/monster/ - The Last Bastion of Romance

>Story continue

The rest of the occupants turn to you, waiting for what you have to say next. Despite the anger making your blood pump hot, you calm yourself down and say in only a small growl, “When was the last time the vault was opened?”

“Yesterday.” One of the councilors says quickly. “I checked it yesterday to complete a trade deal and everything was in place.” One of the house attendants next to her nods her head to confirm the story.

“So this must have happened last evening or this morning. Given the patrols at night recently, it would have been difficult to smuggle anything out of the grounds without being noticed.” You grit your teeth as you say, “I was looking for tunnels leading out of the palace, not those within it.”

“No one expected this.” Tabitha says. “But what you’re saying is it was stolen this morning, then what happened?”

“Likely it was transported out on a wagon.”

“So it’s still in the city?” One of the councilors says. “Alright, form up a search party and-“

“We don’t know that for certain.” You say, cutting her off. “It’s possible, but I suspect it may have been smuggled out of the city.”

“There was someone who left this morning.” Another councilor says. “They probably already reached the outpost by now, however.”

The assembled Lizardmen begin to get agitated, their hands moving to their weapons. If you’re not careful, they’re like to form a posse and try to hunt them down yourself. Unfortunately this will not end well when a group of angered Lizardmen attack a neutral outpost housing a Danuki of all people.

Veronica is the first to recognize this and with a whispered prayer she speaks, her voice amplified as her eyes glow a slight shade of yellow.

“QUIET!”

The bickering stops as all eyes turn to her. Still giving off a faint glow, she says, “Before we jump to conclusions, we should confirm if the Wurms who did this are still in the city. We should also try to get a better idea of who these potential smugglers are. To that end…” She nods to Bardam. “Can you and Tabitha speak with the guards at the gate?”

“Sure, but what are you going to do?” He asks.

“Rommel, Maya, I are going to find the Wurms. If someone can provide a description of them, we’ll get going.”

One of the other house staff starts giving a description of Veronica while you send to Erwin, {Go with Tabitha. Keep in contact if we need you.}

{You got it.} He sends, walking over to Tabitha, who seems to understand as they leave with Bardam.

Once you have the description, you head out of the palace while the remaining councilors try to organize what’s left in the treasury and plan for the worst. You hope to the Gods it doesn’t come to that though. This dream of theirs only just started, it would be a shame for it to collapse so soon.

You reach the city in short order, the sun still shining in the late afternoon. Using the descriptions you have, you begin to ask other inhabitants, though most can’t seem to recall seeing anyone like that. It isn’t until Veronica speaks with a young Wurm child that you get any kind of answer.

“That sounds like big sisters! They aren’t my real sisters but they say I’m their little sister so I play along so they won’t be upset.” She nods her head like she’s doing a good deed for playing along, though clearly she enjoys it. “They were excited about getting a prize they said. They went big sis Yuel’s house but that was this morning.”

She points you in the general direction of where the Wurms went and you thank her by sculpting her a doll out of stone. Her eyes sparkle and she hugs the poor thing with a little too much force, cracking it, but she doesn’t seem to notice as she hums and slithers away.

>>390134

Maya yawns as she leaves before looking up to the faint sunlight filtering down. “Hmm, that took a lot of time. We’re going to miss bedtime if we don’t get answers soon.”

You nod your head, having finished conversing with Erwin about this. Seems that only one wagon passed out of the town again, a male merchant with a rather large collection of weapons and metals crafted in the city. The guards didn’t find anything strange, though they truthfully were paying much more attention to things coming into the city rather than those leaving. Honestly, you’re not sure if you could blame them for that.

“I understand. The others will stay put for now while we go and ask the Wurms nicely to answer where the treasury is.”

“What is they don’t answer nicely?” Veronica asks, giving you a questioning look.

“Well then we’ll…” You trail off as she lifts an eyebrow. “You aren’t going to let me torture them, are you?”

“You’re learning, good. Next thing you know I’ll have you at church twice a week.”

Maya shudders. “That’s prime nap time…”

“Fine.” You sigh. “We can restrain them if need be, though honestly someone more intimidat…ing…” Your words trail again as you notice a familiar figure walking down the other side of the street.

Valeria tears at a piece of grilled lizard caught near the reach. She looks up and blinks when she sees you, lizard leg in her mouth. Her expression grows concerned, however, when you start walking toward her.

——————————————————————————————————————————————

The Dragon lets out a grunt of annoyance as she walks behind you. Your strange group draws a fair amount of attention as you walk down the street, but most people get out of the way of Valeria, allowing you each passage.

“I shouldn’t have said yes.”

“I’m glad you did though.” You say. “I’d appreciate it a lot, and it would go a ways to help forget about the-“

“Fine!” She says, cutting you off with an angry growl. “Are we almost there?”

“I believe so.” Veronica says, checking the description. She nods to Maya who yawns before making her way forward, checking the place out. She circles around the house a few times, her mouse-like ears twitching. Returning, she nods her head and says,

“There’s more than one person inside. Seems like they’re having a good time.”

“Hmph. I’d heard some of the Wurms were like that.” Valeria says, standing tall. “Too much time without many men. Would have ‘a good time’ with themselves.” She shakes her head as she stomps toward the door. “Shameful!”

“H-Hey!” You say, trying to stop her, but it’s too late. The Dragon steps before the door in one motion kicks it in, driving the whole thing off its hinges. Dust flies up everywhere as she does so and she lets out a draconic roar before entering the house. Cursing, you dash in after her, readying you magic. When you cross the threshold however, you find something you weren’t expecting.

In the center of the room upon a comfortable rug you find the two Wurms you were looking for- both are dressed in very loose clothing which, by the way it’s slipping off their bodies, does little to hide their shame. They don’t seem to care much as they look up at you with dopey expressions, bottles of liquor held in their claws.

They give Valeria dopey (well, dopier than usual for a Wurm) looks as they lay there before one of them sits up and says, “Hey! You’re not the delivery girl!”

“What the fuck is this.” Valeria says, waving a claw at you. “They’re drunk off their ass.”

“Hey!” The other Wurm says. “I’m not certain I have an ass. There’s an essay written by a very smart man that says I should have an ass, but I’m pretty sure it’s more of a cloaca.” She giggles. “I don’t know!”

Your party enters, bewildered at the sight of the Wurms in their drunk state. Veronica just shakes her head as Maya looks about before shrugging and falling asleep in the corner.

>>390135

“Uh… are you Yuel and Kayla?”

“No.” One of them says. “I’m just Yuel, I don’t know who ‘yuelankayla’ is.”

The other Wurm giggles and drinks more from her bottle, a liquor you’re unfamiliar with. Sighing, you continue, “Do you two work in the palace?”

“Yeeeeeeep.” Yuel says. “I’m a good stablehand. Only thing I’m better at is digging.” She chuckles.

“Mhm.” The other, you’re certain is named Kayla, says. “I work in the big house cleaning beds! And other things!”

“You can’t be serious.” You mutter to yourself. Honestly, you were half hoping to find Emphrasea tier Wurms ready to spring a trap on you, but instead you’re dealing with these idiots. Well, when dealing with idiots the best way is to be straight forward.

“Did you two steal from the treasury this morning?”

“Nope.” Yuel says, drinking from her bottle before giggling. Kayla begins to giggle too and you stare at them with hate before it dawns on you. Then you just feel tired.

“Did you steal from the treasury last night?”

“Y-yeah!” Yuel snickers. “It was before 6:24am, which is true morning! S-so we got you!”

Both of them laugh at this. Even Veronica is getting annoyed.

“What did you do with the contents? Where did you transport them?”

Yuel suddenly becomes quiet. She sits up straight at stares at you with an serious expression, her lips drawing thin. “Excuse me. You break down my door and begin asking me questions to a very serious matter as if I were a criminal. I do not take kindly to this behavior and would ask that you leave my residence this every moment. I will take this matter up with the council if I must and it appears I shall have to do so to redress grievances.”

Even Maya picks up her head at this sudden change in speech. Kayla gets up as well, crossing her arms under her breasts as she pumps herself up, staring at you with cold eyes. A tension fills the room, forcing Veronica to slip her hand to her mace while Valeria flexes her knuckles, readying for battle. Licking your lips, you say slowly,

“If… you tell me then I’ll get you more alcohol.”

Yuel’s eyes narrow.

“And I’ll see about getting the two of you husbands?”

And like that, the tension is broke as the two Wurm’s eyes widen, their mouths opening wide. Yuel throws her arms up in the air, “Yaaaaay! We can have babies!”

“And people won’t call us lizard beans anymore!” Kayla says. “It doesn’t make any sense!”

“Uh. Right.” You say. “We don’t have much time so uh-“

“Yeah, yeah.” Yuel says, waving a hand. “We were asked some guy to do this in exchange for a lot of this tasty stuff.” She waves to the bottle. “Didn’t seem too hard and he was a really nice guy, said we’d get a lot more good things when his boss came into town.”

Kayla sighs, “But a husband would be the nicest…”

Veronica rubs at the bridge of her nose while you try not to groan. “This merchant, can you describe him?” They do and it fits the description of the one who left this morning out the gate.

“Alright.” You say. “Did you give him all of it?”

“Yeeeeeeeep.” Yuel says. “We aren’t thieves, we don’t keep stolen items.”

“That’s-“ Valeria begins before shaking her head and turning to you. “Are we done here?”

“Yeah.” You say, fishing for some coins in your pocket. “Go buy more liquor.”

They cheer as you leave the house. A few passersby stare at the broken door, but you don’t have time for any of that bullshit. Walking down the street toward the gate, you relay the information to Erwin until a tug at your shoulder nearly throws you to the ground.

Catching your balance, you look up to Valeria who growls at you. “Alright, what was that about? They fucking stole the treasury of the damn city? Why didn’t you say so sooner?!”

“Because you’d do exactly what you did before, but probably with more fire!” You say, annoyed. “Look, thanks for coming along, but we need to get going to the outpost. If we’re quick we can probably catch them before they’ve transported it out to Port Dorning and-“

You gasp as Valeria puts an arm around your waist, pulling her to your side. You try to make protest as she does the same to Veronica before growling at Maya. “Get on.”

>>390136

The Mouse Girl doesn’t question it and crawls in between the Dragon’s wings. Despite her feminine physique, her strong muscles seem to have no issue lifting all three of you. Her large, draconic wings spread out to the side and they begin to flap, generating impressive levels of lift. Despite the changes wrought to the strength of Monsters twenty years ago, it seems like Dragons didn’t get the memo. Even still, as she leaps into the air, all three of you as passengers, you swear you can feel a pulse of magic flowing through her body.

Or, maybe it’s just her heartbeat you hear as the force of her flying drives your face into her breast. Boy are you glad your wife isn’t here.

It’s a very, very short period of time before Valeria dumps you onto the ground before the gate, her wings allowing her to land with little issue. She lets Veronica down gently however. At your approach the rest of your party and some guards show up, Erwin giving you a smug look.

“Alright, what’s going on?” Tabitha asks, her eyes searching Valeria’s. The Dragon just gives her a flat, disinterred look, to which your wife slowly nods her head.

Groaning, you stagger to your feet and say, “We were right the Wurms were bribed into stealing the treasury. The man who left earlier smuggled it out.” The nearby guards blanch when you say this.

“Damnit. Alright, we’ll get horses ready and go-“ Tabitha’s words cut off as the ground beneath her shifts and rises. You stand there, radiating magic as you say,

“This is much, much faster.”

Veronica laughs at the ingenuity while Bardam just shakes his head and mounts the rock. You nod to Valeria and say, “Alright, we need to get going, thanks for the help-“

“Oh hells no.” She says, spreading out her wings. “I’m going with you. If ANYONE seeks to harm this place, I’ll tear them to shreds!”

You blink at her for a moment before shrugging and saying, “Well, glad to have you aboard I guess.” Shouting to the guards to open the gates, you use [Rock Slide] to propel you forward at blistering speeds. Normally this spell would tire you out after doing this much, but you got a lot of practice out in Ectria. Might as well put it to good use.

Speeding down the canyon separating the Reach from the outpost in the mountain pass, you almost feel silly for making a trip like this to save one city when the entire world could be in peril. Of course, you think to yourself, Blackfire Reach is your home where your family is. It might as well BE your entire world.

The trip to the outpost would normally take about half a day on foot, but a wagon would have reached there sooner and your spell would certainly move faster. Above you, Valeria flies, her wings dark against the rapidly lowering sun. You’re certain you won’t get there before nightfall, but that may be to your benefit anyway.

“Hmm.” Veronica says, sitting on the rock as if this was totally normal. “We left Maya on the Dragon, didn’t we?”

—————————————————————————————————————————————–

You arrive at the outpost a little after nightfall to a group of confused guards. Most of them don’t like you after what you did to one of their superiors in the past, but they know better than to mess with you. Still, it doesn’t help things when Valeria lands down next to you, a sleepy Maya slipping off her back and letting out a yawn.

“Rommel…” One of the guards says as you return your rock to the earth. “What are you doing here? Business relations won’t be open until the morning and the rooms are currently all full. You should return to the Reach until-“

You snap your fingers and Valeria picks him up by the collar with little effort. Both he and she look at you with surprise, the later growling for acting on instinct. You step up to the man and say, “Is there a Danuki party staying here?”

“W-What? Yes, but you can’t just-“

“Right then. They’ve been expecting us.” You say, waving to Valeria, who drops him to the ground. He rubs at his neck and says,

“Hey! You can’t just do this! We’ll put you under arrest-“

>>390137

The rest of his words choke off as you give him a look devoid of any fucks. He visibly shivers before calling the rest of his men to stand down. You don’t even bother looking at him as you stride toward the inn run by the outpost for travelers in between the two nations and Blackfire Reach.

Music is playing inside and you hear laughter from many voices. He wasn’t kidding about it being full, if the wagons nearby mean anything. A quick [Survey] doesn’t reveal anything though. They probably have it inside in the upper levels. You hope, anyway.

Nodding to the others, you throw open the door to the inn and step inside. The smells of fresh food, beer, and unwashed people and Monsters hit you as you enter while the music of a harp being played by a bard echoes in the room filled with chatter drowning them out.

An innkeeper makes to greet you but pauses, a mix of recognition of you and confusion at the Order members and the Dragon in his establishment. Before he can say anything you move into the common room where you find an assortment of people dining and chatting. At your approach, they fall silent, and every eye in the room sits upon you.

You scan about, seeing many unfamiliar faces, until you happen to lock eyes with a man fitting the description of the merchant you’re looking for- sitting at a table with three Danuki.

He hurriedly looks down while one of the Danuki with long, brown hair and glasses puts down her fork and adjusts her suit before saying, “Excuse me, is there a reason you’re causing a disruption? Do I need to call the guards?”

You give the raccoon Monster a level look. Though they can pass as human at times, those greedy eyes and fluffy calves aren’t human. The raccoon ears on their head and the large, fluffy tails don’t help matters. Before you can say anything, however, Veronica steps forward and displays her Order sigil.

“On behalf of the Order of the Heroic Brotherhood, I am hereby conducting and investigation into the whereabouts of goods stolen from Blackfire Reach. Until such investigation is finished, I shall have to ask that no one leaves this facility.”

The Deleorian merchants mutter between themselves while the Ectrian ones give annoyed stares or flat out can’t understand what she’s saying. At the back of the room one of the Danuki gives a small laugh,

“A theft from Blackfire Reach? That’s terrible to hear! However…” She spreads her hands, “This outpost is technically neutral ground. The authority of the Order isn’t recognized here.”

>>390138

The other merchants look visibly less afraid now and instead start to give you smug looks. Well fuck, so much for that. Looking over to Tabitha, your wife clears her throat and says, “Very well. We understand that you had wished for a discussion with the Blackfire Reach council. I am Tabtiha Leitner, representing the council.”

“Hmm.” The last Danuki, this one having red hair that you’re sure she had to fight to keep straight. “I think the council at Blackfire Reach denounced our involvement, didn’t they? To change your tune so soon is… strange.” A predatory grin spreads on her mouth.

“But… if you’re willing to make some concessions in reparation, then perhaps we can hear you out. Tomorrow, however!” She waves her hand dismissively as she returns to her meal, the chatter in the room beginning again.

Positively seething, you barely keep from leveling the whole place. Unfortunately, doing so will turn merchants off the Reach for good, basically dooming the fledgling city. You have to think of a way to show that they stole from you, but how?

Gritting your teeth, you nod to the others to back away and return outside to make a new game plan when Valeria, sweet, sweet Valeria, walks up to the Danuki table, grabs it in both hands, and throws it across the room.

The assembled merchants scream and run back and out of the common room as Valeria stands before the Danuki and the other merchant, who has now pissed his pants. Smoke begins to boil from her mouth as she says, “You pieces of shit are lying. I can smell it on you. Where is the treasury? Tell me now and I’ll kill you slowly.”

“Oy vey!” The brown haired Danuki shouts so EVERYONE can hear. “You’re going to kill us? You’re going to commit another horacaust? You’re going to murder six million innocents?!”

“No, but if you keep this up I’ll do at least three!”

“Well then.” The black haired one says, dry-washing her hands. “Then I suppose this means Blackfire Reach is assaulting merchants now.” She pats the man next to her, who seems about to pass out. “You saw it as our witness. We are justified in defending ourselves.”

“What the fuck are you talking abou-“ Valeria cuts off suddenly as a familiar-styled knife appears in her neck. She staggers backward, coughing up smoke as she clutches her neck.

Maya gasps and bowls into your legs, toppling you forward as another knife flies forward where you were standing before clattering off Veronica’s armor. Immediately you’re on your guard as three figures seem to appear out of nowhere. All three are female and clad in dark, eastern garb with black facemasks. They look up at you with the same, dispassionate eyes as the other Kunoichi.

The Red-haired Danuki pushes the struggling Valeria away from her as she giggles. “Now then. Die for us so we can finally get down to business.”

>What do you do?

Damnit danuki

Can never trust them.

>>390139

It dosen't matter if we kill the Kunoichi, it does matter that we kill all three danuki. The treasure will all have been destroyed or buried along the way, there's no way the danuki would be holding hot merchandise like that when they knew we were coming.

I'm not sure how to deal with the fight, but for the aftermath we can claim, and have evidence that the danuki hired the mayor's assassin. We were just coming to extradite them to face JUSTICE. :^)

It’s very important we do two different things. WE prevent casualties of the other merchants. AND we take the Danuki and merchant alive. The danuki can call off the bodyguards, and we have sufficient evidence to take them back to blackfire reach to stand trialand be promptly executed we need to learn where the treasury is and for that we need them alive.

Keeping the other merchants safe and alive is important so that we don’t scare off any trade. All the gold in the world isn’t useless if we can’t trade it with anyone.

Given the merchant is still here it’s unlikely the treasury has left the outpost. Publicly announce to everyone in the room that these danuki and the merchant are wanted in connection to the theft of the treasury of blackfire reach, murder of the mayor, and attempted murder of other council members. We have witnesses, and the kunoichi assassin named you(talking to the danuki) as her employers. The fact they also just so happen to have 3 others of the same exotic race employed as bodyguards is also suspicious. While on its own it’s not enough to convict anyone, put together with our other evidence it paints a rather damning picture.

If the danuki order the kunoichi to attack we should also address them to throw them off balance. Something to the effect of “Do not interfere or you will learn what your sister experienced” the exact wording doesn’t matter I think, just enough to get under their skin, maybe make them attack recklessly. If they insist on fighting target their wrists and hands to stop their jutsu.

>>390139

>>390155

We can't charge the danuki for the theft. We have no evidence much as it pains me to admit. We can however we can charge them with assault and attemped murder of Valeria. Attemped murder of a Blackfire Reach councilor (Tabitha), yourself and two members of Order of the Heroic Brotherhood.

Quote: "Now then. Die for us so we can finally get down to business.”

Seems pretty clear what their intentions are. And if they point to Valeria threatening to kill them. Point out this was egregious. But Valeria has no standing, no political power. We have witnesses that finger the man sit with you to the theft and Valeria assumed you three were with him. You know how hot headed dragons can be!

Who drew the first drop of blood though?

We are here for the man whom we have witnesses that finger him to theft and possible involvement in the murder of the mayor and the attemped murder of another councilor member.

After or during the whole save the world business, genociding the danuki should be on our list.

>>390139

Oh fuck yes its finally time.

First things first, Have the team mates protect you while you build a wall around the danuki and merchant so they can't escape while we're doing the dirty. From that point, Assuming we have a health potion we're making the dragon chug it because having an open neck wound isn't nice and Val is a good girl. who is also getting a headpat later. What will win, The infamous dragon pride, Or the headpats that make the gods tremble?

From that point just fucking unloading with a stupid amount of [Shotgun] volleys is the way forward. Between dealing with our team mates own attacks and our own wide angle of attack, their agility will give.

Ideally I'd really like to just try and incapacitate them, But if that can't be done then so be it. I can see a good future for them working for the Reach full time as intel operatives, And they can help us shore up our defenses so more of there kind won't have such an easy time getting into our city. Apparently they value honor so if they agree, Try asking them after we kill off the danuki, So there job is over we can be fairly sure they won't betray us since this will be a perpetual contract with the city itself, And I imagine they may want to start building there own life's as people instead of just staying a weapon.

Regardless, We need to try and ensure the safety of the merchants caught in this crossfire. Them dying looks bad on us, But us saving their ass from the crazy danuki schemes that were fitting to get them killed will be a boon.

Of course we need to go into an autistic fit while this is all happening and shout redpill'ing material while we're fighting.

>>390188

the fluffy tailed jew will backstab in the name of shekels the second they're not under the gun. Rommel needs to use build the wall to trap them in ovens enclosures, and since you have a portable and angry source of fire handy …. use Valeria to cook the (((chosen monsters))). Hard to do the rubbity rub when you're a pile of ash.

>>390139

To begin, we need to save Valeria, as she’s in a very bad position right now, what with the knife in her neck and her being in very close proximity to the enemy. Usage of [Rock Solid] and [Build the Wall] to protect both her and us from direct attacks and [Flurry] around the enemy to blind our opponents not us, we have [Goggles] should suffice to keep her from getting harmed more and to give us the opportunity to rush to her side, [Health Potion] in hand, to deal with her life-threatening injuries. Once that’s out of the way, we really need to counter the Danuki’s bullshit before we continue, because otherwise we’re going to look rather bad in the aftermath. What >>390174 suggests sounds reasonable, but I would also add that we utilise [Amplify] whenever we speak to ensure that absolutely everyone hears us without question, that we figure out how to reverse the effects of [Amplify], thus making a spell that makes whatever sound passes through it quieter, and cast such a spell around the Danuki to ensure they stay silent while still letting them hear our accusations unlike [Privacy Barrier], which is the next best thing if we’re unable to do this, and that we bring up how they are not only using excessive force but are also attacking people who aren’t attacking them first everyone who isn’t Valeria, thus voiding their excuse of self-defence and giving us that same excuse to use against them.

Regarding the battle plan, we know from our previous encounters with Kunoichi, be they Ako, Sayaka or the assassin, that they utilise a mixture of knives, Eastern magic and miscellaneous tools to do their work. The latter-most is unknown outside of what the assassin used of course and will stay unknown until they come into play, but the former two we can counter rather effectively and thus should do just that in order to handicap our opponents for the rest of our party to mop up.

Starting with their knives, we can be fairly confident that they are nigh-identical to the knife we found as evidence when investigating the Mayor’s death, so in theory we should have a good understanding of what they’re made of and the knives here should lack any magical enchantments that could possibly hinder our manipulation of them considering that the first knife wasn’t mentioned to have any. As such, we can use [Metallurgy] to take their weapons and any spares that are hidden, maybe some of their other equipment too away from them, either to simply disable them or to use the weapons against them or the Danuki might be a good method of executing the Danuki to direct blame away from ourselves should we desire. Failing that for whatever reason, then we can at least use [Deflect] to protect ourselves from any other projectiles they may throw our way so long as we’re careful that no one else will be hit instead.

Moving onwards, their Eastern magic is reliant on hand motions in order to function, so disabling their hands should be a priority in order to remove one of their strongest assets. That said, doing so is rather hard when the target is very agile and is constantly dodging everything you throw at them, so until we succeed at that we need another method to give us and our party the edge over them. [Reverse Polarity] would be great for this, but it requires us to study the magical frequencies of our opponent first and I doubt we would be capable of using it one more than one person at a time. [Mana Burst], on the other hand, both doesn’t require much knowledge of our opponents magic and works in an area, meaning it would work wonders for stopping the Kunoichi from doing anything, albeit it would require us to react quickly whenever they move their hands in strange ways due to how the disabling effect wears off rather quickly. However, due to how it apparently causes our own magic to turn off for the duration according to the pastebin, though I don’t remember this ever happening in Wizardquest 2, we should ensure three things: one, that we aren’t in the midst of channelling something whenever we cast the spell, two, that we remove the enemy’s weapons before we do any magical disabling so they can’t just throw a knife at us when we can’t defend against it, and three, that we have a weapon of some description in hand in order to defend against any attacks that the disarmed Kunoichi may make against us.

>>390139

>>390225

Other than that, there isn’t much else to be said that someone else hasn’t already. I guess I’ll suggest using [Rock Solid] on the Danuki on top of the whole ‘surround them with walls’ idea, as we don’t want them trying anything while we have our hands full and this would force the Kunoichi to go out of their way to save them. In fact, it’s probably worth directing the occasional attack at the Danuki just to force the Kunoichi to react, because they can’t attack us if their hands are full protecting their masters.

>>390143

>The treasure will all have been destroyed or buried along the way, there's no way the danuki would be holding hot merchandise like that when they knew we were coming.

I doubt it. Even if they did know we were coming, Danuki aren’t exactly renowned for their forward thinking, and Valeria mentioned smelling the treasure on them, which is probably not a lie considering the claim comes from a dragon with a fetish for gold. Also, Danuki are effectively the physical embodiments of greed and avarice; why would they want to hide away or, god forbid, destroy their beloved treasure?

Kill the danuki but keep their boytoy merchant alive. We only need one person to tell us where they stashed our cash. But we probably will be able to find it even without them I'm guessing. Dealing with their bodyguards will be the hard part. Maybe start off with just shotgun blasting a hailstorm of rocks towards the danuki and see how the kunoichi deal with that.

>>390139

>>390188

>Build a wall

I would suggest separating the Danuki from the man. They may try and kill him otherwise. We can convince him that the Danuki will kill him to cover for themselves. Which is better? Dying in ditch or bedding two scalie beauties? Scalie puss is best puss! Rommel would know (Tabitha needs to be within ear shot of this)

And we did promise the wurm girls a husband. If the wurms complain, say this way their babies will be sisters.

>>390174

Who took my Salamnderfag tag from me!?

>>390250

Fuck! I forgot, Valeria needs to imprisoned for her crimes rewarded, and confined in a cell the treasury vault. She requires punishment headpats; WITH BOTH HANDS! Especially the area around her horns.

>>390143

>>390244

>Your too gentle with these shits.

If we take the Dunuki alive they should give them what they want!

GOLD!!

They should be sentenced to work in the mines indefinitely. They should be placed under Valeria (((caring))) claw after she's recovered. Stripped naked and shaved, so they don't die of heat-stroke. With a collar that will explode if they leave the city limits.

>>390251

Rommel is a married man. He can’t just go headpatting every girl he comes across

>>390255

True, but he can ask for Tabitha's permission tho!

>>390255

These hands are Solos gift to the world as repayment for being a black father, We are obligated to use them. The hands may wonder but the heart and the dick stay home. You know damn well by the end of this every single one of our group and a lot of people along the way are going to have gotten patted. Even Bardam, In what will probably be a drunk experience that neither of us will ever mention again and will live in shame with for the rest of our lifes

Still though, I imagine Tabs won't have an issue. Pat the Maya as well instead of the cheese gift

Encase the danuki's sweet fluffy calves with rocks so they won't get away. The kunoichi will have to stay close to their employers to ensure their protection giving us the advantage of movement

>Story continue

“Fucking hells.” You say as Tabitha pulls you to your feet. The Kunoichi watch you rise, making no further motions as your party spreads out, ready to attack. The Danuki chuckle and rise, making ready to leave. The black haired Danuki chuckles as she stands.

“Ufufufu. I’m sorry, but I believe being near such dangerous people could be a hazard. We should really evacuate the area.”

Flicking out your wrist, you call up a wall of stone that blocks the doorway at the back of the common room. The rock shatters through the wooden floor, throwing up splinters which shower upon the Danuki who cry in surprise.

As soon as you begin casting your magic, the Kunoichi are in motion. Though they cannot stop your wall from being built, they are able to move in to close range to attack and throw you off balance. Fortunately, Veronica and Bardam intercept them, the warriors battering aside their attacks with well trained skill and steel.

The Kunoichi leap backward, throwing knives at the exposed portions of the order warriors, but you reach out with your magic and take hold of the metal, stopping the weapons in mid-air. With a flick of your wrist and a cry of power, you throw them back at the Kunoichi. Two of them stare in surprise while a third, dressed in dark purple clothing, moves her hands quickly and with a release of power, the weapons are blown aside by a gust of air, sending them flying across the room to embed into wooden pillars.

An uneasy tension fills the room, the only sounds that of the Danuki’s dry rubbing, the whimpers of their merchant boytoy, and Valeria’s choking gasps. Gritting your teeth, you weave [Amplify] and shout, “Do not interfere or you will learn what your sister experienced!”

The purple Kunoichi cocks her head but says nothing however, merely placing her hands together, preparing to use a jutsu, perhaps.

“You are honorable, unlike the Danuki. Ask yourselves, who drew the first blood in this encounter?” You’re certain that the other guests of the inn, those who didn’t piss themselves and run away at the sign of battle, can hear just fine. Good, that’s the intention. “We never wanted any of this to happen, but they sent one of you to assassinate the mayor of the Reach! You are only doing your duty, but they will destroy you the moment it becomes convenient. It is who they are! It is what they do!”

Shaking a fist you scream, maybe with a little more force than intended, “Don’t forget what the Danuki did to Blackfire Reach in the past! They sent the Wurms to murder innocent Lizardmen so they could take the fucking gold in the mines!”

“W-what is this crazy man saying?!” The red-haired Danuki wails. “He’s going to kill us! Help! Someone help us! Please, he’s insane!”

The other two begin to shriek as well, crying as they claw at the wall in front of them. Two Kunoichi form up in front, one in dark blue drawing out wooden sticks tied together with rope while the other in dark green pulls out a hollow tube while lowering her mask.

No metal in these, huh? Well shit. Stepping back behind your armored wall, you prepare your magic again. “If you would just stand down and allow these Danuki to be brought to trial, none of this would need to happen!”

“AHHHHH! He’s going to kill usssssss!” The Danuki scream. Annoyed, you cast out [Privacy Barrier], shutting out their yelling.

>>390410

Not waiting for the Kunoichi to attack first, you throw up another wall, trapping the Danuki in. As if anticipating this, the Kunoichi with the tube lifts it to her mouth and something flashes across the room. Tabitha gasps and moves in front of it, trying to hit the projectile with her sword, but it slips by and hits her in the side of the neck. She winces at the pain for a moment before pulling out a small dart.

“The hell is-“ She begins before wobbling.

The other two Kunoichi take the initiative and dash forward, the one with the wooden weapon dashing under Veronica’s guard and delivering a savage strike to the elbow joint of her weapon arm while the other moves her hands quickly, causing blades of wind to strike against Bardam, driving the man back. The two Order warriors rally however, Bardam struggling against the windstorm while Veronica lashes out with a kick, neatly passing her mace to the other hand as she begins to glow with holy energy.

Dashing forward to Tabitha, you throw out a cluster of pebbles in your pocket and [Shotgun Pebble] fire them at the Kunoichi with the dart gun. She neatly flips over the projectiles and fires another dart at you, which you manage to stop with [Deflect]. Pulling up a quick wall between you and see, you look down to your wife, panicking.

“Oh Gods, Tabitha? Are you okay?”

“I… I’m a little…” Her eyes widen and she turns to the side before puking. Gasping for breath, she says, “Everything is spinning…”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” You say, trying to remember the small amount of plagamancy the Grand Wizard showed you. Let’s see, uh, find the humors and then… gah!

“Rommel!” Tabitha shouts, breaking your concentration as you look atop the wall you built. The Kunoichi is crouched atop it, blow gun at her lips.

“YOU FUCKING BITCH!” You shout, the force of it imbued with your magical might. As you shout, the rock underneath her violently breaks through the floor as you cast [Rock Slide], sending up a shower of wood as she’s thrown bodily into the wall. She bounces off it and into a roll before you can catch her in the rock to crush her, however.

“R-Rommel.” Tabitha says, panting. “Take care of them first then- hurgh.” She vomits again.

Everything in your body screams to take care of Tabitha, but you know she’s right. You have to remove the Kunoichi threat or else all of you will be dead. To this end, you scan the battlefield, watching as the blow gun Kunoichi reloads her weapon while the other two fight against Bardam and Veronica. As for Maya…

You blink in surprise as the Mouse Girl yanks the knife out of Valeria’s throat before pouring a thick, red solution into the wound. Despite blood welling up, Valeria’s coughing becomes less pronounced and she merely faints, her neck steaming. Wait, when did Maya take your health-?

No time for that however, as you block another shot from the Kunoichi. Rage overtaking you, you cast [Build the Wall] around Tabitha to protect her before stomping on the ground and sending a ripple in the stone that bursts up underneath your opponent. She reacts quickly and leaps through the air, firing a dart at you while reaching for something in her pocket.

Instead of deflecting the dart this time, you let it strike your shoulder as you run forward, the thick leather of your [Trenchcoat] absorbing the dart. From your pocket flows sand and gravel that gathers into your hand, spinning faster and faster into a ball. As you near the Kunoichi, instead of shooting at you again she throws something, a small, black ball. Shouting at her, you thrust your ball forward, [Flurry] racing ahead of you. It contacts little black ball and the device explodes into a violent display of light, temporarily blinding you.

>>390411

The Kunoichi leaps around to the side and draws a knife from her belt as you stagger, disoriented, but before she can reach, the ball of concentrated dirt explodes outward, catching her in the swirling radius of debris. She cries out as her skin is rubbed raw while her eyes are filled with the sand. She tries to back away but a hail of accelerated pebbles hits her in the chest, perforating her lungs and heart, near instantly killing her in a spray of blood and gravel.

Blinking furiously to clear your eyes from the flash, you thank the Gods you can detect presences through the swirling sand or you’d never have hit her with that attack. Your [Goggles] pulled down over your eyes, you turn to the other two Kunoichi and make to direct your [Flurry] at them when the purple-clad Kunoichi sweeps Bardam’s legs and makes a furious flurry of hand signs.

A galeforce wind blows away your [Flurry], shattering windows at the far side of the room. You get hit by the tail end of this and spin around before crashing to the floor. Groaning, you pick yourself up to watch as Bardam, still on the floor, grabs the leg of the distracted Kunoichi and yanks her down to the floor as well. The man is unable to use his sword properly, but he holds onto it tight as he grabs the woman by the throat and chokes her, his expression cool and steady the entire time. She tries to move her hands in gestures but he throws his sword arm forward, using the flat of his blade to bludgeon her hands before using the same gesture on her head, knocking her unconscious.

For Veronica’s part, she stands on shaky footing, one arm limp while the other holds onto her mace. The Kunoichi before her whirls one end of her weapon in a circular motion while the other is grasped firmly in her hand. Veronica narrows her eyes and shouts a litany, running at the Kunoichi who lashes out with the weapon in an attempt to catch Veronica’s mace arm again. Surprisingly, as the weapon is about to make contact, Veronica drops her mace and uses her limp arm to grapple the Kunoichi, pulling her into a tight embrace.

The eastern woman blinks in surprise and fumbles to pull away until her eyes go wide and she lets out a gasp of pain. She turns her head to the side to see Maya latched onto her back, knife driven in deep. Gurgling, she slumps to the floor as Veronica lets her go. Instead of letting the Kunoichi die however, Veronica places her hand upon her back and recites an incantation, holy power flowing through her to seal the wound. Alive, if barely, the Kunoichi lays motionless on the floor next to the other.

By this point a pack of guards rushes into the room, weapons held at all of your necks. While you’re certain you can probably beat them, with Valeria and Tabitha in their conditions, it would be dangerous and someone may be wounded too badly to heal. Slumping your shoulders, you sigh as the latest captain of the guard, an Ectrian man named Mustafar walks in and growls,

“What in the name of the twins have you done you idiot?”

“Nevermind that, help me get her some medical treatment.” You say, reaching into your pocket to pull out your other [Health Potion.]

One of the guards places his sword before your face and you give him a glare so hard he backs away, eyes flicking to his captain for guidance. Brushing the sword aside, you kneel down to Tabitha who looks a little pale, but is still breathing.

“Hey, hey drink this honey.” You say, pouring the liquid into her mouth. She sputters a little after drinking it but restores some color a few moments later, though she still looks sick. You breath a sigh of relief as the Danuki start to scream again behind your wall, your [Privacy Barrier] going down in your battle.

“Help! He’s trapped us in here and is going to gas us!”

“This is anti-Danukic! Someone save us!”

>>390412

The guard captain glares at you and you sigh, lowering the wall. The Danuki, tears in their eyes, rush toward the safety of the guards, leaving the merchant they were with on the floor, looking fairly beaten and abused for some reason. Crying, the brown haired Danuki says, “They attacked us and killed our bodyguards! Oh, if you weren’t here to stop them, who knows what they could have done!”

“Take them away and execute them!” The black haired Danuki says. “Beasts! Brutes! Murderers!”

You make to rise but swords appear all around you again. Unsure of what to do, you hesitate until Veronica stands up, her body battered, but still glowing with holy light. The guards around her seem both awed and confused, unsure of how to handle this situation. Using her good hand, she gently lowers a sword in front of her and says, “Lower your weapons. We mean no one any further arm. We were forced to defend ourselves when our companion was attacked.”

“Liars!” The red haired Danuki says. “You’re the ones who attacked! We have witnesses!”

A murmuring comes from behind as the other guests of the inn talk amongst themselves. Anger courses through you, but you manage to keep yourself in check, holding onto Tabitha’s hand as the guard captain groans.

“I must arrest both of you while we consult our governments. You will be imprisoned while we discuss this.” He waves to his men to restrain both of you when you blurt out,

“I can prove they’re in the wrong!”

The captain sighs and turns to you. “Rommel, I swear by the Twins above, if you pull any further bullshit-“

“Fuck you, my wife is poisoned, I don’t have time for you bullshit.” You say, waving your hand dismissively. “Check the Danuki’s rooms. There you’ll find good stolen from Blackfire Reach.”

“Preposterous!” The red-haired Danuki shouts. “You would trust the word of this barbarian? I will have you know that my mother is one of the Danuki Triad and I will bring down the full force of Danusreal on this miserable little outpost if you don’t release us!”

The captain looks down, gritting his teeth. While the old captain was certainly bought and paid for, you have to believe that Mustafar had a little more integrity. Still, this place was and probably still is heavily financed by the Danuki… in which case it may be hard for him to say no.

“Then ask him.” You say, nodding to the merchant from before. A guard helps him to his feet and he shudders in pain before spitting some blood from a busted lip. Mustafar narrows his eyes and walks over the man, asking,

“Is what he says true? Do these ladies have ill-gotten goods?”

The man hesitates, looking between you and the Danuki. The Monsters give him silent glares, to which the man shies back, whimpering. As he does so you say, “If you admit to it, then you will not be given punishment by Blackfire Reach. In fact, we will set you up with a loving wife, one who would never allow the Danuki to harm you.”

He stares at you, hope in his eyes as you say in a lower voice, ‘Scalie puss is the best puss.”

Tabitha, despite her miserable state, squeezes on your hand while the man weighs the pros and cons. Eventually he sighs and says, “T… the loot is in their rooms, hidden in chests.”

“NOOOOOOOOO!” The brown haired Danuki shrieks, rushing at the man before being tackled to the ground by guards. The black haired Danuki looks to the ground, defeated, while the red haired one’s eyes roll in the back of her head and she faints, mouth foaming.

Mustafar pinches the bridge of his nose and sends guards upstairs to check before turning to you and saying, “Fuck you Rommel. Fuck you.”

>>390414

You stay the evening in the inn, watching over Tabitha as Maya returns to Blackfire Reach to inform the council of what happened. The Danuki and the Kunoichi, the later thoroughly bound and stripped (though you’re certain some of the guards may have taken that a little too far) are held in cells while you secure the treasury. Thankfully most of it is there, however you have no doubt that the guards helped themselves to some of it. At least all the runite you can recall gathering, pitifully little of it as it is, is still present. Guess the guards would rather take Deleorian coinage, which is fine.

One of the guests at the inn is a healer, who manages to remove the poison from Tabitha, her slow, reptilian metabolism keeping it from causing any major harm. Still, she’ll be out of it for some time he says, unsuitable for strenuous activity. Yes, sex counts as strenuous activity, he assures you. With Tabitha, this is quite true.

Valeria, on the other hand, is up before the end of the night. The potion that Maya administered healed the wound very well and her naturally tough skin managed to keep the wound from being too bad. Her voice seems to gotten a little more raspy, like that of someone who smoked green herb all their life, but she’s alive and angry. Guess it really is hard to put a Dragon down for good.

In the morning three of the council members flown in by Wyverns arrive and a deal is made with the guards to have the Danuki turned over to Blackfire Reach. True to your word, you do not punish the man who smuggled the goods out of the city, but you do have him help bring it back in. The Kunoichi, having learned of their employer’s fates, resign themselves to your service as you see fit. Unable to think of how to deal with them, for now you have them return with the wagon and await judgement. Oddly enough, they go along with it.

For your party, you create another block of stone, this one much larger, and head back to the Reach as the councilors, Erwin, Bardam, and Veronica try to figure out a way to pay for the damages. You’re pretty sure they’re going to confiscate Danuki goods, all things considered.

Riding on the stone in the late morning, you turn to Tabitha, who is asleep next to you. Brushing aside a strand of her hair, you sigh and turn to Maya, who yawns but is for some reason awake. Smirking, you say, “Hey, thanks for all the help recently. Saved everyone’s lives.”

“Hmm? Oh. Sure.” She says, seeming disinterested. Or maybe just tired. “Just doing my job and such.”

“Yeah, but it still means a lot.” Thinking for a second, you say, “Hey, lean in close.”

She gives you a suspicious look before leaning in close. Lifting your hand, you place it on her head and begin to give her a headpat. At the motion her eyes widen and she looks at you with shock as your fingers begin to glide through her short hair, massaging her scalp. She looks down for some reason and you’re surprised to see tears well up in her eyes. Her lip trembles ever so slightly as she leans into the pat.

When you finish, she shudders and lets out a small gasp before looking up at you with tear filled eyes. She blinks twice before turning about and rubbing at her face. ‘I’m taking a nap!” She declares, promptly falling asleep on a moving boulder.

“Huh, what was that about?” A husky voice asks next to you. Turning, you see Valeria leaning over, watching the poor Mouse Girl. “You have magic hands or something too?”

“I don’t think it’s just that.” You say, watching the poor Monster. How terribly sad that expression was… it makes your heart ache just looking at it. Sighing, you turn to Valeria and say, “I think she just needs a little time.”

“Hmm.” The Dragon muses. “Is it such a grand thing to have your head pat?”

“Huh?” You say, surprised. “You’ve never had your head pat?”

“Dragon society is a little different than human society.” She says. “We can’t afford such things. It is weakness and Dragons cannot be shown to be weak.” Her gaze shifts downward, “Though I suppose… modern times have shown that to be false for more than one reason.”

“Ah, you’re plenty strong, Valeria. And you’re nothing like your cousin, from what I’ve heard.” Smirking, you lift your hand and say, “Listen, don’t tell Tabitha about this, but just this once, as a reward.”

She blinks at you, confused before leaning forward for you to place your hand upon her head. As you begin to move your fingers her eyes too grow wide and tears immediately begin to stream down her cheeks. She stays, frozen in place as you work your dark magic, running intricate lines through her scalp and around her horns. When you finish she just stares forward, not looking at anything much at all.

You don’t say anything else as you ride the rest of the way home to Blackfire Reach.

>What do you do?

>>390415

Waaaao I managed to get it done on the schedule I wanted. Amazing. Simply amazing.

TBH, this is more of a to be continued but I did actually run out of time… But it's also a decent point for further suggestions before we move onward. Onward to what you ask? Guess we'll find ouuutttt.

We got the treasury back, captured the danuki, everyone is still alive. I call that a win guys. Now all we need to do is executeput the danuki on trial, and we can reopen the mines and start searching for the heart of the crags

>>390417

Good job, Ace.

Nice headpatts too.

>>390415

The only three things that come to mind for actions are 1) setting up scouting teams to watch the area surrounding Blackfire Reach, the outpost included, for suspicious/Danuki activity, 2) reinforcing the walls of the vault to prevent future break-ins, and 3) blocking off illegal Wurm tunnels and stressing to the Wurms that burrowing illegally can lead to some disastrous results, case in point the murder of the Mayor. This should hopefully cover all the bases in protecting us from similar circumstances to recent events, as well as give us warning of any new threats that may crop up.

Other than that, I guess it's time to swap to the shit character. No, not Tobias :^)

>>390415

>The Danuki

First, no matter how much we hate it. We can't kill them. They're far more important as political hostages. Especially the one that says her mom is a member of the Triad we can always send her mom her shaved shin fluff if she tries anything. I would suggest hard labour in the mines, under Valeria's claw.

>The Kunoichi

This concerns me, as one of the Kunoichis (the purple one) appears to be a probable sister to the one that was tortured and then killed. How will she react?

>>390552

>Swapping characters

I think we still need to check out the other tunnels just to make sure. And we still have a trial to perform.

>>390634

>Letting the Danuki live

>Making them work in the mines, a place that potentially houses multiple exits from the city and is easy to lose people in

It's like you want them to escape or something. There is no reason for us to make an exception for them in terms of punishment for their crimes—they should all be executed. The Mayor and her husband deserve at least that much for the ills that have befallen them.

<But the red-haired Danuki is important!

So she claims, but how can we be sure that she's telling the truth? Danuki are infamous for lying and cheating, so why would this situation be any different, especially given her desperation? Also, if this particular Danuki happens to be the one who claimed to be the sister of the last Danuki in Blackfire Reach it's not clear which one of the two present at the time it was, then that means either the members of this Triad don't give a shit about their families, hence the lack of retaliation despite Blackfire Reach being weak at the time, or she's lying, with the former meaning she has no value to us and the latter implying she's likely lied about other things, this included, and thus likely has no value to us.

Even if she is in fact telling the truth, how would taking her prisoner help us? Any deal we make with Danusreal to turn her over is going to be designed to fuck us over in some capacity treasures will be fake and worthless, trade goods will be faulty, booby-trapped and/or contaminated, the stuff will be stolen from some powerful faction for the purpose of directing the blame of theft onto us, etc. and the Danuki would seek retaliation against us regardless of her survival if they were going to, so keeping her alive is only a negative for us due to the constant need for surveillance and food to keep her contained and alive. At least she will never threaten us again if she's a corpse outside of necromancy bullshit, but we can always burn her body if we're paranoid about that.

>I think we still need to check out the other tunnels just to make sure. And we still have a trial to perform.

I was under the impression that the trial was a given, considering this is a 'to be continued'. Regarding the other tunnels, opening any of them would likely spiral off into more events, meaning we wouldn't be able to find a good place to swap characters for a fair while. That's certainly not the worst outcome, but part of the fun of multiple perspectives is seeing how the events from each perspective affect others and figuring out how to deal with the consequences of said events; you lose the ability to have such impactful events if one party is so far behind the others, as having such events means you either need a damn good excuse for why the other parties were unaffected, or you need to retcon the events of the other parties, with both options not being ideal. Ace has stated we aren't going to miss key events, meaning we can always return to team Rommel opening that purposefully-closed tunnel at a later point unless it was a red herring when we want to, so there isn't much reason not to switch at this point.

So I'm really behind on painting I need ready before Adepticon so I've been doing that all day with intention to write and then… I fell asleep. Anyway, I'll certainly get up to the point of transition but I might have to turn back to painting focus.

>>390424

yaaaaay

>>390461

I tried

>>390552

Dunno about that first one, but the others can be done. Someone needs to remind the Wurms to be good girls.

Things are about to get shitty

>>390666

I mean, I have to honor satan's request to kill the danuki. He's satan!

Well atm everyone is kind of very seperate so not too much is affecting each other. That you know and yes, no major events being lost. Like for Tobias and friends you'll next find yourself in the capital, etc etc.

We should get more health potions to replace the two we used.

>The Grand Wizard

Boots wet, clothing soaked, and undergarments squelching, you trump through the gates of Hudson with a sour mood. It didn’t take long to reach the city, thanks to Harmony’s flight unit, but you decided to enter the city on foot so as not to arouse suspicion. Unfortunately, this meant you had to walk through the damn swamp.

And it’s raining.

Grumbling as you tug on your Wizard’s hat, you hear a distinctive chuckle from your left. You scowl at them, though their features are entirely hidden under a large, brown cloak. “Think something’s funny, snake tits?”

“Who are you talking to, I’m over here.” An identical voice says, making you turn to your other side to see another form wearing the same cloak.

Groaning, you say, “I helped redesign both of your chassis, I THINK I can tell the modulations in your vocal patterns, even when you do this shit.”

Reaching forward, you push back the hood of the cloak of the figure on your left to reveal a dissapassionate faceplate and glowing, red eyes along with purple metallic plating. Letting out a grunt of frustration, you yank the hood back down as both of your companions laugh at you at the same time.

“Fuck both of you.” You grumble, walking further into the city.

Hudson, one of the two largest ports of Deleor, resides at the southwestern corner of the country. It is a major hub for both commerce from the myriad of islands off to the southwest as well as rarely visited, western lands and the largest concentration of Deleorian naval vessels, not that Deleor has much of a navy, despite being a country with a massive coastline. Having your major threat be land and airborne Monsters from the north made that sort of thing a little less than necessary.

While Port Dorning on the south east coast has a very exotic and eastern flare, the architecture of Hudson is a mix of subdued, brown buildings built for utility and to combat the frequent rain, and vibrant, almost festive buildings maintained by the descendants of the islands to the south.

You watch as a Lizardman with rainbow colored scales and wearing what looks like waterproof undergarments laughs and drinks alongside a tough, green scaled crocodilian Monster with pale skin and normal, Delorian clothing. Shaking your head, you marvel at just how different parts of this small country were from each other.

“Hmph.” Chaika says, watching the scene as well. “I’d heard Hudson was another world entirely, but I never thought I’d see it.”

“Well, given its location and all the swamps around it, it’s never been touched by the Monster Invasions.” Harmony says. “The Monsters to the south and the Monsters of the sea are all very nice in this region too. I’m not surprised the people here have taken well to the past twenty years.”

“Humph, well we can marvel at the place later. For now, let’s get us a damn room so I can dry myself off.”

“Aww, someone’s upset.” Chaika says, her chuckling needling you. “How cute.”

“Big talk for someone I had to scrape off the back of a wagon a few months ago.”

“Hey, I was doing quite fine by myself.”

Harmony coughs, though it’s a totally unnecessary gesture for a construct. “Define, ‘fine.’”

>>390943

“Hrmph.” Chaika says, crossing her arms. “Well it won’t happen again since I don’t have to protect those two little twerps this time.”

“Excuse me, Chaika, did you just call my two precious angels, ‘twerps?’” You ask, batting your eyelashes. She looks to the side.

“I mean. It’s just- ah fuck it, yeah I said it.” She says, still not looking at you.

“You miss them, huh?” You ask as you turn down the rain slick streets. Despite coming down in a steady stream, people still walk the streets, going about their business with either umbrellas or, in the case of some aquatic Monsters, walking about in almost no clothing with happy expressions.

“It’s not that I miss them per say, it’s just… I’ve been looking after them for so long, and now they’re finally gone, living their own lives.” Her voice lowers, “It feels strange, not having those obligations.”

“Yeah.” You whisper, trudging onward without saying anything further.

The three of you walk in silence down the dreary roads as tall, drab buildings tower alongside you. You’ve only been to Hudson once, but you can still remember where you’re going, though it’s on the other side of the town, along the coast. As you approach the west side you begin to see more color in the buildings: vibrant signs written in a mix of foreign script and Deleorian or flags denoting one of the island nations.

Chaika lets out a small gasp from her auditory unit as you walk down a corridor of buildings which opens up, revealing the western extent of the city. Despite the rain you see before you a magnificent sight of a raised seawall spreading out farther than you can see with a rich, sandy beach below. Off to the south you can see large, seafaring vessels at dock while the north holds the naval complex, its docks seeming sparse, likely due to the attempted blockade of Galmathoria.

You stand there, water continuing to soak your abused clothing as you take in the sight of the sea spreading out before you until it reaches the black, stormy horizon. If you were a poet, perhaps you would have thought this was somewhat of an omen. But no, you just say something that fits your character much better.

“Some shitty weather we’re having, huh?”

You’re not certain what your companion’s reactions are, under their all-encompassing hoods.

>>390944

A chime tinkles as you open the door to the inn, your clothing leaving a sopping wet trail as you enter. A human girl with caramel-colored skin and a mop signs and waits for you to squelch up to the desk before she begins to clean up behind you. Chaika gives her a look from underneath her hood, but smartly keeps hidden for now anyway. You can tell she really wants to mop though, what a good maid she’s become.

A large, shirtless man with skin the same as the girl wearing shorts and a necklace of shark teeth sits behind a counter, fanning himself off. At your approach he looks at you and cracks a smile. “Eyyy, what’s going on brother-man. You looking like a rain cloud, bringing the weather in here!” He laughs, slapping his belly, which jiggles.

“Uh, yeah.” You say, ignoring the man’s jests. “Looking for a room, Otit.”

The man’s eyes narrow and he leans forward, studying your expression. Despite his appearance you get the impression that if he needed to, the large man could strike at you in the blink of an eye, a fact of which is furthered by the machete you know if behind his desk. After a moment of scrutiny though he beams at you and laughs.

“Oh ho! Well if it isn’t my favorite magic man! What are you doing back in the okalili of the west?”

You pointedly ignore him mixing in words which, you’re fairly certain, aren’t real. “On some business.”

“Ah, business, business eh.” He says, riffling through something in a drawer. “Last time was pleasure eh? You got that lovely olahu of yours under one of them cloaks?” He leers, “Ah but brotha man, you can’t be having two, that’s unfair!”

The girl huffs and walks away, taking the mop with her. Otit laughs and says, “She’s just mad her boyfriend went to join the Order. Don’t mind her, she’ll be ulatiki soon enough.”

“Uh huh.” You say, feeling bad for the girl. Gods, how long was it since you last came. She was knee high, huh? “No, my wife is on business as well.” You peer around.

“Is empty today brotha man, season barely started and the rain keeping the pahu away.”

Nodding, you wave to Chaika and Harmony, who pull back their cloaks. Otit laughs, “Oh I see how it is, pleasure units eh!”

“No.” Chaika sighs. “I keep asking for upgrades like that though.”

“My hookalaus.” The man says, nodding his head with sagacity. “Anyway, you should dry off and not turn my floor into high tide, eh?”

“I was wondering when you’d get to that.” You say, removing you hat and shaking your head. “I trust we can get the same room as last time?”

“I thought you said they aren’t pleasure units?”

“Smart ass. Look, it’s the most private suite.”

“Ahaha, I know, I know.” He pulls out a key and places it on the table. “I’ll keep quiet about you like last time my alonahanu.”

“Thanks, uh… alonahanu?” You say, not certain if that’s even the correct word. He smiles and waves you away before calling his daughter back in to clean the floor.

>>390945

Reaching the room, you unlock it and usher your attendants in, the two of them staring around in surprise at the décor. The room is spacious, consisting of a living area and a bedroom. Both overlook the beach and have a large decks-like balconies. The decorum is based on one of the more tribal islands which Otit is from and as such as many tribal masks, spears, etc.

While there’s only one bed, a very nice one at that, it’s not that much of a concern as Harmony and Chaika, being constructs, have no need for sleep. Stepping into the room, you reach out with your hand and channel your magic, drawing the water off you and the two constructs before tossing it outside the window.

“Ah, that’s better.” Chaika says, removing her cloak and revealing her feminine shaped, slim blue chassis. “I love the feeling of wearing nothing at all.”

“You’re a construct, you can’t feel.” Harmony says, doing the same to reveal her purple chassis. A section pops out from her back in a shape similar to wing bones. She flexes it a moment as lights flicker. Nodding, she pops it back in, the sections blending seamlessly into her armor.

“Hey, my emotions can still feel.” Chaika huffs, crossing her arms. Turning about the room she asks, “So this is where you stayed when you went on that trip, eh? Seems you two really enjoyed it.” She leans down to inspect a section next to the bed, a furrow cut into the wood.

Coughing, you say, “Yes well, it’s a good room and Otit can be trusted as far as I can tell.”

“Oh? Do you judge that on if someone blabs about your sex life? If so then I’m the most trustworthy person you know.” Chaika says, bouncing on the bed while kicking up her feet. Honestly, twenty years later and she still plays with them.

“Hmm.” Harmony says, putting down the large pack she carries, mainly filled with repair materials for the constructs in case you need them. “Didn’t you answer Sophie and Sylphie’s questions about sex using details from their parents?”

“Oh. Good.” You say. “So that’s why Sylphie asked why mommy hugs daddy while naked. I can now go to my rest knowing who to blame for that awkward conversation.”

Chaika hisses at Harmony before turning to you as you go through your [Sack of Holding +1], still functional after all these years. “So, we’re here. Might as well go over what the plan is again.”

“Plan?” You ask, chuckling. “You know we just make shit up as we go along.”

“Along a framework, at least.” Harmony says. “Which, if we recall, is to try to gain an audience with the Sea Queen so we can get the Trident of the Sea King.”

“Right, right.” You say, stretching. “I figure asking down at the docks with the aquatic Monsters should be easy enough. Honestly, we probably got the easiest job out of the three.”

“You say that.” Harmony sighs. “But it’s never that easy and you know it.”

Waving your hand in dismissal, you lay back on the bed and stare up at the wooden ceiling as the rain continues to come down outside. Gods you actually miss your wife and kids. Heh, it’s almost painful how much things had changed over the years.

“Perhaps.” You say. “Perhaps we’ll have an adventure, just like back then.”

“Oh Dollora.” Chaika groans. “Are you asking to get us killed?”

>What do you do?

The more I look at it, the more I think that it's probably okay to end Rommel's perspective there. We can go back to the trial later or, if you want me to write it out, I can probably do so before I head off to the convention. Either way, we have the set-up for the Grand Wizard's adventure in Hudson. I mean, it's a pretty straight forward quest right? No real need for suggestions, but if you have them I suppose i'll entertain them…

>>390947

We should make a speech about self sacrifice, service and our ultimate victory over phallia. But it needs to be stereotypically over the top

>>390945

Dammit Ace stop setting up those deathflags, You ain't that slick.

I'd really would have liked to see the trialand execution and swapped over with Rommel starting construction on the new tunnel since it would be a couple days of mining anyway. Would have felt more organic imo but this works to. Not really much to add here, Just gonna sit and enjoy the ride for a bit

>>390963

What death flags.

That's just how he talks. He shitposts IRL.

Anyway sure, I can go back and do that if I have time before i leave. It just seemed like people were like, "Yeah that's good stick with that and move on. No problem."

>>391172

A better design to the "gun" would be the barrel being rifled in a way what would give the projectiles the appropriate amount of spin from his wind magic with as little effort a possible so that he can focus on making said projectile go faster and hit harder. Internal pressure inside the barrel would help with that as well. Another added feature that would make it MUCH more effective in combat is an attachment to said "gun" that could hold pre shaped pebbles for him to fire from the gun, as to how you would want the pebbles to be transferred over from the container to the firing chaimber I'll leave up to your imagination. As for ammo, he can pre shape rocks or metal to his desired shape and size being a geomancer and all. A tool like this would make him much more lethal in a fight without a drastic increase in effort or energy used in combat. Allowing focus and energy to be shifted to protecting his allies, himself, or more spells. A "gun" like this should probably be no longer than your standard carbine lengths as it would fit his fighting style and Be much easier to travel with it's somewhat light weight and compact package. A weapon like this would fit Rommel perfectly. Quick, accurate, effective. No need for some long ass enchantment to use it.

>>391200

Sage, you bugger!

>>391172

>>391200

Alternatively, we could just stick to [Pebble Gun], which isn't taxing in the slightest and is exceptionally lethal with the perks <Rifling> and <Round Shot> added to it, and not waste a ton of precious time we really don't have creating something which doesn't achieve much of anything we can't do already, requires being lugged around, makes it pretty clear to our enemies where we're aiming, requires us to actually know how to use a gun and has a possibility of failing at the worst possible times if one component of the device fucks up due to a mistake in the creation of the either the weapon or the ammunition. The tank was a good idea despite its silliness, as it was designed to solve a problem we knew we would eventually encounter that we lacked other solutions for, it could get away with being made quickly and crudely to match the time frame we had available to us without compromising functionality and it was easy enough to use due to how every mechanic of it tied back into a skill or spell we already had without requiring a good understanding of physics; this proposed rifle, on the other hand, is superfluous at best.

>>391204

What I was proposing wasn’t as complicated as what >>391200 is suggesting. I was thinking of something more compact and simpler such as a brace of pistols rather than a proper rifle, though I can see how I may have misled with my comparison to the Magitek Rifle.

The reason for this suggestion is that one of the problems Rommel has with his [Pebble Gun] is that retrieving the components, rounding the pebbles, spinning the shot and then launching it where he wants it to go takes time and concentration, where as if we prepare some of the components of the spell in advance it could speed up the process of actually shooting a fucker. Hence a simple frame housing a tube with <Rifling> that contains a metal pebble and some powder that we can ignite and combine with wind magic shouldn’t be too complicated to fuck up horribly and would enable us to rapidly respond to threats.

It also means we could be able to combine our spells more efficiently, i.e. casting [Build the Wall] quickly as cover and prepare to shoot at the same time since we wouldn’t have to focus on casting [Build the Wall] and [Pebble Gun] simultaneously.

While it’s true we do lose some versatility being the ability to launch a pebble in any direction and telegraphing where we are aiming, it could still be useful utility in the right situation and increases our options and flexibility rather than limiting it.

If the base idea works out we could then proceed to figuring out to store extra shot later in some sort of clip and internal magazine system later but for now a basic pistol could still be useful and probably not have too many complex parts to fuck up.

The real reason I suggested it is because Rommel in his [Trenchcoat] wielding blade/fist and pistol on the top of his tank is too good to give up and dreams have to start somewhere.

>>391445

What in the fresh fuck happened at the bottom there

Honestly, how could she ever survive without you?

You ponder this as you watch the girl splayed out on the grass before you, showing absolutely no modicum of decorum as she sleeps in the early summer heat. Not that you particularly care, but there are others who would find her behavior entirely embarrassing. If you weren’t here to keep her in line you’re certain she would have gotten killed by now or worse, fallen in love with some rapscallion who would mistreat her.

No, no better that you’re here to keep tabs on her. Accordingly, you nudge her splayed open legs and she cracks open an eyelid before speaking, her voice coming out as more of a yawn than anything.

“Whaaaaat?”

You merely snort at her. She groans and asks, “What are you, my dad?” When you don’t reply she sighs, “Ugh, you’re right, dad would find it comical.”

She shifts into a more dignified position, which means at least her legs aren’t spread wide, and you nod in approval. Good girl she is. Lazy sometimes, a little too focused on eccentric things, and quite the troublemaker, but deep down you know she’s a good girl.

“I’m not a little girl anymore.” She murmurs, apparently drifting back to sleep.

That’s… true, isn’t it? She isn’t a little girl anymore. She’s a fully grown woman now, able to make decisions for herself and others. And yet, no matter how much you try to fix that fact into your mind, you still can’t see her as anything other than the annoying little tyke who would jump on your back while you tried to eat or the curious child who would talk to you all night in your room, despite you never responding. Not that you really were one for conversation back then anyway.

You’re not her father, you could never replace your friend in that way, but sometimes you do feel like you’re in that role while he’s away. You’re her guardian, her emotional support, and her best friend. Though you frequently get annoyed with her antics, or frustrated at her recklessness, you do love the girl as only someone with a deep, magical bond could.

A cloud passes overhead, blotting out the sun from view for a moment. You look up before shaking your head and looking for something to eat. It’s been nice so far, but the southwest of Deleor gets a lot of rain and it often comes when you least expect it. Though you’d rather get to your destination before it hits, the weather is currently too good to let the opportunity to appreciate it and rest slip by. Gods know you’ve had a little too much excitement these past few months anyway.

“Mrmph.” The girl says, rolling onto her side. She doesn’t roll just once though, instead she tumbles end over end before coming to rest next to you, instinctively wrapping her arms around your leg. Sighing, you lay down and snort into her long, brown hair, tussled mess shifting with the air. Honestly, she could stand to be more like her sister when it came to her appearance.

“Mmm.” She murmurs, snuggling her head against your side. “Why can’t all days be this nice?”

Because the hard days make you appreciate the nice ones. You don’t give her this opinion though and merely settle for nuzzling at her hair, which makes her chuckle. What a nice sound it is.

“H-hey!” She squeals, opening her eyes to look at you with a pout. “Meanie.” She makes to push your head away with her left arm but winces as she lifts it, taking in a sharp breath of air.

You push her arm back down and let out a sigh. Her old injury flaring up, it seems. Though the shoulder wound is technically less than a year old and healed as best as the Order Hospitaliers could, the damage was done. A scar she’d have to live with for the rest of her life, one which scarred you as well with the guilt that you weren’t there to protect her.

The fact that it’s flaring up gives even more credence to your theory of rain on the way, however. She seems to understand that fact as well and sighs, pushing herself up from the ground while rubbing at her shoulder. “Ugh. Well there goes the nice day I suppose. I feel like I’m mom’s age or something, ugh.”

>>391867

Well, one could hope she lives as long as her mother, though you’ll be long dead by then. To be fair, you’ve already lived longer than you should have, but you want to spend as much time with her as you can. She needs you after all! And perhaps… you also need her.

She reaches down to grab her staff, a long section of ebony her father gifted her before she left with you on her little adventure, before wiping grass and dirt off her outfit. Though she pulled them off well, you’re quite glad she stopped wearing robes and took her sister’s recommendation for an outfit that accentuated her feminine features and is much easier to move around in, including divided skirts for easier riding. Yes, if she would bother to comb her hair more often and maybe use a little rouge, she’d go from beautiful to a knock-out.

Of course, this would increase your workload of trying to keep ruffians with ill intentions away from her, so perhaps it’s for the best.

"Ready to go?” She asks, adjusting the equipment on your back. You nod to her and she leaps up onto your back using her nine, bladed tails in a swift, practiced motion, settling in as if she’d done it thousands of times. This, of course, is entirely true. You take her slim weight while barely noticing, her feeling light as feather to you, before looking back at her as she speaks, her feline ears twitching.

“We’re only a few days away from Hudson, though we’ll have to go through that Gods awful swamp again. If we make good time we might be able to reach an outlying village before the rain comes.” Sylphie pats you on the neck before laughing. “Maybe we’ll also find someone who needs some help, eh Mr. Ed?”

You just let out a sigh and begin to clop down the road toward the coastal city of Hudson, one hoof at a time. This girl and her notions of adventure and danger! She barely gets out of one pickle with her life and now she’s raring and ready for more!

Honestly though, how could she ever survive without you?

Howdy! Im back from adepticon and I had an epiphany. Let's add a FOURTH character to center around? From now on we'll follow the adventures of Mr. Ed as he tries to keep Sylphie alive and away from boys of ill repute. I hope you enjoy our equine adventures.

Regularly scheduled updates of our wonderful steed should resume tomorrow when im not half dead.

>>391457

I am sorry friendo, but at least memes are good!

>>391869

>From now on we'll follow the adventures of Mr. Ed as he tries to keep Sylphie alive and away from boys of ill repute. I hope you enjoy our equine adventures.

You say that as a joke, but a short story from a familiar's perspective would be pretty cool.

>>391901

Okay well, we all know it was an april fool's joke I just happened to have time to write cause it was super slow today.

I did want to write a story about Sylphie and Mr. Ed's adventures between WQ2 and WQ3 but that writing from Mr. Ed's perspective would be interesting…

Anyway, we'll finish up with Rommel's stuff tomorrow and get back to the GW later this week. Still need suggestions for that unless people want to wait to tomorrow. If anyone is still here anyway.

>>392040

>As for actually killing the Danuki, I may have an idea on how to go about that.

I have an idea for that as well.

Have the widow request to fight them in a duel to the death to avenge his beloved. It fits with Lizardman culture, Helps give the man some closureImagine the shitshow if Ace killed Selene, Saya, or Tabs. This guy is going through that off screen while also ensuring a sure fire death for the Jewnuki. It also brings an added benefit of being very good for the moral of the city itself. The whole town will know we bested those who seeked to corrupt us and bring us pain.

A man who married a Salamander generally has to have bested her, Or at least least is very comparable to her skills, If they aren't sticklers for tradition. He should easily be able to take 3 danuki who have never seen a day of combat in their entire lives.

>>392040

>Somewhere here we should also mention the heroism and bravery that the wurmbait merchant displayed in rescuing the treasury from the thieving Danuki despite the threats to his own life and his loved ones.

While everything else you've said is solid, I have to disagree with this particular suggestion. Considering that the merchant betrayed the Danuki, there's a fair chance that any Danuki loyalists will try to kill the poor bastard should they learn of this fact, and it's almost certain that there are still some spies lingering around the city to hear any proclamations we make to the public. For his sake, it's probably for the best if we keep quiet about his involvement and gag the Danuki prisoners to ensure they can't mention it either.

>>392041

I rather like this idea, assuming the dude consents and assuming we kill all of them regardless of outcome. That said, it only takes one mistake to die, and he would be outnumbered 3 to 1, which isn't the best position to be in even if the opponents suck at fighting. It might be worth only having him fight the Danuki in particular who ordered his wife's death while the other two are executed on the side, just to make the desired outcome a little more likely. Also, we should have the fighting Danuki frisked if not outright searched to make sure she isn't hiding any potent weaponry she's neglected to use up to this point.

>>392041

Yeah I'll admit your idea on how to go about executing the Danuki is probably more sound than my shitpost, though a death through honourable duel is probably more than what the scum deserve.

>>392070

We could probably use this fact to root out any last Danuki sympathizers, but after seeing their overlords executed and their plans thwarted I doubt anyone left would be that loyal to the Danuki. There's not really profit to be made in attempting to assassinate the merchant but a whole lot of risk, especially given that the professional Kunoichi failed at their assassinations once we were prepared for them. This is not to mention that the rest of entire city (hopefully) hates the Danuki again for what they've done and if they were caught they would be absolutely fucked.

At the end of the day any Danuki sympathizers are probably more loyal to the wealth and power the Danuki hold rather than the Danuki themselves. Given the Danuki have lost both of those things’ chances are if there are any Danuki associates left the first thing they'll do it get out of dodge before they're caught. It still probably couldn't hurt though to set up some counter espionage and we may just have the perfect candidates for this role.

As for the advantages of making the merchant a hero, the people won't blame him for falling to his greed and associating with the Danuki. It would probably hurt our conscience considering if the mob demanded him punished as well considering we promised he would be alright if he helped us. It also additionally emphasizes how the Danuki will bribe, threaten or blackmail anyone to further their own agenda and that those who can stand up to them and refuse them even though it was only at the very end in this case, are heroes which is a pretty good mindset for the people to have.

It also makes it possible to use the merchant as an example to encourage any other Danuki associates in the city who were deceived by the foul Danuki to come forward now under the promise that they won’t share the same fate as the Danuki. We then could use the spies who confessed to rat out anyone else who is covertly assisting the Danuki from the shadows and finally actually get the fluffy fucks out of Blackfire Reach. It also lets us justify moving the merchant into the palace not only for his own protection but also so we can keep an eye on him but just in case he's playing the double con or something.

>>392074

>We could probably use this fact to root out any last Danuki sympathizers, but after seeing their overlords executed and their plans thwarted I doubt anyone left would be that loyal to the Danuki.

>At the end of the day any Danuki sympathizers are probably more loyal to the wealth and power the Danuki hold rather than the Danuki themselves. Given the Danuki have lost both of those things’ chances are if there are any Danuki associates left the first thing they'll do it get out of dodge before they're caught.

>It also makes it possible to use the merchant as an example to encourage any other Danuki associates in the city who were deceived by the foul Danuki to come forward now under the promise that they won’t share the same fate as the Danuki. We then could use the spies who confessed to rat out anyone else who is covertly assisting the Danuki from the shadows and finally actually get the fluffy fucks out of Blackfire Reach.

This is making the assumption that the three Danuki we dealt with at the outpost are the only Danuki pulling strings currently. Granted, that's a rather fair assumption, especially when Ace can bring in other threats to stand in our way rather easily if he so pleases underground abominations, Phallia's forces, the volcano Blackfire Reach is sat on suddenly becoming active due to chance or external influence, the list goes on, but it's an assumption nonetheless. Until we have confirmation that the Danuki's influence isn't present any longer, his life is still at risk in some capacity and any attempts to coax their agents out of hiding will not be as effective as they could be.

>There's not really profit to be made in attempting to assassinate the merchant but a whole lot of risk, especially given that the professional Kunoichi failed at their assassinations once we were prepared for them.

Killing the merchant would both scare other agents into not abandoning their missions by showing them what happens to traitors as well as cause more panic within the city. I doubt any assassinations would occur immediately, but it's a potential play to make when they have their pieces in place. Also, given all of the effort that was required to barely catch the assassin, I somehow doubt we're going to have as much success in protecting someone who we don't know when or if an assassin will come for, especially if the guards we assign for him aren't too fond of his transgressions against them and their home.

>As for the advantages of making the merchant a hero, the people won't blame him for falling to his greed and associating with the Danuki. It would probably hurt our conscience considering if the mob demanded him punished as well considering we promised he would be alright if he helped us.

As far as we're aware, the only groups within Blackfire Reach that know of the merchant's crimes are our party, the city council, the two Wurms that broke into the vault, Valeria and potentially the guards at the city's gate. Of these groups, we're not going to say anything if we don't have to, the council won't talk if it benefits the city which it both does and doesn't simultaneously, the Wurms won't say anything due to how it would implicate themselves, Valeria can be convinced not to talk and the guards likely wouldn't mention anything to the public that would cause mass panic—it's kind of their job to keep order within the city—thus it's highly unlikely that the public actually knows about what happened regarding the treasury being stolen unless I've missed something. Were we to bring it up, then your concerns about the public seeking retribution may actually come to light if we don't sell the whole 'he was misguided and is actually a very good boy' angle well enough.

That said, this would be something worth bringing up in the scenario where the public is actually aware of his crimes, because at that point it's the only real defence we have for him and for us bringing him back into the city without punishment.

>It still probably couldn't hurt though to set up some counter espionage and we may just have the perfect candidates for this role.

This I can agree on. Though maybe not the merchant and those two wurms assuming I'm not retarded and am actually interpreting your statement correctly; they strike me as small fry who wouldn't really get very far in terms of gathering information, not to mention we still can't really trust the wurms.

>>392078

>>392074

>>392070

>>392041

It would appear that I passed out soon after getting home so danuki execution will have to wait until tomorrow. I would have posted apology Maya, but Manos vanish so…

welp.

>>392108

That's the thing though, the Danuki's scheme only worked because they could pull strings while people were not aware of their deceptive ways.

Technically the Danuki's scheme just now was working regardless of most of the council being wary to their bullshit, because they made plays designed to break down the will of the city so that it would surrender to them when there was no other option, such as reducing the amount of merchants coming to the city or the recent example of stealing the city's supplies so that it had no goods to sell to other merchants—they've clearly gone past the point of trying to employ 'diplomacy' against us by now. If another group of Danuki does indeed exist, then they wouldn't need to show their faces until the very end, just keep exploiting vulnerabilities of the city until Blackfire Reach is at its breaking point and has to rely on them to survive.

>Yes, the Danuki themselves may see this as worthwhile but we have them locked up and their assassins are currently in our custody. That just leaves any random scrub pawns who like I said before probably don't really give too much of a shit about the Danuki themselves or their cause, but rather just about their money and power.

Again, assuming that we have actually dealt with all of the Danuki; that said, you're probably right about the Danuki not having many agents left in the city, else they would have utilised them against us before this point. Speaking of agents, it may be prudent to keep up the checking of people flowing into the city to identify potential threats so we have suspects should things go wrong again. We could also check people leaving the city too, but AFAIK there isn't much else worth stealing besides the contents of the vault, which we're keeping a closer eye on now any way, so this wouldn't really do much but annoy the merchants that keep the city supplied.

>Either way if we put the merchant in the palace under our protection he should be alright from anyone left with a grudge.

So long as we bring the wurms we promised him as well and keep an eye on them too, this is a good idea.

>Those assassins were highly trained Kunoichi from the east and I doubt the Danuki have too many of those lying around.

Perhaps, but Danuki are pretty renown for being rich so who knows how many Kunoichi they have hired. Also, it wouldn't take a highly trained assassin to kill a lowish-priority target like the merchant; a corrupt guard, for example, could do that job pretty admirably before getting the hell out of dodge.

>Even so orchestrating the merchant’s death for political purposes is only valuable until the trial is finished and we offer the ultimatum that any Danuki associates deceived/blackmailed/threatened can step forward now if they wish for leniency or be treated the same as their overlords and face the same punishment ‘’’when’’’ they are caught.

I'd argue it would be just as valuable—if not more valuable—after we offer the olive branch, as it would potentially prevent agents from exposing themselves and others out of fear for their own life, particularly if the assassin in this case gets away with it because then it would be shown that we can't really protect anyone that we claim we will. Should an assassin kill both the merchant and someone who surrendered, then we can be fairly certain no one else will give themselves up, though they may still flee the city. We have to make sure to provide adequate protection and surveillance if we want this to work.

>That's just inside Blackfire Reach. There are an unknown but significant number of people at the outpost who witnessed what went down. It's almost guaranteed that word will spread about what transpired at the tavern via rumours and merchant gossip given how big of an event this is, so setting an official story first and foremost so people aren't left to speculate is probably better for him in the long run.

In truth I didn't really think that was too much of an issue in my previous post since I believe more focus would be on how the Danuki wronged Blackfire Reach and how there was a big fight because of it rather than how the merchant turned on the Danuki at the last minute, but the fact that this information is still a part of the encounter does leave the chance of it spreading. Also, thinking more on it, mentioning how we've forgiven the merchant who wronged us would also help to convince the other merchants at the outpost that we aren't their enemy as well, as we would show them that we only care about the Danuki and aren't here to terrorise them. Still, it could also give them the excuse to work with the Danuki if they think they can get away with it, so we should probably prepare for that and bring down an iron fist on anyone else who tries to pull that bullshit on us after we've played nice.

I really shouldn’t double post for something like this, but I do enjoy these debates.

>>392108

>There's also the problem that if we are to incriminate the Danuki for trying to steal the treasury, we have to explain how they did it in some way or form and at some point the merchant’s involvement is going to be leaked. Considering that he wasn’t involved in any murder or anything we could probably downplay his involvement somewhat easily.

Fair enough, you've convinced me. So long as we give the merchant and anyone else who surrenders the protection they need, I'm okay with this.

>Well not quite, I mean we have a bunch of master infiltrator Kunoichi who hold honour above all and are loyal to the death to their employers who have currently resigned themselves to our service.

>If so then best people to watch out for assassins and infiltrators would be the master assassins and infiltrators themselves so that would be one problem out of the way.

So less 'set up double agents to catch other agents in the act' and more 'spy on the spies', of which the Kunoichi would struggle to do the former and are much better at the latter, got it. I'm not really inclined to trust them even if they do kill one of the Danuki, as the Danuki they kill may not necessarily be their masters the assassin we caught earlier mentioned having little to no interaction with whoever hired her and receiving orders through the communion matrix, which could be a similar situation to the Kunoichi now if their true masters are still hiding in the shadows, thus making this a ploy to get on our good side so we drop our guard against them, but I suppose it wouldn't be the worst idea to make use of them in this fashion; it beats having them work in the mines.

>>392111

>then they wouldn't need to show their faces until the very end, just keep exploiting vulnerabilities of the city until Blackfire Reach is at its breaking point and has to rely on them to survive.

We're not going to let that happen and people will be more aware of strange occurrences which cripple the city probably being the fault of the Danuki. Also remember we just hit gold last thread so the city should probably be alright for a while.

>I'm not really inclined to trust them even if they do kill one of the Danuki, as the Danuki they kill may not necessarily be their masters the assassin we caught earlier mentioned having little to no interaction with whoever hired her and receiving orders through the communion matrix, which could be a similar situation to the Kunoichi now if their true masters are still hiding in the shadows, thus making this a ploy to get on our good side so we drop our guard against them

I highly doubt that a fourth Danuki involved with the first three planned for us to haul ass to the outpost and actually have the evidence and manpower to arrest the three and have ordered the Kunoichi to act as a honeytrap to the extent of willfully kill one of their employers to gain our trust while not being caught with the other three the day before they get out of dodge with their stolen goods. The Kunoichi don't really seem to do independent movement without orders so it's possible they're just in a standing down state until they get further orders, but once all of their employers are gone they shouldn't still be contract bound by honour unless there is some loyalty beyond death thing going on but they probably wouldn't have stand down are listened to us after seeing the Danuki arrested if that was the case.

Also we're not sure that the other Kunoichi at the tavern received orders through the communication matrix as well, it could just be the first one which had already infiltrated the city getting orders from the Danuki at the outpost so they didn't have to meet up. Either way the first assassin said that we couldn't trace the runic signatures of the employer from the glass she used but we might be able to see the logs of the orders she was given so if we can get the Kunoichi to give up their glass we might be able to confirm if there was an auxiliary source of their orders.

Even then the three Danuki in the outpost probably wouldn't let someone external to them hire their own bodyguards. They're cunning, manipulative bastards who don't even trust their own kind for good reason and they'd probably know the risk involved with another Danuki ordering the bodyguards to off them once they'd completed the heist to claim the treasury for themselves.

It still couldn't hurt to try get a message to Ako asking her how the whole Kunoichi loyalty/employment thing works, but chances are by the time it gets back to us either everything would have been confirmed to be fine or shit would have already gone down.

>>392110

>Also, thinking more on it, mentioning how we've forgiven the merchant who wronged us would also help to convince the other merchants at the outpost that we aren't their enemy as well, as we would show them that we only care about the Danuki and aren't here to terrorise them. Still, it could also give them the excuse to work with the Danuki if they think they can get away with it, so we should probably prepare for that and bring down an iron fist on anyone else who tries to pull that bullshit on us after we've played nice.

My point exactly, we put all of the blame on the Danuki this time and let anyone involved in their schemes come forward now and wash their hands of it, then completely fuck anyone up anyone who still works with the Danuki after we give them the chance at such a nice offer.

Also the grace period for coming forward should only be a couple of days if that before we start trying to root out any other remaining Danuki sympathizers who still remain without sympathy. Hence we just need to keep them safe for the short period until everyone who is going to take our offer has already done so which any potential assassin would also know meaning if something was going to happen to them, it would happen soon and we would be prepared for it.

>Story continue

You’re not welcomed back as great heroes returning from slaying some great tyrant. In fact, you’re not really welcomed back much at all beyond a guard asking, “Everything alright?”

It’s probably best you don’t receive any fanfare considering. Certainly the city had to know by now something was up with the sudden departure of council members outside, but they’d be assuaged for now with the information of, “dealing with the Danuki.” This is fine enough of an excuse, you suppose. It’s at least true.

You escort the merchant and his wagonload of treasure to the palace, where an armed escort takes both him and the rather docile Kunoichi under custody. While the Kunoichi are guarded rather closely after a uh, “thorough” search, the man is given a little more comfort in a room with no windows. You suppose you’ll have to introduce him to his new uh, “girlfriends” soon. Gods hope they don’t tear each other apart trying to get his clothes off when they meet.

The Danuki, however, are thrown right into the ruined dungeon where the poor Kunoichi you last captured was residing. They have plenty of guards watching them and you make certain that their bonds are more than just a little heavy. Honestly you wish you could just end them here and now as their mewling is rather pathetic, but unfortunately you have larger plans.

With that squared away, you take the time to rest with your wife while Valeria and Maya slink away to their own devices, the two oddly not wishing to speak about much of anything. Ah hells, you just hope Tabitha won’t get upset when she hears about the headpats. Which she probably will the next time Erwin wants to take a jab at you, judging by his grin.

The rest of the party and the council return the next day and plans get in motion for a trial. A show trial, because you know exactly what you’re going to do, but a trial nonetheless. Veronica wouldn’t dare hear anything less, and frankly it’s for the best that everyone can see the Danuki crimes. When you do get around to executing them, at least it will have that much more JUSTICE.

>>392147

Summer sun shining down through the hole in the mountain caves and warm, volcanic rock below, you bless the enchantments on your clothing as you stand next to Tabitha while the oldest council member, a blue scaled Lizardman, addresses the assembled crowd of residents.

“And so, we gather you here today to put on trial the Danuki who have been accused of hiring an assassin to kill the mayor as well as try to interfere in the affairs of trade to Blackfire reach.” She tacitly does not bring up the treasury missing, however. Probably best that people don’t know how easily the wealth of the city was plundered. The current accusations are fine enough.

The councilor steps back, allowing Veronica to walk before the crowd on the platform which normally sits in the city square. She clears her throat before speaking, her voice going through your [Amplify] to reach all of the crowd.

“My name is Veronica, a member of the Order of the Heroic Brotherhood who has been investigating these crimes. Much evidence has been found to incriminate these Danuki, but it is the way of the Order to allow them, or any others who would wish to, speak in their defense.” She holds up a hand and a group of Lizardmen guards bring up the shackled Danuki. They look about, tired, disheveled, and frantic.

“W-what are you doing? P-Please this is a joke! Y-You can’t really expect to accuse us of anything?”

“Help us good people! They’re trying to frame us!”

“Uhn… ugnnnhhh!”

Tears begin to stream down the brown-haired Danuki’s cheeks as the others shout at the audience, though all they manage to get are scornful and embarrassed looks.

Veronica waits for a moment before addressing the crowd again, her voice overpowering that of the Danuki. “These are the Danuki assembled. As said before, they stand accused of assassination and plots to inflict monetary and physical harm upon the citizens of Blackfire Reach.” She turns to the three, her silent intensity cowing them.

“What say you?”

The red-haired Danuki licks her lips and speaks up first. “I deny these charged whole heartedly. We are proud merchants who would never resort to such means. To insinuate otherwise is slander and an affront to Danusreal and all Danuki!” The other two nod their heads in agreement.

“Do you know how the mayor was killed?” Veronica asks.

The Danuki blinks in surprise before spitting out, “How should I know that? I was in the outpost until recently.”

Veronica doesn’t miss a beat. “It was by a Kunoichi assassin from the far east. Very similar to those you had in your employ and which you ordered to assault us upon visiting you at the outpost.”

“Preposterous.” The black-haired Danuki says. “They are bodyguards first and foremost and have no connection to this supposed assassin. Do you have proof it was a Kunoichi?”

“Do not play coy with me.” Veronica says, her voice steely. “I was there when she attempted a second murder and I have seen her remains. I can fetch them, if you wish, but I doubt you’ll want to see them.”

“Hmph.” The red-haired Danuki sniffs. “That still doesn’t incriminate anything. It’s merely a coincidence. We only had three Kunoichi in our employ and only to protect us when YOU assaulted US!”

Veronica waves to the guards and they bring forth one of the Kunoichi, the one in purple. She says nothing as she’s lead forward, wearing clothing that leaves little to the imagination, her legs manacled and hands encased on rock. Precautions are important after all. At her approach, the Danuki hiss and chitter amongst themselves.

“Tell me.” Veronica says to the assassin. “How many of you did the Danuki hire?”

“Four.” The Kunoichi replies in heavily accented Deleorian.

“We encountered three of you. One was killed in our encounter, but where is the fourth?”

“She was sent on mission. No return.”

“What kind of mission?”

The Kunoichi says nothing further, merely shrugging. Well, can’t have everything. Still, it’s enough to make the Danuki squirm as Veronica sweeps her gaze over to them.

“You said you only hired three?”

“I-I misspoke.” The Danuki says, dry washing her hands. “It’s a stressful situation, ehe…heh.”

“What mission was she sent on?”

“T-To fetch some supplies for us!” The Danuki says quickly. “She must have been killed by a bear or something. How tragic.”

>>392148

“I could have this woman confirm the corpse.” Veronica says, nodding to the Kunoichi, who nods her head slowly. The brown-haired Danuki hisses about lack of professional decorum or something but the crowd is already murmuring in your favor.

“Hmph.” The red-haired Danuki sniffs. “So you’re taking a misstep in speech and trying to blow it out of proportion. What other ‘evidence’ do you have?”

“Before returning, we spoke with many assembled merchants at the outpost. They claim they had been told either directly or indirectly by yourselves that Blackfire Reach was too dangerous for trading, that the inhabitants were like, and I quote, ‘to fall upon them like ravenous beasts as is their nature in response to a threat.’” Veronica looks up from a piece of paper she’s reading from. “This is signed, by the way.”

The red-haired Danuki’s eye twitches. “Rumor and hearsay. Other traders do not appreciate us due to how successful we are. They’re just trying to frame us!” The other two nod in agreement.

“Finally.” Veronica continues, ignoring them. “We have the fact that wealth from Blackfire Reach which was found to be smuggled out was found in your rooms at the outpost.” She holds up a piece of paper. “This is signed by the outpost commander, authenticating my words.”

“T-That’s j-“ The red-haired Danuki sputters.

“That’s just things we’d traded for!” The black-haired one shouts. “Y-You’re stealing from us!”

Veronica turns her gaze out across the assembled peoples. They all chatter amongst themselves with looks of anger. The Danuki pick up on this too and begin to throw out pathetic defenses, but no one is in the mood to believe them. They’d been swindled by the Danuki and their puppets once before and they’re not in the mood for it to happen again.

“Through our investigations it evidence is clear that there has been influence by you three against Blackfire Reach. I, as an impartial observer, must declare you guilty.” She bangs her mace on the podium like a gavel before turning to the blue scaled council member. “The Order will stand by whatever punishment you wish to sentence.”

The councilor nods and walks back over, speaking through your [Amplify]. “Very well then. In this circumstance the law is clear. The Danuki will be sentenced to mortal combat by the one most aggrieved.” She nods to fit, older man standing on the platform. “The late mayor’s husband. Will you choose a champion?”

“No.” He says, drawing a sword from his side with practiced ease. “I will perform this task myself.”

The Danuki squeal like Orcs as they see the blade, tears and terror pouring from them. One of them tries to make a break for it, but the Lizardmen guarding them tackle her down before dragging her back to the others. By the time the crowd is in a frenzy, the assembled peoples chanting for the dirty leaf heads to get the rake of JUSTICE.

“W-what about the others!” The red-haired Danuki shouts, frantic. “You’re going to kill us, but not punish the Kunoichi who tried to kill you? Or the Wurms who stole from you? Or the merchant who smuggled the treasure out?”

The Kunoichi in chains next to you looks at the Danuki like they’re less than insects at this before spitting, “You lack honor. Danuki said to be cowards, said to be cheats. If we had listened to master and stayed home, Kyoko and Kana would not be dead.” She turns her back upon the Danuki and says, “Do what you will with me, but I will not look at such shameful creatures.”

“RRAAGAGHHHH!” The brown-haired Danuki screams and she tears at her bindings. “RAAAAGHHH ALL OF YOU DIRTY SCALE BITCHES SHOULD BOW TO US! LEARN YOUR PLACE!”

You watch the pathetic sight before shaking your head as Tabitha steps up and speaks. “We will have the combat scheduled in two days time. Come to the arena at two bells and we-“

The crowd turns on her, making her blink in surprise as they chant, “Rake the leaves! Rake the leaves!”, or some variant of disparaging remark toward the Danuki. Both you and your wife exchange glances before sighing. She nods to the other council members before shouting through your [Amplify],

“Very well! We shall move to the arena at once!”

The crowd cheers and, despite knowing they should be civil about this, pour toward the nearby building known as the arena. It’s styled after the coliseum in Cair, but is far smaller, meant normally for duels between interested parties or shows of skill. It hasn’t been used for an execution in quite some time, however.

>>392149

You watch from the ground level as the Danuki are pushed onto the volcanic gravel, working well enough instead of sand. They beg the guards for help as their manacles are removed and try to flee, but are thrown backward onto the dirt as the guards retreat and close the doors behind them. All three Danuki look about in panic as from the other side the mayor’s husband approaches, sword in its sheath.

The crowd all around cheers encouragement as the Danuki huddle up amongst each other like frightened sheep, wailing in fear. The elder council member stands up from the royal box seat, not that royalty is like to use it anymore, and shouts, “In the name of Blackfire Reach, may JUSTICE be served in the eyes of Dollora! Take up your weapons combatants, and let they who win be guided by the righteousness of their plea!”

Three swords are thrown onto the gravel before the Danuki. They each stare at them a moment as the crowd continues to roar before picking the weapons up as if they’d never seen one before. They stand next to each other, watching the man as he holds one hand on his sword, the other on his hip. He narrows his eyes and begins to walk toward them with a menacing gait.

The brown-haired Danuki, panting heavily, her eyes darting side to side lets out a scream of terror and runs at the man, sword held in two hands as she slashes at him. Before her sword can connect, he draws his in a fluid motion and slices off both her hands in a clean motion. The sword, hands still clutching the hilt, flies away as the Danuki drops to the dirty, staring in horror at her stumps. She lets out an earsplitting scream of agony as the man slashes the blade across her throat, drowning her in her own blood.

The other two Danuki watch in horror as he approaches, holding their swords out before them. The black-haired Danuki shakes her head back and forth, tears streaming from her eyes as he approaches, their friend’s blood still on his blade. In the last few feet he lunges, driving his blade into the crying Danuki’s gut, causing her to wail in pain as she clutches at the blade, scrabbling to pull it out of her.

While this fails to actually draw the blade from her gut, it does keep it in place and make it difficult for him to pull the blade from her abdomen. He lets out a grunt before gasping and turning to the side as he sees the third Danuki, the red-haired one, slashing her sword into his side.

“Thank you for your sacrifice, idiot!” She shouts. “I’ll be sure to live enough for the three of us!”

The crowd’s shouts become frantic as the man staggers to the side, bleeding from the wound. His sword is still in the abdomen of the crying Danuki who kneels in the sand, weeping while futilely trying to pull the blade from her intestines.

“Heh… hehe.” The surviving Danuki chuckles, blade stained with his crimson. “I’m going to kill you and when I come back, I’ll bring a whole fucking army to wipe you miserable little stains off this planet for daring to deny the Danuki what’s theirs.”

The man’s breathing becomes shallow as blood drains down his side. He staggers to a knee, trying to keep balance as the Danuki raises her sword high to deliver a killing blow. Before she can, something grabs her from behind and she turns in surprise to see the impaled Danuki, blood dribbling down her chin.

“H-Help me! HELP ME!”

“You bitch!” The other Danuki shouts, slamming the pommel of her sword into the face of her friend. “Let! Me! Go!”

The mayor’s husband wastes no time. He lunges forward, grasps his sword from the Danuki’s abdomen and, in one, fluid motion, he slashes a huge rent through the red-haired Danuki’s chest. He staggers to his feet as she blinks down at her chest, which is quickly turning crimson. Blinking, she looks at him and says, “Am I going to die?’

“Yes.” He says, before driving his sword into her heart.

She collapses onto the other Danuki, who by this point has stopped moving, her blood loss too complete. He stands there for a moment, wavering, before lifting his sword into the air and shouting, “MY WIFE HAS BEEN AVENGED!”

The crowd goes ballistic with cheers as she slumps to the side and falls into the blood slick gravel.

>>392150

Three days later you find yourself sweating as your new team continues to dig through the collapsed rubble. After the excitement with the Danuki, you’d been able to get to work fairly quickly, the inhabitants not wishing to dwell upon any misfortune for too long. They’d all had enough of it and just wanted to get back to building their lives.

The late mayor’s husband received prompt medical treatment but has been quiet since, looking after a painting of him and his wife from years ago. You figure it’s best to leave him alone for now. The merchant and the Wurms, as promised, were introduced again and they immediately took a liking to him. They were, of course, punished, but mostly with community service, which is almost like torture to a Wurm. Still, now that they had a uh, “boyfriend,” though you’re certain it will be “husband” that they share somehow, they’re pleased. The man doesn’t look too displeased either, though he now has an odd limp in his gait you think is from his pelvis.

As for the Kunoichi? After the pitiful display by their former masters, they agree easily to work for Blackfire Reach to help protect against further assassins and thieves. You’re not certain there will be any in the near future as you haven’t received messages or anything from Danusreal or… really anything of note but it’s best to be careful. Around Danuki, shit gets spooky after all.

At least the merchants came back after everything that went down (and some urging from the council members). Seems having an Order member perform a trial gives some credence to you, and word of a gold vein being found in Blackfire Reach is too hard to pass up. As it is, even within three days you’ve seen plenty of orders for gold and you’re getting some great trade, especially for crops and seeds for what you take for bargain bin prices. Maybe Deleor is expecting a bumper crop or something? So, as far as things go, this issue with the Danuki was a temporary setback but one you’ll grow stronger from.

“Hey boss!” One of the Lizardmen workers on your team calls. “We broke through!”

Shaking your head back to reality, you adjust your gear and walk over to the section indicated. A Wurm worker lifts a boulder fragment she smashed and you feel air rushing at you. Incredibly warm air. Sweating a little, you nod to Maya who, feeling better you suppose, crawls through along with Erwin and explores. Watching through Erwin’s eyes, you see as light begins to play through the tunnel, warm and orange, as everything gets warmer and warmer.

“It feels like we’re in the middle of a volcano.” Maya says, panting a little as the light gets more intense.

Looking through Erwin’s eyes you watch as they come to the edge of the tunnel as it opens up into a vast, expansive cave. The light from before is a sea of lava spreading out in all directions as it bubbles and pops while more flows down from the far walls. Around the lake you see swathes of tunnels crisscrossing through the sides of the mountain like cheese while below are rock formations that seem unnatural, as if long along they were structures.

The two survey the area as the heat bores down upon them when a loud, rumbling sound, almost like that of a massive beast shakes the cave, causing the lava to ripple and small rocks to fall before subsiding. What in the hells was that?

{It doesn’t just feel like the middle of the volcano.} You send to Erwin, feeling a tightness in your gut. {We’re actually in one. And somewhere down there must be the Heart of the Crags.}

Okie dokie! We have the real Rommel first act ending. Looks like that other tunnel DID in fact contain something more than just gold. Man, imagine if you found this one first? Maybe the Danuki wouldn't have had to kill the mayor… well, we can't change the past. Still, makes you wonder why the ended up collapsing this tunnel?

Anyway, we'll entertain what to do for this story a little later as we return to the port. So, where does our shit slinging Wizard go first/ do we have any questions about Hudson?

>>392142

>>392111

>>392110

>>392108

Man, I love autistic levels of discussion on this stuff, but it was a little hard to parse what you wanted done here so it's left a little superficial. Hope it was addressed at least!

>>392152

>Man, imagine if you found this one first? Maybe the Danuki wouldn't have had to kill the mayor…

That first tunnel would have inevitably been opened at some point, leading to the recent events, so it's probably for the best all this happened while we were here to do something about it.

Regarding the Grand Wizard, there isn't really too much to be said action-wise that isn't relatively self-explanatory, that being asking the locals, sailors and aquatic monsters particularly, about the Sea Queen's whereabouts and how we could get to her, potentially splitting the party up to cover the most ground as quickly as possible because subtlety is pretty much impossible when your entire party is comprised of country-renown heroes. I suppose we could start looking for potential travel options as well unless we feel like swimming to our destination, but we probably won't get too far with that until we actually know where we're going, so information gathering comes first.

>>392275

Maybe. Maybe putting Blake in there too and the wizards and we'll just go on down to the YMCA.

>>392241

Fair enough, though i mean, you CAN also disguise yourselves too.

>>392319

>Fair enough, though i mean, you CAN also disguise yourselves too.

This may be possible with the Grand Wizard if Otit has some spare clothes and something to help cover our face goggles, glasses, an eyepatch, I have no idea he'd be willing to let us borrow or buy, but Chaika and Harmony? I guess we could hide their identities, but it would still be obvious that they're constructs, so they'd stand out pretty hard regardless. We could potentially leave them behind and do solo work though.

>Story continue

With everything settled into your residence for the trip, you decide to head out to into the city. Harmony advises against this course of action, seeing as it’s still raining, but, as you remind her, it’s easier to hide that way.

“How exactly are we supposed to hide?” Chaika asks as you wave to Otit on your way out. “You’re a famous person and we’re sleek, top of the line constructs with feelings and emotions. Not exactly common.”

“Beep boop.” Harmony says from under her cloak. It does an admirable job of hiding most of her features. Well, beyond the glowing eyes, but that’s a minor detail.

“Harr. Harr.” Chaika says, mimicking her monotone voice. “This unit does not find your attempts at humor to be amusing.”

“Perfect.” You say, foregoing your own outfit of robes for a traveling cloak as well. To put on the finishing touches, you place a mask you borrowed from Otit over your face. Turning to your constructs, you smile through the wooden depiction of an angry island spirit.

“How do I look?”

Both constructs go completely still as they stare at you, their eyes unreadable. Finally, Harmony is the first to snicker and say, “This unit finds your attempts at humor to be most satisfactory.”

“Tsk, ungrateful buckets of bolts. This will work perfectly, you’ll see.” You say, huffing as you walk through the rain toward the docks. As far as your search goes, the best course of action at the start is going to be getting information on where the Sea Queen is and how to get to the Sea Queen. One is probably easier than the other, but it’s a good place to start. Hells, if you can find a way to get to her, this may be the easiest of the three. Go looking for a Dullahan? Phah! Suckers can do that shit.

There’s still a fair number of people out and about their daily lives despite the rain, apparently not perturbed by it after living with so much water. Again, there are far more aquatic Monsters out than humans though, especially working down near the docks, your first location to check. The three of you agree to split up to cover more ground. Chaika will check out the warehouses, Harmony to the docks themselves, and you to the dockside establishments.

Despite feeling like a drowned fish again, you make your way to a series of inns, brothels, and bars set near the docks, meant for either intrepid travelers or sailors on shore leave. The docks are actually quite full, perhaps having been meant for Galmathoria but instead ended up doing trade in Hudson due to the blockade. Many of the sailors probably don’t see the difference between the two countries nor care despite it being over twenty years since it became a sovereign nation of sorts. You assume they’ll just trade with whomever has coin.

Accordingly, you see sailors walking down the afternoon streets, alcohol in their hands despite the rainwater while fetching aquatic Monsters woo them. How many are actually looking for husbands and how many make a good killing at a brothel, you’re not certain. Either way, there’s plenty of sex to go around.

You stop before a blocky building named, “The Slippery Eel” to find an aptly named patron sitting at a table under an eave, a pipe held in her hand. At your approach the woman smiles but doesn’t raise a hand in greeting, instead raising her long, slimy tail she has hanging out the in the rain.

“Welcome to The Slippery Eel. Care to get your eel slippery?”

“Not really.” You say in a gruff voice, mimicking an actor you saw in the most amazing play you’ve ever seen about a bat themed vigilante bringing JUSTICE to Cair. The villain in that story was far superior, but now is not the time for that voice. That might come later.

“Hehe… haha!” She chuckles, her voice smooth as silk. The woman, this Monster, takes a long inhalation of her pipe and exhales a ring of smoke. It frames her gorgeous face and black hair as it moves toward you before being drowned out in the rain. “You sir, do not have a career in acting. What is that mask supposed to be anyway?” She leans forward. “Ah, you’re staying with Otit then?”

>>392348

Well shit, there goes your cover. Sighing, you walk up the porch and sit down in front of her, the Monster’s slimy, eel-like tail pulling back to flop on the wooden deck. You notice absently that, like her tail, the rest of her body, which is showing a lot of skin, is covered in a slick ooze. There’s even some on the planks all around her…

She smiles, fin-like ears flapping. “Well, if you don’t wish to partake in my establishment’s business, why are you sitting at my table?”

“I’m here to ask a few questions.” You say, trying not to curse at her condescending voice.

“Hmm.” She says, looking out at the rain. “Well, it is a nice day out, but I’m afraid I’m almost out of green leaf you see and-“ She cuts off as you place a wad of leaves upon the table. Smiling, she takes it and places them in the bowl of her pipe as you do the same, pretending to use a tool to light it. Of course, you use your magic, and quickly get smoke rising.

The Eel Girl quirks an eyebrow but says nothing before shrugging. “Well mister mysteriously bad actor. How can I assist you?”

“I’m wondering if you know where the Sea Queen is?”

“Filliothia.” She says without missing a beat. When you blink at her in surprise (not that she can see through your mask) she chuckles. “The Queen is always in Filliothia unless someone sufficiently powerful such as the Monster Lady calls her forth and then only for a very good reason. It is underwater city of ocean Monsters, after all.”

Damn. Too bad Selene is a little busy up north or she could have made this even easier. Thinking of her makes your heart ache though and you let out a small sigh before pressing on.

“Easy enough. Now then, how does one get there?”

“You don’t, not really.” The Monster says, shrugging.

“The fuck is that supposed to mean?” You let slip. “I mean, shit. Fuck. Argh. I can be polite.”

“Haha.” She chuckles. “I’m sure, if you try really hard. Anyway, I meant in that it’s quite impossible to get there on your own.”

“Can’t a boat take us there?”

“Not unless it sank. The city is at the bottom of the ocean, after all.”

You groan. Greeaaaaat. This just got maybe a liiittttllleee harder. “Alright, that puts a damper on things.”

“Indeed.” She says before puffing another ring of smoke. “As for a guide, you’d either need to be married to an ocean-dwelling Monster and have the blessing of the Ocean Priestesses, or get the blessing of one of the Sea Queen’s closest family.”

“Ehhhhh.” You say, feeling tired all of a sudden. “Well this sucks.”

“A little.” She puffs on her pipe. “And no, I’m not one of her closest family.”

“Damnit.”

Tapping the table in front of you before blowing out a ring of smoke of your own, you ask, “Ocean Priestess, huh? What’s that?”

“The devout of Fillios. They run the chapels not dedicated to Solos here.” She points out past the seawall at a building sitting on a wooden dock. It’s rather large, given the location. “Mostly Monsters go there as Devotion to Dollora is… lax, amongst those who dwell in the ocean.”

“I see.” You say. “Maybe we’ll talk to one of them.”

She giggles this time. “You don’t look like a single man. I believe it may be difficult to get their blessing to visit the city unless you’ve brought your wife.” She waves her pipe. “Though I doubt someone who brought their wife would be seen around a brothel, after all.”

“Fair.” You say, standing up and digging out a few silver coins. She forestalls you with a gesture.

“No need. This is excellent quality leaf, more than enough payment. Besides…” She looks at you with a predatory smile. “I think you being here will make things quite interesting.”

“Uh, okay.” You say, feeling uncomfortable. Turning away you pause and ask, “What’s your name anyway?”

“Oh? And here I thought you said you could be polite.” She shakes her head though, shoulders shaking. “It’s Myra. Come on back if you want to have a chat.”

She waves with her tail again as you leave the deck, almost slipping on a trail of slime she left with her tail. Shaking your head, you head back about the dock, looking for more answers to the fresh set of questions you’ve been delivered.

>>392349

You meet up with Harmony first, finding the construct being assaulted near the docks by a pack of three rather short Monsters with shimmering, black eyes and long, chitnous tails. They snap little claws set under a set of normal, human arms at Harmony while trying to sell something to her.

“Pretty metal lady want find good husband? Buy shrimp musk!”

“Only ten silver!”

“Wow, what bargain!”

Despite easily being able to swat them, or at least fly away, Harmony stays put, seeming flustered. When you approach you lean on Harmony’s shoulder and sniff the air. “Ahhh, what’s that smell? Smells like porpoise hork.”

The Shrimp Girls back away, looking at you with horror.

“Big scary devil man!”

“He knows secret!”

“Runnnnn!”

The three of them scurry away rather quickly, leaving you with a surprised Harmony. She takes a moment to adjust herself before asking, “How did you know it wasn’t shrimp musk.”

“Listen, Harmony. Think of what I do for a living. I think I know horrifying smells when I smell them.”

“But it’s raining.”

“I’m very good at my job.”

She considers this for a moment before shaking her head. “I know better than to question you. Anyway, did you find anything?”

“Yeah… and it’s not great.” You sigh. “You?”

“Mmm, not terribly much related to the Sea Queen before I was assaulted there. The sailors were too busy to notice I was a construct, but I met a few who say they’ve been to this Filliothia before with their wives. They were a little hesitant to speak much on it beyond telling me to speak with an Ocean Priestess.” She sighs, “Harmonious never actually spoke with an Ocean Priestess before. They’re rather localized to the coastline, as you can imagine.”

“Similar information to what I got.” You say, nodding your head. “Seems they’re the key to this unless we find one of the Sea Queen’s family or something.”

“Oh, like Captain Baha?”

“Eh?” You say, before clacking your tongue. “Riggghhhtttt.”

“Hmmm.” She taps her chin. “Some of the sailors were talking about a rather important sailor returning to make port recently. No one knows where he’s staying though. Rumor has it he came into town and then just… vanished!”

“Huh. That’s weird, must be someone who knows where whoever this is went.” You scratch your chin. “It’s Baha, isn’t it?”

“I don’t know.” She says, shrugging. “But given the track record of things, yes.”

>>392350

“Encouraging.” You say, feeling a little better. If you can find the old geezer that’s one way there, right? “Alright, that’s enough sleuthing for now, it’s getting late. Let’s go find Chaika.”

As you say, you see a form in a cloak sprint down the road in front of you, kicking up a spray of rainwater as a pack of three brightly scaled lamia slither after, their serpentine bodies making great headway through the water. The figure in the cloak looks over their shoulder and you see a shine of red eyes before something clicks on their legs. Oh no, Chaika isn’t going to-

A figure drops down from the rooftops in between the two parties, causing the serpents to slide to a halt, somehow managing it well despite the slick road. They gather together, hissing as they hoist improvised weapons like clubs, confused at the hooded figure before them.

The interloper rises slowly from the ground, their long cloak pulling up like shadows gathering from the ground. They look at the serpents but you can’t see anything underneath the cowl. Something subtle shifts, an aetheric twinge. Surprised, you watch as the figure says, their voice somehow both a low growl and loud enough to carry down the street.

“You lizards crawl back to your hole, now.” They point at the serpents who hesitate before slowly slithering backward and then away, heading toward the warehouses.

The assembled people on the streets mutter to themselves as the hooded mystery person sweeps their gaze across the assembled people, stopping on you for a moment before sliding past. Before you can call out to them, they leap into the air far higher than anyone should be able to and land on a rooftop before turning a corner and vanishing from sight.

Watching with both surprise and amazement, you barely notice Chaika as she clambers up, letting out a metallic sigh. “Fucking snakes, I tell you.”

“You used to be a snake too.” Harmony says, offhanded.

“Yes, but I was a LAND snake. Sea snakes, not even once.”

Turning to her you frown and ask, “What happened? Why were you being chased by those goons?”

“Ehhh.” She hesitates. “I was looking the warehouses for anyone to talk to about the Sea Queen and I asked those three as they were unloading some cargo. They got really jumpy at the mention of the Sea Queen though and brandished weapons.”

“Uh… Chaika you could have beaten them easily.”

“Yeah but I was already making a commotion. Seemed best to leg it.” She sighs, looking down at her legs. “Honestly though, I forgot how fast serpentine movement is.”

“Well, you made enough commotion as it is.” You look around at people giving you curious looks. “Come on, we’re headed back to the inn.”

“Alright, alright.” She says, placing her hands behind her head as you walk. “Say, who was that cool person who intervened?”

“I don’t know.” You say, shrugging despite smiling.. “But if we’re lucky we’ll get to see them in action again.”

>What do you do?

>>392351

Guess things are happening in Hudson, but… what exactly is it? Ah well, you'll figure it out.

Sorry again for the "jarring" jump. I really thought by comments people wanted to move to the GW! Well hopefully the Rommel stuff is at a good point for now, but we're kind of close to a point where y'all can jump between stories if you want. I'd just need a majority of posters to do so!

Also, not sure I'll be able to update sunday, so depending on reactions I may do tomorrow.

Anyway, thanks for continuing to read.

>>392351

From this little investigation, we have uncovered three potential leads for how to progress:

>Seek out an Ocean Priestess to discuss blessings

>Search for the vanishing VIP

>Look for the mysterious figure

Of the three, seeking out an Ocean Priestess first makes the most sense in my eyes, as both us and Harmony turned up this lead in our investigations, implying it's of some importance. Even if the priestess we talk to refuses to give us a blessing despite whatever methods of convincing we try, we can at least potentially get further information out of her regarding how to proceed in our quest, which would make the venture worthwhile. Also, there's a chance the priestess may know more about our other leads, so it would be smart to tackle this lead first to make chasing the others a much smoother process.

Following on from that, it would be best to look into the vanishing sailor of apparent importance, because our mysterious saviour is probably going to run into us again regardless of if we search for them her now, not to mention we probably wouldn't have much luck actively trying to find them given how these things tend to go. It would be really good for our quest if our missing man was in fact Captain Baha, seeing as we know the man and he just so happens to be married to the woman we're seeking, but it still wouldn't be the worst if he wasn't, as our important sailor is likely important for a reason and thus may be able to help us in other ways. In terms of how to go looking for this man, the sailors probably would've mentioned to Harmony if they had any idea of his whereabouts, so asking them probably won't help too much; it would be better if we snooped around the various taverns to see if any rumours or sightings crop up that may help us tracking him down.

A final note, regarding the mysterious figure:

>They seemingly have access to magic, or at least magic implements

>They can apparently jump really high, with no mention of magical assistance

>They seemingly recognise us despite our fantastic disguise, seeing as their gaze lingered on us momentarily when they would have no reason to stare at someone completely inconspicuous like ourselves

Something tells me they're going to bust out Biomancy the next time we meet.

>>392556

>Only one suggestion when I get home

>Might as well nap and do this tomorrow

>Awaken to more

Yaaaay. Anyway, another reason someone might, you know, look at you may be due to wearing a red tiki mask on your face.

>>392563

>Anyway, another reason someone might, you know, look at you may be due to wearing a red tiki mask on your face.

That can't be the case, we were completely inconspicuous. :^)

>>392564

>>392563

or in such awe at how big of a guy we are

>Story continue

You awake next morning feeling the familiar sensation of bloating and abdominal discomfort. Despite your particular brand of magic and a penchant for heated bread pouches, you still don’t enjoy the sensation. Of course, it was neither of these things which lead to your current predicament and instead it was Otit’s island cooking which you did you in. When he places a spineapple glazed ham in front of you, well, what are you going to do? Refuse it?

Thankfully, another perk of your position and long term experience in the ways of indigestion is a handy supply of potions to remedy the situation. Grabbing one from your [Sack of Holding +2], you drain the vial before grimacing. Great, this will teach you to buy the cheapest one. Sure, it will work but it didn’t have any added flavor beyond that of “salty cum.” God you hate alchemy sometimes.

Feeling relief, you begin to dress yourself as Chaika and Harmony stir in the corner. Putting on your undershirt you ask, “Have good dreams?”

One of the upsides of being a construct is not needing to sleep. A downside, however, is that they CANNOT sleep. It began to be something which bothered the two of them greatly, and so you’d managed to form a rudimentary program to help them cycle their functions and go into a dreamlike state.

Chaika yawns, not that she had the physiological need to, “Yeah. I dreamt I was a spider crawling up a water spout.”

“Is that all?”

“Well, the rain came down and I drowned.”

“Isn’t that charming.” Harmony says. “I dreamed about being able to taste that meal last night.” She turns her gaze to you and you shake your head. Sensory adaptations to a construct haven’t been made yet for touch and taste. You’re working on it though!

“Rats.” She sighs. “Well, it smelled nice anyway.”

“Uh huh.” Chaika says, pulling her cloak over her head. “Anyway, what’s the game plan, mister man?”

You mouth at Harmony in response to this, but she just sighs and shrugs. Shaking your head, you say, “Well, I figure we go talk to this ‘Ocean Priestess.’”

“Eh? One of those kooky codgers?” Chaika asks. “Only met one of them before, they don’t like going anywhere there isn’t coastline.”

“Makes sense.” Harmony says. “Can you tell us a little more about them?”

“Kind of…” Chaika mumbles. “But I never really learned much about Fillios, most Monsters don’t. If I recall right, then those priestesses are universally Hydromancers and they’re unnaturally calm all the time.” She shudders, again, not a normal response for a construct.

“It’s creepy.”

“Well, I can out creepy her if needs be.” You say, putting on a slightly less distresses mask. Blue crying spirit should be better than red angry spirit, right?

On your way out of the inn, Otit tosses a bag of something at you, which Harmony catches without even looking. Cocking your head, you look into the bag to find a nice lunch of leftover from last night. Chuckling, you say, “You trying to fatten me up or something?”

“Ha! Fatten up he says.” Otit slaps his belly. “You wish you could be as attractive as me.”

“If you say so.” You say, putting the bag into your [Sack of Holding +2]. Thinking, you ask, “Hey Otit, you hear anything about some legendary sailor in town gone missing?”

“Ah, I hear something about that.” Otit says, rubbing his chin. “I hear he was last seen in a tavern making an okaluie out of himself, but the next day he was gone.” The large man shrugs before smiling, “Hey, but you know what’s cooler? The Dark Avenger!”

“Huh?”

“Yeah, yeah! Some new person going around town fighting crime and such. It’s hokkanikawow!”

You frown. “Were they about this tall and wearing a black cloak?”

“Yes! You’ve seen them eh?” He laughs. “All the kids these days keep talking about them but I haven’t seem them. Maybe you’ll run into them again, eh?”

“Eh.” You say, shrugging. “I don’t really care and I’d rather stay out of trouble.”

“Oh, then you picked the wrong spirit. U’tachilka not known for her calm skies.”

Feeling at the mask, you sigh and say, “It’ll be fine enough.”

“So you say! Well, have a boonkanowie day!”

“You uh… you too.” You say, not really knowing how to respond to his strange, made up language. Settling for that though, you step outside to find the rain gone, instead replaced with a bright blue sky and humidity so thick you could take a bite out of it.

>>392658

Immediately your clothing becomes soaked with sweat, trickles of it making your hair feel greasy. Feeling incredibly uncomfortable, you groan and make your way into the town, your perplexed constructs following you. Well, this is miserable, but if you keep it to yourself, you shouldn’t draw much attention. As you walk through the streets though, it becomes obvious that you’re drawing far more attention than before however.

“Oh.” Harmony says, noticing. “Isn’t everyone wearing light clothing?”

It occurs to you then that yes, men are either shirtless or wearing loose shirts with short cut pants while the women wear similar clothing or the barest level of modest undergarments. Some Monsters you feel would be fully nude if they could be, though thankfully there’s some decorum in this town. That being said, you’re a fucking weirdo for wearing a cloak.

Groaning further, you remove the cloak but keep the mask on. As for Chaika and Harmony… well, they’ll get looks no matter what you do so they keep it on. At least you’re a little more comfortable.

Trying to ignore the stares of the townsfolk, you make your way toward the boardwalk heading to the large chapel of Fillios over the water. Nodding to the other two, you walk down the planks, finding them surprisingly sturdy and well cared for. Barnacles dot the lower levels of the trunks sunk into the water and coral climbs up the sides, making a rather beautiful display. And yet, while this should have lead to some rotted planks or weakened integrity, you see no such signs of damage to the structure.

A casual touch to the planks reveals the cause: magic. A sort of magic you’re not quite familiar with, but it reminds you of the holy magic often used by the devout of Solos. Could Fillios be keeping this place like this? What a strange magic if so.

When you reach the building itself, you notice a series of poles jutting into the water. You figured they were for integrity of the building at first, but now that you look at them, you realize they’re for aquatic Monsters to pull themselves up from the surf if they want to enter. For the building itself, there actually isn’t much to say about it.

It’s tall, probably has a third story attic, but is otherwise rather plain and made of wood, unadorned with little but a few windows and a symbol of a wave. Looking between the other two, you nod your head and push open the large, double doors, and look around the interior.

The first thing you notice is that this place smells like low tide at the pier. Now, to be fair, it actually is low tide at the pier, but that’s beside the point. A wave of salt-water and fish assaults your nose and you have to stagger for a moment as your head spins. Harmony keeps you upright and you nod at her before taking in the view.

Like the exterior, the inside of the chapel is fairly plain and unadorned. Unpainted wood greets you underfoot and you can see cracks between the planks, water dripping between them to the ocean before. You see side passages and stairs leading to an upper level where rows of benches are placed while only a few of the same are on the bottom floor. The majority of the space before you is taken up by two large, shallow tanks of water, both filled you believe with saltwater, same as the ocean around you.

You stare in curiosity as you walk through the chapel toward the back of the room, where an altar covered in coral sits. A figure sits upon the altar, idly polishing a marble statue depicting a woman with gorgeous features and long, flowing hair, holding a trident in one hand and a motif of water in the other.

As your feet stamp through the thin later of water on the floor, the one perched on the altar turns to you and gives you a soft, wan smile. You can clearly see she’s female, and not just that, a Monster. Though she has a beautiful smile, long, golden hair, and blue eyes, her sensuously curved human torso terminates into a beautiful, blue scaled fish-like tail, the end of which swishes in the water on the floor.

“Welcome. Be at peace in Fillios’s domain.”

>>392659

Though she didn’t speak loud, you feel an almost physical force wash over you, making you feel calmer somehow. You’ve heard that Fillios is also a Goddess of temperance and calm, but you didn’t think this would extend to her priestesses. Shaking your head, you say, “Nice place you have here.”

“Oh, why thank you.” The Mermaid says, giggling behind her hand. You absently notice her breasts, clothed only by the thinnest of seashell undergarments, sway as she does so. Harmony, not absently, slaps your side and you wheeze. The priestess cocks her head and asks, “Are you alright?”

“Y-yeah, just fine.” You glare at Harmony before composing yourself. “Are you the Ocean Priestess?”

“I am. Have you come seeking the guidance of the Mother of the Oceans? Will you be setting sail soon?”

“Err, sort of.” You say. “Actually, look, we kind of need to speak with the Sea Queen. I’ve heard you can take us to Filliothia?”

“I can.” The priestess says, not skipping a beat. “But I won’t.”

“What.”

She shrugs and looks up at the statue of what you assume is Fillios. “It is part of my duties to help those who wish to live in harmony under the waves to the Sea Queen’s domain. However, those who do not share their bonds beneath the blanket of the sea shall not receive this blessing.”

“Yeah but, it’s kind of important.” You sigh. “We’re kind of trying to save the world here.”

“The world of land is a very large place.” The priestess says. “And yet, it pales in comparison to what is beneath the waves. What one thinks is their world is only a fraction of what truly is and who looks after it.”

Grunting, you turn to Chaika. “Is she being poetic or pedantic?”

“I think she’s trying to say that Dollora is a chump and Fillios’s domain is far more important.” Chaika cocks her head. “Thems fighting words.”

“If so, that’s silly. Sveth has far greater domain due to the earth.” Harmony says, tapping her chin.

“Argh.” You groan, turning back to the priestess. “Is there anything you can do?”

She shakes her head. “The laws of the sea are as written and cannot be changed. One most give their heart to one of the sea or be shepherded there by the Queen’s own hand.” Her eyes flash blue. “And you have the smell of land upon your manhood.”

“Listen, I’ve bathed since the last time I had sex, okay.” You say. “And it was in a bed which was freshly washed too so there wasn’t dirt, just a few crumbs because I was hungry.”

The priestess giggles before turning into outright laughter. When she calms down she says, “I had heard the chosen of Solos were an eccentric group, but this I was not aware.”

“Oh, so you know I’m a Wizard, eh?”

“Of course. I can feel your essence through the waters.” She points down to the water around your feet and you blink in surprise. “But I am afraid I cannot help you.”

“Even if I-?”

“Yes, even if you ask very nicely.”

“Well shit.” You say. “We have to get down there though, it really is important.” You consider for a moment. “Can you deliver a message to the Sea Queen?”

“Perhaps, if the tides are right.” She says. “Though I make no promises. The seas are unquiet now, same as the Queen’s mood.”

“Eh? What does that mean?” Chaika asks, tapping the water tank next to her.

“It means, that she’s a little pissed off at the moment.” The Mermaid says as the water underneath Chaika forms into a hand that slaps the construct’s wrist.

“Alright well, tell her that… that the Monster Lady’s husband wants to talk with her, alright?”

“I know who you are, and I will strive to.” The priestess says, bowing her head. “May to sleep soundly upon the waves.”

Not certain that was a dismissal or a threat, you nod to the other two and leave the chapel, heading back to dry land. Of course, the moment you step outside again you feel even wetter than when you stood in a small pool of water, but that’s besides the point. Fuck, how do people live here?

>>392660

“Well, she was nice.” Harmony says as you walk between building along the seawall. “I don’t think she’s going to contact the Sea Queen for us though.”

“Doubtful.” You agree. “Well, I guess maybe we should find some other lead then. Or just wait until she maybe or maybe not contacts the Sea Queen.”

“Can’t we just swim there?” Chaika asks before thinking. “Wait, are we equipped to swim?”

“Somewhat, yes.” You say. “But not very deep, nor am I overly great at Hydromancy to go searching for some mythical city.”

“Well, that just means more work for us.” Harmony says. “Adventure, right?”

“I did a lot more fighting on my last adventures.”

Chaika cocks her head and looks over toward an alleyway. “Hmm. Maybe you’ll get your chance.”

Your shoulders stiffen as a female cry of panic sounds before a black cloaked figure flies through the air and lands at your feet. They get up slowly, wincing in pain, and you realize it’s the person from before, this Dark Avenger. You make to help them up and they turn about before ducking their head, hiding their visage from view. Despite their earlier girly scream, their voice becomes that growl again.

“Ah! Citizen! Never fear!” They pull away from you and turn back toward the city where a Monster with a powerful upper body and a torso that of a lobster with crushing claws walks forward, flanked by the three sea serpents from yesterday.

“Never fear, huh?” The Lobster Girl says, cracking her human knuckles. “You been snoopin around where you ought not be snooping. And now you’ve gone and brought these fine folk into this.” The Monster nods to you. “Sorry about this, but we’re going to have to rough you up too.”

Sighing, you reach for your magic, ready to teach these thugs a lesson, when the Dark Avenger thrusts out a black-furred hand and a wave of fire surges forward to engulf the crustacean Monster.

The Lobster Girl screams and backs away, her powerful shell deflecting most of the heat, but the sea serpents near her are less fortunate, the flames forcing them to retreat down from where they came. Eventually the fire stops and the Lobster Girl, positively glowing red, bellows and runs toward the surprised Pyromancer.

Before the Lobster Girl can reach, you step forward and create a wall of [Ice] that the Monster slams into, bouncing backward and onto the ground before picking herself up. Cracking your neck you say as you raise your staff, “I think you need to cool off.”

[Ice] flows from your staff to coat the Monster’s legs, forcing her to shout in panic. Before you can freeze her solid though, she slams the ice with her claws, breaking it apart and allowing her to scuttle back.

“You piece of shit. You haven’t heard the last of us!” And with that, she runs the same way that the sea serpents went.

The Dark Avenger, or whomever they are, sighs and adjusts their cloak before turning to you. You still can’t see anything under their hood, but they study your mask for a moment before saying in that gruff voice. “Thanks for the help, citizen.”

“Uh huh.” You say, crossing your arms. “And what might you have done to piss them off?”

“JUSTICE.”

“Pfffffff.” You spit. “What load of shit is this? Do you think you’re some kind of hero?”

“I am what I need to be.” They say. “This city needs a hero. Needs to be saved from the corruption that grows underneath.”

“How old are you?”

‘What are you, my dad?”

“Psssh, please. No child of mine would be this edgy.” You say, waving a hand. “Not even Saya.”

The Dark Avenger pauses and turns to study you once more. You feel they’re about to say something when a horse neighs in the distance. They turn and shake their head before saying, “You’d do best not to tangle with them again. There have been kidnappings in town, even the powerful are not safe. Let me save this city.”

Before you can say anything further, they dash down the alleyway and leap into the air before landing on the back of a large, bay horse that quickly runs out of sight.

You stand there for a moment, dazed by the scene. Harmony places a hand on her hip and says, “Well, you got your wish.”

Clacking your tongue, you merely shake your head.

“Well, it was something anyway. Kind of cool I guess? Well, whatever, let’s decide what to do now.”

“Yeah…” Chaika says, watching after the figure, her voice pensive. “No sense standing around here.”

>What do you do?

>>392662

Uh oh, guys.

I think this Dark Avenger might be… might be…

A NERD

Also I guess that priestess isn't going to help you. At least she's nice.

Quiet this time.

Guess I'll check back later and if there's nothing still I'll just start writing with my choice tomorrow or friday :^)

>>392662

>Sighing, you reach for your magic, ready to teach these thugs a lesson, when the Dark Avenger thrusts out a black-furred hand and a wave of fire surges forward to engulf the crustacean Monster.

Welp, I was wrong unless we're mistaken about this individual being the same person as last time and they are actually a copycat, but that's unlikely. The black fur, mention of a horse and pyromancy imply this is Sylphie, but there is still a chance that this is a red herring when you consider how Sylphie is actually competent and would more likely utilise fulgromancy against an aquatic monster given her specialities, not to mention we would probably recognise her voice nigh immediately if it actually was her. Regardless of her identity though, the caped crusader needs to be bullied for being a dork, even if that would hamper our chances of recruiting them.

That aside, we should really look into these kidnappings because we have no other leads, considering that there are kidnappings at all, that the snakes got violent when the Sea Queen was mentioned and that the Sea Queen is apparently pissed for unknown reasons, it's likely related to the Sea Queen in some fashion—my guess is on someone of importance to her not returning when they said they would in a similar situation to what happened back on the riverboat in the first quest, only this time with said individual being unable to return rather than unwilling. As for how to look for them, investigating taverns as per what I said in >>392556 still works, especially if we try snooping around the same tavern the most recent disappearance occurred, but it's also probably worth looking into the activities of the thugs we just met and who else they are in contact with, because they are clearly connected to all this in some fashion.

>>392831

Considering the lack of responses, you might as well do that any way.

>Story continue

You watch Chaika for a moment before sighing. “Right then. Well since we’re in an alleyway, might as well talk over what our next move is.”

“Uhm.” Harmony says. ‘What?”

Shaking her head, Chaika turns and shrugs to the other construct. “No better time than the present, and no better place than here.”

“Uhm.” Harmony says again. “What?”

“Anyway.” You say, breaking this silliness. “With the Ocean Priestess not helping, we’re left with trying to find someone else who can.”

“Like your wife?” Chaika asks, to which you give her a sour expression.

“Yes… like her I suppose. But we don’t have that luxury, so we’ll have to figure things out for ourselves.”

Harmony sighs. “Well, there’s always looking into that missing sailor.”

“Aye.” Chaika says. “If it’s Baha then we have a ticket there, easy.”

“And if it’s not, maybe he knows where Baha is.” You say, nodding. “Sounds good without any other leads. What did they say happened to him? He just up and vanished, right?”

“Yeah.” Harmony says. “And if what that Dark Avenger said is true, then he may have been kidnapped.”

“I suppose we can just go and knock in some heads.” You say, stretching.

“No, I think that would cause more trouble than it’s worth. It’s best to even see if they have him and then try to resolve things peacefully. We’re trying not to blow our cover, remember.”

“Guess we’re snooping out the warehouses!” Chaika says, voice positively bubbly as you sigh in defeat.

————————————————————————————————————-

You wait until the evening before leaving for the warehouses. If last time was any indication, they’ll be on alert during the day for anyone snooping. At night at least you can hide under cover of dark clothing and magic, if needed.

The mask is forgone this time, though only because Harmony demanded it. You still wanted to wear it because you thought it was be funny to jump someone at night wearing that. Chaika was also in support, but sadly neither of you could ever overrule the straight-laced Harmony.

For their part, the two constructs turn onto low power, dimming the lights coming from their eyes and other parts of their bodies. The cloaks are helpful, but a glowing set of eyes in the dark does not stealth make. Ah, who are you kidding, stealth is not any of your forte. If worse comes to worse, you’ll just burn the whole place down to the ground. That’s always been a good back-up plan to stick with.

Walking between the silent warehouses, using localized [Privacy Barriers] to hide your movements, you make your way toward the warehouse that Chaika had her run-in before at. In the distance you can hear the carousing of the sailors, but over here all you can hear is the sea breeze and the scurrying of rats. A pang of pain runs through your heart at that thought. Gods how you missed Bubs sometimes.

Chaika holds up a hand and both you and Harmony stop, readying yourselves. The lead construct nods and creeps forward slowly, you both following behind until you get a good view in the distance of two haggard looking Sea Serpent Girls.

>>393067

The Monsters stand in position near a door, trying not to look like guards, but the swords at their hips make it obvious they’re expecting trouble. One of them, wearing little more than a strap to cover her breasts and a belt, pulls out a flask from a pouch and starts drinking before tossing it to the other, who does the same.

“Fucking hells.” She says in an islander accent. “First we get scorched, then the boss chews us out. I’m starting to think this gig isn’t worth it.”

“Feh, we’re just grunts. We accept what others tell us and deal with it.” The second says before tossing back the flask. “Just nod your head and get paid.”

“Tsk.” The first serpent takes a drink and coughs. “Ugh, that caped idiot to a number to arms. My favorite fucktoy almost didn’t let me rape him.” She hisses, “If I see that shit again, I’m going to tear their arms off.”

“Pff, if you say so. Let’s hope that the boss doesn’t see them though or there will be hells to pay. He’s getting sick of them interfering in our business.”

“Yeah yeah. It would mean moving the cargo and that’s a pain in the ass.”

They both nod in agreement and continue chatting amongst themselves. It’s fairly inane for the most part, so the three of you pull back to discuss under cover of a [Privacy Barrier].

“It’s two of them from before.” Chaika says, nodding her head. “Looks like this is the place.”

“Wonder what they mean by ‘cargo?’” Harmony asks, tapping her cheek. “Could they just be simple criminals?”

“Maybe.” You say, thinking it over. “Might as well take a look since we’re here.”

Harmony nods and the three of you go around the warehouses to the back of the one guarded by the Serpents. There are no windows, or you’d just toss in a [Remote Sentry], and there’s only one door, the front. Annoying, you look up and nod to the others. They nod back as you use some of the geomancy you learned from Rommel to raise the three of you from below up to the roof. Once there, you look around and find a skylight built onto the building to let in some light. Moonlight sparkles through the glass as you walk forward and look down into the warehouse.

Below, you see the typical of a warehouse: a lot of crates piled atop each other amongst some lanterns giving off some faint light. What is atypical about the scene are the forms of three gagged and bound Monsters. You can’t quite make out their species specifically, but you’re pretty sure you’re looking at aquatic Monsters here.

Around them are a group of Sea Serpent Girls and that Lobster Girl from before, all of them

“What are they doing?” Harmony asks, her audio unit set to it’s lowest.

“Not sure. Guess that Avenger dolt was right about the kidnappings though.”

“Hey, does something look off about the floor down there?” Chaika says, pointing down.

You frown and notice that in the light of the lanterns, the floor has a circle made of seaweed around the captives, the pieces of undersea plant life making runic patterns you’re not familiar with. Is this some kind of ritual going on here? Shit, are they going to sacrifice those girls?!

“We have to get down there.” You say, reading your staff. “Chaika, break the glass and cause a distraction, Harmony, swoop down and get the captives. I’ll follow and incapacitate them to-“

You cut off suddenly as you hear a muffled cry from below followed by a booming sound. Looking down, you see the captives screaming while their captors look about in panic. A moment later, the lanterns go off one by one as an aetheric touch quenches their flame. Only the moonlight shines down now, revealing your shadows looking down from above.

The captors shout and you curse, forcing your plan into motion faster than anticipated. Chaika busts through the skyline, glass shards tinkling down around her as she lands in front of the terrified captives. Unfortunately she didn’t get the complete drop of them, so when Harmony swoops down, one of the Sea Serpents throws a weighted net at the construct, throwing her crashing to the ground as she struggles to free herself.

Harmony, on the ground, and Chaika, doing battle with the Lobster Girl, are unable to project the captives. Grunting, you jump down after them, using Aeromancy to slow your fall. As you descend, you point your staff at one of the hooded figures and let loose a [Lightning Bolt] that drops them, along with another next to them. When you hit the ground, you quickly weave a [Shield Circle] and deflect the blow of a Sea Serpent Girl looking to attack the captives.

One of the hooded figures next to you begins to channel hydromancy at the same time a Sea Serpent moves in to strike with a sword. Before the spell can be cast, however, a [Lightning Bolt] strikes them from the crates above and they drop to the floor, unconscious. This gives you time to drop your defenses and strike at the sword wielder, dropping them in an instant.

>>393068

One of those wearing a robe, their face unable to be seen in the darkness, and wearing a chain of seashells and seaweed turns and runs. You make to catch him when another figure lands in front of them, dressed in all black. Oh fucking great.

“Halt!” They say in that gravely voice. “Take one more step and I’ll subdue you, evil-doer!”

The figure pauses a moment before you feel… something… pulse from them. The Dark Avenger staggers for a moment before dropping to the floor, hand on their head. The robed figure runs past them and out into the night.

The Lobster Girl swings at Chaika but the Construct nimbly leaps over the blow and lands on the large claw, looking down impassively at the Monster. When the crustacean screams in anger, Chaika delivers a kick to her head with such force that they drop, immediately unconscious. By this time, Harmony has pried herself lose and is helping mop up, though some of the combatants flee the carnage. Well, whatever.

Sighing, you turn to the captives and smile, “All of you okay?”

The Monsters, a Crab Girl, a Mermaid, and a Shark Girl all look at you with surprise. Blushes come to their cheeks and you can’t help but feel dashing somehow through all of this. Selene must never know.

The Mermaid nods her head. “Y-Yes, I think so. Thank you.”

“Yeah, no problem.” You say, rubbing at your head. “How long have you been here?”

“I don’t know. A day or two.” She says. “I’m on a trip from Filliothia for business when I was kidnapped in my inn room.” She shakes her head. “I awoke here.”

The other two give similar stories, all having been visiting from Filliothia. Frowning, you turn to the captors who are being tied up by Chaika and Harmony. Doesn’t look like they’ll be talking anytime soon. A figure does move in the distance though: The Dark Avenger.

“Hey… don’t I know you?” The Shark Girl says, peering at you. “Aren’t you that Wiz-“

“Nope, it’s the moonlight playing tricks on you.” You say as you walk toward the prone figure.

They let out a groan as they push themselves up, hand on their head. When you approach, you squat down before them and growl, “What the fuck was that?!”

“H-huh?” They ask in a much more girlish voice. “I-I don’t.”

“Don’t you give me that shit. You fucked things up here and then let the ringleader get away. This isn’t a game you idiot, people can get hurt here.” Reaching forward, you grab their hood. They panic and grab your hand with their black furred ones and you hear a familiar voice plead,

“N-no! Don’t!”

Not heading their words, you pull it back and blink in surprise. The Dark Avenger winces and looks up at you before letting out a pitiful moan. She sighs looks up at you, green, feline eyes catching the moonlight.

“H-Hey Dad.” Sylphie says.

“What in the fuck-“ You begin, but cut yourself off, your shock turning back into anger. “Sylphie! What the hells are you doing-? Actually, nevermind, where is Mr. Ed?” Turning to the front door you shout, “ED! GET YOUR ASS IN HERE!”

A moment later a large, bay gelding walks in, his hooves clacking against the stone floor. He stops beside Sylphie and gives her a sidelong glance before turning to you and wickering.

“Oh don’t you try me, mister. What the hells are you doing letting my little girl act like a Gods damned fool?”

The horse rolls his eyes. You glare at him in response when Sylphie says, “Dad! It was my idea to do this, not his!”

“Yes, but he’s the adult here and he should have stopped you!”

“Dad!” Sylphie cries in frustration, throwing her hands up. “I’m an adult too!”

“Not after this childish showing.” You say back to your daughter, gritting your teeth. It’s been months since you last saw her and part of you knows you should be kinder, but at the moment you’re so angry at her. “What do you think you’re doing, dressing up like some capeshit mummer and playing hero?”

“I’m doing good!” She huffs, nodding to the captive Monsters. They stare at both of you in fascination, all three looking away sharply as you turn their way. Sylphie’s tails are standing on end as she speaks again, voice getting heated. “I found out about some shady shit in this town and I decided to do my best to help out! Someone had to do it!”

“So you figured after one little adventure in the desert where you nearly got killed, it would be okay to be some vigilante?”

“And what the fuck are you doing?” She shouts back.

>>393069

You blink in surprise at the question, not certain how to answer. Before you can, Mr. Ed inserts himself between the two of you and snorts. He flicks his head to Harmony and Chaika, who walk up to the little scene, both appearing amused, despite their lack of facial expressions.

“Well well, if it isn’t the little adventurer herself. I knew you said you’d be out west, but I didn’t expect you’d wind up in Hudson.” Chaika says, hand on her hip.

“Hi Chaika…” Sylphie grumbles, crossing her arms under her breasts. “I just wanted to help…”

You begin to make a retort when Harmony holds up a hand. “That’s enough. We need to get these captives safely back home and see to their captors. You two can bicker later.”

Both you and Sylphie trade glances before sighing and going about the work.

Harmony and Mr. Ed escort the captives out to their rooms while you, Chaika, and Sylphie finish rounding up the new captives. Those in the robes turn out to be humans, mostly men, but you can tell they’re sorcerers, as evidenced by the mana crystals in their pockets. This makes the theory of a ritual that much more enticing.

As Chaika finishing tying up the Lobster Girl, the large Monster stirs. “Ugh… my head.” She blinks in surprise and then struggles, “H-Hey! What the fuck is this?”

“Nothing much.” Chaika says, cinching the rope tighter. “Just tying you up.”

“N-No shit!” The Monster says.

“Who are you?” You ask, approaching.

The Monster blinks at you and says, “Gilly. What the fuck does that matter?”

“I meant, who the fuck are you to be kidnapping people and doing some ritual?”

The Lobster Girl blinks before chuckling. “Oh, wouldn’t you like to know?”

“Lady, I’ve killed things with many more legs than you in ways far more horrific than you can imagine, just fucking tell me what I want to know or I let the psycho snake in a robot body have fun.”

She turns her head to Chaika, who lets out a soft hiss of static. The Monster shudders and says, “Look, me and my girls were just hired by those robed guys for security and to capture a few unwilling participants.”

“All of them from Filliothia?”

“A-Aye. Listen, I don’t know who they are or what crazy shit they were going to do, alright? They didn’t talk much.”

“We’ll make them talk.” You say, looking at the hooded forms. Turning back, you ask, “Have you kidnapped any more people?”

“No.” Chaika punches her in the gut. “Y-Yes. Three others. We brought them here but I don’t know where they are now!”

“Were any of them sailors?”

“One guy. Of the few times they spoke to us, the hooded woman running the show told us we had to capture him above all else.” She grumbles, “Bastard gave us a good showing too…”

So the figure who escaped was a woman, huh? It’s more than you had before. Nodding to yourself, you turn to see your daughter present, frowning.

“A female huh? I wonder if it was a Monster based on the mental magic she must have used on me.”

“Sylphie… ugh.” You sigh, shaking your head. “Just sit in the corner for now while I think about what to do.”

“No.” She says, defiant. “I found out they were kidnapping people and I helped stop at least two of their attempts. This is as much my work as yours.”

“Like father like daughter…” The Lobster Girl mutters before going silent at both of your withering glares.

“Anyway.” You mutter. “Where would they have gone?”

“I don’t know.” Chaika hits her again. “Fuck! I really don’t! We only ever met here!”

“Ah shit.” You say. “Well we’ll just have to wait until they wake up.”

“Hmph, YOU will.” Sylphie says, walking over to Mr. Ed and mounting him in a single bound. “I’ll find them before you and finish this myself.”

“What the- oh hells no, you get back here little miss-“

She casually ignores you and turns Mr. Ed, who gives you a tired look before carrying them both out into the night.

“She must be at the rebellious age.” Chaika says, rendering the Lobster Girl unconscious again. “Anyway, what do we do now?”

>What do you do?

Heeeey, I'm back! I decided to work more on the book the last two days instead of writing this I suppose, but sunday should still be fine for another update.

Ah, but oh dear. Looks like this Avenger is your dear daughter! Whomst I forgot to do a more full description of… oh well. Maybe you should have been nicer to her, but she was acting like a nerd.

I'm sure this group you found isn't important at all though.

>>393071

We need to track down the one cultust that escaped. They’ll tell us who the sailor was and where they took him. Punishing sylphie will have to wait until after this is dealt with though. Can’t afford to lose anymore time

An error was made, disregard Mr. Ed escorting captives, i forgot to change that back.

>>393084

Fair enough, thankfully you're FAR ahead of schedule compared to Rommel at this point in time. He's barely gotten started in Blackfire Reach.

>>393070

>The figure pauses a moment before you feel… something… pulse from them. The Dark Avenger staggers for a moment before dropping to the floor, hand on their head. The robed figure runs past them and out into the night.

>“A female huh? I wonder if it was a Monster based on the mental magic she must have used on me.”

Out of curiosity, do we still have access to [Inner Guardian] and [Manifestation]? They weren’t mentioned in the PasteBin, so I wasn’t sure if you kept them after your rewrite of the first quest. If we do, we should really familiarise ourselves with how they work and perhaps teach Sylphie at least the basics of [Inner Guardian] when we get the chance because it would work wonders here against that witch’s mental magic.

That aside, we’re kind of stuck waiting for the unconscious sorcerers to wake up so we can interrogate them since we could really use the extra information for tracking down the escapee and the other captives, not to mention it would give us some insight into their plans and how that may affect us going forward, so we might as well spend the time we have available to set up counter-measures to ensure they can’t use their magic against us. As for how to do that, this can be achieved by a combination of taking away their mana crystals, as well as any foci they might use to cast their spells, to prevent or at least hinder their spells and either a [Counter Circle] or [Shield Circle] around them to deal with anything they may successfully cast, maybe adding in [Dispel Magic] where appropriate. Also, we should probably figure out a way to disguise ourselves once again with the available nearby materials because, unless we intend to kill our prisoners instead of handing them to the local authorities which I doubt Harmony will let us do, news of the Grand Wizard’s presence in Hudson will spread, which isn’t really what we want.

Once that’s all out of the way, like >>393084 says, we need to track down the escapee as priority number one. The information we gather from the interrogation should hopefully give us more leads to follow, but even if we gain nothing of value from the event we still have some idea of what to look for given what we just saw here, namely warehouses, armed guards and ritual circles, so we can just continue to snoop around in hopes that we find something related to one or more of those three things. Furthermore, given the number of sorcerers present and our target seemingly being a witch of some description, usage of [Mage Sight] would be rather beneficial here as a means to find our targets, because magic users can’t hide their auras from other magic users IIRC, I swear this was the reason we couldn’t hide our status as a Wizard, meaning any large concentration of magic in the town is likely a point of interest for us to look into.

>>393093

How long did it take us to get to Hudson?

>>393189

Yes, I haven't gone back and edited his part yet, I'll probably do that later today.

They'll probably wake up soon and it should be easy to keep them under wraps to get more info.

[Mage Sight] will be able to see that, yeah, and there are only a few ways to confound the [Mage Sight], namely magic items but those are few and far between and unlikely someone would have that unless they're going undercover.

Just to make sure, you're not going after Sylphie then? Meh, you'll meet up with her again soon enough probably.

>How long to get to Hudson.

Harmony flew you most of the way so about two and a half days. You left a little after the others but not by much.

>>393196

>[Mage Sight] will be able to see that, yeah, and there are only a few ways to confound the [Mage Sight], namely magic items but those are few and far between and unlikely someone would have that unless they're going undercover.

So what you're saying is one of these rare items is definitely going to appear at some point to fuck with us, noted.

>Just to make sure, you're not going after Sylphie then?

I'd imagine we wouldn't be able to find her unless we abandoned the interrogation plan, and even then she'd probably figure out a way to elude us, so no, best leave her be to cool off. Mr Ed should be able to keep her from doing anything brash.

>>393196

If she's still within earshot, we should yell out that unless she comes back here right now we're going to, with great detail, tell her beloved sister, her mother and even that autistic rock kiddo how much of a NERD she was being.

On the off chance she does come back we probably shouldn't chew her out too much though lest she flee again. We can promise to tell her what's going on, that dragged us all the way here later when it's safe.

Giving the occasional jabs should be fine though.

>>393212

Even though I know this is pointless I still feel this is exactly what the GW would do, Thus I think we should

>Story continue

You do what any good father would do. You run to the ruined entrance and shout, “SYLPHIE! Unless you come back here right now I’m going to, with great detail, tell your beloved sister, your mother, and even that autistic rock kiddo how much of a NERD you’re being!”

Unfortunately, you can no longer see her, Mr. Ed having quickly left the scene you suspect. Even still, you get the faint impression that she’s giving you the bird. In all honesty, you’d probably do the same.

Grunting in annoyance, you head back to Chaika, whose impassive face oozes exasperation. “So much for reconnecting after the desert, huh?”

“Bite me, snake tits.” You mutter before running a hand through your hair. Gods above, to see one of your daughters out here, making a fool out of herself no less! Didn’t you raise her better than that?

A dim part of you wonders about that statement, a part you suppress before groaning. Feeling somewhat empty inside, you sigh and wave to Chaika. “We’ll have to deal with her later. For now, we need to get more information on what was happening here.”

Chaika watches you for a moment before letting out a sigh. Was she expecting something from you? She kneels down and begins taking mana crystals from one of the robed captives, pulling back to hood to reveal the face of a male islander. As she works, she says, “Sure. Let’s get these rounded up and we’ll see about getting one to talk. Probably don’t have too long before any authorities arrive though. You don’t want to be here when they do, right?”

“Not particularly.” You say, reaching down and pushing the hood back on another one to find a Cat Girl with islander features too. All in all, there’s five of the robed members, four Sea Serpent Girls, and the Lobster Girl. Curiously, all of the robed ones are islanders, and a mix of humans and Monsters. Only three of them are sorcerers however, with one, an island Kikimora of all things, as a Monster witch.

She is the first to awaken and she looks about in concern when she realizes she’s tied up. Unfortunately, you’re unable to just pump all the semen out of her, so she has the strength to cast [Water Blades], a high velocity water spell, at you, but you expected this and block it easily with a [Counter Circle].

“Well that’s rude, aren’t Kikimoras supposed to be gentle souls?”

“Stick it in your itikitaka.”

“Oh, that’s a good one.” Chaika says, nodding her head.

“Uh huh, sure. How about you just tell us what you were doing here and where to find your boss and we’ll be gravy, okay?”

“Fuck you.”

“Hey, hey.” You say, kneeling down to face her. “I’m the boss of this warehouse, okay? Tell me what I want to know.”

“I will never reveal the designs of Mun’taca, the conduit of the great mother!”

“Oh no, you won’t? Dang.”

“Haha!” The Kikimora snorts, triumphant. “Silly pahu, you could never understand her great plan! Only Mun’taca hears the voice of the great mother! We are promised glory eternal!”

“Glory eternal? Oh nooooo. But how, how could this be? No one can have such a thing!”

“Aha!” She chuckles. “But she does, you hopinawi! She will bring us to the city of the unbelievers and we’ll-“

“HEY!” One of the other captives says, and islander man. “Stupid the fuck up!”

>>393354

The island Kikimora blinks her eyes before they grow very wide and she turns to you, horrified. “You… tricked me?”

“Uh.” You say, scratching your head. “You kind of played yourself.”

“Impossible, Mun’taca said my mind was like a steel trap. How could this happen? What magic did you use?”

Turning to the man who woke up, you ask, “Is she an idiot?”

“Yes…” He mutters before turning resolute. “But we will say nothing more!”

“Yeah, I figured as much.” You sigh. “Well I tried- ah! By the way, what kind of Monster is your leader?”

“She’s a-“ He cuts off before looking to the side the Kikimora laughing at him.

“So she is a Monster…” You mutter. A Monster witch with some kind of mental magic. Gods, how long as it been since you used your [Inner Guardian]? Does that knight of yours still look the same? For some reason you feel that the years, and your binge watching of eastern theatre recently, have made him look a little more like an easterner, but when you try to focus your mind’s eye on him, he vanishes like a shadow. Neat.

A shape drops down from the rooftop to land among the glass shards, throwing up a cry of alarm from the captives. You merely turn your head to Harmony as she stands and ask, “All went well?”

“Yeah.” She says. “They got their stuff and are ready to high-tail it back to Fillothia. Seemed rather insistent on it too.” She looks at the captives. “Get any good information?”

“Not really.” You say, kicking the Kikimora, who has a smug look on her face. “This one almost spilled the beans but she stopped herself midway.”

“Pahu.”

“Yeah, okay.” You say, turning back to Harmony. “How far away are the authorities?”

“Should be here soon. You ready to go?”

“I guess.” You sigh, grabbing onto the construct. She nods her head and activates her flight unit, bringing you out and down to the back alleyway while Chaika jumps on crates and out through the broken skylight. The three of you make your way back out of the warehouses while the sound of city guard and potentially Order members make to take the captives. Gosh you hope that Kikimora doesn’t try anything stupid.

Once you’re far enough away from the warehouse you take a moment to reflect on what just happened. For starters, there’s a group that’s kidnapping people in town and using them in some kind of ritual. Their leader appears to be a Monster who uses mental magic of some capacity and is currently at large. They also all seem to be islanders, for whatever reason that may be. Coincidence, perhaps? Finally, your daughter is caught up in all of this and she’s busy making a mess for everyone and might get herself hurt.

A pang goes through your heart at that realization. You’re not really mad at her for what she’s doing, you’re just worried about her, right? I mean, yeah, you weren’t totally bluffing about the NERD thing, but… but…

“Anyway.” You say, getting back into the game. Sylphie will just have to wait. “We need to find the escaped leader. Any ideas where to look?”

“Warehouse district might be risky.” Chaika says. “A lot of attention from the authorities here. Will be difficult for them to do much now, but they have to be holding the other captives somewhere.”

Harmony nods her head. “The docks themselves are always full of people too. They’d stick out looking like that and the sailors aren’t exactly kind when they’re drunk. They’d attract unwanted attention from the whorehouses too, especially if they can’t tell they’re women.”

“So that leaves the city itself?” You ask, blanching. There’s a lot of buildings there, it would be extremely difficult to find anyone hiding out there.

“Not necessarily.” Harmony says, rubbing her chin. “All of them were islanders, right? If we assume this Monster is also an islander, where would be the best place for them to go?”

“Ah!” You say, snapping your fingers. “The islander section of town! They won’t stand out there too much, especially if they ditch the robe.”

“Well that makes things hard.” Chaika sighs. “How do you expect to find them in a crowd like that.”

You tap your head. “[Mage Sight].”

>>393355

“Oh. Right.” She shakes her head. “Well, might as well get going on that lead. Beats standing around here. With that, you leave toward the islander district, making good time through the streets which are relatively quiet at this time of night. The closer you get to the beach, the more people you see about. In fact, it’s quite a few people. A lot more than there should be this time of night.

You and your constructs slow down as you reach a throng of people milling out in the streets as music plays in the distance. You see torches burning and people dancing, all dressed in traditional islander outfits. While the majority of the people present are actually Deleorians, those performing are entirely islanders.

Thankfully you had the foresight to don the mask again, this time it not attracting attention as Deleorian children and such wear similar masks. Walk through the crowds, you take in the sights and deeply wish that you both weren’t on a mission, and that your wife was here. Though she may not appreciate how scantily clad some of these island Monsters are, wearing little but shells over their nipples and short skirts made of leaves. Look at them, thrusting their hips out like that, leaning over and shaking their indecent breasts in such a way-

Harmony gives you a sidelong glance, somehow, and you cough into your hand before activating your [Mage Sight]. The world around you shifts and the colors become more vibrant, the people lighting around you like candles. Some, however, burn brighter than others. These are those with some mana around them and they often carry mana crystals or some magitek devices which you can see with your sight. You can’t tell much about their magic this way, but it does narrow down your field greatly as you push through the crowds.

You wish Otit told you there was to be some kind of luau today. Maybe he did but you weren’t paying attention, which would fit perfectly with the way you operate. Either way, moving through the crowds is at once a hindrance and a benefit. Sure, you can lose yourself in there and not be as noticed looking about, but at the same time, you can’t move too well.

Scanning the crowd, you find a few with some magic here and there, and you begin to fear you’ve gone to the wrong place when you see someone flare in your vision. It staggers you for a moment as you try to make sense of what you’re seeing. It’s like the aura around them is shifting and changing, but you can’t get a good view due to all the people around them, though they aren’t wearing a hood as far as you can tell. Clacking your tongue, you nod to the other two and begin to pursue the quarry.

They don’t seem to have noticed you, but they do push away from where you are, heading to the outskirts of the luau. While delicious smells and beautiful sights play all around you, you try not to get distracted as you work your way through the crowd toward the prey. The flashes you get of them through the crowd reveal conflicting visions. They’re clearly a Monster with their hair looking like tentacles, but why aren’t people paying her more attention?

Hoping that this is your target, you follow them as they break from the crowd and head down between some of the garishly decorated buildings. You push faster through the crowd, losing the other two, and turn down the alleyway to find your prey walking away from you, wearing the traditional islander garb of barely anything at all. Activating your [Inner Guardian], you straighten your back and shut off your [Mage Sight], only to find an islander woman standing in front of you.

They stop and turn around to look at you, blinking large, brown eyes. “U-uhm. Can I help you?”

“I…” You say, taken aback. The hells is this?

“No, but I could swear she was…” You mutter to yourself. Turning back to the woman, you see only a human before you. Maybe the sights of the luau were getting to you and you mistook pig grease for some kind of Monster parts? “Ah… sorry about that.” You say, coughing into your hand as your lower your [Inner Guardian]. “My mistake.”

“I see.” She says, frowning. “Well, I better be on my way home. Please don’t follow me further.”

She begins to walk away when a shadow passes overhead and at the other end of the alleyway, Sylphie drops down, her hood still on. She points at the woman before you and shouts, “I found you!”

The woman steps back as Sylphie summons fire from her hands, the ball of power illuminating the dark corridor. The woman gasps and retreats toward you, pressing against you as she cries out, “Please! Help me!”

>>393356

Confused, you look between the woman and Sylphie and then set your jaw. Standing straight, you summon your own magic and say, “Sylphie, stop this right now. She’s not who you’re looking for!”

“What? Of course she is, can’t you see-“

“No Sylphie, I can’t!” Frustration creeps back into your voice. “I know you’ve decided to play hero here, but you’ve taken this too far. Incinerating some woman because of some mistake is a step too much and I won’t let you do it.” Your eyes flash as you prepare your counter spells. “Clearly that trip was too much for you. I’m sending you back to Sanctifrond until I finish and then we’re going to have a very long discussion on what it means to use your magic correctly!”

“Dad!” Sylphie says, frustrated. “You think you can just go and leave me and Sophie basically on our own for years and now, after we saved your ass, you think it’s time to be a good parent?”

The woman blinks and huddles into your chest, “Your daughter is so violent, please, help me!”

“Don’t worry, I won’t let her hurt you.” You say, eyes flashing. “Sure, I may have my faults, but at least I don’t make such mistakes.”

“Are you sure? Are you really fucking sure?” Sylphie says. “Want to take a reeeaaaal good look at who you’re protecting?”

You narrow your eyes and sigh before looking down at the woman, activating your [Mage Sight]. Yes, she’s possessed of great magical talent, however she’s just a woman and-

A chill comes over your body as you look into the face of a red-eyes, purple-skinned Monster. A sigh escapes her lips and she says, “Tch, almost got away too. Oh well.”

Before you can say anything a crippling wave of agony comes over you. Your abdomen pulses with pain and you drop to the ground, gasping. No, not here, not now! Damn you Otit and your islander food! DAMN YOU!

The Monster rushes toward Sylphie. Your daughter admirably holds her ground, but for a second time she gasps in pain and drops to the ground as the Monster passes by her. She pats Sylphie’s head with a tentacle that grows from her head as hair as she moves by before saying,

“Next time, I’m going to break your little mind.”

She turns the corner again and vanishes, leaving Sylphie gasping on the floor. With a gasp, you suddenly realize that the pain in your abdomen is gone. Did… did you imagine it or… was it an illusion? As you blink in shock, Chaika and Harmony turn the corner, the former running to Sylphie while the latter helps you up.

“What happened?” Harmony asks, looking toward Sylphie. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just… feeling like a dumbass.” A pain worse than that in your gut surfaces as you grit your teeth and push off Harmony to walk toward your daughter, who removes her hood using one of her nine, bladed tails. She runs a hand through her long, brown hair and sighs.

“Damnit, she got away again.” Her eyes turn toward you and they go flat. “What do you want?”

“I…” You don’t really know what to say here. Looking for a moment you lick your lips and ask, “How did you know to find her here?”

“Mr. Ed said he caught the scent of islanders and thought she should check out the luau. I tracked her presence with [Mage Sight] and…” Her lips quirk downward. “What do you care? You’re just going to say I fucked up again.”

“Oh come on-“ You begin but are cut off by Harmony.

“We have more important things to worry about at the moment.” She says, looking down where the Monster went. “We’re probably not going to find her tonight. Let’s put together all the facts we have and continue the search tomorrow. We disrupted one of their schemes, maybe that’s enough for now.”

You and Sylphie trade glances before looking away, both of you huffing, but not dismissing Harmony’s logic. You learned a few very key things today, about the identity of your target and their abilities. Though they’ve surely gone to ground, with a description of the face they’re wearing, maybe you can get better information. Worst case, you go busting down every door you find.

Still, your eyes shift to your daughter, who shakes her head and sighs, tired. What do you do about her now? Feeling a sense of nostalgia, you question that age-old question,

>What do you do?

>>393357

Huh.

That was weird.

>>393357

i would say give her headpats, but i feel like the mood isnt right for them

since the person we're looking for is a mindflayer, we need to find some children to regrettably use as bait, because no one can resist the allure of YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID YOU'RE A KID YOU'RE A SQUID

>>393358

So another MindFlayer?

This bodes ill for The Wiz. Illusion magic doesn't seem to give to shits about our [Inner Guardian]Which I feel is actually balanced since it would completely shit on illusionists so that means we have to keep range. I forget, How do illusions work on constructs?

Were they immune or especially vulnerable, I can't recall?

As for what to do, I don't know why we are calling it quits so quickly. We can still track her magical aura, she can't have gotten to far and I doubt a bit of wood paneling can hide something as bright as you described.

Aside from that, Or assuming for whatever reason we can't continue the hunt, We need to apologize. Being snippy isn't going to help here and Sylphie has demonstrated the the Wiz she, despite being a total nerd, Actually did manage to track the woman down. From that point however I don't know how we'd continue. We have no leads and can't just search the entire town for a woman who can change her appearance at will.

>>393362

Hold up i had another thought, Can't we just get Ed or Sylpie to track her scent? Granted cats aren't as good as dogs when it comes to smell they still outclass humans many times over. Same deal with Horses.

>>393361

I don't think they can change back sadly. Maybe you can use sylphie as bait? She's kind of a kid, right?

>>393362

Yessir. Flayer of minds, mhm. Probably.

I don't think it was specifically addressed in Illusionistquest since most constructs are fairly mindless. Chaika and Harmony, on the other hand, are a different story. How it would affect them is quite up in the air and you won't know until you try…

>>393365

Possible, unless she alters her scent via illusion too.

>>393354

>You do what any good father would do. You run to the ruined entrance and shout, “SYLPHIE! Unless you come back here right now I’m going to, with great detail, tell your beloved sister, your mother, and even that autistic rock kiddo how much of a NERD you’re being!”

Here’s hoping we actually follow through on that threat when we get the chance. We can’t have Sylphie thinking we’re going soft in our old age.

>>393357

[Inner Guardian] isn’t a perfect defence against mental attacks by itself, since—according to the chapter for [Manifestation] in [Defensive Magic Volume 3]—it’s unable to protect against attacks which “affect perceptions or are too hard to detect”, the former of which is precisely why the witch was able to trick us by changing her appearance despite the guardian being up and active. It may or may not have been able to do something about that final attack against us, but we won’t know for certain until a similar event occurs since we opted to drop the guardian rather foolishly despite the fishy situation because we are an idiot didn’t realise we were up against an illusionist of some description and thus believed our senses wholeheartedly, leading to our guard dropping. If we want things to go better next time, we need to figure out a way to avoid or mitigate the aforementioned shortcomings.

As for how to do that, we just need to ensure some things:

>We don’t drop [Inner Guardian] for any reason when there is a chance the illusionist is nearby

>We anticipate that our opponent will likely cast an illusion on us, making us more aware of our surroundings and sense and, more importantly, aware of when something changes—illusionists tend to struggle a bit when they lose the element of surprise

>When we know for a fact that our target is nearby or we are currently in combat with our target, put up [Manifestation] immediately and take her down as quickly as possible

The first two are pretty self-explanatory: keep our guard up and don’t get caught off guard by the inevitable illusion, allowing us to dispel said illusion and come to our senses quicker. Regarding the latter, [Manifestation] is our only real defence against sensory manipulation, meaning it’s our only option for dealing with our quarry’s main gimmick and potentially only gimmick, considering she has escaped the scene the same way twice now and didn’t do more despite having every opportunity to do so and thus we kind of have to use it if we don’t want to be mind-raped. It does have two major problems though, both stated in the description for the spell back in Wizardquest:

>By projecting the guardian, at the cost of a hefty amount of mana, the inner guardian will proactively search for and eliminate mental attacks before they enter the mental sphere.

It costs a lot of mana to keep up, meaning we can’t keep it up for too long, and it only works on mental attacks before they can reach our mind, meaning any illusions cast before we put it up would still be in effect and thus the only way to stop something truly detrimental taking us down is to put up [Manifestation] before said crippling illusion has a chance to be cast, which in turn means our protection will be up for longer and drain us more as a result. As such, the only real way around this is to end the fight as fast as we can before the mana expenditure becomes too much, or at the very least we need to break line of sight before we drop it since I’m fairly certain she can’t do much to us other than something along the lines of [Project] without vision.

>>393484

>>393357

But I’m getting way too far ahead of myself here. Regarding the current situation, I’m with >>393362 here; it seems a bit strange to end the chase just because of a small set back. Our quarry clearly knew she was being followed, hence why she led us away from the crowd to deal with us, yet she never tried to fuck with our [Mage Sight], which implies that she can’t or doesn’t know we have it. So why not use that to track her again? Even if she casts more illusions in an attempt to throw us off, she would still stick out like a sore thumb in our [Mage Sight], not to mention said illusions would give us a new trail to follow, meaning we can keep following her regardless of what she tries. Worst case we somehow lose her and can go do the whole ‘going over what we know and planning our next moves’ thing, best case we find her again, use [Manifestation] to stop her bullshit and zap her with a [Lightning Bolt], perhaps <taser>-modified if we think we’ll kill her otherwise, to take her down before she has a chance to question why her trump card isn’t working the third time she plays it despite it working fine previously.

If we fuck up or you want to put your foot down on this, it’s your story and I won’t complain, then I guess looking into who in town is a visitor from Filliothia wouldn’t be the worst idea considering that people meeting this criteria are targets of the witch and her cult and will probably be accosted due to our opponent’s need to replenish their supply of unwilling participants following our recent intervention, giving us a way of finding them once again. We could also look into the information we gleaned from the Kikimora, namely this ‘Great Mother’ the cult reveres, what she meant by ‘the city of the unbelievers’, why Filliothia holds that aforementioned title and the name Mun’taca to see if we can find something that would let us find their leader again, first by querying Otit, then querying Myra—she was fairly amiable and probably has a lot of gossip considering her occupation—followed by any other locals that don’t seem shifty. And I guess we can also be nice to Sylphie and play the role of the mentor she’s sorely lacked by teaching her what we know about countering mental magic, but I was under the impression this was a given considering Ace’s love of writing feels.

>>393362

>How do illusions work on constructs?

Considering Harmony was possessed by a ghost back in the first quest fairly easily, my guess is that she's just as vulnerable to mental manipulation as the rest of us, which is to say very.

>>393492

>Forgot to Sage

Fuck. W-Well it's technically content.

>Story continue

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Chaika asks, hands on her hips.

“Chaika, she’s gone.” You say, breaking your gaze from your daughter.

“Like hells she is, she only just got away. She can’t have gotten far and you can track her with that [Mage Sight], right?” She taps her metallic head. “Besides, you know what her tricks are now, right?”

“Illusions…” You mutter, rubbing at your head.

“Illusions? Huh, so that explains that…” Sylphie says, frowning. “But if it’s a Monster using illusions who looks like-!” She gasps, placing a furred hand to her mouth.

“She’s a Mindflayer!”

“That thing that suit-wearing monkey and Saya fought?”

“That suit-wearing monkey is kind of your son now, and yes.” Sylphie says with a huff. It’s not like you meant anything by the comment, you kind of like the guy from the limited interaction you had with him. Still, it is your fatherly duty to harass him, especially since you missed the dating phase which, as you understand, was remarkably brief. Illusionists…

Closing your eyes and preparing yourself, you draw upon your mana to reform your [Inner Guardian]. Again, he eludes you, but you feel his presence. If you need to, you can [Manifest] and draw him forth to protect your mind, but Sylphie…

“You’d best stay here.” You say to Sylphie as you walk past.

“Like the hells I’m just going to sit back and stay here!” She huffs, cloak rising as her tails bristle.

“Sylphie, you don’t have any mental defense spells, do you?” When she doesn’t reply, you sigh. “I don’t have time to teach you right now, we need to be going.”

“That’s what you always say…” She sighs, shoulder slumping.

“Just wait here, we’ll be back.” You nod to Chaika and Harmony before lowering the mask again and dashing after the Mindflayer, leaving Sylphie behind you.

“Well done, jackass.” Chaika says, voice bitter as she runs.

“It’s safer for her to stay put for now!”

“You could have dealt with the situation better, you know.” Harmony sighs, though her stride never changes.

Gritting your teeth, you turn forward and quest out with your sight. Initially you get little back, though a few people passing to and from the luau give you strange looks. You ignore them, quite used to the looks, mask or no. Instead, you run through the dark city, lit by lanterns interspersed along the streets. While the light helps, you’re looking for something that can’t be seen in the brightest of light.

Something tickles your senses and you turn toward a nearby brick building, unable to see through the wall yet… you feel something is present. Nodding to Chaika and Harmony, you get close to the wall of the building and slide along the side toward a door. Taking in a deep breath, you nod to Chaika, who opens the door very slowly and-

A Lobster Girl opens the door the rest of the way, grabs Chaika, and throws her into the wall of a nearby building. She lets out a yelp of surprise, if not pain, and crumples. Blinking in surprise, you ready your magic to cast spells, but find the drain of the [Inner Guardian] a little taxing. As you think about this, a shudder goes down your spine. What are you missing here?

Harmony dashes forward, but she too is grabbed by the all too quick Monster, and thrown to the ground. She does not rise. You blink in surprise at Harmony and Chaika being brought down so quickly. This… this doesn’t jive. What’s wrong with this-

It hits you like a wave of cold water and you gasp before reaching out and using [Manifest] as the Lobster Girl goes to snab you. From the shadows of your mind, an eastern man with a sword dashes forward and, in one motion, slices through the Monster. The Lobster Girl wavers before the entire scene before you seems to ripple, and you blink in surprise to see Chaika and Harmony stirring.

“H-Huh?” Chaika says, checking her plating. “I’m fine?”

“What the-?” Harmony asks, doing the same.

You grit your teeth as you nod to your [Inner Guardian]. While you preferred the shining Paladin of cooperation, you suppose that your guardian moved on, even though you hadn’t. Or it could be all that eastern theatre you watched when you got back from Ectria. Surely that had nothing to do with it.

>>393587

“Illusion.” You say, taking a breath to stabilze yourself. It’s been so long since you used it spell, you forgot how taxing it is. “The guardian can protect us, but we need to get moving, I don’t know how long it will last.”

The other two nod and you dash into the building to find it completely unoccupied and utterly dark. Frowning, you light your staff with a trickle of power and search about. The building looks like it’s an office space, with desks in rows and papers scattered everywhere. Given how recently used it seems to be, you’re pretty sure it’s not where this Mindflayer had set up shop, unless she managed to mess with the minds of the workers, but that seems… difficult.

Though draining to keep your [Mage Sight] and [Inner Guardian] up, you manage to hold on well enough as you scan about. You don’t see anything though. Is this Mindflayer still able to get you, despite your layers of protection? Maybe Harmony was right, maybe it is best to leave and come back later with more of a plan.

As you consider this, you look up and see a flicker through the floorboards above you. What’s all this then? The other two follow as you head up the stairs, devoting some more power to localized [Privacy Barriers], though you figure she knows where you are anyway. As you reach the second floor, you see a row of offices, and one with an open door. An ominous presence seems to emanate from there, your [Mage Sight] detecting the power of the Mindflayer.

You head toward the door open door and, with your staff ready, you turn the corner quickly and cast [Lightning Bolt]!

Though you turned the intensity down to stun the Monster, you fill the entire room with the pulse, sending up bits of paper and debris as your power arcs over everything. Readying for more, you scan the room and see… nothing.

Blinking your eyes in confusion, you search for her presence in the room but come up with nothing! Aghast, you [Manifest] your guardian, who appears before the naked eye. The guardian looks about before turning to you, frowning. You blink in surprise when you hear a loud sound of metal on metal. Whipping about, you see Chaika throwing a punch into Harmony’s face, tossing the construct across the hall and tumbling down the stairs.

“I got her!” Chaika shouts! “Did you see that? I got-“ Before she can finish, a whining sound is heard and bright lights appear from the stairs as Harmony dashes through the space with her flight unit to flying tackle Chaika down the hall and into the brick wall at the other end.

It happened faster than you could see, but your guardian did nothing. It merely stands its ground, hand on its sword and scanning, looking for threats to you. But that would mean that unlike last time, this is an illusion cast only on those two, which means that nothing is currently affecting you currently. Or at least, nothing directly that could be perceived of as a threat…

You detect magic flare behind you and you whirl about in time to see the Mindflayer’s presence blaze into being as she steps out from behind the door where she was hidden. Before you can so much as yelp, the tentacles on her head grasp yours and pull you in close, face to face. At this distance you can’t help but appreciate how beautiful she is, despite her strange, purple skin. Of course, this complexion is ruined when she breaks out into a grin so wide it seems to stretch the corners of her mouth, her red eyes flashing with an inner madness as she babbles.

>>393588

“You couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you? I just wanted to do my lady’s bidding, but you keep chasing me, chasing me, chasing me! Can’t I work in peace? Can’t I have do a good job? I can do a good job, but I don’t need pesky followers. You shouldn’t have followed me, you shouldn’t have done that, oh now I need to punish you, but should I kill you? Oh what should-“

Before she can say anything further, you let loose the [Irate Frog Song]. In most situations this would drive the opponent away, give you time to strike at her, or at least to get away. However, that would be too easy. Instead, she merely laughs, her off cadence noise creating discord with your song, as if she’s enjoying it.

The tentacles increase in pressure against your head and she slams her hands against the side of your temples, her fingers pressing tight. Gasping for air as you can no longer keep up the song, you feel magic flare up from within the Mindflayer. Laughing maniacally, she slams her forehead against yours, her red eyes boring into yours. Though your [Inner Guardian] is able to mitigate the effects at first it’s soon overwhelmed by a massive swell of power and then-

Before you lies Saya, broken in multiple pieces, her gelatinous form melting away into nothingness, eyes dissolving away. Laying behind her are the corpses of Sophie and Sylphie, tears leaking from their lifeless eyes as their naked forms are beaten and abused, covered in semen and blood. Behind them, nailed to a circle is Selene, her entrails open as her head lolls to the side, flies buzzing around her emaciated corpse.

You watch in slow motion as over and over you see their deaths happening by faceless beings and you feel a great wave of helplessness, unable to summon your magic, move, or do anything but watch over and over. And yet, something tugs at the back of your mind, a faint echo of a shudder from a foreign mind. Within, you see a girl watch as fish-like Sahaguin raid her village, stealing away her friends and family as everything burns.

And then everything snaps back into being. Gasping, you fall to your knees, eyes wandering as the world spins. You see before you the Mindflayer, who is no longer laughing, merely looking at you with a mix of pity and shame. Tears streaming down your face, you reach out a hand toward her but find your vision growing black until you fall face first onto the floorboards and the nightmare begins again.

>>393589

“-Is he going to be okay?”

“I don’t know, we’ll have to see.”

“I’m just glad she didn’t kill him. Damn, how did we fall for that again?”

You blink your eyes and look up at the ceiling of your room in Otit’s inn. A groan escapes your lips, followed by a series of gasps from around you, and then appears Harmony’s impassive faceplate, a large crack running through it.

“Wizard! You’re awake! Thank the Gods.”

“W-what?” You say, closing your eyes before gasping as a memory comes to you. Bolting up in bed, you shout, “SELENE?! SOPHIE, SYLPHIE? WHERE-!”

“Dad! Dad!” Sylphie says, sitting on a stool next to you. She rushes forward and grabs you, holding you tight as you pull away, eyes wild.

“No, no, no! I have to save them!” You begin to summon your magic, feeling a desperate need to get away and find your family when furred hands grab your beard and you’re pulled face to face with your daughter.

“Dad! Dad, I’m right here!” She says, looking you in the eyes.

Tears streaming from your face, you reach out with trembling hands and touch her shoulders, feeling the solidity there. “This… this isn’t an illusion, right?”

“No, it’s me.” She says, giving you a rueful smile. “In the flesh.”

“Oh… oh thank the Gods.” You say, pulling her into a hug. A tightness still pulls at your chest, but you feel an overwhelming sense of relief as well. Shuddering, you pull away and wipe at your eyes. “I thought… it was so real and…”

“Well, at least you’re alive.” She sighs, placing her head onto your chest. “When Harmony brought me to you, I thought she might have actually… actually…” Tears well up in her eyes.

“It’s… it’s fine.” You say, wrapping your arms around her. Rubbing at your eyes again, you say, chuckling a little, “So this is what your sister and the monkey had to go through? Damn.”

“His name is Tobias.” Sylphie says, chuckling as well, though you can see some tears in her eyes.

Sighing out, you turn to Chaika and Harmony and say, “What happened?”

“Uhhh.” Chaika coughs, though you know it’s just a vocal tick. “I thought Harmony was the Mindflayer and punched her.”

“And I thought the same thing.” Harmony says, rubbing at her faceplate and sighing as a piece chips off. “The illusions seem to affect us quite strongly it seems.”

“Probably because you have rather unique cores. Despite having different sensory organs, they basically function the same. I’m sure with your past lives remembering touch, she could probably make you think that too.” You say, feeling tired.

“What happened to you?” Sylphie asks, rubbing at her eyes.

“I…” You begin before pausing and taking a deep breath. “I believe the Mindflayer lured us up there by dropping any illusions hiding her presence. Though [Mage Sight] can see through most illusions, at the end of the day if our perception tells us something is there, we’ll default to that. Likely why I went for the open door instead of noticing the trickle of power behind it.”

“So she played your perception on what you expected.” Sylphie says, frowning. “That’s not magic, that’s just playing dirty.”

“It’s the same thing.” You say, shrugging before you remember the next part. “When I noticed her, she was able to get me in a hold and then, instead of killing me she… she looked me in the eyes and I saw, uh.” You gulp a few times and press a hand to your eyes. “Well, the most horrible thing I can imagine. Oh Gods.”

The other three exchange looks and Chaika rubs your back. “I think we get the picture. Gods, what a frightening power.”

“Jackor’s imperfections…” Sylphie murmurs. “Gods, from what I hear the last Mindflayer could barely be defeated, even by Madam Xanthia. This makes things difficult for us.”

You look up to your daughter, managing to keep tears in check as you pull yourself together. “For us? Sylphie you don’t mean to…” You trail off as she looks down, her ears flattening. The rest of your complaint dies in your throat and you lick your lips before sighing out,

“I’m sorry.”

Her ears perk up and she cocks her head as you ball your hands into fists. “I’m sorry I flew off the handle like that earlier. I was upset because I was afraid you’d get hurt, and you did, twice. But then I went off on my own and got my own ass kicked. Gods what an idiot I am.”

“Dad…” She whispers, but you continue.

>>393590

“I shouldn’t have made fun of your retarded- err, your adventuring, even if your cape is goofy.” She frowns at this though you keep talking. “The fact that you were able to deduce where she would be and track her down not once, but twice, is impressive. Maybe I just didn’t want to admit that my baby girl was able to be a hero on her own.” You laugh,

“I should have known better. I did know better but chose to ignore it in my anger. Can you forgive me?”

Sylphie looks into your eyes before sighing. “I suppose. Gods, if only Sophie could see you acting this pathetic.”

“I’ll give her the full details.” Chaika says, Harmony nodding in affirmation.

“Gee, thanks.” You say before chuckling. “Ugh, and your mother will never let me live this down.”

“No, but she’ll forgive you.” Sylphie says, a twinge of a smile coming to her lips. “So does this mean you’re going to tell me why you’re here in the first place?”

“Oh, ah…” You say before cutting off as you look into Sylphie’s eyes, annoyance forming. Gulping, you nod your head and tell her everything. When you’re finished, she sits back and blinks a few times, as if unable to comprehend it.

“Well shit.”

“Tell me about it.” You sigh. “So you see how important it is we recover the captive from the Mindflayer so we can potentially get to the bottom of the sea to see the Sea Queen and use her trident to summon the Goddess of the oceans.”

“Well gee dad, that doesn’t sound fucking retarded when you put it like that.”

“Hey, language missy.”

The two of you smile at one another before chuckling. Harmony leans over to Chaika and whispers, “Have you seen the two of them laugh like that in awhile?”

“Sure haven’t. It’s nice to see again.”

When you both calm down, Sylphie huffs and balls her hands into fists, tails swishing behind her. “So, what’s our next move?”

“Well.” You say, rubbing your chin. “We should gather more information. I know someone who might help and if she’s going around disguised as an islander, then we might be able to track down where someone with her description, assuming she hasn’t changed it, might be.” For some reason the vague memory of the island village burning and a girl crying comes to you, but you dismiss it. Too close to the other memory.

“Otherwise, we should come up with a plan of how to fight the Mindflayer next time we meet her. Hopefully her plans have been delayed some and we can get make use of the interference to prepare.”

“Alright.” Harmony says, gathering her cloak. “Let’s get to it then.”

>What do you do?

>>393591

Welp, that could have gone better. But… at least you've reconnected with your daughter, sort of.

This update is kind of a "to be continued" because I think I know what people want to go with, I just didn't have the time to sit down and write it all. If nothing else comes in, I'll write more tomorrow with gathering information in mind.

>Story continue

“Very well.” Sylphie says, nodding her head with sagacity. “But first…” She pats her stomach and blushes.

“Uhm, think we can get some breakfast.”

“Organics…” Chaika sighs. “Them and their food obsessions.”

“Truly, degenerate behavior.” Harmony says with a twinge of amusement in her voice. She turns to you and asks, “Are you feeling hungry?”

A rumble goes through your stomach and you sigh. “I suppose I can eat. Though I’m pretty sure Otit’s food is going to give me the shits again.”

“Dad!” Sylphie says, looking mortified.

“What? You’re an adult supposedly, you can take these kinds of comments.” You stretch and make your way out of bed, perhaps stumbling a little as you do so. Both Harmony and Sylphie support you, though Harmony relents after a moment, to a smirk from Sylphie.

“Wow dad, I knew you were old, but I didn’t think it was time for retirement yet.”

“On second thought, I change my worst fear.” You grumble, though of course you didn’t mean that. Still, Sylphie looks to the sigh and sighs before holding your arm.

“Come on, dad.”

The four of you head to the common room where Otit’s daughter is serving another group staying in the inn. At your approach she sighs and cocks her head at Sylphie, who is no longer wearing her cloak, but instead a green outfit that hugged her curves at the top before moving to divided skirts she obviously found easier for riding. She does still wear a cape, however, her tails hiding underneath. Otit’s daughter looks between her and you before cocking her head, sighing, and heading back to the kitchen. A moment later Otit arrives, clapping his meaty hands.

“Alahunora! You got in late last night, eh? Enjoy the luau a little much?”

“Not exactly.” You sigh.

“Hah, not exactly he says.” His eyes turn to Sylphie and he chuckles. “Oh ho, who is this little wahuwahi? I’m seeing a familiar presence here!”

“Ah, this is Sylphie, my daughter.” You say, introducing her.

“My father has told me much about you. A pleasure.” Sylphie says, nodding her head.

“Oh! Such manners. Your wife raise her good, huh?”

“Humph, I’d like to think I had something to do with that.” You say, crossing your arms.

“Well, no, not really.” Sylphie says, shrugging. “Besides, you were just saying how much this man’s food makes you shit a little while ago.”

“Oh, is that so?” Otit says, raising an eyebrow. “Well you’ll be eating a LARGE portion!” As he walks by, he grips your shoulder, hard, and you wince before turning to Sylphie, who looks at her nails.

“I’m starting to think maybe you’re still upset.”

“Maybe.” She says while Chaika snickers next to her.

“Damn, and I thought Sophie was the smart-ass.” The construct chuckles as Otit comes back with a steaming tray of some sausage, eggs, and rice. Yours is much larger than Sylphie’s, with extra sausage.

“Eat up.” He says, eyes shimmering with some emotion you can’t place.

“Ahaha… yeah.” You say, taking up your fork and digging in. The food is incredible for something which should be such a staple, you just know you’ll regret it later. Thank the Gods you brought potions… though that thought also makes you sick.

“So Otit.” You say, chewing some eggs. “Got time to answer some questions?”

“I suppose, you’re some of the last for breakfast.”

“Do you happen to know of someone called, ‘Mun’taca?’”

Otit’s fingers slip on the tray he’s holding for just a moment before he recovers himself. Looking about at the other patrons, he whispers, “You got a spell for this?”

“Ah.” You say, gently casting [Privacy Barrier]. Sylphie’s ears twitch as you do, but she doesn’t stop her eating.

Otit licks his lips and asks, “Where did you hear that name?”

>>393712

“A run-in we had last night. An islander Kikimora said she was some conduit of the great mother.”

“Kikimora? I see, I see. Not many of those in the city. I wonder if I knew her.” Otit says, frowning. “It would make sense to call her that though, as Mun’teca is the name of an island spirit of revitalization, of doing away with the old and rebuilding something from the ruins. She’s also regarded as a spirit of revenge, many ghost stories told about her. I’d heard the name around recently but didn’t think it was much more than some pahu that learned some island lore for a copper.”

You and Sylphie exchange looks. She swallows her bite and says, “Well, I doubt there’s an island spirit running around here.”

“Hah, not on this spiritless rock, no.” Otit chuckles. “But it could be someone using the name for something.”

“Conduit of the great mother.” You murmur. “In relation to this Mun’teca… perhaps it’s relating to a Goddess?”

“Eh? But which Goddess?” Sylphie says, concerned. “There’s Dollora, Phallia, and Fillios?”

Otit rubs his chin. “Islanders don’t take too much stock of the twins. We rely on the water too much, so many worship the Goddess of the seas almost as much as they do the spirits of the islands.”

“Really? That’s interesting.” Guess with the ocean all around, it’s kind of important to keep in good favor with Fillios. Although that memory with the Sahaguin bothers you for some reason…

“Oh!” Sylphie says, holding up her fork. “Didn’t you say something about a city of unbelievers they were looking for?”

“Ah, yeah.” You say, snapping back to the present. “They said this Mun’teca would deliver them there for eternal glory or something.”

“Can’t say I much know of that. Some say this city is full of heathens, but given that they live here, I’d say most are ungrateful huhowas.” He shakes his head. “But it would be weird to be delivered here if they were already here!”

He lets out a belly laugh that shakes your table, only stopping when his daughter walks up and grabs his arm. You hurriedly drop your spell as she growls out, “Daaaad, you’re creeping out the customers pretending to laugh like that. Come on, you need to get back to work!” She sighs and turns to Sylphie. “Dads, right?”

“Tell me about it.” Your daughter says, leaning on her elbow as she eats.

Both you and Otit look hurt as the latter is pulled away. Harmony watches the scene and shrugs, “Well, we learned something anyway, though how applicable it is will be variable.”

“Well, we learned that there aren’t many Kikimora islanders, our Mindflayer is invoking the name of some island spirit, and she wants to bring her followers to some city for eternal glory by kidnapping residents of Fillothia.”

Chaika nods her head with sagacity. “Open and shut, really.”

“Oh? Do tell.”

The construct is silent for a long time before saying in a monotone: Power cells low, initiating sleep mode.”

You and Harmony share a glance before shaking your heads and finishing breakfast.

>>393713

“Uhm, Dad.” Sylphie says, hands on her hips. “Why are we at a whorehouse?”

You cough into your hand, realizing just how awkward this situation is. After finishing breakfast, you decided to head back down to the docks with your mask on, despite the humidity. As soon as you left your inn however, Mr. Ed walked out from behind a nearby building, giving a soft neigh as Sylphie went to approach him. Together, you made your way down to “The Slippery Eel,” where you realize your critical mistake.

“I mean, Mom is a little busy at the moment, but to think you’d do something like this…” Your daughter says, hurt. “Here I was, thinking maybe I could trust you again.”

“Harmony, help me out here.” You plead to the construct, who gives you a neutral expression under her cloak, not that she any other expressions.

“I’m telling.” She says, to which you groan.

“Listen, there’s an informant here and-“

“Ohhh, well if it isn’t my favorite customer~”

All five of you turn to see Myra slithering out of the front door of the brother, pipe in her hand. “I’m afraid hours of operation are a little later in the day, but if it’s for you, I can make an exception.”

The other four stare at you. Chaika says, “I’m telling too.”

“I thought your stupid power cell- Nevermind.” You shake your head. “Besides, do you all think I have the charm or charisma to have anyone other my wife think so highly of me?”

The rest of your party consider this carefully as you realize what you just said. Actually, no, that’s pretty accurate all things considered. Damn, now you’re sad.

Myra cover her mouth as she laughs. “That’s enough teasing I suppose, especially in front of your beautiful daughter.” She nods her head to Sylphie. “Mmm, what a body though. Tell me, have you ever thought of a career being a whore?”

“Uh… uhm.” Sylphie says, her turn to be embarrassed. This fills you with no small amount of glee, while at the same time you’re annoyed that anyone would suggest your darling girl to be a whore.

“Alright, enough of that Myra, we have some questions to ask, if you’d be so kind.”

She taps her pipe and glides to a table before leaning back on her tail. “Well, if you have more of that leaf, I wouldn’t mind a little chat.”

The four of you take seats while you pass the leaf to Myra. Mr Ed starts nibbling on grass nearby, though for some reason Myra takes an interest in his movements. Once you’re situated, she reaches into her cleavage, digging about for awhile, before sighing. “Darn, I have forgotten my match. Might you have a light?”

You hesitate for a moment before Sylphie snaps her fingers and a small fire lights the leaf in the pipe. Myra smirks, seeming unfazed by this before taking a long draw and then exhaling smoke. “So, you are a witch, hmm?”

“Ah.” Sylphie says, realizing her mistake before looking down.

“Pyromancer hmm? Oh and you must be as well sir, though is it possible that you’re a… Wizard?”

Sylphie tenses, but you remain calm before sighing and removing your mask. The Eel Girl chuckles. “It’s rather hard to hide your presence like that. Well you tried anyway, so that’s something.” Breathing out more smoke, she asks, “So, what can I do for you?”

“Have you heard of what happened at the warehouse district last night?”

“Of course. Some ritual was going on but when the city guard came in, they found everyone already tied up. Most people say it’s the work of the Dark Avenger…” her eyes drift to Sylphie before she continues, “But I personally think some other force was at play.”

“I see.” You say, knowing intuitively this Monster knows far more than she’s letting on. “Those performing the ritual, do you know anything about them?”

“Mmm, not much. I believe one of the watchmen who came to ‘relieve’ himself after the stress said something about them all being islanders, even a Kikimora.” She blows out some smoke. “Leilani, if I recall right. She’s lived here for quite some time so it’s a surprise to find her involved in this sort of thing.”

“You know her? Do you happen to know anything about where she lives or where she might be seen usually? Has she been hanging around shady people recently or acting differently?”

Myra holds up a hand. “This all seems like more than a little interest. Looking into a person’s private life makes it sound like something is going on.” Her eyes flash. “And it sounds dangerous.”

“A little…” You say, wondering how to work this.

“Alright, let’s try something different.” Chaika says. “Do you know this person named ‘Mun’teca?’”

>>393714

“Hmm, I have heard that bandied about recently. I’m not certain what it means, but there’s been hushed whispers among some islanders that one of their spirits is kidnapping people. Considering three of the missing people were suddenly spotted heading for the beach last night a little after that ritual was busted up, one has to wonder how they are related~”

The four of you trade glances before Chaika groans and says, “Listen lady, where is this asshole calling herself some island spirit or whatever? She’s kidnapped people and we need to find her before she causes even more harm. ”

“I don’t know.” Myra says, giving a level look to Chaika. “That is the truth. If this person is to cause trouble to Hudson, then it would be bad for business. I have an interest in putting a stop to this.” She leans forward and blows smoke into Chaika’s faceplate.

Harmony places a hand on Chaika’s and shakes her head. “We see. But if you had to take a guess?”

“Well, if this person has disciples, then it might be best to find one of them and ask questions.” She pulls out a piece of parchment from between her breasts and shakes the excess slime off it before writing with a pen she also produces from her breasts. She hands it to you, and you frown at the slippery substance on it before reading an address.

“It’s the address of your Kikimora. If you hurry the authorities may not have raided it yet. Perhaps you’ll find more information there.”

“Thank you.” You say, nodding your head. “It’s something to work with at least. I just wish we knew where they were hiding the captives.”

“One would assume somewhere either no one would look, or no one would think to look.” The Eel says. “Though in this city, that’s rather vague. You may have to think like your mysterious spirit in order to find that out.”

“That… might be difficult.” You sigh before frowning. “By the way, do you happen to know what this ‘city of unbelievers is’ and why these islanders would want to be delivered to it?”

“Hmm?” The Eel Girl says. “Where would they need someone else to help bring them to that they can’t reach on their own?” She blows out a ring of smoke.

“I wonder.”

—————————————————————————————————————————————

After bidding Myra farewell, you regroup a little farther away to go over your options. Staring at the slightly slimy address, you sigh.

“Well. We have one possibly solid lead. Why couldn’t this be as easy as it was supposed to be?”

“Because, that would be no fun.” Sylphie sighs. “Though it would be nicer.”

“Well, it’s something.” Harmony says. “I don’t know how well we’d be able to guess where an insane person would hide people.”

“Well, it’s either somewhere no one would look, or somewhere no one would think to look. Maybe she’s hiding right in plain sight?” Chaika chuckles. When you give it some consideration, the construct sighs. “Oh come on.”

“It’s a possibility. Illusionists are known for doing tricks which require no magic. If she could hide them somewhere no one would think to look then it would be perfect. But where could she go that wasn’t too crowded, but people would still not think to check?”

“That could be a lot of places.” Sylphie says. “It might be best just to check the other lead.”

“We could always split up.” Harmony suggests. “Cover more ground? We just need to make sure not to engage.”

Mr. Ed wickers and you nod in agreement. Looks like you have some decisions to make and the longer you wait, the greater chance that your captives, and possibly your only ticket to Filliothia, might slip away.

>What do you do?

>>393715

You got a lead! A little bit of information too, but perhaps not enough. It's your call on how you want to approach this now, ball is in your court!

Sorry for the delays last week, I've just been really tired and writing after work has been difficult. I hate always having to apologize to people during these quests but I want to make sure people are still getting their content, or at least an update!

>>393715

Don't mind me, just need to un-break my 8ch

We still need to teach Sylphie inner guardian right? And seeing how easily she beat us last time it might be prudent to come up with some sort of countermeasure.

Alright. First of all we cannot afford to split up with an Illusionist/Mindflayer in town, along with other baddies, as the other members of our party have shown a deep weakness to illusions, and it's just asking to be picked off. Second of all, I believe that by interrogating the Kikimora, we will be led to Captain Baha, and "Mun’taca", for the reasons below. When done interrogating her, turn her over to the guard.

However, Mun'taca is not a run of the mill monster. It was mentioned by the Kikimora that "Only Mun’taca hears the voice of the great mother". I'd be willing to bet that the great mother is Phallia, and that Mun'taca is another of those foul plant abominations, which would explain how she can talk to Phallia. Additionally, whenever we saw a Calamari head in Illusionquest, their handler, Chalan, also a plant abomination, was never very far behind.

Because of this, we should be prepared to annihilate one of these things on sight, as I believe in WQ2, nothing short of a complete destruction, either by [Ice]+[Shatter], or [Plasma], will kill them. As for the calamari head, she has beaten us yes, but only by taking us by surprise twice, and fooling [Magesight] by flooding a room with her power. However, now that we know her tricks, we'll be able to counter this. I agree with the above anon, we need to teach Sylphie and the constructs as much mental magic/defense as we can while we travel. However, as Sylphie has Mr. Ed, who being an animal, is immune to illusions, to fall back on, this isn't vital. As for the constructs, remind them to just be hyper aware, and constantly question their environment, which seemed to work for Akela.

If Captain Baha is not with Mun'taca, we should take note of the this. As illusionists are stated to hide things in plain sight, the best place I can think to look for Baha is the warehouse that we rescued prisoners from already, or one close to it, as who would be crazy enough to hide prisoners in a place your other captives were rescued from? The only other possibility is Baha's ship, as that also fits the criteria.

TL;DR? Find Mun'taca by talking to Kikimora, will lead to Baha, be prepared for plant monster

Questions for Ace:

1. It was mentioned earlier that sorcerers were created from magical "leakage" of Solos blessing humanity with wizards. Are the leylines also a product of this leakage, or were they formed on their own? Are they connected to Solos at all?

2. How much magical power is required to drag a god forcibly into the world? What about simply call loudly enough that they will actually listen, w/o an artifact?

>>393767

Sage, mate.

Darn. Checked the wrong box

>>393729

Plz no leave. Plz stay and play.

>>393757

You're correct! We should do that

>>393767

The Kikimora is in custody, however you know where her house is so you can probably raid it for info. You could theoretically go and ask her in jail too…

I wouldn't say that Mr. Ed is necessairly immune to illusions, only because he is a familiar and their perceptions are a little… different.Would still be hard to affect both you AND him with the same illusion though. However, Mr. Ed is a sharp kid so he'll probably be fine.

1. The leylines were formed during the seeding of the world with magic after Dollora formed the Chasm of regret. This is why the land is seeded with mana crystals and why a place like Ectria does not have mana crystals (because there weren't functional leylines!)

2. A lot. Enough where Solos would probably personally quash this person because it would be noticeable. However, to call them with an artifact which was 1. passed down or touched by the God and 2. resonates with them wouldn't draw such attention. Speaking with them in a church is one thing, but actually getting their full attention is another.

>>393768

Comment, mate :^)

>>393715

Regarding the whole ‘where are the captives hidden’ thing, something worth considering is that the cult has only recently started having to deal with us and Sylphie in the form of the Dork Dark Avenger. Before we popped up, the only threats they had to worry about were the locals finding them and the local authorities becoming active soon after they made their first move, both of which likely lacking magic in any capacity considering that such gifts are supposed to be rare. As such, it’s likely that their methods of hiding will still involve illusions in some capacity since it’s unlikely that they would have been able to swap to a different location without usage of illusions and without being spotted, meaning [Mage Sight] should still work wonders here. Furthermore, considering who they were probably originally trying to avoid the notice of, their solution of how to hide will be based around where said threats wouldn’t look or wouldn’t think to look, rather than simply anyone.

With that in mind, I’m just going to spit ball a few ideas that come to mind:

>The Warehouses

Basically what >>393767 said, though for different reasons. Should local authorities have already done a thorough search to the best of their abilities, then they likely won’t check somewhere they already did earlier. Still, you’d think the fact that the ritual popped up in the warehouses at all would prompt more searching, so perhaps the cult wouldn’t do such a thing in the location they hold their prisoners.

>The Jail/Base of Operations for the City Guard

The local authorities wouldn’t even consider that their own turf could be hiding what they seek, because they would have noticed if someone had tried to set anything up within it. That is, unless you’re dealing with illusions, but they don’t know that and wouldn’t suspect a thing as a result. This would also deal with the risk of locals sticking their nose in places they don’t belong; the locals aren’t going to go snoop around a prison accidentally. Also, if the city guard is corrupt in some capacity which is possible but unlikely, we’ll figure that out if any members of the cult reappear in public then it would make sense they would use their facilities for storing prisoners since no one would question it.

>Outside of Hudson

The best way to avoid detection within a settlement is to not be within that settlement at all. This does beg the question of how they would smuggle prisoners back into the town though. Via a boat would make the most sense if I had to hazard a guess considering the port traffic and how some of the dock workers are compromised, so checking the docks wouldn’t be the worst idea.

>One of the Inns the kidnappings took place

The equivalent of hiding in the same room to the person you just murdered. Generally not a good idea, but it could work when you factor illusions into the mix.

A quick glance over each of these areas and what other anons have suggested with [Mage Sight] should hopefully turn up some results. In order to speed things up to avoid losing our ticket to Filliothia, I’d recommend we split into our original two parties, with us, Harmony and Chaika going to some of the aforementioned locations and Sylphie and Mr Ed going to the others. It’s certainly dangerous, yes, but frankly having Sylphie with us won’t help if the Mindflayer gets close due to her own vulnerability to mental magic, so grouping up with her doesn’t really benefit us—if anything, we’re more obvious. Furthermore, our target was more than happy to leave us alone until we relentlessly pursued her, and even then she only mind raped us after we took down her first illusion to show we weren’t stopping our chase, which implies that she wouldn’t give a shit if we bailed at the first sign of her presence she’d probably be pretty happy to get back to whatever work she was doing, meaning so long as we don’t engage and instead simply confirm our suspicions before running we should be fine. Worst case scenario we can simply keep our distance and bail at the first opportunity—she can’t do much without being within grab range, if our last fight is any indication.

Other than that, I guess just follow this new lead maybe before anything else due to the time frame we have to do it within while Mr Ed keeps watch for any guards we may need to run away from before they notice and question us.

>>393796

Something else I just thought of: the cult could be hiding the captives within or in close proximity to one of the chapels of Fillios. A holy site dedicated to a deity well respected by the locals would almost certainly have some frequent traffic, meaning no one would really suspect anyone to be crazy enough to try hiding in the area, not to mention people wouldn't think that a location providing safety and comfort could also double as a place to hold prisoners. Also, considering that the cult is targeting 'the city of the unbelievers'—that is, Filliothia—and thus consider those faithful to Fillios to be 'unbelievers' and enemies, it wouldn't be out of the question that they would hide right under the noses of those most faithful to the Ocean Goddess, since it would be the last place said faithful individuals would think to look.

>Story continue

“Nah.” You say, pocketing the address. “We’ll stick together for now. No sense in running into unnecessary trouble.”

Harmony cocks her head but relents while the others fall in line as you make your way into the city proper. Fortunately in the more Deleorian section of the city, it’s quite organized and you can find where you’re going without too much trouble, though people do give you odd looks for wearing your mask. The price you pay for your anonymity is the fact that it’s scorching hot outside now and the humidity makes it feel like you’re walking through the ocean. Gods that sounds nice right about now.

Casting [Ice] down your shirt, you shudder in relief. Sylphie snickers next to you, but when you turn to face her, she’s busy looking at her nails. She looks cool as a cucumber though, despite the cloak hiding her tails. Narrowing your eyes at her, you just sigh and consult the address again. As far as you’re aware, it should be around here somewhere…

“What’s the plan anyway?” Chaika asks, her sudden question surprising you.

“Uhhh, we break in and search the place for clues.” You say, as if it were obvious.

“Okay, smartass.” Chaika huffs. “And what if someone catches us?”

“Then we make sure that doesn’t happen?”

You get the distinct feeling Chaika is glaring at you, despite being physically unable to. She mutters something about asses and kicking when Harmony says, “How about we stand guard while you and Sylphie check the place?”

You and your daughter share a look before shrugging. “Sounds reasonable.” She says. “I’ve done my fair share of investigations.”

“Oh really? And where might this have been?”

She puffs out her chest, looking smug. “I helped find a missing treasure in a town north of here by following clues. I even laid a trap in another town near the unsettled region and caught someone trying to scare farmers off their stakes by dressing as a monster.”

Mr. Ed neighs and she laughs. “It’s true, he may have gotten away with it if it weren’t for my meddling and my stupid horse!”

You blink, surprised at your daughter’s accomplishments. Perhaps you could understand her getting things done with Tabitha around, or even Sophie, but on her own? A part of you feels proud and yet… conflicted on this. Unable to come up with a good response, you ask, “Monster, eh? How big were his fake tits then?”

“Ugh, Dad!” Sylphie says, huffing and turning away.

Yeah, reeeaaaal smooth of you.

Sighing, you look up at the street signs and stop to read the address again. “I think we’re here.” You say, the others stopping to stand next to you as well.

Before you is a large structure, a kind of packed structure of domiciles known as apartments. These had come into favor since the magitek revolution as people wanted to live closer to the cities but couldn’t necessarily afford their own housing. These small, compact living quarters were ample substitute.

“Mr. Ed” You say, nodding to the horse. “Keep watch and let Sylphie know if anything funny happens. Harmony, Chaika, come with us and watch the halls.”

Walking into the building, you ascend a flight of stairs up to the third floor. The building is quiet at this time of day, most people likely at their jobs or out enjoying the sunlight. When you reach the apartment you’re looking for, you wave for Chaika and Harmony to watch the corners as you and Sylphie walk up the door. Just to make sure, you try to open it, but find it locked. Well, can’t say you didn’t try.

>>393855

“I got this.” Sylphie whispers, one of her tails sliding from beneath her cloak. She places one of her feline ears next to the door and listens, her tail making rhythmic motions until a “click” is heard. She pulls away and nods her head, to which you are impressed.

“Wherever did my darling little girl learn to pick locks?”

“Mr. Ed taught me.”

“I-“ You begin, but then look to the side, not certain how to respond to that. Eventually you settle for shaking your head and looking back at the door, activating your [Mage Sight]. Nothing stands out to you about the place, at least not magically. After taking a deep breath, you put a hand on the door handle and push it open.

You’re greeted by the fruitest smelling, cleaning apartment you’ve ever been in. The scent of fresh island fruits and flowers physically assaults you while the daylight shining on polished metal dazzles you. Both you and Sylphie have to shield your eyes for a moment from the brilliance before entering and closing the door behind you. With most of the sunlight gone, you can adjust and admire the place.

It’s small, consisting of a small hearth near the entrance, a chest of drawers, and a well-kept bed in the corner. Infact, the only other room is a small area for a toilet and a closet filled with islander cleaning supplies. Seems you can take the Kikimora from high-class cleaning, but you can’t take high class cleaning from the Kikimora.

“Well, at least it won’t take long to search.” Sylphie says, her tails spreading out around her as she goes through the room, opening drawers and searching. Both of you look through the chest of drawers and find nothing but lacy undergarments, some of which Sylphie eyes with appreciation, though she puts them back.

The hearth is also empty and so is the bed. After your quick search you end up with a whole lot of nothing. It’s possible that you were lead to the wrong place by Myra, however you get the feeling that the Eel Girl was genuine with you. Which means that this Kikimora didn’t have any clues. Damnit, looks like you wasted time for nothing.

Sighing, you fold your arms and say, “Alright, we should go. Looks like this was a dead end.”

“I guess.” Sylphie says, shaking her head as she turns to close to the door to the little supply closet. As she does so, one of her tails snags a broom and it falls, dragging a while host of cleaning supplies down to the floor. Gasping, you hurriedly throw up a [Privacy Barrier] and wait for anything to happen. When nothing does, you sigh and turn to Sylphie, who looks away.

“S-Sorry. I know I’m clumsier with my tails than Sophie and Mom but…” She trails off and winces, “Sorry.”

Closing your eyes, you just shake your head and put your hand upon hers. Her feline ears twitch and she looks up as you smile down at her. “It’s alright. I’m clumsy myself, you know that well enough.”

She blinks in surprise as you go to clean up the mess of cleaning supplies, the irony not being lost on you. As you do, something slips to the floor from between a stack of rags. Sylphie reaches down to pick it up, a piece of parchment which she reads before gasping.

“I think this is what we’re looking for!”

“Oh?” You ask, looking down to see what’s on it.

In truth, there isn’t that much written. In excessively flowing script, you read the words, “In the shadow of the armed masts, you will find me. Come, and I will open the way to eternal glory.”

You both look at each other, confused. What the hells is this? Scratching your head you say, “Well, the eternal glory part sounds like what that Kikimora said, but who was she supposed to meet and what does shadow of the armed masts mean?”

“I suppose it’s a riddle, a calling card maybe?” Sylphie looks on the backside but sees nothing in particular. “Wonder why she kept it.”

“A momento, perhaps?” You say, not really meaning much by it. “Kikimoras are known to be sentimental toward their masters. Perhaps they saw this note as a gift they wanted to keep?”

“Ehhhh.” Sylphie says, scratching her head. “Maybe. But it’s more than we had before anyway-“ She cuts off as she cocks her head before frowning. “We should go.”

>>393856

Not questioning her, you pack up the rest of the closet and leave, gathering Harmony and Chaika. Before you can escape, however, footsteps are heard, coming from the stairs. Sylphie curses and pulls you in close, casting [Trick of the Light.] She motions for you not to make a sound as two men in city guard uniforms and one man dressed in the Deleorian navy approach the apartment, surprised to find it unlocked.

Your daughter nods and you cast [Privacy Barrier] to hide your footsteps as you leave, the Kikimora’s paper held in Sylphie’s hand. As soon as you reach Mr. Ed, you depart from the area, sighing in relief.

“Well?” Harmony asks, curious. “What did you find?”

“A riddle.” You sigh, showing her the paper. “Any idea what it means?”

“Hmm.” She says, thinking it through. “I’ll have to devote some processing power to it.”

“You don’t have processing- ah, whatever.” You say, waving a hand before reaching to your [Pocket Dimension] and fishing out a heated breach pouch. Tossing it to Sylphie, you reach for another and stop to look at Mr. Ed, who gives you the side eye.

“Oh, you want one, big guy?”

The horse nickers and swishes his tail. Sylphie snickers, holding the pastry. “He says he’d rather eat grass from the underside of a cow’s hoof.”

“Hey! These are amazing and fortifying!” You say, tearing into your pouch before blanching. Oh good, you got one of the awful flavors, and it’s cold in the center. Hardinclouse is slacking.

Sylphie chuckles before biting into hers and making a delighted sound as she chews on the contents. By the looks of it… bbq. Not bad, not bad. Fishing out another and finding it passable, you direct your group to a nearby bench and sit down, chewing on what you learned and what you’re eating.

“I’m still drawing a blank.” Sylphie sighs, lowering her snack. “How frustrating.”

“Well.” You say, leaning back. “When we can’t figure out one part of the problem, it’s best to move onto another and come back later.” When she gives you a questioning look, you smile and say, “Let’s say we find where they are and where the captives are. How do we take down this Mindflayer?”

Sylphie shrugs, “I’ve found fire works pretty well.”

“Sure, if you’re casting at the right target and not say, Chaika.”

“Bleh.” The construct says.

“Oh.” Sylphie says, ears lowering. “Those illusions are so powerful though. I’m not sure how anyone is supposed to stop them.”

“Nothing impossible.” You say, putting a hand on her shoulder. “We just have to prepare ourselves this time. That’s the hallmark of a practitioner.”

Sylphie looks into your eyes, surprise there before she looks away and shakes her head. “One of your lessons huh? Gods, it’s been quite some time since I’ve heard one of those.”

“Hmm, well, I’ve heard you’ve had some decent teaching from that Rommel fellow…” As you say this, you watch her expression, which falls a little before she gives a wan smile.

“A little. I felt like I taught him more than he taught me at times.”

“Well, that’s how things are at times. Everyone learns a little something from others.”

She quirks an eyebrow at you. “Geez Dad, you almost sound like you know what you’re talking about. Are you sure we didn’t pick up the wrong guy from that dungeon?”

“Listen here you little smart ass cutie patootie, if you sass back at me again I’m going to give Chaika unlimited rights to lecture you on the intricacies of Dolloran votive candle making.”

“OH!” Chaika says, hands to her breast. “Did you know that they use only the freshest beeswax, straight from the ass of Bee Girls?”

>>393857

Sylphie shudders. “Okay, it really is you.” A chuckle escapes her lips as she turns to you and places her hands in her lap, giving you a soft smile. “Well, what do you have to teach today?”

“[Inner Guardian].” You say. “You’ve seen it before, but I need you to master it and it’s secondary stage of casting, [Manifest]. It’s not a foolproof method to stop illusions, and the illusion must be directed at you for it to trigger the guardian, but it’s something. If it gives us even the smallest opening to attack, our magic is superior. Do you understand?”

She nods her head. “Good.” You say, taking a calming breath. “Now then, to form your guardian. Concentrate on something to defend your mind, something powerful and unflinching, an unmovable wall which will not allow your mind to be breached.”

Sylphie furrows her brow in concentration as she does so, and you can feel the magic pouring from her. Eventually she breathes out, “Okay, I see it.”

“Good. Now then, use your magic and need to protect yourself and push forth your guardian, [Manifest] them into the visible world.”

Your daughter concentrates further and you feel as pushes her magic outward further, mana crystalizing before you to form the shape of a man with a long, flowing beard of silver blonde hair and brilliant robes. He stands there with his staff, looking down at you with sagacity that seems oddly familiar. Before he vanishes, he gives you a wink, which you have no idea how to interpret.

Sylphie gasps as she opens her eyes and looks around to you before blushing. “Y-You saw that?”

“Uhhhhh.” You say, not sure how to interpret that. “Ah… uh, yes! Good job, you did it!”

“Ehehe… uhm” Sylphie says, coughing into her hand.

“How did it feel?”

She blinks a few times before folding her hands together. “It felt like a strong, warm presence was standing beside me, ready to protect me should anything happen. It was reassuring, made me feel like I could do anything really.”

Mr. Ed snorts behind her and Sylphie pouts, “Oh hush, you can beat up all the physical threats you stick in the mud.”

“I… see.” You say, feeling something ache in your heart. You’re not quite certain how to put it into words, but it just seems like that very moment you notice just how much your little girl has grown, and how lonely she must be.

Closing your eyes, you take a deep breath before saying, “Okay. If we use that properly and keep our wits about us, we can get an opening.”

“Great.” Chaika says, waving her hand. “Now how do we find them?”

“Excellent question.” You sigh. “At least we solved one problem…”

>What do you do?

>>393858

Oh dear, what does that mean?

At least Sylphie knows the spell!

One suggestion was split, the other was stay but it was mentioned to go and check out the lead so that's the compromise! Figure out where to go from hereeeeee

>Sylphie's [Inner Guardian] is a positive perception of us

That's adorable.

>>393858

>Ace saged all of his posts again

I'm not sure if I should purposefully bump the thread so people realise that there was an update or not.

But that aside, we now have a new lead in the form of that note from the Kikimora's apartment. It's very unlikely that this note is a red herring, considering how the cult likely wasn't expecting their members to get arrested in advance and how the note was hidden away rather than in an obvious location which implies it wasn't meant to be found, so it's probably worthwhile to check out the location described. I doubt we'll find everything we're looking for, but we should at least likely find a recruiter of sorts for the cult of whom we can potentially use to lead us to our goal before we capture and question them for more details and leads, assuming we set up an ambush correctly; as for how to go about with that plan, having us go in solo and disguised best get Sylphie to help with our outfit for better results while the others stay on the sidelines, ready to jump in at a moment's notice, should suffice—only the Mindflayer and those thugs we took down know of what we look like, after all, so the random lackey who handles fresh meat shouldn't be any the wiser. That said, if said recruiter turns out to be the Mindflayer handling things directly, perhaps with the intent of mind controlling potential candidates for easy manipulation, then [Manifest]/[Manifestation]/[Whatever This Spell Is Actually Called] to defend against any immediate illusions followed by breaking line of sight with our opponent to prevent more illusions and potential grapples, maybe via usage of [Build the Wall] we picked up from the rock autist, followed closely by bravely advancing in the opposite direction would be our best option; we could potentially take her down now that Sylphie is on the team, but I somehow doubt our enemy would come alone given that she knows we're pursuing her and things tend to go wrong when you're outnumbered by an unknown threat, so I suggest we don't risk it when we can't be certain she's alone.

As for what location the note was actually talking about, there’s a few possibilities. One possibility is on board a warship of some description, since ‘the armed masts’ may refer to some masts which are furnished with weapons. Another possibility is on board one of the larger ships in the docks, because ‘armed’ could be read as ‘having many arms’ of which a larger vessel would many on its masts to hold its sails in place. The final possibility that comes to mind is a barracks or guardhouse, since ‘masts’ could also refer to a flag mast and these locations, which hold armed men and women, may potentially fly flags to denote their allegiance and nationality, thus hitting all of the criteria. We should look into each of these locations if we’re going down this route, starting with the locations that come from the more obvious interpretations of the statement first as the Kikimora wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed yet was still somehow capable of locating the cult, which implies it’s not overly subtle.

Over than that, what I said in the last update is still relevant, but something tells me we aren’t going to make progress on that side of things until this is out of the way first.

I agree with the above points, but I have a little to add. Before embarking on the search to all the above possible locations, we should talk to Otit about what he thinks the riddle means. The reasons for this are twofold, which is 1, he’s lived in this town for years, and will know the local slang if this is what it is, 2, he’s an islander like the kikimora, and any thoughts that will depend on that will also occur to him.

As we search for the location mentioned in the riddle (AFTER talking to Otit), be sure to continue to search for the captives in any of the previously mentioned locations, if they’re on the way. Keep magesight active as often as possible, as we can’t afford to be taken by surprise.

>>393933

>Frankly, you're better off asking Mr. Ed.

Two wrongs make a right occasionally, so this would clearly work with just us and Sylphie. But I suppose Mr Ed can pipe up with his own ideas if he wants to.

>An order would be useful, however.

If you mean strictly the proposed riddle locations, then:

>Ships -> area around barracks -> barracks themselves -> underneath the barracks the phrase 'in the shadow of' could be interpreted as 'underground'

If you mean every single lead we have thus far, then:

>Ships -> warehouses -> chapel -> barracks and jail -> inns -> outside perimeter of Hudson

Both are under the assumption that we're definitely querying Otit before any investigation as per what >>393931 suggests. The ships are our highest priority since they cover both leads with fairly high chance and everything else follows on from that based on proximity to the port in order to avoid needless backtracking. That said, I'm not entirely sure what would be closer to the ports out of the barracks, jail and inns, so I guess swap them around to whatever would be the closest first with the rest following.

>Story continue

Unable to make heads nor tails of the clue, you’re left with one option before just searching anywhere tangentially related: Go see Otit.

The large man is busy when you find him however, his bulk sleeping in a hammock outside his inn as a gentle wind and warm sun lull him further into sleep. You can’t help but notice that machete of his stowed within arm’s reach, however. When you approach, he opens an eyelid and murmurs, “Hey there brotha man, it’s nap time.”

“I can see that.” You say, feeling like a nap yourself. “We just need to bother you a teensy little bit and then you can go back to sleep.”

“Mmm, I dunno, I’m feeling myself slip back to the sweet embrace of sleep~.”

A groan escapes you as Sylphie walks up to the man and clasps her hands together before sticking out her lower lip in a pout. “Mr. Otit, it would really help us out if you could spare a little bit of time.”

The man’s eye opens again and he sighs. “That’s not fair, you can’t just use such a cute tactic on me.” Sighing, he opens his eyes fully and places his hands on his belly. “Well, what do you want?”

Handing over the note you just found, the man reads it before frowning. “Your poetry isn’t very good. Have you heard of a haiku? It’s simple enough, even for you.”

“Please.” You sigh. “My poetry is fantastic, but there’s no way I could write this nice.”

“Hmm, fair enough.” Otit says in a way that states this as obvious fact, even if the only thing you’ve written is your signature. To be fair, it’s basically illegible but his words still sting! He sighs and hands it back to you. “Well, I’m thinking maybe we’re lookin at some ships, eh?”

“Yes, very good.” You sigh, figuring that’s what “masts” meant. “What about the armed part? Is that any kind of slang around here or anything?”

“Well, arms can refer to the things connected to your torso, or weapons so-“ At you flat look he chuckles, “You’re a smart man! I’m just having a little paluhu. Listen, why are you asking me if you figured that out? I’m a simple man!”

“Because this islander Kikimora found wherever this is so we figured maybe an islander’s perspective would be helpful.” Sylphie says before you can embarrass yourself further.

“Ahhh, you raised yourself a little charmer there, eh? If only my daughter was as sweet.” He chuckles while you blink at Sylphie’s response. You’d expect this sort of thing from Sophie, but your little bookworm who cared nothing for manners, Sylphie? She really has grown without you realizing it.

“Well, there’s nothing inherently islander about this message. However, given the mindset of an islander, I’d be thinking of course somewhere with ships. Of course, we’d stand out less in the docks, but the armed part is weird and unless you think about it too hard, you’d be thinking about that naval base, eh?” He pats his stomach. “See, we islanders also like to take it easy, you know? Go with the flow. We don’t like to think too hard on mindgames. This might fool a smart man like you, but I’d go with the simple answer.”

“I… see.” You say, looking to your party. They nod their heads as if accepting this as reasonable before you turn to Otit. “Alright, thanks for the insight.”

“You going to make a ruckus eh? I suppose I won’t be seeing you at dinner then.” He laughs, “I think you need a little more meat on your bones though. Your wife would love having something to hang onto!”

“She has plenty of… anchors.” You say, trailing off at the end as you watch Sylphie cock her head to the side, blinking pretty at you.

“Whatever do you mean, father?”

Blanching, you nod to Otit. “Anyway, thank you.” The man laughs and waves at you before promptly falling back asleep.

Walking away from the inn back toward the city, you do your best not to look at your daughter as she walks in a circle around you, a questioning look on her face. “Hmmm? What was that Dad? Hmmmm?”

>>394105

“Harmony, help me.” You say, doing your best not to meet your daughter’s gaze. The constructs merely snicker at your misery, and this continues until Mr. Ed snorts and then licks Sylphie’s ear, making the girl squeal, her tails lifting up before she hurriedly pushes them down and then rounds on the horse, huffing.

“Thank you Mr. Ed, I’m glad someone is an adult aro-GAH!”

You cut off as he licks your ear too, giving you one wicked wet willy. Chaika and Harmony squeal in laughter as you do so, eventually both you and Sylphie glaring at the other three. Both of you huff before snickering and then joining in the laughter. Gods, how long as it been since you’ve had a laugh like this with your family? If only Sophie, Saya, and Selene could be here…

“Alright, hah, okay.” Sylphie says, wiping tears from her eyes. “So, the naval base, huh? I suppose it’s somewhere no one would look.” She references what Myra had said earlier. “But how do we get in and what will we find?”

“Not sure.” You say, rubbing at your beard. “We can probably sneak in and do some scans with [Mage Sight]. If there’s magic pervading the area, then we can formulate a plan.”

“And if not?”

“We’ll try the docks.”

Sylphie nods her head. “Well, what are we waiting for?” She makes to mount Mr. Ed when Harmony coughs into her hand.

“Forgive me, but don’t we look a tad suspicious?”

“Huh?” You ask. “I think we’ll look suspicious no matter what we do trying to break into a naval base.”

“I didn’t mean that, what I meant is if this is truly the base of operations for our foes, then we should look how they expect us too. Besides, the Mindflayer already knows what we look like, a make-over would be appropriate.”

Sylphie’s ears go flat. “Ugh, you sound like Sophie and Saya.”

“Do we have to?” You sigh.

“By Dollora, she really is your daughter.” Harmony sighs. “Listen, you two need to change your attire. Chop chop!”

Groaning, your party heads for clothing stores within the city. Due to Hudson’s size and being a port city, there’s a multitude of clothing from both domestic and foreign nations. You consider at first looking for clothing to fit in at a naval base, but decide not to as anyone who questioned you anyway would see through the clothing. After that, there’s the option of dressing like islanders, but you couldn’t pull that off at all, even if you painted your skin.

“Oh!” Sylphie says, pulling something from a rack at an outdoor stall. “Hey dad, check this out!”

She holds up a scarlet robe of excellent make as well as a pair of dark, shaded spectacles. “You’d look fantastic in this!”

Your eye twitches as an unbidden memory and the scent of crispy bacon comes to you. Controlling your expression, you calmly put it back on the rack and say, “I don’t think it’s my color.”

“Hmmm.” Sylphie says, going through more racks. She pulls out a burgundy dress which looks like it belonged in the old Sanctifrond courts. “They’d never guess it was us if I wore this.”

“Hmmm.” You say as well, rubbing your chin. “You’re right, the disguise would work perfectly. If I could find a similar outfit in the same style…”

Mr Ed snorts and walks up, casually taking the clothing from her and placing it back in the rack with delicate care. The store clerk looks at him with a mix of shock and wonder as the horse noses through the racks and pulls out some standard, but well-made clothing in the Deleorian style. He neatly places a pair of rough brown pants, a white shirt and vest, and a cap onto the counter. After a second thought, he takes the spectacles that Sylphie had before and places them on the counter too. He does the same with an outfit for Sylphie, building an ensemble of a simple spun, blue dress with a hooded cloak to hide her tails and ears, though it’s impossible to hide her hands and feet.

You just hand over some coins to the stunned shopkeeper, taking your purchases out of the store. It’s about five minutes after leaving that you ask, “Wait, are these even our sizes?”

The horse gives you a flat look and you turn to Sylphie who shrugs. “He’s a magic horse, I’d trust his eye for fashion.”

>>394106

Unable to say anything else to this, you change your clothing to find it fits perfectly well and shows off your arms. Damn, you need to work out more. Sylphie’s clothing fits her too and you feel a sense of fatherly pride as you behold your cute daughter in her city girl attire.

“Woah, ho, watch out there.” Chaika says, nudging you in the ribs. “She’s catching attention from a lot of boys.”

“What, where, I’ll kill them.” You say on reflex, magic channeling through you.

“Woah, calm down there.” The construct says. “Besides, she’s a grown woman and frankly should be on the hunt for a husband already. I’m actually surprised at how well she keeps her lusts down. I remember being that age and horny as fuck.”

“Is… that so.” You say, not sure how to respond to that. This was always something that you worried about as your daughters grew up, them having their Monster urges awaken, but you never saw it much in Sylphie so you just thought her more reserved. This is neither here nor there however, and as the sun begins to set, you figure you need to get your plan in motion.

The naval base is on the far end of the seawall, surrounded by a stone wall with only one gate in or out. The only other entrance would be from the water, where a disturbingly small number of ships are docked. The setting sun shines down over the ships, casting long shadows over a large complex of buildings, though you can’t be sure what’s where.

Standing outside the base in your disguises, you scan the area with your [Mage Sight] and sigh in annoyance as Sylphie does the same. The area is saturated with magitek devices, you assume mostly low energy ones such as torches, etc. but all the same, it overlaps remarkably well at hiding other magical signatures.

“Damnit.” Sylphie curses. “We’ll have to get inside to differentiate anything.”

“Yeah.” You agree with a sigh. “What I don’t understand though, is how that Kikimora would have gotten in here.”

“Maybe she said she was hired as a maid.”

“That’s retard-“ You stop before thinking that over. “Shit, you’re probably right.”

“I don’t think you can pull off the maid look.” Chaika chuckles. “You’ll just have to break in like normal folk.”

“Makes sense.” You say. “We’re only going in to check things out. It will be easiest if it was a single person but…” Your words trail off as you see a defiant Sylphie next to you and the memory of seeing her defiled corpse comes unbidden. Shuddering, you say, “It will just be me and Sylphie. We can at least fend off any illusions if she’s here.”

“Alright, just contact us if you need help.” Harmony says, to which Mr. Ed nickers.

“Yes, yes.” Sylphie says, waving a hand. “I’ll be careful.”

>>394107

With both you and Sylphie disguised and only carrying your [Sack of Holding +1] which is holding your staves, you head off toward a far section of the wall as darkness comes over the city and the magitek lanterns come to light all around the wall, making the building shine in the night. It will be difficult to approach them normally, but…

“Why does everyone keep making me use this spell.” Sylphie mutters as she hides you with [Trick of the Light]. Moving up the wall slowly, none of the guards along the walls notice you in their patrols, not that there are very many of them due to the deployment.

“Because it’s very useful, that’s why.”

“I guess. I just feel like a tool sometimes.”

“Well, from what I understand, that Rommel guy found you to be a very useful part of the team.” As you say this, she blushes and a realization comes to you.

“Did you have a crush on him?”

“D-Dad!” She says, her spell flickering for a moment. “This is not the time for this!”

“It’s okay if you did, he seems like a nice guy. I mean, there’s an age gap, but there’s one for your mother and I so it’s probably okay.”

“By the Gods, I can’t believe this is happening.” She whispers, cheeks bright red. “We could be killed and you’re talking about my love life.”

“I knew that headpat was a little more significant than he was leading on. Damn, well I’m sorry he went with Tabitha dear, he doesn’t know what he’s missing out on.”

Sylphie, red as a beet, places her hand against the wall as you reach it. She takes a shuddering breath and whispers, “Dad. Please. Shut the fuck up, you’re so embarrassing.”

>>394108

“It’s okay. You’re growing up and I trust that whoever you end up with will be someone you love very much.”

“Just get us inside, I can’t keep this up any longer.” She mutters something about being so embarrassed she could die when you raise yourselves up to the top of the wall with [Build the Wall] and [Privacy Barrier] before lowering the earth and crouching there, waiting for anyone to notice. Fortunately, no one does and you’re able to slip into the base without incident.

Hiding behind some crates, Sylphie drops her spell and lets out a sigh of relief before pulling out a vial of white liquid and downing it in gone go as she watches for danger, licking her lips afterward. “I think the coast is clear for now. Now many guards around.” She mutters to herself.

“Yeah. Wouldn’t be a bad place to hide then. Probably pretty empty inside the main buildings due to the deployment and no one would check the place out because they assume a well-functioning naval base wouldn’t be housing criminals.” Frowning, you shake your head. “I’m getting a stronger signature from inside this building, but I can’t tell what it is, there’s still too much interference.”

Sylphie follows where you point and nods her head. “Wouldn’t a place like this have a magitek generator? Maybe that’s the source of the interference.”

“Possibly…” You say, considering that. With advents in magitek, having a power source which can efficiently process mana from leylines and surrounding mana saturating the area is essential, especially in a military environment. Something like that can easily confound [Mage Sight] and would be a great way to hide an aetheric signature.

“Let’s check it out then.” You say, moving in the shadows on your way inside the base. Most of the patrols are around the perimeter and the walls, so slipping inside the nearby building is a piece of cake; you don’t even need to use Sylphie’s spell.

The structure you entered appears like an academy of sorts, with hallways filled with classrooms and sets of stairs leading up into what you assume is a dormitory. Thankfully you came at night, when any cadets would be on curfew, so you only have to hide from a few sailors on patrol, shining magitek torches through the dark halls.

Following your [Mage Sight] toward the large source of power, you move through the hallways, leap frogging with Sylphie in tow until you reach another section of the building, a series of offices you assume are for the higher ups in the navy. Given Deleor really only has the one true naval base, the top brass have to be here. You even see an Order sigil on one of the doors- guess there’s a attaché here like there is at the forts. Your [Mage Sight] pings something, but it’s not the same signature as the Mindflayer. Perhaps there’s a sorcerer from the Order here as well?

The lights are on in some of the offices and you have to combine your magics to stealthily make your way through and out of this building, over to the next one which is connected by a breezeway. This building is close to the water and you can tell why: It’s a dry dock.

Ships in various states of repair are present, with crews still working despite the hour. You enter the room, your curiosity getting the better of you when you see movement. Caught off guard, you’re noticed by a worker who calls your attention.

“Hey! Who are you?”

“Uh.” You say, looking to Sylphie. Your daughter shrugs and you gulp, pulling on your hat. “Magitek engineers, here to check on the generator.”

“Eh? The generator?” The man says, narrowing his eyes. You gulp, preparing your magic when he lets out a big sigh. “Thank the Gods, that thing is on the fritz again. We didn’t think you’d be coming so late but it might be better than during the day when everyone is busy.” Licking your lips, you start to head toward a set of doors on the far side of the room where you detect a swell of magic when he grabs your shoulder.

“Woah now, that’s toward the barracks. The generator is right over there.” He points to a nearby set of doors with the word, “Generator” painted over them. A much, muuuuch larger source of magic pulses nearby, so aetherically loud that you actually didn’t even notice that it had saturated everything at first.

Nodding to the man, you head toward the room and open the doors to behold a truly wondrous sight. In front of you is a massive piece of magitek that hums softly as it glows a soft blue, transforming the energies of the land into something usable to power this base. Stacks of back-up mana crystals sit in cases nearby as well, under lock and key of course, but with this beauty they’d probably not need them beyond portable devices.

>>394109

“What an absolute beaut.” You say, running a hand over the device. “An A-7 Raiju-type. Oh, listen to her purr when I pet her. Come on, don’t be shy.”

“Uh, Dad.” Sylphie says, looking embarrassed. “This is kind of weird.”

“Your father just appreciates magitek.” You say, patting the machine softly. “I’m a little miffed the country took the contract from The Manufactorum in Loveura over our G-41 Homete, but what are you going to do.”

“Well, it looks like they aren’t here.” Sylphie sighs.

“Who might you be looking for?” A voice says beside both of you.

Reacting instantly, both of you turn and pull up your [Inner Guardians] to find an islander woman in naval dress standing beside you. She takes both of you in and cocks her head. “You two are magitek engineers?”

“Who’s asking?” You reply, wary.

“Hahaha, who indeed?” She says, chuckling. You scan her with your [Mage Sight] but are unable to find any traces of magic on her. “I’m just here to watch you as you work on the generator is all.” She lifts an eyebrow,

“Unless of course, you’re not really here for the generator?”

You narrow your eyes and study the woman carefully. You’re sure you could see through an illusion if there was one being cast, but as far as you can tell, she’s clean. Certainly the Deleorian navy would accept islanders born in Hudson in the navy, but this is a little too convenient. Not certain what to do, you pull from your bag some magitek tools you store for working on Harmony and Chaika, then go to the generator, doing some basic maintenance.

The woman watches you with a careful eye before quickly becoming bored and looking away. Thankfully this machine is pretty basic, for magitek anyway, and finding that it actually does have a short in one of the three converter matrices is an easy fix.

“So, how’d this get broken?” You ask, doing your work.

“I don’t know, that’s your job.” She says.

“Well, I know WHAT broke, but now how or when. Anything funny been going on around here recently?”

“Nothing more funny that some bad jokes and a war.” She says, flippant.

“Huh, well I’ve heard some strange stories going around, about some folk looking for ‘eternal glory’ and such around town.” Without looking at her you say, “Sounds kind of interesting, if you ask me.”

After a few moments of receiving no reply, you look up to find the woman studying you critically again. She opens her mouth for a moment before closing it and then turning around. “Excuse me, I need to speak to my superior.” Without any further words, she walks out the doors and out of sight.

“Gods, Dad that was super risky!” Sylphie says, handing you the appropriate tool with you asking.

“Well.” You say, still working on the machine. “I had to know. This is all starting to seem rather strange, don’t you agree?”

“Well, yeah, I mean I don’t think the mana is supposed to flux like that in this kind of device if I remember correctly.”

“While true, not what I’m talking about.” You frown at where the woman left. “I can’t tell if we just met a recruiter or an actual sailor.”

“We can stay and find out.” Sylphie shrugs.

“Or.” You say, slapping the device, which hums a little louder now. “We can leave and search on our own more. Only place we haven’t checked are the barracks.”

“Wouldn’t that be suspicious?” Your daughter asks, worry on her expression.

“Well, probably.” You concede. “But we probably should make this decision quickly.

“Isn’t that usually your thing though?” She sighs. “I read your book you know. So:”

>What do you do?

>>394110

Huh. This all seems really suspicious tbh.

But they probably aren't here so you might as well leave.

Also, might be a little slower on updating (than I already am, i'm really sorry) because I'm trying to force myself to blitz through this last half of line edits so I can publish this damn book.

>>394111

I think we should send sylphie to check out the barracks using her [trick of the light] while we stay with the generator. I suspect that sailor will be back fairly soon. Either because she suspects us or thinks we’d make a good addition to the cult. If she’s back before sylphie is say she went looking for the bathroom and should be back soon.

I agree with the above anon. Sounds like a good plan of action. However, invisible isn’t undetectable, so we should advise Sylphie not to do anything that would give away her presence (like opening a locked door), without listening with her cat ears first.

A note for later: We need to learn hydromancy. We’re about to go underwater, where aeromancy, pyromancy, and fulgromancy will be ineffective, plagamancy, while neat, is not majorly offensive/defensive, and copromancy…well the ocean is the world’s largest toilet, but it would be nice to have a backup ability.

>>394263

You Sir, need to Sage!

>>394126

>>394229

Yeah, this seems reasonable. Have Sylphie keep an eye out for that islander, though.

>G-41 Homete

I see that reference, Ace.

Fuck me, put the sage in the name field.

Progress on these last edits coming well, just need a push this week and I should have it done… I hope.

I'll try to work on an update tomorrow for this, but pending work I might just do editing when I get home. Tuesday I'll be sailing in sea of thieves new update, hopefully.

Again, if anyone has an art request I can look into it. Character design pics will be slow in coming for this one though since manos is super busy.

>>394126

Alright, sending Sylphie out on her own it is!

>>394229

Maybe it got cut off, but you know some hydromancy, basic spells like [Water] and Sylphie knows spells like [Water Spout]. It would be easy to swap notes. (And get my ass to update the pastebin)

>>394263

If things come to that Agent 47.

>>394295

Whaaaaat?

Using refrences?

Meeeee?

>Story continue

After a few moments of consideration you say to Sylphie, “I think we need to stay put.” She frowns until you follow-up with, “Well, at least one of us does anyway.”

Narrowing her eyes for a moment, she snaps her fingers and says, “Ah, right. Well I’ll wait here for you to return and-“ She stops as she notices your smug look. Sighing, she shakes her head and flicks a hand in annoyance as she mocks you. “Oh gee my dear and lovely daughter whom I would never want to see hurt, let’s send you off to go explore on your own.”

“I mean, you’re the one who can turn invisible.”

She gives you a sidelong glance before sighing again. “Well, what are you going to tell the creeper when she returns?”

“You ate islander cooking.”

“Ah, and I’ll be indisposed for the next week, fair enough.” Rolling her shoulder, she prepares to cast her spell when you fold your arms around her. She gasps and looks up at you with confusion as you hold her tight. 

“Hey, I know we were joking before, but please be careful. You, your sisters, and your mother all mean the world to me. If anything were to happen any of you I…”

She places a furred hand on yours and closes her eyes. “I know, dad. I’ll be fine, okay?” Her feline ears twitch, “I’m kind of good at locating threats.”

“I know you will, it’s just-“

“Yeah.” She nods her head pulls away from you, walking toward the door before snapping her fingers and becoming invisible. “As long as I don’t have to block anymore magitek rifle shots with my body, I’ll be fine.” 

You feel that last statement was both in poor taste and incredibly ominous. Still, you went on about trusting her and her being an adult, you can’t exactly go back on it now. Without much else to do, you casually lay on the ground and stare at the ceiling, the low hum of the generator threatening to put you to sleep. 

“Sleeping on the job is not a good way to fulfill your contract.”

Looking up, you see the islander woman from before, standing at your feet. How she got in here again without you noticing, you have no idea. 

She looks about and frowns, “Where is the other one?”

“Islander cooking, you know.”

A look of confusion comes across her face. Clearly she doesn’t know or doesn’t consider it anything out of the ordinary. You choose to believe the first part because what a way to live otherwise. 

“Diarrhea.”

She narrows her eyes at you and you shrug. “Severe diarrhea. Very messy stuff. Shouldn’t have eaten that canned ham on rice.”

The woman rolls her eyes. “Is the device fixed?”

“Yep, works like a charm.” You rap the generator with your knuckle. “Smooth sailing now.”

Clearly she doesn’t take well to humor or she would have gotten your amazing pun. Sighing, you push yourself up and ask, “Everything satisfactory then? Can I go now?”

“What about the other one?”

“She’s a big girl, she can find her way home.”

The woman looks at you strangely before asking, “What would you do for eternal glory?”

The hairs on the back of your neck stand up as she says this. Licking your lips, you ask, “eternal glory, you say?” Looking over to the generator, you slap it and say, “I don’t know much about that. I just know my magitek is all.”

“Hmm.” She asks, walking around you. “You know, no magitek engineers signed in at the entrance. How exactly did you come to be here?”

>>394591

Ah shit, she caught you in your ruse. Who even checks the sign-in lists, eh? Shaking your head, you say, “Well if you must know, the Order attaché let us in, said that the interference in his lighting was quite unfortunate and that he just wanted this done quickly.”

The woman’s expression becomes smug, smugger than you’ve ever seen, smug. She leans down, face to face with you and says, “Liar.”

Keeping on a poker face, you run through the possibilities. Should you kill this woman now before she reports anything? No, she already did report you bet. Which means that she’s either toying with you before arresting you, or there’s something else going on. Either way, best to keep playing with her. 

“Oh? If I’m someone who broke into this naval base in order to cause havok, then why would I fix this generator and then lay here, waiting for you to return?”

“Either you’re incredibly cunning and did something to the device which will cause irreparable harm, or you’re here for something else.” She leans back against the generator and folds her hands over his stomach as she shrugs. “Either way is fine with me.”

“Huh? What the hells are you-“

“Did you bring the calling card?”

You blink in surprise at being cut off. “The… calling card?”

“Don’t be daft. It’s obvious why you’re here. You’ve be lured by the call of eternity. The siren song of destiny. How have the unbelievers wronged you?”

Ah, damn. There’s no doubt in your mind any longer, you hit jackpot on the naval base. Normally this might be a good thing since you can infiltrate their ranks but you’re afraid that you’ll be recognized if you’re not careful. Even worse, Sylphie is currently gone searching the barracks. Barracks which very well could be controlled by the Mindflayer you seek to eliminate. 

Your eyes drift over to a shovel in the corner of the room and you entertain the thought of smashing her against the back of the head and being done with it. It would be easy, just lure her away into a dark corner and BAM!… however, that wouldn’t solve much of anything, at least not at the moment. Still, it’s a good backup plan. 

Reaching into your pouch, you pull out the paper you took from the Kikimora and the woman looks it over before chuckling. “I knew it. A magitek engineer who wishes to join the ranks. How useful you will be.”

“Eh, who are you by the way?”

“Just someone who wants to see that damned city fallen.” She nods her head. “But you will learn more once you’ve spoken to Mun’teca. Come.” She waves for you to follow as she heads out into the drydocks again. You walk after her and prepare to turn toward the barracks when she instead turns back to the administrative complex. Off balanced, you blink in confusion before trailing behind, worried. 

No one blinks an eye as you walk behind her and into the dark offices. You keep your [Inner Guardian] up, ready to manifest it in a heartbeat if needed. Though you pass by the admiral’s office, thankfully, you find yourself in front of the door with the Order sigil, the only one with lights on through the window. Before you can say anything, the woman opens the door and ushers you inside. 

The room is more spacious than expected and actually encompasses both a waiting room and a an office with three desks in the back. The furniture is sparse, spartan even, and you get the feeling that whoever was assigned here is some hardass about protocol. Still, a shudder goes down your spine as you step in, and your eyes are drawn to the back of the room where the Order member sits. 

Your stomach drops as you see a familiar sight. The woman behind the desk has the tanned skin of an islander and the long, black hair. When she looks up at you, eyes which have a restrained insanity look back at you coolly. There’s no doubt about it, she’s the Mindflayer. A quick [Mage Sight] confirms this, though the Monster before you frowns and examines you. 

“You have brought me… another one?” She asks, though her eyes drift back down to the papers in front of her, uninterested.

>>394592

“Yes, my lady.” The woman says, bowing. 

“After the failures of the others…” The Mindflayer murmurs. “Gone, left us, taken away.”

“Unfortunate, my lady. But the calling cards are working, there are more coming.”

The Mindflayer murmurs, “He stinks.”

The woman blinks and cocks her head. “M-My lady?”

“Magitek engineering gets you sweaty.” You say quickly, not sure what else to do. “Begging your pardon, but are you this… Mun’teca?”

“No.” She says flatly, surprising you. 

“Uhm. What she means to say is that she has borrowed the name from the great island spirit.” The woman says, coughing into her hand. “Her mind is often burdened with the voice of the great mother.”

The Mindflayer, still keeping her illusion up, grinds her teeth and crumples up the paper in front of her. She hisses out, “She promises vengeance to us.” Her eyes shoot up to yours and she searches your expression before saying in a low voice, “Why the fuck are you wearing shaded spectacles at night?”

Honestly, you thought she was just insane, but apparently she’s both insane AND perceptive. These little bouts of lucidity make for an incredibly potent combination with her abilities and you feel that she was once an incredibly intelligent person at one point in time. One begins to wonder if she truly was an Order member or just took up the role after disposing of the old one. Ah, if only you had that Tobias kid’s information on illusionists!

Licking your lips, you say, “They’re corrective- spending time with magitek can hurt your eyes you know. Only pair I have.”

“Remove them.” 

You pale. Will she remember your eyes if you remove them?

A silence descends over the room at this and you see the Mindflayer’s eyes narrow further and further. Will she attack you if you don’t? Would you be able to fend off the assault with another person nearby as well? This might be your best opportunity to strike at her, take her by surprise! If you can kill her now, the rest will be easy, but… 

If you should die, then Sylphie will be in danger. 

Gulping, you remove your glasses slowly and look up at the Mindflayer. Her eyes widen for a moment, as if in recognition, but then it passes and she shrugs. “Boring…” With a sigh she leans back in her chair and says, “Do you have what it takes?”

“For what?”

“To bring low the city of the unbelievers?”

“And to gain eternal glory in the eyes of the great mother?” The other islander woman says. 

>>394593

The Mindflayer, this Mun’teca gives her a sidelong glance before looking back to you. “What inJUSTICE fuels you? What chronic pain and agony drives you to my feet? What forgotten relic of the past claws at your memory and writes your future in blood?”

“Uh.” You say, not sure how to react. Should you make up a grandiose lie? No, you doubt an illusionist, even an insane one, wouldn’t see through that. So, better tell the truth. 

“They turned me away as my world is crumbling around me.”

The two look to each other before nodding. The Mindflayer chuckles a low, deep chuckle before her illusion drops, revealing her in her full, Monstrous glory. They both blink in surprise when you don’t show any reaction, your [Mage Sight] already seeing through it. Blinking for a moment as you realize it, you jump up and shout, “Woah! What the hells?!”

Mun’teca narrows her eyes and says, “Yes… I am more than humanity. The great mother has blessed me to carry out her work.” She extends a purple hand toward you. “It is now too late to run. You are one with us.”

“Huh? Hey-!” You shout as the woman grabs your arms from behind you and shoves your face onto the desk, hard. Surprised, you struggle against her to find that she’s surprisingly strong. Fucking sailors. As you struggle, you look up to find the tentacles on the Mindflayer’s head writhing. She titters as two reach down toward your head. 

Shit, you don’t have any choice. Summoning up your magic, you prepare to blast this place apart when the door flies open behind you and an out of breath islander sailor says, “My lady! There’s been an incident in the prisoner’s quarters!”

The tentacles stop in place and Mun’teca growls out, “What do you mean?”

“A Monster attacked us out of the nowhere! We think it’s the Dark Avenger and-“ He cuts off as a siren rings out throughout the complex. Rustling motion is heard as trained naval sailors and marines dash through the complex toward the administration to find the source of the disturbance. 

The Mindflayer’s illusion comes back up and she strides out of the room, grabbing a sword in the corner before growling out, “Damn you, I told you never to sound the alarm!”

“We- we wouldn’t!” The man says. “It must have been the dirty Deleorians!”

Mun’teca pauses and looks down at you, still being held in place. She lets out a low sound, almost like the [Irate Frog Song] before shaking her head. Distract them, I will head for the barracks to deal with the intruder.” A wicked some comes over her face. “I will play with her, ehehehe! This time, I’ll break her mind into pieces and give her gibbering form back to her father!”

She rolls her head back to you, grin widening as she speaks to the woman pining you down. “Stay put and don’t let him leave. He has a good mind, I wish to taste of it.” Before you can react further, she leaves the room and out of sight. 

“Hmph.” The islander woman says, reaching back to pull a knife from her belt that she places at your throat. “I suppose you’re mine until the lady returns.” She leans down and breathes into your ear, “frankly, I prefer Deleorian men over islanders.”

Ah, see, you missed this. Mortal peril, being threatened with intercourse, danger to your loved one. This is the kind of adventure you missed. This is what really gets your blood pumping! Of course, should you not want this adventure to end in abject misery and your daughter a dribbling psych-ward patient, you better figure out what to do. 

>What do you do? 

>>394594

We gotta [Tase] her, Bro

Since she has a knife to our throat it might be a decent idea to wait until she starts to undress so we won't get cut by mistake

Yeah, any kind of KO or immobilization attack (such as [Ice]) when her guard is down will work well. Just remember to put up a [privacy barrier] first to prevent her from calling for help. After we take her out, remember to bind her somehow. [Ice] will work well for this too. If we’re harking back to the good old days, and we still have our sack o’ shit, the ghosts can pay a visit too. Or some good old indigestion. Ahh memories

On our way out, keep up the pretense of being a bumbling magitek engineer. Keep our mental defenses ready, and if we have a shot at the calamari head, we shouldn’t hesitate to take it, though it would be nice to find the captives. However, given her former Hero status, I’m guessing they’re somewhere nearby. Otherwise head out.

>>394594

Considering our position involves direct contact with our target, I’m going to veto any use of Fulgromancy outside of a last resort when all else fails, because that’s just asking for a repeat of what happened in the encounter with Delilah—this time without a good angle for a [Lightning Bolt] variant and us being much older and frailer man—not to mention that a potential spasm of her arm would lead to our throat being slit, albeit probably not fatally but still not great. Instead, I’m going to recommend [Indigestion] mixed with playing her lust to our advantage to buy us time to locate her humours, as having her suddenly weaken and crumple due to severe abdominal pain is unlikely to lead to her getting the chance to cut us and it’s subtle enough that she won’t realise what’s happening until it’s too late to try and execute us. Failing that for whatever reason or perhaps alongside it as a safety measure against being cut, we could try stealthily weaving a [Sigil of Weight] onto the knife as to make it impossible for her to hold up to our throat, thus effectively disarming her long enough for us to try to escape her grasp when she loses her balance as a result of the sudden increased pull of gravity on one arm. Other options include using [Build the Wall] beneath her to make her lose balance, using <Cold Blooded> and hoping her tolerance to the cold is lower than ours or simply going along with her lewd plans until we get an opening. Regardless of what we do, make sure to have [Mend] or a health potion if we have any ready in the off-chance she does manage to slice us so we can avoid bleeding to death, have [Inner Guardian] up in case of more mind-fuckery shenanigans and a [Privacy Barrier] up as per what >>394608 said because attracting attention our way won’t really help Sylphie but will make our situation worse, especially when all of the base’s personal are coming very close to our location.

Assuming we escape her grasp, making some space between us and preventing her escape with spells like [Build the Wall] and [Ice] would be a good idea, because I have a feeling simply using [Lightning Bolt] once won’t be enough to put her down and we want to have control over the situation should this thought prove to be true. Speaking of which, [Lightning Bolt] is actually useful now that we aren’t in close proximity, so use that until she stops trying to kill us, but preferably before killing her. Should we succeed in incapacitating her, then using [Trench] which is reverse [Build the Wall], if Rommel can figure this out then so can we to bury her should suffice as a means of keeping her in place, so long as we bury her deep enough; we could also close the entrance of the hole to little more than a small gap for air to pass through for extra confidence in her not escaping if we feel like it. [Ice] may also work, but ice has a nasty habit of melting which means our captive may not be there when we get back should we take too long. Combining [Ice] with burying her may be worthwhile, though.

With that out of the way, we need to head towards Sylphie in the prisoner’s quarters. We could just walk out of the door we entered, but there’s a chance that Mun’teca has more lackeys in place to prevent our escape and something tells me the soldiers are going to be less accepting of our excuse of us being a magitek engineer than the earlier worker given the emergency situation, especially if we’re somewhere we’re absolutely not supposed to be, so I would recommend we take a different exit instead and stick to the shadows to avoid detection. Utilising [Build the Wall] to get up to the roof of the building we’re in from within said building and staying high when moving towards our destination, potentially with usage of what little Aeromancy we know for a boost in jumping distance and softer landings when required, should work out well enough to achieve this.

>>394913

well shit.

I forgot to sage.

>>394913

>we know ace's real name now

W E W L A D

E A

W L

L W

A E

D A L W E W

>>394913

Nice!

Jason?

>>394921

>>394915

It might be a pseudonym

>>394913

Congratulations nerd, you finally did it. I'm not entirely sure why I was supposed to be mad at anything though.

>>394915

>>394921

>Jacen T. Wright

<Jacen The Wrightfag

While it's entirely possible that Ace's online alias originally came from a very coincidental variation of his real name, it's more likely that this is just a clever interpretation of his image board name in a normalfag-friendly format. At least I hope it is, for his sake.

>>394915

>>394921

>>394930

Hmmmm I wonder-

>>394936

Ayyy, someone figured out my ruse. And no, its not my real name, im not that stupid to attach that to something like this. Not that openly anyway.

Congrats!

On a side note, have you thought about adding the commentary that led to certain decisions in the book, or possibly just adding links to the 8chan archive for readers to get the backstory behind certain ah…incidents?

>Story continue

“Are you a sorcerer?” You ask as the blade touches dangerously close to your neck.

“No, why do you ask?”

“Because your charm is magical.”

The woman snickers, but doesn’t remove the knife from your throat. “That’s cute. I like that.” Her tongue traces along your ear and she whispers, “One of the perks of this job is being around the naval base is having all these strong men around. But you look like you have… experience.”

“Is it the beard that makes you think that? I bet it’s the beard.” You say, planning your escape. In all honesty, it would be hard for her to rape you and have that knife at your throat, though by the way she’s fumbling at your pants, you might rethink that a little.

“Damn, are you a Monster?”

“Is this another one of your ways to come onto me? I’ll bite.”

“I ask because you seem to have a ravenous sex drive, a trait common to Monsters that-“

“Shut it.” You cut off as she presses the knife closer, drawing a little blood. “Turn around, nice and slow.”

You acquiesce, but decide you should probably get started on your little get away plan. Sighing, you channel your power within you and open your [Mage Sight]. The woman’s humors light-up as you [Fast Scan] and you easily overpower and imbalance them in her gut. It’s almost pathetic how easy it is to cast [Indigestion] upon her.

The effects are near instantaneous. She clutches at her abdomen and wavers, though her knife still presses at your throat, albeit shaky. Her breathing grows faster and labored as she obviously struggles. She grits her teeth, but you can see she’s in incredible discomfort. Well, shouldn’t be too long before-

The woman shudders and then retches before vomiting all over your brand new clothing. Surprised, you pull back on reflex and she swings the knife. Fortunately for you, her swing only catches your vomit soaked clothing, and she staggers to the ground with a little cry of pain before you snap up a [Privacy Barrier]. She struggles on the floor, a mix between wanting to slash at you and needing to hold her horribly cramping belly. Sometimes you wonder if this isn’t the cruelest spell you ever came up with.

Either way, you kick the knife out of her hand before reaching down and jamming your fingers next to her neck and using a low voltage [Lightning Bolt], effectively using [Taser] to quickly knock her unconscious. You do your best to not notice the smell that comes as her struggles against your spell begin to fail, but you have the decency to roll her onto her side if she vomits again. Ghosts, you know? Ah well, it’s not a shovel to the back of the head, but you can still use [Ice] to fashion bindings around her before you leave.

Now freed from your captor, you pull the vomitus off you with your Plagamancy, though it does leave a stain. Unfortunately you don’t have much time for anything else here, you need to get to Sylphie!

You peek your head out from the door and into the administration hallway, thankfully seeing no one around. Using a few [Remote Sentries], you find the way back toward the barracks to be empty, thankfully. As you make to go that way, you reconsider. The Mindflayer is insane by nature, but she isn’t stupid. You didn’t learn that [Trick of the Light] spell from Sylphie so you can’t become invisible, or whatever it does, which means it’s highly likely that you’d be spotted by the sailors and you’d rather not hurt them unless you can tell that they’re enemies.

So instead… you head outside and behind the building. Making sure no one is watching, you retrieve your staff, a piece of rosewood you had carved a few years ago with multiple enhancement runes, from your [Sack of Holding +1] and use it to help you climb to the top of the building with [Build the Wall]. Once there, you hunker down and make sure you’re all alone.

Good thing no one really checks the roof, so you’re able to walk toward the dry docks and then use a bit of Aeromancy to propel you over to the next roof and soften your landing before heading toward the barracks.

>>394981

Down around you the siren still blares as sailors wielding various weapons, including a few magitek rifles, secure the area while heading into the dry docks of all things. Seems that the barracks was already secure maybe so they wanted to check out each place piece by piece? Kind of makes you wonder though, why exactly did the alarm sound-

A door bursts open at the roof access nearby and two sailors, one armed with a glowing magitek rifle, step out. Spotting you, they shout, “You there! Halt!”

Ahhhhhhh shit. Not knowing what else to do for it, you hurriedly throw up a [Shield Circle] behind you as you dash for the edge of the roof. They shout again and you hear a discharge of energy followed by a violent wave of disorientation as your shield is shattered. Holy fuck, how powerful did you make those fucking rifles?

Thankfully it didn’t pierce through, it just merely broke the shield. Unfortunately, this made you stagger at exactly the wrong time, and you hit the edge of the roof. Before you can stop yourself, you flip and fall off, plummeting to the ground. As the ground races up toward you, you create a rush of air with your Aeromancy to slow your fall until you find yourself hovering with your nose almost touching the ground.

Sighing, you drop the magic and hit the ground just as a magitek rifle shot explodes the ground next to your head. Cursing, you pick yourself up and scramble over toward the barracks. Thankfully no other sailors are outside at the spot, but the barracks are too far away in open terrain. It’s probable that he’ll be able to pick you off unless you do something!

The man charges up another shot and you consider throwing up a wall, but opt for something else instead. A bold, incredibly daring plan forms in your mind as you quickly form a circle in the air and attach the anchor points. You can almost feel the mana charging in the rifle as another shot comes toward your back. Flipping about, you thrust out your [Counter Circle] and deflect the shot right back at the firer.

Most people could never hope to pull this off, the time required to see and formulate the response is too great for a projectile like this. You, on the other hand, developed these damn things and you know the aetheric frequency of the shot fired by this model. Since the rifles are essentially enchanted items firing concentrated mana bolts… it’s basically a spell.

Which means you can counter it.

The bolt hits the rifle and destroys it, sending the wielder backward with a shout. Using the time gained by the distraction, you dash off toward the barracks and enter from behind. Surprisingly no one comes to greet you, not immediately. Wouldn’t they have the barracks on lockdown? Or did the Mindflayer ensure that the normal guards have nothing to do with this? Either way, they’ll be coming now so both you and this Mun’teca have a deadline before this place is crawling.

Dashing through the halls, you see open doors, but no sailors present- they must have left in a hurry. You open up your [Mage Sight] and are surprised to see pulses of magic ahead. That must be Sylphie using her magic but… is some of that from the Mindflayer? Worried, you continue down the hall until you run into a group of islander humans and Monsters dressed in a motley of maid outfits, sailor uniforms, and a shipwright. They stare at you in surprise before asking,

“Who the hells are you?”

“Uhhh.” You say before staggering to the side. Damn, still feeling some lingering mana drain from that battle outside.

“Ahhh, poor puha is drunk.” One of the islander maids giggles. “Mun’teca won’t like that.”

“How are you so sure he’s one of ours?” A man next to her asks.

“Please, he’s probably the new guy. Hey new guy, the whole base is searching for you, you know?”

“Uhhh.” You say again. “Is that what… that’s about?”

“Yeah! But you should be fine here. The great Mun’teca has kept those idiots out by saying she’ll secure the place. I suppose being some Hero gives you that power.” She shrugs. “Told us to wait here though while she takes care of some pest in here.”

The shipwright cocks his head. “Hey, wasn’t he supposed to be with Kelahu?”

“Uhhh.” You say for a third time as they look at you critically. Licking your lips, you just shrug and say, “Ah fuck it,” before letting loose a torrent of [Lightning Bolts] from your fingertips, the electricity coursing through their bodies and dropping them into spasming heaps. Thank the Gods you’re just dealing with run of the mill people and Monsters here. Imagine if one of them was like those plant infested from before?

>>394982

You look toward the source of that magic from before and frown as you realize it’s stopped. Cursing, you dash forward through the halls again until you reach a large room with row after row of books lined with shelves around the perimeter. A sign knocked onto the floor says, “closed until further notice” and you realize with perfectly clarity that the best place to hide in a barracks is the damn library under their noses. Ingenious!

You’ll pat the Mindflayer on the back later, first you need to pat her ass. Violently. You know like, kick it and such and- okay you’ll stop.

Inside the room, you can tell things are at a difficult impasse. While quite large for a library in a damn barracks, even having a second floor connected by a ladder, there’s still little place for them to hide beyond a room in the back, where you assume the hostages must be held. In the center of the room, with books lying on the floor and tables overturned, you see Sylphie, teeth barred, tails raised, her [Inner Guardian] behind her, warding off illusions.

Despite doing fairly well for herself, as evidenced by the unconscious (or dead) forms around her you can tell she’s being pushed to the brink. She should have fled long ago, but at this point her retreat is cut off. Anything less than focus on the Mindflayer would be suicidal- she’d play off those emotions cause havoc. If only Chaika and Harmony were here… actually, better not as they have no defense against these illusions.

Using [Manifestation], your [Inner Guardian] appears, eastern sword drawn and ready to defend you. Activating your [Mage Sight] and gritting your teeth, you throw out a [Lightning Bolt] at full intensity, not taking any chances. The electricity zips across the room faster than you can see, but before it makes contact, the Mindflayer steps to the side and then seems to blur in your vision before appearing next to Sylphie, her eyes wide and wild.

What the- how is she doing that? You have all of your mental defenses up! She can’t seriously be-

“Dad!” Sylphie shouts before dropping to the floor. “Remember what happened before! She’s playing on your expectations!”

Playing on your expectations… Wait, did you expect that attack to miss? If you did then… perhaps? Turning to your Inner Guardian, he shrugs. Good Gods, if that’s the case then-

You start chuckling, about to say something witty when the Mindflayer appears upon the bannister of the small second floor space. She cocks her head and says, “You… are the engineer? You… didn’t wish to join us after all?” It takes her a moment before she gasps, “You’re the Wizard! You… you tricked me!”

At this, a distressingly large smile plays over her face and she barks out a laugh. “YOU TRICKED ME EHEHEHEHE! I WAS MADE A FOOL AHAHAHA!”

Confused, you watch as she hammers on the bannister with her fist until it eventually cracks and she stops as suddenly as it began. She looks down upon you with those red, glowing eyes as if you were nothing more than walking garbage.

“I will not be made a fool again. The great mother sings to me a tale of your demise and I will see it through.” With that, she drops down to the floor in front of Sylphie and grabs her face with one of her tentacles in one, smooth motion.

Crying out, you throw out more lightning, but before it reaches, Sylphie yelps and leaps to the side, the Mindflayer suddenly a few steps to the side. Oh fuck your bolt was going to hit Sylphie! Pulling back, you curse to yourself. She’s only been using little tricks, nothing massive or showy yet, but if you don’t concentrate you’ll slip on the little details. Remember what Sylphie told you and what happened before.

Taking a deep breath to steady yourself, you put away your shaded spectacles and hold out your staff to begin channeling your will. Fleeing is no longer an option. The base is swarming with sailors who will quickly fall under her illusion and take her side, while she now knows your face. There’s nowhere to run and if you’re not quick, then your operation here in Hudson will have failed. Whatever nefarious plot Phallia has cooked up through this Mindflayer for Fillothia will come to pass as well.

“Ready Sylphie?” You shout to your daughter for encouragement.

She nods her head, quickly drinking a mana potion before throwing the vial on the floor. “Ready, dad!”

It’s now or never. Let’s kill a Mindflayer.

>What do you do?

>>394983

There's no way around it, you're fighting the Mindflayer now. Well, you can run but that about ends the encounter in Hudson but hey, maybe your sanity is worth it…

>>394978

This book is actually at the limit for what the printer allows. It's 1196 pages (including 18 pages of art). Commentary would be hard to add without dropping the font even more and I'd rather not have it DIRECTLY reaching back to 8chan. The dedicated will find it anyway/ are y'all anyway.

My one regret is it's too large to have the epilogue in there. Maybe I can make some more short stories and do an anthology or something…

Either way, I just want a hardback copy for myself!

>>394983

we should somehow get in close and give the mindflayer headpats because headpats always calms things down

the idea's so insane :^) it might actually work

>>394984

you could always have a second book/volume that has the epilogue, and then commentary that references the specific page number in the first book

>>394986

Maybe, we'll see that kind of response it gets/ how this story all goes. I haven't set out to make money (that's just not going to happen) but I'd like to see how things play out. I'd have to get some kind of cover made also, though it won't be a big scene… well. That's down the road.

Also, The GW doesn't have amazing pat powers! His pats are good, normal quality pats. Can the insane truly appreciate a pat though?

What do you do when you can't hit something? AOE. What do you do when something is fucking with you?AOE. Have them both cast their biggest baddest Father daughter spell in a back to back 359° fuck off attack. Only problem would be the bitch fucking up their brains midcast so how would we counter?

>>395000

Double inner guardian with overlapping mental attacks against the illusions. Also checking those sweet digits

I agree with the AOE strategy (I recommended it earlier), but with a caveat. It’s stated that we missed the calamari head because we expected to miss. This time, let’s expect to hit her, and turn her into a cooked piece of fish chum.

Let’s avoid collateral damage if we can. We don’t want to seem like the villain here, and get innocents involved

>>394983

>The base is swarming with sailors who will quickly fall under her illusion and take her side

Couldn't we easily break such an illusion with [Manifest] though, given how it worked on Harmony and Chaika earlier? She's not going to individually afflict every single sailor that comes by, that would take too long and some would slip through the cracks, alerting the others to the lie very quickly. And even if we can't, couldn't we just reveal ourselves as the Grand Wizard as an absolute last resort as in, we’re completely fucked otherwise with no other way out to get around this? I somehow doubt the sailors would take the side of a hero of comparatively little renown over the guy that saved the land, is best buds with the Lord Commander of the Order and led a huge technological revolution which has benefited countless lives, and she can't hide all of our magical might with her illusions.

But I suppose we’ll cross that bridge if things get bad enough to reach that point, so no reason to dwell on it further. Regarding the current predicament, our opponent is capable of three things, namely illusions, both direct and indirect, grappling with her tentacles and mind-raping restrained targets—if we want to win this fight, we need to counter all of these. She may be capable of more, but we likely would have seen her other abilities by now and Sylphie would have mentioned if she had seen anything herself before we arrived on the scene, so it’s unlikely; still, it wouldn’t hurt to have [Counter Circle] ready for if we need to deal with other magical bullshit.

Starting with her illusions, both we and Sylphie have [Inner Guardian] and [Manifest] for direct and indirect illusions respectively, but the former doesn’t catch everything and the latter is very taxing to maintain, meaning we need other methods on top of these. From what we know of Tobias’ illusions and what we’ve seen Mun’teca do, we can deduce that her direct illusions require vision of her target in order to be applied. As such, breaking line of sight is a very good way to ensure she can’t potentially fuck with us in a way that we can’t really react to, not to mention it gives us the opportunity to attack her from unexpected angles ricochet projectiles off of walls, pop out suddenly to use [Lightning Bolt], etc. or in ways she can’t mitigate AoE comes to mind before she has the chance to retaliate, so we should do that with spells like [Build the Wall], [Trick of the Light] or [Daylight], while using spells like [Remote Sentry] which she should be unable to utilise illusions on to give us information on her position so she can’t surprise us when we lose direct sight of her.

We’re still fairly vulnerable to indirect illusions even if we do break line of sight though, so we have to be vigilant for those and be ready to cast [Manifest] at the drop of a hat. As for how to be vigilant, we need to question pretty much everything we’re seeing that includes [Manifest] working, you never know if it actually did, particularly when the situation changes in some way; her main tactic is to use our perceptions against us, so by no longer completely relying on them and using logic to deduce what may plausibly be reality we should be able to get an idea of when something isn’t quite right, much like how people realise they’re dreaming by noticing small details that make no sense in the waking world. It would also help to consider what she may be wanting us to think or perceive, because she was able to trick us without using illusions in our last combative encounter and we don’t really have a counter to such tactics unless we see them coming beforehand. A final note on the topic, while only one of us or Sylphie is needed to break the indirect illusions with [Manifest], it would be safer if we both used it, since one of witnessing the other casting the spell doesn’t necessarily mean the other actually did cast the spell, and that may be an avenue for abuse by our opponent otherwise.

>>395037

>>394983

Moving on, her tentacle grab and mine-rape are effectively parts of the same attack and thus have the same counter, namely keeping our distance so she can’t grab us in the first place. That’s easier said than done when she has illusions, but we should be mitigating the majority of them by not giving her the chance to use them much at all so we can have at least some confidence in whether or not she’s actually close to us. [Remote Sentry] should give us adequate protection from surprise attacks, but should she seemingly get close to us then it’s better to be safe and retreat instead of potentially getting caught and forcing Sylphie to make the guess as to whether or not we’re actually in danger. As for the method of getting away, a mix of [Ice] and [Build the Wall] should suffice for making space between us and the mindflayer while [Gust] can be used to increase our speed when moving. A side note, should we witness Sylphie being grabbed, we kind of have to ‘help’ her at the risk of her being taken out of the fight and becoming a gibbering madwoman, but we should at least check our other senses like [Mage Sight] and [Remote Sentry] before making the commitment in case we are able to notice the potential illusion. Furthermore, both we and Sylphie should probably have [Counter Circle] at the ready in case the other inadvertently attacks them, which will inevitably happen.

Other than that, I’m not sure what else to add. I guess blocking the entrance we used to get in here wouldn’t be the worst idea, since those lackeys we took down may recover and join the fray otherwise, making our job much harder.

>>395000 checked

>Have them both cast their biggest baddest Father daughter spell in a back to back 359° fuck off attack.

>Have us cast the strongest AoE spell we can both muster

<When we're in relatively close range to our target and would be caught in the blast like what happened in Cair

<When we're inside a building that would collapse on us, killing or at least severely hindering our escape

<When we don't want to alert the base's personnel to our location, which would happen if the barracks blew up

<When there is a very good chance that the hostages are nearby and would be killed as a result of said spell

AoE is a smart idea, but going full ham is not. Limit the intensity so we don't fuck ourselves over, and maybe stick to something which isn't fire or plasma like ice, wind or lightning to avoid structural damage and/or trapping ourselves in a blaze when the books surrounding us ignite.

Quick thought I just had. You can only illusion things you can imagine, or you can guess your target would believe, such as missing. But what about humors? It would be rather hard to illusion up something that you have no idea about (illusionists lack magesight), and as we’re an accomplished plagamancer, we should easily be able to tell the difference. From there, it’s just a simple matter of [Cancer], and she’s dead wouldn’t be the first time we’ve used it to take down a madwoman too. Just be sure we’re targeting her. Though I think our chances with this is better than others, as because plagamamcy, unlike fulgromancy and pyromancy, is unable to be seen, she won’t be able to guess what we’re throwing at her.

>Whatever nefarious plot Phallia has cooked up through this Mindflayer for Fillothia will come to pass as well.

Hang on a second, why are we suddenly certain that Phallia is behind this? I mean, she probably is all things considered, but we have yet to see any tell-tale signs like vines or spores whatsoever, so it seems a bit weird to jump to the conclusion so prematurely.

>>395092

That plan of yours is rather reliant on the assumptions of her not knowing what humours are her first illusion against us involved abdominal pain, potentially relating to our perception of our own humours, and we don’t know what this ‘Great Mother’ has told her, her humours being vulnerable to disruption, her humours not recovering before we have a chance to use [Cancer] and her actually being susceptible to [Cancer] the original description for the spell states “Studies on monster species are inconclusive as to it’s effectiveness” and I’m fairly certain we’ve never tried the spell on an eldritch being to work, not to mention the best effect we would get out of it would be skin growths since internal systems are “much more resilient to this form of magic, and require extreme humoural imbalance so most likely more than simply fucking with the humours in order to adequately affect the body”, meaning it would be more of a hindrance than a finishing move by itself. Still, so long as we’re absolutely confident that we’re not targeting Sylphie with it—which can be done by taking precautionary steps like checking which humours we’ve disrupted, ensuring we’re under no direct illusions and perhaps performing the deed without line of sight to the target if that’s possible—this could work rather well.

To the first paragraph, the mindflayers created by Dollora were described much differently than the ones we saw in illusionquest, hinting that another god (Phallia) had their hands in these ones. Also, eldritch beings? Pffft. They’re just old Jackor toys that Phallia stuffed her own juju in.

Finally, experiencing abdominal pain and knowing what causes it are two very different things. I’m sure at some point in her life, she simply experienced it, like everyone else. But did you know exactly what caused it? No. As for [Cancer]’s effectiveness on monsters, the fact that it worked on a temple guard is enough for me to think it would work on all non-undead. Her likelihood of resilience is low, as mindflayers are illusionists, not plagamancers to any degree, which would make her ability to resist it very low.

>>394983

Good Lord, just cause [Indigestion] to everyone.

Sorry, work was killer and I'm afraid I'm going to have to qol one of my patients tomorrow sooo, writing isn't in the cards. Unlikely tomorrow also, but I have all day wednesday so yay.

>>395000

Those trips can't be denied. AoE's are God's third greatest gift to man after all.

>>395019

D-duel guardians? MADNESS

>>395033

There's just books around. Nothing of great loss. Thankfully everyone is outside… for now.

>>395037

Potentially, though you'd need to find a sort of source for your guardian to go after. In the last case it was the lobster, in this case… what is she using to [Project]?

You could possibly reveal yourself as the Grand Wizard and buy some time, but not everyone knows what you look like and frankly you don't have the time to explain if she's still alive.

A direct attack illusion will require line of sight, probably, but she can still [Project] without it. Though in this particular library, there aren't that many places to hide. It's not overly large.

>>395038

There may have been a particular ability Tobias knows that she might have used with those tentacles… though to be fair she could probably just kill you with them normally.

Don't forget that with remote sentry, you need to peel away part of your attention to look through it. Tho if you think of a way to use that…

>he doens't like AoE ham.

>>395092

If you can see her true form with the [Mage Sight], you can see her humors. However if you think she's over in the corner, it gets dodgy.

>>395128

She is a similar Mindflayer to Fiora. So she is certainly Phallian.

>>395128

>>395179

All living beings have humours, however, it's just part of their make-up. You're also strong enough of a Plagamancer to [Cancer] just about anything if you can unbalance those humors just… you gotta do that first.

>>395193

My god.

Are you suggesting you sing the most destructive variation to the [Irate Frog Song]? Are you suggesting you sing the… [Brown Note]?

You'd never survive. I won't allow this to happen, it's an affront to the Gods.

This might be a dumb suggestion but, is it possible to trick the mind flayer into thinking that one of us is an illusionist? Can we make our magic look fake? Can we launch a fire ball at her that doesn't produce heat so it seems like an illusion?

You might be wondering why I would suggest doing this, it's so that we can trick her into standing still and getting a face full of hot steamy lighting.

So basically, my idea is that either the wizard or Sylphie pretends to be an illusionist I think monsters can't be illusionists so it would be the wizard I guess, then we'll get the might flayer in a possition where she's more concerned with the "real" magic and doesn't bother dodging when we send an "illusion" flying towards her face.

>>395179

>To the first paragraph, the mindflayers created by Dollora were described much differently than the ones we saw in illusionquest, hinting that another god (Phallia) had their hands in these ones.

Fair enough.

>Finally, experiencing abdominal pain and knowing what causes it are two very different things. I’m sure at some point in her life, she simply experienced it, like everyone else. But did you know exactly what caused it? No.

But can we be certain she doesn't know about humours when she hasn't had a reason to display a potential lack of knowledge? She doesn't know that we know plagamancy, after all. Besides, we figured out how humours worked by reading a book that was previously just sitting in a magic shop, so it's not like the information is impossible to find, and a young girl looking for revenge against aquatic monsters would probably be willing to look into more unorthodox magics capable of killing a lot of people, of which plagamancy happens to fit the bill quite nicely. Does this mean she definitely knows about humours? Of course not, and honestly she probably doesn't. But the fact that there is still even a slither of a chance that she does warrants caution.

>As for [Cancer]’s effectiveness on monsters, the fact that it worked on a temple guard is enough for me to think it would work on all non-undead.

To be fair, Victoria was bruised and beaten, stabbed multiple times in the torso and had three of her legs torn off before we even considered casting [Cancer]. And even then, we still had to manipulate her humours first to simply cast [Cancer] on her leg, which isn't really an internal system. I don't think such a tactic would work as easily as you describe on a target that's hale and hearty; we'd need to spend a fair bit of time on her humours first.

>Her likelihood of resilience is low, as mindflayers are illusionists, not plagamancers to any degree, which would make her ability to resist it very low.

I don't see how her 'weapon' of choice would affect her resistance, as we're pretty vulnerable to disease despite our experience with plagamancy, but thinking more on it, her lack of an unclean living to build up a resistance, such as what that centipede girl in the first quest had, probably does mean she's fairly vulnerable.

>>395196

>A direct attack illusion will require line of sight, probably, but she can still [Project] without it. Though in this particular library, there aren't that many places to hide. It's not overly large.

That’s what I meant by “indirect illusions”. And we can create our own hiding spots or at the very least get out of sight very quickly with [Build the Wall], so the small size of the library shouldn’t be too much of an issue.

>There may have been a particular ability Tobias knows that she might have used with those tentacles…

Yes, [Eye of Fear]. But I somehow doubt she'll actually use that here seeing as it incapacitates both the target and the caster insane or not, she'll still have to witness her targets fears, taking her out of the fight momentarily, which would leave herself wide open to attack. I say mind-raping as an option because, well, she's a Mindflayer—that's kind of their whole shtick in most settings they appear in—not to mention Fiora did something which could only be described as a form of mind-rape to Tobias and Richard during their first encounter, so we should probably expect it to come into play should she get close to either of us.

>You're also strong enough of a Plagamancer to [Cancer] just about anything if you can unbalance those humors just… you gotta do that first.

In which case, I’m going to recommend we focus entirely on setting up [Cancer] as per what >>395092 suggests, with necessary precautions because a little paranoia has never hurt anybody, while Sylphie focuses on AoE as a means of both damaging and distracting Mun’teca by not giving her the chance to do much of anything but dodge and block, buying us time to work our magic and making her weaker and thus more susceptible to [Manipulate Humours].

Out of curiosity, can we use [Mage Sight] through [Remote Sentry]? Because that would make for a fantastic way of determining Mun’teca’s exact location and form for us to be able to use [Manipulate Humours] successfully.

Hey hey! probably won't have update today, but I do have an update of another sort!

The ebook is out for download! That's right, the ebook for Wizardquest on amazon for purchase! Take the antics of your favorite shit Wizard everywhere you go with your kindle or other e-reader device!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RLHMFJV

The story is a little altered from the original for clarity and space, but if you could leave a review, it would be a big help! Anyone interested in the hardback would need to wait, the proof copy should be in early next week I'd guess.

Again, I don't plan to make money off this venture (especially since I dropped the price of the ebook to $7 USD which will take effect on friday) but it would be nice to pretend I'm an author.

>>395218

That would be… incredibly difficult. You can try to just plain trick her, but pretending to be an illusionist would be easier if you'd been a good father-in-law and checked in with your son-in-law and I'll stop talking.

>>395223

Hmmm. The way that Remote Sentry works, you can't use [Mage Sight] through it as it feeds into a different section of your consciousness than [Mage Sight]. I suppose if you had [Magesight Goggles] you could use it as a filter over a sentry but… otherwise no.

Chances are after this we'll be looking at a character swap, if you want to. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. One way or another something is about to reach a head…

>Story continue

Mun’teca steps back from Sylphie as your daughter explodes with power, a corona of electricity playing around her which pushes the Mindflayer back, a frown on her face. You follow it up with a [Lightning Bolt] of your own, though once again, it seems to miss, with her moving merely moments before the bolt strikes.

That’s fine though, the entire point of that exercise was to get her away from Sylphie and allow you to reach your daughter. With [Mage Sight] flaring and your guardian manifested behind you, you dive toward your daughter and throw up a wall that crashes through the floorboards using [Build the Wall].

“Huh? Dad, we can’t see her!” Sylphie shouts.

“No shit, that’s the point!” You reply before casting out [Remote Sentry]. The devices appear on the four walls of the library, giving you nearly total vision of the place. The downside to using four of these, however, is that it takes up a great deal of your concentration, though thankfully Sylphie notices and shields you, her tails rising.

You see her immediately standing on the other side of your wall, her head cocked as if in confusion. She looks up at your sentries, her innate magic allowing her to at least get a vague impression of where they are. As she looks-

“Sylphie, bombard right behind the wall!” You shout.

Not wasting a moment, Sylphie leaps into the air and fires a swath of fire, scorching the flooring and burning books scattered on the ground. Her area of devastation is large enough that even someone with quick reflexes shouldn’t have been able to dodge it! Quickly turning back to your sentries, you see-

Her standing right next to you.

Gasping, you leap backward as the sword she was carrying beforehand cuts through your already abused shirt and makes a furrow in your already abused chest. Blood flies crimson through the air as you throw up a spike of ice in front of you in desperation, but whether or not she used an illusion, she steps to the side and makes to strike at you again.

Your staff intercepts the sword and she leans down, eyes coming near yours as her tentacles writhe. She hisses as magic flares up around her, “This time, I’ll turn your fear into reality.”

Cold shock runs down your spine and you panic despite yourself. Oh Gods, she isn’t going to make you relive that again, is she? Oh fuck, oh shit, oh fuck you have to-

Mun’teca cries out in pain as Sylphie’s tails impale her tentacles, and throw the Mindflayer to the floor, sending her sword clattering. Unfortunately she’s stronger than she looks and the tentacle hair grabs Sylphie’s tails and THROWS her into a nearby table, throwing up a shower of books and a cry of alarm.

This snaps you back into reality. No… no, you REFUSE to allow that vision to come true! Roaring with anger, you tuck your head and barrel into the chest of the Mindflayer, driving her back into a bookcase and eliciting a grunt as the wind is forced out of her. Pulling back your hand as you charge lighting through it to pierce her chest, you blink in surprise as suddenly she’s not in front of you. Though it takes you a moment to understand that you’re being tricked, your guardian destroying the illusion, but that’s all it takes for her to slip from your grasp and smash a book into the side of your head, sending you crashing to the floor, stars in your vision.

Something slimy grabs your leg and you let out a cry as you look up to see Mun’teca fuming with anger. “YOU WILL NOT STAND IN MY WAY. SHE PROMISED ME! PROMISED ME I’D SEE THEM BECOME FERTILIZER!”

>>395404

“The fuck are you talking abou-“ You shout before being thrown as well into the recovering Sylphie. The two of you push to your feet as the Mindflayer, seething with anger, splits into five, all of them encircling the two of you. They make no immediate move to attack, but you can’t be sure which is the real one as they all radiate the same magic power. If you take a moment to analyze their signatures, you’re sure you can figure it out but…

“GUARDIAN! STRIKE!” You shout as your [Inner Guardian] manifests before you and slices through one of the Mindflayers, reducing it to nothing. The others press on, closing in faster and faster as your daughter pushes her back behind you, her guardian doing the same. Unfortunately she must be using multiple illusions over and over each other, because for every one your guardians destroy, another takes their place. The strain this causing must be immense, but from what you understand of Jackor’s little rejects, they can keep going until they pass out or go entirely insane. Unfortunately for you, this Monster passed the latter’s threshold ages ago.

“Sylphie.” You say as the Mindflayers about close in, their tentacles flailing and ready to grab you. She looks over her shoulder at you, sweat on her brow as you pull her staff out from your bag. Taking in a deep breath, you breathe out,

“Clockwise.”

As soon as you say this, both of you turn, blasting power from your staves. Explosions of fire and electricity detonate around the room. The time for playing nice is over and so is the time for subtlety. She needs to go down and go down NOW.

The circle of destruction you form with Sylphie leaves a swath of destruction, obliterating any of the Mindflayers you see. They don’t reform, possibly because your mind doesn’t allow that possibility and possibly because your [Inner Guardians] also destroy them until they all suddenly vanish as one of the Mindflayers drops under your barrage, her teeth chattering as a stray explosion of electricity courses through her.

“F-Fuck you.” She says through gritted teeth.

Directing yourself at her, you point your staff and both yours and Sylphie’s guardians appear around her, striking in unison to shatter any illusion she may be casting. At this, her eyes widen in shock as she drops onto her hands and eyes, twitching while searching around frantically.

“No, no, no, it’s not supposed to happen. Why does it hurt? I’ve hurt so much already, please don’t make it hurt anymore! They’re all dead, oh by the spirits, they’re all dead! Please don’t let them be dead and- I have to avenge them? Oh but it hurts!”