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[X] Plan Murderbeast Distraction

KISS principles are quite important both in stealth and in casting.
 
Well, the throng is right outside. It doesn't really matter if they know someone is there, so long as we get out anyways. And it seems likely we'll be able to as they'd have no idea where we are and would still be figuring out how to respond.
It still gives them time to get their wits about them and notice us over the distraction, which could delay us long enough that the dwarves hit the gate before we get out. Our goal is to meet up with the vanguard and pass on our information before the Dwarves are engaged in combat.

Think about how the order of evens will have to go, we'd obviously release the beasts first. So if we fire the ballista afterwards it will be during the crucial moment where all the goblin eyes are turning to the murder beasts. In that moment we need the Goblins to go "Oh shit the beasts are loose!" but by firing the Ballista it is likely to cause them to think "Someone is here!" meaning that rather than focusing on the murderbeasts a few are likely going to start looking for us which has a chance of causing a delay we can't afford.
 
Switching votes:

[X] Plan Murderbeast Distraction

I am very tempted by "have our cake and eat it, too" plans, but I am also leery of multiple successive castings in a (very) short amount of time.
 
Inserted tally
Adhoc vote count started by Sinsystems on Sep 8, 2019 at 3:48 PM, finished with 224 posts and 72 votes.

  • [X] Plan Murderbeast Distraction
    -[X] Sabotage the defences...
    -- [X] By unleashing whatever is under this floor upon the greenskins above it.
    -[X] Slip out...
    -- [X] By walking out while they're otherwise distracted. (note: ensure your plan includes an otherwise distraction)
    [X] Plan Murderbeast Distraction Mk2
    -[X] Sabotage the defences...
    - [X] By unleashing whatever is under this floor upon the greenskins above it.
    ---[X] When you pass by the bolt throwers on your way out, fire them using Move.
    -[X] Slip out...
    - [x] By walking out while they're otherwise distracted. (note: ensure your plan includes an otherwise distraction)
    [X] Plan Fire Is Distracting
    -[X] Sabotage the defences...
    --[X] By setting the wooden floors aflame.
    ---[X] Closer to the siege engines if you can manage that.
    -[X] Slip out...
    - [x] By walking out while they're otherwise distracted. (note: ensure your plan includes an otherwise distraction)
    [X] Plan Pain Train
    -[X] Sabotage the defences...
    -- [X] By using Substance of Shadow to walk silently and safely across the wooden floor and pulling the triggers on every bolt thrower you can.
    -- [X] By unleashing whatever is under this floor upon the greenskins above it.
    -- [X] By setting the wooden floors aflame.
    -[X] Who needs stealth? There's an army coming up those stairs. Smash your way through the Goblins and have them chase you into the teeth of the approaching Throng.
    [X] Plan Sneaky Git
    -[X] Doppelganger and Take no Heed to walk around and collect some torches from side tunnels.
    -[X] Sneak about the edges of the room until you are level with the bolt throwers.
    -[X] Fling the torches to the middle of the stage, and use Move to pull the triggers on as many bolt throwers as you can.
    -[X] Sneak out of the gates during the ensuing confusion.
    [X] Slip out...
    - [x] By walking out while they're otherwise distracted. (note: ensure your plan includes an otherwise distraction)
    [X] Sabotage the defences...
    - [X] By unleashing whatever is under this floor upon the greenskins above it.
    [X] Plan Pointy Sticks
    [X] Plan: Leeroy Jenkins Was a Great Example
    -[X] Sabotage The Defenses
    --[X] By using Substance of Shadow to walk silently and safely across the wooden floor and pulling the triggers on every bolt thrower you can.
    - [X] By unleashing whatever is under this floor upon the greenskins above it.
    -[X] Just start fighting. If there's any Goblins left when the Throng arrives, they can join in.
    --[X] Before anything though, see if there are any Goblin Spellcasters and mark them for elimination after the defenses are sabotaged.
    [X] Plan Come and Get Me
    -[X] Skywalk over the trapped floor and use Move to trigger the goblin siege weapons.
    --[X] Lure the goblins over their own trapped floor.
    -[X] Just start fighting. If there's any Goblins left when the Throng arrives, they can join in.
    --[X] Target goblins with ranged weapons first.
    [X]Plan No Wizard Here
    [X] Plan Smoke and Mirrors
    [X] Sabotage the defenses...
    -[X] By moving along the wall until you're level with the bolt throwers, and pull as many triggers as you can with Move from a distance.
    [X] Sabotage the defences...
    - [x] By crushing the wooden floor with substance-of-shadow boulders and unleashing whatever is under this floor upon the greenskins above it.
    [x] Plan Crush the Floor
    [X] Slip out...
    - [X] By casting Pall of Shadow on the gates themselves and streaking through the patch of impenetrable darkness.
    [X] Other (write in): Use doppelganger and raise the alarm with "We're being attacked by rat boys. They're attacking from behind us. They're with the Stunties." before the dwarves attack then slip out in the confusion.
 
[Guys, can I convince you to vote for the Mk2 version of Muderbeast? To put it simply, someone came up with the idea of using our Move spell, a very simple minor telekinesis spell to fire the bolt throwers, as opposed to running over the stage and firing three or four, we can fire half of them if we move up to the side of the stage up to where they are.

It is, conveniently, on our way out.

Unleashing dozens of bolt throwers on hundreds of tightly clustered goblins, at point blank range is just too good an opportunity, we could easily kill up to three digits in goblins depending on how well it goes.

That's the sole modification the Mk2 version does to the plan.
No.

The plan already involved unleashing random monsters we know nothing about. That's enough risk as is without risking a peril from rapid multi-casting or the goblins running into us in their confusion.

We keep it simple. Release beasties and go. We are not a slayer. We are not a bright wizard. Our job is not to kill everything.

And don't mass tag me again. That just makes me less likely to vote what you want.
 
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[X] Plan Murderbeast Distraction

First off, I adhere to the keep it simple plan. As such, I want a plan that is simple, and yet has the greatest potential to make the upcoming battle as easy as possible for the vengeful dwarfs looking to strike out some grudges against the Greenskins.

I think the Murderbeast distraction is that plan. Looking at their behavior, whatever is hiding beneath those floorboards are on a hair-trigger and want to lash out against really anything they can reliably get to. Fortunately for us, there are a ton of goblins just a stone throw away. The helpfully provided map indicates that the gribbles can only go one way, towards those goblins, which will cause a much more immediate distraction from us leaving and the marching throng.

Furthermore, it is likely to draw even more goblins from the halls and caverns to the King's Gate to deal with said gribbles and reinforce the gate for the Dwarf assault. While this normally would be a bad thing, we actually want as many goblins in one place in this situation. The more goblins we can gather in one place, the fewer goblins there will be to ambush the throng as it spreads out and tries to capture the Peak. Given the chaos in the Moon Hall and the likely chaos at the King's Gate (provided we are successful) goblins should be more concentrated in those locations. Good for us, bad for them.

All in all, I think that successfully releasing the murder gribbles will cause the most amount of chaos, and the most amount of goblin casualties, paving the way for the Dwarven Throng to steamroll through the wounded, exhausted, and demoralized remains of the Goblin guards.

Hopefully, we are able to get to the Throng before they begin their assault and inform them of the information we have.
 
Probably not worth it I think. The issue with grenades is:
-They're bulky, the grenade of the era is usually a ceramic jar packed with explosives. You'd be hard pressed to carry even a half dozen.
-Without percussion caps you have to manually light them and then throw them before they explode in your hand. If they hit a hard surface before the fuse reaches the contents the jar breaks and you have a flash fire rather than an explosion, unless you use waxed paper canisters, which have a smaller radius of effect.
-They go off easily on hostile action. Especially if say, you're wearing a rune which routinely turns magical detritus into fire.
-They go dud without special care to keep them dry. Even extended periods of damp air can significantly alter the qualities of one.

Its more time consuming, but I suspect preparing single charge items of Bewilder with her enchanter skill might be safer in the field.
Explosives DO have a role though, but more in the form of sabotage.

And for manling grenades I would agree with you wholeheartedly. What I'm wondering about however is if the dwarfs have grenades suitable for our purposes, because I imagine they would notice these problems and consider them to be insufficient for their purposes and turn their engineering hearts towards the problem, which could solve one or more of those issues (like we did IRL, though with a certain amount of 'my great grandfather's grenades didn't look like this, but we'll just have to see how these pan out before we can decide they're any good') which is why I'm thinking we talk to Zhufbar, not one of the less Engineer's Guild dominated holds. This is meant more as 'investigate for future use' instead of 'charge unheedingly into this course of action' (though I do think the smoke grenades are our best bet for a workable product at the moment. We probably won't need more than a small number at any given time, but when we want to have one we'll want to have one)

(Wait a second, "convince the universe X didn't die" was one of the proposed ideas for how Ulgu Ressurections could work. Might not be the dumbest idea this thread came up with)

To be fair that's not entirely because that idea stands on its own feet, but because this thread comes up with some stupid ideas. /half serious joke

And than forgot about all of them for the next, oh, five to ten years. That diplomacy 10 rating isn't just for show folks. Think about what actual friends Mat has? Anton, Wilhelmina, her old Master. I think that's about it. Dwarf friends don't count here, they are work friends. Which is what Anton and Wilhelmina started as.

Really, most of her relationships are acquired from work. She never really socialized outside of it.

EDIT: Mat's a workaholic, is what I'm saying. Also a magical nerd on top of it. And a really scary Magical Knight. All these things do not help with the whole, friendship and love stuff.

My read is that most wizards (and especially, for this conversation, grey wizards) are workaholics.

Though I'm curious as to whether we could, perhaps ought, to try to mend fences back at the college. A grey wizard needs their contacts after all.

I'd probably think that a cross wind effect like "This air is now full of mist"->"This mist is actually oil mist, not water mist" -> "Wow it burns good with a spark" is probably the sort of indirect Wind fiddling that I expect to be healthiest.

Do bright wizards look at explosions?
 
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