1/2 Raelynn 2024/03/02(Sat)16:01 No. 1085130 ID: 75b262
File 170942411940.png - (45.31KB , 836x618 , LF8 1.png )

This underground shelter is old, even by my people’s memory. Water flows around the massive tree roots it was built within. Nutritious mushrooms flourish under bioluminescent moss in the ceiling. For our small group, we can hide here as long as Kayk’s caloric needs permit. If she’s willing to go hungry, we can stay even longer.

The only way inside is to know exactly where the entrance is, and exactly how to open it. Spells older than the last terrible war between Elves and Humans still protect us from prying eyes. The Censors chasing us are incapable of finding us, even with their divination.

We’re safe from Pierre’s people, but not mine.

My druidic circle, Circle Uí Liatháin, has expanded our territory in the last decade. My brother will brook no intruders- he’ll have watchers attuned to the tree roots, knowing which shelters are being accessed without his orders. The longer we stay here, the greater the certainty he’ll take us prisoner. Serah won’t be used to the treatment he’ll give her. Her nobility will provoke my people; her ancestors ordered us slaughtered. We haven’t forgotten.

I try to ignore that I’ve led her to one of my people’s safe havens. I’m a traitor to the secrets entrusted to me; what grace I had in exile is gone, now that I’ve proven I can’t be trusted.

I’m nervous about what might happen if we stay here too long. No, I’m afraid. For myself, and the people who’ve put their trust in me. I shouldn’t have come here.

A mental image of a fluffy bunny pops into my head from Odin’s divine Tweet spell Taranis has access to. I can tell the bunny is nearby due to the forest flora.

Why is this important? I reply tersely. You’re supposed to be keeping watch.

My stormcrow companion sends a small wave of calm and boredom along with his next image, which is the forest around our hiding place. It’s possible to attach condensed emotions, or emoticons, along with tweets. I’ve never liked emoticons, but Taranis sprinkles his messages with them like sickeningly sweet candy. He doesn’t like to use words in his communications, just as he doesn’t speak out loud to me, even though he has the capability. I haven’t pressed him as to why, and it’s his business anyway. He’s always tweeted words at me when it’s important.

Don’t get sloppy, I respond to him, but immediately regret my tone. I sigh. This isn’t going to be fun, sitting cooped up in a cave, worrying about how long it will be before we’re all captured at the point of an arrow.

2/2 Raelynn 2024/03/02(Sat)16:09 No. 1085135 ID: 75b262
File 170942457350.png - (9.02KB , 525x420 , LF8 2.png )

I hate emoticons. He knows that. Why is he bothering me right now? Surely he can sense my stress, and he knows I need to focus on my problem of how to protect Serah, and Landi, and Dotti, and Kayk, all while somehow stopping my brother’s insane plans to start a war against the entire world, and-

An absolutely absurd mental image pops into my head via Odin’s Tweet spell.

It’s Taranis.

In fluffy pink cat ears.

Wjhat is tht? Why cat easrs? I blurt out, the mental reply coming out garbled. He just responds with a bit of condensed mirth and a mental image of cat ears. No, I don’t want to wear them!

I can’t focus on the important things when he’s harassing me like this. I reply with a terse UGH and tell him I’m busy with something else. Anything else.

What is my excuse to stop being harassed by Taranis’s pictures of bunnies and cat ears?

1. I’m going to talk to Serah and Kayk about tactics, caloric intake, and how we might prepare for my Circle trying to take us prisoner. This is stressful, and I don’t really want to think about it at the moment, but it should be done sometime…

2. I’m going to talk to Pierre and Landi. Pierre’s shivering and soaking wet from the storm and Landi is acting more confused than normal. We can’t exactly light a fire down here- is he going to be okay?

3. I’m going to talk to Dotti, who’s busied herself digging into the dirt floor of the shelter next to a tunnel entrance blocked by rocks and rubble. There’s a reason we sealed off the tunnel network, and I ought to tell her not to dig too greedily or too deep. Still, she is very happy digging. Maybe I should let her be for now.

1. but first, give pierre your hooded cloak before you head to Serah. You'll be fine in the cold, you're strong. He's only borrowing it until he warms up.

leave Dotti alone. While it is a risk, consider she could also be digging an escape route so that maybe she can escape if you and the rest gets spotted. Then she can prepare a sneak attack or something when the time is right.

2, You can trust Serah to know her place, even if she hasn't been here before. She's not a fool, and she has a good mind for politics. She doesn't need a debriefing. As much as I love Kayk, talking to her isn't super important either.

Dotti too is of lower priority right now. She's happy, and you can trust her to dig responsibly. She's a fox for pete's sake, she probably has a better mind for it than you.

Pierre is new to all of this, and it seems that his first trip out of the city has been a rough one. He's the one you need to address first. Offer him some comfort, but also let him know what to expect so that he's ready for it. You may not be great at the comforting, so lean on Landi to help out with it where necessary.

2. We should figure out what's going on with them before we form a plan to not get captured.

2) Immediate concerns first, if someone gets sick it will make any confrontations so much harder.

>>1085139

Wait, you should comfort him? You? Do you really do "comfort"? At the very least congratulate him for beating impossible odds. Maybe once you see Dotti, you can suggest to her that a warm, fluffy, fiery fox girl might be helpful at warming and drying Petra's son.

>>1085135
2.

2 plz

Raelynn 2024/03/02(Sat)18:59 No. 1085160 ID: 75b262
File 170943475997.png - (39.68KB , 465x600 , LF8 3.png )

I brush off another round of cutesy images from Taranis with a terse reply that I need to check on Pierre’s well-being. Strangely, this seems to please Taranis, and he immediately stops. What a weird bird.

I walk toward Pierre, set on making sure he doesn’t catch a chill. If he gets sick while under my people’s care, they wouldn’t offer him any care; best not to put him in that position. Human prisoners are lucky to get food, let alone hot soup or medicine.

Landi is hovering over Pierre, oohing and ahhing over something. “It’s like you’re not even here,” she says. “I can’t godmother your robes dry, or get a fix on ‘em. You’re the invisible man!”

Curious, I stop for a moment. Pierre was behind me the whole time on Kayk, but now I have a good look at him. I fixate my gaze on him. Sure enough, my seer’s eye can’t perceive him at all, not even a vague shape.

This guy is, for lack of a better phrase, giving me the absolute creeps.

Pierre wrings out his robes, and water collects on the floor under him. He doesn’t have Serah’s immunity to cold from her mutagens, Landi’s dust, or my Venmiphi-made gear that would let him shrug off the cold and wetness. Pity.

I approach this party newcomer and assert my authority as survivalist-in-chief.

“Lady Kensington told me you were the one behind the escape,” I say. “It was a good plan…”

“Thank you,” Pierre says. “I put a lot of thought into it.”

“…Except for the end,” I continue. “You relied far too heavily on an unknown allied force. Did you really believe Lady Kensington’s retinue would be able to withstand a concerted assault from at least two directions, each consisting of highly-trained inquisitors with divine guidance leading them to you? Even if you’re immune to scrying, ‘Kayk Terrorscale, daughter of Mai Terrorscale, who was at Giornico less than three hours ago’ is not a difficult target to focus divination spells on.”

“I had to put my faith somewhere,” Pierre says. “Except for one uh, incident, it hasn’t been misplaced.”

“Your faith led us here,” I say, more harshly than I intended. “Elven lands. If we’re captured, I shouldn’t need to remind you that for your time here, you see nothing, hear nothing, and remember nothing.”

“The elves… um, your people won’t throw me out to the Censors, will they?” Pierre asks. “If they find out I’m the reason the Censors are flying above us.”

“Worse,” I say. “They’ll take an interest in you.”

Pierre shivers, this time not from the cold.

I twist my finger through my bangs. This isn’t helping Pierre. I need to do what I came here to do- get him warmed up.

Who do I ask to help warm Pierre up?

1. Myself, who has a very comfy cloak. This is the worst option.
2. Serah, who is very tall and immune to cold thanks to her mutagen, but she’s a noble.
3. Landi, who can godmother warmer clothes for Pierre out of Dotti’s spare clothing. I’m not sure how effective her spell will be if Pierre’s anti-magic affects his clothes too.
4. Dotti, who is fluffy and can conjure fire. Asking her to help will mean she stops digging, though.
5. Kayk, who has a sweater and is a dragon. I don’t see a downside to this option.
6. More than one of the above. Helpful, but will make Pierre uncomfortable being the focus of so much lady attention.

2 or alternately 6. Serah's a very caring and responsible leader!

5 is the correct option, and this isn't up for debate beyond maybe asking for additional help. Kayk literally has dragon fire in her core, she can loan her sweater without just changing which party member is cold. If not that, then she could literally just create a small fire for Pierre.

4) a nice fire to dry his robes. Unless, would having a fire in here get you even more on the druids' bad side? If so, then borrow Kayk's sweater.

5, because I've been told by a reliable source that is the correct answer. Remember, Kayk can also breath fire to warm him up since Dotti is too busy. It's the best choice.

The downside to 5 is that he'll drain Kayk's mana. In his current state that could happen to a significant amount, enough to actually affect Kayk.

What you should REALLY do is get EVERYONE who can help to help, except Dotti who is doing something. Nobody needs to give up their clothes though, and I don't think godmother'd clothes will work either. Just huddle around him.

Oh, there's another thing we can do: Pierre can remove his clothes, which will let Landi dry them.

6) You and Serah. You don't need ambient magic to survive. Also, Serah was planning on marrying the poor bastard, so you should present yourself as a second option-
Kidding! But you should de-sensitize him to the stigma of getting comfy with women. He's not gonna touch you there for the same reason he's too scared to feel you. His upbringing had prudishness as a crippling flaw.

It's true you and Serah are the only ones who couldn't get hurt by Pierre's creepy... not magic thing.

Is Archibeard still in Serah's bagpack? He has big cozy beard and can also yell Pierre into shaking cold off.

No? Well then, Kayk and Dotti can huddle with him. They are a lizard and a fox, so he'll likely not feel so embarassed.

>>1085175

This would actually combine well with getting Kayk to help. Pierre might be more receptive to disrobing if she can lend her sweater for him to change into.

>>1085160
4) Dotti may be happy embracing her fox instincts and digging, but she also loves proving she's the best and most helpfullest lady in all the world so I'm sure she'd appreciate you calling her specifically to help.

if not

2) Serah. She may be a noble, but she's far from believing others are some sort of inherently filthy untouchable like so many other nobles. Besides, she wanted more adventure in her life, this is what adventuring looks like. Can always pull the Noblesse Oblige card too.

Kayk's sweater may be the easiest path, but that leaves Kayk nude. Sure, she has scales to cover her true nudity, but Pierre may still be uncomfortable with that regardless, and it means Kayk has to be much more self aware lest something slip.

You know, if we have Serah helping us, we can also discuss plans to her as we warm up Pierre. Kill two birds with one stone.

>>1085200

Tbf, I think if Kayk stripped down herself, it'd be easier to comvince Pierre to take off his own wet robes. It's a tough sell as is, stripping in a room full of women he sort of just met a day ago, especially being the lone guy. Having something he can change into while he waits for Landi to dry his off AND making him not the only one going through with the awkwardness would probably help him a lot. Assuming Kayk wouldn't mind either, it's the best case scenario.

1/2 Raelynn 2024/03/03(Sun)12:08 No. 1085225 ID: 75b262
File 170949653768.png - (59.95KB , 500x500 , LF8 4.png )

We used to be able to light fires in these underground shelters (the tree roots are protected so long as there’s no once-in-a-generation drought drying it up), but since we sealed off the tunnels, the air flow isn’t enough to allow a non-magical fire without making the shelter noxious. We’ll have to make do with fox-fire and dragonfire with no nonmagical fuel- meaning Dotti or Kayk would be constantly burning their own mana to keep the fire going.

Pierre’s shivering isn’t improving, and Landi hasn’t figured out how to make her magic work on Pierre in the panicked, tired state he’s in.

“I don’t get it,” Landi says. “I godmothered those lucky panties onto you. Why isn’t this working now? We can’t have you going commando forever!”

“Please be quiet about that,” Pierre whispers. “As for the magic… I’m tired and focused on the residual bad luck from the, um, buff spell. I’m sorry, sometimes my control over my condition is better, and sometimes worse.”

“You’re not gonna, like, suck my dust away like your little sister did, are you? Are you gonna accidentally do worse to Dotti if she comes over here?”

“I’ll keep it under control,” Pierre says, though he doesn’t seem very confident.

I grit my teeth at this. If Dotti really is vulnerable to Pierre losing control of whatever his anti-magic condition is, then I need to keep her safely away from him… but between her fox fluff, non-noxious fire magic, and her willingness to help Petra’s family, she’s one of the best choices to help warm Pierre up.

Another option is to have Kayk offer her sweater and keep a small stream of dragonfire going, but Kayk isn’t known for the precise control over her fire. She’d be more resistant to Pierre’s mana drain than Dotti (if that’s actually what it is), but she’s tired from flying this far, this fast, and transforming immediately after. I don’t want to push Kayk too hard, especially if we need to fight anytime soon.

“If more than one person is nearby,” I say, “Would your condition affect all of them equally, or would it divide the siphoning proportionately amongst them?”

“If I lose control? The more people nearby, the less it would affect each of them.”

I don’t feel like taking any chances with our party’s health. It’s time for the simple, straightforward option: everyone is going to pitch in, even me.

Ugh.

“Pierre,” I say, “You need to warm up. Landi, you mentioned he wasn’t even wearing a base layer?”

“You mean his undies?” Landi snickers. “Ventura took the lucky panties with her when she left, so our jailbird here needs some warm clothes, stat.”

“I see.” I call over to the other side of the shelter. “Kayk, Pierre needs a sweater. I’m requisitioning yours. Serah, you’re immune to cold. Once he’s changed into Kayk’s sweater, make sure he’s warm.”

“One minute!” Kayk says, pulling her arms under her sweater and fiddling around for a moment.

Serah looks over to me, then to Pierre. Thankfully, she doesn’t object.

“Did you just give an order to Lady Kensington?” he asks, sputtering objections as Landi starts tugging on his robe and giggling madly.

“But-“

“Pierre, I don’t want to hear it.” I cross my arms. His mental comfort isn’t my concern; his physical health is. “You need to get used to following my directions. Now let Landi dry off that robe.”

2/2 Raelynn 2024/03/03(Sun)12:09 No. 1085226 ID: 75b262
File 170949655106.png - (32.77KB , 785x900 , LF8 5.png )

Pierre still hasn’t confirmed he’ll follow my orders. I tap my foot.

“He’s a prude,” Landi informs me gleefully. “Churchy boi can’t handle being naked around hot girls like me.”

“It’s okay, Pierre.” Serah says. “We’ll turn around while you change. I understand that this is uncomfortable, but I promise we’ll be respectful.”

“Yeah! Give him that sweater, Kayk! Whoo!” Landi cheers. “Serah gives the brea- uh, best cuddles. Trust me, I speak from experience.”

“Landi…” Serah gives a long-suffering sigh.

“Yeah, yeah, sure, sure. No peeking. Oh, here you go! One set of briefs, brief-ly borrowed.” She pulls Pierre’s previous underwear from her inventory and drops them near him.

Kayk whisks her sweater off and hands it to Pierre. As she does so, Landi’s glow pulses and warps toward Pierre, dimming slightly until she pulls away from him. Suddenly I’m very glad Dotti is busy digging her hole at the moment.

“Whoa!” Landi gasps. “Easy, tiger!”

“I’m sorry!” Pierre says, doing his best not to look at Kayk. We all turn around to give him some privacy. In the meantime, I beckon Landi to follow me over to Dotti’s foxhole.

“Hey, Dotster! Have you hit lava yet?” Landi calls into the hole.

She’s answered by little fox snorfing sounds and excited panting. Dotti’s head pops out of the hole, eyes shimmering. “This is great!” she exclaims. “There’s so many tunnels here! And here, and here, and here! This whole thing is like a giant den! Elves really learned a lot from foxes. They’re smart!”

“If you want a break, we could use your help,” I tell Dotti.

“Pierre the Prude needs fox fluff,” Landi says. “You’re warm and snuggly. Can you sit with him for a bit and maybe do that warmth magic thing you did a while ago? You don’t have to, it might be a bit dangerous if he brushes against Serah’s boob and sucks all our mana out.”

Dotti whimpers. “Are you helping too, Landi?”

“Yeah,” Landi says. “We’re all gonna risk it.”

I nod.

“If you’re gonna lose your glow if I don’t help… then I’ll help too,” Dotti says. “Even if it hurts a little.”

“You’re a good fo-“ Landi clears her throat. “A good person. Thanks, Dotster.”

Dotti beams with pride.

Once we get the okay to turn around, we join Pierre, now in Kayk’s oversized yellow sweater that comes down to just above his knees. Serah offers Pierre a seat in her lap, and he accepts as calmly as he can, with the rest of us huddling around for warmth. Dotti casts her warming spell, and though it’s muted, I can still feel it.

Landi’s job is to dry out Pierre’s robes as quickly as she can, but finds that her own magic isn’t affecting the robes as well as she’d like, so she flits over to us while they dry naturally.

All of us are huddled together and it’s awkward. How does Landi break the ice?

"99 bottles of beer on the wall..."

Landi... actually apologizes for the lucky panties thing. If it wasnt for her, they wouldnt be in this mess.

Did you know elves huddle in shelters like this to hibernate through the winter? It's true, my elven anatomy studies professor said so!

Talk about homosexuality!

>>1085229
She's grown as a person. And she definitely wouldn't immediately follow that apology with trying to start a game of Never-Have-I-Ever.

>>1085321
Yes! apology in a form of a game!

>>1085226
I outright -love- 99 bottles of beer, but its more of a scene closer than opener.

Hmm
She asks pierre about all those warnings he was given by the churchies about the depraved, predatory womenfolk lying in wait out here for him.
Get some deets.
Get some heat into his cheeks.

Let him slowly realise he's now the protagonist in his own multi species harem story.
Just like in those very forbidden eastern shun-ga wood carving stories he saw.

Hi!
Love the Landi apology idea! Perhaps it goes to the church warning deets after?

1/2 Raelynn 2024/06/04(Tue)19:09 No. 1092422 ID: 9f8647
File 171755339050.png - (7.90KB , 491x330 , LF8 6.png )

It’s quiet for a bit as everyone gets settled and Pierre warms up. For some reason this is intolerable to one of us.

“So, like, uh, this is a bit hard to say,” Landi says, interrupting the blessed silence. “I’m just gonna come out and address the dragon in the room.”

“Me?”

“The other dragon in the room,” Landi continues, unabashed. “I can’t help but feel like some of this is my fault.”

“Some of what?” Serah asks.

“Some of this, well, everything.” Landi flits away from the group. “The hiding in a tree. The thing with Ventura wouldn’t have happened if not for the Lucky Panties. I should’ve taken care of that way long ago.”

“But if you had,” Serah says, “Pierre wouldn’t have gotten to wear them and get lucky.”

“Lady Kensington!” Pierre gasps. “I- I- I-“

“For your escape, of course.” Serah says. “Landi, perhaps you are having a bad influence on us.”

“Yeah!” Dotti says, her voice much quieter than it is normally. She fluffs her tails a bit and makes a face of concentration, and through my ruined eye I see her gathering mana to raise the volume on her spell; some of it is being sucked through the void where Pierre should be. “Landi is a bad influence, but she still does good stuff. Kind of like me, but opposite!”

“How so?” Serah asks.

“I’m a good influence because I try really hard to help Kayk, but I do some bad stuff according to humans. But that’s okay, because humans are dumb sometimes. So that means Landi’s good too.”

“Thanks, Dotster,” Landi says.

“Please don’t feel bad, Landi,” Kayk says. “We all have things we regret doing in moments of weakness, or laziness, or anger. Sometimes we do things we regret, and the important part learning so we don’t do them again.”

That’s a tender sentiment, but it’s not helping me. For my part, I already regret bringing my companions here. We’re stuck in this bunker until the Censors leave, and that gives my Circle far too much time to track us down. They’ve already been alerted that this shelter’s been breached, I’m sure of it.

We can’t leave through the entryway; that’ll put us on the forest floor, and the Censors might detect us if we leave too early, and my Circle will find us once they leave. That means if we want to have any chance of evading capture, we’ll have to go into the network of tunnels that have been sealed off by rocks for centuries. The druidic Circles haven’t had the numbers to maintain or patrol the network for generations; there’s horrible things down there. I can see through the tunnels with my eye, but they can sense tremors in the earth. Kayk wouldn’t be able to transform, either. And that’s assuming we could even get into the tunnels; the best way to do it would be to have Dotti dig around the rocks, pop up on the other side, and have Landi portal us through once she’s confirmed the space we’ll exit. Landi’s portals would take an absurd amount of mana to get Kayk through, and Pierre wouldn’t be able to go through at all. We’d need to really commit a lot of our remaining potion resources to get through or blast our way in, and that would alert everyone and everything to what we’re doing. Plus, we might even get captured once we leave the tunnel network. I don’t feel good about taking this option.

2/2 Raelynn 2024/06/04(Tue)19:10 No. 1092423 ID: 9f8647
File 171755343054.png - (38.89KB , 560x672 , LF8 7.png )

The best option, as much as I hate to admit it, is to allow ourselves to be captured by my Circle. It’s why I came here in the first place… and it’s how I can make good on my familial duty. My brother…

No, best not to think on that. First problems first.

My Circle always pairs one elf per prisoner. For more troublesome prisoners, there are more elves assigned, but they always report to the elf in charge of managing the prisoner. I’m sworn not to tell outsiders of our ways, so I can’t explain this to Serah, but what I can do is use this knowledge to focus on the elf in charge of one or two prisoners. I won’t be technically taken prisoner, so I’ll have relative freedom of movement while the rest of the party is separated and imprisoned.

They’ll all lose their gear and weapons, and be placed in separate restraints. There’s no getting around that. Landi will have her inventory searched and emptied, so we can’t get around that unless I use my influence to ensure that the search isn’t very thorough. If I focus on improving Landi’s treatment and distracting the elf in charge of the search, we can probably even smuggle Serah’s dragon-fired armor in her inventory.

My immediate concern is for Serah. My people hate humans for what they did to us in the war centuries ago that destroyed our civilizations; we hate human nobility even more. Serah won’t be killed, but if the wrong elf gets assigned her jailer, then she’ll be treated the worst of all of us.

Kayk will have plenty of focus on her, and I know at least one elf that was obsessed with ensnaring a dragon mount via a variation of our domination spell. I’m afraid of what might happen if I just assume Kayk will be fine.

Dotti will likewise be kept a close eye on. My people know how dangerous fox spirits are, and they won’t take any chances. They will shoot on sight if Dotti tries to sneak around in fox form. If the wrong elf gets assigned as Dotti’s jailer, they might even take her bow from her.

Pierre isn’t nobility, but he would be treated poorly too. The Circle doesn’t know he’s the reason the Censors are chasing us, and we would never speak with the Censors: we shoot invading war parties first, ask questions never. But if my people interrogate Pierre, I don’t think he’d last long under pressure. Maybe I should give some effort into diverting suspicion from him.

If we’re captured, I can only do so much to improve the treatment of my companions. Who should I prioritize making sure is treated well? 1 is highest priority, 5 gets little to no help.

- Serah
- Landi
- Dotti
- Kayk
- Pierre

Alright, I think it makes more sense to work in reverse, because there are several people who we CAN'T put at the bottom of the list.

- Serah would almost definitely be treated terribly
- Kayk might have her autonomy stripped away in a more permanent way
- Dotti would probably have her bow taken, meaning she'd spend the entire stay in a state of great distress

So it's really just a matter of Landi or Pierre, and I think that's gonna have to be Landi. She's getting searched, no matter what, and unless we really commit to helping her smuggle something valuable in, I think losing her inventory is the least troubling outcome. It's not tossing her under the bus, she genuinely just has the least to lose right now.

That puts Pierre in 4th, because however bad it may be for him to be interrogated, I can see three outcomes listed above that would be significantly worse. I could see an argument for Dotti being here, if you think this is the lowest she can go while still keeping her bow. I don't have that much faith.

Dotti's next for me, because her accommodation is the simplest of the three remaining: Let her keep her bow. If she fucks around and gets into trouble for some other reason, that's on her. You can only give out so much protection right now, so she's just gonna have to be on her best behavior.

Kayk takes second, as we really just have to be sure no attempts are made to dominate her mind. Arguably, you could switch her with Dotti, given the threat the Terrorscale name carries. We are not going to take that risk however, because there is no outcome in which we want to have a mind-controlled dragon under The Circle's control.

And finally, that puts Serah in first. Yeah yeah, part of this is definitely just bias. You've known her longer than Kayk, and she does so much for the party. After all the sleepless nights she spent looking for Petra, and the risks she took in helping Pierre escape, it feels wrong to put the greatest stress on her again. Your people aren't going to like her, even under the best conditions, so the least you can do is give her the most comfort you can offer. She deserves that much.

So, just to sum that all up:

1: Serah
2: Kayk
3: Dotti
4: Pierre
5: Landi

1 - Serah cause nobility
2 - Landi because she has very useful stuff that could help you later
4 - Dotti she was able to single handedly save Petra. Plus she is more sneaky than you realize
5 - Kayk. If worst comes to worst, Mai terrorscale can save Kayk. Otherwise, she is a strong dragon.
- Pierre 3. Hes human, and has no fighting abilities as the weakest member. Also, his secrets must be gaurded!

1) Serah. At the end of the day, she's your sponsor. If she dies, your paycheck dies with her.
2) Pierre. You cannot let the druids or the elves learn about his bloodline power. They will suck him dry and breed an army of misinformation saboteurs from his corpse. If it comes down to it... you must kill him if the alternative is his unwilling conception of the end of the free world.
3) Landi. She has the least combat experience and a fragile metabolism.
4) Dotti. While physically the weakest, she has the most combat experience. She should be fine unless she's forced to fight above her shapeshifting weight class.
5) Kayk. I mean... dragon.

Man, this is a DIFFICULT decision for Raelyn to make… I’m noticing people are prioritizing Serah pretty heavily, so I’m gonna go against the grain a bit and put Serah in slot 5. It seems like the rest of our party members have some higher value to the elves, some sort of safety to ensure or secrets to guard. Serah just has how she’s treated over her head.

Serah is interchangeable with Landi who goes in slot 4. If we really like Serah, we can help her a little at the expense of all our cool stuff, but I’d hate to lose absolutely everything. I’d work to maybe hold onto something useful, even if it’s small.

Dotti goes in slot 3 simply because helping her seems the simplest. Just ensure she keeps her bow. ‘Nuff said.

>>1092424 Himitsu here makes a lovely argument for why Kayk should be second, although I think you could switch her around for who remains to be placed first.

This leaves the number one spot to Pierre. If they find out his secrets, that could compromise the entire mission as a whole. They might find it in their interests to just… turn him back in to the Censors, if not worse. We need him in one piece for sure.

To summarize
1. Pierre
2. Kayk
3. Dotti
4. Landi
5. Serah
(Sorry Serah!)

Landi, Kayk, Serah, Dotti, Pierre.
Or you could just take the tunnel system.

>>1092423
Okay, so, people we absolutely can't put at 5:
Kayk, because of the domination thing. Yes, her mother could rescue her, but you don't want that to happen to your Circle do you? Then again maybe mentioning that at all would be enough to discourage the domination? Mai *does* have a reputation, doesn't she.
Dotti, because of the bow.
Pierre, to keep him from being interrogated and ruining everything by revealing the secret to his magic immunity.

Keeping items in Landi's inventory... isn't important. Serah not getting the shit kicked out of her is probably more important than that. And honestly, a few items aren't going to make much difference when the rest of the party is unequipped. Plus, uh, I think only Serah cares about being unequipped? You're keeping your stuff, Kayk doesn't use anything, same for Dotti, Pierre isn't a fighter, and Landi has her magic even though she'd like to have bombs and stuff.
So:

1, Pierre
2, Serah
3, Dotti
4, Kayk
5, Landi

>>1092439
I agree with this. Serah as nobility might be hated, but that also makes her valuable as a prisoner. It's those who the circle would find more valuable as a slave or worse that should be prioritized.

>>1092423
Hrm.
You are in a pickle raerae.

You may have sworn not to tell them of your peoples ways, but that doesnt mean uou swore not to tell them of yours.

Some of your problems on that list can be ameliorated with some warning about what youre going to do.
Then things to watch out for.
For example, while the methods they would use are certainly secret, their personal desire to claim a dragon mount by any means is hardly something that can be called a clan way.

A little preperation on the parts of those you have to keep less of an eye on.

As such
.
1. Pierre. Keep his secrets, keep him safe.

2. Dotti. As much to keep an eye on her as the jailer. An incident with her has highest chance of escalation into chaos.

3.serah. smart enough to look after herself, still worth watching due to chance of an insult nobility cannot overlook. Their honour is a bit weird and complex. Kinda like nobles.

4. Kayke. Large. Intelligent. Far more used to these kinds of threats than we may realise given her family. Comes with an added safeguard of implied fiery wrath of parents and siblings should she be mistreated in any way.

5. Landi. I dont like leaving her till last but she has the least complications.
Being last is, in a way, a position of trust. you can say you wont have time to keep an eye on all of them, so the ones you dont check in on are the ones your relying on. Framed that way, she may find resolve to hold off on the mischief and keep her temper.


Now, all of this is precluded by the idea that you are going to tell them the plan is to be captured?
Because that is not the kind of surprise that folk like.
It could blow up into a fight otherwise.