I reccomend we find an area that isn't warded and start causing trouble. Or use minmaxed robots.

>>24033821
>Mari was an ordinary high school student with a magical shadow friend who made it hard for her to fit in.


that sounds great could we just do that instead?

>>24033887
The problem is the whole camp is warded as far as we could tell, those runes stretched to the perimeter.

>>24033887
Can we detect the wards at all? Perhaps we could just test the camp to see where's warded and where isn't. Also if we could get bored we could just consistently set off the wards everywhere to force a response, see if they actually have daemons or just the wards.

>>24033943
Eh good point, we won't know till we try. Let's head back to the camp and probe the perimeter to see if there's any way we can detect these wards without setting them off. Surely as a creature of magic we will feel tingly in the presence of it, or something.

Daemon spidey sense go!

>>24033897

No.

>>24033943

Well, in the sense that using Delusion sets them off. Otherwise detecting this sort of thing requires Clarity, which you haven't got.

>>24033997
Well, we've already done that once. Unless they turn out to have a way to capture us in shadow form, we aren't really losing anything we haven't lost already. Especially we should check if the town itself is warded, and how many natives are there. They could be the key to breaking the defenses.

>>24033997
O come on Golgothan military can be a rive high school, the blood guard can be the football team.

and other demons can be like stuffed animals/imagination friends other kids have.

I am sure we could get this to work.

>>24034152
If you ran that, I might play. But I've waited way too long for TDQ to return, if it stopped here I'd have to kill someone.

>>24034234
Agreed, we need to get back in the swing of things.

>>24033821
That actually sounds like a pretty good story. Maybe if I ever go mad enough to write a quest ill do that.

Also whoever came up with Anna Malle sucks at making up really flimsy fake names. Anne O'Malley is much better.

>>24033887
>use minmaxed robots
I'm pretty sure this is a reference to SVQ? Unless this quest has robots in, but as far as I'm aware there's just been blood golems.

>>24034053

You begin wandering around the camp and into Golroute Village proper. It takes some time to get around, since you need to keep to the shadows, but slowly and surely you begin to learn what the wards cover by hitting people with random Delusions ("your best friend is a koala," "you once swallowed a grapefruit whole," "your mother was killed by giant prehistoric celery"). Specifically, they cover everything. Whoever made them must've been a busy little bee. Everything from the stockades at the edge of the camp to the streets of the village itself is warded, and the response times are getting faster now that the guards are catching on that you're lurking about. That armored creature is showing up faster as well...If he's a daemon, he either doesn't have the relevant Clarity powers or doesn't want you to know he has them. And if the latter, that's probably because there's nothing he can do about your shadow form.

The response is always more or less the same, however. He shows up, glances around the area, and then leaves.

>wat do?

>>24034252

Yeah, that's a Super Villain Quest reference. A persistent mechanical problem in Super Villain Quest was that the Mechs power was stupid overpowered and there tended to be a huge wave of complaints every time it got a much-needed nerf. That's the main reason I switched to a quest with rules so lite they're barely even there.

>>24034319
really it seamed more like you know how you took one real super power and gave the rest of your experience away as a way to develop charters and generally not be a power gaming ass well fuck that one power, and any logical/the reason we took it to begin with. application of it you have been using from the start, yea fuck that.

Super Villain Quest was great then you became a prick about small details that no one had a chance to know about the setting.

>>24034399

I cannot begin to describe how uninterested I am in having a mechanical discussion with someone clearly unaware of the mathematical realities of Super Villain Quest even in a thread that is actually about Super Villain Quest, let alone in a thread that is completely unrelated. Either play the quest I am actually running or gtfo.

>>24034303
Can we try to follow the big guy cautiously? Not sure how well defended he is but if he's unwilling to try and deal with us we could exploit that advantage.

>>24034303
Could also be a construct. Some kind of daemon could probably create an "armor golem", likely the same daemon that made the wards.

Is the camp walled off from the town itself as well? In either case, I still think we should check out how many natives are there and what their opinion of the Golgothans is.

>>24034418
Cry a little harder,why don't you. Don't bring up things you don't want people to post about.


>>24034152
Japanese high school or American?

>>24034443
i don't think it necessarily takes a demon to make wards. might be just a trick taught to bloodguards or some shit.

can we just start a fire? they probably don't have wards against that.

>>24034443

The town appears to be fully populated and the locals aren't showing any obvious aversion to the garrison. People glance over their shoulders at passing guards and look kind of scared, but it's hard to tell if that's a rebellion waiting to happen or just mild xenophobia mixed with ambient fear from the fact that there's a war on.

>>24034422

You could. Do you actually want to do that?

>>24034500

You'll have to go corporeal to start a fire.

>>24034500
Sure we can. We just need to acquire some fire and bring it to what we want to set fire to, without being detected, without using shadow form. Also, we'd need some kind of high value target, just any fire won't do.

>>24034611
Let's follow the big guy around at a distance we think is relatively safe in shadow form, and try to be stealthy as possible. I really want to see what this guy is up to before we go burning shit down.

>>24034611
>>24034616
hard to make any detailed plans without details. it should be fairly easy to just grab a torch and blind everyone around but could we actually get the fire to start well enough that they don't just put it out when they all get there?

>>24034738
I don't really remember how draining blind is for us, but there's probably an upper limit to how many we can manage to blind at a time. Blinding people isn't really being undetected either since a guard is unlikely to just shrug that off like it's nothing, and it could be affected by the wards.

Was the town warded?

>>24034869
the idea was that it'd just stop them from putting out the fire immediately.

>>24034883
Oh, of course. Well, it might help, depending on how high our blinding capacity actually is.

>>24034964
It depends on how dark the immediate area is, from what TM told us. We could blind a dozen people no problem if there was enough ambient shadow.

>>24034869

The limit on blinding is that you can't actually generate shadow with it, just move it into people's eyes. So there has to be enough darkness around for you to move. So during daylight you can only blind like one dude maximum. In an unlit area at night, you can blind like a dozen dudes at once, and the ground will become inexplicably well-lit. Fun trivia fact: The daemon of physics cries himself to sleep every night.

And yeah, the town was warded.

So are we trying to start a fire or following the armored guy?

>>24035027
>And yeah, the town was warded.

My confidence in starting any meaningful trouble via the natives in the short time we have is dwindling quickly. We could probably follow armorman around for a while, but I think we only have one or two nights left. Don't remember exactly. In either case, don't waste all night on spying, SOMETHING needs to happen as well. If he doesn't do anything interesting within the hour, we should probably forget him and come up with a plan.

>>24035089
Supporting this.

>>24034500
Well, actually, if they have some sort of siege warding they probably do. Fire is a pretty common tactic to destroy things.

Question is if they have that sort of protection or just this anti-infiltration thing. Luckily it's probably not set to detect all powers because other wise we'd have a tail on our shadow form.

Two questions because im not that familiar with this quest.

Do the delusions hold or are they blocked as well as detected, and are we capable of moving fast enough to cause a guard response somewhere and go do whatever we came here for while they're dealing with that?

Also btw that idiot >>24034399
is not me.

>>24035252
From what I could tell, to answer part of your question, it only seems to register the activation of powers. Dunno if it blocks, but if we shadow form outside the perimeter and walk in it doesn't see us.

>>24035252
We can move at running speed in shadow form, but that makes us quite detectable, being literally a shadow running around without a body attached.

>>24035252

The Delusions still work, they're just detected by the wards. You can move as fast as a regular person can. You have Celerity as a minor Talent so eventually you'll get the chance to bump your speed up. Or at least, you should. I guess you could get really unlucky with the randomly selected powers.

>>24035089
>>24035218

You follow the armored creature as he/it/whatever moves through the town. Anytime he leaves a paved road he leaves behind footprints nearly an inch-deep, so he's not exactly hard to follow.

He ends up walking into a garrison full of regular guards. Doesn't look like there's any Blood Guards inside, but from your safe distance positioning, you can't tell for certain. Want to follow him inside?

>>24035471
Go for it, maybe fortune will favor the bold this time.

>>24035471
This smells somewhat of trap, to be honest. We could try to peek inside, but don't enter.

>>24035588

You come a bit closer and peer inside through the gap in the door. Fortunately, being made in Dorrik, the door is not extremely well-fitted so you can get a decent view. It looks like the place is packed with about thirty Golgothans total. The majority are standing guard in various places, but a few officers in the center are pouring over maps and plans on a table in the center. Along with the officers there's a man who looks Dorriki, probably a representative of the locals, but he mostly sits back from the others, observing without contributing much. The armored creature stalks in the background, and occasionally steps forward to gesture and write and point in a way that the others are apparently capable of understanding. The writing probably helps, but you can see the top of the table from this distance and angle. Looks like it's either sentient or programmed to fake it, though.

>wat do?

>>24035775
Is there any way we can slip inside and study these maps stealthily? I feel like it's a huge risk but being able to expose their plans or force them to abandon them if we are discovered will mess with them mightily.

>>24035775
We could see if delusions work on armorman. We can lure him to any place by setting off the wards, then giving him a delusion such as "The dorriki in the garrison is an assassin trying to kill the officers." That might harm the relations with the locals if it works, and if it doesn't, well at least we know.

>>24035889

It'll be risky. While getting into the room undetected is certainly doable (barring some unforseen wards or similar), those maps and plans are the center of attention and getting a good view of them unnoticed will be difficult.

>>24035975
Could we use our shadow form to crawl up into the rafters if there are any and stick to the ceiling? I'm hoping there's some crates we can use as a connector shadow to hide doing this but it'd worth mentioning.

>>24036023

You can't stick to the ceiling, no. In shadow form, you still need to step on things which are below you or else you'll fall. There *are* rafters, but they're twenty feet up and there's no obvious means of getting to them. There are tables and the like, but even if those weren't hard to jump off of unnoticed, you are quite short.

>>24036149
Curse being so short, oh well. Brave it and try getting closer to the table to get a good look. We have to try something.

>>24036300
Supported. They already know we're lurking around anyway.

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>>24036300
>>24036550

Very, very cautiously you make your way through the crowded room. Whatever wards this place have, it doesn't trigger on Unnoticed, which is good, because you continue getting a ton of mileage out of that ability as you cross the room, and then position yourself closely to a light source. Your shadow stretches up across the wall. Suddenly, you are very tall. And still Unnoticed. From your new vantage point, you can see their plans, though unfortunately you're too far to hear what they're saying.

The plans show the ongoing battles between Norfin and Clarbel Villages, as well as fighting between their forces at Guille and the villages of the east (Greatoak Village is still marked as existent on their maps, so it looks like they're unaware of the situation to the east). The scribblings on the map are hard to make out for certain, but from their tardy scouts it looks like they're also aware that something big is heading their way. They question whether Guille still stands and wonder if Summerbridge has mobilized against them. They wonder at the size of the force approaching, and if they can afford to send away a hundred men to help suppress Clarbel. They don't have any concrete shortterm plans.

Longterm, though, it looks like they plan on resolving the situation with Clarbel, Norfin, and Summerbridge, and then either reconnecting with or recapturing Guille Fortress. Whether or not they bother pushing past there depends on what the situation to the east is.

>wat do?

>>24036846

Also, someone made a version of this that had a map key showing which village was represented by which number, but I didn't think to save it.

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>>24036867
Got your back.

>>24036846
This is interesting information. Perhaps the correct move would be to leave Golroute for now, and instead move to the assistance of either Clarbel or Norfin, if the army has the supplies to do so. We'd probably have an easier time convincing our own guys to do so, than to convince these guys to do something stupid.

>>24037111
Agreeing with this, let's carefully exfiltrate the premises and make our way out of the encampment.

>>24037157

Okay, sure. Afterwards you are heading back to your army or is there anything else you want to do while you're in the area?

>>24037412
Tempting as it is to set shit on fire for the giggles, we should leave them be and rejoin our forces. Pass our findings on to our two buddies as per standard procedure and ask for their opinion on the matter concerning this strategy,

These guys seem to be enemy command, is it possible to kill, hinder, or subvert them?

Like, I dunno, making one guy think another is a massive traitor.

>>24037434
Who, barkface and stonebrain? They've both proven themselves completely uninterested in military strategy. Jens and the other leaders are the ones to talk to.

>>24037474
There is a chance the deluded target may just jump at the throat of the others. There's also a chance he will just shout to have him arrested. The delusion will be painfully obvious to everyone around, though, considering both that the delusion must be spoken and that the camp is warded, so it's uncertain how effective it will be.

>>24037537
Whoops, I meant to say three buddies because for a moment I thought there were only two village leaders. But yeah definitely not the other daemons.

>>24037474
Wait, no, that'd alert them you were there to hear their plans. Bodily harm or nothing.

What's our offense options like as shadow? Probably can't just stab them with turning regular but maybe a booby trap? Actually that'd also let them know we were here.

If we have a bow we could hide on a nearby rooftop and get one of 'em. Otherwise yeah, go deliver plans.

>>24037581
We can't interact physically with anything as a shadow. We also cannot carry items as a shadow, which means we can't just unshadow and stab someone, since there'd be no stabbing device in our hand. I believe these issues CAN be solved by talents we don't have (yet?)

>>24037633
Yeah TM said eventually we can pick up a talent that allows us to convert things we touch into shadows which can then be carried. Depends on how lucky we get with the random talent wheel at the end of chapters.

>>24037564
Glad we agree on that. If we provide the intel we've gathered, I'm sure they'd agree with our view, without any kind of subtle manipulation needed.

>>24037581

Using the Shadow Steel and Shadow Form Talents together you can bring stuff with you when you go into Shadow Form. With Shadowshaping, you can also spontaneously create any simple object by turning a shadow of, say, a tree into a shadow of a sword, then using Shadow Steel and Shadow Form to make it into a real sword.

But since Shadow Form is the only one of these powers you actually have right now, looks like we're doing >>24037434.

Your army is only a single day away from Golroute by the time you arrive. Jens, Vierre, and Dekker are gathered together discussing the coming attack. Information on the enemy position is scarce and their scouts won't return until dawn, so for now they're discussing as many possibilities as possible. Hopefully, they'll have a relevant plan for whatever information the scouts return with, which they can relay to the troops in the morning just before breaking camp.

The three of them are starting to grow used to your showing up to consult with them. The three of them consider for a moment after hearing your report.

"We must draw out the enemy and fight them on our own ground," Vierre says, "delaying will only give them more time to entrench themselves and summon reinforcements."

"We should be thinking of reinforcements of our own," Jens says, "Norfin Village has committed themselves to defeating Golgoth through siege...An unwise course of action. Without someone to break the siege, they're doomed."

"Clarbel Village seems like a wiser choice of allies, then," Dekker says, "bolder, fighting Golgoth already and winning by the sound of it."

"Aye, but we'll need everyone we can get, and Norfin needs our help," Jens says. "We should break that siege and use the gratitude of the villagers as leverage to get them to help us march on Golroute. Clarbel's probably best left alone to do what they already are, tie up Golgothan forces with a protracted wilderness campaign."

>>24037999
Agree with Jens's logic. He's the most level headed guy we've come across in this land and his plan seems like just the kind of action we need. Clarbel will prove a great tarpit for the Golgothan forces in due time.

>>24034418
Yeah, that's hilariously inaccurate. What the mech power family was, was really good at beating individual, specific, heroes. When you added multiple heroes of different power sets the mechs tended to fall apart rapidly, as demonstrated when Asreal wiped out all the mechs in two turns without getting so much as a scratch. And we did in some ways powergame. I should know, I'm the one who did most of the powergaming. The two main differences between this quest and the last one is that: 1. TM is using a rules light system. and 2. TM has gotten much better at managing audience expectations and keeping the narative coherent.
I'll be leaving now,

>>24038075

No, I promise you that the post you quoted, which claimed that I am unwilling to have this discussion, is indeed entirely true. Fuck off.

Golgoth intends to escalate the conflict Clarbel, the only reason they might choose not to being the presence of this army. Perhaps a small force could be left behind to intercept their scouts, giving the impression that they are being threatened from this front as well?

>>24038273
I just remembered how utterly useless these guys proved to be against scouts. I withdraw my suggestion.

>>24038270
My apologies. I meant to link >>24034450

So if >>24038273 is withdrawn, I guess that means >>24038059 is what we're going with.

When you agree with Jens, Dekker reluctantly agrees to break the siege on Norfin. Vierre is less satisfied, considering it cowardly to do abandon the bold in favor of rescuing the craven. Fortunately, Jens is eventually able to persuade her that they'll have their confrontation with the Golgothan main force just the same, just with better odds of victory.

The army changes course to Norfin Village. Anything you want to do along the way?

>>24038706
Yes, remind the commanders that their troops should be keeping an eye out for scouts and ready to intercept them at all times. They goofed that once already. If Golroute receives reports of an army marching to Norfin, they would likely deploy in the direction, potentially sandwiching our army.

>>24038820
This is a good point, make sure to do this and check in with Mari. See how she's doing with her studies and ask her if she's feeling more confident in her ability to take down people with her powers since her foray at Guille.

>>24038820

The army makes its way to Norfin Village over the next three days. Golgothan patrols are encountered every now and then, but the army, now on higher alert, is able to intercept and destroy them anyway. "Missing scouts tell a tale of their own," Jens mutters as he approaches the site of one of the victorious battles with a patrol, "we need to hurry. The Golgothans may send reinforcements."

Just before dawn on May 14th, scouts report back announcing that they've seen the Golgothan forces arrayed around Norfin. The village has strong wooden walls which show evidence of recent repairs, and the village itself has also apparently taken some damage. There's several wrecked Golgothan onagers inside a kill zone that looks like it used to be a Golgothan camp before they were forced to abandon it by a sortie from the defenders. The camp itself contains about 150 soldiers, and they've erected stockades on their flanks and rear in case of enemy reinforcements arriving (like you).

Naturally, the three leaders of the villages immediately convene to determine a plan of action. That said, the vote among the three of them is fairly unanimous. With advantage of numbers and the support of the dire wolves, the battle is practically a foregone conclusion. The only matter left unresolved is whether to give the enemies an escape route. "Cornered enemies must fight to the death," Jens says, "it's better to leave them a place to flee."

"Escaping enemies will bring the army at Golroute solid information on our numbers and position," Vierre counters, "we should trap them and kill them all."

"We're unlikely to kill all of them even if we do surround them, and our own losses will be much steeper. We came here to gain soldiers, we can't afford to lose them," Jens responds.

"We don't have to kill every single one," Vierre says, "the reports of a few survivors will be much less useful to them than that of an entire routed army."

>>24039290
Agree with Vierre this time, its a fair compromise and doesn't overly jeopardize our position regardless of how decisive our victory will be.

>>24039438

Second question. What do you plan to do during the battle?

>>24039482
What we always do Pinky, take over the world! Or rather, one step at a time. We'll be fucking with their leaders and dropping delusions to disorganize their frantic defenses I'd imagine.

>>24039507
Why not enter Norfin and convince them to assault the besiegers?

>>24039699
They will more than likely already do that when they see a force charging their foes openly.

>>24039736
Yes, when they see it. If they knew before hand, they could actually time it to maximum effect.

>>24039699
>>24039507

Conversation seems to have died down, so roll for warning Norfin leaders or fucking with Golgothans.

Rolled 84

>>24039928
Rally the Norfin forces.

>>24040007

And this is our only response so we're going with that.

You slip across the Golgothan lines. Once you've made it through their camp, it's not hard to reach the wall across the no man's land and pull yourself up. Inside, the people of Norfin look tired and hungry, but also possessed of a determination born of equal parts bitter spite for their attackers and a stubborn unwillingness to abandon a course of action they've committed to. As with most smaller Dorriki villages, they don't have an actual hegemonic leader or even really any laws at all besides common consent, but they do have a fairly small number of people who they will all generally go along with. You don't know who they are, but the guys in the biggest houses are probably a good bet.

So, what's the plan for rallying these forces?

>>24040231
I think for once we may not need to be manipulative at all and simply present the fact plainly. Hit one of the big houses and demand an audience with whoever is leading the defense.

>>24040435
Pretty much sums it up for me. These guys are battered and beaten. They need some good news, let's give the down low to one of the leaders. If they ask who we are: A Friend.

>>24040435

You slip into one of the houses and find someone loitering around inside one of them. "I need to speak to the leader of the defense," you say. Predictably, the man glances over his shoulder and looks around for the source of the voice. You're standing such that your shadow form is pretty clearly visible, but "check the walls" is apparently not his first instinct. "I'm standing right here."

"A spirit!" the man exclaims as he finally spots you.

"Yes," you say irritably, "go find someone important."

It doesn't take much longer than that for him to find the leader of the village's angry, glory-seeking, and/or dutiful young men, at which point you explain there's an attack on Golgoth coming in just a few hours and he needs to be ready to take advantage of it. He promises to have the troops ready to sally forth inside of forty minutes, and then they'll just wait for the attack to begin.

>now what?

>>24040681
"Excellent. Can you identify the leadership of the Golgothans?"
I can't think of any other actions in the village. So, SOP in the besiegers?

>>24040681
Pat our self on the back and go rejoin our forces to relay the good news. Then maybe we can get to fucking up the enemy command a few minutes before we attack. Also again, meet up with Mari and discuss her plans for the upcoming battle.

>>24040798
I'd hate to give the leaders the impression that we're just a messenger existing to serve them. Let them find out for themselves if they can. It might be worthwhile to check Mari, though.

>>24040760

"Their leader used to ride about mounted before an arrow caught him in the throat," the leader says, and grins. His beard is graying but he seems to have plenty of fight left in him. "The new one, he's more careful, but he still wears that fancy cape so his men know who's in charge." He scoffs. "Real men don't need capes and plumes to let others know who is strongest and wisest. They are defined by action! By reputation. But, this is not important now. Look for the cape, he is usually in the main camp across from our main gate, except at midday when he visits some of the stockades. Keeping order, inspecting soldiers, strutting about like a peacock. We don't know for sure."

That's all the information he has. You rejoin the rest of your forces, inform Jens of what you've learned, and find Mari. She's resting with her back against a tree, still riddled with arrows from her latest bout of archery practice. "Mari," you say, and she opens her eyes, pushes herself up to a proper seated position.

"Hey," she says.

"What's your plan for the coming battle?" you ask.

"Golgothan officers are pretty easy to spot," she says, "I'll just stay behind the tree line and fire arrows until I see one. Then fleshshape him to death. Keep going until I'm too tired to go on, and then I can just retreat to the main camp."

>>24041084
"Sounds good. Give them hell, they deserve it."

Now that that's out of the way we can saunter on over to the enemy encampment and crack our dickery-causing knuckles for some good old mischief. Get an analysis of their patrols and the standard procedures.

>>24041137
Yep, let's see if we can get something done before or during the attack.

>>24041137
>>24041407

The defenses are drawn up on three sides of Norfin, and they have onagers placed to sink any ships that try to leave from the docks (which are small and can only service fishing ships to begin with). These onagers are deeper behind Golgothan lines, and apparently too far for Norfin sorties to hit. The Golgothans are spread thin by the need to maintain the siege, but patrols nevertheless tend towards wolf packs, four-man patrols that cover a wide area as opposed to posted guards, with the exception of the Golgothan main camp, which has regular guards. Most of them are mounted archers. They ride without torches, though the main camp is kept well-lit. The officers are always under escort and spend a lot of time consulting with one another, probably as a result of their new leader having been their peer when they got here.

>wat do?

>>24041557
hav gey sex orgy

>>24041557
Does this talk of torches imply that it's night?

>>24041557
Can delusions make a guy think 'all the other soldiers are traitors out to kill you' or something like that?

If so do that to as many lone mounted guards as we can. Hopefully they'll decide to try and take out the traitors instead of running.

Come to think of it, add in 'escape is impossible' too. That pretty much narrows it down to huddling in a corner somewhere or friendly fire, both of which are good to have your enemy guards be doing.

>>24041760

Currently, yes. The Dorriki are attacking at dawn which is in like an hour and a half.

Also, I need to go now. Tomorrow is when D&D happens so no quest then, but I'll be back on Friday.