Drunkenly Fixing the Universe

Snowed into Odija, City of Lights, Kipilu and the crew have a moment to rest and relax. Now that they are away from areas of intense and overwhelming injustice, this might be Kipilu's chance to talk with Dina and de-escalate from the end of the world. It also looks like a whole lot of teen drama injected with global-level power is about to go down.

Fixing Odija

Kipilu woke up to find Dina still snow-damp from her self-punishing walk through the winter night. Dina, no longer needing to sleep biologically, was still awake and silently planning things. She and Kipilu chatted for a bit, and Dina discussed her findings: the city has some systemic issues which are exacerbated during colder months, as well as problems inherited from their ruling empire. A local solar cult runs the city, though they don't seem to malevolent (just emotionally unhealthy there is a sharp class divide between social strati; the wealth of the city is largely held by a magical aristocrat class; there are few to no vehicles for popular government. For most people, this manifested as ambient suffering from the aches of a day's work at the power plant and a worry and discomfort about difficulty heating their houses during winter months. Altogether, though, the city seemed to have housed and fed its entire population, there were no Indentured or slaves in town, and there were no major disease outbreaks at the time, so this was probably the most reasonable place to live since Tezitkal. 
While Odija lacked any pressing crises of the sort the crew had faced before, Dina had broken into some government offices in cat form to try and get numerical proof of the systemic income inequality here. She hadn't had the time to fully assemble the data, but that was a work in progress - and besides, this was a Calazan city, where classicism is enshrined in law. And Dina's proposed solution? Expanding the network into the poor districts to sow the seeds of revolution!
Kipilu and Topin were unsure about this, and Imora was horrified that Dina would destroy this perfectly functional city for what she saw as no reason. Kipilu convinced Dina to talk to Zetep - the Piano Wizard - first, and to also have the group collectively pick Dina's Network lieutenant here. Everyone including Dina agreed that the ultimate fate of Odija should be decided by someone who actually lived there. 

The Piano Wizard 

Zetep had invited them to see his new creation at the Academy last night, so it was easy to drop by his office. He giddily showed them his new toy: an electric lamp filled with alchemical gasses that produced a wondrous effect of captive lightning, which seemed harmlessly drawn to the touch of anyone who poked the glass. There was no current intended application and it was difficult to replicate currently, but it sure was nifty!
While Imora and Topin distracted themselves with the lightning lamp, Dina and Kipilu slowly posed their situation as an ethic hypothetical. Zetep had unhelpful takes and a can-do attitude, and seemed unconvinced when they revealed that it was all true. No matter how much they showed him, he seemed to have a more plausible explanation, and Dina started to get excited that maybe this was all fake after all. Finally, Dina explained the Network; Zetep declared it was untrue, and offered to join it to prove that it was easily dispellable enchantment magic. He joined it, and was proved wrong. He immediately began panicking and jogging around the room to distract himself. Once he accepted his fate, he turned his attention towards saving Odija - that is, bringing it into the Network. 
A debate promptly ensued over whether Zetep should be in charge here. On the one hand, he was rich, aloof, and a member of the city's elite. That said, he was also open-minded, compassionate, grounded in scientific theory, and would have certain social protections that he could extend to those under him. Imora felt that Dina had just ruined this perfectly quirky old man and should give up on Odija; Topin gave a heartfelt appeal for Dina to bring over a Sunekan priest, or at least a local priest of good morals, to be in charge - someone with more experience making ethical choices about society. In the end, Zetep made a convincing case for him being the lieutenant: he would be a perfect vector to integrate the magical elite into the Network while still keeping social equity in mind, and if the elite flipped then the city could be protected without the Empire even noticing - sparing them a brutal imperial invasion and suppression campaign. This would also turn the powerful healers and wizards of the city towards good works, rather than driving them away. A peaceful, silent revolution by conspiracy that would be mostly bloodless and entirely ethical. Dina didn't like the slow speed of this plan or the way the elites would retain their power, but was convinced that the good outweighed the bad this time. Dina took him into the woods, killed a corner of a pine forest for energy, and invested in this man incredible power. 

What are We?

Dina seemed relieved that the people of Odija might now have a path to liberation, and relaxed for a moment. Kipilu decided to tell her, as they got ready for swing dancing, that Imora was planning on wooing her tonight as either a rival or a lover. Dina wanted to go confront Imora immediately, but Kipilu got her to not. Instead, the two talked about what they were. Dina admitted to having a crush on Kipilu all across Fox Priest training; Kipilu admitted to having a crush on Dina towards the end of training. Dina was still a volatile ball of confused emotions and didn't know what she felt now - and wanted to know what Kipilu wanted. Kipilu didn't know. The two settled on their relationship being three things: 1) I love you, 2) It's complicated, 3) You're my best friend. They would work out the details later, whatever that means. 
That night at dancing, Imora and Dina had their time together. Dina was uncomfortable, knowing exactly what was about to happen, while Imora was oblivious. Finally, Imora tried to aggressively flirt with and kiss Dina when they were outside cooling off from dancing. Dina rejected her advances. Imora then switched to rival mode and tried to flirtily provoke her and even drew a dagger for a desperate attempt at charged combat. Dina knew what she was trying to do and left, giving up on Imora entirely. 
Topin comforted Imora while Dina told Kipilu about what had happened. The two of them drank and danced to try and get their mind off of the drama, and felt the building sense of unity and power again. It was the same as last time, when they had gone to the moon. They teleported themselves to a forest of cats, bringing the band and their friends with them this time. They then tried to do things other than teleport: they created geodes that rose like columns before blooming into crystal sunflowers. Dina created a blue firebird, only to begin having anxiety about her responsibilities as a creator. Kipilu and her went to the moon, where they made it a bubble of protective energy, auto-refilling food bowls, enrichment jungle gyms, a tv, and defined its sentience down to crow level. Some dead pangolins began trying to kill them and the bird, but were barred by the energy field. The two headed back to Odija after this, amazed at their shared power. The question began to arise: what if this power could be used for Good?

Overthinking Things

That night, Kipilu chatted with Imora and Topin about things. The two seemed to be bonding at last, which was good. Imora refused to admit she did anything wrong but did seem vaguely aware that she should tone things down. Topin offered to wing-man Kipilu with Dina - romantically or platonically - but that idea was ultimately a failure. Things seemed resolved, at least.  
The next day, Kipilu got Dina to stay in Odija for another day by pointing out that they needed to experiment with the shared dancing power fusion thing, to test and to perhaps destroy Purgatory. Dina spent the day researching, and formulated a new plan to save the world: she would use the teleportation circles and circle keys collected at the city of Kiazerov, which was on the way, to establish Network ties/missionaries in major cities around the world! Kipilu, meanwhile, panhandled for some money and Imora stole 50 gold from the power plant. 
That night, Kipilu and Dina tried their dance, but found that Dina was overthinking things and was out of sync. To fix this, she began drinking heavily and got totally smashed. As she forced herself to focus entirely on her bond with Kipilu and the good she must do, her eyes - golden, alien, implanted by the evil she embodied - began to colonize the rest of her body with golden threads. Nonetheless, she persisted - and so did Kipilu. The power was flickering this time, glitchy. 

Fixing Everything

The two went to the beach they had first gone to when they could do this. They decided to delete a tree; it worked. Now, time for Purgatory. They went there and tried to wish it gone, but the wish was caught in the gears of a machine in motion. The power to do this was summoned and sat there, clawing at them, while the world bombarded them with a million questions and complications: there were so many people here, so many fringe cases that would have to be sorted, and the two were a little too drunk to deal with this volume of immediate questions. They fled back to the beach. The power did not go away, though. It boiled into the world, tearing open a gate to Purgatory. Static began to burst out of holes in the world, consuming space and matter. Dina's flesh burned and was alive with golden threads, as she surged with power. Kipilu broke away from her and backed off, but she desperately clung to him and begged him to help her. She wanted to fix everything, to stop the apocalypse and make a Good and just world where they could just be people.
Kipilu wanted this as well, and agreed to try and fix another problem -this time, Gem Plague. But they had to start small. So they went to Odija, and cured all the gem plague instantly, as if it was never there. Dina also wanted to get rid of the trauma (and painful memories), but Kipilu refused. They began to go to other towns to do the same, but Dina was clearly not doing well - this was eating her alive, slowly but surely. Kipilu exited the dance for the last time and the two collapsed in the snow. Dina begged Kipilu to let her die to fix the world as much as she could. She realized then that she was avoiding her duty as the apocalypse - she was so excited at the hope of an easy and better world that she had forgotten that this was justice and torture that they both deserved and should not avoid. This had failed because of her, because she was broken and trying to do something selfish. She realized that she kept making impulsive bad choices because she was excited and wanted to extract catharsis out of saving the world - if she was going to be the person she needed to be, she had to stop feeling any joy in this terrible work. Kipilu tried to talk her down, but it ended in a misunderstanding: they both agreed she should stop being so impulsive and that she should focus on feeling "Good things" as the solution, but what that meant was different to each of them. The two trudged back to Odija in the snowy dark.

Components

Goals

QUEST GOALS

• Find Arzet and meet up with your squad
• Get Dina to not murder Arzet
• Get Dina to not apocalypse
• Save the world

Relations

Protagonists

Kipilu: A little meow-meow. Bard, cat, friend. The Hidden One Arzet: A distant kobold and the Chimera reborn.

Allies

Dina: Dina is Kipilu's oldest childhood friend. They've grown up in the same barracks, hell, Dina is the first person Kipilu ever met. Dina was exiled from her birth-home, the village-estate of Zeheno, as a politically inconvenient bastard child of the local estate manager. Dina's always been an outspoken and moralistic child, driven to befriend and defend and generally play the hero and the martyr. She clashed often with her teacher Suya over perceived hypocrisy in the Sunekan system, which see seeks an ideal version of. Dina is a skilled wizard, but has a far greater power now: that of the Fourth Apocalypse, which inhabits her body and allows her to destroy and create on a whim. Dina is wracked by guilt and overwhelming pressure - she wants to fix everything with her power and cheat the system to save as much of the world as she can, but she also doesn't want to kill Kipilu.
Imora: Imora is a Kobold-born Chorical born of a Calazan merchant, taken as an orphan by the state after her parents abandoned her in Suneka at a young age. Imora has always been suspicious and cynical, preferring the safety of herself and those she cares about to the ideals of some broken system. Imora is a very lonely girl, distant from her fellow priests outside of Kipilu and (to a lesser extent) Dina. Imora is skilled in the areas of stealth, precision marksmanship, and general subterfuge. She is a proud and self-destructive person.
Topin: Topin is a Vesper, born to wanderers and orphaned in infancy. An excited and idealistic soldier, Topin loves the Suneka and everyone in it. A fellow member of Kipilu's original barracks, Topin is excited and cheery- a fan of making others laugh. He chose to be a Guardian of Hokzin - a warrior, rather than a Fox-priest. Topin is an excellent shot and has earned the right to use a specially-modified rifled musket: an unwieldy but unusually accurate sharpshooter's weapon

Neutrals/Bystanders

Zetep: A half-prism wizard and scientist in Odija who enjoys a little fun, piano music, and people watching. While of noble blood and substantial wealth, Zetep prefers to spend his time around other social classes in piano houses and inns, and he is a local musical patron for many Odijan establishments. His outlook is fundamentally scientific, though a little influenced by Nediran religion. Was entered into the Network and given great power by Dina.

Adversaries

The Martyr: Dina is the apocalypse - she is a friend right now, but her doomsday isn't. It is a Network of interconnected people, spread to anyone who consents to joining, basically a voluntary hivemind. All suffering within the hivemind is felt by Dina and her officers rather than the low-level people, allowing them to exist blissfully and fearlessly. Network members can even avoid death, as Dina and Officers can resurrect any Network member without a requisite spell slot. Officers are rare, a handful of Dina-chosen individuals who can wield a fraction of her power. The Network moves as one, though Dina has immense influence over what they think. The Martyr Network relies on siphoned life energy for their miracles. Life energy can be taken from any living thing, and so far the Network prefers draining basic units of life such as plants or bugs which have a less obvious moral cost than animals or people. Life energy's easiest use is for healing: the Network heals all of its members ambiently, and can use its power to heal non-members as well. Healing can be for sickness, wounds, starvation, and even basic tiredness or thirst. The most advanced form of this kind of healing is generating entirely new bodies for fallen Network members (this cannot be done for those outside the Network). Healing does come with a suffering cost as well: the suffering of the wound is borne by the Network and directed towards those leading it. Dina has demonstrated that there are other uses for Life Energy in her hands, though it has yet to be seen if her Officers can do the same. She has created flesh monsters, cast spells of a higher spell level than she should know, and used life energy as a direct flame cannon.

Plot type

QUEST

Parent Plot

The Chimera's Law

Subplots

• The City of Doors

Related Locations

• Odija, City of Lights
• Purgatory