So, a good contingency if we can't calm Glen is to invoke Sylvester's name and cause? So that at least we change his current state of mind to something that involves less murder and more sadness?
By the way, what are our feelings regarding Glen? Do we hate him for what he did? Do we still respect him as a general? This is more of a question to the GM I guess.
You have long since made peace with your husband and Glen's interactions. What you hold against him most is his neglect of Miri, who isn't nearly as good about standing up for herself as you are. Glen was very protective and possessive of Sylvester, however, and you strongly suspect that he dislikes you more than you dislike him.
Glen was too young to participate in the war against the Kinkaids and the mighty clans, and since then all the battles fought by the forces of Redleaf Duchy have been at the western front, so you never got to witness him command troops in person. His skills are highly praised by your family (Bonedust Lands are right on top of the frontlines, and since your marriage, Redleaf Duchy forces have usually stationed at forts under Bonedust control), and both your husband and Phineas Kinkaid (Who dislikes the Hortons as a rule and wouldn't give Glen praise if it wasn't deserved) have told you that his skills compare favorably to those of his father, which is about as great a compliment as one could give a military officer in Redleaf Duchy. So yeah, you respect him as a general.
2334th Year of Man, 5th Month, 1st Day:
SundayFeeling bad for your poor neglected ghoul, you instruct Wednesday to snoop around town for divine casters and druids. Wednesday notes that a task so large and open ended will not be accomplished quickly, and that she drop in a few times a week to give you any report anything she might find, and to make sure that you don't have a more pressing task to assign her.
2334th Year of Man, 5th Month, 2nd Day:
MondayYou tell the Sorrow's Daughter that her name is Lilly, and that she will be living with your servants. Lilly then allows you to bind her into your service. The demon promises to earn both your favor and better living quarters. Your summoning skill is well honed to the point where you can gain a reasonable feel for a demon once you have it contracted. Lilly seems to be somewhat of a spoiled demon child, having spent most of her life under her mother's care, learning the courtly manners of several mortal races and how to play several instruments. Like all Sorrow's Daughters, Lilly can latch onto the soul of anybody who acts kindly towards her out of pity, highjacking their mind and body while she digests their spirit; Once a Sorrow's Daughter finishes eating a soul, she has the victim, now a mostly useless puppet incapable of acting on its own without constant direct orders, kill itself. Lilly is incapable of physical or magical growth on her own; Sorrow's Daughters are often used like cattle by the stronger emotion demons who create them, and are typically drained of energy or even eaten once they gather enough souls. Deciding that she will not be of much use dealing with the other demons, you send Lilly away to get set up in the servant's quarters.
Finding the terms offered by Starling to be acceptable, you bind him to them. Noting that his appearance is clearly demonic in nature, you instruct him to set up residence in Groghall's basement for now. The Star Beast notes that on weekend nights he will likely spend some time outside to read the heavens, but begins to make himself at home. Starling appears as a levatating uncut gem a bit larger than a human head, with an animated image of the night sky reflected on its surface. Like Lilly, you are able to get a good read on Starling, and find this demon to be significantly more dangerous. Starling can take a battle forms, which appear as large feline or lupine predators, and fight with teeth and claw infused with its own light energy. In well lit areas, it can also mold light into beams or blades with which to attack its foes. Directly wielding light is something no mortal can accomplish without the correct Divine Magic, but as your daughter is a member of the Steel Sisterhood, you know a bit about its strengths and limitations; Weaponized light can pierce through most armors, but a well polished surface can mitigate, block, or even reflect it. Luckily Starling knows a bit of earth magic to muddy up his targets if they are too sparkly.
Starling also has some useful skills outside of battle as well; Like all Star Beasts he is a master of reading omens in the night sky, which although vauge can sometimes be useful. Omens must be taken with a grain of salt however, as Star Beasts (along with a few other entities) can make minor changes to the night sky, such as changing the color of light from a heavenly body or generating false stars to burn for a few weeks. Aside from the skills shared by all Star Beast, Starling has a few talents of his own. He is an alchemist, capable of transmuting mundane metal into more miraculous materials. As he lacks the proper digits for fine motor skills, he will likely need an assistant for some Alchemy projects, and you will need a smith capable of working whatever material he makes once he finishes.
As soon as you bind the tentacle demon, it bolts for the door to go and feed, promising to be back to begin its service as agreed upon in about a week, two at the most. As it left so quickly, you are unable to get a great read on it. Like most tentacle demons, it was specifically made to serve mortals on the mortal realm, and as such has no real agenda of its own beyond feeding and occasionally reproducing or indulging its bloodlust. Whatever telepathy it has seems to be involuntary; it likely is programmed to hone in on its master's mind, and until you bound it to a contract it had defaulted to you as the strongest summoner in the area.
You consider the risks of fishing with Dublin, and how best to mitigate them. An Inquisitor of his skill should have no issue destroying the vast majority of lesser demons, and your summoning is honed to the point where you should at least be able to gauge the general strength of what you are pulling in. This leaves major dangers. First are the rare demons that Dublin would actually be at a disadvantage against; Some demons have traits that make the magic of the inquisition useless against them, most common amoung these are the Nullifiers, which are immune to all magic, the Sparkeaters, which feed on divine energy, and Demons of Silence, which would prevent Dublin from performing the incantations required. Although common by comparison within the Kingdom, where a dark mage might run into an inquisitor, none of these demon types occur with great frequency in their own realms. Some demons are also fast and strong enough to hypothetically harm you or Dublin before he has time to react, but since the vast majority of beings are briefly stunned when dragged unexpectedly to another realm, this is unlikely to happen.
The other, more serious, risk is that of a stronger demon detecting your fishing operation, and concealing its true power in hopes that you will bite off more than you can chew. If you pull up a major demon, it could easily be too much for a single inquisitor to handle. This risk can be reduced by not fishing one realm for too long, so that nobody catches on to what you are doing, or by fishing in areas where you are likely to find demons particularly vulnerable to Dublin's magic; Incorporeal Demons are among the most dangerous under most circumstances, as few things can hurt them, but even the mightiest among them are easily destroyed, and even more easily banished or sealed, by the divine magic of Mikael.
With that in mind, it is likely safest to fish a ream of wind or a realm of shadow, where incorporeal demons are most likely to show up. Sparkeaters and Demons of Silence, beasties that Dublin would have problems with, might have a small chance of appearing in a realm of shadow, but many shadow creatures are also weak to weaponized light, so if you fish there, Starling could be brought to tip the scales further in your favor.
---
Syzzik explains the building as he walks you down the stairs to the basement. The old Customs house operated during the time of the Gulf Dynasty, when humans and savanna orcs carved up and colonized the jungles to the south, the main crossing of the Roe River was in town and represented an important trade route for the Kingdom. The building has four floors and a basement. He goes over each from bottom to top.
"The ground floor is pretty much an extension of the marketplace. Small merchants rent out small segments of space during the day. My Apartment is on the second."
He points upward as you walk down,
"a bunch of the orc clans pitch in to rent the third floor, my duchess, where they keep some childminders. Any clan affiliated orc born in town is raised right above my ceiling; It can get a bit noisy during the day, which is part of the reason I still leave to work everyday even though I could easily make rent on my investments alone.""I talked to some of the Orcs, and ran the numbers," the merchant tells you with a shifty glance,
"they don't add up. I think one of the mighty clans is bankrolling the operation, and it isn't Clan Ape. Peat says he pays as much as anybody else.""The owner," he continues,
"is Ms. Lou, she lives on the top floor. She runs a couple mercenary companies in town. I'm pretty sure you already know her though, right?"He gives you a knowing wink, which you don't return.
"No... should I?""I've seen her speaking with that fellow who has the fingers on his right hand cut off at the knuckles," Syzzik explains,
"He is married to the young lady you brought with you this evening, correct?""Yeah, Redding is my son-in-law," you answer unimpressed,
"Count Ernie's youngest son. He invests in some of the companies in town. I think he is the sole owner of a few as well. If Ms. Lou is in the Merc business, I'm not shocked they are acquainted.""Oh... You really don't know her then." Syzzik shrugs,
"I thought you would as a Dark Mage and all. She barely hides the fact she is a vampire. She isn't out very often when the sun is up, every few months she will bring a date home who never leaves, and she hasn't aged in the slightest since I moved in eleven years ago. I keep enough money handy to buy the building in case the inquisition comes around and pops her some day.""Oh..." You answer a bit more interested, wondering if Redding knew the secret of the woman he does business with.
The basement itself is largely unfurnished, spotted with a few 'forts' made out of crates by Mable and the young orcs upstairs. After shooing the girls, Syzzik points out the series of pipes and vents for smoke on the basement walls and ceiling.
"Somebody used this basement for cooking or brewing in the past, it is too warm in this town for that to be for heating. If I had to guess, the people who ran this place as a customs house would brew cheap liquor, and use it to replace a portion of any valuable booze that came through here. They did most of the hard work already, so Installing the nescescary equipment to teach brewing would be a trivial pursuit, m'lady."Awkward silence falls for a few seconds, before Syzzik works up the moxie to add,
"So what do you think? If you want, I could try to ask if Ms. Lou knows how to get whatever work stations you dark mages use down here."2334th Year of Man, 5th Month, 3rd Day:
Tuesday"Gentlemen," you cut in before more shots are fired,
"I find it very disrespectful to Sylvester's memory that his two best friends in the world are fighting right now, when we should be focusing on punishing his murderer. His trusted advisor and son in law making a battlefield on top of his children? Destroying the alliance that has a hope of bringing down his murderer and those who support him?""Oh, that is rich Maeris," Glen laughs coldly,
"You don't get to talk about respecting Sylvester's memory, love, you are doing everything in your power to undo his legacy. Making Charlie Kinkaid general, and the misguided child who worships her heir? Are you mad woman?"Joy abruptly strikes her own casting pose, but Dean and Caddor are quick to restrain her.
"Only because you are burning every other possible bridge!" You scream. The room falls silent as you compose yourself before speaking again.
"The godsdamn crown is in on this Glen. We need more troops, not the heads of every count who didn't swear vengeance the instance my Sylvester was struck down. If the roles were reversed, would Sylvester have thrown away sound strategy over his grief? I miss my husband, but we need to smarten up unless we want to join him.""Y-yeah?!?! W-well maybe I do!" Glen screams. The room falls silent again, before Count Horton falls to his knees and starts crying.
"By the four, get it together man." Redding drops his casting stance, and you see the anger recede and reason return to your son-in-law's eyes.
"M'lady, it is clear that Count Horton is unfit to rule. The death of his Duke, as well as the slander recently levied against him by the Prince, have clearly compromised him. I strongly suggest relieving him of the responsibilities of his office for the time being, placing Southjungle County under his wife's control, and his troops under your general or another officer."As if on cue another twenty orcs, what seems to be the rest of Typhoon Swarm, storm into the room. At this point you remember that one of Redding's talents as an earth Elementalist is the ability to sense footfalls on the ground within a few hundred yards. He might very well have a better idea then you do as to the location of the rest of Glen's men.
"No! No damnit! I wont let you relieve me! I will win this! I WILL AVENGE SYLVESTER!" Glen roars, but you can tell that the influx of troops to your side and the actions of their leader have deeply hurt the moral of Count Horton's men.
Phew! RNG came thiiiiiiiiiiis close to having violence occur. Glen is at your mercy. How do you deal with him and the prisoners he brought? Next turn should also run through Thursday, so give me another day or two of action in addition to any response to the events of this turn.
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Topic: (SG) The Redleaf Epic (Formerly Widow: A Duchess Scorned) (Read 65371 times)