>>6018544
We gotta keep this shit in google docs or pastebin or some shit. Seriously.

>Go after Izirina to confront her about whatever the fuck THAT all was

>>6018544
>Go after Izirina to confront her about whatever the fuck THAT all was

>>6018544
>Stay here with Costella until Izzy returns, or until morning

File: Marine Kneel.png (83 KB, 310x289)

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Congratulations Reptoid, you out did Ceg and got the mods on you faster than Thulzar Sexo Edition.
>>6018544
>Go after Izirina to confront her about whatever the fuck THAT all was
normally I'd stay with Cossy and let Izzy vent, but considering that she's probably more jealous with us staying closer to Cossy than her, and her acting strange for a while we need to settle this shit asap.

>>6018544
>Write-in
Have Costella get dressed and go after Izzy with you

File: Tips Level 3,35.png (403 KB, 1496x626)

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Rolled 16, 9, 4, 7, 5, 14 = 55 (6d20)

>>6018523
>>6018510
>>6018652
>>6018605
>>6018564
>>6018551
>>6018547
You take a moment to kneel, running your fingers through Costella’s tresses to expose her still-flushed face. Exhaustion ahs caught up with her: if you believed for a moment she might want ‘more’, that illusion is swiftly banished. Her eyelids flutter, as she struggles to keep them open long enough to squeak out:

“…Let her know… I’m not, like… Mad, okay?”

You frown, admitting: “I think I might be.”

Costella shakes her head as much as she can, but before she can say more than:

“It’s okay…”

She is asleep. You take a moment to appreciate the sight of her nude body, then quickly cover her in case anyone comes by. Before the shirin-stimulated lust can seize you again, you open the tent-flap, shield your eyes against the piercing sunlight of dawn—DAWN?! Gods Above, you WERE at it a while—and take off after Izirina. Muffins, who had takjen to slumbering outside the tent, looks up n confusion, but then quickly leis back down when you shake your head.

It is a difficult thing, you discover, to find a master Conjurationist who doesn’t want to be found. You assume a <Wildshape> suitable to flight, and summon forth a plume of <Faerie Fire> to guide your way.. .The shirin is leaving your system, its effects subsiding and your own natural need for rest taking hold; casting spells which draw primarily upon your own flagging life-energies, do little to help the situation. Your own eyes begin to slip closed once or twice, your wings listing and course tilting dangerously towards a death-spiral. Before you can plummet from the sky, little Veloz comes to your rescue, though, wings beating hard to maintain pace with you and sharp bill poking at prodding at your face to induce alertness.

“I’m awake, I’m awake!” you say, swatting half-heartedly at the silver-plumed little hummingbird to stop the pin-prick prodding. “But… Thank you.”

(At least you won’t still be, ah, aroused when you encounter her…)

You soar for much of the morning, casting <Wildshape> again and again to maintain the temporary half-animal form it enables. The <Faerie Fire> begins to sputter and dim as dawn turns to daylight proper.

“IZIRINA!” you cry out, again and again, without answer.

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>>6018741
Just when it seems you may have to turn back, or land and take shelter, your <Faerie Fire> dips low. You blink a couple times, suspecting some trick of light or spell-failure, but it is not merely falling, nor is it dissipating: it is following a winding course down to some nearby stones.

>16 for Arcana/Feycraft: success!

You do likewise, diving after it. Youa re no tracker, but even you can see the traces of someone’s passage here: blood-fringed footprints upon the ground, where the jagged gravel has cute someone’s bare feet.

(Ah damn… She didn’t grab her pants before she left, so of COURSE Izirina didn’t retrieve her boots, either.)

You steel yourself and descend the hill after her, assuming a less-feathery form for the encounter. You find your swiftly-departed paramour behind a particularly large rock, given away by still more crimson droplets. When you first spot her, she is seated there, back butted up against the grey-brown stone, knees drawn up to her chin, rumpled black robe wrapped around her to hide her nakedness from the empty wasteland. Her eyes are downcast, elementally-charged crown of red hair waving about her face as if underwater.

You stare down at her for a while. She knows you’re there, you can tell, and yet she says nothing. Eventually, frustrated, you break the silence:

“Izzy, would you mind telling me what the hell THAT was about?”

“…”

You grit your teeth a little, looking away and running a hand through your hair as you grapple with exhaustion, post-shirin nausea, and the general disorientation of jumping right from an incredible and highly-erotic evening to… Whatever THIS is. Damnit, you love this woman, but why must she ALWAYS be conspiring, scheming?

>successful Sense Motive in Thread 8

“Are you still ‘studying’ with The Nothic?” you ask.

Izirina looks up at you, appearing startled at the question. You purse your lips but you think you see genuine shock and hurt in her eyes, and so you speak again:

“If that’s not what’s going on, what is?”

“It would have worked,” Izzy says, looking back down at the ground.

“What would have worked?” you demand. “I understand getting carried away in the moment, but that’s not what THAT was, was it? That whole thing was planned rigth from the moment you suggested the shirin. You were trying to get me to… To impregnate Costella. Without asking EITHER of us. That’s not alright. Why would you do a thing like that? And why did you run off like this?!”

Izzy looks up at you, glaring and looking as if she wants to say something scathing in reply, but her resolve wavers and she looks back down.

“I know about you two, at the inn. Just like I knew about the shirin. Without Zith-Zi telling me, I already knew."

>>6018743
Your stomach and heart flip-flop inside you (or at least it feels like it), as you recall your trip with Costella—following a formal engagement dinner with her parents. That evening, as the last, there had been a brief-but-memorable pregnancy scare, that one brought about by Izirina herself.

“And I know about you and Nemenmo.”

You feel your face heat all the way to the tips of your pointed ears.

“That… Nothing happened!” you protest. “We didn’t even kiss!”

“But you wanted to,” Izirina asks sadly, ‘right?”

“We-ell…” you trail off.

You clear your throat.

“So you’ve been spying on me?” you ask pointedly. “Using divination magic? WHY? Don’t you trust me? Trust US? I didn’t kiss Nemenmo, or do anything ELSE, because I care more about you… And Costella. That’s the same reason I talked to Costella about what SHE tried to pull, at that inn… or did you not spy on THAT part?”

“I… I didn’t se or hear specifics,” Izirina admits. “divination isn’t… I’m not as good at it, as conjuration. I just knew where you went, for how long, and with whom. I only found out later, when I… Asked Costella, and she told me what happened.”

“Then you KNOW you don’t have anything to be worried about!” you exclaim, exasperated. “Besides, if that idea of, you know, Costella getting pregnant bothered you, then why—”

“Do you want to have children, Ezreal?”

The question, so sudden, startled you. So does the intensity with which Izirina Henzler now looks up at you, searching your face for truth. And in truth, well… it’s not something you’ve talked about. The desire to do so has been implicit in certain decisions you’ve made, and projects you’ve pursued: the repair of Izirina’s once-mutated and deformed reproductive tract to enable the possibility, your flat refusal to rule it out when her child—your child, together—was prophesized to be the ancestor of future world-conqueror, you determination to not let The Nothic’s vague mutterings of another disciple from Izirina’s line dissuade you.

Yet, as with so MANY aspects of your complicated relationship with Izzy and Costella, you’ve never really discussed it in depth or at length.

>Yes, you do
>No, you don’t
>You still don’t know—you’re too young
>Write-in

>>6018743
>successful Sense Motive in Thread 8
was that the 19 from the last roll in that thread ?
>>6018744
>“I… I didn’t se or hear specifics,” Izirina admits. “divination isn’t… I’m not as good at it, as conjuration. I just knew where you went, for how long, and with whom."
that explains she going crazy even after we talking about it to her

>Yes, you do. You want to solve as much of your problems as possible so you 3 can have a somewhat stable place to raise any future children.

>>6018744
> Yes, but saving the world comes first. There are too many powerful factions out there scheming. We can only start getting children responsibly as soon as we have ensured the coming Era of Magic is a peaceful one.

>>6018761
>was that the 19 from the last roll in that thread ?
[Yes. It was sufficient to both pull out and to know something was afoot, and with the high reault and knowing Izzy for something like 15 years, it's enough to get a proper, full and honest answer out of her.]
The sex scene and fallput have been planned for a couple months now. Shame what's-his-nuts spoiled it a little

>>6018744
>Yes, you do
Want to be ready for them too though
Also heal her feet

>>6018744
>Yes, you do.
Make both of them preggo at the same time. No compromise.

>>6018886
>>6018863
>>6018784
>>6018761

You kneel before Izirina, who, expecting your answer, draws back a little, looking confused.

"Your feet," you say, holding out your hands. "Come on."

Izirina frowns, looking faintly embarrassed now, but produces her feet from within her black robe, along with a stretch of her bare legs. You take them in your hands, scrutinizing the (luckily superficial) damage.

"You want to have children, but you can't even remember your own shoes?" you chide her.

She has no response, except to blush and look away as you speak the arcane incantation to <Cure Minor Wounds>, rapidly rectifying the situation at the cost of still more of your flagging reserves of mystical power.

“I do,” you admit, as you massage the feeling back into her feet., and immediately she looks back at you. "I do want to have children."

“I do too,” Izirina says, relief and hope in her voice.

“But not yet,” you add. “Izirina, please… There’s too much going on right now, too much at stake. We can RESPONSIBLY start a family as soon as we have ensured this ‘Era of High Magic’ is going to provide them—all of us—a safe, stable life.”

Immediately, the tension, and the desperation, return to Izirina's body.

“And I’m not… WE’RE not like you, Tips! Me, and Costella! We’re… We’re humans. We can’t live forever—”

“Not forever,” you’re quick to point out. “Even full-blooded elf only lives for three hundred years or so, barring—”

“TIPS!”

You close your mouth, and Izirina draws a shuddering breath, steadying herself emotionally and, rather abruptly, changing topics.

“Why did we come here, Ezreal?” she asks you. “To the Goblin Wastes. To… This place, to the Ashurati?”

“To keep my promise to the Unseelie Fey,” you reply. “Obviously. What are you getting at?”

“And why didn’t we just use the recipe which The Nothic proposed?” she presses. “Dragon’s blood, the dark elves’ crystals, elemental energies from the Plane of Fire? We practically ahd everythingw e needed, but instead we came out her. Why?”

“You aren’t enjoying the vacation, then?”

She pouts.

”Alright, alright,” you sigh, abandoning your attempt at levity. “Well… I didn’t want to follow The Nothic’s plan, or to give that horrid Queen Banelight too much power, because… Because of what they might do with that kind of power. Because of—”

“Because of the prophecies, and warnings, and possible futures.”

You look to Iziirna, who has that same wild look again.

“You changed the ingredients, the procedure, the specifics, so you could get what you want, what WE want, without losing. Without giving THEM what THEY want.”

>>6018744
>Yes, you do
But not right now.

Not when we are not married. Not when we still have obligations to the unseelie.

Izzy’s just as naive as Costella if she thinks a pregnancy or two will improve our situation right now.

>>6018955
Slowly, realization dawns. You swallow hard, staring at Izirina. You remember the specific, intimate and arousing ay in which she had administered Costella’s dose of shirin. No longer clouded with lust or herbal medicines, you see that there was more to even that specific action than Costella’s pleasure, or yours, or certainly almost-asexual Izirina’s.

“Izzy… What did you DO?”

“I know some Life Alchemy as well,” she whispers. “Form Mother. Form you. From… From The Nothic. And I know conjuration, in and out. It would have been safe. And we’re already entangled, spiritually and physically, so…”

“So you somehow connected her… Costella’s…”

“To mine,” Izirina confirms quietly. “I would have carried the child. Costella would have birthed it. I wouldn’t have borne any children, but…”

But Izirina would still have a child by you, in a way.

“Izzy… That’s insane.”

“I’m NOT,” she hisses. “I’m not crazy!”

“…How did you even plan to keep that hidden?” you ask, holding your tongue and returning to practical matters

(She’d put on a bit of weight lately, admittedly, but still NOTHING like what would be needed to hide a pregnancy for months!)

“I’m working on it,” she only says enigmatically. “I’m close. And this way… We can all have what we want! You and Costella can have a child, but so can I, and without… Without any of this fate hanging over its head, or ours! Without waiting! And since Costella would have given birth to it, she would be happy, which would make YOU happy, too!”

“So her happiness, and consent, are secondary to mine? Tertiary to YOURS?”

Izirina fidgets uncomfortably, clearly not having considered it that way, in those terms. Or maybe she just didn’t want to? Maybe she merely dislikes that YOU have seen through her rationalization and justification of this mad scheme?

“Did you even… WANT to have sex?” you ask.

Izirina nods, but only after a moment.

“I like sex, with you,” she admits. “I like the way you look at me, and making you… Feel good. But ever since… Since the first <Rite>, in the outer planes… I don’t really feel, you know…”

You nod, slowly understanding. ZIth-Zi’s libido, or a large part of it, had been housed in her demonic other half’, now embodied as Zith-Zi. Izirna, too, had once housed a fragment of the source essence of the succubus which had been sued to transform her young body. Without it, it seemed there was something of her own natural desire lost as well… Maybe most of it.

“And what about with Costella?” you ask, broaching a subject you’d never really dared before.

Izirina flinches, looking anywhere but at you. Your heart falls a little, remembering Costella's fears in this regard, fears which might well have firmer foundation than you'd realized.

>>6018957
“I like Costella,” she says. “I do, honestly.”

“But you don’t love her?” you press.

She doesn’t respond.

“Are you even attracted to her?”

“…You are,” Izirina says. “Elves rarely mate for life, Tips. They usually have multiple partners across the centuries. And your human father, well…”

“I’m NOT Rudolfo,” you assert.

“You are what you are,” Izirina insists. “We all are, unless we change our nature… Our bodies and spirits! Our fates! And I’d never ask you to change, but… One woman, for a hundred or three hundred years, it was never going to be enough for you. Especially… Someone like me.”

“Like you?”

“You know what I mean,” she snaps. “A… A freak. Weird. A mutant. Cursed, because I’m a “Yosef’, and because of… Because of damn DESTINY! It’s ALWAYS something! It’s NEVER easy, or simple!”

“So Costella is fine,” she insists. “But… but when we get back, you’re marrying her. And the longer we wait, the more complications arise. And… And what happens if we wait too long? What if it takes decades to fix the world, to make it safe enough for you to just say ‘yes’ when I ask about children? You’ll already be married to Costella, so what will you need ME for? And… And what if you meet someone like, like Nemenmo, who doesn’t HAVE any of these complications, and shares your lifespan, and…”

Izirina looks down, voice choking off as she hides her face. From the shuddering of her shoulders though, to the soft patter of water-drops hitting the ground despite the clear and cloudless sky, there’s no hiding how deep this insecurity goes, or the effect it’s having on her.

This plan was meant to bypass all of that, don’t you SEE? It would have worked! You never even needed to know, and it would have been EASIER if you didn’t!”

How do you respond to Izirina?
>Forgive her, and reassure her, but politely refuse to participate in this plan
>Agree to pursue this strange surrogacy scheme, if Costella agrees as well
>Break up with her, this is all too much
>Issue an ultimatum: this scheming and subterfuge needs to end, or you’re done
>Write-in

>>6018956
Sorry, anon, I just finished this up. However, I think I got your general sentiment across, as it was the majority vote.

>>6018958
>Issue an ultimatum: this scheming and subterfuge needs to end, or you’re done

Number one. Dissect her “plan.”

There are a shit ton of flaws in her plan - she’s planning on being pregnant before having an alibi for it, and even if the archmage or anyone else doesn’t figure it out, how you you even explain the child? It would be queer if Costella just “got” a child but never showed signs of pregnancy. Doing all that before marriage is also making things more difficult than it already is - putting a time constraint on EVERYTHING.

Number two. She put her wants over ours. That is non-negotiable. She is selfish enough to think what we want aligns with what she wants and she is forcing that to be true.

Number three. If she thinks marriage and relationships can only be kept in tact through children alone, no. Rudolfo has demonstrated that’s not the case. And she’s condemning us to it if she had executed her plan.

Step out of line ever again and we’re done.

Am>>6018547

>>6018958
>Agree to pursue this strange surrogacy scheme, if Costella agrees as well
>Issue an ultimatum: this scheming and subterfuge needs to end, or you’re done

I can only imagine how badly this would have gone if we did kiss Nemonmo, my god.

Alright if they're both so baby crazy we might as well give them what they want, but

Wtf does she mean we never needed to know? Would we not notice her carrying a baby? I think we would have started knowing a few months in.

Why does she even think it would be better for us to not know? When have we ever cared about her Yosef complications? We've told her we'll marry her too, in the Sylvan realms or Bloodrise or wherever we have to. She says it would have been easier if we never knew but maybe if we did know it would have worked. How can she know it's easier if she never tries any other way? Both now and with the attunement ritual she's always like haha surprise motherfucker. It doesn't feel like she views Costella or ourselves as equals when she does this.

Also Costella says she's not mad.

>>6019009
>Wtf does she mean we never needed to know? Would we not notice her carrying a baby? I think we would have started knowing a few months in.
[That's probably my bad. She meant (and I meant to convey) that Izzy figured Tip never needed to know who the real biological mother was of the child, at least not until the deed was done.]

>>6019012
So a few months down the road she'd be all "haha you thought you got Costella pregnant but it was actually me, Izirina!"

Ok, understood, leave those three sentences out then please. She's lucky Costella isn't mad though because that seems pretty messed up.

>>6018958
Man Izzy is a bit of a schizo, she doubts our commitment to this relationship even though she usually acts far more aloof and withdrawn from it then we do.

I always thought the rite seemed to relive her of her internal self hatred, but it seems like she just hide it instead.

Honestly i don't know what to do with her. Trying to cheer her up while rejecting her surrogate plan could deepen her insecurity. giving her an ultimatum could the same. Agreeing with her plot could encourage her erratic behavior.

>>6018958
>Agree to pursue this strange surrogacy scheme, if Costella agrees as well
>Kiss her forehead- she ain’t a freak, she’s still the dorky mage we’ve come to know and love
>But this scheming and subterfuge needs to end, you need to talk to me about your feelings, if our relationship is to work
Izzy should talk to Nemenmo- maybe they could form a Tips Love Support Group to deal with their complicated feelings. Tips Anonymous, kek.

>>6019049
[A reminder, since Thread 8.0 got taken down: Nemenmo has been pretty normal around Tips ever since, aside from not spending time alone with him. She seems pretty unbothered and chill about the rejection, and has even been helping him and speaking in his favour.]

>>6019051
That’s fantastic- she’d probably help stabilize Izzy with aplomb!

>>6019061
this might be pushing it. It’s one thing to remain friends with someone after they reject you but helping them with this is a lot to ask.

>>6019048
She’s fucking retarded and naive if she continues with her current line of thinking. If we can’t get her to change, might as well get her out of our lives before she could do more damage trying to play puppeteer again.

Not breaking up with her immediately after she tried to force a pregnancy onto two people unready for it is lenient enough.

>>6018958
>Issue an ultimatum: this scheming and subterfuge needs to end, or you’re done
welp, this is harsh but she has done a lot behind our backs, from the surprise extraplanar hijack to the nothic and now this, this shit has to end and she's getting more deranged

[Given the seriousness of this option, and my being a bit burnt out by the drama today and not ready for another post, I'm going to leave this vote open until tomorrow.]

>>6019142
Take your time.

>>6018958
>>Agree to pursue this strange surrogacy scheme, if Costella agrees as well

Conditionally.
First condition : sharing her future schemes and not using us as pawns.
Second condition : not right now. We have to find a way to stabilize our legal situation - of the 3 of us.

>>6018958
>Forgive her, and reassure her, but politely refuse to participate in this plan
Tell her we would never leave her over the complications, or over the lifespan, or destiny. But we might leave her over shit like this plan.Relationship requires trust, it will not hold if we can't trust her. It also hurts that she doesn't trust us.

>>6018958
>Issue an ultimatum: this scheming and subterfuge needs to end, or you’re done

[A good night's sleep and a toke did wonders for my mood, but I totally forgot I have a work function tonight. I'll update tonight if I have it in me when I get back, but worst case, I'll post tomorrow.]

>>6018958

>Agree to pursue this strange surrogacy scheme, if Costella agrees as well.
>Issue an ultimatum: this scheming and subterfuge needs to end, or you’re done.

This might be the best course of action, accepting her plan only if she agree to stop this spying subterfuge and and hiding her thoughts and feelings.

If we decide not to break up with Izzy, we definitely need to find a solution to our sexual incompatibility. This shit ruins relationships. It's unsustainable long-term.

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>>6019614
>toke
My brain somehow autocompleted that word to Tokay, from Legend of Zelda : Oracle of Age

>>6019724
>If we decide not to break up with Izzy, we definitely need to find a solution to our sexual incompatibility. This shit ruins relationships. It's unsustainable long-term.
1st of all wtf is sexual incompatibility ? 2nd how are we and izzy that if we have sex just fine ?

>>6019614
Sorry about the mod bs qm. I cant believe your last thread got delated because of two paragraphs describing the begging and ending of a sex scene. Dozens of shit post quests get made every month and instead the troglodyte mods zero some trivially sex scene.

>>6019737
We've just found out Izzy barely likes sex with Tips and even less with Costella, who is a part of the relationship too. Yes, technically Izzy can have sex just fine, but realizing your partner doesn't want you as much as you want them gnaws on people.

>>6019767
tbf her not wanting to sex cossy isn't that big of a deal, even if she liking would be nice. the problem is more her assexualness. I get it, liking your partner a lot tends to help things more.

>>6019777
>tbf her not wanting to sex cossy isn't that big of a deal
How so?

>>6019724
Our? That’s an Izzy’s problem and now she’s making it everyone’s problem

Rolled 11, 7, 18, 16, 14, 4 = 70 (6d20)

You take a deep breath, resisting the urge to urge to shout your frustrations.

“I just... Don’t understand you,” you say. “You always act so aloof and detached. I can never understand what you're planning, and you never let me—or Costella—in on any of your plans. You just DO things, things that affect ALL of us, and expect us to... To go along with it!”

As you continue, your find your voice raising in well-deserved outrage, despite your best efforts. Izirina cowers slightly, peeking up at you before quickly looking back down. She says nothing, quietly nodding an acknowledgement of having heard you—in actual understanding of what you’re trying to communicate, if you’re lucky.

“What was even your plan?” you ask. “You didn’t think I’d be suspicious when you started showing, and Costella didn’t? What did you think the Archmage would have to say about that, when SHE noticed?”

“Mother wouldn’t mind,” she murmurs, and then, cringing, corrects herself: “Mother wouldn’t care.”

“WE would, Izzy!” you all but exclaim. “Me! Costella! Even if this scheme could skirt the boundaries of the prophecy, somehow work around it... We aren’t PAWNS Izzy. You need to let us make these kinds of big decisions WITH you.”

“And if we hadn’t wanted to?” she whispers.

“Then that’s my choice to make,” you assert. “Mine, and Costella’s. You can’t trick or manipulate people into staying in a relationship, Izirina. If there are... Complications... It’s up to us to CHOOSE, and we need all the information to MAKE that choice. If you keep behaving like this, if you keep hiding things—IMPROTANT things...”

Izirina looks up at you.

“...Then you’re not going to like the choices we make.”

Izirina’s face pales, eyes wide.

“I didn’t... Please, I didn’t mean to...”

“Izzy, I WANT to be with you,” you say. “I know Costella does, too. We’re not... She’s not angry with you. She wanted me to tell you that, even if maybe she doesn’t quite know EVERYTHING about... About how you feel about her, or don’t. I can’t speak for her, about how she’ll feel about that. But –I- can’t keep doing this. The trick with the Rite, the Nothic, the spying, THIS...”

“Ezreal, please, I’m, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

“I’d never leave you over something like your lifespan, or your past, or your—OUR—destiny. I think I’ve been pretty clear on all that. But this... This is different.”

Izirina’s eyes begin to water again. She gasps, face pained, sputtering as if trying to get words out—words that won’t come.

“Do you understand what I’m trying to tell you, Izirina?” you ask, serious.

4d20 Sociability, DC normally 15, -4 for your various actions to help and appease Izzy and your relationship history, +2 for the ultimatum approach and emotional distress. 2d20 Sense Motive.

>>6019847
To put it mildly, Izirina takes this... Poorly. In fact, it may be the most distraught you've ever seen her. It’s honestly rather shocking to see: this young woman, normally so composed even in her most deranged and detached moments of escapist fantasy simply... Crumbles. The tears start flowing, and don’t stop. Her body shakes as if wracked by agonizing spasms, as she clutches her black robes around her and squeezes her hand to her face. You’ve only ever seen her shatter like this twice before: as a young girl, lambasted by the Archmage for her second-best performance in Living Alchemy; and the first time the two of you attempted to make love, only to discover that her chimeric mutations had effectively sealed off from such intimacy.

Of course, neither of those times invoked a localized lightning storm.

It begins with a faint hum, and a strange sensation in the air. Teh fine hairs of your arms and legs lift, your skin brekaing out in goosebumps. You’re perplexed for a moment, and then alarmed, anticipating some sort of attack by a heretofore unseen magical adversary. It’s then that the winds whip up and you recognize that Izirina Henzler is the centre of the miniature cyclone. You brace your feet and shield your eyes against the whirlwind and the debris it picks up.

“I’m stupid,” Izirina sobs. “I’m so... So fucking stupid... I just don’t... I didn’t mean to be like this. I just wanted everything to be simple, and easy, like it’s supposed to be, and instead I ruined everything, and you hate me and...”

And then, there’s the lightning.

“Izzy!” you shout over the wind. “You need to calm down!”

>>6019881
“But you’re going to leave me!” Izirina cries. “I thought you were going to, but you weren't, and then I was so STUPID and I messed everything up and now you’re going to leave me and then I’ll have NOTHING! I thought... I thought all the bad parts of me were gone now, that everything would get better, but I’m still just... Just...”

You grit your teeth, squint your eyes, and step forward. By now, Izirina is floating off of the ground, bolts of lightning crackling off of her like the flitting, forked tongue of some terrible, elemental snake. She grips her head, eyes wide and aglow with out-of-control energy. And yet still you step forwards, braving the storm. Your own resistance to these energies, the energies that by your hand and Izirina’s, you have attuned to, protects you from the rage—or despair—of the miniature tempest.

“I ruined it! I ruined EVERYTHING!”

“No,” you reply.

>18

You reach out, grasping Izirina’s ankle before she floats away. A jolt of electricity flows through you, and for a moment you spasm and freeze, rigid, but your grip only tightens. Izirina looks down, startled out of her fugue state. You see it in her eyes: a lifetime of insecurity, of unmeetable expectations, inherited disdain, alienation and self-loathing, repressed emotions and an inability to communicate. You see in that moment what you really are to her, what you have become: the ultimate escape from all of that, the fairy-tale lover, the source of adventure and excitement, the emotional anchor and outlet she never otherwise had. It doesn’t justify what she’s done, how she’s behaved, but you think, on some level, you understand her behaviour—her belief, deep as it is irrational, that losing you would reduce Izirina Henzler, dangerously-powerful and utterly brilliant daughter of veritable mage royalty, to something worthless.

You meet her eyes and say:

“You haven't lost me. You WILL, though... If you don’t stop. If you don’t let me in.”

There is a boom of thunder. Izzy gasps and, finally, seems to get it. The winds falter, and fail. She tumbles down, and you catch her, though you're bowled over in the process. She clings to you, desperate, naked form clutching at you like a baby freshly born, and cries until there are no more tears.

It rains in the Goblin Wastes, albeit briefly. That afternoon, irrigated out of season, flowers bloom.

>>6019884
Eventually, the two of you return to the Neme’s sacred mountain hideaway. Izzy’s magic is expended, so it is slower going than it might otherwise be. It is many hours before you return, to find Nemenmo and Khnakhe relieved.

“You’re back,” Nemenmo greets you. “Costella would not tell us where you had gone, but... Her worry was obvious. We were about to mount an expedition."

“Of course he would be fine,” Khankhe reasons. “You saw how Ezreal Mious Van Houtzmann handles even the greatest dangers of these lands!”

Nemenmo, more perceptive of adilt matters, quickly looks Izirina up and down. She, at least, notices her lack of shoes... And other attire, under her rain-dampened robe

"There are many kinds of dangers in this world," she says. "Even capable warriors require assistance. This is why the Gods tasked us to make the oases."

You nod, grateful, and find your tent.


Of course, neither of their muted reactions can rival Costella’s. She throws herself upon the two of you, squeezing you close.

“I was so scared when you didn’t come back!” she says. “I’m... I’m, like, SOOO glad you’re both okay! Why did you DO that? Where did you go? WHY?”

Izizirna stammers, uncharacteristically unable to explain herself or even to form one of her enigmatic half-replies or reassurances. She looks to you, eyes pleading: ‘What should I say? What should I do?’

>Discuss the surrogacy scheme and possibility of having children
>Discuss Izzy’s lack of sexual attraction… And lack of romantic attraction to Costella
>Discuss the spying and insecurities, and the whole ‘emotional lightning storm’ thing while you’re at it
>Let it lie… You can talk to Costella about it later, maybe, but not right now
>Write-in

>>6019884
>her fugue state
thought this was another typo, but it's a real word, neat
>>6019885
>Discuss the spying and insecurities, and the whole ‘emotional lightning storm’ thing while you’re at it
this is the easier one to talk about, specially since she already told us about the scrying earlier.

>>6019847
>“Ezreal, please, I’m, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”
>>6019881
>“I’m so... So fucking stupid... I just don’t... I didn’t mean to be like this. I just wanted everything to be simple, and easy, like it’s supposed to be, and instead I ruined everything, and you hate me and...”
>“I thought you were going to, but you weren't, and then I was so STUPID and I messed everything up and now you’re going to leave me and then I’ll have NOTHING!

Go ahead cry about it, dumb cunt. Maybe you should have thought about things more than a fraction of a second before trying to irreversibly change lives for the next few decades. Mommy didn’t love you enough and you tried to play doll with real people. She’s just as naive and retarded as that kid in the mirror room all those years ago, just in the body of an adult.


>>6019885
>Discuss the spying and insecurities, and the whole ‘emotional lightning storm’ thing while you’re at it
Only saving grace is she’s just too useful to push away. For now.

>>6018984

>>6019933
narrator's thot slayer arc

>>6019885
>Discuss the surrogacy scheme and possibility of having children
So uh how do you feel about sharing a pregnancy?

>>6019933
Damn bro
Maybe instead of schizoQM you should go by sociopathQM

Guessing I'll get very different answers next time I ask 'how do you anons feel about the waifus', kek

File: IMG_7885.jpg (132 KB, 1920x1080)

132 KB JPG

>>6019942
>>6019948
>>6019970

>>6019975
I'd rather you try to improve

>>6019975
do it

>>6019885

>Discuss the surrogacy scheme and possibility of having children
>Discuss Izzy’s lack of sexual attraction… And lack of romantic attraction to Costella

>Propose following solutions :
1/ Stabilize situation with Costella-based mariage. Also depends on Costella view on having kids with us - she's entitled to be more than a mere surrogate
2/ Try to find a solution to get Izzy sentiments toward Costella to grow. We're in this relationship deep and Costella loves Izzy. Either Izzy is sentimentally stumped or we can find a (consenting) magical solution or something.

>>6019885
>Discuss the surrogacy scheme and possibility of having children
>Discuss the spying and insecurities, and the whole ‘emotional lightning storm’ thing while you’re at it
Don't go after Izzy's asexuality, Costella herself is insecure about it and we don't need to flare it up right now.

>>6020756
tally for ants

>>6020189
>>6020139
>>6019948
>>6019933
>>6019892
>>6020756
Given Izirina’s relatively raw emotional state, and Costella’s own insecurities around the issue, you deem it best not to broach the subject of Izzy’s feelings—or relative lack thereof. What sort of productive conversation can you have on the subject, in so short a time? Costella is returning to Old Maple Hill before too long, and you and Izirina are still to remain here. However, you can tell that the earlier event, and your extended absence, still eats at the sweet-hearted brunette, and so SOME explanation is necessary.

“Izzy was just… Feeling a little insecure, about the state of things,” you prompt. “She’s been using her abilities in Divination a little excessively, and jumping to some conclusions.”

Costella looks confused at first, but then realization seems to dawn as pink colours her cheek and she raises both hands to her lips.

“The inn…?”

You nod, and then, grimacing a little, admit: “and a bit more than that.”

What follows is an full of Izirina’s intrusions into your privacy. Openness being the objective of the evening, this necessarily entails a full—or nearly full-disclosure of the moment between yourself and Nemenmo, though you are prudent enough to spare the girls the extraneous details of what DIDN’T happen, but COULD have, to simply leave it at a misinterpreted midnight meeting. The most important part, of course, it what it led to: the shirin-augmented threesome that nearly resulted in an planned-unplanned pregnancy involving all three of you.

To your surprise, Costella takes THIS news rather well. That is to say: she burst into tears, but rather than running away, she grabs hold of Izirina and strokes her hair while holding her close to her chest.

“I’m so sorry!” she says.

>>6020793
>>6020799
“For what?” you and Izzy both say as one, though Izirina is somewhat muffled.

“I was being so self-centred!” Costella laments. “I was so caught up in worrying about your feelings for ME and MY whole, like, thing with my family, and Carlos, and I didn’t even THINK about how you must be feeling! And, like…”

She lowers her voice, eyes darting and shoulders hunched as she whisperingly adds: “And I didn’t even, like, KNOW about the prophecy!”

“…We didn’t tell you,” Izirina notes.

“Yeah,” you say, scratching the back of your head. “Sorry about that, it’s just, well…”

You can’t really say WHY you didn’t share that aspect from. Fear that Costella couldn’t keep a secret? That seems unfair to her, after all this time, even if that might be PARTLY true. Costella Fanucci IS an open book, which is honestly quite refreshing with how difficult it can by to prise open Izirina.

“It’s been weighing on us,” you conclude, keeping it simple. “We should have told you, but… We didn’t. And that wasn’t fair.”

You make meaningful eye-contact with Izirina as you add: “We’re going to be better about that, from now on.”

She says nothing, and though she momentarily looks as if she might cry again, she doesn’t.

“I, like, TOTALLY get it,” Costella says. “Destiny’s nothing to mess around with! But, like… You really thought that, um… Having me ‘give birth’ would, like, geta round it?”

Izirina frowns, eyes darting back to you, again looking to you for guidance. Whatever mania had driven her decision-making up to that decisive moment had crumbled into a depressed uncertainty under your earlier critique. And yet, in spite of it all…

“Maybe,” you admit.

You were hardly some expert at cheating fate or overcoming prophecies. It had never been something you’d really considered, until your visit to Holy Luna and your subsequent encounter with the Sylvan sage Nenaias. Yet Izirina is right, after a fashion, in principle if not in the morality of her execution: if changing the ‘ingredients’ of the Unseelie Star can make a tangible difference, altering the procedure and character of gestation and birth could surely do the same, right? Wasn’t this what arcane exploration and experimentation as for: to overcome limitations of the here and now, for the sake of a better future? And if BOTH Izirina and Costella had broached the subject, well… They WERE at the age when a human woman in a more conventional relationship might consider such things. To have a child NOW would be irresponsible in the extreme, but perhaps the prospect was not so distant as it might still seem.

It's a harrowing thought, casting so much of your life together into a new light. A hypothetical future child is just that, a hypothetical… Until there’s an immediacy to it. Then, it transforms into something altogether more serious.

Rolled 90 (1d100)

>>6020800
“I’ll do it,” Costella says.

“You will?” you and Izirina both ask, again surprised by the response.

Cosetlla nods, expression serious, before suddenly breaking out into a nervous itter.

“Well, like, not right NOW, obviously. But, like, yeah! I mean… Mama’s going to start asking about grandchildren as soon as I get back, and she’s, like… Not going to STOP until I have one!”

“Costella, expectations aren’t a good reason to make a decision like this,” you caution her.

Costella shakes her head, then stops, and then nods. “No, yeah, I like… I get that. But… We all love each other, a lot! And we’re all going to married and stay together forever anyway, right? So, like… Why not? Right?”

You look towards Izirina, who—in light of earlier revelations, cannot quite meet your eyes, or those of Costella. Costella’s own expression shifts between one of fearful concern, determination, and a sort of giddiness.

“Wow,” she murmurs. “A baby… Like, just, WOAH, you know?”

With the most immediate matters addressed (insofar as they can or should be, you feel, right now), there is one other matter of a more intellectual and professional curiosity to you:

“Just what WAS that, earlier?” you ask Izirina. “When I went to bring you back and you had your… Your OUTBURST… You produced wind, and rain, and altered local air pressure. And all of that…”

“All of it without verbal or somatic components,” izirina concludes, just as aware of the implications as you are. “I mean, a silent spell or still spell aren’t unheard of, in Advanced Metamagic.”

“But both?” you press. “And with what seemed to be multiple, high-level spells?”

Izirina nods, and admits: “I did… Some practice of controlling raw elemental energies from the outer planes, with… My teacher.”

The Nothic, again. You say nothing, but your emotions must be clear across your face, for Izirina quickly continues.

“This was a while ago. I’d managed <Gust of Wind> and <Fireball> with simple gestures and subvocalizations but… Never much more than that.”

“How many spells do you, like, KNOW?” Costella asks, starry eyed.

It’s a question you’ve long wondered yourself, and even under these circumstances, you feel some small excitement to finally get an actual count.

Rolled 84 (1d100)

>>6020801
“Well, there’s <Fireball>, <Gust of Wind>, <Lightning Bolt>, as well as <Ray of Frost>,” Izirina begins, “and <Jade Aura>, and <Summon Elemental>, and <Elemental Infusion>, and <Dimension Door>… <Plane Shift>, <Teleport Object>… <Banish>, and <Hold Creature>, and I’m not as GOOD at it as Tips, but I can cast <Stabilize> and <Cure Wounds> and <Purify>… <Prismatic Spray> and I can create a PASSABLE <Mirror Image>… And I learned a few from, ah, other sources as well, like <Guidance>, <Alarm>, and… You know, <Discern Location>.”

You can only gawp. Not only does Izirina have twice or thrice your raw reserves of energy, but she knows nearly twice as many spells.

“…Plus a few of the simple ones that everyone knows, like <Magic Missile>,” she adds, as an afterthought.

“Izzy, -I- don’t know <Magic Missile>,” you say.

Izirina looks genuinely startled, protesting: “But I’ve seen you cast it!”

“With a wand or staff, sure,” you say. “NOBODY learns it anymore. The effort’s too great, when there are already enchanters who specialize in pre-enchanting those sorts of items for mages.”

“Oh,” Izzy says, thoughtfully, then squints. “Really? But it’s so easy. Why not just… Learn it normally?”

You stare for a moment, and then sigh. Genius truly can’t comprehend the mundane, it seems… Not that you’d necessarily classify yourself as ‘mundane’ by any means. Only, as always, when measured against Izirina Henzler. Some things never change, you suppose.

With the tension broken and the worst part of the conversation passed, you spend the evening with the two women you love once more. There’s no more ‘excitement’ like last night, with your one remaining pouch of pink shirin going unused. Both Costella and Izzy simply cling to you and, by proxy, to each other; that Izzy chooses the opposite side, as she often does, is not lost on you this night.

…You’re going have to figure out how to handle THAT, someday, too.

The next day, Izirina’s energies are restored sufficiently to transport Costella and the remainder of those who you liberated from the goblin market—those who you she had not already offered a <Dimension Door> the day prior to the ‘incident’.

However, when you three descend the mountain to meet with them, all is not as you left it.

>90 for encounter roll: danger, high

The first thing you notice is the silence. Neither Zith-Zi nor Carazzi have yet left, and the goblin refugees are among those yet to be transported. Silence is the LAST thing you should be hearing. You gesture to Izirina and Costella, and the latter squeaks in alarm, before covering her mouth. Izzy merely replaces her shaded glasses upon her eyes, and nods. She draws your wand, as you shift your grip on your staff. As a trio, you approach.

Rolling for result. Since you left Zith-Zi, Carazzi, and the minotaur down there, the target is reduced from 75 to 45; higher is better.

>>6020801
>>6020802
ah shit, here we go again

>>6020801
>>6020802
once again we almost maxxed the danger, at least we got a good roll to deal with it

>>6020802
>>6020808
>>6020817

Stealth is not a particular strong-suit of any of you, even if Izirina seems almost dressed for it. Still, you try to step lightly, and you take care not to gasp or cry out when you see the first body. It isn’t a humanoid, thank all the gods, nor even a goblinoid, but some terrible, enlarged an exotically-plumed cousin of the vultures you saw earlier. You pry open its jagged beak with the narrow end of your staff, noting a predatory hook. Its feet, too, have killing claws, and its wingspan you would conservatively estimate at 15 feet across.

And there are more.

You pick your way across a bloody battlefield of broken birds. Little Veloz flits this way and that, and you regret not bringing Muffins—he’d have loved this, as much as you hate it. You value all life, predator and prey, but admittedly your greatest fear is reserved not for these animals but for those they surely descended upon in this place: the remaining ex-slaves, mostly unarmed and helpless.

But not their defenders.

>84

You find the heroes of the day relishing in their victory. Each of the three is covered in gore, though the minotaur ahs at least made the effort to clean himself; without water, it is difficult, and perhaps that is why Zith-Zi has not bothered, save to smear away a swathe of red from her pinkish face.

Carazzi is wallowing in it, giggling to herself. When she spies you, she shouts your name—or, well, ‘Tips’—and holds up a pair of massive, red-feathered wings, flapping them gaily.

“Check it out!” she says. “I’m an angel! Hehehehe!”

“Maybe a fallen one,” Zith-Zi mutters, and snaps you a sarcastic salute. “’Bout time you got here!”

“What happened??” Costella asks, which… Admittedly seems like a question with an obvious answer.

Zith-Zi shrugs, and simply says: “Big fuckin’ birds happened. Musta’ finished with th’ trolls back there and came sniffin’ this way.”

“We fucked ‘em up real good!” Carazzi adds, unnecessarily, given the sheer carnage which here abounds.

“No casualties,” Zith-Zi adds, nodding to where the other goblins, and remaining halflings, many of whom are celebrating the victory and lauding their heroes—even Carazzi, which seems to be the reason for her good spirits and invigorated air.

You are gratified to see it—as a succubus-should ‘demogoblin’, Carazzi thrives on emotion, and you suspect the positive sort may be better for her emotional development into something more than a Hellish monster.

“Still, would be nice ta’ get the fuck outta’ here while th’ getting’s good,” Zith-Zi adds.

“On it,” Izirina is quick to say, taking her position and beginning to cast.

“An’ hey, Tips?” ZIth-Zi says.

“Yeah?”

“If I ever start waxin’ nostalgic for this fuckin’ no-gobs’-land?” she says. “Punch me in th’ fuckin’ teeth, huh?”

>>6020820
Costella gives you both a final hug goodbye, and you a final kiss; with Izzy, as usual in public, she merely squeezes her especially long, and presses her cheek to Izirina’s own. Izzy is rigid, and still… But then, outside of particularly private and intimate moments, she also is with YOU. No wonder you never really noticed the disconnect, there.

With that matter attended to, you and Izirina return to your study of the chest and rod, and their unique properties. The Neme and their freed Elemental Fey spirit-guides are grateful to you, and many among them are obviously relieved to no longer be playing host—even indirectly—to a small army of outsiders. They are glad to offer what aid they can, to you and to Izirina despite her own outsider status.

“Your wife is as one of the people,” one of the spirits explains—a woman (well, vaguely feminine silhouette) of pure and smokeless fire, who seems to appear at dawn and dusk, and carry throughout her form the hues and brightness of the sun itself.

“She’s not, uh…” you begin, and then stop yourself.

Given everything that’s happened, and Izirina’s insecurities… And Costella’s own upcoming marriage to you, in Hawksong society…

Should you ask the Neme-Ashurati to officiate a wedding to Izirina Henzler?
>No
>Yes

Aside from your study of chest, rod, and sands in pursuit of the Unseelie Star project, is there anything other avenue of magical or religious research you’d like to pursue?
>Write-in if so

>>6020821
>No
not now, we need to solve our security issues first. also no idea for other studies.

>>6020821
It’s been a while since thread 7. I vaguely remember Tips talking about marriage being something that elves can - do but generally don’t unless they’re already in a relationship for a while. Is that correct?

And polygamy. I vaguely remember that being more lax than Hawksong. Is that correct too?

Right now I’ll just vote for

>Aside from your study of chest, rod, and sands in pursuit of the Unseelie Star project, is there anything other avenue of magical or religious research you’d like to pursue?
>Reversible sterilization. Male and Female.
>Restoring Izzy’s libido

You know me. I’d rather not leave things up to just contraceptives again. There’s still risk, of course, but when both the man and woman are sterilized, the risk is a whole lot less than relying on one form of birth control alone. Also investigate if Stabilize and Cure Wounds or other body modifications would affect this as well.

>>6019933

>>6020840
[Elves are indeed more open to polygamy and long-term extramarital relationships than humans. Extramarital births aren't even an issue, and are still celebrated... As long as both parents are elven. Any high priest (or member of a local fairy court, such as the Elemental Fey here) can essentially 'recognize' or sanctify' a union and all other fairy-folk would recognize it as holy and significant for any legal or temporal purposes. Elves are also more lenient about divorce and forming new union, hence why (for Izzy's perspective, given she's both educated on cultural differences but still very much a Northwoman) this fluidity can seem threateningly like caprice. Form her perspective, elevs are just much more wishy-washy and less committal about 'until death do us part' and the permanency of romantic relationships.]

>>6020821
>Yes

She seemed sincere about wanting to improve, and this should alleviate some of her insecurities along with Costella agreeing to the baby plan.

>>6020821
>Yes

>Izzy's libido

>>6020800
Costella is such a cinnamon roll!

>>6020821
>Yes
Though I would like Izirina to be also married to Costella, but with the current situation that will have to wait.

Also seconding >>6020840

>>6020840
Does it really need to be sterilization instead of some magical condom or something ? Sounds really invasive, even if we can reliably restore those organ’s use later on. Restoring Izzy’s libido though is something I can get behind.

>>6021060
Condoms rely on the user to use it. Same goes for any other device. I don’t like that degree of liability. Having sterilization already in place prevents any meddling or forgetting.

>>6020877
>No.

Costella never agreed or knew of this information. She probably doesn’t mind if we get married, but we should not go-ahead without informing her. It’s a betrayal of trust and we already had that happen way too many times by now.

am >>6020840

>>6020821
>No

>>6021084
Actually, you're right. Changing >>6021018 to
>No

File: tally possibly for ants i(...).png (4 KB, 635x83)

4 KB PNG

>>6021268
>>6021086
>>6021084
>>6021018
>>6021009
>>6020928
>>6020840
>>6020829
[Writing!]

>>6021626
Why is Yes (33%) green but No (67%) is white?

>>6021630
This

>>6021626
>>6021630
>>6021638
[Well, a good night's sleep is supposed to help, but I guess I'm still off my game. I am, indeed, writing the 'no' as the winner.]

>>6021639
I thought you had code to do it this entire time.

Take your time.

>>6021626
You chew your lip for a time, thinking carefully… But in the end you say nothing. It isn’t that you’re AGAISNT marrying Izirina. One incident (or two, or… okay, maybe three or four…) aren’t enough to make you stop loving her. She genuinely seems to want to do better and, in the end, that’s all you can ask. But right now, without talking to Costella? You don’t see much sense in trading one woman’s insecurity for the other’s, and Costella ahs been incredibly sweet and understanding already. She at least deserves the discussion.

And anyway, there are OTHER issues to consider.

“…Libido?” Nemenmo whispers hairless brows raised and smooth forehead momentarily creased.

“Shh!”

You look over your shoulder, guilty even for this brief, daytime liaison.

“Ezreal, if there is a problem with sexual compatibility, it isn’t something to discuss with another elfmaid… Or woman,” Nemenmo lightly chastises you. “Especially one who you’ve spurned for this human.”

“I know, I know,” you sigh. “I just… Don’t know any of the others well enough to talk to about this. And, for the record, it’s not, uh, MY issue. And it’s more complicated than what you’re thinking!”

“It must be,” Nemenmo allows, and sits cross-legged, in the Oriental style which you have seen Izirina adopt when thinking deeply or focusing her energies. “Explain. I will listen.”

“Without judgement.”

Nemenmo blinks , once, in silence.

“Right, bit much to ask,” you grumble, but you sit where she pats the ground, and explain it all: how Izirina was afflicted as an infant with a mutagenic plague which seized upon and all-but-destroyed her reproductive tract, sealing her sex against even penetration; how, in curing that contagion, you also purged her spirit of the demonic influence which was affixed to it; how that separation seemed to have taken her appetite for sex with it.

“But she is now capable, and still does the act?” Nemenmo asks.

“Well, yes,” you say. “She doesn’t enjoy it, though. And, ah… There’s another matter.”

“Your other uss’chev,” Nemenmo acknowledges, using a word which you understand to mean ‘spouse’ in some contexts but, in this context, may as well mean ‘significant other’. “Costella, of the Fanucci clan.”

“Yeah,” you say. “She’s sort of… OUR uss’chev. And we’re hers.”

“Szeous shaa?”

You blanch, and quickly say: “No!”

>>6021648
‘Szeous shaa’ is a term that ahs a parallel, in Sylvan culture. It’s literal meaning, ‘secret treat’, denotes the nature of such a relationship: a same-sex lover for a partner who might be inclined in the manner of Logan Pearce or Oncyth Nortumalan, who is otherwise obligated to reproduce. Apparently, the Ashurati practice something of this sort as well.

“It’s actually sort of the opposite problem,” you admit. “Costella is… More open to a variety of partners. And Izirina is… Willing, but only really interested in me, when she’s interested at all.”

“And you cannot simply choose between them?”

“It’s not that simple,” you protest.

“It is,” Nemenmo insists.

“It’s REALLY not.”

“Then you have MADE it complicated,” Nemenmo says. “I cannot ‘uncomplicate’ this thing for you.”

“But Feycraft could.”

It’s Nemenmo’s turn to pale.

“You would ensorcel women with magic? Manipulate their feelings, their desires?”

“Well,” you say with a nervous chuckle, “when you put it like that, it sounds…”

“Demonic.”

You wince.

“Ezreal,” Nemenmo tells you gently, “what you are asking goes against the principles of the Bonum Chaoticum. It is a thing which violates the freedom of the self… The freedom to be as one is. There are many kinds of love—the emotional, the sensual and aesthetic, the familial and friendly. Must your love with this Izirina Henzler be of the sexual sort? And must hers be such, for Costella Fanucci?”

“It would make things a lot easier,” you admit, though you feel your resolve waver. “Is it really such a bad thing, if she… Agrees to it?”

“Would she be agreeing to change because she desires change, or because YOU desire for her to change?” Nemenmo asks.

“I already DID change her,” you point out, with a sliver of guilt. “My magic… It’s what removed a part of her, to begin with. It’s what made her… The way she currently is.”

There is no easy answer, and Nemenmo sighs, bowing her head in thought.

“The <Rite of Attunement> which you know, and your… ‘Chimericism’… These things can alter a body and a spirit. But both are tools of admixture. They cannot create life whole, and new. They can blend characteristics, take them from one thing and transplant them into another. This is the way of the world: that new things do not appear, but must emerge and evolve from other things which already are…”

She slowly raises her head and, squinting, looks towards the sun.

“…But this was not always so.”

Rolled 6, 15, 19, 15, 18, 19, 18, 11, 5, 1, 6, 2, 14, 16, 3 = 168 (15d20)

>>6021649
You do not have the Neme’s natural protection against the sun’s glare, but though you cannot follow her gaze you DO follow her thought. The Cosmic Gods—those of the sun and moon, Holy Lun and Holy Sol… THEY have the means to do such things. They created artificial lifeforms, such as the eladrin or ‘High Elves’ who attend their floating spheres. Even if you had the means to petition the, though… Would they listen, given your last interaction with one of their number, and the relative personal, and petty nature of your request? Or the fact that, at least in part, it is meant to help facilitate a relationship and pregnancy which their prophecies foresee leading to great peril?

Without their aid, though, your options are more limited and complicated. Nemenmo stands, looking at you for a moment with a frown, and then takes her leave. You remain, deep in contemplation. You cross your legs after a while.

It doesn’t help.

What will you do?
>Attempt to petition Princess Miannie, Goddess of the New Moon and patron of your clan, for a miracle
>Use the Rite to try to blend Ashurati characteristics into Izirina mind and body
>Use the Rite to try to return some of Carazzi’s succubus ectoplasm into Izirna’s soul
>Mess about with her hormones using chimericism and living alchemy
>Forget it, her asexuality is something you can work around
>Write-in

Setting aside such personal matters, there is still the other and more internationally consequential matter: that of decoding the secrets of the rod and chest, and finding a way to make use of their arcana—and the Feycraft of the sacred sand-baths—to facilitate an Unseelie Star without dark elf involvement.

15d20. 8d20 are from you: 6d20 Arcana/Feycraft, +1 for Elementalism, +1 for Religion. 7d20 for Izzy, who is better at Arcana than you and also gets an Elementalism bonus. -1 DC for your insights from the sand-bath earlier, -1 DC from Nemenmo’s advice, -1 DC for the aid of the Elemental Fey and elders. Izzy’s dice have +1 DC at the moment due to her mental state, and her cut-contact with the Nothic means she isn’t getting its tutelage bonus, but that still makes the DC for the first 8 dice 12, and 13 for the remaining 15.

This check is a bit unique: you’ll almost certainly SUCCEED, but how long is another matter. As long as you don’t somehow fail every single roll, the process will take FOUR MONTHS, or 16 weeks. For every passed check removes a week from that timeline. Every critical success reduces it by two weeks. Every nat 1 adds a week.

8d20 Tips [DC12]
6, 15, 19, 15, 18, 19, 18, 11
7d20 Izzy [DC 13]
5, 1, 6, 2, 14, 16, 3

If my math is correct…

Tips 6 Success [ - 6 weeks]
Izzy 2 Success, 1 Crit Fail [ - 1 week]

Two months + 1 week in total

>>6021653

To this end, you are glad for Izirina’s presence, for there is nobody on Earth or otherwise who you can bounce mystical and alchemical ideas off of and receive such immediate, enlightening critique, feedback, and elaboration…

>1: +1 week

Normally.

“Izirina, what’s going on with you?” you can’t help but ask, perhaps a bit more harshly than you intended for you see her slump, and her hands ball up into fists.

“Nothing,” she mumbles.

“Izzy… Come on.”

She looks up at your tone, her obvious tension and anxiety transforming rapidly to fear.

“I-I’m sorry!” she stamemrs. “I don’t… I’m not hiding anything!”

You frown, and approach her, placing your hands upon her shoulders. She lowers her head to the brim of her black hat hides her face, but you slide your hands down her arms to gently take her hands, and she looks up at your face.

“I won’t be mad at you,” you say. “Just talk to me. Please.”

Izirina seems to take a while to process this, to really internalize it. It must, you recognize, be rather different from her traditional learning environments, with her mother or with the dark servant of darker deities.

“I just… I’m so afraid of messing this up,” she admits. “I want to be USEFUL to you. If I’m not any good for… For what you need from me…”

“Izzy, you’re more than your usefulness,” you say. “You’re more than your intelligence, or your ability.”

“That’s not true of anybody,” she says, not critically, but as if stating simple fact.

“That’s not what the Bonum Chaoticum teach,” you say. “it’s not what I believe.”

You take her shaded glasses from her eyes, so you can truly meet her gaze.

“I didn’t fall in love with you because you were smarter or stronger than me,” you say. “In fact, Henzler, I sort of hated your guts, remember?”

Izirina smiles slightly.

“I love you because you’re that dorky girl who read weird foreign literature between classes, and took me to the mirror hall to talk about her dreams, and spent all those afternoons together with me and Muffins, and because you have that same curiosity and need to know that I have. Because… On some level, we’re the same.”

“The same…”

“We’re both seekers,” you say.

You embrace, and kiss, and if Izirina is ambivalent about sex, you can sense in that moment—in how she clutches at you, at her hungry lips and tongue, in her quaking and soft whimper, how much she needed THIS.

“I love you, too,” she whispers, quietly, like a secret, and nuzzles into your neck, breathing deep of you until she finds her peace once more.

>>6021676
After that evening, the two of you together do not work twice as fast, but THRICE as fast, and the Elemental Fey and their followers forbid you (nearly) nothing in your pursuit of a solution. And in time…

>8 successes: -8 weeks
>16-8+1=

..Specifically, a little more than two months’ time, a solution comes.

“The secret is the rod,” Izzy realizes, and you nod, having figured it out yourself.

“The chest is irrelevant. It’s just… A thing to store magical materials, or entities. A trap, and a reflective surface. But the ROD can be used to place magical materials into ANYTHING that can hold them…”

“Including a matrix of the sacred sand!”

You grin, excited to have finally found a solution. Through your shared mastery of Elementalism, and your greater understanding of the Feycraft-based method of ‘charging’ Earthly particles with fey magic, the two of you are able to construct a sort of star-shaped replica of the chest’s basic workings, made from the sacred baths with their imported earth and ground-up relics. Izirina integrates and augments the strange chest’s lattice of tiles, which prove to be vital to maintaining a magical framework, akin to a circle. You do NOT transfer the reflective layer of the strange stone, thus allowing energies to seep out from within…Though hopefully, with a suitable medium such as the unseelie Queen’s blood , charged with native elemental energies and preprly attuned, not so quickly.

You look over at Izirina, resplendent in your success and eager to reunite with Costella, and find her… Frowning?

“What?” you demand. “What is it?”

“Tips, it’s GOOD,” she says, “but it’s not PERFECT.”

“What IS perfect?” you sigh. “Come on, it should work, right?”

Izirina nods, then shakes her head, then shrugs.

“It’s not able to hold the power perfectly,” she says. “It will exit the receptacle too quickly, deplete in a matter of years… Maybe decades?... Without magical and organic refreshment.”

“…More blood and aura, you mean?”

Izirina nods.

“If it runs out and isn’t refreshed,” she notes, “any spiritual entities dependent upon it for their metaphysical stability and corporeality will degrade rapidly.”

You look back at your imperfect Unseelie Star and decide…
>That’s more than good enough for the brigands who blackmailed you
>You can do better—you WILL do better!
>Write-in

[Don't forget to vote in >>6021653, too]

>>6021653
I’d rather not ask the moon princess for a favor this trivial. I don’t know about returning Carazzi’s succubus soul to Izzy either.
>Mess about with her hormones using chimericism and living alchemy
This will have to do.

>>6021677
>You can do better—you WILL do better!
They still have one more favor they can ask of us. Let’s make sure it isn’t a second star.

>>6021684
am >>6020840

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>>6021648
>>6021649
that certainly was a conversation, specially with Ez sounding like a mad scientist on the later half of it.
>>6021653
>Forget it, her asexuality is something you can work around
you know, while it'd be good if she were horny for us both the sesbian lex was more of a dessert and if she's not sexually interested in Cossy there's no need for her to keep doing it just for our sake. Since we can't give her libido "back" without changing her and with some unknown consequences I say we don't fix what's not broken.

>>6021676
>“We’re both seekers,” you say.
my honest reaction:

>>6021677
>You can do better—you WILL do better!
not because of the queen, maybe a little since a good star might make her be less harsh on the second favor, but because we like to know more and it'll be something we can use for ourselves and others.

>>6021694
>Ez sounding like a mad scientist on the later half of it
[Yes... 'sounding like'...]

>>6021699
...is it because of our ego ?

>>6021719
[Tips has had a bit of a 'mad scientist' angle since thread 1. As his piloting anons, you've:
>built a spell list that allows you to <Clone> and reshape the bodies of people, sometimes giving them superpowers
>you've created chimeras, transhumanist 'paragons' and an entirely new, true-breeding race of 'nilbogs'
>unnaturally extended your father's and Hershy's life
>crafted a monstrous daughteru who is a hodgepodge of demonic leftovers and cloned flesh
>reacted to your girlfriend's flagging/absents ex drive by turning to magical experimentation as a first instinct
and you work for the Archmage, a famed (and sort of mad) genius mage. You're, essentially, the setting equivalent of a mad scientist, just a kindly one with a conscience.]

>>6021653
>Mess about with her hormones using chimericism and living alchemy

>That’s more than good enough for the brigands who blackmailed you
We can trade the "doing better" for the second favor guys. Let's be smart about it.

>>6021653
>Mess about with her hormones using chimericism and living alchemy
>>6021677
>You can do better—you WILL do better!
I don't want the Unseelie hunting for sacrifices to their star.
Maybe we can use a connection to an elemental plane to recharge it?

>>6021653
>Use the Rite to try to return some of Carazzi’s succubus ectoplasm into Izirna’s soul
Worked for the old Izzy, and may help Carazzi calm down some.

Also wouldn’t mind repairing old bridges with the Moon Princess either ngl.

>>6021677
>You can do better—you WILL do better!
>Negotiate a better deal to do better
lol, pray I don’t alter the deal further

>>6021740
now that you talk like this, I can see it. I think that it only downed on me because of Ez talking like a schizo this time around, but yup the suggestion was already mad scientist tier.

>>6021653
>>6021677
>>Use the Rite to try to blend Ashurati characteristics into Izirina mind and body

Izzy is already part elemental, and she was complaining about how she has a shorter lifespan than us potentially.

>>6022336
Vote on >>6021677 too

I for one though the talk with nemeno would discourage people to experiment on Izzy, not the opposite

File: tally ho.png (15 KB, 683x185)

15 KB PNG

>>6022393
[Voters often surprise.]

>>6022340
[Alas, it's too late! I'm tallying and writing. And assuming I've got my head on straight and counted correctly big if, apparently...

>>6022336
>>6021873
>>6021849
>>6021822
>>6021694
>>6021684
[It looks like we're going on hormones!]

File: izirina the younger rqm edit.png (6.81 MB, 3900x5700)

6.81 MB PNG

Rolled 20, 1, 14, 1, 16 = 52 (5d20)

>>6022414
You stare at the crystalline container which you will soon infuse with elemental energy, and make into a guiding star for the Unseelie Court. Even if it’s not PERFECT, even if you COULD do better, do they DESERVE better? Why SHOULD you give this your all, anyway?

That’s what you TRY to tell yourself, at least.

But Izirina’s right, damn it all. You can see the little imperfections with your mystical senses, now that you know where to look: breaks and fractured, redundancies and issues in the composition. If you took another crack at it… Just ONE more attempt… You could really fix it. And think about what that could mean for those who DO deserve it! You could have a source of self-replenishing magical energy to fuel future experiments, to aid injured fey and other such creatures… Even to feed Carazzi the aura to help control her unholy hunger!

…And if you didn’t finish what you started, find the true secret to this art, it would eat at you forever.

“Well,” you mutter, “I don’t want to give the Unseelie any excuses to start hunting people down for blood sacrifices or something.”

Izirina smile a small, sly smile and nods.

“Seekers,” she whispers, seeing right through you.

You sigh, and get back to work.

One positive thing about remaining in the Goblin Wastes, in this high oases of the Neme-Ashurati, is that it also gives you more time for your OTHER project: modifying Izirina Henzler’s own body. You took what Nemenmo said to heart, you really did: no Feycraft would be involved, no meddling with spirit-stuff or religious ritual. Just good, old-fashioned biological manipulation. As the Mage Apprentice of the world’s leading Chimericist, you are uniquely suited to make such modifications, and as for Izirina…

“Of course I’ll allow you to do it.”

“Really?” you ask, almost suspicious at how easily she agrees.

Izirina just nods, and affirms: “I know you, Ezreal. You’re caring, and cautious.”

“Well—”

“Maybe TOO cautious, sometimes.”

You frown.

“N-not that I’m in a position to criticize!” Izirina hastily adds, and clears her throat, looking away. “I’m just trying to say that… I trust you. And… if this will make things easier, I… I want you to do it.”

In the privacy of your tent, she shucks her layers of black cloth and leather exposing her beige-brown skin. The way she clutches her hands together, looking away, cheeks faintly pink as she says it… It’s easy to forget, given how she vacillates between dangerously over-enthusiastic and deadpan calm, but Izzy can be quite cute, when she’s genuinely embarrassed.

“Well?” she demands, growing even more self-conscious with your silence. “Let’s begin!”

And so you do, labouring over the second attempt at the Unseelie Star by day and over Izirina's body by night.

4d20 Life Magic + Chimericism, 1d20 to see how many more days you spend here working on the new/improved Star

>>6022425
Nat20 coming to save us

>>6022425
>>6022436
While Izirina’s libido might be reduced or absent, YOURS is not… And you’ve pretty much always found her attractive. As clinically professional as you try to be about the matter, working magic over Izirina’s body as she sprawls beneath you DOES things to you… DISTRACTING thing. Your hands wander more often than not, appreciating certain aspects of her anatomy and losing yourself in the moment.

“Is there something about my breasts that is tied to the experiment at hand, Magus?”

You blink, and stammer to respond to Izirina’s sternly-spoken query.

“Well, the… The breasts of a woman are… There are hormones which, ah, are tied closely to the development of secondary sexual characteristics and it was… That is, my theory. Is…”

Izirina lets her head loll sideways, to face you directly, and with half-lidded eyes and a return fo that subtle smile, she whispers:

“I didn’t say stop, Tips.”

“…Oh.”

Izirina seems to revel in your appreciation of her body, sighing happily and shifting to allow you better access. It slows progress, but you somehow can’t bring yourself to care. This becomes especially true when her own hands find their way to the central site of your decidedly-not-limited libido.

…
...
…

Eventually, once you’ve ‘calmed down, you are able to properly analyze the raw information of the, ahem, ‘interaction’. Izirina is CAPABLE of arousal. Her hormone levels and other telltale physiological responses all prove this—it’s why pleasurable sex is even POSSIBLE. There is simply a disconnect between her body and her brain. Some of that is psychological, you suspect, brought on by her upbringing and internalized feelings of inadequacy. Some of it is spiritual, for the spirit affects the mind and body. You can’t do much about either, at first, but then you remember…

“The shirin!”

>>6022450
Shirin is an organic compound, a mind-affecting substance made of primarily plant-matter. The pink form of the powder affects the production of certain chemicals in body and brain, triggering the aphrodisiac response. Normally this is an external effect that wears off after the body processes and expels the substance, but if you could INTEGRATE it into the body… Find a way to chimericize the plant-matter into an animal host so that the hormonal systems produce that chemical reaction NATURALLY when exposed to physical stimuli such as specific scents… Such as your own elfin body odour, produced in lieu of sweat, which Izirina already so appreciates…

With your own remaining pouch, and no small effort, you apply your years of experience in the field to perform your first-ever plant-to-animal chimericization. The results…

>20: Critical success
>1, 1: Double crit-fail, cancelled out by success, but too funny not to integrate somehow
>RESULT: Tips discovers a fetish for medical roleplay; Izirina’s scent-fetish is exacerbated and her libido is amped up in the presence of Tips’ scent
>-1 Pink Shirin, 0 left

…Well, you essentially reverse-engineered a scent-triggered animal estrus in a human female.

“Hhhh… More!” Izirina gasps, hips rising and falling as she clutches at you, running her fingers through your hair as she takes deep wafts of your faintly-floral musk through mouth and noise, and quite literally salivating over you. “Haaaaa~”

Let’s just say there’s a very good reason the progress on the Star slows for a time thereafter, and it takes a little over two weeks to finally complete your MAIN objective… But you do, eventually, and have QUITE the pleasant romantic vacation together in the process. Better late than never, right?

It took grinding up one of the Neme-Ashurati’s oasis-creating holy artefacts to make a purer form of their‘ fairy dust’. Even then, and even having mastered the basic principles (and even ignoring the delays brought about by working under the hot sun, sweating, and ‘triggering’ Izirina’s arousal), sixteen more days passed before, finally, you and Izirina stood with the Neme elders over a bone-white, faintly-translucent vessel for the blood and aura which would activate it.

>>6022451
“This really is SIGNIFICANT, you know that, Tips?” Izzy intimates. “Imagine… Anywhere, underground or in colder climes, or even a barren wasteland… These ‘artificial stars’ could feed not just fairy ‘lifeforms’, but EARTHLY ones. With a few small tweaks… This could mean agricultural gains ANYWHERE, irrespective of climate, through the right enchantments! Completely self-sufficient biospheres, separated from everywhere else!”

“It would take a VERY powerful and specific enchantment to do more than radiate the full range of magical, thermal, and luminal signature to sustain proper agriculture…” you fret.

“A hidden kingdom, with its own sun,” Izirina sighs, and leans against you. “Someday. Together… We could make it happen.”

“We already have our own little realm,” you point out gently. “Old Maple Hill.”

Izzy sighs, and nods. She stands back up under her own power, and looks away from the Star, to you.

“Time to go?”

You nod.

“You know, in the end… I’m quite glad we came here,” Izirina says. “What about you?”

>You are, too, in spite of the earlier unpleasantness
>You never want to come back to this godsforsaken wasteland again, if you can help it
>Write-in

Is there anything else you wish to attend to while you’re here?
>Yes [write-in]
>No, you’re ready to return to Old Maple Hill

You also have one final decision to make: given that you still need the Elemental Fey to lend their power to the Star to activate it, but can’t without the medium of Queen Banelight’s blood, will you…
>Bring the star with you to Old Maple Hill
>Leave the star here, in the charge of the Ashurati, until you can organize matters with the Unseelie Court
>Write-in

>>6022451
Kek. Given Tips new fetish we could try could try doing a prostate exam on Cossy someday, in honor of Merrygate and her QM
>>6022452
>You are, too, in spite of the earlier unpleasantness

>No, you’re ready to return to Old Maple Hill

>Leave the star here, in the charge of the Ashurati, until you can organize matters with the Unseelie Court

>>6022452
>You are, too, in spite of the earlier unpleasantness
Things turned out well and we freed a lot of slaves, net positive

>No, you’re ready to return to Old Maple Hill

>Bring the star with you to Old Maple Hill
We might find another power source.

>>6022452
>You are, too, in spite of the earlier unpleasantness
>No, you’re ready to return to Old Maple Hill
>Bring the star with you to Old Maple Hill
Drow crystals next then

>>6022471
[The drow crystals were meant to serve the same purpose as the fairy-sand crystal lantern you just constructed: to contain the blood, which will be enchanted with the elemental energy, without releasing it all too quickly or containing too much for it to properly provide sustenance to those in its glow. You have, essentially, skipped that step.]

>>6022483
That’s pretty neat.

So right now all we need is

Elemental fey energy in the box
Queen blood
Rite of attunement
Sever old ties

?

>>6022452
>You are, too, in spite of the earlier unpleasantness
>No, you’re ready to return to Old Maple Hill
>Bring the star with you to Old Maple Hill

Can we further tinker with Izzy to attune her libido to Costella's smell in addition to our own?

>>6022452
>You are, too, in spite of the earlier unpleasantness
>No, you’re ready to return to Old Maple Hill
>Leave the star here, in the charge of the Ashurati, until you can organize matters with the Unseelie Court

>>6022452
>You never want to come back to this godsforsaken wasteland again, if you can help it

>No, you’re ready to return to Old Maple Hill

>Bring the star with you to Old Maple Hill

>>6022494
[That's about the size of it.]

>>6023166
>>6022682
>>6022607
>>6022471
>>6022458
>>6022457
[Writing!]

>>6023242
“…Yeah,” you say. “Me too.”

And it’s true: in spite of the goblin slavers, the trolls, the death and pain, you’ve come to see why the Ashurati stay here—why they make their oases in this place. Looking out into the vastness, you no longer see only desolation and woe. Rather, you see potential. Just like the flowers blooming in the wake of Izirina’s outburst, just as the star which you crafted an will carry home… Just like fractured relationships which mend with love, and care, and a bit of applied arcana… There is something to be said for these ‘wastes’.

“But I’m still ready to go home.”

You say your goodbyes, thanking the honoured elders of the Ashurati, clasping hands with Khankhe, and giving Nemnmo a long hug.

“We will be leaving this place, too,” she tells you. “It is the season for it. Other oases require our tending.”

“They need maintenance?” you ask.

Nemenmo nods, and adds meaningfully: “All beautiful things do. A garden does not keep itself.”

It is an old elven aphorism, and you’re surprised to hear it here. Then again, perhaps you shouldn’t be. You look back at Izirina, and at the star which you have strapped to Muffin’s broad back, and think of Old Maple Hill, and of Costella.

“<Dimension Door>.”

You leave, to take care of your own garden, and its beautiful things.

Old Maple Hill is much as you remember it, after all these months. It feels like a long time to you, and yet you suppose it really isn’t. The most significant change is the seasons: despite what Nemenmo said, you could hardly detect any change in weather or temperature, in the Goblin Wastes—less so, in the Neme oasis. It was always hot by day, cool by night. Here, though, winter’s blanket is upon the hill, the cloud-refracted sunlight of early morning reflecting back with bluish tint. The trees have largely shed their leaves, and their spirits—even the spriggan called Spirit of the Old Maple, who holds court among the local True Fey—will be slumbering. You feel a pang of guilt, recalling your promise to yourself to be here, carting for you responsibilities in this place… But your trip was no frivolity, after all, even if it went a little long, and the plumes of smoke rising from those tents and hovels here established attest to at least some of your fellowship still tending to their duties. In fact, you think there are slightly more than there were before—evidently, at least some of the freed slaves remained.

“We should check on the moonberry bush,” Izirina says. “This cold…”

“We should check in with Costella,” you reply.

“…Of course,” she says, and scoots a little closer to you, taking your arm in hers.

>>6023272
You frown a little. Your ‘fix’ for Izirina’s libido has, of course, not rendered her a ‘woman’s woman’ in whole or in part. She offers no complaint, but you suspect that months of having you ‘to herself’ (and several weeks of rather intense and exuberant escapades in privacy) have somewhat ‘spoiled’ her for sharing you. You’ll need to decide how to handle that, at some point.

(One problem at a time, Tips.)

You meet with Costella first and foremost. She is wearing a heavy woolen jacket, with a fur-lined hood, and is helping several members of the Old Maple Hill community to construct a wall—tall, and strong-looking. The minotaur whom you rescued is among them, seemingly doing much of the heavy lifting and the actual planting of the largest posts, which he accomplishes with a single powerful pound of a hammer for each, while two others hold it straight.

“What’s this about?” you ask.

Immediately, Costella twirls about, eyes wide.

“Ez! Iz!”

She launches herself at you, hugging you close and planting kisses all over your face. Her reunion with Izirina is nearly as intense, tough the presence of others seems to stymie her from going for more than a kiss on the cheek and a somewhat-longer hug.

“I’m, like, SO glad you’re back!” she says. “You wouldn’t BELIEVE what’s being going on!”

“So I gather,” you murmur, eyeing the wall again. “Why don’t you fill us in?”

And so she does.

>>6023273
Costella tells you of the last three months, in admittedly disorganized fashion, jumping about in time and focusing at times upon aspects you’d consider (put mildly) rather less important. However, your eyes widen at several revelations, and narrow at others. Several key takeaways emerge, which vie for your attention. Most urgently…

>The goodberry bushes have been struggling with the shifting seasons
They produced a few small, off-colour fruits, which were plucked and kept safe when it became apparent they would otherwise rot on the vine and go to waste; these could be replanted, but likely with reduced potency, while the original plants you grew from your lunar harvest are showing signs of ill-health.

>Your sales operations in Hawksong have been facing harassment from other vendors

This effort is seemingly led by the De Gori family. They’ve been arguing that your practices are unfair, that you haven’t followed proper vendor’s channels, and that your products constitute ‘magical goods’, which they argue are meant to be confined to the Initiates’ Village, and carefully regulated elsewhere.

>The people living at Old Maple Hill have detected unnerving activity this last month at night…
Skulking figures, strange whispers in a muffled (but foreign) tongue, and it has only been increasing in frequency and proximity as time passes, as well as boldness. Despite this, every effort to catch the culprits has been met by failure: whoever it is, or whatever it is, they avoid snares and stake-outs with ease.

>There’s been no word back from Zith-Zi and Carazzi since they departed for The Bloodrise Mountains
It’s probably fine. It’s not unusual to not hear from people for months at a time, when they go on such a trip, as you well know. However… Well, you know very little about Bloodrise, and what you DO know is a little spooky and unnerving. It wouldn’t hurt to check on them…

[Choose ONE to focus on, or…]

>The Unseelie Star is your main priority
You must arrange a meeting with Queen Banelight and her ilk, to make good on your oath. Everything else can wait—MUST wait.

>>6023274
>The goodberry bushes have been struggling with the shifting seasons
Can’t have our long term plan dying soon. If they weren’t rotting I’d go with catching the mysterious figures instead.

>>6023274
>The goodberry bushes have been struggling with the shifting seasons
Most important.

The whispers and shadows are most likely the unseelie trying to spy on us.

DeGori family is annoying - we ought to get them to back off soon. The plan of getting Carlos to the wastes to remove him also gets complicated without ZithZi.

Queen didn’t set the time limit, and we’re pretty much 2/4

>>6023274
>The people living at Old Maple Hill have detected unnerving activity this last month at night…
Spoopy

>>6023274
>The goodberry bushes have been struggling with the shifting seasons.

Besides the livestock the good berry bushes are the main stay of this communes economy.

>>6023274

>The goodberry bushes have been struggling with the shifting seasons

>>6023274
Oh god, more sidequests
>The goodberry bushes have been struggling with the shifting seasons

>>6023585
>>6023512
>>6023373
>>6023346
>>6023294
>>6023290
The goodberry bushes which you brought from the moon—or ‘moonberries’, as the people here have taken to calling them—are your first priority. Even with those few berries already rescued by the people here, you must preserve the original stock. They arrived from healthy stock, fresh from Holy Luna, and they more than anything else are the backbone of the community here—the most valuable asset, aside from perhaps yours and Izirina’s combined mystical knowledge.

Approaching the small garden where the bushes are kept, your heart sinks at the sight. Snow has been cleared for a swath around them, and a small fence erected to keep away the goats, sheep, and other animals domestic and wild which live nearby. Despite these measures, the once vibrant plants are now a purplish-brown, their leaves wilting and curling inward as if trying to shield themselves from the biting cold. Small patches of snow are already beginning to gather around their bases, a stark contrast to the delicate, otherworldly hue of their leaves.

"It's worse than I thought," you murmur, kneeling down to get a closer look. Izirina follows suit, studying one of the frail branches thoughtfully.

"We need to protect them freezing," she says. “And they’ll need something to reinvigorate them, too.”

You nod in agreement, already considering your options. The settlers have done their best, but they're mostly city-folk, while those whom you rescued from the Wastes are from entirely different climates, regions, and lifestyles. You, a child of the Sylvan Realms, scarcely know your way around human agriculture—in your lands, as on the moon, the richness of the soil and the ambient magical energies are usually sufficient without much direct intervention, at least for wild plants. However, what grows wild on Holy Luna needs careful tending here on Earth…

“Well, we have to do SOEMTHING,” you mutter, trying to remember long-ago chapters of books on the herbalism underlying potioncraft—never your main specialty.

“You know,” Izirina notes, “I could go get the books from the library. Or even ask Mother to provide us the aid of a specialist in alchemical herbalism?”

“Or what about Pearce?” Costella chimes in. “His family has a whole farm, right? He could, like, TOTALLY help us!”

“Let’s start with the obvious,” you say, and turn to the other inhabitants of the Hill, who are gathered around as if to bear witness. “Don’t just stand there! Here, I have an idea…”

>>6023793
You start by creating a barrier against the winter season itself. You ask the people to cut wooden planks from the less essential parts of their stockpile, reinforcing the makeshift fence around the bushes. The planks are hammered into the frosty ground, forming a semi-circular barrier. You line this with a secondary layer of thatchwork, acting as a further windbreak to provide the bushes with some measure of protection from the harsh winter gales.

“There’s another thing we could try,” Izirina notes, as the <summoned elementals and assembled commune-members.

You look up, and follow Izirina’s silent gaze towards the crude earthen hall which she constructed here, to serve as her main headquarters here on the Hill: a magical laboratory, a lecture hall, and the temporary home of the presently inert Unseelie Star.

“If we were to give it a medium, and power, and charge it with elemental energy… We could create an Ashurati-style oasis, right here. If you were to attune the bushes to it, so that they were to draw their energy directly from it… And it had the heat to keep the frost at bay…”

“But then we’d need to construct another for the Unseelie,” you point out. “We’d need to go find the Ashurati, again. And persuade them to part with another precious relic. And it might take another month, or two, or…”

You trail off. OR, you suppose, you could invite the Unseelie Court here, to make their home upon the Hill. Or consult with the Drow of Wevenore. Or… Simply go back on your promise to that awful Queen Banelight, though breaking such an oath even to a distant and degraded member of the fair folk rubs you wrong.

What will you do?
>Seek aid from the Hawksong Mages’ Tower, and from Izirina’s adoptive mother and your master… Archmage Henzler
>Call upon the aid of your good friend Logan Pearce, and his family’s expertise in mundane human agriculture
>Begin activation and enchantment of the Unseelie Star, to serve the needs of the Hill first ahead of (or instead of) to repay your debt and keep your oath
>Write-in

>>6023794
>Call upon the aid of your good friend Logan Pearce, and his family’s expertise in mundane human agriculture
Takes too long. They did say they were going to leave that mountain during this season.

>>6023794
>>Call upon the aid of your good friend Logan Pearce, and his family’s expertise in mundane human agriculture
If the man, the myth, the legend thinks it's desperate, we go to magical mean.

>>6023794
>Call upon the aid of your good friend Logan Pearce, and his family’s expertise in mundane human agriculture
Hey buddy
Hows uh uh Oncyth? Completely forgotten werewolf dudes name.

>>6023794
>Call upon the aid of your good friend Logan Pearce, and his family’s expertise in mundane human agriculture
Inb4 he tells to build a mundane, nonmagical greenhouse

>>6023794
The church of Atheme is a major religion in hawksong. And she is an agricultural goddess, maybe one of her priests would know a spell to preserve or restore crops.

>Write in: Head to a temple of Atheme and see if a priest there can aid you.

>>6023950
[Entirely a valid vote, by the way. You could absolutely reach out, on your own or through Queen Ekaterine, to the Church of Antheme. It would, however, mean the attentions of the Gods of Law and their earthly representatives.]

>>6023830
>+1

Your good, loyal friend Logan Pearce seems like a good place to start. He has been your friend for over half your life and (as you learned firsthand at a couple farmhouse parties in your youth) his family owns quite the expansive farm. He might be a fellow mage like you, having become a Tower Guardian rather than going into the family trade, but his own gift for Life Magic and Living Alchemy likely originate don that same estate. It couldn’t hurt to pick his brain a little, surely?

(Besides, you miss him, and you’re curious how things are going with your mutual friend, Oncyth the elven werewolf, whose ‘moon madness’ you worked together to alleviate before you left for the Goblin Wastes… And who, if your intuition is correct, is likely Pearce’s lover)

Pearce is delighted to see you, naturally. You can tell by the way his blonde moustache twitches and his eyes widen slightly.

“Well,” he says, “look what the cat dragged in. Finally coming back to work for your Tower stipend?”

“I’d heard a rumour that the Tower’s stewards were slipping in their standards, and came to check,” you retort. “Consider the rumours confirmed.”

“Up yours, Tips!”

“Isn’t that what your other dark-haired elven ‘friend’ is for?”

There is a long pause, and then you grin at each other, even if the last remark has Pearce blushing almost-imperceptibly.

“Good to have you back, buddy.”

“Good to BE back,” you concur. “Can anyone relieve you from your shift?”

“Sure,” he agrees readily, as Pearce generally always has to your whimsical (sometimes dangerous) interruptions into his otherwise-dutiful life. “If anyone asks, the Archmage’s future son-in-law asked me for assistance on a project.”

You wince a little, and place a finger to your lips.

“Maybe don’t say that so loud?”

“Oh, so you can tease me about Oncyth, but turnabout’s not fair play?” he balks. “That’s hardly fair.”

“It’s not that…” you say. “Look, we have a lot to catch up on? Come with me to the Hill?”

Pearce arches his brow, but nods. A short walk and an activation of a <Teleport Object>-enchanted envelope later, the two of you are transported to Old maple Hill, here you quickly catch up.

“Wow,” Pearce says, removing his blue hat (adorned with the shield-shaped buckle of his station) and running his fingers through his hair. “That IS complicated. So you and Fanucci are—”

“Formally engaged, yes. And… Yes, to all the rest of it as well.”

“So what are you going to DO about it?” he whispers “You know, you and Izzy and Izzy being, you know…”

“Not like Costella, or like you?” you finish.

Pearce shrugs self-consciously.

>>6024419
“I suspect I could quite easily key the alchemical auto-aphrodisiac response to Costella’s scent as well, so I was thinking—”

“Tips!”

“What?” you ask, confused.

“Seriously?” he whispers, as if someone might intrude. “You can’t just… Change how a person feels. Who they, you know… Love.”

“It’s not about FORCING anyone to LOVE anyone,” you counter. “It’s about expanding one’s array of possible experiences, to enable the continuity of… Of, you know…”

“Your two-girlfriend situation?” Pearce frankly observes. “What, so you’d be okay if someone used magic to make you attracted to men?”

It’s your turn to flush, and far more visibly than Pearce did if the heat in your ears is any indication.

“S-so,” you recover, forcing what you hope is a smug smile, “things are going THAT badly with Oncyth Nortumalan, are they?”

Pearce clears his throat, looking away.

“They’re going quite well, actually.”

“Oh?”

“We… Went out for steak and ale, at this dwarven place I know.”

You nod.

“And… He’s coming to visit the farm.”

Your eyebrows practically fly up and off of your forehead.

“As a FRIEND,” Pearce emphasizes. “My family… They, you know. Don’t… Know.”

You grimace a little to see your friend’s expression sour at that last point.

“Anyway,” Pearce continues, a little gruffly, “speaking of farming, what’s this problem with your berry bushes? Let’s see it.”

"Alright," you agree, guiding Pearce towards the struggling moonberry bushes.

As the two of you walk down through the snow-strewn hillside, you brief him on the particulars -- the freezing temperatures, the delicate state of the mystical plants, and your own desperate need for an effective, immediate solution. Pearce listens attentively, his brow furrowing in concentration. When you finally reach the garden, he kneels to inspect the bushes more closely.

"Well," he says thoughtfully, brushing the snow from a few more exposed leaves, "it’s a good thing you’re good with animals and magical beings, Tips, because you’re no gardener.”

"It’s that bad?" you ask anxiously.

Pearce stands up, briskly shaking the snow from his hands. "Pretty bad, yeah. But it's not unsalvageable, with a bit of effort.”

He looks around at the gathered community members and raises his voice slightly. "First things first, we need to heat these little fellows up, protect them from the cold above and the frost below."

“We already used some planks and thatchwork…”

“Not good enough,” Pearce says, arms crossed and shaking his head. “We need a trench around the garden area, about a foot deep and wide. We'll fill it with gravel for drainage, then line it with more insulation. That should help keep roots warmer and prevent frost from creeping in.

>>6024421
Izirina, who has been listening intently since the two of you began inspecting the berry-bushes, nods and begins to cast <Summon Elemental> producing ire elementals to help warm the bushes—

“Slowly!” Pearce caustions. “Don’t shock them!”

--while earth elementals aid the community-members in their Costella-directed labour. You can't help but feel a sense of relief seeing your friends and the community working in unison.

"Next," Pearce continues, "we'll construct a proper greenhouse structure around these bushes. We'll use those wooden planks to build a frame and cover it with glass. That will allow sunlight in while keeping the cold out."

The settlers work reasonably efficiently, once they get into the swing of things. While some busy themselves digging and lining the trench under Pearce's watchful eye, others take to constructing the frame under the direction of your ‘cousin’ (really your human cousin’s husband), Adolf.

“I DID work in the Smithing Quarter,” he reminds you, a touch condescendingly. “I know my way around construction, alright?”

(Same old Addy…)

"What's next?" you ask Pearce, eager to keep the momentum going.

Pearce gestures to the frame.

"We'll need some consistent heat. Luckily for you, you're a better Elementalist than Herbal Alchemist. Enchant some of those stones you used in the trench with fire runes or sit a basic, tier-one fire elemental on them. It doesn't matter if there are small fluctuations in temperature, just as long as it stays above freezing, and moisture is also maintained. I don’t know anything about moon plants, but… Whatw as the humidity like?”

“Uhh…” you reply dumbly, struggling to recall. “Ideal for an elf?”

Pearce sighs, and nods.

“Alright, well keep it at a level comfortable for you, then, I guess? Won’t do any good without the glass, though…”

“Ooo!” says Costella, bouncing up to her feet. “I can TOTALLY help with that! Papa knows, like, a window-maker or glassblower or something like that, he told me once! I can ask him to help!”

It’s not a bad idea, but you frown, remembering the problems which several merchants have apparently been making for you, while you were away. You got the impression that this has been under the instigation of that trouble-making would-be paramour of Costella’s, Carlos De Gori, who once accosted you in a seedy inn, interrupting an otherwise pleasant evening with YOUR fiancé.

>>6024210
>>6023950
>>6023884
>>6023882
>>6023852
>>6023830

What will you do?
>Go get the glass with Costella
>Go yourself, and suggest Costella stay here
>Source the glass otherwise [how?]

>>6024424
>Go get the glass with Costella

>>6024424
>>6024468
[Oh, and of course, sending Costella on her own is an option as well]

>>6024424
>Go get the glass with Costella

>>6024421
>“What, so you’d be okay if someone used magic to make you attracted to men?”
Hey, Izzy's agreed to everything we've done, she wants to change. We're not going to do this to her without fully informing her and getting her opinion.

>>6024424
>Go get the glass with Costella

>>6024424
>Go get the glass with Costella
Ask if he wants to come, too.

>>6024421
>“You can’t just… Change how a person feels. Who they, you know… Love.”
>“What, so you’d be okay if someone used magic to make you attracted to men?”

Not at all comparable. Izzy already liked us in the first place - only through recent complications did she become unable to express and enjoy it sexually. We resolved that issue.

>>6024611
[Point of clarification here: Pearce means specifically making Izzy attracted to Costella, something she admitted she was only faking for Tips' benefit (or as a means to stop him leaving her for Costella). Part of Izirina's confession after she ran away post-coitus at the end of thread 8.0 was that she's never actually be attracted to (or in love with) Costella.]

>>6024728
Really? Even when they kissed before the threesome was established?

>>6024728
With her heightened smell for Tips, does Costellas cross contamination with Tips really do nothin for her?

>>6024728
Hm. All along? Even during the talk at the waffle cafe?

>>6024773
I thought that was just another act of hers

>>6024783
I presumed it was linked to the scents native to Tips. Costella’s faded away soon enough but something like his sweat or smell is produced regularly

>>6024773
[Tips hasn't probed her about it, but it's probably a safe assumption that this was part of a scheme, as Izirina had realized Costella was bisexual in love with HER]

>>6024783
[Again, not something Tips has asked, and it's probably not 'nothing' since she has been able to engage in sexual interactions with Costella before, but Tips could safely assume it's at best a mild attraction-by-association, or a tolerance for sex with someone she otherwise isn't attracted to. After all, even if a straight guy found a dude who was wearing his girl's perfume, it doesn't mean he'd want to have sex with him.]

>>6024468
>>6024486
>>6024542
>>6024611
You grimace at the thought of Costella traveling to town and petitioning the merchants unassisted. What if that brute, Carlos De Gori, gets more mad ideas in his head about somehow taking her back?

“I’ll come with you,” you say quickly.

“Uh, oh?” Costella says, a little surprised.

She looks around at the busy, bustling activity around the berry-patch, frowning slightly.

“I-I’m sure it’ll be fine, you know?” she says.

You step forward and take her arm in yours. She blinks, and then looks down and smiles gratefully at you.

“My hero,” she says, and leaning down to kiss your cheek.

Pearce looks away quickly as if to afford you two some privacy, and clears his throat.

“I’ll finish up here,” he says. “You two should hurry.”

And hurry you do. Even powerfully-enchanted Izirina’s energy reserves are plainly flagging by the time she produces the <Dimension Door> for you, ad places another envelope in your hands, sealed with purple wax, and stamped with the seal of The Mages’ Tower.

“Give me a few hours before you use it,” she cautions, voice terse in her weariness. “I’m going to need to recover some of my qi before I can cast again.”

That is the downside of the upcasted <Teleport Object> spell, you’ve noticed: in using Izirina Henzler as its hub, it requires no small amount of aura to enchant an object, and another equal expenditure of magical energy to pull you back to her location. With two people, this is further exacerbated, just as it is with <Dimension Door>.

“Thank you,” you say.

You and Costella each embrace and kiss Izirina in turn. Watching Izzy’s response to Costella’s kiss with renewed scrutiny, you from a little. It IS different than the enthusiasm she shows for your own embrace, your kiss… But can she really be entirely, ah, ‘uninterested’? You’ve caught them doing MORE than kissing, after all. Can it really all be an act? You reflect on Pearce’s words, on Izzy’s confession, and on how to handle this in such a way to preserve your relationship and spare Costella’s feelings… But you have precious little time to dwell on it, and more immediate priorities.

“Like, let’s go!”

“R-right,” you say.

You follow Costella, hand-in-hand, through the mystical gateway which Izirina has created. Izzy watches you go, through those shadowy spectacles of hers.

>>6024819
You emerge from the <Dimension Door> momentarily disoriented, as you usually are after teleportation. It helps that your destination is a place familiar to you: the Fanucci family home. Stepping through the portal, you’re greeted by a wave of rich, woody scents—cedar and oak mixing with the faint tang of varnish and polish. It’s an aroma that attests to Mister Edmondo Fanucci’s profession as a woodcarver.

The workshop attached to the house is an organized chaos, rows of half-finished furniture poised like patient soldiers awaiting the master’s final touch. A set of intricately carved chairs stands beside a half-assembled cabinet whose doors bear elaborate inlaid designs of leaves and flowers.

Costella guides you through the shop, her fingers brushing against the fine detailing as she walks. It's clear she misses the place, as you look at her. She grew up here, lived here, came home to this place each night for most of her life, so you suppose it makes sense… Yet you’re not sure you’ve ever had a place like hat, the more you think about it. You’ve had dormitory housing while a student of the Living Library and then the Tower and the Sacrae Scholae Lunae, lived in the Archmage’s secret underground facility for a time, stayed with your father’s family, and now with your sand-elf cousins… Prior to that, you were a child of Dappulyet, but that is less a town than a region, with many scattered, seasonal villages, used by the elves of your mother’s clan, whoa re are—as with most elves—semi-nomadic in their lifeways, if not quite to the extent of the Ashurati.

Maybe Old Maple Hill is that, for you? Maybe it could be?
>Old Maple Hill feels like home
>Old Maple Hill is just another place to be, but you do not belong to it
>Actually, you felt most at home… [where?]

[c]

>>6024822
“Mama! Papa!” Costella calls out, in her sing-song voice. “I’m heee~eeere!”

It is Missus Ines Fanucci who emerges, and greets the two of you brightly, grabbing Costella’s upper arms and kissing each of her cheeks in turn, and giving you a polite nod. The smile, at least, is not forced. You’re glad of that. You always had a good relationship with the Fanuccis, but your last visit here was… Tense. Costella’s father had been, to put it quite mildly, PROTECTIEV of his ‘princess’, and seemingly skeptical that you could better serve as a husband to her than her FIRST prospect, that blackguard De Gori.

“Oh Costa, you look so thin! And so much MUSCLE in these arms! I hope you’re not forgetting to eat, working yourself to the bone? And Ezreal—I’ve never seen you so TAN! Don’t you have people to do that outdoor work for you, up on your farm?”

“It’s not exactly a farm,” you say, though the more you think about it and exactly why you’re here, the more you suppose Old Maple Hill COULD qualify as such, even if you’re more inclined to think of it as a sacred space

“We actually went on a, um…” Costella’s eyes flit to you, as she stops short of saying ‘a long and dangerous journey to the most barren and inhospitable region of the known world’.

“Like, a vacation!” Costella says instead. “It was TOTALLY magical!”

“Oooh?” Missus Fanucci says, looking at you with renewed appreciation. “The farm and your work for the Mages’ Tower must be going well then, huh?”

“Yeah, we’ve been rather successful with our projects,” you hedge your bets, giving Costella a grateful look for the fib-of-omission, eliciting a quick wink. “Actually, we came to ask Mister Fanucci about one of his merchant contacts, to help with one of those projects… A glassworker, or glazier?”

“You know, Mister Einchinger!”

“Well I don’t know about Mister Eichinger, but Edmondo is at that meeting of that new association… ‘The Concerned Association of Tradesmen, Skilled Craftsmen, and Machinists?’”

You and Costella exchange a quick, worried look.

“Is that the one that, um, like, Carlos’ family started?”

Her mother nods, placing hands on hips, and says: “They’ve been hounding your papa for weeks now, and with them holding their first official meeting, he went over there to see what they’re all abut… And if you ask me, to give them a piece of his mind.”

(Well, at least your future father-in-law isn’t a fan, by the sounds of it…)

>>6024823
“But come, sit down, stay” Missus Fanucci says, smiling and gesturing towards her kitchen, behind the workshop. “I was just cooking. You should eat!”

What will you do?
>Stay here, eat, and chat with Missus Fanucci—get her thoughts on the association and what’s been happening around Hawksong, and wait for her husband to return
>Go to this association’s assembly, to confront their opposition directly
>Ask for directions to Einchinger’s business, to procure the glass for the windows while the unfriendly elements are all occupied
>Write-in

>>6024792
>this was part of a scheme
But for what purpose?
>>6024825
>Ask for directions to Einchinger’s business, to procure the glass for the windows while the unfriendly elements are all occupied

>>6024828
>But for what purpose?
She can't steal your man if she's in a throuple with both of you!

>>6024822
>Old Maple Hill feels like home
>Go to this association’s assembly, to confront their opposition directly

>>6024822
>Old Maple Hill is just another place to be, but you do not belong to it
>>6024825
>Stay here, eat, and chat with Missus Fanucci—get her thoughts on the association and what’s been happening around Hawksong, and wait for her husband to return
>>6024828
>But for what purpose?
It's kinda obvious, isn't it ?

>>6024822
>Actually, you felt most at home… [where?]
THE MOON

>>6024825
>Stay here, eat, and chat with Missus Fanucci—get her thoughts on the association and what’s been happening around Hawksong, and wait for her husband to return

>>6024822
>Old Maple Hill is just another place to be, but you do not belong to it

>Go to this association’s assembly, to confront their opposition directly

File: hm.png (10 KB, 589x161)

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[Hm, we seem to have a tie. Also, >>6024828, you missed the other vote!]

[I'll wait an hour, then roll for it, as I'd like to write one more post today if I could.]

>>6024822
>Old Maple Hill feels like home

>>6024825
This is… interesting. On one hand I do want to know more about the association and his family before jumping into this mess but on the other hand since that old man doesn’t like them any too well, and backing him could be good for us. But I don’t really like that gamble.
>Ask for directions to Einchinger’s business, to procure the glass for the windows while the unfriendly elements are all occupied

>>6025078
bro that just turns things into a three way tie.

>>6025082
I know.

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>>6025084

>>6025088
I didn’t like their answers.

>>6025078
nigga really wanted war, but from another perspective I commend you for taking the decision of sticking to your guts and choosing what you really like

>>6025090
[Well, fair's fair. Can't expect you to vote for a thing you don't like.]

>>6024828
>>6024857
>>6024924
>>6024930
>>6024978
>>6025078
[I'm feeling a bit burnt out today, anons. Bad mental health day (or week?), between the tourneys, the QTG, and now this, I'm not feeling like a post I write right now will be very good, so I'm leaving it open. I'll post tomorrow, either way, because I'm no quitter or flake, but... Just not feeling great. Will do updates in the tourneys, anyway, so see you there, later, if you're playing them.]

>>6025095
Take your time. You already updated twice in a day.

>>6025095
take care OP, you already did 2 updates anyway.

>>6025084
>>6025090
>>6025091
You people are weird, i could understand an undecided tie if it was a vote of critical or life threatening importance.

but we are literally on a plain glass collecting mission.

>Ask for directions to Einchinger’s business, to procure the glass for the windows while the unfriendly elements are all occupied

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>>6025095

>>6025357
Last time carlos was involved we could’ve died so yeah I’d say it is pretty serious

>>6025378
Still can’t believe Carlos wrangled together a mob of a dozen guys to kill some dude they’d never met

>>6025406
I know. That’s why I wanted to kill him without revealing who we were.

>>6024822
Am a bit torn- I like both that the Hill is the home that we made and we’re a bit of a wanderer. Can’t really decide which I like better…. but I can at least help a fellow Moonbro out
>but Moonhome also feels legit yo

I do feel complicated (but positive) feeling are best ye

>>6024825
I am curious about current events (and her cooking), but to vote now would only tie it.


>>6025095
Hey, it’s ok to take a metal wellness hiatus to just chill and recharge alright? Sometimes we just all get exhausted, it’s okay to take a vacation and put down a plate or two from spinning for a while.

>>6025648
Vote for what you think is best. Better that than lingering feelings on “what could have been” later on.

>>6025521
Yeah, killing him would have kept him from slandering us until we were a wanted criminal in Hawksong too.

>>6025677
I doubt the Carlous family has enough pull to do that. Contessa comes from a merchant/shop keep background, the De Gori can't be anything more than minor nobility at best. Otherwise carlous would be betrothed to another noble.

>>6026014
Crazy how Carlos raised the alarm that night we were smuggling Nat out of the Sylvan Realms. He almost got Logan killed!

>>6026047
Wait, what?

>>6026078
It’s a joke

File: going for it.png (12 KB, 746x163)

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Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>6025357
>>6025648
>>6024828
>>6024857
>>6024924
>>6024930
>>6024978
>>6025078
[Locking!]

>>6026104
You take a deep whiff of the air around you. Under the not-unpleasant odours of the workshop, coming rom deeper within the Fanucci abode, you detect the impeccably-spiced sweet-and-savoury cooking of Missus Fanucci’s signature sauce, and the mouth-watering aroma of boiling butter…

You and you sigh, and exhale through your nose until it no longer overpowers you, because you know you can’t stay.

“Do you happen to know where this Einchinger’s store is?” you ask Costella’s mother. “I’m afraid it’s a matter of some urgency…”

(And, if the De Goris are busy with this meeting, then this is an optimum time to get what you need and get out.)

“Oh, don’t be silly!” Missus Fanucci lightly chastises you. “We hardly see you! You can make some time for—”

“I’m sorry, mama,” Costella interjects. “Ez is right—this is a, like BIG deal for the Hill. We have these berries, see, that… Oh!”

She cups her hands to her mouth, realizing that she has perhaps aid too much, and turns her apologetic gaze from her mother to you.

“It’s fine,” you reassure her, and then look to Ines Fanucci, and shrug helplessly, as if to say: ‘half-elf wizard stuff.’

“Well… Alright, but I want to see you both, and soon!”

Her command has now eight behind it, but there is a kind of longing.

“We’ll be sure to visit, Mama!” Costella says as you quickly commit your future mother-in-law’s directions to memory, and take your leave.

“It WOULD be, like, really nice to have another dinner with Mama and Papa… And even my sisters! It’s been, like, FOREVER since I’ve seen Rosella and Gabriele…”

You can hear the wistful longing in Costella’s voice, and you quickly assure her that you’ll find the time, sometime, and soon. This seems to mollify her, but you still sense a sort of sadness there. You find yourself almost envious of that sadness, because the more you reflect on it, the more you realize you really have nothing like that yourself. What you’re building at Old Maple Hill is a special thing—a momentous one, maybe—but it’s not HOME. It’s closer than most places—more than Dappulyet, more than Iternagreyn, more than the Initiates’ Village or the Houtzmann residence, and ESPECIALLY more than that creepy basement laboratory. But… Well, it’s Izzy’s place, and Costella’s, more than it’s yours. It doesn’t belong to you, and you don’t belong to it, not really.

You put these thoughts out of your mind as you arrive at the glazier’s shop.

>>6026145
Einchinger’s shop stands at the corner between the common markets and the famed Smithing District. Its presence mis arked by the sight of glittering, colored glass and a sign intricately carved with swirls and decorative flourishes—a testament to the craftsmanship of the proprietor. As you push open the heavy wooden door, you’re greeted by a symphony of sounds: the soft tinkle of chimes, the faint hiss of a furnace, and the low murmur of conversation. Inside, the air is warm and humid, carrying a faint scent of hot metal, melting glass, and a subtle hint of soot; it almost reminds you of an alchemist’s workshop, or perhaps Izzy’s after some extraplanar experimentation. The front of the shop serves as a display area, showcasing glassware of many colours and shapes—delicate vases, cups and baubles for the wealthy, ornate stained glass panels depicting scenes from folklore and history for the temples.

Behind this showroom, rows of glass rods in various hues are displayed along shelves, alongside tools of the trade—blowpipes, shaping paddles, and pincers. The air shimmers slightly from the heat emanating from a large kiln in the rear of the shop, where human apprentices busily work, their faces flushed as they manipulate molten glass.

At a sturdy wooden counter between the two, a dwarven woman stands, her stout frame balanced confidently on a step-stool. She’s dressed in hardy workwear, her sleeves rolled up to expose muscular arms adorned with protective bracers. Her auburn hair is tied back into a braid, and despite the intense heat and demanding nature of the work, her face is composed, and her eyes, a sharp, piercing blue, lock on your immediately.

“Welcome to Einchinger’s Glazier,” the dwarven woman states, her voice clear and authoritative even over the commotion. She appraises you and Costella with a seasoned eye, one brow raised in curiosity. “What can we do for you today, oh Magus and Missus Magus?”

“Oh, we’re not, you know..”

“Not yet anyway.”

You and Costella exchange a quick look, and she giggles a little, and reaches out to give your hand a gentle squeeze. Being pegged as married can’t help but put her in a romantic mood, evidently; you feel your face warm, and squeeze it back.

The dwarfmaid clears her throat.

“We’re looking to commission some specialty glasswork,” you begin, stepping up to the counter. “For a, uh, greenhouse, of sorts. I have the dimensions, here…”

You rummage in your pocket for the roughshod schematic and precise measures which Pearce provided you. The dwarf takes to crumpled note from you, pursing her lips and squinting at the particulars. Eventually, she produces a pair of spectacles, and seems to have an easier time of it.

>>6026149
“Aye, we can do this,” she says. “Nothing too fancy, but it’s a custom job, so don’t expect it cheap… At least, not if you want it fast.”

“We need it rather urgently, yes,” you say.

“Uh, Ez?” Costella whispers.

You grimace, for you realize this compromises your bargaining position somewhat. .. But it can’t be helped.

“And freight as well?” the dwarf presses, a little overeager. “Where to?”

“Actually,” you quickly reply, ‘we can manage freight.”

“Oh?”

You tap the butt of your staff upon the floor, softly, and the dwarf snorts.

“Right,” she grumbles. “Magic.”

“Well, I mean…” your eyes flit up meaningfully to your pointed hat.

“It’s somebody’s job, is all,” the dwarf points out, but then shrugs. “Well, no shortage of work for our outfit. We’ll find something to keep the lads busy… Isn’t that right boys?”

The ‘boys’ shout back something non-committal and half-enthusiastic as they continue to toil in the back. The dwarfmaid looks back at you and, together with Costella, you go over the expenses.

“…Oh,” you both say at once.

“What?” the dwarf asks, eyebrows raised. “You thought we worked for free?”

“Oh, no, TOTALLY, we get it!” Costella appeases the shopkeeper, while you stare down at the figure scrawled before you. It is… Well, all the gold on your person, and then some. About a third of it is for the rush-job (though it will still take the better part of a week-and-a-half to complete. You saved some coin on the installation—though you’d need to figure out how to utilize some lead pipes or ‘cames’ to properly seal them in place—and quite a lot on freight, yet even so…

“Well?” the dwarf asks, tapping her charcoal-stick impatiently so that the tip cracks and a few greyish grains come tumbling down, for her other hand to brush away.

>You’ll skip the rush-job, though it means risking the berries this month, even with you and Izirina personally attending to them day and night, for winter will only get colder
>You’ll go for it… But you’ll need to raise some money selling more goods and even services, which could inflame anti-magic sentiment among the merchants
>You’ll have that dinner with the Fanuccis after all… Because you’re going to have to ask your in-laws for a loan
>You’ll pay a visit to Archmage Theresa Henzler—your master, and technically your employer—to request your research stipend… Though that means sharing some of your research
>Write-in

>>6026151
>You’ll pay a visit to Archmage Theresa Henzler—your master, and technically your employer—to request your research stipend… Though that means sharing some of your research
Information about the box and its ability as elemental energy storage - not the sand tho

the unseelie never did say we cant share our knowledge on making a star


also, how much does the archmage already knows about the goodberries? if she doesn’t, then that too
>>6025078

>>6026151
>You’ll go for it… But you’ll need to raise some money selling more goods and even services, which could inflame anti-magic sentiment among the merchants

Let's just hope Carlos doesn't throw together another group of 20 people hellbent on murdering us

>>6026162
[You've shared virtually nothing with Henzler, honestly, apart from the spells (<Elemental Infusion> and <Clone>) which you developed in her lab and with her resources.. And I'm pretty sure you only gave her the full spiel on how to cast one of those, and no Feycraft or moon knowledge at all.]

>>6026178
Interesting. Share just the moonberries then.

>>6026181
>share secrets of true cloning and elemental infusion
>share plantable goodberries from a divine source
>henzler can now theoretically make elemental super clones and feed them
>???

>>6026151
>You’ll pay a visit to Archmage Theresa Henzler—your master, and technically your employer—to request your research stipend… Though that means sharing some of your research
>>6026162
>>6026181
we're not sharing the berries, anons. pick some spell but not the fucking berries.

>>6026221
I don’t like Greater Disjunction being in the hands of Archmage

>>6026151
>>You’ll pay a visit to Archmage Theresa Henzler—your master, and technically your employer—to request your research stipend… Though that means sharing some of your research

I'm fine sharing rod and chest.

Can't believe people are willing to give secrets to the archmage here.

I guess Carlos and his 30 fanatics are just that scary.

>>6026326
He’s only a problem because of his connections. Once we get the goodberries fixed it’s him next.

>>6026326
Well I wanted to confront the guy.
We didn't, chosing a low risk low reward road.
Thus we have to find a way to gather cash.

>>6026350
I dunno man I’m starting to get nervous about this. Maybe the other anons have a point, we should steer clear. Best to be wary of an enemy who can at a moments notice turn 40 otherwise normal people into bloodthirsty killers who will hunt his enemies with no regard for their own lives.

>>6026151
>You’ll pay a visit to Archmage Theresa Henzler—your master, and technically your employer—to request your research stipend… Though that means sharing some of your research
I think we can share the elemental storage research. Maybe some talented upstart continues from where we stopped and figures out how to do it without grinding up holy artefacts.

>>6026398
>>6026370
>>6026350
>>6026326
>>6026307
>>6026194
>>6026181
Ultimately i feel that we need our independent source of income. A decent amount of the old hills profit by necessity flows back into it and the community that lives there. Perce works as tower defence, testa is seamstresses Efron is an adventurer and his parents are rich nobles anyway.

And it's not in our interest to be henzlers personal research tool like izzy is.

The two main avenues we have available with our magical skills, is becoming a doctor and healing the sick and crippled for money. Or we can do what the archmage did when she created hershy and use our flesh crafting knowledge to sell exotic pets to nobles.

>>6026824
>>6026398
>>6026315
>>6026221
>>6026194
>>6026181
>>6026163
>>6026162
[Locked and writing!]

>>6027026
It’s a moment you’ve been dreading, and honestly avoiding since even before you took your trip to the Goblin Wastes. Even when you retrieved Carazzi or recruited Pearce to help at the Hill, you were careful to evade an encounter with your mystical master, the uppermost magus of the Hawksong Mages’ Tower, and Izirina’s mother… Archmage Theresa Henzler.

But what else are you supposed to do?

A few ideas float through your head, of course. You could use your chimerical acumen to engineer organisms as pets for the wealthy and blue-blooded of Hawksong. Given your undeniably-incredible aptitude for Living Alchemy, you could start a practice as some sort of healer-for-hire. The gifts of the True Fey, in particular, could make you an INCREIDBLY wealthy man (or half-man, as the case may be). One need merely gaze upon your father’s renewed vigor or Costella’s paragon form to see the potential for empowering and invigorating the old, the sickly…

For coin.

That’s the bit that sits sour in your stomach when you turn your thoughts to that notion. Trading the health and wellness of others for monetary gain in that way… It feels somehow indecent, doesn’t it? Will you then deny them to the poor and needy? And to profit off of Feycraft would be GENUINELY sacrilegious in a way that offends your very spirit, even as you, yourself, formulate the idea—as if the elven half of your soul had recoiled in disgust from this human avarice.

What ISN’T dirty or despicable, though, is the pursuit of knowledge… The sharing of it. And even if you don’t trust your master as a person, even if you actively resent the damage she did to Carazzi’s early impressions of this world and the LASTING negative impact of her adoptive parenthood of Izzy… That IS something you and the Archmage have in common.

You are both, as Izzy put it, ‘seekers’... And so, in her way, is the Archmage.

>>6027082
“So, my alleged Mage Apprentice shows his face once more,” Archmage Henzler greets you, when you enter her office.

She doesn’t even so much as acknowledge Costella, who hovers nervously a step behind you, and to the side, and gently shuts the doors after you have both entered.

“I’d thought for someone of your age, a few months would pass quickly enough,” you retort.

“Cute,” the Archmage says, old voice dry like crinkling, crumbling parchment from ages past, blue eyes sharp and clear behind her youthful mask. “Coming from a half-elf, especially. And one who preserved his human father. Do you begrudge me my age, boy? To try and equal you and yours in that respect, through advancing the arcane?”

“…No,” you conclude, for you simply can’t.

And anyway, there’s so much more to begrudge.

“You’re here because you want something,” she says, stepping out from behind her desk with that eerie, smooth gait of hers. “It is always your way.”

You gulp, but hold your ground. The Archmage raises a single, platinum blonde brow.

“You’ve grown,” she says, and you think you detect… Approval? “You’re surer of yourself. I can sense it.”

You don’t answer, but don’t look away. All your youthful anxieties and awe around this terrible, wonderful figure flood in, along with the anger. But you are NOT a child, not anymore. You hang onto that.

“…It suits you,” the Archmage concludes. “Out with it, then: what do you want?”

“My research stipend.”

“For what research should I reward you?” she asks, bluntly. “the knowledge that living matter CAN be duplicated wholecloth, with a single spell, to create an organic construct That it can be infused with elemental energies from beyond this plane, and shaped by that essence? I know that much already. I am confident that, given time, I could copy your <Clone> spell… And between yourself and my so-called ‘daughter’, I of course know how to affect <Elemental Infusion>.”

You groan at that. You knew Izzy had mastered that signature spell of yours, but you weren’t aware that she had shared that art with her adoptive mother. Then again, perhaps you shouldn’t be surprised: Izirina ahs always desired the Archmage’s approval intently. You barely-even register the casual slight against Izirina, because youe xpecte it.

But Costella…

Costella isn’t as used to this.

“Hey!” she cries. “You shouldn’t, like, talk about your daughter that way, you know?”

You and Archmage Henzler both turn to Costella, shocked at the interruption. You quickly look back to the Archmage, to register her reaction, alarmed at what might come next. You needn’t be concerned, though, as it turns out.

“<Silence>,” she says, with a wave of one arm, hand hidden by an overlarge sleeve. “This is a matter for mages… Master, to Apprentice.”

File: tips character development.png (2.02 MB, 3797x1272)

2.02 MB PNG

>>6027085
Costella attempts to speak up, but her eyes widen and her face pales in alarm as no words emerge. She clutches in fear at her face and throat, trying to cry out… But still, nothing.

“it’s okay,” you comfort her, reaching out to squeeze her arm, and stroke her hair. “It’s just a quieting spell. It’s temporary…”

You squint, focusing your second sight.

“…And she cast it at a low level.”

Still, it’s undeniably rude. You wheel around to glare at your master. She doesn’t flinch, or apologize, or even register your displeasure.

“I see you still carry my gift to you, Apprentice.”

You look to your staff, a splintered and lightning-charred tree, branches bound together by bands or gold-plated orichalcum-iron alloy.

“I will gladly give you more such gifts,” she says, without honey or vinegar in her voice. “Coin? Certainly, I can supply coin. But the degree of your reimbursement is commensurate to that which you provide for this Tower… This Academy… To the human race, and Hawksong. To me.”

You slowly nod, acknowledging your understanding.

“To be able to ENSOUL a <Clone>… THAT is, loathe as I am to admit it, beyond me,” the Archmage continues. “but not YOU. No… No, I saw what you did with that demonic fragment… And I’ve heard that she was not alone. That she was the fruit of a ritual which produces two more such bodies. A goblin… Capable of magic.”

Your eyes widen. You wonder how much Izirina really told her, and how much is guesswork.

“I know you traveled to the ‘Goblin Wastes’, too,” she continues. “What did you discover there? You brought back more of their ilk… But to what end? What can you LEARN from them?”

You hold your tongue. You try to decide what to share—and what to keep hidden, secret.

“…OR was it even about the goblins” she speculates upon your silence. “Was it… Trolls, you went to research? Or something ELSE?”

You hold her gaze, and do not tremble, but your mind is moving a mile a minute.

“What did you find for me, in your wanderings, my Apprentice?

>>6027089
What will you offer her?
>You will teach her the entirety of a spell, specifically…
>>Wildshape
(requires Rite of Attunement)
>>Free Senses
(requires Faerie Fire)
>>Sanctuary
(no secondary spell required)
>>Sand-Swimming & Daylight
(no secondary spell required, but they’re niche enough that you’ll need to teach her both for her to find value)
>You’ll trade her the chest and rod, salvaged from the hobgoblins; they which can bind and imprison fairies, demons, and others
>You will tell her of the goodberry bushes, and offer to share your first, imperfect crop with her
>You will share the secrets of ensouling a clone
>Challenge her to a mage's duel for coin and for honour!
>Fuck this—you’re not giving her anything! You’ll find another way!
>Write-in

[One option is also DISALLOWED:]
Because of your negative relations with the Archmage and lack of feeling of home in the local area, you cannot TRUTHFULLY offer to serve on her staff as Head Chimericist... Though you can attempt to bluff, take the money, and renege.

>>6027090
>You will tell her of the goodberry bushes, and offer to share your first, imperfect crop with her
Can't give any one side an advantage if we give them to everyone

>>6027090
>You will tell her of the goodberry bushes, and offer to share your first, imperfect crop with her
Damn, we don’t have a normal one? I thought we had like 3 way back in thread 5, and used two.
>Free Senses
>Sanctuary
>Daylight

I don’t want sandswimming. Too close.

>>6026350

>>6027107
[You planted two, and ate one as a quick meal/MP restore, if I remember correctly. You haven't had them on your character sheet (>>6018741, minus the ink shirin) for a while, though.]

>>6027107
In case the goodberries option wins out, and the archmage - inevitably - asks why we didn’t share it earlier, tell her that our (at the time, recent) encounter with long wang and his companions made us reconsider sharing it with anyone.

>>6027108
Ok

>>6027090
>You will tell her of the goodberry bushes, and offer to share your first, imperfect crop with her

Poetic we tell her of the goodberry to protect the goodberry

>>6027090
>You’ll trade her the chest and rod, salvaged from the hobgoblins; they which can bind and imprison fairies, demons, and others
But only mention imprisoning demons, and ask for an extra large stipend.

>>6027198
>+1
Man, why are anons going for the berries ?

>>6027170
>>6027198
>>6027233
As this now have a chance of winning, switching to support.
My preferred option would have been sanctuary, but I can get behind those as well

>>6027089
kinda funny how tips went: trap-like twink -> chad -> twink -> bishounen -> regular fella

>>6027265
Some artists seem to have got the memo about him being effeminate and some didn't. I think only the second one really lacks any girlishness. Third and fifth look pretty much the same apart from clothes.

>>6027233
Least bad option from what I can see

>>6027366
second he looks an edgy mc, which could be true in some parts for the looks alone and the last one isn't really effeminate and more like boyish

>>6027377
>>6027366
>>6027265
[I tend to let artists have a lot of leeway on the particulars of how they interpret the description I give them, as long as they're not totally off-base. The artists (Roinujw, warlocklord, Indonesian Gentleman, Abismo, IG again) all went for different approaches, but I personally envision Tips closest to the first or third. The full lips live in my head rent-free, though, and may as well be canon, kek.]

[warlocklord was the only one I think was pretty off-base. I had to request a bunch of edits (he originally portrayed him like a Drow, with red eyes and grey skin, all in black, and I had to do a lot of editing myself). The rest were all great to work with. I still think h ended up a bit too manly/badass, but that WAS when Tips was wearing ragged, ghostly robes, feeling out-of-sorts and 'broken up' with Izzy, and phasing through things accidentally.]

>>6027460
>I personally envision Tips closest to the first or third. The full lips live in my head rent-free, though, and may as well be canon, kek.
1st design with plush lips from the 4th one would be peak trap, just like the eastern fables.

>>6027090
>Because of your negative relations with the Archmage and lack of feeling of home in the local area, you cannot TRUTHFULLY offer to serve on her staff as Head Chimericist
Ah, that’s a shame- I was hoping that was still an option in truth.

>Challenge her to a mage's duel for coin and for honour!
Make the conditions treating Izzy with love- even if Henzler is incapable of such a emotion.

>>6027460
I really like the Warlocklord one in term of raw style. Agree it lack a bit, but god damn dat flow

File: Writing.png (2 KB, 473x57)

2 KB PNG

>>6027519
>>6027233
>>6027198
>>6027107
>>6027104
>>6027240
[Writing!]

>>6027836
only now I noticed that the anon who suggested it was a 1 post for ID. Must've forgotten to link back.

Rolled 9, 20, 3, 7 = 39 (4d20)

>>6027836
>>6027850
Sharing Feycraft with the Archmage… It’s unthinkable. Be in the <Goodberries> of Holy Luna or the secrets you were taught by Clanirae or Nemenmo? You can’t bring yourself to do it. Not for this cause. Maybe not for ANY cause. Are you not a Discipline? Are you not of the Fair Folk? In some ways, those secrets would be safe with your master than with any other human, in the sense that you know she would respect their power and not be profligate with them… But what WOULD someone like Theresa Henzler use such magic to accomplish?

You don’t even want to think about it, or all the trouble it would generate for your future self.

“I know you have a HISTORY with the demonic,” you say instead, prompting a barely-perceptible eye-twitch of irritation. “Out in the Goblin Wastes, I—we—discovered something… Something surprisingly powerful. Something that can expose, bind, contain, and control demonic spirits.”

(Spirits of MANY sorts, you own <Improved Aethereal Form> included, but there’s no need to frame it THAT way)

“I’m listening,” she replies.

Listen she does, as you relay the myriad wonders of the mysterious chest and rod which you retrieved from the hobgoblins slavers, and the magic words needed to manipulate and utilize them.

“Curious…” the Archmage admits, unable to hide her interest even behind her frozen expression. “A wand with no need for magical aptitude or energy to wield it?”

“Well, uh,” you say, having not necessarily considered it that way.

“It casts <Hold Creature> and <Dispel Magic>,” the Archmage says bluntly. “Did you not realize this?”

“Well… I didn’t think that could be the case,” you admit. “Two spells at once? At a high level? With a single magical command-word, and no energy requirement? That would be…”

You trail off, eyes widening.

“High Magic,” the Archmage confirms, and a small, subtle smile spreads across her mouth and even enters those icy eyes, for just a moment. “Are you having second thoughts, Apprentice?”

“No,” you answer, through gritted teeth. “I’m just thinking about hwo valuable these items really ARE.”

The Archmage waves her oversized sleeve dismissively, and tells you: “Haggling is beneath either of us, Mious. Or Van Houtzmann. Whatever you choose to call yourself. You can name your figure.”

(Name your figure??)

“Within reason,” she quickly adds, with a touch of irritation. “Be an adult about this, even if you don’t look like one. You and I both know that even an impressive discovery like this isn’t worth bankrupting the tower for. I would generously suggest a three-year stipend suitable to a senior Field Researcher, with an advance of the first year’s pay.”

Courage roll, for upcoming post...

>>6027864
Holy Kino

>>6027864
Seems like the plapping sessions have enlarged our balls for good

>>6027864
>>6027869
>>6027878
Your eyes widen, though you quickly contain yourself. Costella, still silent, taps your shoulder, her expression (and moving mouth, when you read her lips) asking: ‘How much?’. You simply nod, a quick gesture, and flash your digits quickly. Her own eyes widen, and she gasps (even if you cannot hear it). It is enough gold and silver to pay for the greenhouse five times over… In just the advance.

“As for the chest… It’s seemingly just an especially-effective demon-containment apparatus. Though the way you describe it as holding multiple entities, and in a state of unconsciousness…”

The Archmage turns away, muttering to herself, and then quickly looks back, over her shoulder.

“You say the hobgoblins had these things? Where did they obtain them?”

You are fixed by the intensity of the gaze. The Archmage… She knows something, or suspects it. Something she doesn’t want to share. Something VALUABLE.

The younger you wouldn’t have been able to hold this information in reserve, to protect it to extract additional concessions. You would have caved, crumbled, under the intensity of your master’s piercing glare…

But you are no longer that Ezreal Mious. You are the Ezreal Mious Van Houtzmann who traveled to the moon and back, twice braved the Goblin Wastes, bargains with the Dragon King and defied the Council of Elders in Iternagreyn, and truck with the Unseelie who were once your bedtime boogeymen.

>20


You are not afraid.

“Tell me why you want to know,” you demand.

The Archmage stares at you, as silent as Costella for a moment. Costella, for her part, has your back—she steps closer, takes your hand and gives it a quick, subtle squeeze of support where your master cannot see it. You take courage, too, in this. You stare down Theresa Henzler….

And she blinks first.

>>6027887
“There is a… Not a ‘legend’. That implies ambiguity, ahistoricity, probable falseness,” she begins. “There is, rather, a SECRET, which was passed down to me by my master… And to him by his. A secret whispered first, as I understand it, by the FIRST Archmagus of the Tower.”

Archmage Henzler turns around again, swirling about to face you directly, her voice low.

“He, like certain others of the early nobility of Hawksong, was not from these lands… Not a ‘Northman’, as we call them today. Rather, he was from those lands to the near east… Those which we now call ‘Orcwilds’ and ‘Goblin Wastes’, but which in those days—as today, but in greater numbers—were home to barbarian tribes of Men. Among them, in the days before formal magical education, he was a wanderer… An ‘adventurer’, though that undignified denonym hardly suits such a true sage and scholar. It was his magic—as much as the money and mercenaries of the Ben-Yosef clan or the divine power and presence of the first Paladin King—which enabled our races to win the war against the Reptilian race and their Dragon Kings.”

She pauses here and, for maybe the first time, you hear awe and wonder in your master’s voice. For the first time, she nearly sounds as young as she looks.

“He built our institutions… Our very Tower. Magic was departing the world in those days… Spells unraveling, ancient works crumbling. It is my supposition, and frankly my CERTAINTY, that magic ebbs in flows in its intensity. I do not know how, or why…”

(You do, but hold your tongue, and listen.)

“…But it does so. Despite this, the Archmagus could work wonders that no other living mage, of his era or ours, could achieve. And as he grew old, and Hawksong settled into what it would become… into politics, and moneyed interests, and bureaucracy, and other such simple and mundane things dominated by squabbling and PETTY men… As Axios the Paladin King and the first Lord Yosef grew old, and died, and were replaced by men without their respect and understanding… He decided that gifting every item he had found or made, every iota of his power, it would… Unbalance things.”

Here, the Archmage’s voice grows bitter.

“He thought the does of old were dead, gone. He thought peace would reign eternal, if only he did not… DISRUPT it. He didn’t realize the magnitude, the eternity, of that which we struggle against. He didn’t realize that even flawed and fallible Men are better than those monsters who would supplant us, and return us to Darkness, or oblivion.”

“I didn’t take you for the religious sort,” you say. “The way you’re talking—”