[Emperors of the Fading Suns] [Emperors of the Fading Suns] OOC Thread

[Feantari]

Argis can provide very fast MA (charms and what not) training for you guys when he gets there if that is of interest. Or rather, use time for things that are not that if you like.

 

[Kacie]

I figure if Fangs & Mirror are at her manse, they're busy doing something useful as we're having them wait for Argis to arrive. Training up charms seems productive.


[EDIT] Once Argis arrives, I figure we'll talk then rush off somewhere?

 

[cyl]

Then if you can, try to take care of the Legion and Walker's leased knights in the process.


The trade between Walker's Ring and Mask's knights can only mean one thing; Great Forks is about to go down in flames.


Cut off from Lookshy's and Nexus' backup they won't last long, especially if Zenjo left them.


After Great Forks, it's Sanctuary, and after Sanctuary it's Cross.

 

[xarvh]

@Kacie: yes you can train Charms.


Regarding Essence, you and CI should decide how much you want to be involved in Cross.


If Fangs is the benevolent Witch from Afar, she (and Mirror) will be mechanically dependent on Cross and take part in the Project System, but also reap its benefits.


In this case to rise your Essence you will need to spend Project Points.


If you want total independence, you won't get Project Points and will basically rise Essence or do other "idle time" stuff at my whim and hope that my judgement makes sense (often times it doesn't).


CI, since Fangs is hosting, can you open the Scene for you, Kacie and Feanatari?


The Savant will have left already.

 

[xarvh]

@Arynne: didn't Flicker write a message to Eneg Erag telling him of her new name?


I might be mistaken.

 

[Arynne]

I don't remember that. Write a message where? On what?

 

[xarvh]

Dunno, asked Argis to WCWT that or some Infallible Messenger.


Ok, nevermind, I'll edit. =)

 

[Arynne]

Wind-Carried Words has a distance limit...and Flicker may not have known Fangs had Infallible Messenger.

 

[xarvh]

Not really, you just have to spend more Essence on it and know approximately where the target is.


The range limit is from the named location, not from the user.

 

[Arynne]

Hm. Well, maybe Flicker didn't know that, either. It's not as if she's read the books, after all.

 

[xarvh]

Yup. She's not much of the intellectual. =)

 

[CrazyIvan]

On the road at the moment - will try to get it up tonight, but if I can't, it will be Wednesday at the earliest.

 

[CrazyIvan]

@Kacie: yes you can train Charms.
Regarding Essence, you and CI should decide how much you want to be involved in Cross.


If Fangs is the benevolent Witch from Afar, she (and Mirror) will be mechanically dependent on Cross and take part in the Project System, but also reap its benefits.


In this case to rise your Essence you will need to spend Project Points.


If you want total independence, you won't get Project Points and will basically rise Essence or do other "idle time" stuff at my whim and hope that my judgement makes sense (often times it doesn't).

My inclination is Benevolent Witch From Afar, but that outcome is somewhat contingent on other members of the group, and particularly how Malek and Rhapsody end up getting played.

 

[cyl]

It's practically the same on my side.


The way Malek interacts with Fangs depends on what she sends out.


Malek has remained silent about his activities in Nathir because he knows he's not doing something particularly good even though he works his and his guys asses off for the community... but at least he tries to shut up about it to avoid being blocked by the others.


Fangs doesn't.


She speaks plainly and frankly and she says flat out "I'm getting that sweet revenge !"... which is not only "dark side" (considering the new mate in town it wasn't exactly looking good at the time, and it's even worst now), but also rather "sith-like selfish" (i.e. rather dark working) and that kind of goes against what other characters have been working on.


I think that if she had stayed discrete about it (I suggested doing that at the time IIRC), or presented some tactical advantage or benefit for Cross to be reaped from doing such a "bad" thing, the results would have been different.


Which is why I suggested that you find a way to include helping out Cross in your new projects.


The exalts may not get along for various reasons, but when things get done and it all works out for the best in the end, no one can question your methods afterwards, and Malek certainly won't... he's likely to thank the couple for taking charge.


But at one point I think it could be useful to give the other players clues as to what makes one character ticks, to help them find a suitable compromise at least on principle.


Those guys normally interact more than we do and they should have learned some stuff about each other by now.


I have a hard time figuring out Fangs personally, but then she's a lunar and a changing moon.


If she was too predictable, you wouldn't be doing a very good job with her.

 

[Kacie]

Other players have pointed out that Malek lectures Fangs every time they interact. That's up to him to change.


Freeing the human slaves at Ankss was put forth as a moral reason, as was recovering Berek's arms & armor (a consolidating power argument). It was tacitly implied there are other reasons to take Ankss, in terms of consolidating and gathering power - the huge orichalcum sword hanging on the back of one of the Dragon Kings being one.


Malek dismissed those reasons, going so far as to argue the humans weren't technically slaves and that freeing them was a waste of time & effort.


There's not much to be said after that.


For game reasons, we're not sneaking off to Ankss without talking with Arynne/Flicker and giving Flicker time to talk to her friends and mentor first. EDIT: IC, Fangs & Mirror want to respect Flicker, and thus they're going to wait & talk to her before doing anything about Ankss.


Mirror was just smacked around by the Neverborn for to starting to try and help the Cross, and she'd end up being used as a one-person hit-squad. Or locked in a closet. I'm more for striking out on our own, but I'll defer to Crazy Ivan.

 

[Arynne]

Thank you...I appreciate it.


Flicker really does need her Mentor's advice; this is just the kind of morally icky situation that sends people running to their parents/teachers/holy books IRL.


Hopefully, his answers will be ones Flicker and the other PCs can accept.

 

[cyl]

Freeing the human slaves at Ankss was put forth as a moral reason, as was recovering Berek's arms & armor (a consolidating power argument). It was tacitly implied there are other reasons to take Ankss, in terms of consolidating and gathering power - the huge orichalcum sword hanging on the back of one of the Dragon Kings being one.
Malek dismissed those reasons, going so far as to argue the humans weren't technically slaves and that freeing them was a waste of time & effort.

Ankss is too far away from Cross to be of any practical use to the community, and we have a cave full of sweet jade artifacts (including a Ring of Being !).


The sacrifices are indeed a very unfortunate business but we had and still have yet to consolidate our own "seat of power".


The Legion had just finished cutting us off from our food supply chain and the reinforcements from Great Forks.


Letting a few dozens die to give priority to the thousands the Circle chose to protect and fought hard to save was a sensible choice from Malek's point of view.


Things were bad back then, and then they got all sorts of worst.


Now... it all seems a bit trivial compared to what will happen if we don't take action... especially considering the information the savant just gave you.


If a vial of that stuff reaches Mirunda... everyone over there will wither and die.


If that agent counteracting the Bloom is not stopped, then we loose the only serious advantage we have and chose not to use previously over the undead (it still works against the undead though... but also attacks the living now).


Even worst, the Deathlords can turn it into a weapon working for them now... they just need to create a little shadowland, implant the Bloom and the agent... and voila... the Bloom does the rest of the killing for them... sure they don't get any souls or shadowlands... but they minimize the risks and costs of getting rid of the living... they'll have time to figure out how to kill the Bloom when everyone else is dead.


If we have not done anything particularly epic at this point, the undead have. Big time.


They are redesigning the map, and if we don't stop them, they will succeed.

 

[Kacie]

Cyl, my point was that Fangs & Mirror have made moral arguments to the other PCs; it hasn't been all dark-side revenge.


My understanding was that the Bloom doesn't kill people infected with the abyssal plague. It's a smear campaign - the disease gets spread, it's tainted with necrotic essence and kills/infects people, attracting the Bloom, which then eats out the disease, but to people it looks like the Bloom is the second stage of the disease, not that the Bloom stopped the disease. The Bloom doesn't hurt living creatures, but it does freak them out to have a fungus growing out of their skin. (Totally understandable!)


Please correct me if I'm wrong, Xarvh.

 

[cyl]

Oh yeah... "the damage to the tissue seems limited"... silly me


Well... we have some time... but the logic stays the same... considering they managed to trick it once, it shouldn't take them too long to figure out a way to actually trick it to harm the living.


But we seem to have more time than I thought. Goddamn jetlag


Edit: my point about them redesigning the map still stands though...

 

[xarvh]

@Kacie: yes, it is a smear campaign and a very effective one.


@cyl, do you realize that while Ankss is too far away, you are about to start a commitment in a random village (of the hundreds) next to Lookshy?


I am not sure how much time you guys plan to spend there and you may need to overcome Compassion, but you have to decide whether a small village is worth the effort of 3 Solars or you would save more lives using your time in a different way.

 

[cyl]

I didn't exactly come here to rescue civilians as stated previously.


I came there to fuck with the Mask and stop him from claiming more than the Scavenger Lands could ever handle.


We're not going there to save lives on site. This is a sabotage / resistance operation.


We will infiltrate Lookshy and make the undead regret they ever came here.


Saving civilians is just a bonus along the way and I don't plan for them to stay here long enough to be a burden, we need room to operate freely without fearing repercussions on the mortals.

 

[xarvh]

As long as you guys know what you are doing, I'm fine with it.

 

[JayTee]

Make it up as we go along?

 

[xarvh]

That works too... =D

 

[CrazyIvan]

I have a hard time figuring out Fangs personally, but then she's a lunar and a changing moon.


If she was too predictable, you wouldn't be doing a very good job with her.

Fangs' behavior is actually governed by a relatively simple algorithm.

Ankss is too far away from Cross to be of any practical use to the community, and we have a cave full of sweet jade artifacts (including a Ring of Being !).
The sacrifices are indeed a very unfortunate business but we had and still have yet to consolidate our own "seat of power".


The Legion had just finished cutting us off from our food supply chain and the reinforcements from Great Forks.


Letting a few dozens die to give priority to the thousands the Circle chose to protect and fought hard to save was a sensible choice from Malek's point of view.


Things were bad back then, and then they got all sorts of worst.

I think this is part of the problem. If you dismiss Fangs/Mirror's reasons as 'This is too far away to be of practical use to the community' and the like, but your own decisions are clearly utterly morally defensible, than yeah, they're pretty much the bad guys.


But "All mortality is determined using my own actions as a baseline for 'Good'" is a pretty...First Age Solar-y move. And not the awesome, 'Look, I made a monorail out of blown glass and bird songs!' kind of First Age Solary-y.

Now... it all seems a bit trivial compared to what will happen if we don't take action... especially considering the information the savant just gave you.
If a vial of that stuff reaches Mirunda... everyone over there will wither and die.


If that agent counteracting the Bloom is not stopped, then we loose the only serious advantage we have and chose not to use previously over the undead (it still works against the undead though... but also attacks the living now).


Even worst, the Deathlords can turn it into a weapon working for them now... they just need to create a little shadowland, implant the Bloom and the agent... and voila... the Bloom does the rest of the killing for them... sure they don't get any souls or shadowlands... but they minimize the risks and costs of getting rid of the living... they'll have time to figure out how to kill the Bloom when everyone else is dead.


If we have not done anything particularly epic at this point, the undead have. Big time.


They are redesigning the map, and if we don't stop them, they will succeed.

Pretty sure we're all aware of that. We just disagree as to the how.

Cyl, my point was that Fangs & Mirror have made moral arguments to the other PCs; it hasn't been all dark-side revenge.
My understanding was that the Bloom doesn't kill people infected with the abyssal plague. It's a smear campaign - the disease gets spread, it's tainted with necrotic essence and kills/infects people, attracting the Bloom, which then eats out the disease, but to people it looks like the Bloom is the second stage of the disease, not that the Bloom stopped the disease. The Bloom doesn't hurt living creatures, but it does freak them out to have a fungus growing out of their skin. (Totally understandable!)


Please correct me if I'm wrong, Xarvh.

That was the impression I got as well. Its a propoganda victory.

Oh yeah... "the damage to the tissue seems limited"... silly me
Well... we have some time... but the logic stays the same... considering they managed to trick it once, it shouldn't take them too long to figure out a way to actually trick it to harm the living.


But we seem to have more time than I thought. Goddamn jetlag


Edit: my point about them redesigning the map still stands though...

They're entirely different tasks - using the Bloom to work entirely how it was intended to work is actually a relatively trivial task. Utterly reengineering it is both a pain and well, why bother? The Undead already have their own bioweapons, they don't need ours (see: Contagion, Great).


Besides, in the process, they done fucked up and gave Fangs an idea.


*snerk* One that ironically would be well served by a pile of corpses. New Ankss justification!