foundation.
>Her sheer faith in the LORD rebuffed the demon
>The Curse Inversion triggers, turning its subversion into reinforcement
>With no subversion to undo, the reinforcement goes overboard
>Louise's repressed thoughts snap off into their own personality
>This is similar to the "Council of the Self" created by melanosis, but crude and inelegant
>With the demon weakened, Shadow Louise kills its personality and seizes its powers
>What were chains became the vines and roses
>Her right eye is now emblazoned with an upside down triquetra
>The triquetra is a symbol of the LORD of Light
>Upside is not heresy, but it's only seen in some very old cult symbology that is barely understood.
>>5864856
A win would not have been much different that what happened. The tear that the Litany created would have been more permanent rather than healing over, and taking her head would have been what ended the dreamscape rather than having that conversation at the end.
>>5864898
The defeat was that this ended on the Witch's terms, rather than your own. You did not banish her from your mind, she chose to leave because you showed her something she found interesting (and she had other things to do).
>>5865074
>>5865075
Well, I mean, Louise was the largest, strongest, and most athletic child in the village by a wide margin. So at the very least, he is a tomboy chad. I'm not interested in "musclegirls" (as in "girls" that are drawn with the bodies of male bodybuilders, or the sort you see in real life who take steriods), so the most muscle Louise is going to have is "toned female athlete" levels of six pack an such. See pic related.
>>5865178
>>5865247
You guys chose to avoid meeting the King and then got a really bad roll. I take no responsibility for this; you will meet him in the future.

>>5865486
Rene is a lucky man.

>>5865486
>Her sheer faith in the LORD rebuffed the demon
Get fucked chain demon YEAH thank you lord!

>"toned female athlete" levels of six pack an such. See pic related.
I rarely see woman as unreasonably attractive as pole vaulters and long jumpers. Truly the fittest.

>>5865486
>Damien placed a subtle, rudimentary curse inversion upon her when they met in her dreams
I thought that was René?

>>5864898
18? We got a 19 didn't we?
>>5864258
Wow, that means we needed to get a nat 20 to do damage.

>>5864852
>Bathe. You feel unclean, and want nothing more than to wash it off.

>>5865504
Typo, sorry, brain is full of fuck right now. Yes, René did the Curse Inversion.
>>5865508
Reread post 1. I know Best of 3 is ubiquitous on this site, but it is not used for this quest. An 18 was rolled, you had a modifier of 21 due to the bonuses granted by the Litany.

>>5865486
>I'm not interested in "musclegirls" (as in "girls" that are drawn with the bodies of male bodybuilders, or the sort you see in real life who take steriods), so the most muscle Louise is going to have is "toned female athlete" levels of six pack an such. See pic related.
Very nice.
>>5865508
only the first roll is picked, the others only serve for blessed/cursed rolls that influence the story, so it was the 18.

>>5864852
>>Bathe. You feel unclean, and want nothing more than to wash it off.
who would not feel unclean after a conversation with that woman