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Get the last votes in, draenor is still edging out but I'm fine with keeping it open for now. Vote will close in a day
Orc Quest; or, A Critical Examination of Agency Through in Interactive Fiction (Warcraft)
- Thread starter FractiousDay
- Start date
- Fantasy
Vote closed
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- United Kingdom
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- United Kingdom
we had more votes before voting was open because people ignore the rules. I'm not really inclined to reward this, but Remnants was more popular in the last one anyway, and I think would be mor einteresting, so we'll go for that.
Doomed Wombat
Let's go Darling!
- Location
- Dancing on wires!
Yeah.
Sorry. Will not do in the future.
Anyway time to go thump some ogres.
Sorry. Will not do in the future.
Anyway time to go thump some ogres.
More interesting than messing about with the corrupted sunwell and high elven junk?
Though I concede there's a very high bar to solve the rift between trolls and elves besides both agreeing to Grok as a neutral peacekeeper who'll clear out scourge leftovers.
Arathi 1
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- United Kingdom
This is the small narrative arc I mentioned. No action turns, mostly just the minor choices as here. This is intended to lower the barrier to participation, so we'll see if that works.
Arathi 1
You pour over a map of Arathi. From the west, the land rose up into the highlands of eastern Lordaeron, the country split by a series of rivers and basins, wet, supposedly, but unalike to the other parts of the continent, the water preferring to run off into the sea rather than gathering in pools or marshes.
You were unfamiliar with such terrain, but not all Orcs were, and the Blademasters, as well as Scorn, stood at your sides, each looking at the map in turn, all having been part of the Old Horde's campaigns and knowing at least the routes they'd once marched.
Where once Arathi had been ruled as the Kingdom of Stromgarde, the oldest human polity, the folk there had declined rapidly after the Third War, their king murdered under uncertain circumstances, and a combination of forces sweeping in to contest the land. In the east, Galen Trollbane contested the Syndicate, a pack of outlaws and rebel nobles, while in the centre, the Witherbark trolls had crept down from the mountains and their former Amani comrades. It was the east you were most interested in, there was Hammerfall, your first objective. Dathrohan had bade you move the Orcs and Ogres out of Arathi, and you'd do so, if you could, for otherwise, in the event of an Scarlet triumph in the Plaguelands, the wrath of the Alliance would surely fall on the small communities of Orcs in the shadow of the mountains.
There was a question of where the Orcs would go, but you'd consider that point in time. You were no diplomat, nor a schemer, but honour would see you through, it had so far after all.
"The first thing to decide is how to get there." remarked Scorn. "The Thoradin Wall bars passage, and though supposedly there are gaps in it from time and trial, if we approach in that direction, we'd probably hit this Trollbane prince who commands the wall. Perhaps that would be useful, if only to gain his blessing, you're trying to clear his lands after all…"
"And yet," you reply, "I think it might be better to avoid him, for now. What of here?" you ask, pointing to a cove to the south of Stromgarde castle, "I can get us transport from the Kul Tirans, I'm sure of it, they could drop us here and we could bypass the whole west of the country."
How do you approach Arathi?
[ ] Wall
March overland, south through Hillbrad and through the Thoradin Wall, then across Arathi.
[ ] Sea
Take ship to Faldir's Cove, a well known smuggling site, and march north-east to Hammerfall.
Secondly, the terrain of Arathi will be much different from that of the Plaguelands. Dathrohan has noted his willingness to supply you with forces, but would human soldiers be useful when trying to persuade Orcs to obey you? Or would they simply enrage the Orcs in question? Supposedly the second round of Orcish prisoners will be arriving from Stormwind relatively soon, so you might expect a few Blackrocks out of Redridge and other locations where the humans fight them, but are there any forces you'd want to bring to Arathi? Those who accompany your warband will remain, save for the Defenders of Darrowshire, the militia who had joined you in the Battle of Anderhol. They will depart, though Redpath gives you thanks for all that you've done. Possible enemies include trolls, ogres, orcs, humans of the Syndicate or of Stromgarde, and maybe others, and whoever you bring will need to be suitable for such bouts.
Who will join the Warband in Arathi?
[Write in some suggestions for what you'd like, and what you think would be useful to bring, whether personnel or equipment. Assume that everyone apart from the Darrowshire people are coming along.]
Voting open, discuss etc. Note, I have moved the useful info stuff (eg dramatis personae, warband info, charactersheet) to the 'Sidestory' threadmarks, to separate that out from my musings on warcraft lore in the informational threadmarks.
Arathi 1
You pour over a map of Arathi. From the west, the land rose up into the highlands of eastern Lordaeron, the country split by a series of rivers and basins, wet, supposedly, but unalike to the other parts of the continent, the water preferring to run off into the sea rather than gathering in pools or marshes.
You were unfamiliar with such terrain, but not all Orcs were, and the Blademasters, as well as Scorn, stood at your sides, each looking at the map in turn, all having been part of the Old Horde's campaigns and knowing at least the routes they'd once marched.
Where once Arathi had been ruled as the Kingdom of Stromgarde, the oldest human polity, the folk there had declined rapidly after the Third War, their king murdered under uncertain circumstances, and a combination of forces sweeping in to contest the land. In the east, Galen Trollbane contested the Syndicate, a pack of outlaws and rebel nobles, while in the centre, the Witherbark trolls had crept down from the mountains and their former Amani comrades. It was the east you were most interested in, there was Hammerfall, your first objective. Dathrohan had bade you move the Orcs and Ogres out of Arathi, and you'd do so, if you could, for otherwise, in the event of an Scarlet triumph in the Plaguelands, the wrath of the Alliance would surely fall on the small communities of Orcs in the shadow of the mountains.
There was a question of where the Orcs would go, but you'd consider that point in time. You were no diplomat, nor a schemer, but honour would see you through, it had so far after all.
"The first thing to decide is how to get there." remarked Scorn. "The Thoradin Wall bars passage, and though supposedly there are gaps in it from time and trial, if we approach in that direction, we'd probably hit this Trollbane prince who commands the wall. Perhaps that would be useful, if only to gain his blessing, you're trying to clear his lands after all…"
"And yet," you reply, "I think it might be better to avoid him, for now. What of here?" you ask, pointing to a cove to the south of Stromgarde castle, "I can get us transport from the Kul Tirans, I'm sure of it, they could drop us here and we could bypass the whole west of the country."
How do you approach Arathi?
[ ] Wall
March overland, south through Hillbrad and through the Thoradin Wall, then across Arathi.
[ ] Sea
Take ship to Faldir's Cove, a well known smuggling site, and march north-east to Hammerfall.
Secondly, the terrain of Arathi will be much different from that of the Plaguelands. Dathrohan has noted his willingness to supply you with forces, but would human soldiers be useful when trying to persuade Orcs to obey you? Or would they simply enrage the Orcs in question? Supposedly the second round of Orcish prisoners will be arriving from Stormwind relatively soon, so you might expect a few Blackrocks out of Redridge and other locations where the humans fight them, but are there any forces you'd want to bring to Arathi? Those who accompany your warband will remain, save for the Defenders of Darrowshire, the militia who had joined you in the Battle of Anderhol. They will depart, though Redpath gives you thanks for all that you've done. Possible enemies include trolls, ogres, orcs, humans of the Syndicate or of Stromgarde, and maybe others, and whoever you bring will need to be suitable for such bouts.
Who will join the Warband in Arathi?
[Write in some suggestions for what you'd like, and what you think would be useful to bring, whether personnel or equipment. Assume that everyone apart from the Darrowshire people are coming along.]
Voting open, discuss etc. Note, I have moved the useful info stuff (eg dramatis personae, warband info, charactersheet) to the 'Sidestory' threadmarks, to separate that out from my musings on warcraft lore in the informational threadmarks.
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Doomed Wombat
Let's go Darling!
- Location
- Dancing on wires!
mmm...this presumably takes more time, but lets us meet more people.
Chance to meet with Galen is appealing though.
This is probably faster, but riskier. Even if the canon threats (naga) ain't there. Might put us in contact with pirates too.
mmm...we probably want to bring some people to try and help persuade the humans that we're not here to smack em, (hopefully we're automatically getting identification that shows our Crusade affiliation. Well that and Darion.)
Scorn can hopefully be left in charge of those left behind without issue.
mmm...I'd preferably want to bring our blade-master initiates Sorek, knight Black Dragon, Whitemane, Varrk and maybe Kartha?
I'm not sure how many people would be seen as too many or too few for the task, Kartha's role as a scout is great, hence wanting to bring her, Whitemane is handy for her diplomatic use priestess of the light and all, but also you know. Healing, really handy.
Vok'fonn is complicated. He wants to do history, but Stormsbrad made its history off of the Troll Wars, not sure what the national sentiment between the two is, but probably not good, although Vo'jinn does recognise the use of their weapons against Hakkar.
mmm...
In general it feels like we can take more people overland, fewer people by sea.
- Location
- barking
thinking of the trolls of the area even if we ignore cannon (where they team up with gurabashi and hakkar) not sure what we will end up doing with them since they are part of zul'jin group of trolls which are heavily xenophobic and with humans with us that prob kills a peaceful contact but for now I say we bring whitemane (healing) darion, one of the older orcs who know the area and the training blades.
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You've got a year, roughly, to accomplish your mission, before you're going back to help with Naxx. If you don't succeed, that's still fine, and you'll still go back to Naxx
Yea Darion with a Scarlet banner will at least have any Stromic force pause instead of attacking on sight
Why would you be leaving people behind? Everyone is there to help you in your mission. No one really cares about fighting the Scourge apart from you. There's people like Keldran or Whitemane who have slightly different motivations, but they're still under your command and Dathrohan has given you this mission. Have edited the post slighlty but assume that everyone apart from the Darrowshire people are coming with you anyway.
No probably not, but nor would it be overly hostile. VF hasn't ever met a Stromic person, or an Amani. He's a troll nationalist/revanchist, but he's more on an info gathering mission rather than a 'kill teh humans' mission. He probably wouldn't feel great about helping Stromgarde or pushing back the Witherbark, but they're not Darkspear, Gurubashi or Zandalari, who are the tribes he identifies more with. It's like fighting a cousin rather than a brother, for example.
Assume you can take everyone
It's not the game so assume you can at least have a chat with people. Hospitality is important for feudal and tribal societies, so the Witherbark would at least let you come up and say hello and speak to you. That might be the extent of such contact, but emmissaries are generally respected.
Does that mean more side missions?
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- United Kingdom
I mean I suppose so if you got it done really quickly, sure, but some time will be spent travelling about, some fighting people, some probably visiting various locations and recruiting from them , so I don't see a lot of free time for side missions.
Generally, assume that this arc will be arathi, and that you'll be doing stuff there. For example, I could potentially have Vokfon mention Trollkar, and how he'd like to get it or something, and that might be a turn's worth of stuff, but in general I'm assuming this is going go take about 8 turns of these realtively small narrative choices, and that that'll be a series of smaller chapters which will explore all the Arathi stuff
I might not be getting your question though, is that what you're asking?
If it's done faster, will Grok still have time to go do more expeditions on Scarlet authority?
Doomed Wombat
Let's go Darling!
- Location
- Dancing on wires!
Because the question of who do we take kinda implies that we shouldn't take everyone.
But yeah, in that case we need to ask for supplies to take with us.
mmm...
Maps if they have any, scouts if they can spare some, means of speaking at a distance again if any can be spared, maybe a bit of gun powder so Vark can continue experimenting, mmm...are there anythings Ogres like that's cheap...cause the only thing I can think of is food which ain't an option.
[X] Bring entire warband minus the "60 Lordaeron infantry, commanded by Carlin Redpath, with minor magical support"
-[X] request light armor and higher quality weapons (if available) for the the aspirants and skirmishers
-[X] request heavier armor for shield bearers and higher quality weapons (if available)
-[X] Let our named characters request supplementary gear to their preference
-[X] Request pack animals, camping gear, and hand tools to supplement existing warband stocks
I think we want to keep this a Horde forward group though keeping the named characters can help smooth over human relations!
@FractiousDay this vote is just for people right? Not requisitioning equipment?
Edit: added equipment requests
-[X] request light armor and higher quality weapons (if available) for the the aspirants and skirmishers
-[X] request heavier armor for shield bearers and higher quality weapons (if available)
-[X] Let our named characters request supplementary gear to their preference
-[X] Request pack animals, camping gear, and hand tools to supplement existing warband stocks
I think we want to keep this a Horde forward group though keeping the named characters can help smooth over human relations!
@FractiousDay this vote is just for people right? Not requisitioning equipment?
Edit: added equipment requests
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- United Kingdom
If you do it really fast I suppose so, but I find that unlikely.
Yea they're not really a complex people, they like smashing stuff and eating stuff, these aren't Highmaul ogres with more complex needs. There's always stuff people want, good weapons, magical reagents etc, but nothing notable. Also, the Crusade isn't going to fund you resources to bribe Ogres, Dathrohan and Trollbane want them gone, not gifted stuff. (in theory anyway)
Not intended, it was a 'who in addition to those you have'
You can? This is indeed an rpg? You're meant to discuss stuff, you have access to the warband's expertise. Any of the veterans would tell you, for example that the Alliance countered Ogres through knights (presumably because of the mobility and hitting power with lances). As such Grok could do the same. Then again, you have Orcs, who are also good against Ogres.
No you can have both, it would be pointless to requisition artillerists without artillery, for example
majority busy fighting the scourge, this mission, specifically, is one of the ones where Dathrohan needs to send someone, but wants to use you to free up his other resources. Paladins are really good against undead, they have no inherant bonuses against ogres, for example, as such that's not really one of the resources available
I'll also note that you can assume you'll have decent provisions. You wouldn't need to specify that the Crusade supply you with some food for example, and you can live off the land to an extent.
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Thanks! I added the equipment request to my vote, is that reasonable?
Would it be ok to also ask for some minor enchanted stuff for ourselves?
We haven't got their thoughts yet.
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- barking
[X] Wall
- Location
- United Kingdom
Yes that's fine, generally stuff the Crusade would have been willing to give. You won't be able to get heavy armour because the Crusade hasn't got any in orc sizes and lacks the capacity to produce some quickly.
Depends what you want. I'll firstly say that I'm disinclined toward a lot of magic items. Firstly because no one remembers them and I'm inclined to say that if you forget, Grok forgets he has them etc. You got a bloodstone amulet in the first few chapters and investigated it once, then just put it on and forgot about it and everyone was all 'woops tha tcould have gone really badly that was silly' once it was revealed by Feldad to indeed be bloodstone, so given that sort of lack of attention toward items, I don't really want to have to keep track of dozens of little gizmos for you.
Also, it's not really in Grok's character? There was a load of stuff I put in Akinos' mouth about 'cool swords are cool but the wielder is more important' etc. Unlike Vark, Grok's not a tinker or something who messes about with such things, he's hard speced into sword stuff.
I'm willing to entertain the idea but I'd have to be persuaded on it basically. Grok is willing to use stuff (bombs at the tower, griffon feather recently, etcetc), but it would depend what.
You have hundreds of thousands of words of their thoughts. You, in character, have access to certain information and people who know stuff, you may assume that offscreen Grok is able ot consult them. I'm not going to write him walking round to each person and asking 'hey vark hey kartha hey dathrohan, what do you think I should take to Arathi'. You as a player also have access to the wiki. You know, both in and out of character, that you'll be facing Ogres. What do you want to bring to deal with them? Do you just want to fight htem? Sure that might work. You also know, either from the wiki or through logical deduction, that the Alliance countered them somehow (as I mentioned, using knights), so again, it's up to you to figure it out. What sort of thing might, for example Kartha have to say? As a Shattered Hand, she would be familair in part with Ogres, what might she know about their tactics? What sort of advice might she offer? Have a think about it, discuss it. There's a hundred people reading this, you can talk to each other about it, I'm not willing to lead people around and hold their hands, people do actually have to play the game.
I was expecting something like that though. Everytime there's a new mission you have another meeting where everyone speaks their piece.
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Meh, partly me trying to do this arc in the way I am I suppose