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[VoidSlayer]

We should not take the whole family, Joy and Dean need a chance to stand on their own; however, I agree leaving Redding in charge would be a good idea.  This can be a chance to give Dean some first hand experience running a dark mage network.

I only support summoning Yaugur for the duel if we have something else for him to do for the month.

Maybe just throw Glen in for one of the contestants?  He seems to want to do it and either we win or he dies, so win win.

[IronyOwl]

He is an irrational and unpredictable. He is more of a force of nature than an ally. I'd rather harvest the resource and use it for whatever we want, rather than risking some kind of crazy religious thing coming form him.

Or maybe I'm just a control freak. That's a possibility too.

He's still a force of nature more or less on our side. Between letting an avalanche crush our enemies, mostly, and immediately quarrying it for exquisite marble, I'm somewhat inclined to let it crush things.

Plus, while we probably won't have a good chance to assassinate him and eat his soul in the future, in theory it's not going anywhere. Murdering him costs us his divine magic immediately, which is especially unfortunate when we're not even sure who/what we want or are able to feed it to.

Also, there's some nonzero chance the voices will warn him or something.

I don't know if it works like that. But I don't know anything, so my opinion holds no value here.

Neither do I, but he's radiating divine power. Some kind of prophecy or foresight wouldn't be massively surprising.

Plus murdering your allies so you can eat their souls sets a bad precedent

Not if only Rash knows that it was planned.

On paper, sure. In practice, things tend to leak out and build up.

Look at Chasity. On paper, we know of absolutely nothing she's done wrong. In practice, everyone knows she's a fucking viper responsible for everything suspicious or convenient that's ever happened near her.

and Rash's motivation for this is impatience. When was the last time you heard of somebody murdering their boss to unleash the gates of hell faster working out for them?

If your argument is that Rash is as likely to murder us, then I agree with the argument. Solved as long as we work the way they want us to work.

Not necessarily murder, but potentially act, well, Rashly. She's likely to try to rush things along even if it's not the greatest idea, because she wants the apocalypse or whatever now and consequences and collateral be damned.

I like the idea, but we have to come with a better argument for talking to him. We supposedly don't know all this "Ima goin' to save mai waifu" thing he got himself into, and it may seem a litte direct to ask him so rashly about all that.

How about we come to him asking if he has any news regarding Chastity? As they are friends, he should know. And we could seem worried about that.

But we should wait until the tensions have gone away.

Agreed on the tensions thing. Talking to Greent is kind of hard because we don't rely on him for anything or vice versa, and at the moment he's a little on the antagonistic side towards us. Well, at the precise moment heavily on the antagonistic side.

I like talking to Tiv, Syzzik, and Mable) to see if she might have a future as a professional soul cleaner for us.

Yeah, but I'd consult it first with father. He was the human who learned to clean souls after all.

Oh, right. Forgot about Dad, he should have some real good insight on that.

I vote Joy, Dean (I have a theory inn which he may get to bang Chieftess Ivy for that "biological fact" thing), Mason, Fortune, Foot (why not?) and Rugath, as a personal guard because why not.

I would leave Redding (to keep him away from the whole demonic madness his wife got herself into), and Wednesday (to snoop on Redding while we are away.)

I'd rather take Redding, since he'll be dealing with this at some point anyway, but if we leave him leaving Wednesday to snoop on him's an excellent idea. Possibly Greent as well, if she's got time.

We should not take the whole family, Joy and Dean need a chance to stand on their own; however, I agree leaving Redding in charge would be a good idea.  This can be a chance to give Dean some first hand experience running a dark mage network.

Maybe just throw Glen in for one of the contestants?  He seems to want to do it and either we win or he dies, so win win.

I feel like both Joy and Dean would rather visit a demon-orc fortress and meet with a demigod chieftess than hang around town, though, and our plans there are probably at least as leadery and relevant to family interests as our operations here. We can work on putting them in charge of things later.

That said, I do like the idea of getting Dean some black mage leadership experience soon. Joy could use some (more) experience as well, but she's apparently an awesome preacher already and her other talents are on the battlefield, which she can return to after she gives birth in like a month. Or... maybe that means if we want her to get civilian leadership experience, we need to get it in now? Being a parent is hard.

Glen's only willing to fight against the mercs, which we want to live (or at least, me and Rash want to live). It'd also be a waste to throw him away like that; he may be a fixer-upper, but he'd be a massive asset if we can salvage him. He's even warming up to the orcs! Mainly because he wants to see them butcher those vile traitors like the swine that they are, but still. Progress!

[Tomcost]

Plus, while we probably won't have a good chance to assassinate him and eat his soul in the future, in theory it's not going anywhere. Murdering him costs us his divine magic immediately, which is especially unfortunate when we're not even sure who/what we want or are able to feed it to.

I accept this argument. So, I say that we don't kill Crank. Maybe we should send Rugath to die to an inquisitor and be done with it, if we can't get to do the trial.

Look at Chasity. On paper, we know of absolutely nothing she's done wrong. In practice, everyone knows she's a fucking viper responsible for everything suspicious or convenient that's ever happened near her.

Hmm. Yep. There also could be some infights for power after the vacuum Crank would leave.

Possibly Greent as well, if she's got time.

Oh, yes, him too.

That said, I do like the idea of getting Dean some black mage leadership experience soon.

We don't need to go away to delegate our work to Dean. We can start now:

Allow him to become a manifestation, make him in Charge of Dark mage stuff in our behalf, and, as first order, make him set up a communication network between the dark mages of the Duchy.

Joy could use some (more) experience as well, but she's apparently an awesome preacher already and her other talents are on the battlefield, which she can return to after she gives birth in like a month. Or... maybe that means if we want her to get civilian leadership experience, we need to get it in now? Being a parent is hard.

Let her have the religious and military leadership. Redding should be the one with civilian affairs, I think.

Glen's only willing to fight against the mercs, which we want to live (or at least, me and Rash want to live). It'd also be a waste to throw him away like that; he may be a fixer-upper, but he'd be a massive asset if we can salvage him. He's even warming up to the orcs! Mainly because he wants to see them butcher those vile traitors like the swine that they are, but still. Progress!

As Glen is not so irrational right now, I wouldn't kill him. We saved him, so we are commited to not murdering the person who is trying to get his shit together. So, no, don't send him.



Right now, if the fight is unavoidable, and in case we don't send the Balrog, I say:

-Rugath the wight for the mercs. We rig it so that they send an inquisitor.
-Tonsil for the Druids. Because I doubt that a badass with demonic gear would lose to a random merc.

[Weirdsound]

Questions for the GM:
What does becoming a manifestation entail? Would Dean be able to reproduce normally? Would he be able to be around in public?
Can a soul be eaten by a manifestation? Would that be a good use of the resource?

The answer to each of these questions boils down to 'It depends on the several factors, the biggest of which is the demon or demons Dean chooses to channel'

The act of manifestation boils down to summoning a physical or meta-physical chunk of a demon into one's body and/or soul. Usually a demon chosen for such a procedure has similar interests and values to the manifestation, or is deeply desperate for the manifestations help in some way; Channeling a demon who is wicked and wild without any sort of leverage over it typically reduces a manifestation into little more than a beast obsessed with performing as many acts of murder/theft/torture/sexual misconduct as it can in the shortest possible amount of time.

Manifesting can be undone in most circumstances, but mortals easily develop crippling addictions to wielding the power of any individual demons, so only the most disciplined manifestations return to a fully human state for any significant amount of time. 

It is possible to make the act of manifestation permanent through what is called Reverse Ascension or Declension. Reverse Ascension occours when there is nothing left of the demon you are channeling for you to return what you have taken from it to; This most commonly happens when a manifestation channels the entirety of a demon's being at once, but can also be brought about if remainder of the demon one is channeling gets destroyed. Power gained through reverse ascension is the sole property of the mortal manifestation, and can be controlled or repressed through meditation and self discipline. To bypass having to constantly negotiate with a demonic partner for each instance of channeling, manifestations capable of arranging a Reverse Ascension usually do so.

Dean has already arranged for Yaugur to capture some stronger minor demons for him, which his ancestor will force to descend completely (sans undesirable personality traits, body parts that would be completely out of place on a human, and reproductive systems, all of which Yaugur will afterwards destroy) into your son once Dean is ready. Once this is done, Dean's values, desires, and personality will likely change at least a bit, and his entire being will be permanently infused with elements that are clearly inhuman. He will also no longer have to maintain a state of preparedness to host a demon through regular torture. The process will grant you son the ability to consume souls to increase his own power, and will reduce or completely eliminate his mortal need to eat, drink, and/or sleep.

As the arrangements have been complete for several years, all Dean needs to take the plunge is your blessing, and thirty minutes or so with the Dark Workstations while Yaugur isn't busy on contract to a mortal.

[Tomcost]

That was enlightening.

So, to clarify things, I'm going to say what actions I want in a kind of decision tree:

1) Try to go for the trial handed to us.
   1.1) If it works, do a private trial in which we exonerate everybody. If Wikes is still angry, put him in jail some time.
   1.2) If it doesn't, claim the souls (including Mason's daughter) and rig the fights. The fight to save the mercs is going to be fought by either Rugath or Crank (I'm indifferent now if he dies and we get his soul, as we can feed it to Dean). We coordinate with Redding to choose an inquisitor to fight him. The fight for the druids is going to be fought by Tonsil, who we will heavily bless (with the curses supported by his group), with things like increased perception, resistance to fire, and whatever we can think about). We tell Redding that whoever he sends there will die.
        1.2.1) If the fights go as planned, we continue work with the cartels to lower the prices, and try to get on a better relationship with the mercs. If we get Cranks's soul, we give it to Dean.
        1.2.2) If somehow we find that we are going to lose the second fight (maybe by Greent cheating), we summon our great-great grandaddy to kill whoever dares to try to fight us.


Independent suggestions:

Allow Dean to become a manifestation, make him in Charge of Dark mage stuff in our behalf, and, as first order, make him set up a communication network between the dark mages of the Duchy.

Talk with dad about letting Mable do some soul cleaning for the organization.

Start teaching.

Also talk with dad about Dean becoming a soul cleaner so that he is more likely to safely ascend.

[VoidSlayer]

That was enlighThat was enlightening.

So, to clarify things, I'm going to say what actions I want in a kind of decision tree:

1) Try to go for the trial handed to us.
   1.1) If it works, do a private trial in which we exonerate everybody. If Wikes is still angry, put him in jail some time.
   1.2) If it doesn't, laim the souls (including Mason's daughter) and rig the fights. The fight to save the mercs is going to be fought by either Rugath or Crank (I'm indifferent now if he dies and we get his soul, as we can feed it to Dean). We coordinate with Redding to choose an inquisitor to fight him. The fight for the druids is going to be fought by Tonsil, who we will heavily bless (with the curses supported by his group), with things like increased perception, resistance to fire, and whatever we can think about). We tell Redding that whoever he sends there will die.
        1.2.1) If the fights go as planned, we continue work with the cartels to lower the prices, and try to get on a better relationship with the mercs. If we get Cranks's soul, we give it to Dean.
        1.2.2) If somehow we find that we are going to lose the second fight (maybe by Greent cheating), we summon our great-great grandaddy to kill whoever dares to try to fight us.


Independent suggestions:

Allow Dean to become a manifestation, make him in Charge of Dark mage stuff in our behalf, and, as first order, make him set up a communication network between the dark mages of the Duchy.

Talk with dad about letting Mable do some soul cleaning for the organization.

Start teaching.

Also talk with dad about Dean becoming a soul cleaner so that he is more likely to safely ascend.

+1

[IronyOwl]

That was enlighThat was enlightening.

So, to clarify things, I'm going to say what actions I want in a kind of decision tree:

1) Try to go for the trial handed to us.
   1.1) If it works, do a private trial in which we exonerate everybody. If Wikes is still angry, put him in jail some time.
   1.2) If it doesn't, laim the souls (including Mason's daughter) and rig the fights. The fight to save the mercs is going to be fought by either Rugath or Crank (I'm indifferent now if he dies and we get his soul, as we can feed it to Dean). We coordinate with Redding to choose an inquisitor to fight him. The fight for the druids is going to be fought by Tonsil, who we will heavily bless (with the curses supported by his group), with things like increased perception, resistance to fire, and whatever we can think about). We tell Redding that whoever he sends there will die.
        1.2.1) If the fights go as planned, we continue work with the cartels to lower the prices, and try to get on a better relationship with the mercs. If we get Cranks's soul, we give it to Dean.
        1.2.2) If somehow we find that we are going to lose the second fight (maybe by Greent cheating), we summon our great-great grandaddy to kill whoever dares to try to fight us.


Independent suggestions:

Allow Dean to become a manifestation, make him in Charge of Dark mage stuff in our behalf, and, as first order, make him set up a communication network between the dark mages of the Duchy.

Talk with dad about letting Mable do some soul cleaning for the organization.

Start teaching.

Also talk with dad about Dean becoming a soul cleaner so that he is more likely to safely ascend.

+1

+1, but can't we get a scrap zombie or something instead of Rugath? He seems like a good quality minion, we just haven't had a chance to use him yet.

I also still think Yaugur is excessive, though I'm currently debating how much of that is due to price.

[VoidSlayer]

That was enlighThat was enlightening.

So, to clarify things, I'm going to say what actions I want in a kind of decision tree:

1) Try to go for the trial handed to us.
   1.1) If it works, do a private trial in which we exonerate everybody. If Wikes is still angry, put him in jail some time.
   1.2) If it doesn't, laim the souls (including Mason's daughter) and rig the fights. The fight to save the mercs is going to be fought by either Rugath or Crank (I'm indifferent now if he dies and we get his soul, as we can feed it to Dean). We coordinate with Redding to choose an inquisitor to fight him. The fight for the druids is going to be fought by Tonsil, who we will heavily bless (with the curses supported by his group), with things like increased perception, resistance to fire, and whatever we can think about). We tell Redding that whoever he sends there will die.
        1.2.1) If the fights go as planned, we continue work with the cartels to lower the prices, and try to get on a better relationship with the mercs. If we get Cranks's soul, we give it to Dean.
        1.2.2) If somehow we find that we are going to lose the second fight (maybe by Greent cheating), we summon our great-great grandaddy to kill whoever dares to try to fight us.


Independent suggestions:

Allow Dean to become a manifestation, make him in Charge of Dark mage stuff in our behalf, and, as first order, make him set up a communication network between the dark mages of the Duchy.

Talk with dad about letting Mable do some soul cleaning for the organization.

Start teaching.

Also talk with dad about Dean becoming a soul cleaner so that he is more likely to safely ascend.

+1

+1, but can't we get a scrap zombie or something instead of Rugath? He seems like a good quality minion, we just haven't had a chance to use him yet.

I also still think Yaugur is excessive, though I'm currently debating how much of that is due to price.

In this plan Yaugur is used in the everyone betrayed us and now we take revenge on the living part of the plan.  So a backup rather then the main plan.

[Tomcost]

-snip-

+1

+1, but can't we get a scrap zombie or something instead of Rugath? He seems like a good quality minion, we just haven't had a chance to use him yet.

I also still think Yaugur is excessive, though I'm currently debating how much of that is due to price.

In this plan Yaugur is used in the everyone betrayed us and now we take revenge on the living part of the plan.  So a backup rather then the main plan.

As Voidslayer says, Yaugur is exactly for that. If we don't rig the second fight, the mercenaries are going to be furious, and we should change tactics from trying to be accomodating to everyone to full intimidation and fear.

Yaugur is excessive due to price (if we have to pay the whole month to use him for a single day), so I'm going to reiterate this:

In case we need to use Yaugur, try to negotiate for a shorter and cheaper contract.

The scrap zombie would be far too insulting, it would be too obvious that we are letting them win (if not clear enough for the mercenaries, then at least for some of the Ivys). So we send a wight, with the scary aura of power, and let them kill a supposedly powerful minion (remember that we are also equipping him to be fearsome, with the scary helmet and the maul).

[Weirdsound]

2334th Year of Man, 5th Month, 9th Day:

Monday

The vault has likely remained sealed since the crossing in town was destroyed shortly shortly after the Gulf Dynasty fell, so the odds of dear old grandma's soul turning up there are pretty much zero. You havn't seen the temple or the vault yet, if you did your knowledge of such things would likely tell you for sure, but if you had to guess, it contains a workshop where minor artifact gear was made. Exactly what materials, tools, and/or finished goods remain inside remains a mystery, but truly important crafting jobs would have taken place in the Godtouched Duchy, where both Priestly Orders involved are based.

That said, you are still not entirely comfortable with just giving the Orc a free pass to take whatever gear he wants from the place, so your mind briefly wanders to the thought of destroying Clan Half-Moon; You easily could, and could likely even get away with doing so unscathed politically. Your inner historian shudders at the pragmatic thought, however. Like most of the ruins clans, Half-Moon has a long storied history; They claim the human kings of the Gulf Dynasty as direct ancestors, were the first Jungle Orc clan to publish historical documents in the written language of the kingdom, and proudly curate the largest collection of official Gulf Dynasty documents relating to the day-to-day operation of what was then called Roe River City. The little girl who grew up reading the adventures of the brave orcs, and the young woman who studied under Chieftain Foot, would despise you for even considering ending them... but you are in no position to mess around here...

As an out, you try offering money in place of the weapon, but Half-Moon isn't interested. If he buys something valuable at market, everybody will know he has it, and it would likely just be stolen in short order. Dissatisfied with his answer, you decide to buy time and weigh his fate by informing him that you have decided on your reparation, and will offer his heirs a place in your court. As expected, the orc begins to brag about the two younguns with bright futures.

Dreamer is a clever orc who is also half a goblin, and has ascended to the rank of head calligrapher at the clan's small but prestigious print-shop. As fate would happen, his present project is an orcish translation of the second volume of your great-grandfather Talkot's journal, which relates to his time in North Bank City and the South Bank Ruins. Although his Orc Blood has somewhat neutered the dangerous and deceptive negotiation skills of the goblin in him, he can read and write in four languages, and for little good reason knows the sort of advanced math that humans only learn if they plan on joining the High Masons. Knot is a druid who focuses on super aggressive restorative magic, which is typically used to fix deformed baby Orcs so they don't have to die.

The candidates are acceptable, so you agree to take them and go back to considering the vault share. Not sure what you want to do, you let the orc lure you into haggling for it, and in the end you come up with a deal that although carries some scary incentives for you, should be easily enough to hold up. Your agents may open the vault, and in exchange you will provide one set of gear that is artifact quality, or otherwise of rare make (meaning demonic, divine, or made from the expensive metals produced via advanced alchemey) within three years. If you fail to do this, Chieftian Half-Moon may have any female of his choosing in your family for as long he needs to produce a child for his clan with Bonedust and Riverland blood.

---

You promise the threatening mercenary that you wont kill Wikes, and warn him to watch his behavior as Clan Ivy could be watching from anywhere. Redding then agrees to have a conversation with him if you manage to land the trial.

When your son-in-law speaks of Greent and Chasity, you frown and take careful note, but do not engage the conversation any further. It is not a discussion for two highborns to be having in a mercenary bar.

---

2334th Year of Man, 5th Month, 10th Day:

Tuesday

Noting that Rash prefers to negotiate as a goblin instead of as an orc, you give the smaller humanoid a strong shove, and pin her against your bedpost. "I'll tell you what, if he dosn't give me the trial, we will do just that... You will rule Clan Ivy, and I shall rule you. But only if he says no. I'd rather keep the Shaman around than take my chances playing with his soul... tempting as it is."

Goblins consider physicality, of both the sensual and violent varieties, to be a key component of the negotiation process. Usually it is just minor stuff like pushing, shoving, scratching, caressing, and kissing in non-scandalous areas, but many a goblin murder (and goblin murders are rather common) takes place at the market, and your friends and you used to visit merchants for romantic attention while you were a 'prisoner' in goblin territory. You kept your virginity through these visits, but you can't say the same for many of your friends, and you knew damn well which salesgoblins would have been willing to take it while debating the price of a knick-knac or piece of jewelry.

The Confessor squirms free, then in an impressive display of agility slips between your legs to get behind you, and applies some kind of grappling hold to your arm that would have likely hurt if she had chosen to apply pressure. "Fine. I agree to those terms."

She then abruptly scoops up your remaining arm, adjusts her hold to a full nelson, and pecks you with her lips on the back of your neck. She keeps you in the hold for a few seconds to see if you make any further moves before letting you go; To show respect and allow one's negotiation partner to save face, the one who proposes the final terms allows the other participants the final physical move in the discussion.

---

When you and Rash track down Crank at the mead hall he is staying at, the High Shaman seems only capable of speaking jibberish. It takes Rash a few minutes to talk him down to a semi-lucid state. From there, he chugs a bottle of narcotic potion that is good for at least five doses to the average orc, and after giving the contents a few minutes to kick in, he is ready to talk.

Rash pitches the trial to him, and Crank thinks long and hard on the matter. He can tell you plan on exonerating everybody, which concerns him as it shows public disunity between the Duchy and Clan Ivy. He then sighs, and agrees, wistfully informing you that he was looking forward to participating in the duels himself.

You get the feeling that wouldn't have gone so well without Rash's help...

---

After meeting Crank, you get some sleep and wake up in the late morning, after a quick breakfast, you track down Dean. "Son. We have waited long enough. I want you to help me manage the Dark Mages of Redleaf Duchy, and I would like you to do it as a manifestation."

He stands shocked for a few seconds, before thanking you profusely. Following a brief thirty minute recess in which your son undergoes a final session of quick torture to tune up for the big event, you and him are off to the knifehouse. The procedure is actually quite simple; Dean merely calls up Yaugur, informs him that it is time, and stands in the summoning circle as if performing almost any other demonic transaction.

Over the next thirty minutes you watch the birth of a new Dean. His eyes thin out and drain of color, becoming narrow slits of pitch black on his face, and it seems to get a bit darker in the room; Sure signs that he is manifesting a demon from the Light Eater genus, which will grant him immunity to almost all divine magic, and perhaps other abilities that might be triggered by his feeding upon divine energy.

Next his skin gains a silver metallic sheen, and with an agonized roar, Dean Spawns two new limbs from his upper back, each ending in a sharpened scythe. The Executioner he just absorbed to gain said unnatural weapons will also give him strength, speed, agility, and resilience above the human norm, and, you suspect, a deep loyalty to the family business if Tivavarav fed your son one of his own lesser minions.

Lastly two small horns erupt from your son's head, and a long thin tail from his lower back. Clearly a manifested devil, which should improve his social skills, especially his deception and negotiation. He will have gotten other abilities from the Devil as well, and as the tail is blue you suspect they may be related to water.

Emerging from the circle, you son takes a knee before you, and presents his sword. "I am mighty now mother. I shall break all other practitioners in this land to your will."

You instruct your son to establish a demonic communications network between the mages who answer to you, and he brings up the two messenger demons he mentioned earlier: Nragelth, who offers lower prices, and Ovinsial who also provides soul transport services and has strong connections to the goblins. "With clan Ivy around, using hexes as payment should be trivial, mother. Pick one, negotiate a price in curses for unlimited communication, and ask clan Ivy for volunteers. I can set it up myself if you'd like, but you'll need to take the chosen demon's hex to contact them."

Dean calls his grandfather to show off his new form, and Gungor is properly impressed. After a bit of showing off, Dean departs, leaving you alone with your father. You ask about soul cleaning, and he tells you the trick is to pay Yaugur to hold whatever demon who have modifying your soul at swordpoint for the duration of the procedure. When you bring up Mable, he offers to send the girl a soul as a test, to see what she can do with it. He adds that she might need her soul tweaked for expanded capacity at some point as well, so she can hold onto more of the bits she shaves off of souls.

Before you leave, Fugitap tracks you down and pulls you aside. He informs you that Dark Lorg Haggen Bloodwalls, your closest friend during the time you spent 'captive' at the dark fortress he now controls, is aware of your situation, and has been pondering ways to send you aid.

"Lord Haggen wishes to inform you that if this becomes an outright rebellion against the crown, he would be willing to spare twenty thousand of his soldiers to aid his friend," Fugitap explains, "and if you take things a step further than that and properly align with the goblins by declaring yourself his vassal or vassal to the Pharaoh, he has the clout to draw troops from the other Eastern Dark Lords and turn Redleaf Duchy into a new front in the war against the kingdom."

"I'm not yet entirely committed to turning against the crown... but I'll admit it is looking more and more likely," you muse. You are still hoping that the crown gives you some excuse before you openly rebel, and it would likely be wise to consult your uncle and your loyal vassals before you so.

"I think my lord understands that," Fugitap admits, "He wanted me to make it clear to you that his friendship transcends politics, and for nothing more than your thanks, he would be willing to send a few thousand 'mercenaries' to North Bank City. He is also aware that you don't intend to hold onto your position as Duchess after you accomplish your goals, and as such he has some offers related to your personal future that will stand regardless of whatever happens here in Redleaf."

"Offers?" You cock your head in interest. A marriage proposal from Haggen would not be unexpected, but have no clue what else he might have in mind.

Fugitap smiles. "His hand of course, for starters, once you are done being Duchess. Haggen currently has six other wives and two husbands, but he would allow you to bring a concubine or two for yourself should you find intimacy with Goblins unappealing or underwhelming. If that doesn't appeal to you, the overboss of Axebeach just died, and Haggen would be willing to hand over control of the gang to you. You could keep your new title secret for now, and Haggen would appoint an interim leader who answers to you in the meantime. This offer would allow you to leverage the resources of Axebeach at your own discretion, and grant you control over Niechbaux, the gang's demonic vassal."

Both offers have some appeal. Although they have nothing on House Skorn at its height, or even their Pharaoh, the goblins of Fort Bloodwalls control a network of demons that puts the present ties between Tivavarav and House Bonedust to shame. As either Haggen's vassal or his bride to be, you would be ensured fair prices from several demonic organizations.

As a member of the upper class, Haggen is entitled to take as many spouses as he desires. You would suspect that Haggen already has specific spouses chosen to raise his offspring and meet his needs in the bedroom, and your role in the family would likely be that of trusted adviser and friend. Marriage among Goblins is a much broader institution than it is among humans; The Goblin penal code only covers crimes against one's spouse, master, slave, prisoner, or brother/sister in bondage under a mutually shared master or captor, therefore, in goblin society, marriage is  more focused on trust than it is on romantic love.

Among goblins, Dark Magic is practiced exclusively as a group activity between spouses; You would have the aid of Haggen and any other practitioners he is married to in all your black arts endeavors, but would also be expected to provide such aid in return. This plays greatly to your benefit as a jack of all black trades; Goblin practitioners tend to hyper-specialize in one or two black arts (which include potion brewing and deceiving/negotiating with demons under the goblin definition of the term), and lean on their spouses to cover the areas where they are not proficient, so you could likely call upon specialists to help with any aspect of your dark dealings, and would be rarely called upon in turn as you are not such a specialist yourself.

Taking on the title of Overboss of Axebeach would make you one of Haggen's key vassals. In Goblin society, the relationship between lord and vassal is a bit looser, and defined more by manpower than land. All goblins born outside of the marrying classes are handed over to the local Dark Lord to be raised as slaves in and around their Dark Fortress. In exchange for aid in collecting said children for the dark lord in the lands they control, allowing the dark lord the right to choose their successors, and promising to provide a portion of their resources to support the dark lord in times of war, a goblin vassal is provided with as many skilled and unskilled adult slaves as they can provide for. Vassals to the same dark lord often openly war with one another, and may freely annex territory, actions unthinkable to human nobles. Both Dark Lords and their underlings pay minor tribute and sometimes provide troops to the Pharaoh, who also is largely responsible for deciding matters of foreign policy. The Pharaoh is little more than a particularly powerful dark lord himself, and derives his authority from the fact he is the alpha dark mage in the goblin territories.

The Gang of Axebeach rules over several coastal towns, dark pits, ports, shipyards, and fortifications along the east coast of the landmass. You have no clue how many soldiers the gang controls, but do know they field a formidable navy. You know little of their foreign affairs on the mortal realm, but are aware of the fact that Axebeach is one of the factions responsible for suppressing the shipbuilding efforts of the Mighty Orcish Clan of Shark. You do know, however, that Axebeach controls Niechbaux as a demonic vassal. Niechbaux specializes in the production of demonic materials, trading in the souls of alchemists and enchanters, and preparing souls for various states of inorganic undeath. As your Vassal, Niechbaux would be obligated to follow reasonable orders, provide a cut of the souls he earns or a comparable amount of other products and services free of charge, and allow you final approval of his pricing. In turn you would be expected to help protect him from any larger or more aggressive demon lords in his realm, abstain, where possible, from patronizing his competition, and encourage (or order) dark mages under your influence to do business with him.

Fugitap informs you that Haggen needs an answer on Axebeach by the end of the month, but that none of his other offers are time sensitive.

---

Before dinner, you meet with your daughter Fortune, her snake Jungle, and her new and likely shortlived orcish friend called Panther-Bait. After briefly explaining your plan to allow Fortune to partake in Jungle's vision, the two of you get to work. First the druid helps you weave one of Yaas' hexes directly into the skin and bones of the python, and you weave another copy of the same hex onto the soul of your daughter.

With the easy part out of the way, the pair of you begin the complex undertaking of weaving interlocking hexes onto the girl and her pet. This process takes several tries... and several hours. You work through dinner, and have food brought to you in the yard. In the end, you have to put your daughter's shared hex on her body instead of her soul to get it to fit properly with the hex on the snake. This worries you just a bit, as body hexes can suffer interference from severe illness, severe injury, or even puberty. If the procedure proves successful, Fortune will likely require a few tune ups during her teenage years at the very least.

Turning to the crowd of Clan Ivy orcs who have gathered to watch your act of Dark Magic, you request volunteers to take the hexes required to fuel the blessings you have set. Every member of the mighty clan present demands to have the honor, so to prevent a riot, you end up weaving far more curses than you need to. You highly doubt that you will ever have to worry placing curses so long as Clan Ivy keeps at least some presence in town.

The individual hexes are activated first. Jungle's vision is sharply boosted, while Fortune's mental ability to process sensory information is increased. The blessing to your daughter should help her adjust to her new vision quickly, handle any redundant or unnecessary sensory information sent by the snake, and even use Jungle's ears to better triangulate sound and determine the perscise location of things outside of his field of vision. Then you take a deep breath, and activate the interwoven blessings to allow Fortune to partake in the snake's senses.

"...This is vision? It is! Mom, Mom! I can seeeahaaahaahahahahaAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! It hurts!"

Your daughter abruptly drops to the ground, and starts rolling around and screaming in agony. Running to fortune, you grab her, but just as you are about to undo the hexes, a Pale Shaman helpfully points out that Tetha is likely punishing your daughter for rejecting her mark of blindness. Thinking on your feet, you scratch Fortune's forearm, drawing blood, and weave one more particularly strong hex of Yaas, which you activate as a curse to block her from feeling any pain brought about by divine punishment.

Fortune stops screaming, offers a weak thank you, and passes out. Joy, along with a good handful of orcish shamans, inspects your daughter and each concludes that Tetha was only causing agony, and not physical injury. Satisfied that you have just gotten the better of a goddess, you offer a rude gesture to the heavens, and instruct Joy to fetch her husband.

Redding is informed that you have won the right to host proper human trials, and as such the duels are off. Your son-in-law promises to go meet with Greent, and then Trevor. He invites you to tag along if you wish, and otherwise ask if you have any specific message beyond 'trust Maeris and don't fuck with her' that you would like delivered to either of them.

He then admits, perhaps a bit dejectedly, that he is unsure if he can get Trevor to see reason. If he fails, however, he has one last ploy to maintain his sway over the mercenaries. "If this dosn't work, I'd like you to make Trevor's trial public, and permit me to grill him during the proceedings. I may not be able to change his mind, but I think I have a real shot at making him come across as an irrational fool in front of all his men, discrediting him, and claiming his spot as most influential mercenary in town. I... I'd hate to do that to him... he's my friend... But when I told you about Greent last night, when I betrayed my own son, I think I threw my lot in with you in such a fashion that there is no going back for me."

He sighs, "Sylvester was both my lord and my best friend. When I married his daughter, it was mainly to express kinship and loyalty to him - I... I never expected to actually fall in love with her. I definitely did not expect her to give a damn about me... but she does. I haven't even touched her yet as a husband should, she was too young for my tastes before she went to war and too pregnant for me afterwards, you know, but last night taught me that I already love her more than my own damn firstborn. And... I know how much you mean to her Maeris... Listen, I'll always have an agenda, but when push comes to shove, I'm on your side. For Joy's sake... and Sylvester's."

You smile. At the very least this whole mess has proven that Redding is more loyal than you had initially assumed him to be.

2334th Year of Man, 5th Month, 11th Day:

Wednesday

Today is the day that you start teaching, but you have some business to attend to over breakfast first. Dreamer and Knot, your new steward and court mage respectively from Clan Half-Moon, have arrived overnight and introduce themselves to you over breakfast. Dreamer seems more than clever enough to tackle the administrative duties of his office, although with his Orc blood counterbalancing the goblin in him, you might still be better off leaving your shopping to Caddor. In addition to her ice magic, Knot possess the winning combination of druidism and potion brewing skills; Druids can use their powers and wisdom to breed hybrid plants to fill many different roles in the brewing process, and when they combine their talents with hex weavers, the results become even more impressive.

Dreamer informs you that Virgil and Snakeyes should have the vault unlocked by around noon, but will wait until midnight to open it, as Virgil knows you are big on history and lore, and assumes that you would like to be part of the initial entry team should you find the time to do so.

As you eat, several members of your household request permission to attend your classes. Fortune, already a budding brewer, wants to go to potion school, pointing out that she can move around town more now that she can see, and doesn't want to be bored hanging about the hall. You understand where the girl is coming from, but have some reservations; A giant snake would surely be disruptive to the class, and you doubt your orcish students will appreciate being shown up by a child - much less a disabled child who their culture says should have been killed as an infant.

Knot, your brand new court mage, expresses interest in learning Dark Magic. As a practicing Druid, she shouldn't have much difficulty picking up hex weaving, but you know perfectly well that most orcs who learn Dark Magic are quickly tricked by some demon or another into doing one of the many stupid things that should never be done with a summoning circle, and subjected to some terrible fate worse than death. In response to his rival's desire to learn the dark arts, Dreamer throws his hat into the ring and requests to attend class as well. Although your steward lacks any other magical skills, and might someday be rendered too busy for school by the responsibilities of his office, his goblin blood means that demons are less likely to run roughshod over him when it comes to negotiation.

Redding asks if he can send Greent to either of your classes. He hopes that spending time with you might bring him closer to your cause. You know your step-grandson is clever and manipulative, which should serve him well in the dark arts. He might also have motive to learn brewing; A well crafted potion or poison is the scheming politician's best friend. He is also a divine caster of the orcish gods, and anybody who can learn the lore and laws of the divine can learn the lore and laws of demons and/or plants. Depending on which gods he serves, Redding can't tell you off the top of his head, he might even already know a bit about the arts which you will be teaching.

After you consider requests from possible students, you begin to think about exactly what you will be teaching.

For the potion class this is a simple question of theory vs. practice. Syzzik will be providing all the common local ingredients used in the potions most frequently sold by the cartel. If you simply teach your students how to properly use and care for the equipment, and how to make the two dozen or so odd potions Zeph, Syzzik, and Peat will expect from them, they should be ready to graduate class in about a month or so. Teaching them the lore and properties of various plants will slow the lesson down, but will leave them better equipped to adapt on the fly and correct their mistakes or deal with ingredient shortages. A solid enough understanding of plants allows a brewer the ability to figure out how to make particular potions on their own.

Dark Magic is a bit more complex, as there are at least three skills to teach.

Hex Weaving is considered the foundation of Dark Magic by the drow, who passed down dark magic to the humans and goblins, as hexes are needed to contact demons and move cleaned souls from otherworldly storage into their new undead bodies. Hex Weaving is the most difficult dark magical skill to teach, but it shares some principles with enchantment, druidism, and many divine magics (including the magics practiced by all four human priestly orders save the Dread Knights), so people possessing any of those skills have a head start. Some Dark Mages, who fear their students might become too powerful, eschew the teaching of Hex Weaving to their students, leaving them largely dependent on other dark mages.

Enchantment is considered the foundation of Dark Magic in the dwarven tradition, so students familiar with that skill might not even have to learn hex weaving; Generally speaking, enchantment based dark mages are less dependent on demons, but require expensive materials to practice their craft. Hex based dark mages are usually considered stronger summoners, while enchantments lend themselves more towards necromancy. You of course only have a theoretical understanding of enchantment, and would not be able to teach the skill.   

Summoning is fairly easy to learn, but responsible instructors teach it alongside demonic social conventions and basic negotiation techniques. You have found over the years that a knowledge of the types of demon, the beings that employ them, and the realms in which they dwell, can also serve a summoner well, so you may wish to devote some time to theory and lore.

Necromancy is also easy to learn, but is highly dependent on other magical skills to be useful. The raw ability to sense and manipulate corpses has some utility to soldiers, butchers, morticians, and as a parlor trick, but the skill really shines when paired with enchantment or a combination of hex weaving and summoning. To a lesser extent, nature mages who are also necromancers can perform some cool tricks with corpses.

From now on, unless you specifically state otherwise, you will teach potions in Syzzik's basement on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings, and will teach the dark arts at the cave on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday afternoons. Your students will attend class Wednesday-Sunday, and will study independently, or under Palm/The Wights on the two school days a week you are not teaching.

You should set a date and time for the trials, and make a final decisions on if they are public or private, what questions you wish to ask the defendants, what verdict you aim to reach, and what if any sentences you wish to hand out. If you are doing a private trial, you don't have to schedule it ahead of time, and can just show up and judge the defendants whenever.

I'll make random events less likely during school days. Hopefully we can get through most, if not all, of the first school week next turn.

[Tomcost]

I love how Clan Ivy loves being cursed.

As for suggestions:

Be personally present when the vault is opened. Take Dean with us, he manifested a Light Eater, so any hostile divine fuckery suddenly appearing could end up being eaten by him.

Take the hexes of both demon messengers. Contact first Ovinsial. Arrange for a payment of hexes in exchange of unlimited communication and maybe limited mobility of objects between the dark mages. If the demon asks for periodic payments of souls or something other than hexes say fuck it and contact the other one. If successful, arrange all the curses.

I like the idea of Axebeach, but if someone knows about this, it will be high treason. Also we may want to discuss the business implications for Tiv of having a demon vassal. In fact, before deciding anything:

Discuss with Tiv the business implications of our possible new demonic vassal (I guess that he will love it)

I find Redding's confession to be far too open, but I don't know what would he gain by crossing us, especially when our interests are on the same side, so I doubt that he is plotting something.

Redding's chats:
-With his son, try to convince him that we are on the same side, and that we don't want anything bad to happen to our daughter. We finds his talents to be useful. We are even curious about which kind of orcish gods he worships.
EDIT:
We go personally with Redding. We show concern for our family and the well-being of Chastity (but not so openly that he knows we know). We have friendly chats about orcish lore and show interest in his divine orcish magic. We try to be friendly here.

-With Trevor, say that we are working to fix the cartel business without mayor implications, but that it will take at least a month. If he has any demand besides Syzzik's head on a pike (which we obviously won't fulfill), he is free to talk. We may even get to apply discount bulk prices for the mercenaries or something.

As I think that a public trial would put us to shame once the cartel is mentioned, we could either delay it until our potionbrewers graduate in a month (and use Redding's idea to make Trevor look like a fool after we lower the prices by 80%), or do it in private. Anyway, we should do something first:

Ask Redding if he has anything personal from either his son or Trevor. Yes, perception hexes to make us seem more fair before them. We may need them to get them on our side.


As for the classes:

Potion school:

Teach the basics. We want employees, not independent brewers. Also, we need them somewhat fast.

Do not let Fortune come. She won't gain anything from it. Instead, let her take Dark Magic classes.

Do let Greent come, if we are on acceptable terms with him. If Redding's chat turns out to be a failure, it would be better to not do that.

Dark Magic school:

Focus on hexes, summoning and demonic manners and lore. I want them to do business with our business partners.

Let the two new court individuals attend. Have a serious chat with them about the dangers of the craft, and warn them to not attempt to communicate with demons without us being present. This is for their own good. Otherwise, they will die and lose their right to become chieftain. That last part will affect them more and make them more likely to not mess with extradimensional businessdemons.


As a final decision for Scale's trial, Make it private, inquire about the different dates the business was made, ask for the reason it wasn't completed and exonerate her.

Find Mable some day, and tell her of the possible deal with our organization. She will be go under the test of cleaning that soul, and if she passes it, she will be able to do business with us.

We should also update Pog on the whole Tetha and Fortune thing.

As for other things to discuss, I have an idea about the cartel:

How about if we make it more legal? It would involve a kind of test for brewers to have legal authorization to produce potions, and Gregory could control all of it to prevent competitors from entering the market. It would be a cartel, with hopefully power prices, and regulated via bureaucracy.

[VoidSlayer]

I wonder how fundamental the blindness was to Fortune's powers.  I don't really care if she loses them in exchange for sight *big middle finger to the heavens* but she might.

You are talking about setting up a government backed monopoly, which I like.  Rather then going through a shitty corrupt mayor, how about just do it openly in the name of low prices and high quality potions.  We need to wait until we can actually improve the quality and lower prices, but once we do people should have less of an issue, and back alley potion sellers could then apply to join.

-1 to Axebeach, though make it clear we really appreciate the offer, it is just not the right time.

+1 to mercenaries

At least we have a backup plan if the king decides to send his whole damn army.

[IronyOwl]

Be personally present when the vault is opened. Take Dean with us, he manifested a Light Eater, so any hostile divine fuckery suddenly appearing could end up being eaten by him.

Take the hexes of both demon messengers. Contact first Ovinsial. Arrange for a payment of hexes in exchange of unlimited communication and maybe limited mobility of objects between the dark mages. If the demon asks for periodic payments of souls or something other than hexes say fuck it and contact the other one. If successful, arrange all the curses.

I like the idea of Axebeach, but if someone knows about this, it will be high treason. Also we may want to discuss the business implications for Tiv of having a demon vassal. In fact, before deciding anything:

Discuss with Tiv the business implications of our possible new demonic vassal (I guess that he will love it)

I find Redding's confession to be far too open, but I don't know what would he gain by crossing us, especially when our interests are on the same side, so I doubt that he is plotting something.

Redding's chats:
-With his son, try to convince him that we are on the same side, and that we don't want anything bad to happen to our daughter. We finds his talents to be useful. We are even curious about which kind of orcish gods he worships.
EDIT:
We go personally with Redding. We show concern for our family and the well-being of Chastity (but not so openly that he knows we know). We have friendly chats about orcish lore and show interest in his divine orcish magic. We try to be friendly here.

-With Trevor, say that we are working to fix the cartel business without mayor implications, but that it will take at least a month. If he has any demand besides Syzzik's head on a pike (which we obviously won't fulfill), he is free to talk.

Agree with all of this.

Axereach is probably too good to pass up, but as you say, if anybody finds out we'll basically have to become a full goblin vassal. I still say we go for it, but if we have a full month to decide it couldn't hurt to check with everyone we trust not to blab about it. It's the kind of thing that's probably going to end up really really relevant to everyone else too at some point.

We may even get to apply discount bulk prices for the mercenaries or something.

As I think that a public trial would put us to shame once the cartel is mentioned, we could either delay it until our potionbrewers graduate in a month (and use Redding's idea to make Trevor look like a fool after we lower the prices by 80%), or do it in private.

Remember that discount bulk prices are the opposite of what the cartel does; the whole reason we can't lower prices at the moment is because there aren't enough raw brewers to produce enough for everybody even at obscene prices.

I like Redding's plan as a last resort. I believe him when he says he can make Wikes out to be a fool; remember, this is the guy who was so angry at us/the cartel he refused to discuss coming back as a zombie. He's probably not very good at restraint, while Redding is fairly political.

That said, we could just make it a private trial, quietly exonerate him, and then let him run his mouth. It wouldn't be ideal, but with the worst deflected and Redding on our side it might be manageable.

I'd like a more creative solution, but I can't think of one. We don't need to worry about it until convincing him fails anyway, though, so maybe it won't come up or will be as an alternative to whatever he's demanding (most likely Syzzik's head on a pike).

Anyway, we should do something first:

Ask Redding if he has anything personal from either his son or Trevor. Yes, perception hexes to make us seem more fair before them. We may need them to get them on our side.

I'm quite certain something will go wrong here, but I can't think of a good reason for that.

Potion school:

Teach the basics. We want employees, not independent brewers. Also, we need them somewhat fast.

Do not let Fortune come. She won't gain anything from it. Instead, let her take Dark Magic classes.

Do let Greent come, if we are on acceptable terms with him. If Redding's chat turns out to be a failure, it would be better to not do that.

Nonsense! We want quality employees, not mindless drones! Well... we wouldn't mind mindless drones, but we're running a very elite establishment here!

Fortune could take both if she wants, but if she wants potions let her have potions. They're useful everywhere, and her detractors can suck it: She has a giant snake so bleh. Speaking of, "a distraction" is the phrase crap teachers use to abuse their control and justify every single thing being more interesting than they are. As a dark mistress ourselves, both of those sound like Palm Problems to me.

I wouldn't mind Greent coming, but it sounds like dark magic would suit him better. Potions could arguably be more practical, though, since you can make and use them even when you're not in the middle of doing bad things to people.

Dark Magic school:

Focus on hexes, summoning and demonic manners and lore. I want them to do business with our business partners.

Let the two new court individuals attend. Have a serious chat with them about the dangers of the craft, and warn them to not attempt to communicate with demons without us being present. This is for their own good. Otherwise, they will die and lose their right to become chieftain. That last part will affect them more and make them more likely to not mess with extradimensional businessdemons.

This is all good.

As a final decision for Scale's trial, Make it private, inquire about the different dates the business was made, ask for the reason it wasn't completed and exonerate her.

Find Mable some day, and tell her of the possible deal with our organization. She will be go under the test of cleaning that soul, and if she passes it, she will be able to do business with us.

We should also update Pog on the whole Tetha and Fortune thing.

Yeah.

If we're lucky Pog will also be able to inform us of how mad Tetha is. I'm slightly concerned by our workaround.

As for other things to discuss, I have an idea about the cartel:

How about if we make it more legal? It would involve a kind of test for brewers to have legal authorization to produce potions, and Gregory could control all of it to prevent competitors from entering the market. It would be a cartel, with hopefully power prices, and regulated via bureaucracy.

You are talking about setting up a government backed monopoly, which I like.  Rather then going through a shitty corrupt mayor, how about just do it openly in the name of low prices and high quality potions.  We need to wait until we can actually improve the quality and lower prices, but once we do people should have less of an issue, and back alley potion sellers could then apply to join.

Basically my idea for the potioner's guild.

Note that a certain amount of rebranding would probably be in order. Ideally, and hear me out here, we'd have the current cartel members publicly punished.

-Syzzik we could have beaten in public, because he's a crafty sort who can tolerate some pain for a smoother long-term operation. There's a few issues there, notably that people might be angry that it's not enough, and that damaging Syzzik's dignity like that could invite future reprisals from people who figure he ain't so tough after all.

-Peat we could declare guilty of various crimes, but granted a reprieve on account of the kinship between us and Clan Ape. I have no doubt the nuances of publicly punishing him without meaning it would be somewhat lost on an orc, so this is a convenient (if slightly inaccurate; Clan Ape hasn't officially pledged itself to us yet, right?) way out.

-Poor thief-friend we could just beat, or we could exonerate as an unwillingly coerced victim to Peat's thuggery.

Also note that publicly breaking up the cartel followed by putting them in charge of the official North Bank City Potioner's Guild will be thoroughly unconvincing to a great number of people, so we should probably refine this idea a bit. Perhaps oddly, sitting Syzzik and Redding down together would probably be the best way to come up with a good solution.

[Weirdsound]

2334th Year of Man, 5th Month, 10th Day:

Tuesday

At your request, Dean takes your hand and weaves you the hexes of both Nragelth and Ovinsial. He then stays to watch while you make initial contact with them.

Ovinsial is a goat-faced plague devil much like Tivavarav, and like most greater devils he is an affable smooth talker. He asks you questions about your life and family, and when you give him a few blatantly false replies, he notes that you are a skilled negotiator and gets right down to business.

Upon hearing what you wish to accomplish, Ovinsial notes that he will support a communications network with unlimited messages for the price of fifteen sustained hexes for each projection stage in the network. For an additional fifteen sustained hexes, he will throw in unlimited messaging to the Goblin Pharaoh, All the Goblin Dark Lords, and any overboss, dictator, dark baron, or similar vassal to the Pharaoh or a Dark Lord. You note this would allow you to get in touch with your old friend Haggen without having to go through the Knifehouse.

The offer sounds appealing, but there is a snag. Ovinsial states that he charges a soul to look up a contact unknown to him, and that he knows none of the four dark mages who pays you tribute. You used to keep the contact information in your records of the other practitioners in your files at Cleanriver Castle, but do not have access to those now. Watcher would have the knowledge you need, but it would take awhile to get word to him and hear back. Dean offers to collect the souls for you, quietly noting that Nragelth charges souls for directory service as well.

Telling Ovinsial that you shall consider his offer, you quickly address some other busniess with him. You first negotiate the right to buy blessings from his organization with curses at a 1:4 ratio. Ovinsial offers to drop this rate to 1:3 for every mage in your network should you use his communications service. Then you ask to see what else he is selling, as you remember that Dean called him a wheeler-dealer.

The plague devil goes over his stock, and notes that he will hold any item for you in exchange for a number of sustained curses. He notes that a drowish noblewoman he does business with recently seized control of her families' holdings, and sold most of her kin and staff to him as live slaves for resale. The noblewomen and their court are being sold at premium prices, but he is having a special on servants and guards, as it takes a lot of effort to maintain mortal captives in his realm.

Ovinsial's Stock:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Material Goods:
Goblin Crafted Ballista - 7 in stock, 1 soul to purchase, 5 souls to purchase the lot, 1 curse to hold any number
Goblin Crafted Iron Ballista Bolts - 12000 in stock, 1 soul to purchase 200, 1 curse to hold up to 1000
Dwarf Crafted Bronze Heavy Armor Set with Maul - aprox 5000 in stock, 1 soul to equip 10 warriors, 1 curse to hold up to 40 sets
Drowish Castle Furnishings - Stock varies and price is negotiable. Give Ovinsial details on the room you want furnished, or pay one soul to receive an onsite consultation and estimate from a minor devil.

Services:
Bulk Appraisal/Purchasing - Ovinsail isn't afraid to pay a few souls to buy mundane goods in bulk
Slave Appraisal/Purchasing - Ovinsail will pay souls to purchase demons, skilled or highborn mortals, or any sentient mortal in bulk
Soul Transfer - Ovinsail will arrange to send the souls you send to him via his curse, or paid to you for your goods and services, to any other demon at a reasonable rate which depends on the realm you are shipping to
Slave Conditioning - Ovinsail can instill loyalty the majority of captive beings you might look to purchase off him. He charges two souls to do it carefully, and one soul if you don't mind damaging the subjects skills, memories, and personalities.

Mortal Slaves:
Queen Mother Vasarra Silk - Highborn drow heavily skilled in soul manipulation, dark magic, earth elementalism, druidism, potion brewing, leadership, social skills, stealth, and intrigue. Likely several decades away from ascension to godhood. Sells for 200 souls, holds for 50 curses
Sister Queen Nostara Silk - Highborn drow heavily skilled in soul manipulation, earth elementalism, heavy armor, heavy polearms, animal handling, arachnid riding, leadership, social skills, and intrigue. Likely around a century away from ascension to godhood. Sells for 100 souls, holds for 20 curses
Sister Queen Malivia Silk - Highborn drow heavily skilled in enchantments, all nature magics, light armor, heavy throwing weapons, animal handling, arachnid riding, leadership, and stealth. Likely around a century away from ascension to godhood. Sells for 100 souls, holds for 20 curses
Assorted Drowish Noblewomen - 12 in stock. Comes skilled in various magical, military, and social skills. Feel free to request a specific skill set. Sells for 20 souls, hold for 2 curses
Assorted Drowish Noblemen - 44 in stock. Comes skilled in various military, crafting, and social skills. Feel free to request a specific skill set. Sells for 10 souls, hold for 1 curse
Drowish Guard - 207 in stock. Sells for 2 souls, and one curse holds up to 18. Gear not included, they are trained in short blades, crossbows, and heavy armor. All stock not sold or held by the end of the sixth month will be killed for their souls.
Drowish Servant - 808 in stock. Sells for 1 soul, and one curse holds up to 20. Gear not included. All stock not sold or held by the end of the sixth month will be killed for their souls.

Demonic Slaves:
Nahurgelth Ves - A glowing brain being sold cheap as it resists our attempts to condition it as a slave, and is generally an ornery bastard. Sells for 30 souls, which is a complete steal for a greater demon, and holds for five hexes. Once held, we will put you in touch with it so you can try to bind it or negotiate a contract before purchasing.
Drowish Armor Spider - 34 in stock. Sells for 15 souls, and held for two curses. Drowish mounts sired by a father from the armor demon genus, rendering them particularly resilient and trainable.

Having spoken to the devil, you cut him off and call Nragelth to get a counter offer. Nragelth is one of the rare tentacle demons to have reached greater demon status, but for a combat oriented being she drives a pretty hard bargin until Dean steps in and introduces you as his mother.

Nragelth will support a messaging network at the price of eleven curses per projection stage, but cannot not offer the free service to the Goblin Lords as her competition can. She also charges souls for directory services, as Dean suggested she would, but offers the service at the better price of two look-ups per one soul.

She offers the standard deal of supporting one blessing for every three curses from her organization, and agrees to show you her stock. Unlike Ovinsial, most of what Nragelth sells is stolen, so she wants to move it quickly and offers no layaway.

Nragelth's Stock:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Stolen Goods:
Sealed Crate of Stolen Divine Goods - 10 in stock, 1 soul to purchase 1 or two souls to purchase three. Likely requires some combination of enchantment and divine magic to open. May be trapped.
Viable Dragon Egg - 4 in stock, 2 souls to purchase, or 6 souls to purchase the lot. Must be nurtured by a being with great power over fire. Eggs deffinately contain baby dragons, *should* contain baby storm dragons, and *may* contain baby storm dragons that are also half demon.
Circlet of Demonic Ascension - 1 in stock, 10 souls to purchase. An artifact piece of decorative headgear that brims with demonic energy. It is said to transform a divine caster who wears it into a demon, the type and power of which is determined by the gods they work for. The truth behind this claim cannot be verified.
The King's Arrows - 5 in stock, 5 souls to purchase, 18 souls for the set. A set of artifact bows made from the soul of a powerful elf king who had mastered all nature magic. There is one bow for each school of nature magic, and holding that bow grants vast knowledge of that skill. Somebody already purchased the bow tied to water elementalism.
Demonic Halberds of Niugugupoth - 10 in stock, 3 souls to purchase, 22 souls to purchase lot. Weapons made by a demon with power over iron. Can swing through any iron based metal (even powerful alchemist made ones) as if the object didn't even exist, making them great are cutting apart armored demons and knights. 

After Dean leaves and you hear out Fugitap, you return to the basement and call up Tivavarav. As you start explaining the offer of Axebeach and Niechbaux, your old partner decides to turn the discussion into a conference call, and soon all of Tivavarav's greater minions are talking to you, and bouncing messages off other mortal family members. Lots of people have feedback to give.

-Tivavarav is high on the idea, noting that he has some customers looking to buy inorganic undead. If you take Niechbaux as a Vassal, and get him to either sell prepared souls in bulk to Tivavarav or pay Tiv a referral fee for sending him customers, the plague devil promises to work out some sort of reward for you.
-Yaugur, who is never opposed to running extra-planar errands for the family when he has nothing better to be doing, states that he would be willing to help defend your vassal as needed in exchange for a dozen or so curses, and a soul or two to Tivavarav to compensate him for his minion's time.
-Father suggests that most demonic vassals want strong masters who can better protect them, and as such, Niechbaux might be willing to teach you your hex sign and help you become a binder. At this point, Tivavarav chips back in, and adds that if you take on the Axebeach role, he will give your Hex Sign for free as a gift. He wont be losing or risking anything if you are just going to likely get it elsewhere.
-Your uncle is the only member of the conversation who seems to dislike the idea; He isn't keen on you being discovered and dragging him into your mess. He can remain neutral for as long as it suits him if you are merely fighting the crown over the likes of a succession dispute, but if you are caught in an act of high treason he would likely be forced to take a side before he is ready to do so, or worse, just assumed to be in on it with you. He can't stop you, but asks that if you go that route to see about arranging a goblin marriage for yourself, that way if you get caught, you can reveal your secret wedding plans, and buy the Bonedusts more time by denouncing them and crediting your husband-to-be as an accomplice.
-Your mother chews out your uncle for his alleged disloyalty to you, forcing him to clarify that if push comes to shove, he will side with you over the crown, but wants as much notice as possible, and ideally means to delay if he needs even more time, so that he may make preparations.

Out of the entire group, however, it is Talcutta who has the most to say. During his times in goblin territory, he met with some of the bosses of Axebeach, and also did some business with Niechbaux. He informs you that your perspective vassal is an Armor Fiend, a greater demon designed to specialize in combat and durability. Niechbaux is no silver tounged devil, but he can still negotiate on even terms with all but the best mortal businessmen - when he is feeling up to it. He explains that Niechbaux serves as the leader, negotiator, enforcer, and metalworker for his group, and the huge workload often leaves him exhausted and testy. Like most greater demons, however, his vigor can be boosted by spreading curses in his name, although it would likely take dozens or even hundreds to significantly improve the fiend's condition. Talcutta concludes by noting that he knows Niechbaux's hex sign, should you want to speak with him yourself before making any decisions.

Your great-grandfather also knows quite a bit about the mortal politics of Axebeach, but suggests most of what he knows is vastly out of date. There are a few tidbits, however, that he can be reasonably certain are still the same. The ship building trade is highly competitive, and every faction who engages in it is on very poor terms with their competitors as a rule. Axebeach is the natural enemy of The Kingdom's Shipwrights Guild, The City-State of Lagoona on Titan Rock, and a handful of other coastal goblin factions. They likely still maintain their own trade-fleet, which means they will have solid diplomatic and economic relations with at least some of Titan Rock's other city states, unscrupulous merchants in Tradewind Duchy willing to break the law and trade with goblins, and perhaps some of the more clever night creatures on the west coast.

None of Axebeach's mortal leadership from Talcutta's time is likely to be still alive, but Axebeach did count two lesser demons among the ranks of its underbosses who could very well still be around. The Hellmoth who simply answers to 'Admiral' uses its wings to command one of the gang's war fleets with a bird's eye view of the action. Admiral takes cavern monsters as mates, and the resulting ravenous larva are sometimes used as mounts for riders or a means of public execution. There is also a succubus named Vartalaix, who has more or less been the perpetual second in command for Axebeach since its foundation over nine hundred years ago. Vartalaix typically maintains her influence by seducing the overboss, so Talcutta suggests either assuring her that she is your second right of the bat, or finding some means to protect yourself against her charms, unless bedding a demon is something on your bucket list.

2334th Year of Man, 5th Month, 10th Day:

Tuesday

You tell Redding that you would like to visit Trevor and Greent with him, starting with his son.

It starts raining hard as you walk to Tiltedmug, the mead hall of Clan Fig, but the orcs and mercenaries already have a fire going when you arrive, so you find the hall's interior to be warm and inviting. The company, at least off the bat, is somewhat more cold. Greent sits at the head of the grand table, wearing the robes of a propper orcish shaman, and flanked by a couple dozen Clan Fig warriors and at least twice as many mercenaries. The crowd gives you some harsh stares, but they quickly soften as Redding enters behind you. "Greent, the Duchess and I have private business with you. Is this a good time to talk?"

The boy sighs, gestures to a side room, and rises to his feet. Once you have him alone, you inform Greent that you have won the right to transfer cases to the human justice system, and intend to exonerate both defendants. A sigh of relief washes over the boy, perhaps he was expected you to tell him that Redding told you everything, and a familiar smile returns to his face.

"Look at you, Child. A proper Orcish Shaman. It can't have been more than eight years ago that I introduced you to the lore of the eighteen..."

You had, in fact, become very close to Greent for a brief period of time during his childhood. Redding had come to Cleanriver Castle to meet his friends Sylvester and Glen as they returned from the western front, and he brought his family to stay for about a month. During this time, Chasity fell ill with Butterfly Rash, and was forbidden from leaving her room or receiving visitors for a week and a half. Joy and Greent's younger sibblings were a bit cliquish, and chose to exclude him from their play, and Dean was away with his uncle. Feeling bad for the boy, you would read to him for hours on end, and by the time Chasity had recovered enough to scheme with him once more, Greent had developed a deep love for the stories of mighty orcish heroes and gods. Ernie had actually gotten quite mad at you for planting the idea of becoming an orcish divine shaman and waltzing about the jungle looking for adventure in his grandson's head.

Upon hearing your praise, Greent softens even more, and even blushes a bit. "Well I learn from the best. Hopefully I can use the power I've gained to save your daughter from the prince, mum... Although I'm starting to doubt something can be pulled together in time."

You get the feeling Greent knows more than he is letting on, although he could just be trying to hide what he doesn't know that you know. Does he anticipate a time limit?

Deciding not to press the Chasity issue, lest you reveal that his father had in fact betrayed him, you and Redding turn to convince Greent to help you convince Trevor to stand down. Your step-grandson agrees, and calls for three cloaks of hydrophobic fur to be brought so that the group of you can remain dry on your way to where the prisoners are held.

Trevor is shackled in a cell, and clearly displeased to see you, and even more displeased that your two companions have chosen to keep your company. The discussion dosn't get far; About thirty seconds after the three of you enter, Trevor attempts to call Redding out for marrying one of your 'viper daughters' and stating that 'only snakes can rise from the womb of a Bonedust'

This comment pisses Redding off quite a bit, but it sends Greent right off the deep end. The boy winds up, and punts the helpless man right in the face, breaking his nose, dislodging about a third of his teeth, and knocking him unconscious. "DON'T YOU EVER INSULT THIS WOMAN'S DAUGHTERS, YOU CUR!"

Greent gets in a second kick, this time aimed at the body, which likely breaks a few ribs, before you and Redding are able to restrain him. You flash back to Redding attacking Glen, and later confessing that he was shooting to kill. You remember Sylvester once told you that Ernie roughed him up after your husband banished Archibald Horton... Perhaps it is unwise to do wrong by the friends and loved ones of a Strongcurrent.

Before you leave, you also visit Scales. You ask the druid about the exact timeline of her business with the Prince. As she is locked up without access to her files, the half-breed cannot give you exact dates, but tells you the prince sent a representative to order the snake sometime near the end of the first month or the beginning of the second. The middle man wasn't shy about flaunting who he was representing, but was not the best negoiator in the world; Scales got him to pay 60% up front, and set a date at the beginning of the fourth month for him to return, drop off the rest of the money, and pick up the trained serpent.

Word of Sylvester's death arrived before the middle-man did. He gave her the rest of the money, and told her to bring the snake to his wagon, just outside of town. Scales pondered if she should follow through doing business with the man who murdered her duke, but as fate would have it, the decision was made for her. The guards busted him just as he was leaving the shop, apparently the Kinkaids had ordered Gregory to flush out all the prince's men, and hacked the man to bits. Scales was then paid another fifty silver just to show up at guard headquarters and give testimony to a clerk claiming that the man had been resisting arrest.

Deciding that save for taking Gregory's bribe (and you are clearly in little position to judge others for indulging in the mayor's corruption) Scales has done nothing illegal, you order the guards to release her, her mother, and her employees.

2334th Year of Man, 5th Month, 11th Day:

Wednesday

You tell Fortune that you are not sure if potion class will be appropriate for her, so you will decide in a bit. The first few classes will just be the bare bones basics anyway, the stuff she already knows. Promising to come to a final descision on potions soon, you offer her Dark Magic lessons in the meantime.

Fortune seriously considers your offer for a second before declining, deciding that if she is going to learn magic, it will be nature magic. Now that she can see, she wants to learn how to fight, and dark magic aint fighting magic. You suppose praticing commoner magic isn't going to do much for the reputation of the crazy prophetic blind girl with the seeing eye snake, so you don't don't stop her as she heads out to the yard to see if she can lure an orc or two into teaching her.

Turning your attention next to the orcs from Clan Half-Moon, you first make them promise to never communicate with demons unless you are present. "If you do, you will probably die, and I will definitely tell the Cheiftian that you are unworthy of succeeding him."

You then inform Redding that Greent is welcome to attend either class, before setting off to Syzzik's place to set up the potion lesson. Mable is found running around the basement, shooting off blank rounds from a rifle. Before running her off, you inform her of the soul cleaning test. She promises to ask her teacher if she is ready for it.

As you continue to set up the place, a tall and thin young lady with pale skin introduces herself as Geraldine Lou, the landlord. Her hand is clammy to the touch, and you can clearly detect strong dark energies about her. Syzzik's suspicion that she is a vampire is likely dead on. After exchanging pleasantries, she gets down to business.

Lou has heard your request for dark magic equipment, and would like to do business with you. She notes that the stations are valuable, and as such should be enough tribute to cover you as Alpha Dark Mage for the rest of your mortal lifespan. She has also been considering starting a small brood, and wants some protection to ensure the inquisition dosn't just run into town and flush them out. She has been afraid to approach Gregory on the matter, as he has a few members of the inquisition among the ranks of the town guard.

As you consider the vampire's proposals, it dawns on you that she might have a role to play in the whole matter between Trevor and Syzzik. She is clearly a well connected mercenary if she is frequently seen with Redding, but must not hate the cartel as much as the others if she allows its leader to live under her roof.

---

Sixteen students show up to potion class, nine of whom are orcs, four who are half orc, two humans, and a rather shabby looking elf. You wonder where Syzzik found the extra students, you don't recall him promising that many.

Over half the class dosn't even know how a still works, so the very first day is spent showing the inns and outs of the most basic potion crafting device. Palm occaisionally 'helps' by comically punishing students who screw up or say something dumb; She carries with her a flask labled 'hungry water', which is a brutal acid made only by the master brewers of Clan Ape, and pours a few drops onto the wrists of various offenders. Hungry water is supposed to be clear, however, and you are pretty sure the actual contents of her flask is some sort of healing potion.

When the session ends, it is clear that you will have to devote at least part of the next class to wrapping up your lesson on stills.

After you wrap up in the basement, you make the walk to the cave. You arrive a bit early, so you try to call up Pogpugrooog to go over the recent events involving Joy. Oddly enough, she doesn't answer. There isn't even an imp or minor demon around to take a message. You find this to be rather unusual behavior for the leader of a demonic organization.

The students arrive, and begin to get settled in. There are seven total, and it is a good mix of talent. Fairweather Kinkaid, Finch the Dwarven Smith, Angie Pence, Dreamer and Knot of Clan Half-Moon, and your step-grandson Greent Strongcurrent.

You start the first half of the lesson by pricking them each in the arm to draw a bit of blood, and weaving a strong hex of Talcutta onto each of them. You then teach them the breathing and meditation exersizes required to feel souls, and instruct them each to pair off and try to find a source of unatural fear in the being of the other. "That latent fear should be part of the hex of a demon named Talcutta. A hex, when weaved, is like an article of clothing or tattoo. If you can look just below it, you can find the soul."

Luck is in your favor. The vast majority of your students already practice a magic that has something to do with life energy, so they learn quickly. By the end of the first session of class, everybody save for Dreamer can detect their partner's soul. You hope Dreamer's goblin blood allows him to pick up soul reading quickly; It could take him awhile otherwise: Days, weeks, or even months of practice. Learning Hex Weaving, expecially in the early stages, is more about sudden breakthroughs than steady progress.

For everybody else, the next step should also be a bit more challenging; They will have to learn to read and comprehend hexes on their own souls.

You move onward to teaching summoning, and start by inviting each student to stand briefly in the summoning circle and feel the push and pull of the multiverse wash over them. "As long as you have a proper circle, it is easy to mess around with objects, forces, and beings in other realms. Learning how to summon is easy, almost trivial. The key to performing the art safely is more about know what to do and when rather than how it is done."

The rest of the class is spent going over the many, many, many ways one can die or worse by misusing the circle.

After class, you try to call Pogpugrooog again, and this time she answers. Her chubby face is bloody and bruised, and she looks exhausted. With a little prodding, you get her to tell her story; Around sunrise your time, two greater demon enforcers stormed into her part of the abyss, and attacked her underling Yaas. Yaas was completely outmatched, but luckily for the tricky shadow fiend, he was able to feign his own death convincingly enough to ward off his attackers.

When Pogpugrooog investigated the scene, Yaas lashed out, accusing his mistress of providing inadequate protection, and roughing her up a bit. You get a sickening feeling that this attack has something to do with the fact that Yaas's hex is involved in your experiments with Fortune. You could tell Pogpugrooog this, but doing so could scare the demon off from getting further involved with your Tetha hi-jinks; Pogpugrooog barely qualifies as a greater demon, and it is likely she uses charms and seduction to keep her stronger underlings in line, and as such, she likely fears reprisal from them more than most demonic leaders would.

The demoness jars you from your musings by asking why you have called. You start by informing her, safely enough, that you have learned your daughter is likely part of a prophecy known as 'The Girl Foretold' and begin to explain what you know, only to be cut off.

"No... no... no... that can't be right. I know that prophecy. It speaks of an orc born to clan Python or Cobra."

You sigh, and once again explain the banner of Redleaf Duchy. Pogpugrooog falls silent, so you explain what you know of prophecy, and ask the demon to fill in the missing piece.

"It figures. They wouldn't tell you the part most useful to you. If Fortune is the Girl Foretold, she will meet her fate while married to a crowned sovereign... That explains why Tetha promised the young prince the crown for marrying Fortune..."

You blink. "So she wont die until she is married to the king?"

"A king. Or more specifically, a ruler who pays tribute to no other lord, and is adorned with a crown..."

If that is the case, and you did want to embrace Fortune's destiny, you could leverage the prophecy and marry your daughter of to anybody seeking divine help to skip a few spots in the line of succession... Anybody who knows the prophecy and is close to a throne would surely pay a premium for your daughter. "But you don't know exactly how she dies?"

The demon responds in the negative. It would seem that Tetha is keeping the exact details of the prophecy close to her chest.

You ready the gesture that would cut off the call, wondering if you should first tell Pogpugrooog what you know about the attack on Yaas.

---

Gathering Dean, and grabbing a quick dinner at the knifehouse, you meet Clan Half-Moon's longboat at the ruins of the old crossing, and for the first time since your teenage years cross the border and leave the kingdom. It is a short walk to the temple containing the vault. Virgil, Snakeyes, and several orcs from both Groghall and Clan Half-Moon spend a bit of time gawking at your son's new appearance, before Count Gulf invites your son to pull the latch and open the vault.

You allow Dean and, his immunity to divine magic, to lead the way down a winding spiral staircase and through a long and well decorated hallway.

Upon entering the main room, the find is initially unimpressive. The only things of note is a functional enchanter's workstation, and a large bin of glass, which both Virgil and Snakeyes agree is likely infused with the energy of dozens, if not hundreds, of souls.

"Somebody who knows both enchanting and glass blowing could make artifacts from that stockpile..." Virgil notes.

He then pauses for a second, as a thought strikes him. "But this doesn't look like a proper workshop... More like the staging area for a construction site. I bet they were using the soul glass to make self illuminating lamps to decorate something rather impressive... Like a Duke's castle, or a major shri- My gods."

The thought hits you at the exact same time it strikes your friend. Supposedly, just around the time the Gulf Dynasty fell, one (or more) of the Orcish Pantheon had commissioned a massive shrine to be built as the headquarters for a new priestly order modeled after the priestly traditions of the Kingdom. Strong circumstantial evidence exists to indicate such a project was undertaken, and perhaps even finished, somewhere in or around what was then called Roe River City. Documents containing details about this lost shrine, including its location, exact purpose, and the god or gods it was devoted to, are scarce, contradictory, and unreliable. If this is a staging area for the construction of the lost shrine... than the actual ruin should be very close by.

Virgil, wordlessly so as not to tip off Clan Half-Moon to the fact that their territory might be sitting on the motherlode, opens a draw on the enchanter's station, and begins to gather all the documents he can.

By the end of the night, both the glass and the documents from the vault are back at Groghall, and Virgil has claimed a good portion of the large table to go over ancient books and charts. Like most of the High Masons, Virgil loves a good archaeological find, but you are sure solving one of the last great mysteries from the era in which his family held the crown would be extra special to him.

After that fuster-cluck with Trevor, what do you want to do with him and when?

[Weirdsound]

I quickly updated this with the new demons and your current money situation, but its otherwise out of date, and I'm thinking of doing a major overhaul of this section sometime soon.

At the very least I'm going to stop tracking curses/blessings so closely while Clan Ivy is around, and add a whole bunch more NPCs to the contacts page.

Updating this takes a bit of energy, and I am usually ready to crash once I get up the turn... so if anybody has any suggestions on to how I might make this part of the game easier for myself, I'm all ears.

Duchess Maeris Bonedust Riverland:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Status -

Age: 46
Health: Fine

Hexes and Aura:
An aura detector of even modest skill could pick up there is darkness about you, but as much as it comes from outside sources, you could quite easily be mistaken for a victim rather than a practitioner...
Hex of the Demon Tivavarav (Weak, Curse [Your soul goes to Tivavarav upon death], Self Inflicted, Grants knowledge of several demon hexes)
Hex of the Demon Pogpugrooog (Weak, Inactive, Self Inflicted, Grants knowledge of several demon hexes)
Hex of the Demon Nragelth (Weak, Inactive, Self Inflicted, Grants knowledge of several demon hexes)
Hex of the Demon Ovinsial (Weak, Inactive, Self Inflicted, Grants knowledge of several demon hexes)
Hex of the Demon Yukprong (Very Strong, Inactive, Woven by the Goblin Nix)
Hex of the Demon Danzielipip (Weak, Inactive, Self Inflicted)
Human Soul Prepped for Scrap (Weak, Self Inflicted, Necromancy Materials bound to your own soul for lack of better storage)
Elf Soul Prepped for Ghoulhood (Weak, Self Inflicted, Necromancy Materials bound to your own soul for lack of better storage)

Mundane Skills:

Excellent: Demon Lore, Lore of Goblin History
Great: Herbalism, Deception, Goblin Manners, All Other Non-Exotic Lore
Good: Demonic Manners, Courtly Manners, Intimidation
Decent: Handguns

Magical Skills:
Your parents arranged for you to be 'captured' by Goblins when you were young, so that you could learn their arts. When you grew older, you returned home on several occasions so that your relatives could teach you the Dark Arts that Goblins don't teach to women. The result is that when it comes to goblin magic, you are the jack of all trades...

Hex Weaving: The base upon which the Dark Arts are built. Every being has its own Hex (also called a True Name or a Hex Sign) that describes it perfectly, and by binding one being's hex (usually that of a demon) to another being's soul the Hex Weaver can work wonders. A Hex is, sadly, too complex for a carbon based mortal mind to retain, so to know a Hex one must have it bound to their soul, or held in some other sort of supernatural storage. Typically important demons include knowledge of their key minions hexes as part of their own hex, so a prospective Hex Weaver can get 2-4 for the price of 1. A Hex Weaver can bind any Hex they know to a being so long as they have physical or emotional contact with that being, or physical contact with an object that being has been in extended physical or emotional contact with. Once a Hex is woven, it can be activated as a curse at any time; Hex Weavers who also have the means to negotiate with demons may also arrange to activate a hex as a blessing. When activating a blessing or a curse, you can give it any non-lethal effect reasonably related to the Hex you are using to place it. You presently know the following useful Hexes...

Hex of the Demon Tivavarav: Bound to soul. Relates to Control and Ownership of one's soul, memory loss, the cold, and entrepreneurship (This Hex Supports 87 Active Curses, are of the soul harvesting variety)
Hex of the Demon Gungor: Granted by Bound Hex. Relates to servitude to the demon Tivavarav, Water, Nightmares, Torture, and Ill Health
Hex of the Demon Talcutta: Granted by Bound Hex. Relates to servitude to the demon Tivavarav, Aquatic Creatures, Scavenging, Fear, and Tool Use (This Hex Supports 3 Active Curses - The three owning members of the potion cartel are cursed with a persistent and mild fear of you.)
Hex of the Demon Yaugur: Granted by Bound Hex. Relates to servitude to the demon Tivavrav, Fire, Aggression, Swordsmanship, and Warfare
Hex of the Demon Pogpugrooog: Bound to Soul. Relates to Lore of the Deep Pantheon, Divine Magic of the Deep Pantheon, and the Unshaped Realm of the Abyss
Hex of the Demon Kanisswo: Granted by Bound Hex. Relates to servitude to the demon Pogpugroog, Influence over the deep races, Caves, and Fungus
Hex of the Demon Yaas: Granted by Bound Hex. Relates to servitude to the demon Pogpugroog, Darkness, Perception, Deception, and The Act of Espionage
Hex of the Demon Ovinsial: Bound to Soul. Relates to Goblin Social Rules/Interactions, Ownership of One's Soul, Messages, Hex Weaving, and Slavery
Hex of the Demon Kranor: Granted by Bound Hex. Relates to servitude to the demon Ovinsial, Travel, Endurance, and Labor
Hex of the Demon Rik-Rix: Granted by Bound Hex. Relates to servitude to the demon Ovinsial, Crimes against kin, Vengeance, and Marriage
Hex of the Demon Drigord: Granted by Bound Hex. Relates to servitude to the demon Ovinsial, Legal Skills, Writing, Lore, and Opportunistic Behavior
Hex of the Demon Nragelth: Bound to Soul. Relates to fertility, lesser demons, stolen goods, and physical growth
Hex of the Demon Hegathga: Granted by Bound Hex. Relates to servitude to the demon Nragelth, Sex Drive, Theft, and Vanity
Hex of the Demon Mologovia: Granted by Bound Hex. Relates to servitude to the demon Nragelth, Physical Beauty, Seduction, Locks, and secrets
Hex of the Demon Moaoavoa: Granted by Bound Hex. Relates to servitude to the demon Nragelth, Ownership of One's Soul, Summoning, Magical Beasts, and Perverted Desires
Hex of the Demon Yukprong: Bound to Soul. Relates to servitude to the Orcish Diety Trance, Orcs, The Soul's Potential for Divine Magic, and Willful Subjection to Demonic Influence
Hex of the Demon Danzielipip: Bound to Soul. Relates to servitude to the Orcish Diety Trance, Divine Magic of the Orcish Gods, Spears, and Family Ties

Necromancy: The trick of animating the dead isn't terribly complicated, but to grant a walking corpse intelligence and longevity, Necromancy must be practiced in conjunction with the other dark arts. A Necromancer typically purchases the souls required to support useful undead from a soul cleaner, a demon who specializes in prepping souls to be either torn apart to fuel a hoard of undead with animalistic intelligence, or raised into a specific state of advanced undeath. You can raise any suitable corpse you find without any special equipment, but you need access to an Animation Table to make undead out of multiple corpses, or to add new parts to existing undead. You know it is possible to raise incorporeal undead and to put souls you purchase into inorganic animated constructs, but you would need training under a specialist to learn how to do either of those things.

Summoning: Summoning is most simple of the Dark Arts in Theory, but the most complicated in practice. Moving matter, information, and energy between realms is easy with the right equipment, but unless such a move is part of a negotiated deal with a demon or other extraplanar being, the consequences can be nasty. You need a projection stage to easily communicate with beings off realm, and a summoning circle to move most objects; Until you can acquire those the best you can hope to accomplish is to call imps (lesser demons made to move between the universes) loyal to a demon whose hex is bound to your soul. There are two ways a summoner can move beyond the basics; A Binder is a Summoner who knows her own Hex Sign and uses it to influence or control powerful demons without negotiation. A Manifestation is a Summoner who permanently defiles her own humanity to summon demonic aspects directly into her own body - a Manifestation who lives long enough will sometimes transcend mortality and become a true demon themselves. The following are your demonic contacts, and the deals and arrangements you have with them.

Yukprong The Servant of Trance
-Yukprong will pass along unlimited messages to Trance, her other minions, and ranking members of clan Ivy so long as you support a puppet of Trance by using his strong hex twice to make a mortal subservient to the deity and infatuated with the idea of demons tampering with his/her soul.

Ovinsial The Pharaoh's Messenger
-4 Curses per blessing

Nragelth The Fence
-3 Curses per blessing

Tivavarav The Soul Dealer:
Balance: +1 Soul
-You have seventy nine assorted curses from Tivavarav's organization active, which combine with seventy nine of Tivavarav's soul taking curses to support seventy nine blessings on Charlie Kinkaid's soldiers, per below
-Tivavarav will support one blessing through his hex or the hex of one of his minions for each two curses supported through his hex or the hex of one of his minions
-Tivavarav keeps ten sets of powerful demonic armor that he loans out to members of the Bonedust family on an as needed basis
-If Tivavarav gets a hold of the soul of somebody related to the Bonedust Family through blood or marriage, he will prepare it for useful undeath in the least intrusive way possible, and will not sell it to non-family members
-Tivavarav allows you to contact his minions directly

Gungor The Soul Cleaner:
-Gungor will unconditionally support up to two blessings through his hex
-Gungor will give you a birthday gift each year on the 23rd Day of the 6th Month

Pogpugrooog, Scourge of the Deep Gods:
Balance: +6 Hexes
-Pogpugrooog will support one blessing through her hex or the hex of one of her minions for every three curses supported through her hex or the hex of one of her minions
-So long as you have placed at least three active curses supported by Pogpugrooog or one of her minions, not counting those used to pay the support of a blessing per the above agreement, Pogpugrooog will tell you what she knows reguarding your daughter Fortune's relationship to the Goddess Tetha. This agreement does not include the exact details of the early death Fortune predicts for herself - If Pogpugrooog discovers this information, she will tell you so, and then it must be negotiated separately.

Lesser Demons:
-Lilly the Sorrow's Daughter is bound to unconditionally and indefinitely serve you. She lives in the Groghall Servant's Quarters
-Starling the Star Beast is bound to serve you unconditionally during the work week until he finds you a stash of demonic gear. He lives in the Groghall Basement.
-An unnamed tentacle demon will be bound to serve you unconditionally for the remainder of your mortal life once it returns from its feeding. Housing arrangements have not been finalized.

Potion Brewing: Potion Brewing is the art of exploiting the chemical and magical properties of plants by combining them with other ingredients to yield potions and salves. Most Potion Brewing can be done with the common kitchen equipment and still that is available at Groghall, but some more concentrated potions will require a specialized Potion Still. Some Potions are dangerous or lose their effects when exposed to air, and will require a Sealing Station and Flasks to safely produce and store. Many human commoners dabble in this craft, but the goblin tradition as you have been taught includes the trick of changing a plant's useful properties by using Hex Weaving to place a blessing upon said plant while it grows. The ability to identify useful properties in plants is tied to your Herbalism skill. Useful plants for Potion Brewing will be listed with your assets.

Household:

Joy Strongcurrent, Daughter - (Fighter/Divine Caster/Lorekeeper, Deeply Loyal, Pregnant/Cursed [Soul goes to Tivavarav])
Redding Strongcurrent, Son-in-Law - (Nature Mage/Socialite, Ulterior Motives [Desires Power], Crippled [Hand]/Cursed [Soul goes to Tivavarav])
Dean Riverland, Son - (Dark Mage/Fighter, Deeply Loyal, Strong Dark Magic Aura/Cursed [Soul goes to Tivavarav])
Fortune Riverland, Daughter - (Herbalist/Scholar, Deeply Loyal, Child/Touched by a God/Crippled [Blind]/Cursed [Soul goes to Tivavarav])
Caddor, 'Prisoner' - (Fighter/Merchant, Loyal)
Mason Greenplanes, Studies your Daughter - (Scholar/Socialite, Ulterior Motives [Curious about Fortune])
'Mackie', Lowborn Servant - (Laborer, Loyal)
Wednesday, Undead Creation - (Thief/Spy, Loyalty Compelled, Offensive to Polite Society/Maintenance [Drinks Living Blood])
Rugath, Undead Creation - (Fighter/Thief, Loyalty Compelled, Offensive to Polite Society)
Tuft of Clan Gruel, Minion - (Fighter/Archer/Orcish Socialite, Loyalty Tied to Site, Ageing)
Tempest of Clan Gruel, Minion - (Fighter/Divine Caster/Nature Mage, Loyalty Tied to Site)
Count Glen Horton, Houseguest - (Fighter/Officer/Socialite, Questionable Loyalty, Questionable Mental State)
Count Virgil Gulf III, Houseguest - (Engineer/Divine Caster/Tradesman, Loyal, Questionable Mental State)



Assets:

Home:
Dining Hall (Suitable for Formal Meetings)
Kitchen (Roomy and Well Stocked enough to perform basic potion brewing on a small scale without interrupting meal preparations)
Master's Quarters [1/2] (Luxurious Space, Comfort, and Decoration for you and whoever you choose to share your bed with. Filled with a Libarary of Orcish Lore, Culture, and History)
Noble Quarters [12/15] (Ample Space, Suitable for members of your household who are Highborn, Wealthy, or Military Leaders)
Servant Quarters [23/30] (Suitable for the commoners in your household, and for non-combat hirelings)
Barracks [60/200] (Suitable for common soldiers)
Basement (Currently Storing enough grain to feed the hall's current population for two years, and has space for 4 Workstations)
Yard (Contains a bathing pool. Has space for 10 Workstations, but the hot, rainy, tropical climate makes the yard a poor location for most labor)

Personnel:
Mackie's Children [6] (The two older girls help you and your daughters dress. The others maintained your family quarters back home and may be redundant here. Lead by Mackie)
Groghall Staff [15] (Orcs who perform the cooking and cleaning at Groghall)
Caiman Swarm [30] (12 Veteran Orcs of Clan Gruel and 18 Assorted Mercenaries. No standard uniform. Lead by Tuft)
Typhoon Swarm [30] (30 young and possibly green Orcs of Clan Gruel. Leather Armor, Obsidian Tipped Swords, Copper Tipped Ammo. Lead by Tempest)
Clan Ivory's Horde [4000, 160 at Groghall] (A mixed force of casters and rangers, with some heavy armor. Loyal, but not directly under your control)

Gear:
The Artifact Quad Gun Troublemaker (Bullets can be made to explode on impact)

Magical Goods:
Gregory Rothwell's Underpants (Can be used to place a weak-medium powered hex on the previous owner)
Locket of Rothwell Childrens' Hair (Can be used to place a weak-medium powered hex on Greg's kids)
Bottle of Divine Birth (Increases a child's divine magic potential if it finishes the bottle before tasting its first drop of mother's milk)
6 Months of Aura Suppression Potion (Must be taken daily to be effective)

Income and Tribute:
At Least 25000 Silver
>30% Share in the Potion Cartel (Yeilds between 30,000 and 40,000 Silver a Month)
5% Share in Rivertower Knifehouse (Yeilds Aprox 300 Silver a Month)
Access to Magical Workstations under Rivertower Knifehouse
Regular Reports from the Goblin Spy Ring and the Potion Cartel

Geopolitical Situation:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

(Map goes here when I get around to making one)

Redleaf Duchy:
The Kingdom's Southernmost Duchy east of the Ironheart Mountains. Its Northern border, shared with the wealthy Tradewind Duchy, is an imaginary line drawn from the lighthouse at Gulf City west to the Ironheart Mountains. To the east lies the Gulf of Monsters, a stretch of ocean famous for inhospitable currents and many species of fierce sea life capable of capsizing small boats. The Western border is considered the treeline of the Ironheart Range, mountains home to several several dwarven cities: Some independent, some vassals to the human kingdoms, and some vassals to the goblins. The Southern border of the Duchy, and the Kingdom, is the Roe River, which is formed by streams that come out of the Mountains and flows east and slightly south to reach the gulf; The jungles beyond the river are infested with Orcs, but the most dangerous clans have been driven far from the border.

The other major river in the duchy is the Silver River, which starts in the mountains of the west central Silver County and passes through Nymphgrass, a mirthful tropical marsh, before splitting into two forks in Port County. The northern fork makes the short journey east straight on to the gulf, while the southern fork dips south into Southjungle County and fills Basin Lake before veering east again to meat the gulf.

The main biome is tropical Savannah, with thick jungles near the Southern Border and splotches of desert to the north. Thin bands of temperate and alpine forest exist in the extreme western reaches of the Duchy where the elevation is higher.

The Counties:
Southjungle County [Friendly]: The Southeastern most county. Home to good fishing in Basin Lake, good farming in land cleared along the rivers, and for producing skilled rangers. Ruled by Countess Miri Horton.
Roe River County [Friendly] [You are Here]: The Southwestern most county. Home to good farming in land cleared around the rivers, some silver mines in the northwest, the duchy's only crossing into Orcish lands, and the major mercenary market of North Bank City. Ruled by Count Phineas Kinkaid.
Silver County [Hostile]: The western central county. Home to many silver mines in the Southwest, the duchy's only crossing into Dwarven lands, and the Duchy's only Nature Mages Guild in the town of Balloon Point. Ruled by Count Horace Marlowe.
King's Road County[Hostile]: The Northwestern most county. Home to many farms, as well as the Major intersection of the Ancient King's Road and the more contemporary Royal Highway. Ruled by Countess Charlotte Marlowe.
Gulf County[Hostile]: The Northeastern most county. Home to many roads connecting to the ports of Tradewind Duchy to the North, some farming, and the Ruins of Gulf City, the ancient capital of the second dynasty. Rightfully Ruled by Count Virgil Gulf III, but usurped by Clarence Rothwell.
Port County[Hostile]: The eastern central county. Home to good farming along the river, and the only port of trade in the Duchy. Ruled by Count Ernie Strongcurrent.
Cleanriver County[Hostile]: The central county. Home to great farming along the river, and the capital of the Duchy at Cleanriver Castle. Ruled by Prince Rubricon Emmit.

Your Dependable Contacts:

Local -
Fugitap Bloodwalls [Old Friend]: A Goblin who grew up in Bloodwalls fortress where you were imprisoned. He is now part of a discrete Goblin delegation to North Bank City that hires mercenaries to fight Orcs and Subterranean peoples. You wouldn't be surprised if he knew where to find Workstations where one can perform Dark Magic in town.
Chieftain Foot [Old Mentor]: A Bankrupt small-time Orc warlord who lives in a small apartment in town. He is the Kingdom's leading expert on lore regarding the Orcish Pantheon, and will train anybody who has the coin in Orcish Divine Magic.

Duchywide -
Miri Horton [Best Friend]: A sheltered girl in her mid twenties who knew nothing but the highborn circles of the Royal Capital until she was married off to Glen at age 14. You bonded first as mentor and student (demon lore fascinates her), and latter as shoulders for each other to cry on when the relationship between your husbands came to light. She has the desire to do something wicked, such as learn Dark Magic or cheat on her husband, but can't seem to find the guts to follow through.
Lady Jane Gulf [Old Mentor]: A landless highborn who owns a small trading caravan that operates in the north of the Duchy. She is the best regional historian you know, especially when it comes to the Second Dynasty, when her ancestors ruled the Kingdom from the Banks of Monster Gulf.
Watcher [Undead Creation]: A wight you made with the soul of a skilled inquisitor and the biggest Orc Corpse you could find. This loyal servant roams the duchy, keeping tabs on and enforcing your will among the other dark mages of your land.

Worldwide -
Farquad Riverland [Eldest Son]: You arranged for Farquad to work in elf lands so that he could study nature magic from the absolute best, and by extension gain a better grasp of dark magic. He ended up falling in love with his tutor, and teaching her his family's craft in return. He is far more interested in his partner, children, and studies than politics, but you are sure you could get him to come home if you could get in touch.
Lindwal Bonedust [Mother]: Since dad ascended, your mother has been tasked with keeping the catacomb at Bleaksoil, the ancestral home of the bloodline. Her main duties involve buying the souls of fallen family members and adding them to the thousands strong family army of sentient undead that waits below their castle for such a time desperate enough to see their use.
Maerii Alleye [Twin Sister]: Not a practitioner of Dark Magic herself, your sister serves as the head of intelligence for the family. Her main job is to keep an eye on the inquisition, which is easy seeing as she is married to its leader, High Inquisitor Righteous Alleye. She is also responsible for seeing that captured goblin highborns are held by 'understanding' households.
Truman Bonedust [Uncle]: A powerful manifestation who has lead the Bonedust family since your father ascended. By his own estimation, Trueman is most skilled dark mage among humans, and 3rd or 4th among mortals overall. Most of his men are caught up on the Western Front, but you are sure he could send you some support. You are sure he would prefer you to name somebody other than Dean heir.
Rizza Bonedust [Niece]: At only 27, Rizza is already in charge of the families interests in nearby Tradewind Duchy. She is a powerful binder who can enslave mighty demons to do her bidding. Uncle made it clear that you are ultimately in charge of all family activity on the East Coast, so she technically answers to you, but you have never actually tried to pull rank and boss her around before.
Haggen Bloodwalls [Old Friend]: Fort Bloodwalls, where you were imprisoned, is the closest Goblin Fortress to your land. Its current leader, Haggen, was nothing but a trouble-making prince who became your best friend during your time there. Haggen has lots of available troops, and might even be willing to send them to your aid, but openly fielding Goblin forces would be a high treason from which there would be no going back.
Voxxy Taffers [Old Friend]: A girl of mixed dwarven and goblin descent you befriended at Fort Bloodwalls. Voxxy now runs a whorehouse at Chaingreaves, a Dwarven City in the Ironheart Mountains with heavy Goblin sympathies. She has dirt on many important dwarves and goblins, and is good at arranging meetings between important humans and goblins at the neutral ground of her establishment.
Omegiz Irongag [Old Mentor]: The lorekeeper at Fort Bloodwalls who taught you more about demon lore and goblin history than most human libraries will ever contain. He has since been promoted several times, and is now the personal lorekeeper to the Goblin Pharaoh, who leads the loose goblin coalition against the Kingdom and is easily the strongest dark mage in the mortal realm.

Extraplanar -
Tivavarav [Trusted Business Partner]: A small time soul dealer who partnered with your family generations ago. He offers fair prices to the Bonedust Bloodline, and even allows them to contract the service of his Balrog servant Yaugur, the sort of demon that under most circumstances only a skilled Binder could hope to control.
Gungor [Father]: Formerly Gunner Bonedust, your father ascended to proper demonhood on the eve of 70th birthday. Gungor quickly found employment and protection under long time business partner Tivavarav, for whom he preps souls for sale to Necromancers. Although it is bad form to do business with him directly while you know his master’s Hex, he still looks after you in his own way.
Pogpugrooog [Business Partner]: A demoness who serves as a consort and midwife to the Deep Pantheon, and trades their secrets to other beings as a side business. You sought out contact with her on account of the Deep Pantheon’s involvement with your daughter Fortune, and for a price she has thrown you a few useful tidbits of knowledge over the years.