Search Posts
Hi all,
I'll be driving all day today, but will begin vacation posting Thursday. Going to be a bit of a boring vacation (visiting in-laws in the boondocks, so not much to do). Should be able to post frequently. MDT PS : Yep! Games help, when your brain isn't full of fog
To my games,
Sick, sorry
"Indeed, we have committed to help dispose of the Black Acadamies, and people have risked their lives. If we leave now, we will be burning our bridges behind us, and also consigning our new allies to retaliation." She rubs her chin. "If thou dost indeed control time, however, there may be a way to accomplish both. If thou canst move us through time, we could be both here and in Gongfang, destroying the Black Academies and assisting you in your efforts." She smiles. "Alternately, you could skip ahead in time, to see where the Black Academies were, and then report back to us with their locations, so they can all be taken out at once."
"I have two ears, and unlike my eyes, both of them work." Listrana says, hefting her sword to her shoulder.
Sorry, holidays hit me with stealth attacks.
I may have been misunderstanding the setup, but when I made Listrana, I made her background based on the idea that Demons = Bad. That is, the system seems to have the concept baked into it that demons, which are creatures from another reality, are in general bad. Not necessarily evil, but bad from the world perspective, as their presence weakens the already failing world, and that part of cleaning up the world and restarting it is to increase the strength of the walls, thus locking them out. So it was quite a surprise to have another PC advocating working with demon summoners, as that seems to be self defeating. While I'm all good with interparty tension (so long as it's not game ruining), fundamental things like that really kind of need to be baked into the group.
I'm also having trouble staying involved. I'm not saying it's you, Rednal, or that this is what you're doing, but sometimes it feels like I'm playing 'guess the pre-ordained solution' in this game. Between that and the very slow pace which makes it hard to keep the thread going, I'm not sure, even as much as I love the character, that I can keep things going. I think we either need a bit more structure/OOC planning with the GM involved, or more posting speed, or something, but as it's been going, I'm not sure I can really get excited...
Listrana suddenly goes into motion, having dealt with the magic that was building. Reaching out to her minions, she finds that one group is in danger from a group of something like a cross between a praying mantis and a raptor. She races toward the group, and as she moves through the group of creatures, Calmonius chimes, and limbs and heads of the demons go flying in sprays of gore, their numbers decimated. Feeling another group struggling, she turns, leaving the remains to be cleaned up by the now rescued group, and a few seconds later she leaps off a stone into the midst of a group of alligator bear hybrids, Calmonius again chiming eagerly as strange orange blood splatters. Her armor rings as it turns the claws of the beasts and breaks their teeth when they bite. The red sword drenches the ground in orange blood as she again spends a half minute decimating the enemy numbers. The battles begin to get smaller and smaller, as she races around the battlefield, her sword leaving glittering trails of blood in the air and on the ground, alien body parts strewn over a wide area...
As she walks away, Listrana spends a bit of her divine energy to reach out for something she normally can't do. Whatever is planned to happen, she reaches out with a mental blade, lifting Calmonius, and with a contemptuous swipe, slices the threads of gathering magic, disrupting it.
Listrana flicks Calmonius, and removes the man's head. Taking it with her, she begins moving away, her steps covering the ground at impressive speed despite her appearance of not hurrying. Her eye blazes, and every one of her soldiers and hunters is aware they need to fall back for a potential issue.
I don't know what else to post.
"I'll deal with this one, you should all go deal with his creatures, he's not worth your time at this point."
I stabbied him again.
Listrana slams her sword in to the caster again.
I expect them to take on the minions and summons, not the bosses.
No, she Commanded their leader to be her follower. There's a difference. Per the rules, if she treats them right, they will continue to work for her after this. Part of that is sticking to the agreement she made, which is to kill all the Black Academies. If we do this right, we'll gain a small army that's fully trained in killing supernatural creatures.
"Now now children, let's hold our arguments to when we are in private, and not killing vermin."
Listrana brought the head mercenary back to the ship, introduced him to everyone, and told them what she had worked out...
Listrana negotiated the deal with the Demon Hunters, not the Boyar. We have two alliances, one with the Boyar, and one with the Demon Hunter Clans. The Demon Hunter clans are providing most of the 'muscle' on our little hunt. We've got several dozen anti-mage warriors... And all of them want the black academies dead, root and nail.
Listrana negotiated the alliance, and it was always 'destroy', not 'recruit', the black academies. Listrana's homeland was overrun by demons and most of it's people killed. Listrana will never work with demon summoners. If the group wants to recruit the acadamies instead, that's up to the group. Listrana will not agree though. No more, I think, than our resident pirate agreeing to kill all the pirates in the world as part of an alliance with someone.
Listrana sighs. "Khatef, we made an alliance already, and one of the things that alliance requires, is his death." With the other minions gone, she now moves up to the wizard in one swift move and drives her sword into him.
Listrana could zoom around killing summoned creatures, but she's concerned about leaving you all exposed and fighting the wizard by yourself. If you think she should be used to kill off the monsters instead, let me know. I just don't want to leave you alone and defenseless.
Listrana concentrates on her soldiers, feeling for where any of them are too hard pressed, so she can go to their rescue. To facilitate that, she concentrates her power into her body, ready to spring into action.
Listrana begins to laugh, her voice ringing through the area. "Alright everyone, behind me. I'll defend you." As she says the word 'defend', her sword chimes loudly, a clear pure note of steel striking steel. "You should have kept it to just us, boy. When you brought your friends out, you sealed your doom. Now I'm defending, not attacking." Again on the word 'defending' another peal of steel on steel rings out.
Quick question to the GM, so we know what to build toward. Because this is a PBP, will most of our martial opponents be 'worthy'? If so, it would be nice to know for sure. That way Listrana doesn't take a bunch of powers that work well against non-worthy but are useless against worthy. This is not a criticism, just a clarification. I realize that PBP, being slower, may cause us to skip over such encounters to only waste posting on 'worthy' opponents. I just want to know if we're doing that so I know what to buy/not buy.
Listrana shakes her head. "We are not in alliance with the Academies, they summon demons. We will not ally with demon summoners." She pauses. "Not even as a ruse, Khatef. If we were to ally with them, even as a ruse, it would get around. We cannot break the first alliance we ever make, Khatef." She pauses, letting Khatef remember that they have arleady made a first alliance. "There is a time for lies, and a time for honor. This is a time for honor."
Listrana tilts her head. "No, I'm fairly certain that I am not acting in haste. If you want to talk, it's so you can distract me for an ambush." "Did he really think that would work? Oh, he's thinking that it's your missing eye, and that it's easy to sneak up on you. All he has to do is keep your good eye pointed at him and others can ambush us from behind." The voice comes from thin air, and becomes obviously the sword, as she waves the red blade around. Listrana smiles, and begins to walk toward the stone throne, sword flashing as she lops a small tree in half while passing. "You have any idea who I am boy?" She asks the creature on the throne, her steps steady and resolute, blood in both her eyes.
"A few lightning strikes would have been more appropriate than musical instruments." Listrana comments over her shoulder.
We want to find someone who's a medium sized fry. This guy came out by himself, he's either a small fry wanting to get something to be a big fry, or he's a big fry who doesn't want to share. The medium fries will be with a big fry, more than likely. Translation : This guy we kill.
"Forget it, black robe. The sword is mine, as well as anything else that might be in this valley." Listrana growls.
"If you do, make it a mid level one, powerful enough to know the goings on, but not powerful enough that they are a threat by themselves. And make sure you curse them to die if they are not within a hundred feet of us afterwards, so we can be sure they don't go off on their own and rebuild an academy."
Listrana calls back. "Don't encourage it!"
"And Khatef will cheat. Meanwhile, you and I can command their destruction." Listrana says with a feral grin that would make a bear think twice. Meanwhile, her sword continues to jingle and sing to itself softly. "..tendons and thews, blood and guts, blade up from the shoes, and chop up the nu.." The song trails off as Listrana begins walking forward, placing herself between the cloud and her allies.
Listrana's people are each set up around the area, working with the hunters. As Listrana looks up toward the cloud, she reaches out, and feels every hunter in the area. Gathering them up, as they are all fighting at her behest, she breaths out and strength floods their limbs and she senses where they are, building a mental map of the valley in her head. "I'm ready, Lady Beatrice. I can feel all the hunter clans around us, I'll be able to sense when they engage the enemy. If they run into something they can't handle, I'll let everyone know, and we'll go aid them directly." The sword begins to hum jauntily. "Gonna cut some demon summoning flesh today...' It comments, sounding satisfied and smug.
@GM - In the future, if you arent' going to respond to a post we make, please at least state in discussion that you're not going to post a response? Otherwise we spend a week waiting for the GM response tot he post, and then the GM posts that he was waiting for us to post.
Once Arack responds in the affirmative, Listrana continues. "Good, now that we have confirmation from our resident hunter that he is good with the plan, we'll need to delay this for however long Arack says it will take for him and the other clans to get into position discreetly." She waits for Arack to respond with how long that will be. "Good, now that that is settled, let us go forth and slaughter the infidels." Her people laugh.
I thought we addressed that by saying we needed to wait until the hunters had gotten in position? I was waiting for the NPC to respond to that.
Kind of lost as to what else to post at this point.
So the rumor needs to include that several other black academies are already in the area and close to finding it. Make the rumor a warning to stay out of the valley because the academies are out in force and killing anyone in the valley to keep them from getting the goodies. That will put all the academies on a time crunch to get in there and find the artifacts before the others do. We do need a week or so for the hunters to get in and get set up though before we unleash this.
Listrana turns to Arack. "I trust you know who else we can trust, I think there will be a bevy of bounties for the Hunter Clans who can discreetly set themselves up in ambush here..." She touches the map where the 'ruins' are. "I trust my point has been made, and we now have a working relationship?" She then turns to Khatef. "As I am bad at lying, I will leave spreading the tales of the one eyed woman with the talking sword to you. I assume a talking sword will draw the attention of a few of these black wizards. It will feel good to kill a few. I'll need someone who doesn't look dangerous but is." All her people look to Yang, who gives a childish grin. "Mistress, you always say the nicest things." She falls in beside Listrana. "I shall endeavor to appear the very essence of fragility and helpessness." Listrana looks at the other divine touched. "Anyone else care to play bait and kill some black wizards? Just remember to stay behind me, we need our red blade to shine." From the couch cushion. "I get to be the hero?" The voice suddenly sounds intrigued.
Listrana chuckles. "One of these days you need to give me a prophecy about slaughtering every demon in the world. But tonight is not the time for that one."
@GM - If there is nothing we can do along these lines, can you just tell us 'Go away, think of something else'? Otherwise we'll be here until next year trying to guess ways to do things. This is a very very open sandbox type setup, so there's no real clues for us to get guidance from on how to start this stuff, so if we are going to waste weeks in OOC posts trying to do something you have decided we can't do, then I would personally prefer not to spend those weeks. I'm not saying that's the case here, but it's beginning to feel like it, and I'd really rather actually play rather than go around the mulberry bush for a few more weeks.
Do we have any way to get a Miracle or something to tell us if there may already be an appropriate ruin in the area that's undiscovered? No reason to reinvent the wheel if there already is.
I did put a smiley face on that to indicate a joke. :)
Well, Listrana could Command the ruins to appear in front of her. :) Or she could dig them out over the course of 30 straight days going non stop using Endurance. :) Other than that, the only way I can think of Listrana to do it would be a Miracle to use Artifice.
Listrana nods. "If we put out the tale that I found it in the valley, and that there were others I was unable to find. Then if we lure them into sending a dozen or two men against me and they all end up dying, that should cement the story." She looks to Arack. "We'll need to have a ruin or something up there, and traps."
Listrana nods. "Yes, that is what I was thinking, that we spread rumors of the artifact, and that there are traps and guardians. I can't imagine any of the black academies will take the chance that another academy will get their hands on an diefic artifact, no matter the cost." "I AM NOT BAIT!" Comes the muffled shout from under the cushions. Listrana ignores the complaint but gives a soft smile.
Listrana studies the map. "This valley here, it seems to be uninhabited?" She asks Arack. "Power hungry sorcerers would, I think, if they heard a rumor of a Diety level artifact had been seen in a remote valley, send their minions there would they not? And if the minions never came back, they'd eventually go themselves wouldn't they? If two or more showed up simultaneously, they'd kill each other first, then look for the artifact." She looks around. "Rather than a tournament, a death ground, traps from one end of the valley to the other, hunters laid in wait to pick off sorcerous minions. We'd have to make it so that nothing that entered the valley left alive to draw them in. The combination of their fear and pride would not let them leave it alone. They'd have to come themselves, even the most powerful of them. After all, if it's guarded well enough it has to be powerful enough, yes, to be worth guarding?" The sword jingles. "Hah, but where will you get something that they'd sense as a diety artifact? It's not as if those things are just hanging off trees or stuffed under a cushion on the couch." Listrana rubs her chin, and then walks over to Jebat's couch, and shoves the sword under the cushion. "Oh look, a diety level artifact just lying around under the cushion." "Oh no, I am not going to be bait!"
|
