Darkness Rising

[0beron]

Wait ! I just caught that...are you saying Rolfs not superior?

OCC No no, I just mean he's only INTERESTED in talking with his superiors who are casters. (I know you/Rolf weren't actually upset, I just wanted to clarify anyway)

[Swodaems]

I guess I'll have to deal with the fact that I'm not going to find a way to get Dis to level 4 before the fight with the elves.

(MarbitChow, how does turn order work now that we're allied with Charlie? Will he get a turn before ours on turns 7&8, or will we be taking our turn together with him for those turns? (I'm assuming the alliance ends and the non-aggression period begins at Turn 9.))

I believe this is a full list of Tod's actions for turns 5&6:

Turn 5 evening/early morning: (I think we still have some time frame issues going on.)
Tod gets promoted and has the talk with Creperum about upgrading Tenebris.

After Creperum and I talk to Junetta about ransom and find that T. Coil has been talking to Wandereus without us, we send him to the MK to get information and a Turnamancer.

While he is there, I partake of the library at Tenebris. If we still have books about them, I look to see if Farkistan was involved in any fights with sides besides Breatheairia and Jetstone. I also look for any books that look particularly interesting/out-of-place that I may want to read in detail later.

After Wandereus and Junetta are turned, and while Rihanna and T. Coil are occupied, Creperum and I use the time to talk to Wandereus and Junetta about Breatheairia. (With guards of course.) I ask both of them questions about The King In Green and his court advisors, about how often Farkistan was checked up on by Breatheairia, about the state of Breatheairia's allies and enemies, and some questions about Breatheairia's cities, production capabilities, and unit counts. Then I talk to each of them individualy. I have some different questions to ask each one, but while seperated from each other, they both get questions about any relationships they have to anyone still in Breathairia and if they have any pertinent information they wish to tell me. I talk to Junetta first and ask her in detail (Name/level/spell list/history/physical description) about Breatheairia's casters. I also ask her the going price for healamancy potions in the MK. After I'm done talking with her, I ask Junetta to spend the rest of her turn 5 juice on applying minor wards to the king and 15 of his royal guards if they don't somehow have better ones. Wandereus gets more detailed questions about city layout and the details about Breathairias warlords. I want to know alot about Breathairia's chief warlord, but also want some information about other prominent figures who might be sent against us as well. (MarbitChow, while I don't expect you to provide us with a complete list all this information in RL because of the workload, can you tell us which of these topics our characters can be expected to have knowledge of after this conversation?)

After T. Coil and Rihanna have finished and Rihanna has been paid, I try to talk to Rihanna to find out the cost of having her boost our capital's production on a more regular basis. If it is less than 1000 per turn, (either on a per turn basis or as part of a regular contract,) I suggest that Creperum hire her until the increases to upkeep makes our profit per turn hits 0. She is worth it.

Turn 6 morning, Charlie's turn:
Before the contract is signed, Creperum, T. Coil, Wandereus, Junetta and I talk to try to figure out what is going on. (If we end up hiring Rihanna, her consult with the issue would also be asked for.) We all know the elves' natural turn comes after ours, so that means another force is in battlespace. We go thru a list of likely candidates and try to figure out what each of their presences would mean in the grand scheme of things. We don't call the forces in Dis city directly because we are unaware they are talking to Charlie.
I also talk to Creperum about a few extra money making ideas and get shot down.

Turn 6 our turn:
After the contract is signed and we begin turn I talk to Creperum about it and the possibility of renegotiating it. (I do make sure that he understands that renegotiating is a secondary option to finding ways to deal with the contract as written.)

I talk to Junetta and T. Coil about ways to hide magical gear from the Archons' spell sight. (Would wrapping them in a cloak work?)

Then, I do the thinkagram-an-imp-on-patrol trick to get Yuri (and maybe Vinny if T. Coil and Junetta can't think of a way to hide items from spell sight,) out of the city for a brief private thinkagram. (Yuri can relay my question to Vinny if need be.) I start by doing a bit of chewing on him for accepting the contract without consulting Creperum or me. (I mention that even if Charlie wasn't willing to call us for free on the matter, telling his associates to move 1 hex away from the city and wait for my return was an option. (Tod has reason to be a bit annoyed in a personal matter at Yuri at the moment. On the turn after Tod was promoted to Chief Warlord, Yuri has done something that many could consider as an overstepping of bounds. Tod is a bit busy to press the matter at the moment, but some passive aggressive behavior is going to present itself. (Also, going by the comic, Yuri would have felt Tod's promotion on the turn before. Exate, you may want to define how that factored into Yuri's decision.))) I also get an update on the situation in Dis, allowing me to make and tell Creperum this popping strategy before leaving for Dis. (MarbitChow, I'll need to modify it a bit later to account for the fact you've said you want actions for the battle occuring 4 and 5 turns out. If Rihanna stays her presence also requires a modification.)

Creperum and I set up a system to pass simple messages to each other without use of the bracer or crown by taking advantage of the fact that a ruler's natural thinkamancy can tell him where his units are. Changing the imp scouts' routes in different ways will mean different things. ("Send the items now" is one such message. "Attack delayed" is another.)

Wandereus, Junetta, T. Coil and I get balruged to 8 hexes outside of Dis and walk the rest of the way on foot. The balrug spends the night with the naughty kitties 12 hexes from Tenebris. (If we haven't found a way to hide items from spell sight, then this group is returning without them. They're to be sent to us on turn 9 along with the heck pups.)

[0beron]

(MarbitChow, how does turn order work now that we're allied with Charlie? Will he get a turn before ours on turns 7&8, or will we be taking our turn together with him for those turns? (I'm assuming the alliance ends and the non-aggression period begins at Turn 9.))

Whops, it is in fact an alliance, sorry if you read my post saying it wasn't. in comic, Alliances always act on the last natural turn order of it's members, so our turn remains unchanged.

I talk to Junetta and T. Coil about ways to hide magical gear from the Archons' spell sight. (Would wrapping them in a cloak work?)

Marbit has vigorously countered my attempts at secrecy, so I sincerely doubt that would work either. At BEST, then the Archons would see a cloak-wrapped bundle and not know what's inside, but they're know the cloak is magical...so there's not much point to this. Lastly, I have no spare juice to do this anyway, because my priority is protecting our units, not wasting juice to try and conceal items without a REALLY good reason.

[Exate]

The Balrug is just too easy an opponent to take out and it then reduces or retreat to a crawl. I suppose we could take a squadron of the Dingbats, or whatever they're called, but I don't think they'd last the whole retreat.

A Balrug has 40 overland move, meaning that if we know where the enemy is, it can carry a raiding team up to 20 hexes away, drop them off, have the raiding team use up to half their overland move in hexes then return, and mount them up to fly them home. This gives us a 24-hex range in which retreating is a non-issue and our Balrugs are not subject to any enemy counterfire whatsoever unless we accidentally fly into a hex containing enemy forces, because the entire operation can be completed on our turn.

Admittedly, we're short on Balrugs at the moment and our other available mount types lack comparably impressive range. Naughty Kitties would have to end turn at a location that we expect the enemy to move near, then would be able to retreat outside the overland move of normal infantry units at least but would still be subject to pursuit by faster units- so the only time it would be reasonable to pull this off would be the very last turn before we expect to be attacked, so the Naughty Kitties and their riders could retreat safely into Dis City to heal before the next turn's battle.

Then, I do the thinkagram-an-imp-on-patrol trick to get Yuri (and maybe Vinny if T. Coil and Junetta can't think of a way to hide items from spell sight,) out of the city for a brief private thinkagram. (Yuri can relay my question to Vinny if need be.) I start by doing a bit of chewing on him for accepting the contract without consulting Creperum or me. (I mention that even if Charlie wasn't willing to call us for free on the matter, telling his associates to move 1 hex away from the city and wait for my return was an option. (Tod has reason to be a bit annoyed in a personal matter at Yuri at the moment. On the turn after Tod was promoted to Chief Warlord, Yuri has done something that many could consider as an overstepping of bounds. Tod is a bit busy to press the matter at the moment, but some passive aggressive behavior is going to present itself. (Also, going by the comic, Yuri would have felt Tod's promotion on the turn before. Exate, you may want to define how that factored into Yuri's decision.))) I also get an update on the situation in Dis, allowing me to make and tell Creperum this popping strategy before leaving for Dis.

Yuri is more than happy to go outside the city for the thinkagram... but Yuri's attitude rapidly shifts to frustration with his Chief Warlord when it seems initially that Tod's primary purpose for the call was to yell at him. He'd been challenged by the enemy in the field and handled it fairly well and strictly in accordance with his Duty in his own opinion, and certainly no one else in Dis City had criticized him for it or expressed worries except about Charlie being conniving and treacherous in general. Tod's position as Chief Warlord made no real difference to him, except being glad of a larger bonus- after all, whatever Tod's rank he wasn't on site and as Yuri perceived it could not be realistically deferred to in this circumstance. "Flying girls is coming for tricky chatterboxing battle when I am in charge of city; is my job for defense. Had no fancy bracer for calling King. Is not asking Charlie for calling for talk of dealings with Charlie. Is not asking Charlie for waiting and seeing flying girls selling fancy pictures of Dis City to elves, or taking contracts for croaking of scouts or raiding of city while waiting for Chief Warlord to deal. Croaking flying girls is not possible with tricky veils. So is fight in talk battle, and is get money and Charlie not causing problems for while. Even if Charlie is betraying with tricksy loophole, is no worse than with no writings. Job is done well! What is problem?"

Once things move to reporting the simple status of the city, Yuri is much more comfortable and gives a full and detailed, if grammatically abominable, report on the city's status, the casters' activities, the scouts' reports, and the Archons' recent Thinkagram image.

[0beron]

"Hey there...it would seem our invites to the pow-wow got lost in the mail...fancy keeping one another company instead?"

Assuming that Junetta is amenable to conversation:
Vinny sits down and takes a small gourd from his pack, and a knife from his belt. "Sorry, I just like to keep my hands busy, and I've found these little things do the trick nicely" he comments as he begins to whittle away at the fist-sized vegetable. "What do you do to make the time go by? You've been so many places I imagine, seen many cities and even been to the Magic Kingdom?" he ask curiously, his limited exposure to the other casters making him curious about the other ways magic works elsewhere. As he works and the pair talks, Junetta is able to discern the features of a rather macabre face taking shape between Vinny's fast-moving fingers. Vinny is eager to hear more about how she practices her magic, how it feels, and other types of casters she has met in her life, so he jumps in with further questions every time she thinks she's satisfied him.

[ETheBoyce]

T. Coil does his best (or perhaps his worst) to convince Rihanna to continue to work for Tenebris for cheap before he leaves for Dis City, his methods of persuasion are almost certainly unmentionable. He will also attempt to glean more information about the new Elven Shockamancer fro Junetta and Wanderus on the trip back.

Given that his defection to Tenebris is already known to the elves, the fact that Charlie knows his name, and that he will need to continue to spell up the towers, T. Coil sees very little point in trying to hide himself from the archons, he will instead adopt a different tactic, seeking to monopolize their time so as to prevent them from haranguing other important members of Tenebris. Rona and Faith seem like they might be more amenable to T. Coil given their natural Shockamancy, but Coil would be unsurprised if Buffy enjoyed it if things got a little rough, she seemed like the type to enjoy combat, probably would love to dust some uncwoaked.

When it comes to the actual allocation of his juice T. Coil plans to first finish the Ickypron he began charging, but the hell will lay on a TooGeeWonCee in case lower Combat casters want something to do against larger units. The last spell he puts up he will likely leave up to Tod as their is currently no Chief Caster, only a Chief Warlord.

[MarbitChow]

Overland Movement Note
It will be a while before I'm able to handle all the responses this week, but I did want to make a quick clarification about overland movement, so you can adjust your plans accordingly:

Every time you cross a hex border, your movement is reduced by the movement cost of the hex, whether you're mounted or not. Mounts and Transports allow you to cross hex borders when you have no remaining move (as long as you are not a garrison unit), as long as they have move remaining.

Mounts can carry you across, but they don't preserve your own move.

This means that if you're riding a balrug and you have an 8 move, the first 8 normal hexes drop your move to zero, which means that if the Balrug is killed afterwards, you are trapped in that hex until your next turn. It's also going to put a bit of a crimp on hit-and-run tactics until you start popping a few more mounts.

[0beron]

Whaaaaa? What's the basis for that?
Didn't Jack join Wanda's army via dwagon relay and then continue to move after arriving?

[MarbitChow]

Whaaaaa? What's the basis for that? Didn't Jack join Wanda's army via dwagon relay and then continue to move after arriving?

They were always on mounts when they crossed the hexes (except the Magic Kingdom), as best as I can recall. If anyone can cite a reference in the comic, I'll reconsider this rule, but it's unlikely to change.
Regardless, if you want to perform tactical hit-and-runs, you'll need to use mounts. If nothing else, consider it a balancing factor in the Mount vs. Heavy discussion: mounted light units make better long-range skirmishers this way.

[0beron]

There may be other examples, but one I do specifically recall is the fact that they move to the Dungeon after falling into the Atrium. Because they're an invading army, crossing city zones requires move.

[Werebiscuit]

Whaaaaa? What's the basis for that?
Didn't Jack join Wanda's army via dwagon relay and then continue to move after arriving?

I'm not agreeing or disagreeing just pointing out that jack's move is still possible, within hex as I understand. A balrug could transport rolf 20 hexes and Rolf could move 8 spaces within that hex and attack, if I'm understanding right. However what he couldn't do would be transported 20 hexes then move across a hex border to attack UNLESS some other armoured transport took him across that hex border. Thus balrug relays are still possible and movement is still possible after that...just not overland unassisted move. Is that what you're saying, Marbit ?

[MarbitChow]

A balrug could transport rolf 20 hexes and Rolf could move 8 spaces within that hex and attack, if I'm understanding right.

That's correct. Overland Move and In-Hex Move are completely independent. I don't think that was what 0beron was arguing, though - he was thinking of the zone-crossings within the city hex.

However what he couldn't do would be transported 20 hexes then move across a hex border to attack UNLESS some other armoured transport took him across that hex border. Thus balrug relays are still possible and movement is still possible after that...just not overland unassisted move. Is that what you're saying, Marbit ?

That's correct. Relays work as long as the hex that the old mount / transport ends in has a fresh mount / transport in it, and all units can move anywhere within a hex.

Now that I'm thinking about it, it might be more accurate to rename the old (in-hex) move stat to "Speed", because it really does designate how fast you are.

[Werebiscuit]

T. Coil sees very little point in trying to hide himself from the archons, he will instead adopt a different tactic, seeking to monopolize their time so as to prevent them from haranguing other important members of Tenebris. Rona and Faith seem like they might be more amenable to T. Coil given their natural Shockamancy, but Coil would be unsurprised if Buffy enjoyed it if things got a little rough, she seemed like the type to enjoy combat, probably would love to dust some uncwoaked.

Don't know about Rona & Bill but Rolf would be more than happy, although he will do his best to be distraught about it, for someone to take care of Faith. This will free up time for him to speak to Wandreus about the possible capabilities of the different types of elf units and general elf tactics. Marbit if you want to describe these in general terms (i.e. without numbers) I'm fine with that but Rolf is prepared to arrange mock fights to get an idea if the elves can defend as well as Brick, Bert ( def 8} or Erick {def 11}. Similarly in attack. He is also wanting to know if the fliers or the unarmed women have ranged attacks and if either is faster than or as fast as Cupid.

He will also sSee Tod & t.Coil, when he has time to discuss getting Brick and Vinny some potions and scrolls

[Werebiscuit]

That's correct. Relays work as long as the hex that the old mount / transport ends in has a fresh mount / transport in it, and all units can move anywhere within a hex.

OOC Team , you realize this means hit and runs are still possible using transports. Just a lot more dangerous as the elves need to be given their turn ( i.e.. the ambushes take 2 turns) and a lot more difficult to set up as we need to predict where the elves will camp at the end of their turn to make it happen.

Think doughnut of doom /OOC

[Werebiscuit]

" Ah... Coil ! ..Or should I call you Tesla ? I've been meaning to speak to you about all this gear you're collecting." smiles Rolf "No , no don't worry...I'm not looking for a share. Well. Not personally... You see you've lots of potions and scrolls and ...well...I was wondering if it would not make more sense for some of then to be.. " gives an apologetic shrug "...better distributed. Think about it, man. I'm asking if you would not be better off giving Brick, who by the way will be your bodyguard, a potion that will keep his hits up. Hits he will use to shift damage from yourself, so in effect its like you were drinking the potion and yet without having to lose the chance of casting a spell. Does that not sound better, drinking a renew while still being able to cast ? "flashes an encouraging smile *
*Rolf coughs to clear his throat* "Also..." he continues "You're going to be quite busy casting all sorts of spells at the elves so I doubt you'll have much time to cast any of those healing scrolls you're lugging around. If you give them to Vinny, our dollamancer, you might still see the benfit of them. He will be almost unemployed in the battle having no offensive spells so he is ideally suited to be casting from scrolls. I'm sure he'd be able to return the favour by giving you a clo...ah...you have one. So much the better. I'd ask for a restore potion for him but can see that would be better employed by your good self as no doubt your juice will be a major factor in tipping the battle." *spreads his hands in an imploring gesture * "So what do you say ?"

[The Colonel]

Don't worry, she'll be sufficiently distracted

[Werebiscuit]

Don't worry, she'll be sufficiently distracted

Who ? Rona ?... by You or Tesla ?

[MarbitChow]

(The following is the content of an off-line conversation, but I figured it would be appropriate to make this general knowledge:)

I don't intend to give players the ability to create scrolls. Doing so will ultimately make every spell available to every caster - healers will have a spare Hobokens, croakamancers will have wards, etc.

Potions are one-shots that allow anyone to save themselves (or a downed ally), and towers can store a limited number of shockamancy spells. I think all casters already have enough to do in their down time (wards, potions, golems, maintaining uncroaked) that I don't need to add any more.

If anything, it's more important to find something for the non-casters to do during down-time to feel useful. "Training" is one possible solution, but (1) having only one option is just as boring as having no options and (2) anything I grant to players I also have to grant to enemies, and they've had a LOT more time to train than your side has, which ends up making the fights down the road that much harder.

-----

Let me know if you have any questions.

[0beron]

I don't intend to give players the ability to create scrolls.

Don't we already have and make scrolls....?

• Potions are one-shots that allow anyone to save themselves
• I think all casters already have enough to do in their down time
• If anything, it's more important to find something for the non-casters to do during down-time to feel useful.

I don't think any of those are really issues.

• If anything, Potions are MORE powerful than scrolls because anyone can use them
• Certain uses of downtime may be more appealing to different kinds of casters. After having a certain number of Golems, I personally would far rather make "Repair Golem" scrolls for use in battle than making more golems.
• Casters have juice that might otherwise be wasted during their downtime, whereas non-casters aren't wasting anything during downtime (besides the chance to be in battle and gain XP, which is universal to all units)

[Exate]

(2) anything I grant to players I also have to grant to enemies, and they've had a LOT more time to train than your side has, which ends up making the fights down the road that much harder.

For whatever reason, although we can see that training is a mechanic that allows units to level in Erfworld most units don't seem to engage in it. One would think that Duty would require that they attempt to level and thus force them to train, but it... doesn't. I'm not sure how to reconcile this with the fact that Erfworlders like power and aren't stupid, except to guess that apparently people are lazy and their rulers don't mind.