Age of Ice and Blood: A Pathfinder System Heroic Fantasy Quest

[DragonParadox]

Under the Moonlight ​

Eight of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

The night is thankfully clear with the pale eye of an almost full moon illuminating the city, plenty of light for birds to see. The citizens be it in garb colorful or drab avoid the gate of House Koire, knowing full well that the plague spares neither rich nor poor its dark touch, but some there are who linger close. Temple guards with shields blue and white to mark the sea, called froth by priests worried about whatever wickedness might lurk within... but also other folk.

From the air, either a bird's eye or Inge's own boosted up by the temple roof itself as well as the will of Ikomi it is easy to pick up the hunters, men or perhaps women who are skilled enough at hiding in the crowd and warding off the suspicious of their fellow citizens but between knowing what they are observing and the height they are all marked by the third hour after sunset. Or at least you think that is all of them. Five seems about on par with the team Anisi had gathered and given how few take up the silver star of the hunter since the fall of them temple of Elnu they must be a significant portion of the hunters in the city.

You even catch sight of the rude fellow who would not give his name, hidden under a blanket in a wheelbarrow which had apparently been abandoned not far from the garden wall at the back of the manse, the workers perhaps scared off by rumors of plague.

As you and Zaia weigh if you should try to approach them again or wait for them to make their move and then follow Inge gives a sudden wordless cry.

"Something... something came out of the house... it took one of the hunters. I couldn't get a good look at it in the dark, but it didn't... it wasn't human. It had roots or tentacles like a squid. There was... a lot of blood. I don't think he lived, the hunter I mean."

"They are moving," Esha cuts in. "The hunters are many things, but they are not fools, they would not approach from many directions unless they had some means to speak to each other from afar and to mark if one of them is killed."

What do you do?

[] Circle around to where Inge saw the hunter die, it may be the long way but it gives you the chance to confront or follow the monster

[] Move through the front gates, one way or the other you need to get to Odorin and keep him safe, both from the enemy within and from the hunter with their blood up

[] Write in

OOC: I was really busy today, but I did not want to miss a second update in two days. You have with you all the people you had previously as you did not vote to go back to the ship for anyone

 

[DragonParadox]

Fetid Siren ​

Eight of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

You hear the thing before you see it in the gloom, a sound like breaking boughs and yet not, wet and slurping, then the smell hits you, rotting fish and sick, like the floor of the foulest seaside tavern mixed with the slaughterhouse. Then you see, it seems a mass of tendrils without shape, without logic and then as your eyes adapt to the light, to the horrid sight you realize that amid the slick blue and purple limbs there is something horrifyingly familiar. Two of those limbs end not in octopus tendrils or hardened scythes of bone, but in hands warped and emaciated to be sure, but hands nonetheless that rip steaming meat from the belly of the hunter clearly dead before it.

Given that point of to focus on the mind begins to glimpse the places where the thing's body thins into what might have been a waist, though legs had long singe been replaced with five uneven slug-like tentacles that drag the thing along the ground. "Hold!" you raise a hand for the others to stand firm, but in your horror at the once human thing you had also spoken aloud.

Faster than you would have thought possible for such an ungainly thing the ghastly beast turns, chunk of meat still in hand and you see that where its head and maybe its chest should had been all of it had fussed into a mass of flesh around a glossy purplish-black eye, like a bubble of some deeper foulness in its glistening flesh

Spoiler: Unearthly Horror

It turns that dreadful eye not on your, not Inge or Esha, not even at Wanderer... it turns at on Tom and the man suddenly staggers as one in the thrall of drink, then to your horror you head him speaking in the Saxon tongue in English that is his cradle tongue. "Yes... yes I see it now, we've all been lied to by the wizard, this is hell and we have to get out." The spear in his hand rises even as Esha shout that he had been bespelled.

Three things happen one after another then, Esha begins to weave a spell, one of slumber you recognize, you feel the familiar blessing of Ikomi cold against your cheek as Inge speaks her own... and the monster gives a shriek in many voices and lunges toward the wall of the estate, starting to climb it with stomach churning fluidity.

"Angel... angel don't go!" Tom shouts in despair as he wrenches the head of his horse towards the wall... and then he strikes to you.

Just as you raise your shield, unwilling to strike at Tom Esha's spell falls like a curtain on the battle and so too does Tom fall from his seat. Dropping your shield in a flash you steady his sleeping form

"He is still under, he is just also asleep, we need to kill that thing," Esha explains hastily.

"We can't just leave him out here," Zaia notes. "We either take him with us inside the manse and take the risk that he wakes up at the worst time, or one of us takes him back to the temple and there is one less to fight the beast"

What do you do?

[] Leave someone behind with Tom
-[] Write in who

[] Take him with you

[] Write in

OOC: And after all that work making the monster no one recognized the monster IC so I can't tell you guys what it is yet.

 

[DragonParadox]

A Horror with Two Heads ​

Eight of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

Though your anger screams at you to go after the damn thing now, caution bars your way. You had never even been on this part of the Koire estate, much less at night with a monster stalking in the night and not knowing the mind of the guards. So you wait, wait for the spells to be cast, wait for the sounds of heavy hooted feet unlike the light sandals common in the city, as much weapons as anything about the men and women who choose to hunt that which hunts their fellow man.

Hopefully they won't see you and your company as the enemy standing over the copse of their butchered companions. Esha flickering in the faint moonlight like a phantom behind her warning shadows, Zaia covered in scales thick as armor, Swift Pebble moving with grace and wit that no simple beast can show and yourself armed and armored in outlandish manner

The first to reach you is a tall figure their face hidden by a helm, their form warded under armor and cloak. The voice has a strange twang to it, a foreigner of some kind though now is not the hour to worry about such things, not given what he says when he sees the body of his ally. "Damn and a gods' curse on them all, it was a Two Soul and us all scattered for the beast to feed on, it'll be gone as soon as they merge gain."

"Merge?" It will take more than a small thing like battle to quench Zaia's lust for knowledge. "What was that thing."

"A fool's dream of enlightenment," the hunter spits. "We should have known, we should have guessed..." he shakes his head clinking from side to side. "What's wrong with him?" he points at Tom

"Enchantment," you explain and though you cannot see the expression behind the helm you have learned to head the posture of men well enough even across the gulf of different tongues, never mind mere silence, to know that it is grave.

"What?" you snap. "Speak quickly, the beast has escaped and that we did not face it together is the fault of yours."

"Rightly did you name it beast, it is a creature of two bodies and two natures, one seems perfect and alluring, one hideous and ever hungering for flesh, together they live and apart they die and yet their desires are opposites, the Beast wishes for solitude and meat, the Hollow power in the world of men. Yet because they are linked each has something of the power of the other, the beast might snare the unwary soul and the Hollow might grow claws of bone to rip out your heart with. If we kill one the other becomes more dangerous as all the life of its other half seeks to take root in its flesh. Such a thing would of course fail and the halfling will die ere the sun comes up on the morrow, but much time might it in the meantime do."

"The Hollow is the thing that Odorin Koire is supposed to marry, isn't it?" Esha cuts him off. "But that power could it gain in a house that has proclaimed itself plague-ridden?"

"The power to feed, that beast must have been starving..." yet the hunter cannot explain how that had come to be.

What do you do?

[] Go after the Hollow first, you can handle an over-mighty beast

[] Go after the beast first, that thing has already killed a hunter when it was supposedly weaker

[] Write in

OOC: So yeah, it's bronze age magical Jekyll and Hyde. Hope you guys enjoy, and are still here for it for that matter.

 

[DragonParadox]

Into the Fray ​

Eight of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

All about you is chaos, the blazing torches of soldiers and the calls of those who knew not friend from foe, but in such a time men will oft look to those who speak the loudest, or at least with the most authority. Thus you do: "There's a monster in the manse, we've come to help you slay it," must be a relief to those half-trained boys and elders leaning on their spears that are most of the men at arms of House Koire. Among them you spy a familiar face, one you cannot put a name to for you had seen him last in the spring, but you know he is one of those who trained at Wayfarer's Respite.

You hail the man, the hunter at your side and somehow quick to take advantage of the morsel of trust while he has it and so you make your way into the courtyard, all save Tom who had been left behind in the care of some of the temple guards which had finally been dislodged from their masters' hiding place.

"It will seek a dark place to dwell in, to hide its horror from the world," the hunter explains as you rush forth, moonlight mingling with the glare or torches on ruddy bronze and bright steel. "Though it has no mind as the husk does the best knows to hide its ugliness and it can be cunning in its feeding." The words are spoken with conviction and with authority enough that the guards agree to let you into the building south of the main courtyard, the home of the kitchens, the larger root pits... and the racks for smoked and slated meats.

According to your new companion the beast will try to live on 'dead' meat even though its stomach rebels against it, so it nests close.

"It heals as swiftly as a a soul-drinker," the man glances at Esha. "All but fire and blessed weapons, but it cannot stand the sight of its own malformed visage in a mirror, even a polished shield can be enough to pin it in place for a moment that it may be struck with bolt and spell."

Before he can say another word there is a screech from up ahead followed by an all too human scream, thankfully of fright and not of pain. Some one must have heard the wrong thing at just the wrong time.

"What's on the other side of that door?" you snap

"The old kitchen ovens and the spits, they haven't been used since the lord's father Ikomi guide his soul, they were supposed to be torn down and replaced with a new wing for the family to live in, but then the old lord died and the young lord..."

The man cuts himself off, likely realizing he is about to talk about matters that might embarrass young Odorin. If embarrassment is all the boy will have to worry about before the night is done then he should count himself fortunate seven times over.

How do you make your entrance?

[] Write in battle plan

OOC: Mechanically this thing has regen 5/fire and Lawful, you guys do not have a source of lawful damage but you to have fire and you can of course you can just try to push through it by main force. Trouble is how you get through the door since that is a very good place for an ambush and the thing is clearly on the other side from the scream.

 

[DragonParadox]

Hollow Words ​

Eight of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

Rather than fighting the thing head on you decide that it would be wisest to try to smoke the thing out. You thus order half the Koire soldiers do gather such oils and kindling as could be readily be brought to hand while the other half are set to guard the other entrances. Thankfully the new kitchen is near enough to the old that both tasks are easy enough to start... alas things do not go so smoothly. All the commotion in the courtyard finally catches the attention of someone in the House.

Though you had hoped to see Odorin since this evening when you had been looking to buy some land your stomach sinks when you finally catch sight of his approaching. He is not alone, two body servants trails after him, quickly drafted to the task not not of any martial bearing to judge by the fact that they have brushes in their hands, but it is not they who trouble you. At his left hand walking just a step behind is a young woman who looks perhaps a few years older than him, her fair as a bright sunset, her eyes hooded like the coming night.

Spoiler: Mysterious Visitor

But as she moves through the moonlight with grace worthy of any highborn lady of the city that is not what strikes you. James had given you and accounting of the mysterious woman who had come to Wayfarer's Respite, leaving a gift of jewels and a dark spirit behind and though you might have dismissed most of them for coincidence you very much doubt there are many ladies about with an odd glyph tattooed under their chin. Looks like she had not left chased by the Purple as you had thought, if she did she circled back.

"Sir knight?" Odorin sounds more confused than angry, his eyes a little unfocused as she leans on one of the servants. "What are you doing here?"

"Ware Hollow," the hunter hisses low as he reaches for his weapon, a barbed whip that snaps in the night air.

From the building behind you more beastly noises resound

As one of the servants opens his mouth to answer him the woman places a hand on his arm and says soothingly. "I am sure this is all just a misunderstanding." She turns to you. "Isn't it?"

"It would be a shame if the boy has to die," the voice that pierces your mind is as cold as her outer manner is warm, emotionless save for an echo of rage. "Go now, I mean you no ill will strangers... leave the hunter."

it is not even a question that passes through your mind to take her envenomed bargain, the only question is how to fight her... and how to save Odorin.

[] Write in battle plan

OOC: There was supposed to be a countdown in rounds before the hollow arrived, but since you guys did not enter the old kitchen immediately she got here in the middle of trying to set the place on fire.

 

[DragonParadox]

A Pyre for Two ​

Eight of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

Claws of rusted iron slide aside off the shield blessed of Olweje, but alas the foe is swift and cunning as it is cruel, the other claw reaches out under the shield and strikes the grieve just above the knee, cutting through iron as though it were leather and slicing into the flesh below. Rather than simply rip and tear it grabs your leg and throws you to the ground with bone-jarring force

You take 9 Damage
You are prone

If you are to be a thorn in the thing's foot then so be it, as it. As it starts to lunge over you you raise Durendal in an arc that severs one of the thick curling tentacles sending itend flying and charred. As its unnatural eye turns to look at your with inscrutable purpose all that lights in it is flame. The beast burns as though it had been dipped in whale oil, its thrashing casting globe of burning inchor though the room. One of them strikes you in the face, adding the flesh pain to the aches in your bones.

"For Verley and for Saint Nicholas!" you call out as Inge's ice flashes unearthly white, too bright to be any natural color and slams into the thing's head.

The strange women, the husk as she had been called by the hunters meanwhile throws herself upon the burning beast arms wide as though embracing a lover, though there are tears in her eyes.

Bone shatters and reforms, flesh warps and shifts, but before you can see what fresh horror can rise from the pyre Esha's spell is cast upon the air again true. You feel it in your mind... and you feel also that you do not have much longer to kill this thing. Pushing Odorin aside you spring yo your feet and stab with Durendal point first.

You're trying to kill a man not skewer a roast on a spit, the cutting remark of the old master of arms at Verley when you were a boy rises to the surface of your thoughts, but this is not a man. You slice open unnatural flesh and carve open veins with blood all too red, you slice tendons and carve into an opening cage of ribs.

A whistling by your ear is the only mark of another dart from the hunter, another that finds its mark, then finally, mercifully the mass of distended flesh shudders and is still but for the crackling of the flames. Then the boy Odorin throws himself on it as though wanting to immolate himself along with his would-be bride

"Do someth..." before you can even get the words out Esha had spoken again a spell of slumber and the boy goes limps as you pull him away from the flames.

What do you do next?

[] Stay at Odorin's side when he wakes, you hope the Fellowship's alliance will be strengthened by what transpired by this ordeal (House Koire Reward)

[] Go with the hunters to check on the unnatural pair's possessions and learn more about them (Hunter Reward)

OOC: And done. About the vote, you will get some rewards and recognition from the option you do not pick, but the main thrust of it will depend on what you pay the most attention to over the next few hours. House Koire is in shambles again and the hunters are quick to leave now that their job is done so both of them will remember who you stuck with in the aftermath.

 

[DragonParadox]

A Pyre for Two ​

Eight of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

Claws of rusted iron slide aside off the shield blessed of Olweje, but alas the foe is swift and cunning as it is cruel, the other claw reaches out unde the shield and strikes the grieve just above the knee, cutting through iron as though it were leather and slicing into the flesh below. Rather than simply rip and tear it grabs your leg and throws you to the ground with bone-jarring force

You take 9 Damage
You are prone

If you are to be a thorn in the thing's foot then so be it, as it. As it starts to lunge over you you raise Durendal in an arc that severs one of the thick curling tentacles sending he end flying and charred . As its unnatural eye turns to look at your with inscrutable purpose all that lights in it is flame. The beast burns as though it had been dipped in whale oil, its thrashing casting globe of burning inchor though the room. One of them strikes you in the face, adding the flesh pain to the aches in your bones.

"For Verley and for Saint Nicholas!" you call out as Inge's ice flashes unearthly white, too bright to be any natural color and slams into the thing's head.

The strange women, the husk as she had been called by the hunters meanwhile throws herself upon the burning beast arms wide as though embracing a lover, though there are tears in her eyes.

Bone shatters and reforms, flesh warps and shifts, but before you can see what fresh horror can rise from the pyre Esha's spell is cast upon the air again true. You feel it in your mind... and you feel also that you do not have much longer to kill this thing. Pushing Odorin aside you spring yo your feet and stab with Durendal point first.

You're trying to kill a man not skewer a roast on a spit, the cutting remark of the old master of arms at Verley when you were a boy rises to the surface of your thoughts, but this is not a man. You slice open unnatural flesh and carve open veins with blood all too red, you slice tendons and carve into an opening cage of ribs.

A whistling by your ear is the only mark of another dart from the hunter, another that finds its mark, then finally, mercifully the mass of distended flesh shudders and is still but for the crackling of the flames. Then the boy Odorin throws himself on it as though wanting to immolate himself along with his would-be bride

"Do someth..." before you can even get the words out Esha had spoken again a spell of slumber and the boy goes limps as you pull him away from the flames.

What do you do next?

[] Stay at Odorin's side when he wakes, you hope the Fellowship's alliance will be strengthened by what transpired by this ordeal (House Koire Reward)

[] Go with the hunters to check on the unnatural pair's possessions and learn more about them (Hunter Reward)

OOC: And done. About the vote, you will get some rewards and recognition from the option you do not pick, but the main thrust of it will depend on what you pay the most attention to over the next few hours. House Koire is in shambles again and the hunters are quick to leave now that their job is done so both of them will remember who you stuck with in the aftermath.

 

[DragonParadox]

Of Grief and Gifts ​

Ninth of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

You are not sure what you had been expecting out of Odorin when we woke, maybe he like Tom would not remember how his mind had been twisted. Or maybe Tom just doesn't want to talk about it, the part of you that had learned to read people to a frightful degree noted. Perhaps the boy would be angry or scared, the servants had certainly been enough of both once the fires had been pout out and the word had gone out that there had been no plague only enchantment. The nobles of the Old City y are not inclined to take the word of 'glorified rat chasers' when it comes to keeping safe and keeping clean their blood and kin.

What you had not expected was a sudden gasp, a look lost and confused as a man lost at sea though he was in his own bedroom, the morning sunlight playing over the old red and green tapestry, its gold thread faded, or more likely unwound by some desperate ancestor. "She said he loved me... she said... it all happened didn't it. She was a monster and I was the fool, I was worse than that, I was food."

"Love isn't always what the bards sing of," Esha cuts in. "Love can be greedy, love can be selfish, love can be cruel. One might love the reflection of himself in another's eyes, another might love not what the other person is but what they might become, as clay is molded to the potter's wheel. Perhaps the lady loved a dream and shared it with you."

"She was..." his fist tightened into the sheets. "She was a monster, she was that thing."

"And what pray makes you think that monsters cannot dream and hope and love even?" the sorceress continues, but you can see Odorin does not get the point.

"The best lies are the ones with an ounce of truth to them," you interject. "She was trying to get away from her own shadow if I understand the accounts of Enil and the rest of the hunters. A doomed attempt, but one no less sincere for it."

There are tears gleaming in the corner of Odorin's eyes, but they make older not younger.

"Once more I find myself in your debt, once more undone, the head of a disgraced house. My fellows will not break bread and take salt with me for fear of plague and gossips whispering at corners have been fed a year's worth of rumors. But what reward I can give I shall. Name your reward and you shall have it."

[] The remains and effects of the traveler, perhaps they will help you understand more about the specter what now haunts Wayfarer's Respite and if not Zaia's account that her power felt more like Antonio's than any other magician you have met is fascinating

[] The land you had come here to buy, though its estrangement so soon after the last patch might add to House Koire's poor reputation

[] A prize in gold and silver, the house's fortunes had turned a little before this and unlike land gold can be handed off in secret (+6,000 Golden Icari)

[] Write in

OOC: Next up after this will be the next turn update.

 

[DragonParadox]

Uncanny Accountants ​

Tenth of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

The first thing you notice about the chests brought out by fearful servants, not wishing to be contaminated by the evil that had already ensnared their lord once was just how much of it was simply clothes, colorful shawls tassel adorned robes, slippers of the sort the nobles of the city wear indoors and sandals as well an belts of leather and of cloth. It must have been her whole wardrobe and not one she had carried from some distant realm. These are all Odorin's gifts, there are the things she would have worn as his lady wife. He probably doesn't want to see them anymore and you cannot blame him in the least.

"No jewelry," Antonio notes, though he does not sound as much upset at the lack as perturbed by the nature of the contents. "Boy probably couldn't afford to give those away."

Among the contents there are a few things that catch the eye with no sparkle to them, a trio of maps not written or carved but woven onto cloth that shifts and ripples in colors that catch the light of the new sun and break it into shapes unseen. According to Ingethe map drinks deep of the magic of the earth and even the fickle sea.

"It can show you where you are, wherever you are," the girl says.

"Scale what's the scale on it?" Antonio asks, a gleam in his eye that is more than greed, a seeking for the horizon that sends a man away from warm hearth, from kith and kin and onto the wide ocean

Alas the map is not as expansive as he might have hoped, only an area about fifty leagues on the side and also according to Inge as they are drawn from the land and the understanding of its denizens they show rivers and mountains, hills and lakes, but no cities or roads of men.

But maps are not all that is made of the odd substance, tucked away carefully in the false bottom of a chest is a robe that shifts not only itself but also the guise of its wearer, a precious thing for one who would ever be on the run.

Where was it made you wonder... another question in a world filled with them.

---

Arc Fifteen Complete​

Triumphs
+Took in the changeling children and saw them cared for
++Safely returned the king to his people and assured that he would rule
+Summoned the spirit hunter
+Recruited the aid of the temple of Ikomi
+Got into contact with the hunters
++Dealt with the dark traveler without harming Odorin
++Dealing with the Yayar champion
+Dealing with the thief, though not recovering the skull

Total XP gained: 2,750 XP

What have been the lessons of this war for you and yours?

[] More skills in peace and war
Cost: 0 XP

[] Not all that is learned is of the sword, the battle has left Tom more somber, but also more determined in battles against magicians
-[] Write in Tom level up
Cost 1,000 XP

OOC: The turn vote is kicking my ass right now so I decided to just do a brief arc ender.

 

[DragonParadox]

Roots Growing Deep ​

Twelfth of Olweje-hamba (Olweje Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

As you look outside the still rough-hewn window of your solar at the courtyard of the keep below you wonder at how you got so far so fast, the sound of soldiers drilling mixed in with the bleating of goats that had been brought in for the feast and children yelling and chasing each other at play.

You wonder at the face of the little girl with the willow branch in place of a sword, you haven't seen it before not that you are surprised. As the changelings grow more used to the company of the otter-kin who take their duty seriously and yet fulfill it with joy the more they let one shape slip into another like leaves blowing on the breeze. That is not to say everyone is comfortable at the show of magic. Indeed of the villagers you saved from the Yayar about half decided to take their chances in Orinilu or with the shore-sworn when it became clear just how strange the company you keep is.

Not that you can really blame them Mog is... well he takes some getting used to in the more diplomatic words of Zaia or as Antonio's reply put it 'so does chewing nettles, doesn't mean I have to get in the habit'. True to his word the captain has been avoiding the odd few, staying mostly aboard the Marcella, but it is clear to everyone with a working pair of eyes, ears, and in the case of a particularly fragrant invention, nose that the fey smith needs his own laboratory apart from Zaia's, a place where he can be master of his domain. It would also be helpful to take the books, scrolls and maps out of general storage. Esha even suggested that between the various spell-tomes you have as well as the books on forging metallurgy and glass working you could probably charge a small fee to the local guilds to consult it.

But you also have other commitments, namely finding and taming some of the wild horses of the inland hills hopefully without falling afoul of any Yayar blood feuds over their dead chieftain. At the very least you had only killed him in what the reindeer riders hopefully saw as a fair duel. Last though certainly not least you still have some skulls in your possession and none with the skills to read them. Perhaps you can follow the lead to the living stone that can read dead minds.

Choose Three

[] Capture and tame wild horses as you promised Hengo Perys, hopefully the local Yayar clans do not think too ill of the killing of one of their chiefs

[] See to the care of the changeling children, a war camp in no place for children but this place need not be just a war camp, especially given the villagers you rescued

[] Seek out the 'stone mind' that can read the skulls still in your possession as the priest of Ikomi asked of you

[] Visit the market to buy, or to sell
-[] Write in (Armory and unassigned magical loot eligible for selling)

[] Visit your neighbors, though House Koire holds the lands immediately around your new keep even more distant lords would likely be interested, perhaps even wary of who is raising a keep on their doorstep

[] Look for Anisi and her fellow hunters, they would likely be most interested in what you had seen in the north and might put the knowledge to good use

[] Make improvements to the keep (up to three, cost variable)

[] Try to make peace once more with the Purple, the last thing you need is a conflict over a dead monster

OOC: The reason this took so long is that I tried to merge the keep improvement choices with the turn vote proper and that just unbalanced the whole thing. Suggestions for more actions are of course welcome.