Shrine Keeper Simulator Pt 3:The Arrival and Character Sheet of Dr. Hurriyeh (Patreon)

[X] Mask: A great fox, with curious playful eyes, every strand of fur a different cut of crystal

[X] Pavva-Ganuk Village

[X] Dr. Hurriyeh

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Your first sight of the Gigagargantua was from the air. You had been flying in from Yaccae: your first assignment in your position as a senior Shrine-Keeper: you were to go to the village of Pavva-Ganuk, which had recently lost its Shrine-Keeper from a falling accident. Looking out the window of the tram, at first the beast resembled a great mountain-topped plateau, the moss and mushroom overgrown legs of the titanic beast helping it to blend in with the equally titanic trees of the Jungle. .

Gajaliath. One of the great elder Gartgantua, predating the Directorate as a civilization by centuries, and one of the few jungle gargantua to survive the Destroyer War. You weren’t awed as such, but you had to admit it was still a very striking sight once you realized what you were looking at: a creature the size of an island, larger than any titan you had ever witnessed. In the distance, hanging off one of the mountains on Gajaliaths back, were the ancient crumbling ruins of Djerd, an ancient, millenia old city built into the mountainside and stretching outward, water pouring off it’s edge and falling to the vast and half-shadowed Lake Cauldron below.

Circling around the mountain, soon you saw the beasts head: vast, vaguely ursine in shape, covered in thick rocky plating, the result of sediment built up by various mud-birds making their nests on its face for centuries, hauling and depositing dirt and silt and shaping them to create their homes and burrows: your eyesight was good enough to see these nests, appearing as myriad holes no larger than your fist. Instead of a snout, its nose separated into a trio of long trunks that grasped titanic foliage from the jungle surrounding the walking island for it to consume or else stretching to Lake Cauldron for water to drink. Next to these protuberances were a quartet of tusks, long horizontal pillars that were possessed of a gentle curvature to them that you noted would likely only be visible from the air. On the top, they were paved with stone tiles, turning the top of the tusk into a road of sorts from which you could see villagers walking on, travelling to the village and the honey-hives that served as its primary export, some of which hung off the side of the tusk, next to all manner of greenery: vine and flower and bush and bloom. To keep travellers from falling, this road was lined with metal railing, and here and there you saw bridges of duro-crete crossing from tusk to tusk to tusk.

It didn’t take long to reach the village: built into the top, the side, and even the bottom of the leftmost tusk, creating a ring of sorts of wooden buildings constructed with sloping roofs done in the traditional style of the region, all situated at the mid-point of the biostructure. Dipping and tucking, your grav-tram flew to the underside of Pavva-Ganuk, descending to its singular tram station, coming to a stop and it’s doors sliding open.

Stepping out, your eyes briefly flicked upward…downward…at the…

Ground, technically, you supposed: that was one of the things you loved about the Directorate, the sheer creativity! They weren’t the only civilization to have anti-gravity, and they weren’t the only to live on the backs of beasts, but they were the only you were aware of that blended the two in such a unique way.

The tram-station itself was mostly empty: carved from the stone hauled on the beasts mountain, it consisted of a raised platform, a small shrine in the corner dedicated to the Roadmaster, and hovering cuboid holo-terminal, with a set of steps descending below to the street, where a bench waited underneath a lamp-post. On it you saw a Tekket in a grey robe sleeping, snoozing next to a sign with your name on it leaned against them. Ah. Your new apprentice, you presume, dozed off waiting for your arrival. Slinking forward, your form shifted and twisted, taking a more fox-like shape as you crept through the darkness, getting within inches of the sleeping form of the shrine acolyte and clearing your throat (or rather, simulating the gesture), causing the young spiritualist to blearily open their eyes and blink groggily…

And then jump in alarm with a cry when they realized they were staring at a VERY large fox with VERY large eyes and VERY, VERY large teeth.

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Yaji yipped in surprise, heart going a mile a minute as his brain went from nothing to 100 upon seeing himself face to face with what every instinct in his brain TOLD him was a dangerous predator. “Greetings,” The creature said, and bit by bit the acolytes brain began to actually work. “Sorry for the scare: I can’t help but resist a good prank now and again,” It chirped in an accent that was almost Imperial. It looked like a living shadow of sorts, some sort of vulpine silhouette except for the mask, bone white, expression set into a permanent look of curiosity and fascination. Before his eyes, the creature twisted and shifted, body contorting and remoulding itself to resemble a more humanoid shape, a monochrome vest-suit fading over their body. “Dr. Hurriyeh. I assume you’re Yabi?” They said, still masked, mouth curled into a grin, taloned hands adjusting a bow-tie.

…Oh. Yaji wasn’t sure if he should be relieved or even more alarmed: he hadn’t- hadn’t realized the Doctor was a…a…

A devil. “I…Yes sir. My n-name is actually Yaji,” He stammered, noting that none of the information he had been sent had mentioned that. It wasn’t that he had a problem with it, it was just that- that-

He gave a swallow as the creature gave a bow and flourish of their arms. “Greetings and Salutations, Yaji. I believe this is the part where you take me to my new home.”

Welcome to Shrine-Keeper Simulator! I’ll unfold the mechanics as the game plays out, but for now, here are your stats and Yaji’s stats:

DR. HURRIYEH

ATTRIBUTES

STRENGTH: C+ Stronger than a human, but that isn’t saying much.

SPEED: B As a creature of the warp, you naturally had better reaction times and top speeds than most mortals.

EDUCATION: S+ You were a former Lord of Change. There were extremely few who knew as much as you overall.

WILL: A- Accepting a mask came with accepting vulnerability: freedom without cost did not exist, and all that you gained came at a price. You were incredibly strong willed still, but it was not the unrelenting daemonic power you had once wielded.

CUNNING: S+++ You were a former Lord of Change. The amount of people who were more cunning than you were rare indeed.

CHARISMA: C+ Daemons were good at spotting weaknesses and preying upon them and manipulating baser desires, but that was not the same as being charismatic. Still, that combined with your time in the Directorate helped make you above average when it came to social aptitude.

SKILLS

CHAOS MAGIC: S+ The art of corrupted psykery and darker sorceries. As a Devil of Insidia, you were able to wield these arts without the backlash a mortal might risk and with far greater power than might be used by mortals.

OBSERVATION: A You were very, very perceptive.

DATA ENGINEERING: C+ You needed at least a degree in information technology if you wanted to work on any major Data-Shrine. It wasn’t your area of expertise, but you could still solve a variety of technical issues such a shrine might possess.

SHRINE RITES: B- The assortment of rituals required to be a Shrine-Keeper, both to keep the spirits, whether the vagrant Vita, invisible Parliaments, or the protective Guardians appeased and nourished as well as call on them when required. You had trained at Yaccae, pairing the knowledge learned there with your own arcane expertise.

ARCANORESONANCE: B+ Unlike a Mortal, you didn’t require computerized assistance to generate arcanoresonant tones and could do it on the fly so long as you utilized a fiddle. Combined with a natural talent at the art and you were extremely deadly when someone allowed you to get a tune.

MISC ENGINEERING: C- You had picked up a few things on Naklis when it came to technology: you weren’t a master engineer by any means, but you could at least do most basic maintenance tasks and perform things like reactor repair.

ELEMENTALISM: B Your time at Naklis had helped you learn a great deal of Elemental based arts, both horrific curses you were able to enhance with your psychic powers, as well as more benign arts like fire fairy care, lumium catalyzation, and mycelliometal cultivation.

UNIONIST MAGICS: D You knew enough of Unionism to perform the most basic of rites required to appease the spirits of Labour, and perform a handful of mantras.

BATTLE CREATIVITY: B+: A daemons skill may wax and wane, but it never rusted: when it came to war, you were a master of unconventional strategems and tactics.

PERSONAL COMBAT: C: You were significantly worse when it came to actual combat, however, outside of flinging bolts of psychic energy and conjuring the elements.

PROTECTIVE MAGICKS: B: You were highly skilled at warding, creating protective talismans, performing exorcism and purification rituals, all helped by your nature as chaoskin and pre-existing arcane knowledge.

DECEPTION: SSS: You were a master shapeshifter and a liar like none other. The only who could realistically hope to match you in this field were other daemons and chaoskin of insidia.

ANIMAL HANDLING: F: The downside of being a chaoskin was that you would probably have to rely on your apprentices help to handle the Herd: they rarely cared for devilkind.

BLATHER: S: You were very good at talking fast and tricking people into listening, which was a handy tool to have for buying time.

MISC OCCULTISM: B-: You knew the various pelagic conjurations that were public knowledge, knew a fairly broad set of True-Names, had a degree in HexTek programming, and were even versed in Tekketi Blood Magic. In terms of sheer power, your various Chaos Magics were stronger, but the dark matter magic of the Directorate was far more stable, reliable, and most importantly, versatile.

YAJI SPARKERR

ATTRIBUTES (simplified):

BODY: D- Tekket were on average far more fragile and weaker than humans. Yaji was no exception.

MIND: B: Yaji was a recipient of the Directorate educational system, and thus by the standards of any other civilization would be considered equivalent to their engiseers.

SPIRIT: C+: Yaji was an apprentice shrine-keeper, meaning he knew more than the average Tekket about the arcane arts.

NOTABLE SKILLS:

SHRINE RITES: C: Yaji knew enough to perform minor invocations of the spirits, but largely at this point his knowledge of the spirits was confined to shrine-maintenance and the most basic of ceremonies and offerings.

ANIMAL HANDLING: C: Yaji was skilled in the care of Pavva-Ganuk’s primary Herd-Creature, Ogre Beetles.

NUCLEAR ENGINEERING: C: Yaji knew basic nuclear engineering, like all graduates of the Directorate educational system.

PROTECTIVE MAGICS: D+: He could construct wards without a terminal and knew some basic protective rituals, but at the moment he was better suited to assisting you.

Alright, those are your skills and stats. Note that isn’t the entirety of your abilities, just what’s most immediately relevant. I’m not really using hard numbers here: this is more a broad overview of your most relevant talents and such. Scale goes from D to SSS, D being “completely average/untrained/unexceptional” to SSS being “by default unless you’re going up against a legendary tier character or challenge you succeed when using this skill”.

Conflict resolution will largely be handled narratively.

Now, onto your duties. As a Shrine-Keeper, you have several tasks assigned to you by the bureaucracy. You must fulfill these duties as best you can over the course of ten turns, each lasting a week: when done, you will be graded for your performance.

Your major duties are such:

1. Provide for the Spirits: The most basic task you must fulfill: the spirits must receive offerings sufficient for them to sustain themselves. Lifeforce, food, treasure, talismans. Beyond that, the Shrine of both Pavva-Ganuk and notable shrines in outlying areas must have their Engines maintained.
2. Protect the People: You were to investigate reports of potentially harmful spirits and deal with them, whether by capture, exorcism, destruction, or sealing. You were to also help maintain the wards created by the Parliment of Flux
3. Train your Acolyte: Yaji was not yet sufficiently trained to where the Bureacracy was comfortable having him as the only Shrine-Keeper in the village. They wanted you to help teach him.
4. Enrich the Village: And finally and most crucially, you were to be a boon to your neighbors: helping them earn blessings, aiding them with problems of a more arcane nature, lending mystical assistance, and helping to conduct cultural ceremonies and religious celebrations.

However, you’ll also have other sub-objectives you can discover by looking into rumors, building contacts and gaining friends, and investing into the village. Completing these will improve your evaluation results at the end of ten turns: even if you struggle with the main goals, the Bureacracy will still appreciate someone who can get things done.

To be continued…