Ardath Salufangari
Ardath Salufangari
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Slim and short, the kind that never grows fat or tall the whole life until they do when they're old. Storm of long, black, slightly curled hair, that never stay in one place.
Facial Features
Rather smooth. Big eyes, small lips, small, straight nose, face coming in nicely into smooth chin.
Identifying Characteristics
A number imprinted somewhere on her back probably?
Mental characteristics
Personal history
tl;dr
Born under Designers rule, contacted by entity, escaped, hung in refuge, stole identity, got scouted.
If I went overboard and need to fix something, please let me know. Born in a Clockwork City without a name but with 48337 to represent her, she spent the first several years just trying to survive. Work, so called ‘education’, scarce food, scarce sleep among constant whizzing of machinery. Every day similar, each worse than the next one. Deceit has become her bread and butter, while trying to pass as an obedient servant to her masters. She memorized what was required of her, learned how to please those above her and became indifferent. For the longest time she basically collapsed inside her mind, allowing the conscious to drift freely. While almost as mechanical as everything around her, the magically tainted mind took leeway and started exploring weirder and darker places. Until it *felt* a presence.
This was a turning point. 48337 woke from a comatose state. At first slowly, she learned to control the drift. She knew where to look. An aberrant mind she encountered was something that might, just might, prove useful in the future. She wasn’t sure, so she started probing deeper. More often. Whenever she had any time whatsoever, 48337 tried time and time again to contact the powerful being drifting through the Hungry Dark. And the Dark wasn’t the only thing that was hungry. In eternal struggle forward, the being was coming for the Sovereign’s blood. Mighty and powerful, although very primal, in a young girl’s mind it seemed like a perfect tool to use against the infernals. She made contact. Aberrant mind wasn’t understandable to her, but it didn’t stop her from trying. Each day she understood more, the speech became bearable, she started leeching on the creature for power, while feeding it information about the world as she knew it.
She started preparations to escape this place. The inhumanly low food amounts she divided even more to get it to last for a potential journey. Awaiting an event that would allow her to use her powers, her wits and her skills to escape the City. The day came. Dune Riders started a skirmish on the outskirts. Not thinking much about it, 48337 decided the time is now and beelined forward. She was roaming the lands, feeding both on food she was given or stole and on stories of a Refuge. After a long struggle she managed to get there. She was overwhelmed at first by the sheer amount of people *living* their lives instead of being told what and how to do things. Quickly she managed to join a group of homeless kids which weren’t uncommon in the city. They were trying to live off of what they managed to beg, steal or pick from the trash.
She ran a while with those, amongst them there was a girl, similar to her physically and in voice. One day they went out for a supply run, just the two of them. It was a rehearsed bit, it’s much harder to chase a thief when they are in two different places at once. This time the girl wasn’t lucky enough, she slipped in an alleyway and landed very unpleasantly cracking her spine on the curve. The girl’s name was Ardath Salufangari. 48337 without batting an eye decided it’s gonna be her name from now on. She reported that the other girl didn’t have much luck and assumed the position of being Ardath. Kids weren’t very bright and the turnover inside the group was high - some were finding better places to live, others not so much.
Ardath, still being in commune with One Flesh and leeching on him for additional power and honing her psychic abilities, managed to survive on the streets for months. Until she got caught using magic, trying to rid herself of a thug that was giving her a hard time. She spiked his mind a bit too heavily and he didn’t pull through. Instead of it being a big cause of trouble for her, it seemed that it just sped up the process of establishing her whereabouts by the academy's scouts. She took a liking to the Grove. Green and sun were definitely things that were missing in her life and, as it turned out, soap, bed and brush were a nice addition as well.
Ardath, being able to relax for the first time, opened her mind back to the patron. Madness slipped through and she wasn’t fast enough to close the mental doors in time. Instead of being calm, collected and calculating as she was for her entire life till then, she became prone to anger and unstable, contradicting her calm voice. She’s fighting with it when there are people around, especially those that might bring some value to her overarching plan, but if left to her own devices, she talks with herself loudly and uncontrollably, using several languages at once if the dispute gets heated. The thing she didn’t lose is her secretivness - she won’t show her hand to others unless she has to or if the prize is higher than the bid.
Born under Designers rule, contacted by entity, escaped, hung in refuge, stole identity, got scouted.
If I went overboard and need to fix something, please let me know. Born in a Clockwork City without a name but with 48337 to represent her, she spent the first several years just trying to survive. Work, so called ‘education’, scarce food, scarce sleep among constant whizzing of machinery. Every day similar, each worse than the next one. Deceit has become her bread and butter, while trying to pass as an obedient servant to her masters. She memorized what was required of her, learned how to please those above her and became indifferent. For the longest time she basically collapsed inside her mind, allowing the conscious to drift freely. While almost as mechanical as everything around her, the magically tainted mind took leeway and started exploring weirder and darker places. Until it *felt* a presence.
This was a turning point. 48337 woke from a comatose state. At first slowly, she learned to control the drift. She knew where to look. An aberrant mind she encountered was something that might, just might, prove useful in the future. She wasn’t sure, so she started probing deeper. More often. Whenever she had any time whatsoever, 48337 tried time and time again to contact the powerful being drifting through the Hungry Dark. And the Dark wasn’t the only thing that was hungry. In eternal struggle forward, the being was coming for the Sovereign’s blood. Mighty and powerful, although very primal, in a young girl’s mind it seemed like a perfect tool to use against the infernals. She made contact. Aberrant mind wasn’t understandable to her, but it didn’t stop her from trying. Each day she understood more, the speech became bearable, she started leeching on the creature for power, while feeding it information about the world as she knew it.
She started preparations to escape this place. The inhumanly low food amounts she divided even more to get it to last for a potential journey. Awaiting an event that would allow her to use her powers, her wits and her skills to escape the City. The day came. Dune Riders started a skirmish on the outskirts. Not thinking much about it, 48337 decided the time is now and beelined forward. She was roaming the lands, feeding both on food she was given or stole and on stories of a Refuge. After a long struggle she managed to get there. She was overwhelmed at first by the sheer amount of people *living* their lives instead of being told what and how to do things. Quickly she managed to join a group of homeless kids which weren’t uncommon in the city. They were trying to live off of what they managed to beg, steal or pick from the trash.
She ran a while with those, amongst them there was a girl, similar to her physically and in voice. One day they went out for a supply run, just the two of them. It was a rehearsed bit, it’s much harder to chase a thief when they are in two different places at once. This time the girl wasn’t lucky enough, she slipped in an alleyway and landed very unpleasantly cracking her spine on the curve. The girl’s name was Ardath Salufangari. 48337 without batting an eye decided it’s gonna be her name from now on. She reported that the other girl didn’t have much luck and assumed the position of being Ardath. Kids weren’t very bright and the turnover inside the group was high - some were finding better places to live, others not so much.
Ardath, still being in commune with One Flesh and leeching on him for additional power and honing her psychic abilities, managed to survive on the streets for months. Until she got caught using magic, trying to rid herself of a thug that was giving her a hard time. She spiked his mind a bit too heavily and he didn’t pull through. Instead of it being a big cause of trouble for her, it seemed that it just sped up the process of establishing her whereabouts by the academy's scouts. She took a liking to the Grove. Green and sun were definitely things that were missing in her life and, as it turned out, soap, bed and brush were a nice addition as well.
Ardath, being able to relax for the first time, opened her mind back to the patron. Madness slipped through and she wasn’t fast enough to close the mental doors in time. Instead of being calm, collected and calculating as she was for her entire life till then, she became prone to anger and unstable, contradicting her calm voice. She’s fighting with it when there are people around, especially those that might bring some value to her overarching plan, but if left to her own devices, she talks with herself loudly and uncontrollably, using several languages at once if the dispute gets heated. The thing she didn’t lose is her secretivness - she won’t show her hand to others unless she has to or if the prize is higher than the bid.
Gender Identity
Female
Sexuality
Generally straight
Education
Lodge: Grove
Craft: Smithing
Year 2 chosen: Elemental Studies
Year 3 chosen: Planar Metageometry
Year 4 chosen: Draconic Studies
Year 5 chosen: Underworld Studies
Mental Trauma
Oh yeah.
Intellectual Characteristics
Very unstable. Although she tries to keep shit together when sourrounded by others, very explosive and prone to be self-talkative while alone (or percieves to be alone).
Morality & Philosophy
Rather lackluster. She's very chaotic and strongly believes that everything is just a mean to an end, though she doesn't share this view with the rest of the world. Would take the quickest, most effective soultion but wouldn't go out of her way to search for more brutal or painful ones. Job needs to be done, doesn't need to be spectacular.
Taboos
Childhood. She has a whole story about that, never really revealing much outside the closest group. And even there she'd hesitate before revealing anything much.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
Wants to rid Anacra of infernals by any means necessary. It's rooted in her place of birth and long time of being exploited there.
Hygiene
High. After living first ten years of her life in dirt and extremely poor conditions, she quickly found a love for soap, brushes etc.
Social
Contacts & Relations
Kisjan
Family Ties
None
Religious Views
Strongly opposed to infernals
Speech
Cold, straight-to-business alt
~5ft, black curls, slim, very pale, beautiful. If given an option, which she isn't, would wear rather androgenous and as black as possible.
View Character Profile
Alignment
Chaotic neutral
Age
15
Date of Birth
6269
Birthplace
Designers
Children
Current Residence
Ioth Academy, the Grove
Gender
Female
Eyes
Green
Hair
Black
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Pale
Height
5ft
Weight
100lbs
The Visit, the Clockwork Sun and the Fey
Sage made us dirty. All the squabble, all the inside Kisjan discussions, all the Sventisko’s explanations and clamor and there she is - smarter than all of us, just shooing us out like hens. So much for getting into the office and stealing for the Eluitholel. They decided to send poor Sven to deal with the fey too. Bunch of shortsided, forthright, lazy… Nevermind. They lack the crucial information, they don’t take risks. They never do. Sventisko is no longer taking risks either, which I can only assume is tied to Mason. She used to be more fiery, but the sparks are someplace else now. Anyway she’s still technically a leader, but we are supposed to ask Sage for advice. And I hope that something good comes out of that…
***
Fuck. Holy fuck. It’s happening. Is it happening? I *think* it is. I dreamt it. Everybody did. *He* is coming. He is near, I can feel the cold sensation, the hive, the hunger seeping through the dream back to reality.
What is reality?
I had to wake up poor Ohva and help her calm down, she didn’t understand a word of what I was saying. Now thinking back to it, I might have been speaking in a different language. *His* language.
Was that real?
Ren asked me if I’m ok.
Did I imagine that as well? If so - why?
I’m no longer sure if I’m more afraid or more excited. If he is here that might end all our struggle. Hundreds will get freed by the day. Maybe I will manage to leech just a little bit more power, reach a tad deeper into the endless wellspring of the hive?
So many things to do. So little time.
As long as infernals are nulled, nothing really matters.
***
After quite an eventful so called ‘trauma week’, which took slightly over that, I had time to calm down and prep for midterms. I passed. That’s the most important part. I don’t really have to struggle for the highest grades on the no-good theory, like those Codex nerds.
Nerds… I guess I’m spending slightly more time with Cora recently, she’s been probably as disillusioned with Kisjan as am I, be that for different reasons.
Last night was weird, even by recent standards of the Academy. Like… Fighting with suddenly alive machinery I could understand, it’s somewhat familiar. I can sense the hand of the Prince in it. How he managed to infiltrate this place enough is beyond me, but that’s nothing new. Nothing extraordinary, the infernals have their ways. There were all kinds of contraptions coming for us, either to kill, or to harm, or to apprehend…
Anyway, so I started blasting. Unrelentlessly, with few friends at my side we managed to start cleaning up halls of Tarslemoor House. But then it took a turn from unexpected to bizarre. I have never seen the sun just deciding to just pop up in the sky in the middle of the night, but that’s exactly what happened. And it smote all the machines, relieving them of the temporary consciousness.
How much weirder will this year get?
***
Damn Boggles. Who and why get those little boggers into the Academy is beyond me, but they spilled the oil everywhere. And I slipped. I slipped hard and my… Well I ended up in the apothecary. I heard it did me good, as I missed the second coming of the Boggle Day. I heard that the fey are appearing more and more at the halls, they pull pranks, boot around like those redcaps we killed back in a day in the undercroft… I wonder if this has anything to do with that faerie from the undercroft that charmed me. They wanted to know my name, but I gave out Ardath. Did it become my name? No… I will never forget the look on that girls’ face when she slipped. It still haunts me, maybe because I just took what’s hers… It will never be truly mine, always an impostor…
Anyway, I heard that Cora and Hilde are starting some new project, something fey related. I heard they have a few ideas, actual real goals and a plan to achieve them. Might be worth looking into it. I don’t really need drama classes anymore, I milked it for all there was and made it my own. I was kinda considering playing some sports, but I don’t think I’m good enough for any of the teams. But this might prove useful, networking never killed anyone and I like the girls running it. And obviously, two months after the big meeting, nothing has been done with Kisjan. No Sage advice, no update on fey talks, nothing. I will just put it on the backburner and let it simmer, while I roll with people that actually want to do something.
The Silent and The Scrying
After the long, cold night we spent in the Refuge while Boreas and the Terranimbus were pestering common folk, came the time for Sventisko to regain the Kisjans’ trust. Honestly I’m not really sure why most of my compatriots reacted as harshly as they did, but I’m not the one to understand. Between the big meeting where she decided to put forth the plan I made sure she’s ok, which she clearly wasn’t, and somehow reassure her but even I wasn’t sure if that worked. Well, you can’t win ‘em all.
Sventisko’s plan seemed easy enough - sneak out, get to undercroft, tread through, get around the refuge and meet Eluitholel after which just hussle back up. And honestly - the very start of the adventure went exactly as simple as it may sound here. While I lied my, and Meagle’s, asses off, with Ohva producing the cutest single tear in the history of single tears and Balvarax clumsily sneaking behind us, Cora charming and Watch just kinda being around we manage to almost get out without any issues. Actually come to think of it, Balvarax made enough noise to bump into Cüper, who sold us a few potions and… stuff. That’s where we split up - those who prefer their martial prowess decided to use potions and climb down - not really sure how they did on that, but I heard there were a few close calls. Those who prefer to sneak and talk, took a long, slow path down. We almost manage to not get into trouble with Watch just posing as a caretaker while Cora and I were reassuring it’s actually true, but at the very end we met a few sprites that weren’t keen on us walking around while their fey friends were interrogated and mistreated. Thankfully, having a fairy of our own, they got pinpointed in the direction of the infamous satyr bag and we scrambled as fast as possible to meet up with the rest in the undercroft.
While we were trying to establish the best way through, with a heavy thump Kilgore kinda climbed, kinda fell from the spire, but alive and shortly after - well, she spread some food and aura of confidence that we were lacking to start our journey. Sventisko in the meantime was unorthodoxly quiet, even for her standards, but she sometimes do be like that, when the job calls for it.
Treading through undercroft was a little bit more challenging, especially for me - I can’t lie to the pile of goo, now can I? Or at least I can’t reasonably get anything out of it. Hopefully. Kilgore decided to muscle through this part with Watch on her back, while the rest of us were trying to discern the most safe path. We did what we could have but still managed to prompt some shrooms or some other weird fumes. Coughing we got out of it, but Megale was already pony sized. She didn’t seem to enjoy this as much as we did the view of it.
Breaching the sphere this time was slightly different - repairs must have made it sturdier. Sven took out special tools, some sort of blood, that bent the sphere enough to get through. Long story, not worth the details. Walking around the Refuge, which was still trying to collect itself after the recent events, was painful. The streets I knew, the sites I’ve been used to seeing, the overall aura of the place was weird and unfamiliar. I was distracted enough that when I took point as we stumbled into someone I didn’t recognize Arziel. This fucker never liked me and me trying to suade him how powerful of mages we are wasn’t the smartest choice. Had I known it was him I wouldn’t even pick that up. But well… Here we were, Kisjan on the mission while this fucking nobody was picking up on me being a stray and recalling the days of past. Good thing we’ve gotten out of there before… Nevermind. The rest of the team did much better and we didn’t really have any issues with getting to our destination.
Kepesk, the apparent leader of Eluitholel turned out to be a grim blue dragonborn, which Balvarax surely will look like if he doesn’t smile every once in a while. We spoke. We bargained. We plead. They got some, we got some. They have a very secretive approach to doing things, not that we don’t. Kepesk didn’t look very pleased when I communicated with him telepathically, but he did answer what I needed to know. It was good enough, but honestly that’s some pussy talk. If they are on the path to release the dragons, the only beings that managed to get to infernal asses so far, why not go that way? I could maybe then try to dissuade the being I’m leeching on for powers to not come here? It does seem terrifying, yet a lesser evil than infernals. I’m getting out of track again…
We collected the goodies and headed back towards the Academy. Meeting was even more fruitful than anticipated. On the way back we discussed how we would want to approach getting the information off of Ioth’s office. Most of us were of the opinion that we should oversee the struggle of the four usual suspects, but Ohva with Balvarax definitely opposed that. In the end we stood on the grounds that we meet with just Alyx and we dictate the conditions and if they comply they can get gear. And if they disappoint…
Way through the Refuge was a bit easier this time. I remained focused on the task and picked my deceiving battles, the rest managed to use spells and do all kinds of shenanigans so that not only we didn’t get into trouble, but we found a picture of the Big Gob. Through the sphere we hop back to the undercroft. We made so much rawkus…Actually this time it wasn’t me, as I just bamfed with a misty step over, but the noise we made as a Kisjan, was enough to get a fey on us. And not a sprite or a redcap to frag and move on. A freaking Seeily Court emissary, self-important as if he’s the second coming of Seven Dragons. Immediately he casts his charms on Ohva and on me. Someone was with my tiefling roommate to shut her mouth before she spoke her name, I didn’t have that much of a comfort. Before Cora gracefully threw a pile of goo in my face, I had enough time to be polite and present myself and the Kisjan as an organization. Thank the gods that Ardath isn’t my name, I’d be screwed worse than I already am. Finally one fairy talked with our fairy, established some, very convoluted I’m sure, deal and the fey let us go, with Megale in absolute shock that she’s a fey. The more you know…
Now that we got back up, shrouded in fey magic, it was time to meet Alyx. And the surprises for the night weren't even close to being done, cause someone's been naughty and scried on us...
Cold Night in the Refuge
This was a night and then some. As soon as the first lightning struck we were organizing. Gotta say, Balvarax and Ohva got everything under control fast. They got busy while I went off trying to organize reinforcements. I was half successful - although, without surprises, talking to Kraius was a waste of time, his roomate, Ned volunteered to help and gotten a few other Codex members alongside. I gotten in place just about the time to see Sventisko being grilled, grappled and shocked. Calm, now. I was glad to see her back, even though the look on her face of utter disbelief, crushed hopes and hartbreak was painful. We didn't have time to talk about it though. We will, I assured her of that, she's still my oldest friend.
Teams were assembled, I got in with Megale and Ren. Having a friend alongside was reassuring, especially a friend that can fuck people up with an axe - be that a great one she's usually practicing with or the handaxes I cast for her. Also Ren, who's not only year above, but gotta be one of the cutest guys in Tarselmoore was an excellent addition. We climbed down - Megale was so scared I didn't even had a heart to mentally fuck with her a bit, even though I was tempted. But mission is the priority and the climb in cold climate brought the memories of the night we got into Untermauler's office. That was some night and now, with pretty much the same equipment, I was scailing down to the Undercroft for another big one.
Straight out of the gates we stumbled upon refugees in a process of migrating to safer spot. They had a few Vuzaton's helping them out, but they welcomed our support. Refugees looked reliefed, especially as while going around the refuge, examining old spots and hideouts I used to live in, we actually not only managed to find a safehouse but also stumbled upon additional Vuzaton loyalists. Which proved useful shortly. We deposited the refugees in relatively safe place and that was a good decision, because not few minutes later we crossed paths with a Knight. He was busy destroying buildings and structures, too busy in all the fuss and blizzard to notice us approaching. Our newly found assistance seemed to be even more infuriated with them than we were, cause they were literally surrounding him in an instance or at the very least chucking spears in his general direction. And that would pretty much sum up their efforts as they barely scratched the kinght, whole eleven of them. We stayed a bit back and that proved to be a good decision, as the knight just slipped past the guards and casted some nasty spell, throwing them away. I was too nervous to properly focus on hitting him, but thankfully both Megale and Ren stayed more level-headed - one calling on earth tremors with her hoofs, the other spiking his mind. Knight decided to switch over to the greatsword he had and to say he knew what he was doing would be an understatement. It wasn't the first time I saw people die, but he just carved through the loyalists as if they were ripe fruit. I switched to spells. His metnal was strong, but not strong enough to completly get rid of Hex and of whispers that filled his brain. He got spiked again, firebolts were flying ever which way and, finally, after carving through most of our escort, he fell to the blast.
We moved along, tired and unwell yet victorious, with one of the loyalists limping alongside Ren. Sky Sovereign must have been unhappy with our performance as the lightning ripped the sky and hit directly at us. We lost one of the loyalist and wasn't it for magical instinct and reflexes, our asses might have been fried as well. Ren in the meantime gotten somehow a hold of Hilde's cannon, bless her chaotic heart as we moved along. Fast we stumbled upon few more Vuzaton loyalists and got smoked by stray lightning again. And then another lightning struck, straight at me. That was a close call - to close for my taste. I was too shocked to properly function and it was visible enough for everyone to just get a shelter somewhere and rest a bit, helping ourselves to cure and get better. Even though the Sky Sovereign was obvously mad at us, some higher power must have been watching over us. This was the best decision that we could have made, as not long after we had another skirmish with Vindur's slave. Vuzatons, as per usual were quick to surround the knigt, trying to skewer him with mixed results at best. We, on the other hand, didn't waste much time, at this point the spells were known, everyone had it's narrowed down to what works. Ren spiked poor bastard's mind, I hexed his soul and blasted the shining plates while Megale was sending small bolts of fire in his general direction. And our confidence was almost our demise. Ren got a little bit too close to the kinght, who - even though surrounded, didn't forget how to cast spells. Thunder roared and if it wasn't for quick reflexes of the bubble ball captain, he'd be smearing down the wall alongside with one of the loyalists that flew past him. After usual salvae of spike and blast, Megale finally got the opening she wanted and with firey blaze on her axe rampaged towards the knight ending his life with one clean slash and small explosion of fire.
We collected ourselves, parted ways with loyalist and returned to base. We needed a bit of time and possibly healing to recuperate and get back into action. I'm sitting here, waiting and writing down what happens, looking at Ohva managing other six groups. Soon I'll be able to get back there if someone needs help.
We did good today. But the cold night in the refuge drags on. And till it does - it ain't over.
Year Four, Draconic studies final paper
Ardath had a bad time trying to come up with the project that would fit the Draconic classes. Mostly due to the fact that her participation in this class was more of a nod in Kisjan direction than anything else. At the start she thought big. Like really big. Get a lot of tribes, info on the culture, resource management, cooperation between the tribes and then plug it into some mathematical theorems that she found interesting or dug upon in the years prior. Mostly would be based on linear programming, so a lot of equations, a knapsack problem and a maximum flow in the network.
And then it hit her. This *got to* be connected somehow with magic. Also the action at Untermauler’s office didn’t improve much. Out of the people she knew for sure to be dragon tribe descendants and considered her friends, one went missing for a while. So she had somewhat of a late start with the project.
Eventually she settled for letting go of the cultural aspect, assuming boldly best case scenario that the tribes *will* cooperate. She didn’t have much problem extracting information on how the things are dealt with in Bothotlo tribe of Sventisko and then just found a few people from Vutazon and Canar tribes and threw a lot of questions in their direction. She made it look kind and helped in exchange with what she was able but in the end felt like she came out better from it than her peers
(Persuasion 20)
Then she hit the dead end. She tried to find some additional information on either how the tribes work, what resources are at their disposal or highly sought after, but without any luck. Libraries seemed to be absolutely helpless against the current events or she just had a bad time finding anything. She also had a real struggle trying to gather any insight on, slightly forgotten since she was in Clockwork City, math that would lead to a conclusion in the paper.
(History 9, Arcana 13)
Slightly disappointed, especially by the mathematical part of the paper, she decided to go to a person she knew that was from the same place and had the same ideas put in his head way back when. And Cuan definitely was a go-to. She sat down with him, explained the idea behind, sorta brushed over the more unfortunate part of the research and popped ideas about the math behind it all. Fortunately Hilde was around and overheard the conversation. It turned out a little fairy had been picking up on stories here and there and quickly filled up the missing parts in the crossovers between the tribes and some resource management.
(Hilde’s History 19)
That put up the Clockwork duo for a success, even though math still was a little underwhelming to her, mostly due to triviality of tools used to solve the issue, the outcome wasn’t half bad. The question whether her Draconic teacher would get what was behind that and how well Ardath would be able to present and defend her statements is another whole story.
And then it hit her. This *got to* be connected somehow with magic. Also the action at Untermauler’s office didn’t improve much. Out of the people she knew for sure to be dragon tribe descendants and considered her friends, one went missing for a while. So she had somewhat of a late start with the project.
Eventually she settled for letting go of the cultural aspect, assuming boldly best case scenario that the tribes *will* cooperate. She didn’t have much problem extracting information on how the things are dealt with in Bothotlo tribe of Sventisko and then just found a few people from Vutazon and Canar tribes and threw a lot of questions in their direction. She made it look kind and helped in exchange with what she was able but in the end felt like she came out better from it than her peers
(Persuasion 20)
Then she hit the dead end. She tried to find some additional information on either how the tribes work, what resources are at their disposal or highly sought after, but without any luck. Libraries seemed to be absolutely helpless against the current events or she just had a bad time finding anything. She also had a real struggle trying to gather any insight on, slightly forgotten since she was in Clockwork City, math that would lead to a conclusion in the paper.
(History 9, Arcana 13)
Slightly disappointed, especially by the mathematical part of the paper, she decided to go to a person she knew that was from the same place and had the same ideas put in his head way back when. And Cuan definitely was a go-to. She sat down with him, explained the idea behind, sorta brushed over the more unfortunate part of the research and popped ideas about the math behind it all. Fortunately Hilde was around and overheard the conversation. It turned out a little fairy had been picking up on stories here and there and quickly filled up the missing parts in the crossovers between the tribes and some resource management.
(Hilde’s History 19)
That put up the Clockwork duo for a success, even though math still was a little underwhelming to her, mostly due to triviality of tools used to solve the issue, the outcome wasn’t half bad. The question whether her Draconic teacher would get what was behind that and how well Ardath would be able to present and defend her statements is another whole story.
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