Bay 12 Games Forum

I11, punch axeman B in face

"Not likely. They bully Borea just as much as they do me and Discordia, and Rhea left BECAUSE she was fed up with that."

"Think about it, Jarvis, you LITERALLY have a Goddess in your party. Who else, in the history of this war, has ever had a Goddess directly helping them?"

"Unless you know something we don't, Titania and every daughter who hasn't shown her face around here. And that old bastard Mephistopheles? Please. I've never seen that man fight. All he does is give us the orders and let Mammon do all the tactics. Never seen him even leave that mansion he makes us all meet at."
"Borea. You're missing Borea, Bel. She's apparently one of the ones who isn't in on whatever this is."
"Six Goddesses is still not good odds in our favour."

Annika simply smiles, and then continues working on planting something on the ground.

---

No response greets Kruger, Arnett and presumably Rika at the Student Union office door.

---

"Hm. What about....alphinite-treating your alloys? I don't know the specifics, but that's supposed to make things rustproof and resistant to Fiend attacks. It's what they put for armor-plating for military cars. I think Professor Ramsay would know more about it, though."

---

Isabella simply nods, standing up to walk over to the tea leaves.
"I'm afraid I only have the one kind of tea. It's a special kind, grown in Tianchao."
"Plan? I only wanted to someone to enjoy some....quiet pleasures with. You would be surprised how difficult it is to get someone to enjoy a quiet cup of tea and some conversation with. Especially given my reputation."

"Given your luck thus far, you'll probably run into her again at some point. I was supposed to be hidden, and yet you ended up running into me, in one hotel in the hundreds in this gigantic city. You've also managed to run into every Demon General bar that lazy bastard Beelzebub. You'll figure something out."

---

Meanwhile, in Kaisei....
Discordia groaned as she pulled herself up off the ground.

She looked around, trying to get a sense for where she was. Around her, the architecture was altogether different from everywhere else on Generia, white paper walls thronged with wooden beams and intricate awnings. All around her, prophets hawked their multitude of churches; the Remites held up signs declaring their beloved maid goddess to be Best Girl, while the Nanamians gathered in their dark blue, bat-eared hoodies, muttering prayers to their gamer goddess. Stalls selling figurines, Generian manga and short novels lined the roads paved with small stones.

"The architecture is....unfamiliar....and yet I know exactly where I am."

Discordia felt a chill in her blood. Kaisei was one of two countries where the Goddesses were not the dominant religion, the other being Blobbonia. Instead, the worshippers of Kaisei were divided into many cults, obssessed with worshipping figures of the Revivian world; the Remites, Zerotwonians and Meguminians were the largest cults, of course, but the Hayasakans had arisen as a new faction in recent times, challenging the orthodoxy.

Which meant, of course, that Discordia could count on no assistance in this land. She tried to tug on her connection to the home of the Goddesses, Caelestia, but to no avail.

"And Freya cut me off, so I can't use that to go home and find Serena...."

She sighed, closing her eyes. The alternative was to board an airship and fly back to Midgardia, but that would cost money, money that Discordia did not usually need to carry and could not generate at the moment, cut off from Caelestia. The province of money generation fell to Rhea, Goddess Dragon of Order, Contracts and Money, from whom all the other Goddesses could siphon some cash, but given that Discordia could not access her connection to home, she could hardly ask her sister to spot her some cash.

That is, if the others had not already gotten to her first.

"I'm glad Rhea left the house so long ago, but.....Freya and the others, they might already be trying to....."

The secret that Discordia held in her heart terrified her, as did the lengths her sisters were going to to keep it. To hex her, to delay Serena....and Mother knew whatever they did to Borea. Rhea was their only hope now, as the one sister who had stayed neutral, having left their home so long ago. Mother wouldn't believe Serena, even if Borea and Discordia backed her up, but Rhea was different.

"Excuse me?"

Discordia was shaken out of her thoughts.

"Huh?"

She looked behind her, to see who had bothered her.

"Can I help you? You've been standing outside our cafe an awfully long while."

Rosencrantz lifts an eyebrow.
"Asuna? You okay?"

Anya also raises an eyebrow in Asuna's direction, and she can distinctly feel....something being drained from the air around her for the briefest second before Anya looks away.
  "Well. I'll leave you to it. I have a business run, ladies and gentlemen. Your rooms are ready if you wish to use them and our facilities are at your liberty, subject of course to our usual fees. Please, enjoy your stay at the Belleview."
She takes a small bow and walks away with her goblin attendants, leaving the group - with Satan, Asmodeus and Lucifer talking among themselves- in the middle of the floor.

Asuna, indeed, finds that the pin does not change. Perhaps it was a god thing. Rosencrantz raises an eyebrow, nodding approvingly.
"You know, you haven't really changed in appearance, but for some reason....you look better now. Like you're standing up a little straighter."

---

Anya calmly whips out her tablet, tapping in something into it. She briefly frowns, before nodding. Within a few minutes, several well-dressed goblins appear, carrying cases.

  "It seems that we had to give quite a bit of my personal armory away to compensate a few of our guests. One of our staff members was raising dragon eggs, and I fear it hatched and left quite the mess. I assure you, such an occurrence does not normally happen on my property."

The cases are presented to the group, being opened one by one.

  "One of you is a thief. In the adventuring sense, of course. I, myself, was an affectionado of such weapons back in another life, so you may have these, a set of specialised cards, from another life. As for your Wiggler-headed companion.....I must admit, your people are a mystery to me. I am foreign to Generia, you see. It is a long story not worth telling, but I do understand that your people love to form your own weapons from the bodies of monsters. To you, I gift a spear shaft, made from the bones of a Orichaltoise. Very rare, and very tough material. If you should ever need help to use it, I know a blacksmith in Kaisei. Just tell him Miss Lugenhardt sent him and he will understand; he crafted my weapons, and so I trust him."

"I guess I can't complain about getting a new bunch of weapons, but...."

The party receives 5000 rhea and four Master Seals!
Jarvis recieves the Orichalcum Spear Shaft!
Rosencrantz receives the Knave of Diamonds!