Spirit Quest

[Oshha]

[X][Spirit] Focus on Blessing Followers
-[X] Avawyr
[X][Spirit] Focus on Bolstering the Harvest
-[X] Avawyr
[X][Avatar] Construction
-[X] The Ava Cove Passage: 4/11 Progress x3
[X] Experiment
-[X] Better ways to move stones and other heavy things.
[X][Leadership] Ava Cove Passage x2
[X][Leadership] Focus on Blessing Followers

***​

The cycle starts off well enough. Your healing and blessing proves decent enough, aiding the mortal villagers of Avawyr even if it is not great as they could be while you also bolster the crops planted for this cycle's harvest.

Meanwhile Bronwyn focuses on blessing your non-spirit daughters like Seryn did with Aeryn. You offer to try the same, but your daughters turn you down as they are not particularly interested in your spiritual aspects while their mother's Aspect of Beauty is very appealing to all of your daughters.

It goes incredible well as between Bronwyn's extremely focus on the matter and her existing connection to them, the attempt is pulled off without a hitch.

The rest of the year goes well for Avawyr and the other villages that your family commands. You devote most of your energies to continuing construction on the mountain passage to Ava Cove, including experimenting on how to more easily move the heavy rocks that are needed to be move about as part of the construction.

In the end, you figure out how to reshape the rocks and stone of the Ava Mountains. It is not an Aspect, but a lesser spirit ability like healing or ridding mortal fatigue. As of such, this new ability lacks power and you are limited in how much rock and stone you can shape at once.

Nonetheless, your new ability proves useful in your work and you are able to make significant progress on the passage. In fact, you are pretty certain that in this cycle, you have been able to double the previous progress made.

Meanwhile, things are interesting in Avawyr. Rather than leading Avawyr as usual, Bronwyn instead focuses on more artistically inclined pursuits. She and Gwyn have been spending much of their time carving, drawing a good number of mortal followers into it.

Primarily using soil-rock commonly called clay, Bronwyn, Gwyn and the other Avawyrish villagers shape and cook the clay and whatever else they use to create objects. Some are purely decorative and lack practical use while others soon prove useful as containers for items, food and water.

There are some limited attempts to create weaponry from the fire-forged clay, but all of it proves useless as the spears and arrowheads break too easily. Instead, your warriors and hunters will continue to use stone.

Crafting is not all that Bronwyn does as your wife also encourages trading and exchanges of goods with Evalon. It is not an uncommon sight to see an Evalonish in the village throughout the cycle.

And while Bronwyn does slack off when it comes to leading the village, Eulyn and Terwyn step to the task. Some villagers expressed discontent that having two girls who are less than a great cycle old and others have developed a general disliked of being commanded by the women in your family when you are the chief.

But you and your family are greatly respected by most so minor grumblings are all that occur and things do not worsen beyond that.

Over the cycle, you get news trickling in as Evalonish arrive and Avawyrish with news alongside their goods.

Seryn and her villages of Bedywn and Bedynn are quiet as little happens while Seryn focuses on finishing the repairs to her two villages. And whilst the material damage is mostly done, it will still take time for their populations to build back up, especially with Bedwyn which lost close to half of its population one way or another over the last few cycles.

Still quiet news is good news as it means nothing bad has happened.

Evalon has had exciting news to bring by the end of the cycle. This cycle has been an especially good one for the Evalonish. Evatine has spent the year working on metal equipment, forged them with the metal he calls Iron with his Aspect of Metal. Unlike last year, these are not spears or any other type of weapon, but tools used for everyday life in activities such as farming or woodcutting.

Beyond his forging of iron tools, Evatine had a particularly potent cycle of blessing and inspiring this year. Under his guidance, his followers explored the north as while Bedynn is to the north-west, Bedywn in the south-west and Avawyr in the south-east, the north and north-east remains unknown to any of the people or spirits in your four villages.

Open fields exist along the coastline in the north-east before turning into hills as you go further in-hill, but those hills remain unexplored at the moment.

When exploring the north, the Evalonish followed up the northern river. While it continued to forested on the western side, they swiftly came to a split into a river where it either continued north or went west. Northward, it was mostly hills, but slightly beyond the western turn, there is a large patch of flat, grassland.

And it is there that the Evalonish explorers discovered the village of Bedygan. Two sister spirits rule the villagers of Bedygan and the two of them are opposites.

Where Lynellt is light and bright, the Elairamur is darkness and shadows. While Lynellt is orderly, Elairamur is carefree and disorganised. Despite their differences or perhaps because of them, the two spirit sisters of Bedygan get along quite well.

The initial contact with Bedygan has gone well. While wary as the Evalonish are the first outsiders that the Bedyganish have encountered, your brother's followers have left a good impression on them.

Halfway up the northern river, it splits again as part of the river splits off to the south-east into the unexplored hills north-east of Lake Eva.

At the end of the northern river is a massive lake, easily twice the size of Lake Eva. The western and eastern sides of the North Lake are open grasslands while the lake is backed up against mountains in the north.

It is in the North Lake the Evalonish explorers encounter the fishing boats of the Prylake villagers. Located on the eastern coast of the North Lake, the Prylakish rely upon the lake and not the earth to provide for them.

Their spirit embodies this as Isorine is a water spirit and is specifically linked to the North Lake in her Aspects.

Despite having recently fallen upon hard times in this cycle and the last, the Prylakish welcome the Evalonish expedition with open arms. The faraway people offer friendship and kindness to your brother's followers.

And in return, the Evalonish share their supplies with the Prylakish. While this leaves the explorers with no time to do anything, but return home lest their run out of their tightly-stretched supplies, the Prylakish are very grateful for this act of kindness.

All in all, a pretty good cycle by your standards. Nothing major is going wrong at home and the north has been explored, discovering two new villages and three spirits.

***​

Basic Spirit Actions: 2 Actions available
[] [Spirit] Focus on Blessing Followers
-[] Avawyr
[] [Spirit] Focus on Inspiring Followers
-[] Avawyr
[] [Spirit] Focus on Healing Followers
-[] Avawyr
[Spirit] Focus on Bolstering the Harvest
-[] Avawyr

Avatar Actions: 4 Actions available
[] [Avatar] Explore
-[] The Mountains to the South-West
-[] The Mountains to the East
-[] Lake Eva Western Coastline
-[] Lake Eva Northern Coastline
-[] The North Lake
[] [Avatar] Construction
-[] The Ava Cove Passage: 8/11 Progress
-[] Boat Pens at Ava Cove: 0/??? Progress
-[] Stone Wall around Avawyr: 0/??? Progress
[] [Avatar] Hunt
[] [Avatar] Visit
-[] Evatine at Evalon
-[] Seryn at Bedywn
-[] Seryn at Bedynn
-[] Lynellt & Elairamur at Bedygan
-[] Isorine at Prylake (Costs 2 Actions)
[] [Avatar] Experiment
-[] Write-in.

Leadership Actions: 3 Actions available
Leadership Actions are used to improve other Actions such as Avatar or Spirit.

 

[Oshha]

Is the current vote for the path likely to finish it?

What will the effects of the path be?

What is the percentage of faith by deity in each of the four villages over which our association has dominion?

Click to shrink...

Possibly if you get high rolls on both actions and have at least one leadership bonus.

Easier access to Ava Cove which will result in easier travel between Avawyr and Evalon.

Avawyr: 1,200
Gwarlon - 90%
Bronwyn - 85%
Evatine - 80%
Seryn - 40%

Evalon: 1,600
Gwarlon - 80%
Bronwyn - 80%
Evatine - 95%
Seryn - 25%

Bedwyn: 3,200
Gwarlon - 35%
Bronwyn - 35%
Evatine - 45%
Seryn - 95%

Bedynn: 1,800
Gwarlon - 20%
Bronwyn - 20%
Evatine - 5%
Seryn - 95%

 

[Oshha]

[X] Plan Finish the Road
[X][Spirit] Focus on Blessing Followers
-[X] Avawyr
[X][Spirit] Focus on Bolstering the Harvest
-[X] Avawyr
[X][Avatar] Construction
-[X] The Ava Cove Passage: 8/11 Progress x2
[X][Avatar] Visit
-[X] Lynellt & Elairamur at Bedygan
[X] Experiment
-[X] Practice shaping stone by creating a statue of beloved Bronwyn out of stones of interesting and accurate colour.
[X][Leadership] Focus on Construction x2
[X][Leadership] Focus on Visit to Bedygan

***​

The cycle has a good start as usual as you focus your attentions on finishing the passage to Ava Cove. You give out some extra blessings and bolster crops of this cycle's the harvest as bit more, but those are lacklustre as you focus your attention on the construction of the passage.

It ultimately pays off as by putting in a significant amount of effort, time and other resources into the project, the Ava Cove Passage has been completely by the end of the year.

You feel no small amount of satisfaction at the accomplishment as in addition to be a testament to your abilities, it will allow easier travel between Avawyr and Evalon, making it easier for your followers to interact with each other and help the trade between the two villages.

Which proves to be useful as your wife's attempts at encouraging said trade go poorly this cycle. The main reason is that some of the Avawyrish traders have found out what Evatine is using the rocks they are trading for and how useful the Evalonish are finding the iron wielded by your brother.

As a result of that discovery, the Avawyrish traders feel that they are being cheatable out of the proper value of the iron ore as they have been selling them for the value of special rocks such as the shiny, coloured ones when the iron ore is worth a lot more.

Meanwhile, the Evalonish traders feel that they are giving the Avawyrish a fair deal and that the while the forged-iron is a lot more valuable than iron ore, the iron ore before Evatine has forged it is not particularly valuable.

Fortunately, it does not escalate to the point that you or one of the other spirits needs to get involved as while the dispute lasts for most of the cycle, the village elders of both villages manage to resolve the situation by using wisdom, reason and willingness to have the warriors break bones as needed.

Bronwyn herself focuses on leading over crafting this year. She reasserts herself as the organiser of Avawyr whilst Gwyn takes over leading the efforts of crafting pottery and stone. Otherwise, Seryn and Bronwyn exchange several visits throughout the year.

Speaking of Seryn, your daughter has finally begun to take action beyond repairing the war damage of her villages. She has decided to build a path between Bedywn and Bedynn to connect both of her villages and has decided to take inspiration from the artificial paths created by the Evalonish and the Avawyrish.

Beyond starting the path and visiting family, Seryn has focused on Bedywn, attempting to reforge the martial traditions into something that is her own. Basing her efforts on what she did with Aeryn, Seryn attempts a lesser version of that with the Bedywnish warriors she has been training.

The results are…interesting as they seem to be mixture of stunning success and spectacular failure. While she successful imbued her warriors with her power and got the more war-like Aspects, Seryn botched it when she came to dealing with the rest of her Aspects.

Whether she intended to include them or meant to leave them out, Seryn added her Spirit of Beauty and Spirit of the Wildcat into her blessing, a version of it tuned to her specifically. This has resulted in the blessing not enhancing the beauty of the warriors or giving them some cat traits like what happened to Aeryn, but give copies of Seryn's beauty and wildcat traits.

Seryn's warriors, the majority of them being young lads, have been granted the cat ears, eyes, fangs and tails of Seryn along with her muscular body, her snow-white hair, her blue eyes and her curvaceous female body.

When faced with this mess up, Seryn refused to admit to making a mistake and doubled down on what happened by claiming that she intentioned for that to happen. When you were able to confirm what happened almost a full season later when Seryn visited Avawyr, the Bedwynish were already calling the blessing 'the Gift of the Mighty Body'. Furthermore, Seryn had already confirmed as 'unique blessing' that she can carry out instead of a general blessing that you, Evatine, Bronwyn and other spirits have been using and has done so by using a few more times when questioned about it.

You have no idea how to feel about this, especially since while their bodies have changed, their minds have not so the former men retain their old male lust for woman's body and your daughter now has close to a hundred beautiful, female-loving warrior women as her personal guard.

And you do not want to even consider the possibility of Seryn's claims of intentionally doing what she did to be the truth and not her trying to cover up a major mistake.

But that matters not because regardless of whether or not she meant to do what she did the first time, the fact that Seryn has blessed her followers with the Mighty Body since the first times means she has been intentionally doing it since and most of those times were in response to her being called out on the first time by upset relatives of the lads she turned into lasses. That is a problem that you need to address.

And even if you wanted to and you do not, you cannot stay out of the manner as many Bedwynish who worship you are asking for your intervention along with a good number of the Bedwynish who do not worship you as you are the father of the Mighty One. You have also heard from Bronwyn and Evatine that their Bedywnish followers are making similar pleas to them as well.
While Seryn has been creating a headache for you, Evatine and the Evalonish have been busy as always.

Evatine himself as been busy making more iron tools for the Evalonish, more than doubling the number that they have. Your brother has also blessed the three dozen iron spears that he kept for himself, making them unbreakable and empowering them with his Spirit of Man.

Useful and also worrying given that his warriors fall under the part of being wielded by human hands while Seryn and to some extent, her newly blessed warriors fall under part of bonuses against nonhumans.

Meanwhile, the Evalonish have begun construction on the Eva Isle Boat Pens as they hear of you working to finish off the passage to Ava Cove. Judging from what you hear, they should be finished by the end of the next cycle.

***​

"So what exactly happened out there?" inquires Bronwyn as she leans against you as the two of you watch Cadyl plan with the other young children of Avawyr.

It is the early Cold season and you have just returned from your visit to Bedygan. The snow is falling and while more than enough, the harvest this year has not been as good as previous years. Still, the new pottery has allowed for more food to be stored throughout the Cold Season so nobody needs to worry about going hungry.

"The journey itself was fine, it was what I found that was the problem," you answer your wife, enjoying the feel of your wife's bosom against your body as you always do, "It was war like what Cynfanor waged and what we brought against him. Only it was not at the same time. No, what I and the others found was uglier and far more brutal. Neighbour fought against neighbour and kin slew kin. Not the spirits of Bedygan for the sisters were victims of their follower's fury.

While Lynellt and Elairamur get along well despite being almost opposites to each other, their followers have been divided themselves in favouring one or the other. Ultimately it came to a head this Sun Season as the Bedyganish decided that due to being opposites, Lynellt and Elairamur, they must also be opposed and bloodshed broke out despite the protests of the spirits themselves.

Unwilling to slaughter their sister's followers, Lynellt and Elairamur limited themselves to healing the injured and sheltering those who tried to remain uninvolved.

It was in the end of the Harvest Season that it came to a head with Lynellt expending most of her energy to bless and inspire the hunters in order to provide enough food when the fighting resulted in a failed harvest this cycle. Unfortunately, this resulted in her not having enough energy to protect her shrine and Elairamur's followers managed to strike it, dispersing her avatar.

They would have finished her off if Elairamur had not come to her sister's rescue against her own worshipers.

But Elairamur is a spirit of darkness and instability, of chaos and nothingness. And she was enraged, furious with that had befallen her village and the harm done to her beloved sister in her own name.

Elairamur wrought monsters of shadow and darkness, which devoured those who would slay Lynellt. But it did not end there as Elairamur lost control of her creations and while she personally kept them from destroying Lynnelt's shrine, she could not keep them from the rest of Bedygan."

"What happened?" asks Bronwyn as you fall silent.

You let out a bitter bark of laughter at the question.

"What happened?" you repeat, "I happened. Three days after the beasts forged with darkness and the monsters of shadow had been unleashed, I arrived with the Avawyrish to see the chaos that was unfolded. I decided that I would not allow what was happening before me. So I hunted down the monsters, drove out the rest and brought peace to the village, dealing one way or another with those who continue fighting.

But it did not end well as while I saved them from certain destruction, the Bedyganish did not welcome a foreign spirit coming in and bossing them around, even if it was for their own good. And while I saved their village and their source of worship from being destroyed, Lynnelt still slumbers and Elairamur still rages and refused my offer of friendship in her grief.

So I left, a broken husk of a village that has just been saved from the verge of destruction.

It was horrible, my dearest. I asked how many remained and I was told it was less than eight hundred at the latest count. Less than eight hundred and I was told that at the start of this cycle, they number over two thousand.

I have to do something, but I do not know what. Lynellt sleeps, Elairamur rejects me and anyone else whilst she does not have her sister and the Bedyganish are a broken people who do not want outside aid."

"I am here my husband," Bronwyn whispers soothingly in your ear, "You are home now. Outside problems can wait. Tonight we shall reside in the same bed."

***​

What to do about Seryn's 'Gift of the Mighty Body' blessing?
[] [Seryn] Attempt to reserve it on those who request you to undo it.
[] [Seryn] Speak to Seryn about what she is doing.
-[] [Seryn] Tell her what?
[] [Seryn] Write-in.

Basic Spirit Actions: 2 Actions available
[] [Spirit] Focus on Blessing Followers
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
[] [Spirit] Focus on Inspiring Followers
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
[] [Spirit] Focus on Healing Followers
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
[Spirit] Focus on Bolstering the Harvest
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr

Avatar Actions: 4 Actions available
[] [Avatar] Explore
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the South-West
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the East
-[] [Avatar] Lake Eva Western Coastline
-[] [Avatar] Lake Eva Northern Coastline
-[] [Avatar] The North Lake
[] [Avatar] Construction
-[] [Avatar] Boat Pens at Ava Cove: 0/??? Progress
-[] [Avatar] Stone Wall around Avawyr: 0/??? Progress
[] [Avatar] Hunt
[] [Avatar] Visit
-[] [Avatar] Evatine at Evalon
-[] [Avatar] Seryn at Bedywn
-[] [Avatar] Seryn at Bedynn
-[] [Avatar] Lynellt & Elairamur at Bedygan
-[] [Avatar] Isorine at Prylake (Costs 2 Actions)
[] [Avatar] Experiment
-[] [Avatar] Write-in.

Leadership Actions: 3 Actions available
Leadership Actions are used to improve other Actions such as Avatar or Spirit.
[] [Leadership] Write-in.

 

[Oshha]

[X] Plan Aid Package Edition
-[X] [Seryn] Speak to Seryn about what she is doing.
--[X] [Seryn] Tell her that the role of a spirit is much alike a parent, we are meant to help the people, not the other way around. It doesn't matter if it was how she wanted or not, she should not do it to people who don't want this. Being wrong sometimes is normal, and she should apologize for turning man into woman without their consent, at the very least. If possible, revert the ones who want it. But no matter what, we'll stay by her side and help her.
--[X] [Seryn] Discuss with Seryn how her blessing works. See if there is anything special with how she does it, or if its something unique to her nature as Beauty.
-[X] [Spirit] Focus on Blessing Followers
--[X] [Spirit] Avawyr
-[X] [Spirit] Focus on Bolstering the Harvest
--[X] [Spirit] Avawyr
-[X] [Avatar] Construction
--[X] [Avatar] Stone Wall around Avawyr: 0/??? Progress x2
-[X] [Avatar] Visit
--[X] [Avatar] Seryn at Bedywn
-[X] [Avatar] Experiment
--[X] [Avatar] Blessing someone devout, willing and competent with our Leadership aspect, so that they may lead below the spirits, guiding people to our goals. (Basically, make a high priest)
-[X] [Leadership] Send aid to the village of the two sisters. You would have to help their people stay fed so that there is something for them to return to when they regain their senses. Starving and desperate villagers are liable to do something even more foolish than they already managed.
-[X] [Leadership] Talk and visit to Seryn
-[X] [Leadership] Blessing experiment

***​

The first thing you do this cycle is set for Bedywn to resolve the situation and Bronwyn joining you to deal with her wayward daughter.

You leave Terwyn running the village in your absence even though your shrines mean that you can be consulted when necessary even if your avatar is away. The caring for Cadyl is taken over by Eulyn.

Taking the newly constructed passage to Ava Cove, you and Bronwyn set off together in a boat. It is a nice trip and you enjoy being out on the waters of Lake Eva with just your beloved wife. Ultimately you reach the southern shore and it is another day of travelling before you reach village of Bedywn, where Seryn awaits you.

As you walk through the village, you barely avoid wincing as you see the many girls who look like identical copies of your daughter.

Despite having a good idea of why you and Bronwyn have come, Seryn is happy to see the both of you as always. While you fear that she might reject what you have to tell her, Seryn pretty much hangs on to your every word, soaking in the wisdom that you have to give.

She swiftly accepts your reasoning that a spirit has a duty to provide and look after their people and not the other way around. It helps that you phrase the idea of a spirit being there to serve their people as your beliefs while saying that the idea of the people being there to serve the spirit as Cynfanor's beliefs.

Having prevented this mess from occurring in the future, you focus on the task of cleaning up what has already happened. It is a simple as you hoped whilst also being not as simple in a way you did not expect.

It turns out that Seryn can reserve the Gift of the Mighty Body easily enough, but it turns out that most of the recipients want to keep it even as their families wanted them back to the way before. By the time, you reached Bedywn, the warriors of the village had decided that any true warrior would take up the Gift of Mighty Body and anybody who balked at accepting Seryn's blessing is a wuss and unworthy of calling themselves a warrior. Losing your manhood? Nothing more than a sacrifice to prove your devotion to the art of the war.

Honestly, the proclamations of being a 'true warrior' and the general fanaticism towards war unnerved you after your experiences in Bedygan last cycle. But it was the choice of the recipient of whether or not they kept or received the blessing and you had to respect that even if you personally sympathised with their unhappy families.

So despite your own misgivings about the situation, you attempt to promote peace amongst the Bedywnish with the assistance of Bronwyn and Seryn. It worked well. Almost too well as the regular villagers accept the choices of the warriors and came about to their way of thinking in the process.

With the matter resolved fairly and properly even if it is not too your personal liking, you inquire to Seryn as to how her blessing works and whether or not it is something only possible for her.

In the end, the results are useful as you have liked. The Gift of the Mighty Body is something unique to Seryn of course, but she did it by attempting to bless her followers with her Aspects on a permanent basis like she has done with Aeryn and Cynfanor did with Caradawg instead of just temporary infusing a mortal with undefined spiritual energy.

While that part is successful, it mainly relied on such a thing working well with Seryn's Aspects and having a plenty of spare power available to use. You currently lack the latter and your own Aspects are not as useful for empowering mortals as your daughter's are.

You could see Evatine empowering a mortal with his Aspects of Man, Sword and Metal or Bronwyn with her two Aspects of Beauty and Love. Snowfalls, you even seen your wife do the same thing on a greater scale with your other daughters.

But Fatherhood and Chief? Useful for a single leader like yourself, but poorly suited for empowering your average followers.

While it is not entirely what you hoped for, things have turned out rather well and after spending a few more days at Bedywn with your daughter, you make the trip back to Avawyr.

***​

The rest of the cycle also goes well. Your usually blessings and healings go fine as does your bolstering of the harvest while Bronwyn does particularly good on the harvest this cycle.

You begin construction on the new stone wall around Avawyr in order to provide more protection for the village. You cannot think of anyone or anything out there that could provide a threat to your village, but you are certain that Cynfanor felt the same way around Bedwyn before you and Evatine came with your warriors.

Bronwyn spends her time making back and forth trips between Bedywn and Avawyr, making sure that the situation in the west remains all right. Other than that, she takes a break from her recent crafting and helps prepare aid expedition that you have order to be sent to Bedygan to aid in their recovery. She has also stated her intentions to go along with it.

Progress on the wall goes well, but it soon becomes clear that this project is going to be a bigger and longer one than the passage to Ava Cove. You do not know how much time and effort it will take yet as you have yet to progress far enough in the project to accurate predict how much work is needed.

Evatine stays in Evalon to your relief, forging a mixture of iron tools and iron spears this cycle whilst blessing some of his most trusted and devout followers so that they can work metal like he does. The Myrymar are what these newly blessed followers of Evatine are being called even as the warriors who have accepted the Gift of the Mighty Body are being called the Cath Wyrs.

Speaking of the Cath Wyrs, you notice that as the seasons have gone, the news and acceptance of them as being the 'true warriors' is spreading beyond Seryn's villages as Evatine reports such sentiments growing in Evalon whilst you hear about it from your warriors as they debate whether or not to ask your daughter for the Gift of the Mighty Body.

For some reason, you find it all rather irritating.

Little else of note happens over in Evalon beyond the Evalonish finishing the Eva Isle Boat Pens and your brother giving a weak blessing to the newly created spears.

As for Seryn? Your daughter continues working on the path between Bedywn and Bedynn whilst blessing the warriors of Bedynn with the Gift of the Mighty Body. Otherwise, Seryn comes to visit you and the rest of your family in Avawyr and to your surprise, sets up a new shrine.

Seryn sets it up in the same cave that you and Bronwyn have your shrine in, setting up a humble idol that contains her essence.

You feel a deep sense of happiness at always having your daughter at hand. For the last few cycles, she has been living in another village and you have only been able to see each other when one of you has visited the other. Now? You will always be in contact with each other.

When you ask her how she did it, your daughter can only tell you that it was because she had gather enough power and worship in Avawyr along with her spiritual connection to the village she grew up in.

***​

It took you a good while to find a suitable person, but you eventually find one. Vardyn is a greater cycle old and one of the Avawyrish hunters and a veteran of the conquest of Bedywn. He is also one of those who opposes the Gift of the Mighty Body and gives worships to only you and Evatine, putting him firmly in your camp.

Born with a strong, energetic body, Vardyn is a patient man who has no trouble stalking and slaying his prey with a bow. A well-spoken and charismatic leader amongst the hunters, a good many in the village look up to him, especially with him being willingly to loudly back up his principles.

Vardyn would make a suitable leader for the mortals who follow you, but there is a complication.

Terwyn also wants the position.

The last of your children to leave Bronwyn's womb, Terwyn is the smartest and wisest of your daughters in addition to being one of the fairest and respectfully. Taking over leadership of Avawyr when you or Bronwyn are busy or otherwise distracted, Terwyn has earned the respect and loyalty of the Avawyrish.

As things are, Vardyn is the leader of the hunters while Terwyn is the leader of the village while Gwyn is the leader of the crafters and Arwyn is the leader of the explorers.

While you could just give the roll to Terwyn, she wouldn't be suitable for your more powerful Aspect of Fatherhood while Vardyn would. And Terwyn always has a lessen version of the Aspects of Love and Beauty from being blessed by Bronwyn along with the Aspect of the Wildcat that all of your daughters were born with.

It is also obvious to you that Terwyn is aiming to become a full-fledged spirit like her mother and sister have and becoming your mortal leader is just another step along that path.

***​

It is in the late Harvest Season that Bronwyn and the Avawyrish aid expedition sets off for Bedygan, having collected the surplus food from this cycle's harvest to take with them.

With both of your shrines in Avawyr, you are able to keep in contact with each other even if your avatars are separate. From what Bronwyn tells you, the Bedyganish are a broken, but recovering people. Elairamur is an effectively useless spirit as she continues to watch over her fallen sister with the Bedyganish villagers giving worship to the two sisters out fear of how Elairamur will react if they do not.

Despite the bloodshed and carnage of the previous cycle and their spirits not watching over them, the Bedyganish are able to scrape out a living this cycle, bringing a worthwhile harvest and repairing some of the damage to the village.

And while they are getting by on their own, the surviving Bedyganish, whose numbers turn out to higher than you are told if still lower than a thousand, are more than happy to accept aid from Bronwyn, who performs for them the spiritual duties that Lynellt is unable to do and Elairamur neglects such as healing injuries. Mostly the healing as that is the most pressing issue and your wife does not have much energy to spare on the Bedyganish. As things are, she almost collapses from what healing she did do.

Looking back at the cycle, it was a good one. Nothing went overly wrong, things are progressing and your worst fears were avoided.

What do you do regarding your high priest?
[] [Priest] Vardyn.
-[] [Priest] Marry Terwyn to him.
[] [Priest] Terwyn.
[] [Priest] Both.
[] [Seryn] Write-in.

Basic Spirit Actions: 2 Actions available
[] [Spirit] Focus on Blessing Followers
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
-[] [Spirit] Iron Spears
[] [Spirit] Focus on Inspiring Followers
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
[] [Spirit] Focus on Healing Followers
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
[Spirit] Focus on Bolstering the Harvest
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr

Avatar Actions: 4 Actions available
[] [Avatar] Explore
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the South-West
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the East
-[] [Avatar] Lake Eva Western Coastline
-[] [Avatar] Lake Eva Northern Coastline
-[] [Avatar] The North Lake
[] [Avatar] Construction
-[] [Avatar] Boat Pens at Ava Cove: 0/??? Progress
-[] [Avatar] Stone Wall around Avawyr: 3/18-30 Progress
[] [Avatar] Hunt
[] [Avatar] Visit
-[] [Avatar] Evatine at Evalon
-[] [Avatar] Seryn at Bedywn
-[] [Avatar] Seryn at Bedynn
-[] [Avatar] Lynellt & Elairamur at Bedygan
-[] [Avatar] Isorine at Prylake (Costs 2 Actions)
[] [Avatar] Experiment
-[] [Avatar] Write-in.

Leadership Actions: 3 Actions available
Leadership Actions are used to improve other Actions such as Avatar or Spirit.
[] [Leadership] Write-in.

 

[Oshha]

In a generic blessing, a spirit infuses the chosen follower with some energy that heals, strengthens, invigorates and just generally improves the receiver of the blessing's body and mind and it only lasts as long as the energy used in the blessing, which is usually a few months.

With the Gift of the Mighty Body, it is a permanent blessing which can only be performed by Seryn due to it being tied to her Aspects and body. The manner in which it is tied to her Aspects is odd because it only uses some of them. The first part, due to the critical success, it has her endurance-based Aspects such as Vigour which grant superhuman strength, endurance and agility and warfare-based Aspects such as Battle and War which improves fighting skill, strategy & tactics and morale. Effects from other Aspects which tie into the above effects such as improved morale/leadership from her Aspect of Order can be included in the Gift of the Mighty Body.

The second part, due to the critical failure, is a result of Seryn screwing up her Wildcat and Beauty Aspects as she accidentally used them when she didn't want to use them for her warrior-blessing. The unintended result is purely physically with no supernatural buffs and takes the form of the receiver of the Gift of the Mighty Body their body transformed into the body Seryn when she created into blessing. Because of this, they get the cat features (eyes, fangs, tail and ears) and the beauty that Seryn's body had, but no supernatural abilities such as being able to command wildcats or being to cosmetically change their appearance. For the record, that means a very curvy, but muscular girl with white hair, blue eyes, cat ears, cat tail, cat eyes and fangs with above average height along with no imperfects anywhere.

It should be noted that this is different to someone who has been Chosen as a priestess of Seryn like Aeryn. Using Aeryn as an example, she has been imbued with the relevant Aspects of Seryn so she has lesser version of them rather than just some of the effects. For example, Aeryn gets cat ears and eyes from Seryn's Aspect of the Wildcat and beauty from Seryn's Aspect of Beauty, but she also gets stuff like the ability to command wildcats and her clothing shifting to automatically fit her perfectly and look good on her. She also has a direct connection to Seryn to call upon the Mighty One along with a allotment of power that recharges of time that lets her do spirit stuff and can call upon more of Seryn's power if Seryn deems fit.

 

[Oshha]

While she still retains her brown hair and eyes, Aeryn's body has been influenced by Seryn's stronger aspects. A strong muscular body, but intertwined with great beauty including cat ears and eyes, but no fangs or tail.

Aeryn stands alone in the sunlight of the rising sun. An earlier riser, the girl of one great cycle and two cycles enjoys basking in the glory of the rising sun.

She has a nice spot overlooking Bedynn, the village that she has been granted to rule in the name of the Mighty One. A tall tree, there is a nice branch for perching on that grants a decent view of the village below. And the best part is that Aeryn can only reach with the strength and agility gifted to her by Seryn's blessing.

So she gets some alone time at the start of day, the brunette not having to worried about being interrupted as long as she is up here.

Aeryn misses her old home, the mountain village of Avawyr. She lived there under the protection of the Great One and the Beautiful One in the shaped rock cave of her family. In Avawyr, most people worshipped the Great One, the Noble One and the Beautiful One and Aeryn was one of them.

But here? Everybody worships Seryn with a few worshipping Bronwyn for the Beautiful One was there when the Crow-Spirit was slain and the Mighty One claimed the village as her own and Gwarlon as the Great One has made the effort to visit Bedynn a few times. It also helps that those two are Seryn's parents and the Mighty One makes it clear that she loves and adores her parents. And when it comes to Evatine, the worship of the Noble One is barely anything in the village as the Bedynn view him as a foreign spirit and any worship of the Noble One in Bedynn is due to the Mighty One importing it under her reign.

It is not just matters of faith and worship that make Bedynn homesick, but the terrain itself. For all of her childhood, Aeryn lived in the rocky mountains of Avawyr, surrounded by rock and stone with only some trees and plants.

Now? There are trees everywhere with no high natural peaks of stone. Animals live everywhere and almost everywhere you step, there is some kind of plant life. It kind of creeps her out.

Aeryn also misses her family as when she came to Bedynn at the request of her friend, her parents and sisters stayed home at Avawyr. The brunette girl is unsure about whether or not she actually wants her family with her as a while she does miss them, Aeryn is embarrassed about them seeing how she has changed after her blessing.

Her blessing. Aeryn still has mixed feelings about it. She enjoys the super strength, her lack of tiredness, her agility and her ability to heal and reinvigorate herself. But at the same time...

Aeryn's hands go to the top of her head, where the cat ears rest on top of her head. Oh how having those things on the top of her head makes Aeryn feel so silly. Normal people do not have those and Aeryn just cannot seem to forget about their presence.

Perhaps it will just take her time to get used to them.

Deciding that she ought to get back to leading Bedynn now that the sun is rising, Aeryn shifts so she is sitting upright, her feet dangling in the air.

Looking down at the ground, Aeryn is about to jump only to stop as she gets reminder that if she looks directly down, she cannot no longer see her feet or ground under them.

Instead, she has two large mounds of flesh blocking her view. Another part of her blessing, Aeryn is sure that Seryn meant well as the Mighty One certainly takes great pleasure and pride in her own full figure, but Aeryn just cannot wrap her mind around having just generous curves on her chest after growing up a flat chest like both of her sisters and mother.

And unlike her the ever-presence of her cat ears, Aeryn often forgets about the weights on her chest as her body is sturdy enough that her large chest is not heavy at all. Despite each one being the size of her head.

Letting out a sigh, Aeryn places her hands on her chest as she breaths in and out, watching them rise and fall. Her face twitches as Aeryn always finds it amusing to watch and feel her blessed breasts move, the massive mounds of flesh that she should not have and yet has been gifted with anyway.

Oh how surreal they are to her mind.

The only downside to her chest, the rest of her figure and her body in general is the attention that it draws. She would cover up her body in loose clothing to conceal her shapely figure, but part of her blessing is that everything she wears make her look beautiful.

And since Seryn believes that true beauty is a strong body with a full set of curves with clothing that shows off that body, everything that Aeryn will shift into something that leaves fits her snugly. The wool tunic that is too big for her and should conceal her body from view? Shrinks upon Aeryn putting it on so that it shows off her body. The furs that Aeryn put on this morning? Gone from a loose mess of unwanted furs into an outfit which hugs her body closely and is free of the many imperfects that it once had.

As a result of her beauty, both the men and the women of Bedynn stare her, the former desiring to fornicate with her while the latter are envious of her blessed body.

But it does not go beyond that as Aeryn is the chosen of the Mighty One and her good looks are literally divine beauty. Any attempts to force themselves upon Aeryn would be met with the anger of the Mighty One, the warrior cat-spirit which slew both Cynfanor and Morcaviana. And even if Seryn would ignore them, Aeryn's blessing means that she is more than powerful enough to crush any man or group of men who would try to force themselves upon her.

No man does for all of them fear Aeryn and the spirit that she represents. So they stare at her from afar and try to avoid directly interacting with her or getting her attention.

Aeryn does not mind that too much. The Bedynnish have been conquered twice now and had their village pillaged on two separate occasions. And even now as she rebuilds the village, Seryn barely focuses on Bedynn and leaves the forest village to Aeryn whilst she converts Cynfanor's seat of power into her own.

It makes sense that they are wary of Aeryn as she represents a conquering outsider who while is powerful enough that she is to be feared and her might respected, the same outsider has abandoned them in favour of others and they do not love a spirit who has neglected them.

So they get on with their lives and do as Aeryn or Seryn demands of them, but the Bedynnish to do welcome Aeryn or Seryn and would happy to get rid of them if they could.

It is not all bad. For while she is alone and isolated in Bedynn with a new body, her new position and blessing do have their perks.

Being able to climb trees with each, run faster than most everything, being near impossible to tire herself and lift boulders singlehandedly is more than worth having to adjust to a new body. And even then, the only thing that Aeryn does not like about her new body is that bad either. She just needs a little more time to adjust to her new body and get used to her new appearance.

And then there is the authority that she gets to wield as the Chosen of the Mighty One. Even if they do not wish to associate with an outsider like her, the Bedynnish do respect her word and the authority that Seryn has granted her.

While she does not abuse, Aeryn does like to enjoy the perks of it every now again, such as getting the first choice of foods and picking which activities she gets to go on.

Plus the connection to Seryn via her blessing means that Aeryn has a direct connection to the powerful spirit and can always call upon her best friend.

Knowing that you can call upon a much more powerful being is always comforting as being able to contact your only friend in a foreign land.

Having had enough musing about her life, Aeryn slips off the branch and lets herself fall to the ground below. She lands with a heavy thud, easily weathering the impact that would kill a normal mortal.

She had enough time to herself and with the sun rising, she ought to get back to fulfilling her duties. Plenty of damage from the pillaging by the Cynfanor loyalists still needs repairing and in the absence of Seryn, the responsibility of directing the repair efforts falls to her, Aeryn, Chosen of the Mighty One.

And once this is over, Aeryn see if she can get her family to come and visit her.

 

[Oshha]

[X] Plan Raichu
[X] [Priest] Both.
[X] [Spirit] Focus on Inspiring Followers
-[X] [Spirit] Avawyr
[Spirit] Focus on Bolstering the Harvest
-[X] [Spirit] Avawyr
[X] [Avatar] Construction
-[X] [Avatar] Stone Wall around Avawyr: 3/18-30 Progress
[X] [Avatar] Visit
-[X] [Avatar] Lynellt & Elairamur at Bedygan
-[X] [Avatar] Isorine at Prylake (Costs 2 Actions)
-[X] [Leadership] Focus on imbuing your priests with your energy, as well as smoothing over any tensions having two priests might cause in the village
-[X] [Leadership] Talk and visit to Lynellt and Elairamur
-[X] [Leadership] Talk and visit to Isorine

***​

This cycle is one of those more troublesome ones that you had the fortunately to avoid since that whole Cynfanor debacle.

And unlike before, this time you had the ability to watch it go down while not being able to do anything to help. Which is the reverse of last time as while you did not know that Cynfanor had taken Seryn until sometime after the fact, you were more than capable of doing something about it.

The cycle looked it would be another good one with you decide to empower both Vardyn and Terwyn to act as your mortal representatives. You considered marrying Terwyn to Vardyn if you could, but in the end, you decide to just empower both of them.

And in the end, Terwyn decides to court Vardyn herself after you put the idea in her head.

You decided to work on the wall as you prepare for a visit to Bedygan and then Prelake, but unforeseen events put a halt to those places or at least drastically alter them.

It started in the late end of the Growth Season in Bedynn. The weaker and more neglected of Seryn's two villages, it found itself under attack by a good many of the shadow monsters that you destroyed in Bedygan.

Despite having Aeryn and a hundred Cath Wyrs to defend the village, the Bedywnish suffered greatly. Hundreds died as shadow monsters caught villagers unaware on the outskirts of the village, slipped by the defenders or caught panicking villagers who attempted to flee into the forest.

The unrelenting attacks by the shadow monsters continued for three days before Seryn showed up in person with close to three hundred Cath Wyrs in tow.

Your daughter tore through the shadow monsters in Bedynn just as you did to their ilk in Bedygan.

Within the day, Seryn had reclaimed the village, she found it as badly ruined as Caradawg had left it when he fled to the east with the surviving Bedynnish huddled up by her shrine where she was able to protect them until her Avatar and army arrived.

While she saved many, the cost was high. Close to eight hundred Bedynnish had died one way or another to the shadow monsters or was unaccounted for while seventeen of the Cath Wyr defenders had fallen.

But what broke Seryn's heart was the death of her high priestess and best friend, Aeryn. Having fought at the thickest of the fighting through the entire siege, Aeryn had saved countless lives and slain many of the shadow monsters before falling in battle.

Seryn did not take the loss of her friend well. In a fit of blind fury, she carved a path through the shadow monsters to Bedygan with her Cath Wyrs trying their best to follow her and keep up with their spirit.

Both you and Bronwyn attempt to reason with her, but Seryn is too enraged at the death of her friend to listen to see.

Another factor that complicates the matter that Evatine had sent a expedition to Bedygan in the Growth Season to each there in time for the Harvest Season. One of your worries that was shared by others is that something had happened at Bedygan with the Evalonish going there to provoke Elairamur into sending shadow monsters to attack Bedynn.

The truth turned out to be different with the Evalonish expedition not causing the trouble, but arriving just in time to keep the worst outcomes from occurring.

The cause of the trouble was that the old tensions of Lynellt's followers versus Elairamur's followers had picked up again. Only this time, they did not reach the stage of open fighting as Elairamur remember how the last time this happened, it almost got her sister killed.

So she unleashed her shadow monsters upon the Bedyganish once again. By the time the Evalonish showed up at Bedygan. While only a couple score in number, the Evalonish had a dozen of the Silver Tips with them, warriors armed with bless iron spears who devoted their lives to training as warriors and protecting the village of Evalon.

Blessed by Evatine and wielded by human hands against inhuman monsters on civilised land, the Silver Tips with their skill and iron spears were more than a match for the shadow monsters. With the aid of the Evalonish, the surviving Bedyganish, who numbered barely two hundred, managed to escape Bedygan and Elairamur's shadow monsters on the boats from Evalon and the remaining Bedyganish boats while the Silver Tips held off the shadow monsters.

It was after this daring escape that Elairamur sent her shadow monsters to attack Bedynn. With the shadow monsters unable to cross large amounts of water, it seems that Elairamur crossed the river to see the other side before spawning a large amount of shadow monsters in the Bydi Forest and then returning to Bedygan to stand vigil over her sister.

When Seryn reached Bedygan, she proved why she was called the Mighty One. She crushed every shadow monster that got in her way before obliterating Elairamur herself and consuming her spiritual energy to empower herself. And then she turned on the sleeping Lynellt, devouring the light spirit wholesale and directly adding her to herself.

By the end of it, Seryn was no longer a mere spirit for she can grown too powerful. No, she was something else. A Goddess.

Even if you had not know of Seryn's Second Ascension via both of you having a shrine in Avawyr, you would have found out anyway when you and every other spirit in the region felt the ripple of power sent out by your daughter becoming a goddess.

A Goddess of War, Beauty and Femininity with a handful of other lesser Aspects such as Lightning and Wildcat.

Setting up a fourth shrine in Bedygan, Seryn nominally claims the village as her own even if no one lives there anymore.

Your daughter returning to Bedwyn after leaving most of her Cath Wyrs in Bedynn to protect amongst any future shadow monster attacks, of which there are a few more over the cycle as a good many of them still linger in the Bydi Forest.

Still grieving over the lost of her childhood friend, Seryn is mostly unresponsive over the cycle, building more of the path to Bedynn from Bedywn and blessing her followers and their crops.

Meanwhile in Avawyr, you make slow progress on the stone wall. At this point, it is clearly a longer project than the passage to Ava Cove and you would be surprised if you complete it before Cadyl reaches adulthood.

Beyond the wall, you bless the harvest as usual and fail to inspire some of your villagers to greatness while your wife keeps up her usual blessings and begins works on the boat pens. Bronwyn also returns to crafting with Gwyn and does her best to encourage trade between Evalon and Avawyr, something that is now much easier with the construction of the Ava Cove passage and the Eva Isle boat pens and will only be made easier once the Ava Cove Boat pens are finished.

As for Evatine over in Evalon, your brother empowers more Myrymar while the current ones make more iron spears with Evatine blessing them. With the Myrymar making more iron spears, Evatine himself focuses on making more iron tools.

***​

You pause at the remains of the battle where Seryn slew Elairamur's Avatar. A crater where your daughter smashed the darkness spirit into the ground and burn marks and ashes remain from where she unleashed no small amount of lightning against her foe.

Death lingers in the village and it irks you. Mere cycles ago, there were over two thousand people living in this settlement. Now, it lies abandoned with most of those villagers now dead with just a couple hundred of them surviving in Evalon.

It fills you with horror. So many dead so short a time and there is no way to regain those numbers as quickly as they were lost. It will take many a greater cycle to recover from all of the death that occurred here.

And place full of human life has been reduced to place full of death, devoid of the living. You feel weak as it hits home that a village like Avawyr or Evalon or Bedwyn or Bedynn has been emptied of those who once lived there.

As if that was not enough, the entire place would be overrun with the monsters responsible for this horror if it was not for the power of Seryn's shrine driving them away, leaving the shadow monsters to infest the hills around Bedygan and the outskirts of the village.

All of it sickens you.

You reach out with your spiritual senses, searching for something living in these dead lands. Anything at all.

And then you find it amongst the scattered, fading energy of Elairamur, the scraps of spiritual power that Seryn did not bother to consume.

A silver of Elairamur's spirit.

You know you should just crush it or take it for yourself as Elairamur is a dangerous spirit and arguable the cause of Bedygan's doom and the loss of life at Bedynn. But it is a life that you can save and you cannot just throw that away. So using your new Aspect of the Earth, you craft a small idol of a women from the earth, hardening it into the most durable metal that you can.

With the idol in hand, you gather up what remembers of Elairamur's spirit and shove into the idol before pocketing it away.

Maybe it is foolish of you, but you have watched so much death over the last few cycles with Bedywn, Bedynn and Bedygan losing thousands of people between the lot of them. Restoring the ranks of the living will take so much time and even then, it will not properly replace what has been lost.

So no, no matter how foolish it might prove to be, you will not regret taking the chance to prevent another death.

***​

The visit to Prelake when well. The Prylakish are having a bit of the rough year, but no major deaths and the gifts and supplies you brought with you were particularly useful. They were also grateful for being informed of Bedygan's fate and the warning to avoid the hills around Bedygan and the forests surrounding Bedynn for they are currently infested by the remaining shadow monsters and Seryn has yet to deal with them.

Isorine proves to be a relaxed spirit, concerned about the welfare of North Lake and her followers more than anything else and unbothered by outside affairs should they not affect her.

Someone you can get along with and you do not have to worry about Isorine causing more death. In fact, Prelake has gone more untouched by death than even Evalon and Avawyr, something which pleases you no small amount.

The lake spirit has also expressed a desire for trade between Prelake and your villages, offering to send boats of traders down to Eva Isle and Ava Cove as her followers are adept at making and using their fishing boats and the Prelakish have already had their own boat pens for some time.

As you head back to Avawyr in time for the Cold Season, you are unsure about how this year went. Good or bad? You do not know, only that events occurred and you must deal with them and their aftermaths.

At least Terwyn and Vardyn are getting along well.

Basic Spirit Actions: 2 Actions available
[] [Spirit] Focus on Blessing
-[] [Spirit] Avawyrish Followers
-[] [Spirit] Iron Spears
-[] [Spirit] Elairamur's Idol
[] [Spirit] Focus on Inspiring Followers
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
[] [Spirit] Focus on Healing Followers
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
[Spirit] Focus on Bolstering the Harvest
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr

Avatar Actions: 4 Actions available
[] [Avatar] Explore
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the South-West
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the East
-[] [Avatar] Lake Eva Western Coastline
-[] [Avatar] Lake Eva Northern Coastline
-[] [Avatar] The North Lake
[] [Avatar] Construction
-[] [Avatar] Boat Pens at Ava Cove: 3.5/6 Progress
-[] [Avatar] Stone Wall around Avawyr: 4/18-30 Progress
[] [Avatar] Hunt
[] [Avatar] Visit
-[] [Avatar] Evatine at Evalon
-[] [Avatar] Seryn at Bedywn
-[] [Avatar] Seryn at Bedynn
-[] [Avatar] Isorine at Prylake (Costs 2 Actions)
[] [Avatar] Experiment
-[] [Avatar] Write-in.

Leadership Actions: 3 Actions available
Leadership Actions are used to improve other Actions such as Avatar or Spirit.
[] [Leadership] Write-in.

 

[Oshha]

[X] Plan Experimentation
[X][Spirit] Focus on Blessing Followers
-[X][Spirit] Elairamur's Idol
[X][Spirit] Focus on Bolstering the Harvest
-[X][Spirit] Avawyr
[X][Avatar] Construction
-[X][Avatar] Boat Pens at Ava Cove: 3.5/6 Progress
-[X][Avatar] Stone Wall around Avawyr: 4/18-30 Progress
[X][Avatar] Visit
-[X][Avatar] Seryn at Bedywn
[X][Avatar] Experiment
-[X][Avatar] Contacting the spirit of Elairamur
[X][Leadership] Finding someway to contact the spirit of Elairamur
[X][Leadership] Comforting your daughter Seryn, and helping her through the loss of her friend
[X][Leadership] Experiment with the formation of Earth and Stone, and see if you can speed up the process without compromising its integrity.

***​

The first thing you do this cycle is take another visit to Bedywn with Bronwyn to see Seryn. Unlike the last time where the two of you were going to visit her to try and deal with trouble that she was causing, this time it is to help her deal with the grief that she is going through.

You think back to your encounters with Aeryn. You did not know the girl well, but you can remember the brunette playing with Seryn and Arwyn in Avawyr before Seryn ascended.

Stepping off as the Cold Season is coming to a close, you arrive in time to stick around for the start of the Growth Season and before Seryn heads off to purge the Bydi Forest of the remaining shadow monsters.

You could have done this via your shared shrines in Avawyr, but some things are just better to be done in person.

Seryn is something of a mess when you find. Radiating raw power, you have no doubt that if she choose to, your daughter could crush you and Bronwyn with ease. But you know that she will not ever do such a thing and so you have no worry or fear.

There is not as much talking as you expect and most of what happens is Seryn relying on the two of you, her parents for emotional support. In fact, Seryn spends the majority of your visit curled up against Bronwyn, taking in the fact that she has her mother there for her.

The main issues for Seryn are grief and guilt. Grief for the lost of her best friend and the hundreds of Bedynnish villagers she failed to save. Guilt for failing to protect her followers and for slaying Lynellt when she did no wrong.

While it pains and upsets you to see your daughter like this, you cannot help, but feel a sense of pride at Seryn feeling guilty at what she did to Lynellt. The fact that she understands what she did wrong and why means that you have succeeded as a father when it comes to Seryn.

Despite your best efforts, there is only so much that you do for Seryn with the bulk of the work being done by Bronwyn as Seryn turns to her mother for comfort. Still, the sight of Bronwyn sitting there with Seryn curled up against her warms your heart and makes you yearn for simpler days.

In the end, you and Bronwyn have other duties as does Seryn and you part ways as you and your wife return to Avawyr while Seryn goes north with her Cath Wyr to purge Bydi Forest of the lingering shadow monsters.

Back at Avawyr, you and Bronwyn both bless the cycle's harvest as usual while you focus on more construction as you devote your time and energy towards the boat pens at Ava Cove and the stone wall around Avawyr. Meanwhile, your wife focuses on encouraging trade with Evalon and Prelake.

The work on the boat pens goes well as you and your followers are able to get them finished in the Harvest Season. Alas it leaves you with little time to work on the stone walls this cycle and while you make some progress on them, it is not much.

You also poke and prod at the idol containing Elairamur throughout the cycle, attempting to bless or otherwise interact with whatever is inside of it. But you get no response. You can tell that the silver of power inside the idol is slowly getting stronger, but you have no clue if that is due to your interactions with it or it is a passive thing that will naturally happen over time without any interaction from you.

Another thing that you attempt now that you have the Aspect of Earth is to try and speed up the creation of stone with your earth magic without weakening the stone itself. Unfortunately, you are not that good yet as you can only get it so that it forms normally at a slow pace or create it quickly, but at the expense of the stone's quality.

Oh well, you cannot hope to success the first time all the time.

As for Bronwyn, she sees success in her ventures. Over the cycle, you see traders from Evalon and Prylake coming to Avawyr to barter their goods whilst Avawyrish head off to other villages, especially once you complete the boat pens at Ava Cove.

The Evalonish mainly trade wood and fruit to the Avawyrish for stones, pottery and iron ore, things which are rare or cannot be found in their own village, but can be found in plentiful amounts in the other village.

As for the Prylakish, they are more limited in what they can offer, but what they do is exotic as they mainly provide fishes caught by their fishers and works of art painted upon stones and animal skins.

Meanwhile, you receive news from the rest of the world. Prylake is what you receive the latest news from as it is the only village that does not answer to you and what you hear is talk and rumours from the traders.

The Prylakish are having another harder cycle, but nothing too troublesome. There is no mass death or bloodshed, but merely a buckling down on finding enough food through extra fishing and trading for food from Evalon and Avawyr, where both villages have a surplus from plentiful harvests.

In Evalon, Evatine is blessing more Myrymar and the existing ones have been producing more iron spears, which Evatine has promptly blessed. When it comes to the matter of iron tools, your brother is lacking this cycle, not producing that many. As for the Evalonish, they primarily focus on trading and help establish the trading ties between Evalon, Avawyr and Prylake that your wife has been attempting to forge.

When it comes to Seryn and her followers, things are looking up. Seryn has replaced her Cath Wyr losses with elderly volunteers while her healing and blesses are successful in both of her villages.

As for your daughter herself, Seryn has been busy this cycle. She managed to finish the first half of the path between Bedywn and Bedynn, crafting a path in the fields around Bedywn from the village itself to the start of the Bydi Forest.

Speaking of the Bydi Forest, her hunts have gone very well this cycle. Led by the Goddess of War, the Cath Wyrs systemically hunt down the shadow forests which remain in amongst the trees of the Bydi Forest. The last shadow monster seen is slain in the start of the Harvest Season and by the time that the Harvest Season comes to an end and the Cold Season begins, it is clear no more shadow monsters remain among in the trees of the Bydi Forest.

A decent cycle all in all. Bedynn is safe once again, regular trade is picking up between Avawyr, Evalon and Prylake and Seryn is coping well with the events of the previous cycle.

Basic Spirit Actions: 2 Actions available
[] [Spirit] Focus on Blessing Followers
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
-[] [Spirit] Iron Spears
-[] [Spirit] Elairamur's Idol
[] [Spirit] Focus on Inspiring Followers
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
[] [Spirit] Focus on Healing Followers
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
[Spirit] Focus on Bolstering the Harvest
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr

Avatar Actions: 4 Actions available
[] [Avatar] Explore
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the South-West
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the East
-[] [Avatar] Lake Eva Western Coastline
-[] [Avatar] Lake Eva Northern Coastline
-[] [Avatar] The North Lake
[] [Avatar] Construction
-[] [Avatar] Stone Wall around Avawyr: 4.25/18-30 Progress
[] [Avatar] Hunt
[] [Avatar] Visit
-[] [Avatar] Evatine at Evalon
-[] [Avatar] Seryn at Bedywn
-[] [Avatar] Seryn at Bedynn
-[] [Avatar] Isorine at Prylake (Costs 2 Actions)
[] [Avatar] Experiment
-[] [Avatar] Write-in.

Leadership Actions: 3 Actions available
Leadership Actions are used to improve other Actions such as Avatar or Spirit.
[] [Leadership] Write-in.

 

[Oshha]

[X] Plan Magical Mortar
[X][Spirit] Focus on Bolstering the Harvest
-[X][Spirit] Avawyr
[X][Spirit] Focus on Inspiring Followers
-[X][Spirit] Avawyr
[X][Avatar] Construction
-[X][Avatar] Stone Wall around Avawyr: 4.25/18-30
[X][Avatar] Visit
-[X][Avatar] Seryn at Bedynn
[X][Avatar] Explore
-[X][Avatar] The Mountains to the South-West
[X][Avatar] Experiment
-[X][Avatar] With using your power over Earth to fuse stacked stones together. This should allow you to join smaller stones together once put in place for the wall so its harder to damage without going to the extreme effort of creating stone from scratch or having your mortal followers haul large rocks rather than smaller stones. Try using it to transform mud filling the spaces compared to reshaping the stones to fit and see which is easier.
[X][Leadership] Construction of Stone Wall
[X][Leadership] Support Seryn
[X][Leadership] Inspire Followers

***​

This cycle is a more normal one. No troubles for you to handle and no bloodshed to result in mass death.

You continue work on the stone wall, making slow, but steady progress on it while Bronwyn spends a good portion of the cycle working on pottery and other crafts with Gwyn and various Avawyrish villagers, either for use by the locals or to be traded away for foreign goods.

In other news, Terwyn gives birth this cycle after spending the last cycle pregnant. Like her mother before her, Terwyn does not give birth to only a single child like most, but instead has two daughters and a son.

All three of your grandchildren have inherited spiritual traits, something you expected to happen. After all, their mother is one of your daughters and has permanent blessing from both you and Bronwyn and their father is your high priest.

Aeryn, named in honour of their aunt's fallen friend, has a cat tail and blue cat eyes while the other daughter, Bryn the tail and ears of a cat. The son, Myrlin, has both the tail and ears along with the eyes and fangs like each of your daughters do. As for what else they may have inherited, it is too early to tell.

Still, you are happy for Terwyn and Vardyn to have a family of their own, especially since it reinforces the blessing you have given Vardyn as a side benefit.

Speaking of family, Bronwyn decides to remind you why she is the Beautiful One and her Aspects are Love and Beauty. Your wife makes an active effort to charm you, taking you to bed almost every night and making you swoon with her jokes and affection.

Having your wife beside you like that, well, it really takes the weight off the shoulders and relieves you the stress that you had not even noticed that you had gathered.

The two of you did to take an expedition together like you did so long ago when the two of you first met each other. Heading into the mountains of the south-west, you and your wife spend three weeks exploring the unknown with only Arwyn and her handful of explorers, blessed and inspired by Bronwyn and you respectively.

The mountains are old familiar sight to you. There is nothing particularly new about them with only the local details changing. The only real thing of interest is a large lake you find on the western edge of the mountains.

Back up against the mountains, a river heads out of the lake to the north west with grasslands on either side. With a rough idea of where you are in the wider world, you place this river as being the same one that runs by Bedywn and this lake must be the source of that river.

Exploring with Bronwyn is not the only time you leave Avawyr this cycle as you also visit Seryn in Bedynn, where she has been rallying and organising her Cath Wyrs to retake Bedygan from the shadow monsters in full and clear out the surrounding hills.

It goes well enough with your daughter being able to secure the empty village itself, but her successes in clearing out the hills around Bedygan are limited. The shadow monsters there are far more numerous than what infested the Bydi Forest and Seryn predicts at least a few more cycles of hunting the shadow monsters to fully clear them out. She also notes that it will take less time to clear out the bulk of the shadow monsters, leaving the Bedygan hills relatively safe.

Beyond her hunts, Seryn also continues building a dirt path to connect her two populated villages. With the Bydi Forest cleared of shadow monsters, she is able to continue the second part unhindered and will finish the path in the next cycle.

In her spiritual duties, her new status as a goddess shows as Seryn is able to carry out her regular spiritual duties while focusing an equal amount of power and energy on her Cath Wyrs during her hunts this cycle.

Seryn also has a proposal for you. With her being above you as goddess just as you are above mortals as a spirit, she wants to try blessing you like the two of you and other spirits do with your mortal followers.

An interesting proposal, you beg off the decision for now as you decide to take more time to think it over before giving it a decision.

As for other news, the Prylakish continue to fish and trade while having taken inspiration from Evatine, Isorine has started making her own blessed followers with her Aspect of Water, the Dywrymar.

Speaking of your brother and his Myrymar, they have fallen into something of a routine over the last few cycles. Evatine blesses more Myrymar while the current ones make more iron spears, which Evatine blesses and he himself makes more iron tools.

When it comes to the villagers of Evalon, the Evalonish have been encouraging the Avawyr and the Prylakish to use Eva Isle as a stopping point on their travels between their two villages.

All in all, a good year, better than you had in some time, but you cannot help, but feel as if you are forgetting something.

Seryn's Proposal
[] [Seryn] Accept.
[] [Seryn] Decline.
[] [Seryn] Convince Bronwyn to take your place in it.
[] [Seryn] Write-in.

Basic Spirit Actions: 2 Actions available
[] [Spirit] Focus on Blessing
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
-[] [Spirit] Iron Spears
-[] [Spirit] Elairamur's Idol
[] [Spirit] Focus on Inspiring Followers
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
[] [Spirit] Focus on Healing Followers
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
[Spirit] Focus on Bolstering the Harvest
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr

Avatar Actions: 4 Actions available
[] [Avatar] Explore
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the South-West
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the East
-[] [Avatar] The North Lake Western Coastline (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] The North Lake Mountains (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] The Lake Eva Northern Coastline
-[] [Avatar] The North Lake
-[] [Avatar] The Southern Grasslands (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] The Eastern Forest (Costs 2 Actions)
[] [Avatar] Construction
-[] [Avatar] Stone Wall around Avawyr: 6.25/18-28 Progress
[] [Avatar] Hunt
[] [Avatar] Visit
-[] [Avatar] Evatine at Evalon
-[] [Avatar] Seryn at Bedywn
-[] [Avatar] Seryn at Bedynn
-[] [Avatar] Isorine at Prylake (Costs 2 Actions)
[] [Avatar] Experiment
-[] [Avatar] Write-in.

Leadership Actions: 3 Actions available
Leadership Actions are used to improve other Actions such as Avatar or Spirit.
[] [Leadership] Write-in.

 

[Oshha]

Is there a map somewhere?

Click to shrink...

Yes, but I will need to edit it for spoilers since I have a full made which includes stuff you don't know. Will do so tomorrow morning as I just realised it now past 1 O'Clock in the morning.

Click to shrink...

Map.