Celeste looked over Marcusburg. Compared to vast expanse of Salezstad, the city was rather diminutive. However, it had still expanded quite a bit from the last time she had seen it, and the reason for the broken contract became obvious. The mine she had created and the warehouses where her share had been stored were gone, cleared out for other buildings.
The goddess sighed, feeling a bit overwhelmed, though she could feel how her Domains were prodding her to call down calamities onto the land, and she had even gotten a pop-up informing her of the various effects.
Calamity options [https://i.postimg.cc/MpJD2Y9w/image.png]
She wasn't really interested in performing such severe actions against Marcusburg. In part, because she had no idea why they had torn her storage down, and in part because this was supposed to the starting town for most of the game, and as such she would have to build up a new city. Had she picked the power to build an entire city, it might be something she could do. There was no use mulling it over now, she would simply have to find another solution.
Making her way into the town, Celeste found herself looking around the place. It had changed quite a bit since she last saw it, and Celeste knew things should have changed from the last time she was here, but she had expected it to be much more active. The few people she could see were hungry, and some of them were even slightly malnourished, sporting hollow cheeks and gaunt looks as they took her in.
Something had happened that she wasn't aware of, and she was pretty sure it had something to do with why her storage had been removed. Celeste felt compelled to try and fix the people she saw around her, but she would be treating a symptom of an underlying problem. She knew that her Health Domain could fix the malnutrition, but the people wouldn't be full. They would not be suffering the ill effects of their starvation, but that would only last so long, and they would still be starving.
Celeste moved on, trying not to look anyone in the eye, but she had no idea where she was going. She assumed that she might as well try walking inside the most impressive building around and hope that she could find someone in charge.
It wasn't hard to find the most impressive building. The buildings around the place weren't damaged due to Celeste dedicating her offline time to constantly fixing them. However, she could see that the town had been under attack, mainly from the number of injuries she saw the guards sporting, and none of the buildings seemed to crest the walls, indicating that they otherwise might be the target for artillery. Even the most impressive building didn't peak over the wall. Instead, it was a large circular construction made of stone that took up most of the town square. It had multiple entrances, but a fairly flat sloped roof, making it look almost like a cylinder.
Celeste decided that if she could get any answers the circular building would be it, and made her way to one of the doors. There weren't any guards at the doors, but as she stepped inside, she saw that some kind of meeting was underway between four leader, each one had their own guards.
The first person Celeste noticed was a drow. She could feel the power oozing from him as if his mere presence in this realm conflicted with the plane's mortal nature. He was sporting a heavy black full-plate with an impractical number of spikes, which seemed to be more for aesthetics purposes than practical. Over this spiky fullplate a purple tabard had been draped, secured with a belt, showing various drowish acts of glory. His calm gaze seemed to sweep around the gathering of people with a bored expression, though as his eyes landed on Celeste his hand grazed the hilt of the shortsword at his side on reflex.
There was no doubt in Celeste's mind, she was looking at another one of the Ilshers, the chosen of the drow, and children of the goddess Daikia.
Based on this, the other people at the table were incredibly unexpected. Celeste was under the understanding that dwarves and drows were mortal enemies, so she could hardly believe that a dwarf was also attending the meeting, though with the way that they were looking at the drow, it was probably not the sturdiest alliance.
The dwarf was sporting a helmet adorned with a crown, though the face of the helmet was open. She could see how intricate and impressive the armour was. It looked like chainmail, but each link was no larger than a grain of rice, creating some incredibly dense armour that would move with the dwarf. On one hip, the dwarf was sporting an axe, while on the other, he was sporting a hammer. Both were made with attention to the smallest detail, and as the Goddess of Tinkering, Celeste could feel the power radiating from the items. While she wasn't sure if the dwarf could go toe-to-toe with someone sporting Domain powers like the Ilsher, these were high-tier magical items that would let him attempt it.
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Celeste could see that the dwarf was sporting a serious face, a long braided beard with some rather heavy metal rings at the end to tie up the beard.
The other two people were much less impressive. One was an elven woman standing in a long robe with various celestial symbols all over it. Her hair was tied up in a bun, though it had an auburn colour as if made from autumn leaves. She had a dignified look, but she kept giving looks to the drow, clearly uncomfortable with him in the room.
The last person was a human woman. She seemed pretty ordinary, and Celeste got the feeling that she might be the mayor of Marcusburg. She didn't look old, her raven hair cut short, much like Celeste kept her hair, though a pair of bright green eyes stared at the other members at the meeting.
"I believe we have a guest that might help us with our predicament." The drow said, drawing the other people's eyes to Celeste. The goddess smiled and nodded to them all as a greeting.
"Is something wrong? Do you need me on the battlements?" The human woman asked. She had already pointed directions to the five guards behind her and was about to leave herself.
The drow scoffed at the display. "Mayor Selma, this is not one of your people, even with her human appearance." He said, in a voice that made Celeste wonder if speaking in a condescending tone was part of being an Ilsher.
"Gods blast it, you infuriating piece of rocksludge. Have you been corrupting the people of this town to your course? I swear to Kelllwan that I am going to turn your face into a crater if you make a powerplay for Marcusburg" The gruff voice of the dwarf seemed to fall on deaf ears, and Celeste got the feeling that this wasn't the first time that such a threat had been made.
Celeste could see the drow's smug smile, as none of the other people seemed to recognize her. His attention was on Celeste, and he gestured for her to stand with them at the table. Celeste did so and saw a large map of the local area, though her Journeying Domain screamed that it was filled with inaccuracies.
"Please, let me do the honour of introducing myself. I am Marcel, commander of the underworld legions and the greatest strategist to ever live, though among my brothers and sister, I am known as the Purple Ilsher." He said, making a light bow. This seemed to make the other people around the table hesitate, seemingly not expecting any amount of deference from the drow, least of all, towards a human.
The dwarf was quick to follow up, clearing his throat and looking Celeste dead in the eyes. "I am Thane Ülwrick. Uniter of the Hammer Crack and Axe Crack." He said as if all that made sense. Celeste had no idea what a Crack was or how many there were. Jasper might have been able to tell her, but that was something to worry about another time.
The elven woman spoke next, a smile on her lips as she bowed her head to Celeste. "I am Esselaia. Representative of the elven kingdom Mek." There didn't seem to be any grand titles for the elf, and Celeste didn't ask for further clarification.
Selma cleared her throat, and Celeste couldn't help but feel that the woman had been slightly overlooked by the others. "I am Selma Kingborn, descendent of King Marcus. I am the mayor of this city... and the rightful owner of this land by divine right." The woman said, clearly airing out some of the disputes the council had no doubt been discussing.
Celeste nodded, and for a moment, she considered introducing herself as the goddess she was. However, that might not be that good an idea, after all, gods weren't supposed to walk on this plane. She might need a disguise just so she could meddle in mortal affairs without having too much of an impact.
"I am the Traveller, chosen of Armandos. However, you are free to call me Celeste." She said, and the look of shock on Selma's, Esselaia's and Ülwrick's faces was only overshadowed by the massive grin on the drow's face. Marcel seemed like he had just pulled the greatest prank in history and gotten away with it.
Before the others could say anything, Celeste continued. "I am pleased to be of assistance as Armandos has previously been very happy with the town of Marcusburg until they decided to go back on a deal made." She said, giving Selma a look, which she seemed to wither under.
However, it seemed like she had been spending a lot of time among high-powered individuals, so she didn't let herself get cowed by the attention too much. "Oh, yes. That was, unfortunately, one of the first places that were raided." She explained, and Celeste blinked.
"Raided?" She hadn't seen any attacks from outside the walls. Then again, she had been dedicating her time to fixing the town, so it might be hard to notice.
The dwarven Thane interrupted, clearly not happy with being even slightly ignored. "Yes, the darn greenskins. They have created a wartribe, and are assaulting anyone moving in the forest. The only way to get rations to the city is by the help of the noble dwarven tunnels." He said proudly, only for Marcel to clear his throat.
"Oh, we would be happy to give you rations as needed. It only requires a couple of concessions on your part, nothing too major. I am sure we can be of aid," Marcel said with that smug smile. Celeste couldn't help but wonder if his face had been genetically engineered to be as punchable as it was.
The elven woman smiled and shook her head. "A'kastin is a proud nation and should not seek help from places like this. We simply ask that you become a vassal for the elven nation of Mek and we will help you with the wartribe. I am sure that we can find common ground and achieve peace."
Celeste started to get the picture of what was going on. It seemed like Selma was put in an impossible situation where her people were being hurt and starving, while three factions tried to become the new ruler of A'kastin.
The goddess might just have to perform a bit of divine intervention.