Startup 49: Board Meetings

Rova 7

“Be reasonable!” Yael said in her echoing voice, “The core of its protective properties will lay in its enchantments.”

“The core of its protective properties will lay in the layered leather scales, metal straps, and silk undershirt!” I said, exasperated, “The magic serves to reinforce and enhance what already exists. That’s why you can’t enchant random t-shirts.”

Yael obviously didn’t know what a T-shirt was, but she probably assumed it was some kind of Prime Material Plane thing and moved on.

I’d apparently scored several points with Yael’s father when I refused to enchant an armored coat for her. They looked great and served a practical purpose, which was why I had several of them in my armory, but that was on a ship. They could be tossed on in a few seconds and removed just as quickly, making them ideal if your ship was suddenly attacked or you were tossed overboard. As actual armor, they were middling at best. That did not stop Yael from asking one more time.

“The long coat provides excellent coverage and is thick and sturdy.” Yael said primly, “I do not see the problem.”

“You are fast.” I explained, “Very fast, at least compared to a mortal. I saw you dodging ghouls back when we first met; you’re better at it than I am.”

“Yes?” She said, cocking her head to the side, “What of it?”

“Syl is almost as fast as one of your people when she’s boosting herself, and she wears very light armor.” I said, “Armor about as light as what your dad sent for me to enchant, probably because that’s the best fit!”

I pointed at the glittering silver studded leather ensemble in question. I honestly didn’t know what her problem was with it; it looked gorgeous.

Maybe it just wasn’t piratey enough? She seems to have gotten attached to the aesthetic.

Her actual armor consisted of layers of silk, hardened white leather, and mythril chainmail. Compared to the ceramic or metal disks popular in pirate coats, it was as light as a feather. It was even lighter than the organic plates that made up Sosima’s armor; I could lift the whole thing one handed.

It looked like it hugged her figure when Yael modeled it for me, but from what I knew of Shae biology it was more like shape wear than anything else. She did have internal organs that needed protecting, especially in her head and torso, but most of her body would compress and redistribute to fit whatever clothes she wished to wear.

I mean. If a girl could be shaped like Sosima without losing anything, why wouldn’t they be? I’m sure there are reasons, but none spring to mind.

Yael sniffed in disappointment, but eventually caved to reason. Though I had never met her father, Lord Ankari was technically my client rather than Yael, so it was his call. I dismissed her before my other guests arrived; I could talk while doing enchanting work, but I still hadn’t quite figured out how to dismiss one of my summons while Autopilot was otherwise engaged.

Filli arrived shortly thereafter, hauling the marble bust of Empress Abrogail Thrune the First that contained Cave Mother’s spirit. I knew from experience that it was pretty heavy, but Filli could have carried it one handed if the spirit within wouldn’t have considered that rude. I bowed to the statue.

She’s old school; she doesn’t want me groveling, but she doesn’t take kindly to rudeness. Austere granny protocols are go.

“Thank you for agreeing to speak to me, Mother.” I said in Undercommon, looking into her stone eyes. I didn’t know where she saw things from, but it felt more appropriate than staring at her chest.

“Why wouldn’t I?” She asked in the same language.

“You have the option to ignore me.” I said, “If you’d like, you could consider my gratitude a reminder to myself that you have that option.”

She grunted at that, which I took to mean she accepted the explanation. Filli sat in the corner, watching us speak with bright eyes.

“I intend to work while we speak.” I said, “Would that offend you?”

“Hardly.” She said, “Watching your crew work grows tedious over time. This child’s company has somewhat broken the monotony, but it would be pleasant to watch you weave magic.”

“Thank you.”

I separated the layers of the armor first, and laid each out for later. Each would recieve at least one full day of my efforts before being linked and unified. I tuned out Autopilot’s work, only checking in occasionally to see what was going on or when he demanded silence for some kind of particularly difficult part of the process.

Don’t waste her time, but also don’t make leaps of logic. Show your work. She didn’t volunteer much that I didn’t already know when I just asked about Vishgurv point-blank.

“You and Vishgurv are equals, officially.” I said, and waited.

“We are both considered the envoys of our constellations.” Cave Mother agreed, “The easiest to house.”

“Then why is there so much of a discrepancy in the power you give? You can summon fire, and charge edible plants with healing magic. That’s great, but then I compare it to Vishgurv.” I said, “I know resurrection is a big deal; it takes Jerry hours of effort, and that’s with a body ready to go. Vishgurv just makes a whole new body from sea water and pops the soul in remotely. Even his lesser powers, with the amphibiousness and the shark thing, are comparable to one of the most advanced spells I can cast.”

“He puts more of himself into those who call upon him.” Cave Mother said, “It allows him to sink hooks deep into his supplicants, and to draw more eyes. To press beyond one’s means is dangerous to both mortal and spirit, which is why wiser envoys do not offer such boons.”

“Why, then?” I asked, “What does he get out of it? It’s possible he’s just an idiot, but even if he is, there must be something he’s aiming at.”

“His constellation, The Dark Beyond, resent their nature, the nature we share.” Cave Mother said, “We all do, to some degree, but only a few of us in the void are willing to seek escape at all costs.”

I took a few moments to process that. Cave Mother didn’t like clarifying herself; she considered clarifying questions to be a form of intellectual laziness. I’d be stuck here for eight hours; I could afford to take my time.

“How might someone **** attempt to escape?”

“We are not infinite, though we are vast.” Cave Mother said, “We splinter ourselves to enter this world, and to empower our companions.”

I turned her answer over in my head.

So maybe it works like an MLM. If he wants to have as much of himself in this world as possible, that means he’d want more people binding. How do you do that?

Incentivize people to teach how to summon him, **** them to sing his praises, rinse and repeat. He gets tons of eyes on him and can presumably send kickbacks of some kind to any of his allies. Funnel the stronger binders towards other spirits in his constellation, I guess? I don’t know enough about the spirit world to know what kind of assistance they’d be able to give him, or vice versa.

Ok, so why is this bad enough to make it forbidden? A one year marketing contract isn’t actually all that bad for a combination of life saving treatment and cosmetic surgery. They take it seriously too; this isn’t a slap on the wrist situation. Sosima is functionally exiled even though she’s from a rich and powerful family. I’m missing something.

“How many splinters would it take to rebuild a spirit in this world?” I asked, taking a shot in the dark.

“As many as there are stars in the night sky, and they will fade and return given time.”

So it’s probably not just a big marketing push.

“About a year at most, right?” I said, “That’s how long Sosima said she was stuck in her pact.”

Cave Mother didn’t answer. I was fairly sure she would have called me an idiot if I’d been wrong, so I took it as confirmation. I considered that.

“Wait.” I said, narrowing my eyes. “How long have you been in that statue? More importantly, how long will you be in that statue?”

“For as long as this idol remains, so too shall I.” Cave Mother said, “You should know the properties of the things you promise to build.”

I flushed at that. I hadn’t really thought about crafting constructs for a while. Money was so tight, and they seemed like such a niche product.

Wait a second.

“The only method I know to make a pact poltergeist involves a lot of gold.” I said, “How the hell did Aaron make your vessel? It seems pretty slipshod, but he performed the ritual with sticks and coconuts as far as I can tell.”

“Sticks, coconuts, desperation, and blood.” Cave Mother said, “There was another castaway once, who refused to flee Aaron’s refuge when infected with ghoul fever. I explained the procedure to Aaron while they lay upon their deathbed. Their heart blood was enough to make a rift just large enough to tease through a wisp of my essence, which he cultivated over years with dedicated effort and ritual.”

“Oh.”

Right. Just because the methods my feats give me are expensive as hell, that doesn’t mean there aren’t substitutions. Also, if a relatively weak, small talking statue that doesn’t have any magic powers beyond speech takes human sacrifice and years of effort…

“Oh shit.” I said. “That is not good. A spirit would need mass production if he wants to fully transfer himself out of that void place you were talking about. That, or really huge vessels. Maybe both.”

It’s not a multilevel marketing scheme. He’s whale hunting, like a mobile game. He’s looking for people willing to go all in, and using everyone else to signal boost. If the most faithful can permanently pull him into this world a little at a time by doing mass sacrifice or whatever, those are the only ones he really cares about.

“So what can I do about this?” I said, mostly to myself. “I’m going off of speculation here. I can’t just imprison them on the spot; some of the crew seems to really like Lubo. Sosima too; I don’t think she’s gone crazy, but I can’t let this spread. Someone’s going to get killed, or worse.”

Again, Cave Mother went silent.

I think Dierdre will be able to keep an eye on them. I don’t even mind if they know they are being monitored.

I kept quizzing Cave Mother, but it seemed like she believed I had all the information I really needed. I stewed on the problem for a while longer after I asked Filli to carry her back to the deck.

••••••••••

Varossa arrived late, despite having the fewest formal responsibilities. Sosima glared at her when she entered, which I filed away for future reference. She hadn’t been willing to tell me the details beyond the fact that Lubo ignored orders, but obviously Varossa had not done anything to endear herself to my quartermaster either. If her subordinate, Creed, was anything to go by it was possible she’d cut and run as soon as the tide turned against us.

The strategy meeting was scheduled six hours in advance, while I was still enchanting Yael’s armor, so she’d had all the time she could have possibly needed to get ready. We were in dragon territory, and by all accounts an old enough dragon could slaughter my entire crew. Obviously, I needed a clearer plan than I had. I didn’t even technically need to kill the guy, since we only needed to pay for safe passage, though my mission log promised a vague “premium boon” if I did pull it off.

Slay the dragon Kelizar

3 exp, Premium Boon

Given the danger inherent to the task, I thought it was likely to be something in the same weight class as the perk I’d gotten in Port Peril that made me into a drow noble.

Syl, Cog, Sosima, Sandara, and Rowe were gathered in my room, leaving Rosie, Aaron, and Dierdre to mind the decks. Of course, there had only been so much we could do with general knowledge checks and the scraps of information Varossa had let slip up to now. For example, she’d mentioned to Syl that Kelizar didn’t usually come out of the water during storms; as such, I wanted to have the plan in place before the sky had a chance to clear up.

“Thank you for joining us, Princess.” Sandara said, “No idea how you found the time.”

Varossa rolled her eyes and strode to one of the only free chairs in the room; it was bolted to the floor facing my table, so she had to sit on it backwards.

“I was scouting beneath the ship.” She said, “it’s harder to track time without the sun.”

“Rubbish.” Sandara said. “We had the sharks handling that. You just wanted to stretch your legs.”

For better or worse, the minor binders I had who could channel Vishgurv were my best early warning system. Between keeping them isolated from the rest of the crew and giving them time to plot in private, I’d erred on the side of distance for now. They had all agreed to become members of my crew in good faith, or else they wouldn’t have been accepted as followers by my menu. That seemed unlikely to last long if I killed or confined their spiritual leader for no reason, but I didn’t think it was likely they were going to turn on me just yet.

That’s a problem for later. Maybe I can convince someone else to put them in jail for a while. Depends on if I can make a good impression on Tessa Fairwind when we swing by Quent later.

I held up a hand, stopping the two women from arguing any further.

“If it’s all the same, I’d say it’s about time for us to properly start this meeting.” I said, “Varossa, did you learn anything of particular value when you were below the waves?”

“Hinson had a chat with a few dozen mermen and tritons who were tracking our movements.” She said, looking at her nails. “Kelizar will probably arrive within the next day or two, based on their sea witch’s forecast.”

“We’re surrounded?” Syl asked, her hand resting on the hilt of a knife.

“Calm down.” Cog said, “We are in his territory. What, did you expect a brine dragon to arrive unescorted?”

Kinda, yeah. That’s why we have this meeting. If anything it would have been nice to have it a little earlier.

“He’s certainly strong enough to do so.” I said levelly. “That might be a good starting point. Do we have any chance of taking the dragon down if we had to fight it?”

“No.” Varossa said, completely deadpan. “Brine dragons pride themselves on building their own little kingdoms beneath the waves. He has a small army at his disposal and we are entirely within his element. It would be suicide. You can pay his fee; why even discuss this?”

“The Captain is considering whether or not we could get our hands on the lizard’s horde.” Sandara explained, smiling. “It would certainly save us some time.”

“You said there were dozens, Captain Lanteri?” Sosima asked, “How strong would you say they were, when contrasted with our men?”

“Professional soldiers tend to break the backs of people like yours.” Varossa said, sighing, “If you pick a fight we’ll need to fend off attacks for the rest of our time here, and there will be casualties. Besides, unless you want to **** his lair we won’t get much out of it.”

“A dragon carcass is worth quite a lot, actually.” Syl noted. “The blood and scales have all sorts of valuable properties.”

“And people wonder why there aren’t many dragons in Rahadoum.” Sandara said with a snort.

A quick harvest could probably secure about one thousand gold pieces worth of raw materials we could use for enchanting. If we secured the whole body and found appropriate tradesmen we might manage as much as three thousand in resale. (Appraise 14 + 7 =21 Success)

Shit. That juice probably isn’t worth the squeeze on its own. Even the mission seems more like a dare to see if I am willing to do something stupid. That doesn’t mean it isn’t worth considering.

“So the primary plan is the same as it’s always been.” I said, “We pay the toll and go to the sunken ship. Easy enough; thank you for your input Varossa, you may go. So, since we are here, we might as well go over some hypotheticals. How would we respond if we managed to take down the dragon and just had to deal with his minions?”

Everyone present knew about the Mirror of Opposition except for Varossa, and I intended to keep it that way. It was one of my strongest trump cards, allowing me to make a short lived copy of a target at full power, or a permanent copy that was capped at my own power level. In both cases, the copy would be mentally altered in some way that would benefit me, and would never stop trying to kill and replace the original. If they succeeded, the mirror would shatter and I’d never be able to use it again. I was nervous about losing it to something I could have possibly handled, even though I knew that attitude might lead to me dying with it laying untouched in my shadow stash.

After fifteen minutes of discussion, we all agreed that the crew was not ready for another battle so soon after the goblins. Even if my men had been their equals in numbers and training, they could probably sink my ship with very little response possible on our part. Even if I fully trusted Lubo’s team, they’d be outnumbered ten to one.

Dragons universally had some kind of breath weapon, which tended to be some kind of blast of harmful energy, gas, or liquid. Brine dragons could spit a fire hose blast of acid that could eat through flesh in seconds; I knew because I’d summoned one back on Bonewrack Island to harass the army of ghouls. Given that that flying lizard had been less than three years old and the acid became more concentrated with age, it seemed safe to assume an adult would be able to kill anyone on my crew with one lethal loogie unless they had specific protection from acid. We ran through a dozen potential action plans, both with and without the mirror in play.

“Well, three Sakhil would probably have a chance in a stand up fight.” I said eventually, “They’re the strongest thing I can summon, by a wide margin.”

Cog’s eyes just about bugged out at the mention of Sakhil. They were apparently renegade servants of Pharasma, so I hadn’t been expecting him to be a fan. I only mentioned them at all because we’d discussed everything else.

“Then why are you only bringing this up now?” Syl demanded, “Last night you told me the strongest thing you could summon was that new protean. The mimic thing.”

“Seriously?” Sandara said, “You two stayed up and talked about summoning?”

I ignored Sandara’s crack for now, instead putting a placating hand on Cog’s shoulder.

“I wasn’t lying; practically speaking an Azuretzi is the best combat option I have right now, especially underwater.” I said, “I’m pretty sure Cog would be willing to tell you about Sakhil at length if we stay on this topic, but the short version is that they are marginally worse than demons and they actively like being summoned.”

I let that sink in for a moment. I did consider them to be on my list of options, but only technically.

“Getting called in by a mortal is one of the only ways they have to access mortal souls, which they eat, so they make it easy for people like me to do so.” I explained, "I could probably make a hit squad given a day or two, but each and every one would have about a fifty percent chance to slip past my diagram and try to rip my throat out.”

Cog calmed down when he realized I wasn’t being flippant about his religion’s specialized armies of Satan. He briefly seemed like he wanted to correct me when I said that Sakhil ate souls, which was a simplification, but he let it pass.

“Even if we were all there, those abominations can turn into intangible spirits.” He said instead, “Only a few of us have magical weapons, and none of us have anything blessed. One of them honestly might slaughter half the crew before we put it down, if we even could.”

That put to rest any serious discussion of picking a direct fight with the dragon. If the deadly forbidden magic that might kill us all would only bring us up to parity with the target, it just didn’t seem worth discussing further.

I drummed my fingers across the table, disappointed that my get rich quick scheme seemed unlikely to pan out, but also vaguely thankful that I couldn’t justify an unprovoked ****. I still wanted that perk, though.

“Alright, so, let’s see if we can come at this from a different angle.” I said, “You all know that I get missions from someone or something. I’ve got a big one to kill the dragon Kelizar. Something on par with my transformation into a drow noble is on the line; I’m sure you all remember the events in Port Peril and know how far I’m willing to go for something like that.”

“I don’t think fucking Narwhal is gonna help with this one, Cap’n.” Sandara said, completely derailing my train of thought for several seconds.

“I… what?” I said.

I checked the log for my Layer of a Thousand Women achievement and confirmed that Seamus “Narwhal” Tate was on the list, right before a large number of drow names. I shook my head and got back to the task at hand, glaring briefly at Sandara’s impish smile.

“Well, as disconcerting as that information is, you’re right.” I said, “Unfortunately for everyone, especially Narwhal, him getting laid is not going to help anything. Well… actually that might be more useful than you intended, Sandara.”

“Oh?” Sandara asked, “You planning on being clever, then?”

“Clever or stupid; we won’t really know until I see if it works.” I said with a shrug. “Does anyone know if there’s a proper procedure for entertaining a pirate lord on a free captain’s ship?”