Lost Island Quest 44

“No. I'm not going to hamstring myself. Look, Rowe, I'm not saying your concerns aren't legitimate, but if I think something would be useful to achieve what I want I'm not scrutinizing the source. Not because I'm scared of being overwritten.”

Rowe folds her arms and sighs. “You're not going to budge on this.”

“No I'm not. I can promise no more weird kissing stuff, if that makes you feel better.”

Rowe gives a humorless chuckle. “Yeah, because that's my concern here. Whatever, Alan.” Rowe turns on her heels and strides out the door out of the Archmage's domain.

Eve sucks air in through her teeth. “Awkward . . .”

Quissonce grabs the gnome and the succubus and exits as well, giving you a sympathetic look as she leaves. Flid follows to give directions and Ed departs as well.

You go to the Archmage who smiles at you approach.

“Hello, I don't believe we've been properly introduced. Essentia Nells, Archmage of the Circle.”

She shakes your hand as you introduce yourself and your position. “Have you been made aware of the current situation?”

“Yes. It's a shame that so many bad things happened. I guess a lot of it is my fault.”

“So, is there an organizational strategy you want the Circle to follow from here on out?”

“Uhhh,” as she stalls, she looks over to Azdor who sighs as he comes to her rescue.

“Well,” Azdor begins, “We're down to a skeleton crew so organization really doesn't matter. But if Blackburn manages to bring in enough magical talent andwe actually have a significant body of mages to rule over, perhaps focusing on direct apprenticeships up the chain of command so as to properly train and instruct them in the proper ethics of spellcasting may be a smart move.”

Essentia nods her head. “Yes, that sounds like a good idea.”

“Any ideas on how to prevent another Stephen from occurring?”

Again she looks to Azdor who answers your query once more. “Banning the arts of necromancy and diabolism as well as refusing to put out information about those techniques seems the best course of action.”

“What if someone tries in secret?” you ask Azdor directly this time. “Is there some way we could set up sensors to detect if someone's summoning?”

Azdor weighs what you've said in his head. “It's . . . something to look into.”

>Anything else you want to ask the Archmage (or Azdor)

AND

>Private conversation with Rowe
>Interrogate Succubus
>Stephen's corpse
>Something else? (write-in)

Doing an errand real quick, so this voting window may be abnormally long.

>Anything else you want to ask the Archmage
I know the Archmage is powerful, but maybe we should change the organization so that someone who is actually good at managing and policy becomes the Leader of the Circle rather than just the most powerful wizard. And before Azdor goes and says he's the most qualified, this entire goddamn mess happened under his watch because he was away on acquiring personal power.

>search Stephen's body.

Writing!

Could we fold our military experience into this?
That the Archmage is acting like an inexperienced officer being handheld by his Seargent, and she needs to either firm up quick or let someone who will stay at the Circle in order to train as well as monitor the mages take leadership, before more people die.

You look from Essentia to Azdor and watch how she seems to dread having to answer another question from you. This isn't right. You sigh out.

“Essentia, are you in charge of this place?”

She blinks a few times. “Excuse me?”

“Are you in charge of the Circle? Because right now it seems like if Azdor isn't calling the shots and insulting you to your face, Flid's holding your hand. I understand you've been away for awhile, but believe it or not I've seen this before in the military. Inexperienced officers being led by their sergeants don't make for inspiring or competent leaders. You may be the best spellcaster here but that is completely unrelated to management, leadership or organization. Frankly, if a goddamned mess like this happened in the Army, the officer in charge would be stripped of their rank if not put on trial for negligent conduct.”

“And I thought I was being harsh,” Azdor contributes with a laugh.

“I wouldn't be laughing Azdor,” you snap at him. “This happened under your watch too. You abandoned this place for personal power when you should have been guiding and protecting this place. That's in the Circle Magister job description, correct?”

Azdor's face curdles like sour milk. Essentia looks like she's about to cry.

“I'm sorry this is all my fault. I'm not a good leader,” Essentia admits through a choked sob. “I don't deserve to be in charge.”

>You're right. [Name] should run the Circle
>You're wrong. You just need to shape up, fast.

>other
"No, you don't, not as you are.
"Do you want to be the leader for the Circle? Do you want to provide a place where people can learn and practice their powers? If you want that, then you can shape up, learn proper management and leading skills. I'll help, and I'll look for others who can help guide you on how to be a competent leader.
"But the choice has to be yours."

Flid is maybe the only backup leader I would trust. Azdor wouldn't last a week confined to an office reading incident reports, balancing the budget, and signing off on paperwork.

>>You're wrong. You just need to shape up, fast.

I'm not sure we handled Rowe as well as we could have. How bad is it, Trick?

It's not terrible. I'm not punishing you for not handling things right or not saying the right things or because you said the wrong thing, if that's what you think. I haven't done it with Rowe and I haven't done it with Gabby.

Writing!

Rowe was going into full over controlling mode, though.
Sure, our power has risks, but also great benefits. It's like a girlfriend telling her boyfriend he can't skydive because it's dangerous.

There's potentially some amount of jealousy for Alan letting himself get mindcontrolled and kissing the succubus.

well, fair enough, I guess.

“No, you don't. Not as you are. Do you want to be the leader of the Circle? Do you want to provide a place where people can learn and practice their powers?”

“Yes. This place was my dream.”

“Well, then you need to shape up, fast. Learn proper management and leading skills. I'll help, and I'll look for others who can help guide you on how to be a competent leader. But you have to choose to be better."

“Alright,” she manages to state strongly as opposed to her whimpers from before. “I'll get better. I'll be better.” She nods her head with some vigor and then takes her leave through the door.

Leaving just you and Azdor. He coughs.

“Essentia has always been a weak-willed person. Not in the easily dominated by magic way, but she's never been quite assertive. I appreciate you trying to be her drill sergeant so I don't have to babysit her. But I should warn you your efforts will be for naught. You can't bully a person into being decisive.”

He goes to leave, but turns back at the last second.

“One last thing I must warn you about. I will be informing my group as to the extent of your powers. They will ask me and I will be obligated to tell them. But I believe you should know that they know. Good day Alan and thank you for helping me tie up some loose ends.”

And he leaves.

>Private conversation with Rowe
>Interrogate Succubus
>Stephen's corpse
>Something else? (write-in)

AND

>Do you have anyone in mind to help Essentia learn how to be a better leader?

>Do you have anyone in mind to help Essentia learn how to be a better leader?
I think Dolah might be a good choice.

Ok, >Stephen's corpse
for now. Let's give Rowe a bit of time before having a private conversation with her.

Writing!

>Stephen's corpse
Gotta do that before we leave this place.

>Do you have anyone in mind to help Essentia learn how to be a better leader?
Not Dolah.
Blackburn, the leader of the Fighter's Guild, and Betsy because she leads the town guard.

Trick, I think I'll back 's nomination, if that's alright with you.

Just because she's leading the church doesn't make Dolah a good administrator.
She's only got the position because she's the most powerful Faithful now that Calloway is dead.
AND she doesn't have ride herd on the priests like Blackburn does with the entire town, or the Fighter's Guild with all of the super-powered fighters or the town guard with keeping said adventurers in check.
They can provide a lot more guidance due to, you know, having LEAD FOR REAL FOR YEARS, not having leadership dropped onto their lap last week.

You keep flip-flopping your votes.
Maybe you should spend more time thinking on them before voting?
Or vote for the exact opposite of the thing you would have voted for first?

You make your way through the portal back into the Circle and meet up with Ed. Quissonce is currently going through the effects of the necromancer you just put down in a side room on the sixth floor.

Ed is hammering a wooden ttake into the heart of the corpse. He looks to you as you enter and shrugs.

“Just in case,” he tells you. You nod. He picks up some silver nails and gets to shoving them into the eye sockets.

You turn to his elven counterpart. She goes to you with a book, a staff and what looks to be a skull carved out of ebony.

“This is H. Stephen's spellbook. If you want to give me a fighting chance at finding a cure for Paul, I'm going to need to look through this. This is Stephen's staff. It can be used to cast a select few necromantic spells. And this is what Stephen calls the darkskull. When activated it makes the surrounding area of a certain radius unhallowed – unholy. I could, I believe, with some tweaking alter it to do some other magical effect as well if not in its stead. I'll be honest with you Alan, all of these things are probably pretty high on the evil chart and I'm sure Azdor would love to see me tampering with these things to confirm his fears, but what do you think? I'm not getting on the council any time soon so should I mess with powers elvenkind was never meant to know?

>Keep them all
>Get rid of everything except the spellbook
>Get rid of everything
>Something else? (write-in)

>ttake
stake

>Something else
"I'm going to ask for special dispensation from the Archmage to let you research the spellbook to cure Paul.
"Everything else, should go into locked storage; I'm sure we'll come up to a point where we'll need to sacrifice something magical. It might as well be something we want destroyed anyway."

>>Something else? (write-in)
"You work on the spellbook. We can also have someone from the Circle observe you, if you like, to assuage fears or provide assistance. We'll keep the rest under lock and key."

>Something else? (write-in)
see if she can't find a way to send someone literally to hell from the spellbook

Writing!

“I'll talk to the Archmage about getting you special permissions to look through the spellbook for the express purpose of curing Paul,”

“Ooh, permission,” Quissonce states wryly.

“Look, we have to work on solidifying your image without misunderstandings if Azdor's going to continue having sway over the Council or if Essentia decides to make actual motions to restrict necromancy.”

“Neither would be an issue if you just made out with both of them for a few minutes.”

“That would be murder. And more importantly, Rowe wouldn't like it. I'll take the staff and the skull into storage.”

Quissonce hands you the objects. “Whatever you say, boss.” That last word comes out loaded with all of Quissonce's resentment.

“Hey, I'm inducting you both the second I can,”

“We know Alan,” Ed tells you as he lifts up the corpse. “I'm taking this to Dolah to bury.”

“I'll come with,” Quissonce offers and the two of them leave the room.

You bring the evil artifacts up to Essentia who takes them from you and promises to find a safe place to store them on the 8th floor. When you mention the situation with Paul and leaving Stephen's spellbook in Quissonce's hands, Essentia immediately grants you legitimacy and even writes up an official document to give her so there won't be any confusion over the matter.

>Private conversation with Rowe
>Interrogate Succubus
>Begin management training with Essentia (1 week)
>Talk to Gabby about your sex dream
>Something else? (write-in)

>>Private conversation with Rowe
let's do this first.

Actually, let me think on that just a bit longer.

>Interrogate Succubus
It hasn't been an hour since our tossup with Rowe.
Give her some more time to cool off.
I appreciate her being concerned for us, but the truth is that this is just a dangerous activity that she doesn't understand, and that's why she's so scared by it, unlike the fact that we go into fights.
Or, she could be legitimately scared by the implications that one day she could wake up and look into Alan's eyes to see someone else looking back.

Well, while Rowe is still angry at us, we might as well
>Interrogate Succubus

then move on to other things

Writing!

You make your way over to the room where the succubus is being kept. Flid stands guard outside and waves to you as you enter.

Inside the room you see a large cage designed for keeping something the size of a bear captive. The succubus is shackled and tied up. She sits in the center of the cage, but rises and goes to the bars as you enter.

Eve is apparently standing guard, but does so by staying as far from the cage as possible near the wall on the opposite side.

“Oh, hey Alan,” Eve says as she spots you, waving. “Just watching this succubus. Because I'm a girl. What's up?”

“Please kiss me, Alan,” The succubus pleads with you as she rubs her legs together. “Just one more.”

“Heh, lady, you really don't want him to kiss you again. Like, you'll die.”

“Kiss me, Alan, please.”

“Alright, so I'm not here apparently.”

“Please, one more.”

>Kiss her, but don't energy drain her
>Kiss her and energy drain her
>Don't kiss her
>Answer my questions and then I'll kiss you (what?)
>Something else?

I'm getting dinner soon so this will be a long voting period. Feel free to write a multitude of questions.

an accompanying picture

Answer my questions and I'll bring it up with my gf.
Afterwards blow her a kiss. Didn't say it had to be on the lips.

On the one hand, I'd like to kiss her to see if it would fulfill the compulsion the succubus is experiencing, or if it's the energy drain that actually makes it addictive.

But it's EVE in the room, and she can't hold a secret at all.

So, no kissing while Eve is in the room, and because of no kissing, even if Eve was here.

>>Don't kiss her
What's your real reason for surrendering and staying here?
Was Stephen working for someone? If so, who was it?

Do you know who the Master(that was the main antagonist's title, yes?) is? His name? Where he's hiding? How to get to him? The extend of his powers?

damn, I wish that was my room.

>Something else?
"My girlfriend's already mad at me, so no kisses until you negotiate with her. Answer some of my questions, and I might even consider bringing her here so you can convince her.
"What's my reputation as the Assimilator?
"Who did Stephen work with? Did he summon any other demons or devils?"

Man, if we hadn't promised no kissing, we could have gotten this succubus as an exotic familiar.

And it didn't seem to go over too well with Rowe, either.

Still would be upsetting to her. Unless we studied book of sex magic, then I think we could have made something work....

QM still here?

He said he was going to get dinner.
He should be back.

But the problem is the succubus, and whether we be thinking about a way to kiss her, and if Rowe's concern about Alan's ability picking up personality facets from the people he assimilates from is a concern we should take more seriously.

Finally back.

I went OUT to dinner, is something I maybe should have specified.

Writing!

“Unfortunately, I promised my girlfriend no more weird kissing stuff so I can't.”

Eve laughs uproariously as you say that. You turn to her and give her a look.

“Wait, you're serious?” Eve laughs again. “Alright. If that's the reason.” Eve puts her hands up in surrender.

“Please,” the urgency in the succubus's voice is quite terrifying. Like she's poisoned and you're the antidote.

“Answer my questions,” you tell her, “and I'll consider bringing her here so you can convince her to let me kiss you.”

“Fine!” she shouts, anger seeping into her tone.

“Why did you surrender?”

“To kill you.”

“Who was Steven working for?”

“He took orders from Caizel most of the time.”

“Who is that?”

“Queen of the Succubi.”

“Who else?”

“Some devil, I didn't care to find out which.”

“Who else was Steven working with?”

“Devils, demons, some other mortal wizards he had me seduce to his side. All dead now.”

“What do you know about The Master?”

“Only that you attacked his temple and that the Demon Lords listen to him.”

“Anything else?”

“No.”

“What's my reputation in the Abyss?”

“That you're the End to everything. Now kiss me.”

>More questions! (write-in)
>Kiss her
>Blow her a kiss and walk away
>Ask Rowe for permission

You guys, you know that Rowe is just going to get angry again if we ask to kiss the succubus, right?

As much as I want to, to see just how badly she's addicted to Alan, I don't think Rowe is able to see it in that light.

Man, and this would have been such a novel method of torture, turning a succubus' powers against them, seducing them to do good so they can get their next fix.

Know of any other plans that the enemy has for this city? Any offensives and the like that they're readying for?

>>Blow her a kiss and walk away

sorry, disregard the
>Blow her a kiss and walk away
choice.

Just leave.

>More questions!
"What was Steven's plan?
"Besides that army, the suborned wizards, and the summoned devils and demons, what other forces were rallied by Steven and his associates?"

Writing!

>Blow her a kiss and walk away

“What was Stephen's plan?”

“Capture the Archmage, use her to access the 8th floor and use the powerful artifacts stored there to achieve a new level of power.”

“Were there any other forces rallied by Stephen and his associates?”

“I . . . I think there were three of the Master's personal subordinates. A blackguard, a lich and a vampire. I don't know if they were killed or not.”

“Huh,” Eve comments. “Blackguard wouldn't happen to be a scary looking dude wearing black armor and carrying a big sword, would it?”

“Yes,” the succubus confirms.

“I don't remember us encountering a vampire or a . . . Lich?”

“Wizard who turns themselves into a skeleton because I don't fucking know, sounds stupid,” Eve explains. “Quissonce was talking about it.”

“Of course she was,” you mutter. “Alright, thanks for the information.”

“Now we kiss, right?” she begs.

“I'm thinking no,” you admit.

Her eyes go wide and she begins to shake the bars of her cage with all the anger she can muster. She begins to screech.

“You promised you bastard!”

Eve shrugs. “You promised her Alan so I guess you gotta do it. I mean it's faultless logic.”

“You're right, Eve.” You blow the succubus a kiss and waft it towards her. You swear you see her eyes twitch.

Eve hisses into her hand. “Stone fucking cold Alan. Damn. I think I want to kiss you now.”

“Can't, unfortunately. Have fun with the succubus, Eve,” you tell her as you walk out of the room.

“I'll try not to,” she replies as another scream of wounded rage follows you ever so faintly, muffled by the wooden door you shut after your exit.

>Private Conversation with Rowe
>Talk to Gabby about sex dream
>Begin management training with Essentia (1 week)
>What is Dolah up to right now?
>Something else? (write-in)

>Talk to Gabby about sex dream
I want to get everything out in the open when we have that talk with Rowe.

We've assimilated the most from Gabby, so I think that a mindlink, or at least her personality fragment being the largest, has some grounding in possibility.

>>Talk to Gabby about sex dream

Technically, Alan only promised to think about bringing Rowe to the succubus' cell so that she could be convinced to allow Alan to kiss the succubus.
So long as we mention it to Rowe, we've fulfilled our deal.

Though I am tempted to find out how long it'll take for the succubus to break down and surrender entirely for another kiss from Alan.
If we also get to taunt her that this is just what she did to men in the past, I think this kind of torture actually beats out the holy waterboarding and the 24/7 holy chanting.

Writing!

I support this, break that bitch.

She may not break, since Quissonce mentioned that the succubus is actually under a mental enchantment. Once it wears off, we might have to resort to...cruder methods.

There are no gods where we're going.
Just me.

>Private Conversation with Rowe

Well, it's time to acknowledge you actually had that dream. Yep, you know the one. Maybe under other circumstances you could just dismiss it as a product of an overworked mind and latent sexual attraction. But most of the usual goings on seem to have more significance in this place. If your dreams of Hell and the fears of its denizens about you have a correlation, maybe your dream sex with Gabby and . . . well, it's best to get it out in the open and see if your suspicions are unfounded or not.

You exit the Circle and make your way down Main Street. You wave to your fans and accept a token of appreciation as you approach The Sword and Shield Tavern.

As you get to the door, munching on your gift, you hear the yelling.

“Fuck you, you fat cunt.” A male, brusque voice. Most likely a dwarf. In fact, you have an idea who that voice belongs to despite never hearing it before. And the recipient of that insult is most likely . . .

“Funny, I was about to say the same thing, you dickless shitbird,” Gabby responds with enthusiasm.

Beautiful. You sigh out and psych yourself up as you discard your treat and swing open the doors to the bar. The rest of the patrons in the tavern swivel their heads to stare at you upon your entrance, desperate hope in their eyes.

Standing at your usual spot, Gabby and the illusive dwarf himself square off. Gabby is practically hyperventilating and Irontide looks like he's been rooted to the patch of bar floor he decided to stand upon for a milennia.

Dart sits nearby, a wide smile on her face as she watches the heated argument that is soon to be a bar brawl.

Who are you kidding?

This is going to be a bar massacre.

>End of Thread
I will most likely run this next time on Saturday. twitter.com/TrickQM

So, protocols to write up and test on the succubus:
>Holy Sauna
Make sure that the room is properly sealed, then begin pouring holy water over heated rocks to release holy steam.
Bonus points if Alan enjoys the sauna beyond the succubus reach and she is powerless to get a kiss.
Extra bonus points if Rowe kiss Alan in front of the succubus.

>Hardboiled Eggs Cooked In Holy Water and Blessed
pic related

Why you gotta complicate things, Trick?

Gotta keep that drama going somehow.

There's no way we can convince the two of them to take it outside, what with not wanting any of the ale and beer to get spilled?

B-b-but you have all the information. There's nothing left to torture her for. W-w-why do you keep suggesting these things?

Only after we learn the sex magic. gotta make it look better than vanilla.

Since we have both Wizard and Sorcerer, could we get an exotic familiar?

Could we mindbreak the succubus with constant 24/7 holy and Alan deprivation, and bind her as a familiar?
What kind of repercussions would that have? The Great Will didn't seem to care much about Alan's "enhanced interrogation techniques" when he questioned that devil and went full Rorschach on him.

Why was eve laughing at us? Was she serious abut kissing us? Can we torment her later?

>W-w-why do you keep suggesting these things?
Because she needs to tell us how many lights she sees.

>Why was eve laughing at us?
Because promising Rowe you wouldn't do weird kissing stuff was low in terms of importance during that entire conflict.

>Was she serious abut kissing us?
Probably not, but who knows? Maybe you should ask her to find out.

>Can we torment her later?
Well that's an open-ended question. I'm sure believes so.

Maybe it's time for Demons and Devils to start being afraid of the mortals they look down upon.

>Since we have both Wizard and Sorcerer, could we get an exotic familiar?
You would need to be a much higher lever wizard and would need to focus some effort on familiars.

>Could we mindbreak the succubus with constant 24/7 holy and Alan deprivation, and bind her as a familiar?

A familiar is generally a lesser being whose soul is linked to your own. I do not believe constant mindbreak and torture would link your souls.

>What kind of repercussions would that have?
Having a succubus for a familiar? Weird stares, some of Dolah's followers calling you an evil man who consorts with devils, Dolah's disapproval and Gabby's approval.

Constant holy mindbreak and torture of the succubus? Weird stares, everyone's disapproval and eventually a long talk about mental health and PTSD

>Devil Duke's fw he hears that strike teams found, ambushed, were captured and interrogated by, the Assimilator
>Astaroth: You attacked the Assimilator and expected no consequences? Barbatos, you dumb shit

>Constant holy mindbreak and torture of the succubus?
What about constant, every day "Let's take a few minutes to talk about the Great Will" sessions? Like having Jehova's Witnesses or Mormons coming to talk with you, every single day, for eternity.
Bet she's wishing Rowe had killed her now.
It's a lot more socially acceptable, right?

>46916496
The repercussions of trying to convert a succubus by speaking with her of The Great Will would be to earn major points with Dolah, even more if you actually succeeded.

Then let's combine the two.
Holy hardboiled eggs and daily sermons.
Either she eats ALL of the eggs, or she has to listen to the entire sermon from Alan.
No partial credit; even if she eats all but one egg, Alan doesn't stop the day's sermon until that last egg is gone.

Even if Gabby hates sermons, even she can see the amusement inherent in this, can't she?

She'd think it was funny once, ONCE especially if she thought the bitch deserved it.

Or if there was some really easy way to have the succubus experience some torturous fate for eternity, Gabby would approve and wouldn't care.

But it's sort of the whole, you spend an hour of your day every day torturing something? that really just, y'know, it weirds people out, especially when there's no specific grudge attached to it. ESPECIALLY, if the thing you're torturing happens to sound and look awfully similar to a female human.

Dropped my trip.

I originally wanted to do this to a devil.
"You people do this, every day for hundreds of years. There must be SOME kind of entertaining or fulfilling value that makes you keep coming back to this. Maybe you can explain it to me."

But Alan's PTSD is probably treated enough that something like this wouldn't just pop into his head.

Well, let's at least get an "It's Happening" chart for the next devil that gets captured and put into interrogation. Just a nice visual aid for the devil or demon to know just exactly where it stands in relation to Alan.