Maybe I'm just overthinking it, but I want to be extra sure all my tracks are covered. I think I want to spend a fate point to declare that the guard that does the search doesn't care that I'm bringing it in and won't report it if he finds it. Very much a Not My Job sort of person.

I think the minute he sees Terrans talking to his pets that Raven will get a fair idea of what's up whether the guard tells him about the gold or not.

It's not Raven I'm worried about, specifically. I don't want any of the other Patriarchs possibly knowing that we're resorting to bribery. I want the election to look as clean as possible from our side so Raven can't find some way to call foul and also to avoid a reelection some time from now that could put us in bad grace with the local religious body.

Tell you what, I'll let you have that one even without spending a Fate point.

For simplicity, let's say that that bar represents 1/300 of the wealth available to you (and thus 1% of the estimated value of the Elene treasury).

I figure I'll take three of them with me, since that'd be more impressive than just one. Help hammer the point in better.

3% of the expected value of the Elene treasury it is, then.

Ahh, crap. I meant to keep Arkady in the loop but ended up getting wrapped up in my own thought processes and forgot to.

This might be an excellent moment to bring Arkady back into the loop, then.

Also to decide whether you want to start by making your pitch to Undul et al., or to one of the Patriarchs who Arkady's picked out as the most disgruntled.

Not trying to step on Arkady's toes. Just kinda want to hurry this along already. Felix will back up and listen if Arkady has anything to interject.

I have an idea, but to do it Arkady needs to know what Felix knows. A brief 'fills him in' should suffice, I think.

Ah, that wondrous gap between in-character and out-of-character knowledge.

Not that Arkady isn't quite sure that the local god is listening to everything that's being said in His church right now.

Oh, and a heads up: I'm going on vacation on Monday and probably won't be back in touch for nearly two weeks.

Be safe and have fun doing vacation-y things.

Also, random thought. While making my artifact weapon (the rifle that I discussed with Zalasbra previously) could I maybe have it be made modular? The power source for the weapon is worked into a hilt or grip, and I can attach that grip to an implement that needs a grip to empower that implement? Say detaching the grip from a rifle and attaching it to a sword blade?

Then the actual magical item would be the hilt?

That seems like a sensible thing to suggest to Zalasbra.

Yeah. So if we were creating an artifact using the rule set one of the upgrades would maybe be Modular?

Something to talk with Zalasbra about, definitely.