Recap
I figured this might be useful since we haven’t had one of these since… well… forever.
The party, after defeating Walter, decided to rest and plan their next step. During this time it was discovered that the spell used to make Walter into a dragon-orc-thing wasn’t undone and would turn him into an abomination. In what is probably the quickest series of actions this party has taken in a long time, the group gathered the necessary spell components, went to a half-dragon liche, and saved Walter by ripping his skin off and regrowing it.
Then everybody got drunk, Yolanda, Walter, and Dhalsim became addicted to alcohol, and Dhalsim joined the Sorcerer’s guild.
After this, the party went three different ways. Liana and Dhalsim went to discuss creating a Sorcerer’s guild in Acheron; Yolanda, Alice, and Randolph took their cycloptic bounty to the king; and Ajani crafted items and considered buying a church.
With the exception of Ajani, once their respective tasks were done, the party met up on the King’s lawn and worked together to get word out about the new Sorcerer’s Guild. It’s now a budding school a mile or so outside of the capitol city Hearth. Nice little place, I promise. Until it explodes.
Again, the party split up. Some traveled around Acheron building alliances with various groups, and Alice and Randolph traveled to Kalmor to look for interest in trade and business partners. Yoland made friends and Randolph made a colony, and all was well and good in the world. It just took forever.
After this, the party, replete with Ajani and new magical items, talked with the goblins, the hoard, and a group of raiders on magical mounts. With the former two, they made fast friends after ignoring the goblin elders and Liana flashing flesh at the hoard. The Magical Mounties on the other hand tried to capture Yolanda (A.K.A. “Green Lightning”) as she’d apparently fetch a high price somewhere. A set of magical flying boots and a haste spell later, Yolanda and Liana broke the travel speed barrier, and informed the party they had more or less started a war with a better equipped, more disciplined army.
And so here we are, on the brink.
The current plan
- The basic strategy for when the big battle begins would be to lure them out of their city-fortress. I’m not sure how we do this. I know Brian can alter the door. If he turns it into dust, I can use a gust of wind scroll to blow the dust at them.
- Once on the battlefield, resetting traps (explosive & theatrical) Alice would place, and low-rock walls Dhalsim makes herd the land-based units towards a choke point.
- Dhalsim would then use an ice wall to impede their progress. In not-12am-strategic-planning-mode (i.e. “fuck it up and lets go home” mode), this seems rather impractical as the wall can only cover so much of the battlefield. Brian mentioned it last night, but either we both thought we could work around it or I ignored it and simply kept going. Either way, an acid pit would be waiting for the soldiers who make it through the wall.
- Though, Randolph’s calvary could handle the people who go around the wall with ride-bys. Nothing like creepy cute things with lances on dogs to fuck up your charge past the traps and pits of melting death.
- Through the course of this. Liana and Ajani could find other ways to help herd or demoralize the army. I’m not sure what their capabilities are though. It’s something Alice would probably ask about in game, even if I didn’t think to. The acid line she used in the underground city would be incredibly useful, and any area of effect spells to either disperse their ranks or destroy them would be great.
Extra information
For Shaun and Missy, since this information was imparted on the party after you left:
- These super myth monster riders are well-organized if you couldn’t tell by their love of walls and phalli.
- They are led by seven ogre magi and have either created contracts with / or beaten different monstrous races into submission.
- They have a large ranch of horses that the griffins feed on. This seems to be the major purpose of the horses’ existence there.
- Note: Alice’s thought is to break this contract by freeing the horses, and preventing the bandits from getting any more. This will more than likely cause the griffins, who have been getting easy meals, to either leave or become unrestful. Dissonance in an army is a very fun thing to manipulate.
- With the hill giants they give various slaves and a lot of shiny objects in return for armed support.
- Note: With some more investigating, we could intercept the shipments or trades. If the giants don’t get their money, why would they fight for this army? Alice would prefer to wipe them out, but she imagines Yolanda will at least want to try to set them straight.
- The ogre magi are also enslaving Yeti and forcing them to fight.
- Note: It won’t be as easy as it sounds, I imagine, but freeing them would be the best route. They’re the most innocent of any of the groups in this army. We might even get them to join us in the upcoming battle. Then we could have ewoks and wookies.
Other than this info, Alice also learned that the Ogre Magi appear to have aspirations past just being bandits. There are suspicions that these guys are working towards something like creating their own nation or bringing “their boss” back. What their boss is, she couldn’t find out. For this reason, we should either keep one alive throughout the fight or take one as a hostage.
As loathe Alice is to admit it, if Dhalsim’s teleport can take unwilling creatures held in inescapable chains, she’ll need his help here. (No offense Brian, you’re a good player, but she doesn’t like Dhalsim. In many ways, he’s been the antithesis of her.)
Other Plater’s Ideas
Missy
- Ask the druids near the goblins for their support. This will probably require quite a bit of negotiating considering they’ve been killing the goblins and vice versa for years now. We’d probably have to settle the issues with the goblins mining as well as granting protection for the druids’ forests from lumber-jacks and the like.
Shaun
- Find Walter and see if he knows anything about these Ogre Magi and/ or if the Templar are involved. This would help us figure out what we’re up against. At the moment, it doesn’t seem likely that the Templar are here since everything Alice and the party has learned about them seems dragon-centric. However, this “Big Boss” (Yay, Metal Gear Solid reference) could be a dragon or something similar to Ajani. It’s worth looking into.
Eric
- This wasn’t mentioned until much later in the game, and I had forgotten it until just now. It would probably be beneficial to take out the leaders before the war starts. Whether by rendering them unconscious or by simply killing them.
- A thought I had was that we could try and pit them against one another by either kidnapping or assassinating one and making it seem as if the other magi were suspect. Sometimes the best way to fight an orderly, disciplined army with a motley crew is to remove the order and discipline.