#The Journey to Locedem

[stuckinuniformdevelopment]

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(Previous) Shamura considers the question. “Demons are malicious lesser spirits, projections of those trapped in the torment of purgatory,” they explain. “When offered up, living flesh is used temporarily to give them form.” they hum. “But, those marked by certain exposure to diabolical energy have the strength to overpower the spirit, absorbing their power and maintaining control.”

“Huh,” Doctor Walters said as he jotted Shamura’s words down. “Our definitions are drastically different.”

Then he looked up at Bishop Shamura. Or, more accurately, their crown. “Where I’m from a lesser spirit is simply a lesser spirit.”

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Teddy squeezed his eye shut at the otter's dying scream while desperately wishing that he could cover his ears.

The cultists thankfully don’t protest to it, but the quiet one and the aggressive one keep an eye on Teddy to make sure he doesn’t try to run again.

After making sure everything was still set up properly, the lead cultist takes their dagger and they plunge it into the Otter’s heart.

[stuckinuniformdevelopment]

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(Previous) Shamura chuckles, "I can't imagine you do." They gesture for Teddy to take a seat. "By all means, ask away." they prompt.

"First off..," Teddy said as he sat down. "What exactly are demons here?"

[stuckinuniformdevelopment]

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(Previous) Finoon waves back enthusiastically, Fiy gives a small wave of their own, Brelaylyn Brelaylynjust a nod, Thoron simply watches him go. They soon arrive to Shamura’s library, their disciple bowing respectfully before standing aside. Shamura nods. “Thank you, Sidone.” They look to Teddy. “I understand you’ll be leaving us soon, Dr. Walters.” They comment, sitting in their reading chair, reading a book, if Teddy notices he could read that it was some sort of spell book.

Teddy brushed and shook as much dirt out of his robe as possible during their walk to the building. Yet it still didn't seem clean enough for meeting a god. He had been complementing whether it'd be more polite to remove his robe in favor of his relatively clean uniform beneath or not when they reached the library.

He bowed along with the disciple, then looked up at Bishop Shamura and nodded with his hands clasped in front of him. "I'll be gone by morning. Where is my ship?"

While he did notice the book, as long as he was incapable of applying the knowledge within he was uninterested.

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(Previous) When the group had finished tidying the garden, Teddy found himself approached by one of Shamura's disciples. "Bishop Shamura wishes to see you, if you'll follow me."

Teddy nodded, turned back to wave Finoon off, and followed the disciple's lead.

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(Previous) Finoon chuckles at that and grins. “Then I’ll have to thank this Reverend Mike when he comes to visit us.”

Teddy smirked. "You'll take that back once you get to know him."

[stuckinuniformdevelopment]

It was probably for the best that finding a way to create acid-proof fabric wasn't Doctor Walters’ only reason for sticking with the Glornists. Because over the past few weeks his occult research had thoroughly convinced him that there was little he could do to overcome a watchdog's natural lack of magic potential.

By this point Doctor Walters had even started to seriously consider accumulating demonic magic the same way Bishop Percival did: Making deals with demons. Despite the risks. Despite it requiring innocent sacrifices. But did their lives really matter when he'd pull from death row prisoners?

...It terrified him how easy it was for him to rationalize becoming a monster like him.

Doctor Walters had almost finished piecing together the finer details of a lesser demon's summoning ritual (just in case it was necessary) when he learned of Locdeom's own acid spewing spiders. Perhaps their silk would end up being the material necessary to free him from long, fruitless uniform development.

Fortunately the Skullship was set to invade a planet within an hour's drive of Locdeom. This allowed Teddy to combine his weekly day off with a vacation day to give him time to search.

Locdeom ended up being a perilous planet filled with creatures intent on either feasting on or sacrificing the novelty that landed in their midsts. The latter eased up once he'd managed to steal a disguise and overheard enough of their conversations to calibrate his universal translator.

A MRE and high-tech bomb ended up being enough to get directions to the Silk Cradle and hints on finding his quarry. Doctor Walters found an isolated area to hide his saucer and buried it in underbrush before stepping deeper into the dark, rocky valley.

The Araneae lavellan itself— with it's violet body and vivid green sacs— wasn't hard to find. The first day (according to his watch synched with the Skullship) hadn't even ended before he found a nest containing several specimens. Yet that did little good when he wasn't sure how to identify which silk belonged to which species.

There was only one way to find out: By experimentation. Doctor Walters bent down to take a sample to analyze back on the ship, then took out a vial of a bright lime liquid and methodologically poured it over silk samples.

...Which all dissolved like cotton candy in water. The silk in the neighboring chambers yielded the same results. Glorn, if he had ventured into this gropforsaken place for nothing...

By now Doctor Walters was frustrated and running low on ideas. He narrowed his eye at the high cliff overhang the Araneae lavellan and co. tried to pounce on him from, before pulling the kris he nabbed out of his pocket.

Then he pointed one arm up while aligning the center of his vision to his fingertips, pulled the knife back over his shoulder, and flung it at the webs with a running jump for good measure.

...Annnnd it didn't even get halfway up before clattering down against the accursed ground. Doctor Walters sighed before picking it back up and trying again. And again. And again... After every few throws he paused to check his surroundings for threats before resuming his futile work.

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[stuckinuniformdevelopment]

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(Previous) But Finoon is kind of dumb and insistent so they continue anyways. “That’s not really a thing we do here in Silk Cradle, I think Bishop Heket does that the most? But even then not really ever because the Bishops are too strong to even need demons to deal with whatever ‘threats’ they might face! She mostly just does it for fun and because it’s cool I think.”

Teddy was pleasantly surprised that Finoon knew about demons.

"I'd do it for fun if I could," he said with a small glint in his eye. Then he paused and put his hand on his chin as he thought about turning into a demon.

Well... watchdogs probably couldn't. The books weren't clear on if if it was purely the Bishops' doing or if they only activated a special capability their followers possessed.

After a bit he went back to work. "Demons here are strange. They're either powerful spirits or gods in their own right throughout the rest of the galaxy. Not followers transformed into temporary combat support."

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@candbrp

(Previous) Finoon nods eagerly. “Bishop Leshy and Heket make it so,” they explain. “Bishop Leshy is a prolific gardener, digging the rows himself, using his mouth and body because he’s a worm! And then Bishop Heket uses her magic of bountiful harvest to cause such beauty!” Brelaylyn brings the team over to collect some gardening equipment before dividing the group into different areas in the garden, assigning Teddy and Finoon over to some thick, gorgeous purple hydrangeas.

Teddy politely nodded throughout Finoon's explanation. "They told me. I'm glad they get along well with their siblings."

Then once they reached their section of the garden he blankly looked at his tools, looked at the flowers, and looked at Finoon.

"...Excuse me... how do I use these?"

[stuckinuniformdevelopment]

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(Previous) Finoon stares in fascination. "What about when its not a liquid though??"

Teddy was about to explain when he got a better idea. "I'll demonstrate if you can fetch me some fruit. Preferably a firm kind."

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(Previous) Finoon hums and their ear flicks. "What do you figure you'll do when you get back to the sky?"

"Go to church and head straight back to work afterwards," Teddy said with a shrug. "I may need to leave in the middle of the night to arrive in time."

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(Previous) The group got themselves ready before heading down to the dining hall, this morning they were offering eggs, toast and fruit.

Teddy gathered up his meal before sitting next to Finoon.

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(Previous) Finoon nods in understanding. "We typically rise around six in time for breakfast." they explain. The other three thankfully didn't bother Teddy, Fiy was already settled in to sleep.

"Thank you," Teddy said with a nod in return. "Sleep well."

Then he burrowed under his covers to ensure that his screen's light wouldn't bother his roommates as he converted to Skullship time in order to set an alarm.

Fortunately it was a quick job and after a few minutes he was able to fall asleep.

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(Previous) Teddy was free to read in peace, exploring Shamura's countless texts on the subject until he was ready to turn in for the night. Shamura's disciple was still up and reading.

With a plethora of information and relatively scarce time to take it Teddy may very well never be ready. Yet when he checked checked the time and corresponding Locedeam time he realized that he'd have to be if he was to fulfill his obligations tomorrow.

...Ideally with less false, undeserved reverence to deal with.

He did his best to stay silent as he returned his books and slipped away. But before he left he paused to bow to the disciple in gratitude on the off-chance that they noticed.

[stuckinuniformdevelopment]

@candbrp

(Previous) After the section describing Clauneck, there are descriptions of his cards, ones that increased speed, strength, gave clairvoyance, vitality, or immunity to poison, others invulnerability, some that did odd things like cause corpses to explode or rocks to crumble on touch, though all on limited time scales.

The corpse bomb card was... interesting to say the least. Although the one that really caught Teddy's eye was the poison immunity one.

...That was, until he remembered how Bishop Shamura has said that Clauneck's magic only worked on Locdeom. And if that was true of his, then why would his sister's be any different?

This was pointless. Teddy glanced up at the disciple to check if they were still watching, then briefly flipped to the table of contents to find the page number for Bishop Shamura's artifact.

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(Previous) The Disciple perks at the question and nods. “Yes, those of the Reader.” They say, coming over they carefully take the book and flip to its description of him. Like the Crafter, he was bird-like in appearance, while she was blue and rounded he was red with sharper features. Teddy likely notices that the relics pertaining to tarot cards were both his, a shoe and his hair in various states of enchantment. “He is another of the First Gods’ emissaries, he provides both assistance and prophecy, ones different in form and use than those of our Bishop Shamura.”

Oh! The Reader! If the tarot cards used by the artifacts were simply ones they drew from him then their power was in line with the rest.

"How are they different?"