Topic: (SG) Vassal: Rise of a Pharaoh (Read 26533 times)

micelus · « **Reply #150 on:** April 08, 2017, 12:59:34 pm »

Quote from: IronyOwl on April 08, 2017, 07:28:34 am

Sleipers party is basically mandatory, as it contains Whipscale. Other than that I think we should do Xamut's party to get to know our most direct underlings.

+1

We're probably losing our opportunity to get Nulhix or her kin as a spymaster by not going to our investor's party, but these seem way more important.

Oh and remember to attend our mandatory parties.

Also, did my suggestion to make Tiber our Master of Ceremonies not go through? I definitely want that to happen, although I suppose it can't happen in person.

Weirdsound · « **Reply #151 on:** April 10, 2017, 07:52:43 am »

(Note: We are tied between Xamut's party and the party of the lesser investors. This turn will include the two mandatory parties, Slieper's Party which has been unanamously supported, and an info-dump/key to the map. Next turn will be either the Xamut or Lesser Investor party, any actions you want to accomplish before leaving the Heartland, and perhaps the Honeymoon.)

Karses II, Friend of Caesar, Heir to the Loam Coast, and Descendant of the Divine Clay Elf Bloodline:
Updated to Include Tsunamia's Holdings

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Tsunamia shares some traditional dances with her father and his court at the reception aboard the Arctic Typhoon. You have two left feet, so rather than make a fool of yourself on the dance floor, you stare at your wife for awhile before hobnobbing with some of the dignitaries from the Everstorm Lands who are also sitting out the dancing bit.

The frost elf sorceress and blue witch Iceli, concubine and court mage to Tideus, spends a good twenty minutes bugging you to send a few rebellious or otherwise troublesome kin her way. Iceli is sure that she could use an offering of your divine blood to scar reality and create new runes. In exchange for providing such offerings, Iceli promises a shipload of gold coin per victim, and additional payment depending on the success of the sacrificial rituals performed.

You also get pulled aside by Morg the Manslayer, the second-in-command of your wife's fleet, who rather blatantly hints that he would like a job at your court. The heavily runed half acid elf reminds you that there are likely members of your family who can't be trusted not to kill you, and that Tsunamia trusts him to handle her investments. You don't doubt that Morg would make a decent bodyguard or treasurer, perhaps both, but their would be downsides to giving him either position. You are sure most of your kind would find the idea of the Pharaoh trusting his life to an Acid Elf to be sacrilege, and if you don't handle the duties of the treasury yourself, you are sure the Sons of Caesar Trading Company would prefer you to give the role to an investor. There is also the matter of keeping your new wife at home; You are sure the blood of Tideus will draw Tsunamia to the sea, and without a trusted second-in-command to run her fleet, she will surely have more excuses to sail off and leave you for long periods of time.

Before you leave, you pull Tideus and one of his translators aside, and tell him about princess Sleipers' desire to purchase ships from the sea demon. Tideus considers the request, before giving one of his attendants authority to negoiate on his behalf, and assigning said steward to tag along with your group, which intends to eventually visit the high elf's party.

---

You spend alot of time with your wife at the investors party aboard the High Concept, helping introduce her to each major investor in turn. It is fun to watch her talk busniess; You can almost see the gears in the blue witch's mind churn with greed as she learns more and more about the true wealth and reach of the company that she married into majority control over.

A bit of trouble rises up when Tsunamia has a long conversation with Germen Illud, the man who oversees the vast network of spice, drug, and cotton growing plantations controlled by the company. Germen quickly sells her on the plan to replace the farms of the Loam Coast with profitable plantations and use the money earned to import food. Although you agree with this idea in principle, indeed, you are the one who came up with it in the first place, Germen convinces your less-empathetic wife that the conversion to plantations should be rushed at all costs, never mind the fact that doing so, especially while rebuilding from war, would likely plunge the Loam Coast into famine.

While separated briefly from your wife, your old friend Lacert Agilis approaches you about the still vacant high judgeship. At first, you think he is requesting the post, for which you know him to be qualified, for himself, but you are shocked when he instead recomends you appoint his son, the scandal ridden Senator Ganymede Agilis. Apparently Ganymede was just caught cheating on his wife with yet another man, and Lacert fears this might be enough to cause the boy to lose his seat in next year's election. Your old friend suggests that if Ganymede is named judge now, he can resign from the senate and name his own replacement, who would hopefully have enough time to establish himself before the next election. Ganymede has always been loyal to your interests, and although you are not entirely positive he would make as good a judge as his father, appointing a human, even a disgraced one, might help appease the bigots in the senate while ensureing that you maintain the same number of loyal senators assuming the boy picks a like minded replacement.

After wrapping up your discussion with Lacert, you track down your wife and find her talking with Prince Terriz Algers. When that discussion concludes, Tsunamia returns to your side and shoots the high elf a sideways glance. "He is up to something. I saw him chatting with Caesar Cleptes, but they broke that conversation up real quick when I approached. I think Cleptes might be the blood relative my reading for you up north said was plotting against the Emperor..."

She sighs. "Entrails Reading isn't the best method for uncovering the details of a plot. If you are not opposed to some tactical infidelity... After we have our Honeymoon and get settled into our lodgings at the Loam Coast, I'd like to return to command my fleet in his service, and perhaps seduce the truth out of him while I am there..."

On the topic of Caesar, he and his family spend much of their time at this party drinking and being flattered by the Prince and his servants. You can't help but worry a bit.

---

Princess Sleipers' party is the wildest you have attended by far. The booze flows freely, and Queen Whipscale is clearly one hell of an entertainer. You quickly introduce Tideus' ship selling steward to the grateful host, before joining the crowd gathered around the war queen.

Although you have coresponded in writing before, this is the first time you have ever laid eyes on Whipscale. She dwarfs even boil, the only other member War Monarch caste you have met, and must stand close to eight feet tall. Her body is patched with brilliant yellow scales covering her scalp, heart, and kidneys. You know her entire scale coverage for sure, as Whipescale is completely naked, dancing on a table (she has already crushed two under her weight), and alternating between singing bawdy songs and begging the males in attendance to sleep with her. Apparently in her culture, to remain celibate at a wedding party is a grave insult to the wedding bed of the bride and groom, and the thought of insulting her god absolutely mortifies her.

You doubt Whipscale will have any luck. The high elves in attendance are generally too prideful and prudeish to publicly sleep around outside their race, and the humans too narrow minded to find a bald, scaly, and overly muscular she-elf attractive. There is also the non-trivial issue of the fact that the bodily fluids of an Acid Elf are both toxic and acidic, so to sleep with one without specific and expensive ointments would be akin to torture.

Making your presense known, you request and are quickly granted a private audience with the War Queen. Both your wife and Caesar Menas find Whipscale amusing, and tag along to the meeting as well.

The meeting has its ups and downs. Whipscale is grateful when you explain that you wont be offended if nobody sleeps with her, but when the topic turns to the Loam Coast she proves quite stubborn. She will punch her clan through all obstacles, so that she might offer you all the worldly possessions of her tribe save for food, clothing, mounts, and weapons. Then her clan will celebrate and feast among the clay elves for as long as they are welcome to do so, before fighting their way south again so that they may gain new wealth which they might someday return and offer to you as well.

She is completely unswayed by the fact that your people likely hate hers, and that by punching through to the coast her clan likely makes itself weak and vulnerable to the other Wyrven Clan. The second point especially is worrisome, as she seems almost aroused by the thought of dying in battle on the holy ground of the Loam Coast.

Caesar, impressed by the novelty of a friendly Wyrven Clan, makes the situation a bit better by promising to send orders to the naval installation to allow Whipscales hoarde to pass unmolested. He also gives you his blessing to provide proper weapons and armor to Whipscale's clan if you so choose, a rare exception to the imperial tabboo against arming savages. You doubt he would have been so generous if he wasn't drunk...

---

Regional Map: Northeast Coast of the Southern Continent

Key:

Major Settlements - The larger a city appears on the map, the more populous that city is. The darker the color of a city on the map, the better defended that city is known to be. The Clay Elf Settlement of Sacred Point is not a city but a complex of palaces, tombs, and military fortifications. The two small and dark unammed human settlements are naval installations.

Sun Shapes = Clay Elf Settlements
Heart Shapes = High Elf Settlements
Pillar Shapes = Human Settlements
Cloud Shapes = Other Elfish Settlements

Regions -

Reddish-Purple Tint = Loam Coast Province, your wartorn domain.

Blueish-Brown Tint = Other Imperial Holdings. The Imperial area East of the Loam Coast is a sparsely inhabited military buffer zone used traditionally to defend against the Clay Elves and the pirates further south along the coast. The Imperial area on the Northwest side of the map is the Jewel River Province, a major source of diamonds and emeralds ruled by Governor Benediximus.

Yellow Tint = The War Coast. A loose confederation of assorted city-states and Lion Elf Tribes. Generally considered friendly towards the empire and enemies of the Clay Elves.

Green Tint = The Haunted Savannah. A wicked biome controlled by only the most monsterous and savage Acid Elf tribes. The city state of Wraith Valley found here is ruled by a race of terrible man-eating dragonkin called Frillfolk. The Shrieking Mangroves to the north of this region, marked as a simple bay on most Imperial Maps, including this one, to discourage reckless explorers, is actually a vast area of haunted wetlands. Many pirates, shady mercenaries, and praticioners of fell magic make their home here. Not coincidentally, Tsunamia hides her treasure hoard and land-based magic workshop in the Shrieking Mangroves.

No Tint = Acid Elf Country. All cities in this region are capitals of their own small nations which pay protection to various Acid Elf Tribes. None of these nations are officially recognized by the empire. The cities on the Savannah east of the mountains are inhabited mostly mutt bloodlines of clay, high, and acid elf descent. The desert cities south and west of the mountains are inhabited by more hardy and exotic elf species.

IronyOwl · « **Reply #152 on:** April 10, 2017, 07:32:29 pm »

The Most Important Thing: I want you all to imagine a dancing walrus. A blood-red dancing walrus with barbed drill tusks.

Troublesome Kin: Sounds like a bargain if we have anyone we were going to execute anyway. The real trouble will no doubt come when some people want us to keep someone around or exile him to a nice summer home, and we've got a nice boatload of gold tempting us towards a more permanent solution.

Morg: Probably more useful pushing our wife onto land than handling our investments or watching our back.

Sleiper Ships: Good, our close neighbor should be back on its feet quicker and Sleipers and family should be grateful to us. All is well, for once. Well, twice; marrying someone we actually love is pretty amazing for a governor and Pharoah.

Plantations: We should remind our dear wife that our subjects are still of great concern to us, and as such we'll not be engineering any famines.

Buggery Judge: Oh man, this is absolutely perfect for the Senate. "Want a human judge, eh? Well how about THIS? Only slightly disgraced! Don't worry, he'll be free to nail as many dudes as he likes in his new position, I've heard humans like doing that."

The elves will hate it, but they're going to hate anything the senate would be willing to approve except keeping it for ourselves (assuming that does not require approval; if it does, maybe not even that). I say we go for it; quality will suffer a bit, but it will help maintain our position in the senate, mollify the harsher elements of the senate with a backhanded compliment, and reward a friend.

The Prince: Shitshitshitshitshitshitshitshitshit

I'm not sure what, if anything, to do about this. The Prince is nominally on our side and a coup shouldn't leave us much different than before, but it'd be nice to help Caesar if we can and we don't know exactly what the Prince has planned.

Whipscale: HAHAHAHAHA NO TAKEBACKS ARMORED ACID ELF LEGIONS ARE GO AHAHAHAHAHAHA

We're probably going to have to make some kind of royal proclamation informing the populace that these new elves are friends by direct order of their god. Here's hoping they like their god. Well, we'll probably be able to roll that part into a more general speech about how our immense wealth and skill is going to solve all of their problems and rebuild the Loam Coast into a wealthy and prosperous capital and inspiration for all elfkind.

I still say Xamut's party. It's the more loyal and dependable gathering of allies and kin, and I figure getting to know our core will be more immediately important than knowing some of our more peripheral allies and possibly detractors.

EDIT: It is worth noting that our lesser investors and Italizia's kin will no doubt me more interesting and present more fanciful opportunities than our core of loyalists, though.

VoidSlayer · « **Reply #153 on:** April 11, 2017, 01:41:59 am »

Lets give the disgraced senator the judgeship, in exchange for being allowed to decide who he names as his replacement. We can drop a good candidate, or a wealthy investor, who will hold onto the seat for our interests.

Xamut's party, where better to start planning the next wedding, HIS. Give him a rundown on the various options and how it will help us and him.

micelus · « **Reply #154 on:** April 11, 2017, 02:35:08 pm »

...Ok so my Tiber suggestion really isn't going through -_-

Fine, acceptable.

Xamut's party it is.

...So how exactly did we manage to pull a giant sea demon aside o.O

Anyway, Iceli's offer sounds good, but we shouldn't promise anything yet. Morg should remain at sea. Sorry big guy.

Remind our dear wife that Elves need food badly and that while the plantations are a good idea, food production will be essential during the rebuilding of our nation.

Getting Ganymede as a high judge is ok.

Welp, looks like Ceasar is going down and our dear Prince is gonna benefit. Wouldn't be surprised if he didn't manipulate the situation so that we would ask him to invade Bronzespear. Probably best to shore up as much humie support as we can.

Help the Wyvern Clan. This is probably going to pose some problems for us later, but meh. If the Prince tries anything, we can always send in the Wyvern Legion.

Weirdsound · « **Reply #155 on:** April 11, 2017, 09:48:55 pm »

Karses II, Friend of Caesar, Heir to the Loam Coast, and Descendant of the Divine Clay Elf Bloodline:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Your last stop for the evening is the Homeland Soil, where you attend your twin brother's reception. Xamut is quick to introduce you to various kin, and through him you meet a good handful of interesting Clay Elves.

Nixulop is the twin brother of your imperialized sister Pulchra, and like his litter-mate he is soldier by training. Nixulop aparently was put in charge of the defense of the city of Icarixip at the end of the war, and successfully held the town against Caesar until the Armistice was signed. According to both Caesar and Xamut V, Nixulop was the only Clay Elf general or admiral to not taste defeat in the most recent war. You can tell this brother is less than thrilled about an imperial loyalist inheriting the title of Pharoah, but that is only because you are good at reading people; He keeps his thoughts to himself, and eventually loosens up when Caesar himself offers a toast in his honor. It is clear that Xamut would like you to put him in charge of the armies of the Loam Coast.

Next you are introduced to a female maternal cousin named Shelkiv, who is essentially your mother's caretaker. In a hushed and private conversation, Shelkiv tells you that it is generally understood on your mom's side of the family that the assassin who crippled Karselil was sent by her own mother Stellixeth. Apparently your mom was publicly advocating for you to be named heir, and Stellixeth found the thought of a busniesself such as yourself in control of state Claychantment secrets to be so offensive, that it was worth destroying her own daughter to put a stop to it. Although none of this can be proven, Shelkiv begs you, for your own safety, to trump up some charge or another against your grandmother and have her killed.

On the matter of your mother, Tsunamia actually shows some rare heart, and spends a good twenty minutes sitting quietly with her new mother-in-law. After leaving Karselil's side, Tsunamia reports back to you: "I don't think fixing her is out of the question... It would be risky though. Wouldn't want to try it myself for fear of hurting her, which might draw your wrath. Between you and me, the hex afflicting her looks to be the handwork of Malcom the Malicious, a Sorcerer that I know... Even if he didn't put it on in the first place, he would be the our most realistic chance of undoing this."

She sighs, and brings her slender tail around to caress your cheek. "We can talk about this in full when we get settled in at our new home. Hiring Malcom for this wont be a simple matter."

Tsunamia's kindness towards your mother goes a long way towards impressing your family, who you feared might not accept such an alien bride. Even though they don't hear about her offer to attempt to fix Karselil, many of your kin in attendance start toasting your wife and offering her drinks.

---

Xamut provides his personal quarters for you and Tsunamia to enjoy your wedding night, which proves a bit anti-climatic. Tsunamia has been teasing the fact that she has been saving a handful of moves and spells for this very occasion, but by this point in the evening you are both far too drunk for anything other than a short and sloppy romp between the sheets.

You wake up in your bride's arms to find that the Homeland Soil has returned to Portum. You get dressed and sneak back into your manor to avoid gawking crowds.

Over the next few days you take inventory of your impressive stash of wedding gifts, and attend to some other business as well. In addition to a combined 345 Warships, enough food and raw materials to kickstart the rebuilding process, and and a truly amazing amount of gold, jewels, and luxury goods, you recieve the following noteworthy gifts.

King Stinggeroge of the small desert nation of Runepeaks, west of the Loam Coast, has sent you an elite guard of fifty terrifying Tarantula Elves. With their extra limbs, these elite soldiers can easily wield spears and heavy shields at the same time, and are trained in both urban and open field fighting, allowing them to serve as a personal bodyguard or the vanguard for a larger force in battle. They are lead by Captain Fangearl and Warlady Tuft, a pair of married officers who made their name fighting alongside the Clay Elves in the Long Ears War.

The Dust Crone Pyriusia, appointed judge of Traggix, presents you with beautiful scepter of ruby and gold that conceals a few interesting secrets for your own self defense. The scepter is actually a sheath for an enchanted dagger that can cut or stab through almost any material, while the impressive decortive ruby on the end of it is actually a hollowed out flask containing a potion that temporarily transforms the drinking into a deadly, intangible, and nearly indestructible being of dust and flame. The potion flask is enchanted to refill itself six months after the contents are consumed.

Your recently emboldened business partner, Prince Terriz Algers, has sent you a tough and heat resistant set of royal garments made from the scales of a long dead fire dragon. This wardrobe includes several robes for sitting the throne and receiving dignitaries, a shirt and trowsers for travel, and undergarments to be worn with armor or other outfits.

Lastly, noting that learning Blue Witchcraft away from the Everstorm Lands might be nearly impossible, the renowned Pearl Witch Gastronomia of the city-state of Treasurewaves has offered to personally tutor up to three of your future children in her art.

---

Once you have taken inventory of the wedding gifts, you turn your attention to other business. You send letters to both Senator Ganymede Agilis and the senate at large, announcing your nomination of the former as high judge of the Loam Coast Province. You trust that between Ganymede and his father a suitable and loyal replacement senator will be chosen.

Just before you depart on your honeymoon, you get word that the senate has allowed this nomination to go through.

---

You spend the better part of a day with the wife in your main office at the manor, giving her the full rundown of your personal busniess interests, as well as teaching her the finer points of your control over the Sons of Caesar Trading Company. Tsunamia is a fast learner, and luckily for you a flexible one as well. By the end of the session, you manage to convince her that not starving the population of the Loam Coast in order to rush the plantation conversion plan would be the more wise action in the long term.

---

By the time you getting around to offering Captain Tiber a ceremonial position at your court, you loyal employee has already left town aboard the Breaking Orca. You leave the offer, plus a small some of money to help relocate his family if needed, with his wife at their Portum apartment. You are sure she will eventually talk her husband into taking the cushy job.

---

Eventually you depart for your Honeymoon aboard the Breaking Lust, flanked by a pair of ships each from the fleets of Tsunamia and Xamut. You leave the Wayward Clay under Xamut's command for now, with orders for him to return to the loam coast, staff your personal flagship with a proper crew of Clay Elves, and establish a residence for you that is suitable for a god-king. The official divine residence at Sacred Point hasn't permanently housed the Pharaoh in generations, as your father, grandfather, and great grandfather all chose to live among their ships and sailors within the coastal cities. You see no point in breaking that tradition now.

The journey to Silvershoes goes smoothly, and in a little under a week you find yourself at the Western Edge of the haunted wetlands known as the Shrieking Mangroves. Your destination, on the far side of the swamps, is only a little over a day's sail away should you stick to the open sea, but the idea is brought up to spend some time exploring this unholy place first.

Your wife would like to show off her hideout and treasure horde that is stowed away somewhere within the Mangroves, and the two Clay Elf Captains from Xamut's fleet think it is likely some Loam Coast warships and perhaps important Clay Elves might be hiding from Caesar's wrath within the Wetlands, unaware of your impending ascension.

On the other hand, it is pointed out to you that by going straight to Silvershoes, you can catch more of the monthlong feast in honor of a marriage diety that was promised to you by Princess Sliepers.

IronyOwl · « **Reply #156 on:** April 11, 2017, 10:42:42 pm »

Haunted swamp!

More marriage feast is good, but fetid marshlands wracked by the screams of the damned are better.

micelus · « **Reply #157 on:** April 11, 2017, 11:41:28 pm »

Clay Elf
High Elf
Acid Elf
Frost Elf
Lion Elf
Coal Elf
and now Tarantula Elf.

I'm guessing magic is the reason for this diversity?

Quote from: IronyOwl on April 11, 2017, 10:42:42 pm

Haunted swamp!

More marriage feast is good, but fetid marshlands wracked by the screams of the damned are better.

+1

VoidSlayer · « **Reply #158 on:** April 12, 2017, 01:31:31 am »

Quote from: micelus on April 11, 2017, 11:41:28 pm

Clay Elf
High Elf
Acid Elf
Frost Elf
Lion Elf
Coal Elf
and now Tarantula Elf.

I'm guessing magic is the reason for this diversity?

Quote from: IronyOwl on April 11, 2017, 10:42:42 pm
Haunted swamp!

More marriage feast is good, but fetid marshlands wracked by the screams of the damned are better.
+1

My guess is that elves migrated to this world from another and gene-engineered themselves to adapt to local areas.

Anyway, Tsunamia has learned about our assets, while we do not only value her magic, it would be a good thing to get a full grasp on.

Fetid swamp. I mean it is only so dangerous that a royal conspiracy of mapmakers refuse to put it on maps. What can be the danger?

Weirdsound · « **Reply #159 on:** April 12, 2017, 07:07:27 am »

Karses II, Friend of Caesar, Heir to the Loam Coast, and Descendant of the Divine Clay Elf Bloodline:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

You give the order to sail stright into the Shrieking Mangroves.

Although this haunted region covers a relitively small area on the map, the going is quite slow. The wetlands are a mix of water deep enough for ships, dangerous shallow water, and dry land. Tsunamia and her escort captains slowly chart a course for her hideout, and the two Clay Elf ships follow cautiously. Travel here is unnerving; You hear many an unexplained shriek of agony coming from the woods, and see many grotesque creatures that you would rather forget about on the shore and in the water. After a day and a half of this slow and slowly-becoming-agonizing travel, a modest wooden dock on an island that includes some stone ruins is spotted, which a member of the Breaking Lust's crew tells you is the hideout.

After dropping anchor and disembarking, your wife gives you the grand tour of her place. The small ruined structure on the surface proves to be little more than an entryway, constructed by some less dilligant and crafty race ontop of a network of water-tight ceramic lined tunnels and hall, likely constructed by ancient Clay Elves. You are first shown well maintained dining hall and master bedroom, the areas which your wife advises you to stick to for your own safety unless she or one of her officers is supervising you.

Next she shows you her main witchcraft workshop, which is a space slightly bigger than even the dining hall. The walls here are lined with large canvas sheets covered in various glowing runes, which you wife explains is her equivalent to a chalkboard. To prove this, she moves a couple of the seemingly carved in runes around on the canvas with her finger. The middle of the workfloor is speckled with several desks and bookshelves, as well as a handful of other interesting items.

Several terribly mutated humanoids hang pathetically from their wrists and lower arms on structure that appears to be little more than a clothesline. Tsunamia explains that like most sea-born blue witches, she likes to experiment on her crew, both to increase their effectiveness and to learn how she might further perfect her own body. The clothesline is where she keeps her long term projects, specimens so badly messed up that it will take her assistants months or even years to get them right.

In a similar vein, your wife shows you a massive glass container that holds a massive nine-foot tall crab-like humanoid, likely some sort of Dragonkin, suspended in a strange yellow goop. She explains that this being is her one of her two personal pet projects, and will likely be kept in stasis until the death of her Lieutenant Morg, whom he is next in line to replace. She explains this creature was originally a Frillfolk, hatched large and strong but mentally slow to the royal family of Wraith Valley, and she purchased it for a small fortune. She has been improving upon this being for the better part of fifteen years, and has no intention to stop until she needs to activate it, even though she already strongly suspects that it has already surpassed Morg in both body and mind.

Tsunamia's other major project dominates much of the room's center in the form of a massive, yet only partially complete, dragon skeleton. Your wife explains that her late mother started this collection of bones, in an attempt to build an entirely new greater dragon from salvaged parts. The bones are main reason you are not allowed to enter the workshop unsupervised; they are already partially alive, and have been known to abruptly animate and murder guests before. She confesses that there is a good chance that like her mother, the Blue Witch will not live to see this project to completion either, so the skeleton will likely have to be passed down to one of your children...

Talk of children allows Tsunamia to seamlessly transition into showing you one final secret of her workshop: Another large canvas sheet, this one prominently displayed in the center of the room. In addition to runes, this sheet shows what appears to be a detailed diagram of the female reproductive system. "This is the control center to my womb, which I have had removed and stored in a pocket realm. It is all very complicated, but the short version is when I want to have kids, they will be grown by my assistants at this workshop, and I will have great control of their traits. I can use any man I have ever shared a bed with as a father, and can combine multiple fathers into one child if I wish, so if you ever want a son or daughter with something neither of us can give it, don't be ashamed to ask."

Unless you have any objections, Tsunamia intends to use her time at the workshop to get started on your first batch of children, and as Clay Elves typically bear large litters, she was thinking of at least three: A boy who appears mostly clay elf and possess strong leadership qualities to serve as your heir, a girl who will largely be a dead ringer for her mother and will take up the family tradition of witchcraft, and a third child who will be a more natural and random combination of its parents, and who will eventually be sent north to succeed Tsunamia's aunt. Your wife then tells you that she would be willing to add another child or two with traits of your choosing to the batch.

Before moving along, Tsunamia introduces you to her three assistants/apprentices who live at the hideout full time. Two, Mushlia and Vixia, are beautiful high elves trained in the classical pearl witchcraft of the Treasurewaves city-state, and the third, one of Tsunamia's mutant creations simpily called 'Her', is the carapace of a horseshoe crab attached to a short and vaugely feminine humanoid form. Because these assistants have little to do other than observe and listen while Tsunamia is around running the workshop in person, your wife invites you to treat them as your concubines while you are around; She has put alot of work into improving their bodies, and has no qualms about sharing the fruit of her labor with you.

Tsunamia gives you a kiss goodbye, and leaves Vixia to guide you on the rest of the tour while she gets to work on witching matters. The High elf briefly shows you the impressive treasure horde, and points out the dangerous cursed items that she knows about. She advises you, however, not to go rooting around without your wife, because for security reasons, only the mistress knows the complete list of cursed treasure.

Your high elf guide then shows you the common barracks where visiting sailors stay, the kitchens and storeroom full of grain, and a large empty warehouse full of haunted lumber and heavily runes spare parts to be used in repairing the Breaking Lust. The tour ends in the softly decorated room shared by Mushlia and Vixia, where you decide to put off taking any concubines until after the honeymoon, and merely enjoy observing the near flawless bodies of the high elves as they entertain each other.

---

While you enjoy your wife's hospitality for the next few days, the two escort ships from Xamut's fleet, God's Gamble and Ton-o-Bricks, split off in different directions to try and track down citizens of the Loam Coast who may be hiding in the Shrieking Mangroves.

The Ton-o-Bricks returns first, flanked by two dated and worn down looking Clay Elf Ships. All three ships are bogged down with a number of heavily armed Loam Coast Soldiers. These troops answer to one Captain Vikishux of the Loam Coast Army, the former commander of the Traggix city garrison, who fled with his remaining troops in the waning days of the war aboard the only vessels they could find: Mothballed merchantmen from the time of your great-grandfather Karses I. The elfish soldiers are packed like sardines, apparently Vikishux started with five ships, but lost three of them navigating the haunted swamps as he and his men are ground troops, not experienced sailors.

Vikishux quickly pledges fealty to his new god-king, and informs you that he was hiding out at a fortified manor known as Pharaoh's Dare. Apparently your grandfather built the place as a vacation home, in an attempt to prove his toughness by spending his leisure time in a haunted wetland. According the good Captain, he had his men kill time by fixing the place up, and thinks it might serve as a proper military outpost in the region, perhaps even a staging area should you ever wish to conqueror the Haunted Savannah.

---

A few more days pass, and Tsunamia is ready to leave and begin the honeymoon proper, but worrisomely enough, God's Gamble has not returned. The second ship had set out to check on a place called Deathclay, a seasonal Clay Elf settlement where haunted soil is drawn for use in expert Claychantment projects. A few of the sailors aboard the Ton-o-Bricks speculate that their sister ship could have run into trouble upon announcing your ascension; In peacetime Deathclay was traditionally staffed by workers loyal to your untrustworthy grandmother Stellixeth.

Sad as the thought of abandoning a fellow sailor is, Captain Druip of the Ton-o-Bricks advises against sending a search party. There are plenty of Loam Coast military assets unaccounted for, and if you run into a significant hostile force, all you have to defend yourself with is four warships (three of which are made from wood and ill suited for direct combat against clay elf vessels), the Traggix City Guard (not trained to fight in the Wetlands or to carry out naval landings), and your (admittedly terrifying) witch of a wife.

A few members of Tsunamia's crew further point out that if you waste time poking aroud the swamps for a lost ship, you are likely to miss the feast at Silvershoes entirely.

The only person of note even entertaining the idea of a rescue mission is Tsunamia, who doesn't like the thought of backing down from a fight in her own backyard. She feels confident that between her knowledge of the area and her magic, she can lead the assets you have available to victory against even a vastly superior foe. But even your wife isn't totally sold on the idea of launching a mission; She thinks it more likely that the clumsy Clay Elves of God's Gamble hit some hazard and sank. She notes that without shelter, the monsters of the Shrieking Mangrove would have finished off the crew in a matter of hours.

IronyOwl · « **Reply #160 on:** April 12, 2017, 07:46:30 pm »

Quote

custom built children

holy shit we married the right ~~monster~~ woman

Children
We should definitely throw another child or two into this litter. Someone to marry into Silvershoes would be good, though we don't know a great deal about their tastes.

Quote from: Weirdsound on April 05, 2017, 10:08:51 pm

Lastly, Princess Sliepers floats the idea of arranging a marriage between your future children and her family. She notes that you are distant blood relatives, her mother was also the grandmother of your great-grandfather Karses I, and that both her daughter Princess Sliepils and her nephew Crowned Prince Nashom will both be of marrying age at about the same time as any children you might have in the next half-decade or so. She suggests any official arrangements to that end, as well as any requests for military or financial aid, would have to go through her brother the king, however.

So we have a crown prince and cousin-to-the-heir princess available.

I say we shoot high and request an elven-leaning daughter with a touch of high elf to her features, as much beauty and grace as she can cram in, and mercantile predilections. Make sure she's lusty and fertile as well, to compensate for high elven deficits in that area. That should give us a child who's attractive to a hypothetical generic king/crown prince, will guide her efforts and eventually city-state towards commerce (hopefully in league with rather than rivals to her neighboring kin), and should produce a surplus of children (by high elven standards) for political marriages.

She'll also quite likely be a mayfly by high elven standards, but I doubt we have enough high elf seed to easily fix that, and so long as she produces a lot of heirs it shouldn't be a problem. Unless they practice youngest child inherits or something, in which case I think getting our offspring on that throne is one of our great-granchildren's problems anyway.

If there's room for one more, we might throw in an attractive, charismatic son with a touch of something exotic. A general purpose dandy should give us some extra bedroom feelers, diplomatic power, and generic marriage fodder.

Missing Ship
Ugh, I'm gonna have to vote for leaving them to their fate. I really hate to do this, but catching the marriage feast of our neighbors and good friends is more important than one ship's worth of sailors. We'll see about sending an investigative party to figure out what happened later.

VoidSlayer · « **Reply #161 on:** April 13, 2017, 01:39:53 am »

We should have a fourth child, female, but with natural divine magic of the clay elves strong in her. I would also consider giving our eldest son as much skill in divine magic as possible without sacrificing something else. Make them geneticall diverse enough to prevent inbreeding and we can have them follow Clay elf traditions to cement the governorship and Pharaoh titles.

Our second group of children can be for other alliances, this one needs to satisfy us our wife and her father.

Leave em to their fate unfortunately, we need to send someone to check on that settlement later though.

IronyOwl · « **Reply #162 on:** April 13, 2017, 02:39:10 am »

Given imperial opinions on the matter, I'm a little wary of trying to arrange divine elven incest for someone we hope to become governor. It'd be a bit like grooming them to be cannibals and then hoping the current Caesar doesn't mind or can't afford to say no.

I hadn't actually considered claychantment skill, that's interesting. Might want to wait until we've experimented with it a bit, so we know if there's any supporting skills or inclinations they might also benefit from.

I assume he's as packed as Tsunamia could design him, but why divine magic for our main son? I'd think if we had any freebies left over, we'd want him to lean towards commerce like we do.

VoidSlayer · « **Reply #163 on:** April 13, 2017, 02:48:01 am »

No, our family line has divine elemental magic, it was one of the options we had for training in the beginning.

Weirdsound · « **Reply #164 on:** April 13, 2017, 08:19:20 am »

(Note: Did not want to wait any longer to write the turn, so I flipped another coin. Voidslayer's suggestion won.)

Karses II, Friend of Caesar, Heir to the Loam Coast, and Descendant of the Divine Clay Elf Bloodline:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

You ask Tsunamia for a fourth child in the initial batch, who is to be a daughter pre-disposed to your bloodline's divine magic. You have not ruled out a traditional royal sibbling marriage for your son, and as such would like him to have an available female littermate on the off chance he or you decide to take that route in the future. Your wife agrees to this, and promises that the children will have begun the incubation process by the time you leave the hideout.

She intends to have the children produced on a slower-than-natural growth cycle, so as to better ensure their good health, and suggests that they will be the equivalent of a one year old human or clay elf in about two and a half years, at which point she will be willing to expose them to travel by sea so that they might move in with their parents.

Noticing you look nervous, Tsunamia informs you that she has practiced on the wombs of several other women in anticipation of this day, and hasn't the slightest doubt that they will turn out fine.

---

You decide that going after God's Gamble is both too big of a risk and a potential waste of time, and order the remaining ships to resume progress towards Silvershoes. The journey passes uneventfully, and two days later the high elf city appears on the horizon.

At this point, not wanting to be seen with the run down ships of Captain Vikishux or subject your hosts to feeding his men, you order all remaining clay elf vessels under your command to continue East to the Loam Coast, where they will report your arrival at Silvershoes and send for an escort befitting a Pharaoh to lead you into your new domain once the honeymoon concludes. Once the ceramic ships set off on their way, the Breaking Lust and its two remaining escorts sail into port and drop anchor.

Once ashore, you briefly meet with the steward of Princess Sliepers, who shows you to your honemoon suite. The living quarters are built into an old silver shaft dug into a cliff overlooking the sea. The walls are oddly shaped in most places, as the designers chose to follow the silver vein precisely so as to leave a beautiful thin layer of the stuff on the walls. Only the main bedroom and diningroom are dug out of normal rock; Each is a perfect half circle ending in a glass wall built where the cliff face once was, allowing a beautiful view of the ocean.

After breaking in the bed with Tsunamia, you head into town, where you learn that you have arrived just in time to partake in the last two nights of the feast.

The first night of feasting is the grand caster's gala, where lowborn magic users of all stripes preform on stage in hopes of impressing somebody important and landing a cushy position of concubine and/or personal mage. Tsunamia is invited to judge the acts, and carries out the duties with aplaum. Before she begins, your wife extablishes a code word that she will use when giving a verbal assessment of casters she thinks are worthy of your service. Over the course of the evening, the code word is used twice.

The vagabond priest Drihilnovip is a Clay Elf exile from the loam coast, banished by one of your father's underlings for the crimes of practicing the divine magic of beings outside your bloodline and practicing the magic of beings within your bloodline as a lowborn. Drihilnovip can command the soil, waves, and wind like your brother and father, but can also cause living things to rot and decay by invoking the wicked swamp dragon of Sandwalls and heal living flesh by invoking the imperial god Medicus.

Vagabond priests such as Drihilnovip, who work in multiple pantheons, are banned in the imperial heartland, and have been banned in the Loam Coast since the time of Karses I. Governors, however, are allowed to permit religious practices in their lands as they see fit, so you would be within your rights to end his exile, and in adding him to your court, you would send a message to the world that the Loam Coast will be changing in big ways under your rule.

The second caster to catch your wife's attention is a Sorceress, a practitioner of the dangerous art of casting hexes. As hexes tend to smite everything nearby, everybody in the audience is instructed to back up the hill where the performances are taking place, and view the amphitheater stage through a spyglass. The sorceress is some sort of exotic insect elf from the demonic jungles at the heart of the Southern Continent, and with a single word the frightening female generates a shockwave that turns all in its path into giant ants. Three condemned prisoners on stage become black ants the size of dogs, and the Sorceress herself becomes a cow sized red ant. The sorcoress ant then clicks its mandibles, releasing a second hex-shockwave that seems to sap the condemend black ants of their will to live; The next thirty minutes of stagetime is a morbid display of the black ants offering themselves to the sorceress, who tears them apart and eats them alive one piece at a time.

As the sorceress, whose name is an unpronounceable-to-you insectoid screech, re-assumes her elf form, you consider the merits of hiring her. Few monarchs dare keep a sorcerer at their court, as hexes are so quick and powerful that it is nearly impossible to guard against them should the hex weaver decide to knife her master in the back. This same dangerous nature, however, makes them ideal assassins, and although nothing is ever certain when dealing with hexes, a friendly sorcerer is the closest thing to protection from a hostile one.

---

The final night of the feast is a grand battle royal, into which any married highborn may enter themselves or through a Champion. Although you are not a fighter, Tsunamia chooses to enter and winds up coming in third place, behind the captain of the Silvershoes Guard and the Acid Elf Warqueen Whipscale... who just so happens to be your champion and the overall winner of the event.

Tsunamia's third prize is a set of matching his-and-hers broaches, enchanted with a powerful but not quite infallible all-purpose protection spell that will last eight years, until the next marriage feast. First prize is traditionally the right to include members of the Silvershoes royal family and high priesthood in your wedding bed for the next month, but this is considered inappropriate for a couple of newlyweds on their Honeymoon, so you are offered a choice instead; You may either claim the right to choose a husband from your own family for Sielephtress, the king's recently come-of-age half sister, or return to claim your original prize at the next feast in eight years time.

As you don't doubt your ability to seduce a high elf if you ever have the urge, you are leaning towards the first option, but it would be embarrassing to commit to getting the young girlelf a husband only to find none of your kin want a high elf for a wife.

---

The rest of the Honeymoon goes well enough. You spend most of it with your bride, either alone in your bedroom or wandering the cliffs and beaches around Silvershoes. You do, however, attend a handful of formal dinners in your honor within the city walls, and get to meet much of the royal family.

King Efly dose not strike you as much of a leader. He has a small and scrawny build, a passive demeanor, and appears effeminate even for a high elf. It dose not help that he is missing a leg and is wheelchair bound thanks to his misadventures at war against your people. He meekly brushes aside any talk of alliance, stating that based on the terms of his pact with the other nearby citystates and the lion elf tribes, he is not even sure he has the authority to declare allies. This annoys both his sister Princess Sliepers and wife Queen Consort Maabline, who try their best to sway him. Everytime the females get close to changing his mind, however, you notice the king recieves a stern look from a tough looking Lion Elf in his court, which is enough to harden his resolve against forming any alliances.

You make more headway, however, with Prince Tiiecieus, the king's nephew whom Caesar recommended to you. Tiiecieus is an admiral through and through, in spite of his young age, and you can tell he fears that peace with the Clay Elves means boredom for him so long as he remains in the service of his meek uncle. He notes that he is aware that you have recieved many unmanned warships as wedding gifts, and thinks he can help you staff them.

In exchange for all your non-voting shares in the Sons of Caesar Trading Company, Tiiecieus agrees to resign his uncle's navy and sign a 200 year contract to serve you as a mercenary. He promiseses that he can convince virtually the entire navy of Silvershoes to defect to your service should you agree to sign him, and hints that if the King commands no navy, it might be easy for somebody to plan a coup against him... perhaps a coup in favor of his mother.

---

Unless the B12 Hivemind comes up with some crazy reason as to why Karses should spend alot more time at Silvershoes, next turn will see him at long last assume control of the Loam Coast! Huzzah!

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Author Topic: (SG) Vassal: Rise of a Pharaoh (Read 26533 times)

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