Orc Quest; or, A Critical Examination of Agency Through in Interactive Fiction (Warcraft)
- Thread starter FractiousDay
- Start date
- Fantasy
[X] Deny the warlocks' aid.
- Location
- United Kingdom
You've got Zaruk the Twilight's Hammer guy and Keldran who's a necrolyte but cross trained as a warlock. You'll probably also have a few low level warlocks from the penal groups or others who've joined you.
I mean there very much is lol
This would depend what you want WOG on. I'm perfectly happy to answer things in or out of character. For example, you're still in command, you can just forbid them from doing high level demon stuff and limit them to throwing fire at people and that would be reasonably able to keep them 'secret'.
I had actually forgotten this I need to put a couple of lines in about it
Problem is they're sensibly relying on Grok's relative ignorance in terms of Burning
Keep in mind you've been wandering about doing stuff in the Eastern Kingdoms for some time now. There's been a reaonable amount of time to do stuff. Hammerfell hadn't heard of you or gotten news because they're very isolated, whereas people like Nagaz and co may not be.
[X] Deny the warlocks' aid.
- Location
- St. Petersburg
Wait, was that a lie?
I was assuming that was Grok's ignorance talking!
- Location
- United Kingdom
Fundamentally this is a question of Grok's (or the players') assessment of Feldad's policies. Grok knows Feldad lies a lot or at least conceals things habitually, he knows that the clan are involved in extensive intrigues. It might not be that surprising that Feldad has other agents he's not mentioned, indeed Grok sort of knows this given the whole mystery of what's going on in Desolace. Grok also knows Feldad has given secret instructions to people like Sesk before, and as such again it might not be impossible that he just wouldn't mention Nagaz etc. However, Grok believes that Feldad would have told him this sort of thing, which is why he thinks Nagaz is lying.
- Location
- Just passing through.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I really hope we can cure her from the madness someday.
Ah yes, of course the Blademaster that's our enemy has gone crazy, how convenient!
Yeah I don't trust this guys at all, not to mention, didn't we already have some Orcs talking in demon tongue towards us as if we would like it?
I already feel like we have some trouble in our ranks that this will just make things even worse.
And even if we tell them not to do strong demonic things, who is to say they would obey if we aren't near? That just feels like a bad roll away from a bomb exploding in our ranks.
[X] Deny the warlocks' aid.
OK YEAH, I THINK THAT'S A GOOD ENOUGH HINT!
- Location
- United Kingdom
I mean yes but you could also just look these three characters up in the wiki, they're all associated with Argus Wake, a nebulous but definitely legion associated organisation, just like the Burning Blade is.
- Location
- Just passing through.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Alright then, let's see...
wowpedia.fandom.com
Third Host refers to the third invasion of the Burning Legion, so that's a big NOPE for me.
Argus Wake
The Argus Wake are a mysterious group allied to the Syndicate in Alterac. According to Thrall, they are members of the Shadow Council.[2]
wowpedia.fandom.com
Third Host refers to the third invasion of the Burning Legion, so that's a big NOPE for me.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
We can either create a prosperous Kingdom of Orcs and Men, that will make Umbar/Harad/Karak Five Peaks/etc. pale in comparison...
or we can be pulled in the intrigues of the demons of the Burninating Legion.
I know what I would choose.
[X] Deny the warlocks' aid.
The only reason to hesitate is "can we order them not to do stuff if they are with us? Maybe better than leaving them to their own devices". But if they summon a demon we can declare it a crime and still arrest them.
or we can be pulled in the intrigues of the demons of the Burninating Legion.
I know what I would choose.
[X] Deny the warlocks' aid.
The only reason to hesitate is "can we order them not to do stuff if they are with us? Maybe better than leaving them to their own devices". But if they summon a demon we can declare it a crime and still arrest them.
Let me guess they infiltrated those assassins and shape shifted as humans.
- Location
- United Kingdom
Well yes, Fahrad, the named assassin, is indeed a dragon. I do sometimes have original characters for particular reasons, for example Vark, Angrais (who was actually @Doomed Wombat's character not mine), but otherwise I think everyone's been canonical. Obviously I tend to adapt people but still.
Would also say I suppose that I don't necessarily expect people to be constantly looking things up. That Dathrohan is a dreadlord is farily well understood by most people familiar with WoW, but for example Fahrad turns up in a rogue questline from several expansions ago so fewer people would know who he was.
Comparably, there's stuff that's in story, which I do expect people to be considering, for example the ambiguity with the Burning Blade in this story is essential to a player's understnading of what's going on. If I revealed that Feldad was doing something susicious I don't want anyone being surprised because they've just not been paying attentoin etc.
- Location
- United Kingdom
To note that a vote to deny them would require a diplo roll to see if Grok offends them etc, and would subsequently have a roll for their reaction, whereas they wouldn't have such rolls if you accepted them
Kufufu
Adequate at best
- Location
- What's it to ya?
I'm a bit less okay with that, I worry as to what a dedicated shadow organization may do to us if they should ever find that they want to harm us. Considering that and our penchant for low rolls at the worst of times, I'm reconsidering my vote.
@FractiousDay to be clear, we can take them on without taking them in, right? Can we work with them without having them in our warband and corrupting our people from within?
- Location
- Just passing through.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Meh, we're always at the mercy of rolls anyway.
When our options are:
A) Rolls that may fuck us over now
B) Rolls that may fuck us over later
Then may as well just focus on what direction we would like the narrative to go.
- Location
- United Kingdom
At the moment, you're quite busy fighting a military campaign. There's a lot of shouting and marching going on, so for example while Grok is concerned that demon worshippers have already infiltrated his warband, he's occupied. After that's done when Grok is ruling Alterac (or whatever else he decides to do), that would be the time to establish cultural factors for example.
If you chose to accept them, you obviously would have significantly more control over what they're doing than if you refused them. Similarly, if they're near you they're not going to be able to do anything overt without you noticing. Whether they'd go about whispering stuff is a separate matter, but yes you could have them watched etc.
Don't think I'd allow what I think you're suggesting, which would be to accept them but deploy them separately somehow. I don't like splitting the difference like that as the binary choices are designed to be binary.
Hopefully his bonuses for a silver tongue may do well for that.