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"That which can be destroyed by the truth should be."
-- P. C. Hodgell, Seeker's Mask.
is actually rather a lot
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lawful chaotic
Something deep inside Keltham is relaxing, the knowledge that he's not an impostor, that he'll be able to repay Cheliax and Carissa and all his researchers and everyone who's invested so much in him. Like, he was already making sure his employees got paid, putting the financial risk on the entity of Cheliax that could afford to take risky ventures, but - he knew they weren't entirely in it for the money.
...this sort of thing is why Keltham wanted to be a mad investor, in his past life, and not an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs fail, sometimes, and don't repay what's been invested in them. As much as it's supposed to be the case that every investor knows this is a risk and voluntarily takes it, it's still roughly the most socially terrifying thing that anybody in dath ilan ever does.
He'll probably seem more comfortable in his own skin, more comfortable being himself, from now on. Including in the cuddleroom.
Next up: some miscellaneous improvements to Chelish life but mostly SPELLSILVER.
lawful chaotic
Keltham has gone ahead and requisitioned a Major Image scroll, now, out of Project funds. There was probably something slightly insane, about how Keltham felt reluctant to do that before the Project had any guaranteed revenue. Yes, their supposed future value to Cheliax was immense, but to order the spending of 350gp on something, just like that...
Anyways, he has the scroll of Major Image now.
That should be enough to cast the illusion of an high-powered optical microscope.
And then see if Carissa and Avaricia can learn - from seeing Keltham's illusion and knowing relevant bits of the above-quantum classical-surface Law of optics - to cast the Major Image of an optical microscope themselves.
lawful chaotic
...and then, having successfully maintained concentration through that - Keltham has been practicing! - he'll take this chance to show everyone dath ilan properly, with high-definition video, and sound.
There are sights shown in Cheliax then that would have not been seen in Golarion since the fall of Azlant, and perhaps also not seen before.
Vast abysses greater than the Pits of Gormuz, not where Civilization's greater weapons were tested, but mines where minerals were torn entirely from the ground. It seems more real now, what Keltham sometimes told them, that in Civilization they could produce a million tons of spellsilver if they had a reason.
People floating above huge grates from which air blasts upward, soaring through the air on strange artificial wings, in a world where the Flight spell doesn't exist.
Also there is music heard, ranging from the strangely ethereal and beautiful, to sounds that the Chelish can hardly recognize as music at all.
And Keltham shows them one of the few music videos that he's seen often enough to remember by frame: a children's song about dath ilan's logistics, that he and his parents used to sing around the dinner table on more festive dinner nights, with vidscreen accompaniment, when he was little.
not-looking-there
RealPeranza is faking that. She's trying very hard not to feel anything, anything at all, if she feels those feelings she'll die.
lawful chaotic
How would Meritxell feel about getting, um, forcibly subdued and dragged off to a nearby simulated cuddleroom by Keltham? He's getting a surprise ready for Carissa. Meritxell shouldn't use magic, but should fight back against Keltham as hard as possible except for that part.
This is not a strong social request, to be clear. If Meritxell would rather not get hurt that way, or would feel weird about going all-out against a cuddling partner, Keltham will ask Pilar. He almost did that anyways, just, his social model suggested that Meritxell would strongly want to be asked even if she said no, leaving aside his not-to-be-mentioned-in-advance probability that Meritxell will say yes.
Yes she's absolutely down for that, that sounds great. Does 'as hard as possible except for using magic' include, like, calling for help, Carissa's pretty unlikely to do that but it's, you know, an obvious thing to do if someone tries to forcibly subdue you and grab you off, if they're not preventing it.
lawful chaotic
Nope. That's not realistic. He rather doubts Carissa will try that, but, if she does, Security won't do anything about it.
...oh, right, Meritxell is not to try telling him to stop. That is something Keltham doesn't want to try fighting his brain about, yet, and Carissa is under the same order.
lawful chaotic
Willa Shilira is the first tier-2 to learn Prestidigation to the point of being able to complete a full acid production cycle - following Keltham, Avaricia, Carissa, and Meritxell among the tier-1s.
Seems like a fine occasion to promote Willa Shilira to tier-1! To be clear, that doesn't mean everyone else gets to be tier-1 as soon as they master Prestidigitation to that same level; this reflects an expectation that Shilira will continue to learn at this speed.
Shilira's tier-1 pay is made retroactive to when she was hired; Keltham wasn't quite sure of her value at the time she was hired, but now he's sure, and be it far from him to dock her pay for his uncertainty.
lawful chaotic
Keltham has been taking some time to recover since his earlier fight against Meritxell, which was difficult for him to the point that he called it off before winning.
He'll give it another try, now, and this time manage to finish 'subduing' her.
...she's not actually much of an opponent with Keltham running Cat's Grace and Bull's Strength, and him able to heal himself in midstream but not her.
Carissa will probably be a tougher fight.
How does Meritxell feel about Alter/Disguising herself as Carissa Sevar, next time? Keltham's got a stolen hair from her.
- yes actually she's been messing around with her Alter Self precision, for personal reasons, and that sounds like fun.
Also if Keltham wants any other women he's ever seen, she's pretty good these days, and she's picked up Eschew Materials so she can do it without the hair.
She'd need to see what she's aiming at but he's pretty good at illusions these days.
lawful chaotic
They are so totally doing that!
...Next time Keltham has Silent Image queued, not today.
lawful chaotic
...it's basically clear they're going to be able to get spellsilver, at this point, from the cheaper kind of ore.
The Project's acids are higher-purity, cheap to use in large quantities, they're getting the hang of smoothing out particular reaction pathways. They're starting to develop their own tricks around magical chemistry. Like Prestidigitating an impure chemical intermediate to react with acid, in a way where the spellsilver stays bonded after the Prestidigitation wears off, and the impurities' bonds break and precipitate them out of the solution.
Now that Keltham is thinking ahead - and he's a little ashamed about not thinking of it earlier - how does his ultra-high-Spellcraft girlfriend Carissa Sevar feel about trying something that will really stretch her magical-item-making abilities to the limit?
In particular, creating magic items that help make, not items in general like her Armillary Amulet, but particular magic items. Manufacturing +4 Intelligence headbands, to be exact. Unless Carissa thinks she can stretch further, to +6 Intelligence, or +4 Intelligence / +4 Wisdom.
Once they drop spellsilver cost by a factor of 10, the dominant manufacturing cost of headbands will be the time and required Spellcraft of the wizards making those headbands, of which Golarion is going to need a lot.
to-let-you-in
Carissa is aware that for some reason +6 intelligence headbands are considered really hard to make, and +4intelligence +4 wisdom even moreso.
"They don't actually look like they ought to be? I can see Asmodia's headband and obviously it's good workmanship but it doesn't seem like something that fewer than a dozen people in the country ought to be capable of, and I'd expect if I tried to make it I'd just succeed without too much time or trouble. It is possible I'm missing something but generally my experience of magic item making is that everyone insisting it's hard doesn't actually mean it's hard."