Silence of the Skies (A BQ Empire Builder)

There's a tie between pirates and seal elves.

Everything else has at least one more vote leaning one way or the other.

@ Kel

Yeah, Leadership isn't possible. That counts as a Personal Skill, which can also be considered social. Don't worry though, it's just slower, thus you'll get the chance for Year 4. Which... last year of char gen.

Well, it looks like we can recruit the elves, but not the pirates, so maybe some will change their minds about that.

Skill-wise, note my vote down for Wind-magic, then. Will we have chances to improve our abilities after character creation?

Kelenas wrote:Skill-wise, note my vote down for Wind-magic, then. Will we have chances to improve our abilities after character creation?

Yes you will of course. Just it'd take longer. By much. And not mesh well with taking to the field personally. While some options would get adjusted in terms of how to acquire if you don't already have it.

Well, after the write-in I'll switch my vote from the Seal Elves to the Pirates.

[ ] Resolve...

Her resolve... isn't as badly off as you first thought. No, it would be more accurate to say that it doesn't seem to cover to the same extent you were lead to believe. But all the same, because of the fact it isn't at all it could be. Yet. If it were, then an amount of incompletion might still probably be enough to convince him that it's 'complete'.

[Resolve ?% => Resolve EX Rank at 85%]

[ ] Independent Functionality
[ ] Prioritization
[ ] Continue as we did last year with Resolve

For your studies you get some solid improvements down with polearms and notable improvement with Wind magic, but nothing really of note.

Continuing your focus on Adelhida with most of your spare time, you continue work on Independent Functionality and Resolve, though also slipping in prioritization this year as well. For obvious reasons, you doubt a half done Precision Control would be passing as 'completed'. Oh well, you have time still, no?

[Polearms - D Rank => C Rank]
[Wind Magic - C Rank => B Rank]

*Rest continued below*

[ ] Pirate group moving into the region.

Your intentions fall on deaf ears as the pirates were simply quite full of themselves. They were only expanding into the region, not fleeing into the region or so, like some other ones had from the more recent growth of some of the other, larger pirate groups. They themselves were just expanding as well in turn, even if one of the later ones. It didn't take much work to clear the ear wax from their ears.

Cue Adelhilda wiping out over half the pirate fleet in a span of a few seconds. You think she didn't hear you say 'please hold back'. Intentionally. Her ensuing question of 'Will that suffice" pretty much confirmed the deliberate misinterpretation of your words.

Of course it wasn't a total wipe out for the same reason or it wouldn't qualify on any level as 'holding back'. Though the ships were a lost cause as much as the majority of pirates. If it were just sinking the ships with all hands onboard then it wouldn't be as bad, but it wasn't. It was a sheer exhibition of raw power, glassing over the ships like a hot knife though butter.

About a dozen or so pirates survived, none of the higher or older members though, bar one. Obviously. negotiations went much more smoothly from there. Not that it netted too much. Your display of such force to enforce your point on taking you actually seriously and give weight to your negotiations seems to at least warrant their genuine consideration of employment under you, but... in terms of joining or working for free, well, those aren't really workable nor too sane.

[Independent Functionality 70%? => 85% (Confirmed)]

Available for Recruitment:
[+Pirate & +Experienced Pirate]

[ ] A community of High Elves seems to be in conflict with 'Dwaves' which are migrating into their home and pushing them out. The elves have been trying to find outside assistance to drive off the newcomers and seem desperate. They're about close enough for you to get there though in a timely manner.

The problem seems to come into perspective upon your arrival. The dwarf population, like from time to time, has but some charismatic young dwarf that decides to settle and form their own hold. Often either in the Distorted Range... or near or at a High Elf mountain... like this instance. The resulting clashes is fairly obvious, but in this case, it'd seem they're too short in hands and population, thus calling for help, grudgingly, from the elves you have under your rule now. Which makes it your problem.

You keep somewhat to the rear and let Adelhilda take the lead. Mainly due caution as well, first hand experience with personally having to deal with ones considered generally as monsters. The prior time with the Forest Elves was, after all, instant ended by Adelhilda.

Unlike the case with the pirates where unrestrained warfare was perfectly fine, this time, it wasn't. Mainly since if you wrecked the High Elves' home as well then that pretty much is self defeating. Made more complicated since dwarven holds are built into the mountain. So risk of it collapsing is also a reason to take take.

The mess lasts for about two days longer, not counting the day you arrived on, before the matter died entirely with the last of the dwarves there dead. The High Elves didn't seem too grateful, as a number amongst them fiercely claim they could've handled it on their own even without your assistance in spite of the logical bloodbath that would have ensued.

No matter, a few seem more receptive though, but apparently are just bidding their time until the others come to some realization of the exact state their community is in. It is at around then that you can confirm something that's been nagging you. There aren't any House Elves here. Yeah, they're that underpopulated huh.

[Prioritization 15% => 25%]
[Independent Functionality 85% => 90%]

High Elf Community Info:
[Astermis Elven Tribe]
[0 High Fae (Wind Element)]
[7 Hybrid High Fae (Wind Element) 6 Male / 1 Female] (Excludes dependents)
[50 High Elves] (Excludes dependents)

---

The two instances of relying on Adelhilda to carry through for your intentions seems to have had contributed to her progress, with some help here and there. Though you didn't leave it all up to circumstance, taking personal initiative and making use of said circumstance to further progress things along.

Which is why you can reliably say that you've wrapped up 'Independent Functionality'. While in terms of her Prioritization, it seems to only be moving along smoothly, but only about close two-thirds complete. On the other hand, the progress on her Resolve has been... rocky to say the least. The main problem posed is the lack of certainty as to how much and how far it's progressed. That aside, you think she's made at least some progress in whatever she's doing off to the side. At least she put forth a lot of effort into concealing that from you. Barring how obvious it is that she's concealing it, her reactions and responses seem to quite carefully deflect attention away from any remote relation to the subject.

[Independent Functionality 90% => 100% Completed]
[Prioritization 25% => 65%]
[Resolve EX Rank 85% => 100%? Completed? Lacking confirmation]
[??? ?% => ?% Unknown, something Adelhilda has been doing off the side.]

1st 2-Year Interval Checkup

The year seems to just pass by so quickly and before you know, figuratively, it's time for the first checkup....

His arrival is timely, like last time, though the accompanying him this time are... different. One is a girl seeming of the Far East with long black hair and eyes, her attire is the same white and red coloring like the other Far Eastern girl from two years ago. A blade of her native region hangs from its sheath at her hip, unlike the prior one who lacked such. A second glance shows other differences, for one, her attire seems far more practical in design for combat and only merely resembles the other one due to style, this is most pronounced by the lower half.

The other girl with brown hair and yellow eyes, and a seemingly shade darker skin tone, seems to be dressed in some sort of uniform... well, not in that sense, but more like a South Central sort, or at least that's the feeling you get. Her attire is overall resembling between a simplistic uniform that properly befits that of a more physical combatant than a magic user, yet her lack of apparent weapons on her person seems to get the impression she isn't a pure physical fighter.

The two girls wait from a fair distance, about 20 meters, while the man obverses Adelhilda from a fair distance once again. Of course, you're nearby him, but not too close. Just in case.

This time, Adelhilda doesn't react as badly. Keyword here being as, given that she still physically seems unnerved by his presence, and glances towards your direction, at you, every few moments as if for mental support.

"Hm... yes, the Resolve program is about functioning properly now. Full mark," says the man, nodding. "A combat test is next. Aki, Elsa."

"Eh?" The place-" you begin.

"Isn't a problem." He turns and gestures to one of the two girls- no, both. "A light one."

A slight nod in turn, immediately before both move. There is no real sense of synchrony or deliberate timing between the two.

The Far Eastern girl closes the gap of within a second, drawing her blade in the same span- Intercepted at point blank by a shield. Simultaneously she leaps back, immediately before the wings sweep open- slicing the nearby air.

A score of flaming lances rain towards Adelhilda- you only notice from their bisected remains, split in an unnatural grace by the wings- exploding immediately after. Lancing through the smoke is a hail of ice, systematically raining down with unnatural speed, a light yellow shade to the barrage indicates lightning assistance. A blast of wind wipes away the smoke revealing a network of shields effectively blocking out the rain-

Freezing solid twice over in an instant. Shattering the next-

The very same sees Adelhilda knocked back about a dozen meters, turning in the process, a blade forming in her hand. It clashes against a gauntlet of metal- the brown hair girl- shattering the blade by the second gauntlet. The wings strike forth- except the girl's no long there.

Instead a hail of ice greets her. Shattering entirely against the wings- but stalling them a moment. A blade sinks through the ice, a stack of shields, and yet stops barely before touching Adelhilda. The very same moment the impediment ends. Yet only the blade is left behind. A circle of fire immediately follows, encircling Adelhilda, and sweeping inwards to its center. An inferno that appears to burn nothing, except freeze over.

A trail of yellowish ice follows as the Far Easterner lands a short distance away, another sword in hand. Identical. Turning on the spot, she faces Adelhilda's direction, gesturing the ground at the same time, raising multiple solid chunks of the ground into the air. Lightning crackles for a split second as the chunks blast away.

But miss entirely as Adlehilda takes to the air. A series of shields flashing straight back at the Far Easterner. Only to be melted through by a wave of fire-which in turn is shredded by the Phantasm Feathers.

For some reason, you don't think either of the two are taking it seriously, maybe even less than what they were told to do.

Adelhilda though, seems to be showing some issue with Precision Control and Prioritization still. Which it'd seem somewhat less extreme now and more... manageable. It shows as the two she's matched off with aren't really trying to work together and merely not against each other.

"Hm... passable. Precision Control and Prioritization are still lacking while Independent Functionality is working properly...," notes the man. "Of course, that means I can't give you full credit bonus for the work either. Well, for passable completion in a single checkup of course."

"Yes I understand, so then," you say, gesturing to the on going testing battle. If you could call it one.

"Ah right, Aki, Elsa, test's over," remarks the man.

With that, the test abruptly comes to an end. As the girls make their way back, you consider about the credit...
[ ] Cash in the Credit now, take a look at his wares as well.
[ ] Don't cash in the Credit now, maybe next year.
[ ] Ask for him to just deduct the cost needed to just patch up the rest, shouldn't cost that much now and besides, you have that extra credits to spare no?
[ ] Ask for him to just deduct the cost needed to just patch up the rest, shouldn't cost that much now and besides, you have that extra credits to spare no? Then cash in the Credit and take a look at his wares as well.
[ ] Something Else (Write In.)

(If you want to look at his wares, please give me an idea what you guys want.)

Adelhida Status:
[Independent Function - 100% Completed]
[Prioritization - 75% Passable]
[Precision Control - 75% Passable]
[Resolve EX Rank - 100% Completed]

I'm thinking look at his wares.

We can finish her up on our own.

[ ] Ask for him to just deduct the cost needed to just patch up the rest, shouldn't cost that much now and besides, you have that extra credits to spare no?

I think it is time to focus on working on our own training. While we certainly could finish her up on our own, I think we've been neglecting ourselves in the hurry to fix her.

I can't work with a tie and just two vote tie at that.

Another point of course, if you want to look at his wares, please also give me an idea what you guys want/are looking for.

Deduct what it will take to fix her. We want to improve ourself as well.
Then look at the wares. Does he have any users of unusual magic styles? Like Alchemy, Runes, Shikigami, etc? One of those would be a boon to our forces. Basicly, unusual magical powers or talents is what we want to look for. We can hire normal people if we want generic minions at a lower price, probably. Flawless brainwashing cannot be cheap.

I don't want to leave her in his custody for a moment.

[X] Cash in some of the credit and finish the work ourselves.

Ask the man if he has anything he can sell and look for people that have healing abilities or can help us manage funds or trade.

[X] Cash in the Credit now, take a look at his wares as well.

[X] Cash in the Credit now, take a look at his wares as well.

Guys, we need to discuss what exactly we're looking to buy.

I'm going to hold off a bit before giving me thoughts, I wanna see what everyone else comes up with first.

I say we look for subjects with rare magical skills or talents that can be used to help our forces infrastructure. Alchemy would be really handy. Someone with an affinity for that would be very useful to make better stuff.

Basicly, we want to get the things that can't be found normally. So people with Runes affinities, Aether affinities, and so forth. We can train up normal figures just fine ourselves. Buying people should be for stuff that can't be gotten normally.

Some kind of tutor or administrator. The former to help ourselves (and possibly other characters/units) learn skills in either magic or weapons, the latter to help get the most out of our possessions.

We can probably get an admin person elsewhere without paying vast sums for slave training. Same with a mentor. Although looking won't hurt.

Well I'd like to point out if we just cash in some of the credit and do the rest of the work ourselves so we'll have some more credit to cash in later. And that it can't hurt to ask if he has any items to sell.

Cash in the credit for him to complete the work needed on Hild.

As far as not leaving Hild to his method of fixing...She's just a PET. My dogs don't like going to the VET. My children don't like going to the doctor. I still take them whether they like it or not.

If we ABSOLUTELY have to look through his wares, look but don't buy! Having one pet means we can focus our attentions to her. It already is taking time away from developing ourselves. If you add another, then you take even more away from ourselves and have to split attentions between two. If we need another direct subordinate, lets hire a bodyguard who will do the job for the money and not through direct attention, such as a pet.

My biggest problem so far is how much we have ignored our own development. Let's focus on that for a bit?

If we buy another pet it should be a finished one, yes. But some talents likely are not for hire, but may be available as captured and trained slaves.

I'm going to change my vote to holding onto the credit and finishing her off. Should earn us more credit, enough to get a higher grade servant.

I don't mind holding onto the credit, but I thought we wouldn't get any more because this was the "time-limit" we set for ourselves? (Maybe should have gone with 3 years...)
Or am I misunderstanding something?

He'll be back in another 2 years.

Kelenas wrote:I don't mind holding onto the credit, but I thought we wouldn't get any more because this was the "time-limit" we set for ourselves? (Maybe should have gone with 3 years...)
Or am I misunderstanding something?

Psycko is correct that he'll be back in another 2 years. Though the part you wouldn't get any more was in regards to perfect completion in one visit. Namely, the first interval. That was a bonus. You guys did at least get a fair portion of it still though. You can still get the last bits of credit from finishing up Adelhilda (and yes, it costs more for him to do the rest of it than amount you would gain from doing it yourself).

Psyckosama wrote:He'll be back in another 2 years.

Correct.

Edit: Will update after I get the dices done for the relevant stuff... if you guys are cashing now.

I'll jump the wagon and change my vote to Psycko's

The way I see it, the credit wont change between now and the next time that he visits, the only change will be what he has to sell. As such, the way I see it, the best thing for us to do would be to agree to take the cash now, and to look at his wares. This is because of the fact that just because we're looking at his wares, doesn't mean we're going to buy something, if we don't see anything that stands out as something that we need to have.

In the event that he doesn't have anything that we want, is there anything stopping us from making requests, something along the lines of requesting certain skill sets, maybe even mentioning that if there isn't enough time to finish their training, we would be fine with a similar deal to Hildy.

Also, the reason why I think we should accept the cash no matter what, is the simple fact that odds are, the programing was very expensive, and that kind of cash doesn't have to be spent on new pets, instead it could be spent on infrastructure or an army. Meaning that 2 years from now we can use money that we've earnt/plundered to pay him instead.

tl;dr [X] Cash in some of the credit and finish the work ourselves. And if he doesn't have anything we want, maybe make a request. Also, find out how much we'll get from him and what else we can use it for.

I vote we wait until we finish the job personally.

So uh, based on stuff that Rein has mentioned in chat, I'm going to change my vote to not taking the credit yet, but that we should still have a look at his wares, that and we should ask a few questions about Aki and Elsa.

[X] Don't cash in the Credit now, maybe next year. See if he has anything interesting for sell.


Let it grow let it grow. Until the end of the year..let it grow let it grow.

Huh.
Interesting stuff. Don´t know what to vote for, though.