Regarding Dragons, things have become more difficult within Rhasver- Rhasver has been producing a growing supply of anti-air firepower, from wands to ballistas. Just three weeks ago, Nehmaska took a ballista bolt through the shoulder, and Seffestranias bears two or three newer scars from not-quite-misses. Nehmaska was healed, of course, as per her terms of service, but there is much less that aerial support can effectively do than there used to be.

The Gold Nehmaska persuaded to enter the war has actually been fairly successful in persuading Rhasver to see reason, though that is perhaps more due to the crushing defeat of their initial offensive. Sources report Rhasver is willing to sue for peace, but it unwilling to offer much in the way of concessions, certainly not land. Despite Nehmaska's urging, the gold remains unwilling to intervene further- According to him, peace is possible if either side was reasonable enough to merit his assistance. On the positive side, Nehmaska has managed to convince him to keep an eye out for Magister Tvana, decrying her as the secret cause and manipulator of this war.

On a more domestic front, you have been spending some quality time with the family. Azyra, impressed by the familiars two of her bodyguards possess, and having certainly enjoyed binding earth-spirits with you in preparation for the war, has turned her attention to magical theory, and the power she possesses. Detecting her thoughts, you invited her to work with you to find or create a familiar of her own, and, with your guidance, she has settled on a pseudo-dragon as the creature she desires. Though a few failures have disappointed her, you do believe you have finally found a viable specimen, and more importantly, know that she understands everything you do on the subject of it's nature- She is ready to deal and perhaps care for it. While you are merely satisfied, she seems overjoyed and eagerly awaits it's hatching.

Your consort has been having troubles too, recently. Though initially a bit hesitant to report it, Scinnari claims to be busy opposing the efforts of a cabal of other devils from intruding upon Mzani grounds- Her territory, as far as the Hells are concerned. Despite both your efforts to design your governance with the intent of total control, they have proven quite insidious. Scinnari has been both strained and all too often absent recently, overseeing a shadow war on the mainland. Reading her thoughts, you are secretly pleased to find her primary concern not her standing in the hells, but your thoughts of her- She fears such infernal power struggles may give you cause to suspect her again. You have granted your full support and assistance where she asks, but you sense she is reluctant to do so very often.

Her occupation has left you to deal with unrest in your capitol. While the war goes far better than most would have suspected prior to it's imitation, the people of Mza are somewhat unsettled to be partaking in a full war against a major power like Rhasver. Despite successes and the assistance of various other factions, many feel it foolish, and have even begun to question the war itself. Many reason that seeing as Rhasver invaded and Mza has pushed them out, it should be over. Peace is wanted, if only out of desire to return to a pre-war state of affairs. Your influence and reputation do much to suppress dissent, but it exists nonetheless, minor but growing.

To the south, those portions least effected by the war seem to be doing best. The primitive tribes Nehmaska started on the path of integration are slowly civilizing. The Avariel, resistance crushed to few sporadic eruptions of violence, seem to be stable citizens as well, though do seem to be attempting to remain insular and aloof from the humans around them. Whether out of a desire to preserve their culture and ways of life, or smoldering resentment, or simply elven arrogance, you can not know.

Hmm. Seems that there remains little profit in staying at war with Rhasver.

However, we've already achieved nearly all our defensive objectives, and were we to go for peace now, we'd certainly be well-seen diplomatically as a nation 'here to stay' and that punches above its current weight. We could even get some trade deals going with Rhasver from a better vantage point.

All we require...is that enchantress. If only we could somehow get some hard evidence to incriminate her...like summon the souls of those killed in our lair to testify against her, or to tell us of what it is she wanted.

>>15005474
This. I imagine she'll have rivals who will be glad to throw her under a bus in the name of peace.

We should deal with the Bronze and copper in our territory. Just talk to the bronze, perhaps get something set up (we could even officially recognize her, or ordain her as nobility. She seems to be doing us favors.) and either evict or neutralize the copper because coppers are silly.

And let's help the dear missus with her devil problem. Doesn't sound like the kind of thing she should be tackling alone. I'd hate for her to up and get banished.

>>15005474
Most displeasing that hostilities have gone so poorly. I have to wonder. Would it be worth our last wish to cause the volcano at Rhasaver's capital to erupt? Actually, come to think of it we might not even need that. It could be that we could cause it to erupt with normal magics, mostly because I seem to remember that it was reported about 10 years ago that it was getting ready for another eruption already sometime in the next 50 years.

I would say that if we could get it to erupt to both burn out their capital and stop adamantine production then they would likely offer territory concessions.

If we can't manage that we should at least inquire about acceptable terms for peace currently. See what they would offer. It could be better to just take that mage and peace rather than spend a wish for victory.

First, tell Neshy that she should probably start making fewer runs. We should also visit and give her a reward for the excellent help. Not something required by the agreement, just some sort of decent bonus.

>>15005614
Second, make sure we spend time with Azyra and ensure she enjoys learning magic. Gotta set the foundations early.

Third, this devil invasion worries me. Scinnari already has full access to most of our resources whenever she wants them, but is reluctant to use things not already in place. We should therefore reinforce what is already in place. More secret police with broader authority will both quell war dissent and aid in this battle. More spies under our competent spymasters. And assign some of our assassin cult to be for her personal use in the matter, ones that have already bred several children. Tell her to use them as effectively as possible, even if it costs their lives. This is one battle we can not afford to lose.

Lastly, what about that dragonscale armor? I suppose it should be presented on a special occasion, though. Private victory celebration over Rhasaver, perhaps. Azyra's birthday, to celebrate her being the mother of our child? Or I think anniversary was suggested last thread? Should be close to the 10th anniversary of her 'true' acceptance of our offer about now if I recall?

On Seffy: We should be friendly and offer to get her information (at a standard fee of course) form our spy network. Royal marriage and union is a no-go however.

>>15005603

The copper has friends, and you know coppers, we'd get trolled to hell and back if we did that.

I reckon maybe send Nehmy to talk to the Bronze (the pirate-hunting one, right?) about thanks or...well, I'm not sure we *need* to talk to her, and she seems the type to be uninterested in positions of nobility.

>>15005614

I'd go for the latter option- the volcano would be a good thing to go for if things don't work out, but to do it at this point probably ensures another year or two of fighting, if not more.

And yeah, Nehmaska's earnt a little gifty, we should go talk to her later.

>>15005614
>(we could even officially recognize her, or ordain her as nobility. She seems to be doing us favors.)
Bull, we paid her for her services as a mercenary. And most of that was probably because it was a fellow metallic asking. She didn't do us favors, she did the silver favors at best.

>And let's help the dear missus with her devil problem. Doesn't sound like the kind of thing she should be tackling alone. I'd hate for her to up and get banished.
Seconding this hard though. This is very dangerous, moreso than the war. If we need to we can accept peace for the Magister, but the devil situation can't wait. Both to help our devil waifu and to prevent other influences in our territory.

>>15005633
I disagree on the last point. A political marriage shouldn't be a hard no, but perhaps allow her to enter courtship with us. Restrict her from making major power plays (marriage) but if she's -really- that hot for us, dedication and love have been the strength (and fall, paranoia wise) of many.

>>15005717

But if we jerk her around too much, I forsee a mauling on the horizon.

Say what you like about our chances of a win, but I'm pretty sure we'd near-as-damn eye-for-eye it. And I like my eyes.

>>15005683

This might be a 'thing' for her though that she'd rather take care of herself- or have a larger share of responsibility in.

Hmm...it might be a good time to ask her a little more about what she thinks of the hells though and her involvement/lack of involvement with them. For research purposes.

>>15005683
I believe he was talking about the one to your east, Savusarren. Incidentally, here's a much nicer world map a thoughtful fan made.

>>15005633
>dragonscale armor
It's going to take a while to collect that many of your shed scales, and longer to get it made. That said, it's entirely possible, and I'm willing to assume you began a while ago. Ought to have enough in a few more months.

>>15005614
Currently, the terms you are likely to get involve peace, maintaining the pre-war borders, and an exchange of prisoners- You've got a few of their nobility, they claim to have got an assassin of yours, and do have some spies. Both sides have some soldiers of the other's.

>>15005614
Nehmaska has already cut back on her efforts, only attacking the occasional undefended target. Her most use recently has been in negotiation and as a herald of sorts.

>>15005717
I see this as stupid. She's dangerous and not stupid. Stringing her along is just going to get us an enemy.

>>15005738
This is why we don't jerk her around, we just play the male gender hard to marry.

Simpler explanation, tell her we're not against it, but we need to know each other personally better, first.

>>15005864
Agreed.
We shouldnt just be like "stfu bitch and gtfo" but just a demonstrated lack of interest and polite gentle letdowns is what we should do.

>>15005899
Bad idea when we're not interested at all in the first place. It's foolish and will just get us hurt in the long run.

>>15005920
And, what if that has political and social consequences with her instead of at least honestly entertaining her wishes? The last thing we need is her retreating her aid, that's also a shot in our claw.

>>15005899

And what about when it's ten years down the line and we've gotten to know her well?

What you propose is the exact definition of jerking around.

Getting called away, sadly. Ought to be back within the hour. Very sorry.

>>15005957
It's only jerking around if we never reach a decision. A short few months of having her closer could grant us some ability to influence her more precisely, even if we speak honestly and tell her no. I'm not saying dl it, I'm saying manipulative bastard time

>>15005987
And you somehow think that won't piss her off? Jesus christ, have you not seen all the wars and conflict romantic rejection has caused in the past? How the entire Illiad and Odyssey were caused by one such debacle?

And then you want to go and make it even more involved and potentially destructive? That's ridiculous.

If we just play it cool now, never show interest, and just do a standard polite no thanks to her come-ons then we'll most likely still come out of this with an ally. If we follow your plan we will most likely make an enemy and in the worst case could be engaged in a fight with a dragon who could kick our ass in physical combat.

Jerking her around is a no-go.

If we could capture the city we are besieging we may force terms on Rhasver and end the war in a good note for us. Or ask for peace now and end the war without any mayor losses with our old borders. We just try to end the war soon(Hopefully on our terms) before it starts costing us more than it should.

IRC discussion at mibbit.com
select IRCHighway from the drop down list
type in a name int the left text box, and #dragonquest in the right.

>>15006082
Yeah, if we could detonate the capital volcano (no wish using!) and make a serious push on the city we are besieging then we might be able to force them to concede it just so they can repair their nation. Remember, our navy has already sacked two of their largest cities on their eastern coast. They are seriously hurting from this, I am sure.

>>15006294

Nu-uh, they aren't going to take the volcano lying down.

And I don't think a siege suits us. We are fighting a Dwarven aristocracy, afterall.

Seconding (thirding? fourthing? fifthing?) the dragonscale armor on a special [romantic] occasion, helping Scinnari with the devil infiltration both personally and with more resources, giving our silver a bonus, and being nice but asexual with seffi. If she asks why just tell her the truth and say we're taken.

Don't really care one way or the other about the war. You guys can decide that.

>>15006294

A mayor offensive in several fronts may force them in the position we need, if we make their cities on their eastern coast suffer, and have nice victory on the front lines and threaten them with the volcano they may accept our terms.

>>15006360
What could they do that they aren't already? We're at war currently and they know that they have an aggressive neighbor ready to take their lands plus others like Tashz waiting to dogpile if it gets really bad for them.

>>15006364
> If she asks why just tell her the truth and say we're taken.

We might not want to tell her that specifically. After all, if we tell her that we're turning her, a dragon, down out of loyalty to a non-dragon, well, that's going to be a substantial blow to Seffy's pride.

>>15006383
them know how to hold a grudge and may try the same own us, I could like to not use it at all and hold it over there heads to make them think twice before fighting us.

>>15006405
I don't see the pride blow being an issue because I don't think it exists. Why would she care? I thought it would be more of a thing where she just shrugged and said oh well whatever. It's not like she only has eyes for us, she was just off with another red the other day.

Suggestion: in terms of getting something for Nehmy, perhaps some minions? Find some kobolds for her? Now that she's got the beginnings of a new hoard, that could be a thing.

>>15006383

Simply put, it's the difference between bombing Manchester and bombing London, or bombing New York and bombing Washington. You think they're going to just up and surrender or play nice after we've smashed up their capital city? Hell no they ain't!

Strategically, they may be no better off, but you better believe that they'd be digging their heels in after that point. Negotiations will be off the table, the Gold will undoubtedly withdraw his diplomatic support, and such a horrendous act of war being produced during a moment of possible peace will most likely make foreign support turn against us.

Simply put: It's a bad idea.

Fuck yeah, Dragon Quest. Reading up.

>>15006515
We can use it as a threat but nothing more.

Idea form IRC channel: Find Nehmy some kobolds to give her as minions.
Problem: Kobolds don't like the cold.
Solutions: Get some little mittens and scarves for the kobolds.

>>15006541

That's even more unwise. You think they'll go 'Oh no, not that! Sure we'll accede to your demands!' or do you think they'll buff up their defences against such an act and start planning suitable counter-measures of their own?

We'd just end up looking like clowns, bringing threats we can't follow through on properly to a negotiating table like that.

>>15006571
Agreed. We either do it or don't. Using it as a threat is stupid, they will put in defenses.

>>15006611
Though we could use that t our advantage. Submit a demand, tell them either they surrender or we hire dragons to blast their city, or whatever. Then plan a commando raid instead. Or show up ourself and fuck them up. Whatever we choose, we could get them to waste time, money, and effort erecting defenses against a threat that doesn't exist.

>things have settled down now that Cygnis is enslaved
>suddenly, Seffy makes overtures
>begin waifu wars 4

Goddammit Writer Dude. (fucking lol)

The war is really a defensive one, and we've achieved our goals. We have neither the power nor the popular support to pursue aggressive actions. I'm for seeking a peaceful resolution, and the gold could even help mediate. That'd be fucking hilarious, especially if Nem is present. Gold, silver and red all at the same table. And if we could get Seffy to attend, that'd be even better, except that'd probably degrade to fighting so nevermind that.

We do need to get that bitch of a witch though. While doing the peace talks, ramp up efforts to discover and capture/assassinate, up to the point where putting more assets in would cripple home defense from the devils.

For the devils, increase Scinnari's budget. Also try to find out what circumstances allows them to maintain a presence. Slums? Public works and street patrols. Hiding in infrastructure? Passive surveillance and magical detection measures. Cults? We should have our own already, a little religious war is always good for the soul.

Seffestranias... I can only imagine what she and Scinnari would think of each other. Scinnari wants to be the only one, and Seffy hates devils. A total union would be bad for us, as we control more territory, more wealth, and more people than she does. I'd be willing to do things like free trade and open borders, but merging the kingdoms is a no-go. Offer the free trade, borders as a counter. If she presses the political marriage, then it might not be entirely political, and that's can of worms 4.0.

>>15006611
>>15006571
ok ok not using it at all

Still hitting them hard everywhere we can to force them to accept out terms seems like a great idea, if we hit them right at their home there westerner docks at the places untouched by war they could be more willing to end the war and accept our terms.

We don't need to give Nemeshka a bonus or anything, she's been doing her job as required. If you guys override me, just don't give her minions or anything that will let her consolidate a serious position. A hoard is just gold, lizardmen let you dig in. Remember, she is a silver, and silvers hate reds with a passion. That's the stereotype at least.

She's working for us because we threatened her with bondage or death.

>>15006642
I agree that we need to end the war but if we can gain the city and force them to pay for the costs why not? A final push and costly defeat maybe all we need to end it the way we like it, and we may push our relations with Seffy to an official alliance.

>>15006716
a costly defeat for Rhasver*

>>15006647
In this spirit, perhaps we could hire the land-equivalent of corsairs and set them on undefended Rhsaverian towns? Burn farms, pillage, tear up roads, that sort of thing. Anything to disrupt infrastructure.

I assume we're orb-of-storming their asses 24/7. If not, we really should be.

>>15006702

Considering what we did to her, she could hate us a lot more than it seems she does. And probably have served us less well.

As such, I think such behaviour should be rewarded. Via mittens.

yeah lets fuck them up good and make them ask us for peace

They're *already* asking for peace thanks to the gold; we likely won't get much support if we continue to press on it.

We ask for the enchantress and call it. If she's not around, then well done, she's made herself the guilty party and, with us proven right, we can ask for more stuff in the negotiations. If she hasn't gone to ground, also good, as then we can get some answers out of her and likely weaken Rhasver's grip on Morinth a little.

It's the only sound policy I can take on this endeavour- bearing in mind we've still got a Drow problem in our own lands *and* a new devil-problem. We're also lacking effective means to continue to press an advance given their stockpiling of anti-air defences and our lack of underground assault units (something we'll have to rectify in the future).

>>15006755
She's wearing one of our control amulets (what are the enchantments on it again?) And has gave her word of honor. Once those things are off, she'll run away, build up, and try to bring us down. Failing miserably of course, but she'll still try.

Instead we could offer her an extension on her contract when it comes up if she wants. That'll keep her as an ally, and not require expensive bonuses.

>>15006851

You have no guarantees that she'd do such a thing, and the enchantments on those control bands are 'off' right now anyway.

And if you *do* want assurances that she *wouldn't*...well under terms of the contract right now she can't lie to us, so we could just ASK her. And we can also ask for her word that she won't seek revenge on us or anyone we know for this- if she won't give it, then too bad for her, but if she does, its been proven through this very contract-signing that she'd uphold it.

Saying she'll /definitely/ turn against us the moment she can is a step beyond our normal paranoia when it's easily within our power to see if she will or not. You want assurances? You need only ask.

>>15006915
>no guarantees

She's a silver. We attacked her while she was wounded and threatened to kill her if she didn't serve us. She's being an obedient servant, but once it's off she'll want revenge.

That said, definitely ask then.

>>15007009
>>15006915

Can we ask...later? I'd hate to ruin the mood right now, and her opinion might change over time anyway.

It'd make for a great 'last chance', where she could deliciously doom herself if she fails these truth tests...

You guys also need to remember the "truth" we told to Cygnis. Sure, she might tell us the truth as per her contract. It just might not be the full and complete truth. She might not lie to us. But she might not reveal everything either.

Just asking her "hey u gon kill me lol?" and taking what she says at face value is silly. We have 80 years (at least) to observe.

It is three days before Scinnari returns to your lair, being busy with her infernal politics. The fact that she does so in the middle of the day suggests either excellent news, or finally reaching a point where she can take a break after several days. The latter, judging by her drained look. Azyra greets her happily, and though exhausted, Scinnari pauses and tries make time for her daughter. You arrange your arrival for a few minutes later, and Azyra shortly depart to her studies, giving you privacy.

“Mammon. Servants of the Lord of the Third.” Scinnari reports to you tiredly. “They worm their way in among the greedy. Slumdwellers or nobles, it doesn't matter. And they are... difficult to identify, and surprisingly competent at defending themselves.” Scinnari reports with what must have been meant as a dry laugh. “For a bunch of geedy...” Scinnari adds, finishing with an infernal word you do not recognize. Almost certainly vulgar, you decide. Regardless, she does sound exhausted.

“My dear consort, I do hope you have not been chasing after them all personally?” you ask, putting your arm around her. “I confess, I consider you much more valuable than even an empire free of devils. Or mostly free, at any rate.”

“Of course not, my lord. Thank you.” she answers, and you both pause to share a kiss. “They do, however, outnumber me, and it's difficult to oppose them with mortals. Those most suited to doing so are unpleasant to deal with.”

“I thought I made clear that all my resources in the area were at your disposal?” you ask in a chiding tone. “And more if you ask. But you must be willing to ask...”

“I'm sorry my lord.” she replies contritely. “It's... Mortals are ill-prepared to face devils in most cases. Adventurers are sadly my primary resource... Properly handled, they can be pointed at the problem and expected to deal with it. Doing so across the kingdom though, that takes it's toll eventually.”

>>15007107

I...think she knows we wouldn't be satisfied with a 'Well, I'm not NOT thinking of killing you.' or something vague.

But yeah, plenty of time.

>>15006726
This is being done on both sides. (Offering rewards for mercenaries or brigands who aid in the war effort.)

>>15006825
They aren't asking for it, but you have it fairly reliably that they would be willing to accept, if it was proposed.

>>15006726
You are hammering them with storms as often as you can create, but that does eventually generate fallout. People are liable to (correctly) blame you when unseasonable and unpleasant weather starts hitting other regions in the vicinity of Rhasver.

>>15007133
Hmmm.

Well, one way or another the war will be ending soon. I suggest we put our assassin cult at her disposal. This is /exactly/ the kind of thing they would be best for anyway, not open warfare. Trained assassins with tracking skills and powerful sorcery. I bet a significant fraction of them could even dismiss devils on their own, and their loyalty is of course exceptional. Plus, it will show how much we value/care/trust to put one of our greatest trump cards at her disposal, even if it's for a short time.

>>15007077
Of course. I meant we could ask her at the end of her service.

>>15007227
That's a good idea. I think we should get involved ourselves too, this is really wearing our favorite devil down apparently.

Also, I really really don't want devils of greed spreading through our empire. They will start sucking away our profits and that will be extremely damaging, because profits and sea warfare are what we are best at right now as a trade empire.

>>15007133
Spend the next few days with her, cancel any non critical appointments and just make some time for the wife. Then let's request a ceasefire for peace talks (using diplomats of course, we will be busy) to see if we can get the Magister that started this thrown in as part of the deal. While that is going on we go deal with this devil problem alongside Scin. They cant be allowed to get a strong foothold and spread.

>>15007227

Yeah, do this, and maybe look int other ways to aid her while she takes it easy over the next couple of days.

>>15007267
She seemed to take it on as "her project." She thinks it's her responsibility to protect Mza from her own kind. We should give her whatever resources she needs (within reason, no unlimited withdrawals from hoard) but otherwise stay out of it unless she asks for our intervention. Letting someone have responsibility is the best way of keeping their loyalty. Which we don't need to worry about from Scinnari, but she's more than a jewel and should feel trusted.

>>15007287
If we're doing it personally, let's take Nehmy with us. She already knows about Scinnari, and would probably love to kill devils. At the very least, she can be useful, and we get to learn a little more abou ther.

I'm for more indirect aid, and to let Scinnari take care of what she feels is her responsibility.

We can deal with sewing up this war effort as we care for her and leave her to some idle past-times of hers for a while.

>>15007347
No, screw that. We can assign her to rooting out devils at some hub location sure if we want, but she is not a trusted lieutenant or anything like that. She doesn't get to see the inside of our operations.

>>15007392
She's additional support, and a dragon that isn't us. Plus, personally, I'd rather risk her than Scin.

considering the numbers of murder hobos we've been sending the drows way, we should debrief those who return for any information they might have uncovered.

(or if its a 'yeah, we did that' situation, then a basic overview of whats been found so far)

Ah yeah, regarding the dragonscale armour we're making her, are we going to enchant it with anything? I really like: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/seeds/armor.htm for an additional protective enchantment (it seems you can't put epic spells on items, sadly) to start, and maybe build some other stuff into it?

>>15007287
This.

>>15007307
I don't know about that. She took it on as her project sure, and it still can be, but this is too critical in many ways to just pass on. We should give her our Ashaites at least in my opinion and I wouldn't be adverse to taking a more proactive role ourselves if she thinks it would help. She is the one currently best informed about the situation though, so if she thinks we wouldn't be terribly effective then we shouldn't worry about it.

We could also ask her if she would like us to dispatch Neshy to any specific spot to root out devils. I imagine having a silver dragon to use as a "tactical anti-devil nuke" would be great for her. She can fire the silver into a city that is being infested and only need to check up once every week or so.

>>15007418
We should enchant it extremely heavily of course, I imagine that goes without saying at this point. It should be the best we can make it, a true priceless treasure and token of affection.

>>15007418

Hey dude, pick from the list: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicArmor.htm

>>15007418
Enchantments up the arse on it, it's for our waifu after all. It's already a work of blood, now we just need to add the sweat and tears.

>>15007450
What are we making her? Fullplate? Chainmail? Perhaps Scalemail?

>>15007432
I like this. It'll give Scinnari a lot more power to deal with the problem, and give Nem something to do besides talk to other metallics.

>>15007476
>>15007410
We aren't using conventional magic anyway guys. Let's just say it's +Awesome. We can even make it protect extra against devils and demons, resist spells, and boost her stats. The spell resistance is of course the most important of those, followed by stat boosts and finally the demon/devil protections. If we are getting really fancy we can add a permanant contingent teleport back to our lair if she is ever about to die. Not strictly rules-legal, but contingency can be programmed to do that and I don't see any reason for us not to fashion it into such a special suit of armor.

>>15007489
So far most everyone has been calling it full-plate.

Yessssss. Dragonscale full-plate on our devil waifu. Picture the badassery, and promise of violence layered upon elegance. Yessss.

>>15007489
most likely a lighter armor, scalemail seems most appropriate. We don't want to make her unable to fly.

>>15007418

I say we go as nuts as we can with it:

At will (Once a day or so- in gauntlets?)

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/foresight.htm
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/powerWordKill.htm
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/ironBody.htm
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/irresistibleDance.htm
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/binding.htm

Constant:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/protectionFromSpells.htm

...Oh what else...

>>15007530
Actually, is there any way to protect against banishment spells and the like?
Even more than protection against other devils or demons, wouldn't protection from certain divine attacks be more useful to her?

>>15007489
Uh, it's dragonscale armor and she should be able to fly in it. So it will probably be light plate-mail.

>>15007489

I thought we were going for half-plate or something similarly flexible.

Getting the amount of scales needed for a fullplate suit would...take a while.

>>15007551
I imagine she has another item that she always wears to counter that, possibly her choker. That's something she should ALWAYS have on.

I like the perma-imbued contingency teleport idea set to if she is about to die.

>>15007543

Add: an 11th level http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/resistEnergy.htm to the 'constant' for the elements she's less good against- or as a blanket term.

And some general stat boosts for strength, dexterity, etc. Maybe a dimensional pouch that contains a punch of potions as well?

The drow are attacking out of the mountain ranges, obviously. Adventurers returning have reported a fairly large drow outpost in the range, though they are somewhat conflicting on quite where it is. You suppose the humanoids being disoriented by being underground and constant drow attack. That does go a long way to explain the constant raids... The outpost is garrisoned by about two hundred regular drow, according to the few adventurers who have actually escaped with information on the place, and lesser minions, reports ranging from about equal to a thousand, though again, you don't consider reports terribly reliable.

###########

“My love, please, allow me to assist you. My assassins should be quite useful for such a task. I shall place them at your disposal, but /please/, allow me to assist you. /Tell/ me if you need assistance. I am happy to give it. I may not have said it frequently, but only because I think it obvious- /you/ are my single greatest treasure. Even beyond the purpose of preventing the corruption of my kingdom, I would do this to make you happy.” you assure her, sweeping her off her feet and carrying her towards her quarters near your lair.

“Thank you, my lord. I... Thank you.” Scinnari replies, and gives you a kiss.

“Now, if I may ask, why are they intruding upon your territory?” you ask, carrying her through the door, shutting it behind you with your foot.

“They... Well, you know, my lord.” she replies demurely. You smile as you deposit her on the massive bed.

“Of course I do, but a review is useful. As I understand it, they desire to steal from you the soul-damning production that Mza represents, as we have created it.” You almost say 'I', but manage to swap in the desired pronoun smoothly. “They happen to serve Mammon, and he would receive the souls that Glasya currently receives from you, correct?”

“Yes, my lord.” Scinnari affirms. “As I suspected, you know what and why.” She shifts over slightly as you sit down next to her.

“But tell me... Are you being rewarded for your production? I would have thought the empire you helped to create would have more than earned you a reward at this point.” you ask her. You can see she is surprised by your questioning, but answers anyway.

“Ah... Zevaana's... promise to you is an interesting matter.” Scinnari says, obviously trying to be delicate for some reason. “Due to... the nature of it, she has agreed that she will not interfere between you and I... And has chosen to interpret that as a refusal to interact with me. She does not have to recognize me for the souls I acquire, and has chosen not to, either in the form or promotion or other rewards...” Scinnari says, and you suspect you hear her trying to contain anger. “Instead she reports that I have met quota exactly, and personally takes credit for the rest... I hear she is moving up in Glasya's court, actually.” The last sentence is obviously bitter despite her attempts to hide it.

“Ah... Perhaps we should deal with that?” you ask her. “If I am -indirectly- responsible for hindering your advancement, I am quite sorry-”

“No, no my lord.” Scinnari assures you hurriedly. “It- It's actually better this way. She is the one whom you extracted the promise from, and the higher she is, the less likely she is to vanish, and the more her oath covers. It's alright, my lord.”

>>15007564
You know, I like the idea, it works, it's kind of nice... But damn, this feels creepy. She's going to be literally dressing up in our skin. Perhaps even encased in our skin, if it's plate armor.

Perhaps an alternate solution? Just get her the ability to turn into a dragon. Polymorph ring, or something. Gives her the breath weapon too.

>>15007700
People do not frequently shed large hardened flaps of skin, that are turned into armor when in abundance. Comparing the discarded sheddings of a dragon to your own hide is somewhat inappropriate.

Have a selection of swords ready and inscribed for her with different racial and bonus enchantments, then give her armor a set of gems that correspond to them for a: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/instantSummons.htm thing.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/heroismGreater.htm For more ass-whooping

ALL of these:

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/owlsWisdom.htm
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/foxsCunning.htm
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/eaglesSplendor.htm
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/catsGrace.htm
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/bullsStrength.htm
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/bearsEndurance.htm

>>15007672
Hmmm. Ask her if we could in theory legally promote her if we requisitioned enough souls for the process. As I understand it all you have to do is provide the power needed and the rest is taken care of by the recipient devil.

Hopefully the Ashaites will be enough, but mention to her that if she requires it we would be glad to order Silver to aid her in rooting out devils in some places. I'm not entirely sure we should just on her own, but if Scinnari is overseeing it then it wouldn't be a problem I think. Without Scinnari overseeing, however, I wouldn't want to take the chance of our silver involving herself that deeply in our empire.

>>15007672

>Picked her up and dropped her onto our bed

A-are we...are we going to sex her now?

>>15007777
I'm all for a "Now, where were we?" once the discussion is over.

To answer your question, maybe.

>>15007777
Well, I imagine so. The
>implication
is clearly there and she's totally a fuckably hot devil waifu. If you are expecting explicit smut I doubt it, though. Fade to black is probably both more likely and preferable. I guess ask her if she wants us to try to do anything about the promotion thing over pillow-talk afterward or something? Though she seems fairly fine with the situation as it is already.

>>15007725
>>15007543
>>15007530
>>15007476

Hoo boy, we're going to need bandoleers of wands or something strapped to her forearms...

>>15007746
“If it leaves you unhappy, it is most certainly not alright.” you reply to her. “Tell me... the mechanics of promotion. You serve me at the moment, I would be your... superior. Could I promote you myself, were I to acquire enough souls?”

“It would be most... unusual, my lord. And... It would depend on Zevaana's mood, I would think.” Scinnari replies, obviously surprised yet again.

“She has a say in this?” you ask. “I was under the impressiong that given enough soul-energy, it would... take care of itself.”

“The... promotion does, my lord. However, actually maintaining a higher power level... Zevaana might concede and increase my assigned allotment, or she might refuse, and leave me at the current level. Were that the case, I...” This seems to actually disturb her, and she pauses for a moment, trying to speak. “I would be... demoted. It is not a risk I wish to entertain, my lord...” she pleads.

>>15007898
Egads. If I recall Tyrants of the Hells right, that's bad. Like, realy bad. Let's not do that unless we're certain we have a soul income large enough to support her. Promotions themselves are bad enough, but... what happens, they boil down into a bucket of sludge in agonizing pain and slowly regain a lesser form? Let's not inflict that on our waifu dearest.

Guys, stop being generic idiots. We're on a BBEG magic system creating artifact-level dragon plate. Be more creative, like that enchantment that teleports her back to our lair when she is about to die or maybe enchanting it to allow shifting into a red dragon form or something. Even a permanent foresight enchantment would be better than the standard crap you are suggesting.

>>15007929

If the ideas are already there, why not use them?

For my money though, I liked the 'summon sword' idea, where she could speak a word and the right sword for the job popped out of the lair and immediately into her hand. If we could enchant a gauntlet to do that it'd be great.

>>15007777

You must be new, welcome to Dragon Quest. I'm pretty sure in character we've stopped counting after the 1000th time on that one.

>>15007861

We're going to need flying in there too since she won't be able to fly with all the extra weight. At this point she might as well be Ironman...just with wands instead of repulsor lasers.

>>15007970

I think she should still be capable of flight in dragonscale, and magic shan't add to weight.

...And yes I realize you're joking.

...That repulsor idea sounds cool though.

If I recall the particulars of our contract with Zevaana correctly, she is bound to not interfere with us, as well as preventing interference from those below her in her chain of command.
The higher she is promoted, the more this would encompass, and therefore, the more protection it would provide us.

Unless, there's a loophole that such protections only applied to her subordinates at the time of the signing of the contract (though I doubt Azaladon, given his intellect, would have allowed such a mistake).

>>15007921
Agreed, at least for now. Tell her we might speak to Zevaana on the matter in the future should she desire it though. If she wishes to add conditions to the contract then it would likely be unacceptable, but we could also cite the fact her promotion is directly related to the soul income from our empire via her underling. In theory we could just... slowly start making our empire more neutral evil if she doesn't agree.

Not really of course, but it might serve to help convince her.

Then I guess it's kissy-kissy time, spend time with her and Azyra over her R&R vacation, then time to evaluate the damage to Rhasaver with some scrying. If we think we could take the city it would probably be worth it to continue if they are badly damaged enough.

>>15008021
And by that I mean tell Scin that we could talk to Zevaana if it bothers her, and if Zev tries to add in shitty clauses we could be like, "Well, I can't vouch for all that soul income continuing without a more advanced minion to keep the factory running smoothly..."

I think her armour should probably focus on less overt magical power and do more towards the sympathy/glamour stuff to twist the minds of those she goes against, weakening their resolve to hit her and making her generally more 'compelling', allowing her to easily influence them and get them to succumb and work with her rather than against her.

>>15008008
Nope. Scinnari confirmed that as a reason not to go fuck Zevaana up for her bitchery.

Alright, send the peace offer to Rhasver, then we'll go visit Nehmaska. Sound like a plan?

>>15008008
We had a broad and generic contract, which is better then a precise and very specific one. Arguably.

>>15007746
We claim souls for the hells and tally them up as Scinnari's? That seems like a whole lot of weird work. Could we even do that?

Alternatively, Scinnari could just meet quota exactly. If you don't reward exceptional performance, there's no reason to continue doing so.

Although really, I don't think getting involved in Infernal politics is a good idea for anybody, devils included. Scinnari may be just another erinyes in the hells, but here she's queen of Mza and all its holdings. We'll have to make do with keeping other devils out of our territory.

>possible demotion

That's a bad thing then. Well, there's nothing we can do in that department. Continue on with other aspects, after delicious fade-to-black.

“Of course.” you accede. “As you desire. That was, after all, the issue at hand.”

“Thank you, my lord. I... do not like to admit to fear, but...” She doesn't seem able to complete the sentence, but doesn't need to, either. The expression of mixed fear and revulsion that twists her face is something you aren't sure you've ever seen before.

“Of course. I understand.” you lie to her, making a mental note to investigate the specifics of infernal advancement and descent. “Then perhaps-”

“My lord... If you insist, I am as always, at your command. But at the moment I feel quite exhausted and such... distasteful thoughts as we have been discussing do not make for-”

“Of course, my love.” you smoothly interrupt. “I was going to suggest that you rest. If you'll forgive me saying, you certainly look like you need it. I do hope you shall have some time in the next few days, though. Azyra and I do miss you.” you add, turning to depart.

“Thank you, my lord. I shall see that I have the time.” she replies with a relieved sigh.

“I look forward to it.”

##################

Though Scinnari doesn't ask for further help, she does seem to recover quickly, and reports indicate her efforts are bearing fruit. Somewhat less completely than you think either of you hoped, sadly, but progress nonetheless. You dispatch further resources, primarily a section of the eldest of your assassin cult, to assist her in the matter. In turn, she makes more time to appear at home, something both Azyra and yourself enjoy, though Azyra doesn't admit it aloud. She seems to have entered an 'independent' stage, and while even a cursory scan of her mind tells you she still loves both of you, she seems interested in proving herself more mature, separated from what she views as a sillier, younger self. You don't see this as any less silly, but suppose it's one more step of her growth.

Despite her standoffish behavior, the days following your consort's return are quite pleasant, and you even participate in a few family activities, attending entertainment in Mza, or presiding over events. Both Scinnari and Azyra seem to enjoy the awe and respect they get from the populace. You can't blame them for it- You certainly enjoy such treatment, but consider it not quite worth attending events for the public's benefit. Despite your annoyances, you can suffer a few indignities for time with your family, and consider the days well spent.

in light of the recent problems with devils, we should create a group that specialises in taking down magical or supernatural baddies, primarily to fill the gap between skills beyond what you'ed expect in the military, but would not be practical to use assassins like a hammer against powerful or aberrant entities.

recruitment should be volunteers from existing army/navy elite units, guys with proven experience, dedication, and loyalty. followed by a selection process to weed out anyone suseptable to stress, requiring the highest levels of mental and physical fortitude. before special training proper begins.

Meanwhile, regarding the war... Dispatches are sent to and fro, and you manage to formulate a view of the situation in Rhasver. Their defense, as expected, is horrifically strong. Merely approaching the walls of the city gains horrific casualties, and they seem to have more than enough in the way of masons and geomancers to repair the walls almost as soon as you damage them. Bombardment from above, however, is something else entirely. You have parked your cloud fortress above the city, and it hasn't moved since the siege began. The pall it casts has probably taken a toll on the defender's morale, and the variety of heavy, alchemical, or magical items you have been periodically bombarding the city with has certainly not helped their efforts.

To actually claim the city, though, that would take a significant leap forward over what you have now- A way in, perhaps, or simply a way to approach without the defender's positions without being decimated by said defenders. As is, your siege lines prevent the city from being productive or active, and almost all enemy activity seems to be involved in teleporting supplies into the city after you demonstrated exceptional ability to located and collapse their subterranean access tunnels.

You settle for dispatching a team of diplomats to initiate negotiations, and begin entertaining the idea of peace- Nothing serious, and the war is still going full swing, but it is a foot in the right direction, and perhaps enough for Nehmaska to persuade her Golden friend to intervene on your side.

Nehmaska herself seems surprisingly revered. She has been serving you excellently, though, and you do spend the effort to send her a dozen kobolds with instructions to serve her as she asks, and the secret orders to report on what she does.

>>15008686
Seconded
Our main forces will be our shield
Our new elite magic using/anti magic force will be our hammer
And our assassins will be our unsuspected tail.

Or some other neat analogy.
Maybe anvil/hammer/blade. Whatever y'all like.

>>15008738
Just to add, we need a magic/anti magic corps not just for daemons, but for foes like rhasver.

Also I think they should be a more extreme variety of shock troop. Even better than our lizard elite (though that's not to say that we don't include the best of the best of the best of the lizards).

>>15008738
Hammer, Sword, and Scalpel?

>>15008688
Can we disjunct the sphere and launch a few thousand paratroopers?

>>15008758
I thought our chosen were already the best of the best. Any group more powerful than our bodyguards should also be loyal enough to /be/ our bodyguards.

>>15008785
They have proven capable of getting it back up within minutes of disjunction.

>>15008802
Your chosen are the best of your lizardmen- The seem fanatically loyal and worship you as a diety, and you tend to choose the best of available options, but they are not without peer.

>>15008758

front line use may be nessisary depending on the situation, but we do have existing units for that sort of thing. i mainly envisioned them as the 'fixers' for when shit hits the fan. when theres angels and demons about, magic flying everywhere, or far realm entities intruding, these are the guys you count on to reimpose reality.

>>15008836

then again i can see the utility of a usable anti-magic force. make it a priority, but i dont want to comprimise the standards of selection, only the most resilient can make it into the ranks.

>>15008836 Nice lizardman art.

>>15008829
As I see it, we have shock troops, and we have magic troops, and we have normal troops. I think this would be a good middle ground between shock and magic.
Mind you, I've missed out on a couple threads, so I could be terribly mistaken.
But I don't think we should make them nearly as elite as you seem to want. We would have very limited numbers, especially immediately, and if we intend on winning any uphill battles against rhasver OR the demon hierarchy, we're going to need a bunch of combat magic specialists.

>>15008829
Well, it goes without saying that any group we build that has such a large amount of prowess has to be built from the ground up with loyalty in mind. A strong foundation of loyalty/fanatical devotion is the easiest way to ensure the organization stays that way. A long tradition of death before disloyalty has been an amazing thing throughout history, but it has to be established from the very founding of the order and nurtured well.

I wonder... the cloud castle is warded with epic magic and they can't do crap to it. We can create tunnels and dematerialize whatever we want. We also control all the countryside around the city.

So I propose the following. Create a gate to the quasielemental plane between fire and earth inside the heavily warded castle and let it fill one of the huge chambers with lava. Or maybe many of the chambers, that's fine too. Let it cool and solidify, then dematerialize the castle and let them crash down on the city below. The weight of rock the size of an entire city will easily be enough to break even a huge force dome like that.

Also we can herd all the livestock from the surrounding countryside to our siege lines and ritually slaughter them to create massive empowered anti-tele wards to help starve out the city.

>>15008963
Err, in case the desired results are not clear after we drop the stone "hammer" on them in such a manner for the first time and (likely) destroy many walls and buildings and lives we demand a peaceful surrender or we will continue dropping such things.

>>15008938
>>15008829
Nice lizardman art indeed. I think it may be turning me gay.

Let's drop some large rocks, force a surrender, and use that to demand concessions from the peace. Let's not destroy the city, though. It's no good to us dead, and all that.

>>15008963
the castle did have that huge library big enough for a dragon to fly around in... it should work I say do it

if it doesnt work we can just pour the lava directly onto them from inside the castle until the whole city is sealed in stone

>>15008963
I'm a fan of trying the second option first.
If they still refuse to budge, drop the hammer of god on em.
Also, did the IRC just go down?

>>15009041


its fine, try connecting again.

>>15008938

they do need to be a cut above power wise to do their jobs, but the main point is the ability to endure strife and disruption, to operate no matter what they're facing, aslong as thats ensured im good.

>load cloud castle with troops
>sit cloud castle above city, shell the fuck out of defenders
>land castle
>instant invasion, no pesky walls

Why haven't we done this?

>>15009118
I think we kind of want to keep the castle as our ace in the hole.

>>15009118
Uh, because they put a giant force dome over the city specifically because we already wiped out like three of their armies with that exact tactic?

That is not a new inventive tactic you brilliantly came up with, we've been doing it forever. It's one of the main ways we turned the war around.

>>15009170
But you know, on second thought considering what WD said about the dome...

We should lower the castle so that it's touching the dome and then dispel the dome. It takes them a few minutes to put it back up and by the time they try the epic-magic castle will be in the way and stop their puny mortal magics from doing it. We could selectively suffocate every man under arms in the city.

Hypothetical:
What if we shaped drop pods out of stone in the castle?
Loaded them full of lizard men and mages (1 mage every 20 or so lizard men), then dropped them into the city after temporarily dispelling the dome. If we're lucky, the lizard men will be able to defend the mages while they start teleporting more and more lizardmen in. We can fight them under the dome. They'll have nowhere to run.

But I don't know exactly what the practicality of that is.

>>15009413
Uh... remember to featherfall your droppods. And make them so they'll land rightside up. And break open on impact without harming the occupants.

>>15009413
Not as heavy, much more fragile, crumble when they hit and kill everyone inside, and a single block will be a couple miles long anyway.

>>15009496
>featherfall
>on something designed to be as heavy as possible to crush through the shield
>what the fuck?

>>15009510
>put loyal minions inside sealed stone chamber
>drop uncontrolled towards force shield
>cross fingers and hope some of them provide enough padding for a few to survive.
>Good plan what?

guys, we can drop the shield first, *then* send in the airborne


im thinking it should be prefaced with a bombardment of the walls to preoccupy the defense while minimizing dammage to the city proper, if they neglect the walls our main force can march in, if they stand by for the frontal assault, our drop troops and setup rituals to being teleporting people in en mass.

chaos either way

This being a city they can't exactly drop fortifications on top of civilian buildings without a lot of outrage. This means the VAST majority of their defences will be situated upon the walls.
The thing about seige weapons is that they tend to take a long time to reposition/adjust their aim. For instance, if we were to attack them from where they do not expect it, we could remove such obstacles from play before they even become a threat. I suggest we teleport ourself, Seffy, and Nehmaska inside the city while polymorphed then perform a strafing run along the walls with our breath attacks before they have a chance to adjust the ballistas. This should take out at least a third of the total defenders (providing they run on 3 8 shifts basis) and almost all of the ballistas.
Sure they'll be able to rebuild the ballistas in a matter of days (those damn dwarves) but the real damage comes in two parts. First; morality. They'll be mostly broken if they believe we can attack from any time or any place. Second: troops. Losing these MASSIVE amounts of troops will be a huge step forward.

I was considering suggesting we land our troops equipped with feather fall scrolls upon the dome, then disjunct it, but we'll probably need to disjunct it anyway to teleport in.

>>15009518
Pretty sure I was saying that hollowing them out to drop troops in them was a stupid plan in the first place. Just have the troops walk in after we crush the walls, or featherfall down themselves.

force shields over the city? Why not tunnel under and collapse the walls? Have sappers dig tunnels under the walls and then set fire to the struts, collapsing them. Walls come tumbling down.

With our storms, could we possibly push weather away from places? We could keep rain out of their farmlands and starve them out.

the geomancers are the main problem, and we have no idea where the food is comming from since they teleport it in.

>>15009597
They have exceptional earth defenses, if you try to dig under the wall they'll just collapse your tunnel on top of the people you've got down there.
That would be a waste of life i'm sure you agree

>>15009597
God damn it, read the thread and ideally past threads as well. This has been covered, we can't. Do you really think we would be using such extreme measures that will damage our future property if we didn't have to?

>>15009585 no keep the pods, as protection during the decent from enemy fire, and flatten whatever they land on.

You decide to take your siege to the next level, in terms of actual destruction- You clear out the halls of Lorekeeper's ancient citadel, and begin planning a fairly complex ritual. Though you are loath to allow Azyra so near an actual combat zone, you do permit her to come and assist you in preparation of the spell. Not actual assistance, as it takes you just as long to double check all her work, but you enjoy doing things with her, and it is educational. She enjoys it too; you find yourself increasingly enjoying and utilizing the mind-reading abilities her and her mother's amulets grant you. In this case, she's overjoyed to be helping her father again, and it does fit with her aspirations of maturity. A bit more responsibility for a bit more privilege.... Responsibility she seems to be wholly enjoying, so far.

Ripping gates to a paraelmental plane, or to two planes at once, is no easy task. The fact that you have prepared and have the magical 'leverage' to do so doesn't make it easy- merely possible. Despite that, you feel nervous and strained as you prepare the massive gates. It reminds you of the effort you had to go to to upgrade your lair's wards into a truly legendary array- You might go so far as to call them 'invincible', now, and it certainly was an achievement... But you cannot forget the horrid feeling you felt afterward, as if the magic had sucked out and consumed a fraction of your soul.

To your surprise, the opening of the gates is not as difficult as you would have expected- Flame and rocks pour forth from the twin rifts, melting and pooling on the floor of the great library chamber. Even at a constant rate, extruded by the pressures of the rifts, it will still take quite a while to fill the chamber.

Azyra watches from behind you, seeing the results of both of your efforts. She steps up to your side, reaching out to touch some of the molten rock, running her hands through the super-heavy liquid, and attempting to lift some up. It's evident she finds it surprisingly heavy. When she stumbles, though, you begin to worry.

“Azyra? Oh... of course.” you ask, realizing as you speak. She is not completely immune to the fumes of liquifying rock like yourself... Or perhaps she simply can't breathe them. Either way, you decide it better to teleport her out, over her somewhat feeble protests.

“But daddy...” she gasps, perhaps a tad light-headed, “I helped! I want to... to see it!” she gasps, a bit weakly as you arrive in your lair.

“You may do so, provided you've been keeping in practice with your divination.” you say mildly. “You evidently can't quite breath the air, though, and I'd rather you don't suffocate while watching. I hope you consider that a reasonable request?” She evidently doesn't, but realizes she won't win an argument. You leave her, promising at least an hour before you drop the rock.

It takes two hours, actually. The room is simply too large to fill to any thickness within that time. In the end, you decide about four and a half feet thick is sufficient. It doesn't actually fill the vast room, as it doesn't disperse perfectly, but it is certainly of sufficient size... Shutting the portals off temporarily proves to be more difficult than opening them, but a matter of finesse rather than power. You leave the rifts intact but sealed just in case the city proves intractable.

>>15009597
>dig tunnels against city
>city is defended by dwarves and mages
I don't think you quite appreciate the strengths of the enemy we're facing here.

The location you target is the northern gate. Not the most tactically advantageous location to bombard, but the most complex of the city's fortifications. Orders are sent to keep your troops back, and you relocate Lorekeeper's citadel for bombardment. You almost forget, but you do remember to telepathically contact Azyra, and warn her. When she says she's ready, you order the room's floor immaterial, as well as all beneath it. The two hundred foot wide lopsided discus plummets without anything to support it, and there's a near-deafening crack as it impacts the force-dome. All that serves to do is overload the dome and fracture the rock into several dozen boulder-sized chunks. It crashes down on the walls and city, and when the dust clears, you observe your results.

Evidently, the shield has to be down first, even for such a bombardment as this- While destructive, the fall from the vanished shield to the ground is less destructive than desired. Damaging enough, nevertheless, and you have your herald demand the city's surrender again, under threat of further bombardment. They refuse, and you set about improving your assault. As it turns out, the desired result is entirely achievable by disjuncting the forcedome just before bombardment...

The city weathers the night of bombardment, and you find yourself staying up to drop rocks every other hour. By the morning, though, most of the walls and buildings along the edges of the city are utterly demolished, and you finally do receive their surrender. You leave the occupation in the capable hands of your generals, and retire for a night's well-earned rest.

>>15009665
Well, that seemed to work out fairly well.
Perhaps now would be a good time to enter peace negotiations from a position of strength? We get to keep all the territory we gained, as well as the Magus who instigated all of this?

>>15009665

Dropping rocks was awesome. I don't suppose we've considered just pouring magma on them?

I'm sure their counter to our new strategy will be amusing.

need to give Azyra a neckless of adaptation. it would allow her to breath even with no air.

>>15009724
Seconded.

>>15009745
Uh. Dude, what the fuck? We want to take ownership of the places we conquer, not render them a barren wasteland devoid of life.

well, the obvious problem is to defend the city from a counter attack untill the walls can be prepared.

have the troops lends whatever assistance they can to repairing dammage, the medical corps can help with the injuries of the populace.

law and order needs to be restablished quickly, patrols must be assign to prevent looting or sectarian violence.

>>15009760
>sectarian violence
What?

I don't think these guys are going to be waging a religious war, bro. I think you mean an insurgency. In which case I completely agree but the generals should know that very well by now.

Any new territory we gain needs to be put under a new deputy other than Lady Issa. Division of power is the key to success, after all. I trust we put the large amount of territory we conquered from that federation of cities under a non-Issa ruler too?

>>15009760

The second one here is an especially good idea

>>15009665
Guys, I know that we're all pretty proud of this magical terror we've constructed, but it's still far from being the ultimate power on this planet.
We need to make sure that any technical data concerning this fully operational battlestation never falls into the hands of our enemies. It's possible, however unlikely, that with a full technical and magical readout of our sky castle, a weakness could be discovered.

Do we even want territory from Rhasvar? Unless we go all in and wreck the nation we'll have revanchism after us until its dead.

Push as hard as we can, as fast as we can. Now that we're in the open, not attacking fortified positions again, we can probably make use of Seffy and Nehmy again.

>>15009804
Don't try to frighten us with your sorcerous ways Lord Azaladon. Your magical powers can help us recover any stolen datasheets, and give us clairvoyance enough to find hidden rebel bases.

>>15009822
Uh, fuck yes we do. That's the entire reason we started this war.

>>15009844
How many large cities are there left to take?
Do you really think they won't come up with better defenses?

>>15009822
I say that we just try for pre-war borders, but with lots of financial concessions on the part of Rhasver. Reparations, debt, punitive if we can get it, etc. We could go for taking a city here or there if we think we can hold it.

>>15009859
Whoa, whoa! Historical ret-conning is a bad idea, bro. I mean, it's okay, but we've got to remember the truth ourselves.

>>15009852

...

*Chomp*

>>15009863
Seriously? Do you not have eyes? Just look at the map. We took one city (their second smallest) of eight. There is one more within moderately easy reach without overextension, and we could try for it. I suggest we peace now though and draw up a new border halfway between the city we just took and the next closest Rhasaverian city. Also they have to provide us that witch-bitch that started the war.

>>15009871
No. We did this entire war for conquest. Land and a fairly large city like this (second biggest we will have, after Mza) will easily make back any money we could possibly extort from them. Fuck returning to pre-war borders. If we were going to do that we should have crushed the whole city.

>>15009871
No. We take their city and land. They pay for attacking us and we demonstrate to the world that we are a potent force able to hang with the big guys.

>>15009906
>>15009913
Conquestmind? Two minutes apart though so I guess not quite a -mind.

>>15009906
No, no it wasn't. Look the entire war was because bitchtits apparently wants one of the many things we have, and she used Rhasver to go and get it.

Here's a proposal:

We'll give back the city. Really, it isn't a huge benefit to us, it's a civilized area, and the inhabitants are going to hate us. HATE us.

Return to pre-war borders. If any change, it should be that we should own the mountain range we were initially fighting over. It's valuable, give it to our kobolds.

Then exact demands from Rhasver in exchange for their city. Anything from tribute to nice things for our followers. This is their nearest city to us, let's insist that the treat kobolds and lizardmen as equals (our chosen people, after all,) get some exclusive or unfair trade agreements going, hand over Enchantress Bitch, and so on. We can get so much more out of this than just land.

im thinking we keep the city, we worked hard to take it, and they brought it on themselves. they can have it back only with major concessions in some other area.

and if they want peace, they have to produce the enchantress.

>>15009947
No, I suggest you re-read the thread the war started in. We let the war progress without trying to be overly diplomatic because we wanted to conquer territory. That WAS the reason.

We take the city. That shit is ours now. Cities give way more riches than a one-time tribute anyway and we earned it besides.

>>15009947
Yes it was. We could have tried for a diplomatic resolution, but we decided that letting the Magus manipulate Rhasver into a war would fold well into our plans for gaining more territory.

Which city on the map is the one that we took? The farthest east of the rhasver cities, the one on the coast?

Cause that one is in a good spot, both for us getting it and denying it to Rhasver/Morinth.

>>15010035
Yes. And I agree, it's a good catch. Can add to our trade empire and is close to the sea for easy reinforcement.

>>15010055
More importantly, it denies Rhasver an eastern port city, meaning to get to Morinth by ship they would have to go past us.

>>15010070
Yeah, making such an ENORMOUS Stretch of cost ours and ours alone should be an enormous boon to us. We're quickly becoming the one and only place to do business in this entire region.

Lets end the war now and keep the city, made it clear to Rhasver that it could cost them way to much to get it back and if they do all they will have for there effort will be molten rock more dead people and bad bad weather, on the other hand if they agree to make peace with us they will have the people we capture back, good weather and normal trader relations back.

Annexation. The word is simply wonderful; to say, to roll around on your tongue, to hear... The city of Liergrad surrendered to you, and you have given the orders to move in and fortify it. Rebuild the copious destruction you caused, to assist surviving populace, and consolidate over the several thousand civilians you are now assimilating...

Naturally, of course, Rhasver doesn't like it. They scream, shout, and then move on to dragging their feet, fighting the treaty every step of the way. It is forced through, however, by the efforts of your own agitators, and some of their own; the next closest city isn't terribly fond of the war all of a sudden, and becomes a prominent voice for peace upon the High Council. You struggle to contain your delight. It is a near thing.

Despite their recalcitrance, peace comes at last, due to the myriad of forces arrayed against them. You almost regret- perhaps you could have taken the next city too... You suppose you will never know. Not to say you'll never take it- there's always time to expand later. For the moment, though, it seems wise to halt your expansionism lest you actually appear to be a threat to other powers. At any rate, the treaty grants you Leirgrad and a significant section of Rhasver's coastline. Not all, sadly, despite everything you can do, but enough to severely cripple Rhasver's eastern naval strength. And bolster your own...

The actual treaty signing takes place after three months more of sporadic fighting. The local Rhasverian Nobility, primarily a duke Borgrundur act as the king's emissary in this matter, with the Gold, Clytavernax. With Seffestranias obligated to attend as a ruler of an involved power, you can't resist bringing Nehmaska disguised as a guard and assistant. While a tad risky, it tickles your sense of irony to have four dragons around the the table, three of them on your side. Seffestranias leaves most of the affair to you, speaking as little as is required of her. You, pretending to be an agent of Lord Prestor, handle the finalization and signing of the treaty, all the while heartily entertained by the way Clytavernax stares daggers at Seffestranias, and utterly fails to unsettle her.

You conclude the treaty with the reluctant Rhasverian delegate- sadly they could not locate Magister Tvana, but have agreed to declare her a criminal and extradite her if the opportunity arrives- and stand to leave, Seffestranias and Nehmaska following. Seffestranias pauses to offer a taunting bow in the Gold's direction before leaving, and you find yourself suppressing a smile. Nehmaska, too, as it happens- Though disguised and not suspected as a dragon, she seems quite amused at the Gold's discomfort as well.

“Ah... That was... entertaining.” Seffestranias comments as you exit the building- The once-Rhasverian town hall of Liergrad. “If you would like to dismiss your help?”

“Certainly.” you answer, nodding curtly at Nehmaska. She bows and departs, leaving you and Seffestranias alone, albeit in humanoid forms.

“As for my... share of the spoils. Your campaign turned out to be remarkably deficient in plunder...” Seffestranias says, walking beside you.

“You desire?”

“Hmm... A hundred and twenty five thousand gold. At least.” Seffestranias demands. “As a start.”

“That's a sizable chunk of change.” you reply without affirmation. “What else?”

“Adamantine...” Seffestranias purrs, glancing at you. “I've seen what your minions are armored with. I desire... similar supplies of my own. I might start at half a ton, negotiable.... This is, of course, assuming that I have reason to demand payment from you.”

“I believe you assisted as I requested. Why wouldn't you?”

“If, perhaps, you have come to a decision regarding my offer.” Seffestranias says blandly. “After all, I could hardly charge a fellow diarch or duumvir... It would be... Imporoper, I think. Naturally, I would not ask that you abandon your... infernal concubine if you did not desire to, but I believe that our states might find themselves stronger in union than apart, and find the prospect appetizing... Along with a few others.”

>>15010337
Ack

i think it would also be in our best interest for union but of course Scinnari will always be top concubine, should ask Scinnari about it first of course.

>>15010337
Damn she is really pushing us on this. Was her involvement in the war not paid on the start of said involvement?

Either we marry her or she presses exorbitant fees for her service. Fantastic. I think we should find out whether she's really just interested in the political aspect, or if she wants something more. I just the political, then throw out a bunch of deals that approximate the same thing as union, but keeps our independence.

I guaran-fucking-tee she'll be a tad upset if she discovers our situation with the Binder.

>>15010337
Tsss. WD, did we seriously enter into this without an agreement already made? That's a remarkable lack of foresight. Ah well.

Half a ton of adamantine is... probably just right the fuck out of the question. We won't know until you give us figures for about how much we produce yearly, but it's likely a ludicrous demand.

The 125k though? Eh, it's a lot but I'm inclined to just accept that at face value without negotiating as the price for good relations. Especially seeing as we're going to be turning her offer down. Politely, and suggest that a strong alliance is most acceptable.

>>15010374
Even a purely political marriage is unacceptable. We are the ruler of our domain, she's pushing for a union as equals. Screw that.

>>15010337
Out of the question on marriage and the ore. Phrase it nicer though.

>>15010365
Agreed. We'd be in prime position to subsume her empire if she got offed (which, really, is still pretty likely. Maybe we can arrange for her to take a ballista bolt,) and we'd also be in prime condition to keep very close tabs on her.

Really, I want to either go 'sure' or 'Stuff it where the sun doesn't shine.'. Probalby isn't wise, but that's my interest.

No to union. The gold is payment enough in addition to all that plunder she had. She's trying to play us for fools here.

Marriage, no.

Alliance, sure.

Offer it. If she takes it, she just wants our gold. If she doesn't, she wants us. And that'll get nasty real quick.

I'm off to bed. Don't get us married by accident.

>>15010399
I think we are already allied and she wants a full on merging of territories with equal shares of power to which I say no no no

IMO we should keep things exactly as they are. We still have those favorable trade rights that we got way back so there is no point in unioning. Plus I don't trust another dragon especially not seffy

>>15010375
>>15010390
She was promised plunder from the war, since it was too far away from her to insist on territory. Then you went and didn't plunder the most valuable conquest (Liergrad), leaving her somewhat short on what was expected, if not promised.

And half a ton would be about a year and a half's tithe on the dwarves.

WRITER DUDE OH GOD I WANT TO CUM IN YOUR NOSTRILS LET ME TOUCH YOU.

i think adamantine is out of the question, even giving a token ammount will just make her want more.

>>15010410
That is too much adamantium but since she got shorted on the plunder a bit I think we should probably give that to her.

No to the marriage obviously.

>>15010410
>year and a half

damn.

Haggle her down from this. She never would've gotten that much adamantium from looting. quarter-ton, we can afford the gold.

She's shown no signs that she could be an effective and worthy co-ruler. No marriage.

>>15010420
Oh and I mean the gold not the adamantium. Don't give her our precious unique mineral but the gold is probably enough even though it's likely overpaying.

>>15010337

Oh wow, well, uh, did it just get warmer in here, or is that just me?

"There's truth in your words Seffestranias, but I would risk many recent gains were I to agree to such a union...and a few older ones. For the moment, a fee and a half-tonne seem the wiser choice for my kingdom. I trust that will content you as well?"

>>15010431
I don't think we should give her any adamantium at all. She's overcharging us bigtime for what wasn't that much help.

A hundred and twenty five thousand gold is already a huge price. Plus she still got a decent amount of loot, just not the mother load that she was expecting from a city looting. I say that's plenty, even she knows that there are limits to what we'll bend. I think we've been to generous in the past and she sees us as too free with our stuff.

it is best we keep her happy we have few allies it is best to not go making them rivals.

Besides she has technically black mail material against us.

While painful giving her admantine is probably best for the long run.

It's funny that we're all set on the payment, because she deliberately set it so high that we'd be tempted for the marriage to avoid paying it.

So paying the fee is going to be a huge smack to her face. I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't invite us over anymore after this.

Guys 125k gold is four times what we paid the bronze who did a lot more than Seffy. Tell her no on the adamant. And the marriage ofc.

>>15010441

But uh, on reading the additional info, yeah, haggle a little, perhaps. The Dwarves aren't strictly under our employ and would *not* be happy to lose that- we'd have to compensate them for their losses, and they could make up any hefty ol' number.

>>15010454
True, but I mean, she has been risking her life for us in battle. I'm somewhat torn. honestly, I kind o flike her.

>>15010452
Oh forgot to add i agree with the post about haggling with her.

>>15010452
If you pay her extortion now then she'll just ask for even more next time. Every time we've dealt with seffy she has demand ridiculous money... except that one time with the devils and I think that was personal.

She'd never get along with Scinnari. If we DID agree to a marriage, we'd stay in our separate lairs except for conjugal visits.

>>15010462
So did the bronze. We paid it 30k-35k to both break a current contract with Rhasaver and then switch sides to us. For the entire war. Seffy blew us off and now is trying to rip us off. Fuck that bitch.

On the other hand, part of me wants to show off our hoard and go "Look at how successful I am. Now look at you. Now look at me. I'm the king of Mza."

Also we'd presumably be doing our genetic duty by continuing the pure dragon species, as opposed to half dragons. But that's the eugenicist in me speaking.

>>15010494
Species's gotta perpetuate, mang. It'd kind of suck to be the last red dragon.

I say we call her out on her tactics here, something like.

"So either pay your exuberant fee or marry you, hmm? And I am supposed to look favorably upon a tactic to pin me into a union?"

Followed by haggling.

>>15010504
>>15010494
If you guys want to stick it into a red and get little reds then we can do that in time with another less dangerous one. This one is trying to blatantly extort us.

>>15010504
... The fuck? Hells no it wouldn't. Competition, gone!

>>15010515
I like this. Call her out on it and then say we'll pay her the just reward she wants in gold but not the shiny armor mineral that I can't spell.

Not to mention, mine fellows, that getting with her would reveal our own draconic heritage in a much clearer way than we currently do with Azyra. And open us up to enmity with those nations north of Beren- and with a lot of other 'good' nations who are sat on the fence over us.

Seriously at this point it's looking like the only way to get her to stop is to clap her in bands and toss her on top of the hoard.

From IRC, a delicious summation of my feelings but said by someone else:

You sit out for half the war, jump in when we start to turn it around, do far less than the other dragons we had working for us (except the gold), then demand a giant bonus on top of our already generous terms? Bitch please.

Obviously don't say that, but it's pretty much what I'm thinking inside.

>>15010537
>Seriously at this point it's looking like the only way to get her to stop is to clap her in bands and toss her on top of the hoard.
Don't even think about it.

>>15010547

And whhhyyyyyyyyyy not?

>>15010557
Cause she'll kill us or herself before that happens.

Personally, I'm inclined to work with her, but I've already said that, and been outvoted. Let's give her her admantium (whatever less we can haggle her down to,) and point her to the door. I do not wish to 'short' her as that would probably not be a good idea in the future, let along pissing her off at the moment.

>>15010618
You can't short someone who is demanding a bonus in the first place. I can't believe you are considering giving her any adamantium at all when that ridiculous amount of gold is on the table too. Unless you are saying pay her JUST the adamantium. Then... maybe. We would have to see the market value.

Marry her, magically enchant some sexy lingerie to give to her with similar enchantments to Cygnis's choker. Have her strip naked, activate the choker, teleport in everyone, stick her with the dragonslaying sword we looted in the tutorial zone, high-five all involved.

Commence after a difficult fight that left her wounded for maximum success chance.

>>15010618

Plenty of ways to deal with something like that.

>>15010672

Being...something of an example. Certainly, marriage or some romance.

“There's truth in your words, Seffestranias, but I would risk many recent gains were I to agree to such a union... and a few older ones. For the moment, a fee and a half-tonne seem the wiser choice for my kingdom. I trust that will content you was well?” you ask cautiously. You have seen her in combat, and do not fancy yourself against her, certainly not at such close quarters.

“If I recall, /my/ kingdom is slightly older than yours...” Seffestranias rumbles with a hint of danger in her tone.

“Indeed... But I am afraid I am somewhat unimpressed by your tactic of extortion. Pay an exorbitant fee, or marry you? That hardly seems a... proper proposal.” you counter, using the word she did to propose the arrangement. Seffestranias, to your surprise, chuckles.

“Ah... that is the problem with our kind, isn't it? So... arrogant. What is the human expression... cannot see beyond our own noses?” She ruminates idly. “I say marry, regarding our... public identities. You exhibit an exemplar ego, but while I would not object, neither would I chase such base... desires.” she says calmly. “I see our empires as similar- Trade states, and relatively wealthy- We evidently chose well regarding our domains. I see us as relatively well matched, if in different aspects- I rule with strength, and I confess you rule with skill and subtlety. On the other claw, You confront with subtlety and trickery, but are at times somewhat lacking, regarding sheer... force. I am not.” Her pride is evident, but she does sound like she's trying to be very reasonable and relatively humble in the matter. “Really, I was not offering a bribe, but the terms of such an arrangement- I would expect to be able to count upon your assistance, and vice-versa.”

Just no. And now for a realistic plan!

Kill the black blocking the trade in the pass to Aquitaine and offer special tax-reduced prices to their merchants for a couple years. Once the pass is safe they will naturally begin choosing our lower prices, broader selection, more stable empire, and far reaching sea-lanes to peddle their wears in rather than the shithole that is Beren. Trade will decline and Seffy's empire will start running into more financial difficult, especially considering that extra tax she levies on everything. We get more income, more power, and even more relative power.

“It is somewhat difficult to avoid noticing your... fidelity... to your devil. I find it bizarre, but as I'm sure you are thinking, it isn't my place to judge. “ Seffestranias continues. “Perhaps the foundations of an alliance that could, perhaps, stand up to the Suzerains of the deserts, or the coppers of the south east- East to you, I suppose. But I am content with your refusal; if you find such prospects so unpalatable, or are so very worried about my... presence, you are certainly entitled to say no. A pity, as I'm sure you realize I think, but your right nonetheless.” she replies. “Do see that my payment is paid, though.”

“An awful large payment for someone so... late to the war.” you reply, struggling to suppress your irritation. “I hired a Bronze to not only assist me, but to go back upon her prior contract in the process. She fought out the entire conflict for a mere thirty five thousand.”

“Ah, but that is a Bronze, is it not?” Seffestranias replies. “Not only was she shielded by the water and facing mere boats, the contract she 'broke' was merely to serve against Aquitaine, not Mza. It is notoriously difficult to aim a ballista from a rocking ship, or so I am told. A tower, on the other hand....” Seffestranias says, shifting in the dress she is wearing slightly. Movement of the sleeve reveals a sizable puckered scar wound upon her upper right arm. “I will accept a quarter ton of admantine and a hundred thousand gold... Really, I'm interested in the adamantine, and the gold is only an obligatory gesture... I assume you can afford it?”

“Of course, but that is hardly the issue at hand.” you reply, annoyance certainly prominent in your tone now.

“Of course not. The matter at hand is my payment.” Seffestranias replies primly. “Do see it delivered- For the moment, I think, the time has come for me to take my leave.”

>>15010728
>Really, I'm interested in the adamantine
Yeah, I fucking bet you are bitch.

How much is a quarter ton of adamantine worth on the markets?

I kinda like keeping the Black where it is; removal of him will make our hand in it obvious, either through hiring adventurers or the Black 'mysteriously' disappearing when it's plain for all interested parties to see that only a dragon could have done it.

Though I'm all for knocking Seffy down a peg, I'd hope to do it with less enmity than such would achieve. Still...if there's no other way, perhaps something can be found.

Next time we visit Seffy we need to bring the Watcher along. We can do it when we deliver the payment personally and have idle banter with her as she looks it over.

I'm just about fed up with Seffy and a good mind reading is exactly what we need.

>>15010728

Disregard statement at >>15010761 . Ruin her.

She'll get what's coming to her that Seffy, mark our words! She wants sex so much she can have it in the lizardmen barracks, chained to a post!

Okay, WD just answered our question in IRC.

Quarter ton of adamantine: 250k gold

So let's size this up here and give a comparison.
Full war for adult bronze and to break contract with target: 35k
Blue adults for war: 30-50k
10 blue adults to attack Rhasaverian capital until it's ash and cinders: 500k
1 red adult for half the war: 350k plus looting our conquests.

One of these is not like the other.

Tell that bitch she can have her 125k, in either adamantine, gold, or some combination of the two.

still toying with the idea of politically uniting both realms. it could work out well in the long term and would be interesting to have seffy on staff as a Governess.

Scinnari will remain our queen and we would be able to marshal more force if need be one in the form of a adult red dragon besides us.

>>15010830
Oh, and be aware she was asking for 625k gold originally on top of the loot she got from the war.

That's more than ten blues doing a suicide run on the dwarven siege engine expert's capital city.

>>15010833

There are so many negatives to us doing that I don't even.

We have the larger empire, all the foriegn friends and trade we'd be turning away, revealing our draconic nature, domestic falling outs...

>>15010830
More around 180k. But yeah, she is asking a lot.


Getting awful early in the morning. Think I'll call it a night here. Plans, ideas, and what you want seen to. On the list I have:

Cygnis.
Azyra's familiar.
Your lizardman/green halfdragons aerial corp.
Visit Nehmaska.

Anything else? Any of those titanically more important than the others? And, of course,what do with Seffy?

>>15010728
Righteyo, we're going to need to murderinate the cunt.

Step 1: Wait for her to be injured
Step 2: Get her out of Beren
Step 3: Ensure a large amount of our allies are with us, and that at least one has the dragon-slaying sword.
Step 4: Prevent her teleport, and ideally, prevent her from being in dragon form.
Step 5: SHANK'D
Step 6: Matching scale armor for Azyra.

Best option would be to give a $GENERIC_TARGET a mind blank amulet, and tell it you're going to help it attack Seffy. Pay Seffy to help you attack it, then suddenly BACK STAB'd.

>>15010833
If we marry her it's so we can shank her as soon as she's naked and humanform. Let's hope she's enough of a whore to fall for that.
Find out what her fetishes are and play on them long enough to develop a routine, then murder her unexpectedly.
We have Scinnari, she can help us with the art of "Seduce someone into trusting you with sexiness then stab them".

WD, can we look into having the alchemist guild start on mutation of our lizardmen? Maybe train some of our magical study toward it? I think our Chosen should be actually superhuma.. er, superlizardman. They're damn good warriors as it is, but when they move with blinding speed, regenerate wounds and are magic resistant..? Then we'll have warriors worthy of us.

>>15010883
And maybe some scale based adaptive colouration. Failing that, at least make them red.

>Plans, ideas, and what you want seen to.
Take the lava makin' machine we have in the cloud fort.
Park it over drow tunnels.
Receive elf BBQ

Need to focus our efforts on killin' demons and slayin' drow before we can stab a Red Dragon.
With all this fighting evil and having a Silver dragon for an ally, people might mistake us as "good". Blech.

>>15010894
I like the elf BBQ idea.

>>15010894

This, and say we won't stop until the Drow Queen does our dishes for us. They're positively COVERED in cloud right now.

>>15010907
Since we have earth elementals, we can even continue the Lava-flavored Love well after all the tunnels are lava'd shut.

>>15010937
Chain her to our throne.
Collect the whole set of Mary Sue races.

>>15010952
I was about to comment on the irony of a /dragon/ saying that, but upon further thought, we /do/ have Cygnis.

"The drow mistress curses you to Lloth, and claims you'll never take her alive, as Scinnari stabs her through the abdomen with a dagger coated in paralytic poison."
"Take her alive y/n?"
>Mfw Writer-dude causes waifu wars 5

>>15010794
The pillory is a wonderful device...

>>15010980

Such wars would be much shorter if people didn't insist on wanting to kill every girl we can capture.

>>15011004
I am now picturing Azaladon having a long, long hallway full of various females chained to the walls on each side. I am not sure what to think of it.

>>15011004
They would be even shorter than that if anon would think with something other than his dick every time a new female is introduced.

We learned a lot in this war. It's fair to say that any future military endeavours we undertake will have an aerial component- and this is what whoever we're going against will plan for and prepare to counter.

In light of this, I'd like to look into other ways of strengthening our combat potential- notably underground combat, which we really could have used during this siege to break it much earlier on- perhaps some form of underground insertion devices, or troops or items who can phase up through the floor then mass-teleport troops in.

I'd also like to look into Golems to add to our forces, as it seems they worked pretty well for Rhasver, and with the proper handling could also do well for us.

>>15010872
>“I say marry, regarding our... public identities. You exhibit an exemplar ego, but while I would not object, neither would I chase such base... desires.”
I think she's way ahead of you.

>>15011017

And shorter still if that other certain anon realized it's not about the dick, considering we haven't tried to dick Nehmaska even the once.

I say we pull a Cygnis' brother on her.

Except with us being the slut this time.

>>15011072
I say we don't.

Besides, we have drow and devil problems right now, plus consolidation of our new territory.

>>15011072
... You want to die horribly and have Azyra wear a dress made out of our skin?

>>15011013
Typical evil overlord business.

>>15011082

It seems to me that wouldn't go down too well, seeing as Azyra actually likes her.

>>15011081

This. I say that after a bit more bartering or such we dop it and focus on stuff that matters. It's hardly worth murdering or enslaving her for...well, not right now.

>>15011115
Kind of like Cygnis liked us before we made her wear Az-Douche.

>>15011128

I'd say the whole 'enslaving' part was the bit that made her not like us more.

Unless we're planning on adding Azyra to our slaves?

>>15010858
More complete list in order of importance:
Sky Castle Drow Lava Flood*
Azyra's familiar
Remove black from Aquitaine trade route**
Status on southern holdings
Your lizardman/green halfdragons aerial corp.
Visit Nehmaska
Dragonscale Armor
Cygnis
Adamantine Dragon Armor***

*: Ideally don't kill them all, I would like to have them forge the armor rather than the dwarves. They won't tell anyone and even if they did nobody would listen to goddamned drow.
**: We might also want to formally propose opening trade with Aquitaine "In the spirit of continued good relations." War alliance before and all.
***: We might not have enough adamatine yet, but if a quarter ton is enough for Seffy to make dragon armor then we surely have enough. Honestly I just hope we don't have enough and she has nowhere close to enough.

>>15011139
...I think you're getting confused here. Hint:
>... You want to die horribly and have Azyra wear a dress made out of our skin?
>Die horribly
>Our skin
We wouldn't be adding /anyone/ to our slaves.

1. Flush Drow out with lava
2. Enslave those that flee to the surface and not deeper underground
3. Make them do dishes
4. ?????
5. PROFIT!

i already stated this but i think we should unite even if just for political purposes it would benefit us both greatly. Seffy could be governor of her own regen and having an dragon ally on call would be nice. In return we will offer protection and she can benefit a little form our endeavors. Only problem is that she may demand too much or cause us trouble if she loses her temper.


However mating is another story so far not sure if Scinnari would want us to have another consort also some people seem adamantly against it so i would take a wait and see stance.


Seffy is asking for allot almost extortion levels. we talked her down to a more reasonable level but it is still alot. Frankly i think that paying her is the better outcome since we don't need any more enemy's than we already have. However if we unite politically we can maybe get her to lower her price especially if we can guaranty her an increase to her treasure from her territory.

As for cygnius we should check up on her. in fact i am tempted to take her to twice bound since we stated we would take her to him; maybe ask him about his history with lore keeper. However afraid that twice bound may confirm or lie that we also have a bit of gold in us just to screw with us.


As for watcher while a permanent body may be beyond our means or desirable. We could reward watcher time to time by using poly morph object giver her a body for a period of time. It makes her happy and dependent on us to keep her that way. (BTW make sure no one can use the polymorph object on an already polymorphed object to make it permanent BS before we do this.)

>>15011139
>>15011115
Christ kid it was a humorous observation, take a hint and get beaten with a clue stick.

>>15011163
continued

Nehmaska should be congratulated and rewarded if she was not already. Tempted to start giving her more important jobs like maybe the reconstruction of the Territory we acquired. Or looking for our disappearing enchanter (carefully). Personally i think she knows that Lord Prestor is Azladon but we probably will continue pretending until it is clear if she knows for certain or not.

>>15011158

Oh right, sorry. Missed the joke.

I say flood the Drow, then chill at home for a while check out everyone/everything that needs to be done there (including another look in at the devils). -Maybe have an after-war city-party. Then go see Nehm and give her a pat on the back and maybe discuss what she thought of Seffy and the whole war thing- perhaps assign her a task to look for the enchantress who started it all in the meantime, after a bit of r&r for herself- and mebbe some spending money.

Then get back home and start for the longer plans regarding military matters, trade diplomacy (food to Rhasver), maybe an update on what some of the dragons are doing.

>>15010883
Having a more 'elite' and magical corps would help to foster their faith even further, I think - the Chosen would be even further separate from regular lizard people.

>>15011163
Are you insane? "Assign her as a governor" to an area?

HAHAHAHA!!

With the ego and greed she has displayed so far there would be nothing less than a complete 50/50 split of power. Pull your head out of the clouds.

>Frankly i think that paying her is the better outcome
No, ridiculous.

>in fact i am tempted to take her to twice bound since we stated we would take her to him
Don't be retarded. And why would we care what we said when we were plotting to enslave her?

>It makes her happy and dependent on us to keep her that way.
Yeah, how about no. Also, artifact you moron. It can't be polymorphed.

>>15011202

To add, enslaving some of the Drow and getting them to make us some armour is both good and bad- I'm not sure if they have the same quality control as the Dwarves do, even if they would ask less questions. And they might not be willing anyway.

>>15011163
Funny joke, Anon.

Can we get back to serious discussion now?

>>15011206

Add this to the military reforms along with the air force, golem-research and underground forms of attack/teleport APC's.

...Man, it feels like we should have an R&D department.

>>15011163
>>15011168
Ideas... so... bad... must... not... laugh...

>>15011155
Seems mainly good, though I'd prefer to put the black a bit further down the list, hell, even at the bottom. For one thing, better not to move against Seffy straight off after this. For another, it may give us a chance to test our dragon armour.

Also, I'd rather not have the Drow craft it for us, as I'd rather we kept Mr Smaug as a psuedonym, rather than an epitaph.

>>15011225
>military reforms
What reforms do we need? Our army is very effective already.

>underground forms of attack/teleport APC's.
....wut? I don't even. How about we put our time into something useful, hey?

>>15011248

We really could've used something like that to break the siege early on, and though our flying castle was effective, people will be expecting that from us- no doubt more Ballista's out the wazoo.

I'd prefer to cover our bases in other ways- non-descript agents who walk into a city with a portable teleport pentagram to allow continuous emergence of troops within the enemy walls, for instance. Or the same, but the person has 'Etherealness' cast on them to make entrance even easier.

>>15011246
I agree with not moving against Seffy so early, but this would just be a logical move that seems entirely innocent. We're a trade empire, of course we would want to open trade with a newly friendly neighbor state. There's actually nothing suspicious about that at all. Hell, it would look more suspicious not to open trade.

But I completely agree with you, no way we should move against Seffy yet.

Also, I think we should visit her personally when we deliver the payment and have watcher on our belt. We can say we came to explain why there is less than she demanded and she would probably be less than eager to fight us when we have a powerful greater artifact of unknown purpose at our hip.

>>15011237
To be fair, the second post was fair enough and mostly in line with what other people have suggested.

The first one was pants-on-head retarded, though.

>>15011266
>Hell, it would look more suspicious not to open trade.

... Not really, not when said "Opening trade" involves dealing with a Black Dragon.

>>15011267
Clearly we are not reading the same post. He suggested making Nesh a territorial governor within a lawful evil empire.

>>15011055
I retract earlier statements, choke a bitch.

>>15011276
Yeah, a black dragon who is cramping our profits from Aquitaine. I think you'd agree Seffy would see that as a completely normal thing to do, as much as she goes around killing stuff.

Hell, we could just pay it to go away via one of our merchant fronts if we really wanted to keep our hands clean. But I am not in favor of spending that kind of money, probably.

rolled 49 = 49

I dont see why we should be too upset.

This is why you dont make such open contracts, we should have made a clause that specifiex the pay if looting was not possible

Though I agree using Watcher on her.

>>15011284
>>15011276
>>15011266
>>15011246
In case you are wondering what we are talking about we are referring to the plan against Seffy posted here: >>15010725

General agreement is we shouldn't try to economically destroy her because it would give her forewarning of our intent. Rather, we should launch a complete alpha strike when we can first.

>>15011278
Not really, he suggested assigning her to rebuilding or hunting down what's-her-face. That does not mean putting her in charge.
Also, she probably wouldn't be a terrible governor, so long as we put her somewhere that there was much more focus on Lawful than Evil.

>>15011284
Oh, I'm not saying that it would necessarily be suspicious if we took it out (though others might wonder how), I was just saying people aren't going to find us not opening a trade route suspicious when opening the route involves dealing with a Black and our nation just finished a war against a larger and more powerful nation.

>>15011278
Nehm is, if nothing else, reliable. Also cheap. Decent help is rare, decent help that is also free is practically nonexistent.

>>15011344
Not on an empire-wide scale it's not. Exceptional assertive help is rare. Competent or proficient help is not.

Also guys, suggestion for the list and put it near the top of things we do, high priority. We need to give our spies and assets in Seffy's kingdom a shakedown. Make sure we know what they can do, how deeply in they are, and that they are not compromised. Then begin expanding.

We are going to need to take her down fairly soon. She prides herself on not ruling by guile like we do, but she's apparently starting up the internal propaganda and counter-espionage street nonetheless. We are vastly better than her at the moment (I think and hope) and we should take advantage of that if we can.

>>15011334
...What the fuck are you talking about? She /did/ loot. She got everything we agreed on, and then decided to extort us for more.

>>15011266
>Also, I think we should visit her personally when we deliver the payment and have watcher on our belt. We can say we came to explain why there is less than she demanded and she would probably be less than eager to fight us when we have a powerful greater artifact of unknown purpose at our hip.
Dude, what. What the fuck. No. We don't let people see Watcher. Have her concealed with us, yes. Let people see her, no.

>>15011357
Fine, conceal Watcher then if we can.

But I think you were talking about seffy in your first quote when the guy you quoted was talking about neshy. I mean, it's still a bad idea but meh.

>>15011357
See
>>15010410


We promised her halfsies on every town we sacked, and then didn't sack anything. That's what her problem is.

She's still a bitch, but she has a legitimate problem with us.

>>15011383
No, we promised her a portion of all the loot from the campaign. She still made bank, just not as much as she was expecting. And that's why I don't think anyone objects to paying her the (frankly too large) amount of gold. But the adamantine? That's pure extortion and greed. She asked for 125k in gold and 360k in adamantine originally. I mean, holy shit what? Then she "generously" cut it down to 100k gold and 180k adamantine then just walked out on us as we were talking with her about it.

Fuck that bitch.

>>15011371
Erm, no. Nemmy hasn't demanded anything, and nothing in her contracted specified looting (quite the opposite, that would probably be bad moral stuff for her).

We need to start fighting more, if only so we don't need to worry about claw-to-claw juggernauts like Seffy deciding we'd look GREAT mounted above her mantle at random when we can't prepare. We're really dragon batman at the moment.

>>15011410
My bad read the wrong post. Yeah, you were right. Seffy is totally trying to fuck us over... in both meanings of the phrase.

>>15011411

Dragon Batman sans martial arts.

Perhaps we should take some tutelage. Then again, how does one learn dragon kung-fu?

>>15011411
That's hardly a reason to go out and risk our life. Why fight when you don't need to?

>>15011426
Find smaller but still unpleasant beast. Murder. Repeat. Dragons preferable.

>>15011421
>“I say marry, regarding our... public identities. You exhibit an exemplar ego, but while I would not object, neither would I chase such base... desires.”

Nope, just one meaning of the phrase.

>>15011432
Been there, done that.

>>15011427
So that when someone right next to us decides we would look good mounted on a wall with no warning whatsoever we're entirely capable of leaving them wearing their insides without needing to plan. Certainly we're capable, but someone like Seffy? Entirely different thing.

>>15011447
Don't be retarded. We're never going to match up to Seffy in raw strength and skill while still maintaining our most important traits: magical ability, learned knowledge, and intelligence superiority. If Seffy is standing right next to us and suddenly launches a surprised attack then we are pretty fucked period. We're not a bad combatant, but we aren't stellar either. Why? We're a caster, not a fighter like Seffy. Yes we can shred shit with ease due to our inherent dragonyness and the fights we've been in so far. No, we shouldn't be stupid and go around picking random fights for no reason.

We strive for excellence in magic, not physical combat or stealth.

>>15011542
Excellence in magic and the mental sphere in general, I mean. Not just magic of course.

Archived. Don't forget to vote.
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=dragon%20quest
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/15005410/

So, when can you do the next quest?