Inactive [LP CYOA] Overlord

[TOME]

Vote for Hollywood - TOME edition.

If leaving a teleporting circle behind is a problem, we could always take one of slimes and use it call Rin. She can teleport to Erd and teleport back with the prince.

 

[Baltika9]

What, you guys can't work it out?

How would the prince fight us? He isn't a powerful warrior or anything. Only worrisome thing about kidnapping the prince is that we have to get past his bodyguards

It's a big difference, actually, which is why I'd like it to be a vote if it comes down to it. Going with TOME's plan means acknowledging Aria as our apprentice, which in turn means that we can't really send her to infiltrate anything without getting associated with Erd.
And, yeah, I think that the young prince will take his place at the forefront, he's here to lead the expedition, after all, and he has a rather earnest character. Whether or not he'll commit to the fight, I can't tell, but that's why I had him listed as a target of opportunity, rather than a goal.

 

[Nevill]

Going with TOME's plan means acknowledging Aria as our apprentice

Not necessarily, as Erdrick's reasons for joining the expedition could be different, or he could elect not to do so (though TOME would prefer it that way).

Personally I do not think it is a big deal, as I am going by this quote:

The only issue is the villagers outing her relation to Arlin and us.

Anyone who remembers Arlin's face might find her familiar. They are siblings after all.

I am not certain Aria is fooling anyone.

I don't want to dismiss your concerns - it will certainly play differently from your plan, but I'd like to state why I am not particularly against it.

 

[Kipeci]

Nothing a Typical Overlord does makes tactical sense. Or just sense. Killing his trusted lieutenants because his plans were foiled by heroes? Mindless application of violence that steels the resolve of survivors and leads to them waging guerilla wars? Telling the heroes of his plans in great detail before killing them? The constant 'NEXT TIME I WILL DESTROY YOU FOR SURE'?

To talk about BG, remember Sarevok who was aiming after a protagonist, but spent his time and minions duking it out with Gorion to show just how evil he is?

It does not make sense - but they all do it anyway. TRADITION demands it. So who are we to break it when it comes to appearances? If anything, it shows them that they can win this easily, because GOOD ALWAYS TRIUMPHS OVER FOUL EVIL. It's a shame we are less traditional about that.

I agree that the Typical Overlord rarely has plans that make tactical sense, that's certainly true. The Typical Overlord begins a story with a terrifying army capable of crushing the world, and by the end it's generally all massacred or flipped sides and they end up being assassinated while holed up in their last castle.

I have no idea what BG, Sarevok and Gorion are nor do I have time to go googling much right now (I really ought not to be making this post), but I imagine that whatever happened in a way that just showcased how evil they were didn't really further any substantial goals and likely caused later problems.

The problem is, what does behaving in that way achieve? Okay, they have it reaffirmed that good eventually triumphs over evil and all, but what engaging in an intentionally stupid ploy do to serve us? We risk all the forces we assemble without actually attempting to harm the enemy to any real extent, we attract the attention of a great number of adventurers of unknown ability while doing nothing to reduce their number, and then we head back to a slapdash castle to let loose traps unknown to us in nature while the enemy is on high-alert for exactly this sort of thing.

Even assuming that we remain perfectly well disguised and all, this doesn't do us any favors in smearing the Dark Lord as a bumbling incompetent easily vanquished. Make him out to be more threatening than he is, and they might start taking him seriously-- which ultimately deflects attention from us.

It costs a lot to mount an expedition like this, which is why this is the first attempt in decades. If the expedition is a net flop - which is what we intend it to be - how do you estimate the chances of them sending another one?

They did not dare to venture in the Forest of Ruin before without a massive force. After they become the laughingstock of the whole kingdom, or dead meat, how many would volunteer?

Nevill, what I was arguing against was my interpretation of Baltika's idea (and correct me if it's wrong) as stated in his phrase "The whole point of the castle was to lure the adventurers in, play mind games to make them think they've won and then have them leave, never to come back again." If the adventurers are defeated or suffer some incredible humiliation, I do think that it would take quite a while to send a force of comparable or greater power into the forest, maybe less time for scouting to figure out what in the world happened. That's agreeing with you. However, if the adventurers think that they have won? What's to keep them from going back? They vanquished a strange Dark Lord, making the place ostensibly safer than ever, yet do not have what they came for. Too much is at stake for him to just give up, he wants his person on the throne and I haven't seen a hint that he's on the last ropes of his wealth to fund this expedition. More people will be sent if the 'Dark Lord' is squished; I think this is less likely to happen if something terrible occurs to the expedition.

They'd need more time to arrange a stronger expedition at any rate, and with each passing day Zayan brings our fortifications to new heights.

The stated goal is to bankrupt Brescia, making him look like a fool and the expedition a waste of time and money, because it does not produce the results they expect. They will find something alright, and it'll be a complete dud, a dead end.

Did you find an indication that this was bankrupting Brescia? It's appreciable money, sure, but I don't think he'll be hurting for cash after this. I don't see how defeating a Dark Lord seems like a waste of time and money (which it appeared to me that Baltika was proposing), but what he will consider as a waste is if he doesn't get what he wants. With no apparent obstacles on the path of his ambitions, I don't see why he wouldn't keep sending his people.

Knowing absolutely nothing about our defenses in the castle or how likely we think they'd stand up to the scrutiny of over fifty essentially unharmed and suspicious adventurers and a bunch of experienced knights and mages, I'm think it's a bit premature to gloat about what the end of this will be.

Who are they going to command? And how does surviving being thrown in a pointless slaughterhouse with no chance at winning makes one a better commander?

They can boss around not only other goblins but also golems (more of a matter of placing them in strategically appropriate positions), slimes once we start producing them, and whatever other low-level minions we may scrounge up in the near future. If nothing else, they can share their knowledge of war with other goblins and provide them with better training. As to how the battle would work at making them a better commander, battle is a good place to find out what sort of ideas and moves will get you promptly killed and which ones lead to longer life. Those who survive tend to have made more of the latter sort of choices, which reinforces the likelihood that they'll make those better choices in the future. It's not just an open slaughter either since the dozen golems with each slime squad will be taking hits while Erd plays support, and they'll all be sent to withdraw once Erd sees that it's getting to be rather much for them.

Leveling up slimes has nothing to do with mass sacrifice of other minions. If you want to help them, separate the adventures in the castle and find them good 1v1 matches. They would have a better survival chance.

How many 1v1 matches do you honestly think that there will be room to fit in when you have the full bill of adventurers and explorers on the inside of the castle (which surely shouldn't be all that large, considering the incredibly short construction time)? And don't you think it's a bit insulting to the adventurers that they can't take a slime alone, even precocious ones? I do plan on having them do battle inside the castle, but first I want them hardened in prior conflict at the camp and I want for many of the most elite of the camp to die by Erd's magical energies so that their opponents are both fewer in number and less likely to immediately slaughter them.

They need to get the killing blow for the most XP, of course. Perhaps have the golems hold down their targets while they deliver the stabbing.

treave: I apologize, I must have mistyped there because I actually meant to say 'to develop the slimes', not 'to develop the goblins'.

Can you go over that again with regards to <slime> development rather than that of goblins and talk about any improvements there that Erd could think of? If Erd can think of something better than my plan for developing the slimes, I'd like to essentially immediately incorporate that into my plan as developing them is to me a top priority. For reference, within the spoilers is the relavant post of mine:

Spoiler

Initially I was going to go for Gigadyne all the way, forgetting about minions and aiming to kill off all males, but I figured that no one was really going to go for that. In place of that, I've put together the following plan.



Out of the maximum forces I want to bring a pretty sizable fraction, all of everyone except for of the bandits and slimes.

I intend on leaving the bandits out because I think that they're better off expanding Fortunio's... well, fortunes, and I think if any of them were captured and interrogated it would be much worse than for any other group. Think about it: the goblins are fanatically loyal to us, the slimes are just considered as dumb monsters and the golems obviously can't speak. Human bandits would tend to be talk more readily than any other group to our enemies here, and given that we have their loyalty only indirectly through Fortunio I think that they would not quite eagerly go through torture rather than spilling the beans as a goblin would. That could mightily endanger Fortunio's operations nearer to the capital.

For the slimes, I am considering a quote that treave left us a while back:

We want them picking up experience, the sooner we can get them up to Slime Queens means the sooner that they reach relative autonomy and begin the mass production of minor minions. The four of them that I want on the case are the carnivorous one, the omnivorous one, the one that munches on armor/weapons and the one that consumes the passion of the entangled. There are plenty of bodies and weapons at this site, a bounty for them to feast upon provided that they are adequately protected. That said, it doesn't do to place all eggs in one basket, so just in case I'd rather that our ore-muncher and the herbivorous one stay away from the field of battle.

The goblins are more expendable. I just don't want the relatively high-level slimes to be the weakest critters on the battlefield so that they aren't wiped out, so to that end I'd rather have goblins take more of the hits. The slinggoblins are probably best to have at the edge of the woods or the engagement where they can pick off troublesome opponents caught up in the battle, and each slime ought to have assigned to it one elite goblin (the pink one can have two since a living prey as it requires is the most dangerous) as well as five speargoblins. That ought to ensure that the speargoblins are all kept in shape by a more experienced commander who can exhort them to glory and keep them in a relatively organized state in the confusion of battle, rather than leaving the inexperienced speargoblins totally on their own to figure out what to do.

Now, I realize that it's quite likely that a good number of our goblins will die here while going up against strong adventurers regardless of how good Erd is at the offense game. I think it's acceptable, though, as the survivors will be very much hardened and that's really the most that we can expect from them. Once we get slime queens, we'll have plenty of literally squishy minions to throw away at problems; the goblins just can't fill that role, we don't have enough of them and they don't reproduce quickly enough. The golems are even being created more quickly than them, and the golems are better in just about every way aside from their actual thinking and skill. The goblins can fill an intermediary role as our commanders until we can get better minions and find the proper situations to deploy our other cannon-fodder in, but to get to that point we need to have them actually go into battle and get that experience to know what they should be doing.

It'd still just be a bloodbath with the goblins, but fortunatley we have the combat golems at our disposal. I'd like to assign a good dozen of them to each slime group to be ordered around at the elite's command, making sure to have them tank as many of the hits as they can manage and serve as a dangerous flailing shield wall from behind which the spear goblins can poke at enemies with relative safety.

As to the approach we take, I'd prefer to go for an immediately aggressive one taking advantage of their surprise. Gigadyne (or obliterate with with some other suitably powerful spell, for those of you wary of the squire noticing it or something) a prominent area of the camp (preferably the one with the mages in it given a choice), take out whatever defenses haven't been triggered by the stupidly powerful magic and have the slime squads rush in (maybe with a hapless golem at the front in case of traps) and seize victims for their respective slime. They can then set to holding their positions while the slimes have their fun, with Erd doing a lot of menacing flopping about as the Dark Schlong and vaporizing the most troublesome people in the startled camp before they can form organized nuclei of resistance. Inevitably it'll end up like stirring a beehive and Erd won't be able to secure all the groups, so before then he ought to have the squishier elements retreat while the golems hold the line. He can do one last flashy move to murder other prominent figures, and then order a general retreat while they're occupied with that and issue the most uptight of them a challenge against him within his castle.

treave, do you think that Erd can conceive of a better way to develop the goblins slimes? I'm devising this mostly with the goal of getting them to be in a better shape, but I'm not precisely sure of what helps them out. Do they develop more from muching on their preferred food, or from being in actual combat? Is this an alright way to train them, or would Erd have a better idea in mind for that? I don't want to form the basis of my plan on a misconception.

 

[Nevill]

I agree that the Typical Overlord rarely has plans that make tactical sense, that's certainly true. The Typical Overlord begins a story with a terrifying army capable of crushing the world, and by the end it's generally all massacred or flipped sides and they end up being assassinated while holed up in their last castle.

I have no idea what BG, Sarevok and Gorion are nor do I have time to go googling much right now (I really ought not to be making this post), but I imagine that whatever happened in a way that just showcased how evil they were didn't really further any substantial goals and likely caused later problems.

You could even say that they start at the head of a massive goblin army at least a thousand strong, a brutishly-looking henchman at their side, the whole world burning in their wake - and they end up with their castle destroyed. Yes, indeed, you could say that.

Also, a round of naming a shaming!! How can one aspire to outcarnage pigeons if one is not familiar with the tale of Lord of Murder!?
(we still love you, bro)

The problem is, what does behaving in that way achieve?

Exactly what we set out to achieve. Lure them to the castle where we deal with them at our own leisure and pace, especially since I want to treat different group of adventurers differently. The competence of the Dark Lord, while not very big, is still greater than that of the adventurers who would let a 'bumbling fool' to steal the prince from under their nose.

I see absolutely no reason to appear overly dangerous to people whom we can just Gigadyne out of existence entirely without any cunning plans. If you want to kill them, it's fine, but I aim higher than that.

However, if the adventurers think that they have won? What's to keep them from going back? They vanquished a strange Dark Lord, making the place ostensibly safer than ever, yet do not have what they came for.

Overwhelming losses, for one (that's a possibility). Lack of funds, for two.

If the expedition does not produce the results Brescia promised (it can not do so, as far as we are aware of - there is no Ultimate Artefact in the ruins, though we can always check the new ones), then the nobles would not be willing to support another.

Also, under TOME's plan Dark Lord is not meant to be vanquished, only his lieutenant is. How does this make the place safe if he has other, stronger lieutenants, is anyone's guess.

Did you find an indication that this was bankrupting Brescia? It's appreciable money, sure, but I don't think he'll be hurting for cash after this.
[...]
Knowing absolutely nothing about our defenses in the castle or how likely we think they'd stand up to the scrutiny of over fifty essentially unharmed and suspicious adventurers and a bunch of experienced knights and mages, I'm think it's a bit premature to gloat about what the end of this will be.

Did you see the money he was throwing at it? 100 000 coins - and that's just a reward, the logistics for it could also be comparable. Did you hear that Wist's resurrection cost him an arm and a leg?

Yes, I think it will hurt him, a lot. What will hurt him even more is the loss of trust of his fellow nobles (whose finanses I assume were also involved, given their reluctance to participate). He now speaks for them, but how long would it last if he does not make returns on their investments? This expedition is the largest in decades, but it is not made of Brescia's people. If the general consensus becomes that it wasn't worth it, it would be hard to find that many volunteers.

Oh, and I would not worry about castle's defences. They will invariably include one pigeon - or an axe-happy princess. That is all we'll ever need, the rest is just fluff.

How many 1v1 matches do you honestly think that there will be room to fit in when you have the full bill of adventurers and explorers on the inside of the castle (which surely shouldn't be all that large, considering the incredibly short construction time)? And don't you think it's a bit insulting to the adventurers that they can't take a slime alone, even precocious ones?

You can split them, that's what castle is for. Also, I am not sure why it is safe to attack them when they are in bulk and supported by mages, but dangerous when they are alone.

 

[Nevill]

Alright. So currently we have 4 plans.

Kipeci's Slimefest

As to the approach we take, I'd prefer to go for an immediately aggressive one taking advantage of their surprise. Gigadyne (or obliterate with with some other suitably powerful spell, for those of you wary of the squire noticing it or something) a prominent area of the camp (preferably the one with the mages in it given a choice), take out whatever defenses haven't been triggered by the stupidly powerful magic and have the slime squads rush in (maybe with a hapless golem at the front in case of traps) and seize victims for their respective slime. They can then set to holding their positions while the slimes have their fun, with Erd doing a lot of menacing flopping about as the Dark Schlong and vaporizing the most troublesome people in the startled camp before they can form organized nuclei of resistance. Inevitably it'll end up like stirring a beehive and Erd won't be able to secure all the groups, so before then he ought to have the squishier elements retreat while the golems hold the line. He can do one last flashy move to murder other prominent figures, and then order a general retreat while they're occupied with that and issue the most uptight of them a challenge against him within his castle.

Votes: Kipeci, Gobblecock, Elfberserker, lightbane

Baltika's Hollywood

We gather enough kindling to put up a convincing backdrop and set the area around their camp aflame. The sections where our troops will be stationed will have a safe corridor to retreat through, should the adventurers actually go for a serious charge.

The goblins and golems will be arranged so as to make the horde seem bigger than it actually is.
The golems in the center as the shield, dressed up to look like especially big and tough goblins; the melee goblins on the flanks; the elite goblins will be entrusted with leading separate formations and be on the front lines with their troops; the ranged troops will be in the front at first and shift behind the melee line in case the adventurers charge; the slimes will be present in a support/communication capacity to let us know if the situation is getting out of control.
Their job is to literally stand there and look as menacing as they possibly can, we can use minor illusory tricks to help them with that.

Erdrick rolls up in the center, disguised as the Dark Lord, and uses his genre-breaking awareness and bullshit mastery to lure the adventurers into the fortress. If the prince rides out and tries to play hero, rough him up a bit and let Aria save him. If he doesn't, no problem, we'll catch up with him in the fortress.
If the expedition actually looks like it might call our bluff and charge, we break out the lightning dragon.

Rin will be on damage control for the moment. If any of the separate troops actually get engaged and we can't make it, her job is to make sure that there is a sudden outbreak of decapitation.

Votes:

TOME's Hollywood

Setup is the same as in Hollywood, the approach is different.

Have Rin check the enchantments around the camp in case there is something that would interfere with the performance.

Erd will be playing the role of the Baron Dark Flaming Lord. Rin will be playing his right-hand lieutenant Rinotaur and the final boss of the castle. Dark Lord emerges in the camp while they are in the alarm mode over the horde behind the camp walls, engages the adventurers (trying to gauge what they are capable of), overwhelms the bodyguards and takes the prince hostage (with the intention for the fighting to cease). He prepares the teleportation circle to kidnap the prince (not like adventurers will dare attack him with the prince's life at stake). He summons Rin to bring him the teleportation circle while he is holding the prince, and taunts the adventurers about it. Aria being the hothead she is tries a stupid rescue attemp with Gigadyne Verdant and gets captured. Erdrick, prince and Aria teleport out to the castle prison where the Dark Lord leaves both kids in adjacent cells. Meanwhile, the horde under Rin's supervision pulls out via a prepared Teleportation Circle in the woods.

Votes: TOME, Nevill, Storyfag, Kz3r0, Tigranes, Baltika9, archaen

archaen's golemnado

Plan golemnado - First we hit the camp with lightning storm and icicle storm. Then we load a tornado full of golems. We run it through their camp and while they are distracted with constructs raining from the sky we swoop in with Rin and capture the prince.

Votes:

And about 2-3 disguises.

Spoiler

 

[Baltika9]

I'm good with either Hollywood plan, so Holywood Baltika> Hollywood TOME

 

[lightbane]

I vote for TOME's Hollywood plan. And for the disguise, Baron Dark of course. Maximum cheese!

 

[Storyfag]

I also support either of the Hollywood plans. But let me clearly flop to Hollywood TOME. It's the only way to be sure.

As far as disguises go, Baron Dark clearly outcheeses the Supreme Clown of Undeath, so I withdraw my proposition and vote for Baron Dark.

 

[Kz3r0]

I vote for TOME's Hollywood plan. And for the disguise, Baron Dark .

Me too.

 

[Tigranes]

Tome Hollywood seems interesting, we will learn more about the adventurers and it's a good way to get Aria to safety and make further use of her position.

 

[treave]

treave: I apologize, I must have mistyped there because I actually meant to say 'to develop the slimes', not 'to develop the goblins'.

Slimes can learn abilities by eating people. Erdrick has plans to set up special slime rooms to lure specific people into once he has identified their abilities.

Perhaps the golems can hold down the food while the slimes deliver the munching.

 

[lightbane]

Odd, I thought slimes would evolve and grow stronger by consuming high-quality variations of their favored food, not by fully eating halpless victims (except for the red and pink ones maybe).

 

[treave]

Those strengthen their respective innate powers, but you don't have a lot of quality resources to spend on them. Eating an adventurer gives them a chance to pick up one of the adventurer's abilities.

 

[lightbane]

Oh, what a shame. At least we may be able to poach whatever abilities they learn.

In that case, we'll order the golems to knock out the female adventurers and the younger ones, followed by removing their clothes before finally letting the eating happen. It's for their own good, really. And also because I wouldn't risk having their loot destroyed.

 

[treave]

Looks like the theatrical option is ahead.

So, have you guys given any thought to a speech? Or will it just be silent glowering fiery menace while the spells do the talking?

I will be taking your suggestions literally for the most part.

 

[lightbane]

Hopefully it doesn't turn into another "love speech" incident. Anyway, I would do the basics:

"*evil laugh* Greetings, mortals, are you ready to die? *kills 1d5 adventurers, wait for the counter-attack and safely deflect it* I am the Dark Lord, the greatest evil sorcerer ever existed, and those puny magics is all that you can offer? Pathetic *kill 1d5 more adventurers, favoring mages and strong opponents, moves in to capture the Prince* I'll be taking this as a souvenir. If you have the guts, come to my Dark Castle to get them. My second strongest lieutenant, the Devil Minotaur Firelord, will take care of your miserable lives *poses dramatically, kills 1d5 more people* Farewell, weaklings. Soon, Methus will fall by my hands! And then, the rest of the world will follow! GAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! *teleports out*"

 

[archaen]

Yuuuge Overlord speeches inside

Spoiler

“I will build a great wall – and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me – and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall around this forest, and I will make Methus pay for that wall. Mark my words.”

“When Methus sends its people, they’re not sending the best. They’re not sending you, they’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bring crime. They’re rapists… And some, I assume, are good people.”

“Prince Feist is unattractive, both inside and out. I fully understand why his former concubine left him for a goblin – she made a good decision.”

“You know, it really doesn’t matter what you reply as long as you’ve got a young, and beautiful, piece of ass."

 

[Nevill]

"Feist is a mess. Feist is a waste. Feist is a big fat mistake."

Hey, some of it even rhymes!

 

[treave]

Can't Dick the Drick doesn't seem to have the same ring to it, unfortunately.

 

[Kipeci]

Archaen knows words, he has the best words.

Make Grahferde Great Again!

 

[Elfberserker]

Voting for either hollywood plan

 

[lightbane]

Using RL evil overlords for the quotes should be considered cheating.

 

[Nevill]

Hopefully it doesn't turn into another "love speech" incident. Anyway, I would do the basics:

I insist that it should be done in our ALL CAPS voice. TRADITION demands it!

PUNY MORTALS! YOU DARE TRESSPASS ON MY DOMAIN?! TREMBLE BEFORE THE MIGHT OF THE DARK LORD, HIS ALL-ENCOMPASSING MASTERY OF EVIL SORCERY, AND HIS IMPECCAPLE SWAGGER!

IS THIS THE ONE YOU CALL YOUR LEADER? PATHETIC!

...and so forth. Be natural.

Also, our goblins could do this to demoralize the enemy:

Spoiler

Uh, only without the zerg rush, because we all know how it ends.

 

[archaen]

I would echo gobblecock that the teleport circle in the TOME Hollywood is impractical. Rinotaur should grab the prince and Erdrick should just take care of teleporting himself. Edit - but if we do that then Aria gets left behind. It still seems like it is going to be extremely difficult to do fancy penmanship in the middle of a battlefield with a bunch of people trying to kill us and spells and martial arts destroying the ground we are trying to write on.

I guess put my vote to any other plan but TOME Hollywood.