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Speak softly, carry Ruyi Jingu Bang
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That's disappointing; she'll have to somehow content herself with this magic item that makes her better at diplomacy. A terrible fate, to be sure.

What about the other choices?

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"That depends. Can you wear armor?"

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Can she... wear armor? What?

"Are you asking if I'm like, physically strong enough to wear armor? Or if I'm willing to wear armor?"

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"No, although judging by that the answer is probably yes. Some kinds of adventurers - Wizards, monks, and sorcerers mostly - can't wear armor without it interfering with their abilities."

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"In that case, no, I've never heard of armor interfering except in the sense that some designs can limit your flexibility. I'm very hard to hurt, though, so I wouldn't expect it to be very valuable?"

She still has a set of saiyan royal armor lying around at home, totally unused, that was created to protect its wearer with technology far in advance of Golarion's and still wouldn't really matter in any fight she had to get serious in. If they offer utility boosts like the other magic items do, then that might change things.

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Most of the listed effects aren't going to be terribly useful then! There's enchantments to help the wearer dodge attacks or make them immune to weak blows or automatically catch arrows that she probably wouldn't even notice in practice. A few of them seem slightly more useful, like offering a moderate resistance to poison (though looking closer, it's fully redundant with the cloak) or letting her calm down enemies in an unnatural rage that might be handy against a rampaging oozaru, but even absorbing spells seems to only work on weak casters.

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The main one they seemed to have highlighted heals you when you're on the brink of death once a day, which she doesn't really expect to trigger but would probably be fantastically useful if it did, so fair enough. Then one other entry catches her eye.

Mind buttressing armor grants the wearer a +2 resistance bonus on Will saves and renders her immune to possession and mental control (including charm and compulsion effects like command and charm person).

She wants it. Maybe even more than she wants the headband, although that decision would be incredibly tough.

"What do you have with this enchantment? Plus impervious so it doesn't break in battle, ideally. Determined or Comfortable would be a decent bonus, but I don't really have a good sense of how much those cost you."

 

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They've only got a handful of mind-buttressing armors going spare, Paladins don't to have much need for them and other members of Lastwall's forces correspondingly specialize, so they're going to have to skip on the impervious in the short term unless-

"I know an adventurer from Andoran on the worldwound deployment with a +3 Impervious Mind Buttressing Mithral Agile Breastplate in about her size so it'd only need minor refitting, she'd probably give it if we told her it was important and couldn't say why but would be more enthusiastic if it was a swap for an upgrade-"

- it'll probably take them most of the rest of the day even if they hurry, but they can probably get it for her. Adding the comfortable or determined enchantment on top of that  would be possible but it would take time, it's probably not worth it in the short term.

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If they can just add enchantments to armor she wants it on the best engineering Garenhuld can create so it'll won't break and she'll never be vulnerable to mind control again- no, not the time, she can't exactly go fetch any of it and has approximately negative idea how to reverse engineer any of it. This will do, she'll just have to make sure to be careful to shield the armor with her Ki. And with the armor sorted out?

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Well, if she has actual armor then she'll want the bracers that make you luckier instead of the magic armor ones, and the mind-buttressing armor obviates the cap of the free thinker so for hats she just needs to choose between shapeshifting or being more persuasive, which after her reaction to the headbands they assume means the latter?

They're also leaning more towards her not needing bonus armor, which is the usual recommendation for high level adventurers. but that still leaves amulets and necklaces that boost unarmed attacks or aid in averting bad magical outcomes or offer immunity to disease ("That last one probably isn't the right choice, we can cure most diseases pretty easily here and even if Hell manages to kidnap you with wish it's unlikely you'd be facing Barbator personally, but we wanted to be clear it was on the table").

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Oh yes, she absolutely wants that circlet. Shapeshifting does sound pretty cool, but she already has the important bits for disguise from her masque and being more persuasive would solve so many of her problems.

(Kakara is so happy about this, it feels like all her life she's been wanting to solve problems by talking and diplomacy and had to attempt it in a society hostile to the very idea that strength shouldn't be a key determining factor in running society, but now that she's on Golarion they're just going to help her get better at it!)

She's not super clear what "being luckier" boils down to in practice but she'll trust the experts. Boosting unarmed attacks... when she puts it on, she can feel the difference, but it's pretty subtle and she could blow any difference out of the water with even a minor willpower push, and none of the possible weapon enchantments that can apparently go on it catch her eye either besides phase locking, which frankly seems more of a thing to be concerned about happening to her than the other way around. She'll go with the avoiding bad magical outcomes, then, even being a Super Saiyan doesn't make you completely immune to that so every bit helps.

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Then that just leaves rings! Since she doesn't have to sleep, that again means the Ring of Sustenance is much less needed, but there are a lot of really strong options competing for a ring slot. Since she uses Ki, they tracked down a Vudran ring of Ki Mastery, but there's also a few other standout picks like an intact ring of Delayed Doom that would let her push off a wide variety of harmful effects into the future, one that helps deflect attacks, one that heals its user, and a rare item out of Rahadoum that helps defend against gods and clerics.

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Kakara puts on the Ki ring to be sure, but as she suspected exile Ki training is leagues ahead of the local kind at this; it doesn't let her do anything new or notably improve her abilities. The anti-divine ring is an obvious pick with how her vision of Asmodeus went, but both the healing and delayed doom seem like incredibly powerful affects. The regeneration isn't the fastest, especially when compared against just taking a sensu bean, but she doesn't exactly have a stockpile of those on hand and her Ki healing abilities are pretty basic. On the other hand, delaying an effect by even just a minute in combat is basically eternity, and being able to do so for nine minutes (or for 9 different effects) is overkill of the best kind.

...She's not completely sure she'll stick with it, but she'll take the Ring of Delayed Doom. Do they have any healing consumables besides the gloves she can take?

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Healing also comes in wands, staves, potions, and scrolls! They can get her a miniature bag of holding for that and a few other miscellanea, like cash, no problem.

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Looking at her reflection in a mirror, Kakara can't deny she looks kind of silly. This is a lot more layers and individual peices of clothing than she has ever worn at once in the past. But she's also thoroughly learned her lesson on the matter of looking foolish vs being foolish, and doesn't intend to make the same mistake again. Besides, it's not that bad to move around in at least.

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"Right. I've gotten a mind blank, solved your logistics problems - at least for the moment - gotten some diamonds, and now have a full set of defensive items. Is there anything else that's urgent on the scales of hours or days?"

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"We've scheduled a private meeting with Felandriel Morgethai this evening; under the circumstances, we could have gotten one sooner, but it was judged to leak less information if she didn't suddenly alter her schedule. Aside from that, no."

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"In that case, I think it's past time I got oriented on what the deal is here with Golarion. History, Geopolitics, Magic, Gods, the works."

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That's something they can arrange! History is not a major focus of Iomedae's church, not like it was for Aroden, but they did inherit a lot of his clergy and most importantly his libraries, so even a military order with a state like Lastwall is well equipped, and not just with copies of the History and Future of Humanity.

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That's good, because holy book or no she was definitely giving that title some side eyes after noticing the planet had more than one species. Does it make sense to start at the beginning?

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There are a lot of conflicting testimonies on Golarion’s most ancient history, and worse yet a fair few of the more complete parts are also almost certainly Asmodean propaganda. What is agreed upon is that Pharasma existed prior this universe, and carved out what they consider reality from the abyss and shielded it from the interference of the far more alien outer gods. Insofar as there is any name for the collective of worlds within it, it would be the designation of 'Pharasma's Creation.' She decided Her new universe would be divided into 9 categories along two axis; Good versus Evil, and Law versus Chaos. Also sorted in this spectrum are the other ancient gods; it’s unclear if She created them on purpose or they somehow came into existence naturally, but one way or another they each came to hold a position of their own along these axes. Some of the ancient gods have since fallen and perhaps even been forgotten, but of those known today they have an accounting.

In Lawful Good Heaven, which leads the fight against evil wherever it can be found and where their own Goddess keeps Her court, there is Erastil, Apsu, Torag, and silent Shiziru who once lead them, plus whatever fragments of Tsukiyo remain to empower His last clerics. In Neutral Good Nirvana, which argues that goodness resides in everyone and shows up to every trial to argue for their souls, resides Sarenrae and Shelyn; once also Dou-Bral walked among them, but He was twisted beyond recognition into Zon Kuthon and now resides in the plane of shadows. In Elysium, which nurtures freedom and seeks to ensure each and every soul within has the opportunity to grow up however they desire, resides only Desna; it has always had fewer gods and more of its strength spread among the Empyreal Lords, but it is said that in the early years of creation Her ally and comrade Curchanos was slain by Lamashtu.

In Lawful Neutral Axis, which concerns itself with the growth of civilization, resides Abadar, Dranngvit, and the Primal Inevitables who maintain universal order; the last are arguably not true gods, and rarely take clerics, but their power is real and they have existed since nearly the beginning. In the Neutral Boneyard, which primarily judges souls and attempts to avoid long-term inhabitants, lives Pharasma, Daikitsu, and Gozreh. The Chaotic Neutral realm Maelstrom defies classification, partly purposefully, but the inhabitants there become far stranger by the judgment of Golarion; Calistria and Gorum and dead Acavna cannot truly be said to reign, but they were the greatest powers that resided there.

Lawful Evil Hell concerns itself with implementing the will of Asmodeus, and inflicting His tyranny, slavery, and carefully measured pride upon those residing there. There were once other rivals to His rule, but He consolidated almost all of them either under him as Archdevils or other servitors, or had them slain for their defiance. The only exceptions are Zon Kuthon, who is an exception to many of the rules, and General Susumu who still earns some protection from the fear of his half-sister Shiziru. The nature of the Neutral Evil afterlife of Abbadon is to consume, and it applies that to the vast majority of souls that end up there; in ages past it did not limit itself to that and instead dined upon the river of souls, which resulted in Pharasma's rebuke. It is unclear if there are any ancient gods yet residing there, or if they too were at some point consumed; of those known Urgathoa is the eldest and mightiest, but some attest to Her as simply the first ascended mortal. The Abyss is the Chaotic Evil realm of feuding Demon Lords, with the ancient goddess Lamashtu as the greatest power among them. The Abyss is, however, in many ways the exception to all other rules; of all the places in creation, it is the most similar to the chaos that lies without, and the demons must share their space with the Qlippoth, strange creatures not native to this existence that either resided there when Pharasma created Her realm or snuck in from without. For the most part, they are weaker than the gods, but they freely break many of the rules that even Chaotic deities are wholly bound by.

'For the most part' is, unfortunately, an operative phrase there, because the most famous of the Qlippoth is also the exception: the rough beast, Rovagug.

 

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There's no consensus on what, exactly, Rovagug is, or if that even makes sense as a question to ask about the Qlippoth. Whatever his nature, however, his actions are usually best understood as, essentially, acting on mindless hunger. He was also within Pharasma's creation nearly from the bigginning, gnawing away at the abyss; though he occasionally travelled to other realms like Axis, he was content to be herded off in short order. He was too powerful to be slain, his very presence damaged prophecy, and he could not be dissuaded from wrecking what they had constructed in the long term, but he was, for the most part, a manageable problem. And then the gods created mortals.

It took some time for this problem to be clear, for Rovagug was at that point in the Abyss far from the prime material, but once he did, it seems he found he liked the taste of mortal souls and set about consuming planets. The normal methods of dissuading and diverting him proved ineffective in the face of something he genuinely wanted, and since he was significantly stronger than even the ancient gods there wasn't a lot of room for alternate methods. Despairing of the deaths, Sarenrae arranged a coalition of all who would listen to stop him. Asmodeus and Shelyn, Shiziru and Calistria, Abadar and Desna, Gorum and Dou-Bral and Gozreh and Apsu and Dahak and even Pharasma Herself arrayed themselves against him. Some of the gods most dissatisfied with the state of the universe fought alongside Rovagug in the hopes that the impossibility of foreseeing the battle's result meant they had a chance of success, but against the arrayed forces it proved insufficient. His erstwhile 'allies' slain, Rovagug was lure to a prepared trap and sealed away by the combined effort of the gods involved, where he has thrashed against his cage ever since.

The world in which he is trapped is Golarion.

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"Er, he's not in danger of getting free soon, right? Unless one of the gods lets him out or something?"

 

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"Not as far as we're aware. He's less imprisoned than he once was; some of the gods that contributed to his imprisonment are dead, and when Dou-Bral became Zon-Kuthon he ceased to give power to the star towers that prevented Rovagug from picking clerics or communicating outside. This was over 10,000 years ago, though, and as far as we know he hasn't managed to get especially close at any point since."

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The oldest records known to modern day Golarion, as distinguished from the relayed claims of the gods, pick up about 10,000 years before the present. They begin, to the lament of many historians "in media res," and to make matters worse are woefully incomplete and rely heavily on Aroden's individual testimony and archeological evidence, though there's no any specific reason to doubt most of it happened as described.

The Aboleth were at this point already an ancient civilization, that had ruled the seas of Golarion from beneath their surface for unknown ages. At some point - a few centuries to a millenia before the surviving histories were written - they had begun sharing what they knew with the humans on the surface, and helped them build their civilization. It was, likely, not entirely benevolent, but the overall effects were positive and the shared knowledge of magic and technologies propelled Azlant and their splinter-state Thassilon to a level never achieved since on Golarion. Among the people they taught was Aroden, who was even in those days a talented mage. At some point, however, some combination of the Azlanti advances, actions, and diplomatic posture made the Alghollthu nervous or angry enough that they declared war. To their shock, however, once the war began they found themselves on the losing side, and in fear or desperation called down the starstone from space. They thought it would simply defeat Azlant, but they miscalculated; the meteor they called down had with it enough energy to wipe out all life on the planet and perhaps even endanger Rovagug's prison. Several gods intervened, sacrificing themselves to slow the attack and in doing so ensured that some life survived on the other side of the planet, but even weakened the strike was enough to largely destroy both Azlant and Thassilon. This event, known as Earthfall, took place in -5293 AR and was responsible for the paucity of earlier sources.

Aroden, by some means unknown even to his church, survived Earthfall and aided in the survival and recovery of humanity during the age of darkness, which had been made worse by the escape of Zon-Kuthon from his imprisonment, which bolstered the forces of evil and resulted in the founding of the horrific nation of Nidal. By about -3470 AR, Golarion had begun to restore something in the way of civilization, and thus began what historians typically refer to as "the age of destiny." Taldor was founded, the wizard Nethys ascended as the half-mad god of magic, Osirion flourished into its greatest golden age, and Aroden accomplished many legendary deeds before setting out to explore the stars in search of something. By -1000 AR, Osirion had begun to decline, and they ceded control of some of their provinces to the Archmage Geb, who's path of expansion put him into conflict with fellow Archmage and Monarch Nex, both of whose nations bore their name.The conflict lasted over a thousand years, and established both as two of the greatest wizards in the history of Golarion and lead Geb to invent much of modern Necromancy, before ending abruptly in 576 AR with the disappearance of Nex.


In 0 AR, Aroden raised the starstone from the sea, placed it within a cathedral in Absalom, wove defenses around it to prevent people from coming into contact with it, touched it, and ascended into godhood, beginning what came to be known as the age of enthronement. Since then, 3 others have passed the challenge successfully and become a god; Norgorber, the Neutral Evil god of thieves and assassins, Cayden Cailean, the Chaotic Good drunken god, and lastly their own patron Iomedae, the Lawful Good goddess of defeating Evil. Of these, it is only believed that the third was truly planned; neither of the first two had prior to their ascension established a church, teachings, or holy book, and in the case of Cayden it was known he originally snuck into the temple on a drunken dare. Iomedae, however, was a Paladin of Aroden before she became a goddess and had made her legend by defeating the lich Archmage Tar-Baphon who sought to conquer Golarion in a tide of undead. Having had the ability to plan ahead, she founded her own Paladin orders and churches prior to ascending staffed with her fellow Arodenites, and upon ascending in 3832 AR took them over from Him as His Herald.

Ever since his ascension, it had been prophecized by the oracles of all the gods that Aroden would return in 4606 AR to usher in an age of glory in Golarion. Cheliax, the heart of his religion, had prepared for his return; the king had arranged to abdicate, and people thronged the streets to see him once more in the flesh. Instead, when the appointed day came, the world was wracked with storms as the gods went to war. There were weeks of torrential rain and hurricane gales, not just in Cheliax but around the entire globe, some of which have not ceased to this day. Cities were wrecked in earthquakes, a hole opened to the Abyss in Sarkoris and a flood of demons poured out, and... Aroden died. His clerics stopped getting spells, his return never materialized, and prophecy shattered irreparably. Millions died, from the destruction, loss of crops, and the sudden loss of Arodenite clerics meaning an end to clean drinking water and healing for thousands of communities. The century since has been known as the age of lost omens, and it is in this time that Cheliax came under the rule of Hell after a vicious civil war, Sarkoris fell to demonic hordes from what is now called the worldwound, and what peace there was in Avistan came to an end.

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