2025-08-08 Knock, Knock! Giant cog delivery
General Summary
Ohanlei was meeting with Ordinary Ritual, the god of things Humans do as a routine. This was the god wearing the orange sash.
Dreamflower contacts Luxana to plan a meeting.
Stelsor gets a note from Velim Garak.
About 12 people wearing non-descript robes, possibly guildsmen.
Velim arrives with a lady. The lady is Norma Jean in disguise.
We get the impression that their attendants are former Guild.
Stelsor presents Norma Jean with piece of jewelry he made from an Autochthonian lightning Gem.
Fortifier asks where Norma Jean will go now that she is leaving the Guild.
She hopes to stay in Nexus for now but may move to An Teng.
Stelsor calls for some of the God-blooded employees to demonstrate their skills for our guests.
Klavian Miroton and __ spar for 5 minutes.
We also Norma Jean about Sublime Twilight and what we hope it will do for people.
She commends our efforts. She mentions that if we want to make a dent in the use of Black Sunshine, we should know that the Guild is pushing it more in Great Forks and the Blessed Isle.
We discuss how Sees-your-soul might be very helpful.
Stelsor voices concerns about someone else counterfeiting Sublime Twilight.
Stelsor and Dreamflower inform Norma Jean about the dangers we observed with Fruza’s artifact.
Norma Jean sheds no tears for any damage this artifact does to Fruza, but acknowledges that if he loses himself to the artifact, he may need to be stopped.
Norma Jean mentions a rumor that Miribadi was spied heading north from Kamthahar toward Nexus.
She seems to be laying low for now and it is possible she is heading back to her mistress in the North.
Chalai brings a pot of tea out toward the end.
Chalai has been busy and frustrated because Ohanlei, her superior, was being ordered around by Ordinary Ritual, a higher-up in the Bureau of Humanity.
Ordinary Ritual wields a lot of clout in the Bureau of Humanity.
Dreamflower offers to help with this overwork, but Chalai explains it is just a period of adjustment for her and she will adapt.
Velim and Norma Jean leave.
Scene: In the kitchen
Luxana appears in the kitchen.
Reyana walks in from another room, seemingly in a trance, speaking Old Realm.
She doesn’t react when Stelsor speaks to her.
We recognize that she seems to be having sort of an allergic reaction. Her entranced words are about to the gods teleporting in.
Dreamflower senses that Reyana is reacting to the essence lingering around Luxana from where she transported in from.
Reyana is stating that Luxana has violated the terms of surrender and rules of summoning.
Fortifier leads her to another room and inspects her with Flawless Diagnosis Technique and Celestial Overseer Concordat.
Her purpose in this moment is to reenact a memory. It is from a time from her grandfather, Unconquered Sun, chastised Luxana.
She is stuck in this memory until she finishes reciting the violation.
Luxana was greatly impressed by Dreamflower’s efforts to promote literacy.
Stelsor explains a plan to have a literacy event in the amusement park.
She suggests that we instead hold it in her temples.
She laments that her favorite temple-builder, Sees-your-soul isn’t available. She feels that his skills are being wasted playing politics.
Eventually, Reyana finishes her recitation and is glowing and embarrassed now.
She doesn’t recall all that she said. We explain it to her.
She decides to go “cool off” on the 3rd floor.
(Normal folks would go to the cold room in the basement to cool down, but apparently she bleeds off essence by staring at the sun.)
Montage/downtime Scene: Fortifier and co. complete the giant cog
We work together to complete the promised replacement for the giant cog that the Great Forks Alchemicals sent us.
We complete it with 3 successes to spare and spend them to make it more durable.
Stelsor communicates with Wisdom Shining Promise. She is heading to Great Forks first, and then will continue on up river to Maurita.
We load the giant cog onto Little Cloud to take it to Great Forks.
Scene: Traveling to Great Forks
Minx comes along.
Stelsor sketches plans for the ceiling of the market.
We set Little Cloud down a ways outside the city, offload the giant cog, and carry Little Cloud inside as a backpack.
Scene: Walking through Great Forks
Stelsor is pretty disgusted by the amount of slaves throughout the city.
We hire a local wagon driver to transport The Cog to the city center.
The city government is inside a tower as tall as the great tree we found in Autochthonia.
There are 3 divisions of the tower, yet one can’t switch between the wings except on the ground floor.
60 floors up, we find Sees-Your-Soul’s office and meet a gregarious fellow just outside. This person ends up being Spinner of Glorious Tales, one of the 3 gods of the city.
Talespinner knocks on the office door and Sees-Your-Soul leaps to answer the door with his red beam-klaive at the ready.
Scene: Lunch with Talespinner and Sees-Your-Soul
There are many branded workers in the restaurant overseen by a handful of unbranded supervisors.
We get duck soup, fine bread, and rosette wine.
Fortifier asks Talespinner if the city relies on the Guild for their slaves.
Talespinner admits that they do have to source some of the slaves from the Guild and laments that their economy relies on labor-intensive crops.
Fortifier suggests there might be ways to mechanize some of this so they won’t require as much manual labor.
When we mention that we have the cog for Sees-Your-Soul’s temple, Talespinner is somewhat cross at this. Apparently it is seen as a the minister of temples
We are served duck. Mmm.
Talespinner tells the story of the 3 gods of the tribunal of whitewall and how they tricked the Princess Magnificent.
Fortifier tells of the time we met Anacreon Thousand Brushstrokes.
Fortifier observes Talespinner.
Talespinner seems genuinely very curious about everything, watching everyone’s body language very carefully as well.
Detects he shares a Virtue of Compassion.
We mention that we have printing presses back in Nexus and have been
When Talespinner leaves, we talk to Sees-Your-Soul about joining us on our next trip into Autochthonia.
He is excited to come along and hopes he might be able to get a few days away from his ministry, perhaps as much as a fortnight.
Sees-Your-Soul asks Dreamflower about what is like returning to their hometown of Great Forks.
Dreamflower says much has changed.
Sees-Your-Soul says that recently the ministries were consolidated from 60 ministries down to 12. Many were sinecures, but still the changes has been very tumultuous.
When we tell him the story of rescuing Metagalapa, Sees-Your-Soul points out something that has been bothering him: that Ar-Duke Pritchard’s age must be exceptional, even for a Solar.
How has the Ar-Duke lived this long?
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