Chosen by the Dragon God
- Thread starter Chandagnac
- Start date
- Original
Flashkannon
Aqua Iconographer
- Location
- TM 91
I would posit it like this - if, say, Batman blows into the life of an ordinary person with problems with money and, say, gangsters, those problems, normally insoluble by the average joe, will go away real quick.
Green Flame fan club +1
She's just the cutest little dragon, yes she is!
Honestly much more doable with the new larger party size. It obscures matters. Having this many people means we can also dedicate at least one person to straggler duty, making sure no dead men tell any tales.
Oh heck yeah Lavokthagua!! He's an extremely heavy hitter, he's a dragon, and I bet he could smash those ships to matchsticks. I think he should be our designated "make our enemies think this wasn't the work of portal mages" evidence eraser. Hey, maybe he'll get some recognition out of it too! He's only been in a few chapters so far, so I am happy to see him again!
Raef has about two modes: schoolkid and schoolteacher, and I can respect that for her.
Agreed, I like your overall analysis. Personally, I like that we have this strong coalition built - Elys is a born leader, and that proves that she's starting to come into her own, at least a bit.
Probably:
Lavokthagua, GF: Heavy hitters.
Samaya, Raef, GF, Red Ruin, Sildar and Jorantul (with portal mage help): Quick hitters
And "a monster emerged from the waves and effed up our ships" imho Sounds very much like a "I'm waging war against a coalition involving the dragon of the depth, the famed monster maker" problem.
Oh yeah. And Elys gets to have a bit of action herself.
Chandagnac
Broken Robot
- Location
- Nowhere
Bellona can fly. I'm not sure I'd describe her as having 'low mobility'.
If you like. What sort of different approaches would you suggest?
In the real world, Samaya would definitely be in the right that young teenagers should be nowhere near an active warzone. But this is a fantasy world, so...
Exactly.
He and Jorantul are the Chosen of Mawroth, even if they don't know it. Of course they're going to be enthusiastic about getting the support of such a capable fighter as Green Flame.
Indeed.
Lavokthagua is going to be fairly cautious, at least at first, just in case the Aspitis have got an effective counter to him. But as the battle progresses he'll show his worth.
Flashkannon
Aqua Iconographer
- Location
- TM 91
Lavokthagua should help us a lot, both as a capable fighter in his own right and as a smokescreen against investigation into the involvement of Portal Magic. The best defense against a thorough examination is a plausible explanation!
So, what I am hearing is Green Flame Fan Club +2
Fire on the Water (Part Two)
Chandagnac
Broken Robot
- Location
- Nowhere
Quite possibly.
*
Fire on the Water (Part Two)
Fire on the Water (Part Two)
When he is told about the plan, Red Ruin seems almost affronted not to have been involved from the very beginning. "Of course I'll take part! My sister and I make a formidable pair," he says, referring to Green Flame. Even if they're not blood relatives, their shared history – the fact that Keron turned both of them into elves makes them as close to siblings as it's possible for anyone who wasn't born from the same mother to be. At least, that's what you think; it's not like you've consulted your friends for their opinions on the subject.
Similarly, when you swim out to meet Lavokthagua, using your ability to transform into a mermaid-like aquatic being whenever you're dunked in seawater, he seems eager to join you in your mission. "It will be good to strike a blow against the slave islanders," he says, speaking to you telepathically. "Too often our battles have ended inconclusively."
"Just to make sure: you understand your role in the plan?" you ask.
"Unless it has changed since the last time it was explained to me, yes," he replies.
"All right then." It's difficult to nod underwater and you're not sure if he would interpret a smile as a hostile gesture, so you try to make your meaning as clear as possible by saying, "I'm glad to hear it. We'll be setting off soon."
Sure enough, a few hours later, you and your companions set off on a rickety vessel that looks as if it could fall apart at any moment, crewed by Mishrak's deep ones. Although their scaly appearance is rather intimidating, they are jovial, easy-going fellows with a rather uncouth manner of speaking, little different from any other sailors you've ever met. Deep beneath the sea, under so much water that he is currently invisible, Lavokthagua follows at a distance.
It is evening. The sun hangs low in the sky, which is thick with blustery clouds. Buffeted by the winds and tossed by the waves, your ship creaks and groans so much that you wonder if it'll reach its destination before or after it begins to sink.
Because living men tend to be intimidated by the presence of undead monstrosities, the Aspitis have kept their two fleets separate, since one is crewed by regular sailors and the other by rotting corpses who've been enslaved by rogue necromancers. While they're apart, they're weaker than they would be if they stayed together, which you hope is a weakness you can exploit.
You're not sure if the undead fleet has lookouts – do they get the dead men to do that? – but you are nevertheless surprised that your floating hulk is able to get so close to it without being noticed. It almost seems suspicious. Still, you're not about to complain.
Samaya opens a portal, you open another, and Raef stands ready to critique your technique, in a teacherly sort of way. Sildar and Jorantul jump through one portal, emerging on the deck of a nearby ghost ship. Red Ruin and Green Flame go through the other. You don't see where they end up, but almost immediately after that you see one of the other ships consumed by a fiery conflagration.
"I'd better make sure they can get away in time," Samaya mutters, vanishing from sight.
Turning to Jana and Catharne, you ask them, "Are you ready for this?"
Jana is keeping a tight grip on the hilt of her sword – Mishrak gave her a cold iron sword to match the dagger he gave her so long ago – but she nods wordlessly.
"I'm not going to transform until we're through the portal and have enough space," says Catharne. "But yes."
Peering through the portal, you see Sildar coated with layers of protective magic while Jorantul has become a rebounding missile – what looks like a whirring ball of dozens of blades, all of them spattered with gore – moving almost too fast to be seen. Together, they have slaughtered what looks like the entire crew of the ship you transported them onto.
"Time for us to go," you say, taking a step forward, through the wound in space and onto the deck of the ghost ship. You find yourself gingerly tiptoeing through puddles of unidentifiable muck, which you really don't want to think about, and trying very hard not to slip over.
Your friends have followed close behind you. A shadow passes over you as Catharne becomes something huge and powerful, as large as a warhorse, with furled wings and claws that look like they could rip through steel plate. Droplets of acid hiss from her open mouth. Meanwhile, Jana is lurking behind you, ready to stab anyone who tries to take you by surprise.
Opening another portal, you gesture for Sildar and Jorantul to go through it. Even through his layers of protective shielding you see Sildar acknowledge you with a nod, but Jorantul is moving so quickly it is difficult for you to tell what he is doing. They disappear through the portal and reappear on the deck of the next closest ship, ready to begin the slaughter again.
Through the smoke, you see Bellona floating in the air between the ships. Her hands seem to glow and then fade, more than once, and you can't be sure what she's doing. However, after some thought, it occurs to you that she's probably countering the rogue necromancers' spells. Whatever they're trying to do, she's making sure to stop them.
And then you hear a sickening crunch, a shudder underfoot, and you are nearly thrown aside with shattering as one of the other ghost ships crashes into the one you are currently on. Fortunately, you and your friends can levitate, so it is easy enough to avoid a nasty fall by making sure you land on your feet instead.
However, when you look around, you see a boarding party made up of more than a dozen bloated and decaying corpses: some are shipwrecked mariners, others were slain in previous sea battles, and a few might have been slaves who took ill or died at sea and then were thrown overboard. No matter how much you sympathize with them for how much they have suffered in life and in death, they are a threat to you and your friends, so they must be destroyed.
Jana and Catharne stand ready to fight. And you have mighty magic of your own.
What will Elys do? (Choose one)
[] Help Jana and Catharne fight off the zombie sailors.
OR
[] Ignore the zombie sailors. Teleport yourself and your friends to one of the other ships.
-[] Teleport to the ship Sildar and Jorantul are currently clearing out.
OR
[] Let Jana and Catharne handle the fighting. Focus on transporting Sildar and Jorantul to where they need to go. Keep an eye out for what else is going on.
OR
-[] Do something else (write in).
I've given you a few options, but do you think you could come up with a better plan? I'll leave it up to you.
Smoke in the sky.
Anyway.. What do we have to work with:
Iirc Elys Dragon Breath was force (i.e.: Skyrim "Fus-Ro-Dah")?
And Catharnes seems to be acid...
Force breath and Force Fields could be good to shove the zombies into the water (where they'd be harmless (unless they can climb the ship) until the necromancers get killed and the spell reanimating them is ended)
We could have them (Elys + Catharne + Jana) fight back the zombies that try to enter our ship, while telepathically asking Lavokthaguan to come and take a big bite of the ramming ship, leading to it sinking with the remaining zombies.
Or they (ECJ) fight back the zombies, until Sildar and Jorantul are done on their ship and then have them (SJ) hit the ramming ship.
Or if Elys is strong enough to sink a ship with her breath weapon, she could do it.
Or we could regroup, Samaya keeps being the mobility mage for Red Ruin and Green Flame, Raef takes up Elys spot as mobility mage for Sildar and Jorantul, while Elys+Catharne+Jana disengage and join Belladonna. Keeping an eye out for surprises and striking at the necromances while they are distracted by Belladonnas counter spells. Also would make sure they don't get to use their numeric advantage to attack Belladonna while she counterspells them.
If we have fire magic that could also be something usefull, just bathe the ships/necromancers in flames while flying by. (unless they have good ranged... Catharne does the flame bathing and Elys uses her forcefields to block attacks aimed at Catharne?)
Also, looked back, seems last time we spoke to Lavokthagua was in Walking in the Air with Uncle Mishrak (Part Three), when he was introduced. We ought to invite him to spend the evening after the battle with us at the undersea palace, wouldn't do to have him be lonely!
What the hell, we haven't seen either of them fight for a while.
[X] Let Jana and Catharne handle the fighting. Focus on transporting Sildar and Jorantul to where they need to go. Keep an eye out for what else is going on.
[X] Let Jana and Catharne handle the fighting. Focus on transporting Sildar and Jorantul to where they need to go. Keep an eye out for what else is going on.
Flashkannon
Aqua Iconographer
- Location
- TM 91
Maybe we can get her some kind of heart to eat to boost her fan club numbers...
Just quoting because I love the imagery here. So cool.
Love this too, our little Jana is growing up!
In my opinion, there's no need to defend the ship we're on or our current footing. Depending on how they're armed, we can just... fly a little out of reach and scuttle the boarding party with some acid and force. Or, worse comes to worse, jump overboard. Jana is trained, Elys can breathe underwater, as can Catharne, and their opponents cannot even float in water.
[x] fly over their heads
-[x] blast whatever is convenient to deprive them of their fooothold and/or unlife
Heartily agreed. He's also our uncle!
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I was thinking attacking the Necromancers specifically, and they might have some non-necromancy magic.
This reads to me like the necromancers are present and fighting Bellona in a spell duel (with Bellona countering everything they try to do)
[X] Plan: kicking necromancer butt
-[X] Regroup
--[X] Samaya stays with Red Ruin and Green Flame. (Group: Strike 1)
---[X] keep doing what they are doing.
--[X] Raef joins Sildar and Jorantul to take Elys's portal mage duties. (Group: Strike 2)
---[X] keep doing what they are doing.
--[X]Lavokthagua keeps on Lavokthagua-ing.
--[X] Elys, Catharne, Jana form (Group: Strike Air)
---[X] Jana rides Catharne, Elys either rides Catharne or flies along
---[X] They join Bellona in the air, first task: Fly-by attacking the necromancers whose spells Bellona is counterspelling. (assuming they are on the ships)
Chandagnac
Broken Robot
- Location
- Nowhere
Elys is capable of changing her dragon breath to various different elements, including fire.
Ships tend to be fairly large and solid, so it's unlikely Elys could use her breath weapon to destroy one very quickly.
Lavokthagun is a gigantic dragon turtle with only a very limited ability to shapeshift. It's extremely unlikely that he could fit inside the Undersea Palace.
When I had Mishrak turn Lavokthagua into this new aquatic version, I was inspired by Tolkien's poem, Fastitocalon (from 'The Adventures of Tom Bombadil').
See Below:
See Below:
J. R. R Tolkien said:
Is that a reference to something? If so, I'm not familiar with it.
That might work. But I think Jana and Catharne would be disappointed not to get their chance to shine.
Could we get an updated list of her powers in an informational threadmark?
Ok, one form for Lavokthagun, no "Lavokthagun but a smaller enough to fit into the palace", got it.
Flashkannon
Aqua Iconographer
- Location
- TM 91
Ah, true enough, but I feel like they may fall in the course of our strike teams' efforts anyways. And, as noted below, it'd rob dear, sweet Jana of her moment to be a cool handmaiden that protects the princess, a real knight in shining armor! We can just dragonbreath and dip, or use forcefields to force them to chokepoint themselves if she needs some help.
A Hedge Maze Is You Original
It took me a while to find where I'd written them up, but... These are the rules I've been using: I hope all that makes sense. Um... do you mean "without temporarily reducing the target's abilities"? (Spending HP/MP on the casting doesn't make any difference either way.) The answer is "yes"...
forums.sufficientvelocity.com
And it doesn't help that the owner of the original heart is hanging around right now, haha
True enough, but luckily I am outvoted.
Yeah, taking Janas and Catharnes time to shine would be mean.
Probably overthinking it a bit after the Narcopolis arc and the battle on the moon.
[X] Let Jana and Catharne handle the fighting. Focus on transporting Sildar and Jorantul to where they need to go. Keep an eye out for what else is going on.
Chandagnac
Broken Robot
- Location
- Nowhere
I've added Mastery of Portals to the list you quoted. I don't think Elys has learned any other completely new powers, just gained experience and competency in using the ones she already has.
Ah, yes. Poor Lavokthagua.
It's just that I was confused when you said she could eat someone's heart to make herself more popular, which I'm fairly sure is something that never happened. Do you need any more than that?
what can she change her dragon breath to?
fire, thunder, (catharnes acid?) that magnitude of stuff?
Chandagnac
Broken Robot
- Location
- Nowhere
Changing her dragon breath element is fairly easy for her, so I didn't want to give a full list because it might not be accurate for very long. So far, she's learnt how to change it to concussive force, electricity or fire.
Catharne can also change the element of her dragon breath. Against Yulian Sagitarrus and the creepy Rayze twins, she used something that might have been a combination of heat and acid.
Flashkannon
Aqua Iconographer
- Location
- TM 91
Well, thankfully our enemies this time are a bunch of rogue necromancers and a heap of unthinking corpses. Demon lords they are not. They could kill us but they hardly have the power to overwhelm us easily, or match Elys blow-for-blow. I would call this danger level moderate.
I mean, if you think about it...
divine rank flows from the number of worshippers you have, so getting +1 rank from eating a heart is like cheating at a popularity contest
Plus, her popularity came from her ability to kick ass.
The heart eating would increase that ability. (for sufficiently badass heart sources)
And All This Will End... Eventually.
Chandagnac
Broken Robot
- Location
- Nowhere
Once again, I've been feeling discouraged because this quest has gone on for so long and lost so many readers/participants, especially since my latest fic (which I have so far uploaded to SpaceBattles but not Sufficient Velocity) has been so successful. On the other hand, the four of you (Zam, Indivisible, Flashkannon and Toboe) have been so loyal and such fun to write for that I don't want to just quit. I want to give this fic a proper ending.
So, I've decided to bring this quest to an end at the conclusion of the 'War Against Aspitolm' arc. The 'Rescue Zora Alishanda' arc took most of a year, so I think it's pretty likely that the 'War Against Aspitolm' arc will take just as long. But I'm planning to end this quest after that. I think that will be a good place to end it.
So, I've decided to bring this quest to an end at the conclusion of the 'War Against Aspitolm' arc. The 'Rescue Zora Alishanda' arc took most of a year, so I think it's pretty likely that the 'War Against Aspitolm' arc will take just as long. But I'm planning to end this quest after that. I think that will be a good place to end it.
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Please don't feel guilty about choosing to bring this story, which you work on for free, to an end if you want to do so. I've enjoyed the world and story that you've chosen to share with us, and appreciate that you've continued to do so with such a small audience, but a labour of love is still labour. All stories end, and this story has been going on in one form or another since 2015, with this thread is almost at 100 pages already. You could choose to stop at any point and I'd still appreciate all that you've done for us. Deciding to wait until you bring things to a solid conclusion instead is incredibly kind.
Ending with the end of the war is a great stopping point, especially since you've wrapped up the lingering quest lines from previous quests and changed the whole setting with the moon arc. After the war, Elys and her companions will have changed the world for the better multiple times and set up the world to keep getting better, and they'll deserve a rest.
Ending with the end of the war is a great stopping point, especially since you've wrapped up the lingering quest lines from previous quests and changed the whole setting with the moon arc. After the war, Elys and her companions will have changed the world for the better multiple times and set up the world to keep getting better, and they'll deserve a rest.
Flashkannon
Aqua Iconographer
- Location
- TM 91
♥️
Wise words.
I, too, am grateful we've gotten this far and had this much fun! Thanks for sticking by us so far, and I hope the rest is just as fun. All things have to end eventually, you know? It's a mercy if you get to choose when.
Dark_River49
Randomly Generated Gremlin, Writes Walls of Text
- Location
- Somewhere in Sufficient Velocity
Aww. Sad to see this Quest getting cut short, but at least you announced it in advance instead of dropping off the face of the earth. I might not have been the most active participant, but thi Quest and the universe its set in were amazing all the same. Cheers to you future endeavors, and I wish you success!