Aaaand we're back. Awesome.

Been waiting all day for this.

>>13672809
I think we're starting to sound obsessive o.o

Hey, fellow players, this is the obsessive planner anon. If any of you mind me doing my tactical genius bullshit, now's the time to voice your complaints. Otherwise, it's gonna be another night of meticulous advancement >.>

Ok, let's start.

It's 9:14. You meet with Jim, Max, and Franky at the Smoking Dwarf in 2 hours 46 minutes. You and Ariel are sitting upstairs, staring at the map of Anna Blackheart's safehouses. The various prisoners are all in their rooms eating a stew John and Foran purchased. The mercenary captain is away with three men, hiring more mercenaries. You have yet to decide exactly HOW you're going to hit the safehouses, if at all. The NID is due to meet you at the storefront in an hour and a half.

The sky is cloudy again. It appears the momentary sunshine was just a fluke. It will be a rainy day.

Ariel gets up off the couch opposite you and looks out the window.
"Damn rain. Too bad we can't change the weather, eh?"

>>13672895
"It might work to our advantage."

Review what you know of Jack, from the intel files you read in NID's library. Is he any kind of trustworthy or resourceful? Is he working for Blackheart under duress? Is Ariel's story true?

Also, see if you know anything about Ariel from said files.

Incidentally, I'm in #ConstructArtificer on sup/tg/ IRC again if that helps anyone.

"Perhaps."

You review what you know from Jack's file. Nothing interesting at the beginning, so you skip a page or two.

He has a scar on the back of his neck, from when he got bite by an animated skull. He has a missing toenail on his left foot. He has a wife, and a seventeen year old daughter training to be an alchemist. Intel suggests that after the incident with Ariel Silvertongue, he attempted to leave the employ of Anna Blackheart. She threatened him into staying, and when that didn't work, she threatened his family. He's become more depressed since them, and has attempted suicide once. Jack Peters is skilled in swordfighting and marksmanship, and has some degree of ability in infiltration.

There's about a page more, but it's not very useful.

Ariel "Silvertongue", next. An except sticks out.

Raised in the southlands, near Frt territory, her father was a trader, and her mother a mage. After leaving her home once she was an adult, Ms. Silvertongue adventured for many years, gaining a reputation as dependable, trustworthy. After she was burned by Anna Blackheart, she adventured in other parts of Vardan, and eventually regained her reputation. It was then that she took her contract with the NID, though she didn't know it, to investigate the Old Empire ruins of Kel'frati. Initial reports suggested it was a factory of some sort. Though what exactly the Old Empire was making is still not known. As a result of her failure to investigate the ruins without destroying them, the NID ordered all records of their involvement in the contract destroyed, and as a result, Ariel was refused payment.

More pages of random notes.

>>13673172
>GM !ykypwXc.UQ 01/26/11(Wed)22:08 No.13672773
>GM !ykypwXc.UQ 01/26/11(Wed)22:43 No.13673172

Is there any chance of a response time, say, every ten to twenty minutes? If not, we could extend how much instruction to the player character we hand out per post.

Whatever would work out for you, GM.

---

Inform Ariel you know that Jack's only working for Blackheart because she threatened his family, and attempted to leave her service shortly after he came back from their ill-fated endeavor.

Watch her reaction. If she seems open to being convinced that he's not a complete bastard, attempt to do so. Inform her that Jack might be able to assist you in getting Ariel some late-coming payment for her work in the ruins, as you think you can turn him to your side.

Watch her reaction again.

If she's not too angry about the matter, ask her if she wants to confront Blackheart with you tonight.

Figure out where the man from this post: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/13659845/#13660212 has got to.

Not the guard, but the man he was talking to - Blackheart's informer. Is he your prisoner? Is he free?

Check the prisoners, all except for Jack. Ensure that you let them overhear you telling the mercenaries "not to treat them unfairly, seeing as they'll get plenty of that if you can't keep them out of NID hands anyway," and see how the prisoners react to this news.

>>13673363
I try to give people time to post, so I can take everyone's opinion into account.

Since nobody else beside you is even posting, that may be a waste of time.

>>13673363
Herp. Missed a word.
Is there any chance of a response every, say, every ten to twenty minutes?

>>13673391
It's kind of a bummer, but some of the other people playing/lurking/watching got together on IRC with me last night and we kind of made some plans.

I wish they'd post moar, but they did give me a heap of input on their interests, so I figure I'll try to bring some of that about at least.

>>13673410
>Kind of a bummer
That I seem to be one of the few people posting.

>>13673391
I didn't see this thread until now. Without knowing when the next session was, I couldn't plan for it.

>>13672809
...Admittedly, I have no idea who this anon is, but he isn't me. So we have at least one lurker.

>>13673512
I was just about to end this because of a lack of players.

I have one every night. So yeah.

Now, let's continue.

>>13673363
Seconding these suggestions.

>>13673561
Hells yeah, it's not gonna die.

>>13673557
Wednesday nights are kind of bad because Commander Quest and Zerg Quest also run.

Friday is kind of iffy. ZeonQuest runs then, but they start at noon and end at around 9-ish, with Commander Quest then starting up.

According to the NID notes, how thorough was the destruction at Kel'Frati? It might be worth our time to go there later to see if we can salvage anything.

>>13673696
I was thinking along the same lines, honestly. Plus, if anyone can dig out a mountain of rubble it's probably a metal man with a mining business.

>>13673512
>>13673696
How do you feel about slightly faster pacing? I don't want to pressure the GM, but if we only need a ten minute margin between decisions, we could just ask for an imposed time limit on player input.

"What? No, really, what? You're serious?"

She turned towards you.

"And here I was hating the guy for two years. Damn. Now I feel like a bitch. Still, he did leave me in that damn cave."

You ask her if she'd consider working with him.

"Maybe. Depends on if he joins us. I still wouldn't trust him even then."

She frowns. She has a grudge against him, even after knowing he has a family. That fact that she has considered working with him shows that the family card carries a lot of weight with her, however. YOu ask her if she'd like to come with you to take down Blackheart.

"I thought I already was."

She smiles, and excuses herself. Having time, you go the rounds, checking the prisoners, and making sure they know that they are to be treated fairly. You check for the other man, the one who was looking for you. His is not among the prisoners.

Damn. He may already be halfway to Blackheart. If not there now.

-According to the NID notes, the ruins collapsed into some kind of underground cavern, and the entire mountain followed them. They are under a mountain's worth of rock. More than the NID can mine out without anyone noticing.

>>13673758
Imposed time limit, or first to 3-4 votes sounds good.

>>13673786
I'm suggesting ten minutes, then, what do you think?

>>13673781
>They are under a mountain's worth of rock
>we have a mining company
I see no problems with this situation.

Now, as for the meeting with Jim, I think it can take a backseat to first dealing with Blackheart.
When he gets to the inn, have Foran and John meet him and tell him that urgent business came up and we'll meet him later. Have them give him the seed money to begin gathering the materials and men we need for the mining camp.

I think we're waiting on the merc captain to return with reinforcements before moving on Blackheart and the other safehouses.

And let's speak with Jack, see if we can suborn him. Bring up that we're going to take Blackheart down, that someone of his experience could be useful in our company, and that we can always use a good alchemist (play the family card).

>>13673781
Alright, it's Oculas time. Go into a private room there should be one with just some corpses in it, and see if you can reach the mind of the man that got away with the Oculas. If you can, assess what he intends to do now, where he is, and who else he's told about what's happened.

If you can't do that, send a couple of idle mercenaries to find another hideout, at least three, four if there are that many idling. Post half of the rest as lookouts, and rotate the rest in a staggered fashion so not too many are idling at once.

Assess what you know about the disposition of the Mage-Knights now that you've absorbed all those NID records.

>>13673839
I think it'd be best to confront blackheart at her party, when she'll be wining and dining a lot of people that she probably doesn't want killed. In addition, we have potentially isolated her strongest supporters and have time to act against them.

As for Jack, let him stew until NID get here and then bring them into the room with him potentially. You need to get them to agree to let you have the prisoners anyway, they're under the impression that you're interested in turning them over at the moment.

>>13673811
15~20 minutes is better if people can't agree on anything or we need poking.

>>13673887
Alright, if we're hitting Blackheart tonight, we should still hit her other safehouses in the meantime.

>>13673839
You call John and Foran into the room.
"Yes?" They say in unison.
You tell them to meet Jim at the inn when it's time, and hand the animals the seed money and a booklet of instruction you wrote for Jim. Including a map.
"I thought you were going to meet him?"
No. You're busy.
"Alright, we'll go meet him in two and a half hours, I guess."
They go back downstairs, and you go upstairs into the room with the dead bodies.

You pull out the Oculas and put it in your hand. Again, you reach out with your mind, but this time the Oculas doesn't try to control you. At least, not that you know of. Your senses extended, you Scry town for the man. A moment later, and you find him. He is walking. Looking over his shoulder, occasionally. He has mud all over him. The elf has been in the sewers. Hiding. For maybe an hour.

He must have slipped away from the Mercs while you were inside with the other guards.

You hear a noise outside. The mercenary you sent to the Naval Office has returned.

>>13674034
Quickly peer into the goon's mind, see where he's headed and if he's going to inform Blackheart.

I'd like to convince him that he should hide more and make sure that he's not being followed, so that he won't get to Blackheart until it's too late.

Then let's see if the merc has a response from the NID.

>>13674003
>15-20 minutes
Sure. Let's see what the GM thinks, maybe he'll haet the idea /o\
>safehouses
Agreed, on the condition that we can figure out how to keep her from becoming suspicious about her missing party-guests - some of which are likely enough to be in said safehouses. Otherwise, we should hold off until they're either on their way or the party has started, or something.

The ideal circumstance here is that we walk in the door with her unaware of just how close to her we've gotten, and how much of her most solid supporters we've taken apart.

We do still have a vial of anaesthetic. Hmm.

>>13674057
You aren't thinking imaginative enough.

We can control this person's mind. Why not have him give Blackheart a false report? Make her think you skipped town?

Fifteen to twenty minutes is fine. After 15, I stop reading posts, and start posting.

That sound good?

>>13674057
Use the Oculas to see if he's told anyone else. If he hasn't, convince him to hide for the rest of the day because he's being followed, or to not tell Blackheart for fear of being punished harshly for failing to bring you in and the mishap with the guards, or whatever else seems likely to convince him. Check his thoughts for insight.

If you can't convince him, just edit his memory to make him think he was following you and got lost.

If you can't, send mercs after him with explicit instructions to take him alive, and there's a bonus if they do it fast and clean.

Talk to the mercenary from the naval office, see what his message is.

>>13674034
Rewrite his mind so that he thinks he has to come back here to talk to Blackheart. Should bring him right back without too much trouble.

>>13674106
Yeah, 15 should be good.

Also, I am against blatant memory-editing and personality wipes on non-capital crime criminals.
I'm fine with suggestions and telepathic interrogation, though.

I thought we were trying to be an Old Empire RoboCop?

>>13674106
Awesome.

>>13674090
-The Oculas is possessed of a malevolent will of its own, and may work against you in small ways.
-It's also in disrepair, and could stop working at anytime. We'll have time to try to fix it soon.
-Blackheart is best kept from doing anything that might, say, end up changing the game in major ways.
-And, the more we use the Oculas for long-term effects, the more we're using artefacts. And the Mage-Knight just outside of town is tracking our prior artefact use.

Everything's risk with this thing until we crack it open and fix it : /

We could check to see if he's supposed to check in with her, though.

>>13674158
Robocop was someone else's idea, right now we're trying to secure a power base of any kind and neutralizing the criminal element.

However, the typical response to a non-biological walking tank showing up suddenly in society and arresting prominent citizens or killing people left and right might be to hit it with artillery.

And there's a bunch of navy boats in port. And a spy with NID who was aware of our every move since we got into town.

And we're acting without any official recognition, on the turf of a governor that got elected due to Blackheart.

I don't think we should risk too much overt action without a clear idea of how much of a pounding we can take.

>>13674158
Yeah, I'm kind of down with not mindwiping people, but this is potentially pretty simple stuff - forget an hour of your life.

Giving information to Blackheart that she might independantly know is false might get him killed, and I can't see a difference between putting false information into someone's head (to get them to pass it on to a violent maaster) and taking a small amount of their memory out. You're altering their memory and mindstate either way.

Incidentally, a few of the anons playing this got together last night on IRC and hammered out some goals, I'll be glad to share them with you if you like. Unless you were one of them?

>>13674220
No, I'm not one of them.
Please, lay it out.

>>13674245
Alrighty.

The long-term plans and thinking go something like this:

You were created to bring the world into a new age with your knowledge. But the world was different, and rather better prepared for that change, it seems. You should assess these changes, and understand if the world is ready to enter a 'new age.' If it isn't, you might do something to make it ready.

Also, the goal should be to avoid whatever catastrophe made the world regress into a dark age the first time around, which could take a while to sort out.

Continued below.

>>13674136
Using the Oculas to reach into his mind and pull out its secrets, you review his memories. You see him talking to someone, not five minutes ago. He's telling her about you. And she's talking back...
"-ert, I'm sure as hell not going to."
"They guy ran at me faster than a freaking horse, how the hell am I supposed to survive when he comes after me?"
"That's not my problem, you need to tell the boss, now."
"Oh, right, yeah, I'll totally do that. NO."
"You'll do it, or I'LL tell her that you sided with the Mage-Knight."
"You wouldn't."
"I would."

He leaves, and starts moving towards Blackheart's mansion. You fast forward to now. Nothing else of interest.

You push at his fear of you already. He looks around wildly, thinking he's seen you, if only for a brief moment.
"SHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT." He mutters, as he takes off running. He hides in an alley for a moment, sitting behind a broken table. He's suitably terrified, and won't be going anywhere for a while. As he moves to enter the abandoned house, it dawns on you that he has soiled himself.

The Oculas emits a feeling of amusement at this. It appears to think it funny. Sighing, you put it away, and head down to see the Mercenary.
"Sir, I gave the message to the Navy Officer as asked. He told me to give you this."
He hands you a package.

>>13674318
>mysterious package
I doubt it's a bomb, but sure, let's open it in private.

>>13674301
Continues.
We came up with a list of tasks, after some conversation, about how to best do this, which we're calling the Great Work or the Long Project or something. They go like this:

-To maintain some degree of moral justification for our actions in the absence of gods or our old leaders in the Old Empire, we should attempt to make the societies and governments we encounter as utilitarian as possible, and build a peace. The Old Empire fell to infighting, after all.
-To maintain a competitive edge after this peace is built and prevent complacency, we should de-centralize power, create a balance of power, and support the appropriate degree of free competition.
-Some of this struggle against complacency might be halted by great undertakings and sustained efforts, for example the undertaking, by nation-states, of the exploration of unknown continents or other worlds, for example with the establishment of a planewalker's guild or the building of exploratory aether-ship fleets (as one Anon put it, put some Spelljammer up in this bitch)
-The creation of a League of Nations or something of the kind, as appropriate in the setting, or the management and expansion of an existing one, could serve ably to maintain peace and a balance of power.
-Develop new levels of artifice, science, and art.
-Give due respect to sapient life and the environment to avoid catastrophes or having them all try to kill your ass.

That's about the size of it. We're quite happy to edit it or receive input.

>>13674318
Give the mercenary a bronze or a copper, something like a small tip, and open the package in private.

Check the time.

>>13674390
Oh.

In the short term, the goal is ti integrate ourselves with society, more or less.

We're looking to secure our cover, as a mage-knight or a noble or something like it, find allies, and figure out what took us out. And prevent it from happening again if possible, maybe.

There's also a heap of ideas for artifacts and short-term plans, but I can get to that when relevant unless you want to hear some of them.

>>13674439
*to, not ti.

If you have any thoughts, we can talk about it here or be sneaky and keep the GM in the dark by getting on IRC or something >.>

>>13674439
It all sounds good.

Though I think we should forge an army of war-forged to assist us.
An amalgamation of RoboCop, Terminator, and a stylized WW2 American Infantry Soldier.

>>13674500
Hell yes, we're doing that if possible. Was already thinking about it.

Handing the mercenary a silver, about a twentieth of a gold, for his troubles, you take the package and return to the room with the dead animals. Checking the time as you enter, your time-keeper informs you it is 9:25.

You examine, and then unwrap the package. Your enhanced vision tells you what it is before you finish however. The Wand of Freezing Cone you were promised before. It seems the NID Office thinks you will need it, at least according to his note.

You hold it in your hand. It is fully charged. It appears to be of the type that recharges constantly, rather than every 24 hours, or a limited number of times.

It pulses with magic. It is a powerful wand. Freezing Cone is an odd spell for a wand however. It is notorious for causing collateral damage.

>>13674628
Put the wand in your pack, take out the Oculas again and scry for the woman that the man who got away was talking to. If necessary, check his memories again.

We need to stop the flow of information. If she can be found, check her memory to see if she has told anyone else, and build on her confidence in her ability to convince the man to do as she says - make her feel that it is assured she was listened to.

After that, we need to go find Ariel and make sure she has something suitable to wear to this party, and then we need a nobleman's weapon - a jewled sword or somesuch, preferably a long, heavy cutlass seeing as this is a port town, or a scimitar. Something that looks oddly impractical, perhaps - we're not bound by animal limitations on arm-strength.

And a coin-purse for petty change, perhaps. Or a bigger pack. We barely have enough room now.

>>13674693
Impractical as in, 'there's way too much sword there. If he's wearing that, he's either a fool or strong as a giant.'

>>13674693
Seconding on all counts.
We'll need that impractical weapon as part of our noble guise later, anyway.

>>13674743
Exactly the idea.

Scrying for the woman, her face in your memory, you find her walking along towards a boathouse. She's wondering if the man she sent to Blackheart listened to her. You decide to help her out, in your own way. Reaching past her defenses, you push against it, strengthening her belief in her ability to control other people, and therefore solidifying her belief in the man following her orders.

You then check her memory. She appears to have not yet spoke to anyone regarding your actions at the inn, and you put a thought into her to keep it that way. Her mind welcoming you as a result of the confidence boost, the thought sticks like glue.

You put everything back in your pack, noticing you are running out of room. Maybe you need somewhere to store your extra gear. Leaving the room, you go to the next one, and open the door. The animal Ariel is naked, and attempting to decide what to wear. She has three different dresses on the bed, only one of them barely suitable.

"SHIT! GET OUT! I'M BUSY!" She yells, holding her dress over herself. You close the door.

Animals.

>>13674841
Knock on the door, apologize, and offer to take her dress-shopping to make up for your blunder.

>>13674693
>Go find Ariel.

Why you do this?

>>13674841
lol
Anyway, shall we prepare to have the mercs bust up the safehouses which contain Blackheart's strongest supporters?

>>13674874
We don't have enough mercs yet, unless someone has a better idea we should check if the captain's done increasing their numbers in a couple hours and then do it. We know the people we're going after are fucking dangerous and outnumber us significantly.

>>13674873
'Cause I guessed correctly that angry adventuress wouldn't have the right clothes for hanging out with nobility in her field pack :P

Also, nekkid elf chick.

>>13674870
Might be a good thing. We can pick up our sword, and it's still gonna take more time for the merc captain to come back with our reinforcements, I think.

>>13674941
Yeps. We might even make it to the meeting with Jim and handle it in person.
Plus, I don't feel good about how well things are arranged with NID. And they're dragging their heels so much that it's immobilizing. We might go visit them, I guess.

>>13674955
Come now. They're only animals, and not even proper ones of the Empire at that; we can't expect them to keep up with our own mechanical precision and efficiency.

>>13674974

I think it's about time we stopped calling them animals.

They're people. They might have to go things like eat, sleep and die, but they can think and act.

Inferior or not, we need to treat them with some measure of respect.

Um.

NEWS FLASH: GM just came to sup/tg/ IRC and said someone banned him for a couple of days because of an unrelated post.

So I'm archiving the thread, and he's deciding what to do about tonight's session. STAY TUNED OR JOIN #ConstructArtificer on sup/tg/ IRC

>>13675031
Please also post any decision he makes here as well.

>>13675031
UPDATE: We may be moving it to TGChan temporarily, stay tuned.

>>13675041
Will do.

>>13675056
FURTHER UPDAT: We're moving the quest temporarily to tgchan. Link forthcoming in five minutes or less.

DORFBONUS UPDAT: Metathread on tgchan for this quest is here: http://tgchan.org/kusaba/meep/res/12800.html

We have permission or whatnot for questmove. Working out details or some shit right now, back in five minutes for MORE OCD NEWSPERGAN.

MEGADORF BONUS updawhatever: New thread is right fucking here: http://tgchan.org/kusaba/quest/res/275189.html

And we're off. Ain't nothin' gonna stop dis.