Skullfort Town

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Recaiden
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Skullfort Town

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Once existing in relation to larger fortresses and more important cities, the Skullfort and its associated village are, at least, still here, while no one from those other places has been seen in years.

The [Skullfort] itself takes the shape of a black stone skull several stories high, with weapon emplacements in the eye sockets and nose, and entrances in the mouth and top of the skull dome. Though it can fly through the air and terrorize the countryside, it hasn't done so in years, and a collection of workshops, houses, and training grounds have sprung up right next to it.

The village was founded by rescued slaves and interplanar refugees, all with no place to return to, and has a wild mix of races and building styles.

Among its locations are:
  • Temple - A round building with many pillars, where the goddess Message ministers to her people.
  • Library - Always in need of more books.
  • Tower - A building made out of solid shadows that is the headquarters for those who protect the town.
  • Longhouse - Home to the ✥ centaur herd.
  • Fields - Farms surround the town in most directions.
  • Observatory - Just outside town to the west.
  • The Forest - Perfectly ordinary trees surrounding the road.
  • The Wode - A forest of impossibly tall trees and impossibly large animals (especially spiders), just outside townto the northeast.
And most importantly, some distance down the only road into the town, there is the [Dancing Fox Inn]
Last edited by Recaiden on Aug 09, 2022 2:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Skullfort Town

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Dancing Fox Inn

What do gods dream about?
Mist doesn't know yet; he doesn't remember what he dreamed about last night. He can confirm that the previous day was not a dream because he woke up and was still a centaur.
Oh boy yesterday happened. Well. No sense in worrying about it too much right now. Well he doesn't theoretically need breakfast but he doesn't see a point in not doing his morning routine.
After the incredibly surreal experience that is doing all of that while a divine horseperson, Mist goes looking for his wife, who he has a long list of questions to ask.
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Re: Skullfort Town

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[Dancing Fox Inn]

Divine sheep, presumably. Or the same things as anyone else.

Leah has no need to eat breakfast, so she usually doesn't, unless it's an occasion where she's sharing it with Mist or someone else. Saves time that way.
Mist will probably catch up to her at the temple, where she's just checking in on things.
"Good morning Mist!"
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Re: Skullfort Town

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Dancing Fox Inn

Mist catches up to Leah. He is still trying to get used to everything. The inn, being bigger. The centaurs, coming and going. His centaur-accommodating bathroom (is that how that works?). Mist actually needs to stop for a few minutes to induct his new hires that volunteered yesterday. Luckily, "you ask what people want and you cook it" is relatively straightforward and the employees already there can get more specific with them. He also needs to spend twenty minutes having his parents tell him how adorable he looks and how proud they are of his divine status. He doesn't tell them about the kids just yet. He's not sure if Leah's preparations worked.

But eventually he meets up with Leah!
"Good morning, Leah. Uh. Do you have any time for me today? I know you have temple duties and fort duties and Koshal at ten so I won't keep you but I do have some of those questions. Uh I can give you the list if you want to answer later." Mist pulls out a piece of paper from his bag. Having to strap on individual pockets is another thing he's getting used to. But he has to keep his Ring on him so having a bag to keep it in feels right. And it can hold other things!
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Re: Skullfort Town

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[Dancing Fox Town]

"Good morning Mist!" Leah will, at this point, hop over a bench and give him a hug.
I don't think Mist has much particular way to tell, but the preparations were successful. So he'll be able to tell his parents about that soon enough.
"Of course I have time for you. I've rescheduled a lot of things away from this week so- Oh my me, there's an actual list. Okay, let me take a look at that-" She takes the paper and scans over it...

Meanwhile, I'm sure centaur chefs are scrambling to figure out how to cook new things they've never heard of before.
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Re: Skullfort Town

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Dancing Fox Inn

Well, considering most of the people waking up and making orders are their fellow herd members, they're probably just being asked to make stuff they know about, only now they don't have to scavenge for ingredients out in the snow. It's just in the cabinet.
Mist wasn't expecting her to just take the list and read it but he doesn't really stop her.
It reads:

- how to use the Ring
-what does Cup do
-is my Mask different or does it just not work on me anymore?
-How come I Know stuff sometimes????
-that thing where I made Other people know stuff but it wasn't the ring??
-how to fight while being a 'taur
-how do I fit into temple faith now?
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Re: Skullfort Town

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[Dancing Fox Town]

"Oh, these are really good questions." Leah comments as she looks them over.

"All the knowing of stuff comes from the same place, which any fey can do somewhat. A living creature observes the world through their senses, and changes the world with their body. But you're on a higher level of existence you. You can access the world directly. If something is relevant to you, it has echoes of meaning that you can pick up, so you might just know it. With practice you can know things that are barely connected to you at all. And the reverse, too. You can affect the world through its connections to you, based on its own importance. Like just letting the herd know something."

That's two questions answered that probably have follow-up questions. She'll get to the others in a moment, hopefully.
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Re: Skullfort Town

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Dancing Fox Inn

"Oh. Okay." He's not a hundred percent sure if that makes sense to him or not but he's only been a fey-god for twenty-something hours. He's sure he'll catch on.
"Um. How do you practice just knowing stuff? Is it like...cosmic listening?"
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Re: Skullfort Town

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[Dancing Fox Town]

Leah considers that for a second and nods.
"Try not to use your eyes and ears so much, and just to feel things, and then check whether you were correct."
It does take time and experience, that's true.

"The Cup defines things. It holds everything that makes you yourself, and keeps you steady. It's a little subtle, but it supports patterns of action and making new things, manipulates goals and success and failure themselves. Most of the world is actually pretty...ephemeral, and settling it to one solid definition can have unusual effects."

"As for your mask, can I look at it?" Leah holds out a hand, close to her side, not insistent at all.
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Re: Skullfort Town

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Dancing Fox Inn

"Huh. So the Cup manipulates things to turn out in ways that suit me?" Or suit him being Mist. Which does make sense. He got the seed before his Cup, so the Cup factored his god self into the equation. Then it pushed him to make sure he turned out how he was when it was defined, which happened because of the Cup's definition, which was defined the next day, which happened because of the Cup...
Argh.

"Oh, okay." Mist uncurls the scarf from his neck and holds it out to Leah. He trusts her with just about anything of his.
"Oh yeah. I never asked what was up with the scarves." It's an odd thing to have as a uniform for centaurs but he likes it at least.
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Re: Skullfort Town

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[Dancing Fox Town]

Yes, it can get very confusing if your nature is something very confusing.

"And by the way, don't give these to anyone, and be careful with lending them either." It would be probably terrible if something happened to them.
"Yes. It helps you do things the Mist way, if there is a Mist way, or suit Mist."

She turns the scarf over in her hands.
"Well, I think your godly attributes are getting in the way of it working. Like it's stuck on the aspects of wind and travel and horses. As for why they wear scarves-" Message fidgets with her own thin black scarf. "-I think it might be my fault. Sure, on some level it's because they don't get in the way and can be worn in lots of ways and appearances. But I think the real reason is because a scarf was simple to make - and reminded me of more hopeful times."
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Re: Skullfort Town

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Dancing Fox Inn

"Oh don't worry Leah, I know not to let people touch these. It's just you I trust with it." Well and Message but same thing. And probably Anchor because again, same thing. Assuming he's positive they're not an imposter which he is in this case.

"But. It can't have been just you. The ones we met in the caves were wearing scarves and they never met you before that."
Unless Leah somehow affected their whole cultural zeitgeist ahead of time.
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Re: Skullfort Town

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[Dancing Fox Town]

Leah nods, glad that he's being careful with them and that he trusts them with this.

"I know that. But it would have been me anyway. We can't talk about the details out here." Affecting a whole cultural zeitgeist through time is more than possible.
She waves a hand to indicate the fort itself, is Mist wants to head that way and get a full explanation. Up to him.

"Now, the Ring. Since it's a flute, you'll probably find it easiest to do while playing music. The safest thing is to use it like anyone would use music - to make people feel brave, or calm, or caring - but even moreso. Or just to have good luck. But it can also do a lot related to what people want, on any level."
"Does that explain it?"
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Re: Skullfort Town

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Dancing Fox Inn

Mist has no issue trotting over to the fort. Mist finds himself just as comfortable walking as sitting or standing. Comes up with the travel domain.
"Okay, yeah. That's what I understood it did. I mostly wanted to make sure I wasn't making any wrong assumptions on that one." It's best to play it safe when you have things that can tamper with people's feelings.
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Re: Skullfort Town

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[Dancing Fox Fort]

Leah has to hurry a bit to keep up with the new, long-legged Mist.
Once they've disappeared behind the fort's teeth, she speaks up.
"The thing is, on that higher level of existence that lets you know things...most people don't have any cosmic significance. I could change the entire history of the ✥ herd, within reason, and they would have always been that way. It wouldn't even be hard. It also wouldn't give them any more cosmic significance. Easy come, easy go."
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Re: Skullfort Town

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Skullfort

This answer doesn't seem to really answer things for Mist.
"And you're saying you did that? Why?" Making them like a certain accessory seems harmless enough, but...
"And that's not true. I am what I am right now because of what they believed me to be. If you changed their history to make them think something different about their gods that would have significance, because it would retroactively change what I am."
He pauses.
She never used this on him, did she? No, he's had his Mask for ages. And she wouldn't have done that to him. If she was willing to do that she probably wouldn't have tolerated all those times he screwed things up.
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Re: Skullfort Town

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[Skullfort]

"Well, I wouldn't have had to do it on purpose. I haven't always had as much skill and control as I do now." Sure, in this case it was harmless.
"And yes, today things are different. I could only change things that leave them coherent with your history, and with other important things they had done."

Leah looks at Mist with a tilted head and ears folded down. "I wouldn't have done anything to you. But I also couldn't. You've always had cosmic significance of your own."
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Re: Skullfort Town

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Skullfort

"I've never really felt cosmically significant." Mist says with a sheepish smile, moving to take his scarf back.
"Well no harm done it sounds like. I'll wear it proudly for them and to always remind you of hopeful times." He reaches to give her a little hug.
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Re: Skullfort Town

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[Skullfort]

"A lot more people in the nexus are resistant to fey influence compared to father's world. I think it's because there are all these active gods, but it's not really consistent." Leah shrugs.

"Speaking of gods, don't be carried away just because you have incredible powers. There's you, and then there's Message. Then there's people like Inari, who are so far beyond Message that there's literally no way to say describe the difference. And there are gods they go to if they can't do something higher still. And I hear there are gods beyond even them, and that those gods have their own gods. It's...crazy, honestly."
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Re: Skullfort Town

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Skullfort Town

Mist nods. He's clearly not insulted by Leah's attempt to humble him. Since she's right after all.
"Well yeah. My follower count is under 50, and I'm sharing them with Message. And it's not like I'm going to be actively recruiting aside from what they do by themselves." Which let's be honest, he doubts they're going to be doing any active recruiting aside from having children. "Most of my grist for the next few centuries is liable to be mostly slowly using up what's left of Meirhin's. It's not like I'm getting all that much from such a small group of followers." Mist has never wanted power. He got this position pretty much from stumbling around trying to help other people. And now he gets to help horse-people forever! Yaaaaay!
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Re: Skullfort Town

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[Skullfort]

Probably not, no. Their gods are for them, not for other people.

And hey, Mist got what he wanted then.
"As for fighting, well, fighting against what?" Leah slips her knife into her hand and flips it around.
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Re: Skullfort Town

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Skullfort Town

"Well I suppose the answer to that is the most likely things I'd be protecting the folks here from if something happened.." He remembers helping Leah when the Fort was assaulted but it's been so long he can scarcely remember by what.

"I'm used to being nimble when I fight and uh. Well. Now I have a turning radius." His shape does make spinning and flipping take more time and room.
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Re: Skullfort Town

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[Skullfort]

"Practice turning. You can get better at it than you think." Leah teases.
"But really, you should focus on how much faster you are now. Unless you're going into closed-in, unknown territory, you can outmaneuver a lot of threats, you can rush in with a lot of force, you can circle around people who are trying to get to you."
"You can do a lot of harm just by kicking something now, but you also want to have weapons for each range of engagement."
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Re: Skullfort Town

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Skullfort

"Hm. I've never really done...kicks. I guess there's some use to having all this muscle back there."
Mist shakes his lower half. Leah might realize that he is still feeling pretty self-conscious about it.
He reaches up under his scarf and pulls out a small knife.
"Well I've only ever really used these." Well he had his dirk as his bigger melee range knife but he doesn't have that anymore.
"Are you saying I should get something new? I think I should avoid spears. You got my predecessor's so the symbolism would get iffy if I used the same thing. Maybe?"
He's not really experienced with this religious stuff.
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Re: Skullfort Town

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[Skullfort]

Having weird legs is just what you get sometimes. You can avoid rushing into things as best you can, but sometimes it's just up to the high gods. Nothing to worry about.
"It's something that you'll have to practice." Leah lifts a front paw and extends her claws, by way of demonstration.

"The traditional weapons for the herds are spears and arrows. You should feel free to ignore this. I recommend a gun and a light sword. But don't worry about divine symbolism either way. You aren't a war god, nor do you have soldiers to set an example for or coordinate with. Just use what works."
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Re: Skullfort Town

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Skullfort Town

Mist would be very curious about the high god that goes around deciding which lesser gods get weird legs.
”Well, okay. Would you be willing to help me pick something? I’ll pay you for anything I take from the armory.
Also you mean a lightweight sword not a sword made of light, right?”
Mist is pretty sure she has an armory. And where else to get a new weapon? But he wouldn’t expect Leah to give him valuable supplies from her armory or personal stash without paying her back.
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Re: Skullfort Town

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[Skullfort]

You think that, Mist, but actually you would regret knowing too much.

"Sure. Let's head down there." Then Leah starts to laugh.

"Mist, I'm not some arms dealer. The whole armory is for protecting the town. Just like what you'd be doing." She waves off the idea of paying for it. Which is pretty unusual; you can't get something for nothing, after all.

"Lightweight. Although swords made of light are usually lightweight. Do you need it to be more subtle than that?"
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Re: Skullfort Town

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Skullfort Town

"I think getting made part horse killed by ability to be subtle." Mist says with a small laugh, the sound of his hooves loud on the floor as they go. Hopefully there aren't too many stairs. He's suddenly not great with those.
"I guess I could try making an invisible sword of winds or something but that might be too subtle." Because then not even he would know where it is!
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Re: Skullfort Town

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[Skullfort]

Don't worry. Leah's had most of the stairs replaced with more quadruped-friendly architecture for a while now. That ladder on the top floor is going to be a lot less used than it used to be, though.

"Invisible swords are way more trouble than they're worth, especially for a beginner. There are plenty of subtle centaurs, though. Still, if you don't mind, we can totally do a light light-sword."
And then they reach the armory. Right away, racks of bolt-action rifles and machine pistols and cases of their ammo are lined up on shelves by the score. Came with the fort, you see. Further in are more unusual guns. The lich's shotgun, tiny derringers, pistols that function entirely by clockwork, punching guns. Then knives (quite a few have solid handles and blades made out of solid light, yes), swords (mostly stone-bladed aztec pieces), spears, morningstars, a couple weirder things... Notably missing are the minigun, Firme, and the various magic spears. Those aren't anywhere in particular unless they're being used.
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Re: Skullfort Town

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Skullfort Town

”If I don’t mind? If you have something like that just lying around then why would I say no to it?” It sounds like something fantastic (and expensive) so why would he object to being given something like that?

He does move to examine the guns. What’s special about the lich’s shotgun?
”So I guess I’d want something with range that I can use while running, from what you said before.” he remarks as he looks over the racks.
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