Why negotiate? What could we offer that we'd be willing to break precedent for and not offer to other deities? The Valyrians destroyed her people as a culture. Even if we pledge to see it restored in some manner by settling some of her faithful there, we would have to get them to accept that the Volantenes do not carry on the legacy of Valyria... which is exactly what Zherys and his ruling faction want to do. Restore Valyria.
Even if we also somehow manage to convince them that these are relics that will wash to dust in the ages, that counts on them taking us at our word/trusting we'll be around to see it happen.
I say just convince our Rhoynish expatriates to worship something more sensible and then pick a fight with whatever avatar they whip up, if they even have the juice for it, then feed it to our Tree Gods.
Hmm fair enough. I wouldn't mind another large tree for the Old Gods. I was under the impression that there would be some who would want a river goddess(you know considering our penchance for wanting Gods like pokemon) but I guess not. I don't really care either way as long as Rhoynish books and treasure come to us in droves and in our library.
Here, a quickie* edit.
My PC's colors could be off, but I think this now perfectly fits "deathly pale" she has in her description. *'quickie' equals "45% shit"
Plus you know, we don't actually have that many Rhoynish expatriates, most of them assimilated in Dorne and now worship the Seven, which is a different problem.
Those guys exist yes, but we don't actually know how many there are. Their lifestyle as described and Dorne's low population carrying capacity indicate not many. Chances are they'd be hard-pressed to settle much of the Rhoynar territory.
Those guys exist yes, but we don't actually know how many there are. Their lifestyle as described and Dorne's low population carrying capacity indicate not many. Chances are they'd be hard-pressed to settle much of the Rhoynar territory.
There are several thousand of them, just spread out across the rivers. They are probably one of the largest groups in dorne but are so spread out that it makes it difficult for them to leverage that.
I mean, their lifestyle would support them much better than most since they would have access to constant fresh water, easy access to food from the rivers, and easy trade through their travels.
The main danger is bandits but they probably have decent fighters due to that being the main danger.
So we have a group several thousand strong, likely having fighters specializing in fighting in or on river boats, known for being extremely mobile due to their skill in river boat construction and usage, and possessing unmatched knowledge of the river system....
Those guys exist yes, but we don't actually know how many there are. Their lifestyle as described and Dorne's low population carrying capacity indicate not many. Chances are they'd be hard-pressed to settle much of the Rhoynar territory.
I think we might be able to resettle them in Ny Sar, their actual ancestral home, but the rest of the Rhoyne goes to whoever can tolerate living among a fey infestation.
Other than that @DragonParadox what are the mechanics for the weirwood spears? Can they trap spirits of the undead, because if they can we have a way to hunt down undead and ghosts.
"Are you still up?" Lya does not sound surprised as she enters your study. It's a conversation the two of you have had countless times from both sides since you started sharing a bed.
Sadly the usual compromise is impossible. Phantom pain races through your fingers as you lift the dark and nameless tome that had once been a Cabal Devil. "Not really something I can take to bed." As if to accentuate your point, the book gives an impotent hiss of anger, whether at your flippant remark or Lya's mere presence you could not say.
"What did you manage to pick from its pages?" Lya asks, intrigued, all thoughts of bed forgotten before the urge to answer some of the riddles that had been plaguing you.
You are more than happy to oblige. The first thing you had sought between the cursed tome's pages was the original formula for wildfire. Alas that it was not a question that could be answered in full. While the uniila certainly knew of a more ancient and refined formula than what the pyromancers used, it was itself derivative of an even older concoction wherein the magic bound within was neither that of elemental flame nor even of hell, but dragonfire itself as shaped by the Lost Fourteen. Which of these gods had been responsible for the formula was apparently something hidden even from the sight of Hell, or at least of Mammon. One of the lesser reasons for the atrocities of Summerhall was to tear those secrets from the tormented dreams of your dead kinsmen.
Superior Wildfire Formula Acquired
The greater purpose was one you could have easily guessed, to create a weapon uniquely suited to besting you in battle, to fight you not only with magic and strength, but to undermine your resolve to fight on even in victory. "'A fulcrum that would forever bind the blood of your line to Hell' is how she so charmingly put it," you finish dryly.
"What actually happened at Summerhall?" Lya muses half to herself.
"The pyromancers managed to find something like the chalice we freed Velen from, a vessel with a spirit that survived the ages," you continue your grim recollection, silently cursing those long dead fools. "The tides of power were at such a nadir that the creature could barely even speak to them, but a whisper in the right ear can be more than enough to begin the road to damnation. This devil, likely an imp, wished to raise dragons from their graves. It sought to aid the Alchemists and through them my great-grandfather."
"So that it might climb on his shoulder and whisper in his ear until he was a tyrant among tyrants?" Lya guesses at once.
"And all the worse for it for starting from a desire to make the Seven Kingdoms a better place," you sigh. "The devil overreached the scope of its knowledge. The ritual that aught to have awakened the dragons instead merely spilled wildfire out like a deadly tide. Our unwilling guest suspects that too must have been planned by one of the great archdukes of Hell. For myself, I suspect she places too much stock in her masters' prescience in a world all but sundered from the Realms Below." Still, you cannot help but grimace at the possibility of malignant fate wrapping around your family like a noose so far back. For all you have used foresight time and again, you despise the puppet strings of fate.
"What of the other devil plots we have found?" The question is obviously meant to distract you from your dark musings. "Who was the first devil binder in White Harbor. What do the fiends want of the Corbrays?"
Alas the frustration those questions raise is not much preferable. "She can't answer the first beyond the fact that he is on the Usurper's Small Council..."
Lya's reply is genuinely startled. "Can't?"
"There were apparently arcane contingencies we did not see, certain information that would be scoured from a devil's mind in the moment of capture. Luckily it does not encompass the whole of their plots for it would risk having their minds unravel from the strain of such utter forgetfulness..." You pause for thought. "The Corbrays are meant to gather support from among the Andal Houses in the Vale, first to slay the Mountain Clans, then by that bloody piety infiltrate the Faith of the Seven. For some reason the Cabal Devil was not privy to, Mammon wished to see the Faith Militant rise."
"To sow bloodshed and chaos?" Lya shakes her head. "No, no, the baatezu would not do that. Ignore me, I've been dealing with too many demons and daemons of late, even if it is only to trap them."
"How many did you capture?" you ask in turn, wondering if you had finally gathered enough sacrifices to restore the great weirwood as you had dreamed of doing.
"You found that many Daemons still abroad and loose in the world?" The thought is chilling. You had thought the last dregs of the Tyroshi infestation dealt with yet Lya had bound by name and sorcery thirteen daemons.
"Not the greater ones," she is quick to assure you. "Those I called from their place of torment. The others were still assisting small gatherings of madmen throughout the Tyroshi hinterlands, while the Inquisition dealt with the summoners." It is a rare thing to see Lya's gaze turn cold, but so it does as she continues with clinical detachment. "Over forty accomplices to the rites were captured by the Inquisition, not including children who were used by their parents to spread the daemon's influence."
"Just when I think magisters could not sink lower..." you trail off.
"It's worse, actually," Lya interjects. "Almost all of those captured were former slaves embittered by all that they have suffered, anger at their former masters curdling until it became anger at everyone more fortunate than they, at the whole world in the end."
"Pitiful as that may be, the dictates of the law as well as simple prudence are clear," you sigh. "They must die, and if they are to die then better that they do so with a purpose to the world that they betrayed to the enemies of all that lives."
63 HD worth of cultists
Lya reaches a hand across the desk to hold yours lightly. "All the books are accounted at least. It finally is over."
"That one at least..." You silently go over the names of all the baatezu you had gained from the accursed books before you, dozens of Furies sworn to the Lord of the Third and others besides, generals and plot-weavers, sorcerers and dark councilors. With but a handful of spells you could gut infernal schemes millennia in the making, the first among them a plot against the Lord of the First and Guardian of the gates of Avernus whom Mammon seeks to see humbled in Asmodeus' eyes by arranging for a circumstance where he would need rescue on the field of battle.
Gained Erinyes names as well as the names of other mid-to-high-ranking devils in Mammon's court
Only the false idol the Uniila does not know the name of, though you are hardly surprised for the lack. Its kind were gods once, and gods are jealous of the innermost trusts of their beings. Along with it or at least whoever bore its token goes the blade Lamentation also claimed as a trophy of sorts from the ruin of the Dragonpit.
What devils do you summon?
[] The strongest the Uniila knew, the better to cripple Mammon in all things before his servants grow canny of your purpose
[] The ones you know to be in the world that you might remove as much as possible the hand of the Lord of the Third from the world
[] Write in
OOC: The big historical questions as well as the war with the Deep Ones will be covered later since there simply is no room here while maintaining coherency in exposition. As for where the dragons were supposed to go, they should have been kept on the Dragonmont, flown at night and under cover of invisibility, their riders trained to be catspaws and false heroes. Obviously they are not on the Dragonmont, now but the Uniila had no idea where they may have withdrawn to or indeed if anymore eggs had been hatched.
[X] Start with trying to get whatever officers were in charge of organizing operations on Prime Material, as well as any that collaborated with said operations, even if they're not on Prime Material
-[X] Move on to ones you know to be in the world that you might remove as much as possible the Hand of the Lord of the Third from the world
-[X] As many Furies as you can safely recruit whose names you've retrieved from the ones already in your service as well as the Tome of the Cabal Devil and the imprisoned devils, the better to deprive Mammon of servants
-[X] Summon a servant of Bael, as high-ranking as you can find in the Tome of the Cabal Devil without being serious danger to you (one that you're sure won't be able to Plane Shift back to Prime Material) and ask Mereth for her recommendation on which one would best serve this plan, and once summoned hand over a copy of the information detailing Mammon's plot against Bael and the names of those devils involved. Then banish him back to his master.
This round of sacrifice gathering was fantastic.
EDIT: Alright, before I start, the current stockpile in the Larder is 1532 HD (though that is not accounting for the Valyrian Steel needed for the Harbinger, but eh).
@DragonParadox Would a Weirwood tree with trap the soul, Polymorph any object, and a spell to merge a soul with a body work for reviving the undead Sarnori?(we don't have a specific spell for merging soulgems with bodies, but we have the ritual from when we resurrected Amrelath, and if it can be accomplished by ritual, then it should also be within the power of the right spell) and if it would work, would 2 willing sacrifices, be a sufficient payment for the revival of 1 of them this way?
And yes I recognize that by this way, the revived will have to avoid dispelling magic, on pain on turning into whatever animal was polymorphed into their new body, but I'm sure they can live with that risk, if it mean they get to live.
You are more than happy to oblige. The first thing you had sought between the cursed tome's pages was the original formula for wildfire. Alas that it was not a question that could be answered in full. While the Uniila certainly knew of a more ancient and refined formula than the pyromancers used, it was itself derivative of an even older concoction wherein the magic bound within was neither that of elemental flame nor even of hell, but Dragonfire itself as shaped by the Lost Fourteen. Which of these gods had been responsible for the formula was apparently something hidden even from the sight of Hell, or at least of Mammon. One of the lesser reasons for the atrocities of Summerhall was to tear those secrets from the tormented dreams of your dead kinsmen.
Superior Wildfire Formula Acquired
The greater purpose was one you could have easily guessed, to create a weapon uniquely suited to besting you in battle, to fight you not only with magic and strength, but to undermine your resolve to fight on even in victory. "'A fulcrum that would forever bind the blood of your line to Hell' is how she so charmingly put it," you finish dryly.
Ahh, this is so cathartic...
Finally, me dripping over everyone's brains for over a month paid off.
[X] The strongest the Uniila knew, the better to cripple Mammon in all things before his servants grow canny of your purpose
-[X] After that, the ones you know to be in the world that you might remove as much as possible the Hand of the Lord of the Third from the world.
--[X] As a final touch, summon as many Furies whose names you've retrieved from the ones already in your service as well as the Tome of the Cabal Devil as you can safely recruit, the better to deprive Mammon of servants.
-[X] Use all Mythic Power uses, Bloodwish, and recovery effects avaliable so as to not waste any time.
This was the whole point of the action.
Make the world safer. Fuck up the operations of everyone in it.
@Duesal, DP already said that those Devils that operate on Plane Material operate in tightly isolated groups with little to no contact to one-another.
We can get them.
We willget them.
But targetting high-ranking ones first is almost guaranteed to strike hard, and leave us with an opportunity to summon still, but if we start with PM-based ones, their superiors will get wary almost immediately.
Furies are footsoldiers. Meat for the meatgrinder, altough good meat. If anyone is going to be left defensless 'till the last moment it's them.
Please change your mind here?
@DragonParadox, how many names of Demons we still have, comparatively to those summoned already? Any specific names should be referred to Duesal though :/
Did we get names for Demons/Daemons/Other Outsiders from her as well?
No, she was planning to create a sympathetic connection between Targs and Hell one that would be sealed by the destruction of the golem so as to put you in a catch 22.
@DragonParadox, how many names of Demons we still have, comparatively to those summoned already? Any specific names should be referred to Duesal though :/
Did we get names for Demons/Daemons/Other Outsiders from her as well?
@Duesal, DP already said that those Devils that operate on Plane Material operate in tightly isolated groups with little contact to one-another.
We can get them.
We willget them.
But targetting high-ranking ones first is almost guaranteed to strike hard, and leave us with an opportunity to summon still, but if we start with PM-based ones, their superiors wil lget wary almost immediately.
Furies are footsoldiers. Meat for the meatgrinder, altough good meat. If anyone is going to be left defensless 'till the last moment it's them.
Please change your mind here?
No, she was planning to create a sympathetic connection between Targs and Hell one that would be sealed by the destruction of the golem so as to put you in a catch 22.
You don't get me here.
I care fuck-all for sacrifices here, I simply want to kill off as many enemies here.
Generals and high-ranking officers will almost immediately get suspicious.
Some time later will lower-ranked officers, I.e. leaders of PM groups. Then, at the vvery end, the Furies will get unavaliable as well.
A simple logic says to hit the head of this devil-fish, and go from there to take out all of it, instead of going for the tail.
You don't get me here.
I care fuck-all for sacrifices here, I want to kill off as many enemies here. Generals and high-ranking officers will almost immediately get suspicious.
Then lower-ranked officers, I.e. leaders of PM groups.
Then, at the end, the Furies.
A simple logic says to hit the head of this devil-fish, and go from there to take out all of it, instead of going for the tail.
Just expand into the Plane of Earth. We can excavate city sized areas and magic up sunlight and other necessities. There's no reason not to expand into the Infinite Planes once we start getting solid saturation on Planetos.
