>>5338259>>5338207>>5338115>>5338011>>5337992>>5337740>>5337719>>5337718>>5337681You clear your throat and, when this fails to rouse the Novice Fleshweaver, you resort to lightly shaking her.
“H-wha? What? What do you—”
The Novice’s nictitating membranes spread open a moment after her eyelids do, and she finally perceives you clearly and, seemingly, remembers the situation in which you both fell asleep.
“Do not get any ideas,” she is quick to snap at you. “I was merely—”
“Thank you,” you say flatly. “Thank you for watching over me.”
That shuts her up.
“I was… Indelicate, I believe, before I rested. I apologize for my… Comments.”
“Not all of us spend all our time traipsing around getting into fistfights, you know,” she says. “A bit of weight in the rear is… A natural occurrence, for a female of a certain age, who primarily dedicates her life to intellectual pursuits.”
“Despite the indelicacy of my comments, they were accurate,” you hazard. “Your shape is not displeasing.”
After a somewhat awkward pause, she turned her face away from you and clears her throat. You get the sense she is trying to hide her expression, but her tail’s nervous, somewhat excited twitches give her embarrassment away.
“You know I am not in season, you mammalian moron,” she eventually says. “And my father would never permit a breeding.”
“Does that mean that, if he did, you would desire one?” you ask.
There is another pause, longer than the last, and then she stands up.
“Stick to impregnating insects, you… D-degenerate!”
She rushes off, muttering something about having important experiments to attend to. You watch her go, enjoying the sway and, yes, the subtle jiggle visible through her hip-hugging robe.
She’s right, though: there ARE more important matters to attend to than… Whatever this was. Though the strange interaction lingers in your mind, you are first and foremost a being of purposeful action. With the unenviable task to manipulating and coercing your tripartite alliance into a semblance of functionality seemingly completed (at least for now) it is time to set you sights on the dwarves. Having slept on the matter—and with an especially comfortable pillow, no less—you are resolved in your approach. You first strike against the Dwarves of Bloodrise shall be:
>A rapid and invasion and takeover of a single company town, to learn what lies within and test your forces>Guerilla strikes at their patrols, to put the fear of the Dark Gods into them and to cut off their communications>Total war! It will delay your initial attack while you negotiate for greater reinforcements, but you will annihilate every company town in a single great reconquista>An intimidating display, and a declaration of intent: you will let them know you are here, though it risks the conspiracy, and declare FORMALLY your ownership of Bloodrise>Write-in 