Darkness Rising v2.0 - 'Tenebris Unleashed' Campaign

[CroverusRaven]

OOC: So, anyone want to go check out those ruins?

INC: Donovan found some maps while wandering around Dis. He noticed the nearby ruins and wondered if there was any treasure of easy experience there. He asked his brothers what they thought about heading out to the ruins and looking for some fun. They seem eager to follow him, though he is not aware as the the exact reason why.

[Nnelg]

The Old Batch has already explored those Ruins, and looted several magic items and an artifact from it. I doubt it has regenerated this quickly...

[CroverusRaven]

How many turns ago was that? If nothing else maybe there could be some wild monsters fro some of the lower leveled character to challenge themselves against.

[0beron]

With the increase in Juice, Vinny will have crafted 13 Golems by Turn 16, so in addition to those already listed, he actually completes that Bomb-o-Lantern, and puts 14 Juice into a 2nd one.

[Nnelg]

Not sure. It happened no later than turn 6, but probably not before turn 4.

As for hunting wild animals, talk to Vinny (0beron) about it.

[CroverusRaven]

Donovan and his brothers seek out Vinny for permission to hunt in the surrounding hexes.

[0beron]

Vinny informs the infantry that there is a distinct lack of wild encounters in the vicinity, something he suspects to end on Turn 16 (Marbit will not allow wild encounters to pop until then), but he was under the impression that the Chief Warlord had other plans for the infantry by that point.

[MarbitChow]

Well, the main thing I'm waiting for is for everyone to update or confirm their characters under the new rules. There may be some non-XP encounters near the city, which would be used as rations to offset upkeep, but the "good" encounters will be a few turns away from the city. Because of that, I'm assuming whoever is needed to take the next elven city won't be available for wilderness encounters. In other words - I'm trying to keep it so that everyone's involved in something at about the same time. There won't be a scenario where a few players are able to gain XP significantly faster than others. Based on the assault plans, not all PCs may be needed for the attack, so any PCs not involved in conquest get "random encounters" instead.

In order to get this show underway again, I'm setting a deadline of this Wednesday, Nov. 28th as the last day to update or confirm your character(s). Anyone who doesn't by then will be converted to an NPC.

In the meantime, in the words of Rocky and Bullwinkle, "And now, here's something we hope you'll really like!"

Spoiler: show

[0beron]

Hey, I never said nothing could go wrong :p

[BLANDCorporatio]

Hey, in case it wasn't clear, I confirm that my two chars are up to date. I mean, I'd like to bitch about how Zed-too appears to have been shortchanged by the XP but I suppose someone had to pick the short straw. And I am hoping on recovering some of the RPXP disadvantage for Will caused by not saying much in the immediate aftermath of taking Dis City.

But the chars' stats are up to date.

Oh and-

Spoiler: show

is hilarious!

(IC William)

I do hope that the casters don't tempt the Titans. I'd rather live to confront Romana. And if the confrontation is to be in a dungeon, better one of ours.

[Nnelg]

So, after some discussion it seems we've more or less settled on three immediate objectives:

1.) Take Logan's Run.
2.) Deal with Lolly Cholly.
3.) Grind Random Encounters.

I propose we start planning for these now, to speed things along a bit.


For Logan's Run, I think we should go for the throat with a decisive, stunning victory with an invisible insertion of crack troops inside the garrison.

Even if we don't immediately take it, making all the troops on the walls our prisoners, (Marbit, is this even a possibility?) the disarray this would leave the enemy troops in should still carry the day for us. The enemy won't be expecting this tactic, (Nemo should have agents watching the Archons by then, so not even Charlie will see it coming) and if it's ever going to work it'll work on a level 1 city.

More detailed/specific plan

Spoiler: show

Most of our force here will be just one big distraction. We would bring overwhelming force in against one side of the walls, drawing the enemy out of the garrison. Uncroaked infantry would go in first to soak up hits, immediately followed by archers to supply counter-fire. Then we'd send in the rest of the infantry and the sappers.

Meanwhile, an elite force would sneak around from the rear. One stack mounted on Balrugs (we'll need to pop a second one) accompanied by all of our fliers save the brickbats, all made invisible by Nemo. They'll enter the hex from the west or southwest, where they won't be expected. (In fact, they won't even move with the main column, so the enemy will think they know where our entire army is.)

They'll fly over the walls, taking the enemy garrison by surprise. At best, they've made all enemy units into our prisoners, at worst they can open a gate for our army to sneak in through.

We'll still need some concrete intel on Logan's Run before we can move, though. Specifically, a map of the city and the area defined as "the garrison" is something we must acquire.


As for Lolly Cholly, just having a plan to take him out would give Yuri something concrete to work on for negotiations... (And no discredit to Yuri, but that's really a long shot.)

Here, I think that brute force would be most successful. T. Coil would go with this group, and be their "better battering ram". Since it's a fair distance away, and the tunnels restrict archery (assuming we're using the revised LOS rules), we'd probably send only units mounted on Naughty Kitties and Heck Pups this direction. Unless we got the Balrugs to ferry additional units over before the battle of Logan's Run, although these units would be unable to retreat as far as the rest if Lolly turns out to be a much bigger threat than expected.


Whoever isn't part of one of these two taskforces will be stationed at Dis City, in case of a second siege there. In the meantime, they can go on hunting trips and grind for XP. They could even camp outside the city if they wish, as long as they can get back in 1 Turn.

[WhirdCheese]

Let me repeat my plan. We balance the scales. Send 8 unled zed infantry in with orders to get slautered as quickly as posible. This will give us a bonus as they now owe us two soldiers. It's acceptable if you think about the possibility of having a second golem producer. It's the loss of a half turn of production at Tenibris for more than that.

If we postemtivly say we send them after hearing about tipping the scales we get them turn 16ish

[MarbitChow]

Even if we don't immediately take it, making all the troops on the walls our prisoners, (Marbit, is this even a possibility?)

Not really, no. I wasn't planning on creating scenarios where taking and holding 3 different sections of a city was necessary. I'll do that for a Capital fight (either Tenebris or Breatheairia, depending on how well or poorly you all do), but I won't bother for smaller cities. All normal fights will be of the "kill almost everyone" variety.

Note that prisoners can be executed in order to give a specific unit the full XP from that kill. They're going to be rare, and most will probably be more valuable alive than killed for XP.

In the meantime, they can go on hunting trips and grind for XP.

Without the aid of a Luckamancer, nothing 'cool' pops near a city. Units can forage near a city to reduce upkeep costs, but in order to get XP, they pretty much need to mount an expedition into the wilderness. Gain XP in or near a city requires a Trainer, and that obviously won't work for Casters or high-level units.

Let me repeat my plan. We balance the scales. Send 8 unled zed infantry in with orders to get slautered as quickly as posible.

Tod and/or Yuri will need to weigh in on this one.

[Nnelg]

Even if we don't immediately take it, making all the troops on the walls our prisoners, (Marbit, is this even a possibility?)

Not really, no. I wasn't planning on creating scenarios where taking and holding 3 different sections of a city was necessary. I'll do that for a Capital fight (either Tenebris or Breatheairia, depending on how well or poorly you all do), but I won't bother for smaller cities. All normal fights will be of the "kill almost everyone" variety.

Well, a level 1 doesn't have a dungeon or (I presume) a tower. So we'd only have to capture one section, which probably won't be completely unguarded. Besides, this is a one-shot tactic. Once we use it, the enemy will be on guard for it in the future. We'll still have to kill pretty much everyone to take the garrison even when that's the only objective. Especially for capitol fights, where there would be far too many enemy units to pull this kind of a trick off. (That's why I was suggesting it for a level 1, since there's at least the chance that it might succeed.)

And you still won't have to worry about running the game this way most of the time. Only when we come up with a clever strategy.

Note that prisoners can be executed in order to give a specific unit the full XP from that kill.

Who said anything about killing them?

Without the aid of a Luckamancer, nothing 'cool' pops near a city. Units can forage near a city to reduce upkeep costs, but in order to get XP, they pretty much need to mount an expedition into the wilderness. Gain XP in or near a city requires a Trainer, and that obviously won't work for Casters or high-level units.

Hm... Well then, that breaks that plan. How many turns' warning would we have for an attack on Dis City? If we've got enough time, we can rely on the army at Logan's Run to respond if it gets attacked again.

Let me repeat my plan. We balance the scales. Send 8 unled zed infantry in with orders to get slautered as quickly as posible.

Er... I don't think that would help. At all. Lolly's pretty crazy, but I doubt sending soldiers out to die would make him hate us less. If we're going to sacrifice soldiers to better our relations, (which we probably won't) then we'd send them with orders to turn, not orders to die. And even if we did get on Lolly's good side, we'd still have to pay for any golems he makes us.

No, it'd be much quicker, easier, and less expensive to just burst in there and make him our prisoner. Then we'd turn him, and he'd make us golems for free.

[MarbitChow]

But the chars' stats are up to date.

Zed-Too has Guard & Interpose, which are no longer purchased. All of the Combat Modifiers are now simply actions that can be chosen by an Military unit. Zed will need to be updated, as will any other units that had selected combat modifiers previously.

I've marked characters with a [->2.0] flag if they've been officially converted and confirmed.

[Exate]

I can't say how Lolly will respond until he actually has responded- MarbitChow, I'm still waiting on you and didn't miss a response to my post here, right?- but my stance at the moment, and Yuri's, is that either he's either going to be willing to drop the issue for nothing/a token gesture and proceed to work with us, or he's not worth the trouble and we might as well bring down the hammer. Everything around that is just window dressing; without any ability to make a magically enforceable contract like Charlie can throw around, all our relations with others come down to trust and power politics.

We're a side. He's a wild caster with some minions- enough to be a bother, but even for us, nothing we can't crush out of hand. It would take a truly extraordinary event for Yuri to come to consider him trustworthy even if he agrees to work with us; Yuri is just taking the low-cost long shot of snagging a few extra resources and avoiding the effort involved in killing him at a time when the side needs every unit on the front. If it doesn't work, all the side's lost is one thinkagram and a few minutes- and for that price he'll make even an unlikely gamble.

[WhirdCheese]

Would you mind if I changed my spell load-out?

If not Fortune drops Luck Thief and picks up multi-target and Lucky streak

This just gets my to spawning random encounters quicker.

[MarbitChow]

Yuri tried not to let on. "Is not tipping worse. Group meeting you is small bit of kingdom with many worries; you is not having to be one of them. Is instead making Tenebris worries less with doll magics, and then marbit caster not need worry about Tenebris sending men for more thiefings and croakings. Is even maybe doing things for making Lolly's worries less, if is showing self as good friend, yes? And all are pleased with resulting turns."

Lolly grins. "I need not worry at all about you at all. If you enter my realm again, I will croak you to the last unit. My realm is vast. Don't come near it again, and you have nothing to fear. Do come near it, and I shall have nothing to fear. "

(Sorry - missed this before. If you could start these with Yuri's Response in bold so I don't miss it, I'll have a better chance at responding in a timely manner. But if anyone sees that I've posted after Yuri's response, and didn't react to it, feel free to point it out. )

Would you mind if I changed my spell load-out? If not Fortune drops Luck Thief and picks up multi-target and Lucky streak.

Sure, no problem. I'll make the update.

(Edit: ) Reference section has been updated. NPCs are still pending.

[WhirdCheese]

Over the course of the turns before he is ordered to move out Fortune will bless all PC's.

He also walks up to Tod and says "The ammount of blessings that I have placed on our units is great. I beleve that I will need to place curses on some of our soldiers to even the scales. Do you have a preference on which one's?"

17 Juice expended on Pc's + 2 more on Wanderus & Juneta

5 Juice left on turn of arival. 24 next 24 last.

53 Juice left For Post-Blessings/Curses

Now all PC's as well as Wanderus & Juneta have two blesses. Unless someone is avoiding the caster handing out buffs.

0 Juice left on arival. 0 Second 15 next.

15 juice to spend on NPC's. Waiting on Tod to figure out who I should be cursing.

It is 3 Juice for everyone if I Lucky Streak them for 2 blesses, right MarbitChow?

[bob the 6th]

Well, sounds like lolly is a non issue for the moment. Probably should just throw forces at Logan's run and move from there.