Hmm, Rihaku mentioned that Forebear's blade returns to our hand if called. Could we abuse this to make repeated thrown attacks, then autorecover our blade from unexpected directions?
 
Hmm, Rihaku mentioned that Forebear's blade returns to our hand if called. Could we abuse this to make repeated thrown attacks, then autorecover our blade from unexpected directions?

I was thinking about that, I don't think we'd want to do so repeatedly because he could get wise to it and trap the blade. Doing it once at a crtitical moment could be good though.
 
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Adhoc vote count started by DkArthas on May 24, 2020 at 1:43 PM, finished with 156 posts and 40 votes.
 
I've got another angle for the "They are not actually Pirates" scenario.

What does it take for them to have gear that standardized and an enchanted ship? Enchanted plate hauberks(Whatever those actually look like) and enchanted ships don't sound cheap. And yet everybody except the boss has an identical suit of armor in the same style. This suggests the possibility of state backing, military standardization, etc. They could well have some kind of organized supplier providing them with the suits(Edit: As opposed to the suits being acquired from pillaging for treasure).

For another note, what do the plate hauberks resemble in real life?

This?: File:Eastern riveted armor.JPG - Wikipedia
This?: File:Russian mail armor.jpg - Wikipedia

Something else?
 
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Hm, Power is actually not that far behind, as it's got more omake power than knowledge!

Suppose that's to be expected.
 
We go Prudence dictates, we may well be able to get a custom fit one of his Full Plate from him putting us in touch with their supplier, as opposed to salvaged full plate that may well not even fit us that well unless magic resizing enchantments are a thing.
 
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[x] No Quarter
[X] Power

Seems like Prudence isn't going to win the day. Because of that I'll go with this and try to get Power in for a more coherent combo.

For tactics I would say we try and slash it the ship so that it's forced to sink, and then retreat towards Gisena. Hopefully we can help her quickly close the portal and unite with her against the pirate.

Basically use our superior mobility to take care of the threats one by one. Either the Pirate tries to save the ship and we can return to fight him, or he chases after us and fights us by our allies.
 
For tactics I would say we try and slash it the ship so that it's forced to sink, and then retreat towards Gisena. Hopefully we can help her quickly close the portal and unite with her against the pirate.

Basically use our superior mobility to take care of the threats one by one. Either the Pirate tries to save the ship and we can return to fight him, or he chases after us and fights us by our allies.
I support these tactics, though I would also suggest we keep an eye on the pirates/captain, they can probably water walk at minimum.
 
It's a compound function of feasibility (in his opinion) and support. A great tactic with no support will not get used; a bad tactic with lots of support will get used unless it's obviously suicidal.
Well let's do this. By those standards, we benefit the most from every tactic having a similarly mild amount of support. That way, the value will be decided by the Hero who's presumably smarter than us.

I don't know if we want to risk him getting into the water to escape, but since his armor is already leaving impressions in the floorboards creative destruction of the ship to unstabilize him might be good.
As for tactics, so far the most popular one seems using the deck to our advantage, by having our opponent drop his foot through the floor and lose his balance. One thing we could try is tying the rope around him, throwing the other side to Verse and then having mecha yeet us to it.
Tactics: He's heavy enough to leave indentations in the wood and does not appear to have any ranged options available to him. Mobility is our advantage, his is his blade's greater reach and the shield. Fight as we kite, sink the ship with more cuts, try to get him into the water. He won't drown, that would be convenient, but it should slow him and might douse the weapon. We should watch out for the ballista bolts we tossed overboard in case he tries to imitate us, however.
Alright, I believe we might want to sink the ship if we want to fight this guy, water might help against his heavy armor and flaming blade.
We could always try baiting him into stepping on a weakened wood and strike him while he is unbalanced.
2. Ruin affects the ship, so we have authority over what is and isn't reliable footing.
The stress he puts on the boat likely means poor maneuverability; we can drop down and blade-wind from below by seeing where the wood has stress on it.
Using the relative frailty of the ship against him seems to be the most popular tactic, and something I support. I don't know if this extends to the point of dropping him in the water, however.

This is a ship so we could try grabbing a net or some ropes to slow him down, although between his combat level and our disability that somewhat of a long shot.
Maybe we can use a rope to yank on his shield? Having only one arm is a problem, he can likely get a free hit if he doesn't resist the pull. If he gets his sword stuck on the scenery, that's likely a free opening.
4. We can grab those grappling ropes, the curiously resilient bowstring, and had already grabbed that grappling hook. We can likely briefly restrict his motion or even turn this into a 3D fight if we break the floor, which would be even more in our favor.
Despite my suggestion, I don't support the ropes; he's likely heavier than us and we only have one arm. If we had another had free, things might be different.

Timely mecha punch would be very useful.
Would be nice, but unknown feasibility, so I won't support it.

Maybe we can use the plank he's standing on as a lever? Hopefully the water impedes his flames then we move in for the standard armored counter and start grappling him, our swords length is actually quite suited for this but unfortunately lacking an arm does hurt us.
Grappling him is bad with only one arm; so no support.

We can also start the fight by retreating behind the gap and throwing ballista bolts at him; it seems he would have difficulty crossing thanks to his armor; even if he blocks, the lightning effects should get him. Though, maybe the fullplate acts as faraday cage? The lightning seems clearly magical however, so I don't know if it'd come up.
3. We have some ranged options, be it the two discharged ballista bolts, broken debris from the ship, or the crewmen themselves. The last may be going a bit overboard though.
I support using ranged attacks against him; kiting is an advantage of greater mobility, and we don't care for this ship while he does.

By being behind the mast and a bit to the side we can at least block one of his sides either from defending or attacking, while that doesn't matter for us due to having only one arm.
Something I'm iffy on, don't know if it'd be relevant given the powerlevels of the fight. Cool if it worked.

Maybe we can ask Gisena to let some beasts towards him; again he seems to have poor maneuverability; so he has less defense at being swarmed, so it's advantageous for us.
Also, we might want to combine the fights so we can force him to fight Void Spawn, maybe even freeing Gisena to help us with a couple of bolts.
Given that his sword's on fucking fire and he's bleeding darkness, I think we can safely assume Nullity'll be effective on him, so if we can briefly trade with Gisena to relieve her while she debuffs him that'd be cool too.
Another tack would be to demand he helps with the rift and get him in range of Gisena so we can put him down easier. This seems much more difficult though.
Luring them towards Gisena; something I support. Turning off whatever supernatural abilities they have is an incredible advantage.

Use the grappling hook to retreat back to Verschlengorge if necessary.
Tactical retreat options; supported. Obviously useful.

Also, we can recall the Forebear's Blade to our hand if disarmed, so if we're stuck in melee maybe 'let' him disarm us to create a fake opening.
Hmm, Rihaku mentioned that Forebear's blade returns to our hand if called. Could we abuse this to make repeated thrown attacks, then autorecover our blade from unexpected directions?
He has sword and board versus our broken blade, which is kinda bad all around. Still, we do have ability to call our blade so we could try and tackle him down and then summon blade to us once we wrestle his out of his hands? Alternately, we could try and make use of weapons on board.
I don't support sword throws; seems something very finicky and with low clear reward. Would be fine as another miscellaneous ranged option if we kite however.

Maybe unbalance him by throwing his own dudes at him? Or make the mast fall on top of him? I don't know if his maneuverability is that poor, however.
I'm inclined to think fighting among the crew might help. Violet flames and billowing darkness make me believe he'll have some sort of projectile or pbaoe capability. Keeping our back to his men and fighting around the wounded could discourage big explosions or auras or spooky darkness waves if the crew's similar armor doesn't provide immunity.
Hmm, if he's slower than us maybe we want to keep the distance for now. Stay out of his engagement range and pick off the rest of his crew in front of him. They're probably too weak for Hunger to give and gains from killing them but it'll remove a distraction for us and might put him on tilt and have him show an opening we could take advantage of. While also giving us more clues about what his artifacts do and some time to see if we can appropriate any more useful battle items the crew might go for that might be on the ship before committing.
He may feel responsible for his comrades or he might have friends/family on the ship, so we could go ham and put them in danger of collateral to make him hesitate or lose composure.
Attack the other crew; supported. We likely need to deal with them anyway so they don't interfere,and using them to imbalance or hinder him is just an obvious extension of that.

I think we should start by making some outrageous demands to put him off balance. Then try to get him into the water.
I think we should play to our Ikesai roots with our banter, and take a position of hypocritical high ground. Literally kick his men while they're down, go through some pockets if we have time, while claiming objective moral superiority. I'd like to have him mad if at all possible. Criticize piracy while performing theft and murder on the high seas.
5. Our most dangerous weapon - our tongue! Shut up, Gisena. We should try to find psychological weaknesses and strike at them. Not much to go on right now, but he's already engaged in banter, so we can take advantage of that to draw out more information.
Supported. Charisma is something we paid for and seems to be something we are very good at. Tilting him has obvious benefits.


If you want the support to stay balanced like I suggested; simply invert the support I gave. Remember how to format this:
1) quote the tactic(s) you are supporting
2) mention in bold that you are supporting them and
3) include any commentary on said tactics.
 
[x] No Quarter
[X] Power

Seems like Prudence isn't going to win the day. Because of that I'll go with this and try to get Power in for a more coherent combo.

For tactics I would say we try and slash it the ship so that it's forced to sink, and then retreat towards Gisena. Hopefully we can help her quickly close the portal and unite with her against the pirate.

Basically use our superior mobility to take care of the threats one by one. Either the Pirate tries to save the ship and we can return to fight him, or he chases after us and fights us by our allies.

The ship's not that close to the mech; it's possible the crew will have superior aquatic mobility than you. Most likely if you departed they'd just run away, seeing as how they're already trying to avoid fighting.

You can't let them run away! Those are your precious bags of XP!

Well let's do this. By those standards, we benefit the most from every tactic having a similarly mild amount of support. That way, the value will be decided by the Hero who's presumably smarter than us.

Maybe, maybe not. It depends on his mental state among other things. He may favor tactics that are objectively unwise if they have certain attributes. For example, No Quarter inherently implies a more aggressive mindset, or at least one that is more emotionally compromised. Recklessness, risk-taking, etc.

I was thinking about that, I don't think we'd want to do so repeatedly because he could get wise to it and trap the blade. Doing it once at a crtitical moment could be good though.

You don't really benefit much from thrown attacks, either, since you already have a short-range option with blade winds!
 
I don't support sword throws; seems something very finicky and with low clear reward. Would be fine as another miscellaneous ranged option if we kite however.
Supported. Charisma is something we paid for and seems to be something we are very good at. Tilting him has obvious benefits.

While I'd prefer prudence, one potential use of Charisma and the Forebear's Blade is demand that we both disarm for an equitable and peaceful parlay. We both drop or otherwise discard our weapons, Hunger acts like he's going to negotiate only to call the blade back to his hand and stab the pirate in the face. The rest of his crew seem like mooks and should be relatively easy to slaughter once their boss is dead.

Might have less than ideal consequences if this actually was a misunderstanding and our actions get out though.

EDIT: Upon further consideration, I disavow this idea and think its probably a bad tactic. I'd advise people not support it.
 
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The exact words of No Quarter
[ ] No Quarter - You are not a pirate, to respect such customs as parlay. Yours is the Tyrant's Doom, and the sentence for brigandry is death.

Even a tyrant may not wish to abandon the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard of criminal justice. If there is reason to doubt the possibility they are actually pirates, death is not justified.

No Quarter is predicated on them being pirates and deserving to die for being pirates.
 
The ship's not that close to the mech; it's possible the crew will have superior aquatic mobility than you. Most likely if you departed they'd just run away, seeing as how they're already trying to avoid fighting.

I was hoping to slash a hole below the waterline so that they are taking on water and can't really escape.
 
EDIT: Might have less than ideal consequences if this actually was a misunderstanding and our actions get out though.
While I'm sure they have very valid reasons for attacking us while we're tied up by trying to close the Rift, I'm less sure I care about those reasons whatsoever. Does it even matter if they're pirates or not? They attack unprovoked, they pay the price for it.

Edit: Man, this Tyrant Curse sure is a heady drug.
 
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While I'd prefer prudence, one potential use of Charisma and the Forebear's Blade is demand that we both disarm for an equitable and peaceful parlay. We both drop or otherwise discard our weapons, Hunger acts like he's going to negotiate only to call the blade back to his hand and stab the pirate in the face. The rest of the pirates seem like mooks and should be relatively easy to slaughter once their boss is dead.
Treachery, the sport of emperors and bandits alike. If we do fight him, I'd like to second this.
Though it's risky in its own right. Depending on the specific shape of the Blade, we might have to enter punching range just to hit him with it.
 
By being behind the mast and a bit to the side we can at least block one of his sides either from defending or attacking, while that doesn't matter for us due to having only one arm.
this seems worth a try to me.

I also support attacking the deck under him if our blade winds can splinter the wood

would generally prefer to meet sword to sword and try to avoid his shield

I think it's deeply unwise to try to take a fight with a ship captain into the water and don't support any tactics that risk that.
 
While I'd prefer prudence, one potential use of Charisma and the Forebear's Blade is demand that we both disarm for an equitable and peaceful parlay. We both drop or otherwise discard our weapons, Hunger acts like he's going to negotiate only to call the blade back to his hand and stab the pirate in the face.

This sounds like a gambit that doesn't cost us much even if it fails. I like it.
 
While I'd prefer prudence, one potential use of Charisma and the Forebear's Blade is demand that we both disarm for an equitable and peaceful parlay. We both drop or otherwise discard our weapons, Hunger acts like he's going to negotiate only to call the blade back to his hand and stab the pirate in the face. The rest of his crew seem like mooks and should be relatively easy to slaughter once their boss is dead.

EDIT: Might have less than ideal consequences if this actually was a misunderstanding and our actions get out though.
I oppose this on characterization grounds
I think with the Tyrant's Doom and our protagonist's desire to not become what he despised, we should avoid dishonorable means like this.
 
While I'd prefer prudence, one potential use of Charisma and the Forebear's Blade is demand that we both disarm for an equitable and peaceful parlay. We both drop or otherwise discard our weapons, Hunger acts like he's going to negotiate only to call the blade back to his hand and stab the pirate in the face. The rest of his crew seem like mooks and should be relatively easy to slaughter once their boss is dead.
"As you said. I'm a liar."

Supported, this seems like a good way to harness our recent cha/int/ruthlessness gains with a tactic that's not too risky if it doesn't pan out. The costs are mostly reputational, which is less of a concern if none of the pirates escape alive and we're the one explaining to Letrizia. Also, it implies a mindset less compromised by rage, if we're able to improvise a ploy like this.

With the hints dropped about the armor and clarifications about the ship's distance from the mech, investing time into sinking it doesn't seem like a good idea. Not every pirate's Victarion Greyjoy, indifferent to the dangers of wearing full plate on the high seas.
 
The only thing established is the harpooning of the mech. Nobody raised a blade against us until we made a destructive landing on the ship.

Yes, the fact they got outplayed when they tried to backstab as we were distracted us is a real mitigating circumstances for them.

I find all your proposed mitigating circumstances for them very outlandish and honestly irrelevant even if true. They attacked us so we killed them. Oh it turns out they were whalers? A pity, but we chose the decimator's curse where we kill far more people on far less grounds than that.
 
Eh, Not believing in Honoru where pirates are concerned won't turn our dude in a monster.
A false (metaphorical) flag of peace when we're already going the aggressive no quarter route definitely characterizes us as someone without much respect for life and influence what the 'good' and 'bad' choices look like later.
Yes, the fact they got outplayed when they tried to backstab as we were distracted us is a real mitigating circumstances for them.

I find all your proposed mitigating circumstances for them very outlandish and honestly irrelevant even if true. They attacked us so we killed them. Oh it turns out they were whalers? A pity, but we chose the decimator's curse where we kill far more people on far less grounds than that.
We chose to kill a bunch of people so now killing people can't be wrong? what a joke.
 
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