So I'm in a bit of a conundrum guys, depending on rolls the next update could get a meeting with our assassin friend which would be pretty complex to play out, but unfortunately it's quite late for me so I'm concerned that it will mess up. Do you guys mind if we leave it at two updates for today? I'll be back at a proper rhythm tomorrow.
 
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So I'm in a bit of a conundrum guys, depending on rolls the next update could get a meeting with our assassin friend which would be pretty complex to play out, but unfortunately it's quite late for me so I'm concerned that it will mess up. Do you guys mind if we leave it at two updates for today? I'll be back at a proper rhythm tomorrow.
That's cool, dude.
 
In b4 DP comes around and ruins all teh stuff I wrote below with the revelation of the assasin"s allegiance.
----------------------------‐-------‐----

Correct me if I'm wrong, but am I getting the strategic stuff correct so far?
@Crake, @Goldfish, @Duesal?

Am just trying to systematize a bit all the plates up in the air at the very moment.

Focuses:
[] Slavers's Bay - main target, need to stop the (potential) ascension of Lady of Spears at any cost.
Prospects: establishing heavy Inquisition presence in Devil-infested territories. Killing priests of Lady of Spear in as high quantities as we can. Desecrating any and all (in)formal temples? Trying to hunt down the operation heads if possible.
-- Viserys involvement probably necessary at this point to do anything of note. The burden of being the MC--

[] Reach Fey - moderate importance, no direct confrontation vector is open to us yet.
Prospects: breaking their ritual; finding a way to force confrontation on our terms.
Best case: Court of Stars wiped out, Queen & King dead, adshat Lords/Ladies scattered far away from westeros and Essos. I don't think we are backing down from this one.

[] Illithids: still no good data available for us, it is likely by now they will attack first, whatever we plan. And we lack a plan, anyway.
Prospects: Grow strength, look for more allies. PoF mercs may have some crazy anti-water stuff?
-- we already have Hermetia on PoW, and a few embassies more we can start establishing. Maybe make moves to have Marid involved against the Efreeti, like the Alliance asked us to help them?
Would need Vizzy to make any progress, tho.


[] Efreeti: grand heist planned for 4th/5th month, iirc.
-- if we do intend to heist the sultan for all the brass we can, we gotta assign lots more people to the infiltration next month. Lots.
And that conflicts with the other shit we have to do.
Like the actual Reconquest planned at the same time.

[] The Undead near Sarnor: like, we know jack shit except that they are a danger..?
-- need more data, stat, likely a run-and-gun through their forces and leaders in the 3rd month.
-- send minions? --

[] Black Goat of Q - atraighr up need more data
-- We are prolly fucked either way, but who knows.
-- Gotta send an active Companion as a spy, with the build-up it got I recon nothing less will suffice.
Bottom line, we can deepsrrike the Fleshforge and fuck up the local Landwarden as a cross-character monthly Free action.
Still better than Eldritch suit fusing with it, or something.

[] Silver mines of Sothoryos
-- Clear threat to Snek-port.
But is it more a threat than the localized Ny'alotha Oil-stone City, or literal Illithid bases nearby?
Gotta see the promised Snekport interlude and their defense-numbers first.

[] Westeros overall
-- Fuck it, we've gotten pretty much everyone we could have cared to at this point.
Just not worth the screen-time anymore until either Reconquest or something new burning for us to put out, imo..?


---MAs---
Personal
[] See Meraxes for Imperial Steel development
[] Trade the Ferryman for the Water Elemental-forging lore
[] Eat have Yss eat the Red Dragon Orb, for an undetermined favor for the future.
-[] refer to Goldfish for plans.

Background
[] Keep an eye out for the Chosen of Stranger
-[] Actually talk to Chosen of Smith if the Stranger's doesn't appear by end of 3rd month.

---RAs---
[] Powered armor much needed.
[] Impetial Deity much needed
[] Watchman Creature template much needed
[] 2 projects we agreed to beforehand are much needed, gotta chow how good of a help we are.
[] gotta try into psionics, sentient undead and upgrading Dark Sister otherwise.

Will slep now, gnight.
 
There are too many things happening at the same time. We will not be able to stop all of them.

I'd rather just push a scorched earth campaign against Qohor and Slavers Bay while we focus on something else. Either that or we delay Westeros.

And honestly, we can simply walk into the Red Keep, replace everybody by simulacrums, and work on smoothing things over from there.
 
In b4 DP comes around and ruins all teh stuff I wrote below with the revelation of the assasin"s allegiance.
----------------------------‐-------‐----

Correct me if I'm wrong, but am I getting the strategic stuff correct so far?
@Crake, @Goldfish, @Duesal?

Am just trying to systematize a bit all the plates up in the air at the very moment.

Focuses:
[] Slavers's Bay - main target, need to stop the (potential) ascension of Lady of Spears at any cost.
Prospects: establishing heavy Inquisition presence in Devil-infested territories. Killing priests of Lady of Spear in as high quantities as we can. Desecrating any and all (in)formal temples? Trying to hunt down the operation heads if possible.
-- Viserys involvement probably necessary at this point to do anything of note. The burden of being the MC--

[] Reach Fey - moderate importance, no direct confrontation vector is open to us yet.
Prospects: breaking their ritual; finding a way to force confrontation on our terms.
Best case: Court of Stars wiped out, Queen & King dead, adshat Lords/Ladies scattered far away from westeros and Essos. I don't think we are backing down from this one.

[] Illithids: still no good data available for us, it is likely by now they will attack first, whatever we plan. And we lack a plan, anyway.
Prospects: Grow strength, look for more allies. PoF mercs may have some crazy anti-water stuff?
-- we already have Hermetia on PoW, and a few embassies more we can start establishing. Maybe make moves to have Marid involved against the Efreeti, like the Alliance asked us to help them?
Would need Vizzy to make any progress, tho.


[] Efreeti: grand heist planned for 4th/5th month, iirc.
-- if we do intend to heist the sultan for all the brass we can, we gotta assign lots more people to the infiltration next month. Lots.
And that conflicts with the other shit we have to do.
Like the actual Reconquest planned at the same time.

[] The Undead near Sarnor: like, we know jack shit except that they are a danger..?
-- need more data, stat, likely a run-and-gun through their forces and leaders in the 3rd month.
-- send minions? --

[] Black Goat of Q - atraighr up need more data
-- We are prolly fucked either way, but who knows.
-- Gotta send an active Companion as a spy, with the build-up it got I recon nothing less will suffice.
Bottom line, we can deepsrrike the Fleshforge and fuck up the local Landwarden as a cross-character monthly Free action.
Still better than Eldritch suit fusing with it, or something.

[] Silver mines of Sothoryos
-- Clear threat to Snek-port.
But is it more a threat than the localized Ny'alotha Oil-stone City, or literal Illithid bases nearby?
Gotta see the promised Snekport interlude and their defense-numbers first.

[] Westeros overall
-- Fuck it, we've gotten pretty much everyone we could have cared to at this point.
Just not worth the screen-time anymore until either Reconquest or something new burning for us to put out, imo..?


---MAs---
Personal
[] See Meraxes for Imperial Steel development
[] Trade the Ferryman for the Water Elemental-forging lore
[] Eat have Yss eat the Red Dragon Orb, for an undetermined favor for the future.
-[] refer to Goldfish for plans.

Background
[] Keep an eye out for the Chosen of Stranger
-[] Actually talk to Chosen of Smith if the Stranger's doesn't appear by end of 3rd month.

---RAs---
[] Powered armor much needed.
[] Impetial Deity much needed
[] Watchman Creature template much needed
[] 2 projects we agreed to beforehand are much needed, gotta chow how good of a help we are.
[] gotta try into psionics, sentient undead and upgrading Dark Sister otherwise.

Will slep now, gnight.
Looks good to me, dude. There are several potentially troublesome threats we could potentially handle in a relatively short amount of time, if we focused on them in the next couple months. We're working hard on Slaver's Bay and the Reach Fey situation, the City of Brass situation is developing but not yet ready for serious action, and we're preparing as best we can to do with the Deep Ones. Westeros is primed and ready to go when we pull the plug.

I think we should considering using most of our discretionary time next month to getting a handle on Qohor. The Flesh Forge there is of significant concern and needs to either be captured or permanently decommissioned.
 
[] Slavers's Bay - main target, need to stop the (potential) ascension of Lady of Spears at any cost.
Prospects: establishing heavy Inquisition presence in Devil-infested territories. Killing priests of Lady of Spear in as high quantities as we can. Desecrating any and all (in)formal temples? Trying to hunt down the operation heads if possible.
-- Viserys involvement probably necessary at this point to do anything of note. The burden of being the MC--
More or less. The situation in Slaver's Bay is becoming a bit dire, with the Lady of Spears actively in Asmodeus' camp. That cannot be allowed to continue or we lose our loophole we gained with Mammon.
[] Reach Fey - moderate importance, no direct confrontation vector is open to us yet.
Prospects: breaking their ritual; finding a way to force confrontation on our terms.
Best case: Court of Stars wiped out, Queen & King dead, adshat Lords/Ladies scattered far away from westeros and Essos. I don't think we are backing down from this one.
Also pretty damn important. The ritual needs to be broken. No real choice other than to keep doing what we're already doing, subverting as many lords as we can, researching more rituals of our own, etc.
[] Illithids: still no good data available for us, it is likely by now they will attack first, whatever we plan. And we lack a plan, anyway.
Prospects: Grow strength, look for more allies. PoF mercs may have some crazy anti-water stuff?
-- we already have Hermetia on PoW, and a few embassies more we can start establishing. Maybe make moves to have Marid involved against the Efreeti, like the Alliance asked us to help them?
Would need Vizzy to make any progress, tho.
I think we should continue getting info from that rebel Deep Ones faction. They've got quite a bit to offer there, and while obviously they're not going to drop everything on the table there's a very obvious benefit to them to giving us strategic info against the main Deep Ones faction. For example -- an accurate map of every Deep Ones stronghold in the Celestial Planes. Not the first priority, but just an example of the sort of thing we can push for.

As for the Marid, I think we're not going to have luck getting them to move against the Efreeti until after we make a good showing against the Deep Ones. The Deep Ones we can definitely persuade them to fight alongside us against. After that war, we can persuade them to join us and the Shaitan and the Djinn against the Efreeti.
[] Efreeti: grand heist planned for 4th/5th month, iirc.
-- if we do intend to heist the sultan for all the brass we can, we gotta assign lots more people to the infiltration next month. Lots.
And that conflicts with the other shit we have to do.
Like the actual Reconquest planned at the same time.
I've said this before and IIRC @Goldfish agrees with me, this will be murder on the narrative in terms of consistency and flow. This really should be pushed back if at all possible until after Westeros is thoroughly subjugated and the Court of Stars at least is put down.
[] The Undead near Sarnor: like, we know jack shit except that they are a danger..?
-- need more data, stat, likely a run-and-gun through their forces and leaders in the 3rd month.
-- send minions? --
More or less. This is a probing job now. With f!Aegon Blackfyre now soul-killed by Yss, the Sarnori will be running around without a guiding hand. It's only a matter of time before darker powers reach and empower them, so yes to sending minions to experiment with what can be done against them.
[] Black Goat of Q - atraighr up need more data
-- We are prolly fucked either way, but who knows.
-- Gotta send an active Companion as a spy, with the build-up it got I recon nothing less will suffice.
Bottom line, we can deepsrrike the Fleshforge and fuck up the local Landwarden as a cross-character monthly Free action.
Still better than Eldritch suit fusing with it, or something.
Ahhh, Shub Niggurath. I think we need to have a dedicated intrigue action as a followup, and then move in with a Companion strike team. You don't fuck around against Shub Niggurath.
[] Silver mines of Sothoryos
-- Clear threat to Snek-port.
But is it more a threat than the localized Ny'alotha Oil-stone City, or literal Illithid bases nearby?
Gotta see the promised Snekport interlude and their defense-numbers first.
Not an immediate threat. While I would like to go for it, the above things take priority.
[] Westeros overall
-- Fuck it, we've gotten pretty much everyone we could have cared to at this point.
Just not worth the screen-time anymore until either Reconquest or something new burning for us to put out, imo..?
I will admit I'm getting in a bit of a haze with so much repetitive diplomancing and intrigue, but it is a necessary evil.
 
I've said this before and IIRC @Goldfish agrees with me, this will be murder on the narrative in terms of consistency and flow. This really should be pushed back if at all possible until after Westeros is thoroughly subjugated and the Court of Stars at least is put down.
Yes, the further back this can be pushed the better. Not only are there many preparations that still need to be made (Darleth is going to be working on the Fortress of Doom for a while yet), there are so many other threats that it just doesn't seem wise to stab one in the crotch with a pointy stick right now.

I think that from a narrative standpoint, we can justify a delay in a number of ways;
  • Maelor and crew are currently working on flipping or suborning mages with key intelligence about the City of Brass' wards (this line of inquiry taken to its conclusion could make the eventual raid much easier and/or more successful)
  • Continued pressure from the Shaitan and Djinni against the Efreeti could change the priorities of the conflict from a strike at the heart of the Efreeti's power to attacks on multiple fronts while our allies solidify their hold on recently captured territory and resources
  • And our own efforts in aiding the war effort (Mel's semi-successful plot that still ruined most of an Efreeti fleet despite not getting the whole thing, our air force's aid in driving off another massive invasion fleet, etc.)
All told, things have changed significantly since the Vizier initially asked us to spearhead a raid on the Living Brass Forge. Reassessing the timeline for that raid just makes good sense at this point, IMO.
 
Yes, the further back this can be pushed the better. Not only are there many preparations that still need to be made (Darleth is going to be working on the Fortress of Doom for a while yet), there are so many other threats that it just doesn't seem wise to stab one in the crotch with a pointy stick right now.

I think that from a narrative standpoint, we can justify a delay in a number of ways;
  • Maelor and crew are currently working on flipping or suborning mages with key intelligence about the City of Brass' wards (this line of inquiry taken to its conclusion could make the eventual raid much easier and/or more successful)
  • Continued pressure from the Shaitan and Djinni against the Efreeti could change the priorities of the conflict from a strike at the heart of the Efreeti's power to attacks on multiple fronts while our allies solidify their hold on recently captured territory and resources
  • And our own efforts in aiding the war effort (Mel's semi-successful plot that still ruined most of an Efreeti fleet despite not getting the whole thing, our air force's aid in driving off another massive invasion fleet, etc.)
All told, things have changed significantly since the Vizier initially asked us to spearhead a raid on the Living Brass Forge. Reassessing the timeline for that raid just makes good sense at this point, IMO.
I think the biggest thing we can point to is that we want this fortress to be perfect with its wardings before we even think about pulling this off. Off the top of my head we have yet to collect on Benerro's enhanced ritual to ward against tainted flame to keep the Efreeti from just scattering all across Prime Material in the aftermath of the battle.

The other points are all totally valid, though. We probably do need to get a bit more involved in the war if at all possible.
 
[] Reach Fey - moderate importance, no direct confrontation vector is open to us yet.
Prospects: breaking their ritual; finding a way to force confrontation on our terms.
Best case: Court of Stars wiped out, Queen & King dead, adshat Lords/Ladies scattered far away from westeros and Essos. I don't think we are backing down from this one.
You're not generalizing enough on this one, maybe even in the other cases. This is a severe problem since we know very little about the individual actors involved that things could change on the fly, but it would certainly color initial interactions, perhaps to our detriment.

Word things in the vein of "we are trying to suborn or break X" or " we are working to identify and neutralize Y as a threat".

In any case, that's if you write more of these. In all probability we should just keep tags like "fey, intrigue, diplomacy" and "devils, assassinations, blackmail", "combat, recon, raiding" for these actions instead of information blurbs that force us down a single path which might not be appropriate for the situation. It also makes editing the vote easier if we have a discussion and decide "let's not blackmail X, I have an idea of how to deal with them by [example]."
 
[] Eat have Yss eat the Red Dragon Orb, for an undetermined favor for the future.
Yoo, also, no. I mean really why?

So many reasons why this is dumb.

A) We don't even know what we want? SAVE IT. We could at least integrate it into the narrative by building up to it, or even find a specific an unique use for it.
B) It's effectively neutralized as a threat, and we have no pressing need to do anything with it.
C) We should get full value on it, if we need to hire Yss for a 5/9 chance of breaking even to capture it, what's the point? We should go in on it when we can legitimately shrug off most of what it can dish out unprepared. I certainly feel better about reading several updates after a small background plotline about the crew preparing a battleground and maybe even a custom ritual that targets the ancient+ dragon inside. The Mammon fight comes off in hindsight as a risky gamble that makes us look only marginally more competent than Mammon in a relative sense.
 
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If the concern with the dragon orb is that it'll end up being used against us we could take some precautions now to make it more difficult, I'll need a bit to find some other spells/items for this kind of thing, but stuff like a really jacked Puzzle Box spell would provide ablative layers to delay any would be idiots trying to play with the dragon orb.

... Honestly, now that I think about it, we should put that spell on books with secret knowledge and important documents in general to raise the minimum bar for screwing with our stuff.
 
Honestly with the Red Orb of Dragonkind there's no rush at all to get rid of it. It's the furthest thing from a priority.

If someone manages to steal from Viserys' cloak we have far bigger things to be worrying about.
 
Not sure if we'd ever have the occasion to use it, but for the sake of fixed defenses can an item be given a bypass to teleport wards that allow passwords? It'd make for a fun final trick for stuff like this.

Something like a Trapped Puzzle Box large enough to hold the orb, which is then stuck in a Devil's Crux and sealed with a Universal Lock for additional fun. Just to be a bastard the orb and both boxes should have the Puzzle Box spell at the highest buff we can manage.

This is where the teleport ward comes in. If we can key an item to the wards then we could enchant the Devil's Crux with Retrieve Item set to trigger when it gets more than half way through its range away from the storage compartment it's left in. Ideally they'd try to steal it only to find it ports back home if you get more than 50 ft from its drawer. Then you either need to beat the challenges or brute force your way out of them.

The cloak is safer, but this is definitely more fun. :V
 
I'm not sure if prioritizing Slaver's Bay is the best idea right now.
I mean, we propably can't stop the Lady of Spears from becoming an Archduke, because that is Asmodeus' decision and it happens in Hell, where we can't attack easily.

Sure, destroying her priests and temples and converting her followers before she fully takes the position might weaken her, but is that worth much to us? If a goddess that stays out of the Material Plane is CR 32 instead of CR 35, or something along these lines (or has Divine Rank 6 instead of 8), what's our profit in it?

I don't think we should concern ourselves with the greater metaphysical issue here at all.

What matters to us is only one thing: Can we stop the forces of Hell, be they under Asmodeus or the Lady's command, from making a proper beachhead in our plane?

Practically that can only be achieved in two ways. Either we manage to delay the total subversion of SB until we can spare the forces to conventionally invade, or we destroy the whole area before they can summon enough reinforcements (including engineers and mages) to fortify the slaver cities to a level that people who usually build fortresses for the Blood War find acceptable.
 
I can see us taking over Slaver's Bay. We wouldn't be able to do anything with it, and it would be a flaming trash fire the entire time we held it and an albatross necklace writ large, but we could take it.

We just woiuldn't be able to do anything with it for a long time.
 
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