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"I wouldn't be surprised if Cain did, I did bring Hyte along with me. Odds are he knew the minute I set foot in Galam knowing him. I was probably a valuable bargaining chip for Eshir at the very least. He could've leveraged a fair bit out of Kathos and Nikepheros in exchange for me.

I have to ask though, Nikepheros' death? Seems.. odd. I know I held no love of the man after what he did, but it's just strange to find him dead, no warning, no obvious suspects, besides me, and I didn't have the money to hire assassins to go after him, and generally just a mysterious death..."

"Could have, didn't. Probably hoped to make a contract out of a civil war...one you're trying to start. Ever think you're maye being played?" She fidgets a little with her sword, "Yes, Nike's death is obviously suspicious. We all have our suspicions...knowing Kathos, if he did kill Nikephoros I'm sure there was a reason. Kathos is a man of principles at the very least"

Keep some people in mileth to watch for the runner and report back if the plague reaches Mileth

The runner doesn't return by the end of the season.

Why yes, the volunteer was most... useful. Although I won't have any more need of him. Besides, my experiment is advancing swiftly, and to test my hypotesis the experiment must be repeated, this time in a grander scale.

While things like Gods and demons may or may not exit, you must concede to the fact that magic does, and as such it would be wise to take several precautions against any potential threats that may lie beyond.
As such, I've taken up to constructing an arcane resonance detector. It will allow for detection of any hostile use of magic, but it works only with living targets who manipulate magic. Sufficient to say, testing and proper installations are required. That is why I hoped to ask for permission to construct my apparature in the city and for some servants to carry out the work with me....

Gavin was wondering how much did Cain actually knew. Was he merly putting on appearance of one ignorat to the superrnatural powers or was he truly so blind to everything that was not material?

[55,?] "If it eases your conscience that man slit the throats of children in the homes he robbed, leaving the parents to grieve. I'm not concerned for the loss given he served a purpose. While I will admit I'm not an expert on mages, I don't doubt you could find a way to sniff out your fellows. I also can't deny it would be an interesting little piece of fun..." He thinks it over a bit, "Build it in your lab...but I don't want it first activated in the city. I may not be an expert, but even I know that tendancies to burst into large balls of fire follow mages..."

"Mainly Eshir. Also spent some time in Shola, though that wasn't a long visit. Speaking of which, I'm surprised that Kathos didn't send an envoy to Shola after I left. Would've thought that they'd do that fairly soon."

"Galam?? Long way to flee. I'm actually surprised he gave you Harbor...though it's not as if he had much to fear I suppose. Cain would have been able to find you, surely. Though to what effect? Sure, your death would mean a great deal to Kathos' position...but you're not exactly a lot to fear."

Eurika sat there, looking shell-shocked for a moment, then slowly rose and stumbled towards the men.

"I ... I saw ... It was like a ball of light, and it flew towards me in a way, and it then burst into rays... light... "
She rubbed her eyes and took a shuddering breath.
"It reminded me of that treacherous Aurelius of Polca, whom Laythe has met. Perhaps he's around here, maybe he's trying to take revenge. He was in Shola, did he follow here? I think I will have to tell Laythe. .. But all I did was dump water... and a bucket on him..."
Eurika slowly bled confidence into her words, but tapered off at the end.

Slowly make my way towards the main camp, maybe towards Laythe. Drag scrap with me.

[2,6/3] The men alone are leary of your words and recount of the event. They bid you return to Laythe and Alaria with them.

Send envoys to Ligoria and Moun (the one going to Moun will be carful to avoid any chance of catching the plague), and search Mileth and Nalia for mercaneary work

Mileth and Nalia are farming lands, they have little need of military work. You recieve no word from Moun from your runner. It's a long way, he may just be delayed or simply slow.

I'll leave any reply from Ligoria to shoot.

Return to a secluded place and drawing power from a single piece of scrap and attempt to make a tiny ball of light.

If that doesn't work, try it again with a larger piece of scrap. If it still doesn't work, place the bag into a pack and store until I can find a smelting place.

[664] You successfully draw from the scraps you use, underestimating the power you can pull from them. While not normally an issue for such a small piece of material, the benign nature of the spell becomes overcharged. You create a ball of light without effort, your ability to control the size and luminosity is lacking. The spell causes no damage, and you're able to end it successfully, but any hope no one noticed your little experiment is gone.

"He only needs one thing to screw up and you're picking up the pieces already. And I can't say that you did stand against me at any rate if I do win, and if that's not enough to comfort you, I could offer amnesty as well if you'd prefer."

"I find your words and promises shallower than your actions. Though cleaning up after William would certainly start to tax my sanity, I would attempt long before that of pointing out his liability to Kathos. If he were unable to see the cost of doing business with that man, then he'd be a worse leader than you." She smiles a cold little smirk, "Though this is assuming he hasn't changed, something you claim to have done. If you can, why can't he...if he can't - why should I believe you have?"

You both notice a large burst of light coming from behind your men.

"What in the name of the Light was THAT?!"

Send envoys to nearby kingdoms (as far as the envoys can comfortably go) to find out what has been going on in the storm coast recently and make the kingdoms aware that my troops are available for mercaneary service

Your men get the messeges to Mileth and Nalia, the two nearest nations to your encampment. They bring back a lot of basic news from the area as well as a rough idea of the situation in both areas.

They also inform you that rumors have been spreading along the Storm Coast for a number of weeks now of some sort of plague in the south. Rumors are the majority of it, as no one as sent anyone to check it out first hand, however the information gathered does indicate that Moun, the nation of Priests and Temples, has sent missionaries and relief workers south to assist. No word as to the situation of those workers has been reported outside of Moun.

Have the stoen finally cut and set on top of a staff. Aquire a map of the city from the library. Organise several tons of quartz sand. Ask for a meeting with Cain to discuss the final stage of my experiment.

[4] You have the stone cut to specification by one of the University scholars. You also manage to get a meeting with Cain, in person this time.

"So how did the volunteer work out for you? Do you require disposal assistance? Hope he was at least productive to your needs."

Find a secluded place and experiment on the (probably meager) power storage of the various rocks Eurika collected earlier.

There was probably no possibility that mundane stones would hold as much power as, say, a hunk of iron, but thoroughness was paramount.

[41] Draining various stones gives you a good estimate of their storage ability and your thoughts are confirmed - the more refined the material the better. Attempting this experiment cost you though, as there was some backlash of energy from a handful of attempts that the power you gathered had no where to go. You're not sure how it'll affect you, but you're sure you should practice some caution for the near future.

"Because it isn't betraying your country. And besides, how do you know that killing me and dragging my corpse will benefit you more anyhow, unless you were planning on becoming queen yourself, and that's assuming that popular opinion would massively support the person that actually took the traitor queen's head from her shoulders.

However, if I cannot garner your support, I'd like one thing: A guarantee that you'll not intervene in the events to come."

[26] "Well you are worth five ducats, and breathing isn't so much a requirement anymore. Besides, with you dead and should I be the bearer of your head...Well we are still missing a Lord in the Leadership..." She studies you for a few moments, "I have my work cut out here dealing with William's failures - another great choice you made - and won't be back to Talama soon. So should you succeed, I prefer exile to death. If you don't, well none of this really matters."

"What I would request is of very... specific nature and something that Lord Cain must know of. I'm in need of manpower. Slaves, criminals, undesirables. All the people that will not be missed or aren't of great worth to anyone. Experiment that I'm currently involved in requires... a lot of test subjects or so to speak. A few hundred people or so.

Now, while I understand that this sounds absurd and ridiculous, it would be silly of me not to tell Lord Cain about it and to try to obtain these...."candidates" myself. It involves no death magic or blood sacrifice, honest. I'm merely working on ... "technical applications and feasibility of high energy states drawn from bio-spiritual source and contained in  crystal lattices ".

Phew, that bit of technobabble might confuse the fellow and get me the meeting.

"So you need a few expendable souls. Very well, I'll convey your needs to My Lord."

A day later...
[31] "Your request has been granted due to the implications of your success. Know, however, that your request is only acceptable while results are produced and supplies are limited. So be careful not to break your tools..."

A young man is dropped off into your lab, gagged and blindfolded, tied to the chair he was carried in on. He looks a little worse for wear, but suitable to your research.

"Of course not. I'd knew you would take some convincing. So, what are yourdemands, your conditions that you require before you do aid me?"

She laughs a little "Demands?" She thinks for a moment, [2] "Why would I betray my country and help the Traitor Queen? It would likely benefit me more to simply kill you and drag you back to Talama myself. I'm in a generous mood though, how about I simply ignore you and we continue on our campaign. I control the vast majority of the military currently. You could likely make it inside the city alone and deal with Lord Kathos I guess."

Start establishing a town and search for the lands of any unaligned nobles nearby

[2/3] Your men don't find any usable land, not because there isn't any, but apparently they kept getting distracted and never really made it far from camp. Additionally, they didn't happen to find much in the way of other people in the area either. A few hermit farmers, but nothing large enough or social enough to warrant conversion to your efforts.

[3] You manage a decent base of operations, mostly just a large cleared area with camps set up for your men. It'll make a great foundation if you can manage to gather some peasantry to support your endeavors.

-Without releasing the name or identity of his spy, Terryn informs Lizzy of the current going-ons re: Dissidents being funded by an outside Lord. He requests that she not contact William, for fear of the courier being compromised while the trap is still being laid.

-If the Blacksmith can be found, he is to be arrested for vagrancy or some other small crime which might be punished with arrest.

[6] Lizzy agrees to keep mum for now. She will, however, let William know of your orders after the events conclude.

The blacksmith isn't hard to find. He was one of the largest in the city prior to the Drydock issues. Seems he made the vast majority of his income from supplying the dock with replacement parts for ships. Now he's reduced to horseshoes and other benign activities. [4/2] You could certainly trump up some charges against him, but given his position in town it might look suspicious. Your call...

Research for appropriate stone design, then thave it cut and polished to design. Request meeting with Cain.

[5] Material on hand and within the library at Shola contains various geological information regarding the shape of stones and their applications for abnormal usage. Given what you could glean and after a few trials you seem to find a few shapes that will retain a larger portion of energy for a longer period of time than a raw hunk would.

[3] Cain, being a busy man, sends an advisor to your lab to determine what you want and if it's applicable for a face to face meeting.

"My Lord has sent me to you. I hear you have some interesting activities and research projects. To what degree would they require My Lord's hand of involvement?"

Sorry peeps, MIA today - woman has me slaving away. Trying to get the house in order before the baby, only a month left.

Why should engineers plot?

Hey Tere - Tier 2 technicians: Engineers

"And to be honest, I'm not going to deny it either. I know I screwed up at Mileth, and a lot of people paid the price for it. For the most part, a lot of what happened at mileth is directly my fault, and I full well take responsibility for it."

"Well that's good to hear. So responsibility means coming back to Ligoria to be arrested? Honeslty, you didn't exactly leave in the most noble of fashions either - looting the treasury, stealing a ship, etc..."

Library appeared to contain useful information. Just what Gavin needed. It would be interesting to see if its possible to store spare energy somehere, like some sort of phylactery or a crystal. He had some cursory knowledge of the subject, but he hoped that the books he found would help him to solve his chronic problem of constant underpoered state. He could not always drain someone, and he could not utilize sources like leylines or earth for his magic like others.

Research on methods of storing souls in crystals from the books found. Make relevant notes and return to Shola.

[3?] Notes made will facilitate further research on the project intended (+1). You still feel you have a ways to go before you can finish successfully and with minimal risk of failure.

Also, while Laythe is talking with Alaria, Eurika wandered around, asking Laythe's soldiers/employees about Laythe. Maybe talking them into inadvertently revealing more info then they normally would say. Also, talk mostly to the rank-and-file. Maybe also ask about the Lord of Polca, whoever he is.

[43] The men seem to have no reason not to talk to you. Much of the information you gain from them isn't really a secret, or the secrets you gain you already knew at this point in travelling with her.

Lord of Polca? If you're referring to William, you learn his prior history with Ligoria. If you meant the Prior one, he's dead by William's hand.

-Terryn provides his spy with his remaining .4d. The spy is to use these funds to falsify heinous crimes for the various members of the "resistance" beginning with the leader (who will be accused of the /worst/ crime) and going down. Orphans and the Homeless may be victimized, if that is what it takes to complete the ruse. As soon as the evidence is planted, members of the Thornbred and Crimson Guard will be notified by an anonymous citizen and sent in to make an arrest.
-If possible, Terryn secretly takes .2d funds from the Polcan treasury to further aid in this endeavor.

-Now in charge of Polca in William's absence, Terryn has Lizzy take 2d from the Polcan treasury to purchase a warehouse or two and begin to convert it/them into an orphanage and schoolhouse. If she can get a better deal, and save some of that rather than spend it, she should.

[??] Your plan, strangly, succeeds for the large majority of your intent. You manage to get a good chunk of the mid-to-upper leadership structure. Your spy never did find out or meet with who the actual leader was, but given the blow they've just taken to their 'resistance' its unlikely they'll recover any time soon - if at all.

Warehouse bought, construction started. Will likely be finished end of Autumn - just in time for the orphans not to freeze to death on the streets this winter.

Dracius looked around, the area was ideal for settlement, but it was rather open, easy for a passing caravan or runner to see, it looked like they might have to establish diplomatic relations sooner than he thought they would have had to, but for now settlement was his top priority, he sent his men off to set up camp tomorrow they would settle the land, then later, he would have to talk to the nearby powers

Order men to settle the land and lookout for anyone who might notice the settlement and report to me when they do see someone (put all resouces necessary into it)

Making a settlement isn't difficult. You can create a basecamp for your men without any real effort. Your men can scout the area for land to claim if you want, but without any source of population you won't exactly be gaining any taxes off the land, but it is sort of a requirement prior to any other ventures of substance.