Stories of Lore 41

More than installing a planetary shield it appears Valadeus took over Jamalia’s. Also it appears that in our absence a system was put in place by Valadeus to ship thousands of merkas ‘elsewhere’. There were multiple destinations. He has also been “enslaving” arcurans. Similar to our own experience with them, they don’t take much convincing. So he has an arcuran army as well now, though its still a small grouping and I think we have more of them. Interestingly, Asmodan is here as well ‘rescuing’ merkas. Given what we know about them, it is kind of obvious. Though to the merkas it probably isn’t so evident that the Phantoms are just splitting the two races apart to take to different campaigns for the time being in preparation for the destruction of their moon.

To our advantage, they weren’t really focused on preparing to defend the planet from us as they had other things to deal with. To our disadvantage, Valadeus’ army is larger than ours. The initial charge brought down the planetary shield though Koda said to double check with you if you want to bombard them despite the risk to the native life. Particularly the captured merkas.

Valadeus himself has disappeared, though initial strategical reports suggest he is likely to be buying time. We have a very short window before they could mount an effective retaliation. Sethis warns that Asmodan is Sol’s signature space pirate king. Until recent discoveries about the bigger pirate in the Western Reach he was number one. His fleet is immense though unlike Faelyn it does not utilize many larger ships which may be to our advantage.

We also know the Areti will be ready to deploy soon, and that they originally planned for the arrival of Decaelys. Thus increasing the necessity for fast action, and increasing general frustration at the inability to find Valadeus. To add to the pile, the moon has no shielding beyond the station Renjala built for harvesting from it. So if Decaelys does arrive, it is relatively unguarded without the active presence of our fleet.

Casualties so far include Gheir, Akuhiko, and Yonam. Rennyn has crashed on the planet’s surface and is presumed to be alive but that might be a temporary analysis.

We have control of the orbital situation and have retaken Jamalia. However the orbital shield was damaged in the attack, though it should be possible to repair within a month or two. Though Valadeus has several arcuran camps under his command and Asmodan is somewhere out there. Current troop movements are hindered by the jungle itself though we are regrouping at Jamalia.

Yes the academy increases chances of finding crew members for the ships.

The Pandem Radar complex is reconstructed to the best of our ability. Our early detection system has been improved by it though there is a crystal component we are missing to restore its full functionality it once had. According to the servers that Nah division has been rummaging through, those crystals were made by Sakhessa and specifically amplify its range and the speed of its analysis. We can imitate the effect but only for a brief scan, targeting either a specific ship ID we’re curious about or getting a clear readout of a particular area of space.

Khymin reports that your new prototype toy is ready for testing. Testing meaning three years of careful stress tests before finalizing- or you can just take the keys now. That works too….annnd it’s gone. Khymin’s working on some improvements to stabilize the design…again.

 

We’ve retaken Jamalia, home sweet home, at minimal losses. Actually it was surprisingly easy, I suspect we got there faster than they could mount a defensive force since they were expecting us to be busy with other things. Also Eerihild and the wolf knights are rather dominant on Enohas. No I did not recommend her outfit or carrying four swords, apparently she got the idea from Reika.

While we have taken Jamalia, it is worth remembering that the jesai’s objective will actually be the moon. Which is a lot harder to protect, its nature as an arcane moon means that it is dangerous to set foot on. Also we don’t know how the jesai can…move a moon?

Eerihild has been investigating the state of the planet. There is a resisting force of merkas…again. Though they are definitely weaker than the ones we last saw, probably because Haziel hunted down so many of their strong spirited members before. Morale for the merkas is at an all time low. When we met them they were losing to the arcurans and being dragged out of their warrens for slaughter, then dealing with us, their princess died, then Haziel hunted their resistance down, then falling apart while the arcurans reigned, and now Valadeus. They…haven’t had a win in awhile.

Haziel has been preparing to leave for the Fae Wilds after deliberation with Ankathi. Neither Ankathi or Haziel told us this, I found out because Sarnai eavesdrops on everything. Is it eavesdropping if its her body that they’re using as the telephone? Eerihild informed me that after the campaign on Enohas she will be going with her mother along with her best knights. Haziel has objected to Eerihild going but Eerihild is being stubborn. Sarnai says Ankathi told Haziel that some key to restoring the fragment of the primordial Wilds soul she has is there. So I’m sure they’re preparing for some ludicrously dangerous adventure.

In the assault, Akuhiko was killed by one of Valadeus’ minions and Yonam fell victim to Ki’Ralcht. Bill almost died too but that was more so because he flew around as a bird most of the time and birds are fragile when half the forest is exploding.

Also still no word from Renjala? It would be nice if we at least knew if he still…existed.

It’s somewhat hard to determine the results of your project’s testing since you’re doing it to people in the wild as opposed to Vasia’s lab. Also everyone likes having a pet cat, as you may have noticed by now, though the way you want to go about this is definitely a long process. Vasia points out she could speed all this up. Actually her words were “I can make them suicidal in a couple of days give or take.” I also feel you could accomplish this whole thing a lot faster with the lucid ritual, they’re already cultists willing to do anything you ask. Including creating a large scale psionic ritual that super charges your own abilities and leaves them quite vulnerable to anything you want to do.

Haziel apparently relied on the advice of Ankathi over your greater seer. Likely because Ankathi has accomplished ascension, which is what Haziel is trying to do. So an experienced professional who knows the step by step instructions is probably more appealing than a fortune teller.

Though if you’re curious about the Wilds, it was a primordial force back in the days before the rising. So it ranked above the old pantheon because it was older. It being dead has not helped historians piece together what it actually was by modern magical understanding. Basically it liked natural landscapes, made minions who liked natural landscapes, and maintained Thenican ecosystems. We killed it because of Haziel actually. She destroyed so many towns and cities that she got added to the purge list, and that meant going after her god. Actually after we killed it there was about two hundred years of awful. Specifically droughts, floods, and a very large extinction event. It was actually during this time period that Shetou became a really big thing, because the underdark was spared from the worst of it and its inhabitants were already adapted to extremely harsh conditions. People have mostly forgotten about it, Haziel likely spent centuries as various animals and never revealed herself. If she had turned out to be a Phantom it would have made perfect sense, though she was probably a squirrel for awhile there and they didn’t even know she was still out there. Kaylen would probably have more to say about Haziel being alive given how dangerous to civilization she was, if it weren’t for the fact that Haziel now just mopes around all day and Kaylen has enough problems and not enough time to solve them.

Kaylen has no idea who Gellix even is.

Also yeah putting muzzles on drones wouldn’t be hard, though what do you want to do with them then? It’s not like they could fight like that.

The noodles do tend to develop hobbies. Rhazin sunbathes and plays tag with some of the others, but Craylin has been making random things out of junk. I think she was making baskets out of leaves and mud most recently. It’s a long way from being useful but I guess she’s a creative type. She has apparently making excursions into the city and stalking people as well.

Grinhys is on his way back to explore Cayetano as asked.

Setal has been implementing Lancaster’s plan for Zenaka.

Vasia points out her chat group has fallen apart thanks to you. Also she knows of at least one rogue Desoir who became some sort of musician and was last seen on Thenica. They probably wouldn’t miss her. Though for the moment she’s busy at Enohas. Very busy. I have a feeling Vasia would be happy to see us lose so she could see Decaelys in action, as she did not know sahad users could just eat moons or whatever the Phantoms are planning.

Oh if you’re curious about Kaylen’s new student, her name is Genevieve. Apparently something about being in constant physical pain while her mana well tries to explode makes her very cranky. Like…abnormally cranky. Si Yeon points out It’s less of a treatment for her mana rupture as an active method of preventing it from killing her. Imagine it as if she needs to constantly flex every muscle in her body to prevent herself from bleeding out. Apparently Si Yeon has been building a sort of chamber that might help the girl maintain herself while asleep as she wakes up on the brink of death every day.

 

Wait what do you mean, “Baltun” to Zenaka? I have a handgun and do paperwork here at the office. Though Vanjin went without any complaints at least.

Getting Michael out of Auwana might be harder than expected, ever since Lancaster showed up they’ve been improving security. We’re looking for an opportunity to extract him though it might take a bit.

We still actually don’t know who has the White Lion. Past intel suggests that Sakhessa should have it but she’s also not the type of combatant to use a sword like that. If she gave it to Deinuu that would make sense but we did not see it with him at the duel. It is a huge sword, the fact that we haven’t physically seen it being carried by anyone is an indicator that it might not be where we think it is. That or someone has a bag of holding. Aryn points out that only specifically qualified people can wield the full power of any of these artifacts. A theory tested by having anyone other than Reika hold the Ryner. So her theory is they might be passing it around trying to see if they have a suitable wielder for it’s full potential. Given they have an army spread over the galaxy, it could take a bit for the sword to get into any new hands.

As an update, Allison is in Sol establishing her uh… ‘crime ring’. There isn’t really much crime anymore though. Shetou doesn’t care and Alnae fell apart. So she’s more of a bandit queen right now I suppose.