>>665936
>A quick note: I mistakenly implied that Demons are artificial cores, last thread. They're not. Artificial spiritual cores are things invented and created through 'sorcery'. Demons and demonic magic are just a special kind of astral dweomer.

>>665936
The book about creating artificial soul cores. Specifically trying to create one that fulfills the requirements to perform counter magic.

Basically trying to create knowledge demon soul core that isn't just hermetic magic twisted into a temporary soul and therefore unable to interact directly with mana. Rather we should create a true soul core that can be used to touch magic at the instant it is formed and disrupt it.

>>665936
Yule's biomancy. In secret.

We only gave Kristoph a sample of ebonstone right? Can we offer him a sample of void-gem in exchange for several favors? Actually even better, could we offer him some along with the information from the book in the tower that explains it in exchange for him supplying us with a bit of the stuff in perpetuity once he has figured it out?

>>665936
>Void-gem and Ebonstone

>>665936
I think we should study history and the gate/void gem first and foremost. Send a void gem sample to the material archangel for study maybe?

Basically study our enemy and work out how they operate inter dimensionally.

>>665958
>>665952
Why not let Kristoph study the magic materials since they're his specialty. We should focus on something else since I doubt we'll be more capable than him at figuring them out. Though we do have a book on void-gem.

History isn't a bad idea. I'd like to study something that increases our magical ability, but knowing more about our enemy is definitely a good choice too.

>>665936
>>665936
About how much time has passed since the fight? Has there been any follow up from Kanna about learning more magic, or is that going to be more during this thread.

>>665936
>Morrigan's history

>>665936
>Morrigan's history
Knowing is half the battle. very close pick between this and Yule's magic.

>>665936
I like how Jasmine notices the imperfections in Hellebore's work - can't beat our magical genius!

Do we have unlimited instant-dweomers now? Nice!

>And what have you been studying the most?
I'm all for deepening our knowledge of those new Demons, so we can use them even more efficiently and use them for more stuff.

>>665951
Longterm goal: Immortality. I'm in!
And a deal with Kristoph sounds good. Outsourcing a bit of our work...

>>665993
>Kanna
We could create our own Dimensional Force with newly minted Mages. Hunting the Infinite King's henchmen with our elite troops and their familiars.

You'd already sent a few samples of void-gem- with variable amounts of mana stored within- to Kristoph, after extracting a promise of free labor- and magical alloys- from him. He was more than ecstatic to agree, so you'd sent it all off to him. He hasn't gotten back to you since, but you've taken the time to research everything you can about Morrigan.

The Infinite City, as it turns out, isn't quite infinite. It's only extrordinarily large. You're not quite sure how the civilization works, other than that it's a horrid dictatorship. The Infinite King rules all, with his apprentices beneath that, and the Magi beneath them. The lowest class are the Mundanes, the citizens who'd failed some kind of test and had their mana torn from them to fuel the rest of the world.

You sniff, pouring through the history books. After Krital Angwaz returned from the world of Nix, he killed the Archmage Yule, capturing her magic and inventing the Servitors, a whirlwind of bloodshed and warfare scraped across Morrigan's surface. He spent a century crushing everything that resisted, taking complete and utter domination over all society. But with the monsters- with all animal life- dead, people lived lives full of a safety they'd never before known.

The Infinite City was born after they crowned him. The rest of the book is just propaganda, exclaiming about all the wonderful things the Infinite King had done. After the century passed, the Second Traveler was born- one of Krital's children. The Second Traveler took up the reigns while Krital secured the world of Morrigan, and started traveling from world to world, gathering magic and power. He died young, but the line continued.

The Servitor army claimed Nix next after opening a hole in reality, and the Infinite City expanded through an enormous rift between worlds. Not much happened between that and the Infinite City discovering a new world, by the name of Salem and it too was conquered.

The next notable thing that happened was actually the death of Hermetic magic. Magic began to change, and apparently the magic keeping the first Infinite King- Krital Angwaz- alive had failed, and he'd died. The Second Traveler was dead, and the Infinite City had no leadership. But despite this, the magic keeping the rifts to Nix and Salem still survived.

The entire empire went into a period of somnolence. They didn't do anything notable- only a few apprentices or Magi discovering new magics, or the latest Infinite King dying and being replaced. For centuries, things continued this way.

It wasn't until five years ago that someone cracked the problem of Hermetic Magic. A prodigy of all magic known, and the youngest Apprentice of his generation... Calam Angwaz became the Third Traveler.

He sent his three daughters to three separate worlds, with the intent of conquering them and adding them to the Infinite City, and he still rules as it's master.

You shiver.

Calam was your father's name.

>Continued!

>>666029
Our mirror-sister couldn't be saved, I'm sure... still sad that our mirror-family consists of Evil Overlords only.

>>666029
New goal: Find our mirror-sisters and prevent them from sucking up other dimensions' magic!

>>666029
>Calam was your father's name.
That's fucked. Jasmine is going to have to kill shadow-dad after her own dad was killed.

Hey Exabyte, would our choice of character at the beginning of the quest influenced nature of shadow-dad's family,? You mentioned that one of the choices would have had a bunch of younger siblings rather than just one.

>>666029
Other than that book on the Infinite City- as well as the three worlds of Salem, Nix, and Morrigan- you've also been studying artificial cores- the study of Sorcery.

Sorcery isn't easy. It's more difficult and complicated than even Familiar magic, and you have no clue how Neloch was able to reverse engineer this just by sensing Hellebore's artificial cores. To be entirely honest, you're not sure how

The book mostly describes the nature of mana as it comes from the Purity Core, and how it's transformed through being filtered through a human's soul. You learn a few new terms you'd never heard before- Odh, for the 'magic from before'- being the magic used by a human soul, while Psi is known as the 'magic born after', the leftover and transformed energy that a wizard normally uses.

The important thing that a sorcerer needs to learn is how to feel the difference between Odh or Psi, because part of crafting a core requires one to use their Odh to 'shape' a newborn core, and their Psi to 'feed' it. Try as you might, with your meditation, you can't feel the difference between the two. Then again, you've only been at it for a single night.

Once you figure it out, you might be able to make a core- you have enough instructions from the book- but until then, you're lost. There's nothing you can do.

Someone knocks on the door twice. You put the book away, and have a Kinetic-Force Demon pop it open for you.

Neloch raises an eyebrow at the twisting, silver lightning that coils around the door. "You really like that new core, don't you?"

"It's convenient." You say. "And a lot more mana-efficient than a dweomer. What's up?"

"... The Execution." He says. "That's what's up."

"... Right." You say, getting to your feet and putting the book into your handy portal-demon. It eats it up and sends it away for you. You still haven't figured out how to get Demons working through different dimensions- they crumble the moment you're no longer in the same dimension as them- but it's only a matter of time.

Neloch strolls out, hands in his pockets. He's been acting rather cheerful, since he'd torn the Cores out of the black witch. There's a strange kind of surety in him that wasn't there before, a kind of relaxed slouch.

Come to think of it, you remember the sorcery book mentioning Anima- a transformed kind of mana that exists after Psi's been filtered through a spiritual core- which makes it rather strange that Neloch knew exactly what to call it.

The Dragon is the only familiar in the field outside of the tower- the rest of the soldiers' familiars are down the hill, near the camp. Rikar holds a long, slim blade in one hand. When he notices you, he waves you over.

"Prince Rikar." You say.

"Lady Jasmine." He responds. Hellebore is in shackles, being held standing by two soldiers. She looks sickly and pale. "We're about to begin. And such a thing is permanent, so if there's anything you'd like to ask her... or perhaps tell her..."

>?

>>666040
>This whole 'mirror world' wasn't really part of the plan, so it's hard to say exactly what I would've done if you guys had a different character choice.

>>665993
>Only a day. You did finish teaching Kanna, but you couldn't really get into Analytical magic without her having an Implement.

>>666057
>not sure how
Not sure how what? I think you dropped a sentence.

>>666057
Ask her who her father is

>>666065
>>666057
>To be honest, you're not sure how he was physically- and astrally- capable of creating a core at all, without this knowledge.

>>666057
What was your father like? [Insert description of our father before he died]. How different were our upbringings really?

>>666057
Just get it over with, she's evil or twisted, but she suffered enough, end her.

>>666057
I mean, I'ts not really her fault that she was raised to become a Tyrant. But, it's too late for her at this point. Just let her die.

>>666057
Hellebore was the youngest daughter right? She's basically the Ishelda of the evil Angwaz family. She could have been our little sister if things were a little different. I sort of want to tell her about our Krital and our father and what she and her family missed out on. Maybe she could have been a better person given the chance.

>>666057
Ask her about her sisters and in which worlds they are.
Do you know anyone named Jasmine?

>>666057
Maybe a little speech for the soldiers would be nice:
"Brave men and women of this realm, you fought bravely against a foreign invader. In the face of magical doom, you fought on and showed the world what true courage is! The Fallen will be remembered and their families honoured!"

>>666057
>I wish this hadn't happened, knowing what I do now. But what I was taught, how I was raised...I can't let this go.

>I'll...I'll say hello to dad for you.

>>666077
Yeah, pretty sad... but I doubt, we can convert the next mirror-sister to our side - maybe with some Astral core manipulation (I look at you, loyalty core), but not with diplomacy alone.

So who wants to bet the reason Neloch's soul an magic is janked up is because he was originally from Morrigan and somehow escaped through a gate?

>>666057
Describe your father, see how close it is hers.

>>666091
>So who wants to bet the reason Neloch's soul an magic is janked up is because he was originally from Morrigan and somehow escaped through a gate?

That would explain why he seemed to take a twisted amount of pleasure in restraining Hellebore and why he knew the term Anima. We should probably just ask him straight up if he's from Morrigan, but we could also casually drop terms like Odh and Psi and see if he recognizes them. I wonder how he managed to find his way to Helios in the first place.

>>666091
>Neloch >originally from Morrigan
Then someone would have to know our homeworld's coordinates, no? And an invasion could be imminent!

>>666057
"Farewell sis."

We should start questioning Nel, we know he's keeping secrets and we want to know why.

You turn to the woman, the one you might have as a sister if your father had lived...

"Who was your father?" You ask.

"I already told you-" She starts, her voice weak and hoarse.

"His name." You say. "Not his titles."

"Calam Angwaz." She says- and Rathod twitches HARD. His eyes dart frantically between you and her- but you sigh.

"... What was your father like?" You ask.

"Jealous?" She asks, quietly. She raises an eyebrow. "Don't be. He was never a real father. He's long since lost his humanity. But when he finds this world, when he finds your home world, snowflake... He'll hurt you more than you hurt me. He's the most brightest wizard in all of reality. In every world. There's nothing he doesn't know... And he'll find you."

You grit your teeth...

"I wish this could've been different, but..." You say. You turn to Rikar and nod.

Rikar steps forward- and Rathod finally says something.

"Wait!" He says.

Everyone stops to look at him.

"I- We can't- You can't-" He cuts off. "... Jaz. Isn't there something we can do? I'm sure I could make something to seal off her magic, and we could keep her in a pocket dimension..."

Rikar raises an eyebrow.

"... If you'd like me to remand the prisoner to you, Sir Rathod, I will do so, if you have the ability to restrain her."

"... I'll... I'll ..." He trails off, not sure how to answer.

Rathod looks at you searchingly.

>?

>>666091
Or he met one of our mirror sisters who was scoping out our world. But if you're right maybe they tried to strip his magic but didn't finish and that's why his purity core is dodgy.

>>666099
Yeah, we could compliment him on his Psi manipulation.

>>666107
She knew exactly what she was doing and is unrepentant about it. Her only saving grace is that she was shit at it.
People died trying to stop her, keeping her around in any form would be disrespectful to the dead.

>>666107
Rathod, As much as I love Ishelda, As much as I mourn my father, this girl and her family are through a mirror darkly. She is everything I could be bent in the worse possible way. I can't in good conscience keep her alive without using astral magic to change who she is, and that is abhorrent to me. She is evil, she kills and slaughter for her own gain and she enjoys it, she dies.

>>666107
"I don't know if there really is anything we could do. Something mithril, maybe, but even that's not entirely a guarantee."

>>666113
This after.

>>666107
"Sorry Rathod, I don't like this any more than you do, but we have to."

I say execute. We don't have the best means to restrain her permanently and ad much of a benifit as doing so would be it would be demonstrably cruel with her current condition.

>>666107
It wasn't her fault that she was raised to be a Tyrant, but in the end, the fact that she's sort of my alternate reality sister doesn't matter in light of the crimes she has committed.

She might be able to reform, but it's too much risk. And I doubt she would be happy having her magic sealed away and her every action observed and restricted.. Keeping her alive might be more cruel in the end.

>>666107
Explain the whole situation to Rathod. Give him the basics of Morrigan and the shadow Angwaz family.

Her family is evil. That's the short and long of it. Just because her family is also our family in a twisted sort of way doesn't necessarily mean she deserves any sort of mercy.

If Rathod still thinks she's worth trying to save though, I'm willing to support it.

We should mention the name Ishelda. I wonder if it's the name of one of Hellebore's older sisters.

>>666107
"This has to be done. We can't restrain her forever, she's too strong. And we owe it to the fallen soldiers."

>>666107

>I...I get it, Rathod. I know what you're feeling. and yeah, in a way...she's family. I know how you feel, but...listen to what she just said. Do you...would you really feel comfortable trying to risk it? Would you REALLY?

>I mean, this hurts. This hurts a lot. I'm...I'm basically killing my sister.

>But no one fucks with my family. Not even my family.

I feel like this isn't the best choice, from a meta perspective, and want to personally take the risk and see if we can't change her.

>>666128
>Explain the whole situation to Rathod.
I would prefer to have some more time to sit on this...

--
Jasmine the Executioner.
Would've been nice to keep the mirror-sister... maybe with some more research into a magical prison...

>>666133
>This hurts a lot. I'm...I'm basically killing my sister.
Yeah. And killing our first real antagonist... I would really prefer an Arkham-style prison somewhere (where she can escape and battle us again).

>>666134
I know, right?

>>666107
>He's long since lost his humanity. But when he finds this world, when he finds your home world, snowflake... He'll hurt you more than you hurt me

Sounds like she's speaking from experience to me. To be honest, I think Hellebore is a victim of Morrigan. It's not a justification for trying to eat souls, but it is a reason. I want to see what Rathod has in mind for keeping her alive. I think it could be the right thing to do.

>>666134
She wouldn't be happy. Being imprisoned as tightly as we need. She'd be bitter and unhappy with the life we could provide her and would have 0 oppurtunity to turn over a new leaf.

>>666144
True. We have to purge the mirror-family, burn it out. We're the True Queen of All Dimensions! No tiny Infi-King will dispute our claim!

If she really could be shown the error of her ways, it'd probably be worth the risk from a logical standpoint. Her knowledge of her father's plans and sister's targets would really be invaluable for stopping them. We theoretically know she has the capability to be good, since we're sort of born from the same family.

I feel like it's more respectful to the fallen to take do whatever we can to find and prevent similar things from happening on other worlds, even if it feels unpleasant or unfair here and now.

>>666107
I say we let him try and come up with something she can't get out of. I can't imagine Jasmine being able to live with killing someone when there's another choice. Or Rathod being able to look at us the same way.

If there's looking like a majority, I'll give in to my personal desires and say use >>666161 logic to give it a try.

>>666161
Would be really nice, if we could keep her locked up... maybe the family bond would work? Hm. Difficult decision...

>>666161
> capability to be good since we are sorts born into same family
That is such completely unjustifiable bullshit. There are thousands of people actively trying to do good. Why expend effort in this person who has already committed vast crimes? She simply doesn't deserve it.

Hmm, the most important thing is probably why we either kill, or spare her.
If we spare her just because she could be useful, doesn't that mean we'll spare every useful evil person? There would be no justice for the killed if so.

I mean sure, it would be the "better" thing to do, but it wouldn't be the "Right" thing to do.

Rathod was never someone who could stand by and watch someone die.

For such a big guy, his heart is even bigger, and he's the one that took the most damage in the fight to take the witch down. But despite that, the moment her life was at risk and he saw a chance to save her...

His expression is frantic, but calculating. You can see the gears whirling in his head.

"... Prince Rikar, may I speak with Rathod in privacy for a few moments?" You ask.

He nods, and you walk over to pull Rathod away from the crowd.

"We can't do this." He says.

"Sorry, Rathod. I don't like this any more than you do, but we have to."

"We don't." He says. "I'm not saying she's innocent, but... We can't just kill someone like that, in cold blood. Not if... Not if she's really..."

"I get it." You say. "Yeah, in a way... she's family. I know how you feel, but you heard what she said. Would you really feel comfortable trying to risk it? Would you really?"

"I-I mean..." He says. "If her f-father is going to be looking for her, wouldn't it be smarter to leave her alive? At the least we could, uh, ransom her for safety."

You give him a Look. You know that's not what he's thinking.

He sighs.

"This is wrong." He says. "We have her captured. Neloch successfully took out her cores, and he says that she'll live, and her soul will repair itself from the trauma. She can't use her strength, or those ebonstone soldiers or anything. The only thing she could do is use astral magic, right?"

"Right." You say.

He bites his lip. "Then we implant mithril into her chest." He says. "I know Mithril's capabilities pretty well, and with a few beads here and there, around her heart, she can't use magic."

"Her family is evil." You say. "She knew exactly what she was doing, and is completely unrepentant about it. She was going to kill everyone here for her own gain."

"Nothing is evil." He says. "And we don't know if she was going to kill everyone. Jasmine- I can't just..."

"She wouldn't be happy." You say. "Especially if she's as imprisoned as tightly as we need. She'd be unhappy, and we wouldn't be able to give her a second chance."

"Everyone deserves a second chance." He says. "You said that pocket dimensions work on people's mana, right? And thaumaturgic magic works between dimensions?"

You nod.

"Then we put her in a pocket dimension. We fuel it with her own mana- use Ebonstone for it... And use thaumaturgy to give her an electronic connection to our world. We have movies, books, even videogames." He says. "She'll be safe, but alive, and she'll have things to do. We could still call and communicate with her, and there's no way she can break out."

"... People died, Rathod, trying to stop her." You say.

"I know." He says. "But we don't have to kill her to make sure she stays stopped. It's wrong to kill someone when we can avoid it."

"It's the right thing to do." Says Rathod.

>Here's a choice, folks
> [] Agree with Rathod's plan.
> [] Let Rikar execute her
> [] Other? (Writein)

>>666183
justice... Jasmine isn't a judge though. She wants knowledge, more power, more magic - and then: protect her cute sister and mother. Is her right-wrong compass that straight? Taking cores, protecting her secrets...

>>666186
> [X] Agree with Rathod's plan.
It's not perfect, but it could work.

>>666186
>>> [] Agree with Rathod's plan.
Prison Chief Jasmine!

>>666186
[]Agree

I see the future: Hundreds of dimensional prisons for our mirror-family and their minions, other dimensional criminals, genocidal generals...
Judge Jasmine, sending criminals away since...now!

>>666187
I haven't really read this quest yet (started on the first part just now), so i was mostly offering my two cents. It's totally fine to not bring "justice", or something like that.

>>666186
> [] Let Rikar execute her
I honestly don't see the point uh expending so much effort on her. Seems like Thod is looking at her as a person in the abstract. He needs to look at her as she is, this isn't a theoretical case.

>>666186
> [X] Let Rikar execute her

Personally, I'm the kind of person who see's doing that to someone, traping them in a way that keeps them alive but in practical stasis as being far worse than any kind of killing.

I.E. I think it's better to be killed then imprisoned without contact for the rest of ones life.

>>666186
>Rathod. Imagine you were basically a prince of a whole world. Then you were captured and put in a 10 by 10 room with only an electronic console to entertain you and your captors to keep you company. Would you really be happy? I think you would be bitter and you would stew in your rage and probably fall into depression. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if she committed suicide.

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84 KB JPG

>>666186
> [X] Let Rikar execute her

Rathod she was building a super genocide machine to enslave the entire world and you want to set her up with video games? What the fuck is wrong with you? Every one of these planewalking Stalincunts we kill is one that will never reach our home.

>>666186
> [] Let Rikar execute her

>>666198
I think it would be interesting to see the MC follow some path of justice. Discovering other worlds and meeting an evil foe might lead her to seek a kind of justice - because only she can help the people.

4vs3, executing seems to win atm.

>>666207
>>666209

We can still follow a path of justice if we kill her, so long as we insist that we're the ones that kill her.

>>666186
>[X] Let Rikar execute her

>>666186
> [] Agree with Rathod's plan.

>>666201
Changing my vote to.
> [x] Agree with Rathod's plan.

You guys took killing her a bit too far for me. Let's keep it grounded.

>>666211
Stark-style? I'm in.
We're 'family', we kill her.
+give a nice speech to the army! (expand our powerbase)

5vs5 now?

>>666219
4 v 5. Rathod is winning

>I'll be calling the vote in 5 minutes from this post.

Revenge killing or compassion prison?
Clean end or more information?
What will it be?

>>666221
Nice!

>>666222
The suspense...

>>666223
I was going to go for compassion killing. But the way it seemed to be going it looks like keeping her a live is a bit more sane.

>>666223
I really don't consider it revenge killing. I consider it a mercy honestly.

>>666222
> [x] Agree with Rathod's plan.

>>666222
Could we perhaps put her in a coma until we deal with the rest of the family?

>>666186
Agree with Rathod's plan.

>>666215
who me? i wasn't being serious

>>666223
i'm voting purely on what direction i want the story to take. not a fan of making friends with our enemies, discovering their good side etc.

>>666222
>Voting is over! I'll tally things up and write the post.

>>666230
Sleeping Beauty?

>>666235
Personally, I like the Hellebore character and would like her to appear again - like those supervillains that keep breaking out.

A long, long moment passes, while you consider things.

"... Do you think she would really be happy, stuck in a 10-by-10 room with only a computer to entertain her and her captors to keep her company?"

"Tarkan prisons are like that." He says. "And they don't get computers or the ability to interact with the outside world."

You stare at him for a long, long moment.

Then you nod. Rathod's relief is palpable.

"We'll have to work on this dimensional pocket plan." You say. "It might be a bit more complicated than that."

"I'll take care of most of it. the dweomers, the electronics, and everything." He says. "I'll just need your help getting the pocket open."

The two of you walk back up the hill to where Rikar, Hellebore, your friends, and the soldiers all wait.

"Prince Rikar." Rathod says. "With Lady Jasmine's assistance, I've discovered a way to hold her securely and seal away her magic. I humbly request that you remand the witch Hellebore into my custody."

Rikar considers it for a few moments, and then nods. "Very well."

He turns and addresses the soldiers.

"This witch, Hellebore, who once threatened the sanctity and security of Venan, will now be sent away into a faraway world, where she will never again touch our land." He says, and draws his sword. "In the name of Thaln, in the name of the Mithril Dragon, we exile her, under pain of death."

The soldiers salute- and then Rikar nods. With two quick steps up the tail of his familiar, he settles down between the creature's wings. He holds the sword aloft. "Now. Wings of Fury! Claw and Talon! Gear up! We're all heading home. You've earned your pay."

They cheer, and leave to pack camp up, leaving just you and the other wizards.

Uldora raises an eyebrow, while Brun just slugs Rathod in the shoulder.

"So. How are we going to keep her?" Cera asks.

Neloch grimaces, then shrugs. "I've got no clue."

"I'll take care of it." Rathod says. He turns to Hellebore, slumped on the ground, her wrists wrapped in shackles. "Hellebore Angwaz."

"Idiotic ogre." She says. "Do you really think you can contain me in any kind of earthly prison?"

"You are talking to the one who just saved your life." Neloch says.

"It's not going to be 'earthly'." Rathod responds. He gestures- and coiling black light wraps around her neck and wrists. Smooth, almost metallic ebonstone forms, with a void-gem pearl at the front. It seems that you're not the only one who's been practicing with their new Spiritual Core. It's a good thing you lent him the book on ebonstone last night.

Hellebore doesn't even try to struggle, collapsing back as the ebonstone siphons the last of her power, sending her into unconsciousness.

"It's not perfect, but it'll do." He says. He casts a dweomer or two, attaching one to the pearl on the front of Hellebore's new collar.

"Mind sending everyone home while I get this done?" Thod asks, holding up his implement. "I can set up the spells needed for this prison."

>?

>>666277
Sure.

We should give Hellebore a copy of Our Krital's Journal. We read hers, she should read ours.

>>666277
>I will wait, but if anyone else wants to leave I'll get them back safely.

>>666277
>>>?
Thank everyone and promise to get together again asap, then send everyone home.

>>666285
Make sure it's one of the clean public copies. Actually, scrubbing it of runes entirely is probably a good idea.

>>666285
. . . No. No giving secret magical knowledge that's more efficient to genocide Hitler's daughters, even if they are our sisters.

>>666285
>Our Krital's Journal
I like the idea, she can't use that knowledge to hurt us and might slowly come around to our side.
>>666292
Yeah, no super-secret knowledge for her!

>>666293
Not the one with runes in it. The one that is a description of his journeys. Basically, not the one that appeared out of thin air in our house.

>>666301
Which reminds me. Nel has a lot of explaining to do.

>>666277
Fucking chunni pussys, you're never going to get anywhere in life if you excited so much effort on every worthless asshole you come across. Instead of spending our time building a prison we could be saving a village from a monster attack.

Well now that's done, we need to get some use out of her. We should design a computer game which includes a simulation of the gate magic so we can steal their location runes.

>>666293
Don't you think calling her our sister is misrepresenting our relationship, just a little?

>>666293
>That's the 'family copy' of the journals, the ones that he wrote in the margins for. His 'first draft', so to speak. The public version doesn't have any of the runes or advanced knowledge. Just his usual idiocy.

>>666305
True. How did he know this and that. Better to talk to him somewhere private though - and after we imprisoned our mirror-sister.

>>666308
Mirror-cousin(?) then... she isn't anyone though! And we're not doing that for every henchman/woman, promise!

>>666277
Yeah, let's ask Nel if he's from Morrigan. He knew the term anima and seemed to have pretty heavy hatred for Hellebore.

Be nice about it though. He's probably a dimensional refugee.

Yep, I'm in favor of
>giving her a clean copy of Krital's journal.

>>666314
>>That's the 'family copy' of the journals, the ones that he wrote in the margins for. His 'first draft', so to speak. The public version doesn't have any of the runes or advanced knowledge. Just his usual idiocy.
Screw that, Krital was a GENIUS!

>Instead of confronting Nel with suspicions of being a Traveler, just plain talk to him. He's acting weird. (Nel's core deficiency is with Purity? The one having to do with Empathy or the one having to do with Motivation?)

Also, can I ask that we not call Hellobore our sister? She is /not/ our sister, her father was /not/ our father, and her Krital was not our Krital. We share some of the same DNA, but that does not make us related.

>>666432
Sister from another mister

>>666277
While we're making portals for everyone, I want to find out what location the witch's tower corresponds to in Helios. Might be important.

>>666432
Since she called us snowflake, this one was charcoal, and I guess we need two more names for her sisters then.

You nod. "Alright."

You head down to where the familiars are setting up. Their creatures are hefty, powerful things, and Rikar's already setting off with his dragon and the Wings of Fury. Kanna waves happily to you, which you return.

"I'll send you folks back to Thaln." You say. "Are you all prepared?"

"We are, Lady Jasmine." Kanna responds, saluting.

"Then I'll open the portal." You say. You close your eyes, and focus on the eighth core hanging over your left lung. It's coiled, quietly inquisitive, a passive version of the Knowledge Demon- instead of hungrily grasping for knowledge, it's passively waiting for something. You feed it, carefully, everything you know about transportation magic- everything about twirling a hole in reality, a wormhole in space. As soon as you do, you feel it softly hum- and coiling silver light springs from your shoulder, hovering around you. With a thought, you send the portal demon forward, and ask it to start conjuring a portal. It twirls in a large oval, soaking in your mana, and the portal begins to form.

"Lady Jasmine?" Captain Kanna asks, her Adamant approaching you.

"Kanna." You respond.

"I'd like it very much if we spoke more, after this." She says. Her demihuman ear flicks. "Of course, not while I'm on duty, but..."

"Perhaps." You say. The Portal Demon buzzes happily in your mind, and the portal opens. "Take care, Kanna."

"You too, Lady Jasmine!" She cheers, and the radio dweomer on her brow shimmers with magic as she barks orders into it. The Claw and Talon get to work, carrying things out.

You turn to Cera, Uldora, Neloch, and Brun. "Thanks, guys, for helping." You say. "once we're done with the witch, we should all get together sometime. And I'm sure that later, the prince will want to pay you guys for your help. I have reason to believe that he'll have a lot of ecu, soon."

Brun shrugs. "Not a problem." She says. "Though there is my mom... Her wing..."

Uldora looks away.

"I can talk to Archmage Yule about it." You say.

"You can really just call her up and say 'hey what's up can you help'?" Cera asks. You just give her a wide smirk. She rolls her eyes.

"I was glad to be able to help." Neloch says.

"Me too." Cera says. She sniffs. "Though if you end up finding a nice vacation world, with plenty of beaches... Feel free to ring me up."

"Sure, if you say so." You say, rolling your eyes. You could probably call Shamash a nice vacation world. After all, everyone here are considered nobles now- Rikar knighted them all last night- so if she really wanted, she could find a beach somewhere. But you keep quiet about it. "Anyway, I'll open up a portal for you guys."

>Continued!

Dammit, I should have been here sooner. Keeping the Witch alive is a terrible idea and executing her would be Justice.

>>666474
Blow Cera a goodbye kiss

>>666467
Ink and Shadow? Oil?

>>666490
For a certain value of justice.
People have gotten slaps on the wrist for less than she did.

>>666496
Shadow's already sort of reserved for the whole family/parallel dimension. I like ink and oil.

Ash or cinder?

>>666498
More than she did, rather.
Stupid turns of phrase.

>>666474
You haven't gotten dimensional portal demons working yet, so you have to use your Implement to cast this one. While this one spools up, you hand Rathod a book.

"What's this?" He asks, looking at the copy of Krital Angwaz's journal.

"For her." You say, with a nod down to Hellebore. "... She's not my sister- just the daughter of my dad's dimensional alternate- But she should know how things could've turned out."

"Right." He responds.

After a few seconds, it pops open, and you feed it enough magic to last a while. Uldora walks through, while Brun says goodbye to Thod. You blow Cera a kiss, making her roll her eyes and storm through. Leaving just Rathod working at his Implement, an unconscious Hellebore, and Neloch about to walk through.

"Say, Neloch?"

"Yeah?" He asks.

"... Can we talk?"

"You know, a guy never wants to hear those words." He smirks. "What's up?"

"You're from Morrigan, aren't you?" You ask.

Neloch looks away.

He's quiet for a long, long moment.

"I didn't realize that I had been mentioning Sorcery until after it was too late." He says. Then he meets your eyes. "... Uldora was right... I'm a pretty shit shaman, as it turns out. With enough Odh that doesn't matter, but..."

You raise an eyebrow.

"I'm from what they call 'Salem', actually." He says. "Not Morrigan. Still part of the Infinite Empire, but..."

"But you're still from another world, and ended up on Helios somehow."

"Yeah." He says. "Somehow."

>This is technically the end of the 'session', but I'll still be posting every few hours until the next one.
>?

>>666499
Ask is more Grey than Black

>>666498
People have been executed for less. Besides, she was judged by the highest authority in Shamash and found guilty. Should have just let it go.

>>666499
>>666496
Oilslick and Inkpot. They're demeaning names, like Charcoal.

>>666507
Ash*

>>666490
Part of the fun of quests is recovering from terrible decisions. I'm sure dealing with this one will be all manner of 'fun'...

>>666502
"You don't have to be a part of this, you know. There'll always be another world to hide on."

"I'm thinking of going to <world> next. It's got <strange feature Krital mentioned>. Want to come?"

The other choices we didn't make at the beginning were forest and druids, right? Or just pick one strange one at random.

>>666502
"Who sent you to Helios, and why?"

I'm betting he's an advance scout or something.

>>666507
>>666514
Good point: maybe we can redeem them!

>>666512
I like those.

>>666502
So guessing the reason your cores are fucked up is because of her or her dad or his system. How'd you escape? also why the heck are you hanging around me with what happened to you?

>>666502
So long as Helios isn't set to be invaded any time soon...? Then I suppose that it doesn't really matter.

The damage to your purity core is from their soul draining then?

You'll have to teach me how to feel my Ohd and Psi sometime.

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>>666502

>>666519
I think there was a modern city option? I think the forest was Shamash.

>>666531
>>666526
>Ra'aa: A world full of exotic technology, in a ruined blasted land.
>Lugh: A world with strange magics you've never heard of- with warlocks and druids.

>>666535
>Ra'aa
Sounds like someone screaming

>>666535
Learning Druidry could be fun.

On the other hand: advanced tech.

>>666521
I don't think he's a scout, or if he is he's AWOL. Worst case is that he snuck in through a scout portal and the Infinite Kingdom knows about our world and has it on the 'to invade' list

>>666535
Druuuuuuids!

It should be noted that Helios would be a pretty tough nut to crack for the Infinite Kingdom. Yes, they've got Sorcery and some impressive Hermetic Magic but Helios has Analytic magic that sorely outclasses them in some areas. Not to mention the Archmagi.

Morrigan probably sent in Saboteurs.

>>666521
Yeah we need to find out how he got here. Because if he can so can others. As far as I packed up the only ones who could cross dimensions were the travellers and their apprentices.

>>666570
Shit, we should probably get Rathod to weaponize ebonstone.
Maybe make a gun that shoots ebonstone,
Or just a gun.

>>666535
Hey Exabyte, can we create vacuums with our portals?

>>666535
If we are voting for this I'll through in with Lugh for the new magics.

>>666584
Alright, we have saved the world. Now lets clean it up!

>>666535
Lugh sounds interesting.

>>666590
Not that kind of vacuum. I know Exabutt doesn't want us to instagib enemies, but I'm pretty sure we can accelerate objects this way. Like accelerating a block of ebonstone into someone's face.

>>666602
>Honestly, I handwaved the air pressure thing. Mostly because that way a single portal to something only a few hundred feet above or below would have a really messed up air pressure that would either suck people in or shove them out, depending on the size of the portal. Just making a portal from Romalia to Terra's Spine would be enough to make it impossible to actually walk through, since you'd have to push past a LOT of air rushing toward you. So I'm going to say that portal magic just, uh, magically prevents that shit from happening, because that would just make things a lot harder and less fun for everyone.

>>666618
I blame dimensional foam for ruining all the fun.

>>666618
"Fuck your physics, I'm a portal?"

>>666618
Booo
>no shotgun dweomers

>>666656
I'm sure there are better ways to make shotgun Dweomers than using vacuums.

>>666664
I have a feeling if we could make shotgun dweomers we would've had them already.

>>666671
Why? Jaz's focus is most certainly not combat spells.

>>666671
That presupposes that one knows what a "shotgun" is, really.

>>666664
Damnit. So close to sextuple 6

>>666681
Shotguns- as well as other guns- totally exist on Helios. Not everyone's a good enough wizard to fight monsters, and sometimes folks just need some handy firepower in order to kill things.

>>666679
Dweomer's aren't a new thing, portals sort of are. You'd think if they existed before people would bring them instead of giant battle axes to hunts and fights.

>>666694
Welp, then why the hell didn't we just blast the witch full of lead? Maybe could've sniped her from a distance?

>>666697
I guess her shields would have blocked it?

Observation: All the worlds are named after Gods.

Helios- Greek Sun God
Shamash- Akkadian Sun God
Ra'aa (Ra)- Egyptian Sun God
Lugh- Irish Deity, sometimes interpreted as a Sun God.
Morrigan- Irish Goddess of Fate
Nix(Nyx)- Greek Goddess of Night
Salem(Shalim)- Canaanite God of Dusk

Supposedly, the Kritals were the ones who named the worlds, with Jasmine's Ancestor naming them after Gods associated with Light and the other Krital naming them after Gods associated with Darkness.

Another observation: The Krital of Morrigan supposedly died after the magic that kept him alive stopped working. Incidentally, the Yule of Helios is still alive and perfectly capable of using her biomancy.

It's noted that Astral Magic can be used to directly cast magic without the use of of an Implement or a Ritual. This is likely how Yule continued to use her Biomancy well after the failure of Hermetic Magic. Jasmine is capable of creating portals via Astral Magic as well. Morrigan!Krital was a genius and would have likely learned to cast via Astral Magic too. It's possible that he never learned how to perform Biomancy with Astral Magic, but it's also possible he was assassinated.

Just a few thoughts to consider.

>>666801
>That's a pretty good observation, anon.
>Also, just so you guys know: If you end up discovering worlds that hadn't been named by either Krital, you can give them whatever names you want. Unless it's stuff like 'cumguzzler' or 'hardcockbeefcake', of course.

Another Observation:

Calam Angwaz of Morrigan had 3 Daughters. Calam Angwaz of Helios had 2 daughters before he died. It's more likely that the Morrigan Ishelda Equivalent is the middle child.

>>666851
Which means we will have a doppleganger as the eldest sister.

Our top priority should be Yule's magic.

So we can just be a little bit taller.

Just a little.

>>666888
No messing with the height you Heretic!

Honestly not too interested in Biomancy besides.

>>666888

Honestly, our top priority should be Biomancy for its survival applications. Making Jasmine immortal would be ideal.

>>666888
>>666894
We could shrink everyone else instead.

>>666900
Tallness > longevity

Druidism > Biomancy

>>666947
Biomancy > Druidism

Druids are stuck with what nature gives them. Biomancers can make their own monsters.

>>666952
Don't care. Don't want to do Biomancy. I think Druidism will be more interesting to study and learn.

>>666958
And I believe the opposite. Druidism might be neat, but Biomancy will be far more interesting and useful.

Im down with the biomancy, as long as we keep it super sekret. Yule has kept it secret for a very long time, there is no known record of her having an apprentice either. I feel like she would get murdery the moment she has any inkling we have her magic.

Another option to biomancy is to show her the books to get Yang involved when we next encounter the Infinite Empire. Three worlds whose magi have access to biomancy would seriously get her interest.

>>666825
But I like "hardcockbeefcake" as a name!

>>666851
>>666856
We should interrogate her about her family asap. Though from what we could tell, they should be a lot older than we are. I don't think it's really been mentioned, but helen was around our age right?

That means that if the youngest of the three is our age, our counterpart should be ~8-10 years older than us.
This is gonna be even harder on Rathod, to fight people he knows and cares about, or at least who look like them. Perhaps we should just avoid dragging him along? He wouldn't like it, but we can't afford him freezing up during combat.

>>666502
>?
"Do you know of any other people who come over? I ask, because this means that the Infinite King knows our world's coordinates and could invade at any time..."

>>666570
>Saboteurs
That's a scary idea! I like it! Spy Catcher Jasmine, with a license to imprison!

>>666801
>assassinated
Like all those people who had 'hunting' accidents? Hm, maybe their world isn't that unified as they want people to believe? Power struggles in the shadows...

>>666825
>you can give them whatever names
-Go to portal, meet old man, OldWorld is named...
-Go through portal, see lots of people, CrowdWorld...
100 years later, people wonder what deeper meaning is behind the dimension names of the Famous Hero Jasmine.

>>668063
>That's a scary idea! I like it! Spy Catcher Jasmine, with a license to imprison!
More of a license to 'exile'!

>>668021
Think of what the rune would look like!

>>668035
Yeah, we really have to keep Thod off the combat missions. Stick to exploration and scholarly with him. He should really be doing his thesis work, anyway.

>>667993
She was really against it this time. Didn't want to get involved at all. We'll need some solid evidence/proof that it's a threat to her personally before we can get her on board.

>>668085
>license to 'exile'
New idea: Find a world without people in it, just animals or monsters, then exile all the criminals we find to there.
Private Prison Dimension!

>>668156
Will we call it Astralia?

>>668156
Death World, yes or no?

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>>668165
:)

>>668174
with occasional food drops, the inmates can fight over? Harharhar! Sounds good too!

Australia isnt that bad guys.
Also you trying to turn this into arkum plant? Or just let them fight each other and the monstest to eat.

>>668190
I think the odds of Exa letting us name a planet Hardcockbeefcake are higher then us successfully doing either.

>>668190
or: We offer a prison world, put the criminnals there, suck out their mana like the Royal Infinite Family, win.

>>668205
But then /we/ become the demons.

>>668207
We're the Good Guys, everyone resisting us is a Bad Guy. Don't overcomplicate things :).

>>668156
That seems like a waste of a world.

>>668212
Yeah, no. This is how villainy works. Veto.

>>666825
How about Jaz'sjizzboys?

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>>668371
No Anon, we're not doing that one either.

>>668389
Hunkland might be passable.

And a heavy maybe on Boitois

>>668287
We'll implement a work program?

But true, it seems like a plot of monster-free land would be quite a precious thing to sell.

>>668368
Dah. My plan is foiled...

Your mind works quickly at his response, and you slowly nod. He cringes when you open your mouth-

"How'd you escape?" You ask.

His eyebrows raise.

"I assume your Spiritual Cores are fucked up because of her, or her dad and his system." You say.

"... Yeah." He says. "Failed my test. They were, uh, sealing my Purity Core. Some emergency Astral Magic got me out, and I was able to escape for a while..."

"How did you end up on Helios?"

"Honestly?" He asked. "... I, uh, kept drawing random glyphs on a Gate and trying to open it. Eventually it did, and I ended up in the wilderness. Near, uh, the Broodmother territory."

You flinch.

"And you lived?" You ask, somewhat incredulous.

"A lot longer than I should have." He says. "Came across, uh, Salt Lake Village, and they took me in, and.."

He trails off and shrugs.

"So Helios isn't at risk to be invaded anytime soon?"

"I doubt it." He says. "It was completely random chance that got me there."

"So, why are you hanging around me then? Especially with what happened to you?"

"... At first it was a bit of morbid curiosity." He says. "I wanted to see what the weird mirror-verse version of the First Traveler's family was like. I mean, that was why I was so interested in Krital Angwaz back then."

"And now?"

He tilts his head, and thinks about it...

"Cause I'm your friend." He says.

There's a long moment of silence where you try to wrestle with yourself not to give him a stupid grin. Eventually you win the fight, and just sigh.

"Then maybe you can explain this 'Odh' and 'Psi' bullshit for me." You say. "The sorcery books I found didn't make it too clear."

There's a long pause- and then Neloch grins.

"That's because the idiots from Morrigan don't really get Sorcery." He says. "My folks, before they were... processed... had, uh, a pretty good time of it. Anyway, Odh's a pretty hard thing to get a handle on. You'll have to do a lot of introspection before you get it down."

"What's the difference?"

"Well... Technically speaking, Odh is the material your spiritual cores- your entire soul- is made out of. Like a twisted series of tubes. And then you fuel that with true mana- a fusion of Psi, Odh, and everything else that makes up someone's astral existence- and the core takes away that Odh to sustain itself. The psi is just a carrier. Like... plasma in the bloodstream, I guess. Your psi remains, and flows through the rest of your core, and that's the leftover energy that wizards tend to use."

"What's Anima in all this?" You ask.

"That's just a special kind of converted psi." He responds. "With the right astral magic, or the right cores, you can turn Psi into anything. I'm not very good at it, though... That's why I failed my test."

"What is the test?" You ask.

"The Infinite City teaches all children about magic, and takes the very best to turn into Adepts. Anyone who isn't on the top of the pile... They have their magic sealed away."

>?

>>668489
I guess we might as well trust him, he's sure to be a good source of info on Morrigan and the Infinite King if we stay on good terms with him.

>>668489
>"That sounds like the absolute worst. Have you seen/met your own alternate self yet?"

>>668489
"That sounds like a person's entire worth is determined once during some testing... Well, I'm going to fight Evil where I find it - and take away all their knowledge!"

>>668501
>stay on good terms
He's our pal, of course we will keep on good terms.
>>668510
>met your own alternate self
Looking forward to meeting mirror-Jasmine...
I expect more like twin-like behaviour, samey but with completely different experiences.

>>668489
>Give this man a slug in the arm and make him buy a dinner some time. And not a cheap one. That'll be punishment for keeping secrets like that.

>Then we finish up with the rathod dimensional prison.

>>668538
Hellbore was Jaz's alternate self though?

>>668559
Read over that part.
Thought, she was one of three, but we didn't know which one.

>>668489
Well if you failed it, it must be a pretty terrible test. You are self evidently extremely good at magic.

Tell me more about the runes which didn't work with the portal! Were you drawing regular runes or making upnew shapes?

>>668577
>>668559
>Hellebore is a lot younger than you- 16, maybe 19 at the eldest. From your studies in the history book, apparently the eldest daughter is named 'Aeoni' (Pronounced 'a-yo-nee', if anyone wonders), and the next is Lily. Meaning that Hellebore is the youngest daughter of three.

>>668559
>>668577
>>668596
Nevermind me then, my reading skills suck.

This is slightly worrying information.

>>668489
From what I read, It really seems like the infinite Empire is stagnating in terms of magic. Their magical materials are impure, there is no innovation, they just chase after the past.

I assume that's the test's fault since they test for their own limited type of magic and the winners are those that conform. While innovation often comes from creativity and challenging commonly held ideas. A lot of geniuses are spurned by society during their lifetimes.

>>668596
Hey, Exa, who ended up getting the chemical core anyways?

>>668596
So, Aeoni would be our mirror-self. She must be the strongest of all, genius extraordinaire, probably the hardest to defeat.

>>668602
>Empire is stagnating
Yes. But with their unlimited mana reserves, they're still hard to beat. How much effort did it take to defeat Hellebore, who's the weakest of the sisters... epic end battles or a sudden implosion of the Empire structure?

>>668616
Seconded, a brief rundown/summary of who got what would be appreciated.

>>668629
Well, I know we got the demons, Brun got anima and Thod got the materials. But did the Prince end up taking the Chemical core?

>>668639
Brun is superwoman now, with that regeneration core.
Our friends are the next generation of Archmagi?

>>668688
>archmagi
No. Archmagi are people that innovate, not just powerful people. Thod might make it and Nel and Cera too, but Brun doesn't seem likely.

>>668489
>I wanted to see what the weird mirror-verse version of the First Traveler's family was like. I mean, that was why I was so interested in Krital Angwaz back then.

"Did you intend on running into me at the subjugation?"

After the other questions we need to ask, "So, what do you think about the weird mirrorverse version of the Angwaz family?"

And bring up that Calam Angwaz was our father's name. And ponder on the fact that the alternate Calam Angwaz had three daughters.

>>668629
>You got the Demon core- Demons being hyper-efficient Dweomers that work on any non-analytical magic and can be controlled by your willpower, as opposed to having to control it through actions or command words. You also got the entire tower's pile of books and information, seeing as you're the only one who can actually open the doors inside. Rikar also officially declared the area yours by right of conquest. You'd gain the title 'baroness' if you didn't already have a title higher up than that.
>Brun got both Anima and the Chemical core, being checked out by both her mother and by Neloch to make sure that her soul's 'balance' would survive the second transplant.
>Rathod got the Synthesis Core, and you also lent him the book on Ebonstone and Voidgem properties. Only until after he's finished it, of course.
>Cera took nothing, saying that it might mess with her ability to use her father's Art.
>Uldora took nothing, saying that she didn't trust these 'artificial cores' and that they might mess with the balance between her dragon cores.
>Neloch took nothing, but did all of the transfusing- and a pretty damn good job of it, seeing as Hellebore survived.
>Rikar took nothing, but never gave a reason.

>>668766
Can we turn the Knowledge Demon towards integrating Analytical magic with the Demon Core?

>>668712
Cera didn't make archmage on her own, but will make it when her dad dies and she inherits his magical legacy.
Nel isn't in the system as far as I know, and so isn't in the running for archmage unless he goes out of his way to be so.
Thod might make it on his own, otherwise he needs to hope that Haron kicks the bucket before he does.

>>668778
>Not exactly. It's more that the way Analytical Magic actually works, all of the magic is done inside the spellcrystal based on the way you programmed it. Since you're not actually the one doing the magic, you can't 'teach' the Demon to do it for you.

>Though demons do have a lot of upsides compared to dweomers. If you wanted to make a coffeemaker dweomer, you'd need to program it to condense the water out of the air, heat it, smush up the coffee grounds and filter the water through it, spitting it all out into a cup. A complicated endeavor if you wanted to make it from scratch, that's for sure.
>But you wouldn't need to make a coffeemaker Demon- you'd just need to make a 'heat and kinetic force' demon. Then you can use the heat and kinetic force for whatever the hell you want from afar. Does mean you have to keep your attention on everything the Demon's doing, but you could also make it make pancakes while making coffee. Hell, have it iron clothes for you too- it's more efficient than a dweomer is.

>Then again, you also have to pay attention to it. Dweomers are automated, Demons are controlled by your mind/Demon Core.

>>668795
>Demons >pay attention to it
Goal: We have to train to control multiple ones at the same time, maybe subconsciously.

>>668795
>>668952
Better goal -
1. Make demons
2. Have demons make dweomers
3. Dweomers use Cera's magic
4. Grey Goo
5. ...
6. Profit!

>>669027
1. Make semen demons
2. ...
3. Profit!

>>668795
So, what you're saying is we need better multitasking ability.

... How was Hellebore running her army?

>>669054
Chemical Core buffing mental cogitation probably.

>>669063
Now I'm really disappointed we didn't take that.

Although, if we study Sorcery more and examine the core in Brun's soul we might be able to make one of our own.

>>668795
Hey Exa, can we do any more bonding with Gareth or are we tapped out on that end?

And Yule said she wasn't interested in Familiar magic, right?

A question we should ask Yule: Does she know how some monsters naturally produce Mithril?

Oh, and is she a powerful enough Biomancer to make some livestock immortal and regenerate quickly?

>>669077
We already know this. And the answer is yes.

>>669083
To which one?

>>669086
Both.

When we talk to Yule about Uldora's broken wing, we have to be careful to keep it a secret that we have a biomancy book... she probably wouldn't be keen to share.

>>669027
Or just use demons like lengthened arms and legs, carry us everywhere, fetch us stuff, write down things, give ourselves a massage...

>>669109
>>669112

Pretty sure that so long as we don't bring it up, it'll be a perfectly kept secret.

>>668795
Aww man, now we're never going to be able to defeat Brun.

>>669342
>defeat Brun
Let her fight our 'demons', tire her out? Can we create a super-strong one to just hold people with?

>>668489
I just realized that Nel's story is delivered haltingly. I don't trust him all of a sudden.

>>669843
He could be evil, sure. Or he could be dealing with life-shattering mental health issues due to having his very soul messed with. Just saying.

Yeah-nah. I do agree that we should keep an eye on him. At the very least he was all to eager to torture/harvest Hellebore for information and parts. It might be inter-faction rivalries, or it might just be deep-seated hatred for the ruling classes. Either way he's not really conducting himself in a very nice way. If we ever try to diplomacy, or have some subterfuge mission, he's likely to turn out to be a liability.

>>670157
To add, kinda like how Rathod was a liability at the execution.

does anyone know if sageing still works? I don't like doubleposting.

>>670157
Hm, Nel the Spy? Could be. But in that case, we showed him, that we can win a fight against one of the Infinite King's disciples - maybe that would lead to him going awol?

Or it's just paranoia talking and he's a simple dimensional refugee... but why didn't he take his family or friends with him, if his world was so oppressive? Oh, the doubt.

>>670160
>liability
Or he reminds us that even our enemies are people... maybe we're kind of like Sword of Truth's hero who fights against the evil empire, defeats it, takes it over - only to discover that there's an even more evil empire out there.

>>671985
Nel said his family was dead, so that's presumably why he didn't bring them with him.

>>669843
It was a pretty traumatic event and did literal damage to his ability feel emotion and act like a person. All the 'uh' pauses are probably just an artifact of Nel's soul's condition combined with the nature of the events he was describing. Additionally, his behavior has done nothing to suggest that his story might be false. His anger towards Hellebore, damage to his purity core, and willingness to be a part of our fight all support his story. I think it's silly to be suspicious of him. Neither his actions nor his words give us any reason to be.

>>671985
>>672322
>was able to escape for a while

Nel was on the run. If he had any friends or family, he probably either didn't have time to bring them with him or didn't want to endanger them by associating with them.

>>672322
>Nel's soul's condition
Good explanation! Nel is our pal and we need not be suspicious of him.

>>672333
>associating with them
Hopefully it's not like North Korea where the people left behind will be punished...

What happens after we capture all three of our sisters and dispose not!dad? Do we take over the country by force? Does Morrigan become a fiefdom of Helios? Are the mundanes left to self rule? Will that entire world be fed into the void?

>>672491
Their entire civilization will have to be re-invented. Pretty sure most normal people will be happy but it'll be a long and difficult process to weed out the power hungry.

>>672491
>>672507
Maybe we can figure out a different method of winning. Perhaps there's a way to shut down their portals, so they can't leave, or a way to shield or hide worlds from them, so they can't expand more. Then we don't have to reinvent their entire ways of life.

>>673319
We can rip the souls out of them.
Not like they have monsters left.

>>673430
>Removes +3 belt of asswhipin.
"Do I have to get all pooty tang up in here?"

>>672322
While I agree with you that that is the most likely cause of his behavior there are other interpretations. Maybe he wanted more power and the damage to his core came about while he was experimenting in himself. Maybe he despises Helen and her family because they jealously guard the power that he hungers for. Maybe he is playing us to get rid of his competition and I'd being really awkward about telling us anything to gain our sympathy and stop us pushing for details. Maybe it's worth bring suspicious.

I've been reading through the old threads, and it got me thinking.

We should probably start up our transportation company thing sooner or later, as it could bankroll any future adventures.

Also, Cera's friend Jocelyn mentioned wanting to apprentice for Yule. Maybe we could feed her a few snippets from the biomancy book, just enough to get Yule's attention?

>>676171
I don't know, I think we should investigate Yule's magic on our own first since her magic seems very prone to tragedy in inexperienced hands.

>>676171
Why would we want Yule's attention? She is thousands of years old and hasn't shared her craft. It is her competitive advantage. Why wouldn't she just kill anyone who looked like they were independently discovering it m

>>676171
Yule seems to be someone you actually don't want to be noticed by.
>>676191
So true!
>>673825
Could be. We should try to learn to detect dimensional portals...

"Well, if you failed it, then it must be a pretty terrible test." You say. "You are self-evidently extremely good at magic."

Neloch looks away for a bit. "I wasn't very good back then, at anything except Sorcery. I failed the Runic and Biomancy tests badly enough."

"But you were still good at Sorcery?"

"As good as someone can be without any materials." He says. "Which, for a sorcerer, isn't easy. You need diagrams in order to form new Spiritual Cores. And I had nothing."

"It sounds like the Infinite Empire is stagnating." You say. "Their magical materials are impure, and they have no innovation. If they only test for their limited types of magics, and make it impossible for any deviation..."

"I don't know much about that." He responds, sighing. "But seeing the magic people use on Helios, I figure that with the way they encourage archmages and unique magics, we'll be better off than the Infinite City is."

"Though having infinite mana is definitely going to be a problem." You say. "So, tell me more about the runes that iddn't work with the portal! Were you drawing regular runes, or making up new shapes?"

"Honestly?" He asks. "They have a booklet. Some kind of hermetic magic thing that the Infinite King discovered. All glyphs have the same kinds of shapes and limbs, and the booklet ran through a way to invent new glyphs. Something they have adepts doing is to practice with these 'new' glyphs to see if any of them actually work, and see if they can replace hermetic magic glyphs to modernize them. I, uh, spent three days in the Gate Room, trying to get it working."

"And you didn't get caught?"

"I had to run and hide every time someone came through. The higher-ranked Magi end up using the Gates to travel between worlds rather than the Rift."

"Hm." You say. "Are the Rifts like the one Hellebore had in the sky?"

"Not.. .exactly." He says. "The other ones are, uh, a lot bigger. And vertical, rather than horizontal."

You try to picture it- a portal that enormous and somehow stable- but you shake your head. As much as you'd love to study something like that, that continues to work even if the hermetic magic that made it failed, you don't have access to any of those worlds yet. It'll have to wait.

"Well, I'll probably have a lot more questions to ask about your homeland." You say. "But that can wait until later."

"Not a problem." He responds, shooting you a thumbs up. He makes his way through the portal and back to Helios.

>Continued!

>>678150
Finally, it's just you, Rathod, and the unconscious Hellebore. The gem on her collar is gleaming brightly, storing all the magic that the ebonstone had absorbed, and Thod absentmindedly takes the gem out of it, replacing it with a quick application of his new core.

"How are you doing?"

"I think I've almost got it." He says. "I've got a bit of a talent for branching electronics and dweomers."

"Anything you need me to do?"

"Well..." He tosses you the gleaming gem. "If you can get a pocket dimension started with that."

"Er... How?"

"Right. You need to touch it against the spellcrystal." He says. "I think. Should flood the spellcrystal with stored mana."

"I can do that." You say. "But you should get through the portal first. My demon's keeping the portal charged, and when I leave, it'll vanish."

"Right." He says. He carefully hefts Hellebore's unconscious body up, and carries them through the portal.

You look out, at the battlefield, at Hellebore's tower... And curiously, you open a portal- just to see where this location is on your homeworld.

The portal opens- and you see the city of Tark.

... You're not sure what to think of that.

=== Entering HELIOS ===

Back in your testing chamber, you turn toward the gate you just exited through. You let the gate close, and then you start tinkering with the structure, setting it to open into Nothingness. Then you touch the voidgem's surface to the spellcrystal in the Gate's innards- and the portal winks open to a smooth, black surface.

You crack your fingers, flex your neck, and pour mana into your demon-creation core. Twisting, silver streams of light move forward at your will, pushing the pocket dimension into its full shape. Come to think of it... Perhaps you could put something from your study on Hellebore's rift to use here. With your studies on the fabric of reality, and how the size of a dimension tends to rely on its tension- the strength of the reality's dimensional foam... Hellebore's rift was designed explicitly to have as strong a tension as possible. If you use the same concept here...

With a thought, a conjured Knowledge Demon, and a hermetic glyph... reality contorts around you.

Some time later, Rathod comes into the testing chamber, Cera and Hellebore behind him. Thod looks around at the enormous reality, charged full of so much mana that your head is starting to ache. There's more than enough space in here to fit a small building.

"... I didn't know you could make something this large." Rathod said, looking around.

"I couldn't, until recently." You say. "What's Cera doing here?"

"... I'm earning a favor." Cera responds. "If Rathod is going to be Archmage someday, then I'll get a lot more than the effort I'm putting in now."

"What kind of effort?"

Cera closes her eyes, and the black, rubbery bottom of the dimension becomes solid brick, material coalescing around you.

"Making this hole in reality livable." She says.

>?

>>678236
Don't make it too livable.

>>678365
Umm, no. If we're keeping her as a prisoner then we should make it as comfy for her as possible.

>>678236
Can we set up some sort of monitoring system? I know we can't use demons, but can we set up radio/video dweomers to send us information across dimensions so we'll know when she wakes up and what she gets up to in prison?

>>678236
Does that mean you're gonna start trying to earn favor with me too?

>>678236
Ah, well, nice then. Just make sure it isn't a fun time palace. Also any considerations you need to know for this pocket realm? Also tell your Dad I'm going to need to talk to every archmage I can, soon. he's older than I and has more clout. The infinite city needs to be known about.

>>678236
"Well, if that's what Thod wants."

"It helps to make the boarders solid, so they can help hold the thing out."

the real question is: do we let them put a coffee dweomer in there, or do we deny her that life-giving liquid?

>>678236
>>678408
>>678365
A gilded cage is still a cage, and is much more likely to endear her to her captors than a bare cell.

Stockholm syndrome aside, anyways.

>>678236
Well we want our not-sister to have a semi-comfortable existence, maybe give her a nice rustic home? Something like what we grew up in with flowers and pretty shit.

It is a prison but she is far from the average type of prisoner. She has valuable info and such so a bit of pampering might go a long way for later milking of knowledge.

>>678408
I don't know if they have coffee where she comes from.... I kinda want to see a tweaked out and confused Hellebore who doesn't understand what is going on with her mind/body as she drinks too much coffee now.

>>678236
A comfy prison sounds like a good idea, maybe with some books about ethics and morality :).
>>678442
>Stockholm syndrome
Can we employ a psychologist to advice us about getting prisoners to reveal their secrets?

>>678150
>booklet
I really want that one! Maybe it's somewhere in the tower?

We have to look around for the honey business for our Prince. Then employ some magic teachers to send there.

Pure story text for anyone reading up on Samsara Quest:
Samsara Quest 1: http://pastebin.com/aY234YRU
Samsara Quest 2-5: http://pastebin.com/QbhT291P
(divided because of 500kb limit)

I'm thinking a modest little cottage. Relatively comfy bed, reading nook with a nice big bookshelf, a small stove, running water, and a small workspace for any hobbies Rathod feels she's earned.

>>678150
>"Honestly?" He asks. "They have a booklet. Some kind of hermetic magic thing that the Infinite King discovered. All glyphs have the same kinds of shapes and limbs, and the booklet ran through a way to invent new glyphs. Something they have adepts doing is to practice with these 'new' glyphs to see if any of them actually work, and see if they can replace hermetic magic glyphs to modernize them. I, uh, spent three days in the Gate Room, trying to get it working."
Literally banging their heads against a wall to figure it out.

>>681887
It seems like they don't realize that hermetic magic is related to the stars.

If we get our hands on that booklet, then we might actually be able to derive the rules surrounding hermetic magic.

Then we can found the Art of Runic Magic!

>>681910
It hilarious how easily we solved the problem they're struggling with. I want to laugh in their faces but I'll have to settle for laugh at Hellebore.

>>680749
>Stockholm syndrome
>Can we employ a psychologist to advice us about getting prisoners to reveal their secrets?
If you don't want to torture her then you'll have to put on a tsundere act. Being a bitch at first than softening up does wonders to make you more likeable.

>>681091

thank you

"But not too livable." You say. Cera just rolls her eyes.

"I'll make it more like your podunk village then." She snarks.

"You know I grew up there too, right?" Rathod asks.

"My condolences." Cera says. She waves with her arm, and more marble bricks begin making up the floor.

"It helps if you make the borders solid." You say. "It's kind of like the inside of a balloon. Keep enough material in the way, and it won't stretch back."

"I can do that." She says, and smooth glass surfaces start to run up the borders of the dimension. For a strange moment, you feel like you're in a snowglobe. Then something changes and the infinite blackness behind the glass becomes brighter and softer, gleaming with an inner light.

"Huh. How does that work?" You can't help but ask.

"The right crystalline structure, and a bit of a light spell." Cera responds. "I've got it set to a proper day and night cycle."

"You should tie it into this." Thod says, holding up a gem. It's wrapped in a shimmering, gleaming dweomer, complex spell-work- the core of some hefty, overcomplicated spell. To be honest, Rathod's probably better at analytical magic than you are- especially with his master teaching him. Cera raises her eyebrows.

"That's a serious dweomer."

"I'm, uh, pretty good at this." He says. "This is the core of the spellsystem. If it breaks, I'll get alerted, and we can tie all of the prison's systems into it. Electrical, mana-based, everything."

"Then I'll let you set that up." Cera says. "I'll work on the structure."

"Let's put it in the basement." Rathod says.

Cera's eyes flutter closed again, and a simple rustic structure begins to fill the pocket dimension, stretching at the walls. It looks like a comfortable place to live. If it weren't for the fact that it's a prison, that is.

"Are you also going to make sure she gets food and water? And, uh, breathable air?" You ask.

"Yes." Cera says. "A single human's spare mana can fuel enough food and water for three people."

"Huh." You say. "That's, uh, pretty efficient."

A long moment passes while Rathod carefully installs the dweomer and gem at the very bottom of the spherical dimension, while Cera wraps heavy brick and what looks like blast plating around it.

"So." You say. "Does that mean you're gonna start trying to earn favor with me too?"

"What?"

You wink at her. "After all, I'm already a shoo-in for Archmage." You say, neglecting to mention that you've already made it. You made it, in fact, the day Cera was made Magus.

Cera rolls her eyes, as the basement level is completed. A few heavy doors appear in place, and wooden logs start making up the walls. The outside of the building gradually transforms into dirt, and plant matter, blades of grass reaching toward the sky.

"I suppose." She sighs. "I suppose I could use a personal favor from you. Especially if I'm in a hurry to get somewhere."

Then she eyes you.

"Why? What would you want?"

>?

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>>683987
A date!

>>683987
>Damn, and I was so good about keeping my trip. This is me, by the way.

>>683987
I can't actually think of anything I want from Cera.

What about a business agreement where her dweomers power our portals, then we work to setup a transport network?

>>683987
About three inches of height.

>>683987
Nothing at the moment. I was just teasing mostly.

>>683987
Someone is eager to please. Also we should compliment her on her interior decorating skills.

This >>684062 I suppose.

>>684042
I thought we had already proposed this to her and she said she would ask

>>683987
Well it would be nice if you came and helped save a far away place from a foreign invader and got to meet strange new peoples with me.

>>684089
Yep, it was while we were drunk.

>>683987
>>684016
Let's say this, and then laugh when she gets all flustered. It'll make it that much better when we actually start dating her.

>>684526
Honestly I think we'd have to do more than that to fluster her.

>>684585
She got pretty flustered when we insinuated we had slept together after getting drunk, and crucially mentioned that she might be into it.
>"I didn't- I'm not into- oh god, I might be into- you didn't- Scholar, did we-"

I think we should save that kind of teasing for situations where she is drunk. It's funnier that way.

>>684625
>there's a Cerafag other than me
My man of good taste