Inner Peace (Through Superior Firepower) – Episode 048

[balder]

New One is up.

[fjolnir]

And for my next trick...

[TheMutant]

Awesome stuff. Now the next question is, 'what exactly is going to go horribly wrong for this plan'? Since we know Faq ended when they were still at their little hidden setup. (OR DO WE)

Will they make the transition and then have to head back for some reason, does the plan die in its infancy or partway through... so many questions :3 eagerly waiting on the next update as always.

[Vorteks]

This was indeed an awesome update.

Awesome stuff. Now the next question is, 'what exactly is going to go horribly wrong for this plan'? Since we know Faq ended when they were still at their little hidden setup. (OR DO WE)

Well, we know that FAQ falls to Gobwin Knob, not Haffaton. And Wanda is with them at the time, implying capture. So my first guess is that FAQ captures Haffaton, razes it, and then returns to their previous location. It seems unlikely to me that FAQ could successfully lead a military strike on Haffaton, capture Wanda, and then NOT defeat Haffaton without Haffaton destroying them later in retaliation.

Then again, Rob's certain thrown us some delightful surprises so far.

[Thoke]

This was worth waiting for! Wow, Delphie really had accurate predictions (or should it be with capital P?)

And now I wonder if Jillian has still "assisted" Wanda with the "transition" Delphie mentioned... I know Jillian doesn't give a Banhammer's Court about Fate. Could be she never even mentioned it to Wanda.

[fjolnir]

We kind of see some aspects of the upward limit of predictamancy, at least at the adept level. A location, the hint of a name but no time frame.

[Allerdyce]

Looks like the ball's really rolling on this plot thread! Looking forward to this as it develops.

[WarFAN]

So... Jillian finds that note and she commits all the FAQ´s resources to an Ender´s gambit. Of course, it is going to end good for FAQ. But King Banhammer is not going to like it.

Another indubitable proof about Jillian´s true nature as an idiotic, capricious person.

[nargbop]

We now know :
Armor has an explicit rating, although we don't know exactly what it does (possibly subtract from the attacker's die, or subtract from the attacker's roll)

We can surmise :
Hats are "secure" enough for her to send a message without it being intercepted, or revealing the destination of the message. (Her source is obvious to Haffaton).
Armor can come from other things than metal wrapped around the torso. Presumably multiple items stack.

We need to figure out :
How she intends to take Haffaton with her tiny, slow, visible, vulnerable army.

[cheeseaholic]

The first thing she does is look for rations? Seriously Jillian.

[WarFAN]

We need to figure out :
How she intends to take Haffaton with her tiny, slow, visible, vulnerable army.

Haffaton is overextended and its capital will be weak.

We know Haffaton does not exist anymore. We know Wanda will be a FAQ´s Croakamancer. So Jillian´s gambit will work.

[Lamech]

Things we learned:

Hats are omni-directional. You don't need to pair them. Presumably this means that with some basic cryptography and forgery skills... bad things happen.

Equipment has an armor rating. It does stuff.

Fireplaces auto-light and auto-fuel. Now if Parson can figure out how to make a fireplace by hand (or magic), we can turn Erfworld STEAMPUNK!!! Oh and break the turnamancer monopoly on self-powered vehicles.

[Whispri]

This basically. It's not just that her plan is insane and hinges on every Side aware of Haffaton, Translyvito included, being inept, it's that she's gambling everything on Predictamancy while ignoring Predictions she happens not to like.

Delphie's almost as aggravating, blaming Wanda for the results of her lies, if only she'd been straight with people... And if only Fate would try hooking Wanda up with a girl who isn't a complete monster.

Insane plans aside, I really do think it was Faq wot done it. 'It' being the destruction of Goodminton.

[joosy]

Heh “Why don’t you have a seat over there?” Chris Hansen would be proud

[ftl]

Man, predictamancers are arrogant.

Really, Delphie? Why would she think for even one second that whoever found the note would believe it and would follow the instructions?

I completely don't blame Jillian for ignoring it entirely. For all she knows it could be another Haffaton trap.

[No one in particular]

So... Jillian finds that note and she commits all the FAQ´s resources to an Ender´s gambit. Of course, it is going to end good for FAQ. But King Banhammer is not going to like it.

Another indubitable proof about Jillian´s true nature as an idiotic, capricious person.

Huh? Jillian was thinking of attacking Haffaton way back before WRECD was even formed. (“Let’s take this whole show on the road,” she said. “As Chief Warlord, I say we go to war with Haffaton, and win.”–IPTSF 33) The note has nothing to do with it.

And if anything, her following through on an idea she's had for months, that she's been in favor of the whole time and has argued for... kind of is the opposite of capricious. I mean, aside from being kind of indecisive when it comes to love, Jillian is quite consistent (Attack attack attack!!!).

We now know :
We need to figure out :
How she intends to take Haffaton with her tiny, slow, visible, vulnerable army.

Tiny? Maybe, but it would be 3 cities worth of soldiers, a crap-ton of gwiffons, and EIGHT casters. Against the "woefully underdefended capital" (IPTSF 44)

Slow? Why would they be slow? Everyone would be on gwiffons and megalogwiffs. They'd have practically no move-penalty compared to Haffaton's ground forces. They'd be blazing with move!

Visible? Wait, WHAT? Visible? With the Lookamancy/Predictamancy/Foolamancy combo they've been practicing since Orwell/Marie/Jack were popped? They wouldn't be seen, period.

Vulnerable? Maybe... but Haffaton is just as vulnerable. When Jillian made her escape, she found out "... that this city was woefully undefended, for instance. The whole area around it was practically empty". Each time we've seen a Haffaton city, it's been practically deserted, and Jillian's been able to overpower it if she has ANY help at all.

[atalex]

Delphie's almost as aggravating, blaming Wanda for the results of her lies, if only she'd been straight with people... And if only Fate would try hooking Wanda up with a girl who isn't a complete monster.

Even from the grave, Delphie is terrible predictomancer, able to see the future with great clarity, but completely uncapable of comprehending how people will react to her predictions. Who could possibly be so weak-willed as to accept the idea that one's only reason for existing is to fulfill some stupid prophecy?

[name lips]

Everybody she knows and loves DO perish. But that's later, when Stanley invades.

Could that somehow be a consequence of ignoring the Prediction?

It looks like Faq is going to perform the decapitation strike on Haffaton and succeed. Wanda will either be captured and Turned, or else change sides beforehand and betray Haffaton (the "poison pill").

We know that later on Wanda does the betrayal trick to help Stanley destroy Faq. At first she thinks she's luring Stanley into a trap so she can claim his Arkentool, but somehow by the time he arrives he has TONS of dwagons, so she changes her plan, and joins him instead.

I cannot at this time see how ignoring Delphi's Prediction could have the end result of the destruction of Faq and "everybody she loves." But we DO know that she ignores the Prediction, and we DO know that Faq is destroyed. Somehow these dots must get connected.

But as far as I can tell Jillian never becomes a Fatalist. She doesn't seem convinced that avoiding her Fate causes suffering. She doesn't seem convinced that Fate is unavoidable. Wanda embraces this philosophy, but Jillian remains fiercely independent and resistant to the idea.

I'm reminded of the scene from book 1 -- "The easy way or the hard way? But I already know which way you'll pick." "The easy way." "What? Really?" Jillian isn't known for taking the easy way. She usually seems to relish taking the hard way, consequences be damned.

[Eva]

The dots aren't that hard to connect. If Jillian kill off Haffaton, she wouldn't get Wanda. Without Wanda, FAQ wouldn't fall.

[Angband]

We've already had plenty of foreshadowing here -- Jillian was determined to choose the "very hard way" and oppose her fate as long and as hard as she could.

So rather than contacting Wanda and joining with her like Delphie urged, she's acting in opposition to the Prediction. At some point between now and the start of TBFGK, Wanda switches to Faq. This could possibly be by capture, but note the hiring of a Turnamancer in this update. Also we have the discovery by Jillian of Wanda's true origins, which I am guessing she will make use of when she and Wanda meet in battle -- we already have precedent for a side's behavior modifying loyalty rolls of its units (Ossomer) so I am guessing that the reminder that it was Haffaton that killed her family will convince her to betray her current side.

Will Wanda's uncroaked (stationed all over Haffaton's poorly defended empire) turn with her? If they do, that would be a pretty effective way to blow up Haffaton.