The report from the first and second brigade is in. The Areti’s siege of the moon is dramatically more powerful than initially calculated, though that is likely due to it needing to pay little to no attention to defensive systems since we have no fleet or infrastructure out there. Also Faelyn’s entire fleet is hitting it and took no casualties reaching the moon, as such their initial estimates give them a month before it fails.
The fleet approaching Zenaka has spread out over the system and are disrupting space traffic, though we have a portal to get there so we’re not entirely sure what they’re up to. Though they are sticking out of range of the defenses for now. The natives are growing nervous though.
The fleets proceeded at maximum warp to Enohas to contest Decaelys. On the upside, it did stop her from whatever her original plan was. On the downside, they weren’t able to do anything to her directly. So remember how she can theoretically stop time? That includes the space directly in front of her. It was like that old movie with the guy who just holds up his hand and all the bullets stop in mid air. A brave shuttle pilot tried to ram her and discovered that the ship’s wards could protect from this effect which led to a chain of attempts to just run into her but space is big and she is more mobile in space than most. After destroying some of the fleet she just disappeared, likely into that fourth dimensional warp fuckery that we know she can do. So we lost a few dozen starships and stalled her yet again.
Kaylen reports that Song Yi has no interest in fighting the Areti. There was a much longer conversation, that Kaylen lost, but basically House Song’s only means of fighting the Areti would be with House Sharen’s fleet, which they are still withholding to observe the initial conflict with us and the Phantoms. Atop of which, since Faelyn is not a lich she isn’t on Song Yi’s priority list. It may also turn out that Song Yi is however not sitting around doing nothing. She’s looking for a way to deal with the terrasque as well as track it down.
Vittles reports that they can help in sending food to Preskian but not without straining the supplies for the Federation. Which are already a bit iffy, iffy enough that cyborg cultists are eating their own limbs down in Roha. With the druids gone to the Fae Wilds our supplies have started to dwindle, turns out that without Bill and the gang our crops are not doing so well. Eden is a single living planet but not one that bears much food, and Garden isn’t even built into any soil. Basically right now there isn’t much to spare. We could do so anyways for the sake of diplomatic relations but Vittles thought to ask real quick before they did that.
Speaking of the druids, people have been reporting strange occurrences across both Sol and the Federation. Trees are dying and normally docile animals are becoming more violent. Now I’m not saying Lancaster did something, but just something to keep in mind. I believe Irae will be paying closer attention to it.
Also I will note that I don’t think that Valen is particularly interested in affecting change so much as making money. She’s been reading a lot of news about the state of galactic affairs and suddenly taken a keen interest in having Vittles help her set up a farm on the land we gave her in Zenaka. She’s a bit of a wild card though if you’re hurting for capable soldiers I suppose she’ll have to do.
We’ve re-established contact with Eleazor, the ring sort of spat him back out. More so it rotated the section he was in to get it some sunlight and suddenly he was just…there. An emergency operation led by Madhammer retrieved him, Gunhild, and Laenadra. Who has lost another mech. Though debriefing reveals a lot of information.
The inner workings of the ringworld are impossibly vast and always shifting, but there is an entire ecosystem underneath the surface of the ringworld as well. The surface tiles that we see represent probably fourty five percent of the available sections within the ring that we will ever see on the surface. Modules that need to see the sun every once in awhile and are rotated out. However, these tiles make up a very small fraction of the other available tiles within the ring that have no intention of ever seeing the surface.
It is inhabited by even more creatures, and scarier ones too. Though they encountered something in there, something sapient. He described it as an ancient machine intelligence that told them the purpose of the ever shifting maze. Upon further analysis, the labs have concluded its an exerlus from consensus six. The creators of the ring found and captured one, using it for the basis of the technology that allowed them to build the ring world in the first place. This is also how the terlim machines were built. So it turns out that most of the galactic fuckups that civilization caused were because they got ahold of some crippled exerlus and tried to speedrun a few billion years of technological advancement and then got a little too close to the sun on that one.
That aside, the ring is always moving because there is more than one of these exerlus within the ring, and they don’t get along. Their creations are constantly trying to fight for control of the ring but the constant shifting has to do with protecting itself from these invasions.
Gunhild was asking why Echo Prime left them here, since if she had the keys that absolutely means that the Echo Consensus knew about this place and knew what was in it. Eleazor supooses that it is exerlus policy not to mess with things that they have no business meddling with. Even if it is an exiled consensus being found inside of a ringworld that is factory producing robot monsters with laser beams on their heads.
Either way, Diadem is a battlefield between a few of these exerlus who are both too crippled to go punch each other and too outdated to fix themselves of their own volition. As the knowledge to repair themselves fully was deleted before the ringworld experiments began.
I suppose all you care about though, is that we have to either shut these exerlus down or get them out in order to get any section of the ring to stop moving erratically but if we do that it will be undefended from the other exerlus sending waves of mechanical monsters in. That was all the information Eleazor was able to get before getting kicked out after mentioning the key. The current theory is that the keys he has don’t give him admin access to the station. Echo Prime didn’t have anything so convenient, instead she just made him a flash drive that shuts off other exerlus. Because the one he was talking to was very unhappy to learn what he had.
It would seem that the absence of the druids is having a dramatic impact around the federation’s food supplies. Which I suppose we kind of saw coming but it was hard to convince them not to go on an epic adventure with the last archdruid. Though whatever they are doing, it’s causing erratic effects. With planar connections warping as Haziel does…whatever she is doing…things are not happening consistently but definitely abnormally.
It appears that all plants are starting to wither as if experiencing a sudden winter despite it not being all that cold. At least according to the local botanical scientists working for Vittles. Our fishing teams have reported that the native fish of the planet are growing more aggressive. Back in Thenica there are wild animals like rats just attacking people in their sleep and trying to bite them in the eye so that they’ll wake up too blind to fight back. Reportedly a few elves have been eaten alive by a swarm of rats. These are some of the extreme cases and it isn’t so universal that anyone else has really noticed the cause, but whatever Haziel is doing it isn’t a locally contained thing. The Fae Wilds are the higher plane from which much of what we understand as nature stems from, she’s altering the laws of nature and if she succeeds…well civilization might be about to take another hit across all of the galaxy. On the upside, my house plants are growing beautifully and a small sprout of basil I grow for spaghetti has now turned into a bush.
We’re not sure if this is all the result of Haziel intentionally doing something, or of what might be a war between the archdruid and something else. Though weather patterns back on Thenica are also growing strange, with lightning storms forming rapidly. Next week’s forecast predicts a flood at the ruins of what was once a capital city. Which isn’t too big of a deal since the city was already destroyed by Nelta, but it was not built in a place where a flood should be possible, and it hasn’t been for thousands of years. We’re safe from all of this here on Moncayo, the abyss doesn’t give a shit and we’re in a water bubble, but I thought you might find it interesting.
Our lordlings have gone forth into the territory of Ki’Ralcht. It was rough. Even with military assets at their side, Ki’Ralcht was already gearing for war with the Vloz invading Valadeus’ old territory. One of two succubi is dead already, killed by Ki’Ralcht herself with the aid of Asmodan’s pirates. Though we did score some ground through it all to establish a few camps they can operate from.
Aryn’s candidate having their shit together is exactly what makes them untrustworthy. You don’t make it far in the demon kingdom without stabbing a few backs and mauling a few fellows. We finally got their profiles sorted out if you’re interested in that sort of thing.
It’s a little difficult to help Charlotte with the Vivarium unless they want to build a new station for it. If they intend to put it on the Iron Cradle then we might have to wait for them to not be across the galaxy.
Rousing speech boss, I’m going to Zanin. We have a puddle there I can probably make a bit bigger. Alexandria just took over the administrative buildings and now controls Roha. Loyalists are being found dead in the streets every day as the inquisitors patrol. I sent Rhazin to ‘maintain the peace’. She sent him back in six pieces. Kaylen sent some boys over to see what was up, they can’t find Alexandria. Also I think you are correct to be suspicious that Alexandria isn’t entirely affiliated with Cassir directly. The other problem is she’s very sneaky, we can’t actually find her. Rhazin didn’t even see her coming before he woke up in the ichor lake. Though he can tell that he was impacted by a massive psionic attack from below the street he was walking down. There is a crater there that goes down to a sewer channel so that checks out. I’m starting to think this isn’t Cassir’s apprentice. Cassir was a cold bitch sure but she wasn’t cruel. She was also never very sneaky about anything she did, nor ruthless. At this point, I think it might have something more to do with Vasia than Cassir. That or maybe the Phantoms…actually maybe the Revenants. This is definitely in their MO.
Alexandria brought me cookies again and I’m just keeping my mouth shut. If they can take down Rhazin I’m not gonna try anything. She asked if you were going to stop by anytime soon.
If anything Kennae is a great example of an immortal that makes this linguistically confusing. He’s definitely not a higher sapience like Kanika even if he is biologically immortal through…protein shakes I guess? Though I don’t exactly have a phone to him, I just recap the things you said to me earlier this month for the sake of these monthly reports.
Though he did say that if he wanted to talk to Kaylen he could just go over to her, she’s not hard to find. He’s just got other things to do and he hopes she has better things to do than talk to him too. I get the feeling he was a surprisingly strict teacher.
He also mentioned that hiding in a fort will do little to help the jydoq people. Then a thirty minute ramble about the merits of zankou and being always prepared. Also he’s heading out to get back to work hunting the assassin and any other ne’er do wells he might come across.
Also given that you’re not having much luck, I’m gathering you have still yet to gain any foresight as to the assassin’s whereabouts. Does that mean they’re not paying attention to you or that they are still plotting a plan? I don’t know how your power works so I’m not sure at which stage of an assassination it would trigger. Can you tell from the moment they intend ill will upon you like Cassir or is it more of once they embark on a plan of action? That or is it just like that spider guy cartoon where you can tell two seconds before it hits in you the back of the head?
You know I can still taste things right? The taste just doesn’t have much meaning. Since I can taste everything in the synapse too. At this point its just a chemical receptor test to analyze the properties of an object rather than…flavor.
Also I doubt Song Yi has time to deal with your horrors. She is the guardian of ancient and terrible techniques and that is what she focuses on maintaining. Apparently she’s currently more concerned with Kanika’s lich-terrasque. Kennae is the one who fights injustice anywhere he finds it in any form like a warcrime seeking missile. Song is after necrocarnates, Kaylen is after Phantoms, and so on and so forth. I feel like Song Yi might be inclined to kill you too were not for the fact that she has a lot on her plate right now since she is hunting the biggest and baddest liches as well as us discovering dozens maybe even hundreds are out there working for Kanika.
-Renjala isn’t here to be the smoke alarm for a House Yi crusade. What are the chances she totally views my method of immortality as acceptable? I don’t *technically* alter their soul myself, I just give it my mind and my memories, and it just starts fitting better over time.
Drow actually do have dressing slaves, or more so servants who help them dress. That or whoever you live with. Standard practice in the morning for everyone to help one another with that. Those outfits are way too tight with way too many straps to do it all by yourself every day. Drow tend to lean between really loose and lazy clothes they can just throw on and ridiculously ornate things that somehow cover up even less but take two people to assemble every morning. At least the rich ones do. I just wore jeans but my mother liked to pretend to be fancy so I had to help her put that stuff on every day.
Craylin’s just curious, don’t mind her stalking people. She’s less than a few months old and being asked to live in a society that fears her for what she is. Let alone that creepy stare, so she just likes to go people watching to see what normal humanoids are like.
We know a really good assassin but counter assassin is a bit iffier. I suppose that is sort of your thing really but you have your own assassin after you. Nah Division is the next best bet. Vanjin especially.
We did a test of the FTL trap, it takes a lot of mana but New Age can actually do it. Granted it also takes a huge rig to do so and we can’t get it as big as Decaelys could. However, could just put it in a missile if we wanted to.
Si Yeon has been sick for the last few weeks so she doesn’t have much research to report. I’m not sure how sick but if it lasts that long it’s kind of odd. She still shows up to the labs but spends most of the time in her office or the bathroom in her office. She didn’t say it but I can’t help but remember that those who were infected by the parasite shouldn’t be able to get sick. At least not for too long.
Though she did report some success making a toxin that interrupts mana flow. Sort of an accident, she was going for mana drain but instead it does a little bit a drain and a lot of disruption. Disables casting though it has an issue in overcoming super resistances to poison. For example, undead who have no bloodstream or Eliza who just casually eats diseases like eleven essential herbs and spices. Would have worked on Illdath though, thirty seventy if it does anything to something like Decaelys. We have no dragons to experiment on but it might outright kill them given how magical their biology is.
ARC is on its way to Enohas to fight Decaelys but it takes a bit to get there. Sounds like it’ll be all wrapped up by the time they do.
Allison figured out whats happening on Thenica. Eliza isn’t with the Jaal’Darya at the moment. She’s what the Phantoms are moving. Though we don’t know where she’s going or why. While she was at it she also uncovered that Eliza, having been left to her own devices with Kanika’s research budget for so long, has become something…else. Dazzle has the strength of a dragon now, and Eliza herself is said to have gone even further. She is on Eden’s level as a surgeon, but instead of changing people’s native planes she can change their race. To anything she has an existing sample of.
As for House Beldobaan, we’ve learned that their house’s neutrality has cost them economically over the years. It is less so that Yasrena is what she is, and more so that the board was just reset in the recent invasions. Beldobaan has clung to power in irrelevance by hiding behind their neutrality so no one would even notice the gaping holes in their influence in the modern day. They are the weakest great house because they were the least aggressive in any way shape or form. Sharen’s dominance comes from economic aggression and so forth.
So it seems that they’re concocting a plan to get back on the playing board, they chose to be neutral at a very bad time. The industrial revolution just passed them by and they’ve been struggling to keep up ever since but you’d never know it since they are so secretive behind their walls. Yasrena represents a good shot for them to do that. The Yochlol thing presents a great front for the real reason, Kanika and the Phantoms can do what Beldobaan wishes they could. They’re not looking for the old ways, they’re looking for an ‘in’ to the Phantoms so they can get some assistance in restoring their power with the front of traditional values to leave themselves a little wiggle room.
This stems from one more complication. Historically it has been noticed that people tend not to mess with them despite them holding good lands. It turns out their matriarch was married into the house a long time ago and slowly but silently rose to power and became the matriarch by basically killing the previous one, as drow tend to do. However, before she married into Beldobaan, she was a Vloz. The reason people tended not to mess with Beldobaan is that Kharla just happened to keep turning all of Beldobaan’s rivals into dolls if they got anywhere near that matriarch since it is Kharla’s cousin. As we know, Kharla has a whole thing about blood relatives and making sure no one touches them.
So this puts Beldobaan in an awkward position. Their hidden ties to Kharla keeps them safe but Kharla isn’t exactly pushing drow politics forward. Without Kharla, House Vloz would be a bit of a joke given how old and backwards they are. They only maintain relevance because Kharla is the most powerful drow in Sol and perhaps to ever live. If even Kanika is wary of crossing paths with Kharla, that’s a clear sign that Kharla is not to be trifled with. So if they maintain their neutrality with the hidden threat that Kharla might come beat the Phantoms up if they get too uppity, they’ll be in a really bad spot if Kharla ever dies. A distinct possibility with how crazy she is. However, if they outwardly and immediately side with Yasrena they could anger Kharla who has quietly protected them for quite some while now.
The Matriarch of Beldobaan is playing it slow not to feel things out, which fits in theme with their house’s image, but to find Kharla and try to talk to her. Since Kharla was just evacuated to the demon kingdom after the Revenant attack, she’s become extremely difficult to gain access to.
We may have just uncovered a conspiracy that could rock the drow world and the many layers on which they’re all playing to try and get ahead of twenty different problems in a month. I suppose that’s why you’re the leader of the division, but damn sir that was fast.
We have conducted a minimally invasive survey of the flora and robofauna. It appears their designs are organically based, and I suspect there was once life here or somewhere nearby…or that they encountered in a database somewhere. Though the consistency in form shows intention, it isn’t random assembly chaos to see what works. That’s important because it means wherever they’re coming from, they’re being designed by something with a much larger brain. Though I don’t know why it wouldn’t imbue the same properties into its creations or network them into a consensus properly. There is also a consistency in some models, but a high variety of them. Though each model is exactly the same as any other in its species. No serial numbers though. Thank you for the abundance of samples Chevalier.
Vanessa and Adrienne have been conducting stealth surveys to see what they do when we aren’t looking. They do very much hunt and play, they even seem to have packs that can distinguish each other somehow despite the seemingly identical construction and the complete lack of data transmission methods. They have scars, wear and tear, and with that they can visually distinguish one another. Though Adrienne says they exhibit personalities, and that is how she can tell a specific one apart from the group. It hurries to its destinations with more urgency than the others but for no practical reason.
We don’t know where they get their energy from. We aren’t sure but it is reasonable to suspect they are solar powered by how much they like to sit in the sun. Though we have also seen species that eat other machines and consume specifically their battery cells.
In all, they’re alive as much as any other animal but with different biological functions and so far no observed methods of reproducing. They come from somewhere in the ring’s labyrinth and we don’t know why they are so heavily armed. Though we do see territorial tribal skirmishes in some species, and notably the different tribes are usually similar but different species.
Also, we may need to alert volunteers that there is a chance we don’t ever see them again. Due to the shifting labyrinth that is this ringworld, it is likely that any camp we set up could disappear beneath the ring for centuries, depends how long this project takes. We already lost a few camps to this phenomena.