[X] [Son] Foster him out to a smaller clan that Avalanche has good relations with. Your wife supports this option.
[X] [Report] Publicly in council: I have discovered some corruption in the lower level staff but I believe there is more to be uncovered.
-[X] Privately to Void
--[X] Chancellor Blade has been spending some of his discretionary budget on cloths from tailors with close connections to important people. Whether this is a valid use can be argued either way.
--[X] Spymaster Morning may be funnelling money to his clan through his spy network but it could just be case of him using people he trusts and spies not keeping their receipts .
--[X] Sage Three was being under paid at one point, with no apparent explanation.
--[X] Marshall Ebuskun appears to be scrupulously honest.
[X] plan audit and census
-[X] The census is a lot more important than I thought, order me to do that properly.
-[X] Let me continue auditing and hunt down more corruption in the palace.
[X] [Son] No special considerations yet. You'll do some teaching whenever you're home, Jade will do some too, the amah will do some, your relatives can chip in when Horn asks them questions. This is common in a large extended family. Your mother supports this option.
[X] [Report] Publicly in council: I have discovered some corruption in the lower level staff but I believe there is more to be uncovered.
-[X] Privately to Void
--[X] Chancellor Blade has been spending some of his discretionary budget on cloths from tailors with close connections to important people. Whether this is a valid use can be argued either way.
--[X] Spymaster Morning may be funnelling money to his clan through his spy network but it could just be case of him using people he trusts and spies not keeping their receipts .
--[X] Sage Three was being under paid at one point, with no apparent explanation.
--[X] Marshall Ebuskun appears to be scrupulously honest.
[X] Plan Audit Part II
He's still young, our clan internal education is plenty good for now.
Fostering should be around 8-9 when he has familial loyalty
[X] [Son] No special considerations yet. You'll do some teaching whenever you're home, Jade will do some too, the amah will do some, your relatives can chip in when Horn asks them questions. This is common in a large extended family. Your mother supports this option.
[X] [Report] Publicly in council: I have discovered some corruption in the lower level staff but I believe there is more to be uncovered.
-[X] Privately to Void
--[X] Chancellor Blade has been spending some of his discretionary budget on cloths from tailors with close connections to important people. Whether this is a valid use can be argued either way.
--[X] Spymaster Morning may be funnelling money to his clan through his spy network but it could just be case of him using people he trusts and spies not keeping their receipts .
--[X] Sage Three was being under paid at one point, with no apparent explanation.
--[X] Marshall Ebuskun appears to be scrupulously honest.
[X] Plan Audit Part II
[X] [Son] No special considerations yet. You'll do some teaching whenever you're home, Jade will do some too, the amah will do some, your relatives can chip in when Horn asks them questions. This is common in a large extended family. Your mother supports this option.
[X] [Report] Publicly in council: I have discovered some corruption in the lower level staff but I believe there is more to be uncovered.
-[X] Privately to Void
--[X] Chancellor Blade has been spending some of his discretionary budget on cloths from tailors with close connections to important people. Whether this is a valid use can be argued either way.
--[X] Spymaster Morning may be funnelling money to his clan through his spy network but it could just be case of him using people he trusts and spies not keeping their receipts .
--[X] Sage Three was being under paid at one point, with no apparent explanation.
--[X] Marshall Ebuskun appears to be scrupulously honest.
[X] Plan Audit Part II
[X] [Son] No special considerations yet. You'll do some teaching whenever you're home, Jade will do some too, the amah will do some, your relatives can chip in when Horn asks them questions. This is common in a large extended family. Your mother supports this option.
[X] [Report] Publicly in council: I have discovered some corruption in the lower level staff but I believe there is more to be uncovered.
-[X] Privately to Void
--[X] Chancellor Blade has been spending some of his discretionary budget on cloths from tailors with close connections to important people. Whether this is a valid use can be argued either way.
--[X] Spymaster Morning may be funnelling money to his clan through his spy network but it could just be case of him using people he trusts and spies not keeping their receipts .
--[X] Sage Three was being under paid at one point, with no apparent explanation.
--[X] Marshall Ebuskun appears to be scrupulously honest.
[X] Plan Audit Part II
[X] [Son] No special considerations yet. You'll do some teaching whenever you're home, Jade will do some too, the amah will do some, your relatives can chip in when Horn asks them questions. This is common in a large extended family. Your mother supports this option.
[X] [Report] Publicly in council: I have discovered some corruption in the lower level staff but I believe there is more to be uncovered.
-[X] Privately to Void
--[X] Chancellor Blade has been spending some of his discretionary budget on cloths from tailors with close connections to important people. Whether this is a valid use can be argued either way.
--[X] Spymaster Morning may be funnelling money to his clan through his spy network but it could just be case of him using people he trusts and spies not keeping their receipts .
--[X] Sage Three was being under paid at one point, with no apparent explanation.
--[X] Marshall Ebuskun appears to be scrupulously honest.
[X] Plan Audit Part II
[X] [Son] No special considerations yet. You'll do some teaching whenever you're home, Jade will do some too, the amah will do some, your relatives can chip in when Horn asks them questions. This is common in a large extended family. Your mother supports this option.
[X] [Report] Publicly in council: I have discovered some corruption in the lower level staff but I believe there is more to be uncovered.
-[X] Privately to Void
--[X] Chancellor Blade has been spending some of his discretionary budget on cloths from tailors with close connections to important people. Whether this is a valid use can be argued either way.
--[X] Spymaster Morning may be funnelling money to his clan through his spy network but it could just be case of him using people he trusts and spies not keeping their receipts .
--[X] Sage Three was being under paid at one point, with no apparent explanation.
--[X] Marshall Ebuskun appears to be scrupulously honest.
[X] Plan Audit Part II
[X] [Son] Foster him out to a smaller clan that Avalanche has good relations with. Your wife supports this option.
[X] [Report] Publicly in council: I have discovered some corruption in the lower level staff but I believe there is more to be uncovered.
-[X] Privately to Void
--[X] Chancellor Blade has been spending some of his discretionary budget on cloths from tailors with close connections to important people. Whether this is a valid use can be argued either way.
--[X] Spymaster Morning may be funnelling money to his clan through his spy network but it could just be case of him using people he trusts and spies not keeping their receipts .
--[X] Sage Three was being under paid at one point, with no apparent explanation.
--[X] Marshall Ebuskun appears to be scrupulously honest.
[X] [Son] Foster him out to a smaller clan that Avalanche has good relations with. Your wife supports this option.
[X] [Report] Publicly in council: I have discovered some corruption in the lower level staff but I believe there is more to be uncovered.
-[X] Privately to Void
--[X] Chancellor Blade has been spending some of his discretionary budget on cloths from tailors with close connections to important people. Whether this is a valid use can be argued either way.
--[X] Spymaster Morning may be funnelling money to his clan through his spy network but it could just be case of him using people he trusts and spies not keeping their receipts .
--[X] Sage Three was being under paid at one point, with no apparent explanation.
--[X] Marshall Ebuskun appears to be scrupulously honest.
[X] [Son] No special considerations yet. You'll do some teaching whenever you're home, Jade will do some too, the amah will do some, your relatives can chip in when Horn asks them questions. This is common in a large extended family. Your mother supports this option.
[X] [Report] Publicly in council: I have discovered some corruption in the lower level staff but I believe there is more to be uncovered.
-[X] Privately to Void
--[X] Chancellor Blade has been spending some of his discretionary budget on cloths from tailors with close connections to important people. Whether this is a valid use can be argued either way.
--[X] Spymaster Morning may be funnelling money to his clan through his spy network but it could just be case of him using people he trusts and spies not keeping their receipts .
--[X] Sage Three was being under paid at one point, with no apparent explanation.
--[X] Marshall Ebuskun appears to be scrupulously honest.
[X] Plan Audit Part II
[*] [Son] No special considerations yet. You'll do some teaching whenever you're home, Jade will do some too, the amah will do some, your relatives can chip in when Horn asks them questions. This is common in a large extended family. Your mother supports this option.
[*] [Report] Publicly in council: I have discovered some corruption in the lower level staff but I believe there is more to be uncovered.
-[*] Privately to Void
--[*] Chancellor Blade has been spending some of his discretionary budget on cloths from tailors with close connections to important people. Whether this is a valid use can be argued either way.
--[*] Spymaster Morning may be funnelling money to his clan through his spy network but it could just be case of him using people he trusts and spies not keeping their receipts .
--[*] Sage Three was being under paid at one point, with no apparent explanation.
--[*] Marshall Ebuskun appears to be scrupulously honest.
[*] Plan Audit Part II
-[*] Let me continue auditing and hunt down more corruption in the palace.
The way your mother is fussing over her grandson, you figure it's fine to leave him in the care of the family for a while yet. You'll instruct him when you have the opportunity, and he's certainly not going to be neglected the rest of the time.
---
The present meeting of the Privy Council has been scheduled for twice as long as normal, without further mention of what's going to take so long, only a request for you to show up early. It's not obvious whose fault this is - possibly Void has something he wants to talk about, or some of your fellow councillors have reserved time for a particularly lengthy report.
Well, not much point in worrying. It'll be made clear shortly.
Ebuskun is late - or rather, Ebuskun is not as early as everyone else. Blade is chatting with Morning about clan politics while they wait. Three is fidgeting nervously. Void is calmly affixing his stamp and signature to the kind of papers that require the Portlord's signature and stamp affixed while he waits for everyone to assemble.
When the Marshal arrives, she looks stressed and tired. Has the war been weighing on her? She opens her mouth to speak, but the Portlord holds up a hand. "Wait." he says. "I've seen your reports, and Three has something to say first."
"The giant mother spider you spoke of is actually a father. Demon King Hesperian, the Father of Spiders, to be precise." says the sage. "He is not the father of all spiders, but is so named because his pseudo-seed can beget spiders on almost anything. Which is why you have encountered such a variety of elemental- and terrain-aspected demon spiders."
You shudder in horror. A Demon King loose in the world ... and evidently having been loose for years. Begetting spiders on the very trees and rocks.
"Why didn't we hear about this earlier?" asks Morning. "It seems like the kind of thing the local spirits should have known about and told us." He seems curious rather than shocked. Ebuskun only looks resigned. Blade is oddly calm. Did everyone but you hear about this before the meeting?
"I can only speculate." says Three. "My guess would be that the Abominations summoned him relatively early during their presence, and they suppressed the initial reports until the local spirits gave up. Or perhaps suppressed the spirits directly, somehow."
"Worrisome." says Morning. That's an understatement if you've ever heard one.
When Ebuskun speaks, she sounds as tired as she looks. "What else can you tell me about this Hesperian? Can I kill it?"
Three hesitates. "Yes and no. Slaying a Demon King in the Middle World only drives its essence back to the Demon World. You would have to track him down in the Demon World and kill him there to make it permanent."
"If I drive him back, can he return?"
"No, not on his own. Someone would have to summon him again."
"Hm. I am tempted to find a way to hunt this Hesperian in the Demon World. It would be a tale for the ages." Ebuskun perks up a little at the prospect, but you can't help thinking that sounds utterly suicidal.
The Portlord taps his fingers on his desk. "Leave that possibility for later. What is the situation right now? Please summarize for us."
Ebuskun slouches and the weariness comes back into her voice as she begins complaining, verging on whining. The Helmslanders are incompetent. The forest is treacherous. The casualties are mounting. The hybrid spider demons are growing more powerful as she approaches the stronghold of Hesperian. (First-generation vigor, perhaps? The presence of their progenitor? You don't know enough about demons to say.) "A direct assault is impossible with army now." she concludes. "You must get me more army or allies, or I must pull back soon."
Wisdom Shining Void lets out a long and heavy sigh. "I'm going to have to give up on Helmsland, aren't I?" There are a few looks of confusion, and he suppresses a second sigh to spell out his reasoning for the less politically savvy. "Hesperian is between Silverport and Caligia. Caligia is by a large margin the best placed to assist here. Caligia will not assist a defecting Helmsland. Now I wish I'd taken up that Caligian pretender's request for support. Still, no use crying over spilt milk. Blade, how much more army do you think we could raise for Ebuskun?"
"The clan heads will probably send every trained man they can spare if you admit the existence of Hesperian. That's the real question here, isn't it?" He looks towards Void, and the Portlord gives a slight nod to his chancellor. "Whether it would cause a panic to state that there's a Demon King running amok on our southern border with a horde of smaller demons."
"I think we'll hold that question until the second meeting." says Void. "State of the city, otherwise?"
"Clan Bridge is militarizing further, whitewashing their history of collaboration with the Abominations, buying up property, and generally trying to position themselves as the big power of Silverport, probably intending to push an ally on us as the Fifth Great House. They'd need leverage of some sort which I don't think they have, though. Ascension is expanding their academy again and having some kind of internal conflict over Creationism, which has otherwise mostly blown over as you predicted, with one curious exception." He looks at Three.
She takes this as an invitation to discourse. "The nature of creation implies it has at least one order of creator; as an infinite regress is absurd there must be an uncreated First Creator in which the regress terminates; any intermediate creators are dispensable to the argument; a multiplicity of-"
Void holds up a hand to interrupt. "Not the time and place for it. I don't understand what you see in it - that wasn't a question - the point is, the philosophical discourse belongs at an academy, not the Privy Council."
"The big five academies have all said it doesn't belong there, actually." Three interjects.
Void looks at her in surprise. "What - no, don't take that as a question either. Blade, continue."
"I'll summarize: things have evidently recovered enough the past four years for everyone to afford to get distracted."
"That was a pleasantly fast recovery." says Void.
[Stewardship: 32+20=52 to comment helpfully.]
"It's still a fragile recovery." you add before he starts to draw too many conclusions. You've been a habitual note-taker for a long time, and combined with what you know of Clan Avalanche as an example and some of what you've seen inspecting people's finances during the recent audit, you are uniquely qualified to comment on the current state of affairs. "Flows have mostly recovered, but I'm quite sure reserves remain depleted. If we were attacked again on the same scale, we'd be set back a lot more than four years."
"Interesting. How long do you estimate it would take for a recovery of the reserves, too?" he asks.
"Hard to say with people concealing how much they can draw on... maybe ten more years like the previous four, or it could be twenty of slacking off and basking in the peace." you tell him.
"That bad? I expected everyone would feign more strength than they had, but twenty years... mmm, hmmm, I suppose they would draw on a lot of reserves, and the difference between ten and twenty years of reserves is not that large in practice... makes sense, I suppose. Thank you, Marble." The Portlord nods approvingly. "And how go the palace audits?"
"I have discovered some corruption in the lower level staff but I believe there is more to be uncovered. If I strike now, some of them will probably go to ground. I think I should keep investigating for a while yet. If you want, I can give you some details afterwards, but I imagine I shouldn't hold up the meeting for it."
"Please don't on my account." says Morning. "Details of low-level staff corruption sounds dry as dust."
"Do carry on with the audit, then, Marble." says Void. "Morning, what have you got for us?"
"The League of Free Cities is slowly dismantling itself by internal feuding." says the spymaster. "Apparently there's trouble boiling out of the Bloody Hills just slowly enough that the southern princes are crying for help and the northern princes don't see it as an issue."
"Fortuitous. And our own internals?"
"I discovered and stopped an infiltration attempt by Foundation. A bunch of their Dragon Throne people were poorly disguised foreign agents. I second Blade's assessment that Clan Bridge is up to something, but they don't have any way to pull it off that I can see. Finally, I think I've found enough people for the, um, other project."
"Hmmm. We'll make sure Bridge sends their share of troops against the demon spiders, then, wouldn't do to let them build up too much at home while the rest of us are committed at the front. As for the other project, I think we can move to it now. The public city matters appear to be fairly well covered now. Come along, everyone."
---
The Portlord leads you out of the council meeting hall and down some passageways to the back of the palace. He stops in front of a large and imposing door. It is very clearly a secure door - not the kind of door that says "We're important, so you mustn't come in" the way the council meeting room does. No, this is the sort of door that expresses "You can't come in, even if you're also important."
"What you are about to see here must be kept secret, even from your own family. It concerns dire and deadly matters. If you feel you cannot take this oath, leave now." says Void gravely. "It will not be held against you if you go."
This must be the secret organization for counter-Abomination studies. Not something you want to miss out on. You swear secrecy as Void bids you. So does the rest of the Privy Council. Void fishes a large key out of his pocket, unlocks an equally large lock, and leans heavily into pushing the door open.
---
It's an odd gathering of people who are awaiting you inside.
Wisdom Radiant Chrysanthemum, head of Clan Wisdom.
Ascension Ocean, head of Clan Ascension.
Seven Snakes, high priest of the Temple of the Sun.
The high priest of the Temple of the Moon.
The high priest of the Temple of the City - you think you should know this one, but you struggle to remember his name. Did you see him at Zhu's investiture, perhaps?
An unknown other woman you don't recognize at all. She looks older than you, but still healthy, fit, tall, hard to put a specific age to. A cultivator, maybe? You know cultivators do not age normally.
On a table in front of them lies... paraphernalia. There's really no other word for it. Brazen orbs and bands and sockets, resembling a dismantled orrery. Some sort of head-sized, fleshy brown egg. A familiar booklet: Book of Gates. Two unfamiliar booklets, whose Old Tongue titles you make out as On Reduction Arrays and Concerning My Own Greatness. A dead, oversized spider with an odd yellow-green color. A miniature tombstone. A lacquered wooden box. A sealed metal box. A shortsword made of what looks like leprous silver. A dozen other items with no visible pattern to them.
(The boxes above contain a powder and a liquid.)
A set of burnt-out candle stubs. They still smell fresh as though recently lit.
A very well-used, drink-stained cup.
The head and arm from a marble statue. Something buzzes in the back of your head when you look at them.
Four hand-sized dragonfly wings.
A hollow chicken statuette with several holes on. Could probably be blown as a flute.
The jawbone of some large carnivorous animal, with several additional teeth that match but don't fit.
A lump of fused sand and dirt, presumably from the rain of fire the Abominations unleashed.
A cane seemingly carved out of a single bone.
An ornate, gemmed ring of unknown white substance. Even without cultivator training, you can feel the qi in it.
A wooden mask carved with startling lifelikeness yet retaining the wood grain.
A metal horsehead.
A piece of unmelting ice, giving off constant chill.
Several loose collections of scratch paper in sloppy handwriting.
A chunk of bricks torn out of a wall.
Several greenish metal coins, bearing a face on one side and tentacles on the other.
"I hereby declare the founding and the first meeting of the Ministry of Transportation." announces the Portlord as the twelve of you gather. "Publicly, it will go by this name as a small group doing research into potential innovations in transportation. Privately, the 'transportation' we will concern ourselves with is whatever brought the Abominations here and then took them away, and all other matters pertaining to these our enemies." He makes introductions and confirms that the unknown woman is in fact a cultivator - Ascension Horizon is her name, one of the seniors from the House of Seekers of Ascension, vetted by Gold Morning.
The clan heads are here mostly to provide funding, the high priests for legitimacy and occasional knowledge, it's Ascension Horizon who will be leading the Ministry of Transportation in its daily affairs and occasionally meeting with the others. She will report to Three, who will be liaison to the Portlord's office and secondary coordinator. The rest of the council is expected to give Horizon help and support as necessary: you to draw up a budget, Morning to vet potential recruits, et cetera.
"The real question is, where do I start." says Horizon. "It's all very well to talk abstractly about researching the Abominations and how to fight them, but look at what we've gathered so far when seeking out relics and devices of the Abominations." She gestures at the table and snorts disdainfully. "Scraps, literal and figurative, from building gods know what. A dead spider. A live blob. Half-finished books of the sort where no good ever comes of studying them. A cupful of addictive hallucinogen. An empty cup that was probably just being drunk from. Paintings that creep me out. Masonry, with magical graffiti on it that won't wash away. And then this rumor of a Demon King. I'm going to need some advice on just how and where in the world to start doing this. Also you should ask questions so we're all singing from the same book. Don't be shy, we're all ignorant here at the first meeting of something entirely unprecedented."
---
Voting time. I've learned that straight-out freeform votes are asking for trouble, so I'll give you a template, but also say that this vote is particularly open to write-ins and encourages extra suggestions.
You are at the first meeting of Magical XCOM, now dubbed the Ministry of Transportation for secrecy reasons. There are three main categories in which I expect Marble can contribute.
[] Plan Name goes here
-[] Where do you suggest the MoT should start researching? Can be one of the alien artifacts, or an abstract direction or topic.
-[] What questions do you most want answered about this?
-[] Which direction do you advise the MoT to go in the future? For example focus on recruitment, armament, secrecy, or gathering more Abomination artifacts.
The results will be written up as a Ministry Interlude explaining more of what's going on, followed by voting for the regular turn actions. You may visit the Ministry again in the future to see their progress.
If you have very many questions, some of them may be put in the mouths of other characters for variety. If you have "intermediate" questions about things Marble should know already, feel free to ask them outside of plan and I'll try to answer so you can formulate further questions based on that knowledge.
Hmm, I think the top priority is identifying and containing lingering effects for study. We need a survey to flag the oddities and see if they are dormant, active or contagious. Second would be acquiring knowledge. Theres the booklet, theres probably a lot of collaborators. Could they be brought into cooperation for love of money or coercion?
No plan yet from me. Its past midnight and I tend to make poor decisions at this hour
Another thing is to verify the information in the books not only is it the easiest form of information to access it's also what the abominations wanted people to be able to find meaning that finding out what information isn't true and what they might have omitted will tell us a great deal about their plans.
I think the priority would be to capture any other Abomination artifacts left over, as serves two purposes in removing dangerous objects but also giving the new organization a wider variety of goods to choose to research depending on priority.
For the question @Exmorri , I'd ask them what we know about those that collaborated with the Abominations and whether we should aim to capture them for any insight they might have if they haven't been outright killed yet. I imagine the Abominations must of had some reward incentive in place at least, and knowledge or artifacts would be up there. I'd also follow up on our information on the demon script tattoo that marked the followers, and whether that's common knowledge among those attending, or if say our Spymaster should still be keeping an ear out for anyone who has something that matches that description.
A shortsword made of what looks like leprous silver.
The head and arm from a marble statue. Something buzzes in the back of your head when you look at them.
A hollow chicken statuette with several holes on. Could probably be blown as a flute.
An ornate, gemmed ring of unknown white substance. Even without cultivator training, you can feel the qi in it.
A wooden mask carved with startling lifelikeness yet retaining the wood grain.
Several greenish metal coins, bearing a face on one side and tentacles on the other.
I feel like these items all stand out as things we could use to track down former collaborators. Whether through pawn shops, jewelers, temples, etc. someone has to have seen things like these. If we want to learn more about what the abominations were doing while they were here, we need to find and question anyone who might have worked with them.
Guess the rumour mill was rather more accurate than we had hoped.
Creationism sounds more like an academic curiosity than a radical theological stance. Unless the high level gods object to people saying their dad has no dad I don't see why anyone cares all that much.
Ministry of Transportation… suitably mundane sounding I suppose.
No opinion on the vote.
General goals: Minimizing their influence. Quarantining, destroying or banishing them and their harmful objects. Protecting us against them.
Subgoals:
Seeking knowledge about them.
- (especially ways to fight them)
Seeking and acquiring abomination items.
Detecting their incursions.
Preventing or closing their portals.
Immediate goals:
Find out if their powers can be sensed/detected in some way.
- The statue head already makes you feel weird. Maybe a cultivation technique on sensing that kind of thing from afar?
- Are there frequent symbols that are relatively harmless, but can be used by amateurs to check if something "looks" like an abomination artifact?
Find out historical knowledge about them:
- Do any of the gods know about them?
- Do old records speak about previous incursions?
Can any protocol be established to react better to the next incursion?
- Are there certain gods that can be informed to receive quick help?
- Are there tactics to reduce slow down the unstoppable monsters or reduce their impact?
Brazen orbs and bands and sockets, resembling a dismantled orrery. - Study of the stars. However, if enough of Exalted's cosmology has been ported over, the Demon World may very well have its own night sky and stars, and the nature of that world may require different equipment to study those stars.
Some sort of head-sized, fleshy brown egg. - Spider egg? Is it showing any signs of life? May be useful to study the life-cycle of the demon spiders, but could also be something else entirely left over by the Abominations. If we suspect at all this might still be alive, this needs to be a priority and held under the tightest security. A familiar booklet: Book of Gates. - Requires study, but we all know how reading forbidden lore usually ends up as... also unreliable as it was written by the Abominations and was probably intended to be found and read by uninformed and unprepared mortals. Two unfamiliar booklets, whose Old Tongue titles you make out as On Reduction Arrays and Concerning My Own Greatness. - The former I have no clue on, but might be worth reading. The latter sounds like something a Malfean would write A dead, oversized spider with an odd yellow-green color. - Like the egg, worth studying to figure out their life-cylce, as well as if it has any weaknesses to some substance, a natural bane we can equip our soldiers with. A miniature tombstone. - Omnious. Worth studying just to figure out who it belongs to, as a potential lead. A lacquered wooden box. - No clue. A sealed metal box. - Same as above. The fact its sealed means we may very well want to to keep it sealed. A shortsword made of what looks like leprous silver. - Not sure what leprous means here, but worth studying to know what it is and how it was made, as well as for what purpose.
A dozen other items with no visible pattern to them.
(The boxes above contain a powder and a liquid.) A set of burnt-out candle stubs. They still smell fresh as though recently lit. - Willing to bet it was used in rituals. Can be left on the backburner for now. A very well-used, drink-stained cup. - No clue. The head and arm from a marble statue. Something buzzes in the back of your head when you look at them. - The one thing to get a reaction out of Marble. Priority for us, for personal reasons. Four hand-sized dragonfly wings. - Worrying size, but no clue how to even begin researching this. A hollow chicken statuette with several holes on. Could probably be blown as a flute. - Lets not blow the demon flute. We don't want to summon any demon chickens. The jawbone of some large carnivorous animal, with several additional teeth that match but don't fit. - Demon? Monster created by hellish mutation? Worth studying just to verify that its not a natural creature, but not much else. A lump of fused sand and dirt, presumably from the rain of fire the Abominations unleashed. Very doubtful we can get much from this, mostly just to test how hot those flames were. A cane seemingly carved out of a single bone. Worth checking to see what creature the bone came from, but low priority. An ornate, gemmed ring of unknown white substance. Even without cultivator training, you can feel the qi in it. - Then let our cultivator check it. If its this powerful, this is a high priority. A wooden mask carved with startling lifelikeness yet retaining the wood grain. - Logically, putting on a demon mask is a terribly reckless thing. On the otherhand, I'm getting strong The Mask vibes, and I loved that movie. Entirely irrational for Marble, I know, but I kinda want to put it on. A metal horsehead. - No clue. A piece of unmelting ice, giving off constant chill. Great. use in a personal fridge. Several loose collections of scratch paper in sloppy handwriting. Try and translate. A chunk of bricks torn out of a wall. If this is the part of wall with magical graffiti on it, we might want to figure out what it is. Not just the writing, but also what is keeping it from being erased, and what purpose it serves. Several greenish metal coins, bearing a face on one side and tentacles on the other. - Try and figure out who the face is supposed to belong to and what the tentacles represent. If these were coins the Abominations tried to mint when they were in power, or if this is currency from the Demon World.
No plan yet, but here are things I think we should focus on:
-[] Where do you suggest the MoT should start researching? Can be one of the alien artifacts, or an abstract direction or topic. - The pieces of the statue that gave Marble a tingle are a good start, as well as the gem, mysterious egg and the wooden mask. If we have to focus on one, the gem is the main focus. If I had to give priority to several artifacts, it would go Gem -> Statue -> Egg -> Mask.
-[] What questions do you most want answered about this? - What exactly were the Abominations doing here, and why did they truely leave.
-[] Which direction do you advise the MoT to go in the future? For example focus on recruitment, armament, secrecy, or gathering more Abomination artifacts. - I believe we should focus on understanding the nature of the Abominations, but more importantly than understanding them is preparing defenses against them. This means finding and hoarding arcane weapons, because if they came back now, there's all of jack and shit we can do about it.
Drugs and any means of mind-control. Brands our people suffered (sorry W3, but you may be a sleeper agent), as well as the markings recruited soldiers had (what Bridge's guy talked about).
And this- especially this. A direct influence on Marble is bad.
[] Path of Corruption
-[] Where do you suggest the MoT should start researching? Can be one of the alien artifacts, or an abstract direction or topic.
--[] The head and arm from a marble statue. It has a startling effect on Marble- why and how?
-[] What questions do you most want answered about this?
--[] Does Abomination have secret agents left inside the city? Who and where? What kind of agents? What are their goals?
-[] Which direction do you advise the MoT to go in the future? For example focus on recruitment, armament, secrecy, or gathering more Abomination artifacts.
--[] Secrecy first and foremost.
2.Path of Incursion
Focusing on the military matters- demons and ways of Abomination can return to our land. Also preparing for them.
Best in short term, good in medium-term, questionable in long-term.
[] Path of Incursion
-[] Where do you suggest the MoT should start researching? Can be one of the alien artifacts, or an abstract direction or topic.
--[] A dead, oversized spider with an odd yellow-green color.
-[] What questions do you most want answered about this?
[] Can we prevent further incursions, or at least detect them sufficiently early? Any ways to permanently maim or banish demons, without going into the demon world?
-[] Which direction do you advise the MoT to go in the future? For example focus on recruitment, armament, secrecy, or gathering more Abomination artifacts.
--[] Focus on armament and recruitment.
3. Path of Understanding
More long-term, concerned with Abomination's ultimate plans and purpose. Trying to answer WHY?
Long-term only, but good foundation to figure out other things as well.
[] Path of Understanding
-[] Where do you suggest the MoT should start researching? Can be one of the alien artifacts, or an abstract direction or topic.
--[] Two unfamiliar booklets, whose Old Tongue titles you make out as On Reduction Arrays and Concerning My Own Greatness.
-[] What questions do you most want answered about this?
--[] Why did the Abomination come here in the first place? What were/are their plans towards this city?
-[] Which direction do you advise the MoT to go in the future? For example focus on recruitment, armament, secrecy, or gathering more Abomination artifacts.
--[] Focus on gathering Abomination artifacts and knowledge related to them.
So Intrigue, Military or Learning -focused plans.
Suggesting Intrigue, as Wolf 3 and marble statue already suggest Abomination's webs binding the minds of our best people.
I will note that anything still alive or active here has probably been active for 3+ years. You can be quite confident it's not going to explode any time soon.
