Feudal Quest

[X] Take it
-[X] But give a bonus to those that help kill the witch's minions/etc.

[X] Have Kat identify and dispose of anything dangerous. Keep the rest.
-[X] But get the Chosen/Dita look at them too, as they have their own expertise when it comes to seeing tainted things.

The House
[X] Burn it, and have Kat and Dita purify the site.

[X] Take a few days rest

 

@.ShaperV

On the money issue would it be enough to build a Fort with a basic keep/barracks?

It would benefit the village and us in the long run

@ Kat once she awakens; is she well enough to go on?

 

There are a lot of stories about that kind of thing, but Dominic doesn't have any personal knowledge about what the truth is.

Emma shrugs and says she usually burns places like this 'just to be sure', and then goes on to tell you about the one time she didn't and it turned out the witch was breeding demonic insects in the attic and they got out a few days later and started killing people, so she had to come back to finish the job and got a bunch of bee stings in embarrassing places...

Inga nods. "Purify it. A lot."

Assuming you ask Kat the next morning, when the imp's bite has worn off:
She frowns. "It's hard to be sure. It depends on what she's been casting here and for how long. But the earth under the house is corrupted, and repeated demon summoning makes it easier for fell things to creep into our world through the same spot. It certainly isn't safe right now. I'd say maybe one chance in three that the taint fades away in a few months?"

No, Atalaya wasn't that rich. It's only about 200 SP.

She can travel, but she won't be fit to fight for a couple of days. At the moment she's a bit weak from blood loss, she's expended most of her magic and she's pretty loopy (and pleasantly flirty) from whatever was in that imp's bite until sunrise, when it abruptly stops affecting her.

 

Yeah, might as well burn it down then.

 

[X] Take it
-[X] But give a bonus to those that help kill the witch's minions/etc.

[X] Have Kat identify and dispose of anything dangerous. Keep the rest.
-[X] But get the Chosen/Dita look at them too, as they have their own expertise when it comes to seeing tainted things.

The House
[X] Burn it, and have Kat and Dita purify the site.

[X] Take a few days rest

 

Are the Chosen willing to stay a few extra days? From the choices it implied that they aren't?

 

[X] Take it
-[X] But give a bonus to those that help kill the witch's minions/etc.

[X] Have Kat identify and dispose of anything dangerous. Keep the rest.
-[X] But get the Chosen/Dita look at them too, as they have their own expertise when it comes to seeing tainted things.

The House
[X] Burn it, and have Kat and Dita purify the site.

[X] Take a few days rest

-[X] invite Ezti to join our party when we go to the next round of house cleaning
-[X] study the finger healing if we're allowed to


[X] Have Dita double check the villagers and see if she can purify any lingering spells.

 

[X] Take it
-[X] But give a bonus to those that help kill the witch's minions/etc.

[X] Have Kat identify and dispose of anything dangerous. Keep the rest.
-[X] But get the Chosen/Dita look at them too, as they have their own expertise when it comes to seeing tainted things.

The House
[X] Burn it, and have Kat and Dita purify the site.

[X] Take a few days rest

 

Interesting update.

I now very much regret not attempting to use Atalaya's witchery to assassinate Baron Rogatica while she was still alive; given her displayed prowess when caught largely off guard and facing multiple magical powerhouses with powers extremely well suited to bringing her and her minions down, I suspect she could have brought him down even with all his well-armed and trained guards. Alas for opportunities lost, but at least we didn't actually lose anything but an opportunity.

Katiana appears to have even more actions than previously accounted for. Next month I move to assign her four action slots worth of activities, just to be sure. The way that she's all vitriol and curses and then abruptly transitions to a professional mask when we show up is likely representative of her demeanor in general; the Katiana we see is not the same as the one that everyone else sees. We need to keep an eye on that; between the initially hidden action slots, the skills she didn't originally mention, the fact that she still hasn't given us a proper list of her magical capabilities, and suspicion of manipulating our cousin and lovers, it's clear that our resident wizardess believes firmly in keeping aces sleeved, and as she has not extended her full trust to us she shouldn't receive ours either.

The battle was an interesting display of magic and magical creatures in combat. The imps and zombies were both reasonably effective, enough that I wonder if we could get magical forces to augment our own. Katiana could probably make us some golems/elementals with some of those action slots she's been hiding.

Dita is super-enthusiastic. I wonder if she's realized yet that going to India alone when she's a demon magnet is suicidally stupid, and she'll have to make her expedition there with a posse of Chosen to back her up or not at all. Based on the effectiveness of the Chosen in this battle, though- very glad we didn't have to fight that demon- if she brings any significant number of them she might well manage to succeed.

We should be keeping the money. Distributing it to the village, even partially, isn't appropriate; who it should go to is far from clear and as the village's lord, we're responsible for its welfare anyway. By doing our job as the village's overlord properly, keeping the money is effectively identical to funding public services for them, which is a reasonable and just use of the funds in this sort of situation. The fact that our personal funds are identical to the public treasury makes keeping all the money appear greedy or corrupt, but it's really not unless we personally are greedy or corrupt.

This subvote isn't the right move, at least as I think it was intended.

Giving cash rewards for good service is a great idea... in a capitalist society. We are not running on a capitalist economy here. We are not a CEO, and the people fighting for us are not our employees. This is not a corporation and we do not give cash bonuses for good work. We are a noble. Money comes to us, not to other people. When we give rewards, they should be practical things and preferably ones which bind others closer to us, not raw cash.

Take the Inovians- we gave them armor. We gave them weapons. We gave them shelter and food and respect. Dita, we are sheltering and giving political protection and training and basically showering her with gifts already. Katiana, ditto. The girl is filthy rich already, apparently, and we're sheltering her and giving her a respected position and letting her do all kinds of stuff.

Besides that, I don't think anyone performed vastly above and beyond expectations in that battle. Sure, the Chosen killed a demon; that's what they do professionally. Dita countered dark magic; her powers are built for countering dark magic. Katiana worked a little magic and then got naked and kissed us; as expected from Katiana. None of our nameless mooks distinguished themselves enough to be even mentioned as in combat in the update, so obviously they didn't do much of significance either. Heck, we beheaded the witch personally and even that is about what one might have expected from one of our abilities.

This is not to say that it's a bad idea to reward people for good work- positive reinforcement is a great thing, after all! But our people fight for us because of relative social position, personal loyalties, or in the Inovians' case, convenience to their divine mission. Any reward that we give should be framed in light of that- not just right now, but as a matter of general policy. Give them praise both in private and public, give them respect, talk up their abilities to others, or hand out rewards which bind them to work for us more closely in the future.

As a flesh sorcerer, the opportunity to see functioning limb regeneration powers in action is utterly priceless. We absolutely should take a few days off so that we can observe that happening and if at all possible learn how to copy the effect. Even if we can't manage to fully copy it- it's likely quite advanced compared to what we can do- I'd be willing to bet that we could still get a lot of information and inspiration for our healing abilities there.

We can also accomplish some of our other actions for the month during our "rest" period, so it's not like there's a serious loss of time. But studying this is top priority.

 

Great points all around, but this is especially true: we have the opportunity of seeing in action some very potent regeneration, and studying it is a must.

The House
[X] Burn it, and have Kat and Dita purify the site.

Items
[X] Have Kat identify and dispose of anything dangerous. Keep the rest.
-[X] But get the Chosen/Dita look at them too, as they have their own expertise when it comes to seeing tainted things.

[X]DarkLight140

 

DarkLight140 stole what I was going to say, wrote it up nicely and added a bunch of things I didn't think of, so you can consider me DarkLight141.

 

No, they're fine with staying a few days. They're not actually sure how long a beak they're allowed to take, but a short period like that should be fine.

 

Re: Resources and Status

So, i was thinking about the whole 'get Ezti involved with the haunts', and it seems the easiest way is just to get her for the second haunt, so that we both aren't taking too much of her time, aren't totally new to this when she comes with us, and also can easily send her a letter for her to meet us somewhere practical without losing time waiting.

So i suggest that this one be the second haunt we do, the first being 'the three bells tower':

Sure, the 'three bells tower' seems a bit more 'physical' what with being ghosts of ancient sentry- and as such could be argued to be the better choice for our martial minded ally- but it's also to the north of Corzu and as such much farther for Ezti to go to. If we simply send a letter to her now, we will probably be able to meet her at the empty village on an appointed day without either of use having to lost time.

 

[X] Split the money. Half to the town, to help it recover from Atalaya's evil, half to keep.

[X] Have Kat identify and dispose of anything dangerous. Keep the rest.
-[X] But get the Chosen/Dita look at them too, as they have their own expertise when it comes to seeing tainted things.

[X] Burn it, and have Kat and Dita purify the site.

[X] Take a few days to rest first
-[X] invite Ezti to join our party when we go to the next round of house cleaning
-[X] study the finger healing if we're allowed to

 

[X] Split the money. Half to the town, to help it recover from Atalaya's evil, half to keep.

[X] Have Kat identify and dispose of anything dangerous. Keep the rest.
-[X] But get the Chosen/Dita look at them too, as they have their own expertise when it comes to seeing tainted things.

[X] Burn it, and have Kat and Dita purify the site.

[X] Take a few days to rest first
-[X] invite Ezti to join our party when we go to the next round of house cleaning
-[X] study the finger healing if we're allowed to

 

The Cleansing of Corzu Pt 3

[X] Take it

[X] Have Kat identify and dispose of anything dangerous. Keep the rest.
-[X] But get the Chosen/Dita look at them too, as they have their own expertise when it comes to seeing tainted things.

The House
[X] Burn it, and have Kat and Dita purify the site.

[X] Take a few days rest
-[X] invite Ezti to join our party when we go to the next round of house cleaning
-[X] study the finger healing if we're allowed to


Dealing with the contents of the house takes the better part of a day, but the villagers seem relieved to see you taking care of it. You find some pretty disturbing stuff, like a collection of baby skulls and a whole collection of dangerously unstable magical poisons, but nothing you can’t dispose of with a little care.

On learning of Atalaya’s death the villagers promptly throw a party. Emma eagerly attends, gets drunk and generally makes a fool of herself. Given her manner you’re actually surprised she ends up sleeping alone that night, but you’re pretty sure she does. Meanwhile Inga simply vanishes, and doesn’t show up again until the next morning.

You’re tempted to write Ezti and try to get her to come out for the haunt clearing, but on reflection you realize that isn’t going to work out. The timing is so close that it would be a real imposition on her, and finding you surrounded by pretty pagan girls wouldn’t really be the message you want to send. Not to mention there would probably be friction between her and the Chosen. Better to make excuses later, and see how she reacts to your stories about the adventure before you actually introduce her to a bunch if disreputable monster hunters.

Emma has no objection to your studying her regeneration, once you reassure her that this won’t involve a lab full of diabolical torture devices. This is actually interesting in several respects, since you’ve also never scanned a divinely empowered person before. Emma’s body is suffused with magical energy that bolsters all of its natural functions in addition to giving her magical powers, and observing the effect gives you a lot of ideas for more physical enhancements. Studying the regeneration also gives you new insights into healing, and probably saves you several months of research time in that area.

You also discover that the Chosen have a major vulnerability, something Emma probably doesn’t realize or she wouldn’t have consented so readily to be studied. They have a strong natural warding effect that protects them against hostile magic, but it only resists magic from sources they considers hostile. But once past this barrier the configuration of magic that gives them their powers is surprisingly fragile, and very easily disrupted. You have to be very careful not to cause interference while scanning her, and if you wanted to you could seriously weaken her just by pushing some of your personal magic into her.

Hmm. You’d better:
[ ] Warn her to be careful about who she trusts to use magic on her.
[ ] Keep this quiet for now. You don’t expect to ever have a problem with the Chosen, but it’s good to have an ace up your sleeve.
[ ] Find an excuse to do more research on her. As malleable as her powers seem to be, you might find some interesting possibilities.

After a couple of days of rest Emma’s finger has grown back, and the rest of you have recovered from your various injuries enough that they don’t cause any penalties. So you head up to Three Bells Tower.

Which turns out to be surprisingly easy, even though you have to approach at night when the haunt’s heart will be manifested. It turns out that Dita’s light functions as a damage aura against the ghosts, Emma and Inga can easily one-shot the few ghosts that enter the light, and Kat’s wards make you all proof against the death curse carried by the tolling of the bell. It takes less than an hour for the girls to identify the keystone in the tower’s foundation that serves as the heart of the haunt, and then Kat shatters it with a touch. You barely even need to draw your sword.

Apparently a priestess, a wizard and two Chosen is overkill for dealing with ordinary run-of-the-mill haunts. After realizing this you decide:

[ ] You’ll keep the Chosen here and finish off the other haunt as efficiently as possible. No need to waste time on haunts when you have a million other things to do.
[ ] You’ll send the Chosen on their way and deal with Dark Moon Well yourself to maximize XP gains.
[ ] You’ll finish off Dark Moon Well with the help of the Chosen, and then take a shot at the Black Beast of the Wood. How bad could it be?

Meanwhile, Dita wants to talk to you about extending a standing offer of shelter and resupply to the Chosen. The way they go through equipment this might cost you 50 - 100 SP per year, but it means they’d pop up again on a semi-regular basis. While this is partly just because she feels sympathetic to them, she also makes a pretty good case for the benefits of having a long-term association with the Chosen.

You decide:
[ ] Yes, that sounds like a good idea.
[ ] No, you don’t want to risk negative attention from the Church.
[ ] Write In

 

[X] Warn her to be careful about who she trusts to use magic on her.
[X] You’ll finish off Dark Moon Well with the help of the Chosen, and then take a shot at the Black Beast of the Wood. How bad could it be?
[X] Yes, that sounds like a good idea.
-[X] Make sure they send you a letter so that you could prepare for their arrival.

 

[X] Warn her to be careful about who she trusts to use magic on her.
[X] You’ll finish off Dark Moon Well with the help of the Chosen, and then take a shot at the Black Beast of the Wood. How bad could it be?
[X] Yes, that sounds like a good idea.

We could the knowledge to ourselves but I wouldn't be surprised if Inga already knows, and I don't consider the scenario of hostility likely enough to risk the blowback of keeping it secret. As for the support, might as well foster good relations with these folks considering they seem to be some of the ultimate badasses of the setting with the money being a relatively small imposition and us already putting ourselves out there with having a wizard on staff and with us using our magic semi openly I don't consider the attention costs to much higher than they'd already be.

As for the black beast option, I'd say if we're not up to it now, with these two on our side, then we likely won't be up to it for years to come, so hell with it, let's do this thing.

Oh yeah, a quick question about demons, the one killed was mentioned to be a 3rd circle, of the ones that manifest on earth (or can they all do that?) how high up the totem pole power wise is that?

 

Re: The Cleansing of Corzu Pt 3

[X] Find an excuse to do more research on her. As malleable as her powers seem to be, you might find some interesting possibilities.
-[X]However, warn Dita about this weakness- as priestess, it's something she should be aware of.

Basically, while i like the idea of Dominic learning more about how magic works, i also want him to do the decent thing and not leave an enormous weakness like that be unknown: As Dita is pretty much the proper authority for this, she is the one who should know about it.

[X] You’ll send the Chosen on their way and deal with Dark Moon Well yourself to maximize XP gains.
-[X] Of course, If Dita can get them off the hook from Inovia for a bit, they can rest some before leaving.

Trying the beast of the black woods seems tempting, but when you think about it many people have tried over the years/decades/centuries, and if a pre-epic group can do this (though maybe Inga is Epic already) easily i doubt it would be such a problem. So, i'd prefer if Dominic, Dita, Kat and our troops improves quite a bit before we try our hand there.


You decide:
[X] Yes, that sounds like a good idea.

EDITED because the village plan won't work without putting a lot more thought into it.

 

[X] Find an excuse to do more research on her. As malleable as her powers seem to be, you might find some interesting possibilities.
-[X]However, warn Dita about this weakness- as priestess, it's something she should be aware of.
[X] You’ll send the Chosen on their way and deal with Dark Moon Well yourself to maximize XP gains.
-[X] Of course, If Dita can get them off the hook from Inovia for a bit, they can rest some before leaving.
[X] Yes, that sounds like a good idea.

 

You don't know the answer to that, but Kat does. According to her that's the highest level of demon that normally does things like contract with ordinary witches, and there are only a couple dozen of them active in the Western world. There are also a few 4th and 5th circle demons, but creatures that powerful generally have better things to do with their time than mentor witches. Demons of the 6th-9th circles are pretty much never seen on Earth, because there's no one who can summon them and if they did appear the gods would probably feel the need to take direct action.

This wouldn't really work unless you want to set up some people to live there again. The Chosen can find a hut to sleep in anywhere. What would benefit them is a place where they can get food, clothing and basic equipment replacements, all of which require people.

 

[X] Warn her to be careful about who she trusts to use magic on her.
[X] You’ll finish off Dark Moon Well with the help of the Chosen, and then take a shot at the Black Beast of the Wood. How bad could it be?
[X] Yes, that sounds like a good idea.

 

[X] Find an excuse to do more research on her. As malleable as her powers seem to be, you might find some interesting possibilities.
-[X]However, warn Dita about this weakness- as priestess, it's something she should be aware of.
[X] You’ll send the Chosen on their way and deal with Dark Moon Well yourself to maximize XP gains.
-[X] Of course, If Dita can get them off the hook from Inovia for a bit, they can rest some before leaving.
[X] Yes, that sounds like a good idea.
-> [X] If they choose to retire, they'd be welcome to settle in our lands

 

Damn, so that plan won't work without some real work and thought put into it, pity. Edited my post appropriately.

Question: How many days total have we spent on this project currently? 5 or so? How would it take to go to the Well, to blackwood and back to the fief without counting the whole fight bits?

 

Given that ShaperV already stated encounters aren't level appropriate and that the Black Beast of the Woods is an absolute monster who's killed any number of adventurers over the years.

Why not let us level up a fair bit before we tackle him in a couple of years

 

[X] Warn her to be careful about who she trusts to use magic on her.
[X] You’ll finish off Dark Moon Well with the help of the Chosen, and then take a shot at the Black Beast of the Wood. How bad could it be?
[X] You’ll keep the Chosen here and finish off the other haunt as efficiently as possible. No need to waste time on haunts when you have a million other things to do.
[X] Yes, that sounds like a good idea.

Edit: Good point with the trap, changing that vote.

 

While all of this is very true (this beast has existed for at least 50 years of constant adventurers trying to kill it!), It's also a trap.

The black wood is situated between Kiscun, Rogatica and Corzu. If we were to kill the beast (which we probably can't without heavy losses) we would suddenly get into conflict with Kiscun and Rogatica for who gets the now open territory- and we just don't have the military strength to say no to Rogatica.

This means we suddenly get a much larger border between ourself and Rogatica, instead of having a 'natural buffer' because of the beast. Likewsie, Kiscun would get a larger border from which to be invaded/etc.

Not good.

 

Hence my suggestion that we postpone tackling the Black Beast when we are both stronger personally, military and then ask Dita to bring a few Chosen in help us kill the damn thing.

In short once we have all our ducks in a row.

Call it a final test for Dita

 

Yes, you're currently on day 5. Travel time to the well is about 3/4 of a day, and from there to the wood about the same again.

Heh. I was wondering if anyone would notice that.

 

[X] Warn her to be careful about who she trusts to use magic on her.
[X] You’ll send the Chosen on their way and deal with Dark Moon Well yourself to maximize XP gains.
-[X] Of course, If Dita can get them off the hook from Inovia for a bit, they can rest some before leaving.
[X] Yes, that sounds like a good idea.

I wonder if that prorection thing is also true in Dita's case. If so, it'd explain why does exorcisms our grandfather kept demanding didn't do anything to her.