Eventually, however, the ships emerge from the glare of the setting sun and (after several incredulous minutes, “Ships that what? FLY? Did you hit your head?”) the alarm is finally raised. However, the gladiatorial troops and regular militia, weary from fighting insurgents, is slow to respond. For a brief moment it almost seems as if the landings will go unopposed, but at the last moment you see a great force of armored men charging down toward the large open docksides. Ugantu’s elite gladiator guard, roused from their revelry for battle. As they pass the general army takes note and, as if finally aware of the seriousness of the situation, begins moving with their usual speed and purpose once more, arraying for battle on the coastline and wharfsides. The airships, however, are far from incapable. Dozens of ballistae and magonels launch a cascade of pain down onto the forces deploying in defense, and very little return fire is received. Indeed, freed slaves hardly are the best siege engineers in the best of times, but the task of reconfiguring their equipment in the field to fire at a foe the machinery was never designed to engage is too much.

It is within this torrent of bolts and shot streaming down upon the defenders that the first of the jump-marines make landfall. Arrayed in a variety of magical gear both for battle and to slow their descent, they simply step from the sides of the ship and slowly glide down. Many are impaled upon the spears and blades of the waiting defenders, but enough win through to prepare a small landing zone for more jumpers to land. Within a span of less than ten minutes over three thousand of them have landed and begun a pitched battle against the defenders, quickly securing a large landing zone.

And so the true battle begins.

One by one the airships land, disgorging their cargo of soldiers and launching once more. Thousands of crack troops flood the area, creating even more room for faster landings as the initial ships head back to the carriers to replenish their troop cargo. All is not flawless, however, as during the landings six of the ships are hit with flaming bolts or heated shot, detonating their gas balloons despite the fire protections. Whenever this occurs the explosion is deafening, heat and light blossoming like a newborn star and sending a wave of scything deadly splinters into troops all around, friend and foe. Though deadly, however, six ships among nearly a hundred and fifty are hardly enough to stop your elf’s attack. Pitched battle is soon underway through the streets of Kaza, the defenders having been pushed back from the landing zones and into the highly defensible urban territory they know so well. But even as the second wave is brought in from the airships, newly restocked from the carriers, defenders from across the entire city pile in to repel the invaders. The fighting is vicious and the streets run red with blood once again.

Amidst all this the flagship of the air fleet descends, black hull and balloon inset with gold reliefs and a large banner streaming from it, heralding Laressa’s symbol. Your elf has arrived on the field. She disembarks with her elven bodyguard (who seem to, oddly, be free of enslavement) and new personal guard, a force of elite mindslaved soldiers hand picked for their skill and ability. After quickly surveying the scene she barks out orders, putting her new tactical skills to use reinforcing weakening parts of the lines and even managing an encirclement or two. Inexperienced she may be, you note, but that hardly seems to matter against untrained rabble and gladiators more used to fighting alone than in formation.

By the fourth and final wave the sun has set and Ugantu’s forces are already falling back, trading ground for time to reorganize and defend. Across the city fighting has broken out, peasants that would normally swarm the invader are instead occupied fighting against hungry rebels who see this as their chance to strike, lighting fires and striking from the shadows as they plunder freely. Eventually the retreating forces of the First Divine solidify themselves in the central square, a twisted parody of the very tactic that they faced when taking the city. Ugantu finally joins the fray as well, you note, taking personal command of the elite gladiators and rallying all the former slaves once more, exhorting them to stand strong.

Laressa likewise seems to know this is a turning point as she orders her troops to advance, also personally joining the fight with her guard. Clad in a black and gold elven chain hauberk and legging suit pressed over her form to allow quick movement, she is a fearsome sight brandishing her blade, her blue eyes sparkling as every eye on the field is drawn to her. As they advance dozens fall to her gaze, and you can see occasional sparks of power flickering across her fingertips and down the long elven blade she wields, or across the links of her armor... at least until the dead weight of Ugantu’s antimagic field falls across her. With a cry of dismay she halts and orders her forces forward, but too late. Ugantu, with his elite force in tow, has already begun the charge and smashes into Laressa’s personal guard. Though quickly surrounded, his forces are inspired into a fervent frenzy by their leader and charge forward as well, drawing battle lines and forcing your elf to stand her ground against the brute’s unit with battle swirling around them.

In the eye of the storm Ugantu's small cadre of his best stand against Laressa and her elven guards. He charges forward but is quickly met by a half dozen poisoned darts, flying at his eyes and throat from nowhere. Undeterred, he simply laughs and signals his gladiators who proceed to engage the elven assassins who launched them in dizzying displays of skill, strength, and speed. Striding forward once more, he lays eyes on her for the first time, growling a deep, throaty laugh before speaking, “Heard about ya, I have. Dis is da first time I be seein ya though.” He gives a wicked grin as he continues, “I tink ya be makin a trophy, fine as ya are. Bearin me many a son.”

Laressa, however, stands undaunted despite her guards being occupied. Tilting her head, a demure smile slides across her face as she cooly replies, “I’ll have to decline. I’m afraid I’m already taken, and you just simply don’t compare.” With that she sheathes her blade and snaps her fingers, turning her head to speak with the hulking half-orc at her side. “End him.”

Clad in black enameled plate trimmed with gold (her new noble colors you suppose, she does so love them) and wielding a titanic two handed war-axe in one of his massive paws, the bodyguard you created unleashes an air-shaking cry and launches himself forward, meeting Ugantu head on halfway to your elf. As their blades clash, you can’t help but have a renewed admiration for the gladiator’s skill. His speed, expert combat ability, and strength, combined with his experience are all quite sublime. Yes, you can see how he became both so renowned and the first to ever successfully fight his way free of the pits. Among mortal beings in this reality you doubt he has more than a dozen who are his peer, and even less who surpass him. Indeed, even the divine would be hard pressed to match him in terms of sheer prowess. His stances, strikes, physical abilities and even instinctual responses are all the stuff of legend.

He lasts almost eight seconds.

For every skillful strike a counter is in place before he has a chance to make it, every feint is seen through instantly, every stance is matched or surpassed, and any attempt at defense is dealt with effortlessly. A legend Ugantu may be, but what is that before the prowess you imbued into your elf’s bodyguard? Every strike deflected a billion times, every feint both used and countered beyond count. Stances long ago perfected and discarded as inferior, defenses long ago completely defeated and dismissed... what is one legend of one world, compared to the knowledge held by tens of thousands? By millions? What is it compared to the skills perfected by the greatest combatants to ever exist in a trillion trillion trillion universes?

Less than nothing.

The brief clash is over in what seems an instant, the brutish gladiator’s eyes widening as he sees the final strike; feels the axe slide upward through his defenses and into his body, cleaving him from groin to shoulder. Still wide as his bisected body is lifted into the air by the tremendous strength and speed behind the blow, superior even to his own thanks to your physical enhancements to the half-orc. Finally crashing down into the people he once led, now wide eyed themselves.

Amidst it all stands your elf, left hand upon her hip and inspecting her nails. Looking up casually at the final blow, she gives a slow smile and siphons the souls from Ugantu’s now undefended personal bodyguards. Her blue eyes sparkling with triumph, she looks to the elves that make up her guard and grins, “And here I thought you said he was /difficult/ to kill.” Weary from battle, they just shake their heads or return her grin, though one red haired female elf speaks up with mischief in her eyes, seemingly oblivious to the battle around her. “Then I guess we’re even Lessa, ‘cause you didn’t tell us you had a man either. I expect a full report later.” With a wink, she glides into the thick of battle and vanishes before your elf can reply, leaving a slowly blushing Laressa surrounded by chuckling elves, battling soldiers, and fleeing former slaves or gladiators.

The rest of the battle concludes within the hour, with the laying down of arms moving at roughly the same pace as news of the First Divine’s humiliating defeat. Before dawn the city has been completely pacified and, interestingly, food has begun being distributed. It seems your elf, taking up residence in the sole remaining spire, (the third tenant in under a year, no less) has planned well for securing the city. Less than twelve hours have passed and already the starving masses are flocking towards her soldiers and skyships, cheering as they land and begin handing out supplies.

And you, sitting back sated at this most exciting invasion. A metaphorical sigh of contentment passes your metaphorical lips, and you expand your awareness across the fabric of reality like a cat stretching in the sun. Ever since Laressa’s coup you’ve been amused and interested in the world once more, for the first time in aeons beyond count, and this is no exception. Now, with the disappointment that was Ugantu removed, you feel alive once more... almost as when you were mortal, living in the present without time beyond memory pressing weariness and boredom onto you.

Truly wonderful.

Part 1: http://archive.easymodo.net/tg/thread/14304400/
Part 2: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/14309655/
Part 3: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/14330103/
Part 4: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/14365301/
Part 5: http://archive.easymodo.net/tg/thread/14397582/
Part 6: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/14420843/
Part 7: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/14452357/

Holy shit, I had almost forgotten about the bodyguard.

She is the best toy ever.
We need to find someone else who's actually as good as her, she was given an opportunity, so she took it. But she had the mind to be truly forward planning. We need someone of the same breed. Perhaps we can make someone have this forward thinking?

Say. Is there an underwater race? That sounds awesome, Larissa owning the sky, the underwater villain/hero owning the seas and the land being where they fight.

>>14474768
>Say. Is there an underwater race? Aboleths, mermen, various types of waterdwelling beastmen.

I have an idea.
We search the world to find people with a certain mindset. They must be willing to take over the world. Whether for good, bad, they have the mindset to take control and begin, but they just don't have the resources. So we give them the resources, just like we did with Larissa

and then we pit them all with each other!
Fun fun fun!

Then we need one party which wants everything to go back to normal.

>>14474884
Vassik could manage to be a threat if his ambitions were realized. Unlike Ugantu, Laressa is quite susceptible to divine interference. And once Vassik realizes what is needed to use a Divinity Orb, he'll have to go looking for new lands to drain if he wants to keep using them.

>>14474488
>>14474495
>>14474504
>>14474512
>>14474543
>>14474552
>>14474571
>>14474581
That was beautiful.

Now we need to look in on our heros, get them moving again, maybe plant a few adventures in their paths to level them up since Ugantu won't be around to play the boss encounter. Tissa's going to be so disappointed that the place has been sacked twice. No hope of finding that miracle cure now.

OH! Wait, I have an Idea!

First we need to secure Ugantus body and soul. Then when our heros get closer to Kaza we raise him as some kind of intelligent undead. Let him build up an undead following out of his former subjects and he'll make a nice little mid-boss for our heros.

>>14475062

>No hope of finding that miracle cure now.

Especially since we erased the one she was supposed to find from existence.

Anyway, while we do need to check on Tissa and the twins I'd actually like to watch Laressa a bit more and find out her relation to these elves. Also I want to know how she'll react to more questioning about "her man".

>>14475150
I like this idea.

>>14475150
Agreed. I facepalmed a bit when she said that. If she seriously thinks we've 'taken' her...

Bump?

Her attraction to us is unavoidable I suppose, she seems like the ultimate gold digger to me.

As for our heroes, I say we get involved with our paladin's royal dispute personally, just move them all along.

I'm also a fan of the undead Ugandu idea, I just hope he's more motivated in death then he was in life.

After such a triumph, well, it would simply be a shame to miss out on the other possibilities that have been opened up; such is your thinking as you weave down and around through the clouds and glide into the spire Laressa has turned into her base of operations. Gone are the barbaric and gaudy fineries Ugantu favored, the chamber once more stripped down to the bare marble and austere furnishings that the Archlord favored. Laressa sits upon the dias in a fine wooden chair, reading through reams of paper detailing the city’s current status and on occasion summoning one of the many newly branded slave-servants that ring the room to convey orders elsewhere.About the dias on soft reclining sofas or the dias steps themselves lounge her elven retinue, sharpening weapons and jokingly firing bared words back and forth among themselves.

Eventually, however, this scene is interrupted by two elves striding through the grand doors into the chamber, the red haired woman from before and another grey-haired and older elf that you have not yet seen. Still, old or not you can practically see skill and confidence ooze from his form as he glides along the floor, his feet barely making any sound or even seeming to touch it at times.

At the noise of the doors Laressa looks up and spots them as well, immediately breaking into a smile and standing. You are interested to see it returned by the older elf, and as he draws closer Laressa descends from the dias and spreads her arms in a tight hug, which he returns in kind. “Master Koris! How did you ever escape the palace? Irina told me you were Envoy now and constantly under watch!” She exclaims with glee, and this Koris returns her smile before responding, “Just Koris now dear child, I’m afraid you’re quite beyond the point where you address me with as ‘Master’. The palace, though? Ah, it was a terrible chore. You see, I was demoted after the sixth failed attempt and sent to my certain death at your hands.” He chuckles, and places a light kiss on her forehead before continuing, “Ah my, as radiant as the day you left. Your mother will be pleased, she sends her regards.”

At this Laressas smile sours and she pulls away, leaving Koris heaving a sigh. “Come now child, she did what was best. Surely after all this time you can see that.” Laressa just shrugs, and he shakes his head, “Ah well, it’s none of my business. But give her a chance dear, she’s trying the best she can to aid you.”

When he receives no response save a frown and a glare, he signs and smiles again, “Well, no matter. But speaking of family, I hear that you will be making a new addition soon! Congratulations, when can I meet the father? He must be quite the prize indeed.” At this Laressa goes pale and whirls to the red haired elf, who has been slowly backing away and to the side this entire time. “STELLA!” she screeches, “What are you doing! I-I’m not... Argh!” she finishes by throwing a salvo of flashing daggers at the now laughing elf, who nimbly dodges them without breaking stride and quickly dodges behind a column. After waving and shouting the raucous laughter of the other elves on the dias to silence, she turns back to Koris red faced. “S-she was just making a joke, Master. Nothing like that.”

With a kind smile he puts his arm around her shoulders and gudes her back to the dias, “I see, well, I thought it might be something like that. Still... there was clearly some truth there. Tell me, will I be training little Shades any time soon?” At this places her hands over her face and sighs, “No Master, it’s just... well... I mean, I found someone but they are, u-um, well, there’s nothing like that yet. I’ve only met him few times I think, and not in months...” she trails off, but the old elf gives her shoulders a squeeze as the ascend the dias. “Ah, well, don’t worry about it dear one. There’s not a man or elf who would turn you down.” At this she gives a wan smile as she reseats herself, “Yeah, I know. That’s why I don’t know how this will end up.” Waving her hands around her head, she shoos them away before any more questions can be asked, “Go, I’m sure you’re starving. There’s plenty of food in the kitchens, just ask the slaves to bring you some up.”

With a nod of his head Koris wishes her luck on her work and departs, joined at the door by a still-giggling Stella.

Dammit, Vedibere, this is great. How do you come up with this stuff?

Also, completely forgot about the orc bodyguard - that might be problematic for our heroes

>>14475710
I'm sure the twins can take him.

Probably.

Hmm. We might have overdone it on the orc.

>>14475683
Troll elfs gonna troll.

>>14475683
So tempted to say we should drop in at this point but no. We must remain subtle and only appear to her when we feel it's necessary. I want to say she did well with this invasion and deserves a boon of some kind but I think the airships might have been enough as it is. Her bodyguard didn't make it a huge challenge either in some ways.

>>14475683
I like that red head.

>>14475752
I was thinking that too. I suppose that means we'll have to alter some events to get him out of the way when the big confrontation goes down. We could always do something subtle like when Laressa goes to war again we could have him injured by an errant ballista bolt or something and cripple one of his arms.

>>14475752
You think? Eh, can't be helped I suppose.

Say, Laressa gave us another stunning display. I think that warrants another question to ask us. We'll be discrete about it of course.

>>14475683
Interesting. We could follow Koris and see what he does, maybe try and find out his roll in things.

On the other hand, we do need to check up on Tissa and the twins.

Goodness missed the last 3 threads. Glad to see my Airships post a bit ago got taken up :)

>>14475990
Well Tiana has invinci armour so he wouldn't be able to hurt her normally.
Along with her regen and other skills, I think it would be an interesting fight.

Well, I think it's time to move on to the paladin now. If she's still stuck in court, we'll just have to make that magistrate she's trying to oust drop dead due to the sudden onset of a medical condition.

Put it in his head that he ought to confess. If we fail and kill him, mission still acomplished! But it seems we could use the practice.

So uh... shift to heroes then? You guys are awfully light on what to do today.

>>14476636
Yea, shift to heroes.

I think everyone was kind of drawn in by that brilliant exposition and just sat back and waited for more.

>>14476636
Consensus seems to be focused on getting the heroes to move on.

>>14476636
It's monday and I'm tired. I thought other people were gonna suggest stuff and I would get story time but everyone else is tired too. I say investigate the elf land and what going on. Seems like theres a high connection between laressa and the elf nation so better see what the deal is and see if it will be entertaining or really boring. Then check on the druid briefly and then see if the heroes are still stuck on the magistrate.

>>14476636
Not our fault when you write stories in such a magnificent way.
I really want us to talk to larrissa later, let her ask some questions or simply give her some directions

>>14476827
I kind of do as well. I'm curious on what's going on with her and the elves.

>>14476827
But we have to wait for the cook.

She will likely do anything we ask of her.

Maybe we could answer one question for her, as a reward.

You shift your focus once again, returning to the glimmering jewel of Seluca. The first thing you notice, however, is that the twins are no longer simply passive in the investigation; they are now actively helping. In addition, Lady Voldire herself no longer seems to be pursuing the corrupt magistrate’s connections quite so fervently. Instead, you observe a series of sword-bearing raids and apprehensions of seemingly random businessmen. Despite their protests, they are mercilessly tied down by the paladin and twins and then, with Tissa excusing herself, (“Remember, just scare them.”) the twins begin some rather expert painwork. Between the medly of whimpers and screams you hear an interesting story. It seems the ‘apostle of Loris’ Dammon the Bright is not so holy after all, and according to these thugs over half the city is in his pocket. The other half is, of course, under the control of the magistrate... and the trio is simply being used.

As the last bit is revealed, Tissa bursts into the room red faced and yelling, “Wh- What have you done!? I said just scare them!” The twins turn and look over at her, blinking in surprise, “Pain is scary.” Lann replies, and Liss nods her agreement. Heaving a sigh, Tissa does not even bother arguing, simply walking over and cutting the men free. “Go, scum. You’ve paid your price this time. When I next see you, lest you be law abiding citizens, I shall endeavour most earnestly to see you brought to the attention of the fullest extent of the laws. Begone!”

Afterward she leads the teens back to the inn where you note she has erected wards against scrying, scolding them the entire way. Neither she nor the twins, however, notice the invisible men skulking along the rooftops to either side, however, blackened blades to hand.

You, however, do. Lucky them.

>>14476884
>>14476858
>>14476827
If you want to deal with Laressa or the elves you can do that after dealing with the heroes, pick one at the time and you'll be off.

In general however, from this point forward when you "shift focus" you aren't coming back to the place you just left for a while. Why? Because you're killing me with constantly bouncing back and forth but doing nothing at all.

>>14476946
It's just that there's so much to split our interests. We want to find out more about Laressas new/old friends, but it seemed like Tissa and the twins wouldn't get anything done without our meddling. And the there's the clusterfuck of crap we've started with Palal and Vassik and Toric. It's hard to keep focused.


As for the shadows with knives, manifest a small rock in front of one of their feet, to be kicked and make a suspicious noise.

>>14476946
Sorry
Must be hard thinking of all these scenarios
But i think the biggest reason of why we dont do much stuff is that we are assuming and extremely subtle position and barely medling with them in most regards,
maybe trying to do something more obvious and flashy in the future

>>14476946
We jump from place to place because we don't want to miss anything good.

>>14477104
>kick a rock
they're on a roof. Better make that dislodging a shingle. Or weakening a small section of the roof beneath one of their feet so that one of them unexpectedly get's his foot stuck and trips. Or just pop into place behind one of them for a second and push him off the roof.

>>14475752
>Hmm. We might have overdone it on the orc.
I don't think so. He's purely a brute- the fact is, Ugantu utterly failed to have any methods other than sheer force for dealing with enemy elites. That orc would go down like a punk to a decent warmage, or at least end up quickly flung into the air or otherwise removed from combat. It's Ugantu's failure that he was unable to do so, and a testament to Laressa's resourcefulness that she effectively matched up her strengths with where they needed to be.

What's more, after what just happened that bodyguard of Laressa's is going to be legendary. No hero coming after her will fail to prepare a plan for dealing with him if they're even halfway competent.

>So uh... shift to heroes then? You guys are awfully light on what to do today.
Frankly, at this point I'm mostly content to sit back and watch almost everyone. Everyone we've got our eyes on is bound to be doing interesting things, and most of them are amusing to watch; time to enjoy!

As for who in particular, until one of them shows themselves to be boring I'm not going to be unhappy with any point of view, as long as we don't end up losing track of anyone else completely.

>The twins turn and look over at her, blinking in surprise, “Pain is scary.” Lann replies, and Liss nods her agreement.
They are fucking adorable.

>In general however, from this point forward when you "shift focus" you aren't coming back to the place you just left for a while. Why? Because you're killing me with constantly bouncing back and forth but doing nothing at all.
Isn't that... exactly what our objective in this quest is? To enjoy acting as a spectator in the events that we've set into motion?

With an amused grin you flick your wrist and dislodge a shingle from under one of the men’s feet. He hardly even breaks stride and quickly drops down out of sight, despite his invisibility. Seeing his action, somehow, all of his compatriots instantly do likewise before the shingle impacts the ground. Tissa starts and looks around, hand going to her sword, but after a second shrugs and continues her lecture. The twins, more cautious, reach up and flick a sort of gilded hook laying over their right ears, a matched pair you note. You feel the powerful detection magics hum to life, but sadly it appears they do little to defeat the completely mundane concealment of a building being in the way.

Flicking their artifacts back off, they likewise continue walking; though they walk in silence and occasionally roll their eyes rather than lecturing. After reaching the inn the three have dinner (and another lecture about how torture is WRONG and IMMORAL) before retiring to their rooms. The invisible men have surrounded the inn at this point and each pulled out an enchanted spyglass which you note has the ability to see through walls. After almost an hour of observation they all nod to each other and put their artifacts away before jumping onto the inn’s roof and attaching rappelling ropes to the sides over the windows.

>>14476946
>Isn't that... exactly what our objective in this quest is?

I think the problem is that we often jump too soon. Like with that last bit with Laressa, there were several things we could have done that might have been interesting. I even suggested that we follow the elder elf and the red head to learn more about them, but got no support. Also there's been a surprising lack of actual suggestion in this particular thread, which must be irritating to the OP.

>>14476911
Make the roof slippery and a feel weakened section>>14477206
s like suggested, or if we want to start being more obvious grab his foot and fling him in the opposite deirection

Vedibere, I realize something.

These threads focus on a person of nigh-unlimited power who then empowers others. They do this because they don't know how the empowered will act. It can be fun not knowing what will happen.

You, as the storyteller, have nigh-unlimited power over how the story will progress, but allow others to suggest the flow of the story. You do this because you don't know what others will suggest. It can be fun not knowing what will happen.

I'd like be empowered in this (my own) world as Ugantu and Laressa have in their world.

I don't know if I will be as entertaining, but it can be fun not knowing what will happen.

Will you give me the power?

>>14477389
As soon as they try to enter our heroes room make The paladins bracelet shine with a blinding light, hopefully this will wake them up and confuse the robed figures

Hey i like them and they might be entertaining in the long run

The rope is now made of thin bungee cord.

Which rope? Why all of them.

>>14477389
Wow, these guys are good.

I wonder how we should intercede? Or if we should intercede?

Maybe, we should just watch for now. I can't imagine the twins didn't trap their room, just in case. If nothing else, we could conjure a rat beneath one of the assassins feet while they are sneaking around. The crunch and squeak would be a sure giveaway.

>>14477408
Curses! I have been discovered!

But I approve, you are interesting Anon. As a reward I bestow upon you the knowledge to alter a fundamental principle of the world, and bend it to your will.
>http://isohunt.com/torrent_details/94431241/Digital+Logic+Circuit+Analysis+And+Design?tab=summar
y

>I wonder how we should intercede? Or if we should intercede?
I'm inclined not to. The paladin and twins are all highly competent people- surely they can deal with a pack of assassins. And if they can't, well, it will be disappointing but it's not like we can't fix that.

All those who enter the room are immediately throw out through the window, even if they enter through the window

>>14477534
For the record, they are rappelling in through lots of entry points. You count eight of them, and from a quick look-over they have a decent amount of magical gear.

>>14477567
No matter, all those who try to disturb are send flying through the nearest window, hey atleast it might be funny seeing them hopelessly trying to enter the room only to be immediately thrown out like if they got hit by a tennis racket

Tg is either slow today or we are just waiting for atleast something to happen...

I say we make it as if their bodies were completely soaked in baby oil. And the walls. And the floor.

In fact, why not just remove friction from the entire building?

>>14477506
What?! I don't have the proper tools to be an electrician! Damn these genie 'buyer beware' wishes!

>>14477807
Because then it'll be frictionless for as long as it exists. Can't contradict ourselves, remember?

>>14477817
We can just make the inanimate (Aka: Easily replaceable) things frictionless. Then, after we're done having our fun, we stealth switch the frictionless objects with exact replicas, while sending the frictionless ones to an alternate object.

>>14477842
I assume you mean alternate dimension?

Not without everyone noticing.

Can we just "nudge" the twins awake in time to notice the assassins?

>>14477817
We could just build our change to last only until sunlight hits it, or something like that. But really, our changes should only be permanent if we actually declare that they are; otherwise anything we do only has to exist as long as we want it to exist.

>>14477961
Its more fun thinking of a intricate or hilarious way to stop them tough...

>>14478026
That's boring. You're boring.

alright, saying this here
HALF ORC IS OP
KNIVES ARE OP
EYES ARE OP
We've made Laressa too damn powerful. We really need to do something to at least even the odds, or else our heroes are going to get steam rolled in the first five minutes of the fight.

>>14478113
The half orc is mortal
The knives only work if they pierce the skin
The eyes are OP, yeah.

Should we fake divine intervention? How about appearing as a random bum who pisses over the side of a railing, and shorts out the magic thingambobs these assasssins seem to be carying for a moment
Or just have the slip and fall comically.
I'm all for turning these guys into slapstick comedy relief. We really need a breather after that last intense battle

>>14478113
Our heroes don't even know about Laressa yet. When they are ready to take her on, they'll be more powerful. Her knives and eyes are supposed to be OP, that's part of what makes her a BBEG, though she rarely ever uses the eyes. As for the bodyguard, we can deal with that any time.

>>14478151
Why bother appearing at all?

>>14478151
I counter by saying that our heroes will never level up if we don't let them fight tough battles.

>>14478183
Also, the last battle was all Laressa. We didn't do jack but watch.

>>14478183
But we don't want to loose any of the heroes yet. A two man band is just too small.

Let's just wake up our heroes somehow. That should take care of things, I think. Make a loud noise that can be construed as coming from somewhere else in the inn.

>>14478211
1. You mean lose.
2. That's why we're using a light touch. Just enough to help them along, but not enough that they ever know we're there.

>>14478226
The twins are already on edge from the shingle. I'm fairly certain they will handle it and if the fight seems to be going poorly we can help a bit to even the odds and mask it as divine aid from the paladins gauntlet.

>>14478211
Think of it like this, if the battle starts going too badly for our VIPs, the assassins will suddenly start rolling alot of 1s.

The assassins all finish their preparations and with silent nods six rappel down, with two remaining on the rooftop above the windows of the trio’s rooms. After a quick alteration you follow them down and observe the strike group’s actions; the infiltrators deploy swiftly, two per level, and quickly eliminate two guests staggering drunkenly back to their rooms as well as the innkeeper and his wife before congregating on the second floor where the heroes are. With expert swiftness and stealth they deploy, four around the door to the twin’s room and two at Tissa’s. One, the leader, moves his hand to a small embroidered leather bracer and touches a gem inset into it, shrouding the entire team in invisibility.

Then, they attack.

Simultaneously one of each group touches a pair of small rods to the door, snapping the hinges and locks and causing it to fall inward. Tissa springs up immediately, throwing a book she had bought at the market earlier that day at the pair before swirling the sheet up as a barrier. Undaunted, the two professionals charge through, slicing through the sheet as they go, only to find a furious avatar of justice clad in blazing white flames. Blows are briefly traded, Tissa’s glowing sword searing a line through the leader’s chainmail before he can dodge and lodging into his solar plexus. What happens next, however, surprises both you and Tissa herself. The leader, mortally wounded, hooks his arm over and around the blade and wrenches his body backward while kicking at her legs. Off balance, she topples over to slam into him, pushing the sword up into his heart while leaving her back completely exposed. The second of the pair, taking full advantage, brings his life-draining blade around and lands an perfect strike across Tissa’s neck, beheading her. Or at least beheading anyone with normal defenses.

The blazing white armor surmounting her does not even budge, and indeed shatters the blade as it falls upon it. The assassin, however, does not hesitate, swiftly drawing both a dagger and a wrist-spike, slamming them into her spine and midsection repeatedly. Alas, his weapons are far less effective than the white blade that disembowels him seconds later, and after less than a minute Tissa stands alone in her room. Outside the window, however, a cry sounds. Another foe?!

Heh. Not quite. The paladin manages to swivel her head just in time to meet the eyes of one of the rooftop assassins plummeting past her window, his rope having snapped thanks to your subtle alterations before. You must admit, it’s quite funny; you aren’t certain whose eyes are wider, his or hers.

The twins, however, are both much less and much more prepared. As the door shatters inwards the assassins burst into the room right after it, catching the twins in flagrante delicto. Unfortunately for the two lead assassins, however, the twin’s many years of trapmaking skills are still in full effect. The first one through the door explodes, huge tongues of purple-green flames radiating cold rather than heat scything from him. The assassin immediately behind him catches the full brunt of it with half his body turning to ice and shattering. You note with admiration that the assassin does not cry out as he falls and begins dragging himself away with one arm. The one beside the entryman, however, dives to the right. His partner, following, moves in untouched as well.

By this time, however, the twins have both sprung from bed and armed themselves. By some unspoken agreement or rule the two surviving assassins focus on Liss, driving her back toward the window. It is only too late that they realize their error, however, as their partner plummets past, screaming. Heh. Liss is still all business as she deflects their blows, buying time for Lann to dig through their chests for a... pebble sized black sphere? With a grin he turns and flings it at the two, sepeaking a word of command. As he does so Liss reaches over and touches a beautiful ring on her left ring finger (a matched pair with one on Lann’s you note) and vanishes, reappearing next to her brother. Before the two assassins can turn, however, the thrown sphere freezes midair between them as if it had hit a wall. There is a sharp /crack/ and you see the weave of reality buckle around the item, flexing inward towards it. Now you do hear the assassins scream, but it is hardly audible over the horrific popping and ripping as their bodies are compressed and sucked in what is now a black void..

Eventually they vanish completely and Lann speaks another command word, causing the pebble to stop its sucking and restore the area to normal before dropping to the floor. Threat dealt with, he turns and ensures his sister is well before retrieving the stone, just in time for Tissa to burst into the room wreathed in radiance. Blushing, the twins turn and snatch up the ragged remains of their sheets as the paladin surveys the damage. “These were no normal assassins,” she states, “one of them fell below, I will perforce attempt to bind them by law and return them to our quarters here. I ask that you guard this one that remains.” With that she gestures to the quickly dying half-man on the floor and, at the twin’s nod, sprints from the building, only to find one dead in the fall, the survivor fled. The man upstairs fares not much better, expiring before her return.

I'm here, I just don't know what to say.

Things here seem to be Ok, so I would say go find someone interesting and coax them into your story.

Like that druid guy.

Or you could check out the prince, he shoudl be interesting.

>>14478500
See what their inevitable investigation turns up?

that was awesome. I was literally on the edge of my seat there.

>>14478475
>>14478486
>>14478500
Geez, we might has well have done nothing.

I say we follow the one escaped assassin to whoever he is going to report to. The VIPs will search for clues of course, and Tissa will call for the guard when she discovers the other murders, but I doubt they will be able to uncover anything. These guys were beyond professionals.

Awesome job there
Let stick around and try to see why they are being targeted like that

>>14478768
Its not like we suggested anything especially serious beyond throwing them out of the windows...
Would still have liked to see that tough, maybe next time they send an elite group of assassins all their rolls wil be 1s just the see their reaction

>>14478768
This. If we keep watching Tissa and the twins we're just going to see them explaining crap to the guards. Boring. But if we go after the assassin we find out who sent them and maybe what the backup plan is for their failure.

>>14478768
>Geez, we might has well have done nothing.
Behind the scenes protip? It's fortunate you did. You took out 1/4 of their force, you know.

Lol you guys, he's complaining about us switching scenes while doing nothing, and here we are switching scenes again.

Let's at least listen in on the interrogation to find out who is trying to off our pet heroes. Switching scenes would deny us crucial knowledge.

>catching the twins in flagrante delicto.

...huh.

>>14478500
Oooh you incorporated my teleportation idea~

>>14478475
>>14478486
>>14478500

This conflict seems beneath us somehow. Building up heroes needs much more work than building up our villains.

Personally I feel an additional party member will benefit the dynamic of this group greatly. The twins might as well be one entity for all the personality they bring in.

>>14478931
What interrogation? One of the assassins got away, and the other survivor died. Unless one of them has a way to make the dead talk they got nothing. Though given what they've been doing they likely suspect who may want them dead.

Following the assassin, isn't switching venues. We stay in the same city, and this is related to the heroes.

>>14478961
What can I say? It was a good idea and I aim to please. Occasionally it just takes time for me to work them into the narrative naturally.

>>14478991
I, for one, love the "I'll look over it but don't flaunt it" view of the Paladin on the wincest. It's funny. The druid might have a more "purge the unnatural" idea, though.

I say we see what they squeeze from the assassin, then check the druid, then go talk to Laressa.

>>14479053
>With that she gestures to the quickly dying half-man on the floor and, at the twin’s nod, sprints from the building, only to find one dead in the fall, the survivor fled. The man upstairs fares not much better, expiring before her return.

Two assassins survived the attack. One got away, the other died of his injuries while Tissa was trying to catch the one that got away.

>>14478991
I agree with this man, we need someone who can fulfill the archtypical role of the wizard. Someone intelligent who can advise the more forward party members. A shy personality would also balance out the more brash people currently accompanying our chosen paladin.

In other areas, I believe we should alert the druid to the twin's ownership of the god-orb thing from earlier. If he can acquire that orb he can begin to re-empower the lands, or elevate himself so that he can take on and drain other gods. Either way it will add another antagonist and light a fire under our heroes' asses.

On the prince we saved, I believe we should motivate him to aid the party. Perhaps call in a favor and ask him to hunt her down to deliver some weapon. It would add yet another possible party member, and we could use whatever pretext we send the prince to her on as a hook to get her involved with our elf.

Lastly, who are the new allies accompanying our elf? I would love to know their background and who exactly her mother is, though perhaps I missed that.

>>14478991
You're right. We still need to add the fourth member to our band.
How's our pirate getting along?
Also- are the Druid and plague knight Ebul yet? Like balls off the wall insane? Or could we convince one of them through some creative manipulation that allying with the twins and Larissa would be in their benefit.
Also! Larissa needs a romantic interest!
Yes yes, I know, celibiate. Check over her paladin code- see if there are any loopholes we can exploit
"Shall not lie with man"

>>14479133
>Lastly, who are the new allies accompanying our elf? I would love to know their background and who exactly her mother is, though perhaps I missed that.
If you didn't jump back and forth like a grasshopper on crack you could have investigated while there.

As it is, you didn't stick around and find out therefore you don't know. If you're exceptionally smart, though, you might be able to guess it.

>the other assassin got away

Well nuts. We could just capture him ourselves and make him talk. I really want to know who's behind this, because it would fucking suck for our heroes to get shanked in the middle of the night just because we weren't around.

>>14479150
Let's PLEASE not play matchmaker. It's bad enough that Laressa thinks we're interested in her.

>>14479192
Old master
Best friend

>>14479150
At least get the names right.

Lann/Liss: Twins
Tissa: Paladin
Laressa: Elven Mastermind
Ugantu: (dead) Barbarian
Ral: Prince
Palal: Druid
Vassik: Blood Mage

>>14479207
I don't think she thinks that we are interested in her, she just wants to make it so because she is in us.

>>14479150
I think you may be a bit behind on what's been going on. And that you have confused the names of some of the characters.

>>14479192
I suggested we do just that before. Where the hell were all these people who want to investigate Laressa and co. hiding back when it was relevant?!

I have a proposition.

1. Ensure the paladin captures an assassin.
2. get the druid interested in hunting down the paladin and twins for the orb.
3. find a suitable 4th man for the party.

With these three done I feel we'll end up with a far more dynamic group of heroes and a new threat to make them really sweat. Right now it feels like they're blowing through the mooks before big bads start showing up. (of course this could be because we help out...)

>>14479295
>1. Ensure the paladin captures an assassin.

Little late for that.

>2. get the druid interested in hunting down the paladin and twins for the orb.

Might be too late for that, if he's been using the worm we gave him to its full potential.

3. find a suitable 4th man for the party.

I was hoping they'd find one on their own during the trip, but I guess we could try and find one for them. But we're not exactly great at getting people together.

Well you guys seem to be (finally, thank god) hammering out a course of action.

Be back in half an hour and will start writing on whatever the general consensus is, provided it's not stupid.

>>14479368
1. one assassin is still at large, it would be easy enough to simply wave our hands and have him fall into hers through some contrivance. It may be suspicious though.

2. if he's using the mind-worm well then he probably knows about the orb. Knowing his motivations he will want to retrieve it. So basically we either confirm he's already doing what we wanted, or ensuring he does so. He could even become the next "man" in the party if he chooses not to take the orb by force.

3. We merely need to find a few candidates and see which we like. Also, while our attempts to get the twins and the paladin on the same side were bloody, they also entertained and worked. I think we can have faith in finding another party member, though the process might leave hundreds dead (but we're omnipotent, who cares?).

>>14479426
>1. one assassin is still at large, it would be easy enough to simply wave our hands and have him fall into hers through some contrivance. It may be suspicious though.

So, what? Make it look like divine inspiration? I think it better to follow the assassin back to wherever he's going (probably to report their failure) and discover who's behind this (probably the ‘apostle of Loris’ Dammon the Bright, who turned out to be corrupt) then we can lay out a trail of breadcrumbs for our heroes to follow.

>2. if he's using the mind-worm well then he probably knows about the orb. Knowing his motivations he will want to retrieve it. So basically we either confirm he's already doing what we wanted, or ensuring he does so. He could even become the next "man" in the party if he chooses not to take the orb by force.

There's more than one divinity orb, he could have located a closer one.

>3. We merely need to find a few candidates and see which we like. Also, while our attempts to get the twins and the paladin on the same side were bloody, they also entertained and worked. I think we can have faith in finding another party member, though the process might leave hundreds dead (but we're omnipotent, who cares?).

I know, I know. But this will take time, and I wanted to look a little deeper into Laressa and these new elves and set up new adventures to build up our heroes.

>>14479368
>>14479295
>>14479133

The Blood mage would've been a good addition, but what happens once he finds out about the godmaker? He's also really far away geographically.

Maybe just find a suitable mage nearby. We can always add mage levels as needed. Most any personality will suffice at this point, the only requirement is a cool head and a propensity for long-term planning.

If possible I'd like to introduce the mage and have him join the party in one go.

I'm really curious about Larissa's new companions. But she's already built up, and is waaay ahead of all our other players combined. We need to start building up our heroes, maybe a few sidequests since it's too soon for them to face Larissa.

Got here a little late, but just gotta say:

What the fuck did we give Laressa? For you guys saying "its ok, he's just a mortal", did you not note the bit of text talking about how ugantu was martially on par with the Divine?

And the orc fucking floored him.

Even if Laressa does nothing, that fucking Orc will beat the lot of them with one arm and three fingers if that was ANYTHING to go by.

>>14479678

>But she's already built up, and is waaay ahead of all our other players combined.

And she did most of it completely on her own. Which is why we should look into how she's doing it, so we can tailor our heroes appropriately.

>>14479678
She's way fucking ahead because we've gone overboard with her. I don't mind her being our favorite, she's awesome, but seriously, what the fuck.

>>14479709
We built the half orc to be unbeatable in combat.

So if you want to kill him, the last thing you should do is actually fight him. Loooots of ways to kill people without directly engaging them.

Which is why it's okay, because he's mortal. He can be killed in every other way.

>>14479747
I don't recall any desire to have him able to break Thor over his knee in hand to hand.

If he starts catching bullets and Hulk-Leaping across buildings, then it don't matter much how sneaky you try to kill him. That trillion trillion universes worth of ultimate legend experience will probably ensure you fail.

>>14479796
He's not going to do any of that though. He only acts when given orders, and probably doesn't have any self preservation instincts outside of combat - aside from eating, breathing and pooping.

You're assuming that legend experience applies to areas outside of combat. It doesn't. You're assuming he thinks to use it. He doesn't.

He's effectively a martial arts zombie.

Did we ever actually decide on what we were going to do?

>>14479796
You're exaggerating. Archmage > Orc > Ugantu > Archmage. Ugantu used his powers to kill the fuck out of the wizard lords, but the halforc would have been fried in like ten seconds. If you need to fasten a screw you don't use a hammer, and if you need to secure a nail you don't use a drill.

Besides we gave our paladin girl ultimate defense armor and the twins are a couple of fucking batmans.

I'm curious about the elven nation that was mobilizing. They are Laressa's allies, then?

>>14479847
No. ;_;

>>14479870
Retrieve arms from desk.

But seriously, let's get all of these political shenanigans with the twins and the paladin sped up so we can get them on their way to the PLOT.

Specifically, I say we should perhaps fabricate some evidence that points them in the right direction. This may first require that we figure out what the right direction is, I'm not sure if I missed that or if it simply hasn't been presented.

>>14479192
>>Lastly, who are the new allies accompanying our elf? I would love to know their background and who exactly her mother is, though perhaps I missed that.
>If you didn't jump back and forth like a grasshopper on crack you could have investigated while there.
We shouldn't investigate _everything_. After all, the point of this entire exercise is to be surprised!

>>14479906
A fair point. But we're curious, aren't we?

We prefer to be surprised with what is to come, rather than with what has already occurred.

>>14479906
Problem is, if we don't investigate we may never find out. And finding out late could cost us entertaining options.

>>14479850

>"What is it compared to the skills perfected by the greatest combatants to ever exist in a trillion trillion trillion universes?"

>Includes guys like Hercules, Gilgamesh, etc etc.

>Entire universes worth of heroes the likes of which regularly challenged our prowess as a Dark Lord, wherein we viewed Divinity as either a step down or not worth getting out of bed for.

>"S'cool, bro."

In any case, check if the survivor left tracks behind in his hasty flight. If so, they'll find them. If not, make them.

Well, while I write the next and final post of this thread I will restate three already-suggested options to focus the next thread on, though by all means if you want to do something else I'm not limiting you.

1. Talk to Laressa and play around there.
2. Investigate the elven nation.
3. Continue aiding/building up/adding to the heroes.

>>14479870

Let's wrap up whatever the hero party is doing. Listen in, get some divine intervention as necessary.

Also tell us of any wizards neary, empower wizard to be the key to solving whatever their problems are.

>>14479991
Goddamnit you're an idiot.

The half-orc is not as powerful as those guys. He is as SKILLED as those guys.

Let me give you an example - I can read to you the definition of string theory from a text book that someone put in my head.
That does NOT mean that I have the several decades worth of experience in advanced physics and mathematics.

The half-orc is not some unkillable monster from beyond the stars. He's just really really good at moving a weapon in such a way as to kill without being killed. That does NOT mean that he cannot be killed in other ways.

>>14480063
For example:
Poison, Suffocation, Immolation, Sickness, Electrocution, Blood Loss, Starvation, Hypothermia, and Falling.

And that's just the mundane!

>>14479999
>3. Continue aiding/building up/adding to the heroes.
I think this is my preferred option. I really want to see how our heroes get out of this mess and what the deal with the assassins was.

However, on the off chance that you resolve this before the end of this thread, I am also partial toward:
>2. Investigate the elven nation.

>>14480097
you forgot drowning

>>14479999
Really, I would like to observe all these paths. I think part of the reason that we jump our perspective all the time is because we're concerned about missing something important. Can we handwave our personal time into nonlinearity so that we can excuse viewing everything to its fullest extent, and thereby buy ourselves enough time to fully investigate one set of interesting bits without going on to the next?

>>14480150
I figured suffocation covered that.

half-hour later bump.

These assassins are far too much of a threat to let go unchecked, you decide. After hanging around the inn for several hours watching the city guard investigate you’ve had enough. While they are far from incompetent, they are not even close to the level required to catch such skilled killers.

But you are.

You reach out across the city, combing through tens of thousands in an instant with your search. There. Not even in the city, oddly, but... hmmm. You switch locations, floating high over the area the assassin is at. You were expecting the residence of the magistrate, or perhaps the corrupt priest of Loris. Instead, you find yourself floating above a truly massive castle. You never paid much attention to it before, assuming it a simple defensive feature meant to guard the town, but now you are less sure.

Diving down, you whisk through it. Hundreds of servants and residents of all types, many from the city administration or international trading guilds that branch across the breadth of the world, foreign nobility, and even more interesting the men and women associating with them freely... despite the plain dark grey and green clothes they wear. Oddly, you notice nothing but humans in the entire castle, not a single inhabitant has even mixed blood. Most disconcerting of all, however, is the castle itself. To call it impressive by mortal standards would be an understatement. Nearly every room or hallway has a privacy field cast upon it, muffling sounds at more than ten paces and blurring the faces of those in the distance. Every area restricted by an intricate network of mirrored force walls, keyed to runed amulets worn by those within and strictly limiting access. Across it all lies one of the most widespread and superlative anti-scrying enchantments you’ve seen so far in your time here, clearly meant to keep out even the most powerful mortal mage.

But the assassin is still not here. Rather, he is below. Diving down even more, you find an intricate labyrinth carved into the stone. Ancient dwarven work by your estimate, though you can’t be sure... and the wardings here, oh my. Strong indeed, enough to thwart even deities, and odd to boot. Not only do they simply restrict viewing, but they make it seem as if there are no passages underneath the castle at all. Quaint. While the gods will be able to view the dealings above with enough expenditure of power, they will never even know of the underground.

A quick scan reveals barracks, training rooms, armories, meeting halls, vast treasuries and stores of goods... a veritable fortress within a fortress, inhabited exclusively by grey-and-green garbed men and women, once again all human. Still, you spiral farther and farther down through even more powerful enchantments and wards, into a vast shadowed chamber. Inside the cavernous space sit seven men and three women, clad in the usual grey and green but with golden trim on the edges. They are seated above and around a central raised dias in a semicircle, just high enough that whoever stands upon it must crane their neck at an uncomfortable angle to properly address those who are seated. The platform in the center is perfectly smooth obsidian, inset with a white marble symbol you recognize from the medallions worn by all within the castle.

On it toward the front stands a man in his apparent thirties, though the life extension magic permeating his body places him more on the order of three hundred. His garb trimmed in silver rather than gold, and as you watch he concludes what appears to be a report; “-- sent nine apprentices under the supervision of one of my journeymen. The mission was unsuccessful, but the survivor reported that his intrusion harness failed at a critical moment. He claims it not to be his error and retrieved both his own cord and that of the other apprentice whose line broke. After examining them I agree, something tampered with the lines between the time they were planted and the time of descent. I have ordered standard scrying procedures to locate the target, but two hours in they have found nothing. This leads me to believe that we are dealing with either an extremely powerful archmage or the goddess Loris herself watching over her champion. This concludes my report.”

With that the man lowers the paper he is reading from and steps backwards into the center of the platform. The ten sitting in the semicircle look to each other and you notice telepathy flickering between them, but it is quickly cut off as one of the men speaks; “What is your recommended course of action and the reasoning to justify it?”

The man in the center steps forward once more and replies, “I would advise sending a team of three journeymen equipped with equipment appropriate to their station, as well as one vial of Secularity Essence sufficient for thirty minutes of unimpeded operation. The displayed skills and resourcefulness of the targets do not call for a large commitment of resources or ability, but deific intervention in the current stage of other plans that are underway is something that must be avoided until they have matured.” With that he steps back into the center and stands silently.After another short telepathic conference a woman to the right speaks, “The Council agrees. See that it is done, Master Tapet. You are dismissed.” With that he bows, “Thank you, Grandmasters.” As he takes his leave you note he burns the report in a convenient brazier by the door before leaving.

After he departs another councilman speaks, “Very well, moving on to the last order of business. The elven nation of Dar’an is readying for war. Infiltrators so far have been unable to discern the target, but it does seem to be in human lands as we suspected.” At this another councilman takes up his sheaf of papers and telekenetically passes them around. “I have readied the resources to be distributed to whatever nation bears the brunt of the assault. Propaganda campaigns have already begun stirring anti-elf sentiment on the continent, a 12% rise in recruitment is expected. Once we have determined the target more aid can be rendered, and some of our on-hold plans within the elven lands themselves renewed. I will have a more complete assessment within two months.”

“I believe we are adjourned then.” one says, and at this the others nod and stand, several teleporting away while others walking out the main door or using concealed passages to other parts of the underground.

Most... disturbing.

Well now. Find out who the hell these people are. Some kind of Human-only Illuminati?

>politics uraqua

Indeed, Captcha

>>14480152
I'll consider it and how to implement it without borking the quest format. Remind me Friday.

>>14480414

Hah, the Illusive Man is in this universe.
If only the assassin was named Shepard.

It seems that we have a pro-human conspiracy here. I'm assuming that a similar conspiracy is brewing in the elven empire (although I have no evidence to back this up).

This is much more interesting than our band of heroes at the moment, but we must persevere.

I think we should allow the heroes a chance to link up with this organization. Ensure that on the next ambush, we leave the assassins ALIVE to allow for interrogation.

>>14480404
Oh, right, symbol. Blah, tired.

>>14480484
I'd like to know why they want our heroes dead before we try to get the two groups to "join up".

>>14480414
Most fascinating.
Given the posttranscendent state of the fortresses defenses, I'm lead to the conclusion that the old magicians of Mardana-Fel were not totally unsuccessful in there attempts to apotheosize. Such powerful defenses lead me to believe that it is the result of several gods working on concert.

However, the numbers don't quite add up...
Given that the energy it would take to restore the desert around Mardana-Fel, and under the assumption that the 10 grandmasters are the resultant gods, then that leaves either 90 demigods missing, 15 gods unaccounted for, or 5 gods extra.

Again, I'm certain that building such a fortress as this would require the cooperation of several gods. The Mardana-Fel event is the best explanation to were such a large number of cooperative deities came from.

There is no solid evidence, but the pieces fit nicely, yes?

>>14480523
*fortress's
*led
*their
*led
*where
When I make mistakes like this it means that it's time to head to bed.

I'm gonna call it here for tonight. Next thread is Wednesday at 18:00.

As always, keep on talking if you want. I'll be checking this thread before making the next OP so your ideas and arguments won't go to waste.

>>14480548
>I'm gonna call it here for tonight. Next thread is Wednesday at 18:00.
Would that be tomorrow, or a week from tomorrow?

>>14480558
Tomorrow. Schedule is M/W/F at 18:00 currently. If W keeps getting such poor showings I'll just switch it to M/F/Sa at 18:00 though.

>>14480505

That's why we ensure assassin survival, for interrogation.

Also, don't be using quotation marks if you're not gonna repeat words ad-verbatim!

I think we shold probably do somthing about those assasins since they are clearly going all out on the next attempt. Change the potions they were talking about to make them glow but noone who has drunk the potion can notice it.

>>14480583
>going all out
Our party would be totally fucked then. A few apprentices almost took them down and from what they were saying 3 journeymen is going to be enough to do the job from what they saw. If they went all out and sent master assassins we would have to roll up a new party.

>>14480595
go more out then.

>>14480595
>Our party would be totally fucked then. A few apprentices almost took them down and from what they were saying 3 journeymen is going to be enough to do the job from what they saw.
That is, they believe 3 journeymen are sufficient to kill people who they believe are directly protected by a deity.
The leaders of this organization are either fools or they are dangerous on a divine level.
I repeat my assertion that the 10 grandmasters are indeed the magicians who became gods who's apotheosis destroyed Mardana-Fel and the surrounding area.

>>14480824
Those who believe they are supremely powerfull are always fun to mess with.
We need a plan.

We finally find somthing that would be awesome for Ugatu and now he's dead.


Revealing ourselves here would be hillarious.

>>14480404
>>14480409
>>14480414
I like these gents a lot. They may not consider gods a threat, but we're a fair bit above that. Let's fuck with them. Not enough that they actually fail mind, just enough to make them really work for it.

For instance, drawing back to the underwater civ idea, let's get the aboleths and merman concerned about the surfaces troubles, and start to marshal their forces. I doubt this Illuminati-esque group actually know/care what's going on under the waves but it doesn't really matter. They just need a champion to rally them and lead the assualt to free the land from it's troubles. Pic related.


Whether this is just by exterminating everyone or not is up in the air, though...

>>14480568
>Tomorrow. Schedule is M/W/F at 18:00 currently. If W keeps getting such poor showings I'll just switch it to M/F/Sa at 18:00 though.
Just sayin', but not all of us are around promptly at 1800 on weekdays. Last time you called a thread off before I was even able to log on and check it; it was very disappointing.

Anyway.

We should spend some time observing the competency of the various levels of this organization, and examining what their magic items do. When they say three journeymen with security essence, I want to know precisely what that means. If we do something even as overt as last time, odds are it won't take them too long to infer our existence.

Short of throwing power at our heroes, I'm not sure how to deal with this. Ideally, we'd subtly convince them to take some kind of action which displays to these conspirator types that they are no threat; as all the heroes are baseline humans one would think that possible. For that to work, though, we'll need to understand what makes the conspiracy tick- what their goals are.

Aside from the matter of our hero group, I am somewhat concerned that these people are powerful and extremely secretive, enough so that Laressa might end up getting one-shotted once they figure out what's actually going on with her- and they will, if the elves actually attack her country and thus cause her to stage up operations inside it. That wouldn't be fun. She might need a vague warning of some kind; perhaps a small note of congratulations, with a line mentioning that one measure of success is the power of one's enemies- and she shows signs of being even more highly successful than she suspects. Hopefully that will be enough that she'll be able to weather at least the first couple waves of attacks.

thread necrophilia at this point but just have to mention after catching up from the last thread i saw to now this is awesome beyond all words.

Vedibere if you aren't already working writing games / adventures / books you should be

Let's sic the Druid on these guys. It'll be epic.

>>14480979
>We finally find somthing that would be awesome for Ugatu and now he's dead.
Ugatu was too much of a disappointment, it's no loss that he isn't here now.

Wow? Still alive? Son, I am proud.

>>14488541
Start a new thread anyways, I don't want to have to scroll down 37 pages each time I need to read a new post.

>>14488580
Well yeah, but it's Tuesday. I doubt this thread will survive until 18:00 tomorrow.

>>14488604
That's right, today is Tuesday...
I kept thinking that last night was Tuesday, I even took the garbage out for Wednesday morning pickup.

Hey vedibere.
How about we try to do a more direct impact on the way things happen?
Not saying that i have any problem with the way things are going, your writing is always magnificent
the things is that we are trying way to hard to be as subtle as possible, and simply watching the resulting scenario, stuff like might demand even more of you and i do not want to overwork you in thinking of various situation and stuff

>>14488604
Hey, you're here, we're here, thread's here. A post or two won't kill you.

Failing that, we can sit back and meta-chat it up.

Hey vedibere.
How about we,as the guys giving suggestions,try to do a more direct impact on the way things happen?
Not saying that i have any problem with the way things are going, your writing is always magnificent
the things is that we are trying way to hard to be as subtle as possible, and simply watching the resulting scenario, stuff like that might demand even more of you and i do not want to overwork you in thinking of various situation and stuff with only vague suggestions.

>>14488891
Meh, I have a post or two in me.

I'm going to get something to eat for now, but I'll throw something out when I get back. Limited to this area, though. Hell, you might be able to resolve it and start with Laressa/Elf nation in the OP of the next thread.

>>14488870
I'm fine with you either taking a more active role or staying as you are. You're omnipotent, here, you can do whatever you damn well please. So far you guys not intervening directly has been strict self-limiting, as it's not like anyone can stop you.

As for the writing thing, I don't mind you guys being a puppetmaster in the shadows. Just stop switching back and forth so often without doing anything at all.

Note: This does not do random stuff for no reason. It means refrain from going "Observe. *post* Cool, observe some more. *post* Okay, keep observing!

>>14488943
Yeah i would like to be a little more active and stuff,
Its just that sometimes the stuff you post is well written and entertaining and cant help but just stare and wait for more
Its like reading a fantastical novel as it completely grabs your attention

>>14488943
>Note: This does not do random stuff for no reason. It means refrain from going "Observe. *post* Cool, observe some more. *post* Okay, keep observing!
The fact that this is my preferred course of action so often should be taken as a testament to your skill as a writer. Observation always turns up interesting things!

Assuming that we genuinely believe things are moving along nicely without our poking at them, do you want us to be more specific in what we're looking for, or what? In that case, specific things I would like to look at:
-Use time shenanigans or past-viewing powers or something to find when Laressa picked up the very first of her elf posse. That conversation is almost certain to turn up something interesting.
-Carefully examine the Illhumanati's base and personnel; learn a fair bit about them so that we know their capabilities.
-Trace back the path of Laressa's newest elf guy, this Master Koris, to the elven kingdom. That should give us a decent point at which to start tracking the plots related to her.
-See what if anything the druid guy is doing to advance his cause now that he knows it'll be all but futile to undertake through conventional means. In particular, check the prophecy worm's records to see what he's divined with it.
-Examine the actions of our "diabolic pactee" adventurer. See what he's doing with his life now that he knows the hells could theoretically call on him at any time to demand whatever they please- and if it's not interesting enough, perhaps give him a kick in the pants. At this point I consider him our most direct pawn by far, and even if we don't want him in the main plots he'd make an interesting toy for a random side story or two (your next job is... drink this potion, then sleep with that princess!).

One thing that might be interesting is if we had some kind way to know anything important is going to happen with our chosen and stuff
So that we dont somehow miss anything particularly important or interesting.
Maybe make all our created items alert Us when their user is in extreme danger or feeling in emotional distress or something.

>>14489127

We could give her an item that lets us keep tabs on her at all times.

>>14489162
Or we could just keep tabs on her at all times by willing it to be so with our cosmic powers. I mean, we're not omniscient, but being omnipotent means that if we want to know any given thing, it shouldn't be that hard to know. Just have an undetectable passive enchantment on anyone that we want which pings us if something interesting is going down.

>>14489206
And this could help OP the freedom to decide when would be the best time to switch focus.

This... illhumanati is far too much of an unknown to leave be, you decide. Flicking back to some record rooms you noted before, you shuffle through the veritable mountain of backlogged reports. At least, that’s what you assume they are... it’s hard to tell with them being written in cyphered code. Undaunted, you simply shift focus. Instead of reading past records you instead listen in on current reports that are supposedly shielded against all observation. The results are interesting, to say the least.

Over three quarters of the secret conversations you overhear deal not with secret political maneuvering nor vast global genocide conspiracies, but instead are more of the order of secret trade agreements and collusion between monopolies. In fact, it seems that nearly every major trade group in the southern islands region is controlled from this very base, all directed to “compete” with each other just enough to drive prices ever higher without actually damaging each other’s business. The main subject of gossip, however, is the complete destruction of the only trade city they had any presence in within the northeastern regions, a mage held metropolis called Kaza.

Oh irony. Speculation among the journeymen is that it will completely shut the organization, called “Kamada”, (interestingly, an dwarven word meaning “Profit”) out from any trade within that region for a hundred years at the least.

A spectral frown grows on your non-face, and you quickly depart to find the “grandmasters” and observe them. What you find is... strange. Half of them are unwed or single, but of the ones who have significant others no less than two of them have elven partners, (and children!) with one wed to a dwarf. The other two have chosen human companions as well, but it is soon apparent why they are the minority; the life-extension magics cast upon their significant others have clearly had far less effect than those given the grandmasters themselves, with their spouses appearing well into their sixties in comparison to the early thirties of the grandmasters.

Stranger even than that, however, is the fact that all of their families, human or non-human, adult or child, bear pendants (or in some cases even tattoos) of the Kamada’s symbol. Further investigation reveals that both elven brides and the dwarven husband are extremely wealthy and high ranking merchants within guilds identified as Kamada-controlled. One of them, you note with dismay, is even an elven-dominated trading firm from an island nation of elves called Sylvania. Apparently a state-run monopoly, with a grandmaster’s wife as one of the officials in charge

The final insight, however, comes from a realization. You hadn’t noticed before, but when one of the grandmasters and his wife retire for “relations” you note something odd. An... enchantment? Quickly popping back to the main compound, you see that every person allowed inside the walls has it layered deeply into them as well. Picking a random apprentice, you begin slowly pulling it apart at the seams to investigate. Sadly, this is fatal in a most horrific way for him, as it seems to have been entwined with his body, mind, and even soul. Whoops. Oh well.

While it is extremely complex and would take a good deal of study to completely dissect, the base principles seem to be that one is unable to betray the organization in any way, ages far slower than normal, and even after death will be bound to keep the secrets learned. Strangely, it seems to be a mix of dwarven runic sorcery combined with an ancient form of human magery, keyed to the organization’s symbol.

The most interesting aspect, however, is that it the magics used appear unique to human physiology... your extensive background in estoric magics is more than strong enough to identify this as a most likely accidental side effect. Human, elven, and dwarven physiologies all react quite differently to many of the interweaving enchantments used, and it would be quite fatal to cast upon a non-human.

Not so racially motivated after all it seems, so much as simply a security precaution.

>Picking a random apprentice, you begin slowly pulling it apart at the seams to investigate. Sadly, this is fatal in a most horrific way for him, as it seems to have been entwined with his body, mind, and even soul. Whoops. Oh well.
Well, that's ridiculously careless of us. They presumably don't have their apprentices randomly dying horrifically every day, and they'll know now that someone was fucking with them. I know that we're absurdly powerful and all, but does "investigate" really have to mean "leave grubby fingerprints all over everything"? One would think that we'd have learned to not destroy everything we examine in our infinite lifetime.

Can we undo the damage to the apprentice somehow? Or pull a copy of him out of the past? Or otherwise cover our tracks here instead of being a bumbling incompetent?

>>14490070
Can we find out why they want to kill our party? Maybe some sort of truce and be created if we manipulate the circumstances correctly.

>>14490242
Basically, no.

I said two threads ago that "Whee, go do retardedly broad action X. No, I'm not going to give any parameters at all!" was going to eventually bite you in the ass. If you have me make up everything you do then eventually something will probably happen that you weren't intending. There were a million and one ways you could have found out all this information, and more without doing that if you had simply gone through giving a direction to look in and basic investigative steps. Careless commands get careless actions.

If it's any consolation, it was in the upper levels.

Looks they are the Mega-underground corps of this land it seems
They probably been doing this for thousands of years or something, why would they target our heroes if it looks like they control almost everything?

>>14490387
Well people die all the time anyway...
we would eventually screw up like that somehow. Opps
Let just make our Chosen are not suddenly ambushed and die horrible deaths.
Larresa might be targeted since she is quickly taking control of things and making new techs and such

>>14490461
Our elf needs to stand on her own two feet for a while. We can't coddle and aid her the whole way, and these corps are a good chance to test her and let her grow. We can step in if we feel the need.

We should worry more about our heroes, who are under a far more immediate threat.

>>14490387
...Kinda was expecting we did not need to meticulously write a detailed course of action so that we dont leave horrible deaths every time we try to investigate.
But since this is not a official quest day there are less people discussing stuff and i dont think this should interfere much in the futere... right?

>>14490475
Its just so entertaining to see her exploits...
also have a soft spot because of the she likes us.

>>14490530
You can reasonably suspect it will have the realistic effects that a murder in a supposedly secure place would. Investigations, assumptions about motive, increased security, all that jazz. It's not like they even know you exist.

>Kinda was expecting we did not need to meticulously write a detailed course of action so that we dont leave horrible deaths every time we try to investigate.
Give me a break. You didn't say anything but "Investigate them." You didn't even write out a BASIC course of action, much less a meticulous one. Complaining about how you 'totally did not deserve this waaah' isn't going to make me regret it at all.

>I told you that you should be more descriptive.
>You were not.
>Eventually the fact you only give commands in extremely ludicrously broad strokes caused one tiny thing you didn't like.
>Pic related.

>>14490643
>-Carefully examine the Illhumanati's base and personnel; learn a fair bit about them so that we know their capabilities.
>Vivisect one of them as part of a 'careful examination' because it's a "retardedly broad action"

Wow. You can write well, OP, but you are also a colossal jackass.

>>14490643
I did not post about trying to investigate...
I was just surprised by the way we did, that is all.

>>14490643
Poster from>>14490530 here
I did not mean to sound like i was BAWing or mad
Im fine with it since we are omnipotent after all.

>>14490679
I giggled.

Sorry you feel that way, bro. You were careful, but you also have a very long record of not really caring about incidental deaths. Tacking a single adjective on to a course of action less than twenty words long doesn't cut it. Especially when investigating one of the most secretive organizations you have found thus far in this world.

You've done far worse before by the way, this is just the first one you guys have ever complained about.

>>14490837
Brutal deaths tend to cause reactions like that when you are trying to be stealthy
But once again no matter
Trying to think as an omnipotent being and not do stupid shit is ... different.
Damn this quest is awesome

>>14490837
Oh, I still don't give a shit about incidental deaths, I just care about leaving a bunch of evidence of our existence. When we're trying to specifically learn more about an organization before we determine what to do about them, blatantly demonstrating that we (or, from their point of view, someone) can effortlessly penetrate their security and kill their people is a fucking terrible way to do it. We can at least cover our tracks decently- reconstitute the body and puppet it for a while before making it look like he had a heart attack or something. At least give a nominal effort towards providing them with an explanation for what happened instead of leaving it a total mystery and laughing it off.

Admittedly, you've always written us as a careless fuck, but I suspect that's mostly because you somehow want us to be a worthless waste of space.

>>14490387
>If it's any consolation, it was in the upper levels.
For now, make the body disappear.
By this I mean that you should remove his bodily remains and currently worn clothing and have it deposited some place inaccessible from this world. Toss it into a star, throw it into a null plane, break it down into it's constitute elements and evenly distribute it across a large area, put it in your cat's food dish, mount it on a wall in your office, or whatever. Just make sure there is no evidence to prove he has actually died.

Then, try and find his living quarters, and mess up the place. Specifically, make it look like he had to pack his most cherished belongings quickly before he fled toward somewhere.

This should hopefully give the Kamada the impression that he hasn't died, but instead quickly fled the area, but not give any indication as to why.

Not terribly upsetting, given his low rank, but it'll make the Kamada's investigators run around in circles for a long while.

>>14490983
>>14490960
So which one of these courses of action? (Both are sufficiently detailed to be free of problems, by the way. Just for reference.)

Also, you've been written as a careless fuck because "careful" and "stealthy" are relative terms. You are naturally the stealthiest being that exists, because nothing can directly observe your existence unless you want them to. You are careful, but for an omnipotent being that can't be harmed in any way being careful has a slightly different meaning. It's all a matter of perspective.

>>14490960
I second this

>>14490983
Fuck that, keep his body on hand for later use (stick it in a preservation jar like the one that gods in).

We might need it for starting something between the druid/ blood mage and this illuminati.

>>14491197
We have quite literally an infinite supply of shmucks, there's no reason to hold on to a puddle of wet carbon.

>>14491219
Except for the fact that this pile of wet carbon died while inside their secret base with his enchantment partially or completely disabled and will already have an investigation force looking for him at what ever time we decide to leave him sitting somewhere.
That's some politically charged evidence right there.

>>14491307
That is true, but I have a counter point: who cares?
He's not a grandmaster. He probably isn't even a journey man. He's just some dude low on the totem pole.

The Kamada would certainly be disturbed by his disappearance (assuming we remove the body), but with nothing to go on nothing major will come of it.

For what it's worth, I am in favor of having the body (and affiliated evidence) disappear.

You heave a sigh at the pile of wet flesh and shattered bone you are currently hovering over. Sitting in the middle of the hallway, it will be tripped over soon enough. What a bother. Gritting your insubstantial teeth you begin the meticulous process of piecing the flayed meat back together into a proper human form. A few minutes later, you’ve succeeded... but of course, it’s still very dead. Something to explain that is needed you decide, and manifest a gigantic clot in one of his heart’s ventral valves. There. A few modifications to the (previously blank) weave of reality that divinations to find out the causes of death would reference and you’re done. Bored from the tedium, you cut the strings of force holding it up and watch as the corpse slumps naturally against the wall before departing once more.

Where to now, you wonder?

>>14491401
>He's just some dude low on the totem pole.

All the better:
-we spread rumours among the illuminati about blood mages research meaning shit to them and their journey men find a dissected acolyte in his dungeons.
-Druid guy finds a hacked up apprentice in one of the twins old traps, wonders why he was all the way out here and his worm thing lets him know what the illuminati are up to + he has s sample of their enchantments layed out for inspection.

The point is that he's low enough on the totem pole to be realistically captured for research/ by a trap without alerting suspicion as to how shit like that could have happened.

>>14491476
For the record, it's not like this plan is impossible with the most recent post. You could effortlessly kidnap and kill anyone you wanted in the organization. Get a consensus on it and off you go.

>>14491459
>Where to now, you wonder?
If you don't mind changing focus, I'd be interested in learning druid guys prophesy backlogs.

>>14491476
This could be interesting.
This the druid will a get a little more involvement in the story we haven't really checked on him after giving the mind worm.

>>14491476
No. Keep It Simply, Stupid.
That's way too elaborate and has a fantastically high chance of failing completely, or worse. We shouldn't fuck around until we know what we're fucking with.

Vedibere: can you take a closer look at the fortress (above and below ground) as a whole and see how or when it was built? Point out notable defenses or weaknesses, comment of the architection and magics, find out where the stone was quarried from, and other such trivia? Maybe you could take a peek at their treasury as well; see if anything surprising is kept there.

I doubt this will teach us anything too surprising, but some piece of trivia might point us in a more concrete direction.

Hands off on this. Keep it looky looky and not touchy touchy. It was a pain in the ass to stitch that one dude back together, no need to put ourselves through that again.

>>14491514
You reach out and thrum a crackling lead you recently jammed through the twisted skien of reality, touching the record of divinations provided by the prophecy worm.

How do I acquire the power of a god or gods?
>There are many ways.
In my present situation and with my present powers, what is the easiest way to harness godly power?
>The Arctavian Orbs of Divinity
What do these orbs do?
>They can compel an existing god into servitude of the user, elevate the user to godhood, and demote a god to mortality.
How many of these orbs are there and where are they?
>There are six. One is within a glacier temple to the north. Four are within Mardana-Fel. One is in the city of Seluca to the south.
What is the least dangerous path to one of the four orbs within Mardana-Fel?
>Tedious and precise directions.

The last use was one week ago.

>>14491459
>Where to now, you wonder?

I say we stir up trouble for the elf, there must be some remnants of the archlords that are no longer pinned down by the giant anti magic field looking for a shot at power.
Subtle encouragement towards forming a state run religion with her mysterious benefactor as their patron god would give the paladin a reason to but heads with her at some point in the future as well.

>>14491607
Those were situations where having a body with an investigation already attached to him would have come in handy, hence the "keeping him in a jar until we can use him".
Simply spreading panic through the illuminatis ranks while they have no idea what happened to him (was it divine intervention?) would have given them a cause for action.

>>14491607
The fortress was first constructed, as best you can tell, about 1200 years ago. It has since been expanded several times into its present form. The original stonework looks to be of dwarf make, as does some of the early expansion. Afterward it appears to be human construction, on occasion supplemented by magic.

The most notable defenses are, magically, the extremely potent wardings all throughout it. Physically, each of the four towers on the castle-keep contains a magical device that stores a patently ridiculous amount of power. They are likely used to draw upon as strength multipliers in the event of a physical siege. There has not been one in the past 400 years from what you can tell, however.

The most notable weakness is the enormous crisscrossing labyrinth below it. Though sheathed for the most part in adamantine, the fact that it could be reached by tunneling and perhaps then breached is something you feel to be a significant weakness. A force would need to know it was there first, of course.

The stone seems to be quarried from various granite mines on the continent and imported. Volcanic islands do not tend to produce quality defensive stone.

While they have some extremely potent magical devices (and more than a few artifacts from Mardana-Fel itself, as well as other places) the only surprising item is a rack of twenty seven vials of glowing turquoise liquid. It appears to be able to render an area roughly one mile in size immune to the creation of any new magical effects within the zone, mortal or divine. for twenty four hours. Effects already cast beforehand, enchantments, or magical items with a constant effect are not altered.

>>14491615
>The last use was one week ago.
This will end spectacularly ironically. No need to intervene.
Maybe we can take a look back at Laressa and see what kind of drama she's up to, focusing especially on her unmind-controlled elven allies. Running a country isn't easy, and running an empire is downright difficult, so something interesting has probably happened somehow.

We never really rolled with that idea of giving The heroes group a mage right?
maybe use that extremely lucky average joe guy to fill that slot maybe.

>>14491714
>While they have some extremely potent magical devices (and more than a few artifacts from Mardana-Fel itself, as well as other places) the only surprising item is a rack of twenty seven vials of glowing turquoise liquid. It appears to be able to render an area roughly one mile in size immune to the creation of any new magical effects within the zone, mortal or divine. for twenty four hours. Effects already cast beforehand, enchantments, or magical items with a constant effect are not altered.
If this is the "secularity essence" spoken of, then it will likely be used to prevent our paladin and the twins from receiving divine aid during the next assassination attempt.

Not that this would be any obstacle to us.

However, if we intervened during it's effects the Kamada will freak out big time.

We should prepare a contingency that allows us to aid the heroes without raising suspicion.

Before I offer any suggestions, would you remind me what Loris's holy symbol is, and perhaps what domains she manages? Just for kicks, I would like to know the same information concerning the deity of assassinations mentioned previously.

>>14491777
I mean the concept of a average joe getting a ridiculously luck. crap im tired
If you guys really want that make it so that every time he gets lucky something equally bad, but not fatal happens to him

>>14491732
Before we do that, i would like us to find out exactly why these people are trying to kill our heroes.

>>14491714
Are there any bards in Seluca?
More specifically, are there any bards that:
a.) have a excellent listen score, or at least one that could be enchanted to an excellent degree using mundane magics
b.) would be interested in recording the adventures of a group of heroes
c.) perform with a loud, obnoxious instrument?

If no bard meets this criteria, are there any bards who could be safely modified to fit?
If not, could one be engineered from scratch?

Take the Secularity Essence. The entire supply, Whisk it away.

Watch them flip the fuck out. That should keep them the fuck off of our Heroes for the time being.

>>14491793
Golden gauntlet upraised surmounting a field of white stars on a black background. Goddess of Justice, Loyalty, and Fellowship. Her temples often double as hostels for travelers, courts, or orphanages.

Vaul's symbol is a vertical black dagger tipped with red on a grey background. He is the elven god of Assassins, Ambition, Murder, and Secrets. His temples are generally either personal shrines kept in secret or dark, hidden places deep in the ancient woods of the elven lands.

>>14491941
Forgot that tripcode, eh?

>>14491941
You're trippin', Vedibere

>>14491948
>>14491985
Yeah, posting in another quest at the same time. The trip fell off for this one on accident.

>>14491777
nah the average joe ship already sailed.

if we want something interesting find a sorceror or an apprentice who has just lost his master to a "terrible mishap" that we caused and string him along to meet the heroes

I really don't want a wizard as our fourth hero. I'd rather keep such a useful tool out of our heroes hands, so that they'll rely on their own abilities and items more.
Having someone who can magic for them will dull our heroes in more than one way.

>>14492198
They'll need SOMETHING to counter our elf, otherwise she'll just stare them to death the second she feels the need, and martially they'll never be able to compete with the bodyguard.

>>14492228
the twins are probably quite a match for the bodyguard in speed and the paladin with our nifty little trinket is more than a match for him in a stand up fight.

the only real problem is seeing how we would manage her soul drain powers but i guess we could always pull a "protection of god" toy out of our bag of tricks

>>14492228
Laressa is a distant goal. Our heroes don't even know she exists yet.
I'm much more concerned how to help our heroes with the Kamada assassins without tipping them off.

I really think a bard would help. Get one with a good listen score so he'll know when the heroes are under attack. Get one with a loud instrument so he can put the heroes on alert quickly. Get one with adventuring aspirations so that it won't be too notable that he seeks out our heroes.

I really think this could be a good solution. The best part is that we can have them meet up before the assassins can use the Secularity booze, so that if the bard does detect the assassination attempt then we'll have saved our heroes without leaving evidence.

The Secularity Essence is totally another product of the Mardana-Fel heresy I'm calling it now, guys.

>>14492278
I do not see how a bard will protect them from a team of, quite possibly, some of the most potent and effect assassins this world may have to offer.

Also, Vedibere, how do the twins rate against our orc, anyway?

>>14492304
That would be telling.

Also, you don't know for sure. You haven't seen the full range of the twin's ability.

>>14492304
>I do not see how a bard will protect them from a team of, quite possibly, some of the most potent and effect assassins this world may have to offer.
I am completely confident that our heroes can defeat any team of assassins, as long as they aren't caught by surprise.
The bard would assure that they aren't.

>>14492312
Ok, from what we've seen of them thus far, then.

If they're going to get flattened under his thumb like gnats, I'd rather be able to prepare for it, personally, and make needed changes before it becomes too late.

>>14492316
They had a bit of a shaky time with a bunch of apprentices. Now they get to deal with a bunch of Journeymen with blank checks on equipment and a substance that will totally prevent them from activating their magic items.

Excuse my skepticism, if you'll understand.

>>14492228
the twins are probably quite a match for the bodyguard in speed and the paladin with our nifty little trinket is more than a match for him in a stand up fight.

the only real problem is seeing how we would manage her soul drain powers but i guess we could always pull a "protection of god" toy out of our bag of tricks.

really unless she gives him massively enchanted gear the bodyguard isn't as big a threat as everyone seems to think

>>14492328
From what you have seen thus far, if they prepared well, carefully, and use their murderous inventory of greater artifact level weapons and items to full effect in an assassination he would die before ever drawing his blade.

If they try to fight him normally without prep like a regular foe, they would probably go down hard.

>>14492362
Errr, and by "normally" I mean "head on". Normal soldier/adventurer style honorable combat. Their normal fighting style is ambushing and dirty fighting, though, so take that as you will.

>>14492353
fuck sorry didn't get a response from my browser for a couple of minutes and somehow i posted that again a few minutes later

>>14492362

Yeah, ok, thats about what I thought. Martially no match at all (from current observations), but if they can get the intel and reasoning to try an assassination, they have the materials to be successful.

The big problem with an assassination is...well, the simple fact that they are working with a paladin who they're growing closer to.

We may need to engineer some scenarios to...'broaden' Tissa's horizons.

>>14492346
>Effects already cast beforehand, enchantments, or magical items with a constant effect are not altered.
Our heroes will be fine.

>>14492353
>>14492381
>>14492393
The body guard and Laressa and all are all distant problems that we shouldn't immediately concern ourselves with.

>>14492397
Some of their items require activation, if I recall correctly, and our heroes won't have any clue that they won't work until its too late (barring the Armor, of course).

Also, why would a bard have such amazing anti-assassination abilities? It seems the twins would outclass most in that field, given they heard a trap going off in the middle of the woods from a way's off mid-conversation, yet the apprentices STILL got the drop on them.

I'm a little concerned.

>>14492425
To be fair the twins were uh... "occupied" during that last one.

>>14492425
i think we need to find someone who either has or can be gifted a minor form of future sight.

or even better they simply live through the events of a few minutes into the future randomly and then snap back to the point where it was triggered

>>14492470
Odds are they'll usually be occupied by one thing or another when these assassins strike.

>>14492425
>Also, why would a bard have such amazing anti-assassination abilities?
Because we will insure it.
Just have him stumble on a constant-effect magic item with suitable enchantments, or we could just enchant the bard (before the secularity is put in effect) so that he's guaranteed competent.

>I'm a little concerned.
Now, now, are heroes are big children now; they can survive a few assassins without direct godly intervention. They should be upping their guard anyways, now that they know they're a marked target.
Besides, they wouldn't be such heroes if they didn't have to carry their own weight some of the time.

>>14492495
>are heroes
*our heroes
god damn grammar

>>14492487
>Odds are they'll usually be occupied by one thing or another when these assassins strike.
They were lax because they took their safety for granted after they left Mardana-Fel.
I doubt they'll do that again soon.

>>14492495
I suppose this is true.

Alright, lets do this.