The Grail Works Mission Dossier (Discussion & Ideas)

[Kieran]

So, if I'm reading this right, you'll be using locals for the adventurers in that world?

Yeah. Since there's only liable to be a party of two (my character plus his Type-Moon partner), and maybe an NPC from the Adventure Path, I figure I can round out the cast by using the locals - and Ever After High is the sort of setting that lends itself well to a D&D-type world. MirrorPads and Hocus Lattes aside, it is medieval.

Soooooo, have there been any new grail works story? I noticed the OP haven't been updated for about a year now. Thanks!

I don't "think" so. Most recent once was mine (Inhuman Resources) and I think Kieran was republishing/editing his Beast of the Moon fic as well. Been too busy with my own fics to work on IR. /shrug

I'm also in the middle of working on a Grail Works story, but it hasn't been published yet because I'm waiting for Kieran to finish his edits on what was Beast of the Moon, among other things.

What they said - although I'm hoping to make progress on the rewrite this weekend, with an eye to getting it up in the next couple of weeks.

[Xamusel]

Glad you got that figured out, Kieran, if only because I was wondering how you'd handle it.

[Kieran]

Well, given that he'd start it at a higher level (and between the mythic tier and the possible lycanthropy, a higher CR) than is intended, it'd probably work out to being about even. In theory, a +3 Challenge Rating would make him equivalent to a 1st-level party of four by himself . . .

. . . And I am suddenly really tempted to use that earlier story idea where I had Arturia leave behind a clone. In this case, Saber Lily, 1st-level paladin. True, her magic resistance might be a problem, but maybe not, since she's young and inexperienced. And as the Princess of Knights is largely a cipher in terms of personality (aside from Arturia's usual traits), I think I could get away with it . . .

[Xamusel]

I like the idea of Saber leaving behind a clone... I really do.

[Kieran]

. . . So I'm up to 8 pages on the "prologue" of my revamped story - and theoretically, I'm only 1/3 to 1/2 done (naturally).

Thus far, I've come to the following setup, and I'll lay out the basics to see if everyone agrees:


* Since DC had the better setup, Marvel had the better setting, and there was no way to make the twain meet, I've gone with "a witch (Baba Yaga) did it."

* Specifically, Baba Yaga redirected Angra Mainyu's materialisation point to the Abyss, and used Avalon and the Zelretch Sword to open a gate to the faerie realms and create a realm within the Demiplane of Hope, Avalon (think of it as the counterpart to the Demiplane of Dread, Ravenloft).

Their particular corner of it manifests as an island, much as in the legend of King Arthur - unsurprising, since both the Grail and the sheath are connected to said legend, as are witch queens (Morgan le Fay was one of those who bore Arthur's body to the island). Equally unsurprising is that this island has a distinctly Japanese motif to it - its castle is more in line with a Tokugawa-era palace than a Gothic fortress.

* As before and always, Ilya is the Grail spirit, and bound to the island as the controlling power of the realm. She is more or less a goddess here, able to manipulate the "settings" of the place (gravity, weather, energy alignment), but largely unable to manifest herself beyond it. The Grail is her primary tool for that - and as always, it has that pesky energy limitation . . .


. . . So why did Baba Yaga do this, you're asking, and what did she get out of it?

Partly, as an experiment - she's not unlike Zelretch, but Neutral Evil. She hates being bothered by whiners who want things, but she does like probing the deeper mysteries of her craft, so she's been known to do things because it appeals to her for one reason or another. She set up the entire kingdom of Irrisen (that land of eternal winter) to see how long it would take either the rebellion to overthrow the tyranny she'd installed, or her daughters to rise up and break the system themselves. She's disappointed that neither side has, and has mainly lost interest in the place, aside from the one little ritual she does every century . . .

And in this century, her divinations are pointing towards treachery of some form, so she's trying to be prepared. She's going to leave a trail for her Riders (or other would-be rescuers) to follow, but it never hurts to be owed a favour by a group of would-be heroes. Especially since those sorts of individuals are the type that'll try to take down whoever betrayed her on principle - and the debt will ensure that they'll try to rescue her, too.

. . . Besides, she got a neat concept to play with - who would've thought of basing spells around what people believe ought to be? - and a new pet. Vermiurges aren't easy to come by, especially ones with lich qualities. Yes, the remains of this "Zouken Matou" are going to be very interesting to dissect play with study.

[Xamusel]

Kieran, while I approve of the idea, I have the sneaking suspicion that she was already abducted five years into the reign of the current queen. I mean, think about it, when was Rasputin supposed to be killed in-setting?

[Kieran]

1916, to match with Earth's history - roughly four years into the prior queen's reign, if I match Golarion's calendar with ours. Of course, the part of the story where you encounter him is after the Romanovs were assassinated, over a year later . . .

The Adventure Path plays a little fast and loose with history, as you may have guessed - and given that no one knew anything was wrong until the current queen's reign was nearly over, and Baba Yaga failed to appear to oversee the transfer of power . . .

*Shrugs* The module says that she cast divinations warning her that she'd be betrayed (albeit vaguely), which is why she left the trail for her Riders - so they could come rescue her. So setting things up in advance is something she'd do. And obviously, the calendars don't always match up between worlds (which, admittedly, is a fact I've already established and played with). I think it could work - I'm just not sure if it should.

[Xamusel]

Er, problem, Kieran. The module says it's in 1918 when you encounter Rasputin. Besides which, if I remember right, the Adventure Path takes place initially during our year of 2013.

As far as anything else? Not sure what to say right now.

[Kieran]

Er, problem, Kieran. The module says it's in 1918 when you encounter Rasputin.

Yeah, I know - as I said, it plays a little bit with history. For example, I'm reasonably sure that the real Rasputin wasn't Baba Yaga's son - although that could explain his supposed powers . . .

Besides which, if I remember right, the Adventure Path takes place initially during our year of 2013.

It does, but the Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga can move in time, space, and across planes. Hence, Baba Yaga's ability to appear during the Fifth Grail War (which, as usual according to my own canon, is 2004) isn't necessarily a problem.

. . . Actually, since the Tsukihime cast will be involved with the Works, should I follow the "as far as I know" canon, and set the Grail War during 2000? Otherwise, Shiki and the girls will be in their 20s, compared to the teenagers of the Fate cast (Saber and Rider excluded). Or maybe I should just set the events of Tsukihime during 2004 . . .?

As far as anything else? Not sure what to say right now.

That's OK. I've been kind of hoping Vigilantia, Mattias, or one of the others would chime in, too, rather than lay it all on you.

[Kieran]

I wouldn't normally double-post, but this idea's going to take a bit to hammer out, and I don't think simply editing/adding to my prior post is going to help make it clearer . . .



If Baba Yaga's aid in forming the Works doesn't appeal, I have a vague idea that might be easier to digest. My DC version of the Works' origin had Ilya draw on the energy of the Flashpoint to reboot their universe, folding it in. Marvel, sadly, doesn't have an equivalent event - but CrossGen Comics does.

The company folded in the middle of the Negation War, the event its entire universe had built to - and while the creator had his own idea about what happened at the end, we know it didn't happen. Instead, Disney bought the company, and eventually did their reboots . . . But that universe still died, and was reborn - so Ilya could do much the same as I'd planned, and bind it to the Marvel Universe, tangentially.

They likely wouldn't be using the Panoptichron, in that case, but something similar to Avalon - something, as I said, tangentially connected to Marvel. Discovering its mysteries might be part of the Works' stories overall.

. . . Would that work better for everyone?

[Xamusel]

No need to worry, Kieran, though I'm sorta hoping that there's something to do in regards to making sure the others get their butts into gear here.

Also, I think you should have Tsukihime be in 2004, to be fair for the cast.

- - - Updated - - -

Also... as far as your double post, I approve, alright?

[Mattias]

Marvel has plenty of reality resettting events you could use. Age of Ultron came out in trades last year, and if its a power thing you need tehres always Infinity Gems, or the M-day powers, or anything involving Dr. Strange or Magik. And I'm pretty sure the first arc of Runaways had reality being destroyed and remade again in the climax.

[Kieran]

Marvel has plenty of reality resettting events you could use. Age of Ultron came out in trades last year, and if its a power thing you need tehres always Infinity Gems, or the M-day powers, or anything involving Dr. Strange or Magik. And I'm pretty sure the first arc of Runaways had reality being destroyed and remade again in the climax.

M-Day would be the only thing I'm really comfortable with, since I'm more familiar with it (and only vaguely). I stopped reading Marvel regularly about ten years ago, and the Avengers and FF were never really on my list, so the only cosmic events I'm familiar with are circa-1980s to -90s. And frankly, every time I've picked up an Avengers trade in the last three years has just convinced me to stay the hell away from it (sadly, neither the X-Men nor Spider-Man have done much better).

CrossGen, on the other hand, I'd use for several reasons:

1) Because it is dead - it has no major effects on the Marvel Universe as a whole, so there's no reason for anyone to be up on the latest developments, or need to keep track of them, either. All the characters involved are dead and gone, and even the reboots are in the same position. It's a starting point that never needs to be anything more - any actual connection to Marvel (or more accurately, Disney/Marvel) is up to the writer. A couple of writers, like Vigilantia, are more comfortable with an independent setup, rather than relying on the Panoptichron or the Authority's Carrier, and this will accomplish that.

2) If I end up using a Sigil as the reason for my SI's mythic tiers (likely), then this is a way to kick start its origins.

3) The timing is about right - CrossGen folded completely in 2004, so I can actually sync up events to a degree. That's always nice.



EDIT: Found an old RPG thread that details CrossGen's in-universe history in chunks that (hopefully) are understandable. Just scroll down to the section marked "CrossGen 101"

[Kieran]

Fuyuki City

June 20, 2004








In the depths of the tainted Holy Grail, the spirit of Ilyasviel von Einzbern steadily dissolved. Unable to do anything to save herself, she succumbed, as her mother had before her, to the seething, malicious abyss which was the manifestation of the entire world’s evil in a tangible form.

. . . Well, for a given value of “tangible,” at least — after all, she was, at this point in time and space, a spiritual being.

But while the Evil was likewise, it also held a physical form in the black “mud” and “shadows” that had pervaded the Grail War to this point, resulting in forms like Dark Sakura and Saber Alter. But regardless of whether it could be considered physical, spiritual, or both, it corroded and consumed her being steadily. As it did the being of her adopted brother, even as he fought the aforementioned forms in order to prevent the Evil from fully manifesting, and swallowing the entire earth in the process.

Ilyasviel could do nothing as the corruption ate away at her, but from the higher plane of existence that she presently occupied, she could manage to see several possible outcomes from this point. It was one of the consequences of her transmogrification into an object whose ultimate purpose was to grant wishes: in order to achieve things that were otherwise impossible, she needed to be able to perceive what was needed in order to accomplish them.

For anyone or anything else, it might’ve been impossible. However, one of the founders of the Grail War had been the Tohsaka clan, whose speciality was Jewel Magic, the foundation of Kaleidoscope — the Sorcery concerning the operation of parallel worlds . . .

And as such, with senses beyond human, or even the normally accepted limits of time and space, she observed . . . And the sights she saw did not please her.

As things stood at the current point in time-space, even if Shirou survived (which was by no means a certainty), the best possible outcome would involve her adopted little brother becoming her adopted little sister — and she doubted that Shirou would appreciate the change. Furthermore, even accomplishing that much would require Ilyasviel to sacrifice her existence entirely, an act she’d rather avoid.

However, she reluctantly admitted the other possible outcomes were even worse than that. The next most likely one involved both of them dying, and Sakura slowly wasting away in futility, and despair . . .

. . . And even Rin would die eventually, as her heart gave out under the strain of the sacrifices she’d made for her magecraft. A magical genius she might be, but the girl was all too human, and the loss of everything and everyone that she’d ever known and loved would finally prove too much for her . . .

No, that wasn’t at all a preferable outcome, and if she was to change it, then Ilyasviel knew that she had to act now, while she still had some of her own will available to do so. For the moment, at least, she was as much the Grail as the Evil was, even if it had the final say in how a given operation was executed.

That just made the problem trickier, though — because as it was currently configured, any wish that Ilyasviel tried to grant would be twisted into something horribly destructive. That meant that she had to think of something that would satisfy that requirement, but result in a better overall ending for Shirou and the rest of them.

And she had to do so fast, because Shirou was about to win his battle, and it was going to be a race to see whether that happened first, or if the taint that had lurked in the Holy Grail for the last sixty-odd years would finish consuming her before then . . .

But despite her surname, by parentage, Ilyasviel was an Emiya, too — and that meant that simply handing victory over to her enemy went against her nature.

Shirou is going to win; if not this battle, then at least the Grail, if only by default — which will entitle him to a wish, Ilyasviel thought. And before he chose to try and save Sakura above all else, he wanted to save everyone. And in order to do that, then everyone would have to be put in danger . . .

Frantically, the fading Grail spirit began searching for world-endangering threats. The tainted Grail itself might count, but she dared not take the chance that it wasn’t; she needed something bigger than that; a threat — a future — that the Grail would work with her to help realise. And preferably, a threat that Shirou could conceivably handle without requiring the intervention of the Counter Force, but in a pinch, she’d take what she could get.

If she was successful, the antagonistic will of the Grail would concentrate on drawing on all that destructive, chaotic potential, and leave her free to shape just how it impacted things. If so, then she could do her best to minimise they would all have a chance to rebuild their lives in a way that was better than before — the way that Shirou would’ve wanted them to be.

Either way, Ilyasviel knew that she would only have one shot at this, if that. The malignant curse was eating away at her quickly, and she wasn’t certain how much longer she could maintain her sense of self, much less the will to fulfill her purpose . . .

With that in mind, she utilised her full potential — what remained of it, at least — and sought something that met her criteria.

And even if, at this moment, she was incapable of the kind of miracles that she would be capable of when she’d finished being dissolved into the Holy Grail, the Einzbern heiress was still one of the most powerful magi alive. Moreover, the Grail ritual had been designed with Kaleidoscope as part of its matrix.

Her options were potentially unlimited; it was only her time that was running out.

Finally, she found it: a dying universe that, at some time in the not too distant future, would be renewed — was it by a kingdom of magic, a universe of marvels, or something else? It wasn’t entirely clear, but in any case, there wasn’t time to find out. It was all down to this final roll of the dice, and praying that she somehow shared her adoptive brother’s insane luck.

The irony of the Holy Grail resorting to prayer would’ve made her laugh, if Ilyasviel had still possessed a body with which to do so.








The Bright Universe
June 20, 90 000 C.E. (approximately the same relative time)








She was Solusandra, the One Alone.

She was the most powerful being in the universe — literally a god to gods, having created a race of them as playthings. She was also the oldest, being roughly one hundred thousand years old, though it was an open question whether or not she was the wisest of beings, as well.

After all, many in Atlantis had considered her foolish (or at the very least, selfish) in attempting to master all five of her people’s mental disciplines, rather than specialising in a single path, as all others did. But she had not only attempted it, she had succeeded in doing so, and thus had she claimed her title as the One Alone.

Many had considered her foolish for refusing to join the faction of Atlanteans that wished to undergo the Transition to an ascended form — and later, foolish for changing her mind. And that opinion had been further entrenched as she refused to abandon her emotions, as all the others did, in ascending.

Yet of them all, she had achieved what the Transition had been intended to enable, becoming the One Alone in an entirely new sense. Transition had rendered her so powerful, even among the newly-godlike Atlanteans, that it had taken their collective might to disable her. And even then, they had failed to destroy her outright — instead they had reduced her to a childlike mental state, with little power and even less memory of who she was.

Little relative power, that was — in that interim, she had created gods and worlds as her companions and toys, even as she was watched in her prison. However, the former citizens of Atlantis had assured themselves that a single warden was sufficient, and perhaps even entirely unnecessary; that she posed no future threat whatsoever.

And that was a mistake that none of the Transitioned would live to regret.
Her eventual escape attempt had torn a rift in the universe, leading to another one entirely, possessing its own ascended beings. Specifically, an ascended being who sought to bring order to all — his own vision of order, by any means necessary. Charon, God-Emperor of the Negation, lashed out, even as Solusandra launched her own attack . . . And between those two forces, only two Atlanteans — Danik, her former warden, and Solusandra herself — survived.

From that point, things were a bit hazy, as Solusandra had spent much time under Danik’s influence. She had granted her personal sigil to a number of mortals — genetically evolving them to use a fraction of her power, and later, retrieving those sigils in order to regain the scattered fragments of her mind.

Danik, meanwhile, had trained those Sigil-Bearers to be an army against the forces of Charon and his Negation Empire; because having seen their universe once, the God-Emperor coveted it, and at best, even Solusandra was his equal. Against the full totality of the Negation, even she would fall—and so Danik had laid his plans over the course of millennia, for the war to come . . . And eventually, it had come.

And now, it was over. Many had died, both beings and worlds, Charon and Danik were both reduced to merely mortal states once again — and soundly beaten to death by a mortal they’d both manipulated — and she . . . She was herself once more, for the first time in millennia: Solusandra, the One Alone. The last goddess, the last of the people of Atlantis . . .

And as of mere moments ago, she was the last living thing in either the Bright or the Negation universe, though not for very much longer.

The force responsible would’ve been beyond even Danik’s comprehension; even she could barely perceive it. But Solusandra knew, as the gift or curse of her exalted state, that it was useless to attempt to resist. It was not something that could be fought, or avoided — this universe would end, despite all protests, all the things left undone, great and insignificant. And even she, to whom the gods were but toys for her amusement, was helpless to stop it.

Solusandra hadn’t been truly helpless in over a hundred thousand years. The feeling did not engender nostalgia.

Still, she had never been one to meekly accept what others thought of as inevitable. If she had, the path of her life would’ve been vastly different and likely ended long before this point. As such, the One Alone sought inwards, harnessing her native Atlantean gifts, bolstered by the Transition into a form that was literally incomprehensible to mortals.

Those of Atlantis typically honed their mental energies into one of five paths: Mind, which governed the arts of telepathy and telekinesis. Body translated the mind’s impulses into physical enhancements — what had once been called “psychometabolism.” Students of Passion had the power to manipulate the electromagnetic spectrum. Empathy was the domain of the shapeshifters, who could find kinship among any and all.

The school that immersed her attention now, however, was Spirit, the domain of the Seers. Those truly gifted in the discipline could discern the truth in all things, leading to telepathic translation, and visions of the distant past or possible future. Taken to her level, however, Solusandra’s clairvoyant talent was capable of feats such as the perception of the oblivion that presently awaited her . . .

And of a universe even Danik, wisest of the Ascended Atlanteans, had been unaware of. Neither had Charon seemed cognisant of it, though perhaps that was due to his powers being focussed mostly on himself. Seeking power for its own sake had been his nature, and the Transition had merely reflected and amplified that. She, on the other hand, had sought merely to surpass any limitations she could, to excel to the best of her abilities.

Whatever the reason behind Charon’s apparent ignorance, however, Solusandra could sense more. Especially now, as her full faculties were hers to command again — and as desperation drove her to lengths she would not previously have attempted. She was aware of another plane, beyond even her own existence; a higher dimension, and from it she detected a sense of . . .

Awareness was the only term she could think of. A feeling that she was being watched, in a way that differed from any observational method she had ever before considered. Nevertheless, her senses persisted in the feeling — there was someone, or something, if not several such things, aware of her. Of her actions, her words, and perhaps even of her thoughts.

And perhaps, in that unknown realm, she would find her salvation . . .

Solusandra knew her plan was not without risks, of course. Drawing as much energy as she planned to had, the last time, torn a hole into the Negation, and set off the war in doing so. She had wound up being scattered across all of space and time, and the effort it had taken to pull her fragmented essence back into its whole coherent self was not something she wished to repeat.

And nor was that the only danger. The wildly divergent physical laws of Negation space had wrought havoc on those who travelled there from this universe. Sigil-Bearers and the First alike had killed themselves and others in trying to wield their natural powers, at least initially. While she had suffered no such debilitation, the potential ramifications here were much the same — she was proposing to enter a dimension as far beyond her experience was the Negation universe had been to her universe’s mortal inhabitants . . .

But on the other hand, the universe was due to end in moments, at best, and her along with it — how much worse could she really make things? And if it proved her end, then at least she would die on her own terms.

The One Alone braced herself, gathered all the power that she could — from her own universe, from the Negation, from anywhere within her reach. And as her will marshaled her strength for an utmost effort, her mind sought desperately to forge some kind of connection with the Beyond, to gain some link with, or at least, some sense of, those unknown observers . . .

Finally, there was no more time, and she struck —








The translation to this new paradigm was as far beyond Transition as Transition was beyond simple puberty. Solusandra reeled, as her mind was suddenly flooded with a level of awareness even she had never before imagined, as her powers and nature were altered by the Translation, yet still present on some level.

. . . She could do nothing to save herself; she understood that, now. For all her power, she truly was helpless in this regard. In the end, she was a creation of her universe, and all that her universe was, herself included, would be lost — but remembered, and perhaps, one day, restored. Still, it was unlikely that even if such a miracle were to occur, things would be precisely as they were before. In fact, it was entirely possible that the new universe would be unrecognisable to her.

And yet, perhaps there was a way to salvage something, just the same . . .

Solusandra reached out once more, to the watchers of this world, finding a certain irony in their nature. Atlantis had regarded it as a duty to guard and guide humanity, and now, the last and most powerful Atlantean was relying on them for her own salvation. Then again, it seemed that this particular universe ran on irony, to a degree, so perhaps it was simply part of some higher plan.

There — an altogether unremarkable specimen, in Solusandra’s opinion.

Had she had more time, or a better idea of the options available, she would have ignored him. But at the moment, he was the best available; not for any particular physical or mental trait, but because of a spiritual compatibility. On a quantum level, his energies resonated with hers, such that they were unlikely to be rejected, or wasted — along with his life — rendering all her efforts for naught.

Silently, Solusandra walked to his sleeping form, and placed her hand over his own, as it was one of the few bits of exposed flesh she could reach easily.

She knew the mechanism, of course. She had granted her Sigils to a multitude of beings of all description, and this was no different, at least in concept. In practice, however, the effect was far different. No cosmic powers would be granted here, nor would the mark itself be visible save in the most extreme of circumstances. No, this Sigil was the merest spark of herself; a potential for its bearer to be more, rather than the realisation of its bearer’s potential.

But it was a spark that would endure, past her death and the death of her universe. It was a legacy, a tangible mark of her existence. What would ultimately become of it, and the human, not even she could say — perhaps nothing at all. But it was better than falling into utter nonexistence, unremarked.

There was now, in a world beyond her own universe, evidence that Solusandra, the One Alone, had existed . . . And that would have to be enough.

With a sigh that echoed across realities, the last Atlantean was drawn back to her own universe — and with it, into oblivion.

[Kieran]

The Dancing Hut — Somewhere beyond known time and space
4713 A.R., Golarion Calendar








She was known and feared across countless worlds and planes. She possessed many epithets and titles; among them were the Eldest Crone, Wild Witch of the Woods, even the Queen of all Witches — and the last a title that was particularly well-deserved.
But of all her varied names, the best-known was undoubtedly Baba Yaga.

According to the tales, she was an ancient crone who flew about the sky in a mortar and pestle. She was powerful enough to command the morning, the day, and the night themselves, who circled her home daily . . . And what a home it was, for Baba Yaga lived in a chicken-legged hut, which was fenced in by the skulls and bones of her victims — for it was well known that she devoured the unwary, though the nature of her victims varied.

In some versions, she enticed and consumed lost children (possibly with the illusion of her hut being made of gingerbread). Other versions said that she dined on trespassers in her woods, regardless of their age, like a wild animal defending its territory. Other tales entirely said that her victims consisted of those who had somehow sinned against the gods, acting as a horrific enforcer of divine justice.

Whatever the truth of her nature, only Baba Yaga herself knew for certain. And like any witch, let alone a witch powerful enough to serve as a patron of witches, she guarded her secrets jealously — and she guarded none of those secrets as closely as the source of her seeming immortality. Few beings (be they living, dead, or undead), had any idea that it needed to be renewed every century, or that that time was coming again soon.

But nevertheless, Baba Yaga knew better than to be incautious, at a time when she would be so vulnerable. Her enemies were many, and very few of her allies could be trusted not to take advantage of the situation, if they became aware of it. And so she stretched out her senses and her powers, seeking the shape of the course of the coming transfer . . .

Divination was often imprecise, even for a being of her power — it was an unfortunate consequence of the mortal tendency towards free will. Personally, Baba Yaga had very little use for free will, except insofar as she could twist it to her own, but she had ages of experience in dredging through the multitude of possibilities that made up that which was yet to be.

And what she saw was betrayal.

It wasn’t a certainty, nor was the circumstances behind it clear; but the possibility existed, and the Witch-Queen resolved to prepare for it. To that end, she broadened her search, to see what she would need to avert disaster — to say nothing of avenging herself on the fools who would dare to try and betray her . . .








Some time later








The Queen of all Witches considered the scene before her. It had nothing, overtly, to do with her plans — but she wouldn’t be seeing it if it wasn’t important to them, somehow.

Perhaps one of them was one of her future betrayers? Or perhaps they were critical to opposing those betrayers . . . The use of a few more (and better specialised) divination spells filled in many of the blanks, however. The planet was Earth — or more accurately, an Earth — a world which had always been one of her favourites, being her world of origin. And there was a connection to her: the one maiden was of a family that had had dealings with her in the past.

Both were reasons to intervene, to one degree or another, she supposed, though Baba Yaga had never been much for doing things for their own sake. In point of fact, she hated dealing with the whiners who constantly asked her for favours — even demanding things such as infant children to devour hadn’t stemmed the tide of greedy idiots demanding things from her, and wasting her time.

But on the other hand, it was always good to be owed a favour, because you never knew when it might come in handy . . .

[Xamusel]

Huh... this sounds really like it could help you out with the use of Baba Yaga. Hope it works well for you.

[Kieran]

Yeah - it'll take some organising, since those scenes are designed for the "Baba Yaga sets up the Works" premise (which is no longer the case), but I'd say it's a start.

[Xamusel]

*blinks* Is that right? Well... thanks for elaborating that bit.

[Kieran]

Yeah - I eliminated the scenes that had her interfering outright, but that's where it came from. I probably don't need to do any rewriting of the above - it's more a question of where to place it.

[Xamusel]

Ah... no wonder. That makes a whole lot of sense.

Well, in any case, hope things end up going well for you.