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[Tomcost]

Oh, I'd like to visit Syzzik personally, if we have enough time.

Yaugur was our Black Magic show. You know, our spells are not really impressive to behold, unless we summon a demon. That's why Yaugur is there. The festivity is all about summoning demons, I doubt that Yaugur there would make for an awkward moment. And, as for our uncle, we can always play the card "I betray the kingdom" and buy him some time.

[Weirdsound]

(@Lurker: Yaugur is not 'mighty' by traditional demonic standards, he just happens to specialize in putting down other demons, including those significantly older and more powerful than him.)

2334th Year of Man, 5th Month, 15th Day:

Monday

You tell Vartalaix that she has your blessing to slaughter the conscripts and start work on the fishing fleet. The Sucubus is also informed that she is in charge of selling the silver, but that you will not commit to making any deals until you know the prices.

2334th Year of Man, 5th Month, 16th Day:

Tuesday

You thank your son, and express admiration for his ability to land such a good deal, before telling him to bring the eggs to Tempest, explain what they are, and instruct the young orc to incubate them, giving her Yaugur's blessing if needed.

Following lunch, you ask your steward Dreamer to run a few errands in your absence. The Orblin is to get the gems from the cave to Confessor Rash, and escort his Chieftain to the cave so that the Wights may help Niechbaux take his measurements at the summoning circle. You consider arranging for a memory loss curse on the Chieftain as well, but seeing as his two potential heirs are taking dark magic lessons from you, it is likely he knows alot about what goes on in the cave. You conclude your meeting with Dreamer by signing your name of a blank piece of parchment, and asking him to write out a request to have your daughter Chasity's marriage annulled by Mildtounge, and to drop said document off with Zeph upon completion.

You then do some writing of your own, turning down Syzzik by informing him that you are preparing to embark on a diplomatic mission to Clan Ivy that is rather important. You then hint at what is to come by closing the letter with your lover's own words, nothing that his ambition has rubbed off on you.

Next you send word to Chieftain Foot that you would like his help speaking to important orcs during the festival. He replies that he is unable to travel on such short notice, but if you can arrange the transportation, he would be willing to join you Friday afternoon.

Instructing your other fellow travelers to meet you when they are ready, you and Dean head to the cave early to attend to some other demonic business before traveling. First you call up Ovinsail, who by now has heard that you are the new Overboss of Axebeach. Before you can get down to business, Ovinsail passes along a message from the Pharaoh, congratulating you on your new title and asking if you would be willing to allow him the opportunity to negotiate for your daughter Fortune's hand in marriage. He claims that his interest is political, but you are positive he knows about the prophecy; The Goblin Pharaoh has more connections to demons and deep deities than any other mortal on the landmass.

You then ask about the common fund souls from the Axebeach joint account, sending Ovinsail digging through his record books for a few minutes before he answers.

"Lets see here... The account was emptied two weeks ago. We sent all seven thousand and fifty two souls to a Realmanglar named Talcutta... The transfer was proposed by Underboss Admiral, and voted on by secret ballot, so I don't know who else approved. The only five votes were the five 'yes' votes required to make the transfer, so I doubt those who were not in on the plan were even made aware of it."

"Talcutta?" you wonder out loud, before tuning out Ovinsail's explanation of who your great-grandfather is and drifting into thought on the matter. There is no way the transaction had anything to do with the family business, or you would have been made aware of it by now. Your Great Grandfather is likely going behind Tivavarav's back on some personal project, as he is prone to do... but seven thousand souls? It has to be something big. He did mention that he knew Admiral when he discussed Axebeach with, and seemed to have no problems with you taking the job, so you suspect this is something he doesn't mind you knowing about... but perhaps didn't want to mention it in front of the whole family on the conference call.

You were going to call Tivavarav next anyway, so you do just that. Unsure about how to handle the Talcutta situation for now, you explain what is happening with your travels, and ask about borrowing Yaugur for Sunday Night, framing the request as a marketing opportunity for the business. Tivavarav agrees, and promptly does you one better.

"If you can convince the Chieftess to let them use the gate, I'll give you both Yaugur and your father for the entirety of your visit. These negotiations, whatever they are, are clearly important, so I would like our side as well represented as possible. Also, Talcutta has already arranged for an old friend to summon him for the exhibition at the festival Sunday Night, so I just might close up shop and take the evening off if everybody else is."

Happy with the arrangement, although secretly wondering if Talcutta actually wants Tivavarav to show up Sunday, you ask what you can do for Tivavarav to help out his business, in terms of marketing, connections, and employment. Tivavarav informs you that that there is always demand for good warrior souls, and although the Orcs of Clan Ivy would rather be eaten than resurrected, it should be possible to find some non-ivy guests interested in undeath, some of whom might even be willing to pay you for making arrangements for their souls.

In terms of new employees, Tivavarav still isn't interested in expanding until he gets those enforcers that your father ordered him. You press the issue, assuring him that you may soon have the resources to help support and protect whoever you hire for him, which draws an interesting response that you were not expecting.

"Listen, Maeris, you can't tell anybody this yet, not even your father, but I'm looking to get rid of Talcutta. Short attention span and wanderlust make for a poor employee. Looking to sell him off on a permanent contract for fifteen hundred or so souls, but it can't just be to anybody; He's family. It needs to be somebody who will treat him right, you know?"

The Plague Devil sighs, and continues. "If we can find somebody else to take care of him, I can sponsor the ascension of another Bonedust. If you help me arrange the deal, I'll see that the privilege goes to your son if he wants it."

You will likely have the souls to make the purchase yourself in the not too distant future, and find the possibility to be intriguing. As a Realmanglar, Talcutta would be quite useful as both a summoning specialist, and as a bodyguard while on other realms. He is also a walking encyclopedia of lore, including the lore of exotic lands which you never really studied to this point. He would also likely be very useful in excavating the Shrine. Longterm there are some problems with the idea; Keeping Talcutta in one place for more than a year or two at a time is an infuriatingly difficult task, and you would have to make arrangements to ensure he remains in good hands once your mortal life ends.

The conversation with Tiv is ended abruptly when the wights escort a tearful Syzzik into the cave. As you were not clear in the letter you sent, the poor man thought you were embarking on the 2+ month dangerous round trip through the jungle to Clan Ivy lands, and had tracked you down to say goodbye. He perks up quite a bit when you explain that you will be using the summoning circle to make the trip in an instant, before abruptly treating you to a tight embrace and wide shit-eating grin. "...Y-you can do that? You mean to say all instant travel requires is a summoning circle in another realm... but that means... Titans Below! Maeris, when you get back, we need to secure ourselves such an off-realm relay! I will make us filthy rich, and win you the kingdom to boot!"

After your lover calms down a bit, he mentions that he knows some people who should be at the festival whom you should be introduced to. "W...would it be possible for me to join you for one of the nights this weekend? If not, would it be possible for me to send over some letters of introduction?"

---

Your traveling group arrives at the cave shortly after Syzzik departs. Everybody is squeezed into the summoning circle, before you call up Yukprong, and inform him that you are ready to make the jump. In a flash, you find yourself standing in the middle of beautifilly maintained tropical garden that is somehow even more humid than the jungles of Redleaf Duchy. The sky in this realm glows in a perpetual sickening yellow twilight, and on a line of hills in the distance, you spot a radiant structure about the size of Groghall that is too bright to make out - surely the gate. Surrounding you are the proper workstations with which one performs potion brewing and dark magic, and sitting on a swing that hangs from a nearby tree is a young-looking lady who more closely resembles a green-skinned human than an actual Orc.

The woman introduces herself as Chieftess Ivy, before giving each of her guests the customary deep orcish greeting hug. As she hugs you, you feel her weave a hex onto your soul, which is promptly activated as a blessing to your perception. At once the glow from the gate dies down, and you can see clearly that it is merely a stone arch, through which you can see a well decorated castle basement on the other side. You also notice that the gate must have been drowing out your sense for energy, as you get a brief feel of the Chieftess' soul before she releases you, and you find it to be amazing. Her spirit is huge, but mostly hollow, with a core in the middle that is close to the average soul in shape and size. Around the core lies what can only be described as artfully symmetric framework made of soulstuff; You imagine that this impressive soul art took centuries to sculpt. 

After hugging everybody, Ivy explains that she has blessed everybody present to both protect their senses from being damaged by the gate's radiance, and to allow the group to perceive any divine guests that might show up in a manner understandable to their brains.

+Hex of Nuxhidieon (Servitude to Trance, Research, Perception, Extinct Species). Activated as a blessing to perception at medium power

Chieftess Ivy grins, and gets down to business. "Sister Maeris, if you find it agreeable, I would like to attempt the bulk of our negotiation on Thursday night, which gives you time to get comfortable beforehand, and the opportunity to properly leverage our kinship and win the support of others at the festival afterward."

Twitching her nose, the strange Orc continues. "You and your son, Duchess, will be staying in the apartment of my servant and friend Nuxhidieon, who is responsible for the nice blessing I have given you. He is the architect of this realm, as well as my master of theoretical and experimental magic, and shall fill you in on my general plan so you do not come to the negotiation table on Friday blind. My father and I shall house your daughters, and discuss matters of applied faith and theology. You can do what you wish with your Wight, and the old man can stay with either party."

You take the opportunity to bring up your demonic ancestors who wish to attend, and Chieftess Ivy smiles, quickly granting consent for them to come and freely use her gate. She allows you to use her projection stage, and within a few minutes of making the call you are joined by the two greater demons. Your father wastes no time catching up with his grandchildren, while Yaugur surveys the place, clearly impressed. Before things can go much further, you are interrupted by Nuxhidieon, who has arrived to take you, Yaugur, and Dean on a tour of the realm on the way back to his place. Father and Virgil remain behind with the Chieftess and your girls.

Nuxhidieon is an Owlkin, a nowadays rare variety of demon typically created by the ascension of the presently extinct Grey Orcs. Aside from being an uncommon demon, your host is also a legendary one; It is not a connection commonly made, but strong circumstantial evidence exists within the library of House Bonedust to suggest that Nuxhidieon is actually Midieon, the genius grey orc mage who invented the werebeing, figured out how to make vampires that lacked a crippling weakness to the sun, and famously helped several beings who would not normally qualify ascend to godhood amoung other mighty acts. Nuxhidieon confesses to this mortal identity when pressed by Yaugur. The two famous greater demons then spend several minutes bouncing stories off each other before the tour begins in earnest. You notice the blessing the Chieftess gave you seems to also grant protection from the sheer force of demonic voices as well.

Nuxhidieon brings you right up to the gate, on the top of the hill, and points features out one at a time, starting with the obvious. "What you see as the 'gate' is actually the most visible component of a truly vast metaphysical structure. The ground here is in a state of constant interplay with the Gulf of Monsters on the other side, which keeps this place a swamp, and that place an interesting fishing spot."

He goes on to explain that nobody knows who built the gate, but that he has since come to understand the device well enough to modify it heavily. "I've set it up so that the radiant energy can be harnessed in a much more controlled fashion. The gate should now be capable of encouraging the rapid growth of savage jungle biomes almost anywhere in the world, or causing rapid controlled mutations in any individual creature that passes through it. Clan Ivy will be able to fight human and goblin alike by turning their land into jungle that they don't know how to fight in or farm, and using the gate's powers of transfiguration to further adapt its troops to whatever situation arises."

"That sounds impressive," you answer honestly, "have you tested it yet?"

The demon rotates its head a full 180 degrees before offering a negative answer. "That is the thing; This mechanism is so complex, it cannot be controled by an external mortal mind, or even a demonic one. So I built a controller; Chieftess Ivy. It took me a millennium and and a half, but she is finally ready. Her soul has been custom built to fit into and control the gate. When the time is deemed to be upon us, Chieftess Ivy will ascend to godhood by shedding her mortal body, merging with the gate, and harnessing its vast power."

Yaugur offers an impressed whistle, and asks for a more in depth explanation. Nuxhidieon spends the next thirty minutes going into the intricate mechanics of the magic involved, and unlike Peat's attempts to explain meat brewing, The Owlkin is a clever enough teacher that you have a very good idea as to what the gate is and how it works by the end of the lecture. Nuxhidieon then explains your role in the situation: Alliance builder and demon wrangler.

"I could turn Chieftess Ivy into Goddess Ivy within the amount of time it takes a human to draw a hot bath, but the thing is, once we do that, everybody and their momma will feel it and come after us - so we can't pull the trigger until we are ready to commit, and that means allies. Trance and the Chieftess will focus on recruiting two or three more gods to build a pantheon with, but beyond that, we can't get much more help on our own. As a devote worshiper of Trance, she can't openly threaten or bargain with demons, and as an Orc, she fears being taken advantage of should she negotiate with other mortal races directly."

He taps you on the shoulder with the tip of his wing. "Once you agree to intwine your blood and your fate with her own to the point where treachery is no longer an option for either party, she intends to grant you control over the majority of her supernatural holdings. Now that the modifications to her soul and the gate are complete, she doesn't need nearly as many souls as she is recieving, and all of Trances demonic minions, myself included, have way to much free time on our hands. We'd rather let a respectable dark mage help us invest these assets than let them sit idle."

It is all you can do not to drool at the power being offered. You just hope a means of mixing blood that isn't too offensive to your human sensibilities can be found.

On the other side of the hill is a new, shiny, and mostly vacant city where Trance and all her major minions live. Nuxhidieon suggests that a meeting with the Goddess herself might happen before your time as Clan Ivy's guest concludes. He then leads you to his apartment, where the four of you spend the night talking about the theory and practice of Dark Magic. You and Dean are provided with potions of mental refreshment to keep with the demons - who require no sleep.

2334th Year of Man, 5th Month, 17th Day:

Wenesday

You meet up with the rest of your family, and pass through the gate into Current Castle where you and the other mortals are fed a thick and delicious stew for breakfast in a room with a beautiful view of the gulf. Over the meal, a discussion breaks out reguarding the day's activities.

Father wants to spend the day with his grandchildren, and wants to arrange a grand tour of the massive Current Castle, sadly out of the three only Dean is on board with the idea.

Joy wants to wants to visit the highest tower, which is home to confessor headquarters. She hopes to gain access to their printed records of famous sermons and spend the afternoon reading.

Fortune is enthralled with Chieftess Ivy's garden, and upon hearing that the leader of the mighty clan is spending her day preparing fun potions for the festival, would love nothing more than to hang out, watch her, and perhaps even participate a bit.

Nuxhidieon would like to take you, Dean, and Yaugur to meet the other major demons who serve Trance and who may someday soon serve you.

Some dignitaries are already in town for the festival, including Chieftain Shark, who has supposedly caught wind of the fact that you are aligning with some of the mighty clans, and decided to wait and talk with you rather than march north with the rest of his troops and the Kinkaids.

You know Tonsil has kin who live in the villages around the castle, and are sure that you would honor him if you were to track some of them down for a visit.

The towns and villages around the castle have all the amenities one might expect. You can shop, drink, or attend a performance, among other things.

[escaped lurker]

O~h boy. I was wondering, with all those goodies and deals we got, how "the crown" would even wage war upon us. But this last post, well - it's kinda like finding a health pack, a new weapon, and ammo - next to a save point. Minus the save point in our case, but you get my drift, right?

What our war shapes up to become, is not a little scuffle with the crown over some noble seats - Instead it seems prone to becoming a fight against the human pantheon, and all those four are able to reach.


Now that that is out of the way;
First priority, Talcutta
Not something we need to do immediately, but the overall most important point of our suggestion business - as I see it.
Now, we don't want to hinder family on their profitable side business, but with how things are currently playing out, Tivavarav is going to be at that festival. And it mighty looks like he was set-up for that. Which seems mighty shifty. On the other hand, unless all of this is Clan Ivy setting us up, to set Tiv' up, which I kinda doubt, I don't see how our great-grandfather would be able to pull off anything.
Scheming that we are very doubtful about aside, lets have a talk with our ancestor. Who knows, maybe he knows his masters plan to "sell" him off, and - wasn't he a water elementalist? - plans to buy himself out to axebeach. That, would make the most sense. Right, we'll just presume something like that to be the case. Though, should he really be up to something, we~ll. All the better for Dean.

@Lurker: Yaugur is not 'mighty' by traditional demonic standards, he just happens to specialize in putting down other demons, including those significantly older and more powerful than him.

Right. Mighty. Or did you stutter on that last part? ;3

[Tomcost]

Link to the spreadsheet

Information Hub


Holy hell. My mind is woring so quicky to rationalize the opportunities we have here. Damn. But I guess that we should start from the begining:

Syzzik:

Affetionately return the hug, then delicately squeeze his chin with our fingers:

"We are aware of the possibilities of this device, that's why we are travelling there"

Then change the delicate squeeze into a tighter one:

"But it is too precious to use it just to do business. You should stop thinking in silver, and start thinking in souls, that's where the power actually resides"

Do not agree to letting him come. The shock from the revelations are going to be too much for our family, we don't want to say "Hey, we have a lover" in the middle of this.

Do let him send us those letters, as long as the gate is not involved in all this. He is not going to use it for trade, it is beyond that.

Talcutta

Confront him and ask him what he intends to do with those souls, we really need to know because it affects us.

But we should do this is we find a place where nobody bothers us. Maybe a private projection stage?

Vacation and business

First, ask Virgil how is he taking it. Seroiusly, I don't know how he didn't have a hearth attack after being summoned into a place full of demons. We should leave him with Rugath so that he doens't get into trouble, and maybe send him with the girls to discuss religion. Because he doesn't have anything to do with dark magic.

As for what to do in the day:

-Let Fortune spend some time with Chieftess Ivy, she seems nice enough, and could be interested in Fortune. I hope this doesn't backfire.
-Joy and maybe Virgil could do that religious research, yes.
-Father, Dean and us get to talk business with the demons. Even contact Tiv, and say that Clan Ivy may give us most of his demonic organization, and so he should come personally to see his potential coworkers, or maybe even his potential employees.

If we have time, it would be nice to meet with Tonsil's family, to compensate for not giving one of his daughters the worm. Leave the meeting with Chieftain Shark until after the negotiation with Clan Ivy, we may decide important things there.


As for other comments:

Long term strategy: we use Fortune to create infighting between every major potency we know. We use Denzel to create tension within the Kindgom, while keeping the war with the goblins going. Meanwhile, we gather the orc clans, and forge a mighty alliance through blood. Eventually, we strike for the kingdom, while bargaining with the Goblin Pharaoh. Then we betray him, if possible get Ovinsail to betray him (they would loose a huge amount of powers if their bank soul accounts suddenly are drained, and send the goblins into disarray, then we curbstomp them too.

As for varied ideas:
With this demonic dimension, we could strengthen our religious power and create a proper afterlife: they would simply be enslaved undead in another plane of existence, but is an afterlife anyway. Also, maybe only the really worthy should become undead, so that gives incentives to the people to get better.
We could create an army of undead priests that worship Mi-Mik to create an undead version of the Inquisition. Then we can pull a Yaugus and destroy their demons.
We can stop smuggling goods and create artificial shortages of resources for the goblins, then exchange those resources they need in exchange of souls, weakening their demons, and allowing us to gain power in the supernatural affairs.
The whole sudden jungle and massive undead army should be enough to beat them in the material realm.
We should play the Kingdom Pantheon against each other. Mikael hates everybody, it would be quite easy to make him fight another god, and then we come with the Pharaoh and kill the rest.


What worries me is the End-game: Titan Rock. I don't see a way in which we could beat even one of their cities with their super-massive gods.

[VoidSlayer]

Long term plans can come later.

I recommend Father and Dean take the tour.

Joy and Virgil to do some research.

Have Fortune tag along with Chieftess Ivy with the wight (I did not catch his name) and her serpent as guards(I cant remember the word for a person who watches over a young noble girl).

We and Yaugur should learn more about the portal but excuse ourselves for enough time to meet with Chieftain Shark.  Tonsil's kin can wait for a bit though we should not forget that.  Ask someone to track them down for us

Have an evening family only private dinner to discuss the day's events.

I think we should consider an alliance with the goblins.  In the short term we can give up some kingdom lands, in the long term we agree to not terraform the goblin lands in exchange for their support.  We can even consider putting our eldest son on the throne of the kingdom.

The afterlife thing sounds good, especially if we can get a human god to flip to our side, but demons still need to eat soul energy.  Maybe we could make a substitute from other enchanted energy?

We should totally consider getting Tetha to join us.  However I was thinking about if we could maybe buy the whole lot of Drow servants from that one demon and start a Drow surface city.

[Tomcost]

Demons don't need maintenance, or at least only need few of it. There are also other energy sources, such as divine energy, or emotions for demons of emotions.

I don't want to meet with important dignataries until we ave the chat with Chieftess Ivy and know exactly where we are getting into. After that,  I'm fine with it.

And I guess that I'm too much about doing demonic business. I just love the idea of a demonic enterprise. So, if there is not much agreement, I'm not opposed to doing something else.

Also, we don't need a human god to switch. Humans can do orcish divine magic.

[VoidSlayer]

Demons don't need maintenance, or at least only need few of it. There are also other energy sources, such as divine energy, or emotions for demons of emotions.

I don't want to meet with important dignataries until we ave the chat with Chieftess Ivy and know exactly where we are getting into. After that,  I'm fine with it.

And I guess that I'm too much about doing demonic business. I just love the idea of a demonic enterprise. So, if there is not much agreement, I'm not opposed to doing something else.

Also, we don't need a human god to switch. Humans can do orcish divine magic.

We do not need a human god, but if we want our descendants to rule a human kingdom it can't hurt to make some connections and see who might be interested in switching.

For mortal allies we should look into getting the mighty clans and orcish gods to back the plan.  A strong more unified orcish empire, not under Clan Ivy control but a unified group of chieftains.  In such a case the human king (one of our children) and the goblin pharaoh could have equal standing as a chieftain.  Goblin lands are spared from rapid terraforming giving them time to adapt and they get to keep whatever outside lands they can take control of.

We keep the human kingdom and the orcish chiefs can divide up the rest of the world, with the dwarven and elvish lands sure to fall in the short term and the rest in the long term.

One thing we can do to cement this is to draw the king's army in to face our orc allies, then crush them from all sides with unexpected forces while the goblins launch a major offensive.

I do not see fighting the goblins as a long term good, they are well fortified and we will need their navy against Titian Rock.

All in all, it would be a long time until we can finish this and reestablish a new Grey Orc Empire.  We should concentrate on getting divine and demonic allies while we win the war with the prince on our own terms, drag this out for a while.

[Tomcost]

I support joining all the mighty clans under the same banner. But with the kingdom pantheon, I want to play a game of intrigue and betrayal. Yaugur funded the introduction of Ikara the Dreaded into the human pantheon. We can use her as a sleeper agent, while we leverage the goblin's demons to slaughter the rest of the Pantheon.

The problem with long-term Goblin allies is... well, they are goblins, and prone to betrayal. If we can coerce them, then I don't have a problem, but otherwise, they are untrustworthy. The good thing is that they are too dependant in their dark magic, which we can hopefully counteract with our order of undead priests and pulling a Yaugus and slaughtering their demons. If we manage to make Ovinsail switch sides, the blow would be huge too.

And, as for the navy, we have Clan Shark. Seriously, everybody is freaking worried about them. Combine Clan Shark with the human minds and discipline, and we got an unstoppable navy.

And, as a general strategy, I'd rely in using Fortune's hand to cause in-fighting, and having our allies do the bulk of the fighting for us.

[IronyOwl]

Too busy to comment on anything important, but why avoid Syzzik's influence again? Other than telling him not to spread around that we have the gate trick to avoid ruining the surprise, I'd think letting him set us up with people and get started on ambitious merchant things would be great.

Also: Laughing at Denzel intensifies.

[Weirdsound]

2334th Year of Man, 5th Month, 16th Day:

Tuesday

You affectionately return the merchant's hug, before  delicately squeezing his chin with your fingers.

"I am aware of the possibilities of this device, that's why I am travelling there."

You then tighten your grip, and continue, "But it is too precious to use it just to do business. You should stop thinking in silver, and start thinking in souls, that's where the power actually resides."

Syzzik pauses for contemplation, before pulling your hand off his chin and cupping it affectionately between his own. "There is some truth to that, but even in Toombs, the great city state run by dark magic, coin is still important. There are plenty of important things too mundane to waste the souls of mortals or the time of demons upon, that are still vital enough that one must have them anyway."

He grins, "That said, if you really want me to learn to think in souls, I'll give it a thought. I own some texts on the economics of dark magic; Perhaps I should get around to reading them."

Before saying goodbye, you tell Syzzik that he may send you the letters on introduction; He should have a messenger bring them to Redding, who knows to leave them on your bed for Wednesday to bring to the kinfehouse.

2334th Year of Man, 5th Month, 17th Day:

Wenesday

You chat with Virgil a bit over breakfast. Count Gulf is doing fine, considering the circumstances, and is impressed by both the gate and the castle it sits in. The demons are a bit unerving, but he knows enough about Yaugur to understand that he is fairly safe. You then ask if he would be willing to escort Joy to the highest tower and help her research Trance's religion, and after a bit of friendly prodding Virgil agrees.

Fortune, escorted by Rugath and her pet Jungle, are given permission to pass through the gate and spend the day in the Chieftesses garden. Father and Dean meanwhile, decide to take that tour of the castle.

You ask your hosts where you might find a private projection stage, and are lead back through the gate, into the empty city, and down to the damp and partially flooded basement of a large stone building where you find some Dark Magic Workstations. As soon as your escort leaves, you put a call into Talcutta. He is quick to guess why you have called.

"Found out about the joint account, didja?"


"Yeah," you answer, "whats up with that?"

The demon shrugs, and offers a grin. "The Sea-Bosses have been trying to set up a privateer fleet on Axebeach's behalf for some time now. The last Overboss was deadset against it, so they they decided not to gamble on the whims of the new boss, and make the arrangements before he or she was installed. They sent me enough souls to buy out my contract to the family business, arrange a fleet, and hopefully purchase a crew of mortal slaves."

"And you just assumed I'd be fine with this?" You scowl.

The Realmanglar glances at you sheepishly. "Honestly, the plans were in motion before Haggen picked the new Overboss. Before I knew it was going to be my own great-grandbaby, the plan was to keep my existence secret from the Overboss so we wouldn't have to cut them in. Don't worry though, I explained who you are, and the Sea-Bosses are cool with you being involved."

You sigh. "You told the Sea-Bosses who I am?"

Talcutta's grin widen's with enthusiasm. The thought that you might wish to conceal your new office from others had clearly never crossed his mind. "Yup. They are already close to your in-laws... Well the younger ones anyway. You cementing their relationship with Port County will be a huge boon, both for Axebeach in general, and the Sea-Bosses influence over the gang."

Crap. Now it is all but guaranteed Redding's brothers are going to find out about your new position, but it could be worse. The older Strongcurrent Boys are committing treason in their own right by dealing with Axebeach, something their staunchly lawful father is likely in the dark about. It is unlikely they would allow word to get out.

You learn that Talcutta is still shopping for a good deal on a fleet, and hasn't spent any of the souls yet. You could just tell him to cancel the plans and give the souls to you, but doing so would likely piss off the Sea-Bosses and ruin Talcutta's credibility with them.

---

After wrapping up your meeting with Talcutta, you meet with an escort of several Clan Ivy enforcers to make the journey from the castle to the docks and meet the arriving Chieftain Shark. Halfway down to the docks, however, you are chased down by Virgil, who manages to make you turn around with only a few fragmented sentences.

"Maeris! Come quick! Joy has gone into labor!"

At first you panic. The child is coming a month early, which cannot be healthy. Then the obvious dawns on you, and you berate yourself for not anticipating an early birth; Goblin pregnancies are typically several months shorter than those experienced by humans, so an eight month gestation period for a halfbreed might not be unusual. With any luck, things should be fine.

You tell Virgil to tell Joy that you are fetching the potion for her child, and that you will be at her side as soon as it arrives, before running back to the workstations in the empty city, and playing a two hour game of telephone with Wednesday and the Knifehouse goblins to ensure delivery of the potion. As soon as Peat's brew is in your hands, you hurry to the makeshift delivery ward.

Orcs customarily allow their men to witness childbirth, so the whole family is gathered. Several shamans, as well as the expecting mother herself, employ divine magic to keep Joy comfortable, but can do nothing to speed the process up. As time passes, several guests arrive to watch as well. You get pulled aside for private discussions with two of them.

Chieftain Shark offers you his hardy congratulations on the event in progress, before briefly getting into business. He had caught wind of your plan to directly take the pledges of Ivy and Ape, and feels insulted that the offer was not extended to him. You apologize, and explain that the arrangement was made so as not to slight the Kinkaids, and this explanation satisfies him. He adds, however, that he would still much rather pledge your cause than theirs. You will have to consider this with care; Clan Shark is an enemy of Axebeach.

The second visitor is rather significant, as it is your first ever divine encounter; A fourteen foot tall orc with electric blue skin introduces himself as Bolt, the patron deity of Clan Gruel. Bolt has come to enjoy the festival this weekend, and to parlay with some of the other orcish gods over the copper wars. As Trance refuses to give him a private audience, and none of the other members of the eighteen have arrived yet, he figured he'd stop in and honor the birth with his presence. For a god, his mindset doesn't seem all that different from that of a normal Orc, and after greeting you, he spends some time convincing Dean to mate with the Shaman Tempest when he returns to Groghall, and eventually the pair leaves to negotiate over that in private.

2334th Year of Man, 5th Month, 18th Day:

Thursday

It takes well over twenty four hours for the child to be born, and during this time you can do little but pace the floor and fret. Fortune reassures you that she sees no tragedy in Joy's most immediate future, but this assertion can only calm you down so much; Father has to escort you from the room and make you eat on several occasions.

The child is a girl, with pointy ears, a flat face, and already developed teeth and claws. Her skin-tone and body proportions are within the human norm. Joy tries to name her daughter after you at first, but Dean reminds her that they already have a cousin named Maeris as well. She then chooses Lanette, to honor Count Gulf's recently deceased wife, a choice which nobody objects to.

Force-feeding an entire large bottle of potion to the screaming infant is difficult for everybody to watch, but the child is able to get it all down. Joy is nervous about nursing Lanette seeing as the infant already has teeth, but it is pointed out to her that goblin babies eat meat from birth; A raw fish is brought in, and little Lanette quickly proves this assertion to be correct.

You get a chance to hold her - she is sweet and adorable as infants tend tend to be, but you know deep down that you cannot acknowledge her as your granddaughter to a human audience. Still, you have the better part of a week to figure out what should be done with her.

---

When the sun-sets, you manage to pull yourself, Dean, and your demonic ancestors away from your new granddaughter to negotiate kinship with Clan Ivy. Your family is represented by you, Dean, Yaugur, and Gungor, while present for Clan Ivy are the Chieftess, her demonic father Traaaacieant, and the Goddess Trance herself, who appears as a shimmering black and purple cloud.

Trance speaks first, talking briefly of political and military goals before the discussion on kinship begins in earnest. In a powerful voice, Trance suggests that she is still at least a decade or so out from assembling another two or three trustworthy gods to join the new pantheon, and as such, you shouldn't depend upon her grand scheme to solve your short-term succession crisis. She thinks you should blatantly flaunt the laws of the kingdom, and accept some sort of exile at the bargaining table when you eventually get the crown to sue for peace. By openly practicing dark magic for a spell, you will establish yourself as somebody demons may wish to serve, and by eventually removing yourself from the kingdom's politics, you will allow yourself to work on building a demonic army full time.

Traaaacieant speaks next, explaining your role in the plan. Before the Chieftess can ascend and make war against the world, she must have the following demonic assets in place: A soul cleaning operation that specializes in making undead, A soul cleaning operation that specializes in making demons, A mining/materials operation, An operation capable of producing artifacts at a steady pace, An operation devoted to the banking and transfer of souls, An operation that trades in moral slaves and prisoners, and an operation devoted to covert operations across the demonic realms. In addition, a few dozen combat-worthy greater demons will be needed to fight alongside the clan's warriors, and another few dozen will be needed to guard the as-of-now empty city where all this will be based. It is on you to assemble and manage all these demons. To aid in this endeavor, Trance's enforcers/grandsons, Tooshel and Viishel, will answer to you directly, bending other demons to your will through threat, blackmail, and force.

The god and demon then fall silent and allows Chieftess Ivy to speak of Kinship. You get the feeling Trance, who was originally a deep deity and never an orc, may not be terribly comfortable on that particular subject.

Chieftess Ivy has a handful of ideas on how your blood can become intertwined with her own. As expected, some are easier to stomach than others, and she is willing to consider your ideas as well. She notes that she would be satisfied if you agreed to two of her suggestions, but adds that more is always better.

-Ivy herself wishes to partake in the blood of your demonic ancestors. Ideally she would like Gungor to help her father you some half siblings while she awaits ascension. Your father would rather another related demon do the deed, for your mother's sake, and Ivy agrees that such a mate would be acceptable.
-Ivy wishes the newborn Lanette to found her priesthood once she ascends. The child will likely need some demonic soul tweaking to further upgrade its divine casting ability to fit the bill, even after Peat's potion, but aside from that she has no strong preference to how the girl is raised between now and the Chieftess' ascension.
-In addition to ruling Redleaf as Duchess, Chieftess Ivy wants Joy to run her clan as High Shaman, and eventually Chieftess. She notes that Joy will likely have to forgo monogamy and produce many offspring of Orcish and Demonic ancestry to properly meet the duties of these offices, but that she is willing to make it up to Redding with two demigods; One born to Trance as soon as he pleases, and one born to Ivy as her first child post ascension.
-To make room for Joy to rule Clan Ivy, she would like Dean to consume the soul of High Shaman Crank. She suggests Crank will likely offer himself willingly, but as a Light-Eater Dean should be able to take him out if needed. If you would rather use Crank to your ends in the succession scuffle first, just make sure to hex his soul to end up somewhere that Dean can get at it should he die unexpectedly.
-She then wants Dean to take over House Bonedust from your uncle, and use his hand in marriage as leverage to perhaps win the loyalty of another powerful human family.
-Noting that some Grey Orc clans practiced the institution of marriage, Chieftess Ivy asks if you would consider taking the demon Nuxhidieon, who would reclaim his mortal name of Midieon, as your husband. Being publicly tied to one of dark magic's brightest minds will lend instant credibility to all your supernatural dealings. Nuxhidieon's next project is helping you reach some sort of immortal state so that you may run the demonic organization of Clan Ivy for all time, and this will go quicker if he is living under your roof and has unlimited access to your body and soul.
-You are also informed that Clan Ivy's agents are aware of your relationship with Axebeach. She suggests that you retire there after winning back the Duchy, so that you may live under Goblin law and take multiple spouses. In an ideal world, Ivy states that you will also be married to Rash or one of her likely heirs, so that you may also control the Agents and Confessors.
-As an alternative or in addition to all the other suggestions regarding both you and the Chieftess, the pair of you could pick a single mate to share over the course of the upcoming festival, drink fertility potions to ensure that you each fall pregnant, and claim sisterhood through your respective offspring, who would be siblings to one another themselves.
-Chieftess Ivy would gladly find a suitable Orc or Demon for Fortune once she is old enough to reproduce, but states she would rather not commit to doing so until she understands the whole Tetha situation.

After hearing everybody out, Yaugur speaks up and makes a demand of you. Reminding you that House Bonedust was founded out of loyalty to the Emmit Dynasty, he states that he cannot support Clan Ivy's plans unless the blood of the current royal family runs through his heirs. The easiest way to do this, he admits in a rather sad fashion, might be to force Rubricon to give Chasity several legitimate children before executing him, and marrying one of those children to his or her cousin born of Joy. Otherwise, you could get rid of Redding and hope to get an Emmit to defect and marry Joy, or hope to get lucky, and capture a royal young enough to eventually pair off with Joy's children.

2334th Year of Man, 5th Month, 19th Day:

Friday

The festival starts tonight at Sundown. You and the Chieftess had negotiated deep into the night, and both consequently slept in as a result. Your dress for the evening is of the sort that takes several hours to properly put on, so in short, you do not have much free time today.

Mortal dignitaries are pouring into the nearby inns, many of whom you know or have political connections to. You likely have time to make a visit or two and catch up or talk politics with one or two of the following people before the party:

-Chieftain Scarab runs a Sacred Clan that is pledged to Greent and Chasity, and that also happens to be one of Axebeach's major trade partners
-Dark Lord Haggen is represented by Faerix Bloodwalls, his wife and your old friend
-Axebeach is represented by Chieftain Sperm Whale and Underboss Roundup
-Clan Shark is represented by its Chieftain
-Dictator Garlelux of the Fiend's Eyes, a known enemy of Axebeach, is in attendance
-Oldur Brax, the Court Mage of Count Horace Marlowe is here
-For some reason, Lady Natalie Pence, Mayor of your husband's work in progress naval city of Penceport in Southjungle County, is at the party
-Clan Spear is represented by Elder Fox, believed to be the half-breed bastard of Phineas Kinkaid
-Clan Ape is represented by several master mages, including Coal, their head brewer and Peat's half brother
-Ralph Kinkaid, Charlie and Phineas' nephew, is here representing his family

As for the party itself, you have a choice to make. You will attend the opening speech, that is a given, but after that you must either choose to stay at the festival, and mingle with mortals of all races and upbringings, including the dignitaries above, or leave for the Chieftesses' private party on the other side of the gate, where you will be rubbing elbows with various demons, angels, and gods.

Word from the Knifehouse arrives as you are getting ready for the day. Redding reports that Trevor has been disposed as planned, but that the bad news you have been expecting about Virgil's family has also arrived.

Wednesday informs you that there is nothing substantial to report on either Redding or Greent.

Syzzik sends you three letters of introduction to get you in with several movers and shakers from Titan Rock whom he expects to show up at the festival.

The first letter introduces you to Kray-Kay Masthead, the eldest daughter of the owner of Lagoona's Piracy Guild. Syzzik notes that Lagoona is the only Titan Rock city state actively hostile towards the kingdom, and as such they may be friends to your cause. Kray-Kay is currently running pirate raids against some of the Goblin shipping lanes just south of the Gulf, which Syzzik suspects are actually official privateer missions sponsored by the Lagoona Government. Kray-Kay has access to advanced warships that are superior to anything in the Kingdom's fleet, save for captured Lagoona vessels of their own.

Inara Vice is a very skilled dark mage who was born to the ruling family of the City State of Toombs. She fled to orc lands to escape an arranged marriage, and makes a living performing dark magic for Clan Python and its allies. Your relationship with Clan Python is likely complicated; They are closely tied to the Cartel (they help Syzzik Smuggle and house Peat's goons), but they are also at war with your friends in Clan Gruel over copper. Syzzik notes that in addition to her Dark Magic, Inara is a practicing Titanic Priestess of Bog'Mortha. Divine Casters of the Titans are almost unheard of in the kingdom. You have never seen one in person.

Chieftain Ash was once a master glass-smith from the titanic city of Ashblast, but was exiled for teaching the cities' exclusive techniques to a non-native student, and since then has set up a small Orcish Clan. Using the Divine Casters of the jungle orcs as a power source, Ash can create high quality gear with little more than sand and a furnace. His clan puts Trance at the top of the Pantheon, and as such he is loosely aligned with Clan Ivy, whom he is trying to goad into joining the copper wars to win him better materials to work with.

Syzzik strongly encourages you to purchase Lagoona built ships, and to look for ways to end the Copper Wars quickly.

Considering Syzzik's offer, you then summon Chieftain Foot to help you out with your Orcish social activities, and mentally prepare for the day's business...

[escaped lurker]

I doubt we have seen Farquads kids yet, so it should be our first grand-child which we actually see, isn't she?
Be sure to find some time to spend with Joy and Lanette
Because we want to. Simple as that.

Okay Talcutta's Privateer Fleet
Peachy, that. Dean gets his ascension spot, and since great-gramps will be in our soon-to-be-immortal hands, Tiv' won't have to worry about his employer either. I'd say, give him the go-ahead. Accepting the deal, clears away several of our problems - Denying it, not only will have those coming back, but also several demons pissed at us, over an amount of souls which is - in the long run - not all that much.


Chieftess Ivy's Demands

Ivy herself wishes to partake in the blood of your demonic ancestors
How about we let Talcutta foot that bill? He kinda owes us, I guess - and if not, we just owe him a bit of back-up for his fleet. A good deal for both of us, unless he himself is all against it, for personal reasons.
Having another link between axebeach and clan ivy, while not necessary, isn't bad for business either.

Ivy wishes the newborn Lanette to found her priesthood
Setting our half-breed-bastard grand-daughter up with a ~high priest position, in an organization that atleast we have a pull in? That sounds good. We'd be hard-pressed to give that child a "better chance at life", than that. In the mean-time, the child will recieve care in her family, be it at her mothers, or her grandmothers side.
While this requires the input of Joy, I get the feeling that the girl will be all for this, given her loyalty to trance and stuff.

Marry Nuxhidieon / Midieon?
Having this legendary dark mage turned demon as our political husband, would have way too many boons to pass up lightly. It is also one of the less "offensive" options.

Chieftess Joy?
Truthfully, even if we would consider this, we would need to have a talk with her. I'd wager we feel more than a bit squeamish about the thing with her bearing many offspring. On the off-side, with her loyalty to trance, we already know with ~80% certainty, that she will jump at that. I guess, she would even welcome such a grand role in the service of her deity, even thrive in it. Still, I am very unsure about this one.

Yaugurs Demand
What he says, goes. Btw, does great-great-gramps know of Fortunes fate yet? Albeit we would need to ask our daughter, if her fate might possibly include a heir. Either way, we actually might fancy her having children of her own, once she reaches adulthood.

[Tomcost]

Link to the spreadsheet

Information Hub


Oh, it seems that most of our problems are solving themselves!

Talcutta:

We have two conditions to impose to let him do what he has done:
1) We are buying him ourselves, and he must return those souls to Axebeach.
2) He has to let Tiv help him do adecuate purchases.

We will sit on this until after we know the soul prices in Axebeach, but I think that, otherwise, I like his idea. He will be working for us, so that is fine. The fact that we are returning some of the souls and taking responsibility would be seen with good eyes, and we can use the privateer fleet as an excuse to reduce the budget of the Sea bosses, and they already took a huge cut out of it.

We should also consider not allowing more secret votes in the whole joint account thing.

Lanette

Who's a cute flesh-eating infant? Yes, you are, yes you are!

I think that this is perfect. Joy can just come back saying that she miscarried. We could either let Lanette be raised by the Ivy's, or raise her in our household. I'd rather raise her in our own family that in Clan Ivy, just in case.

Alliance

So, about what we have here, we can do almost everything:
-Undead: we have Tiv and Father working on this.
-Demons: this one we lack. We need to contact the Drow or Toombs.
-Mining: either winning the copper wars, or maybe controlling one of those independent dwarven cities.
-Artifacts: done by winnning the help of Chieftain Ash, which can be achieved by winning the copper wars and offering him some of it.
-Soul banking: unless we want to externalize this on Ovinsail, we have to work on this. Or make Ovinsail switch sides.
-Slaves: we can set up that with Julslove, he has the experience.
-Covert operations: Pog and Yaas. Yaas already wants to not work for Pog, and Pog would be left too vulnerable to not accept.

Kinship

I like most of the options, save those who involve Joy, currently. So, let's see:

-Yaugur can make babies with Ivy, I guess. I don't want to involve Talcutta in this.
-Lanette could work more in an alliance with the goblins that in being a shaman.
-Joy should stay with Redding. The pair are in love, I don't want to spoil that. Or, maybe, Joy could feign her death and go lead Clan Ivy.
-Dean consuming shaman Crank is awesome. Unfortunately, this will only happen if Joy gets to be shaman, and we don't want to.
-Dean leading House Bonedust is what we wanted him to do. Uncle can retire via ascension.
-Marrying the scientist demon is awesome, specifically if it doens't involve reproduction at all. Syzzik would be fine with it, and being immortal is awesome. The credibility things is also perfect.
-Retiring to Axebeach was actually part of my plans. Marrying with Rash, not so much.
-Sharing mates and geting pregnant is a no. I don't want children.
-Fortune should rather be the one to marry with a royal, not birthing demons. It is not something one can tell to your children.

As for Yaugur's demand, yeah, the idea was to get Fortune to marry with Denzel, sit on this, and let them have children. But I guess that Dean could marry someone from the Royal house. Or maybe Chastity should get herself a royal husband. But I agree to his demand.

Long-term political plan: We take back the Duchy, leave Redding and Joy there, and we retire to Axebeach in exile. We renounce to our family (just in the speech, we still support them) so that Dean gets the Bonedust surname, he rules the magic affairs of the family, and work on all these demonic affairs.

Friday:

We meet with:
Inara Vice, Dark mage from the city of Toombs. We may want to get her into our organization, or at least get the hexes of some demons from Toombs, as we need new business partners and contacts. Problem is that we will likely have to get rid of clan Python.
Chieftain Ash, artifact crafter. We could have him lead the artifact-making branch of our organization.

After that, we go to the supernatural party. It may help us with the whole Tetha thing, and contacting Meniaop so that he doens't kill Yaas.


Ninjae'd by lurker, I will reply to his ideas later.

First EDIT:

Solution to the copper wars: We convince Clan Ivy to support Clan Gruel and we also send troops from Axebeach to win our way into the copper supply by force. We also offer Chieftain Ash a cut by working with those materials.

[VoidSlayer]

Link to the spreadsheet

Information Hub


Oh, it seems that most of our problems are solving themselves!

Talcutta:

We have two conditions to impose to let him do what he has done:
1) We are buying him ourselves, and he must return those souls to Axebeach.
2) He has to let Tiv help him do adecuate purchases.

We will sit on this until after we know the soul prices in Axebeach, but I think that, otherwise, I like his idea. He will be working for us, so that is fine. The fact that we are returning some of the souls and taking responsibility would be seen with good eyes, and we can use the privateer fleet as an excuse to reduce the budget of the Sea bosses, and they already took a huge cut out of it.

We should also consider not allowing more secret votes in the whole joint account thing.

I have a different opinion.  Keep the souls with the fleet under-bosses, then ask them to transfer the funds they were going to use to buy Talcutta directly to us.  It is likely more then 1500 souls for a powerful demon like Talcutta so we buy his contract for Axebeach through us (the contract belongs to us and Bonedust though).  Then we pocket the difference.

DO NOT PUT THE MONEY BACK IN THE GENERAL FUND. If we do we need more votes to use it.  Better to just have them transfer it to us on the side.

Also Talcutta should totally sire the demon offspring with Ivy, As this can be done right now.  Yaugur will not support the plan until after we have secured kinship with the ruling family. 

I am afraid we do not have time top spend with Joy right now, after the festival maybe but we need to move and shake right now.

For those alliance things, getting kinship is good but making ourselves useful is better.  We can do a few of them now and promise several others for later.

- If those drow are still available we could see about purchasing a large number of them to start a surface drow colony to work as demon and undead cleaners.  Remember Tiv's operation is considered small.  I am guessing Trance wants a vast army of the undead.

- We were going to set up an enchantment workshop anyway, if we use non-soul methods like lighting and water wheels we could turn the city into a new center for alchemy and artifact making given some time.  Sure it is under kingdom control now, but if the city flips after we make the kingdom dependent on services all the better.

- Marrying the scientist demon will have to come after our current situation when we take control of Axebeach directly.

- The big problem with Joy leading the orcs is that she is openly showing she practices an orcish religion, she may not be suitable for Dutchess if she is openly practicing something outlawed.  I would like her to lead clan Ivy as high Shaman into battle, but we may lose Redding's support at both the need for multiple marriages and possible loss of the dutchy title.  If she can lead the orcs while staying monogamous with Redding I have no problem, the kingdom effectively gaining (temporary in name only) control over one of the mighty orcish clans might be enough for them to ignore Joy's preaching.

How best to use and flaunt our powers, some ideas:

- Demonic assassins
- Army of zombies
- Instead elite unit of powerful undead
- Curse all our enemies with nightmares or something
- Support the Were-Lemurs, maybe ask the demon who INVENTED were monsters how we might make them stronger
- Vampire infiltrators - get one vampire in an enemy army and they might be able to quickly make hundreds in secret, then they can suddenly go on a rampage in the middle of the night, killing thousands of enemy soldiers.  Bonus if we use a lust demon and vampire courtesans.
- Tell the dark magic community that all restrictions placed before on their activities are off in occupied lands
- Round up the inquisitors in that main fortress and feed them to demons
- Arrange an ambush on one of the human gods by the orcish pantheon

[Tomcost]

Talcutta:

I have a different opinion.  Keep the souls with the fleet under-bosses, then ask them to transfer the funds they were going to use to buy Talcutta directly to us.  It is likely more then 1500 souls for a powerful demon like Talcutta so we buy his contract for Axebeach through us (the contract belongs to us and Bonedust though).  Then we pocket the difference.

DO NOT PUT THE MONEY BACK IN THE GENERAL FUND. If we do we need more votes to use it.  Better to just have them transfer it to us on the side.

Let me see if I got this straight:
1) Talcutta gives the souls back to the underbosses.
2) The underbosses give those souls to us somehow. Maybe to our account with Ovinsail? This means that they charge us that 20% in soul delivery.
3) We use those souls to buy Talcutta for those 1500 souls (because that is the price that Tiv set for him). Unless that we pretend that our Great-granfather was more expensive than that and we just steal the difference for ourselves. Well, that's despicable corruption, more than I'm able to support. It is our town, we are stealing from ourselves, you know. Also, 20% in soul delivery goes to Ovinsail. Again.
4) We pay the difference for the WHOLE FLEET? That's not pocket change. The fleet is probably way more expensive than Talcutta. We end up losing here.

I definitely do not support this plan

By the way, the souls were already transfered to Talcutta, he just didn't spend them yet.

Also Talcutta should totally sire the demon offspring with Ivy, As this can be done right now.  Yaugur will not support the plan until after we have secured kinship with the ruling family. 

A valid point. I'm not against it.

I am afraid we do not have time top spend with Joy right now, after the festival maybe but we need to move and shake right now.

Totally true.

- If those drow are still available we could see about purchasing a large number of them to start a surface drow colony to work as demon and undead cleaners.  Remember Tiv's operation is considered small.  I am guessing Trance wants a vast army of the undead.

Problem with that: Drow don't instantly are born with the ability to clean souls. In fact, we would be buying servants. Considering the amount of time Mable has been learning to clean souls, and she doens't have a grasp on it, it will take time. And to be fair creating a city out of nowhere is no easy task. I'm in favor of doing this some time (not the surface city for the pale elves, but having them somewhere), but we really have to plan this. We can't just say "buy 800 elves and get them to do soul cleaning". These things deserve more thought.

Tiv's operation may be small, that doesn't mean that we can't make it grow. I would use those drow to eventually do some cleaning for him.

- We were going to set up an enchantment workshop anyway, if we use non-soul methods like lighting and water wheels we could turn the city into a new center for alchemy and artifact making given some time.  Sure it is under kingdom control now, but if the city flips after we make the kingdom dependent on services all the better.

It is highly illegal to enchant without a High Mason in the Kingdom, which means that they won't depend on it. Consider too that they don't need enchanting, so dependency is something that won't ever happen.

Our best bet is with Chieftain Ash, I think. He makes atifacts out of sand. That's easy to set up, and we can upgrade it later with access to proper materials.

- Marrying the scientist demon will have to come after our current situation when we take control of Axebeach directly.

Of course

- The big problem with Joy leading the orcs is that she is openly showing she practices an orcish religion, she may not be suitable for Dutchess if she is openly practicing something outlawed.  I would like her to lead clan Ivy as high Shaman into battle, but we may lose Redding's support at both the need for multiple marriages and possible loss of the dutchy title.  If she can lead the orcs while staying monogamous with Redding I have no problem, the kingdom effectively gaining (temporary in name only) control over one of the mighty orcish clans might be enough for them to ignore Joy's preaching.

Yeah... we have a problem here. The illegal Orcish preaching may want us to consider getting her out of the kingdom entirely and making her assume total control of clan Ivy.

We need something to compensate Redding with. Maybe the full control of the Duchy? By this point I don't even think that we care much about the Duchy.

How best to use and flaunt our powers, some ideas:

- Demonic assassins
- Army of zombies
- Instead elite unit of powerful undead
- Curse all our enemies with nightmares or something
- Support the Were-Lemurs, maybe ask the demon who INVENTED were monsters how we might make them stronger
- Vampire infiltrators - get one vampire in an enemy army and they might be able to quickly make hundreds in secret, then they can suddenly go on a rampage in the middle of the night, killing thousands of enemy soldiers.  Bonus if we use a lust demon and vampire courtesans.
- Tell the dark magic community that all restrictions placed before on their activities are off in occupied lands
- Round up the inquisitors in that main fortress and feed them to demons
- Arrange an ambush on one of the human gods by the orcish pantheon

The were-lemurs is a no, I don't like power-hungry orc shamans who killed their own chieftain. Also, werebeasts are not a reliable army or anything. They stay like that about 3 days a month.
The vampire idea is dangerous in the long term. Remember what happens to vampires who are not magic users. The infection would spread out of control. We won't be able to just set the button to "off" once we set that in motion. Too dangerous.
Umm, we have no real authority in the dark magic community yet. And to be fair, a few isolated dark mages would be quickly killed by the Inquisition.
Getting in trouble with the Inquisition is always a terrible idea.
And the ambush on one of the human gods is not something we can do: first, because the orc pantheon is not a pantheon. They are all independent and often at war ith each other. And two, because any small force we would be able to get would be quickly overwhelmed by the Four. We will have to wait a lot until we can do this.

As for the other ideas, I have no problem with that. But I guess that it may not be necessary, if we can get to Denzel through Tetha.

[VoidSlayer]

Oh.. sorry did not see he had already been sent the souls.