The Forgotten God (Table 5)

Game Master Rednal

In that case, once I've received my reward from the Pharasmans, I'll spend a few days researching.

Getting back to the church was a simple enough matter, and after a few minutes, you were shown back to the office of the priest who'd actually given you the assignment. "Your reward is ready." he said, indicating a small box next to him. "Before that, though, I'd like to hear a report about how things went. I received word that the gems had been safely recovered, but it was... shorter on details than I'm used to."

"There was another group after the gems: Arodenites seeking to use them as a focus to resurrect him. They accidentally caused an explosion that scattered the gems across the Planes. I managed to retrieve most of them but learned that the Arodenites had more. I went to their base of operations and reclaimed the majority of the gems. A few were destroyed in the process due to circumstances outside of my control, but I believe the number I recovered was greater than what Khandescus had originally stolen. The ritual, by the way, didn't work out quite how they'd expected. I don't think they'll attempt it again."

"The likely reason your report was relatively vague is due to the nature of the gems. As it turns out, they're rather important. Without knowing what you know, I'm unsure how much more information to give you."

Astoroth was always willing to provide information, but he also knew how dangerous it could be to those who weren't ready for it. And since Pharasma's Keeper had been so reticent with information, he felt it best to keep the details relatively minimal - unless, of course, the priest needed more.

"You mean the fact that they contain souls who desire oblivion, and are granted that wish when provided to Groetus to stop his fall?" the high priest asked mildly. "Well, I'd hope preventing the end times is something we can all agree on. It is meant to come someday, but all things should be in their proper times... beginnings and ends alike. What gain could possibly outweigh a loss so complete? And what ritual was this?"

"That particular fact about the gem's contents isn't widely-known, it seems. The cult was under the impression that they contained fragments of Aroden's soul and hoped to use them to resurrect him. The ritual involved harnessing planar energy for a power source, and it seemed the Maelstrom was involved. I didn't have time to fully study all that was involved, as a rival faction of their group interrupted the proceedings. As a result, several of the gems were destroyed, destabilizing what had been wrought. I was able to recover the remaining gems, but not before a new deity was created: Aknir, God of Gambling with Nature."

"Did you find out why exactly they were under such a mistaken impression?" the priest asked. "That doesn't seem like the sort of idea most people would happen on naturally... especially if they also obtained some kind of god-creating ritual."

"Not yet. I thought it best to complete the given task before pursuing such research. After all, Groetus' food shouldn't be withheld longer than necessary."

"Amen." the priest murmured, clearly agreeing with your choice of priorities there. "I asked, of course, because I think we'd all like this to not happen again. If a group was mistaken once, it could happen again... and while I love the Lady of Souls, prophecy is still uncertain and her defenses are no longer what they once were. Things may have gone an unfortunate way if you hadn't been there. Did anyone you meet strike you as particularly troublesome? In any way."

"The leader's name is Galen. He was willing to talk and let me observe the ritual but is likely too fervent of a believer to see reason. Apparently, he was granted a vision and has been receiving divine spells from 'Aroden.' His lead assistant is named Olvan. In regards to the rival group, they seemed to be followers of Walkena."

"A vision, hmm." the priest sighed and shook his head. "No matter how much you adored them, you should never easily trust a vision from a dead god. Did you actually see them perform any divine spells? That's the normal litmus test for truth - if you can cast a spell from your god anywhere except areas like dead magic zones, it's real. If it's limited to just a certain area, it's false. Faith is not limited by distance."

...But you knew that, of course.

"Do you expect them to try this ritual again if they can?"

"I'm not sure at the moment. They're quite fervent, but the consequences of the disturbed ritual were severe. I intend to find out more about them, but that will take time."

Not very much time, of course, considering his own divine nature, but he couldn't simply do that while inside the church of Pharasma. That would be disrespectful and would almost certainly attract unwanted attention. There was a time and a place for such things.

"I see..." the priest mused, sliding your reward forward. "It seems we'll have to pay closer attention to them than we'd really like. The Church of Pharasma prefers to stay largely neutral in matters, but there are times when it would be simply irresponsible to stay back."

Taking the box, Astoroth nods in agreement. "Yes, the End of Everything is something that should be avoided. I'll be conducting my own research as well."

And as soon as I'm away from there, I'll use Know Secrets on Galen. Ideally, I'll gain some information about the god-making ritual, how he learned about it, and what his magical capabilities are.

Reality tumbled and spun before you, the infinity of information itself so close and yet so far. By pure force of will, however, you managed to direct the million images onto the topic of your choice.

You see that Galen was trained as an acolyte in Aroden’s church, but the god died before Galen ever progressed to being able to cast spells, and he finished his training as a priest of Iomedae. His old faith in Aroden was reborn when he received a vision that his god’s essence was freed of Pharasma’s clutches. He is the founder and spiritual heart of the Children of the Reborn Glory, the one whose vision and faith in the rebirth is the most pure. He does not see that others might be in the Children for their own benefit; he is not a fanatic, but neither is he a cynic. Now he prays to Aroden using the gems as a conduit for his powers. He does not know that his original vision was a creation of a protean, nor that the protean’s manipulation was what allowed him to draw spell power from the atheist soul gems. You see that without the power being channeled into him, he has no 'spellcasting' at all, as he does not pray to any god that grants spells and has no innate power.

Even as your mind is drawn in that direction, you see the protean in question (the name Song of Poison enters your mind) watching the ritual with amusement from the very place you'd seen Nia smirking towards the moment before you'd left (and in your vision, she's wearing ten new faces, yet is still herself... though you get the distinct feeling she's looking at you when your vision briefly passes over her). You see the Protean's scheme to have Groetus descend - although it clearly wasn't expecting to succeed, merely instill chaos among the followers of Aroden in a nudge to push the universe towards the certainty of chaos. You see Song of Poison nurturing the growth of the cathedral and channeling power to the followers of Aroden, giving them the illusion of their prayers being answered. You see the keketar spreading the idea of using the gems as a source of power, using its deep knowledge and understanding of the Maelstrom to take advantage of a planar conjunction, and you see it snickering with laughter as a new god of gambling appears, disappearing before any attention was given to it.

Astoroth gives Nia a nod in greeting as his gaze passed over her. To be honest, he wouldn't be surprised if she could see him. In regards to one as mysterious as her, it was best to have no expectations. Perhaps she was a protean herself. She was definitely chaotic enough, if nothing else. Once he'd recovered more of his power, he fully intended to delve deeper into the mysteries surrounding her. After all, when had he ever NOT worked on piecing together an enigma?

After his vision cleared, he took a moment to process everything he'd seen. The most important thing was that Aroden was, in fact, still deceased. This was a good thing, as it meant that Astoroth's innate senses regarding closeness to other deities wasn't malfunctioning. Other useful tidbits: he'd have to keep an eye out for Song of Poison. Proteans had always been somewhat frustrating for him, as their ever-present chaos made their actions almost impossible to predict. When one as powerful as a keketar was working on the Material Plane, it was wise to stay abreast of the situation - or at least as much as was possible when dealing with proteans. In this particular case, though, the fact that it had succeeded in creating a significant amount of chaos meant that he probably wouldn't have to deal with Galen's cult attempting to accidentally start another apocalypse. Without Song of Poison's magical assistance, their lack of spellcasting prevented them from being a truly serious threat. If they tried again, the Church of Pharasma could handle. It would, however, be interesting to see if that horse trader ever ended up getting murdered - and whether or not an organized Church of Aknir would be formed.

For what it's worth, nobody else you've used Know Secrets on has shown any indication they were aware of it.

You had a reward, and you had knowledge - or so someone might want to say, but that would imply that the two were different things. In the end, though, most things were knowledge from a certain point of view. You also had a follower... but what you didn't have was the rest of your power, or a church of your own to support now that your ability to grant spells was recovering.

(You also had a few mysteries, but hey - what was the point of governing knowledge if you didn't have new things to try and learn about?)

Yeah, I figured as much. Although, since I almost went insane when I used Know Secrets on her back in the tomb, I assume that she plays by a different set of rules. The puzzle is figuring out what they are. XD

The first thing to study was the god-making ritual Song of Poison had taught Galen and his followers. Aknir was a full deity, which meant a similar ritual might restore Astoroth's divinity. Although, of course, it would need to be greatly improved first. Opening a rift to the Maelstrom was a rather unpleasant failure condition.

While he now possessed the ability to grant spells to followers, creating an organized religion had never been a priority of his. Turning the gathering of knowledge into a formalized rite diminished its effect, as Knowledge was best gained at one's own pace. Those who truly sought answers had a way of finding Astoroth when he was most needed, and he was always ready to hear the prayer of anyone struggling to learn something.

Unless an official church and formal religion is required, I've always envisioned Astoroth's worship being an individual thing. A student struggling to understand a new concept might get an unexpected flash of inspiration, or a researcher desperately seeking answers might discover a scroll he'd previously overlooked, etc. I see Astoroth's followers as being few and far between - the old man at the bar who's full of answers, a traveling sage, the librarian who can find a book related to any topic you ask her about. That sort of thing.

Well, you have every piece you need to figure out the answer. XD

Opening a rift to the Maelstrom was definitely a bad failure condition. That was the sort of thing that had annihilated demiplanes in their entirety. Admittedly, Axis probably hadn't been in much danger - they had procedures to handle such things and could shut them down - but you weren't exactly in possession of the full resources of an aligned outer plane.

The form of your church is entirely up to you. Some deities like organization and lots of followers, others are pretty chill about mortals finding them if they want to... most care at least a little, if only because the souls of followers help to build up their realm and prevent the Maelstrom from destroying it. Of course, that only applies to those who have private realms in the first place.

Incidentally, you're between missions right now, which means there isn't much on your agenda... and I should note that duplicating that ritual, while possible, isn't anything that you could take advantage of for quite a long time. Planar conjunctions appropriate for god-making are not frequent. You did use Know Secrets on the general subject, though... so you're aware you'd also need an appropriate ritual site and objects of sufficient power to regulate such a ritual, most of which are not easy to come by. The Soul Gems, in particular, are likely under much heavier guard now. ...And in any case, using them is a bit self-defeating unless you want Groetus to crash. XD

Also, Spheres of Might is out! And you're welcome to retrain into it if you want to. XD Wiki access will be available starting somewhere around the 26th.

Hmmm... Chaotic, probably Chaotic Neutral ... many forms? ... aware of divine ability usage but not a deity herself ... timeless? ... great physical strength

Unless she's a Protean or a Great Old One, I'm still lost. :-(
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I'm actually in the middle of my initial readthrough of the SoM PDF, so I'll definitely be taking you up on the retraining option. Iris will have the same opportunity as well once her current adventure is finished.
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Also, posting from me will continue to be slow for a bit, as I'm in the middle of the "leaving my old job and starting my new job" thing. If it continues to go relatively smoothly, things should be back to normal by the end of the month.

It may be helpful to remember that one of the core principles of this game is Deific Power > Mortal Power. It's not a question of raw strength - rather, they operate under explicitly different rules. More specifically, divine powers are in the realm of "actual plot device", and can only be affected by other plot devices. XD A 20th level Mythic Wizard, for example, couldn't use a Wish spell to disable your Recharge Sphere Magic rules because that's still within the realm of mortal power (i.e. rulebooks). A Mind Blank couldn't stop Know Secrets. And so on. Conversely, a deity actively interfering could block you from getting knowledge on something (particularly themselves - Asmodeus blocks information on most of Hell's sensitive areas and his own plans, Norgorber shuts down pretty much everything about himself, and most others allow only basic information about themselves to be divinely knowable), while temporarily stopping your recharge powers would require continued effort and prevent a deity from acting in other ways while they were doing it.

About half of that is trying to match how divine powers are usually treated. The other half is because this is a game about being a deity regaining your power, and I wanted divine powers to feel special in comparison to your many other options. ^^ They're intentionally outside the normal rules.

I picked up on the fact that Nia has a bit of plot armor, yes. XD Unfortunately, I currently lack the INT and/or metaknowledge to deduce her identity. It's quite the perplexing conundrum, to be sure, but as long as it's revealed at some point, I don't mind keeping the mystery going. Puzzles are fun, after all. XD
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After my initial, quick, SoM readthrough, I think Astoroth could be rebuilt as a Skirmisher with focus on the Barroom (teetotaler), Scout, and Open Hand spheres. There was an Investigator archetype that looked good as well. The Scholar class' flavor text fits, but the heavy focus on alchemicals doesn't really match Astoroth. On another note, Iris is definitely going to have fun with whatever retrain she end ups doing. XD
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Content to remain in the city for the time-being, Astoroth began to research rumors, legends, and stories about ancient libraries and other storehouses of knowledge. Knowledge wasn't meant to stay hidden forever, and what better way to spend his time than bringing forgotten things to light? Also, from a more pragmatic sense, tomb-delving tended to be quite profitable, and recreating and restocking The Repository of Knowledge would be very time-consuming and expensive.

In the Discussion tab, a while back, I'd written up Astoroth's divine realm - a massive extradimensional library. I'll be able to start making it in a few levels via SoP Advanced Talents, but it'll require a lot of investment in the Creation sphere. Unless, of course, it didn't get destroyed when Astoroth fell.... XD

I feel like I should note that Nia has nothing inappropriate for who she is. XD You are the special one in the story. NPC's always have an explanation, even if you never come across it.

As far as retraining goes, I'm looking for a way to keep Iris' ability to throw up a guard when she full attacks, plus switch between two-handed, one-handed-and-spell, and double-weapon flurry. XD Might go Conscript with the Conscript Weapon Training setup. Probably go for a modified version of the Tempest Dancer theme, since Armored Training, Unarmored Training, and Finesse Fighting are all useless for her. XD

And as for your divine realm... well, claimed realms, once lost, tend to be either claimed by someone else or eaten by the Maelstrom. You just saw the "claimed" version in Axis. XD A new realm would have to be claimed. I do have one thought on that, actually, if you're interested in a suggestion for its design beyond "big library".

Researching had always come naturally to you, and Kozuri's friend(?) happened to have a fairly expansive library of his own. It looked like it had been gathered over quite a long period of time, making him more the inheritor than the original collector.

Stories of old libraries were fairly plentiful, of course. Some were known to still reside in private hands. One reference mentioned an old Pathfinder lodge somewhere in Cheliax that likely still had a great many books in it, while plenty spoke of the Great Library of Tephu right in Osirion, which was agreed to be the single greatest collection of knowledge the country had (certainly, its contents numbered in the tens of thousands of items). It probably wasn't much compared to your own Repository, but it was both close by and relatively easy to access.

She definitely has my curiosity piqued, that's for sure. XD I look forward to learning (at least some of) her secrets eventually.
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I'm definitely open to suggestions regarding divine realms and such. You tend to have excellent ideas, after all. XD
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That Pathfinder lodge wouldn't happen to be the one in the Council of Thieves AP, right? Because that's where I found Kozuri. XD

The Great Library of Tephu sounded ideal for research at the moment.

It's totally the lodge you visited before. XD Although in fairness, Kozuri was in a different part of the city.

Anyway, as for a divine realm, I found this image a long time ago. I thought it might be interesting for Astoroth's library to be organized based on content - so things relating to mountains and mountain-y things like dwarves are actually in a mountain, watery stuff is near or even in water, gravity is mostly aligned to surfaces, and there's a nice city area on the underside. Also, more interesting than a sphere or box. XD ...On a side note, I also thought non-library terrain would work well for the god of information gathering. As in "sure, you can visit, but don't expect us to just bring everything to you or hand you an easy map - go out there and find what you need like a decent scholar".

Packing for the journey was easy enough, and Kozuri quickly joined you - though her new friend did seem rather disappointed to see her go. You ultimately ended up on a ferry heading down the River Sphinx - and as soon as you step off, you're offered everything from savory minced lamb, limes, olives, mint tea, and water to carpets (some of which the sellers claim to be "magic" carpets), camel hide leather goods, hookah pipes, pesh, pots and pans, and even camels and dancing girls and boys. The high blue dome of Tephu's Great Library, topped with shining gold pinnacles, towers over the surrounding buildings. Huge columns rise from immense footings along the edifice's sheer walls.

That's a pretty awesome image. Very divine-esque. And based on your thoughts, I have another idea - let's pull a page from Reading Rainbow. Astoroth's realm can be accessed via any library. Just grab a book on whatever topic you're searching for, and (if you're worthy) get pulled inside. You'll end up in a part of Astoroth's realm that corresponds to the information you're looking for, but you'll still have to find it yourself - and possibly prove you can handle it by defeating a guardian in some sort of challenge. I think THESE would be thematic caretakers - especially the divination variety. Also, whenever you leave the realm, you'll end up in a library near where you initially entered.

Fun, but I feel like he should have a higher divine rank before that starts working. XD Widely accessible plane-traveling magic is pretty high-level stuff, after all. Also, definitely safer if he can build up his power before all sorts of strangers start getting pulled in...

Oh, most definitely. XD Regarding Astoroth and power acquisition, it's about the journey, not the destination. As long as he keeps finding interesting mysteries and puzzles, he'll be much too busy to spend much time recreating his realm. I hadn't even planned on starting that phase of his story for several more levels at a minimum.

Eeeeexcellent. XD Anyway, ready to continue here whenever you are.

Should have the rebuild proposal ready in the next day or so.

The city was filled with sights, sounds, and smells, but there was only one thing that drew Astoroth's attention: the library. Ignoring the hustle and bustle of the markets, he made a beeline toward the immense building.

Enormous bronze doors, etched with the images of rampant sphinxes, lead into the library's cavernous interior. Four guards are keeping watch outside, but the doors themselves are open and the public is welcome.

Inside, a large, ornate desk lit by a magnificent lantern seemingly made of water stands in the center of this entrance hall. Statues of enigmatic sphinxes sit in each corner of the room, their gazes an impossible mixture of pleasure and defiance. Archways in three walls open into larger spaces, the chambers beyond drowning in books, ledgers, librams, scrolls, clay tablets, tomes, and other more obscure forms of record, held in countless shelves and cabinets. The smell of old books is almost overpowering

Now THIS was a place worth spending time in. Astoroth hadn't seen a library this well-stocked since he'd awoken. Hopefully there'd be none of the censorship he'd run into at Cheliax. That country, in particular, seemed to have declined significantly while he slept. Such a pity. "Miss Kozuri, could you assist me in researching 'lost things?'" That topic was, obviously, extremely broad, but he trusted his companion to know what he meant and find only records that might be of interest.

Aside from the Tension class feature (which will get its own section), my profile should be fully updated. FYI, combat will be rather complex now, as my various talents and class features have multiple situational, out-of-turn interactions. Readied counterpunch, followed by Parry/Riposte/trip/AoO, for instance. I'll try to keep track of everything at the bottom of my posts when relevant, but we'll both need to be flexible. It shouldn't be much more complicated than the Snake Style stuff, but we'll see.

Rather than trying to juggle and remember all of your abilities, it might help to create some kind of flowchart. Put your Berserker thing under right under your AC, maybe, and then have your 'Attack Action' with everything you can add on to it in Offense, then any unique actions... I ought to experiment with formatting a little and see what I can come up with.

"Right-o." Kozuri said with a smile. Of course, in a library this big, research would take time. Really, just finding the right book was half the issue.

Please give me three Knowledge (History) checks.

Right now, I have all the Sphere stuff together with a short description at the bottom of my profile. During combat, I plan to have a footer at the bottom of my posts with relevant options. That way everything's consolidated.

Knowledge(history): 1d20 + 21 + 1d6 ⇒ (20) + 21 + (3) = 44
Knowledge(history): 1d20 + 21 + 1d6 ⇒ (5) + 21 + (6) = 32
Knowledge(history): 1d20 + 21 + 1d6 ⇒ (20) + 21 + (2) = 43

On the other hand, you were the god of information gathering. Few things matched your domain more perfectly than researching things in a library, so it was probably no surprise you managed to do well. (In fact, your outstanding perusal of tomes and general knowledge of etiquette while doing so got you a tap on the shoulder and a whisper that the staff was willing to let you into the outer sanctum - which had more and better books - and even write a letter of recommendation to the haty-a, or Governor, Deka An-Keret if you wanted to get into the inner sanctum.)

Notes of interest included some commentary on the Amber Chronograph (the largest countdown clock in Osirion, and like all of the clocks frustrating to figure out because the date it was counting towards kept changing), a discussion on the Silver Mount in Numeria and what might lie inside, and several references to ancient monuments in a town called Thrushmoor. On the more martial side of things, the famed Ruby Phoenix Tournament was said to have a great collection of prizes, and who knew what might be in its vaults?

The Amber Chronograph commentary was interesting - and potentially relevant considering his previous excursion. The ancient monuments in Thrushmoor could also be enlightening, but Ustalav had never been a place Astoroth had enjoyed visiting. While the frequent undead outbreaks didn't bother him overmuch, the constant suspicion and closed-mindedness of the locals made for a rather unpleasant experience. Much like Nidal, as a matter of fact.

Further leads will require a few more knowledge checks and heading into one of the inner areas. There's only so much in the easily-accessible public spaces, after all. XD

Noe: I've just started a new job, and it comes with an early wake-up time and a very long commute. As such, my posting availability has substantially decreased. I'll try to stay on top of things, but more time-consuming posts will generally be delayed a day or two, as I have to budget my (now very limited) free time.

Inner Areas
Knowledge(history): 1d20 + 21 + 1d6 ⇒ (12) + 21 + (5) = 38
Knowledge(history): 1d20 + 21 + 1d6 ⇒ (1) + 21 + (5) = 27

Looking through the inner archive - with the curious support of others - you were able to track down some leads that were... substantially different than those in the outer archives. Several of them included references to a world called Lloegyr, which most on Golarion had no cause to visit but certainly seemed... active... in various ways. Notes there included reference to a great battle against the forces of a demon prince and a city that appeared to have stumbled across some kind of half-sentient dreamplane (or perhaps nightmare plane was more accurate, from the notes). A more obscure note mentioned something called the Globe of Arden, apparently the eye of a god slain by Tsathogga (no relation to Aroden, despite the similar names).

A sentient demiplane? Now THAT wasn't something that happened too often. Astoroth's curiosity was piqued.

And since Iris in stuck in a bizarre demiplane, it's only fair that you return the favor. XD

Well, less "stuck" and more "I need good rolls to get out". XD ...I wonder if I could buff it by being around some stuff she dislikes...

Diving deeper into that, it appeared you were going to have to arrange for interplanetary transportation if you wanted to get there. Alternatively, serial plane shifting from a travel agency would probably do the trick. The city was apparently trying to colonize the demiplane, though there wasn't much other information available.

"Well, Miss Kozuri, how would you like to explore a living demiplane?"

The travel agency route is cheaper, methinks, considering interplanetary teleport is a 9th-level spell.

"That wouldn't be the weirdest thing I've done in the last twenty years or so." she answered promptly. Admittedly, most of those years had been in Westcrown, but the point stood. "I suggest we stock up on extra scrolls to get home, though. The last thing I want to do is get stuck in a realm that tells puns for eternity or something."

I can purchase up to four scrolls of plane shift with my current funds. I plan to buy three - two for the journey home, and one in case we get shunted somewhere weird on the way. Is that sufficient?

Assuming nothing goes horribly wrong, yes. Don't forget the cost of actually getting there, though - just let me know when you're ready to get through that and see your shiny new playground. XD

True. XD Let's purchase two scrolls + the cost of getting there. That should come to 4500gp, leaving me 855gp in my inventory. It's not enough for an emergency backup scroll, but that's the best I can do with my current funds. Here's hoping nothing goes horribly wrong. XD

By this point, you were getting pretty good at arranging for long-distance travel... though the library appeared to be a bit sad to see you go. After largely uneventful travel - a giant scorpion here, a small group of bandits there - you managed to arrange for sequential plane shifting, ultimately arriving some twenty miles away from your destination. Ah, the pinpoint accuracy of planar travel. Cough cough.

As you get closer, however, more and more of the massive metropolis becomes visible, and what looks shiny from a distance is rather less pleasant up-close.

Sickened walls jut from the green waters like jagged teeth, their brickwork haemorrhaging from the strain of the towering load above. Centuries of rebuilding, repairing, shoring and praying teetering on the edge of ruin above a poison ink bay of arsenic-toxic waters. Brick walls rise from the dead waters of the Great Lyme River — Sister Lyme as they call her — lying in a bay seemingly bereft of natural life where slurry licks the footings of this failing domain. Timbers rise and jut across streets — joists shore up walls and iron bars lash whole avenues together — the endless sinking decay and toil making the city a giant endless building site. Bamboo scaffolding lashes around every structure, walls are propped against others by vast beams crossing rivers and the whole place is like a house of cards — waiting for the fall to commence. Nothing is still, and everything will one day collapse.

This city continues to rise from its vile depths — buildings lashed on other buildings, with a lace of piers and ladders, rope bridges and stone structures heaved between its various confusing levels. It is a cat’s cradle of interwoven wood and stone and hemp where a trip of fifty feet can take an hour on foot. Older buildings are crushed under the foundations of their children and gaze up weakly, senile structures being trampled to death in the struggle for air.

Bright boats of all sizes ply the sluggish bays and streams between the houses offering a quick but costly way of getting from one street to the next avoiding the perilous crossings and drops below. These boats compete for garishness, whilst their owners compete for attention — shouting, crying and even singing the safety and pleasure of their wares. Above their heads, a treadmill ferry creaks by, lumbering on despite the abuse from the boatmen, hateful of yet another invention in this city of renaissance.

The city is also alive with birdsong — the singing of canaries, which seem to be as populace as the people, who throng the streets and bay and bridges in their tens of thousands. And outwards and upwards the city spreads, like a blighting mass of architecture — towers rise in distant BookTown, the garish lights dance over Festival, and the echo of sounds and life in a dozen districts drifts lazily towards you. And high, high above all towers the grey ramparts of the Capital — a schizophrenic mass of tastes and styles, decrees, orders and tyranny.

Through it all, one fact is immediately clear: This is the wrong side of town.

There's a line of people at the gate, as well as a number of guards. Three of them look to be half-orcs, one is a dwarf, and another looks to be an undead troll clad in heavy armor and holding a club bigger than you are. Kozuri stared at the troll for a moment, then leaned over.

"I think we should avoid any displays of magic." she said quietly. "Something about this city just feels... wrong. At the very least, we should probably get some information from the locals about how they do things here."

Astoroth was in complete agreement on that point. While he'd join the line of people awaiting entry eventually, for the moment, he simply remained where he was and observed the proceedings. One could learn a lot about the workings of a settlement through the actions of its citizens, and the entryway provided a number of diverse data points. Entry rituals, the presence or absence of a gate toll, the behavior of authority figures, dress and behavior of civilians, the presence or absence of distinctive clothing that could indicate faction/guile/organization membership, etc.

Most of the people passing by were from the common races - humans being a majority, but you saw half-elves, dwarves, and gnomes passing by as well, plus the occasional monstrous figure that everyone else gave a wide berth to. However, most of them - and you got the sense they were locals - appeared to look just a little... different. The laborers appeared to have backs and hands just a bit larger than others, the gnomes had slightly bigger heads, and the halflings trended towards being taller and thinner than most of their kind. It was as if the city itself was a part of them.

Most people got through the gates fairly quickly, but as you watched, you noticed the discreet flicker of a variety of divinations covering the entrance. Several of them appeared to head much further into the city (where, exactly, you couldn't say), suggesting a degree of watchfulness unmatched in lesser settlements. Gates always tended to attract the more affluent people - those who had business coming and going - but extrapolating the size of the city and what you knew of population trends elsewhere suggested that at least 95% of the people here were in the 'low' class.

At this distance, it was hard to spot specific symbols, but a few larger banners and drawings on wagons suggested that guilds and groups were fairly common in the city. Most seemed quite deferential towards the guards - the troll standing above everyone else's heads certainly didn't discourage it - but the occasional merchant leader you saw (almost always a gnome) didn't seem too worried. They didn't want trouble, but they weren't cowering, either.

The obvious mutations were interesting to observe. Astoroth made a note to find out more about them. How long it took to begin developing one, if effects were species-specific, etc. The greater-than-normal watchfulness was unusual as well, but given what he'd read about the demiplane, not entirely unexpected. Increased threats warranted greater security, after all. Once he was adequately satisfied, Astoroth calmly took his place in line and began making his way toward the gate.

Since you mentioned divinations, I'll remind you that I'm wearing a ring of mind shielding. If that becomes a problem (and a valid reason is given), Astoroth will briefly remove it to prove that he isn't a CE psycopath or whatnot. XD