[Game Thread] Chapter six I: Fireside chat.

[Acathala]

Nallaul smiles as he speaks of her. "Beautiful and powerful. Apparently as you humans say, that's my jam. Any Drow male's jam really, given how matriarchal our society is, was. Sulion is very exciting, and she was genuinely kind to me. I think, I hope she's a good person. Hopefully once everything is out in the open with her, we can explore things further. Of course it's possible I've picked another Xufaer, a woman incapable of loving me back, but I don't think so. Sulion gave me hope, and that's powerful. She actually inspired one of my spells. Melf's unicorn arrows, is what the surface calls it."
Nallaul suddenly smiles again. "I have a funny story for you. Before things went down at the arena, I had been considering asking Dea if she fancied a fling."

[SpatulaOdoom]

Morgan nods along to Nallaul's words as he describes what he saw in Sullion.
"All excellent qualities to seek in a woman.
The mystery gods have acted against the fiends enough that I'm satisfied they aren't agents of theirs, but I'm far less sanguine on the Zera side of things, especially given their bindings."
He begins pouring himself another glass of wine, but then pauses. If he did he'd be emptying the bottle and Nallaul had only had one thus far. Also if he dove back into the Sledgehammer he'd really get smashed. He might let something slip with Nallaul, who really did seem like a decent enough guy, but that didn't mean he should spill every little secret. Worse Mortimer would be pissed, since he had kind of promised to cut back on the drinking, and Morgan preferred not to have to buy yet another pair of shoes.
So instead he carefully sets the bottle back down, closer to his drow guest than himself.
"But as requested we'll stay away from dire subjects.
Zilira's strength is one of the things that really sold me on pursuing her romantically. I don't mean her divine power, ability to bind vestiges, psionically claw secrets from people's skulls, or even the physical strength to crush a troll's skull between her fingers, but her emotional strength and strength of character."

Morgan sighs and uses a fire poker to shift a small chunk of partially burnt wood that had fallen into a corner, rolling it into the middle where the coals will light it. He then takes another chunk of wood off the rack and adds it to the fireplace.

"It can't escape you that a thousand years of slavery to her own family can't have been an entirely pleasant experience. While I'm sure most of them weren't as needlessly cruel as the drow might be to others in a similar situation, Zilira was still at times considered the family skeleton in the closet, or the monster under the floorboards so to speak. Being related by blood to Asharte isn't exactly something most people up here would be proud of.

There were good times, and there were bad, and there were times where she spent entire generations locked away in her little cell under the throne room. No end in sight until around the time Coiya reappeared, and even then no assurance. I couldn't even hint that I knew how to free her, since part of her compulsion was to ensure her continued servitude, violently if necessary.

That she could not only survive that with her sanity intact, but actually make peace with it and come out the other end a better and stronger person is absolutely amazing to me.

As far as valuing strength in a mate in general, some people don't, but I consider them idiots.
Traits are often passed on to children, so if your mate is inferior in terms of physical or mental characteristics, your children are more likely to be so as well. Magic often passes through bloodlines as well.
Assuming you intend to have more of a relationship than merely creating spawn, it becomes even more important since a strong mate increases your combined strength, while a weak one likely reduces it. Shore up your weaknesses, magnify your strengths, and you can do the same for them. A pairing of weak and strong will fall when the strong becomes overwhelmed by life, but strong and strong will not unless both do."

[Acathala]

"I'm looking for more. Someone who will love me back. Maybe have a few children too. Ideally in a time when the world isn't being imperilled, but I'm sure once the current batch of peril is dealt with, a fresh hell of peril will show up. Perhaps a humanoid calamari invasion. Or perhaps all plants will gain sentience and try to kill us all. Guess I'm saying there isn't an ideal time to have a family then, you just got to do it." Nallaul muses on the idea of having children with Sulion. They would be godling, and he would unsure how he felt about that. Likely make them more of a target than just being related to him. Plus he wasn't sure if there would be anything resembling a happy ending with Sulion. He couldn't shake the feeling of disaster looming over them. Yet Nallaul was not giving up on her.
"I presume that means you want to have children with Zilira?"

[SpatulaOdoom]

"Don't wait for the universe to give you that perfect moment, or you'll likely be waiting forever. Make them, steal them, and take whatever imperfect moments you can too. I for one didn't become a wizard because I was happy with taking no for an answer from the universe, and that bleeds over to other stuff too.
That said, you might be putting the cart before the horse a little, talking about children when you don't even know her last name, or I suppose her first name for sure."
Morgan cocks his head, glancing sidelong at the Arachnomancer.
"I uhhh. I could give you a little advice on surfacer relationships, as well as god and mortal ones, but the truth is, I have no idea if Sullion comes from a surfacer society. From what you've told me of her and what I've seen so far, it seems far more likely than being raised by drow, or fiends, but..."
His advice to Vulcar had seemed to help, but this was a far different and odd situation. Then again Morgan and Zilira were a pretty odd pairing too.
"As for me and Zil, yes, we will be having several buckets of babies. The *ahem* process has already begun"

[Acathala]

"I think I just said that." Nallaul said amused. "I'm already aware things may not work out with Sulion. As you say I know little about the ivory haired war maiden, but I'm willing to take the risk. It's a smaller risk than say, Xu ending reality." Nallaul pauses for a moment. "I probably should not tell you this but for a short while I resented him because he was the only one Xufaer loved, in her own way. Then I realised I was being an idiot and it wasn't his fault."
On the news Zilira is pregnant, Nallaul takes on a teasing tone. "I see. Somebody marked their territory quickly! Boy or girl?"

[SpatulaOdoom]

"And I was agreeing with you, and also paraphrasing something someone said to me when I was complaining about having to spend more time with all these other women than the one I was actually interested in."
He stretches, getting more comfortable in the armchair.
"As for Xu ending reality, I'm not really that worried about it. Reality is big and tough. Xu'deln or no, time and events are not absolute anyway, yet we're still around and we don't know he has that level of power over reality. I'm more concerned with the effect he'll have on our little corner of it, and trying to help it be a positive one."

When Nallaul asks boy or girl Morgan simply shrugs.
"Dunno, it's too early for even Zilira to tell.
I've been, ah, plowing the fields regularly. Sweaty, demanding, tiring work, and a lot of fun, but only since Zilira was freed from her bonds are the seeds going to be able to take root."
That would have been five days ago. Morgan supposes he could cast a few divinations and find out once they knew for sure she was pregnant, but that seemed like cheating.
*sigh* "A goddess isn't going to be as radically affected by a pregnancy as a mortal woman might, but it will still affect her, and with two wars in the wings and her instinct to protect the royal line, me, and Halva in general...
Well, I'm concerned.
I think I might need to grasp at some power, and soon. That way she at least won't have to worry as much about protecting me, and maybe I can pitch in on protecting Vulcar and Halva.
One idea I'd had was to try and track down a demiplane with the flowing time trait, perhaps one of Jaraskimiorten's old hidden planes, and get some accelerated training in. Try to breach the ninth circle. If you're interested in joining me, I could use an arcanist training partner."

[Acathala]

"Lucky you. The last time I had sex was the week before the events at the arena. That was with Vierdaer, one of our soldiers. Beautiful but she was probably hoping to get pregnant and improve her status through the child. In reality she would have made herself a target for Xul'olin and her abomination of a son, without any protection. Still the good news is she wasn't at the temple and there's a chance she survived. Not like everyone else whom was either killed or captured by the sins." Nallaul pauses as he considers something. Strokes his hair as he thinks. What happens to the realms of the sins killed by the new gods? Presumably if the realms survived, the captured souls were still there. Whilst most of them deserved to be there, Nallaul couldn't deny there would be one or two who didn't. How could he tell the difference? He's distracted from this moral quandary from Morgan's last question. "I think I'm going to need every bit of power I can get. The great thing about magic is that there is always something new to learn."

[SpatulaOdoom]

"If you are feeling the pinch as far as your physical needs go, you can always head to a brothel. Halva is somewhat puritanical in it's views on sex outside of marriage, but not as bad as some countries, so brothels are legal. Generally the views get more strict the higher up the social ladder you climb, at least until you hit the really higher reaches of society. At the uppermost levels people have access to the resources it takes to get around most restrictions and dangers involved like unwanted pregnancies and disease."
Although there were plenty of idiots out there that didn't take appropriate precautions.
"I don't really know anything about Sulion, but I can give you some general advice on gods. Treat her like a person, and don't go in for all that bowing and scraping and “oh yea most holy and high blah blah” stuff. All the ones I've run into have had better things to do with their time than endure a lot of platitudes and groveling. You don't seem to be the type to do that much anyway, but just so it's out there.

If you do wind up making time with her, keep a steady supply of durhang on hand. It's a herbal concoction that'll prevent unwanted pregnancies and is rumored to help a gentleman's endurance along. It might just be placebo, but I think it does. If you're willing to spend the money for it, a potion or scroll of lesser restoration also brings you back to full strength immediately.
Also, try not to get her drunk on Sledgehammer before bedroom shenanigans. The results can be painful if she starts forgetting her own strength."

Perhaps it is unsurprising given who he'd wound up with, but Morgan seemed fairly open about relationships and sex compared what Nallaul had learned about humans on the surface.

"The problem with power right now is finding time to gain it. Back in the day I could stand to take years to breach the next circle of spells and let my talents develop naturally alongside my little adventures. I had no particular... need I suppose. Not beyond my own personal interests at least. Now the sword of Damocles hangs over us all and we have no idea how much time we have before it falls and we're neck deep in sh!t."
Morgan pulls a face. He had always taken a certain amount of pride in being able to support himself, and being able to help others in need. Now he suspects he'll have to swallow his pride and seek out less pleasant means of gaining that power. Begging of others had never been something he'd had to do, at least not... Not in the way of being utterly indebted to another.
"****. I'm going to have to talk to Seneca."

[Acathala]

"Oh I can wait a little longer. As for Sulion, she seems to like it when I'm waxing poetic about her. She does bring out the poet in me. That's good information about brothels. We Drow often get the impression you sufacers are afraid of sex. It's good that you are so open about it. I gather that's the exception rather than the rule. Here's a tip from Nallaul. Reverse gravity. Opens up new possibilities. Of course it's a special occasion spell since it's so high level." Nallaul has a cat like grin on his face as he remembers the pleasurable times he had with that spell. His application of that spell had even caught Xufaer off guard.
When Morgan speaks of power and then of Seneca, the Arachnomancer looks sympathetic. "I see. Is Seneca the vampire then? I can't advise you on dealmaking. If you think the power is worth the bargain, then that is up to you. As a vampire, depending on how old he is, Seneca is likely to have vast knowledge, some of which may have been lost to mortals. Again you would have to decide if that is worth whatever price he charges. I'd be interested to know that cost. We're wizards of course, and our curiosity is both our strength and weakness. Weakness if we allow it to consume us."

[SpatulaOdoom]

"It really depends on where you go and who you talk to. Remember the surface is not some mono-theistic single government single culture the way the drow are. Or, I suppose I should say, were. Different cultures have different views on sex and some are less restrictive and some are more. Laftiil and her church encourages casual sex and love for example.
There are, I suspect, a few reasons for that difference. If the old lore about Elves applies to drow as well, I'm guessing their fertility rate is significantly lower than humans. So the possibility of accidental pregnancy is much higher.

I think one big factor that I suspect many of your people might overlook is the subject of inheritance and patriarchy rather than matriarchy. In most, although not all, surface cultures the line of noble succession, leadership of household, and inheritance follows down the males of the family. This presents a bit of a problem however. How do you know with absolute certainty the young man your wife has given birth to is actually your son? If not, and if that not-son becomes head of household, your entire family line has just lost control of their power and wealth.
In a matriarchy it's very easy to tell. Who's hole did the baby pop out of? That's who's kid it is and that's who inherits.
With the patriarchy you have to keep an eye on the women to make sure that any children she gives birth to are yours. That's why the virgin bride is so highly prized in these societies, and why sex outside of certain situations is demonized. To discourage the possibility of the wife being impregnated by someone other than the husband. It's also why it's less of a problem with the lower classes, since there are no noble titles, political powers, or great amounts of property to inherit, and the household is basically your immediate family.
And then you add the concept of marriage and bastards of the male line to the stew."
Morgan waves that away. Nallaul was intelligent enough that with what Morgan had given him he could conduct further research if the subject actually interested him.
"It's a very messy system, but I think I'd still prefer it to passing things on to the best at murder."

The suggestion of using reverse gravity to spice things up causes Morgan to raise an eyebrow. He glances up at the ceiling. Sure it would offer a different viewpoint, but wo- No. If you left yourself oscilating in thin air it might be interesting, pressing you into each other.

"Reverse gravity might be worth a giggle, but I don't really see it lasting long enough to get much of anything done. You have the same problem with a lot of the other fun spells like Grease and Animate Rope."

When the subject turns to Seneca, almost accidentally Morgan grimaces.
"It's nothing so esoteric as that. Seneca Sol is the head of house Sol. House Sol is a financial powerhouse greater than Dragonblaze or even Halva if you remove their government based holdings from the equation. The going joke is that everyone owes money to house Sol, whether they know it or not. I think I'm going to have to join everybody in owing house Sol and seek out a sizable loan.
Magical equipment costs a great deal of money, and I'm not going to earn that quickly enough to significantly upgrade my current gear. Even with the reasonably generous stipend I'm getting from Vulcar and if I had time to find a proper patron and provide services, it would just take too long."
Morgan sighs and again fights the urge to have another drink.
"The truth is Seneca has been very... kind to me, and I have been somewhat unkind to him. I have issues with vampires."
Again the mage pauses, obviously uncomfortable with the subject.
Ah hell. I need to tell SOMEone. Might be easier to talk to Nallaul than someone close.
"I have issues stemming from an incident that happened close to ten years ago. Remember when you asked me about knowing what it's like to be afraid every single day of your life? The truth is, I do sort of know what that's like. It's not my entire life, but for a period of just over three weeks I was the plaything of a vampiress. I was in Kast at the tail end of my tour of Aheka. I caught her eye at some party or other, it doesn't really matter. Said I was witty and fun."
Morgan draws out his old ebony wood pipe. He doesn't pack it or light it. He just needs something for his hands to fiddle with.
"I'm usually pretty stubborn willed, but that night it failed me and she dominated me. Apparently that was sort of her specialty. She liked finding interesting people and forcing them to be her playthings. Paying court to her and fulfilling her whims until she got bored with them or found someone more interesting.
She called herself Lady Scarlet, and she was the most vapid self-absorbed vicious little blood-sucker that ever existed. No wonder she had to resort to domin-"
Morgan stops, taking a deep breath and consciously relaxing his grip on the pipe before he snaps it's slender stem.
"Anyway, she had me wait on her hand and foot, as well as do other things for her I don't really care to recount. The problem is, I kept resisting most of her darker orders." Morgan stares into the fire. "Most of them. She didn't like that. Shortly after arriving in Mayasoris she decided to punish me. She drained me to soften me up, then forced me to hold still while she dug my left eye out with a grapefruit spoon. Said I'd look rakish with an eye-patch. Turns out she had a thing for eyes too, since I wasn't the only one she'd given that treatment to.

I was lucky that a brave young lady, Eloise, met us at another party. Eloise was looking for the person who'd killed her fiance a year prior. You can guess who'd done that. She managed to slip a potion of Protection from Evil into my drink, temporarily suppressing the vampire's domination. I blasted Scarlet, but she ran and I had to find someone to remove the domination before Eloise ran out of potions and it re-asserted itself. We got that taken care of, but by the time we got to where Scarlet was staying, she and her coffin were gone.

We tracked her across Halva and into Aria. I made a terrible mistake there. One that I'm going to have to pay for some day. But in the end we destroyed her and spread her ashes to the wind.
So. You will maybe understand me when I say I have difficulty being civil with Seneca. He's not Scarlet, or Anan for that matter, and I need to remember that, but it's really damn hard."

ooc Sorry for the wall of text, but this is the first chance I've had to tell the story to someone other than the GM. Also the Patriachy/Matriarchy thing is interesting to consider.

[Acathala]

"I think the birth rate for "pure" Drow has been in the toilet for a long, long time. It's why Lolth had banned conflict between cities. Well direct conflict between Drow at least. Slaves were used as pawns. Even that died out, as it wasn't simply profitable to do that. We, as you know, just didn't have the numbers." Nallaul listens to what Morgan has to say on politics. "I suspect it's not as simple as that. I imagine human politics can as be as brutal as Drow politics although I will concede murder is less common in human politics." Nallaul strokes his hair as he considers whether or not to share his views further. Decided on yes he will. "I don't like either system to be honest. I'd rather have some sort of meritocracy, where people are chosen for positions based on their ability, not because they murdered someone to get it, or other through other corrupt means, or just because it was an inheritance. People aren't always like their parents. Also just because you got the job through unfair means, it doesn't mean you can do the job."
On the vampire Nallaul is still sympathetic to Morgan. "I see. Eloise was the one on the trip Zilira blackmailed me to go on? Oh I don't bear her any ill will for that. None of you had any reason to trust me." Nallaul clarified. "I'm sorry that happened to you. Sounds like that vampire would have made a good priestess of Lolth. Still it's good that you acknowledge you haven't treated him well. He isn't Scarlett, but us mortals aren't beings of pure logic. Our emotions are both our greatest power and greatest weakness. Don't beat yourself up too much. Speak with Seneca, and if he's as wise and kind as you think he is, he'll understand. Likely he already knows about Scarlett."
Nallaul looks away for a moment. What happened to Morgan could have happened to him. By the time he was interesting, Nallaul was under the protection of Xufaer. Tel'shar was not so lucky. His brother could share horror stories with Morgan.

[SpatulaOdoom]

"I think the low birth rate might just be an elf thing. The old histories say the same about the other types of elves."
Morgan grins slightly to himself. The idea of being a father had ignited something primal in the mage, and he'd been “making sure” as often as they had time for.

When the subject of a meritocracy comes up, Morgan listens to the drow's viewpoint with interest.
"Meritocracy as a system of running families, or governments? The Quen kinship of Tsuun kind of works like that, but you do run into problems, especially if you try to apply it to larger and larger groups. Who decides on what constitutes merit and which merits are most important, and who decides who is the most worthy? If it's whoever is currently in power, then everything just devolves into a popularity contest of brown-nosing to the current leader or leaders in order to be chosen. Bribery and graft. In addition those in power or with the wealth will use their power and wealth to help those they choose, like their children for example, develop into the most meritorious individuals most “deserving” of higher status. Nepotism ho.
Basically it doesn't solve any of the underlying problems that cause the inequalities, like patriarchy/matriarchy, that might be bothering you.
Instead I prefer to try to teach people to be better people. If people are “good” so to speak, it doesn't matter what system of government they live under. Up to a point I suppose."

Morgan rolls his eyes at the mention of blackmail.
"You have an interesting idea of what blackmail is. Zil offered you a deal. One that you chose to accept rather than look to alternatives.
Thank you for your kind words though."
The lanky mage pauses briefly.
"Seneca being kind to me is... Slightly different than being a kind person. Patient might be a better term. I expect a part of it is that he was hoping I'd marry his daughter. Now that that's off the table, I'm not so sure. Another common saying is “Don't f$#k with House Sol.” For example they have the skeleton of one of the Dragonblaze's dragon ancestors (one of Scion's sons) on display in their reception hall. Since the Dragonblazes came to power as one of the big three, they have been lobbying for, even demanding, the return of the remains. When Seneca got tired of their pestering one time when the head of House Dragonblaze, Edan, was over he animated it to dance a jig in front of him. Edan stopped asking.
House Sol is also currently in the process of financially puling apart house Lyrasson, a former High Council house, like a piece of overcooked chicken because the man lied to him. There's a little more to it than that, and the head of house richly deserves it, but I'm not sure his family does."
He looks over at Nallaul for a moment, eyes dark and brooding.
"Seneca Sol, the Lord of Morning. Until a week ago, nobody, or almost nobody, knew that Seneca existed. Nobody knew that every head of House Sol had been a guise that he wore. He claims he is the oldest vampire that has ever been, because he was the first vampire created by Cehrencha. Lalien Shedeth the god of vampires knew him when Seneca revealed himself, and was angry enough about it he went to rip Seneca's throat out, but was unable to do it. At the very least that means Seneca is up the there's that bit about vampires unable to physically harm those that create them, or so on up the chainchain of creation from Shedeth."
Morgan snorts and jams the pipe in the corner of his mouth.
"You know, it's a good thing I've grown numb to all this craziness, otherwise I think I'd be shitting myself in fear right now thinking about going to someone like that, one that might be annoyed with me, and asking him for a loan that would beggar a medium sized town."
Morgan's stomach does a slow flip. Apparently he wasn't entirely numb to it all.

[Acathala]

"Then perhaps there is no good form of government. Just the least worse." Nallaul stated. I think it's a little sad that neither of us has a solution to that question of government. What did that human writer say? Ah yes. No system of government survives contact with human nature.
Nallaul listens patiently to Morgan explain exactly who the vampire is. "I see why you're hesitant about getting into bed with him. Or perhaps that should be getting into coffin with him. The question remains the same. Is it worth it if it helps you stop Zera? That's also still only a question you can answer. The only advice I can give you, if you do go to him, is to make the terms and conditions clearly defined, and make sure you have someone experienced in contract law with you."
Feeling the evening is going back into serious territory Nallaul stands up. He immediately falls forward. Four limbs spike out of his sides, his clothing and most of his equipment, black hair sprouting out all of his body, replacing his blond hair. Nallaul's head becomes that of a spider, many eyes peering at the world. Changed fully into the form of the spider, Nallaul had chosen one the size of a dog. He scurried up the wall, and then to the ceiling. Above his chair, Nallaul's front two legs begin to move weirdly. Almost like he's spellcasting. He is spellcasting! Morgan's ring of spell battle tells him Nallaul is casting feather fall. As the Arachnomancer floats down to his chair, he resumes his Drow form, he lands perfectly in his chair. Both transformations happen quickly. Nallaul looks to Morgan, and dead panned. "I'm here all week. Try the veal. It's to die for, or possibly of."

[SpatulaOdoom]

"I've been a businessman in Halvana long enough that I know the ins and outs of Halvan contracts as well as most barristers. I'm not even too worried that Seneca will take it personally. I just." Morgan pauses, somewhat embarrassed. "I'm going to do it. I'm not going to let my pride cause me to avoid exploring every reasonable avenue to ensure not just my children and Zilira's safety, but the world itself. It's just... Uncomfortable? Embarrassing really, to admit you've done wrong like that."

Nalaul's sudden movement and transformation startles Morgan at first, but he makes no immediate move to defend himself. His hands are already free for spellcasting, and he can dimension door away from the chair as easily as on his feet. It quickly becomes obvious that the arachnomancer is giving a demonstration of his rather intriguing abilities. Once he's done Morgan offers a polite golf clap as though appreciating a fine show at the theatre.
"Bravo. That's all rather impressive. I saw no spell casting, so I assume it functions rather like a druid's shape shifting ability? Can you maintain it for long? How large a spider can you become? Can it be dispelled?”"
Morgan's own abilities were quite a bit less spectacular visually. Subtle changes in probability could be all but invisible to the observer beyond seeming unusually lucky, and his oracular visions weren't a group experience.
Morgan finds himself wondering if a human can learn this art, or if it's restricted by blood like some of the old even magics.
"Oh and if you are hungry, I can have someone whip you up something. Sadly I don't think we have too many flies in the pantry."

[Acathala]

Nallaul looks at Morgan, pleased that the wizard grasped the fundamental of it. "Yes. It is more druidic in nature, and because it is more of a supernatural druidic ability it cannot be undone by a dispel. I'm surprised you didn't notice the feather fall I cast. As far as how big I can be as a spider, the size of a big house is comparable. That with ironguard, makes me a siege engine. Though I really prefer battlefield control with some allies. Alamen was the best partner I had for that. Hopefully she's still alive and not in hell, but I doubt it." Nallaul doesn't linger long on Alamen. She was likely killed or abducted so Deimos could take her place. Even if she was alive, Alamen might prefer she wasn't.
Nallaul carries on. "I've always admired spiders. Hard working creatures, at various things. I certainly shared their work ethic when I studied them. Learned a lot about them." Nallaul paused for a minute, but decided not to stop. "I was quite ill when I was a child. It was nearly at the point my mother was going to abandon me in the wilderness to die. Tel'shar got me out of the house to build me up. He tried to teach me to climb, but I just wasn't getting it, and feeling sorry for myself. Until I saw this small spider. It was having trouble climbing the wall, but it was taking it slowly, and not giving up. I took inspiration from that spider and kept trying. Eventually I was better than Tel'shar at it. That's when I first admired spiders and started to study them in earnest. Never worshipped them, but felt connected to them. Of course this connection wouldn't have grown without the aid of an enemy. Of course that's another story, one moral of it being, doing something purely for revenge is stupid. Would you like to hear how I became an Arachnomancer, or has Xu already told that story?"