Underneath the twisted blue moon

[Mathematicae]

Welcome back! Today's infodump topic is Dace Gwallawg, The Bastard of Wales and the main character of this quest. Like usual this is based on public information and is cleared by the QM to be free of error based on that information.

Let's start with Dace's background. As stated in the previous infodump, he's the son of Albus Dumbledore and Bridget "Aimée" Gwallawg. Aimée's parents used love potions to get their grandson and because they used love potions, Dace ended up with HBS, HeartBreak Syndrome. This means Dace is terrible at empathy (A diplomacy skill) and at perception involving people (An intrigue skill). It also means Dace only has 10 years to live as of the start of Dacequest 2 before he dies of a broken heart or however HBS kills people. As an aside, if you're wondering about Voldemort, since his mother used a love potion in canon, good job! Voldemort has the same people problem that Dace has.

Because of his social problems, Dace has very few friends. Pretty much his only close friend is his wife Elizabeth. Everyone thinks that they're divorced, but they actually aren't. Elizabeth is an actress and is actually Elizabeth Taylor. Yes the Elizabeth Taylor. Otherwise, Dace doesn't get along great with the rest of his relatives. Aife, his only child, just tried to poison him and greatly disappointed him by getting pregnant with a bastard child. But his irritation with Aife is nothing compared to his opinion of Dumbledore. Dace loathes Dumbledore for something the QM hasn't revealed yet, but it's probably not feeding Dace bad flavours of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans when he was a kid. On Dumbledore's part, it isn't mutual. He's tried to extend the olive branch numerous times. On the other side of the family, Aimee died a long time ago and got undeaded so the two of them don't talk very much, or at all really.

Dace has a few very strongly held beliefs you should keep in mind. First up is his policy on bastard children. It can be summed up in one word. Don't. He was a bastard and suffered for it and doesn't want anyone else to go through that. Therefore, he'll never risk having kids out of wedlock, and he's much more upset about his grandkid being a bastard then he is over almost being poisoned or a werewolf being the dad.

Next up is his Welsh nationalism. Dace is a Wales nationalist and is interested in establishing Wales as an independent country. With Dace as the benevolent ruler in charge, of course.

And I'm serious when I say benevolent. Dace believes in Noblesse Oblige. He takes his responsibilities towards his employees and dependents seriously. He puts in considerable effort to help his subordinates. As a bonus, his subordinates know this and tend to be pretty loyal even though he's not very sociable with them. It will be pretty hard for enemies to get Dace's employees to betray him.

Continuing the Gwallawg line and the well being of all his family members is also important to Dace. This does include Aife and his new bastard grandkid and does not include Dumbledore (at least for now). Since he's the head of the family this kind of feeds into his Noblesse Oblige.

Dace is also against things like slavery, mind control, etc. He and his parents were scarred by the love potion incident and they all disapprove of doing things like that.

Dace's relations with the Pureblood families are strained. He's not really a pureblood in their eyes since Dumbledore is a half-blood. Meanwhile, Dace has a low opinion of them since they use slaves (house elves) and for that reason Dace relies solely on human servants instead. He also pays them extremely well to make sure they're loyal, because of his Noblesse Oblige, and to rub his money into the pureblood faces. He uses his magical university GASL as a feeder for loyal subordinates and also because he's trying to outdo Dumbledore's Hogwarts. Voldemort & his Pureblood supporters don't want to move openly against Dace because there are a lot of muggleborns that would be upset if he was killed, to put it mildly.

That should cover most of his relevant character traits. Now if you want to make Dace act OOC, you can. But we're warning you right now. People that know Dace will notice he's acting strangely and investigate. They might intervene to stop Dace. The list of people includes, but is not limited to, Dumbledore and Voldemort.

 

[LordPenguin]

OOC question used! I've gone a bit further than intended. I read my notes and remembered you needed intel, stat, so I went the extra mile and gave a bit of a spoilery description to families and what they do.

Keep in mind this only applies if Fable cross passes, because the information will change drastically from a cross to another. Otherwise, Kufufu gets a refund.

This is valid on turn 1 only:

"Which factions have active designs for the Pureblood factions", You ask?

All of them.

Allow me to explain.

The pureblood society is formed around a core that is comprised of 28 families.

According to the pure-blood directory, widely believed to have been written by Cantankerus Nott, those families were the only ones still 'truly' pure of blood. Namely, not having any muggle recorded anywhere in their family trees. However, this is not quite true, since Garrick Ollivander's mother was a muggleborn, and the Malfoy family has been known to take in half-bloods from time to time.

Nevertheless, it must be said that those families are the leaders of the group, which is why your rivals are taking steps to ensure they have at least a few contacts to influence the rest, if need be.
Here's the list:

Abbot : A family that has dwindled in the recent years, they are mostly known for their ownership of most of the wizarding cemetaries of the country.
Following: Dumbledore
Courted by : Tom Riddle, The Ministry, The Undertaker.
Hostile to: Voldemort

Avery: A family famed for their wise counsel when it comes to magical matters, however, the line is currently almost extinct, hit by an illness or a curse, nobody knows.
Following: Scythe
Courted by: Dumbledore
Hostile to: Voldemort

Black: An old and powerful family, gifted with a keen spirit, strength and power. They tower above all other families and own most of Northumbria.
Following: Scythe
Courted by: The Undertaker
Hostile to: Tom Riddle, Voldemort, The Court of Hearts, The Court of Blades, The Court of Clubs, The Shadow tribunal, Dumbledore.

Bulstrode: Another old family, famed for their ranches of dangerous creatures, and most importantly, the Amazonian Swamp Bull. They also have an history of fortress making.
Following: Voldemort
Courted by: The Court of Clubs, Tom Riddle
Hostile to: Dumbledore.

Burke: A family involved in the buying and the selling of magical artifacts, and some whisper that they if you need people to disappear, you need to go to them.
Following: The Undertaker
Courted by:Tom Riddle, Voldemort, Dumbledore.
Hostile to: The Court of Hearts, The Court of Blades, The Court of Clubs, The Shadow tribunal

Carrow: They have a monopoly on stone quarries in the British isles.
Following: Voldemort
Courted by: The Court of Blades
Hostile to: Dumbledore

Crouch: One of the oldest pure blood families in Britain, they are a family of high status, known and famed for having produced many efficient civil servants. More often than not, in times of Crisis, they are the backbone of the government.
Following: The Ministry, Scythe
Courted by: Dumbledore
Hostile to:Tom Riddle, Voldemort, The Court of Hearts, The Court of Blades, The Court of Clubs (Camelot), The Shadow tribunal, The Defiler,The Joker.

Fawley. An almost extinct family, they are rather rich, but that's about it. A traditionally Hufflepuff family that dabbles in real estate.
Following: Dumbledore
Courted by: The Court of Diamonds
Hostile to: Voldemort

Flint. A family specialized in artisanry and processed goods.
Following: Voldemort
Courted by: The Joker
Hostile to: Dumbledore

Gaunt : An almost extinct family, whose last member is the elusive Tom Riddle, half blood son of Merope Gaunt. They've fallen due to their tendency to overspend on trivial things, but their hereditary ability to communicate with all snakes, from vipers to basilisks, makes them precious. Last known descendants to Salazar Slytherin.
Following: Voldemort, The Joker
Courted by: The Court of Hearts
Hostile to: Dumbledore

Greengrass. A traditional, blood supremacist family, their entire family is cursed with a blood malediction, but they have produced many powerful wizards, even though they all die early.
Following: Voldemort
Courted by: Scythe
Hostile to: The court of Clubs, The Joker, The Defiler.

Lestrange. An old family known for its extensive collection of old and dangerous artifacts. They are known to intermarry to preserve their blood purity.
Following: Voldemort
Courted by: The Joker
Hostile to: Dumbledore

Longbottom. A family known for their martial prowess and their willingness to defend the weak. This caused them to be targeted along history by any and all aspiring Dark Lord. The fact they still exist is statement enough to their success.
Following: Scythe
Courted by: Dumbledore, The Undertaker.
Hostile to: Tom Riddle, Voldemort, The Court of Hearts, The Court of Blades, The Court of Clubs (Camelot), The Shadow tribunal, Dumbledore, The Defiler, The Joker.

MacMillan. A family of Scottish businessmen and politicians.
Following: Dumbledore
Courted by: The Joker
Hostile to: Voldemort

Malfoy. A French family, famed for their money, extravagant tastes and their wine. Blood purists, they however did take in promising half bloods from time to time to keep consanguinity away.
Following: Dumbledore, Paracelsus and Nicolas Flamel.
Courted by: Scythe, Reaver
Hostile to:Tom Riddle, Voldemort, The Court of Hearts, The Court of Blades, The Court of Clubs (Camelot), The Shadow tribunal, The Joker.

Nott. Information gatherers and hoarders, they're essentially a family of scouts and spies.
Following: Voldemort
Courted by: Tom Riddle
Hostile to: Dumbledore

Ollivander. While not strictly pureblooded anymore, nobody ever thought of making them lose their title. Builders of wands and, some think, exotic magical foci. They have a tendency of seeing more than regular people.
Following: Dumbledore, Scythe
Courted by: Voldemort, Tom Riddle
Hostile to: The Court of Blades, The Court of Hearts, The Court of Clubs, The Joker.

Parkinson. Blood purists and potioneers, they have wished to ally to the Malfoys for years.
Following: Voldemort
Courted by: No one
Hostile to: Dumbledore

Prewett. Almost extinct family. Farmers and food producers.
Following: Dumbledore
Courted by: The Ministry
Hostile to: Voldemort

Rosier. Almost extinct family of French origin, they have herbalists, owners of several shops and farms selling and producing potion and alchemical ingredients.
Following: The Court of Diamonds, Voldemort
Courted by: Dace (?)
Hostile to: Dumbledore.

Rowle. Known for their violence and their viciousness, the family produces mercenaries and hitwizards, usually shying away from aurors and their regulations. Surprisingly enough, they don't care about blood status, only fighting.
Following: Voldemort
Courted by: No one.
Hostile to: The Ministry

Selwyn. An old, almost extinct family who used to be architects, they are now remaining secluded in their ancestral manor.
Following: The Ministry
Courted by: No one
Hostile to: No one

Shacklebolt. A family coming from an isolated island, whose only claim to fame is that, somehow, they managed to keep their line pure. The lack of information about them is pretty surprising, and it may be that it was deliberate...
Following: Dumbledore
Courted by: No one
Hostile to: Voldemort

Shafiq. The oldest pure blooded family of Great Britain, they can trace their origins to Babylon. They lost a lot and had to escape due to the Muslim invasion of Persia, but they have an unmatched ingenuity when it comes to unearthing old mysteries.
Following: The Court of Diamonds, Paracelsus and Nicolas Flamel.
Courted by: Scythe, Rowena Ravenclaw.
Hostile to: Tom Riddle, Voldemort, The Court of Hearts, The Court of Blades, The Court of Clubs (Camelot), The Shadow tribunal, Dumbledore, Morgan le Fay, Reaver, The Interloper, The Destroyer, The Defiler, The Archivist.

Slughorn. Extant family of potioneers, socialites and favor traders.
Following: Dumbledore, The Ministry.
Courted by: Tom Riddle
Hostile to: Voldemort

Travers. Family in charge of maintaining the Floo Network, they dabble in alchemy.
Following: Voldemort
Courted by: The Ministry
Hostile to: Dumbledore

Weasley. Family known for its fertility as much as they are for their bad luck, they are also considered blood traitors because they consorted openly with Muggles and refused to approve of the formation of The Court of Diamonds.
Following: Dumbledore
Courted by: The Ministry
Hostile to: Voldemort

Yaxley. City planners and large scale builders, they also dabble in import/export
Following: Voldemort
Courted by: The Court of Diamonds, Paracelsus and Nicolas Flamel.
Hostile to: Dumbledore.

Other families to look out for:



Crabbe. A vassal family to the Malfoy. Weaponsmiths, owners of the Iron Maiden shops.
Following: Malfoy
Courted by: No one
Hostile to: Malfoy's enemies

Goyle. A vassal family to the Malfoy. Land owners in Cornwall.
Following: Malfoy
Courted by: No one
Hostile to: Malfoy's enemies

Lovegood. Owners of an eccentric journal, they have strange abilities, and people whisper about them being seers.
Following: The Court of Diamonds, Scythe
Courted by: Dumbledore, Tom Riddle
Hostile to:The Court of Blades, The Court of Hearts, The Court of Clubs, The Joker.

Brown. A family of socialites and ladder climbers.
Following: The Ministry
Courted by: No one
Hostile to: Voldemort

Patil. A family that emigrated from India, they are explorers first and foremost.
Following: The Ministry
Courted by: Dumbledore.
Hostile to: Voldemort

Ross. Extant family, their more tolerant branch has been recently wiped out, leaving the rest alone. Which backfired, as for them, family comes first. Pure blood apologists.
Following: The Ministry
Courted by: No one
Hostile to: Voldemort

Midgen. Paper pushers and secretaries
Following: The Ministry
Courted by: Tom Riddle
Hostile to: Voldemort

Diggory. A very young pureblood family, who has not yet found its specialty
Following: The Ministry
Courted by: Dumbledore
Hostile to: Voldemort

Potter. A middle class, but ancient, pure blood family that specializes in transfiguration. Due to the family's name being rather common in the Muggle world, the writer didn't decide to include them among the sacred families.
Following: Dumbledore
Courted by: The Ministry
Hostile to: Voldemort

 

[LordPenguin]

Prologue (2)​

---

Spoiler: Winning votes

[X] His daughter seemingly getting possessed and collapsing in front of him.
[X] His daughter trying to poison him.
[X] 7 : Whispers spoke of an isolated village being annihilated, and of dark whispers in the night ( Fable )

He needed to try and make sense of the situation.

First. His daughter tried to kill him. The poison was a bit insulting considering who he was and already had an antidote ready, but he'd give it an acceptable for trying, he thought, having come back to the lounge and seen the tea damage the wooden floor. However, it was to be expected, if a bit out of character due to her usual 'holier than thou' persona.

She was his heiress, and if he died, she would inherit. Though, the consequences wouldn't be enjoyable for anybody, considering he was the one who was keeping the muggleborn population's bitterness towards the purebloods in check. It wasn't like Dace didn't understand why they felt superior, considering how much of an advantage bloodlines constituted. However, most of the purebloods became overly reliant on them, which caused them to lash out each and every time a muggleborn outperformed them, but since they were the one with money, power, and well established businesses, there was precious little the Ministry could do against them . After all, purebloods controlled how laws were made, and as such, they had full freedom to hire whoever they see fit, no matter how competent those people truly were. But enough with that, and back to his daughter.

Empathy check: 0 Need 10 Failed

Apart from the potential inheritance, she had to have known that her marriage wouldn't be dissolved, and using poison showed some measure of planning and forethought, but he couldn't think of any other reason she would want him dead, especially at the risk of her becoming a criminal. Furthermore, there was another thing.

The problem was what came as he was about to ingest the poison. The flash of silver he saw in her eyes before she knocked the cup off his hands. While he would like to think it being her having last second regrets or a change of mind, her behavior and fainting spell afterwards indicated that it was anything but. The silver especially, was out of place, and he would have known if she was under control of the imperius spells, as the eyes become unfocused or, in extreme cases, gain a milky quality.

Lore Check: 50 Need 60 Failed.

He didn't know what happened, and it did look like possession, but after taking a closer look, it lacked the draining element getting possessed usually showed. So he was left here, inspecting the tea. He recognized the poison. It killed by causing fatal anemia, so that even if its intended victims managed to survive, it would damage critical areas, like the heart and the brain. This certainly explained some of the actions he supposedly took in that vision, but he was still reluctant to believe in them, due to some rather glaring differences between them and the world he knew.

Still, he may have to hasten his check up, even if he had it last year already.

[] Get a specialist as soon as possible 5000 G. Dace gets checked within the year.
[] This can wait for a bit 2500 G. Dace will get checked within the next 2 years.
[] He didn't drink the poison, this is probably a false alarm. Dace will get checked in 8 years, as usual.

Though, that brought him back to Aife and her move.

Requires Aife SL Ranks 2/4/6 : 2 successes.
Empathy Check : 0 Need 5 (reduced from 20 due to previous success) Failed

Aife was most certainly able to brew it, he taught her himself, after all, she was supposed to be his heir, and she had none of his difficulties when interacting with other people. Now, if only she didn't ruin it all by bedding that mutt, she might have become an acceptable substitute for himself come the ten years mark.

....

What was supposed to happen in ten years?

Dace's head fell on his hand and he had to sit down due to the massive headache that stabbed his brain.

This wasn't right. Aife and him never interacted.
But they did.

Didn't they?

He breathed in, then out. Facts. He needed to deal with facts.

There was poison. Poison given to him by Aife.

Those were facts.

Motives didn't matter.

He leant back, resting his back against the sofa as he closed his eyes. What was he supposed to do with Aife?

[] House arrest, Rosier would probably agree to it, that lovestruck fool.
[] Disinherit her. She tried to kill him, and while family ought to look for each other, she proved to be unreliable.
[] 'Deal' with her. Aife's good. She's an elite fighter, and she's got the ability to persuade anyone. If you let her go, he could be certain she would strike again, this time with numbers on her side. She won't be more vulnerable than she is now.

Perhaps it was to push back the moment of the final decision, but after taking something to deal with his headache, he began reading some reports about the village that got destroyed. It was a small, isolated Cornish wizarding village near the sea, which made its quiet disappearance all the more alarming. After all, an entire village of magic users disappearing without so much as a whisper was plenty concerning enough, but them disappearing without a trace? This was even worse.

He needed more information to work with, he didn't like being in the dark like that, and he was fairly sure others would, too.

[] Mount an expedition to investigate.
If Taken :
-[] Basic expedition (-2 000G in equipment and bribes)
-[] Normal expedition (-4 000G in equipment and bribes, +10 to rolls during mission)
-[] Heavy expedition (-6 000G in equipment and bribes, +20 to rolls during mission)
--[] Go there himself to help investigate
[] Get in contact with other families with similar interests. He can't be the only one this is worrying.
[] Do nothing. This didn't concern either Wales or him

The phone in Dace's office began to ring and he jumped a little at that, he reached for it, making sure he hadn't inverted the position again, but as he pressed it against his ear, all he could hear was warbled noises of destruction and a small, familiar voice that emitted a wet cough.

"Don't... Leave the Isles..."

Then the sound cut after the moaning of metal made his ear ring and left him holding the phone, stupefied.

That was Elizabeth. His mind turned towards half forgotten memories, of kind green eyes and a radiant smile over a too pale, bloodied face. He shook his head. He may be worrying too much, but Elizabeth never pranked him even once over the phone, especially with such an ominous message, and she was the only one to even have his number.

He jumped off his seat and threw floo powder, saying her adress out loud, but the green flames only danced as they would, without the distortion that was the telltale of two chimneys getting connected.

'Don't leave the Isles.' An ominous but explicit message, meaning he'd be in danger anywhere else. The surrounding noise indicated mass destruction, but he couldn't discount the possibility that someone had faked that message, which is why he tried contacting the Welsh Ministry, only for it to be unavailable.

Well then, he'd have to see how the English were faring then.

The chimneys connected and he went through, arriving into an overpopulated atrium. There, he could see many familiar faces, and was almost bowled over by Augustus Bulstrode, the bear of a man, who also got out of one of those chimneys. The man grunted, but caught Dace's arm before he could fall.

"You here for the warning?"

Dace's eyes narrowed.

"I'm afraid I have received no official warning whatsoever. Would you mind explaining its contents to me?' He answered smoothly, making the connection with Lizzie's message.

"He probably cannot, but I certainly can." Anthony Travers, the person in charge of the Floo in the United Kingdom approached them, his robes springled with a bit of bright green powder, and looking a bit frazzled. His eyes briefly turned towards Bulstrode, who grunted and nodded in greeting, before they turned back to Dace.

"About one hour ago, I've begun to receive complaints from several witches and wizards who tried, without avail, to floo towards the American continent, both Southern and Northern. After some investigation, I've managed to get some sort of explanation, but the result was so nonsensical that I forwarded it to the Department of Mysteries so that they can analyze it further." He readjusted his glasses, before pinching his lips, looking around before speaking again, in a lower tone of voice. " The results I have gotten indicate that America was wiped off the map, and the last things that were recorded were something about a 'Shadow'. Ridiculous, I tell you."

"Not as ridiculous as you may think, young man." Augusta Longbottom arrived, the eyes of the stuffed vulture on her hat gleaming cruelly. She lifted her hand imperiously and held it out to Dace, who took and kissed it, before she got a few rolls of parchment out of her bag and gave them to Travers and Bulstrode. "Minister Bagnold has called for an extraordinary Wizengamot session, to decide how to deal with this. The muggles are currently panicking everywhere and as such, we need to decide what is it we will do."

Dace felt his fist tighten uncomfortably and exhaled slowly, which Augusta noticed, her eyes widening slightly before softening. She put a hand on his shoulder and spoke again, this time in a tone of compassion.

"I know this is not something you want to hear, my ancestors know I didn't want to either but... My condolences, Mr. Gwallawg."

Dace closed his eyes and tried to keep his temper in check, only managing a few words before he turned back to the flames and his office. There, he got his wand out and proceeded to demolish systematically everything that stood there, before storming out, to the small woods behind his house, and let loose his temper.

Several hours later, it was night, and as he came in, he saw his staff, a group of maids surrounding a crying few, assembled before him. Their spokeperson, a young man with black hair and brown eyes; advanced hesitantly towards him.

"Is it true.. That.. You know, America was destroyed?"

Dace ignored his temper raising its head once again and nodded stiffly, which caused gasps and small screams to spread within the crowd. The young man gulped, and asked him one more question.

"What are we going to do now?"

[] Continue as usual, they need more actionable information before taking action.
[] Be cautious, shore up their defenses, and begin looking into venues to ensure their protection, but no blackout yet.
[] High alert, fortify the place, ensure that they reach self sufficiency as soon as possible , then, prepare for war. Panic will do strange things to the average people and they would not be taken by surprise.

His decision made, Dace barked orders to his servants before stomping towards his daughter's room, who was beginning to stir. It seemed that their confrontation was long overdue.

America was lost to ???
Elizabeth Gwallawg SL lost!

And so, the seams strengthened as the Masquerade continued, and all but one last door closed...
World corruption : + 50% : 80%
Threshold reached.

H͘͝e̷͢ ͝w̵͘͝h͝͏̢̢́ó͜ ̴̧҉ḩ͠҉u̸̕n̵̡͘g̢͢͜͠e͝r͏͢҉͝s͡͞ ̸͞͡a̶͘p͢͏͞p̸̡r̨͏̸o̕á̷̡҉̴c҉̸͝h҉́͟e͜͡ş̸̨͟.̨͟͝

Golden eyes narrow as a metallic hand stills.

---

Votes in plan and end in 48h~

 

[Nordlending]

In response to learning that Australian wildlife isn't doing to well

***

The Great Emu King.


As darkness came, the world changed. Beasts and monsters, man and wizards, forced back as darkness swept across the land. Not everyone was losing. Someone still fought. The great Emu king being one.

A dark flightless bird with a pattern of golden feathers forming a crown on its head. Far taller than your average emu. The great emu, currently busy squashing shadows of men and beasts as the appeared before him.


A man footsteps could be heard behind.

"Hi, my sweeties. Did you miss me"

A poacher from the past. Someone he had torn apart once. He had hunted down his subject and paid the price as he ripped his legs off and left him be eaten by beasts. He had survived. His feet now made of something far more sinister. Shadows.

The man lunged forwards, with far more speed than expected. The Emu king swept his feet grabbing the incoming blow, before throwing him into a boulder. Not that fast. He watched the man warily.

"I will skin you all and wear you like clothes. I will be the most famous man alive. "The man cackled as he slowly rose up.

That should have killed him. No matter. The Emu dashed towards him, grabbed him, and threw him far away.

"I will be back" he cackled as he flew into a pound full of crocodiles. The king ignored it. Shadows, beast and other threats had returned.

His people needed him, more than ever.

 

[Mathematicae]

Hello again! For our 3rd infodump we'll be talking about the other crossover in this quest. Heroes of Might and Magic. Now this crossover doesn't contribute any characters, as far as I know, but it is the source of much of the quest's mechanics. Penguin has merged together Homm3 and Homm4 together when creating this quest. If you go to this link , you can find details on both of those games. However, many of the numbers there have been tweaked.

Now if you want to have a faction in this quest, you need a magical item called an anchor. Without an anchor placed inside the proper infrastructure, you won't be able to use a lot of the Homm mechanics. There are 5 different types of anchors corresponding to the 5 types of magic in Homm4. As an aside, there's another faction in Homm4 that doesn't use magic and the muggles fill that role. The categories are Life, Death, Nature, Order, and Chaos. It's possible for multiple anchors of the same type to exist and in fact you should not be surprised to see this happen. Individuals have magic types that they are more or less aligned towards and anchors tend to seek out like-minded individuals. In Dace's case, he's most in tune with Order and least in tune with Nature and Life. Having to play in his 2nd worst alignment caused Dace problems last quest, but you could make Nature work if you wanted to.

So say you find an anchor. What infrastructure do you need build to actually use it? To answer that we turn to the factions in Homm3. Each faction there had a town type and in order to use your anchor you need to model your infrastructure one of those towns. Furthermore, the towns are connected to a certain type of anchor. Each CK2 province can contain 1 town.

Castle: Life
Tower: Order
Inferno: Death
Fortress:Nature
Rampart:Nature
Dungeon:Chaos
Stronghold:Muggles
Necropolis: Death
Conflux:Order

Once you've built the infrastructure and placed your anchor, a number of things happen. First is that your heroes can level up. Heroes will be your commanders in the field and they follow Homm4 when leveling up. When an hero levels up they also fall under the influence of the anchor's type. For example, if someone that hates animals is working a hero for a nature faction, they will start to like animals.

Second is that you can build facilities for your troops. You can't expect to build up an army without giving them a place to live, after all. There can be 7 unit types per province and you build their dwellings through Martial actions. Unit types won't come automatically with your town, you'll have to go out and find units willing to work for you.

Thirdly, there are also civilian facilities. These are built through stewardship actions and provide various benefits. There's some economic buildings, mage guild buildings to teach heroes magic, and so on. Normally you can only build mage guild buildings in the same type as the anchor and a sideboard into non-antagonistic magic types. Oh! And there's this building called the workshop that lets you craft items, buy items other people make, and unlock research options. If you don't build the workshop for Dace right away, you can watch LordPenguin bang her head against the wall. Tough choice, no? Just kidding, you should build the workshop as soon as possible.

Finally, once the anchor is activated, it will start to influence the entire province. Once the anchor takes hold, it will boost magic of the same type and dampen magic of opposing types. There is also an ability that activates when you've held your capitol for long enough which differs depending on anchor type.

Antagonism
Life: Death & Chaos
Order: Chaos & Nature
Nature: Order & Death
Death: Life & Nature
Chaos: Order & Life

 

[LordPenguin]

Spoiler: winning plan

[] Plan Self-sufficiency in the British Isles.
-[] This can wait for a bit 2500 G. Dace will get checked within the next 2 years.
-[] House arrest, Rosier would probably agree to it, that lovestruck fool.
-[] Mount an expedition to investigate.
--[] Normal expedition (-4 000G in equipment and bribes, +10 to rolls during mission)
-[] High alert, fortify the place, ensure that they reach self sufficiency as soon as possible , then, prepare for war. Panic will do strange things to the average people and they would not be taken by surprise.

---

Prologue (3)​

"... Indeed. I understand you are busy and appreciate you modifying your schedule for me." Dace spoke aloud as he was writing the letter to the person in charge of his checkup.

Yesterday was possibly one of the worst days he had in many years, but he couldn't afford to let it get to him, and after a night's sleep, he was up and ready to react and make his decisions. First was his checking his health's state. He felt none of the chronic chest pains someone who reached the late stages of the syndrome would feel, but it wouldn't hurt to make sure nothing was amiss.

Second, as expected, he needed to talk to his daughter. Or more accurately, check her up and her curse scar.

He got up from his desk and began walking along the corridors, the morning sun just barely beginning to peak through the forest's foliage. The walk towards the young woman's room was quick, and along the way, he signalled for a few of his servants to fetch both breakfast and fighters. After all, just because last time's attempt was foiled wouldn't mean that she wouldn't try anything again.

D100 : 96.
D6 : 2

"Excuse me?" A low, feminine voice called out for him and he turned around, seeing a young woman around his daughter's age looking at him uncomfortably. She seemed to be partially of African descend, with chin-length bangs framing the sides of her face while the rest of her black hair was held up in a tight bun. She was wearing a grey muggle suit and was holding a bundle of papers. "Myriam Wells. Mrs Grove told me you were the one I needed to meet, do you have some time, or...?" She finished awkwardly.

Dace held up his hand and took the papers.

"I'm currently busy, but willing to go over the papers. I will transmit my answer to you within seventy two hours."

The girl held her bag to herself and murmured a thanks before walking away briskly. Dace, for his part, continued on his way, storing the papers in one of his expanded pockets. When he arrived, he saw his daughter sitting up and glaring at the maid currently serving her tea. He didn't know why, of course, but as long as she was behaving, he really didn't care. Dace sat on the seat next to the bed and stared at her with a mildly disappointing look.

"If you were going to have a dalliance with your mutt." Aife grimaced as she began drinking. "I would have at least expected you to make sure you used protection." Aaaand there went the tea, Dace thought, the corner of his lip twitching as his wayward daughter spat the liquid out, then began trying to cough the rest out.

"What?" She looked up at him with a red face and teary eyes from her coughing fit.

"Hm." He didn't bother answering her, adding a bit more sugar to his lemon tea, before he realized what he was trying to do and asked for another cup. "Though, considering you thought it was a good idea to poison me yourself in my own manor, I shouldn't be expecting anything remotely intelligent from you lately. Now, why don't you tell me why you haven't gotten this pretty little curse of yours checked?"

She blinked at him stupidly and he pointed at her thigh. She blinked and lifted her dress, revealing the wound that was festering with black magic. Aife stared for a moment, before glaring at Dace.

"There's nothing there."

It was Dace's turn to be surprised. He turned towards the woman observing them both and she shook her head. Nonplussed, he whipped his wand out and put its tip against the black line, before casting a revealing spell. The spell frizzled and crackled, before something akin to dark lightning arced out, causing the women to gasp, though in Aife's case it was in pain.

"Yes, there is." He answered simply, as the line seemed to bloom, dark veins running under his daughter's skin. He looked at her face and had to raise an eyebrow upon seeing her right eye had turned black, meaning her brain was very likely affected.

That would explain a few things. However, he needed to check the library to learn what it actually does.

"Now, can I trust you to stay put and not try to kill anyone as soon as I turn my back or will I have to call for Dumbledore and your beloved husband?"

The woman gritted her teeth and nodded.

"Good. Felicia, do keep an eye on her." Dace huffed amusedly before getting out of the room to make good on his previous thought.

Research roll : 85 + 10 + 60 = Success ! + 5 Research, Discovered what is affecting Aife

The library was much larger than it first looked, due to the old expansion charms in it, and one needed to be able to navigate through the forest of moving ladders to get what they wanted to find. Still, it only took him a few hours to find what he was looking for, and the results were rather promising.

Among the diagrams, and the rather questionable suggestions of authors that were long dead due to angry mobs, Dace managed to find something that was most likely what he was looking for. The Curse of the Kinslayer, created by one Salazar Slytherin, was a dark and insidious curse that inhibited the victim's thinking processes while heightening their sense of danger, essentially rewiring their thought processes to feel threatened by their blood relatives . Then came the second part of the spell, where the compulsion kicked in and drove the victim to first feel pleasure from their relative's pain, quickly followed by the enhancement of any subsequent murderous impulses, once again aimed at said relatives.


Aife's curse discovered !

Social data updated!

Well then. Slytherin certainly didn't play around. Now at least he knew Aife wasn't in her right mind when she tried to kill him. More troubling was the fact that Voldemort tried to have his daughter kill Dumbledore, only for her to focus on him. But yet again, that Rosier business did create some tension between the two of them. He should do something about the man too, but for that, he'd need to clean house first, he decided, closing his book.

Aife was surprisingly obedient once she learned she was the Terrorist's latest plan to kill Dumbledore, and even moreso when he showed her the relevant passages in the book. Treating her would take some time, but it would be a golden opportunity for Dace to obtain a few concessions from her.

What will Dace do?

[] Send Aife to Dumbledore, She's his problem to deal with now.
[] Deal with it yourself. She's your heiress and the Terrorist just used a mind altering spell on her.

Later that night, after sending orders and money to get to the bottom of that 'disappearing village' story, he finally got some time to check over the papers the young woman gave him. It was a letter of recommendation from Amanda Grove, the woman responsible for the economy branch of his academy. She wrote that the girl had excellent grades and was qualified to work directly under him, as she also passed the battery of tests to determine if she was a plant or not. All that he really needed to decide was whether or not he wanted to hire her.

Does Dace hire Myriam Wells as his Economic advisor?
[] Yes ( Dace will now pay her 1 000G/T)
Since she is a GASL Alumnus, Dace can decide for her Advisor action for the first turn of her employment.
-[] All hands on deck: Myriam will take care of a stewardship action for Dace.
-[] Bookkeeping for dummies: Myriam will study and draft plans to increase the efficiency of Dace's finances and/or businesses by a margin. (Need to be assigned to a specific task)
-[] Aggressive expansion: Myriam will look around and point out good business opportunities ripe for the picking.
[] No

Two days later, the scouting party sent came back with alarming news.

They met up with a group sent by the pureblood factions, including some clan heads like Ernest MacMillan and Octavius Rowle, and headed together towards the site of the catastrophe. The buildings were all charred, the stone melted, the land itself was black and, at the center of the ruins, two giant sacks of flesh were pulsating.

Rowle immediately flung spells in their direction, but they didn't so much as scratch their surface. Or at least, this is what they believed, until an expecially vicious blood boiling curse made one of the sacks explode, a figure falling out of it's insides, covered in bubbling, scarlet liquid.

At that point, Dace's scouts decided to make themselves scarce, because the other sack was opening. The steaming figure got up, revealing the five meters tall abominable lovechild of a troll and a werewolf, that immediately pounced on the only remaining group. Sadly, they didn't manage to see what was the second creature, but they heard its, no, her haunting, bloodcurling laugh.

Sadly, the scouts didn't manage to gather concrete information, but even Dace had to agree that there was a high likelihood that the two creatures were the reason the village disappeared.

---

Alright, Setting's mostly here, one more prologue part and we'll get to turn 1!

 

[LordPenguin]

Spoiler: Winning votes

[X] Deal with it yourself. She's your heiress and the Terrorist just used a mind altering spell on her.
[X] Yes ( Dace will now pay her 1,000 G/T)
Since she is a GASL Alumnus, Dace can decide for her Advisor action for the first turn of her employment.
-[X] All hands on deck: Myriam will take care of a stewardship action for Dace.

---

Turn 1.​

---

It is now September 16th​ 1981.

Spoiler: Ledger

Gains:

-Animal (mundane and magical) Ranches in Australia : +45,000 Galleon (after salaries and charges), 1d6 Epic animal components/ Turn
-- 1,000 Employees, paid 544 G/m on average.

Potion shops 'Montmorency' in England: + 50,000 Galleons/ Turn
--500 Employees paid 502 G/m on average

Spendings:

Gwallawg Academy of Superior Learning : -25,000 Galleon / turn , 1d6 – 3 Chance of Loyal Superior Unit, 1d100-95 chance of Loyal Hero Unit. (Muggleborn population : 95%)

Loan: 20,000 Galleons/turn (10 turns left)

Maintenance, taxes, salaries of the manor: 18,900 Galleons/turn (50 of them, 376 G/T on average)

Order funding: 20,000 Galleons/turn.

Salaties : Myriam : 1,000 G/T

= 10,100 Galleons / Turn

Gained :

10,100 Galleons.
Due to problems at the Ranch, no ingredients have been forwarded.
Heroic unit secured : Myriam Wells

Treasury:
18,600 Galleons

---

Turn 1​

---

Diplomacy: Adviser : No one : Actions : 1

Elizabeth would have taken care of this if she wasn't... You know. In any case, Dace can't act like a complete hermit, even when the world is literaly falling apart, and he already decided that seclusion was the way to go.

[] Have a chat with Dumbledore. He's put it off long enough, and as much as he loathes the old man, he is a major player and Dace shouldn't let him run around unchecked. This will open up funding options.
40% Chance of success.

[] Visit the Ministry, try to build up contacts. The people over there like him well enough, but one never knows who they can meet, and what they can find. Besides, he's been acting like a recluse the last month, that's bound to make some people nervous.
60% Chance of success.

[] Attend Academy graduation. He is, after all, the owner, founder, and the one who funds the Gwallawg Academy of Superior Learning, located in Cardiff. This will increase his chance of people with exceptional potential stepping up next year, such as Myriam and Miss Evans.
40% Chance of success.

[] Meet with your people (write in option). Just because they're already working for him doesn't mean that he has to neglect them.
40 % Chance of success. Chance to establish a SL with a named subordinate, chance to discover promising people, chance to increase loyalty.

Stewardship: Advisor : Myriam Wells : Actions : 3
[X] All hands on deck: Myriam will take care of one stewardship action for Dace. Please mark the selected action as hers, since she will use her own skills to do it.

While administration isn't really her specialty, she does well enough. Economy and finances, however, are where she truly shines.

[] Develop your budding empire, you need to spend gold to earn more gold, after all.
Costs: 10,000 G. Gains variable.
20% Chances of success (65 for Myriam)

[] Work on coordinating Rosier's and Dace's shops. This should lessen some expenses while increasing profits for both.
Costs: 5,000 G.

[] Find sources of building materials. Your contacts went out of business not that long ago, and you need good sources. Guaranteed access to Wood and Stone production facilities. Chance of getting access to Gem, Crystal, Sulfur, or Mercury production facilities.

[] Sell business:
-[]Ranches : 800,000 G
--[] Salvage operations: You may recall some personnel and creatures back to your base, but results wil be variable and will dock 100,000G off the ranches' value.
-[]Montmorency : 1,200,000 G
-[]GASL : 2,000,000 G

[] Buy the surrounding lands. Dace's manor is situated in a forest, with no neighbors in sight. More space would mean more room to expand.
Costs: 100,000 G

[] Build accomodations [Requires: Buy the surrounding lands] . Having those nearby means that Dace's servants could invite people to live there, increasing the pool of manpower he can draw on. It will also increase their happiness, since they won't have to worry overly much about their families.
-[] Basic accomodations: Just a few houses, nothing too fancy.
Costs: 500 G
Once settled, will gain Dace 91,250 G (all charges and taxes taken care of) per turn.

-[] Middling accomodations: Enough houses to found a small village, with basic services in place.
Costs: 35,500 G
Once settled, will gain Dace 182,500 G (all charges and taxes taken care of) per turn.

-[] Major settlement: Housing, entertainment, animal pens and room for expansion, this small town is pretty much self sufficient.
Costs: 179,000 G (Available due to previous choices)
Once settled, will gain Dace 912,500 G (all charges and taxes taken care of) per turn.
The Abbot Family will like you more. + 10 to recruitment rolls.

-[] Massive project: An expansive, fortified, and self sufficient large town that can house up to a hundred thousand people, finished in time due to the abuse of the shortcut called magic. It has everything Myriam and you could think of, save for advanced magical learning establishments.
Costs: 521,500 G (Available due to previous choices)
Once settled, will gain Dace 1,825,000 G (all charges and taxes taken care of) per turn. + 20 to recruitment rolls.
The Abbot, Carrow and Fawley families will like you more.

[] Resource hunt. This is a natural preserve, after all, there should be some resources to be found, right?
Costs: 500 G
Natural resources of the land around Gwallawg manor will be discovered.

[] Real estate hunt. Everyone knows where Dace lives, so it may be a good idea to set up a secondary base of operations somewhere.
Costs: 10,000 G
Will get the names of three plots of land available and priority to buy them.

Martial: Advisor: No one. Actions : 1

This isn't really Dace's cup of tea, and it kind of shows. He also really hopes someone will come to do it for him soon, because he knows he isn't good at it either.

[] Hire more security staff. -10 to enemy infiltration rolls. 2,000 G

[] Find a Security Chief (Martial adviser). Dace needs all the help. 5,000 G

[] But will that security chief be the best? No. Try to poach an auror or two! Considering what they're doing with them, they won't be missed. Risky, though. And costly. 7,500 G

Intrigue: Advisor: No one. Actions : 2

Dace is not sure he'll ever find anyone he can trust with this to help him. Especially since... You know.

[] Plot against: (Will receive intel on their moves, plus additional actions if the opportunity arises.)
-[] Dumbledore's little club of vigilantes.
35% Chance of success.
-[] Voldemort's band of hooligans.
50% Chance of success
-[] The muggles
100% Chance of success
-[] The Ministry of Magic (English).
60% Chance of success
-[] The Ministry of Magic (Welsh).
5% Chance of success

[] Plots are good for the purse! With all those people dying left and right... A whole continent disappeared, someone has to step in, in the stead of those poor foreign investors...
-[] Plot to take over shops in Diagon Alley (England, London).
--[] Plot to have them come to Dace's new settlement. [Requires Major settlement or above]
Costs 10,000 G/Business.
-[] Plot to take over shops in the Green Alley (Wales, Cardiff)
--[] Plot to have them come to Dace's new settlement. [Requires Major settlement or above]
Costs 10,000 G/Business.

[] Compulsive plotting is also good for the morale!
-[] Go on a matchmaking spree. Chance to increase Diplomacy, gain RP with some people, reputation. Need to select your targets.
-[] Go on a trolling rampage an adventure! Chance to increase Intrigue, inconvenience enemies, gain RP with some people.

[] Keep an ear to the ground. Things happen around here, that Dace should keep an eye on.
Opens Rumor mill.


Learning: Advisor: No one. Actions : 2

Dace's not letting anyone not from his family handle those books. Ever. Allowances may be made for a few other people, but he can count them on his fingers.

[] Attend lessons to his own Academy. Since he's the owner, he can attend for free. [You may only attend five of them in total, and then, never again] Choose 1 to 5 (will only take one action) :

-[] There were a few lectures about history and Nobility, but most importantly, about Basic Diplomacy. + 1,000 Experience.

-[] The economy section is booming with activity right now, because of the panic from America disappearing, and they have been taking upon themselves the tasks of studying the effects of this event. Still, a few lecturers put together some lessons about Basic Estates. + 1,000 Experience.

-[] He didn't think there were classes about basic self defense here, but there they were. Basic Combat is always reliable in a pinch. + 1,000 Experience.

-[] Strangely enough, there were a few shady personalities there, and it appears that there is a black market in his Academy. Oh well, life is the best teacher, and he was fairly sure Basic Stealth wouldn't be taught in a magical academy anyways. + 1,000 Experience.

-[] With all of the things going on right now, few people choose to focus on the old texts of old battles, however, Dace thinks Basic Tactics are still very much important. + 1,000 Experience.

-[] Half of the work with magic is to know how to defend against it, and here, in the wizarding world, knowing Basic Magic Resistance is paramount. [Requires Combat classes to be taken] + 1,000 Experience.

[] Relocate the Academy [Available due to previous choices][Requires massive project] : The world as Dace knows it is ending. He was certain of it. As such, it wouldn't be unreasonable to gather his resources and assets in order to keep them safe.
Costs: 100,000 G
The Gwallawg Academy of Superior Learning will be relocated to the unnamed town. It will be safer and open the way for upgrades, but the number of subjects taught to heroes will go down to four.

[] Open a new academy[Requires massive project]: This one will directly enter in conflict with Hogwarts, as it will take care of children from middle to high school. However, it won't teach just magic. As the GASL did, this one will teach everything the muggles do, plus magical subjects.
Cost : 1,000,000 G
Will increase people's loyalty and happiness, give bonuses to GASL due to synergy and open further options.

[] The old tales are sometimes true. Dace deals with facts, and those facts point towards something very alarming. He may want to look into that.
75% Chance of success.
Dace learns what is the 'darkness' that was reported to have eaten both Americas.

Mysticism : Actions : 1

It stings a bit that Dace is just on the lower spectrum of powerful, but he'll deal. Though, he'd really like it if someone could step up and help him with all of that, he's got too much work to do.

[] Find himself an assistant. With all the chaos, someone has to be found. There are a lot of GASL alumni running around, so it shouldn't be too hard to find anyone.
40% Chance of success.
Cost: 5,000 G
Dace finds a Mysticism advisor.

[] Saint Graal. [Requires sorting Memories]Dace has a Holy Grail. It's nice and shiny, but what would be even better would be two of them.
80% Chance of success.
Dace finds another Grail.

[] Anchor hunting. [Requires sorting Memories] Dace remembers those, and the power they bring to bear. However, he still needs to look for them.
-[] Write in Anchor type (Order, Death, Chaos, Nature or Life)
85% Chance of success.

Personal: Actions : 2

[] Spend time with Social Links.(+2 RP)
-[]Write-in
-[] Aife (+3 RP) : She's mentally ill, and Dace is fairly sure that if he lets her go out, she'll do something that will damage his reputation, so he might as well try to fix her.

[] Sorting Memories. Dace currently has two sets of memories, which sometimes contradict, and unless it's too important, he leans towards letting that inaccurate information go. It's not worth the debilitating headaches and confusion.
Chance of success: ???
Dace sorts his memories and salvages actionable information.

[] Personal supervision. Supervise an action from the other sections. Gain +10 to rolls if Stewardship or Diplomacy action, +20 if Martial, Learning or Mysticism action, +30 if Intrigue action. (May be used multiple times, but not on the same actions.)

---

Needless to say, plan required here. Votes end in 48 hours.

 

[LordPenguin]

Turn 1 : Autumn 1981​

---

September 29th​ 1981


When Dace woke up that day, buried under an ever-increasing amount of covers, he decided enough was enough. Elizabeth was dead, and the world was trembling, but yet again, it was trembling anyways because the muggles were willing to throw weapons of mass destruction at each other to prove their point, so this was nothing new. What was new, was that someone seemingly broke all of the laws and rules wizards imposed unto themselves to limit the damage should a conflict break out.

However, after the last rampage of those religious, holier than thou control obsessive prats down there in Italy, perhaps another global scale crisis was to be expected. Things had been getting too quiet, he mused, getting out of bed drowsily.

After his morning ritual of washing, eating, and dressing himself (order was up to discussion and his own whims), he sat down in his office and noticed the blatant lack of papers. Papers that usually were reports from Lizzie's contacts.

Right. He knew what he should do to start. Get an idea of what exactly is going on here, and what he can do to correct that. First thing first, the reports.

[X] Keep an ear to the ground.
84 + 75 = 159 : Tier 1 Success

It took him quite a bit of time, and a lot of failures to contact the people his wife managed, and after a while, Dace decided to give up completely on diplomacy, instead relying on the old, time-honored tradition of his that was sneaking, getting blackmail, and blackmailing people into doing what he wanted them to do.

It was a lot more effective, too, as he saw the reports on his desk. Most of it was people panicking and causing problems all over the place, however, two facts in particular attracted his attention.

First was the strange sightings at Hogsmeade. Groups of three to four people were seen walking, trying to be discrete, and doing it frequently. Nobody knew who they were, or where their loyalties lied, however, from description alone, Dace could guess it boiled down to two possibilities.

Either they were patrolling, or they were scouting.

The second report belonged more to the realm of rumor-mongering, however, the contents of it were intriguing, as they were inquiries regarding the state and whereabouts of powerful wizards and witches, especially ones that were martially inclined. The names being flung around were familiar too, such as 'Mad Eye' Moody, his own daughter, and Charles O'Sullivan. Whoever was behind those inquiries most likely did so to try and convince them to join their cause, however, the questions of 'who' and 'why' were currently remaining unanswered.

Right now, with everything going so fast, Dace didn't have time to take care of everything himself, (And how he wished... No, nevermind.) and as such only had time to dedicate some time to investigate one of these reports.

Which report does Dace choose to investigate?

[] The odd sightings in Hogsmeade
[] The strange inquiries


-[X] Plot against:
--[X] Voldemort's band of hooligans.
22 + 75 = 97 : Bare Failure

A few days later back at the manor, Dace was scowling at a small sheet of parchment, holding a few words in a regular, neat handwriting, that were previously stuck on the robes of the hogtied spy he sent to investigate the man's whereabouts.

'Better luck next time.'

He felt his eyebrow twitch and sucked in a breath to soothe his rising annoyance.

[Pride activated]

Next time, the Terrorist won't hold a meeting right next to a muggle's 'End of the World' rally, and next time, he would make sure his spy doesn't trip over a snoring drunkard and alert the aggravating man's followers.

No new information, +10 to next try.

---

October 13th​ 1981


Now that he thought he had a good grasp of what was going around him, he decided he needed to focus a bit more inward. Namely, he needed to take care of his businesses. America, and its population, disappearing in less than one day was bound to cause panic from an economic standpoint, and indeed, he could already see that sales were beginning to take a nosedive. Although potions were always useful, and as such, he had a bit more time than others to deal with it.

-[X] Develop your budding empire,
--[X] Myriam
46 + 65 = 111
-[X] Resource hunt.
91 + 65 (Research) = 156 : Tier 1 Success : +5 Research
Analysis result:

Gold : 83 : Gold found!
Wood : 68 + 20 (Forested area) : 88 :Wood found!
Stone : 18 : Nothing of value was found
Crystals : 80 : Crystals found!
Mercury : 42 : Nothing of value was found
Gems : 85: Gems found!
Sulfur : 13 : Nothing of value was found.

He decided to use his new aide's abilities to their fullest extent by having her look into venues of expansion while he himself began investigating the lands surrounding his manor. They both were successful, however, something was off.

Dace knew for a fact that when he remodelled the manor, he had a team of experts study the terrain, and while they found a few pockets of crystals, and the place he lived in was very obviously a forest, they never found any traces of gold or any precious stones, and certainly not in the quantities his study revealed.

The professionals he hired were the best, but it would be idiotic to assume such a large scale change took place without him noticing, right?

Still, while the change in the surrounding land sent alarms blaring into his mind, he couldn't do anything about it, and instead decided to check what Myriam sent him. Just as one of his manservants entered the room looking pale.

...

It seemed that everything from the South of Australia to the lower half of Asia had just been engulfed in the Darkness.

After sending said manservant away, Dace took in a big breath, sat down and began counting to ten. Then twenty. Then, seeing as counting wouldn't cut it, he decided to take a walk, which led him to standing in front of his insurance's building. They were apparently closing down because they couldn't repay everyone, and people were yelling at them in the streets. Then, an employee had the gall to tell him to his face that since his wife was American, this branch wasn't in charge of her, and as such, they didn't owe him any money.

[Pride activated]

Well then. No matter.

The little black book in one of his enlarged pockets was almost vibrating with excitement.

A few hours, and several employees left sobbing on the ground later, Dace came back home with some money back. He was feeling very upset his Lizzie's life only amounted to this pittance, but at least his pride was soothed, for now.

Dace gains 904362 Galleons.

After cooling down and indulging a tiny little bit to the wonders of firewhisky, he finally got around to reading Myriam's reports, only to see the woman come out looking distinctively frazzled. Dace looked at her. She looked at him. He raised an eyebrow and his glass. She took the bottle and drank from it instead. Then, as she was a complete lightweight, she began speaking in a slurred manner, her arms flailing around.

"-and this guy went whoooo~ I hadta geddim outta 'ere with, like, my shoe!"

Not much work was done that evening.

Myriam Wells SL unlocked!

In the morning, after drinking a hangover potion and giving one to Myriam, they finally poured over what they could do, which was not a whole lot.

The problem lied in the fact that he didn't own the land around his house. In a corner of the room were the galleons that he got from emptying his Gringotts account in a fit of drunken madness, spurred on by his equally wasted accountant. They were gleaming quite nicely in the morning light.

With a sigh, he looked at the sheets in front of him. Inflation was already beginning to strike.

Does Dace buy the lands around his manor?
[] No
[] Yes ( costs 200,000 Galleons)

If Yes, here are the available upgrades (you may choose any number of them)
All of them cost 40,000 Galleons to build.
-[] Gold Mine. Estimated output post building: 10,000 Galleons per turn.
-[] Lumber Mill. Estimated output post building: 16 Wood per turn.
-[] Crystal Mine. Estimated output post building: 8 Crystals per turn.
-[] Gem mine. Estimated output post building: 8 Gems per turn.

Dace may also choose to make use of his network of acquaintances and try to curry favor among the pureblood factions. Here are the families that responded to his offer, with their rates.

--[] Bulstrode: + 5,000 Galleons per build. Basic quality.
--[] Potter: + 10,000 Galleons per build, Average quality.
--[] Yaxley: + 20,000 Galleons per build, Guaranteed quality.

Myriam decided to use that as an introduction to her own pitch. Namely that, if Dace was intending to aim as much as possible towards self sufficiency, he'd need a lot of things. And by that, she meant a lot.

She didn't manage to find any high end shops or industries that were selling, sadly, but she did manage to find a few that were willing to work with anyone who had a plan to weather the storm as anyone with even the basic knowledge of how that world worked knew would happen. After all, several other rich purebloods did the same, so why not him?

Note: All of the following required buying the land beforehand. Furthermore, as Dace will have them come to him, the profit from owning them is reduced by half until a major to massive settlement is created nearby. You may choose both is you wish to.

[] Farmer, Farmer, and Farmer. As the name indicates, they're farmers specializing in edible food. However, they can also, if given enough of an incentive, dedicate some manpower to grow ingredients for potions instead.
Costs: 100 000 Galleons. Chances of food shortage reduced to Nil.
Gans: 10 000 Galleons per turn.
Purebloods offended by this : Rosier ( He's Dace's son in law), Bulstrode, Prewett.

[] 'Little' Montmorency. Dace owns the shops, and it would be easy to move part of his production chain there, just in case.
Costs: 30 000 Galleons. Chances of potion production being halted reduced to Nil.
Gains: 5 000 Galleons per turn.
Purebloods offended by this: Parkinson (Well, their faces offend Dace!)
Taking this option will reduce the selling value of Montmorency by 100 000, and its gains by 15,000.

The problem was that everyone was doing the same thing and there was a scramble to gather resources before the predicted end, said Myriam, who declared, that after careful accounting and consulting with other alumni from the Academy, Dace had two years to brace for impact.

Seeing how the muggles had set everything on fire already on their side, and the increasing number of letters Dace was receiving from his employees, he was fairly sure she was right.

---

November 1st​ 1981


-[X] Work on coordinating Rosier's and Dace's shops.
49 + 20 = 69

The management was awful, the personnel incompetent, and Dace could see least at least three species of plants that should never, ever be put in close proximity to fertility potions. The fact that the foolish youngster couldn't even name half of what was coming out of his farms was pretty damning.

He dearly wished that he could drag Rosier by the ear to his father to set him right, but he knew for a fact that the father was similar in incompetence.

Still, all of that wasn't a pure loss of time, as he got the man to pay for the restructuring ot his shops. Dace also managed to sneak in a few concessions in the contract, because really, if Rosier didn't read what he was signing, he deserved everything that was coming for him. Dace was being helpful here!

Montmorency will generate +5,000 Galleons due to the influx of newer, fresher ingredients.
Dace also managed to get one concession from Rosier Junior:
[] Seeds for rare plants.
[] Special farming techniques.

-[X] Sorting Memories.
46

After a few hours of accounting, twisting arms, and healthy amounts of blackmailing to bring him more benefits, Dace had a few moments to himself, to think about the alarming and nagging sensations.

He wasn't good at meditating, his mind was always in movement, which he liked. However, here, it was a detriment. He finally gave up and instead let his mind run wild while gazing through his window.

Window, bird, tree, dragon.

He blinked, surprised, as emerald and golden scales came to his mind.

Dragons. He had those, in this strange dream he had. Emerald like leaves, trees, treants?

Adult bowtruckles, his mind whispered, Ollivander's camping gear on his currently untouched petunias, flower, Nature-

His hands came to his temples as he hissed in pain. Nature... Nature, yes.

He remembered Nature, and he remembered what it did to him, and what it did to his land-

His eyes snapped open – When did he close them?- He got up and dashed out, his senses reaching for something he shouldn't know existed and he found them. The lines of lively, green, chaos on the ground, feeding the earth with Nature's bounty.

But then, Dace asked himself.

What were the blue lines slumbering within him?

---

I'll edit in the winning plan when I'll be bothered to, or something.

Good rolls, bad rolls, and almost rolls, not much to write home about or anything.

Edited for clarity of choices.

 

[LordPenguin]

Spoiler: Winning Plan

[X] Plan We Need Advisors
-[X]The strange inquiries
-[X] Yes ( costs 200,000 Galleons)
--[X] Gold Mine. Estimated output post building: 10,000 Galleons per turn.
--[X] Lumber Mill. Estimated output post building: 16 Wood per turn.
--[X] Crystal Mine. Estimated output post building: 8 Crystals per turn.
--[X] Gem mine. Estimated output post building: 8 Gems per turn.
---[X] Yaxley: + 20,000 Galleons per build, Guaranteed quality.
-[X] 'Little' Montmorency.
-[X] Farmer, Farmer, and Farmer.
-[X] Special farming techniques.

Estimated cost : 570,000G

---

Winter 1981​

---

December 1st​ 1981

As Dace watched the people milling around his territory from inside his manor, he mused on whether it was wise of him to basically broadcast his ties with a known Death Eater supporter, before banishing that thought. The Yaxleys were professionals, and nobody would begrudge him for hiring them when he was also funding Dumbledore's little vigilante club.

Someone knocked at his door and he called for them to enter, which is how he could freely admit to being surprised upon seeing Francesca Yaxley following his maid Sarah.

Francesca was a woman in her early seventies, with a head full of silver that cascaded over her shoulders, but a face that aged gracefully, a copper monocle over her right eye and plain but high quality burgundy robes. He got the impression of her being a no-nonsense woman, as her reputation would suggest, and for a minute, he wondered why she would align herself with the Terrorist, before seing her sniff haughtily when Sarah presented her with a chair, the muggleborn rolling her eyes behind her back as the older woman sat down.

[Erudite] Activated.

Ah, he remembered now. The Yaxleys were hurt rather badly during the witch hunt led by the religious nuts and their muggleborn servants who wanted to supplant the local purebloods. He would have to tread lightly around this topic.

Empathy roll : 47 + 0 (Empathy) = 47 : Failure, [Manipulative] activated.
Manipulation roll : 47 + 60 (Manipulation) = 107 : Pass.

In fact, he just got an idea.

"Thank you Sarah, you may go." He dismissed the maid, who curtsied before heading out of the room. Francesca looked at him with with what he thought was approval over the display of dominance.

"Good evening, Mrs. Yaxley, my apologies for not coming to greet you, however, I was unaware of your coming here?" He formulated it as a question, making it clear that he was wondering about the motives of this surprise visit. The woman nodded gracefully and produced several sheets of parchment.

" I had a few of my men do some preliminary scouting over the nodes you located, and I received some results contradicting the report you forwarded to me." Upon hearing this, Dace's brow furrowed.

"Nothing that would cause the contract to become invalid, I hope?" The woman shook her head, cackling a little.

"Believe me, I would love it if all cases were like this one. No, it is not a matter of too little material, in fact, this is exactly the opposite." She showed the Dace the parchments regarding the Gold and Gem mine." You can see here, and there, that there are smaller, adjacent pockets hidden under denser stone layers. The resources here are more abundant and of higher quality than estimated, which this opens up a few possibilities, if you care to listen to them."

Dace looked at the places she surrounded with circles and saw that, in fact, there were not only a lot more resources than expected, but also that there was a lot of stone here, and quite the respectable amount of flawless marble, too. He wasn't sure how this escaped him, but yet again, he was no professional at this.

"You are the professional here, Mrs. Yaxley, far from it for me to ignore your advice."

The woman smirked at him and produced more parchment sheets.

"Here are the plans for the upgraded mines. This will allow for better yield and also to extract the more... Delicate... resources to be found." An obvious reference to the highlighted Native Gold and Elemental Stones pockets, hidden inside the Gold veins and Gem pockets. " And these, " She showed the second group of parchment sheets. " Are plans for a stone quarry, if you feel brave enough to hire us to build one. Of course, this will require some readjustment of the prices we agreed upon."

Dace nodded and asked for the price and Francesca's smirk grew.

It was quite a lot more, but in the end, he felt it was very worth it. And not just because there were rare alchemical ingredients. Though it was mostly that. After all, with the economy in shambles, he couldn't very well expect any rare ingredient to fall onto his lap, could he?

Total construction costs:

Previous contract.

-Gold Mine. Estimated output post building: 10,000 Galleons per turn. 40,000 Galleons
- Lumber Mill. Estimated output post building: 16 Wood per turn. 40,000 Galleons
- Crystal Mine. Estimated output post building: 8 Crystals per turn. 40,000 Galleons
- Gem mine. Estimated output post building: 8 Gems per turn. 40,000 Galleons

Yaxley rates : 20,000 Galleons per build
+2 Yaxley favorability.
= 240,000 Galleons.

New proposed contract.

-Lumber Mill. Estimated output post building: 16 Wood per turn. 40,000 Galleons
- Crystal Mine. Estimated output post building: 8 Crystals per turn. 40,000 Galleons
-Improved Gold Mine. Estimated output post building: 15,000 Galleons per turn. 2 Native gold per turn. 60,000 Galleons
-Improved Gem Mine. Estimated output post building: 12 Gems per turn. 2 Elemental stones per turn. 60,000 Galleons
-Improved Stone Quarry. Estimated output post building: 24 Stone per turn. 2 Flawless Marble per turn. 60,000 Galleons

Yaxley rates : 20,000 Galleons per build
The Carrow family will be deeply insulted by this.
+6 Yaxley favorability (+4 due to building, +2 due to the insult to the Carrow)
+2 Bulstrode family (Insult to the Carrow)
-8 Carrow favorability (You're threatening their monopoly.)
= 360,000 Galleons.

Does Dace agree to the new contract or keeps going with the previous one?
[] New contract
[] Previous one

The following day,unlike the visit from the Yaxley matriarch, everything went according to plan for the two businesses he intended to move. The farmers and part of his own shop network were moved smoothly, one of the younger Yaxley kindly providing him with a basic plan to settle them, 'just in case' he intended to build a city or something. Not that they were suggesting he was, of course, but it never hurt to be prepared, and several others already called them to work on it anyways.

-2 Parkinson ( but who cares about them anyways?) and Prewett favorability.

---

January 27th​ 1982

[X] Plan Let's Order some Intrigue
-[X] Visit the Ministry, try to build up contacts.
55 + 40 (presence) = 95 : Bare failure.

Dace entered the Ministry building in London and once again went through the hall with the gaudy golden fountain. Seriously, Dace clicked his teeth, there was an economic crisis in the works and they still spent part of their budget on that kind of frivolity?

"What a waste." He murmured, glaring at the vapid golden faces as if his mind could make them melt away into more useful Galleons.

"Yes, well, they had to do something to keep the morale up."

Dace turned around and looked at the man who just spoke up. Old robes, red hair, looking skittish around him, it was Weasley alright. He pondered on whether or not he should insult the man -damned traitors to the isles served us up to the French on a silver platter-, but as he didn't open up with anything outright insulting, he, too, would refrain from it.

"Then they would have been better served doing something like opening communal gardens, or opening charities to lodge the needy. Anything more useful than pandering to the average wizard's need for flattery would be better." He answered acerbically, causing the red-haired man to flinch.

Gutless little man that one, not even willing to stand up for himself, but also unwilling to take a stand against what he, too, perceived as a waste of resources. Dace turned around and walked away.

He could have continued talking to the man and brought him to his side.

He could have.

He did not.

It seemed that if it was the measure of the average English Ministry worker, then he had to look closer to home.

Further actions available next turn.

---

February 6th​ 1982

-[X]The strange inquiries
-[X] Find a Security Chief (Martial adviser).
67 + 50 ( Leadership) = 117 : Tier 1 Success! + 5 Leadership (already capped)

Encounter roll : 8

Dace decided that the rumors of people looking into famous battle wizards and witches would be the smarter choice here, considering that his daughter was one of them. Following the indications of his employees, he arrived in the muggle section of London, at the Prancing Dodo bar, just as two groups of rather peculiar people entered.

One was a duo, Sirius Black and his infamous best friend, Charles O'Sullivan, both of them rather well known for their feats as explorers. Some whispered that their relation was closer than friends, but the Black heir was known for his love of the fairer sex, so Dace didn't put much stock in those rumors. O'Sullivan was rather small for a man, with short red hair, and was wearing an impeccable black suit with gloves. His face was clean shaved, and he wore silver earrings. Black was looking more unkempt and relaxed, his black hair reaching his chin, a leather jacket over his shoulders, and a white shirt underneath it, not even tucked under the blue jeans he wore.

The other one, a woman, was what had Dace concerned.

That person was a beautiful woman, who could be anywhere from her twenties to late thirties, wearing a white and pink floral dress, long white gloves, and hip length light brown hair pulled up in a ponytail held up by a white ribbon and familiar green eyes. Her skin was very pale, unsurprisingly, since the woman was a vampire. In muggle London.

Stealth roll : 46 + 75 = 121. Failure.
Perception roll : 73 + 45 = 118. Failure.

He entered the bar as discretely as he could, but as the crowd went in and out, the woman disappeared and he felt something icy run up the back of his neck. He immediately jumped and turned around to see the woman, one of her gloves held in her hand, her left one raised and wagging a finger where his neck used to be before he moved. She was smiling with an expression that could be called mischievous, her fangs clear for him to see, before she turned around and sauntered through the crowd in direction of the Black – O'Sullivan duo.

Dace was conflicted. In one hand, the vampire hadn't expressed any ill will, but she was still a vampire. On the other hand, if she looked that much like a human, as opposed to the usual bat hybrid, that meant she was a very powerful one.

And while the two men were powerful in their own right, Dace knew better than anyone what vampires were capable of, and a bar where she could very well have mesmerized people into doing her bidding was not a good place to fight.

As he was thinking, she reached her destination and was introducing herself, her eyes fixated a bit more on the redheaded man than the heir of Black. It could be that she was hunting, whether for blood or men, however, he couldn't help but think something more dangerous was at play here. As he was trying to decide what to do, green eyes immediately zeroed in on him and the vampire woman waved at him to come over, Death dancing in her shadow.

What will Dace do?

-[] Write in.

---

Welcome to Dace's school of diplomacy: learn what people want, and offer it to them. Also, today's lesson on why monopolies are a bad thing: If you're the one controlling the market, you get to choose the price. If you control things like... let's say, stone, all the builders have to dance by your tune~

Also, for those who don't check the info section automatically, I put the favorability thingie in numbers to give you guys a more concrete idea of what's going on with the pureblood 28. I won't put in the chart between families though, because even Dace doesn't know all of it.

Edti : Votes by plans and end in 48h

 

[LordPenguin]

[X] Write-in:

People were walking around him, seemingly not seeing him as the gears in his mind turned as fast as possible. He'd killed enough vampires to know a confrontation here and now would be suboptimal, but he also knew that if he bolted immediately, the vampire was likely to go after him, and he had neither the time nor the means to engage right now. As such, he would have to be more subtle about his retreat.

In that, the heir of the Black provided an adequate distraction, even though the woman had been mostly ignoring him in favor of his companion. Dace didn't doubt the Black family would have countermeasures to mesmerism, but there would be no harm in warning them, after he got himself out of this rather uncomfortable situation.

Dace called for a server, a gangly young man with acne on his face and slightly large ears, as he kept the group in line of sight. The woman had engaged the two in conversation and was getting some sheets of papers out.

"Would you mind sending your most expensive bottle in their direction in about..." He scribbled down an apology message on one of the parchment pieces he kept for that kind of occasion. "Five minutes?" He handed the folded note to the young man, whose head was alternating between Dace and the table hesitantly.

"Sure, but we'll need you to pay upfront." Dace raised an eyebrow at the proposed bottle and price. Domaine Leroy 1953, and if he converted the prices.... At least, they wouldn't be able to tell him he was being inconsiderate here.

-3,000 Galleons

Content that an escape route would be provided, he walked towards the group and sat at the free spot that was provided for him.

"I apologize for my lateness, may I ask why I was invited here?"

The vampire tittered, while the red-haired male shrugged, his earrings twinkling in the light. Now that he looked at it more closely, there was something engraved on it. An eye.

[Erudite activated]

The eye of Ra, to be more exact. Interesting, he didn't think he would stumble upon any devotees of the Old Religions here of all places, although the Shafiq made no secret of having some measure of reverence towards the persian pantheon.

The heir of the Black family laughed, chugged down his drink, and slammed it down on the table.

"Ask the lady. She's the one who invited us."

"I did, didn't I?" The vampire smiled. "As I was explaining to those fine gentlemen, I would like to launch an expedition into some ruins I found west of Cardiff. According to the texts I found, the ruins are related to the Darkness that seems to have devoured several continents, and to those creatures that almost killed the head of the Macmillan family during that unfortunate scouting expedition."

That had the men straightening their backs, as Dace felt his wariness of the woman increase. It was too good to be true. Even if vampires were persecuted, her not reaching out to the Ministry, or more likely, the Terrorist was suspicious. Especially considering he was here tonight because that woman was hunting down O'Sullivan. This looked a lot like she was planning to isolate them, but why?

The Irish man reached for and took some of the plans.

"This looks like the ruins of an old village, but completely flooded?" The woman nodded.

"According to my research, this place is a village that belonged to the Old Kingdom. It was called Oakvale."

Perception (people) roll : 9 + 5 (Perception: People) = 14 : Failure.
Dace's neck began to itch.

"Isn't the Old Kingdom the one that got destroyed while the Ulster Cycle was taking place?" Charles asked, frowning in concentration as the vampire hummed.

"It is a longstanding debate on when the Old Kingdom got destroyed. The less said about the accuracy of information on the Mythic Era is concerned, the better. However, the most accepted date is at the very beginning of the Christian Era."

Perception (people) roll : 98 + 5 (Perception: People) = 113 : Tier 2 success. +1 Base intrigue (capped) +5 Perception.

As the waiter finally arrived, providing Dace with the occasion to finally retreat, he got a glimpse of the Black heir's surprisingly blank face, and managed to catch what he was murmuring.

"The Old Kingdom fell over a millenium ago."

For some reason, chills were creeping up Dace's spine, though that may have been because of the woman's smirk. As he finally exited the building, he let out a sigh, wondering what he should do.

[] Warn the black their heir may be compromised.
--[] Do so anonymously.
[] Do nothing.

He rubbed his hand to the back of his neck. It felt itchy before, but now that he was alone in his study, it was positively burning, and it hurt so much he blacked out. When he woke up, he felt strange, but at the same time, he didn't.

Perception roll: 51 + 50 = 101: Tier 1 success. +5 Perception
Utility magic roll: 83 + 20 = 103: Tier 2 success +1 Base Mysticism (capped) + 5 Utility magic
Research roll: 47 + 70 + 10 = 127: Pass.
Empathy roll: 1 + 0 = Critical failure

Dace decided to deal with it immediately, and quickly found the cause of the burning. It was a defensive spell. One geared against something so... Alien it made his head hurt to even think about it. However, from what he could percieve, whatever it was that this spell was defending against, it had an emotional component.

In fact, he could even tell that the burning feeling came from the fact that this spell was triggered. Thinking about when he noticed that particular spot, that meant something attacked him as he was sitting on that table.

In other words, that vampire lady saved him from an attack he didn't even see coming.

[Pride activated]

This was completely, utterly unacceptable. He'd have to correct this posthaste.

First, to make sure he kept tabs on the vampire...

Dace exhaled in annoyance. It seemed that protection came with a price, as he couldn't seem to remember what the vampire looked like. Neither could, he found out a little bit afterwards, anyone who came into contact with her.

Trait mutated:

Heartbreak Syndrome : - 40 Empathy, - 40 Perception : People. Time until Heart Breaks : 10 Turns.

Became:

Heartbreak Syndrome: Time until Heart Breaks : 10 Turns.
Untouchable heart: - 40 Empathy, - 40 Perception : People. Immune to Corruption. Empathy may never rise over 0

---

Spring 1982​

---

April 12th​ 1982

-[X] Attend lessons to his own Academy.
--[X] There were a few lectures about history and Nobility, but most importantly, about Basic Diplomacy. + 1,000 Experience.

[] The old tales are sometimes true. Dace deals with facts, and those facts point towards something very alarming. He may want to look into that.
Rolled: 50 + 75 + 10 = 135: Pass

As expected of his family's archives, after a bit of searching, he found what he wished for. In fact, it was a bit peculiar, how readily that information came to him, but in the end, he wasn't one to look in the gift horse's mouth.

The tome, "Tales and Legends of the First Albion" was an old, leatherbound book, and even though the preservation charms still held, the pages were yellowed and brittle. Thankfully, Dace was fairly fluent in the Old tongue, both spoken and written, and as such, besides the unfortunate tendancy to not to put spaces between the words, it was a fairly smooth read.

Little is known about the Void between the Worlds, save that only one man ever came back alive from it. William Black, the first and greatest Archon is famed to have explored that place, obtaining the Sword of Aeons, a weapon of colossal power, in order to defeat the Court that terrorized the kingdom.

However, this wasn't without price, as the Archon wasted away, his hair fell out, his skin become akin to parchment, and Darkness following his every step, as even though he paid the Sword's price, he never paid the Void's.

Once more, the Archon went to the Void, however, this time, he never returned.

What was the Void's price? Nobody knew, however, if one takes into account the rather glaring coincidences between the Archon's disappearance and the hero, Scythe's first appearances, one could hazard an educated guess, one that gained a lot of credence due to the events surrounding another void-spawned entity.

The Corruptor.

What little was known of it was that it was an extremely dangerous entity that killed or destroyed anything it touched, only weakened by the light that it can consume. The Corruptor was known to prefer acting through proxies, willing or not, and had twisted many a hero into horrifying monsters to serve it. Simpler beings, such as hobbes or balverines, weren't fully erased, which allowed a particularly smart hobbe to transmit some information through drawings left in its grotto.

The Corruptor, according to that hobbe, would be the price the Archon paid for his stay in the void. A shard of his power, twisted by the place's darkness, yearning for both revenge and completion, sitting inside the place that saw to its birth, waiting for a rift to open, for it to be unleashed upon the world.

Such a place was provided during the last days of the Old Kingdom, though the author of this book is oath-bound not to mention it, they can only give you one warning.

No matter what, the shattered tower must not be rebuilt.

Dace frowned upon reading the warning, and the text in its integrality, but the warning was the most important thing.

The shattered tower. He read about it somewhere...

Lore roll : 53 + 40 = 93 : Failure.

But he didn't know where.

-[X] Anchor hunting.
--[X] Order
10 + 85 = 95 : Failure

The expedition ran smoothly, and he met nothing strange when he arrived at the ruins in a remote part of the Orkney islands. However, he wasn't the first to have arrived here, as there was an empty space where the Order Anchor should have been.

---

May 20th​ 1982


-[X] Spend time with Social Links.(+2 RP)
--[X] Aife (+3 RP)

Dace hit the books, however, he was confronted with a rather annoying fact that the Terrorist probably counted on. Namely, that he wasn't an expert when it came to magical matters, and Aife wouldn't be of any help here, busy as she was mourning the child she aborted on a murderous impulse.

Dace didn't feel one way or another on that topic, but it did explain the remarkable lack of her trying to commit parricide those last months.

Utility magic roll : 40 + 25 = 65. Failure.
??? : (88+21) + 100 = 209 : Tier ??? Success
??? : (89+81) + 135 = 216 : Tier ??? Success

His trying to lift the curse inflicted on her was a complete failure, but it seemed that rumours went quickly through the muggleborn network as a self proclaimed curse expert, one Monique Bridge, waltzed in with glowing recommendations from several people including the head of his Academy and from the Gringotts Curse-breaking department. She didn't look like much, wearing the latest trendy clothes and her voluminous blond hair pulled in two blond pigtails on each side of her head, held by black and white bear ties.

What was more concerning was that she wanted nothing from him in exchange for the service, merely a favor from his daughter. After ensuring said favor wouldn't be used to commit an act going against her morality -the woman had implied that there was a high likelihood of it being illegal- or against him, he also made her take an unbreakable vow that her intervention wouldn't cause irreparable damage or death to her patient. Then, to his great irritation, she swept into Aife's room and shut the door on his nose.

Five minutes later, the woman pranced out of the room, hesitantly followed by his blood covered daughter with the curse on her thigh completely healed. Aife tried to inch away from the older woman but she held her firmly in place.

"As you can see, she is completely fine. Feel free to have your heartwarming family reunion, I'll be going now~" She had a rather off-putting giggle and expression as her blue eyes watched a card holding a black mark that had the same shape and feel as his daughter's curse.

If he was hesitant before, now he was downright worried about the woman's mental state.

Still, the woman had proven herself competent.

Would Dace take her as an advisor?
[] Yes (Monique qualifies as a Diplomacy, Stewardship, Martial, or Mystisicm advisor)
-[] Where do you assign her?
[] No

---

Blah blah vote close in 24h.