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Fire Emblem: Last of the Manakete

What would readers prefer?

  • Pure narrative quest: no dice will be used, the author will have free reign to decide what happens.

    Votes: 25 59.5%

  • New dice system: the author will design a new, better dice system to add some randomness and risk.

    Votes: 17 40.5%
  • Total voters
    42
  • Poll closed .
Reader mode
@SoaringHawk218, a few questions if we may;
  1. Roughly how far is it (in travel time for the group) to Castle Legerius?
  2. Would the group have to cross wilderness, or is there a trail/road? (What's the terrain like? Wooded? Hilly? Any ravines or other major obstacles?)
  3. How long does Ryza think she could maintain a magical light just bright enough for the group to see their footing in the dark? (From personal experience with a lantern in the woods at night, it wouldn't take much; one or two candles' worth if people stay close, thanks to eyes adapting to the low light. Ryza could lead the horse and the humans in the dark for a while to get away from the bandits, but I think using a light after that would be much safer. A candle isn't visible all that far away at night if there's vegetation around.)
  4. Does the party have any alternative portable light sources?
  5. How long does Ryza think she can fly, and roughly how many times faster is a sustainable flying speed compared to travel speed on foot? (A fit human can march more or less all day at 3.4mph, and a typical bird flies long distances at around 20mph for maybe five hours at a time. (The fastest long distance flier averages 60mph and can go all day.) I'd imagine the group on foot is slower than a proper march at the moment, and Ryza is probably faster than a typical small bird because larger things generally need to travel faster to keep above their stall speed, but that's all guesswork.)
    1. For that matter, does Ryza fly better (further, faster) in human or dragon form, or is her performance about the same?
    2. Could Ryza carry one person in flight as a dragon? What about just walking, like a horse? (Birds can fly with a maximum of about 50% of their body weight without favorable winds, but that's probably the equivalent of deadlifting, not something they'd do for long. 10% might be a good 'comfortable for a long time' amount of weight, at a guess. It is for horses. I don't know how much Ryza's dragon body weighs, but you could compare to the mass of a comparably sized animal. A rhino or very large draft horse can weigh up to around 3,700ish pounds, an elephant ranges from 6,000 to 13,000 or so depending on gender and species. 10% of even a large horse is a lot of weight, so I'm thinking she could probably carry a human, then, although I don't know if there would be space for one to ride on her back. She might need to hold them in her claws or make some sort of sling.)
  6. Does Ryza know how to find which way is north by the stars? (I'd be a bit shocked if her parents didn't teach her at least that much about the stars, but it's good to ask. Come to think of it, I don't know what hemisphere she's in, so it might be finding south.)
 
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  • Informational
    • @TaliesinSkye Some interesting questions.

    1: Probably between a day and a half to two days, maybe a little more if they're particularly careful. Meanwhile, it would be pushing six to seven days forced march to get to Agrithe, more when they inevitably have to rest because they just can't keep that pace.

    2: Since they're going to be passing near the Icewall Mountains, it'll be pretty hilly. There aren't any major forests, but there are some wooded areas that would provide cover but also would slow travel. No serious obstacles either, though there's the smattering of minor ones like creeks, rock deposits and the like.

    There are some small roads and trails, but everyone would agree that it would be best to avoid those as much as possible; there's far less cover there and someone could spot them from a longer distance. There also wouldn't be any villages: most of the population of Legerius is focused further north near the border with the Empire. Maybe a few tiny hamlets not worth marking on the map.

    3: A small one like she's used before? Functionally indefinitely. The hardest thing would be not getting distracted and letting it get away from her, since it can hurt other people. However, by its nature as lighting, its light isn't the best for traveling. If she made it a bit bigger or more stable, she could hold it for the night, though it would start to wear on her.

    4: They have a few candles, though unfortunately no lantern or torches.

    5: Ryza wouldn't really have tested this: she mostly flew for fun, and so would stop when she started getting tired or hungry. She figures she could go for a two-three hours before she'd need to stop, though if she was traveling alone she could easily alternate between flying and walking to really increase her long-distance movement speed.

    As for speed, I never really thought about it, but she'd probably be about as fast as a horse.

    5.1: She would be much faster and farther in dragon form: every physical and magical trait she has is massively enhanced by her dragon form. However, dragons are deeply tied to emotions, so maintaining her dragon form for long enough to matter without something to keep her emotions hightened would be extremely hard.
    5.2: Physically, she could carry someone, though they'd have some trouble staying on, since she has spines. And she'd probably be twisting in flight.

    6: Unfortunately, Ryza never needed to know that since she's never been off the mountain before: she can tell by the sun, but she was more interested in learning about magic than the stars. She would know that she's in the southern hemisphere: what humans call the Icewall Mountains are pretty much the boundary between where people can comfortably live and where it gets too cold to really support civilization.
     
  • Informational
    • This is super helpful, thank you!

    SoaringHawk218 said:
    As for speed, I never really thought about it, but she'd probably be about as fast as a horse.
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    For clarity, horses sort of have two 'speeds'; there's galloping horse (up to 50mph for a thoroughbred) that's the horse equivalent of a dead sprint, and there's viable long distance traveling speeds, which is more of an 8mph trot.

    I'm guessing you mean the former? 40-50mph is a reasonable flight speed for something big, and traveling at 8mph without stalling would be practically physically impossible for things larger than insects.
     
    Okay, thread, I've done the math. Ryza can reach Castle Legerius in less than two hours. (If she doesn't get lost, but civilization and castles are pretty easy to find. Travel in the right general direction, fly high, and look for the lights.)

    A group of cavalry riding the paths could make it to the party's current location before dawn. If they ride hard, maybe with as much as three to five hours to spare for the Countess to make a decision and to actually dispatch the men. An old imperial watchtower makes an excellent landmark; with that, an approximate distance, and a compass direction, someone on the guard will know exactly where it is and how to get to it. A day's ride is a pretty typical area of familiarity/control for a medieval garrison.

    So here's one draft idea of what we could do:

    Plan Literally Call The Cavalry - Artemis gives Ryza something that will get her in to see the Countess as an urgent messenger, and prove her claims. Her signet ring, maybe. She tells Ryza what to say, and someone shows Ryza how to find a star that will help her navigate north. Maybe Kelton can draw a map in the dirt of the terrain to help Ryza navigate from the air. Ryza flies for the castle, traveling high so it'll be hard to miss, and approaches the last bit on foot so she doesn't get shot. She says what Artemis tells her to, which is probably along the lines of demanding an immediate audience as a messenger for the Lady Artemis, who is in mortal danger and calls upon the Countess for immediate aid. Ryza's story is that she's Lady Artemis' retainer and a mage, and anyway there's no time for tangential questions because the Countess needs to be sending troops at once before the traitors and bandits attack Lady Artemis' position, and Ryza needs to return by magic to reinforce them in case they're attacked in the night.

    If Artemis has a way of writing a message, Ryza could carry that. It would be better than relying on Ryza's diplomatic skills.

    As a variant of this plan, the party could sneak north in the night by some path that the troops could be sure to encounter them on as they went south.

    As an upside, with reinforcements they're in far less danger. Downsides are that diplomatic efforts could go poorly, it'd be bad if they were attacked while Ryza was gone although that appears unlikely, and it might raise questions about Ryza. (I don't know if being able to fly/travel quickly is a thing mages can do in this world.)
     
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    TaliesinSkye said:
    (I don't know if being able to fly/travel quickly is a thing mages can do in this world.)
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    Teleportation is a thing, though not over extreme distances. Ryza would have heard of some powerful Green manakete pulling it off, though from what Father said it's gets exponentially more difficult as distance increases.

    Flying... not so much. No need for manakete to develop, and if asked Artemis would say that, while some wind mages have tried it, there's been no reports of any succeeding (and some didn't live to make a second attempt, if you get her drift.) Wyverns and Pegasi still rule the skies.
     
    Hmm... it's a good thought, but it's also a gamble i can't say i'm comfortable making, tbh. If Ryza gets lost, or gets shot at by the castle sentry or whatever, or gets denied the help-request, or if the bandits happen to show up while Ryza isn't around to help and the cavalry is forced to deal with a hostage situation (or worse)... Each individual way this could go wrong ranges from 'wasted effort' to 'potentially life-and-death for the group', and there are far too many ways this could go wrong to properly plan and mitigate the risk of each issue...
     
    Ryumancer said:
    Hmm... it's a good thought, but it's also a gamble i can't say i'm comfortable making, tbh. If Ryza gets lost, or gets shot at by the castle sentry or whatever, or gets denied the help-request, or if the bandits happen to show up while Ryza isn't around to help and the cavalry is forced to deal with a hostage situation (or worse)... Each individual way this could go wrong ranges from 'wasted effort' to 'potentially life-and-death for the group', and there are far too many ways this could go wrong to properly plan and mitigate the risk of each issue...
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    Good points. Keeping Ryza with the group does give a considerable safety net, and it also tends to preserve Ryza's secrets more, even if she has to cut loose.
     
    So I found this Quest today and just finished catching up via Reader Mode, so I apologize in advance if I've missed some important discussion at some point. With that said...

    [X] Agree with both Artemis and Axton and Lancel's plans. Leave during the night and head north to Castle Legerius, using Ryza's nightvision for guidance.
    -[X] It might be worth considering using Ryza's lightning magic to allow everyone else to see where they're walking once we're far enough that Robert and his goons won't be able to see it, but don't do it if the others think it would be a bad idea.

    Seems like the safest option to me. Also, leaving Robert and his goons alive while we sneak off in a different direction than our destination might actually work to our advantage in a way, because then either he's waiting for us to leave when we've already left or he realizes we left during the night and launches a pursuit in the wrong direction. Either way, we lose him and avoid an ambush if he and the bandits have set one up.

    With that said, I agree with the suggestion that asking Artemis what she would do without Ryza's nightvision might be a good idea, since that's probably what Robert expects us to do.
     
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    [X] Agree with Kelton: right now your biggest problem is Robert and his two goons. Remove them tonight, and things get much easier.
     
    [X] Agree with both Artemis and Axton and Lancel's plans. Leave during the night and head north to Castle Legerius, using Ryza's nightvision for guidance.
    -[X] It might be worth considering using Ryza's lightning magic to allow everyone else to see where they're walking once we're far enough that Robert and his goons won't be able to see it, but don't do it if the others think it would be a bad idea.
     
    [X] Agree with Kelton: right now your biggest problem is Robert and his two goons. Remove them tonight, and things get much easier.
     
    [X] Agree with both Artemis and Axton and Lancel's plans. Leave during the night and head north to Castle Legerius, using Ryza's nightvision for guidance.
    -[X] It might be worth considering using Ryza's lightning magic to allow everyone else to see where they're walking once we're far enough that Robert and his goons won't be able to see it, but don't do it if the others think it would be a bad idea.
     
    [X] Agree with Kelton: right now your biggest problem is Robert and his two goons. Remove them tonight, and things get much easier.
     
    [X] Agree with both Artemis and Axton and Lancel's plans. Leave during the night and head north to Castle Legerius, using Ryza's nightvision for guidance.
    -[X] It might be worth considering using Ryza's lightning magic to allow everyone else to see where they're walking once we're far enough that Robert and his goons won't be able to see it, but don't do it if the others think it would be a bad idea.
     
    [x] Agree with both Artemis and Axton and Lancel's plans. Leave during the night and head north to Castle Legerius, using Ryza's nightvision for guidance.
    -[x] It might be worth considering using Ryza's lightning magic to allow everyone else to see where they're walking once we're far enough that Robert and his goons won't be able to see it, but don't do it if the others think it would be a bad idea
     
    [x] Agree with both Artemis and Axton and Lancel's plans. Leave during the night and head north to Castle Legerius, using Ryza's nightvision for guidance.
    -[x] It might be worth considering using Ryza's lightning magic to allow everyone else to see where they're walking once we're far enough that Robert and his goons won't be able to see it, but don't do it if the others think it would be a bad idea
     
    [x] Agree with both Artemis and Axton and Lancel's plans. Leave during the night and head north to Castle Legerius, using Ryza's nightvision for guidance.
    -[x] It might be worth considering using Ryza's lightning magic to allow everyone else to see where they're walking once we're far enough that Robert and his goons won't be able to see it, but don't do it if the others think it would be a bad idea
     
    [x] Agree with both Artemis and Axton and Lancel's plans. Leave during the night and head north to Castle Legerius, using Ryza's nightvision for guidance.
    -[x] It might be worth considering using Ryza's lightning magic to allow everyone else to see where they're walking once we're far enough that Robert and his goons won't be able to see it, but don't do it if the others think it would be a bad idea.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Alcor said:
    So, Ryza's presence is the wild card here that Robert has no way of knowing about. I actually think it would be instructive to ask Artemis what she would have done in this situation if we weren't here - the reason being that whatever the answer is is what Robert likely expects.
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    JAGwin said:
    I agree with the suggestion that asking Artemis what she would do without Ryza's nightvision might be a good idea, since that's probably what Robert expects us to do.
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    "Before anything else," you say. "What would you do if I wasn't here?"

    Artemis blinks, looking confused. "What do you mean, Ryza?" she asks.

    "I'm the only one Robert doesn't know about," you say, your thoughts racing like the wind. "He knows you. He knows Axton and Lancel, and no offense, but he can probably figure out what you do, Kelton."

    "None taken," the soldier says cheerfully.

    You give him a grateful smile before continuing your thought-current. "But he doesn't know me. He doesn't know what I can do, so he'll discount me. That means he'll do something to prepare for what you'd do if I wasn't here, which means we can prepare for his preparation without him being able to prepare for our preparation for his preparation."

    Artemis seems to mouth the last few words before leaning back, looking thoughtful. "I'm… not completely sure," she says. "I probably wouldn't have made it this far without you, but assuming I somehow did, I'd still know that just going along with him following me wouldn't work. I'd have to do something."

    She starts tracing in the dirt, not seeming to draw anything, just thinking. "I'd probably still try to make a break for it. It would be risky. Utter madness, especially with Actaeon in tow. The chance of someone getting hurt or lost would be enormous, especially since I wouldn't be able to risk lights for quite a while, but it would be a chance." She glances out the window. "Alternatively… if I thought the risk wasn't worth it and was angry enough, I might go with Kelton's idea. Drink the Shadow Elixir, sneak out, and try to kill them off, though he'll probably have one or two more people he hasn't shown specifically to prevent us from doing that."

    "I don't know this guy," Kelton says. "But from what I've seen he doesn't seem like some all-seeing spirit. Sometimes, a scout party is just a scout party, not some elaborate trap."

    "Robert may not be omniscient, but he is intelligent," Axton says. "Which means we need to take this a step further. Lady Ryza, he might not know what you're capable of, but he has seen you." He glanced at Kelton. "If I had to guess; he probably thinks you're with Kelton: he's been acting protective enough of you, and at a distance the lack of family resemblance might have thrown Robert off. He might imagine you're his little sister, along for whatever reason."

    Kelton blinks before grinning. "Thats me," he jokes. "Kelton: tactical genius."

    Axton pinches the bridge of his nose, but doesn't comment. "In any case, Robert would also be reasoning that, since we have a child with us, we might need to stop, though there are a few ways around that. You're small enough to carry, and could ride on Actaeon if needed."

    "And we're back where we started," Lancel groans.

    "'Having more information is always moving forward,'" you quote Father, thinking hard.

    Now, you just needed to figure out what to do with that information.

    AN: I was thinking last night, and I realized that this was a fair question that a thoughtful manakete would ask, and so I'm going to extend the vote until tomorrow so voters can take this new information into account.
     
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    • JAGwin said:
    I'm pretty sure this was supposed to be either "one thing" or "only one".

    That aside, I'm leaning towards sticking with my current vote.

    EDIT:

    Pretty sure this should've been either "why do you ask" or "what do you mean".
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    Thanks, fixed.

    AnOldIdeaMadeNew said:
    @SoaringHawk218 you might want to threadmark this aside, both to make sure it gets the attention it deserves from current players and to keep future readers in the loop.
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    I thought I had. Apparently that also got lost: I had meant this to go out much earlier today, but my internet was bad and it must have gotten lost, so I had to repost it. Guess that got lost as well.
     
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    • Scheduled vote count started by SoaringHawk218 on Feb 15, 2022 at 8:31 PM, finished with 31 posts and 13 votes.
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