Feudal Quest

[ShaperV]

ShaperV, what do we know about various Goddesses? This might help us make a decision.

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The ones you can think of off the top of your head?

Bast - Egyptian goddess of cats and sex, or something weird like that. No worshipers outside of Egypt that you know of, unless you believe those stories about sentient cats.

Inovia - A strange elven goddess from another world. Randomly endows teenage girls with great powers to fight evil, and has strange ideas about what qualifies. Has a few cults in Europe, but her worshipers tend to be nuts.

Ishtar - Egyptian goddess of magic and sex. Sometimes worshiped by female magic users even in Europe. Technically an ally of the Church of Khersis, but 'scandalous foreign temptresses' sums up the Borjerian view of her followers.

Our flesh sorcery allows us to get a vague sense of a person's emotional state and physical condition by touching them. This might allow us to discover valuable information (though touching her might be dangerous if she is some kind of monster).

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She looks exhausted, and not just from walking in through a blizzard. She's much thinner than the last time you saw her, and very pale.

All of which might be an act, but if she's a monster (or just a witch) she might very well notice you using magic to probe her real condition.

What do we know about the monsters that look simmilar to humans? Are there any ways to reveal their true nature (no reflection in mirrors etc)?

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Vampires exist, and can easily pass for human at night. But they don't have reflections, and holy symbols repel them.

There are stories about demons and faerie creatures cloaking themselves in illusion to look like just about anyone, but you don't know how reliable those are. Touching iron will break faerie magic, but revealing a demon would take a priest or paladin with real faith.

Disguises are a common use of witchcraft. Normally it's a witch looking like a younger, prettier version of herself, but stealing someone else's appearance is possible. You don't know a reliable way to detect that kind of magic.

You've heard that great wizards can make magical duplicates of people, but you have no idea if that's true or how to detect it.

 

[Graig]

We are probably better of using flesh magic on her. It might reveal our sorcery (though that might actually be an advantage in some scenarios) but finding out if she is a monster would likely be much more important.

Can vampires enter buildings uninvited? Do we have a mirror nearby?

 

[dash931]

...There's a friggin god of Magical Girls? Jeese.

...Anyway, what I'm interested in is how the heck she got into the castle. Don't we have guards?

 

[Seventeen]

[X] Suspicion/Compassion
-- [X] "Dita? What are you doing here? What has happened?" Reach for her hand/arm and bring her inside, while using Flesh Sorcery to determine her emotions and physical status.

 

[95spartans]

[X] Investigate: Don't jump to conclusions, find out what the fuck is going on.

 

[Wing101]

[X] Investigate: Don't jump to conclusions, find out what the fuck is going on.

 

[Thomasfoolery]

[X] Suspicion - No doubt the girl is involved in another dark plot of some kind. Better figure out what her game is, and deal with it accordingly.

 

[fitzgerald]

[X] Investigate: Don't jump to conclusions, find out what the fuck is going on.
[X] "By what Goddess do you swear 'Dita?"

 

[Arkeus]

Inovia - A strange elven goddess from another world. Randomly endows teenage girls with great powers to fight evil, and has strange ideas about what qualifies. Has a few cults in Europe, but her worshipers tend to be nuts.

Ishtar - Egyptian goddess of magic and sex. Sometimes worshiped by female magic users even in Europe. Technically an ally of the Church of Khersis, but 'scandalous foreign temptresses' sums up the Borjerian view of her followers.

She looks exhausted, and not just from walking in through a blizzard. She's much thinner than the last time you saw her, and very pale.

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It seems likely, given her background, that it's either one of those. I could easily see her parents' death being either the product of the results of a monster attack in pure Mahou Shoujo fashion, or even that they fell afoul of politics in the Ishtar devotees.

I think i'll vote for Compassion myself. While we should be at least somewhat careful given her history she IS our family. Of course there is the question on why she went to us, given that there should be a lot more members of the family she could go to.

ShaperV, could we have a brief rundown of our brothers/cousins/uncles? so that we can hazard guesses as to why she chose us?

It might be geography, but there probably are other reasons.

 

[Graig]

Unless someone brought her here she do almost certainly need some sort of supernatural ability to have made it here in this weather. She might be a monster but she could also have been given powers from Inovia and if that is the case she could be a very valuable asset. I think that the investigate option is probably the best one but there is little reason not to try to appear as compassionate as possible while doing so. Also we want to find out if she is here alone. Just asking her might work.

[X] Investigate: Don't jump to conclusions, find out what the fuck is going on.
-[X] Exclaim "Dita? How did you get here?"
[X] Be as compassionate as possible while still being cautious as you investigate.

It seems likely, given her background, that it's either one of those. I could easily see her parents' death being either the product of the results of a monster attack in pure Mahou Shoujo fashion, or even that they fell afoul of politics in the Ishtar devotees.

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Another possibility is that what she is refering to is not actually a goddess at all. For example it could be the demon that her parents associated with.

 

[ShaperV]

Can vampires enter buildings uninvited? Do we have a mirror nearby?

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Vampires can't enter churches or other sanctified ground, but regular buildings are no problem for them.

No, you do't have a mirror handy. Good mirrors are rare and expensive, so you'd have to go out of your way to acquire one.

...There's a friggin god of Magical Girls? Jeese.

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Heh. They tend to have mostly physical enhancement rather than magical spells, so more like the Slayers in BtVS.

...Anyway, what I'm interested in is how the heck she got into the castle. Don't we have guards?

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Yes, you do. Of course it's dark and currently snowing, so you can see how someone with the ability to scale vertical walls and see in the dark might have snuck in the window of your 3rd floor office. How she knew which window to come in would be another interesting question.

ShaperV, could we have a brief rundown of our brothers/cousins/uncles? so that we can hazard guesses as to why she chose us?

It might be geography, but there probably are other reasons.

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Geography seems plausible - Pischia would be a plausible place for the family to keep her out of the public eye.

Most of your surviving family has already mentioned. Your grandfather is the only remaining member of his generation. His living children are your father, Pavel and Gavrilla. You have your older brother Boris and a younger sister. Pavel has two teenage daughters, while Gavrilla is childless and has never married (you think she's barren or something). That's everyone.

Unless someone brought her here she do almost certainly need some sort of supernatural ability to have made it here in this weather.

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Pretty much, yes. The same goes for getting into your study like that without being seen.

Another possibility is that what she is refering to is not actually a goddess at all. For example it could be the demon that her parents associated with.

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That is all too possible.

-----

FYI I'll be continuing this later today. I don't want to bog the quest down with a lot of tiny updates, so I'm not going to stop for another vote after every revelation. Instead I'll take the general reaction you pick and carry forward with it until either there's another major decision point, or Dominic learns all he's going to today.

 

[Graig]

No, you do't have a mirror handy. Good mirrors are rare and expensive, so you'd have to go out of your way to acquire one.

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Would it be possible to discreetly check for reflections with our sword or some other convenient nearby polished surface?

Edit: I might be reading to much into this but she was described as having a fantastically rare hair color. Did she always have such hair? This might be relevant if she is using some magic that causes others to recognice her as someone we know without changing her appearance or if she has undergone some sort of transformation that changes her hair color. Do we know of some supernatural event that has such effects?

 

[Arkeus]

Heh. They tend to have mostly physical enhancement rather than magical spells, so more like the Slayers in BtVS.

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The most obvious is that one then, given the current title for her image (meta-ness ahoy :-( ). Could be something a bit wonkier, but i'll try to be positive.

It does make some kind of sense with her backstory that she would be 'Chosen' that way.

Anyway, as said previously i support helping her out, she is family after all. It doesn't mean, of course, that Dominic shouldn't be careful at all.

Given our family, it seems we are the only male beside our older brother in our generation, and our older brother, being the Heir, is probably next to impossible to get to (and wouldn't risk talking to her). Makes even more sense that she would contact us if she is in some dodgy kind of trouble.

 

[Graig]

given the current title for her image

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Was an image of her posted? I can't find it.

 

[Arkeus]

Was an image of her posted? I can't find it.

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In the first page, there is a link to ShaperV's photobucket with the map plans/etc. Browse it.

 

[ShaperV]

A Wild Dita Appears, Pt II

Dominant Reactions:
[X] Investigate - Don't jump to conclusions, find out what the fuck is going on. (7)
[X] Suspicion - No doubt the girl is involved in another dark plot of some kind. Better figure out what her game is, and deal with it accordingly. (2)

"Dita?" You exclaim incredulously. "What are you doing here? Khersis, girl, come in by the fire. You look half frozen."

You discretely put your hand on her shoulder, incidentally confirming that's she's actually solid. A brief probe with your sorcery confirms that she's alive, which is something of a relief. You can feel the fatigue of a long run through bitter cold, some hypothermia from being outdoors without proper clothing, and the weakness of too little food and too little activity for far too long. Underscoring that is another, less familiar malady. You've never seen anything like this before, so you can't be confident of your impression. But it's as if something had attacked her life force directly, again and again over a period of years, but the most recent blow was quite recent. Any normal girl would be dead from that.

But Dita's life force is a blazing bonfire of golden energy far stronger than anything you've felt before. She's holding fatigue and frostbite at bay through sheer determination, forcing her body on with magic far beyond the point where it should have collapsed. She's burned most of her power just getting to this point, but she's still a good ways from running out.

She settles herself gratefully by the fire in your bedroom, and smiles up at you. "I knew I felt magic in you at the trial," she says. "You can see I'm not evil, can't you?"

"Maybe you should tell me what's wrong," you suggest, sizing her up. You felt an unnatural strength in her limbs in that momentary scan, enough to match a man twice her size. But you probably still have an edge there, and she isn't armed as far as you can see. You can probably take her if it comes to that.

Her smile fades a bit.

"It's those stupid priests," she complains. "They're convinced I have some kind of dark taint on my soul, and Lala lets them do whatever they want. The stupid cow can't see they're killing me with all these exorcisms and purifications."

"Why would that hurt you?" You ask cautiously.

"Because they're trying to force me to be human!" She exclaims. "My mother was a Chosen of Inovia for six years before she married, Dominic. The power changed her, and some of it was passed on to me. But just because I can run fast and see magic doesn't mean I'm evil. I know you have sorceries of your own, Dominic. Surely you understand that being different doesn't mean I'm a monster?"

"Of course not," you say sympathetically. But something about that explanation doesn't quite fit.

"I'm a little surprised the priests don't understand that," you go on. "Inovia's works aren't anathema or anything. She just makes people cautious because even though she means well she's kind of… well, her followers tend to be a bit..."

"Nuts?" Dita puts in. "Yeah, I can't argue that. I met a couple of Chosen when I was a kid, and they were always really messed up. There was this one time…"

She trails off, gazing into the fire. Then she shakes herself, and goes on. "Don't make the mistake of thinking the goddess herself is mad, though. She's not. She's alien. The way she sees the world is so different from human perception that communion with her can damage your mind if you aren't careful. But fighting evil is her only reason for touching our world, and she's very good at it."

"Dita? What aren't you telling me?"

She glances at you, her expression guarded now. "Are you sure you want to know? All I'm asking you to do is give me shelter for the winter. Give me a chance to heal, and recover my strength. No one could criticise you for that, and when I disappear in the spring they won't be able to blame you for it. You weren't part of the plot, so they never told you to keep me locked up."

"Plot," you say flatly. "What plot?"

"Do you really think one of Inovia's Chosen would harbor a demon, cousin?" She asks softly.

That does seem unlikely. But an unmasked demon is pretty hard to mistake for anything else, and the Church is smart enough to understand that agents of darkness sometimes try to frame innocent people. Especially considering how much influence your family has. Unless…

Wait.

She nods sadly. "Like I said, you probably don't want to know."

"Tell me," you growl.

She sighs, and turns back to the fire. "Mother never converted to the worship of Khersis. She always said her soul was already claimed, and she wanted to be with her sisters in arms when she died. That would have been bad enough, but she was training acolytes and giving safe haven to the Chosen as well. I know father argued with grandfather about that a lot, especially when it became clear that mother wasn't going to be able to give him a son."

"Then father started training me as his heir, even though the family was starting to notice my little quirks. Well, grandfather wasn't about to let one of the family baronies become 'a den of heathens ruled by a tainted girl-child'. He gave father an ultimatum, and when that didn't work he… watched, and called in favors, and took advantage when there was an opportunity."

You try to resist the urge to stare. Your grandfather wouldn't do something like that… would he?

"You asked," Dita reminds you. "You don't have to believe me. All I'm asking for is hospitality."

"What are you going to do in the spring?"

"Not revenge," she reassures you with a shake of her head. "I've accepted that I'll never be the Baroness of Verzi. I have promises to keep, and a… friend, to rescue. Tavi's brother has her now, and somehow I have to get her free before we turn eighteen."

Tavi. That's an odd name. "The old maiden in durance vile thing, huh? Where is she?"

"India."

Well, fuck. She might as well have said Mordor.

India is a corrupted land ruled by the rakshasa, a race of evil shapeshifting sorcerers so powerful the Church considers them a variety of demon. Not to mention that getting there would be nearly impossible, since the entire Middle East is a wasteland ruled by vampires and populated only by their slaves. Just getting there would be an epic quest, let alone freeing this girl from… wait a minute. How on Earth would Dita know a girl from India? Are there even any humans living in that shadowed land?

Is she talking about a human?

Your response:
[ ] This crazy bitch is consorting with monsters and trying to destroy your family. Lock her up and ship her back to her keepers.
[ ] Riiiiiight. Yep, that's an Inovian, well-meaning but bugfuck nuts. Let her stay the winter, and then leave before she brings trouble to your door.
[ ] Poor girl, her troubles have obviously driven her around the bend. Maybe you can help her if she stays with you awhile.
[ ] This is an opportunity. Help Dita out, use her to get in good with the Chosen, then you can use them as a resource even after she gets herself killed. It'll make relations with your family tricky, but you can finesse that.
[ ] Ok, so your grandfather is an even bigger asshole than you thought and the Church is blind. Your cousin needs help, and there's a lot more you can do for her than just giving her a place to sleep for a couple of months.
[ ] Write In

 

[alethiophile]

Huh. Well, that is certainly a thing.

It seems highly premature to make any sort of lasting decision right now. Seems like a good idea to offer her hospitality for the moment; we have easy probable deniability for that, even should it turn out problematic. Assuming nothing too drastic happens before spring, we can gather impressions over time until then, and decide about further actions later.

If her deadline is "before we turn eighteen", when's that? Who's "we"? Do we know precisely how old Dita is?

 

[Arkeus]

Yeah, having a concrete decision right now seems like a bad idea, if only because we only have her side on what happened with our Grandfather. More than this, our Grandfather is our ultimate authority.

While it should be perfectly ok to keep her safe for the winter and let her be on her way, any more important help we give her might make our Grandfather angry- and, even if she is wrong about what happeened, making him angry is NOT a good idea.

[X]Keep her in for the winter and use the opportunity to learn more about Inova and see how impressive the Chosens are exactly. As long as we don't exactly know the stance of our family on her it should be ok to treat her as a normal member of our family. After all, we can't assume she IS a family pariah. Decide what to do in the spring as you learn more.

 

[Malcolmo]

[X]Keep her in for the winter and use the opportunity to learn more about Inova and see how impressive the Chosens are exactly. As long as we don't exactly know the stance of our family on her it should be ok to treat her as a normal member of our family. After all, we can't assume she IS a family pariah. Decide what to do in the spring as you learn more.

 

[fitzgerald]

[X] Offer Hospitality with no limits
[X] Make an offer to be consider once she has rested: "Getting to India would be easier if you had more than the clothes on your back and whatever you manage to acquire along the way. There are two Haunts within my fief that need to be dealt with before I can fully invoke Regency over Corzu and beastmen that need to be dealt with. Needless to say your aid would be appreciated and rewarded for taking part in such dangerous tasks."


~ Remember how our father out right said that claiming Regency over Haunted sites was dumb idea. We've now gained an ally capable of helping us smack them around

 

[Thomasfoolery]

Interesting stuff here, wonder if rumors of this are also part of what's causing the current tensions in the land. I also wonder if our Uncle is actually even out crusading or if that's just a cover. That said While barging into Gramps' hall and cutting him down in an epic display of swordsmanship is a fun scenario to contemplate. That fact that I'm still a bit skeptical of the story along with the fact that I think having Dominic be a rather patronizing bastard who thinks he's actually not one would be pretty fun leads me to vote.

[X] Riiiiiight. Yep, that's an Inovian, well-meaning but bugfuck nuts. Let her stay the winter, and then leave before she brings trouble to your door.

 

[Thomasfoolery]

Huh, how'd that happen.

 

[Graig]

[X]Keep her in for the winter and use the opportunity to learn more about Inova and see how impressive the Chosens are exactly. As long as we don't exactly know the stance of our family on her it should be ok to treat her as a normal member of our family. After all, we can't assume she IS a family pariah. Decide what to do in the spring as you learn more.

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I don't think she is a Chosens. She just inherited some of the powers of her mother (who was a Chosens). Her powers might not be as great as a normal Chosen.

[X]Keep her in for the winter and use the opportunity to learn more about her and about Inova. As long as we don't exactly know the stance of our family on her it should be ok to treat her as a normal member of our family. After all, we can't assume she IS a family pariah. Decide what to do in the spring as you learn more.

 

[Arkeus]

I don't think she is a Chosens. She just inherited some of the powers of her mother (who was a Chosens). Her powers might not be as great as a normal Chosen.

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Yeah, i somehow thought Dominic had thought of her as a Chosen, but you are right, she probably only partially has that power, though i wouldn't be surprised if she is a full Chosen or becomes one later.

Anyway, i want to help her, i just don't think it's logical for Dominic to think he can help her without first making sure he doesn't get blacklisted by his grandfather.

 

[fitzgerald]

Yeah, i somehow thought Dominic had thought of her as a Chosen, but you are right, she probably only partially has that power, though i wouldn't be surprised if she is a full Chosen or becomes one later.

Anyway, i want to help her, i just don't think it's logical for Dominic to think he can help her without first making sure he doesn't get blacklisted by his grandfather.

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Given Dita's own plans involve getting to India to save her friend......

I'm going to suggest we get Dita to help us deal with a number of problems in Corzu before sending her on her way with a nice lump of cash.

 

[Darik29]

[X] Ok, so your grandfather is an even bigger asshole than you thought and the Church is blind. Your cousin needs help, and there's a lot more you can do for her than just giving her a place to sleep for a couple of months.

Because given the nature of what she said, combined with her own self assigned quest? Keeping her around longer could have her help us deal with all those Adventures we need to undertake before we can go about claiming our fief.

Also, I honestly like her. She's survived lord knows how many years apparently locked up while something tried to destroy her life force directly.

Sure, she's apparently a follower of Inovia and this could lead to some issues, but it isn't actually hated as directly as everything else.

But if her stories true? She Is family. And there's a Lot more we can do for her than just hold her over the winter.

 

[fitzgerald]

Well that and Ditas a perfect subject to advance our flesh craft.

With her permission of course.

Its a chance to examine a superior design and learn from it.

 

[Seventeen]

[X] Make an offer to be consider once she has rested: "Getting to India would be easier if you had more than the clothes on your back and whatever you manage to acquire along the way. There are two Haunts within my fief that need to be dealt with before I can fully invoke Regency over Corzu and beastmen that need to be dealt with. Needless to say your aid would be appreciated and rewarded for taking part in such dangerous tasks."

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I'll go ahead and support this.

 

[drake_azathoth]

X] Make an offer to be consider once she has rested: "Getting to India would be easier if you had more than the clothes on your back and whatever you manage to acquire along the way. There are two Haunts within my fief that need to be dealt with before I can fully invoke Regency over Corzu and beastmen that need to be dealt with. Needless to say your aid would be appreciated and rewarded for taking part in such dangerous tasks."

 

[95spartans]

[X] Make an offer to be consider once she has rested: "Getting to India would be easier if you had more than the clothes on your back and whatever you manage to acquire along the way. There are two Haunts within my fief that need to be dealt with before I can fully invoke Regency over Corzu and beastmen that need to be dealt with. Needless to say your aid would be appreciated and rewarded for taking part in such dangerous tasks."