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

xarvh said:
Actually...
You didn't write anything outrageous and all that Malek is doing is well within his skills.


Still, even Malek can't do all of that in two weeks.


You are travelling around the Scavenger Lands, searching and organizing.


The latter is a problem, because even if you are fast, you might have to wait for other people who in turn have to wait for other people...


Speed the Wheels would help, but you don't have it and, within the time constraints, I won't allow you to learn on the fly.
Click to expand...
Well I figured that considering Malek's speed, his contacts and resources, the process of buying stuff in Nexus should not take long.


Even if Nexus is falling apart, I assumed the Guild / the seller in need was not about to turn down a rich customer and would try to please him.


I did forget to consider the size of the boat.


A small coaster is not going to be comfortable and discrete enough for the long trip, I need either a coastal trader or a blue water merchant (resources 4)... so yeah, not enough time in two weeks.


So... 3 weeks and a half ? :)
 
Today I saw this video made by my awesome fellow countrymen...


[media]



[/media]
And I couldn't stop wondering... what would late First Age Celestial parties where eveyrone above essence 7+ just went bonkers have looked like ? :D
 
The thing I find strange is assuming those 50 people will still be alive when you get back weeks later.


The answer to most, if not all problems for a Deathlord is usually "Kill them, make them into ghosts, and break their will."
 
Cyl, keep your plan doable in 2 weeks.


I'm flying back in the land of loud fashionistas, not sure I'll be able to connect for the next two days.
 
Kacie said:
The thing I find strange is assuming those 50 people will still be alive when you get back weeks later.
The answer to most, if not all problems for a Deathlord is usually "Kill them, make them into ghosts, and break their will."
Click to expand...
Why is it strange for someone under whom 10 000 Thornians were kept alive for years instead of just being turned into warmachines / servants / soulsteel to let those 50 people breathe ?


Lookshy hasn't fallen yesterday either, those guys have been there for a week or two before we got here.


It may not even be Mask's doing, perhaps it's the knight in charge who isn't just another random pragmatic sadistic bastard.


I mean, we did meet at least 3 Deathknights who weren't complete assholes (even though the Widow behaves like a total bitch), and the one in charge just spared that guy who was biting his tongue.


If you have another angle of approach, feel free to share :)


The way I see it, we have only two advantages once we freed them: we'll be moving faster than regular humans can (survival charm), we'll leave no trail behind us (survival charm again)... but I don't believe it will mean anything if we don't buy enough time to put a reasonable distance between Lookshy and us before the army realizes the prisoners are missing (hence Siham going badaboom).


If we don't have enough time, then we will be hunted down... with a large group of people... on foot.


Even if we were to escape Lookshy undetected and manage to evade the hunters, there is still one other problem we'll have to face: surviving... with no food, no water, walking for weeks through lands abandoned by the living.


Freeing them from their jail is not the real challenge here in my opinion, it's taking them all the way to The Cross safe and sound quickly and discretely that is.


If the captives are indeed threatened, Siham can still act with Rhapsody to free them, and they'll just have to hold long enough for Malek to reach them with supplies, but even then their chances are still better that if we don't prepare the journey after the rescue.


One thing that could help them is Siham not tearing the Cathedral apart right away... but over time. That could buy them some time too.
 
xarvh said:
Cyl, keep your plan doable in 2 weeks.
I'm flying back in the land of loud fashionistas, not sure I'll be able to connect for the next two days.
Click to expand...
Did you mean to say I have to make it work in 2 weeks or that my plan works in 2 weeks ?


Because that changes a lot :)
 
Kacie's point is valid.


You also make some valid points, but it's obvious that the Mask is using a different strategy with Lookshy, as if he doesn't feel any more like playing games.


It's better if you rework your plan so that it fits into 2 weeks.
 
Okay then how about:


- I find the right hiding spot and negotiate help from the local spirits


- I go to the Ledaal for the supplies and ask them to make it discrete as to not alert spies (1 day, and then probably a week to muster the necessary discretely)... they owe us that at the very least and if I explain how and why we have to take them away and ensure their safety they'll probably agree.


- I take the rest of the week to secure a boat / several boats some place else who will wait for us in Homor when we reach it in about 2-3 weeks (avoiding delaying the operation).


- when I get back the supplies are ready and it takes me a few days to reach the hiding spot.
 
@cyl: Excellent.


@xarvh: Well, let's see... If you're looking for a "good", "decent", or "moral" explanation, I don't have one. But...


The short: Nothing and everything.


The long:

  1. This is stupid, ridiculous, and probably the most douchey reason, but I think it's the real one. The site look. I really was having a hard time reading the old layout. I was inverting my monitor colors, copy/pasting responses into a text editor, and got to the point that I was using cURL to pull the pages down and reformat them. At some point, with all it just became... well work. As this was really no one's problem, I didn't want to become Mr. Complainy Complainerson. Honestly, with the recent change, I can read the site directly relatively comfortably. Light text on black background REALLY bothers me.
  2. Life has been busy. Two kids, sick on and off, work picks up in May like crazy and slows down about December, haven't had a free weekend in forever, blah blah blah. This is all true, but I still believe that if you're motivated, you'll make time for stuff like this. I just could not get motivated. I really think the above reason had a greater effect than I had realized.
  3. I had told myself, incorrectly, that if I got too far behind, you would hit me up and slap me around a bit. It's not your responsibility at all, and that was wrong. But, with that in mind, I had resolved to not let this game go at all, regardless of what happened to my own games. You can see that worked out well.
    So, nothing and everything. Does that answer your question? I'm not looking for special treatment, Lord knows I've hated players that drop in and out like no other, but I do enjoy this game a lot. I'd like to say that I'd never do it again, but that would take an air of apology on. While I do regret circumstances, they were what they were and couldn't be helped. If all that happened again, I'm sure the situation would repeat.
    With that said, I wouldn't be here asking to play if I didn't stand by my commitment to the fun of this game.
 
JayTee said:
Yeah, that was the Agatha I had built up in my head. Like I said, it's my own fault for making assumptions, so no worries.
Click to expand...
If it helps, Fangs hates her - did in the First Age, does now - so is happy to lead you astray with her own colored opinions of first age twilights.
 
Good grief, the new look is so much better. I no longer feel like I'm trapped in the Abyssal woodshed*. Same dark tone (which I find pleasing, but then I set my background dark and use lighter colors for typing on my own machine) -- but no longer claustrophobic and depressing "wood" paneling.


I don't mind having this site open as often.


* "I saw something nasty in the woodshed!"
 
I'm going to nicely throw the gauntlet at your feet, Cyl.


The outline of your plan - distract, steal away the mortals, and ambush them when they come after you - is good.


Malek, Siham, and Rhapsody should need 3 days, tops, to put it into execution.


Malek has high Stealth & Survival; he's capable of hiding a small group of people in the forests under the noses of the opposition. Siham can set up a few ambush/traps that should deter the enemy from following. Rhapsody can inspire the rescued people to be their best, and distract at the opening.


You don't need to get those 50 people far far away - you need to convince the opposition that these 50 people aren't worth the hurt & trouble you'll cause them if they come after you.


Perfect plan? No. Lots of holes? Sure. But you've got 3 solar exalts, and it's not like you're kidnapping one of the Deathknights.


See if you can plan, setup, and start executing the plan in 3 game days.


Bet you can.
 
* picks up the gauntlet*

The outline of your plan - distract, steal away the mortals, and ambush them when they come after you - is good.
Click to expand...
That's not it, I don't mean to take the time to ambush any pursuers.


The key element of the current plan is NOT having pursuers, or at least not having them on our tracks (something I can do).


But I like the idea of an ambush... especially if it is for the purpose of attracting their attention on some place else we're not and loose them some more ! :D


ST: can I has time to set up traps in a false direction to lead them to a dead end ? ^^

You don't need to get those 50 people far far away - you need to convince the opposition that these 50 people aren't worth the hurt & trouble you'll cause them if they come after you.


Perfect plan? No. Lots of holes? Sure. But you've got 3 solar exalts, and it's not like you're kidnapping one of the Deathknights.


See if you can plan, setup, and start executing the plan in 3 game days.
Click to expand...
Normally I'd agree with you, but you see, those guys are key personnel to the Cathedral Factory and the Mask wants it working, so he needs them.


Fun fact: Siham sabotaged it, so... without those people, there is really no way this damn thing is going to work.


Which is a win for us and the Scavenger Lands... courtesy of Siham... but that also make them rather indispensable.


With these parameters, it is unlikely that once he realizes they are missing he doesn't send whoever he can, how many he can, to get them back.


Which is why Siham is working on ways to delay the moment of that realization so we can get out of reach, hide, and then sneak and hide some more until we reach the boat.


If we rush their rescue, we're going to end up with 50 starving and dehydrated people on the run with whatever the hell the Mask of Winters can unleash on our backs (and knowing Xarvh, it ain't gonna be pretty), and we'll loose them slowly but steadily, and Mask will pick up and exploit their ghosts as we leave them behind.


I actually thought about killing them all and leaving no ghosts behind with my custom occult charm to solve the problem once and for all... but Malek could never do that... even if he had to.


With his fucking curse, he's likely to slit his own throat just to stop himself from killing innocents once the crying and pleading for their lives start.


That's the sad part about Red Rage of Compassion and high Compassion, being angry most of the time because most of Creation is a shitty place to live in and never being able to take the easy road and let the little guys die because it's convenient.


As for not needing to take them far far away, we kind of have a Magitech Lab to restore, and these guys could help us big time... so the endgame is not only to free them, but to take them home.


We could free them in 3 game days, but I don't believe we can save and use them in 3 game days.


Now... if I had gotten a landship... that would have been completely different story obviously... Siham and Rhapsody would have been in charge of the rescue and distraction, and Malek would have come pick them up and we'd all have fled away nice and easy (with a few cannonballs fired at the pursuers just for laughs)... damn... now I really want myself one of those... or an aircraft ! :rolleyes:
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Yes, eventually you want the living 50 back at the Cross - my point was that if the cost of chasing after 3 solars is too steep, you won't have to be on the run the whole way home.


I don't think those 50 workers are that important in the long run for the Mask.


1) The sabotage that Siham did isn't something these workers can fix. Siham took rare magi-tech components. They can't make replacement parts for that.


2) I'm still betting that anything those workers know, either Siham or the Deathknight can learn very quickly. More quickly with their help, but we're talking Solar level genius. Losing the instruction manual is a minor setback. Siham has seen that the Deathknight has that soulsteel artifact-charm-thing that can take care of all the low-level functions to get the factory working. I'm betting those workers are no better than the Deathknight's artifact.


I believe those 50 workers are worth a lot more to Siham and the Cross than to the Mask, which is why I don't think the Mask is going to waste huge resources on them, either to keep them alive if they prove stubborn, or to track them down after they get far enough away.


Ultimately, however, I just don't think a trio of solars need a month to rescue 50 mortals from a lightly guarded pen and smuggle them away in the forest. Time is the most precious thing right now, for both us and the Mask. A trio of solars taking a month on this rescue is a godsend for the Mask.
 
1) The sabotage that Siham did isn't something these workers can fix. Siham took rare magi-tech components. They can't make replacement parts for that.
Click to expand...
True, but it will take some time to realize what is missing, in the meantime tech guys will be needed to analyze the reasons.

2) I'm still betting that anything those workers know, either Siham or the Deathknight can learn very quickly. More quickly with their help, but we're talking Solar level genius. Losing the instruction manual is a minor setback. Siham has seen that the Deathknight has that soulsteel artifact-charm-thing that can take care of all the low-level functions to get the factory working. I'm betting those workers are no better than the Deathknight's artifact.
Click to expand...
Yes all true, but it doesn't take only one guy to make a Cathedral Factory 100% operational.


And if they are no better than his artifact, then why keep them around in the first place ? Either he doesn't want to kill them and we have room to save them, or he needs them... and we have room to save them.

I believe those 50 workers are worth a lot more to Siham and the Cross than to the Mask, which is why I don't think the Mask is going to waste huge resources on them, either to keep them alive if they prove stubborn, or to track them down after they get far enough away.
Click to expand...
Technically, well not really... since Siham can train people, those are not worth that much to Siham. He could create more of those easily.
It's just feel like the rigth thing to do... and to screw with the Mask's pride... right now his ego must be bigger than an elemental dragon.

Ultimately, however, I just don't think a trio of solars need a month to rescue 50 mortals from a lightly guarded pen and smuggle them away in the forest. Time is the most precious thing right now, for both us and the Mask. A trio of solars taking a month on this rescue is a godsend for the Mask.
Click to expand...
Sure... but...
1- it's not a lightly guarded pen... it's a lightly guarded pen in the middle of a city conquered by a Deathlord with probably tens of thousands of his soldiers around and the Juggernaut.. from which we sadly can't get away too fast.


The only plausible reasons why they are so lightly guarded is the Mask does not think that anybody in their right mind would come here and try something crazy.


Clearly, he doesn't know us :D


If all goes well, he won't.


2- you've never actually dealt with refugees in Xarvh's Creation. They really die like flies and need to be seriously taken care of.


At the beginning of this game we lost a good 30% of Mirunda's exiles IIRC, and the Thornians just let themselves die when they got to the Cross.


If we free them without the right amount of supplies, there is not a single doubt in my mind that they'll all wither and die even before we can reach the nearest settlement able to take care of them making our efforts vain and the results kind of depressing.


(correct me if I'm wrong on the distances ST, but I had the impression that everyone was pretty much pulling back from the area)


3- while I agree that it shouldn't take that long, we have to make due with what powers / artifacts / resources we have, and we three don't have much in terms of moving lots of weight fast / keeping people alive (an issue I frequently bring up at some point or another).


There would have been ways not to worry about taking them away, artifacts and spells mainly, but we don't have those.


So we compensate as best we can.


Thinking about it, there may be an alternative to the food problem... dammit you're good Kacie ! :D


@xarvh: couldn't I use my position as an Eclipse to travel through the forests and get the supplies from spirits ?


Obviously I don't expect it to be free and I'd assume I'd get a loooong list of completely ridiculous favors to handle after that... but could it be a reasonable alternative to loosing a week to gather supplies ?


There is also the problem of being tracked... sacred oath-ing every spirit to secrecy is not going to cut it.
 
One thing an army of the dead has no use for is all the food & water that Lookshy stored against a siege. You should be able to steal those supplies without anyone noticing, before you go for the workers.
 
Kacie said:
One thing an army of the dead has no use for is all the food & water that Lookshy stored against a siege. You should be able to steal those supplies without anyone noticing, before you go for the workers.
Click to expand...
That's... actually not a bad idea at all.


Say an individual needs an average of 500g of food + water per day to survive, and we take 15 days to reach Homor... we'd need to steal something like half a ton of supplies, stash them somewhere.


In the absence of horses and carts, each person would have an individual load of 7-8 kgs.


Still, we need to steal and secure half a ton of supplies without anyone noticing... and that's going to take several days anyway... given there's stuff to steal and it's clean.


Bartering with spirits may be easier and save us the time of stealing and stashing away.
 
If you want to barter with spirits, sure, go ahead.


With Malek's larceny & stealth, I'd be tempted to disguise him and falsify some fake orders, and simply drive a cart or two away laden with food & water.
 
I don't feel he's good enough with social interactions yet in order to accomplish that, yet.


He's close to mortal heroic level when it comes to social stuff, and has a few excellencies to be a little bit better, but he's still more comfortable doing stuff the sneaky way.


It's Rhapsody who violates mind just by looking at people. :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)

Similar threads

Sora No Kami
A vicious dance with death (RP 1x1 based on the song "My R") TW: Self-loathing, Suicune
Replies
1
Views
137
Sora No Kami
Sora No Kami
Back
Top