Wyld Hunting 101 [To the Hunt!, Wyld that is...]

[inirlan]

OOC : I just checked each characters wealth...


Inirlan : 5


Ojaih : 4


Yugo : 3


Gebon : 3


Jihn : 1


Krangara : 0


Brother Shooting Stars : 0


So we have one Bill Gates/Warren Buffet junior like guy, one really rich guy, two well-off guys, one poor guy and two beggars.

 

[Atrius Night]

on the note of re-education


The School of Perfected Thought


Manse 2 (Mind Cleansing Gem)


A small island in the middle of a pond, this manse is also located in the same nearly deserted tract of land as the Grimoire, designed to be an island paradise, to ease the heart and relax the mind as new and better ways to think are taught. it has been used (for one thing or another) for generations by developing Iselsi sorcerers. It's hearthstone was given to Gebbon as his skill with mind manipulating essence grew. The manse's powers also enable the young terrestrial to report in from across creation.


+4--Manse 2


+2--Maintenance x2 (On the first day of every month, someone must walk the islands perimeter singing a song of praise to Daana'd)


+4--Fragility x2 (the island was made for 'teaching' and being in the middle of the blessed isle it was deemed an unneccesary expenditure to 'over-fortify' it)


-3--Bound Servant Force (A cadre of water elementals care for, clean, and maintain the Manse)


-2--Mela's Sweet Whisper (From the Control room or from the hearthstone sound may be carried to speak either to a specific room or to speak to the entire manse, When not announcing something, an elemental always sits in the control room, reading from pre-written scripts, in another room an elemental is continualy on duty to write down anything the hearthstone bearer says into the room)


-3--Provider (The island grows it's own food. Enough to support a magnitude 2 group of mortals)


-2--Central Control (In the near center of the complex, a room exists from which, one can speak to everyone on the island manse or in a given room of the manse.)

 

[inirlan]

That would be a good place to indoctrine people with great talent in order to make usefull followers out of them, but a horrible place for breaking the mind of the most dangerous elements.

 

[Atrius Night]

oops, forgot the cells *heads of to edit*


Also, it's manned by an squad of water elementals.....aka, the mortals aren't going anywhere. But considering it's designed for a magnitude 2 group.....I would only want to send the more useful/stubborn mortals there. My natural talents should be appropriate for the weaker minded, and my talents combined with the school are exponentially so......case in point, see my loyal henchmen.


Plus, the hearthstone should be handy when the anathema don't use their most subtle magics (i.e. natural effects or no magic as opposed to unnatural)


---


The School of Perfected Thought


Manse 2 (Mind Cleansing Gem)


A small island in the middle of a pond, this manse is also located in the same nearly deserted tract of land as the Grimoire, designed to be an island paradise, to ease the heart and relax the mind as new and better ways to think are taught. It's 'dorm rooms' are designed to bunk two each, and for added security can be locked from the outside or control room. It has been used (for one thing or another) for generations by developing Iselsi sorcerers. It's hearthstone was given to Gebbon as his skill with mind manipulating essence grew. The manse's powers also enable the young terrestrial to report in from across creation.


+4--Manse 2


+2--Maintenance x2 (On the first day of every month, someone must walk the islands perimeter singing a song of praise to Daana'd)


+4--Fragility x2 (the island was made for 'teaching' and being in the middle of the blessed isle it was deemed an unneccesary expenditure to 'over-fortify' it)


-3--Bound Servant Force (A cadre of water elementals care for, clean, and maintain the Manse)


-2--Mela's Sweet Whisper (From the Control room or from the hearthstone sound may be carried to speak either to a specific room or to speak to the entire manse, When not announcing something, an elemental always sits in the control room, reading from pre-written scripts, in another room an elemental is continualy on duty to write down anything the hearthstone bearer says into the room)


-3--Provider (The island grows it's own food. Enough to support a magnitude 2 group of mortals)


-2--Central Control (In the near center of the complex, a room exists from which, one can speak to everyone on the island manse or in a given room of the manse. It also has a remote to all the door locks of the compound.)


---

 

[inirlan]

I still say that this should be limited to those who we want to become our allies. As for the rest... It's go mine in the middle of the tundra.

 

[cyl]

Well there are 3 categories of "captives":


- the ones who came for light endoctrinment: these ones stay a few weeks to be reeducated properly and sent back home.


- the ones who seriously need to see the truth: they follow a more intensive educative program, and some of them are taken with us to see the mess the anathemas make of Creation (no more than 3 guys per hunt).


- the ones who are beyond saving and who are sent in the tundra to mine at once !

 

[inirlan]

I completly agree, safe for the first category. Why bring THEM to a indoctrination place if we can bring our men to THEM. It is easier to bring a dozen guys to a city than a city to a dozen guys.


As for the second category, Outcastes, Heroic mortals, or even other essence channelers should aso be added to this category, mortals with usefull skills(like thaumaturgy) are to be sent at Atrius' Manse-prison. If we are confident enough, maybe a young naïveanathema that will be brainwashed in order to make a secret assassin would be truly awesome, but that should wait until we are confident in our ability to cover it up if something screws up and have found an anathema that suits that category.

 

[demihappycow]

IC: Outcastes and other, unclean, essence users are the most dangerous of all. Mixing inconstant easily corruptible beings of special power in with our other forces is practically asking to have our organization subverted and all the rest of our men slaughtered when they are turned against us again.


Now if we are talking about individuals who clearly did not know what they were doing and participating in, obviously they don't need to be executed. We can't be casual about this sort of thing, though. It is not a simple matter of a few days investigation determining the level of complicity of a single individual, much less entire armies. If we treat it as such we will be infested with spies and enemy agents more quickly than any of you seem able to imagine.


Furthermore, we can not count on the heathens of the threshold to cleave to our cause for the sake of righteousness. Many pay only lip service to the Dragons, and some not even that. When a great glowing Anathema warlord comes marching on their lands with ten thousand ravening psychopaths and barbarians it is not going to be our kindness or forgiving natures that will hold them to our cause. Given the choice of joing our enemies or death, they must know expect no less from us. If all that we will give them is a little "reeducation" surely they will join with the enemy merely out of pragmatism.


Some situations may be different, and I am not saying we must always ignore exigent circumstances. Making amnesty for those who willingly and knowingly serve Anathema our policy is surely a disastrous course. The presence of the Anathema can make a more than adequate excuse for the indoctrination of peripherally involved heathens or nearby barbarians, but let's not mince words with each other about what we are doing if that is the case.


And if so many of you have such ample wealth at your disposal, surely you can find better uses for it. Why spending talents reeducating those whom have already proven faithless when you could be spending to reinforce and protect those who have not turned to evil? Why not look to those with lives and livelihoods destroyed by the wars of the Anathema? More importantly for our image, what about spending your prodigious wealth to repair the damages we will inevitably cause in our hunts? Funding more soldiers and better equipment for our soldiers? Surely there must be efficient and advantageous uses for money that do not expose us so wholly to infiltration?


OOC: Brother Shooting Stars may in fact be thinking more like a spy than a monk. However, I suspect the rest of the players may be thinking a bit more like Solars than DBs...


So long as people do all their brainwashing/reeducation stuff in the threshold (or on relatively isolated islands or something), Shooting Stars will object but not actually make any effort to stop anyone, since he isn't really high ranking enough to overrule the rest of the group. He is a bit too paranoid to allow anyone to ship potential spies and saboteurs to the Blessed Isle though.

 

[inirlan]

Inirlan plans things according to the wish to gather wealth and power, he does little that shows no use to him.


Killing to many peasants will crush the threshold economy, which will diminisch the Realm's Earnings.


Followers count as to hot headed, and therefore will work in a living hell.


Those that will be truly educated(aka have a preacher sent to them) are the peasants that were dragged into this against their will.


IC : Do you really consider the mere notion of including outcastes among our allies as pure folly? Therefore you claim that the Emperess was mad since it is exactly what she did with them. As for "unclean"... Why not kill all sorcerers in the realm and declare any sorcerer anathema while you're at it? Please, you monks should at least once in your lives visit a place called the real world. As for infiltrating the camps... Their spies can come and get both physically and mentally broken beyond repair any time they want.

 

[demihappycow]

IC: I did not say that all Outcastes are unredeemable monsters. Those who knowlingly work for Anathema are almost certainly too dangerous to attempt to convert.


Nor did I say sorcerers are unclean. Odd that you would so readily jump to that conclusion. Perhaps you should take some time and ponder your own righteousness. Summoning demons is not inherently an evil act, but it does put one at risk. One must pay a price in vigilance if one wields such powers, and I do not envy you that.


Other essence users, as in non-Dragon-Blooded, those who awaken their essence without the blessing of the Dragons, are suspect to begin with. Add to that complicity with the Anathema and you can hardly think these people are safe to keep around?


And do not overestimate your ability to break a spy, or your ability to recognize them. If don't realize that you will sometimes fail at such endevours, perhaps you are the one who needs to visit the real world. It's a messy place full of failures and oversights and people who are more skilled and powerful than any of us.


We must assume that whatever policies we put in place will be known to at least a few of our enemies, and that they will use them against us. Think for a moment what we could do if we had a target who we knew would be attacking a certain military commander or monastery or even just a particular town, and recruiting all the solider/monks/townsfolk into its army after winning. Consider everything you could in a situation like that... Now make it ten times worse, and you will have an inkling of what the enemies of the Realm could do. And that is without even considering what might happen if we have to deal with Anathema that get themselves well established somewhere.


OOC: Man, Brother Shooting Stars is really paranoid about this stuff. He is a spy who had his whole family killed by Anathema though, which I suppose is why...

 

[inirlan]

IC : No, such essence users that are found among the anathemas direct allies should be executed ASAP. I meant that we try to recruit any essence user we stumble upon that is not directly linked to the anathema or other enemy of the realm.


As for the part about sorcerers... Many simple minded zealots see us as nothing but a heathen threat to be eliminated and your zealtory isn't very far from that level. However anyone with a working brain would figure out that without sorcery the realm wouldn't last half a year.


As for danger of the demon summoning arts... They exist but it is not anywhere near as dangerous as usually thought, but you need to be carefull when summoning such creatures : try to never agree to bargain which terms haven't been set by you, allways use summoning cages, and always have means prepared to kill the demon in case both binding and banishing failled.


OOC : A wise shadowrun quote full of wisdom, for longer lived characters :

Some shadowrunners say that the scariest words in the English language are “Trust me.†I don’t buy it. Any ‘runner worth the name doesn’t have enough trust left in him to meet his grandmother for breakfast without legwork and backup. No—by my reckoning, the scariest words around are “It’ll be easy.â€

 

[demihappycow]

IC: I have no objection to recruitment, of course. The more we can lead to the Dragons the better, so long as everyone remains adequately vigilant and cautious.


And if you think me to be zealous about sorcery you must have very little experience with monks. Of course it is important and necessary, I would hardly suggest otherwise. It offers many opportunities to stray from your proper path, but so does any source of great power. Even the holiest of powers can lead one into impropriety, and a wholly secular capability like sorcery is obviously no exception.


Your refutation to my warning is perfect evidence of your vulnerability. I would not presume to lecture you on the risks of a demon breaking free of your control and I do not doubt that your instruction covered the risks of bargaining with such creatures adequately. However perfectly you ameliorate those risks, there is still the danger of constant association with such entities. It is the subtle corruption of the heretic or blasphemer or criminal that I warn you against. Over months and years and decades their evil comes to seem commonplace and unimportant, their suggestions more reasonable, their natures more similar and sympathetic to your own. Though temporarily bound to your service, do not forget that their ultimate loyalty is to the Yozis, and that the Yozis may have plans more subtle than you or I will ever fully grasp.


While there may be much blind prejudice against sorcerers, particularly those who summon demons, do not assume that all caution is born of such. Some of us give warnings with our eyes wide open.


OOC: RE: Shadowrun now I'm considering the Exalted connotations of the whole "never deal with a dragon" thing. "Choose your enemies carefully" applies, but could be hard for the Wyld Hunt...

 

[inirlan]

IC : I didn't not say there aren't risks. In fact there are more than most sorcerers are willing to aknowledge, but less than most other people want to aknowledge. The truth is in the middle.


Yes, you get used to them, especially if you grew up accustomed to their presence. They can indeed be quite manipulative, but few demons in the means of dragon-blooded to summon are particulary cunning manipulators, especially compared to the usual dynast courtier.


I personnally that if you take every security mesure in your means and remain vigilant, loosing control of your demons isn't anywhere near likely. However no matter how remote the risk, it is better to be prepared for such an eventuallity that would never come than to be caught unprepared in the worst of moments.


As for the Yozis... I it is impossible for beings like us to understand entities older than creation, possessing several souls and of a nature of which most people can't grasp the basics.


OOC : Yeah, i has an entire different meaning in this context, and yet it is as appropriate as in the original context.(If here by dragon you refer to DBs)

 

[Vanman]

Howdy. Again, for those of you who haven't heard, I am new to the group and will be joining play. Soon, hopefully. I'm waiting to hear from SRC as to final character approval. Then I'll be posting him up.


A few things, regarding some of the strategies that have been discussed on the board. You mentioned sending someone into a town to lure an Anathema into a trap. What about a traveling musician? My character is just such an animal (so to speak), and his social skills are pretty good. I haven't spent my XP yet, so I can get some Integrity charms if necessary. All this is predicated on using this as a viable strategy, of course.


A question for SRC - how well known are the Yozis in Creation? I was under the impression that demons were known about, but I thought Yozis weren't. Yes, the fact that there are "big bosses" are known, but that they used to be primordials? I didn't think that was common knowledge. I'm just asking, so I know where I stand. I'm pretty sure my character doesn't know, what with an Occult of only 1, but it is possible I do.


Thanks.

 

[GrayWatch]

I probably should have popped in ealier but...


Gavarin might be useful for your little "what to do with the mortals" thing, aside from obvious connections to House Cynis, he's fairly good at ah...how shall we say.."covering up"? Decent performance rolls and Dance Of Flashing Swords means that the mortals might see their beloved Anathema dangerously drunk and angry, and then "self-defense"'d to death by nearby Dragon-Bloods.


It would be all the easier to then convert them, since it doesn't look like we just burst into their town and horribly slaughtered their beloved leader for kicks.


Sadly I rather suspect he'll be useless in combat, as all he can do is drop a few penalties on him...

 

[inirlan]

I think that with occult 1 you may have heard about them, but you don't know much. However a demon summoning sorcerer with occult and lore at 5, should be able to name and identify most of them.


As for GrayWatch's idea, it seem like a good one! Though we must be able to pull that off, and i'm not 100% convinced that we could.

 

[Vanman]

I think that with occult 1 you may have heard about them, but you don't know much. However a demon summoning sorcerer with occult and lore at 5, should be able to name and identify most of them.

Interestingly enough, there is a mechanic in Roll of Glorious Divinity II (p. 25, for those of you interested) that handles a particular aspect of what we've been talking about. Each demon has an Obscurity trait. There are two threshold numbers. The first measures how commonly known is the demon or demon species’ name and a general idea of its nature. The second threshold marks how common is accurate information about the demon in question. Erymanthoi and Ligier's names are known, but, whilst there may be a lot of accurate information on Erymanthoi - seeing as how they are one of the most popular demons called up - I doubt there's a lot of accurate information on Ligier and what he can do. They even have mechanics for what a character may or may not know, depending on the Backing the character has in sorcerous societies, and whether those sorcerous societies specialize in demon summoning.


Having said that, even the most notable societies probably have very little information on the Yozis themselves. Rumors, murmurings, conjectures, sure, but very little solid information. I don't know that, even with Occult 1, I'd know any of the Yozi names, let alone what they do.