Darkness Rising

[MarbitChow]

Do the Alt Elves even have to accept?

Nope. You can ward and heal units against their will.

[Exate]

Sorry about my absence, all. Looks like you've been handling things in the usual spectacularly detailed and successful fashion, but I do have a prompt for action from more than a week ago that I can try to catch up on...

Yuri gets quickly pulled into a private Thinkspace...

Rona: "Yuri, I'm really sorry about this. I hope you'll realize that we're still upholding our end of the contract. We did not contact the elves- their king called Charlie. We did not ally with them- we're actively killing their units. We have done nothing but deal in good faith. Know that, even as we hunt these elves, and make your job more difficult, I know you'll be victorious.

Since Yuri has a better relationship with the Archons than me, I ask him to see if the Archons are willing to share the details of the Elves' and Charlie's contract with us.

Yuri scoffs at Rona's so-very-sincere excuses. He had held some concerns that his contract with them was a poor decision from the start, but there was nothing to be done about it at this point- he could only put up a confident front and hope that this was the worst which would come of his actions. "Is using different 'good faith' than most, but already knew tiny flying women were wriggly." The massive warlord gives a fierce, broad-toothed smile... or maybe he's just baring his teeth. Difficult to tell, really. "Enjoyable in friendly woman, but alliance ended, yes? Perhaps ladies wished to be only three-turn friends. Will know soon. Now what are dealings with wretched elf king?"

[MarbitChow]

Yuri scoffs at Rona's so-very-sincere excuses. ... "Enjoyable in friendly woman, but alliance ended, yes? Perhaps ladies wished to be only three-turn friends. Will know soon. Now what are dealings with wretched elf king?"

Rona replies, "I really shouldn't be telling you this, but the King in Green offered Charlie a personal bounty of 500 shmuckers for each Altruistic Elf we croak in Dis City's hex this turn. We're going to collect that bounty, one way or another, but Charlie's authorized me to offer you a 1000 Shmuckers if your side doesn't interfere with us while we do so. Cast no spells against us, cast no spells to ward the Alt Elves, and if we've harvest all 8 Alt Elves with 3 rounds, you get some of the payola that the Elf King used to eliminate his own units. We won't hold that first Space Out against you for this offer, either. What do you think?"

[0beron]

OOC The King in Green certainly sounds desperate and Charlie is pretty eager to assist. I feel like the units we save in an easier victory, and the chance to capture even one Alt Elf is worth more than 1,000 schmuckers. Cus if we have even one Alt Elf, we can pop more since they're Natural Allies /OCC

[MarbitChow]

Cus if we have even one Alt Elf, we can pop more since they're Natural Allies /OCC

Elves and Marbits will not ally with a 'dark' side like Tenebris under any circumstances.

[Lord of Monies]

Grab the money then, I'd say. Charlie has money in this on the instructions only to take out the alt elves. There's no incentive for them to attack us and the situation is far too dire for me to think the king in green would outright hire the archons to attack us. If he was going to do that, he'd have done that rounds ago. They've only got melee left and even with boosts from the alt elves dying we can take them without much difficulty. Hell, that grand will cover our losses this battle and more with ease. Also, at a guess, Charlie seems to be investing in us like he wants us to win long term. I mean, corollary to Charlie's Rule 17: Betting on the healthy runner and shooting the lame one is the better bet. We're clearly not the lame runner here seeing as charlie sent these archons to us turns ago, so having him like us is in our best interest I'd say.

[BLANDCorporatio]

Oooh dear. It's that time again. RP-lawyering.

So far, the details of Rona and Yuri's conversation are known only to them. We, the other Tenebrisian units, can't pitch in. But that's a minor complaint, granted. We'll skip the obvious and pretend that Yuri, with usual eloquence, announced it so that everyone gets to weigh in despite being otherwise occupied.

However, more significant, why would Rona know we plan to Ward the Elves? This hasn't happened yet, it's not an obvious strategy, and it's dubious that Rona would see clues that we intend to do so. Heck, said plan wasn't even talked over with with Yuri, most like. Therefore, dubious that Ward should appear mentioned in said convo.

Still, ok. What could the supposed bounty money buy us? And what would repairing the walls cost (or is it autoheal like everything else)?

[Exate]

Rona replies, "I really shouldn't be telling you this, but the King in Green offered Charlie a personal bounty of 500 shmuckers for each Altruistic Elf we croak in Dis City's hex this turn. We're going to collect that bounty, one way or another, but Charlie's authorized me to offer you a 1000 Shmuckers if your side doesn't interfere with us while we do so. Cast no spells against us, cast no spells to ward the Alt Elves, and if we've harvest all 8 Alt Elves with 3 rounds, you get some of the payola that the Elf King used to eliminate his own units. We won't hold that first Space Out against you for this offer, either. What do you think?"

With his mind already dwelling on tricky contract weaseling, at least one such move immediate occurs to Yuri and he gives a low, rumbling chuckle at Rona's question. "Contract says entire turn, yes? Then what is hurry? Flying ladies are waiting and then buying prisoners for croaking from good friends at low prices, and all are happy but foolish grass king."

Also, at a guess, Charlie seems to be investing in us like he wants us to win long term.

I'm pretty sure that Charlie wants us to be murdered by the elves after a long and bitterly costly war which will, in turn, force the elves to turn around and engage in another long and bitterly costly war with their other opponents. Since we're weak at the moment, he strengthens us to expand what would be a minor business opportunity into a major one. We're simply not strong enough right now for him to reasonably expect us to live through this war, even with fairly generous contract terms from him.

[BLANDCorporatio]

With his mind already dwelling on tricky contract weaseling, at least one such move immediate occurs to Yuri and he gives a low, rumbling chuckle at Rona's question. "Contract says entire turn, yes? Then what is hurry? Flying ladies are waiting and then buying prisoners for croaking from good friends at low prices, and all are happy but foolish grass king."

Speaking completely OOC here- that was brilliant.

[0beron]

However, more significant, why would Rona know we plan to Ward the Elves?...dubious that Ward should appear mentioned in said convo.

Charlie is an out-of the box thinker. Given the surplus of Healomancers on our side and the minimal loses we're suffering, and the fact that we have started to interfere with his bounty on the Elves using Hippiemancy, it's not a HUGE leap to list off every magical resource we have that could interfere with them. So he doesn't KNOW we're planning to do it, but he's covering his bases like any lawyer.

What would repairing the walls cost (or is it autoheal like everything else)?

As long as the walls aren't totally destroyed, they autorepair. And as long as one tower survives, it also autorepairs.

I'm still hesitant to accept the 1000. Our inability to pop more Alt Elves makes the deal slightly less sweet...but we might be able to Turnamance some if we capture them. And if Turnamancy is impossible, then we execute them to grant a PC some unshared extra XP (speaking slightly selfishly for Brick and myself). And a small part is I don't want Charlie getting what HE wants.

[MarbitChow]

With his mind already dwelling on tricky contract weaseling, at least one such move immediate occurs to Yuri and he gives a low, rumbling chuckle at Rona's question. "Contract says entire turn, yes? Then what is hurry? Flying ladies are waiting and then buying prisoners for croaking from good friends at low prices, and all are happy but foolish grass king."

Rona smiles. "It's going to be a pleasure doing continued business with you, Yuri. You have a truly devious mind. Unfortunately, the King is directly monitoring this particular engagement, and if we don't do our best to fulfill the terms of the contract immediately, we risk further business opportunities with him, as well as potentially harming our reputation as elite problem-solving consultants. I honestly don't think you're going to have a problem mopping these elves up, and if you make our job easier, we're willing to provide a kick-back to you under the table, but that's as far as we're able to go, I'm afraid."

[ETheBoyce]

As for OOC knowledge and Charlie, clearly he's got his eyes on our G-Strings!

[Exate]

Rona smiles. "It's going to be a pleasure doing continued business with you, Yuri. You have a truly devious mind. Unfortunately, the King is directly monitoring this particular engagement, and if we don't do our best to fulfill the terms of the contract immediately, we risk further business opportunities with him, as well as potentially harming our reputation as elite problem-solving consultants. I honestly don't think you're going to have a problem mopping these elves up, and if you make our job easier, we're willing to provide a kick-back to you under the table, but that's as far as we're able to go, I'm afraid."

A dismissive wave of Yuri's massive hand brushes the issue aside, although his grin fades slightly. "Sad. Then, no stopping the killing of silly elves, and you are giving us a thousand when it is done, yes? Limits of rounds is nonsense, you is slowing down killing and then giving me tricky weasel grin. And is option only; Chief is leading battle and not talking to women, he will give order. Yes?"

[Swodaems]

I'm assuming that Rona means that the alt elves have to be croaked by the end of round 5. (Round 4 in flat out impossible at the moment.) With that as the deadline, we could technically get away with spacing out either Buffy or Rona at com 3 round 3. We would then either give Junetta orders to stop spacing out archons, or tell the archon we don't space out that she should wake up the one that we do. (With the latter option, we can make the argument that we are helping Charlie make sure this looks legitimate to the King in Green. And maybe kick the price up to 1500 for additional consulting.)

However, instead of money, I have a more preferred price for letting them easily croak the elves in mind. I want them to help us safely capture Armolad and Amandaria alive.

Also, I say, with the straightest face I can manage, "Does your contract with The King in Green include any penalty clauses for personal losses that we can take advantage of? You would have to release us from our non aggression clause, but we could make it work."

[Werebiscuit]

OOC Speaking personally I'm against a further contract with Charlie on this. The 1,000 schmucker kickback looks good until you realise that we stand to lose 9,000 in rebuliding costs if the elves manage to take down both towers.

They've already more than half demolished one tower ( 40 points damage) and by the end of turn 3 can have 10 elves with com 18-24 round the other. At the moment that's 10x 2d6 -1 so roughly about 60 points damage to our other tower. I'd suspect less than that since we'll take out some leadership bonuses so possibly 20 points damage but more likely 30+. Our Melee forces cannot reach them until after they have gone on turn 4 so Rolf's tower is more than likely gone in turn 4. If we allow Archons to kill Altrustic elves on turn 4 then even the spearmen guarding the gumps become a threat as they'll then have a com around 23 minimum and they then become a threat to our other tower just as we're taking out the gumps. If we take the 1,000 then by turn 5 these spearmen will have com 29 and be doing 2d6+4. Unless each and every one rolls less than 4 our other tower is down in round 5.

We'll be hard pushed to save either tower as it stands but taking the contract will see them both fall by turn 5 as I doubt our bowmen can take down enough of their forces ( it's taking our 4 big guns to take out 5 of them and theres 26 of them, not counting gumps - we need to deal with the 2 remaining gumps before turn 5 and won't have Rolfs ballista to do it with.)

all-in-all the contract is a bad idea. Credit to the King in Green who has spent 4, 000 to cost us 9,000 /OOC

[Werebiscuit]

OOC Following on from that reasoning above Swodaems, I now believe your plan to take out leadership to be a bad idea and wasteful as it will not diminish the threat on either tower.

If we focus on taking out the forces on Yuri's tower it will force them to split the force attacking Rolf's ( they're already preparing for this by their positioning).
I now don't think we can save both towers. If we take our eye off Yuri's to try to save Rolfs then it allows them to have a chance at both with likely results as above.
We use Rolf's ballista while we can. By the end of turn 3 the warriors round Rolfs tower will go before Rolf (phase 23 vs Rolf's 21) on turn 4 so he will not get a shot off in turn 4, in fact he will fall with the tower. I don't think we can prevent it without giving up his shot in turn 3.

They cannot reach Yuri's tower in round 3 and to try to do so will mean less damage to Rolf's tower. We can also interpose our ground forces (dodging like they're in a hailstorm) and thus try to stop them getting to Yuri's tower. I think we've a shot at protecting Yuri's tower. I don't think we can protect Rolf's.

This is why I wanted ground forces out. The more distractions their forces have the less chance of achieving their aims. That's what they're currently doing to us, trying to get us to change our aims from protecting one tower to the other. Please don't allow them to do it. /OOC

[Werebiscuit]

Marbitchow , couple of questions about our lucky streak scroll

Roll the Bones - On their next Attack, Strike, or Fire action, all target's d6 'rolls' are treated as 6s. On the following round, for every d6 modified in this way, an enemy unit will also max a d6 roll. (Enemy rolls can apply to any melee or spell action.) (1 Juice)

Lucky Streak (1 AP) - As Roll the bones, but the effect lasts for 3 turns. (8 Juice)

When it says turns in the rules I'm assuming this means rounds ?

Due to the effect lasting 3 'turns' on which do the enemy get their max rolls ? The 'turn' after the lucky streak begins or the 'turn' after it ends ?

[MarbitChow]

When it says turns in the rules I'm assuming this means rounds ?

Actually, this should read "Actions" instead of "Turns". Luckamancy is a buff, and now that delayed actions are a thing, the spells should last until they are used.

Due to the effect lasting 3 'turns' on which do the enemy get their max rolls ? The 'turn' after the lucky streak begins or the 'turn' after it ends ?

Enemies get their rolls maxed starting in the round after each action is enhanced. If Rolf fires on rounds 3, 5, and 6, rolls in rounds 4, 6, and 7 could be modified. Note that the impending bad luck persists until it's used, so if the enemies didn't make ANY rolls until round 8, they could have a whole bunch of rolls modified all at once. If all enemies are slain before the bad luck is used up, it will get used in the next combat that the side engages on. It doesn't matter whether the original target of the Luckamancy spell is taking part in that combat or not.

[Nnelg]

Hm... You know, if I may but in, I think that's kinda unfair to the side casting the scroll. The enemy shouldn't get to choose where their good luck goes, IMO. Perhaps if the effect was just to modify the next roll (or three, as the case may be) of a natural 1 by the enemy to a 6, no matter who rolled that 1, would be better.

[MarbitChow]

Hm... You know, if I may but in, I think that's kinda unfair to the side casting the scroll. The enemy shouldn't get to choose where their good luck goes, IMO. Perhaps if the effect was just to modify the next roll (or three, as the case may be) of a natural 1 by the enemy to a 6, no matter who rolled that 1, would be better.

They don't get to choose, and the method you mention is the method I actually would use to resolve it. Starting on the round following each uses, any 1 becomes a 6 until the bad luck is used up; if no ones are rolled, I'll start modifying 2s, then 3s, etc.

The enemy side's rolls are actually probably enhanced a bit more than the casting side's this way, but the enemy has no control over where it is applied. Heck, they don't even have control over which enemy benefits from the luck. If the scroll is used in a conflict with elves, and the next encounter is with barbarians, the barbarians are boosted - the elves just get hosed.