The "Best" RPG Ever-116

 First / Previous / Next / Latest

---

As the two members of the Troupe of Strangers strode away from the door, Reiaza said, "What ever is the matter with you, Belwin? Surely that must've been your 'kitten' in there."
"I'm quite certain it was," he agreed. "Must've been briefly awakened when she made a little cut to draw the venom out."
"Well then—" she turned around to face him, still walking at the same pace in the same direction (now backwards) "—why did you not ask her out for dinner? I've certainly never known you to be shy."

"All the same, one must have a good sense of timing," he said. "She was clearly overwhelmed by your glorious charm, which I know I pale in comparison to. I'd much rather approach on my own at some later time, perhaps once I'm back to my full health and stamina again. Besides all of that, I tell the truth to say I'm low on funds at the moment, and it would hardly be proper to ask a lady to pay for herself."

"Hah! You'll let me pay for you, all the same," she said, whirling to face the direction she was walking once again. "If you didn't come expecting full room and board, I'll eat my hat."
"A worker deserves his wages," the avian retorted. "And I know you're not short on cash; you never are."
"True enough," she said. "Come along now, I've found some reasonable accommodations for us to take up. A long-standing establishment by the name of the Broken Dragon Tavern and Hotel..."

---

Not long after the sun set, the caravan pulled around for a stop once more, this time for everyone to take supper and rest for the night. The prince declared that they would leave early the next morning, when it was light again and somewhat safer to travel. Clera lit a large fire in the center of the camp, and Katherine went straight to work setting up a stove and some various other implements, then using them to prepare a meal for everyone.

Zack waved to get Rayna's attention, pulling her off to an unoccupied outer edge of the camp. "Hey, what's up?"
"Look. You can, see enchantments and stuff, right?"
"Mm-hmn?" He was speaking quietly enough that none of the humans they were escorting could hear, so she followed suit.
"So you can tell if one is, out of juice or something?"
"I guess?" she said, tilting her head a bit. "I'm not sure enchantments are supposed to be limited-time generally, unless it's something you need to 'draw out' and 'put back in' like Nora's elemental crystal things."

While she said this, the knight carefully pulled a hand down through the collar of his armor and back out again, producing a necklace with a charm on it in the shape of a 'female' symbol. "So, what do you see with this?"

"Uh..." The fox-girl's eyes glowed very faintly. "Just looks like an ordinary, low-grade enchantment to me. Nothing out of the ordinary, I guess; definitely nothing wrong with it."
Zack nodded, quickly tucking the necklace back inside. "..Thanks."
"I can't help but ask, you know...why do you have something that looks like that? What's it supposed to do?"

He sighed, not wanting to answer but feeling like he owed some explanation—and like she might talk a little too much about it if her curiosity wasn't satisfied. "Look, you know about the incubus, right? Mira's..third demon?"

"Yeah..?"
"How it screwed with my head and actually managed to force me into heat." His face reddened some at this last part, and he folded his ears back in visible anger at the memory of it.
"I..heard that first part, but..not the second. That's pretty, uh..bad."
"The healer gave me that charm to fix the problem," he said. "It's usually used to..help with abstinence."
"So it uh..'calms down' a girl's natural..attraction to guys, then?" she inferred, and Zack nodded. "Well—why do you think it, might not be working, then?"

Zack crossed his arms and refused to answer the question. "..Wait, it wouldn't be his royal highness, would it? You have been acting a little weird around him."
"I have not," he insisted. "He's just...irritating."
"I mean, he is charming," she said, "really high charisma. Maybe it's just enough to be over that charm's uh, 'capacity'?"

"You're not even listening to me."

"That's 'cause I know you're not telling the truth," Rayna said. "Whether you're lying to me or to you doesn't make much of a difference."

The wolf-girl didn't say anything for a long moment, just looking pointedly away—toward the outside of the camp—with both ears folded back and a deep frown. "Look, nobody's gonna make fun of you for being attracted to someone," she pressed.
"I'm not," a quiet but intense, deep and almost threatening growl said.

Zack let out some air and turned back to face her again. "..Sorry. Look, thanks for, checking it for me."
"..No problem." It was obvious she wasn't going to achieve much here, especially if he wanted that badly not to think about it. "Hope, uh, things get better for you, then."
"Just need to do the job. Two or three more days." She nodded, and headed back toward the center of the camp.

---

"Logic gates!" Aria swept her arms out at the kitchen table, where several of her favorite solutions so far were strewn around randomly. "NAND, to be specific. We're in business, baby. Practically every element I can think of got represented here." She pointed at one after another excitedly: "This one works with light, this one's supposed to work with fire but I don't wanna try it indoors, this one's electricity—always a classic—this uses plants, but you need to put a brand new seed in every time, so, not very practical for my purposes.."

"So..you commissioned people to make gigantic versions of the tiniest, simplest possible computer part?" Mira said.

"That's right! This is phase one of: Make video games possible on this world. Plus uh, computers in general and stuff. Those phases go:" (she counted off on a hand) "Order big prototypes, order smaller versions of my favorites that can connect to each other, get incrementally smaller, build circuits, get somebody to make a screen—"
"When do we get to the 'question marks, profit' part?" the witch interrupted.
"About twenty or thirty steps later, I guess? Oh, check this one out," she said, picking up some sort of square-shaped mechanical device made of wood. "Someone basically figured out how to make a mechanical, gravity-powered NAND gate mostly out of wood, and the only enchantment is that it goes back to its original state when you shake it, like an etch-a-sketch...I think. There might be some more subtle force-redirection stuff going on here."

"Do they all work as logic gates?" Nora asked.
"All the ones I tested did! The input and output leave something to be desired for most of them, of course, but that's what you get. Like.." She picked up the light-based one, pressing her fingers both on one side, making a bright blue light shine out of the opposite end. "Zero is a blue light, one is a red light, and this doesn't output anything if you don't activate at least one side. Totally useless as-is, but when I come back and say I want to chain one to another, they're bound to start figuring it out."

"This one's pretty," Rose said, picking up a fist-sized, thin box of metal with grooves etched through it; a pair of flower stems twisted and turned from one end to the other, with a big, white-colored flower poking out of the opposite end.
"Yeah, and—you know what, I'm pretty sure they implemented that with two 'nots' and an 'or', which means you could probably expand the basic idea to bigger circuits. But it came with these two bags of seeds for '1' and '0' input, you've gotta tear the whole plant out and start all over for every 'computation', so—not greeat as an actual computing solution."
"Can I have the seeds?"
"Sure, why not? Keep the box if you wanna, too."

Lupa wandered around while they talked, looking interested but confused by it all. She picked up the one that used light after Aria set it down, poking one side, the other, and both in turn and watching the color of the light change. "Don't get it," she said after a bit, mainly to Nora. "What's 'computer'?"

"Well..generally, something that computes. For example, if you wanted to add some large numbers together and not have to do it by hand. But, back on Earth—where we're from—they can be used for many different things," she said. "It's based on connecting a lot of tiny pieces that work like that, or similarly, together."

The wolf-girl tilted her head hard, definitely not understanding this, and tried taking the mechanical gate Aria had shown off a moment ago and putting its 'output' on one of the 'inputs' of the light gate. She succeeded in getting a red light to come out of the latter by 'running' the former. "Together, no different from just one?"
"You need more than two of them to do anything meaningful," Aria said. "It's really way easier to show off the potential with some diagrams than all of these clunky things."

The shifter produced a bunch of pieces of paper with various logic-gate diagrams already drawn on them, shoving and/or lifting some of the prototype gates out of the way to spread them out over the table. "Why do you have that just sitting in your inventory?" Mira asked.
"Explained it to Loren before. Here, so—!" The wolf-girl watched over her shoulder, listening to the enthusiastic explanation with a somewhat blank face that said she still probably didn't get what Aria was talking about at all. But she still seemed content enough to listen, anyway.

---

Zack tried to take the watch while everyone else ate supper, but a couple of the soldiers insisted that the 'lady knight who saved our skin' eat before they did. So he sat a fair distance from the fire, on the opposite side from the prince. The expression on his face was neutral, but his ears were folded back and there was almost a chill in the air around him.

Rayna mentally poked the psion about this. Sorry, I think I said something wrong and put him in a bad mood or something?
He's been a little like this all day. Peregrine obviously knew how to read beastfolk expressions, and occasionally glanced the knight's way with a look of concern, like he was wondering how to apologize for an argument or insult which had never even taken place.

"Hey, Peregrine?" Katherine said, drawing his attention away. "How's the food?"
"Ah, yes—it's absolutely divine," he said, smiling warmly; some of the soldiers seconded this with a 'hear, hear' or such. "I confess that food preparation was not a subject of any of my education, and it's been up to Jehora and Isarac to do mere survival cooking for us all 'till now."

"Thanks~," she said, grinning brightly. "Out of curiosity—I've travelled a bit, but haven't been near Kyzerath in particular. What's its king—your father like, actually?"

"My father is..I admit I have never been particularly close to him," he said first. "It is simply the way with large noble families, and especially with kings and queens. But nonetheless, I have seen him at court many times, and admire him immensely. He is eminently shrewd, able to play other people like instruments. And he must be—as the political situation around is somewhat precarious.

"Our fair kingdom shares borders with several contries, two of which would otherwise be perpetually at each other's throats. My father's skill as a diplomat alone has kept both our allies—forcing both into a truce, keeping each from pressuring him into joining their side, entirely for the protection of Kyzerath and its people. In the process, I believe he also saves both of those countries from disaster as well.

"On one side, there is the Republic of Nir. Some..rather arrogant nobles call it a 'peasant rebellion which has lasted four generations so far'. They came to be when an older kingdom's nobles turned corrupt, and indeed, the lower classes turned on them. Their entire noble class—those who were not wise enough to flee quickly—were slaughtered at the time. I admire their form of government very much: Every citizen, as I understand it, has a say in each decision. But every citizen is also a soldier, required to participate in Nir's standing military for a period of their adult life. That is the way it must be, for otherwise any of the larger countries around them would swallow them up quickly. Many have tried, but all have failed so far.

"Nir is, fortunately, not interested in conquest, but will stop at nothing to defend their own borders. No tactic is too brutal or horrific for them to use. They are merciful to those who surrender, and will even freely offer citizenship to defectors and low-ranking members of defeated armies, but.." he shook his head. "The fates of those who continued to fight, I'd rather not imagine. As Kyzerath's ally, they have only ever asked us to continue trading with them when another country attacks them—not for supply, not for our army to help. And even though their existence has been challenged many times, it has been said that any army attempting to take Nir will share the fate of a nobleman's clothes if he insists on walking through a thicket of briar: torn off piece by piece until there is nothing left.

"On the other hand, there is the ancient elven land of Llyfwayen. They are a terribly backwards country, but home to a number of ruins of older civilizations, in which they have found—as I understand it—many weapons taken from those ruins capable of leveling entire cities instantaneously from a great distance off. They, too, are content within their somewhat vast borders, but would be certain to lash out and annihilate any country which actually went to war with them."

The prince shook his head once again. "I confess I have only seen their nobles, but they were...truly repulsive people. Llyfwayen's law considers only elves to be citizens, and only otherwise acknowledges the personhood of humans. Their nobles...speak openly of beastfolk they keep as 'pets'. And despite the fact that Nir has one of the most diverse populaces outside of the frontier itself, they will only send beastfolk as delegates, in an apparent bid to challenge Llyfwayen's racist beliefs."

"What about shapeshifters?" Lynn asked.

"I suspect there are some living in Llyfwayen, and if so they undoubtedly pose as humans or, more likely elves," he replied. "I wouldn't be surprised if their ruling body considers willingly imitating an elf 'good enough' and willingly lets them be if they do so."

She nodded, then asked another question: "Not that I'd ever want it to happen, but—why not just ally yourselves with Llyfwayen, then? If you don't stand in the way of their wiping Nir off the map, it sounds like they'd pretty much leave you alone."
"That may be true," the prince said, "but it is a short-sighted solution. They may destroy every city Nir has; they may scorch the very earth of the entire territory of that country; but there would be survivors. Nir has a small frontier town, a neighbor to Kyzerath's, which they send some of their most capable fighters to defend; Llyfwayen has no presence in the frontier whatsoever, and even if Kyzerath were their ally, frontier towns rely on each other for survival far too much to care about their host countries' wars. And Nir has sympathy from, and family among, the citizens of several neighboring countries—including Kyzerath itself. That multitude would seek revenge, tearing us apart from the inside and then eventually doing much the same to Llyfwayen. Of course, their nobles are much too short-sighted to understand that, and my father must make do with convincing them Nir is a mere annoyance not worth the more immediate trouble of destroying.

"Likewise, Nir has never actually seen Llyfwayen's great weapons in action, and doubts their very existence—or at least that they still function as perhaps they once did some time ago. They believe that trying to forcibly impose their will on other countries would be hypocritical, but still do all they can to encourage change toward a more equitable way of life for their allies' people. My father has had to take their diplomats aside time and again to impress on them the advanced age and total inflexibility of the elvish nobles they are dealing with."

"I suppose he handles domestic issues just as well, then?" Rayna said.

"Indeed," Peregrine nodded. "The court of nobles makes most of the decisions, but he speaks often before them, and their votes rarely go against his advice. Not, I think, because they fear him—but because that advice is always wise. Or at least, he is able to present his own opinion in a manner which everyone sees as wise, even if the way he explains that opinion must differ from his actual beliefs in the process of being tailored to win them over. His popularity with our citizens is lukewarm, but I believe he keeps it exactly at that level intentionally, so that the nobles who hold no respect for the lower classes will still trust him."

"Please excuse me if this is overstepping," Lynn said, "but you don't seem like someone who really draws a distinction between noble and not—at least not in how you treat people."

"I would be perfectly happy myself in a world without the separation between nobility and others," Peregrine said, nodding. "As far as merit or personhood goes, I have observed that there truly is no distinction. But I accept the existence of this system as a reality, and one which grants me and any others fortunate enough to be born noble a certain degree of power. Whatever power one has must be used to aid others—and the more power one is given, the greater the responsibility it comes with."

Lynn thought to Rayna: 'That's the catchphrase of old Uncle Ben...'.

The fox-girl had to stifle a laugh, making a slight snorting noise which still got everyone's attention. She quickly turned it into a brief, fake coughing fit. "Excuse me, some drink went the wrong way."

---

A short while after sunset, Mira returned to the guardhouse. Ezra was walking up from the training yard toward the front, having apparently just finished doing some drills with the guards. "They haven't arrived yet," she stated.
The witch titled her head slightly. "'They'?"
"Hyacinth went with him. Wanted to get a grasp of the theory and offer any help she could on streamlining the spells and his way of teaching them."

"Ah," she nodded, briefly wondering if Katherine was going to have a rival soon. But Hyacinth seemed to be all-business, and was understandably spooked after two separate incidents that seemed to suggest chaotic magic itself was against her.

"Anyone else in your party who can learn these spells should know them," the captain stated. "Even if they are not very accomplished spellcasters."

"I can give teaching it a shot, although I just barely grasp the theory of 'normal' spells myself. By which, uh, I mean...non-demonic ones."

"If you find a way to accomplish the same result or better using demonic power, do it."

"...Sure." It felt like Ezra knew something Mira didn't, but obviously she wasn't about to say what it was. That was no reason to ignore her advice, though—if anything, it was all the more reason to follow it.

Before long, they walked up. "I think I have something passable now," Jacob said. "It still isn't what I'd call 'beginner friendly', but Hyacinth was able to learn it after a few tries."
"Not that I can tell it's working," she said. "You trust his word on this?"
"Well, he is the expert, after all," the witch chimed in.

Ezra proved able to learn both the purging spell and the transferring spell with no difficulty whatsoever. The former took Mira a few tries, and she had only a dismally weak, inconsistent version of the latter by the time they gave up. Jacob scribbled some notes on what she was doing wrong and drew a diagram of the right way to push the energy around, and Mira promised to study it until either she got it working or her eyes fell out. Then, she went back home to make everyone supper.

While she cooked, she thought: The basic theory behind the spells was that a person's magic couldn't normally interact with chaotic magic, but it could push the ambient magic around, and for some reason that could sort of touch chaotic magic a tiny bit. It was like using one's own magic as a glove to operate a crane machine holding another glove which was then able to make contact with the thing one actually wished to move. Dispersing chaotic magic was much easier because it didn't require any particular direction, just 'out'; transferring it somewhere else seemingly required absolute mastery of this technique to the point of fine control, and Mira just wasn't good enough with 'normal' magic to accomplish this.

Ezra's suggestion to empower the spells with demonic magic came back to her again. That was something she had experience controlling. Even if it required adding on another 'layer' between herself and the chaotic magic, maybe she could get it to work a bit better that way...