A return home

[Ebiris]

"Something other than chess though," Alicia says, going to sit with Sharess. "How about a card game?" she looks over at various freshly naked members of the party, "Not strip poker though."

[Corwin]

Good to go~

[Anastasia]

"Too late," Sharess laughs, a deck of cards in hand. "Mercane Bidding sound good to you?"

Meanwhile Antenora frowns, a quick chess match not going her way at all.

"Marie, I think I'm winning. Call a point for team chaos when I do," Syala gives Marie a pleasant smile at that.

[Ebiris]

"She can't handle your unorthodox strategies!" Marie raises her bottle over to Syala with a cheer.

"Well, this is a one-piece..." Alicia looks down at her dress. "But alright, deal me in."

[Anastasia]

As Antenora blushes and slows her play, concentrating?

Sharess just smiles and deals, "A wager then. I win, off your dress goes. You win, you dress me up however you like. Though," She adds in a side bar, "I prefer wearing clothes usually, so I win either way. Isn't that the best sort of bet?"

[Ebiris]

"It is just for fun," Alicia says agreeably. "So yes, I'm fine with that. Marie has this lovely secretarial ensemble she likes to wear when doing my scheduling, I think it would look good on you. Very modest and proper."

[Anastasia]

Int check, Alicia, unless you have a skill related to gaming. If you do, you can use that instead.

"I win," Syala declares as your hand is dealt, Antenora hanging her head a moment. "Woe. Woe is the lawful order," she deadpans.

"Just don't let your faithful hear you say that," Sharess calls, "We have to keep them focused on what's important. This? We need this, but they don't need to see us celebrate, be less than the ideal they serve."

[Ebiris]

I have bluff and sense motive, but lets not get too mechanistic with this.

[22:10] <@Ebiris> roll 1d20+9 int check
[22:10] <+Penuche> Ebiris invokes Penuche's magic: < 13 > [d20=4]

"Point for team Chaos!" Marie carols enthusiastically.

[Anastasia]

Which is why a simple roll suffices, yes.

> roll 1d20+13
<Penuche> Kotono invokes Penuche's magic: < 22 > [d20=9]

Eeep. Between your hand and Sharess's opening plays, you're not long for your dress.

Antenora laughs a bit despite it, "That is true. This...I can let my hair down with all of you, but to everyone else I have to be an icon. Eternally clad in gold and opal, ever ready to strike down any evil I see. I love it, but it's hard to be anything but that. It was hard dealing with Aurora at times, because I had to be who everyone knew I was."

"We become more of what we are," Syala says, "It's like becoming One. What we are is what we are. Mortals aren't so bound - I think that's why the Incarnations have them. As great as we are, as transcendent as we can be, we are not as unbound as mortals."

"Mmm-hmm." Sharess says, murmuring, "It's hard for me to pass up a good backrub, a pleasant meal or a nap in the sun. It's because I'm those things, kittens," Sharess says, as she pairs off your 10, clearing more cards in her hand. Yeah, you're pretty much up a creek this game.

[Ebiris]

Alicia throws down her hand with disgust. "Your game, Cat-Mother," she concedes, standing up. "I somehow always ended up missing things with Aurora myself, but I know what you mean. I have a different 'voice' I use for when I'm Alicia the goddess." Her dress is peeled down and tossed away onto the sands, her tanned and athletic body bare to the world.

[Anastasia]

"That was a horrible hand," Sharess purrs away as you feel the sun over your body. "I'll have to ask Tymora to be kinder to you."

"She is right," Mystra is simply there, as if she moved when you weren't looking. She sits on the sand uncaringly, sipping from her bottle of wine. "Thus the crux of our dilemma. Were there no mortals, we would all be as Grumbar or the Water Lord. Yet there are mortals and all mortals are, and we are the well spring and shepherds. They come from us and at the same time, we must be more to them while also being ourselves."

"Unless you're me, then showing up naked to your faithful's a typical evening," Sharess giggles, "It can be hard, kittens. We have few barriers amid ourselves because we are often the only ones we can confide in. I've even had peaceful parley with horrid things from Below, all because we understand each other in ways that no others can. As much as we oppose each other, we also have a strand of understanding. How contradictory. How...mortal."

Antenora has a sip of her own drink and chimes in with, "I can't imagine having a friendly conversation with a fiend lord unless they want something."

"Often true," Mystra says, "But for instance, the Red Knight and Asmodeus meet whenever a devil chooses to venerate the Red Knight. They play a game of chess where the winner claims the devil's soul. I had reason to attend one such game, it was surprisingly cordial."

"Yes, but Asmodeus can be cultured and civilized. So can something like Malcanthet. Some can never be." Sharess says, "The ones that get the teeth and claws."

[Ebiris]

"We did have to host Baalzebub as our first official guest in Sylica," Alicia recalls, sighing. "That was a fraught meeting, even if he was as cordial as could be hoped. One good thing about this," she looks around, uncaring of her nudity, "Is that it makes Sylica that much more ours and moves it further from being his Furnace."

Marie wanders over to where all the good gossip is happening herself. "Didn't you get along well with Glasya as well?" she asks Alicia. "I mean you stabbed each other a lot but I heard from Latha that the banter was pretty playful."

"Mmm, I was trying to walk a line," Alicia admits. "I didn't want to provoke her into committing more fully beyond just an avatar to help out Lixer, and I was already struggling just to handle that. The idea was to keep her focused at a certain level. It made it feel more like a spar than a deadly fight at times, but that was mostly bluffing on my part."

[Anastasia]

"Fake it until you make it," Sharess purrs, "Your motto?"

Mystra's gaze is less than kind, Sharess smiling as she sits back, every inch a regal queen as she says, "You can smile at jokes instead of sticking up for Alicia. She's more than capable of sticking for herself. Mrr, I like it when she does. She's fiery. It's a shame she wasn't born with red hair to back that up."

"What Sharess is saying is that we took a demiplane and have made it our own divinity," Syala says, "We did exactly that and more blessed are we for it."

Antenora beckons Marie over before adding, "You can't stay mad at a cat, anyway. Even a naughty stray who's strutting around in another cat's territory." She smiles when she says it, all languid amusement. "You simply have to...tolerate it and enjoy it."

[Ebiris]

"I'm not pale enough for red hair to work on my complexion anyway," Alicia says lightly. "But as Syala says, we have 'made it'. Lixer's lost avatar is proof enough for me."

"You just have to watch out for those claws, don't you?" Marie says as she walks over to lean against the side of Antenora's chair over her shoulder.

[Anastasia]

'Unless Alicia likes the claws,' Antenora chuckles in Marie's mind, amused as she leans back to look up at Marie.

"Your complexion is all wrong for it," Mystra agrees, "A lost avatar is more than enough proof. Now," A pause here, "Antenora faces the same struggle. As I have confidence in Alicia, I have confidence in Antenora."

Syala idly glances over, the meet being sliced and prepared. No comment, but you see her lick her lips.

"Mrr," Sharess makes a rather feline noise, "Still though, you figured out a long standing mystery as to how Eblis did what he did. That alone is remarkable. The method still seems damn suicidal, but remarkable nonetheless."

"The problem remains: Such a risky method, and anything with Beyond is laden with risk, still suffers the same problem as Ao's approval. It may go wrong no matter what you do, and the losses you can suffer from it are devastating." Mystra says, "I have no doubts that a failure to become One would be catastrophic."