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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 .
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Much of this decision hinges on whether we think Sypha is more likely to be currently held in an unsavory part of civilization or out in the wilderness. If she is being kept in a basement somewhere, Kopoi is likely the best choice for working out which basement and that is a situation where Robin's skills will be of limited utility in terms of actually locating our quarry. If the inverse is true, Kopoi at least understands enough about stealth to be of some use in the wild. On the basis of who is most likely to be useful regardless of the circumstances of Sypha's captivity, Kopoi seems the best choice.

On the other hand, Kopoi seems to have something of a personality clash with Ryza, and given that the two of them must learn to work together well enough to deal with a presumably greater force and rescue a hostage, having that kind of tension might cause the mission to fail entirely. Robin is a complete unknown, but I think Artemis knows Ryza well enough by now that if she says the two will get along, that assessment is most likely accurate. I share your concerns regarding how well he might be able to adapt should Sypha be held somewhere with more buildings than trees, but in this case I think the morale benefits of not having to deal with Kopoi's... eccentricities outweigh that particular potential issue.

On the other other hand, playing the meta angle, Phoebe wouldn't be offered by the GM if she didn't have something useful to offer to this search. I doubt it's that she's a better fighter than the two who are acknowledged masters of their field: she said herself that she's not as strong or experienced as the others. The established rapport is nice, but doesn't quite seem like enough to warrant competing directly with two trained professionals. So there's definitely something there that's intended to make up the deficit, and if we can work out what that is, that might be worth considering. Unfortunately we haven't been able to work out what that'd be yet, unless maybe there's an existing sense of "women aren't as dangerous as men" going around that might cause our enemies to overlook and underestimate us?

Ugh, we're a bit deadlocked at the moment. If anyone sees a flaw in any of our logic, we'd love to hear it, since we've got two obviously good options with pros and cons, and one option that looks like an obviously wrong pick but can't be because why offer a choice that is directly inferior to the other options? We're clearly missing something and none of us have been able to work out what yet.
 
I think Robin is the best choice. Going into towns and being subtle isn't something Ryza is great at, and it could take a significant amount of time. Our best bet is finding the bandit trail and catching up. For that, Robin's help in tracking, navigating, and planning an ambush if necessary would be ideal. He's also an archer, so he can fight effectively from dragon back if required. Or disappear into the wilderness with or without Ryza, if needed.

If we aim to find the bandits with minimal risk of exposing Ryza's existence to anyone I think Robin is the best bet.

Changing my mind to Kopoi, mostly because I would like to attempt a stealth exfiltration first rather than having to resort to immediate force.

[X] Ask for Kopoi the Spy to accompany you.
 
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TaliesinSkye said:
He's also an archer, so he can fight effectively from dragon back if required.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

We had not considered this point. Kopoi is doubtless trained in some variety of ranged weapon, but possibly not to the extent required to do so while on dragonback. Yes, I believe that tips the scales.

"Hehe. 'Scales'?"

Unintentional.

[X] Ask for Robin the Hunter to accompany you.
 
I'm torn between Kopoi and Phoebe. Leaning towards Kopoi at the moment. While it's true that moving through towns could take up time, it's also true that moving through the wilderness could take just as much time finding a good trail, especially with how several different parties have been tearing the countryside in different directions on various pursuits. Meanwhile towns or villages would likely have more information on recent bandit movements, which means when we find a bite it'll be a bit more reliable.

Also I think Kopoi would be an interesting traveling companion with some good perspective to share with Ryza. He may also be better at filling us in on some of the finer points of the political state of the world, as well as how people behave. That and I think an adventure through the villages rather than wilderness might be good for Ryza.

=======
Edit: Ok I know I said all that about Kopoi but I'm interested to see what the Phoebe option would look like. I am switching my vote. I agree with Hestia that she must bring something to the table.

[X] Ask for Phoebe the Squire to accompany you.
 
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Further consideration has me thinking of changing my mind to Kopoi. We need to get Sypha out alive, and preferably with Ryza's existence unknown, and the best way to do that would be if Kopoi could infiltrate the 'bandit' camp and extract Sypha by stealth, with Ryza keeping overwatch as the big deadly backup plan ready to kill all the kidnappers if doing things quietly goes badly.

Without Kopoi the best chance would probably be snatching Sypha by attacking from the air, leaving her somewhere safe with Robin, then hoping we can kill all the kidnappers without any escapees.
 
[X] Ask for Kopoi the Spy to accompany you.

This was honestly tough for me. I was stuck between Kopoi and Robin. But the potential of a stealth exfiltration of the hostage is more preferable to me than potentially having to slaughter the kidnappers in order to make a clean getaway and hide the existence of a manakete/dragon.
 
[X] Ask for Kopoi the Spy to accompany you.

The need for stealth is a compelling argument for us to change our mind yet again.
 
[X] Ask for Phoebe the Squire to accompany you.

Kopoi is probably the optimal choice here - an archer means we'd be essentially be taking two ranged units into battle with no tank outside going dragon. Kopoi is more likely to gather information related to the bigger picture here in the natural course of the investigation. He's the best option for any stealth that may be useful.

And yet I'm going to vote Phoebe because it feels the most "Ryza" option to me. If pressed to name an advantage she brings that the others don't, she appears to be the most straight-forwardly melee of the three so we could maybe be a more balanced group but honestly I feel like things turning to open combat should probably be a bad thing regardless of who we choose so that may be no real advantage at all. Also I like the narrative dimension she brings to this with her relationship to Selena and the whole scheme.
 
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