Gideon has found something of interest, the ruins of a sort of citadel. It is obviously quite a few centuries old but he found something interesting buried deeper, there are signs of Nalkas architecture and design in here. This citadel is sitting on what used to be our gateway city to the badlands, but is definitely not our ruins. It appears that what we had left behind was taken over by another civilization for their own use, repaired, and added on to. Though that other civilization seems to have also fallen, this place could help us better determine just how long we had been asleep. Our ruins have been scavenged, rebuilt, then ruined again over who knows how long. There are some residents attempting to squat here, far more primitive then whoever must have rebuilt the place. These savages are of a mixed breed, Gideon reports coming across humans, elves, orcs, tieflings, and so on. While the citadel affords them a home to defend, they appear to be little more then a collection of lost souls attempting to survive on the border between the north and the badlands. Gideon has remained at a safe distance so far, given our prior first contact just recently he is a little wary. Though this place may be of great interest to us.
Eamon has taken over the troops as requested and the tunnels have been temporarily sealed.
In other news, Uudistar has expanded to take over the northern portion of the lake, well most of it. The eastern side remains untaken but the walls protect us quite well and have good aim at some of the monsters. You have received a request from Ylermi to halt the standing order to murder all the monsters. We have inadvertently created ideal conditions for studying the beasts. We can reach both the northern coast line and the eastern shore of the lake, both of which are valuable to monsters who need the mana. The walls offer protection for researchers as do the emplaced weaponry, and this puts us closer then anyone has ever been able to get since the monsters -will- come to this lake since there are so few alternatives in the north for them to subsist off of.
Sakki remains embedded with what are apparently called the drow, he describes the affair as an “experience”. He is treated well as their guest, but ‘well’ is subjective. He has been made to fight for his life in a gladiatorial arena against strange beasts, poisoned, and kind of raped. I say kind of because he doesn’t mind but the drow subscribe to a matriarchal society like the Katara and it’s clear he didn’t have the option to say no. He describes them as vicious psychopaths of the highest possible degree while maintaining a civilization. One step further across the razor thin line of barbarism and they would collapse into a primitive tribe. The diplomat from Oda has been advised by Sakki to remain afar and simply advise him how to act as mouth piece, because even when they are being friendly their guests run the risk of dying. With the help of this diplomat Sakki has been getting a lot better at asking questions to help us learn about them.
While these drow are not as technologically advanced as us in general, they do have some interesting things we don’t. Notably, they utilize some sort of venom tipped weapons that can bring down the monsters with shocking efficiency. Though they don’t go to the surface too often as there isn’t much there of interest to them – at least not that they know about. Also they have an interesting fungal delicacy that for some reason tastes like cake down there. They seem to specialize in demon aligned magic, warlocks of some sort. While we work on golems, they simply enslave minor demons for labor. As another oddity, they have two breeds of tieflings. Highborn and lowborn. The lowborn are the typical kind, but apparently they have a tradition of high priestesses mating with demon lords producing highborn tieflings. I am ninety percent sure there is zero practical difference, and is just a way for nobles to feel self important for fucking demons.
The battle outside Tethalyn has finally reached its conclusion…well that was an interesting turn of events. Marilena lost 43 soldiers, Ankathi lost 64. The remaining forces total at Rhea with 44, Marilena with 57, Ankathi with 22. The gear finally arrived as well though, not the best timing on that unfortunately.
KouKou has found the mountain fort to be somewhat…impressively hostile. Notably, they are badland denizens. Meaning mostly humans and tieflings. That fort gives them access to the forest below. They’ve been raiding the forests for its resources to ship back into the badlands, which has made them very wealthy. They are not used to interacting with people outside of their own circle, and apparently they have smaller outposts at the foot of the mountain where people usually interact with them on the far side. Since KouKou came from the forest she bypassed the outpost and made them a little paranoid given that no one is supposed to reach that fort. They failed to kill her but not for lack of trying, she is currently hiding in the forest nursing her wounds as they shot her successfully twice and she can barely walk. We may wish to send Despoina to retrieve her before they find where she is hiding to finish the job.
To add to this report though, they did not attack KouKou until after she removed her hood. They demanded that she did, but it indicates they were looking for something specific about her. They were fine with the parliament of owls, but not so much with something else about KouKou. Talks might not be impossible, but it clearly has to be the right person to do so, and I don’t think it has anything to do with charisma.
Speaking of impressively hostile, Areti made contact with the orcs. They are not open to negotiations, Areti killed a platoon’s worth of them while retreating. This has apparently gotten the chief’s attention, and now the one seemingly called Xnaurl Bloodfire has taken an interest in Areti. His forces have stopped pursuing the elven frontier and started scouting northward looking for Areti. She has killed dozens more as she makes her path in the general direction of “away” yet still they pursued her with a level of obsession. She describes them as impressive warriors.
In regards to Ankathi’s plans for Amare’s son, she apparently had intended to afflict him with a sickness that only she knows how to cure, it happens to also be her field test of the elven plague she has been designing. I have gathered why she sent Amare here though, she’s not trying to acquire peace between us and the elves. She wanted me to find out how much Amare would understand about witchcraft to see if they could recognize our work, because if they can’t they’ll have no idea where the plague is about to come from. It seems this was a layered strategy though and she has since put a hold on the idea since Amare instead joined the coven as a sort of distant member. So now she would definitely recognize it, but has also started to act in a way Ankathi would consider favorable. It was as if she came up with multiple ways to achieve her goal no matter how the cosmic dice might fall.
It took awhile to find anyone among our people potentially qualified for being a diplomat. I settled on promoting Christina who until now was administrator of the market square, of those I could find she has the best knack for words and understanding of conflict resolution without punching. She is quite charismatic and authoritative given her position, with a fair understanding of how to hear arguments and settle them. As military training is almost compulsory around here, it is worth noting she has some skill with evocation should she need to fight though I wouldn’t rely on her for such a thing.
Greetings Keeper! It is a glorious day for the Oda people.
We have begun preparation for the tournament, though it will be a little longer to get that all set up in order to make it a bit more of a public affair for entertainment, and to let people travel or get in fighting shape. The islanders are definitely interested, given that they’ve been holding gladiatorial combat for years anyways. As such we have appointed Quetzalli to organize and host it since this is something she would have some familiarity with.
As for the construction of port defenses, don’t worry we already have those. Mostly because of naval monsters, though they can shoot a boat just fine. I’ll see about placing some of the new ballista’s there as well as those are extra effective against ships I imagine.
Iwanagi reports that the navy of the fort is actually part of a larger civilization. They are in an alliance of their own whose major cities can be found to the east. They told Iwanagi he can sail south and around the cape to find the sea where they mostly reside. Though they will be sending a few ships north to meet with us and see what is going on up here to see about establishing trade arrangements.
As for the scout ship, that is basically what Iwanagi is on right now. We could theoretically improve it with magic but that has its obvious dangers.
In regards to the village, the problem there is unavoidable. If we sabotage any of their resources then come by with that resource the reaction is likely to be the same no matter what resource or method we use unless we can pin the blame on something else.
In regards to retinue for the diplomat, we could send him with a basic compliment of soldiers. He is not a wizard and if we don’t send any there is a good chance he can avoid the bigger monsters while his guards can deal with the smaller ones. If you want extra security, perhaps smart, sending a monk with him would be ideal given that they cannot be disarmed during diplomatic trips. Not to mention since they don’t use magic they won’t attract too much attention to him while traveling.
Speaking of new hires, we found that naval commander for you. Her name is Chinami Aiga.
Apparently she used to be asked to help with the fishing endeavors around the docks. Wizardry aside her understanding of the ocean alone is reason enough to place her with the fleet. She comes from a fishing family who still know some of the old techniques of navigation, she can stick her foot in the water and tell you the currents, the fishing prospects, where in the ocean she is, and so on. She does not navigate by the stars, but by the currents. Fitting that someone with such an interest in the ocean is a hydromancer and aeromancer, or as the locals put it “cheating at fishing”. She apparently had a trick of just pulling fish out of the water, with the water. Very fresh fish from her stall. With these talents she can actually spot aquatic creatures miles out at sea if they’re of a large enough size for her to detect. I felt she has the potential to be an ideal naval commander, though it took some convincing to get her to accept the position.
It should be cautioned though, while she understands the ocean better then anyone she doesn’t fully understand the military. She spent the last week memorizing the chain of command…as in the names of the ranks. Chinami also has some issues sounding authoritative, all her commands sound more like suggestions from some cryptic old fisher woman. She needs more time to fully take command in a military capacity but I reason that it is easier to train her as a soldier then to train a soldier in the arcane arts or the way of the sea, or any other combination. Essentially this fisher being taught about war is the fastest way to get what we’re after in a naval commander.