I'm going throw you a minor scene or two to warm back up post vacation but pre Jaela finishing her stuff. I'm not sure on her ETA, so in case she runs long, I'd like to get warm after the break. These are also upkeepy things I keep meaning to do but tend to forget in the every day rush.
You're not long into some golem studies when Elena pops into your room. "Hi, great news," Elena says, "Some crusaders have arrived and they want to join up."
"Oh, are they out front? What do we know about them?" Afina asks, putting her quill down on the blueprints she'd been sketching out.
"It's a group of mixed celestials and mortals," Elena explains, "Along with pack and battle animals. They call themselves the Upraised Banner."
Taking 10 for 49 on planes in case that's helpful for recognising them
The Upraised Banners are a recurring group based around Tailiel, a well trained astral deva sentinel. They form around him, smite evil until they take too many losses and break up, only to reform a few centuries later.
It's something of a cycle, since Tailiel has a knack at biting off more than he can chew. Always for a good cause, but he also has a knack of surviving, even if his forces are decimated.
You also recall that you heard of him in passing not long ago - he's been assembling a new force, doing the rounds and preparing for another crusade.
He sounds like a bad luck charm to Afina... "I'll go down and see them, then," she says. They can't afford to really just turn away help either, though.
It's a group, alright. There's a core of a few dozen celestials and mortal heroes, flanked by lesser soldiers and helpers. Behind them are pack animals, battle trained animals, mounts, camp followers and so forth. They carry white pennant banners that flow despite there being no wind to blow them.
One approaches you. A tall angel, over seven feet tall and with caramel-colored skin. He wears weathered plate armor and carries a mace on his side, along with a short sword on his other side. "General Afina," he offers you his hand, a warm smile on his face, "Tailiel of the Upraised Banners. I've heard about Aurora's work. All of you generals sound exceptional and more than worth helping."
Afina flutters up and fits her tiny delicate little pixie hand into his big gruff angel one. "We're always looking for more valiant allies. I'd heard you were gathering forces to your banner recently, what made you decide to approach us?"
Tailiel's skin is smooth, soft and unmarred, despite his appearance. He shakes it with a gentleness that belies the strength you feel in his grasp. "Many things. The most recent and decisive is Benfal. What could it be but Benfal?"
"A great triumph, bit one that reinforces how we need that much more support to actually retake Lifasa," Afina agrees. "Come inside, let us welcome your allies and we'll see how we can support one another."
As you walk inside, "Right now I have approximately 60 combat worthy troops and half again that in support. Logistics officers, cooks, animal handlers and so forth," Tailiel explains as you go into Aurora's entry hall. He looks around quickly and then returns right back to the conversation. People are coming and going here - you spy Tepen carrying an armful of books from a portal to another. Gold in half elf form is walking from a portal to the courtyard, while you also spy Lady Skye amid a gaggle of pixies going about towards the portal to the cafeteria.
"I don't know your logistical and support needs, but I'm sure those followers can be just as helpful as the warriors I bring. I imagine having your own mobile fortress eases logistics immeasurably. Also, I have a few detachments that will catch up, as well as some wounded. That would bring the troop count to over one hundred."
Afina nods to all that. "You've come at a good time," she says. "We're in the cooldown phase after the battle for Benfal, and don't have anything immediately planned. That'll give time for us to integrate your forces with our own, take part in some training exercises to get up to speed before being tested in actual combat."
Quick question, where are you leading him?
I figure we're mostly just hanging out in the courtyard, though I can do the tour/orientation thing and show off the highlights of Aurora.
Whatever works.
The two you slow and linger a bit as your conversations meanders on.
A few nods follow. "Then there's no problems," he asks, "If there aren't, I can begin getting things moving immediately."
"Given your previous experience in leadership I think we'll incorporate you as a major within our rank structure, and there are opportunities for advancement for you and the soldiers you've brought," Afina says. "Get your forces in and settled, we'll do the oathswearing ceremony later and tomorrow we can start on training exercises to properly integrate everyone." If Tailiel's habit of getting everyone under him killed is more than just bad luck, Sylvie should be able to spot it when oaths are sworn.
"Excellent," Tailiel smiles and...
You mentioned trying to figure out if there's anything to his losses?
I can ask Gisfal since he's probably more up on this stuff, but if he's some diabolical schemer who gets up and coming heroes killed in hopeless battles it should ping for Sylvie when he recites the oath of loyalty, like when we rooted out those infiltrators way back.
Gisfal's found overseeing the soldiers. He directs them and walks several paces away with you, "Yes?" he asks.
All around are the sounds of practice. Hundreds of soldiers drill, train and sweat. Metal on wood, metal on metal, wood on wood, arrows on cloth, all those sounds make a constant background din.
"Had some new recruits turn up," Afina says, fluttering alongside Gisfal. "An astral deva called Tailiel and his group, the Upraised Banner. Heard of them?"
"I have," Gisfal says, "The cursed deva himself." He glances at his troops once before leading you a ways away, "I've never met him personally, but I've heard the stories. He's build vast crusades, large ones and small ones. They all end the same way - in disaster, yet he re-emerges in time to begin anew. There are rumors, but I've never heard anything substantiated about him."
"I'd only heard a little myself," Afina agrees as they split off to talk more privately. "We can't turn down freely offered help, but I have concerns. I'm hoping if there's more going on than just bad luck Sylvie should be able to tell us when he takes the oath."
"Assuming it's known to him," Gisfal says, "Why not have Sylvie spend time talking to him and show him around instead? I dislike leaving a possible source of ruin to chance."
"I suppose that could work, too. Elena? Can you work Sylvie towards wherever Tailiel is now, get her to talk to him about his past crusades and plans for this one?" Afina asks of the ever handy blue girl.
Elena appears, clad in your jellyfish outfit. "On it," she says, then vanishes away.
Gisfal gives her a long look and then turns back to you. "Let me know how it goes. An answer to this mystery may need to be spread, should it be against his favor."
"Unless Sylvie comes running to report something terrible I'll go find her in a few hours and get her impressions," Afina nods. "If it's just bad luck, maybe we can be the ones to turn it around for him."
Gisfal nods slightly to that, pausing to rub his chin, "I'd like to know as well, so let me know. I'm worried it could be an actual curse or other problem, but I would think one would be known by now."
As you chat, Elena pops back in, "She's on it," she reports, "I'll let you know if she trips any red flags, we worked a system out."
"I'll call for you when Sylvie's ready to make her report so we can both hear it," Afina agrees, turning towards Elena. "Thank you, Elena. We'll just have to wait a little while and see."
> roll 1d20+77
<Kobot> Kotono rolled 1d20+77 --> [ 1d20=9 ]{86}
> roll 1d20+94
<Kobot> Kotono rolled 1d20+94 --> [ 1d20=10 ]{104}
It's a few hours later when the three of you meet. Just a quiet meeting in Aurora, Sylvie sitting back comfortably as Gisfal waits, drumming his fingers on the table.
"The good news is that Tailiel's sincere," Sylvie says, "There's no sign that he's a sleeper agent or trying to ruin us. If he is, he's completely unaware of it and it's a stealthy power."
"So that leaves the possibilities that he's either cursed or spectacularly unlucky in a leadership role while still being lucky when it comes to personal survival," Afina muses. "I assigned him in as a major rather than a colonel for that reason, by the way," she says as an aside to Gisfal. "I don't feel like a command position is suitable either way."
"Agreed," Gisfal nods slightly to you, "I'm not fully comfortable with him as a major, but anything less would be a slight."
"As far as a curse, maybe," Sylvie says, "There's something there. Nothing I can find myself, but something I feel with 21. I...can't really put it into words," Sylvie admits, "Perhaps he crossed Beshaba? It could be the work of a deity, beyond us to understand or counter easily."
"That wouldn't be the first time I've heard her name bantered with him, since she seems to favor him with her own brand of misery," Gisfal says, "How rarely is someone so dogged by Beshaba's black luck and yet still survives to fight again?
"As far as we know nothing short of the Three can elude 21, so at least we can rule out active malfeasance on his part. No deception, no sins visible?" she confirms with Sylvie, a bit concerned by her strange feeling.
"Another angle might be looking into his past crusades, see if there's any sort of link between them that might point to who's cursed him or why? Honestly," she makes a pouty face, "If I had his track record I'd retire to a life of contemplation and seclusion or whatever it is celestials do when seeking enlightenment. Try and get to Chronias or something like that."
"Everyone has sins," Sylvie counters, "His are minor and suitable for a celestial. Otherwise you're right, no deception there."
Gisfal smiles just a little bit, "He's not suited to Chronias, regardless. Celestials who retire from crusading rarely retire forever, and often go to other duties or simply living in their Heaven. Some seek only that, others are the type to never retire.
"I think we've done what we can for this juncture. I've given his forces a day to get acclimatised and tomorrow we'll start on training and integrating them with our existing ranks. I'll help you out with that, Gisfal," she says to the eladrin before nodding to Sylvie, "Thanks for helping with feeling him out today, Sylvie. I appreciate it."
So just going to admit him in now, barring any unusual happenings?
Yep.
The first of them are in the Aurora thread now, more will be added later. More coming.
Do me a favor and make an Intelligence check.
[19:42] <@Ebiris> roll 1d20+11 int
[19:43] <Rei-chan> Ebiris rolled : 1d20+11 int --> [ 1d20=4 ]{15}
A little time passes until a pixie comes up to you and interrupts you as you head to the forges. "Baroness Afina," he greets, kneeling before you, "Her Majesty wishes your presence at her luncheon. Please do not worry about dressing up for this, it is not a formal affair."
"Thank you. What time will her Majesty be taking her luncheon?" Afina asks since she's not so privy to Ilsenine's schedule these days and the shifting day/night cycles of the planes coupled with her own lack of regular sleep means she doesn't have the best track of these things.
"In twenty minutes, Baroness," the pixie replies.
Well it's a good thing she's not expected to dress up! "Thank you," she repeats, "I'll be there." That gives her time to go back to her room and drop off the blueprints for those golems before she can take her time in visiting Ilsenine's suite.
Ilsenine awaits alone, a meal laid out by servants as you approach. Fruits, honey, berries and milk.
"Afina," Ilsenine greets you, "Please be seated." Once the servants are gone, "I need advice." She looks serene and composed enough, yet you notice her idly moving about a few berries with her fork.
Afina sits herself down and gets some honey-glazed apple, pausing with it on the approach to her mouth as Ilsenine asks for her advice. "On what subject, your Majesty?" she asks, wondering what on earth Ilsenine could ever need her advice over.
"A delicate matter I need your opinion on in two ways. I need it as a Baroness of this court and I need it as a woman," Ilsenine says. She slowly eats and lets silence fall. "I am beginning to debate where this courtship with Moore should ultimately proceed to. I know that you are not wholly comfortable with this, but...I trust you, Afina."
Whyyyyyy?
"I think Crystal would be a better source of advice than I, your Majesty," she says, keeping her expression placid as she puts her apple slice back on its plate uneaten. "Of course I recall the many times I followed my Queen's wise advice when it came to my own courtships in the past." Said advice unanimously boiling down to 'kill this traitor' more elegantly stated, which she executed each time.
Ilsenine frowns slightly, "I know." There's a pause after this, "I understand you, Afina. I know you. I...." She looks down for a short time and then looks up, face compose. "Your points are well made."
It takes out all the satisfaction when Ilsenine just meekly accepts it, for all that Afina's had this bottled up for many mortal lifetimes. "You do understand me, my Queen. Better than any, for you moulded me into what I am," she explains. "Only since Lifasa's fall have I been exposed to other influences, and you haven't been as severe since your liberation from Hell. I've changed in that time, but still there's a lop-sided history between us that encompasses almost my entire life."
Now she does pick up that tempting piece of apple, popping it into her mouth and chewing it up before swallowing. "If you must have them, my opinion as a Baroness is that it doesn't matter. Moore is powerful and possesses high equivalent rank in Celestia that there's no scandal in the courtship. As a woman, I don't quite perceive the same qualities that you see in him. He's too eager to seek direction and guidance from others rather than following his own impulses. Too quick to offer compromise instead of standing firm. But if those qualities appeal to you, I can't see any objection standing in the path of the two of you."
Ilsenine's silent throughout it, fiddling with the same few berries. "I know..." she murmurs, "Sometimes I feel as if I'm a different person every day, with everything that has happened and all the changes I've gone through."
More silence after that, Ilsenine finally eating one of the berries. "Perhaps our ancient heritage can't be suppressed now that we know and change is inevitable."
"We're a privileged few to know what we know, though our Queen doesn't seem to think it should change how we behave," Afina says as they're drawn back to that subject, pausing to take a sip of her milk and then eat a berry. "It's given me a great comfort in terms of having left the cycle behind, but that decision was long since made regardless."
"Perhaps..." The words die in Ilsenine's mouth. "Change is not easy, is it not?" she finally says.
"I'm not so sure," Afina says, taking a sip of her milk. "The eladrin, chaos on the planar scale, that's emblematic of change isn't it?" she asks. "It should be in our nature. For all that the circumstances have been awful, I feel like I've adapted and even thrived in facing the challenges since Lifasa fell. Having to survive and make decisions on my own, figuring out how to lead, dealing with non-fey and making friends of them, learning how to make artifacts and magical wonders, even becoming a creature of fire and then the other elements beyond. Easy might not be the right word, but natural could be."
Ilsenine's quiet about that, thinking. She's silent a time, until you're tempted to speak up. It's only then that she speaks up, a vague look of discontent stewing on her face.
"I fear too much of my change was poisoned by the devils and the reason why I struggle. I know I cannot be the same queen I was before. I tire of death, Afina."
Another pause, stretching out a good ways.
"I suppose I fumble for an end. Do I want you as my servant or as my friend? Do I wish to take things further with Moore? Do I wish to do more to aid Aurora or focus on the court? I fumble for decisiveness in my heart."
"You never had difficulty being decisive in the past, your Majesty," Afina observes. "You say you cannot be as you were, but do you really want to subordinate yourself to another?"
"You're right," Queen Ilsenine murmurs. "Perhaps...it's been one revelation after another, and now a relationship. Perhaps I am uncertain because I have not had time to adapt to it all. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps."
Queen Ilsenine meets your eyes at that, and then smiles ever so slightly. "I think there's something to that. A chance to refresh myself, away from all of this, even Moore. That may be what I need, for when one loses their way, a chance to refocus is key."
"You're going to take a trip somewhere?" Afina asks. "To the Sylvan Realms, or Arborea? Or elsewhere?"
"I took a trip to the Sylvan Realms before, but now...perhaps it is time to see the other side of the coin," Ilsenine says. "The Court of Stars." She smiles slightly, "I trust Her Majesty, no matter what name she uses, will guide me to what I need."
"I've enjoyed my previous visits," Afina agrees. "Even when I thought they were degenerate and deluded offshoots of the fey, it was charming and the people fine company."
"I would invite you, if I knew you were not otherwise spoken for," Ilsenine admits, "Yes, I think I will leave soon."
"It's perhaps better that you're free of distractions or ties to your past in this case anyway, your Majesty," Afina volunteers.
"Yes, I think you're right," Ilsenine says, "Thank you, Afina, you were helpful."
That's a dismissal if ever she heard one, so Afina gets up. "I live to serve, your Majesty," she answers, seeing herself out.
You find 27 waiting by the portal out of court. The badger-slaad looks up at you with big, watery eyes.
"I'm scared," he says aloud. "Something bad's coming."
"That's worrying," Afina says, though inwardly she despairs a bit given it wasn't so long ago that 27 was there to pour doom over her planned Lifasa assault. That never actually happened but she still hopes to get something in the works once Jaela's back. "Do you know how bad and when it'll get here?"
Though if it's coming then that excludes Tailiel who's already here! Unless he's the harbinger of worse... she has a feeling she's going to be second guessing that recruitment for a long time.
"It's coming back with Moore and Adrian," 27 says mournfully, "Will you protect me, Afina?"
"They haven't recruited an Inevitable, have they?" she asks, frowning a little. "Yes I'll protect you, 27. I've stood up for Annalise and Baleruk, of course I won't do less for you."
"Thank you," 27 says quietly, "I miss Ithea," he murmurs. "I'm afraid of what Gathgorian might become if he defeats Aurora and continues his plan. You have to kill him."
"I miss Ithea too," Afina says glumly. "Gathgorian I'll handle."
27 comes up to you and sits right before you. "Handle him. If he finds his answer, chaos may never recover."
"I'll do my best, don't worry," Afina reassures 27. And yes, she supposes she should be invested in the greater whole of Chaos given her recently discovered eladrin heritage.
27 looks up to you and nods slightly, "Please. Jaela has slain the worm hive mind and triumphed. Ithea is asleep. Tryll has found the book he sought, but it is not over yet. Moore is being blinded by the light because he was able to see what was hidden. Surraruthru strives for the tree, but the road is not clear."
"I hope Ithea wakes up soon."
27 nods and goes on, "A shadow might have passed by Aurora, but it wasn't part of this story. Be careful if you return to the Deep Ethereal. Crystal has an ordeal coming, but one she has to face on her terms. Seven more rings are needed. I want to see the new dawn on Lifasa."
"You really have gotten a lot more free with these nuggets recently, haven't you?" Afina observes, looking at 27. "Well, hopefully we'll get another of those rings soon. What more can you say about Crystal's ordeal?"
"That it is her struggle," 27 says, "She is to be tempered again."
"Speaking of tempering, I should get to the lab and finish up on those golems. Come find me if you have anything else to share or if that threat shows up, won't you?" she asks before flying off.
Okay, pausing you. Jaela's about done with her end of things.