Spirit Quest

[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]

[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]

[X][Seryn] Accept.

[X] Plan Get Some Earth Mages
-[X][Spirit] Focus on Blessing
--[X][Spirit] Elairamur's Idol
-[X][Spirit] Focus on Bolstering the Harvest
--[X][Spirit] Avawyr
-[X][Avatar] Explore
--[X][Avatar] The Mountains to the East
-[X][Avatar] Construction
--[X][Avatar] Stone Wall around Avawyr: 6.25/18-28 Progress
-[X][Avatar] Visit
--[X][Avatar] Evatine at Evalon
-[X][Avatar] Experiment
--[X][Avatar] Try to bless some followers -including your 9-year-old son, Cadyl - with the ability to use Earth Magic, with Evatine's advice.
-[X][Leadership] Stone Wall Around Avawyr
-[X][Leadership] Blessing with the Earth
-[X][Leadership] Exploring the Mountains

***​

This cycle also proves to be a good one. In Avawyr, you and Bronwyn carry out your usually spiritual duties throughout the cycle whilst carrying out separate tasks in the rest of time.

Your wife focuses on more crafting, coming up with more pottery, stone carvings and other goods and works of art with the usual aid of Gwyn and her artisans. Terwyn and Vardyn cares for their children whilst aiding you and Bronwyn in running Avawyr with Eulyn also pitching in.

Speaking of your grandkids, it seems that they inherited some of the Aspect of the Wildcat as the girls were growing up quicker than they should while Myrlin was maturing as rapidly as your own daughters did.

As for you, you make some more progress on the stone wall and you also decide to go poking at Elairamur's idol again. You are successful at the poking, but you do not get much of a response, just a bit of stirring by whatever remains of Elairamur inside your stone idol.

You also have a couple of things you want to achieve this cycle apart. First is an expedition to explore the mountains east of Avawyr while the second is to use your Aspect of Earth to make some Earth Mages or the Prydymar.

You had the latter idea floating around your head for some time now, but you have yet to get around to doing anything about it until now. And quite frankly, it is about time that you started doing something about it. Your brother has had Metal Mages, the Myrymar, for some time now and has made good use out of them while Isorine created from Water Mages, the Dywrymar, last cycle up in Prylake.

Since your brother has been successfully making Mages or Ymar for some time now, you decide to visit Evatine in Evalon for advice on the matter before trying your own hand at it.

It is shortly after arriving in on Eva Isle that you find out that Seryn as a similar idea regarding her Aspect of Lightning as your daughter shows up to see Evatine regarding the processing of creating Mages as well.

Your brother helpfully provides you and Seryn with the proper guidance on how to successful empower Mage while you answer Seryn's proposal with your belated acceptance.

Evatine offers you a private hut on the outskirts of Evalon for the experiment, keeping it free of mortal followers in case things go wrong.

It goes…for lack of a better word, well. It is odd from your perspective, but you cannot say that it went poorly.

To start it off, Seryn gives you a general blessing, one that she usually gives her followers. It proves to be limited to your Avatar, effecting no part of you beyond what is physically there in front of Seryn. It ultimately does not prove to be successful for couple of reasons.

The first is that Seryn's standard blessing is too weak for take place on you with your own spiritual energies being able to passively reject it without any active input from you. However, that would not have been a problem if it was not for the clash between her Divinity of Femininity and your Aspect of Fatherhood. And even if there was not any trouble, the blessing would have quickly worn off as you passively converted the foreign energy into your own spiritual aura.

With both being a major trait of your respective spiritual natures, both attempt to assert dominance when the rest of the blessing when fine with Seryn's Aspect of the Wildcat even strengthening your own lesser version of it.

A second attempt was made afterwards, this time using a stronger blessing than before. It proves to be successful depending on how you look at the matter. The blessing was successfully placed upon you, but it is not anything you would want to repeat.

The second blessing was strong enough to overcome your passive defences, but you feel confident that you could have resisted it if you were making an active effort. However, you were confident that Seryn could have powered through any active efforts on your part if she was putting enough effort into it. Except you were a Spirit of Chiefhood and Fatherhood and Seryn is your daughter and subordinate and you could not help, but feel was an important factor so maybe it was not as clear cut as a contest of skills.

Looking back at it, you could not shake the feeling that you stumbled across the domination thing that the crow-spirit Morcaviana had to inflict upon your wife so long ago.

In the end, none of that was relevant as you and Seryn were willing participants in the experiment and you did not resist the blessing despite your ability to do so.

So you let the Divinity of Femininity overcome the Aspect of Fatherhood in their struggle and the blessing took its effect on your avatar. Suppressing your own spiritual energies somewhat, especially your Fatherhood, the blessing took the form of one of Seryn's default blessings if a bit stronger than what she would normally use.

Since Seryn has become a goddess, all three of her Divinities, Vigour, Beauty and Femininity, take some form in each of her spiritual actions. Vigour and the less martial Aspects folded into it strengthen your avatar just as Seryn's blessing strengthens the physical bodies of her followers. That part is something that you expected, but what caught you off guard was what the Divinity of Femininity did and how the Divinity of Beauty interacted with what the Divinity of Femininity did.

Long story short, the blessing turned your avatar into a tall, muscular, but curvaceous cat girl, the epitome of Divine Beauty. You do not get as much benefit as a mortal follower would out of the blessing as Seryn's weaker Aspects do not have the staying power to have a noteworthy impact.

Even then, the blessing only lasted less than a couple of hours before fading and your avatar returned to normal. Seryn offered to give another go, having found the sight of you looking like one of her followers to be highly amusing, but you decline.

While Seryn found it amusing and Evatine was indifferent, you just found it to be irritating and uncomfortable at a core level, most likely due to your Aspect of Fatherhood due to how it kept clashing with Seryn's Divinity of Femininity.

In the end, you parted ways and left for your respective villages after a couple of days of catching up.

Seryn had been carrying out her usual blessings whilst also expending energy on supporting her Cath Wyrs in the Bedygan hills. Apart from continuing to make the path between Bedywn and Bedynn, which is now almost done after her work this cycle, Seryn has continued to hunt the shadow monsters with the aid of her Cath Wyrs.

The results are good, but not as good as Seryn hoped. She has healed any injuries that the Cath Wyrs suffer and as a result, has yet to lose any, but the number of shadow monsters does not seem to be thinning and whenever, they clear out an area, some more shadow monsters just come back in.

As for Evatine, he is continuing his usage routine, which is working out rather well for him. Sixty Myrymar, a hundred and eighty blessed iron spears and enough iron tools for half of Evalon. Within a great cycle, he will have more than enough iron tools for the entire village with some spare and enough iron spears for multiple armies.

Once he is done with Evalon's iron needs, you ought to look into getting your brother and some of his Myrymar into making some iron equipment for Avawyr.

***​

Your exploration expedition into eastern mountains is successful for a certain degree of the word. You and Arwyn managed to make good progress before turning back in time to get home for the cold season and you do not encounter any troubles out there that the two of you could not handle.

But you do not find anything of note either. Just more mountains. Perhaps there is something beyond what you explored, but you did not reach it this cycle.
At least your creation of Prydymar went successfully. Picking out a dozen of your more worthy followers plus your ten-cycle old son Cadyl, you use your Aspect of Earth to grant them the ability to shape the earth on their own power. Of course, they will be limited by how much spiritual energy a mortal human can gather and store on their own along with how much energy a mortal human can use at once, but it is something.

Cadyl is particularly pleased as while the lad will not admit, even to himself, he is somewhat jealous of being the only normal one of the family. Oh, he does not blame you or anyone else for that for the lad is smart and wise beyond his years to the point, it is joked that he is not actually your son, but your brother's. Yet, Cadyl cannot shake how he is as ordinary as your average mortal follower whereas his parents and uncle are respected spirits and his sisters are all extraordinary with Seryn being the most powerful being in the known world.

You also hear about Seryn's attempts at creating Ymar from across Lake Eva. While your daughter was successful like you were, Seryn ran into similar problems that you discovered when she attempted to bless you. Whenever she attempts to bless someone with one of her minor Aspects, her main Divinities leak into it.

The end result is while Seryn can create Lyltymar, all of those who receive the ability to wield Lightning Magic from her end up female, attractive looking and physically strong and tough.

Not a necessarily bad thing as unlike with the Myrymar, the Prydymar or even Isorine's Dywrymar up at Prylake, you cannot see any useful non-battle applications for the Lyltymar so having them so anyone who seeks to become a Lyltymar would not mind being one of Seryn's warriors.

At this point, it has become apparent that any blessing specific to Seryn is going to involve her three main Divinities. The generic blessings and healings that any spirit can do are fine, but if it relates to Seryn's aspects or is a major blessing, then her status as goddess comes into play.

For two of them, it is a nonissue as being physically stronger and tougher is not a problem as it is being better looking. But Seryn's Divinity of Femininity means that her specific blessings will only apply to females and if you are not one, well, then being exposed to enough of her divine energy will make you one.

Once again, you do not know how to feel about that.

Basic Spirit Actions: 2 Actions available
[] [Spirit] Focus on Blessing
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
-[] [Spirit] Iron Spears
-[] [Spirit] Elairamur's Idol
-[] [Spirit]
[] [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 Far South-West (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the East
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the Far East (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [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: 7.25/18-28 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]

[X] Plan Experimentation
[X][Spirit] Focus on Blessing
-[X][Spirit] Prydymar
[X][Spirit] Focus on Bolstering the Harvest
-[X][Spirit] Avawyr
[X][Avatar] Construction
-[X][Avatar] Stone Wall around Avawyr: 7.25/18-28 Progress x2
[X][Avatar] Visit
-[X][Avatar] Seryn at Bedywn
[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] Attempt to teach your Prydymar what you know about shaping the Earth by having them assist you in construction of the Stone Wall.
[X][Leadership] Put more focus than usual into bolstering the harvest, perhaps your Aspect of Earth could help somehow?
[X][Leadership] Talk to Seryn about the plague of shadow monsters and ask if there is anything we can do to assist her.

***​

This cycle is neither good or bad, but instead it is simply interesting due to the various developments that occur in it.

You bless more Prydymar, double how many you have, and focus on the harvest a bit more this year. You try focusing your blessing not just on the crops, but also on the soil that the crops are planted in using your Aspect of Earth to strengthen your influence over the soil.

It proves successful or at least you assume it is as the blessing attempt on the soil work as you hoped even if you do not see a noticeable impact on the harvest.

Beyond that, you spend most of your time working at Avawyr working on the stone wall. You make significant progress on the project and it is becoming clear that the wall will not take as long to complete as you originally feared even if it will still require a good deal of effort.

You also take the opportunity to train your fledging Prydymar by having them assist you on the construction of the wall. They are unable to do much due to their human limitations restricting how much magic they can perform and their small numbers meaning that they are only able to provide a helping hand here and there.

Hopefully they will be more useful once they have more experienced or as more knowledge about Earth Magic is gained.

Beyond that, you attempt to use your Aspect of Earth to fuse stacked stones together. You are not successful. You are able to make the stones grow a bit here and there, but you cannot actually merge them with another as they simply grow up against one another whilst remaining as separate entities. At least you know what not to do next time you try something like this.

You also make a trip to visit Seryn. Coordinating it with her ahead of time using your spiritual connection in Avawyr, you arrange to meet your daughter in Bedywn.

While you are always pleased to see your daughter, you primarily inquire about the shadow monsters in the Bydi Hills and if there is anything you can do to help. Although she was happy at your offer of aid, Seryn informed you that no, there was anything that you could do to help.

Your daughter has decided to change her strategy regarding the matter. With Bedygan empty of human life apart from the Cath Wyrs that she has operating out of the village, Seryn has decided that unlike with Bedynn and the Bydi Forest, there is no urgent need to clear out the Bydi Hills. Combined with there being no clear end in sight, Seryn has decided to focus less resources and attention on slaying the shadow monsters and instead win a war of attrition with the shadow monsters over the generation or two it will take to get enough people for Bedygan to be resettled.

Seryn also admits that this cycle, the fighting as gone poorly. Of course, poorly is relative when one side has a goddess of war on their side what Seryn means is that her Cath Wyrs have slain plenty of shadow monsters, but took higher than usual injuries that get promptly healed by your daughter with no long term damage.

With less focus on the shadow monsters in the Bydi Hills, Seryn is consolidating her position at home as Bedywn and Bedynn are underdeveloped compared to Evalon and Avawyr. To correct this, she has set up a fifth shrine in Evalon so she has a shrine in each village that answers to you.

Other than that, Seryn has been blessing more Lyltymar and has finished the dirt path between Bedywn and Bedynn and is always looking at potential sites for Lake Eva boat pens for both of her populated villages.

In Evalon, your brother and his followers have been doing their usual thing with more Myrymar being created, more iron spears being forged and blessed and Evatine crafting more iron tools for the Evalonish to use.

Your brother also organises an exploration expedition to explore the northern coast of Lake Eva, in particular the inland hills that remain unknown.

The Evalonish explorers prove successful, making their way past the grassland shores and into the hills. It was within those hills, that they discovered the village of Blawain. Within the eastern hills, Blawain is a farming village lead by spirit Orcante.

From what the Evalonish could gather before being made unwelcome by the standoffish Blawainish, Orcante has an Aspect of Farming, but also an Aspect of Earth like you do. But unlike you, her Aspect of Earth is more soil-based whilst your own is more rock-based. They also suspect that she has a third Aspect, something based about magic or spiritual power, but the Evalonish do not get to stick around long enough to find out for sure.

Surrounded by hills and dirt walls, the villages of Blawain have managed to step up a good number of farms with supernatural aid. They are also somewhat hostile to outsiders and while they tolerate the Evalonish for a bit, your brother's villagers are quickly made unwelcome, including threats of using force to drive them off if necessary.

Despite their hostility towards outsiders, the Blawainish do not appear to be a threat as while they will drive off visitors from their land with force if necessary, they also lack ambitions beyond their lands.

Back home, things continue as normal for the most part. Vardyn and Terwyn are slowly usurping the day to day running of Avawyr from Bronwyn while their kids continue to grow at rapid rates. Bronwyn does more crafting, but she and Arwyn also arranged an expedition to explore the grasslands south of Bedywn on the other side of the South River.

It is almost a complete disaster.

Oh, the exploration itself goes well enough. It is what they find when they get there which is the problem.

Like the Evalonish did this year, Bronwyn, Arwyn and the Avawyrish explorers find another village with their own spirit. Only they never get to meet or even see the spirit before the villagers decide to attack the Avawyrish expedition. With a spirit and a demi-spirit fighting against them, these southern village of 'Sangere'. The Sangerish are beaten back and Bronwyn decides that they should head back home rather than press their luck.

Sangere is definitely going to be a problem as from what Bronwyn and Arwyn have to say, the Sangerish have massive amounts of farmland and Sangere itself is easily the largest settlement in the region.

Nonetheless, as Bedywn is closest of your settlements to Sangere and you doubt they will give Seryn too much of a problem. After all, your daughter is the Mighty One, Goddess of War, Beauty and Femininity with hundreds of Cath Wyrs answering to her. The Sangerish warriors that Bronwyn and Arwyn fought were merely human and while the Sangerish have sheer numbers, Seryn has unmatched quality.

Speaking of Seryn and her Cath Wyr, you a matter at home relating to them to deal with. As you suspected they would for some time now, the Avawyrish hunters and warriors have approached you for permission to start accepting the Gift of the Mighty Body from Seryn. While you have not outright banned it, your subtle disapproval of it has kept them from accepting before now and is the reason why they ask your permission before doing so.

There is also another matter that you need to deal with by the end of the cycle. Your son Cadyl has approached you with an idea he seeks your permission for. Due to the limitations of his young age and body, he wishes to get around them by going to Seryn and accepting her blessing so he has an older body. He or rather she at the point would learn and train under his-her sister to gain experience until his normal body would have aged to a suitable point where he would return to it.

While you have an instinctive dislike for the idea, you cannot deny that Cadyl's logic is sound and you have no doubt that your son would benefit from the experience.

Do you let Cadyl go to learn under Seryn?
[] [Cadyl] Make him stay at home.
[] [Cadyl] Let him go.
[] [Cadyl] Write-in.

Do you let your warriors and hunters accept the Gift of the Mighty Body from Seryn?
[] [Cath] Allow them to accept your daughter's blessing.
[] [Cath] Refuse to allow it.
[] [Cath] Write-in.

Basic Spirit Actions: 2 Actions available
[] [Spirit] Focus on Blessing
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
-[] [Spirit] Iron Spears
-[] [Spirit] Elairamur's Idol
-[] [Spirit] Prydymar
-[] [Spirit] Write-in
[] [Spirit] Focus on Inspiring Followers
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
-[] [Spirit] Write-in
[] [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 Far South-West (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the East
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the Far East (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [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 Eastern Hills
-[] [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: 10/18-22 Progress
[] [Avatar] Hunt
[] [Avatar] Raid
-[] [Avatar] Sangere at the Southern Fields
[] [Avatar] Visit
-[] [Avatar] Evatine at Evalon
-[] [Avatar] Seryn
--[] [Avatar] Bedywn
--[] [Avatar] Bedynn
--[] [Avatar] Bedygan
-[] [Avatar] Isorine at Prylake (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] Orcante at Blawain
[] [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 Tidings of Innovation
-[X][Cadyl] Let him go, as long as he promises to keep training his earth magic. Who knows? The blessing could even complement each other.
-[X][Cath] Only those men who have already fathered at least one male and one female child may take the blessing, lest there be no more men in the future.
-[X][Spirit] Focus on Inspiring Followers
--[X][Spirit] Avawyr
---[X] Cadyl
-[X][Spirit] Focus on Blessing
--[X][Spirit] Prydymar
-[X][Avatar] Construction
--[X][Avatar] Stone Wall around Avawyr: 10/18-22 Progress
-[X][Avatar] Visit
--[X][Avatar] Orcante at Blawain
-[X][Avatar] Visit
--[X][Avatar] Evatine at Evalon
-[X][Avatar] Experiment
--[X][Avatar] Try and learn new techniques using earth and stone, especially ranged ones, like making instant spears or spikes from the ground. If successfull, teach your earth mages. Also ask them to test and create their own techniques, with caution to not hurt themselves or others.
-[X][Leadership] Support Experiment
-[X][Leadership] Cadyl Inspiring
-[X][Leadership] Visit Orcante

***​

The cycle had a good start to it. You agreed to Cadyl's request on the condition that he continues to keep training his earth magic.

He is swift to agree to your condition and is even annoyed that the implication that he would not use or train his earth magic.

As for the request of your warriors and hunters, you agree to it as well, also attaching a condition to the agreement. If an Avawyrish villager is to accept the Gift of the Mighty Body, they must have at least two children. You originally had decided that they would have to a child of each gender, but your followers had argued you down to a lesser requirement, reasoning that it was unfair because you did not get to choose the gender of your child and whether or not you could get the blessing came down to luck rather than merit.

And under that reduced condition, all of your current warriors all qualify for accepting the Gift of the Mighty Body.

It is going to take you a while to get used to watching copies of your daughter walking about the village.

The rest of the year went well for you, you inspired Cadyl, which led the boy to Evalon to seek the blessing of his uncle. You created more Prydymar while Bronwyn focused on normal blessings and the harvest.

You make more progress on the stone wall and you have definitely passed the halfway point by the end of the cycle. Meanwhile your wife continues to work on more pottery and crafts with Vardyn and Terwyn leading the village.

Both you and your wife have the idea of visiting people this year. Setting off together, the two of you take a boat to Evalon first to visit your brother and it is then that you split ways. You head to the north-east to visit the isolationist Orcante while Bronwyn goes south-west to visit Seryn and see how her son is getting on in under the leadership of her daughter.

Evatine has been getting on well. He continues the usual routine of blessing more Myrymar, forging more iron tools and blessing the iron spears made by his Myrymar. The only exception this year is the presences of Cadyl.

Seeking Evatine's blessing, the spirit of Evalon happily granted his blessing to his nephew and one of his more devout and trusted followers, a crippled girl of Cadyl's age by the name Wyrn. And to your surprise, Evatine also gifted each of them with an iron sword, the second and third of their kind.

Other than that, the only thing of note to you that the Evalonish do this cycle is explore the western coast of North Lake. Exploring the grasslands, they find another village with their own spirit.

The villagers of Belamour and the sky-spirit Trevritine are neither actively hostile like the Sangerish or passively hostile like the Blawainish to the Evalonish explorers, but apathetic and non-caring of their presence.

Living under the protection of Trevritine, the Belamourish are unconcerned with the outside world, living in the shadows of mountains that they do not explore and otherwise surrounded by grassy fields that their hunters sometimes seek prey in.

As for Trevritine himself, the sky-spirit is of the sky and is strongest in the day. And strong he is as Trevritine is more than a match for you, Evatine or Bronwyn in a one on one fight even as he would stand no chance against the goddess that is Seryn.

Your own trip is somewhat successful. You make your way to Blawain on your own as you do not want to needless risk the lives of your mortal followers if things go wrong. Thankfully your worries go unfounded as the Blawainish reluctantly accept your presence.

You put it down to being a powerful spirit that the mortal Blawainish do not fancy their chances against.

That said, the Blawainish make no attempts to be friendly or talkative with you. You did not get much done beyond not getting attacked or driven off and the only thing of note you get out of the village is more information about Orcante.

The spirit of Blawain has an Aspect of the Earth like you do, but as the Evalonish suspected his has been shaped by the soil of the hills he lives in just as yours has been shaped by the stone of the mountains you live in.

He cannot shape rock like you can, but he can do the same with dirt and combined with his Aspect of the Farmer, he can improve the quality of the soil and fertility of it and the crops planted in it.

You are also able to discover the main effects of his third aspect. It appears to a more supernatural one in nature and grants Orcante to non-elemental magic as where as you are limited to Earth Magic, Evatine to Metal Magic and Seryn to Lightning Magic, Orcante is able to directly shape his spiritual energy into magical effects.

Your fellow Earth spirit seems to unaware of how to create mages as there are no Ymar to be seen in Blawain. Unsurprising as while they have become rather widespread in your villages and Prylake, that is only because Evatine has shared the knowledge with the rest of you.

Your wife's visit to Seryn was more successful than your visit to Blawain, meeting her daughter and her son in Bedywn.

Seryn has decided to give Cadyl and his new friend Wyrn a stronger and more personal blessing unto of the Gift of the Mighty Body to make themselves stand out more, including keeping more to their true appearances.

News from the west is somewhat worrying. Seryn has been spiritually stretched to the limit with her regular spiritual duties, making more Lyltymar, granting the Gift of the Mighty Body to Avawyrish, personal greater blessings for both Cadyl and Wyrn and healing her Cath Wyrs.

Beyond keeping some Cath Wyrs up north in Bedygan to continue the shadow monster purges, Seryn has decided to send a good portion of her Cath Wyr south to visit the Sangerish for what they did to her mother and sister.

This turns out to be a good idea as over the Sun Season, close to a thousand Sangerish warriors go north to Bedywn in various warbands. Often outnumbered ten to one, the Cath Wyr intercept the Sangerish raiders in the grasslands between Sangere and the South River.

The fighting is brutal. No Cath Wyr actually die either calling upon Seryn for healing when they are close enough to Bedywn or limping back to friendly territory with terrible injuries that would have killed a non-Cath Wyr.

Despite killing a full tenth to fifth of the Sangerish and wounding many more, the Cath Wyr are driven back to Bedygan by the end of the Sun Season and the start of the Harvest Season, having conceded the other side of the South River to Sangerish.

However, the Sangerish stop coming as the Harvest Season comes, allowing the Cath Wyr to lick their wounds as Seryn begins construction of a wooden wall around Bedygan.

While you knew he would be involved in fighting, you cannot help, but be worry when you find out that Cadyl was involved in the fighting against the Sangerish. Despite your fears, your son only suffers minor injuries during the Sun Season and acquitted himself in the fighting.

Basic Spirit Actions: 2 Actions available
[] [Spirit] Focus on Blessing
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
-[] [Spirit] Iron Spears
-[] [Spirit] Elairamur's Idol
-[] [Spirit] Prydymar
[] [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 Far South-West (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the East
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the Far East (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [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 Eastern Hills
-[] [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: 11.5/20 Progress
[] [Avatar] Hunt
[] [Avatar] Raid
-[] [Avatar] Sangere at the Southern Fields
-[] [Avatar] Shadow Monsters in the Eastern Hills
[] [Avatar] Visit
-[] [Avatar] Evatine at Evalon
-[] [Avatar] Seryn
--[] [Avatar] Bedywn
--[] [Avatar] Bedynn
--[] [Avatar] Bedygan
-[] [Avatar] Isorine at Prylake (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] Orcante at Blawain
-[] [Avatar] Trevritine at Belamour (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 Defensive Measures
-[X][Spirit] Focus on Blessing
--[X][Spirit] Avawyr
-[X][Spirit] Focus on Inspiring Followers
--[X] Cadyl and his companion
-[X][Avatar] Construction
--[X][Avatar] Stone Wall around Avawyr: 11.5/20 Progress
-[X][Avatar] Construction
--[X][Avatar] Stone Wall around Avawyr: 11.5/20 Progress
-[X][Avatar] Visit
--[X][Avatar] Seryn
---[X] Coordinate raiding efforts
-[X][Avatar] Raid
--[X][Avatar] Sangere at the Southern Fields
-[X][Leadership] Sangere Raid
-[X][Leadership] Construct Stone Wall
-[X][Leadership] Inspiration

***​

The cycle is good one. You do not make more Prydymar this cycle, but instead focus on the conflict in the south. In the Growth Season, you continue on the stone wall around Avawyr with the foundation of the wall being done and the only matter remaining being building it up to a respectable height, so it will keep out hostile warriors.

Otherwise, you let Bronwyn, Terwyn and Vardyn handle the affairs of the village as you focus your attention on the fighting with Sangere in the southern lands.

Rallying up the Cath Wyrs of Avawyr, you head south to assist Seryn with Sangerish raiders when they come in the Sun Season. Your brother has a similar idea as when you arrive in Bedywn with about a hundred Cath Wyrs, all two hundred of Evatine's Silver Tips show up as well.

As for Seryn, she has been preparing as she has been turning more of her Cath Wyrs into Lyltymar and continued work on the wooden wall around Bedywn, making noteworthy progress as the southern side of the village is now protected with if the north, west and east flanks are still exposed.

When the Growth Season ends and the Sangerish warriors come at the start of the Sun Season, Seryn personally takes the field, leading the entirety of the Lyltymar and the Cath Wyrs at Bedywn against the enemy with Cadyl and Wyrn assisting her along with her two Cath Wyr leaders, Merfyn and Cerwyn.

You stay back at Bedywn with the Silver Tips, ready to send the village should any of the Sangerish should make it through Seryn's warriors.

Thankfully, your worries go unfounded as Seryn is the Goddess of War and while the Sangerish outnumber her forces, eight hundred mortal warriors are no match for close to five hundred Cath Wyrs even if you did not take Seryn herself into the equation.

Seryn picks off the various Sangerish warbands one by one as since each one numbers no more than a hundred at most whilst she brings at least two hundred Cath Wyrs against each one.

Despite what you would have expected, Seryn does not kill all of the Sangerish and instead only a very few of them die as Seryn takes just shy of eight hundred prisoners.

What to do with them is of much debate. So many warriors are troublesome so a decision needs to be make sooner rather than latter, but what decision should be chosen?

You cannot just let them go as they will just come back next Sun Season. While the option to kill them in cold blood and be done with the matter is there, Seryn vigorously argues that would be a waste. Your daughter claims that if they are to die, then then some good should be done in the process and proposal sacrificing them to either Ascend the rest of her sisters or to strengthen your existing spirits further.

The other option is to send them up to Bedynn and Bedygan to repopulate Seryn's northern villages. Another eight hundred bodies would be very helpful to increasing the numbers including potentially allowing people to live in Bedygan once again.

Seryn personally argues for sacrificing them to strengthen your family, arguing that doing so will help establish local dominance even further and claiming that while she can handle having the prisoners added to her villages, she would rather not have the hassle.

Evatine is neutral on the matter, not seeing any good options available and this being a matter of picking the least bad option. Bronwyn is the opposite, viewing either option as a decent solution and willing to support whichever one is chosen.

As for you personally, you are against killing the prisoners, but that might be your personal distaste for death of people. After all, the alternative option is not going to be causing any problems for you so perhaps you are unfairly biased in the situation.

At least Cadyl has proven himself in the fighting this cycle. Seryn made sure to include her brother in every fight against the Sangerish this cycle and your son learning both how to personally fight, but also how to lead and command others as he watches Seryn direct the Cath Wyrs into battle and during the campaign.

The rest of cycle year goes good as well. The creation of more arts and crafts continues in Avawyr under Gwyn and Bronwyn with a focus on making containers for this cycle's bountiful harvest. Meanwhile your grandson, Myrlin has himself to be a talent Prydymar, able to replicate your current abilities only with a more efficient usage of energy as while he has inherited some spiritual nature from his parents, Myrlin has no where near your output and reserves of energy.

Bronwyn does make a visit to Prylake with some Avawyrish traders, deciding to meet Isorine in person. The two of them hit off great, both happy to have another female spirit to speak with as a friend and equal. And like with most things which make your wife happy, the news of Bronwyn making a new friend pleases you as well.

As for Isorine and Prylakish have been up to, the lake spirit herself has been making more Dywrymar while the Prylakish villagers have been continuing to fish as they always done whilst continuing the trading with the Avawyrish and the Evalonish that Bronwyn and Evatine have gotten them to do.

In Evalon, Evatine shifts his usual routine up a bit by having the Myrymar make iron tools instead of iron spears while he himself splits his attentions between forging more iron tools as usual, but also making some iron spears since his Myrymar are not making anymore.

Speaking of iron tools and iron spears, Evatine has made enough that by the end of the cycle that there are enough iron tools for every villager in Evalon while your brother has over a hundred iron spears left in storage even after assigning one to every Silver Tip.

Perhaps you should inquire into getting some iron tools and spears for Avawyr?

Decisions, decisions.

What is to be done with the Sangerish prisoners?
[] [Prisoners] Sacrifice them to empower your family just as Cynfanor once did with Seryn.
-[] [Prisoners] Ascend remaining daughters into Spirits.
-[] [Prisoners] Empower existing Spirits.
[] [Prisoners] Let Seryn use them to repopulate her northern villages.
[] [Prisoners] Write-in.

Basic Spirit Actions: 2 Actions available
[] [Spirit] Focus on Blessing
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
-[] [Spirit] Iron Spears
-[] [Spirit] Elairamur's Idol
-[] [Spirit] Prydymar
[] [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 Far South-West (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the East
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the Far East (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [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 Eastern Hills
-[] [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: 14.5/20 Progress
[] [Avatar] Hunt
[] [Avatar] Raid
-[] [Avatar] Sangere at the Southern Fields
-[] [Avatar] Shadow Monsters in the Eastern Hills
[] [Avatar] Visit
-[] [Avatar] Evatine at Evalon
-[] [Avatar] Seryn
--[] [Avatar] Bedywn
--[] [Avatar] Bedynn
--[] [Avatar] Bedygan
-[] [Avatar] Isorine at Prylake (Costs 2 Actions)
-[] [Avatar] Orcante at Blawain
-[] [Avatar] Trevritine at Belamour (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][Prisoners] Let Seryn use them to repopulate her northern villages.
[X] Plan The Usual 2.0
-[X][Spirit] Focus on Inspiring Followers
--[X][Spirit] Bedynn Leadership
-[X][Spirit] Focus on Bolstering the Harvest
--[X][Spirit] Avawyr
-[X][Avatar] Construction
--[X][Avatar] Stone Wall around Avawyr: 14.5/20 Progress x2
-[X][Avatar] Visit
--[X][Avatar] Evatine at Evalon
---[X][Avatar] 1. Ask him to provide some iron tools for Avawyr. 2. See if he'd be willing to send Silver Spears to Bedynn and Bedygan to help ease the settling in of prisoners and foster civilization.
--[X][Avatar] Seryn at Bedynn
---[X] 1. Thank her for agreeing to resettle the prisoners. 2. Ask if she thinks we would be of help in fortifying Bedygan next cycle. 3. Inspire relevant leadership in an attempt to ease the process of integration (action devoted above). 4. Provide additional assistance by casting general blessings, aiding construction efforts, etc. 5. Think about ways traveling to Bedynn and back could be made easier.
-[X][Leadership] Wall Construction x2
-[X][Leadership] Harvest

***​

This cycle has been an absolute mess and by the end of it things, the metaphorical fires are still burning.

Oh, it has been good in some parts. The harvest went well and Bronwyn and Evatine had been attempting to encourage trade after you managed to convince Evatine to allow iron tools to be traded. That said, the Evalonish have shown an extreme reluctance to trade their iron tools away.

Evatine continues the new version of his old routine with blessing new Myrymar while the Myrymar make iron tools while Evatine himself makes both iron tools and iron spears. However, your brother actually does something interesting this cycle as he finally allows Seryn use the Gift of the Mighty Body in Evalon.

He and Seryn have come to an arrangement that a warrior accepting the Gift of the Mighty Body does not automatically put them under the leadership of Seryn and the likewise applies to becoming a Silver Tip in regard to Evatine.

The end result is all two hundred of the Silver Tips becoming Cath Wyrs, meaning that all of the warriors in your villages are now Cath Wyrs and it is going to be effectively impossible for someone to become a warrior without becoming a Cath Wyr.

You cannot help, but note that Cadyl had accurately predicted this outcome occurring and even within this time frame.

His reasoning when you ask him during your visit is to do with something about making the sizes of the warriors all the same to allow universally fitting armour to be made rather than having to get the measures of each individual warrior.

You hope that this a good thing, especially since you believe it will involve the iron that Evatine always works with.

Things are also quiet up in Prylake while Seryn continues her campaign against the shadow monsters and continues to increase the amount of Cath Wyr which are also Lyltymar. Your daughter also finishes the wooden wall around Bedywn, securing against any minor raids or attacks whilst beginning construction of one around Bedygan in order to secure her most northern village against the shadow monsters in the surrounding hills.

As for the dealing with the Sangerish raiders, Seryn decides to let Cadyl and Wyrn handle that this Sun Season, giving your son and his new friend a chance to show how well they can handle themselves in command.

And then you have the grand mess of this cycle and you have a sneaking feeling of what caused all of this to kick off.

It finally hits home that when you inspire someone, you have no control over what you inspire them to do. While that has not been a concern of yours so far due to all of your inspirations resulting in things which benefitted you.

This cycle? Not so much. It turns out that when you attempted to inspire the Sangerish prisoners in Bedynn to help them settle in to their new home, you ended up inspiring a rebellion which would not have happened otherwise due to their fear of Seryn.

So oops?

At least Seryn does not realise that it was your fault, instead blaming on the unknown Sangerish spirit. You will just have to live with this dirty little secret of yours and the ensuring guilt.

Most of the Sangerish prisoners have settled into their new lives without any serious trouble, but about two hundred of them decided to launch an uprising against Seryn in a bid for freedom.

Seryn crushed it in less than an hour.

Your daughter did not use physical might or her Cath Wyrs, but a new technique that she has come up with. After you had her undo her permanent blessing during the solution to the incident when she invented the Gift of the Mighty Body, Seryn has been experimenting with it a bit further, thinking up ways to take the removal of a blessing one step further.

Seryn has come up with cursing, an inverted version of blessing where instead of adding something, you take it away. Your daughter has yet to fully master this new technique as she is using for the first time to crush the rebellion. At this point in time, Seryn can only remove one of her main Divinities in a curse by compensating by adding her other two Divinities as a counterbalance.

Something to do with Myrlin's theory of all magic has a cost that must be paid.

In end the uprising, Seryn curses the rebels with loss of Vigour to leave them too weak to fight or do resist any of Seryn's followers. The end result is two hundred very attractive women who are incredibly weak and helpless.

Which has Seryn absolutely furious to your initial surprise as it turns out that as far as Seryn is concerned, women should be strong and beautiful and having weak women is unnatural and wrong.

Between the rebellion occurring, the nature of the curse upsetting Seryn's spiritual nature, your daughter's natural pride and the vindication at the idea she argued against going wrong in a manner which would not have occurred if she had suggested it, Seryn is understandable upset with you when you arrive in Bedynn with the one hundred Silver Tips that Evatine has sent to help integrate the Sangerish prisoners.

To appease her and in all fairness, you cannot deny that you need to given how your plan ended, Seryn has a series of demands of which you must accept at least some.

[X] Let the characters make in-character decisions.
-[X] Sacrifice the rebels to empower four of your daughters. (2 Points)
--[X] Arwyn
--[X] Terwyn
--[X] Gwyn
--[X] Eulyn
-[X] Future rebels will be used as ritual sacrifices. (1 Point)
-[X] Allow Seryn and your other daughters to sleep with female followers. (1 Point)
-[X] All women must accept Seryn's blessing when they come of age. (1 Point)

Seryn offers various things such as sacrificing the rebels for Ascension of her sisters as she originally wanted with the same applying to any future rebels. Alternatives included keeping the rebels as lower value villagers, forced to do unpleasant work or using them for human experimentation that Seryn would not dare do upon on her mortal followers.

The rest of her demands included lesser and mostly unrelated things that Seryn would like to happen and allowing them would please her. Some of them made sense to you such as her demand for all women to receive a blessing from her when they came of age while others make no sense to you such as requesting that she and her sisters be allowed to sleep with women, especially since Seryn clarify that no, she did not find women attractive and still felt lust for men.

Other potential demands including iron spears for her Cath Wyrs, a personal iron sword, giving a blessing to every woman in your villages and having a regular quote of recruits to the Cath Wyrs.

In the end, you agreed to let Seryn keep the rebels around to do the dirty work of her villages in order to avoid the deaths or potential deaths in the alternative options. Other than that, you decided to give her permission to sleep with other women and extend that same privilege to her sisters.

You have no clue why she asked this, especially when she does not feel lust towards women like you do. But it is a choice that requires the willingly participation of your daughters for it to be relevant and before agreeing to it, you made sure that Seryn still understood the concept of consent and not inflicting things upon her followers without them being willing.

The other options were less obvious. Iron spears and an iron sword would be something that she would need to ask Evatine for and you could not just agree to let Seryn have some when that was not your decision to make.

A regular quote of Cath Wyr recruits could prove troublesome in the long run given that Seryn would accept no less than half a dozen each cycle. Keeping up with that quote could prove troublesome as would getting recruits, especially if you suffered a major dent or two in your population, might prove hard if there were not enough willing volunteers.

With blessings all of the women, those two choices were more acceptable. Blessing all of the current ones would prove to be tiresome work for your daughter and would take at least a few cycles and quite frankly, you cannot afford to let Seryn exhaust herself, not with Sangere being so troublesome in the south and the shadow monsters in the north and old threat of Caradawg in the east.

You really ought to investigate the Cynfanor loyalists and what become of them at some point.

So you settle for letting her bless each girl as she becomes a woman. It should be simple enough. Seryn has a shrine in each village and doing it as each girl comes of age will be less taxing on her. And Seryn's reasons for wanting it are benign as she simply desires to make every woman strong and beautiful as she claims that they should be.

You and Seryn are close to settling on a deal when Evatine shows up with his other one hundred Silver Tips. Upon hearing what you are going to agree upon, Evatine decided to get you a refresher on why he is the best talker in the world even if you cannot actually prove that commonly accepted claim.

He argues against having the rebels being forced into doing low quality jobs lest such problems get caused in the future. After all, if people have to do those jobs as punishments, then will those jobs become punishments? If so, what happens when the current rebels die out? Who will do the punishments then? Innocents who have done nothing wrong? What if more of the jobs requiring doing than there are rebels to do them? Do innocents get forced into punishment then as well?

Under his logic, it would be better to just use the rebels as ascensions sacrifices. Get them deal with no long term problems and no varying punishments of a supernatural nature whilst getting some benefit out of the whole deal.

He still does not like the idea of using blood sacrifices however.

Acknowledging her uncle's logic, Seryn decides to turn the rebels back into men for the sacrifices at which point Evatine tells her that she will leave them as women when she sacrifices them to ascend her sisters.

Normally, you would step in at this point, but your brother is a good talker, you trust him and he seems to be leading up to a good point as always.

When Seryn asks him why she would do that in no small amount of confusion, Evatine tells her so she will not enjoy taking the lives of other people and find the sacrificing to be upsetting and unenjoyable. And then when Seryn demands to know why Evatine want that to happen, he replies with a single word.

'Lynellt.'

It shuts down Seryn's anger and even makes her flinch, a sight that irritates to you to no end and you make your displeasure known to Evatine with a slight scowl. He gives you a slight nod of acknowledgement before ignoring your reaction.

Things would have continued further, but everything goes horrible wrong as Seryn receives the second to worst report possible in Bedywn.

Cadyl has been captured by the Sangerish. Having successfully lead ambushes and attacks against the incoming Sangerish raiders this Sun Season, Cadyl and Wyrn were both leading a group of half a dozen Cath Wyrs a couple of days ago.

When neither of them came back within the next day or the one after that, that was expected as it was perfectly ordinary to run into some troubles or delays while out on a hunt, especially if you managed to capture some prisoners.

This morning, another hunt led by found the bodies of all, but one of the Cath Wyrs with Cadyl, buried in hastily dug graves. Sending a runner back, the rest pressed onto towards Sangere before stumbling across the untouched bodies of half of the Cath Wyrs with Wyrn along with a couple dozen dead Sangerish warriors and Wyrn's iron sword, its blade broken and shattered.

The Sangerish have captured Cadyl, Wyrn and another four Cath Wyrs.
[] [Cadyl] The Rescue of Seryn II: Cadyl Edition. Send everything just as you did last time. You got three spirits, a Goddess of War, several hundred Cath Wyrs and a few hundred iron spears. The Sangerish may outnumber you, but you will crush them.
[] [Cadyl] Write-in.