S'cool, guys, I've played lots of adventure games. I've got this.

> USE BRUSH ON DROPSHIP

>>17180015
You brush the dropship. It looks oh so pretty now.

>>17179943
I think we agreed to allow the 'Drac nabbed a girl' story to spread. Anyone else checking it out would see the signs of struggle, and if we can get them more actively hostile toward each other, that can work in our favor no matter which plan we go with next.

Personally I think keeping our ground team in town and helping keep any spill over from the fighting counts from harming the villagers should be our next move from there. Meanwhile the probe droid and al'kesh silently monitor activity between the castles.

rolled 89 = 89

>>17180056
Right, then. About how much time will you wait and observe?

>>17180051

I don't believe you! USE MIRROR ON DROPSHIP

>>17180056
Basically.
Step 1: Stir shit between the two.
Step 2: Seem generally neutral and town defending.
Step 3: Spy like a motherfucker, get ideas of the Counts' forces, strengths, and placement.
Step 4: Look for an opportunity to strike at them when they have weakened each other.

There is a chance that that Step 4 may come in the form of Strahd trying to hire us, and exploiting that to our advantage. Or just watching for a moment of weakness, like both their armies being fully committed to battling each other, and surprise flanking in the chaos and/or making a push for the Counts while the minions are busy.

Also might want to consider steps to reinforce the beliefs that one counts has the other's woman if they don't take the carrot initially.

>>17180093
If observing the castles doesn't show an increase in fighting during the night following, we'll have to take other steps to encourage them to fight each other.

rolled 24 = 24

>>17180114
The Mirror of Truth reveals the fact that no matter HOW hard you try to primp and groom, you will ALWAYS just be a BIG, FAT, BLOCKY LEOPARD. You'll NEVER be sleek and deadly like the Avenger or Achilles. Sure, you may not be as chubby as that blimp Overlord, but you will NEVER be more than a MERE DROPSHIP!

>>17180132
>>17180160
So about a day, then? Is your team going to still be at the inn during night-time?

OP, did we get that projection of the appearance of the owner of the hair on the brush?
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/17137538/#17151204

Might be useful if we want to play with illusions/holograms to stir them up.

>>17180204
Considering we've were active at night, probably want to put on a show of resting in the room during the day after breakfasting and sharing the tale of a great gargoyle carrying a certain woman away. Then openly active at night, offering to help the night watchmen, might press them for some pittance of payment just to keep up appearances.

>>17180233
The projection is ready the next day. The computer projects a vision of a woman that bears a striking resemblance to both Lisa and Tatayna, almost as if she were a merging of the two. She also bears a strking resemblance to Lyla, oddly enough.

>>17180282
>might press them for some pittance of payment just to keep up appearances
Room and board at the inn, perhaps?

>>17180291
Hm, if Elaine doesn't bear a good resemblance, might consider putting her back in her regular gear.
See if the Inde can replicate the parts and put together a holoemitter, which ever size they can manage. Solid photonic would be preferred, but we'll make do. Probably can do a small non-solid emitter and a largish solid.
If we want to fool these guys, I think science is the better choice with all their magic mojo.

During one of the Knight Inductor's village patrols, in which the mist seems to roll around them especially heavy, they hear a loud whinnying, and the clomping of hooves. Dull red lights are visible in the mists, but only when they come closer do the knights seem them as crimson eyes beneath dark helms.

A quintet of riders in dark cloaks and full black armor approach the space marines. They ride the fiendish horses known as Nightmares and stare at the otherworldly warriors with a complete lack of concern. One of them begins to speak in a deep, resonant voice.

"My master, Count Strahd Von Zarovich, bids you and yours come to his castle this night, and be his guests. He wishes to discuss... important matters with you. Go, and give this message to your fellows. All of them. Leave at once."

With that, the dread knights turn and begin to ride into the mist.

>>17180410
Elaine bears similarity, but Lyla is striking.

Putting together a holo-emitter is possible.

Use Mirror of Truth on Lyla and Darius separately.

What can possibly go wrong?

>>17180447

I get a feeling that this is an obvious trap, but it seems to be the most straightforward way to get some answers.

Who will we send along to meet with Strahd?

The dice are distorting themselves.

They are feeding off our despair, as if they were grief seeds.

>>17180447
Hm. Seems the rumors and our previous tales have worked.
Time to play our part as people of Londinium.
Darius, prepare your men to walk into a dragon's den for a chat. Slip the third white mage to the ground team, so that we go to Strahd with the same number of people we came into town with.

>>17180410
>>17180461

Could it be entirely possible that we were running around with a reincarnation of Tatyana/Lisa whose soul(s) crossed canons and then somehow merged in to one person?

Or did we just happen to win the same-looks lottery?

>>17180592
The whole ground team, seemed to be what Strahd's 'man' was asking for anyway.
Which is normal enough for meeting with a group of adventurers.

That's the part we ultimately need to play, to play toward the tropes that are familiar to Strahd's world. Wandering armed groups traveling the land and being willing to hire out their services is not an unusual thing to him.

>>17180697
Think we won the same looks lottery.
There is even a question of whether Tatyana actually reincarnates or just the Dark Powers dicking with Strahd and it is just that he believes that a woman every generation is her.
Ebon Night is ultimately a dick.

>>17180709
>>17180659

Let's play the role of adventurer/merc group, then.

I'd go along with sending the troop composition from >>17180659

What does the Mirror of Truth reveal about Lyla or Elaine?

>>17180883
It just shows their reflection.

>>17180659
The ground team meets up at the inn. Are you just going to hike to Castle Ravenloft then?

>>17180957
More like march. We'll be walking through disputed turf, we need to stay frosty. Actually, if we can slip through the woods closer to Strahd's side of things, that might be safer.
Either way, have the probe and Al'kesh report any activity, don't want to get ambushed by either side. Speaking of which, have we seen any sign of them probing at or attacking each other yet?

Also, have the teams on board the Al'kesh and Leopard get geared up in case this turns to shit and we need to do some aggressive drops.
Have the guys in the Overlord pray they aren't needed anytime soon.

>>17180957

We can't use the transporter on the Al'Kesh for obvious reasons.

The Leopard might be able to ferry them and avoid a lot of the dangers on the ground, but we may risk blowing our cover. Strahd probably suspects that we are not emissaries or adventurers, but we don't need to show him exactly who we are either.

Hiking to Strahd's lair will probably result in us being 'tested' by Strahd for whatever reason, in addition to the wonderful flora, fauna and undead that we may encounter along the way. Not to mention that we may risk further ambushes by Dracula's goons along the way.


I'd lean towards hiking to Strahd's castle, with the Dropship crew and Al'kesh monitoring the situation to see if it warrants any intervention.

rolled 89 = 89

>>17181048
The probe droid recorded a group of what had to be vampires fly from Castle Ravenloft to Castlevania. They promptly attacked the place and did a nice amount of damage, but ultimately were destroyed or driven off. They seemed to be searching for something.

>>17181129
Good, good. Looks like step 1 is working at least.
Also further reinforces the need to be extra cautious on our way to Strahd, conflict is heating up there.

>>17181102
>>17181048
The march to Castle Ravenloft is long and arduous. It is obvious that the road and path has not been cared for in many years, and it winds around the mountains and through treacherous cliffs. More than once someone stumbles and almost falls to their deaths, but the quick reflexes of everyone manages to keep their fellows safe. At one point gigantic wolves attack, but the Knights Inductor put them down with ease and no more attacks come.

Finally the mists part to reveal a lonely, ancient castle that looks as if it has stood abandoned for years. A large gap surrounds it on all sides, taking the place of a moat. The only way across is a drawbridge-span. The team has arrived in front of Ravenloft. A decrepit old man in the tattered finery of a butler stands in front of you. Behind him the drawbridge slowly lowers as he bows.

"The master... bids you... welcome..." he gets out.

>>17181356

Enter the castle. Keep an eye out for anything unusual.

It's probably dumb, but if we can detect undead, we should probably be doing so. We'll probably pick up all a manner of undead things while in this castle, but if we meet any living emissaries or such while in this castle, it may bear some investigation later on.

I missed the planning thread(s) from the past few days.

How exactly are we planning to treat with Strahd?

>>17181535
As random adventurers from a distant land of "Londinium".

>>17181356
Thank the man kindly, and perhaps ask him how best to present ourselves to his Lordship.
Proceed calmly, and try to be impressed with any finery present.

>>17181423
The butler shambles along with you, guiding you across the drawbridge and into the castle.

"He's not alive, mon," Tosh whispers as the group moves.

The undead butler leads the group through many long abandoned and darkened halls untill finally they come to a long hall with a throne at the end of it. The tall, imposing figure of Strahd Von Zarovich is seated on it. He gazes at the party with red, burning eyes, motioning with a hand. The butler shambles off.

"What are you doing in my realm?" he asks in heavily accented 'English'.

>>17181725
Cue Londinium spiel.
Expedition from distant land Londinium, trying to ascertain the the curious changes that seem to have encompassed the lands recently.

>>17181725
So the plan is to tell him that we are from Londonium and are examining the strange phenomenon that has affected our world?
I'm pretty sure we posted what the plan was somewhere.

Should we reveal that we are familiar with him and his country? And ask him why there's a second castle?
Like wasn't Ravenloft a pocket dimension, should any outsiders know who he is?

>>17180447
Well I'm glad it wasnt David Lister's alter Ego that showed up. I'm certain all of our bolters would have jammed, reality emitters or no.

>>17181841
>>17181876
Sounds good.

>>17181841
Darius begins talking about Londinium but is cut off as Strahd growls and rises.

"I would advise you NOT to lie to me. When you spoke with my emissary you said you knew of Barovia as it had been, that you had maps showing it. Yet I know all the regions of the Core. There is no place called 'Londinium' among them."

We should prepare our BS about Londinium if pressed.
Probably describe it much like the Victorian England style of Mordentshire, but not the quiet sea town, more of the bustle of a capital.
Darius may want to adlib about their noble king.

If things get to the point where we want more of Strahd's attention, we might mention the new nercopolis and it's lich-king that has arrisen across the seas to threaten dear Londinium.

>>17181930
>There is no place called 'Londinium' among them
"Fine, London, but we're not really from London as you already knew."

which brings us back to
>>17181725
"What are you doing in my realm?"

Hmm... should we tell him we know he and Dracula shouldnt both be here?
One of them needs to go obviously. Wait we need to neutralize both in the end right?

>>17181930
Simple. Explain that two months ago, when the strange mists enveloped the land, strange changes were wrought upon the lands. Some people were encountered were encountered that claimed to not even know of our great Emperor.
Even the Navigator's Guild maps had changed queerly. Your lands were among the new kingdoms marked upon it, we had hoped to find kinder reception here than our people met at the hands of the lich-king that had appeared in the lands across the sea.

>>17182058
Basically, pretend to be yet another land caught up in the Dark Powers' games.

>>17182075
>>17182058
This sounds good.
Strahd has seen new Dark Domains rise up after Barovia. Adventurers and explorers from a new Dark Domain should not be a surprise to him.

>>17182111
Indeed, as the oldest of the Domains, he has seen new ones emerge many times, and he would know the last shift was stranger than most, what with the changes to what should be his domain as well. Which should help cover any irregularities in our story.

>>17182035

We could ease into the conversation by saying that we are (truthfully) still an expedition here to investigate the changes that occurred on this land. Also explain that we've been investigating similar changes on other places in the world, and many of them are shrouded in mist, and newly-inhabited by many otherworldly (and hostile) creatures that ravaged the local populaces.

>>17182138
Stick to the Londinium story though.
We've got a good story here >>17182058

>>17182138
>>17182058
>>17182075
>>17182111

Yeah, let's go with these. It's plausible and reasonable story. We may not need to tip our hand quite yet.

>>17182138
Might be a little too much information.

Also, while we have this slight delay, does Strahd have any kind of instinctual awareness of whether someone is a Ravenloft native?
Can he tell if someone is from a Domain, or was pulled in from outside Ravenloft?

>>17182058
Strahd seems to calm down at this.

"I see. So your land was newly added. Tell me of your empire."

>>17182182
The only sense in this regard has been about when another Dark Lord enters his domain, though I've only heard of it in Lord Soth's case.

>>17173977
>>17174062
>On recruiting the Doctor from Voyager, would compromise their timeline.
Wait, we have Char in a Hyaku Shiki. Did we recruit him from the moment before his (supposed) death in Char's Counter Attack? Because he was kind of a dick in that movie.

>>17182231
Give him a quick rundown of Warhammer Fantasy Empire. It's fairly contemporary, and it even has its own vampire counts!

Then get back to what we want to do. I don't know what that is, precisely.

>>17182231
Well Darius, tell him about your empire.
And try to adjust for scale and tech level.

>>17182231
Combine old London, Rome, and the Empire of Man. The kind of story that a feral-worlder would be able to handle.

Londinium is, or at least was, an island nation which had but two great resources; its forests, which when the technology became available, served to fuel the expansion of her navy into one unrivaled by her peers, and the ability of her people to read the stars. The Navigator's Guild is what allowed Londinium to rise to prominence as a trade empire and military power at sea.
However, with the coming of the mists, the Navigators became unreliable, their charts no longer accurate. Old allies could not be contacted, while new lands appeared in places that were once considered open sea.

The Emperor of the Brittanica Empire, from upon his Golden Throne, has charged Darius and his expedition to map out the new lands and compare them with our old maps.

>>17182231
In the grim darkness of Londinium, there was only war. Replace planets with towns and estates, orks with orcs, Tyranids with Kythons, Eye of Terror with Gateway of Terror leading to the Nine Hells or whatever the appropriate D&Dism was.
Londinium, seat of the empire, now torn from it's rightful place.
Be politely vague, citing security reasons if pressed. Most of our new neighbors have been less than friendly. A familiar state for Londinium, it will persevere.
Keep a Victorian ring to any description.

>>17182275
We either got him at the end of Char's Counterattack, or we recruited him from the mess of stable Crossover Canons known as the Super Robot War Zones.

>>17182343
>>17182359
There we go.

If Strahd presses the others for information about the "Empire", should they just say that they're pretty much small client states who are not privvy to much information about the Empire?

Or should they just say that they're mercenaries who can't find their homelands anymore due to the strange occurences?

>>17182343
The Count nods. "I see. In exchange for a service, I may simply gift you the maps you seek. But..." the Count looks over your number. "I believe I requested all of your number be present. Was there not a woman among you?"

>>17182392
Now the plan is to lie and say that Dracula kidnapped her, right?

>>17182392
At this point I am very glad the men of FFT look very effeminate. Assuming number 3 was male.

>>17182417
>>17182392
Right. We say that we were attacked by winged skeletons and a pair of giant bats.
They felled one of our Knights, and made away with Lyla into the sky. We have been attempting to ascertain her whereabouts since then.

>>17182417
I think we were claiming that the woman they were looking for was seen captured by drac?

>>17182392
Oh, quick question: has the Psion we left at the Leopard been able to detect any attempts to scry or magically spy on them, and with his detect thoughts power, anyone hiding in the trees?

>>17182449
Wait, I think there was some disconnect in our plan.

I thought the plan was that we had spread the rumor that a woman matching the description of the woman the Counts were looking for was taken, and that we hadn't openly revealed our girls in costume.

We had walked in with one of them initially, so we made sure to have the other one with us just now when we went to visit Strahd.

>>17182502
No, that was the old plan.
We had modified it after the attack, saying that one of the ladies in our group, Lyla, had been taken when we were attacked.
Lyla is currently hiding in the Leopard.

>>17182502
So our numbers match any description of us when we entered town, except it is an feminine looking man in a robe instead of a very similar looking woman.

>>17181930
>"I would advise you NOT to lie to me.

>Anon: Let's Lie to him

>>17182449
Strahd growls as you reveal to him the 'fate' of Lyla.

"Of course... Of course... Have you not guessed where she is? Isn't it obvious?" Strahd composes himself on his chair. "Journey to my... opponent's castle and slay him. You will undoubtedly find your... companion. Return to me then. I will give you the maps and more."

>>17182572
It seems to be working so far.

>>17182532
No. We were claiming we saw dracula's people grab the girl in the dress that they were looking for.

We didn't come into town with them dressed like the counts' girl.

>>17182465
Not as of yet.

>>17182532

So we basically say that we had a woman amongst our expedition, but we were attacked by flying creatures and could not find her afterwards.

We're still looking for her as we speak, but we could not very well turn down an invitation from the lord of this place.

>>17182574
Well that worked.
...I think.
...Did we get confused at some point?

>>17182586
No, that's not how things went.
We had Lyla and Elaine, who both look similar to Tatyana and Lisa, dressed in similar fashion to the real Tatyana/Lisa, and we had them go about town to spread the news that a woman among the Londinium group looks like the woman that the two Counts are looking for.

When we split up, Lyla's group was attacked, and they successfully killed all of the monsters.

We then had Lyla and Elain hide in the Leopard while two of the Psion got switched out with Abjurers, so that the Psions would stay with the girls in case Dimensional Anchor was needed.

We then had Darius and the other Knights go around town asking uncomfortable questions about the disappearance of Lyla and the monsters that had attacked them.

>>17182609
Yes, someone definitely got confused at one point.
This version has us a bit screwed because this has Strahd trying to do his dirty work for free and then get jumped by him trying to take the person we 'rescue'. We've gone from hired guns to pawns.

This was not the plan.

>>17182649
Right, except for this part:
>we had them go about town to spread the news that a woman among the Londinium group looks like the woman that the two Counts are looking for.
We went out in the woods with them looking for the real thing while trying to see if either Count's search parties would jump them as well.

>>17182574
Should we try to ask Strahd for assistance in breaching Dracula's castle?
We are a small force, and since he doesn't know of our weapons' capabilities, how can a group of less than 30 breach the defenses of a castle?

>>17182657
> This was not the plan.

This was the plan. It just isn't our plan.

>>17182657
I guess we didn't count on Strahd noticing that we had a woman in our party?

>>17182532
No, the plan was to make them think it was the girl they were already looking for, not that the girl was one of ours.

>>17182710
No, we did, that's why we swapped in the third White Mage before coming up, so we'd have the same number and rough description as the people we walked in with, short one knight.

Should we attempt further deception and say that we actually met up with that woman relatively recently, as she was a local healer or something?

>>17182688
>30
Think we've only got 9 on the ground.
Darius, 5 KI (was 6), Tosh, and a White mage.
Lost a KI, make that 8, unless we let a replacement unload.

>>17182688
I feel the same way. We can get Strahd to lose troops and help him kill Dracula. A win-win for us.

"But milord, we are but 30 men, less now after our mutual foe's deadly depredations. Even though our spirits would soar at crushing an enemy who has abducted our friend, we cannot hope to breach a castle alone. Therefore, I plead to you milord to aid us in this quest, and I promise you that the Emperor of Londonium shall hear of your generosity to his knights."

rolled 32 = 32

>>17182758
Strahd pauses, considering your request.

>>17182784
"You are correct. You stand no chance in open combat. So then, infiltrate the castle and seek to slay its master alone. Any mustered force I give you would not help you in this. However, I may decide to stage a diversionary attack."

>>17182695
I'm the one that made the original suggestion that everyone seemed to agree to, this is a new wrinkle someone's misunderstanding has added.

Ah, found it. One post that mentions saying our people were taken, looks like no one endorsed the post, it just landed at the right time to answer something OP was asking.
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/17137538/#17151016

Ok, if we are stuck with this scenario, then let's go with this: >>17182738
She was a woman we met along the way, closer to these lands. While skilled with healing, she did not tell us much of herself. We already lost one man against the force of monsters, we feel no great need to sell the lives of more of our men just to recover a foreign woman, no matter how lovely.

>>17182894
Make it clear that we aren't just going to get ourselves torn apart again for a woman we don't know well.
Move the shoe back onto the other foot.

>>17182894

Also, waging open war on another monarch who we know next to nothing about at the behest of another monarch would not reflect well upon us with our Emperor. We would not want to provoke open conflict with another nation we know next to nothing about.

>>17182894
Push the 'closer to his lands', make it sound more like we believe it is someone that should be more his concern than of people from Londinium.

rolled 23 = 23

>>17182894
>>17182931
>>17182938

"That would explain a few things," Strahd murmurs, considering your point.

>>17182987

These rolls are balls.

What happened to you, TG dice? You used to be cool.

>>17182784
So, 30's good, right?

>>17183002

Well it's still better than before, at least these are two digit numbers.

>>17183002
Nothing you've used has ever been cool.

rolled 19 = 19

>>17182987
"I will consider signing a trade agreement and will consider this an act of great goodwill for future negotiations between your nation and Barovia," Strahd states. "My agents brought me word of your prowess when the minions of Dracul attacked. I know you can do this, and it will guarantee good relations between our lands."

>>17182987
Strahd is trying to keep his hands clean of this whole affair.
Getting the two Counts to fight each other openly was always a long-shot anyway.

How can we infiltrate Castlevania and get to the throne room quickly? Was the probe droid able to identify any weak points?

>>17182931
"Indeed, already we war with the Azal'Lan of the new lands across the sea. We do not need more unbidden enemies."

When Strahd presses about the word Azal'Lan, explain it to be an ancient word from the time of the Great Kingdom. Seems the beast is trying to prey on fears of an old fairy tale about the lich that once ruled there and vanished.

Deflecting his attention toward thoughts of Azalin, and if we sow the idea our world is tied to the one Azalin has been trying to return to, we can shift blame for the world going mad toward _him_. Adding concerns about Azalin's new kingdom to his plate, and might have him considering to treat with us more fairly so that he may make allies of us against his hated foe.

>>17183076
Ah, deflection.
Giving Strahd false clues to draw conclusions about what is going on with the world.
Plus we might get him to see us as pawns of greater value than he does currently.
And playing ignorant of any connection between Azalin and Strahd leaves him thinking he is the one milking us for information that only he knows the full value of. As opposed to wondering how we know things he wants to know.
I like it.

>>17183150
>>17183076
Yes, this seems like a suitable course of action.

>>17183150
>>17183076
Perhaps. If it works.
But I suppose we need to take the chance, since attempting to attack Castlevania ourselves would result in casualties greater than Raccoon City.

>>17183360
At this point, what are we going to do? We don't have any way to contact Dracula to try to play him off of Strahd like we had planned. We need to kill them both anyway. I honestly don't see why we don't attack Strahd now if we can't get him to commit to helping us directly against Dracula instead of leaving and then dealing with him after we're weakened by the Castlevania assault. Do we have the interdiction device or was that just an idea for later?

>>17183420
What you mean just... stab him repeatedly with Ringil?
It's a bold move, but I'm not confident in our ability to take him down as of now.
Plus he might have other uses.

>>17183420
Actually we never planned on negotiating with Dracula to begin with I don't think.
Or if we did, we abandoned that plan pretty early on.

>>17183420
Admittedly, we have most of our away team here.

So what, just say, "Oh, and one more thing...", turn all of our reality emitters to maximum, and attack him with Ringil and the Voiceless Spear while everyone else keeps the rest of Strahd's minions from interfering?

>>17183420
>Do we have the interdiction device
What interdiction device are you talking about?
Preventing Strahd from teleporting away? That would be the Psion using his Dimensional Anchor power.

>>17183474
Yes. I mean, we're in as good position as we're going to get assuming he's actually here and not an illusion. We've fucked up the negotiations (in terms of our hope of depleting his forces somewhat) and don't be surprised if he knows that we're concealing something about the girl. Why not do it now, while all of our forces are here, while he's right in front of us, while no one, not even the away team, is expecting it? We should at least get a surprise round.

>>17183509
The main point is knowing if this is an illusion of him or not. If I were an Evil Overlord, I wouldn't meet with the Heroes personally; I'd do it from a protected bunker underneath my castle and use an illusion to talk with them.
We need some way to confirm that this is really Strahd before we tip our hand.

>>17183509

We're attacking him on his home turf. Strahd doesn't sound like an easy kill, and much less so when he's in his castle.

He may just teleport to the top of the castle and then we have to slog our way through every floor at the least. We might just get a surprise round for now, but he's probably not going down that easily. Once we piss him off, we have to deal with every minion he recalls to defend him/kill us inside of the castle and outside.

>>17183550
That doesn't sound too different from what we'd have to deal with normally anyway.

If we get a surprise round, we could hit him with a dimensional anchor to prevent his teleportation.

>>17183509
>>17183420
Here, I'd like to propose a more specific plan.

1. Use our shipboard sensors to attempt to pierce the mist to discern if that's really Strahd. (low probability, worth trying)
2. #1 failing, use our Psion to attempt to discern if the man we're dealing with is really Strahd.
3. Last place because I don't want to tell our men that we're considering an attack until we give the order so no mind reading fuckery can get involved, we assess how much of a reality distortion he's giving off using our away team's reality equipment.

If he is the real deal (or a huge reality distortion), suddenly attack with our heroes up close and a couple KI as well, with the very first action being our psion dropping that dimensional anchor while the remainder advance and attempt to protect their backs from whatever trickery he has to protect him from an assault of this type. At no point prior to the attack order should we inform our men of our intentions, if possible.

Just a suggestion, what do you guys think?

>>17183569
Seems like our best course of action for now.

>>17183076
"Azalin? Hmmm. Of course. The fool's machinations caused a near apocalypse once before... I know of your foe. He is... an ancient rival of mine. If you wish to defeat him, you will need my aid... and my knowledge. These too, I will grant you, if you will but slay the rebel in his infernal castle," Strahd states.

>>17183616
... I wish to roll sense motive.

Also backing>>17183569 if we aren't getting anywhere with him. We have to kill him eventually, right?

>>17183569
The Storm cannot pierce the mist, but Tosh quietly informs you that though he cannot read a dead mind, the being in front of them is no illusion.

rolled 20 = 20

>>17183646
Tosh attempts to determine the Count's sincerity...

>>17183616

May we know more of this rebel you speak of? Why he is rebelling against your rule, and why he must die? Any information you can offer may mean the difference between life and death for us.

In addition, is it not possible to convince this other of the rightness of your cause and bring him over to your side, so to speak?


(I realize that we're pretty much talked into a corner, but we might get another angle if we keep asking pertinent questions).

>>17183669
Fuck it then. I wrote >>17183569 and I think we may as well just go for it now. Vote on it?

>here's hoping Strahd can't read the cacophony of nebulous and often antagonistic voices that counts as the /tg/ quest protagonist's mind

>>17183616
>>17183693

Perhaps we should add:

There is the very real possibility that Dracul may use the woman as a hostage against us, threatening to kill her if he cannot have her. Since it appears that he is aware of the woman's value, then he may already have such a contingency in place, ready to execute in case he is cornered.

>>17183709
I also think we should attack now.
Open up with a dimensional anchor and saying "Sergei sends his regards!"

>>17183685
"I dunno, lol."
>>17183693
"That impertinent interloper appeared shortly after the mists once more enshrouded the borders of my fair land and reduced it in size to a mere fiefdom. He claimed I intruded on his ancient domain of Wallachia, and neither I nor my people would be welcome. Then he began to launch attacks on my castle and village with his army of undead and monsters. Of course, I was obliged to defend them. We have been fighting since."

>>17183826
Maybe, tell Strahd that we'll try to negotiate with Dracul. Leave out non-essential information. What would Strahd think if we are able to make peace between the two? And would Strahd allow diplomacy?

>>17183870
What would be the point of attempting to come to a diplomatic resolution? We have to kill both of them or figure out a way to get them back to their original canons.

>>17183826
Perhaps we can work together to defeat this Dracula's forces. Coordinate our attacks to draw him into the open, or at least draw his minions to give us a chance to strike at him in his lair.
Once defeated, then we can go forth against the Azal'Lan!

>>17183902
Indeed.

>>17183902

The reality distortion originates from both of them and stretches over a huge swath over the land, if I remember correctly.

This either means that the source of the distortion comes from:

1.) Dracula / Strahd turf war (unlikely)

2.) Dracula / Strahd existing (likely)

3.) Dracula / Strahd fighting over Tatyana/Lisa merged into one soul (very likely)

OR

4.) Dracula and Strahd are trapped in Ravenloft due to obsession or whatnot. To move on, they either need to withdraw to an extent so that they pass on by the Dark Powers getting bored as all fuck with them (As Lord Soth did), or perhaps reach an epiphany that would break the Dark Powers' hold over them. If we break the Tatyana cycle in a positive way, then perhaps we can free Strahd from Ebon Night's influence, and weaken the Dark Power's hold on this place.

#4 may be possibly reached through diplomacy and using the mirror we have, maybe. If we get the war between them to calm down, that would save us some trouble of getting caught in between conflicts between them, and set the stage for them moving on from their fixations on Tatyana and Lisa.

You know, we should remember to have the Al'kesh and Probe Droid continue to keep an eye out for the woman they seek. If she is a merger, she doesn't truly belong to either canon. (ie: We could rescue her and possibly recruit her)

>>17183902
here's my plan:
1) let the two battle it out, thin their paint- er, forces
2) let them see how futile fighting is, let's be diplomace (alternatively, throw gasoline on the fire)
3) while they're both busy talking/killing each other, we zap em both dead.
Is this possible?

>>17183975

(CONT.)

If #4 is a bit too difficult to try to attempt, though, we could always to with the blast it all to hell approach. Up to you guys.

>>17183975
Good points. I'm with you. In that case, should we not conduct these negotiations transparently? Or are we afraid that if we reveal our origins we'll be seen as a threat?

>>17183975
We had this answered before. The distortion is an arch between the two counts, and the only way to remove both elements that should not be here is to break the arch, either by killing them or otherwise removing them from this dimension.
Or piling every starship reality emitter we have in one place and hope it works, and I'd rather not uninstall those from any of our ships.

>>17183975
>>17183975
See:
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/17117963/#17119707
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/17117963/#17119811

>>17184005
here, thinking on it more - remember we're on a very limited time frame, we've got ~2 weeks. We can't settle in and try to play them off of each other, especially with Dracula not being known for his openness to parlay. We should either:

1. Be open with Strahd and gun completely for a diplomatic good end or at least a non-agression agreement while we hunt for the woman he wants and try to figure things out further when we recover her;
2. Attack now and ask questions later. the element of surprise and a relatively exposed position? Probably the best chance we're going to get on this guy, or;
3. Do whatever we're doing now, which I can't really see the endgame of.

>>17184005
only reveal ourselves at the end, and that's if it is really necessary to do so. If there's no urgent or important or otherwise very advantageous situation to reveal ourselves, then don't.

>>17183986
We don't want to fight them together, They are bad mojo even solo.

Things are going well right now. If we can get Strahd to commit forces against Dracula, then that makes the job of going against Castlevania easier. And weakens Strahd's forces.
Then we return from fighting Dracula to meet with our new ally to discuss our victory and plans against Azalin- then bash the unlife out of Strahd, dump the rest of the forces that have been hiding and take him down.

I'm off for a bit while you guys decide what to do. I'll check in again in 2, 2 1/2 hours.

>>17184111
>>17184111
I think the committing extra forces ship has sailed here: >>17182801

I think right now we're deciding between violent approach and diplomatic approach. If we're diplomatic then we need to find out more about the girl (from her). If we're violent then there's no time like the present to kill this bloodsucker.

>>17184070
Fight Drac with whatever help we can get out of Strahd.
Then return to discuss the Azalin problem.
Then fight Strahd. There's no long term negotiating with him, because he ultimately wants the girl and the Dark Powers are what keep teasing him with her. Without them, there's no chance, unless he discovers the meta and start REEAALY fucking with things. Badbadbad.

>>17184148
>>17184148
Should have said that my vote is for violence. While I like the idea of subtlety and so on, I'm just afraid we're going to run out of time and I'm significantly more worried about the shit we're going to see with Lovecraft and Japan. If time is not a factor then I definitely want to pursue the diplomatic end with the ladies.

>>17184030

ANON said that the only *previously recorded* ways of breaking the distortion was to remove both points of the distortion (by either destroying them or removing them from the dimension); ANON also said that there may be other ways to do this.

I'm thinking that, If we can convince Strahd and Dracula that they're being played for fools by Ebon Night (like they are) AND get them to move on from Lisa/Tatyana (which is how the Dark Powers usually hold sway over the Darklords - by trapping them in Ravenloft by an obsession or somesuch), we may be able to shrink the distortion to manageable levels and also potentially gain two allies for our inevitable conflict against Ebon Night. Or potentially gain one ally, if we can only convince one of them to "move on".

Don't get me wrong, if an annihilation is the only option we have, we should take it. But if Ebon Night isn't as omnipotent as he let us think he is, he's going to be pretty pissed that we disrupted his experiments by resolving them; if we're too weakened, we may take huge losses in our fight against him. If we take this gamibt, we may be able to avoid large losses in the future and potentially gain allies in the process.

But again, I could be wrong, and if it's too much of a gamble to try the diplomacy/resolution gambit, we might go ahead with the annihilate one or both of them option.

>>17184190
I don't really see any problems with this idea.
Like if it doesn't work out, we can always resort to violence, but if it does, we get some sweet benefits to reap.
Also we might just wipe the smirk off Ebon Night's... noncorporeal form.

>>17184190
Provide a concrete set of arguments to use on Strahd and/or Dracula to get them to 'move on' as it were.
Your plan just sounds based far too much on hope, and with no real grounding in actual capability.

We can attack Strahd now, while he's not expecting it, destroy him, and have time to recover before we use our forces to attack Castlevania.

>>17184190
Negotiating with Strahd is almost possible.
Negotiating with Dracula of Castevania is NOT.
Seriously.

>>17184258
Except with all those low rolls we've gotten, who's to say Strahd -isn't- expecting us to attack?
He's a powerful vampire in his own throneroom.
To think he's unprepared for assassins would simply be foolish.

>>17184258
>>17184190
I fully agree with both of you. I think we need to either give Strahd some information about our fears about Ebon Night and see how open he is to trying to break free of its influence or we need to attack him now and kill him - this will be the best time to do it.

>>17184258
No, we stick to the plan. Get Strahd to spend his forces to help us get to and kill Dracula, then we attack Strahd when he's not expecting it upon our return to our ally's castle.

>>17184297
No, no, no.
We do NOT talk about the Meta.
And Strahd doesn't know shit about Ebon Night, he still calls the force that brought him here 'Death', and Strahd does not has any powers or knowledge that would help us against the Dark Powers. The only one that was close to that was Azalin.

>>17184336
Hmm. Maybe we can leave, gather some intel, or just pretend to, and tell Strahd that Death works for Dracula?

>>17184336
Hell with it, then. Openness is the only option we have that doesn't end in us trying to kill them both. So if openness isn't an option we have our best chance to kill one of the two guys that we have to kill is right now.

Man the torpedoes, men, full speed ahead. Slay the nosferatu scum.

>>17184190
>potentially gain allies
These are not allies we want!
This would be worse than working with Starscream!
Strahd has betrayed every major ally he's ever had.
Dracula is FUCKING DRACULA. What, I don't even.
My head hurts just thinking that someone could think that could be a good idea.

>>17184373
Did you forget WHY we arranged this meet in the first place?
We want Strahd's help killing Dracula. He of many, many, many monsters. Then we come back for Strahd, who merely has death knights and unkillable zombies.

>>17184404
He's already said that he won't commit forces to an attack on Castlevania. The most he's offered is a diversionary force. That ship, again, has sailed.

Basically, fighting our way to Dracula is harder than fighting our way to Strahd.
And Strahd we can actually get an audience with and is currently considering us and our fictional kingdom 'useful pawns' to use as allies against Drac here and Azalin.

Castlevania is not so accepting of visitors and is designed to grind away and kill anyone trying to reach it's lord.
Think about the grind trying to get into Azalin's lair, and add more mini-bosses. We not only want Strahd's help, we need it.

>>17184428
THAT'S THE EXACT SHIP WE ARE SAILING ON.

>>17184451
>>17184428
Right, pay attention.
That is what we want.
We want Strahd's diversionary force drawing away some of Castlevania's hordes so that we can get through it easier.

>>17184428

We could say that unless the diversionary attack is enough to convince Dracula that this is the Final Battle™ over Tatyana/Lisa (though we don't say that in this exact way), he probably won't even flinch and will probably suspect that there are infiltrators going to steal his quarry away.

Alternatively, we could try our luck with trying this on Dracula. But that won't end well, from what I've heard.

>>17184258

The big problem I see with this action is that it will not net us any guaranteed benefit right now. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that we decided to attack him now. Even if we manage to surprise him AND somehow pull off a win without a TPK, we still will have a full strength Dracula to dispatch. If we at least keep playing the "alliance" card for the moment, we have a chance to have him commit forces to distract the Count. Once we have killed Dracula, we can still press for more info on defeating Azalin. Only then would I go for the sneak attack. He is more useful to us alive right now than dead. Well, technically he is already dead, but you get the idea.

>>17184428
And if we kill him, instead of getting that diversionary force, we have to fight it just to get out of here and then face the full might of Castlevania.

>>17184478
Exactly, thank you.

>>17184478
I suppose that the diversionary attack might be of some help in getting through Castlevania.

We can always hope that Strahd's withdrawal from the fight will actually make Dracula believe that he has a good chance and attack Strahd with everything he has.

But yes, I suppose that using Strahd's diversionary attack in order to help us infiltrate Castlevania will be useful.

>>17184473
Indeed, we should still try to convince him to commit as much as we can, even offer tactical advice for troop placement and maneuvers to get the most out of it.

>>17184478
>>17184478
Fair enough. Let's change our tune with Strahd, then, like:

"We think it would be in our mutual best interests to attack Dracula now - we will send an infiltration unit to save Tatyana/Lisa while you send a large force to attack Dracula frontally. Once she is secured, our forces will already be in a good position to attack Dracula from within, with many of his minions defending against your assault. Once he is slain, your dominance over the region will be reestablished and we can further consider the future of our two nations."

I think he'll betray us, but if we hold on to the girl he'll have to see us again, and we can destroy him at that time. This approach also lets us talk to the girl and try to figure out if there's a way to end this peacefully with both vamps going back to where they belong.

>>17184553
>>17184473

Also, if our mission fails, who knows what Dracul will do to her when she's in his possession?

Thus, it is very important to make this diversionary attack to make Dracul go "OH SHIT SON" and rally the greater part of his forces to counterattack or whatever.

>>17184559
Strahd's tune with us has been 'Kill the interloper' ever since we fed him the story about not knowing or caring enough to stage a rescue just for her.
So we can spin the whole thing as a bid to kill Dracula to gain Strahd as an ally for Londinium against the Azal'Lan.
We'll have to wait for him to bring her up again.

>>17184559

Mind you, Dracula hasn't actually kidnapped anyone (at least not anyone on our team). This is all a bunch of hooey that we made up in hopes that Strahd would commit a large portion of his forces in attacking Dracula (but the TG dice weren't having any of that).

But if we have some time to spare, we may be able to locate and talk to the real Tatyana/Lisa and get a better idea of what we should do.

Aren't white mages so great?

>>17184640
Indeed.

So are we all back in agreement again?
Agree to work with Strahd to bring down 'the interloper', and try to get him to commit as much as we can to draw away Castlevania's forces?

I like the suggestion to provide tactical advice as well, get the most bang for our buck.

>>17184698
We seem to be.
Should probably take this time to see if we can prepare some armor for our away team.
It won't be that great, considering all it'll be is some ceramic plates and titanium chain shirts, but it'll be better than the regular robes that they're wearing.

>>17184559

I agree with you about the inevitable betrayal by Strahd. The only real question is when.

I would assume he would wait to see if we are successful in our attack because it would be rather silly to dirty his backstabbing knife before we had a chance to do anything. Even if he doesn't trust/believe us, and I can basically guarantee he doesn't, he should be willing to let us throw ourselves at the meat grinder that is Castlevania.

My concern is how much longer would he keeps us as "pawns" before disposing of us.

Would he continue to play along during the post battle negotiations after we had played our role?

Would he just go "Thank you for killing my enemy, though I am afraid I have no use for your services anymore" and spring some sort of trap on us?

I am rambling here, but my point is this: We need to take into account that we may not be the only ones with knives held behind our backs as we meet as victors after the battle. When we come back to this place, we cannot take anything at face value.

>>17184764
My guess is that Strahd will backstab us as soon as Dracula is dead, not giving us time to be able to recuperate at all, and attacking when we're at our weakest right after the fight with Dracula.

>>17184131
>>17184131
Ok, now to kill another hour and a half.

Suggestions on any tricks we can pull to ensure Dracula commits strongly against Strahd's forces?
Maybe sneak the holo-projector down there and put up 'illusions' to make the force seem more like something he wants to come out and fight. Siege weapons, perhaps?

Also, while it's been mentioned before, make sure to get the micro-porters and sensors to the KI on the Al'kesh. Bring it in close and we can arrange 'heavier than expected' losses to the troops Dracula sends out so that he sends out more to reinforce them.

>>17184764
>>17184784
Fortunately we've spun a tale of distant kingdoms and Azalin, and removed ourselves from seeming particularly concerned about the girl.
When he was using us as a pawn to get our 'teammate' back he would have definitely jumped us.

Now he's going to at least want more information about Londinium and Azalin, possibly seeking to use us to give our Emperor a positive spin on him so that he can use our noble empire as a pawn against Azalin.
We've given ourselves inflated importance so that we are less likely to be a one-off pawn.

>>17184852
>>17184764
Plus we can back our last knife with a pile of hidden troops on standby.

>>17184784

Yeah, that would be the most logical move. So we need some way of assuring he will want to meet with us again.

My first thought was HIS cursed golden haired maiden, but in reality that probably isn't worth much. Even if we had an illusion of her/the lady in the flesh, he still would be able to send his forces in to retrieve her while we are weakened.

So that leaves something he wants that would require us to return in person to give. Information. We must try and find out if there is something he NEEDS to know about the Count, and tell him we will try to gather it while we are assaulting the castle. We can say that once the battle is complete, we can reconvene to exchange info. Strahd knows about Azalin and we know whatever it is he wants to know. That will at least (hopefully) buy us a second ticket into the Strahd manor.

>>17184959
We already did arrange for a want of information.
Londinium, and Azalin.
A new power in the region, and a hated enemy.

>>17184989
This guy is right.
We've baited Strahd with information about Londinium and Azalin.
He probably won't immediately backstab us.

So we'll need to have both the Leopard and the Al'Kesh ready to breach Strahd's castle as part of our backstab operation to kill him.

>>17184989

Ah, you are right. My paranoia got the better of me when I realized that we are very expendable one the count is dead.

>>17184797

I like this idea of using a hologram to make the attack seem larger. The question is how easily will it be for a high level vampire such as Dracula to see through such a ruse? Also, do we have anything that can fill this role? I know we can do holograms on certain people/objects, but I didn't think we had the capabilities to do something on a larger scale. Either way, I want to get something to fill this role in the future. Having a wall of imaginary soldiers to boost our ranks would do wonders for intimidation and decrease casualties.

Also, tactical advice would be useful to in carefully metered out quantities. We want to help enough so that Strahd forces can win while outnumbered, but not so much that they go through the battle with only minor losses. This needs to be a meat grinder on both ends. But we may not have much choice in the matter, as we may only get a tiny attack force. In that case, we will need to do everything we can to make them effective (strategically speaking).

>>17185012
I was thinking that when turning on Strahd comes, that we land the Overlord outside, just to get everyone's backs turned to regard the giant metal castle that just landed. Not even open it up and let out mechs. Just get him and his forces distracted with that outside context problem and really open up.

>>17185063
We started work on a projector earlier when we were considering using it to help trick the counts into fighting each other.
>>17180461

>>17185135

Well, that is good. The question becomes a matter of scale and deploy-ability then. How are we going to field it and how many images can it project? These are really more questions for the OP though.

Also, if we do give strategic advice, how will we present it? Do we leave one of our "scrying, battlemages" to help command the Strahd attack forces(IE one guy with an earpiece linked to ANON and our observers)? Also, I don't know the magic levels of Ravenloft, but is what we are doing going to be within the realm of possibility of a PC level character? Because god level "magic" on the battlefield will either worry him greatly or make him very, very interested in Londinium.

>>17185295
Don't plan on letting him see much or do anything too overt. Mass illusion is within plausibility, even ones that do some real damage if you specialize enough.
Better yet would be to arrange some tricks to make Dracula's forces believe that there is a flanking force in the woods, get him to send out more to root them out to avoid a pincher attack.

>>17185354
Right.
No weapons or armor. Just our illusions.
Illusion magic is already pretty well known in the setting, so using the holograms wouldn't arouse too much suspicion, except maybe some interest as to how we're able to create illusions without the aura of magic.

>>17185381
At least it is unlikely that Strahd himself will be on the field of battle.

And I hope to keep our cloaked sniping on the down-low. Just enough to to make it seem like Strahd's forces are a bit more dangerous than they seem, thus encouraging more forces to be sent out.

>>17185463
What do you guys think about a small change in what kind of sniper rifle and ammo used. If we use the Sydney Sleeper sniper rifle and fill the darts with holy water we should be able to make vampires melt. Extra points if they scream "I have been shown who is the boss!"

>>17185702
We only have a small amount of holy water, so we'd have to make the shots count.
We may be able to transport the holy water, but not replicate it.

Combining the holy water with a delivery capsule that will shatter on impact, the micro-transporter module, and an exographic scanner, we could have the shooter in the cloaked Al'Kesh fly into range and pop some holy water in either Dracula's or Strahd's face.

>>17185726
Nah, I wouldn't rely on teleporting into either building.
Particularly Castlevania.

>>17185726
Better to give a few vials to the White Mages, their Chemist training makes them adept throwers of such things.

>>17185764
Elaine and Lyla are safe at the Leopard. We only have the one still unnamed White Mage with us, unless I missed a post saying we got Elaine before going to Strahd's.

>>17185838
In general. Those would be the people we'd want to have it.

>>17185857
So you're saying to pick them up and take them with us when we assault Castlevania?

>>17185877
No, I'm just saying that Throw Item is good for delivering vials of stuff.

>>17185913
nonono, bad idea.
>throw white liquid/agloaphotisitisitis
>/tg/ dice happens to have a bad mood
>vial breaks
>unreplaceable resource destroyed

>>17185913

http://www.yourprops.com/Hellboy-Holy-Water-Bullets-other-replicas-movie-props-Hellboy--2004--prop-4
0131.html

I would argue that this would be MUCH harder to dodge and more reliable. But like everything we do, it is dependent on the dice.

Just for the OP when he gets back (Feel free to correct/discuss anything I listed):

>>17184559
>>17184606
>>17184698

We seem to be in agreement to push for more support for a diversionary force going with the angle of future relations between Londinium and Strahd's kingdom. We also are hoping that this will make Strahd hold off on the inevitable backstab long enough for us to backstab him first. Preferably we get info on Azalin before any attacks are made.

(I would like to also add that we should ask Strahd for information on breaching the Drac's castle in a more subtle matter)

>"We think it would be in our mutual best interests to attack Dracula now - we will send an infiltration unit to save "the girl" while you send a large force to attack Dracula frontally. Once she is secured, our forces will already be in a good position to attack Dracula from within, with many of his minions defending against your assault. Once he is slain, your dominance over the region will be reestablished and we can further consider the future of our two nations."

>>17184797
>>17185063
>>17185295
>>17185354
>>17185381
>>17185463


We want to use the a holographic projector to either make Strahd's forces appear larger or have us feign an attack from a different direction to prevent flanking/draw out more men.

Still under discussion:

Applying holy water to Dracula's face: The Arm vs the Bullet

How/where to deploy the holo-emitter/what units to support it for Dracula to commit the maximum amount of his forces.

The Preemptive, Counter Backstab: Still just throwing out ideas. Nothing solid yet.

>>17185996
Yeah, combined with a micro-transporter and exographic scanner, we could have the bullets materializing mere inches from Dracula/Strahd, traveling at the speed they were at when they were about to leave the muzzle.

>>17186210
Strahd considers this.

"Your plan has merit. How long will you take to reach the castle?"

>>17186357
Okay, ANON, calculate how quickly a regular force on foot would take to reach the outer wall of Castlevania from Strahd's castle.
Since we want to avoid showing our more advanced technology and weapons until we kill Strahd, we won't be able to take the Al'Kesh.

Also OP, what armor are the Psions and Abjurers wearing, besides Kinetic Barriers and Reality Emitters? Are the replicators on the Indefatigable online?

>>17186388
They have basic kevlar.

ANON: "I estimate six hours by foot."

>>17186357

Am I the only one still awake? Crap.

Um...

ANON: How long would it take to get that holographic projector whipped up?

Also, we probably will not be ready to attack now NOW. Maybe we should plan for the following evening? How long will it take to reach the count's castle from here?

To Strahd:

"Any intelligence regarding alternate entrances to the Count's castle would be appreciated, your lordship. The lower profile we have going in, the better the chances for success."

>>17186414
"My forces do not... know much about the ground entrances," Strahd says.

>>17186408
So have Darius tell Strahd that it will likely be 8 to 10 hours, given travel and preparation time.

If the replicators are online, have them replicate some light titanium mesh and ceramic panels for all of our spellcasters (White Mages, Psions, Abjurers). It should be a little more effective than kevlar, and should stand up to sword slashes and spear strikes.
Have the Al'Kesh beam them to the away teams when they're away from Strahd.

Also, are the Delta Greens equipped with the micro-transporter and exographic scanner attachments?
They should be moved from the Leopard to the Al'Kesh, and replicate some TR-116's for them to use those with. Right now they have mass rifles and blasters, which the micro-transporter can't be used with.

>>17186414
Well, we had them start on that emitter the night before, so hopefully it is complete already.

There's a question of scale. The largest free standing unit we've seen in the series was roughly man sized and supported a community of solid holograms over a fair sized area, made with just tech details borrowed from Voyager by a less advanced hunting-based space faring culture. Same unit was latter used to generate a holo ship, if I recall, or that used just a similar unit.

>>17186408
6 hours... How long have our ground guys been up? Just wondering how tired most of them will be. Not so worried about the SM's.

Say 12 hours until we attack? That'll give us time to gather up any others from the Leopard we want plus get equipment ready and take a breather.

>>17186483
The Delta Greens don't have any of their plain ol' guns with them? That would be a silly thing to remove.

>>17186483
>>17186494
Did I miss something? Last I heard we had the Leopard in orbit on standby for a drop.

>>17186471

"I gather you normally went for an aerial assault, my lord? I am also guessing that his air defenses are more than adequate as well, then?"

And on that note, I need to sleep now. Good luck everyone and try not to get us killed.

>>17186494
We had them resting during the day, and the Marines don't really need sleep.

>>17186503
They have mass rifles and blasters. If they weren't using the micro-transporters, there would be no need for slug-throwers.

>>17186517
No, it's the Overlord that's still in orbit. The Leopard is landed, but hidden.

>>17186483
Right now we're looking at our ground team 'adventurer party' trying to sneak in while Strahd's forces distract them. Not sure we're going to try getting more people to them.

Have considered throwing a true flank at the enemy along with the false ones, on the far side from Strahd's forces so they don't realize a real attack is hitting the rear of the castle, made up of the rest of the away team.

>>17186526
"They are present, but not overwhelming. He has less monsters that fly than walk," Strahd replies. "Twelve hours, then. I will launch my attack in twelve hours. You had best prepare yourself and leave as soon as possible."

The holo emitter is ready and the ship starts working on producing some slightly upgraded body armor.

Your troops are all somewhat tired at this late hour, barring the space marines.

>>17186544
If military sci-fi has taught me anything, it is that there is always need for chemical slug throwers.
No dampening or absorbing that.
Also sometimes we has to pretend to be conventional.

>>17186568
The Space Marines have no need of sleep, but the spellcasters, Tosh, and likely even Finalon, do.

We can't use the Al'Kesh...hmm...no, wait, we can.

Have the Al'Kesh land while cloaked, and have the Abjurers or Psion create some kind of illusion that makes it look like we're using some kind of teleportation circle or gateway, on the side of the ship.
The door opens, and it looks like everyone is stepping through a gateway. We have the Psion keep up a Detect Divination to make sure that we're not being tracked, and we have several hours of safety inside the Al'Kesh. We just reverse the process near Castlevania when the attack is about to start.

>>17186568

Dracula's castle is only six hours away on foot, right? Let our men sleep for four or five hours; it won't do to have them tired during the battle.

>>17186589
We fire black holes.
And even conventional firearms would have been out of place here.

When we need to blend in, then we replicate the weapons we need.

We don't have Backpacks of Holding for everyone so they can hold unlimited weapons, you know.

Speaking of Space Marines, something that came up in the old planning thread that I just want to confirm.
Are the KI squads 24 each, or 24 total?
This is why the wording ended up being 'however many will fit'. I thought we had the lesser, someone else said we had the greater and seemed rather certain about it.

>>17186617
No, no. To overt. We never suggested we could summon more people, and would give lie to our need for Strahd to commit as much as he can.
_IF_ we do want to send in more people, we'll drop them off quietly at Castevania's backside.

>>17186638
You have 2 squads of 20 Knights and 4 Silencers each.

>>17186655
We're not summoning anybody, we're simply using a transportation gateway that let's us get from one place to another without walking the intervening distance.
We're going to do this in Strahd's presence in any case.

Otherwise, we'll need to march through territory where Dracula has his minions for 6 hours.

>>17186668
Groovy.
Then we've got 37 still aboard the Al'kesh, four on the Leopard. 5 with Darius and 1 in a nannybag (assuming the 'small group' was 6).
Spreading the Silencers out.. say 1 with Darius, 1 with the Leopard and the remains 6 with the Al'kesh group.
Sound about right?

Gentlemen, let us not forget that we have a complete map of the castle at our disposal:
http://shrines.rpgclassics.com/psx/castlevsn/map.shtml
http://www.fantasyanime.com/valhalla/castlevaniasotn/castlevsotn_maps.htm

I mean _really_ complete.
These guys had a lot of time on their hands.

>>17186713
No, the Al'Kesh holds 50 troops. Darius, Tosh, Finalon, the three White Mages went down with 'as many KI as it could hold', ignoring the Abjurers and the Psions who were left on the Leopard.
So there's 31 KI, because we had 2 go to the Leopard to escort Elaine and Lyla, and because 1 is nanny-bagged.
At the Leopard, there should be 16 KI.

Gentlemen. I will check this thread on the morrow, but now I must leave. To speed things along as this section of the game is sucking up a surprising amount of time (partially my fault), I will be starting the next thread with you arriving at Castlevania. Please have your plan ready by 7 PM tomorrow.

>>17186785
Recheck your math.
Tosh, Finalon, the three White Mages = 5
50-5=45
45 - 7 (Darius and 6 others) = 38 KI
48-38=10 aboard the Leopard.

Ok, my math was slightly off, but yours is worse.

>>17186821
Alright man, enjoy your rest.

>>17186849
Darius, Tosh, Finalon, 3 White Mages = 6
50 - 6 = 44 KI
48 - 44 = 4 KI in the Leopard at the start.
2 KI moved from Al'Kesh to Leopard
1 KI from Al'Kesh nanny-bagged
6 KI from Al'Kesh down on the ground with Darius
44 - 9 = 35 on the Al'Kesh
6 KI are on the Leopard.
6 KI on the ground with Darius.

>>17186886
You forget that Darius counts among the 48 KI, and that we lost one of the 6 that went down with Darius and has not been replaced, 5 are down with him at the moment.

And what brain dead idiot would put the people were trying to hide on a long walk to a Leopard with 2 KI from THE CLOAKED INVISIBLE SHIP THAT IS RIGHT THERE.

>>17186886
>>17186921
Currently aboard the Al'kesh:
38 KI.
2 White Mages.
3 Abjurers.
Not sure if we moved the Psions at the same time as the Abjurers. Don't believe we did because they weren't invisible.

>>17186921
Darius got upgraded to Hero status and he doesn't count among the regular KI complement.

We also had the Abjurers cast invisibility on the KI, Lyla, Elaine, and the Psion that went with them. We needed them to go with to the Leopard because we needed to know if either of the Counts had started scrying on either of the two White Mages or the Leopard, and didn't want to lose the Al'Kesh as a surprise in case the Counts were watching.

>>17186964
We brought the Abjurers to the Al'kesh to _protect_ it from scrying.

>>17186984
We didn't. Look through all of the posts and all of them refer to the dropship, not the Al'Kesh.

Also you can scry on someone based on a description, in any system.
So I'm not sure why we bothered with that part either, in hindsight.

>>17186984
Also, the Abjurers can't protect anything or anyone from scrying. They also don't have any spells that could detecting divination, either.
That's the Psions that can detect divination.

The Abjurers can only cast Invisibility.

>>17186995
Because the Al'kesh was the only dropship down there before this went down.

>>17187008
Indeed, we were talking about putting them on a the dropship before we started talking about bringing the Abjurers down to make them invisible.

>>17187018
>>17187008
Are you both forgetting that we had the Psions and the Abjurers come down in the Leopard, because people didn't bring them in the Al'Kesh, and we needed the Psions with their Dimensional Anchor power when we dressed up Lyla and Elaine as Tatyana/Lisa?
The Leopard was on the ground well before the attack on Lyla and Darius.

>>17186964
He's still a KI squad leader. Just because we know Lyla and Elaine's names, it doesn't mean they're going to stop counting as part of the White Mage squad.

>>17187038
No, we were dressing them up long before some people people realized we went with the plan that didn't have them on the Al'kesh.

>>17187052
Then we were supposed to sneak down a shuttlecraft with the Abjurers and Psions, but somehow we snuck a dropship the size of small city block down without anyone noticing instead? What?

>>17187052
If that's the case, that we didn't have the Leopard on the ground and the Psions weren't in the Al'Kesh, when we were having Lyla and Elaine dressed up and when Lyla got attacked, then how did we have a Psion with Lyla to cast Dimensional Anchor?

>>17187093
'Dressed up' would be when we dressed them up.
Technically, they're still in the damn things.

>>17187103
At the time of them being dressed up, the Psions were in orbit.
We had them come down in the Leopard along with reinforcements when Darius was to meet with Strahd's minion.

>>17187039
Lyla and Elaine aren't on the Hero roster. Darius is, and we filled out the KI squads without him being included in their number when we did so.

I'm going with pic related and going to sleep.
Ya'll try to finish arguing about who was built by aliens before I return.
G'night.

If we force-march, we can get to everyone to Castlevania in 6 hours. That will give our team 6 hours in which to rest.
That's assuming, of course, that we don't pick them up in a clearing or someplace away from Strahd's vision and just take them there via the Al'Kesh.

How many people are we sending into Castlevania? All of the KI, only those in the Al'Kesh, or just a small team?
Are we bringing all of the White Mages, or just 1? Same question about the Psions and the Abjurers.

Castlevania appears to become stronger and more deadly the more people there are. So, we should keep the number of people that go in limited.

Voting for this deployment:
Darius, Tosh, Finalon, 2 White Mages, 2 Psions, 2 Abjurers, 6 KI, 2 Silencers.
Members who are not with the team right now are to be picked up by the Al'Kesh and deposited at a rendezvous point ahead of the others.
In addition to the micro-transporter and exographic scanner for Tosh and the improved armor for the spellcasters, they should be given a half-dozen Federation medkits and the rest of out nanny-bags.

>>17187567
Hell, just have the KI carry the other three and they could get there in 4 hours and not wear anyone out.

>>17190044
I suppose we could do that, if you care nothing for the dignity of the parties involved.

Do you have anything to say concerning the composition of the infiltration team?
We can give them a full map of the castle, but it may morph itself to confound us.
Should we take the Probe Droid in with us?

>>17187567
>In addition to the micro-transporter and exographic scanner for Tosh
We came to agreement a thread or so back to go ahead and give those as an optional attachment for every projectile weapon we're fielding. With a basic dumb-fire distance adjuster as well, just in case they want/need to use it during combat 'on the fly'.

>>17190285
>Do you have anything to say concerning the composition of the infiltration team?
I'm thinking stick with the small ground team we have now. Maybe slip them an extra mage, but we don't want to send a much larger group, lest it by so noticeable as to cause Dracula's forces to pull back inside. Probably at least the other white mages so we can exit with them after the 'rescue'.
Basically a SpecOps raid, we go in quickly and hit hard to avoid drawing notice from the whole compound. We know the layout of both forms of the castle and what we should need to hit to get to Dracula the fastest.

>>17190504
We actually don't have very many projectile weapons left in our arsenal, as they were superseded by plasma weapons, phasers, blasters, and mass rifles.
We'll need to re-issue TR-116's or some other projectile weapon to the Delta Greens, or whoever else goes into Dracula's castle.
Unless the bolter will work with the micro-transporter. I was given to understand that bolters work like gyrojet pistols, and so a micro-transporter would be meaningless, since the bolter rocket motor wouldn't have the distance needed to achieve its effective speed.

Also, are you saying that we should only send in Darius, Finalon, Tosh, 2 White Mages (of which one will by Lyla), 1 Psion, 1 Abjurer, and 6 KI (of which an unknown number will be Silencers)?

>>17190720
We never got rid of the equipment the Delta Green troops came with, we just gave them other weapons to use normally.
And the micro-porters should work fine with the bolters. I've seen arguments about the gyro-jet like aspects of bolters before in 40k threads, but the only thing that seems to be solid is that, however it works, they don't have a minimum damage distance. In fact there is more evidence for point blank being more damaging, as far as the fiction goes, but game rules put it the same near or far.

>>17190832
>We never got rid of the equipment the Delta Green troops came with, we just gave them other weapons to use normally.
They're probably in storage somewhere on the Relentless or the Storm. It just needs to be said specifically that the weapons are going to be re-issued, otherwise we'll have more problems of people being confused on who has what weapons.

>they don't have a minimum damage distance
I must have missed those parts in the 40k threads. Alright, if that's the case, then it shouldn't be a problem to fit the micro-transporters onto the bolters.

The exographic scanners will also be useful in allowing us to see through walls and see ahead of us, to avoid traps and ambushes.

Now, are you going with the deployment in
>>17187567
or
>>17190720

>>17190943
I think >>17190720
is closer to what I had in mind. Slightly heavier, but it is probably a good move to have an Abjurer and Psion along just in case.

Equipment for the team to be given before they enter the castle (includes things already requested):
1. Micro-transporter modules and exographic scanners for Tosh's gauss rifle and the KI's Bolters.
2. Improved titanium mesh and ceramic armor for all spellcasters and Finalon (unless he has a Mithril chain shirt).
3. Federation Medkits.
4. 3 satchels of X-COM Proximity Grenades, replicated Krak Grenades, and X-COM High Explosive charges. Each satchel to carry 30 of each.
5. An X-COM Motion Detector.
6. Federation Tricorder with datalink to the Indefatigable's computer with a science officer on standby to interpret the datafeed for us.
7. Map of Castlevania, both the regular and inverted versions.
8. Replicated Type 2 Hand Phasers for all spellcasters.

Items to check from ANON:
1. Do we have the molecular structure of Ether Potions, as well as other restorative potions, and can we replicate them?
2. How many nanny-bags do we have left?

Choices for us:
1. Do we give the infiltration team the vial of holy water, or do we save it for Strahd?
2. Do we send the Probe Droid in with the team, or have it stay outside?

>>17191639
Leave the probe droid outside.
Also thinking we should use it to carry the holo-emitter around. Then we can use it to disguise/protect the droid as well as a mobile platform that can lug that chunk of equipment around into position.

>>17191692
We need to find out from OP how big of a holo-emitter we were able to get, what its power drain is, and whether it makes simple holograms or hard holograms that can do something.
If it's the former, the Probe Droid might be able to power it, but if it's the latter, then the droid probably won't have the power to be able to run it for long, if at all.
It might need to be installed in the Al'Kesh instead.

Deploy the Delta Green unit's conventional weaponry to them with the micro-porters, sensors, and dumb-fire options.
Have them sneak their way to within sensor range of the field of battle so that they may take targets of opportunity to make it seem like Strahd's forces are super effective. If we haven't already done so, again make sure to issue that porter-package to pretty much everyone, particularly the MI.
Slip Lyla, a Psion, and an Abjurer to our ground team just before they hit the castle. Give Lyla her robe and gear, but keep the dress on underneath the robe in case we want to play that card.

While we're at it, have the Al'kesh pick up a team of MI from the Leopard. Just to spread the heavy-weapons love between to two dropships.

>>17191786
Well, the version I was mentioning before isn't too large and seems to cover a fairly large range, and that was one cobbled together from technology the holograms stole from the Hirogen, which was in turn a copy of technology stolen from Voyager.
So I feel confident that that ours should at least be on par with that.

>>17192466
Forgot my link:
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Photonic_field_generator

>>17191842
What's the exit plan for the Delta Greens? Are they going to be using their weapons outside of the ship, or from inside. How prepared are they to avoid detection by the monster's supernatural senses?

>>17192466
>>17192483
You just said holo-emitter, which covers a wide range of possible models. OP could have thought that you were only referring to a model that creates non-interactive holograms.
You should have linked to it before to make sure that this is what you're getting instead of something else.
Also we would need the detailed schematics of the photonic field generator after the modifications by Torres, rather than before.if you want holograms that are interactive.

>>17192526
Stealth, and operating far outside of normal range. Focus fire and kill anything wandering into their position whether it has noticed them or not.
If is seems that they have drawn attention to their area, they are to quietly disengage and ghost away.

>>17192652
That was just Torres figuring out where the Hirogen/Holograms had goofed their design, not an innovation on her part. Holotechnology is well known to the Federation, not to the Hirogen.

>>17192652
Actually we did give examples of what we were looking for. A 'photonic field generator' IS a largish solid hologram emitter.
>>17180461
>>17180410

>>17192466
>>17192652
Whatever it's size or capabilities, I still say we deploy it with the probe droid. We can worry about just what it does when OP arrives, but it's general mission is to provide a false flanking operation to draw out more of Castlevania's monsters.

Nine thousand hours in MS paint, etc, etc.

>>17192894
It was stated that a solid hologram emitter would be preferred, but regular holograms would be fine.
OP only said that a holo-emitter could be put together, with no indication as to its capabilities.

>>17193142
I would prefer to have the Al'Kesh moved to between the Delta Greens and Darius' team.
That way, if Dracula's monsters detect the DG's because of bullshit magic, they can get to the Al'Kesh for an emergency dustoff faster.
Seconds will be vital since the enemy has hax teleportation at his disposal.

>>17193184
Indeed, we'll have to confirm, though since it was an unqualified statement, it was assumed that it was the 'a small non-solid emitter and a largish solid'.

But you know what they say about assumptions, they make an ass out of you and Mption.

>>17193241
DG's are still invisible.
Actually what I'd want in that placement is to see how close to the Leopard we can have the DG's operating. Either through long-ass tele-snipe range or Leopard placement. That would be their fallback position.
Howevery, the cloaked A'lkesh can float wherever as needed once it delivers the rest of the elements to the ground team. It just needs to be prepared to dump it's troops on Castlevania's backstoop on a moment's notice if needed.

Sup guys, I'm back. Glad to see we didn't do anything stupid while I was away, like telling Strahd about the Meta.
Also holy fuck low rolls. /tg/ dice are niggers.

>>17193374
The DG's aren't perfectly invisible. And my concern is that they will get detected by the supernatural senses of Dracula's monsters.
His werewolves smelling the DG's scent, his Giant Bats and lesser vampires hearing the bullets being fired and the shell casings being ejected, or some other magical sense that allows them to detect the life-force of the DG team.
Invisibility is no guarantee of non-detection when fighting fantasy monsters.

Alright, with OP arriving soon, it looks like the basic layout of a plan are these:
>>17193374
>>17193241
>>17192944
>>17193142
>>17192721
>>17192526
>>17192466
>>17191842
>>17191692
>>17191639
>>17191041
>>17190943
>>17190832
>>17190720
>>17190504
>>17190285
>>17190044
>>17187567

>>17191639
In particular seems a core piece of planning.

>>17193458
See, we had a solution for that:
>Focus fire and kill anything wandering into their position whether it has noticed them or not.
Also known as 'Apply Gun to Monster'.
And if too much attention starts to head that way, they fade away from the area.
It'd give stealth-suited Delta Greens with weapons that don't even need line of sight to silently kill things the edge in that disengagement any night of the week.

>>17193462
Yes.
In terms of equipment for the team, >>17191639
is the only articulated post that contains a full list.

We seem to be going for a smaller infiltration team, as listed in >>17190720
One of the KI's will have the Voiceless Spear, of course.

We still need to decide on how we're getting the team from Strahd's castle to Dracula's, in order to determine how rested they will be, and if they might get attacked on the way.

>>17193500
They are only there to quietly add a little more disruption to things.

>>17193462
Seems like an idea.
So we're sending some, but not all, of our forces to Castlevania, so we have a reserve left over for when we kick Strahd in his bony rotting crotch.

Darius, Finalon, Tosh, 2 White Mages (out of 3), 1 Psion (out of 3), 1 Abjurer (out of 3), 6 KI (out of 47), Delta Greens outside the castle sniping.
That gives us a large force to orbital drop on top of Strahd's head. If possible, jam any unused mechs in the Kick-strahd-in-the-cunt dropship, because you might as well.

>>17193510
Psion detects Scrying. We make a bullshit™ mode illusion to cover our Al'kesh if Scrying isn't detected, hop in, and get well rested. If we are being Scry'd, then it's Knight Inductor Wheelbarrow Racing.

>>17193500
Our radar coverage isn't perfect, some flyers might get through undetected until it's too late.
I hope your confidence actually holds up to what Dracula throws at us.

>>17193510
We had them resting during the day and met with Strahd after nightfall:
>>17180447
>>17180282

So our non-Marines should be well rested already, and we've suggested pauldron rides for them on the march over to conserve their strength.

>>17193569
We have 2 Hellstars and the Prawn suits in the Leopard which is already on the ground.
All of our other available mech forces (2 Hellstars, the Tomahawks, the MLRS) are all prepped and on standby in orbit.
We could even deploy the VF-25's and TIE Defenders if we want air cover.

>>17193576
Done correctly, the MI in the Leopard will be within micro-porter range of the Delta Greens to provide them with cover while they snipe.

>>17193592
Actually, OP said that our non-Marines are a little tired right now.

>>17186568
>Your troops are all somewhat tired at this late hour, barring the space marines.

>>17193629
Where did we deploy the Mobile Infantry, again?
>>17193649
Wait, never mind.

I'm not willing to send Air forces into this mist-filled foghole. If GPS don't work and Vision don't work, then your navigation option is basically "Dead reckoning altimeter", which runs a serious risk of you saying hello to the ground at Mach 1.
>>17193653
Could always bullshit up an illusion, hologram, anti-scrying field, or such and hop into the Al'kesh for some rest.

Autosage in 20. Hope the OP returns and makes a new thread!

>>17193629
No we have the MI, some of the KI, and the Delta Greens in Leopard.
I've lost track of where the Abjurers and Psions it brought down have ended up by this point though.

The Overlord is on standby with the rest of our Mech forces loaded.

It's 7pm.
Now we play the waiting game.

>>17193712
Hell, if Hellstars and Prawns are there too, I wouldn't complain.

>>17193765
I hope you're not underestimating the infiltration of Castlevania. We'll likely be up against Guard armors, and possibly up against Legion, Death, or shit-tons of Medusa heads. I honestly think we should deploy the three MI with our infiltration team.

>>17193817
Works for me. So we have Team Darius clear their way to a balcony up in the Castle, drop in whoever's necessary to kick Dracula in the cunt (MI? More KI? More Abjurers? we'll find out when we get there), kick Dracula in the cunt, then we kick Strahd in the cunt aftewards.

>>17193805
I'm rather hoping that 7 Space Marines, 2 White-Mages, 1 Abjurer, 1 Psion, 1 Elf Ranger, and a Spectre are at least a match for a single Belmont against a castle we know the layout of that we are having partly emptied to face distractions outside.
And much larger and we will get slowed down and more noticeable. We want to be nearing Dracula before his forces at large even realize there is a threat inside.

>>17193876
Oh. Point taken.

One thing of note: Take a shit-ton of Fly and Levitate. Castlevania often requires that you go up and down.

>>17193865
Actually, not a bad idea to keep in mind if we find a window/balcony near where we face Dracula. Though it the fight is in the 'inverted' portion, not sure if we can get them in..

Wait, hell.
Now that I think of it, we might want to use the Al'kesh to drop the team right on that balcony room, on the upper left of the map. Puts us right close to our goals.

Higher res here:
http://www.fantasyanime.com/valhalla/castlevaniasotn/castlevsotn_maps.htm

While we're waiting: May I suggest recruiting NewCrons at some point in the future, before we head into 40k and equivalent level (Ultimately culminating in NuChaos!Verse, if the early hints we saw are any indication). They'll be immune (or at least resistant) to warpdickery, and powerful to boot (and not as inclined to 'destroy all other life' as Oldcrons). If we do wind up in any universe with Newcrons native to it, we could also do trades with Trazyn the Infinite, as he'd be sure to have lots of interesting 40k tech. Only problem would be what to trade to him...

>Op says have our plan ready by 7pm
>It's 7:40pm
>Still no OP

>>17193865
>>17194000
So alter the insertion plan to waiting until the three distraction elements are in effect, providing the most distraction, and has the Al'kesh float over and let the insertion team jump out to the balcony and push on to the objective?

>>17194051
Seems reasonable. Distract 'em then Attack 'em.
Now, where's that goddamn Op...

>>17194074
I only appear when people complain about it.

It's a trait I have.

rolled 60, 53, 36, 53, 35, 21, 3, 80, 85, 13 = 439

>>17194087
Oh, there's the Op.
Let's get rollin'
Speaking of rollin', how are you feeling today, /tg/ dice?

>>17194000
Don't forget we've got loot and trap details too, like that we have spikes to navigate in the hallway connecting to that room.

>>17194087
Speak of the OP and he shall appear...are you going to make a new thread? This one is perilously close to autosage.

>>17194087
Yo OP, you rock!

>>17194097
Well below average. Good ol' dice.
Take some rope and climbing pitons before going into Castlevania. Nothing like a good set of climbing pitons to sequence break half a dungeon.

>>17194087
Complain about ME. Goddamn, brain, what am I paying you for.

The holo-emitter you guys made aren't interactive. You seem to be wanting to make it to produce a decoy, I'd say it can handle a squad of such.

You set your replicators to make slightly upgraded armor, which it can do. I really don't think it can make the holo-emitter and armor and teleporter mods for ALL of your slug throwers before you hit the castle. That seems a bit cheesy.

Pulling plan together...

rolled 70, 32, 86, 3, 28, 63, 89, 41, 55, 2 = 469

>>17194097
Hm. If we were trying to roll UNDER - i.e. a system where low rolls are good, but high rolls are bad, would the /tg/ dice then give us nothing but 100s or something?
We've been rolling consistently low for 3 threads now and I'm starting to think these dice are weighted to produce low numbers.

>>17194002
Recruit Kyubey, trade soulgems to Trayzn.

>>17194142
Well we've been talking about equipping them since that planning thread before last.
But if we can just manage Tosh, Delta Green, and MI, that'll cover what we need for the current plan.

>>17194002
We'll spend a decent amount of DOSH replacing our losses from this world. 'Crons might have merit, if we have any DOSH left over.

>>17194164
Oh the dice are probably responding to my luck-distortion field. I'm notorious in real life for my presence producing hilariously low or high rolls. (Mostly low.)

OK, please confirm that THIS:
>Darius, Finalon, Tosh, 2 White Mages (out of 3), 1 Psion (out of 3), 1 Abjurer (out of 3), 6 KI (out of 47), Delta Greens outside the castle sniping.

Is what you're deploying, while everyone else is waiting in the Overlord. The holoemitters are making a decoy squad, and WHICH TWO WHITE MAGES ARE GOING?

Are you taking anything else? When I make the new thread, the attack begins.

>>17194235
Which two white mages?
Lyla, and $Not_blonde_unnamed, in my opinion.
Take climbing tools or flight tools or some means of going up and down. You do a lot of that in Castlevania.

>>17194235
That plan looks like it'd work for now. Not sure which mages to take.

>>17194214
Well, yes. This is at some point in the future, preferably before we start hitting 40k-class worlds and not after.

Also: What's the process for upgrading our vehicles with external tech? Spikes' swordfish, at least, could do with some upgrades, in cash he winds up in dogfights with more advanced ships (unlikely, but still possible

>>17194266
Climbing tools no problem, but the only jump/jet pack troops you have are the X-COM vets and the MI.

>>17194281
Don't forget to level grind for funds and loot. We might miss on some stuff if we combo-straighten worlds using lynchpins.

>>17194235
Lyla is the one going in with them, the dress on under her white mage gear.

Delta Green far back from the fighting as can be managed, taking targets to make Strahd's seem to be very effective.
The Leopard and MI far enough back to provide cover to the Delta Greens if needed and as their fallback position.

>>17194309
We can still investigate worlds in the Stable zone. There's bound to still be SUEs and Crossovers in some of them.
After all, we picked the Cruiser - the fast-teleporting fast-moving craft. We can just jump about to a new world every hour, check for reality distortions, and if there are no distortions, then we keep moving.

>>17194309
An excellent point.

Hmmm....might C'Tan Phase swords be good weapons to obtain? Or do lightsabers do the exact same job? Have we given the Reforged Ring to anyone yet?

Ok, so these should about encompass our current plans:
>>17194051
>>17194000
>>17193817
>>17192944
>>17192721
>>17191842
>>17191639
>>17190720

>>17194387
We haven't given the Reforged ring to anyone yet. I don't know what it does, and if it's still linked to Sauron, I don't want to assign it to fucking anyone.

>>17194235
Which White Mages to go:
Lyla and Elaine.

Also, can we replicate any Ether or Elixir potions at all? Or do they require actual refinement?

>>17194387
No one has been given the ring yet, no.

>>17194431
The official report was that damaged as it was, the corrupting influence was greatly diminished, along with it's powers. Now it makes the subject good at craft and accumulating wealth, but also makes them tend to be greedier.
We've been waiting to give it to an engineer or similar.

>>17194431
Pretty sure our magic guys confirmed its now Sauron-free. I don't recall what it does though. Anybody else know?

Also: thread migration? I think we're in autosage.

>>17194455
OP will be starting another threat with assault in progress.
Just making sure of our assault plans first.

>>17194452
Oh! Lootmagnet.
Give it to one of the /tg/ command staff, particularily the one that chooses which world we go to next.

>>17194483

Give it to the guy who suggested VB-6's and how to deal with raising Lyla + Elaine to hero status.

>>17194497

Let's find a lucky character and equip it on him/her instead.

Do you think a character that's a bad luck magnet will absorb our bad rolls instead?

>>17194504
No. More likely that the two bad luck fields will feed off of each other and grow exponentially worse.

>>17194497
which guy is that? shouldn't it go to one of the guys likely to be actually finding stuff? Mouse or data? They're capable of crafting, yes?

also, make sure all assault teams have maps of the castle, so they're aware of the traps. At the same, be prepared for divergences. Ebon night could have screwed things around.

Thread up.
>>17194517

>>17194504
We probably should get some type of Luck Manipulation device or hero or something when we head back to base. Something that would allow, for example, "Reroll and subtract 25" or "The first roll between 1 and 10 each session is instead set to 50" or something.
Or, perhaps, a Luck Capacitor - whenever we roll poorly, it stores Bad Luck, and we can then use that Bad Luck to curse/hex an opponent.
Heck, even a shrine to the Dice Gods might work. Some of us are religious about said gods, and since gods are REAL in the metaverse, I wouldn't put it past us to have a statue of Kismet or something.