Kevin Curry
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Summon Perfect Warlady 23
🕑 Added 2024-01-29 15:00:14 +0000 UTCThis whole week has been a creative desert... I managed to get this done, though. I don't think I'm going to be able to manage a Fae chronicles update this month, tho.
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The Thinkamancy guild has the grandiose name of The Great Minds that Think Alike. Their guild hall looked like a Greek temple, if it was made from colorful plastic. The area surrounding it had literal playground equipment, which some of the thinkamancers were using with what could charitably called contemplative looks on their faces.
Tanya thought that ‘even less attentive to the world around them than the stoned hippiemancers’ described those vacant looks better.
Isaac was among them, oscillating on a rubber duck shaped playground toy, supported by a spring. What were those called? Either way, he was also paying much more attention to… how did Janis put it? ‘the grandness of the cosmos’? He was clearly focusing on that rather than physical reality.
“Headmaster?” She prompted, seeing if he was aware enough to notice himself addressed. He was not. Tanya strummed their mutual heartstring instead, infusing it with a wordless request for discussion.
Isaac fell off of the giant rubber ducky. He sent a much more complicated message along the same string, requesting clarification on both the request and on how she had managed to send a thinkagram.
“It’s Date-a-mancy.” Tanya said out loud. “Numbers are data. Data is information. Pairings have a connection, and through that connection, Date-a can be sent.” Tanya waved her hands mystically and strummed the heartstring one more time. “It's more complicated than that, but it's accurate enough to work with.”
Or, to be more specific, she sent a shared experience, provoking his mind into conjuring the corresponding memory of the time she had asked him to describe casting thinkamancy, where he said that exact thing when referring to how thinkamancy senses involved the detection of strings that Thinkamancy spells send information through, in the case of thinkagrams, or manipulate, in the case of more direct magic. She couldn't talk about them out loud, as part of the voluntary self-censorship that was a precondition to learning more about Thinkamancy.
“Fascinating.” Isaac said out loud, politely matching the conversational medium. Simultaneously, more information got sent along their heartstring. “This could have greater implications than you know.”
“I wish to discuss a sensitive matter. I just had the most interesting claims made by a neighbor that you all can apparently verify.” Tanya said obliquely. “Is there a secure area we can use?”
“Does one exist? Yes.” Isaac said. “Can we use it? That depends on the nature of the discussion.“
“The information was more of an accusation.” Tanya clarified, “Supposedly, an experiment by the Great Minds I was involved in, we've had plenty of those, haven't we? Had something of an ulterior motive.” Isaac's eyes widened. She thinks he understands. “As their claims would have a significant impact on my side’s diplomatic posture, and our own relations with the Great Minds, I thought it prudent to speak with you directly.”
Headmaster Isaac contemplated her words. “Yes, if it is a matter of importance to the Great Minds as a whole, it should be secure. Follow me.”
As it turned out, Maggie was already present right outside the thinkamancy guild temple, discussing something or other with a woman that looked a little like an infamously attractive horror movie hostess, but more svelte. “Princess.” She greeted.
“We’ll be having this discussion inside the Temple.” Isaac announced, to the shock of the collected casters.
They fell in line, though. From the feel of their emotions, Tanya got the impression that the announcement was more of a signal to activate a contingency plan rather than a normal pronouncement from a leader. There wasn't nearly enough confusion for this to be spontaneous.
After a brief moment for Isaac to announce her impending entrance to those inside, he came back out. “My fellow Minds have agreed with my decision. We welcome you into the Temple of Thinkamancy.”
The interior was spartan, with basically nothing but stone flooring and places to sit. Maggie informed her of how the seats constituted a pseudo-ranking system of esteem/seniority, and there weren't any accommodations for guests.
Deeming such a thing unacceptable, Tanya reached into her cleavage and pulled out a wand that looked like an office seal, making use of her new dress’ storage and retrieval properties. Waving it while saying the magic word, “Wilscot”, she made a throne for herself, one that fit her dress’ signamancy. All this wand did was make temporary, one-turn dirtamancy structures, usually tiny ‘rooms’ which amounted to adding furniture given the small battery but she could use it to make minor fortifications if she kept feeding it juice.
The thinkamancers, she realized, didn't emote much. Isaac was an exception; he was probably exercising more control over his facial expression than most, but he didn't shun that particular mode of nonverbal communication. The others did.
Fortunately, she could read the forming heartstrings between them and her, and that was even more reliable. Some of them felt slighted, seeing her action as rude, but others felt more respect: from long familiarity of the nuances of respect she knew to attribute that to her royal status, they saw it as right and proper for a visiting princess to have a place to sit.
Maggie informed her telepathically that while this place was secure, it would only be so if she limited her communication to channels of thought. It wasn't difficult to project those thoughts, she did so every day when issuing orders. “As you are aware, I was summoned to this world by the Summon Perfect Warlord spell, which was created with your input.”
[Tisha Necrosis] My finest work. {Acknowledgement} (pride)
That was… a lot more thorough of a communication than was usually transmitted via Thinkamancy. It contained the name and face (that very Gothic looking caster Maggie was speaking with earlier), a text message, the connotation of the statement (that she was acknowledging Tanya’s statement on behalf of the group) and, in barely a whisper that Tanya could only barely register, the emotional layer of the statement. Was that deliberate? If she wasn't focusing her date-a-mancy senses, she probably wouldn't have caught it.
Tanya decided to pretend it was normal, although she strongly suspected they could see her make that decision as clearly as she could see their hidden amusement at her reaction. The whole experience was reminding her unpleasantly of Being X. “Marie Laverne, who claims involvement in the creation of the summoning spell…” Tanya trailed off, letting the question hang.
[Isaac Cipher] She was. {Confirmation} (anxious)
“...she claimed that I was summoned with an objective enforced by Fate, to croak Charlie.” Tanya finished, “Which is your goal.”
There was an odd clicking sound, with the emotions of the Great Minds swirling in response. They were talking to each other. Perhaps a highly compressed language for efficient communication between them? Maybe an encrypted one instead?
[Empress Saltina] The summoning spell was a collaborative effort meant to fulfill multiple goals, from multiple groups. One of them, our goal, was the destruction of Charlescomm, that is correct. {Exposition} (hope)
The Empress was a petite woman with long blue hair and regal robes. Tanya frowned. “When, precisely, was I to be informed of this?”
[Isaac Cipher] When certain conditions were met. Ideally, in the event that you decided to fight Charlescomm on your own. {Exposition} (calm)
[Pamelor Ansem] Or if Charlie started working against you in earnest. {Clarification} (calm)
Pamelor was a pretty blonde woman wearing a red one piece swimsuit. “Okay, I accept your logic.” Tanya conceded, understanding their plan. Charlie was so obviously untrustworthy and threatening that they thought it fruitful to just maintain good relations, and when Tanya inevitably came into conflict with Charlescomm, be in a position to provide generous assistance without needing to risk open aggression.
Granted, Tanya still wasn't completely convinced that they couldn't come to an understanding, and she would have still preferred to know, but alas. “Marie provided intelligence that they claim you were probably not already aware of. I propose an exchange: you provide information on Charlie's capabilities, I provide that intelligence. I will not commit to Charlescomm’s destruction at this time. Our relations are still acceptable.”
More noises. They kind of reminded Tanya of a modem, but it wasn't quite the same. Maybe a switchboard?
[Roger Victor Clarence] Marie Laverne withheld intelligence? [Incredulity] (offended)
Roger was a dark-skinned, elderly looking man who was wearing black robes, reminding Tanya of a judge.
[Isaac Cipher] We accept your offer. Information for information. {Negotiation} (curious)
“She was under Signamancy nondisclosure.” Tanya elaborated, and then went into Jack’s tale of confusion, double-dealing, and tragedy. Or, at least, abridged it to the important points.
Most importantly: Charlie was a carnymancer. The Great Minds had not known that for sure, it was merely one of several possibilities they had debated over. Marie’s testimony, even by proxy twice over, was considered reliable enough to them to accept this as fact going forward.
The other details were much less critical. Interesting to know, but it just amounted to ‘Charlie’s an easy target for you, specifically, Tanya’ so she didn’t put much stock in them. The Great Minds did find the details of the man’s history very intriguing, however. They had known of Judy Gale, the previous Perfect Warlord, but were not aware of her departure back home with the Arkenshoes. Nor that arkentool attunement was not necessarily all-or-nothing, as it took several turns for the woman to attune to the shoes. Also, Tanya had so many questions about how ‘infinite move’ worked, but alas, Jack knew none of the answers.
In return, they had explained about what they knew about Charlie’s capabilities with the Arkendish; Most notably: He could link very safely and at a distance. They had initially assumed it only functioned as a powerful “state 2” link, but there were many discrepancies that were adequately explained by always being a ‘carnymancy/X’ linkup instead. This was a problem, because carnymancers were, as a rule, very insular. It could be assumed that any attempt to glean assistance from a carnymancer would only be inviting a spy. Worse, what they did know of carnymancy (the ‘rule-breaking’ magic) indicated that it was a very versatile combination. It did explain why the Great Minds were so willing to assist in Yojo Mojo’s linkup experiments, however.
In addition, he could intercept thinkamancy transmissions. Whether he could interfere with them was not clear, but this was the primary source of contention between the Great Minds and Charlescomm. They are used to charging a premium for convenient and secure battlefield communications with their clients, and Charlie can peep on all of them. The good news was, Charlie did not sell this service. So it was a hidden ace in the hole for the carnymancer, only relevant to his enemies as long as the capability was kept secret. The bad news was, Scouting was natural thinkamancy, as was issuing orders. He can peep on those too.
Further, he had a few more terrifying capabilities: the ability to spy on the collective intuition as a form of prediction, which meant that his ability to read your moves increased for every unit that knew your plans.. Finally, he had a history of subverting Natural Allies, mechanism unknown. It could just be him bribing them by using thinkagrams to set up the arrangements, but it was unclear whether or not there was more to it than that.
What a time to have a brand new set of Natural allies, right when they were being pushed to attack a side that was known to induce betrayals of them.
…Hold on. Was Charlie behind the death of King Saline? He had motive, assuming he was capable of anticipating the results of Stanley gaining control of Gobwin Knob. It was hardly a complex deduction.
Nevertheless, while the Great Minds were adamant that Charlie’s destruction was necessary, and that conflict was inevitable… Tanya still wasn’t quite convinced. Strategically, Charlie was a threat, but as far as they could tell, he didn’t know that a Perfect Warlord had been summoned, and Tanya didn’t see any reason for that information to come out. If Charlie did learn that fact, he would put significant effort to remove that piece from play, due to the Prediction that he would croak to a Perfect Warlord.
…Shit. Wanda and Marie knew, and had reason to reveal that information, to distract him from their own efforts to defeat him, and to draw two of their enemies into conflict with one another.
At the end of the day, though, Charlescomm was a non-allied side nearby to Yojo Mojo’s territory. A non-aggression pact was in force, but given she has cause to believe that Charlie would initiate hostilities regardless… hrm.
“I don’t trust this so-called advantage Fate would give me over Charlie.” Tanya eventually told the Great Minds. “I can start preparing for hostilities, and given his many advantages he may be more of a threat than Faq, but I cannot commit to an aggressive strike against him at this time.” For one, she’d probably lose. What kind of murderous defenses would Charlie have set up in his single, solitary city over the last thousand plus turns?
[Roger Victor Clarence] Acceptable. {Agreement} (relief)
[Isaac Cipher] Conventional Assault against Charlescomm would be fruitless. Even with your advantages. For now, simply continue to prepare. I offer my own services on retainer to assist. {Proposal} (relief)
Tanya hummed, but nodded in approval. “To mitigate suspicion, I’ll need to pay a fair rate. How does upkeep plus twenty suit you?” As in, paying the man’s upkeep and paying him twenty rands per turn on top of that. Usually, you couldn’t get the services of a Headmaster at your full disposal for any price, and a high level thinkamancer could usually get that much without difficulty just on thinkagrams if they had done enough networking.
“On the low end of reasonable. I accept.” Isaac said out loud. “Let us be off.”
“Let’s.”
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The first thing that needed to get done, after her new supply of minor wands and major scrolls that weren’t made by her side’s casters was sourced, was to build up the side’s defenses against aerial blitzes.
As the most important consideration was a decaptiation strike on the capital, the first order of business was creating an automated defense system that would be effective against archons. They had to assume that, at the very least, Charlie wouldn’t try and execute a decapitation strike while Tanya was present, to maximize his chances of success. So there had to be something created without that.
To that end… “Okay, okay.” Lloyd Bernhard, Jetstone’s Dittomancer, said. “I’ve never linked up before, but your idea is good. Real good.” They had offered a battle bear to Jetstone in return for a turn of his services, and given that they normally spend most of his juice each turn making a dupe of Ace that made half of a battle bear each turn, it was a fair enough deal. Their good relations made simple exchanges like that easy and frequent.
“If it works.” Tanya added.
“True, true.” Lloyd agreed. “Let’s pair up.”
Maggie was a lot more skilled at linking, now that she was Master-class. She entangled their heartstrings as carefully as she did their G-strings, and Tanya invested a bit of juice into reinforcing their stack bonus, allowing for a firm, sturdy connection between them.
“Hm, you’re correct.” Sizemore said, Maggie and Lloyd mumbling his words in tune with his own. “There is something here.”
“A mind so basic that we never considered it.” Maggie said.
“It’s a bad, bad mind.” Lloyd added.
“But it can be improved.” Maggie said.
“Just need someone to step in.” Lloyd said.
“Just be careful to build it well, we need a sturdy, lasting improvement.” Sizemore said.
“Yes, I’ve got it.” Maggie said,
“Me too, me too.” Lloyd said.
All three of them cast a spell as one. “Upload!”
Suddenly, an awareness bloomed in Tanya’s mind, a bit like a new button appearing in her head. Pressing it, Tanya got an image of the airspace, as if it was being scouted. There was a single red dwagon flying there idly. “I think it worked.” She said, grinning. “Headmaster?”
“Testing.” Isaac said immediately. Tanya shut out her perception of the airspace. When she re-opened her vision of the place, she saw two dwagons. Which was real? She prompted the tower to test, giving no further instructions.
Tanya grinned wider as the tower immediately fired a bolt of flame at one of the dwagons, striking the real one. “It worked!” She shouted, leaping into the air and doing a victory dance.
“The real test would be if it’s still there in the morning.” Lloyd said. Given that according to her moneymancy senses, the new “unit” directing their tower’s attacks has an upkeep of exactly one-fourth of her own, she was fairly certain it would.
“How much juice did it use, Dittomancer?” Tanya asked.
“Four caster levels.” He reported. Comparing it to the dittomancy spell they based this idea on… yeah, that was on the high side.
“Mount up on a dwagon, then. We have more cities to bolster.” Tanya ordered. Nine total cities, thirty-six caster levels… If she siphons juice from here and refills it with the shock exchange, she’ll just need to siphon more juice from the last of the cities, which she can refill next turn.
Fortunately, using dwagons to ferry a single caster (or even a linked set of them) to every city in Yojo Mojo in one turn was a long-solved problem. They will have to forgo Elya boosting production all over the side, though. She can do research instead, and learn more advanced spells or techniques from a more senior turnamancer in the Magic Kingdom.
This was only the beginning.
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“That’s the last of them.” Tanya declared as she observed the final upgrade. “Nine level 5 cities. How does it feel?” The top of the bell curve… The absolute highest income that a side can have per city, at the precipice of the diminishing shmuckers point.
King Ansom hummed. “Not much different than before, to be honest.” He shrugged.
“Well, bigger numbers has its own sort of appeal, but it’s a crucial milestone. With a mostly set income, “ Plus the inconsistent income from the two non-city mines, “-we can plot out our minimum defensive fortifcations, then we can extend that to the budget for our field army. Which we send forth towards the enemies of the Royal Crown Coalition, of course.”
“Yes, you’re right.” Ansom said.
When the two of them were sitting on Ansom’s flying carpet in the airspace of the capital, watching the sun set, he spoke again: “I want to abdicate.”
Hm? “You want to be a Warlord again?” Tanya asked. He nodded. “We’d lose out on bonuses, but if you became Chief Warlord in my place, it wouldn’t be much of a drop.”
“I have to.” He said, “I do my best to let you run your kingdom as you want, but… look at me.” He gestured to himself. “I’m losing my hair, my stomach is soft… This life isn’t for me. I need to ride forth, to crusade for the Titans, and fight for Royal ideals.”
Signamancy degradation like that is somewhat worrying, it’s true. “We’re certainly in a position to fight anyone who objects to me being the ruler on equal footing.” Tanya agreed. “I accept the position.”
Ansom grinned. “Then I formally abdicate the crown of Yojo Mojo to my heir, Princess Tanya. Long live the Queen.”
Tanya took a deep breath as ruler senses bloomed once more in her awareness. “I appoint Prince Ansom to the position of Chief Warlord.” She said, “So what are you going to do first?”
“I’m going to fulfill my destiny.” Ansom replied, determined. “I’m going to conquer Charlescomm.”
Tanya chuckled. “Is that why Faq is on our ‘allied sides’ list?” She asked wryly.
“We have two Arkentools to his one.” Ansom said, “Faq is a royal side, and I’ve already gotten the other sides on board with the plan.”
This was definitely Jillian’s fault. Nevertheless, Tanya hummed in agreement. “Alright, let’s croak a carnymancer.”
She did have the nagging suspicion that she was making a mistake, though…
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The first order of business after the abdication was hiring a Signamancer to give Ansom a makeover, temporarily restoring the degradation that being King imposed on him. The second order of business was calling a meeting between all of the Royal Crown Coalition’s rulers.
It had to be done via thinkamancy, of course. Isaac, Maggie, and Bunny all contributed to a shared meeting space, although Tanya sensed some rather strong feelings of hate and derision between Bunny and Isaac. Odd. They kept things professional however, so Tanya deemed it as ‘not her business’.
Charlie was definitely listening in on to this, but that wasn’t that difficult to work around. “Calling this meeting to order.” Tanya announced. “We are here for one reason alone: To discuss the destruction of Charlescomm as a side.”
“Or we could talk about how you’re Queen now, how about that?” King Froblo asked, the squat man’s face derisive.
“Prince Ansom decided that he liked battle too much to remain King.” Tanya said diplomatically. “Also, this whole nonsense was his idea, if you recall.” Tanya let that settle in. “Well, it was Queen Jillian’s idea, but he dropped this war in my lap so I can only conduct it fairly.” One advantage to having Charlie listen in is that she can make her signals very subtle.
The Queen in question scoffed. “Hey, it’s either him or me, at this point. There’s some Prediction crap, but nah. I’ll take the hard way, always.”
Queen Bea stopped making doe eyes at Don King, the side-bar conversation Bunny was moderating through their heartstring for each other nauseating, for long enough to interject. “It would be prudent to know what this Prediction is.”
Each ruler was allowed one additional unit to join the call. For Faq, it was Marie. “All Arkentools will be united by one side, under one Queen. This I predict.”
Oh really? Now that was fascinating. It also added an additional layer of context behind Ansom’s decision… Assuming he knew of that prediction ahead of time.
“Pardon me, Queen Jillian.” Asked the newly-popped King Couch, the ruler of Hyatt. “But how is this the ‘hard way’ as it were? It seems you’re doing exactly what the prediction asks of you.”
“Wanda wanted to find the Arkenshoes first.” Jillian said bluntly. “My bet is Charlie has ‘em locked up tight.”
“That does sound like the kind of move that wiseguy would make, yes.” Don King added.
“Inevitably, Charlie will attempt to bribe one of us, or our neighbors, to distract us from attacking him.” The surprisingly astute Sofa King declared.
“Anyone who gets an offer should, of course, follow their best interests.” Tanya said, “Which will definitely be rejecting his offer, because the amount of money that would make it worth angering all of us is an amount that Charlie certainly won’t let you keep.”
There was a murmur of agreement. “Now would be the time to start discussing organization.” Ossomer stated, and they did so.
Well, let’s see how ironclad this whole ‘Fate’ thing was…
