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Smashing Axe

Arcane
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Dec 29, 2011
Messages
2,835
Divinity: Original Sin
Cii

Screw this guy. Let's trick him and murder him horribly. (I knew he was a traitor, rawr!) It's doable since he seems to have some emotional attachment still to our group. Enough to manipulate him into revealing himself, I think. Thais should be good with the cloak and dagger and improvise from there.

Keep in mind that if Miosguinn is talking, he doesn't have one of the stones in his mouth.
 

Absinthe

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Jan 6, 2012
Messages
4,062
I don't like C. Not because it's dishonorable but because I think we are more likely to get our own diplomats ganked than to succeed. From my perspective, it's unnecessarily risky.

Fangshi said:
You could always ward the chapel that way, it might buy you more time if it came to that but time is something Miosguinn has plenty of anyway.
May as well. There's value in having a safe spot that we can set up supplies and rest inside without worrying near as much about an invisible raid and other shit.
 

Grimgravy

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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire
B is right out. The blues can't let their secret out so we will be pursued and attacked. Negotiating sounds too risky. Part of Miosguin's favor towards us will be crushed when he finds out we didn't take his warning. That was rather decent of him.

A until someone comes up with a decent D. Warding the sanctuary could be a good use of out time depending on what else we would be doing? Do we have time management options in A? Learning fancy new magick gimics? Playing Tiddly-Winks?
 

Smashing Axe

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Divinity: Original Sin
I do not like the idea of undergoing a long siege. We have a limited amount of supplies, and we have a long trip back to the surface once we finally find our prize. A quick decisive option like Cii is the only way I can see us being guaranteed a sufficient food supply. Plus we want to get away from all these useless dependent children.

In regards to an enemy counter-attack in response to our trick, while there is a level of risk, it's not as bad as I think you're making it out to be, because the enemy is severely limited in their ranged attacks. Miosguinn seems like the only one who has any ranged capability whatsoever.
 

Boxer

Dumbfuck!
Dumbfuck
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Jul 14, 2013
Messages
132
Fangshi
Why was Mios graverobbing with us? For fat loot?
Would we have lost him to the Blues if we shit on the Dwarves when we first met them?
What was the timing with 10 min differences about?
What was the difference between mortaring and not moartaring?

Vote
1. What to do?
B) Organize a retreat - now that you have reduced their numbers you try to escape
i) Just your group - you will try to slip away while no one is watching
GET TO TEH CHOPPA! I MEAN SURFACE! ABORT ABORT ABORT! Recuperate, talk to the Warlocks.

I dont even know what the fuck we are doing here.
Wasted mandrake on midgets, wasted time and even more mandrake on jailbait grills, lost our best asset (Mios) to the Union, lost the medic in a cringe highschool altercation, used up a massive amount of resources just to survive driders and its not even over yet. Now we are preparing for a Last Stand kind of effort... Jesus, whats the upside here?

This is supposed to be mercenaries on a raid for gold and power.
Turns out to be Bronies on a crusade for Friendship. Grml.

Insha Allah, someone dies in the next update!

edit

Anyone watching Alvarez vs Angulo in an hour? 1/5 odds against Angulo, my 5 bucks are gonne be 25 tonite! ^^
 

Grimgravy

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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire
We don't know where the apprentice is. She might very well have ranged capabilities. I wonder if she is the lonely rager.
 

Fangshi

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Messages
1,997
Boxer said:
Why was Mios graverobbing with us? For fat loot?

He was using your expedition as an excuse to check in with the rest of the Blues, he has been communicating with them by spider since you arrived at the guardhouse. If everything went according to plan he would have submitted his report, collected a paycheck for helping your group and then returned to the surface.

Something important occurred a week or two back that changed everything for him, the Blues and all of the Damned. Can't get more specific than that for the moment.

Would we have lost him to the Blues if we shit on the Dwarves when we first met them?

It would depend. Helping the dwarves did not help your odds of keeping him but different decisions before you met the dwarves could have led to a situation where he would stick with you. Now if you ran into the Blues he probably would have left no matter what but you would not always be guaranteed to meet them.

What was the timing with 10 min differences about?

The choice with Amena? That one was not really about the timing since the roots would not really save you any time. It was a choice between gaining an extra mage and reducing the operation time for all subsequent choices vs keeping two mandrake roots in case you needed them later.

As for the timing choices in general they all had to do with the situation you would find the Damned in. It was possible to catch Christine in the tunnels if you went with the barebones minimum. It was also possible to catch the retreating Reds as well. It determined whether or not you could take the quick tunnel that they collapsed and it also determined just how many of the Reds and Silver would be left when you arrived and how they would react to your presence.

What was the difference between mortaring and not mortaring?

Well the most obvious difference was that it gave Miosguinn a huge field promotion. He went from the fourth ranked mage to the leader of the Blues. If you had not mortared their leaders the enemy would have attacked in a more organized manner but you would also have been more organized in defense. At some point Abharsair would have had a shot at tearing down the front door but you would also have had a chance to stop him.

You may have come out better or worse, who knows? It would have been a completely different battle with a completely different enemy commander. Miosguinn is much more cautious and intelligent than Abharsair was but he has less to work with.
 
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Erebus

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Jul 12, 2008
Messages
4,763
Can we try to cast mass compulsion with the help of Nine, our circle and the other mages present there?
The idea is to compel the spiderfolks to eat Miosguinn, besides with all the mages around us there must be a way to attack Miosguinn if we can locate him.

I don't think it will be easy to make them attack him (and if we succeed, unless he's killed quickly, I bet he has ways of putting them back under his control).

But maybe we could use our magic to make them attack us again (something that should come to them quite naturally). We don't have a lot of arrows left (and they won't be very useful because of the illusions), but if we can get the creatures to stay in a tight group we might really thin their numbers with fire bombs (or a well-placed satchel charge lit with a fire spell).
 

Nevill

Arcane
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Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Yes, that bit about the creature raging at its comrades not sharing the food was a rather big hint. If we can bleed Miosguinn's forces even further, maybe we can reach the point when he has nothing to siege/pursue us with.
 
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Nevill

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Shadorwun: Hong Kong
All right. Neither of the choices seem too good to me, so we might as well try to come up with something freeform.

Fangshi, does the power granted by Gods depend on the specific place where one calls upon it? Can it be that here, near the place of her wordhip, the goddess is capable to manifest more of her powers? Seeing as how fetches could borrow the power of their gods through the dimensional rift, this seems unlikely, but I might as well ask. What do we know about divine powers and how one disrupts the connection between a god and its followers?

I am afraid that if we finally get rid of Miosguinn, a new leader will arise backed by the same goddess. Why not?

The problem I see with trying to negotiate with him is that he is smart and cunning, and is unlikely to fall for it. By now he should know our people will not willingly join him, and that we would not abandon our team. Both teams will go there with the intention to kill each other, and currently he has more resourses to do that with his fancy spells.

At the moment, even if we lure him out, it is hard to determine which Miosguinn is the real one. I would suggest using our stock of satchel charges to mine a large enough area and thus make sure that he would be dead whereever he is. The problem, of course, would be luring him there and not getting caught in the blast. Unfortunately, we can't covertly mine the field where the negotiations will take place.

What I would like to do is to feign defeat, and lure the forces Miosguinn has left into a deathtrap by planting a few suggestions here and there and making them go for the kill once they think their prey is helpless. Without his forces to back him up, the mage is not that scary. For this plan to work, we need to keep our presence a secret. We need to set up a proper line of defenses and/or barricades near the ramp - the fact that this path remains wide open bothers me.

I guess this would be D? Entrench ourselves further, try to get the smelting torches to work, make cocktails out of the brewery, mend the wounds, barricade the ramp and ward off the chapel - basically, prepare the battlefield and do the same thing you do in A. Then prepare the trap, show his forces that you are desperate to finish this one way or another, charge out with the Reds/Silvers and some of the dwarves while our core group lays is wait, and then retreat. Even if Miosguinn himself might suspect something, we can make his forces fall for it. These creatures do not want to be denied fresh food, and it shoud be easy to make them charge blindly:
The creature lay in hiding, watching, waiting for its chance to attack. The doors had closed and trapped it outside away from its prey, away from its food. Instantly it thought of betrayal. Had its companions locked it outside? Unwilling to share the warm, fresh meat that awaited inside? Rage bubbled to the surface of the creature's mind, it would find a way in! It would eat!
Once they are all inside, close the gates (with their own claws, if need be) and have something in place to help them stay closed - a crude trap with something heavy dropping from the ceiling and barring the exit should do, or install some kind of metal bar lock that is easy to lock but impossible to unlock quickly. Then have a field day. We have already dealt with 20 of the spiderfolk alone, and now we would be backed by what is left from the Reds and the Silvers. If we trap Miosguinn with them, good, here goes carpet bombing. If not, they will be cut off from his support spells and fall easily.
 
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2,951
I'm going to think about what to vote, but I would prefer something that doesn't give away the fact that we are here to him. That is our ace in the hole and I would like it to remain hidden as long as possible. So that rules out C for me I guess - I don't think diplomacy can work for anything except maybe for him letting us leave with the dwarfs and I don't think it would be easy to catch him of guard. Hell, he had an illusion double before he had any reason to believe we would be able to harm him. That's the kind of impressive paranoia that makes him very difficult to trick. We could retreat to our secret base I suppose, if he doesn't know we are here he would not look for us there. Or stay here and remove his forces from the picture somehow. Without them he would be much less of a problem and it would probably be easier to go after them than him.

Hmm, we can't nuke him, he knows that spell and we might collapse the entire place on us even if we take him out. But there's always the old favourite way of ruining underground campaigns in D&D - flood the place with magic. Open a portal with one site looking at his position and the other in some river, lake or sea we have seen before in our travels. Wash the spider out.

Just joking. Mostly.
 
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Nevill

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Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
I don't think we know how to open a portal. The gate spell is far from being mastered.

If we can't trick him, why not trick his minions? He does not know we are here, and even if he finds out, he has no way of knowing about our extensive training in mind manipulation with Nine. He should not be ready for it.
 

Fangshi

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Nevill said:
Fangshi, does the power granted by Gods depend on the specific place where one calls upon it? Can it be that here, near the place of her wordhip, the goddess is capable to manifest more of her powers? Seeing as how fetches could borrow the power of their gods through the dimensional rift, this seems unlikely, but I might as well ask.

It is not tied to any particular place. As long as the connection is there he will be able to draw the same amount of power.

What do we know about divine powers and how one disrupts the connection between a god and its followers?

Not much really. It is rather rare for anyone to make direct contact with one of the Dark Gods and not get devoured or mentally wiped so no one really knows if there are limits to the power a person gains. During the war the Fetch were able to cast an almost constant chain of lightning bolts. This suggests that channeling power does not really wear down the caster very quickly, Miosguinn can probably outlast you all if it comes down to a magical duel. Based on what Nine has told you though he is only getting power from his connection, you do not believe that he has suddenly learnt a bunch of new spells or anything. So he is probably still using his old spell set he can just cast them at maximum efficiency with very little effort. Nine thinks that the power he is receiving would be withdrawn if Miosguinn angered his "goddess" but you are not sure how to accomplish that...

Entrench ourselves further, try to get the smelting torches to work, make cocktails out of the brewery, mend the wounds, barricade the ramp and ward off the chapel - basically, prepare the battlefield and do the same thing you do in A. Then prepare the trap, show his forces that you are desperate to finish this one way or another, charge out with the Reds/Silvers and some of the dwarves while our core group lays is wait, and then retreat.

Sure I can add that as an option. Who did you want to send out as bait? My understanding is that you want to keep the element of surprise so it can not be anyone from your group that he may recognize. That leaves you with the two Silvers, the three Reds and Jori and his dwarves. Did you want to send all of them?

Once they are all inside, close the gates (with their own claws, if need be) and have something in place to help them stay closed - a crude trap with something heavy dropping from the ceiling and barring the exit should do, or install some kind of metal bar lock that is easy to lock but impossible to unlock quickly. Then have a field day. We have already dealt with 20 of the spiderfolk alone, and now we would be backed by what is left from the Reds and the Silvers. If we trap Miosguinn with them, good, here goes carpet bombing. If not, they will be cut off from his support spells and fall easily.

Just to make sure I understand the plan here. Your group will be setup near the ramp or near the chapel door? Presumably behind makeshift defenses with the entrance to the room mined right?

Something like this maybe?
Chapel​
----------------------Doors--------------------
----Your Group----
----------​


S. charges
S. charges Front Doors
S. charges​
S. charges
S. charges
ramp
---------------------------------------------------

The biggest problems I can see with the plan would be convincing the Red and Silver survivors to take most of the risk. It would take some smooth talking but you do have Thaïs for that. There is also the risk that you would blow up your allies as you attack the Blues but there is not much you can do about that. It should not be too difficult to set up the door to close once they enter, the dwarves can probably come up with something. The Blues are however quite a bit faster than your allies so they will have to bunch up and fight their way back to your lines, they won't be able to just run back.


Current Tally:
Baltika9 C2
Absinthe A
Smashing Axe C2
Grimgravy A
Boxer Bi
Nevill D
Erebus D
GreyViper D

A) 2 votes

B)
i. 1 vote
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.

C)
i.
ii. 2 votes

D) 3 votes
 
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Nevill

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Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Fangshi said:
Sure I can add that as an option. Who did you want to send out as bait?
Depends on who can run fastest.

Fangshi said:
My understanding is that you want to keep the element of surprise so it can not be anyone from your group that he may recognize.
Does he not know Serpent was captured? Though if he did, he'd probably expect us to be here, too.
I don't know if we should hide or not. It's not necessarily him we are trying to trick, after all.
Maybe the initial surprise of seeing us here would hinder his thought process and make him unable to intervene in the crucial first moments of our plan.

Fangshi said:
That leaves you with the two Silvers, the three Reds and Jori and his dwarves. Did you want to send all of them?
Maybe we don't have to go out. Maybe we just need to open the gate and make a stand. What we are going for is the impression that we can not hold out for much longer, and we are ready to die in a battle if only not to start eating each other. We have to show that we are desperate. Three and a half warriors and a pair of kids with an occasional mage among them standing in the open look like they have a death wish anyway. Casgair is missing a hand, and I think we can do some decorations to make our position seem like it's worse than it really is. Maybe not all of the dwarves need to be present, seemingly killed in the previous attack. Maybe we arm the wounded and children to make the show more believable. Of course, they would have to run for it once it gets hot.

Maybe just our thinned numbers would be enough to convince the creatures that victory is at hand, and would ease our job at prompting an assault. They made a suicidal charge to open these gates, right? Well, now the gates are open, come down and get us!

The scene can play like this: we open the gates and face the enemy - who, presumably, have orders not to attack and wait until we starve and bleed out. Our mages makes a suggestion/compulsion for several spiders to charge at us. The children back down, some of them drop weapons in fear. Once the rest of the creatures will smell blood, they would need no further convincing. If they do, there are mass spells. Presumably, Derryth will need line of sight for it to work, or maybe we can work through Neith?

It would have been perfect if we had to make a retreat, but if it poses too much risk, then we are better off thinking about something different.

I want to play on these creatures' instincts, and make it so that even Miosguinn could not stop their frenzy. It happened already during the previous attack.
 
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Fangshi

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Messages
1,997
Nevill said:
Depends on who can run fastest.

Well the dwarves would never be able to keep up with these things. The Reds are the most athletic and would have the best chance of straight up retreating but the Blues are faster than they are. Also if it looks too much like a trap Miosguinn will try to restrain his remaining followers naturally.

Does he not know Serpent was captured? Though if he did, he'd probably expect us to be here, too.
I don't know if we should hide or not. It's not necessarily him we are trying to trick, after all.

He does not know Serpent was captured as he left to find Isolde (and save Gareth and Brigit) at the start of the battle so right now he has no clue that your group is there. If he sees one of you he will probably pull back a little and adjust his plans since he knows you have the supply wagon and your group may be strong enough to scare him off.

If need be he can leave a force to contain you while he creates more soldiers, he could then come back with overwhelming numbers and wipe you out...

Maybe we don't have to go out.

If you just open the doors the Blues may run in but Miosguinn will know it is a trap and will try to hold them back. You may be able to compel them to charge anyway but that will come down to the dice.

I want to play on these creatures' instincts, and make it so that even Miosguinn could not stop their frenzy.

Well a fleeing, unarmed target would set off their instincts but they are not completely without intellect they may still suspect something.
 

Nevill

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Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Fangshi said:
Well the dwarves would never be able to keep up with these things. The Reds are the most athletic and would have the best chance of straight up retreating but the Blues are faster than they are. Also if it looks too much like a trap Miosguinn will try to restrain his remaining followers naturally.

If you just open the doors the Blues may run in but Miosguinn will know it is a trap and will try to hold them back. You may be able to compel them to charge anyway but that will come down to the dice.
We can go with a combination of two plans. We get everyone ready to charge out, including the children and the wounded, and open the gates, but the weakest part of the group falters and loses heart once they see the enemy coming to meet us and runs for the chapel, forcing the rest of us to pull back trying to stop their flight.

If they will be busy fighting some of the creatures, they can pretend they could not close the gates in time and fall back to the chapel. This will become an opportunity the rest of the creatures can not miss, and force them to invade.

It is still convincing enough, and we do not have to make an actual contact with the enemy and go too far away from the building, allowing our props to hide safely and making the retreat easier for the Reds and Silvers.

I am not opposed to have them at the frontlines. Better them than us, I say, especially since we used up our healing supplies as a direct result of their actions and since without us they would have been dead anyway. It is about time they did something useful, for once.

As for blowing our allies up, just entangle the legs of those who don't let them get away from the blast radius. Our target that we need to blow up is the bulk of the forces that will follow the few creatures who will charge at us first. Even if the avantgarde escapes the explosion, between our combined forces they do not stand a chance.
 
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Fangshi

Arcane
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Jan 9, 2014
Messages
1,997
Alright, you will pretend to offer battle. When they come to meet you your ranks will break and try lure them into a trap. I have updated D.
 

Erebus

Arcane
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Jul 12, 2008
Messages
4,763
D it is.

Of course, it would be a total shame if Christine happened to be caught in an explosion.
 

GreyViper

Prophet
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Jan 10, 2011
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Location
Estonia
Sure lets try D , also have silvers be the ones first to engage Miosguinn in magical duel. And maybe use the rocks that grant magics resistance to get close for a kill.
 

Nevill

Arcane
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Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
I don't think we can win in a magical duel:
This suggests that channeling power does not really wear down the caster very quickly, Miosguinn can probably outlast you all if it comes down to a magical duel. Based on what Nine has told you though he is only getting power from his connection, you do not believe that he has suddenly learnt a bunch of new spells or anything. So he is probably still using his old spell set he can just cast them at maximum efficiency with very little effort.
He is resistant to our spells and is plugged directly into the power source while we are running on batteries. We stand a better chance if we sick our warriors on him.

Of course, he would not be as reckless as his minions, nor would he be as fast to get there in time when the trap springs. So it is too much to hope to get rid of him quickly. We'll probably have to hunt him down using our pathfinders... if we even make this work.

What our mages can do, though, is target the enviroment around him. A rock ceiling collapsing on your head is no less destructive than a fireball, and can not be resisted.
 
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Absinthe

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Messages
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You want to set up a trap for Miosguinn who is known to be very intelligent and cautious? I'm not holding my breath for this to work.

I'm still fond of A which to me is "Heal the wounded and build up firepower, then blast our way out in a single direction."

Fangshi, is it possible for Serpent to cast Heal without roots if we get all the mages to chain up with him to boost his mana?
 

Fangshi

Arcane
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Messages
1,997
Absinthe said:
Fangshi, is it possible for Serpent to cast Heal without roots if we get all the mages to chain up with him to boost his mana?

Yes but whoever he is tapped into is going to be worn down for the day. You have seven mages in total so you could cast heal seven times before you lose all of your spellcasters. They would have to wait about 24hrs before they could safely cast again or they could try and cast while tired but then you are essentially "casting from hitpoints" and you run the very real risk of doing permanent damage (stat loss or worse).

Erebus said:
Of course, it would be a total shame if Christine happened to be caught in an explosion.

Actually this is an important point. If you want to spring the trap while your allies are still in the line of fire that is an option. You could potentially kill the Blues, the Reds, the Silver and the dwarves this way. Of course if any of them survive...

Either way just let me know.
 

Nevill

Arcane
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Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Absinthe said:
You want to set up a trap for Miosguinn who is known to be very intelligent and cautious?
...No?

Yes, that bit about the creature raging at its comrades not sharing the food was a rather big hint. If we can bleed Miosguinn's forces even further, maybe we can reach the point when he has nothing to siege/pursue us with.
If we can't trick him, why not trick his minions?
I want to set up a trap for the Blues. I believe I was clear enough in the description.
But one of the figures yet stands, wavering slightly like it is not even there. It raises an arm to hold back the horde but in the chaos less than a third of the Blues follow this order. The rest charge your lines.
He does not have full control over them. When the instincts take over, they are very hard to command. I am counting on that.

If you want to set a trap for Miosguinn personally, you can try C2. Good luck with that.

Fangshi said:
Actually this is an important point. If you want to spring the trap while your allies are still in the line of fire that is an option. You could potentially kill the Blues, the Reds, the Silver and the dwarves this way. Of course if any of them survive...
You just keep offering us a shovel to dig ourselves a grave, don't you? We no longer have healing supplies or energon cubes, and this would halve our effective party size. If we do that, we might as well just turn around and leave for the surface... which would not a bad idea if Jori gets what he wants and comes through with his promise of payment. But, again, he has to be alive for that.
 

Fangshi

Arcane
Joined
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Messages
1,997
Nevill said:
You just keep offering us a shovel to dig ourselves a grave, don't you?

:lol: Well it is my job...


Current Tally:
Baltika9 C2
Absinthe A
Smashing Axe C2
Grimgravy A
Boxer Bi
Nevill D
Erebus D
GreyViper D
Jester Bi
Kz3r0 D

A) 2 votes

B)
i. 2 votes
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.

C)
i.
ii. 2 votes

D) 4 votes
 
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