Quest Thread cancelled

“Awww, don’t be like that Lessa!” Stella returns, crawling a few feet up the bed until her head is even with her friend’s legs before flopping onto her back and slapping at your elf’s thigh through the covers with the back of her hand, “C’mon, you know I didn’t get anything. Whatever you do to them is weird and the tools don’t work right.” She grins, “Besides, I did really good this time. Tell me and I’ll tell you. He didn’t say no, right?”

Your favorite simply rolls her eyes in reply, reaching over and tossing the second of the two items you left to her eager companion, who snatches it from the air and greedily reads it. ‘My thanks for a wonderful evening,’ the message begins, ‘I look forward to the next one. Perhaps you will sing for me?’

The black clad elf squeals, flipping over onto her front and kicking her feet back and forth on the covers. “You got him! Did you two do it last night?” At this your elf’s diverted eyes snap to Stella and go wide, her face turning beet-red. “No! Gods, no! I- I’m not some... some...” but is cut off by an exaggerated sigh from her compatriot. “Oh, little Lessa. So chaste, so pure!” She clasps her hands in front of her chest, tilting her head up, “Oh, heavens! I could never dream of such an impure act, sir! Why, I would simply die from embarra--” but dissolves into giggling and rolls away as Laressa begins kicking at her from under the covers. Safely out of range of retribution, she spreads out on the vast bed once again and sighs, closing her eyes. “So, what happened?”

Your elf stretches, yawning, and places the blue rose on her nightstand before settling into the covers and rolling onto her front, looking over to Stella. “Nope, you first, I just told you something.”

The tired elf shrugs, delivering the news without even opening her eyes, “Fane sent a complete report, of course. It’s as bad as you would guess, apparently you’re throwing in with unnatural forces and endangering everything, he suggests immediately tapping everyone possible to identify, hunt down, and kill ‘the renegade elven wizard and likely exiled noble known as Valerian.’

“Yorial and Koria both were supportive, saying they fully back your decisions so far, think you’re doing well, and believe your new ‘friend’ will be a valuable aid.” She snickers, “Of course, it’s not like they would say ‘Oh, and grandmistress, we’re engaging in an explicitly forbidden inter-chain and noble-peasant relationship for which, by the way, we have your daughter to thank for finally bringing together in a place we can openly show it.’ now would they? Not that they’ve stopped fucking long enough to write that much in the past month.

“Ithrin was neutral like always, he says that your boyfriend is a ludicrously powerful mage who didn’t even break stride to defeat his most powerful scrying, divination, and tracking spells. Mentions power of that level is rare and dangerous, but also a valuable asset. Also recommended looking through the archives to check for age-apotheosied archmages who might have either relocated their towers or been exiled around 19000 years ago. Something about sword styles, think he got the idea from stuff Fane was ranting about.

“Tace liked him but still gave a full report, commenting that you seem to have more information than you were letting on but he still trusts your judgement in the matter despite -- or maybe because of -- that. He also said Valerian was ‘delicious’ and might give it a shot himself if things don’t work out for you.”

Stella finally finishes and flips over, her green eyes glittering, “But I said I did really good this time, right?” She crinkles her nose and grins devilishly, “I managed to get your Master’s report too. Pure luck, he’s as good as you said. He thinks you might be blinded by infatuation and making mistakes, but says that his final assessment is to let it be for now, watch, and gather information. There was a list of names he sent that he advised looking into, saying that any one of them could be ‘the new player in the game’ and that your mother needs to move fast to set up a counter strategy.” She stretches out and yawns, “And that’s it. So tell me. He didn’t say anything after seeing my note, right? It’s fine!”

Laressa rolls over onto her back and is silent for a bit, pressing the heels of her palms into her eyes and rubbing before finally speaking. “Um. He -- we -- hugged in the dining room and he told me he was interested, but there’s still quite a journey ahead of us. He... gave me a way to contact him too. Last night we traded stories about the past and, um, I- I- sort of fell asleep in his arms. That’s it.” Laressa is crimson at this point, but Stella just puffs out her cheeks and pouts, “Aww, you’re so boring Lessa. Well, whatever. What do you want me to write?”

Your elf sits up once again and reaches over, flipping through the sheaves of paper before drawing one out and tossing it to the redhead, “A mix of Tace’s and Master Koris’s I guess. It looks like I have more information than I am letting on, and you think it’s better to just watch for now. That should keep you on ‘her side’ of the aisle but still give me breathing room. Now shoo,” she brushes her hands toward the door, “You’re sleepy and so am I. Go get some rest.”

Stella gets up and crawls over to Laressa, catching her in a hug which your elf warmly returns, “Fine. But either you get me a bed like this one or I’ll have to switch them one night.” Laressa chuckles as they part and nods, “Fine, but only because you’ve been eating so much lately that you’re going to be needing it soon.”

“It’s that damn cook of yours, Lessa.” the exasperated elf replies as she breaks the embrace and swings off the soft pavillion, “She’s dangerous! I swear I could use one of her snack platters as an absolute distraction that would draw every guard in an entire estate.”

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t get seen, Stel. And thanks.” At this the redhead turns and winks before the concealment magic causes her form to blur once again, “No problem, Lessa. To both of those.” With that she slips out the door and is gone, and Laressa gets up to lock the door. Rapidly tiptoeing back to the bed, she shivers in the cold winter air and curses Stella for forgetting to lock it again. Plunging her nude form back under the covers, she quickly blows out the candle and draws up the warm comforter around her, nestling into it and quickly falling asleep.

>So, heroes are the focus this thread. They are pretty much the same as last thread, wat do? Also, sorry so late. I had writer’s block for about an hour. Fine now, though.

>>14757129
>wut? Trolls? In my quest? It’s more likely than you think!

>>14757156
>So, heroes are the focus this thread. They are pretty much the same as last thread, wat do? Also, sorry so late. I had writer’s block for about an hour. Fine now, though.
I thought I had a fairly solid plan last thread.
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/14728319/#14732643
Use that.

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/
Part 8: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/14474488/
Part 9: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/14498610/
Part 10: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/14536106/
Part 11: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/14605848/
Part 12: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/14638251/
Part 13: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/14683694/
Part 14: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/14728319/

>>14757209
Will with a second, I guess. Just making sure there are no objections or last minute additions.

>Previously, on OMNIPOTENCE QUEST Z
Heroes:
Despite their best efforts of the entire group, Tissa has been left somewhat despondent by the complete lack of a cure. All the previously readily available magical cures were shut off with the revolution, but it is more the lack of any information regarding a “cure-all” that has left the group without hope. Normal magical cures were tried long ago, after all. Even the wizard’s scrying and a few powerful tracking and scrying artifacts the twins possess are unable to find the slightest hint of the rumored miracle balm... probably because it never existed in the first place.

The twins are growing restless and bored with the dullness, however, and Tissa seems to have almost given up. She has promised them that if they do not find any trace of the cure within the week they will depart and search elsewhere, much to the relief of the two adventure-seeking teens.

>>14757312
>Will with a second, I guess. Just making sure there are no objections or last minute additions.
Well, if you want more details or clarifications on any given portion of the plan I can provide some. It's a bit of a quick sketch at the moment, I know.

>>14757312
Hmmm. We need to give her a lead. Also, toughen her up a bit, pitting her against Laressa at this point would probably get her squashed.

We need to start giving them more direction, I agree with the puzzle box idea from last thread. Lets do that.

>>14757209
I have to second this one. I'm interested in observing the twins' reaction as well, since they seem less moral than the Paladin. Maybe keep an eye on their gear, with an eye to figuring out their disappearing dagger trick.

These highly trained assassins are pretty cute.

>>14757484
Aren't they, though?

I should thank Vedibere for giving us an epilogue post for last time. It really did feel like we were leaving the scene rather abruptly, and this wraps it up much better.

Should be this thread (heroes) and next thread (Palal attempting to ascend/having his Orb stolen and then the other guy attempting to ascend) before we get back to Laressa, I think. Assuming that nothing more interesting comes up and it doesn't take even longer.

You know what we should do if we find the time?

Intercept all of those messages and make our own additions in our own handwriting, commenting on what they thought of us.

Also make sure to be watching the grand mistress when she reads them.

>>14757522
Only if we do it in invisible ink that shows up when the paper's charred. That way, she only gets bits of our comments unless she's paying attention :B

>>14757522

Oh God,

that would be hilarious.


Adding things like "Fane was a total twat", etc

>>14757561
I would hope we could phrase it in a more refined manner than that, but yes.

>>14757209
I'll second that plan, but I think we shouldn't use the puzzle box idea, as it conflicts with what Tissa was told about the circumstances surrounding the cure and it's purpose.

>>14757574
Fane would be well advised to attempt to undergo reproductive process with himself?

How about

There are no finished product of this panacea left

BUUUT they find a pretty much automated machine or artifact which can make it.
They just need to add the missing ingredient and activate it.

The ingredient is a newborn baby, of course

While writing in the messages would be funny, wouldn't it also fuck up Laressa's carefully tended spiderweb of intrigue? If we're going to counterbalance that later by helping her out more, fine, but writing in the messages would basically be shouting "OH AND HEY YOUR DAUGHTER'S MAYBE-LOVER KNOWS HER FRIENDS ARE SPYING ON HER AND PROBABLY TOLD HER."

>>14757581
Yeah, the puzzle box concept frankly strikes me as arbitrary and pointless.

>>14757522
While I am all in favor of maximum trolling, let's save that for another time. Though I have to say that I'm really looking forward to listening to our recordings of Laressa's mom's office and her secret meeting space, just because I'm sure it will be good for a few laughs.

Hero time now, though! (Though I do consider the heroes kind of boring in comparison... the twins are adorable, but one cannot make a compelling story out of lovable sociopaths alone.)

>>14757603
Hoooo, you're right.

We should probably let it be then.
Still, would have been funny.

>>14757603
Though I'm sure she know that Laressa knows that there are going to be reports sent back. From the sounds of it the two don't exactly get along.

And maybe we can only do it with one of them.

>>14757601
Babies? Really?
*eye roll

anyway, yeah, heroes.

We should set a leak- introduce rumor that in the looting following the war, something new has just been turned up.

Be very very vague- but apparently it was so important that an entire gang was wiped out in the attempt to secure it from another gang of rival looters.

Most curious is that it doesn't seem to be inherently magical- it's a book of notes from one of the archmagi's libraries.

Did we ever get a bard?

>>14757658
If we're going to mess with ANYONE'S it should be Fane's. Dude's a douche.

Might I suggest, instead of comments, a very nice illuminated, gilt illustration of Fane doing something rather distasteful, hidden within the parchment of the report - that is to say, sandwiched inside the parchment itself? Something that would probably be noticed by the spymistress, but not by someone not looking for it.

And just to be safe, make it fireproof.

>>14757522
As hilarious as that'd be, it'd also put a hamper on Laressa's own ability to intercept said messages, as they presumably increase security precautions.

>>14757718
Hey, remember that we want to fuck around with Laressa to- not everything for her can turn up roses, or else it gets just boring of her steam rolling her enemies.

SPEAKING OF WHICH: In the 3 threads we focused on her, did we FINALLY get around to nerfing her?

>>14757759
What does she need nerfing with?

>>14757768
Soul stealing eyes, mind slaving knife

We've been over this like five times

we aren't nerfing her... there is no point... her goal was suppose to conquer the world she will need the help.

>>14757774
We gave the paladin invulnerability.

We gave ugantu the power to control naval warfare and invulnerability to assassinations.

The other guys we intervene with so they don't die.

In that context, what we've given Laressa is not out of range, she's just been using things more intelligently, plus her continued progress have earned her further rewards. It's pretty fair.

>>14757782
Le sigh.

No- the point is for her to be entertaining. If we wanted her to rule over the world we could pretty much do so with a snap of a metaphorical finger. She's there to provide conflict, to be the BBEG for the group of heroes. The soul stealing eyes, however, makes her able to effectively one shot pretty much anything, and her soul stealing knives make her capable of controlling pretty much everything else. And that's not even starting with her 'perfect' body guard.

Long story short- we have to balance the encounter carefully or else it will be a short and disappointing TPK

It's been suggested of putting an upper limit on the number of people she can enslave, or making the effects grow weaker with the passage of time/expansion of mind slaves

The eyes, we've pretty much agreed, need to be either removed or we need to give the heroes some sort of way of effectively countering it

>>14757774
We do not need to nerf Laressa. Yes, she has a hell of a lot of power. That's fine. She's going up against entire nations at once and we've set her up with the implicit expectation of taking on gods through our gift of the mirror; her personal prowess is not that important, so the gaze attack isn't critical. The mind control knife is ultimately limited in what it lets her get control of; only through exceptional cleverness, as she did with her current kingdom, can she really exploit its powers. It's not that much use in wartime.

So yeah, she's crazy powerful. I am fine with that.

>>14757835
>we've pretty much agreed
We haven't agreed shit. Further, this thread is for the HEROES, not for Laressa. Bring up this argument next Laressa thread.

>>14757836
There's no challenge! Laressa is basically building an army of fanatically loyal minions wh will die for her just be giving people light cuts! It's a crutch

>>14757847
Well we brought it up like five threads ago and it seemed like everyone was pretty much in solid agreement. I was just wondering why we haven't done it yet.

Laressa herself limites her use of the dagger because she realized it destroys the minds of who she uses it on, so she only uses it on diplomatic puppets (as an intermediary step as she shapes the power structures more to her liking) and cannon fodder.

At this point in her scheme of things, it's not much more different than using her vast resources to strip the mind of an individual for information or use powerful binding spells to ensure loyalty - the dagger is quick and cheap shortcut.

Bodyguard is good personal protection but far from invincible. Her elven assassin clique could probably defeat it if they ganged up on him, nevermind actual assassination.

The eyes are an ace in the hole for herself, but it's not like she gets by through direct confrontation.

And I'm just keeping this discussion up while I wait on the resolution of our preplanned action on the heroes.

>>14757835
>>14757836
>>14757847

Taking away gifts after giving them seems to be in poor taste. Especially after Laressa has done everything well above what we expected of her.

Let's focus on buffing our heroes. I was thinking that having a hero be blessed with a particular persuasive voice, allowing more people to be influenced at one time, but not to the extent of Laressa's slave knife.

But of course we need to set them up as the champion of the free people first.

>>14757873
Because either way it would be obvious we were the ones doing it. That's why we're not doing anything to nerf the knife while she's not actually abusing it.

Still here, still writing.

>>14757873
I saw nothing remotely like that. Do you not see the plethora of objections here? I'll nerf or not as anon wants, but saying that there is consensus for it is like claiming that idea some time back of giving an orc chieftan dwarf engineering skills was well supported. Not really.

Besides, ideas change over time. Drum up support next Laressa thread and it gets done, but your chances are looking slim with the current crowd.

So, as I see it, the plan with the heroes is to leak rumors of something looters stole from an archmagi's tower, maybe using bards, and that these rumors lead them to the discovery of an incomplete set of ancient notes which partially elude to the pancea. The heroes go to search the tower that this originated from, thus stumbling into the dungeon we prepared for them.

Ah, I forget. Why are the twins here again? Presumably they have some sort of obejctive?

Since when has omnipotence quest about the heroes? laressa has always been the most interesting of all the mortals we keep watch over and until that changes i see no need to change this quest to be like any other hero-centric quest...

>>14757928
>>14757928
Ah, thread eight is where I'm coming from, but you're right. I'll mention this later, I guess.

Kaza sprawls before you in the dawn light, and you make out the white-clad form of Tissa heading for her regular dawn devotional at the local temple of Loris. Flicking into the inn, you find the wizard hovering cross-legged, asleep, and the twins entwined and likewise out like lights. Fair enough.

You flex your powers, creating a demiplane in the form of a vast megalomanical wizard’s lab. Huge statues, powerful warding, traps, the works. The traps, however, you make non-lethal... this plan does not call for death. Next you need a stock of pawns, ‘children’ and an illicit lover for this archmage perhaps, secreted here. Hmm... well, it’s hardly a perfect solution but....

You cast out, far far FAR away, across the ocean to the east, across the blasted and beshadowed empires that were shattered and still burn ten thousand years later from the horrific magics the Srite and their foes unleashed... far away, across the Worldspine and the Great Barrens, you come to a foreign shore known only in myth and legend, if that. A collection of humanity far removed from your personal playground in the west where even the gods are strange and different, that will never be effected by or have an effect on it.

Perfect.

You dip down and scoop up all the women and children from a city of thirty thousand and flick back to Kaza, utterly stripping their minds en-route. You discard the ones who die, screaming and clawing at their faces or suddenly frothing at the mouth as you make the smallest error in the extraction. No matter, over half remain, and you cast aside and unmake the corpses.

Now, for the tricky part... you formulate a lifetime of memories as a happy lover, a concubine of a powerful wizard for the women and the children of that union for the little ones. The rebellion, the Archlord Olal Maris secreting away his lover and children to his private workshop demiplane. Their struggle to survive as they run out of food and the horrific gnawing hunger. Their eventual discovery of the cure-all potion that restores their body but leaves them starving, forcing them to drink it daily. There. Your timeline established and a suitably convincing set of memories constructed, you slam the knowledge into the thousands of vacant minds hanging before you. Screeches ring in nothingness as minds are shredded and reformed, often dying as you attempt to integrate the raw thoughts in a manner unique to each person, each mind, each body, each soul. So blindingly tedious and frustrating... you hope the end result is worth it.

Finally, your work is done. Hanging between, you flick the corpses into oblivion and are left with the remainder... 312 women and 1408 children of various ages. Plus the original 2192 infants and extremely young children, none of which you actually needed to reprogram. Well enough. You pick one of the women, beautiful enough to be an Archlord’s illicit lover, three children of varying ages, and one of the infants. The excess is not requires, and you wink them into nothingness before depositing the few you have chosen into the demiplane and allowing them to regain consciousness. Upon awaking they immediately take up where you ended the memories, now completely the identities you created for them. The five year old cries and begs his mother for something to eat, she shushes him and tries to soothe the wailing infant... good. Excellent. Just as planned.

Now, your heroes. You flick around and find an abandoned estate that once belonged to the Archlord, now organized by Laressa as a government complex for housing ex-slaves. Thankfully many of the secret passages are still intact, and you find an adequate wizard’s lab set into the aquifer, with water flowing around it in a beautiful shimmering magical display that no-one but the Archlord himself ever likely got to see. Oh vanity.

You craft a magical ring that transports the wearer to the demiplane and deposit it on the workbench, simultaneously fabricating some partial research notes detailing the creation of a universal cure... and how the ‘main lab’ was the only place it could be safely created. A few minor wardings to ensure that nobody but your heroes stumbles upon the entrance and you are floating in the sky once more. So... how /shall/ you start them on this path, you wonder?

can we give the druid a bit of a push? he seems to be the best hope we have of BBEG. with the right motive, talent, and tragedy he will be a much more interesting character then the guy who just wants power.

>>14757928
I know one thing that was sort of agreed on: We remove our interference with the curses the gods placed on the Empire now that she has the mirror. Have we done that yet?

>>14757996
I thought we were making him an anti hero?

What if we got the Heroes REALLY drunk and then gave them a gentle nudge?

>>14757996
Next thread is for the druid. Start thinking about the heroes, thank you.

yea we ended up trolling one of the gods cursing her lands, and gave her the divine seeing mirror. and I dont think we can swing the druid as an anti-hero, the only possible way he will reach his goal is the sacrifice of thousands of souls. I mean he will have justifications for what he is doing but, i think hes irredeemable once he goes down that path

did we just destroy 30000 people for our plan?

maaaaaan

>>14757981
>takes entire cities population to create trap

If we wanted a bunch of dumb no personality women and children, I'm assuming we could have made them whole from the clothe without stirring up a fuckton of who knows how many political, social problems, and more importantly, plot holes

Do we not understand the concept that our actions will have consequences and that we make big changes like this we will be noticed?

Now we're going to have to make sure nobody gets suspicious when a couple thousand mad people of entirely different no one ever heard of appear.

I mean, I know it's unlikely that the paladin and company will start comparing notes and notice that hey, no one ever remembers any of these people, but we've set of a premise that could be very uneasily untangled, leading the heroes to ask very uncomfortable questions

>>14758076
Gas leak.

Or pluck a few people (1-2) from a large number of cities, make em into werewolves/zombies, stick 'em in the remains of the town

>>14758088
I know but the point still stands that it is getting kind of annoying that, unless EXTREMELY specifically worded otherwise we always seem to take the most destructive and intrusive route possible to achieve our goals

That's bad long term planning, right there

>>14758076
>I'm assuming we could have made them whole from the clothe
You assume wrong, read past threads.

>Now we're going to have to make sure nobody gets suspicious when a couple thousand mad people of entirely different no one ever heard of appear.
Strike that, just read. Period. They're gone, you unmade them. There is absolutely nothing left of what you took other than the ones you deposited in the demiplane.

>>14758071
Eh, more like 17,000-21,000. You left all the adult males untouched where they were.

>>14758076
Ummm

I'm sure we kept only a handful of them. Everyone else was erased from existence.
And the place they were taken from was so remote and isolated that it will not affect anything.... probably

>>14758076
I find your lack of reading comprehension disturbing.

>So... how /shall/ you start them on this path, you wonder?

Casually leaving a not or hint for Tissa to find after praying works, but sounds rather mundane.

>>14758107
Look, in the plan that was put forward and seconded/thirded/fourthed it said get NPCs and if you couldn't get NPCs only then make a few bodys to personally control. You got NPCs. Boom, done.

If you didn't want to do that maybe you should have backed a /different plan/ or objected somehow.

>>14758128
>>14758128
Look- we've made human bodies before. We've inhabited several of them. I'm assuming that if it's in our power to creative extremely complicated magics like the memory trap, we should know enough about the human body to create the blank slates. If anything, the hardest part would have been implanting the false memories, but apparently we accomplished that with ease.

And i'm not talking about the rejects- we've still got three hundred women with no history outside of the lab.
Hmm. Maybe we could make an implication that they were vat grown?

My major complaint here is that we could have accomplished this without upsetting so many variables.

>>14758128
>Eh, more like 17,000-21,000. You left all the adult males untouched where they were.

Hooo, boy.

So we just removed all the women and children and left the city full of men?
That's awful...

I wonder what they are going to do now.

This is almost like "Y: The last Man" except not the males are gone but women and children, and they didn't die horribly on the streets but just disappeared.

Maybe we can find someone there to amuse us too?

Hmmm

so what's the plan here?

Wasn't the initial idea to have Laressa and Tissa clash? Hero against villain?
If she gets the panacea, she'll just go home, no?

or did we scrap that plan already?

>>14758176
>My major complaint here is that we could have accomplished this without upsetting so many variables.
Throw an enchantment on our NPCs so that no attempt to divine them, their current location, or their past will work. That way no attempt to find any survivors by the people in far off land will work.

Thus, no variables that we care about are upset. The place we got these people is far enough removed from here that I'm willing to call it irrelevant. Win for team us.

I normally get really annoyed when we go for random callous destruction, but that's normally because we're leaving evidence of our actions in our own playground- shitting where we eat, as it were. This is for practical purposes undetectable; it was a fine way to accomplish our goal.

I assume that our implanted memories were detailed enough that their backstories are reasonable. They know their way around the lab and its traps, know generally about Kaza, maybe the oldest kid knows a bit of wizardry from the father, all of them have magical talent. That is, they're interesting enough that any attempt to get to know them will not quickly reveal them as Faceless NPC #16,451-16,454. As long as that's true, we're good and I approve of this.

We're omnipotent; a few thousand mortal lives hold no value to us so there is no point in acting like a White Knight or anything.

Maybe we could give Tissa som "direct" guidance, desguising us as a priest of Loris or something and offer a hint or two leading her to the workroom?

>>14758279
>Wasn't the initial idea to have Laressa and Tissa clash? Hero against villain?
>If she gets the panacea, she'll just go home, no?
>or did we scrap that plan already?
I personally have scrapped that plan- or rather, I've decided that while we might have them fight later, that will be most appropriate when Laressa is publicly known as a villainous figure- or at least known to the gods/well-informed people. She will all but certainly eventually start getting serious heroes deployed against her, and Tissa can be one.

But really, playing both sides against one another strikes me as a fool's game at this point. Better to set all actors in place and let things happen organically. The results might surprise us- and so much the better.

>>14758294
It's not white knighting- just annoyance at leaving gaps for things to come and bite us in the ass later on.
>>14758291
This pretty much nails my grievances on the head.

Also, ah, why make a bunch of brickabrack, magical instruments, and corpses appear, and maybe along with a stunned survivor? Presumably this subplane must have a way of disposing of trash effecitevely, but without the mage to see to it's maintence, it's beginning to randomly vomiting up small parts of it's area into the world

>>14758316
>Maybe we could give Tissa som "direct" guidance, desguising us as a priest of Loris or something and offer a hint or two leading her to the workroom?
Playacting as anything involving her god is dangerous, because she talks to her god/its representatives regularly. Our original plan has a solid method for getting her there- appear as a shady character who heard of what they're looking for and sell them fake really obscure legal papers with a solid hint inside in the form of a record that our mage of choice had a panacea.

>>14758347
I like the idea that the demiplane is gradually disintegrating- puts a little pressure on things in the form of a time limit. Having signs of that in the real world would raise the question of why it hadn't happened before now, attract non-hero attention, and imply a few things in terms of planar position of the demiplane, though, so that might be excessive.

>>14758382
Maybe we should approach the twins instead of Tissa, Posing as perhaps a former spy of one of the archlords who's looking to find a way to cash in on what he knows?

>>14758422
Eh the heroes have been waiting around long enough that they shouldn't really link their presence as a catalyst for the demiplanes slow decomposition.

Hmm- might raise questions though

>>14758347
>>14758176
Pic related, stop crying.

Anon who made the plan: You were smart and your plan was detailed. It's everything I look for in plans. It might not have been one I would have chosen, but tough shit for me, eh? That's why I went and snatched doods from the other side of the world where it doesn't matter: It was a solid plan. You guys have done a LOT of things that could potentially fuck up, but something like that was hardly one of them. There will of course be effects if you ever go visit that place again, but otherwise? Pfft. Whatever. I could just as easily have said you got them from another plane.

>>14758291
>I assume that our implanted memories were detailed enough that their backstories are reasonable. They know their way around the lab and its traps, know generally about Kaza, maybe the oldest kid knows a bit of wizardry from the father, all of them have magical talent. That is, they're interesting enough that any attempt to get to know them will not quickly reveal them as Faceless NPC #16,451-16,454.
Sure. You can even add any specifics you want (before they become relevant... you can't retcon in stuff that has already been shown "on screen" or too much deviates from what is already said) just by commenting and they will have been there "all along". I'm flexible like that.

Yes: The demiplane has huge banners with the Archlords face everywhere? -- Sure, don't see why not, already said he was a vain dude.

No: The child Tissa just met is actually a boy, not a girl. -- LoL no.

>>14758347
We grabbed people from an unknown continent with its own gods that's on the other side of the world. It won't be a problem.

>>14758448
Whoops, forgot mah pic related.

Also, still waiting on a decision of what you do to tell the heroes. There have been several ideas thrown out, I'll just pick one at random eventually if there is no sort of consensus. (or at least support of one over the others)

>>14758432
My vote goes for this one

>>14758588
as does mine

>>14758448
>Anon who made the plan: You were smart and your plan was detailed. It's everything I look for in plans.
You're too kind.

>Sure. You can even add any specifics you want (before they become relevant... you can't retcon in stuff that has already been shown "on screen" or too much deviates from what is already said) just by commenting and they will have been there "all along". I'm flexible like that.
The demiplane contains a great deal of research on a wide variety of subjects, so much so that if the wizard with the heroes looks around, he'll be astonished at how the mage could apparently be a specialist in so many subjects- because who but a master could possibly come up with such concepts?

The truth is that this mage, in our false version of history, was drawing brilliant ideas out of whatever this setting's equivalent of the Far Realm is. Somewhere in the lab will be an access device which, if donned by an arcane spellcaster, will fill their dreams with visions of utter brilliance and complete madness, comprehension of the essence of either constantly just beyond the reach of their conscious mind. Before the access to Things Man Was Not Meant To Know drives them utterly mad, they will be able to use this to create arcane works of astonishing brilliance and creativity. They'll become very quirky very fast, though, and unless they have some kind of shielding device or magics (tragically not present in the lab, but I'm sure enough research could help there) they'll inevitably succumb to total insanity.

If the heroes somehow come up with a plan to get the family out of the demiplane, the oldest child, who is a bit of a prodigy as wizards go, will grab this item and don it in an attempt to retain some of his father's legacy.

There, instant side plot.

>>14758633
That's actually... also very clever. And doubles, so I can't help but approve. Well done.

>>14758588
>>14758618
Well, if we want this then maybe we should flesh it out a bit more? Not that I'm going to suggest something myself, I'm horrible with spy stuff.

Though... Maybe if we are going to go to the twins first we should initially leave Tissa out of it if they are willing, but then we make it so that our attempt to access the demiplane fails and we have to go to her for help in the end?

>>14758633
>>14758722
I like it!

>>14758722
I expect Tissa to be the one initially entering the demiplane because only one person can go inside at once, the wizard isn't a bold hero, and the twins aren't going to want to separate with only one of them going into danger. Thus, Tissa by process of elimination.

>>14758784
And of course our persona won't want to go first because the entire point of recruiting the others is for them to do the "heavy lifting" so to speak. We'll have to betray them near the end and "die". Unless someone has any ideas to use this persona as a re occurring character to be used to influence the heroes movements in the future?

>>14758860
Honestly, I saw our only interaction with them as dropping by at the very beginning of them adventure to sell them a vague bit of information for an exorbitant sum of money.

>Omnipotence quest

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

>>14758883
Basically this. We show up as a former spy working for the archlords who heard about what they were looking for, sell them the information, then we get out of there. Tissa should be the first one in.

>>14758894
>mfw I have actually missed a few threads

Sad that I will miss more of this one, but happy for the LOVELY read to catch up.

>>14758633
Make sure that the lover/children's memories reflect this all being true. That is, remember that he always slept with two items on, the idea item and the don't-go-crazy item. Also make sure that he was somewhat of a screwball, if a very affectionate one, as they remember him- reflecting the effects of madness resultant from his early research.

In the end merely getting to the twins proves far harder than any other part of the plan. They apparently find spending time together in their room preferable to sitting around being bored outside of it, so you have to wait for several days to catch them as they walk hand-in-hand to the bazaar to browse magical trinkets.

The rest is almost comically easy. Strange shady man? Saw them all the time in Mardana-Fel, no fear there. Potentially wrong (or lied about) information to be bought? They /hardly/ lack for coin. Lab of an epically powerful wizard, said to be defended by horrible monstrosities and holding vast rewards and powerful items? Just like home.

A quick trip back to the inn to ask the wizard (Quorin, if you recall correctly) for some minor aid divining the Archlord’s various residences and they are off again, chattering excitedly to one another about finally having something interesting to do.

After a day of searching they’ve managed to ferret out a vast array of magical items, scrolls, devices, and hidden stashes from the Archlord’s various residences through a combination of magical divination gear and what you can only term as a ‘scavenger’s instinct’ that almost invariably leads them to places mages like to stash their baubles... several of the more obscure and better protected ones corresponding roughly to stashes you at one time had when you were human. They are, well, quite good at what they do for lack of a better term. You suppose they had to be, to survive like they did.

Eventually they make their way to the section with the lab and, eventually, into the lab itself. They are wholly unimpressed with the place, likely having seen far grander in their time, and much to your displeasure take only the slightest notice of the ring... only enough for Lann to hold it up next to another bauble and call out “Another teleportation ring!” to Liss before shoving it into a tiny (but apparently /very/ expansive inside) bag of holding on his belt, one of nearly two dozen they each wear as their ‘gear’.

After clearing out the final building they return to the inn and hole themselves up in their room one again, setting traps and beginning to catalogue their haul, eventually tossing the ring into one of their dozens of bags according to a sorting scheme that leaves your head spinning. A few hours later they are more interested in... ‘cataloguing’ each other, and an hour and a half after that asleep for the night.

You grind your nonexistent teeth and rub your incorporeal temples. Right. Well. What now?

>>14758975
Hrm. Curious; I would have thought that, since our adventure hook specifically mentioned that this mage had some kind of research involving what Tissa was looking for, they'd have at least mentioned it to her. Or looked over the notes in his lab for any hints.

Really, though, at this point the fact that Tissa's getting screwed over is actually the twins' fault, since we've given them everything they need to find what she wants.

>>14758975

Oh you incenstuous fucks! Have the ring start glowing and making noises. When they pick it back up have it play a message seemingly from people stuck in the pocket dimension, mentioning their plight and how they've survived so far. Let's see how they screw that up.

>>14759002
Sigh. I'll be nice.

While they clearly are smart, capable, and can understand magical runes like a second language... one would wonder who exactly would teach a couple of wild-child orphans with a taste for blood to /read/ in a place like Mardana-Fel... and you only left documents written in the language used on Kaza for plan accuracy anyway...

>>14758975
You know, I think this sort of thing is why heroes are annoying to deal with. We set up quests for heroes, bail them out of trouble, whatever... they mostly do their own thing. In order to really motivate the twins we'd probably have to threaten them somehow.

Anyway, if all else fails, we can show up as a shyster again with a completely different sort of tip to sell (for an even more exorbitant sum) and conveniently encounter Tissa while supposedly seeking the twins, and mention that we've heard our first tip to them panned out, hope they found that cure-all, but now we've got a hint to something even more exciting- the Lost Orb of Phantasmagorica, capable of turning sunshine into butterflies and shit into gold! Or whatever the hell it does. Important part being to mention things to Tissa.

Sonova... well. At least being frustrated is more interesting than being bored.

I think that - much though I hate the thought of impersonating a deity and possibly drawing their attention - we're going to have to mess with Tissa's dreams here. A vision of the lab, of people in distress, of the twins holding a ring. Cryptic images that she will almost certainly discuss with them in the morning.

>>14759045
Well, shit. I figured that they'd have magic items to make up for any deficiencies in ability like that; Comprehend Languages (or the equivalent). I mean, surely sometimes it's useful to be able to read clearly-posted signs in some lost language or other.

But at least >>14759081 should still work.

>>14759083
If THAT fails, we drop a note with the Tradeluminati. Or fake one from them to the wizard, suggesting that he mention the lab to Tissa. If BOTH of these fail, we trouble the TWINS' dreams. That'll show them to unwittingly miss our cleverly-laid plans.

>>14759036
>>14759083
Both of those are ridiculously blatant. I mean, don't get me wrong, we can be ridiculously blatant if we want... it just doesn't seem our style. Or particularly necessary when we still have a lighter touch available.

>>14758964
>>14758975
*facepalm* It seemed like such a good plan too. Oh, well.

>>14759045
I'm curious, do the twins ever bother to actually test out he teleport rings they find?

>>14759036
This seems as good an idea as any.

>>14759045
Well they did relive Tissa's life. Couldn't they have picked something up from that? Yeah, I suppose I'm reaching with that.

>>14759036
I like it. The ring wold naturally have a system to alert its owner that someone is still inside the demiplane with no way out.

Have it vibrate (no, better make it bounce or something) and glow.

>>14759118
Sure, you've seen them testing several items in the year you've been watching them. The problem is they have, well, ridiculous amounts of swag and they tend to test based on both power and rarity. Neither of which the ring particularly had.

>>14759112
Oh, I know the dream-thing is blatant. But do remember also that we're dealing with a paladin on a Quest, capital Q. It would be a surprise if she DIDN'T wake up every day with dream-messages from her deity - and remember, after all, that she did get her bracer from 'her deity'; she would probably chalk it up to that, if anything.

It's subtler than the other ways I'm seeing here. I don't think our heroes are the subtle types.

>>14759036
That is way too blatant. Better to go to where the heroes are staying as that same shady character and "bump into" Tissa. Recognize her and mention that we are looking to meet with the twins to purchase something from the place they raided. Documents pertaining to the demiplane maybe. Then Tissa can accidentally see. Or something

>>14759145
No, why would it? If the mage's ring is stolen, you don't want it alerting everyone "HEY HEY MY LOVED ONES ARE IN THIS POCKET DIMENSION, WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP " like some sort of retarded car alarm. Yes, subtlety is probably lost on the twins, but that's no reason to go full-retard.

>>14759135
They only relived key moments in each other's life IIRC. Likely including at least one episode of wincest for Tissa.

Maybe we could have the ring automatically teleport back to the lab? Kind of a failsafe to keep it in his possession?

>>14759189
But when would the twins notice it was gone, if ever? That's too subtle, I think.

>>14759176
>>14759173

It's not inconceivable that there are some magic users stuck inside as well, or materials that can be researched to learn magic. There would be someone performing the message sending from the pocket dimension.

Or better yet have the survivors find an artifact that does this, maybe the mage's emergency thing in case he got stuck there. Whatever, I'm sure you get the gist of it and can hash out the details.

>>14759101
You've seen them using gear that lets them read things and understand them, but not being able to read naturally plus having no magical training of their own? Unless it actively points to other stashes or says something important they just skip it as "more wizard notes."

Wizards have a lot of notes laying around, after all. Pages and pages of them. By the same token you notice they only take the powerfully enchanted/shielded books and documents for their "books" collection. They left behind a fairly rare tome in the lab, for instance, because it wasn't shielded at all and the cover was plain. Unless it's ornate or protected it's not valuable, right?

>So, what are you guys going to do? No ring-as-noisemaker apparently, got that.

>>14759036
That would work.

>>14759267
Could set it up so that the ring is unable to be moved more than a mile from the site of the lab, and if they try it will tear itself away from them- immovable-rod style. Even clear through their bag of holding. That should catch their attention and/or interest, assuming that they don't just decide to leave it behind.

Really, though, this will all be a nonissue if they mention casually at some point to the wizard they're traveling with that they just looted all of some archmage's shit. He'll be on every note that guy ever wrote like an addict on crack.

>>14759267
A vision of a child appears before them, explaining their plight, the fact that they have an item that can get them to the child i nthe lab. It begs them. It pleads with them. It offers itself for sweet Chris Hanson inspired loving, if necessary. It mentions the absolute shitload of valuables, and the clone love-slave banks that they're welcome to use to make more of themselves, it having watched them 'catalogue' each other.

>>14759267
I'm still going for the "visions from patron diety" thing on Tissa.

As an alternative, we could have the twins and Tissa all dream the same images - they'd likely assume it was an after-effect of the dungeon from last time, if anything.

>>14759267

As the guy who suggested it, I still think it's a valid plan.

If it's the noise machine part that's the problem, any message from the pocket dimension is fine regardless of delivery method.

So if someone has any better ideas let's hear 'em so we can vote already.

Can we mess with dreams without causing brain damage? I'm not clear on that.

>>14759555
Yes, dreams are easier because it's just telepathy with a sleeping person rather than reaching in and stabbing information into someone's brain.

Well, you know what? Unless there is a strong movement otherwise I'm just going to do a ring noisemaker or message type thing and say 'There, go be indecisive somewhere else."

>>14759616
As long as dream sending isn't as absurdly risky as mind alteration, we could just give Tissa some cryptic dream images. The ring, the twins with the ring, the guy she wants to cure thrashing about or something, the ring again, the guy cured.

You delve into the sack and find ‘your’ ring, tweaking it ever so slightly until it produces an arcane glow... that shines through bags of holding. There. Settling in, you wait in the twin’s room for the dawn. Eventually it comes, and you hear Tissa leave for her morning devotional. Eventually Liss gets up as well, and upon seeing the glow filling the room immediately shakes her brother awake. The pair fish out the ring and, after much probing and prodding, find that their instruments just tell them it’s a ring that teleports you. Only so much you can do with items, you suppose.

Fortunately, you had the foresight to add the wizard, and the twins are smart enough to take the ring too him. Several minutes of banging on his door later, a grumpy wizard with bloodshot eyes is staring at a ring being shoved in his face. He suddenly becomes far more amicable when they shove a priceless magical tome they recently looted at him along with it, and even /moreso/ when he identifies the ring as a gateway to a demiplane and where they found the ring. A quick spell and he informs Tissa that he and the twins might have discovered something, and all is set in motion.

>Last call for any alterations, I think. I’m going to call the thread here for now for several reasons, including me being sleepy and the fact I want to do the demiplane quest you’ve created its proper justice. Since it was so short today (5 hours short... heh...) I’ll run it again tomorrow, some time between 14:00 and 20:00.

>Also, you guys could really do with getting your shit together. I only spend about ¼ to ½ (at most) of the quest time writing, the rest is waiting for you to decide what to do. Throw out new ideas, make alterations to current ones, show your work, ect. Hell, maybe an IRC would help? I’ll see if I can get one set up tomorrow.

>>14759332
>Really, though, this will all be a nonissue if they mention casually at some point to the wizard they're traveling with that they just looted all of some archmage's shit. He'll be on every note that guy ever wrote like an addict on crack.

Seriously, all we really needed was to let either Tissa or the wizard know what the twins have done. We could just go in as the same guy who sold the twins the info and time it so we run into Tissa or the wizard, and ask whoever to get the twins. Oce either of them knows they'll want to see what the twins found and they'll find the info on the ring while going through the documents the twins took.

>>14759855
>mfw I get back from reading the backup only to find I missed the thread
FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-

ah well, i don't really have anything to add now. Guess I'll start fresh tomorrow.

>>14759855
Just wait 15 minutes, then write regardless of the stuff still being handed out.

>>14759855
>Also, you guys could really do with getting your shit together. I only spend about ¼ to ½ (at most) of the quest time writing, the rest is waiting for you to decide what to do. Throw out new ideas, make alterations to current ones, show your work, ect. Hell, maybe an IRC would help? I’ll see if I can get one set up tomorrow.
Also, I am sleepy and this sounded like I was being critical. Whoops.

I meant you guys have good ideas and I like watching them develop, the back and forth is awesome. Problem is, you have trouble deciding a direct course of action to implement them, or "getting your shit together" into a working plan that I can implement, like at the start of the thread. There seem to be several people all pushing incompatible ideas sometimes, and I can't do /all/ of them. Might need to start making some compromises.

>>14759968
>into a working plan that I can implement, like at the start of the thread.
As in, that was a good, ordered plan at the start there, from last thread.

God. I need sleep. Post stuff for next time if you want, will read the archived one before starting next one.

I, for the most part, am content to read writequest: the bookening. Few instances were I feel the need to participate.

>>14759968
Differences of opinion is just how /tg/ rolls. You want to see real conflict? Go read Doppelganger Damacy. Especially the later threads.

>>14761373
I completely agree, 100% all the way until sunday.

>>14762001
I wish that would come back.

>>14761373
the problem with writequest: the bookening is probably that Vedi want's his fun too

also and IRC would probably be a good thing, it helped with Dragon Quest to keep white knighting and waifuing away (mostly at least)

>>14766376
It also meant that the Dragon Quest threads became a lot less interesting outside the story posts and that a huge amount of ideas and discussion got relocated to IRC. Heck, sometimes WD ends up incorporating IRC ideas into his posts when there was no hint of them in the thread beforehand, which is rather disconcerting for anyone not in IRC at the time or reading the threads when archived. I'm generally opposed on those grounds; the thread is the place where ideas should be, questions should be answered, and everything should move forward.

And if Vedibere is only writing half the time, well... we do have a whole bunch of plots. If he wants to write more, he could definitely move things forward in parallel with one another, or just do some preparatory writings for the next time our attention is drawn to whatever. For example, right now we're focused on the heroes- but he KNOWS we're going to look at Palal getting the orb, trying to escape with it, and getting it stolen. It's unlikely that we'll take any significant action at least during the early stages of those events, meaning that any alteration to a prewritten post would be minor. It could speed things up a fair bit while still allowing time for discussion.

>>14766476
Looked to me like it helped a ton. Less interesting? More like fewer people being complete morons and 200 post flamewars.

Created a channel on IRCHighway. #OmniQuest

Currently writing, pop in if you have anything to add or just want to chat or whatever.

>>14766476
>Heck, sometimes WD ends up incorporating IRC ideas into his posts when there was no hint of them in the thread beforehand
yeah, that is unfortunate and during the early IRC days we would make a post that summed up what we had been discussing in IRC but that sort of fell out of use as time went on for some reason, we should really do our best to keep up that practice.
but in the end it becomes a pro/con situation with no perfect solution.

The dust layering the arrival platform of your newly made demiplane swirls, lifted by arcane energies. A bright flash and energy forms, coalescing into a womanly shape and, eventually the Lady Tissa Voldire, Paladin-Errant of Loris. She floats lightly to the ground and touches down, hand on the pommel of her sword even as she scans the area.

The argument had been brief. Both twins wanted to go, claiming the ring was theirs they had ‘found it’ and therefore got to ‘keep it’. Yet there was only one ring and neither wanted to leave the other behind, eventually settling for looting rights later after Tissa gave her word of honor to take nothing but potential cures. The wizard Quorin was rather excited about the prospect of the mage’s lab as well but far too cowardly to venture in alone, settling instead for setting up a way to trace the one who went through and (hopefully) transport the others there afterward.

And so she stands, solitary upon a platform hanging over a vast nothingness, a lone walkway leading to a vast edifice the size of cities. “Hello? Is there anyone here?” she calls, voice echoing unnaturally in what should be a vast open space. Receiving no reply, she begins cautiously walking forward. All around lie worrying signs... stone along the edges of the pathway beginning to crumble into bits of light, the sparkling shards falling into blackness. Once-beautiful tiled murals in the center of the walkway cracking and splitting, the stone beneath them having shifted or given way. Even the omnipresent ambient light occasionally flickering and shifting, always returning yet betraying that it may not.

Finally, she stands upon the main platform, a vast floating disc hanging in space as well... though its edges are grey and blurry in her sight, perhaps dozens of miles away. Suddenly, to her left a grand statue comes crashing down, shattering vast granite flagstones as it impacts and sending razor-sharp spears of rock scything in a ring around it. Tissa is unharmed thanks to her bracer, but shaken. There is doubtless not much time left.

The paladin breaks into a run, sheathing herself in the blazing white armor and looking like nothing so much as a being of purest white flame as she jogs through the vast open areas, heading for the central structure. Traps and defenses fire all around her, occasionally lifting her into the air and forcing her to regain her feet before continuing, but she takes no real notice. That is, until her pace begins to slow near the great double doors leading into the main hall. Tissa slows, staggers, and suddenly draws her sword, looking around. A stumbling step, an attempt to cry out, and she collapses to the smooth stone below her, the blazing armor fading away from her form.

A minute later a soft “woosh” is heard as the air floods back into the area and your mother-pawn hesitantly opens the door to look out. Seeing the paladin, she is immediately taken aback and has her teenage son aid her in moving the divine knight inside. They carry her to a sort of makeshift bed in the wizard’s lab and, after a few minutes debating what to do, eventually decide to give her a dose of the cure-all.

A small glowing pink vial is brought out and uncorked, but as it is held to Tissa’s lips by the mother a cataclysmic detonation is heard in the distance and the entire plane shakes violently, causing the children to cry out and the cure-all to nearly spill. After a minute it subsides and all present look at each other sheepishly. “Is everyone alright?” the mother asks, and after the kids nod (and the baby wails) she once again places the vial to Tissa’s lips, trickling a few small drops into her mouth.

There is a long moment of silence as the potion begins to take effect, but eventually Tissa’s eyes flutter open and she sits up with a groan, freezing as she sees the emaciated bunch around her. “H-hello.” she says, smiling weakly. “I must presume I hast the lot of you to thank for mine rescue?”

“She talks funny, mommy.” says the five year old girl, quickly shushed by the mother. “Yes, stranger. I’m sorry that you were attacked by the traps of this place, but we could not reach you in time. Did Olal send you? I... don’t think this place will last much longer.” she finishes nervously.

Tissa only shakes her head, “I am afraid not, ‘twas my own quest that led me here... I search for a cure for a disease that Archlord Maris created, and have come in search of it. Do you know of any such?”

The woman licks her lips nervously and nods, “Yes... we... have been using it to survive. We ran out of food six months ago and, while it keeps us alive and healthy, it doesn’t... fill our bellies. Olaf brought us here to keep us safe from the rebellions but hasn’t come back, something has...” She glances to the children and leans closer, “Something has happened to him, hasn’t it?” she finishes sadly.

Tissa swings her armored legs over the side of the cot and stands, taking the woman side and nodding slowly, “I am afraid it is as you fear.” The woman covers her mouth and sobs softly, tears glittering in her eyes, before the white-clad paladin continues, “What is your name child, I would ask that you speak to me of your plight.”

The dark orange robed woman collects herself and nods, “I am Houra Maris, registered concubine of Archlord Olaf Maris. And our children, of course. We’ve been trapped here for nearly a year and this place has slowly been coming undone... I was afraid even before that it was because Olaf was dead, but now, well,” she shakes her head, “I know of no-one who could stop it. Even the other Archlords would be powerless if they still live, as it is warded against intrusion by any others.”

Tissa listens to the story solemnly and eventually nods grimly, “I shall do all that I may to see you well and free of this place ‘ere it fails, but though it pains me to do so I must beg of you a vial of this substance, that I may save the life of a great man.”

Houra reaches into her pocket and produces the glowing pink vial, “Here it is, please hurry, the more it decays the faster it does so.” With a nod Tissa takes it and places it in one of the satchels around her belt, quickly moving on to take stock of all the children and herd both they and their mother back to the transport platform. Outside, the inky blackness above has given way to darkly shifting purples and greens jaggedly shining through on occasion, foretelling the collapse of this reality and the soon-to-be demise of this plane. Promising a swift return, Tissa removes the ring and shifts back into the real world, being immediately verbally pounced upon by the twins asking for details.

As she explains all three of her companions grow silent. “I don’t have nearly the power to breach a demiplane like that, Lady.” says Quorin reservedly, “At best I can go over and try to work out some of the methods already in place to shift between the two, but I honestly doubt my chances of success.”

“What will happen if we can’t get them out?” Tissa responds, but the wizard shakes his head, “I don’t know. At a guess... ripped apart along with the plane, probably slowly, as reality twisted them apart. I doubt it would be pleasant.”

“Try to save them, then.” replies the valiant paladin, “Their lives are in your hands.” Quorin nods and takes the ring, donning it and immediately being whisked away to the demiplane.

“Hey, do you think there will be time for us to go over there and look around? We can’t get those people back but I bet there is some awesome stuff!” asks Lann expectantly, accompanied by Liss’s eager nod. Tissa merely heaves a sigh and shakes her head, leaving the twins downcast and disappointed.

And of course archived thread history is here.
>>14757211

>wat do?

In case you were waiting on me.

Oh yea, more Omnipotence quest! Happy bumb before offering a pair of cents

follow the wizard

Previusly mentioned two cents. The main reason for Laressa's succsess and us favoring her is, in my oppinion, her ability to drive her own plot so to speak. She doesnt need us to guide her to do task A at point B and I believe we must try to have the Heroes do the same, them having a final goal to work for and acually drive that themselves, easier said then done ofcourse.

Especially since the twins dont care for anything other then enjoying the current moment and our paladin being such a model of proper ethics. I do however believe that we can influence them to something very interesting and all we would need to do is a short chat, with the good goddes Tissa worships.
If we can covince the goddes that something very vague needs doing and that Tissa is just the right one to do it, I belive we have a very interesting story ahead.

>>14766983
Should we create a few other teleportation rings scattered about?

Also- we should give the wizard some time to shine in this case. His character needs development, and saving (or damning) an entire demiplane filled with women and children would be a good way to do that

>>14766983
All right, time for phase two of our demiplane adventure: Wizardly Wildness!

(Okay, that was terrible. Not sure where it came from; my apologies.)

Obviously, the demiplane has a crap-ton of research and various magical labs and such on it. It honestly is pretty sparse on the kind of loot that the twins would want even if they went there; almost all its substantial wealth is in the form of either art (which is ridiculously extravagant, as noted, but largely crumbling with the plane it's on except for a few small pieces which were brought there from the material) or lab equipment and research notes (not their thing). Those few magical items which they would actually want are likely to be claimed by Houra and her children already, and while she might give them up in gratitude for being saved at least one of her kids is likely to feel like that's their father's legacy being stolen by someone who doesn't give a shit about them and object/hate forever if it happens.

Anyway. Quorin will find that the family has a very good idea of where everything is, and if he talks to them while trying to figure things out will quickly find that the oldest son, at least, has a very good grasp of magical mechanics, notably including demiplanar ones- he's been trying to understand his father's research in order to escape, but hasn't come up with anything workable yet. Fortunately, with that kind of background knowledge and intimate awareness of the demiplane's particulars, it should be possible to re-purpose some of the lab equipment given... oh, a week of work on his part, after he figures out exactly what needs to be done.

>>14767312
>If we can convince the goddess that something very vague needs doing
that could be fun.

>>14767362
The demiplane tears itself apart in eleven days. Better work fast.

The more time that he doesn't spend working, of course, the more he can take advantage of the time to look through all those brilliant/crazy research notes. Enough time spent on that rather than the rescue will really piss off the family, of course, and if he's obviously callous eventually they'll use the plane's defensive systems to try and kill him and somehow steal the ring so that at least one of them can live. Taking all the notes and not respecting their right to Olaf's work will also cause some serious dislike.

When the plane collapses, the ring used to access it will suffer serious feedback. If no one is in the plane at the time, this will be purely magical and it will just explode, destroying any bags of holding it's in and everything else inside them and probably hurting someone in a minor fashion. If anyone is still there, though, they'll get twisted up into its collapse and their souls will be used as mortar to hold the ring together, turning it into a macabre half-shattered artifact glowing with the tortured energy of their spirits, and allowing the person wearing the ring to summon them as ghost minions. Also they're in horrible agony forever and will beg to die, but just smashing the ring will end very badly with a destructive release of pressurized magical energy.

But hey, that might not happen. Just preparing contingencies.

we have like- a thousand kids and three hundred or so women, in this place, right?

Where are they?

>>14767397

They are not, we unmade them

>>14767362
We should have at least one other member of the group be able to follow him. Going one after the other will be tedious, and I don't want the rest to just sit on their hands, twiddling their thumbs

>>14767397
Uh, no? Just the "mom" and her "kids."

>>14767422
>>14767410
Oh.
._.

>>14767397
We took the best and unmade the rest.

>>14767448
Who cares about some mortals? Right now we are about to see baby-wizards first steps so to speak. Our first view of just what quality they gave our heroes. Watch the wizards work unless it gets boring, if it does. I'd once again reccomend a divine parler

>>14767415
How are you thinking that we would make more than one person able to access the plane without also allowing them a path to escape? I'm not objecting to the concept of letting multiple heroes into the plane, just wondering how you figure we'd work it.

>>14767483
Finding more rings?

There has to be some logical way the Mage managed to get more people in here.

Wizard could possibly reverse engineer a spell that would expand the number of people capable of being ported out. Shouldn't allow that to reach more then two others max.

>>14767590
As the demiplane's creator, Olaf could move others in and out freely. But people getting in through other means would be something he wouldn't want, thus the limited access key.

Maybe we could let them use some sort of method which would let more people onto the demiplane, but not back out- so they can get everyone in there if they wish, but by doing so they'll be going all in on their bet that they'll be able to create an escape route.

>>14767645
We could make it so that the teleporting ring has further functions if a person 'blood related' to the archmage is using it. That way if the paladin decides to stay behind to let someone else get out, one of our heroes won't get stuck behind.

You transition back to the demiplane alongside Quorin, eager to assess the competency of the latest addition to your hero group. He materializes and slowly floats down to the waiting, expectant group. “Ah, hello.”

“Hi!” responds the eleven year old daughter, all smiles, “You are going to let us go home now right?”

“Uh, well, that’s what I’m trying to do. Madame, do you remember how you got here?” he defers, looking toward the older woman. As he does so he crouches down and begins studying the runes ringing the arrival platform, keeping a worried eye to the shifting cracks in the darkness around them.

“Well, Olal brought us here with magic.” she says nervously, “I... don’t know much more than that. Sorry.”

The sixteen year old boy, the eldest, speaks up however, “I... think he used some kind of bifurcated transfer set.” The wizard looks over in surprise, raising his eyebrows, “You’ve studied magic?”

The boy gives a noncommittal shrug, “A little, da’ was always teaching us and I’ve been trying to get out of here for the past year. He was a lot better than me, though.”

“I see. Well, that’s good, thank you. If you remember anything else then please, let me know.” At that the wizard turns back to the runes and quickly begins waving his hands back and forth, contorting his fingers into complex patterns that leave trails and afterimages in the air, and muttering arcane syllables that cause his eyes and mouth to flare with power.

As he does so you swoop around him, analyzing his magical patterns and skill, his level of power and competence... not bad, either. Hardly an archmage, but neither is he a novice by any stretch. His patterns and skill are commendable, and his range of learning apparently quite broad; he tests many a remote possible branch of the powerflows or obscure magical theory as he works, showing that he is quite well learned. Overall you would say his greatest limitation is power... skillful and learned he may be, but though his blood and soul sing to the arcane, they do so comparatively softly. Well, fair enough, they did mainly send him as a spy, after all, and you wouldn’t expect an archmage to deign to stoop so low as hobknobbing with common adventurers. It’s not as if you expect every mage to be a, well, /you/ anyway.

Eventually his work finishes, and he gives a weak smile to the assembled group, “Well, I’ve learned some things. I’m going to have to go confer with my colleagues before we can go any farther, please, uh,” he cringes as he finishes the statement, apparently only becoming aware of the irony at the end, “wait here.”

They nod and he removes the ring, shifting back to the inn and being greeted by an argument between the twins and Tissa; “--on’t care about missing things if they’re dead, though! If we can’t get them out then we might as well save as much of the stuff as we can!” finishes Liss, crossing her arms in a huff and staring down the taller red-haired warrior-priestess.

“No you two,” sighs Tissa, sounding exasperated and frayed already, “dead or not ‘tis not right to plunder that which is not your own from beneath the very noses of the owners, especially when they will soon be joining great Loris in her halls soon enough. I cannot conscience it, and will not have it. You have well been given that which was already not in this plane of his, have you not? Be at ease with that!”

Lann opens his mouth and seems about to jump in to support his sister, but Quorin announces his presence by clearing his throat loudly, and Tissa is visibly relieved. “Ho there, what say you then friend mage? Might we begin work to extract those poor unfortunates?”

In contrast to her hopeful expression and the neutral one he held as he was working, however, his face is dark, “I’m afraid not, Lady Voldire. I spoke to them and looked over the enchantments, and from what I can see... it is beyond my skill. I’m not even positive that the Archlord was the one to originally create the plane, some of the... minor touches and things I saw were... odd. Hints of the... the outer realms. And one of the children was holding a powerful artifact for extraplanar communication.”

Tissa wrinkles her brow in response, her eyes drawing down, “So what does that mean then?” The wizard shakes his head, “I can’t get them out, at least not in any reasonable amount of time. I was hoping for a week at least, but they likely only have eleven, twelve hours left.”

“”See!?”” the twins say in unison, but Tissa shoots them a glare and they subside. “Are you sure there is no hope? Perhaps the artifact you spoke of?” she says softly, her eyes brimming with soft emotions and pity, only to be denied by the cold refusal of the mage. “None. I am truly sorry. Whatever hand created it, be it the Archlord or ‘outer god associates’ of his, it is beyond my skill to fathom much less undo. And I cannot conscience risking my sanity peering beyond to whatever that thing might show.”

A heavy silence falls over the room, eventually broken by the sorrowful paladin herself, “Very well. Give me the ring, I will... do what must be done, to spare them the suffering of their end.”

“Can we--” “No!” Liss begins, cut off sharply by Tissa. “No. These people are doomed, and I will not let you despoil their graves.” The teenage girl huffs, pouting, and grabs her brother’s hand, “Fine, whatever, see if we let you use our stuff next time. Come on Lann.” The boy is dragged out of the room, looking somewhat apologetic but unwilling to take sides against his sister, even as Tissa dons the ring and begins dematerializing once more.

>wat do?

>>14768051
.... Hey! Eleven days not eleven hours! You could do it if you put your mind to it!

>>14768069
Sorry, eleven days is just way too long with the amount of decay I had already described. Shit was going to hell in a handbasket within the hour originally, you shored it up as much as you could but without being obvious and going in to change things bigtime there were limits to what you could do.

You could still save them, sure, but it would be obvious /something/ happened to change how things were going.

>>14768069
Yeah, I'm not sure why he's being so pessimistic... maybe he just lacks the actual heroic impulse, to take the kind of risks that heroes generally take.

>>14768101
What?

Collapsing statues and flickering lights and what not ?

Shit, Rapture had that same amount of damage and lasted more then twenty years.

>>14768106
That's possible, he was ordered to join anyway. I think he's probably more like a soldier following orders rather than a hero out to risk everything to save people.

>>14768101
I figured that things were going to hell, but the demiplane was so huge that even with drastic levels of decay all over the place there would be plenty of time for things to happen before the big boom. Sure, things would get very, very ugly before the plane actually goes, but it wouldn't be impossible for someone brave and competent. Statues crumbling and exploding would be only the early stages of decay; after everything falls apart and most of the surroundings begins to fade into a featureless grayness you get early holes in existence and magical pulses, and only after a long and visibly dramatic buildup does everything blow.

The fact that the heroes just happen to arrive with less than a day to spare when it's been a year or more of relatively safety thus far strikes me as silly. Also wasting the potential for all heroic efforts to save the family and potentially interesting aftereffects.

>>14768101
alright, outer realms? Ah- lets say shifting eldritch horrors begin to appear, worming their way in through the cracks of reality and begin leaching power away from it, speeding the collapse. They want to use the Demiplane as a breach head into the material realms, and shore up the dimension as they destroy it, forcing it into a smaller and smaller area of space. If not stopped they'll use the contained energy to rip a whole straight to the outer realms into the material world.

>>14768173
that way we have a way for it to continue to be stabilized, and add action for the twins and the pally to smash at.

>>14768155
>The fact that the heroes just happen to arrive with less than a day to spare when it's been a year or more of relatively safety thus far strikes me as silly. Also wasting the potential for all heroic efforts to save the family and potentially interesting aftereffects.

Kinda sucks, but oh well. Do something about it? Don't? Whatever.

>>14768101
what? We made the thing, we should have the power to draw out it's eventual destruction.

Shit- this would be a pretty lame end of an awesome set piece.
If I was a DM I'd put this episode as "Huge Freaking Waste- the adventure."

>>14768190
>>14768173
While that could work, how do you propose the family survives long enough for the far realm horrors to modify the magic of the demiplane enough to allow travel by multiple beings?

>>14768207
You're complaining about... what exactly? I already said twice that you could. Without some sort of plan though I'm just going to write it as "snap suddenly everything's fine again for no apparent reason, totally not suspicious at all" if you choose that. Or you could choose to make some sort of plan, either is fine with me really. You could also let it blow, I guess, which was actually the original plan and why it was on such a short fuse. It was meant to test Tissa's morals and be coming down around them as they left, or did you forget that far back?

>>14768199
>Kinda sucks, but oh well.
I blame you for that suckage 100%. Yes, I know you don't care.

>>14768173
Having outer beings start to wriggle into the demiplane is certainly one way to run this. It's not like the family is going to roll over and die easily, whatever Tissa says about suffering; they'll wait until something they can't stop kills them, or they wouldn't have been stubbornly ensuring maddening starvation for months already.

So since Tissa is ultimately going to have to exchange a few words and abandon them, we can have outer beings- or our facsimile of them- start coming in as she's there, just a little at first but growing larger. After she's gone but before it blows, a big one shows up to the kid with the artifact and offers him a path out- an earlier bargain by his father compels aid to be given to the artifact's user. The rest of the family is screwed, and suffers the fate outlined in >>14767381, but the kid can escape into the far realm and we can power him up as a recurring crazy mage villain powered by loss and loathing for the ones who didn't even try to save his family, just looked and then said it was too hard.

>>14768248
>It was meant to test Tissa's morals and be coming down around them as they left, or did you forget that far back?
I would have hoped that the concubine would have only given up the cure to Tissa if she swore to get them out, or even said that she wouldn't give it to her until after her children were safe. That would have forced Tissa to either try for a long-shot bit of extra heroism or rob a helpless woman who was only trying to protect her children, which is an actual moral dilemma instead of "Glad that worked out for me but I guess they're screwed! How sad for them."

We didn't make the mother cautious and protective enough of her kids, I guess. She was far too willing to trust in a stranger who promptly abandoned them all to their death instead of seeking guarantees.

>>14768256
>I blame you for that suckage 100%. Yes, I know you don't care.
See:
>>14768248
It's the fault of 4chan ADD, not me. For instance, remember:
>>14758422
>>14758447

>>14768213
Well they aren't really outer realm horros. It'll just be us pulling tentacle shaped puppets while we slow the degradation.

As for keeping the family alive- ah. Hmm. Well, we could have the egghead say that the wizard is wrong, and that the Realm is repairing itself- slowly, but not well enough for it to matter, and point toward how one of the columns is different from the others, say, all warped and sweating organic like

And then the column attacks!

>>14768300
there's a difference between us not being specific and you actively messing with our plans. Artificially increasing the rate of degradation is deliberate fucking around

Okay, when Tiss arrives back in the demiplane have a bit of crumbling column disappear in light- and then when the light fades be replaced by a black counterpart covered in see through ooze.... slowly expanding and contracting.... almost like it's breathing

>>14768324
Better: Have the kid bring something that 'could help' to Quorin's attention. Something that could slow the decay of the demiplane, but at a cost - I was going to say "drawn from an item or from a person", but the twins are loaded down with magical crap.

Actually, that might work - making the twins face at least some ethical dilemma in terms of saving people versus keeping all their shit.

This is only the bones of an idea; a few possible ways for the heroes to evacuate the trapped victims should be possible, even if they have to come from research notes brought to the wizard's attention.

>>14768364
The first time any timelimit was mentioned was already after I had decided on about 3 hours before the place came apart at the seams and reflected that in the writing. If you want to change that then do something about it, you're /fucking omnipotent/, but if you had some sort of timeline in mind you should have mentioned it when first inventing the plan.

>>14768395
Certainly, the family should be throwing every possibility they can think of at any chance of escape. If Tissa tells them they're screwed, their initial reaction should definitely be "No, we're not! Are you not willing to even try to save us!?" or something to that effect. I mean, really, leaving them after thirty seconds of analysis is a dirty thing to do.

Extra planar eh?

How about having the 'extra planar' barriers weakening before the whole thing collapses.
Maybe let in some monsters for 'other realms'.
Accelerated disintegration of the realm.
Maybe have the human occupants (being the ones that are actually affiliated with this world) half materialize in the real world (ghostly images and the sort)

maybe the mage will pick up that it is weakening and try again to pull them back.
If he does attempt it, we get to see what he is truly made of in a pinch, If not, then no loss.

If for some funny reason, Tissa stays back to fight, the ring pulls her out right before full destruction of the plane.

Self preservation spell and wat not.

Just want to see what he is truly made of.

>>14768395
>>14768411
That's very good!

Should we scrap the tentacles then?

If not we could always combine them, say the devices power... fluctations attracting slimey attention

>>14768057
“Can we--” “No!” Liss begins, cut off sharply by Tissa. “No. These people are doomed, and I will not let you despoil their graves.”

...uh, guys? I think we have a problem with our big plans for our heroes here.

Also,

“Very well. Give me the ring, I will... do what must be done, to spare them the suffering of their end.”

That doesn't sound ominous or anything, now does it?

>>14768527
>>14768556
Maybe we should take a look at the scriptures and teachings of Loris?

>>14768556
Probably just going to kill them to spare them the horror of being torn apart molecule by molecule when the plane breaks.

So what do?

>>14768841
Ah, the machine powered by magical artifacts sounds like a good idea

>>14768841
Initiate Writequest: The Bookening. We've thrown out a dozen ideas and opinions, pick one that ends up with something interesting- personally I like the idea of aiming to make a recurring villain out of the kid and having them say things to Tissa before dying that will leave her plagued by guilt over her failure, but I'm not incredibly insistent on it- and write until it's done. Hopefully by next post something will have become more interesting than annoying.

>>14768440
Well, i suggested my stuff here.

As I read up, I see similar ones there, but I'm not too keen on having some extra planar beings actually using this realm as a doorway.

It does give them a problem, but it presents a much larger issue that they might not be able to handle, and if they can, it's likely to keep them occupied for a long time depending on the number and strength of the beings.

I would still support it if push comes to shove, but I think it needs some work.

>>14768916
I lol'd. Fair enough, Writequest: The Bookening it is. Wish you guys could agree on something, but ah well.

>>14768994
Haha

But really, I've been waiting for the update for hours now. I didn't read the suggestions, nor did I leave my own .... I just like reading your quest.

I suggest just taking the route that has at least vague nation of a consensus.

>>14768994
Once again, you think we're bad? Go read Doppelganger Damacy. Conflict was so bad in some of those threads it devolved into flamewars. Still managed to be one of the highest rated quests in the archives though.

>>14769247
Yeah, most of what's happening here isn't really disagreement so much as discussion of options. There isn't even much "no, don't do that, terrible idea" going on. And some of our plans are pretty decent, there's just not a lot of seconding and building on each others' concepts.

>>14769281
because no on wants to read the other posts

bump

>>14769386
I read the posts.

“She’s back!” the eleven year old girl cries with a smile, pointing at the gradually materializing paladin. Tissa smiles and pats the girl on the head as she passes, making her way over to Houra. “Greetings, Lady Houra. How fare thee since I last was here?”

The dark brown haired woman smiles, standing and tucking herself away from where she was nursing the infant and hoisting the child onto her shoulder. “Well enough, Lady. The man who was here before did not say much, what news have you?”

The paladin gives a sad smile, her soft green eyes falling on the woman, “There is only one way to free you from this place that I know of, but first I must ask you truly: This is the complete cure-all that your master created, is it not? This place is disintigrating we can not stop that, so I must be sure before it is swept away.”

Houra nods, shifting the baby to her left shoulder and patting it on the back softly, “Yes, a few drops of it is enough to completely restore you -- or anyone really. Olal had just finished the final product before the rebellion struck, rest his soul.”

Tissa nods and smiles, “Very well. I don’t see your son here, so if you would be so good as to gather him we can begin with final preparations.” Houra nods and turns, flicking her wrist and catching one of several golden rods hanging from a bracelet, then closing her eyes. A few seconds later she opens them and smiles. “He is on his way, Lady... I don’t believe I ever asked your name?”

“I am Lady Tissa Voldire, Paladin-Errant of Loris in service to the Divine Moltivan Conclave.” the white-armored and clad woman responds, cooly assessing the surroundings. “Might I ask you to gather all your children here on the platform? It will make things easier for us both, I think.”

Houra nods, and Tissa squats down next to the six year old girl, who shies away slightly until the paladin smiles, “Hello, I’m Tissa. What is your name?”

“I’m Nina.” the girl responds, giggling, and Tissa smiles, “Hello Nina. Might you tell me the names of your brothers and sisters?”

“Uh-huh. There’s Kaleb, Sara, me, and little Tim. And mommy. You talk funny.” the child responds innocently. Tissa nods in response, “Yes, it is such that I have heard. I come from a place that resides far away, and we speak in a form most unlike that which you use at times. Thank you for speaking with me little one, but I think your mother is waiting.” At that Tissa pats the girl on the head and the six year old turns and hurries over to her mother’s embrace, sitting down next to her. Just in time, as her brother Kaleb has finally arrived.

“Did you find a way out?” he asks expectantly, and Tissa nods, “Yes, I have come to release you from this place. Go sit with your mother, if you would.” He furrows his brow but nods, walking over and sitting beside his ‘siblings’ and erstwhile mother as Tissa turns to face them. “Well, what now?”

The paladin stands silent in front of the sole walkway back to the grand laboratory, her head bowed slightly and eyes closed. Slowly, she lifts her chin and opens them. Hard. Unyielding. Reaching to her side, she draws forth her long blade in a smooth motion, it beginning to glow white even as she pulls it free. Hanging at her side, white flames begin to run along the edge and snap across it, eventually stoking into a bright golden-white blaze over the steel.

“Now, I do my duty. Be at ease and do not struggle, for Loris will gather you into her arms and shine her glory upon you forever.”

Her voice is as cold as her icy green eyes as she steps forward, flicking her left arm and sheathing herself in the invincible blazing white armor her bracer provides.

“NOOOO!!” Houra screams, leaping up as fast as she can while holding a child. “Run! Run everyone! Quickly!” she cries, attempting to follow her own advice and run around the edge of the platform even as the girls begin wailing and Kaleb starts muttering dark arcane words. She is not fast enough to outrun Tissa, a trained warrior, at the best of times however... and blocked in as she is and carrying a child, she has no chance. The paladin’s blade scythes down, precisely removing her head from her shoulders and ending the infant at the same time.

As Houra’s body falls, Tissa turns and is met with a blast of shadowy fire from the young Kaleb, engulfing her and charring the stone beneath her feet. Wreathed in alternating flames of black, white, and gold, she nods and speaks, her voice taking on a resonant and ghostly tone amidst the crackling flames and her blazing armor, “You have done well defending your family, and now your suffering is at an end. Know the goddess will welcome you at her side.”

Before her words fall from the air, however, she is already halfway across the platform, a blur of highly trained and divinely-powered speed. Kaleb’s eyes go wide and he falters back, bringing up his hand in a warding gesture only to have them instantly severed. His knees fail, and looking down he finds himself supported only by the blade projecting from his chest, pulled free a moment later.

The paladin turns one last time, this time to the two girls huddling together, “N-no! Lady Tissa please! Mommy said you would save us! Please, why did you hurt mommy?!”

Her advance does not slow, however, even as she cooly responds, “Do not worry child, your mother does not hurt any longer, and you will join her now.” A swift downward swing and twisting thrust, two cries, and then silence save for the soft ambient hissing of Lady Voldire’s white armor.

Three hours later the paladin’s prayers are complete, she raises her head before the corpses placed together at the center of the platform. Hands folded, eyes closed, and arranged next to each other as best as she was able to, Tissa rises and speaks a few last words before sprinkling some holy incense over the bodies and replacing it within her belt. Satisfied, she removes the ring and once more shifts back into reality, startling Quorin who sits at a desk reading his recently gained spellbook.

“So what happened, Lady?” he asks, his eyes curious. The paladin simply shakes her head and gives a soft smile, “I brought them the peace of Loris, that they might suffer no more. Such things must be done at times, and I am the blade of the goddess.” She holds up the pink vial in her possession and smiles again, all traces of sadness leaving her features, “My quest is now complete, and they have saved an entire country with their sacrifice. I will be traveling back to my homeland now, do you still desire to accompany us?”

The wizard shrugs and scratches the side of his nose, “Sure. I’ve never seen Moltiva anyway. Might as well start now.” The paladin nods happily, “I would welcome your presence then, long journeys are better with companions.” Abruptly she stops and sighs, bringing her hand to her brow before holding out the ring to the mage. “And I would ask that you destroy or get rid of this, I feel that it will... not long stay in my possession, even were I to sleep with it.”

The mage nods and takes the item, wishing the paladin good night before teleporting into the ocean around Kaza and returning to his book. Tissa, for her part, returns to her room and readies herself for bed, climbing in and reading for an hour as is her custom before extinguishing the candle and quickly falling into a sound sleep.

Shifting a bit, you look in on the twins... only to find Lann loading up equipment for both himself and his sister as Liss stands at the wall, her ear pressed against a small flat disc of runed brass she holds to the wall. A few minutes of this and she removes it, walking back over to her brother, “Yeah, she’s asleep now and Quorin is reading. Ready?”

“You know it sis, get a trace?” Lann replies, and Liss displays a devil’s grin, “Three miles out into the bay, sitting on the bottom. Let’s go, the old coot only said we had eleven or twelve hours and she took /forever/.”

With that Liss begins scooping up her gear and creeping toward the window, followed closely by her brother.

>>14769628
I assume this is a what do. Since only one of them can enter, I wonder if we should interact with whichever twin goes through in another form. See if we can manipulate them to try to work with the paladin more or not go behind her back so much although I'm not entirely sure how we'd do that just yet.

>>14769628

Oh god

>>14769679
Yes, this is Wat Do?

Also, I commented in IRC because someone asked so I figured I might as well say it here too: I've said a lot this is not D&D, and that remains true.

For anyone who is looking at Tissa as "Oh look female paladin of the goddess of justice, loyalty, and fellowship! Whee! What a nice person!" You might want to look at her, instead, as more of a magical female Judge Dredd in platemail. In her nation she was the law, though she clearly has to be more prudent in other places and outside of Moltiva her law only extends as far as the radius of her sword.

Which by no means is to say she isn't nice. But as you can clearly see from above, she isn't going to lose any sleep over something like this.

>>14769679
Might be worth considering. Try to teach them to listen to her words a little more perhaps? Appear as a guardian as some kind protecting things left over now that the apparent kin of the Archlord is dead perhaps.

>>14769778
While I don't necessarily object to making that her character, I would appreciate having known this earlier. When you use the world "paladin", it carries connotations that clearly do not apply here and having that made clear could easily have affected our actions- for example, setting up moral dilemmas when we know that "kill everyone suffering and Loris will love their souls" is considered a standard response.

Also, her logic here is really bizarre. Someone is going to die, so she kills them? How is it any better for someone to die on her sword before they otherwise would have than to die of other causes later? She has no evidence that their deaths would even have been particularly painful.

>>14769628
I say we make the demiplane collapse faster than the wizard thought it could, catching a twin inside with the soul-torture-ring as outlined earlier. The heroes are boring me at this point and I'm inclined to start really fucking with them.

We should have everybody light weasels on fire and juggle them!

>>14769916
If we're going to kill a twin, we should tie the death directly to Laressa's regime. Or hell, we get one mind slaved by her and the other one is more than likely to seek revenge.

>>14769916
Personally I think we should be interacting with them more directly in some manner. They obviously need a guide type person to direct them rather than let them do as they will. Maybe we have the cure all the paladin grabbed disappear once the demiplane stops existing and then appear to them saying we're someone who knew the Archlord and be pissed at them for fucking up the demiplane and that their meddling caused it to fall apart quicker? From there we could potentially guide them to something new.

>>14769916
>Not a paladin
Tissa is very much a paladin. She would gladly fight to the death to defend innocents without any hesitation, is tolerant of others, and an upstanding person.

>Moral dilemma
Uh, it did exactly what you wanted: Let you see how she reacted in such a situation. She killed them quickly rather than let them suffer horribly as their body and souls were torn apart.

>Bizzaro reaction for no reason
Wut? I'm getting kind of tired of people not reading and then blaming me for their lack of comprehension. See:
>>14768042
>>14768051

>>14770005
>They obviously need a guide type person to direct them rather than let them do as they will.
Why do they need this? Hell, why do they even matter? Why are we bothering with them? Just to give Laressa someone to fight? We can make an endless stream of people for Laressa to fight who are arbitrarily powerful, even completely discounting everyone who will naturally come into conflict with her. Tissa is boring. The twins are cute, but not incredibly interesting as they stand; cause them pain and they might twist into something with drive.

Let's abandon the concept of making them into great heroes, and just poke them until they prove regularly entertaining instead of a pain in the ass.

>>14770040
I thought initially we were going to craft villains and heroes that weren't just faceless mooks, eventually pit them against each other and see who came out on top?

If this quest has turned from that to only caring about Laressa, we shouldn't even bother focusing on the heroes. Additionally, the only reason they're boring is because all we do is observe them now and then and let them do whatever the hell they want. Kind of why I think we should interact with them. Laressa is so interesting because we've interacted with her/people related to her and we've learnt about her through that. Not from sitting back and manipulating her without being seen.

>>14770031
>She would gladly fight to the death to defend innocents without any hesitation, is tolerant of others, and an upstanding person.
Those are the criteria for being a righteous good-aligned adventurer of any profession, not for being a paladin. Regardless, I did not say that she wasn't a paladin, I said that the word "paladin" carries implications in common use on /tg/ which do not apply here, and that was not made clear. It's like if you say "elf" people will think you mean D&D elves, and then saying that no, you actually meant something more like an elf from some other fictional setting. Valid, sure. Unusual enough to catch us off guard unnecessarily? Yes.

>>14770082
Or you could just assume less. Your standards are remarkably exacting for something I have claimed repeatedly is a unique setting and most assuredly NOT D&D.

>>14770040

Ehh.. that is no fun though! I sort of agree that the heroes are probably the least interesting of the people we have been grooming. I wonder how we could go about making them interesting.. or shifting things towards a confrontation eventually. They don't even know Laressa exists do they?
Killing a twin and framing Laressa would be grand, as it would give the remaining twin a reason to properly join them.
Perhaps put some kind of evidence against Laressa somewhere in the demiplane for them to find? (maybe make up something about her poisoning Tissas master?)

Meh

why not use her King to send her on quests. That was her personal quest and now she has completed it we can use the King to send her on quests with the Twins.

Alright - how's this for an idea on how to keep the twins together with the paladin? Once one of them pops in the demiplane, appear ourselves as some high powered wizard. I imagine whichever twin enters will probably wonder who the hell we are and then we can just prattle on about the paladin, perhaps make it look like we're the reason her king has the sickness and bash up the twin that entered and give her a sickness that is similar. Make it so the twin will die with enough time but not to the point they go bedridden so they can still adventure together. Then we port out and see what Tissa does. Does she cure the twin or leave them to die? Furthermore, it gives them a potential hook to follow. Rough idea but I just wanted to get it out there for opinions.

Whatever we do, we should take advantage of the fact that they will be exploring whats left of that demiplane. I dont recall us putting anything but a few powerful artifacts that probably wont help anyone but the mage. Maybe we should drop something in there to get things rolling again?

>>14770153
Making assumptions is how things move forward. You've said that this isn't D&D, but it would be unreasonable to expect you to list out every single exact difference between the Default Fantasy Setting that is roughly common between all our minds and whatever crazy place exists only in yours. Thus, when you say "archmage", we think of the archmages we know. When you say "elf", we think of the elves we know. When you say "paladin", we think of the paladins we know. These are very much assumptions, and they're generally a good thing because they allow things to move forward smoothly into interesting plot bits without getting bogged down in the minutiae of exactly what everything is.

When something differs from those assumptions, it is YOUR responsibility as GM to inform us of that fact. Merely saying "this is not D&D! Stop assuming things!" isn't a good thing because we have to either ignore it most of the time to keep things moving- because our understanding of your world at all is founded upon myriad assumptions- or accept your words and then be paralyzed by the fact that we can't expect any aspect of the world to act the way we expect it to act. It's practically useless as far as accomplishing anything- which is probably exactly why it doesn't stick when you say it.

>>14770295
stop arguing and enjoy the quest please

Stop arguing with the storyteller imo, remember how we are omnipotent? Rules and assumptions matter not. If we felt like it we could probably make elves look like orcs.
I dont know about you, but I would think the best part of being omnipotent is being able to do absolutely whatever you want forever. Pointless arguing with the DM is probably something we got bored of doing 3 destroyed universes ago. Lets try something new.

>>14770239
To flesh this out a little bit more, I figure this will make Tissa decide on if she will save the people she's travelled with now and then continue her quest for a new cure or will she ignore them for her country. If we do appear, we can pretend to be an assassin or someone manipulating things behind the scenes to cause a war or just chaos and it gives them something to hunt down in the long run and we can guide them to whoever we want them to fight. And if Tissa does use the cure on the twins, we can make up some cure in a new city or plant a means of making them believe them believe we (As the person who poisoned one of the twins) has an antidote to the king's sickness. Hell, we could tell the twin that comes in to deliver a message to Tissa as a challenge if we wanted.

>>14770295
She's still a paladin by the way. XD

>>14770339
>>14770313
I'm not arguing, I'm discussing. Hell, I'm not even annoyed about the paladin bit; misunderstandings happen. When they do, you clear them up and subsequently take steps to avoid having them happen again, which is exactly what I'm attempting.

I enjoy the quest quite a bit, and Vedibere does a very good job with his writings, but everything has room for improvement. And, as every good GM is constantly looking for ways to better his style, I trust that criticism which is intended in a constructive manner will be accepted that way.

>>14770367
...yes? You said that already and it was accepted. Where are you going with this?

I don't think anyone, least of all me, is arguing that she's not, or anything silly like that she should fall, or even that her actions were anything other than strictly moral from her relative perspective. My only objection to the situation was on the grounds of your setting's details being communicated poorly, because as I said, everything is the Default Fantasy Setting in our heads until you explain how things are different from that. We cannot be reasonably expected to anticipate any given thing being different from the norm.

>>14770422
I think Vedi just trolled you, son...

Eh, I quit. It was a nice run, but really this is just too much effort and not enough pay off

>>14770482
Huh, and here I thought that was my line....

So I guess we have consensus that whatever happens it will happen AFTER the twins (or one of them) go to the demiplane?

>>14770613
Me, by the way, lost the trip.

>>14770613
Yeeeeeeeep

>>14769628
Well, we have a decision to make. Do we want to try and keep the twins and Tissa together, or split up the band? Because right now, it's looking like Tissa's going to part ways, head back with this cure, and then do whatever back home. Autoflagellation to get the memories of slaughtering children out of her head. Something. And the twins are in it for the adventure, not to be heroes; they're anti-heroes, if anything, survivors.

So. If we want the split, I say we sit in the demiplane, wait for the first twin, pull in the second, and give 'em an offer like we gave Laressa. Be interesting, or be a matching set of young, pretty corpses. Sure, they can tear a swath through a dungeon or a lair, loot the place down to the bare stone - but can they control a nation? Raise an army?

If we want to keep them all together, it's going to be trickier. Do we think Tissa has enough loyalty to the twins to give up a "known" cure in order to save one of their lives? Possibly, but we can't know for sure. We can plan for eventualities, but there's no 100% here.

But that's the choice - let them break up - almost certain to happen - or try and keep them together.

>>14770165
>>14770239
>>14770355
>Killing a twin and framing Laressa would be grand
>Try and force Tissa to choose between one of the twins and her quest
Stupid ideas.

Tissa won't use the cure on one of the twins, she's bound by her oath to return the cure to her church. If the previous events are indicative of anything it's that she'd be more in danger of falling if she willingly broke her oath than if she let one of the twins die due to events that were entirely their fault to begin with.

As for framing Laressa, I doubt our heroes are in no way anyway near capable to take on even Laressa's grunt level guards, let alone her and her inner circle. I say let Tissa finish her quest, then if it doesn't happen naturally we can manipulate her church into declaring a crusade or something.

>>14770823
At this point I think we should split them up and send the twins to Laressa. Everyone seems much more interested in her than half of the heroes. Maybe it's better to just develop villains and see how they operate at this point since interest in the heroes overall is dying it seems.

>>14770785
I say let the group break up, if that's what is going to happen. I don't think your standard D$D style party of adventurers are the kind of heroes that could take Laress down (though they have been somewhat entertaining). That's just not how this setting works. That's not to say we can't keep playing with them, just that we should forget the initial plan for a D&D style story that we had in mind.

Also, making Tissa choose between her king and a twin is stupid. She'll choose her king, as she already told the twins she thought what they wanted to do was wrong..

>>14770613
>>14770630
So yeah. Let the twins do their thing. If it looks like there might be life threatening trouble we may or may not intervene. If the trouble isn't life threatening and one of them winds up injured or crippled? Tough shit for them. Let's just see where things go now that Tissa has what she wants.

We should appear as the other twin to whatever twin goes into the demiplane. Just for general mindfuckery. But make us appear older. Do a reverse-Leia, warning them about something before it happens with a "pre-recorded" message. Then make it happen. Or maybe appear as whatever twin is inside the demiplane to that twin, but missing a limb/eye. Give grave warnings about a revolution, and what happened when they didnt fight. Then lead them to Laressa's country. Have them become revolutionary leaders. Maybe appear as a god?give them powers that only work when they're APART? Say that the gods are displeased with their incestuous ways? Maybe we can get one of them to pull an Oedipus and flip out! Or make the girl pregnant... Nah, they'd just abort. And there is my stream of consciousness idea post. Have fun with it. But I think they would make excellent revolutionary leaders. So, maybe a challenge for Laressa? But we would need YO buff them first... Maybe ive them knowledge of what the orb does, and change it so they can become demigod twins? Or like that one Dr Fate or whatever who was two people (male and female) in one body?

The twin’s journey to the seaside is rapid, and quickly turned into a game. The pair wear capes that allow them to freely glide from rooftop to rooftop, and before they even touch the third structure it has become an impromptu race, complete with speed-boosting items that turn them into blurs and tiny gravity wells or globs of super-sticky webbing to catch the other.

All things must come to an end, however, and so too does the race... Lann inching out Liss by just over half a second. “Hah! I win!” he crows, raising his fists high as they stand on an abandoned stone pier. His sister glides up behind him to catch him in a hug. “Yup, nice one with the weightstone.” She shifts and spins around to the front, face to face now, and gives a little giggling laugh. “But I’m a better swimmer.” With that she shoves Lann into the water head first, his arms flailing through the air as he swears loudly, twisting at the last second to shoot a razor-thin thread of wire from some sort of bracer on his arm to hook around Liss’s waist, pulling her after him with a half-laugh half-shriek.

After a few minutes of dunking each other’s heads into the water and wrestling they each pull out a sort of... flat iron coin, marked with runes, immediately pressing it to the roof of their mouths. It apparently adheres, and, by the way they then dive into the water and begin swimming, allows them to breathe freely as well. Liss does prove to be the better swimmer, but the race only lasts until they draw near the ring this time. Separating briefly, they begin scanning the sea floor with one of the magical detection devices you saw them use during their raids through the Archlord’s various labs earlier in the day.

It is not long before they find it, Liss reaching down to pluck the ring from the sea floor and immediately touching the ring on her left hand, her half of the matched ‘wedding band’ pair she and her brother share. She immediately appears beside Lann, giggling as the small wave of concussive force from her underwater teleport bowls him backward and showing her find after he recovers. He nods and gestures toward his own ring, and she responds likewise before readying her spear and activating the newly found demiplane access.

You transition with her, and she appears almost directly above the corpses of the Maris family. Cursing, she stumbles but flows into a tight frontflip, landing several feet away before looking back with a scowl and kicking a rock at the bodies with a ‘Hmph!’

You begin to consider options as she stands there alone, waiting, but then are surprised as a cracking sound whips rips through the area around the platform, accompanied by Lann appearing with blades drawn. He lands gracefully next to his sister who raises an eyebrow, “What kept you?”

The young man shrugs, “Took a second to charge, like that time we teleported through the wards in the Black District.”

“Oh. Okay. Where to first? They have some stuff on them but we’re going to have to come back here anyway eventually to get out.” she responds, nodding and gesturing to the corpses Tissa left.

“Yeah, let’s hit his main lab, vaults, and bedroom together first. After that we might be able to split up depending on wards and traps. Kay?” Lann responds, and Liss nods in response before hooking her arm through his. “H-hey! Come on, you’re gonna get us killed.” the boy protests halfheartedly, but she smiles and shrugs, “Whatever, if Ms. Goody-Goody was able to walk around here we’ll be fine at least until we get to the end of the bridge. Come on.” And with that she tugs him along, taking the pair’s first steps into the rapidly failing demiplane.

Oh fuck yeah, Omnipotence Quest!

Just popping in for a second before I start reading for some feedback...

Vedi, you're a really fantastic writer and you're doing a great job with the quest, but I've got one small complaint. You really really need to start a new paragraph every time a new character says something. It makes dialogue much more readable.

But, like I said, I'm enjoying the quest a ton. Keep up the good work.

>>14771194
Thanks for the input!

I don't know if you've noticed, but I've been experimenting with my writing style throughout the quest a bit and trying that particular item both ways. Glad to know new-paragraph style is better in your eyes, I'll keep it in mind.

SUDDENLY CHAOS!

Ripping into a demiplane like that is no joke.
You accelerated the destabilization!

Prepare for rapidly deteriorating buildings, crumbling foundations and emissions of unbound magic.
Not to mention the ring rapidly loosing it's power.

>>14771065
So, that's a whole lot of crap in my opinion. But you did make me wonder about something: Given how into each other the twins are, how has Liss avoided pregnancy?

>>14771291
How about no. While that would end the loss thread that is the demi plane, I thought some other people had something a bit more cleaver in mind. Besided they would just take off the ring and have the other port out.

>>14771183
They could have saved everyone, if they'd just taken off the rings. Why didn't they try this when they wanted to go but not split up, before?

Did it even occur to them? Or did they just never consider it?

>>14771183
Oh, fuck. Tissa didn't have to kill the family, with the twins rings they could have ferried them out one at a time.

>>14771313
lose not loss. fuck, foodstuffs has not filled out brain thinking to full power.

>>14771311
There are lots of ways she could have. Sterility (either natural or magically induced), contraceptive herbs, or 'an artifact did it' are just three of them.

I'm tempted to suggest that we manifest as a outer being, I'm thinking 4D creature occupying 3D space, and have a nice little chat with the twins as the demiplane collapses around us.

So what would an outer being want? it would want the ring to remain and if there are people in the plane when it goes out then the ring remains and can act as a anchor for the outer beings.
So let's play Deal with the Devil. we help them to gather anything valuable if they supply a sacrifice to trap in the plane as it is torn apart.

It would also give us a chance to interact with the most interesting pair in the group

>>14771359
Interesting yes, but not for the twins. they would take the deal in a heartbeat and use the place to stockpile equipment and beds. Wink wink nudge nudge

>>14771403
Disregard, I am still suffering from fatigue, need to wait until my mind is back to %100 percent to contribute anything of value to the thread. You may go ahead with that plan if no one else objects.

>>14771319
They're smart and obviously thought of the idea, but why would they take off their "wedding" rings and let someone they didn't even know wear them? That's just silly, those are /their/ rings and special to them.

Yes, that's a little OOC/meta information, but I mean come on. Surely you know them well enough by now to figure that out.

>>14771403
they wouldn't really have access to the demiplane though if I remember the details off the ring correctly.
demiplane disintegrates with no people -> ring explodes
demiplane disintegrates with people -> ring gets twisted into a husk of the people's life force

>>14771440
>>14771359
I...suppose it could work. But we know that they would take the deal without second thoughts; how can we make it interesting?

>>14771476
my intention was to have the talk itself be the interesting bit with the deal just as a reason to begin talking

we could have them question things like why they are following Tissa. get some intraparty conflict going

we could add some worse stuff for them if you prefer, though I don't have any good ideas.

>>14771541
"Why do you follow one so clearly inferior to you? Why do you allow her to command you as a parent commands unruly children? What power does she have over you, that she treats you so poorly and yet you follow her still?"
"You do not need protection, you are far more capable than she at defending yourselves. You do not want for companionship, you require no financial support. You are, for all intents and purposes, self-sufficient."
"If anything, she relies on you, requires your help. And yet, you get nothing."

>>14771541
I like this

>>14771541
The conversation might be interesting, but it would ultimately be a short diversion.
The party, as well, is about to fall apart, so I don't see the use of any more intra-party conflict (unless it gets violent and bloody).

We could perhaps make them give the ring to the mage as part of the deal. I, personally, like how he reminds us of ourselves when we were still human. He applies himself, he's good, but only held back by the vagaries of his own genetics and bloodline; I think it would be interesting to see how he responds to a..."scholarship", of sorts. The ring would boost his magical ability as time goes on and it becomes attuned to him. All the while, it slowly puts in mental fail-safes and subconcious backdoors, so that no matter what happens, he cannot go against us.

>>14771633
"Mental back doors" sounds like a good way to turn our wizard into a vegetable, to me. I like the idea of offering him power, though.

>>14771675
Well hey, I never said it wouldn't be without risks. And what fun is it if you know that you'll always win? Risk of failure adds that spice to life. After all, it's one of the things that drove us to be omnipotent, right?

>>14771633
>he reminds us of ourselves when we were still human
Not even close. You were better and more powerful sooner, more creative and intelligent, and far more bold and willing to try things. I don't know where you ever got the idea he was similar.

>>14771588
>>14771633
"the trinkets in this place holds no value to us and we would aid you in your looting if you give something in return. This place is crumbling and the link to your world grows weak, we need a soul to maintain the connection to the ring after this lab is gone, we would have you supply that soul.

we would also like you to ensure that the ring falls into the keep of the wizard, he has... potential

Get the soul and we will do what we can to slow the destruction of this place giving you more time, we would also be prepared to aid in the gathering of whatever you need from this place as well, should you wish it."

>>14771727
Ah, my mistake.
I mistook >>14768033 to mean that we approved of Quorin as a competent mage limited only by his bloodline.

Still, I think we should offer him the scholarship to advance himself. He may be a coward, but let's see how much of one he is.
And if we fail, at least we'll get an artifact to dangle in front of other, more motivated, prospective entertainment.

>>14771778
He is a competent mage. You were an astonishingly once-in-an-infinte-multiverse level exceptional mage, though. Slight difference.

Anyway, I think I'm going to call the thread here. Leave notes and discussion for what you want to do at the start of the next thread, Monday at 18:00. Will hang around a bit here and in IRC to possibly answer questions.

If we're still gonna be on this next time:

Let's chat up the twins while they're alone. Figure out what they want now that they are free from the city, and point them in an interesting direction. If inter-party conflict is something we want, maybe >>14771588 is the way to go. They seem to frequently clash...

>>14771957
Right: Focus vote.

1. Laressa
2. Heroes
3. Mardana-Fel
4. Other

Heroes.

We may not know what we're doing just yet, but I don't think we're quite done with the heroes.

I wonder what Tissa would think if she found out the twins could have saved those people...

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1
3
4

personally i like Laressa but we have been watching her for quite a while so i think it's time to give her a bit of space and see what our heroes are up to.

specifically the twins and Tissa since they know what she did for the people and are good at bringing up awkward subjects

Just caught up with the thread while on suptg before realizing the thread was still alive when i refreshed the page and it updated.

My vote goes to focusing on Mardana Fel for the next thread. The heroes never really interested me, and this thread has made me actually dislike them a bit.

From the looks of the current votes though, we'll be focusing on the heroes again. If so, I would say that we should either have one of the twins die, or have them lose the majority of their arcane loot, since they seem to have some trinket for every single fucking situation, and they'll only get stronger as we give them more places to loot. As for putting them against Lissa, even with her invulnerability I doubt she could do anything. They could simply teleport away to escape and later come back and nuke her in her sleep.

>>14773339
cont'd

As for a way to kill one of the twins, they're in the perfect place for this to occur. There should be random traps and artifacts still lying around in wait deeper in, and they'll likely eventually split up to check different areas or save time as the demiplane collapses. We could have a trap, say some kind of anti-magic type and immobilization effect, non-lethal as we made it of course. This alone won't kill them, but lets say that the demi-plane is decaying at a much faster rate since they forced a teleport in. While we don't need this as a reason, I would assume it would affect the plane in some way at least. While the twin is immobilized, the destabilization happens to dissolve part of the plane and it just so happens to occur where the the immobilized twin is, killing them. That or the destabilization tears part of a bag of holding, destroying some of the artifacts inside and causing an explosion, leaving the twin horribly injured and for the most part depowered artifact-wise as the rest of the bags of holding they had were destroyed in the explosion. They can survive by using some of the panacea left over.

Is this fine with everyone, or is this a shit plot development/plan? I haven't posted in an omnipotence thread before aside from posting a question or two, and I got tired of the shitposts and direction which the story was going today.

>>14773341
Well shit, I just realized I was two hours late.

As for future plot developments with the hero(es), assuming we will continue following them and not let them just fade into obscurity, I would say that if we do let Lissa go back and fulfill her quest of curing her leader, we either have them assassinated the next day, or better yet we make it so that the panacea has a side effect when taken outside the demi-plane, and have that as a reason to why it was required to be made IN the demi-plane in the first place. The panacea could slowly react in the main plane and produce some toxins along with the healing effects. The side effect would not be death, but maybe insanity or extreme paranoia. We could use this as a reason to send Lissa and co on a number of random places or to do any extreme thing on orders of the cured but now mentally unstable leader. If we wish it to be so, we could make the side effect include some way for us to subtly control his actions, such as an increased susceptibility to be influenced by dream suggestions or any number of things.

On a side note, if we follow the plan of having the twins crippeld in some way, whether by death or loss of magical everything, then i would support the plan of increasing the magical abilities of the wizard by a bit, just power-wise, since that's really all that he lacks. We could also expand on his character is some way, as currently he's just some old guy/spy with some magical know-how. I don't have any detailed thoughts on how we can expand his character, but maybe him doing something with his magical powers that manage to impress the party can lead to more character interaction.

>>14771992
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3
1
4
We should stick with the heroes for a bit and poke them some more.
Laressa is a big girl and can handle herself, and I don't think we need any more irons on the fire at the moment.

>>14772171
This sounds good to me. Assuming one of the twins die or they get massively depowered, they can go back to Lissa and wizard all beaten up and explain what happened. Lissa should be able to figure out immediately that they could have teleported in and saved the people, meaning that she killed them without actually having to do so. The twins could also realize that they could have also looted the place while avoiding the traps if they had help from the family and avoided losing all their magical shit or dying, and maybe learn to stop relying on and thinking of only each other or being so greedy with magic shit since they no longer live in Mardana Fel and don't have to hoard them to stay alive.

Everyone, I believe we are missing out on a very interesting oppertunity, the young boy Tissa killed, Kaleb, would very easily make for a revenge-driven villain. After all, she killed him and his *family*!
I say we rescue that boys soul from the afterlife and offer him a sweet deal (life) and potentially some more magical talent/contact with eldrich horros/forbidden tome of magic and then let him loose in the world, most likely going after Tissa or preparing to go after Tissa. Any thoughts?

>>14773790
Could be interesting if we also have the wizard get the ring-turned-artifact.
We could have the boy resurrected as part of some kind of deal with the current user of the dream-artifact that was bandied about earlier. Entities from the Far Realms bring Kaleb back to life and teleport him out of the demi-plane along with the device.