Phoenix

[Corwin]

With a nod, Seira lets go of her divine power and focuses everything she has on breaking this stupid puzzle! And everything means boosting her skills with magic!

19:59 <Corwin> roll 1d20+23+2+6+1+19 improvisation
19:59 <Rei-chan> Corwin rolled : 1d20+23+2+6+1+19 improvisation --> [ 1d20=15 ]{66}

[Anastasia]

Movement.

Focus.

Quick Seira throws all she has at it, full attention and power on this puzzle. Space moves about, directions shift and move against you. It's like trying to solve a dozen puzzles at once, each one connected but on different spaces and angles than the others. It's a challenge that would make lesser minds break, you can tell. To try and grasp all of this for most mortal minds would be impossible, yet you are equipped for it.

You move it, push it, manipulate the puzzle's parts. The small outside and the vast inside, moved by your hands and our will. With a final, satisfying CLICK you undo it and the puzzle box falls into six separate pieces, uneven and jagged, landing on the ground undamaged.

Around you reality returns to normal. With a soft cry Bwimb splats before you, a twitching puddle of filth and ooze. She lets out a loud groan, twitching all over.

[Corwin]

Seira casts Heal on Bwimb, even as her magic picks up the pieces and forms seven separate boxes, one for each. "Any strong pain or lingering sense of detachment?" she asks their host as she does so, since polite greetings will have to wait until she's sure of her safety.

[Anastasia]

Sanzha relaxes, a deep breath out.

Elle claps, "Well done!"

Kascha hurries over as well, "Does it hurt anywhere?" she asks Bwimb.

As you endure the smell from her as best you can, at least unable to get noisily ill, "My everything's still a little dizzy," she says, "But I'm okay now!"

[Corwin]

Sanzha's magic and divine will are there to make it reasonably clean and pleasant, although Seira is honestly not that bothered. And if it gets too much, her avatar just needs to soak in a bath with rose petals to restore her overall sense of smell.

"Glad to hear it! And nice to meet you!"

[Anastasia]

"Oh, and you're Seira!" Bwimb slowly forms into an oozy version of a young woman, "And Kascha too! Oh, are you here to visit?"

"Ah, partially," Kascha admits with a little smile, "That we saved you was a happy coincidence."

[Corwin]

"And with us are our friends Elle and Sanzha," Seira finishes the introductions. Well, and the trash is also here, but what should she do with them? Make them sweat a bit as they are ignored for now, probably. "It is indeed a visit. I'm touring the para and quasi elemental planes, and I decided to start from here!"

[Anastasia]

Those two are creeping well back and away - until a wall of ooze blocks them off, then a wall of ooze in front of them puts them out of sight. Meanwhile Bwimb jiggles before, "You came to the best one first!"

I have no doubt she believes every word of that, too.

"We came here first," Kascha smiles warmly, offering Bwimb a hand up, but she just oozes upward to stand.

"I have so few visitors, no one wants to come here," Bwimb goes on, "Ever!"

[Corwin]

"That's something I might be able to change to a point," Seira muses. "After all, everyone has their preferences, but there are several incentives that could come into play. And who better to implement them then the ruler, wouldn't you agree?"

[Anastasia]

A wiggling wobble at that before, "Oh! You have idea?! Tell me!"

[Corwin]

It's not terribly secret, but Seira does makes sure this stays private and the interlopers won't hear more of their conversation.

"There are several approaches, and they can even be attempted alongside one another," she tells Bwimb. "First is to adopt the core of customer service from developed nations. The customer is treated as nobility, and catered to. You study your would-be visitors, see what they wish to gain out of their visit, and also take a look at what they most dislike, then work on those matters. For example, if my visitors found my realm too hot, I could either establish areas of temperate climate for them, provide them with limited immunity from the sensation of heat or change the concept altogether by framing it as a trial of endurance and faith. Kossuth is big on that, by the way."

She well remembers burning to the bone with her friends while jumping into lava. Good times, probably.

"Then, there's the wonderland approach. When I've made the Cauldron my own, it was just a lost, floating demi-plane in Astral. And before I even built my temple or any of the defenses, I established my palace. I built it of candy and impossible architecture, and I dare say it's been a longterm draw to my realm ever since. I didn't even go out of my way to do it, I genuinely like the style and concept. So you could do the same, but shuffle it around. Make blocks of ooze that stick together, are stretchy and colorful, protect people from being burnt if they hold them to play with... perhaps allow them to reshape your building to a degree, and see if you like the changes?"

The straightforward method is next, and Seira nobly ignores her baser instincts when she speaks of it. "There's the approach Salt takes, too. Salt is inhospitable and ruled by a weirdo shut-in that murders everyone in terrible ways, but people still come there a lot! That's because a certain kind of people comes there, those who wish to bet their lives on getting the riches of Salt. As the queen of all ooze, make oozes that are priceless on Primes! Or even combine it with a previous idea, and a rare kind of colored ooze could literally provide some sort of prize to the finder. Maybe even have it like a puzzle, where several must be combined first for that. In fact, why not take this one step further? Sanitation is often terrible in cities on Primes, but provide short-lived slimes and oozes that can deal with that and you'll have a neverending influx of visitors built around that industry!"

[Anastasia]

Bwimb listens to it all, "Oh. That's a lot of ideas. You're really smart, just like Kascha!" A little wiggle from her as she mulls it all over.

On the other hand, none of that solves the problem that it's fucking Ooze.

[Corwin]

It doesn't have to. And no one said Ooze had to smell bad. That's the number one complaint, isn't it? Just as no one said Fire had to be Evil. I'm changing the latter, Bwimb could change the former and start from there.

"Sometimes things change from the concept stage to the implementation, so we'll be around to help if you're interested in developing these further, alright?" Seira offers. "Ah, but maybe we should first decide what to do with the attempt on your life?"

[Anastasia]

"Oh. Oh, we should," Bwimb agrees, wiggling back and forth, "Those are the two who gave me the puzzle box." She slumps, "I thought you really wanted to visit..."

[Corwin]

"Did anyone visit before them? Or contact you in any way?"