![[BtS-54-1.png]] Abadius 23rd, 2430AS After the excitement of a establishing contact, it was nice to have a fairly relaxing couple of days. I simply continued to work on learning Celestial while we waited for things to do. [[Claude Berezina|Claude]] did send me a [[Corinau|Corinian]] children's book to get me started on their language while I waited for other books to become available. Aside from learning the language, there wasn't much that could be done about [[Corinau]] aside from simply waiting for some sort of change. The situation with [[Iris]] was much of the same, though [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] did send to [[Aureon]] the past two nights. He didn't give the specific messages he sent to [[Aureon]], though he did record the exact responses received. >[!Sendings from Aureon] >**Abadius 22nd** >No update. May have misunderstood your context or intent. I am currently assessing loyalties aboard ship in case of mutiny or combat. Will take days. > > Iris has been earnest. Crew have no reason to distrust, or attack her. Currently seeking those who would choose to assist her in combat. > > **Abadius 23rd** > No conclusive update. May have guessed too few. Estimate between seven and ten will jump to her defense. Attempting to dissuade them. Will take days. I'll also note that [[Wilborin|Wil]] finished his magical tattoo today, an interesting set of runes splaying out from under his eyes to make them look as though they are twin suns. He claims they help him see better, but hasn't really elaborated on how exactly they do that. Some are worried about his potential ability to see invisibility, although I'm not too concerned. --- Abadius 24th, 2430AS Today was another relaxing day until a surprising request for our presence on the bridge around sunset. We were met by the usual group of [[Lady Irorika Galvira|Handler]], [[Yvonne Augusto|Yvonne]], and [[Claude Berezina|Claude]] waiting to brief us on our next task. Group 6 was also present on the bridge, seemingly undoing their modifications to the Ruinous Gaze. It seems that we no longer need the ability to scry at long range which is reasonable considering the greatly reduced tension between us and the [[Corinau|Corinian]] fleet. As we all gathered together, [[Claude Berezina|Claude]] informed us that the [[Corinau|Corinian]] delegation ship was coming towards us again. Given the time of day everyone was a little confused, but ultimately we needed to receive them with care. Knowing what we had to do, we quickly rushed off to the docks to accept the delegation. [[Athanar Cirian|Cirian]] was with the delegation again, and just as before we welcomed them and their delegation on board and brought them to the church. Given that I had warned [[Athanar Cirian|Cirian]] of my true appearance during our last meeting, I decided to look the same as I normally do instead of transforming to look human. It did take him a moment to realize that it was me, but once he realized it he wasn't really concerned from what I could tell. Given the surprise visit, the crew had no time to rotate out the undead crew. As we walked to the church the delegation unfortunately saw several undead crew and passed relatively close to an undead guard, something which clearly put them off. They still moved along though, so at least it seems they are willing to overlook the oddities just as I was. Once we were in the church and the delegates had began talking, [[Athanar Cirian|Cirian]] and our [[Ex Nihilo|group]] once again made our way to the corner for the faster and more practical discussion. He apologized for the late and unannounced meeting, but they had rushed over bearing important news. A response had come from the [[Godril Kingdom]], and they were informed that [[Queen Tarana Rineko|Queen Rineko]] is currently on an icebreaking security expedition in the far north. She is immediately returning from the expedition, however this will still take 2-3 weeks. Additionally the [[Sentinel Federation|sentinel fleet]] has been ordered to cease all interaction with the [[The Horizon Project|Horizon fleet]] and to heavily increase the amount of combat ships in the area. Thankfully [[Corinau]] wasn't fully on board with this plan, as [[Athanar Cirian|Cirian]] wishes to keep up communications. There is no way to avoid the increased security though, so it is just something we will need to deal with. Wanting to prepare for the trials ahead, I asked [[Athanar Cirian|Cirian]] what he expected to happen when the [[Queen Tarana Rineko|Queen]] arrived. He thought for a bit, coming up with three possible scenarios. The worst case, while a little unlikely, is that upon arrival she will order an all out attack on [[The Horizon Project|the Horizon Fleet]], then take any [[Sentinel Federation|Federation]] dissenters to military court after the fighting is over. Given that she is coming and not just sending in a massive fleet, I do not believe this is her plan. While it is still unlikely, there is a possibility that [[Queen Tarana Rineko|the Queen]] will arrive, assess the situation, then personally contact us for more direct interactions. This would be the best case scenario in my mind, however I do doubt that it will occur given the history of the [[Sentinel Federation|Federation]]. [[Athanar Cirian|Cirian]] feels that she will most likely combine the two strategies. She will first prepare an attack with their fleet, judging their willingness to engage. Once the voices of dissent come out she will probably look to open the conversation once again, effectively the same outcome as the better of the two prior options. [[Athanar Cirian|Cirian]] once again pointed out that should this have been any other prior ruler this would not have happened and as such the timing of this entire ordeal is extremely beneficial to us. He also told us to come to her should she look to open communication, a good call considering we want her to be as comfortable and safe as possible. Considering we are alien vessels that have come from [[The Stormwall|Purgatory]], I doubt she would be very willing to come aboard. With the discussion of what was to come from their side over, we decided to let them in on the problems we have been facing. We started by explaining the situation with [[The Horizon Project#The Hope Seeker|the Hope Seeker]], wanting to see what [[Athanar Cirian|Cirian]] thought of our options. He decided to give us a short history lesson, detailing a situation much the same as ours from the past. There were three ships that arrived from [[The Stormwall|purgatory]], claiming that they were "Sailors lost from a bygone time". Considering the alien nature of their ships the [[Sentinel Federation|Federation]] did the same thing with them as they have with us, hold them in one position for an extended time. After a few days, two ships turned on the third, then the day after the two remaining ships turned on each other. The final remaining ship attacked the [[Sentinel Federation|Federation]] blockade, failing miserably as their ship was sunk. Further investigation into the wreckage uncovered that the sailors were in fact creatures from outside the material plane hiding their appearance to try and trick the [[Sentinel Federation|Federation]] into letting them past. From this historical example, a visible attack on [[The Horizon Project#The Hope Seeker|the Hope Seeker]] is even worse of an idea than we had originally thought. [[Athanar Cirian|Cirian]] wasn't finished though, as he had seen an opportunity in this situation. After our last conversation he went back through records in an attempt to find out what had happened in the interactions between the [[Sentinel Federation]] and the [[Asereth Dynasty]]. He ended up finding a single book, mainly focused on how to identify and fight [[Asereth Dynasty|Asethi]] ships, though it did contain a bit of information about the interactions. Their meeting occurred around 600 years ago, first a meeting of chance which turned violent given how the dynasty is. Afterwards there were then several more military encounters, none of which ended well. There was no records of communication between the two groups in [[Athanar Cirian|Cirian]]'s tactics books, simply hostilities noting many casualties on both sides. The opportunity comes from both [[The Horizon Project|the Horizon Fleet]] and [[Sentinel Federation]]'s hate for the [[Asereth Dynasty|Dynasty]]. Should [[Zarkisiss the Sailing City#Zarkisor Castle|Zarkisor]] suddenly appear amidst our fleet, the [[Sentinel Federation]] would identify it as [[Asereth Dynasty|Asethi]]. Should we start attacking [[Zarkisiss the Sailing City#Zarkisor Castle|Zarkisor]] it would show that we both have a common enemy, potentially strengthening our bond. Unfortunately the [[Sentinel Federation|Federation]] fleet would not assist us in the fight, though that is understandable. Knowing the potential danger that [[Zarkisiss the Sailing City#Zarkisor Castle|Zarkisor]] poses, I let [[Athanar Cirian|Cirian]] know that we would likely still try to stop any teleportation from occurring, although we will keep in mind this potential plan. To help us in case [[Zarkisiss the Sailing City#Zarkisor Castle|Zarkisor]] does suddenly appear, [[Athanar Cirian|Cirian]] told us that he would get us permission to move our smaller ships around under the guise of "letting off some of their magic so that the enchantments don't overload". This is appreciated, as [[Zarkisiss the Sailing City#Zarkisor Castle|Zarkisor]] is quite large and even though we have widened our stance it would still damage the ships close to it should it appear. The guise also gives a good explanation as to why [[The Horizon Project#The Hope Seeker|the Hope Seeker]] may suddenly explode should something go wrong with the ritual circle. Finally, before the delegation left, [[Athanar Cirian|Cirian]] asked for a more detailed description of our role in the fleet. Our explanation definitely wasn't the greatest, but it's difficult to explain what our job is given how much we do. It typically boils down to "problem solving and acquisitions", but the problems we solve vary so heavily that we just need to give examples of the work we've done. Of course, we can't often give the full details given the sensitive nature of our work, making things even more complicated than they have to be. With goodbyes said and the [[Sentinel Federation|Federation]] delegation returned to their ship we rushed to the bridge following closely behind one of our diplomats. Once on the bridge we recounted the conversation we had before having a discussion about the idea that [[Athanar Cirian|Cirian]] had for dealing with [[Zarkisiss the Sailing City#Zarkisor Castle|Zarkisor]]. [[Claude Berezina|Claude]] agrees that simply letting [[Zarkisiss the Sailing City#Zarkisor Castle|Zarkisor]] teleport on top of us would be far too dangerous, so we plan on pushing forward with trying to deal with the problem discreetly. Amidst the conversation the delegate we had followed used [[Athanar Cirian|Cirian]]'s full title, "[[Athanar Cirian|Shield Commander Athanar Cirian]]", indicating that he seems to be in charge of a fairly large portion of the [[Sentinel Federation|Federation fleet]]. Once we had been relieved of our duties for the evening we all split back up to finish what we had been working on before the surprise meeting. I decided to pay a special someone a visit before retiring for the night... >[!Recap Note] >The bottom of this page seems to have been torn out of [[Kitsuki Nagahashi|Kit]]'s journal. He probably did this out of concern that people who shouldn't be reading his journal are. --- Abadius 26th, 2430AS This morning we awoke to [[Lady Irorika Galvira|Handler]] knocking on the door with some good news for us. It seems as though the plans for communicating with [[The Ring]] are going as expected and a connection should be established by the end of the week. They are using a modified version of the ritual we stole from [[Vanathor Aunor|Vanathor]] (who stole it from the [[Asereth Dynasty|Asethi]]), and as such she was able to get us slight priority on sending messages back. We will only be able to send small written messages back and forth, but honestly that's a major win all things considered. I don't really have anything to send back though, as I don't have any real ties with [[The Ring]] aside from [[The Horizon Project|this fleet]]. In other news, [[Badda]]'s tattoo was finished yesterday. I will say it is an impressive piece of art, and the functionality is definitely a major benefit. I fear that [[Badda]]'s adoration may come to be detrimental to our work in the coming weeks though. Should [[Zarkisiss the Sailing City#Zarkisor Castle|Zarkisor]] appear and we have to fight the dragons on board, [[Badda]] hesitating like they did with the umbral dragon could be disastrous. >[!Recap Note] >This session's title is a reference to the book and movie "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".