Kaldalis tried very hard not to work on brainstorming his planned petty revenge against Garyung as he followed the diplomats into the camp.

Once he was within the growing encampment, he started to see differences beyond the state of construction it was in. First and foremost, there were early signs of work on building crafter shops instead of quickly slapping together crafting stations as a temporary measure. The camp’s layout was a little different as well, and instead of heading to the center of the camp, the diplomats led him towards the frame of the single guard tower being erected.

As they walked, Kaldalis got three quests on his list. Two of them were standard quests, but the third looked like Monsoon just didn’t have anywhere else to put a new UI element and so elected to make it a quest.

Eyes and Hearts

0/3 Panbu Meetings

Orientation

Attend the first Panbu Meeting

The third “quest” read “Zaran Approval Rating” where the quest name would normally be, but instead of an objective, it was a progress bar.

Kaldalis grimaced to himself. It obviously was going to represent these diplomats’ opinions of him, and he shuddered to think what it would mean if he let the bar drop to zero. He thought he might get some explanation if he stared at it to expand the quest’s text, but was afraid that it would tell him forces from Baimer would spawn in and invade Cotanaku, putting all his friends to the sword.

When it appeared, the bar was at the midpoint, but it immediately started dropping. Kaldalis panicked instantly, thinking that it might mean that he was doing something that was pissing them off - or something he wasn’t doing that they expected - but when the bar stopped, he realized what had happened.

Their approval of him wasn’t dropping.

It was just the bar adjusting from default starting value to his actually current approval rating.

His approval rating was only slightly more than one-fifth of the bar. That wasn’t too surprising of a starting point. The only one who had shown any positive opinion of him was the ship captain, and the rest probably thought he was a worthless garbage person because he was a PC. It wouldn’t have been too much of a stretch if they thought his appointment was some kind of psyop.

There would be an uphill battle ahead to win them over.

In the shadow of the guard tower scaffolding, the first complete tent had been put up, and they led him inside. It was a match for the original meeting room tent the council had used in Cotanaku. Complete with a central table and surrounded by a circle of chairs, even though the Cotanaku council had been much larger than the five Zaran diplomats.

The council took their positions around the table, and as they settled in, the Talsar leader gestured for Kaldalis to sit as well.

Kaldalis took a step towards the seat at the end of the table opposite the leader, but stopped and considered what he was doing.

He was in a room full of diplomats, right? Every action he was taking was sending a message and making a statement. He couldn’t play this like any other situation.

Seating himself at the head of the table, across from the leader, was taking a position of authority. That was where the leader had sat with the Cotanaku council, after all. That position would also isolate himself dramatically, placing him several seats away from the nearest member of this council. It would play into their mentality that he was fundamentally different from them.

Rather than elevate and isolate himself thusly, he instead moved up the table and took a seat along the side. It put him right next to the red-coated captain. He thought, for a moment, that there might be an objection, but instead, he was rewarded.

The little Zaran Approval Rating bar bumped up just a little bit.

He tried not to puff up with pride for such a small victory.

“Now that we’re finally gathered,” the leader said, “let us begin.”

Kaldalis thought - especially considering the name of the quest for this meeting - that this was going to be a simple affair. He expected them to go around the table and introduce themselves, and give Kaldalis a chance to make a good impression. Instead, they dug right into normal business and he had to pick everything up in context clues.

Over the next few minutes, Kaldalis managed to pick up a few bits and bobs before boredom started to get to him.

The captain’s name was Big Mike, though no amount of correction on his part could get any of the other members of the council to call him anything but Michael. Just like Filomena, they seemed to dismiss any contribution he had to the discussion out of hand, even though he still had the ship, and his sailors were a critical part of the workforce.

The Vathon woman - who he still couldn’t look directly at without seeing Onirioago - was filling Sardol’s position as the chief manager for this council. Her name was Demriv, and despite the resemblance, she seemed to be genuinely nice, even if she looked at him like he was an overweight panda who had somehow conned his way into their prestigious animal martial arts school.

Meanwhile, Kaldalis managed to learn that the other Vathon was a man, and while his contributions to the discussion were the picture of succinct brevity, it was obvious that he was acting as second in command. He was responsible for overseeing several branches of the camp’s operation at the same time. That explained why there were so few members on the council. His name was Jetmorpan.

Discussion roamed around the table several times, mostly focusing on disagreements on which areas of the camp were most important to develop first. Demriv was very vocal about the needs of the crafters, while Jetmorpan was in staunch opposition, pushing for developing the town’s basic infrastructure. Things seemed to be going around and around with no progress until the Suyon woman pounded a fist to the table and said that the first priority would be the walls. Her tone made it clear that no disagreement would be honored.

Most of the council only addressed her as captain for most of the discussion, but once she made this demand, the Talsar leader called her Captain Kensah. Kaldalis resolved to follow the lead of the other council members and address her by title instead of name, but filed the name away and hoped he’d remember it when he needed it.

For the first half of the meeting, Kaldalis was pretty sure that the Talsar leader was only being addressed formally as “Sir” by everyone at all times. Once the word was used a few times in grammatically inconsistent ways, he figured out that it was actually the man’s name. He suspected it was spelled oddly, though. The nearest guess he could make was Cerh.

“Once the walls are done,” Cerh said, refocusing the meeting, “we can revisit this discussion. I urge you all to prepare your cases for that meeting. Now.” He turned his attention to Kaldalis for the first time since he’d sat down. “What can you offer Panbu to help in this endeavor?”

Kaldalis tried not to panic as all eyes went directly to him. Facing down the odd glance here and there during the discussion had made him nervous, but having the council’s full attention was harrowing.

He tried to picture them as his coworkers at Monsoon waiting for him to put a spreadsheet up on the projector.

It didn’t help.

“The adventurers of Cotanaku are already arriving in force,” Kaldalis said, “and from the gathering we’ve done for our camp and town, we are more than prepared to collect any materials required for your construction.”

“Of course,” Jetmorpan said, “that was expected even before this unpleasantness. What are you prepared to offer us that we may not have been expecting?”

Kaldalis tried not to look at the Zaran Approval Rating bar as it started to shrink. He needed to think fast, and getting lost in his own concerns would trap him in a feedback loop of making himself out to be an idiot.

“The council of Cotanaku are taking steps towards stockpiling resources rather than immediately devoting them towards upgrades,” Kaldalis said. “If there is a need that the adventurers present are struggling to meet, I will get in touch with Garyung and have some of those earmarked resources shipped here from the stockpile.”

“Fantastic!” Big Mike said, slapping Kaldalis on the shoulder. “I’ll be overseeing transport between towns, so I’ll keep my boys ready to pick up whatever you’ve got.”

Kaldalis was surprised when the approval bar ticked up a little bit. He wasn’t completely confident that he could get the Cotanaku council to hand over resources at his demand, but the diplomats didn’t need to know that yet.

“See to it that any such resources are going to be useful,” Cerh said. “We are going to need a great amount of stone and wood. I will be most displeased if such simple needs are met with claims that the only things Cotanaku has to offer are fruits and fish bones.”

“I give you my word,” Kaldalis said, trying to put on an air of control and confidence. “The stockpiles will be relevant materials. But your concerns have been heard. The next time I can get word to the council, I will be sure that those materials are given special attention in order to best serve Panbu’s needs, should that route be required.” He tried to reach for something specific to try and milk this opportunity for a little more reputation. He gestured towards Demriv before continuing: “In addition to wood and stone, I’ll be sure that any metal resources that might go towards crafting stations is favored as well.”

“Hm,” Cerh said, manicured talons scratching thoughtfully at his scaled chin. “I believe we can find this acceptable. For a start.” He looked to Jetmorpan and the Vathon gave a curt nod, apparently having no further comment.

Not only was he rewarded with a pretty decent bump on the approval meter, but Demriv gave him a smile that was almost bordering on personal appreciation rather than just professional necessity.

The bar on his quest log was still well below half, but it was closer to a third full than it was to a quarter.

Progress was being made.

“Thank you for your time, Kaldalis,” the Talsar leader said. “The remainder of this meeting concerns Zaran business. If you please…” His scaled hand made a dismissive gesture.

It didn’t take a genius-level read of the room to understand that he was being sent away. An obvious intimidation tactic, and a badly executed one at that. But he let the blatant political posturing hit him like water off a duck’s back. He stood, gave a brief smile and a bow, and left the room as quickly and politely as he could.

As soon as the meeting room’s tent flap closed behind him, he felt his body sag with relief at having escaped. The Orientation quest finished successfully, and the three-meeting quest still on the right side of his vision ticked up by one.

Kaldalis tried not to let out a huge loud sigh where the diplomats could still hear him. He only had to get through two more meetings like that without making an absolute fool out of himself. If he was very lucky, they would all just mean sitting quietly until he was addressed, writing the largest check he believed Cotanaku could still cash, and then scrambling for the door as fast as they’d let him leave.

Of course, he didn’t for a single second think that it would actually be that simple. But for the sake of his mental health, he had to allow himself to hope, even if only for a second.